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

[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.

[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?"

[overlimit]

What was that reaction supposed to mean? Well, whatever. If Woody wasn't going to comment, Rita wasn't going to push it either.

"Yeah, like that. I managed to get my hands on a proper weapon recently, though." It was insulting to receive it as a twisted sort of reward for her involuntary participation in the military's human experiments, but Rita would take what she could get. She'd "thank" them later, as well as the rest of the institute staff.

"What about you?" she asked, finally looking up from her plate, which was now mostly cleared. "Find anything better than a clothes rod yet?" She had to wonder how anyone survived a place like this without a few tricks up their sleeves. If she had to guess, Rita would credit Woody's survival to dumb luck, for the most part.

[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."

[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.