Night 52: Main Hallway, 2-East

[itneverwas.livejournal.com]

[From here]

Having reached the second floor without difficulties, it wasn't before long Xemnas emerged from the stairwell. He paused for the briefest of moments, seeking any disturbances of the silence and the unmoving darkness alike. Nothing leaped from the shadows, and even if others had, too, already made it to the second floor corridors, there were no sounds of battle drifting from other parts that would alert them of their existence.

Still tracing familiar steps, the Nobody moved into the direction of the connecting hallway that would lead him to his destination.

[To here]

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[stellarregions]

Shizuo was determined, Gren had to give him that. Determined, or crazier than he seemed. Gren decided he didn't want to think about it too much. His gut instinct was to tell the other man to take it a little easier and mind his injuries, but decided that could wait until they were further away from the robot girl. And speaking of...

He could feel the heat radiating from her as he moved past cautiously. Apparently, the fight had taxed her to her limits, though from the twitching, he suspected she wasn't completely down for the count, and he didn't really want to be around when she powered back up again.

There was more of the same hallway in front of them, and Gren was about to ask Shizuo if he wanted to pause to bandage his wounds--Gren would tear up the bedsheet if need be--when the intercom crackled to life again. Gren didn't know what was going on this evening, but he knew he didn't like it. He hated having to stand by and listen while someone else was clearly suffering.

And then the shadows began their mocking dance, twisting and writhing unnaturally around them in a way that was just wrong, leaving him with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. And judging from Shizuo's reaction, he wasn't the only one. "Just ignore it," he said, though it was easier said than done. "They're just trying to mess with our heads."

[angeritself.livejournal.com]

The first Shizuo saw of Gren's approach was his shadow, contorting across the floor and wall. Not just him, then; it didn't surprise him. Gren's advice, though practical, yielded the opposite effect to what the man intended: They're just trying to mess with our heads. Something Shizuo had already concluded, but it became that much more concrete when spoken by someone else. A lot of things pissed Shizuo off. It didn't take much. But, few things he hated like manipulators.

Like the damn flea. Even he couldn't pull something like this off, though Shizuo knew that if Izaya could, he would.

"Bastards," he spat, "Mind game playing bastards! I'll--" His right hand, supporting him, he couldn't swing. The violence of his outburst was halted by this: his left arm trying to swing up, to curl his hand into a fist, to crash into shadows but dent only wall, seized up half-way, the agony of half-a-dozen injuries and reluctant, even unable to respond muscles. Shizuo slumped bodily against the wall, his fingers scrambling to grip ineffectively at his left arm.

"Bastards, bastards, bastardsbastards!" He hissed, and exhaled. And inhaled. Again, and again.

Finally, his hand again braced against the wall, and his limping shuffled. Finally, Shizuo said, "Yeah, I'll ignore it. Until I can't."

An ambiguous line, one easily overlooked from a typical-idiot like Shizuo. What he meant was this: these mangled shadows weren't the last of it. More was coming. He'd barely focused on the night's announcements, but he knew it, as absolutely as he knew that Izaya was a flea.

[stellarregions]

Gren cringed a little at Shizuo's outburst--not just because he looked like he was hurting himself, but because it was loud and might attract attention. The last thing they needed right now was to get into another fight. He honestly wasn't sure the blond would survive another fight, given the state he was in right now.

"Yeah, I know. Didn't claim it would be easy." Gren was acting calmer about the whole thing that he really was... it was only the fact that Shizuo could see what was going on too that was letting him stay a little detached from the situation. It wasn't just him. He wasn't losing his mind. He just had to do his best to pretend it wasn't happening and keep on going. If he did that, it would be fine. Like hell was he going to let this place mess with his head.

[angeritself.livejournal.com]

No way any of it would be easy: one of the few concrete conclusions Shizuo had drawn about this place. He hadn't thought Gren had implied it would be, but saying all that, to clarify, seemed like wasted words. Redundant and repeated in some form regardless. Instead, he focused on the remaining hall. Not on their convulsing shadows.

Two doors that lead to stairs. At this point, going back wasn't an option, whether turning around in the hallway or returning to the first floor. Leaving the hall that opened to the left. Shizuo, leaning by necessity against the right wall, looked across. No, this wouldn't be easy, either. His mouth split in a brief grin at that thought, staying parted as his teeth grit and he pushed off the wall.

Shizuo lurched toward the corridor, managing to neither shout nor even grimace as he put weight on his twice shot right leg, mostly dragging it.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/997123.html?thread=74245891#t74245891)]