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]

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.

[razing_phoenix]

For a while the two of them had just been sitting there in a stunned silence; they could have speculated about what was going on, but in such a case it had seemed better to just wait and see. Guy felt immense relief when the soldiers and nurses started heading back in and then dragging patients out, especially since it looked like most were being taken to the bathrooms on the west side of the room to be cleaned up.

Not that they should have been treated that way in the first place, though. Guy also was pretty clueless on what that gas had been, except that it had made people come out coughing and dripping from both their noses and their eyes. It didn't look very pleasant, but it was clearly meant to just disorient someone rather than harm them.

That didn't mean it sat well with him, but the fact was that it could have been worse. At least Landel's wasn't capable of mass murder, at least not to that extent. He didn't know what the nightly attacks would be classified as.

When Guy looked back to Anise, he could tell that the girl was clearly shaken -- but once again, he couldn't physically comfort her, not even with a hand on the shoulder. Instead, he only sighed and shook his head. "That was crazy. At least it looks like everyone's okay, though..." Even if some of the patients looked like they were so heavily sedated that they were practically unconscious...

However, before he could say anything further a nurse stepped up to the two of them; even she looked stressed. "Now that that's over with, we're going to need to separate you two for the next shift. Dana, you'll be going to the recreational field. Dolores, someone else will be here shortly to take you to the greenhouse if you wish."

Nodding, Guy stood up and glanced back to his friend, offering a tired smile. "I'll see you... later." With a nurse around, he had to watch what he said about the night shift.

[gald_digger]

In the end, all Anise could really do was nod at Guy's words. She could still feel her heart pounding in her chest, but like he said, everyone was okay... so she just needed a little time to calm down, and everything would be fine.

Okay, maybe not everything, but it wasn't the end of the world! The good news was that Anise had an appointment with her doctor coming up, so she could try to get some information out of him. And then she was meeting Guy at night, so she could share anything she learned then. Maybe she wouldn't get anything out of Daedalus, but... hey, she was trying to think positive.

When it looked like it was time for Guy to leave, Anise met his smile with a somewhat weary one of her own, and replied, "Okay, see you then!" It sucked that they were going to be separated for most of the day, but she could still look forward to their meeting that night.