Ken was awake far too early. He’d gone to bed shortly after leaving Gunter the day before, which meant a great deal of resting. Which was good. He wanted to rest. He washed up and changed in a pair of clothes before heading out. He didn’t notice the rolled parchment that had been tucked under his door and stepped right over it, nor could he find any guards in the hall (but sometimes they liked to hide, even if the need to do so had been removed). He grabbed some food (a roll) from the kitchen, and started down to the training grounds, not expecting Jennifer to be there yet. But that was fine.
He found a place to sit and wait, and hoped she would still come.
((OOC: Figured we're close enough to next month. ^_^ And LJ is being a bear >:(
For Jennifer, but post is open as well.))
Ken was trying – trying so hard – to feel better. Physically, he was healing well. Most of the pain was gone, and when he found a mirror to look, the bruising was down to an angry red spattered across his pale back. If he didn’t move too fast or push himself too hard, he didn’t notice it. But he was still barred from going back to work on the wall.
Something else was bothering him. He had been in the dining room when Anissina made her announcement. She’d finally found a way to get the doubles back to their own worlds. He didn’t think anyone would force him back to his own. He hoped no one would send him back. There was a tiny worry that someone might try – but he knew Wolf would not, and he was sure Yuuri would not. If anyone did try, he … well, he wouldn’t go. He couldn’t. He would run, or … do whatever he had to. But he was not going back.
No. He wasn’t worried about being sent back to his own world. He was more worried that someone else might decide to return to theirs. He hadn’t seen Wolf since the day he’d been escorted to his room. He’d spent so much of his time following that day sleeping, he wasn’t sure if Wolf had been around or not. A part of him feared his friend was already gone, and he had been in too much of a daze to realize it.
Weary and worried, Ken found himself out in the garden. He dropped onto a bench and leaned back with a sigh. He hadn’t intended to wander so far from his room, where the close walls felt more comfortable than open spaces, but the fresh air felt good.
((OPEN POST))
(This is mostly for Anissina to have created the device. Anyone is welcome to join it)
Anissina had a head full of ideas thanks to the maou's mother. She already had thoughts about things from the other doubles' world, but she wasn't a double and she knew things that Yuuri was familiar with, which would certainly help someone understand what he sometimes babbled about. Jennifer's assistance would be rather paramount.
She worked without sleeping, only stopping briefly for a quick meal and a cup of tea. By evening, she felt that she had finished something tremendously important and needed someone to test it. She looked for the double of Gunter, but he wasn't anywhere to be found. If this thing was successful, then Gwendal would be useless. She had heard Hube was travelling off somewhere, and he would have been the most helpful of all the doubles. Instead, she had located Bert, whom she hadn't really seen, but he looked like he was in a particularly foul mood. If he wasn't wearing his own clothes, she would have easily mistaken him for the real thing.
It didn't take much to convince him to give her device a try and he met her up in her laboratory with all of his belongings. Shoving both him and his stuff onto the enclosed platform, she pulled goggles over her eyes and pressed a button. Bert and his things disappeared.
She wasn't sure of the amount of success, but Bert went somewhere and that was good enough for her.
Now to tell everyone all about it. It was dinner time, so that was the best place to make an announcement of this calibur.
(Bert did go home, he left a note for Gisela he made one of the guards write. He'll be back next game day :D)
Anissina had been working hard, trying to create something at least mildly useful for immediate use (after she made a few more medicines to restock the infirmary). It seemed the Julia terrorism was over but there were always things that demanded her attention. She was primarily working on something on a smaller scale than her typical inventions and was taking into account some of the things she heard about technology in some of the other doubles' worlds. If she was to make things for those without maryoku, then she needed to start small.
Feeling somewhat victorious, she was heading down for something to eat and perhaps someone to test her latest creation.
His sleep was deep and dreamless. It was only in the last moments that he saw faces materialized out of fog, memories faded in and out. He walked halls both strange and familiar. Wolf. Shinou. Anissina, Jennifer. Grumpy Gwendal. That horrible guard. The tall redhead. Gunter. Yuuri. Young Yuuri. He felt heavy, like his whole body was underwater.
He woke slowly, with a deep breath, his eyes still heavy with sleep. He blinked, and stared blearily at the fuzzy shapes around him. It took a moment to remember where he was, what had happened. He back ached a bit, but it was a dull kind of pain. Not nearly as bad as it had been.
There seemed to be something afoot in the castle. Jennifer had heard some odd noises earlier, and ever since then it seemed that people were running about like crazy everywhere. Undaunted by the size and unfamiliarity of the castle and its halls, she set out to follow the commotion to what she hoped was the source. It wasn't much of a challenge, since all the frantic people seemed to be heading in roughly the same direction. And surely enough, she turned one corner to see someone rushing into a certain room. Without any hesitation, she trotted up to the door and peered inside. The room was quite crowded, with uniformed people everywhere, and many beds that all seemed to be occupied. Jennifer figured it was the sickroom, although it seemed these people had been hurt, and not just come down with the stomach flu.
Once she'd stepped inside, Jennifer would have to admit that she felt a bit out of place, standing there looking about while everyone else seemed to be bustling away. She spotted someone who stood out in particular to her, a pretty lady with green hair. Something about her manner gave Jennifer the impression that she was the one in charge.
"Excuse me?" she asked with a friendly smile. "Did something happen here?"
Ken backtracked down the stairs, taking them slowly so Jennifer wouldn’t trip up in the long dress. “I don’ t think it rains here much,” he said, trying be conversational, though his voice caught a little and it was probably obvious he wasn’t used to it. “I’ve only seen it twice. Um, since I’ve been here. About a month.” Though he did have a room with no windows, so he could be wrong about that.
When he said kitchen, he actually meant the dining area next to the kitchen. Unfortunately, when he pushed the door open and stepped in, no one was present. Most of the tables were empty of diners, though there was a shadow of a person on the balcony where he had sat with Anissina earlier. Probably not the king, then. But maybe she could give them some guidance?
He glanced over at Jennifer. “I think I know someone who can help,” he said, and started through the room toward the balcony.
chipper