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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[requitedfate]

Wow, that was embarrassing. Shiina quickly tried to wave off his question, giving a very weak chuckle, but that almost set her off again. Was she going to be able to hold a natural conversation with this man?

His advice was better than just attempting to hold back gags. She grabbed up her glass and attempted a small sip. Doing her best to breath through her mouth, she shakily waited a moment before taking another cautionary sip. The taste of clean water was refreshing, and if she could just not look at those disgusting blobs in their trays she could probably make it through this. Thankfully, the man had the foresight to shove them out of their line of vision.

She offered the man a thankful smile, carefully placing the cup down on the table. "Thank you. I'm sorry you had to see that."

Again, a foreigner. American, maybe? She was pretty bad at picking out nationalities from westerners, but she supposed one guess was as good as any other. Everyone at least spoke Japanese here.

Shiina attempted another friendly conversation starter, hoping to draw away from the awkwardness they had just experienced. "Ah, I was told that this rotten food thing wasn't likely to be permanent, but I wonder..."

[touchedgod]

"It's alright," he assured her. How polite, apologizing for being disgusted by rotting food. He wouldn't have, unless it had gotten to the point of actually getting sick in front of someone. Then he supposed his embarrassment would have demanded a couple half-hearted apologies. But really, who could be blamed when it came to this writhing mass of half-living food? "I'm right there with you, to be honest." Was that comforting or just unpleasant, being informed that your tablemate also felt nauseous? Billy moved on, sweeping past the discussion of their own roiling stomachs.

"Don't know." He scratched his neck, and risked a glance at his food. He was betting on more maggots, if he dared to look closer. "It's all I've ever seen here. It can't be all the food that's turned, though." He couldn't handle looking at other people eating, though, so he just left that assumption on good faith. His peripheral vision confirmed some of it.