Night 51: Main Hallway, 1-Center

[ai_no_minako]

[from here]

The only problem with being punctual was that it left her all alone (hopefully all alone, at least) in a large, echoing hallway with nothing but her imagination. Considering that Minako's imagination was pretty good, especially given the last few years, that wasn't exactly a good thing. She gave the area a careful investigation, making

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[girlsandgadgets]

[From here.]

Edgar continued down the hallway, growing more cautious as he moved farther from the collective of patients that normally gathered on the western end. His grip on the shovel tightened as he sidestepped the open doorway to the Sun Room, unwilling to turn his back to the area. His eyes, though adjusted to the darkness, couldn't see through the shadows in the large room.

He considered one more time finding a way over the wall in the field, but without a second hand and a high step to help him over, he knew the climb would only result in injuring his shoulder again. He was never going to be able to carry heavier tools if he didn't allow himself to recover. He sighed in mild irritation at the choices: a better recovery or a faster route to the lawnmower. He did want a better arsenal.

He left his light off for now, choosing walking through the darkness over making himself an easy target. His next invention needed to be a ladder.

[girlsandgadgets]

[To here.]

[heroesdontshave]

[from here]

Since there were people wandering around and he didn't have one of those light devices other people seem to have found, Snow was walking along the wall trying to get a look at his surroundings to see if anything was recognizable at all. It was hard to tell what was where in the dark like this. Maybe it'd be better to keep an eye out for the guys he was supposed to be meeting instead. If he saw some people hanging around like they were waiting, then he could probably figure those were the ones he was looking for. He already figured the meeting spot was somewhere around here, so they couldn't be that far off.

[ai_no_minako]

So far it'd been pretty boring here in the hallway, truth to be told -- it seemed like the section of hallway where Minako had just been was the popular meeting point, judging from the sounds of voices and footsteps coming from farther down that direction, but so far she'd almost had this hallway to herself. There was one person who'd gone by, his silhouette easier to see against the dim light filtering through the Sun Room's door, but the fact that he kept going kinda seemed to her that he wasn't the person she was supposed to meet. Maybe she should have worried more about what these people looked like, huh? Then she could do more than just guess

[heroesdontshave]

Of all the directions Snow had been looking, down had not been one of them. A step or two in front of him a light suddenly came on and a person stood up out of nowhere. Snow actually took a sudden step back, startled, but relaxed when he managed to get a look at her. Just some girl, it looked like. She seemed nice, though. Nice enough that he wasn't even going to wonder why she'd been sitting on the floor in the dark.

He blinked down at her for a second, slow to come over his surprise, then reflected a smile back down at her. "Haha, hey. Yeah, actually. I'm supposed to be meetin' some guys here from Search & Rescue. You know if they stopped by here yet?"

[ai_no_minako]

Huge he might be, but he had a nice enough smile. Kinda cute, too, if you liked the hulking manly type. Minako would have to consider that. "I was waiting for someone from Search & Rescue," she replied cheerfully. So was this the stalker guy or the guy named for the weather? Well, only one way to find out.

"I'm Minako," she added, sticking out a hand a little awkwardly. He didn't look Japanese, and that was how foreigners greeted each other, wasn't it? "Are you one of the people I was looking for?"

[buryyourdemons]

[from here--and for the smooth loving group--I mean. Hearts. And candy. All hardcore. =D]

Exiting through that door had led back into the main hall as he thought, with only a few others around for the time that had passed. There was an irritation grinding in the back of his mind, something that set warnings he had placed off. Control was a perfected thing. Allow too much to affect, and then things would spiral from a finely tuned grasp. But nervousness had crept up his spine, tightening his hold on the pillow-case he held, half-heavy.

Yes. He would find his sister or Naruto if he could. And discuss the strange limitations he now held. The fact that his control remained was a relief; that there was little to control fed only into his emotions. And this was the best he could manage here? He paused near the wall, head tilting down and eyes sliding out. He couldn't just accept it so easily.

[blood_and_pocky]

[from here]

It was then that the noble actively took the lead. The stink had been faint before, but the closer they came, the stronger it grew in the back of his throat and in his mind’s eye, rivaling in presence what was already in front of him in the hallway. He cast the Sun Room a frosty look.

He’d come across similar blood before, too often, really. It didn’t make him happy.

Once he was a handful of steps away from the Sun Room doors, he turned around and addressed Sasuke again. "One of Landel’s monsters shed a lot of blood in there," he said, a warning disguised as an idle comment to the untrained ear. Could the boy smell it himself? It was easy to forget the limits of a normal human, and someone like Sasuke was an abnormal human at best. For Aidou, though, it was another instance of untangling the numerous blood scents that hung in the air like different ribbons of color and giving it a name

[sasuke_of_sound]

[[GUYS I'M SORRY I FAIL SO BADLY AAAHHHH.]]

It hit the senses a moment after Aidou spoke: unmistakable stench of blood, with that attendant undercurrent of rot that Sasuke had learned to associate with the monsters of this place. Not human blood, then, unlike other times they had walked this same route.

The frequency of it begged the question of why the beasts here seemed to operate without any real awareness of their surroundings -- most flesh-eating animals (as many of the creatures seemed to be) should have been drawn to blood. That a scent strong enough for human senses, albeit trained ones, to detect marked a clear path rather than a risk would have been strange in a natural environment, unless their adversaries were released in deliberately destructible numbers.

Conjecture. Sasuke nodded to acknowledge that he'd heard, pausing by the door.

"I assume we'll wait for Zack to return?" What person had required such sudden urgency, anyway? At least it hadn't seemed like the man was headed anywhere far.

[zack_fair]

[From here.]All in all, his chat with Tifa had been pretty fast. Zack was glad for that; while he would have liked to take some more time to make sure she was taken care of, there were a number of reasons that that was a bad idea. For one thing, he needed to make sure that Sasuke and Aidou didn't have to wait too long. And on top of that, he didn't want to condescend to Tifa like that. If she was injured, then he had to tell himself that she would use her best judgment

[human_sponge]

[From here.]

This part of the hallway was still pretty empty, which either meant that they had been quick or that people were starting to learn that the Sun Room was not really the best path to take. Peter would do it if he had to, but thus far he'd managed to avoid heading in there any more than that was absolutely necessary.

"This is the first time I'll be going myself. I had someone pick up Nathan's file for me a while back, but that's all." And it hadn't taught him much of anything. Still, he couldn't blame Claire for being curious. His niece seemed like the sort of person who wasn't going to be satisfied until she'd done something for herself; had seen what she wanted to see with her own eyes. Seeing how it wasn't all that far out of their way, he didn't mind indulging her.

"It's just down there," he said, pointing with his flashlight. "The door across from the Sun Room."

[autophoenix]

It made sense to keep track of room numbers, and Claire was a little disappointed in herself that it hadn't occurred to her before now. Then again, it was no surprise that Peter had this situation under a lot better control than she did, considering the time he'd spent there, but she was off to a pretty good start. This just proved there was still a lot she could learn about being on top of things in Landel's

[human_sponge]

F34. Finally. Peter smiled to himself, relieved that he had finally gotten that information. Now he would always be able to check in on her, if he suspected that she'd been taken for experimentation, or if he hadn't heard from her in a while. He didn't intend to suffocate her or anything, but it was just the sort of thing that he really needed to know in case of an emergency

[scarefaux]

[From here.]

The Scarecrow led the way for only a short while before falling back, deciding it might be best if he stuck near Scar, since he was the one with the working flashlight. It would be his luck to run into something, tripping over it in the dark (or tripping into it, given how clumsy his human feet were sometimes).

He hoped Scar could run fast if they did come across anything- the former lion didn't look like he'd ever been the type who'd thrash a hippopotamus from top to bottomus. Then again, neither had the Cowardly Lion after knowing him for a few minutes, but with his courage from the Wizard, he turned out... well, still cowardly in some cases. He was brave when it really mattered.

He considered asking if Scar wanted to link arms as they walked, in case it turned out the lack of courage was a problem with lions in general, but decided against it. Scar didn't look like the type to link arms and skip down the hallway, either.

"It's not much farther," he said. "That hall on the left."

[longlivetehking]

It was a good thing the Scarecrow had never asked to link arms, because Scar would've considered the idea...well...completely ridiculous. Thankfully, the former lion remained ignorant of the idea as he followed his companion for the night through the hall. He didn't exactly like having to use his torch considering it could (strike that, would) attract unwanted attention, but he couldn't quite have his meatshield skip into the arms of an infuriated spirit set on killing her unfortunate victims.

The former lion hoped never to run into her again.

Even without the Scarecrow's comment, he knew the offices weren't much further. "Anything in particular you wish to fetch from there?" he asked, more to satisfy his own curiosity than anything else.

[scarefaux]

"Well, I was in there the other day," the Scarecrow started, keeping an eye over his shoulder for witches, "and I couldn't help but notice that Dr. Venkman had an awful lot of diplomas hanging on his wall. See, back in Oz, I had one myself- with it, I was known as the Wisest Man in Oz."

He stopped by the corner as they reached the entrance to the next hallway, peering around it cautiously. The coast was clear- or looked that way, at least. He signaled for Scar to follow, continuing as they rounded the corner. "The fact is that in my normal body, I've got no more brains than a pail of water. With that diploma, I could think of anything as quick as a wink!"

[To here.]