Nightshift 35: M71-80 Hallway

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

Wally frowned in confusion at the intercom announcements. CM-US Experimental Trials? Special Counselling? He wasn't sure what either of those things were, but considering this place, they could hardly be good. And the following announcement didn't do much to reassure him. "You know, that's what I like about this place," he commented dryly to Tony. "You can always rely on the crazy to show up right on schedule." He stood up as the doors clicked open and stretched, paying particular attention to the muscles in his legs before rummaging around behind his pillow for his flashlight. "So, you wanna go and see about that maintenance room?" His lips quirked into a familiar smile. "I figure with two of us, at least someone will be able to get something useful while the other plays monster bait."

Comments

[i-dont-paint.livejournal.com]

Tony grabbed his own flashlight from the desk drawer, rising from his chair for with a faint grimace for the twinge in his lower back. "There's probably an itemized list," he remarked blandly, a faint smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. "You know, play golf, kick a puppy, practice evil laughter, make psychotic announcement promising doom for all captives." He cocked his head toward the door, listening for a few seconds for the sound of movement or muttering. It was still difficult to believe there were no guards of the conventional sort, though he'd encountered none the night before. "Yeah, let's get going. Keep an eye out for any computers, too..." The attempt to find a phone during daylight had been a bust, but he could hardly imagine anything resembling a modern hospital running effectively without the use of modern electronics.

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

"Sounds about right," Wally said lightly, "but you forgot to add 'steal candy from orphans'. After all, insane psychos in charge of mental institutes need to eat too." He was still uncertain what to make of Tony, though he was pretty sure that if the guy would just stop being so bitter, they'd get along just fine. Well, tonight would be the chance to find out at any rate. If there was one thing he'd learned from the Justice League that held true pretty much everywhere, it was that almost getting eaten by monsters together was a great way to get over your differences with someone. It'd stopped him and Kal from arguing last night at any rate.

While Tony took his time checking to see if it was safe to leave, Wally merely pushed open the door and walked out into the hallway. "So, tools and computers? Gotcha." He turned on his flashlight, grateful that using it as a bug-bludgeon the night before hadn't seemed to affect it badly, and led the way down the hall.

[secret-orchard.livejournal.com]

After dressing, Armand tried to put everything Badou did out of his mind. When the lights went out, he was prepared with notebook and pens in one pocket and the remains of a doorknob with a folded pillowcase in the other.

These nighttime treks in the dark terrified him. He was always so happy to see his friends in their usual meeting spot. He stepped into the hallway and started. Unless he ran into trouble of some sort, this was one of the trips he could do with his eyes closed. It wasn't like he could see much with them open anyway.

[gone down the halls to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/454507.html)]

[damnrudecock.livejournal.com]

Sanosuke thought the curry was pretty damn good. More like what he was used to than the beef stew in town, even if it wasn't the home cooking he'd started to crave. Regardless, by the time night had started, the fighter had eaten his fill. There wasn't time to laze around and be content though; he had to get going to figure out what he and Kenshin were doing that night.

Cloud wasn't talking too much then, and Sanosuke wasn't going to press it too much. There'd been enough tension the night before. The way the fighter saw it, if they were going to get back together, it'd be easy enough to catch up with each other later. First thing was first though, and with a wave, Sano headed out, taking his flashlight with him, even though the thing was starting to dim a bit.

[damnrudecock.livejournal.com]

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/461746.html?thread=37332402#t37332402)]

From M78

[timedork]

His second night, and the pair of intercom messages before the doors unlocked was no less interesting than the previous night's. "Playing with ants," indeed...

If he didn't find the TARDIS tonight, he'd have a few questions for Kenshin, or Marcus, or anyone else who might have been in the hospital long enough to know the answers. Even if he did find the TARDIS, he had questions. He couldn't just leave straight away; not without figuring out what was even going on.

Dressed once more in the hospital uniform, complete with coat, he set out into the hallway, carrying his flashlight in his hand and the journal he'd found yesterday and a few pens in his pocket. Handy things, pens. Not as handy as, say, his sonic screwdriver, but one could never know when a pen might be useful.

[To here]

[missedfortunes.livejournal.com]

Kaiji was asleep. No, wait, fuck, he was awake. Goddammit, why couldn't he just stay asleep? Kaiji's various plans for the night had all fallen apart before they even had a chance to start: despite his speculation about the dinners here, it didn't take long for him to give in to temptation regardless of the (hypothetical) consequence of loading up on food. Not that it mattered. He was going to sleep it off and he wasn't going to trip out on anything and it was all going to be reasonably good in the morning and he would be able to explain everything that happened last night in a way that kind-of sort-of maybe made sense. That's what he figured, anyway.

Except then that creepy, irritating-as-hell voice came crackling over the intercom and Kaiji wanted to hunt down and beat the man producing it at his own game as soon as possible. Like some pied piper it called out to him: by the time the announcement ended, he had already rolled out of bed, shouted a "Fuck you!" in response, and snatched up his flashlight. It didn't take much longer before he stepped out of the room, determined once again to actually accomplish something overnight.

So he was out in the hallway at night again. Alone. Without anyone else. By himself.

What now? He hadn't thought that far ahead.

[strayfag]

Badou didn't say anything else to Armand as he left, except to stick his tongue out at the man's retreating back. He had bigger things to worry about. Like visiting an autopsy room in the middle of the goddamn night in a hospital full of flesh eating monster goth guys. How the hell did he get himself into this crap? He didn't even want anything special, just a few tiny matches. For which he needed a few tiny scalpels to exchange. For which he needed to go into a room full of dead bodies that might get up again and eat him.

Badou cradled his head in his hands, scanning the map one last time in vain. Of all the times he really, really wished Haine was around... At least the guy could pass for a zombie goth vampire wannabe. And spontaneously regenerate his organs if that didn't work out.

On the bright side, if he died there was fire in hell.

Badou sighed and went about grabbing the stuff he needed for the night - flashlight, maps, glorious but cruel cigarettes - and let himself into the hallway. He'd planned to live stingy until he got to the bottom of things, and here he was chasing his stupid habits. Thanks, bro.

...He still needed a partner. Like the one standing right there. Since when did he have a neighbour? "Hey, are you going out alone?"

[missedfortunes.livejournal.com]

"Huh?" Quickly as in a reflex, Kaiji flicked the switch of his flashlight and aimed it at the person who he assumed was talking to him, letting out a sigh after a quick look. The guy looked normal enough, although the inspection came to a stop when that right eye (or possible lack thereof) caught his attention - to think that they could have matched if Kaiji hadn't vouched to gamble over his ear. That patch made him curious, but not curious enough to ask: he was sure that this guy wanted to talk about his eye about as much as Kaiji wanted to discuss his fingers and ear.

Seeing that this person was probably not going to rip his face off or whatever, Kaiji subdued the light from his flashlight by placing his left hand over the bright end just as he had done the previous night, creating an orange, fleshy colored glow that accentuated the seams on his fingers. Although he was fairly positive that this person wasn't out to do anything nasty, Kaiji still frowned nervously at him. "Um, yeah," he answered in a quiet voice, not even completely sure what he was doing at this point. It was kind of embarrassing to admit that he was by himself for the night, especially since he only knew the locations of a handful of rooms.

[strayfag]

"Hey, ow, what the hell man?" Badou covered his eye with his free hand, squinting and blinking rapidly to try recovering his vision. Why did people insist on blinding him? He just had the one working eye, for fuck's sake.

Then the light suddenly dimmed enough for him to see, and he caught himself staring down at the man's hand. There were seams along his fingers where they'd clearly been re-attached. Badou's skin crawled just a little. He'd seen similar injuries before but it was still a bit weird. He didn't ask.

"Yeah, don't do that. You'll get eaten or kinda maimed," Badou replied. "If you've got nowhere to go you can come along with me. Where you'll probably still get eaten or maimed. But at least you won't die alone?"

[fyeonly.livejournal.com]

(from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/461936.html?thread=37395824#t37449328))

"It's just down here," Naomi added, gesturing vaguely down the hall. She didn't think she'd be interrupting anything. Or at least, anything she shouldn't be interrupting.

[showtime-matsu.livejournal.com]

Had she been teasing him just then? Man, women were so hard to figure out sometimes, but she still hadn't told him to get lost, so that was good.

As they got closer to her friend's room, though, Matsuda remembered the number that L had given him on his first day. M77...that was down this hall, all right. And he still thought she looked familiar...maybe this was the woman that he'd mentioned earlier. Naomi Misora, wasn't it? Killed by Kira, but didn't remember it. He had said that she was going by another name...

Couldn't hurt to ask. "...Maki, do you know Ryuza-- er, Ryuga?"

[fyeonly.livejournal.com]

Naomi blinked, turning to look at Matsuda carefully.

"You know Ryu?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. Her demeanor and body language changed. From relaxed, joking and casual, she went to tense and wary. She had noticed how he started to say 'Ryuzaki' first. Which could only mean one thing - he'd known L from before the institute. Though what he actually knew about L, she had no idea.

M71

[violent-varmint.livejournal.com]

So there hadn't been any attack on the bus by the nurses. Or really anything at all. Hmf.

Tanaka kept mostly to himself during dinner, eating quietly, writing in his "journal" and waiting for the Doctor to unlock the doors. It was annoying to have to wait for an enemy to move first - not at all the Shofixti way - and it had just begun to really get to him when Landel finally deigned his captives with his disgusting melodramatic garbage. Giving a sigh of relief, Tanaka began grabbing supplies from his room. First things first: the Captain's flashlight, to return to him. Then his own flashlight, and the notebook with the Captain's vague map, tucked beneath his arm. Thus "loaded down" with supplies, the Shofixti fumbled with the door handle for a moment, before finally getting it open and exiting to the halls beyond.

Re: M71

[violent-varmint.livejournal.com]

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/461302.html?thread=37571830#t37571830)]

[violent-varmint.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/461302.html?thread=37571574#t37571574)]

The Shofixti was still getting used to the idea of not being able to see in the dark, and it took him a few moments to realize that he had to switch on his flashlight. That done, Tanaka began moving down the hallway, glancing at the other prisoners as he did so. Including... hm. Apparently "Ms. Maki" had some business in this hall. He gave her a nod as he went past, and made a mental note to talk to her again. It had been nice to meet someone who seemed genuinely friendly here, rather than an ally of circumstance like ZEX, or a possible traitor like Usopp or his roommate.

Reaching the end of the hallway, he ducked behind one corner, and after checking to see if anyone was waiting behind it, quickly stepped out into the block's main hall.

[violent-varmint.livejournal.com]

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/461936.html?thread=37572464#t37572464)]

[ditched-again.livejournal.com]

The Star Dragon Sword thought it strange that Ryuzaki hadn't been there with him at dinner. His roommate had once mentioned how his previous one had disappeared. Had the same happened to Ryuzaki? While he didn't want to admit it, the Star Dragon Sword felt slightly worried over the disappearance. Ryuzaki was the only intelligent sack of flesh inside this institution, and to lose him would only result in any further interesting conversations.

He would have to look into it later, but for now, he had to worry about that damn Dawn Rune Bearer.

[Stalking through to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/461936.html?thread=37623152)]

[sillybus.livejournal.com]

. ]

M80

[justice-to-a-t.livejournal.com]

Mikami had made it without mishap, so long the invitation to this room wasn't a sort of trap in the first place. He had received no real warning that Crane might be planning something, but Mikami knew from experience he couldn't trust anyone, and thought that any fight might actually turn out even between them, considering his own level of injury compared to the other man's. He was undoubtedly stronger, physically, but in this situation it was hard to tell unless it was tested. Mikami hoped it wouldn't have to turn out that way.

And so he reached out and rapped several times on the door, relieved to a fault that although the patient uniform wasn't much better, he was no longer suffering the "clothes" he had been made to wear to town.

Re: M80

[scaredy-crow.livejournal.com]

Crane had been sitting at his desk for the better part of the night, his thoughts jumping between how he could manage to get back at Brock and Luffy and trying to make sense of what information he had learned thus far. It didn't seem like much. He would have to make a list of it all later, to really get a good idea of just how much information he was lacking.

Crane had been wondering the entire time if Mikami or Kristoph would take him up on his offer, but hadn't expected the knock on his door to come this late into the night. Well, he supposed it was better late than never.

He pushed himself up from the desk, then went over to the door. He looked around when he opened it, glad to see Mikami didn't have any companions with him that could potentially harm him further, but also quite disappointed to see that Kristoph hadn't arrived. He would leave the door open, and perhaps he would come in if he dropped by. "Mr. Mikami, a pleasure to see you. I do hope you made it here safely." Crane opened the door further, and gestured the man inside. "Do come in, and please leave all violence at the door."

Re: M80

[justice-to-a-t.livejournal.com]

"My room is not far from here," Mikami said with a nod, moving inside once prompted. He thought Crane's subsequent statement was diplomatic if a bit odd, but he wondered more at the look around that accompanied it. Was he really expecting Kristoph as well?

He didn't stop right after passing Crane, instead walking all the way into the room and studying it... and noting with a complete lack of surprise that it was entirely identical to his own. After a moment, he set his radio down on a desk and turned back around.

"I think I - we - have seen enough violence," he said, running the now-freed hand through his hair in the darkness. It occurred to him that both the hand and his hair were feeling... grimy... and he wished for a proper cleaning- one he did himself, rather than whatever the staff did to them while they were unconscious. Nevertheless, he kept the hand held up and a serious look on his face as he continued.

"It seems like whenever we try to talk, we end up getting... interrupted," he said, "However, I was hoping you could give me some more information on this place, if you know it. Like I said, I haven't been here long, but... I can give you what I know." At this, he opened his journal deftly and held it out to the man.

"I'm afraid my notes mostly consist of things to jog my memory, but I'll elaborate on anything if needed."

[forgot-it-all.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/458376.html?thread=38088584#t38088584)]

"I might not be getting hurt, but he is," Ritsuka said softly. "I can't do anything to help him here. He's fighting to protect me, and I can't even do the same for him."

He'd never felt so useless in his life. Even when his mother beat him, she was at least getting something out of it. He took care of her afterwards and tucked her into bed. He made sure she ate and that she had hope for the future. Even for someone who didn't want him, he had been able to help. Here, he couldn't do anything but tell Soubi to make friends while Ritsuka lost all of his. Useless.

As they turned the corner into Soubi's hallway, Ritsuka felt his stomach drop. A cold chill ran down his back and he felt a strange headache coming on. He stopped for a moment and put a hand to his head, but the feeling cleared soon enough and he continued on. "If I were any good at being a Sacrifice, he wouldn't be getting hurt here at all."

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

Sheena paused briefly to look over at Ritsuka as he faltered a little, but didn't say anything. She wasn't sure what to say. In her mind, if one fights, one should accept the pain that comes from fighting another. The very notion of sending that pain to an innocent who might not even want to fight was just wrong to her, that she couldn't quite understand why anyone would want to be something like Ritsuka. Especially, since she had the same feeling she did with Soubi - that Ritsuka didn't want to be a Sacrifice anymore than Soubi wanted to be a Fighter. One because he kinda just stood there while someone else did the work and the other becuse he inflicted pain that didn't belong to the boy upon him.

It was so damn complicated. Sheena almost liked the whole angel toxicosis crap Colette had gone through better, mostly because while it was happening, her friend had thought she was going to save the world through her suffering. Almost.

"... you can be his friend," Sheena replied quietly. "It's not much, but it's more powerful and more precious thanany power in the world. He chooses to protect you because he cares. Seeing you in pain, no matter what kind of pain that is, hurts him and the kind that he can't effect just hurts even more." Her lips turned up in a tiny smile and her gaze turned a little distant and soft as she thought back to her friends and the Tower of Lightning. "You'd be surprised how powerful friendship really is. It can soothe the deepest of scars and give you strength you didn't know existed to overcome even your greatest fears."

Her cheeks colored a little and she scratched her cheek. "Umm... sorry. I kinda got carried away there. If you want, I can teach you how to fight; I am ninja."

[forgot-it-all.livejournal.com]

Ritsuka would always be Soubi's friend, but that wasn't what the Fighter wanted. He wanted a Sacrifice and a master and Ritsuka just wasn't very good at being that yet. He had to keep trying and-- Faltering again, Ritsuka felt a sharp pain in his head and put his hands over his ears. It felt like he was being pulled and pushed at the same time. The feeling was mild, but it was enough to make him feel a bit ill. The nausea passed soon enough and he shook his head. "No, no, it's fine. And I don't fight. It's...something I just can't do."

Can't and wouldn't. But now wasn't the time to talk about this. Someone was calling him and pushing him away and now he was worried. Still unsteady on his feet, Ritsuka counted the doors to M76 and knocked twice before pulling open to the door.

Only to find no one there.