Day 64: Cafeteria (brunch)

[gald_digger]

Well, that went well! Anise had gained herself a gorgeously handsome new friend. She just hoped that weird illness didn't get either of them killed before she could get to know him any better.

... Yeah, that was morbid. It was hard not to think about, though.

Before going to the Cafeteria, Anise made a stop at her room to grab her journal, maps, and a pen. Once she finished eating, she could get a start on copying the maps for Barnaby. He was going to be so glad he met her!

With that done, Anise made her way to the Cafeteria, where she picked up an assortment of food, making sure to get some meat, vegetables, and milk on her tray. She then sat down at a table and set her notes aside while she started on her meal. It was hard not to feel self-conscious about the rash on her arm, though the makeup she used had blended the discolored part enough that it couldn't be seen from a distance. Anise just hoped no one would come specifically looking for it.

[Ilia!]

Comments

[dualistic]

Clearly Harvey should have kept a closer look on the bulletin board. Then again, he'd tried, but he'd been interrupted almost immediately by that Murphy guy. Niikura had gotten the information, though, and as it turned out the truth of the crash was even more ludicrous than Harvey could have expected.

"You can't be serious," he said, rolling his eyes, even though only one was visible at the moment. And yet the sad thing was that he could believe that there was some patient here that was idiotic enough to try that and put the rest of them at risk. He would have been more pissed off if he'd gotten himself hurt during the resulting mess that crash had caused, but in the end what he'd gotten out of it was some more ammo.

"I wouldn't be surprised if people go after him eventually, but at the same time, we should be more focused on the guy who put us here in the first place." Harvey's anger was mainly focused on two people, and he wasn't going to let himself get distracted by some idiot.

The question Niikura asked was unexpected, mainly because Harvey never put all that much consideration to the people he worked with. "Oh, don't know if you know any of them, but... it was Lana, this guy who calls himself Zero, and a girl named Leanne." The latter two he didn't know particularly well, but they'd all worked together well enough, surprisingly.

[baniichan]

When he thought of the morbid way their night ended, Barnaby's eyes darkened, but he didn't say anymore on the subject. Instead, he gently cut into his food, although he didn't quite bring any to his mouth. He didn't have much of an appetite this morning.

"I found someone who agreed to give us a copy of a more detailed map," he said after a moment, deciding to focus on more productive topics of conversation. "If we're fortunate, she'll have it ready for us by the end of the day."

Barnaby wasn't sure how much networking Kotetsu was going to do during his free time, so it was probably better that he do as much as possible on his own. As someone who'd spent many years breaking into the hero business not that long ago, he was used to forming contacts in a professional manner.

[overlimit]

The remainder of the hot dog was crammed into her mouth with little grace or delicacy. The hunger was starting to fade, and Rita was finding it easier to focus. A big meal with tons of calories was just what she needed, apparently. She started picking at the fries.

“What, are you worried?” she asked, tone dubious in a teasing way. Although... Rita supposed he had to be if he’d bothered approaching her again after last night. Not being one to concern herself much over people she didn’t particularly like, however, she couldn’t quite understand why. Maybe Woody was just the bleeding heart type.

“I try not to get hurt, but it comes with the territory,” she elaborated after a pause, giving a slight shrug with her left shoulder – the right one wouldn’t quite move in sync with it. “Sometimes taking risks is the only way to achieve anything.”

[skeletonenigma]

...Right. Yes. Good to know he wasn't hideous.

Badd's description - very much that of a thorough detective, Skulduggery was pleased to hear - reminded him of what he used to look like, back before he was killed. That was a strange coincidence. It couldn't be exactly the same because Skulduggery's own skull was stolen by goblins a couple of decades ago, but the fact that it sounded similar meant Skulduggery couldn't look that bad.

"Nevertheless, I will practice more once I find a mirror," he said absentmindedly, looking back down at the food. Part of him couldn't help but enjoy having this challenge, having to work at passing for normal, even though it would take time to master absolutely everything. Hell, it would probably take weeks just to master eating.

"Am I smiling now?" he asked, looking back up at Badd. Just like the smile he'd tried on Yomi the night before, his lips twitched up properly, but his eyes remained completely empty.

[pullstring]

While it was true that Woody had taken huge risks for both Andy and his friends in the past, he couldn't quite get around someone so young saying something like that. Maybe Rita had stuff she wanted to put her life on the line for. Still, it wasn't like he could fault her for that, crazy space case or not.

"What, so..." Woody pulled back in surprise as he looked at the girl's petite frame. "Do you know how to fight, then?"

With the way that boy had been babbling last night, it sounded like the two had gotten into a scuffle. But, on the other hand, the little guy had thought the intercom was a witch, so Woody wasn't sure how much of his story was to be believed.

[thecamellia]

She nodded slowly. The real pain probably went deeper than the gash he’d sustained. The real pain was in the heart and the soul--the two areas Landel seemed to be trying to strike at the hardest with all of the mind games he played.

Would it help to say something as trite as ‘don’t worry, I understand, I’ve done this before’? That she had wrapped up wounds before, that she had faced impossible odds before, that she’d sat with friends while they’d been devastated by desperate circumstances? That she knew, without a doubt, that one day the pain would become strength rather than a cause for sadness?

“Is it the symptoms today?” she asked.

[gald_digger]

When Ilia approached, Anise returned the woman's big smile with one of her own, though there was a hint of nervousness to it. She was still feeling feverish and sore, and there was the only-mostly-hidden rash... Could she even keep hiding her illness anymore?

Possible or not, she was going to try. Without missing a beat, Anise quickly responded to the pleasantries. "Yeah! Not since..." Oh, wait. The last time they talked was right after the Coliseum incident. Best not to mention that. "... a few days ago, huh?" Good save.

Anise went on, hoping that talking quickly would keep Ilia from giving that little pause any thought. "How've you been? Did you get to buy anything cool yesterday?"

[tasteoftruth]

"Yyyyeah, but now you're just looking creepy." You get both eyebrows for this, Skulduggery. That's how creepy you are. "Your mouth's moving but it's about as fake as a wooden nickel, the rest of your face doesn't flinch." Badd mimed a smile, though on a face like his own it looked equally unnerving. He very, very rarely smiled, even when he had something to smile about.

"Gotta get your eyes into it," he continued, dropping the smile as soon as possible. "But like I said. You have bigger problems."

[skeletonenigma]

Skulduggery dropped his own smile as soon as Badd did - or he tried to, but it sprang almost instantly back up without his knowledge and stayed there.

"Oh, I'm sure I do. There are always bigger problems." Like stopping evil psychopaths from bringing back a race of dark gods who wouldn't hesitate to destroy most of humanity. It was almost amusing how often that had happened to Skulduggery in the past few years alone. "That doesn't mean you can't appreciate the little things in life." He rested his chin in one hand and studied Tyrell Badd. "You look like a man with hobbies. And if you're not, you should be." Smiling might not be one of those hobbies, but Skulduggery politely didn't point it out. He wasn't really one to talk, after all.

[overlimit]

"Yes, I know how to fight," Rita replied, rolling her eyes as if that had been a ridiculous question. Maybe it wasn't something that could be guessed at a glance, but... well, she just didn't have a lot of patience at the moment.

"Anyway, I could have sworn I mentioned..." They'd know each other for a few weeks. Surely Rita had mentioned the single most important, defining detail about herself in passing...

... or maybe she actually didn't.

"... Well, whatever. I'm a magic scholar - a mage. A damn good one, too. I'm not bad with a whip, either." It was a little hard to brag after being beaten so badly in her last fight, but Rita managed. Maybe Woody would be skeptical about her claims, but she didn't care. There was nothing she held more pride in than her magic ability.

[oyaji]

"Oh yeah? That's nice of her!" It was good to know that strangers could still work together for a common goal. Hopefully, it would help them to form a better plan for getting out of here. Not that he was opposed to punching first and asking questions later, but...

"Oh, hey! Did you see--?" Wild Tiger paused to take another bite of his sandwich thing, chewing quickly so he could keep talking. "--They're showing a movie after breakfast--Or lunch, or whatever you call this. They're letting the patients pick the movie too, that's pretty funny..." As were the choices. Some of those were as old as him and he couldn't imagine the youngsters around here appreciating them anymore than he had. Still, it was better than a poke in the eye.

[fonichymn]

The relief shown was reciprocated, causing Tear to wonder the exact extent of the damages she had missed last night. Two aspects, however, stopped her--the first extending the emotion to Luke and Anise while the second working to oppose it. She had wondered if the lack of Natalia's presence meant the worse, and Guy's words had just cemented the prospect.

In truth, it was very troubling to consider. Tear had witnessed firsthand what the institute could do to a mind, and to imagine the princess of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear living her existence as someone else was far too disturbing for her tastes. Furthermore, there was little the group had in terms of options. They could only continue and hope for either a safe return or an opening for a rescue.

Tear exhaled slowly, long enough to gather her thoughts. Thankfully, the initial comment proved easy to respond to, despite how terrible it might sound to another's ears. "I overslept yesterday," she admitted, attempting to appear indifferent in spite of the growing flush, "and came to a nearly empty institute. More likely than not, I missed the trip to Doyleton. I'm sorry for worrying everyone."

She paused, nodding once to acknowledge the situation with Natalia. Unlike other times, however, the Melodist pressed forward. As stated, there was nothing else to be done. "I'm glad everyone is all right, though," she continued. "When I read about what happened, I almost thought..." The sentence trailed to awkward silence. Who could say what she almost believed?

[lighthearted]

Tsubaki got an idea of what was going on pretty fast, which Sora was grateful for. The good thing about having confided in her already was that he didn't have to explain as much. On the other hand, it made Sora realize that some of his other friends were only vaguely aware of what was going on, if they knew at all.

If Kairi and Riku were still here, they were going to have a big surprise on their hands. Sora hadn't even done anything to keep it from them, either. He just hadn't seen either one of them since he'd gotten sick.

Sora sighed and started wringing his hands. Thinking about those two seemed to only add to his anxiety, and so he focused on Tsubaki instead. "The fever's better, but I feel really nauseous now. It's not worse so much as different, but... that can't be good either, can it?" He hadn't thrown up or anything yet, which was good, but that might be because he hadn't eaten since yesterday afternoon.

[she_is_ruin]

_{[closed to make room for self-deprecation and angst. :3]}

Rain. Yomi had preferred listening to the soft pounding of the rain than her nurse’s encouragements to get out of bed.

Getting out of bed had not seemed worth it that morning. Day time meant mingling with other prisoners. Day time meant showing her face. The prospect of having to leave her room in full view of the other prisoners and endure the usual activities had made her nervous, there was no denying it. But her wounds were healing quickly enough that hiding in her cell wasn’t an option any more, and her nurse had been quite adamant that she start exercising her body.

“And the first step’s getting some fresh air!” she’d said.

Yomi had, unsurprisingly, said nothing to this. There was no winning, one way or the other. Either she resisted and paid the price, or she gave in to the inevitable and rejoined the prisoner population. Both options were unpleasant.

So it was that Yomi ended up being led into the cafeteria for brunch in reluctant silence. Her legs felt rickety, but not necessarily because of her injuries. Better if she’d gotten the chance to heal herself (and wipe the slate clean), except another unsurprising failure had taken that option away from her.

She sat, and after a moment, pushed her tray aside. Not even dying could instil an appetite in her, it seemed.

[tasteoftruth]

Badd waved his hand dismissively. "I got no time for hobbies. Even retired, there's too much work." And it was a little hard to get a hobby together when one had just been arrested. "I'll appreciate the little things in life when I'm dead. Given all the dead guys walking around here it might actually happen."

A hobby'd be nice, though. He'd planned on finding one if he survived to retirement, which was something he honestly hadn't expected to happen. Not until Byrne gave him a cause to both live and die for.

[thecamellia]

Nausea and a fever sounded like signs of the flu; she was half-afraid that Sora’s low spirits were in part due to dealing with both symptoms at once in worsening degrees. But if the fever was easing up… was that something to be glad about?

“Different might not be bad,” she suggested. Although she took his confession calmly, the look she gave him was still intent. It was difficult to watch people struggle without being able to do something substantial to help. Not yet, anyway. If everybody’s efforts to find some kind of cure paid off, then maybe… “Try not to overthink it too much, that’s when your imagination will take off on you and scare you. But if it’s making you feel really queasy, maybe you should tell a nurse? The morning message did say the nurses will help with symptoms. I’m sure they have anti-nausea medicine.”

And at that point, Tsubaki highly doubted the staff would be slipping people anything suspicious. Landel had already taken care of that.

[skeletonenigma]

"That's not a very healthy attitude," Skulduggery pointed out with a frown in his voice that completely failed to take the place of the smile on his face - a smile which had grown lopsided. "I'll admit, I'm already dead, so you may have a point, but not everyone turns out as lucky as I did. Try playing a game of chess sometime. Or cards. Apparently, if you get a good enough poker face, you can even cheat death, so all your problems are solved right there."

But was he still dead? Was that still something you could say when you'd been thrust into a living body? For the sake of sanity, Skulduggery decided that it was.

He did need food, though. That strange feeling in the pit of his stomach was only growing. Skulduggery stabbed a piece of egg with the fork, just like he'd seen Badd do earlier, and slid it into his mouth before he could change his mind.

[nobleman]

So it had just been a case of oversleeping on the wrong day, huh? Well, that explained why none of them had seen her around Doyleton. Guy wasn't too concerned by the reasoning behind it all, so long as he knew that Tear was all right now -- and she seemed to be in perfect health at the moment, thankfully.

"It must have been strange for you to wake up to things being almost completely abandoned like that," he said. Guy wondered if Tear had come to during the daytime or if it had been after night had already started. Either way, the effect probably would have been the same, except that it would have been much more disconcerting at night.

Still, Tear had clearly handled everything with the normal amount of competence Guy had come to expect from her, so that was the upside. When she trailed off in that cryptic way, though, Guy frowned and regarded her more closely. "Thought what?" he asked. While they hadn't had the calmest of nights, it actually hadn't been that bad in the grand scheme of things.

[tasteoftruth]

"Or be a prosecutor. They can argue their way out of most anything." Now there was a funny image, von Karma arguing death to a stand-still in court. And weren't at least two of their would-be-dead inmates prosecutors? Badd could almost find it likely.

"Don't forget to chew," Badd put in as Skulduggery attempted the next level in food consumption. "You've got better ways to die than choking."

[lighthearted]

It was true that it was easy to let his imagination run away with him in this sort of situation, but Sora didn't think that was necessarily his fault. It was hard not to, when Landel had already hinted that those who were affected by this would end up turning into something bloodthirsty.

Tsubaki was remaining calm, though, and while Sora knew that she was doing it for his benefit, he tried to follow after her example. So long as there were people around who realized that he didn't want any of this to happen, maybe it would turn out all right in the end. Maybe they would be able to call him back to his senses.

The one thing he could focus on was that his mind felt fine, even though his body was riddled with sickness. He glanced over when Tsubaki mentioned asking the nurses for help, though. That thought had obviously occurred to him already, but...

"It just seems like a bad idea to take anything from them when they're part of this whole mess," he said after a pause. Sora didn't even consider himself a suspicious person, but it was hard to take one of Landel's suggestions in this case.

[skeletonenigma]

Right. Chewing. Just the jaw, moving up and down, because his exposed set of teeth wasn't quite so exposed anymore. When Skulduggery had just become a skeleton and was still getting used to the skull, he'd done nothing but chew, because it felt like his jaw was going to fall off otherwise. He was glad to see that he had indeed grown into the well-adjusted skeleton he always thought he was.

Slowly and carefully, Skulduggery mashed his teeth together, pressing his lips closed and generally giving off the air of someone under great concentration, albeit without a facial expression to match. Swallowing food was very different from swallowing tea, but Skulduggery managed it in the end. He was vaguely perplexed to find that he had been concentrating so hard that he forgot what the egg actually tasted like.

"So, Detective Badd, if you've been here for three weeks, what have you discovered? I take it no one's properly escaped, but has anyone gotten close? Is anyone trying anything at the moment?"

[tasteoftruth]

"Oh, everyone's trying. The problem is even if someone's escaped none of them have ever come back to tell us about it." Kay had escaped. Badd had to hang on to that thought or he wouldn't be able to make it through the day. "We reappear in our beds the next morning, or we disappear completely. Sometimes we get 'cured' patients as visitors." He did the fingerquotes to emphasize how it was just another one of Landel's massive lies. "Either brainwashed to parrot the institute's party line or some kind of...fakes, I don't know. Clones, robots, make up your own bullshit. Whatever it is, it's not really them."

If Kay ever showed up here he didn't know what he'd do. It'd hurt. God, he was so sick of this place stabbing him in the heart when the rest of his body was so adept at taking blows and bullet wounds.

[fonichymn]

Strange was an overstatement. Traversing through vacant halls proved to be more unsettling than Tear had anticipated. If not for her typical approach to less-than-standard circumstances and basic logic, she might have let the emotion affect her state. "Strange, yes," affirmed Tear. "I'm almost grateful to Dr. Landel. Without his announcements, I might have been left without any explanation." The details of why did not need to be explained.

Ironically, this brought her to what had been left unfinished. "...Thought the worse," she concluded with a heavy sigh. "I probably have him to thank for that as well. He made two broadcasts last night--both referencing the accident and a 'surprise' in the entry room." She paused suddenly.

"Actually, Guy, did you ever reach the entry room last night?"

[skeletonenigma]

It sounded like the facade of a mental hospital during the day went much further than just nurses escorting them all around the building to their hearts' content. Skulduggery should have expected as much. But how far did that facade go? If he asked a nurse, would they have an entire file on the man he was supposed to be?

"You sound like you've had personal experience," he commented, sliding another morsel of egg onto the fork. He left it up to Badd to decide whether or not to tell him. Skulduggery understood exactly how it felt being betrayed by someone you used to trust, even if you knew the whole thing was a trick, or an illusion, or... clones and robots.

[pullstring]

Though he knew it wasn't what Rita had in mind, Woody couldn't help but imagine in her locked in some at-school brawl. Didn't kids get suspended for that kind of thing? Not that he'd really know. Andy never got into trouble for anything like...well, that.

"Magic," he deadpanned. Not like a magician or a witch, either. Rita, apparently, was a mage from outer space. Which was a really great idea! But the thing that freaked Woody out was the fact that Rita actually believed it. If it weren't for the fact she was so young and obviously needed her parents to help her out of this mess, he would have laughed in her face. As it was, though, the only reaction he could muster was a small grimace. Yeah, the more he thought about it, the more he didn't even want to touch that one.

After finding her in such poor shape, he could at least try to be nice.

So instead he focused on the less magical part of her story and turned his attention onto the whip bit. "Oh, yeah, like with the chain belt you found awhile back, right?"