Day 72: Sun Room (2nd shift)

[redcladidealist]

After eating breakfast, Lloyd gathered up his journal and pencil and followed his nurse out of the cafeteria. He made a quick stop at the bulletin to leave a note for Lee, then let her lead him on to take his shower with the rest of the adult men. Not sure how old Lee was, Lloyd kept his eyes peeled for him just in case, but again he didn't catch even a glimpse of his friend's shiny black bowl-cut hair. Okay, no worries. Maybe he was with the kids in Arts and Crafts.

Cleaning up quickly, Lloyd grabbed a towel and dried himself off, then got dressed and headed back to the Sun Room to wait out the rest of the shift. His nurse hovered at his side until he'd situated himself at a table, then she backed up and withdrew to the edge of the room to keep an eye on him from there. He was fine with that. Of course, it would have been better if she left the room completely, but at least she was far enough back that it felt like he had at least some privacy.

While he waited, trying to catch sight of Lee, he pulled his journal back out. As far as he knew, no one else had been to the third floor before. There weren't any maps yet. That was something he could fix. Picking up where he'd left off, the teen went back to his work on the sketch.

[For Tsurugi.]

Comments

[forsworn]

Following breakfast, Kratos had taken a quick shower before retiring to the Sun Room, mostly to check the board. There were a few notes that he glanced over, but on the whole, the chatter that he'd expected about the things that had gone on last night was surprisingly minimal. In some ways, though, that seemed reasonable: the boards were watched by the nurses, so it was likely that anything too sensitive would be taken down or censored in some way.

He gave the board one last look before he went to go find a seat somewhere not too close to Lloyd and Tsurugi, the better to resist the urge to eavesdrop--not that he did that regularly. There were a few empty couches, so Kratos chose the one that looked the most comfortable and sat down. He couldn't think of anything else to do this shift, so he swiftly decided that a short nap was in order.

[--but not if Skulduggery has anything to say about it]

[skeletonenigma]

Skulduggery remembered when Ghastly first installed a shower in the small living quarters he kept behind his shop. Showers were still fairly new at that point - curiously invented before the invention of reliable indoor plumbing - but Ghastly had been exalting them to high heaven. Skulduggery argued, mostly because he'd been bored and arguing was something to do. As a living skeleton, there was never any reason to form an opinion. The only reason Skulduggery might have cared at all was that taking a shower was faster than taking a bath, and it cut down on Ghastly's preparation time in the morning when Skulduggery needed him to tailor a new suit, and fast.

This morning marked the first time Skulduggery actually took one himself. His nurse was happy to see it, but he... didn't really see the appeal. The water was too hot, and then it was too cold, and it wasn't in the least bit relaxing. Doubly so, when the showers weren't private. Skulduggery gave it all of five minutes before deciding he had better things to do with his time. Eating, he could understand. Showering was a luxury he could and would do without.

Despite the short shower, there were plenty of people in the Sun Room by the time Skulduggery walked in. Most were already involved in conversations. He wouldn't eavesdrop, if he could help it, if only because he didn't know how much of what he overheard would make any sense.

There was a man napping on one of the sofas. Skulduggery decided to start there. Someone not actively looking for information themselves had probably been stuck here a while, which would make them a good contact to have. Skulduggery would have bet money on the fact that this wasn't the first time Landel slipped on the intercom, rare though it probably was.

He'd never been sure about how to wake someone up, though. In the end, Skulduggery knelt down next to the sofa and gently tapped him on the shoulder. "Hello?"

[forsworn]

Usually, Kratos reacted poorly to being woken up, but then, no one usually did it gently - or intentionally, for that matter. Thus, while he woke up with a sharp twitch, he didn't automatically reach for the nearest available object that could be used as a weapon and lunge at Skulduggery's throat like he had that one, regrettable time a few weeks before.

As he stared at the man who had roused him and tried to place his face, a small part of him couldn't help but congratulate himself for showing such a remarkable amount of restraint.

"Sorry?" The face was not bringing anyone to mind, although he had definitely seen this man around in the cafeteria; there were few enough of them now that people were recognizable in that way. Kratos sat up. "Did you...need a seat?" Looking around, though, he could see that there were plenty of other empty chairs and couches. So why...? He hadn't arranged some meeting and then forgotten about it, had he? That was possible, although Kratos prided himself on having a decent memory.

[skeletonenigma]

"Hello," Skulduggery repeated when the man started awake, as if that was an important part of the message to get across. And in the interest of good manners, it was. Although good manners probably also had a note on not disturbing sleeping people, and Skulduggery had always found that some breaches were necessary in the pursuit of useful information. Still, it never hurt to be polite.

"Not a seat, no." Although now that the man mentioned it, Skulduggery pulled himself back to his feet by the edge of the couch, and took up the rest of the room on top of it. He still woke up stiff sometimes, and was hoping that a bit of time in a padded seat might solve the problem for him. "I actually have a question for you, if you don't mind. You look like you've been here for a while. The trouble with the intercom last night and this morning - has that ever happened before?"

[forsworn]

[900 YEARS LATER (idk if you still want to backthread, but since we didn't get that far, going to assume yes ^^)]

Now that they were apparently going to have a proper conversation, Kratos sat up. He was being called upon to relay information more than usual today, although he didn't have much objection to that. If people were more aware of what was going on, after all, they might be able to contribute to the cause of getting out of this place, as opposed to wandering around without much direction. Not that anyone did much of that anymore, what with the rebels handing out radios and sending little helpful notes now.

"I see." Thankfully, it wasn't too hard to call to mind another occasion when Landel had been mysteriously absent from the intercom; he had just thought about it over breakfast. "It has. I wouldn't know why, but if I were to hazard a guess, it might have something to do with recent events--did you get a note last night?"