Nightshift 49: 2nd Floor Staff Lounge

[guardiancomplex]

( From here.Touya stepped through the door and stopped. He'd been in quite a few closets in his time of various kinds, and this was not a closet. Not unless Landel started storing couches and paintings of puppies in his closets. Did he take a wrong turn

Comments

[per_ardua]

[[From here.]]

"Well... there might be something here," Raine said, looking around. Even if they found any secret passages, they clearly couldn't use them tonight. Still, the long row of cabinets was worth investigating.

And for many reasons, not just potential weapons. She hadn't even reached for the nearest cabinet before she got distracted by the coffee maker on the counter. She hadn't had any in a long time, and getting this little sleep, she could use it. The scent of the coffee was different than she was used to, but it might be worth taking the little appliance with them for a multitude of reasons. If it had a heating element, they could use it to boil water...

Raine opened the cabinet immediately above the coffee maker and started searching for actual coffee. If they were going to be stuck here, they should at least have some of the comforts from home.

[mizuhomaiden]

At least nothing tried to eat their faces when they ended up in... some room that smelled like a tavern in the early morning, minus the bacon. That didn't mean something was going to jump out of the cabinet and latch onto Raine's face in the midst of her search. In a way, it'd be kind of fitting, but then Sheena felt bad for thinking about it.

Sullen, the ninja leaned against a nearby wall and crossed her arms. She was irritated, she was annoyed and she really just wanted to curl up in bed with her youkai and not go playing portal jump. It was as bad as that one ranch...

"Hey, Raine... Do you think there's some kind of key to these portals like the Sorcerer's Ring?"

[mind_the_sukima]

Another room, this one more inviting and full of interesting things than the last one. Pictures, a TV, soft carpets and most importantly, couches that looked invitingly comfy. But first of interest was the lootable items of interest. Much as Raine gravitated to the coffee maker, Yukari headed towards the mini-fridge, opening it up (and hopefully not getting sucked inside to another wondrous dimension).

"Like a switch or something to turn them off?" Yukari mused as she rummaged about. "Maybe in Landel's office, but I don't think he'd let patients wander in there."

There really wasn't much worth keeping, but the youkai did come out of the fridge with three cans of soda, setting two on the counter next to Raine. One stayed there while the other sunk into the counter, eaten by a gap. It reappeared in front of the ninja, falling up in a momentary defiance of physics before gravity took hold again and pulled it back down, causing it to disappear in the gap floating before the girl and pop back out of the counter, only for the process to

[per_ardua]

"I know, but I was thinking of just taking it." Raine studied the appliance for a moment longer, then asked, "Would this fit in your gap?" It looked heavy, and she wasn't about to try to carry it to parts unknown. She could take the coffee itself, though.

Either way, the cups themselves would definitely be good to have; she crammed as many as she could fit into her bag, glad they were so light even in stacks. Tonight was probably not going to involve finding anything they really needed, but luxuries were nice too.

[mizuhomaiden]

"I was thinking more to control where they go," the ninja muttered as she watched the others loot the room.

She was, oddly, unphased by the mystically floating cans, having resigned herself to whatever antics the youkai was up to in a way of amusing herself. At least this was tame and kinda neat. She had this instinctive acceptance of the gap and what it was doing, probably from the pact.

Sheena sighed and rolled her eyes. "Stop trying to use my youkai like a beast of burden, Raine. If you want that damn pointless thing, carry it yourself."

[mind_the_sukima]

The third can, Yukari cracked open with a fizz and a hiss of carbonation, taking a gulp of the sugary drink as she leaned back against the counter.

"Maybe; Landel's put some kind of space restriction on how many things I can leave in limbo though," she replied dubiously to Raine's question. "I'm down a couple flashlights, but..." Trying to calculate the volume of what should normally be a limitless dimension of space between spaces was something of a novelty.

"Would you even have anywhere to plug it in? I don't recall any outlets in our rooms," the youkai pointed out. It was probably for the patient's safety - as if monsters roaming the corridor were fine, but open outlets were not. Shrugging, the youkai took another sip and set her can down next to Raine's, while Sheena's gradually came to a state of equilibrium, bobbing up and down in place as if floating in water.

[per_ardua]

"...dammit." Raine had managed to forget about that little thing called electricity; she was used to things that had their own power source. Finally remembering Sheena's question, she said, "It's possible, but I agree that anything of the sort would probably be in Landel's office. And it's unlikely that any portals would lead us there."

Giving up on the idea of taking the coffee maker with them, she checked the rest of the cabinets but found nothing worth taking. Not bothering to take her can of soda, she said "Let's go," and turned the doorknob.

Only to find the door wouldn't open. "What?" She tried again, with more force, and still nothing happened. The door wasn't locked, but it wasn't budging either. What was happening?

[mizuhomaiden]

Sheena stared blandly at the can floating before her. The longer it was there, though, the more curious she got and with a sigh, she poked it to see if it drifted away from her. She was quite happy that Raine was putting the coffee maker back, but the the door didn't open.

The ninja just assumed it was locked and raised an eyebrow. "Need me to break the lock?"

[mind_the_sukima]

The can before Sheena merely turned end over end, drifting towards the side f the gap and rebounding off it with a clunk as it hit the counter top - at least on Yukari's end. From the ninja's end, it simply seemed to go clunk off the somewhat immaterial edge of the hole it was floating in.

"It shouldn't be locked. That's the door we just came in from, isn't it?" mused Yukari. On the other hand, they hadn't exactly come in through that door, so maybe it had been overlaid when they came in and hadn't noticed.

[per_ardua]

"It isn't locked." Raine tried the door again, with nearly enough force to hurt herself, and it still wouldn't budge. "The doorknob turns, but the door seems to be sealed shut." She found that disturbing for multiple reasons; why would they be suddenly trapped here? Yes, at least they weren't in an experimentation room, but even this seemingly innocuous place could very quickly turn dangerous, and she especially didn't like the idea of being trapped in a room with a monster if one showed up.

This was not good.

[mizuhomaiden]

With an exasperated sigh, Sheena rolled her eyes. "Move," she told Raine as she stepped toward the door. With a snap, she stuck the door with a powerful roundhouse kick, thinking that maybe they just needed some brute force to knock it open since the doorknob seemed to not be working. A door was a door, so unless it had some magical barrier like the third floor windows--

"Gah!" Sheena stumbled back, almost losing her balance, from the recoil from her kick. There wasn't even any give to the wood. "...you broke it, Raine. Now we're stuck here. Go, make yourself some damn coffee," the ninja growled, stalking away from the door to the other side of the room, face red in embarrassment.

[mind_the_sukima]

"Ehhh? How boring," sighed the youkai. It didn't particularly surprise her that Landel could do something like this, but considering how much of a free run he usually gave them anyway, she hardly saw why he needed to.

Well, if Raine was going to make coffee, there was no reason for the sodas, so Yukari tossed the healer's can in with Sheena's and let them both disappear into the space between worlds. Standing up and stretching, Yukari started walking along the counter... and throwing open every door and cabinet she came across.

[per_ardua]

"I seriously doubt that," Raine snapped in reply. She hadn't heard anything break, and since the doorknob hadn't come apart, that was unlikely to be the problem.

Tempting as coffee was, now wasn't the time. So, she stayed where she was and looked the door over; unfortunately, there wasn't really anything to be gained by the examination. Instead, something unrelated occurred to her; a few minutes ago, Sheena had called Yukari "her" youkai. Considering they were dating... it sounded like they'd gotten closer. Lovers?

...at least it was something to think about besides the danger they were undoubtedly in.

[mizuhomaiden]

"Then how are you explaining it?" Sheena snapped right back.

Finally reaching the far wall, the ninja huffed and leaned against it, crossing her arms and glowering. It had to be Raine's fault, even if she logically knew how ridiculous that notion was. She was just looking for someone to blame for ruining her chance to show off her newly formed pact. It was a good thing Sheena couldn't read the half-elf's mind as she'd be kicking herself for accidentally letting that slip with how fast and damn accurate Raine's mind was. At least she hadn't noticed the necklace Yukari was wearing.

Speaking of the youkai... "What the hell are you doing, Yukari? I don't think there's going to be any mini-portals in the cabinets."

[mind_the_sukima]

"You can never be sure - besides, do you have anything better to do for the moment?" replied Yukari as she continued along. Reaching the end of the counter and thus running out of things to throw open, she traced her way along the next wall. No windows, so they couldn't escape that way. Maybe there was a way out in the gap between the couch and the floor? Oh, wait, that was just how she traveled and didn't really fit how tonight had been going so far

[damned_monsters]

The voices of the patients might have been enough to mask the sound of something moving, skittering across the ceiling above them, but even if it was noticed, it would have only given the trio the slightest warning before the spider dropped down into the centre of their group. It was easily the size of a grown man, with long, deadly-looking fangs that could do quite a bit of damage, particularly as it lashed out at the closest of the patients.