Night 46: West Wing, North Hallway 1-A

[whos_da_man]

[from here]It looked like Junpei was the first to arrive as there was no sign of a hot pink-haired flesh-eating babe. Leaning against the wall by the door that lead outside, he sighed and tilted his head back. What was he doing? Why were his senpai gone when he so very much needed them to tell him what he should really be doing

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[unheroed]

[From here.]

As expected, Harvey didn't get what he wanted. Jason was nowhere to be found. There was just some blond man standing nearby and looking as if he was waiting for someone. At least he wasn't the only one, but that was a pretty meager consolation prize.

The man was going to be beyond irritated if it turned out Jason had gotten into another pointless fight with his roommate. He tightened his grip on his pipe and looked around the area, just wondering when a monster might come along and decide he had been loitering for too long. He didn't get as nervous when he stayed on the move, but waiting around like this grated at him.

Maybe he'd waste some time in his room before heading out next time. That might ensure that Jason beat him here. It was a petty thought, but still worth some consideration. On the other hand, why would he want to spend any more time with Lunge than necessary?

It looked like he was caught between a rock and a hard place. What else was new?

[its_the_mileage]

[from here]

This hallway--the last before he'd hit open air--contained a handful of others, mostly people Indy didn't know. The only one he recognized was Dent. He was looking around warily and clutching a pipe, which in Indy's view were both pretty damn sensible things to be doing. Indy approached with the light and spoke as soon as he got within range, just to make sure nobody jumped the gun and decided to introduce the pipe to his skull.

"Evening. Waiting for someone?" he asked, just in passing. He'd stopped moving, but he only planned on sticking around long enough to exchange a few pleasantries--if that was the word for a conversation with Dent. Indy hadn't forgotten his earlier thoughts as to whether Dent would be a useful guy to have around out there, but he doubted the guy would jump at the prospect of poking around at some abandoned buildings. He didn't seem like the type.

[unheroed]

Having heard the voice before actually seeing the other man, Harvey had startled -- but only slightly. He knew he could be set off pretty easily these days, but he at least had enough of a hold on himself to not wildly swing at a disembodied voice. Besides, this one was familiar

[its_the_mileage]

Dent was giving the clothes the once-over, not that Indy could blame him. The fedora and leather jacket probably did look pretty strange to anyone who wasn't familiar with him, especially here. Well, he thought--maybe slightly defensively--they worked just fine for him.

He shook his head. "Wasn't planning on it. I'm headed out to those ruins in the woods, and I didn't have too much trouble the last time I was there." Which was also the only time he'd been there, which amounted to the flimsiest data set he'd ever tried to justify doing something potentially stupid with. Well, one of the flimsiest data sets.

Now that he thought about it, it'd taken him a couple minutes to get dressed and make his way this far, and the halls had already been starting to fill up by the time he left. "Your friend's running a little late, isn't he?" he asked.

[unheroed]

So the guy planned to go out to some ruins in the woods by himself? That was almost as foolhardy as Harvey could get sometimes, and he would have thought Jones would know better. Maybe he was really just that confident in himself, or maybe he had more ammunition than he was willing to show. Harvey knew he didn't have an actual gun, but there were other options.

It wasn't his problem if the man wanted to go and get himself killed, though. He didn't seem particularly suicidal, so he must have really just trusted in himself that much. It made Harvey wonder where all that bravado came from, but...

He stiffened when Jones pointed out the lack of his "friend." Harvey shot a glance at the door that Jason should have been exiting from, but there was no sign of him. "Seems that way. He has this tendency to get into fights with people." Who was it this time? Someone who had looked at him funny while he was walking down the hall?

Harvey wouldn't have been all that surprised.

[its_the_mileage]

"This early in the night? That sounds like some kind of record." It usually took Indy at least a little longer than this to provoke anyone who didn't already have it in for him.

Apparently they were settling in for a chat here, so Indy flicked off his flashlight (didn't want to waste the batteries; he wasn't sure how many nights he had left in this set and he was out of spares) and weighed his options again. He and Dent were both probably better equipped to handle themselves alone than most of the other people here, but Indy also recognized that neither of them was exactly looking forward to the prospect; the accumulated weight of all those admonitions not to move around alone got to you after a while. He still didn't think Dent was likely to care much about the ruins, but it was still worth the asking. As long as he kept one eye on that gun, he felt pretty good about their ability to manage for the night.

Where was the gun, anyway? He glanced Dent over as his eyes adjusted. If it was on him, it wasn't immediately obvious

[unheroed]

"The first time it was with his roommate, so I think it was a convenience thing," Harvey explained. Jason hadn't seemed all that upset about it the night before, even though he'd been roughed up. Maybe he was one of those adrenaline junkies. Harvey wouldn't have been surprised.

The flashlight being switched off didn't bother Harvey in the slightest, though it did make him realize something: even though this was only the second time that Jones had seen him without the bandages on, the man hadn't shown any sign of awkwardness, to the point that Harvey hadn't thought about it until now. It either meant that Jones was good at not showing what he was really thinking, or it just honestly didn't bother him that much.

He hadn't expected that to extend as far as the man asking him along, though. Even more surprising was that he was seriously considering it. Jason still hadn't showed, which meant that Harvey was starting to lose his patience. The kid had flaked on him once before, and while he apparently had had good reason, it still made

[its_the_mileage]

Privately, Indy decided Dent's friend might not be all that bright if he was picking fights with his roommate. It was a good idea in his book to stay on the best terms possible with anyone who was around while you were sleeping. "So picking fights is a hobby of his? I'd've thought we all had enough things trying to kill us around here without adding anything else to the list," he commented dryly. Maybe the man was trying to build up some kind of reputation, but that didn't seem like a very good way to become known as a tough guy. Known as a dead guy, maybe.

That response was more positive than he'd expected, and if he hadn't been entirely serious in his request (and Indy wasn't quite sure himself), he got serious about it now. He'd rather get going as soon as possible, but the walk had left them plenty of time when he'd last been out there; he figured he could spare two minutes. Not that he had a watch, Indy remembered belatedly. Did anyone here?

"Sure," he agreed, leaning against the wall and folding his arms to wait.

[unheroed]

"I couldn't agree with you more," Harvey said with an annoyed sigh -- which was directed at the absent Jason, rather than at Jones. He figured the man could work that out on his own. Though his words weren't exactly truthful, seeing how Harvey was still in the business of hunting down a certain someone. Batman had been evasive so far, but when he thought about it, that was no real surprise. Leave it to the vigilante to be able to blend into the shadows even without his costume.

Jones didn't need to know about any of that, though, and Harvey did still think that Jason's indiscriminate fighting instinct was foolhardy at best and idiotic at worst.

Luckily enough, the archaeologist had come along right in time to offer a back-up plan, and Harvey would wait long enough to be satisfied that Jason wasn't going to show. He also leaned against the wall, glancing around yet again before looking to Jones. "So how'd you find these ruins in the first place?"

[its_the_mileage]

"Pure chance, actually," Indy admitted, though it didn't make much of a story. "My roommate and I were out in the woods trying to find anything that could help us out there--somewhere to hide; a town, maybe. We hadn't heard about Doyleton yet

[unheroed]

So Jones had just stumbled upon it. At least the guy was willing to admit it, and in the end the means by which he'd found it didn't really matter. It had just been a point of curiosity, seeing how they were just standing around here and waiting for the moment.

Still, if there was someone who should find a ruined town, Jones was the guy. He obviously knew his stuff, if he could make guesses like that and sound so confident about it. Archaeology was a field Harvey had never even dipped into, so he had little choice but to take Jones' word for it. Not that there was any real reason for the man to lie.

It was no surprise that something was off about the town, though, and Harvey gritted his teeth just as an instinctive reaction. "Like what?" he asked. He might as well get the full rundown before he just went along on this adventure, after all. Seeing how Jason still hadn't showed, it was seemed more and more likely that that was what was going to happen.

[its_the_mileage]

Indy stopped and consciously reined himself in--just the facts; he didn't have enough evidence to make too many conjectures, especially not after that stupid logic leap he'd made earlier about the find's authenticity. "I haven't been able to get a good look at the whole site yet, just the church," he began cautiously. "But what I've seen is wrong on two levels. In terms of the archaeology, the damage isn't consistent. The place was heavily fogged over when I was there, and you'd expect there to be damage and rot from the moisture in the air. The buildings show some of it, but there's paper, fabric, cardboard sitting out in the open that practically looks like it's in the same condition it'd be if I left it there yesterday. And some of those pieces looked old." He shook his head. "Could be they were brought there recently, but I haven't come up with a good reason yet why anyone would want to drop off a box of old clothes in an abandoned church. There are a number of details like that that don't seem to make much sense

[unheroed]

A church, huh? Harvey probably shouldn't have been that surprised. What better place to have some sort of eerie scene laid out? Still, he made sure to listen to the inconsistencies Jones had managed to work out, holding back the explanations that popped into his head so that he could let the other man finish.

The matter of the items there not being old enough was one thing, but the mention of a whole congregation of skeletons was far more worrisome. Not that Jones was a coroner (he could probably read the age of things, but cause of death had to be trickier), but it was still a bothersome image... And not one Harvey was all that eager to see firsthand. Still, with only the bones left, there were all sorts of options. Poison, for instance.

The message wasn't particularly enlightening, either. Harvey wasn't going to assume it was blood -- there were all sorts of substitutes, that he knew well enough -- but if it was

[its_the_mileage]

Indy nodded, gratified that they seemed to be on the same wavelength. "I think there's a connection too. The question is whether we'll like it."

It was almost a rhetorical question, since it didn't take a lot of imagination to figure that they wouldn't. Especially if it looked like Landel was saving some pews in the back for them. But Indy was still hoping there might be another link between the town and Landel or the institute's history, information they could figure out a way to exploit.

That was part of it, anyway. To himself, he could admit that he couldn't compel himself to pass up the opportunity to work on a site like that.

He flicked the light back on and swept it down the corridor. A couple of people were making their ways in both directions, but no one seemed to be looking for Dent. Indy didn't see anyone who looked like they had any fresh shiners or broken noses, either.

"Doesn't look like your friend is coming," he pronounced, looking back at Dent. "Ready to go?"

[unheroed]

Seeing how it was pretty obvious they weren't going to like it, Harvey didn't even bother commenting about it. Being somehow linked to dead bodies in a blood-stained church didn't bode well by any stretch of the word

[its_the_mileage]

Indy had never left the compound this way before, but the map was simple enough to follow. Just dead ahead and around slightly to the southeast once they were out.

Anyway, leading suited him fine. He moved past Dent and kept going to the outside door, then through it and out into the crisp night air.

[to here]