Night 66: Main Hallway, 1-West

[dualistic]

[From here.]

That hadn't taken long. So much so that it looked like he was the first person to make it this far. Harvey took a moment to scan the hall with his flashlight, including near the stairs, but he didn't see (or hear) much of anything. It was the sort of thing that set him on edge.

Since he couldn't do much else, he leaned himself against the wall by the stairs and then grabbed for his gun, holding it near his side as he waited. Normally he didn't take the weapon out unless he planned to shoot it, but when there was a possibility that some transformed patient might come barreling down the halls in the next few seconds, he wanted to take precaution.

Hopefully Scott and Sangamon would haul ass over here before all hell started to break loose. If things got too hairy, Harvey was ready to make a run for it on his own. That was the logical thing to do.

[Waiting for S.T.]

Comments

[fallenbeanpole]

[from here]

Now they were in the main hallway. A part of him still couldn't believe he was doing this, but he was, wheeling an injured patient to what could end up very nasty for both of them. The Once-ler's thoughts kept returning to what Soma had said, about only shooting to miss three people, including him. And during the afternoon, his nurse had referred to her as a friend.

The man had assumed once before that friendship existed between himself and another, but the Lorax hadn't agreed. Yet hadn't Soma implied it by including him with Lingormr and Rapunzel?

He would drive himself crazy thinking about this.

"Soma... are we friends?"

[madeinthehrl]

So butterfly milk was sweet in his world. That made sense, oddly enough, though Soma had to wonder just what kind of world the Once-ler came from. Striped trees and butterfly milk. Like something out of a fairytale. She was just about to open her mouth and ask what had happened to the Truffulas when the Once-ler forestalled her with a question of his own.

Are we friends? It was abrupt enough to give her pause. She'd definitely never been asked the question before. Was it something people did? She'd always just assumed here, with everyone else, and ruthlessly tried to quash the little bubble of warmth that rose up whenever anyone referred to her as a friend. Wasn't that what you were supposed to do?

She wouldn't know. She hadn't had friends before she'd arrived here.

"I--" --don't know, she almost said, before she realized just how reassuring that would have sounded. "Yes. I think. I mean," she added hastily, "if you want to be."

A pause. "I'm sorry. I'm not very good at this."

[fallenbeanpole]

The Once-ler's face shifted into a crooked grin. "Heh. Well, I guess that makes two of us."

Did he want to be friends? The Once-ler had always been something of a loner. Even at his prime, the man hadn't had anyone he'd really considered a friend. Oh, sure, there were the pleasantries and the adoration that came with being a successful entrepreneur (and, quite frankly, a celebrity in his own right), but nothing real.

And for most of his life, it hadn't bothered him. The man had always just distracted himself with other things, whether it was teaching himself guitar or coming up with the prototype of what would eventually become the thneed. He had never truly realized that there was something missing in his life, not until the day the Lorax denied being his friend.

There was no doubt in his mind that the last year had been the loneliest of his life. And to be fair, the Once-ler felt he deserved it. But he hadn't reached out at all during that time, forcing himself into a solo existence. Here he'd had more interaction over the last few days than he'd had for the last year.

That had to count for something.

"I'd like that, yeah. Friends."

[madeinthehrl]

Soma looked up, returning his grin with a small smile of her own. "That's settled, then," she said.

Not that she was certain what to do after the fact had been stated, if anything, but it was a start. The smile lingered, for a moment, as they headed further down the hall.

[to here]