damned_institute | Day 31: Sun Room (Fourth Shift)

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Day 31: Sun Room (Fourth Shift)

Though perhaps not entirely as successful as he wanted it to be, Homura walked away from lunch feeling satisfied with his efforts. Roland and Fai both had shown interest in the goal, and that was enough for the moment. Homura could be patient, had already been for five hundred years, and felt no harm in waiting another five hundred if he had to. He would have his goals realized, no matter what obstacles he faced, be they from the prison or those trapped within.

But now was time for business of a different sort, and the demi-god made his way to the Sun Room, near the common board. He made sure he could be seen from the entrance to the cafeteria, knowing that one stranger and one member of his own group both wanted to meet with him. It worked out well enough, especially given that the stated purpose of the History Club was simple.

Revenge and escape.

For now, Homura had no intention of revealing that it'd grown more complicated than that.

[Waiting for L and Junior]

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[Waiting for Misa, Hikaru, and Kaoru.]

As important as getting enough sleep was for him to be able to concentrate, spending both of the last two shifts unconscious had not been the most ideal way of going about catching up on it. Light hadn't realized he'd been that tired either, but then he supposed that it was better that he'd caught up today and missed two shifts than allowed his reasoning abilities to degenerate further and miss more of a day than he already had. He just had to stay optimistic.

... Easier said than done, in a place like this, but at least he could say he made the effort.

Sighing, he relaxed on one of the Sun Room's many couches and focused on waking up the rest of the way. Once he'd done that, it would be time to find someone new to talk to, or, quite possibly, to simply eavesdrop on L's conversation as closely as he could without being noticed. A combination of both would be best, but depending on the circumstances, it may be better to focus on just one. He'd found out which one it was soon enough.

Kurogane didn't need to understand anything beyond what he already knew, and even if he had, he still would not have changed his position. He still would have been just infuriated with Fai as he currently was.

"If you stay here, it will be running away even more!" he scowled as his hand shook a bit on the armrest. "Listen to me for once! You really think everything's just going to be all right if you stay here? Bullshit! This isn't your world, magician. There is nothing you 'have' to do here! The people here are just trying to control us and you're letting them!"

Never had he felt such an urge to strike the magician. He wanted to beat whatever ideas he had in his head out in one fell swoop. And if Fai kept this up, he very well might do just that.

"It's okay, Allen," Rinali said with a smile. "I won't tell any of the really gruesome stories." She winked.

"We, well," She paused, trying to think how best to explain it. It was always difficult when they didn't have common ground. "I understand 'exorcist' has different meanings in different timelines. What does the word mean to you?"

"LIGHT!" Misa spared no time running over and half-tackling Light's arm the moment she spotted him. She'd been busy that day, true, and though she really should have been looking for one of those Arts and Crafts people now her Light was there and, well...

She'd missed him.

Not to mention he'd missed lunch! Ooooh...

"Misa's so glad you're here. We both went to the same place! Isn't that wonderful? Oh, oh! I met Lord, I mean, Tamaki earlier during lunch! He seems really nice, you guys are friends right? I offered to help out in the clinic once in a while. You don't mind, do you? We're going to make cute hats to wear, so Misa can be a sexy nurse for Light." She squeezed at his arm affectionately. "And OH! You didn't go to lunch earlier! Are you hungry? Don't skip out on meals like that! It's not healthy, you know!"

And then she batted at his arm once in a slightly scolding manner.

How was it running away? He was finally trying to face one of his problems! If that meant giving someone else control, what did it matter? He could save Ashura so easily! Before... before he'd lost hope that there was anything at all he could do. Now, at least there was hope!

"I'm sorry," he said through a half smile. Though he probably wasn't sorry for the same reasons Kurogane wanted him to be.

Ah, the Sun Room-- one of Kadaj's favorite rooms by far, and certainly much better than the Game Room. The only thing that could have made this better was if that new batch of patients the Head Doctor had mentioned were here already and included his two brothers, but since they weren't, well, he'd have to find other ways to entertain himself.

... Like the bulletin board, for instance. That looked like fun.

Wandering over, he made his own meaningless contribution before finding a seat somewhere near a black-haired girl he didn't know and allowing his mind to wander while he waited for a response. There were more productive ways to spend his time, of course, but where was the fun in that? He could do something productive when night came.

"'Sorry' doesn't cut it!" His hand moved again, this time snatching Fai's wrist before he could try to squirm further away. "You're not getting that file. You're going to forget that you ever heard the name Robin Cross and start acting like you can think for yourself, or so help me..." He didn't finish, but let his tight and trembling grip on Fai's wrist speak for him.

That was IT! This boy was just going too far! Cutting in-between himself and Rinali, not to mention how obnoxious he'd been all last hour... and that annoyingly pompous air about him! He'd like to call the boy out right here and now, but there were several reasons why he couldn't right at the moment.

It was growing unbearable to tolerate him. Not to mention that laid-back attitude of his... Even Allen's table manners weren't this crude. Putting his feet on the table like that... Without a second thought, Allen promptly shoved the boy's feet off the table. "I know it's an awful place here," he smiled, though it was false through and through, "but that's no reason not to mind your manners."

Skuld stopped in the middle of the room and looked around. Tall woman, short blond hair... there. "Hi," she said, walking up to her. "Arlene, right?"

She wasn't totally sure how to conduct herself here, so she settled on "professional" more than anything else. The woman herself was giving no clues she could read; at least it was daytime and the room was crowded, in case something went badly. She'd seen enough fights to know it could happen.

"Houu..." he said as he listened to Usopp talk about the gunpowder. The more he could find out, the better. While chemicals were interesting and could do some damage, he knew just how devastating gunpowder could be as well. It was a pity they hadn't anyone from the Shiba clan here. They would probably know plenty on the subject.

He tried to piece together the ingredients in his mind. He knew what charcoal was and had a couple of guesses as to where he might find it. Sulfur was a type of mineral and that, he really wasn't sure where to start looking for. The saltpeter was right out though, he hadn't heard the term before. It was interesting how he could ask several people about the same things and always end up with different answers. "You'll have t'break it down a lil' for me if y'can," he said after a moment. He pulled out his notebook and wrote the ingredients down, "Ain't sure what about half a that is. Or where t'find it. Sounds a lil' complicated."

... Oh, great.

Holding in an exasperated sigh, Light looked down at the blonde now firmly attached to his arm and said, "I know. I'm sorry, Misa. I fell asleep and didn't wake up until the last intercom announcement. Missing lunch was completely unintentional." He made sure his expression looked appropriately apologetic, if only because of everyone else in the Sun Room who could be listening in on him. Of all the times she could have brought this up--

Wait a second. "You're going to make what?" Why did she insist on pulling ridiculous stunts like this?! A sexy nurse? Cute hats? Why was she treating this like a vacation?! Couldn't she see how serious the situation was? He'd told her to network, not make herself look pretty for him!

"Ah- I'm fine! I'm sorry!" she apologized, trying to gather her thoughts. "ah... um..." she rubbed at the bandage on her neck, "it was... dark and... and I really didn't see much. But I know they'd have a bite on their hand." She frowned then, recalling the frightening experience.

"If I find him, ooooh, I'll just..." her hands clenched into fists at her sides for a brief moment before she got a hold on her anger, "is... is there anything else you need to know?"

The Bride was being watched. She could tell someone, other than the staff, was watching her, and she'd bet Bill's fortune it was the man with the green hair that was trying to appear asleep nearby. Interesting... Now why would this man she'd never encountered before find her so entrancing?

Her thoughts were semi-pulled from the matter when she heard herself being addressed. Beatrix replaced the note from the board she'd taken down to read, and allow her to get a glance around the room to find whom the mystery stare belonged. She raised an eyebrow at the girl talking to her, feeling very skeptical about what the girl had been offering.

"Skuld, I presume?" Beatrix's voice was even and controlled, not giving away any of her internal thoughts. After what had happened the previous night, she was willing to let this girl explain herself.

[waiting for Hokuto, eventually]

Somehow the rather gloomy conversation Subaru had had during lunch had worn him out more than he'd have expected. Maybe it was partly because he'd never gotten around to really eating much, as a result. So, he curled up in a nice sunny spot in the Sun Room, and closed his eyes for a nap.

"Ah-" he startled when Kurogane grabbed his wrist. It hurt, but he didn't cry out, just answered with the same tone as before. "That... that hurts." He didn't even try to pull away though, with his strength as little as it was, he wouldn't be able to do much.

"If you could save someone important to you," he said, looking up and meeting Kurogane's eyes for perhaps the first time this entire day, "even if the chance was small, you'd take it, wouldn't you?" His voice was no longer cold, but pained and tinged with his own guilt. He had to do this. He had to!

"Yeah, um..." Usopp frowned as he saw Gin write the items down. "I wasn't sure where to find it in here, either. I first found out how to make it out of a book, actually, when I was a kid." He'd had a lot of free time as a kid. Not so much supervision. "It takes some time to get it right. I'm not sure this is really a good place to learn how."

He rubbed the back of his head, scratching under the edge of the pirate bandanna he'd made from one of the shirts. Usopp wasn't sure he wanted to volunteer to make gunpowder for strangers, but he also wasn't sure he wanted to be responsible for directing people on how to blow off their own digits. "Why do you want to know about gunpowder? There's guys who make swords and things, too, if that's more of what you're used to using. Gunpowder can be dangerous if you aren't careful."

The vampire smiled, propping his chin in his hand. He couldn’t help but wonder how, exactly, their respective ‘gruesome stories’ would match up if compared. Blood, violence, death, grudges... Humans who experienced such things had a better chance of relating to a vampire, he had to admit.

At Rinali’s inquiry, Aidou honestly thought about it, before saying, "Exorcism’s always been connected with religion. I guess it basically means--"

Then Allen chose to get all bratty, and Aidou broke off at the sudden momentum, forced to drop his arm. His butt slid slightly in the chair, thigh bumping the armrest. He paused, debated high-kicking Allen in the chin, but in the end thought Kaname-sama tolerated that damn Kiryu with such grace, and promptly put his feet back on the other end of the table, out of Allen’s reach. "Considering said ‘awful place’, I don’t mind if the staff are insulted," said the noble.

He looked back at Rinali, smiling once more. "Anyway, it means someone who rids a person, place, or thing of supernatural beings. Go on."

"Yeah." Skuld paused for a second, not sure what else to say, before going on "So you said you wanted a katana?" Straightforward and professional, that was all.

She had no way of knowing if the woman knew of her, and that was one reason she was slightly on edge. If Arlene did know about Valkyries, she definitely had the advantage; Skuld couldn't even guess anything about her.

She wished she had Noble Scarlet for support, at least... but, for now, she had to get by on her own.

Hitsugaya nodded slightly, making note of the bite mark. "Do you have a general idea of how tall he was compared to you? And as for the bite mark, do you know specifically where the mark was?" It would be a lot more difficult to excuse away the mark if it matched the exact position of the wound.

"It's okay..." She rubbed at his arm soothingly as she smiled and leaned closer. However great her excitement was previously, now Misa was calm, almost sober as she spoke. "Misa just gets worried for her Light. This place... mmm... " She would have closed her eyes and expressed just how much worry she'd been in had it not been for Light's next question.

She sat up and grinned. "Hats! We're going to make cute nurse hats!" Misa could sense Light's displeasure, however, and knew what it was about. She had to reassure him that she was doing what he wanted her to. She was being useful! Hopefully. Putting a finger to her lips and winking, she kept a properly cheerful expression on her face just in case someone was watching. "Misa'll make lots of new friends there too~" Especially if the injured parties were people who would end up feeling obligated to her later on. Nothing said 'caring' like charity work! She'd learned that from a publicist.

"Indeed," Beatrix replied. She paused a moment, noting the tension in the girl and then chuckled lightly. "Relax - I'm not going to bite. I just have a couple questions for you."

She gestured to a set of chairs nearby while still keeping a small portion of her attention on the man watching her. "Shall we?"

Rukia was still paying attention to Fai and Kurogane's conversation, but when a young man she had seen many times before came and sat a few seats away from her, Rukia looked over at him. It was odd, that they had both been here over a week and never spoken. But it seemed there was always something to do.

She watched him for a moment, then smiled. "Are you playing that game someone started on the board, too?" she asked. "The word one?"

Skuld managed a slight smile. "Sorry. I just got here, so I'm not sure what to expect." At least her assigned duty didn't include fighting regularly. It would happen on occasion and she knew it--there was a reason she had made herself a modified version of her bughammer first thing--but her main task was making weapons for others, and she needed to be in good shape for that.

She sat down in one of the indicated chairs, placing her journal in her lap for now; she didn't need paper for this unless she wanted to show the arrays she used. "So, I guess you're not familiar with alchemy?"

It needed to hurt. Fai needed to understand that Kurogane was dead serious in what he was saying. He should have been happy that it was only his wrist and that he hadn't been laid out by a fist yet.

"What the hell do you think I'm doing?!"

So not membership, but aide; it seemed Homura's group was getting popular for favors, though the demi-god wasn't entirely certain why. Of the three leaders, he had little doubt he was the most selfish, and likely the least merciful. Certainly by Hitsugaya's own words, he was the least accepting--something that Homura was not at all ashamed of.

Homura turned to face the bulletin, answering a reply to one of his own postings. He gave this stranger's a look, but didn't join in. Perhaps later on, but considering how little he knew about the other, he wasn't entirely eager to give out whatever information the stranger was trying to glean.

"What information are you seeking, exactly?" Homura kept his voice low, his back turned to the open area. He assumed that this was how the other would prefer it at any rate. "And what are you offering in return?"

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Day 31: Sun Room (Fourth Shift)

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