damned_institute | Night 58: F11-20 Hallway

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Night 58: F11-20 Hallway

It was nighttime, but Anise still hadn't made any plans. She didn't want to let the night go to waste, and she didn't want to try anything too dangerous, either... Maybe she could just go find some useful supplies to collect, so they'd be there when she or her friends needed them! That seemed like a pretty good idea. If things got dangerous, she could turn around and run back. No problem!

Before leaving, Anise made sure to slip on the tough leather jacket from her closet, and to gather her equipment. She tied an empty pillowcase around Tokunaga's neck so she could fill it with things later. The bracelets she was given last night were left in her possessions box for safekeeping. It'd be bad if she broke those before they figured out what they were for. Finally, she put Tokunaga on her back and picked up both her meat tenderizer and her pipe.

First order of business: delivering that pipe to Tolten! Anise wished Utena good luck, then slipped out of the room and into the dark hallway.

[to here]

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Ilia did feel better about talking about the mission again. Lana may or may not fully agree with Ilia's choices in the matter, but she didn't feel like she was being judged which was the most she could hope for. But soon night came, and the thoughts of last night's mission were replaced with plans for tonight. She had some new information that she had gleaned from Claude and Guy. Tonight would be the night for possibly putting a new foot forward. Hopefully she and Rose would soon be on the way to finding out something truly worthwhile about this place.

Gather her flashlight and a few medical supplies from her box, Ilia gave Lana a friendly goodbye and swept out of the room. Room 11 on the same hall. That was what Rose had written earlier, so Ilia made her way down the hallway and stopped in front of the door. Leaning against the opposite wall, Ilia waited patiently for her young friend to finish her own nightly preparations. Rose likely wouldn't take too long in heading out. Ilia didn't have to rush her. They had the whole night ahead of them to plan out their next move.

Rose had still been assembling her arsenal when the door had opened to admit a small squad of phony psychologists. It wasn't her company they wanted, and agreement didn't seem to be necessary. "It'll be okay," she mouthed to Lily, but she wasn't sure any of the message got through.

There was a moment of quiet, and then the lights flickered out. Rose turned on her flashlight and started loading her sylladex carefully. It was faster to do the math first than to just shove everything in there and let her unidirectionally-named fetch modus sort it out, as she actually understood the arcane mathematics mere mortals called a tree structure. But it was kind of pretty to watch. And made it more like magic. At the end, she had exactly what she could have calculated:

                   Journal                      /\     Knitting Needles    Pens           /              /\     Batteries        Maps  Scarf

That representation had obvious drawbacks. Fixed-width fonts, though vital to proper ASCII art, were incapable of the correct air of mystery.

I. Journal
  A. Knitting Needles
    i. Batteries
  B. Pens
    i. Maps
    ii. Scarf

That would do. She slid only one set of needlewands -- her new knifewands -- into the strife deck, and she would be ready for anything. Shoosh. They slid right in. No coaxing necessary.

The door to F11 banged open, and Rose ran out. "Change of plan. They took Lily. We need to find her before something bad happens." She didn't really think it would. Lily had been worried, but it wasn't like sudden and drastic personality changes from good to evil were a thing that happened in real life. Still, it wouldn't hurt to check on her.

Ilia didn't need to wait long until the door was thrown open in a very forceful manner. Moving to stand at attention, Ilia took in Rose's rushed words and nodded in affirmation. "Then let's go."

Without much ado, she moved with Rose further down the hall. There wasn't any time to waste.

Shiina fidgeted and waited on her bed for Shou to arrive. Niikura. Shou. It was hard to wrap her mind around the thought of interacting with someone that had the same face, voice, memories, and goals as her maybe/maybe-not boyfriend and still think of them as a different person. She didn't know what the night shift really entailed, but she would likely know soon enough.

As it was, she hated waiting. It was too much like before, when she was forced to wait for a sign that Shou was going to be at school. It made her worry. Apparently, fretting over a boy didn't change even after one experienced death. At least now there wasn't much Shou could do that would make her worry over his life expectancy suddenly dropping. This was a mental institute, after all. What dangers could there be?

She offered Tear a weary smile, hoping she wasn't causing the other girl problems with her presence. Everyone around here seemed to have some sort of agenda, but Shiina was still trying to grasp the full picture. Being abducted into this place... what could it possible mean for her?

[running in kind of from here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1157794.html?thread=79931042#t79931042)]

He'd taken what he'd thought to be the right hall, and it looked like he'd picked the right one: right off the bat, almost as soon as he'd turned down the hall, he'd made out the number on the door: F19.

Hah. He'd made it. Niikura took a second to compose himself and make it look like he hadn't just sprinted through a few hallway before knocking on the door.

"Nagasawa? It's me." A second later, he added lamely, "Niikura." Run hand through hair, straighten tie, relax. This wasn't--oh man, he sounded like he was on a date right now. That was so the wrong mindset. Niikura shook his head angrily for a second as he waited for Shiina to get the door. Not a date. Not a date. He was just...picking her up...and then escorting her over to his--argh, that wasn't helping either.

The knock on the door got her back on her feet. The sound of his voice drew her quickly to the door. Opening it, she looked out tentatively at first. It was still much too hard to believe. And yet...

Seeing his face, even if he didn't look too happy to see her, it nearly put her in tears again. But instead of crying, she pulled the door open and threw her arms around the boy in front of her. "Shou-kun." She just wanted to stay that way for a while, but she knew it would probably be awkward for him. She was just... so happy.

She took a deep breath, then pulled back. Glad she didn't have to wear that godawful hat now that the soldiers were gone, she pulled her long hair over her shoulder and chuckled in relief. "I'm so glad you're really here." She smiled weakly. "I thought I might have imagined it before."

God, could the seconds drag on any longer? It was killing him, standing around here. Niikura shifted from one foot to another, hands shoved into his pockets as he waited.

And then the door opened. "Hey--" Whatever was going to come next got completely forgotten as he was treated to a totally unexpected hug. "--uh..." His hands were trapped in his pockets. This wasn't awkward at all. Geez, how many times has this happened now? Friends-yet-not-friends expressing their relief, him standing around waiting to drop the bomb that he wasn't really the guy they were looking for...except she already knew. Still just as strange and queasy-feeling, though.

Niikura smiled back crookedly as she retreated. "Well, 'm glad I didn't disappoint or anything." Oh man, and now for the worst part. "You, ah...ya mind if we head back to my room?" He jabbed a thumb behind him. "Friend of mine's supposed to meet me there, if everything goes to plan. We can chat on the way back and stuff."

Her abrupt show of affection seemed to leave him momentarily speechless, which was... unusual for Shou, though not completely unheard of. Shiina liked to think she was the only one who could quite pull that off, but she wouldn't flatter herself by dwelling too much on that. There was a time and place for daydreaming, and that was not now.

If it had been just anyone asking her back to their room, Shiina would have balked at the invitation. However, as it stood, she felt completely at ease with Shou. He wasn't just an ordinary guy. She trusted him with her entire world. "Sure, just..."

She turned back to the room. She didn't think there was anything she needed. She closed the door and lightly gripped his sleeve. Grabbing his arm or his hand seemed a little too forward, even after that hug.

Together, they began making their way down the hall.

If nothing else, the day gave some hope for the remains of Renamon's self. Moving to act as productive, even with no visible results, were movement, and in that line, some kind of hope. She had given information and shared what was known, and attempted to learn a little in the process. It was not enough, by any standards, but it was enough to continue moving forward.

So it was enough to continue.

[to here]

Edited 2011-09-07 23:34 (UTC)

Rapunzel hadn't been sure what to do with the dagger after getting changed for the night. She knew she would have her hands full with her hair, the frying pan, and her flashlight, and she didn't have a sheath for the dagger. Not exactly the safest thing to be carrying without protection. Still, she also knew that the more protection she had on hand, the better, especially since she didn't know what Dr. Facilier had on hand to defend himself.

Ultimately, she had taken her pillowcase and wrapped it around the blade as a makeshift sheath, and nestled it into the pile of hair in her arms once it had grown out for the night. This served the dual purpose of keeping the blade from slicing her hair, and keeping her from looking at the way-too-familiar weapon. It wasn't the most efficient, non-awkward way to carry the thing around, but hey, it worked for now, she figured.

As ready as she felt she could be, Rapunzel bid Tsubaki a safe night and made her way out to the rendezvous point.

[To here]

Edited 2011-09-09 08:09 (UTC)

The meeting with Berg hadn't left Utena with a huge desire to gorge herself, to say the least, and so she hadn't eaten much more of Anise's leftovers than she had felt was necessary. Besides, she'd thought, there were a few people she had to see this nightshift, and she didn't want to keep either waiting if she could help it. By the time the lights went off and the doors unlocked, Utena was changed, had her box of medical supplies in hand, and had her sword and flashlight settled in the box, ready for use.

The flashlight facing forward on top of the box's contents, Utena accepted Anise's good luck tidings, and set out into the hall not far behind her.

[To here]

Edited 2011-09-14 20:11 (UTC)

When Lana finally shone her flashlight into her trunk, there was something new. Some apples and a package of cookies, from the cafeteria by the looks of the industrial packaging, and a policeman's baton. She pulled it out from under the cookies by the strap and it swung back and forth. That conjured an image -- Officer Meekins, in uniform, with his baton stuck in the precinct's sliding doors just as the AC overloaded and had cut power to the entire front reception area. Now she remembered him, if only in passing. Were these his things? And if so, did that mean he'd gone?

He'd been here only a few hours ago; with the possible departure of Wright and Edgeworth, that would mean people from Los Angeles were being sent home in droves.

She grabbed the food, her coat, all of her things and shoved them in pockets as quickly as she could. The dark didn't hinder her much; a good detective had to know where everything was without looking, and putting things into their places was just as simple as removing them. She dashed out the door and over to the hall where Ema's room was.

[to here]

She had a task to fulfill and a single night to accomplish it. One might have found such a thing rather lackluster in comparison to others, but in an unfamiliar world, Tear knew she would be hard-pressed to discover a weapon suitable for her capabilities. Knives were a luxury here while a decent-sized staff was questionable in its existence. Failing those, she might be able to handle a short sword or something like its form, but swords seemed to be as rare as knives.

Tear sighed internally while the teenager returned the smile and said a farewell to Shiina. Hopefully the other girl would have better luck tonight. With nothing left, she departed, steps echoing through the hallway.

[To here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1157794.html?thread=79891362#t79891362).]

Edited 2011-09-11 01:36 (UTC)

With everyone doing their own thing, including her new roommate, Tsubaki had a night by herself spread out before her. There were so many things she should be doing that she would've needed four or five clones to see everything through, however, so she unfortunately had to narrow her objectives down. Since the mission was still a fresh memory and Rapunzel had other plans that night, the computer disc was off the list. The two of them had done the work of stealing and it wouldn't be right for the two of them not to be there together if or when they decided to look into it.

She didn't know Ranulf's room number, hence getting to the bottom of his absence was out of the question, too... And then there were the ongoing experiments, which she couldn't be sure the military had stopped. The problem was that she had started losing track of which night they were supposed to happen on, and now there was the possibility of voluntary experiments going on in the medical area...

Tsubaki had weighed her options while changing into her ninja gear and gathering up her supplies, but she would wait until she'd gotten the nightly lay of the land before making a final decision. Though if the military had something in store, they were sure being quiet about it. She hadn't heard a peep out of the intercom since dinner.

Once she was ready, she shut F15's door beind her and headed out. There was some movement, but it all seemed to be from fellow prisoners, so she continued on.

_{[to here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1157794.html?thread=79953570#t79953570)]}

5..4..3..2..1..click! At the sound of the doors being unlocked, Chise set aside her half-eaten pink dinner sluge and gathered everything she needed to for tonight's visit with Fai: a half-empty stomach and her flashlight.

With the route to Fai's room memorized, Chise made her way into the night.

[skipping several hallways to here]

The lights went out and the doors unlocked. Sonia looked up at the intercom speaker. Nothing.

She didn't like this. It reminded her too much of the times they'd walked into traps. Like someone or something was waiting for the right moment to strike. She took it as a warning of what was to come.

"You should stay here, Mokona," she said in a hushed voice, switching on her flashlight and going for the door. "If you're going to go out, make sure you find someone who can help you." With that, she waved goodbye to her roommate and stepped out into the hallway.

[to here]

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Night 58: F11-20 Hallway

F16 → F11

F11 ==> Hallway

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F19

Re: F19

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F16, after Ilia leaves

F19, before Niikura comes in

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F20

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