Day 55: Courtyard [2nd Shift]

[sheepwood]

After what seemed like an eternity of being amused, irritable, bored, in pain, in excruciating pain, and any combination of those, Guybrush was met by the same soldier who had led him to the cafeteria. He wasn't offered a trip to the Sun Room to check the bulletin board, but didn't push for it anyway. That would have been more walking, and moving

Comments

[vitale]

Being dragged away from Edward (again) only had Bella's mood drop even more so than it had when she awoke to the pain ... and only got worse when she was handed a jacked and all but shoved outside. Into that delightful torture known as ... snow.

"Whyyyyyyy," Bella whined, not wanting to be outside, and especially not wanting to be outside in the snow, of all horrid things. It was summer when she left Forks and woke up in the asylum, so why was it winter? Were they on a completely different continent? She hoped not, since she had already told Claire that they were in the United States, and she didn't want to lie to the girl, considering how frazzled she had appeared when they first met. But ... if other patients said they were in the states, then it had to be true, right?

The teenager trudged through the snow with a scowl on her face, limping as best as she could through the cold at her feet. And to make matters worse, it was snowing. Auuuuugh.But still, being outside was a nice change from the alternate, so she gladly accepted.

[saviored]

The moment the conversation got anywhere near useful, they were broken up. Predictable. Technically, it would've been easy to track Wally down now and continue it, but that would mean giving away exactly how much he wanted to know what Wally did

[vitale]

At the sound of a familiar voice, Bella turned and looked at the source of it, and instantly her eyes widened as a lightbulb went of in her head. Bingo.

She had tried to speak to Stefan yesterday on the topic of the book she was supposedly from, only to ... well, have him recoil in terror away from her. She couldn't help but wonder if Damon would act the same way once he approached her closer. Without really thinking, her hands lifted to pull the jacket closer to her neck, turning her head away as a momentary look of sadness crossed her expression. Who else are you going to hurt because of something you can't even control? Damn.

But she couldn't be sad now. Bella's lips turned upwards, all signs of sadness washing away as she gave Damon a smile in greeting.

Zen with the snow. Huh.

"Actually," she said, her tone nonchalant, "I hate the snow. Loathe it, really

[saviored]

The direct approach. He liked that. Her boyfriend must've told her. Well. That or she'd had her own run-in with Stefan. He wouldn't put it past his brother to tip off more than one person somehow

[zack_fair]

Well, that had been humiliating

[thestormishere]

It... it was snowing in the courtyard.

And despite how much Lightning would have liked to remain calm and quietly defiant throughout every shift of the day here... the former-soldier-made-l'Cie was fascinated by it.

For good reason, of course! In general, it just did not snow where she was from. Sure, there were a few places where you could find colder 'weather' inside Cocoon, but every single one of them were tourist attractions through and through, and she had never been, not even as a child. As an adult she was just fine with the temperate climate the rest of the artificial world was under- in fact, she was really biased for the increased temperatures that surrounded Bodhum and its own tourist-pulling beaches. Naturally, she never got the 'go see the snow' thing... what was the point in going somewhere that was uncomfortable on purpose?

Yet speaking of cold, the former soldier was so preoccupied at the revelation that she almost didn't realize just how freezing it was out there too. For a moment, her thoughts jumped to how

[zack_fair]

Distracted as he was by watching the gloomy sky and feeling the snow on his skin, Zack did eventually realize that someone was lingering nearby and possibly watching him. Whoever it was wasn't being totally obvious about it, but he had pretty good senses considering his training

[thestormishere]

When Zack approached her, Lightning couldn't help but tense slightly, careful to maintain her distance just in case he 'tripped' or otherwise attempted to touch her again, setting off yet another weird vision in the process. Of course, that sort of thing seemed like it only happened during the night, but... look at them, surrounded by soldiers and dressed like trainees of some sort. Before yesterday, the 'staff' had been absolutely set on making everything out to be something it wasn't. Things had changed and they clearly weren't fooling around any more; she couldn't trust things to be 'normal.'

And now they'd said outright that that this military presence meant planning to use them for something, which in other words, meant that her suspicions had been proven painfully correct. It wasn't hard for Lightning to fill in the blanks and guess where their eventual aim might land.

For obvious reasons, it made the unwilling Pulse l'Cie distinctly uncomfortable. She was not in a joking kind of mood, and all things considered, she found it

[poorexample]

What had happened in the cafeteria was something Castiel could only label as typical. Demons and angels were more or less programmed not to get along. It was something that flowed in their blood, a feeling that couldn't be forgotten when they were in each other's presence. Naturally, Ruby had been the one to resort to violence. Not that Castiel wasn't capable of the same, but he'd definitely had better control of that conversation

[yin_yang_fox]

There seemed to be more of a want for people to move to the shifts assigned to them, and as she had stuck to the sun room the past days, she had been given a polite insistence to go outside. It didn't really matter in the end, and even if it wasn't night, the cool air might do her some good. And cool seemed to be cold, actually, and she pulled the jacket given tighter around her, wandering idly as she kept an eye out for others that she knew

[poorexample]

In the end, it was best that someone had approached to interrupt him. Loathe as Castiel was to remove his eyes from the pair, the familiar voice was enough to distract him. He glanced over at the girl, knowing both her name and the fact that she was not what she appeared to be. He still had little idea of what a digital monster was, but this was one person he'd shared his secret with. Thus far he hadn't been given any reason to regret it. He couldn't say that he trusted her; he still barely knew her. But her company was in no way a bad thing.

However, she'd asked a question and now he would have to explain himself. There was no easy way to do such a thing, and he ended up letting out a sigh without even realizing he was doing so. "You could say that," he responded with a brief nod. Luckily, the fact that Renamon was already aware of what he was would make this somewhat easier

[yin_yang_fox]

An internal dispute, then, from his homeworld. The Digimon discretely glanced over to the pair again, memorizing her features. A demon, was it? The term was a loose one, and not at all negative in some. However, from Castiel's explanation, it seemed demons from his world were completely destructive--and more, seemed more similar to things familiar to her than she would like. It wasn't a rule of hers to judge others based on another's word, but it would be something to keep in mind. Even if the demoness was limited here, she could be a threat for others. And that it was Castiel's friend she was conversing with was not something ignored. That fact harbored nothing good

[madeinthehrl]

Compared to the sickening cheerfulness of her old nurse, the brusque efficiency of Soma's new soldier escort was positively refreshing. Here was someone who knew she didn't need to be coddled, and who left her to her own devices with the implicit acknowledgment that she knew what her duty was

[windstwilight]

[from here]

And hell if she was going to stay inside on top of everything else. Took a bit of cajoling, but in the end, the soldier-chick took a glance at Senna's tag thing and allowed it. Senna squinted at it suspiciously. Maybe the ranking thing was handy like this. But man! It was annoying that it changed to begin with. She tromped outside, frowning at life in general. And of course. It was cold. Not nice, fall cold, but oh, hey, is that a snowflake cold. Blah. What a downer on top of everything else. More than life, Senna needed a pick-me-up.

And somehow fate saw fit to actually give her that for once. Soma. Their last conversation hadn't been that much for the happy side of things, but maybe that could be changed a bit. They were what was left, any-- Ugh! Don't think about that! Something else. Senna bounded over to the other girl, shifting weight from one foot to the other to maintain warmth. "Hey, Soma!" Senna greeted with a wide smile. "Enjoying the scenery?"

[madeinthehrl]

Soma turned at the sound of a familiar voice and smiled automatically as Senna came running up. It was always good to see the other girl, even if she had a feeling that smile wasn't entirely real. That was all right--neither was hers. And it was better to keep those thoughts at bay, wasn't it? "Senna," she greeted, relaxing slightly. "How have you been?"

She nodded in response to the other girl's question, staring up at the grey sky. "It reminds me of home. I like it, really."

[windstwilight]

Home, huh? "You live somewhere cold, then?" She wondered. Maybe that explained her friend's light hair color. It would be nice to visit, she thought. Maybe. If anything like that was possible. "I'm not sure what I think about it. Haha, it might be too chilly for me."

The other thing was far harder to reply to. She sighed, and slid her hands behind her neck, before leaning against the wall next to Soma. The sky was grey. Not that many obvious clouds in that mess. She missed Hanatarou suddenly. She wondered if her friend had ever decided on what to do about those groups. Didn't matter now, she guessed. Still, it'd have been nice. If he stood on his own feet proudly at the end. "I've been," she said finally. "Stuff's been tough lately. And I think I became the guardian of this little kid." She laughed, a little self-depreciating. "But uh. What about you? You seem okay, at least."

Okay... could be a lot of things, though--actually being alright wasn't usually one of them.

[doctor_voodoo]

Ah, so this was the Courtyard! The same one he had been trying to get to the night before! He had been right at the door that exited to the outdoors from the cafeteria, the chill air of the night had felt so real against his face just as he took a step towards freedom--

--Only to suddenly wake up in that same bland, lifeless room again. Facilier struggled to comprehend the sudden upheaval of reality; the shock and confusion from everything that had occurred left him as nauseous as having a hangover from a particularly rowdy night at carnival. Had he truly awakened? What was real and what wasn't? It was like opening up a box only to find a smaller one inside and an even tinier one after that; a layered dream that seemed to repeat itself over and over again...

Shortly after he awoke that morning, Facilier's bewildered pondering was extinguished like a shadow before a flame when a soldier suddenly crashed into his room, roaring orders and nearly sending the doctor tumbling off his bed in shock once again. Before Facilier knew it, he

[toxicspiderman]

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep." He said it in the measured, stentorian tones of a middle-school English teacher quoting New England's greatest second period snooze button. Every teenager thought they'd discovered procrastination and alienation, and there was their textbook, telling them it was the human condition. Not that they listened

[doctor_voodoo]

Adjusting the tight collar around his neck, Facilier decided to himself that despite how the new garments were far superior to the embarrassing grey garb he had the night before, he was going to constantly miss his former violet attire with his hat and necklace of teeth...

Speaking of necklaces, the metal dog tags that came with the restrictive outfit bothered him as well; they belonged to a Rank D soldier with a name unlike his own. The number "26987513M" didn't make any sense either, although the single "M" at the end could have indicated his gender, but the rest of the numbers... it left him with the sickening feeling of being owned, and that didn't settle with his stomach any better than a bad batch of rotten gumbo...

Clutching the tags into a tight fist, Facilier turned to face the newcomer, another shorter man like Carter, but with reddish hair and (from what Facilier's intuition could sense) a good head on his shoulders, unlike the aforementioned sergeant...

"Oh I assure you, I have no interest in partaking in such a game

[toxicspiderman]

S.T. snorted at the first comment. Looks like the guy was new, but already well on his way to a fair estimation of the place