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]

One-hundred percent true, huh? Well, there was a reason why Harvey had never let himself get too comfortable with the other patients here. There were a few exceptions, but for the most part he expected stupidity out of the people around him. Maybe that was part of the reason why they were all still stuck here. If people kept making moves like that -- stuff that was the equivalent of shooting themselves in the foot -- then it was no wonder they hadn't made much progress.

Lana was the one who stood out the most from that group. Sure, maybe she wasn't an android like Zero, but she knew what she was doing and that was what mattered most to Harvey. "She is," he confirmed with a nod, and his tone made it clear that he thought well of her.

There was something that Harvey had vaguely been wondering about since Niikura had taken a seat, though, and that had to do with the fact that the kid had been planning a basement run. Niikura seemed to be in good spirits -- or he wasn't completely down in the dumps, at least -- so Harvey was guessing they hadn't made any progress yet. Still, he was curious. "So, that whole plan with the basement... I'm guessing it didn't pan out?" he asked as he picked up a piece of cantaloupe and carefully placed it into his mouth before chewing.

[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?

[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.

[dualistic]

In a way, Harvey could understand. Shiina was her own person, obviously, and as much as Niikura might worry about her, it wasn't like he could force her to do something she didn't want to. Or to not do something, in this case. He'd gotten past a point where he really cared about someone else that way, but that was because he'd been through the whole song and dance and knew what happened when it didn't go your way.

He wondered if his story would be a wake-up call for his kid. Still, that didn't mean he was going to tell him.

"I guess all you can do is keep an eye on her," he said, shrugging as he took the last few bites of his food. It was definitely getting easier (and less painful) to get things down now. Seeing how the food they were being served was actually good, it helped. Still, it looked like the nurses would be rounding them up soon, so before long he pushed his plate away.

[oneman_onekill]

"Yeah." Niikura too was finishing up his bowl of cereal. "Hopin' things will smooth themselves out somehow." That wasn't very likely, but he'd try his best to make it happen no matter what.

By now, the nurses were starting to move around the cafeteria to collect their charges for the next shift. He hadn't gotten much out of Harvey in terms of new information, but just the conversation had been good enough; all he'd been looking for was a distraction, after all. Info would've just been the icing on the cake.

"Eh..." Niikura let his spoon drop into his empty bowl. "Looks like it's time for the next shift." He stood up and threw one of his sloppy salutes. "See ya 'round, Dent-san."