Night 54: North of the Institute

[madeinthehrl]

[from here]

It was quiet past the walls of the Institute, and for the moment there was nothing else living in sight. Soma stayed silent, watching the immediate area for any signs of attack as she waited for Kratos to follow.

Comments

[full_score]

With Anise safely over the wall, Claude pulled himself over the top and climbed down onto the other side without any difficulty. Once his feet touched the grass, he immediately moved to retrieve his own things. As he did so, he grew aware of some kind of radio message filtering through Guy's device. After everything that had happened today, he wasn't surprised that they'd hear from the radio people tonight. On the other hand, Claude wasn't so sure how much information they'd have for them when the military were probably pretty tight-lipped about everything.

While he was curious to know what kind of message he and Anise were listening to, though, Claude's attention strayed over to Tear. She was perched on top of the wall despite the fact everyone else had climbed down without her. It was hard to see her expression in the dark, but there was something odd about how still she was carrying herself. Had she sensed some sort of danger? Or was something else bothering her?

Approaching the wall, he shined his flashlight in Tear's direction. "Everything okay up there?" he asked.

[razing_phoenix]

While Guy had also noticed the way that Tear had paused as if something was wrong (had she scraped her leg on something, or were they being followed?), he was distracted when Anise moved over to listen to the radio. He was grateful that she was courteous enough to keep some distance between them. He wanted to make sure that Tear was all right, but seeing how Claude was handling that, he'd focus on Anise for now. She was the one who was the most clueless at this point, as surreal as that was.

"Oh, he's... Well, basically we're all given these radios and sometimes announcements will come through them like just now. We've had a few people from the outside talk to us through them. Some are trustworthy and some aren't, but they always claim to be on our side. This newest guy, who you just heard, seems reliable so far, but we'll see," he quickly explained.

It wasn't like the so-called Marc had given them much information this time around, but it was definitely some literal food for thought. If it seemed like the rest of them started to have weird symptoms, then he'd known that the food might actually be an explanation. It was possible Anise had been hit first because she had the least body mass, so it had passed through her faster, but Guy didn't want to assume anything.

"Anyway, we need to figure out which direction to go," he said, partly to himself and partly to the rest of the group. But first Tear needed to make her way down; Guy knew she wasn't afraid of heights, so this had to be something else. His grip tightened on his sword just in case.

[melodists]

More voices registered in her head, but for reasons too obscure to be said, Tear continued staring. Her feet remained rooted to the wall, as if the girl had no intention to come down. Once again, her mind pulled away from the environment as it attempted to make sense of what she had just witnessed, as feelings of despair subsided to confusion.

That had been the Fon Master. Hadn't it? The figure who had extended a hand weakly toward her could not have been anyone else. His action and words, however, made little sense given the name that was addressed. He had called out to Anise, not Tear. Not to mention, one of the others beside him was--

"Everything okay up there?"

She flinched at the question as sudden realization dawned on her. Tear was still standing on the wall; everyone else had found their way below. The hand in midair went to her open mouth, her expression shifting to shock and embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry," she stammered. Her cheeks turned a bright red. "Everything's fine." What had gotten over her? Usually she wasn't so caught up in a completely random thought to forget her surroundings.

Without further ado, she started to make her way down from the wall.

[gald_digger]

When Claude called out to Tear, Anise turned her head to look. The older girl was still standing up on top of the wall, unmoving. It looked like she was actually kind of out of it. That wasn't like Tear.

She quickly looked back to Guy again and nodded to indicate that she was following what he was saying. Or as well as she could, at least. There was a lot of information she was trying to take in tonight, and it was a little hard to keep all of it straight.

Deciding which way to go wasn't something Anise could give a lot of input on, unfortunately. It sounded like she would have known something if she still had her memories, but instead, all she could do was scan the area with her light, finding only trees and rocks within her line of vision. "You said before that there were ruins somewhere around here, right? Were there any clues there?" she asked, her brow slightly furrowed at the strangeness of having to ask Guy to tell her something she probably told him sometime before. This whole situation was messed up.

Before long, though, her gaze wandered back to Tear. The older girl had just said that she was fine, but between her zoning out and her flustered deflection of Claude's concern, Anise couldn't fully believe it. She watched Tear with a concerned look, one that made it clear that while she wasn't saying anything, she knew something was off.

[full_score]

He'd half expected Tear to mention that she'd caught sight of something of interest, or that she was making sure nothing dangerous was in the area. But, judging from her reaction, that wasn't the case at all. Something was wrong, but Tear wasn't saying what. Claude could understand not wanting to burden the group if she had some sort of problem. She was a soldier, after all, and had probably been trained to put her objectives before herself. But, as far as Claude was concerned, that was also all the more reason to worry about her.

He waited for her at the bottom of the wall, standing ready in case she needed his assistance. So far, though, there didn't seem to be any issues with her climbing down. Claude hoped that, whatever it was that was bothering Tear, she'd speak up if things became worse for her.

He caught Anise's question, though, and turned to glance at Guy. Although he'd intended to get some more information about what was beyond the institute, Claude had grown distracted by a lot of what had happened this week. At this point, Guy was probably the one who had the most knowledge about what they should expect to find. He'd been the one to hear about everything from Anise, right?

As much as Claude wished he could add more to the discussion, he decided to simply listen for now.

[razing_phoenix]

It was also obvious to Guy that Tear wasn't being completely forthcoming with them at the moment. It wasn't something that he could judge her for, seeing how he'd been guilty of the same thing in the past, but he still thought that she had him beat on that. She had even kept her illness from all the absorption to herself until it'd become painfully obvious, after all.

He wasn't sure that pressing her further would get anywhere, though. She would likely insist on how important it was that they keep moving, which was true to an extent. Maybe it was something to address tomorrow, but he couldn't help but see this as another symptom, vague as it was. Not memory loss, but something else.

Anise was looking to him for guidance, though, which was hard enough to handle. She was the one who was supposed to know all about this, and yet it was clear that she didn't have a clue. Claude didn't have much to offer, either, and so it seemed that it was up to him. He thought back, trying to recall what Anise had told him before.

"I'm pretty sure she mentioned something about it being alongside a river, so if we find that river and follow it, we should be able to find it." It was as good of a landmark as any, and it was really all they could go on seeing how he hadn't explored much of this area himself yet.

[melodists]

A look was thrown in her direction as Tear sensed the unspoken questions from each member. As expected, she kept quiet, choosing instead to finish her climb down and join the rest of the group. Her mind was sill reeling from her incredible lack of attention and the residual feelings of despair, but she ultimately understood the danger of dwelling on the mistake. She did not want to be the burden of this venture; there would be time later to make sense of what didn't.

If sense was even possible, that is.

When she reached the bottom, Tear offered Claude a quick acknowledgment for his offered assistance and a wordless apology for the delay. Beyond that, however, she revealed nothing. All of her attention went to Anise and Guy's discussion, where the latter revealed the gist of their plan. Investigating ruins seemed like a straightforward objective as any; hopefully it would uncover the clues they were aiming for.

Before that, however, they needed to find this river. "Do you have an idea where the river might be?" she asked, after heaving a shaky sigh.

[gald_digger]

It didn't look like Tear was going to volunteer an explanation, but Anise was okay with letting that slide. It looked like the others were, too. Anise knew she could trust Tear, so if she wasn't saying anything now, then it wasn't something they needed to know about right away. Maybe she'd explain later.

Anise still couldn't shake how weird it was to follow clues that she herself had left behind, but she was glad they had something to go off of. She nodded when Guy suggested following a river, but when Tear asked where it could be, she lowered her gaze to the ground. She should have known where it was, and she should have been able to contribute to the discussion, maybe even lead everyone straight there... but she couldn't.

Feeling useless was bad enough by itself, but being useless when she should have been able to help was just frustrating. All she could do was stand quietly and wait to see if the others knew anything more, or if they could venture a guess at where to start.

[full_score]

Thankfully, Tear managed to reach the bottom of the wall without incident. Whatever it was that was bothering her, it didn't seem to be holding her back anymore. Whatever it was that had paralyzed her in place, Claude hoped that it wasn't serious.

When she asked her question, he paused a moment in thought. Claude wasn't sure where they could find a river, and he wasn't sure if Guy himself knew exactly where it was, either. Actually, he was pretty sure this was the first he'd heard of it, though it was possible Anise had given Guy more information beforehand. Maybe he, Guy and Asch would have found one if the night they'd traveled together hadn't gone horribly wrong. That thought, along with the reminder of Anise's current condition, caused him an ache of disappointment and regret, but Claude did his best to set it aside for now. He had to focus on tonight, or else he'd just slow everyone else down.

"The good thing about a river is that we should be able to hear the water flowing before we actually see it, right?" Claude pointed out. If that was the case, then having some sort of general direction would be better than nothing.

Regardless, though, he knew they had to be more careful than last time. They'd need to take more precautions to make sure that they didn't lose their bearings or accidentally get turned around after an unexpected ambush.

[razing_phoenix]

While Guy had some lingering concerns about Tear, she had joined them and seemed to be ready to face the rest of the night. If that was the case, then he was going to trust her for the moment. It seemed backward to trust someone's secrecy, but he knew enough about hiding things that it made some sort of sense to him.

Besides, it seemed that he was still going to be the one who was taking the leader position, as Claude didn't appear to have any information of his own. That made sense, seeing how he hadn't been out here any more time than Guy had, meaning once.

Which meant he needed to think back a few days and remember exactly what Anise had told him. "I don't think she ever told me what direction it is," he admitted, "but Claude has a point." He definitely wasn't going to suggest that they split up or anything like that, though. Four was a good number, and with Anise's memory loss and whatever was going on with Tear, they weren't equipped to separate.

"I think at this point we should just head straight away from the building and see what we find," he eventually decided with a shrug. It wasn't much, but they were bound to stumble upon something. Now he just wished that he'd questioned Anise more thoroughly, but it wasn't as if he could have anticipated this happening.

He started to move forward, but only took a few steps, wanting to give everyone else a chance to add their thoughts before heading anywhere.

[melodists]

Claude was absolutely right: a nearby river had a particular sound. It wouldn't be difficult at all to locate it once they were close enough; Tear had told Luke as much before, had she not? The thought alone was potent enough to pull at the questions she held in regards to him and Natalia. Since they were about to be on the move, however, Tear kept them to herself for now. Once they were at a point for casual conversation, she would bring them up.

"Alright," she acknowledged as the young woman readied the flashlight. "I'll keep my ears out for running water." And hopefully her eyes and attention would follow.

With nothing else to say, she, too, took a few steps forward.

[gald_digger]

In a funny way, it was actually a little comforting to hear that everyone else was as uncertain as she was. It was tough, listening to her friends talk about all the things she should have known, but knowing they were still on the same page about some things made her feel a little closer to the rest of them. Like she wasn't alone.

She knew she had been unusually quiet for the past while, but that comforting feeling gave her the boost she needed to start acting more like herself again.

With a bit of a skip in her step, Anise followed Guy, smiling as she voiced her agreement with their plan. "Right! If we just keep going, we're bound to find something. And maybe we'll even bump into that guy who was talking through that machine! I bet he could give us directions." She giggled a little, knowing full well that in an area as dark and expansive as the field they were in, the chances of just 'bumping into' that guy were slim. But anything was possible, right?

And besides, lightening the mood was just the sort of thing Anise normally did. It would be weird otherwise.

[full_score]

Straight ahead wasn't the direction he would have personally picked, but Claude knew he'd already had his turn at deciding which way they could go (and just look at how that turned out). That was why he didn't see any reason to contradict Guy or try to convince him to choose something else. In any case, he supposed north was as good of a direction as any, seeing how they were at a loss for clues for now.

"Anise is right," he said with a grin. "Let's give it a shot."

With that, he began walking forward and soon fell into step toward the rear of the group so as to keep a better eye on Tear and Anise. Since he and Guy were fully armed, he didn't doubt that they could handle whatever came their way. But with Tear spacing out like that, and Anise suffering from memory loss, Claude couldn't help but feel a little worried about what tonight would bring.

Still, now wasn't the time to voice any of that out loud. Instead, he kept moving.

((To here.))