Day 35: Main Street

[mrmewmaker]

Shiki was a little disappointed. When she heard the words 'field trip', she had expected the town to be a whole lot bigger. How could you even go shopping properly in a town like this? There needed to be a whole lot more stores, she decided. Two department stores, boutiques, and a record store, at least

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[kanpekinasenshi]

The shirt must have been thicker than it felt, because Seiya wasn't too cold despite the chill in the air. Stepping off the bus, she was surprised to get a set of coupons. That'd be helpful... as much fun as wandering aimlessly around what looked like a tiny stretch of town might be, it'd at least help if she had something to do. She wasn't really a big shopper, but there were other things on the list, and if nothing else, at least a burger joint was one of the coupons available. She could really go for a hamburger later, although for now she was still full enough from breakfast.

After a bit of exploring, Seiya found another girl around her own age wandering the same mostly-empty street, someone who looked a bit out of place... another patient, probably? There was no way of knowing without asking, after all. "Hello." She headed over casually, brushing the hair back from her forehead a bit. "You must be from Landel's too, right? Is this your first time in Doyleton?" Some company would be nice.

[mrmewmaker]

"Hi! Yeah, I am." Shiki smiled, and bowed politely in greeting. "I'm Shiki Misaki, it's nice to meet you. And yeah, it's my first time here. I only just woke up in Landel's yesterday."

Despite that last sentence making her a little sad, that bright smile didn't fade. Company was always a good thing, and company that seemed honestly friendly was that much better.

"Is this your first time here too?"

[kanpekinasenshi]

Seiya bowed back automatically. "I'm Seiya Kou. Nice to meet you."

She smiled in return at the other girl, pleased by the smile she'd gotten from her greeting. It was hard to find company here that was upbeat or at least trying for it, although maybe that was because the other girl hadn't been here long enough. As if you've been here so long? "I'm fairly new, too, I've only been at the Institute a few days. I have it on good authority that there's no gaming or karaoke parlors or anything like that around town, though."

That was more a personal grudge, Seiya had no way of knowing if those words would even mean anything to Shiki. "I guess we patients have to make our own fun."

[mrmewmaker]

That name sounded familiar - but no. She would have remembered a last name like that. "Nice to meet you too, Seiya-san!"

Shiki frowned again at the mention of there not being a whole lot of fun stuff to do. Honestly, why let them have a field trip at all if there was nothing to do? "Aww, that stinks! It would have been a lot of fun to go to an arcade or go sing karaoke for a while. And there's not even any really good places to go shopping here, either, or at least I haven't seen any. I'd kill for a decent department store. Oh, well. I guess you're right about needing to make some fun. Any ideas?"

[secret_orchard]

[from here]

"In fact," Armand went on. "I am very fond of exercise. I miss Sir Percy's wonderful horses. Do you ride?" The first shop they neared was indeed the bookstore, though there were plenty of enticing signs further ahead.

[notaleaf]

"There are horses," Wash said. "I'm better with flying, though."

You couldn't navigate a horse as well. Oh wait, he'd mentioned the flying thing again. He wasn't going to have to go through the entire space explanation another time, was he? Not that he minded talking about the thing he loved best, it was just...strange if the person kept staring at him blankly.

[secret_orchard]

Armand almost stopped in his tracks, until he remembered how cold it would be standing still. Flying? He tilted his head to make sure Wash didn't seem likely to sprout wings. "I'd prefer horses," he said, without really knowing what he'd prefer them to. They were familiar, after all.

"Umm... what do you fly?" he eventually asked after what was likely a rudely long silence. They'd progressed further up the street, despite Armand's hesitancy. As they passed Tasty Burger, Armand peered at the sign and checked his memory. Nope, his roommate's meeting was the at the Twin Pines restaurant. Now where was that? He didn't see it up the street they were on, but he supposed they'd have to walk further to be certain.

[notaleaf]

He was being looked at. This was slightly uncomfortable. Wash decided just to keep walking, even though he didn't quite know where they were headed. There wasn't much in the town, but it seemed very neat and tidy and much too normal.

"A Firefly," he replied. "It's a spaceship. You know." He moved his hand a short distance through the air. "A ship that flies in space."

[31st_of_china]

[from here]

Sanzo sighed.

"Fine," he grunted. "It's not like I can stop you anyway."

This way he could keep an eye on the runt. It was also Goku admitting - not outloud, exactly - that they were going to do things his way now. None of this shit with Hakkai. The man was an adult, he could (and the healer had proven this enough) take care of himself if things got rough. They'd regroup eventually.

Until then, they had to track down the sutra. From the sound of it, Callisto had gotten something they needed for the basement. Qui-Gon was welcome to deal with her ass, Sanzo wasn't interested in dealing with her more than he had to.

[prevails]

At least he got the consent. It made Goku happy, enough so to concentrate on the trip. The last time ... Landels had come here, he hadn't been able to go due to his unnatural sleeping schedule. Nice to see that he was around for it this time, and he wanted to at least look at a few things before heading back. Being in a new town did, now that he noticed, feel really refreshing. Sort of like the feeling every time they went to a new city on their trip.

This time it was a sort of vacation too.

"Where are we headed?" Goku glanced at Sanzo while walking at the monk's side. Occasionally he'd take a few looks at the city itself, absently trying to place its image with one he remembered from another town; who knew, maybe it would be near one of them.

[31st_of_china]

"I don't know. Somewhere with beer and cigarettes."

A smoke or two would help the ache and stiffness. Or at least, help him ignore it.

There wasn't much he could do during the dayshift to track the scripture down. That last escape attempt had failed miserably: he wasn't willing to lose the Smith & Wesson trying again. He'd get thrown into Solitary for anything else. Solitary itself Sanzo could handle. It was when nightshift rolled around that the problems began.

All in all, it left the dayshift as one irritating, boring mess. He was wasting precious time from the mission, and worst of all, he couldn't do jackshit about it.

At least he could be sure it wasn't in Doyleton.

Whoever had taken the sutra had clearly known it was worth something. They wouldn't be stupid enough to hide it in a place like this. And at least Goku could stretch his legs, before he whined his ear off.

"Unless you can think of something better."

[prevails]

The first thing that came to mind was the idea that they could look around trying to find out more about the area, that and find a map of where they were. It wouldn't help right now but it would in the future - when they escaped. He'd noticed the staff watched over everyone really closely (they were even hovering in a lot of places now, which made Goku wonder why the townspeople allowed trips like this to happen. Shouldn't they be scared of mental patients?) so it would be hard to do it afterwards. Before was better, it was premature.

Pre-emptive? Something like that.

Maybe after Sanzo got was he was looking for. Which brought Goku to his second thought: food. If Sanzo wanted beer then he could order some food at the same time. Sanzo couldn't refuse that.

Goku grinned. "A restaurant?" It was better than getting a 'manicure,' whatever that was.

[spirit_forge]

[from here]

Looking Archer wasn't really sure where to go since it was his first time. Still wandering around while holding hands with Hanyuu was a peaceful experience in itself. Something to be treasured.

Now what could they do with their coupons? Their options were pretty limited: Twin Pines, Mystic Healing Spa, Pearl's, and Tasty Burger. I guess we can only wander around. Looking up ahead, Archer saw the Mystic Healing Spa.

"What do you think?" he asked, stopping in front of the spa. "Want to give it a try?"

[meironohosoku]

Hanyuu was surprised when Archer took hold of her hand, but she didn't try to pull away. Just like when she was with Arlene, Hanyuu felt safe when Archer was near. And he was the only person in this place that knew she had been a spirit prior to arriving in this place. Even with everything else that was going on, there was a certain level of comfort that came knowing she didn't have to watch her words too carefully around him.

She was also surprised when they stopped near the spa. She'd heard of spa's, yes, but she'd never really seen or been to one before. Most of the last trip had been spent wandering aimlessly; she couldn't say what had gone through Rena's mind at the time, but Hanyuu had spent the time admiring the autumn weather. It'd been too long since she'd last seen a season other than summer, and the chilly air had been a welcomed change.

After a moment of silent deliberation, Hanyuu nodded. She wanted her friends to enjoy what time they had left; why couldn't she try and enjoy it as well? "Okay, let's go. It should be...

[spirit_forge]

Hanyuu's hesitation struck something in deep Archer's heart. Even though he wanted to cheer her up he didn't know the source of her depression, which seemed to be the problem, and he couldn't help but feel a little useless. If this was Rin, he'd egg her on, Saber would be satisfied with a good meal, and Ilya was happy simply to spend time together as a family. It looks like even now I still need more experience in order to understand the hearts of other people. The spa held no real appeal to Archer, but he didn't know where else to go.

"It's only fun if we're both enjoying it," he said gently, more so than usual. "You don't need to put up a front with me. I don't care where we go, since the company is more important. We could go back to the park. It seems like a nice place to relax."

Taking a knee before her, without releasing her hand, Archer offered an encouraging smile, staring into her eyes. "Think of it as your day, Hanyuu-chan. We can do whatever you want. I insist."

[meironohosoku]

The spirit nearly winced. It seemed pretending that everything was fine was going to be more difficult with Archer... She really did want to tell someone what was really on her mind, but... she simply couldn't. She'd spoken freely with Arlene the previous day, and that had only resulted in the woman worrying about her. Every moment counted now, and Hanyuu didn't want any of her friends to spend their last days (perhaps last day) worrying.

So, she quickly shook her head. "No, no, it will be fun! I know it will, I just... I've never been to one before. I'm not sure what it's going to be like, so I'm just a little nervous."

Hanyuu forced herself to smile before ducking her head and pushing her bangs away from her face, although the gesture was mostly so she wouldn't have to look at him. "Besides, I really don't know what I'd want to do in this place, Archer. All I know is... I just want see people enjoying themselves. I want you and everyone else to have fun today, so... So come on."

[mateswithnobody]

[from here]

The Main Street looked like it would be as good a place as any to start looking for the places on Donna's "to-do" list. It wasn't as though she'd been given a map, but she was confident in her ability to find her way around. She'd navigated through many an office area before, even the messiest, so there was nothing to worry about! And even if there had been, there would be no getting between her and a manicure this day.

"So how was your night? Running through the basement I keep hearing about I'm betting?" she asked, starting some small talk until they arrived. If she didn't ask, then the Doctor would have, so no use in delaying the inevitable.

[timedork]

"Oh, yes, the trip! Quite fun," the Doctor agreed, his earlier thoughts about the TARDIS nearly forgotten. Maybe they could look around a bit and then go to look for the ship. Or look for the ship while looking around.

He grinned when Donna asked him about his night. "I saw Rose!" he announced proudly. He glanced over his shoulder at the crowd that was still formed outside of the buses, hoping to stop the blonde girl, but he couldn't see her. Well, if they weren't all together, that simply meant they could cover more ground. If he and Donna didn't find the TARDIS, maybe Rose would. "She said that you two met earlier."

[mateswithnobody]

"Did you?! I was thinking you might!" she nudged him a bit, smirking knowingly, "About time you found her again. And yeah, we did have a chat. She's from... pretty far back though," Donna pouted just a bit, eyes turning up to see what the Doctor would show as a response.

[timedork]

The Doctor's expression turned serious. "Yes," he said. "She is."

He couldn't decide whether or not that was a good thing. On the one hand... It meant she hadn't been separated from him yet in her timeline, but if she had spent some time with this future version of him (relatively) that she hadn't told him about for fear of spoilers, that would make the upcoming separation harder on her.

And it was hard on him, as well. Seeing both Rose and Donna again, when he had thought he never could... Was this what it would be like when he met River Song again for the first time? It had always been hard enough to know that humans would wither and die, but to know how their time together would end...