Night 59: Soccer/Recreational Field

[strayfag]

[from here]

It was admittedly a little better outside. The air lacked the smell of too many things not-so-freshly killed and it felt less claustrophobic than the hallways by far. Unfortunately, even the sky seemed to be glowing faintly pink, which meant Code Fabulous was still in effect. It was casting a lot of freaky shadows.

Badou was starting to think that this might have been a bad idea. Passing through the Rec Field was the quickest route to Alle's room, but not necessarily the safest one. Despite the fact that he was moving quickly with his back mostly to the wall, he kept thinking he saw shapes moving out on the field.

He couldn't be more relived when his fingers closed around the cool metal of the knob and the door eased open. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one who wanted in apparently. Something fat and mangy reared up about five feet ahead of him. Badou froze. The squirrel stared. Badou stared back. You have got to be kidding me.

"You wouldn't be one of those singing---"

The squirrel bared its teeth and lunged. Badou swung the door open, throwing his weight behind it as quickly as he could. The impact nearly pushed him off his feet, but squirrel face meeting door was a pretty fantastic sound. Badou grinned. Asshole.

Maybe when he told this story, he'd say it was a bear. And that he'd punched it in the face. And that it had stayed down, because Alvin sure as hell wasn't going to let a little head trauma get between them.

Badou, on the other hand, would be all too happy to end this sordid affair. He bolted. In retrospect, he should have pulled the door shut behind him.

[RUNNING THIS WAY.]

Comments

[hiddenbadass]

[From here.]

Mike turned the knob and slammed open the door, holding it open for Niikura who had his arms rather full at the moment. It was interesting to note that the kid had the upper body strength to carry a girl like that. Or maybe it was just the adrenaline. Nah, probably not.

"Hurry up and I'll close the door behind you!" Mike called back, preparing to slam it back closed after Niikura made his way out.

[requitedfate.livejournal.com]

Shiina's eyes had frozen on the mass of cockroaches heading their way. Shou's yell made her jump, and then suddenly his arms were around her and she squealed in the most undignified manner. Her arms moved around his shoulders naturally. There was a moment of deja vu, then they were moving quickly down the hall and out the door Mike kindly opened for them.

And Shou was screaming like a maniac. Typical Shou, still trying to lighten the mood in the darkest of times.

The cold air hit her like a slap on the face. A clap of thunder broke the sound of Shou's screaming and they ran out into the storm along with Mike.

"L-let me down!" she cried out a bit loudly, hoping to be heard above the pouring rain. This was more than embarrassing, and on top of that walking around on soggy ground while carrying her was likely to wind them up sprawled on the ground and covered in mud. Or worse. Still, she was reluctant to let go of Shou completely. She murmured a word of thanks against his shoulder.

"So, what are we looking for exactly?" The shed Shou had spoke about was difficult to see through the thick rain. At least it seemed the coast was clear of giant bugs for the time being.

[oneman-onekill.livejournal.com]

"Phew!" Niikura sagged back against the door as soon as Mike had shut it, trying to catch his breath. He squinted against the rain as the wind drove it into his eyes - There was going to be hell to pay tomorrow, wasn't there? - and managed a weak laugh as Shiina began protesting.

"Ah, alright, alright--but c'mon, admit it, that was fun, wasn't it?" He grinned cheekily as he set her down on the ground and gingerly slid the fencing sword out from the belt loop he'd thrust it through. It was probably better that he not carry her around anyway: the fabric was only so strong, and if he'd done any more walking, the sword would probably have managed to cut all the way through and drop to the ground.

And conditions could have been better, but sometimes, obstacles had to be overcome. Couldn't always be smooth sailing. "Shed should be somewhere in that area," Niikura shouted over the storm, pointing toward the far left corner of the field. "It's gonna suck sloggin' all the way out there, but we'll stick it out together!" With a short fist pump, he was off, stalking through the muddy field, arm looped around Shiina's. If it weren't raining, and if they weren't walking so fast, they might have actually looked like a pair out for a stroll...

The field seemed to stretch on forever, and by the time they reached the doors to the shed, Niikura's uniform was soaked through and clinging limply to him. Stilling his arm for one crucial moment, he slammed the hilt of the sword down onto the lock and watched with satisfaction as it broke under the force.

"Finally..." Yes, the long awaited shed. Finally. He nudged the doors open and eagerly darted inside.

[to here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1199339.html)]

[requitedfate.livejournal.com]

The wind and the rain was just as harsh as ever as they stepped out, though it was the cold that was the worst of being outside. The chill made their steps across the field quick, though the mud caked to Shiina's boots was starting to make her steps feel leaden.

A flash of lightning seemed to illuminate the area for several seconds before darkening again. But that was all that it took for the shape of what looked to be a giant, and we're talking huge, bird winging its way after them, though it was still high in the sky. Shiina stopped to stare in the direction she had seen it. Suddenly the chill from the weather wasn't anything compared to the ice in her chest.

"Shou, did you see that?" She was breathless already from the cold air ripping at her lungs. It took only a second more for her to realize that along with the roar of the whipping wind she could hear the slightest buffeting of air. Like the flapping of those large, feathered wings.

[oneman-onekill.livejournal.com]

Great. Back into the storm. Niikura hunched up a bit as the wind resumed its relentless assault on, most notably, his hair. The white strands sagged downward, falling limply into his eyes; he was still hastily wiping them to the side when Shiina tried to get his attention.

"W-what?" He squinted into the rain as he looked upward, trying to catch sight of whatever it was that she had seen. "See...what..."

There. The shadow of a giant bird, winging slowly toward them, shrieking high above the howl of the wind. On cue, the memories filtered in; they were fresher than most, and thus came to mind more quickly: a tall, imposing man with red eyes--Recluse. His first fateful meeting with Gant. The forest. There are sometimes large birds that attack in these open areas...

...but I've been told that they only go after virgins.

Crap.

"I see it alright," Niikura said with just a hint of resignation. Great. They were going to have to run for it again, weren't they? By themselves, they might be able to kill the thing, but the conditions sucked; visibility in particular was poor. And...Shiina...

He shoved his flashlight down his shirt and grabbed her hand. "Come on, we gotta move." If it tried to attack them while they were running, at least he would be close by, close enough to push her out of the way while he took the brunt of those claws.

[ryuuzaki]

[From here.]

Now that he was moving across the field, L could see his breath, trailing off in pale, colorless spirals. The grass was as slippery as he had anticipated; the air wasn't yet cold enough for the ground to have hardened. The terrain will be like this outside of the Institute too, he realized; the fields to the north and the east would be more treacherous than he liked. They still seemed like a better bet than the halls of the building itself, though. The dead creatures that had littered their path had died in several different ways, which suggested several different opponents.

He wondered briefly what the Sun Room must look like at this point, then shook his head to dismiss the thought. Other topics had to take precedence.

"In strictly intellectual terms, in terms of being necessarily skeptical of something with so little evidence to support it, I doubt what I know about the device... but I can't deny that I know it. Does that make sense?"

He hesitated, but not for long enough to indicate that the question was more than rhetorical. When he spoke again, he sounded less confident, not as matter-of-fact. "It's very troubling. With so many other people coming to the same understanding at the same time, it seems obvious that the concept was planted in our minds. The important questions, then, are who planted it and why. I believe the answer will lie in whether or not it's true. In either case, who does it benefit, and in what way? How it was planted is interesting, but for now, it's not as material."

An idea struck him, and he added, "A malfunction would go a long way to explaining what we just saw. However, I don't think it's an assumption we can make without confirmation."

[herr-inspektor.livejournal.com]

The cold damp of the outside air made Lunge's lungs ache on the first breath, both sharp at cloying at once and hinting at the rainfall of that afternoon, the remains of which made the field gleam wetly in the pink light of the walls. Not simply the Institute's walls, either; the walls of the field were also aglow.

It was, at least, a rather literal breath of fresh air from the red haze of the hallway; if L had seen fit to leave the details of what had happened in there as well, he wouldn't chase them up. He trusted the man enough to accept that there was nothing notable or useful about the event that needed to be shared. The device, meanwhile, was far more valuable to him. He'd become aware of it rather than seen it? That was what the bulletin notes had suggested, but he'd struggled to understand just how that could be the case until now.

"So you couldn't give a description or a location," he clarified, glancing briefly across the field- only one other person, with no obvious signs of danger yet- before carrying on across the grass, "but you have a sense of it in some other way?" It wasn't the way he usually preferred his evidence, bound in some vague metaphysical knowing, but he'd take what he could. It certainly seemed, as L suggested, very deliberately planted.

He nodded, still thinking. "The General mentioned a mole last night- I don't know the details, but there may be something in supposing that they were the one to plant the idea. And if it is a malfunction, it's too coincidental to assume that the two events are unrelated." He paused. "I spoke with Charles Berg today. He couldn't tell me where Nurse Lydia was."

[ryuuzaki]

"Past a vague impression of its size and strength... no, I couldn't give a description." L could hear his own skepticism and annoyance, but it was better to let it show; it might help Lunge understand how much he hated the lack of evidence supporting the knowledge. Past that, he hated that someone had somehow managed to alter his consciousness again, and he hated how much, in the past year, he had had an intellectual understanding of something that he hadn't been able to prove. At least there had been numerous signs pointing to Yagami's guilt. Nothing except the eureka moment, which had come in tandem with the kind of hallucinations that ought to qualify anyone for psychiatric hospitalization, supported what he "knew" about the device.

The pink glow across the sky was bright enough that he could see by it, and the walls themselves were also so radiant that there were no dark corners where they met, so he turned off the flashlight and stowed it in his coat pocket.

But Lunge's next statement caused L to come to a sudden stop just short of the wall, his surprised gaze snapping to the other man's face. "Berg."

He felt a sense of tantalizing curiosity. Berg... how and why? That kind of encounter doesn't grow on trees here, and it wouldn't be random. Lunge wouldn't have been able to manage it by demanding... would he have...? No, these men... under ordinary circumstances, they make a point of presenting themselves as too busy and important to deal with any of us on an individual level. If Lunge had tried to initiate a meeting by offering information, any intermediary might have insisted on delivering the information him or herself. There's the possibility that Lunge could have offered false intelligence, but doing so would be risky, and there would still be the question of what good a meeting with Berg would do under those circumstances. He couldn't be completely sure, but it seemed to L that Berg had probably initiated the meeting, and that it was in some way driven by the same methods and procedures that had the military sending patients out on missions. Likewise, Berg would have had access to real information about Lunge, and would probably have been aware that Lunge might have access to information that wasn't in general circulation in the patient body. If L was wrong, if Lunge had managed to wangle a meeting with Berg of his own accord, that fact would probably come out soon; then he would wonder about Lunge's precise aims and timing.

"What did he want?" Even if Berg was looking for information about the supposed mole, the easiest assumption, it didn't seem likely that any real patient had direct knowledge of the mole's identity. Someone who was themselves a mole wouldn't share it. Therefore, Berg was probably in the market for hints and leads, something either L or Lunge could offer in spades, without guaranteeing the usefulness of those details in any way.

With a glance at the wall, he said, "Hold that thought--we'll continue on the other side. If you'll hand this up to me--" He held the brush axe out to Lunge, and began to haul himself up, using the vines for leverage. When he'd reached the top, he looked around and listened: nothing, and nothing further out, either. There appeared to be more large dead animals in the courtyard, but that was irrelevant to their destination.

He nodded down at Lunge, then held his hand out; when he had the axe again, he extended his arm down the other side of the wall to let the weapon fall gently to the ground. He followed it a moment later, careful not to land too close to the long blade.

[Lunge was presumed to take the axe with permission from his mun. To here.]

[tightsofmight]

[From here.]

The pair burst out into the frigid night from the wrong end of the door entirely. Peter scrambled under the top of the frame, then up the wall, leaving room for Jessica to do the same. His teeth chattered, but he said nothing more about the cold.

It was now that he took the knot out of the pillow case around his shoulder, thrusting a hand inside. Out came a single webshooter, and onto the wrist it went. Peter stared at the rest, thinking deeply, then tossed it all into the snow. He didn't need his costume now. He didn't need the radio. The webshooter and the flashlight in his pocket were the only tools he needed.

"Dude, if this works...I just want to say that it's like...It's actually pretty awesome this happened. You being here and stuff." Peter's lips pursed. His teeth still chattered from behind. "I don't know what will happen if we go back but - find me sometime. Okay?"

This was awkward. But if it was the last time he'd be seeing Jessica (Jess, he wanted to call her. A real, honest to god nickname, geez), then he did want to say something. Slivers slid into his chest when he realized the same could apply to everyone else. Brainy, he thought frantically. Claire. Indy and Badou, who had just come back. Oh god, so many people. Suddenly the last conversations he'd had with each came flooding back to him, and none of them seemed satisfactory. He glanced over at his clone, eyes strangely wide. Below them the cockroaches spilled out the door uselessly, their skittering gone ignored.

This really could be it.

[arakhnes.livejournal.com]

Of course, she scrambled after him and didn't pause even for a second when a blast of cold hair hit her as she slipped out of the door. Fingers barely touching the frame, she flipped onto the wall above it, making a perch with feet pressed square against the cold wall beside Peter, body trembling from the weather. Her breath frosted as she exhaled but there was no reason to complain about it. She was a New Yorker, right? That was what they were used to.

So Jessica stayed quiet, watching as he began to dig through his pillow case, equipping his webshooter. She had memories of doing the same, slipping it onto her wrist and instinctively, she was staring down at her own. But instead, bare hands, spinnerets embedded deep under her flesh. In situations like this though, she was grateful for this biological alteration. She didn't move when the light thud of the pillow case hitting the ground was heard, too caught up in her own thoughts.

But when Peter spoke up though, was when she glanced over, frowning a little. "I -- ..." She hesitated, unsure of what to say. She knew. She knew that he was from the past, before the flood. That he would almost die, that she thought he had died, and the feeling of terror over losing him spread through her. She knew she wouldn't ever meet up again after Roxxon. That they wouldn't team up like this, that she would only keep a distant eye on him. But she didn't say any of this.

Instead, she was leaning over and grabbing him, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face against his shoulder in a hug. The tightest hug she could, refusing to let go. Her face was pressed against the crook of his neck, her body trembling against his (but whether it was from her emotions or the cold -- it was hard to tell.)

"I will. We're going to get out of this, and we're going to get out of here and you and me -- we're going to back to Queens and movie it up and it's going to be awesome, okay?"

A flat out lie. She hoped he didn't know her as well as she knew him. That he couldn't tell.

[tightsofmight]

"Whoa!" He fell backwards, losing an inch or two with the shock of the hug. She was a lot warmer than he expected, but then she was clinging to him as if she couldn't stick to the wall on her own, face pressed deep in his shoulder. Her hair swallowed his cheek. Amazing that it could even get that thick. Peter had let it grow shaggy, but that was obviously failing its true potential.

And he was internally rambling about hair of all things because that was so much easier than trying to figure out what the heck this was. Really. Truly. He'd brought it up in the first place and he still didn't know what to think.

"Yeah. Awesome." Peter was solid stone, frozen for a beat too long after the proclamation. Then arms snaked around Jessica's form. He pressed his face into her hair. They remained that way for a moment. This is weird.

But it was good. He needed to hold onto the good things he had.

"Um. Okay. Hooo..." he trailed off, extricating himself from the embrace. He was flushed in the face and his heart was probably pounding unreasonably hard, even for this weather. He kind of wished they could just crawl back inside and have a movie night instead. "Well. Them evil dictators ain't gonna punch out themselves."

A long glance upwards told them of the relatively short journey they'd be making - there was a row of formerly impenetrable windows on the third floor, barred and shut. Not a problem with their powers back. It was almost anticlimactic. Maybe things would actually feel real once they were inside. And once everything stopped glowing pink. Seriously, what was up with that?

His signal was a nod, and he shot upwards in a run. Whoever got there first had the honours of punching in the window to their freedom.

[arakhnes.livejournal.com]

Well, that was awkward.

She knew she had made him a little uncomfortable but she needed that. When he finally let go, she was so sure that her face was matching his -- red and slightly unsure. (Her heart beating in her ears, and her fingers quivering ever so slightly.) But Jessica nodded in agreement before darting up the wall after him. It was reassuring just to be able to do this again -- that week being here without her powers. She could barely remember what life was like before she got them -- but then again, that life wasn't hers so she tried not to think no it anyways.

Jessica was the one who got to the third floor windows first, tips of her fingers pressed barely against the edge of the window, sitting almost completely horizontal before she shifted a foot and straightened herself. "Well, this is it...." She mumbled, not sure why she was pausing. The windows were barred and she brought a hand up to grab at them, yank them out of their hold and then break the glass --

Except that didn't happen.

Her spider sense caught her attention before the screaming did. The buzzing in the back of her head, mixing with the shrill shrieks of some sort of animal. Her head jerked back and her eyes widened at the sight. Enormous, monstrous birds with wicked sharp beaks and talons, mottled feathers and they were heading right towards them.

"Peter, Peter, Peter -- !" Jessica was shouting as one of these birds flew towards them, claws out, determined to rip their flesh off and maybe eat it with a side of rat heads.

Of course it had been too easy.

[tightsofmight]

What was this.

Peter shot a look of panic between Jessica and the bars. His hands joined hers there and he tugged again. Reared his fist back and slammed it into the glass-

"OW, SON OF A-"

Aunt May would disapprove so he put a button on it, cradling his fist in his other hand. It wasn't like he broke anything, but geez has hitting anything steel-like with your knuckles ever not made you regret your life? He winced and flapped his hand to ease the pain.

He would have contemplated the matter of the impenetrable window further if his spider sense didn't interrupt with a breaking news bulletin: birds the size of horses were descending from above.

........Fancy that. "Jess?"

Within seconds, the first was upon them. Peter did the only thing he could think of when he had one webshooter on its last health bar and only one building to cling to. With a jump Jackie Chan would be proud of him for (he hoped), the sticking duties were passed from his feet to his hands, as his knees swung high up to his shoulders. Then he kicked the thing in the chest. Both feet at once.

There might have been an eensy chance Peter would be on PETA's hit list after tonight, because he was definitely hearing birdy bones cracking with the hit. (They're hollow, duh.) He'd already slapped a cat in to pulp and punched a spider, and now he was kicking birds. He was officially a villain in an Air Bud movie. The thing screeched loud enough to pop an eardrum and shot backwards, knocking into another. Together, they began a fitful descent to the ground. The rest were still coming.

"The roof! The roof, let's go!!" Peter was already moving, wild with panic. Look, he could probably snap them in two like he just did now, if he could land a hit. But a) that would mean getting close enough to them to do so, and between wings, talons, and beaks? He wasn't liking his odds. And b) they were working with a single three story building in the middle of bupkiss nowhere. When you were used to having like thirty buildings within jumping distance at all times, fending off an aerial attack on this cow barn was going to be freaking impossible.

And let us not forget c) - the sneaking suspicion that these were the birds anonymous Skeever dude was posting about on one of his first days here. The ones that ate those poor souls unskilled in the horizontal hustle. Neither one of them had learned...

...He dearly hoped neither one had learned that dance yet. Remind him to stink eye Jessica later and check.

[strayfag]

[from here]

The cool, clean air was as welcome a relief as it had been before. If people were getting their powers back he should duck in and check on Heine... the only problem being, he had no idea where Heine would be. They hadn't made plans for the night, and if he'd met Lily and moved on or something there'd be no hope of finding him.

If they were all still here in the morning, he was gonna have to come up with something. At the moment, he nodded upwards.

"Check it out. Disco sky."

[tender-cruelty.livejournal.com]

Ah, that was better! The stench inside was nearly unbearable so getting some fresh air was a relief, even with the threat of being attacked by whatever was out there. Even here though, they were hardly free from trouble. He followed Badou's gaze upwards, where he could see wheezling bird-like figures high above. Not good.

"Want to head for the wall?" he asked, wanting to try out his newly-recovered strength and speed.

[strayfag]

The birds had never bothered him before, so Badou mostly hoped that Alvin's friends hadn't been too close with him. Or worse yet, that they all shared Alvin's taste. He nodded at Alle.

"Yeah, let's give it a shot. We'll get as far as we can tonight and maybe..." Hope they didn't wake up here again in the morning.

[tender-cruelty.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Allelujah replied, a small flicker of hope in his voice, because maybe this time, "maybe," they could go home. Or somewhere else. By this point he wasn't exactly being picky about where they went as long as it wasn't here and it wasn't worse.

He headed out across the field dauntlessly as a jog that he hoped Badou would be able to keep up with. He couldn't quite guage it anymore with his abilities returned to him full force.

[lighthearted]

[From here.]

The second that the door opened, Sora was treated to the sound of rain pouring down and the crackle of thunder overhead. It was unexpected since he hadn't heard any of that from the inside, but the walls seemed to be pretty thick here.

That was going to slow them down a little, but it might also make it easier for them to avoid any more of those monsters. It might make it easier for them to get ambushed, but the monsters themselves might also have a hard time spotting them. It was a toss-up, but Sora was willing to see how it played out. It wasn't like he was going to turn back just because it was wet out.

There were a few other patients out and about, but none of them were that familiar to Sora. That was probably for the best, since the last thing they needed right now was more distractions. Sora turned toward Riku and nodded to him. "Let's run!" And with that he took off, grateful for his heavy-duty shoes that allowed him good traction on the wet grass.

[inherited]

It wasn't hard for him to do just as Sora demanded. Even the rain didn't bother him. Some part of the desperation to get out of here and the cloak of the night reminded him of other nights in the rain: the one when a storm threatened the Islands and he was swept away into the Darkness and another, when he attacked Roxas. The latter was fresher in his memory, with the same weight of getting out and going somewhere else. But there was no target except an exit, no understanding except that they had to run.

But it was also under conditions he didn't exactly like: this time, the absence of Kairi.

Still, he didn't hesitate. Riku was always much faster than Sora, and he knew how to handle ground like this like it was nothing. "Try and beat me," he chided his friend as he passed him and headed straight for the wall to jump up and over with ease.

[to here]

[thatdemonbitch.livejournal.com]

[ from here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1189014.html?thread=81055638#t81055638) ]

Monsters or no monsters, one thing was for fucking sure. It was cold as balls outside, and all things considered, Ruby was seriously starting to consider whether or not she'd prefer Hell. At least it was nice and toasty. Maybe a little overboard on the toast, sure, but she wasn't liable to slow down and get herself killed due to stiff joints down there.

The darkness was inkier out here. She shifted her flashlight to get a better view, but the darkness seemed to suck it right up. This boded well.

"See anything?" She paced out onto the cool grass, eyes fighting a losing battle to adjust to the barely-present lighting of the moon.

time skip pre-bankai?

[kindalikedit]

Dean was running on adrenaline and the paranoia of being bed buddies with a demon - at this point he was probably too wired to think about how friggen cold it was.

"Sure, I'll just whip out my night-vision goggles," Dean grunted. He followed after Ruby, listening for any monsters or the other things they had crawling about the Institute grounds after the whole failed curfew thing. At this point he figured they were supposed to leave the rooms and get their asses kicked 'cause he plain refused to believe this place had that crappy of a security system when they'd apparently mastered teleporting people. "Tests" or whatever they were calling it on the intercom. Either way, he wasn't going to start screwing around because they'd got out into the halls, what, almost every night now? Had to be at least that.

Dean reached the east wall with Ruby, taking a second to wipe his boots on the grass to remove whatever he could of the gore caked on there from the bloodbath they'd just left. Jesus Christ. This was kinda excessive, even for the stuff he'd seen on the job. He glanced at the dim outline he could see of Ruby, this curve of a pretty face in the dark that was half-turned toward him. Did he imagine a glimpse of black eyes? Too dark to tell, but even the thought of them made him on edge all over again and thinking for the hundredth time that it was too late to say he'd live to regret a deal with demons.

"Once we're in the Courtyard, I think we'll have a better chance of sneaking past the Main Hall," Dean kept his voice down. See, he could be on good behavior. Sorta. At least he hadn't stabbed the black-eyed bitch, so that had to count for something, right?

[thatdemonbitch.livejournal.com]

"Sneaking past so we can play knight in shining armor for whatever damsels are about to get turned into kibbles and bits," Ruby finished with a slight roll of her eyes. "Got it." Her mood for heroics had been, to say the least, a little damaged by her run-in with the dogs. A hand squeezed the wound on her side. Didn't hurt, but it still felt like pieces of her were falling off.

[ to here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1194150.html?thread=81494438#t81494438) ]

[kingdomless.livejournal.com]

Finally, they were outside. Kairi swallowed deep breaths of air as they entered the field, trying to get the horrible images and scent of decay and death and blood out of her head. They had to keep moving. She had to look for any trace of Sora and Riku that she could find.

Turning towards Sonia once they were outside, the princess looked over the other girl, frowning. "Are you all right?"

[doctor-voodoo.livejournal.com]

Gasping and heaving, Facilier slammed the door shut behind him and rested his back against it as he struggled to regain his breath. He was a complete mess, his whole front was soiled with blood, his shoes were covered with dead tadpoles and the back of his coat had been cruelly mangled up. Still, he was alive at least, and he was finally outside where he was surely to find freedom--

-- Or not.

High above in the sky floated the same red glow that magically protected the institute's inner walls from damage. From where Facilier and his Shadow stood, the enigmatic wall seemed to curve over them, like a giant bubble having fallen halfway over a huge stretch of earth. If that unsettling red wall couldn't be damaged from the inside, was it also like some great cage, keeping everyone inside from escaping it?

"N-no!" Facilier growled to himself, his eyes darting about as he pondered over his options. "There HAS to be a way out! My friends wouldn't have given me back my powers for nothing--"

An enormous explosion interrupted the witch doctor's desperate muttering. Another chaotic battle was taking place outside, and its resounding impact knocked Facilier clear off his feet! Even worse than the sound was the sight of something huge flying in the air. As Facilier scrambled back to his feet, a flash of light illuminated a great serpent and giant birds soaring in the sky. Just that glimpse alone was enough to send the witch doctor yelping and scampering for the stone wall encasing the field. He wasn't going to wait for another monster to take a bite out of him!

"P-please, please, please let me get out of here!" Facilier wailed to the reddish sky above him as he scrambled up the vine-coated wall. There was another deafening eruption from the chaos taking place outside, and his grip nearly slipped before his Shadow grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him higher towards the end of his climb.

After some more struggling, the desperate witch doctor and his Shadow finally reached the top of the wall. Before making his descent to the other side, he stood hunched over to get one more glance at the chaos taking place before him. There were monsters and prisoners doing astounding things everywhere! Why would the Loa allow this to happen if they meant to help him escape? Then again, were his "friends" really trying to help him at all?

There was a terrifying roar from the dragon that twisted and turned in the sky. Was that creature nothing more but a flying, boney spine? Facilier had little time to get a better look at the monstrosity, not that he really wanted to when he was out in the open for it to swoop down and gobble him up! He had to get out of here now!

Facilier swung his legs down to the other side of the wall and made a hasty climb to the ground. He was so anxious to get away from all the commotion that he made a leap off the wall once he reached the bottom and made a mad dash for the forest ahead. With his cane hanging off the crook of his elbow, his hand gripped tightly onto his hat, and his faithful Shadow following suit, Facilier sprinted into the darkness, hoping against hope that he would never wake up in this horrible place again...

[sasuke-of-sound.livejournal.com]

[[from here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1189014.html?thread=81286550#t81286550)]]

The first thing Sasuke's feet encountered as they stepped onto the paved path was blood, cold and slick and foul. Cold meant that whatever it was had passed here some time ago; foul confirmed that it was whatever and not who. There were creatures that chose this field in particular, Sasuke recalled, like that bird that had been Heat's revolting meal one night, and the ghostly girl -- that he hadn't seen since his first week here.

The beasts here seemed endless, but there had been things he'd encountered only once and never again. Did the monsters come and fade like the patients as well?

It was a question that would have to remain until another time, however: clearly, those patients that had already been this way had made a putrid ruin of the field and still hadn't managed to rid the entire area of trouble. Through the cold night air there was an insidious undercurrent of tension.