Night 55: East Wing, Nurse Residential Hall

[lovecraftcomplex]

> ==>

"I trust you won't mind if I turn my flashlight back on." Her voice was conversational, and only experience would reveal that she had no intention of taking anything other than No for an answer. Or yes, if Gamzee was stymied by something so simple as a double negative.

"You might not have noticed, but I can't see in the dark." She switched it back on, pointing down what was revealed to be -- surprise! - -another corridor, lined with doors. There might not be any familiar faces, but she was becoming very tired of doors.

The first one was locked. So was the second. "Interesting." Now they were getting somewhere. Silver flashed in her minds eye. There had been a keyring in that drawer, which she'd disregarded. Too soon, it appeared.

"They seem to have forgotten to issue us keys." Fetch quests? Again? This time with physical keys rather than more fanciful alternatives? The reviews for this game descended another notch from Incomplete Tripe straight past Wastebasket Filler to Litter Box Liner in one graceful arc. Still, it was good to see that some things were predictable.

Comments

[mirthful]

He did mind, actually, but if she wanted it on then he could be chill with that. She was the one leading this little adventure, after all. It took a moment or two for what she said to truly sink in, and when it did Gamzee tilted his head toward her with a curious expression. "You can't all see in the dark?"

The concept was foreign to him. On Alternia, the light during the day was bright enough to blind any troll that might look directly at it. Terezi was a prime example of this. But there were creatures that lived during the day, weren't there? It had to be possible. "Were you not a troll like me? Are you somethin' that can all be motherfuckin' seein' in the day and shit?"

It made sense, he supposed, for her to have been changed just as he was. He wasn't usually up to asking more direct questions like this, but if he was the only one from his group here he'd have to have something to tell Karkat should they finally run into him, which he still hoped they would. He should probably pay more attention to where they were going, too, just in case.

[lovecraftcomplex]

Rose's hand, the one that wasn't holding the flashlight, embarked on a trajectory it had traveled many a time -- straight for her forehead.

One of the trolls. She might have even talked to him before. Hmm. They'd all been rude, but they'd also been more high-strung. Frankly, this laissez-faire attitude was grating on her already-tight nerves; if it was an elaborate troll, it would be a monumental first for his species. Congratulations, you have successfully trolled a human. Can we get out of here now?

"Yes. We human creatures see best by day." What would Derse look like without its trappings of darkness and mystery, twining around even the Seer of Light like a shroud? Would darkness and light be wholly interchanged? Vampires shunning the shadows. Legends of were-trolls, bodies warping at the stroke of High Noon. It lost something in the translation.

"I suggest you close your eyes and smell your way around? Or am I incorrect in attributing that remark to a momentary lapse into sincerity on your fellow player's part?"

The next two doors were also locked. She was tempted to skip to the end of the hallway; if orderly progression were critical, one of the first should have been open.

[mirthful]

"Haha, wow. Learnin' of new miracles every motherfuckin' day. Guess this is all makin' us the best fuckin' pairin', since you can all be seein' in the day and me at night. We got this motherfuckin' covered." And then he honked for the first time that night, but it sounded rather pathetic in the acoustics of this particular hallway. At least in the Veil he could sometimes get a bit of an echo.

He began testing doors after her, for no reason other then to have something to do with his hands. "You're wrong about the smells, though. That's all bein' Terezi's deal. She done got her eyes burnt motherfuckin' blind, so now she's lickin' and smellin' shit to figure out what they is. I don't know how she does it except that it's a motherfuckin' miracle she can."

His hand jiggled another doorknob and stopped. The he went back to the one before and jiggled that. Huh. This next one jiggled more loosely than the other. Ignoring Rose for a moment, he continued to go back and forth between them with a somewhat goofy smile.

[lovecraftcomplex]

Sincerity appeared to make a great weapon in troll sarcasm.  Intriguing.  Perhaps there were not as many differences a biology would suggest.

Then he made a noise more suited to automobiles than human, as if he were intentionally trying to disrupt the delicate flow of her observations.   Maybe cars held some special form of irony in troll society?  She didn't really want to acquire sufficient observational data, as much as the others might assume she lived only for monographs.  She was stuck with at least a little more observation, though, so she might as well make the best of it.

Right now, the subject, also known as Gamzee, was making a transparent passive-aggressive ploy to get her attention.  It was the first humanesque demonstration of rational behavior she'd noted.  Very interesting.  She noticed the same change in the feel of the locks mirrored on her side of the hall several moments earlier, of course, but it was nice of him to help.  Such magnanimity should be rewarded.  "An astute observation."  

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  She had made it so far by careful trial and error; but caution did not mean inaction. 

"I recommend you stand back.  And close your eyes."  She had nothing heavier to hand than her flashlight, and she raised it without delay and charged the door.  The flashlight came down on the handle with a foreboding crack, and the light switched off.  Whoops.  The handle remained obstinate.  She gestured at the handle, and while she could barely make out her own hands with the light that remained, she trusted Gamzee could.   

"If you have a better suggestion, now would be a good time.  Please, be my guest."       

[mirthful]

The Alternian stood back and watched in bemusement as Rose made her attempt at the door. It wasn't a bad attempt, all things considered, but the human didn't appear to have the required upper body strength necessary to break the handle off in that fashion. This was where having Equius around would have been handy. If he'd attempted what Gamzee had following Rose down the hall, most of the handles would be broken off the doors by now.

If she wanted in, then he could certainly help her with that. So he hoped, anyway. He bent down closer to the handle, hand to his chin and trying to look as professional as possible about this when in truth he didn't really have a clue what he was doing and was just planning on trying to kick it in. Right. Staring at the doorknob wasn't going to make it open any sooner.

He secretly hoped she'd broken the light on the knob so he wouldn't have to worry about it for the rest of the night, but that wasn't a very nice thing to think given his company so he didn't mention it.

There was no reason, he believed, to step back as far as she had to get a running start at this thing. Gamzee simply brought a leg up and slammed it into the side of the door under the knob with a fair amount of effort. There was a loud CRACK as it broke inwards a ways. That should let them in easily enough.

...His foot hurt a bit now, though. Maybe human bodies were just generally weaker than troll ones. That wouldn't be surprising, given how squishy they seemed all around. It was okay, though. He was chill with being squishy.

[lovecraftcomplex]

"Consider me genuinely impressed. Thanks."  Brute strength, as well as cunning and speed, were obviously valued here.  An all-around approach to climbing the echeladder, rather than the whimsical and gender-conforming class structure the game had previously displayed. Truly, a revolutionary concept.  No one could have expected that.  No one.     

Rose stowed the broken flashlight in her sylladex, although what further use it could be was murky at beat.  Alchemitization fodder, if she could subtract out the crack running along the plastic.  Broken flashlight > batteries<, and it was in before she could think of of any later-lettered synonyms.  There went her pens, buried down into a leaf node, and her journal at the root, far too close to prying eyes.  Never  mind that it had not yet received a single word.  Some things were just not for public consumption. 

By the time her finicky modus had settled down, Jer eyes had begun to adjust to their impromptu bath in shadow, which meant that Rose could proceed through the door without fear of a humiliating tripping incident of the sort young humans were prone to, especially around cats.  Sorry, Jaspers.  She couldn't make out much of the room beyond, but it appeared to have a floor.  To see beyond that, she would need to enter.

> Rose: Enter