Day 57: Cafeteria

[gald_digger]

Edgar's charming company had raised Anise's spirits enough that not even the Head Doctor's voice could bring them back down. Besides, she was feeling pretty sure that Landel wasn't actually around. To begin with, it wouldn't make sense, and secondly, his announcements sounded suspiciously like ones she'd already heard before. While Anise wasn't very familiar with Earth technology, she'd seen the little devices in the Music Room that could play recordings of people's voices. This had to be something like that.

It wasn't long before Anise was escorted to the Cafeteria, and then to the section where edible food was being served. As she filled her plate with waffles, fruit, and sausages, she looked to the other side of the counter with a look of sympathy. It was hard to enjoy her own meals while knowing what the other patients had to suffer through.

She wasn't about to refuse her meals just out of guilt, though. Anise needed her strength for tonight. There was still a bit of a nervous twist in her stomach whenever she thought about what could happen down in the basement... but she wasn't going to back down. Not after promising her friends they'd go together.

With her tray in hand, Anise seated herself at an empty table in the middle of the room. She preferred to have company while eating, but it looked like she was one of the first patients there, so there was no one to sit with. Maybe if she minded her manners and tried to look her cutest, she'd attract someone handsome! Holding her utensils delicately, she began to cut her waffles into smaller pieces.

[For Battler.]

Comments

[sainted]

"What? No, that's not... I mean, ah. No. It's fine." Stefan ducked his head, hiding his embarrassed smile. He hadn't meant to make Edward feel awkward about reading his thoughts — he knew the other vampire couldn't really stop it — but considering the path of Stefan's thoughts, it made him smile that Edward was the one who felt the need to apologize. "Really, it doesn't bother me. I just still feel embarrassed about... what happened. Did you know that she and Elena met? Yesterday." He laughed quietly. "Elena said she thought Bella was cool."

A few weeks? Stefan looked up at him in surprise, realizing there were even more differences between them than he'd first thought. Weeks. For a second, he almost envied Edward. A week without blood for him would leave barely strong enough to stand; a few days more would start the process of mummification. In that respect, he and Damon were actually better off in Landel's. The physical side-effects of starvation seemed to have slowed, although their hunger for blood remained unchanged... but then, hunger had always been a problem for him. Even ignoring that he didn't drink human blood, Stefan was used to being chronically underfed — it wasn't very practical, after all, to try eating his fill when most of diet consisted of rabbits and squirrels.

It had been easier to cope with when he could drink a little bit here and there. Here, with long days between hunts, always trapped in crowds of people... Stefan knew he needed to find a new way of dealing with it. But for now, he was more worried about his brother.

"I think he'd drink anything at this point," Stefan answered wryly. Anything being the problem, because he knew very well what Damon would aim for when desperate and given limited choice. Stefan couldn't imagine him drinking rotten blood if there were other options — Damon barely tolerated drinking cold blood bags — but if he could go to this chapel instead of hurting someone...

He'd actually gone up there this morning, led by a nurse. It wouldn't be hard to find his way back during the night. Even if his brother had other plans (he recognized that calculating look on Damon's face, and wished again his hearing wasn't so poor), Stefan could try getting the blood for him. Human blood. His eyebrows furrowed as he turned the idea over in his head. If he could find something else on the way, maybe... maybe he could resist it.

To help his brother... he had to try. "Edward." Unthinkingly, he tapped his pen against a blank page of his journal. "How dangerous is the chapel?"

[prodigalson]

He couldn't imagine an existence where he would be unable to obstain from blood for less than a week. He had lived it already, but that was because he was learning to control himself, not because his body forced him into drinking so much. Perhaps he'd rather stay fangless and have a semblance of control.

The fact that Bella had met Elena seemed... well, it actually was not as surprising as he imagined it would be. Bella might have been able to appreciate a girl that was going through the same thing she was. If that was what was going on. At least she could bond with another girl in love with a vampire. He knew for a fact that didn't happen often. "Bella didn't tell me, but I'm not surprised. I'm actually glad they met. It's not easy for her sometimes. The whole... monsters thing. I'll have to ask her about it later."

That was kind of an understatement, but he also was trying to avoid going into the grittiest details.

Moving on to greener pastures, so to speak. "The chapel I can't be entirely sure about. The problem with the chapel is I have never personally been to it. Bella was the one who got the blood, not me. There was some sort of spirit there - it... it gave her frostbite." He gestured up and down his forearm, trying to keep his voice steady. He didn't like thinking about it. "There will likely be something there protecting the fountain. Once you get past that, it's... resisting all the blood that will present the biggest problem. All of the water in the fountain turns to blood at night, so I can imagine the smell is. Strong."

[sainted]

Stefan nodded at Edward's comments about Bella, and let the subject drop. An eavesdropper might've found "the whole... monsters thing" to be bewilderingly vague, but Stefan understood, or at least he thought he understood. It hadn't been — still wasn't — easy for Elena to cope with all that a vampire boyfriend entailed. She was brave, braver than almost anyone he'd ever known, and had proven herself even more capable than him sometimes of dealing with monsters, but she was still seventeen years old and human. He thought of her telling him that she'd been writing letters to Bonnie and Caroline, for want of someone to talk to. Someone who understood.

He would've listened to anything Elena had to say and held it with all the empathy he possessed, and she knew it, but... Stefan wasn't a teenage girl. "Glad" that she and Bella had met didn't begin to touch upon his feelings about their burgeoning friendship.

So it was with real concern that Stefan heard about Bella getting hurt by some kind of... spirit. Considering how much time he'd spent around witches, Stefan wasn't one to scoff at spirits, but their presence here still put him even more out of his depth than he'd been with bear-sized homicidal squirrels. If he was minded to try it, it sounded possibly even more challenging than hunting in the forest.

If. Stefan's gaze dropped to the table again. A fountain full of human blood. He remembered the fountain in the chapel, bubbling with clear water, and tried to imagine all that liquid turning dark and sweet at night. The heady smell of blood in his nose and throat, sitting unattended and victimless (really?) in that vast space...

No. He couldn't do it. Stefan pressed his fingers to his eyelids for a second, and shook his head free of the image of the chapel. "Thank you," he told Edward after his hands dropped again. "I'll keep it in mind." Damon could use that information, even if he couldn't. And, speaking of his brother and information... Stefan looked back down at this journal, where he saw only a few notes he'd jotted down yesterday, before halting because he was too distracted to focus.

Second World - rebel group
Marc (radio) - mid-20's, Caucasian, blond hair, has a shotgun
Jill (radio before Marc, after Alec?) - brainwashed?

It wasn't a lot. Stefan could already imagine Damon's reaction if he passed this on to him, but this was part of why he'd wanted to sit with Edward this morning. "Edward, how much do you remember about that night we met Marc?"