Nightshift 49: Staff Recreational/Exercise Area - 2nd Floor

[arc_wrench]

[From here]

Another random, useless room, except this one looked back at him! ...Because of the mirror on the opposite wall. HK felt incredibly stupid for having tensed for just a moment when he saw some meatbags looking at him.

He also tried to cover the fact that he had at all by acting incredibly casual. "Query: Shall we try another room?"

Comments

[damned_monsters]

Ah, but before they could leave, those fleshy meatbags on the other side of the glass wanted their attention, and so much more. At first they obeyed the movements of the originals, copying just as would be expected of any harmless reflection. But they wouldn't let the patients leave, not so soon, not when they had the opportunity for more. The deviations were so simple at first, hardly ones that might be noticed in the dark. A bit of skin flaking away from the face, a change in expression from casual to pleading. And then tapping, scraping their fingers on the glass as their mouths shaped to form silent screams, cries for help and release. In the mirror, they were in need, and only the originals could save them.

[hailmegatron]

Lugnut sighed, skimming his flashlight's light over the bizarre equipment in the room. "I suppose so," he said, ignoring the mirrors entirely-- quite the feat, when there were so much mirror in the room-- and was all ready to walk back out of the room with HK when his gaze fell upon a stand with a long metal bar and several paired sets of large metal disks.

"-- Ah, what's this?" he asked, sounding hopeful, and went to them, tucking his axe in the crook of his arm and lifting the long metal bar.

[arc_wrench]

HK made a small sigh, checking the edge on the long blade in his hand, not looking up. If only something interesting would happen!

"Conjecture: I think it is a portion of some sort of meatbag training equipment," HK replied, stepping a little closer to examine the object. Partially due to boredom and partially to the fact that he was completely and irreparably desensitized to violence and suffering of all kinds, the shapes he could see out of the corners of his vision were idly classified as 'normal'. So maybe there were some screaming meatbags in the background, it wasn't worth waking up the rest of his cognitive capabilities to think about more!

[damned_monsters]

Ah, but they wouldn't be so easily ignored, and when taps and scratches on the glass didn't work, the pair began pounding on the glass that held them in, at great cost if their appearance was to be judged. With each passing moment some other piece of their flesh fell away, sloughing off into the darkness. And if the pounding wasn't enough to draw their attention, perhaps the originals would be wary of the sound of cracking glass--the mirrors wouldn't hold them for long.

[dual_worlds]

((From here.))

But instead of the hallway, they stepped into yet another unfamiliar room. Spock's flashlight caught against the reflective surface of the wall ahead of him, sending the beam back into his eyes for split moment. He lowered the light and took note of what appeared to be some sort of equipment that was positioned through the immediate area.

As predicted, they had been moved elsewhere. This area was likely tucked away within the institute building, just as the medical library had been. Spock was curious to know just how wide this circle of interconnected locations, and thus Landel's sphere of influences, was -- but it appeared discovering the answer would not be so easy.

The Vulcan glanced toward McCoy. Neither of them had sustained injuries, though he noticed from before that their abrupt change in rooms seemed to unsettle him, if the way he was carrying himself was any indication. He almost appeared ill. "Are you all right, Doctor?"

[hes_deadjim]

The doctor cracked an eyelid open to find Spock was looking at him questioningly. He opened the other eye. Sure enough, they were somewhere else, their respective limbs were intact, and this time, his stomach was holding out better than the last few jumps

[dual_worlds]

While this method of transporting was far different from the one used in their own time, it stood to reason that it was probably the same one Landel used to move them back to their rooms once nightshift was over. The only difference was that none of them were ever awake to properly remember it. As for the nature of the technology used to accomplish such a feat, Spock was still uncertain. It didn't feel at all like their atoms were being dematerialized, transmitted, and then reassembled once they reached their destination. Rather, they simply walked from one room, and entered a completely different area as if it were all somehow quite natural

[hes_deadjim]

McCoy drew up to a mirror. The mirror didn't have fingerprints or scratches, looked about as new as the day it'd been installed. His face looked drawn, the slightest bit pale, probably because of being picked up and tossed what felt like clear across the institute and back. It was hard to tell if those were shadows under his eyes from lack of sleep or if that was just lack of light.

There was that odd sensation like he was looking at the wrong reflection, that he wasn't supposed to have brown hair or blue eyes in the first place. The longer he looked at himself, the stronger it got, the growing sense of that what he'd lived with for years wasn't really his at all.

McCoy looked over at Spock, more to have something else to look at. Of course Spock would find nothing wrong with transporters. This was the man who could spout off the probabilities of a being hit by a meteorite while planetside versus dying in a transporter malfunction, and yet it sure seemed like they had a wealth of accidents on the Enterprise when it came to that

[notthistrain]

[from here]

Looked like they were back in the building again. The room was darker than what they'd just left, seeing as there was no moonlight at all. Even in the downpour there'd been something, but this room was windowless. Cloud shone his flashlight around them, illuminating what appeared to be exercise equipment. He was reminded of the recreational floor in the Shin-Ra building, but this was only one room.

Though it hadn't happened when they were on their own world, or the copy of it, it was starting to look like any use of a door here brought them somewhere else. If that was the case, then they'd be hopping around all night. At least that would be useful if they needed to get away from zombies again. Listening now, there were no shuffling sounds coming from the halls.

"We all still in one piece?" he joked lamely.

[zack_fair]

Just as Zack had been getting ready to try and aim a Thunder spell right at a zombie's head, he felt another weird surge of dizziness and then they were somewhere else entirely. So that was how this was gonna go, huh? Now that he knew the pattern, he was sure he could handle it

[thatdamnedninja]

T-This whole teleport-y thing really wasn't doin' her stomach any favors.

Yuffie grimaced. "I'm just, -urgh," she took a slow, deep breath, "awful. Totally, utterly, undeniably, nothing-could-ever-make-this-better, woe-is-me-my-life-and-all awful." That bit of overdramatic 'honesty' over and done with, she straightened, piggybacking off her companion's flashlights so that she could get an idea of where they were, and whether or not there were any threats lurking in any shadowy corners or on the ceiling (which was, in her experiences, one of the best places to hide).

… Huh. Okay then. "Boringsville," she announced after Zack had spoken up. "No point in hangin' around in here. Let's just get… that… over with, 'kay? 'Kay!"

Without preamble, she marched for the door. Maybe when they ended up somewhere interesting, she'd stop to have a little word with Zack…

[To here]