Dayshift 42: Tasty Burger - Afternoon

[liveforthispart.livejournal.com]

After lunch, Kanji had just decided to stay sitting at the table and slowly finish off his soda while he tried to think of something productive he could do while he had the chance here in town. ...Ah, who was he fooling? He had no clue what the hell to do. His senpai probably had a list of things they could all be doing while in town. Investigating stuff or mapping the landscape or gathering information from the townspeople or... something like that. But Kanji had no clue how to go about any of those things. He had the observational skills of a rock and him walking around trying to talk to everyone wouldn't end well.

But even he knew he couldn't just sit here, slurping on his soda all day. He just needed to think of something. Yeah. Something.

....

He drank some more.

[unknowingly for Zex]

Comments

[wantsyourzex.livejournal.com]

Well, he DID have this slip of paper with this name on it. Whatever this place did, it might have been worth investigating. Besides, there could be supplies in here...

Well, amidst all the bright colors and odd dispensers, anyway. Nothing really seemed viable... and the nurses nearby were keeping a rather close eye on him. Under other circumstances he might have found it flattering that he was getting so much attention from humans, but as it was... somewhat limiting.

Hmm... there was a human sitting there. Nothing stopped him from striking up a friendly conversation! In fact, the nurses seemed to look favorably on patients socializing with one another... if not to the extent that ZEX tended to envision.

ZEX sat down beside the human, trying too hard to smile naturally. "Hello. Have we met before?" Interesting hair color...

[liveforthispart.livejournal.com]

Kanji was suddenly pulled from his blank staring thoughts when someone suddenly sat right next to him with a big grin. Again, the whole experience was really off putting. He was just going to have to accept the fact that, for some reason, people just walked up to each other here and started talking. Even to him.

Since it had happened a few times already he... well, he wasn't used to it, but it wasn't as utterly surprising as it had been before. It was still a little uncomfortable. He wasn't sure if he should be offering a handshake like his lunch partner had or what, but decided against it. "Uh. No. Don't... think so," he said a little unsure. "Um. I'm Kanji Tatsumi."

The guy was looking at his head all funny. Probably the hair. People back home thought it was strange, too. But he still didn't like being stared at like that. For right now he didn't react to it aside from a bit of a frown. "What's your name supposed to be?"

[wantsyourzex.livejournal.com]

As far as ZEX could tell, the human seemed rather receptive! Although, it probably helped that he didn't understand almost any of the subtleties in human speech or expressions. He gave his new human friend a long and obvious look over, still smiling too widely. This one looked big, although it was hard to tell when they were sitting down.

"Mmmm, Kanji Tatsumi." Human names really made no sense. They were always far too long. "I'm Admiral ZEX, once of the VUX military." Odds were not good that he'd know about his species, but it didn't hurt to try.

And besides, even if he didn't know about them, ZEX still had a new human to ogle, and he was definitely taking advantage of that opportunity.

[liveforthispart.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, people did look each other over. Sometimes. Like a sizing each other up kind of thing. There was that, and then there was what ZEX had just done. That kind of glance over suddenly made Kanji feel a little nervous all of a sudden. Which was stupid, since he didn't have anything to be nervous about! Nothing. And--

Did... Did he just go 'Mmm' while saying his name? He completely froze in place and just looked at ZEX, looking somewhere between confused and somewhat embarrassed. Though he quickly looked away to hide any signs of embarrassment. Um, no. He must have misheard that. He wasn't sure why he'd be mishearing random noises (that reminded him of things he'd really rather forget), but that's what must have happened.

If that was really the case, why was he trying so hard not to fidget? He squirmed just a little in the opposite direction; nothing too obvious. Or so he hoped. Change of subject. Please. "O-Oh. So... like, you're a soldier? You don't really look it. I mean, not like how I thought they'd look. You know?" And now he was rambling. Uh. "VUX. 'S that in Germany or something?"

[mayomanoflove.livejournal.com]

................if he really wanted to, Hijikata thought as he added a thirty-second packet to a stack rapidly becoming a faithful reproduction of Edo's Terminal, he could go over, one by one, in list-form in his head, all the different reasons why Karma Was a Bitch that Apparently Really Liked Shinsengumi Officers. He didn't want to, of course, but he could. Either that, or close his eyes and hoped that another Blackout Moment would hit him until Nightshift.

In short, his morning had been an unmitigated disaster. The time spent in the grocery store was entirely wasted. He'd forgotten that a lack of cash typically meant the inability to purchase, and even when he'd tore off one of the hardish-plastic coupons from a bottle of laundry detergent he failed to pass it off as a credit card. You'd think that for something referred to by all the cool kids as "my plastic," just having the basic form would be enough. Not that Hijikata condoned circumventing the law or market procedure as a police officer, but everybody had one or two things he/she was irrational about. Hijikata's just happened to be yellow and high in saturated fat.

Or rather, should be yellow.

It'd taken him a while to break the waitress down into letting him have so many packets of mayonnaise. He'd been unable to find any quarters or dollars lying on the street, so he'd no choice but to use one of his free coupons. Condiments usually came free of charge on the side, and though it was annoying to have to open god-knows-how-many packets just to get the amount of mayonnaise he needed, it was better than nothing. He had a burger in front of him, but seeing as the waitress had put an embargo on his table and refused him any more service, there was nothing he could do but sit there and wait until shift change and (hopefully) someone new came in. Someone who wouldn't mind either getting him a bottle or handing him a plastic-bag-full of what he needed.

Adding his last and thirty-third packet to the Mayodo Terminal, Hijikata paused and reexamined the packet's label. Going on a sudden spark of inspiration, he opened it, squinting a bit at the surprisingly whitish color. Squeezing a bit out to the side of his burger, Hijikata also noted the thicker consistency compared to those of the brands he'd sampled before.

He pressed the tip of the packet's opening to his tongue:

.............sweet.

Surprisingly strong vinegar taste.

And something else.

.....blinking, he tasted a bit more, narrowing his eyes.

.......what the frick did they do? Use honey instead of MSG?

[ War god + Heavenly Substance is a go? ]

[screwthegods]

His meal with Okita had been pleasant, if short, and Homura had parted ways with the swordsman not long after they left the restaurant. They'd see each other again soon enough, when Homura went to watch Okita and Yuffie fight. Though he did regret that Okita wasn't healed already, so he could get a better example of the woman's skills. Okita would put up a good challenge, but his dominant hand was disabled--a thought still came with a tinge of guilt for Homura.

Regardless, now he had his own business to attend to.

While he suspected most of the patients had already eaten, Homura hadn't seen Hijikata in the first restaurant, so he started off by going to the second. Even if the alternate version of the Shinsengumi captain was on his way out the door, chances were good Homura would be able to catch up with him. But it turned out his luck was better than that, and Homura grinned when he saw the vice-commander at a table just after he entered.

He also saw a number of little packets; it wasn't hard, since the man seemed to have more of them than food. Even from a distance, Homura could see that they all looked the same, so he decided to act on a hunch. Though he didn't intend to eat again so soon after his previous meal, Homura used his coupon to place an order, and got a number of those little packets himself. Not nearly so many as Hijikata, but enough for what he wanted to test out.

Taking his tray over to the man's table, Homura claimed the seat across from him without asking. Instead, his greeting consisted of picking up one of the tiny bags, and looking at it curiously. "You're rather fond of whatever's in here, aren't you?"

[mayomanoflove.livejournal.com]

Hijikata had just been deciding between "pissed off" and "I'll take what I can get" reactions (even connoisseurs had their favorites) when the door creaked and a new voice sounded-- one more person placing an order. While Hijikata hadn't made a conscious decision to keep track of each and every person entering and leaving, it was getting more and more difficult as the afternoon wore on to ignore all of his surroundings. Especially when his mind was still on some kind of "Impending Danger" alert mode after that night with Takasugi.

Takasugi.

....it was a bitter thing. Seeing the man's name on the board, playing "nice" with the resident political leaders and "making reports." It wasn't even the man's hatred of him that bothered Hijikata-- hell, the Vice-Commander was far more comfortable reading the man's persistent dog metaphors than seeing him act the team player. And--

.....it's gotten worse, Hijikata thought, putting the packet down.

Just as I thought.

The bitterness--the cold, volatile anger that licked the back of his throat with slow, stinging care: it'd gotten worse since he'd gotten here. He shouldn't have read so many of those bulletin posts. Nor should he ever have considered talking or doing anything with those damned Angst!Shinsengumi besides telling them to get the fuck out.

.........he should show up here. He should show up here. It's my kind of luck, isn't it? And even terrorists have to eat sometime.

He should show up. I might as well dare him to. His club-buddies aren't here.

..............show up, damn you.


"You're rather fond of whatever's in here, aren't you?"

Hijikata looked up instantly, tensing automatically and shifting into a stance before he processed what he was doing. Narrowed, his eyes somehow fixed themselves onto one detail and he stopped, caught between just letting it go and starting something.

The guy with the chakra.

................................it took him a second, but Hijikata forced himself to relax--at least, outwardly. Leaning back into his seat, Hijikata feigned a look of disinterest and tried not to count too obviously the number of packets in Homura's stack.

"What do you want?"

[screwthegods]

[oh god, I am SO SORRY. Forgive me Fainn, please? And maybe backthread?]

"Nothing." Homura turned the packet slowly between his fingers, as if he were completely unaware of Hijikata's interest in his little collection. He'd seen his share of addicts over the years, and Homura himself had his own indulgences. He'd learned that they often translated into weaknesses, things that could be taken advantage of if one played his hand correctly.

Only eleven. Homura hadn't gathered nearly so many as Hijikata, but the demi-god thought it might be enough.

"Except to speak to you about Takasugi." Mayonnaise was written on the outside of the little bag, and Homura decided it might just be worthwhile to learn a bit more about this substance--particularly, where it was kept. "I'd like to know just what your history is. It seems more personal to me than simply belonging to different sides of a war."

[for-marian.livejournal.com]

[continued from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/660443.html?thread=54986971#t54986971)]

Leon shrugged, by now rather used to the food in this world being so often fried, dripping with grease, or both. "They serve stuff like this back at the Institute sometimes, too. It's disgusting, but it's not like there's other options most of the time." An active young man could not get by on the salad bar offerings.

[from-lienea.livejournal.com]

"You never tried Lilith's first attempts at cooking," Stahn joked. Oh, man, he hadn't even been home in months. His sister and Rutee together could get scary.

"What's so bad about this? I mean, unless it's just that Marian's cooking was special in itself." She was a maid, so she cooked, too, right?

[for-marian.livejournal.com]

Obviously Leon had never tried Lilith's first attempts at cooking--he hadn't even known Stahn and Lilith existed, at that point in time, and he'd never met Lilith at any point in time. Ridiculous thing to say.

"It's greasy, that's all." They had this sort of thing back home, too, though it was a lot less common than it was here. But it was so heavy, it sat in the stomach like a lump of lead, and Leon felt sluggish and weighed down for hours afterwards.

[from-lienea.livejournal.com]

"Yeah." Stahn's expression was getting a little distant; how long would it be before he could see any of his family again?

Remembering the reunion after he'd first parted ways with Leon, Rutee, and the rest, he had to chuckle. "I guess this is expanding our horizons, right?" he commented dryly. "Before our journey together, I'd never even left Lienea. After that one ended, after I got home, when we were out of fish one morning I went all the way to Neuestadt just to get some. It didn't work out very well, though." At least he'd managed to commit to memory that whale wasn't actually a kind of fish after that.

[tender-cruelty.livejournal.com]

It felt just a little ridiculous to have made a date to meet someone for ice-cream, especially another man, even when it wasn't any kind of date in the romantic sense of the word. This place must be driving him crazy. Crazier. Crazy in a bad way. He was just going to stop that train of thought right there because it just couldn't lead to any kind of good thoughts.

Better to focus on killing Badou for the bulletin post. He did not appreciate his virginity being put up for public discussion. He just never thought about that kind of thing!

He reached the burger place after a little trial and error and went to lean against the wall near the door so that he could see Badou when he arrived (assuming he wasn't going to try to run from Hallelujah).

[Ice cream thread o' doom!]

[strayfag]

[From below.]

Badou raised his arms as they got closer. If looks could kill, he would probably be a Badou-shaped doormat within moments. Normally there would be some begging going on right about now, but the sudden lack of nicotine meant he didn't really care too much about that. "Don't kill me," He said dryly. "I come in peace."

Yeah, that usually worked. Badou gestured to the two following him. "And there's no violence in front of the kids. You said you wanted to meet them; the disco ball is Artemis, and that's Haku. They're having ice-cream with us."

[tender-cruelty.livejournal.com]

[Posting now so Schu and Yohji can join in a bit without me having to post twice in succession XD]

Allelujah had noticed the three of them a earlier, but had decided not to intrude. The kid looked upset and that wasn't anything that Allelujah was good at dealing with even with people he knew relatively well. With someone he'd met for ten minutes while playing bodyguard? Yeah, he was staying out of it for now.

He watched as Badou approached him and then snorted at his comment. "As long as certain subjects don't come up I think I can refrain from killing you. Besides, I don't want to get drugged again."

He smiled hesitantly at the two boys accompanying Badou, ducking his head in greeting. "I'm Allelujah Haptism. Nice to meet you properly."

[k4t4str0ph4l.livejournal.com]

"Charmed."

True, Allelujah hadn't been introducing himself to Schuldig, of all people, but that would require Schuldig recognize that the world didn't revolve around him at all times, which was a fact that the telepath was perfectly content to never acknowledge.

As it stood, though, the gathering was convenient; he'd wanted to see Arty anyway(and probably needed to, thanks to Hitsugaya's being even more of an emotionally idiotic cripple than before), and while he hated to admit it, he did owe a debt to Haku, Badou, and Allelujah for rescuing him the night before. And since Brad hadn't seen fit to find his way back yet, Schuldig wasn't going to waste any more of his day waiting for him.


...there was also the not-entirely-isignificant fact that he liked ice cream.

"Hey, Arty," he said with a grin to his brooding ward. "And you too, Badou? You do know that ice cream has 0% nicotine content, right?"

[Currently Outside]

[byname-bynature.livejournal.com]

Artemis sighed for what must have been the... he'd lost count. He'd sighed a lot. Ever since Hitsugaya had stalked off after Haku had arrived, he'd felt distinctly troubled. A different sort of 'troubled' than when he'd been aware of Hitsugaya's renewed presence, but stemming from much the same source. He and Haku had found a bench across from the Tasty Burger (which, Artemis supposed, was supposed to be their meal for the day, but they'd just sat there while Artemis had stared off into space trying to make sense of what had just happened).

"He's different," Artemis said, staring up at the sky. "I don't know how, but just slightly, he's different..."

[strayfag]

It was such an awesome day today Badou could barely believe it. All was right with the world. He loved everyone, especially that grocery store guy, who was just totally bitchin' enough to deserve a hero plaque in his name. After leaving Tasty Burger earlier he'd done a brief sweep of the town. When the bookstore yielded no non-fiction, he'd hit up the grocery store for cigarettes and candy. He still couldn't believe he'd gotten both - just one cigarette, but it was lit and everything and there was hot fresh smoke poisoning his lungs with happiness. A little bag full of hard candy was also stuffed in his pocket for Okita, which might provide even more cigarettes if he was lucky.

Of course, his mood rapidly spiraled downwards once he checked the bulletin board. He didn't know what was up with Artemis and his friend (ex-friend?), but meeting up with someone he'd practically buried didn't sound like it did wonders for him. So much for a nice relaxing day.

Not to mention he still had to meet Alle sometime which meant Badou's happy zen mood was going to die with his cigarette. Or possibly with his, well, death. At least his life was sucking enough now that he might reach his bad luck quota before tonight.

He stopped at the bench to nod at Haku and ruffle his adopted nephew's hair. "This doesn't look like a fun date."

[faithful-frost.livejournal.com]

Haku had simply followed along with Artemis, not giving in to the desire to remove the very thing (person) that was causing his friend pain. When they sat, he slipped his hand over the other boy's and listened.

"He has no memory of this place, or what he went through before," he pointed out. "Those things had made him a different person than the one you met today."

He looked up at Badou and nodded slightly. Perhaps Badou would be able to cheer Artemis up?

[byname-bynature.livejournal.com]

Artemis nodded to Haku's analysis of the situation, knowing that his friend was right, but not exactly being able to process it. When Schuldig said someone was dead, they were dead. They didn't come back and tell him it was alright to fall apart over their predecessor's death.

He took Haku's hand, and was trying to think of something to say when a pair of somewhat familiar, skinny legs came into view. True to his prediction, his hair was subsequently mussed.

"I had all of the fun in my body surgically removed by Captain Hitsugaya," Artemis explained, brushing his hand off his head and looking up at Badou.

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

Kenshin stared at the neatly wrapped meal in front of him. He recognized the food from past meals at Landel's, but he'd never seen it packaged in such a way. It seemed...needlessly wasteful to use all this paper and then just throw it away after the meal was finished, and yet that's what all of the other patrons seem to be doing.

"If this is what food is like in the future," Kenshin laughed, sampling a fry, "then this one is glad we have the Akabeko back home."

This place couldn't even hold a torch to Tae's cooking, after all.

The rurouni paused to look up at Kaoru. They'd spent the day together, just walking around and exploring the sights, and he found that he was happier and more relaxed than he'd been in...a very long time for it. "Are you enjoying yourself, Kaoru-dono?"

[wearsthehakama.livejournal.com]

Kaoru smiled, and tried a french fry. It was a little too salty, but still, kind of tasty. "That's true. This food is... kind of interesting, though." Kaoru didn't see the exact appeal in the food, unless they were going for ease and convenience, "They're just different, maybe people actually like this stuff in the future."

"Today's been nice, Kenshin, I've enjoyed myself, despite everything." Her tone was cheery and truthful, and though she knew it was probably wrong of her to feel so happy despite their circumstance. She had Kenshin to herself for an entire day, and she was happy. There was nothing more for her to ask for.

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

"If a little impractically wrapped," Kenshin laughed, trying to extract his burger. The ones at the Institute actually looked a little...fresher than this sad, limp excuse for a sandwich. Well, no matter. They were having a late lunch anyway, and he was hungry.

He bit into it and pulled a face. "Greasy." Maybe the paper was to soak up the extra oil?

"This one is glad," he smiled. "It's so strange. It's summer back in Tokyo, but here it's almost winter."

[tightsofmight]

[From here.]

The place was relatively busy, and Peter vaguely recognized a few patrons from the institute. No one from TV, only familiar faces that sat nearby in the cafeteria or on couches in the Sun Room. He stood at the glass door, propping it open for the other two.

"Uh - as someone who was once told that their head would pop off before they ever reached prom, I'm probably not qualified to answer that," Peter admitted with some hesitance. "But considering what you have to deal with being a...you know, I think you're doing fine. My only worry is that whole sheet thing you've got going on."

Truth be told, he didn't know if he could manage any more food at the moment. Lunch had been painful enough, and the deluxe cheeseburger warred with the lingering weight in his belly even now. At least he was honestly full this time, and not too upset to eat.

He didn't bother skimming over the menu or strolling up to the till, instead veering towards the first available booth he could find. "I'll grab us a seat, okay?"

[fuzzy-diablo.livejournal.com]

Kurt looked a little uncomfortable at the mention of the sheet. Both Peter and Kon were urging him not to wear it, but whenever he didn't he felt so vulnerable. Like someone was going to come up behind him and knock him out.

"Eh heh... really?" Kurt said--because it was the only thing he could think of to say. He busied himself with digging his coupons out of his pocket and moved up to the counter.

He awkwardly requested an ice cream from the person at the counter, then turned to Matt once they'd gone. "I dunno... I mean, you said you don't think I'm too high-strung, but I don't see how I could grow up to be who you described..."