Day 53: Sun Room, Morning

[scarefaux]

With breakfast finished and a new acquaintance made, the Scarecrow's mind turned to his other friends. The disappearance of Depth Charge's friend had brought back memories of how he'd felt when Kaiji went missing: helpless, useless, as though he should have and could have done something more to find him. If only he had his brain, then maybe he

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[rischiarare]

Since the subject was weapons, his thoughts flashed to the gun he had hidden under his mattress back in his room, snatched from the Sheriff's Office out from under zombified hands. He'd made a kind of unacknowledged promise with Sora about it, though - it definitely needed to go to someone who was trustworthy. She seemed like a really nice girl, but he obviously couldn't be sure yet. Maybe if she helped out a little, he could offer it. Roxas obviously couldn't use it; actually, he really had no idea how to outside of pulling the trigger, which was the gist he'd gleaned from Xigbar's weaponry. The big difference was that Xigbar's guns looked nothing like the ones Sora and he had snatched.

The Nobody's smile lessened measurably at the line he'd been hoping not to hear, the whole kid spiel. "I'm used to it," he said with a shrug that matched her nonchalance, not trying to sound a little smug about it but doing so anyway. "Fighting monsters, I mean. And I know how to, so I'm not afraid."

Slash and stabbing... that was his style, but she obviously wouldn't be able to use the Keyblade. Actually, he wasn't really sure himself where he could find knives or anything like that. Maybe he could find Sora later and ask?

"Oh, sorry!" he said quickly when she asked for his name. He should have already offered it. "I'm Roxas. I don't know much about where to find weapons. The best I have is a pipe, but I know someone who can probably recommend something better."

[thatdemonbitch]

"Hey, I'm not judging. If you're good, you're good, age be damned. Just surprising, that's all." The response was quick -- the last thing she wanted was to offend the kid. So far, he'd been looking to be pretty damn put together, and as much as it was a slight twist in her gut as far as knocking around her ego went to put faith in somebody who looked like he hadn't been around much more than decade, she knew that if a hunter were that age, they'd be plenty capable and it was just a matter of accepting the fact that they could be handy when they learned how. He was too useful for her to offend that quickly.

"Impressive, but surprising," she added after a beat to make sure he knew she was serious about not putting much stock in his apparent age.

A pipe wasn't exactly glamorous, but it'd do in a pinch. She didn't make a habit of abusing the super strength -- not only did any display of demon signs spook Sam, but it was all dick measuring. There were better ways to get out of a tight situation -- like roping herself an antichrist who'd pull her out of them so she didn't have to.

For now, though, she was less worried about what would spook him and more worried about what would put the monsters down in a pinch. Playing baseball with a pipe and a spirit would get her through until she found a better alternative or got that knife back from Sam.

"Ruby," she returned when he introduced himself. It was weird to know that Dean had popped back to life and Sam was hiding her from him to a certain degree, but acknowledge that she didn't need to swap her name out for something more human-y to accommodate that. Dean wouldn't think twice hearing the name Ruby when he didn't know the demon that was attached to it.

Talk about a relief.

"So, where's the clubhouse? Gotta have some kind of meeting point for when the lights go out, right? I'll show up, we'll play boy scout and you can show me if the lead pipe's in the conservatory." On second thought, considering the stink faces he'd been making at the references, maybe throwing one out about Clue would be in bad taste. He might just start wondering if there was really a conservatory in the institute and, if so, how the hell she knew about it.

[rischiarare]

Ruby's reassurances worked completely: Roxas immediately perked back up, nodding as if that was completely all right with him. As long as he wasn't treated like some kind of... well, some kind of kid, he wasn't offended. Besides, he knew how he looked. He wasn't really the most intimidating figure around.

As for meeting places... well, it was a good thing she explained herself a little bit after that one quip or else he'd be lost again. "You know that big hallway, the one right outside all of the patients blocks? It's right beside those nurse stations." Which he was still kind of annoyed were locked every night - he'd tried them with a passing hand on the knob every night he walked by to no avail. There had to be something important in there, right? Why else would they go to all the trouble? "I can meet you out there." The Nobody figured that was the best course of action. If she was new, she probably wouldn't know her way around the boy block or anything.

"It's not in the conservatory, though -" whatever that was - "it's in the bathroom. You could actually get one on the way out of your block if you can kick it off the sink hard enough. It's not much, but it's better than nothing until we can find something better."

[thatdemonbitch]

If she could kick the sink hard enough. Hah. Power limitations or not, she didn't exactly foresee herself having problems with one dinky little bathroom sink. She kept the laugh to herself, though, and instead offered a warmer kind of smile to the kid. For a minute there, she almost felt bad for him; he was useful -- smart -- the kind that had better things to do than get locked in some crappy hellhole. But it was a little late to start feeling empathy for the victims, so it faded as fast as it came. After all the shit she'd done in the past six hundred years, she wasn't sure she even had the right to feel sorry for them anymore.

"Nurse's stations. The ones I passed on the way out here?" She nodded her understanding. "I'll try and grab something handy on my way, meet you outside of 'em." Maybe playing Dora the Explorer with short, blonde and spiky would help her get the lay of the land, figure out how tough it'd be to get to Sam without getting jumped.

"So, what's the deal, I bust open my door with a karate chop or do they just let us wander around?" Sam hadn't exactly covered it, but given the monster sightings, it was pretty easy to assume. Still, it was better to double check. She didn't wanna assume they were gonna get some kind of free reign in a crappy rendition of The Most Dangerous Game only to find it was a war in and of itself to get outta the room.

Right. Her room. Her thoughts flickered back to the empty bed that had been beside hers. She wondered if, come nightfall, that wouldn't be the case. Not that she was looking forward to bunking with some stinkin' human, but it'd be one more bitch to pump for information. At this point, she'd take all of it she could get however she could get it.

[rischiarare]

"Those're the ones," Roxas nodded. Good, so she had at least a basic lay of the land, at least around where her room was. "They're locked, though, so don't bother trying to get in." That was a project for another day. Besides, there had to be a key for the door lying around somewhere, right? There seemed to be a lot of stuff that just "accidentally" got left behind (if the radio clues were right a mental voice told him. He still couldn't be one-hundred percent sure.)

Huh. He would have expected Ruby to at least know the utter basics if she'd been out a night, but maybe she had woken up when the door was already open... or maybe she had woken up somewhere that wasn't a patient cell. He hadn't thought of that before, It seemed suddenly strange to him that they should all wake up in generally the same area. "Nothing like that, no," the Nobody answered earnestly. "The door should be open whenever the lights shut off. They all kind of happen at the same time; it's when the Head Doctor makes his final message but he's kind of... weird. He's always really weird at night."

Roxas was ready to leave it there for the moment, but he wanted to be on the safe side just in case. "You should be okay getting to the nurse offices. There's monsters around, but I've never seen one get too close to the patient rooms. If you see one, though, you should probably run." No shame about that, in Roxas's eyes. Besides, even if she said she was used to hacking and slashing, he couldn't exactly know for sure until he'd seen it. And he didn't want anyone getting hurt just because they weren't prepared. "It's probably too dangerous to be alone."

[thatdemonbitch]

Locked? A part of her wanted to give it a swing on her way by, just to see if some good old fashioned telekinesis would make them rethink the lock. But exerting herself prior to her little meet-up with the Justice League didn't sound like the greatest plan, so she'd have to leave that for her hunt for Sam's room at a later date. Priorities and all that.

"Sure thing," she nodded compliantly, appearing for all intents and purposes, pretty easy to get to agree and be a team player. Appearing to trust Roxas' judgment. For the most part, truth be told, she was putting some faith in him. The kid seemed genuine enough and he seemed to know what he was talking about, even if he was lacking in the reciprocation of trusting her abilities.

She just chuckled at the remark about running and filed away that info on Landel. Weird at night wasn't exactly low in terms of possibilities, but it was something. She could start a chart and work on figuring out what the hell the big boss around these parts was that he could turn his institute into a bad joke waiting to happen with angels and demons sharing breakfast time.

He'd also given her a heads up about safe zones from the monsters -- not a bad thing to consider, and definitely something she'd be keeping in mind on the nights she wanted to avoid tussling with them. Turns out she'd hit the jackpot on useful information with this one.

"I'll try and stay in one piece until I find you." It was the closest she was getting to a reassurance, but the half smile that was hidden there made it clear she wasn't entirely worried about what she ran the risk of getting jumped by in the darkness. She was the thing that went bump in the night, and while Sam had been able to share stories that spooked her about spirits around here possessing demons, she hadn't gone through it. It didn't sink quite as well as second-hand info and she was feeling damn prepared.

[rischiarare]

It was the best they could do, and Roxas figured if she wasn't capable enough to get to that hallway, she would've spoken up about it. Maybe everyone here was a fighter, some kind of fighter. Every patient he'd happened to meet seemed like one.

The intercom jingle echoed through the sun room, making the Nobody instinctively look up before looking back to Ruby. It was already lunch time, and for some reason the word "pizza" was making Roxas's mouth water. Giving a small thumbs-up and a grin, he said, "Sounds good. I'll see you there, okay?" If he didn't have a chance to find Sora before dinner rolled around, he'd have to just write another note to catch his attention. As leader of the club, Sora probably watched the board like a hawk anyway. He had a feeling he'd know somewhere to get a knife, and then they'd have one more relatively safe patient taking on the institute. It was a small gesture, but it was a good start to something bigger.