Day 50: Cafeteria (Brunch)

[selfrescuer.livejournal.com]

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]

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[mitase.livejournal.com]

As he entered the cafeteria Hanatarou automatically glanced around, looking for friends and potential enemies alike, and almost immediately spotted Senna. She seemed to be okay, with no visible ill effects lingering after last nightshift even if she was still wearing that sling for the injury she wouldn't let him heal. So... whatever had been wrong didn't look like it was something physical, and it wasn't apparent now.

She was busy talking to someone else at the moment, though, so after a worried look to determine her current state Hanatarou kept going toward the line for food. There was a rather confusing variety of stuff to choose from, so he randomly grabbed a couple of things and then blinked when his nurse added a plate of pancakes with a brief lecture on how he never ate enough. Rather than argue about not being hungry, he just nodded with eyes lowered and moved to take a seat at an empty table.

Once he'd sat down he glanced at Senna again briefly, sighed, and looked around to determine that no, there was still no sign of Tsukasa. Hanatarou absently gnawed on his lower lip for a moment, then shrugged and turned to his breakfast. Everyone should be okay, right? Maybe he should check the bulletin after he ate or something to make sure.

[Hokuto]

[akarusa.livejournal.com]

Hokuto looked around hopefully for Falis, but no luck; she did, however, see Hanatarou. She grabbed some food (mostly on the healthy side, because she did still need to recover her strength) and went to sit with him. It was tempting to sneak up and hug him from behind, but since that might end badly she just put her tray next to his and smiled at him as she sat down.

"Hana-kun!" Maybe it was too familiar, but he wasn't the formal type either. "How have you been? I haven't talked to you in ages, it feels like."

[mitase.livejournal.com]

Hanatarou glanced up and blinked at the abbreviated version of his name, wondering why everyone seemed to feel the need to give him a nickname lately. Was it that hard to remember, maybe? It wouldn't be surprising, if so, so he didn't bother mentioning it and instead only smiled a little shyly in greeting.

"Good morning, ah, Hokuto-san." It had been a while since they'd last talked, hadn't it? Not since he stopped taking assignments for the Arts and Crafts club and that wasn't really something he wanted to think about for too long so he didn't. Instead he just gave a small shrug and shook his head. "I'm fine? I haven't run into any kind of trouble for a while now. What about you?"

[akarusa.livejournal.com]

The honest answer to that would be "living my worst nightmares all over again", but Hokuto really didn't want to actually say that; she would really rather not depress him. Or herself. "I'm doing okay--I got hurt a few nights ago, but I should be up to going out again tonight. Not that I have any ideas about what I'll be doing..." she shook her head.

"I still want to teach self-defense, so that's something." As long as she had one student, that was good enough for her. Anything that let her feel like she was doing something.

[mitase.livejournal.com]

"Ah? You're hurt?" Hanatarou glanced up from his tray and blinked, suddenly worried. "Did you... need any help?" Probably not; lately nobody wanted his help, though he didn't really blame them.

Teaching self-defense, though, he didn't really know anything about. He could barely defend himself, really, even if he did have a sword. Or maybe especially because he had one-- he was accustomed to Hisagomaru, not an ordinary sword. Still, he offered a shy smile and nodded. "It sounds like fun?"