Night 53: Main Hallway 1-West

[hasnomeaning]

[from here]And again, quiet. Silence broken only by far off footsteps and the creak of a building settling. There was more in the darkness, Ayanami knew this, but currently nothing had stepped forward to show itself. This night was too similar to another, and her hand raised to her neck without meaning to. There was nothing like trauma in this, she

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[human_sponge]

Having someone else show up made Peter feel a bit better, though it looked like this still wasn't Ristuka. The face markings were a little odd, but he'd at least seen that sort of thing here before. It was nothing to judge by, and he only nodded as S.T. explained.

It seemed like the guy was dead-set on going ahead on his own, though. Peter was tempted to follow right after him, but he didn't feel comfortable leaving the newcomer alone. All S.T. got was a vague hand reaching after him and a "Wait--" before he was gone up the stairs.

Sighing, the nurse turned back to the kid, remembering that meeting with Hanatarou and how so many of those involved had been young. He hadn't met this boy before, but any shock he might have had over his age had dissipated some.

"Yeah, I know where we're headed and I have some supplies, but..." He paused, glancing around the area once more. "I don't know how many more people are coming or how long we should wait." There would come a point when they wouldn't be able to wait around any longer in good conscience, but they weren't quite there yet. Still, it was a bit frustrating, and Peter leaned himself against the wall with a sigh.

[cannotlogout]

He stared after the man who had left for a long moment, a slight frown of consternation on his face. Had he said something wrong? Or maybe he was just in a hurry. "Um..." he turned back to the other man, a little nervous because it wasn't like meeting people in The World, where you couldn't really tell how old someone truly was, but here, it was a little more obvious. "I'm a healer," he said after a moment. "I hope that I can help." He was still getting used to the idea that he could heal for real, and it was something truly useful here.

"Ritsuka said that he was coming tonight, but I haven't seen him. This is my first time doing something like this so I don't know who'd usually be around." He sighed softly, standing there awkwardly and peering down the corridor, hoping that Rituska might appear out of the darkness.

"Ah, I'm Tsukasa, by the way."

[human_sponge]

From the sounds of it, he and this healer were more or less in the same boat. They had signed up to help people, they were new to it and didn't know who else was involved, and they were waiting for the mysterious Ritsuka to show himself. It really wasn't that much to go on, was it?

"Oh," he replied with a blink when the boy introduced himself. "It's Peter. Peter Petrelli." He wouldn't have bothered with the last name if his first one wasn't so common; he knew for a fact that there was another Peter here who was currently running around with his niece.

When Tsukasa glanced back down the hall, Peter followed his gaze, but he didn't see anything cat-like. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Do you think he got held up?"

[cannotlogout]

Tsukasa gave an awkward smile and nodded. "Nice to meet you, Peter," he replied, before glancing back down the hallway. Where was Ritsuka? Even if they'd only met last night, at least he knew Ritusuka, and there was the bond of shared culture, although Peter's Japanese was very good. Everyone's Japanese was very good. Should he have given a second name? Was it rude to not do a full introduction?

He turned back and shrugged apologetically. "I think he must have. I mean, I don't know him very well, but if he was organising things, I think he'd do his best to turn up." He wished he knew better what Ritusuka was like. He didn't feel very helpful.

[human_sponge]

All of that made sense to Peter, and he honestly wondered how someone could be late to something that they'd been so intent on organizing. He sighed, not really wanting to rely on someone who he'd never even met -- even if this Ritsuka seemed to have pretty good intentions. It didn't amount to much if he didn't deliver.

Then again, for all Peter knew, Ritsuka had been taken up to be experimented on himself; that was enough to make him guilty for wanting to disregard the stranger so quickly.

"Maybe we should just go ahead, then. I mean, he knows where he's going so he'll be able to catch up, won't he?" Peter was getting more and more antsy the longer that they just stood there, and he wasn't really interested in waiting for any other people at this point. Still, he'd wait to see what Tsukasa said before taking off.

[cannotlogout]

There were worse thoughts behind what Tsukasa actually said, things that he didn't want to think too closely about even though he knew that ignoring them didn't make them any better. It never made anything any better. Apathy just got you more tangled into that way of thinking and it took that much more effort to drag yourself out.

He glanced over at Peter, frowning at the suggestion, before nodding, trying to at least look decisive, even if his thoughts were one confused mess right now. "Yes, you're right," he agreed, giving one last look down the corridor. "He'll know how to find us." If he wasn't already up there being hurt. If he wasn't asleep and unwakeable.

If he was still there.

[human_sponge]

While Tsukasa looked reluctant about the whole thing, he did eventually agree with him. Peter felt bad for forcing the young man into it, but they weren't going to do much good just standing around, especially if Ritsuka wasn't going to show up for some reason.

"All right." He didn't know if the young man had been up to the rooms before, but Peter had been enough times by now that he didn't hesitate in taking the lead. After he glanced down the hall toward the patient blocks one more time for good measure, anyway.

But there was no cat-like being approaching, as far as he could tell, and so he turned toward the stairs and started up them. "Come on."

[To here.]