Night 52: Main Hall, 2-West

[hes_deadjim]

[from here with Spock]The doctor jerked with surprise. Spock seemed to appear right at his elbow, and he'd be damned if his heart hadn't set to racing. He'd just been just starting to think that maybe that encounter with that statue was a fluke, and there'd be no surprises down here, and then that damned Vulcan had to go ahead and see if he could

Comments

[dual_worlds]

Upon hearing the sudden outburst, Spock raised an eyebrow at McCoy. "It was not my intention to startle you," he said simply. "Perhaps you would do well to observe your surroundings more closely so you will not be caught off guard again, Doctor." Judging by the cryptic message from Landel, it was very likely that he would attempt to disrupt their plans at some point in the evening. They would need to move quickly in order to make some progress, but also take care that they did not leave themselves exposed to an attack

[ai_no_minako]

[from here]

Minako hesitated a moment after emerging from the stairwell, making certain there wasn't anything unpleasant waiting for them in the hallway. What light came from the flickering fixtures overhead almost hindered more than helped, but that way seemed to be clear, and that---

This time it was her turn to cast a sharp glance to the side as a shadow shifted in a way that it shouldn't have, but again there was nothing there. Maybe she was just getting jumpy. Or it was because Arthur had done the same thing and put her on edge. Well, whatever. It seemed safe enough for the moment.

"I've been good," she finally replied, still frowning slightly as she watched the area around them. "After that night everything since has felt pretty normal in comparison."

[ai_no_minako]

Seriously, what was going on? Had there been too much sugar in her dessert, or was she just incredibly jumpy tonight? Minako's frown deepened as she glanced at another flicker of shadow and found nothing but a malfunctioning light. She had half a mind to just break the rest of the lights so they'd stop doing that but maybe that was what Dr. Landel wanted. Maybe that would unleash some kind of... terrible... thing. Or something. But then at least she wouldn't be jumping at every shadow.

She turned back to Arthur at his comment, brows lifting as she tried to decide just how to take that comment. When he was talking about seeing things was he referring to -- he'd better not be. Bad enough that she'd had to transform in front of him in the first place. "Nnnnno," she replied, drawling out the word a little as she gave him a suspicious look. "But since I haven't seen anything up here, I guess we might as well begin in the first hall we come to? Like, right there."

[witchdetective]

[ from here ]

Upstairs, the lights were still flickering. Power had been restored to the whole building, it seemed... a reasonable assumption to make. That was enough for Erika, who stopped at the top of the stairs and only moved slightly to block the door. There it was again - something from the corner of her eye. But she knew better than to wonder what it was. She knew"Landel-san is quite crafty. The flickering lights are bringing things in and out of focus and throwing us off. It's quite distracting, but just a cheap parlor trick. But the reason behind all of this..." It was quite obvious that the good Doctor was just trying to scare them, but Erika was the type to thoroughly expose the truth and rip it apart for everyone to see. She was the self proclaimed intellectual rapist, after all

[ran_on_empty]

The God-General didn't mind so much when the girl moved ahead of him, figuring she would've had enough common sense to remain close enough now that they reached the second floor. It was at the top where the caught something from the corner of his eye a second time, though this time his focus remained forward as he listened to the other speak.

"Stephen. Yours?" Sync answered without any amount hesitation, casually falling back on the alias given by the institute. It was slowly becoming a habit now, but at this point he preferred to tuck away his identity whenever he got bored and decided to have a little fun. It wasn't as if he was without other options either, but using Ion's name could get tricky if Luke and those other idiots caught wind of any of his 'deeds'.

"Anyway, cheap's one way to describe it, but he usually doesn't skimp on everything else."

hey look Sync I have that face too.

[witchdetective]

That name was so laughably boring that Erika was almost certain the boy was giving her the name they called him here in the Institute. Of course, that didn't matter, but the detective wasn't one to use aliases. Those were in the domain of common criminals and witches who didn't exist, and Erika was neither.

"Furudo Erika. Forgive me, I'm normally not this rude; I'm just very busy, you see. Could you explain your last statement? About Landel-san not skimping on his flashy shows?"

She had caught that the boy was implying that events like these were actually quite common, and Erika had observed enough strange nights to know that this was possibly the truth. After all, there was that odd night with the portals and the other night where everyone stopped understanding each other. She hadn't pegged Stephen for someone who had been here long, but perhaps her reasoning had to be revised ('revised', because she was never wrong!)

[ran_on_empty]

'Furudo Erika'? It sounded like the order was backwards for some odd reason; maybe it had to do with cultures or whatever. But now that 'introductions' were exchanged Erika sounded more than ready to get the point.

"What I explain kind of depends on how long you've been here," Sync began. "Even if it's been less than a week you've probably witnessed a few things for yourself."

The transporting rooms were one clear example he could think of, and a few days ago there must have been some kind of speech spell that affected the entire institute. Sync considered all of this to be public information, so if Erika didn’t believe him then it was her loss.

"But anyway, Landel doesn't bluff when it comes to knocking us off our feet. Two weeks ago we were stranded in Doyleton one night and were attacked by hordes of dead people. 'Zombies' were what a lot of people called them."

He gave an idle glance down the hallway.

"If I didn't know better, it kind of sounds like he's got something in store for a specific group of people."

[poorexample]

[From here.]There were more patients up on the second level than Castiel had anticipated, but he didn't let that bother him. It was likely that most of them weren't going to the same place as him, though he'd just happened to run into the one patient who was. It was odd, but Castiel had long ago given up on the idea of a fate that was set in stone. He'd spent too long trying to defy that concept

[timedork]

The intercom came on just as the Doctor was about to answer the man's question, and he waited to answer, listening instead. By the time the sharp sound of flesh hitting flesh followed by a muffled cry issued from the speakers, the Doctor had already stopped in his tracks, fists clenched.

His gaze dropped to the floor as Landel continued to talk. The Doctor wished-not for the first time-that he knew where the man spent his nights so that he could face him, and warn him to stop what he was doing, to stop tampering with time and to stop hurting people. But he didn't have the slightest idea where Landel might be (up, maybe; he'd seen a third floor from outside but the stairwells didn't reach that high), and without a chance to talk to him

[vodka_jump]

[from here]

It didn't take long to ascend the stairs, especially with all the light, flickering and dim as it might be. The way the shadows seemed to dance in the hall was entertaining, even pleasant. Though there was no real rhyme or rhythm to it, it was easy to let his eyes wander over the dark shapes they created.

"It's all the way to the end and on the left," he told Japan. "If you want to go first, I'll watch your back, da?"

[osoreirimasu]

The night the doors were acting funny? Japan wasn't sure if he wanted to know or not, so he kept his mouth shut. Whatever it was, if it had kept Russia from his goal, it was likely that the nation had gotten angry and something (or someone) had ended up broken or dead. He wouldn't put it past Russia to have torn half the Institute apart, really. The guy was absolutely nutso and could go from being completely docile to a monstrous rampage the likes of which Godzilla couldn't imagine in less time than it took a neuron to fire

[vodka_jump]

He could almost predict the way Japan would always prefer to follow rather than lead. He didn't make decisions on his own, he didn't like to make waves, and Russia only wished Japan understood how perfect that made him for a new addition to Russian territory. He was a better leader and Japan was a better follower. It was that simple. In fact, most of the nations were better off being followers, they just hadn't realized it yet.

No better time than right now though, to show Japan that he could have this kind of shining presence and natural leadership around him all the time if he just gave up already and decided to become one with Russia. But if that didn't work, blunt force trauma seemed to be a really good argument too.

"Follow me then!" he replied cheerfully. The last time Japan had tried to get the drop on him at Germany's house had been laughable at best anyway. And if he tried it again, well... it'd been a while since he'd played target practice.

[to here]