Day 37: Sun Room (4th Shift)

[secret-orchard.livejournal.com]

There were still too many things on Armand's mind for him to truly relax. The morning with Alec had been a help. And seeing that TK was going to be well helped him know that it was time to work out something else, but what? He'd already, without success again, tried to reach one of the club leaders about his sole idea of something new and different. Maybe it was hopeless.

There was no way he was going to play with paper and glue like a small child, and he glared at the nurse as best he could until she gave up on the idea. There was a free chair in the Sun Room--in fact, there were many free chairs--where he settled down to see what the new patients looked like. Prisoners, not patients. He felt bad that he had to remind himself. Even if he was crazy, he wasn't going to give in to Dr. Landel's game, not today. He nibbled on an overgrown cuticle and kept an eye on the room. No dozing today.

[for Citan]

Comments

[nobleman]

While Guy would have preferred that more of their friends were here so that he could avoid possibly having to tell the story yet another time after this, he figured that getting Anise informed was better than nothing. She had a better chance of finding Ion than he did, so she could always pass the word along.

"Sync happened," he replied with a sigh, glancing away for a moment to try and smooth out his frustration. "Me and Claude fell into a trap of his, and I got this for my trouble." He glanced down at the sling and the splint, not really appreciating the constant physical reminder of his mistake. Still, it would ensure that he tread more carefully in the future.

"It seems like he's using this whole situation to just do whatever he wants, especially since he doesn't have any orders to follow. He's more dangerous than I counted on." Then again, if he'd been properly armed maybe this wouldn't have happened, but none of them could exactly count on that.

[gald_digger]

Sync.

When she heard the name, Anise abruptly straightened in her seat. She hadn't seen the God-General since her run-in with him several days ago, and part of her had been hoping that he was just going to ignore them and do his own thing after that. Looking back, it had been a pretty naïve hope.

"Sync did that!? And to Claude, too?" As soon as the words flew out of her mouth, Anise drew her hand up to cover her mouth and gave a quick glance over her shoulders, just to make sure the boy in question wasn't around to overhear. He already snuck up on her once before in this very room, so she couldn't help but feel a little paranoid. Relieved, but not nearly relieved enough, the girl sank a bit in her seat, lowering her gaze to her lap. "So that's why his face was all messed up..." Stupid Claude. When she asked him about his injuries that morning, he left the most important part out!

Dangerous was right. While all the other patients were struggling to get by without their weapons or artes, Sync didn't have that problem: with his training, his body was a weapon in itself. Adding that to how unpredictable and twisted he was, he was a threat to be avoided. But avoiding him wasn't enough if he was just going to come after them...

The more Anise thought about it, the harder she could feel her heart pounding. "If he's going to attack us like that, the person in the most danger is... Ion, right?"

[nobleman]

So Anise and Claude had spoken after that had happened, then? Guy wasn't surprised to hear that his friend hadn't explained what had happened to Anise. Chances were Claude hadn't wanted to start spreading the story around unless he'd been sure that Guy was all right with it, but Anise was practically family at this point. Besides, she deserved to know.

"Yeah, Claude didn't know about Sync, so Sync spoke to him while posing as Ion and asked him to tell me to meet him somewhere. He ambushed both of us there." He was sure Anise could understand how Sync might have been able to break his arm - she had seen him fight enough times to know how dangerous the Tempest could be.

But it didn't take long for the Fon Master Guardian to bring it all back to Ion, and Guy didn't blame her for that. It was the obvious conclusion to draw. "Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Did he ever respond to your message?" Something was telling him that the answer was no, and he really didn't want to deal with the implications of that.

If Sync had done something to Ion and neither of them had been able to do anything about it, how were they supposed to handle that? Ion had already sacrificed himself for them once - letting it happen again just wasn't acceptable. And that was something that had to be even harder for poor Anise to deal with.

[gald_digger]

Sync, that bastard... using Ion's identity for his dirty tricks! That alone was unforgivable.

And ambushing Guy and Claude... that just ticked her off! Claude wasn't even involved in any of this! And Guy... what was he going to do without his sword arm? Anise had suffered a similar injury before, but it had been her non-dominant arm, and she didn't need it for half the strenuous stuff a swordsman like Guy did. For him, the injury had to be a serious handicap. How long was he going to be stuck with it? A sour look - something very near to a scowl - crossed the girl's face as she listened to her friend talk about the incident. "That creep! How low can he sink!?"

When the subject moved back to Ion, however, the near-scowl vanished in an instant. Anise shook her head slowly when asked about the Fon Master, and after a few moments of hesitation, admitted in a quiet voice, "I... I haven't seen or heard from Ion in two days."

Ion was the obvious target. Not only was he the person Sync hated most, but Ion himself cared about Sync; he wasn't going to be as cautious around the God-General as he ought to be. And even if he was, Ion wasn't strong enough to defend himself if it came down to it...

Anise could feel that pounding in her chest getting worse. Two nights ago, Sync attacked her friends. Two days ago, Ion went missing. Ion was the obvious target. Could Sync have already made his move...?

...If he did, was it her fault for not being there?

[nobleman]

"As low as he wants," Guy replied with a somewhat defeated sigh. With someone like Sync, who really didn't care what he did or who he hurt, they couldn't take anything for granted. He would do as he pleased without feeling a shred of regret, and they were just going to have to be prepared for that.

Which was probably why both of them were wondering if maybe Ion had already become prey to the other replica. On the other hand, if the Fon Master really wasn't around, there was a chance that what had happened with Luke and Asch had also happened with Ion and Sync.

But Ion and Sync were both replicas, while Luke and Asch were replica and original. It wouldn't work the same way, would it? Their disappearances didn't have to coincide.

"You know where Ion's room is, right?" Anise had to know, considering how protective she was of the boy. "Maybe you should head over there tonight, first thing, and see if he's there." It was possible their friend had just gotten ill - Ion had never been particularly strong, so maybe he had caught something and was bedridden. That would be preferable to Sync terrorizing him any day.

[gald_digger]

Anise nodded, facing her friend as calmly as she could despite her growing anxiety. "That's what I plan to do." It was why she hadn't signed up for club activities tonight: so she could check on Ion first thing, and then choose what to do from there.

She didn't know what to hope for. Anise didn't want to find out Ion had been injured or sick in bed or something like that, but her biggest fear was that she might not find anything at all. If that happened... what was she going to do?

The idea of losing Ion again was just too...

Anise could feel a lump forming in her throat, and quickly forced herself to stop thinking any more about that. There was no use getting upset over the what-ifs. She knew there wasn't. Uncomfortably, the girl crossed her arms across her chest, partly to look more composed than she felt, and partly to keep her heart from leaping right out of it. It was feeling like it just might do that.

"What about you, Guy?" she asked, eager to change the subject. "What are you going to do tonight?" Though she initially meant to ask for the sake of a less distressing topic, Anise realized a moment after voicing the question that she really was curious about this. What could he do with a broken arm? He had already taken one night off, but Anise couldn't imagine Guy just sitting still and waiting for however long a full recovery would take.

[nobleman]

"Let me know tomorrow what you find out, then." Guy let out a sigh, wondering himself if he should check in on the emperor before he made his way over to the clinic tonight. Considering the man's room was right next to his, it would be no trouble to do so, and yet he was concerned about what he might find.

Still, it was probably better to know than to stay in the dark, and they needed to get a proper head count so they would have an idea of how to proceed from here on out.

Guy was so busy thinking all of that over that he didn't notice how much Anise was struggling (though he already had an idea of it, seeing how close the girl was to Ion). He glanced over when she changed the subject, realizing that doing so had probably been a good idea.

"I'm going to that clinic to get my arm healed," he said, pulling out a smile since that actually was something to be glad about. "After that, I think Claude might meet with me there, and I was thinking of looking for some medical supplies to donate to the clinic in return for helping me out." He couldn't forget to take his maps with him tonight so that he could check them over for places where he might be able to find those supplies.

[gald_digger]

"That's great!" Forcing a smile that wasn't quite as convincing as she would have liked, Anise dropped her arms and shifted back into her initial, more natural-looking sitting position with her hands on top of her knees. At this point, she was happy to be hearing any good news. Hopefully Guy was going to be back in action after tonight.

He was going with Claude again, huh? It looked like those two were getting to be pretty close friends. Looking at them made Anise realize she didn't have a lot of strong relationships with the other patients, even if she did have a lot of casual friends and acquaintances. Maybe tomorrow she would try and catch up with some of them. Right, and she was going to meet Claude's friend too...

Before she could get too lost in her thoughts, Anise realized the nurses were starting to round up patients for the evening. "...Ah. Looks like it's almost dinnertime." The girl hopped to her feet and flashed Guy a bright yet somewhat weak smile. "I guess I'll talk to you tomorrow, then!"

She tried not to let herself dread the coming night too much. It was still possible that things were going to work out okay. As long as that possibility existed, she had to try to stay positive.