damned_institute | DAY 23: BREAKFAST

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DAY 23: BREAKFAST

That hadn't felt like an entire night.

And his goddamn head hurt. Pounded, even. Enough that he wondered if he was going to end up playing another round of "Christen the nurse" this morning.

Maybe it was because he'd spent so much time and energy trying to find Nowe. That could be the reason behind both those problems. Just the thought of it made his stomach turn, made him want to fucking choke something.

Still, there was shit to do. He forced himself out of bed to put away his pens and the other leftovers from the adventures that didn't happen last night. He'd have to try to talk to Sora today, to see if they could just do tonight what they were going to do last night... and to see if the kid was doing alright.

...he just wished his head would stop hurting. That was probably the result of just how badly he'd overreached himself the previous morning.

The nurse that showed up to get him was cheerful. He grunted at her, listening to her with only half an ear until she mentioned all the excitement, about someone pretending to be a patient, all that crap that Landel had mentioned.

Renji gave her a narrow-eyed look. "Dr. Landel is a goddamn lying coward, and he's lying about that, too," he said. Whether it was true or not, there was only so much good cheer he could take on a shitty morning. "I hope he chokes on a cock." No matter how much venom he put in that statement, it wasn't enough.

Then he had to listen to a lecture about language and gratitude for the rest of the walk to the cafeteria, so maybe it wasn't worth it after all. She dragged him through the breakfast line, and he ended up with granola and toast and tea and a cinnamon roll, because not even a shitty fucking night could ruin his sweet tooth. Though that thing was looking a little too sweet.

The cafeteria was pretty much empty; he had his run of the place. He sat himself about as far from the doors as he could get, and proceeded to stare at his breakfast.

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He was a little startled at her sharp gaze when she looked up, the way it drifted over his chakra before she met his eyes. He tried not to let it borhter him, meeting her gaze squarely.

He glanced down at the glass she seemed so preoccupied with and then nodded. "I'll bear that in mind. Never been fone of drinking water anyway," he replied. Coffee and sake were his poisons of choice in any case. Shame they didn't seem to serve any here.

The rain question did take him by surprise, seeming so random and unconnected. He shrugged. "Not here, I don't think. Somewhere it is, doubtless."

"Water's good for you when it isn't poisoned." River lifted her cup to her lips, taking a sip of the clear liquid despite her own warning. Perhaps he would think her a trickster, a spinner of tales and falsehoods. Perhaps he would understand that there was always a speck of truth in the most fantastic of stories and legends. Perhaps he would understand because he was truth, in a fantastic and legendary way.

It just didn't make sense.

"It's always raining somewhere. Evaporation. Condensation. Precipitation. Rinse and repeat. Basic pattern wherever it rains." Actually, as she spoke, River supposed he could consider himself lucky. Sometimes she wasn't this coherent.

"Well, I can't deny that," he said with a smile, feeling slightly baffled but warming to the girl despite it. She reminded him vaugely of Kanzeon Bosatsu, with less of the maliciousness. Knowing too much than was good for anyone. "And they only use the cleanest water to make sake, after all."

He took a drink of his own tea, cradling the cup in his hands. It wasn't really his choice of drink, but the caffeine was probably all he was going to get.

He nodded slowly at her words. "Guess that's just how things work," he said. Rain was less common in Heaven, just endless sunlight which got more than a little wearing after a very short time. "Sunshine every day would be dull."

"I didn't know your sort of myth ingested alcohol," River frowned, a little confused. Weren't majestic inhabitants of heavens and subjects of worship supposed to be somewhat pure? Further reflection reminded her of some of the more hedonistic gods of ancient civilizations on Earth That Was, and she supposed he could be a physical manifestation of one of those types of myths. The logic explaining such a frivolous contradiction of reality eluded her, but she didn't intend on letting it bother her. Such things were commonplace here. Reality and fantasy collided. And who was she to throw the first stone? Little River Tam was a psychic, after all.

"I guess you're allowed to break more than one rule," she finally laughed. "You don't make sense, but the logic of this place is that everything is illogical." Shepherd Book would be able to explain this more thoroughly... He was well versed in spinning tales to give man comfort in the mysteries he couldn't explain. But there had always been something there that had been troublesome about the man.

And yet.

"What sort of deity are you?" came another sudden, seemingly random question. Normally, such things, even illogical things, would be laid bare for her, but she had to ask. It wasn't so much a bother. Curiosity was becoming a fun game again.

Kenren blinked in surprise. Myth? He wasn't a myth. Except in the sense that all gods were kind of mythical. They didn't generally go out of their way to intervene in mortal affairs, at least he didn't. He wouldn't speak for certain Merciful Goddesses. So, this girl obviously knew what his chakra meant.

He shrugged anyways, setting down his knife and fork. "What else are you gonna' drink at feasts and after battles?" he asked. And also in the evenings when there was nothing else to do, and sometimes in the afternoon in Tenpou's study. Or when he was bored. There was a good reason he nearly always had a jug of sake with him.

He grinned widely at her comment about rule breaking. "I break a lot of rules," he said. "It keeps things interesting. And yeah, this place seems to be built on an absence of logic." Like his friends who weren't his friends and Goku who didn't remember him.

"An ex-deity," he replied with a wry smile. "In pretty much every sense of the word. I was a General."

Strange how easy it was to speak in the past tense.

Alcohol was often hailed as a celebratory substance, even in some factions of the Christian church. River mulled over the thought of consuming it to hail a great victory in battle, bringing up numerous cases in history and fiction that supported his claim. Even some ancient deities were known to consume alcohol, though it was most often specified that their liquor was of an exceptional, supernatural quality. She shuddered at the thought of Jayne being exposed to supernatural, alcoholic substances.

"Don't like to have things in common with the enemy," River replied to his agreement regarding the illogical logic of Landels. They were becoming fast friends in the most sarcastic of senses. But that was neither here nor there anymore. Her brow furrowed again as she leaned closer to inspect him.

"Ex-deity? Supposing this implies that you were not of the omniscient/omnipotent brand. Confirmed because you're here, and an omnipotent being wouldn't be confined to a place like this. No matter how much Marty thinks he's a god too." River laughed again. "Acceptable. You're admissible, if we overlook the inherent metaphoric inconsistencies of a war god falling from the vague standpoint of grace."

"Too easy to become the enemy if you're so similar," Kenren said by way of agreement.Too easy to become one of the good little soldiers of Heaven, playing their pointless games. At least their game had had something more important resting on it.

He finished off the tea, setting the cup down onto his tray and giving the girl an easy smile. She was interesting, even if she spoke in more circles than Tenpou in one of his more obtuse moods.

"Where I come from," he began, taking into account the things he'd heard about different worlds and such, "gods aren't omniscient or omnipotent. You're either born a god or not. Grace has nothing to do with it." The Bosatsu being the exception, but the Bosatsu was probably an exception to everything. "Besides, being Omniscient would have made things even more dull in Heaven than they already were. I'd take mortality any day."

Her laughter was somewhat infectious and he couldn't help but chuckle at her irreverence. "Ah, our dear Head Doctor," he said, a sarcastic smile on his lips. "Reminds me of a few people."

River nodded and took a bite of her eggs, washing them down with the poisoned water. She hadn't been feeling up to eating, not with what was no doubt looming over her, but her appetite seemed to be returning. Who knew that deities, despite the brand, could be so much like human beings? So far as attitude and speech were concerned, he seemed closer to normal standards than she was.

"So deities in your world are a race of powerful beings that evolved from humanity to the point where it became necessary to form a distinction. Can be explained possibly through theories of evolutionary progression." River's brow was furrowed, as though she were trying to unravel a mystery or solve an equation in her mind. "Considering Omniscience boring. You seem human enough."

The talk of Martin Landel would kill her appetite if she wasn't careful. River made another face, sticking her tongue to display exactly what she though of their beloved head doctor.

He was the reason.

"It'll be fixed. The only way it can be fixed," she said slowly, eyes glazing over for a second as she lost herself again.

He took a few bites of his food, eyes wandering around the room to spot anyone familiar. He saw Hakkai at one table, but no Goku. He shrugged at her question. "Not really my area of expertise," he said apologetically. "If my friend were here, I'm sure he could give you a full run-down on all the theories about the origin of gods." He smiled wryly at the though, fairly certain that Tenpou would be able to do it, even without his books there.

"Heaven's not all it's cracked up to be, 'least not where I'm from," he said dryly. "The human world was a hell of a lot more interesting."

Kenren laughed when the girl stuck out her tongue, making her views of the Doctor clearer than words ever could. "Yeah, my view exactly."

He took a few more bites of food and then frowned as the girl's eyes seemed to glaze over, concern growing in him. He leaned a little closer to her. "Hey, you alright?"

Heaven and hell, humans and gods. All subjects River never would've thought of entertaining as possible reality, even in light of the alternate universe theory that was so widely disputed. Fascinating and preposterous all once. A bothersome, inconclusive string of thoughts.

It should've been great fun. It should've been.

"It's not forever. It can't be forever. Gods accept their fate just as people do. Just as girls who've lost their right," she replied quietly. She was being selfish again.

He reached out to clasp a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly. There was obvious concern in his voice when he spoke, the easy smile gone and turned into something more serious. "Who said anything about accepting fate?" he murmured. "You fight it tooth and claw, just like you'd fight this place."

Fight it every way you could until you either won or died, and honestly, in certain situations, dying wasn't the worst case scenario. Sure, they'd been killed, but they at least, from what he'd seen, got to have lives which were a hell of a lot more interesting.

River's sullen expression snapped into one of shock as she felt the other's hand on her shoulder. Sharp and alert once again, she lifted her eyes to look at him, quite obviously confused. She could never understand it. Folk had their way where she came from, and most people just looked out for their own hides and the hides of their own. Even despite his heroic tendencies, the Captain had been a hard shell to crack too. He'd been so wounded by his concern for people he didn't know. People here, they were... overt and kind as though they'd known her for years.

It was so puzzling. So many people. So many heroes. She'd thought Mal and his crew (most of them, anyhow) were extraordinary folk. Everyone here seemed to be the same, if in different ways. It wasn't pattern, human behavior. Then again, this one was a god.

"Does the god have a name?" The words spoken were hesitant, maybe a bit shy as she continued to peer at him quizzically. "She knows, but she'd like to have it offered this once."

Kenren met her eyes squarely, watching when the cloudiness seemed to melt from her eyes and her expression. He smiled at her reassuringly and pulled away slowly resting his elbows on the table as he'd been told a million times not to do in meetings with senior officers.

His smile widened when she asked his name and he nodded. "Kenren Taisho, at your service." He bowed to her as bets he could while still sitting, as he would to a noblewoman. "And what about you, my Lady Sage?" Because that's what she reminded him of; someone like Goku who knew more about everything than any scholar ever could.

The notion that this had to be somehow worth it was briefly entertained. They'd made an error in putting them all together like this, unless the intent had somehow been there all along. Dangerous little boys and girls. And some of them were ducks.

"River Tam," she replied simply, grinning proudly. "I know lots of people here." More then they'd like her to, now that she thought about it. This one probably would've danced without a wager.

He grinned back at her just as enthusiastically. "Then's it's an honour, Lady River the Sage. May the Merciful Goddess smile upon you." He leaned in conspiratorially. "Although, between us, the Merciful Goddess has a sense of humour twisted enough to make even a War Prince run for cover."

And the power to back it up, unfortunately. Even the Jade Emperor was wary around the Bosatsu.

"And you seem the type people like to be around. Doesn't surprise me one bit."

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DAY 23: BREAKFAST

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