Nightshift 36: East of the Institute

[ellectriclights.livejournal.com]

[from here]

As she walked, Elle tried to think of all the things she wanted to do if this worked. Drink a slushy, fall asleep in her big warm bed with her comfortable pillows. Shock a patient or two.

Trouble was, Daddy wouldn't let her do any of those things.

Especially if she didn't straighten herself out. Snapping at people and being grouchy wouldn't make him proud of her. She needed to be better.

"Sorry," she said to the boy grudgingly. "You're a robot from another planet?" Maybe that would get him talking again and she could space out. Deluded raving wasn't as good as silence, but at least he'd think she was being nice without her actually having to interact with him.

Comments

[usoppsenchou.livejournal.com]

That thought just made Usopp shudder violently, which he covered by pulling the sheet closer around himself.

It was hard to see, especially with moonlight shining off of white snow and ice (where it wasn't stained, and he wasn't sure he wanted to see what was staining it.) The whiteness around the shore from stones or... something... didn't help. He tried pulling out his goggles, squinting through those, but they didn't cut down on the glare at all. Finally, squinting, he made out a little more detail, recognizing one of the odd round white shapes as a human skull.

Stumbling backward, he nearly fell over Brook, turning white as the snow or-- "BroBroBroBrook! That's, it's, that's, those are..!" Despite the cabin he'd seen on the shore, he turned away from the lake entirely, shutting his eyes and covering his ears for a moment. Didn't see anything, didn't see anything, didn't see anything...

[promisedawhale.livejournal.com]

Stumbling into Brook didn't help when the former skeleton had had enough problems when he'd been a skeleton with just seeing himself in the mirror! The moment he saw the skulls being pointed to, his mouth fell well beyond the point any normal person's would or could and went back as well, right onto his butt.

"Skulls! There's skulls!" As if that wasn't obvious. "Why are there skulls?!" He pointed, demanding an answer that wouldn't come. Unlike Usopp, Brook didn't have enough sense to just look away and pretend he hadn't seen it, because he had eyes now so he knew what he could and couldn't see! And he saw skulls!