Day 30: Cafeteria, Dinner

[captain-hunam.livejournal.com]

The cafeteria was all but empty when Zelnick got there. He was a little disappointed; he had gotten the impression that patients usually ate dinner in their rooms, so he hadn't arranged to meet anyone, and there really wasn't anyone to sit by and engage in conversation yet.

Quietly, he collected dinner and a big glass of orange juice, and chose a seat near the food-serving counters. Talking for so long had made him thirsty... and, well, fruit juice was a luxury he had missed.

[Stalk away, my dearest Admiral. <3 ]

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[rappigs.livejournal.com]

"Huh? Me? Doing just fine, thanks," Peony said with an easy smile, not intending to make the poor boy nervous. Well, not too nervous, anyway. A little tension in the air was invigorating! At least, that was what Peony had always thought when happily torturing Jade's friends with those painfully cheerful ministrations.

He hadn't quite caught that the boy wasn't enjoying his meal; he'd been too busy devouring his own. 'Are you okay' was simply a good question to ask in a place like this - question that could get a lot of varied answers.

The middle-aged emperor leaned in a little. Conversationally, kind of. "Let me guess. You're preparing to embark on an amazing adventure, is that it? One that will shake the very walls of Landel's Institute?" Yeah, Peony was teasing him a little bit, but a kid like this looked like he needed some teasing, in all honesty.

[notaghostreally.livejournal.com]

He nodded, showing that he heard the other man speak and continued eating, unsure of how else to continue the conversation. Eating silently just didn't feel right, he needed to fill the empty space with words, but he didn't know with which. At least back home with any of the kids from school, he could talk about homework or something. Heck, he could even talk to Dash and other A-list kids if he brought up football or Mr. Lancer's stupid poetry homework or something (even if it would earn him a wedgie or getting shoved in some cramped space). With the guy in front of him, Danny couldn't even tell if he knew what football was.

Luckily, it was the other guy who broke the silence. It might've been a weird question (mocking, even!), but hey, it was better than nothing.

"Not really," he said, laughing nervously as he always did when confronted with a weird question. "Just planning on getting around. The usual." He shrugged. Yeah, you know, surviving, trying not to get eaten by enormous birds, the usual. He most certainly wouldn't be trying any wild stunts tonight.

[rappigs.livejournal.com]

Peony stared at the kid for a moment. There was a usual? Peony'd been here for almost a week now - a week! Oh, his precious rappigs, how were they doing without him!? - and still he hadn't found something 'usual' to do during nightshift. Sure, he had to meet with people he knew to make sure that no one was being tortured or had been kidnapped, or anything, but other than that all of his nights had been completely different.

"Oh, huh. Is that so, Mr. Mature? 'The usual?' Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going on an adventure," Peony said with an obvious touch of boredom in his words. "...If Jade'll let me," he grumbled as an afterthought. He'd been injured his second night here. While those injuries had long since healed over, he was pretty sure that it had doomed him from nighttime privacy for the rest of his stay in Landel's.

"Peony!" He dropped his fork unceremoniously and extended his right hand to the kid. Now was as good a time as any to introduce himself. He still hadn't quite gotten the hang of introductions just yet. He'd.. never really had to introduce himself before the Institute, not since childhood. Everyone always knew who he was.