[ The first thing Claude registers when he opens his eyes is that he's alone.
There are others still around so it's not alone in the most literal sense, but the shoulder he was sleeping on and its owner are nowhere to be found. Though he'd been blinking himself awake it's in that instant he's fully alert. It's not like Sylvain to wander off without a mention of where he's going first, something Claude's been careful to do too in their new rules here in the pit compared to wandering Cadens, but. Maybe he's overreacting.
Pushing himself up to stand, he takes a second to collect their few (and sad) things they've gathered while being down here for however long it's been to take with him. Just in case. What he learns from walking around his is this: Sylvain's not the only one who's disappeared as others are missing too. Steve's one of them, and the both of them vanishing with no explanation only ratchets up that foreboding into something more like anxiety.
In his too casual strolls and some chats here and there with others about those who have disappeared and whether they've returned (or not), Claude maintains his composure well enough to maintain the same level of coolness on the outside. But by the time he returns to take a seat - somewhere different now since someone else has claimed his previous spot - he feels anything but on the inside.
The worst part, he thinks as he settles in while remaining as still as possible to not betray any obvious tumult past what anyone else is showing, is that there's nothing to do but wait. ]
time to suffer
There are others still around so it's not alone in the most literal sense, but the shoulder he was sleeping on and its owner are nowhere to be found. Though he'd been blinking himself awake it's in that instant he's fully alert. It's not like Sylvain to wander off without a mention of where he's going first, something Claude's been careful to do too in their new rules here in the pit compared to wandering Cadens, but. Maybe he's overreacting.
Pushing himself up to stand, he takes a second to collect their few (and sad) things they've gathered while being down here for however long it's been to take with him. Just in case. What he learns from walking around his is this: Sylvain's not the only one who's disappeared as others are missing too. Steve's one of them, and the both of them vanishing with no explanation only ratchets up that foreboding into something more like anxiety.
In his too casual strolls and some chats here and there with others about those who have disappeared and whether they've returned (or not), Claude maintains his composure well enough to maintain the same level of coolness on the outside. But by the time he returns to take a seat - somewhere different now since someone else has claimed his previous spot - he feels anything but on the inside.
The worst part, he thinks as he settles in while remaining as still as possible to not betray any obvious tumult past what anyone else is showing, is that there's nothing to do but wait. ]