Nightshift 60: Doctor's Office 1

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_{[from here]}

The room across from Professor Stein’s old office was furnished, if only sparsely. That made Tsubaki think there had to be a doctor using it, which gave her hope.

Once she had stepped into the room, the desk in the back resolved itself in the gloom, along with the big shape sitting on its surface. A computer monitor was pretty unmistakable, all things considered. Yes, there’s one!

“There,” whispered Tsubaki. “They have a computer.”

Now came the hard part! Sneaking around a computer wasn’t the same thing as sneaking around a building--physical traps she could deal with, but virtual ones were another story. Hopefully nothing happened when they started poking around. Were appliances like this even getting power?

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[hairraising]

Rapunzel's head jumped up slightly, a smile on her face. The room had a computer! "Yes! Perfect!" she squealed quietly.

She was guessing the computer was the rectangular thing sitting on top of the desk. Albedo had described it being a box with a screen, and while the box wasn't the exact shape she had pictured, it still fit the description. The closer they got, she saw that the box's screen was made of glass, not a fabric screen like she had imagined. And there was no fire that she could see, thank goodness; so much for fire walls. Guess we got lucky!

"That boy I talked to said there would be a tray that comes out of the computer. How do you get at that?" she asked as they stopped at the desk, Rapunzel staring at the alien-looking machine in awe.

[thecamellia.livejournal.com]

All right, next step is… seeing if it works, I guess?

“Um… There should be a button to do that somewhere,” answered Tsubaki. Given how much (or how little, depending on how you looked at it) Rapunzel knew about computers, it seemed that Tsubaki was going to be the operator by default. Creeping around the desk, she pulled the desk chair back so that she could hunt for the tower. This computer was a lot fancier than she was used to, but assuming that the basics were still the same the tower was where the power would come from, right?

The office’s lack of decoration made it hard to read into its owner, but as she leaned down to press the power button on the machine resting on a lower shelf, her eye was drawn to the square shapes of photograph frames sitting off to the side. Pictures? Even with the importance of their mission, Tsubaki still felt slightly guilty poking around a private area; she hoped sunrise would wipe away any traces that they had been there. That way the doctor would never have to know they’d been in here.

In that vein, hopefully Landel would never know they’d been in here, either.

Tsubaki looked back at the computer when a little blue light came on on the tower. So there was power.

“Ah, it turned on. It uses the same power as the lights so I wasn’t sure it would. That must mean the lights at night aren’t broken, just off.” She supposed she could have guessed as much from other hints, but it was interesting to have it confirmed. Waiting for the computer to boot up felt like it was taking forever, but that was mostly tension at work. In the meantime, she gave a Rapunzel a side glance. “Does that boy know where we got the disc?” she wondered.

[hairraising]

Rapunzel still wasn't entirely sure how the whole "power" thing worked in regard to things like lights and such. As far as she knew, there was some kind of magic involved, hence the word "power". So if she was understanding Tsubaki right, then there was magic still active in the things that lit the lights and the computers, but it was blocked from being used at night. That sort of made sense. Maybe?

At least there was a question Rapunzel could answer, she thought with some relief. "Well, he does know it has information of the military's on it. I didn't tell him exactly how we got it, though, if that's what you mean," she said as she turned to watch Tsubaki get the computer ready.

Which, apparently, turned out to be one of the most amazing things she had seen since arriving in Landel's.

Rapunzel's mouth went round in awe as the screen came to life with light and colour. It was even more beautiful than she had pictured. Spinning things on a fabric screen by magic would have been impressive, but this was just incredible! "Ohh wow! It's like painting with light!" Rapunzel said with a joyous, disbelieving laugh, just barely able to keep herself quiet as her face lit up along with the computer. There wasn't even much on the screen yet as it powered up, just boxes with text and simple backgrounds, but to Rapunzel's eyes, it was a spectacle to behold.