Night 54: North of the Institute

[madeinthehrl]

[from here]

It was quiet past the walls of the Institute, and for the moment there was nothing else living in sight. Soma stayed silent, watching the immediate area for any signs of attack as she waited for Kratos to follow.

Comments

[razing_phoenix]

[From here.]After landing gracefully, Guy straightened up and dusted off the knees of his pants. His first priority was to make sure that both his flashlight and radio were in good condition, and so he gathered them quickly. Right as he was about to turn around and make sure that the others made it down without incident, however, the radio he'd just picked up went off

[melodists]

Tear felt the touch, another's fingers sliding against the offered hand. She expected to steel herself and allow Anise a proper anchor to grab onto. The girl may be lighter than most; however, it wasn't wise to overestimate her sense of balance. Falling would be easy if Tear allowed laziness to take hold in any form or amount.

It never came to that.

There was something to be said about the motions, of feeling a foreign presence take control and force its contents. The touch slammed against the edges of her consciousness, and without meaning to, the Melodist froze. Her eyes widened in familiar grief, an emotion rising faster than any other sensation. Like bile to the roof of her mouth. Like a beloved slipping away.

"You don't have to watch over me anymore, Anise."

The Fon Master? Ion? What was he

[gald_digger]

Whatever was wrong with her shoulder couldn't have been that bad, Anise realized, since it didn't hurt at all now that she was supporting herself mainly with her left arm. Anise lowered her legs down over the edge, with her left hand holding on to the top of the wall, and once she was steady, she let go and allowed herself to drop down to the ground. She landed smoothly, and began to look around for her weapon

[full_score]

With Anise safely over the wall, Claude pulled himself over the top and climbed down onto the other side without any difficulty. Once his feet touched the grass, he immediately moved to retrieve his own things. As he did so, he grew aware of some kind of radio message filtering through Guy's device. After everything that had happened today, he wasn't surprised that they'd hear from the radio people tonight. On the other hand, Claude wasn't so sure how much information they'd have for them when the military were probably pretty tight-lipped about everything

[razing_phoenix]

While Guy had also noticed the way that Tear had paused as if something was wrong (had she scraped her leg on something, or were they being followed?), he was distracted when Anise moved over to listen to the radio. He was grateful that she was courteous enough to keep some distance between them. He wanted to make sure that Tear was all right, but seeing how Claude was handling that, he'd focus on Anise for now. She was the one who was the most clueless at this point, as surreal as that was

[melodists]

More voices registered in her head, but for reasons too obscure to be said, Tear continued staring. Her feet remained rooted to the wall, as if the girl had no intention to come down. Once again, her mind pulled away from the environment as it attempted to make sense of what she had just witnessed, as feelings of despair subsided to confusion.

That had been the Fon Master. Hadn't it? The figure who had extended a hand weakly toward her could not have been anyone else. His action and words, however, made little sense given the name that was addressed. He had called out to Anise, not Tear. Not to mention, one of the others beside him was--

"Everything okay up there?"She flinched at the question as sudden realization dawned on her. Tear was still standing on the wall; everyone else had found their way below. The hand in midair went to her open mouth, her expression shifting to shock and embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry," she stammered. Her cheeks turned a bright red. "Everything's fine." What had gotten over her? Usually she wasn't so

[gald_digger]

When Claude called out to Tear, Anise turned her head to look. The older girl was still standing up on top of the wall, unmoving. It looked like she was actually kind of out of it. That wasn't like Tear.

She quickly looked back to Guy again and nodded to indicate that she was following what he was saying. Or as well as she could, at least. There was a lot of information she was trying to take in tonight, and it was a little hard to keep all of it straight.

Deciding which way to go wasn't something Anise could give a lot of input on, unfortunately. It sounded like she would have known something if she still had her memories, but instead, all she could do was scan the area with her light, finding only trees and rocks within her line of vision. "You said before that there were ruins somewhere around here, right? Were there any clues there?" she asked, her brow slightly furrowed at the strangeness of having to ask Guy to tell her something she probably told him sometime before. This whole situation was messed up

[full_score]

He'd half expected Tear to mention that she'd caught sight of something of interest, or that she was making sure nothing dangerous was in the area. But, judging from her reaction, that wasn't the case at all. Something was wrong, but Tear wasn't saying what. Claude could understand not wanting to burden the group if she had some sort of problem. She was a soldier, after all, and had probably been trained to put her objectives before herself. But, as far as Claude was concerned, that was also all the more reason to worry about her

[razing_phoenix]

It was also obvious to Guy that Tear wasn't being completely forthcoming with them at the moment. It wasn't something that he could judge her for, seeing how he'd been guilty of the same thing in the past, but he still thought that she had him beat on that. She had even kept her illness from all the absorption to herself until it'd become painfully obvious, after all

[melodists]

A look was thrown in her direction as Tear sensed the unspoken questions from each member. As expected, she kept quiet, choosing instead to finish her climb down and join the rest of the group. Her mind was sill reeling from her incredible lack of attention and the residual feelings of despair, but she ultimately understood the danger of dwelling on the mistake. She did not want to be the burden of this venture; there would be time later to make sense of what didn't

[gald_digger]

It didn't look like Tear was going to volunteer an explanation, but Anise was okay with letting that slide. It looked like the others were, too. Anise knew she could trust Tear, so if she wasn't saying anything now, then it wasn't something they needed to know about right away. Maybe she'd explain later.

Anise still couldn't shake how weird it was to follow clues that she herself had left behind, but she was glad they had something to go off of. She nodded when Guy suggested following a river, but when Tear asked where it could be, she lowered her gaze to the ground. She should have known where it was, and she should have been able to contribute to the discussion, maybe even lead everyone straight there... but she couldn't.

Feeling useless was bad enough by itself, but being useless when she should have been able to help was just frustrating. All she could do was stand quietly and wait to see if the others knew anything more, or if they could venture a guess at where to start.

[full_score]

Thankfully, Tear managed to reach the bottom of the wall without incident. Whatever it was that was bothering her, it didn't seem to be holding her back anymore. Whatever it was that had paralyzed her in place, Claude hoped that it wasn't serious

[razing_phoenix]

While Guy had some lingering concerns about Tear, she had joined them and seemed to be ready to face the rest of the night. If that was the case, then he was going to trust her for the moment. It seemed backward to trust someone's secrecy, but he knew enough about hiding things that it made some sort of sense to him

[melodists]

Claude was absolutely right: a nearby river had a particular sound. It wouldn't be difficult at all to locate it once they were close enough; Tear had told Luke as much before, had she not? The thought alone was potent enough to pull at the questions she held in regards to him and Natalia. Since they were about to be on the move, however, Tear kept them to herself for now. Once they were at a point for casual conversation, she would bring them up.

"Alright," she acknowledged as the young woman readied the flashlight. "I'll keep my ears out for running water." And hopefully her eyes and attention would follow.

With nothing else to say, she, too, took a few steps forward.

[gald_digger]

In a funny way, it was actually a little comforting to hear that everyone else was as uncertain as she was. It was tough, listening to her friends talk about all the things she should have known, but knowing they were still on the same page about some things made her feel a little closer to the rest of them. Like she wasn't alone

[full_score]

Straight ahead wasn't the direction he would have personally picked, but Claude knew he'd already had his turn at deciding which way they could go (and just look at how that turned out). That was why he didn't see any reason to contradict Guy or try to convince him to choose something else. In any case, he supposed north was as good of a direction as any, seeing how they were at a loss for clues for now.

"Anise is right," he said with a grin. "Let's give it a shot."

With that, he began walking forward and soon fell into step toward the rear of the group so as to keep a better eye on Tear and Anise. Since he and Guy were fully armed, he didn't doubt that they could handle whatever came their way. But with Tear spacing out like that, and Anise suffering from memory loss, Claude couldn't help but feel a little worried about what tonight would bring.

Still, now wasn't the time to voice any of that out loud. Instead, he kept moving.

((To here.))