damned_institute | Nightshift 36: F21-F30 Hallway

Well. Night had fell again, so Senna guessed she should get moving. She grabbed her flashlight and spear and left her room. There was another girl in the hall, but it looked like she was looking for someone else. Senna didn't know what room Signum was in, so she settled with leaning against the wall opposite from the doors to wait.

She really hoped that she didn't make a fool out of herself tonight.

[waiting for Signum]

Signum really needed to have a conversation with her roommate that lasted longer than ten seconds some time, but that was apparently going to have to wait until she'd had a decent day around here. It wasn't as though she hadn't, before, but recently it was just one thing after another... and stressful days left her with no desire to do anything but throw herself into the night's work. Even this mission, which with Fwiffo's inclusion in her team felt like some kind of set-up, was a welcome respite from the question of what she should have done, and should now do, with Momo.

The knight took a bit longer than Senna to leave her room, most likely on account of the amount of equipment she had accrued during her time here, and was pleased to find her new subordinate waiting for her outside. That much, at least, had gone according to plan...

"Senna?" The knight asked, all business. "I'm Signum."

A girl approached her and introduced herself. Cool. Signum wasn't some old lady.

She pushed herself off the wall with a grin. "Hey." Hopefully Signum wasn't like Hitsugaya--she'd hate to have to play submissive and polite for another night. "Where are we headed to tonight?"

Signum, after that last revealing message from Fwiffo, had only the most minimal expectations for her team and was for her part content just to find Senna where she'd said she'd be. Having her own weapon was a bonus.

"We're to leave the Institute and head south, investigating any sites of interest we find," she answered Senna. If nothing else there would be the town, and in particular its gun store, but she considered them scouts first and looters second and intended to learn as much as she could about the intervening terrain.

"After we find our last member," she added. As things stood she didn't want to take him along, but she'd at least take a look at him first. There was always the possibility he'd been exaggerating...

Senna nodded in understanding, though what Signum was saying reminded Senna of her own unanswered question. "Can I ask you a question? I don't know if this is stupid or anything but no one's really answered me on this." Shion had freaked out, but that wasn't really an answer. "If we're heading out, why don't we just leave? And why doesn't anyone try to escape during the day?"

Maybe what she was asking -was- common knowledge, but hell if she'd know. People seemed pretty content not telling her anything here.

"You still black out and return to your room in the morning. I've gotten a few kilometers from the grounds without that changing. Our captors can also induce unconsciousness during the day to quell any kind of uprising. Unless we discover weaknesses in the system of enforcement neither is an option." Signum answered the question bluntly; from her point of view it was a waste of time to entertain thoughts of an easy way out. They played the present, likely unwinnable game, searching for small advantages while waiting for the mistake on the Institute's part that would change the rules. Landel was a flawed man and he had enemies who played on the same field as he did; such a mistake did not seem all too unlikely.

"Is there anything else you want to know?" Signum made a point of adding. She didn't like fielding questions, but it was still good that Senna had asked. Better than imprisoning yourself out of ignorance, certainly.

Some kind of control over them then. Did it work for everybody...? She frowned, considering that. But she'd try and ask things again tomorrow, tonight should be business.

"Nope! I don't want to hold us up. Unless there's something you think I should know." She smiled. "Thanks for answering me."

"No. Let's get going." Signum was in full agreement; there was plenty of time in the day to talk things over. Right now they had work to do.

With that, she set off towards the end of the hall.

[[To West Wing, South Hall 1-B. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/486650.html#comments)]]

Hokuto managed to be dressed and ready to go just before lights out; so, it was another experimentation night. At least that meant fewer monsters. And, one plus side to being so weak magically is that I never have to worry about being taken myself. Unless they found a way to enhance power, which... didn't seem all that farfetched, but she had enough to worry about without imagining even more problems.

Like the fact that Momo was now blind in one eye, and there was little chance she'd learned to compensate for it already.

She whispered a prayer for luck, grabbed her shovel, and went out the door.

[[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/486080.html?thread=39660480#t39660480).]]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/485608.html?thread=39663592#t39663592)]

Rinali made her way quickly to her old hallway. Looks like Allen wasn't here yet, which was a good thing. She waited by her old door and scanned the halls, looking for Allen.

[[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/486650.html)]]

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Allen said as he jogged up the last few paces to meet her. Why was she outside the room? He was a little confused, but didn't say anything about it.

"Is everything okay?"

"Hi Allen," Rinali greeted warmly. "Everything's fine! They just moved me today. I'm in F11 now, so I just had to run over here so you wouldn't worry."

That made sense, he supposed. Though it was worrisome that they'd changed rooms. People had gone missing so they had to make up for the change in space, didn't they. But Rukia was really strong! There was no way she'd give in to this place, he was sure of it. So where then had his friends gone?

"Oh- That's alright. I um... I don't know if you saw the bulletin boards, but it doesn't look like we really have an assignment tonight," he told her. This morning was a blur and he honestly couldn't remember if he'd even signed up as usual.

"Any ideas?" he asked hopefully.

"I read," Rinali said, but didn't go into more detail than that. It was Allen's choice to not deal with the shinigami any longer, but as much as she distrusted the death gods herself, she couldn't bring herself to feel bad that they had killed Rhode. The Noah had caused them all a great deal of torment and her death was welcome in her eyes. Perhaps sinfully so.

But leaving the shinigami wasn't a bad thing at all. "I don't know," Rinali said, pausing to think. "It seems the two most important places for answers would be the basement and the outside...or at least that was how the shinigami made it out to be. Did we ever try seeing if they had some files hidden somewhere else in the institute?"

Things were complicated, but maybe they ought to think about joining one of the other groups. Allen didn't consider himself much of a leader, that he was willing to admit, but their options were minimal. They could join another group perhaps, but he doubted there would be one that held all their same interests.

Allen shook his head, "I don't think so. The only time we really got much useful done at night was when we were saving those patients that'd been experimented on and when we were putting together that map, but it seems like there's a lot more area to cover now."

He sighed, "I'm not good at this Rinali. I just want to help everyone get back home, but I'm not even sure where to start."

Allen never made for a great leader, she knew. He thrived best when he had a clear goal and clear objectives. Unfortunately, neither was she. She did what she was told for the good of her friends, but she didn't worry about

"Well," Rinali said after some thought. "Why don't we take the night off and think about what we want to do. Maybe we could contract our help out to people who look like they need help? I don't think either of us really agree with what the bigger groups are doing, but if we focus on smaller groups of people who just really need others to look after them, maybe that would be doing some good?"

Allen wasn't sure how he felt about taking a night off, but then, they'd worked so hard every other night and had nothing at all to show for it. Would it really make a difference if they didn't go out tonight? Rinali seemed to think it would be alright.

"Maybe," he agreed. He wasn't sure how he felt about being the hired help, but it was more or less what he'd been doing with the clubs anyway. "Should we go somewhere? Usually the rooms are safest at night."

As for what to do though, "It looks like the clubs aren't really helping the people who need it anymore. They're more interested in tracking down clues or getting deeper into the basement." The post about no one coming after the one who'd been experimented on was most troubling. "I want to help people, if we can. I don't think anyone should be left alone like that. And then maybe... maybe the days when they don't... take people, we could try other things. See if there's a way to contact people outside this place, or find out what's causing our powers to be limited, or..."

Rinali nodded. "We can go to my room, I don't think my roommate will be using it."

"Well," She said. "If they're not interested in helping people, that's what we should do. Let people know what we're here not to focus on trying to escape--there are plenty of people out there trying to do that--but we can focus on looking after the people who are here now and are suffering now..."

"Alright," he agreed. While it probably wasn't terribly decent to use her room, it was better than making her follow him all the way back to his own. What difference did it really make?

"Yes," he replied, "yes, I think that would be the best goal for us." Destroying Akuma might have been their objective before, but even then, he'd tried his best to save others. Now that they couldn't be sure who was an Akuma, even if they looked to be one, all these different worlds made it impossible to be sure, they ought to try for their secondary objective, saving lives. Wasn't that right?

She never came.

It wasn't like some (fortunate) nights where she came in and slept, leaving Yukari undisturbed. She simply never walked through the door, truly leaving Yukari on her own.

The lights finally flickered off and the intercom crackled to life, and for the first time since she woke up here, Yukari felt like she was actually ready for the night. Sure, the day did take a toll on her, but she could manage to set those feelings aside; with her 'roommate' disappearing like this, though, it actually left her relieved about everything. It was a wonder how and why this happened-- maybe one of the staff members would know.

All in all, it was good, because Yukari had a good handful of stuff to deliver. Opening the closet door, she sighed; three table legs, two brooms, the obligatory flashlight, and she told Renamon she'd keep her radio on hand... Oh brother. This was going to be a challenge to get this to Adelheid's room on her own, not to mention she knew she was going to look pretty silly trying, but...

Let's see. She could grab two of the legs with one arm, the last with the other, as well as the brooms and try to balance them on her shoulder; the radio and flashlight could be stuffed in her pockets. With the light clicked on, it wouldn't be facing directly forward as she had liked, but it illuminated the area well enough that she could at least see where she was going, and Yukari remembered the way to Adelheid's room well enough.

She couldn't keep him waiting-- it was time to move.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/486650.html?thread=39681274#t39681274).]

Falis didn't have to lay in wait very long. In fact, she'd only seen a few people pass her unnoticed position, Hokuto among them, before she heard Yukari's door open and the girl walk by. With her arms full of... table legs? Falis actually cocked her head and gawked a little as Yukari passed by. They weren't even sharpened. What was the girl going to do with them, give them to Fido to chew on or something? They wouldn't even make a decent bludgeon – too unwieldy and unbalanced.

What Yukari did with them didn't matter to the bounty hunter, who waited until her mark had left the hallway, idly wondering if the girl would get caught on the door frame trying to get through it with that stuff. Once she was in the clear, Falis got back to her feet and slipped back down the hallway to F29. As before, she paused and listened for any sounds coming from the room. It should be empty, but she wouldn't completely trust what the vultures had said about 'Danielle' getting released and them not putting someone else in the room yet. There was no sound and, after a few moments, Falis quietly and slowly opened the door.

Emptiness greeted her when she entered – no sound, no movement, no light. Perfect. Falis shut the door securely behind her and clicked the flashlight on. Now that she had some light, once her eyes adjusted a little, she surveyed the small room. Since there weren't any beasties in here that needed killing, the bounty hunter slid her sword into the sheet she'd made into a sword belt so she'd have a hand free. Once side of the room appeared untouched – the bed was made, there were no personal effects, everything looked like it had when she'd just woken up. The other side had definitely been used and was obviously Yukari's.

Overview complete, Falis started moving through the room, her eyes keen on the surroundings. As she examined the room, kneeling down to shine the light on the floor, under the beds and as well as one the other furniture, she pondered the contract as a whole. Amada hired her to find out a name, but couldn't ask Yukari himself. He wanted secrecy, so he had to be really worried about his friend's wellbeing. Combine that with the bandages on Yukari's neck -ones like what she'd seen on Kagura before- plus the small scrapes on the floor tile by the legs on Yukari's bed, and Falis could reconstruct a decent idea of what might have occurred in the room to bring about the need for her services as a bounty hunter. Killing beasties may have been what a bounty hunter does best, but a bounty hunter also had to know how to find what she was looking for. Tracking was the other thing Falis excelled at.

Falis ran a fingernail along the bottom edge of the desk where it back up against Yukari's bed, scraping the surface just underneath, a place that could be easily overlooked by the cleaning staff. Illuminating her hand, she extracted the substance she had collected under her nail. Dingy brown in color and flaky, she brought it to her nose and sniffed it a moment before briefly touching her tongue to it. The coppery taste confirmed what she'd thought and she flicked the dried blood off her hands. She checked the base of the bed's legs, finding a tiny bit that the cleaning staff had missed. It wasn't much at all, but it was enough.

'Danielle' had spilled Yukari's blood.

Oh, Yukari had fought back given the small scrapes on the floor, indications of someone having been thrown bodily against the furniture, and Falis had to give credit for not simply taking the abuse. Falis had a strong suspicion that Yukari had been preyed upon by 'Danielle'. She didn't have confirmation yet, she'd get that later, but it was enough to warrant her next action. Getting to her feet, she took one of the stakes she'd made during dinner with a sharp cut point, the wooden shaft a foot and a half long, as set it underneath the girl's pillow for her to find in the morning. Sure, it may give away that someone had been in Yukari's room, but it was in the same place that the flashlight had been that first morning, so that may confuse the girl just enough.

As she moved to Yukari's dresser, a part of her didn't quite want to arm the girl. If she was right about 'Danielle', then there was a high probability that Yukari might turn or become a ghoul. That wouldn't so much be a problem for her, but it could potentially put her client in danger. What the hell was she thinking? If Yukari was going to turn, she'd be dangerous to Amada with her bare hands and fangs. The stakes was there... just in case Yukari wasn't going to turn; she'd need protection.

She frowned as she pulled out the drawers, seeing small box in one of them. Amada wouldn't be happy about it, but if Yukari did turn, there was nothing Falis could do about it other than kill her. With 'Danielle' gone, she couldn't use the much more efficient method of killing the master which would free the ones she'd turned. She did not want to ever see the look on the boy's face that would appear if that ended up being the case. As the princess held up the pretty pink bracelet from the box to the light to examine, she hoped that wouldn't be the case. Hopefully Yukari wouldn't turn. Kagura hadn't, so hopefully Yukari wouldn't as well.

The bracelet was pretty, but... it had pink stones on it. Why would anyone want to wear pink by choice? Sure, sometimes she had to wear pink when she was at the palace and had some function or other that Jodou was making her attend, but by choice? Hell no. And how did Yukari get something like this anyways? It looked kinda expensive. She put it back in the box and returned that to it's proper drawer, not wanting to mess anything up. She flipped open the journal and pages through it. Not much of a writer, it seemed. There were only a few errant doodles on the corner of a few pages, like she'd sat down to write something but her mind had wandered elsewhere. Or she couldn't find the right words. Whatever.

Moving on, she left the journal where it had been and poked around in the closet. Nothing of interest there.... wait a minute. In the corner, as if it was being hidden, was a box. A box labeled Kara Blenn. Now what might be in here?

Falis pulled the box out and set it on the floor. Kneeling down, she opened it to find clothes. It was only one set, a top and a pair of pants. There was a clattering sound as something small and rectangular fell out of the shirt and hit the floor, sliding across it. Tilting her head a bit, the bounty hunter dropped the shirt and picked the object up.

She blinked and furrowed her brow. What the hell was this thing? It was made of the same material a lot of stuff in this place was – some of that Old World substance – and it had all sorts of ridges on it. Oh... those were button-thingies and there were numbers and symbols on them. She turned it over curiously when there was a slight jingling sound and she found, hanging off the... whatever button-thingie it was a silver cat. It wasn't a real cat – it was too small and made of metal – but it was a cat... hanging off of a... thing with buttons that had numbers and you could push them... She pushed the buttons.

Nothing happened. She pushed them again. Still nothing happened. Falis scowled at the button-number-thingie and turned it over in her hands. Hey.. the back panel looked like it would come off, so Falis took it off. She was surprised when something even smaller and rectangular fell out into her hand. She peered at it and grinned when she saw the writing on it. So this was a battery, like the things in the flashlights, but it looked different. Different shapes... but still a battery. This meant that the button-number-thingie normally had fuel to run it like the flashlight. She was glad Namine had explained batteries to her. Maybe this battery wasn't working right. Leaning up, Falis grabbed the spare set of flashlight batteries from Yukari's desk and went about seeing if they fit into the button-number-thingie. Nope. They were too big. Damnit! Now she'd never find out what the button-number-thingie did. It wasn't like she could just ask Yukari what it did. That'd go over wonderfully.

Oh yeah, Yukari? I was poking around in your room the other night looking for clues at to what had been going on between you and your roommate when I found this rectangular button-number-thingie that didn't do anything cause it was all out of fuel and the batteries from the flashlights don't fit. So, what's it do? Oh, and what's up with the metal cat hanging off it anyways?

Falis snorted in amusement as she went about putting the button-number-thingie back together, feeling like the tiny cat was staring at her the whole time. “Oi! Don't you be giving me that look, cat,” she muttered to it. “I'm just doin' my job. It's not like I'm taking anything so why don't you give something else that look. Like the sleeve on this shirt,” she said, wrapping the button-number-thingie back up in the shirt it'd originally fallen out of. “There. See how you like it now,” she said as she put the clothes back into the box.

Once the box was securely back in it's hiding place in the closet, Falis cast another look around the room, making sure everything was back where it belonged, except for the stake. All looked good and she didn't have any other need to be in that room any longer. She drew her sword and clicked her flashlight off, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness.

'Kara Blenn.' 'Danielle.' Falis needed to go get Namine now. She'd have this contract finished tonight and then give Amada some free information. She had to admit it – she liked the kid. Maybe she really was going soft with the whole princess thing. Maybe not. With a careful peak out the door to see if anyone was watching, the bounty hunter slipped out of the room as quietly as she'd entered it.

[to here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/487011.html)

Ururu wanted to sleep. Everything felt so heavy when she tried to move, and the room wouldn't stay still. Whatever the nurse had done to her, the tiny girl was struggling to keep her eyes open, and to put one foot in front of the other without feeling like she was about to fall over.

She couldn't sleep. She had to find her friends. She had to do something for Skuld. She had to help.

Ururu didn't have a flashlight still, but even if she had, she wouldn't have been able to use it then. Instead, the girl supported herself on the wall, the nice solid wall that wasn't moving so much as the rest of the hallway was, and that she could lean on as she headed down the hall.

She could make it to Shiki's room. Ururu knew she could.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/486080.html?thread=39680448#t39680448)]

Another night, and another try at finding the right spot for their test, assuming Michiru didn't attack Seiya before then. And there was no guarantee of safety after, either, but Seiya had a feeling Michiru wouldn't throw away one of the few people she knew in this place to have loyalty to Usagi, even if Michiru didn't approve of it. It was the same chance she'd taken last night, even if they hadn't gotten far.

Sharp stick, box cutter, and flashlight. The box cutter tucked at her waist under her shirt again, she headed out.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/486080.html?thread=39801280#t39801280)]

Willow and Signum didn't have much of a conversation during dinner, which Willow didn't actually mind this time. She'd been too upset with thoughts of Tara to try and keep up much of one, and Signum hadn't seemed any more willing. It was actually a little bit of a relief when the intercom crackled to life and the doors all unlocked.

Signum left almost immediately with all of her equipment, leaving Willow to slowly slide off the bed and pick up the map, scalpel and flashlight. She hesitated before stepping towards the doorway, moving as if in a dream.

How could Tara claim everything was normal when all of this happened at night? Were the visitors really just clever puppets, or was Tara really out there, waiting for Leslie to come back to her?

Willow shook her head slightly, pausing at the door frame. She couldn't focus on that right now. She was going to M3, and then on to Anya's room. After a brief glance at the map to confirm her direction, she tucked it away into the waistband of her pants and headed into the hallway with a bit more determination in her step.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/486650.html?thread=39826682#t39826682)]

Skuld's room was F30. Archer knocked politely on the door, waiting for a reply. He knew better than to enter a lady's room unannounced. Rin had been particularly strict in dealing out punishment for accidents.

"Skuld," he called out softly, when he didn't hear a reply. He waited a few more moments, before he got concerned and opened the door, revealing no one. The room was empty. Damn. I guess I'll leave her a note then.

At least, that was his initial intention until he really took a look at the room. It was messy, but more than that, there were signs of obvious struggle. Archer unceremoniously dropped his bundle and checked to make sure the door closed before snooping around, searching for clues to explain what had happened here.

He carefully searched the room, eventually coming to the suspicious-looking blanket on the ground. As soon as he lifted it up, the word "no" lit up underneath, joined by several more "no's" overlapping each other. Well, I guess that answers what happened to Skuld. She must have written this when they tried to take her away. I'm surprised the nurses didn't notice.

As he touched the words, he realized it wasn't ink, since it didn't smear. Was this some kind of magic? That was the only explanation. He could still feel faint traces of magical energy. Shit, what am I supposed to do now?

He didn't know where she was now, or what he could do to help. To mount a rescue he would have needed allies, but Celes hadn't responded and Brook was probably gone. There was really nothing he could do.

In the end, he decided to go with his original plan, leaving a note along with his stuff, since the heavy sack would only slow him down, but as he left, he couldn't help but feel a little more gloomy. It was turning out to be a really shitty night.

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/486650.html?thread=40162298#t40162298)]

Javert was the next to arrive at F30; he, too, shifted his gathered materials to his arm and knocked firmly on the door with his uninjured hand. No response; perhaps she had fallen asleep. He knocked harder. Still nothing. He'd never heard of attacks occurring in patients' rooms, but there was always a first time for everything...

Setting down the bag of materials, he switched off his flashlight, pulled the pipe out - his bat was little more than scrap metal now - and cautiously opened the door, keen eyes scanning the room thoroughly. He'd always prided himself somewhat on his excellent night vision.

When nothing jumped out at him immediately, he swung the door open fully, frowning at the sight that met his eyes. The signs of a struggle were blatant - he supposed even a greenhorn would have been able to see them - as were the words written in the center of the floor.

He crouched by the overturned blanket - clearly someone else had expected to obtain a weapon tonight, judging by the sack and the note - presumably the same person had uncovered the words on the floor as well, though that was significantly harder to determine. The words didn't smear when he ran his hand over them, nor when he rubbed them harder. Mlle. Skuld's work, then, unless her roommate was also endowed with magical abilities.

Either way, it was clear either one or both of them had been taken tonight. Last night had been the experiments - that most likely meant Special Counseling.

He stood up, retrieved his bag from outside the door, and left it beside the other one with a slip of paper on which had been written his name. Much as he felt compelled to seek help, it simply wasn't feasible. If Mlle. Skuld could manufacture weapons while her abilities were limited, he could only imagine what she could do without them. He would be of no use there.

Besides, he had a meeting to attend. And he had to keep moving, or he knew he wouldn't be able to bear the strain.

[back to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/486650.html?thread=40263418#t40263418)]

[from here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/487192.html?thread=40422168#t40422168)

Beatrix knocked on Skuld's door and called out for the girl. Hearing no reply, she waited a moment before entering the room. A quick look told her everything she needed to know between the state of it and the writing on the floor and walls. Without another thought, she left the room.

She knew what she needed to do.

[to here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/491309.html?page=3#comments)

Kaoru was still feeling pretty happy. Ill, but happy. Things were beginning to get better though. When they'd first arrived...it had been worrying, but he'd tried so hard to treat it like a game so he could ignore the truth. But the truth kept hurting his brother and even himself. He was still sore from attacks, though he tried to pay the wounds as little attention as possible.

At least he'd eaten something tonight.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/489285.html?thread=40424773#t40424773).]

Crap. One full day gone by thanks to stupid, silly stomach pains. At least Toph had managed to sleep through most of that time, thanks to something that tasted like a mixture of flour and grounded slate. A pretty nasty substance, but it had done its job: the girl recovered by the middle of the night.

Except now, Toph had absolutely nothing to do. Sleep wasn't possible at this hour (she had enough of that already), nor was there any reason to hang around in the room in general. Her roommate sounded out of it so no conversation. Just a boring session of insomnia. Last time I ever eat something beefy.

Actually... The earthbender puffed out her chest in a sudden bout of inspiration and grabbed at the two pot shards under her pillow. This was the perfect time to search for that old man; if she left now, perhaps she could track him down. Couldn't hurt to look around, at the very minimum.

In one swift motion, Toph was out the door.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/486080.html?thread=40570048#t40570048).]

Nightshift 36: F21-F30 Hallway

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