[to Manabu's great credit: he only trips once, it's not very disastrous, and it's more because of the tail messing with his balance than the dark!
they record serial numbers and snap quick flash-images of equipment - much of which Manabu can't honestly say he recalls, but if this is where Grey got the data stick, then it must be...
...and besides, there is some bit of this stuff that gives Manabu sudden pause and a dreadful chill - recollections of the noises they likely made, the buzz of electricity...
(that buzz is the auxiliary generator, of course - it must be! stuff doesn't stay offline for very long on an expensive campus like this)
with the threat of everything coming back online, they beat a retreat, closing up behind them and delaying only so Manabu can wipe down where their hands had lingered (gloves next time, for sure). lingering is a risk with a cost: incoming security guards glimpse their silhouettes as they're making a fast retreat to the fenceline, requiring a bit of double-back work through the dark to avoid capture with enough time for Grey to abscond to the air.
as earlier, Manabu keeps quiet about the discomfort of being carried off the ground without the safety of a cockpit or train car, eyes squeezed shut and breath short as though doing so would offset any vertigo symptoms.
being as such blinds him to the idling figure at the corner of the building, watching the stairway.]
no subject
they record serial numbers and snap quick flash-images of equipment - much of which Manabu can't honestly say he recalls, but if this is where Grey got the data stick, then it must be...
...and besides, there is some bit of this stuff that gives Manabu sudden pause and a dreadful chill - recollections of the noises they likely made, the buzz of electricity...
(that buzz is the auxiliary generator, of course - it must be! stuff doesn't stay offline for very long on an expensive campus like this)
with the threat of everything coming back online, they beat a retreat, closing up behind them and delaying only so Manabu can wipe down where their hands had lingered (gloves next time, for sure). lingering is a risk with a cost: incoming security guards glimpse their silhouettes as they're making a fast retreat to the fenceline, requiring a bit of double-back work through the dark to avoid capture with enough time for Grey to abscond to the air.
as earlier, Manabu keeps quiet about the discomfort of being carried off the ground without the safety of a cockpit or train car, eyes squeezed shut and breath short as though doing so would offset any vertigo symptoms.
being as such blinds him to the idling figure at the corner of the building, watching the stairway.]