damned_institute | Day 27: Breakfast

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Day 27: Breakfast

Day came too soon.

Sora hadn't been able to find Rena, had instead been forced to crumple onto the grass of the recreational field and bleed all over himself, and hadn't even accomplished what he'd been sent out to do. What he'd been entrusted to do. He didn't know how he was going to be able to face Renji and the others, but he also knew he wasn't going to hide from them, either. That would just be low, after all, and he was ready to face up to the consequences.

He didn't try to make excuses for himself. Even though there had been a Special Counseling patient, they had managed to take her down by sheer numbers. The fact that he hadn't seen any sign of Rena was what had him the most worried. He hoped he could find her today.

The boy laid in his bed for a good while that morning before his nurse finally came in to collect him. She clucked over the bandages wrapped tightly around his chest and leg, and asked him if he was okay to walk.

Once Sora assured her he was fine (he didn't really want to use crutches, as that would just attract attention to himself, and he didn't need others worrying over him), they made their way to the cafeteria. Sora yawned and winced against the bright light of morning - it seemed even earlier than usual, and he realized why when they entered the cafeteria and found it empty.

The boy shuffled over to grab a chocolate chip pancake, a bowl of cereal, and a glass of milk (good for the bones, or so his mom had always told him) before settling at a table. He kept an eye on the door, hoping he would see Rena walking in soon.

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Riddick smirked, and it appeared Sparda was done talking for the moment. The killer glanced over at Richter's table. He couldn't see the blond's face but he could see the fear in the eyes of the man sitting across from Richter. As was becoming usual, it was another person Riddick didn't recognize. He watched for the moment, mildly curious. Richter had been here longer than the Furyan; a guy like that probably had plenty of enemies here. If that was what was going on, it looked like this one had a serious case of deer-in-the-headlights syndrome.

His hearing had always been damn good, and he put it to use now, listening in.

Oohh. That was embarrassing to watch.

"You're still new here, right?" Unscrewing the cap, he pushed two Tylenol over towards Jack. He didn't comment on the rude way Jack demanded them, or the man's slip-up on his name. That was just Jack, as long as he wasn't openly insulting Usopp there was no sense in getting uptight about it. Instead, he focused on the newcomer. "A lot of people with special powers, magic and stuff, lost their abilities here. Or they're weakened."

Phibrizzo decided not to push the issue further and instead motioned to food before the Storm Trooper. "Is something wrong? You're not eating all that quickly."

Once his roommate had left for breakfast Leon thought about making his own escape, but the nurses would probably just track him down and lecture him if he did that. So, he sat and waited like a good patient, until the nurse returned.

Predictably, she tsked over the mess he'd made and his refusal to take the pills offered to him. On that matter, however, Leon was not willing to compromise for the sake of avoiding further attention from the staff. "I don't want anything that will make me fuzzy-headed." About this, he was absolutely adamant.

The nurse sighed at him, but finally said, "Well, if you really would prefer to be in pain, I suppose I can give you some Tylenol instead. It won't be enough for such a serious injury, but it might help a little bit." She made 'poor, stubborn dear' faces at him, but produced a different pair of pills, and another cup of water. Reluctantly, Leon swallowed these pills, with the nurse watching him; they tasted bitter, terrible, but most medicines did, in Leon's experience.

After waiting a few moments for any suspicious effects, Leon rose, making sure he looked steadier than he felt, for the sake of his pride. "Very well. Breakfast, then?"

Still tsking and fussing at him, the nurse escorted him to the cafeteria. Much to Leon's dismay, she stuck to him while he loaded his plate with the semi-familiar food, and then she insisted on guiding him to a table that clearly already had an occupant.

"You need to spend time with people more your age. Obviously those men you were with yesterday were a terrible influence!" She looked at his bandaged hand significantly, then chivvied him into the seat. "Jordan, this is Miguel. He's only been here since yesterday, and he's hurt himself terribly. Try to get along with him." With that, she finally left, off to harrass another patient, no doubt.

Leon stared uncomfortably at 'Jordan' for a moment, then turned his attention to eating, very careful not to jar his wounded hand too much. Or, you know, look at it--the sight still made him nauseated, even though the bandages partially hid the severity of the damage.

When he said 2006, she stopped. Just stopped and stared blankly at him.

2006? As in... over a hundred years past the time she lived? That... that couldn't be!

It wasn't the fact that they were both here, talking to each other, though they both came from different time periods. He could have come from the moon for all she cared! It was the simple fact that he came after the time she was from. A human still alive well after the Noah and the Earl should have eradicated all the unworthy from the planet.

Had they failed? Because she wasn't there to help them with the download, had they failed to defeat the exorcists? No... NO! They couldn't have lost again!! There was no way!! The cold feelings of doubt from last night were creeping back into her, the effects of the ghost woman's emotions still present. If they had lost... it had been her fault... because she hadn't been there...

"Pretty much, but that doesn't mean to drop your guard. The bastard's pretty conniving when he wants to be." Though Axel felt he was giving his Superior more credit than he deserved. Nonetheless, the redhead's exhaustion was slowly fading as the morning progressed, and Axel was well on his way to being his own charismatic self.

... Or at least, until Sora asked about Roxas.

He practically felt the mechanical heart plummet right into the pit of his stomach, finding it difficult to breathe as he set his fork down. For a split second he gave the brunet the most pained expression, but it was quickly replaced with a light, but equally worrisome frown.

"Actually, that was one of the reasons why I came to you. I..." Axel didn't bother to hide a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "I haven't seen him in three days."

And if Sora had been the one asking...

"So I guess you haven't seen him either?"

"To be honest?" Max replied sheepishly, "I think I was in shock over the whole 'elf' thing and didn't absorb much of it. Plus it was my first day. I was still thinking this whole place was some epic joke of some very spiteful karma out there. I remember him telling me that humans were slaves and he was a lord, but not a normal lord, because he's all moral and stuff. Or something. And then he chased off after some tail across the room."

"He blushes very easily, have you noticed?" she added at random, waving her fork around for a moment. "Granted so did you last night. It was very amusing. Is it a common trait in your world? Or am I just lucky?"

Renji grinned and finally began picking at his pancakes, one hand still pinching his nose shut. He was hungry, which he supposed was a good sign. Maybe. "I can't even manage to write well when I'm in perfect health," he said.

He frowned at his pancakes. "We need to figure out a way to see through the disguise," he said. "Otherwise the paranoia will start to split what little we have apart." He'd had a small taste of what it was like to trust no one, or in his case almost no one. It would be very, very bad for getting anything at all accomplished at night.

He kept an eye on Valyn as he ate; he wasn't certain what to do, if he ought to offer some sort of comfort or not.

The morning after his romp around as Agni had been less pleasant than the feast of flesh the night before. He'd woken with two knives sticking out of him, a bandaged foot, and a wad of cloth stuck in his teeth.

Heat wasn't satisfied, of course, and the appaling scent of the food in the institute was enough to make him grimace, sourly desiring another run through the halls. He'd be stupid and clumsy last night, letting so much meat escape... the last time that had happened was when the virus had first infected the Embryon, back in the Junkyard.

Homesick wasn't the right word; it was more of a need for a world where he didn't have to be so careful of what he shoved in his mouth or ripped the face off of. The AI would've loved to pick a victim at random and sink his teeth into their soft, velvet-smooth throats while they laughed and ate and questioned, but that would have to wait. Just a few hours. Even Heat wasn't stupid enough to want to repeat the sedation a second time.

And Roland had warned him about being able to Tune? What bullshit. He had had everything he wanted last night, as well a few extra items he hadn't. Even now, the disgusting acidic taste of batteries stung his mouth.

Scourning the food as well as the company, Heat made sure to stay as far away from another soul as possible, glaring daggers at the table. The slight limp from the cut in his food was annoying enough; but the prison had to rub salt in the wounds by trying to feed him crap. What he wouldn't do for a Tuner to stick their neck out the wrong way.

"It went less badly than previous nights, anyway." Farfarello gave the man his best smile, which was still not exactly a 'friendly' sort of expression--more like a baring of teeth than anything else. Between that, the scars and the eyepatch, it made him look quite the disturbed mental patient. He actually fit in here very well.

Though most of his attention was on his carnivore-friendly breakfast, Farfarello continued to talk in between swallows. "I'd ask what you're in for, but this place doesn't so much work like that. So what are you, really? Assassin? Criminal mastermind? Undead do-gooder? Magical unicorn?" He hadn't met any magical unicorns yet, but the other three were weird enough.

About the only thing he understood intrinsically - and that hadn't seem to hit an emotional button in either of them - was the mention of multiple realms. Multiple realms was a safe topic, only because of the bizarre situation, but it seemed with his lack of prior knowledge, he was making a light mess of the conversation. Or at least not keeping it smooth and comfortable.

He ate a little more, not reopening a discussion in case it was not to Daemon's interests.

"'Recovery'" Jack repeated back to Zelgadis, somewhat mocking. "Say it as many times as you like, it's not doing anything for me."

He instead accepted the tylenol and wash them down with his drink. While he doubted they'd do much, perhaps they'd make the pain less sharp. He nodded to Usopp, weakly, which was the best the Pirate was going to get in terms of a "thank you". The injuries tended to (or so he hoped), he looked over at Zel. "I'd keep practicing, buddy. When you can master pulling a rabbit out of a hat, maybe you can move on to healing."

While Jack in no way doubted that his man was capable of "magic", he didn't come across as the sort of magic users he was used to encountering- namely witches and faeries. Still, one never knew. Maybe he was a budding warlock in a raven-haired youth's body.

It was some weird hair, admittedly. Maybe it was magical.

After a moment, Daemon shook himself from his thoughts, casting an apologetic glance at the man at his side. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I'm afraid I'm not always the best of company. A friend of mine accuses me of brooding too much, and unfortunately for me, she's usually right."

Searching his mind for a topic to change the conversation to, he returned the questions Ren had asked him. "What about you?" he inquired. "Do you come from a larger family yourself? You mentioned sharing close quarters last night."

[OOC: Waiting for Renji]

Suffice to say, Rangiku was not exactly in good condition when she limped into the cafeteria the next morning. He ankle had swollen and was tightly bandaged and her body felt like one large bruise. She just hoped that her ankle wasn't fractured or sprained too badly otherwise she'd be useless for much for quite a while.

The nurse had insisted on giving her crutches to walk on, which had been received with a glare and she discarded them by the table as soon as she could. She was not an invalid! It just hurt to walk a little but she'd had worse! The food was met with less enthusiasm than usual, but she quickly started in on her helping anyway, relaxing a little as the sugar hit her system. The couple of painkillers she'd taken didn't hurt either.

"I don't understand."

But he was not going to belabor the point-- obviously his magic was not working here. Perhaps this "Institute" had discovered a way to block magic throughout an entire building.

"And what's this about rabbits and hats?"

Realizing his hunger for the first time, Zelgadis looked around the room,

"How does one procure food around here?"

Roland couldn't quite bite back the comment. It was ingrained, after years of being the go-to guy for babysitting Fred; said with all the reflexes of a man who knew what he was talking about. "You shouldn't try talking with your mouth full. I can wait." Yet, after he'd said it... he grinned and offered a self-depreciating laugh. "Sorry, force of habit."

For being a replica, Soma certainly had the manners of a normal kid. That was to say, none at all. Perhaps the group that had made him was more relaxed than one would otherwise expect? It was something he'd have to ask about, anyway.

At that stern look, Roland smiled and nodded. "Yes, it got patched up and it doesn't look like I'll have to worry about infections. ...what do you mean, 'smelled pretty bad,' though? I wasn't bleeding that badly, was I?" Of course, Roland had noticed the numerous mentions Soma had mentioned of smelling various things; perhaps he had a very highly developed sense of smell? That, too, was something worth asking about. All in all, Soma was proving a very interesting person.

"No." He hadn't been paying much attention to his food, once the kid had really stopped making much sense with the questions. He started eating again. It all tasted funny, but really nice, compared to rations.

William was unphased by the feral smile he received in return. It wasn't as if he wasn't psychologically unstable himself, not that it mattered much so long as his genius remained intact and usable. Yet what the other man asked next piqued the doctor's interests. Assassin? Criminal mastermind? Undead do-gooder? All these were here within these walls? My, Wesker had not been exaggerating when he had mentioned the other many talents of the captives here.

William's day was already beginning to look up.

"Perhaps I'm a bit of all of the above," William replied lightly, cutting up his pancakes methodically.

Hitsugaya never was good with bargaining. As a shinigami captain, you rarely had to bargain for anything. He didn't know much; however, he knew enough to know he had to wait for the favors before agreeing to anything.

"Name your favors," Hitsugaya said. Unless he didn't want to voice them in front of Homura. In that case, it could wait. They already knew to be cautious of Muraki. The point of the further investigations was to know what further actions needed to be taken.

Awww, so sad. Still, he supposed it was okay. He couldn't eat the manners man, anyways. "Ok," he said, then went to gnawing on the table hungrily.

Farfarello chuckled, and arched an eyebrow, a touch of amusement infiltrating his smile. "And what part of you, exactly, is a magical unicorn?"

... Okay, he had officially been friends with Schuldig for too long. He hoped the other man didn't interpret that as some bizarre attempt at flirting or something.

Keman smiled gently. "It's understandable. I was too shocked at finding Valyn alive to really pay attention to anything he said, on my first night. Anyway, yes, the humans are slaves in our world. And the elves rule over them. Valyn was right--he's the only elven lord that we know of who realizes that humans are actually people, not livestock, and is opposed to slavery.

"All of the highest lords keep harems of pleasure slaves...and the lower-ranked lords use their overlords' harems. They try to sterilize the concubines, but every so often, one conceives. Or a field hand or house servant is raped, without the benefit of contraceptives. Bearing a halfblood means death for both the mother and the child, so the woman has to rid herself of the child as soon as she is able. A few are rescued by the wild halfbloods living in the forests, but most don't survive." He looked...almost tender, for a moment. "You wonder how a mother can kill her own child, but then you think of how scared she must be..."

Keman cleared his throat. "But I'm getting away from myself. Several hundred years ago, there was a huge war called the Wizard War. Halfbloods and humans with mind mage abilities against the Elven Lords. Remember how I said that halfbloods are more powerful than either race? Well, the Wizards almost had the elves beaten. They almost won the war, but in-fighting among the leadership and a horrible plague--both manufactured by the elves--allowed the elves to take back control. Ever since then, halfbloods have been creatures to be feared. The surviving Wizards have been living in hiding, terrified of being discovered...much like the dragons."

Then Max proved her own point and Keman blushed. "Ah...that's...well..." he stammered, turning pink. "You remind us of someone. You act just like my sister." The dragon laughed nervously, hoping she'd take that as a compliment. Because it was. "But, yes, Valyn does fluster rather easily, doesn't he? He's fun to tease."

Schuldig chuckled. "No need to be too wary, Hitsugaya. Actually, both of these favors benefit Renji, and there can't be too much wrong with that, can there?" He paused briefly to take a bite of his pancakes, which were almost swimming in a pool of syrup. Sugar was important. "In fact, the first is something you might've been inclined to do anyway, whether I asked or not. When Renji goes back to meet with Muraki, I want their session interrupted. I was trying to think of some way to manage it myself, but I expect it'd be easier with help - and you've got connections to any number of people who'd like to help Renji, don't you? I'm sure with all of us working on the problem we can figure out some way to manage it.

"As to the second..." Schuldig took another bite of pancake. "Your investigation into Muraki? Drop it. If you already know he's dangerous and you're going to warn people away from him, then you don't need to know any more than that anyway, really. So just leave it alone."

Yuber found his attention being draw away from the unsightly vision of this worlds attempt at food, and over towards his companion as Gremio moved to sit down next to him. He felt a single brow rise up as the blonde’s gaze refused to meet his, but said nothing about it. Human’s concept of fear was both entertaining and annoying at times. This was a time he found slightly more on the annoying side, considering that it was hardly productive if those working for him could hardly look him in the eye. Although granted… he did have that affect on humans regardless of his intention or not.

“Hmm not wishing to play around?” Despite his thoughts, Yuber murmured his question in amusement. Tilting his head slightly as if regarding the other, the black knight hummed softly in thought before he appeared to casually ask. “And so what insightful bits of information do you bring me?”

William had to grin, amused beyond reason at the thought process which the other man was currently following. The doctor had not meant the statement to be interpreted in that fashion, but what could he have done? But oh well, it was best to amuse the ignorant.

"Now that would be telling." William grinned even further. He wasn't flirting either, instead merely enjoying the ability to not have to be so damn polite. It still wasn't anything like the facilities under Raccoon city, but for now it would have to do.

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Day 27: Breakfast

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