Nightshift 60: Main Hallway, 1-West

[toxicspiderman]

[from here]Even the main hall was deserted. S.T. switched on his flashlight and took a look around. Yeah, it was empty. No roadkill, no other patients. If he ever made it home, he was never bitching at any of the girls who didn't want to do night ops alone again. It was different when you knew there were things out there in the darkness.

Comments

[avengingfists]

"That's actually a good idea!" Ilia's voice held less surprise than praise. A guide on how to get through the basement would definitely work around the speech impediment that seemed to stop them from communicating the danger verbally. That is, unless the institute managed to steal their notes before they could show them, which was always a possibility. Ilia sighed wearily. "Now I wish I had brought my journal."

Leaning against an empty spot on the wall, Ilia waited along with Rose for their third to show his face. She hoped Gamzee hadn't gotten himself caught up with some monsters. The time delay was the only thing that worried her and less for his safety, since he seemed to be pretty on-top of the fighting thing. If he was gone for much longer they might have to call off their plans entirely, which would be good and bad. Good, because they would miss the basement of terror. Bad, because that meant that Gamzee could have been taken by the institute for other nefarious purposes.

"C'mon, Gamzee..." Ilia bit her lip. Of all the things that could happen, that would be the worst kind of distraction.

[lovecrafty]

Rose did a little mid-sylladex rearrangement, which looked for all the world like she was keeping too many invisible balls in the air, flashes of objects peeking out. First a pair of pens, and then a notebook eventually landed in her hands. She flipped to the back, blithely bypassing anything with writing, private or otherwise, and settled on an unmarked region, her hand hovering over a sheaf of blank pages.

"Would you like some paper? I seem to have plenty."

Whether or not Ilia took some, she could work on her own notes while they waited.

"I think the challenge would have been different if you'd gone through the door first. Those beasts weren't familiar to you, were they?" The ogres seemed a game-specific construct -- while the name hankered back to myths and legends that might also find their origins in the game, their specific form hadn't quite matched the stories, even before the player attributes were instantiated.

[mirthfulness]

> Gamzee: Find those bitches.

Just as he'd thought, it wasn't long after he'd reached the main hall that he caught sight of two familiar figures in the crowd. He might have missed Ilia, but Rose was a cute little human his age and he could pick her out much easier. Her general poise helped too.

Discretion wasn't exactly Gamzee's forte, so he approached the duo waving and tugging Seishin in toe. "Hey, my two best of sisters!" Thankfully, drawing attention to themselves wasn't much of an issue in this particular hall, as he followed that up with a honk from his bicycle horn in greeting.

[unpriest]

When Gamzee-kun grabbed him by the hand and led him along, Seishin allowed it, following the teen into the main hall.

Seishin had to wince when the troll made so much noise, but he managed to pick out the women they were looking for in the darkness. The pair they were approaching consisted of a girl and -- Oh. That was Silvestri-san, wasn't it? He had met the woman yesterday, when he had been feeling sick because of those strange delusions regarding the food. Nearly throwing up at the mere sight of it couldn't have made a very good first impression, could it? He felt small wave of embarrassment as a result.

[avengingfists]

Ilia watched Rose tinker with her sylladex without comment, though she was impressed by how the girl managed it at all. Her little magic tricks had really turned out to be something, though Ilia remained unconvinced that it was actually magic the girl was working. There had to be some science in it somewhere.

"If you can spare an extra pen as well, I'd be much obliged." She expected Rose would manage well enough with her own notes, but Ilia didn't mind sharing the load. She gladly took some pages and began noting a little on their Sphinx adventure from the day before. Rose spoke again and Ilia answered between a few notations. "I'm familiar with fighting monsters, but nothing like last night, no. If it would have been different... geez, I'm not sure what we would have seen. Probably a demonbeast, if your theory is correct."

Gamzee appeared a moment later, dragging along an older man along with him. His face seemed young, though, and familiar. The bicycle horn honk was a little extreme and earned the boy a slight frown from Ilia, but now was not the time to fight with her companions. "Good to see you, Gamzee. Please put the horn away. And you're... Seishin, was it?"

She hadn't gotten to talk much with the young man before. He had looked sick at their last meeting but now he seemed less pale, even if just as thin. It might have been foolish to try to drag someone new into their dangerous situation, but maybe having greater numbers would work in their favor. "Hey, this is sudden, but can you fight?"

[lovecrafty]

One of the pens followed the paper, though in a graceful arc through the air rather than a simple handoff. As adept at Rose was at stabbing two things simultaneously, writing with both hands was never something she'd tried.

But before she could get more than a few more tangled, ill-rhythmed, underdescribed sentences down, Gamzee finally arrived. Along with a guy with grey hair, who looked like a stiff wind would blow him over. Ilia's question was to the point, though; looks could be the greatest deception. Superlative, in fact.

"Rose Lalonde. You were the one to accompany my ersatz brother here on a mission, weren't you?" She shot Gamzee a smirk, just in case he thought he'd made her jump with that horn.

(Of course he hadn't. Not in the slightest. It was a pity she hadn't ascended to the power of flight, or she could have just stayed a few inches off the ground. But she'd landed without a sound, and she would be prepared, next time. Possibly with lead shoes. Or earplugs.)

[mirthfulness]

The troll turned human looked only mildly disappointed as he shoved his horn into his pocket, causing it to let out the horn equivalent of a whimper in the process. Rose's comment seemed to raise his spirits almost immediately, though. While he had no idea what 'ersatz' meant, she was one of the very few to address him as brother in return to his usual references to all his acquaintances as siblings. She earned herself more points with him every time they met up, though it was a good thing these points were basically meaningless, as he'd never properly keep track of them.

It looked like they already knew his companion's name, and he nodded along as they addressed him. This was good! If they were already friends, then this expedition would go all the more smoothly.

He wasn't aware he'd walked in on them discussing anything, and hadn't seen Rose react to his horn at all. (Mostly because she hadn't, of course.)

[unpriest]

"...I'm afraid I can't," Seishin admitted. Though Gamzee-kun's "reassurance" that he wouldn't get in the way was dubious at best, Silvestri-san's question only seemed to confirm that he probably would end up being a liability regardless. Gamzee-kun, as young as he appeared, had been the more capable of them. The same likely went for Silvestri-san and the girl. But, there wasn't anything in particular Seishin could do, despite the hatchet he carried.

Perhaps he ought to leave, then.

"I have no intention of slowing you down or getting in your way," he continued apologetically, "Gamzee-kun invited me to come, but if you'd rather that I don't, I wouldn't mind staying behind."

The girl's question, however, surprised him a bit. Then again, several people had replied to his bulletin notice back then -- Rose-chan could very well be one of them.

"...Yes, I was," he answered quietly. It mattered little, he supposed; the mission had, after all, been a failure.

[avengingfists]

So Seishin had accompanied Gamzee on a mission! Well, then they all had something in common. That was... nice, sort of. Also kind of sad, if Gamzee and Seishin's mission had been anywhere near as dire as Rose and Ilia's had been.

Gamzee thankfully put his horn away and seemed content enough for them to continue along without adding to their conspicuousness. They didn't need monsters becoming alert to their presence if they could help it.

With Seishin unable to fight, it might have been best if they didn't drag him along with them. Ilia bit her lip, suddenly a little less sure. "I see."

Ilia sighed. They didn't have much a choice now. Rose and Gamzee were going to go back to the basement whether Ilia joined them or not, and likely Seishin would rather travel around with fighters than be left alone, exposed to the dangers of the night. Honestly, Ilia didn't like the idea of leaving a non-fighter alone either. It didn't seem likely to help their cause, and maybe it would be even more dangerous for Seishin if he was with them, but... "Well, if you can at least watch our backs and call out if you see something, feel free to tag along. We can always use a lookout."

Now that they were assembled, it was best that they get going. Stepped away from the wall, Ilia jerked her head in the direction of the Sun Room. "Let's get going."

[and moving here]