damned_institute | Day 26: Cafeteria, Lunch

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Day 26: Cafeteria, Lunch

Scar felt cold and sick, though more the latter than the former. As he rose from his bed, he didn't quite know which way was up, and the artificial light coming from overhead seemed as hot and as blinding as the Ishbal sun.

His head hurt, but that was nothing new. After all, the last thing he remembered from the night before was fighting a homunculus off of Lust and then having a conversation about events best left forgotten. The man hadn't been his brother. He just hadn't. And if what Lust had said they'd done to her was true...

Scar stood with shakiness that he wanted to attribute more to a bizarrely weakened physical state than a mental one. Had he been knocked out by some kind of lurking monster before the morning had come? He felt as if he had been out for days, being a veteran of such circumstances, though as he took the practiced role of being an obedient follower behind the nurse and orderlies that came for him, it didn't seem as if much had changed.

This place was probably just playing tricks on him again, and he was tired of being the man left out of the loop. He grabbed some food he didn't really care for and sat down, not seeing anyone he knew already seated. On one hand, he wished he had someone to talk to, and on the other, it scared him that he was no longer used to being alone.

He dug his fork into his food and tried to block out any related thought.

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Hey, look at that. For once he was being approached! That hadn't happened so far during his stay here. Well, people he knew from Auldrant had come up to him, but this was a total stranger. Guy was relieved that it didn't happen to be a girl. If it had, he wouldn't have been able to refuse her. Sharing a meal with a girl wouldn't necessarily be that big of a deal, but some girls didn't understand personal space, and that was when things got weird.

But he didn't need to worry about that just yet, so he focused on the matter at hand. As he finished his current bite of food, he gave a firm nod to the other patient. He looked a little young, perhaps about Luke's age, but he certainly had better manners than the redhead. Either way, it would be nice to meet someone new, though that reminded him... He hadn't seen Okita around in a while. Was his roommate sick? He hoped it wasn't anything serious.

Once he had finished chewing and swallowing, he sent a smile at the other blond. "Afternoon," he greeted back. "I'm Guy," he introduced as he reached out his hand. "Nice to meet you."

Claude returned the smile and set down his tray before grasping the man's hand in a firm, solid handshake. "Guy," he repeated, and his eyebrows faintly furrowed. Yeah, that definitely sounded familiar, when he thought about it. Like something he'd heard a couple of times since his arrival...

The answer suddenly occurred to him, and Claude's blue eyes lit up at the realization. "Gailardia?" he asked, though he regretted it as soon as the word left his mouth, because then he remembered where he'd caught wind of it in the first place. Last night in the hallway when he'd eavesdropped on the two Auldrant men in passing, and then when he'd been reading through some conversations on the message board -- both situations where maybe prying eyes or ears wouldn't have been welcomed.

It was embarrassing, but Claude decided to plug along and not spend too much time on that unfortunate slip. Better to play it cool, if he could. He'd just gotten here, so the last thing he needed was people to think he was weird or suspicious. Because, honestly, he wasn't! It had all just...sort of happened the way it had, and...

"Ahh, yeah, um, I'm Claude," he added quickly before taking a seat. "Nice to meet you, too, even if the place for it is pretty lousy."

Guy had been able to pick up on the way the younger man had paused at his name, as if he'd heard it before. He was a little curious as to what that was about, because he was pretty sure he had never seen him before...

And then he came out with that name out of nowhere, and for once, Guy was completely taken aback. His eyes widened slightly and he leaned back in his seat, as if withdrawing slightly. While he had gotten used to certain people calling him by that name, he hadn't made it his business to publicize it, and most people preferred the shortened version, anyway.

Though when he got the other's name, he realized it sounded familiar as well. Like he'd heard it recently...

"Oh!" he perked up. "Someone I ran into last night was looking for you. A kid with blue hair. But... how did you know my..." He paused, not quite sure what word he should use. "My name?"

To be honest, Claude had been hoping that the slip would have gone unnoticed, that maybe Guy was one of those people who had a couple of names that people liked to use, that everything would have been fine, and they could just talk about how nice the spaghetti tasted or something equally harmless like that. But the way the other blond faintly recoiled at the name made him cringe a little, and it just made him feel that much worse about the whole ordeal.

Way to make a first impression, Claude, he told himself with an inward kick. Very smooth.

He was glad for the momentary distraction when Guy seemed to recognize his own name. "Oh, you must mean Leon. Yes, he's a friend of mine. We arrived here at the same time." He didn't like to think that the boy had been placed in the same situation as him, waking up in this madhouse in the middle of the night. But at least Leon had made it out in one piece -- he could be thankful for that.

"As for your name, I just, ah, heard it from somewhere, really," Claude explained, and then he realized how weird that probably sounded. "Or read it. It...seemed like someone mentioned you on the bulletin board." He grinned. "Maybe your reputation precedes you."

He paused, hastily taking a bite of his pasta and washing it down with some juice. "I should have realized you prefer being called Guy, though. Sorry for the, uh, confusion."

That made sense. If someone had been referring to him as Gailardia on the bulletin board, it was probably Peony. It wasn't like he could really ask His Majesty to stop calling him that, either, and it wasn't as big of a deal as he tended to make it. It was just a name, after all, and now that Luke knew the truth of how he had come to serve Duke Fabre, he didn't need to keep his previous status as a noble such a secret.

"Oh, I don't really mind. It's just that not many people call me that, so for you to just come out with it all of a sudden..." He sighed and shook his head. "Sorry for the weird reaction." He hadn't meant to worry Claude or anything like that.

He really was going to have to start checking the bulletin board, though. If people were talking about him on there, he would like to know what they were saying! Knowing Jade and Luke, they would put up some message telling all the female patients to come bother him or something...

"I'm glad you found your friend, though. Doesn't seem like a kid that young should be wandering around on his own." There was Anise, of course, but that girl really was an exception.

"You don't need to apologize," Claude told him, and he meant it. Really, none of that exchange would have happened if he hadn't been so careless in the first place. Still, a part of him couldn't help but feel relieved that Guy didn't seem upset by it. And that's all there was to it. Claude didn't see any point in dwelling on it anymore, so he decided to move on with the conversation.

"Thanks, I'm glad I found him, too," he said with a smile. "I know Leon can take care of himself, though. We fought along side each other before winding up here, actually. He's not like regular kids." It bothered him that their memories didn't coincide, that Leon didn't remember being reunited with his resurrected parents, but he chose not to mention that bit of information.

"How long have you been here, if you don't mind my asking?" Claude asked after a moment, a thoughtful frown on his face now. "And do you remember how they brought you to this place?" It still baffled him that these people had been able to transport him without his even realizing it. Surely someone had to know how they wound up here.

Maybe that Leon kid really was like Anise, then. Guy had to wonder what would happen if Anise was forced to face her match, but on the other hand, the squabbles she'd had with Arietta had given him enough of an idea as to how that would turn out. He didn't really want to dwell too much on how things had ended there, though. It still didn't seem fair for a girl to die so young.

"Right. I don't like to think that my friends are stuck here, too, but at the same time, it's nice to have people I know around." It had been a little unnerving when he hadn't know if anyone from Auldrant was around. He had made sure to get to know Okita, and hadn't had a hard time meeting others, either, but he felt better with people he knew present.

At that question, he had to think for a moment. When he first woke up, he had been so disoriented - but eventually he puzzled it all out. "This is my third day here." And his third night was coming up. It sounded like he would be spending it with Luke, if we was able to get a hold of him again before night fell. "Nah, I don't have a clue how I got here. It doesn't seem like anyone does." That was pretty mysterious, but at this point, it was the least of his problems.

"It's pretty reassuring to know someone's got your back, isn't it?" Claude didn't like the idea that his friends were stuck here, either. But he was glad he at least had a chance to come here now, especially since Ashton and Dias had been trapped here for awhile. "I found a couple of friends of mine fighting for their lives with one of the other captives here last night. Knowing what I know now, I think it's for the best that we're together now."

Claude wasn't sure if Dias would have gotten up so quickly if he hadn't seen him there, calling his name. He still couldn't shake the image of that girl's severed head rolling across the floor, either. It made him shudder a little bit to think about, and suddenly the spaghetti didn't look nearly as appetizing as it had before.

"Three days, huh? I'll bet it's been rough," Claude said quietly. He wished he could find someone who at least remembered something, but it was starting to look like that was impossible at this point. Maybe it was the same sort of thing that had transported him to Expel. The universe had many mysteries, after all.

"What have you been doing to protect yourself from the monsters?" he asked after a moment. "They took my weapons, and it doesn't look like I'll be getting them back for awhile." It was times like these that he wished he even had his gun with him, despite its limited energy. It could have been a suitable substitute for his sword until he'd found something more reliable.

"Yeah. I wouldn't like to think that my friends were here and I wasn't around to help them, so..." Guy paused and smiled to himself as he thought back to all the hard times he'd been through with Luke and the gang. "We've been through so much together already. It's only right that we're all together for this, too." Which begged the question--where were Natalia, Tear, and Anise? It was possible they were around and he just didn't know it yet, but he wanted to find them sooner rather than later.

Rough? Maybe, but Guy was pretty good about keeping a level head even in the strangest of situations. All he could really do in response to that was shrug. He was the sort of person that made the best of things, rather than worrying the entire time. Luke had made a bad habit of second guessing himself all the time, and his meeting with him in the showers had just shown Guy that he was still pretty damn insecure.

At the question about weapons, Guy ended up looking a little sheepish. "Well, I don't have anything, either, so I've been improvising so far. It hasn't been easy, but I haven't gotten myself too injured yet." His arm was a little sore, but he'd been through a lot worse.

Claude fully agreed with that sentiment. He wouldn't want to be separated from his friends in such a way, even if it wound up costing him his life. His final meeting with his father had proved that, and Claude didn't regret it for a moment. Even after everything that happened, he would have gladly left that communicator back in Eluria Tower if he had to do it all over again.

The way Guy shrugged off the comment about the place was rather admirable in Claude's eyes. Here was a man who seemed sure of himself. It was likely he knew how to take care of himself, too, if he didn't lose his head over a place like this. Still, Claude had a feeling Landel's took its toll on everyone sooner or later. Seeing Dias' emotional breakdown last night had been a real eye-opener in that regard. He just hoped it didn't happen to anyone else anytime soon.

"I guess I'll have to do some improvising of my own, too, then," Claude said after a moment. "Maybe I'll have a bit of your luck and not get too hurt." He'd had military training, so that would come in handy. At least, he hoped it would. "All of my friends are already armed with something, so I don't want to hold anyone back."

He shook his head a little when he took a sip of his drink. "It's pretty strange. This planet is actually my home. I'd spent so much time trying to come back, and as soon as I decide I'm not ready go, I wake up to find this awful place."

So neither of them had weapons. That was a bit discouraging, especially since Guy was pretty sure Luke didn't have anything, either. Peony had made some use of a bat, so that might work until he could get his hands on something better, but a bat didn't really compare to a sword. It couldn't slice into the monster's weak spots.

It was good to hear that Claude's friends had found weapons, though, and he nodded to the other boy. "Right, well... At least you know you'll be protected." Though if Guy were in that situation, he wouldn't have liked it very much. He was used to protecting, not the other way around. "But you probably want to pull your own weight, right?" For some reason, Claude just seemed like the type.

Guy got admittedly a little confused at Claude's words about planets and going and coming. He watched him carefully for a moment before leaning forward in his seat. "So this planet is your home? But you were somewhere else?" Did that mean that he knew how to travel between different planets? Guy had accepted that this world was not Auldrant, but to think that there were some worlds that had the capability to travel from planet to planet was mind-boggling. Then again, back during the era when Yulia was around, they probably would have been close to having that sort of technology, too. Either way, the blond was intrigued now.

Claude's heart sank at the idea of his friends having to protect him. It bothered him a lot, actually, perhaps more than it should have. "I'd rather them focus on taking care of themselves than having to worry about me," the blond admitted. "They probably have their own plans at night, and having an unarmed person in the group would probably slow them down." He was used to people relying on him to do things, not the other way around. And with Dias here, Claude wasn't sure if he could bear the humiliation of not being able to do anything useful.

It was a stupid idea, but he was actually starting to consider striking out on his own so he could pick up something to defend himself with. That way, he'd definitely be ready when he met up with the others again.

"I'll figure something out," he added, and he took another bite of his food.

It wasn't until Guy leaned forward, apparently interested in what he'd just said, that Claude realized he probably came from an underdeveloped planet. (Actually, from the way people had been talking about Auldrant on the message board, it was quite likely.) Normally he might have given at least a little pause at this, but then he figured it didn't matter by this point. Guy had already been swept from his own home and was now more than aware of the existence of other planets. It seemed pointless to try and keep him in the dark just because a bunch of old men with expensive suits and fancy desks said so.

Not that Claude ever really paid much attention to any of that in the first place, but it wasn't because he'd never thought about it.

"Yes, I was on a planet called Expel," Claude told him, deciding to put it in simple terms. "I was, ah, on a journey through the stars, but then I got lost and found myself there. I was trying to find a way back here, but then I decided I wanted to stay awhile longer." He frowned a little. "But then I guess these guys decided they had other plans for me."

He paused, regarding Guy curiously for a moment. "This is your first time on another planet, right?"

So did that mean that Claude wasn't even planning on sticking with his friends when night came around? Just what did he plan to do, then? Maybe it wasn't Guy's place to really push the subject any further, but he had been told by more than a few people that going out on your own was the worst thing to do in this place.

"Even if you don't go with them, you should find someone to wander around with. Maybe someone else who's looking for a weapon?" He picked at his food, hoping that he wasn't intruding too much. Though in the end, it was Claude's decision, so offering some friendly advice didn't seem like such a sin. It might just save the kid's life - or at least prevent him from getting seriously injured. "I've just heard that it's pretty dangerous to go out alone, especially unarmed."

As Claude explained, Guy did his best to follow. He had a better chance of comprehending it than, say, Luke did, but it still went over his head to an extent. A journey through the stars? That was something he had only dreamed of. At the question, he gave a firm nod. "Oh, definitely. On Auldrant, we were just starting to develop airships. There used to be really advanced technology, but that was over two thousand years ago. We've lost the knowledge on how to do all of that now, but... Well, I guess we're slowly figuring things out." It was depressing to know that he probably wouldn't see anything close to space travel in his lifetime, but at least he had Claude here to tell him about it!

What Guy was saying actually made some sense. Claude remembered how many times he'd been told that going on recon missions alone was a terrible, dangerous idea. Of course, so was approaching strange alien devices and getting transported onto underdeveloped and equally alien planets, and that certainly hadn't stopped him.

"I guess I could try finding someone before night falls," Claude mused aloud. The bulletin board was certainly out of the question, especially since he wanted to be discreet about the whole thing, as far as his friends from Expel were concerned. It'd be better for everyone if he just happened to meet up with them with some sort of weapon, rather than explain what he intended to do beforehand. They'd all want to go with him if they knew he intended to search around for a decent weapon, and Claude didn't think he'd be very comfortable with that.

Either way, he was aware of how dangerous it was. Last night's experience was more than enough to clue him into that little detail.

"If I don't find anyone before then, I'm sure I'll bump into someone along the way," he said confidently. "Things will turn out, somehow."

The blond listened to Guy, clearly interested as he took a slow bite of his pasta. "You guys had just invented airships, huh?" That was definitely more advanced than Expel, as far as transportation went. The idea that Auldrant used to be more advanced was fascinating as well. It was incredibly sad how technologically developed civilizations could lose their knowledge to time. Kind of like how the secrets Nede once held were lost forever due to, in part, his own hand.

"That sounds really exciting for your people, though," he added, deciding to focus on the matter at hand. "Seeing things from the air can really change your perception of the world, you know?" Towns, people, and monuments looked like mere playthings from such a distance. It really put things into perspective.

The fact that Claude was so laid back about it was a little surprising. He seemed confident with himself, but he also had a point. With the amount of people stuck in this place, it wasn't exactly hard to run into someone you could spend the night with. Not everyone was able to make plans - in fact, he still had to worry about that himself. Luke had mentioned meeting up, but they didn't know each other's room numbers. And there was Peony to consider, but Jade probably had a hold on that situation. Or so he hoped.

Guy was almost tempted to offer to go along with the other blond. He was looking for a weapon, too, after all (or the means to get one, at least), so they would probably be heading to the same places. Still, he had his friends to consider - it wouldn't be very right for him to run off with someone he'd just met when he had people counting on him.

"Oh, it's amazing. I mean, it had sort of being my dream to fly one. I'm really into fontech..." He paused for a moment, wondering if Claude would even know what that was. It didn't seem like this planet had fonons, so probably not. "Well, just technology and that sort of thing. So to have that breakthrough during my lifetime..." His face had lit up more than it had during the rest of the conversation. Too bad no one was around to tease him about his obsession.

Then the intercom went off and seemed to drag Guy back to reality. "Well, looks like lunch is over." He quickly ate a few more bites of his food, as the conversation had distracted him from it. "It was nice talking to you, Claude," he said with a smile as he stood from his seat.

Claude wasn't really sure what "fontech" meant, but it didn't take a genius to figure out it was some sort of technological-based term. Still, he couldn't help but wonder if it was any different from the kinds of things he was used to. Maybe it was something to look into later.

Either way, it was nice to see how happy Guy seemed when talking about this sort of thing. Claude was glad to know that, despite how crazy this place was, it was still possible to have a normal conversation with good, decent people.

He wanted to tell the other blond that it was very well possible he'd see even greater breakthroughs in his lifetime, especially since they'd already developed airships. After all, space travel had to come around sometime, right? But then the intercom sounded, and it looked like lunchtime was over.

"It was nice talking to you, too, Guy," Claude replied with a genuine smile of his own. "Take care of yourself, okay?"

It was then that he realized he should have asked if he could have accompanied him tonight. After all, neither of them were armed. But with the next shift about to start, it seemed rude to spring it up on him at the last minute like that. Besides, if Guy hadn't asked, it was likely he'd had plans of his own anyway.

So, instead, Claude stood up from his own seat and proceeded to follow the other captives out of the cafeteria. He'd find someone else later. Probably.

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Day 26: Cafeteria, Lunch

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