damned_institute | Day 28; Bus 3

There was, Naomi decided, some sort of cosmic irony in all of this. Not that she was trapped in a deranged and possibly other-worldly asylum with a man she'd idolized for years and a boy who was being investigated for - among other things - the murder of her fiance. No, at this point, those were perfectly normal occurrences. Rather it was the soft, pretty, feminine pink sweater dress she'd been stuffed into in the morning. A chance to wear normal clothes, and she looked like a soccer mom. The white blazer and white boots only made her look like a soccer mom who maybe hadn't given up gogo boots.

It was humiliating. Why couldn't she have jeans and a sweater? And sneakers? Something she would conceivably wear? Not this damned pink monstrosity. And her nurse kept saying how pretty she was.

She didn't care if she looked pretty.

Grumbling to herself, and taking it out on her muffin, Naomi was shoved onto an empty bus and told to 'sit tight'. Oh, she'd sit tight alright....

At least she was relatively certain L was alright. She'd spent the whole night with him, and other than falling on his ass, nothing had happened to him. And hopefully nothing would happen to him in town, either....

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It was hard to argue with that statement... Raine honestly didn't blame anyone but her attacker for what had happened, but that didn't make her head or shoulder hurt any less. "I've had a lot worse," she pointed out. Even if her ego had taken a blow too--she wasn't the best fighter, but she'd been left unable to fight back physically or magically with a single hit that simply pinned her to the wall.

"So, I hope your night went well, at least." Changing the subject was a good thing. She'd wait until later (if ever) to mention the experience of having to trust Kratos to cut her shirt off without cutting her...

"I was able to heal that boy, at least, but the rest wasn't..." Wasn't worth this. Statesman's group had turned out to have more experienced members, and she hadn't been able to help the man in the courtyard. She should have stayed by Raine's side. Even if she'd spent the night in M35 they could have helped Ginji together later.

She closed her eyes. She just wanted to be here right now. Be doing what she'd just said she'd do. She had no master here, but that didn't stop her from having someone to watch over. To be able to feel devotion without overwhelming sense of doom that had attended it in all her previous lives was something new and welcome to her, and she was not unwilling to extend it to one who was not quite so worthy as Hayate had been.

Raine wondered what had happened in Reinforce's past to make her react like this; knowing that her friend had at least started out as a magical construct of some kind helped, but beyond that she really didn't have enough information to guess. She just squeezed her hand again.

Before she could think of anything to say, the bus started up; she gave a startled jump when it made a sound awfully like a roar to her ears, and didn't exactly settle down when the bus started shaking afterwards. She'd been on trains before, but they generally ran smoother than this. "I assume this is normal?" she said after a long pause. At least the Altamira trains were open-top, possibly in case of anything going wrong... even if the tracks did go over water.

She relaxed a little more when the bus started moving--it seemed to be running smoothly enough. More than that, she'd finally get a better look at this world.

Rein smiled comfortingly. "Yes. The design is primitive but there's no inherent danger." Though the driver might pose his own risks. She'd never actually ridden on a bus, or any kind of Earth vehicle before, though... ground transportation was another area where Rein had plenty of received knowledge but no experience of her own. "Your world has nothing similar?"

"Mostly carriages and boats," Raine admitted. After the initial surprise, she was calmer. Seeing the gates in front of them open had her curious, as well. "Though Tethe'alla has trains; I've ridden a few. It was probably about as smooth as this... though I wish the tracks hadn't been submerged." She couldn't help wince a little at the memory; the time she'd stood up too fast and nearly fallen because the train jerked as a bad time... well, her phobia of water hadn't gotten any better since she got it when she was eleven.

"Why?" Reinforce had yet to hear about Raine's hydrophobia. She was also left wondering how deeply-submerged the tracks had been... too much, and the increased drag and added buoyancy would be a major impediment.

"It was reasonably shallow in most areas, and the tracks themselves weren't underwater where the wheels touched, but... it was hard not to picture how rusted the underside of the train and tracks must have been." She'd gotten over it by pulling out a book every time they had to ride it again, and fortunately managed not to let on why she didn't like that train... at least enough so Zelos didn't figure it out.

This was different, though; she was focused on the view outside the window, wanting to see what was out there. Most of it was plain academic curiosity; this was the third time she'd found herself on an unfamiliar world in eleven years, and she was curious.

Of course, she also wished they could find a way to escape, but she knew it wasn't likely. Still...

Day 28; Bus 3

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