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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[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.

He was no where to be found.

Maybe he wound up on one of the other buses, Woody told himself. That had to be it. There was no way they'd leave him behind at the institute, right?

Right?

By the time he stepped off the bus and into the edges of "Doyleton", Woody couldn't hide the anxiety etched onto his face. There was snow everywhere -- something that should have at least brought him a small amount of nostalgic comfort, with memories of white Christmases and Andy getting time off from school. But right then all he could think about was the fact he was in the middle of a town, in broad daylight, surrounded by a bunch of people, and absolutely no idea of where to find his friend.

Pulling his coat tighter around himself, Woody gritted his teeth and glanced around. He hated feeling exposed under the best of circumstances, but being wrapped up and having to trudge through the snow was not helping things.

"C'mon, Buzz," he muttered, his eyes going from one patient to the next. "Where are you?"

[For Phoenix!]

[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.

Navigating the snowy area of Doyleton was more difficult than Phoenix had anticipated - he had only seen snow a few instances in his lifetime - and the wet, dead grass under his boots as he entered the park made the trek slippery. Shivering reflexively, Phoenix wrapped his arms around himself, tucking himself in closely to keep warm as he watched his breath fog up in front of himself. The temperature felt too cold for him to stay outside - but with no sense of direction, Phoenix was completely lost, even while he took in the sights of the buildings and the scenery around himself as much as he possibly could - which left him to wonder if anyone else might be able to help him.

As Phoenix approached Woody from behind, his gaze taking in the appearance of his back, there wasn't much that Phoenix thought was abnormal about the way he looked. Woody looked like a regular beanpole of a male human being with brown hair and skinny arms, who also seemed to be shivering against the cold as much as he was - and it was that primary fact that motivated Phoenix to bother him, as he didn't want anyone else to stand out in the cold if they didn't have to.

Reaching out, Phoenix tapped Woody's shoulder with his gloved left hand lightly in order to call his attention towards himself, leaving the greetings for when Woody turned to look at him so he wouldn't startle him (much, at least).

[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.

Person or not, though, he was pretty sure shouting like that wasn't the appropriate way to respond to a tap on the shoulder. Woody cleared his throat and straightened the collar of his coat in a last ditch effort to collect any shred of dignity he had left. "Uhh, sorry about that," he said. "Just, uh...you know, I wasn't sure if..."

He swallowed hard, not entirely sure where he was going with that. There was so much danger around here that it was easy for a toy to jump at his own shadow. It still sounded crazy to himself, and especially so when he said it out loud.

"I was just startled," he suddenly finished, shaking himself out of his floundering thoughts. "Sorry."

[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."

[pullstrung]

Woody wasn't sure why this guy would come up to him, of all people. Maybe he wasn't as smooth about this whole being-human thing as he'd like. Even if his first inclination was to hug the first wall he could find and go far, far away, he knew he'd only draw attention to himself, especially with how huge he was now.

It was like he had to relearn everything he thought he'd known about life! Well, not relearn, he hastily corrected himself. Just...adapt. As a toy, there wasn't any reason for him to think of all this as anything other than temporary.

Still, that didn't mean it'd be a good idea to brush off every person who introduced themselves. He'd been here long enough to know that there was definitely safety in numbers.

"Oh, right!" he said with a grin, doing his best to just act natural. "Right." Getting somewhere warm sounded really great right then, honestly. "Uh, my name is Woody. Hi." He extended a handshake before glancing around them. "Can't say I've ever been around here before. Do you know a good place?"

[in_your_defense]

Phoenix couldn't help but to feel that the fact that Woody was just as, if not more awkward than himself was ironic - normally he was the one stuttering and getting scared at all the wrong moments, but he got the feeling that Woody had him beat in that category. Though, for what reason, Phoenix couldn't imagine - Woody seemed like a pretty normal person, from what he could tell.

"I haven't had a chance to explore," Phoenix began honestly, as they finished shaking hands and he withdrew his own in order to draw his jacket closer around himself. A slight smile tugged at Phoenix's lips as he focused his gaze back on Woody's face - after speaking to Kairi, he felt considerably more relaxed, though her words hadn't done much to alleviate the massive confusion that he still felt about his situation. "I was going to wander around to find somewhere, so I could keep moving - but since I saw you over here and you seemed lost like me..." he trailed off meaningfully.

The defense attorney turned and took a step towards the town, outside of the park boundaries. He could see a slew of different buildings lined up on different roads, and he lifted his right hand to point as he looked back at Woody. "...we can go anywhere, I think. Maybe we can just choose a direction?"

[pullstrung]

Lost. That was a good way to describe Woody right then. He was probably more lost than he'd ever been in his whole life. Andy didn't know where he was, he didn't know where he was, and he didn't even know where his body was, for pete's sake! Was it really a wonder that people looked at him and knew something was off?

"Sure, anywhere's fine with me," Woody said, and a sudden shiver ran down his spine. "Just as long as it's warm enough to make all this, this..." He suddenly wrapped his arms around himself as he tried to search for the right word. "...shaking stop." Why did people's bodies do that, anyway? To tell them they were getting too cold? Why wouldn't just feeling cold be good for that? That alone was miserable enough for Woody to want to stay out of it entirely.

Not that he'd never been outside during the fall and winter, of course. But, somehow, it was a lot more bearable when he was tucked securely in Andy's arms.

"What about that place up there?" he suddenly asked, pointing at the building directly ahead. It looked like some kind of bookstore, if the name was anything to go by.

[in_your_defense]

Attention piquing at the strange way that Woody had spoken about his physical reaction to the cold, the look in Phoenix's eyes turned lightly confused as he paused briefly, lowering his hand to his side. The tone of Woody's voice and the intonation of his words had almost made it seem like he thought shivering was abnormal - but it was anything but for any human being. Weird, Phoenix thought to himself, before he recomposed himself and decided that he could address the topic later - for now, he needed to focus on getting both himself and Woody somewhere warm.

Nodding slightly, Phoenix began to trek in the direction that Woody had pointed. His gaze caught the name on the sign - The Bookworm (which was pretty self-explanatory, in Phoenix's opinion) - and he continued moving towards it with eager purpose, his body enjoying both being able to move and the prospect of warmth. "Bookstores are normally pretty warm," he reasoned out loud, as he walked. Turning to Woody slightly, Phoenix gave him a boyishly friendly, playful smile that reached his eyes - he felt a need to reassure the other man, as if it would give himself more certainty in turn. "A roof is a nice accessory, too."

[to here.]