Nightshift 60: Main Hallway, 1-West

[toxicspiderman]

[from here]Even the main hall was deserted. S.T. switched on his flashlight and took a look around. Yeah, it was empty. No roadkill, no other patients. If he ever made it home, he was never bitching at any of the girls who didn't want to do night ops alone again. It was different when you knew there were things out there in the darkness.

Comments

[avengingfists]

[from here]

"I mostly did my talking with others off the board," Ilia admitted. She set her face grimly, her booted feet making a soft tap against the ground as she marched ahead.

"I haven't heard much because apparently people can't say much. All they can say is that it isn't good." Claude and Anise had weighed in with dark opinions. Something bad was going to happen tonight. She didn't want any part of it, but she was never going to abandon the kids.

[lovecrafty]

"I was drowning in newcomers." She didn't call them n00bs; her linguistic delicacy and affiliation with precision didn't require slang in this instance.

"I've made some notes about it. A bit of a guide, in draft form. If the worst happens, it will stand as verbal witness."

Or it would be carefully excised from existence. It would be an interesting question, albeit one she would never know the answer to.

[avengingfists]

"That's actually a good idea!" Ilia's voice held less surprise than praise. A guide on how to get through the basement would definitely work around the speech impediment that seemed to stop them from communicating the danger verbally. That is, unless the institute managed to steal their notes before they could show them, which was always a possibility. Ilia sighed wearily. "Now I wish I had brought my journal

[lovecrafty]

Rose did a little mid-sylladex rearrangement, which looked for all the world like she was keeping too many invisible balls in the air, flashes of objects peeking out. First a pair of pens, and then a notebook eventually landed in her hands. She flipped to the back, blithely bypassing anything with writing, private or otherwise, and settled on an unmarked region, her hand hovering over a sheaf of blank pages.

"Would you like some paper? I seem to have plenty."

Whether or not Ilia took some, she could work on her own notes while they waited.

"I think the challenge would have been different if you'd gone through the door first. Those beasts weren't familiar to you, were they?" The ogres seemed a game-specific construct -- while the name hankered back to myths and legends that might also find their origins in the game, their specific form hadn't quite matched the stories, even before the player attributes were instantiated.

[mirthfulness]

> Gamzee: Find those bitches.

Just as he'd thought, it wasn't long after he'd reached the main hall that he caught sight of two familiar figures in the crowd. He might have missed Ilia, but Rose was a cute little human his age and he could pick her out much easier. Her general poise helped too.

Discretion wasn't exactly Gamzee's forte, so he approached the duo waving and tugging Seishin in toe. "Hey, my two best of sisters!" Thankfully, drawing attention to themselves wasn't much of an issue in this particular hall, as he followed that up with a honk from his bicycle horn in greeting.

[unpriest]

When Gamzee-kun grabbed him by the hand and led him along, Seishin allowed it, following the teen into the main hall.

Seishin had to wince when the troll made so much noise, but he managed to pick out the women they were looking for in the darkness. The pair they were approaching consisted of a girl and -- Oh. That was Silvestri-san, wasn't it? He had met the woman yesterday, when he had been feeling sick because of those strange delusions regarding the food. Nearly throwing up at the mere sight of it couldn't have made a very good first impression, could it? He felt small wave of embarrassment as a result.

[avengingfists]

Ilia watched Rose tinker with her sylladex without comment, though she was impressed by how the girl managed it at all. Her little magic tricks had really turned out to be something, though Ilia remained unconvinced that it was actually magic the girl was working. There had to be some science in it somewhere

[lovecrafty]

One of the pens followed the paper, though in a graceful arc through the air rather than a simple handoff. As adept at Rose was at stabbing two things simultaneously, writing with both hands was never something she'd tried.

But before she could get more than a few more tangled, ill-rhythmed, underdescribed sentences down, Gamzee finally arrived. Along with a guy with grey hair, who looked like a stiff wind would blow him over. Ilia's question was to the point, though; looks could be the greatest deception. Superlative, in fact.

"Rose Lalonde. You were the one to accompany my ersatz brother here on a mission, weren't you?" She shot Gamzee a smirk, just in case he thought he'd made her jump with that horn.

(Of course he hadn't. Not in the slightest. It was a pity she hadn't ascended to the power of flight, or she could have just stayed a few inches off the ground. But she'd landed without a sound, and she would be prepared, next time. Possibly with lead shoes. Or earplugs.)

[mirthfulness]

The troll turned human looked only mildly disappointed as he shoved his horn into his pocket, causing it to let out the horn equivalent of a whimper in the process. Rose's comment seemed to raise his spirits almost immediately, though. While he had no idea what 'ersatz' meant, she was one of the very few to address him as brother in return to his usual references to all his acquaintances as siblings. She earned herself more points with him every time they met up, though it was a good thing these points were basically meaningless, as he'd never properly keep track of them.

It looked like they already knew his companion's name, and he nodded along as they addressed him. This was good! If they were already friends, then this expedition would go all the more smoothly.

He wasn't aware he'd walked in on them discussing anything, and hadn't seen Rose react to his horn at all. (Mostly because she hadn't, of course.)

[unpriest]

"...I'm afraid I can't," Seishin admitted. Though Gamzee-kun's "reassurance" that he wouldn't get in the way was dubious at best, Silvestri-san's question only seemed to confirm that he probably would end up being a liability regardless. Gamzee-kun, as young as he appeared, had been the more capable of them. The same likely went for Silvestri-san and the girl. But, there wasn't anything in particular Seishin could do, despite the hatchet he carried.

Perhaps he ought to leave, then.

"I have no intention of slowing you down or getting in your way," he continued apologetically, "Gamzee-kun invited me to come, but if you'd rather that I don't, I wouldn't mind staying behind."

The girl's question, however, surprised him a bit. Then again, several people had replied to his bulletin notice back then -- Rose-chan could very well be one of them.

"...Yes, I was," he answered quietly. It mattered little, he supposed; the mission had, after all, been a failure.

[avengingfists]

So Seishin had accompanied Gamzee on a mission! Well, then they all had something in common. That was... nice, sort of. Also kind of sad, if Gamzee and Seishin's mission had been anywhere near as dire as Rose and Ilia's had been