damned_institute | Day 51: Breakfast

Yuffie Kisaragi, indomitable bouncing ball of sunshine and unfathomable ebullience, was tired. It'd been a long night full of gibberish and getting nowhere fast.

"Can't I—"

Plucky, who had been busily loading a plate full of French toast and bacon, tittered. "I'm afraid not, Hanna, darling. A chat over a nice, hearty breakfast would do you a world of good, don't you think?"

"Aaaaactually—"

"Come on, let's find you a seat. Plenty to choose from this morning!"

For a long moment, Yuffie seriously considered doing something—anything—to act out. Punch her nurse, rub jam in an orderly's face, climb a wall and hang off the ceiling, jump on a table and parody Loveless… A ruckus like that would definitely jolt her back into gear, right? Sedation aside. And it'd turn Plucky's good day right on its head, which was always a bonus worth shooting for.

But, by the time she'd reached a decision—and it was an epic decision, a really awesome one; everybody'd appreciate the genius, she was sure—she was already alone. Her breakfast tray had been set down neatly by the nurse, who had left with an infuriatingly winsome smile.

"Wow," Yuffie muttered. Shaking her head, she picked a chair at random and threw herself into it. She kicked back, one arm slung across her eyes, to wait. For what, she wasn't totally sure. Some moron to decide that she looked like good company? That was how it usually went.

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More materia? Well, that was definitely something he wished he had known about before now. Zack eyed the girl carefully, noting the way that she seemed to know which exact ones were apparently around. How could she know with such specificity and yet not have gotten her sticky fingers on them yet? It all sounded kind of suspicious, but seeing how she had decided to bring it up with him in the first place, it seemed like she'd be willing to spill. "How do you know?" he asked. "Where are they?"

He wasn't sure how useful some of those would be, but he could definitely see Poison coming in handy, at the least. And Leviathan? Zack had only heard rumors of that mythical water snake that called Wutai its home, but Yuffie was speaking as if she'd seen it in action. He wasn't going to deny its existence, having seen enough things during his time in SOLDIER that should have been impossible. It was just a shame that he'd probably never get to see the creature for himself.

Zack couldn't really fault Yuffie for not wanting to head back to that locker, but the information that Landel had spilled certainly made things a lot more interesting. So it was a blood offering, huh? It didn't sound like it would take much; just a prick on the finger, maybe, and they could get back to important places (provided they could make it there in the first place). He couldn't help thinking of Aidou's mission to the basement. If Aidou or Sasuke had gotten a ring, that would definitely make things easier. If not, maybe he could attempt to get Yuffie to let him borrow hers (it technically belonged to all of them, right?), but he knew that was a long shot.

"So do you think you're gonna test it out tonight?" he asked as he leaned one forearm on the table and then took another bite of food. "Or did you have something else you needed to do?" Seeing how the girl had spent last night helping out some friends, it sounded like she might have time in her schedule to try the ring out after all.

"You've run into special counselling patients before, right? Y'know, those ones that get all brainwashed up and sicced on any patient that wanders by their post?" By now, there's no way Zack wouldn't have. He wasn't the kind of guy who'd settle for hanging out in his room all night; he'd be right out there in the thick of things. And the thick of things was always the best place to find the crazies.

Yuffie laughed, just shortly, under her breath. "It was a while back now, but I was one of 'em. That's how I got my shuriken." Crackity-crack-crack went Mori's collarbone, somewhere in the back of her mind. She ignored it. "And those were the materia I had. All of 'em mastered, and I'm pretty they're all mine." Which was yet another big black mark on Landel's record. Her stuff was her stuff; nobody else had the right to mess with it!

"I don't know for sure where he keeps it all. It's gotta be somewhere, though, and I'm guessin' that the third floor is our best bet." She raked her fingers through her hair, frustrated that something so important was so close, but still just a pipe-dream. "We tried to break one of the outside windows to get up there once, but my shuriken just bounced right off. It didn't even leave a crack. The only ones who might know a way up are the History Club, and if they do, you bet they won't be sharing."

She kicked her legs back and forth underneath the table, shaking off the disquieting sense that, despite having been stuck in this dump for three weeks, she'd been making about as much progress as legless chocobo. "Weeeeeeell," she drawled. "I was gonna go snatch up all our patient files, but that ring, it's really too good an opportunity to miss out on. I was thinkin' about trying the outside again," because good things always happened when she got out over the walls, haha, not, "or maybe the basement. I've never gone that way before."

It was funny that she was bringing up brainwashing when Zack had only just run into someone who'd been under those effects last night. Still, it got less funny when Yuffie revealed that she had actually been victim to it before. Zack immediately tensed, because even if this girl had given him a hard time in the past, she hardly deserved something like that. He'd always been looking out for her, after all, and some small part of him had wondered if she'd maybe been kind of lonely back then.

But how terrible, to be given all of her most useful items only to have them taken away again. Well, it sounded like she'd gotten her shuriken out of the deal, but he doubted that that was a price she'd been willing to pay for it. Still, seeing how it had been forced on her, at least she hadn't come out of it empty-handed.

"The third floor, huh..." Zack drew a hand to his chin as he realized that he hadn't heard much about the third level of this building until now. He got the feeling that was because no one knew much of anything about it, which probably meant that that was exactly where they needed to look. If they ever found a way up there, anyway.

"That's annoying," he muttered when the girl explained how her attempt to sneak up there had failed. "I guess it's being heavily guarded." And what was this about a club? Zack had seen postings about different ones on the board, but he was content to stick with his friends and the people who he met and befriended here. He wasn't that eager to get involved in another hierarchical organization, even if it was one that was run by the patients.

In his opinion, trying out that ring was going to be more worthwhile than looking for files, but he was glad to see that he didn't really have to pull Yuffie's arm on that point. When she mentioned the basement, he perked up slightly and nodded. "I've been down there, actually," he told her. "I met someone who was interested in exploring it further, but he needed an extra man. I'm hoping he got himself a ring." Since seriously, that would be way easier than asking the ninja to hand over hers.

Day 51: Breakfast

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