Day 66: Breakfast

[nobleman]

What Guy had seen on that scan resulted in some mixed feelings. While he had expected to find something in Claude, seeing how he was sick, it hadn't been quite the same as what they'd seen when they had scanned that other ill patient two nights ago. What did that mean? It was possible that the shape of it just looked different because of where it was in Claude's stomach, but Guy couldn't help but feel that there was a deeper meaning to it.

Yet another thing that he didn't understand, then. With a sigh, he got himself up out of bed and went searching immediately for the single leaf that he'd taken from the X-ray room last night. It was stored carefully in his possessions box, which meant that he didn't have to worry too much about that.

While he wanted to quickly sketch the leaf's general shape to post on the bulletin, Guy wasn't given that chance, as his nurse showed up before he could even grab for his journal. He had to relent and let her lead him to the cafeteria for breakfast. While Guy considered stopping by the bulletin to leave a note, that could wait until after he ate. He suspected that Anise or Luke would try to find him as soon as possible to tell him about their findings, so leaving a note for them would be redundant.

He did need to ask about the clue from last night and see if anyone else had further insight on it, but that might be something Claude wanted to do, seeing how he had a better idea of who that baptist was and what it all might signify.

After collecting a small amount of food onto a plate, Guy took a seat near the cafeteria's entrance, keeping an eye out for any of his friends so he could flag them down as they walked in.

[For Anise and Claude.]

Comments

[unpriest]

Seishin might not have known what to expect of the last remaining unknown of the basement, but being subjected to the advances of a talking skeleton who had ended up mistaking him for a woman was something he had failed to anticipate. The ordeal had quickly evolved into lie, a fragile facade that would not hold forever. One that was unnecessary in the end, considering passage across the lake into whatever twisted Hell lay beyond came with a price. Alas, how to break the truth to their only ferryman?

But with the arrival of dawn came the sudden awakening back in his room, and he bitterly realized that Silvestri-san's payment had been for naught. Was any of the trials that awaited them truly worth the end result? It was not the first time Seishin wondered, but the only answer was to press on, to keep walking in that maze until fate would decide to put him out of his misery. He had already strayed from its path, it was a matter of time before he would be lost without hope of salvation. If only he could confirm that Sunako was safe before finding an ending, that was all he had to hold on to.

There were already people in the cafeteria, and though Seishin would have preferred to eat in solitude, the nurse once more deemed the novelist incapable of making his own decisions under the assumption that he 'should make more friends'. Any feelings of resentment never quite made it to his facial expression as he was led to a chair across a stranger -- years of being Sotoba's puppet had forced him to hone the art of hiding his inner darkness none would care to see.

"My apologies," he offered quietly to the other man once the nurse had left, "I did not intend to disturb you."

lol works for me o/

[awokentospring]

While Lee was not often called out on his look anymore back home he did understand that his tastes in style did still often draw attention. It usually wasn't friendly either, but he believed he could turn any frown into a smile! Unwilling to let her less than chipper greeting get to him, the Leaf shinobi gave her a grand smile.

"Good morning! You are correct in assuming I am a fighter, but this," Lee gestured to his broken arm with his unbandaged hand, "is not from the nursing staff. They are a very friendly bunch!" His nurse was, anyhow.

"Actually," Lee leaned in close, lowering his voice a bit but not by much, "this is an injury I acquired during an escape attempt. We made it out the door, but a terrible wolf-like monster attacked." Luckily, no one was fatally wounded, though that very well may have been the end result had not they all held some fighting skill.

[thecamellia]

The girl didn't even bother to try and hide her own relief; she exhaled deeply and fixed Leanne with a smile that still carried some residual tightness at the corners. "I was worried something bad had happened, that..."

Well, the worst hadn't come to pass, so what was the point in giving voice to unfounded fears?

"I'll live," she assured more brightly. "No need to worry, I've seen worse fights than that." Granted, Tsubaki had never had to fight one of her own friends without a meister to use her in one of her weapon modes before, but a few claw marks were a small price to pay. Sora was (for now) back in his right mind. And Leanne was in one piece. Those were two huge weights lifted off of her shoulders.

[impudentsongbird]

"As a matter of fact, it did," Gabriel answered with a smile, remembering the chill of walking down those corridors, all alone, and how comforting just having the rosaries had been. Then the smile faded somewhat. "And yes, I did. It wasn't exactly the kind of evening I would've wanted to spend with family, but with luck, he'll be feeling much better this morning. He was--ill."

The Archangel couldn't help but falter, and he glanced across the room to the nurses again. Turning into monsters. A prickle ran down his spine and Gabe shuddered, then turned back to his breakfast, biting his lip as he looked down at it. Truthfully, he didn't feel very hungry at all. Still, it would be better for him to eat, so he picked up his cutlery.

"What were you doing that made the night before last so frustrating?" he asked. "It sounds as though last night was more successful, at least."

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar glanced up at the unfamiliar man who had just spoken to him. He wasn't particularly in the mood for speaking with anyone, but the Ishbalan had never seen this other patient before. That meant that he could very well be new.

In which case, he had some explaining to do.

"No, it is not." Scar took a bite of his breakfast, his demeanor stony but not entirely closed off. "Have you only arrived recently?" He spent most of the time eyeing his breakfast, occasionally glancing up at the other patient. The Scarred Man's social skills were far from stellar.

[skeletonenigma]

"It was," Skulduggery nodded. "We still don't have anything to show for it, but third time's the charm." He shifted back in the chair, but no position was really more comfortable; the one he'd settled into was, if anything, increasing his headache. "The first time, we were attacked by a zombie that could control vast amounts of hair. Very unique. Decomposing, which was about as much fun as it sounds." Skulduggery eyed the wrapped sausage in front of him. For all he knew, eating it would turn it into the same bits of rotting flesh that covered his face for so long that night.

It was almost easier to think about the zombie now. In a way, it was better than the hallucinations. At least it was something Skulduggery could punch. He sorely missed being able to punch most of his problems until they went away.

He glanced back up at Gabe after a second. "Ill." Like Sora had been? No wonder Gabe was looking so worried now, with what the end result was implied to be. "Feverish and a rash on his arm? You managed to cure it?" Skulduggery had heard about the stomach surgery some people seemed willing to try, but to think that anyone might have done it without any medical supplies to speak of?

[asteroidbelt]

"Thanks..." Ryusei answered after a moment's hesitation. He slid into the seat a bit too earnestly, but that was deliberate. He wanted to portray himself as harmless to this scary-looking man but not so much as to be an easy target. 'I'm only a teenager but I'm not going to be obnoxious or overly ingratiating,' as it were.

An inquiry about the doctors' schedules was on his tongue, but Ryusei thought better of it when the other man got his question in first. Was it obvious that Ryusei had only just arrived? ... How did people act in a place like this, anyway? There was his first blunder; he should have observed the situation better. Too hasty, he admonished himself. It wouldn't matter much in the long run; if he refuted everything the doctor (whoever he or she was) claimed Ryusei had said, he'd likely be able to get out quickly. But it bothered Ryusei that he couldn't remember being admitted or what, in fact, he had said that had landed him here.

"—Can you tell?" he answered with a smile that came out uneasy despite his attempt to control it. "What gave me away?"

[idolism]

_[free.]

Time and the security of night’s embrace, two things a vampire was supposed to have in abundance. A long-lived creature like himself wasn’t supposed to feel unease after sundown and cringe at the passing of every minute--it just wasn’t natural. They ruled the night, the night didn’t rule them. But Landel’s Institute had turned the tables and it was all Aidou could do to bite back his frustration at another unsatisfactory nightshift.

Aigis was sicker and ever, and now Sasuke was… who even knew! Missing, or dead, or back to napping for days on end. The basement remained a mystery and Aidou only had bits and pieces to go on where the “cure” was concerned. All in all, not a successful venture by any stretch of the imagination.

And he was hungry.

After reading over the bulletin, Aidou slunk into the cafeteria and sat down with his tray in as shadowed a corner as he could find. He was almost too tired to even be angry; mostly he was too busy trying to organize his thoughts and put the facts in their proper order.

[atrabilis]

If he had sense to spare, Nigredo might have exercised greater discretion.

A faltering constitution and dwindling wits proved to be quite the obstinate barrier, however, and he easily slipped into careless behavior. He paid little attention to his surroundings, allowed his nurse to drag him to his "morning obligation", and for once, the child could not gather the fortitude necessary to seek out his partially absent brother.

Instead, his body prioritized survival above all else. Whether this would come to naught remained to be seen.

He did, however, managed to wear a sweatshirt to cover the rash pressed into his arm. As long as no one looked too closely, Nigredo was nothing more than a body. An overly warm body with arms draped over his head, perhaps, but practically harmless. After all, monsters did not enjoy their impromptu naps against the cafeteria tables.

[Free!]

[gald_digger]

It sounded like Guy and Claude made it to the X-ray Room and finished what they planned to do. That was a good thing, at least. Hearing that they’d received another vague clue made Anise groan. If the people leaving those clues were on their side, couldn’t they just leave a note or something!? It was like they were making this difficult on purpose, even though people’s lives were on the line.

She wanted to hear what it was anyway, in case they could figure something out together, but the latter bit of Guy’s report struck her as more important... and worrying. Though she seriously dreaded what a different-looking object in the stomach could mean, Anise knew she had to hear more.

"... Different how?"

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar only shrugged.

"I have never seen you before." And the boy had the disoriented look about him. Although Scar was never one to intentionally reach out to others, if a kid sat across from him, he wasn't going to ignore. It was sick, all the young people that showed up here. That was what bothered him the most about this hell, really.

"The nurses tell you lies. Do not listen to them, but do not retaliate against them. They are more powerful than any one of us. When night falls... there are monsters in the halls."

That was it, in a nutshell. Scar waited for the inevitable further questions.

[complicatedliar]

Loki smiled thinly. "Because it amuses the man in charge of this place to watch all of the little rats squeak at each other as they run his maze."

"Ah, I'm afraid I'm not familiar with either of those gentlemen. As I said, I haven't been here terribly long myself."

Loki made a mental note of the person. "I can see. It is a relief." Loki stirred his fruit meditatively. "Though it seems that people don't tend to stay dead, here. Or other times, when perfectly healthy they vanish entirely and we're only informed that they've been 'released.'"

[survives]

"Yeah..." She let out a breath of her own, her shoulders sagging. Nothing. There was nothing to worry about, at least not for the moment. "Me too, but... I'm really glad you're okay. It didn't look so good last night..."

But what was the point in bringing that up again? The important thing was that they were both safe and sound, even if they hadn't exactly gotten to do what they'd wanted. As long as they were still safe... Everything else would work out itself out. It just had to.

"It kinda' took us by surprise though, huh?" Leanne asked, keeping her tone light and the smile on her face. "We're really gonna have to keep our guard up next time."

[forsworn]

The corner of Kratos's mouth twitched briefly as Ishida played off of his "fashionably late" comment, before he sighed deeply, straining to recall exactly what had happened that night some two weeks ago. "We left eventually. Don't think too much about it." There had been many nights where nothing had been accomplished; he had never held any of them against people and did not intend to begin doing otherwise.

"As for these past two weeks--" Whatever he was about to say, though, was drowned out by his name, shouted for the whole cafeteria to hear, and for a second, he flashed back to a time that seemed so long ago by now, that same loud, angry voice demanding yet another explanation (The Renegades and Cruxis are enemies, aren't they?!) as the thing he'd dreaded most slowly unfolded (How does it feel to have your own son reject you like that?).

It was unfolding again. He didn't even need to turn to know the owner of that voice, that voice that instantly captured all of his attention, that voice that he'd thoroughly tuned his ears to catch whenever possible, that he'd hoped he'd never hear while still within the Institute's grasp and yet that he'd always wished for ever since Nigel and Lise had crossed his path--

Something like a mixture of fear and shock crossed Kratos's face, so great was the blow. He had contained it well, back then, at Altessa's house, but there he'd had forewarning. Here, it was if he was standing in front of her grave again for the first time, when the realization had first struck him, that his son was alive, and that he could be thrust into incredible, life-threatening danger.

And then, below that, a familiar current of despair. Once again, the two of them were standing in the midst of a familiar fog, as on that night, one step from clarity and the truth, and as much as he needed to act otherwise, Kratos knew that by his own will, he could not take that step. Were it not for Yuan, he and Lloyd would probably have continued on, one in blissful ignorance and the other in - as usual - self-imposed agony. And he would impose it on himself yet again, to protect his son from the weighty crimes of his father, or so he would convince himself.

He looked down and closed his eyes as he summoned the effort it would take to play the man Lloyd was expecting to meet. Be calm. Detached. Ice. It turned out to be easier than he expected, drawing upon the familiar coldness of an angel of Cruxis, and soon, Kratos dared to look over his shoulder, expression stony, guarded--and ever so slightly irritated.

"Good morning, Lloyd."

The usual patronizing note in his voice rang awkward and foreign to his ears, even though to any other, he would sound no different, and unbidden, his shadow once again whispered in his ear: You do not deserve him. That guilt he'd thought defeated was surging back to life, the knowledge that he was too weak to forgive himself, that he was willing to deny Lloyd the thing he had been searching for longest, his father's identity, because he feared the rejection more, could not bear to bring down the greatest of his shields...

By this point, someone had also taken notice of Ishida, a girl - he could see her orange hair out of the corner of his eye - but Kratos could not seem to divert any of his attention to this new intrusion.

"Congratulations. You've figured out my nefarious scheme."

[scarefaux]

The Scarecrow had the best intentions in the night: determined thoughts of leaving his room, wandering the hallways until he either found or thought of a cure for the infection, ridding himself of it, then making as much progress as he could toward one of his many goals. They needed to find a way out; they all had friends they had lost, ones who needed help because they were bewitched by Wizard Landel. He wasn't sure how to help them with his brain as muddled as it was from what he could only assume were effects of the sickness, but he was sure if he put his human mind to it, he could accomplish anything. He was getting nowhere by not trying, right?

He was also getting nowhere when he ended up staying in his room all night, weariness having set into him in the day, robbing him of even the strength to walk. The same exhaustion pushed through until the morning- though the day was early, he could already feel his limbs fighting against him, his stomach grumbling for reasons unknown. He had a hard enough time distinguishing the various sensations of the human body from one another, which wasn't entirely surprising given his unfamiliarity with them. His bare feet on the floor had once felt so pleasing in a way he couldn't describe- that sensation no longer seemed to be there as he was instead riddled with one that left him sweating almost constantly, his breath unsteady as if he'd been running from one of the witches of Landel's, body trembling nearly all the time.

The nurse gave him the same sad look she'd given him when she'd left him at his door the night before, offering him a few pills to take with his breakfast- he took them with a brave smile, scratching idly at his arm as he wondered what that strange gurgling sensation in his middle was. She wore a lighter mood that day, a small and hopeful smile on her lips as she'd found something— correction, someone— who might cheer him up, despite his fatigue. She collected a few items for him onto his breakfast tray, insisting he stay away from the food, chattering as she came back to him.

"Now you take a seat with your friend Mr. Irons," she offered, setting his tray on the table. "You remember him, don't you?"

Even before she asked, the Scarecrow was sliding into his seat, a smile wearing its way into him. The nurse hummed as she wandered away, pleased to see her sickly ward so lively for a change.

"Scar!" he said hoarsely, voice raspy. He would have hugged the former lion had there not been a table in the way. "And here I thought I might never see you again!"

[stop_the_rain]

Murphy glanced up and shook his head at the younger guy. Disturb him from what? Staring at his breakfast?

"Not exactly working on rocket science over here," he mumbled, gripping his fork but not lifting it to eat. What was the point? Even if it was good food, what was the damned point?

But that wasn't fair, and the little rosary in his room was proof of that. There was a point, somewhere, there always was. He didn't get it, that was all. God worked in mysterious ways and all of that, but it was starting t drive Murphy mad. In the Bible, God had no problem just telling people what He meant or wanted. Or at least sending His angels.

Murphy had gotten Silent Hill and now this.

"You're not bugging me, I mean."

[age_of_kings]

Honestly, despite his condition - of course he'd feel sick to his stomach at breakfast! - and what had transpired the night before...Tolten was hopeful. It could have gone so very much worse. And while he was sore and miserable and couldn't choke down even the tiniest bite of food, at least he knew Locke was physically alright.

Mentally and emotionally, well....

The young king was already nervously watching the door, waiting for a glimpse of the other man. He couldn't even begin to imagine what Locke had to be feeling this morning. But he supposed he still had a chance to find out. He still felt as though he were walking with one foot in the grave, and the mental and emotional toll of this place seemed to make it worse.

Perhaps he wasn't as hopeful as he'd thought...

[For Locke!]

[lighthearted]

Another way? Sora was open to just about anything at this point, and willing to try whatever might work. If he was going to consider something like surgery, then chances were he'd be up for whatever Tsurugi had in mind, too. Still, the other boy didn't seem interested in giving out that many details just yet.

"Let me know as soon as you can, then," he said, doing his best not to sound demanding. The problem was that he really only had the duration of the day shift to work this all out, and that felt like way too little time to try and organize anything.

As for locking him in, that was possible, but not the most fullproof of plans. "I'm... strong, when I'm like that. And I won't give up, either. I'll ram that door or claw through it somehow." He didn't like having to talk about how he behaved while he was the Anti-Form, or to acknowledge the fact that he could guess what he'd do when he was in that state. Still, thinking ahead like this might be the only thing that stopped him when the time came.

[nobleman]

It was hard to explain, and so Guy took a few bites of his food as he thought it over. For one thing, he wasn't a doctor. For another, it wasn't like they had copies of the scans to compare, so he was only going off of memory.

"Well, with the first patient... Barnaby was his name, right? It looked like a butterfly. You could see the wings, and the body. With Claude, whatever was in him was more cylindrical. It may have just been that it was positioned differently inside of him, but..." He paused and shrugged. It was only a small detail and it might mean nothing, but it had been worth noting.

Of course, talking about his friend's guts was enough to almost ruin his appetite, and Guy was left to stare down at his food for a moment. But he had to remind himself that he wasn't sick, that his stomach wasn't rebelling against him and making it impossible to eat. That thought spurred him to take another bite.

[mirrorimage]

Nina had awoken in far less happy spirits. She, Ryuuzaki and Lana had made more progress than she'd been able to make on previous nights but they still hadn't found a cure. It ate away at Nina, to think they still didn't have any way to fix what had happened to so many people around the institute.

Still, she was determined not to give up or let herself become desolate, either. She didn't speak much to her nurse on the way to the cafeteria, simply letting the woman guide her around. She did ask to be let fill up her own tray, a request to which her nurse relented.

Choosing where she sat would not be permitted, though. She was guided to where a young woman sat in a wheelchair, at an empty table. "Why don't you sit by Maria?" the nurse suggested, depositing Nina across from Soma before departing.

Nina blinked at the other girl now sitting across from her. "Hello," she said, a little awkwardly, before offering a smile. She couldn't help noticing the wheelchair and feeling the same spark of anger she'd been feeling every time she saw another injured person around this place.

What it was, Nina wasn't sure, but it certainly was no hospital.

[albuquerquesnorkel]

[eep sorry for the delay!]

And for the second time in so many minutes, Riley suddenly woke up back in that generic hospital room with no sense of any time passing, or even of having fallen asleep. Only this time, the lights were blazing, and the door - when he tried it - was locked.

Where was Ishida? What happened to that demonic-looking bird... thing? What was happening to him?

The baseball bat had been stuck into the closet by someone that wasn't him. The flashlight was back under the pillow, the radio back on the desk. Other things had probably changed, but Riley didn't have time to check on anything else before the doorknob rattled, and a smiling nurse came in.

"Ah, Mr. Lewis! Were you planning on sleeping the whole day away?" she chirped, acting for all the world like any of this was normal. "You almost missed breakfast! Come on, let's go get you some food."

Riley stood perfectly still for a second, and then slowly shook his head. "I'm not, no. I'm not... my name isn't Lewis. It's Riley. Riley Poole."

Was it just his imagination, or did the nurse's expression grow pitying? "I know it feels like that now, but we're here to help you. And that starts with some of the most delicious food you've ever tasted. Aren't you hungry?"

Riley realized his mouth was open. He quickly closed it. "Yeah," he finally responded, remembering that Ishida had said something about a mental hospital. "Um... where exactly are we?"

"Landel's Institute, remember? Stop delaying, Mr. Lewis. It's time you tried to build up relationships with other people. Let's find you someone nice to talk to for breakfast. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?"

"I don't... Look, I don't have any... what?" Riley had been swinging a baseball bat at a bird a moment ago, and now... Wait a minute. Didn't the bat hit Ishida? Oh god. The bat hit Ishida by accident. The poor kid may have been slightly out of his mind, but he didn't deserve that! "There's... there's got to be some kind of mistake here, okay? Can I talk to a doctor? I don't belong here, but there's someone who does, and I think he's hurt-"

But his protestations fell on deaf ears, and Riley eventually gave up as the nurse led him out of the room. He'd just have to try and find a doctor later and sort all of this out. He tried to ask the nurse about what happened last night in the meantime, and why no one had been patrolling the hallways, or even - as he was growing desperate - what kinds of birds lived around here and how big they could grow, but most of his questions were waved aside with a blank smile, and then a plate of food.

"Angela here has been feeling a little under the weather lately," his nurse commented as she put the plate down across from a blonde girl who looked about Ishida's age. "Maybe you can help cheer her up, how does that sound?"

The nurse bustled away before she could hear Riley's tight-lipped answer of "Great. Just perfect."

With nothing else to do and a growling stomach, Riley slowly sat down and gave Angela an uncertain smile. "Hi." He pointed at the retreating nurse. "Aren't they supposed to answer questions?"

[knightspirit]

"I know," Kyousuke responded, and left it at that. He couldn't make any promises, and asking someone to put their faith in someone they'd barely even met would be unreasonable. So, there was really no point in giving out reassurances, or asking him to believe that he'd find a way. If he wanted him to think that, then he'd have to show him first, and right now, he couldn't.

He did believe Sora when he said he thought he could claw his way out of the door. Kyousuke could probably break it down himself—he'd done it before—and Sora seemed to be stronger than him when he was in that state. He had a good idea of how to drive him back if he tried to attack now, but that was a problem too; he couldn't predict where he'd run, and once he was gone, he wouldn't be able to catch him again. Then, what, did he just fight back and hope for the best? He was stronger and faster than a human like that... And so was Lancelot, but he wouldn't have the room to use something like that inside.

Then maybe the key was to do it while Sora was still human. He didn't like it, but what choice was there?

"... I can knock you out while you're still human," he said after a pause. He'd never actually tried that before, but he knew he was strong enough, and thanks to Gouenji-san, he knew exactly where to strike—he'd once seen him knock a man unconscious using only a single hit from a soccer ball. "You can't do anything while you're passed out."

[repelling]

Any retort as to how little thought he gave it ranked lower than listening to what Kratos-san could explain of the last thirteen days. Further, given the sigh -- not from, he thought, frustration at the memory so much as the effort to recall something insignificant -- it truly did not merit any extended focus.

Uryuu listened as Kratos-san began, and he jumped when the shouting of the man's name interrupted him. He turned irritably toward the disturbance, not that he much needed to, as the guy marched over, his fury arguably radioactive. Cruxis, Renegades; either he was insane or he knew Kratos-san, but Uryuu did not much care either way, unimpressed with the spectacle and annoyed at losing his explanation.

His explanation and his peace, as all that shouting wreaked a new hell on his head.

Opening his mouth to advise him to shut up for everyone's sake, as well as his, as much more commotion and he'd draw a nurse and her needle over, Uryuu looked first at Kratos-san. An arched look, meant to be shared, a really? at this moron. What he saw on his face stopped him cold. Emotion, complex, quick, subtle, and shaded. Of course-- if the guy knew Kratos-san, then Kratos-san knew him. The simplicity of the rage directed at the man ill fit with the fluctuations in him; something uneven and mismatched, here. It happened swiftly, and Uryuu glanced between them, words dried, as Kratos-san schooled himself.

Lloyd, he said, and more than good with names, it struck a chord of familiarity. That night-- but more importantly, much as Uryuu understood the impulse to react as Kratos-san had to such overdone anger, he suspected that might only set the guy further off (he had experience doing much the same to another loud, temperamental idiot, and the next step sometimes involved Uryuu getting manhandled), and there were nurses to consider. Feeling distinctly out of place now, he ducked around that hesitation to say as much (after all, he was sitting here, much as this Lloyd hadn't bothered to notice).

He never got his chance. Another commotion barreled toward them; out of his periphery he saw those miniature frankfurters tumbling from a tray, over a skipping step, and above that-

And she stopped right in front of him, all wide eyes and bright hair, streaming words, all Inoue-san.

Uryuu jumped again, now with such shock he fell half onto the empty chair on his other side, then scrambled to his feet. Just aware, dimly, that he'd dropped his fruit cup down his front. The plastic bounced sadly under the table.

"In-Inoue-san?!"

Though she questioned him with concern, he could not yet answer, reeling. It had always been a possibility; his few days here had not even settled him into a routine of expecting less. If he had gone and returned, then knowing that she too had been here made it all the more likely. Seeing her standing real, solid, and unmistakably her, was another thing entirely. Relief that he no longer needed to seek her out as well beyond the gates, and risk still that the girl he found might only have been a copy, fast fell beneath a surge of blinding fury at this place for taking her, for doing this to her as well, and dread at what might come later. Unforgivable. Beyond justification. His nails dug into his palm, and the pricks pulled him back.

Cycling through these, Uryuu stood gaping, and as the more intense of the emotions passed, details struck him: her longer hair, noted especially at her bangs and the layers below. Her height had not changed, but-

Understand, that as his eyes flitted down over her in that matching, ugly uniform (not quite as terrible on her, but for the meaning of it), it was only because of his instincts as a tailor. A fledgling one, who would not dare to even presume to call himself that, but he did have a knack for judging measurements at a glance, and had designed her a shirt before they left Soul Society.

Thus, only for that reason, really, did he realize that while Inoue-san had not gotten taller, she had grown... elsewhere.

Really.

Really!

...anyway, her face also looked a little older, so there. Not that he was an expert on her f- never mind. Was she...? His awareness of what could be done in tampering with timelines did not make this less jarring. It probably did not much matter. A curiosity if they had somehow come from diverged timelines, yet he wondered at the wisdom of inquiring. Likely he would not remember regardless, but to prioritize preventing misfortune and risking history, or preserving the sanctity of what was meant to pass? Meant to had such a disagreeable flavor it; he much preferred choice.

As he mused, he realized they still stood there, and he had said nothing else.

"Er-"

Right, her question.

"An idiot with a bat," he said, blinking rapidly, one eye more than the other. "More importantly-" no, she had glanced at the one called Lloyd, and Uryuu interrupted himself to look as well.

"If you don't calm down, you'll be in for a nasty surprise," with one hand gesturing at the nurses dispersed throughout the room. As the other wiped the mango off his shirt. Coolly. As if it was cool. Everyone spilled fruit on themselves.

Back to Inoue-san, his gesturing hand now grasping at and pushing his glasses. "...Inoue-san." Quiet, overcome in yet another long look, then: businesslike. "How long have you been here?"

He had not felt her reiatsu last night, but had only searched at the start. Stepping back from the table, he debated between motioning for her to sit there and finding a place less chaotic.

[ ooc: wow such gross tl;dr SORRY ]

[lighthearted]

There was an idea. If he passed out before he even turned into a Heartless, then he would be completely ineffective once the inevitable did happen. Sora nodded, because it was a better idea than anything he'd come up with so far.

"We can try it," he agreed, "but you really don't have to get involved in this again, you know." Sora didn't want to hurt Tsurugi again, not when the boy had been nothing but kind to him in the grand scheme of things. He didn't know why Tsurugi had gotten so invested in this so quickly, and while it was touching, it also worried him. Wasn't he dragging enough people into this already?

Then again, Tsurugi's room had to be close to his, if he'd been out in the hall so soon after the doors had opened last night. So he might be the only one who was capable of reaching him before he started to turn.

"...I might wake up again after I turn, but maybe that would buy some time to barricade the door." There was only so much that a berserk Heartless could tear through, right? Sora hoped so.

[knightspirit]

When Sora suggested he Kyousuke simply snorted. "Isn't it a little late for that?" he responded dismissively. Turning away just wasn't an option for him. He didn't have a real reason for it, but then, he didn't need one. ... Raimon spirit, he supposed. His friends might not be here, but this was them. This was how they always did things.

"It's worth a shot," he agreed. If Sora was out, that would probably give him enough time to move some things, or maybe get him somewhere, if Kyousuke managed to find the answer he was looking for. He kept that part to himself, though. There was no reason to bring that up until it was actually an issue. "... I'll take care of it. I'm close, and I know how to respond if something goes wrong this time."

It was also simple enough that he could handle it on his own, so nobody else had to dragged in if it got messy. But with luck, it wouldn't. In the meantime, he'd just have to think about how to actually help, instead of of just delaying things.