Night 51: F1-10 Hallway

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

Sheena looked up at the intercom when it went off. So, Landel had captured Jill. Sheena felt a bit of a wish to help the woman, save her, but she didn't know where Jill was being held, what she looked like or even if she should help her. Or could. Not with the way the ninja was injured - both physical and mental. She wished she'd talked Raine into healing her as everything was so tender and the ninja didn't like stitches. Not at all. And she was worried about the scarring to her lip.

Picking up the unusual metal weapon her former roommate had, the ninja left the room to meet Aigis and hand it over. Once she'd done that... she had a decision to make.

[to here]

Comments

[hasnomeaning]

Time had passed in silence and sleep; energy lost through blood vanishing returning slowly. An announcement would gain interest, eyes tilting to the box with something more than had been seen before. She had been keeping to herself. Involved only in what concerned her. And for that, she had no answers. It seemed, however, that there was more going on that she did not know. As much, maybe. As went on in NERV.

She wasted no time--changed into her plug suit, gathered her flashlight, and left.

[to here]

F5

[mind-the-sukima.livejournal.com]

Nothing. That word described a number of things right now. What the youkai wanted to think about. What she wanted to feel. What she'd eaten at dinner. What plans she'd made she'd made for tonight. What she'd accomplished today. What she'd come up with to say to Sheena.

So she slept. No longer able to truly escape into the world of fantasy, she escaped, if temporarily, into the world of dreams, where illusions at least could seem real and she wouldn't have to face what problems she had. Maybe they'd be gone when she woke up.

Not even changed into other clothes - and thus unaware of the new addition to her wardrobe - the youkai hid under the covers, curled up in a ball and quietly shut herself off from the world.

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

[from here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/961449.html?thread=72269993#t72269993)

Sheena's feet dragged a little as she headed back down the hall. A part of her really just wanted to walk right past Yukari's room and onto her own where she could just sleep the night away. Except she couldn't sleep. She couldn't because of the nightmares she knew she'd have. Even awake, she couldn't close her eyes for long or she'd start to feel that endless falling over and over and over and over again.

Coming to a halt outside F5, Sheena raised a tentative hand to the door, fingertips touching it lightly. Should she go in? Yes, she should. She'd been playing Avoid the Youkai all day long and for good reason. But it was foolish of her to think that she could keep doing that. They needed to talk. Sheena wasn't sure about what, really, other than for the ninja to forgive Yukari.

At that thought, something in the ninja balked, offended that she'd forgive someone who ate part of her neck. Yes, the youkai had been on Special Counseling, but Sheena damn well knew how much of what they did during then was really their choice. Their decision. Their true selves. Sheena had never really taken Yukari's claims about eating her like that seriously, but now she knew better. And the fact that the one she had been falling in love with preyed upon humans like her... A part of her just couldn't handle that and hated her for forgiving the man-eating youkai.

Taking her hand away, Sheena stepped past the door, turned, and then leaned back against the wall, head bowed. It had been her choice to go find Yukari last night. She'd shared the pain and the fear and everything else with her. She'd known what that brainwashing does to a person and still went. She had no right to run from this.

Right?

[mind-the-sukima.livejournal.com]

Yukari had wanted to sleep, to think about nothing, but it was hard for a mind like hers to remain idle for too long. And it didn't take long at all for her mind to home in on that one sensation so relevant to what had been bothering her all day - Sheena.

Her tentative sleep was constantly betrayed by that ever-present knowledge of where the ninja was, whether it be down the hall, heading towards the exit of the block, waiting, coming back. And now Yukari knew she was standing just outside her room. Peeking out from under the covers, the youkai considered her options.

She could continue to hide in hopes the ninja might go away and pretend to be asleep. She could call out to her. She could go to her. Or she could sit there in indecision and confusion and guilt and anguish and unsureness and not do anything at all. Which was exactly what she was doing.

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

Sheena took a few steps away from the door, toward her own room, but then stopped. No, she couldn't run from this. She put herself in that room last night, knowing full well she didn't have any mana and was sick as a dog. What the hell had she expected? Still, she was human and humans had instincts. Sheena had been trained to control most of those natural instincts, but sometimes things were just too powerful, to much, to be controlled.

If the youkai thought she could pretend to be asleep, she was mistaken. The youkai's emotions leveled out to the easiest for Sheena to handle when asleep. Yukari was not asleep now. In fact, it felt like she was having just as hard a time deciding what to do as Sheena was. And yet the ninja didn't move. She could go, just let Yukari think she thought the youkai was asleep, but no. What she was feeling was very unusual from Yukari and it made her heart go out to her.

So, hand shaking, she grasped the door handle and turned it. But then she stopped. Should she? Maybe she should just let this be for another day. Talk to her when it was light out and the youkai wouldn't eat her because there was staff around. And that had to have been the stupidest thought borne from her fear that she's had all damn day.

"Come on, Mizuho. You can do this," she said to herself and opened the door.

[mind-the-sukima.livejournal.com]

Part of Yukari knew just how foolish she was being, trying to fool the ninja despite the pact between them. Surely the girl would notice that spike of both pain and relief when the youkai sensed her starting to walk away. But then Sheena was coming back and her mind became a sea of turmoil again - something colder and more detached, something more like what had been in control last night, laughed at the spectacle. The great Yukari Yakumo, hiding under her bedsheets in fear of confronting a little human girl not even two decades old. Pathetic.

The rest of her though was more than content to hide under her sheets, freezing up as she heard the doorknob turn, peeking out curiously when it wasn't followed by the door opening. But then the door did open and the youkai zipped back under the sheets, as if she could still pretend to be asleep despite the fact that the ninja had surely seen that quick movement.

Go away, go away, go away, go away!

Her thoughts were a panicked train of that repeated command, but the feelings underneath them painted them more lie than truth, though there was a mix of both desires.

F10

[ai-no-minako.livejournal.com]

The routine was starting to become familiar: dinner, then the lights-out announcement, then the doctor guy got all weird and started gloating about something or another before the doors unlocked. Minako was all ready to ignore Mr. Overdramatic Evil Guy and head out for the night, but tonight... was a little different. She straightened and frowned at the intercom speaker with a decidedly more serious and intense expression than she'd worn during most of her stay here, one hand closing into a fist. Now he was taking prisoners? If only she could transform, she'd be able to blast through the walls of this place, making her way to wherever that Dr. Landel person was lurking, and deal with this once and for all.

But there was no use in worrying about what she couldn't do, was there? All she could do was focus on what she could do. She wouldn't even have any idea where to start looking for "Jill," whoever she was (other than the prisoner of a definite evildoer, which automatically made her worth saving in Minako's mind) so she needed to start with the plans she'd already made. Maybe the "Search & Rescue" people might even know where they could go to help. Probably not, but it was always worth that little bit of hope, right?

Minako nodded to herself, then dragged the coiled chain from its hiding place and slung it over her shoulder before turning a once-more cheerful smile on her roommate. "Be careful, okay, Kagura-chan? I'll see you tomorrow night!"

And with that she was out the door.

Re: F10

[ai-no-minako.livejournal.com]

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/961449.html?thread=72278953#t72278953)]

F4

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

The collection of origami animals littering her desk had grown even larger, but Yuffie wasn't awake to appreciate them.

The drowsiness had assaulted her just as she'd been collected by her nurse at the end of Arts and Crafts. It had drowned out the nurse's chatter, the clatter of over a hundred patients on the move, and even the head doctor's droning. Walking to her room, it'd felt like her legs were made of lead, and like her head was full of sawdust. It had to have taken at least twice the usual time. Or maybe an hour? Half? Who knew. It hadn't mattered, anyway.

I'll eat dinner in a little while, she'd thought, sleepily, as she perched on the edge of her bed. What'd he say? C'ramel…

… And then she'd leaned back, only half consciously; the drowsiness had caught her, overtook her, dragged her under. Sleep claimed her in a wink, and she hadn't moved since.

Re: F4

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/963788.html?thread=72457164#t72457164).]

If Kenshin remembered correctly, Yuffie's room was down this corridor. He paused in front of one of the doors, thinking. This was the right number, wasn't it? The door was tightly shut, and he couldn't hear anything from inside. Was this the wrong room after all, or had she gone out already?

Well, there was only one way to find out. The rurouni raised his hand to the door and knocked.

"Yuffie-dono? Yuffie-dono, are you in? It's Cloud and this one."

Re: F4

[notthistrain.livejournal.com]

Cloud waited next to Kenshin, listening for any movement within. When he heard nothing, and when the door didn't open to allow them inside, the man frowned. He hated to enter a woman's room uninvited, but they needed to be certain she was even in there. If Yuffie had disappeared, or been taken upstairs for those experiments...

"Guess we let ourselves in." He went for the knob without asking the other man if they should.

The room was darkened, of course, but his flashlight revealed a form on the bed. He was relieved to find she was there, even though it was troubling to find her asleep. He'd heard bad things about others disappeared after spending a good deal of time unconscious. The blond walked over to the bed and gave her a gentle shake on the shoulder. "Hey. Up and at 'em."

Re: F4

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

[Derp, I had no idea we were skipping Yuffie. Sorry!]

Kenshin understood Cloud's eagerness to check on Yuffie, make sure that she was a all right. No answer at the door could mean a lot of things, and not all of them good. The rurouni followed after Cloud, following the flashlight beam until he could see...

Yuffie was asleep. Sound asleep, by the looks of it. She hadn't even stirred when they'd come in. Kenshin looked down at the lump of sheets and tousled hair fondly, smiling a little. "She looks so peaceful," he laughed. "Such a little angel. Perhaps we shouldn't wake her after all."

The quiet would certainly last longer.

F6

[36-24-35.livejournal.com]

Tifa didn't waste time getting to her wardrobe once the intercom went silent and the florescent lights flickered out. First, she grabbed her flashlight from under her pillow and began search through the myriad of stuff piling up in her dresser. Moving garbage bags, cans and fruit out of the way, the brunette grabbed her borrowed knife (just in case) and her Ice materia, which she stuck in her bra. The knife had nowhere to go but in her right hand as she moved out of her room and into the hallway.

She hoped Logan would be punctual, so Zack wouldn't have to wait just for Tifa to finish her personal business.

[mugenreppa.livejournal.com]

Mele stood next to the doorway of F9, slowly rubbing her arm even though it didn't hurt, not really. They'd merely tried to restrain her, nothing else. Where did they go?! She hadn't seen which direction they'd taken.

Third floor. Third floor.

Spurned suddenly to action, Mele whirled to re-enter the room. Changing quickly—she'd be able to fight much better this way—and hastily grabbing her flashlight and knife, not bothering to replace the pillow and drawer, Mele moved out into the hall and headed for the stairs.

[mugenreppa.livejournal.com]

F6 and heavy on the Final Fantasy 13 spoilers

[thestormishere]

As long as she had been alive, Lightning had always heard that Pulse was practically uninhabitable by humans. It was supposedly Hell- too wild, too uncontrollable, too evil to house humans aside from maybe a few barbarians- everyone knew that there was just no way any sort of advanced civilization could ever come out of any humans living in a place like that.

She'd even believed it, too. There had never been any reason not to. That is, until she'd been made into a Pulse l'Cie... and until she'd met Vanille and Fang who were from Gran Pulse, and everything she'd been made to believe about Cocoon and the fal'Cie who ran it had come crashing down. It was all just an elaborate ruse, a master plan to murder millions and bring back what the fal'Cie called 'the Maker.'

Still, it continued to be hard to believe as they finally escaped the Ark hidden beneath Eden, aboard a Pulse ship and through a Pulse Gate-- were promptly attacked by an enormous native monster, and upon the destruction of their ship, forced to flee Eidolin-back to the surface of the land four of the six l'Cie in their group had grown up seeing as nothing more than enemy territory. And yet they'd survived, and although their path was unclear, they continued onward in the search to overcome their fal'Cie bonds. That wasn't to say that Gran Pulse wasn't dangerous, and admittedly weird...

... But what was weirder was the state in which Lightning next awoke.

Even in sleep she could tell that something was distinctly wrong. All at once she started awake, heart pounding and body tense. It was too dark here- far darker than anything she could remember ever experiencing at length before. Quiet, too. Pushing past her remaining sleepy confusion, the young woman sat up, alarmed.

"Fang?" she called, half-demanding, thinking first of the woman who was more or less the l'Cie's current expert on where they were, "Hey--!"

Nothing. There wasn't a reply, and Lightning quickly decided not to try any further. There hadn't been a fire made before she'd gone to sleep herself, but even if the natural light from the environment was gone somehow, at least the glow from the light armoring on her shoulder should have still been there; because of that absence, the quick touch she applied to her chest only served to confirm that her clothing had been changed. Why? Had she actually failed somehow... enough that she had been captured and stripped of all of her belongings?

She flipped over onto her hands and knees, kicking off the covering that had been over her legs and crouching there cautiously. She was in a strange place, unarmed and in strange clothing, but although she might have also been confused and blinded, her resourcefulness was still very much intact. She could tell that obviously she was on a bed of some sort, and in what sounded like a relatively small room. Beneath the puffy object that must have been a pillow was a harder shape. A weapon, perhaps?

With her head still up and staring into the darkness, the young woman slid off the bed silently, pulling out the thing with one hand as she stood and then stepped along the line of the bed behind her. In moments she'd found what seemed to be a table at the end, and further beyond that, a storage unit of some sort. The only thing that was in it seemed to be more clothing though, for some reason. By feeling, they also seemed to be the same as what she was currently wearing.

[thestormishere]

She paused then, just long enough to assess the situation. Although it couldn't be proven as she was, the fact that in some way she had fallen into enemy hands seemed the safest and most logical solution. If it wasn't Barthandelus' doing, then it must have been something like the people of Gran Pulse they had just started to consider looking for. Why she'd been left alone, however, was a complete mystery. Where were the others?

Turning her attention downward, she finally applied more effort in figuring out what she was holding. She was careful just in case it was dangerous, but it seemed too heavy to be any sort of electronic device or weapon of that size that she knew of. Regardless, that's what she guessed it had to be, even if she couldn't figure out how to activate it. Blindly she felt around the ends and-- ah. The light issuing from the thicker end briefly blinded the young woman, but with a quick huff of irritation, she quickly managed to aim it away from her. The illumination was strangely yellowish, but it was enough to evaluate the pale, lifeless little room she'd found herself in and saved her the trouble of magicking up some fire to use instead. It also proved enough to find the door out, which was unlocked contrary to what she had expected, as well as manual. Strange.

... Well then. If she didn't know where she was, then she would simply have to fix that. And if there was no sign of her captors, she would just have to find them. She allowed herself a minute more to tear through the rest of the room for clues, but finding nothing else except for another strange little device and miscellaneous other oddities, she quickly exited the room, passing the rows of strangely-identical doorways towards the space that indicated a large hallway.

[ To here. ]

[givemeoblivion.livejournal.com]

Callisto left her unusually quiet roommate without so much as a glance of concern. The other woman's business was her own, after all, and there wasn't enough of a relationship between them for her to care either way.

The handle of her newly acquired weapon was dirty and splintering, so she'd torn strips from her bed sheet in order to wrap them around it and make gripping it easier. Shouldering the pick and grabbing her light stick, she decided at the last minute to bring the radio along as well. It had the potential to give away her location if she was trying to keep hidden somewhere, but there wasn't too much of a chance of that happening, and sometimes the information gained from it was interesting.

Barefoot, and hoping to make as much or progress this night as she had the night before, the former warlord made her way quickly toward the main hallway.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/963788.html?thread=72444620#t72444620)]

F7

[akarusa.livejournal.com]

Part of feeling good was looking good; so, once she was done eating dinner, Hokuto dug out her makeup and carefully applied it while the lights were still on. She'd been doing it long enough so she probably could make herself up in the dark or by flashlight, but she wasn't about to try it.

When the lights turned out, she got dressed in her usual outfit (http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b247/Clover-Elf/Misc%20LJ%20Postings/HokutoNightshiftOutfit.jpg), checked her makeup one last time, then grabbed her shovel and ran out the door.

[[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/961449.html?thread=72350377#t72350377).]]

[she-is-ruin.livejournal.com]

Yomi left her origami where her nurse had left them--they were another example of how she’d been forced into monotony, her hands made idle. When day turned to night, it was a chance for something to be done, even if the prisoners’ attempts were what her enemy found so amusing about them.

She was far more likely to succeed than someone like her roommate, at least, who sat primping herself while Yomi tied her boots and collected her ring and radio. Seriously? The sesshouseki couldn’t laugh, but Yomi felt a current of glee at seeing such stupid human behavior. So long as there were people like Hokuto, Yomi would never, ever be standing at the bottom.

She had only one clear desire, and it was that steadfast purpose that had her picking up her pipe and waiting for the night to begin, as patient as a statue. The character calling herself Jill being captured--if the woman had truly been captured--meant nothing to her, though it was something to keep in mind. The happenings on the radio were just interesting enough for her to keep taking the thing with her. And the ring, well… the ring was an obvious choice.

When Okita didn’t seem to want her company (smart man), it might have been well past time to start playing around with her new toy.

[she-is-ruin.livejournal.com]

_{[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/963788.html?thread=72775884#t72775884)]}

[36-24-35.livejournal.com]

"........" Finding her room open was a bit irritating, since she had quite a bit of groceries in there, but she only had herself to blame now. Her roommate Teresa was gone. She hadn't known her well at all, but she hoped that whatever happened the woman was in a better place than this, even if that was death.

"Come on in...!" She invited extra cheerfully in order to combat her morose thoughts. "We can prop the flashlights together, if you want, so we have a bit more light..." There was plenty of desk space to put them around the room. She beckoned Wally over to the chaotic mess that was her wardrobe. It was filled with apples, oranges, ketchup packets, bags of sugar, bread, and garbage sacks that she had procured over the last few days. "Okay, so basically one of us gets the task of chopping fruit and the other gets the glorious task of mushing it all together in a giant garbage bag with ketchup and fruit punch............... and bread rolls..." It was hard to make it sound exciting, but Tifa did her best. She was not above resorting to shimmying if necessary.

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

"Whoa," Wally couldn't help but remark as he caught sight of the food in Tifa's wardrobe. Unfortunately his stomach also decided to comment on the sight with a loud rumble, and he laughed sheepishly as he set his flashlight down with Tifa's.

"Sorry, guess it's making me a bit hungry. But don't worry, I won't take anything." It wasn't as though he'd never dealt with hunger before, after all. If anything, it was a rare day when he didn't have to deal with it.

Eyeing the food and the space they had to work in, not to mention considering what she was planning on doing with it all, Wally said; "I think I might take the chopping, if that's okay? But I'm easy..."

He grinned at the suggestion there, even if it hadn't been entirely intentional. "But one question: why the ketchup and bread?"

[36-24-35.livejournal.com]

"Nah, it's cool..." Fumbling through her sweatshirt for the apples, Tifa tossed two Wally's way. "We'll just use the oranges tonight. I think I got over excited with the shopping, soo... may as well eat anything that'll spoil," A few more apples rolled out of her wardrobe as she gutted the closet, but they were allowed to roll where they pleased. The oranges, however, were corralled back to her with a couple of nudges from her sneaker.

"Are you? I'll make a mental note of that. Here--" Flipping the thin knife hilt out in her hands, Tifa presented it to Wally. "--I've got a knife for ya. Just peel 'em and cut 'em in slices..." It was her project, so she may as well do the dirty work. She was an experienced bag beater!

Tifa yanked two garbage bags from their carton so Wally had something besides her sheets and floor to strew gory fruit bits. With it all laid out in front of them, Tifa sat down one of the corners so it wouldn't move while Wally worked. "It'll be what starts the fermentation. They didn't have any yeast just lying around in the kitchen, so the bread rolls will just kinda... dissolve and.... they should ferment the same way..." In theory, this would all work. In theory, this would make some kind of magical, yet horrible, concoction of ambiguously edible alcohol. She was going to be pretty pissed if after a week of this bullshit, it turned out to be just a big, smelly bag of mold. "The ketchup........ Hell if I know. Your guess is as good as mine. I'm just following the recipe. Maybe it gives it it's coloring...?" As if a turd needs to be polished. Death would always smell like death no matter what the disguise.

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

"Really?" Wally asked, his eyes widening and a delighted grin spreading across his face at the prospect of free food. "Awesome! Thanks, you have no idea how much that means to me, really."

Grabbing the knife, he quickly sliced the apples up into pieces and set them down to pick at while he worked. It was a bit difficult to have them waiting right there when he was, as far as his stomach was concerned, absolutely starving, but he'd manage. He didn't want to look too suspicious to Tifa either.

Munching on a few of the slices, he started work on peeling and slicing the oranges he'd been given, listening to Tifa's explanation all the while. Dropping the peel down by his feet as he finished that, Wally swallowed his snack and frowned.

"Wait, you're saying they make recipes for this? 'How to make alcohol in the comfort of your own home'? Have you ever tested it, 'cause I could see this ending badly. Or at least with a huge mess in your room." Come to think of it there was something else that could go wrong in Tifa's plan. "Uh, and won't it smell a bit?"