Night 55: M11 - M20 Hallway

[spandexorgtfo]

And there was the evening announcement, timely as always, although he could have done without the noise at the beginning. It was still slightly jarring to not hear those mocking tones that he had grown so accustomed to, but he did prefer the more direct announcements that had been rolling in ever since last evening. No pathetic attempts at creating

Comments

Re: M14

[tasteoftruth]

[ From here.]

Javert was gone by the time Badd brought Faraday inside, strange costume and all. He'd mentally mocked his roommate when he'd first seen him dress up, but with something as bizarre as time travel in the mix...well, he'd never bothered to ask Javert when he was from, or how he was sure time travel was possible. Maybe that was his version of a detective's trenchcoat, circa 1800. Badd would have some apologies to make in the morning.

He shut the door behind them, and propped a chair under the knob for good measure. The flashlight was left lit, but he set it on one of their desks so it could attempt to illuminate more than one piece of the room at a time.

"At least it'll save them the trouble of carrying me back to bed tomorrow," he noted, taking a seat on one of the beds.

M14

[corvus_veritas]

So Badd hadn't trusted him enough to let him walk on his own and he was even blocking the door with a chair. The paranoia wasn't surprising - wasn't paranoia practically Badd's middle name? - but sheesh. Did a forty year old man really need to be dragged around like he was some bratty little kid that would run off any second

Re: M14

[tasteoftruth]

"They're in all the desk drawers, I think. Same for the notebooks and the pens." Oh, that reminded him. Badd retrieved the notebook and pen from his drawer, intent upon recording the new developments soon as possible. His eyes scrolled down the page until he came to the relevant subsection and frowned hard at it. In the dim light his sharp features were even harsher, and his pale eyes seemed sunken into the shadowy pits of his eye sockets. Very deliberately he set pen to paper, drew a hard, dark line across the 'The phantom' and wrote 'Byrne Faraday' next to it, each letter so firm it dented the paper. Writing it down brought a sense of finality to the truth, as if putting Byrne's ressurection in text was the last thing he needed to make it true.

September 10, 2011. Half hour before death, the moment of Rell's accusation. No wound or scar. But why Faraday? Hell, why anyone? Something that had puzzled Badd since he'd gotten here was the vast range of prisoners the institute had taken. There were a few older men, though Badd was

Re: M14

[corvus_veritas]

"In the desk drawers...?" Byrne repeated under his breath, getting this funny look on his face as he said it. That couldn't be right. He'd checked his desk both nights, and the notebook had been the only thing in there besides a crapload of pens. You'd think you would notice something as large and obvious as a flashlight....damn. He'd have to look again when he got back to his room.

To Badd's question, he put on a more serious expression and crossed his arms. "Yeah. I've been talking with a young woman who's been here for three weeks or so. Her name's Renamon, and..." Byrne paused, briefly wincing as he remembered her. Oh god, he was going to have to apologize to her yet again for not listening to her advice. She'd probably give him a 'see, I told you so' lecture...but truthfully, he deserved that because she did tell him so. Well, whether she would lecture him or not, he still needed to apologize. Again. Awww, man. "...She, uh. She told me about the time travel stuff, and about the monsters at night, and...different dimensions and

Re: M14

[tasteoftruth]

Badd dutifully recorded name and information. "Monsters? Like nightmares, or are there actual boogie men out roaming the hallways?" Now that he had adjusted his perception of reality to include 'damn near anything is possible' he felt pretty calm about putting night monsters down as a possibility. Wally West had mentioned nightmares, and said it as if it was something significant, and 'dreams' was code around the bulletin for what happened at night. If he caught up to the heavy eater again he'd need to give him some more thorough questioning.

Re: M14

[corvus_veritas]

Before responding, Byrne stared at Badd for a good five seconds in the vain hope that he was joking. "You...you mean don't know about the monsters?" Seriously? How long had Badd been here again

Re: M14

[tasteoftruth]

Badd dropped the pen in horror. He'd just been standing around secure in his 'sane' moral high ground, ignoring everything around him, and while he was loafing he'd let Byrne be attacked again. Damn. Did he think losing his badge meant he could lie back and take a vacation? Get it together, Tyrell.

What if it had been something bigger, or the scorpion had hit somewhere vital? He'd have just died here and Badd would have never known...he'd have gone on with life and never known his partner was close enough to touch. The thought turned his stomach.

"My cellmate Javert had a few things returned to him this evening, a sword and an ax. I'll try and figure out where he got them from. Neither of us should be walking around unarmed if there's bugs that big in the area." Badd would need to be more vigilante from now on. This was his second chance at fixing his greatest mistake and he highly doubted he'd get a third, this had to count. Byrne had to live.

Re: M14

[corvus_veritas]

Byrne had to admit, he felt kind of guilty when he saw that reaction. He'd probably just given poor Badd a minor heart attack... However, the gesture had been necessary. Badd needed to know how dangerous this place could be at night and physical evidence was the best way to prove it. (Besides, he would have found out about the incident sooner or later, right? Might as well tell him now and avoid any "why didn't you tell me sooner (insert curse words here)" drama

Re: M14

[tasteoftruth]

He was not fine, he was in danger every moment he was here and he'd been attacked by a poisonous monster bug while Badd stood idly by and lazed about in his doubts. But Badd bit down on his urge to fuss like someone's grandmother and focused on business. "Javert gets special treatment for some reason. He got an actual dinner last night, not the pink glop, and the guards give him a little more respect. I'm not sure why, he doesn't seem the stool pigeon type. He's also been here for over a month so he's got connections we don't have. I'll see if I can get some more information out of him tomorrow."

If there were monsters in here, there might be something else out there. Kay couldn't have been the first person to go over the wall. He tried to put it out of his mind and imagine her hitchhiking down the Jersey Turnpike towards safety with some friendly truck driver, like he knew she could...anything else was unthinkable.

Re: M14

[corvus_veritas]

"Alright," replied Byrne, nodding his head, "and I'll ask around too, and see if I can run into Renamon again." And apologize to her. Again. Siiigh.

So there were monsters, certain patients getting better treatment than others, and a lot of physically impossible circumstances going on. With limited experience and patient testimony, this was probably the most they could figure out right now - at least, about the institute itself. There was, however, something they could figure out now without any patient testimony, something they needed to talk about again. Something that, admittedly, Byrne almost didn't want to think about, mainly because a part of him still hoped it wasn't true. But he needed to confirm it now that the two of them were more accepting of this 'time travel' theory. He needed to hear it all again, despite how much he didn't want to hear it

Re: M14

[tasteoftruth]

Badd had been trying to avoid that topic. "She was here," he said quietly. "Three days before I got here, and two after that. She looked like she was doing okay, in pretty good spirits. Bought into the time travel thing way before I did. Last night I got her over the wall and told her to head for town, and from there try to get somewhere safe and call the precinct back in LA. They bring the prisoners back every morning but she never showed. She got away

Re: M14

[corvus_veritas]

So she had been here after all. And not only that - she'd been here just last night, and days before that. There Byrne had been, wallowing in self pity while his daughter and Badd had been in the same building as him the whole time. Hell, they probably had even been in the same room and he'd never seen them! He winced at the thought.

But at least Kay was far away from here now. He hoped--no, he knew she had gotten away. She had better be safe, wherever she was now. She had better be safe, Byrne swore under his breath, if they so much as touched a single hair on his little girl's head--

...his little girl?

Come to think of it, how many years had it been, again? Badd had said she grew up pretty sharp. Was she already an adult, or close to it? She grew up already, and he, her father, wasn't there to see it? Wasn't there to watch her graduate high school, wasn't there to teach her how to drive a car, wasn't there to frighten away foolish boys who thought they were good enough to date her? He...he wasn't going to be there to be a part

Re: M14

[tasteoftruth]

"She's seventeen. After you died she moved in with her mom's family. I didn't see her much, except a few visits here and there, but the last time she came back was two days before we finally closed the case on your murder. She..." Badd chuckled softly, remembering when he first laid eyes on Kay in that ridiculous outfit. There had been a moment's panic at the sight of his symbol so brightly polished and pinned to her scarf. Then he'd seen the ridiculous show she put on and realized that no policeman would ever take her seriously enough to think she was a real thief.

"She found out about you. Not us, just you, she didn't even find out there was an 'us' until later. And she thought the world of you for it, started dressing up and going around calling herself the second Great Thief Yatagarasu. She even had this little pin in the shape of the bird symbol from our cards. I don't think she quite got that the first Yatagarasu made a habit of never being noticed."

Re: M14

[corvus_veritas]

Seventeen, almost out of high school, and living with her mom's relatives. Kay was practically an adult already. She'd even found out about him being part of the Yatagarasu - which, honestly, was probably inevitable - and was going around and--woah woah woah wait. She what?!

She was running around dressed up in a Yatagarasu costume, wearing the symbol and everything?! After he'd been killed for god's sake! Didn't she realize how big of a target she was to the people who'd wanted him dead?! Didn't she...no no no, easy, easy, easy Faraday, there had to be more to this story. Badd seemed pretty calm about this, there had to be an explanation. But then--augh, hadn't Badd said earlier that Calisto had pulled a gun on Kay

Re: M14

[tasteoftruth]

"She was proud of you. I think she knew it was dangerous, but she knew what we did was dangerous too. And she was so over the top about announcing herself and wearing that silly costume nobody took her seriously anyway." He leaned forward slightly and put a hand on Byrne's shoulder. "There were a couple of tight situations that night but she never got hurt."

Just accused of murder and taken hostage, but they'd both been resolved.

"And if it wasn't for her and that Little Thief device of yours we'd never have found Calisto, let alone the head of the smuggling ring. Don't worry. Kid knows how to handle herself."

Re: M14

[corvus_veritas]

Byrne stared at his old friend, expression stuck somewhere between shock and relief. He felt reassured because Kay was, well, okay. Badd was able to ease his fears on that one. ...Somewhat. But the rest of it left him utterly speechless, and for good reason. They caught the head of the smuggling ring?! It sounded almost too good to be true, and god knows how badly Byrne wanted it to be true. Not only that - Kay had actually helped them with Byrne's own thieving device? She got herself in danger for that?

...Alright. He had to hear this. From the start. Everything. He had to know.

"I want to know everything," Byrne said, finally starting to regain his composure. "Please, tell me what happened again from the start, with my murder. And then about this--what you just said--you really caught the head of everything?" Could it be true? After all of their struggle, they'd finally achieved their goal?