Day 49: Evening - Bus 1

[hat_einen_vogel]

Whatever promise the day had seemed to show in the morning, it had steadily turned for the worse since then. The weather hadn't bothered Prussia at all (other than the annoying women who seemed to think he could actually get sick by staying out in it, as if a little rain was just as dangerous as economic trouble), but by the time the nurses were

Comments

[thatdamnedninja]

The day had been one mega hella waste of time, as usual.

Yuffie wasn't so much of an optimist that she'd expected anything else, but it still rankled her nerves. All the time spent here, all of these days-adding up to weeks, soon to be a month-and she still wasn't used to the enforced idleness. She didn't think she'd ever be used to it. She didn't want to be! And if she ever was, gawd, she'd… she'd… she'd do something!

Maybe it was time for another Tabletop Special? Getting tripped up on sedatives would be worth the rush, Yuffie thought, except she'd already done that, and doing the same trick twice (in exactly the same circumstances!) was just lame

[hes_deadjim]

If McCoy wasn't already having major misgivings on the way down here, he was certainly having them now. Now, not only were they going back in these rattling antiques, they were going to do it through wind and rain. He wasn't a Vulcan, he couldn't come up with the exact probabilities on the fly, but he could still almost see the chances of an accident rising exponentially with the added rain and the mud. It was outright irresponsible to carry on. No sane administration would take the risk, not when you could just wait it out

[thatdamnedninja]

"I, uh-" Yuffie cleared her throat. "I'm not so great with these things. Vehicles. Stuff I'm not… driving, myself. Just so y'know. "

It was a fair warning, and Yuffie figured that the guy could use it. He wasn't as, er, spry lookin' as the people she usually ended up with. He looked, say, maybe Reeve's age. Which didn't necessarily mean that he sucked, 'cuz not all old dudes sucked-her dad was a loser but he could still hold his own, and even Reeve was pretty handy when he had a good reason and a gun-but. Yeah. Fair warning, take it or leave it

[hes_deadjim]

Sounded like a standard case of motion sickness, except they hadn't even started moving yet. It could be nerves bringing on a preemptive case of it. Maybe if he could help keep her distracted, she wouldn't latch onto the idea of the oncoming kinetosis so much. Sometimes just the fear of a condition made the actual thing that much worse. He just didn't know how long he could distract her from the nervousness when the engines started

[allroadslead]

Well, at least they were making it onto the bus, which was more than what they'd accomplished the last time. So far so good. Sam wasn't particularly looking forward to being trapped in a steel box if something did go wrong out of the blue, but one thing at a time.

He hadn't found Dean yet, but he was pretty sure his brother was fine. It was still hard not being able to just call him-though yeah, sometimes his brother failed to pick up if he was...out for the night-but he doubted anything had happened.

Yuffie was there when he stepped on the bus, but he decided not to talk to her just yet. If she did know Dean prior to either of them remembering, Sam had no idea how much she knew. She didn't seem to know him and if she didn't, Sam wasn't willing to tip her off that he knew Dean outside of this place. That he might actually know what Dean didNo, he'd have to talk this over with Dean first, and then they'd figure out how to work this out before approaching her. Hell, her info might not even be worth anything in the end if time was as

[bprd_fishman]

That had been...informative, if nothing else. So Landel didn't just make buildings, he made towns and a suspicious populace to inhabit them. Abe had never heard of anything that delicately powerful or creative, and wondered once more at the purpose of it all. If it was a waking dream it was a shared one, carefully crafted to fool them and hunt them in turns, and if it was real...God. Gods. It was madness

[allroadslead]

Elbow propped on the narrow window ledge, head leaning against his fingertips, Sam glanced over as someone slid into the seat beside him. Nobody he'd met before, but that was okay. Seriously, after a day with Lelouch and then Edward, he was good with meeting a complete stranger. It removed the pre-established awkwardness.

Though things had turned out all right with Edward, all things considered. Something about the kid piqued Sam's interest. He couldn't place what it was, but it was there.

He offered a polite smile at the man, even as he internally sized him up. Which didn't take long. Nothing about the guy stood out in particular. Not yet, anyway.

"Nice day for a trip outside, huh?"

The crappy weather did provide a nice conversation starter, he had to admit. One upside to it.

[bprd_fishman]

"A bit cold for my tastes, but it's nice to feel the rain on my skin." Abe wiped the water from his face and shook his hand out in the aisle. He offered another one of his quick, unnatural smiles before letting it vanish again.

Oh dear, he hoped he didn't catch cold from this. Humans seemed to do that a lot when they got cold and wet, Abe had never experienced the phenomenon. He didn't get sick very much--just made up for it in injuries.

[sasuke_of_sound]

The nurse that located Sasuke gave him a dressing-down from the very bottom of her soul (whatever there was of it). Apparently he was not only going to catch his death of cold, but he had gotten the collar of his shirt soaking wet, and honestly couldn't he be more responsible, and frankly the only real issue of importance that Sasuke could hear in her rambling lecture was that he really hadn't been imagining the air of hostility from the townsfolk today

[zack_fair]

With all that planning he'd done with Cissnei, Zack was almost disappointed that the nurses started to herd them back to the buses without incident. He knew it was a good thing that the town hadn't fallen into chaos, but he did thrive on that sort of thing to an extent. Maybe it was a good thing that the institute was reeling him in a bit, so he didn't end up getting himself killed again.

But he really couldn't think like that. He'd end up getting smacked by someone for it. Probably Aerith.

Speaking of which, where was the flower girl? He hadn't heard from her in a bit, though this trip had definitely jumbled things up. It had been interesting to see the town, but he hadn't gotten much done other than getting a proper talk with Tifa. Well, and meeting Usopp

[sasuke_of_sound]

The voice that unexpectedly greeted him this time was a good deal easier to place than the last: Zack, Sasuke remembered, Aidou's third from last night. The man had moved well in the brief glance Sasuke had had of his chakra when Heat's demon form had attacked, though it didn't necessarily mean that he didn't merely fulfill the warm-body requirement for a third in the basement.

Still, it was enough to make him interesting. Sasuke turned his face more towards Zack than the window and nodded once in recognition, if not quite returning the cheery-sounding greeting.

"There will be another opportunity," he said, dismissing the failure (yet again: perhaps less dismissed than displaced into the growing pile of them) in the basement. As for Doyleton ... "I got what I needed."

If nothing more than that. It had barely been a trip.

"What about you?" Zack had been obviously new; was this his first trip to the town?

[zack_fair]

Sasuke was right about that. Even if they hadn't gotten as far as planned last night, the key was determination. If they kept at it, they'd either get so efficient at it that they'd have enough time, or they'd get lucky -- Zack would take either. "Are we gonna try again tonight?" he asked curiously. He was up for it, though he also wondered if he should keep an eye on his friends from Gaia this time around. Not that most of them seemed to need it, and yet he couldn't kick the obligation

[rocksthecourt]

Not exactly the best of days if he said so himself. Between the weather, his injuries, and the general paranoia of the day, he didn't feel there was much to be happy about. Still, he couldn't help but actually feel some relief when the nurses started gathering people up to board the buses. Not that Klavier was in such a hurry to get back to their prison again, but it meant there wasn't a chance of being trapped in town with the undead again. He still had trouble swallowing meals

[hat_einen_vogel]

While the orderly showed no signs of moving, Prussia had already begun to formulate his plan of attack: the initiative appeared (so far) to be his, so first he would divert the burly man's attention to one of his flanks to create an opening either on the opposite side or front, but if no opening appeared, then...

Prussia focus was shattered by laughter coming from behind him and a hand clapping down on his shoulder. Had he been so careless as to be caught off-guard by one of the orderly's allies? He whirled around to face the new threat, only to find... no threat at all. This guy couldn't have been an ally of the orderly, not when he was talking like that, saying things like he'd been looking for him.

It sounded like this guy knew him, but Prussia couldn't place when in his history they might have met. He'd maybe seen some people similar to him (ancestors or other relatives, perhaps, if not simply people sharing like features), but not this one; he was certain of it

[rocksthecourt]

Goodness. What a coarse, stubborn man. Or perhaps he was just a complete idiot. Being in this place almost two weeks, neither would have surprised him anymore. Regardless of the reason, the man had decided to pay no mind to his warning and simply turned back as though nothing had happened at all. Ach. This was turning out to be more trouble than it was worth.

Truthfully, he could have just left well enough alone; let him learn the consequences of brash actions the hard way. Simply watch from a safe distance as the poor guy was pinned down, stuck with a needle, and carted off in a barely conscious stupor. What did he care? He didn't know this man. Of course, Klavier was stubborn himself and had no plans of watching some imbecile get himself hurt. ...Besides, if one man caused trouble on the bus, it would make the staff tighten security even more. And Klavier had had enough of these people breathing down his neck for one blasted day

[hat_einen_vogel]

The stranger was persistent, if nothing else. Prussia wasn't sure why he was butting into his business in the first place (it's not like they knew each other or anything, no matter how familiar the guy was being), but he obviously wasn't going to go away so easily. That much was made abundantly clear when Prussia felt himself suddenly felt himself moving.

The guy was trying to pull him away from the orderly and (eventual) freedom. "H-hey!" he protested loudly. He stumbled along, grabbing onto the top of one of the seats to maintain his balance as he was dragged a few steps away. "What do you think you're...."

Prussia left the question unfinished. This whole time, the guy had been talking as if he knew him; England's claim to be from the future came to mind, and Prussia wondered briefly if maybe he really did. But if the man did know him, then he should have known that he wouldn't be killed just from picking a fight with an orderly or three. He couldn't-wouldn't-die so easily

[composers_proxy]

Despite the dire warnings on the bulletin, the nurses and orderlies got everyone gathered up and on the buses before the sun had even gone down. There was no zombie invasion or anything like it. He wasn't sure what he'd expected, but everything was going pretty much normal. Which was completely fine by him.

The steps at the door of the bus were slick with water from the soggy shoes and clothing of the other patients. Days like these a nice hot bath would've been pretty nice to look forward to, but this place didn't seem to share a lot of his home's customs. At least he'd kept more or less out of the rain. He was cold, but not too wet.

He crashed in an empty seat near the back of the bus, flipping back his hood and glancing out the window as the other patients found their seats too. He hadn't gotten anything done, but at least he'd managed to clear his head a little.

[For Sora]

[scintillatingly]

Sora, on the other hand, was pretty wet by the time he made it back to one of the buses. He'd managed to salvage his hair thanks to the hood on his bright yellow raincoat, but said coat was so wet it was clinging to his wiry form as he climbed up the stairs into one of the vehicles.

Despite how unkempt he looked, Sora still had a smile on his face. He'd had a pretty good day, first getting to spend time with Riku, and then talking to Venom (and meeting someone new). After that he'd been able to chat with his Other for a bit, and finally he'd gotten to have a proper conversation with the interesting scarecrow man!

As the cherry on the top of it all, it seemed that they'd be making it back to the institute safely. They weren't quite in the clear yet, just because something might happen with night coming right as the buses pulled into the institute, but... he was going to keep his fingers and toes crossed

[composers_proxy]

There were seats left, so he'd assumed he'd get to ride home in silence, but he turned when someone plopped down next to him. Sora. He gave the other boy a nod and shifted in his seat so he could talk easily. Despite what Kairi might have thought, Neku didn't have a lot of people here he could call friend. But Sora, at least, was someone he could talk to

[scintillatingly]

It didn't seem like Neku was doing all that much better, but maybe things had improved, even if it was only by a small amount. Sora tried not to look too worried for the other boy, since that tended to bug some people, and Neku seemed like the type who didn't want to be pitied by anyone