damned_institute | Day 40: Lunch

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Day 40: Lunch

*hobble wobble*

"Damn that SCOURGE!" Starscream cried out, the slowly-filling cafeteria producing a jarring echo of his raspy voice. His limping, already bad enough from not knowing how to properly use his crutches, was now exacerbated from the injuries he'd received the shift prior. Despite the gauges in his non-casted leg so lovingly provided by the aforementioned 'patient', Starscream could still put some weight on it, but not so much that he could really stop and rest; relieving the soreness under his arms was out of the question. The nurse that walked behind him with his tray, already upset at having to deal with yet another troublesome inmate, was growing rather impatient as his charge slowly made his way down the food line.

"Just...give me a standard serving of the aquatic creature's flesh, some of those fried potato slices, two bananas, and three bottles of juice," Starscream sighed, his anger from just a moment ago assuaged by the physical exertion needed to move the way he did. "I'm going to sit down here...bring it to me when you're done."

He was hardly surprised to find that one of the bananas was completely bruised along its inner curve, or that the handful of 'chips' on his plate were all on the small side. Tired and frustrated as he was, however, he could barely muster a 'damned flesh-creature' before moving his fingers to the plate, picking one of the longer 'chips' and shoving it into his mouth listlessly.

There was an unusually high concentration of sodium chloride crystals on it. Of COURSE.

[For Tony Stark]

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Kvothe didn't even know what a youkai was, or a ninja for that matter, and clearly the subject of whatever the relationship between Sheena and Yukari was was something best left alone, so he just shrugged. "I'm not sure that there's a whole lot of planning involved," he said. He took the icepack down from his face again and put it over the back of his broken right hand in the hope that the chill would soak through the cast and help numb some of the pain.

He wasn't feeling very hungry but he picked up one of the chips form his plate and just looked at it for a moment, in his head he knew that he needed to eat something but he needed to convince the rest of him of that as well.

"Huh."

Sheena took a moment to compose herself, hoping beyond hope, that Yukari would never ever find out Spider had said that. Her little ninja. As if. That damn youkai was going to be one of Sheena's pacts if she had any say and that would make the youkai hers.

"So, why'd he hit you?"

"Because he was asking questions that I wouldn't answer." He did have such a bad habit of antagonizing the worst people.

Finally he actually ate the chip, and had to surpress a sigh. Too salty and they'd gone cold and a little soggy. He wrinkled his nose and picked up the fork, slightly awkward with it for a few moments as he settled it into his left hand.

"Wouldn't or couldn't?"

Sheena's own food was still warm and she returned to eating it as she talked. Seeing the reaction, the ninja pushed the small bowl of fruit on her tray to its edge. "If you don't like the potato and fish, you can have my fruit."

"Wouldn't." He thought it would be mad to voluntarily give Spider any information about him, though there might be a bit of lingering paranoia. He shook his head as he tasted the fish, that was all right. "No, it's fine." He probably wouldn't have eaten both anyway, even now that he was eating it was slowly, in small bites. Maybe it was the pain or stress.

Sheena shrugged when the fruit was turned down. "Suit yourself."

She chewed in thought for a moment. "I can't blame you. That man doesn't need any information from anyone. At the very least, he needs to learn to ask questions the right way and not insult people to try and get the answers he wants. Journalist," she scoffed.

She then blinked. "Oh. What's your name?"

"And not injure then for it, either. Nearly broke my nose." He rubbed the bridge of his nose, it was still sore but at least still in one piece.

He covered a wary pause with another bite of the fish before eventually answering, "Kvothe."

If Sheena noticed the pause, she didn't show it.

"Nice to meet you, Kvothe. That's an interesting name," she replied with a smile. A look of concern adorned her face again as she looked over his nose.

"One of these days he's going to do this questioning routine he does with someone far less kind than I am and he'll end up breathing through a straw. Hopefully, he'll learn some sense before then." She drank some water. "Maybe I can talk Yukari into giving him that damn interview. It'll either calm him down or, depending on her mood, enrage him further."

He paused and raised an eyebrow at her. "Enraging him further doesn't seem like it would benefit anyone. He was on something as well, though I don't know what, and I'm sure there's no way to keep him from getting more of whatever it is which would only make things worse." He took another bite, just getting some food in him he was already feeling better than he had. "If she does you might want to bring everyone he was talking about, since he already gave permission for it and all." If Spider fights dirty when he's just trying to make a point, Kvothe thinks, he wouldn't want to deal with him when he actually wants a fight.

Sheena rolled her eyes. "He was only talking about her and me. Crazy moron was hallucinating multiple copies of us at breakfast."

She shrugged. "I'm not worried about him if he does get all enraged and decides he wants a piece of my youkai. It'll just give me an excuse to beat the crap out of him and remind him who broke his hand in the first place."

She then looked a little sheepish. "I'm... uh... not usually this violent, but he's messing with friends, so I get a bit... yeah." She lived up to that damn nickname Zelos gave her. Poor Spider needed to be careful or he might get the Screaming Violent Banshee instead of a ninja.

His eyebrows rose when she said that she was the one who broke Spider's hand, and he unconciously tucked his own broken hand closer to him as he finished his piece of fish. "I can tell," he said dryly.

He pushed the chips around his plate for a few moments before asking, "What is a youkai, anyway? I've never heard the word before."

Oh great. Now Sheena was going to have to find a way to explain something she only sort of understood to someone who had no clue. How was she going to do that?

"Uh... well... a youkai is kind of like a demon, but not," she said. "Kind of more like a being created out of the beliefs, be they exultation or fear, of humans. You ever heard of things like the boogeyman, or the glimpses of things you see at night out of the corner of your eyes but aren't there when you actually look?"

She rubbed her chin in thought. "Things that go bump in the night? Um... maybe created out of isn't the right term. More like embodiment of. Things forgotten by humanity as people focus more on science and less on the fantastical, less on magic."

She furrowed her brow. "Does that make sense?"

He almost points out that there's no such things as Demons, but he decided to listen to the rest first and everything else she said was increasingly alarming. Especially when she mentioned seeing things out of the corners of his eyes. He'd managed to put it out of his mind with Spider and then the icepack, but just at the mention of it he had to stop himself from from turning his head to see what the movement in the corner of his eye really was.

"...Yeah, that makes sense." Too much sense. What she was describing sounded uncomfortably like the Chandrian which was not a pleasant thought, especially after the previous night. "And you're friends with...?" He cut himself off before he could say anything unfortunate, but it certainly didn't sound like anything he'd want to be friends with, much less anything that would be likely to be friendly with anyone at all.

Sheena shot Kvothe a glare, but softened it when he didn't continue.

"I wouldn't exactly call us friends, not like most people think of when they think of a friend. it's... complicated." She happened to spot Yukari then, clearly under the effects of the drug given her lack of coordination. A small crease of worry touched the ninja's forehead.

"But yeah and she's not that bad. She irritates the hell out of me and is probably pretty damn powerful back in her world, but she's under the same limitations as the rest of us here." Sheena shrugged. "Besides, I'm used to being around creatures such as her. My world has very similar beings we call spirits, on top of the everyday ghosts and monsters. I have the unique ability to control spirits, so I'm really not worried about her."

She set a warning look on the boy. "And neither should you. She's not going to harm you, last night's ill-chosen slap aside."

He just frowned back. "Someone like you just described doesn't seem like they would want to peacefully associate with normal humans," he said, choosing his words more carefully than he otherwise might. Ordinarily he might have argued the point but he really didn't feel up to any more fights that day. The knowledge the 'youkai' and any others like her were apparently limited in their power here was somewhat reassuring, but he'd seen the place at night and wasn't fully convinced that she was no danger to those who didn't have this ability to control things like that.

Sheena waved a hand. "She finds humans fascinating. Why would she prey upon something that clearly entertains her and keeps her from being bored?"

She then sighed. "You know, there are evil humans that are serial killers or megalomaniacs set on the destruction of the world. Just because most youkai might not necessarily get along hunky-dory with humans doesn't mean some can't. You're stereotyping and being a bit racist."

Her words weren't angry, nor were they really accusational, as she was was stating the truth. How many people in Tethe'alla looked down upon and treated horribly, with hostility, half-elves just because they were half-elves? It was sad, really.

"I know very well how evil some humans can be," he pointed out, voice flat for a moment. Speaking from experience. "I'd never heard of anything called 'youkai' until you mentioned them, and all I know about them is what you've told me. However, there are beings where I am from that match your description reasonably well that are widely regarded as myth because nearly every person who encounters them is brutally killed so that they stay that way. So, from the experience and knowledge that I have at this moment, it is not an unreasonable assumption to make."

"It's not unreasonable to assume that youkai, in general, may be like that," Sheena agreed. "It is unreasonable and discriminatory to assume that one single youkai is like that without taking the time to get to know her. The fact that she tried to help you last night, as misguided as the attempt was, should say something about her character."

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Day 40: Lunch

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