Day 57: Game Room (Third Shift)

[zack-fair.livejournal.com]

Having already met two new people today, Zack found that his mood was slowly starting to improve, if only out of necessity. While he didn't like dumping his problems on his friends, he was even less willing to do so with a stranger. More than that, Rose had been very personable and he'd felt good about himself for being to help her with a few things. It was remarkable how something as small as a good conversation could help so much.

And even better was the fact that he could now go wherever he wanted. It was probably the best part about Sunday. Better than that was that he hadn't been scheduled to see a visitor today. He had an idea of who might have come to see him, and while he missed her, he didn't need to see her the way she would probably be now.

So, the question remained: where to go? He would need to get outside at some point, but he figured he'd leave that until the end of the day. At the moment he just wanted to keep his mind busy, which led him to deciding on the Game Room. Even if he couldn't find someone to play with, enough of the stuff kept there was also usable for one person. Once he got bored of that, he could head out onto the recreational field and run some laps.

Those guys didn't even have to order him to do that. Still, Zack preferred that: to do something for himself rather than because he was told to.

The Game Room was completely empty when he entered, but Zack hoped that it would fill up before long. In the meantime, he grabbed a deck of cards and sat down to deal out a game of Solitaire.

[For Tifa.]

Comments

[ofthemotions]

The calm in which Izaya reaffirmed the fact made it more believable, and Mikado leaned back in his chair, a small smile on his lips. So she was.... Heh. It was interesting, so interesting, and he wondered if she was happy, having found her head like she wanted despite everything that had happened. Was this place maybe okay, then? Hadn't it given her what she wanted?

Mikado glanced up at Izaya's sentence. "Ah..." Recognize her. It'd be strange, he thought, to see two people with Harima-san's (Celty-san's?) face. He nodded, still, slipping a piece forward to capture the pawn Izaya had left unattended. "So there's some interesting things about this place..." he murmured lightly. At this rate, it seemed more exciting than purely something of torment.

[propheteer]

There were many, many more interesting things about this place than just those he'd shared with Mikado—but not everyone had or even understood his hobbies, and Izaya knew that well. Still, Mikado's reactions to the various pieces of information he'd shared had been payment enough (in lieu of proper currency), and he wondered how the boy would react from here on out. He'd have to keep a more careful eye on him than he had on Masaomi.

Mikado had also risen up to take the bait. Izaya's fingers moved to his next piece, but he paused before moving it. "I wonder if her head was returned out of kindness or cruelty," he mused aloud. On the one had, it was back in her possession (though perhaps in a different way than before), but he couldn't imagine it had come without a cost. At the very least, it had been stolen from him—and at most? Hmm.

He lifted the piece, moving it to take advantage of the opening Mikado had inadvertently created. "Check."