Night 48: Sun Room

[ninelivesonce]

[from here]Taura had found the assignment listing after her shower; she hadn't had more than a moment to dash off a reply before she'd been harried back towards the bunks. She jogged into the center of the room and over towards the board. The notices and replies were gone each morning, but she'd never seen the staff tidying in the afternoon;

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[deathrattling]

The moonlight gleamed into the room at irregular, interrupted angles, slicing shadows into the room that were opaque in their darkness. The message left on the bulletin board was one of the few areas struck almost fully by light, though even it faded into shadow by the edges of the board.

Slowly, after a long pause, an answer came to Taura's questions: a very faint moan, so low and guttural it was almost a rattle. It seemed to come from a set of couches close to the bulletin board, where an unseen breeze stirred the myriad notes from the day that were scattered over the floor, their content unchanged except where they had been torn or marred by reddish stains.

Whatever the struggle had been, it had been violent, and the consequences bloody. The harsh moan sounded again, just a little louder, and between the sound of paper shuffling against paper, there was a slight rustling noise.

[ninelivesonce]

Unexpected wind, to someone who spent the majority of their time a few feet of plasteel away from hard vacuum. Taura whipped around, shining her flashlight over the couches one by one.

"Are you injured? Where are you? I can't help you if I can't find you." The fact that whoever it was might be hiding since their unknown assailant was still in the area was not lost on her; but she'd already painted a target on her not-inconspicuous frame. Having lost the element of surprise, she might as well hope for the best.

A rescue mission wasn't in her marching orders, but to hell with the orders. Besides, the rest of the squad would be coming through here, and if there was danger lying in wait, someone needed to spring the trap. That sounded like the same claptrap Miles used for after-action reports to Their Employer, but he'd always stayed one wormhole jump ahead of the expanding supernova, and he'd pulled Taura with him enough times. Maybe it was time she tried it for herself.

[justawaketylor]

[from here]

Tylor's sense of taste had won out entirely over his sense of adventure, and so he'd decided on the only route he knew in the Institute that would bring him to food, through the Sun Room. Besides, it was night, and the sky might look nice through the large overhead glass, Tylor thought. He wouldn't have minded seeing the stars a bit more.

Instead, walking through the doorway just sent an odd chill through his spine, the lighting almost painfully bleak. How could comfy sofas look frightening? His hand started shaking a bit, wobbling the contrasting light from his own flashlight, as he looked over at the wall where the bulletin board should have been. Instead, it looked like someone had played fingerpainting with blood. Before he could dash out of the room, he realized he wasn't alone. There was one other patient, a brown-haired woman, who was calling out

[deathrattling]

Nothing but silence greeted Taura's next questions. Even the rustle of the fallen notes died away as if on some secret cue, leaving a quiet that had a dull quality to it -- when another patient entered the Sun Room, the sound of footsteps landed with no resonance on the ear, dead and echoless for such a large space.

But in the absence there was being; a whiff of the dry smell of old blood, a hint of the copper of new blood on the tongue. Still, no source that could be pinpointed.

And then a hand shot out from underneath one of the couches and latched onto Tylor's ankle as he passed by, white beyond death and freezing to the touch, with a grip slippery with blood but tight enough to crush. The movement was nothing more than a flash, visible only if either patient had just happened to be glancing at Tylor's feet at the precise moment; if he looked, there might have been just a heartbeat's worth of a wide-eyed gaze staring from underneath the upholstering.

Another blink, and it was gone, the room silent once again.

[scintillatingly]

[From here.]

With how large (and dark) the room was, it wasn't easy for Sora to know what was going on. He was able to make out one figure on a couch nearby, and he could hear footsteps -- running footsteps. Either the person was in a hurry, or they were trying to get away from something. The Keyblade Master knew better than to assume that it was the first option.

For some reason, this felt familiar. He couldn't really explain why, but he was reminded of that night on the second floor, with Tsubaki and Hokuto. The boy clenched both fists as his eyes darted around the room for any sign of danger.

There was nothing for the moment, but that didn't mean a thing here. Soran half-turned back toward his two friends and made a hand motion that he hoped communicated his message: keep it down. If they could sneak by without being seen or heard, maybe this could be avoided entirely

[antiheroed]

Every instinct that Riku had told him to go on ahead of his friends, but he stopped himself, tensing up alongside Sora's side. They needed to be careful, needed to not draw attention to themselves-or more specifically, the princess who was traveling with them. He inhaled deeply to see if he could notice anything different, but he wasn't surprised when all he came up with was Kairi. It was just as he expected, anyway-they would only bring in the Darkness in other ways, and Kairi was one of these ways.

But Sora's note to keep things down was unnecessary. He would have mentioned as much, but that would have made it necessary. Riku knew not to make a sound in these situations, and his tactical skills would aid him in inching closer. Still, closer might mean someone could slip behind him, and he couldn't afford that right now. Sora would have had his back, but he admitted to himself that he wasn't sure that was enough.

Ideally, he just wanted out of here. People might be hurt, but as always, his mind was on his friends.

[kingdomless]

Kairi had no problem being silent in a situation such as the one they were facing currently. After all, things were incredibly dangerous and risky, and she certainly didn't want to be the one to draw attention to themselves.

Moving closely behind the two boys, the once princess gripped tightly onto her sword, her eyes trying her hardest to see through the black of the room. The Darkness in her body caused her fingertips to tingle from the thought of trouble, but she tried her hardest to not think about it. Not now, she pleaded to her body, chewing on her lip as her heart pounded in her ears.

As they moved through the room she could see someone by the couch, as well as what appeared to be someone else moving through the room. What exactly was it they were currently trying to avoid, and why couldn't she shake the feeling of complete and utter discomfort from her body?

[scintillatingly]

While Sora felt pretty nervous about Kairi taking up the rear of their three-person group, he didn't think it would be a good idea to waste time by telling the others to switch places. Riku would take care of her; Sora knew that he could rely on his friend for that

[number_crunch]

There was a loud clang outside the Sun Room as Sho's shovel (repeat that series in rapid succession!) hit the floor and rebounded off, throwing him off balance long enough for his spidery foe to plot a vector into the Sun Room. Following behind, the mathematician barreled through the doors, sending them on a second rebound from being forcefully opened.

Blinking in the darkness, Sho tucked his shovel under one arm as he scanned the room with the flashlight taped to it, his other arm reaching into his jacket. Its objective? His megaphone.

"All right, you dichromatic differential!" he shouted through his electronic amplifier, his sound waves crackling with stupendous static. "I've had just about enough of your attempts at escape velocity! I am going to kick your arachnoid asymptote so hard and so fast, you'll start hurting last week! Then, I'm gonna take that fractal facade off your face so I know who to punch when you're not running around in primary-colored pajamas! And break whatever grotesque gland you used to spit sticky stuff on

[deathrattling]

The commotion of the entrance fell on a deathly quiet room. If there had been disturbances earlier, there was no indication of it: every chair, couch, and coffee table was in the exact place it occupied during the day. With the exception of the displaced notes, scattered piecemeal across the room, and the particular appearance of the bulletin board, the Sun Room looked tranquil in the moonlight

[hat_einen_vogel]

[From here]

The smell of blood hung in the air here.

Prussia hadn't caught the smell it when he'd still been in the hall; it wasn't until he'd passed the double doors of the room that it hit him. Something had obviously happened here since he'd been in the room earlier that day.

He paused just inside the doorway, pulling his torch out to survey the area, and then took a few more steps inside. There were papers scattered all over the floor, and the bulletin...! Bloody splattered on it, bloody hand prints, a hole in the center... Whatever had happened in here, the bulletin board must have been right in the middle of it.

[stlg13bomber]

[ From here.]

Carter opened the other door and his eyes automatically followed the beam of the flashlight. Well, it had been a cheery night. A room with blood on the floor did a lot to kill the mood.

"Gee whiz..." Carter murmured, peering over the other man's shoulder. It looked like someone had hurt themselves, but there was nobody left here dead or alive. Maybe it was one of those monsters...maybe it was still here! Carter felt more excited than scared.

[hat_einen_vogel]

Prussia kept the beam of his torch focused on the bulletin as he glanced around the rest of the room, seeing if he could make out any figures in the dark. Whoever had been involved in what happened, be they the aggressors or victims, could still be around, after all...

His attention was so focused on what was (or could be) in front of him that he hadn't noticed someone else enter the sun room behind him. He jolted at the sound of the man's voice, whirling around to face whoever had snuck up on him.

The man the light landed on didn't exactly look like the sort Prussia had been expecting after being startled. However, that didn't stop from demanding, "Who're you?"

[stlg13bomber]

Funny, how in just a year a man could get so trained to react to the sound of certain voices. As soon as the man's German accent reached Carter's ears his friendliness reflexively took on an undercurrent of guardedness. You couldn't trust Krauts fully, not like you could Americans, even if some of them were pretty nice men and girls.

"A-Andrew. Carter," Carter said after a startled moment. "I'm just going through." It wasn't as harsh as Hochstetter's "WHAT IS THIS MAN DOING HERE" but anything demanded in a Kraut accent made Carter twitchy.

[zack_fair]

[From here. Let's do the timewarp again?]

The room seemed more expansive in the dark -- and more eerie, at that. Zack kept his flashlight pointed in front of him. There seemed to be some signs of disarray, such as pieces of paper on the floor. Had something gone on here? It was all silent now, but that didn't mean there wasn't something skulking in the corner and waiting for them to let their guard down.

His instinct was to warn the two teens to be careful, but they clearly already knew all about that, if they'd been here for so long. Zack couldn't shake a slight feeling of dread, and his instincts were usually trustworthy.

But they were just supposed to cross the room, right? If they made good time, then maybe all his anxiety would turn out to be pointless. Zack figured they were heading for the cafeteria, but he didn't want to assume, and so he held his position, waiting for a cue from one of the others as the scanned the area for any sign of movement.

[blood_and_pocky]

“Yes, let’s go,” agreed Aidou.

He wasn’t exactly confident of the ‘team dynamic’, not anymore than usual, but in this instance all three of them were in good health and willing to focus on what needed to be done. It was one of the better starting points he could hope for. And he would do what he could do ensure things stayed that way.

But to get where they were going, there was a high potential of getting ambushed by one foe or another, and when they passed into the Sun Room, Aidou was almost certain that’d be the case if they hesitated. During the night there was always blood in the air, but in the lounge, it was worse. Much worse. The largest source was from the bulletin, and the vampire’s eyes flared at the sight of it. His own instincts told him something was definitely amiss, even if that was all he could be certain of at the moment.

Aidou stepped out from Zack’s right. “Hurry,” he warned. “Straight through.” He trusted Sasuke to be able to follow suit--and trusted that Sasuke trusted why someone nocturnal might have more