damned_institute | Day 30: Cafeteria, Dinner

Before Argilla had even sat down, Archer had sensed danger. His "spidey-senses" may have been reduced in this place, but his instincts weren't. It was only for a moment, but he felt something primal nearby. He was so focused on trying to pinpoint the danger that he didn't notice the woman sitting down next to him.

Slightly startled out of his thoughts, his head remained stationary, but his eyes darted to the new presence. Was she the source of the danger? Archer gave her a once over, admiring the beautiful woman in the process. Who could blame him. That was just another good reason Saber didn't know who he was and wasn't there in the cafeteria. If she caught him doing shit like this... shudder... Hopefully Argilla hadn't caught his wandering eyes.

Pink hair and eyes. A strange combination but not unattractive in the least. Neither was the scar over her left eye. Some guys may find such markings unattractive, as if scars somehow marred a woman's beauty, but Archer felt none of that. It was almost as her scar refined her beauty.

He stuck out his hand to her, "Hey, I'm Archer."

Nonetheless, he could tell she was on edge. It was pretty easy to tell by the way she was stabbing at her meal as if the barbecue wasn't dead enough already. Archer was also aware that this woman could very well be the dangerous entity he sensed earlier but there was no need to let her know that. Besides, she may have her own reasons. It's not like Landel's was some kind of vacation resort.

Really, Argilla had more important things on her mind than whether she was being ogled by the man. She probably wouldn't have noticed or cared either way, even if she hadn't been so very very close to snapping. Honestly, were the nurses trying to make her attack people? Even if they pretended otherwise during the day, they had to know what she was and they could have taken precautions.

She looked up sharply when the man spoke, finally remembering that there was someone there. Once again, she cursed people in general and their apparent lack of prey instincts. She took his hand after a moment, forcing a smile and trying to make herself as unthreatening as she could. "Argilla."

Contrary to her perception of him Archer's instincts were warning him of danger but they were only a fraction of what they were in this place. Although in Argilla's current state she was also mistakenly thinking of herself as the hunter. If only she had a grasp of Archer's power, but it was to be expected. They were from different worlds, and it was hard to compare their powers. Argilla probably wasn't a slouch back home either, but in her current state she was probably more comparable to a cornered animal.

Besides Archer hadn't been simply admiring her figure; in addition he had been assessing her combat potential. The slim build of buscles on her lithe frame indicated regular exercise, and the roughness of various places in her hand indicated she was used to carrying some sort of weapon. Isn't everyone. It seems like many of the people here are some kind of fighter. Luke was the same. But this was only the physical aspect. A mage like Archer understood there were many things that couldn't be seen or felt. His own Reality Marble was a perfect example. Which begged the question did Argilla have any supernatural powers?

It was actually a blessing that he didn't have his full senses. Archer might have realized her demonic nature and be tempted to slaughtered her on the spot.

"You look hungry, stabbing the dead meat like that. Barbecue not enough?"

What an understatement, not that Archer knew.

Huh, everyone seemed so concerned about her eating habits. Meals like this must be some kind of big thing that they were all brought together to eat, but she'd still not figured out quite why people always commented about her lack of interest in the food.

Her lips quirked upwards in genuine amusement and she nodded. "It's not exactly to my tastes," she explained. What with it not being demon flesh which would stop the raging hunger. "It's not bad or anything, just not particularly satisfying."

Archer had no idea of Argilla's colorful background as an ex-AI conceived by Sera, or that she regularly feasted on demon flesh like a mad, crack addict on pills.

"Oh really?"

So the meal didn't suit her tastes. Well, everyone had their own delicacies back home.

"What do you normally eat?" he asked nonchalantly, swallowing a spoonful of corn.

Completely unaware of where Argilla's true tastes laid.

Warm demon 'flesh' usually, although she wasn't about to say anything like that out loud. Or at all if she could help it. Let Heat be the one who blurted everything if he really wanted to get himself hunted down, but Argilla rather liked her skin in tact. What could she say?

"Meat that doesn't look as though it's been left out in the sun to dry up, for one thing," she said with a faint smile.

"Hmph."

That was one way of describing barbecue.

"So I guess barbecue isn't your thing, huh?" he said with a grin. "Well people have different vices. I knew a girl who could eat more than a family of five."

Archer grew thoughtful for a moment before muttering, "And some people who ate human flesh."

Argilla was certainly giving off a mysterious image of herself, although, Archer started the conversation. Maybe she had something to hide. Don't we all.

"Where are you from?" he asked so easily, not even considering other worlds.

She shook her head, finally setting down her knife and fork and deciding to give up on the food entirely. It was probably just going to make her hungrier for something real if she tried to eat it. "Well, I won't be going out of my way to try it again," she said. She'd have to ask Roland if human food had always seemed so unappetising or if it was just this other hunger that made it seem that way.

She tensed slightly at his mention of eating human flesh, biting her lips for a moment. Her prey wasn't exactly human, but it had been once. The Karma Society soldiers probably still considered themselves to be human.

Argilla took the change of topic gratefully, much preferring to talk about the Junkyard and the world that wasn't Nirvana than her preferred food. "A place called the Junkyard, originally. It was a kind of computer programme, apparently, but it was real to those of us who lived there. It was destroyed. What about you? There's people from all kinds of worlds here."

"Different worlds? Seriously?" he asked, slightly surprised.

Not that Archer should have been since he was a trans-dimensional traveler himself. Knowing that Landel could reach across different worlds was a sobering thought. Was there anything beyond this man's power?

He saw her tense when he mentioned human flesh. Archer was pretty damn observant of these things and reading people. He wasn't quite sure how to deal with the idea that his dinner partner might be hungry for something not on the menu. Still it was all speculations, no reason to get worked up. Even if he had no idea how close to the truth he really was.

"Junkyard, so you were an AI?"

Materialization of the soul, this was the realm of the 3rd Magic. Although that would explain both Saber and his presence in this world. Landel's played with the laws of the universe as easily as a child crushed an ant hill. Archer was definitely in for a long, arduous battle. That thought brought a grim smile to his face.

"I think I'm finally starting to realize how powerful our captors really are," he mentioned offhandedly. "Sorry, didn't mean to go off tangent there. I'm from... Japan."

No reason to hide the truth. It's not like he was admitting to be Emiya Shirou.

"It's a small group of islands on the edge of the Eastern Hemisphere on Earth."

It's like he was explaining geography to an alien creature.

Argilla nodded. He must be kind of new if he didn't know about them yet. "Lots of them. It seems like most people are from different worlds. No-one's from this one that I've talked to at least." It was nice to think that most of them came from worlds where they could walk beneath the sun without worries.

"An AI... yes, that's what Roland called it," she replied. "We were combat AIs. Meant to be put into soldiers." It was difficult to get her head around now that she thought of it, being put inside someone else?

SHe shrugged and shook her head. "I don't mind. They do seem fairly powerful, the way they've sealed powers and everything. But it's still better in a lot of ways than where I was."

She listened curiously to his description of Japan. Islands, another place surrounded by oceans. They were so damn lucky. "I can't say I know them. I'm not even sure of where on Earth I ended up when we left the Junkyard." It hadn't seemed very important considering the situation.

"That's interesting."

Archer really didn't know what to say. It sounded like the Servant system employed by the Grail from his world.

"So what's your theory on the place? Do you think they brought us here with magic or something?" he said after settling down.

Since Argilla had accepted the concept of multiple worlds he hopefully wouldn't sound like an idiot. He had no idea that Argilla was already familiar with the concept of magic.

"Japan's a relatively nice and quaint place, but believe me you probably weren't missing anything," he mentioned offhandedly. "There are always corrupt and greedy, little bastards who abuse their power. No matter how beautiful the scenery there's always someone lurking in the shadows to screw it up. Last time I was there it was crawling with the entire world's evil manifested into a flood of really non-adorable puppies. The kind that wanna rip you limb from limb instead of play with their chew toys. But other than that it's usually pretty boring there."

He tried not to be bitter, but it was hard not to. As a Counter Guardian he had seen the worst of people during his career. Sometimes he wished he could just destroy mankind. Well, maybe not that far.

Argilla frowned slightly as she thought it over. She hadn't much cared how she got here, just that she was here and not dead and there was sunlight and grass and trees. "Magic might do it," she replied thoughtfully. "I don't know how, but hey, I somehow ended up living outside of the Junkyard." Even if it hadn't been what they'd been promised. "If our tribe's strategist was here, he'd probably have worked everything out by now." Gale had an answer for everything. Or he could at least make it seem as though he did.

"Beautiful scenery sounds like my idea of nirvana, actually," she replied with a wistful smile. "In my world, there's nothing like that. Even the sun is black and corrupted." The description of the puppies sounded a lot like Lupa when he'd finally succumbed to the madness, but he'd been truly honourable before then.

From Argilla's words Archer deduced that the world she had come from was pretty bleak. Maybe it was the fact that her world was called the Junkyard. Going by its name alone there probably wasn't a lot to look at there.

"Having a strategist would be nice," Archer understood the value of a gifted strategist. Skilled commanders could make a hundred men fight like a thousand with the right strategies and tactics. "On the other hand maybe it's best he's not here. This place may look pretty but it's definitely not nirvana."

At the mention of a black sun Archer couldn't help but agree. Something like that seemed like an ominous sign. Like the end of the world.

"If only things were that simple. A beautiful surface is only part of the picture. In my opinion if it looks too good to be true it usually is. That goes the same for people as well."

"Gale's more of a pragmatist than the rest of us. He'd take it in stride, I'm sure." And he had more iron control over himself than the rest of them. It was difficult to think that there was anything they couldn't do with him and Serph on their side. "And apart from this being a prison, it's still better than where I came from. People can go out into the sunlight without contracting Cuvier syndrome and turning into stone for one thing." It was a definite upside in her mind, even if she'd been immune to the syndrome anyway.

"I suppose that's true," she said consideringly. Hadn't the offer of Nirvana been too good to be true? Even if they'd had to take out all of the other tribes to do it, and see the Junkyard destroyed. "There's just a lot of things I want to see."

"Cuvier syndrome? I'm not familiar with that term," Archer confessed. "I suppose that's where we differ. To me a prison is still a prison regardless of the scenery. I guess it's because my home world was different from yours. To be honest, from your description of the Junkyard it sounds like here is much better than where you came from."

Their conversation was beginning to spoil his meal, but thankfully he was nearly done. He'd eaten enough to regain some mana for tonight.

"I suppose there are a lot of things to enjoy once you stop and take a look, but I can't settle down because I keep remembering it's a prison filled with monsters in the Nightshift that I have yet to see. I could live without seeing those things," his usual sarcasm returning.

"It's cuased by the corrupt data from the Sun. It turns humans into stone when they go outside," she explained. "And the Junkyard and the real world were very different to here. Worse than here. I got to see grass. I'm happy enough with that."

She knew that everyone else was finding this place to be hell, but for her, it wasn't so bad. "The monsters? They're not as bad as where I came from either. Most of the ones here can't send spells at you at least."

"Sounds delightful," insert trademark sarcasm. "I can see why you like it here."

Archer looked up from his meal and glanced at the other people in the cafeteria.

"I haven't a chance to sample the variety of monsters here yet. However, we've all lost some of our power so even the ones that don't spew out spells are probably a pain in the ass."

He turned to Argilla. "In fact I had wanted to meet the person who posted the bestiary on the bulletin board. Should be helpful while I pass the time during my stay here. Have you had a chance to look at it?"

Archer's eyes strayed to a woman who just entered the cafeteria.

"And there she is. Sorry, I gotta go."

Taking only his juice with him, he made his way towards his prior engagement.

Day 30: Cafeteria, Dinner

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