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]

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[per-ardua.livejournal.com]

"Only a very few people have known what I was asking about," Raine said, getting a little excited. "And most of them are from home. Many people are familiar with healing potions in general, but I thought I'd stick to Gels because they're what I know. There's a kitchen somewhere upstairs--I'd have to check a map to remember where exactly, but while it's smaller than the one just through that door," she nodded to it, "the Sun Room is not somewhere you'd want to go at night, and... well, I'd rather avoid the courtyard." Somehow, she managed not to shudder.

"I mostly stay with the clinic, but since the founder of it was 'discharged', I haven't even been sure where to hold it and consequently I've gotten even fewer people than usual coming to me. So if you've got the time, say, tonight or tomorrow..." Her eyes actually sparkled a little at the idea of working with this scholar to make the Gels they needed so badly here. "I'd be very glad for the assistance. If you need to ask for me on the board, I'm Professor Raine Sage."

[bodhiandspirit.livejournal.com]

Rita raised an eyebrow. "You know how to make them?" Since gels weren't part of Rita's fields of study, she'd never really looked into their production. It would probably be a valuable skill to have, considering how useful gels were, but Rita had a hard time finding enthusiasm for something that would essentially be a cooking exercise.

So the woman's name was Raine. The 'professor' part didn't come as a surprise at this point in the conversation. It was clear that the woman not only knew a fair amount, but was also prone to long explanations.

"There are some things I need to check on, so I'm not sure how today will go." For one, she needed to find the man she was with last night and get him to explain what the hell happened. He had to know something. "I guess we'll have to see about tomorrow." She paused to take another bite of her food. "The name's Rita Mordio. I'll be watching the board, too."