damned_institute | Night 58: Main Hallway, 1-Center

[from here]

Turning the corner, Vino found that, in fact, he was very much early, it seemed. Huh. There was no one yet in this central hallway, though if he looked back towards the west side of the building, that strange person with the unnatural-looking white hair had gone down that end of the big hallway. He could still see the whiteness of their hair standing out from the darkness of the atmosphere around them.

He spent a few moments watching this person, then lost interest, instead finding the nearest wall to lean against to wait for the other person to show. Healing powers! He'd be able to see them in action, right? Vino wondered what it was like, having an injury healed with the kind of abilities that this kid had. Would it be like Czeslaw's 'healing,' he wondered? That would definitely be interesting to see, wouldn't it? Watching your own injury just mend itself like that. Like magic!

But while this ability certainly could be a useful one to have, Vino hadn't decided yet whether this would be an ability he'd want in his arsenal. Felt a bit like cheating, didn't it? What would be the point in challenging yourself to do things if there was no thrill in it? (Most people would call this the 'thrill of danger,' but Vino didn't believe in such a thing for himself.)

If you could always heal yourself from any injury, then how could you tell the difference between being alive and... not? There'd be no difference then, that's what!

A pause in his thoughts as Vino checks around again to see if he can spot any familiar head of spiky hair. Nope, no one fitting the description yet. He settles in to wait.

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Nothing yet. Anticipation was such a terrible emotion to experience. For all Maya was aware, the general had simply wanted his entire staff to reproduce Swan Lake for the night.

Maya paused for a moment in this corridor to collect herself. Her grip on the pipe hadn't decayed (though how she'd use it she couldn't imagine), and there was no universal creed that declared she could only be ambushed if she weren't moving, was there?

Now to settle where she was headed tonight. Her little theory had been tested (rather, she couldn't test it until she woke up and reviewed when her explorations at night had stopped), which left her without another goal. Mail Room? Medical Wing? Whatever else could be found upstairs? Hmm.

[From here- so sorry this is late! Let me know if this isn't workable.]

Unfortunately, Guybrush's flashlight had plans other than working for the night. As he progressed through the corridor, the beam flickered once, then twice, then refused to come on at all. Shaking it did nothing, as did banging the device on his hook and into the wall, and cursing its entire family- the light remained off, leaving the Mighty Pirate™ alone in the dark (in a non-copyrighted way, of course).

"Great," Guybrush grumbled quietly to himself. "Looks like I'll be walking up stairs in pitch-black darkness. So much for swearing it off after last time. At least it's a straight shot to the stairwell. Just walk forward, and everything will be fine... until I get upstairs and have to actually see where I'm going."

And so, Guybrush did just that: with his hook to the wall, he marched deeper into the darkened hallway. His steps were slow at first; however, his imagination got the better of him with the subsequent movements, his pace increasing with each step. Did that shadow move? Was that voice another patient, or something else? That noise was the sound of his own teeth clacking together, right?

Now she was curious. Just what type of monster roamed the halls at night? She'd heard a few reports, but had neglected to ask where they occurred. What with the hallways, Maya would have to be careful regardless, but either she had had very good luck, or there was a method to the monster occurrences. Would one come to her if she stood here long enough?

No... Last night she'd not made an progress at all, despite meaning to. Inhibiting Maya's movement was not a gesture consistent with 'motivating' progress by way of a 'monster' (monstrous creature at the least, she supposed). Though...it could vary with the patient in question. Maya had been in quite a hurry to get out tonight despite the implicit warning from the intercom man, had she not? How clever, if it had indeed been intentional.

A few fellow patients (she assumed they were fellow patients) passed by, but someone seemed to be headed right for her. Had Maya's thoughts become prophecy? How dreadful. Maya tightened her grip on the pipe and turned—a bit faster than she would have liked to admit, aiming her light where she thought the other person (creature?) might be.

As he approached what he hoped was another patient (because if it wasn't, the monsters had learned to use flashlights and that was another world of trouble entirely), Guybrush found himself suddenly bathed in light, the stranger having turned their flashlight on him. His eyes slammed shut, dots already dancing in his field of vision.

"Whoa, fellow patient!" he called as he took two steps back, holding his arms up in front of him in an attempt to look non-threatening. Whether or not he managed to accomplish that while wielding a sword and wearing a sash made of underpants was yet to be seen. "My flashlight isn't working. I promise I'm not wandering in the dark for my health or anything. Or sneaking up on you, though that's not much of a testament to my innocence."

Edited 2011-09-14 01:15 (UTC)

So it was. Maya twitched her light away from the alleged fellow patient's face, though her standards of monster were a bit different than what she imagined the humans' to be. Even so, she recognized the voice, and knew the allegation to be true.

"Mr. Threepwood. It must be fate." A pause as his words sunk in. "Can you navigate well in the dark?"

"Maya!" Guybrush called, recognizing her tone even though his unadjusted eyes couldn't see her in the darkness before him. "If you couldn't tell by the fact that would have run straight into you had you not blinded me, the answer to that question is a resounding 'no.' Not that I had much of a choice. I think the batteries in my light have gone out for good." He clanked the light on the wall a couple of times before trying the switch again: no luck.

"But I am pretty good at navigating otherwise, even without a map." Not that a map didn't help and that he wasn't always looking for one. They usually led to key points in the plot that couldn't be found otherwise. "I thought I'd head upstairs and see what's in the hallway. I thought I saw a closet when I was up there a few nights ago. What are you doing here, all by yourself?"

Ah... She'd been about to suggest that he could have gone with his roommate, but that was of no consequence now; he had already gone this far. "Is that so...?" she said, not meaning it as a question. Had she seen batteries in the closet Senna had shown her?

Maya had no destination at the moment. Going up to places she'd already been seemed a nice and logical extension of her little experiment with the halls—she couldn't quite tell the time, precisely, so how far she could go would have to do as a measurement. How...disorderly, but there was no help for it.

"I was waiting for someone to bump into me," she answered finally, with a smile. "A little game of chance, yes? Shall we go?" As she was imposing herself on Mr. Threepwood's company, she gestured down the hall and waited for his response.

Maya's forwardness was another odd familiarity: how often was it that he was being told what to do by a lady? If he counted Elaine, Mo, and the Voodoo Lady, it was pretty much all the time. Not that he'd tell anyone that- it didn't make for a good campfire story to have the premise of, 'Well, I was doing what my wife told me to do at the time.' Not to mention he often had clever ideas of his own... that were sometimes brought on by getting advice from one of the aforementioned ladies.

"I'm not one to turn away convenience," Guybrush said with a smug grin, letting her lead the way. "You carry the light, and I'll fight away anything that comes our way. I'll even promise not to drink any mystery potions we may find."

[To here.]

Night 58: Main Hallway, 1-Center

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