damned_institute | NIGHTSHIFT 28: M31-M40 HALLWAY

"The rod from my room?" Usopp protested, even though he'd suggested it to Nami in the first place. "But what'll I hang my clothes on?" He already knew he'd wind up agreeing; nonetheless, he felt the urge to protest on general principle.

To Zoro, he said, "You mean you want metal for alchemy? Sorry, I'm kind of low at the moment. I just helped make some stuff I owed an ally, but it used up a lot of my resources. Maybe we can gather some more tonight." He kept his personal distaste for the small army of people here who weren't willing to improvise even a little and who relied on Roy's alchemy to himself, since Zoro was his crewmate and after all he knew for a fact Zoro really needed swords... not the sword-like objects he'd given Yuber.

"Right now most of my supplies are smoke bombs, broken glass, some really small pipes I need for something else and some fruit we should probably eat before it goes bad..." He paused, glancing up and down the hallway forlornly. "I don't see Sai or Sanji here yet."

As Luffy followed his group of trusty nakama, he idly wished that guy had given Zoro more peanuts. The dinner earlier was pretty pathetic compared to what he could have had at that restaurant. The only thing keeping him from plopping down and refusing to move another inch until he got food was the promise of going to the kitchen tonight. Granted, they were going there for answers, as Nami had said, but there wasn't anything wrong with grabbing a bit of a snack on the way! After all, it was tough looking for answers on an empty stomach!

"You can have my rod if Usopp won't give you yours," he piped up suddenly. "It's not like I need anything to hang my clothes on. That's what my chair or the floor's for, right?" He would have laughed, except he was being dead serious.

The dark-haired captain was more than a little stunned to hear they were running low on metal. "What?!" he said. "But didn't we take a bunch of stuff? Besiiiides, I promised Zoro stuff for a sword ages ago, even if he doesn't remember it." He folded his arms, looking a bit put-out. "Metal-hogger."

Luffy paused, trying to keep up the act before he glanced towards the sharpshooter. "I can have some of that fruit, though, right?" Unless Usopp was a fruit-hogger, too, but he was pretty sure he wasn't, so that was good at least.

Hastily grumbling something that sounded like "I knew that!" in Nami's general direction, Zoro kept pace a little behind Luffy.

He didn't look at Usopp as the sniper replied to his question; his eyes were busy trying to help him guess if he'd been in this particular area before.

The fact that his search for a sword was going about as well as his search for booze wasn't enough to break Zoro's calm. He didn't exactly know a lot about alchemy, but he assumed that it was a quick way to make a sword (the fact that it could, possibly, result in other things didn't even cross his mind once). As far as he was concerned, even just a temporary blade would be enough. A swordsman had to be able to work with blades of different calibers, after all.

Zoro also figured that, at the very least, he could maybe steal that odd sword he'd seen last night. He didn't know if anyone else had anything worth challenging for and while the one last night wasn't quite the right size and style, Zoro had sensed the bizarre power behind it, the people it had killed.

It felt dead, as far as swords went, but Zoro had yet to reason if that was a good or bad thing.

He didn't say anything when Luffy mentioned the promise he couldn't quite recall. His patience about the whole matter went unsaid-- and, to be honest, he felt that he should be the only one responsible for finding himself a sword, though they were nakama and things just kind of fell into a group effort sometimes-- but it had been a promise, after all; Zoro could understand Luffy's concern. He wasn't going to shame that by taking it so lightly.

At Usopp's addendum, he vaguely remembered that they were also supposed to be looking for Sanji. In his opinion, that bright yellow hair really shouldn't have been so hard to find.

Well, Nami couldn't be blamed for assuming Zoro didn't know anything about money. After all, the man had managed to rack up a considerable debt in the time they'd spent together as nakama, and Nami rarely, if ever, hesitated to educate Zoro on his debt. She fixed him with a steady glance. "You could have fooled me - I don't have to remind you of the money you owe me, do I?" Her lips turned up into a little smile. Of course, she probably never would collect on the debt, but that matter had become something she could dangle over the swordsman's head whenever she felt like it.

Regarding the rod, Nami simply looked from Usopp to Luffy. "I don't care whose clothes rod I get. I'm most concerned with taking as little time as possible, finding Sanji-kun, and going down."

She'd ask later for more information about this 'alchemy' - the subject had her interest piqued. But the navigator figured she'd have plenty of time to ask that on the way, and right now she was getting rather impatient and antsy.

Nami looked around, raising her voice just enough. "Sanji-kun~ Sanji-kuuun!" She looked at the green-headed man beside her. "Zoro, help me call for him while Luffy and Usopp do what they need to do in their rooms." Of course, that meant while Luffy stuffed his mouth with fruit and Usopp got her a weapon. "Saaaanji-kuuun!"

Hopefully some combination of Nami's voice and Zoro's insults would either excite or anger the chef enough to draw him to the scene.

"Nami..?" A familiar voice asked from down the hall just moments later. Sanji stuck his head out of the clinic and glanced up and down the hall with weary eyes. He caught sight of the group soon enough, waving at them. "Nami! Guys! Hey."

He stepped a bit further out, then leaned against the wall besides the door. It couldn't have been that long that he'd been out, but it was hard to tell. At least they'd all found each other, and he wondered if Allen had told them where he was.

Still very woozy from the sedatives, he didn't make any more immediate movements towards them.

"I am not a metal-hogger!" Usopp protested huffily, crossing his arms. "I've been trying to build things to help people and it takes a lot of metal even if I'm not super magic alchemy man, okay?!" He uncrossed one arm to wave it in frustration.

"And I had already told Yuber I'd help him! And besides, a lot of what we got the other night wasn't metal anyway, it was food, like flour and fruit! And yes, you can eat the fruit, I mostly got the fruit for your appetite!" All of this was blurted in the same angry tone, while ignoring Nami's efforts to call Sanji. Finally he opened the door and stomped into his room, calling behind him, "I'll go get what I have, stay out here and look for--"

Well, there was Sanji's weak voice now.

"--Sai, okay, Luffy?!"

The idea that maybe Usopp took offense to the fact he wanted to see Roy's abilities so badly didn't really cross Luffy's mind. Instead, he frowned at the sharpshooter. "And I already told Zoro I'd help him, way before you even met Yuber!" Of course, that didn't make Usopp's promise to Yuber any less important, but Luffy still thought it was worth saying. "Why didn't we get enough metal to help everybody?"

But then his features softened, and he waved a hand a hand in dismissal, suddenly grinning. "Ah, well, we're going through the kitchen again tonight, right? Let's take some stuff while we look for the answers!" That by itself was enough to set his thoughts straight and put him in a good mood. Besides, fruit was always a tasty thing, nightshift or not.

He was more than happy to look for Sai while Usopp (hopefully) got some fruit, but then Sanji showed up, and the pirate captain's eyes brightened. "Oi, Sanji!" he called, waving. "Where've you been? Did you catch the I-always-get-lost disease from Zoro?"

With the way he was leaning against the wall, it sure look like he'd caught something.

Zoro wanted to point out that he only had a problem with money when Nami was the one setting the prices but knew that she knew and that it wouldn't make any difference even if he did. He'd never own enough to pay his debt anyway.

Almost purely out of habit he ground out a frustrated, "You're still talking about that kind of thing here?" as he crossed his arms and grimaced at the navigator.

Leaning against the wall, arms still folded over his chest, Zoro caught sight of Sanji even before he'd started calling out anything derogatory. He glared at Luffy for the captain's comment before he realized that Sanji wasn't coming any closer. Or saying anything, for that matter. That was odd because the chef never did shut the fuck up around females.

"Looking a little weak there love cook," Zoro observed blithely, raising an eyebrow. Of course, he was a little concerned for Sanji but not even Nami recalling his debt would get him to stop insulting the chef without a good reason to.

"Sanji-kun!" Nami exclaimed. Well, something was certainly off about him. She marched right over to the chef, hands on her hips, looking him up and down. He didn't appear injured, but his demeanor was proof that something was not as it should be. "What happened? We were supposed to meet in the hallway. Were you attacked?" Perhaps it had been a monster like the one last night, the one that had made Nami fall off to sleep, but she wouldn't know until he replied.

She'd been bothered by the tense words between Usopp and Luffy, but the captain's demeanor changed for the sunny and Nami let it go. It wasn't like those two to get angry with each other.

Even so, Nami sent a quick look and a grin back to Zoro. "It's best to remember things to bind us to our memories of the Grand Line. Which is why you can't expect me to forget about something like that so easily, can you? Even if you want to~"

"I'm not weak," Sanji replied to Zoro immediately, his expression trying to be a scowl and yet not quite managing. "You... You're full of green!"

He let the rather lame comeback hang as Nami approached him. Both arms were at once out wide as though to embrace her, a large grin on his face. "Nami-san, my swan, my lovely! I'm sorry for the delay. Gotta bit drugged, you see. I'm a rabbre... rabble-rouser. But we're all here now!"

Pushing himself off the wall, he managed a mostly steady upright position. The hand that went for Nami's shoulder, however, was more for support than any kind of hug. He did worry about potentially holding the group up even after he told himself that he'd be fine once they got moving.

Stupid alchemy. Stupid sword-making magic. And his agreement with Yuber was important too! Zoro hadn't even been in Landel's when Usopp agreed to help Yuber. And there was such a long line, even if he did have the metal it'd be a while before Zoro could get a sword with it! Besides, dealing with Yuber meant he got stuff like...

Well, he really should do something about that box of pills sometime. He could have talked to Sai about it more, if Sai were only--but Nami was here now, and she had good sense too. Maybe she'd know something about it. After all, she knew about complicated things like scurvy.

He was so busy rooting in his closet, digging out 'smoke bombs' to put in his pockets, that it took him a while to look up at the closet's contents. His anger vanished as he started picking up fruit for Luffy, and maybe the others too. Sai was right. I shouldn't have left myself helpless. I have too much half-made and nothing useful on me. Except...

Finally standing up to reach at the top of his closet and pull out the rod for Nami, he saw a familiar pair of overalls complete with totebag, and froze.

"Um, guys? You guys!" His voice raised to a slight shout. "My clothes are in here!"

Luffy mostly ignored the banter between Nami and Zoro about money, though he did chuckle a little under his breath. Seeing everyone act more or less the same was really nice! Not that he expected anything different, but it was still a good thing to see.

"A rabble-rouser?" the pirate captain echoed Sanji's words with raised eyebrows. "Do rabble-rousers get drugged a lot?" Come to think of it, he'd never been sedated by the Cat Ladies once since he'd been here. It sure looked really weird, especially if you couldn't walk straight because of it. This was his first time seeing the affects up close and personal.

It looked interesting!

When he heard Usopp's sudden exclamation, Luffy's head abruptly turned towards the door. "What?! Your clothes?" He stepped into the sharpshooter's room, a curious expression on his face. Once he peered over Usopp's shoulder, his mouth dropped open. "Oh, wow, it's true! I didn't know you packed your stuff, Usopp! What else did you bring with you?!"

Frown so deep it was almost falling off his face, Zoro's eye ticked once... twice... thrice... before he faced away muttering, "Forget memories my ass... money... witch... going to hell...!"

His eyebrow quirked a little at Sanji's lame retort and Zoro judged it too weak to deserve a proper reply. Instead, he glanced at the chef, remembering what Eddie had told him on his first day. Had Sanji been trying to escape? Zoro wasn't sure what other situations merited drugging and rabble-rousing. Unless it was a fight and, in the case of the chef, that sounded more than likely.

At Usopp's curious call, he turned away from observing Sanji. Luffy ran into the room but Zoro retained his position just outside the door, not about to leave Nami and a drugged up Sanji out in the hallway alone.

"Are your weapons there?" Zoro called into the room, his mind going to his own closet.

A bit drugged?

She let Sanji steady himself on her shoulder, although she wasn't entirely sure if the wall wouldn't be better for him right now. While she could stand her ground, the wall certainly wasn't going to move. But she still couldn't help but chide him and the rest of the (admittedly prone to rabblerousing) crew. "I expect you all to be on your best behavior, you know. We can't have sedations like this going on all the time. It's inconvenient at best."

After a pointed smile at Zoro - reiterating what she'd said earlier without redundant words - she called into Usopp's room. "Ehhh? Your clothes?" She rather wanted to see them for herself, but wasn't quite sure whether Sanji could move yet. "Well, put them on, by all means. And then come out so I can see!"

The thought of getting a pair of her own clothes as well was rather exciting, she had to admit. Perhaps when she returned to her room later tonight, if she was able to, she'd find her old clothes. Which outfit would it be, she wondered? With Usopp it was easy to imagine - those worn overalls were typical Usopp fare. But she had so many different pieces of clothing that the thought of getting some of them back was a mystery even Nami found exciting.

In the not-quite-so-inhibited state Sanji was currently in, he couldn't help himself from letting his arm slide a little more around Nami's shoulder than was completely necessary. Groping was well beyond him, no matter how he acted on occasion, but just being that much closer... "I was behaved! But for you I will try to be more behaved."

Usopp's yelling caused the chef to blink and frown in confusion. Then he smiled lopsidedly. "Of course there's clothes in your closet, idiot," he said. "That's where clothes are usually kept!"

Speaking of clothes, the shoes he'd been given with this outfit were pretty comfortable. He wondered if he'd be allowed to keep them. It was only fair, seeing as they'd taken his regular outfit. The flannel wasn't bad looking either.

Usopp had already been opening his familiar bag when Zoro asked about the weapons. "No! They stole all my stuff!" Usopp called out indignantly, even though they'd actually done that when he'd first arrived. "Even the Dials are gone!"

He started taking the flour smoke bombs out of his donated clothes' pockets and into the bag anyway, before pulling the bag over his shoulder. His goggles were there too. Not the nice set from North Blue, but the old pair, and his old bandanna too. He untied his improvised one in favor of the familiar, put on the goggles, slipped his feet into his old boots and at last tied his pirate sash around his waist. The overalls he left. Coming out of his room, he handed two apples to Luffy and the freed closet pole to Nami.

"I don't want to stick out too much. Patients who've been brainwashed are dressed in their old clothes--people might attack me by mistake or something." He glanced back into his room, still frowning. "I wonder why my clothes were in there? That's really weird... maybe they were hoping I would put them all on and get attacked by patients?" This whole night was weird.

Weird, and yet most of the crew was here. It shouldn't be this weird. It was the fault of the Institute, making everything seem strange. And Sai was still MIA. "If we're going after metal, the messages on the board have been recommending getting plumbing from the bathroom instead of grabbing cooking supplies."

Edited 2007-12-09 04:53 (UTC)

Luffy took the apples with a bright expression, and he trailed after Usopp as he greedily took a bite out of one of them. They weren't the best apples in the world, but considering how little he'd eaten earlier, they might as well have been.

"That sucks they took all your weapons," he said to Usopp with a full mouth. "But at least you look cool, right?" Looking cool was pretty important, after all! Despite that, though, it didn't really occur to him that maybe his own stuff was waiting for him in his own room. While it'd be cool if he got his old vest and shorts back, Luffy already had his hat, which was the most important thing.

In comparison to his most prized possession, clothes were only kind of important. Hell, Landel's could make him fight monsters naked for all Luffy cared, as long as he had his hat.

Still, he was glad to see Usopp get some of stuff back without being turned into a puppet or anything nasty like that. Luffy smiled brightly, giving the sharpshooter a thumbs up.

"The bathrooms, huh?" he echoed as he stepped out of the room and stood beside Usopp. "But there aren't any bathrooms in the kitchen, and we need some tasty answers too. I mean, we might as well take some metal from the kitchen if we're gonna be there anyhow, right?" It'd be like going into the kitchen and not taking food! Luffy couldn't fathom the idea.

Zoro snorted, though whether it was for Nami's sharp smile, Sanji's confused babbling, Usopp's revelation, Luffy's logic, or a mixture of all of the above, one couldn't be sure.

"Hn..." Zoro scratched his cheek, head cocked up as if he was trying to remember something. "You mean the pipes under the sinks could make a sword? I had two of those last night. Wonder where they went..."

If that was the case then their hunt for metal would be significantly easier. If Zoro's sense of direction wasn't messing with him again, there was a bathroom on the way to the kitchen.

But still. Eager as he was to get his hands on a sword (or two, or three) Zoro was going to leave the issue to the group. He too was interested to find out what was so intriguing about the kitchen. If there were answers or food or treasure or whatever the hell else, there might even be some weapons there. And finding swords would be much quicker than having them made.

"So where're we going?" Zoro questioned out loud in an undoubtedly neutral tone. He paused before putting forth his second question with all the straightforwardness of a sword to the gut. "And what're we going to do with curly brow over there? We gunna dunk his head in water until he starts makes sense or what?"

Not that Sanji ever made sense to Zoro but that just meant holding the chef's head underwater longer. If they went with his idea.

"Yes, you better behave," Nami said to Sanji, altogether too aware of his arm creeping around her shoulder. It was necessary to hold him up, though it was easier once she had accepted Usopp's pole.

"Thanks, Usopp," she said, looking the sniper up and down. His dress had changed considerably, but not very obviously so. The makeshift bandana hadn't suited him as much as this one did, and the goggles were terrifically Usopp. "But wouldn't it not matter, since we're all dressed in the clothes from the trip outside? If you like wearing that better.."

She shrugged. Usopp could suit himself, and she really wasn't interested in wasting more time. Even if the mystery of how his clothes had appeared in his closet was one that needed answers desperately, there were things that needed to be done.

"I'm going to the lower floor," she asserted. "Sanji-kun, are you going to be all right to walk? We could send you and someone on a trip to the bathrooms for metal for - whatever this weapon program is that they're talking about, if you're not up to going downstairs. If you feel like you're going to get your bearings back, then come with us."

Oh, why, why, why wasn't Chopper here?!

Sanji glared at Zoro. "I'll dunk you," he growled, pointing a finger at the swordsman. He wished his rival would step just a bit closer so that he could shove a foot in his smug face.

His expression changed once Usopp stepped back out his room in that odd mix of clothing, giving the sniper a short guffaw. He couldn't help but wonder if his clothes were back in his room as well, which made him want to go check right away. Nami, however, had other plans in mind and he wasn't going to get in the way of them. He was already a hindrance as it stood.

Very reluctantly, he pulled back away from the navigator again, leaning a hand against the wall. He gave her a grin. "I can do it," he replied in response to her question about walking. "S'long as there's a wall. I'm sure I'll be back on my feet properly in no time."

Usopp blinked guilelessly at Nami's point. Sure, he knew those were his real clothes... but the only other people in the whole building who'd also recognize them were all standing right in this hallway and knew he wasn't brainwashed. So what was the death plot behind giving back his clothes?

"W-well, if we get dirty, at least it'll be these clothes instead of the other... don't laugh, Sanji, at least I'm not drugged!" He put his hands on his hips, then sighed, not really able to maintain any indignation against a guy who was obviously not in his right mind.

"Listen, Nami? I have a great idea. How about Sanji and I go look for metal for Zoro's sword... for alchemy... while you, Luffy, and Zoro check out the kitchen?" Usopp offered. It was definitely a great idea, and not his terror of what might lie below the kitchen. No sirree. Not terror.

Luffy just laughed at everyone's banter and antics. He was practically on top of the world with his friends at his side like this. True, Chopper and Robin (and that mysterious blue-haired guy) weren't here, but Luffy liked to think that maybe they were teaming up to get them out of here. After all, Robin and Chopper were pretty smart and strong! (And he was pretty sure that blue-haired man sounded like he was at least super-strong.) They'd work something out, right?

Either way, it made the past couple of weeks seem totally worth it, having everyone else around now. True, it sucked that they'd been captured in the first place, but Luffy was confident that they'd make things work out somehow.

Up until this point, he'd been watching everyone with a terribly amused, happy expression, but it mellowed out a bit once it sounded like they were about to get moving. "I think we should all go to the kitchen together!" he responded brightly. "Five people looking for Tasty Answers is better than three. Besides, we haven't gone on an adventure together in ages! It'll be fun!"

"Yeah? With what, your noodle legs?" Zoro taunted, terribly composed for someone who was radiating an almost threatening aura in Sanji's direction.

The unspoken challenge cooled significantly when Luffy spoke up. It really didn't matter to Zoro where he was going but now that their captain had proposed a destination the issue was pretty much resolved. The captain determined the course, the navigator set it. It was that simple in Zoro's opinion.

"The kitchen then," He shrugged, uncrossing his arms and putting his hands back into his pockets.

"Right, the kitchen," Nami said cheerfully, looking at Usopp. "I'm assuming you'll both be coming along?" They all knew that if Luffy had his mind set on something, they really had no choice but to follow. And while the thought of getting metal for this 'alchemy' was one thing, there was bound to be metal in the kitchen anyway.

"We're going then." She was mentally going over the map Usopp had given her earlier, and she'd already decided a direction for them to go. Thankfully, the course she'd chosen would have walls - and just as thankfully, there should be as few monsters as possible. The flying ones seemed to have gathered around the front, of course - so five people scurrying along the wall in the back wouldn't be such a big deal.

"This way," Nami said, holding Sanji up with one arm and the closet pole Usopp had given her with the other, and walking out of the hall.

[ to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/253623.html?thread=19417271#t19417271) ]

NIGHTSHIFT 28: M31-M40 HALLWAY

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Entering Room 33

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In Room 33

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Exiting Room M33

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