damned_institute | Day 44: breakfast

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Day 44: breakfast

Yuffie had died.

No, really. Seriously. She had actually died. Bleeding all over the place, making a horrid, sticky mess and scaring the hell out of Suzaku; she remembered it clearly. Kind of. Sort of. Through the blood loss, the pain, and the visions. Through Aerith's voice whispering in her ear, Cloud's stricken eyes, and her own panic. As bad nights went, it had been Bad, capital B and all the trimmings, and oh, god. She sat, trembling on the edge of her bed, eyes closed and hands pressed hard over her racing heart. The by-play between Landel—Landel!—and Lydia barely even sunk in. There was nothing in the whole world, any world, that could prepare you for something like…

Had it all been some kind of hallucination?

Had she imagined the whole thing?

No… She didn't think so. Nightmarish or not, Yuffie knew reality. But if it had been real, how was she alive now? That kind of pain wasn't something you could just cook up, was it? She thought about it all the way to the cafeteria, drifting behind her nurse without focus or intent. Maybe if she tried to stay clinical, tried to step back… But she'd never been good at that when things got personal. And every time she closed her eyes or blinked, she swore that the scenes played back to her, like an overused commercial on a crappy channel on a crappy TV, in a run-down dump of an inn that smelled like mothballs and yesterday's breakfast.

The scent of blood and damp, rotted wood clogged her nose. Disgusted, Yuffie shoved her bowl of cereal—handed to her by a clucking Plucky—off to the side so that she could melt into her chair, palm heels scrubbing against her eyes. Too much. This was… Too much. She couldn't even paste a plastic smile on her face to make herself feel better. Her usual shield, the white noise of inane babble that could filter out almost any crisis, was in tatters all around her. Five minutes, she gave herself.

Five minutes (not) to think, five minutes to get her act together, because there was no way she could let herself shatter here. No way…

[Closed to Sheena]

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[unknowingly waiting for Porky]

"I don't want anything."

"Rose, dear, you haven't had anything to eat since dinner."

"I fucking know that."

"Language! Aren't you hungry?"

"Not as much as last night."

"Then you should eat. We don't want you to end up with a sudden craving next shift."

Falis just gave the woman a glare at that, pushing past her to the buffet. The hunger from the previous night had vanished, as had the decayed skin on her arm, but she didn't want to eat anything. If she was honest, the hunter was afraid she'd taste Senna's blood on her tongue with every bite of whatever this...

Sweet bread stuff? Fuck no. Falis shoved that plate back on the buffet and grabbed some fruit instead. Sitting down alone, the hunter gently prodded the pair of vibrantly red scratches on her cheek as she stared at her tray. She really should talk to Soma. She didn't want to, but she should.

So this is what death is like, huh? Just kinda...sleeping? How boring...I was hoping for something a bit more exciting than this...At least I'm alone. That's kinda nice. Real peaceful. Nice and quiet. I could get used to this. Of course, it might get a little dull after a while. Hey, wait a sec...shouldn't I be in Hell or something? I mean, not that I'm complaining or anything, but...I wasn't exactly the nicest guy back when I was...alive. Come to think of it...where am I? It's just...black. Kinda feels like I'm...in a bed?

"Mr. Reynolds? It's time for breakfast."

Porky suddenly opened his eyes. He was...in his room. He hesitantly felt his chest with his right hand. After a few moments of prodding, Porky gasped. There was no wound! Incredulous to say the least, Porky sat up and looked around, eyes open wide. Everything was perfectly normal. Porky was...alive! Had it all just been...an illusion?! There was no way that he hadn't...died! It had felt so real! Porky suddenly felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He spun around, a look of pure disbelief on his face.

"Is something wrong, Mr. Reynolds?" asked the nurse, "Did you have another bad dream?"

"Y-Yeah..." Porky said quietly as he looked around the room, "That's it. Just a bad dream."

"Well, that's too bad," sighed the nurse, "Two days in a row. I'll talk to someone about that. Perhaps we can get you some medication to take care of that. Anyway, it's time for breakfast. You must be hungry."

Porky couldn't help but smile as he walked down the hallway to the cafeteria. After all, he was alive! Stupid ol' Landel thought that he could take Porky out, but no! He was still kicking! It only got better when he saw what was for breakfast. Delicious, syrupy French toast! Tres bien~! After piling his plate high, Porky skipped off to find a seat. What luck! Porky's pal Falis seemed to be sitting all by herself!

"Howdy, Alita!" Porky said cheerfully, "Remember me? Anyway, it's good to see you again! How ya been?"

Did she remember the old geezer?

"Yeah," Falis replied. "I do. Why are you so fucking cheerful?"

If Al was about to go on and on about how beautiful and brilliant the mornings were or some other fucking shit like that, Falis was going to have to stab him.

"Well," Porky began, "Y'see, I died last night! At least, that's what I thought. So I'm sure you can relate when I tell you that I was really bummed out! I mean, who wouldn't be after they died? Especially if they died the same way that I did..."

Porky shuddered at the memory, the smile momentarily leaving his face.

"Oooh, it was rough," Porky said somberly, "Impaled through the chest. All my organs fell out an everything. I think I scared the person I was with pretty badly, too. It sure was brutal...but that's not the point!"

Once again, Porky was ecstatic, almost glowing with joy.

"The point is I'm alive!" Porky laughed, "Oh, I can't tell you how happy I am!"

After he finished his explanation, Porky finally got a good look at Falis. Oh dear. She wasn't looking too happy, was she?

"Alita," Porky began, a bit more serious this time, "I know that I'm probably not the best person to ask, but...is something wrong? Is there anything I can do?"

"You can stop being so fucking cheerful," Falis replied. "I get why you are, I do, but I really don't fucking care."

She let out a sigh and rest her cheek on her hand. Unfortunately, that was her injured cheek and the hunter flinched before switching sides. There. Better.

"Wait a fucking second. How the fuck are you alive if you died last night? You sure you really were fucking dead?"

"Alrighty then," Porky said, trying to take on a more neutral expression, but failing utterly, "I'll try to tone it down a little."

"As for how I'm alive," Porky sighed, "I have absolutely no idea. I mean, all I know is that I died and then today I'm alive. I doubt that I just blacked out last night. After all, I lost most of my organs. I think the only ones left were my lungs and my heart, and only one of the lungs was undamaged. It'd be pretty hard-- scratch that, impossible for someone to recover from something like that. Plus, I doubt that being as freakishly old as I am would help much. I mean, who the hell knows what's going on anymore?! First there were zombies, then all those visions and shit. And that's leaving out the fact that we were all somehow kidnapped and taken here!"

Porky sighed, the smile gone from his face entirely now.

"It's all so confusing," he said somberly, "Sometimes I wonder if any of this is even real."

"Oh, it's real," Falis replied with a glower at nothing in particular.

Then she blinked. "What do you mean by visions? You some kind of decrepit mage of something?"

"Peh," Porky sneered, "I wish I was a mage or something. It would make things here a hell of a lot easier. Unless I needed runes or something to cast spells or stuff like that. Anyway, I had a lot of visions last night. Visions of...dead people. Dead people I knew. It wasn't fun, lemme tell ya."

After saying that, Porky paused for a moment, eagerly listening to whatever Lelouch had to say. Something about Shirley...a threat...some sort of mission. In any event, Porky would have to talk to that little brat that Lulu was yelling at soon. No point in letting something as valuable as that go untouched.

"Ah!" Porky said, grinning, "I forgot to mention it, but I met your girlfriend! You know, Hokuto? She seems like a nice girl! I hope you two are happy together!"

"Huh."

Visions of dead people. If only all mages or wanna-be mages had to deal with visions of dead people they knew bothering the fuck out of them. Maybe then they wouldn't be so keen on destroying innocent villages in their quest to try out a new power.

When Al brought up Hokuto, Falis had this instinctual desire to bear her teeth and growl, a little bit of the territorial predator from the previous night lingering, but she stopped herself.

"Aa. We are," she replied instead. "How did you meet her?"

...Falis wasn't much for chatting, was she? Well, whatever. If there was one thing Porky did well, it was talking.

"Ah, funny you should ask..." Porky said, a somewhat devious grin on his face, "Remember back a few days ago when we were all stuck in Doyleton surrounded by zombies? Somehow or another, I wound up hanging around her and this Hitsugaya kid. I can't say that it was too fun, given the...y'know, zombies, but it certainly wasn't miserable. Hokuto and I had quite a time talking after Hitsugaya left. We talked all about stuff like magic and our pasts and junk...ah, then we got attacked by zombie crows. I think she left after that."

So this was one of the people Hokuto had been with during the zombiefest.

"She had to have left since she found me and we holed up for the rest of the night." But why did he not know Hokuto had left?

"You get drunk? That why you don't remember her leaving?" Her girl had to have gotten the rum from somewhere.

"Uh...well..." Porky said, looking down and tapping the table with his finger, "Uh, the whole night's a little hazy, to be honest. Hokuto had to...knock me out. See, I was infected by a zombie. Hokuto had to throw a bottle at my head so I wouldn't attack either of 'em. D-Don't worry! I didn't hurt Hokuto or anything!"

"And I certainly didn't get drunk," Porky said, a look of disgust on his face, "Can't stand the stuff. I think she left after the crows attack. I was getting pecked at a lot, so I can't really remember it too well."

It was a good thing Al added on that he hadn't hurt Hokuto as Falis was already half out of her seat, a look of murder in her eyes. She stopped and then sat back down with a sigh.

"Good," she said, running her hands through her hair. The motion caused her sleeves to ride up, revealing the fading evidence of her own bite mark on her upper arm. "Sorry 'bout that. Kind of... on edge. And shit."

"Ah..." Porky said quietly, leaning over to get a better look at the bite mark on Alita's arm, "Did you get bitten, too? Well, obviously you did, but...did you get infected?"

"And you ought to calm down a little, eh?" Porky said, "Nothing good ever comes from worrying. I doubt that Hokuto'll get into any serious trouble. Not with you hanging around with her, at least. You make it sound like you could take out a tank barehanded!"

Porky snickered a little. It was pretty obvious who wore the pants in Hokuto and Alita's relationship.

"Anyway, just take a chill pill, 'kay?" Porky said, grinning, "No point in getting all riled up over nothing."

Falis didn't answer the question about her infection, the look more than enough to confirm that she was infected. She was going to change the subject, but then Al started using words she didn't know.

"What the fuck is a tank?" She cocked her head, looking confused. "And a 'chill pill'? I don't need to eat something to lower my body temperature."

"...You don't know what a tank is?" Porky repeated, a little confused, "But I thought that all this stuff...modern stuff, I mean, was ancient technology in your world! Eh, whatever. Lemme try to explain...a tank is...it's like a...big metal box with wheels. Bigger than a horse. Probably bigger than two or three horses, but that really depends on the size of the horses, I suppose...but that's not the point! The point is, tanks are absolutely deadly on the battlefield. They're almost impervious to normal weapons because of their thick armor and then they have a cannon attached to them. The rounds they fire explode, even!"

"What I'm trying to say, Alita," Porky said eventually, "Is that you're tough. Tough enough to protect Hokuto. You shouldn't worry so much about her getting into trouble. And 'take a chill pill' just means calm down."

Once Al explained what a tank was, realization dawned on the hunter's face. "Oh. One of those. I didn't know that's what they were called. The ruins aren't always in good enough condition to fucking read everything."

She then smirked. "And yeah, I can rip one of those apart. So, if take a chill pill means to calm down, why say that instead of just calm down?" Slang of this type was lost on Falis. Now insults... those she got.

"It must be pretty weird..." Porky sighed, "Living in the past when you have future technology all around you, I mean. I can't understand why anyone would willingly go back to ancient technology...stuff like tanks and guns are just so much better, y'know? I suppose it's not my position to judge, though."

"As for the slang," Porky began, "Sometimes a phrase like that just gets so common that it's almost stranger to say 'calm down' instead 'take a chill pill.' I dunno why. It just kinda happens, I guess."

"There's a reason all that technology was forbidden," Falis stated. "I, for one, kind of like the world sticking around. Without it, I have no fucking clue where I'd put all my stuff."

"That musta been some messed up technology," Porky sighed, "I mean, were they only weapons or something?"

"Weapons, weapons in combination with magic, technology that fucked with time and shit, reality altering technology," Falis stated. "You name it, it probably existed. I'm fucking glad the old ancient geezers decided to seal that shit away."

Too bad it all didn't stay sealed away.

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Day 44: breakfast

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