Day 55: Cafeteria

[mustbethesuit]

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[scintillatingly]

Sora had still been sitting with Kairi in that empty room when the intercom had finally come on to announce the end of the night. Normally he was too busy fighting or running to actually hear a lot of the words that the Head Doctor spoke as morning came, but in this case he'd been able to hear it loud and clear.

Except, of course, that it wasn't the Head Doctor who was speaking this time. It was yet another unfamiliar voice. The accent didn't really stand out to Sora, since he'd traveled to enough places that he'd heard his fair share of them, but he could almost feel the disdain in the voice. It was scolding them, even going so far as to say that they were useless animals rather than flesh-and-blood people.

It was the sort of thing that filled Sora with a quiet anger, because they had already been toyed with and put through more than anyone should have to deal with. If this general (it had to be him, didn't it?) didn't consider that valuable, then he was full of it, plain and simple!

Before the boy could vent any of his anger to Kairi, however, his vision blacked out and then he was back in his own room, waking up to --

For once, silence.

The boy blinked, struggling out of the sheets as if he could find someone to be upset with. But still, he knew that any tantrums would only land him in trouble, and more than that, there was something else to distract him.

The first thing he noticed was the small weight around his neck. It wasn't as heavy as his normal crown necklace, but something was there. And as he lifted up a hand to grab what he realized were two small metal tags, he saw that all his clothing had changed.

Sora slowly stood up from his bed, staring at the new outfit. He wasn't sure if it was better or worse than what they'd had before, but he'd gotten so accustomed to the Landel's uniform that this more traditional one was startling.

The door opened soon after that, and while Sora had been expecting a nurse, what he really should have been ready for was the soldier who stepped inside.

"Good morning, Matthew."

Was it just him, or did the man sound friendly? It was one thing for the nurses to act nice, but Sora hadn't expected it from a uniformed man like this, especially not after what he'd seen of the soldiers yesterday. "Uhh... hello."

"If you could just get your boots and your beret on, I can take you to the cafeteria."

Sora glanced over at his bed and saw a hat at the foot of it along with a pair of boots on the floor nearby. It didn't seem like there would be much point in arguing, and so he put on the boots first and then gingerly placed the beret on his head. His hair made it kind of a hassle to wear hats at all, which was why he usually didn't bother, but eventually he got it to stay in place.

"All right, ready."

[scintillatingly]

"Come along, then." The walk itself was pretty much the same as how it went with the nurses, but Sora spent it taking in the smiley face on his armband and marveling at how the boots were actually kind of comfortable. The pants were a bit tighter than he was used to, but he'd just have to adapt to them.

When he started to fumble with his dog tags, the soldier who was walking alongside him (instead of ahead of him) spoke up. "See the part that says S Class? That means that you're the highest ranked of all the patients here, since you've been here so long."

"Really?" Sora responded automatically. Why was this man being so nice to him? He hadn't even had to ask a question to get an explanation. It was true that he'd been here longer than anyone else that he knew of, but it bothered him that they were assigning them ranks as if one person was better than anyone else. He understood that it was something earned, but it still rubbed him the wrong way.

"Yeah. So make the best of it and stay well-behaved, and you'll be treated well," the soldier responded.

Sora thought it was fair for people to get rewarded if they didn't make trouble, though he wondered if it was all talk, and as they walked through the Sun Room he realized there was a simple way to find out. "Hey, does that mean I can write on the bulletin real fast?"

The soldier glanced from him to the board in question and then nodded. "Yeah, just make it quick."

Sora nodded and rushed over, putting up a note for both Riku and Venom before returning to the officer's side. After that they moved into the cafeteria, which was when this facade of everything being better was quickly crushed. There was no smell of the usual breakfast food, and all of the patients were gathered into a group, where their extended punishment was explained.

Even though most of them hadn't participated, all of them apparently had to clean. Sora forced out a sigh and pulled a face. He hoped this was the last of it, since he was getting sick of being blamed for something he hadn't done. Still, he knew that even if he was the highest rank, he'd get in trouble if he complained, and so he went ahead and grabbed for a sponge and started to scrub the floor.

[For Sam.]

[allroadslead]

There had suddenly been an excess of things happening at once after what had started off as a pretty quiet night. Sam hadn't figured for a goddamn angel to blow into the room, and therefore throwing him the task of keeping Castiel and Ruby from destroying each other. Thinking on it later, Sam would conclude that trying to step between an angel and a demon, both of whom had their powers back, wasn't the smartest thing he'd ever done.

So yeah. It was probably good the night had cut out when it had. Jesus Christ. He was so distracted that there was a beat after he sat up before he realized that the simple clothes he'd been wearing since day one were gone. Replaced, as a matter of fact, by a dress code that was decidedly military issued, right down to the boots and dog tags. He frowned down at the tag and ran his thumb over the neat letters and numbers stamped into the stainless steel. Looked like they were keeping the assigned names. The smiley face, too, though he had a feeling that'd been kept ironically than anything. But it did indicate that this apparent change of hands didn't mean all pretenses were getting dropped. As much as the military facade seemed much more genuine-by virtue of lacking the creepy it's-for-your-own-good vibe-it was worth remembering that it didn't mean that it actually was. His serial number didn't mean much to him either. He hadn't figured it would've. Were they gonna be expected to remember it? Identify by it, even?

He had no clue, but he took a second out to file away the digits. No such thing as remembering too much information. He dropped the tags beneath his shirt and was half-reminded of the amulet he'd been wearing...not that long ago, really. It felt awhile, but it'd only been a little over two weeks.

Shaking it off, the significance of Peter not being there struck him right as one of the soldiers threw open his door. He'd gotten used to often waking up without his roommate with him that it'd taken a moment to understand it made no sense this time. He felt a flash of concern. Shouldn't they have dragged them both out of bed together? He could see the nurses letting each of them sleep as much as they needed, but the soldiers were a totally different matter. Had something happened? Was he over-thinking it?

He didn't get the chance to mull any further. The soldier pointed at the beret, said tersely, "Put that on," and growing up with Dad meant Sam had gotten extremely good at making snap judgments about when to pick his battles. He did as he was told and weighed the thought of asking questions. The soldier didn't seem hostile, but he wasn't all smiles, either. Sam opted out. He might be able to get away with a few questions, but not more. There was no point in saying anything until he sorted out what needed to be asked and what didn't.

Half of him was preoccupied with absorbing all that was happening at the moment; the other half was stuck on what the hell he was going to do with this whole angels and demons deal. He knew Ruby well. He recognized when something had her freaked, or at least on edge. Castiel had definitely been it.

[allroadslead]

Truth was, he should've known better than to be caught off guard. Of course the two of them were bound to bump into each other, and of course it would result in a spectacular blowout. He knew he couldn't stay in the middle, as much as he felt caught in it, and when it came down to it, he still trusted Ruby more than he did some angel he hadn't even known existed until three days ago. But he also wasn't exactly looking to incite any bad blood here if he could help it. There'd been a reason why he'd extended a tentative truce with Gabriel, why he hadn't done anything about Castiel until now, and why he'd been avoiding discussing it with Ruby as much as possible. He didn't need the mess, end of story. And not only him, but Dean, either. He was interested in getting Dean alive and out of here. That was it. For such as simple goal, this was getting really freaking complicated. Angels. He never thought he'd run into a supernatural entity that caused more trouble than demons, but at this point, he'd pick demons. At least he knew he could take them, what to do with them, where he stood with them. What was he supposed to do with an angel?

More to the point, what was Dean going to want to do with them, 'cause he foresaw that being an issue that was gonna come up, too.

Sam sighed and grabbed some of the cleaning supplies as soon as the woman left. The situation sort of sucked, but it didn't seem worth it to complain. With the amount that was on his mind, he had to admit, he wasn't going to turn down the opportunity to throw himself into some mindless task.

But talk about high security. Were they mercenaries? That almost seemed more likely than actual organized official military, given the lack of...everything. No rank, no insignias, nothing. It wasn't as if the doctors and nurses had struck him as proper doctors and nurses. Certainly not for a psychiatric institution. Or a military institution now.

Then maybe we can call you valuable. Dammit, what the hell did that mean? After being tossed into an impromptu Battle Royale at Cold Oak to find out he was well on his way to being demon general, Sam wasn't exactly sitting well with the idea of being trained up for a purpose.

He caught a quick glimpse of Dean across the room before he could practically feel some of the soldiers stare at him. Christ. Okay. He'd have to look for Ruby later. He hoped she wasn't getting into trouble. He didn't think so, but it was...Ruby. As well as he knew her, he wouldn't call her predictable.

Since going all the way across the room to join Dean seemed to push it-and he kind of wanted to hold off until he could sort stuff out, take a break from anything supernatural-he decided he'd look for some nearby company. His eyes landed on a familiar face. He didn't know the kid's name, but he'd been around long enough to start recognizing people he'd only seen in passing. He knew there was more to a lot of the patients (that word didn't work anymore, did it), but man, still. The kid looked like he should be in high school, not stuck with all of this crap.

Sam knelt down beside the boy. He'd started out with every intention of spending this shift on his feet (it wasn't anything; he was just, you now. Kind of the wrong size for getting on his hands and knees. He tended to end up with all the grace of a bear on stilts), but it occurred to him he'd get more privacy by ducking down. He'd take that trade-off.

He rolled up his sleeves and offered a smile, friendly without being pushy. "Mind some company?"

[scintillatingly]

Sora hadn't necessarily been a spoiled kid, but his parents also hadn't treated him like a servant rather than a child. He'd been given chores to do, but they had also allowed him to leave his room at least a little messy most of the time. And even when his mom had gotten upset and ordered him to clean the kitchen or something, he'd always been able to call friends over to split up the work.

He realized that was the case here, too. The cafeteria was a big room, but with so many people working together it probably wouldn't take much time at all! He just hoped everyone did their fair share...

When Sora bent down to really put some muscle into his scrubbing, he found that his beret kept almost falling off, forcing him to readjust each time to put it back in place. It was frustrating, especially since the hat was supposed to fit, but his hair was just impossible to deal with sometimes.

He was distracted by that minor annoyance when another patient came and took up a spot next to him. Good, some help! Sora stared up at the tall man and was a little relieved when he decided to get a bit closer to the ground. The guy looked familiar, which probably meant he'd been around for a while.

Sora had already decided that the classes didn't matter to him, but he was still curious. The stranger's dog tags were tucked away, so he had to ask. "No, not at all! Oh, and I was curious... What class are you? You've been here for a while, right? I've seen you around."

[allroadslead]

For his part, Sam's bangs kept falling into his eyes. The upside was that he was pretty used to it, having always had them too long since...ever. Part of this was because Dean had made it a habit early on of bitching about their length and how one day, it was gonna get his ass kicked six ways to Sunday.

This had...admittedly happened. Several times. But not because of his hair.

"Uh." Sam paused, fingers in the wet sponge, before starting up again. "B-class. I've been here just under three weeks."

He missed the car, he wasn't going to deny it. He'd never had the attachment Dean did to the Impala, but after Dean died, it'd...meant something more to him and even with his brother back again, it hadn't quite lost that. Had the one he'd driven in that pocket dimension been a replica? Probably. He hadn't found her where he'd last remembered leaving her, at least. He hoped so, 'cause otherwise it meant she was sitting in the middle of an empty parking lot somewhere. At least he hadn't crashed her or anything.

"I've seen you around, too. I'm Sam, by the way," he added. He would've offered his hand, but, you know. It'd be better if they didn't look like they were socializing too much, anyway. He didn't want to be responsible for getting someone else in trouble. "Do you know what they mean? Like, the ranking. The soldier this morning was sort of the...strong and silent type."

He figured the kid knew, or had some idea, if he was asking. Considering he'd coupled it with a comment on the length of time Sam had been here, Sam realized belatedly that the question had been unnecessary: the class system corresponded to how long they'd been here. Was that it?

It made sense. The ones who disappeared for good, that obviously wasn't accidental. They'd been knocked off for a reason, meaning the ones who stuck around had been deemed, God, what. Valuable?

That was one way to phrase it. The thought made him uneasy.

[scintillatingly]

B Class? Sora hadn't expected that. If he was S Class and that was the best one, then he'd figured the other ones would be T and U and things like that. Then again, this place had never made much sense to him; why would the soldiers taking over have changed that?

When the man offered his name, Sora pulled up onto his knees and sent him a smile. "I'm Sora! It's nice to meet you." If both of them had been spotting each other for a while now, then it was kind of funny that they hadn't started talking until now. But there were so many patients coming in and out that it made some sense. And Sora usually dedicated a chunk of his time to catching up with friends he'd already made, which meant that sometimes he missed out on meeting other potential friends.

The structured schedule also made it difficult, and he got the feeling that that would become even stricter now, if that was possible.

He knew that he shouldn't stop cleaning for too long, though, and so he quickly moved down to a part he hadn't wiped his sponge over yet and kept working. "The soldier who brought me here made it sound like it had to do with how long we've been here, yeah. I don't know why that matters, but..."

It meant that the guy had treated him decently, though, so it seemed that his persistence and consistent good behavior had gotten him somewhere. But he was still on his hands and knees scrubbing a cafeteria floor clean, so he wasn't that impressed.

[allroadslead]

Sam returned the smile. "Yeah, I guess it was time we did."

You know, given the circumstances, Sora seemed to be adapting pretty well. Not that this was too big a surprise from the other people he'd already met, but still. If they weren't both wrist-deep in soapy water, he'd have thought they were chatting across a table at a diner somewhere.

He wondered if Sora had parents or something. If it made a difference-Sam wasn't a hundred percent sure whether it was possible to be missed in the first place, but he was leaning towards the answer to that being a no. His own case wasn't much to go off of (hunters made it a point to disappear even before they, well. Actually disappeared), but there was Peter's brother. Senator, wasn't that what his roommate had said?

He nodded at the confirmation. "It's probably just one way of divvying up the hierarchy." He wouldn't be surprised if it got down to the higher ranks having some kind of authority over the lower ones. It'd be the easiest method of breaking any sort of solidarity. Though at this point, it was too early to tell how far this was all gonna go-but he figured assuming all the way was a pretty safe bet.

Curious, he glanced at Sora. "Did he say anything else?"

[scintillatingly]

Even though Sam was trying to make a guess at what the ranks were for, Sora didn't really get it. Divvy up for what? Why did there have to be a hierarchy in the first place? This military stuff just made no sense to him, and the only thing he could really relate it to was the Organization. They'd also assigned ranks through numbers that were based on when a member "joined," right? Which was why Roxas, the final one, had been number thirteen.

His hand was starting to feel sore from all of the monotonous scrubbing, and so Sora took a moment to wring the sponge out and then get some fresh water onto it. This seemed like way more work than fighting monsters to him, but he realized that probably wasn't the case for most people. His life hadn't exactly been ordinary for the past year or two.

At Sam's question, he took a moment to think back on the conversation he'd had with that soldier. It hadn't been that long ago, after all. "He said that if I continued to behave, I'd be treated well. I'm not sure what that means, but he did let me write on the bulletin board before coming in here."

He had no idea if either of his notes had been responded to yet, but he hoped that at least Venom got back to him. He wasn't going to keep his hopes up for Riku. Sighing, he started to clean again. At least the chore did a good job of distracting him from certain thoughts.

[allroadslead]

Sounded about right. Rank + privileges was pretty average. Sam did consider that maybe the soldier had gone easy on Sora because Sora was younger. He couldn't imagine all of them being completely heartless, but he wasn't naive enough to rule it out, either. Besides, he wasn't sure whether he was supposed to take these soldiers as actual people or if they were something else. The brainwashing thing was straight out of sci-fi, but it seemed real enough here, and it didn't have to just apply to the patients.

"Keeping your head down does sound like a good idea," he agreed. It'd probably be harder for some than others, though. Harder for most, even, because he'd figured out pretty quick that a good chunk of the people pulled into here weren't exactly the type to do as they were told. Hell, even he was finding his patience fraying, if he had to be honest.

He shifted along the floor. Man, this was some bad planning. Like, logistically speaking. People were gonna just keep stepping into each other's newly cleaned areas. He knew cleaning wasn't the point, but still. There should've been a system and the lack of one bugged him in that irrational way.

He started to say something else when he saw Sora's beret start to tilt again, the way it'd been doing this whole time.

"Oh, hey-" He reached up and pushed it back into place before it could fall right off. He hadn't missed the soldiers getting on people's cases about the state of their uniform. "Your hair really doesn't like being covered, huh?"

[scintillatingly]

"Keeping your head down" was what Sam called it. Sora just figured it was a matter of being nice and following orders. He wasn't a very confrontational person, not like Riku -- though he got the feeling that even his friend would have known better than to start arguing with these guys. They had no way to fight back and it would just get them on their bad side, which could have some serious consequences. All in all, his night with Kairi had been very calm, but that was because they'd chosen to take it easy.

Either way, he'd been behaving well enough so far, and while the general's attitude annoyed him, Sora was able to focus on other things and distract himself so that he didn't lose his temper too much. He wasn't that happy about having to clean the floor, but having someone to talk to made it ten times better. He always thrived around company.

But then his hat was starting to fall again, and both of his hands were wet with soapy, dirty water -- he flailed for a moment, not wanting it to fall again, but Sam came to the rescue.

He tilted his head back as Sam pushed the beret up to make sure that the hat was fitted more firmly onto his head. Even with that in mind, though, it probably wouldn't be long before it slipped off again. The boy sighed and nodded (though only barely -- any sudden movements with his head would probably send the beret toppling). "Yeah. Basically the only thing that makes it go kind of flat is if it gets wet..."

Normally he had no problem with his hair, but in this instance he was getting a little frustrated. Then again, he could always blame the hat instead. Why did they have to wear one?

[allroadslead]

Usually, Sam would've figured this for an exaggeration-you know, that whole, "my hair just won't stay in place" kind of thing-but he was pretty much witnessing the literalness of Sora's statement right now. It was kinda weird if he considered it too long and he realized he was only half-kidding when he wondered briefly if it was maybe...possessed or its own entity or something.

...Yeah, okay. This place was definitely driving him crazy. Oh God.

He scrubbed the floor a little harder, as if that would turn his thought processes back to normal.

"Maybe they'll let you bobby pin it on," he said wryly. It was only then that it suddenly clicked where he'd heard the name before. Or seen, actually. He didn't know why he hadn't made the connection immediately. Part of it might've been because he hadn't expected it to be someone so young, but in hindsight, he should've guessed from the tone of those notes that they'd been written by a teenager.

"Hey, uh. You're the one running the Arts & Crafts thing?"

[scintillatingly]

That was actually a good idea. Well, maybe. Sora had always thought that bobby pins were for girls. Kairi and Selphie had made them out of things they'd found on the beach, kind of like those thalassa shell necklaces. Would people make fun of him if he used those to keep his hat on? Maybe if he did it the right way, they wouldn't be visible at all.

He was probably thinking way too hard on this, though; it was causing his movements with the sponge to become more erratic. Eventually he stopped himself, glancing over to Sam with a smile. "Thanks for the suggestion! I'll ask them when the shift is over." The guy who had woken him up had seemed nice enough, so hopefully he was the one who'd take him to the next shift too, and then he'd have his chance.

Sora was pretty surprised when the club was brought up. He hadn't realized that even people who weren't members noticed that sort of thing, and it made his smile grow. "Yeah, that's me! Ahh, though I still have to put up the post for today," he realized, frowning to himself as the words came out of his mouth. He'd completely forgotten because of everything else that had been going on.

"But were you interested in joining? I can answer any questions if you are!" Sora knew that he needed to be better about recruiting, so he quickly jumped on the opportunity now that it had been brought up.

[allroadslead]

An almost involuntary smile tugged at Sam's lips. He had no idea where Sora was getting his enthusiasm from, but it was sorta refreshing. He didn't begrudge anyone from being in a completely crappy mood, of course, given the circumstances. It was just, you know. Nice to see people like Sora. And yeah, he knew it was probably a lot more complicated under the surface, but he could tell the kid was genuine.

At the question, he looked over. He hadn't expected Sora to leap on it like that. He pushed his sleeve back up, leaving damp spots in the material. Something told him that if Sora had had a clipboard on hand, he would've whipped it out and started collecting Sam's name and email address.

"I don't think I can, sorry. I've got...people." Who need me, he couldn't quite bring himself to finish. The kind of guilt that accompanied turning down a solicitation for a donation crept up in him. He knew he shouldn't be so caught up in his own problems, but there wasn't any way around it: he was. Still, from what he'd glimpsed on the board, it did look like Sora had a pretty solid group of helping hands. "Though if you ever need anything in particular, you should let me know."

It was more than an empty offer; if Sora did ask, he knew he'd help. It was what he was supposed to do, after all, and it continued to bother him that he wasn't doing it more. He knew it bothered Dean, too. The lack of any real hunting, that was. This place made it damn near impossible, but regardless-

He shook it off. Ruby. He'd agreed for a reason, hadn't he? Dean had been one. This was the other.

[scintillatingly]

While it was a bit disappointing to be turned down so quickly, Sora didn't judge Sam for it. The explanation he gave, short as it was, was more than enough for him to understand. People meant friends, those who relied on him and who he couldn't let down. It wasn't like he wanted people to leave important obligations for the sake of a club, after all. It was meant to be a support system, something for people to use if they needed guidance for what to do during the night.

"That's fine!" he quickly shot back, shaking his head and waving Sam off. It looked like his hat was behaving for now, which was good, and so he made sure to keep working at a new spot on the floor as he spoke.

The offer that Sam gave afterward sounded familiar. He'd heard it from Tsubaki and Scott, too. They'd said something to the effect of being too busy to commit every night, but that they might be able to help with specific things. Sora knew that it was more or less a polite refusal, and he didn't hold it against them, but he got the point.

"Don't worry about it," he continued. "But was there anything else you wanted to know about the club?" Sam had asked for a reason, right? Or had he just been curious? A lot of people tried to track Sora down because he'd been around so long (and now the label on his dog tags would make that clear), so maybe it had something to do with that.