Day 59: Cafeteria (noon)

[immortale]

By the time lunch rolled around, things still weren't getting any better. The voices hadn't gone away; instead, Firo was pretty sure they were getting more frequent. Ennis had been silent since last night, but Czes's voice had been an insistent buzz in his ear all morning

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[scientist_skye]

It hadn't been a great morning for Ema. Her good mood from meeting Zero and seeing Mr. Dent last night had quickly evaporated when she found out about Chief Gant's death via the bulletin board. Truth be told, she had mixed feelings about it. She felt vindicated, uncomfortable, frustrated, scared, and sad all at once. Yes, he was a terrible person who had murdered (twice!) with little remorse, but dying here wasn't a fate she wished on anyone. Plus, she'd never gotten a chance to confront him about his crimes. More than anything, the news left her feeling oddly cold and empty. It wasn't really justice, which was what he really deserved.

Lana's insistence on excluding her from looking further into the death only made Ema feel worse about it all. It was almost like the reconciliation hadn't happened, the way the older Skye was acting. Therefore, she had mostly kept to herself through breakfast and the library shift, curling up by herself and trying not to dwell on things.

The cafeteria was filling up, however, so sitting alone for lunch didn't seem like much of an option. Steeling herself for social interaction, she approached a table that was occupied by a boy about her age, giving its sole occupant a small smile. He seemed upset about something, so maybe company would help him--and herself--feel better.

"Do you mind if I sit here?"

[ofthemotions]

He was still looking down when the girl approached. And responded on automatic. "No, you can sit down..." He looked up at the last syllable. And remembered things like manners. Especially with girls. The boy jumped to his feet awkwardly, nearly knocking over his chair in the process. He bowed. "Ah, I'm sorry. Good morning." That said at least, he recaptured the tilting chair and sat again.

The girl seemed around Mikado's age, which seemed more rare than not in this place. She didn't have an outlandish hair color or unique features and seemed legitimately, one hundred percent normal. He didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

Still, the boy tried a brief smile. "I'm Ryuugamine Mikado. Pleased to meet you."

[scientist_skye]

Ema figured she would get a response like 'yeah, sure,' not a formal greeting complete with standing and bowing. This boy, however he was, was obviously used to being super, super polite (even when compared to Ema, for whom politeness was mostly automatic due to Lana's upbringing). Awkwardly, she gave a small curtsy in response before sitting down. That was the right response to being bowed to, wasn't it?

"I'm Ema Skye. Nice to meet you, too."

The pink paste that passed for food since General Aguilar's arrival seemed as unappetizing as ever, but it was nutrition. Trying not to think too much about taste, she took a bite and swallowed.

"You realize it's afternoon, though, don't you? Did you miss the morning?"

[ofthemotions]

A curtsy. Combined with the facial features, she was definitely Western. (And he half wondered what language she spoke--the whole 'no language barrier' thing took away some of the fun of this--not that he was saying it was supposed to be fun, just that... Oh, never mind.) Though her name reminded him of others he had met or heard of. Japan. Snow. Hope. Lily. Now Skye. Were people just named for concepts in the west? Hmm.

Afternoon. Right. "Ah, I sort of... overslept this morning," Mikado started, looking to the side self-consciously. "I-- What are you..." The girl's spoon was leaving her mouth, the best evidence of food consumed. Horror bloomed on his face, eyes widening and mouth hanging open in shock. The rot was clear on her food as well, a portion of it churning with something he didn't want to think about.

He stood up again, reaching for her tray and pulling it to the side. "Don't eat that!" he exclaimed. How did she not even notice?! "You'll get really sick!"

[scientist_skye]

A frown of concern formed on Ema's features. Oversleeping was certainly a thing that was going around, wasn't it? First Agatha (to the point where she all but vanished), then Lana, then herself. Giving the boy the most serious look she could muster, she replied, "I've overslept before. Actually, I just woke up last night from sleeping through an entire day. It makes me nervous; I've been told that sleeping outside of the given schedule is a sign that someone might be released. I saw it happen to my roommate. So please, be careful."

Of course, any real conversation on the nature of sleep and release and brainwashing was quickly abandoned by a sudden spastic attack by her lunchmate. He seemed horrified that she was even eating, going so far as to pull her tray away. Ema simply blinked at him before reaches down and pulling her tray back to herself. "I know the food isn't good and that it's possible that they've drugged the food again, but that's no excuse not to eat. We need out strength."

Given that the food looked exactly the same as it always did, the only logical conclusion she could come to was that he was afraid she'd get sick from tampering. That had to be it, right?

[ofthemotions]

...She was crazy. She had to be one of the ones that were actually crazy. She was so calm while she sat there and explained that sleeping was horrible because it made you get released. Wasn't that what everyone would want? And how could you say that sleep was bad? It was... sleep. And-- Then she just grabbed back her tray like there was nothing wrong. While talking about people drugging the food. He couldn't just... watch her eat that.

"Seriously, Skye-san, please--" His fingers touched the edge of her tray again, not pulling but not letting her pull it any closer to her. Any other situation and the boy would have likely backed down. But he couldn't just let her make herself sick like that! "I don't know anything about them drugging the food, but you can see how bad this food has went, can't you?" Was it possible that she honestly couldn't? He didn't think she was blind, but-- "There's mold all over it, and rotted--" ...He didn't even know what that was. "And there are..." He winced as he looked into her bowl, looking sick. "Some kind of insects just...."

He couldn't even finish the sentiment. The pink goop had been gross before all this. Now it was completely nauseating.

[scientist_skye]

Wait, mold? Rotten? Insects? Furrowing her brow a little, Ema stuck her spoon into the pink goop and began inspecting it carefully. There were no traces of any of the things that her tablemate mentioned, at least as far as she could perceive. Maybe they'd drugged his food and he was hallucinating?

Without asking for permission, Ema reached over and scooped a bit out of Mikado's bowl and set it down on her tray. She leaned in close and stared at it, trying to discern if the color or smell was any different from hers. She'd just about kill for an actual science lab, or even just a few chemicals that she could conduct some tests.

After several moments, Ema looked up at Mikado. "Are you feeling okay? There's nothing wrong with my food, and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with yours."

[ofthemotions]

Watching her put her spoon in that again was disgusting. And worse still was when she actually took some out of his, dripping it onto her tray and staring intently. The sludge shifted slightly, and Mikado looked away quickly, a sick look on his face. At least it'd be obvious now. That close, there was no way that she couldn't see that. No way that she could--

The boy looked back at her, eyes widened in disbelief and shock. What was she saying? "I'm fine," he said quickly. "But I don't know how you can not see that. It's... It's right there." At this point, the boy understood that he was now the one sounding insane. Still.... Mikado shook his head, his expression pleading. "You can't... I...." Without knowing how to convince her, he felt silent, face downtrodden. "...I'm not lying."

[scientist_skye]

Ema furrowed her eyebrow a little at how discouraged he sounded in response to her conclusions. He seemed to be taking Ema's empirical methods awfully personally. It wasn't like she was doing this to be a jerk--he had pointed something out and she was investigating it scientifically. Her forensics supervisors would be proud of her. If she actually had any.

Sighing a little, she turned her attention more wholly to Mikado. "I never said you were lying." Lying about spoiled food that obvious wasn't didn't make any sense, and from what Ema could tell his disgust was completely real. "But I think you're mistaken. They've tampered with our food before, so it's possible that you're hallucin..."

Realizing something awful, Ema trailed off. What if the one hallucinating was her? Maybe they had drugged breakfast in order to lull them into complacency to eat something awful for lunch in order to make them sick and lower their resistances? Actually, that hypothesis made more sense than the reverse. Mikado had missed breakfast. There had been no opportunity to drug him before now.

Sitting up slowly and going a bit paler, she pushed the tray away. "But maybe it's better I not eat. Just in case." She gave the goop one last poke from the side, willing herself to see the truth in it. Nothing about its appearance changed.

"We should talk about something else. To distract ourselves."

[ofthemotions]

For a moment, she kept arguing. Then with little change, she suddenly looked a little unsure, and gave what he was saying the benefit of the doubt. Mikado's expression instantly lightened, smiling at Ema brightly. That she was listening was the thing that mattered. It might have been that she thought the reverse was true from what she said, from the way she trailed off. But really, as long as she didn't eat that, Mikado was okay.

He nodded in agreement to her, still smiling a little. "Okay. I'm sorry for being so... strange about that, Skye-san." But he would easily concede to her now and keep to other subjects. "Where are you from?"

[scientist_skye]

"It's fine. This whole place is strange, scientifically speaking, so stuff like that happens all the time. Don't worry about it." Ema never really blamed Mikado for the misunderstanding (although at this point, she wasn't sure who was actually mistaken). A week and a half in the Institute was more than enough time to realize patterns and interpret other people's behaviors accordingly.

Thankfully, he took her up on her suggestion to change the topic. Smiling herself, Ema replied, "I'm from Los Angeles, in the U.S. It's not a perfect place--there are lots of reasons for the police force to keep their jobs--but I like it. It's home.

"How about you? You don't seem American to me." He did, however, seem human. And Earth-ish. At least, he seemed that way from what she could tell; she had to admit that there was no solid, empirical process by which she could discern otherwise.

[ofthemotions]

That was an interesting way to put it. He raised his eyebrows. "Scientifically speaking?" She couldn't be much older than him, if at all. Maybe it was a hobby... Or she just meant it as a manner of speaking.

Ah, wow. She was from a ways away. Or, er. Technically Mikado was from further, if this really was America, which... seemed pretty likely at this point. He swallowed, then offered an awkward smile. "No, I'm definitely not American...." He had never been out of the country before this. "I'm from Ikebukuro, in Japan." He glanced to the side, slightly uncomfortable. "This is all a little strange to me." Something of a large understatement.

[scientist_skye]

"Ikebukuro?" The parroting was to make sure Ema had the name right; she actually had no real idea where that was. Still, it seemed like her 'Earth person' hypothesis had been confirmed. Mikado was Japanese, which meant that he was from the same world (or a highly similar one) as she was. The thought was comforting, in a weird way.

At that last statement, Ema frowned slightly with concern. The boy seemed incredibly uncomfortable, which she supposed she couldn't blame him for. It was hard to feel at ease in this place. "It's strange to everybody, even us Americans." Assuming they were in America, but there really hadn't been any indication that they weren't. Unfalsified running theory. "Are you still new? I'd say it gets easier, but it really doesn't. We just have to hang in there and hope for the best until we find a way out of here."

[ofthemotions]

She said it pretty well, considering. He nodded. "Yeah, Ikebukuro. It's in Tokyo." Which hopefully most people knew of. There were enough animes set in Tokyo, after all. He noticed she hadn't replied to his original query, and wondered. Maybe she didn't really know either, and had just been trying to sound smart. It was unnecessary for him to point that out--he instead paid attention to what she was saying.

"I've, uh, been here a couple days now," Mikado answered. "This is my third day." Did that make him new still? He was still getting the hang of things here.... And from the sound of it, everyone still was as well. Well, most except people like Snow, it seemed. "It's an experience, at least. How long have you been here, Skye-san?"

[scientist_skye]

Ooooh, Tokyo! That was easy enough to recognize. "Oh, I know Tokyo. I've never been there, but I hear it's really nice." She actually didn't know much about they city other than it was the capital of Japan, but that seemed like the polite thing to say.

At his question, she had to stop and actually think. Timewise, she was getting ready to wrap up her second week in the institute. That was depressing, and the frown on her face served as a pretty clear indicator of the downturn of mood that the realization brought her. "Two weeks this Thursday, which I think is two days from now. So, I've been here awhile." After a pause, she added, "If you have questions, I can try to answer them. We're usually not under a military like we are now, so things are weird for all of us--not just the new people."