damned_institute | Nightshift 33: West Wing, North Hall 1-B

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/394449.html?thread=31932881#t31932881)]

There - the door to the recreational field loomed ahead. Thursday headed straight toward it, then took up a position beside the door so she wouldn't impede the progress of anyone else. Archer, she knew, would be late, but hopefully Hokuto would turn up soon.

[[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/399959.html?thread=32104279#t32104279). I'm sorry! Finals ate my soul for a few days.]]

There was someone waiting... it would help if Hokuto had any idea who her commander was, but she could hope. "Good evening!" she said, bowing a little. The age difference alone said she should go lower than usual, so it didn't matter if she was wrong about facing an Arts & Crafts leader. "I'm Sumeragi Hokuto. Thursday Next-dono?"

"That's me," said Thursday cheerfully. "Thursday will do, by the way."

Hokuto looked rather young, to be honest, but everyone looked young when she was the age she was. Besides, Thursday had no doubt that just about everyone in Arts and Crafts could keep up and more.

"Our other team member said they'd be a bit late," she added, wishing she could recall just what gender Archer was. Perhaps she should have asked. "So we'll wait a bit, I suppose. Been down to the basement yet?"

"No--I've been on missions to it, we just never got there," Hokuto said dryly. By this point, she was a little nervous about actually going in, but if it was too bad she could always request not to be sent down there again.

Provided she lived through it, anyway.

Because she figured they might as well cover it while they had the time, she asked, "Is there anything you need to know about my skill level? I don't have much magic, but I'm a trained martial artist. I miss the days when a black belt meant something, though..."

Thursday nodded. "I've been down there the past few nights. It's actually quite pretty, at least from an architectural point of view. I just wish we could get further than we usually do.

"A black belt? That's pretty damn impressive. We haven't run into anything down there the past few nights, but you can never be too careful here." She smiled. "Magic exists in your world, then? What's it like, out of curiosity?"

"There's a lot of different kinds," Hokuto explained. "I've only been able to pick up a few spells, and none of them are really complicated. I come from a long line of really powerful onmyouji--it's kind of like an exorcist, if you're not familiar--but I didn't inherit anything from them." She smiled slightly and shook her head. "My talents are in other areas; some of them are usable in combat.

"All I can do here is really simple defensive spells, a force field plus kind of a barrier to help keep a door shut. They're not strong, though; all they can do is delay a pursuer, and against something really powerful they might not be able to do that."

She studied Thursday curiously; far more of a veteran than Hokuto, obviously, judging from the scars. She looked probably forty or fifty, which was a surprise; thirty-something was the oldest Hokuto remembered seeing. So--not some sort of immortal? Because there seems to be some kind of rule about them never aging much past their late twenties.

"What about you? I'm just supposed to be an ordinary high school girl in modern-day Japan, so a lot of this is pretty new to me." At least she had the advantage of having seen half of it in movies or video games!

Thursday listened intently. While this was hardly an ideal environment in which to learn about someone else's world, she enjoyed meeting new people here nonetheless. It was fascinating to hear about life in other universes.

"I'm just an ex-copper currently selling carpets, more or less. It's 2004 where I'm from." She shrugged. "I haven't really got any special powers, except the ability to jump into literature, and that seems to have been taken from me entirely."

"Wait, you can do what?" Hokuto blurted. She'd heard of Anywhere Doors, she'd heard about more than one story where someone was sucked into a TV show or whatever, but jumping into literature?

"Okay, a friend of mine mentioned he'd heard of me from a manga, but--wha? What were you reading before you got here?" Something by DeSade, probably, if she had the name right...

It was starting to sound like this was a rare occurrence in any other world but Thursday's. "Ah, well, it's kind of hard to explain, but where I come from, there's a separate world inside books. Some of us have the ability to enter that world by reading the written word. Only, well, it doesn't seem to work here."

She grinned helplessly. "I wasn't reading anything before I got here, to be honest. Someone stole my TravelBook, so I was kind of stranded in the outside world. I mean, I was trying to get into Longfellow at the time, but this definitely isn't it."

She was still convinced, at least a little, that Goliath was involved in this somehow. They, out of all the world powers in the universes she'd heard about so far, seemed like the only ones with the technology to pull this off.

"Let me guess, this is all a big secret you have to keep from outsiders?" Hokuto asked. It wasn't something she personally had experience with (considering when a boy she'd never met before started invading her dreams, she'd cheerfully told her family about her new friend without hiding a thing), but she'd read enough stories to have an idea how these things usually went.

Seriously, thanks to anime, all this was a lot less confusing than it should have been... and now she really wondered why so many kids' shows around this had everyone so shocked. Sure, it was a new experience, but it wasn't like modern-day Japanese kids would never have heard about other dimensions even if they thought it wasn't for real.

"Kind of, I guess. I don't exactly go around telling people about it, if that's what you mean. Very few people have asked about it - it's not really something you'd consider, normally - and they've all been close friends and coworkers." She smiled a bit sadly at that. Landen still didn't know, did he? She couldn't remember if she'd told him before she left.

"People would probably react to it differently in my world than in this one, though," she said thoughtfully after a moment. "They'd probably be more likely to believe me, for one. Literature is...important in my world. Prized above all else, you could say. Or at least it used to be, before reality television turned up."

Adjusting his bag over his shoulder, he entered the hallway and spotted them rather easily. "Hokuto," he said, greeting the girl that he knew first. Turning to the older woman, a stranger, he did the same. "Thursday Next-san? We talked on the bulletin board. I'm Archer, sorry for the delay."

Getting that out of the way, he shifted the topic to their mission; Archer was eager to accomplish something. Since he'd wasted enough time already they'd have to be quick. "What's our agenda for tonight?"

"Hey, Archer-san--good evening," Hokuto smiled. She was glad to know one person on the team, at least; even she needed a little familiarity once in a while.

She readjusted the shovel on her back a little; time to go, apparently. Basement mission, take... what, five?

"Evening, Archer," said Thursday, nodding at him. "I was planning on exploring the basement further tonight - it seems to me as if there are some doors which have yet to be opened, and I suppose we could see how far we get. Have you been down there before tonight?"

"I've been down to the basement once, and I recommend we avoid the Southeast area. The area is extremely dangerous, and my team already recovered an artifact from the finish line, so it's unlikely there's anything left there," Archer replied. He'd been dying to get that off his chest and report it.

"I've also been to the kitchen area and it's not exactly vacant tonight. There's an Alien there." When he thought about it for a moment, there was the possibility Thursday wasn't familiar with the creature. The movie or franchise might not exist in her world, so he elaborated. "It's a very strong and fast creature with sharp claws and spear-like tail. There's also its acidic blood. I recommend we rush straight through to the fridge."

Hokuto took a second to remember what Archer was talking about, but when she did she just stared. "An Alien? Seriously? Like from those two movies with the same name?" She thought she remembered hearing about a third one coming out soon, but--it had been a while.

Oh, man... she really needed a better weapon. Too bad she'd never learned to fight with a shield; that and a sword would have been useful about now... okay, not against an Alien. But she'd still feel better if she had something actually meant to be a weapon.

Southeast area...that included the room with the bizarre rockslide, didn't it? She and her group hadn't seen much of it that night, but it had certainly looked pretty dangerous. She made a mental note of it - there were always other doors to try down there, after all.

Thursday wasn't familiar with the franchise in question, but she understood Archer's description well enough. "Sounds like quite the creature," she observed. Great - just what they needed. "Your suggestion is duly noted. I think it's a bloody good idea."

Well, she'd worry about that when they got there, she supposed. Right now, she wanted to get moving. Nodding to the rest of the group, she opened the door leading to the rec field and stepped outside.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/399427.html?thread=32456771#t32456771)]

Nightshift 33: West Wing, North Hall 1-B

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