Day 48: Courtyard

[thatdamnedninja]

"I could tell you some stories," Yuffie suggested brightly, "of unquestionable legality." Illegality, that was. Petty little things like the law didn't usually mean very much to her, except for the times when she had to uphold it. Always fun for the breaking, though, the law, and messy for the clean-up. Just the way she liked it

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[bprd_fishman]

Well, that had been odd. Abe wondered if he hadn't been a little too harsh with the girl. She'd been nothing but friendly to him, just a bit too coy to avoid being annoying. Ah, well, it was a bridge that was already burned and she seemed to be no one of consequence.

He pulled his coat tighter around his shoulders and began to pace the expanse of grass, eying the grey walls and potential freedom that lay beyond them. What would happen, he wondered, if in the middle of some catastrophic riot they found a ladder? Could Landel still reach them if they left the institute during the day--or for that matter was there even anything left out there?

[Free!]

[sixth_attack]

[Hope this is ok!]Breakfast came and went, relieving the Replica his body's persistent hunger cramps for now, but it didn't ease his foul mood. Once lead out of the cafeteria, Sechs' nurse stuffed a coat and a pair of sneakers into his arms and told him to put them on. The weather outside was as cold and gloomy as Sechs' thoughts and for once he didn't refuse the nurse's care. The chill in his back was bad enough as it is, so a coat to protect him from the temperature outdoors was welcome, but not expressed kindly to the nurse who gave it to him. She received an impudent snort from Sechs before he had his back to her and was already shuffling out the door

[bprd_fishman]

"Who doesn't?" Abe turned to the newcomer, giving him a welcoming nod. If there was anything worth getting to on the other side. He knew others had been outside the walls but not what they'd found there--just that they'd been forced back when the morning came, as they all were.

It made the entire idea of 'escape' quite pointless, in Abe's opinion. Freedom was not to be found outside these walls, Landel's influence reached at least as far as they could go by foot.

[sixth_attack]

"Yeah..." Sechs glumly agreed. He turned his head to rudely spit at the ground before adding, "What I'd give to get out of this hell hole..."

Stuffing his hands into his pockets, shuffled a few more steps towards the stranger. Keeping a small distance, Sechs paused to give the damned wall another glare. "Got any ideas on what's out there?" he asked, "Uh, other than that dumb town we had to visit before?" Remembering the zombie-infested town got Sechs wondering if the place was still left standing after all the chaos that ensued. The battles he had there were decent and even somewhat enjoyable, but the memory of witnessing an acquaintance's death deeply soured the experience...

Jerking himself out of that painful memory, Sechs glanced back at the other man. "Um, I'm Sechs by the way."

[bprd_fishman]

[I am so sorry I thought I replied to this already.]

"Abe Sapien." Abe had been practicing in the mirror, his smile looked a little less forced and creepy than usual. "I haven't been to Doyleton yet, I can't completely say I'm looking forward to it. Still...something outside these walls would be nice." He looked up again, picturing some sort of expansive bare plain stretching out away from the institute. Or a white void beneath the grey sky, nothing existing in this universe besides the institute and its prisoners.

It was hard to keep up hope at the idea that escape would only take them into oblivion.

[sixth_attack]

[No worries! =)]Sechs nodded to the other man's introduction. He noticed there was a hint of strain behind the smile, but Sechs didn't expect anyone to just beam with sincere happiness in a place like this... Although the name made the Replica wonder if Abe was just not used to a human body

[bprd_fishman]

Such a pity that Abe had no gun to smuggle onto the buses for protection. You couldn't really hide a baseball bat in your pants without looking slightly unusual. He dropped the smile as abruptly as one dropped a mask, having achieved the formality and now finding no more use for it.

"New Jersey, in America. It's not the most pleasant place in the world but it's far better than here." He took a moment to stare wistfully at the grey skies and remember the faint odor of the factories along the Jersey Turnpike, the sound of New York's constant cars and horns, and the heaving darkness of the subway tunnels. It was strange what familiar things became wonderful in retrospect.

[sixth_attack]

[Ack! Sorry for the lateness! orz]

Sure enough, Abe's response was miles (or even dimensions for that matter) from what Sechs was hoping for. His shoulders slumped slightly and he turned his gaze back at the obstinate wall before him.

A quiet hollow chuckle escaped him. "Heh, I come from the Scrapyard, and even that place is better than here, and that's saying much!" As lousy and dangerous as that slum surrounding Tiphares' giant pile of garbage was, at least Sechs was fully free and able-bodied enough to fend for himself there just fine. Unlike here...

Spotting a large pebble sitting in the grass, Sechs prowled over towards it and gave it a swift kick, sending it harmlessly ricocheting off the wall. "I don't know 'bout New Jersey though..." he let out a gruff sigh through his scruffy hair, "I did hear of a New York or something..."

Sechs took a few more steps closer to the wall and stared it down -- or more it stared him down -- before bringing his attention to the multitude of vines that trailed its roughened surface. He

[bprd_fishman]

Sechs' ignorance made a slight bit of sense, New York was a far more famous place, Abe couldn't think of much of use in New Jersey. Besides himself, of course.

"Assuming this place, too, isn't warped by the night," Abe noted, idly watching the human's feeble attempts at climbing over the wall. A formal organization, with one group distracting the nurses while the other headed over the wall, might be effective and it seemed surprising that nobody had instituted a group uprising yet. It seemed the most logical option.

Heh. Logic in this mad place, what was Abe thinking. He folded his arms and watched the nurses until they lost interest and moved their interest elsewhere.