Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

[whiteychan.livejournal.com]

Hitsugaya woke with a start.

His entire body ached, but the pain was nowhere near as bad as it had been the night before. His injuries had been tended two with clean gauze and bandages, and he found every movement wasn't agony. He wasn't in the best of shape, but thanks to the miracle of landel's strange time distortion, he had mostly recovered from the vile poison without having to waste anyone else's talents.

And in his hand, still...there was the key.

He dressed quickly, sliding the key onto the key ring from his desk drawer and stuck it into his pocket. Whether the key stood to gain them anything or not, it stood as a vital reminder that they could succeed in this place. There was hope, as insignificant as it often seemed. They could beat this place.

That small shred of hope made getting up worth it.

The nurse who escorted him to breakfast was cheerful, and commented idly about how wonderful it was to see young Tommy Winters up and about again after his unfortunate run-in with a bad case of food poisoning. He smirked slightly, knowing that any lies the institute forced into their heads were only that: lies. He wouldn't buy it for a second. And on top of that, the concept of muffins sounded almost appetizing. While he still preferred his authentic Japanese cuisine, the food here was slowly becoming more and more bearable. He would have preferred a warm bowl of sweet nattou over rice over the mufffins, but they would do. The plain yogurt and fruit, on the other hand, was excellent. He piled his plate high with fruit as usual, and got several small bowls of yogurt as well.

Finding the most convenient table to the end of the food line, he took a seat and scanned for the new arrivals. New arrivals meant people who would be lost and confused. Renji did a good job of making a bulliten post last time...he should recommend abarai-fukutaicho do the same again this time.

[Waiting for Angel]

Comments

[kagurazuki.livejournal.com]

This woman was so... so... arrogant! It took every bit of control she had not to break something. Not that... there was much she could break.

Half of the references the other girl was making sounded like gibberish. Klingon? But she was just certain she was being made fun of! "I- I know what they are!" Kagura huffed. "You're the one that sounds crazy, not me! This place is weird, but... but it's not some other dimension, that's impossible!"

The girl's last question caught her off guard though and Kagura stopped her rant to give the woman something of a confused look. "I- um..." She could feel her anger slowly starting to fade as it found a new target. Her lips curved out into a pout; they were supposed to go on a date today. A really important one. If she found out that he had something to do with this... he'd be in for a world of hurt. "why... do you ask?"

[wishescankill.livejournal.com]

Anya smiled and waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, I dunno. They just annoy me so much sometimes. I mean, my ex... such a pain!"

The vengeance demon took a small bite of her cinnamon role and glanced sideways at the girl. "How about you? Have you got a boyfriend?"

[kagurazuki.livejournal.com]

Luckily for the other woman, Kagura was easily distracted when it came to matters of the heart. The earlier conversation was all but forgotten when she brought up her ex-boyfriend and how much trouble he'd been. Kagura could certainly sympathize with something like that.

"Y-yes, they can be frustrating," she admitted, slowly gaining speed. "Always making promises and breaking them..." So maybe she'd threatened him a little bit, but it was all in good fun! Besides, they were going to be married someday, so why shouldn't they go out sometimes?

She held her muffin in one hand, slowly and unconsciously crushing it into a crumbly mess as she spoke, "Today was supposed to be our first date, but I can't find him anywhere! And he's soooo mean! He didn't even get me anything for White Day when I made him a homemade chocolate the month before!" The way he'd gulped it down so ravenously, she thought for sure he'd get her a nice ribbon this year! "We're supposed to be engaged, but he spends all his time with Tohru! Just because she can cook and clean without breaking anything!"

[wishescankill.livejournal.com]

"Exactly!" Anya exclaimed. "They promise that they want to marry you, they say, 'Oh, Anya, I love you and my life just isn't complete without you.' And you lay your heart out to them and then they just stomp all over it with their big messy construction worker boots!"

Having been briefly distracted by her own romantic issues, Anya brought her head back into the here and now. If she got a really good wish out of this girl, maybe... just maybe... D'Hoffryn would notice and get her the hell out of here.

"Don't you just wish something awful would happen to him?" she goaded. Even if the exact words 'I wish' didn't come out of the girl's mouth, surely there'd be something Anya could work with.

[kagurazuki.livejournal.com]

"Yes!" Kagura exclaimed in perfect agreement. It was exactly the same for her! "We're going to be married too, but... but sometimes he avoids me and it's just so..." she pounded her fist on the table in frustration, making a loud and angry thud. "he just doesn't appreciate all the things I do for him! Not one bit!"

"Sometimes I wish I could just..." her hands made fists at her sides, shaking slightly and rather than finish the thought, she just gave a low, exasperated growl. "It's not fair! He never does anything nice, not like in the movies. He hasn't brought me flowers since we were kids! It's not me, is it?" her expression grew worried for just a brief moment before she frowned again.

[wishescankill.livejournal.com]

"No, no, it's never you!" Anya assured the girl, although she was beginning to have serious doubts about the truthfulness of that statement. "It's always their fault! They never appreciate us, they just take us for granted like we're their little sex poodles!"

The vengeance demon narrowed her eyes. "And it's terrible that he doesn't bring you flowers! Don't you wish he'd just choke on all those flowers he's never brought you? That he'd have to cough up flowers all the time - which is, let me tell you, not a pretty sight! Don't you just wish..."

[kagurazuki.livejournal.com]

Sex poodles? Well... it wasn't that she hadn't thought about... having that kind of relationship with Kyo, but this woman was talking about it so boldly! Maybe... maybe she was some kind of relationship expert! And... and if that was the case, maybe she was right!

"That would be quite a sight," she admitted, trying not to laugh at the mental image of Kyo gagging on daisies. The likelyhood was much higher, however, that he'd simply be attacked by a random pack of wild boars or... well... something. "I do wish I could see that," she giggled into her napkin.

[wishescankill.livejournal.com]

"You do?" Anya said, a grin suddenly bursting out across her face. "Okay, flower-choking. I can do that!" She took a deep breath, narrowed her eyes, and said, "Done."

Nothing happened. The boy obviously wasn't around here, but even so, she'd have known if it had worked.

Anya smiled awkwardly at the girl and laughed, trying to cover up her mistake. Then she clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes closed, and concentrated really hard. "Done," she said again. Nothing happened.

This was unpleasantly like when Giles had turned her human in the first place... But she was still a demon - she'd changed last night during the fight. So why didn't she still have the power of the wish?

"D'Hoffryn!" she shouted at the ceiling. He was the only one who could take the power away from her, he had to have something to do with this! "D'Hoffryn, this isn't fair!"

[kagurazuki.livejournal.com]

Kagura looked at the other girl with obvious confusion. Did she think she could cast a spell or something? Maybe she really was just as weird as she'd thought in the first place.

"Um...? Are you sure you're feeling alright? I... I appreciate what you're trying to do but it's... it's alright. Maybe another time?" She wasn't sure that would help, but perhaps it would make the other girl feel a little bit better.

She glanced down at her tray, surprised to see her muffin destroyed in crumbly little pieces. "Aw..." she pouted, "my muffin... how did that happen?"

[officer-leon.livejournal.com]

Leon lay in his bed, staring at the wall and sorting through what had happened last night. They'd reached the Sun Room, they were going to head to the library and then... Leon swallowed hard at the memory. He'd killed Tyrant six years ago, killed it because it killed Ada, and how in the bloody hell was it back? He supposed he shouldn't be all that surprised about random returns from the dead-- after all, Ada herself was alive-- but that didn't make the appearance of Mr. X any less unsettling.

A nurse flung open the door, smiling brightly. "Hello Daniel! It's time for breakfast! You've slept in awfully late today, but since it's your first morning here that's not a problem." She continued chattering as Leon stood and followed her down the halls. They reached the cafeteria, and she left him beside the buffet. Leon looked over the selection of food unenthusiastically. He wasn't all that hungry, but he knew that he had to eat. He grabbed a muffin and a cup of orange juice, then glanced around the room, searching for someone he knew.

After a few seconds, he spotted Kagura sitting at a table with an unfamiliar young woman. Leon nodded to himself and walked over to the table, continuing to survey the cafeteria. The place was packed with patients-- Leon had no idea so many people were kept here. He barely noticed the young girl approaching the nurse elsewhere in the room.

"Are you feeling all right?" he asked Kagura as he reached the table. "How's your back?"

He had just set down his drink and muffin when the sounds of a fight reached his ears. Leon whirled to see the young girl attacking nurses with no small amount of skill. She was quickly restrained and sedated, but the pair of men who had run over to the fight didn't appear happy about the actions the nurses had taken. As Leon watched, they launched their own attack. Others started diving into the fight, many of them apparently concerned with reaching the girl in the middle.

Leon quickly sized up the situation. "Kagura, stay here," he warned. "I'll try to meet up with you later." With that, he ran towards the fray. A man jumped on a nearby table and started shouting about fighting back against them; Leon wholeheartedly agreed. There was a female nurse with a syringe at the ready, her back mostly to Leon. Without slowing at all, he slammed into the woman's back, one hand going for the syringe in her hand.