damned_institute | Night 47: F-A Block Hallway

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/808971.html?thread=65815819#t65815819)]

The women's hallway was deserted--nothing moving, dead silence. So she was early tonight. Meche breathed a small sigh of relief and moved to stand to one side of the hall, out of what would become the traffic flow pretty soon. Being early felt like a good sign, even if it was just a small one. She'd felt bad about holding the team up last night.

While it was just her in the hallway, she wedged her flashlight head-up in her coat pocket and started doing some practice with her spear, switching off between the thrusts and spins Alita had shown her. Hopefully she wouldn't have to use it, but it was good to keep working on her skills anyway. Boy, wouldn't Dr. Wilson be proud of her.

[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/809654.html?view=65820342#t65820342)]

Bat in one hand, flashlight in the other, Hime strode down the hall as if she owned it. Anyone who wanted to debate that claim would have to be prepared for a swift and merciless bludgeoning.

Fortunately, it seemed there were very few patients out and about yet, so her royal presence remained unchallenged for the moment as she stepped out of the female block.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/809806.html?thread=65821262#t65821262)]

[ from here ]

Thus began Furudo Erika's investigation, one that was going to take an extremely long time for her. Erika already surmised this by the massiveness of the building when she caught a glimpse of it from the outside during the fourth shift. It was going to take her some time to memorize the layout of the place, and it put her at a disadvantage. She could take the time to seal every door and window of this place, but it was clear that such an action was not only impossible, but merely attempting it was going to take up time.

Time that she presumably didn't have, so Erika had to content herself with observing. She did so by first pacing to the end of the hallway she found herself on, looking through to find that there were a total of four "rows" of rooms, with her room being in the second row from the door. Across from the entrances to these rows of rooms was a bathroom, which Erika found out when she quickly opened the door to investigate.

Tonight, she would simply be observing and investigating. Well, finding some duct tape wouldn't hurt either.

[ to here ]

[from here]

Another woman was already out and working with a spear, spinning and stepping in a one-person dance. Or maybe it was dancing that was like fighting.

She was training seriously -- Taura could see both the rough edges to the movement, and where they'd been filed down to deadly smooth. Or fighting something invisible, but the woman's expression showed only concentration.

She smiled as she jogged past, but didn't intrude.

[to here]

Edited 2010-02-13 15:18 (UTC)

[from here]

It was eerily quiet as Soma rounded the corner. Spotting Meche, she waved a hand in greeting. The older woman was apparently practicing with her spear; that reminded her, she would have to ask Alita for lessons sometime.

Not wishing to interrupt, she took up a position across from Meche and waited for Senna to arrive.

[from here]

It was nice to be traveling with a flashlight again. Even though Anise had gotten good at navigating the patient blocks in the darkness, it was a lot more reassuring to actually be able to see what else was in the hall with her.

"You've got everything you need, right?" she checked with Momo, though she guessed it was kind of a rhetorical question. She didn't seem like the kind of person who'd be so reckless as to charge ahead without preparing first, but who knew? They'd only just met, after all.

The moment Bella caught sight of the other doorway she knew she had to pick up the pace. Could she risk running for it? At least until she got to the stairwell. After that she would be on the second floor, and she'd have to watch her step, since she had only been up there once before. She couldn't afford to take a wrong turn, absolutely not.

We can do this, she chanted to herself, running into the darkness of the hallway, We can.

"Soma," Meche greeted the girl with a smile. She kept up the spinning--it would probably still be a stretch to call her technique good, but at least she didn't have to focus so hard anymore on what she was doing that she couldn't talk. "How are you holding up after last night? Are you feeling all right?"

She hadn't been able to see how bad Soma's injuries were before they were knocked out, and the coat would be hiding any bandages she was still wearing tonight. If she'd been shot, it couldn't have been too badly, since she seemed to be moving all right, but still... Meche wondered if Soma should really be going all the way out to the ruins after that fight.

Not that saying that would be likely to change Soma's mind for a second, so Meche kept her misgivings to herself and kept twirling the spear as she waited to hear the response.

Soma kept her eyes on the spear, trying to memorize the exercises. "I'm fine. Were you injured at all last night? It was difficult to see."

She unconsciously flexed her arm, ignoring the twinge of pain that resulted. It had been a clean wound and the nurses had bandaged it in the morning; it would heal quickly, and there was no need for Meche to worry about it.

She tried to think of something else to talk about. Soma was no judge of spearwork, but Meche's movements certainly seemed a great deal more fluid than they had been before. "I guess you didn't usually use spears in your world, either."

[from here, timeskipped to an empty hallway]

Definitely a dormitory of some sort. Forty rooms in this block, and a bathroom labeled WOMEN, which meant space for at least a hundred and sixty, or a single-sex facility.

That made the eerie quiet more so -- if this were an emergency shelter, it should be crowded, not empty. Instead, the most she could hear were voices so muffled that assigning a direction was difficult. No welcoming wail of sirens, no freeway rumble; where was this?

Flickers of reflected light were still trickling in along with the sound; she followed them out to a larger hallway.

[to here]

Edited 2010-02-12 13:26 (UTC)

[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/810242.html?thread=65884674#t65884674)]

She'd seen this part while the minion had been escorting her to and from the room, but only through one of the exits. In the name of thorough investigation, Agatha poked her head through the door she hadn't been through.

"Just a bathroom," she reported. "Looks like we go the other way."

Hanyuu always hated how... unnerving it could be traveling the hallways alone. Granted, it was still early, so she wasn't too worried about running into anything dangerous.

...Okay, so that might have been a bit of a lie, but she'd kind of hoped that telling herself she wasn't worried would've helped her feel more relaxed. Needless to say, that little plan didn't work too well, and the spirit was as anxious as she always was when it came to moving around at night.

Edited 2010-02-12 00:16 (UTC)

Ema nodded a little. The location of the bathroom was good to know for future reference, but useless to them at the moment.

"Let's go, then." Ema turned and the two of them made their way through the other door.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/809806.html?thread=65896270#t65896270)]

Fine? Really? Meche had her suspicions, but it was tough to study Soma too closely with the spear rotating constantly back and forth in between them. "No, Remy and I weren't even scratched, thanks to you and the others. I think that guy Scott got the worst of it, but even he said he was doing all right." That she didn't buy at all; he'd stumbled into the cafeteria last night looking like a reaper must already be over his shoulder waiting.

It was so strange to think about them here. People did die at Landel's; she knew that. Maybe one of them was even in the building, scythe at the ready, demon waiting with the car. There could be a soul widening a freshly empty pair of eye sockets right now as her mortal coil was slit open--

Meche twirled the spear faster. She was glad she didn't know.

Soma's comment was a welcome distraction. "Not even close," Meche scoffed with a small, amused grin. "I'd barely even held a gun before I came here, much less a ridiculous weapon like this. What about you; don't they go in for wooden spears in the future?"

[from here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/810031.html?thread=65902383#t65902383)

Oh thank the Gods that Asuka wasn't there waiting yet! Junpei shined his flashlight around carefully just to make sure she wasn't hiding in the shadows like some kind of creepy stalker girl. Nope, not hot redhead to be seen.

He quickly slipped down the hallway to Yukari's room.

[to here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/812797.html)

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/811133.html?thread=65902973#t65902973)]

Couldn't this place have shortcuts? Hidden passages, things of that nature? It wasn't that she couldn't walk it, but...she was used to having her abilities. This simply hindered them.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/809806.html)]

[from here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/812797.html?thread=65903357#t65903357)

By the time Junpei returned to the hall he was to meet Asuka in, he had covered the butt of the Evoker with the dark blue baseball jersey he was wearing. The last thing he needed was Asuka to think he was carrying a gun and ask questions about it. He only had it for insurance, sure as hell not wanting to have to use his Persona in front of her. The babe would think he was insane, and rightfully so. Seriously, who in their right mind would shoot themselves in the head with anything, much less something that looked way too much like a gun.

Nope, still no Asuka. He decided to play it cool then and leaned against a wall. He rest the baseball bat against his leg and pulled his baseball cap down a little while he waited. Oh yeah... The picture of casual.

Since Anise had her light out, Momo left hers off and hanging from her sash. The less light, the less monsters they'd attract.

"Yes, I do," Momo replied. "Allow me to give you a warning, Anise-chan. I have no longer have sight in my left eye. I have mostly adjusted to it, but I still have a blind spot to that side. I just wanted you to know."

Scott. That would have been the loud patient about her age; it was good to hear he hadn't been injured further. It sounded as if he'd gotten the worst of it.

She turned her attention to Meche's question, offering a slight smile. "I guess not. I'm more used to guns and mobile suits. Hand-to-hand combat isn't as common as it used to be in my time."

Her left eye? Anise looked at Momo's face as she walked, though it was hard to see the visible damage in the dim light. Since pointing her flashlight right in the other girl's face probably wasn't a great idea, she decided to think about that some other time. More importantly, Momo had just let her in on what was probably one of her biggest weaknesses. Did she seriously have that much trust she could put in someone she just met?

Oh well. Anise didn't exactly feel like lecturing a stranger on safety, so she rolled with it. "Okay, I'll keep that in mind!" she answered cheerfully. It was probably good information to have, in case they had to fight together.

[to here]

...She was doing it again. Yuna stopped to lean against a wall, pulling her senses away from reaching for the summoner's bond. She'd done it last night, too, but she'd thought the habit was more or less gone. Clearly it wasn't, but... But it'd used to comfort her. Drawing strength from the aeons, from their support, from what they represented. But they were gone now, the bond was empty, and...it kind of hurt.

She kept thinking about what Kairi had said, about the sword. Proof that her friend had existed, that her friend couldn't be erased as if she were nothing. That had kind of hurt too, in a different way. Because it wasn't as if he hadn't existed, but the High Summoner was Yuna. The one praised for bringing the Eternal Calm...was Yuna. Yuna remembered him, and Rikku, and everyone else, but...what happened when Yuna was gone? She was gone, right now, missing from Spira.

...Ack. Yuna straightened, and shook her head. She...she'd just try to stop herself from reaching, next time. And...it wasn't like Yuna's own memories were gone.

Turning her thoughts to the situation at hand, Yuna turned to the door and went through.

Night 47: F-A Block Hallway

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