Nightshift 47: The Grand Ballroom
[from here]The stairway downstairs was not unreasonably long per say, but it somehow felt like the trek took far longer than Klavier would have liked. Each step seemed to drive in a horrible sensation of dread, like he was slowly shuffling along on an assembly line into a slaughter house. He was fully aware his actions tonight were terribly risky,
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He remembered blood and brain.
Sickness rose like a wave, something crushing against the walls of his skull cavity, and the boy made to move away. He wasted no effort in interrupting Klavier from observing; he had no reason to. Let the man do as he wished. Instead, Nigredo approached the opposing door, as though holding every intent to open.
Nausea, however, had other plans, and he found himself stumbling into a frame. Knees and hands slapped against stone, resonating like the clap of a hammer. Like a bullet to the--
Nigredo gagged into his sleeve. On impulse or intention, he hadn't a chance to decide.
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His thoughts were interrupted by the sharp sound of skin on stone echoing dully from behind him. Klavier whipped around to find Nigredo on the ground. More specifically, the boy had fallen to his knees and was dryly heaving into his sleeve. "Nigredo! What's wrong?!"
He quickly moved to the child's side while glancing around in slight paranoia. Stupid. He had allowed his curiosity to ( ... )
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"I just feel dizzy," he answered, lowering his head to his hands. "I'm sorry; I'll be okay in a moment." In a moment, things would stabilize. He would push memory to the background, and they could continue.
What do you think? the boy wanted to ask. From what glimpse of Klavier he had seen, he seemed to have absorbed their setting. Information could be gleamed from that--ripped apart and sewn together and make sense of something from nothing. Pity he felt too ill for such a question.
Instead, Nigredo waited. Waited for the man to start his questions. If there was a thing to do, he could answer. It didn't require as much effort as the other.
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Rika hadn't known what to expect, but...it certainly wasn't this. Her eyes went wide as she took in the surroundings. Was this a...no. Not a temple, not a cathedral. It looked like something out of a fairy tale, but fairy tales generally didn't involve crawling through large refrigerators and into a palace.
She took a moment to adjust to the light, and then noticed - there was something wrong. She didn't think, she simply moved. "Are you okay?"
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Normally, such a trek down into the earth would have been a chill one that brought shivers to one's body with both dread and cold. This wasn't the case at all though. For one thing, the basement was considerably warmer, though still cool, compared to the refrigerator where its entrance was hidden. For another, Hime was not one to get the chills from something so nonthreatening as a giant ballroom hidden below an institute of the damned.
"Impressive," she noted, looking around. The space was quite enormous and there were candles lighting up the entire area, though the ceiling remained cast in shadows. Turning around, she saw a large set of doors that seemed almost out of place. Plain, rough-hewn black stone that looked odd in contrast to the fine ballroom. Walking over, she pushed against them. They didn't seem to budge at all.
"Hmph," went the Royal, taking a step back. Well, there were other doors. Hime turned her attention to one of them, pointing imperiously. "Let's try those ones."
[Which way do you guys want to go ( ... )
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The prickles on his skin from the sudden chill of the refrigerator had barely worn off by the time they reached the bottom of the stairs. Stepping into the sweeping grandeur of the ballroom, great and dark and ornate, was enough to bring them back in full force, albeit from sheer bewilderment. Hime, of course, looked perfectly at home. Typical.
The shuffle of their feet sounded deeply conspicuous against the gleaming marble of the floor; if Depth Charge's movements seemed especially cagey, it was because he hadn't felt nearly so exposed in a long, long time. There was already another group in the vicinity at least, which was enough to take some of the edge off, but he paid them little attention. They seemed to be doing a good enough job of preoccupying themselves.
"It's all the same to me, princess." Nodding to Kagura, he followed the blonde woman over to where she stood on the east side of the room. "Who knows what's behind any of those doors?"
[Is east okay? I can change it if anyone had something in mind :Db]
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This was not what Teresa had expected. Having finally reached a point where she could again stand up to her full height, she cocked her head at the sight. This was a room more suited for the interior of a cathedral, not the basement of some barracks. Underbelly of the Beast, indeed.
Torchlight flickering off her silver eyes, she noted three children and a man getting into a squabble on one side. Hime and her merry band of minions was on another. If it had not been for her higher vantage point on the stairs, she might have missed the children completely given the fountains in the area. She cared nothing for the children's fight, and turned her attention to Hime.
"Is this room more suited to your ever refined tastes, Hime?" Teresa called to the younger blonde as she descended the stairs, a slight smile on her lips.
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