damned_institute | Day 35: Bus 3 (Return Trip)

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Day 35: Bus 3 (Return Trip)

Armand wearily climbed the steps of the bus. He was less tired than cold, but it made his limbs ache. He hoped they'd actually make it back to the Institute before dark this time. He hadn't seen either Citan or Morrison in town, so he kept an eye out for either one climbing back into the bus. He still wondered if Morrison had been able to rest today instead of coming to town. Other than a lunch that he hadn't liked and meeting a new face or two, he wasn't sure at all what he'd gained by the day. Oh well, he was more than used to disappointment and failure.

[waiting for Citan if Fey is backish]

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Raine raised her eyebrows at Sheena again, but didn't object--though the way everything too far away got blurry again was a reminder why she only wore her glasses every so often. "Mostly plans for a mobile healing unit--it might be best if most of the people in it are fighters and healers, as he is. Which is why I'm still in M35, but if I can arrange an occasional replacement I plan on going out at night when I can." Not terribly often, but once in a while, at least.

They'd also spoken of lost friends, but mentioning that risked going into topics she didn't yet want to. And if she waited long enough, they would likely see Zelos again.

"Oh... is that all? He seemed to already know about your... eccentricities." There, that was the polite way to say Raine was kinda nuts and kinda scary and kinda... well, Raine.

Sheena was amazed at how light the glasses were and put them on herself, screwing her face up at how distorted everything suddenly was. Man, she was glad she didn't need these things. "Now he has wandering eyes and you do have that exotic look about you..."

She was going to get smacked. She just new she was, but it was worth it. Raine may be half-elf but she was still only a few years older. Despite the things she said, Sheena knew Raine's heart hadn't quite shriveled up and died yet.

Raine was certainly getting close to smacking Sheena again. "Not compared to quite a few of the people here. White or silver hair is almost common." For example, Archer himself!

"And what eccentricities would these be?" She was well aware she had a lot--the journal in her lap chronicled several. And she technically hadn't had it for all that long.

Sheena slid the glasses down so they rested on the end of her nose so she could see properly. She kind of wondered what she looked like with them on.

"Well, yeah, but I haven't seen anyone else with elven blood. Remember - you look like one," she said with a grin.

"As for your eccentricities, he already seems to be aware of when it's the right time to run away from you when you get waaaaaaay too excited and want to turn people into research subjects." She giggled. "I'm sure he noticed other ones, probably your nervous tick of smoothing your hair down. Did he make you nervous, Raine?"

Raine blinked; she didn't remember doing that. "No. I'd just gotten out of the shower, though, and--it's hard to keep my ears covered when my hair is wet. I'm trying to break that habit, but... it's slow going." She could tell people what she was, but she didn't like it being revealed.

"And actually, there are four others, all from the same world--though I wouldn't be entirely surprised if they have a connection to Derris-Kharlan; the connections are far too numerous to be entirely coincidental. Valyn, the first one I met, is the only full-blooded elf... which is why I lied to him, too, at first." She wished she hadn't, now, but at the time she'd felt she had little choice. "We arrived at the same time, and met a few days afterward."

She wouldn't be surprised if Sheena asked if there was any involvement between them. She certainly wouldn't be the first to think so...

Oh... another elf and Raine seemed a tiny bit remorseful about lying to him. "Oh? Is he cute?"

Sigh... at least she hadn't jumped to conclusions yet. "See for yourself; I'll point him out at breakfast." Raine could admit Valyn was beautiful, but she noted it the same way she observed that he had green eyes--it was just how he looked, that was all. The important part was that he was a friend.

If Sheena persisted in trying to find out if Raine was interested in someone... argh. I gave that up when I was a teenager, thank you.

Sheena scowled. "That's not an answer to my question, Raine. You're dodging the issue." She smirked. "Or is there something else going on between you and Kratos other than being... allies?"

Oh god, this was going to hurt...

She could have handled questions about herself and Valyn, or another friend, but Kratos? This time Raine hit Sheena with her journal--fast and in the side. With all the other conversations going on, the nurses wouldn't hear a thing.

However, she was too busy glaring to notice the note that fluttered out when she did. "Hardly. We're tolerating each other, but that's all."

Sheena managed to get an arm up to partially block the blow, though she still winced from the force of it. "Ouch."

She must have hit a nerve for Raine to be hitting her with her book. In fact it was--

Oh. What was that?

Sheena's hand darted out to snatch the piece of paper out of the air before Raine seemed to notice it. Her eyes traced over the elegant feminine script on the paper and noted how it seemed to have been torn down from the bulletin board. Her lips curled up as she started reading it, prepared to keep the paper away from the half-elf if she tried to grab it back.

"I know, I know," she replied. "I was just joking anyways. Your interests lie elsewhere... I know," she added on, her eyes flickering to look at Raine out of the corner of her eyes. She mused that with the glasses and the paper she might even be doing a decent impression of Raine. It made her snicker.

"Give me that." Raine snatched at the paper, annoyed.

Even if she was also trying to cover up something else. She really had been double-checking some things on the board, but when she copied a few posts so she could take the originals... it hadn't been entirely in the name of research. Genis had held onto Mithos' crystal; Raine had wanted to take Reinforce's journal, but when she realized it was too late to do that she took a few posts off the bulletin instead. She still couldn't really say why.

"Heh heh heh." Sheena moved the paper out of Raine's reach and continued reading, that devious grin back on her face. "I don't think so."

She folded her arms and glared; the note was nothing special to anyone else. "Give it back to me. Now." Fine, it was signed, but it wasn't anything personal and she could easily explain why she had it.

It would be something of a lie, but she was good at those.

Sheena's grin grew. She knew that look on Raine's face. Since it didn't seem her friend was going to try to foolishly try to get something from a Mizuho ninja's hands, she continued reading the note.

Reinforce. Interesting.

"So that's her name..." She put the note in one hand (away from Raine) and turned to face her, tapping her chin with her finger as she looked over the top of the glasses at her friend. There was pondering going on in the ninja's head as she scrutinized Raine much like the half-elf did to others when she found something fascinating about them. She might as well play it up since she'd yoinked the glasses; if it only amused herself, so be it.

Raine was not in the mood for this; she knew she couldn't snatch the note back from Sheena easily, and didn't want to risk ripping it in the process. She settled on grabbing at the glasses; she could probably get those, and she didn't care if they broke anyway.

If she's ever wondered why I don't treat her as an adult...

Sheena had not been expecting Raine to go for the glasses, so she jerked back a little too late to completely avoid the attempt. The glasses snagged on Sheena's ears before one side fell off and they ended up lopsided on her face.

"Ow," she growled, rubbing at her face with her free hand. "Geeze, Raine. You're acting like I found some explicit love letter instead of some well-written observations about things in a dream," she said, not quite getting the metaphor the author used. She unhooked the glasses and held then out for Raine.

"You must be blind."

"Hardly," Raine said, putting them in a pocket instead of back on. Her eyes would readjust to let her see somewhat better at a distance than this, it just took a little while.

The crack about love letters just made her wince; she opened her journal and started reading, ignoring Sheena for the moment. If the ninja knew what was good for her, she'd return the note before they got back to Landel's.

Sheena hadn't exactly been referring to the glasses, though the wince told her more than anything else. Her devious grin turned softer and she pushed herself up onto her knees and, getting much closer than she normally did (more like she would do to Colette than Raine) she read over the half-elf's shoulder.

After a moment, she casually laid the note down in the opened book. "It's okay, Raine," Sheena said in a warm voice. "It's good to see your heart isn't a shriveled up frozen prune. And, like I don't care about you being half-elf, I don't care if you like girls. It explains a lot, but, you know... it's okay. I won't tell anyone..."

Raine just turned to stare at her. What--? Eventually she said, "If you're referring to why you've never seen me develop an interest in anyone, I haven't bothered dating since I was a teenager--even under normal circumstances, I have better things to do."

She put the note back in place, though. She still didn't want to lose it.

When Raine put the note back in place, before she could turn the page or shut the book, Sheena reached over her to put her finger right below the signature.

"Nope. I'm referring to the way you act when anything associated with her comes up," the ninja said. "I know you all think I'm clumsy and oblivious, but I see a lot more than you all think I do."

She tapped the page, not realizing she was half-hanging on Raine at this point. "There's nothing wrong with it, you know. I mean... why are you hanging onto this paper off the board about dreams and," she noted the other stuff in that area of the journal, "these other pieces?"

"Because Reinforce started a bestiary so we could be at least somewhat prepared for the monsters we face here, and I'm keeping it up," Raine replied. "This place is more stressful for me than you might think, so I can't remember things as well as usual; I took these in a hurry when I couldn't remember certain details." No need to say she'd replaced them later with copies.

If she had been interested... she hadn't realized it when Reinforce was still here, it didn't matter anymore, and she didn't want to talk about it.

"Huh. So that's what this dream stuff is about. Odd way to put it. She must have been as weird as you." Sheena shrugged and then picked up on something. "You know... that doesn't sound like you - taking important information that others could learn from and horde it to yourself. What happened to free knowledge and all that mumbo jumbo?"

Since Raine wasn't turning the page nor shirking the ninja off her shoulder, Sheena took the moment to pick through the various notes on monsters and then she blinked. "I thought you said she started a bestiary. Didn't anyone else contribute?"

"It was code. And I replaced her notes when I had time; there were others, but hers was one of the longest."

Not much of an explanation, but if Sheena couldn't figure out on her own that at this point Raine wanted her to shut up and leave her alone... the girl had been spending too much time with Lloyd.

Sheena snorted. "So you took her notes down and instead of just copying them into your own journal and putting the originals back up, you put your copies up and held onto the originals like they were a lady's favor."

The ninja sat back down and once again put her knees up against the back of the seat before her. "Oh yeah... you didn't like her at all," Sheena said sarcastically and rolled her eyes.

Raine glared at Sheena with definite fire in her eyes; that same look usually got pretty much anyone not currently pointing a weapon at her to back up.

She didn't say a word, though, just returned to reading the notes in her journal. That section wasn't anything special, but she hadn't memorized it either, and since it was on medical procedures it was best if she did.

Day 35: Bus 3 (Return Trip)

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