damned_institute | Night 49: F21-F30 Hallway

She hadn't stopped them.

In their room Ema would have been safe, but that wasn't going to happen now, because Agatha couldn't deal with a couple of Landel's minions. It wasn't quite nightmarish- Agatha's nightmares were already pretty fully cast- but it was bad.

But whatever the situation had been then, there was no one stopping her from searching her friend out now, so, grimly packing up her few useful items in the shirtbag, she opened the door and headed out.

[from here]

The young woman Lana had seen exiting Ema's room last night was standing just outside it. Which would suggest not everyone had been moved. Perhaps it was just a simple consolidation, then.

Lana marched up and addressed her directly. "Is Ema still inside? I need to speak to her." Lana wasn't sure where else she'd be, if not, but she couldn't bring herself to fault Ema for not wanting to stay in a dark room. And if her roommate was still here, either Ema should be, or she'd had the luck to be returned home.

Lana didn't think she had that kind of luck any more, if she ever had.

Agatha vaguely remembered this woman from last night- she'd been a bit distracted at the time by the promise of tools- but it was obvious that she had something to do with Ema, which meant that this conversation was probably going to be excruciating.

But it was also probably both unavoidable and important, so Agatha plowed into the explanation first. "Some nurses came," she explained, while shaking her head no. "They talked about that 'sleep study'- I was just about to start searching."

"She...was taken? When? After dinner?" That was only a few minutes ago. God. She'd been calmly eating cream pie and toweling her hair while Ema had been being kidnapped. Could it be called kidnapping when they were already prisoners against their will? Say tortured, then; while Edgeworth's notes had never used that word, they'd spent a dozen dancing around the possibility instead.

Lana's eyes narrowed. Lana's world narrowed, to the space between the young woman fumbling her way through a series of excuses and her own frantic thoughts.

She was at their mercy, and that had been heretofore shown to be be scant. "They're taken upstairs. That's all I know for certain." Not quite all she suspected; the map in her notebook had no point labeled CM-US, but she remembered drawing in a series of unlabeled, small rooms that had looked like cells. Her gut instinct had been right, and now Ema was the one place she'd done everything in her power -- and several things that never should have been -- to avoid.

"Yes, just between the announcements." The woman was certainly being businesslike about this, which Agatha could appreciate. It would probably be much more useful in finding Ema than otherwise. Her ears pricked up a bit, metaphorically speaking, at the information. Little though it was, it would certainly narrow things down a lot, and-

-would Recluse know? He certainly gave the impression of being on top of things, and at the very least he'd been around longer than she had. Agatha wasn't sure if he'd be expecting her again, after the nasty way last night's attempt had ended, but it was far from the most unlikely thing she'd ever tried.

"I have a... kind of guide," she offered. "He might know more. If you'd like to join up to search, that might be a good way to go about it."

A door slammed with the vehemence of a service revolver. Lana didn't flinch. She merely raised an eyebrow as a young man stalked past them. What did he have to worry about, in comparison...

"Any assistance would be appreciated." While dragging another underage young woman into this debacle wasn't her first choice, it was her only choice. She'd held herself together better than Ema when they'd been attacked, by all reports, and her judgment seemed solid so far.

Lana turned on her heel and strode down the hallway. There wasn't a moment to lose.

[continued here]

Edited 2010-05-18 04:16 (UTC)

She felt... strange. Head fuzzy and reactions dimmed, there was a thought that said that those couple of gulps were probably not the best thing to do. Still, the girl slid on her uniform, letting right shoulder hang down so it wouldn't mess with her sling. At least her leg was less sore. Walking wasn't so much an issue.

The sword was slid into her sash, and she moved to the doorway, offering a bye to Falis before slipping into the hall.

[to here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/883183.html?thread=69132783#t69132783)

She had ate what she wanted and left the rest, eying the intercom box in the corner of the room when it crackled twice. The doors unlocked, and she stared momentarily. Habits were encompassing, and she desired movement in the slightest of ways. The events of the past night rested on her mind. Answers were not as forthcoming.

Some kind of whim had her reaching beneath the mattress when she stood, touching the metal she had placed there delicately. Habits. Still. Even here. As she straightened, Rei glanced to the side. The closet door was open slightly, in a way she couldn't remember doing. She crossed to it, intending to close it, then stopped, hand on the door. This was.

A plug suit. Her plug suit. For Unit 00. Her hand reached before she thought, brushing material. She had no idea how it was here. Was it brought with her, whenever she had came here? Rei stayed like that for a moment, then carefully started removing the clothes she was wearing. There was no reason to change into that. Nothing gained from wearing it. But it was habit, something comfortable, and she had stepped into it and pulled it up within moments. The clips were slid into her hair, and then she paused, a hand at her other wrist. There was no need for delay. No reason at all.

Ayanami pressed the button and the suit tightened. She crossed to retrieve her flashlight, and then left with no other delay.

[to here]

Edited 2010-05-16 23:11 (UTC)

Tonight was... interesting. Interesting because the orderlies had come for Nunnally. Erika was silent when the event happened, despite how the other girl must have been feeling, but she couldn't help but break out into a wide grin once the night began. Not only was Nunnally taken away, but the Head Doctor had promised changes tonight and visitors? All points to investigate. He was really too much like Beatrice, giving out too many clues and too much information. Either everyone else on this board was incompetent or the board's difficulty was that great. She had suspected the former, but the latter was slowly becoming more possible.

It didn't matter, though. To Furudo Erika, there was no mystery that could not be solved. And she was about to solve one now, namely the whereabouts of the Golden Witch herself. Battler had insisted that she existed here, and was going to show her. That should have been the greatest proof, but without the red to truly confirm anything, Erika would have to investigate this matter herself. Therefore, she decided to go with Battler tonight.

It was a shame that she had to distract herself from the more interesting things going on tonight to pursue the witch she already felled, but it was necessary. Even the detective had to do some boring follow-ups; Erika sighed as she finished transcribing the broadcast, tucking away the journal into her pillowcase before collecting the rest of her items and walking out of her room.

As she made her way down the hall briskly, Erika thought of her meeting with Marc and the broadcasting equipment he had been looking for. She did want to venture outside tonight, not even minding the rain. On the contrary, it almost set the mood for the night.

[ to here ]

Well, thank you Doctor Creepy Pantaloons. That's certainly bumped mad science experiment very, very far up the list of possibilities.

The intercom clicked off for the second time, followed by the distinct sound of the door unlocking. Elaine shared a confused, but intrigued look with Leela at that. "I suppose this is meant to be an invitation, then. Wonder what sort of party Landel throws?" Somehow, Elaine had a feeling it wasn't going to be fancy dress. Either way, she was keen to do some party crashing, invitation or no.

There were a few things Elaine wanted to gather up before heading out. During dinner, she had discovered a torch (Leela had called it a flashlight, but by God and her charming British accent, Elaine was not going to call it that), and with the lights now out, that was the first item in her hand. The keyring and keys went in her pocket; she wasn't certain if they would open any useful doors, but they were small enough that having them was worth it just in case. Having more sharp objects on hand was never a bad idea, either. The grey box (which Elaine now recogized as having a speaker embedded in it) just laying out in the open on the desk stood out in the "I'm clearly meant to be used for something important, possibly in an esoteric puzzle solution" kind of way, and so she clipped it to her waistband just in case. Next, something to defend herself with. With no sword or way to wrench the metal bars off the beds, Elaine went for the next best mêlée weapon candidate - the clothes bar in her closet. It took some jiggering, but eventually, it did come loose, sending all the shirts, pants and coats fwumping to the closet floor. She tested its weight in her hands; quite lightweight, but better than nothing. It was tempting to try breaking the bar in half and fashioning a spear, but it looked like doing so would take longer than she was willing to spend at the moment; another night, perhaps.

Lastly, and perhaps most impotantly, she took the white pillowcase off of her pillow and tore along the long, vertical seams until she had one long rectangle of fabric in hand. Pulling her hair back and then placing the fabric over her hairline, she wrapped it around her head and tied it in the back to make a temporary head scarf. She smiled with great satisfaction. There, she thought: her head didn't feel quite so naked anymore.

During all this, Elaine and Leela had talked and agreed it best to split up and explore different areas of the building. That way, they could cover more ground between them and then share their findings either later that night or the next morning. And she did assume that there would be a next morning, given the number of patients she had seen in the halls returning from the field trip. If there were that many people who had been in the institute long enough to be deemed fit to go on a "field trip," she had to assume that making it multiple days in this place wasn't that difficult. The Caverns of Meat had been a worse trip, most likely.

At last, Elaine was set to go. She wished Leela luck, then eased the door open, heading out into the hallway.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/883183.html?thread=69074927#t69074927)]

Edited 2010-05-17 04:53 (UTC)

[From here.]

Lelouch let out a faint sigh of relief as he turned the last corner and started down Nunnally's hall, his eyes absently ticking off each door and room number he passed. That had gone smoothly enough. With any luck, the rest of the journey would be the same, but then he couldn't see why it wouldn't. If he recalled correctly, the clinic's new location was only a hall or so away, and with that little left to go, Nunnally could probably walk it herself if she wanted-- not by herself, that was, but under her own power. Her legs had healed enough for it.

He allowed himself a faint smile and knocked lightly at her door once he reached it, trusting that she would recognize him from that rhythm alone. He was fairly certain they'd be able to get this over with quickly, too, and maybe then he'd be able to convince her to steal some sleep like he'd hoped. She'd probably want to meet the people who worked there first, considering the fact that she would probably be assisting them, but with how inaccessible that room was, he couldn't see them receiving many patients. With that in mind--

His thoughts ground to a halt, and blinking, he cocked his head to one side and strained his ears. Had he been so absorbed in his thoughts that he hadn't heard Nunnally's response? If it had been anyone else, he would have thought that he hadn't knocked loudly enough in the first place, but with her, the sound he'd made should have been more than sufficient. She'd been able to hear his footsteps through the doors at Ashford, from what Sayoko had told him, so maybe-- had she fallen asleep? The field trip hadn't worn her out that much, had it?

Frowning now, Lelouch gave another short knock and then let himself inside. The room was dark, which supported the notion that she was asleep, but it was odd that she still hadn't gotten up yet. With her acute sense of hearing, it had to be either a very deep sleep or... had she fallen into the same nearly comatose state that Bart had?

He murmured a mental apology just in case she was in a more natural sleep and flicked his flashlight on, his eyes darting to her bed.

... Empty?

It was. Hell, the entire room was empty. She wasn't even snoozing at her desk, and he'd done that himself enough times that he would have been able to at least understand that. Instead-- had she left without him? No, that wasn't possible. Her cane was still resting by her chair, and besides, she'd known he was coming for her. She would have never done something that might worry him like that, not without a very good reason and an accompanying note. With that cane left there-- had someone else come for her? ... Had someone else taken her?

His face paled, and slowly, he took the few remaining steps necessary to stand at her desk. Her dinner was still there, barely touched. If she'd been taken, then-- no, she had to have been taken. He couldn't imagine the nurses leaving such a mess if she'd been released; Suzaku's half of the room hadn't looked abandoned like this. She had been taken, and because there was only one of the institute's two usual "activities" tonight, that meant--

I'll kill them. I'll kill all of them!

Lelouch's head snapped up with a speed that turned his already fading vision black, and spinning on his heel, he stalked back to the waiting door with his hands clenched so tightly into fists that his knuckles popped. If he'd had the strength, he would have kicked the damn thing down before him, but as things were, he had to settle for twisting the knob, yanking it open, and slamming the door hard enough behind him that it shook the entire frame.

Martin Landel. Before this day, I would have been content with grinding you and your toys into dust. Not anymore. I'll throw you at the mercy of every soul you've wronged, feed you to your pets, and turn every one of your tricks against you until you forget that the cold comfort of death exists to free you from your torment!

[To here.]

Edited 2010-05-17 06:27 (UTC)

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/883183.html?thread=69083887#t69083887)]

There were two women talking earnestly outside one of the rooms just around the corner; Meche pressed apologetically past them and continued on to Senna and Alita's door. She didn't hear anything from inside that suggested that now wasn't a good time, so she knocked.

"It's Meche," she announced to the door.

[from here]

Soma arrived in the hallway soon after, hurrying up to Meche, who was already waiting at the door. She offered the older woman a small smile; it was good to know at least one of her friends was all right. She didn't like not being able to keep track of everyone. There was no roster here, and if someone went AWOL it wasn't as if everyone else would know almost immediately.

"Good evening," she said. "Did you have any plans for tonight?"

Meche was just lowering her hand when Soma arrived, also geared up with her weapons. Maybe they should practice their spear fighting together sometime, if Soma would go easy on her.

"Good evening," she greeted the girl, giving her a smile in return. "Not really. I was thinking about checking the board to see if Hitsugaya had any assignments tonight, but I could put that off if there's something else going on. Guess he wouldn't have anything for me anyway, since I didn't answer any 'who can work tonight' posts." That hadn't occurred to her until she said it, but once it did she felt silly for not thinking of it earlier.

"What about you? Is anything up, or are you just checking in too?"

"I didn't see anything from Hitsugaya on the bulletin board in town. I suppose the weekly visits to town make it difficult to coordinate assignments for tonight. I wasn't expecting to make it back."

She rested one tip of the spear on the ground beside her foot, shaking her head slightly. "I was thinking of finding the pharmacy and acquiring some drugs, but I decided to check here first to see if anyone had anything better in mind."

"I didn't either. I thought he might have put something up here, but that's probably a long shot." Actually, Soma brought up a good point; after last week, Meche had been holding her breath waiting for something bad to happen in town too, and everyone else must be in the same boat. Holding off on assignments might have been a smart move, when she looked at it that way. And half the active members had been involved in that fight with Roland. Maybe Hitsugaya was waiting until tomorrow to get things rolling again.

Meche put her own spear down too and moved a few steps back from the door to leave room to open it. "Are you still in pain? Alita said the nurses have been giving her something for it during the day."

"A little," said Soma, which was mostly true. "They've been giving me painkillers, but I think Alita was hurt worse. My injuries have been healing at an unusual rate, though. Does that usually happen here?"

She paused and added, with a touch of indignation, "They told me I must have fallen over."

"I think so. It's happened to me before too," Meche replied. "So are you going to look for more painkillers, or is there something else you're trying to find?" Meche had already been thinking about coming along if Soma was all right with it, but now she thought she'd better. For one thing, it would help to know what kinds of medicine the Institute had, and to have some on hand when--not if, Meche acknowledged grimly--they got into another fight. For another, she didn't want anyone overdosing or getting addicted to painkillers. She didn't think that was likely to be much of a danger with these girls, but it never hurt to keep an eye out.

Soma's secondhand explanation got a dismissive snort of laughter out of her. "They aren't even trying anymore, are they? That doesn't really fill me with confidence about their medical knowledge." They'd probably told the people who turned up with zombie bite marks that they'd just rolled out of bed during the night.

Soma nodded. "I know there's a healers' room set up--I've used it before. But if we run into trouble again in the ruins and any of us are injured, we probably won't be able to make it back to the institute in time. It's probably best if we keep a first aid kit with us when we travel from now on."

That, and Mele's comments about what was on the second floor intrigued her. A morgue and a pharmacy--what else was up there?

She frowned a little, still sore with the memory of the nurse's patronizing words. "Either they're very good actors, or Landel has brainwashed them as well."

Falis hadn't gotten a chance to ask Senna where she was off to before her roommate headed out. It was for the best anyways as the hunter stood in her room, white frilly white dress on, as she decided what they hell she was going to do for the night.

It was Meche's knock that made it quite clear to Falis that she wasn't going to be able to get out of the dress in time to avoid her - and what that Soma - seeing it. With a sigh, she grunted an acknowledgment and lightly buckled the corset into place if only because the dress looked dumb without it. Crown in hand, the hunter opened the door and gave the two on the other side a bland look.

"Not a fucking word," she said, stepping back, the skirts swishing, to let them inside.

Meche nodded. "Sounds like a good plan." There'd been more than one instance in the recent past when they would have been in real trouble if the night hadn't ended as quickly as it did. "But you know, I've never been able to tell how much the nurses really know, and the doctors are the same way. Mine--"

She was going to describe Dr. Wilson and his constant nice-guy act when the door swung open and Alita faced them from the other side, wearing a white dress that Meche would have pegged as being for a wedding (or at Alita's age, maybe more likely a quinceañera) if it hadn't had a crown and corset with it. A costume, or was that what Alita the monster-slayer really wore where she was from? She looked much more at home in it than Meche would have guessed if someone had told her about it beforehand.

"If I'd known you were throwing a ball I would've at least put on some heels," she cracked with a grin she couldn't quite suppress, glancing down at her boots and sweatshirt as she went into the room. Senna wasn't there. "You look lovely, by the way," she added more seriously. Alita probably wouldn't like that, but Alita could suck it up and take a compliment. Meche guessed with some relief that a run anywhere dangerous wasn't in the cards for at least one injured girl tonight.

Soma turned as the door opened--and gaped. The expression looked rather out of place on her normally stoic face, but she couldn't help it. She hadn't been expecting that.

Part of her wondered if that had been the outfit Alita had been stuck with for the trip into town. But no, that was ridiculous; even she could tell the material was too good for that, and anyway Alita, despite her comment and the look on her face, wore it like she was used to it. Was the dress one from her home world?

"Is that yours?" she said, recovering at last and following Meche into the room. "How did you get it?"

Falis rolled her eyes as the comments. "What part of 'not a fucking word' didn't you get?" There was just cranky irritation in her words, no real anger. "If I was attending a ball, this isn't the dress I'd be wearing - too casual." Which was saying something considering the quality of it. She shook her hair out and secured the crown on the top of her head. There, now when they ran into nasty beasties, if she could deal with the pain fighting would cause, she wouldn't lose her crown.

"And yeah," she said to Soma. "Princess, remember?"

With a shrug, she continued as she moved back to her bed to collect her sword. "Hell if I know how it got here. It was just there one day when I went into my closet for something. Figures they'd give me this damn thing instead of my hunter clothes. Damn I miss those things. This damn dress snags on too much stuff. I can't tell you how many times I've destroyed one."

Meche had been expecting this kind of grumpy response and so wasn't bothered at all by it. She was trying to figure out exactly what made a dress that expensive-looking too casual for a ball, but she had to admit defeat pretty quickly, since her expertise in clothes mostly just extended to neatly-tailored work clothes in decent fabrics and good stockings. Maybe that wasn't enough frills for a ball gown?

She, for one, didn't remember anything about a princess, but maybe she just hadn't been paying enough attention. Meche didn't comment on the revelation in case Alita was touchy about that too, but she did pay closer attention to the dress after that. Bibi would love it if Meche could work the details of a real princess dress into one of her stories.

Since Alita was going for her sword, Meche stuck to business--mostly. "Want to come on a medicine run with us, or do you need to get somewhere before midnight?" she invited. All right, she promised herself, that was the last joke she'd make about the dress. Unless she thought of a really good one.

Meche was right--it looked like a dress from a fairy-tale. Soma couldn't imagine how it might be too casual for anything. Still, this meant everyone else in LDGC had found something resembling their clothes from home, and she couldn't suppress a small spark of envy. It wasn't as if her uniform afforded any advantage in combat over what she was currently wearing (not that Alita's outfit did, anyway), but there was something to be said for the familiarity of having clothes you knew.

She tried to ignore it--the subject of the dress seemed to be a sensitive subject with Alita as it was. It was nothing but pointless wishing. "It shouldn't take too long; I'm fairly sure I know where it is. If you have any other plans, we can get to those too."

Unfortunately for Meche, Falis didn't get the joke and just gave her a confused look. "Midnight? No... I don't got any place to be. Senna ran off real quick and I ain't moving as fast as normal. Why I'm still here and all."

She then grinned. "Glad you came by, though. Fuck if I'm staying inside another night." Even if she knew she shouldn't be going out. She shouldn't even be wearing the dress out, for many reasons, but it was so natural for her to wear it anymore (and she did actually like it, grumbling aside) that she didn't even think about changing back.

"I'm not up to taking point today, aside from the fact that I have no fucking clue where that place is. Reminds me I need to see what Namine's been up to," she commented, settling her sword at her hip as she pulled her wrist bracers on then moved the sleeves of the dress down to cover them. Her eyes narrowed in distraction for a brief moment as she noted the differences in the bracers, but didn't say anything. No need to admit where there was a weakness when it didn't matter.

"It's--" Meche started to explain, but then she decided Alita probably wasn't in the mood to hear a bedtime story, or to be compared to Cinderella. Although Hokuto was a pretty good fit for Princess Charming, actually. "--lucky for all of us that we met up," she finished tactfully instead.

Meche wasn't just blowing smoke about that; she thought it might be the best possible outcome of the night. Alita wouldn't go out on her own, her slowness would force Soma not to push herself too hard, either; they'd have medicine in hand and Meche herself could feel like she was doing something worthwhile instead of just stumbling around in the dark looking at old coffee cans and waiting to get eaten by people who turned into lightning monsters.

"Well, we'll follow you, then," she said, turning to Soma. "Although I have the maps with me if you need them. Ready when you are, Alita."

A quick nod from Soma. "I've never been there before, but I have a copy of the map, too. It shouldn't be too hard to find."

Shouldering her spear again, she turned and went out the way she came.

[to here]

[ from here ]

"If that's what you're looking for, you're going to be pretty disappointed. ... There's no mystery here at all, just that weird theory you made up." He wasn't so desperate that he had to completely fabricate meting someone. On the other hand, he wondered what it meant that Erika was. He wasn't exactly very surprised that she was screwing with him after losing in the study, but why something like? It was easy to overturn. Too easy, in fact--he couldn't deny the possibility that she was either purposely wasting his time, or that she knew something he didn't it. Either way, something about this didn't sit right.

... Well, not matter what the intention, it seemed that he was stuck playing along. He led the way down the hallway, pausing at the door he'd gone to the previous night and knocking lightly.

"Hey, Beato. You there?" he called out. When there was no answer, he knocked again, receiving the same result. Maybe she was asleep or something...? Shrugging, he pulled the door open and stepped inside.

It seemed that Battler really did come from an earlier "timeline", but even so, he should have expected that Erika was going to be tenacious about checking each and every possibility that the witch was alive. That was her initial purpose in the first game they played together, wasn't it? While Erika was slowly getting the idea that Beatrice had very little, if anything at all, to do with their game, she was adamant in checking anyway. It was probably purely out of spite, wanting to make sure that her victory over the witch remained so.

That was why Erika seemed rather pleased when the door opened to reveal no one in the room. Of course, this room wasn't secure and it was possible that Beatrice suffered the same fate as Nunnally. What kind of trick was this, not even resorting to a closed door? Not that Erika needed one.

One might have expected a remark or two from Erika, but there was none as the detective slipped in after Battler, immediately moving to one of the closets and sliding it open. Her inspection was thorough, and she repeated her actions with the second closet. Upon finding nothing, the detective moved to the beds and proceeded to search underneath them, and then observe the tops, and even checking around corners. After every possible inch of the room was explored by Erika, the detective merely turned to Battler and tapped on one of the bed frames.

"There were people using this room, at the very least," She pointed out, looking just as amused as ever. "Of course, the doors have been unlocked for quite some time now and if Beatrice was here, she has left for the night. I suppose we'll just have to look for her, don't we?"

Of course Beatrice was not in this room. Beatrice didn't exist, and Erika couldn't believe Battler had led her back into the hallway she just came out of and took a chance picking a random room hoping that the occupants had already left. Then again, that sort of reliance on dumb luck did seem to be an Ushiromiya tradition.

Unlike Erika, Battler didn't spare the room much of a glance beyond the fact that it seemed empty upon entering. If there were some deeper sort of mystery, he might have tried to look more closely and see if he could think of anything, but as it was, there were no real questions at all. The only thing here was an empty room with an unlocked door, which was about all that was needed. At any rate, it hardly left anything unanswered.

"... If you're that bored, do whatever you want. There's no reason at all for me to aimlessly wander around such a big place for one person when there's no clue where she could've gone. Anyway, I already talked to her in person. Even if you keep dragging this out, she's definitely here. No matter what kind of weird theory you come up with, you'll run into her eventually."

It was annoying enough that this whole farce was even continuing. There were much better things to be looking into than the the location of someone whose presence he'd already witnessed. And didn't everyone get herded around together during the day anyway? If Erika was as observant as she claimed to be, there was no way that she'd miss her for very long. ... This didn't even make for a game. Games implied challenge and multiple outcomes; something like this only led to a single, fixed point.

"I find it strange that I haven't run into her yet," Erika pointed out. Beatrice was the first thing she would have noticed, but all she had was Battler. As if she was going to simply believe that the witch existed simply because Battler couldn't let go of her just yet. She sat down on one of the beds, waving at him dismissively. He wasn't going to provide her any more information than what he was already repeating, and Erika needed some time to think about her next course of action.

Looking for Beatrice would have been the ideal thing, yes, but there was no point looking for someone who could have been anywhere in this place. With a personality like Beatrice's, there was no need to look for her. Beatrice was stupid enough to come to anyone who challenged her. In that case, Erika would simply have to drag her out.

Battler wasn't required for that, so she said nothing and instead looked around the room thoughtfully. It seemed that their conversation was over, for the time being.

[ ducking out to here ]

Mein Gott! Someone was throwing a royal hissy fit outside with the banging of doors and all. Franziska jumped from the sound of it and then cursed herself for her own mistake. How could she jump at a mere sound? She was a prosecutor, the prosecuting prodigy and she...had a very unpleasant case ahead of her. The fingerprint powder was locked away in her desk drawer, the baseball bat in her closet and while she wanted to finish this up and present her weapon to her father, she realized she had one fatal flaw: she had no brush. She had somehow failed to get a brush to work the powder with. Which meant another trip upstairs, likely to the patient possessions so she could steal a makeup brush from one of those girly types.

No, not steal. Appropriate. She would borrow it and return it eventually to its rightful owner unless said owner failed to claim it as their own, in which case the brush would become her property. That's what she was going to do. That and figure out how she was going to present a perfect, iron-clad case to her undefeatable father with her star witness and her victim having been released. She had a headache and the sound of the storm outside was not making it any better.

Sighing, Franziska stood from her desk, grabbed her flashlight and her whip, wrapped the whip over and under her shoulder and then headed out into the night.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/883371.html?thread=69243307#t69243307)]

After finishing her vegetables and bread, Leela took the look around the room she'd been too busy with trying to wreak violence to take before, and found the flashlight and the contents of the desk and closet. Boots, finally! Not as nice as hers, but satisfyingly clunky. She immediately swapped the slippers for them.

The way the voice over the intercom sounded the second time around did little to change Leela's currently leading theory. That evil laugh needed some work, but if he was trying to make them uneasy about whatever he had with him, it was doing the trick on her. He had the thunder working for him, too. Altogether the sort of guy she could easily imagine having atomic monsters near and dear to his heart.

She was impressed by her roommate's dismantling of the closet, and considered following suit, but assuming there weren't any laser cannons around, which she had to reluctantly concede was probably the sad reality, she had her weapon of choice right here on her feet.

She and Elaine agreed to split up to explore. Leela gave her friend a salute as Elaine left, and followed soon after, flashlight and journal with a pen tucked into it in hand.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/883183.html?thread=69246959#t69246959)]

Edited 2010-05-18 04:08 (UTC)

Night 49: F21-F30 Hallway

F28

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F26

F23

F22

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F22 - so sorry!

F22

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F26; assuming all occupants are gone

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[F26, out before Battler gets there]