Day 62: Breakfast

[baniichan]

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.]

Comments

[a_sin_for_him]

"No, I'm not little nor a man. I'm an artificial human, made with alchemy. Heightened senses, regeneration abilities when injured, impervious to disease or natural death..." It wasn't much of a secret in this place. No one understood what she was and so no one cared. She was human enough for them, Scar excluded.

"Of course, not in here. And.. a vampire?" She was familiar with the term, but from stories and novels and radio programs she'd caught now and again. "Turns into a bat, seduces maidens to drink their blood and devour their still beating hearts? I thought vampires had gray skin and pointed ears and long, shrunken limbs. You're much too pretty to be a vampire."

If they were even real. She was rather certain no alchemist had ever whipped up a vampire in their basement.

[not_heavens_adam]

That was definitely a new species to him and he knew quite a few that were supposed to keep to the shadows. It was probably a good bet that homunculi didn't exist back home.

Her description of his kind made him laugh. "Thank you. If all homuncli look like you, I don't think I'd mind running into a few more." He winked at her. Even if women weren't his thing, flirting was fun and a well placed compliment never hurt.

"I've never heard of vampires like that before. Although....I can turn into a bat, well, more like bats, but I'm afraid the rest is a bit off. In fact...I'm more like you. Regeneration, unable to die a natural death, no sickness...I do drink blood, though."Maybe 'homunculi' was another form of Vampire. One that didn't have to drink blood. Perhaps she could even walk in God's light like a human...

[a_sin_for_him]

"I'm the only homunculus who looks like me," Lust said with a small, coy smile. "We aren't simply arbitrarily named." Though there had been two 'Lusts' before her, from what Envy had said. She knew nothing of them, but now she wondered. Even in her service to her master she was simply a replacement for someone else.

"I've only heard of vampires on radio shows and in cheap novels," she admitted. "Though homunculi don't survive on blood, we need...well, it's rather difficult to explain to someone who isn't an alchemist from my own world." Or so she assumed. But they did prey upon mortal men, that much was true. Or they had. She had.

Whatever.

"And it doesn't matter, because food suffices here. Though I've always enjoyed food."

[not_heavens_adam]

"Temptation of a woman~ I can see that." Even if did nothing for him, he could appreciate beauty and apt names even if they weren't for him.
The radio shows and novels comment amused him, though. That was as it should be in his mind, vampires were to live in the shadows and remain a secret. Most couldn't handle being out and exposed as Johnny had been for a long time.

"Food, itself, isn't new but this flavor is. Used to be everything tasted similarly bland. It's drastically different now." He'd forgotten how incredibly sweet sugar was. Taste was something he'd have to get used to.

[a_sin_for_him]

"I've always eaten food but I've never needed it before now," the homunculus admitted. "I just like the sensation of taste. And it puts humans at ease. They can't tell I'm not one of them and it always made sense to do the things they did."

That was what it really came down to, didn't it? So much time doing what she thought humans did, and expecting that to be the sum of humanity. All she did was mimic, it didn't really mean anything. She stabbed at her breakfast, frowning slightly as she was unable to stop the thoughts from gathering. And building.

[not_heavens_adam]

"To blend in. To Survive." He could understand that. How many years had he been 'Johnny Rayflo, age 40' living in an apartment with 'Charley Chrishunds, age 28?' The things creatures had to do to survive amongst humans...the names he'd had to take on, the number of times he'd erased any trace of himself from a place before moving on...it was hard to imagine a life where that wasn't a necessity to survive.

And yet, here...here he was normal. Average. Common. It reminded him of the time when he'd taken on the name 'pigeon' just to have some semblance of normalcy while he advertised himself as a vampire. Just to survive.