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]

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Yuyuko, after the initial crushing disappointment of being woken to a breakfast-free morning (much worse than anything she'd heard about in connection with the night, particularly as it was he practice to stay in her room and get a sound night's sleep rather than engage in frivolous adventuring and gross-monster-slaying) had been delighted to discover its compensation in brunch. A workless day where you ate late sounded perfect for sleeping in... and the distinction that made it separate from normal, breakfasting days (as opposed to just sleeping in all the time, which was certainly an option when she was ahead on her administrative work or could foist it off on an underling) would ensure that it did not simply become routine.

Yes, definitely a practice worthy of import, the ghost thought as she plowed through her meal.

[For Yukari.]

Yukari excelled at many things. Waking up was not one of them. In fact, one could say she excelled at the art of not waking up. And today? Today she was in top form.

When the doctor's first announcement came up, Yukari hadn't even stirred. When the subsequent nurse came in, gently shaking her awake, the youkai's response had been to snore loudly. When bodily hauled from her bed, Yukari remained limp and her eyes didn't even open. There had been hope in the nurses eyes after they sat her up and the blonde's eyelids stirred... only to immediately fall shut again as her head fell limply back. Unsure of how to handle such extreme disobedience when sedation obviously would be more counterproductive than anything, the nurse went to seek advice from a more senior member, leaving Yukari sitting there.

When she came back, the woman was sprawled on the bed in a position that in no way looked comfortable but she nonetheless seemed to be sleeping in. That was concerning enough, but when it became apparent the position of her arm was cutting off her airway? That had both nurses rushing over, shaking her awake urgently. Finally, finally Yukari's eyes opened.

"...what time is it?" she asked. When informed it was before noon, she immediately let them close again.

After that, it was an uphill battle to keep "Ms. Cloud" upright and awake, to put her slippers on and walking down the hall. Twice, the youkai simply slumped against a wall and fell asleep. Once, she even fell asleep in the middle of walking, one of the orderlies barely managing to catch her before she simply landed face first on the tile. Eventually, she made it out to the Sun Room... by which point, it was already time for brunch.

She was herded along with the other patients, not even particularly awake as she walked through the line. However, the smell of food at least did a little to perk her up, if not focus her, and by the end of it, Yukari actually looked awake, if not conscious. Satisfied that she wasn't going to fall over any time soon, a naive impression on the poor woman's part, the nurse left Yukari to find her own seat.

As appetizing as breakfast smelled, the youkai really had no interest in eating. She really just wanted to curl up and fall asleep, preferably on a ninja-shaped pillow. She couldn't see her target in the growing crowd, but there was an easy solution to this - just tap into her newly awakened Sheena-sense and...

Get absolutely nothing.

Blinking dumbly, Yukari tried again but found she just had no idea where the ninja was. Which, if she thought about it, was a little concerning. There was a rising modicum of panic under that blanket of weariness, a fear that she couldn't sense her summoner because there was no summoner to sense. After a few seconds though, she noticed she could still feel that connection to Sheena, she just couldn't sense where it connected. Breathing a little sigh of relief, the youkai resolved to find her the old fashioned way. Or give up after a few seconds and settle for napping without a warm ninja pillow.

Lucky for her, a wonderful compromise presented itself in all its pink-haired glory.

Tottering on over, Yukari let her tray hit the table with a clatter before slumping in her seat next to Yuyuko and leaning heavily on the ghost, clinging pitifully to her sleeve.

"Yu~yu~ko~" she whined, her cry turning into a yawn halfway through. "I can't find my pillow~"

Watching a half-asleep Yukari slowly make her way over was, despite their long association, somewhat new to Yuyuko. Not the half-asleep part - Yuyuko might be lazy by merely human standards, but Yukari actually hibernated - but that she was actually taking her time to wander over instead of just saving herself the trouble with gap-travel. A lazy Yukari was either there or gone, rarely on her way.

The ghost swallowed her current mouthful of food and looked up. "You didn't eat it in your sleep, did you?"

Whether this was a euphemistic jibe at Yukari's relationship with Sheena or a more literal concern based on past experience was anyone's guess.

"'m not you, Yuyuko," the youkai mumbled into the ghost's shoulder. Though she did spend a lot of time asleep, and had developed such skills as sleep-walking and sleep-shikigami-evasion, sleep-eating, of any sort, had avoided her. On the ghosts part however, putting something delicious near her mouth, whether or not she was awake, was a sure death sentence.

Speaking of food, breakfast was starting to smell more appetizing. Why wouldn't she be interested in it before? Somehow, Yukari got a nagging feeling there was something else she wanted, something that wouldn't require the effort of actually reaching over to her tray or stop burying her face in her friend's sleeve.

"What did I want... I want my head to make more sense," she mumbled with a groan. The gaps between thoughts seemed like insurmountable barriers, barring any connection as she flitted from one to the next. The effort to make those connections... she just couldn't muster it right now.

"That would be confusing," Yuyuko said, pondering Yukari's quip. "We'd have to split the netherworld in two. And Youmu. She'd probably be against it." The last was said as though this was the willful disobedience of an unruly child.

"You could probably manage it if you weren't me... maybe we could borrow that celestial's sword." Yuyuko was good at borrowing. Two Yuyukos would be better, though probably not quite as good as the proven Yukari-Yuyuko combination.

Beyond that... Yukari sounded badly hung-over. "Did you find something nice to drink last night? Maybe that's how you lost your pillow."

"Just give me the soft half and you can keep her other half," Yukari mumbled, not really sure which half that would actually be. Ghost or human, that girl was rather squishy.

"Too annoying, don't want to ask her," she immediately dismissed the ghost's suggestion about asking the celestial for her land-splitting powers.

"I found some soda," the youkai replied honestly, clinging tentatively to whatever topic of conversation Yuyuko threw her way. "Did I lose my pillow?" She was fairly sure she'd had it when she'd woken up.

Day 50: Cafeteria (Brunch)

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