damned_institute | Day 64: Cafeteria (brunch)

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Day 64: Cafeteria (brunch)

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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Sora's conversation with Skulduggery had turned out to be more interesting than he would have expected, considering that Sora was sick and Skulduggery was brand new. Not that Sora had ever been the type to value people on what they knew about Landel's, but it wasn't often these days that he was able to talk to people about their homes and backgrounds.

Of course, he couldn't say that getting close to people here was the best idea, seeing how they kept getting taken away from him, sometimes in very violent ways. He still couldn't get the image of Daemon and Renji's bodies out of his mind. But as much as it hurt, Sora knew that he didn't regret meeting them, even if getting to know them had only led to pain in the end.

His nausea had calmed down slightly after he'd fully woken up, but that changed when he was forced back down the stairs. All he wanted to do at this point was be as still as possible, but Sora forced himself over to the bulletin, this time to write up a message for the club. He was still well enough to do that much, and he wanted to keep up with it for as long as he was able to.

With his message posted up, Sora realized that his next stop was the cafeteria. The last thing he wanted right now was to be around the smell of food, but the nurses weren't giving him any other choice. He let out a sigh and moved to the very edge of the cafeteria, as far from the food line as he could manage, and sat himself down. He rested his arms on the table top and then set his head down on top of them, staring out across the room to watch the other patients filter in.

[For Tsubaki.]

Tsubaki knew she should eat--and knew she could eat, despite the pall that hung over her memories of last night--but somehow it seemed… unfair to go about eating a Sunday meal as if nothing was amiss. The Institute’s innocent façade might have been necessary, but it wasn’t something she wanted to uphold at the cost of sincerity.

She knew trying to subvert their normal routine was more childish than helpful, but she couldn’t bring herself to care about maintaining appearances. Rather than collect her meal like she normally did, once she entered the cafeteria she stopped to take in the room. Kurogane’s tall frame wasn’t easy to miss, but she couldn’t spot him anywhere. In contrast, she almost missed Sora until she looked again and saw him hunched over a table on the very edge of the room.

Oh, poor Sora. If she could have done something to change last night’s outcome, she would’ve done so in a heartbeat.

Quickly, before a nurse could intercept her and foist brunch on her, she went over to Sora’s table. “Hey,” she said softly, reaching out to put her hand on his shoulder. “Can I sit with you?”

The warmth of someone's hand seemed to register before the voice, but either way Sora glanced up, his vision somewhat bleary until he blinked a few times and took in Tsubaki's face.

He really owed her a lot. She had really been there for him this past day or so, when things had been getting pretty bad. There was still no sign of Kairi or Riku, and the thought that they might have disappeared -- maybe even to fates similar to what had happened to Renji and Daemon -- made something twist in his chest.

Sora placed his hand lightly against it. His wound had been stitched up pretty well, to the point that his nausea was more of an immediate concern, but it was still there.

"Of course you can," he responded, sliding his foot forward to catch the leg of the chair next to him and push it out for her. "Thanks again for wrapping me up last night. We're really lucky those birds didn't do any more damage, huh?" At the moment, that was the easiest thing for him to talk about.

Sora looked far from his usual self, which wasn’t much of a surprise given what’d been happening recently. And then there was seeing people you’d known, people you’d worked with, in the state Landel had left them in.

It would horrify anyone. It horrified her, but she hid that part for Sora’s sake.

She rubbed his shoulder. For one of her dear friends back home, she might have put her arms around them and let them know she was there with a hug, but she wasn’t sure Sora would welcome it so instead merely gave his shoulder a small squeeze before taking the seat beside him.

“Yes, I’m glad we were all able to find each other,” she replied. There was a lot that could’ve been said about the chaos those birds had caused, but the fact that they had managed to protect each other was the most important thing. “Does it still hurt today?”

As Tsubaki rubbed at his shoulder, Sora glanced down, staring at her hand for a few moments. It was hard to take solace in the people who were left when Sora knew it was totally possible that Tsubaki was the one who would go missing next.

He sighed, leaning back in his chair as he took in her face. While it was true that she might not be here tomorrow, she was here now, and she was trying to make him feel better. That didn't feel possible at this point, but he couldn't push her away when she was trying her hardest.

It was no surprise that she asked about his injury first, and Sora glanced down again. "It stings a little and feels kind of tight, but other than that, it's not too bad." He paused, wondering if he should bring up the real problem he was suffering from now, which was his nausea. He didn't really want to worry her, but she already knew about his condition...

"Actually, that's not really what I'm worrying about," he said after a pause. He'd told Kratos over the bulletin already, so it was only right to tell Tsubaki too.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“I doubt the staff knows anything about it,” she said lowly, dropping her eyes. Chances were high they were just as brainwashed as Professor Stein had been, innocently going about their jobs without a clue in the world about what went on when they weren’t looking. It‘d been the military that had lifted the curtain a little, but Landel seemed to want to keep the façade running as long as possible. “They must believe it’s only a normal sickness.”

But she didn’t blame Sora for being wary of the medicine the hospital was handing out. If she had been in his place, she didn’t know if she would take a handout or not. They did such a good job taking care of physical injuries, though… Tsubaki would have liked to think that if she was sick, her nurse would be kind enough to try and make her as comfortable as possible.

“People have stopped by the upstairs pharmacy, though, right?” came her next suggestion. “Someone might have medicine of their own.”

She wasn’t sure why Rapunzel’s healing would fail where the hospital’s medicine would succeed, but she wouldn’t be surprised if Landel had set things up that way just because he felt like it. If Rapunzel had been able to work her magic on Sora during the day, maybe things would’ve been different.

Sora knew that the nurses weren't a part of it, but that didn't make him any more willing to accept their help. It wasn't because he wanted to be spiteful toward them, but rather that in the end, Landel had to be supplying the medicine that they were giving out. They could end up handing him something that was bad for him without even realizing it.

Tsubaki mentioned the possibility of other patients having supplies of medicine that they'd picked up in the past, which sounded like a much safer way to get some, if harder to coordinate. Sora felt like it might be best if he just went looking for medicine on his own tonight, but the truth was that the thought of it was tiring on its own.

"Yeah, could be," he said after a pause. "I can try asking around, I guess." He'd already placed up two different notes on the bulletin, though, so adding a third almost felt like he was abusing it. Still, that was what it was meant for, and chances were that other people in his position were also looking for ways to muffle the symptoms.

"It's just too bad we weren't able to make it to the pharmacy last night." Not that Sora was surprised, with the bus crash and everything else. The timing had just been bad. He knew what Snow had been trying to do, but it had backfired in the end.

“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?”

As if Tsubaki wasn't doing enough already, now she was making an offer to go searching for some medicine for him. Sora hadn't yet decided if he was going to rest tonight or try to head out and search for a solution himself. It seemed wrong to just sit back and let other people do the work, even if he did feel pretty sick.

Then again, if he headed out and some sort of transformation started taking place, then he'd be putting other people in danger. Maybe the better thing would be to stay in his room, exactly for that reason.

"I... haven't decided yet," he said out loud, giving Tsubaki a slightly sheepish glance. "Who were you going to search with?" He didn't know if he should be inviting himself along. Maybe it would be better if he just waited for night to roll around and see how he felt then.

“I don’t want to say anything will happen, but… something might.” She frowned, knowing it was the uncertainty and the waiting that posed the worst threats. “I’m sorry you’re stuck in this position. But I think looking for a solution is our best bet; that’s why I want to go, anyway. Otherwise, if you have to stay in I’d stay with you.”

They were excuses but they were the only excuses she could make. She just didn’t have the power to take care of the sick prisoners the way they needed to be taken care of, not on her own.

“This man I met suggested it. Lingormr? I think maybe you know about him?”

She had a point, of course. If there was even a chance that he might end up turning on his friends somehow, then could he really risk leaving his room? Maybe it would make more sense to just barricade himself in his room and try to sleep. The problem was that with how nervous he was, he didn't even know if he'd be able to manage that.

The idea of having someone with him was nice, but Sora didn't think he could agree to it in the end. Not when it was possible he'd turn into something and then attack them while they were in close quarters with him. It had been bad enough seeing his friend's mutilated bodies. If he was the cause of something like that?

He'd never be able to live with himself.

Sora glanced over at the mention of Lingormr. It seemed like that name just kept cropping up everywhere. Sora didn't feel as wary about the man now that he'd talked to him in person, though, and if Lingormr was looking for ways to stop this illness, then it wasn't like Sora could reject that.

"Yeah, we've met," he replied with a nod. "Good luck, then, okay? I... I appreciate you doing so much for me."

When Sora wished her good luck, she nodded back. “It’ll be fine. And we’ll do our best to find something out.”

In the end, striking out in as many directions as they could manage was about all they could do. Although she was worried for Sora as her friend, she didn’t want to continuously nag him about being careful while the investigation went on. He already knew that. And he had to know his friends were behind him until it was over.

It was because Tsubaki considered him a friend that she said, “It’s nothing! I’m sure you’d be there for me or someone else who needed it. Whatever you decide to do tonight, don’t bother going at it alone. We’re stronger when we’re together.”

It was true for everyone, no matter who they were or where they came from.

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Day 64: Cafeteria (brunch)

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