damned_institute | Nightshift 60: F11-F20 Hallway

[From here]

Renji actually did turn on his flashlight once he got into the last hall. Monsters didn't make it in that far too often, and he also didn't want to miscount the rooms and miss the one he was aiming for.

He walked quickly up the hall to F16 and knocked, then added, "It's Renji," for good measure.

[Lana and Ema. Ladies note, Renji's got his sexy black shinigami threads. XD]

Lana opened the door wide. After all, the man had claimed martial experience; no amount of caution could help if this was a bad idea. Except for the gun in the top drawer of her dresser, but she had decided to trust.

Instead, she looked him up and down. He certainly looked the part of a warrior; he could have walked off any Samurai set in Hollywood and straight into the drab little hallway.

"I'm Lana. I've invited my sister to join us, but she hasn't arrived." It hadn't been very long, so Lana wasn't more worried than her usual well-concealed abject terror at what this place could be doing to Ema. "Please, come in."

Her flashlight was sitting balanced on her desk, pointed upwards. It provided more shadows to the room than light, but at least they wouldn't be tripping over the beds. Or Lana expected she'd manage to avoid that; Ema could trip over thin air. "I've had a few pointers, but she has had nothing, and we're both very aware of how dangerous that can be."

Both to ourselves and to others went without saying; she was visibly uninjured, and Ema would (hopefully) arrive in similar condition. Which said more about their poor luck than their good, in Lana's mind.

Renji stepped inside the room, then bowed. "Nice to meet you," he said. He glanced at where she had her flashlight, then balanced his on one of the beds. It helped the dark a little.

"My partner's gonna show up to get me at some point, but he's gonna give me some lead time to help you guys out. So it shouldn't be a problem." Renji nodded, then cleared his throat a little awkwardly. "I didn't want to ask on the bulletin board cause... well. But is what you're mostly worried about in this case monster-shaped or people-shaped?"

It wasn't exactly the most delicate way to put the question, but Renji wasn't a delicate guy. And it was an important question, because that would determine what direction any lessons were going to take. Monsters and people attacked differently, had different goals.

And really, for Renji's part, he hoped it was monsters. It was better to deal with a nasty thing just trying to eat your face than some sick fuck trying to hurt you.

Lana let out the breath she'd been holding, and smiled politely. "We appreciate the help. And it's the monster-shaped variety I'm more concerned about." Her smile sharpened to a razor's edge. "There have been some people here I'd rather have avoided, but all of them generally preferred manipulation to more direct means." And the Chief -- hah -- among them had last been seen lying in a drawer in the morgue, while the staff claimed he'd gone home, so she was cautiously optimistic she wouldn't need to deal with him again.

"Both my sister and myself have had the misfortune to watch people get killed in the line of duty here, and neither of us was well-equipped to help." She walked over to her closet and pulled out a foot-long, heavy brass candlestick. "This is the only weapon I have that isn't a limited resource; I have a couple of scalpels as well, but throwing them is rather a last resort."

"To be blunt, I need to know how to protect my sister. Preferably while protecting myself, but that's secondary to Ema's safety." She'd be here soon; he needed to know that now, but once Ema was here, any such statement would lead to an argument rather than a lesson.

Renji nodded, feeling a small wash of relief. The fact that it was monsters instead of people made things both more and less complicated. Monsters were a lot stronger, but also more direct. "Gotcha. Okay. Guess we'll work with what weapons you got, and a couple of things you can do unarmed. It's a place to start."

He eyed the candlestick thoughtfully and nodded. "Glad you have it. I used to have a sword, but it went missing when I got taken out, so I guess it's gone for good." He made no move to take the candlestick, though. He didn't want her to think he was going to try to take her stuff.

He glanced at the door, but there was no sister immediately running in, so that let him ask the next question. "Your sister gonna let you protect her? Because it's way harder to get the job done if there's someone in the way."

"I'm afraid she might have the same intention. Our parents died when she was young; we've only had each other ever since." The fact that Lana herself couldn't have been that old, given the usual minimum age this place seemed to allow, went without saying.

"I think we might be able to agree to watch each others backs, though." She didn't want to let Ema go after any monsters, but she was trying to be realistic. One of them had to.

"As far as I know, she's unarmed, so perhaps we should start with that." Lana's eyes flicked to the door -- she hoped Ema hadn't fallen asleep again, even if the girl could use the rest.

[from here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1212196.html?thread=81785636#t81785636)]

When Ema finally arrived at F16, she could hear muted voices from the other side of the door. It looked like their tutor had beaten her there, which wasn't much of a surprise given Ema's delayed start and her slow pace. More likely than not, they would get started as soon as she announced her arrival. All she could hope for was that she wouldn't be too much of a failure as a student. Self-defense wasn't something with which Ema was well-versed. Lana was the one capable of great physical feats, not her.

Of course, all of that would happen after gaining entry to the room. Ema knocked on the door a few times before calling out, "Lana? It's me!"

Renji nodded. He knew kind of how that worked, at least when it came to kids watching each other's backs and the bond that formed. It was important, and not something you could just break. "Okay. I understand. More'n you might guess." He grinned. "You can probably get her to let you be in front eventually, but it helps if you're way better at fighting than she is." That had been the only way he'd ever gotten Rukia to let him take some hits, and even then she'd sure made him pay for it.

But he didn't want to think about that right now.

"The unarmed is going to be ugly. Get her a weapon. Something with some range on it, but still light. Like maybe a broomstick." He considered suggesting that she get the candlestick, but a club-like weapon was probably better used by the older sibling who was probably going to be a lot more aggressive with it. "Something like that's good for keeping the bad stuff at bay. But unarmed is most important, you're right."

Because unarmed with a monster - unless they were way more advanced as students than Renji was willing to bet they were - was all about just getting the hell away from them hen something had already gone really wrong.

If he was going to say anything else, he fell silent when someone knocked on the door. It was probably Lana's sister, considering he heard the muffled sound of a girl's voice. He glanced at Lana, then took the few steps over to the door and opened it, making sure to stand aside so Lana would be visible. He knew he looked kind of off-putting to some people.

"Understood." She didn't like it, but she didn't have to. She just had to do it. And as if summoned, Ema had arrived. She caught Renji's positioning; nicely done. She waved, beckoning Ema in.

"Ema, this is Renji. He's agreed to give us a few pointers."

The next words came out like she'd swallowed leftovers that had gone bad -- the words came out normally, but her brow was wrinkled and her expression confused. "He mentioned that we need to get you a weapon -- after we're done here, do you want to go look for something?"

"But first, your students await."

Ema stepped into the room when Lana beckoned her in, looking around until she found their instructor for the night. The man--Renji--looked like someone who knew how to defend himself; she couldn't help but feel like meeting him under different circumstances (i.e., in a fight) was something she'd want to avoid. It was a good thing he was there to help, at any rate. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Renji."

When Lana brought up weapons, Ema's stomach sank a little. She was armed last night, although she didn't actually use it when the monster attacked. Besides that, Mr. Javert's handaxe was no longer in her possession. Perhaps it was just as well. Ema wasn't sure she'd have the heart to actually wield it. "I have a small garden shovel," she offered, pulling it out of her bag to demonstrate. "I figured that was better than hitting rats with my flashlight." After a bit of hesitation--honestly, Ema didn't want to go anywhere--she added, "But we can get something after we're done if you think we should." What Ema wanted and what she needed to do were entirely different things. It was like Zero said. She needed to move forward.

That decided, Ema set her stuff down so that they could begin. She set her flashlight onto the other bed to help eliminate more of the shadows.

Renji gave Ema a little bow, just because he felt like he should. "Yeah, likewise."

He looked at the shovel. "It's definitely better than the flashlight. But mostly what I'm thinking is you probably want a weapon that's going to give you better range. Like a broomstick, maybe."

He gave the two women a wry smile. "Because that's lesson number one. If you guys aren't normally fighters, it takes a long time to get really good at it. So what you should always be thinking about is how to get the hell away from things. Only stand and fight if they corner you. And there's nothing wrong with doin' it that way. I was a street kid. You learn quick that most of the time there's a fight, you're better off just not being in it." So wherever you're going, be thinking about a couple of escape routes while you're going there. Ones where you can get a door between you and what's chasing you."

"So for something like that shovel, you're probably going to want two-hand it, like this," he demonstrated how it would be best to grip it, "just because that'll give you more power when you swing, and you're less likely to get it knocked out of your hands. A lot of the stuff is just animals, so sometimes you can scare it away if you give it a good smack. Eyes, ears, and nose are the most vulnerable things you can hit. You hit hard enough, it hurts like a bitch and it's really disorienting, so that can buy you time to run."

He paused, knowing he'd already said an awful lot. "I mean, that's all real basic stuff. Okay so far?"

"We're with you." Lana took a grip similar to the one Renji had shown on her own candlestick, and took a tentative swing. "I'd like nothing better, I assure you. I'm just afraid that hasn't been possible, in my experience."

"The thing I saw looked like a lot of different animals patched together -- with some ugly claws." The fact that Ema had seen something similar didn't need to be brought up; if she could spare her having to talk about anything, she'd do so. "What's the best way to avoid those, if running is impractical?"

All they'd need to do would be to get to each other, if she could use the ring to move, but that hadn't worked very well last time, now had it? Though why Gant hadn't teleported himself alone, she would never know; pride, perhaps. It seemed more likely than altruism.

When it came to physical combat, Ema's pride wasn't so great that she intended to prove her prowess by standing down a monster in the hallway. She'd been on the receiving end of an attack by a smaller animal and had seen first-hand an attack by a much-larger patchwork horror. Escape from an attacker was priority number one. Scientifically speaking, it was one-half of the fight-or-flight instinct, after all.

When Mr. Renji began his instruction, Ema grabbed her journal out of her bag and began jotting down notes. This was a lesson, which meant that she was taking it seriously. What if she forgot something later? She even took a few would-be practice swings with the journal, holding it on either side with both hands as she went through the motions. "Got it."

Lana's question interrupted Ema's practicing, however. This was something that Ema needed help with, more so than defending herself against the giant rats that roamed the hallways.

Renji watched both the women and made a few corrections, just on how to stand a little better. "When you swing, you get the most power out of overhand, but it also takes longer. Just try not to have to do an upswing. It's low power and you're fighting gravity instead of getting help. Okay, and since there are two of you, get comfortable fighting back to back if there's more than one thing. That doesn't mean actually having your backs together... you need enough space that you can still move and get in a good swing. So you want like two or three paces between you. Enough that you can back up fast if something tries to get between."

He thought about the creatures Lana mentioned. "Those ones are... weird. They're always different so there's not one right way to fight them. And if there's just one area they stick to, I haven't heard of it. Honestly, unless you've got some... uh... big guns with you, just run. Get the hell away from them. Go for the nearest stairs, since most of the time they can't manage those real fast. If you absolutely can't run, go for the heads, try to avoid the claws, hope for the best." He looked at the shovel. "You can try to use something like that as a shield because it's got some surface area one it. So one of you blocks, the other attacks. You just need to have a good grip on the handle and be ready to turn the blade to catch the claws."

He looked at the shovel again. "If you don't mind..." he picked it up and held it. The thing felt really small, but it probably would work better for the girls because they were small. "So the big thing is you have to have your grip pretty loose so you can turn it, but then hold it firm when you actually take a hit." He demonstrated. "You never put a tight grip on a weapon unless you're about to take an impact."

Even guns hadn't done much, though as guns went, it had been a rather small one. The scalpel had done the most damage, but it had been a complete lucky hit, and one that she couldn't count on repeating.

The stairs were a good idea -- damn, she should have jumped on the desk instead of ducking behind it. Grabbed one of the drawers as a shield. Instead, she'd hid and panicked and relied on Gant's rusty firearms training, which had not been his most shining moment.

"I was afraid of that," she said, in answer to his comment about those things infesting the entire institute. "It was my fault; I knew this was something we should do, and I hadn't found the time. Now all we can do is prevent it happening again." She still hadn't specified what it was, but if Renji couldn't put two and two together, he didn't need to know.

Then she fell silent, watching his technique.

"Loose hold, right." Lana wasn't usually one to buckle under an onslaught of information, but she usually wasn't having to do anything physical at the time. She wasn't about to join Ema in making notes, but she muttered a reiteration of the things he'd just told them as she stepped through a couple of swings. Perhaps hunting for shields, not weapons, would be the prudent course.

For her part, Ema held onto Mr. Renji's every word as she took down notes--advice, technique, all of it. Although, when he got to how best to deal with the patchwork monsters, Ema had to use extra effort to stay focused. It was hard not to get caught up in remembering the previous night and how that had ended. Mr. Javert could have ran with them, but he'd elected to stay back and hold it off. And...

No. She needed to focus so it didn't happen again. Otherwise, this whole exercise in self-defense was pointless, as was Mr. Javert's sacrifice. Better to focus on the lesson and not the feelings associated with it.

After watching Lana give a few practice swings and swinging her book twice herself, Ema turned to their instructor and asked, in all seriousness, "How would you define what's too tight and what's too loose, scientifically speaking?" It was a perfectly legitimate question as far as she was concerned, since it sounded like the margin of error that was permissible for either was relatively slim.

He definitely got the impression that there was a reason for the sudden interest in self-defense, and it probably had something to do with a bad encounter. Maybe a bad encounter that had gotten someone killed. If they weren't talking about it straight, though, he wasn't going to poke his nose in and ask. It was probably hard enough for them to deal with alread.

Renji stared at Ema like she was speaking a foreign language, then finally said, "I don't think I can. It's too lose if you can get it knocked out of your hands, too tight if you're fighting against yourself or lose some of your motion range cause you're holding on too tight. You got to just practice it and feel it." He guessed he should be flattered that Ema didn't think he looked like too much of a moron for a question like that, but he kind of was. Or maybe not so much a moron as uneducated. Shinigami didn't really bother with the whole science thing.

Renji watched Lana carefully. She was starting to get that look, like she was getting a little overloaded. It was a look he'd had on often enough himself when he'd first gone to the academy and had been playing catch up. It hadn't done him a lot of good to try to learn everything at once, and he doubted it would work any more for a couple of presumably normal humans.

He nodded as if to himself. "How about we call it there for tonight unless you've got any questions. You two practice what I went over, and keep the stuff that you can't really practice in mind as best you can. If you want, we can do some more tomorrow. Just let me know what you want to do."

Ema grabbed things and hung on until she was hanging by her fingernails from the ceiling. Though usually in a more metaphorical sense. She looked interested, though, and not thinking so hard about what had happened; both were a marked improvement.

Then again, Lana had occasionally been accused of stubbornness herself. She admired Renji's patience, and appreciated it, as Ema's questioning could -- and had -- made grown men weep, though for very different reasons than Lana's turns at interrogation.

"That sounds like an excellent idea. I think we've both got enough to practice, and I expect you have things to attend to." She wouldn't dwell on the fact that, at night, she and Ema were both pretty much useless; it didn't help to think about it, and if they couldn't be helpful, at least they could learn to avoid slowing anyone down.

Mr. Renji's answer wasn't satisfactory (why weren't people more scientific about these things?), but it at least gave clearer parameters on what was acceptable and why. Tightly enough to keep a grip, loosely enough to maintain flexibility. She'd have to undertake her own experiments to see where those limits were on her own time.

As if realizing as much, he and Lana both seemed to believe that they had enough to work on for tonight. Ema had to agree--she'd already filled a few pages with notes and needed to review them before they stopped making sense. Besides, like Lana had said, he probably had his own agenda to attend to during the night. It was better not to use up all of his time. "Thank you very much for helping us tonight, Mr. Renji. I'll practice and do my best." And, if she figures out the calculations of force and pressure and velocity, she'd give him the scientific answer he didn't have for her. Just in case someone else asked him sometime in the future.

"Sure thing," Renji said. "Just give me a yell when you want to work on more." He grabbed his flashlight and headed for the door, then paused to say, "Stay as safe as you can, both of you."

He slipped out of the room and headed out into the hallway.

"Did you want to now? Practice, that is?" Her eyes gleamed. "A little empiric study?" Lana laid the word empiric out there like a trap for a defense attorney, though with no malice in it. They both could use the practice, and the exercise.

"Or we could go hunting some better shields, if you'd rather not be stuck in here all night." Her nonchalance was studied; to be honest, she wasn't sure she was up for too much poking around in dark corners, but she had to pretend.

Several moments (and a few swings of Ema's spade) went by before Ema answered. The silence wasn't teenage petulance or anything of the like; rather, Ema needed the time to think it through. She was torn between what they should get done and what she felt most comfortable doing. Priority number one really should have been procuring weapons and a method of defense. However, after last night the idea of spending a lot of time wandering into who-knew-what was wholly unappealing. Even after spending a day doing her best to push past what had happened, she was still pretty strongly shaken.

Carefully, Ema looked up at her sister. "Maybe it would be better if we practiced instead of went out exploring. So we're more ready tomorrow night." There was hesitance in her voice, as if she expected Lana to disapprove or disagree. Ema felt a bit disappointed in herself, like she should have been able to recover faster than she had been.

"Certainly." Perhaps it might be prudent to practice with something less dangerous than a candlestick and a shovel...but that would require having other options. Oh, well. The worst that would happen would be a loose tooth or a few bruises.

"Before we do that, though, there's something I should show you. Two things, actually." She went to the dresser and opened the second drawer, motioning Ema to come look.

In the drawer was a revolver and a small, golden ring with a red stone. "If something happens to me," she said, and trailed off. You should know to look for them. "At close range, even if you miss, a gun will startle a monster. The safety is here; flip it off, and pull the trigger."

Then she picked up the ring -- the easy one. "As bizarre as it sounds, this will teleport you. Break the stone, and you and anyone touching you will be brought here. Blood will reset it to the location where you're standing. Or so I'm told. It worked once, but I haven't tried it myself." If Ema couldn't figure out when, well, she didn't really need to know.

It was gonna be a long night. Ilia had felt distracted all dinner but not as distracted as she actually wished. She was dreading tonight as she hadn't in a long while. With warnings from both Claude and Anise about something so horrifying and twisted that the institute itself didn't let them speak of it, Ilia was actually hoping they could maybe find themselves stopped at the threshold. Rose and Gamzee seemed bent on going and Ilia couldn't just abandon them or else their fate would on her hands. There was already too much blood tainting them now, and Ilia was fond of the kids. Especially Rose. She couldn't do that to her.

Grimly, Ilia packed up and slipped out into the night. She moved to room F11, knocking as she had the night before and waiting for Rose to make her move.

Rose answered the door, scarf thrown jauntily around her neck, and the rest of her possessions securely stowed. Ilia stood there, looking like she was heading to a funeral instead of an adventure.

"Careful, I might think you didn't want to go with us." An obvious ploy. Merely an opening gambit in convincing her that this was still a good idea.

"If you're still interested in coming along, now would be the time."

She strolled out the door and down the hall more quickly than her unremarkable countenance might have suggested. She was eager to get going.

> ==>

_{[Tsubaki and Rapunzel's great adventure: start!]}

Having promised to pass along Sakura’s card to Utena, Tsubaki didn’t want to leave the errand hanging too much longer. So, despite the Head Doctor’s threats, she got ready to make a stop at Utena’s room before she and Rapunzel left the cellblock.

The card was just one of the things Tsubaki packed with her that night. In light of recent events, she made extra sure her scalpels were close at hand--just in case. Things might have seemed back to “normal,” but making a second attempt at figuring out their stolen disc was more dangerous than just scampering around, as Landel put it. Although he was on bad terms with the military, surely if the Head Doctor knew they had stolen something, he would interfere? If sneaking around, trying to get information out of a mysterious computer disc didn’t count as hideous behavior, she wasn’t sure what did.

Utena and her roommate seemed to already be gone by the time Tsubaki knocked, prompting her to do what Utena had instructed and leave the card in her storage box. To make sure Utena knew where it had come from, she added a note that read:

Sorry I missed you! This was what was left of Sakura-san’s things.

- Tsubaki

With that done, it was time to face the task at hand and whatever the Head Doctor had in store for them. Back in the hall, Tsubaki couldn’t help voicing some of the misgivings she still had about his announcement. It was hard to get his words out of her head.

“I wonder if the traitors were trying to help us?” she said to Rapunzel a little uncertainly. And who was the woman Landel had referred to?

Rapunzel had been contemplating the Head Doctor's message as well while waiting for Tsubaki in the hall. For one thing, his voice was still giving her the chills. She had never heard the man speak at night; that first day in the Institute, that horribly fake-sounding woman had been the one doing most of the talking, and after that, it was all military, all the time. Landel had sounded nice enough during the day, but as sure as her misgivings had told her, he completely broke that character once the lights went out. He was smug, condescending, and more than a little prone to anger. He'd get along really well with Mother, Rapunzel had decided, a sharp bitterness tinging her thoughts briefly.

Secondly came the actual words Landel spoke. Some of it was interesting to consider, like the mention of traitors and a woman lost. Any little clues about the chaos of the previous night were welcome, even if Rapunzel wasn't doing a great job at piecing them together. She was hoping Tsubaki could help on that front, and so it was with some small relief that she answered the girl's question after she finished her drop-off: "Hmm... Well, it wouldn't be totally implausible, right?" She gave Tsubaki a knowing look, not wanting to say more in case the Institute's mysterious walls were listening. "I mean, if the traitors are against the military and so were we, maybe they figured we were all on the same team."

It made sense to her, but she wanted to hear what Tsubaki thought. The other girl was so much more experienced when it came to a ton of things, strategies included.

Edited 2011-12-20 11:09 (UTC)

“I guess so… It doesn’t sound like the Head Doctor told them to do that? If they weren’t working for him, maybe… maybe they’re connected to the radio people? But the Head Doctor didn‘t sound like he believed that, either… ”

It was too confusing! The threads tying people together were complex, to put it lightly. But she and Rapunzel had seen for themselves that there were soldiers belonging to the military part of the equation who weren’t just blindly following orders, so the culprits could have been people unaffiliated to both Landel and Marc. At least they knew efforts to root out the traitors hadn’t been successful, if they had managed to get the jump on Aguilar and sabotage whatever was repressing the prisoners’ powers.

And if the traitors had been the cause of everything, they had to have had a reason for striking when they did.

“For the Eagle and the Head Doctor, it seems like they just want the Institute to keep standing, no matter who’s in charge.”

"Maybe it'll make more sense once we get where we're going," Rapunzel offered. It really was the only idea that was coming to mind right now. She didn't know enough about the radio people (whoever they were) to know if the traitors were connected to them or not, and it was almost impossible to tell just how many patient sympathizers existed in the military's ranks. She didn't know what kind of information was on the disc either, but it was the only thing they had right now that gave them the slightest chance of pulling back part of the military's veil of secrecy.

"I guess we should just get moving and find out," she said after a moment of unsure silence, gathering up her hair in her arms and gesturing for Tsubaki to follow her.

[To here]

Utena wasn't sure how she'd fallen asleep after lunch, but apparently she had. On the plus side, more rest for the night was probably a good thing. On the down side, she had been hoping to talk more with Anise at dinner. Unfortunately for her, she had woken up too late, and only had time for a scant bit of conversation as she had gotten changed and geared up for the night. She didn't want to waste any time if she could. The more time their group had to get to their meeting spot and to the basement without running into something nasty in the hall again, the better.

"Traitors, huh...?" she said to herself during Landel's announcement. Maybe because of the time she had spent unconscious earlier in the week, but hearing the Head Doctor's voice again didn't seem strange or new at all. All that stood out to her right now were two things: the thing about traitors in the general's ranks, and the outburst about her. Was "her" supposed to be Lydia, she wondered? Now that she thought about it, the Head Nurse hadn't been heard all day, not even in a brief mention at the tail end of one of Landel's announcements. What did the patients' bad behaviour have to do with losing Lydia, or whoever the woman was if not her?

She would have to think about all this on her feet, she supposed. The announcement was drawing to a close, and with it, Utena was readying herself to hurry out. She was a little disappointed that she wouldn't have time to meet Tsubaki for the handover of Sakura's card, but again, time wasting =/= good right now. So as soon as the doors unlocked, Utena took the handle, bid Anise a quick "good luck", and started a jog out into the hall.

[To here]

Edited 2011-12-20 11:48 (UTC)

So this was how the Head Doctor truly was. She shouldn't have been surprised. Her treatment by older men in power in the past had been pretty illuminating. They relished that sense of omnipotence that they felt they had. Toying with the lives of innocents was just as mundane as throwing away a used tissue paper. Shiina burned with indignation.

Well, no matter. She had other things to worry about tonight than the taunting words of an old man who had his just desserts coming. She needed to be there for Shou.

Grabbing her bat from the closet, she wished Tear a better night and ran out into the darkness of the next hallway.

[to here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1212196.html?thread=81742628#t81742628)]

Edited 2011-12-20 21:41 (UTC)

When the intercom sounded, Anise was startled. She was only just finishing off her dinner, and she hadn't even started getting her equipment together for the night! The girl hurriedly finished her pumpkin pie as she listened to the announcement.

The Head Doctor was being a lot creepier than usual, it sounded like. Anise had to wonder who 'her' referred to. It sounded like he was pretty mad about it. And the traitors in the military... Were they okay, wherever they were? Were they going to keep helping the rest of them?

Once the Head Doctor was done talking, Anise hurried over to her closet, pulling out her weapon. As she reached in to do so, she noticed the military uniform hanging nearby. Looked like they didn't get rid of everything the military brought in. Excited, Anise went to grab it off the hanger... then noticed another uniform just behind it.

Her excitement at seeing her own Fon Master Guardian uniform was uncontainable. The girl squealed in delight as she snatched it out from the closet, held it up against her body, and spun around with it. "Yay! I finally got my clothes back! Good things really do happen to good people!" She didn't even care that Utena wasn't there to hear her crying out in celebration. Immediately, she started changing, replacing the gray sweats with her pink dress and stockings. Next came the tabbard, gloves, boots... and she was looking as cute as ever! Anise couldn't wait to show Guy and Claude.

Oops--on that note, she had to hurry. Having given the night's plans a good amount of thought, the girl slipped a pen and a couple scraps of paper around Tokunaga's neck. The next toll that the skeleton was going to take was going to be a voice... most likely Anise's voice. She was more or less mentally prepared for it (as much as she could be), but since some things couldn't be communicated with just body language, she was going to be prepared to write if she needed to.

With that done, she grabbed her mallet and her flashlight, secured Tokunaga on her shoulders, and hurried out the door.

[to here]

Edited 2011-12-22 21:16 (UTC)

At the intercom's announcement, Tear took pause in her nightly preparations to consider a single sentence. The Head Doctor had lamented the loss of a her, and in that instant, the Melodist knew Jill/Lydia had at last stood beyond his reach. Whether of her own choosing or another's, it remained to be unseen, but the fact stayed: there existed ways to escape his grasp. Guy was likely thinking the same--considering the possibility of freedom to be concrete.

One could only hope their chances were about as good.

Everything else, however, she threw aside. Tonight, Tear couldn't fail in her endeavors; it wouldn't be an option, especially when she had been entrusted Peter's supplies. It would be a disservice to everyone involved if she could not finish her investigations properly, no?

After wishing luck to her departing roommate, she followed suit.

[To here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1212519.html?thread=81775719#t81775719).]

Edited 2011-12-22 22:38 (UTC)

Landel!

While Sonia had had her suspicions, that announcement had taken her by surprise. She could almost say she was glad for the change of pace. Now she knew what she was up against, at least in terms of what kind of person Landel might be. But she couldn't underestimate him. That was a lesson Robotnik and those boneheads had yet to learn when dealing with her.

Though encouraging, the jarring familiarity wasn't a good thing. Robotnik and his lackeys were usually predictable, making her job easier. But what made them a danger to everyone else was how persistent they were. If one plan failed, they were bound to come up with another one, and it didn't matter who got in their way. When Landel said there would be changes, he meant it; if he really was like Buttnik, you could be sure he'd go after whatever he wanted, and right now he wanted revenge. Even if it was revenge for something the prisoners didn't do.

Sonia waved goodbye to Mokona and shut the door behind her, clicking on her flashlight as she did. They didn't all need to bring a radio, did they? That was assuming they had been talking about the radios on their desks and 'radio' wasn't a code for something. She shone her light over the area and wondered if Landel was also the type to get bored easily. Let's hope not. She didn't want him setting as many monsters after them as Aguilar had last night. The princess wasn't sure which was worse: the fact he had a kennel full of vicious creatures, or that he supposedly knew this place like the back of his hand. What if there were other traps?

[to here]

Edited 2011-12-26 14:15 (UTC)

[Coming from here.]

Daemon found the hallway Renji had asked to meet him in, and he could feel the Shinigami's presence somewhere nearby. Assuming he was finishing up whatever business he needed to take care of, Daemon paused at the entrance of the corridor, leaning casually back against the wall as he waited. He doubted the redhead would keep him long.

[From here.]

Renji slipped out into the hallway and flicked his flashlight off. He could feel Daemon close, practically breathing down his neck; the guy's spirit was that powerful. He moved down the hallway and paused near Daemon, grinning into the darkness. "Fancy meetin' you here, asshole. Let's have some fun."

"So nice of you to finally show up," Daemon quipped in return, arching a dark brow at the redhead, a hint of a smile playing around the corner of his lips.

"Dare I even ask what you were doing in the female wing at this time of night? Are you sure I'm not interrupting your fun?" he teased, a hint of a smirk in his voice as he flicked on his flashlight just enough to illuminate the pair of them.

"Thought if I let you get too bored, you'd start drawing on the wall or some shit." Daemon's next question had him frowning, but he shrugged; he knew the man didn't actually mean anything by it. "Had some teaching to do. Not a lot you can do in one night, but it's a start." He shrugged again. "Anyway, I was just realizing I should probably see about getting myself a new weapon since my sword's fuckin' vanished. Bitch of a thing. Got any suggestions?"

"Most of what I had is gone, too," Daemon answered, pushing away from the wall with a shrug. "I didn't worry about it last night because it wasn't necessary, although that doesn't seem likely to become the norm. I'm open to suggestions. Then again, I made do with a pole of sorts last time around."

"You can do some pretty awesome stuff with a pole," Renji remarked. "It's the grandfather of all weapons. Don't need a blade to fuck things up." He thought about the options for a minute. "Best place to stop is probably the janitor closet, or that storage room. Either one should have something pretty pole-like. Like a handle off a mop. Not as long as I'd like, but the wood should be pretty good."

"I'm pretty sure that's where my last one came from as well," Daemon remarked, looking thoughtful. "It worked well enough the first time around. Might as well try it again." Even if he was rather handy with small blades. In this setting, he wasn't sure he wanted to get up close and personal with whatever he was stabbing, however.

"The janitor's closet is upstairs, yes?" he mused aloud, trying to remember. "Is that where the storage room is as well? Probably best to start there, I guess," he added, turning and moving down the hall, knowing Renji would be right with him.

[Going to here.]

[Going to here.]

Nightshift 60: F11-F20 Hallway

F16

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[argh sorry christmas ate me]

[post-Christmas ate me. ^^() Sorry about the delay!]

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[F16 → F11]

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F14

[F19]

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F20

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