Day 40: Lunch

[whiny-egomaniac.livejournal.com]

*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]

Comments

[dualistic]

Before Harvey's train of thought could really get going, he was interrupted by a male voice. Glancing up, he saw someone who didn't look all that different from the person he'd just been talking to. He could have easily said that the seat was taken and be done with it, but then someone else would probably come over and he'd be shaken out of his thoughts all over again.

He motioned to the seat to indicate that the man could sit down. Since he didn't want to talk about pointless things again, he quickly cut to the chase.

"How long have you been here?" he asked, getting the question out before the patient even had a chance to sit down. He needed to quickly determine where on the crazy scale this particular patient fell, and then he could either continue with his questions or ignore the man for the rest of the meal.

[stalksperverts.livejournal.com]

Kio was trying hard not to stare, but it was rather difficult considering the extensive injury on the man's face. He focused his gaze on a point slightly above the top of the head, plastering a friendly smile on his face. There was no point pretending the injury wasn't there, but it would also have been pretty stupid to act like nothing was wrong.

With a sigh of relief, he started to sit down only to be interrupted by the man's question. Kio set down his tray and seated himself before thinking about the question. He'd woken up during the night, that much he recalled. It must have been three days now. Three long, agonising days. "Three days, I believe. This must be my fourth here now. I woke up during the night. I take it you're new, then." He spoke like a veteran, for all that he was still wet around the ears. Kio picked up his fork and started eating carefully.

[dualistic]

If Harvey cared more, he might have taken note of how each person he came across handled his injury differently. No one ever knew what to do - whether to ignore, or ask, or give their condolences - but Harvey was most content when they kept quiet about it. This one was smart enough to do that, at least.

Three to four days wasn't that long, but it was longer than Harvey's stay so far. Three days also meant three nights, and there was a slight chance that this man had seen something worth hearing about.

Now that Harvey had gone through his own strange experience here, he was going to have to give more attention to the talk of monsters. The difficult part was deciding what was true and what was insane rambling, but he was good at that sort of thing.

"Seen any of the so-called monsters yet?" he asked.

[stalksperverts.livejournal.com]

Monsters? Well, of all the things to be asked, this was one that Kio was certainly not expecting. He thought back to the first night he'd woken up, when he'd still thought he was in Japan, in Sou-chan's school. How long ago all that seemed now. Well, there hadn't been any monster, but he did recall a fight between patients. The next night had seemed the shortest ever, but Demyx...yes... rats and Demyx manipulating water. Then that patient who had been brainwashed and had attacked him and Ritsuka for the files, although that had not been nearly as strange as the creature running through the main corridor.

Kio looked at the man. Was it worth sharing the information? For all he knew, this man had seen every corner of the Institute in the short time he'd been there. But Kio was nothing if not helpful and this guy didn't seem pretty happy. Maybe if Kio told him enough he could get the man to smile.

"I'm not sure how helpful I can be, but I have seen a few. Nothing like the stuff on the Bulletin, with little girls and all that. I just saw rats the size of dogs and a mutated monster thing running through the main hall two nights ago. Someone was chasing it and shouting for everyone to stay back or they'll become infected." Kio shrugged. He was still feeling fine, maybe the infection only targeted certain people? "What have you seen so far?"