damned_institute | Day 41: Sun Room

Haseo's steps were heavy with the weight of righteous anger as he was escorted into the Sun Room, his posture so sullen and reluctant you could almost hear the nostalgic cry of an electric guitar. He was seething, and though perhaps it was a bit harder to be intimidating while wearing the uniform of an insane asylum and flanked by a bored-looking orderly, it was not for lack of trying.

Unfortunately, his nurse seemed unaffected by the act, and even with the cloud of failing to keep "Kai" away from "Peyton" hanging over her, remained determinedly cheerful. She merely said something about receiving a lecture later on, ignored his retorts, and assured him that it would be alright even though his internet stalker was in the same building. For the most part, Haseo tuned her babbling out after that, dismissing it as hopeless.

"...and usually this would be the time children would be taking showers, but you don't have to worry about that right now. Now then, le--"

"Wait. What?"

"Oh, all the children seventeen or under are separated right now while the adults go to the courtyard..."

"Hey, I'm not a kid you old--!"

"Oh of course you aren't dear, but you're not eighteen yet either, now are you?"

Haseo resisted the urge to do something rash, literally biting his tongue to keep quiet. But upon having the bulletin board pointed out to him, he shrugged off his anger for the most part and headed that way, fully intending to get more answers than he'd had time to receive during breakfast.

Well... at least Endrance is in another shower group, he thought, Thank god.

[Closed to Tsukasa, for now!]

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"So do you," Schuldig replied, with more irritability than such a lazy insult really warranted. Of course, the annoyance wasn't really directed at Reno at all. "But I'll get better."

Although he hadn't actually seen Reno, he'd been at least peripherally aware of him; his telepathy was harder to control than usual, thanks to the sedatives and his not having had anything to eat to give him more energy to manage it, but it was still more than capable of marking the minds around him even if he wasn't paying particular attention. It was what had kept him from being surprised by Reno's characteristic greeting. And perhaps some subconscious instinct had driven him in Reno's direction, because although Reno wasn't the most sympathetic listener Schuldig might have chosen - not that he wanted sympathy at the moment, especially not with Crawford in the room - he was uniquely positioned to at least understand Schuldig's mood.

"Farfarello's gone," he informed the man with a narrow-eyed sidelong look. "My partner." Now that Reno had Rude in the institute with him, the other man could probably comprehend all the more easily how he'd feel if the institute suddenly ripped him away again.

Reno thought he looked pretty damn good, comparatively, but whatever.

When Schuldig mentioned that Farfarello was gone, though, he looked over--a little startled, maybe. Not over the fact that Farfarello was gone because apparently people upped and disappeared around here all the time, but that Schuldig had chosen to come to him under the circumstances. Maybe the guy was just hoping for a distraction. Who knew?

Either way, that...sucked. He supposed there wasn't another way to put it; he wasn't big on finding the proper words for things.

"Sorry, man," he offered instead. "So are you here for commiseration or distraction?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Schuldig growled. Under better circumstances he'd make more of an effort to get along with Reno - he liked the other redhead, to a degree, and he was relatively certain they could work well together if Reno were inclined to do so - but at the moment he didn't even want Crawford to see him being civil with someone. "I didn't come to you intentionally at all. I just wasn't paying attention to anything beyond getting away from my fearless leader." He waved a hand in angry dismissal in Crawford's direction.

Still, Schuldig wasn't so far gone that he couldn't be curious, so he asked grudgingly, "But how exactly would you propose to commiserate with or distract me, if I were interested?" He didn't know Reno particularly well, so he couldn't begin to imagine what tactics the man would have considered employing. He hadn't even thought Reno cared enough one way or the other to make such an offer.

Maybe some other time, Reno would've been irritated at the slightest thing Schuldig said, but whatever. Grudges were never his thing. Too much effort. And the God honest truth was, despite everything with Elena, he was still in a pretty decent mood because seriously, if some weird drama with a chick was the most he had to worry about--yeah. He'd take that.

So instead, he shrugged easily. "If you say so. And I dunno. Normally I'd say booze or sex or violence or maybe, y'know, all three, but that's not really an option here. Shame, too."

"Hnh." Schuldig was ever so slightly mollified by Reno's reply; none of those methods would have earned disapproval from Crawford(save from the sex, but that was the sort of disapproval that the Mastermind happily encouraged and cultivated from him). Of course, that made it that much more disappointing that none of those suggestions were genuine possibilities. "No kidding. If you said any of those things, I'd agree to them." His gaze slid to Crawford. "Of course, Crawford would probably think I was weak for even needing that much."

Reno glanced at Schuldig out of the corner of his eye, contemplative suddenly. He hadn't actually expected Schuldig to take his answer into semi-consideration. He'd been sorta...kidding when he said it. Not that he wouldn't be up for some booze or sex or violence, but y'know.

"I dunno," he said, seemingly flippant, but not quite. "Who gives a damn what he thinks? If indulging makes you feel better, it makes you feel better. You keep worrying about what makes you weak all the time, your life's gonna suck ass."

"Why wouldn't I consider it?" Schuldig raised an eyebrow at him bemusedly. "We're enough alike that you should know I'd welcome booze or violence, and as for sex, I thought I'd made that perfectly clear last time we met. So how, exactly, did I just take you by surprise?"

He settled back against the couch, directing his gaze forward again. "Anyway, I'm not worried about what makes me weak. I'm worried about what he thinks makes me weak. I'm sure you'll appreciate all the reasons you wouldn't want Tseng or Rufus to think you'd become weak, for your part."

Reno cast a look back at Schuldig, eyebrow similarly raised, but more sardonic than bemused. He might've been bothered by the invasion of his thoughts before, but now, he was too lazy to care much. He was kind of used to it and it wasn't like Schuldig was picking at his innermost feelings.

Not that he had any in the first place, not without Rufus here. Without Rufus, Reno was just--Reno and that meant he stopped giving a damn if people knew what he was thinking. He didn't exactly make it a big secret, anyway.

"I just didn't think you'd believe I was being serious enough for you to actually take it seriously."

He shrugged again.

"Yeah, okay. Point. Though as long as I keep killing shit just fine, I can't say they'd care a hell of a lot beyond that."

Day 41: Sun Room

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