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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Worried as he was about Claude, Guy knew that his friend wouldn't much appreciate it if he tried to stick around and hover over his shoulder all day. The nurses seemed to be very attentive when it came to helping him get around, even if they weren't admitting to what had actually caused it. Guy just hoped that Claude kept his temper in check around them, since the last thing he needed at this point was a sedative.

As he headed down the stairs from the chapel and then toward the cafeteria, Guy couldn't help wondering if this meant he would eventually be booked for some time on the examination table. He'd now had two very close friends go through the process, even if Luke didn't remember it (and it seemed that the effects were gone, too -- or so he hoped).

Part of him wanted to think that he was off the hook after coming back from the dead, but he knew better than to expect that much. He did have to admit that he'd become somewhat complacent, in that he'd just assumed he'd been passed over. Now that Claude, who had been around here for a similar amount of time, had suddenly been seized for experiments, the possibility of the same thing happening to him seemed far more likely.

That was enough of worrying about himself, though. Mainly, he just wanted to do what he could to make sure that Claude was okay. Unfortunately, checking in on him over the bulletin was more or less out of the question for the moment. He could try to find a healer for his friend if it came to that, though. Still, there was no reason to jump the gun, and so he'd have to just wait it out for now.

Guy went on auto-pilot for long enough to grab himself a plate of food (he decided to go with the healthier choices) and then find himself an empty place to sit. He figured he was too distracted to seek someone out right at that moment.

[Free!]

Momo had taken her time in the chapel, just wanting some time to think without the constant questions of that man, as long as she was allowed. Because of this, she was late to brunch, but that was okay. The shinigami didn't eat much these days, but at least she was eating. A tray with a cup of fruit and a bowl of cereal was all Momo had with her when she chose one of the few empty seats left.

"Is this alright?" she asked the man across from her?

Thus far, only Leon had responded to the posting he'd put up for Claude on the bulletin, which left Guy uneasy. Chances were that Ronixis just hadn't seen it yet, seeing how he'd been around the night before, but as for the other two, he had to be realistic in his admittance that he hadn't seen either one around in a while.

It was strange, because Dias had been involved with the coliseum the same way that he had, and Ashton had only just come back after his first disappearance. It seemed like odd timing for both of them to vanish, but it wasn't as if Landel ever pulled people away in a way that made sense. He just didn't want to be the bearer of bad news for Claude, but he would do so if he had to. It was part of being a friend -- you had to stick around for the good and the bad, and at Landel's it was usually bad.

He was distracted from his worrying thoughts halfway through his meal, when a girl he'd seen around a few times came over and asked to sit. Hopefully she was more polite than that Erika girl, though Guy knew that her behavior had been far from normal. Smiling politely at the stranger, he nodded and gestured to the seat across from him. "Go right ahead."

The shinigami was certainly more polite than the 'detective', even if Erika's mannerisms tended to amuse Momo. With a warm smile, she settled down.

"Thank you. I hope I'm not disturbing you," she replied. "You seemed lost in thought."

Already Guy could tell that this meeting was going to go much better than the one yesterday. He let himself relax and took another bite of food as he heard out the girl's apology.

"You're not," he said with a shake of his head. "It's probably better that I don't stay lost for too long, anyway." Which was true. He could only worry so much before his stomach would just start to tie itself into knots, and that was the last thing he needed at this point. Doing his best to put thoughts of Claude and his friends out of his mind, Guy focused in on the other patient.

"My name is Guy, by the way," he introduced himself, making sure that his hands were busy when he did so to ensure that she didn't try to initiate a shake.

Guy need not worry about a handshake, though Momo was keeping an eye out for one form him when he introduced himself. She'd gotten very used to the Western custom at this point, that it was a little odd when he didn't.

"Hinamori Momo," she replied with a small bow of her head, leaving her rank off. It was just her, Senna and Hanatarou there anymore. Her rank meant nothing. As minorly depressing as it was, the shinigami was okay with it.

"You've been here for a while - I've seen you around - so I understand. Though corridors of thought must be long and winding."

That was a name he was almost certain he'd seen on the bulletin a few times, but Guy couldn't remember exactly what the girl had been writing about. All he was noticing now was that she seemed very reserved for her young age, which might have to do with plain shyness. At least there was only a small chance of her trying to grab for him if she was shy, though. Besides, it wasn't as if she was being taciturn or anything.

When she came out with a somewhat cryptic analogy, Guy raised an eyebrow. It looked like she was already far too used to this place, possibly to the point that she'd resigned herself to it. Which was discouraging to see, but it wasn't his place to try and fix that for her when they were only strangers.

"Yeah, I've seen you around, too," he responded eventually. "It's kind of weird that we've never talked until today, isn't it?" He knew exactly why that was the case, though. He'd made a habit of avoiding the female patients when he could, as a matter of convenience, though he couldn't say he minded when they came and spoke to him, so long as they kept their hands to themselves.

"Anyway, enough about my thoughts. How've you been handling this place? You must be doing something right if you've stuck around for so long." He tried not to dwell too much on the morbidity implied by that statement, instead taking another bite of his meal.

Day 50: Cafeteria (Brunch)

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So, so late to brunch orz

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