Night 60: Main Hallway, 1-Center

[roseoverture]

[From here]Looked like she was the first one out this way. Utena stopped just short of the Sun Room, turning her light back to see if anyone she knew was coming up the hall behind her. No one so far

Comments

[vinesofregret]

[From here]

Hakkai was almost starting to hope for a fight. He liked to think he wasn't the violent type - certain extreme circumstances he was trying not to remember at all right now aside - but he needed a distraction, something to bleed off this nervous energy that was starting to build up before he cracked.

Unfortunately, this only brought him to the doors of the Sun Room faster. He paused, one hand on the doors. This was his chance to turn back, go to sleep, pretend none of this was happening. But that would be giving in to this place. He steeled himself, and pushed the door open.

[To here]

[fuukaenbujin]

[skipping from here]Kurama moved swiftly. The outcome of this meeting was uncertain, but there was no point in dawdling. He had made the decision and agreed to meet up. And if anything, he might as well have the upper-hand -- Kurama had made it so that he would be the first to recognize whomever he had been talking to on the bulletin board. And the person had agreed to it, whether they realized this or not. But that gave him nothing about the person's intentions about the meeting. There was no way to tell for sure through text on a piece of paper, after all

[fuukaenbujin]

[to here]

[melodists]

[From here. For Mikado.]

Here, again, she came to report for duty. Here, again, she approached to delegate responsibilities. Only now, Tear would work alone, and as long as she could keep herself out of danger, she should have no excuse for failure. No excuse so long as nothing could prevent her from movement.

She glanced at her surroundings (recognizing Utena in the process) and kept her back close to the wall. Although Tear was used to pressure, she felt a bit off balance. Hopefully, this would lessen whenever she arrived at her destination.

[ofthemotions]

[from here]There were less people in this hallway, and therefore, it was obvious that Mikado would be noticed sooner or later. He'd have to take the risk that this was her, and see what happened. Otherwise, he'd look too suspicious

[melodists]

According to memory, there existed four stairwells on this floor. The one closest to her first destination was a small stretch away, which Tear located after a brief use of the flashlight. She leveled the fontech toward the ground and began her trek, sacrificing a bit of focus for speed. A beeline for the stairs shouldn't prove so eventful; adjustments were necessary to make good time.

She did not get far. A nearby bystander tripped over his own heels and sprawled at her feet, forcing Tear to an abrupt stop. Her thoughts jostled, and she tipped forward to stare at the other with a surprised expression. Mouth opened on habit to question wellness and berate on clumsiness, to close when she heard the apology from his lips. He appeared to be the same age as the soldier, and more importantly, he was a civilian. These details alone instantly shifted her mindset to something less harsh.

"It's fine," Tear replied before offering a hand to the young man. "Are you all right?"

[ofthemotions]

...Oh, that actually... That seemed to work, didn't it? Mikado scrambled to shift into a sitting position on his heels, a hand resting in his lap while the other moved to his neck nervously. "Y-yes, thank you...." he gave, glancing to the side anxiously. This, at least, did not have to be feigned--it wasn't that easy to speak to someone after embarrassing yourself like that.

He moved to stand, placing a palm on the ground for pressure, before inhaling in light pain. Mikado stared at his hand. Of course, this time would be when he actually scraped it enough to bleed. Frowning at it, he switched hands to support himself, and straightened, cupping his lightly injured hand in front of him. Then, he bowed to her. (And how old was she, anyway?) "I'm sorry for bothering you like that." He peered up at her. "I'm Ryuugamine Mikado. I've only... been here for a few days. I'm still getting the hang of things."

Giving apologetically, in the way of explanation. A reasoning for his floundering, if a poor one.

[hairraising]

[From here]

"How much further down are the doctor's offices again?" Rapunzel asked Tsubaki, shifting the hair in her arms again as they walked. Light as it was in sections, holding it all in a bundle for that long at a time did wear on her arms a little at times.

[thecamellia]

The trip to the main hallway was as close to peaceful as the Institute ever got, which was something to be thankful for. No dead bodies. No eerie pink glow. Tsubaki could live without either of those things, even if it meant she also had to go without her weapon modes.

Speaking of powers, Rapunzel’s hair was back to a relatively short length with the suppression back in place. Tsubaki was also grateful the other girl wasn’t having to drag it across a soiled floor anymore--that had been a really unfortunate consequence of getting attacked by those dragonflies. Given that Rapunzel’s arms were full having to carry what hair remained, Tsubaki was ready to intercept anything that might pop out at them, the image of her scythe held in her mind’s eye.

“Not far at all,” she said. “How are you doing, by the way? Are you sure you want to do this?”

Last night had been… well, it had been an experience, to put it lightly.

[hairraising]

Rapunzel gave Tsubaki a firm nod back. "I'm fine, don't worry. There's no way I'd not want to do this. I mean, the sooner we check this out, the better, right?" she reminded her roommate, conviction quiet but clear. She was determined to do something right after last night's fiasco, and after almost outing the both of them to Harrington before that. How could she not want to make it up to herself and Tsubaki? And to everyone in the Instiute who might benefit from the information they might have, for that matter?

[To here]

[poorexample]

[From here.]

While there were a number of people in this hall, all of them were unknown to Castiel, and so for the moment he viewed them merely as obstacles that he needed to work around. He was headed for a place that he'd been to a number of times before, so he was moving quickly. His coat billowed behind him, and he realized that it was a familiar and welcome sensation.

Now that he had Dean alone, though, he needed to start bringing up the number of issues that he had to discuss with him. While he wanted to bring up the most important things first -- Dean's deal, along with finally explaining to him how they'd met -- it might be best to work up to it.

Not bothering to introduce the topic, Castiel just started talking. "I was witness to the general outing a rogue soldier last night. I managed to learn a number of important things in the process." He glanced over his shoulder at Dean. "Did you want the details?" While he'd mainly been passing around his written account of it thus far, he wouldn't mind telling Dean himself.

[theroadsofar]

At least Castiel didn't beat about the bush with crap like chit-chat or going on about the weather or how totally trapped they were, as if it was any different from the last times.

"Sure. Anything that we can use to score a way home would be awesome," Dean glanced around for any sign they were being followed. "Lay it on me."

Not literally. He didn't think a Castiel man-blanket would go over real well with him, just sayin'. Dean tried to picture Castiel going on hunts with him, talking up witnesses, bluffing his way into whatever they needed to go and found he just couldn't do it. If the angel knew all the intimate details about his job skills, there was a chance he must've at some point tagged along on some hunts and that right there was hard to even imagine. The guy didn't look like he had it in him to bluff and have people actually believe him. Dean's head hurt just trying to think about it.

[poorexample]

Finally, he was going to be of proper use. Castiel had learned all of this information through pure luck, and he knew that, but that wasn't the point. Whether or not he'd found these things out by skill or chance, they were useful and Dean seemed interested and eager to hear about them.

"It took place last night. I was told that I had been chosen for an assignment to round up both Landel and the man on the radio, though in the end there wasn't a chance for that to happen." Castiel couldn't say for sure what he would have done if that mission had gone as planned, though he had to admit that the chance to track down the Head Doctor to either bring him to justice or learn his secrets would have been tempting. He doubted he would have given up such a chance, even if it meant falling into line as a soldier again. That wasn't such a hard role for him to take.

There was more to explain, but by that point they had reached the door he'd been looking for, so Castiel paused to open it and lead them through into the next room.

[To here.]