damned_institute | Dayshift 42: Morning

Senna stepped off the bus to wind blowing through the clothes she was given. A sad face at one of the nurses allowed her a long red scarf as well, and once she had draped it around her neck and let it hang down her back, she had trotted off.

The park she had saw last time seemed a good place to be on the look-out for the chicks from last night. It was close to the buses, and a big enough place that if they remembered that they had a race date, it would suit its purpose. The girl ran to a place in the middle of the field and waited there, shifting her weight from side to side. After a while, this wasn't enough, and Senna traded back and forth between jogging in place and acrobatics--the easy flips and cartwheels keeping her warm.

Her mind had changed in the night before. She had gotten a taste of what leadership entailed, and she wasn't sure she had rose to the occasion or not. She knew she had tried her best, and had been willing to give as much as she had, but it hadn't been enough. She knew this. Hokuto, at least, had gotten hurt, and in the end, they still hadn't explored more than the schoolhouse. They really needed a different approach with that place.

She went back and forth internally, body going through the motions and reflexes of her movements.

[for... Falis, Hokuto, Meche, and Soma?--and down to here]

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The ice cream coupon suddenly lost its appeal when some red-haired prick walked up and said that. Kanji looked up from the stack of coupons and frowned at the guy, like he wasn't sure if he heard that right. Okay, what was with this place and people just walking up to him like this anyway? Usually people just stayed the hell away from him. There was no doubt about it: It was the goddamn penguin shirt. Stupid, frickin'...

"'Scuse me?" he said, annoyed already. "The hell are you callin' a loser? ...And why the hell would I be waiting for anyone?" He really wasn't sure where either comment came from or which he should be paying more attention to. Then something dawned on him. "...Am I supposed to be?"

...Crap. Were they, like, given partners or something? This whole thing was turning out to be such a pain.

Woah, scary. He and Haine should have a staring contest sometime. Maybe on Halloween. Bishop could decorate the church with them to scare off trick-or-treaters.

The penguin sweater might have to go though. Badou was glad to be wearing most of his usual shit over a t-shirt he empathised with greatly.

And hey, at least he hadn't been punched in the face or anything so this was a nice meeting so far.

"You tell me. Unless you just want to hang around and get in touch with your inner tree rat or something. We could go grab some real food." The hospital food was admittedly pretty good, but he thought his arteries might have started working again lately and that was just unacceptable. Besides, he'd seen New Friend #1 looking at his coupons before so it didn't seem like a far-fetched idea.

"In other words I've got nothing to do today and this beats being playing Loneliest Mental Patient. Lets be friends."

[sorry for being slow]

"Friends?" he repeated a little dumbfounded. ...This guy had a weird way of making friends. Then again, who the hell was he to talk about weird ways to do things? At least the guy was being blunt, and that was always good. "Uh, sure. I guess. Not like I have anything else better to do."

Grabbing food sounded like a good idea, but he hoped the guy wasn't expecting lively conversation or anything. There wasn't too much he felt like he could talk about. Speaking of which, he should probably play nice here or something. "Uh, name's Kanji. Tell ya the truth... I don't even know where the hell we are. Or where anything is. So unless you got a place in mind, we're kinda stuck walkin' in circles."

[It's cool~]

"I'm Badou." He replied, remembering somewhat belatedly that he should probably have offered his own name or...talked or something before asking for the bonds of lifelong friendship. That was the kind of socially retarded shit Haine pulled. After a moment he offered his hand to shake too. A handshake was sort of a novelty lately since most of his new friends either wanted to maim/kill him at various points after their initial meeting or cuddle into his lap and cry deeply.

Looking at the guy he'd picked to talk to, he thought maybe there was a reason for that after all.

"According to most people we're somewhere in someplace called New Jersey, the shithole of America. Ta da." This was punctuated by a flippant hand gesture before Badou motioned him to follow. "I can find my way around this place - probably give directions too once we get out of the park - so pick a coupon and we'll go wherever." He glanced at Kanji. "You new here or what?"

And a handshake? Okay... This was getting really weird. The only people who shook hands were like cops or business guys, and Kanji didn't speak to them enough to be used to this kind of thing. The idea of shaking hands while meeting someone kind of reeked of, well, something. Maybe like a job interview or something? Either way, it wasn't really his style at all. Made him really uncomfortable. But seeing as he had absolutely no idea what to do, really, he hesitatingly went along with it and eventually shook Badou's hand with all the grace of someone who'd obviously never done it before.

Either way, the guy sure as hell didn't look like he was lost when he started walking off, so Kanji had no problem following him. In the end, what the guy was saying was far more off putting than any handshake.

"A-America? You kiddin' me?! What the hell are we doi--" He cut himself off quick. Okay, stupid question. Still, for someone who'd never even left town before, being in a whole other country was kind of mind boggling. He'd never even heard of New Jersey. He scratched at the side of his face, looking somewhere between lost and annoyed. "...Uh, nevermind. But, yeah. Woke up yesterday. Got a run down of what's goin' on but I didn't hear nothin' about this America thing. ...Cleaner than I thought it'd be."

"So you been to this place before? ...You know where the burger place is?" Seeing as there were only two places to choose from and one of them sounded more like a hotel than a place to get food, it wasn't all that tough a call. But if he knew how to get there by heart, he must have been here a couple of times. "...How long you been stuck here?"

His hand might as well have been a dead rat for all the enthusiasm he got. What was with this guy? It was like he'd never had a handshake in his life, or really talked to a lot of people in general. He reminded Badou of someone, come to think of it. He just couldn't put his finger on who.

Whatever. Probably some asshole he knew.

He just shrugged at the shock but he figured he was doing the guy a favor in the long run. It was more fun than playing the game of twenty thousand questions that finally led some wiseass to figure out where they were. Sort of. Life was a lot easier when there was just one world to worry about.

"I know, right? City's probably pig disgusting. I've seen it on TV." And TV never lied. Badou led them out of the park and onto the streets.

[to here]

Dayshift 42: Morning - Magus Park

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