damned_institute | 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

The deadpan, Oh, well, knock yourself out then, died on his tongue as a familiar voice interrupted. Reno glanced over, catching Dean's eye and giving an imperceptible nod.

It was hard to say whether Dean's presence was going to keep things easy or tip it all downhill, given their equal dislike of the telepath. In any case, he found he didn't give much of a damn which direction this confrontation went in. He was too tired to neither care nor bother wondering about it.

Oh, and Schuldig had snagged the pistol. Go fuckin' figure.

"Everything's wasted on you," Reno said, mock-pleasant. The fork between his fingers twirled in a single lazy circle, a gesture that seemed casual but was really a telltale sign of his deep irritation. "But okay. You wanna gloat, keep going. What other fine accomplishments have you achieved, Schuldig?"

"Think I'll pass," Dean managed to snap in return, disgust seeping into his confident tenor, eyes narrowing and a sneer causing his lips to twitch some. His expression reworked itself into a grimace as Schuldig continued speaking to Reno, his processes hindered by an underlying 'ew' while the grimace began to dissipate as well.

He crossed his arms and granted the telepath a relatively blank stare.

"'n we're s'pposed to believe you." He tailed Reno's question. The man watched for a couple more seconds when it hit him – this was a scene he recognised far too well; this was Sam's cue to take him by the shoulder and walk him away, hissing words of encouragement or disapproval. After all, to crack whenever it suited him was the best way to live. His gaze quickly sharpened into a glare, unfolding his arms and relaxing them at his sides.

"Then tell us –" He then slammed a hand flat, swiftly and suddenly, on the table top, leaning a little closer to Schuldig – "Why the smile? 'Sthis funny to you?"

"Extremely," Schuldig countered with a broad smirk. "And understandably. Let's see...Elena loathed me, his boss rejected me and the rest of Schwarz on the grounds that we're not useful enough - " This was accompanied by an idle wave at Reno. " - and you both resent me. Yet here I am, sitting on the weapons and supplies of the allies you're having ripped out from beneath you, while Elena is gone, Rufus is missing, while you two can, at best, only sit there and sulk that I've gotten ahead of you. So go ahead - bitch all you like, cling to your morals or standards or whatever it is you have that makes you reject me on principle all you want. The fact remains that however much you hate me, the three of us in Schwarz are clearly more effective than all the rest of your patchwork little alliance put together...or whatever's left of it."

Schuldig smirked sidelong at Reno. "If you ever see Rufus again, and given how long it's been since anyone has seem him that's quite a big if, you can go ahead and tell him for me that it's a shame Elena had to suffer for his poor leadership. Whatever happened to her, Crawford probably could have foreseen and prevented it - but, after all, Schwarz doesn't work for you."

Reno snorted softly. "Uh-huh. We resent you, yeah? So who's the one sitting there bitching about being rejected and gloating about people gone missing just to boost his ego?"

He ignored the issue of Rufus altogether, not wanting to get into it with anyone, least of all Schuldig. In fact, the last thing he wanted to talk about with Schuldig was Rufus—or Shin-Ra overall—because the entire shtick was becoming way too friggin' familiar. How many times was the guy going to announce Schwarz better than everyone before he figured out that Reno just didn't give a damn either way?

Besides, if his thoughts wandered too far in the Rufus and Elena direction, there was a very high possibility he'd just snap, especially considering Dean's barely contained temper wasn't helping Reno keep a lid on his own. The opposite, in fact. And Schuldig really wasn't worth scuffling over.

He set the fork down, the movement deliberately gentle. "Given you've deemed Shin-Ra entirely useless and beneath you," he replied, "I have no idea why you still find us important enough to insist on hounding us with declarations of how glorious Schwarz is. You're like a fucking propaganda machine on crack. I mean, if it makes you feel better, you can keep repeating it all over and over forever, but I still won't give a flying fuck."

"You son of a bitch," Dean growled, straight off the bat, with the air of someone who's rage had almost reached its boiling point; everything in his features - not to mention the balled fist at his side - said he'd love to swing a punch at the smug bastard's face right about now. Ungh, the feel of bone shattering on impact, it-

Sights firmly stuck to the telepath and his revolting smirk, he heatedly lifted his hand from the surface it rested on and reversed a few inches, standing beside Reno with his arms folded once again, paying sharp attention to their interaction.

This was the Turk's fight. This was the Turk's team Schuldig dared to ridicule. That didn't mean Dean couldn't settle the score by throwing in a complementary hit or two at what was left over.

[Ack sorry I somehow did not get my email notification]

Despite the fact that both men were now entertaining thoughts of violence towards him, and Schuldig was quite literally incapable of missing it, that seemed to serve only to make him smirk more. After all, pissing them off was, quite obviously, what he'd been aiming for.

"Don't get me wrong," he replied languidly. "Usually Schwarz's talents speak for themselves, and I don't have to say a word. But then again, usually we don't deal with people as dense as yourselves, so they figure it out on their own. I'm just trying to educate you. Think of it like training a dog - sometimes the best way of helping it to get the idea as to what kind of mistakes not to make twice is to rub its nose in the mess it's made. And unless you think Elena being snatched away, Rufus being experimented on, being attacked by Sephiroth, and, well, any of the other problems your group is having aren't really that significant, then I'd say that you all really have been making some shitty mistakes recently. And since the only one of those problems you had fixed was fixed by Schwarz..." Schuldig spread his hands, grinning. "Well, I'd think the results speak for themselves, but again, you're pretty dense."

Reno actually hadn't been seriously entertaining violence up until the point where he stopped listening, stopped everything. He hadn't been this pissed off in a long time, not even the two nights ago with Yuffie. With Yuffie, at least, he'd been aware enough of what he was doing to hold himself back.

Without a second thought, he sent his lunch tray flying in Schuldig's direction the same instant he reached out to snag the telepath's wrist with his left hand, twisting it and yanking him close in one lightening fast motion. He stopped just short of snapping the wrist altogether.

"I know I've fucked up, Schuldig," he hissed, addressing the telepath by his name for what must've been the first time since they'd met, "and I'll give you a gold star for getting that part right. But if you think my screw ups are enough for me to put up with your bullshit, then your mind-reading is sadly broken. I don't give a damn how right you are about their capabilities. They are still my people."

He released Schuldig's wrist suddenly, backing off, and if Rude had been here, his partner probably would've been dragging him away from the scene at this point—if he hadn't already done so earlier.

Day 29: Cafeteria, Brunch

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject