Night 67: Main Hallway, 1-West

[ofthemotions]

[from here --and waiting for Ryusei!]

There still wasn't a lot of people in the halls, and it was starting to make him nervous. Maybe he should try to find someone to hang out with tonight. Snow and Celty had insisted on how Mikado shouldn't be alone at night--it wouldn't hurt to take their advice. But it would be strange to just go up to someone and ask to walk around with them.

...Wouldn't it?

He made a face, and paused in the hall, looking around. He was more aware of the bandages covering his eye in the dim, and even wearing his own clothes didn't negate that uncomfortability. He was suddenly starting to think he should have just stayed inside.

Comments

[redcladidealist]

Nothing came. No monster in the dark, no patient gone insane, no doctor or nurse to haul him back to his room, nothing that could explain why that other man had been running away. As the danger apparently passed, Lloyd felt a twitch of curiosity, and he took a step in the direction the man in green had come from before pulling himself back.

No, I told Kratos I'd meet him here.

But what if someone needed help? Lloyd listened carefully, but he couldn't hear anything besides the shuffling steps and quiet words of a few other patients in the hall. None of them seemed to be alarmed - not on the same level the green man had been. Maybe it was something that was already gone now.

He still itched to investigate.

Dammit, how long was it going to take for Kratos to get to this hall?

[redcladidealist]

Other people came and went, but still no sign of the man he was supposed to meet up with. No one else ran like they'd met anything dangerous, so the danger had probably passed. At first keyed up, now utterly bored, Lloyd groaned to himself and slumped against the wall.

I'm giving him ten more minutes, then I'm going to look for him myself.

[thisisyourgod]

> ==>

At least this building had a convenient meet-up spot. The downside to this was that everyone met up there, so they might as well pick somewhere less convenient and thereby spoil the whole thing.

There was a familiar head of hair to greet him once he got there, and he could only assume that was where they were supposed to be. Why was he dragging himself along on these little escapades anyway? It wasn't as if the company was any better than what he had at home.

Or maybe that all's the reason you got your need on to do it, right bro?

Yeah. Maybe that was it.

"Quit looking so excited to see us. We might actually feel welcomed."

[repelling]

Much as Uryuu had intended to go straight to the file rooms, it had occurred to him that he would be passing the rendezvous point on his way. Kratos-san had written that he, too, would be late, but that Irving-san should be waiting, so it wasn't a surprise to see him standing there.

At Vantas-kun's comment, he looked at him askance. It wasn't as thought Irving-san had known to expect Vantas-kun, though Uryuu was more tempted to jab at anyone possibly being excited to see him -- except, Vantas-kun had included him in it, complicating the retort. Besides, more important than exchanging barbs was the guy's arm. It could become a problem for the group, at the most extreme negative possibility, but it was Vantas-kun's business to tell. His responsibility.

"I told Inoue-san I'd meet her in front of the entrance room," he said, dismissing all the rest as irrelevant for the moment, and looking now down the hall, squinting in the dark. Not as though he needed to, as he couldn't feel her spirit pressure there, either. "I wanted to look through the file rooms; there might be information there that interests both of us."

Specifically on Kurosaki and the others. Now, however, he was considering taking down as much as he could on everyone. Perhaps not tonight, not with Kratos-san having an actual plan.

[redcladidealist]

The soft footsteps of their approach hadn't registered at first, Lloyd's mind so focused on griping internally that he'd stopped paying close attention to his surroundings. That was something Kratos would have lectured him on, once what felt like ages ago, but he wasn't here now. That was the whole problem. Not that Lloyd wanted to be lectured by him - no way! But he did feel vaguely chagrined when he jerked his head up in surprise at the sound of Karkat's voice.

"Karkat?" His eyes went to the other's companion, still startled. Startled enough that he let Karkat's jibe slide. "Ishida? What are you guys doing here?" Because unlike them, he'd had no notion that he was meeting anyone but Kratos in this hall.

Then Ishida spoke, and Lloyd's confusion disappeared. "Just passing through on the way to meet her, huh? I'm waiting for Kratos." His eyes flicked back to Karkat. The younger boy probably had no idea who that was. "He's a guy from where I'm from."

[thisisyourgod]

Kratos was a somewhat troll-esque name, not that Karkat was going to comment on that since Lloyd didn't seem to believe he was originally a troll anyway. (The jerk.) And anyway, aside from that little thought he could honestly care less who the other boy was meeting in the hall.

He hefted the bat over his shoulder as he tried to look like he knew what he was doing. That couldn't be too hard with this guy, right? He'd just let Ishida do most of the talking, since he was particularly good at that. And he was still not showing any signs of nausea, which was definitely a good thing.

Might not be too bad a gift for the empty panned motherfucker, yeah? COLORING HIS SOFT-SOLED PEDPRINTS WITH THE OUTPOURINGS OF YOUR MOTHERFUCKING BILE SACK.

...Though why he was having thoughts in Gamzee's voice he didn't know. He must be missing his moirail something fierce.

[repelling]

Ignoring Irving-san's jerking (hardly having a foot to stand on in judging that, given his own jumpiness the past few days), Uryuu could neither shake his head or nod as he answered, as both would fit, but to do both would look like nonsense.

"I know," he said, with regards to why Irving-san stood there, unsurprised by the guy not realizing he knew. As was made obvious earlier, not everyone looked at every bulletin posting, addressed to them or not. "He instructed me to meet him here as well once I'd finished, and noted you'd be waiting. Also that he might take longer with his business."

Inoue-san's spirit pressure did not feel as if it moved toward them (seeking her, and the thin weight of the spirit particles around him, left him oddly on edge, as if his spirit could be queasy, something he wanted to attribute only to sudden growth however much that last needle promised otherwise), and Uryuu let his gaze drift toward the leftmost hall as he wondered if she'd been held up. Had the nurses injected something into her as well? Another glance at Vantas-kun suggested that, at least for the moment, the guy was fine.

Although he itched to get a move on and finish with the file rooms as quickly as possible, so to get on with the rest of the night, Uryuu suspected Inoue-san would be cross with him if he went without her. As she'd also have to pass this spot of hallway to reach the entrance room, it seemed no less practical to wait here.

[faeth]

[ from here. ]

-- oh.

This was a familiar yet unexpected group of people. For a moment, she balked, blinking dumbly through her mussed-up bangs with her flashlight in hand, taking note of the ceiling, the walls, the hall behind her...

She was definitely not an expert navigator around Landel's, but she was almost absolutely certain this was not their planned meeting place.

"Eh," she begun, brow pinching as she ran her finger sheepishly through her bed head mess of a hairstyle. "Um," she started again, teeth worrying the edge of her bottom lip behind the reserved line of her mouth. "I'm sorry, ah... I'm late."

[redcladidealist]

Inoue's appearance distracted Lloyd for a moment. He'd long since lost track of how much time he'd spent waiting for Kratos, and now suddenly three people he knew showed up almost all at once. Unlike the others, though, Inoue's arrival got a brief smile from Lloyd. He was pretty sure he could count Ishida as a friend, and Karkat was weird, but okay (if you ignored some of the words he used and the possibility that he might not be entirely sane), but Inoue he genuinely liked. She was friendly and easy to talk to. He lifted a hand to greet her, with a short "Hey, Inoue," before his eyes went back to the oldest boy in the group.

His brows furrowed in irritation. "Damn it, why didn't he tell me if he knew he was going to be late?"

[thisisyourgod]

And there was the girl again.

Holy wicked all mother of fuck but she's built to fall straight onto them flesh mounds.

This thought, once again in Gamzee's voice, has Karkat going slightly red in the face, looking anywhere but in Orihime's direction. The sound of his moirail's laughter soon followed this, and he began to wonder if it was too soon for him to start losing his mind in this place.

"So what are we going to do? Just wait for this other guy to show up? Let's make a party of this thing. Why not." Perhaps their group would continue to grow each night until half of the institute was traveling around as one. That wouldn't draw any attention or anything.

[repelling]

Ah, there-- focused as he already was on tracing her spirit pressure, Uryuu sensed when she began to move. He did not, however, continue to look toward that hallway, lest he appear too expectant, or as if he had been waiting for long. Only when her flashlight beam passed over them, backed by her footsteps, did he shift his attention. The light threatened the acclimation of his eyes to the dark, but he noted her hair, his fingers itching for a comb, or at the least to pat it down without.

Obviously he resisted, instead shaking his head at her apology. "Not at all," he said, a soft smile transient, distinct for a heartbeat. "I took a bit to get going, myself."

Then Irving-san spoke, and he blinked, a little surprised as well. Kratos-san may not have expected to take too long, but long enough that he might have arrived later than Uryuu. Even if he had not initially planned his detour, he clearly knew by the end of the day, so why not alert Irving-san -- clearly not the type to look at notes not directed at him. Without having a satisfactory answer, he left the question as rhetorical and focused on Vantas-kun's more practical query.

"It doesn't make sense for me to wait," he said. "My business is unrelated to his plans for us, whatever they are. You're free to wait," Uryuu nodded at Vantas-kun and Irving-san, "unless you're curious, or want to help."

Normally, he would have preferred to do it alone. However, they were waiting anyway, and more eyes scanning for the information he wanted couldn't hurt. That is, if he quashed his near-certainty that they would surely miss something, and he'd have to look at everything himself, anyway.

Either way, they could decide. With a glance at Inoue-san, he turned to walk toward the center of the hallway, and the entrance room. If he kept moving, focused on a task, he could better convince himself he felt fine.

[ let's mosey ]