damned_institute | Day 62: Breakfast

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Day 62: Breakfast

A misplaced sense of familiarity met Barnaby the moment he opened his eyes, and the sight of the blank, white ceiling from yesterday morning greeted him. After rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands, Barnaby sat up and felt around for his glasses. Had he blacked out again and wasted an entire night? Where was Kotetsu? And what had become of the man who had seemingly vanished before his very eyes at the end of dinner?

Once Barnaby slipped his frames onto his face, the world came into clearer focus, even if he didn’t get any answers out of it. He was in his room, and someone had apparently stripped him out of his street clothes in favor of the hideous hospital pajamas. Barnaby wasn't sure what he found more offensive -- that someone here had once again touched his things without his permission, or that he’d been undressed while unconscious for the second time since his arrival.

The thought made his skin crawl.

Just as he looked over to find a lump in the bed next to him, though, his assigned nurse came to retrieve him. He would have to confirm Klavier Gavin's whereabouts later. For now, he had no choice but to allow the nurse to escort him into the cafeteria. Strangely, she seemed to be under the impression that he and the other patients had slept soundly the whole night. While he might have assumed it was an act, Barnaby got the feeling that she genuinely believed what she was saying.

Regardless of her intentions, he knew she wasn't going to be any help. Instead of trying to ask her anymore questions, Barnaby left a note on the bulletin board concerning his roommate. If his observations from yesterday were any indication, he'd get some responses, at least. While he could have taken the time to leave something for Kotetsu, Barnaby didn't feel inclined to do so, especially when he knew he probably wouldn't check the board anyway.

He had no appetite this morning, but his nurse wouldn't leave him alone until she'd assembled a tray of fresh, fluffy pancakes for him. Honestly, Barnaby didn't see why some people felt the need to butt into his personal choices like this. At least there wasn't anyone forcing him to eat -- for now, at any rate. He sat down at an empty table close to the wall after setting his food down, privately hoping that she wouldn't try to find a "friend" for him to eat with this morning. He was tucked out of the way, so maybe she would forget about him for a few minutes as long as he didn't draw any unnecessary attention to himself.

Hands neatly clasped on the table, Barnaby didn't look at anyone in particular as patients filtered into the cafeteria for their morning meal. There were too many questions buzzing in his mind for him to focus on the names and faces of people he didn't care about. If Kotetsu wanted to find him, he could. It wasn't like Barnaby was going anywhere.

[For Kotetsu.]

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For a moment, Renji stared, trying to figure out what the guy's point was. If Brook was used to not breathing, oh, okay, that made sense.

"Oh, I got it. You're in the dead guy club too." Renji nodded, proffering his fist to be bumped while he continued eating with the other hand.

Obviously Brook was no Shinigami, but considering Renji was the only one these days... well, he wasn't going to get too picky about it. Take your buddies where you can and all that.

Dead guy club?

"Ders a crub?" he wondered suddenly, a bad idea as he hadn't taken the time to stop and swallow what he was eating. Remembering his manners a little, he took a break enough to finish what he'd been downing and amended, "There's a club? I didn't realize!"

Though with all the information on the bulletin, he should have assumed that there must have been. He should probably look into that since he had most definitely been dead at one point and might still have been if this whole to-do was a dream or something.

He considered asking Renji if he could join but found his attention moving to the clenched fist the man had put across the table at him. "Is there something wrong with your hand, Renji-san?"

Renji stopped eating so he could stare at the Brook again. The guy was kind of... weird. Weird was definitely the word he was looking for. "...uh, it's a metaphor. Kind of. Since there aren't a lot of dead guys around. So we're sort of a... uh... club, right? Exclusive little group?"

He looked at his fist and shrugged, letting it drop. "Never mind. It's... yeah, never mind."

He cleared his throat. "So, been a dead guy long? Professional dead guy?"

"Hm, I see. Then I suppose there'd be no reason in asking to join one!"

Since Renji pulled his hand back, Brook could only think that he'd missed something, but he was used to that. He'd missed a lot thanks to dying, but he was making up for that now.

Tapping at the top of a muffin, he considered the question thoughtfully, "I'm not sure I'd be considered professional in such a thing, but it has been some time since I've been living in the traditional sense. Roughly fifty years or so."

Renji laughed. "Yeah, unless we want to make an official dead guy club here. That could always be fun for a laugh."

Fifty years wasn't bad. "Couple of centuries, myself," Renji said. "But I went on to be a Shinigami, so that's kept me busy. So if you don't have a dead guy job, what the hell do you do? Just like... float around?"

The guy didn't seem like a Hollow or a more traditional ghost, which sort of put him out of Renji's normal experience.

Brook smiled and lifted his finger from the muffin. "So long as it doesn't include scary stuff, I'm always up for something that causes laughter!" And he meant it. Laughter was such a great comfort in such a place.

Now for someone having been dead longer than himself, that was a first for Brook to learn. Then again he'd never asked others just how long their time deceased had been. Perhaps a part of him felt that it was quite a personal thing. Or maybe he just wasn't curious enough. "Ah floating, yes, though I wasn't the one floating myself. You see I was aboard a ship when I died, so when my soul returned to my body... well it wouldn't have been right if a ship didn't float to begin with," he laughed, "Though for what I do, I'm currently the musician aboard a pirate ship. Not the one I died on though."

Renji snorted. "Yeah, that might be a funny thing to do. We should have a meeting some time. See if anyone else shows up." It was kind of a funny idea. At one point, there'd been a lot of dead guys at the Institute, but it had mostly been the other Shinigami.

"So wait... your soul went back to your body? Weird. So that makes you a... uh... zombie?" The idea of a dead guy in a meat suit that wasn't a gigai was really weird. In Renji's experience, once you were dead, you didn't go back to your body. Unless you had some serious problems that would require a Shinigami to deal with.

"Guess music's a pretty good gig..."

"I think it's a wonderful idea! I'll be sure to play some music should anyone show up!" Brook decided happily, though realized that saying as much might be rude to Renji, "Of course, I'd play some for you as well, Renji-san, in case no one does come. I don't believe you're the first I've heard of who's died before, but that doesn't mean others would be so willing to admit to as much."

Dying was a horrible experience and, once more, very personal. Brook could understand people wanting to keep that to themselves.

And on the matter of horrible things... "Z-z-z-zombie!?" Brook shrieked suddenly, raising his hands to his face in shock, "You mean I'm a zombie?! That's too scary, I don't want to be!"

"I don't mind music if you're any good at it," Renji said, then grinned. "I could always sing." Maybe someone would finally appreciate his voice! Rukia had always given him shit about his singing, but he was pretty sure she'd give him shit about anything, just because she could. "Yeah, maybe. Seems like a weird thing to get shy about, but people are fuckin' weird."

Renji stared at Brook, not quite sure what to make of this latest reaction. "Well, you said you... uh... went back into your body. So if you're running around in a dead meat suit, that makes you a zombie, right? I mean, I guess?"

"But a zombie is...! I mean, I've seen zombies and I'm know I'm nothing like them! Even when I didn't have skin anymore and...!"

Oh, wait a minute.

Brook's panic went about as quickly as it had come when the realization dawned on him. "Meat suit" wasn't how he'd phrased it, but Brook did recall a patient some time ago equating skin to a "meat bag". That meant that Renji was thinking Brook had had skin when his soul had returned. And he couldn't have him thinking that if it led to him believing that Brook was a zombie of all things!

"It was just bones," he explained, completely calmly as he lifted a finger, "Rather, I was just bones. No skin left over. That's what happens when your soul gets lost on the way back, I suppose!" he laughed, finding it all so amusing now, "So I was a skeleton, but definitely not a zombie!"

Zombies had skin, so of course he couldn't be one.

And now that that was settled, he could address the more important matter. "Do you like music, Renji-san?"

"Just... bones."

Renji stared at Brook for a long time, trying to figure out how the hell that even worked. Like, how could you move bones if there were no muscles and tendons? And you couldn't eat or drink or anything, so how could you keep your spirit power up? And...

Why was he even thinking about this?

"Right. Got it. So you were a skeleton. And that's better than a zombie." Because that wasn't creepy at all.

Music. Music was definitely a safer topic. "Yeah. I've heard some of the modern stuff. Shit's awesome."

"Just bones," Brook echoed. It had been a while since he'd been able to introduce himself as such, so it was nice to hear it again. It was also good that Renji was understanding the difference between a zombie and a skeleton so well. And that the man was willing to move on to a much nicer subject.

He grinned brightly at Renji's continued interest in the musical arts, wishing that he'd had an instrument with him to play right then. "I'm not as up to date as I'd like after being dead and all, but I do enjoy expanding my knowledge. Most of the pieces I know tend to be older and on the classical side though. Or else drinking songs!"

Those he knew quite well!

"I know a bunch of drinking songs too," Renji said, grinning. "Though they're not as fun if we don't have anything to drink, right?" Yeah, like that was ever going to happen with the happy horse shit day side of the institute. "The new stuff's called... uh... rock music, I think. They play it with... electricity. Like I mean they play guitars with electricity. Somehow."

He was hazy on the details, but he knew he'd liked the sounds he'd heard, at least. It was all growl and thrash, which was definitely his style.

"Oh, do you?! Perhaps you could teach me some of them? And I'll be happy to share some of my favorites as well!"

Brook was always excited to learn new kinds of music, especially here. More songs would mean he'd have a better way of coping with the difficulties this place brought, and better still was that he'd know music from other worlds by the time he returned back home! He could bet there were not many musicians who would be able to claim as much.

"Electricity?" Brook repeated before giving a small laugh, "I don't know so much about that, but it sounds interesting! Ah, excuse me..." he finished suddenly before his reason for needing excused sounded by way of a rather loud fart.

"Yeah, sure, guess I could do that," Renji said. "I mean... even if we're not drinking. Maybe next time they stick our asses in the music room, we could do drinking songs. Should piss the nurses off, since most the ones I know are real dirty." That prospect just seemed to put him in an even better mood.

"I don't know much about electricity either," Renji shrugged. "Just that it's like lightning? It's really a thing that got going way after I died, and I'm not a science guy."

At the thunderous fart, Renji just stared at Brook for a moment, trying to decide how he should react to that. It wasn't like Shinigami didn't like belch or fart and shit, but... that had been impressive. Finally he shrugged and applauded.

A round of upbeat songs would be a great thing to accomplish if the nurses would allow it. Brook's ever-present smile widened even more at the suggestion as he laughed yet again. "Perhaps that could be where we have the first 'Dead Guy Club' meeting? I certainly know a great song to start us out were we to do something like that!"

And though he had excused himself, Brook had been expecting something much different from applause from his new acquaintance. He was so used to getting beaten and yelled at for his body functions by the more volatile of his crew, but having someone he'd just met give praise? Well, he might as well oblige.

"Ah, you liked that? Then excuse me once more, if you would?" he chuckled next before belching just as loudly, and actually trying this time to let it last.

Renji burst out laughing. "That's an awesome idea. We can put a notice on the bulletin board and everything!" He tried to think of the next time they'd be getting stuck in the damn music room. Oh well, he'd figure it out.

And then Brook belched. Renji couldn't help it; he busted out laughing again, particularly when one of the nurses gave them a look. Yes, it was childish, but he didn't even care. It was hilarious, and it felt good to laugh.

"I'll be sure to get open up the moment I am able! Ah, unless you wish to post it, Renji-san?" Brook offered, just in case. The note had been his idea after all, and Brook wouldn't have stumbled onto the full idea without his help either.

When he got Renji laughing again, Brook could not help but join him once he was unable to hold the belch any longer. A good number of his current crew-mates might have taken issue with such things, but back in the Rumbar Pirates he'd been able to laugh over bodily functions rather than fear getting harmed for them.

Childish actions were never wrong if it caused laughter, even for just one person. The nurses didn't know what they were missing!

"You know what? You go ahead and post it." At this point, he was pretty sure whatever Brook came up with would be fucking hilarious, which meant definitely worth it. Renji grinned.

Renji finally stopped laughing when he just ran out of air and couldn't gasp enough back in to keep going. He fell back in his seat, wiping at his eyes. "Shit, man. Just... shit."

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Day 62: Breakfast

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/so sorry, but I have to get this in...

Re: /so sorry, but I have to get this in...

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