Night 52: West Wing, South Hall 2-B

[dual_worlds]

((From here.))This corridor was empty as well, which was not surprising when one took into account the lack of activity in the previous area. They passed a door to their left, one that lacked a clear label on the maps Spock had seen. While there were several possibilities of what it entailed, Spock knew he would need to make some inquiries from

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[hes_deadjim]

It looked like Spock had everything planned out, and just assumed he'd follow. Spock just turned and walked down the corridor. He was right, McCoy was tagging along anyway, even if he could have sworn their orders included splitting up and investigating. The doctor hurried to catch up.

He was sure Spock had a list ready for why it was completely logical to travel together. Safety, different minds to come at a problem from a different angle, and it was a good thing he hadn't encountered that "Weeping Angel" last night, because having another pair of eyes would have been added to that list of his.

They stopped in front of a door. The door didn't give. McCoy sighed silently. More busting doors down. His joints gave a phantom ache at just the memory of the last time they had to do this. He was just a doctor, but at the rate they were going, he could turn over that blue tunic for a red one.

McCoy readied himself. "I'm getting too old to be busting doors down, Mr. Spock."

[dual_worlds]

Spock glanced at McCoy with a raised brow. "If you are capable of serving on board a starship, then doors should be no trouble for you, Doctor," he said simply. Not to mention he doubted McCoy wanted to stand in this hallway any longer than necessary, and the fact remained that they would be able to move on faster if they employed two bodies instead of one. So long as Spock's own strength was reduced to a third of what it once was, there was little else he could do except ask for assistance when it was needed.

Regardless, it appeared McCoy was willing to lend his help. Spock positioned his shoulder to where it facing the door and waited for the other officer to do the same. "On the count of three," he instructed. "One, two, three--"

As soon as he'd finished counting, he threw his weight against the door's surface in unison with McCoy.

[hes_deadjim]

McCoy threw himself at the door on 'three'. Both of their bodies impacted on it with a dull thud. The door shuddered, gave a little, but didn't quite open. McCoy gave Spock a Look. This kind of thing had happened at the pharmacy too. It hadn't caved on the first try either. Locked, but it hadn't been that strong.

Hopefully this was the same, because if it wasn't, they could very well be here all night.

They didn't waste time counting to three again. Together, they threw their weight at it again and...

[to here]

[ai_no_minako]

Minako grimaced and side-stepped the fragments of broken glass with over-elaborate care. The lights were still flickering down here, too, and it was no less disquieting to have their shadows shifting like that against the walls. But really, was that the best Dr. Landel could do? Dramatics and shadow puppets?

Well, and torturing some poor woman wherever he was hiding. Couldn't forget that part, especially since Minako would really, really have liked to find them and put a stop to that. What kind of defender of justice knew that sort of stuff was going on and just walked away?

She glanced up at Arthur's question and wrinkled her nose slightly. "Talk to him? No... didn't think he'd really be interested in talking to me, all things considered." If he could talk all that well, after the way she'd kind of kicked him in the face.

[slipperymagic]

Howl was announced by the sound of glass sliding across the tiled floor, propelled by a breeze that seemed to touch nothing else. It gave the whole thing a look as though the shards of broken bulbs were politely stepping out of the way of the man who was now walking down the hallway, straight towards the pair. He moved with purpose, but beyond that, Howl knew he was impossible to miss, particularly in a hall as dreary as this. The deep red of his suit, the unnatural gold of his hair, it all served to make the grey surroundings look that much more muted. He actually liked the image in his head quite a bit

[quarter_english]

[From here.]As L made the turn in the corridor, he kept pace with the other two as well as he could, and engaged in a conscious effort to control his own breathing. There was no reason for panic to claw at him; nothing to fear now that he had already been behind the second door on the left. Nonetheless, his hands curled into tight balls, fingernails pressing into the palms, and he felt nauseated

[toxicspiderman]

Sometimes it paid to just do things instead of talking about them. Though Sangamon had to admit he hadn't been thinking much when he'd picked up that trash can. Oh fuck didn't count.

"Four times. Myself three, someone else once. I think it was Miles, but he might have just ended up carrying the bag. Some of the lunatics behind the needles are more careful than others."

Yeah, they were all veterans. Three men, three slight twitches at nothing more than S.T. glanced down the hall. He'd been there enough times for repetition to make that no less difficult than sticking a gloved hand into toxic sludge that would put that crap in Who Framed Roger Rabbit out of a job

[herr_inspektor]

Of course Javert would have the details. He would have known that if he had chased up their appointment to discuss his own experiences. Lunge's mouth tensed slightly in the corner; it wasn't that he was running away from it, of course not, he didn't run from anything, but... but he needed to prepare his answers. Yes. It wasn't going to be a summary as it had been for Dent, or even L, and he needed to remember as much as possible before had.

Believing that was a stretch, even for him.

It was almost a relief to sense L twitch beside him- some kind of strange vindication to see something in L's face, something so close to what he was almost certain had crossed his own only a few nights before in this same corridor. A tension, the white balls of fists, the breath to dispel it. He knew the signs, he'd lived them. But there was something else there that differed, something he couldn't quite touch on in the dim, flickering light of the hallway. Indignance?

Instead of thinking about it, Lunge nodded at Taylor's gesture. Definitely The

[slipperymagic]

"I'm afraid this is as far as you go, gentlemen," Howl corrected with the sigh of someone who was in the middle of his work day and was addressing the next task. Casually insincere exhaustion was evident in his posture. Meanwhile, the lack of shadows in the hallway didn't seem to have impeded Howl's ability to step out of them in any significant way. He didn't exactly appear out of nothingness, but skipped some space just to get close enough to hold a conversation (and no closer). The residual travel left a breeze in his hair, and he calmly brushed the escaped strands back in with the rest. They stayed there perfectly without a single objection. Even under the weak light that had been provided, Howl shone as though it were high noon, although he was unable to see that it highlighted the emptiness in his eyes

[witchdetective]

[ from here ]

Erika's irritation had long faded when she heard a burst of static coming from her bag. The detective carelessly threw the bag onto the floor and dug through it to retrieve the radio, listening carefully to the broadcast. A smile grew on her face, remaining there as she listened carefully. Of course, Marc didn't tell her anything that she didn't know already but he was the closest thing to a reliability authority figure in this place. Landel was purposely trying to throw them off track with some sort of trick, and Marc was confirming this. Good enough.

"< Good. > It's nothing new, but that puts me on the right track." Erika didn't have to really think on why Landel was intimidating the patients like this: It was simply to scare them. However, she thought it contributed to the purpose of this place. If she was able to gain access to the rooms within, then it would confirm a thought that she had about the true purpose of this gameboard. At least, the surface purpose

[ran_on_empty]

Erika's response was both expected and not, though it wasn't like he'd be completely sure given that he'd never even heard of zombies before he was attacked by a few hundred of them.

"Why's that? This place has done plenty of improbable things." Which meant that anything was a possibility if Landel permitted it to be. It made figuring out the place a lot trickier, as having something akin to an omnipotent figure stunted most progress. As they continued down the hall he heard the latter's radio come to life, paying no mind to his own as he watched the fumbling girl. In the end there wasn't much to offer, and so he allowed Erika to say her piece before continuing along.

He followed her until she stopped in front of a locked door, keeping a fair distance in case the other patient had a particularly bad aim. Sync listened to her ask her question, catching that tone and shrugging once in the process.

"I'm guessing you've got a theory?"

[witchdetective]

"Improbable does not mean impossible," Erika responded back, and she might have further argued her point had she not been focused on both opening the door and talking about her other theory. The zombie mystery would be irrelevant if she could just crack open the rest of the gameboard. This theory was a start, though not the true answer she wanted to reach yet