damned_institute | Day 21: Lunch

Hikaru and Kaoru had been so caught up in their little game that they initially hadn't heard the intercom go off. The new "ding" system was far less jarring than the old SCREECH, and as such, wasn't as easily heard, even in a place as quiet as the library. All too soon, the nurses came to separate the twins and take them to the next activity--lunch.

It only felt like a few minutes since breakfast, somehow, and yet Hikaru was starved. The lunch selection was ridiculously Americanized food of the "Pan Asian" genre, as bad as when his family had wanted Japanese food in California and had gone to the "nicest" restaurant in the English language guidebook. He cringed visibly when the surly cafeteria worker poured sauce on his rice--which was supposed to be plain--but...food was food, and he wasn't feeling terribly picky right now. At least it smelled all right.

One of the good things about being the first one into the cafeteria was having his pick of the tables. Hikaru chose one of the larger ones, saving seats for Kaoru, Tamaki, and (in a fit of hopefulness) Haruhi.

He hoped they'd come soon. He hated being alone.

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None of this made sense anymore. Edgeworth frowned, not entirely sure whether to reply or not at first. He took a bite of the noodles, taking the moment while he was chewing to formulate a reply.

"I don't necessarily agree that time is always right, either. There's either too much or too little of it for what one wants to do. But I don't place much stock in fortunes, most of the time. One can't, in the line of work I'm in; there is either evidence for a conclusion, or there is not. It does no good to pretend otherwise."

Crunch.

If there was one thing Luxord would do had he the heart, he would have hated any ill respect towards time; in fact, it was one of the closest things he could feel once that certain stimuli came into hearing range. The other Organization members ~~save for Xigbar~~ would hold their tongues on the subject, never voicing their opinions on the Gambler's element.

It was the Cardinal Sin with him. He was far too busy glaring at the conversational partners to notice he had crushed the remains of fortune cookie between his palm and fingers.

"Time is never wrong," he assured, mouth curling into a rather disturbing smile while his eyes read 'death'. "Fate intertwines all, Time assuring that what is designed shall occur. It is never wrong."

There went that manipulation scheme.

Haku continued to smile, unfazed by the look he was seeing (he'd seen far worse from his own family after all) and nodded politely. "Well, perhaps I am wrong. I do not claim to be well versed in all aspects of time." He brought a finger to his lips in thought. "Fate as well... Hmmm.... Fate is something that has fascinated me, though again," he smiled and shrugged. "It is not something I have made myself familiar with."

He honestly didn't care if he was angering this man or not. Nothing mattered now; he was simply existing until death found him again anyway....

But he could still be polite during the wait.

((OOC: Reposted because of some odd errors... ^_^;))

Hisoka had to roll his eyes at the maturity level the blonde haired man obviously possessed over the subject of the conversation. Time was time, it was neither right nor wrong and it was only in human nature to try and personify it like that. Fate was exactly the same, only more people were embittered over Fate than time due to the concept that it made everyone puppets whom danced its tune. Fools.

Having a feeling this would only further ruffle the man's feathers ~~idiot~~, Hisoka proceeded to keep silent on the topic. So far he had been blessed in not having been given much notice by any of the occupants of the table-- much to the woman ~~stalking~~ watching him's dismay, he was sure-- and he hoped to keep it that way.

Finishing his meal, Hisoka turned his thoughts to more pressing matters as his eyes glanced down to the fork in his hand, an idea forming in his mind of how to test his regeneration. It would do him no good to do it here, with being under constant scrutiny, so he would have to find a way to slip the fork past the ever-watchful nurse's gaze and wait. A flicker of a frown passed over his face at this thought.

How was he supposed to do that without letting on to what he was doing?

Conversations such as this were why Miles Edgeworth tried to avoid small talk as much as possible. He honestly wasn't sure what he'd said to anger the blonde gentleman as much as he clearly had. He ran through a mental list of cases in his head - this wasn't someone he had prosecuted in the past, was it, a former defendant turned patient? That would explain the feelings towards time, seeing as three days could change everything...but he certainly didn't remember a defendant that looked like this.

It was in that moment he gave himself a sharp rebuke. "You're not in your own world. You don't know anything about this place. Wouldn't it have been better to play along and at least try and learn something? That's the way you'd bluff in court, at least."

"Perhaps I was too hasty in my previous statement. Three days can change everything in my world; those days can feel like an eternity or they can go by so fast you don't know what happened."

He turned to the other two occupants, noting that the boy down the hall from him hadn't said a word this whole time. "Wouldn't you agree?"

As quick as the flash of anger came, it was gone in an instant, the blond's placid expression back in place as he shook the cookie crumbs off his hand with a flick of the wrist. Another thing about Nobodies was the apparent mood swings. Try as they may to duplicate human emotions, they tended to fail in just how long such emotions should last.

Not that it was of any importance, now. Luxord was not one to fret about his 'condition.'

"Then I apologize, my good sir," his voice was all charm and well-mannered once more, completely lacking the earlier edge. "I believe I have been in this facility a tad too long; six days and five nights, five hours and thirty-two minutes." The Nobody gave a smile, "Time flies just right for me."

"If there happens to be anything you wish to ask, you may ask me."

Haku blinked in surprise at the length of time the blond man had claimed to be here. While he wished to learn all he could about this situation, Haku didn't want to seem over eager.

"I am going to assume that since you have been here for quite some time," he began slowly. "You have tried to escape. What kinds of things are preventing this?"

Now this subject caught Hisoka's attention, however divided by the fork it was. The boy had been here for all of, what-- a day?-- and nothing was making any sense. They locked their doors and were a respectable hospital, yet at night they unlocked their doors, let their patients roam free and Enma knew what other events took place.

Hisoka had a feeling this was normal, too.

Keeping his eyes on his plastic utensil-- which he would get, one way or other-- the boy casually listened in on the conversation with more interest than before.

Finally. A break in the investigation. At least, Edgeworth hoped it would be a break. He'd seen red herrings before and he didn't want this to be another one, but he agreed with Haku on this point; this would be important, one way or the other.

The prosecutor nodded in agreement. "I'd like to know this as well, and one more thing...do you know, at all, how anyone arrives here?"

So he had their attention now. Perfect. The Gambler pulled out the deck of cards he pilfered before, shuffling them from hand to hand as he spoke. His eyes were closed, a grin spread over his face.

"Imagine what you always feared as a child; what was under the bed," perhaps a little contrived, but he liked to be effective, "what was in the closet, what lurked in the dark and wished to rip you limb from limb. Imagine a power stronger than the faith you have in whatever god you believe in. Imagine horribly twisted demons that lust for your blood." His eyes opened, focused on the three before him. "When the sun goes down, you'll wish it wasn't just in your imagination."

The Nobody leaned back in his chair, noting the other man's question. "As for how they brought us here, I've merely an idea. One would need to understand the workings of Time and Space in order to understand such a concept."

Day 21: Lunch

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