Night 64: Main Hallway, 1-West

[dualistic]

[From here.]

Well, that had been painless, but the good time he'd made also meant that he was the first to arrive. Harvey leaned himself up against the wall, swinging his metal pipe around in his hand as he kept an eye out for Scott or Sangamon.

He had to admit, it was strange that their group had been cut down so considerably. He didn't even know if Depth Charge was still around, but it didn't matter to him too much either way, so he hadn't put much thought into it. He figured that one of the others would mention it when they showed up, if they even knew themselves.

While he waited, Harvey grabbed the bone bracelet out of his pocket and started to spin it around in his hand. The skeleton hadn't been too clear about how this worked, but there was an obvious answer about what to do with it, not that he was going to attempt anything until the others had shown up.

Comments

[toxicspiderman]

[from here]

Back in a flash. Or several hours, give or take. Going anywhere here was like taking the T. Once the doors shut, it could be five minutes or fifty listening to Spock read out the wrong stops. And when you hit fresh air again you'd only gone a mile.

Except here walking wouldn't save you from holes in the fabric of reality. Harvey didn't look any more homicidal than usual, so it probably hadn't been very long.

"No plague, right?" If all three of them had gotten off scot-free, it might even qualify as luck.

[dualistic]

It would have been more or less impossible to have missed Sangamon passing through the first time, seeing how he'd been carrying an impressive amount of alcohol with him. Unfortunately, none of that was meant for Harvey. From the looks of it, Sangamon was going to drop it off with someone else.

Was he really planning to just give all of his alcohol away? Why? Harvey wondered if it was just because Sangamon was a nice guy that way, or at least that he wanted to convince himself that was the case.

As he waited, he kept an eye on the other patients who were loitering around, but didn't see anyone familiar until Shiina showed up. She was coughing up a storm, and Harvey tensed as he realized that things were even worse than he'd realized. She'd come down with that illness, hadn't she?

Before he could contemplate whether to call out to her or not, though, Sangamon showed up again. The question took him by surprise in light of what he'd just witnessed, but eventually he shook his head. "No, looks like I'm in the clear. Are we just waiting on Scott?" It was his subtle way of working out whether or not Depth Charge was still around.

[vstheworld]

[From here]

"God I hope not. Are we missing DC too?" Scott asked as he came up behind the two older guys, broadsword propped up over his shoulder.

He had taken a little longer to get going, having not fully packed up to go on one of these trips for several nights now, but he was here now, at least. Better late than never. Or brainwashed. Oh hamburgers, he was going to have to tell Harvey and S.T. about earlier, wasn't he?

[toxicspiderman]

"Haven't seen him in days." S.T. sounded like he didn't give a fuck. Emotional gymnastics were only as good as the little numbers held up by the judges. No one to win over, no reason not to play it cool. "I can ask his roommate."

He chugged the last of his bottle of beer, and crunched the bottle with the careless expertise that came from maximizing space in an office recycling center. He took a second to equalize pressures, otherwise known as belching, and stuffed the crumpled bottle in his back pocket. "Guess we're it."

[dualistic]

So no sign of Depth Charge. Much like Sangamon, Harvey didn't care too much either way, though the guy had at least had some muscle on him. They would have had a better chance with larger numbers, and he couldn't say that the three of them had been the top performers out of their group, either. But that wasn't about to stop Harvey.

He glanced at Sangamon's empty beer bottle with some envy, but in the end a sip wouldn't have done anything past pissing him off. Now wasn't the time for drinking and carrying on, anyway.

"So," he said as he lifted up his bracelet, showing it to the others, "I hope you both remembered to bring these along. What do you say we try them out?" It was a risk, but everything here was, and Harvey generally didn't avoid something just for that reason. It'd gotten him into his fair share of trouble, but there was little point in quitting it now.

[vstheworld]

The heel of Scott's hand free hand met his forehead. "Son of a... I hope they at least don't give him some crappy backstory behind the blue hair," he said, mostly to himself. You could take away a man's robothood, but damn it, sometimes you just gotta have blue hair.

Scott fumbled in his jacket pocket for the bracelet (which he almost had forgotten). "Can't be much worse than travelling by ring. Let's do it," he said as he yanked it out, pulling the pocket inside out with it.

[toxicspiderman]

S.T. wasn't wearing his either. One, limiting his up-close-and-personal exposure to anything magic. Two, he wasn't really a jewelry guy. He dug it out of his pocket and held it out as well. They were a token girl or black guy away from a comic-book team, with the matching magic trinkets. "Avengers accesorize," he drawled, spinning the bracelet around one finger.

It spun a few times, then friction and precession settled it back on his hand. Nothing happened. "Anyone remember where the on switch is for these things?"

[dualistic]

The joke that Sangamon tossed out was fair, seeing how Harvey felt just as ridiculous, standing here while all of them held onto bracelets of all things. What was with this place and the enchanted jewelry, anyway? He wondered what would happen if someone tried to put on a ring and a bracelet at the same time, but now he was just falling into ridiculous trains of thought.

When Sangamon put his bracelet on first, Harvey followed suit, pausing for a moment before looking at Scott. The kid was the last to put his on, and the second that the bone hit his skin, suddenly everything blacked out and turned upside down on them.

[To here.]