Nightshift 27: F14

[gald_digger]

Luckily for Anise, the institution's widespread blackout struck seconds after she had completed her little sewing project. The bad news was that her flashlight was--to her knowledge--still lying around on the floor of some laboratory on the second floor. She hadn't thought anything of leaving it at the time, but she now found herself regretting it

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[gald_digger]

Though her mind was still reeling from the realization of just how much she had forgotten, Anise knew there was no use in letting it get her down. There wasn't anything that any of them could do about their lost memories, and right now they needed to focus on what could be done.

Spending the night with the Colonel? She had been hoping to have Guy on one arm and Luke on the other (not literally, of course: she didn't quite have that many free arms to offer at the moment, and Guy would have certainly objected)... but this wasn't a bad setup, either.

With a bit of a bounce in her step, she jumped down from her bed, and retrieved the maps from her desk. She tucked one pair into her sling, and carried the other two to Guy. "Hehe, I'd better give you these before we split up again." Being kind enough not to get too far into his personal space, she handed the papers to him with a little wink--just to be cute.

That being done, she picked up the pipe she had left at the foot of her bed, and went to stand by the Colonel. She wasn't sure if the weapon--if it could even be called that--would do her any good, considering she was in no condition to be doing any bludgeoning in the near future, but it was better than being empty-handed.

She decided to leave the issue of Asch to the others, and instead addressed Tear's question. "I haven't tried using my artes here. The Colonel warned me not to depend on them." She glanced up at the Colonel as though looking for confirmation of this. Anise had taken his advice seriously that night, and when attacked, she relied entirely on her weapon instead of using fonic artes as she normally would. From the sounds of it, that had been the best thing to do: if she had wasted time trying to cast an arte that wouldn't work properly, they might have gotten off far worse than they did.

It was no surprise, of course. The Colonel was always right.

[radiant_howl]

As always, Jade came up with the best ideas. Though it seemed like Peony had a hand in them too, this time. Even now, he could still always count on help from His Majesty. It was a little more than reassuring for Luke.

Although... He had no idea what Peony was thinking when the Malkuth Emperor decided to choose Luke as his partner. Huh?! Not that Luke didn't mind, but he was ... well, he was expecting Peony to go for Tear and Anise, of course!

"Huh?" Luke blinked, thrown off for a moment before recomposing himself. "Oh yeah, we'll get something done!"

Speaking of something... He frowned when Guy mentioned Asch. As much as Asch liked working alone, it was just too dangerous in a place like this. Guy was right; they had to at least try and reach out to him.

"Leave Asch to me. I was traveling with him before, so I'll find him and let him know about our idea. He knows that it's harder to work alone, so I think he might be more willing to help us out," Luke told the group. That involved actually... finding Asch tomorrow, a feat that he hadn't been too successful in as of late, but Luke would do his best. He knew he'd run into the other redhead eventually.

"Oh yeah, what about that?" Luke had heard of people's abilities being weakened, and he also heard that Jade had collapsed after trying to do the contamination effect. He turned his attention to the Colonel, awaiting an answer. Though, it sounded like Tear was having trouble using her Artes too...

[visualize]

Ah yes, sometimes having someone who knew him all too well worked in his favor, nodding at Peony's words when he laid down the groundwork for all of them to follow. Jade certainly had no qualms with being paired up with Anise, the girl was as reliable as she was loud, even if she wasn't in the best condition to fight. No matter, it was a simple hurdle with an even simpler solution and thus undeserving of any more contemplation.

"Indeed I did," The Colonel answered after Anise's comment, letting the subject of Asch die off since Luke volunteered to sacrifice himself for the greater good. "After gathering confirmation from both the bulletin and my own personal experiences, this weakening of artes and other abilities seems to be an evident issue with everyone who was taken here. At the moment I can't provide any more information on the matter other than declining the idea that this is the work of a fon slot seal."

It looked to be the perfect time to finally grace Luke with his 'present', holding his arm out as if preparing to summon his spear. As usual, the contamination effect required more concentration than what he'd originally deemed necessary, eyes narrowing as he mentally willed the atoms to disjoint and reform out of thin air.

With a bright flash the metallic bat appeared in his grasp, a small sigh managing to escape his lips before composing himself. Jade then wasted no time, walking over to the redhead and held out the makeshift weapon for him to take.

"Please do take care of it, Luke. We don't have the luxury of time to get you a new one if you ever break it." He spoke with his usual smile, glancing over at Peony as he did so.

[rappigs]

Peony glanced back over at Jade, matching that little smile. Of course he'd caught that little jab, but he knew that of course nothing had been meant by it. He hadn't explained exactly why the mop had been broken the previous night; he hadn't needed to. Jade knew that Peony wouldn't break anything as special as a gift mop without a darn good reason.

"Anyway, I'm pretty sure we all need to get weapons," Peony said, glad Luke wasn't looking a gift horse in the mouth too much. After all, he knew the replica was a manly guy, and of course he was going to be able to contain his obvious excitement at his newly elected nightshift partner.

He turned to Tear then. He recalled Cyrille's difficulties with healing his arm the other day. Come to think of it, where was his little dream? He'd have to go pay her a visit tomorrow, somehow~ "Better to spend your time running away, else you'll get a chunk bitten out of your arm and bleed to death if you're not careful. Ha ha ha!" He was making such light of his own situation.

Finally, he looked at Guy. "And - you know what, I haven't seen Saphir. Unless Jade has.. but I think he's probably somewhere around here, hiding in the shadows like a little cockroach, ha ha ha."

[razing_phoenix]

When Anise came over with the maps, Guy took them with a smile, careful to make sure his hand didn't brush against hers. "Thanks a lot, Anise," he said as he folded the pieces of paper and tucked them under his arm. He would look them over later and compare notes with Okita when he got the chance. Having them would make his life a lot easier.

Guy had already been aware of how little artes did in this place, though that wasn't as much of a concern for him as it was for some of the others. A sword still would have been preferable to a bat, but he nonetheless breathed a mental sigh of relief when Jade delivered one to Luke. It was good to know that his friend would be armed now.

He was willing to leave the matter of Asch to Luke - while that could lead to disaster, Guy knew that Luke could handle the God-General better than he could. As for Peony's mention of Dist, Guy was glad to hear that he was making himself scarce. He figured Dist wasn't too much of a threat here since he wouldn't be able to create any amazing fontech machines to fight for him.

"Guess we should all get going then, huh?" Though from the sound of it, he was going to be sticking around here with Tear to explain things.

[trelesekrayotre]

So she wasn't the only one having problems. It was almost a relief to hear, but at the same time it meant they would have to be more careful. They wouldn't be able to afford any slip ups or acts of carelessness with their artes weakened. And at this point; Tear wasn't even sure if she could use any of her minor artes. But then, if her hymns didn't work then probably not much else did either.

Weapons? Well, Tear kind of had a weapon. Did pens count? They were sharp, easy to throw and kind of deadly. Well, if someone received enough ink poisoning they would be. No, they probably weren't the best of weapons but it wasn't as if she could find any better sharp objects around the area. It was probably too dangerous to ask anyone to go out of their way for her to find any either. For now, it would have to do. She'd just be sure to find something the next day. Hopefully, that is.

"Yes, I think that would be best." Tear said as she stood and gave a small nod at the idea of going. Everything seemed cleared up, after all. Guy could explain things on the way, there was no need to stand still and chat. It would probably be of more use to be moving anyways. They probably had a lot of ground to cover for the rest of the night.