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damned_institute2010-04-08 11:37 pm
vbyv.livejournal.com) wrote in damned_institute2010-04-08 11:37 pm
Night 48: East Wing, Hall A
[from here]
Skidding around the corner, there were actual doors here, and yeah, okay, this was a lot nicer now that the non-existent holes in the floor had stopped crumbling all over. Kind of. She thought so, anyway, but a part of her half-expected to lose her footing at any second, too. What the hell had happened back there?
She grabbed the first doorknob, rammed it with her shoulder, but for one, ow, and two, nothing, and neither had ever happened in her life. Not for as long as she could remember. A locked door stopping a Slayer? Please.
She cursed, but left it behind. Fuck it, if there was time to dwell on this, she didn't have it. Next one. It gave way this time, after a couple of tries, and she nearly pitched head-first into the shelves.
Graceful.
Skidding around the corner, there were actual doors here, and yeah, okay, this was a lot nicer now that the non-existent holes in the floor had stopped crumbling all over. Kind of. She thought so, anyway, but a part of her half-expected to lose her footing at any second, too. What the hell had happened back there?
She grabbed the first doorknob, rammed it with her shoulder, but for one, ow, and two, nothing, and neither had ever happened in her life. Not for as long as she could remember. A locked door stopping a Slayer? Please.
She cursed, but left it behind. Fuck it, if there was time to dwell on this, she didn't have it. Next one. It gave way this time, after a couple of tries, and she nearly pitched head-first into the shelves.
Graceful.
no subject
Dean was sure "Sam" had taken off this way. Sure, it was the kid's body and he was in there - he had to be - but that thing was riding him and riding him hard.
Although not as hard as it could've. Dean didn't run full tilt, not when it'd be hard to stop if the floor opened up again or the Demon turned to ambush him. Even concentrating on catching up, the thought that this wasn't the usual M.O. here was in the back of his mind. Dean slowed as he came to the end of the main hall, reaching up with one hand to wipe sweat that had beaded on his forehead and listening. There was a loud crash down one of the side halls. Dean headed for it. For all he know, this was a trap but there'd been a whole lotta chances for that thing to kill him.
He wasn't gonna let up now.
[Cornering Faith HERE]
no subject
It had been silent. Completely devoid of movement or fluctuations in the data of his area. And by his clock, his time to be out and surveying his designated field was nearly at a close. Until there was a sudden spike and banging. A panicked patient non-aggressor had accessed his domain, running from something. She was so far from where she was supposed to be. Out of the defined bounds--far outside them.
Eyes snapped open, and he fell out of the ceiling, landing without a sound on the floor. Fang extended down the hallway, towards the origin point of the noise waves, the arms snapped open with a grating, metallic ring. A green eye swiveled, locking onto his target.
...which had disappeared into a door that had been broken open. His optical sensors locked onto a male patient (her pursuer, his program helpfully provided) as he left the designated area.
He stood there for a full two seconds, then snapped his fang back into its more compact form and straightened out. With a wheeze that could almost be construed as resignation, a flash of light briefly lit the hallway and he was a glowing ball of flame. It drifted up into the ceiling.
Back to five-dimensional tic-tac-toe...
no subject
The shouting grew fainter as they turned the corner, but before they could get more than a few steps, there was an eerily familiar wheezing and a dull bluish light. His hackles rose and he moved to stand protectively in front of Chise, preventing further travel. For now, it seemed to be distracted by another set of patients, but he wasn't sure how long that would last.
"Looks like a friend has come out to play," he tried to sound cheerful, setting a gloved hand on her shoulder. While he knew exactly how dangerous the creature was, he didn't want to frighten Chise. He could try to distract it while she made a run for it. With any luck it would ignore her completely.
"I'll go say hello, but why don't you hurry along to that closet. Don't worry, I'll be right behind you," he assured her, taking a few more steps, but carefully keeping himself between her and the creature.
no subject
"Alright, I'll go, b-but I expect you to be there! Or else!"
[Running over here.]
no subject
And then, another two entered his domain. His program was beeping, alerting him, setting his vision red... and he marked another X on a square.
And then, his program defined the targets--one of which, was easily identified.
He slid out of the ceiling, standing and staring at Yuuhi with wide green eyes. He ignored the younger patient, favoring the familiar target. He walked closer, watching Yuuhi intently, weapons holstered... for the time being.
no subject
So far he was only staring, his weapons still put away as he walked forward. There was no recognition in the boy's eyes, but maybe he'd get lucky and the old tactics would still work.
"Hi again! You remember me, right?" he asked cheerfully, removing his coat and turning it around, then shaking it a few times to hopefully jog the thing's memory. Even if he didn't remember, maybe the coat would be just as distracting. The boy seemed fairly childish or simple, all things considered. So long as it meant getting through the night in one piece, that was all that mattered, wasn't it?
"Why fight when we can play, hmm? You like to play, don't you?" he shook the coat a few more times.
no subject
He disappeared off the ceiling, blinking back into view on the floor. Only now instead of the daggers at his sides, he had a fluffy coat of his own.
...though it wasn't perfect by normal standards, or even passable. It seemed to be much larger than Yuuhi's, and was stitched together roughly in highly visible areas. The unfortunate replica also suffered from teal fur trim, and the body was splotched orange and covered in broken binary in places.
Nevertheless, if it was possible he seemed almost proud of the rudimentary item code he'd patched together himself. He started waving it jerkily, trying to match Yuuhi's movements--though there was something sadly mechanic and inorganic about his attempts.
no subject
"Well look at you, now you've got one too. I'm impressed. Can you follow this too?" he asked encouragingly, giving a clap and what sounded almost like a whistle.
He shook the coat a few more times, high and low, side to side, just to see how far the boy would go to match the movements, almost like a dance. It was a game, if an uneasy one, and anything that would eat up time while Chise collected her information was definitely good. As long as the boy was convinced that dancing around the hallway with their coats was a good idea, he'd keep it up.
no subject
He stared at Yuuhi when he clapped and whistled, stopping the coat shaking. A quick analysis of his program told him that he couldn't put his hands together like that (no noise would be produced, which was apparently the purpose of the action), though reproducing the sound was simple. He opened his mouth and a glitched, jerky recording of Yuuhi's whistle resonated through the hallway. He grinned awkwardly, eyes still wide and staring, and kept following Yuuhi's movements. Sometimes he shook the coat in the wrong direction, since his program was trying desperately to find a pattern and follow it, but he was keeping up for the most part.
And the best part was, there wasn't another patient in the hallway to shoot him in the head.
no subject
Before long, the edge of the wall to von Karma's right suddenly gave way to a sharp angle leading to an open space to his right. The intersection to the hallway. He rounded the corner and took a few steps forward, but instead of continuing down the hall just yet, he turned about and walked slowly, his hand outstretched to feel for the solid surface of the other side of this corridor. ...There it was. Now he could proceed.
He looked behind him to see whether Mr. Xemnas was still following him, but without the assistance of the light shining from the Sun Room, it was much too dark to discern any details. He dared not speak, lest he give away his presence to anything that might be lurking in here. As a matter of fact... he tucked his walking stick under his right arm; even that would make too much unnecessary noise. That done, he resumed his trip, gently sliding his left hand against the wall to feel for door frames and doorknobs.
He had to find the fourth door from the beginning of this hallway. Four, the number echoed in his mind every few seconds as he searched for the first one... like a mantra. Right now, though he dared not admit it to himself, it was all that was maintaining his sanity. The darkness was familiar to him... much too familiar... almost like that fateful day fifteen years ago. His right arm tensed, gripping the cane more firmly under it, while acute pain radiated from his shoulder.
Without incident, von Karma found the first doorway, then the second and third. Only one more. All of a sudden, he felt cold; chills pervaded his entire being, draining him of all warmth. The searing ache in his shoulder intensified. Something's hiding in here, the thought popped into his mind for no apparent reason. Just as quickly, he dismissed it as utterly baseless intuition. Such irrational poppycock! Most likely, it was due to the zombie incident from nearly a week ago right here in this very hallway. A ludicrous notion, for the brains of those animated corpses were too decayed to even fathom the subtlety required to conceal oneself. Besides, their putrid stench would have betrayed their presence long before he entered this corridor.
There. The doorknob to the Main File Storage room. He was unsurprised to find that it was locked. Very well. Although it might produce more sound than he would have liked -- especially with no light to assist him -- he would have to break the door open. Thankfully, he had the foresight to bring along just the right tools for this. Taking care to make as little noise as possible, he rooted in his pocket for the screwdriver. It was then that he noticed how sweaty his hands had become, making even this simple task more difficult.
no subject
Though the darkness of Landel's Institute was of a different nature, holding other interests than one's essence, traveling through it was not a difficult task for those accustomed to keeping to the shadows. He, too, reached the fourth door without incident. And unlike his companion, his calm had not even began to falter. He noticed von Karma to be making attempts to break open the door, indicating that it had been locked. Interesting. What could it be that was hidden behind this door?
The Superior did not disturb the man's attempts to unlock the door, however. Once more, he waited in silence.
no subject
He could no longer afford to be delicate in this task. If that sound alerted anything, he would need to finish this as quickly as possible. Within two minutes, he had removed the locking mechanism (gloating to himself that he had done this with the additional challenge of literally doing it blind), and the door swung ajar. Right away, he cracked it open wide enough to admit him and entered the large room.
[To here]