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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Ritsu sniffled as he selected his food, having just finished apologizing to the nurse that had been waiting patiently for him as he said his frantic goodbye to Ammy. He stared at the strange selection of food - not that he would ever imply that the food was somehow unappealing to him: even the worst, most tasteless meals were too good for this lowly Ritsu, and he knew this was far more than he deserved...he simply didn't expect to see such an assortment in one place.

He put more on his tray than usual, the events and realizations of the morning having exhausted him and given him the first real appetite he'd had since arriving in this place (though it was likely helped along by the fact that he had been asleep without food for more than a day.) He turned to find a seat after guiltily apologizing to no one in particular for wasting this food upon his unimportant self when there was surely someone who needed it more, scanning the room for a familiar face, which he soon found.

He shuffled eagerly towards his cousin, slipping in across from her, then standing up quickly, as he realized he hadn't asked her if the spot was free. He shouldn't so rudely assume that she didn't plan on having other, more pleasant and significant, company, or that she didn't want to eat alone - true, he was incredibly happy to see her, but he shouldn't selfishly thrust the burden of being near him upon her without at least asking first.

"K-kagura-san?"

"Rit-chan!" she exclaimed, eyes starting to tear over. He wasn't dead or maimed horribly or missing limbs, so that meant he was alright! But it was the second time now she hadn't been able to reach him at night. And he hadn't replied to her messages either! She all but leaped over the the table, stepping on her chair, her feet barely touching the table as she threw her arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly.

"I was so worried! You can't keep doing this to me! I thought something terrible happened to you! I missed you so much!" she sniffled into his shoulder, completely ignoring that she might be crushing him slowly.

Ritsu watched his cousin fly at him in what felt like slow-motion, barely managing to keep his balance as her body connected full force with his, the strength of her embrace quickly ridding his lungs of air. He flailed a bit, gasping bits of apology as he waved his arms, tears filling his eyes as he realized his useless self had caused his dear family member such worry with his selfishly prolonged rest. This after he had promised himself he would no longer be a bother to her, do as much as he could to keep from causing such a kind soul distress and unnecessary concern for his worthless person.

This lowly Ritsu’s vow hadn’t even lasted one day – and here, again, she was crying for him. Surely he deserved every bruise he suffered from her outburst of affection, even if he knew there was no such intent behind the action. He blushed brightly as the tears streamed down his cheeks, still so unsure of how to react to something as simple as a hug, something which he could hardly remember receiving in his time before arriving here. One as unimportant as Ritsu hardly merited such an enthusiastic greeting, and never received them back home…his arrival was never something to be celebrated.

He couldn’t help but feel his unworthy heart flutter at the idea that she cared enough for him to display such strong emotion, and he raised one quivering hand to her back, pressing it there weakly, the most his shy self could do in way of returning the hug, and more than he had ever managed before.

The pleasant feeling was soon replaced by guilt, not just at having enjoyed the concern, but once again for being its source. He hid his face in his sleeves and rambled quiet and heartfelt apologies, each word filled with as much self loathing as he could humanly express, until he had exhausted himself and all that was left was his genuine happiness to see her again.

“I’m s-sorry, Kagura-san, this lowly Ritsu has no idea what happened…I…I simply was asleep and I...”

Oddly enough, it was the small act of Ritsu actually trying to hug her back that finally made her ease up on him. She was known for her wild nature, her inability to control her emotions, but she couldn't ever remember a time when she'd hugged Kyo with such ferocity and actually been hugged back. She picked herself up from the floor, still sniffling quietly.

Everyone here came and went, some just vanishing into the night while others were maimed horribly and picked apart, left to die in the hallways. One was almost as bad as the other because wherever they went, she couldn't follow. She was simply left behind. Even if she and Ritsu had never been close, he was family, and as close to a real friend as she might hope to get in this place. If she didn't see Bridget soon then...

"It's okay," she said finally, "It... it's not your fault."

"I-I'm sure it is!" He sputtered frantically, holding out a hand to help her to her feet, though he was likely not the steadiest means of support should she take the offer. The tearful young man wasn't sure how he had managed to fall asleep for so long - truthfully, he couldn't remember sleeping for such a long period of time ever in his life. His service at the onsen required him to be up very early each day, and even on the days when his lowly self was given the extra rest, that only lasted a few additional hours. Perhaps this bothersome Ritsu had done something which had forced his care-takers to sedate him...that had to be it!

The prospect of having offended a group of strangers so wholly that they had been forced to physically remove him from their presence, when added to the guilt he already suffered for causing Kagura such worry, was almost more than the self-loathing young man could bear. He clutched his head dramatically for a moment, rambling aloud each word that he was thinking, sometimes repeatedly, ending with a few well punctuated apologies and turning to his cousin again as he realized he'd become a bit carried away. He apologized for that, as well, leaning in with that almost-too-eager look of his and hoping there was something he could do to at least make things a little better.

"N-not that I'm saying I disagree with you, Kagura-san, I would never mean to imply that, I just...I just...I just know this lowly Ritsu must have done something to cause it." He bowed softly, dabbing at his eyes. "P-please don't worry any more..."

She took his hand, her grip much stronger than her gentle hands betrayed, as she pulled herself up. It wasn't long before Ritsu was off on a full-fledged rant and Kagura could swear the nurses were preparing a heavy sedative to be delivered any moment to one or both of them.

"It's fine," she said quietly, though it was impossible to hear her over the noise. "It's ok!" she repeated, only for her words to yet again be lost to his babbling.

"Rit-chan CALM DOWN!" she finally shouted, gripping his shoulders with her not-at-all feminine strength.

"It's ok," she said again, once he was quiet enough to hear her. "We have to watch out for each other here, ok? But that also means to... to watch out for yourself. So be careful, alright?"

Day 50: Cafeteria (Brunch)

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