damned_institute | 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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This was... an interesting person. Roland hadn't met someone quite this talkative in a little while, and he was tempted to just let her go on for a bit. At least that way he wouldn't be tempted to think about how she would taste if he just took a couple of bites out of her. So then, what to talk about? Mm... "You have a kingdom? And yeah, the staff tends to hound me about the food. Gets a little tiresome after awhile."

Had he thought more about it, the man may have realized he did know what she tasted like. But that was neither here, nor there. Falis had no clue the relation between this man and the demon from a few nights back.

"Yeah. It's not that big of a kingdom, but I'm okay with that," Falis replied. "Princess Alita Forland." She grinned. "Do you have a name or do I get to make one up for you?"

Alita, Alita... why was that name sounding familiar? And on the topic of names, that made him think of the one unfortunate title he already had- 'Sparky'. Now why did he think about that now of all times? It wasn't like it was a pleasant memory, not when 'Fido's' safety was still up in the air. Mm... it was on the tip of his tongue, but it wasn't quite there yet.

"I'm almost curious as to what you'd come up with," he said with a quiet smile, "but my name is Roland. ...it's a shame that you're stuck here instead of in your castle, if that's the right term for it."

Falis was almost disappointed that she didn't get to make up a name for Roland; she'd created some interesting ones in the past.

"Yes, castle is correct," she replied. "Mostly I miss my bed, some of my servants, and the ability to not be watched by a bunch of circling vultures every moment of my day," she added on with a nod toward the nearest nurse.

"So what do you do, Roland?"

"Yeah, I would imagine losing those luxuries would be something you'd miss." Not that Roland could really sympathize all that much. While the beds were a little worse here, the fact that there were respites in the periods of being attacked by ravenous monsters was still a positive that Roland couldn't ignore. Even if, sometimes, he found himself wishing that he could go back to his own world.

At the question, he shrugged with a wry smile. "I was working on a crappy novel, but you could say I've had a change of occupations since I arrived here. Now I manage to not get killed every night. Bit of a dog-eat-dog business." It was gallows humor, sure, but at the moment he was distracted enough that he didn't really notice it. Where did that sense of deja vu come from? Roland knew that he knew this woman, that he'd seen her before, but... for some reason, his mind was just not cooperating with him.

"Huh. A writer? I never was one for reading, but my personal attendant says the castle library is really extensive," Falis replied with a shrug. "Maybe your book wasn't as bad as you think it was."

She then grinned about the survival reference. "Well, yeah, I think we're all like that - well most of us. Between the normal monsters everyone else claims there are - I haven't seen any of those - and the real nasty beasties, like that insect reptile thing I killed, Sparky and Fido plus the winged demon woman... I guess everyone's just trying to find the dawn."

She shrugged again. "And then there's the people that disappear. It fucking sucks. Challenging and exciting at times, but overall it sucks."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure it was even worse than I thought. Kind of wish I had it with me now, though. It's hard to just start all over again."

Ah well. The thoughts of his novel were quickly thrown out of his head when the woman referred to 'Sparky' and 'Fido'. Was this that woman he'd encountered as Indra several nights ago? He blinked, his confusion ascribable to both being startled and being baffled. "...'Sparky'? 'Fido'? Who are those?"

"Oh, just some flesh-eating demons I ran into the other night that tried to eat some kids I'm friends with," Falis replied as if it was nothing. "I couldn't let that happen."

She then got quiet for a moment. "Half of them have disappeared since then," she added on, the set of her jaw showing that bothered her a lot more than she was letting on. She then shrugged.

"I'm kinda sad your book's not here either; I'd give it a go."

"...for what it's worth, a close comrade of mine disappeared as well." He'd had to face the facts; Heat was gone, and there wasn't anything he could do about it. It hurt like anything, to know that he'd failed a comrade, but what more could he do?

Well, he knew what he would do if he got the chance, but that wasn't worth thinking about at the moment.

The far more important matter was that now he knew who this person was. 'Sparky'... that was referring to him. And this 'princess' had tried to put at stop to it. Knowing that, Roland was torn; on the one hand, the demon half wanted to get even right here and now, but the human half knew that such would be suicide. Besides, it had been a few nights ago and she'd obviously survived. Not everyone could claim that, when it came to Indra. So, after a moment, he quietly laughed and said, "There's flesh-eating demons, but bad novels are quite another thing all together. But... if I manage to get anywhere with another one, I'll let you take a look."

Unspoken was the hope that she'd still be around to read it.

"I'm sorry, you're friend's gone. Fucking sucks," Falis replied

She then smirked. "Come on, I've survived flesh-eating demons and lots of shit that don't know another hunter when they meet one. I think I can survive a bad novel." She chuckled. "It's not like I got much to compare it to."

She tilted her head a bit and actually gave Roland a genuine smile. "But I do hope I get a chance to read what you can come up with."

Day 40: Lunch

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