Night 50: Main Hallway, 1-Center

[perfectrecord]

[From here]Unlike the western section, the central portion of this hallway was completely deserted. On any other night, von Karma would have used this to his advantage to arrive at one of the upstairs locations before anyone else did. The Janitor's Closet, for one, contained a large cache of metal that he could use to compensate Mr. Geeste for

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[zip_it_good]

[from here.]

He had settled on a story. Bucciarati, or Michelangelo, rather, had witnessed an alien's spacecraft crashing into the sea. The injured extraterrestrial, on the brink of death, had merged with Michelangelo and fused their minds to survive. It would require some fine-tuning, but it would surely work. It had the perfect mix of plausibility and impossibility to be believable.

After all, stranger things had happened, right?

[tartaros_avatar]

[ here]

Recluse strode forward at the head of the small group, glad for the lights behind him, not potentially in his eyes. Yes, it meant taking point, but that was entirely acceptable. He had the weapons that he'd made to protect him.

"There is often a guard of some variety stationed in the entrance area, which we will be entering next. Be on your guard," he warned to the two. There was no sense in losing one of them so quickly, after all.

[gargantuanlaugh]

A guard. Great. In a place like this, Gant had no problems imagining some three-headed hound of doom blocking their exit. Or maybe he was giving Landel too much credit. There would probably be just a normal security guard, and if that was the case he could easily take him down by flashing his light in the man's eyes then smashing him in the head with the candlestick. Gant hoped that it wouldn't turn out to be his job. He didn't take the possibility of murdering someone lightly; he had to be guaranteed a reward.

He gripped the candlestick tighter, but kept behind Recluse. What he wouldn't give for a pistol right about now.

[oneman_onekill]

"Mm..." Niikura wasn't surprised that there would be a guard, but he was interested in what Recluse meant by 'some variety'.

"The guard usually 'round here...he wouldn't happen to be another patient, would he?" he asked casually, maintaining an easy gait behind the two other men. If that was the case, he'd had a run-in with one of those guards, and didn't feel like repeating the experience - and not only because the battle had been fierce. Just meeting Usopp the next day in the shower had been really strange.

[tartaros_avatar]

"Sometimes. I've seen the dedicated guards stationed there as well. Sometimes it's left unguarded, but I would not count solely on luck." The guard patrols of this place really made no sense, beyond the obvious; Landel might be doing this for some sort of actual job if some of the things he'd said could be trusted, but he was cocky and overconfident in how firmly he had the patients under control.

Really, all that this place was doing for Landel seemed to be to drive him slowly insane, something Recluse was more than happy to listen to when it didn't come in the form of extremely irritating sub-par monologues. It was a blessing that the idiot didn't try for a maniacal laugh all that often.

[To here]

[36_24_35]

[From here]

Flashlight in hand, Tifa made quick work of the women's block and the main hallways, having walked through them several times with her friends. This time through, however, she came better prepared. She brought along her modified sweatshirt to keep her findings in and her new treasure that Tifa had a strange inkling she would be using before the night was over.

Vaguely recalling what the map had looked like in her mind, Tifa was pretty sure she needed to keep moving forward and eventually there would be a staircase to her right.

[To here]

[repeatingfate]

[from here]

The next hallway was a little quieter, and that set Rika's nerves on edge. But at least she wasn't alone in this one, and didn't have anyone poking at her about being a witch. Still, the darkness was eerie and she'd heard stories about the things that could lurk in the dark. She decided following her own advice would be for the best - not staying somewhere too long.

"Which way from here?"

[savagesolitude]

That seemed to have cleared it up. Turned out the boy had known about electricity all along. How he still could have mistaken the torch for witchcraft in the first place was mind-boggling, but he had stopped fussing and that was all the mattered for now. He even gave her a high five

[boketa]

"Hmmmm..." After a few more feet, the little boy stopped, not exactly sure which way to go now. Wide-eyed and moth hanging open, of course, Goku looked from side to side, trying to hard to pick a door. Reasonable deduction was not his strong suit.

"Oh!" Well the decision was made for him. His sniffer had picked up something. It smelled like... "Food! Hey, let's--Ah!" Something piercing hit the monkey boy like a sledgehammer. Gritting his teeth in a gaping snarl, Goku slapped his hands over his ears and fell to the floor. "Ahhh owwwwaahh!" Thankfully, it ended as quickly as it began, and the boy was really no worse for the wear. It didn't stop him from complaining in poor Japanese though. "Gosh! What the heck was that? How weird... Oh yeah!" That food! Without another thought for that bizarre howl, Goku quickly waddled forward and to the left into the Sun Room.

[boketa]

[To here]

[fourstonewalls]

[from here]

As soon as they'd stepped within striking distance of the Sun Room doors, Lana regretted dropping Ema's hand. She tossed an arm out to forestall any headlong runs. "I'll take the opposite side of the door. Thumbs down if you hear signs of a struggle, thumbs up for all clear." She hated the thought of forcing Ema to use her damaged senses, but they needed every advantage they could get. She darted across the doorframe and pressed herself to the other side.

Nothing more than perhaps a muffled word or two reached her ears -- butterfly? Really? This was neither the time nor the place to be standing around discussing insect life. After another long moment of relative peace and quiet, she flashed a thumbs up and then immediately held up one finger, carefully illuminated, and hoped Ema would take the hint to stay back one more moment. She peered around the door, giving her a view of several men's shoulders and little else. One of them was Inspector Lunge; she couldn't pick any of the others out of the gloom.

[scientist_skye]

For once, Ema let the sting of Lana's retort roll off her back, especially since Lana both reciprocated the information-sharing and was prepared to move on. Moving was the important thing here, not interpersonal drama; Ema wouldn't be able to face Agatha in the morning if they failed to find her because they spent the whole night bickering in the hallways. Agatha needed them before something happened

[fourstonewalls]

Lana was prepared to just move after hearing no sounds of a struggle, but it appeared Ema wasn't. Had she heard something Lana hadn't? Whatever it was, Lana crossed back and tried not to let her impatience show beyond a single raised eyebrow. "I didn't hear anything of concern; we should be able to cross without difficulty." Her tone was clipped; businesslike, without censure but with the assurance of one who expects no argument.

Lana was used to being in charge. Very few had any sort of authority over the Chief Prosecutor, especially during an investigation. And as that man was finding his hold slipping; every lie Ema was privy to meant one fewer string. Even if the sum of them might also cut them apart, Lana couldn't argue with inevitability. Blackmail, as always, only worked when the one blackmailed had something to lose. Lana shot a glance at Ema -- make that something to lose under the control of the blackmailer. As long as she was here, Lana had everything to lose. She cleared her throat, and continued in the same

[scientist_skye]

That singularly raised eyebrow communicated volumes. Lana intended to move on regardless of Ema's input, preferring to take charge of the situation rather than collaborating. Well, fine. If Lana wasn't willing to actually work with her, then Ema wasn't going to even bothered sharing what she'd heard. They would rush in, waste their time, and then move on to the next possible destination.

"No objections, prosecutor." The jab was unnecessary, but it made Ema feel better as she entered the Sun Room, moving as instructed.

[to here]