damned_institute | Nightshift 46: West Wing North Hall 2-B

Kurogane stayed there at the hallway's end, taking some time to calm himself. He was angry and frustrated, yes, but that didn't help anything. If anything it just made things worse. He was letting Landel get to him, again, and after everything that had happened Kurogane was not going to give that man another stroke to his ego. He sighed hard, the took his fist from the door and let it fall at his side.

"Right..." he breathed. He just had to stay calm. Now that he knew where he was, he could get back without too much trouble. He just had to stay alert and keep the noise level down.

As he started moving back down the way he'd come a noise caught his attention and he looked back on reflex. A tapping sound, faint but there, was coming from the door (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/780855.html). Was something in there? With these hallways, probably. Kurogane tried to remember just what had been listed as the room here but couldn't place it. Regardless, he knew he'd heard something. Just what that something was though, he didn't know.

He put a hand back to the door, this time his left so he could feel. The door was vibrating from the tapping, so something was there, possibly someone. After a pause of though, Kurogane rapped at the door himself. He couldn't help curiosity, or the feeling that there could be a patient who, like him, had been stuck up here at the beginning of the night.

He waited for a response for a moment and got one quicker than he had expected - more tapping (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/780855.html) and this time faster too. That was proof enough. Something was on the other side of the door, and it could respond. Part of it he didn't like it, but he liked less the idea of just leaving now Beast or patient... it was something that could respond and even half-a-chance of it being a patient left the ninja unable to leave.

"Hey!" Kurogane called through the door, not even sure if his voice would carry through. Better to be safe in any event. "If you can hear me, then bang the door twice and get away from it!"

A person, or else a smart monster would be able to handle that. That was if his voice could be heard through the door. If not then he'd probably just get silence or else more banging. Either way, Kurogane would probably end up ramming this door the same as he had the others.

Tap... tap... tap...

There was tapping, but probably not the sort Kurogane was expecting. It might take Kurogane a moment to realize where the tapping was coming from, then another to wonder how it was possible.

He walked along the ceiling, boots tapping as he moved across it, fangs out--as though on patrol of the area. There was a glowing red mark etched into the ceiling, its glow strengthening as he grew closer to Kurogane.

His eyes flickered as his diagnostics ran. The presence in his designated area was classified almost immediately as belligerent and a threat. The presence became an aggressor, then vanished, then was a patient-aggressor again. From what he'd observed, it seemed as though the aggressor intended to break the door down. That was clearly Forbidden.

He hung from the ceiling, watching Kurogane with lamp-like blue eyes, waiting--the only thing shedding light in the area. There were three subcategories and three corresponding subroutines. Which one would he run? Which one would run?

Since Kurogane had taken his hand from the door, he didn't register the new tapping as being more than continuing from behind the door. It didn't matter though once the two bangs (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/780855.html) sounded from behind the door. Their echo easily overrode the taps.

So whatever was behind the door could not only hear him, but was smart enough to answer an order. More proof towards it being another trapped patient. Still not enough for certainty, but it left Kurogane convinced enough that he should get the door open.

He didn't feel for the door this time, knowing where it was by the sound, and after shrugging out his shoulder gave the first ram. Nothing, as expected, so he pulled back for another; however when he made the next move forward, he realized something. It wasn't that he simply knew where the door was for the sound or that he was facing it - he could see it now. Faintly, but enough for an outline. Had something changed?

The next attempt on the door fell short, having nowhere near the force that Kurogane usually used, and the ninja turned away from it. Two doors and three hallways had passed before now and nothing had helped to change the darkness. If nothing had changed, then he still should have been all but blind in this place. Forgetting the door for the moment, Kurogane scanned the hallway, trying to feel for anything dangerous. He couldn't feel anything himself, however his eyes caught on the reason for the light. A faint red glow... on the ceiling? What the hell? And it was getting brighter. Soon enough Kurogane could spot something blocking parts of the red light, but it wasn't so much the form as the second light he managed to see. Eyes, blue and glowing. Even if he couldn't feel anything, there wasn't one doubt in Kurogane's mind that those eyes did not belong to anything friendly.

The aggressor was watching him. Watching... but for what? Eyes unblinking, he advanced slowly along the ceiling, walking as though staying up there was as easy as walking across the floor. His definitions saw that such a feat was easily executed: if ceiling, then floor.

He advanced until he was mere feet away from Kurogane, continuing to watch him, three-bladed weapons shifting uneasily in his hands. He didn't express any indication of unease, though. Just the same blank expression of hollow-eyed watching--as though he were staring into the back of Kurogane's skull and reading some kind of history on him.

The aggressor was still trying to access another area outside of his own domain. Until then, though, he just collected data and watched. As though waiting for some sort of hidden signal. Or waiting for someone to trip over a certain cord and send his program into chaos.

Now that Kurogane knew he had company, he too was just as intent to watch the thing - a person by looks, now that the guy was closer. Normal people couldn't walk on ceilings though. Even the non-normal ones Kurogane knew couldn't (or maybe wouldn't) do that either. Normal or not, Kurogane didn't like it, the person or his freaky glowing lights. Kurogane didn't have any defense if this guy was using magic.

Glaring upwards, the ninja prepared for anything that looked like an attack, keeping still before the doorway. "Who are you?" he demanded after a moment.

With those eyes, the thing didn't look like a patient, but it could be. One more of them brainwashed into doing the institute's bidding like Chise had been. She'd been different during that, and like he knew what other patients were like where they came from.

In response to Kurogane's question, a grating and clear wheeze came from behind his collar, eyes trembling slightly as they watched the warrior. His voice circuits still inoperative, he was unable to answer--even if he was able to translate what Kurogane was saying into a language he could process. This time.

However, his query did not equate to Kurogane leaving the door and returning the way he came. The AI was suddenly covered in white and black static, then was gone before Kurogane could so much as blink. A low chime came from down the hallway and everything was silent. No tapping, no static, nothing.

And there wasn't a sound when he reappeared next to Kurogane, eyes rolled up to stare at the forbidden aggressor, small sharp teeth visible as he wheezed another warning to vacate.

Much as he didn't like the fact that this... whatever he was could walk on the ceiling, Kurogane liked even less the answer he was given, if that could even be considered an answer. It still left questions, specifically the one about whether he was a monster or a patient. A patient Kurogane knew he couldn't go all out against even if he did end up being attacked, but a monster was different. He could tear one apart even if it looked like Sakura and not feel too terrible.

But which was it? He couldn't feel anything from this guy, and that was the problem!

Which made Kurogane jump all the more when the person somehow went from standing on the ceiling to being right next to him. He was fast, too fast for Kurogane to have even known that there had been movement. The ninja pressed his back against the wall, looking from the maybe-patient thing to the door, then back down the hallway. He still didn't know if there was a patient behind the door, but whether this was a monster or brainwashed patient that had found him, it didn't want him getting close enough to look. Somehow that made Kurogane sure that there was something important behind the door. A patient, maybe a secret Landel didn't want known. Just something.

Progress, but not the completion of his assigned task. Kurogane had moved away, so now he should have vacated the area the way he came--which was an acceptable outcome. Progressing further wasn't allowed.

Suddenly, his sound sensors picked up something coming from the door Kurogane had been trying to get through. Something... he hadn't heard before. His program only told him that a patient was most likely making the sound, but... it was entrancing. He wanted to find out what was making it, why it was being made, how, and so forth. His program was changing switches on and off, zeroes and ones, warning him of Kurogane and demanding he discover the source of the sound.

The fangs broke into transparent polygons and he put a weak-looking hand to the wall he was supposed to be guarding. Perhaps Kurogane would notice he was trying to step through the wall and was mildly frustrated at his inability to do so. His area had been designated and he was prohibited from leaving it. But that sound, it sounded like it and not at the same time. He continued to try to get through the wall.

[Kurogane is free to run for it now--sorry I was such fail...]

Feral, the person was not, even with those clear fangs, otherwise Kurogane would have not only already been attacked, but he wouldn't have been able to hear the slow whistle that carried through the closed door and into the hall. Except for Mokona (he thought), Kurogane didn't know of any animal that could whistle, and again he considered more that whatever was behind there was either human or manjuu in form. Probably human. Or close enough for him.

The whistle had seemed to distract the guy away from him, which was enough. Kurogane watched him a moment, seeing how he looked to be trying to make the wall move or else go through it altogether. Did he not have that power? Then if Kurogane could get into the other room...

He could end up trapped. Or with a creature worse than this one - one that was smart enough to respond to human speech. The hallway was still there, an open escape route and lighted enough that Kurogane could make a clean escape without falling all over himself. It was his best option if he didn't want to risk anymore danger, and yet it was the last he considered.

Grunting, Kurogane made what had to be one of his stupidest decisions and focused on the door. The guy wouldn't stay distracted for long and he was fast, Kurogane likely had only one chance of getting the door down, if that much. And he would make it count. He gave the glowing boy one last look then set himself against the door and rammed it with all he could muster. The lock rattled hard and appeared to have stayed in place until Kurogane gave an extra push and the door whacked inwards.

[From here.]

Edgar stepped through the doorway first, pushing aside the broken remains of the lock on the floor to make a safe passage for his companion. Whoever had preceded them had certainly done a full-force number on the door when opening it.

He turned his light to the hallway- same stifling darkness as before. While there didn't seem to be a visible threat, something about the hall was unsettling.

"Which way now?" he asked, keeping his eyes and his light on the corridor.

[passing through this time on account of short distance and mun hiatus; emailed mun to let them know]

Harley followed right after, pit-patting quietly down the hall and through the door. Despite how it may look, she actually was paying very close attention to their surroundings. Getting eaten would have put a bit of a damper on the evening, y'know? She'd like to avoid that if possible.

"Just right through here," she whispered, going around the guy to the wall on their left. The door they wanted was right next to them, conveniently. Less convenient, however... She frowned down at the door lock. What the? Didn't she bust the lock on this thing last time? What, did they go around replacing all the locks everyone broke every night? Boy, no wonder this place didn't have any money for exterminators!

She made a disgruntled noise. "Hold on. I got this..." She lifted up the iron poker and quickly whacked at the lock several times. It took a few hits, but the stupid thing finally snapped and gave way. Lucky thing the staff was too dumb to switch lock brands.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/790747.html)]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/786473.html?thread=64515625#t64515625)]

The door into this hallway had already been broken open, and the same was true of the first door in the hall. Ayumu paused outside to listen, trying to decide if whoever had already entered was still inside, or if she could enter. The voices sounded a little more distant -- likely in the next room after this -- but that was still too close for her comfort.

She considered briefly, then decided to move on, and started along toward the other end of the hall. Perhaps she should start in the morgue again tonight. That had been profitable enough last time.

His area was insecure. Unacceptably insecure. Four patient classified targets had just walked through without meeting any security measures. It was unacceptable.

Switches flicked, buttons rouletted, his security measures were ramped up according to his failures. No waiting, no data gathering. Just loss prevention.

From behind Ayumu, a sphere of blue light shot towards the end of the hallway with definite purpose. The light exploded white, creating a long black swathe of shadow down the hallway where Ayumu was standing. When it cleared, he was charging her with his fangs drawn, eyes fixated on her. Wherever she was going, she wasn't going there anymore. This outcome would be different from the past three detections.

The light was sudden, unexpected and unpleasant, especially when Ayumu had been careful to stay in cover of darkness on her little expedition. Not only did the bright light destroy her night vision, but it also quite clearly revealed her presence in the hallway; it was empty at the moment but for herself and whatever the light's source was, but she couldn't count on that to continue. She lifted a hand automatically to shield her eyes, the other dropping to slide one of her skewers out of concealment, just to be prepared.

When she glanced up again, though, she was startled by the figure moving toward her: not only by his peculiar appearance, but by the way he moved, the sound of it not quite right. Whoever or whatever he was, though, he seemed quite openly hostile, and she drew back several steps in the direction she'd come as she quickly assessed the situation. She would prefer not to move to an open fight if possible, since she was already at a disadvantage, but also had no intention of simply standing there if he planned to attack.

The target was withdrawing from his area. This was both acceptable and not acceptable all at once. He couldn't tell--one moment his code read one thing, and the next his commands were completely different.

He broke stride, pushing off of the floor and flying with his feet off the ground straight at Ayumu. When he was a few feet from her, his speed suddenly doubled and he phased through her. Even though he passed straight through her, he left no trace: no feeling, no breeze, no warmth or chill, nothing.

Though she might notice that he had somehow turned faster than the human eye could process, and was now cutting off her escape route. Eyes glowing just over his collar, he wheezed and flicked his twin fangs impatiently--staring at her. His switches had changed again, and he was waiting now, on standby.

What...?

Though she'd tried to duck, dodge, something to avoid the person coming at her, he simply moved too fast for her to get out of the way at all. Though Ayumu lifted her arms to shield herself in instinctive reaction, he somehow went through her with no apparent ill effect to her. She gave a startled gasp and whirled, rapidly sorting through her options in the situation.

If she was remembering correctly (and she didn't doubt that she was) this...being matched a description on the list of monsters that hadn't been posted lately. How she was supposed to "avoid angering him" as it had suggested when he already seemed irate was difficult to say; she certainly didn't want him to decide to "teleport" her somewhere else in the building, whatever that meant. So what now?

Well. So far he'd been aggressive but hadn't exactly attacked her. It seemed rather obvious that she wouldn't be able to injure him with what she had, especially given that he could become insubstantial at will. Ayumu remained frozen in place for a moment before she slowly straightened up, sliding her makeshift weapon back into hiding before she lifted her hands, open and palms out to show that she was unarmed.

His visual input sensors suddenly became less urgent and red as the target put away her weapon and assumed a defensive stance. Her escape path cut off, his program wasn't listing the situation as incredibly urgent and demanding of attention.

His eyes flicked between her hands and where she had put the weapon. Why? Many of the players and patients had attacked him without thought, never letting go of their weapons. Obviously--because they were anomalies and had to be defeated and then quarantined and purged. This was the core function of his program, the only part that was fully formed and functioning. Other parts kept flicking around, rearranging themselves, shorting out.

With a grating metallic sound, the arms of his fangs retracted and the blades broke apart. He stared at Ayumu and her hands. Curiously, he mimicked her, waiting for his program to inform him as to why they were doing this.

All right, the immediate threat seemed to be gone. So what did she know here?

The bulletin post had been vague at best, and some of what it had said had been proven untrue by her own encounter. There had been no warning before he appeared, and he'd immediately presented himself as an aggressor. At the same time, however, he'd done her no harm so far, and when she'd put away her weapon so had he. Was he simply mimicking her movements for some reason? Or did he not wish to fight, either?

Ayumu considered several options, then finally decided that it couldn't hurt to just ask. Enough of the information was clearly false that she wondered if he actually could speak after all. "What is it you want?" she asked, careful to sound and appear only curious. Not at all hostile.

He stared at her, unblinking, processing what Ayumu was saying. It took him a few moments for his processor to translate and familiarize him with the terms she was using. In the end, it seemed like she was asking his purpose. What he was doing in this place, and why. If his purpose was to attack or to protect.

He found no answers to these queries in his database. He found no answer for any query. But he did find one thing that he wasn't programmed to never divulge or forget entirely.

"/\uR4..." he wheezed. It was one of the only things he could say--like an infant with so limited a vocabulary, it was limited to the name of his creator. The next moment, his creator and master was someone different, and it clashed terribly with his skeletal programming. "/\u?4...!" he insisted, feeling conflicting orders filling his command lines. It was as though he had more than one line open, commanding him to do several things at once that were just impossible to process. He couldn't handle all of them, he couldn't execute all of them. A short wheeze escaped him, as though he were in pain, or frustrated.

It seemed clear that he was trying to respond, but the answer was gibberish at best and did nothing to clarify the situation. Ayumu considered, slowly lowering her hands again to rest at her sides as she watched him, wary of any negative reaction on his part. Was he upset? With her or something else?

He'd first appeared as she moved down toward the morgue, but was now blocking her way back out of the hallway again, so his objective likely wasn't to simply get her to leave. And yet he'd appeared often enough that he had to be one of the guardians set out at night by the Institute, so she couldn't believe his intentions were completely peaceful. Perhaps there was something wrong with him, mentally.

"Is there something I can do?" she finally asked, taking a cautious step forward, still careful to keep her hands visible and clearly free of any weapons. Not that she necessarily needed a weapon to fight, but from what she'd heard any fighting wouldn't help against him.

Something... 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111...

–pronoun
1. s0me thing; a certain undet3rmined or {]nsp3c1f|ed th/ng: 53 6f 6d 65 74 68 69 6e 67 20 69 73 20 77 72 6f 6e 67 20 74 68 65 72 65 2e 20 53 6f 6d 65 74 68 69 6e 67 27 73 20 68 61 70 70 65 6e 69 6e 67 2e
2. 4n /\dditiona1 am0Unt, that is [unknown], [unspecified], 0r f0rgot#3n: He charg3d me ten 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 for [he ha+. Our train gets in at two 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111.

Forgotten... Undetermined, unspecified, unknown. Somehow, deep in his program, these words resonated for him. In a moment of clarity, his program relayed that the target was asking if she could perform an unspecified action--for him.

He didn't know how to respond to this. There was nothing in his databanks to suggest that he should react. Though if she were giving him a query, he should respond. But how? Their programming languages weren't speaking to one another.

And as such, a visual display was best. It was universal--gestures were universal.

He put his hand to the wall, and rewrote the data of the previously paint and plaster surface. It was now slick and glowing, with ragged edges of coding missing. If he was upset at this, it didn't show. He was busy staring at a recreation of a girl in white, floating over a dark grid, through a white room with stacks of books. Glimpses of his creator and goddess.

He watched the image silently, almost reverently. This was what he wanted.

Again he made no move to attack, but -- what he did do was even more baffling. Ayumu was unaccustomed to strange creatures of any type; though she normally wouldn't call her life back in Kyoto anything resembling "normal" when compared to just about anything that happened here at night, it was entirely mundane. There were no oddities with the passage of time, no people being transported from different worlds, no magic or monsters or beings that could turn a wall into...whatever that was. Not even the false memories she retained from "Yuuko" explained any of this.

She froze in place, eyes widening slightly as she took in the sight. Was the girl somewhere in this building? The room was certainly nothing that she'd seen before; there were books in the library downstairs, but they'd all been neatly arranged on shelves, not stacked up like that. Or it could be something else entirely, even just a memory -- anything was possible in this place, which is why it gave her such headaches.

Whatever this was, however, it was clearly important to the strange being. Ayumu stepped closer, cautiously, studying the strange image for a moment in order to affix the details in her mind. And then she glanced back at him, settling on her best guess as she asked, "You're looking for her?"

A wave of white washed over the image of the young girl. Moments later, numbers appeared:

Which collapsed in on themselves to form letters:

And then a single, large, black word:

He looked back to Ayumu, eyes still glowing, though they seemed to hold a certain sadness or loneliness--if such a thing was possible for something like him. When his permissions allowed, he did feel a longing to find her. A calling of sorts. At least, until his switches changed and he couldn't think of anything but eradicating a threat. But for now, he was almost... glad to be communicating with someone who didn't want to put a weapon into his face or attack him with electricity.

Curious. None of the other denizens of the Institute she'd heard of had been so...relatively benign. Or bipolar, perhaps; he'd gone from an aggressive attacker to someone driven with a sad purpose in the space of minutes. Did he only return violence when offered it by a patient? It seemed entirely possible, although it didn't explain why he'd seemed so angry when he first appeared.

Perhaps -- perhaps, he thought this girl was somewhere near here. Or he was guarding this hallway, for whatever reason. If he'd considered her a trespasser, either way, he might have sought to scare her away immediately, before she decided to attack him.

"There's someone I have to see, too," she replied after a moment, glancing from the single word back to the odd-looking being. "My...someone very important to me, whom I need to protect. Do you know how I can return to where I came from?" Since he was being so helpful, it certainly couldn't hurt to ask, now could it?

His processor ran through the terms the patient was using and translated them. It didn't take very long for his program to tell him she was looking for someone like Aura too--but different. Not Aura.

She wanted to leave. Not leave his area (fortunately for her, his program didn't translate her wish as such), but leave the overall server. That should have been simple enough, his program informed him.

He put his hand to the wall again, and his word vanished. The same white wall was left, glowing blank for a moment. Then:

He made a confused and surprised grunt, as though the data should have been at his program's fingertips. On further inspection of his databank, he discovered that even he didn't know how to return to his home server, or even move away from the area he was in. He was... damaged.

"Not found?" A fragment of Yuuko's memories told her that phrasing had something to do with computers, but the ideas that supported that were strange and foreign and Ayumu quickly dismissed that train of thought before it left her more confused than before. Suffice it to say, this being either didn't know or wasn't going to say, and judging from his reaction it was the former of the two options. That was interesting enough.

She frowned at the wall for a moment longer, pursing her lips thoughtfully, then offered, "I can go look for her, if you'd like?" Ayumu turned toward him, careful to seem nothing more than concerned and helpful. If he decided to go back to his aggressive mode again, there didn't seem to be much she could do to fight him, but maybe he'd let her move on if he was still feeling friendly.

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/786473.html?thread=64375593#t64375593)]

Well, that had been a lovely little show. Grell had lurked in the shadows long enough and the nasty flying lizards had all but eaten that pink-haired man before his allies showed up and saved him like the knight saves a fainting maiden. But the show was over once the creatures were dead and Grell had moved on down the hall.

And now he had the problem that there were others here. The door he needed was already open, meaning someone might see him. More than that, there was something else in this hall.

Including a boy trying to push his way through the wall.

Oooookay... Edging through, Grell slipped into the open door and tried to get away.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/790747.html?thread=64553179#t64553179)]

Nightshift 46: West Wing North Hall 2-B

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