damned_institute | Day 38: Lunch

Ophelia left the library with a satisfied grin on her face. She would have to be on the lookout for that odd fellow from now on so that she might torment him again sometime. He did have the most incredibly amusing expressions. Perhaps when she regained her powers, she would kill him last, just to see his expression at being the last one left alive in this miserable institute.

Not caring much for which type of unfamiliar food she got, Ophelia reached for a random wrap (a "burrito" was it?) and took it with her as she looked for an empty seat. On the way, she saw both Arlene and HK-47, and she debated going to them to discuss the plans for the evening. She quickly decided not to, though. If they were going to the basement again, all she would need to do was meet the lot of them in front of the Sun Room again and ask if they required her assistance. No need to engage in conversation with Arlene about it unless it was necessary.

She eventually settled on a table on the side of the room opposite Arlene, wondering if she would be joined by someone as interesting as her library tablemate had been.

Although the Library had proved a worthwhile endeavour, Kio had not seen either Ophelia or Soubi. For a while he had thought he'd be alone but Allen had made sure to keep him company. He wondered if he'd ever see the other people again. Siegfried and Leon came to mind. Sure, he'd only met Siegfried two nights before, but the man had done wonders to keep Kio mentally stable. And Leon, with his helpful bits of information...

Shaking his head, Kio entered the Cafeteria, where more foreign food awaited. He picked up something with chicken in it, hoping to at least be able to munch on it. He looked around the room. No Soubi, not yet anyway. Or maybe he couldn't see him again. And what could he really ask him? Would Soubi even look at him? Kio had never been that bold. This place was changing him.

Walking slowly, tray in hand, he noticed Ophelia. If she wasn't waiting for anyone, maybe they could talk. That would be a good idea. Smiling, Kio approached his friend and sat down opposite her, with a small, "Mind if I sit down?"

Speaking of interesting people to toy with. Ophelia's previous meeting with Kio hadn't ended well, but in the intervening time, she had decided that if she came upon him again, he could still prove useful (and fun) to her. If he couldn't teach her to read, then Ophelia was at least hopeful that he could provide some assistance with other things.

"Not at all," she said, quickly adopting a radiant smile for him so as to put him in a receptive mood. "I apologize for my behaviour yesterday. It was wrong of me to get angry at you so quickly."

She was free and happy to see him. For once, Kio almost relaxed. He hadn't even realized he was that tense, but it seemed the meeting with Soubi had left him somewhat in a knot. His feelings for his friend were only more confused now, but he decided not to burden Ophelia with the story. If anyone could understand Soubi it would be Ritsuka, but Kio wouldn't see him for a while yet.

"Please don't fret, Ophelia-kun. I should have asked you what language you speak." His efforts wouldn't be in vain, though Kio could certainly say that to most people, trying to teach someone how to read was stupid. Who knew how long she would be here? "I was not feeling like myself and I think Sou-chan leaving upset me more than I let on. But I am more than happy to try and help you more today. The food isn't that appealing to me." Pushing his plate a little to the side, Kio opened the notebook and waited patiently.

"That's good to hear. I appreciate the offer," Ophelia replied with an airy chuckle. When Kio pulled out the notebook, however, she pushed it aside. "However, if this language problem is going to be affecting the learning process, I doubt we should continue as we were yesterday. I have a much simpler idea about how you can help me." She looked the boy in the eyes. On the outside, her expression was pure innocence. Underneath, she was laughing hysterically at the boy's all-too-trusting nature. He would break beautifully when the time came.

She confused him. Because she seemed so nice and polite and calm, and then seemed to be flirting slightly with him. The girls at Art College flirted, sure, but most had learned that since Kio and Soubi had met, very little was said between the artist and the girls. They liked Kio more, because he helped. Soubi just glared at them. But she seemed so much more aware of herself. Kio felt slightly... uneasy.

Her gesture startled him somewhat, but there was no reason to question her logic. She couldn't read her own language. By some mystical way, she could understand him. But if she couldn't even do basic things in her own language, then Kio's attempts would be futile. "An excellent reasoning, Ophelia-kun. Please let me know how I can help." He smiled at her. His charming, warm smile. She was much nicer to him than Sou-chan had been in their first meetings, although she was not even close to the level of intimacy between Kio and the blond man. But she was still a friend.

The sight of Kio returning her smile was a good sign. She would have no trouble in getting him to perform the necessary work she needed done. So long as she didn't touch any sore spots relating to this "Sou-chan" of his, he would be easy to shape into a personal assistant of sorts.

"The way I see it, if we're going to have difficulties of the sort we had yesterday, then we should cut out the tedious process of passing on your skills to me and just make use of the skills you already possess," she explained, lacing her fingers below her chin and leaning on top of them. "Why don't we just go over to the bulletin board together after we've eaten and have you read me the important-looking messages? Then I can dictate replies for you to post up on the board for me. It's not a perfect solution, but I imagine it would work until I can find some more effective way to learn written language. Who knows? Maybe watching you write while I dictate will itself be a way to help me learn."

She tilted her head sweetly and asked, "What do you say? If that's too much trouble, just let me know. But it would help ever so much if you could." Though her request gave Kio the illusion of being able to say no, she knew how the minds of "nice" people worked. Such people didn't want to admit that helping someone out was "too much trouble," and insinuating that it might be would only make them want to prove that it wasn't. She was entirely confident that Kio would agree to her request, which would make information gathering that much simpler for her in the short run.

Her logic made sense. Kio almost wished he had thought about it himself, but in his quest to help her learn how to read and write, he had overlooked the most obvious thing there was: read notes of importance to her and write her replies. "You're right. It would be quite easy to simply read out what looks interesting to me and then write your replies."

He grabbed his tray and picked at the chicken. It wasn't any good. But it was food. And if he didn't eat, who knew what could happen next? If he did indeed want to run around to find this elusive patient file, he would need to eat. The thought of more exploring was wonderful, of course, but he wasn't sure what he wanted more: lollipops or the truth. Kio knew that if anything went missing, he could rely on the guy on the Board to get his file.

"It's not too much trouble at all. If I didn't want to help I wouldn't have offered in the first place, would I?" Kio smiled again. "How did your night go?" She didn't seem wounded or anything, which was always a good sign.

Ophelia smiled, making sure she looked grateful. "Thank you, you have no idea how much this will help. We'll make a trip to the board as soon as we're done eating, then," she said, looking down at the food on her plate. She wasn't entirely fond of the soft, slightly moist bread shell, but the meat inside smelled good at least. It smelled as though some sort of unfamiliar (but not unpleasant) flavoring had been added to it. Testing a bite, she deemed the taste satisfactory.

Then she looked up to answer Kio's question. "Oh dear, not well at all," she said with a pouting look (which hid the more ugly frustration she felt in regards to the previous night). "I went out in the hopes of finding clues to Martin Landel's whereabouts, but ended up getting clawed by a glowing, near-indestructible monster. Thankfully, by the time it was beaten, it turned out that the monster's blood had healing properties, which is why you see no injuries," she explained, leaving out the part about who had actually beaten the monster and how.

"After that, I joined up with that difficult woman I told you about because she mentioned that there might be some interesting things to find in the basement of this place." Her eyes sparked with a dark grin for a moment that she wasn't able to hide. "And based on what I saw down there before blacking out last night, there must be something that Landel really doesn't want us getting at." Again, she didn't say exactly what (or who) she'd found. Let the unsuspecting boy get pincushioned if he was curious enough to go down there and see for himself, she thought.

So nice and shy and grateful. It was how Kio thought of her. Not a delicate flower, her physique certainly belied suc an assumption, but she acted so nicely towards him. Really, even if she had snapped a bit at him, Kio would have helped. He had dealt with Sou-chan in the past, Ophelia had nothing on him.

The man's eyes widened when he heard her describe the monster. He wasn't stupid enough to think rats were the worst in the Institute, but near-indestructible? It was as if Landel enjoyed this game of his. Which, of course, was to be expected from a sociopath, but Kio wasn't sure that in any sane world sociopaths put sane people in the asylum. "I thought my night went badly! I met Sou-chan and his roommate and we were attacked by rats. We managed to... chase them away." He had almost mentioned the magic trick, but Kio wasn't entirely sure he wanted everyone to know. After all, he didn't know for sure if Demyx had shared his powers, so getting his head chopped off by a saw made of water was not how he intended to die.

"I was told the same about the basement." Leon had mentioned answers. That there would be answers in the basement of the place. But he had tried and failed to find it. It occurred to him that Ophelia's night seemed to have been longer. Was time perception affected in this place too? "Unfortunately, I didn't get very far. I ran into my companions, literally, but I blacked out before we got anywhere. Tonight I want to go find my lollipops and earrings." Kio picked at more of his chicken. "You still going to the basement?"

Rats? That was it? Perhaps last night had been a fluke, then. If people like Kio and his band of merry men had been able to deal with creatures from the institute, then the one she had run into last night must have been more powerful than the norm. Now she knew that there were smaller creatures that she could hone her skills in this new body on. Good to know.

"Well I'm just glad that you managed to make it anywhere without getting hurt," she said with a sympathetic look, reaching out to pat him (maybe just a little too hard) on the shoulder.

After taking another few bites of her meal, she answered Kio's question. "Yes, with the same hateful woman and her companions again. I would prefer not to rely on her, but she does possess a fair amount of skill and more experience dealing with this place than I do," Ophelia responded more or less truthfully, biting back additional comments that had this place not robbed her of her power, Arlene would be begging for mercy at her feet. "She puts up with me. I put up with her. It evens out somewhat."

"Thanks, Ophelia-kun," he replied with a slightly forced smile. The hit had been friendly maybe but it still hurt. Kio wasn't used to bruising from something like a pat on the back. For all her fragile demeanour and shy looks, Ophelia was a tough girl. Maybe she ate all her vegetables?

Which reminded him that he needed to pick at his food more. "If you want, I could sign you up to one of those clubs." While they didn't interest him in the slightest because of the amount of fighting they seemed to assume one would do, Kio thought that Ophelia might like them more. "I don't know how much fighting Arlene allows you to do, because she sounds a bit bossy." He didn't add the part about violence being wrong, because he doubted she would understand his meaning. "Maybe when we go later I'll read out to you what everyone does in those clubs. You'd get away from Arlene, if nothing else. Say, Ophelia-kun, do you fight?" It was a stupid question, but he needed to know now.

Well, that hadn't been entirely expected from her assistant: an intelligent idea. "Yes, I think I'd quite like that. I've heard a few things about these clubs, and I'm very much interested in finding out more," she said, her grin eager and with a touch of mischief in it. "I do indeed have some experience with fighting. Sword fighting, to be exact. I hear that these clubs have ways of arming patients who need to be, which would help me greatly."

Kio smiled. Although he didn't really agree with the idea of Ophelia putting herself in danger by fighting, he reasoned with himself that she clearly knew what she was doing. She could handle a sword and not swipe her own arm off in the process. "Well, I don't really think violence is the answer, but if you know what you're doing... I worry about a lot of people, Ophelia-kun. I wouldn't want to worry about you too."

Just a few more bites and he could push away the plate. Forcing himself to chew the chicken, Kio added, "So what did you use to do in your world? Were you a fencing instructor?"

"Oh you don't have to worry about me, Kio dear," Ophelia assured him with an airy laugh. "In my world, I was often designated as a team leader. I was part of a sort of military division, though not one you've ever heard of." She hoped that this was enough to stave off Kio's curiosity on the matter. Lots of "good" people (at least as people like Kio would define "good") were part of armies, so she was fairly confident that this wouldn't set off any warning bells in the boy's head about her.

"So, yes, dreadful though the task of fighting may be, I can handle myself. No need to be concerned," she finished.

There might have been something slightly off-putting about her. But Kio's defences were down and he honestly believed everything that Ophelia was telling him. The military, huh? Well, maybe they got good benefits or something.

"Wow, you must be really strong, Ophelia-kun. Maybe the woman you travel with at night will realise you're a leader? If you say you're going to be okay, then I believe you."

Kio smiled again. "How did you spend the last shift, then?"

Edited 2009-01-30 21:38 (UTC)

"Oh I assure you, she will see my true skills eventually. She's just too confident in her own abilities to regard others with much respect," Ophelia said with a confident laugh.

It was with great pleasure that Ophelia's thoughts turned back to the previous shift and the lovely toy she'd spent it with. She grinned mischievously. "I shared a table with a very funny man. It was one of the most amusing shifts I've had so far in this miserable place," she answered, laughing again softly. "One must be grateful for small comforts in a situation such as ours, right?"

Day 38: Lunch

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