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!]

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[pullstring]

While he listened to Rita talk, he stuffed a few sweet bites of pancakes into his mouth, savoring the explosion of flavors before he instinctively swallowed it. The more he ate, the hungrier he became, so Woody was content to focus on that for a second.

When Rita turned the question back on him, though, he couldn't help but get a little annoyed. There was nothing wrong with that clothes rod! It had gotten him through some tough times, after all. Instead of owning up to it, though, he casually waved his fork at the girl.

"I'm gettin' there," he told her. "It's not exactly easy finding something in a place like this."

[selfnighted]

And now for mealtime. Maya didn't think she had the mental fortitude left to engage anyone in casual conversation, and she didn't want to discuss other topics at all. Nor could she count on people to humor her.

No, there was one she could think of.... Perhaps she'd go sit by Mr. Creeper Extraordinaire and ask him about his life. If she could find him.

After satisfying her nurse's insistence that Maya's plate be sufficiently piled (perhaps Maya shouldn't have drawn attention to her eating habits after all), she glanced about the refectory with a frown. Perhaps Threepwood was still asleep. She was accustomed to seeing him during meals; surely others experienced the sudden affliction of sleepiness at odd times that Maya did? Perhaps, perhaps not. ...Now then. Maya would just have to sit somewhere with a line of sight to the doors and hope the seats beside her didn't look inviting enough.

[oyaji]

His chewing sped up tremendously, because he had a lot to argue about and he had to hurry before Barnaby moved on to another topic! "Uh, excuse you, there so is!" Wild Tiger finally informed his fickle friend, pointing his clean fork in his direction to drive his point home.

"Jesus Christ Superstar is an opera." Ha, he felt so smart right then! He would show Barnaby just how hip and savvy he was--Not that the movie was all that new and hip, but still! It was the little things in life that you had to stack on each other until they created one giant little thing and it transformed into a robot of worldliness! Yeah!

[skeletonenigma]

A few moments dragged themselves by, and Skulduggery gave a small shrug of his shoulders. "As you said, bigger problems. There's an old Irish proverb in Gaelic. It roughly translates to 'The power fellow will have another day.' It's basically a very pretentious way of saying the more you live through, the stronger you become, and the greater your chances of survival in the future." He paused, and tilted his head. "Not quite as comforting as I remember it."

He needed to find Yomi. She'd left a lot of things out of her explanation the night before. Not that Skulduggery could particularly blame her; she'd had a lot on her plate. But now that he was on more even ground knowledge-wise, maybe she'd be a bit more willing to talk. She was the closest thing to another mage Skulduggery had encountered so far, and he needed to know more about how power was limited here. He needed to know how dangerous he would be if something managed to break through his careful control of his emotions, and how far people should run if that happened.

[baniichan]

"Maybe a rock opera," Barnaby pointedly corrected him, "but the last time I checked, that wasn't the same thing as an opera."

Honestly. Who could confuse that for the Italian classics his parents had listened to when he was a child? It could have been his imagination, but Barnaby thought he could feel yesterday's headache pressing against his temples again.

Lips slightly pursed, he picked up his fork and speared a piece of melon with it.

[complicatedliar]

"I'm certain you didn't intend that to sound nearly as creepy as it did," Loki remarked.

Now he knew who this man reminded him of - Fandral. All that was missing was the ridiculous mustache to match the vacuous self-confidence. While Fandral had never been particularly cruel to Loki, that certainly didn't make him anything approaching a friend.

"All of them," he said. "It's all rather fundamentally interconnected."

[fonichymn]

It wasn't until movement that Tear realized they had stood for some time by the cafeteria entrance. The detail normally would have been passed over as inconsequential, except Guy happened to have a food tray in his possession. After shooting the man an apologetic glance, she followed him to the table and occupied a seat.

Despite the detour, she continued answering Guy's questions. In her option, they were crucial enough to be addressed without pause. "Yes," replied Tear, "though there must have been a quite a few left in the institute as well." Otherwise, the Head Doctor likely would not have bothered with an announcement. Either the man needed a specific message addressed, or he was an extreme narcissist.

She would hardly be surprised if both proved to be true.

With a shake of the head, Tear laid both hands across her lap, fingers clutching the cloth absentmindedly. "I didn't make it to the entry room." An unfortunate fact of the night, but something she was slowly learning to swallow down. "If one of the bulletin notes is correct, however, it may have involved the deaths of two people."

[scarefaux]

Though the nurse was as sweet as ever, the Scarecrow couldn't help but flinch as she put a hand on his shoulder, pulling his attention from the bulletin board he'd been pouring over for the past hour. She frowned sadly as she looked her ward over: his skin was clammy, limbs occasionally shaking, brow twisted with worry he couldn't begin to describe to her. Not that he hadn't tried.

"I'm not seeing anything on the board from my roommate," the Scarecrow said, turning back to the board and flipping through the notes tacked there. "I know he would have said something by now somewhere. I just know it!" He was far more concerned for Depth Charge now, given the events of the past few days. First it was Landel's blatant warning that some people were infected with some sort of something, set to become monsters; then there was the fact the nurses had become monsters right before their eyes only the night before. To see the transformation occur before him was both terrifying and fascinating, their bodies twisting in ways he'd not thought capable of the human form. With Depth Charge being missing, all he could think of was that his roommate had been taken and was soon to be turned into a creature, as well. The mental image of his friend writhing as he changed, face stretching far more than his structure should have allowed, limbs taking an inhuman shape... it all left the former strawman very unsettled indeed. What could be done about it, the Scarecrow wasn't sure- but there had to be something.

He scratched at his hand nervously, not paying much attention to the spot there or how much worse it was from the day before, the rash creeping up his arm. The nurse touched his shoulder again as he pulled at one of the bandages covering his forearms, nudging him in the direction of the cafeteria. He'd need his strength if he was to get well, and having seen how his health was deteriorating quickly, she knew he needed to eat something, anything. He was only going to get worse when he found out the bad news.

The Scarecrow complied, letting her fetch him a tray before leading him to a seat. He scanned the crowd on the way- no tall figures looming over the rest, no blue hair to make him stand out. Another day, and his roommate was still missing. He wasn't willing to give up hope yet. Then again, he'd never been one to be terribly pessimistic about things. He had a seat at the table as the nurse left him, scratching idly at his arm again.

With his mind so preoccupied, it took a full three seconds for him to even realize there was someone sitting before him. He nearly jumped again, spooked; he recovered himself quickly, offering a friendly, albeit unsure, smile.

"How do you do? I hope you don't mind me joining you."

[dividedby]

When a strange, worried-looking man with bandages joined him at the table, Zero made mental note that the stranger existed but otherwise paid him no attention, continuing to take in his morning energy source instead. But then the man suddenly spoke up, and he was half-forced to give him more than a few seconds' worth of attention. Did he really have to talk to this guy? There was a reason he'd tried to sit by himself, after all, and it was not for this.

Hopefully the stranger wasn't expecting some sort of insightful response to that question. Better yet, hopefully he wasn't expecting much conversation period. The once-Reploid wanted to think, not be bothered by pointless small talk with someone he didn't even know. He hoped staring quietly at the stranger rather than responding would get that message across clearly.

... While he was looking at the other man, though, Zero supposed he might as well take a closer note of the guy's features since he had barely glanced up at him earlier. His skin was...unusually rough for a human's, wasn't it? Other than that, there didn't seem to be anything noteworthy other than that he had bandages on his arms (from last night's nightmare, perhaps?) and...wait. What the...that redness on his hand...?

"What's that on your hand?" Zero suddenly asked, his rough tone unintentionally making him sound quite demanding.

[kings_thief]

Locke's opinion of the man was already lowered just from the moment he'd opened his mouth and called Locke over. As he went on, however, it just went from bad to worse. Who the hell did this guy think he was? Locke wasn't unused to being talked down to, it happened enough times either based on how he dressed or just from his own reputation preceding him. But this...this was almost too familiar. It was like how Kefka talked to people and that struck a little too close to home for the treasure hunter.

His fists clentched as the bastard kept talking and the urge to punch that smirk off his face was growing with every second and every word. No one had the right to talk to another person like that, not Kefka and certainly not this jackass. Locke was tired, frustrated, sick, worried, and in pain and this guy was only making all the anger he'd been holding back since arriving here come to the surface.

The whistle and the 'Fido' line were the last straw. The doctor might not have been wearing obnoxious colors and make up, but that same dismissive smile and tone was all the prompting Locke needed.

He pulled back his tightly clenched fist and aimed right for the asshole's face. Consequences be damned.

[nobleman]

Guy hadn't realized that so many people were left behind for the Doyleton trips, but it probably included anyone who slept in. The question was why they overslept in the first place. It seemed like something that Landel had specific control over, so he was essentially deciding who came along and who didn't. There was probably no way of pinpointing why, so Guy tried to leave the thought alone.

He took a few more bites of the bagel, enjoying the fishy taste that come with each one, and wondered if Tear was planning to get herself some food. He was about to encourage her to go do so, but that was when she mentioned two possible deaths.

It wasn't like death wasn't common here, but that didn't make it any easier to hear about. Guy frowned and set down the second half of his bagel. "Do you know who? Were the monsters responsible?" It wasn't like anyone had been given an easy time last night, and those birds had been vicious. Guy wouldn't be surprised if they'd torn some people to shreds, even if the thought was almost enough to ruin his appetite.

[oyaji]

"Pbbhh, whatever, it so is!" Wild Tiger corrected once more. "It's an opera that rocks!" Thus it was an opera. It had the word in its genre! It was practically the same thing.

He just sat back in his seat and waited for his feedback on that stellar pun. Man, even with this cold, the older man hadn't lost his touch.

/you may call me Kefcox from now on!

[notyoursafetynet]

People had hauled off on him before, only the brave ones, but that was still a fair few since there were so many that had the thought to cross their minds. Cox just had that kind of cheery disposition that made people want to get a good shot in, and he knew it. Adding that to the fact that he always knew when there was someone behind him, dodging this newest affront to his personal space was far too easy a task. He spun out of the way and backed off to the side so he could not only admire, but also comment on the wasted effort.

"Now for that, I'd give it a... let's say seven out of ten," he held up the correct amount of fingers before dropping the score to elaborate, "The execution was pretty decent, but you have just got to stick the landing if you want to get those extra points." Giving the air a quick punch, he straightened and continued with another thought. "Of course, if you were aiming for either needles or that dreamy padded room all to your self, you may want to try aiming just a tad lower next time or, better yet, go after someone who isn't used to having people take a few swings. Honestly, you can't believe that was the first time that's happened to me."

So Rin-Tin-Tin did have some bite. Maybe there'd be some bark if he pushed a bit more.

"Just what do you think you are doing, Dr. Cox?!"

His amusement soured when the shrill call of a harpy echoed across the room. Turning his attention and now newfound annoyance at the woman storming over, Cox ground his teeth together and waited until she looked like she was about to speak again for the sole purpose of beating her out.

"You ca--!"

"I was just doing your job, but if you insist on interrupting, then by all means. Let's see how you fare against Spot's newest trick. I'm almost certain... hell, I'm damn positive that watching you take a face shot would make this day suck a heehlluva lot less." And with that, he offered her to have at, waving a hand towards the boy.

[overlimit]

He sounded a little defensive. Rita managed a small grin.

“Do you even know how to fight?” she asked, finally turning Woody’s question back around on him. “You don’t exactly look like the rugged warrior type.” And Rita would know, being acquainted with plenty of those. There wasn’t much reason for her question other than to kill time and feed her own sense of superiority - which wasn’t such a bad reason, in her view.

In the meantime, the mage slid her now-empty tray away from herself, and pulled the pad of paper close. She wanted to write a note for the bulletin, and with only her left hand to move, it was going to take some time to write.

[oneman_onekill]

It looked like Harvey had a healthy respect for a certain Chief Prosecutor as well, and from the sounds of things, they'd worked together before. Funny how those types gravitated toward each other. He didn't really have any interest in either one of them at the moment, but this was something to keep in mind if that changed in the future.

Niikura shook his head as he ate some more of his cereal. "Nah, we're still going for it" - somehow - "but these past couple of days, we've gotten sidetracked one way or another." It was just one thing after another, really, from the mission to last night. What he really wanted to do was drop everything and magically become a brilliant doctor so he could figure out how to stop Shiina's illness from progressing, but she'd been quietly adamant about sticking to their original plan, and how could he really refuse that?

"What made ya think we dropped it?" As far as he knew, he hadn't even mentioned anything about the basement so far, and not even recently on the board unless Harvey was actively stalking his little exchanges with Mike and Shiina. Even those hadn't hinted at plans falling through...weird.

[dualistic]

Apparently he had expected too much. Niikura had to know that Shiina wasn't feeling as ready to take this place on as she'd been when she first got here, and yet he was still allowing her to go through with this reckless plan? It was possible that the girl didn't want to be left behind, but it just sounded like a mess to Harvey.

Then again, what had happened with his group hadn't not been a mess, so it wasn't that he was judging. It was just frustrating to see what was happening and not be able to do anything about it.

It made sense that Niikura wanted to know how he'd come to that conclusion, but Harvey had a perfectly good reason. "Well, I think if you guys had gone through with it already, I would have been able to tell." While he hadn't met anyone else other than his own so-called teammates who had gone to the coliseum, he imagined that after coming out of that you had a certain look about you. And he was good at reading people.

[oneman_onekill]

"Huh." Niikura's head slowly tilted to the side as he considered Harvey's answer. He would have been able to tell? How? Was he supposed to look a certain way? Based on what he'd been told previously, the result of completing all of the basement's challenges wasn't necessarily pretty. So...maybe he was supposed to look a little more depressed or angry.

Actually, he could have easily been either of those at the moment, but Niikura excelled at creating a desired persona, and even though he could sense that Harvey wasn't interested in his goings-on for suspicious reasons, he didn't trust the man enough yet to actually reveal how he was feeling. It was probably going to be the death of him some day, but that was alright: he didn't fear death, for one thing.

"Have you talked to Shiina recently?" It didn't hurt to ask; Harvey already knew that Niikura was always keeping a weather eye out for her. She probably wouldn't be pleased that he was snooping around in his own way, but he figured she would be more honest, just a little bit more, with people that weren't him. It was kind of like stabbing himself in the foot because it wasn't too much of a stretch to guess the real, dismal truth, but Niikura wanted confirmation, however painful it might be.

If she hadn't been honest, well...birds of a feather flocked together, as the saying went.

[dualistic]

That wasn't much of a response, but then again, Niikura had made it clear that regardless of what Harvey said, he wasn't budging on this idea. He couldn't even assure the kid that if he got through the basement, there would be a good prize waiting for him. The caverns hadn't been anything beyond annoying at this point, after all. Nothing life-threatening, but Harvey was just holding his breath for that part.

It was no surprise that Shiina got brought up, and Harvey was surprised that Niikura had held out this long before asking. "Yeah," he replied, "I talked to her on the bus ride into town yesterday."

He could have left it at that, but he might as well give the kid a wake-up call if that was in order. Which it very well might be -- teenagers were notoriously oblivious about stuff like this. "She seemed... out of sorts, I guess you'd say. I think she's starting to realize how much she's in over her head in this place."

And weren't they all?

[baniichan]

Barnaby resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose, and instead took a bite of his fruit. The flavor was mild and mediocre, which was a little obnoxious, but not nearly as frustrating as hearing Kotetsu claim a movie was part of his favorite genre when it wasn't.

"You can keep telling yourself that," he simply told him, "but a rock opera isn't an opera. If they were, you'd probably be begging me to take you to the opera house every weekend." As far as he was concerned, that was the end of discussion.

[mirrorimage]

Even when she was miserable, Nina almost never turned down anything to eat. Food usually helped raise her spirits, and considering the frightening night before and her confusing present situation, her spirits needed some lifting. She seemed more bewildered than miserable as the nurse walked her through the process of getting some food and milk to drink.

At least it definitely smelled like real food.

It tasted like real food too, Nina was surprised to find after she sat down and took a bite. She didn't know why she was surprised. It didn't look suspicious. Too much experience with mediocre hospital cuisine in the past, maybe. Or maybe she just wasn't expecting anything even sort of good from a place like this.

She pushed a piece of food around with her fork and heaved a sigh, before taking another bite. The things Ryuuzaki had told her were still floating around in her head, and for the time being, right now Nina was lost in thought.

[For Edgar!]

[thecamellia]

“It’s just an idea. Don‘t trouble yourself to go looking if you don‘t want to,” she said. “I can always do that if you need it, but if you want to go without medicine, rest might help with the nausea. And water.”

Tsubaki wasn’t terribly surprised that they hadn’t gotten far inside the Institute, either. She wasn’t sure how they could have, after stumbling over what they had in the entryway. The worst kind of ‘welcome back’ surprise.

She straightened and gave Sora a brighter smile. “Hey, tonight I’m going out with someone to look for some clues on what’s making people sick. We’re going to the medical wing, so if I see anything that could help, I’ll bring it back for you. Will you stay in and rest tonight?”

[oneman_onekill]

Well, it looked like Shiina hadn't given Harvey a straight answer either, not that Niikura was surprised, but the other man had also been able to pick up that something was definitely Not Right. 'Over her head' was certainly a new way of putting it, even though it fit the situation perfectly. Shiina really was in over her head, but the problem was that she didn't have much of a choice about it--well, she did, but she was choosing to not do anything about it. They had this weird thing going on where neither of them could decide on who needed to be protected more - her, the classic damsel in distress, or him, the endangered species - and all it was doing was putting them both in danger. They really needed to get that straight one day...

"Thought you'd say somethin' like that," Niikura said, letting just a hint of the doom and gloom bleed in. "I've noticed it too. Can't do much, unfortunately." Locking her in would mean locking himself in as well, and that would make both of them just as miserable, if not more than they were right now.

[scarefaux]

The Scarecrow had been expecting a greeting or an opportunity to give the man before him his name; what he received was something far rougher and more intimidating, especially given the previous night and his state of mind. He glanced at his hand, one still scratching the other, the red marks trailing under the bandages on his forearms.

"Oh, this?" he asked, holding his hand up for confirmation as though there could be another hand with red marks in question. "I don't know, honestly. It doesn't feel at all well, though. It's as though I can't scratch it enough."

[oyaji]

Wild Tiger laughed and relented. "Okay, okay, fine! But still, it is something I've wanted to see and it's perfectly plausible that it does rock ins some capacity." He had heard a few of the songs when he was younger in passing or through a co-worker. It was definitely his kind of music.

"So, how 'bout it? We should watch it, you know, together!" The older man was getting a little ahead of himself (the movie hadn't even been picked by the patients yet), but that was nothing new. He was genuinely excited about this and he wanted his partner to share in that energy with him, even if it wasn't the young man's usual style. "We need to broaden your horizons," he ribbed.

[baniichan]

At least Kotetsu could admit he was wrong about them being the same genre, even if his anticipation for possibly getting to watch that particular film hadn't waned.

Secretly, he was rather pleased Kotetsu would offer to spend time with him even if it wasn't for any specific purpose aside from waiting for Nightshift to come. But with how preoccupied Barnaby was with a lot of things today, he wasn't sure if he'd make for good company.

"This isn't really the time for things like that," Barnaby sighed as he lowered his fork.