Night 46: West Wing, South Hall 1-A

[whos_da_man]

[from here]

So far, so good; Junpei wasn't feeling any compulsion to go someplace he wasn't intending to. It was a relief to know that Evangeline wasn't going to vampire him to her side that night, despite the implications from earlier. Then again... what if where he was heading was where she wanted him to go all along, so it just didn't feel

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[usoppsenchou]

[from here]

Everything was pretty quiet. That was... confusing, really. Usopp peered around the door corner before slipping into the hallway quietly, still shining the light around to check for possible giant bugs or the undead or nurses. He ought to ask Sai if it would be possible to get lessons in sneaking around, assuming ninjas really did that. Sai'd probably be too busy or tell him not to wander around on his own, sneakily or not. A person could only be so sneaky while carrying a big shining light, after all.

Stepping forward into the corridor, he stopped at the middle. It wasn't really as quiet as it seemed. Instead, there were sounds of footsteps around him, and the occasional flashes of distant lights. Which would be friendly, if he came up to say hi? Maybe it would be safer to just wait. Look for someone he knew, or one of those headbands Sai had shown him, or... well, something better than walking blindly into the dark.

Large monsters chasing him would at least have given Usopp some clear direction.

[promisedawhale]

[from here]

But then there was the shed out in the field too, and that was always a good place to stop by. Archer had taught him that. Now if he could just get over that fear of spiders...

Brook looked up suddenly and realized that he'd just gone past the door he'd needed. He laughed at himself and his mistake, "Yohohohoho! I should watch where I'm going!" he announced, unfortunately loudly so that anyone in the hallway probably heard. For someone who had survived on an island filled with the kinds that roamed these hallways, one would have thought Brook would have a better sense of stealth.

[usoppsenchou]

People seemed to be going back and forth, Usopp had watched them, but nobody Usopp might know, and he had no idea where they probably thought they were going. It didn't seem likely that everyone was going to someone else's room, like he had last night. There had to be people working on escape or at least on figuring things out. So where..?

That train of thought was pleasantly derailed by the sound of a familiar laugh. Turning, Usopp grinned at the sight of Brook's unmistakable outline. "Brook? Brook. Brook!" It wasn't far down the hallway, but he still jogged over as fast as he could, doing all but grabbing the pirate and clutching for dear life. "Brook, it's me, Usopp! I'm coming with you, okay?"

He wouldn't be traveling alone now, and Brook might have a better idea of where to go in this place. Wandering aimlessly, when there might have been giant insects or the undead around any corner, did not appeal much. Or rather, the undead who weren't part of their crew. Brook had died, so he probably still counted, even with

[promisedawhale]

To suddenly get all but pounced while in the hallways was never a good thing, or it certainly wasn't a good thing for Brook when he hadn't been expecting such a thing! Much as he had heard his name called, the former skeleton still ended up jumping a bit at the sudden company, only to pause mid-flail to simply look down at his friend. "Oh... oh! Usopp-san! My, did you ever give me a fright!" he said, laughing nervously to calm himself. It seemed that startling from finding his crewmates was becoming a habit of sorts. First Zoro's yelling at him and now this!

"Ah, but I was just coming to see if you or Luffy-san were aroud! Since your rooms are so close and all. I'm glad I found you!" he said with a much more cheerful laugh now, "Have you seen our captain around then?"

[usoppsenchou]

"Ohh, sorry!" Usopp leaned back and laughed nervously too, tugging at his outer coat a little. Now that he'd actually found Brook and followed Sai's suggestion about traveling with someone else, he still wasn't sure what to do. At least Brook wasn't the kind of person to make fun of Usopp for being nervous in the hallways.

"I haven't seen Luffy, so I thought he'd probably gone somewhere before I left my room." Getting the bandanna made and otherwise getting dressed had taken a little while, after all. "I haven't seen Luffy at all here yet, really. Or Zoro. I'm glad you found me, too!"

[promisedawhale]

Why would Brook make fun of being nervous in these hallways? He shrieked at the smallest things, even friends when they appeared so quickly! To make fun of someone else for the exact same thing Brook did himself would have been hypocritical! Ah, unless it came to Zoro's sense of direction. At the very least, Brook had been hindered by fog when he'd been lost for that year! Zoro had no excuses

[usoppsenchou]

Usopp wasn't surprised Brook was happy to see him, now that they were both sure that neither was a monster out to eat and devour the other one. Probably. He was surprised at Brook's suggestion, but after thinking a moment, Usopp really didn't have somewhere better in mind to go, and even if Luffy wasn't there for the moment it'd be nice to see his room. Usopp was used to Luffy being the center of noise and chaos in a crew that practically lived off of the stuff, so not having him around felt a little strange, especially after being told by multiple people that he was here.

"Sure. Let's go. It's just back where I came. Oh, I guess you know that, since you already went there before!" Usopp laughed a little awkwardly, then headed back down the hallway. Even if there were no signs of Luffy in the room, seeing Brook's piano sounded good too. Usopp still wanted to see how a person stole (pirated, that was) a piano, then hid it in a closet.

[to here again!]