Night 59: F01-F10 Hallway

[inconstancy]

Whoa, was that supposed to be normal? Alarms were going off, and the next thing she expected was some dudes coming in with heavy artillery to give her a hard time. This was pretty unusual, and it left Ramona on alert. In a way, she half-expected this to be some point in the story when there was a time limit keeping her on a set restriction. If she

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[she_is_ruin]

The sensation of drifting back into consciousness was that of a warm tide dragging her in, or maybe like a hand gently pushing her upward. Wake up, wake up. The voice she heard wasn’t her own, though, and was not so much a voice at all as a will separate from her own. A red tide plucking at her, a red hand guiding her.

Sesshouseki.

Wakefulness brought with it many questions, the primary one being: why was it still night? Her fractured memories ended with the basement, with her and Albedo standing in front of the fanged sculpture, but blacking out and waking up again in time for lights out didn’t fit within the usual timeline. The intercom should’ve been encouraging her to start the day, not prepare for another nightshift.

Time. She had lost time somewhere along the way.

But she had regained something, too.

The Yomi that dressed and armed herself wasn’t the same Yomi that had gone down to the basement the night before (or was it the night before last? Or the night before that?). It was a simple fact that struck her without

[ninelivesonce]

Taura was ready as soon as the doors clicked open.  She'd reluctantly tucked the new stunner down her shirt, handle pointing out.  It was a little obvious, but that was the point -- if it came to it, Rita or Son Goku could grab it as she attacked.  At point-blank range it might knock them both out, but it would put her down and keep her there for long enough.

The rest of her gear was the usual.  Throwing star strapped to her upper left arm, across the bandages, and claw on her right.  She'd thought about switching them -- ambidexterity was on of the more useful traits her creators had added and that this place hadn't stolen, but if the arm weakened before her mind, it would be better to have the stunner on the damaged side.

She was already in the hall when a force shield flared up around the walls.  Typical.  Protect the things, but the people were disposable.  Organic matter, easily replaced.  It even reproduced itself.

Taura. Had. Had. Enough. Of. That.  She snarled, and broke into a run.

[to here]

[allineeded]

The wailing of the alarms had her jolting to her feet, nearly dropping the radio she'd been holding. She gasped, somehow managing to keep her grip on it, her fingers itching more than ever for the feel of one of her guns. Okay, so it was only her second night in the place, but that couldn't be normal. Or even close to good.

Clutching the radio close to herself (and heart beating so quickly it was almost painful), Leanne took a moment to simply breathe, and attempt to make some kind of sense of the alarm. Panicking wouldn't help her here, especially when she didn't even know the real cause. Whatever this was, she could handle it.

All right, Code Red? That bumped things up from not good to really bad. A place like this, with monsters roaming around every night? Something that could make the people in charge declare an emergency was no minor thing

F6

[36_24_35]

That was not a good sound. Tifa's expression remained impassive, but her heart began to thud against her ribcage without restraint from the unusual siren that blared across the intercom. There wasn't even a real voice announcing the alert. No, not good at all, and it looked like it was going to get worse before it got better

Re: F6

[36_24_35]

[To here]

[lookslikeher]

If Elena had her diary at the institute, this is, roughly, how today's entry would read:

Dear Diary,
Today, oddly, was normal. I had breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There were no shocking discoveries, no tests of will against bossy doctors and nurses, only some time spent in the Sun Room, and eating meals. It's a little weird, how being here is almost starting to feel 'normal'. I know it's probably exactly what they want us to feel, but it's better than constantly trying to fight what has so easily become our new world. It's better than trying to fight what can't be fought like anything else we've ever dealt with.

Today was the first day I didn't wake up expecting to be back in my own bed, but instead of feeling shocked I actually was kind of glad for it. What does that even mean? Is this place finally getting to me?

Boring, concise, but to the point. Honest. Definite.

Which was exactly why she wasn't going to be writing any of it down. She knew she couldn't let herself grow comfortable here, because none of it had really proven to

[broodings]

[from here]

She was standing in the hallway when Stefan turned the corner: a slim dark shape behind the glare of her flashlight, unmistakable to his unhindered sight. In the second it took to arrive at her side, he watched Elena turn the light around her, looking for danger, and by instinct, he dodged around it to finally appear behind her.

There was no reason to hide his true speed in this place, not right now, not with half the patient population apparently capable of supernatural feats. Of course Stefan knew this couldn't last the night, but he was hoping they wouldn't have to be here for that long.

"Elena," he said.

[lookslikeher]

"Gah!" Elena whirled around and swung her flashlight out in front of her like, well, a sword, pulling it back before it made the full arch across the front of her body because oh right, that was Stefan, wasn't it. It wasn't like his voice was unrecognizable, she just wasn't expecting that. It had been a very long time since he managed to sneak up on her. Or at least, he hadn't ever done it to her here.

"I thought we got over that. The sneaking thing." She was smiling though, even as she hugged her flashlight to her chest, trying to pretend her heart wasn't thudding in her chest from the momentary shock.

[broodings]

Stefan's hand went up automatically the block the flashlight coming at him (she might as well have been swinging at him in slow motion for all the good it did; he missed this-) but Elena pulled herself back in time. He smiled down at her, half-hiding a laugh, and ignored how well he could hear the frantic thudding of her heart.

"We did when I couldn't do it any more," he admitted. It wasn't that he specifically made a point of sneaking up on her; he just... didn't think about it. Although, he couldn't deny getting a little enjoyment out of her surprise sometimes. "But Elena, look." Before she could say anything, Stefan lifted the knife in his hand and drew it across his bare arm, near the elbow.

Why he thought of this as the best way to illustrate the return of his full vampire strength, Stefan wasn't quite sure, only that the healing of his extensive wounds was the first thing which had let him realize it was back. The sharp pain of the knife slicing into his skin was a nice reminder of why he didn't normally do this kind of