damned_institute | Dayshift 42: Tasty Burger

Entry tags:

Dayshift 42: Tasty Burger - Afternoon

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]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This was quickly becoming more people than he was sure he was comfortable with, but he thought that he could handle it. He gave the newcomers a brief, uncertain glance, and then looked back at Artemis and took his hand in a firm handshake. "Allelujah is fine, or Alle even since it's a bit of a mouthful." He sort of liked having a nickname too. He'd never had one before, even with the other Meisters.

He gave Badou an amused look when he said that he'd used his coupon already. "I'd offer to share, but y'know, I wouldn't want to give people the wrong impression what with the bulletin post and all."

"Fine upstanding citizen. Right. Just like I am, I'm sure."

Schuldig grinned at Badou. He hardly needed telepathy to gather the less-than-complexities of interacting with everyone's favorite nicotine-processing factory on legs - tease about tits, depth perception, and cigarettes, with the possible omission of cigarettes depending on just how long it had been since Badou had actually had one. Rinse and repeat until it stopped being funny. It was basically cheap and easy entertainment, which he appreciated; even more so was that he could get the exact same amount of amusement from Badou that he got from pissing off other people, but with Badou the irritation was lazy and passed quickly.

When it came to fun, Badou was basically a self-renewing resource.

Add that to Allelujah, whose mind Schuldig had only brushed against and had already found interesting, and Yohji and Artemis, whom had long ago claimed Schuldig's interest, and Schuldig had more than enough to fill an afternoon with. Haku, as always, was a withdrawn puzzle that was too quiet and of too narrow a scope to be interesting to him, but Arty liked him and he protected Arty, and that was enough to convince Schuldig to leave him more or less alone...which was really the best-case scenario when it came to how the telepath treated people he didn't particularly like.

"Pillars of the community, all of us," he agreed, flashing Allelujah and Badou a wicked grin. "Meaning we could bring this town down around our ears if we were in top form, right?"

Haku kept quiet and unassuming in the background while the teasing and joking happened around him. He was familiar, but these people were not his 'friends' so to speak. He was here only for Artemis, and the idea of attempting to make friends with those here was ... beyond him at the moment.

Although, had he known that Schuldig had so little interest in him, he would have been pleased. He had a great deal of interest in everyone here, but in a less friendly, more tactical way. That he was being more-or-less passed over... His training was paying off wonderfully.

Instead of thinking any of that, Haku only moved closer to Artemis and smiled slightly as he watched the older men and their antics.

Pillars of the community. Yeah, right. Yohji had no illusions that any of them in this group were anything close to that. He didn't know much of the pasts of anyone besides Schuldig, and even that was sketchy at best. The telepath wasn't exactly forthcoming with his personal information but it wasn't difficult to guess that his past wasn't pleasant. He doubted Schuldig would have much time for people who really were upstanding members of society though.

"Just leave it standing until we've taken everything useful, hm?" he said dryly.

"Alle, then," Artemis corrected, smiling at Allelujah as he moved into the Tasty Burger. He nodded to Badou for holding the door and walked in ahead, leading Haku by the hand. "Thank you, Badou.

"I'm not certain how well-loved we would be amongst the townspeople if we were to play with their town and beloved insane asylum like a cat with yarn. However I suppose we'll have to risk losing their love... You may yet be Patient of the Month Badou--if we elect you as such when the Institute comes down. Tyranny of the majority, after all."

Artemis spoke with the group as he approached the counter, not taking any trouble to keep quiet about his personal loathing of Landel's, nor his general apathy concerning the town that let such a gross operation continue. Perhaps they all had blindfolds on, but even the most average human was willing to peek if deprived of sight for so long.

Perhaps he was also just in the mood to throw caution to the wind. As if any of these hollow-brained idiots could do anything more to him.

"An ice cream for myself," he said, placing his coupon gracefully on the counter. "And the gentleman," he indicated Haku. Drive-by gender-association-whiplash, it was beautiful. "And you should keep them coming, because I believe the rest of the family wants one as well."

"Come on, that's not fair. It was ages ago. Don't you ever give up a grudge Alle? You're going to wrinkle early like that and you'll be pure as the newly fallen snow forever." It wasn't that Badou really wanted ice-cream. His interest in desserts was general on par with their nicotine content, but whining at Alle - and apparently annoying the crap out of him - was rapidly becoming as second-nature as whining at Haine. Also it was dangerously fun.

Badou's grin matched Schuldig's almost perfectly. "We could probably bring the restaurant down right now for kicks," Vault the counter, do a little magic with hot oil and fire before the nurses got enough hands in to stop them... Badou frowned contemplatively and leaned back against the counter. "But we'd get a really firm slap on the wrist and no ice-cream, you know?"

He watched Arty take charge at the counter but his back was facing the kid at the register and he didn't care particularly what was going on there. "By the way I'm not calling you Don Fowl, Arty. It makes you sound like the mafia head a chicken farm. Or a bunch of cocks in this case," Badou paused. "...On second thought."

'Do not take that as an invitation, Hallelujah,' he thought with some amusement at the suggestion of bringing down the town.

Spoilsport.

"Eh, when you have the military of the entire world coming after you, one small town doesn't seem quite so daunting," Allelujah replied to Artemis with a rakish grin. "I'll take the infamy and Badou can have his title." This was kind of fun, he had to admit. He'd never really been able to joke about the ridiculousness of the situation he found himself in but now that he was away from it all, it felt so crazy, so overblown, that he couldn't help but see the amusing side.

He flushed a little though when Artemis referred to them as family and turned to Badou a little shyly. "So, have I been adopted then?" he asked. The thought didn't seem as terrifying as he thought it should have.

"And it was two-hours, fifty seven minutes ago," he said firmly. "I'm still holding a grudge from when I was eight. I have a long memory," he replied, although he was grinning as he said it.

He stepped up to the counter and the teen working behind it handed him a cone. He made a show of scrutinising it for a moment before adding "But the ice-cream has sprinkles. I think I can forgive you."

Schuldig cackled as he took his ice cream, along with considerable pleasure in the wide-eyed look this elicited from the cone jockey behind the counter. "Oh, no, Badou," he said with a sidelong smirk. "Our little Arty, the ringleader of a bunch of pricks?" He made an expansive gesture to indicate their little group. "Wherever did you get such an notion?"

He glanced at Allelujah, grinning. "I don't think we take in just anyone who follows us home...but I suppose it depends. Are you house-trained?"

Hazing was an important part of the adoption process.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Dayshift 42: Tasty Burger - Afternoon

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject