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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Carter woke up late, and for once his first thought was of something besides the eternally wonderful thing they happened to be having for breakfast that morning. Poor ZEX! Hopefully the nurses had found him and were tending to his sudden problems with English, it would really be nasty if ZEX spent the entire day not being able to communicate with anyone.

He hopped out of bed and wandered down to the cafeteria, raised on his tiptoes every so often to look for his one-eyed alien friend. Carter really had been worried about him, especially the way ZEX kept clinging to him and trying to bury his face in his neck like a scared and totally platonic child/animal seeking comfort. Next time Carter would make sure to explain that French people kissed on the cheek, not on the throat. On the throat was like kissing a girl and of course ZEX did not think he was a girl. That would be silly.

Kibitoshin hadn't seen anyone from his List so far (ah, he'd forgetten Remy and the Scarecrow from it, too! He'd have to fix that later today), but it wasn't long before someone else he recognised from a couple of his other conversations came along- the man from the bookstore!

"Hey!" he called, waving at the man from where he sat and smiling hopefully. Okay, so he wasn't entirely sure he remembered his name, or if he'd even been given it, but he was almost positive he knew that face. Almost. There was always a chance he'd misremembered him completely or gotten him confused with someone else, in which case he would be beckoning over a total stranger, but he could hardly ignore him, could he? That would just be rude. Anyway, he looked like he needed a seat. "Over here!"

Hm, what? Oh, another alien guy! He might know how ZEX was doing. Carter grinned widely and came over to sit by Kibitoshin, his plate (as usual) stacked high with food and sugary substances and glasses of milk so full they threatened to spill over.

"Hi! Um, good morning!" Why did everything smell so good, it distracted him so. Carter leaned one elbow on the table and tried to put on his concerned face. On him it looked more like wibbly melancholy. "Have you seen Admiral ZEX? I was with him last night and he stopped being able to talk English and got all scared. I got worried he'd been hurt or something, and I can't see him now."

And almost straight away, the as-yet unnamed man was asking him about an Admiral of some sort! As if Kibitoshin didn't have enough names to worry about! Not that he recognised this one at all, or at least not the way the man had said it.

"Sechs? Or Zex?" he repeated uncertainly, enunciating carefully and tilting his head as though shifting his brains ever so slightly to the left would rattle them into action. Well, he could always hope. "I know a Sechs, but..." At least the language mix-up he could relate to. He wrinkled his nose in sympathy. "Ah, that happened to me last night as well! The person I was with turned out to be okay, but... maybe they're just late to breakfast?"

"ZEX," Carter said, enunciating right back. "Like with a Z on it." The other one sounded like German for six, which was a funny sort of name to have. Probably a Kraut.

He took a bite of French toast and chewed thoughtfully. "Are you sure you weren't the one who got confused? I mean, you're an alien too." Logic, he had it. They probably both spoke alien languages in that warbly wibbly confusing sort of way that ZEX had last night.

Zex. Of course. In hindsight, it was probably fairly obvious that it wouldn't have been Sechs, given that he'd been with him for all of last night. Unless, of course, there were two Sechses, which really would have been just plain unfortunate.

Kibitoshin waited for illumination regarding just who Zex was to strike him out of the blue for a moment before answering; when (predictably) none came, he gave an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry. I don't really know who he is, even if he is another... ah, no, I'm pretty sure I didn't get confused!" At least, he thought he hadn't. Or had he? Ah, now he was confused about being confused! "I thought we were both speaking Japanese, and then suddenly the person I was with started speaking something else entirely. I thought that was the radio, but..."

"Japanese?" Carter tilted his head, lips pursed, fork squishing down his breakfast. "Why would you be speaking Japanese? You're an alien. Shouldn't you speak...I dunno, space Japanese or something?" Or be programmed to English instead of Japanese with his special translating alien brain, since English was what everyone was using.

Once more he bemoaned the lack of guides to time travelers coming out of the past. The rules for alien behavior alone were so complicated, especially to someone who had enough trouble understanding human behavior.

Ahh, he'd known this would be complicated! Somehow, somewhere in the back of his mind, he'd known. Kibitoshin screwed up his face, trying to find a way to explain himself without sounding completely insane- after all, most of the complicated version was based on the fact that he was essentially the guardian of the universe, and people didn't tend to take to that too well.

"I'm... I mean, I speak all kinds of languages, but I guess I spend so much time on Earth that it stuck." Good thing, too. Japanese was one of the few he knew properly; Namekian? Forget it. Arlian or Kanassan? He didn't even have the right vocal chords for those! It was pretty lucky so much had happened on Earth, or he'd have been completely helpless. Although... "Maybe if you tell me what they said I could try and translate it?"

Day 51: Breakfast

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