♞ tsurugi kyousuke (
knightspirit) wrote in
damned_institute2013-04-13 04:03 pm
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Day 70: Magus Park (morning)
Kyousuke was tense as he left the bus, enervated before the day had even begun, yet fueled by a spark of anger and determination. He couldn't say why this was happening again, but that didn't matter so much as putting a stop to it. ... He had to save them. The weight of that pulled at him, but there was nothing he could do about it yet, so he'd just have to bear with it for now. Frustration wasn't going to help anyone right now.
Knowing that, he'd just have to find some way to relax and put it out of mind, however impossible that seemed. Being here helped, a little. It was new, and they were being allowed to wander around instead of suffering the staff's institution farce in the silence of pointless, monotonous activities. Being so far away removed the knowledge that what they needed could be close by, just waiting to be found.
For now, the boy decided to linger in the park for a while. It was nice there, if a bit vacant in the early morning, and he had all day to explore anyway. They called it a "town," but it was really more of a small village from where he was standing, so he doubted there were many sights to be seen to begin with. Maybe he'd just go sit on a swing for a little while and finish his breakfast; he'd been so absorbed in his conversation with Lloyd that he had yet to touch anything.
[ Korra ]
Knowing that, he'd just have to find some way to relax and put it out of mind, however impossible that seemed. Being here helped, a little. It was new, and they were being allowed to wander around instead of suffering the staff's institution farce in the silence of pointless, monotonous activities. Being so far away removed the knowledge that what they needed could be close by, just waiting to be found.
For now, the boy decided to linger in the park for a while. It was nice there, if a bit vacant in the early morning, and he had all day to explore anyway. They called it a "town," but it was really more of a small village from where he was standing, so he doubted there were many sights to be seen to begin with. Maybe he'd just go sit on a swing for a little while and finish his breakfast; he'd been so absorbed in his conversation with Lloyd that he had yet to touch anything.
[ Korra ]
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At least today would be good for stretching her legs and exploring a bit. She hated the naked feeling of walking around, knowing that if she tried to bend it wouldn't work.
She spotted Tsurugi while passing through the park. Good. At least nothing bad had happened in the blur of last night. Nothing had gotten done. Again. It was frustrating. Still, she put on a smile and took a hand from her pocket to wave.
"Hey, Tsurugi."
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"Morning," he greeted with a nod, finishing the remnants of his food. "Is this your first time here, too?" It was just a guess—she seemed a little more interested than he did.
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"I hear they actually let us buy things. Any idea if we get to keep it?"
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As for their money... "I don't know for certain, but probably. It'd be pointless to give us money they don't actually want us to use." Whether they could get anything useful was another question entirely, but he supposed they'd find out soon enough.
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"Is this what they're talking about?" She held up her card, frowning at it. "How's this money?"
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By then, he'd finished with his leftovers, so he stood, brushing the crumbs from his jacket, and tossed his little paper bag in a nearby bin. "I think I'll go take a look around," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets.
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Korra hopped out of the swing when he mentioned taking a look around.
"Mind if I tag along? I wanted to see the town, too."
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He began to make his way back across the park, past the buses they'd arrived on, quietly taking stock of the scenery. It was actually pretty big open—were he still not so sore, he wouldn't have minded kicking a ball around here. It'd probably be a better use of his time. ... Maybe later he'd do it anyway. It was strange, but the pain was already starting to feel less debilitating, even though an injury like his would normally last for weeks. ... Or maybe he was imagining that and shouldn't press his luck.
[ to here ]
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Huh. Where are the horses they used to move those wagons? It was odd. He couldn't even see a spot where a horse could be hitched to the things. He frowned, but eventually pushed the question off. It wasn't all that important, unless he could use one of the horses to escape and ride for help. They'd already put them away, though, so... Obviously it was time to find a plan B.
The town was different from any that Lloyd had visited before, from the way the buildings were built to the lights and the smells and the sounds. The plastic card they'd given him with the coupons confused him, so he just tucked it into his pocket.
He still hadn't figured out where he was going when he passed through a park. His footsteps slowed as he spotted the playground. Swings and a sandbox, a slide and monkey bars. Under different circumstances, he might have liked playing here. Who said eighteen was too old for those things?
But now wasn't the time. With a little reluctance, he turned away. Right. He needed to figure out where to go next.
[For Nina!]
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When she saw someone wandering, doing the same thing she was doing, wandering and thinking, trying to decide what to go and where to go next - and better yet, someone she knew at that! - Nina smiled warmly. "Lloyd!" she called out, waving, trying to get his attention.
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"What are you going to do? Have you ever been here before?"
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"I haven't," Nina admitted. "This is my first time. I was going to go see the pet store. You can come with me if you want. But that feels like so little. I know what you mean about escaping. It feels like we should be doing something. Unfortunately, I think that's likely to bring about more harm than good."
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Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have minded at all the idea of going sightseeing. He was naturally curious, and some of the things he'd seen already just passing by had looked really cool. But was that really the best way to use his time and the unexpected gift of freedom?
"We could..." An idea formed in his mind, a compromise. "What if we go look at stores, and see if we can talk to people and get them to help us out?"
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Or she was finally getting used to the climate here. She wasn't sure she liked that idea; everyone thought of Los Angeles as perfectly sunny, like it was on television. The truth was foggier -- or, to be precise, smoggier, but she had never liked the cold, and had generally avoided it by working long hours indoors. But it felt good to be outside, and better still to be warm without feeling feverish.
She started watching people climb down out of the buses and strike out across town. Ilia had already set off somewhere -- there was Nina, running over to a young man she didn't recognize. And most of the others were unfamiliar. ...Was that the man she'd barely gotten to say hello to, before the nurses had dragged them both away from their breakfasts? He was getting off another bus. She'd felt she might be intruding, then, and then hadn't had a chance to really apologize before they'd been shuffled along. She waved, from a half-dozen yards away.
He could ignore her, or come say hello -- she needed to network more, and she knew it. Any of them could disappear at any moment; the only way they were going to get anything done was teamwork, and she hadn't even gotten his name, let alone a true first impression. So she'd try again.
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He caught sigh of someone waving as he walked away from the bus, and after one confused moment, realized it was the woman he'd talked to briefly at breakfast. She'd seemed nice enough at the time, even if they hadn't had much time, so he waved back and headed in that direction, greeting her with a fairly cheery "hello," once he was within earshot.
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They were both in a better state than they had been; the fact that very few people still seemed to be ill might account for some of it, even if he hadn't been one of them. Or just that the human spirit was incredibly resilient, and it would take more than Martin Landel to crush them all.
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"Sorry we didn't get to talk more, earlier," he added, with a bit of a wry smile. You couldn't really argue with the nurses, when they decided breakfast was over, unfortunately.
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The townsfolk bustled about their business, deftly dodging the clumps of patients dotting the landscape. No signs of their nightly transformation showed. "You've been here long enough to know the ropes, haven't you?"
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With uniforms and soldiers and tear-gas. But that was over for the time being, and he didn't want to dwell on it more than he had to. Things like that had to stay in the past, if he wanted to get through all this.
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"Good. I hate trying to explain that zombies are real when I can scarcely believe it myself. Even when I have the scars to prove it." Actually, the wounds had healed remarkably cleanly and quickly -- too quickly, but that, too, was normal here.
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Although sometimes he wondered if both things weren't true, there was some solace in knowing everyone else was going through the same thing.
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Lana didn't wince; the only thing that would give away her reaction to anyone who knew her well enough was that she didn't. And Ema wasn't here, so that was no one. Unless someone here could read minds, which wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen.
"I'm surprised they don't make more of an effort in that regard." Her voice was dry. "I do mean about convincing us we're crazy. Not in making it seem preferable."
"Though...no. It wouldn't be, because it would be a lie." And that strayed far too close to having to tell her entire life story to a virtual stranger, so she changed the topic. "I've heard rumors that this isn't even Earth. Makes you wonder why they even picked this, ah, atmosphere for their theme park."
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"It might not be," he replied with a shrug that implied the idea didn't bother him in the least. He would have found it much stranger, to be honest, if they were, considering the planet was the crater-riddled refuge of people too crazy or too stubborn to find somewhere else to live, from his perspective.
[ugh, I hate getting colds]
"Then why the charade in the first place? Why this entire town? It's one giant contradiction." She folded her arms and glared out at the main drag, as if she could will it into making sense. It worked better on witnesses and scatterbrained detectives than on pavement. "I just get the feeling that if we could figure out why they're doing this, we'd have some way of changing things."