Nightshift 49: Entry Room

[chainsaw-royal.livejournal.com]

[From here]

Weed whacker in one hand and carton of gas and flashlight in the other, a mesh bag with a baseball bat and kitchen knife hanging from her waistband, Hime was probably quite the odd sight trailing a line of cellophane tape behind her as she came out into the entry room, automatically turning and catching the door with her foot. Luckily, it seemed there was no one else around to see the strange appearance. Not that Hime would have cared - her imperious stare came regardless of whether or not she had her tiara, whether or not she was weighed down with a load of junk.

"I'm going to let it close," she warned Depth Charge once the robot had stepped through. Taking a moment to make sure the tape had enough slack, she moved her foot out of the way. True to the rest of the night, the door swung closed of its own accord, pushing against the tape and pulling it tight. Then finally it closed on the translucent line, holding it taut. It seemed successful - despite the closing door, the line of tape still connected those two rooms, however Hime withheld celebrating for the moment, instead eying the tape warily. Then, true to her expectations, at the slightest pull from her, the tape popped out of the gap between the door and frame, cleanly severed as if nothing existed beyond that doorway. Which, in a sense, nothing did.

"I suppose that's another theory down," noted the Royal flatly.

Comments

[scalyfishman.livejournal.com]

"Bread crumbs...?" Probably some kind of Earth proverb he'd never heard before- they seemed to like those, and the more obscure the better. What were you supposed to do with bread crumbs?

Forget 'odd sight', they probably looked ridiculous, with Hime dragging all that scrap along with her and leaving a snail's trail of cellophane while Depth Charge crept along protectively after her, all the way into... hmm. Never been here before. It looked like some kind of reception area, though, so most likely he'd just never seen the point in coming here. Still didn't. He shuffled out of her way so that she could shut the door, creeping down the sides of the room so that he could get a look down behind the desk nearest to him in case anything was hiding there- nope, he couldn't see anything, but you never knew around here. Things always seemed to go for the-

- worst. The door clicked shut, and when he turned around Hime was standing with the tape neatly ripped in one hand. Depth Charge made a face. "It was worth a shot," he offered, which was actually pretty fragging close to sympathy as far as he went. He walked back over to where she was, hooking one hand in his pocket. "Guess we're gonna have to do this the old fashioned way, huh, princess?"

[chainsaw-royal.livejournal.com]

If Depth Charge was really so curious about the allusion, then he could ask someone else tomorrow. For now, Hime had better things to do than talk about old fairy tales.

Well, no, in this situation, maybe she didn't. With that last measure gone, she was at some of a loss on how to deal with Landel's spell. She let the tape drop from the finger it was on, having no further use for it. Lucky for Depth Charge, she was the type that needed little sympathy, but also wasn't the type to irrationally reject it. Instead she mostly... ignored it, turning a flat expression on the man's other statement.

"There's an old-fashioned way of dealing with magical revolving portal doors where you come from?" she asked dryly. She somehow doubted it, but if he did know something, then she might even be grateful enough to forgive him for not telling her sooner.

[scalyfishman.livejournal.com]

"You could say that." Did that wormhole that'd sucked him down to Earth way back when count as a magical revolving portal? Wasn't like he'd had the chance to find out if it went both ways. But the details didn't really matter right now, and he gave Hime a casual, flat smile. "It's called sucking it up and walking til you drop or you find somewhere better. Whatever happens first."

Which, really, wasn't a 'way' of dealing with the night's challenges, but it was the best he could come up with for now. He shrugged. "Unless you've got any better ideas, we'd better get going." Giving the room one last sweep with his flashlight just in case something had decided to creep out of the woodwork in the half a klik his back had been turned, he walked back to the door with its tape-tongue dangling out of the side, opened it, and headed on through.

[scalyfishman.livejournal.com]