damned_institute | Day 58: Cafeteria

Anise woke up feeling lucky to be alive. She still felt a bit waterlogged, even though her skin, hair, and clothes were completely dry. During last night's adventures, she'd swallowed a lot of water, and it still felt heavy and disgusting in her stomach. Her arms and legs were tired from treading water. Lying still in her bed, she still kind of felt like she was floating and bobbing in the water.

But she was alive.

Knowing how close she came to death last night, and remembering the lengths her friends had gone to in order to save her, there was no way Anise could let a little discomfort get her down. She had to be at her best today so she wouldn't seem ungrateful to Guy and Claude. On that note, she had to remember to thank them properly, now that she was better able to express herself.

While getting ready, Anise was surprised to actually run into Claude that morning. He came to her room asking for the notebook he stored there (or maybe it was an excuse to see her cute face again), so Anise happily located it and handed it over. She was pretty tired, but the big smile she gave him was genuine. Who wouldn't be happy to see her savior so soon after a dramatic rescue?

After he left, Anise finished re-tying her pigtails into a low position so the military beret would fit on her head, and then she was ready! Even though her stomach wasn't feeling that great, she figured sitting down to a decent meal would help normalize it. And luckily for her, she was among the few who had the privilege of eating such a meal. Anise filled a plate with french toast topped with syrup and fruit, accompanied by small portions of each of the available side dishes.

It looked like she was early, which meant there weren't a lot of people around. That was okay, though. Anise could get a good head start on her meal before any company came around. She sat down at a table by herself and started on her sausage first.

[for Tolten!]

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What else was there? Riku considered Sora's appearance and came up with a few. Last night, the announcement mentioned pins, and he figured he might as well looked into that. But what else? Was the only clue from the radio guy the one about the forest? That seemed to be kind of a let down, so he needed to be sure. Any strange circumstances from the last few days needed to be examined. If he couldn't do it first hand—and Riku still kicked himself a bit for deciding to disappear the moment everything went down—then he might be able to sort it out this way. He was on his way just before.

"Yeah, what are the pins for?" he asked first. "And was that the only clue? What about the past few days? Was there anything like last night?" He meant the weird speech and the invitation to take the drugs. Riku assumed then that it was the only thing, but there had to be build up to that speech. From here on, he wanted to work on a full pack of information, and he didn't want to feel like he let his friends down by letting them take him. The thought hadn't really occurred to him yet, and he wasn't about to let it.

The combined factors of being able to sort things out before and last night changed his tune a lot. He realized that. Some mornings, he ended up here with a plan, and it was a plan to do something different. Now, he thought it was time they stuck with what they were doing right. Or rather: what he was doing right. It wasn't that he faulted Sora, but his friend's priorities would always be different. And in Riku's mind, he needed them to be safe. Somehow, he figured Sora would transmute that into everyone being safe in his own way. That was why they worked well together.

It wasn't too surprising that Riku had a lot of questions. Even if it'd only been a few days, a whole lot had been packed into them. Sora tried to take it one thing at a time, though, taking a few more bites of his breakfast as he thought it over. It was strange -- even though Riku had that gross pink stuff, Sora didn't feel as guilty eating around him. It was probably because Riku just didn't get hung up on things like that. Sora hadn't even noticed him eyeing his food or anything.

"I don't really know that much about the pins," Sora admitted. That might have something to do with the fact that despite his rank, he didn't have any. He didn't know what they stood for or how people got them, except... would Riku end up with a pin for taking those drugs last night? "I know you earn them in different ways and if you have enough it gives you certain privileges, but that's it." It was something he could probably ask one of the staff members about and actually get answers, since they seemed to think of him so highly.

"Oh, and the other thing you need to know is that when the Head Doctor spoke to us -- while he was with Marc -- he mentioned stuff about the basement. He's trying to tell patients that that's where they need to go to get out. I mean, he might be telling the truth since he's trying to get back at Aguilar, but who knows?" It was something you'd just have to go with your gut instinct on, or so Sora guessed. He'd made attempts to get down to the basement before, but none of them had been that successful. For now, he figured focusing on the outside area might benefit them more. Still, he'd see what Riku had to say about it.

The information was something to consider heavily. Riku decided that the pins might be useful if it gave them privileges, but he needed to figure that out later on. He poked further at his slop as he assessed the pieces dropped about the basement. If that was the truth, why hadn't anyone done something about it? Wouldn't that be common knowledge? He figured it was a lead, but heading outside would be more productive in the long run. Plus, he hated being trapped in here.

"I'll stick up a message about it on the board," he said. "We'll find out if anyone's found anything good about the basement that way." If they did, then they could adjust their plans accordingly, but he did like the idea of going outside. Maybe another set of people could go there.

The fact of the matter was that Riku didn't like following a lead that even Sora didn't think was a good idea. Playing along with Landel's scheme didn't seem like the way to go about this. So he liked his plan; that way, someone else could do the work. As much as he preferred first hand experience, he also didn't like walking his friends into a trap.

"All right, you can give that a shot," Sora agreed. As far as he'd been able to tell, though, people kept their mouths shut about the basement. He didn't know the reasoning behind it, but that on its own was enough to make him worry. He realized that sometimes you had to brave serious danger to get anywhere, but he was fine with trying out the forest first and seeing what they found there.

Before he could say anything else, however, the intercom went off and they were treated to a rather cheerful, casual voice. Well, up until the guy was apparently put in his place. Sora frowned, wondering why they couldn't have something a little more laid back to listen to for once.

"Well, I guess that's it," he said with a sigh. "Try to find Kairi! She'll want to see you." He stood up from his seat, glancing down at his half-finished breakfast for a moment before meeting his friend's eyes. "And... it's really great to have you back, Riku." He was sure that Riku already knew how relieved he was, but there was nothing wrong with reinforcing it, was there?

Day 58: Cafeteria

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