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In Green Dolphin Street Prison, a place in which freakish supernatural occurrences and highly organized conspiracies happened constantly, daily life is fairly monotonous. A prison is still a prison, even a highly unusual one; and so, on this morning the prisoner who is known as Weather Report to his few acquaintances took the same route to breakfast with the same casual stop by the window to look out into their meager and barren outdoor courtyard. A steadily rising sun peered over the same dusty old asphalt, the vast horizon reaching towards places that Weather knew only through the Emporio's library.
The moment of contemplation ended- or was supposed to end. Routine dictated that after a short moment he move on to eat whatever lukewarm crap was served in the cafeteria today, with a side of entertainment as Anasui thought of new and creative ways to have his stand slip them an extra portion. But the sun rising today and the horizon stretching out today beckoned him not with vague ennui, but with a distinct call to action. A guard stepped over towards him and made himself known, yet this aforementioned call remained strong, and the novice-looking prison guard then began to embarrass himself by attempting to tell Weather to "get a move on". The guard stepped closer and started to raise his voice.
Weather Report paid scarcely any attention to this at all and scrutinized further the plain and unremarkable skyline, still the sensation of something slipping away from him sitting at the edge of his senses. Ah! Not something, someone. A friend had left, perhaps, and not necessarily in a morbid connotation. Weather meditated on this departure with a whispered hum.
A small crowd had now gathered, stopping to ostensibly check their nails or tie their shoes while gawking at the slowly reddening guard, who had now upgraded nearly to screaming at this prisoner who had thus far ignored harassment. Something about "do you hear me, idiot?!" and "I'll have you put in solitary for this!" and "oh that's it, lemme-", though the last phrase was cut off when Weather abruptly turned towards breakfast, accidentally tripping the guard as he stepped forward with his baton towards Weather. The guard spluttered further on the floor, screaming something about respect as he tripped again when another prisoner accidentally stepped on his shoes, or accidentally bumped into him, or accidentally snatched his baton and robbed him of every last penny and scrap of dignity on him.
Weather continued on to the cafeteria, having at last honed in on the identity of his hunch.
Anasui sat at their regular table, eating their regular gruel, currently in the process of maneuvering his stand towards the servers behind the breakfast counter. He noticed Weather enter and beckoned him over excitedly.
"Watch this! If I send Diver Down into the floor, towards the one uneven tile, he can push it slightly to the left, which will cause the approaching janitor cart to tip over and spill, attracting the attention of the guards and cafeteria workers, who will then accidentally serve extra portions in their inattention to the next few people in line, who will then begin to walk over here and trip over a *different* tile that Diver Down has raised, forcing the person behind them to walk a slightly different route closer to this table, allowing me to snatch something quickly off their tray for myself!" Anasui paused to take a breath and tuck a strand of hair behind his ear. "It's the perfect plan, I know."
Weather, for his part in this scheme, nodded and made noises of approval at all the appropriate intervals in Anasui's speech and as these events played out. At last, after the commotion of several people tripping over the newly unsteady cafeteria floor died down and Anasui had his extra bowl, he finally looked towards Weather with an inquiring eye.
"And why were you late here anyway? I had to wait to snag my extra for like ten more minutes, any longer and the meal would already be over!"
Weather leaned closer to whisper, and did so with a serious tone, "Jolyne, Hermes, and Emporio have escaped. We should leave today and join them."
At this, Anasui's mouth stood open uselessly for a second as he struggled to find his words and very nearly dropped the extra breakfast flat on the floor.
"You mean 'escaped' like from GD Street entirely?! How the fuck did those three even get out in the first place?" Weather shrugged and Anasui continued, "Shit, and you want us to escape today? How the hell are we going to manage that?" A contemplative look came over his face and he lowered his voice.
"I mean if you give me a week I can probably find a gap in the guard schedule and a weak spot in the fencing, plus I can pull some strings to get the security cams off for about 47 seconds, and we have to scrounge up enough money to pay off about two guards, a mob boss, and one of the janitors *while* leaving enough for bus tickets... shit, if the tide is out we'll have to reschedule-" Anasui looked up to see Weather walking away, "Where the fuck are you going, jackass?! I was just getting to the backup plans, we need at least five extra escape routes to prepare!"
Weather gave him a look and put his finger to his mouth, shushing Anasui as he led him out of the crowded cafeteria and back towards the nondescript window that he had been staring through earlier. Completely ignoring the shushing, Anasui whispered a non-stop rant of convoluted planning as they walked together, puncturing his speech with illustrative gestures and showing off all of the various screw drivers and pocket knives he had squirreled away in the footprint pockets on his mesh top. Apparently, there was a strict organizational system, categorizing both reverse alphabetically and by usage, with the top pocket containing only various sizes of washers and scraps of wire stolen from god knows where. Anasui bemoaned inaccess to the larger hoard of odds and ends he had stashed in one of Emporio's rooms from years of picking apart anything he could get his hands on in prison.
"... And finally, for plan Z: all I need is a rock hammer, a good thunderstorm, and a poster of Raquel Welch." Anasui paused as they reached the window and Weather stopped. "What the hell are we standing by your stupid thinking window for?"
Weather turned to him with a flat look of annoyance, and indicated the window again with his hand, looking at him again as Anasui remained confused. He then shrugged and turned away towards the window, calling his stand forth as Anasui's ears popped with the tell-tale signs of Weather Report concentrating air pressure towards his fists. Anasui took a step back, starting to ask what the fuck his friend was doing while trying to check for witnesses.
Weather Report punched the window out of the wall.
After a fraction of a second of shocked calm, glass shards falling to the ground below them as various alarms started to immediately blare and shriek, Weather reached over to grab Anasui by the arm and drag him through the opening. They set foot together, one reluctantly and one sure, on the windowsill that overlooked the courtyard. Guards looked up back at them, equally as gob smacked as Anasui and not even half as ready for this to happen. Before the guards could fully raise their guns to fire and before Anasui could stammer any more complaints, Weather Report raised the wind again, stronger than Anasui had ever felt before, as he tightened his grip and leapt off the sill, dragging both of them into the open sky.
Guards below were blown across the ground, most dropping their guns and struggling to stand as they watched two prisoners simply whisk themselves away. One among them, a novice guard wearing a new uniform after his had been stolen not even an hour ago, could only gape in awe and bewilderment.
Anasui and Weather had been lifted several hundred feet in the air, spinning around in the tornado as they were buffeted by wind and bits of debris that had been lifted from the ground. Anasui had switched from confusion and complaints to outright terror, screaming at the top of his lungs about how they were both going to die and that this was the most dumbass escape he has ever seen, and Weather please put us down and- so on and so forth. To his credit, Weather was mostly unaffected and relaxed into the swirling and twirling of the winds as he guided them across the swamp.
Once they had crossed the water and came upon open land the winds began to lessen and lessen as the two were dropped, one landing sure-footed and one like a sack of potatoes, onto the dirt. Weather dusted himself off and checked out the surroundings as Anasui crawled off to a bush to empty his stomach.
"The bus stop is a few miles from here, let's start walking so we can get there early," Weather said, stepping carefully over to Anasui and holding out a hand. Anasui took his hand leveraged himself up, still dry heaving somewhat.
"S-sure... jesus fuck... never- never do that again, Weather, oh my god," Anasui gagged and heaved again as he blinked tears out of his eyes, "You nearly fucking killed us... it's a damn miracle we didn't slam into some street and turn ourselves into roadkill."
Anasui continued to enumerate his complaints with the escape method and the damage to his poor outfit, as well as whining about what dangers could possibly befall his precious Jolyne outside of prison, along with whatever else he could think of for the long walk to the bus station as the two ex-prisoners hung on to each other and shuffled along the dusty old asphalt road.
It didn't feel like freedom yet, nor would they really have a chance to revel in it. Escaping from GD Street and the days that came after passed like a dream and passed too quickly to savor in more way than one. The turbulence of the wind and enemy stands and one horrible fucking priest continued to toss them around until Annakiss and a new group of people came to travel down the very same dusty, old road.