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]

Comments

[chainsaw-royal.livejournal.com]

In fact, it wasn't one she told often, if at all. Still, it wasn't in her nature to show tears before another, and of course, any of her usual attitude was unsuited to the words she was saying. So she simply showed nothing. At least, as much as she could.

She gave a little sigh when she finished, some of the tension leaving her slender frame. It was in the past now.

"I was given the same name as a cat that he tortured and killed. That's why I prefer to be called Hime," she answered shortly. "And yes, it did. I hope now that their souls can rest a little easier now that they've been avenged."

And then a bit of her usual attitude returned.

"And even if not, it's one less corrupt prince running around."

[scalyfishman.livejournal.com]

Something about simply being renamed like that struck the Maximal cold. Twisted slagger. But then, even she'd made her peace now- well, as much as you could in that kind of situation. The corner of Depth Charge's mouth tightened a little as his jaw clenched down. What, then, was he missing? He'd slayed his dragons own already, so why couldn't he just let things lie?

But that train of thought what getting out of hand, and he couldn't stop to think about that now. Last time that had happened here things had gotten pretty ugly, pretty fast. Not to mention he'd been out a flashlight for a couple of days.

"And I think I prefer 'princess'," he answered after a second, giving Hime a crooked smile. "That's one way of looking at it. Can never get rid of too many psychopaths." That was one thing to focus on, at least. X wasn't around anymore. He tilted his head for a moment, thoughtful. "The zombies here don't seen to be too contagious, at least. Looks like they wear off after a couple of days. Small mercies, you know?"

[chainsaw-royal.livejournal.com]

Not even renamed - truly, it was her birth name and one that would follow her wherever she went in the Kingdom, the one sin of Severin that she could never be rid of. What a cruel joke, to name his little sister like that. At least her sisters and her servants didn't use it. And here, well... no one even knew.

"It's the same thing - Hime is just Japanese for 'Princess'. A nickname my sister gave me, since she couldn't bear to have a little sister who wouldn't answer to any name," Hime said with a shrug. But Silvia really was in the minority; even Emil still called her by her birth name.

"Small mercies indeed. It seems Landel's smart enough not to risk a full outbreak," the princess mused. "Then again, considering that there was no sign of them yesterday when we went in town while it was light, who knows if even that much would trouble him."