DAY 65: Breakfast

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar came to slowly, vision blurred and head throbbing. His memory of the previous night was vague and somewhat scattered. What he was most aware of was his renewed and increased hatred for the man called Lingormr. The Ishbalan didn't give a damn if he had been a special counseling patient. That bastard had enjoyed every second of tearing Scar to shreds. What he may or may not have realized was how much it had affected Scar emotionally. He had felt a renewed sense of drive at the start of the night; the disruption on the intercom and the news of the 'cure' had rekindled a fire that fueled Scar to drive forward. To have a little hope.

Lingormr had promptly crushed that.

He was in pain. So much pain. The cut on his hand was only fading scab at this point, but stitches now pulled at the deep gashes in his legs and back. Not only had the nausea not settled, but his stomach was beginning to cramp. The rash on his arm was impossible to hide without the old bandages covering it. It had nearly reached his elbow.

Scar's hazy eyes could make out the nurse, now pushing a wheelchair up to his bedside. This was humiliating. And he was too exhausted and hurting to lash out or become angry. He was just broken. He still tried to take some sort of grudging control, insisting that he didn't need to be pushed around, that he could at least turn the wheels of the damned chair himself. But he didn't make it down the hallway before the pulling and sharp pain in his back became so obvious on his face that the nurse took over.

He entered breakfast with a frustrated, tired, but overall defeated look to him. Scar felt too sick to eat. He sat at the table and brooded, wishing more than anything to simply be left alone.

[For Goku!]

Comments

[knightspirit]

... Well, if he really didn't mind. Kyousuke had a feeling that if he were in the same situation, he'd want to consider it as little as possible, but not everyone coped in the same way. It was actually kind of impressive that he seemed to be taking something so horrifying in stride.

"A stomach," he repeated. It gave him the image a cocoon, and something bursting its way out, and he had to grimace, but luckily his appetite at the moment was too strong to be dashed by it. He could only hope there was more to it than that, and that his initial reaction was totally off-base. In light of that, there was one more thing he had to ask: "What do you plan on doing?"

Introductions... Right. "Tsurugi Kyousuke," he responded, nodding in greeting.

[lighthearted]

That name was a mouthful, but Sora had been forced to deal with plenty of those since his arrival here. Not to mention the Organization and their names that all had random x's shoved into them.

"Tsurugi," he repeated, hoping that it would be all right to just get one of the boy's names down. It was still so strange to him how the grand majority of people had more than one name, but it made sense for those who had grown up in large cities.

As for what he was going to do... that was a little more difficult for him to answer. He stared down at the table for a moment. "I don't... I can't die. That's not an option, so if I can avoid that, I'm going to. Whatever's inside me, I've got to get it out somehow." Which meant either finding a doctor or someone who could cut him open properly and then heal him up. Neither option was going to be very easy.

[knightspirit]

"Yeah. Nice to meet you." It wasn't the friendliest greeting, but Kyousuke had never been good at the sort of thing. At least Sora apparently wasn't the type the start out on a first name basis; only his brother ever used his, and he had no real desire to change that.

He fell into silence after that, unsure of what to say. That sounded dangerous, and like fighting something horrible with something almost as horrible, but Sora seemed to already know that. He could offer to help, but he already knew there wasn't a thing he could do, not knowing anything about anything like this, so it would end up as nothing but a worthless sentiment. He wasn't about to give empty words that he couldn't act on. Maybe he'd have to check that room to see if there was anything he could find, but it was a longshot, and he didn't even know where it was.

"...Good luck," he said after a while. He wasn't normally the type to say things like that, but he didn't seem to have anything else, and he did hope he could reverse this somehow.

[lighthearted]

The sentiment was appreciated, even if it wasn't going to help him in any concrete way. Sora hadn't expected something like that in the first place, seeing how Tsurugi was brand new. He was just getting his bearings, so to expect him to have any way to stop this illness would have been unreasonable.

"Thanks," Sora said with a small smile, though once again it wasn't at its usual level of brightness. At least Tsurugi wouldn't realize that. If Kairi had seen him like this, then she definitely would have called him on it.

Why had his friends had to disappear right as this all happened, anyway? It was almost as if Landel had planned it that way.

It seemed like their conversation was going to end there, but then one more thing occurred to Sora. "Oh, by the way! I don't know if you've met your roommate yet, but you probably haven't had a good chance to talk to him." If Tsurugi had seen anyone in his room this morning, chances were they'd only chatted for a minute or two before the nurses had shown up.

"At dinner tonight, you should make sure he isn't sick, just in case something happens. We don't know when the change might happen, after all." Sora felt bad for putting such a terrible idea into the head of someone so young, but Landel's had required him to be on his toes and so he couldn't just ignore it. It was better if Tsurugi was prepared, right?

[knightspirit]

A small noise escaped his throat on Sora's thanks. ... This was frustrating. He was usually at the forefront of things, always for action and effort rather than sitting idly by, so having nothing to contribute left a bitter taste in his mouth. In a team, everyone brought something different to the table. He didn't have that here, and most likely nobody would expect much out of him, but that didn't account for what he expected from himself. He didn't know what to do yet, but he'd figure something out. ... Simply watching everything unfold would be pathetic, and intolerable.

Of course, there was no reason to tell Sora that. Whatever he ended up doing, he'd simply do it. It was the end result that mattered; whether anyone knew of his intentions didn't concern him.

The talk of a roommate distracted him from his thoughts. He hadn't noticed anyone else in the room, either at night or in the morning, but if they all had one, he'd have to meet them eventually. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of sharing a room, but he didn't intend on hanging out in there for very long anyway.

He frowned slightly, at the the talk of checking if they were sick, but ultimately, he wasn't bothered by it; it was only practical. If someone did change in front of him, there was no telling what would happen.

"I'll keep an eye on them. Especially if they are sick," Kyousuke affirmed. He wasn't naive; he knew there was a good chance if someone became a monster, they could hurt someone, or the other way around. Nobody would choose this willingly, so he couldn't let either happen. It wasn't as if it affected him much, but it was the right thing to do.

... That went for Sora, too, he supposed. He wondered if there was a subtle way of asking where to look... Probably not. If it would be obvious no matter how he did it, then he'd just have to take an obvious approach.

"Where are you, by the way? I'll probably want to avoid that area just in case," he said plainly. It was a cruel thing to say, and actually just the opposite of his intentions, but it was for the best. ... It wasn't like they had any particular bond, so if Sora thought badly of him for it, it didn't matter. And it was easier to keep watch over someone if they didn't know about it.

[lighthearted]

Tsurugi took the information without much of a reaction, which Sora was glad for. Actually, it seemed like the boy, despite being new and pretty young, was taking this all in stride. Maybe he was used to this sort of thing? Or maybe he just didn't like showing his true feelings. There wouldn't be the time to figure it out right now, unfortunately, since it looked like the shift was coming to an end.

As for the question asked, Sora didn't take any offense to it. He knew that right now, he was a possible danger, and he was already worried on Link's behalf. His roommate had been warned and now he was armed so he'd probably be able to defend himself, but just the thought was enough to make his stomach cramps worse.

"My room number is M7," Sora said after a pause. "I don't know where all of the other sick patients' rooms are, though. You should watch your back no matter where you are." More and more people were probably going to start changing as the nights went by, which could turn the institute into even more of a madhouse.

Sora really hoped they solved this before that happened.

[knightspirit]

That went over easily enough, and Sora didn't seem to think anything of the fact that Kyousuke would only look after himself while avoiding involvement (or so he was pretending). He had to pause when he heard it, though; it was hard to believe anyone would actually tell someone to look after themselves after being told they were probably a danger to be around. ... He didn't know what to make of that.

"... Worry about yourself," he muttered, the words coming out cold. He stabbed at the remainder of his food with a little more force than was necessary, continuing to eat without another word. He wasn't even sure why, but suddenly he just felt strangely on edge.

[lighthearted]

While Tsurugi's tone was a bit cutting, Sora figured the other boy was just annoyed that he wasn't putting more thought into his own situation, which was pretty dire. Still, Sora couldn't only think about himself, since anyone who might get in his path if he turned was involved too. While they were dark thoughts, they also happened to be necessary.

"I'll do my best," he agreed with a nod, and it was around that point that the intercom went off, explaining that the patients would be split by age for the next activity.

"Oh, I guess we ran out of time." Sora hoped that he hadn't distracted Tsurugi from eating his breakfast, especially since the new arrivals needed to stay energized. He slowly pulled himself to his feet, as the stomach cramps were still in full force. "Good luck adjusting to all of this," he said as they parted ways.