Night 48: Stairwell by Waiting Room 1

[mizuhomaiden]

[from here]

Oh yeah, Yukari had asked about her injuries. There was still some gauze wrapped about her left hand, currently holding the pillowcase, but it wasn't anywhere as heavily bandaged as it had been the day before.

"Mostly healed. Saw the bird again last night, so I made it pay for its debut."

Comments

[bitpartgod]

[From here]

When they reached the stairs, Kibitoshin really had to overcome the urge to hesitate on the first step on the way up into the darkness. Something to do with thinking about being utterly defenseless in a cold, cruel world where he was at the mercy of just about everything else had shaken him, for some reason. Thank goodness Peter was there- even if he hadn't been so stable, he was someone to talk to.

"Do you think he'll give us the rest of the story? You know, before Jill comes back?" 'If' she comes back, a voice reminded him, and he bit his tongue hard to stop himself from saying it out loud. Vocalising it would only make it more true.

[human_sponge]

While Kibitoshin was wary, Peter did his best not to hesitate on the stairwell. It'd been tough for him to come up this way the past few times due to what had happened to Elle in this very spot, but he'd worked past it as best he could. The guilt was ever going to go away, and he'd never really forget, but he couldn't let any lingering trauma stop him from focusing on the here and now

[toxicspiderman]

[from here]

The intercom had speakers in the stairwells. This should not have been a surprise. Having the Head Bastard's heavy breathing down his neck in a confined space made S.T. ever more grateful he'd been born a dude. Why was it always the staircase? Some sort of feminist ethos about glass ceilings must have been ground into the treads by the mostly-male population and was slowly atomizing into the air. He took a deep breath. It smelled like storm sewer (on a non-CSO day -- just water and opportunistic lower life forms). No particular scent to hypocrisy.

So Landel'd been in a war. He was like all the politicians flashing Purple Hearts as Get Out Of Jail Free cards, milking one day of being the good guy for a lifetime. Killing people by paperwork and hired thugs by the thousand, rather than one-on-one in the jungles with a gun. Fuck that noise. If Landel wanted to sell his sob story, he'd better start somewhere else. No amount of pissing and moaning could make him sympathetic here.

[to here]

[dual_worlds]

((From here.))

The pathway up the stairs was more narrow than Spock would have preferred, which meant it was best to limit their time here as much as possible. While their chances of getting attacked from the sides were diminished in this area, the fact remained that there were only two directions open to them while climbing the stairs. He recalled the rat creature they had discovered at the top last night, and knew it was not out of the realm of possibility for them to encounter something larger there in the future.

Fortunately, there did not appear to be any commotion ahead, save for a couple of patients further up who were traveling in the same direction. Spock glanced over his shoulder to make certain that Dr. McCoy was close by, but said nothing to him.

As they walked, he heard the Head Doctor begin to address them over the intercom once more. The information he was about to give seemed like it would be relevant to their investigations, even if it was possible that this was all part of the "game" that had been established

[hes_deadjim]

[to here]

[composers_proxy]

[[from here]]

Neku led the way through the darkness, flashlight held in front, a couple of pins in hand and the one buttoned to his shirt front. He turned every so often just to make sure Leonard was still following him. Even if they did manage to run into one another on a fairly regular basis, it didn't mean the guy wouldn't forget him in the next few seconds and wander off on his own. Or something. His memory seemed to at least last long enough to get them through the night or through a meal in this place, so maybe they'd be ok. Was it like hitting a reset button? Or did it kind of slip away gradually?

"Up this way," he said once they reached the stairwell.

"Why do you wanna go there anyway?"

[otnemememento]

Leonard paused at the base of the stairs and shined his light onto his open journal, instinctively looking to his own handwriting for answers. "I'm trying to get more information on someone," he said, reading the note beneath his thumb. He moved the note aside, scanning his hand-drawn map before flipping to a dog-eared page. A charred photograph nearly fell from the pages, leaving a trail of ashes across the page.

Joshua he read, his writing barely visible along the front. The deceased, if I'm right.

[To here.]

[scientist_skye]

[from here]

The stairs proved a little harder than they had the previous night; still-lingering leg injuries were good for that. Ema's pace slowed significantly as she took the stairs one at a time, whining softly to herself as she did so.

[fourstonewalls]

Lana's pace didn't slow when they entered the stairwell, until she couldn't continue without passing Ema. Her initial thought was a crisis of nerves; then she stepped closer and heard a soft noise.

That wasn't fear, or even exhaustion. That was pain.

She stopped in her tracks, glaring ahead at her sister. Then she cleared her throat to catch Ema's attention. "I thought you said everything had healed, hmm? Stop and let me see."

[scientist_skye]

Ema stopped in her tracks and looked back at Lana, her expression slightly guilty. Yes, she'd told Lana about the healed bite wound, but she didn't clarify that it wasn't the only injury specifically because she knew how Lana would react. With Lana forcing the issue, however, there was no more avoiding the subject.

Making sure to stay off to the side so as not to block other people's progress, Ema sat on a step and pulled her pants legs up. "The bite wound did heal. That was here." To demonstrate, Ema held out her left leg to showcase her ankle. "And my leg is a lot better. But... it still hurts." Ema was mentally kicking herself for playing it so cool in the Sun Room earlier; Lana wasn't going to be happy to learn that Ema wasn't as close to one-hundred-percent as she wanted her sister to believe. She held out her right leg to let Lana take a closer look. "Please don't be mad; I didn't want you to worry."

[fourstonewalls]

The excuse didn't twitch even an eyelash out of place on Lana's neutral expression. Her spine felt frozen in place as she considered which aspect to address first.

"Lies of omission are still lies, Ema. How badly are you hurt?" Badly enough that a flight of stairs was causing problems; that alone said volumes. "And did you stop to consider that you were putting both of us at risk?" That was a cheap shot, and Lana knew it. But Ema needed to realize that this wasn't any sort of game. People died here.