fandomhighdorms | Behind the Dorms...ish, Tuesday Afternoon

No one had ever accused Mat Cauthon of being possessed of a great deal of sanity himself.

But he was heavily armed (mostly knives, which wouldn't be noticeable) as he stalked through the fog and tried to ignore the dice that were rattling in his head.

He hadn't missed that particular quirk of his.

"I don't bloody like this," he grumbled, coming within inches of smacking headfirst into a tree.

He wandered on, grumbling to himself as a small parade of teal deer (also unnoticed by him in the fog) began to follow along.

She'd been going to the school for over three months. Had gone to this meeting any number of times. Even with the fog it shouldn't be that difficult to find the meeting spot shouldn't it?

Except Dru had reached the spot where the meeting was supposed to be (at least she thought so) and no one was there. The fog was starting to make her skin crawl, so Dru decided to head back to the dorms.

Ten minutes later, she realized she was completely lost.

"Shit."

Sanity was completely overrated, wasn't it?

Zack's eyebrows were furrowed as he attempted to find his way through the fog to the usual meeting place today, and he was kind of mumbling under his breath as he went.

"Probably should have just met in the lobby," he was saying, as he went.

It wasn't that he didn't like the fog. It was that he didn't like being lost in it.

Arthur squinted, twisting around in the fog. Had he just heard something...?

"If someone's there," he called, "Speak up!"

Oh! Oh, a familiar voice!

"Arthur?" Zack perked up, and then off he went, trotting in the direction that he was certain Arthur's voice had come from. "It's me, Zack!"

In case Zack's chipper tone was difficult to place, and all.

What did he with the what now who what--

Wait.

"Zack?!" he bellowed, searching through the fog and coming up with... nothing, really.

Yeeep. There was a whole lot of nothing going on in Zack's immediate vicinity, too. He wrinkled his nose a little at this fact, and waved his arms around some just to be on the safe side. Because that would totally help him find Arthur, sure.

"Zack!" Yes, this was totally Zack confirming that he was, in fact, Zack. "Shouldn't I be?"

Did he see something moving up ahead?

Arthur squinted some more, but what he found weren't exactly Zack's contours. His vision swam a bit. "Who's there?!" he asked, moving on towards it with careful, graceful steps.

Up ahead, something was moving. Something that definitely wasn't Arthur-shaped. Wasn't it?

Zack pulled in a slow, careful breath, which had been intended to help solidify whatever it was that he was looking at, but instead it wound up doing quite the opposite. Shapes blurred and twitched in front of him, and he found his hand inching warily toward the sword at his back.

"Still me?"

He hoped he was still him. Maybe he'd still be him if Arthur would be so kind as to keep being Arthur, which Zack was now having his doubts about.

Edited 2010-03-23 20:52 (UTC)

... No. That certainly wasn't human. That was... lizardlike, by the looks of it. "Stay back, dragon," he said, suddenly feeling rather uncommonly sure of what he was facing.

The slide of metal as he unsheathed his sword was more than audible, for all that his vision was impaired.

Zack had faced dragons before. Zack felt, after Bahamut, that he was actually something of an expert on dragons.

Dragons did not generally look like large apes with hooves, and incisors the length of a pencil. There was something on the edges of that creature, a noise that some part of his mind could place. But it was shunted to the side by a whinny and a howl, and now Zack's sword was in front of him.

"Arthur...?"

Where had Arthur gone?

It moved towards him, lumbering, loud, and in possession of some razor sharp claws Arthur didn't particularly wish to get close to. He held his sword in front of him in the attack position. Another invasion...? Oh, that was lovely.

"Very well," he gritted, and lashed forward with his sword.

The creature swung toward him with a fist that would have put Wutai's guardian beasts to shame, and Zack brought up his sword to block. To his surprise, the creature's fist didn't sever. There was just a solid jolt where he'd been anticipating soft flesh giving way.

Again, somewhere at the corners of his mind, metal-on-metal. Familiar noise.

He grit his teeth and moved backward. His materia. This thing could handle a solid blade, clearly. But maybe his materia would stand a better chance...

Clatter.

That was strange. Unusual, even. As was the way the creature simply backed up like that. Confusion skittered across Arthur's features, but he simply gave his sword another twirl and settled back in to fight.

"That's it," he gritted, "Leave."

Assault twister? No, that one needed him to use his sword. Blizzard? Too physical, too solid for something that could shrug off a swing like the one he'd given. Fire.

Zack's thumb brushed over the green sphere in question, and his eyebrows furrowed as the creature in front of him rumbled and reared up again, teeth bared, that massive arm at ready all over again.

"You're not going to make this easy, are you?"

He was casting already. All he really needed was a clear shot. Maybe.

An orange glow formed around the hand that wasn't holding his sword.

Arthur's eyes widened at the sight of it. Magic. These things could cast spells, now? -- of course it could. Dragon. His father had always said they were magical creatures, capable of breathing great, unstoppable fire...

... which meant he was going to have to duck in about five seconds, but it might get him a clear shot.

It was like some sort of impasse, really. Like Zack's opponent was waiting for something. And Zack... Well, he was never the sort to want to disappoint. Not when the monster was right in front of him. Not when it had attacked first.

The glow in his hand got brighter, and then it was a ball of flame that Zack threw forward with a yell.

Monsters? On this island? He didn't think so.

... and there it was. Right on cue.

Arthur shoved his muscle into it, lowering his torso abruptly, coming forward in a bit of a slide as the fire went searing over his head. He had a few split seconds to do some damage and he'd take it-- darting the rest of the way forward and striking at the creature's side with his sword.

Zack had stupidly anticipated the blunt force of an ape's fist, and he'd braced himself for it. Zack could handle blunt-force trauma. He was made for it.

And so the sharp, sudden searing of a blade cutting through armor and clothing and flesh was completely unexpected. Terrifying. He was facing an enemy that he couldn't hit with fire, couldn't hurt with a blade, with concealed claws in fists that had no sign of them even a second before. And now he was injured, and bleeding, and staggering backward with his hand to his side, while his vision started to swim.

Monster. Monster. But something familiar. A sword. The monster had a sword. Arthur had fists. It was... he grit his teeth and tried to focus, exhaling sharply and not daring to breathe back in. It hurt too damn much to breathe in. Potion first, breathing after.

"Arthur...?"

It was down, he could finish it-- finish it now, bringing his sword back up again, ready to put an end to the downed foe and--

Wait. That noise.

"...Zack?"

Speaking. It was speaking. It was Arthur. Arthur was talking to him. Zack squinted, trying to focus on him, while the nightmare creature that he'd sworn he was fighting swam around the edges, like a looming shadow just waiting to swallow Arthur up again.

"M'not a monster if you're not," he offered, swaying a little where he stood. It took some effort to get his sword onto his back. Nothing good would come of him using it right now. "Maybe... keep not being a monster? That'd be...."

Good. Yes.

Zack grit his teeth and worked on a smile while warm blood ran down his leg.

"Stop moving."

Zack could babble all he liked, his words weren't Arthur's immediate concern. He, too, dealt with swimming blackness on the edges, but the reality of that drip of blood down Zack's leg was enough to keep him focused.

By the skin of his teeth, but still.

He reached under the edges of his chainmail to rip a piece of fabric off his gambeson. "We need to get you to the clinic." Potions were still counter-intuitive to him; the only thing that mattered right now was to staunch the bleeding.

"I don't think we could find the clinic if we wanted to," Zack replied, shaking his head and reminding himself that now was not a good a time to take a seat on the ground, right here. "Fog's too thick and it's on the other end of town. Just. Just help me get inside, I can see what I'm doing and heal this."

He had potions. Somewhere. But as it stood he could hardly see his hand in front of his face, and now he was getting kind of dizzy, and the fog wasn't helping that, either. Inside, and with any luck he wouldn't bleed all over the lobby, and he had a hi-potion hidden away that would handle this with little fuss, beyond the aftertaste.

He didn't look worried. He'd feel less worried if the world would just stop wriggling around him.

Arthur ignored the chorus of ohfuckohshitohshitIhurtoneofmymen in his brain that was threatening to go on repeat. The last thing they needed now was for Arthur to lose it.

Instead, he acted. Moved. It was the only way he kept his senses at the best of times, and it would serve him well now.

Shove the fabric over Zack's wound. Drag Zack's hand over to press against it. Try to manhandle Zack's arm over his shoulder, and get moving. "Do not let go."

"Not letting go," Zack agreed, his tone all but a chirp. He was okay, just a little woozy and leaving a trail of red on the ground behind him as they moved forward. They were moving forward, right?

Things kept skittering around just barely out of his line of sight. He ignored them. Kept smiling. Smiling was dealing, and it wouldn't do any good to get upset about something, especially when it wasn't Arthur's fault.

"We're going the right way, right?"

They were moving forward, and the smile wasn't doing much to calm Arthur's frantic heartbeat. "We're going the right way," he gritted. Quickly: rounding one corner of the dorms, heading on towards the next. Finding the wall, mostly by touch. One way or another, it should be the right direction.

"Keep pressure on that."

"I can do that," Zack replied. Calm. He was calm. If he didn't seem worried, maybe Arthur would have less of a reason to be. "I've had worse," he offered. Because that seemed, somehow, like it ought to be helpful.

In Zack's head, it totally was. It hurt, but it had nothing on Bahamut's Mega Flare attack.

"Lovely," Arthur gritted, "Glad to know they got you to a clinic in time after worse."

Making a good point, there.

He found the next corner with the tips of his fingers, and rounded it. Not far now until the entrance. Hopefully.

"No clinic," Zack replied. "It was in the middle of nowhere. I used a potion, it was fine."

More or less fine. Maybe he'd used a Cure. Things were sort of swimming around him, and he hadn't exactly been paying attention to what he'd been doing at the time anyhow, only that he wasn't dead, which meant that he'd had to heal somehow.

"Almost there," he offered, as they made their way around the corner. "No big deal."

Fine.

If it would keep Zack upright until the end?

Arthur would just allow it.

He had to shove the door open with his shoulder just to get in, but at least it got them in. Stumbling.

In and stumbling was better than outside and wondering which way was up, and Zack found himself sucking in deep breaths of air without realizing that somehow, this was in a million ways better for him than what he'd been breathing.

"Put me down? I can't dig for a potion like this."

With one arm slung over Arthur's shoulder and the other hand holding as much of him inside as he could manage, and all.

"If you're sure," Arthur replied, once he'd found his footing. He had to sway sideways a bit - Zack was heavier than he'd like to admit - before he could well and truly let go of him.

He was hoping Zack wouldn't fall onto the floor, or anything.

Zack didn't fall, to his credit. He swayed in place a little, granted, and took a moment to cast a somewhat sheepish look at the puddle of drips that was forming by his foot, but he remained upright, using his now-free arm to dig through his pocket for his potions.

One hi-potion. He even took a moment to hold it up in a silent toast before knocking the whole thing back in one go.

"Much better," he reported, a moment later, as he peeled the bloody rag away from his side and poked at the skin that was showing through the slit in his clothing. It was smeared with blood and it was still more than a little sore, but it was whole, unbroken flesh. "Like new."

As the rag - formerly of Arthur's gambeson - gave way, Arthur winced out of some strange blend of sympathy and guilt. He couldn't tolerate dealing with the latter for too long without becoming useless, he knew that, but still: it had been a mistake.

A stupid, stupid mistake that had almost gotten Zack killed.

"Good," he said, and swallowed. "Do away with that, will you?"

The rag? Was now totally en-route to the nearest trash bin, a few steps away. It wasn't exactly sanitary, but it wasn't as though Zack had any idea what else he was supposed to do with it. He was leaving bloody footprints on the floor with one foot, too, which he'd probably opt to clean up himself before anyone else came down to see them.

"What did you see, out there?"

Still completely calm, pleasant conversation. Curious, as puppies tend to be. He wasn't upset. He didn't have any reason to be. He'd lobbed a Fire at Arthur, after all. Something was up.

"A dragon," he said, and paid close attention to the fact of rubbing some blood off his glove.

"You weren't you, either," Zack replied, trying a smile, even if Arthur didn't seem to be looking his way. "All teeth and arms. I would have dodged, but it looked like I was just going to be hit by a fist. I can handle fists."

See, this was him, pulling some of the blame back onto himself. He could have just chosen not to be where that sword was headed.

So he'd maimed Zack while he was out of his mind. Oh, that really put Arthur's mind at ease. Honest. Watch him. Being at ease. With that swagger and everything.

"Well, dodge the fist next time," he said. At easedly. That was a word. "I can't always be there to drag you back to safety."

"Right," Zack agreed. This was totally a promise, see? "No more getting hit by fists."

That would last... all of a week. Maybe two.

"Can I give you some potions, Arthur? I mean... In case anything else happens. They're good to just have on-hand."

On the off-chance that somebody else didn't dodge the fist next time, too.

Arthur rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Could you be more of a mother hen?" See, that bit of banter came out a lot more easily. Not that the previous bits hadn't been easy. "If it'll put your mind at rest, I'll take some."

And probably forget to take them until he passed out at some point down the road, as was his wont, but nevermind.

"I could start clucking?"

Zack was already rummaging around in his pockets, pulling out two vials and holding them up. "For minor injuries," he said, helpfully, lifting the normal potion. "And for more serious ones." A hi-potion. He had more than a few to his name, after the runs back to Midgar he'd been making.

He held them both out toward Arthur.

Kurt had missed a lot of Reserves meetings, so he was determined not to miss this one. Even though it was really foggy out. And he couldn't find it.

"Hello? HellOOOOOOooooOOOOO?"

Technically, he wasn't LOST, per se. He knew exactly where he was physically located in relationship to the dorms, and the island, and those trees over there. It was just all the other people who were supposed to be here that he couldn't find.

"HEY!" Dinah called back, taking careful steps forward. "OVER HERE!"

...except, um, was that a human voice? Maybe that wasn't a good thing to do....

Kurt could hardly see anything, so he turned and walked carefully toward the voice. "Are we meeting over there?" he called. "Because we're supposed to be over here!"

"Where's over there?" Dinah called back, stumbling a little, then feeling her way in the fog. She shivered, then sneezed. Okay, this was not fun. "I thought I was here!"

Okay, that shape, over there? That was ... a big shape. Big and dark. Big and dark and -- "WHO'S THERE?"

Whatever Kurt heard, it definitely wasn't the sound of someone shouting "who's there". It sounded more like... those creatures. From the dimension he 'ported through. And the shape looming in the fog was wavering and twisting in ways that made his stomach churn.

"Hello? HELLO!??!"

That definitely sounded like maniacal laughter over there. Uh, right. Noooo. Not going in that direction.

Dinah turned around and started heading for...well, where she was pretty sure the dorms were. And awaaay from the evil giggling.

Behind the Dorms...ish, Tuesday Afternoon

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