Night 59: M81-M90 Hallway

[vsyourface]

Scott Pilgrim became aware that something was different in Landel's the moment he jumped about five feet in the air at the blaring of klaxons through M85.

No, literally, he jumped five feet in the air. He hit his head on the ceiling and everything.

"Ow! Son of a-! Unff!" Scott came crashing back down to the bed, nearly breaking the frame from

Comments

[inconstancy]

That stupid look he was giving her didn't help, and it almost made any casualness flee quickly. Some part of her wanted to go stoic and cold, but she kept her smirk up for a couple moments longer until Scott started digging.

See, in a completely different scenario, Ramona would've seen this as strange innovation for Scott. He gave her that look he always gave her when he realized he was in love with her (or she figured that was what was going on, Ramona was in his head enough to know she preferred the simple explanations) and then him going down like that would've been a nice change of pace. Not that she minded the normal pace because, mediocre and simple as it was, it was enjoyable. She had it figured out. And sometimes, on the very rare occasion, she even got something out of it. On a good month, those occasions were less rare.

But this wasn't that scenario. Scott hadn't suddenly transformed into the James Bond of Canadians-though she was pretty sure he was the closest they had to that, in reality-and this wasn't some sexy scenario where he was about to seduce her. The thing was, she didn't even know how Scott would fit into that scenario, awkward image of him in a tuxedo notwithstanding.

No, this was a scenario like any normal Scott Pilgrim scenario, complete with him digging cluelessly, her staring down at him uncomfortably, and him shoving a large phallic item (the size being a first time thing, of course) up between her legs.

The only thing she could do was stare.

[vsyourface]

Scott tilted his head, looking like the distilled essence of "baroo?" in that moment.

"What?"

[inconstancy]

"Just let me know what you're gonna do before you do it next time, dude," she recovered, grabbing the bat fast. Ramona slid off the desk at that. It wasn't like she was going to open up opportunities for Scott to make a repeat in reverse.

[vsyourface]

Scott wasn't sure what had just happened, but he took the advice for the time being. Let Ramona know stuff is going to happen before stuff happens. Got it. I think I can handle that.

"Whatever, at least you can bash in some monster brains now if you want to, right?" he reminded her, hefting his own broadsword over his shoulder as he got back to his feet. "Speaking of which, wanna go bash in some monster brains?" With his video-game-y type abilities back and Ramona's "Get Out Of Current Dimension Free" card, Scott was honestly feeling kind of confident about their chances in Landel's right now. At least more confident than he had been following the whole Coliseum thing, anyway.

[inconstancy]

So that was that. Things with Scott were always resolved far too easily, which made her wonder why she ran away. Actually, that was part of the problem. Moving on!

"Sure, whatever," she agreed with the sentiment. "You got anywhere in mind? We can probably get there as long as you tell me where to go." Otherwise, it was just a bunch of doors without any idea of the direction. Scott had to know something about this place. After all, he usually made it to work most of the time. That had to count for something.

[vsyourface]

Scott shrugged, glad to be moving on but for entirely different reasons. "I dunno. Somewhere as far out as we can get, maybe? Let's see how much we can push whatever's going on tonight," he suggested. "There are woods out there, and this town called Doyleton beyond that. Maybe subspace can take us out there?" Going to Doyleton had the upshot of proving to Ramona that he hadn't been kidding about he zombies, he thought with an odd smile. Plus zombies'd be the kinds of enemies that would be easier to take out with the return of their super cool let's fighting love skills. Oh shambling undead. What were they not good for?

[inconstancy]

"Hey, if there's a town, maybe we can hijack a car." It wasn't that she thought this was a viable possibility in the least-she didn't know the first thing about that outside of heist movies-but anything was worth a shot. Some part of her wanted to believe that her own limitations were because there were limitations, not that this world was some bizarro Stepford-style place where there really was just a town and a strange hospital.

Though from the sounds of what Scott was saying, it definitely tried to be that.

Either way, she dropped her flashlight on Scott's desk, carefully held the baseball bat, and grabbed on to him to jerk him into the door with her.

SUUUUUUUUUUUBSPACE

[inconstancy]

And here they were again! Nothing changed at all from the time a few minutes prior except somehow she was even more conscious of the fact that her hand was on Scott's arm. Ramona let go of him the moment he seemed steady and she started moving.

"How do you know all this crap about the town, anyway? Do they give you freebie Sundays or something when you're on good behavior?" That seemed to be the only viable solution in her head. Otherwise, why would they be let out?

HEY. HEY LADY. HEY LADY. SUBSPACE. SUBSPACE. WANNA GO TO SUBSPACE.

[vsyourface]

Second verse was a little easier-going than the first. Scott was able to follow without flailing (much) this time, helped by his ever-increasing awareness of the warmth of Ramona's hand on his arm. Even through the thick fabric of his coat, the heat seemed to sink through to him. And he couldn't help but smile at that as they made their way through the darkness again, out in some new direction (hopefully the right one).

"Actually yeah," he answered. "Saturdays, I think. - Was it Saturdays? I think it was Saturdays. - Yeah, they give all the patients, like, second-hand clothes and stuff, load them all up on big yellow school buses, and send them off to town like it's a field trip. Brown bag lunches and $5 spending money and everything. It's kind of..." Scott didn't want to admit that it was fun. That was like admitting that Alcatraz was kind of fun because sometimes prisoners got let out into the yard to run around. But it wasn't all bad in Doyleton. It was definitely a nice change from the inside of Landel's, anyway. A bit of a nice change from the big Toronto cityscape, even. With its skinny, quaintly named streets and snow-covered parks, it kind of reminded him of his hometown of _______ in Northern Ontario.

"...Yeah, it's kind of lame," he finished, letting Ramona keep leading him along through the void.

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SUBSPACE

[inconstancy]

The most shallow part of Ramona wasn't all that impressed by Scott's descriptions, but she could tell that he didn't mind it. Then again, it wasn't like Scott knew where half his clothing came from anyway. She realized on more than one occasion that she found herself wondering the same thing. How did Scott get shoes that weren't falling apart. Who actually taught him to ride the subway? It wasn't like most of them had maps anymore, due to the number of people who ripped them down for the sake of "souvenirs" ... of a sort.

Then again, Scott was Scott. Sometimes, things just worked out.

"Huh, well, good thing I won't get stuck here on Saturdays!" she decided. "I bet they don't even bother to wash that stuff." That was the priority of the matter. Sure, it was vain, but it wasn't like she wanted to walk around looking like ... well, whatever she'd end up looking like in that. Ramona wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"Though hey, it's a little freedom," she said, reconsidering the fact.

Ramona didn't linger in the thought for long, though, because as set as she was on moving them steadily, the place didn't agree with her. One moment they were walking along with her thinking of how itchy those clothes would probably make her feel, and the next-

[ to here]