Nightshift 49: Sun Room

[timeleaper]

[From here]His footstep echoed far more than he thought that it should. There should only be relatively small rooms upstairs and this? This felt positively cavernous! He took another step, reached out to touch the wall and found nothing there. What the? There was a door behind him, but it felt like a double door and the one that he'd stepped

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[hat_einen_vogel]

Experiments on patients.

Prussia didn't like the sound of that one bit; this was a hospital and..... He knew a thing or two about how that story ended. Dammit, this wasn't even one of their hospital's; it was America's and what the hell was that guy doing?

He was unusually quiet as he followed Ronixis into the other room, shining the beam of his torch around the area. He opened his mouth, intending to ask what details Ronixis had heard, but then the beam of the torch fell upon the bulletin board.

"What the hell?" was what came out instead.

He met Ronixis' confused gaze. "This is... This is that room downstairs, isn't it?" It sure looked like it. "But that's....."

He glanced back at the door they'd come through.

[timeleaper]

Ronixis even, in a fit of madness and lack of self preservation that would have earned him a smack from Iria and perhaps also a sense of childish disbelief, squeezed his eyes shut for a few moments and then opened them again. Nope. Still the Sun Room. Apparently human vision didn't work like a computer system where restarting solved most problems. Even on space ships.

"Yes. The Sun Room. It's on the ground floor. Or at least, its normally on the ground floor." He glanced up, shining the flashlight at the ceiling. No, there was the balcony and the skylights. They were definitely on the ground floor. Probably. "I have no idea. I think this place goes out of its way to make things complicated."

[hat_einen_vogel]

"M-maybe it's just a copy of that room," Prussia suggested. It had to be right? They couldn't have gotten downstairs from where they'd been.

He looked upwards, shining his torch towards what would have been a balcony overlooking the room if this had been the real Sun Room... It was difficult to make out, but it looked like it was there. "But even if it is... why the hell would they have a copy of it upstairs?"

Even though Prussia had asked, the reason didn't feel important. Sure, he was curious; he would like to know, but standing around all night wondering about it wouldn't do either of them any good. He started walking again, heading across the room. "Come on; let's keep moving."

[timeleaper]

"Yes but, where would they put a copy?" Ronixis asked incredulously. "I mean, there's no space up there where we were to fit another room of this size with an identical balcony upstairs and..." he frowned momentarily. "I feel like I'm in an Escher drawing thinking like that." Rooms within rooms which led to other rooms on different floors and... man, he was making his head hurt, a little like how he'd felt in the demon world.

He ran a hand through his hair, peering around incredulously. "A good idea," he agreed. "This place is way too open for my liking.

[girlsandgadgets]

[From here.]

Something wasn't right. Another wave of quick nausea hit Edgar as he stepped through the doorway. He got a quick look at the hallway before rubbing his eyes, fighting the light-headedness-- he knew he was seeing things at that point. Recovering himself, he took a few steps into the area, allowing Gren through. His light dodged back and forth as he expected to see the narrow hallway around him.

The bulletin board came into view, illuminated by the beam. No, he wasn't seeing things. This was the Sun Room.

"What's going on here?" he asked aloud, more to himself than Gren.

[for_a_song]

Gren stumbled a little stepping through the doorway as that distinctly unpleasant feeling hit him again. That feeling was quickly replaced with confusion as he realized where they were.

"Isn't this the sun room?" He glanced around. Sure enough, there was the couch he'd taken a nap on that afternoon. "Where did the hallway go?" It was a pretty stupid question, but he knew for a fact that this wasn't a case of simply getting turned around--there had only been one doorway in and out of that office. He took a few more steps into the room, looking around them. "I take it this isn't normal?" Edgar seemed just as confused as he was.

[girlsandgadgets]

Edgar stiffened, taking a deep breath. "This is definitely not normal," he said in a voice just above a whisper.

Keeping his light low, he looked toward the balcony. The stifling darkness prevented him from seeing anything above him, and he dared not shine his light upward and alert any possible enemies lurking in the area. It had only been a few nights prior that he'd witnessed an Esper there. If it attacked them, they'd be at its mercy.

He looked along the walls instead, shining his light to the far corner of the room. "It's likely we've been magicked here, though I haven't a clue for what reason. Perhaps it's fortunate, though. The music room is that way, if I recall correctly. What better time to search it than when no one is looking?"

[for_a_song]

Something seemed to be making Edgar wary, and now that he was thinking about it, the dark expanses of the room were perfect for an ambush. He was going to have to remind himself they were in hostile territory now... it had been too long since he'd been used to thinking that way.

"Yeah, okay." It seemed like a decent plan, for the time being. The only other option was to head back out again and hope there was a hallway there and Gren wasn't particularly interested in unsettling his stomach a third time in quick succession.

[vitale]

( coming all bloody from here. )

Shit.

Upon opening the door, the same wave of nausea passed over her, and she clicked on her flashlight, blinking in surprise when they entered the ...

... Sun Room?

"What is going on?" she asked, exasperated. This was making absolutely no sense anymore. All she wanted to do was find some way to stop the bleeding wound on her back, then maybe find those files they were looking for, then look for Edward. Why was that so hard to ask? Turning back to look at Claire, Bella frowned, nodding to the younger girl before speaking. "Let's just. Get through this room and hopefully wind up somewhere that could actually be useful."

[autophoenix]

When they stepped through the door, Claire was -- luckily for Bella -- distracted enough by her confusion that she forgot that she was planning to ask why it was somehow better if she bled. That didn't make any sense at all. But, neither did winding up in the Sun Room when they'd been in the hallway the last time they'd come through that door.

"I don't know," she murmured quickly, a hitch in her tone that inflected nervousness when Bella asked herself aloud what was going on. Unconsciously, she took Bella's hand. They were going to stay close. After all, hadn't Bella said something bad about the Sun Room at night?

Her stomach was tightening at the thought; she definitely wasn't up for another monster battle.

"Okay. Okay, we can worry about it when we're not here." That rare sense of self preservation was kicking in. "Let's just move fast." She started to cross the room quickly, trying to get to the exit that led back to the main hallway, as she knew from earlier in the daytime. This late at night, it was hard to

[vitale]

Bella nodded at Claire's idea, grasping onto the girl's hand tightly. Sure, both of their palms were bleeding, but at that moment she wasn't thinking about it. No, at that moment, she was thinking about going. They had to get out of the Sun Room, and fast.

She knew better than to be in the Sun Room at night, especially without a weapon. Sure, the glass shard in her pocket would be useful, but not that useful ... especially if they ran into something big and nasty. At least the other monster they had been attacked by was Claire sized.

Clicking off her flashlight, Bella paused for a moment, hoping to at least allow her eyes to adjust to the darkness before moving. She knew there were a bunch of inanimate objects lingering around, and she really would rather not crash into them and cause a scene.

She followed Claire slowly, keeping her eyes out for anything.

[autophoenix]

It was hard to juggle her flashlight on top of the glass shard she'd picked up, so instead she briefly released Bella's hand so she could tuck the glass shard in the elastic waistband of her pants -- easy to access, but still not occupying her hands. She turned off her flashlight before grabbing Bella's hand again, trying to help her dodge the countless obstacles in their way to the door

[fourstonewalls]

[from here]

The sound of the rain was louder here. Lana brought her flashlight up -- were they back in Doyleton? Ah. No, it was just rain pounding down on the skylights. The skylights of -- yes, this was indeed the Sun Room. Couches and tables dotted the room in the same pattern they had during the day, and the bulletin board was still covered in scraps of paper.

"We're not safe here." She hadn't had time to more than skim Edgeworth's list of horrors, but none of them sounded appealing, and the Sun Room had topped the list of places in which not to linger.

Lightning flashed, silhouetting them both against the wide doorframe; a moment later, the thunder rolled in, while Lana glared at Gant as if by force of her gaze alone she could move him back through.

[gargantuanlaugh]

For a moment there, before she had turned, Gant could have sworn he saw the fight back in her eyes. It wasn't until she spoke that he knew she was back. Mostly at least. But Gant could always fight her seriousness with a bit of light banter. "Looks like you caught me there! But you must admit, it's better your sister wasn't with us when we ran into that thing." His words would be harsh to hear, but Lana ought to be used to it by now.

Another wave of dizziness. It was starting to get old now, really. But once everything came into focus, Gant was siezed with the same initial thought Lana had and cringed. Then he realized they were in that room he had taken a nap in earlier in the day. He didn't notice anything moving in the room but Lana's words were a big enough hint. He turned around almost immediately and strolled through the door.

[gargantuanlaugh]

[And we're back here again.]