Day 55: Courtyard [4th Shift]

[gald_digger]

Talking with friends usually put Anise in a better mood, but the subjects that she, Guy, and Tear covered at lunch were so heavy that Anise couldn't help but feel weighed down afterward. It was hard to think and talk about the terrible things that came about from her lies. She wasn't going to cry, not now, but she felt like she needed a little space.

Fortunately, children were going out to the Courtyard today, and that sounded like a good, wide area where she could get a little alone time. The fresh air could help her mood, too.

When Anise reached the door, however, a blast of cold air rushed in at her, and all she could see outside was a blinding veil of whiteness. For a moment, she simply stared at the sight. She never saw much for snow at Landel's, but here it had already covered everything in just one day!

"You might need this," a soldier said, presenting a black jacket to her. The color and style really didn't suit Anise, but it looked expensive. She slipped it on, and while it wasn't as feminine as she liked her clothes to be, the lining actually had a nice feel to it. On the left breast, she noticed a name embroidered over it. It wasn't her name, but it was still kind of impressive that they personalized these things.

Outside, snow had settled onto every surface, like a big fluffy blanket over the ground. Anise walked along the path for a bit, creating a single set of footprints in the otherwise smooth surface. Once she was a fair distance from the doors, she diverged from the path (which was barely visible to begin with) and walked to the edge of the pond, watching the falling snowflakes disappear into the water.

It was a pretty sight, but it wasn't enough to completely take her mind off of Ion. Before long, Anise found herself wondering if it was snowing where Ion was, too. Maybe he was really far away, though...

[waiting for her boyfriends ♥]

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[dreadofthegrave]

After talking to Klavier, Battler was feeling a bit better. The conversation had definitely started out strange, but at least now, he felt like he had a better handle on how he was supposed to approach things here. He wasn't sure that he was ever going to be completely okay with it, but at least now he had a way to think about the supposed gap in his memories without constantly questioning himself or the people around him. If he kept doing something like that, then he definitely wasn't going to get anywhere at all. More than that, he was starting to feel like he might actually have some people that could help put him the right direction if he asked for it. It was still just a possibility, just a vague feeling he wasn't really sure that he'd act upon yet, but the fact it was there at all made a pretty huge difference.

Normally, a shower would have improved things even more, but in this case, it didn't have much of an effect. That the showers were communal didn't really surprise him given the environment, and it wasn't like he'd never done that sort of thing before. All you really had to was keep your back turned to everyone else and there wasn't much of a problem. But despite the warm water and the opportunity to get clean, his empty stomach stopped him from relaxing.

.... He'd already missed three meals, hadn't he? His stomach was starting hurt because of that, to where he almost regretted that he couldn't get himself to eat whatever it was they'd been serving. Well, at least he might be able to get something decent for dinner. There'd been real food when he woke up the previous night, right....? Of course, as far as he could make out from what people were saying about the shift in power, that might not be a guarantee, either. It was kind of sad, but the thought was enough to make his mood go a little sour again. It wasn't like he was stupid enough to let himself starve, but going from something prepared by a seasoned chef and Ronove's tea and cookies to something probably not even fit for human consumption was a pretty extreme transition. If that was all they got, even getting himself to eat properly might be something of a problem.

Because of that, he didn't take any time to enjoy himself, instead cleaning off and drying relatively quickly. Instead of staying inside, he decided to finally make his way out into the Courtyard, quietly shrugging his into the coat that was provided. Somewhere in the back of his mind he had to admit that it was actually kind of cool, but the embroidery of a name that wasn't his own quickly dispelled the thought. It was one thing to be called by something else, but between this and the dogtags, they weren't exactly being very subtle, were they...? And even if it was only a name, being forced into another identity was anything but pleasant.

Once outside, however, it wasn't half bad. It may have been cold, but it was kind of pretty between the trees and the pond and the layer of powdery white. It wasn't like it never snowed where he came from, but it never came until much later in the year, let alone stuck like this, so it felt like something of a luxury. Though probably not so much for the guy who now had a giant clump of it on his head.

Battler couldn't help but laugh at the sight, though whether it was out of genuine amusement of just an attempt at keeping his own spirits up, it was hard to say. "Tough break," he offered cordially.

[boyking]

Even without Dean here, Sam could hear his brother making fun of him. He sighed and shook the snow off, hoping the soldiers wouldn't give him crap for temporarily removing the hat. He was sure there was a 2b) except in cases of inadvertent falling substances in their rulebook somewhere. He was also kinda hoping no one had seen—

Never mind. That answered that. Figured. Still, this was miles above that one time they'd been working a case involving a spirit and the woman's bathroom, and while they were in there investigating, a...well. Yeah.

Anyway.

He flashed a smile and let out an awkward but friendly chuckle. "Hey, man, knowing this place, I think I should just be glad the snow wasn't gonna eat me."

Had he seen that face before? He thought be might've, but he wasn't too sure. While the peek of red hair would've normally made the guy easy to remember, the saturation of colors around here made that shade of red look average. He guessed it wasn't that important, though.

"Uh." Sam looked up the tree briefly to make sure there was no other snow anvil waiting (there wasn't), then dried his hand on his pants and held it out. "Right. I'm Sam."

It was probably an especially good idea to give a name in this case, or the man was going to walk off forever knowing Sam only as "the guy who ended up with snow on his head."