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

[emotionl4arobot.livejournal.com]

Brainiac 5 blinked and scowled. He'd been more accepting of the woman's random and often violent behaviour then anyone had any reason to expect him to be, but still she insisted in screaming at him and refusing to offer any information on herself. He was seriously reconsidering any possible value there might be to travelling with her any further; he now knew the location of a nearby settlement, so leaving her alone would be entirely possible. And it did appear to be what she wanted.

"Very well," he said stiffly. "It seems you don't want my company anyway and frankly it would be wiser to return to the village where we might be able to get some form of assistance. But if you would prefer to wander lost in the woods all night, you can be my guest." That said he turned around, intending to walk back to the road when he suddenly realised there was a minor flaw in his plan.

He couldn't see the road any more. And in following the woman's erratic path in order to let her know that he wasn't going to be following her any more, he'd managed to lose all sense of which direction they'd actually come from.

He turned back to her. His face was feeling warm again, but he ignored it. "However, considering our current predicament, perhaps it would be best to stick together."

[usoppsenchou.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/503562.html?thread=40419850#t40419850)]

It took quite a while for Usopp to stop, and he was stopped less by an end to his terror of the bloody snow and more by a bad step against a rock and a prompt nosedive into the ground. As luck would have it, where he landed wasn't one of the snowy patches, and he let out a loud protesting cry as his nose cracked against the rocky ground.

"Dammit." That calmed him down, at least, as he sat up and rubbed his nose, trying to tell whether it was bleeding. Quiet again for a moment, he thought he heard the sound of water, but wasn't sure. There was no question that this area was colder, and he was starting to have the feeling they'd been going gradually uphill, although now the terrain didn't leave any of that to question, offering a few paths through increasingly steep rocks.

[traitors-smile.livejournal.com]

[[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/507197.html)]]

He landed quietly, noticing one familiar face, even if he didn't give a greeting. His smile was barely there, muted somewhat by the night's events. He checked the area quickly before signaling the others to follow him down.