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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Javert raised an eyebrow. Certainly a serious-looking young lady, and a rather interesting way of beginning a conversation.

"You're quite correct, mademoiselle. Javert's the name." He paused, but only slightly. "I would assume you aren't, either, but this place has taught me otherwise."

"I'm Juri," she said as she spread the napkins around in a protective layer and started picking the breading off her fish. "Mademoiselle... are you French? I am from Japan." It wasn't the most detailed conversation, but she wasn't sure what to say to such an older man.

"Indeed. I've lived there all my life." He took a bite of his own meal. Greasy, perhaps, but certainly better than what he usually ate at home. The food here had made him pickier than he would have liked to admit.

"It appears there's an unusual percentage of Japanese here. That's as good a pattern as any, if there's anything even remotely resembling one in this da - in this place."

Over two weeks here and still inept when it came to conversation. Brilliant, Javert. What the hell did women usually talk about anyway?

As mature as she seemed, Juri didn't consider herself an adult woman. She kept her eyes on the unusual man with the large sideburns while her long, slim fingers kept picking apart the fish. "I had noticed, though it's more weird that so many are young, like me and the other two from my school."

It wasn't the first time Javert had noticed the high proportion of children here, and he nodded briefly. At least Juri seemed to have a few classmates with her.

"Forgive me if I'm being too forward, mademoiselle, but where are you from? It's difficult to believe that ordinary students would be taken from their school like this."

It was another pattern - this one just as riddled with exceptions as the other, but one he was just as dead set on following. The children here were...different, as far as he could tell. More mature, certainly, and usually possessed of supernatural powers.

"I don't think it was any special sort of school. It was private, if that's what you mean?" Was he nosing around about the duels? Juri knew better than to break the rules. She didn't talk about it outside of those involved. "It was called Ohtori Academy. I was on the student council."

She finally succeeded in getting enough breading off one piece of her fish. It was scrawny without it's fattening coat. Juri cleaned off her fingers and cut it up with her fork. The taste was a brutal disappointment to one used to fresh steamed fish. She quickly ate a bland potato to cushion the strong taste.

"Now I know why westerners serve these together," she muttered. "The potatoes cover the taste of the badly cooked fish."

As expected, the school was completely unfamiliar. Still, he was sure there was a reason she was here, as he was sure there was a reason everyone else was here.

Quite the dainty eater, wasn't she? Javert watched in silent amusement for a moment before turning back to his own meal, barely catching her muttered words.

One corner of his mouth quirked upward. "I suppose some of us westerners are less choosy about what we're served."

"I like to eat healthy." Worry on her face looked a bit like pouting, but Juri glanced around at the other patients, trying to seem concerned. "I suppose there are people here who didn't eat regularly before this, but we ate well."

"Were you poor?" she asked.

A rich student, then, though he'd already guessed that before she spoke. It didn't take a master of observation to realize that.

He quirked a surprised eyebrow upward at her question. She was certainly straightforward, wasn't she? Amusement and annoyance warred briefly on his face before he settled on the former.

"I made enough to get by. Money was never one of my concerns." His career was important, to say the least, but it hadn't been his income that had occupied him.

"Nor was food," he added wryly, after a moment.

"When I could get healthy food, I didn't worry about it either," Juri replied with more than a little sarcasm. Did he imagine she stayed fit by twiddling her thumbs and eating pocky? "I was a model and champion fencer. I had to watch what I ate, though it wasn't normally so difficult."

So no average student, then. It figured. She sounded rather like all the other students he had heard about here - wealthy and relatively talented in some way or another. All these spoiled little lordlings - well, it wasn't any of his concern unless they tried to get themselves killed or kill someone else, and they seemed to be doing a surprising amount of staying out of it so far.

"I'm sure it wasn't," he said, voice laced with its usual irony, and took another bite of his food. What did he care, really?

Juri scowled at the man's tone. It wasn't as if she hadn't noticed his attitude almost from the beginning, but she tried to be polite. Normally, she wasn't this restrained around adults, but she still hadn't worked out whether she could terrify all the adults here, or just the staff. Was this sneering, old Frenchman the equivalent of teacher or student? Finally, she decided he was a student, and since he wasn't of her... class, she probably didn't need to bother with him. He was someone else's problem.

"Just because you don't care what you put into your body, doesn't mean I have to stoop to your level." She daintily ate the rest of the one piece of fish and started tearing the breading off the next. Still, she hoped there'd be something more edible than this for dinner.

It had been positive ages since he'd been spoken to in this manner by anyone - his jurisdiction didn't usually cover the more affluent areas of Paris. In any case, it was precisely the reaction he had expected of someone of her supposed status - behave like nothing had changed. Some sort of coping mechanism, he was sure.

Javert gave her credit for owning a spine, if nothing else, though he still didn't see fit to respond to her comments with anything other than a brief, sardonic laugh.

When the Frenchman didn't speak again, and in fact, laughed, Juri threw him a sour sneer and concentrated more on her fish. "If you want to get fatter, it's your own problem," she finally said. She knew that by his frame, Javert wasn't likely actually overweight, but she was used to more slender youths and somewhat petite academic adults. The acting chairman was pretty tall, from her memory, but even he had a very slender waist. It felt pleasant to try to needle the man.

Did she honestly think a comeback like that would affect him in the slightest? This was almost boring. "Problem, mademoiselle? It might even be a pleasant change."

He finished off the fish with a drink of water. To be honest, he'd thought the same when he'd first arrived - that the meals were far richer than he was used to - but at the moment, the quality of Landel's cuisine was the least of his concerns.

Juri glared at him, and finally admitted defeat in her urge to give him a typical teen eyeroll. She didn't actually do it, but ate a few more bites, then rose to take her tray up. Maybe she'd look at the bulletin board before they made her go to the next activity.

"Have a nice time with your greasy fish, sir."

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Day 40: Lunch

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