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

[zack-fair.livejournal.com]

That was a much larger response than Zack had been expecting, especially since Nanaki had been pretty mellow thus far. Or, not mellow, but quiet and kind of awkward. The way his shoulders tensed as he made a weird growling noise caused the soldier to straighten in his seat out of shock, but it didn't take him long to calm down again -- after all, that sort of reaction wasn't out of hand considering they were talking about Hojo.

Nanaki had to have dealt with the scientist personally. That was the only reason to react so strongly to just a name, even if Zack could relate completely. If anything, that made him more convinced.

"Tell me about it. At least here they let us walk around a little bit." They were still forced to go to the rooms that the nurses told them to go to, but they could stretch their legs and even get some fresh air. Zack wasn't saying it was paradise, but it was way better than the Shin-Ra mansion's basement.

"So, what did he put you through?" he asked with a tilt of his head as he popped another piece of sausage into his mouth. "If you don't mind me asking." Some people were okay with talking about it and some weren't. Zack wasn't exactly the sharing and caring type -- he'd give the facts, but he wasn't going to turn on the waterworks.

[flamingfurball.livejournal.com]

Nanaki had been suspicious that Zack was searching for answers about him and the question was further evidence towards it. Really, he should just ask straight out, Nanaki wasn't going to deny what he was, but he was happy to dodge careful questions.

"I don't mind direct questions. It was captivity mostly," he grumbled. There'd been some prodding and poking, but he was mostly being saved for Aerith. "I would ask you the same.... but I suppose I know." So did Zack know he was dead? It wasn't that long after the Mansion that he was killed. Or perhaps he was unhappy long before that ordeal?

[zack-fair.livejournal.com]

Captivity, huh? Well, that seemed to be the name of the game, especially when it came to Hojo. Zack sighed and gave Nanaki an apologetic look. Even if the kid was kind of weird, it was clear that he didn't deserve to be put through something like that. No one should have to be put at Hojo's mercy, as far as Zack was concerned. It didn't matter what they'd done.

It sounded like Cloud had shared enough details of what they'd been put through that his friends didn't even need to ask. Zack felt a little bit uncomfortable about it, but it wasn't the sort of thing that could be kept secret for long. "Yeah," he responded as he shook a hand through his hair, "four years of being cooped up with some experimentation on the side."

Not to mention the mako. Lots and lots of mako. It was no surprise that seeing the Lifestream had made him feel a little queasy.

At that moment, the intercom went off and the nurses started to hustle around the room claiming patients. The time never seemed long enough, but Zack also knew that he was playing catch-up with everything that had taken place after his death. It was going to take a while. "Well, it was nice to meet you," he said with a small smile. "I'll see you around, all right? I wouldn't be surprised if we end up working together sometime."

[flamingfurball.livejournal.com]

"Four years," he repeated with a nod. It had only been one for himself. Give or take. "I don't think we'll be here for that long," he added. It was his attempt at optimism.

"Work?" he asked, head tilted. "I...suppose." What did he mean by that? Was he coming back alive, or...perhaps he meant here. "I would like that."

[zack-fair.livejournal.com]

Zack also hoped that they wouldn't be stuck in this place for four whole years. He'd already given up too many years of his life to Shin-Ra's greed; he didn't need to go through it again. While Zack realized that he had to be somewhat grateful to Landel for resurrecting him, that didn't mean he had to lay down and allow himself to be experimented with out of gratitude.

Nanaki seemed a little confused, but in the end he responded in the affirmative, and that was the important thing. "Sounds good," Zack responded with a nod as he stood from his chair, abandoning the rest of his meal. He'd eaten enough. Giving the kid a parting wave, the soldier moved away to meet up with a nurse.