damned_institute | Night 56: M31-M40 Hallway

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Night 56: M31-M40 Hallway

Once again, dinner had passed by quietly, though Castiel could not complain about some solitude, even if it was spent in the company of one troubled teenager. He had gotten by with only a few bites of the food, the "Tasty Meal" from earlier having done an adequate job of sating his hunger.

And food would be the last thing to consider now that the lights had gone out and the doors had unlocked. Everything was silent tonight, and yet Castiel had to admit he preferred it that way. His roommate, the intercom system -- while a speech from the General might have granted them some more scraps of information, in this quiet he could truly focus.

Which was why he was able to collect his flashlight and radio within seconds, reminding himself once more of how he needed to arm himself better. That was something he should have asked Dean about, although it would be a hit to his pride to admit that he was the only who needed advice in this situation.

There was no place for pride, however. The next time they spoke, he would ask.

But it was another human entirely who he was meeting tonight. While he still knew very little about Orihara while the young man knew entirely too much, it was one of the few connections he'd made here and he needed to exploit it.

Castiel gave a small nod in Stefan's direction and then left the room and stalked down the hall.

[To here.]

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The door closed behind him, leaving Ted in the semi-darkness. He raised his flashlight, trying to figure out how to turn it on, and finally found the button. The light beamed out into the shadows.

Ted shone the flashlight around, looking down at the silent rows of doors, faint slivers of light peeking out from the bottoms of some.

"Anyone there?" he called out. He could hear vague sounds in the distance - people moving about, perhaps, but none that he could see for the moment.

Well. There was nothing to do here. The hallway ended in a dead end to his left, and so he turned right and started walking.

Whoa. It seemed like the whole lights going out thing was a constant every night. Or at least they were doing it just like they had the night before. Gamzee had to stand and blink for a while to allow his eyes to readjust to the dark. Walking around in all that bright light during the day wasn't very good for his natural night vision. They eventually did adjust, however, and he had to admit he much preferred things as dark as he was used to them being back home.

The horn in his hand was given another honk, just as an added reassurance that it was still there even though he could see it clearly. The lights going out hadn't changed anything in the room aside from the luminosity. The door was most likely open now too, at least it should be if that clicking sound had been any indication. Should he go out and try to find anyone again? Maybe that Rose girl or Tavros?

Oh that reminded him.

He turned his attention to the returned items. His clothes were there again too, even that comfy sweater. The troll began taking off his pants right there, ignoring his roommate as his switched into the spotted ones he was so fond of.

Edited 2011-05-30 10:08 (UTC)

After coming back from Doyleton, Ritsuka had felt inexplicably tired. Maybe it had to do with finally getting food he liked and eating a bit more of it than he should have, or maybe it had to do with the weather. He always got a little tired when the world was covered in snow and the chill seemed to seep in through however many layers he tried to put on. It was strange that the weather took such a turn in so little time. Just awhile ago he remembered seeing the leaves changing and now it was snowing.

The only thing Ritsuka had really noted was that he had a new roommate and even that came with some trepidation. Ritsuka didn't have the best luck with roommates sticking around and he was starting to fear getting close to anyone anymore. In the end, they left and Ritsuka remained. So rather than say much at dinner that might come off as rude or unwelcoming, Ritsuka just ate half of his meal and went face down on the desk to sleep a bit.

When the lights clicked off, Ritsuka hadn't noticed. It wasn't until a horn honked that he jumped and sat up, banging his knee slightly against the underside of the desk. Was that from the intercom? Ritsuka blinked, getting his eyes to adjust to the dark, and then he heard his roommate moving.

And undressing.

Even in the dark, he could tell what the other kid was doing and Ritsuka quickly looked toward the wall. His tail was back and it felt uncomfortable cramped up in his pants. His roommate certainly didn't seem to care about changing in front of him, so Ritsuka wondered if he could do the same. His hearing was back to being sensitive like always and the cat ears flicked back to lay flat against his head as he considered his options. He'd have to change eventually though, so he supposed there wasn't much of a choice.

As the stranger changed, Ritsuka retrieved the shears from his possessions and removed his pants, sitting on the bed to cut a tail hole out. "Um...sorry for just passing out on you earlier. Guess I was tired." The hole was cut and Ritsuka twisted around on the bed poking a second hole in his boxers and pulling his tail through before readying to put the starched pants of the military uniform back on. "I'm Ritsuka, by the way. You?"

Gamzee had almost forgotten he had a roommate until the other started talking. He blinked over at him, realizing he'd moved in the time he'd been dressing. And that... he had ears and a tail. Whoa, when had that happened? He could have sworn those hadn't been there before. Just on instinct, he reached up to pat his head where his horns should be on the off-chance that they'd returned and he hadn't noticed. But no, still nothing.

"Gamzee." He answered the question on his name, at the same time already walking over to Ritsuka's bedside. If those ears were real... he just had to touch them. This being Gamzee, he just sort of went for it without any asking or really any thought at all. They definitely weren't horns. They moved and everything. Maybe his roommate wouldn't mind if he just... reached out and tried to pet them once or twice...

"So we're all gonna be up and sharin' this motherfuckin' space, yeah?"

Well, that was an original name. Ritsuka had met a lot of people here, but never anyone who had such a unique--

As Ritsuka put his pants back on, he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. His roommate had come closer and before he knew it there was a hand hovering near his head, reaching for his ears. Why did everyone just try to touch them without asking?!

"What are you do--?!" Tail fuzzing, Ritsuka ducked his head and jerked out of the way. Ears and tails were unusual here, sure, but it was just basic manners to ask before trying to touch someone's head! Gamzee was young, Ritsuka could tell that much, but youth was no excuse for poor manners. "Don't just touch them without asking!"

Or touch them at all - was what he wanted to say, but Ritsuka knew better. People here would be feeling his ears as long as there were new people who saw him at night. He took a step or two back and tried to calm down, knowing it wasn't really Gamzee's fault that he was curious about the sudden appearance of new appendages on his roommate. "...And yeah, we'll be sharing this space. I've been here over a month so if you have questions, ask. ...But don't touch my ears or tail without asking, alright?"

"Oh." The troll lowered his hand a little, but didn't lower it completely. ...And whoa, he had a tail, too! Maybe he was familiar with Nepeta? Though he wasn't sure how. Of course, the natural response to follow up his roommate's now was "...Can I touch them?" After all, he'd just said to ask, right? He hadn't straight up said not to touch them ever. It was a permission thing, and he could totally get behind that.

Man, if Nepeta didn't know this guy then she'd sure want to meet him if or when she ever popped into this place as well. Were they real? The tail looked real. Then again, Nepeta's could look kinda real sometimes too. Maybe he was also a roleplayer? He didn't know humans could grow beast appendages like these. Was it a god tier thing? If he stayed human long enough would he be able to get some?

...Motherfuckin' miracles was what it was.

"You always been havin' these? I all had me some motherfuckin' horns, but now that I'm all pink they done vanished."

Edited 2011-05-31 02:57 (UTC)

Of course he'd ask to touch them. Ritsuka sighed and felt his ears drop again as he realized there was no way around someone touching his ears at least once a night. At least Tear hadn't tried it or Ippo, even if Ippo apparently thought he was some sort of genetic freak now. "Just this once. And don't pull on them. They're sensitive."

Ugh... Ritsuka felt his stomach flip when he lowered his head slightly, looking away. It used to be that Soubi was the only one to touch his ears, which meant when anyone did it now, he tended to remember all the weird things Soubi did. Like biting on them. Not hard, of course, but maybe that made it worse. If it'd been a full on bite, Ritsuka could just shove Soubi away and storm off. The--

Don't think about that idiot. It'll just make things worse. He had to remember that Soubi was gone now. Thinking of him would only...

"--havin' these?" Ritsuka lifted his eyes and was halfway through a shrug when he realized what else Gamzee had said while he had been off in his own world. He had horns? What kind of world was it where people had horns? And wow, this guy couldn't say more than a few words without cursing. That was a new one.

"We're all born with ears and tails where I'm from. ...but you had horns? Is that...normal?"

Yay. Gamzee reached up to (gently!) run a hand along the top of one ear. It sure felt like a real ear! It twitched and was attached an everything. That was pretty miraculous, right there. Maybe he had a feline type lusus in his world too? Did he use cat puns? Somehow the idea of this boy saying things like rolepurrlayer and purrfection didn't work as well as it did for Nepeta.

Oh, he was asking about the horns. "Yeah, my brother! I'm usually all in gray skin and shit, like most motherfuckin' trolls. We's all got horns, and each set of horns is bein' different from the next, right?" His reminded him of his own lusus some. That was some miracle of a coincidence there, the old goat managing to pick out a grub with similar horns to its own. It didn't cross his mind to try and reason out why. "Usually I got my face all painted up too, but that's just me."

Not everyone up and followed the Mirthful Messiahs and their dark brotherhood, after all. They should, but they didn't, and he certainly wasn't going to pressure anyone into it. That wasn't how his religion worked.

"Like what clowns do, you know?" He pulled out the horn as he said this and honked it again.

Despite his rough speech, Gamzee was surprisingly gentle when he touched Ritsuka's ears. He'd almost been expecting a gruff pat on the head or something, but instead it was just a tenuous touch to see if they were really there. The ears responded in kind, twitching and flicking away from the touch as was natural for them, and Gamzee seemed satisfied.

He started talking about horns and gray skin and Ritsuka tried his best to follow. It wasn't anything he was used to though; trolls and horns...gray skin. Okay, so it was weird - really weird. His roommate hadn't been human before even if he looked completely human now. In Ritsuka's world, he'd thought all humans had ears and tails though, so he couldn't really make any faces at Gamzee's version of reality even if he somewhat wanted to do so. "I guess that makes sense - the horns being different thing."

Everyone in his world had different cat features - Yayoi's especially since they matched his hair. Ritsuka suddenly wondered if Yayoi's parents had once had the same sort of features as their son, and by extension if his ears resembled his father or his mother. He'd been different from Seimei even though they were brothers so they had to take after one or the other.

"Like--?" The horn honked and Ritsuka's tail fuzzed as he jumped slightly, looking down at the horn in the dark. "Oh, uh, yeah. So you like clowns?"

Add another point to the weird category.

Like clowns? That was probably the biggest understatement of the evening so far. Gamzee gave a little guffaw and honked the horn a couple more times. "Fuck yeah I like them. Shit, I up and follow the best motherfuckers. Always smilin', clowns are. Shows a motherfucker how to go about livin'."

He gestured to his spotted pants, smiling goofily. "See? Should all be havin' the paint to go along with that shit, but I can't all find any. Think maybe we could find some tonight?" He couldn't show proper appreciation for the Mirthful Messiahs if his face wasn't painted up in their likeness. It was pure blasphemy to have his skin be bare for this long. The white might not show up as starkly against the pink, but there would still be an obvious difference.

Appearances were important sometimes, man.

"Oh yeah, did you all wanna up and go out with me? I mean out of the room, haha. Went out last night and all had myself a bitchtits time with that Rose girl." The one who had been familiar with trolls, unlike most of the other humans he'd run into. She was pretty fun to talk to, actually.

Edited 2011-06-01 07:44 (UTC)

"..." That confirmed it - his roommate was weird. The guy laughed and honked the little bicycle horn he had, explaining his adoration for creepy make-up wearing circus comedians and Ritsuka couldn't help but stare. He followed them? For a living? Ritsuka wasn't sure if Gamzee meant that he was a troll clown or if he was just...weird. He'd never heard of anyone following clowns and their way of life. To be honest, Ritsuka didn't even know that clowns had a way of life.

"Uh...." Time to think. Did he go out on his own and possibly get eaten or go out with his possibly insane roommate and still get eaten? Turning away, Ritsuka fished the digital camera out of his possessions box as he thought. They both ended unpleasantly, but one had a higher rate of survival so long as the roomie didn't decide to honk that horn through the halls.

"Sure...I guess I could show you where they keep our fake stuff." Like the camera. Ritsuka popped the new memory card out of its packaging and exchanged it for the old one which was almost full. Carefully, he placed the old card into the protective case and then went to his desk to hide it in his journal. It was the only memento he had of Soubi now. Soubi and Nataku both. "You been upstairs?"

Fake stuff? Well, even if it was fake it was still stuff, right? And some stuff was better than no stuff. Maybe. "Upstairs? Yeah, bro. We was all up and explorin' around there last night. Check this shit out what I got." He reached for the hideous fuzzy sweater, holding it up for his roommate to see. Despite how ugly it was, and how it most likely belonged to one of the more elderly of the Institute's staff, he seemed particularly proud of the find.

If Ritsuka was lucky, he might forget to wear it. But then, it was a little chilly outside. "Ain't that just the most wicked motherfuckin' cover you ever saw?" Because if his tastes weren't questionable before, there was the added kicker.

Gamzee was willing to go anywhere as long as there was a chance he'd be able to find some paint along the way. (And probably even if there wasn't.) He didn't know if fake paint would be as good as the real thing, but he's just have to see. The game was all about exploration, wasn't it? He needed to get a hold of something else to use as a weapon. If they found a club or two along the way that would be great.

That sweater was old. Like, so old his hypothetical grandparents might look at it and go "wow, that's old" and put it back in the bin where they found it. Oddly enough, however, it seemed to match the weird color and fashion scheme his roommate had going with the crazy pants and the philosophy of following clowns, which, in its own way, was a type of fashion consciousness. If all clowns dressed like that, it was no wonder some people had a pathological fear of them. Or maybe it wasn't pathological. Who knew what clowns were really thinking behind those plastered on smiles.

"Yeah...." Ritsuka tried his best to sound somewhat sincere since this was Gamzee's idea of 'wicked' or whatever, but he couldn't say more than that. "Looks warm."

That part was true at least.

Going back to the box, Ritsuka pulled the backpack out and checked the mended strap. It would hold and tonight might be a good time to get some extra bandages in preparation for tomorrow. Picking up his flashlight and the radio, he stuffed them both into the rucksack along with a few supplies in case something happened. "If you've been upstairs, you might have--"

It was then that the radio jumped to life, stealing Ritsuka's attention. He listened carefully as the rebel and... No. That guy was with the one who was supposed to be helping them? Ritsuka's expression hardened the longer he listened to the radio transmit the voice of a man just about everyone in the Institute hated. Martin Landel was working with the ones who were supposedly helping the patients. Ritsuka had no illusions that the guy would ever - ever - be of any help, nor did he think Landel wouldn't go back and destroy the rebel and anyone else once he got back into power. "Adults. They're so stupid," he hissed under his breath, shoving the radio further down into the backpack. "Let's go. I can't stand to listen to them go on."

[to here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1103963.html?thread=78124379#t78124379)]

Mello heard the second click, heard, like he'd done the night before, the listening, live quality of the silence, and he waited for the taunting to come, but there was nothing this time. He didn't think for a second that meant Aguilar had nothing in store for tonight. Something was in motion already, from the sound of things, which meant Mello had better move, too.

He gathered up his things quickly, sticking the gun in his back waistband, the half-eaten chocolate bar in his back pocket, wrapper folded over. The flashlight he carried, and the radio, he just left. It wasn't any use to him. He'd move fast, and get things done before whatever shit was due to hit the fan hit it. You know you won't get anywhere, the bugs chattered. This place has defenses you can't even imagine. You've seen for yourself that they can laugh at the laws of physics if they feel like it. You're not getting anyplace they don't want you to.

We'll see about that, Mello retorted, and went out into the darkness.

[to here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1104269.html?thread=78033549#t78033549)]

Edited 2011-06-02 01:34 (UTC)

Damon Gant suited up for the night, donning his orange suit with little ado. He had placed on his green glasses (keeping his clear frames in his breast pocket, just in case he had to do some reading by flashlight) and started on his black gloves, pulling them tightly into place. How he loved to have his clothes back, but today he couldn't indulge in the feeling. Tonight he had a mission. A very, very important mission.

Food was the objective. Real food. Men's food. Like steak and potatoes. Or fried chicken. Or even... pie. Yes, his dessert earlier that day had shown him the light. He couldn't live on the slop the institute was now serving, but he knew there was good food here. He'd seen it! On tables with a few of the other patients. The lucky bastards, getting normal cuisine. Well, Gant wasn't going to stand for this discrimination. He was breaking into the cafeteria kitchens today and he was ransacking the place for spoils. Monsters and evil doctors be damned!

Giving his roommate a parting nod (with what he hoped was a cheerful enough smile) Gant grabbed his flashlight and headed off into the dark hallways of the institute.

When the doors clicked unlocked, Stefan was sitting on the edge of his bed, still ruminating over everyone he'd encountered today, and might've missed the signal altogether if not for Castiel's prompt reaction. He'd grown too used to marking the passage of time by intercom announcements and the watchful eyes of nurses guiding them from one activity to another, and the lack of message from Aguilar (or one of Aguilar's people) made this whole day only grow more unsettlingly unreal. He'd taken it for granted, being able to walk through a town and listen to snatches of conversations, being able to feel alive by proxy by surrounding himself with everyday humanity.

As his roommate got ready to set out, Stefan tilted his head, listening again. There was not only Castiel moving out, but others too beyond their room, moving past the identical rows of doors. And another sound: a faint click (mechanical? electric?). He looked up at the speaker of intercom, eyebrows drawing together as he waited for... nothing. No one moving, no one speaking. But it was on.

His sense of unease deepened. But what could he do? Damon was waiting for him somewhere out there, and they couldn't delay another night in finding some blood. His brother was already at the edge of his control, and as much Damon might like to act like he was doing Stefan a favour, there was no way that desperation didn't motivate him asking to spend quality hunting time with his little brother.

Not that Stefan minded either way, but hungry vampires usually meant irritable ones, which meant he should probably hurry up before Damon decided to break out the extra caustic sarcasm tonight. The glow of Castiel's flashlight had disappeared around the corner by now, leaving him in darkness. Stefan's own flashlight remained on his desk as he moved out.

[to here]

Night time again and time for the hunt. Unfortunately it wasn't the kind of hunt that Dexter would prefer, stalking a victim, knowing how things would end and having it all laid out in his head in perfect detail. It wasn't even the information gathering hunts he had at times, breaking into someone's house or workplace to find what he needed to go ahead with his plans. No, tonight was dedicated to... shopping.

Dexter smiled to himself, an altogether different expression from the friendly smile and wave he'd used to bid his roommate goodbye moments ago, and started to collect what he needed. The flashlight was obvious and necessary, and the gloves meant for special occasions, while probably not as important, made everything feel more familiar. Ingrained habit to make sure that he didn't leave any signs behind of what he was and where he went.

Not that he was the only one moving around of a night here, but that was no reason to stop being cautious. Harry's code and the way he'd taught Dexter to keep himself hidden had saved him many times before, and Dexter trusted it to save him again in the future. With the gloves on, he stripped the pillowcase from his bed, rolling it up and tucking it into his pocket in case he found anything large that he might need to take with him. The radio went in another pocket, and Dexter took a quick look around the room for anything he might have missed before picking up his journal and a pen and slipping out into the darkness. He'd want to make sure he had an idea of where he'd been in this place, especially if he found something useful or a quiet, easily overlooked place where he could do any future work...

[to here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1104269.html?thread=78133645#t78133645)]

Edited 2011-06-06 11:12 (UTC)

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Night 56: M31-M40 Hallway

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