damned_institute | Nightshift 44: F-A Block Hallway

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Nightshift 44: F-A Block Hallway

[From here]

Hime peered out into the hallway. It was mostly empty; it seemed she was one of the first to come out of their cells. While this presented the problem of wandering alone without the cover of the herd, this also gave her a chance to scout out the population as they left their rooms. While Hime had confidence in her fighting abilities, she had no delusions about taking on whatever horrors lurked here by herself. Besides, she needed to find people who could fight; the basement did not sound like the kind of place one explored on their own, or even with just one other.

Recalling that all the patient rooms filtered out into the main hallway, Hime headed that way.

[To here]

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[I suck so bad. I am so sorry. T_T]

"Neck," she affirmed with a tight smile. "Stomach. Chest, but that's sometimes blocked. Limbs, at the joints or straight in the middle of the bone. Base of the skull." Her hands mimed the words, touching each area that she mentioned. "Most things do down with blows to those places. And if you in a tough spot," Senna went on, placing two fingers at the corners of her right eye. "Eyes. Stuff'll always stop if you go at the face."

Otherwise, though, Meche seemed to have the gist of all of this. Her movements were a little shaky, yeah, but that came with practice. The good thing was that she remembered. The only trick left was if the training overtook good instinct. If Meche couldn't react in a pinch, then she was just dancing steps with no music. But Senna could test that later. For now, though, she'd fill up space. Her eyes grew sly, a grin tracing her lips. "So... This guy, huh? You didn't get to finish telling me about him. He saved you? How..." The grin widened. "Like a white knight."

[No prob, bb!]

Meche nodded, a serious expression on her face as she practiced aiming at each place Senna pointed out. It all still felt a little silly, especially now that Alita's spear wasn't coming at her. She closed her eyes for a minute and tried to picture the monster from the ruins: the lightning, that terrible howl, the huge, towering body. Suddenly practice didn't feel quite so silly anymore.

She opened her eyes but kept driving the spear forward as she talked. "Something like that. I told you how I was lost in the forest for a year, and then I got kidnapped and forced to do slave labor for this..." She couldn't think of a suitable word for Domino. "...this guy? Well, Manny was the one who got me and everyone else out of there, and then shut their whole scam down. He spent two years looking for me."

Admittedly it was the abridged version, with the parts about stolen cases and champagne bottles and the warden's bunk cut out, but it really did sound like a fairy tale when she put it that way. Meche smiled to herself. Did Cinderella exist in Senna's world? Maybe some stories were universal.

Senna's eyes widened. Automatically her hands moved to slide the spear back into her sash. "Wait. Back up. Two years? Did he know you beforehand?"

He had to have, right? Because why else would you go to all that trouble to rescue a stranger? Well, other than if you were a Death God... But still! A guy like that... Senna guessed he might be alright for Meche, if that was the case.

"Sort of. We'd really only met twice." Meche felt soreness starting to creep into her back and arms and set the spear down to stretch. What was keeping him? At this rate, she'd be a master of the cavewomanly arts before he even showed up.

"I guess we have time for a chapter of my autobiography, if it doesn't put you to sleep," she cracked. "First, you should know that reapers--who I think are sort of a version of your death gods--bring souls from this life to the next and act as travel agents for their four-year journey across the Land of the Dead. The better life you live, the faster and easier you're supposed to be able to travel." Boy, she really had this down pat by now; maybe she should try to get a job at the DoD next time around. That ticket probably wouldn't be waiting for her, after all this. "I died four years ago. Manny was a reaper, my travel agent. But because of the corruption in the system, he couldn't get me any travel packages, which is how I ended up trying to cross the forest.

"He got fired by the people who were running the scam, so at first he probably wanted to find me to get his job back. I guess somewhere along the line, things changed."

Meche still wasn't exactly sure where. For either of them, really--or even whether things had never changed for her. Maybe she'd felt this way ever since his office, or even before, and there had just been layers of anger and frustration and cynicism caked over it for a while. She wondered if it was possible to fall in love at first sight when you didn't have eyeballs.

[from here]

A very familiar figure caught his eye as soon as he walked in. She was standing next to a shorter person, both of them were holding spears, and they were talking about--

Him.

A conscious effort was hardly required to keep his eyes off where he fell last night. "Hola," he greeted brightly, stopping next to Meche and giving the stranger a curious look. With his flashlight pointed to the ground, he could see her face. She was just a kid. If Meche didn't want her around, he'd know. He waited for a name.

Where were his presents, he wondered.

Travel agents. Well, that was a new one. But in the same breath, Senna got it in a way. Better life you lead, faster you travel. Like if you lived well, in the world Senna was from, you passed on--your chain didn't devour you, and you didn't become a Hollow. She nodded with a smile, following along. The details seemed a little vague after that, unclear to her mind, but the differences and similarities showed. And more to the point--Great. No matter the circumstances, it really was good that Meche had found someone, just for her, especially in the place she was talking about.

As if to punctuate Meche's sentence, a man greeted them, standing near Meche. A sword and spear in her belt, and the larger dull European one in hand, Senna didn't blink as she accessed the man, wondering if this was her friend's boyfriend. A description had been lacking, but she smiled just the same to him, watching. "Yo," she greeted in turn.

"Manny!" Now Meche actually did give in to her urge from earlier and throw her arms around him--not for too long, of course; probably the last thing Senna wanted to see was another scene. "I'm so glad you're here!" she found herself enthusing. "Senna, this is the famous Manny Calavera. And Manny, this is my friend Senna--the one I told you about at breakfast, remember? She's in charge of tonight's assignment."

She would have had trouble imagining two people more different, she thought now that she saw them together--or more alike in a lot of ways. Aside from their shared job, they both had that way of walking into any situation as though it were completely normal. They were both determined and resourceful, people who could get things done. Meche just hoped they liked each other. If she could make it happen by sheer force of will, she was going to.

Having performed the introductions, she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out several sheets of journal paper: three maps (http://sheisthecause.livejournal.com/1680.html) and an early version of "M.E."'s monster list, a note (http://sheisthecause.livejournal.com/1953.html) in Spanish, and a final sheet that simply read Maria Morales, F32. "Here," she said. "I copied these out for you earlier. That description is someone Phoenix wanted me to look out for--I gather she's not exactly a fan of his. And I asked Senna to bring that sword along too. You should probably take it if you're going to come see what we do."

He was a little relieved when she let him go; not only was it distracting, she was doing it in front of someone he'd never met. He guessed Meche wouldn't have hugged him in front of someone she didn't know or like, though, so it didn't shock him when she introduced her as a friend.

He wasn't that famous, but he wasn't complaining. Manny just didn't want Senna to get the wrong idea. ... Even though 'the wrong idea' in this case was probably the right one. "You're one of the leaders?" he asked, surprised and a bit confused, but not sounding offensive. He wondered if the LSA recruited agents that young.

As Meche handed over his 'presents', he gave them a quick glance before pocketing them. He then looked down at the sword Senna was carrying. He didn't like where this was going, but he held his hand out anyway. If it was too heavy, he'd just give it back. Either way, they'd never get him fighting with that thing.

Meche was completely right in her assumption, and though Senna found it cute, she found herself relieved when the embrace was let go. "Nice to meet you," she greeted cheerily. "I've heard a lot about you." To his question, she merely grinned. "Not really. Just a team leader. I'm from the same place as the people in charge."

The guy didn't give a lot away, and she found herself wondering about his persona. His silent asking for the sword seemed strange, but it wasn't hers to give at this point anyway. She shifted it a little, holding it so the hilt could be easily grabbed. "S'not that useful right now," she explained. "It'll need to be sharpened, but you can definitely whack things with it."

Manny's lack of enthusiasm about the sword was not lost on Meche. "Sorry we didn't have an arsenal prepared for your selection," she cracked pointedly. "If you'll just place your order before you vanish into thin air next time, sir, I'll be sure to have it ready for you." That wasn't entirely fair, she knew--disappearing hadn't been his fault, and he had no way of knowing how many zombies Senna had had to plow through to get that sword. Still, it wouldn't kill him to pretend to be grateful.

It looked like he was coming, though, so she decided they might as well head out. They had a long way to go before they even got started with the real work. "Ready to go, then?" she asked both of them, shouldering her spear and starting to move toward the exit.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/727542.html?thread=60678390#t60678390)]

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Nightshift 44: F-A Block Hallway

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