Nightshift 32: Main Hallway, 1-West

[ran_on_empty]

[From here.]Sync stifled a yawn as he entered one of the main hallways, already knowing where it led since he’d already spent a majority of his time around the Sun Room that day. He couldn’t help but find himself smirking smugly as fond memories sprouted from those thoughts, wiping at his cheeks as if Anise’s tears were still smeared all over his

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[constellates]

[from here]

Finally there was a hall with people lingering around in it. It was to be expected - it was the main hall, of course, and thus it gave a wider berth for more patients to move around in.

Since this seemed to be a thoroughfare of sorts, Alkaid wondered if she'd end up seeing someone she knew. The chances of that weren't very high - there were millions of players in The World, and very few of those were people who she actually knew. There were people who knew her, of course, but that was different. She was famous. ...And they probably wouldn't recognize her, either. Her outfit was gone, after all.

So she pressed her back against the wall, turning her flashlight off and being really quiet. Maybe she could overhear a conversation. If there were any even going on.

[unknowingly waiting for some kind of crazy smoking redhead]

[cigarettes_plz]

[from here]

What the hell was wrong with his subconscious? Didn't he think of anything bit nondescript dark hallways? Where were the cigarettes, the hot chicks, the cigarettes, the hardcore kung-fu movies...the cigarettes.

Sure, this hallway wasn't empty, but whose bright idea was it to give the figments of his imagination flashlights while he stumbled around groping in the dark? He only had one eye anyway! He'd understand if it was Haine or something. His ass was so pasty sometimes Badou thought it might emit its own glow.

"...Woah, hey."

Wasn't this soft squishy thing a wall just a minute ago? Funny, felt like a boob. Probably because it was a boob.

Jesus bleeding fuck, the walls had boobs.

[constellates]

So one moment Alkaid was poised against the wall, concentrating intently on listening in on a conversation. One guy didn't know where the doctor's lounge was, and the person he was with was about to reply - score! - when..

...Well, when she was inappropriately manhandled.

She stood there dumbfoundedly, boiling in her skin for a few moments. Her first instinct was to attack, but then whatever had groped her had to mumble something, and she knew it totally wasn't a monster. No one had ever.. touched her there before, intentionally or unintentionally, though, and she did have her flashlight off, so it could probably be forgiven, but still...

Wait, what the hell was she doing standing around thinking about how she would react?

"Hey what? You better apologize for that, dirty pervert!" With that, she flicked on the flashlight, shining it right into the guy's eyes. He couldn't try anything again if he was blinded, that was for sure!

[cigarettes_plz]

The boob wall talked. But if it was still anything other than a wall, Badou couldn't really tell, because he was too busy shielding his eyes and swearing at the thing that had just blinded him. Like hell he was going to retreat.

"What the hell?! If you didn't want to be groped you should have said something three corridors ago!" Still covering his eye with one arm, Badou jabbed the wall with his finger..somewhere. It wasn't squishy. Between the boobs maybe? "Go back to being a wall right the fuck now."

[constellates]

Alkaid was glad the darkness was hiding her blush.

Poke.

"Augh, w-what the--?!" See, most perverts stopped inappropriately touching as soon as they were called out on whatever they were doing. This one thought differently, obviously.

What was wrong with the people in this place? First, one wanted to tell her that he was from the future... and now another was feeling her up and then complaining about it?

One arm - the one with the flashlight - moved to cover her chest. The other? Yeah, she was pretty sure that one was meant for slapping perverts. So she raised that hand and sent it at his face. "I'm not a wall, idiot! I'm a girl! What's wrong with you?!"

[cigarettes_plz]

Not having to look directly into a blinding light was nice. Badou lowered his arm cautiously, catching sight of an actual person now that he wasn't near blind. Well, shi--

SLAP

That seemed to knock some sense into him, and Badou took a full step back rubbing his cheek. Well, at least he'd found one of the hot babes. "It's kinda hard to tell what you are while I'm being blinded."

The spots were starting to disappear from his vision, and when he got a slightly clearer view Badou's eye widened. "...You don't even look old enough to be legal." It was like he'd made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in the Bishop's head. He held both hands up, taking another slow step back. "Listen, even if you're some weird dream vision or a mutant kid or a figment of my imagination: I'm not into that. Maybe in five years

[constellates]

"Whatever, whatever. A likely story," Alkaid said when Badou had finished explaining himself. She wasn't used to slapping people - her hand stung from the blow, actually. She almost regretted it. Almost.

She had to admit, though: if she'd just awakened at night or whatever, she'd probably have done the same thing. At least she could see far enough in front of her not to, you know, grope some girl. But this guy's depth perception was probably shot, she could tell. That was what one eye was supposed to do to you, right?

Maybe she'd forgive him, but she wouldn't let him know.

Her voice was arrogant. "So you just woke up. Well, surprise, you're in a stupid mental institution with some so-called monsters, but I haven't seen any yet. I don't believe it, personally. That guy musta been BSing me."

She waved the beam of her flashlight down the hallway. Nothing - no monsters. Just people.

[cigarettes_plz]

It was sort of nice to meet a chick who wasn't Naoto, even if she was acting pretty haughty. At least she'd accepted his crappy explanation. Sort of. Why would she accept it if she didn't believe him? He really didn't go around feeling up young girls for kicks! Most of them would charge anyway. Being the mature adult in this situation, Badou stuck out his tongue at her. "Whatever."

Badou lowered his other hand into the pocket of his slacks, slouching comfortably while she explained the situation. He barely raised an eyebrow. "...Huh. Probably. Where do they keep the cigarettes?"

[constellates]

Alkaid was a little too mature to stick her tongue back out at him, but she did make a big show of rolling her eyes. "Hey, if you don't want me to believe you, then keep acting like that." She shrugged, then looked around.

"Cigarettes, though? Don't know. I haven't seen any vending machines around here, if that's what you're asking. Like I said, mental institution?" Seriously, what part of it didn't he understand? Not like Alkaid had really taken it seriously in the beginning, either, but the guy she'd talked to had been more than a little crazy.

"I guess we could go looking for some?" Of course she wasn't really interested in cigarettes, but she wanted to find other stuff. Maybe she could find 'supplies' somewhere or other.

[cigarettes_plz]

If Badou didn't know any better, he would think he'd just gotten scolded. Great. He'd managed to find Mimi.

"Yeah, I got that part. Monsters, crazy people, totally screwed." It wasn't that he didn't believe it all, or that he wasn't completely piss-ass terrified of ending up like his pasty unkillable partner, he just had his priorities in order. They went like this: 1) Smoke 2) Nicotine 3) Tar 4) Ammonia 5) Other Shit.

"Ever heard of a convenience store? I don't think these guys," He waved a hand in the vague direction of the other people. "Are going to stop us if we decide to take a walk down the street."

...And when had it suddenly become 'we'? "Seriously though, what's with the trusting random strangers so easily? You're going to get dragged into a dark alley if you follow the wrong people."

[constellates]

"You seriously think?" It just didn't seem right to Alkaid - the whole door being wide open at night thing. Then again, the reason none of these people could get out couldn't possibly be because none of them had bothered to check the door. "I doubt it's that easy. I don't think there are vending machines everywhere, anyway."

Alkaid scoffed. "First, I know that you don't have any weapons. Second, if you tried to pull something on me, I'd kick your ass. Third.." She turned down the hallway, not letting him see her face. "I'm bored. So come on."

The former emperor shrugged, turned around to look at him for a moment, then started walking down the hallway. Never mind that she didn't know where the front door was. Or where much of anything was. Just the music room and the sun room. And the stuff on the intercom was weirding her out, but whatever.

[lol sorry for the delay. JAPAN EATS MY TIME OK D:]

[cigarettes_plz]

[NO. FAIL. >:|]

"If there's a convenience store you can just buy them or steal them or something. Vending machines are a pain in the ass anyway." He grumbled, looking off to the side with a slight scowl. Not that he'd ever gotten his arm stuck in one trying to reach a single cigarette. He was too skinny. His arm had just been temporarily unavailable despite what his buddies had chosen to believe.

The sad thing was, the girl was right on all counts. He couldn't exactly argue with that. Not that he wouldn't try. "What kind of weird reasoning is that last one? Hey!" Badou jogged the couple of steps to catch up to her, waking just a little to her right to avoid stepping on her or someone else. She was still the only one with a flashlight and a direction. His options were pretty limited. "...What's your name anyway? I'm Badou."

[constellates]

A pain in the ass, huh? Alkaid had always found them very handy. They were everywhere, after all, and reasonably cheap as long as one wasn't at an amusement park. She was walking ahead of him as he scowled, so either she didn't catch the butthurt-ness of the topic or she just didn't care. "Well, you know, we're the patients here, so they probably won't let you out to go to a convenience store. There've gotta be ways for you, though. Steal 'em from a doctor, a patient, whatever.." A cigarette-carrying monster. That'd be sweet, if smokes were loot items.

"I'm Alkaid." Her grin was rather rakish. Yeah, it'd be easy to tell who came from The World and who didn't here - the name was famous. Except among noobs and people who mysteriously managed to keep their eyes on their current objectives all the time. "And boredom is as good of an excuse as any to go on an adventure."

The end of the hallway, huh? She opened the door and stepped in, shining her flashlight around. Who knew what could be beyond?

[to here]