[M] Have You No Pity? (NoviDome & cwlee)

[cwlee]

Mason can only watch as Eliza seems to go insane over their new reality. Mason, too, feels the anxiety and the panic ready overwhelm him, but in front of Eliza, he thinks best to try and remain calm. He wants to stop her from acting so strangely, but given their situation, he could not blame her. And as he sees her cry, Mason gulps, never having seen her like this before. He stands there awkwardly, wondering what he should do before he wipes her tears with both his thumbs swiping across her cheeks as he tells her, "Oh, don't be such a baby, Eliza."

"I'm sure we'll figure something out," he tells her in an attempt to remain optimistic, but the truth is that Mason is lying... He always is; only this time, he lies to comfort, not harass. He lays a hand on her shoulder, squeezing her gently before letting go. "Look, whatever happened. Wherever we are, I'm sure you can figure it out, Eliza," he begins to tell her as he locks eyes with her, or tries to. It's obvious Mason can't keep proper eye contact for more than a few seconds. "You are the smartest person I know, Eliza. You think for us a way out of here, and I'll be like your bodyguard or something!" Mason chuckles. "Oh, c'mon. I thought that was funny."

Mason sighs as he slowly makes his way towards the corner of the alley and peeks around the bend. Seemingly, the streets have gone quiet as if many have turned in for the night. There are still several wanderers walking around, but the crowd is smaller. "C'mon," Mason says, waving his hand over towards her. "For now, we should find a place to sleep or something, and shit, I'm so hungry. Once we find a place, I'll go and find us some food. Sound like a plan?" For the first time, at least as far as Eliza could tell, Mason appears assertive and commanding, not like the harassing and bullying before; he radiates an energy like that of a leader.

[NoviDome]

Eliza's breath hitches for a moment when his hands are suddenly on her face, and he tries to reassure her. She frowns a little, wanting to believe him but pretty sure he's lying. Is he... Is he not taking this seriously? What the hell does he think is going on? Why isn't he freaking out like she is? Why can't he look at her? She doesn't laugh at his joking plan, and just stares at him in disbelief as he moves away.

"Mason, I swear to god, if this is somehow some kind of sick joke of yours," she mutters as he beckons her over, and she - stupidly, she thinks - follows. Though some nagging part of her knows Mason isn't behind this. He'd be acting differently. His tone wouldn't be so... caring, even though she can't believe herself thinking that about him. But the thought of him being genuine is terrifying. That would mean all this is, in fact, real, and she'd still desperately cling to any reason to think it isn't.

"I... How are you going to... I don't even..." She shakes her head and runs her hands through her hair, unable to form a coherent thought or sentence.

[cwlee]

Mason peeks around the corner one more time before turning back to Eliza. Taking a deep breath, he locks eyes with her, his focus and determination shining. "The coast is clear," he tells her, stepping cautiously onto the main street. "Stay close," he urges her. "I'm pretty sure I wouldn't make it without you, so don't get left behind, okay?"

Once on the main street, Mason hops in place a few times, trying to calm the adrenaline surging through his body. He's no stranger to adrenaline, having faced it many times during his tennis matches. He's always had a way to relax his nerves, but this situation is far beyond anything he could have imagined. Thankfully, his techniques for calming himself, at least physically, seem to be paying off. And he has to make sure he doesn't look weak and fragile in front of Eliza no less.

Even though the streets are empty, the pair decides to stay close to the shadows of the buildings, their steps conscious and aware of every sound and surface. As Mason places his hands on the walls, groping the darkness for balance and direction, he realizes that these buildings are not made of the usual concrete and steel but of old plywood and rugged stones. Eliza's speculation was correct; it wasn't a a matter of where they were, but when.

As the pair turn onto another street, winding away from what Mason assumes was the town square, they are greeted by a stroke of almost godly luck: an unattended stable. Situated a bit away from the rest of the village, the stable houses the village horses, yet tonight, there seems to be no one guarding it. Mason smells the stable before spotting it, wrinkling his nose in disgust, but still, the man is more than pleased to find a resting place. Point it out to Eliza, who might not have noticed it yet, he quietly exclaims, "Yo, you see that? I told you!" Excitedly, he skips himself over toward the stable.

[NoviDome]

Eliza wraps her arms around herself and nods meekly when he tells her to follow him. She watches him self-regulate, and bounces on her toes a little in hopes the motion might help her calm down as well. She can't really tell if it does. Her mind is still racing, trying to find inconsistencies, reasons to believe she could be wrong about their situation. But it can't, and it frustrates her.

The buildings and the look of the town as they walk through it just hammer it home: they truly traveled through time somehow. She's startled a little out of her train of thought when Mason points the stable out to her, and she watches him skip over in disbelief. He doesn't seem to have a care in the world. This discovery has clearly lifted his spirits. She takes a deep breath, recoils at the smell, and then follows him.

"Y-Yeah, yeah, well done," she mumbles as she steps inside, looking around uncomfortably in the dim light. There are several horses in there, but one of the compartments seems to be empty. She walks over and pushes the door open. There's quite a bit of hay in there, it looks soft enough, and sheltered. The thought of a hiding place is very tempting, but she doesn't step inside, looking over at Mason. "We shouldn't be in here... What if somebody finds us?" she asks worriedly.

[cwlee]

To be as thoughtless as Mason sometimes proves to be a gift rather than a curse. As the pair enter the stable, they are welcomed by sleeping horses. "Oh, shit, my bad. Forgot you guys actually sleep," Mason comments innocently as he begins to tip toe his way towards the empty compartment that Eliza has spotted.

"Oh, nice find," he compliments her as he steps inside first, regardless of Eliza's precautions. "Oh, c'mon. What's the worst thing they'll do? Kick us out? Oooo, scary." Mason chuckles, his laughter echoing through the interior of the stable. "Like what, I'll just talk to them if they find us. Don't worry, Eliza," he goes onto tell her, not having yet realized the chasm of language miscommunication between them and the others. Mason waddles over and plops himself onto the hay face first.

"Oof! I'm so beat," he says while rolling over onto his back, his hands placed underneath his head. "Oh, oops, sorry. I guess I should make room." He winks at her as he scoots over on the hay to make room for Eliza to join him. In fact, he's given her more space than himself. He rolls onto his side away from her once she herself decides to lay down. "Any way, we'll figure all this shit out tomorrow. Or better yet, maybe we'll wake up and this was all just a dream, yeah?" He lightly chuckles to himself, seemingly his way of coping through this chaos. "But yeah, g'night, Eliza," Mason tells her as he remains awake the entire night, unable to catch even a wink of sleep, for the fear of the unknown, for the fear that someone will hurt Eliza and him.

[NoviDome]

Eliza stays by the door as he enters without a second thought, and she clenches a fist at his disregard of her concerns. She cringes as he laughs way too loud, and kicks a bit of hay at him.
"Dammit, Mason!" she hisses. "Be quiet. You really think you could talk your way out of this one? We're in the ancient. Roman. Empire. They speak Latin here. They'll take one look at us and brand us witches, and they'll burn us at the stake come morning," she mutters as she steps inside as well despite herself and lets the door latch shut behind her. She looks out into the stable for a couple of moments, making sure they are alone, before heading over to him.

She sits down on her side of the hay and takes off her backpack, ignoring Mason's light-hearted chatter. She starts going through her things, taking inventory of what she has brought with her. She takes the battery out of her camera and is about to do the same with her phone, but she can't help but look at the lock screen for a moment before she turns it off. It shows she has no signal, nothing at all. She sighs defeatedly and without saying a word, she slides Mason's phone out of his pocket and takes his battery out too. She stores them in a separate pocket in her backpack.

She pulls out a granola bar from the main pocket, and opens it up slowly. She's way too hungry to share this with Mason, and she knows he is too. She reaches into her bag and pulls out a second granola bar before silently tapping it to his shoulder, offering it to him.

[cwlee]

Listening to Eliza fidget behind him definitely does not help Mason fall asleep. First, he feels her hand slip into his pocket, retrieving his phone and removing the battery which he does not object to. Then, he hears her rustling through her pack, the sound of plastic wrappers crinkling. A moment later, he hears the crinkle by his ear followed by a tap on his shoulder. Mason slowly turns his head to see a granola bar held out to him. He blushes, though it's probably too dark for her to notice.

He stares at her for a little while before hesitantly taking the granola bar, followed by a quiet 'thank you.' He undoes the wrapping, shoving the trash into his pocket before taking a large chunk off of the bar with his front teeth. A single tear rolls down his face, and Mason does his best to hide it. He shoves the remainder of the granola down his throat and sniffles as he wipes his face with his shirt. "Thanks again," he tells her once more before turning in, and just for an hour or so, Mason falls asleep.

The following dawn, Eliza would likely be woken up by the sound of people arguing just outside of the stable. As when she would turn her head towards Mason, he would not be there. Instead, he's one of the arguers, hearing him shout, "Okay, I apologize, but we needed a place to sleep!" Understandably, Mason's reality comes to finally fruit as he sees that the person he argues with does not speak a lick of English, yet again. Eliza was correct about going back in time to the Roman Empire, he thought. "Okay, I'm sorry. I don't speak Roman! But please, we need to find our way home. Or better yet, we need food!" Mason begs to who appears to be the stable's groom.

[NoviDome]

Eliza is too lost in thought to hear Mason sniffle, but she does register his thanks, and just nods silently in response. She tries to calm her racing mind, and uses some breathing techniques that she has learned to help herself calm down for exams. She knows she needs the rest, and part of her hopes Mason is right, and this whole thing turns out to be a dream. Even though she knows for a fact that it isn't. She doesn't feel safe enough to lie down, so she eventually drifts off to sleep with her back against the wall, slumped over a little. In her hand she holds her keys, the metal ends sticking out between her fingers, in case she needs something for self defense.

She doesn't sleep very well, and so when the shouting starts outside, she wakes fairly easily. She blinks a couple of times against the sunlight that's started to drift into the stable, and rubs her face when she realises where she is. Somehow seeing the morning makes this feel that much more real. She grows alarmed when she notices Mason is gone. She quickly grabs her backpack and gets up, and when she recognises Mason's voice coming from outside she bursts out of the stable and towards the pair of men. Her heart is thumping in her throat when she hears Mason explain he doesn't speak 'Roman', and she thrusts her bag into his arms before turning to the stable groom. She's terrified, knowing they must look like absolute aliens to this guy in their modern attire.

"A-Ave," she greets, holding up her hand to the man. Gods, she knows her Latin quite well, but she's always just translated written texts. Coming up with her own sentences, let alone speaking them, is a harrowing challenge she is in no way ready for. "Ex... Excusatio," she stammers, trying to apologise to the man. He frowns at her pronunciation, but does seem to lower his guard a bit.
"Unde venitis?" he asks in a low voice, and Eliza quickly works out he is asking her where she and Mason have come from. She knows the word for 'future', but decides against divulging that, at least for now. Her main goal is to prevent this man from alerting city guards.
"P-Per mare," she says softly, telling him they came from across the sea. "Imus. Excusatio," she repeats, and starts to push Mason away. "Go. We have to go," she whispers to him.

[cwlee]

Mason hears Eliza barging out from the stable, his head quickly turning in her direction in surprise. It's barely morning now as the sun is barely creeping up from the horizon, lighting up the entire scenery in a chalky blue. He steps back as Eliza makes herself known into the conversation where either of them seems to understand each other. Mason watches Eliza in amazement as her and the groom converse in a language he has never heard before. Some phrases sound familiar, but overall, everything sounds foreign to him.

He tilts his head as the conversation finishes, and the stable groom seems to have partially understood what they're trying to accomplish. "What just happen," Mason mouths the words but the sound does not escape his lips. Before their final words, the stable groom stares at Mason then at Eliza whom he checks up and down then back at Mason before he shakes his head in disapproval. He raises a finger at him, and somehow, Mason seems to be able to comprehend that gesture. Mason rolls his eyes as he tells him, "I have a girlfriend, and it's not her!"

Mason grabs hold of Eliza's wrist and pulls her in the direction back to the village. "Come on. Let's just get outta here," Mason says, giving the groom a middle finger who the man seems to not understand the vulgar gesture. Mason leads Eliza back into the village where he tries to scout for spare clothes, something that can help them blend more into the scenery. He has seen it in movies many times when the main characters are infiltrating enemy camps, they dress like the enemies. Likely so, this scenario isn't that far off from an enemy camp. As the step into the village, they find that it's much livelier than the day before, with more people bustling about, even children running about. "Shieeet..." Mason curses. "How the hell are we going get home? I mean," Mason tries to formulate a plan but falls short and looks over at the smarter one, Eliza.

[NoviDome]

Eliza shoves him when he shouts at the man about his girlfriend, and she quickly forces his hand down with her free hand when he flips off the stable groom.
"Shut it!" she hisses at him and makes sure he keeps walking. She doesn't try to pull her wrist free though, and follows him into town. She looks around cautiously, her adrenaline racing through her veins still. "What were you thinking, Mason?! We could have been in a world of trouble with that behaviour of yours. You have to understand," she mutters through clenched teeth.

She stops when he curses, and pulls him behind one of the bigger buildings. She peers around the corner, taking in the situation as she takes a couple of deep breaths to try and calm herself down. What the hell have they gotten themselves into? She bites her lips for a moment before turning back to Mason.

"...I don't know," she admits softly, and runs her hands through her hair as she thinks. She can do this, right? Just make a to-do list like with any other challenge. First things first. "We have to... we have to change our clothes, get some proper food, and find a safe place to sit down and come up with a plan."