[from here]

Turning the corner, Vino found that, in fact, he was very much early, it seemed. Huh. There was no one yet in this central hallway, though if he looked back towards the west side of the building, that strange person with the unnatural-looking white hair had gone down that end of the big hallway. He could still see the whiteness of their hair standing out from the darkness of the atmosphere around them.

He spent a few moments watching this person, then lost interest, instead finding the nearest wall to lean against to wait for the other person to show. Healing powers! He'd be able to see them in action, right? Vino wondered what it was like, having an injury healed with the kind of abilities that this kid had. Would it be like Czeslaw's 'healing,' he wondered? That would definitely be interesting to see, wouldn't it? Watching your own injury just mend itself like that. Like magic!

But while this ability certainly could be a useful one to have, Vino hadn't decided yet whether this would be an ability he'd want in his arsenal. Felt a bit like cheating, didn't it? What would be the point in challenging yourself to do things if there was no thrill in it? (Most people would call this the 'thrill of danger,' but Vino didn't believe in such a thing for himself.)

If you could always heal yourself from any injury, then how could you tell the difference between being alive and... not? There'd be no difference then, that's what!

A pause in his thoughts as Vino checks around again to see if he can spot any familiar head of spiky hair. Nope, no one fitting the description yet. He settles in to wait.

[ from here ]

Sesshoumaru had not been in the building for nearly long enough to really know it, and his knowledge had not been expanded yesterday as it might otherwise have been, because of the poisons that had been fed into his system - poisons that somehow worked, which had been a disconcerting and unpleasant experience. In the end, though, all it meant was that he had one more person to kill - whoever it was who had invented the poison capable of subduing him.

He either avoided or ignored the memory of last night, of Niikura telling him he might as well be a human now. Avoided thinking of how weak he had become.

Sesshoumaru absently flexed his fingers, and felt his poison began to pump. If he was not still immune to toxins, surely his own venom would burn him, sear his veins and his hands, but it did not appear to have any more affect on him than it had ever. Just like always, the poison might as well have been blood, or water, for all the harm it did to him personally. This was not a double-edged sword. It was designed to harm others, not the wielder.

A thread of sweetness curled through the bite of the cleaner as Sesshoumaru stood for a moment, his claws becoming saturated with their natural poison. In any case, claiming that he was - that he could be - so weak as that was ridiculous. He was Sesshoumaru.

[ for Terra ]

Something horrible was going to happen. Rita was sure of it. She didn't know what, but receiving an unknown injection from an army that already had a reputation for screwing around with people definitely wasn't good news. And if the things she read on the bulletin that day were to be believed, she had every reason to feel uneasy.

Rita wasn't going to take this lying down. No, she was the greatest mind in all of Terca Lumireis. If anyone could do something about this, she could.

If it was a chemical they injected her with, then maybe there was a chemical that could just neutralize its effects... so before those effects became too severe, Rita was going to hurry to the medical wing, where there had to be something she could use.

Had to be something. Had to be something. She wasn't panicking.

Rita snatched her backpack, gave the room one last frantic glance, and then took off without another word to Kairi. She didn't want to give the girl a chance to try to stop her.

[to here]

[from here]

Whatever was happening to her, Rita was going to fix it. She could fix anything. She was a genius.

That heavy pounding in her chest, that light-headed feeling... those were just getting in the way. Rita tried to will it to stop, for her body to simply stop being anxious, but the feelings persisted. She had to hurry... Even if she didn't know what she would do to help herself, that just meant she was going to need more time to figure it out once she reached the Medical Wing.

Rita broke into a run, dashing through the hallway and around the corner.

[to here]

From the day he had learned that two of the four he'd been with were, for the most part, safe and sound. That he'd not seen or heard from either one of the remaining though had left him worrying through his dinner, which he'd not felt like eating. Having friends turn up missing was one thing that he knew very well, but after that Arena... Brook could not feel comfortable just ignoring a day's absence. He had to figure something out. Something other than Aidou's own opinion that one or both might not have come back.

"His room first," Brook muttered to himself as he took up his partially damaged cane and looked it over. If nothing else, finding some clue that Sai was still a resident of room 55 would help to ease Brook's worries. And if he was lucky, he would find the young man there - hopefully in one piece. If not, there were other places that he could check. The Medical Wing where the Infirmary was to be, and potentially the basement as well - he could only hope the Sphinx would not mind another visit, or answering questions Brook may have.

There was one other as well, though that was to be the last resort. Brook had not been able to overlook how others had questioned on the bulletin for where the place stored the dead. Just thinking that one of his friends may be laying in such a place had given Brook even more drive towards searching out the other areas. He would not believe that another of his friends had died, not while he still had hope and places to look for proof to the contrary.

[gone here]

[from here]

The moment Brook entered the hallways, he began humming as he always did when venturing out - the tune of Bink's Sake accompanying him as if it were a presence of it's own. Though he tended to hum it slowly, just in case something nasty was listening in, the song was still one he considered uplifting. It had gotten him through years without companionship, as a reminder of the wonderful times he'd had with his friends. Not to mention it was his favorite.

I'll have to let Sai-san hear it sometime... he determined after realizing that he'd never actually sung it for his friend. That would have to be the first thing he did whenever he next saw the young man. And the others should hear it as well - Sasuke, Sakura, and especially Aidou. Brook had a feeling the blond could use some cheering up, what with that scowl he always seemed to have.

[gone here]

[from here]

"I wonder where everyone is at?" Brook paused a moment in his humming to question at the empty hallway.

He knew he'd left his room in a bit more of a rush than was his usual, but still, more patients were about at this time of night. It was strange to see not only so little of a number, but even stranger to have no one else passing him by. He thought back to what announcements had been made only to realize that only one had broadcasted. That short message at the beginning of the night: Code 1-8. The message had been mysterious enough to warrant an equally short comment from Brook to his guard about it, but the lacking response had caused Brook to let the man alone. Now though, he had the feeling that he should have pressed more about the reasoning.

His humming resumed as he took the usual left and tried not to worry even more for what might have been happening this evening. "Code 1-8" didn't sound good. Then again, in this place, nothing did.

[from here]

[from here]

Stepping outside sent chills all over Brook's body for how cold it was. He'd welcomed it when there was snow for him to play with, but given the absence of the white powder this evening, Brook only shivered and crossed his arms to rub away the sensation.

"Must still be winter then," he laughed and watched as his breath condensed.

Telling what time of year it was in this place was difficult anyway, but the temperature at least gave an area for them to consider. Snow meant winter, or just nearing spring, and then the cold temperatures had to be either Winter or Fall. And since they couldn't go backwards from snowy winter to fall...

"Ah, but that would be a shock!" The place had seen stranger occurrences that Brook actually had to consider that the seasons could try to go backwards on them. At the very least, that gave him the potential for making another snow angel or having that snowball fight that he'd overlooked while in the town.

Eventually the cool of the night air overtook Brook's wild theories about weather patterns and reminded him that he shouldn't be dallying. He was supposed to be searching out his friend! Brushing his arms over once more, he turned for the door at the opposite end of the field.

[gone here]

[from here]

The confusion had fizzled out his anger momentarily. But that didn't make him any less determined to press forward. If anything, Snow was treating it like a random lapse of concentration and was plenty ready to forget about it. Which was pretty damn easy once he got himself focused on a particular subject.

He ran up the stairs (the completely pitch black stairs) with a renewed fervor, taking them two at a time as he went along. How he didn't miss, trip, fall, and break his neck was anyone's guess. Call it the power of love. Call it the power of a hero's heart.

...Or call it the power of idiot luck. Whichever.

[to here]

[from here]

Snow reached the top of the stairs within moments. This was the part where he was supposed to start raising hell and kicking in doors. If he had still been as infuriated as he had been when first leaving his room, he probably would have done that immediately. Right now, there was a slight delay. Maybe it was just an after effect of... the thing he wasn't thinking about, but he found himself being slightly more self-conscious right now. Or at least a little more aware of his surroundings.

There were two generally irrelevant issues at hand here. One was that the upstairs split off in several different directions, and he'd have to pick one first before he got started. That one didn't much matter since he was probably going to be searching every place possible anyway, so who cared which way he started from? And two was that he was pretty damn sure there were guards patrolling the upstairs. This is where they kept things hidden, right? So there had to be guards. Right now, he was kinda hoping there were. He could really, really use the catharsis.

...Though maybe he should be trying to get some information out of whatever guards he found rather than using them as punching bags, but meh.

So Snow only took a few steps away from the stairs before stopping entirely, crouched forward slightly and ready for an attack. He was listening for the sounds of footsteps or conversation. Something that indicated where soldiers might be wandering around.

Come on. He knows you're there. Don't hide. Bring it on. He wanted it. Just give him one damn excuse.

[Nataliaaa]