damned_institute | Night 48: M81-M90 Hallway

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Night 48: M81-M90 Hallway

[M88]

Leon told himself not to be disappointed that he would be working again tonight rather than getting an extra break. If Jun hadn't disappeared he would have been working anyway. Now he had the opportunity to take care of the offer he'd made Guy a while back. (Which was good, since then he wouldn't have to worry about it any longer.)

He didn't even know if Claude's friend was bringing any metal, and his own supplies were dwindling. Soon he might have to call in a favor from Haseo. The older boy had wanted something to do, hadn't he? The pillowcase was pulled out once more, and the young mage went over his inventory to make certain he'd have enough for a sword of a decent size and weight (assuming that was what Guy wanted). When he was certain he'd be able to manage one more bit of alchemy with what he had, he moved everything aside and sat waiting at his desk.

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[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/845200.html?thread=67548816#t67548816).]

So this is that idiot Scott's room, eh? Porky thought to himself as he strode in, Not much in here, is there? And that would be...before the main event...heh heh heh...

Well, best get to work. This room wasn't going to spray itself.

As Porky walked around the room, spraying everything with a liberal coating of paint thinner, he was sure to keep an eye out for anything that could be potentially useful in the hands of a far more intelligent person. In short, Porky. As was expected, nothing immediately caught Porky's eye. If Scott had anything interesting or useful, he had taken it with him for the night. How inconsiderate! As Porky poked around the nooks and crannies of the room, however, something finally stood out: a pair of bright red mittens.

"...Well, it is getting colder..." Porky mumbled to himself before stuffing the mittens in his pocket, "And besides, it'll be a ton of fun to rub these in that brat's face. Heh heh heh..."

After ~~stealing~~ claiming the mittens, Porky put the finishing touches on the room. The beds and desks glistened with chemicals and the stench of aerosol filled the air. It was a good thing that Porky had left his lit torch outside, because there was no doubt in his mind that the entire room would have lit up like a match had there been a flame present. Porky deeply inhaled and savored the delicious aroma of destruction waiting to happen. It was such a pity that he hadn't been present for the firebombing of the Sunshine Forest, and while this certainly wasn't on as grand a scale, it would be a good enough substitute.

Porky slowly stepped out of the room, spraying a trail of paint thinner on the floor to serve as a primitive fuse for the rest of the aerosol in the room. He picked up his torch, lit it once more, and bent over to light the fuse. Just as the flame was about to touch the paint thinner, however, an idea struck! As a finishing touch, Porky quickly straightened up and closed the door to M85. With a devious grin on his face, he shook the can of paint thinner and sprayed a pig's snout on the front door, just below the M85 sign. He then touched the torch to the door and ignited the chemicals he had sprayed. The flames that were produced as a result lasted for a pitifully short amount of time, but after they had faded, the blackened remains remained in the shape of a pig's snout, smoke slowly rising off of it.

"Hot damn, I'm good at this!" Porky snickered to himself as made sure the door was fully shut. Nothing would suck more than having half of his face burnt off because of the initial burst of flame. After he rattled the handle a few times to ensure that it wasn't accidentally open, Porky slowly bent over to light the "fuse." He could barely hold back a fiendish giggle as he inched the lit torch closer and closer, imagining everything being engulfed by flames. Finally, he lit it.

A few seconds later, Porky heard what sounded like a small explosion from beyond the door. As Porky reared back, laughing manically, he made a mental note to himself.

Phase one: complete.

[Running from here.]

Well, Guybrush had been right for a change. He had heard an explosion. Much like the times he'd predicted Elaine's mother was coming for an impromptu visit, it was one of those moments he wished he wasn't right.

M85 was on fire.

He could tell his room was the source of the chaos the moment he reached the door. If the flames trying to crawl their way through the crack between the door and the floor weren't a dead giveaway, the bizarre shape burned into the door was. The pirate looked at it for only a second- from what he could tell, it was either a badly-drawn face or two halves of an apple- before remembering he wasn't the only one who used that room.

"Scott!" he called through the closed door, setting his items on the floor. No answer. "Scott Pilgrim, are you in there? Now would be a good time to answer!" Still no answer.

With his conscience biting him, Guybrush decided he'd have to take a look in the room himself, just to be sure the mighty bassist wasn't frying in there. He first tried the handle, immediately regretting that choice- he let loose a loud yelp as he pulled his hand back, the hot metal burning his skin. Okay, plan B. He took a step from the door, lifting his foot and giving the door a solid kick. The door, though ablaze, refused to budge on the first blow. "It's you or me, door. One of us is getting kicked open tonight, and I can guarantee it's not going to be Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate!" He geared himself for one more, all-or-nothing kick, putting everything he had into getting that door open. On impact, the latch gave up and the door popped open, sending the pirate stumbling into the room.

Guybrush quickly scanned the burning area, trying to find his roommate amongst the flames and smoke. He didn't get much of a chance to look as said flames made their way to his feet. "Ow ow ow ow ow! Hot feet, hot feet!" He scampered into the hallway again, lifting his legs high in an awkward attempt to avoid the fire on the ground. He fell to the floor and tore off his shoes, blowing on his singed feet to sooth the burns. The injuries weren't severe- certainly not as bad as any sustained by the room, anyway.

"Well, in good news, I don't think Scott was in there," he told himself. "In bad news, everything that was in there is totally wrecked." He looked at his items he'd left in the hall, gathering them into his arms once again. "At least Javert's sword wasn't in there. The guy will probably hate me for several reasons by the time I get out of here, but I'd rather 'burned his sword to a crisp' not be one of them."

[To here.]

Edited 2010-03-29 06:23 (UTC)

[From here.]

The moment they exited out into the hall, it was clear what the source of the explosion was. Halfway back down the corridor, a bright, blazing light was coming from one of the rooms. A fire? Guy stiffened for only a second before he raced over, a sense of dread already settling in. If someone had gotten caught up in the blast, then there was basically no chance that they'd actually survived.

Forced to stop when he got within about five feet of the room, Guy winced back from the heat, putting his arms in front of his face as he tried to peer into the destroyed room. It was hard to tell, but he was fairly sure that he didn't see any bodies in there. Besides, chances were they would have smelled something, as grim as the thought was.

Guy looked over to his friend, doing his best to keep his calm so that Luke didn't overreact. "It doesn't look like it's spreading beyond the room itself," he said, trying to point out the silver lining. He wasn't sure why it wasn't spreading, but it wasn't like they had any way to stop it either way.

The real question was, what had caused this? Rooms didn't explode into flames all by themselves.

"But it shouldn't even be happening, right?" Luke asked, looking at the area curiously. He remembered that they were supposed to be safe in their rooms, and he also remembered his mindset from the other night. Though it was incorrect, they were trying to have him send people back to their rooms. Was this supposed to be some kind of mixed message?

What worried him more was that it seemed impossible to believe that everyone left their rooms at night. If there was a chance of explosions, it meant that people could be caught—and that someone was caught in this one. He tried moving toward the flames, but rekindled after a moment. He didn't have any armor to help resist that, and while he could have the other night, things changed.

Trying to keep from breathing in too deeply, he fell into place alongside Guy. "Maybe if we rush in together quickly, we can see if anyone's caught in there."

Glancing over to Luke when he spoke up, Guy sighed and shook his head. "This is the first time I've ever seen anything like this. I mean, there's been damage to the building, but it's usually caused by..." He'd been planning to say "brainwashed patients," but soon realized that he shouldn't mention that, and quickly recovered with, "other things."

Hopefully Luke was too distracted by the matter at hand to catch it. That turned out to be the case, as his friend next suggested that they just rush into the wall of flames in search of any victims. Guy's eyes widened -- even if his Mystic Arte involved fire, that didn't mean he was ready and raring to race into a burning room.

"I'm pretty sure there's no one in there, Luke," he said carefully. "We'd be able to see something, or we would have heard them." He'd keep his earlier thought about the smell to himself, since he didn't want to upset his friend. It all came down to assessing the facts, though. They shouldn't endanger themselves if they didn't have to.

As Guy spoke, however, he noticed something interesting: a trail of residue on the floor, leading toward the room. Frowning, he crouched down to examine it. "I wonder..."

Even fire couldn't kill someone instantly, and they moved there as fast as possible. Someone suffocating wouldn't risk being lost in the blaze; they would fight for their lives. Luke had fought for his life before, had clung to the last bits of it until he had no choice but to let go. He had a feeling that this was no different. Someone in here wouldn't let Landel—or one of the patients—win. They would fight to prove some fire wouldn't keep them down.

He just wondered if it would look this same way tomorrow night. Would it be as problematic, or would the morning come with the room in the same shape as always? It probably wouldn't be worth checking. In the end, it wouldn't answer any questions, and they could always mention it over the bulletin when they could.

"What's it look like?" Luke asked, coming up behind his friend and abandoning the near-suicidal thought of rushing into the blast (near-suicidal because he believed they could get someone out if they needed to; they could be that determined). He considered the residue, but he told himself that he didn't have the knowledge to investigate as well as Guy. He just hoped his friend would explain so he could hold the knowledge for future engagements.

It looked like Luke had abandoned the idea of rushing in there, which Guy was thankful for. He'd only just recently gotten back into good health, and he didn't want to throw that all away for nothing. It seemed strange to burn down a room that no one was even in, but maybe whoever had been the target of this had already escaped.

When his friend asked what he was looking at, Guy showed him the residue which he'd wiped up on his fingers. He wasn't entirely sure what it was, but he had a few guesses. "This is probably flammable, meaning that someone set this fire purposefully. It was no accident, and..." He paused and sighed. Luke wasn't going to like what he had to say next, but the younger man wasn't going to let him drop it without explaining. "This doesn't seem like something a monster would do. I'm pretty sure it was a patient."

There was no sign of the culprit at this point, though. They'd been too late. While it wasn't their job to track people down, Guy did feel bad about it. Getting to his feet, he wiped his hand off on the side of his sweatpants and then glanced back to the redhead. "Since it doesn't seem to be spreading, I think we can head back to Leon now." He thought they'd left the kid waiting for long enough. He didn't want Leon to worry.

What was worse was how quickly he linked it all together. It wasn't just that someone was doing it here, which was bad enough, but that they were doing it willingly. They sought out the stuff that made the fire that could have possibly hurt someone in the long run. They didn't need to be forced, because he knew that people were supposed to be in their rooms. They did this willingly.

Luke always did poorly at hiding how he felt, and he was even worse now. "What kind of ..." bastard, he finished mentally, but it seemed as if he was having a hard time getting the words out. Instead, he raised a hand and clenched it into a fight fist, showing his complete and absolute irritation with the situation. For now, it was the most he could do.

"Let's get going," he added, the tension still in his voice, and holding his jaw. Without waiting for Guy's confirmation that it certainly was time, he started moving back to Leon's room.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/843571.html?thread=67699507#t67699507)]

As Porky heard Guybrush tromping down the hall, he quickly hid himself in one of the nearby rooms, keeping the door open barely enough so that he could see how the idiot would react, but not so much that the "mighty pirate" would be able to see Porky and possibly deduce that it had been Porky that started the fire.

The very first thing that Porky couldn't help but giggle at was when the buffoon tried to open the door using the handle. Really, Guybrush? You're going to open the door to a burning room using a metal handle? Really? Of course, Guybrush revealed his name in the process, proving that perhaps stupidity was contagious. Anyone forced to share a room with that idiot Scott Pilgrim was sure to see his IQ drop a few points. In any event, Porky had a pretty good idea of how he was going to spend his next nightshift.

Finally, Porky couldn't help but collapse with laughter when the almost frightfully stupid pirate started yelping and jumping around, neglecting to think through how he would manage to walk on fire with normal shoes on. Of course, Porky wasn't an idiot, so he shut the door to the room he hid in before Guybrush could hear him laughing and wiped a tear from his eye.

"Oooh...good times..." Porky sighed as he sat on one of the beds. He briefly toyed with the idea of running over to the kitchen to grab some graham crackers and marshmallows to make s'mores with, using the burning husk of M85 as a fire, of course, but eventually decided that it would be too much effort.

With no regard to the true owners of the room, Porky reclined on the bed and fell asleep.

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Night 48: M81-M90 Hallway

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