Day 61: Recreation Field (Shift 2)

[complicatedliar]

Loki wasn't entirely thrilled about returning to the recreation field, though he supposed it would be nicer during the day. And without the annoying presence of Riku. Some fresh air would likely do him good; that was what Sif and Thor had always claimed right before they dragged him out of the library.

He wasn't entirely certain if that was a pleasant thought or not. It was still far too mixed up and painful.

He was allowed to go back to his room and pull out every bit of warm clothing he had, bundling up as much as he could. As he followed the nurse out into the field, he also wondered if this meant he would miss out on the greenhouse, since he'd arranged to meet Soma after lunch. That had priority, of course, but he did find plants interesting. At least it was good to know there were activities they were forced to participate in during the day that weren't as horrifically painful as, say, what the music room would indicate.

Good to know that as prisons went, it wasn't all just torture, torture, torture. Some variation was good for the mind.

He wandered along the crunchy, dead grass, for now steering clear of the few other patients. The air felt much better during the day, smelled much better to him as well as he sniffed at it. even if it was cold enough to make his nose hurt. It reminded him uncomfortably of Jotunheim, and...

But at least here, there was sunlight. He wasn't trapped in that dark place as sometimes was in his nightmares.

Loki stopped about halfway down the field, tilting his head back to take in the thin sunlight, his eyes slipping shut.

[Here, angel angel angel... :D Castiel!]

Comments

[nobleman]

Meeting someone new did a good job of taking Guy's mind off of things, although he had to admit that at the moment, he wasn't really avoiding that much. Things had leveled out recently, and right now his only real concern (other than the regular worries about when and how they would all escape) was Natalia's absence. It wasn't just him, either. The others had noticed, and apparently Luke hadn't had a chance to meet her here in the first place.

If the princess really was gone this time, Guy hoped that she was with Jade and the emperor somewhere. That was the best option for her fate, even if all three were brainwashed in some way.

That wasn't something he could stay hung up on, though, since he had no way of knowing. In the end, his nurse and her insistence to get him outside distracted him, mainly because he had to take care that she didn't get too close to him. She offered him a coat before he went out onto the field, which he took very gingerly before he shrugged into it.

While it wasn't snowing, it was still very cold outside. Most of the other patients looked like they were huddling for warmth, and Guy couldn't blame them. His gaze settled on Claude, who also had a slightly uncertain look on his face. Guy didn't hesitate in heading over.

"Seems like we should be bundled up more, doesn't it?" he said by way of greeting. He hadn't ever dressed that heavily while traveling in cold areas back home, but he'd also been spending a lot of that time fighting monsters, which got his blood flowing. They weren't exactly running laps here, though maybe that was what the nurses were trying to encourage them to do.

[earthling]

The moment he saw Guy approaching him, Claude's face brightened. "Yeah, I'll say," he said, trying not to sound too irritated. Considering the time of year, it was natural for it be kind of cold, but that didn't mean the weather had to feel pleasant to him right then. Maybe if they weren't locked up, he could at least try to enjoy how invigorating the air could feel, but...

"Oh, yeah, I guess you saw the note from my mom, huh," he suddenly said, smiling as he found at least one piece of good news to talk about. "Sounds like nothing bad happened after all. They must have gotten sidetracked by something else." Or maybe night had ended abruptly like it had for them. Either way, Claude couldn't complain, seeing how it very well may have saved his mother's life.

"Maybe I can get her and those kids to listen to reason before they make it any further," he added after a moment.

[nobleman]

It was definitely a relief to find that Claude's voice was back where it belonged. While it hadn't been gone for that long, it had still made an impression. Guy realized that one of them might end up having to give their voice up again, though, seeing how they were running out of senses and a loss of sight or hearing was out of the question.

Claude had something else that he wanted to talk about, however, and in the end Guy would rather focus on the fact that Ilia hadn't reached the coliseum instead of dwelling on their own failings.

"Yeah, I saw. I hope you don't mind that I responded. I thought if she saw how concerned we all were, it might help to change her mind." That was wishful thinking and he knew it, but Claude was right; they needed to do whatever they could to try and convince her before she made another attempt. "Were you going to try and track her down later?" They only had so much time, after all.

[earthling]

"No, I don't mind at all," Claude assured him. "I appreciate your taking the time to leave her a note, actually."

While tracking her down shouldn't have been difficult in theory, he wasn't sure if it would be so easy today. Usually he was lucky enough to bump into her during lunch or by chance, but the schedule could make things tricky. "I'd like to," he admitted. "But she might wind up taking the activities reserved for women today, so I'm not sure if I'll get to see her or not. And anyway, it's not just her. Those kids she told me about sound like they'll be stubborn about it no matter what anyone tells them."

He supposed he could kind of relate. If someone had urged him not to go down the basement before that horrible night in the coliseum, Claude didn't think he would have abandoned all his plans, either. His mother's group had already gone through both challenges, which meant they were probably pretty invested at this point.

[nobleman]

It was good to hear that his message for Ilia hadn't been received badly. Guy had spoken with the woman a few times by now, so he doubted that it came off as strange. He'd been the one who had been unwilling to give her information in the first place, so Ilia probably understood why he was concerned.

Claude had a point about the shifts being divided by gender today. While that was usually a good thing for Guy due to his phobia, it definitely worked against then now. "Hopefully you can find her at lunch, then." But it was then that Guy remembered that they had been given a choice for where to go for their lunch the day before. What if that happened again? Then she would be even more difficult to find.

Maybe it was better if they adopted a different strategy, then. "These kids that she's working with... Do you know their names? Maybe we can leave a note for them or something. I know we have to be really vague with what we say, but..." Surely there was something they could do. Guy really didn't want more people to end up wandering down to meet that skeleton, after all.

[earthling]

Lunch normally sounded good, but he, too, wondered whether they'd have a free choice during today's third shift. When Guy asked about the names of the kids in his mother's group, though, Claude shook his head.

"She never mentioned it," he admitted, "and I never got the chance to ask. My mom made it sound like they'd be too stubborn to listen to anyone, though, so I'm not sure how much good a total stranger talking to them would do." They'd been working with his mom for several nights now, after all, and she didn't seem to think her word would be enough for them.

"Right now I'm hoping this place will throw enough setbacks at their group to buy us a little more time in getting through to them," he admitted. "Remember how long it took for us to get there?"

[nobleman]

Guy wondered what it was that made a couple kids so determined to explore a place that had been labeled as dangerous by more than a few people. With some young people they were just set on doing whatever they were told not to do by adults, but Guy hoped it was more than that. Rebellion was the worst sort of reason to end up down in the coliseum.

"They already have both of the pieces, don't they? If that's the case, then I'm not sure how much time we can save." He didn't want to put Claude into a panic, but he also wanted to stress that they didn't have all the time in the world to work this out, either.

There was, of course, their own nighttime plans to think about, though that, at least, was pretty straight-forward. "Hopefully we'll have some more luck ourselves," he added with a shrug of his shoulders. Guy realized that it was hypocritical of them to be working so hard to stop Ilia when they were still endangering themselves, but they'd already made their mistakes. If they could at least prevent one group from doing the same, maybe they could make up for that.

[earthling]

Guy made a good point, and Claude couldn't help but frown with worry. He hated the thought of his mother going down there for anything, let alone a death match. It made his stomach turn just thinking about it. "All right, well, I'll leave another note on the bulletin for her, and I'll ask her if she'd at least try talking to those kids about what I told her. Maybe that will help."

Aside from that, he wasn't sure if there was a lot he could do to prevent her from going, short of physically blocking the way. But in the end, there were several ways into the basement and just one of him. Besides, he wasn't sure whether the kids would try to attack him if he hindered their progress too much. Maybe that seemed like a strange thing for a younger person to do, but they were obviously proficient enough in combat to help his mom out, and they probably wouldn't be afraid to dig in their heels if they perceived him as an enemy to their cause.

Besides, Guy's comment reminded him that they had other things to investigate too. Claude was banking on the possibility of finding something helpful down there, which would hopefully be good news for all the captives here. "Yeah, that would be great," Claude said with a small sigh. "Anise told me she intended on giving her sense of touch to the ferryman tonight, so you and I will have to keep an extra eye on her."

[nobleman]

As Claude decided on what course of action he'd be taking in regards to Ilia, Guy just nodded in response. He wished that he had some better advice than that, but the fact was that their hands were tied in a number of ways. He, Claude, and Anise had all made an attempt to talk Ilia out of this and it hadn't done much good, so if Claude's note fell on deaf ears, then they were just going to have to be ready to help Ilia out in the aftermath of what she was walking into.

It was a dark way to approach the situation, but Guy also realized that he needed to be realistic.

He hadn't been prepared to hear about Anise, though. So Claude had already spoken to her this morning? "Of course," he responded. "I'll do what I can, but I may have to rely on you to watch her more closely." He doubted he would need to explain the reason why. "You know, you two are going to have to let me offer something up again someday." While it was true that they had gotten the furthest on the night that he'd paid the toll, he had barely noticed his lack of smell.

If anything, at least the fact that they were having to do this so many times meant that all of them were going to get used to traversing that place while at a slight disadvantage. Or a not-so-slight one, depending on the toll given.

[earthling]

"Don't worry," Claude said as he jutted his thumb into his own chest. "You can depend on me!" After taking down a giant sea snake by himself, he felt ready to face whatever else was waiting for them. Even with his limited abilities, he was going to make the institute regret sending any monsters their way.

"And, yeah, I just assumed we'd be taking turns," he added in response to his friend's last comment. With the way Guy had jumped in and volunteered his sense of smell their first night down there, he couldn't blame him and Anise for wanting to shoulder some toll responsibilities, could he? "Unless night ends while we're trying to cross again, I figured you'd be the next in line after Anise."

While Claude wanted to finish with that area as fast as possible, there were at least three other doors for them to completely explore. They were probably going to have to return to the caverns at least that many times, so it was best to run under that assumption for now.

[nobleman]

If it was his turn after Anise, then that probably wasn't so bad. Guy wasn't sure what he was going to want to give up this time around. It sounded like everything but smell was fair game, so he realized that his voice was probably the most logical choice there. That was going to be a hassle regardless of which one of them paid the toll, but if that was the only way they could get across, then they would just have to deal with it.

"All right, fair enough," he said after a pause. "If only we could actually get to the end of a challenge again. Even though we have those bracelets, that ferryman keeps holding us up." That was the only way he could explain the fact that they'd fallen short the past few times, anyway.

Still, the only way they were going to succeed was if they kept trying. The three of them had gotten into a pretty steady pattern with doing all of this, so Guy was sure that eventually they would find out what they were going to all of this work for. And, with any luck, it wouldn't result in someone's death.

[earthling]

It was true that their lives would be a lot easier if they could just row themselves across the lake, but Claude wasn't counting on that anytime soon. As frustrated as he felt, though, he knew it was too soon to throw in the towel.

"Since we've already agreed on who's going to pay what toll, that might save us a few minutes," he pointed out. "We can just tell that skeleton what's going on as soon as we show up, right?" The last few times they'd had to talk some beforehand, but maybe now they could shave some time off of how long it took to cross the water.

"If that helps us tonight, it might not be bad to try to have that all worked out in advance from now on," Claude added. Granted, the more times they went down there, the easier it was to make a routine out of it. He suspected Anise would continue paying with her sense of touch as long as she could, while he and Guy were better off giving up their voices so their combat abilities would be left intact.

[nobleman]

Claude had a point about figuring this all out in advance. It was true that they tended to waste a lot of time tripping over each other and figuring out who was going to give up what, so if they could just settle that beforehand it would probably make things go more smoothly for them. On top of that, the skeleton wouldn't have as much room to tease them, which might annoy it, but would be much better for them.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," he said after a pause, smiling at Claude as he nodded. "I guess the only problem is we might not all be able to meet up during the day each time, but we could always try and work out a code to talk it over on the bulletin."

If Claude had been part of the Abyss group that might have made it easier. Guy wondered if he could somehow suggest making him an honorary member. While it would be odd to have someone who wasn't from Auldrant in on it, almost all of them knew Claude by now. He doubted Anise would mind, for one thing. Tear would probably be indifferent to it. Luke was the only one who might have a problem with it for some reason, and that was only because he didn't know Claude that well yet.

He could give it some thought, at the least. He didn't want to bring it up now and then possibly get Claude's hopes up about it. While it wasn't a huge deal, it did have a certain significance, and Guy wanted to be careful with how he handled it.

[earthling]

With how many patients there were and how different each day's schedule could be, Claude agreed with Guy that they probably couldn't count on meeting up with each other long enough to work all those details out every day.

"Maybe that can be our next project, then," Claude brightly said as he dropped his fist into the palm of his other hand. "I'll bet Anise will think that's a good idea, too."

They could just hope that their efforts to get things squared away ahead of time would help them out in the long run. Tonight would probably be their biggest test, especially with how little they'd gotten done the past couple of times they'd gone down to the caverns.

Before he could add anything else, though, the intercom suddenly sounded. Nurses were beginning to round up the patients so they could get their lunches, it looked like. "Oops, guess we're out of time," Claude said with a small sight. Whenever shifts with Guy ended, he was always left wishing they could last a little longer. There wasn't much he could do about that, though. "I'll see you later, though, all right?"