damned_institute | Nightshift 36: Outside the Institute: North

Entry tags:

Nightshift 36: Outside the Institute: North

[[From here.]]

Hokuto looked around, trying to take it all in at a glance to minimize the chances of being taken by surprise. The ground sloped upwards from here on out, and was rockier than she'd expected. She was really not an outdoors type of girl, and didn't know what to expect in this kind of terrain.

Then again, knowing I don't know what to expect is better than thinking I do. This was the worst place to get overconfident; she had to remember, no matter what, that the odds were never in their favor here.

It was a horribly depressing way to live, but it was the best way she could think of to survive.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Brook's humming came to an abrupt halt at the signs warning to stay out, and just as Usopp had stopped in his tracks, so too did he. That... wasn't usually a good sign, or signs in this case!

"Ah... w-well... there certainly weren't any signs s-saying to stay out of the basement," Brook stammered, agreeing that it really was no better. This could actually be worse really!

"... Right. But an evil guy told us all to go downstairs. This, we don't know who put up the signs. They could be people like the doctor trying to tell us to go away from something good... but they might be other patients, or someone else entirely, warning us about really bad things." Usopp stared at the ominous entrance a little longer before turning arbitrarily away from the road.

"We definitely can't go explore something like that without the others! No way! So we'll just remember that on our great exploratory journey we found this place, and then when we next talk to everybody, we can tell them, there's a mysterious mine shaft up... north-ish... after you hit a road and follow it a little while."

He started walking away, trying to resist the urge to run before something could jump out of the entrance and attack them. "And we'll continue bravely exploring and discovering new things for later!"

"But there's no way to know which is is, Usopp-san," he protested, feeling a sort of dread. Usopp didn't actually want them to try and go in there, did he?

Thankfully Usopp reasoned away from entering the spooky-looking place, and when he moved away Brook readily followed. "Yes! Of course! Yohohoho! That's a good idea!" he agreed, nodding.

One nice thing about traveling with Brook was that the tall man seemed just as happy as Usopp to run away from whatever looked overly threatening or ominous or maybe just weird. The downside was that, walking off the worn path again, Usopp found himself having to start climbing awkwardly over rocks and work his way around trees in the dark.

"Brook... sing something good for travel? Some dramatic traveling music is exactly what we need!" The sound of Usopp clumsily making his way through rough terrain was probably loud enough as it was, a little singing couldn't hurt anything.

Oh! A request! How long had it been since he'd had one of those?! Well, Luffy and everyone did ask for songs now that he was on their crew, but still, it was nice to be asked! "Certainly! Yohohohohoho! Let's see...!" Brook's face brightened as he considered just what song might fit with Usopp's requirements.

There were a few that were much lighter, but with the "dramatic" part, Brook had to think just a bit more. He'd been straying away from darker songs while on his boat, after all, but that didn't mean he'd forgotten them!

"Ah, I know just the one!" he announced suddenly, then began singing despite the lack of accompaniment.

Leaves are falling all around,
It's time I was on my way.
Thanks to you, I'm much obliged
For such a pleasant stay.

But now its time for me to go,
The autumn moon lights my way.
For now I smell the rain,
And with it pain,
And its headed my way.
Ah, sometimes I grow so tired,
But I know I've got one thing I got to do

Ramble on,
And nows the time, the time is now
To sing my song.
Im goin round the world,
I got to find my girl, on my way.
Ive been this way ten years to the day, ramble on,
Gotta find the queen of all my dreams.

Usopp didn't recognize the song at all, but it was good, and Brook's voice echoed really nicely in the night, over the sound of the wind and Usopp's own stumbling efforts to proceed. By the time the song had finished, Usopp had started wrapping the bedsheet 'cape' closer around his body, trying to keep himself from shivering in the sleeveless coveralls.

Instead of commenting on the music, when Brook went quiet, Usopp asked, "Brook... does it feel like it's getting colder to you?" Maybe it was just his imagination, or more time exposed to the cold. Wasn't a bigger body like Brook's more vulnerable to it, probably? Maybe not...

Well, whenever the night ended, they'd wake up safe and warm in their beds anyway. They just had to keep moving in the meantime. Compared to their time on Drum, this was nothing! True, he'd worn a coat there, and had a vague memory of flowers and Vivi and a swollen face, but all of that had probably just been his overactive imagination.

"Mmm? Colder?" Brook had noticed that the temperature was a little chillier than when they'd first hopped over the fence, but he was still enjoying it more than anything. It was a feeling! So what if he was shivering just a tad? Shivers were feelings too!

"Yes, I'd say so. Do you not like the cold, Usopp-san?" he peered down, seeing how his friends was clutching at the blanket-cape.

"O-of course I'm fine with the cold! I like it even colder, in fact! I once dug an entire civilization out of a snowbank the size of an island, you know, in a single afternoon, and do you know what they called me when they were done chattering their teeth and had all had some hot cocoa?" Usopp could really use some hot cocoa at the moment, himself. Hopefully breakfast would be something warm, but it usually was. "T-the great Captain Usopp!"

Stepping forward a bit more, finding it a bit difficult to balance between holding his cape and climbing over tricky ground, Usopp pointed the flashlight clutched in one hand shakily ahead. Further, he thought he could almost see the reflections of patches of snow.

"Eh!? R-really?!" Brook had never known and wouldn't have ever guessed either! Usopp certainly didn't look the type to accomplish such a feat, but neither did Luffy look like he should be able to stretch all over the place! His new crew was still amazing him after Thriller Bark! "That is impressive, Usopp-san!

"Thanks..." Usopp was already distracted from his tall tale. No, that was definitely snow ahead. He shivered a little just from the thought, and started looking around with the flashlight for the clearest path. It took a moment for him to register that one of the dark patches wasn't where forest or rock showed through snow, but where someone had spilled blood. Once that realization hit, it took much less time for Usopp to squeak and hide behind Brook, one hand still shakily reaching around Brook to aim the flashlight. "Br-Br-Brook! Blood! The snow's bleeding!"

Brook jumped when Usopp made the decision to hide behind him and quickly put up his metal bat to defend. One only retreated if there was danger, and that was exactly what Usopp had done! When he heard the exclamation, however, he did not lower his weapon, but gave Usopp a glance backwards. "But, Usopp-san, snow can't bleed!" Brook insisted, just as shaky as his friend, though not as freaked out by the sudden find. He, at least, wasn't trying to switch places with the man behind him, but he had begun to shiver a little more. And not from the cold.

But it was there sure as anything, bloody snow glistening in the shaky beam of Usopp's flashlight.

"Skeletons can't walk around either, and you said you used to do that all the time!" Usopp pointed out, still shivering. "... m-maybe there's a body under the snow?"

There wasn't any sign of steps towards or away from the snow, but maybe it had snowed over... whatever... was bleeding. Usopp stared around Brook's lanky limbs for a few more moments, then made up his mind. "P-poke it. Poke it with the bat, Brook! See if anything moves!"

He wasn't sure if he hoped there would be something actually bleeding under there, or not.

"Ah, so I did..." Brook acknowledged, calmly.

The calm only lasted so long, however, as Usopp just had to say the wrong thing. "A body?!" His jaw dropped, then fell further as Usopp made another terrible suggestion,"Eh?! But... but what if somethi-- no, someone really is under there?! T-that would be disrespectful!" Brook drew back the bat now, shaking his head. He didn't want to! Even if it would be the dead disrespecting the dead, he wasn't poking bleeding snow!

"If it's dead, it shouldn't still be bleeding, right?!" Well, it shouldn't bleed for long. Shouldn't blood melt snow? Usopp looked around them, at the increasingly rocky area they'd entered, and wished he had a very long stick of some sort. Brook was really the closest thing available, so he pushed the musician forward a little. "If it's something still alive, it might need help, and if it's dead, w-we can... apologize to it or something!"

And if it was nothing, they could run screaming. But which way to go? Even backtracking would just lead them to the mine they'd already been frightened off by, and Usopp wasn't sure he could backtrack that well anyway in the dark. At least fear had distracted him from the cold, plus the cold gave him a good excuse for shivering.

"We don't know that!" Brook had certainly seen dead things bleeding before! Or at the very least dead things that were very bloody. That was the same thing, wasn't it? Brook didn't exactly understand the mechanics behind why dead things didn't or wouldn't bleed, but since blood really wasn't a good thing, there had never been any thought in his mind to understand it either!

But if it was someone who was still alive? That changed things. Someone being in trouble was a good reason to poke snow even if it happened to be oozing blood. And Usopp was right in that they could either help or apologize. Snow was a sad way to be buried, so the least they could do was put whatever it was in the ground.

That was a good thing, wasn't it?

Brook drew in a deep breath, then moved further towards the pile, stopping when he was just close enough away to reach it with the bat, but far enough that he could get a good head start should it be something else. "He-hello?" his voice trembled same as his body as he tentatively touched the tip of the bat to the snow, avoiding the actual blood part as best he could. "Any-anybody... there?"

Usopp stayed back, but the absence of his Brook-shaped shield started to wear on him, particularly as Brook poked at the snow. The fact that he'd suggested the poking in the first place was beside the issue.

There was naturally no response, and Usopp paused for a moment, staring at the snow light by his flashlight a moment longer, before his nerve broke. "Th-there's nothing there's let's go we're done here good work everyone I'm all finished in fact I'm retired let's go Brook!"

After the second 'let's go,' he took off running, surprisingly agile for someone jogging with burdened hands and semi-bare feet over cold, rocky terrain.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/500055.html?thread=40713815#t40713815)]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nightshift 36: Outside the Institute: North

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject