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

[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.))