Day 56: North Street (Morning)

[escapedpandora]

Maybe it was the sudden influx of normality (or what passed as such a thing here) along with the townspeople, but it barely took a few minutes before Hope couldn't stand to be walking along the shops down the street anymore. He didn't want to listen to people laugh and coo over gossip and shopping lists, with their smiles and happily ever after

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[gald_digger]

Anise felt a little bad after parting ways with Hope. The kid already looked like he had a ton of worries, and she'd just given him a few more things to worry about. On the bright side, though, he was more informed, and she hoped that meant he'd be more prepared for the bad stuff to come

[avengingfists]

Meeting new patients was always a bittersweet occasion for Ilia. On the one hand, she always enjoyed creating bonds with new friends, and on the other hand, the institute was the last place she would wish upon anyone. Still, it had cheered her to think maybe she had been able to ease Matthew's burden just the tiniest bit with her words

[gald_digger]

The sound of a familiar voice pulled Anise's attention away from the window, and she whirled around to face the source. Just as she thought, it was Ilia. Anise's face brightened in an instant. It had been a few days since she last saw Ilia, but her friend looked like she was doing all right. That was a big relief to see, considering how abruptly some of her friends had disappeared before.

"You could say that!" she replied cheerfully. "There's lots of expensive-looking stuff, and some things I've never seen before." Some kind of Earth artifacts, she guessed. That was pretty exciting to think about. Even if her little allowance probably wouldn't buy her any treasures, she couldn't help but feel eager to go take a look at them.

"Anyway, how've you been? Got anything planned for today?" Some scary stuff had happened a couple nights ago, and then there was the military takeover, so Anise imagined things weren't going too smoothly for Ilia, but hopefully things weren't going too badly, either.

[avengingfists]

Seeing Anise's cheerful face added to Ilia's warm mood. She found herself smiling right back.

"It probably has a lot of expensive things, but how knows? It might surprise you what you find." Antiques were a bit touch and go in both price and quality, from Ilia's experience. She was typically a practical shopper herself. "No harm in looking, of course."

"I'm doing fine, actually." Ilia shook her head, more snow sloughing out of her hair. The windbreaker wasn't doing much to keep the cold out either, though it kept her dry. She wrapped her arms around herself.

"I haven't thought much about today. I didn't know we were going on a trip." She was used to the military regime; that should could understand and cope with. But a trip? How... unusually thoughtful of them, to provide a break for all the patients.

[exterrabang]

Snow. How strange. Even in his time on Earth, Elfangor had not experienced snow first hand, only seen it portrayed on television programs. It had looked interesting, but that idle thought had done nothing to prepare him for how cold and wet it was, or how difficult it was to trudge through the slushy substance while maintaining his balance

[escapedpandora]

He looked up from the middle of his muffin, having peeled parts of it away in chucks before eating it, if only trying to figure out how long it would last him. It certainly hadn't felt like a meal to him, especially after not having eaten the past two days--

Hope shook his head at the question, scooting over slightly on the bench, keeping his legs up the entire time to conserve warmth. He fumbled a bit to prevent the muffin from falling off his knees, but other than that and shivering at the new cold spot, it didn't seem to bother him at all.

He wasn't sure if the person was someone from town or the hospital, but from the clothing it seemed the latter. Still, he wasn't one to speak up because of a presumption, especially if he didn't have enough of a basis to back it up.

[exterrabang]

Elfangor sat beside him, curling his arms around himself to ward off the cold, curious at the silence despite his apparent acceptance.

Although he was familiar enough with human clothing to identify the different types and functions of them, it was much more difficult to pinpoint the differences that might indicate anything useful in identifying this person as a fellow hospital inmate. But what did give him a clue was the paper bag and muffin, which he knew they'd all been given, though he'd certainly inhaled his in a hurry. He couldn't help it, he hadn't enjoyed human food in far too long to resist the overpowering sense of taste.

Even so, he couldn't be sure based on just that observation, and so he asked, "Are you from the hospital as well?"

[escapedpandora]

He looked up again from his muffin, wondering if he should save the rest for lunch or whether he should just eat it now in order to appease his hunger. But it seemed like the more he ate, the hungrier he got... at least that was what his stomach wanted to tell him. Two days without food and constantly on the run... now that he had started to eat again, it felt like he had poked at a sleeping beast.

"Yeah," he responded, soft but surprised. Guess he shouldn't have been, though... his own clothes felt like a dead give-away. But... as well. It was almost a relief. Someone he could talk to, even if it was just to confirm what others had already told him-- another world, another universe.

He scuffed his shoes against the bench, kicking at the bit of snow remaining, trying to get it further away from him. As nice as the snow seemed, it was still really cold.

"I-- did you just... wake up here, too?"

[allroadslead]

His head was still spinning when he stepped off the bus, half of him stuck on Dean and the other half stuck on finding Ruby. She wasn't gonna be easy to talk to, either, but at least he wasn't as worried about pushing her. Not the way he was with Dean. It'd always been different with Ruby. Kind of.

He'd be lying if he said he hadn't noticed the similarities between her and Dean, even back when she'd been the blonde.

(The blonde, Jesus. He hadn't even known the girl's name. Had it actually been Ruby or had that just been a name Ruby had picked out from a telephone book

[anemptydecapo]

[I'm sorry this is so late!]The bus had barely come to a stop when Venom had moved out of his seat, the threat of suppression being the only reason he hadn't taken to moving toward the doors as well. By the time the last passenger had shuffled off the vehicle's steps, the assassin was long gone from the area

[allroadslead]

The streets were quiet enough and the town itself familiar enough that Sam wasn't really paying attention to anyone else walking around, as long as their faces were not a) Dean, b) Ruby, or c) one of the angels. It was nice, in a way, to just have the quiet crunch of snow beneath his boots to focus on.

Though that one time the Impala had plowed off the road into a snowbank in the middle of the night, that had been. A little less nice, let's just put it that way.

He took another step and looked over just in time to see someone slip and pitch in his direction.

Oh cra-It was too late to brace himself much, but one of the things about being half a foot taller than most people was that it was difficult to knock him down. He caught the guy with a grunt before either of them could wind up sitting in the snow. Out of the corner of his eye, something fluttered to the ground

[anemptydecapo]

It was most likely sad, but the Guild Head hardly recognized the fact that he'd been caught mid-impact. There were too many angered thoughts buzzing through his head the instant he slipped, each one louder than the last and all self-berating. Of course, when he did realize the situation, most all those thoughts circled into one thing: get away.

As grateful as he might have been for the stranger to not simply let him fall, Venom had never been known to respond well to others touching him. As quickly as possible, he pulled himself back to his feet (he'd slipped onto one knee during the fall. There was a sharp pain on impact, but he couldn't feel it anymore. Whether the snow had numbed it or it was just that insignificant would have to be investigated later) and took large steps back in order to reclaim his personal space. "I'm fine," he said without looking up, untangling his right arm from his scarf--

Where is...?!That photograph had been in his hand a moment ago, he was sure. A mixed look of concern and panic struck the man's face