damned_institute | Night 66: F1-F10 Hallway

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Night 66: F1-F10 Hallway

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True enough, the intercom sounded off like clockwork. The doctor spoke, all pretenses were shed, and Orihime sat in her bed feeling simultaneously refreshed and nauseated by it, by the fact that they were little more than caged animals scrutinized beneath an indifferent eye. After spending the better part of the day distrusting strangers (the nurse that had followed her, the infamous head doctor), it was both a relief and a dread to witness the reality of it for herself – to understand, with an uncharacteristic yet self-aware sort of bitterness, that she had more than enough reason to dislike these people straight off the bat.

Orihime listened, fingers pressing indents into her mattress and trembling as she kept her composure, as she refused to let the careless message (if you don’t die) get to her. It was, still is, a learning process: she learned how to worry without so much of the weeping and the unnecessary bemoaning wails, the prying when she figured that her presence would be more of a hindrance than a help. And so it occurred to her that she should say something, to try to reassure Flora-san before she headed out (a high-five, perhaps? thumbs up?), but there wasn’t very much she could – can – do.

There wasn’t very much to say, was the thing. How horrible and what a heartless person were on the tip of her tongue, but she had no confidence that her voice wouldn’t shake (stammerwhisperbreak) if it committed to such loaded statements. Instead, she jumped out of bed the moment the door unlocked, grabbing her flashlight from underneath her pillow and pulling open her closet for a pair of sneakers, swallowing down the uneasiness that had clumped in the middle of her throat. The cold sweat was unavoidable though, even as her sweatshirt served as some form of comfort, even as she pretended that it was OK to let herself get away with it – with the sense of new hero empowerment that came with the responsibility she had assigned herself for the night. Pretending she didn’t know better.

“I’m sorry I can’t stick around. There are some people waiting on me,” she said, keeping her tone perfectly neutral even as she wondered to herself when exactly she’d picked up such a nifty trick. “But we’ll meet back here later, right, Flora-san? We will, and then we’ll-“ We’ll have a slumber party, we’ll have a pillow fight, I’ll teach you the secret of playing Monopoly.

Because we’ll be alive and okay.

She smiled, facing her new roommate. “We’ll get to know each other even more.”

With her flashlight in hand and her pins tucked along the right side of her hair, she ventured forth, opening the door and heading out into the hallway without a faltered step, a hesitant look back, even as the darkness swallowed her whole.

[ to here. ]

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The Once-ler nodded and let himself in, flicking the flashlight off. "It was uneventful, not that I'm disappointed about that. As for walking?" He shrugged. "So long as I don't move too quickly, it's not that bad."

He leaned against the wall. "I'm up for going to Rapunzel, if you're ready to head out now. I'm tired of this crutch, and you're probably not having much fun in that wheelchair either."

Soma nodded. It seemed a little hypocritical to tell him not to overexert himself when she was in a wheelchair. Besides, if luck was on their side tonight, neither of them would be injured for much longer.

"Actually, could we wait a few minutes?" she asked. "Lingormr said he'd stop by and drop off a few books. I can't imagine he'd take very long."

"Oh." He hadn't seen the other man since breakfast yesterday, and was not disappointed about it. Lingormr couldn't really be held responsible for his actions that first night, the Once-ler reasoned, but first impressions were always hard to shake. Especially ones driven in painfully via knife-point.

Still, breakfast had been civil, if a bit tense. "Yeah, that's fine," the Once-ler answered. "Actually, while we wait, I can copy the map." It would be a productive way to pass the time.

Soma nodded once. The Once-ler's apparent reservations about Lingormr were understandable, she had to admit. They hadn't exactly met on the best of terms. Still, given everything Lingormr had done for her, it was hard not to feel a little disappointed. They'd see eye to eye eventually, she was sure.

"That's a good idea," she said, pulling out a drawer and opening her journal. "The second floor isn't complete--I haven't gone up there a lot--but I'm sure you can find someone who has."

She handed it over, rolling back a little so he could use her desk.

"Thanks." He accepted the journal and opened his own, setting them on the desk. The man studied Soma's copy of the map briefly, getting the gist of the layout. It was basically a rough floor plan, and he had some experience with blueprints.

The Once-ler whistled at the scale while retrieving the pen he'd brought. "It's a pretty large building, isn't it?" he commented as he began to copy it into his journal, starting with the northwest portion. "I didn't realize it was this big."

"That's not surprising, considering they only ever let us see a fraction of it during the day."

Soma looked down for a moment, unsure of what else to say. Small talk had never been her forte, and she didn't know enough about the Once-ler to ask for details. What little he'd said about his life before arriving here made it sound as if he wasn't entirely willing to elaborate.

"There's more of it outside, too," she added after a moment. "A ruined town not too far from here, and some mines to the north."

The Once-ler worked fairly quickly, omitting a few details. There wasn't much need to draw in each individual patient room. He had made quite a bit of progress on the patient wing when Soma spoke about the area beyond the institute walls. The man stopped and turned to look at Soma, frowning in confusion.

"Wait, outside? You've gotten outside the building? But...." he trailed off. If she had gotten out, why was she still here?

It made a certain amount of sense, he supposed, that at night's end the patients all blacked out and reawakened in their beds, so long as they were inside. A sleeping gas of some sort to knock them out so the staff could drag them back to their rooms, maybe. But that wouldn't really work outside the building, would it? Yet it was clear that, somehow, being outside the institute when night would not prevent the blackout and recapture.

"So even if we escape the building, we're not free," he stated softly, shoulders sagging. The Once-ler had just assumed it was only a matter of leaving the institute grounds themselves. "Has anyone ever actually escaped this place?" He doubted he was going to like the answer.

"...but we end up back here in the morning, no matter how far we go," finished Soma. "There's a town several miles south of here--you have to drive to get there in one night, unless you can teleport. But even that isn't far enough to get away."

Her mouth twisted upward. "Nobody that we know of. People disappear all the time, or they die, but when they appear again...they're not the same."

As he thought, the answer wasn't one he wanted to hear. Briefly he reached into his pocket and gripped the seed; it was comforting to have it with him, at least.

The Once-ler withdrew his hand after a moment. "Well, there's gotta be a way. We were all brought here somehow, so there has to be a way back, right?" He returned to copying the map down. "Just got to keep looking for the answers," he muttered, half to himself.

That drive had helped to keep him going out in the wastelands of the valley, before he'd arrived here. It would have to be what kept him going here, too.

[From here]

Loki arrived at Soma's room, still moving along at an easy pace. He paused outside her door, noting the murmur of voices, though he couldn't quite tell who was with her, other than knowing that the person in question was male.

Interesting.

He knocked on the door.

"That's all we can really hope for at this point," she agreed. She had never been much of an optimist, but considering the idea that there not even be a way home was too much to ask of her. If Landel had brought them here, there had to be a way back.

She paused at the sound of a knock on the door, and her hand drifted to her gun for a moment before she realized, a little sheepishly, that anything that posed a threat in this place probably wouldn't knock.

"Lingormr?" she called. "Is that you? You can come in."

The Once-ler nodded and turned his attention fully to his work. He had made a decent amount of progress when the knock on the door came. The man lifted his head slightly as Soma invited the knocker in.

Lingormr might not be expecting Soma to have company, the man realized. He bit his lower lip slightly and hunched over his copying. Apology or no, he still wasn't entirely comfortable around Lingormr, and felt it would be best for Soma to do most of the talking.

Loki let himself into the room and gave Soma a smile. He immediately recognized the other occupant - the Once-ler. Not someone he was overly concerned with one way or the other, than.

"As promised..." he extracted the two rather large books from inside his coat and offered them to Soma. "I apologize for my tardiness."

It was Lingormr after all, and Soma returned his smile as she wheeled herself closer to the door.

"You don't need to apologize for anything," she told him, pulling the books into her lap. "Thank you for coming."

She glanced down: a volume of Shakespeare and a collection of Sherlock Holmes. They were both familiar to her--the lieutenant colonel had had both in his library--but she'd never had the opportunity to read either. If Rapunzel wasn't free tonight, maybe she'd get the chance to.

"I'm sure you have plans for tonight," she added, her smile fading slightly. "I've kept you from them for long enough. These will be more than enough to distract me tonight."

The Once-ler glanced up when Lingormr entered, and gave the other man a slight nod before continuing to draw, half-listening to the conversation. From the sound of it, Lingormr believed Soma meant to stay in her room for the night, and that the young woman had no intention to otherwise enlighten him. Which was probably for the best, he reasoned. The former businessman had brought up both the idea of visiting Rapunzel and that the stuck book would only be accessible at night, and Soma would have likely stayed in had he not mentioned either.

As for why he himself was here? Copying her map was a valid explanation. If Soma didn't plan on telling Lingormr what she actually meant to do, the Once-ler would not let on that he was involved in anything besides getting himself a map of the institute.

Loki nodded, but then his eyebrows went up. He could tell when he was being shuffled off. He'd had that done to him by the best, and Soma wasn't an overly subtle player by nature.

"I hadn't really," he said. "I thought to wander a bit, perhaps refresh my supplies in the medical wing. Have I interrupted something?"

Soma resisted the urge to wince. She hadn't really meant to be that obvious, or--worse--seem ungrateful. And she did feel guilty for keeping Lingormr from any plans he might've had. He'd already saved her life; he hadn't needed to get her reading material, too, and she appreciated the time he was taking.

"Not really," she said. "We were planning on checking on Rapunzel, though. I haven't seen her today and her room's not too far away."

And hopefully she could get them up and running again, but that probably went without saying.

And there went any plans of keeping Lingormr in the dark. The Once-ler paused in his work and glanced at Soma as she explained.

When she had finished, the man added, "She might be able to help us out with our injuries. I actually tried to see her last night, but," he lifted the crutch up, "as you can see, that didn't pan out."

Belatedly he realized it might not have been the best idea to indicate his leg so openly. Lingormr had caused this problem, although he had been brainwashed at the time.

"Ah, I see. Knowing that the lady might be able to heal you, that seems a good idea. And she is pleasant enough company." He smiled crookedly. "I hope you two do not tire her overmuch. I have heard magic is much more effort in this place."

He smoothed down the front of his coat. "Well in that case, I shall let you get to it and not be in your way. I still must offer the lady an apology in person, but now would not be the most appropriate of times, it seems."

"We won't," Soma assured him quickly. "The last thing I want to do is take advantage of Rapunzel, and if she's too tired, we won't ask her."

She contemplated offering to tell Rapunzel for him, but decided against it after a moment. It would probably look better for everyone involved if he apologized to her himself, as he said. Lingormr's apparent unpopularity, while not entirely surprising after his SC run, continued to frustrate her, and the more he succeeded at turning that around, the better.

"Have a good night, then," she offered, smiling a little. "Or as good a night as you can have in a place like this. Thank you again for the books, and stay safe."

Loki nodded and offered Soma a warm smile. "I hope Rapunzel is able to help you. I shall see you on the morrow, Soma."

He let himself out of the room.

Just as well. He had other tasks to accomplish with his night.

[To here]

Edited 2012-10-24 18:58 (UTC)

The Once-ler added the last of the details to his copy of the map as Lingormr left, then stood up and offered the originals back to Soma. "I can copy the second floor map later. You ready to go?"

He was more than ready to be rid of the crutch. Even if he didn't intend to leave his room after being healed, he would at least be rid of that crutch.

Soma nodded, dropping her journal into the makeshift bag hanging from one of the wheelchair handles and putting the two books away in her drawer.

"Let's get going," she said, carefully maneuvering her way out into the hall. "The sooner we find Rapunzel, the better."

[to here]

Edited 2012-10-25 03:11 (UTC)

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Night 66: F1-F10 Hallway

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