Day 56: Magus Park (Morning)

[scintillatingly]

Getting to check up on Neku had been good (even though Sora realized that he was the one who'd been approached, rather than doing the approaching), but when the buses finally made their way through the snow and into the town, the boy was completely distracted by the view that followed. It really did remind him of Christmastown. There were no lights

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[heroesdontshave]

As interesting as the damn things were, Snow was plenty happy to be getting out of those big, ugly vehicles. It honestly was exactly what it looked like it'd be like: like riding in a big, shaky, cramped metal box. Kind of made him appreciate how spacious the mass transport vehicles back home were. Cause really. Well, anyway. It was kind of fun to experience something like that at least once, right?

When he finally climbed out of the thing, he couldn't help but notice that the soldier guys actually weren't ordering them to do stuff. After people had gotten off, it looked like they were just free to wander off. Which was... weird. Were they actually releasing them? ...Hmm. Judging by all the stupidly disguised soldiers all over the place, he was gonna take a wild guess and say "nope" on that one. So then what did they want? Were they expected to destroy the place or something? They gave them card with money so... it's not like they were really just letting them loose to enjoy civilian life for a day, were they

[thestormishere]

"... This is what I was talking about on the 'bulletin' yesterday."

As always, Lightning didn't bother with a proper greeting when she approached Snow, letting the steady crunching sound of her steps serve as the only warning before she said anything at all. As she'd expected, just like her, it looked a lot like he hadn't ever experienced this particular phenomenon back on Cocoon either... or was just really into it, which wouldn't have surprised her either even if he didn't share his name with the term describing it.

The young woman kept shaking her head as more and more flakes tried settling into her hair, annoyance at both the cold and complete senselessness of this entire trip in general very apparent. She didn't like it at all, from the rolling death traps she secretly felt lucky to have survived, to the stupid civ clothing she'd tried to make as inconspicuous as possible with fastening her faded coat, to the sudden lack of strict supervision displayed as all of the prisoners began wandering out into the village beyond this

[heroesdontshave]

Snow had been so thoroughly engrossed in the, er, snow that he hadn't really been paying attention to anyone around him until he heard Lightning's voice. He pulled his attention away to turn and look as she walked over, looking only mildly surprised. He was used to the idea of her approaching him by this point, so it wasn't exactly a shocker one way or the other. But with how mad she'd seemed last night, he didn't expect it so soon. She still seemed really irritated though. ...Then again, she always seemed really irritated, so he usually didn't bother to wonder why unless she seemed particularly peeved at any given moment

[thestormishere]

Snow's question was met with nothing but silence at first. Lightning wasn't ready to respond yet, wrapping her arms across her chest with characteristic tense, annoyed actions, her eyes still busy with surveying their surroundings. It quickly became apparent that what she was looking for upwards, if it was even there, was going to be hidden by clouds regardless of how hard she stared.

She briefly considered daring to ask someone they found here about Cocoon, but...

"It was warm, when we landed," she commented steadily, recognizing again reluctantly that she was referencing something he didn't know, "Really warm." Never mind the snow though, it had been a surprise to her to find it was so cold in the first place. She definitely had no concept of seasons, and so fortunately for her she dodged the bullet of getting the idea that it might have been long enough for summer to wane and winter to take over since the last time she remembered. Considering how many misconceptions she was already nursing about this whole situation, it was

[spandexorgtfo]

At last, the bus came to a stop, and Kratos said his farewells to Soma. They had been speaking often recently; he supposed that could be taken as a good thing. They had teamed up without really knowing much about each other, so these conversations were good for alleviating that lack of familiarity. It was just that he would have preferred that they come when he was in a less pitiable condition. There was something irking about finding oneself in the position to be "cared for

[hairraising]

When Rapunzel hadn't been chatting up Sasuke (as she had eventually gotten clarified), she had spent the ride peering out windows at the snowy mountain scenery passing them by as the horseless "bus" pulled them along. As well as enjoyed the bumps in the road that bounced the back of the bus up and down. Too many things were too fun about this trip already. How amazing was it that they could travel this far with this little effort? Rapunzel could only imagine what a world where this sort of thing was more common might look like

[spandexorgtfo]

Kratos had in fact noticed that someone was following him (His instincts were too honed for him to be able to ignore those sorts of things.), but he had carried on as if he hadn’t in the hopes that whoever it was would eventually disappear. He was sorely disappointed, then, when Rapunzel, the second of the two who’d accosted him last night, appeared in the far reaches of his field of vision…and began talkingSuffice to say, the energy of her voice completely shattered the reflective mood he had been slowly, painstakingly building up for the past few minutes

[hairraising]

A man of few words, just as she'd seen the night before. Rapunzel had to admit, she wasn't used to dealing with anyone who spoke as little as Kratos did. ...Okay, that was a lie; Pascal said a whole lot less than Kratos did. With Pascal it was different, though. Even without words, the little lizard always seemed to be bursting with energy and chitters, and was always willing to reciprocate Rapunzel's excitement. Kratos seemed much harder to make open up, by comparison. Even Soma, for all the calm she carried herself with, was more talkative

[dreadofthegrave]

Not for the first time, Battler had to wonder just where he was. It was obvious enough he wasn't in Japan anymore-the name of the town and all the signs were Western, and at least the area he was from, it was pretty rare to see this much snow, let alone at this time of year. It wasn't even winter yet, was it? ... But it was funny. Even though that was the case, he seemed to understand everyone just fine. If anything, you'd think they might be using English, right? ..... Well, whatever. It was certainly odd, but he didn't have any intention of complaining. Better this than regretting all the times he'd slept through class

[falseblack]

[I'm sorry, this is a horrible way of meeting.]In the light of day, the snow proved utterly fascinating, the white a softer version to last night's drift. Nigredo wasted a few minutes to stare out the window, watching the frost on the glass fade against his breath as the rest of the patients climbed off the bus. The fact of snow was a surreal concept in reality. A brain's perception couldn't compare to the real thing, now could it? For the first time in a long time, he wondered how much he had missed in this world. Pondered on how much had passed him by thanks to the boy's single-minded focus

[dreadofthegrave]

[YOU MEAN THE BEST??? and sorry for the late and tiny T_T]

To be honest, Battler was so lost in his own thoughts he probably wasn't paying as much attention to his surroundings as he should have been, which only made the sudden contact that much more surprising. H-hey, come on, even if he looked like this, wasn't that kind of indecent~? ... Well, his lewd jokes aside, it didn't really feel anything quite like that, and when he turned to look, he was met with a young boy who seemed to have stumbled into a pretty, um, unfortunate situation. That was one way to start to the morning, wasn't it

[falseblack]

[No worries AND THAT IS NOT TINY WTF.]By now, the boy had to wonder if today happened to be the day for karmic retribution. It seemed if he could not be locked in conflict with his brothers, another aspect gave out to keep a balance, whether in regards to a roommate, a seatmate, or a random passerby who probably didn't expect a literal run-in. Whatever the cause, it was annoying to deal with, to the point of ruining what apathy he might have built up over time. Nigredo straightened from his awkward posture and prepared to apologize profusely

[broodings]

So this was Doyleton. The essence of a small town hadn't changed much since the nineteenth century, really, and the business district the bus turned into could've belonged to any town in Virginia... or Kentucky, or Wisconsin, so on and so forth. After so long, one place seemed much the same as any other. Somewhere quiet, exactly the kind of place Damon made a point of avoiding. Somewhere to hide, to rest, to spend the days of his aimless eternity

[loyalrose]

The buses had come to a stop just outside of some little nondescript town. Rose was familiar with the like; she'd passed through hundred of them. Possibly even a thousand. They were great places to hide out for a little while, but you could never stay for too long. Places where people knew everyone's business never boded well for people who were looking for anonymity. Nor for people who never aged, for that matter

[broodings]

Stefan turned to the woman who'd greeted him and... stared blankly... for a few seconds too long. "Uh." Was she talking to...? She had to be. There was no one else standing in a five foot radius, and on top of that, she was looking at him with the sort of face which he knew would soon transition to Oh, Stefan, how is it you still haven't learned how to interact convincingly with human beings? (He didn't know why he was hearing Damon's voice for this woman's thoughts, except that Damon was the official narrator for all the embarrassing moments of his life.) Stefan attempted now to change his expression, but already he could feel his eyebrows drawing together and his mouth frowning and the moment becoming irreparably awkward.

Who was this person? His mind struggled to place her. He'd seen the woman earlier, standing a few feet away with her eyes closed and face upturned to the snow. The hint of British in her voice surprised him - even Kaworu, who apparently didn't know English, somehow managed to speak the language without an

[loyalrose]

Rose blinked, caught off guard by the reply, especially when combined with the look she received from Stefan. He wasn't faking, he truly didn't recognize her, and Rose faltered, her expression showing her surprise. For a moment, she wondered if she could have possibly been mistaken, but there was no way someone could look this identical to the Salvatore brother she knew, and Stefan didn't have a twin. Or a doppleganger. What a thought, since that meant there could be two Damons. She wasn't sure the world would have survived to the twentieth century...

"Stefan?" she asked, pushing her thoughts away as she searched the young man's face with uncertainty now. "You are Stefan, right? It's me. Rose. What do you mean, have we met?"

[pullstrung]

To say he hadn't gotten off to a good start today would have been an understatement. One minute he'd been talking to Wally about super powers, of all things, and the next he'd woken up to a sudden announcement from the military. His guard from the other day, dressed in some kind of disguise, hadn't wasted much time in getting him dressed -- a dark coat, a pair of brown gloves, some old, worn snow boots that looked like something he'd see at a garage sale, a pair of jeans that were a little too short for him, and a scratchy, uncomfortable blue sweater that reminded him of something Andy's aunt would have made. Great.

Before he'd been able to fully understand what was happening, the "nurse" had shoved a bunch of coupons, a card and sack lunch into his hands and herded him onto a bus with all the other patients. School buses, at least, he could deal with -- but that hardly mattered when he'd spent the whole ride frantically looking over the seats in search of Buzz

[in_your_defense]

[Assuming small details from Phoenix's exit from the buses.]

The brief sight of Edgeworth's face as Phoenix had exited the bus had almost seemed like an illusion to him - made worse by the fact that from what he could tell they had somehow been on the same bus and not even noticed each other - and to say that Phoenix felt more than a bit shaken by the fact was an understatement. Almost immediately, he had felt emotions similar to relief - but then the emotions had been crowded away by dread, mainly because it meant that his best friend was stuck in the same mess, a mess that neither he nor Phoenix deserved (though Phoenix would wish it more on himself than he would on Edgeworth). However, once Phoenix had managed to break away from the crowd in order to find Edgeworth, he'd realized that the prosecutor was nowhere to be found - and on top of that, he had no idea where he was

[pullstrung]

The more he looked, the more it sank in that Buzz was nowhere in sight. Great. Great! Here he was in this strange place, and he had no idea where his friend was. As Woody sucked in a breath through chattering teeth, he wished his body would just be quiet for a second so he could figure out what to--

Something tapped him on the shoulder, sending a jolt of panic through his core. "Ahh! Whirling around, his wide-eyed gaze snapped onto a man in front of him. He wracked his memory, but realized he couldn't place the face anywhere. That wasn't such a surprise, though. He wouldn't have been able to immediately recognize his own friends' faces at this rate.

Either way, he looked like any other regular person -- blue eyes, dark hair, and not a very menacing expression. Still, Woody could only let himself marginally relax. He wasn't used to people just walking up to him like this. He wasn't used to being a person

[in_your_defense]

Responding to Woody's words took Phoenix a moment, as he had been stunned into surprised silence, the emotion lingering on his expression. Slowly lifting his left hand, he scratched his head awkwardly, unsure of what he should say at first, as Woody had startled his brain into a blank slate.

"U-um..." Phoenix trailed off, the look on his face turning increasingly unsure as time passed, "...no, don't worry about it - er...being startled, that is." Deciding to overcome the strangeness of the situation with his own introduction, Phoenix switched his lunch bag from his dominant hand to his left as he lowered it, and he extended his now free hand out to Woody. "My name is Phoenix, and it's nice to meet you...I, ah...I noticed you were standing here and I was wondering if you wanted to join me in finding somewhere warm."