Night 66: West Wing, South Hall 1-B

[faeth]

[ from here. ]

There were footsteps now.

Soft ones, loud ones, some that creaked and others that seemed to slide on smooth like the sound of shadows spilling along the walls. If anything, she could tell by the attempts at quiet that there was nothing of immediate concern in the area, or else there would be more alarm, more panicked voices rising to the occasion. No danger yet, but there were likely people, and Orihime wondered how everyone was coping with the fact that some of their friends held monsters beneath their skin. Wondering if they were flooded with the same fearsome doubt that she once had when she first saw--

Inside of her sneakers, her toes wiggled. The hallway seemed clear enough, and so there was nothing to fear, but every time her shoes hit the floor, she worried over her clumsy steps, her shoelaces – perhaps they’d reach up around her ankles and yank when she was least expecting it.

The hallway was exceptionally wider, perhaps colder, but she tried not to think about how small her light seemed as she scanned it across the floor in front of her, focusing instead on her instructions, on the little pieces of information she had gathered during the day. The door over there possibly led to there, the hallway on this end led over there…

Maybe she should have drawn herself a map before she left the room, but memory and necessity served well enough for her purposes. Paranoia, too. Battery life, her mind reminded her, and she shut off her flashlight as she neared the opposite wall, pressing a hand against it as she blindly groped around in the darkness.

You’re a cat. An owl! Kangaroo, Bat M-

Regardless of how much she attempted to imagine herself as a creature of the night (vampire? No, no, best not to cause any unnecessary panic in the off-chance her acting skills were too much for anyone else to handle), adjusting was much more difficult than she’d initially thought. Even as she heard others passing on by, she stubbornly persisted, biting the inside of her cheek as she avoided looking at the occasional beam of light coming from a stranger. Her eyes needed to get accustomed to the night anyway.

Anything else would’ve been cheating.

[ to here. ]

Comments

[showmeyourwreath]

_{[From here]}

Her heart started to beat faster and she broke into a careful job, eager to make it back, but not recklessly so. She was too disciplined for that.

Still, she was just about in the home stretch, now!

_{[To here]}

[fallenbeanpole]

[from here]

Aside from the lack of a door at the other end, this hallway was pretty much identical to the previous one. In addition, it too seemed devoid of any other life. Not willing to take any chances, though, the Once-ler kept his flashlight in constant motion. The man moved as fast as he was able to without eliciting a painful protest from his leg.

The whole trip brought to mind his first night in the institute wandering the hallways, although two nights ago he hadn't been injured or looking for a specific destination. Ideally this night would not end up in similar fashion, but with the way his luck had been going the Once-ler half-expected that something would leap out and punch him in the face before he got back to his room. If something like that were going to happen, it would be nice if whatever planned on doing it held off until after he'd visited Rapunzel.

The Once-ler was coming up on a door to his right now. Soma had said she was nearby, so there was a good chance this door would be the right one to take. Pushing the door open, he headed in.

[to here]

[complicatedliar]

[From here]

Loki walked with confidence through the halls. He'd yet to encounter any monsters like he'd been warned of. Now with illusions and weapons on his side, he felt even less concerned.

Though still, he was unnaturally quiet out of habit.

He headed through the door into the cell block where Soma would be.

[To here]

[complicatedliar]

[From here]

Loki moved briskly down the hall, carefully rearranging his clothing as he went. Time for a bit of hunting.

[madeinthehrl]

[from here]

She thought back to their breakfast conversation with Lingormr as they progressed further down the hall. The Once-ler had mentioned he was a businessman, hadn't he? Was it some kind of gardening service? An endangered plant--all right, she could see why that would be valuable. But it seemed an odd thing to receive in a place like this.

"What kind of seed is it?" she asked. Not that she was likely to recognize the answer, considering she was hard-pressed to name ten plants from her own world. But it had to special somehow, didn't it?

[fallenbeanpole]

"A Truffula tree seed," the Once-ler answered. "They don't look like the typical tree. Long, thin trunk with black and white stripes, and instead of leaves it grows tufts." His voice took on a slightly distant cast as he recalled the qualities that first drew him to the tufts.

"They come in many colors, reds, pinks, oranges, even some purples and yellows. There's nothing softer, not even silk. And they smell of butterfly milk." For a moment the man was lost in his memories. He missed those times.

The Once-ler shook his head to recall himself to the present. "Well, they used to. There aren't any left now."

[madeinthehrl]

They certainly didn't sound like any trees Soma had seen before. And even unfamiliar as she was with the trees of her own world, she was willing to bet the Earth she came from didn't have them.

The Once-ler's voice softened a little as he answered, and the sudden change only increased Soma's curiosity. Something had happened to the trees, then, if the Once-ler was clearly old enough to remember when so many of them existed.

But that wasn't the most important question.

"What does butterfly milk smell like?" she asked hesitantly. "Butterflies...don't produce milk in my world."

[fallenbeanpole]

"Actually, I really don't know that much about butterflies," the Once-ler admitted, somewhat sheepishly. "But the smell... it's pretty much the sweetest scent you can imagine."

He knew his description wasn't the greatest, but there really was no way to explain something like that. It was something that had to be experienced.

[to here]

[stylebythemile]

[from here]

Normally, she wouldn't go off on a mission by herself like this, but normally, Sonic and Manic had her back. Of course she would have stuck to the buddy system, if there were a buddy system to stick to. She had to trust her instincts, and right now they were telling her to look for those devices.