Day 54: Breakfast

[arc_wrench]

For once, HK was working very hard to hide a giddy facial expression as he met his nurse at the door. He'd already hidden his scalpels in his clothing. The wonderful, sharp implements of doom would be needed today. “Statement: Despite my reticence towards all processed meat and plant products, I am experiencing intolerable levels of hunger,” he

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[razing_phoenix]

Having the night end as Claude was trying to hold back his tears wasn't really the way he'd hoped for things to go, and so Guy woke up feeling oddly somber and quiet. All in all, their conversation had been a good one; they'd sorted through a lot of the secrets kept between them, and he was fairly certain that they would be able to get back to how things had always been between them. Still, learning about what had happened to his friend's father was enough to put him in a strange mood.

It wasn't something that he could linger on all day or anything along those lines, though, and so the swordsman eventually pulled himself out of bed and stared at the floor of his room. Okita was already gone, which made him wonder if he'd overslept, but it wasn't long before a nurse came in, seeming somewhat distracted as she told him to get ready for breakfast.

Guy remember that something was supposed to happen today, and he couldn't help but notice the strange uniformed men who were posted in different spots in the hallways as they made the trip from his room to the cafeteria. But when he asked his nurse if she knew what was going on, she only shook her head.

Well, he should have learned to abandon that sort of method a long time ago.

Stopping by the bulletin was more or less habit at this point, and so Guy convinced his nurse to allow him to do so, even if she urged him to be fast. It didn't take him long to read the few messages there and then leave a note for Anise.

More than that, he spotted the girl almost right after he stepped into the cafeteria, sending her a quick wave before going to get himself one of those breakfast sandwiches. Seeing how there wasn't anyone else in the room yet who he needed to talk to, it was an easy decision for him to go sit with his friend.

"Hey, it's been a while," he greeted as he took a seat, even though it was really only a matter of days. That felt like a while in this place, where people could disappear in a split second. "How've you been?" Even if he wasn't feeling that well emotionally, it was still fairly simple for him to act as if he was doing fine.

[gald_digger]

Immediately, a smile came to Anise's face. After losing so many friends lately, and not getting to see Natalia last night, it was a huge relief to see even one familiar face. "Ooh, you missed me that badly after just two days?" she half-joked at him with a cutesy giggle. Two days wasn't that long a while, but the truth was that she kinda missed Guy herself. Time seemed to stretch forever at the institute sometimes.

"I'm doing okay! The night before last was pretty crazy, but I got lots of rest last night," she told Guy. There was a short pause, and then she added, "... Um, but I guess it was more rest than I really wanted. I fell asleep early last night and just woke up this morning. I was supposed to meet Natalia, too..." She cast a brief, worried look over at the Cafeteria doors, seemingly hoping to catch a glimpse of the princess entering.

"Oh, but the good news is that my shoulder is a lot better now!" She gave her right shoulder a few rotations, both to show Guy and to check for herself that it was okay. There was a little bit of soreness, but nothing too serious. It was probably safe to climb or fight or do any of those other things that would have aggravated the wound before.

[razing_phoenix]

Luckily, Guy knew Anise well enough to realize that her first comment was only a joke. She often made remarks about how she wouldn't mind being wed to someone as polite and high-class as him, even though Guy didn't know if his status as nobility even counted at this point. Still, she was much better off going after Luke, and so Guy usually directed her toward his friend. Unfortunately, Luke wasn't here anymore, but he didn't need to dwell on that when they were just joking around. Instead, he just sent her a charming smile. "Of course, Anise."

It sounded like both of them had taken it easy last night, Anise more so than him. So she had slept all night, had she? While that did make him a bit nervous, the fact that she was up bright and early today made him feel better about it. What had happened to Natalia, though? Guy couldn't help scanning the area along with Anise, searching for the girl -- but there was no sign of her.

Somehow, he wasn't as surprised as he should have been.

"So you're feeling better overall, then? Maybe the rest was a good idea, in that case." So long as it didn't become a pattern, anyway. Guy was glad that he'd decided to speak with the girl, since now he'd know to keep an eye on her. "I should be up for heading out tonight too, if you wanted to work together." Claude could come along too, maybe -- or it might be best to let him head off with Ilia. Speaking of which, he needed to bring that up to Anise... without telling her who the woman really was. That would have to be left up to Claude.

[gald_digger]

Guy's question received a small nod from Anise. Though she was pretty worried over sleeping through the night like that, between her injury and all the stress that had been piling up lately, it was possible that she just needed some rest. "Yeah," she agreed, trying to look on the bright side for now. "It probably did me some good."

When Guy suggested traveling together, Anise's eyes lit up. "Ooh! You want to? I'd really like that!" It felt like forever since the last time they spent a night together. And that time, their plans had really been messed up. This time would be different, though!

"Got anything in mind? I still kinda want to check out the area north of the building." There was that quarry Edgar had mentioned to her, and maybe some other interesting things up there. Of course, if Guy had any other ideas, she was open to hearing them. Anise was just curious about the stuff she hadn't seen yet.

[razing_phoenix]

It was good to see that Anise was just as eager to spend a night with him as he was with her, and Guy couldn't help smiling despite the somewhat morose mood he'd woken up in that morning. "Yeah, it's been too long." Part of him felt guilty about it, even if he'd never actively avoided the girl. They'd just ended up going different ways for one reason or another, and there was nothing necessarily wrong with that. Still, now that both of them had other issues or physical ailments out of the way, it seemed the time was finally right.

Though the moment that Anise suggested headed over the wall and straight north, Guy felt himself frown for a second or two before smoothing his expression. It wasn't that he had anything against the idea -- that was where he'd been wanting to travel himself, after all. It was more the memories that that area brought back. That was where he and Claude had run into their shadows, not to mention where they'd been ambushed and lost Asch.

Still, he had to put that behind him. He and Claude had worked things out, and there wasn't anything he could do about Asch being gone, so...

"That's where I've wanted to look around too," he said after a pause. "So it looks like we're in the same boat there. I might invite Claude along too, if you don't mind, but he might have other plans." Guy didn't want to assume anything, but he and Claude working together at night was practically a routine at this point.

[gald_digger]

The pause and the frown Anise's suggestion received caused her to tilt her head ever so slightly to the side, curious about the reaction. Was it a bad idea?

But in the end, he seemed to agree with her, so maybe it was fine. Guy probably would have said something if he had any serious objections, so Anise decided to just take his words at face value. "Okay! I'd be happy to have Claude there, of course!" Guy probably knew by now that Anise thought of Claude as a good friend. She didn't trust people easily, but he'd definitely proven himself in her eyes. And he was fun to talk to, and rich to boot! Really, there wasn't anything she could object over.

"You're still in the M-B block, right? Maybe we can meet in the hall just outside of there. It's close to the exit." Anise figured it would be convenient for Claude too, if he came along. And meeting outside in the field was risky, so someplace indoors was best.

[razing_phoenix]

It sounded like everything was falling into place, then. "I'll make sure to ask him today, but I think we'll do fine even if it's just the two of us." It was true that he was used to groups of four when it came to traveling in monster-populated areas, but he and Anise were accustomed to this place enough that he thought they'd be fine on their own. Plus, he had that sword and he needed to have a proper reason to use it.

"That meeting place should work, too. Claude's room is in the same block as mine, so it'll make it convenient for all of us." Anise would have a bit further to travel, obviously, but at least it wouldn't cause her to go out of her way. And she could probably make the trip pretty quickly by this point.

In fact, it seemed like everything was going almost too well. Guy knew there were still a lot of problems floating around between them, such as the fact that a lot of their friends were gone, but at least this seemed to be working out.

However, it seemed like he'd doomed them the moment he'd thought that, since in the next second a random patient stood up and started yelling and throwing things -- no, throwing food, both at the nurses and any nearby patients. Guy's eyes widened as he watched, glancing back to Anise. What the hell had just happened?

"Oh no," he mumbled, setting his forehead into his hand for a moment. "Why would they do this when there are soldiers posted everywhere?" He knew it had been only a matter of time before another patient outburst, but could the timing have been any worse?

Then again, maybe that was the point.

[gald_digger]

While taking a bite of her muffin sandwich, Anise nodded at each of Guy's comments. A lot of unpredictable things could happen at night, but she and Guy were pretty experienced as far as that stuff went. Even if something went wrong, they could handle it! And they could do it even better if Claude came along, too.

Maybe Anise didn't have a lot of reasons to feel as optimistic as she did, but she figured her bad luck streak had to come to an end sometime.

Unfortunately, it looked like that 'sometime' was going to have to come later, because the next thing she heard was the voice of a patient shouting loudly... and then throwing food all over the place. It didn't take long for other patients to return fire, and soon it looked like the whole cafeteria was going to erupt into chaos.

Anise met Guy's eyes with an uneasy look of her own. She remembered what happened the last time someone started a riot in the cafeteria. It had been a long time since then, though... Most of the people jumping in probably didn't realize what the staff were capable of. But they had to know it was a bad idea to do this with soldiers everywhere!

"Yeah... this could get really ugly," she agreed, taking a cautious look at the surrounding staff. "Maybe we should move... I don't want them to think we're involved or anything." Anise really didn't want to get sedated, especially when she didn't do anything to deserve it.

[razing_phoenix]

While Anise had a point about getting out of here before they got caught in the crossfire, Guy also wondered if they might get in trouble for trying to sneak away. Then again, surely the staff would understand if they explained that they had just been trying to stay out of trouble? Who knew, though -- the nurses here had some strange logic that they followed, and the soldiers might too.

More than that, Guy wondered if it was really okay for them to just back out when people were probably going to get sedated. It was each person's own fault for relying on such a juvenile method for getting their point across, but they'd only resorted to it because they had no other choice; their words were never heard.

He glanced from the general chaos back to Anise and sighed, knowing that he didn't want to put her in any sort of danger. While the girl could handle herself just fine, if she wanted to leave, Guy knew he wasn't in a position to argue. He'd just feel guilty if they ended up in some sort of trouble because he didn't want to budge.

"Yeah," he said at length, glancing around. It was going to be hard to try and make their way all the way across the room, but they'd just have to hurry and keep their heads low. "You think we should head for the Sun Room or the courtyard?" The kitchen was also an option, but that seemed the least likely, since they weren't really supposed to be allowed in there.

[gald_digger]

"The Sun Room's probably better. They might think we're trying to make a run for it if we go outside," Anise suggested, though she didn't really know what the staff thought about anything. Still, the Sun Room probably had lots of staff, so going that way, they'd stay in sight and out of the riot. The nurses couldn't argue with that, could they? Hopefully the soldiers wouldn't...

"Anyway, even if they don't let us out of the cafeteria, we could at least stand somewhere out of the way." The cafeteria was a pretty big room, after all. As it was, they were sitting right in the middle of it, but there were probably some corners untouched by flying food or rioters.

Since Guy seemed to agree with moving, Anise cautiously rose from her seat, and while keeping her head low and her hands pressed against her pigtails so they wouldn't become targets, she made her way around the table and started towards the south exit.

Moving into Sun Room.

[razing_phoenix]

Everything that Anise said made good sense, and so Guy nodded, pushing his chair in as he tried to find a clear way through all of the food that was getting lobbed overhead. Anise also seemed worried that she was going to get pelted with some gunk, if the way she was protecting her hair was any indication.

He followed close after her, figuring that he'd be a bigger target considering his height. That turned out to be true when he got splashed in the shoulder with some milk, but... at least it made sure that Anise wasn't hit by any of it. She'd owe him for that, so maybe she wouldn't jump on him for a while. He could hope, anyway.

It took a while, but they eventually made it to the doors into the Sun Room. Half of Guy's shirt was now soaked in milk, but it could have been worse. The way was clear (most of the staff was too busy), but the second he walked through the doors he was face-to-face with an orderly.

"Ahh, umm." Guy paused awkwardly, looking a bit sheepish. "Sorry, we just wanted to get out of the way..."

[gald_digger]

Anise cringed when she heard a liquid sloshing nearby, and then gave a sympathetic look to Guy when she realized where it had landed. It looked like his body might have shielded her from it... Always the gentleman, wasn't he? Anise sure appreciated it.

Just when it looked like they were finally out of the danger zone (Anise considered the threat of flying milk and sausages to be pretty severe, especially to her poor pigtails) they found their path blocked by an orderly. The good news was that it wasn't one of those soldiers; not only did Anise have no idea how to deal with them, but she'd caught sight of a few of them trying to clobber patients into submission. The regular staff, she could maybe handle.

Right, this was a job for cute little Anise!

The girl clasped her hands against her chest and bit the inside of her cheek hard - just enough to get her eyes to well up a little. "People started shouting and throwing things, and now it's a big scary mess in there! Could we just stay out here until it's safe again? Pretty please?" she begged in a pathetic voice while looking up at the orderly with tear-filled eyes.

There was no way he could say no to that, right?

[razing_phoenix]

While the milk was definitely annoying and maybe a little gross, Guy figured it wasn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. Seeing how some of the other patients were getting into serious trouble, this didn't really match up. Then again, those patients had done something that had provoked a response, while Guy had just been trying to get out of the way.

Either way, it was something he could ignore for the time being, especially seeing how Anise had decided she was going to throw on her sugary-sweet act for the sake of getting them out of this war zone. Guy could only watch as she pleaded with the orderly, wondering just how she could pull that off with a straight face.

Then again, he'd done his fair share of acting like someone he wasn't in the past, so maybe he couldn't be too shocked.

Either way, it worked like a charm. Guy just offered a smile on his end, and the orderly looked from Anise to him and back again, thinking it over before nodding. "Sure, go ahead," he said eventually, waving them on. "Just find someplace to sit and be quiet."

That sounded easy enough. Guy would have grabbed for Anise's hand and led her to one of the couches for the full effect, but it wasn't really in his ability to do that, and so he simply walked past her, nodding to her so that she would follow. He didn't really need to, but it would help add to the helpless little girl image that she was trying to project.

He made it to a couch eventually, choosing one side while he hoped that Anise would take the other. His wet shirt was getting more and more uncomfortable, but there wasn't much he could do about that. Guy just sighed. "Hopefully they'll let us change after this is all over," he remarked.

[gald_digger]

When Guy motioned for Anise to follow, the girl gave a prompt nod and bounded after him. Once away from the orderly, she took on a wide grin, clearly pleased with her earlier performance. She sat down on the couch, keeping a little space between them, just to be nice.

Her mood soon sobered and her grin faded into something much smaller as she watched the doors, noting that a few other patients had gotten out, too. She looked over to Guy and nodded, sympathetic to the state of his shirt. "Yeah... it'd be pretty cruel not to." Not like 'not being cruel' was ever a big priority at Landel's, but still.

Anise's eyes wandered back to the cafeteria doors, but now something was different. Soldiers and staff were rushing out, but none of them were bringing patients out with them. Something about that didn't seem right. They were just leaving in the middle of a riot? They had to be up to something...

"H-hey... What are they doing?"

[razing_phoenix]

While Guy was tempted to make some sort of comment on how disturbing it was that Anise was able to toss on the cutesy act and then drop it just as quickly, he figured now wasn't the time. It was because of Anise that they'd made it through, so he owed her for that -- even if his shirt had gotten soaked in the process. He really wouldn't have minded so much if it'd been water.

Before he could say anything else, though, he was also distracted by the fact that the staff and the soldiers alike were rushing out of the cafeteria like they were about to blow the place up. Guy half-stood from his seat, worried that that might actually be the case. But they wouldn't go that far, would they?

Instead he just heard a hissing noise, and before he knew it, it was almost impossible to even see into the the mess hall. There was some sort of smoke or gas that they were flooding the room with, and...

Well, before long he could distinctly hear a lot of coughing and painful moans. Guy frowned and turned to Anise. "What did they just do?!" But if they got any closer, they'd probably be affected by that stuff too.

[gald_digger]

It looked like Guy shared Anise's uneasiness. She was glad she wasn't just being paranoid, but that very same fact was also distressing. They really were up to something...!

And then came the hissing noise, followed by the sounds of pained cries and harsh coughing. They were filling the room with some kind of gas! But what the heck was it? Sleeping gas? Poison gas? Her mind falling into a panic, Anise wondered if maybe they were planning to kill all the disruptive patients in one fell swoop. She brought her hands up to her face in horror, covering her mouth and staring at the scene before her. She couldn't even find the words to respond to Guy - she was too occupied with the disturbing sounds from within the room.

After what seemed like an eternity, the doors were opened once more, and after the room was given a few more minutes to air out, the soldiers went in. Soon, patients were dragged out, red-faced and coughing, some seemingly sedated, with soaking wet clothes and faces.

The knowledge that they at least hadn't been killed allowed Anise to start breathing normally again - she hadn't even realized she was holding her breath since the doors first reopened. She looked over to Guy, her expression still uneasy, though not as frightened as it had looked moments earlier. She wondered if he had any idea what that gas was, but she was pretty sure it wasn't anything they had on Auldrant.