Nightshift 60: Main Hallway, 2-West

[ninelivesonce]

[from here]

Taura peeked out of the stairwell door with the first evidence of caution she'd shown all night. Everything looked quiet, but that didn't mean much of anything.

They'd met here the last time she'd come up to head into that room, and that thing had come out of the walls. She didn't want to wait around anywhere, but especially not

Comments

[scarefaux]

[From here.]The Horrible Hallway came into sight as the Scarecrow reached the top of the stairs. He let go of Lust's hand to use his flashlight, looking one way down the corridor, then the other. There didn't seem to be witches out and about, but that had always been the case, hadn't it? Just as they started down the hallway, there would be a chill in the air, their flashlights failing them at just the right time as a hand came out of the darkness, reaching for them

[lustful_thing]

It was a strange thing, walking through the darkness and clasping hands like children. But there was a strange comfort to it as well. Something Lust couldn't pinpoint or explain, but something she knew she had never felt before. It was such a human thing. A human thing to want and a human thing to do and gain from. She realized that she still didn't know just what Frank Westerning was, but declined to press the issue. She hadn't offered her nature, either.

And then they had reached the hallway that seemed to frighten Frank the most. Lust shook herself, banishing thoughts of what this place could potentially do to her.

"What does it protect, that makes it so dangerous?" the homunculus asked, stepping beside her companion and stretching her fingers to prepare her claws if need be. She couldn't imagine any other reason for a hallway to be particularly bad. She peered after the light, trying to discern some difference or hint. "And don't worry. If anything comes, I'll take care of it."

That was what she could offer.

[scarefaux]

The Scarecrow smiled at her offer, pausing before answering her question. He had to admit he was grateful to know she was confident she could take care of anything that came their way, whatever that meant. Unlike Lion, he wasn't a terribly intimidating figure, and the creatures that roamed Landel's had already shown they weren't afraid of him; unlike Tin Man, he didn't have a weapon, and wasn't entirely sure how- or if- he could use one if he did. If the multiple injuries and bandages covering his arms were any sign, he wasn't capable of defending himself very well. It hadn't been a problem when he was made of straw- being of flesh and blood was another matter entirely.

"I don't rightly know, to be honest," he answered. "Down that way-" he pointed to the east, stepping aside so she could take a look "- are the storage rooms. When your light runs out of batteries, you'll have to get more from down there. They've also got a room where they keep boxes of things that belong to the people they say we are."

[lustful_thing]

"Really?"

Both of those things interested Lust, and she made a note of them for later. She peered down the hallway, cursing her weakened night vision. "They've made whole lives for us, then?"

She wondered what sort of woman she was supposed to be in this world. What sort of life they'd created, if they really did go that far. That would be for another night, however. Frank had a mission - of sorts - and she had plenty of time.

[scarefaux]

"So it seems." The Scarecrow shook his head, though his response was an agreement of sorts. Ever since he'd received his body in his box at dinner one night, he couldn't help but worry about Hunk Howard, the man he supposedly was. Was there really a Hunk Howard, and his body was simply being borrowed? And if that was the case, what had happened to him? Or had it all been fabricated somehow to make the lies the Institute told the patients more believable? He wasn't sure how to make humans, as they weren't just pieced together from old clothing, but with as complicated as their bodies were, it couldn't be an easy task

[lustful_thing]

"It's not awful," Lust said with a shrug. Frank had inadvertently stumbled upon a subject very close to the homunculus' heart. She had lived most of her life never knowing she was supposed to be some other woman, a woman who had lived and loved in a place she barely remembered or understood.

"If you never knew you were someone before, you don't find yourself missing anything. Or wondering what that person was like, and how much of her still exists in you, and what that means for everything you know and remember.... That's what's awful."

Sometimes she wished she had never met Scar, never learned the truth of her origins, or began to remember bits and pieces of that other woman's life. She had known who she was, and known what she would be upon attaining humanity. Now she could only wonder and worry.

"Really, who are we except for what we think in our mind? I sometimes believe we're all only who we think we are..."

[scarefaux]

"Oh, but what about the people who care about you?" the Scarecrow asked earnestly, turning to her. "You might not know you're not yourself, but they will. They'll miss you."

The topic was nearing one to his own heart- even as he spoke, he remembered that visitation day, Dorothy sitting across from him and insisting he was sick, that there was something wrong with his brain and that Oz never existed. And true, there was that movie of their adventures, and those people in it did look an awful lot like them, but Sangamon had said it was all pretend. Though he trusted Sangamon's opinion, there were times the former strawman questioned his friend, and wondered if he actually was Hunk Howard

[lustful_thing]

"How can I care for people I don't know?" Lust shrugged, though she did try and give the scenario honest thought. It was difficult for her, having so little experience with the idea of anyone caring about her. The one man who had, she had killed in an emotional fit. Not out of anger, but out of fear and confusion.

"Though maybe I'm not the best person to pose that hypothetical to," she went on. "The people who loved the woman I used to be are dead."

And besides that, had insisted she wasn't that woman.

"But even so, what would happen to me," she continued, unable to let the subject rest, "if I remembered all of her memories and her life? What about my memories? My life? The things I think and feel and want and love? Who has more right to existence, the woman I was or the woman I am

[scarefaux]

The Scarecrow gave Lust a nod and an encouraging smile. "No, it's all right. We're all given a lot to think about when coming here, though some of us more than others on account of not being human to begin with." That, and he got the feeling they were talking about two very different topics.

Her situation sounded far different from his own, though. The woman she used to be? So had she been bewitched and lost her memories of who she was before arriving at the Institute, as well? He had to admit that did sound awful, to know she was supposed to be someone else entirely, but not know what could be done or what consequences would come of it. Lust implied her problem started long before her capture, which made her situation that much more complicated.

It was something he'd considered before, that perhaps Dorothy was right, that he was Hunk Howard and truly wasn't well; however, having seen the terrible things the doctors subjected the patients to, he wasn't willing to believe their lies anymore. There was the matter of what had