damned_institute | Day 29: Cafeteria, Brunch

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Day 29: Cafeteria, Brunch

Hitsugaya left the chapel no less frustrated than before. The head doctor once again had chosen not to hide his face, yet promised he would be making an appearance at some time in the near future. He didn't like being patient, but there wasn't much choice. Either the head doctor would show his face, or he wouldn't. Renji had already seen him, and knew how to find him. That was enough.

The thought of eating made him slightly nauseous as usual, but he knew he needed to get his strength up. He could either be weak and try to force his way through brunch without eating anything, or he could be smart and actually give himself something to eat. And there was rice. Rice and fruit. He took a heaping pile of rice, and grabbed as much watermelon as he could fit on his plate, then proceeded to an empty table. He scanned the room, watching for Momo. He wasn't exactly looking forward to their conversation, knowing how she'd acted yesterday; however, he knew he had to speak to her, and there was a good chance that she would show more restraint now that the drugs were out of her system.

Thoughtfully he consumed his rice and waited.

[free at the moment, pester if you wish]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I've been to China a few times," she replied. "I've been told my Cantonese is lousy."

The Bride looked over again. "I've always enjoyed traveling. It's nice when work allows for it."

"Yes. What kind of work are you in?" SubZero was less inclined towards seeing if her Cantonese was lousy and more interested in finding out more important information about her.

He could be completely wrong and she had some sort of boring job, but there was too much about her that just screamed of some kind of martial training. And the way she had mentioned people talking about their kills...

"I'm retired," she said with a sidelong glance. "My late husband left behind a decent nest egg and nice investments. I can concentrate on more important things than earning a living now."

She was pretty sure Billy had left her the record store, but Bill's fortune was more than enough for her and BB to live comfortably. She might as well turn the question around on this man.

"What job do you have that allows you to travel?"

There probably were things more important than earning a living. The thunder god had gotten very upset at him for putting the entire world in danger while carrying out a job, but how was he supposed to know that the sorcerer he was working for was trying to destroy the world?

"I'm an assassin," There was no point in lying about it in this place. No one knew who he was, and as long as no one figured out that he was a Lin Kuei assassin, there would be no problem.

Beatrix looked over at the man, meeting his eyes directly, as he spoke of his occupation. She found it somewhat amusing that she'd come into contact with another assassin in this place. But then again, she was one and their captors seem to have quite a collection of prisoners.

Something of an understanding, a brief moment of kinship, passed through her eyes before she returned to watching the room. Where was her daughter?

"Such an occupation does indeed allow for travel," was all she said.

That look in her eyes was interesting, and her lack of comment on his profession... SubZero grinned slightly, holding out his hand.

"I don't think I got your name, I'm SubZero," He did not often shake hands, though he seemed to be doing so much more frequently in this place. It probably helped that his hands were no longer painfully cold to the touch, but the great temperature difference was still obvious.

SubZero? She'd consider the obvious code name stupid, except her own had been Black Mamba so she really didn't have room to talk.

Assassins had this need to have a name that struck fear into the hearts of their targets once it was known they were indeed targeted. One would not find an assassin named Binky. They were like superheroes in comic books; the lame heroes had lame names, even Spiderman. She'd always thought he was a bit of a pud despite his popularity throughout America. The same went for villains. Oh, yes, Binky the Assassin had your number, you better run - or some shit like that.

At least SubZero had some potency and wasn't like Zorro the Gay Blade.

"You can call me Arlene," she said, grasping SubZero's hand with her bandaged one. Interesting... it felt a lot like picking up dry ice with a cotton glove on. Perhaps he was aptly named.

"Looks like you had a fight or two last night, Arlene. Birds or nurses?" There had seemed to be more than enough enemies last night to keep even HK happy.

Arlene was really a normal enough name, but he had to wonder if she had a different name as well?

"Bird," Beatrix replied. "It's dead."

Or at least it better be dead. She had no desire to have to kill it again in a zombified state. Normally, she wouldn't even contemplate such things but with the bizarre events pf the nurses and orderlies transforming into monsters from some survival horror video game right before her eyes prompted her to briefly entertain the ridiculous thoughts.

They had to be drugging them somehow. If not in the food than through some other means.

"Yeah, they seem to like the way one of my... co-workers... tastes. Completely ignores me and go for him," Co-worker was a good term to use for HK, wasn't it?

"Funny the way they do that," Even when SubZero had jumped on the bird, it had gone after HK instead.

"Indeed," Beatrix agreed. "Similar situation for me. It wanted one of my charges and though it didn't take kindly to me taking it for a ride, it still wanted the young ones."

She chuckled a little. "Did you see that post on the board about the birds supposedly being drawn to virgin flesh? I don't know which amuses me more - the prospect of it or the blatant denial of the possibility by some of the others."

"I actually tried the same tactic you did. You'd think it would have payed more attention," SubZero considered the possibility, and then barely managed to avoid grinning.

He couldn't wait to tell HK what attracted the birds.

"Well, at least there's a cure for virgin flesh. Think any of the other adults here are going to experiment to find out?" That Captain Jack would probably be quite happy to get rid of people's virginity for them, and there had been others who were clearly looking to get laid.

"It's a sound tactic. Mine decided to start paying attention to me when I cut it, but it tried banging me off the side of the bus," the Bride stated. She bet it looked pretty funny from a decent vantage point. "They're weak at the axillary artery. Bleed out in seconds."

She considered SubZero's thoughts on curing viginity and was unable to come to a decision. Having been the victim of serial rape, she had a bit of an issue with people just using sex as a cure for the common Landel's avian. Though she supposed if it was the virgin's choice and they weren't pre-pubescent children she was alright with it.

"Every group of people has their undesirables looking to use such an excuse to prey on vulnerable women, but just the same there are just as many with noble intentions." She tilted her head. "Frankly, as long as there aren't naive children being taken advantage of, even if it is supposedly for their own good, I don't care. Most seem old enough to make such decisions on their own."

"There have also been other men trying to get laid by advertising on the bulletin board. You'd think they would realize there are more important things to do at night."

It was just unprofessional to go after something like that while there was work to be done. Technically, he was on a job, and as soon as he got out of here he was going to kill everyone involved.

If he was in here long enough, he might add the grand master to the list of people to kill, for picking him for the mission. Certainly Quan Chi had to go, this was all his fault.

Beatrix's lips curled up in a cold smile. "Such a stupid waste of time. Are any of these men useful?"

"Stupidity should hurt."

"The ones who have been advertising? Probably not. There is Captain Jack, he's trying to seduce my co-worker... and everyone else it seems," SubZero scowled at the thought of him.

"He might actually be useful, if he could be manipulated," Despite his creepiness, Captain Jack seemed like the type to actually do something useful when he wasn't trying to get into a persons pants.

Either SubZero was slightly homophobic or a bit of a fruit himself judging from the scowl at the mention of this Captain Jack making an attempt upon his coworker's viginity. Either that or he just didn't appreciate the disruption such things inevitably caused. She was betting on the later.

"Perhaps your coworker can manage to do so if it's his pants the man wants," she suggested.

SubZero considered the thought of HK managing to manipulate Captain Jack, and quickly stifled the ensuing laughter, only a few half-stopped chuckles escaping.

After a moment he decided to tell Arlene why it was so hilarious.

"He's and excellent assassin, and a good interrogator, but he doesn't even hardly know what to do with what he's got in his own pants, and even hearing it talked about is enough to make him flip out... That, and this is the same guy who absolutely refuses to call anyone by anything other than 'meatbag'. He has a lot of issues." It was better just to let her think that HK was crazy than to try to explain that he was a machine in a human body.

Okay, that was funny.

Beatrix laughed a little. "Issues... certainly. Then again, don't we all?" It was kind of a prerequisite for being a cold-blooded murderer for profit.

She paused a moment. "I can imagine the scene being... precious."

"Exactly. If there is going to be any manipulation done, it won't be by HK," SubZero couldn't do it himself either. Not only was he not particularly good at manipulating people, he also had made it every clear that he did not like Captain Jack.

He also did not want to do the kind of stuff it would take to manipulate Captain Jack. There was no way it was worth it.

Beatrix filed the name 'HK' away for future reference.

"What kind of skills does this Captain jack possess?"

Her gaze once more found its way to the door and then she looked around the room. She still didn't see BB and her eyes hardened in cold fury. Where was she?

"No idea. I don't think that he just decided to put 'Captain' in front of his name for no reason, though. I haven't had a chance to see if he's any good in a fight yet," Maybe he'd do that if he found Captain Jack alone at night.

Certainly, no one would miss him if he just vanished one night, and people did seem to 'vanish' often.

"Most likely he's of a military background," she said absently as she carefully looked the occupants of the room over. "It seems our captors have a taste for prisoners of that flavor." It could easily be seen by a skilled assassin how many of the others were just from the way they moved.

"I haven't been here long. Do they keep young children separate from the adults?"

"I haven't seen any young children. I doubt they'd bring them here if they are taking them at all," He had seen children, but most of them were teenagers.

"The youngest child I've met here is also an experienced Ninja. Unless the kid you're looking for is exceptionally skilled I don't think they'd be here. That, and there aren't very many people here who knew each other outside the facility from what I can tell," SubZero could be wrong, though, but that was the general sense that he got.

"So far, I have yet to meet anyone who has even heard of me."

"Shit," Beatrix muttered before finally giving up on watching the room.

She gave SubZero a bit of a smirk. "And since when is no one having heard of you a bad thing?" The best assassins were never known.

Day 29: Cafeteria, Brunch

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