July 19, 2009 // 9:06pm
At least the whole 'massage' experience had been nice, and made his body feel a lot more like his old self: loose, less stiff, more free, as strange as it sounded. The kind lady had left him to his thoughts when she was finished, encouraging him to relax for a while. Maybe that while was where all the time had gone; by the time he opened his eyes, most of the light had disappeared from outside. Surely he'd not missed the bus ride back to the institute- one would think the nurses would notice a missing patient, despite how many of them there were.
He sat up from his chair, hearing noise from the front room. Maybe it was the woman who'd led him in here, or the other one who'd given him the massage, or maybe another one of the institute's residents had come into the establishment. It didn't seem to be any of those options, but a different person altogether- someone who seemed to be having some trouble walking straight as they sort of shambled around the lobby. The Scarecrow was naturally inclined to help him- after all, he'd needed help learning to walk right, himself. Maybe this guy was also some sort of a non-human who was adjusting to a human body? That'd mean they'd have something in common, and making new friends was always high on the to-do list.
Climbing off the chair, the Scarecrow walked into the entry room and toward the unbalanced man. "You need some help, sir?" he asked, using his more formal tone. The poor guy seemed ill, and far beyond a simple lack of balance and walking grace. As the former strawman neared him, the stranger lurched at him with an unusual movement, his teeth gnashing wildly as he let loose a ghastly moan. He caught the Scarecrow by surprise- thankfully, his own unbalance was his saving grace: his ankle twisted awkwardly has he stepped backward, causing his leg to collapse sideways underneath him. The lurching man missed and fell face-first to the floor, but that didn't hinder him much. He was already making it to his feet again as the Scarecrow scrambled toward the door, still attempting to regain his own footing.
July 19, 2009 // 9:59pm
He peered through the mist with narrowed eyes, straining to see anything more than distorted, vague shapes. The scrabbling of earth nearby brought his head around, in time for his gaze to light on bony fingers, flesh hanging in greasy shreds, poking up through the dead earth. There was an instant during which his mind...stuttered, trying to refute the information conveyed by his senses, the low moaning and eerie scrabbling and reek of rotting flesh atop the macabre scene. The dead didn't crawl out of their graves, couldn't.
Unfortunately, no one seemed to be telling them that.
Jaw set and expression grim, he cast about for anything that looked like it might serve as a better weapon than bare hands. The closest he could see were the limbs of the trees; hopefully whatever had fouled the earth and twisted the vegetation would make them easy enough to snap off.
"Well," he muttered, opting for dry understatement in the face of the horrific and impossible, "this could get interesting."
[for Alec!]
July 19, 2009 // 8:37pm
Windows were dark on Bohr street, but doors worryingly open, and Phoenix's eyes kept darting to each new entrance they passed, dark rectangles like open graves. He tried to think of what was this way, but his mind was a spinning blank, bolting like a rabbit every time a new face turned to stare at them with those hollow, filmy eyes. "Barricade. Barricade and weapons," he panted, the bare essentials of a plan, breathless but ready to run for an hour if he had to. His sweat-slicked hand started to slip against Miles' and he tightened his hold reflexively, glancing back.
July 19, 2009 // 6:54pm
The streets hardly seemed to be a better alternative to the pet shop. In fact, it seemed like there were more zombies on the street than where they were originally. Sakura glanced around the town in a frenzy. Zombies were everywhere! Where were they supposed to find somewhere safe?
She picked up a rock and pitched it at a zombie approaching them from behind. "Fai-san, where do we go?" she asked, looking up at him once more.
July 20, 2009 // 8:09am
It was still light outside when Mori sensed something was wrong. It was subtle, but it was there - a change in the air, something about the store just smelled off. And then it changed. In an instant, the building decayed, the toys he'd been looking at turned dusty and broken and the smell of rot was everywhere. Worse, it was inside. The smell of blood. They were trapped and now, it wasn't just the hospital that was a house of horrors.
Whipping around, Mori ran toward Tsubaki and Honey's last known position and grabbed a box off the shelf. He didn't care what, but as long as it was a projectile, it would be useful in keeping them safe. "Mitsukuni!"
July 19, 2009 // 10:19pm
"Get out of the streets!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.
There were far too many enemies for the patients to take on. If they stayed outside, they'd be killed.
"Come on!"
Hitsugaya dragged Hokuto along. He couldn't worry about everyone else, but he could at least help her. Despite their awkwardness, he couldn't just leave the girl behind.
As they ran through the streets, the feeling of ice-cold finger tips ghosted the back of his neck. A sense of urgency welled up in the pit of his stomach and propelled him towards the closest door. He didn't have time to be picky. As soon as they were inside, Hitsugaya through himself against the wooden doors.
"Get the table! We need to barricade the door!"
He saw a girl grapple with the bartender, but he couldn't afford to help her right now. Holding the pounding door was all he could do.
July 19, 2009 // 4:07pm
He took a step closer to Sakura, concerned about the nurses and townspeople not far off who had started moving with those strange, almost possessed movements. The same thing had happened on the bus when they'd been stuck with the nurses and he had no desire to repeat the situation. At least this time they weren't stuck in the cramped bus to fight them. All the same, it didn't change the fact that they were stuck outside with monsters in sight and Sakura's guardian was nowhere to be found.
"Stay close," he told Sakura, keeping a smile on despite the sudden change in circumstances.
Usually it wouldn't be a problem to sense Yue's magic, but here, everything was different. He had a general idea of where they might be though, and that was really all he could hope for. Keep Sakura safe; he could do that much, couldn't he?
"We'll find somewhere safe, ok?"
July 19, 2009 // 10:44pm
It staggered towards him, and before he fully knew what he was doing he ripped the match from the book and struck it with his left hand alone, popped the cap off the hairspray, and blasted a tongue of flame at the aggressor, aiming for its face. He saw, in the flickering light, long hair and long nails and the skin on its rotten face peeling and cracking and bubbling in the heat. It gave a long, screaming cry, and toppled to the floor. Its arms and legs writhed and kicked furiously, an automatic, animal gesture, before it finally lay still.
"Here?" he snapped at Fox, wrapping his fingers around the can of hairspray. "This place gets better and better. It's like a theme park." His voice quaked with anger. The place now stunk of something far worse than rotten meat, and for a fraction of a second he thought he could hear Big Boss's voice saying something he couldn't make out before he realised that it had come from inside his own head.
"At least I don't have to be the only thing here back from the dead," he growled. The woman zombie was leaking something he didn't want to think about. He guessed that the decomposition must have trapped methane and other flammable gasses inside the body, hence why it went up like a candle.
That said, he didn't really think he could burn anything else again. For a while.
July 19, 2009 // 5:23pm
Being stuck in a small room with those monstrosities didn't seem the safest option. Being outside, with more space to see and move sounded far better. But when Klavier actually got outside, he suddenly thought maybe the small room didn't seem so bad.
THEY. WERE. EVERYWHERE. Crowded worse than LA during rush hour on even the worst of days. Rushing and moving like a writhing, anguished mass. So many. Where had they come from?! Stupid question. What were they?! Monsters, people... How could this-- AHHH!!!
He was frozen in place for a few moments before he realized staying in one spot wasn't the best idea. He frantically looked around. He needed to find somewhere safe! He needed to get out of here. Where was safe?! Somewhere high? Were all of the buildings infested? Maybe he could lock himself in somewhere and--
WAIT!! NO! What was he thinking?! What about everyone else? He couldn't just barricade himself somewhere safe and sit around while everyone else was ripped apart. And... KRISTOPH! Where was he?! Had he been swarmed, too?! He had to have been. But in this mess, he didn't even know where to begin looking for him. Or how long he would last searching. Maybe he would have to trust that his brother would find a safe place... No. He couldn't spend the entire night not even sure if he was safe or not. What if he needed help?
....Holy-- It looked like HE needed help!! "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
Again he swung the lamp anytime any got too close, moving with his back toward the walls. Where to go?! Where to go?!
July 19, 2009 // 4:50pm
In an instant they poured in, climbed over the counter, and seemed to be rushing straight for him. And with how small the store was, it didn't take more than a few moments to reach him.
"Ah... AaaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Screaming or yelling wasn't very becoming of him, but behavior and putting up an amiable facade were frankly the last things on his mind at the moment. For the first time in his life, he felt absolutely panicked.
What was--?! NO TIME!! They were grabbing at him. The horde had already snagged hold of his legs, the tattered jeans, his shirt, one of his forearms... they were closing in on him before he'd had so much as a chance to realize what was happening. He was completely surrounded by bloodstained mouths. There was no question.
Klavier flailed frantically, kicking his legs to get them OFF! In desperation, he reached his free hand to grab at something on the counter -- ANYTHING -- and managed to grab an exceedingly ugly desk lamp. He swung it hard, hitting one in the arm to drive it back. He'd never fought before. He never liked the idea of arming himself while here either. But such thoughts weren't even reaching his mind at the moment. Pure instinct. GET AWAY! GO AWAY! OFF! OFF!! GET OUT!!
Yes! Outside!! He needed to get outside!! It was a death trap in here!! He managed to get them off him, if just for a moment, and he used the opportunity to barrel into them, shoulder first. He knocked a few down (and almost tripped and fell himself) and simply pushed his way through, swinging the lamp in one hand and desperately clinging to the old guitar with the other. It felt like it took far too long to reach the front door but he managed. He swung it open immediately and ran outside.
[asdlkj, running out here]
July 19, 2009 // 1:13pm
Hard to, when you were drugged outta your mind and those brief moments were it felt like you were coming outta it were short, sinking back each time, and it just felt like things were getting heavier and heavier. Dean remained sitting slumped in the back of the bus, nestled in one of the seats, his breathing shallow as he stared forward under his lowered eyelashes, unfocused and still sedated, slow to come out of it.
The two orderlies up front and the nurse standing guard changed, but they seemed to forget he was in there, milling about the front of the bus, staggering as legs mutated, needles sprouted on the nurse and the temperature dropped, cold enough to see a breath in the air.
[Waiting for a
July 19, 2009 // 1:21pm
He hated being right.
It started out subtle. Hinamori had barely finished her sentence before he realized that the sunlight had all but died. Things got a little cooler, wisps of grey marking their every breath. Peter turned to the window in horror. A splatter of blood blossomed before his eyes on the glass, welling up from the centre and drying as soon as it was born. Beyond it, the paved street cracked. Half-fleshed hands sprouted from the divide, pulling up even more gruesome bodies behind them.
"GAAAH!!" he shrieked, clutching at his throbbing head. His spider sense was going psycho, harder than it ever had. He tasted blood, leaking in a thin trail from his nose to his lips.
Get up get up get up
He pushed past the sensation, shooting a look up to Hinamori, then to the rest of the store when the floorboards started to creak. The clerks behind the counter didn't look so friendly now.
"Zombies," Peter whispered in disbelief, rising from his chair. "Oh my god, they're all zombies..."
The pain in his head began to fade. He took no solace in that.
July 19, 2009 // 2:22pm
Lockdown kicked the door to the hardware store down and barged in. There was already a zombie in here, a big one, who the bounty hunter guessed was the owner of the store. There were also two other zombies with him, so Lockdown was already outnumbered. But that had never stopped the bounty hunter.
He frantically shifted his optics around the store, before settling on a set of large axes. Dashing forward, and executing a somersault to dodge the hands of the zombies, Lockdown quickly took hold of an axe, preparing to defend himself with it.
"HK, get your aft in here and lend a servo!" The bounty hunter called out.
July 19, 2009 // 2:23pm
Junpei burst out of the Twin Pines, dragging his chair along with him. Wide eyed, with sweat dripping down his face (he was so not crying), the teen stared at the hordes of zombies in the street. What was he going to do? He could still feel Chidori's presence, so she had to be alright. She had to be - right? RIGHT?
"SENPAI!!" Junpei yelled at the top of his lungs, hoping one of his senpai would find him. He was alone, surrounded by zombies, and didn't have an evoker. He was scared. "MITSURU-SENPAI! AKIHIKO-SENPAI! WHERE ARE YOU?"
The sudden zombie apocalypse forced any thoughts that Junpei had been pissed off at Akihiko and avoiding him. Akihiko could punch a zombie and makes its head explode. Mitsuru could kick a zombie and make its head explode (no matter where she kicked it). Junpei? He could... swing his chair ineffectually at the closest zombie as it tried to eat his brains. Good thing he didn't have much of them; maybe they would get a whiff and decide to go after someone smarter. Which made him think of Yukari.
"YUKA-TAN!"
Shit. No one was there
He tried to sneak across the street, hoping maybe this hat they gave him had some kind of special stealth mode, but forgot he was still clutching to his chair. Junpei tripped over it, screaming like a little girl in the process. Zombies descended and the teen struggled,m kicking and punching and pathetically swinging the chair around in an attempt to get back to his feet. He cried out in pain when he felt something bite his ankle, but the chair came down and crushed that zombie's head. Struggling to his feet, Junpei just ran, swinging the chair back at the zombies he'd just escaped as he entered the alley across from the restaurant.
[to here]
July 19, 2009 // 4:15pm
Then it happened. Everything changed, without the comfort of a closed door and an unchanging dormitory room. Usually it was like an elevator with a dinner service -- if the doors open on the same sight as you left, either it's a crap elevator or you're in a stockbroker's office tower. And if it were the latter, the food would need more unpronounceable French things.
This had no frame, no steady point of reference. The smell of rotting fruit, esters and alcohol, hit him first. Papers curled and became brittle. The ambient temperature dropped at least five degrees.
It was night, and the closest thing he had to a weapon was a ballpoint pen and a rack of rotting tomatoes. At least he hoped the tomatoes were on his side.
[for Spider Jerusalem, open to threadcrashing once we get going]
July 19, 2009 // 12:51pm
"Fuck," the Bride stated, realizing that she was currently bereft of her sword and other armaments. That did not mean she wasn't still deadly. The assassin wasted no time, immediately grabbing her nurse and snapping the woman's neck while she was still in the twisted throws of change. The body went limp and hit the ground, laying still, once she'd let go.
More, there were more. Cold eyes darted around the restaurant, noting the other prisoners remained the same, though many were already frightened and others moving as she did, but the wait staff had all changed. They'd become...
"Zombies?" What the hell was this? Beatrix felt like she was in a bad adaptation of a George Romero film. This lead her to wonder if these were Type I or Type II zombies. Best to find out.
When the first zombie waitress came at her, Beatrix met it and , after blocking its attempt to bite her (duly noted), she grabbed its head and twisted sharply. The zombie's neck snapped and, just like her nurse, the creature went limp and fell to the floor. Type II it was. This was most beneficial as she didn't have anything sharp to...
The kitchen.
The Bride fought her way to the restaurant's kitchen, snapping a few more zombie necks along the way, and shoved the swinging double doors to the kitchen open with enough force to knock the zombies trying to come through back. She snapped the largest zombie's neck, the chef from the tattered remains of its clothing, and then headed further into the kitchen. Jumping up onto the stainless steel counter, she quickly crossed the kitchen amid the sea of the zombified kitchen staff. On the far wall, she could see the magnetic board holding the knives.
Kicking the nearest zombie in the head to get it out of the way, Beatrix jumped the aisle between the two counters and grabbed the knives. She was glad for the jacket she was wearing as it had large inner pockets (thank God for bad eighties fashion) and stuffed three of the knives into the pocket after wrapping them in a cleaning rag that had been on the counter. She then took the two largest knives left (there was no way she'd be able to take all of them) and brandished them at the advancing zombies.
Yes, a bad George Romero film. With a narrowing of her eyes, the assassin watched the small horde before leaping to the opposite counter to give her more maneuverability. She needed to find her associates, but clearing the restaurant to make it something like a safe-house would be a good idea. The children needed someplace safe to hole up in, after all. Zombie-killer was never a title she ever thought she'd have tacked onto her name.
The zombies in the kitchen didn't last long.
July 19, 2009 // 1:00pm
Except it wasn't, this time. Marcus could hear them before he could see them, clawing through the dirt, and paused with his mouth open, losing what he'd been about to say. Then the first hand popped out of the ground, much like the zombified followers of the Banished Pantheon often did. Marcus didn't wait for them to start pulling themselves out of the ground entirely before he spoke, loudly but clearly. "It's time to go. Stefan, Scourge and I will head to the Sheriff's office and secure it, you three get people in Magus Park and down South Street to go there, we'll have it cleared and safe to use as a rallying point. When that fills up we'll take the hardware store," He could hear the moans of the undead off in the distance.
"I suggest you only go halfway down South Street and then go up to Main Street to arm yourselves in the hardware store if you need it, that will also take you past the Sheriff's office so you can drop anyone off. I have extremely good hearing so if you shout loud enough I may be able to hear you if you get in trouble and need reinforcements," Marcus decided it was time to wrap things up when the undead were finally all the way up out of the ground. "Try not to get bogged down in too many fights if you can avoid it. Go!"
He didn't waste any time either, and took off at a brisk but not all-out pace for main street.
July 19, 2009 // 12:03pm
Everything suddenly becoming dirty and run down was strange enough, but the rotted flesh creatures nearly killed it for him. They reminded him of the stories of the mutated space barnacles, only these humans didn't seem to have any of the slimy creatures on them. Lockdown shook himself and decided to think about it later, preferably when he was actually armed.
The bounty hunter dashed up from his seat and bolted out the door, heading out to find the hardware store, and HK-47
[to here]
July 19, 2009 // 1:55pm
...Then he saw all the zombies. After the talk of those 'space barnacles' last night, it was fairly easy to identify them as such. But the only thing was, those things were supposed to only affect droids.
Now there were meatbag zombies. All over the place. And he didn't have a flamethrower. Oh no no no nononono.
In short, HK freaked out.
July 19, 2009 // 10:38am
After calming Dahlia down and agreeing to hide the spice bottle they had decided to spend the rest of their time in that store. It didn't really matter where they went; he certainly didn't need the protection of some manmade weapon and if the redhead wanted to waste this opportunity then so be it. And so he nestled himself back into his mask, smiling and striking up a lighthearted conversation whenever Dahlia spoke.
While it seemed odd that they were still in town even as the sun was setting Sync didn't bother to pay much attention. He knew well enough that they'd be rounded up eventually, so there was no need to speed up the inevitable.
And then it happened.
The God-General glanced up the moment he sensed something strange, and yet even he wasn't prepared for what he was about to witness. The store was suddenly decaying right before his eyes; the once clean space was now rusted and filthy, and the structure creaked as if the entire building had been rotting for decades.
However, what struck Sync the most was not the wilted appearance of the building, but the inhabitants that were lingering inside the store as well. The smell of rotten flesh was unmistakable and familiar, but the fact that it came so suddenly was enough to turn his stomach. It seemed as if everyone around them was caught in this spell, their heavy feet shuffling towards them while their empty groans filled the air.
Sync finally took a step back, eyes wide with shock from the unexpected transformation. He almost didn't notice one of the creatures approaching him from the side, but he immediately reacted the moment it lunged at him, dodging off to the side before grabbing a fistful of hair and slamming its head down into the counter.
"W-what the hell is this?!" Sync roared, anger evident in his voice.
July 19, 2009 // 5:39am
The day was coming to an end, but the nurses were very careful to watch the clock. Their excuse was that the patients needed to be back in time for dinner, but anyone who had been around long enough had to know that it had a lot more to do with getting back up the hill before the sun dipped down behind the mountain.
It had become twilight, and the patients were allowed their last few moments to wander around the town before they would inevitably be rounded up.
Or that was the idea, at least.
Instead, something else happened. This time it wasn't a matter of not estimating the time right, seeing how the sun was still out, even if it was largely obscured by clouds. No, this was a whole different kind of problem.
With night came change. That was the belief that everyone had come to function under and expect. In this case, the rug was pulled out from under them as Doyleton's underbelly came to life even in the precious last moments of day.
Was it planned? Who knew. It wasn't the sort of thing anyone would get to think about for long, since suddenly the pristine, well-kept stores warped. There were stains on the floors and the walls; food that had looked perfectly edible a second before was suddenly rotten; the foundations of the buildings became less stable, and everything took on the appearance of being old, dilapidated, ruined. Dead. Outside, all of the greenery withered and a fog rolled in.
It didn't end with the town, of course. The nurses became what they always became, but the townspeople were another story. Just like the place itself, they were dead and yet not. Able to walk, but their skin rotted and their mouths were stained with blood. Once again, the change was instantaneous, like a flip had been switched. They clambered out from behind the counters they had been manning and started the hunt.
Still, not all of the dead showed their faces during the day. Some had been buried - long ago, perhaps, or maybe more recently. There was no way to tell, but they were back to some sad excuse for a life now. They were hardly quiet about their awakening, though. They pulled themselves up out of the ground with bony fingers, and soon the steady moan of the dead washed over the whole town. Some burst up through the floorboards of stores while others crowded the streets and others still wandered in from the forests, through the fog. There seemed to be no end to them.
It did bring one question to mind: how many people had died here? But just like all of the other questions, there was no real answer, and the priority became fighting for one's life.
July 13, 2009 // 7:34pm
Momentarily returning from the realm of thought, the young girl looked up to the sky. The clouds had begun to slowly turn darker than before, and it started getting colder, meaning she would probably have to head back toward the bus soon. However, a building with a bright red roof stood out in the dreary grey sky, catching the young girl's attention.
"One more place," she thought to herself.
As soon as she could see the building, she gasped in amazement. It was a pet place with animals! She quickly ran over to the corral, where an old-looking brown mare was feeding. Careful to keep her distance, Sakura watched the horse happily, instantly forgetting the deeper chill settling on the town.
[Free and no limits! =D]
July 13, 2009 // 8:21pm
What had he gotten himself into? All he'd done was talk to Callisto, and how he was being dragged down the street. This day officially sucked ass.
The only real plus was that she was helping him to forget about what happened back in the electronics store, by just irritating him with something unrelated. It was a simple thing to just transfer the anger onto something else, and harder to handle it with a smile, like he generally did.
"Do you even know where we're going?" he asked as she turned onto another street, not bothering to keep a bit of irritation out of his voice.
July 13, 2009 // 12:48pm
It was a luxury she no longer had. Momo was fairly certain she wouldn't make it out of this place and back to Seireitei.
Tucking an idle strand of hair back behind her ear, Momo moved among the shelves as she looked for the young man in a very large 'hoodie'. She wasn't sure what a 'hoodie' was, but figured searching for someone in clothing far too big in size for him would suffice.
[Spiderman, Spiderman, doing whatever a spider can...]
July 13, 2009 // 4:09am
He was content with continuing to wander the town, though. Now that he was on a full stomach he felt even better than before, his wounds not giving him much trouble as he continued down the main street.
If he was honest with himself, most of the stores the town had to offer didn't seem that interesting to him. The toy store had held his attention for a short while, but other than that not much was grabbing him.
In the end, he turned to his coupons. He wasn't sure about getting a massage, but at least the name "Mystic Healing Spa" sounded kind of neat. The boy ended up having to backtrack to get there, and he entered the place with some slight trepidation.
[For Demyx.]
July 13, 2009 // 3:39am
They had decided to split up after that - it was better if they covered more ground and then let each other know if they found anything interesting - and so Guy had spent his afternoon looking through a few stores that he hadn't been into yet. Most of them hadn't been anything special, and he soon started to see that as a trend.
He couldn't get his mind off of Luke now, though. He should have kept a better eye on his friend, he'd told himself he would do that...
Still, Guy knew it wasn't really his fault. Landel's was designed in such a way that he couldn't be at his friend's side twenty-four seven -- not that Luke would have even wanted that, most likely.
Granted, he shouldn't be throwing in the towel just yet. Doyleton wasn't the best place to go looking for Luke, so he'd just have to try come tomorrow.
Once Guy pulled himself out of his thoughts, he found that he was right in front of the hardware store. He'd passed it a few times, but he'd yet to go in. It was actually something he had an interest in, which was why he'd thought he should bypass it in search of stores that would be useful rather than an indulgence. But seeing how he had come up short and the day was already almost over, there didn't seem to be any harm now.
He stepped inside and wasn't surprised to see that he was the only customer there. The smell in the store was a welcome one that reminded him of when he'd taken on the project of building his very own mansion in Grand Chokmah. Smiling to himself at the memory, Guy started to walk the aisles.
[For Claude.]
July 13, 2009 // 3:30am
Sai opened the door to the grocers for both of them and allowed Shikamaru to walk in first. This is where they'd find the bulletin board in town, and the ninja had a couple notes he thought it important to leave - one to warn the other ninja specifically, and one as a general warning. He hadn't seen anyone post something like that yet, and it would be for everyone's benefit if he did. The wording would have to be chosen carefully, as the board was monitored and anything too specific would be taken down.
He made his way over there slowly, smiling to one of the nearby nurses as he searched for a writing utensil and paper. They seemed to have some available, which was good since he'd brought none of his own. "I'm going to alert the others," he told Shikamaru simply. "Is there anything you wanted to post?"
July 13, 2009 // 1:37am
Well, whatever. He hadn't eaten since breakfast on the bus, so he figured it was about time he put one of his coupons to good use. "Tasty Burger" sounded like a generic chain out of a kid's show or something. Some place the main characters would meet up at after school. In any case, it couldn't hurt to see if the burgers really were as tasty as advertised.
He pulled out his coupon and got in line. Looked like he was stuck with the basics...
[Mitsuru]
July 12, 2009 // 11:56pm
Not that he was digging his heels in or anything, but the end of the day found Ichimoku Ren on the opposite end of town from the drop-off point. He didn’t need any more alone time, considering he’d been on his own the entire day, the sheriff’s office having been empty and his newfound appetite not being enough to spur him into lunch (or breakfast, for that matter), though alone just seemed to be how he rolled lately. When he wasn’t involved in other people’s plots.
That day, he’d been doing nothing but following his own whims, minding his own business rather than start up a conversation with someone else. He didn’t have much of a plan in mind--plans hadn’t yielded a whole lot of success yet, anyway, not that he saw--and after curiously scoping out the outside of Crossroader’s Bar, he absently continued down main street, then went farther still, crossing Kelley Street and into a another park. A park that looked like the polar opposite of its counterpart on the other end of town.
Sketchy. He was about the best looking thing around.
As he entered the shade of the trees, he looked around him, hands buried deep in his pants’ pockets. Probably not the safest place to wander in the evening, but the doll wasn’t exactly worried about getting held up in a random mugging, whether or not the staff was camped out throughout the town to keep an eye on them all no matter where they went.
His foot brushed a crushed soda can on the ground, and after a moment, he bent to pick it up. Turning it over in his hand, he rubbed his thumb over the side, then sighed and lobbed into the nearest trash can. So much for picture perfect. The unfriendly atmosphere was kind of a relief in a superficial way, like a reminder that bad stuff still happened during the day time, too. Like nightshift was to Landel’s, this park could be the dark underbelly to Doyleton’s cheery exterior.
Or not. Everything he was seeing could just as easily be an illusion conjured up by his not so favorite Head Doctor, and wasn’t that an optimistic thought.
July 12, 2009 // 11:01pm
If she didn’t see him again before they were taken back to the hospital, she hoped he stayed safe. The same with everyone.
She was glad Honey was still with her. Of course, everyone felt a bit of loneliness in their lives; it was only natural to not want to be alone. Although Tsubaki could be content with solitude and had worked through the absence of others before, in this situation, spending the day in Doyleton had been that much better when she’d been with someone she liked. If Honey felt the same in even a small way, then Tsubaki thought their breath of fresh air had done its job.
Now that it was getting later, it was getting colder… not quite cold enough to call it quits, though. It was just the promise of a weird moonrise that was left, but Tsubaki wasn’t looking at the sky when she said, “So this is the toy store.” It was the front window of Lil’ Tyke Toys she was looking at. From outside, it was a riot of color and cloth and plastic. “Looks like we’re in luck!” Some small towns didn’t even have this much in the way of retail stores.
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