damned_institute | Day 50: Cafeteria (Brunch)

Somehow, after their talk in the chapel, Elaine felt simultaneously more accepting of and more irritated by her future husband. On the one hand, seven years had clearly been good to him. He seemed more sincere and thoughtful than he had been before his disappearance, and he had a more mature (dare she say, handsome?) look to him. On the other hand, there were clearly some things that made even time throw up its hands in vain and say, "To hell with this!" Guybrush was still inexorably prone to disastrous accidents if the story about the Pox of LeChuck was anything to go by, and he was so obviously keeping something important from her that any passing dolt in the Institute would have been able to tell. In the end, that eternal underlying sweetness of his that won out, keeping her from punching him again, at least. That was only by a hairs width, though. Her snugglecakes was going to have to stay on his best behaviour if he knew what was good for him.

She left the Mighty Pirate™ alone for the time being when the announcement of the next shift went off. He would want some time to catch up with Morgan next, presumably. As much as the woman's attitude bothered her, she was a friend of Guybrush's, as she had claimed. Elaine could be strict, but she wasn't the kind of shrewish future wife/past fiancé who would keep her man from seeing his friends. Besides, she needed some more time to catch up on the goings-on of the Institute. Patients filled the building to the brim, now, it seemed; there would be a lot to investigate.

After a few quick trips back and forth to the bulletin and a few new leads to follow up on, the governor gave in to her nurse's persistent nagging and headed to the cafeteria for brunch. After the relatively light fare of the day before, Elaine took advantage of the Institute's admittedly scrumptious offerings and loaded up a full, balanced brunchfast of eggs, sausage links, waffles, and vegetable soup. As expected, the selection of drinks did not offer either root beer or grog. Grog she could live without, at least, she thought while making a face. Eugh. For now, she settled for a tall glass of water.

Elaine settled into a seat in the cafeteria and tucked into her meal. Her eyes didn't stay on her food, though, instead gazing around restlessly; she hadn't seen LeChuck so far this morning, and god forbid he wanted to invite himself to brunch with her if he chose now to show up. A certain horribly unpleasant dinner on Mêlée Island came to mind. She was prepared to either move at the first sign of the dread pirate or signal a random stranger to sit with her before he could.

[For Dean]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The feelings of triumph had lasted all of five minutes before the second-guessing began. Leon's agreement to teach her one of the arts that allowed quick creation of weapons was something she had sought with less success for most of her time here... but that agreement was less than the great triumph it had briefly felt. It was a verbal contract only, and he might yet renege; she would after all have to tell him of her method of learning, of Sheena's reaction. If she did not it would be a betrayal of whatever small trust in her intentions had allowed him to agree, and she might have another Sheena to deal with. Or simply worry over, since she had made precious little progress in achieving any kind of resolution to or amelioration of her situation with the woman.

Beyond that she might simply fail. She had grasped Raine's otherworldly magic, but the strange bonds that lay behind Sheena's were something she could not imitate and when one considered the great variety of magics present at the institute it would not be strange if this one also defied her.

And beyond that... it was simply that the sense of accomplishment was more than was warranted, even if all went well. She could fulfill her promise to Momo, make Laevatein whole again and a fitting tribute to her fallen knight, arm more of the patients... but once there had been Signum, not simply a tribute, and others who had made weapons, and they had not found freedom. If anything the institute had only grown more chaotic and dangerous since.

It was a single small step, the mere promise of some slight utility. She would only disappoint herself if she imagined more.

So why did I feel that way in the first place? She silently asked her waffles.

[Open.]

It wasn't like Sheena had the energy to put up any resistance against her nurse when the woman steered the feverish ninja to a table. It wasn't like Sheena had the energy to even bother looking at who she'd been sat with, nor the words the nurse said that should have indicated to her that she was being placed with someone she knew.

All the ninja had the energy to do, especially after that draining moment with Forte, was to put her head down in her arm while her nurse headed to gather her food. Food the ninja didn't think she could stomach. A visible sheen of sweat at her brow, dampening her bangs, a paleness to her skin... Sheena hated being sick.

And so, she did not realize the nurse had stuck her with the one person she had absolutely no desire to ever deal with again. Stupid flu.

Rein almost did a double take when she realized the person being seated next to her was Sheena. 'As if on cue' was the appropriate phrase, but it didn't quite capture the feeling of having someone you were thinking about - and truth be told, avoiding - just suddenly appear like that.

Unfortunately, Sheena didn't seem to have recognized her, which led to an awkward few seconds where Rein stared at her, waiting for the other shoe to drop, before finally deciding that however bad calling attention to herself after said several seconds of staring might be, it could only get worse if she carried on. Sheena might look distinctly unhealthy, but she was still conscious.

"Good morning," she said at last. She had little hope that false cheer would ease Sheena's fear of her at this point, so it was a plain and simple greeting. If a bit delayed.

"No it's not," Sheena replied with a grunt that was barely audible as she did not move. "Rather still be last night." Because then she wouldn't be sick, and she'd still be with Yukari. Not...

Cracking an eye open, the ninja tilted her head enough to see who she was sitting with. Long silvery hair, red eyes... Ho'shit, it was Reinforce. That single visible eye went wide and Sheena immediately moved to get up and leave. Or she tried to.

She did successfully get to her feet, unsteady as she was, but then her nurse returned and put a hand on her shoulder. Stopping her, the nurse made her sit back down and then set the tray down before her.

"Damnit," Sheena muttered, watching Reinforce out of the corner of her eye. It seemed she wasn't going to get away. Maybe she could just... ignore her.

After having fought the ninja during special counseling it was strange to see her pushed down so easily by the nurse. What she'd said was strange too. The night was the time when they could act, but to wish for a return to it...

"Did something happen?" Rein couldn't help but ask.

Perhaps her captive audience would resent her taking advantage of the time, but it seemed better than just pretending she wasn't there.

Strange? No, it was downright pathetic how easily Sheena was handled by the nurse. Had she not been feeling so horrible, she might have complained about it. Though there was a good chance her present company factored in the lack of complaining.

"Yes," was all the answer Reinforce got as the ninja pushed the tray out of the way and did her best youkai impression, face-down in her arms. A moment later and something muffled was added on.

"Touch me and I'll show you exactly what happened." Not that she could gap-slap Reinforce during the day, but that was besides the point.

Rein wasn't always the best with subtext but that one had been obvious and she looked slightly hurt.

"Can't you just tell me? Is it so hard to just see or speak to me?"

"Yes, actually; it is," the ninja replied, turning her head enough to look at Reinforce. "You violated me. It doesn't matter that I was controlled at the time, you still stuck your hand in me like that. Do you have any idea what it feels like when you do that?"

Normally, Sheena would have avoided even talking about it, but Reinforce seemed insistent on talking to her. And the ninja was sick. Sheena always had been a bit cranky when she wasn't feeling well.

"How can you say it doesn't matter? What would you have done if I had not? Killed me, hurt Raine? Would you really have preferred that?"

She had done something she would rather not have, certainly, but what other choice had she had? The woman seemed to be insisting that Rein should not have defended herself or Raine... and the latter especially she could not accept. Weren't they friends?

"I could not kill anyone that night," Sheena replied, not quite sure how she knew for certain she would not, but she was one hundred percent certain she could not have killed them.

"You're supposed to be an intelligent something or other, right? You should have come up with something else," Sheena snapped back. "You don't just grab someone's essence like that. You knew I was under the control of something, knew I was Raine's friend and still you did that."

She squeezed her eyes shut and wiped the sweat off on her sleeve, her breathing a little labored. "It's never right to do something like that."

Day 50: Cafeteria (Brunch)

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