As the day continued, Kratos found himself wishing more and more that the military was still in control, if only so that he would not have to put up with this nurse. The soldier who had been escorting him around for the past five days or so had been far more deferential to his preferences, possibly because he had no reason to keep up with this pretense of "beneficial for your health". However, it had also made him thoroughly more preferable.
Thankfully, he could be stubborn when he wanted to, and, as he pointed out, only interested patients need go to the Music Room. He was not interested and therefore could be reasonably excluded from the activity.
So it was that Kratos found himself in the Sun Room as usual, pondering whether he ought to risk taking another nap. Last time he'd tried, it had gone disastrously, but perhaps that had been an isolated incident. Well...perhaps he ought to wait until there were more people in the room; then, he could gauge his probability of being so rudely disturbed. For now, he sat down stiffly on one of the sofas, arms crossed, mindlessly watching the other patients who were already in the room.
The call to go back inside for the fourth shift of the day had been way too early for Claire, in his opinion. What if he wanted to spend more time outside? They couldn't deprive him of that, right? That was just plain wrong! Besides, he had been having a perfectly good conversation with a pretty lady and it was certainly rude to interrupt it for something as silly as a shift change.
His nurse had been firm though, and Claire hated dealing with more trouble than necessary. She'd threatened orderlies on him again and, while Claire had no doubts that he could handle all the institute's orderlies at once and still come out on top, it really would be a lot of extra time wasted, right? So he'd done the nurse a favor (she better know it!) and gone back inside.
What to do, what to do? After this, he was pretty sure it would be dinner and then night. He couldn't wait! But there was still so much time to kill! Perhaps he actually should go to the Music Room, if only to find something to amuse himself with while he waited for night to finally set in.
But then, Claire noticed someone he thought was familiar. Another redhead was sitting on a sofa in the Sun Room, apparently doing nothing. Where had he met this one before? He sure was finding a lot of familiar people today, huh?
Ignoring his nurse, he wandered over in the other man's direction instead and plopped himself down next to him.
"Hey!" he greeted with a grin. "I know you, too, right?"
His automatic reaction was to say, flatly, No, you don't, but that would be a lie because the young man who had just sat down next to him did know him, if one conversation in a chapel counted as enough to "know" someone.
"We've met before, yes," Kratos said, raising an eyebrow as his head turned to face the other. There was something slightly unnerving about the casual way that he had just been greeted, but he remembered that that feeling had sort of pervaded his last (and first) conversation with this particular person, that feeling of faint discomfort and uneasiness. "You're..." He paused as he tried to recall the man's name. "...Vino?"
[WOW NO, HERP DERP, slow tagging for me, so shhhh]
"You remembered my name!" 'Vino' declared with a grin. Perhaps that was an odd thing to say. But then, Clare didn't always make it a habit of remembering the names of all the people he'd met before.
"I think yours began with a 'K'," Claire continued thoughtfully. Life would be so much easier if people could just walk around with name tags, right? Oh, but wait, then where would be the fun in getting to know new people, right? Exchanging names was like a social ritual, wasn't it? It was kind of a nice thing.
"So what did you think of last night?" He jumped topics as they came to him. Whether or not the other redhead would help jog his memory for him didn't stop Claire from barreling onward in his conversation. "Something must have happened, right? All the soldiers are gone. Good riddance, I say! They were a boring, stern-faced lot, all of them. Never any fun to talk to at all, right?"
"It's Kratos," he managed to slip in quietly before Vino, like last time, began directing the conversation wherever he pleased. This was actually somewhat acceptable since usually, Kratos was terrible at coming up with things to discuss once he had gotten his main line of business out of the way. With Vino, one could probably never want for topics.
"Personally, it was...not particularly exciting." He didn't find battling monsters all night interesting or new in the slightest, considering that he had done that all the time back in the twin worlds. It had truly been business as usual. "But regarding what happened, I received some information from an acquaintance recently that he wished for me to pass on," Kratos said, pulling out his version of Castiel's note from his pants pocket and unfolding it. He smoothed it out with a hand and then passed it to Vino for him to inspect.
"I would like this back, but you are welcome to copy it if you so like." He really ought to have taken more care with his penmanship, but the note was, technically, still readable. No one had ever had any trouble making sense of his reports before, after all--or had dared to tell him to his face, at any rate.
Claire heard the name, didn't comment on it, wasn't worth commenting on. Who knew, if he heard it enough times, he'd actually remember it next time, right?
"You didn't think it was exciting?" Claire blinked. This was news to him! How could anyone not think last night was exciting? Well, then again, this Kratos guy hadn't been with him down in the basement, so maybe it hadn't been as amazing an experience for him as it had been for Claire. He would have gone on to brag about his experiences and how amazing this entire place was, when the other man pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and showed it to him. See no reason not to at least take a look at what he was being shown, Claire accepted the note and spent the next few (remarkable) seconds in silence as he read.
"The handwriting is a bit hard to read," Claire commented, seeing no reason why he shouldn't announce something like that, but then continued. "Huh, so that's what happened last night. That's interesting..."
He studied the contents of the note for a few moments longer, before passing it back to Kratos. Claire was confident he had the important points of the message committed to memory. While it tended to fail him in things he found rather pointless or unimportant, it worked perfectly fine where it mattered.
"Here you go! Hey, you showing it to me means you trust me, right?" He gave a sincere smile at that. "Thanks!"
"But that's interesting to know. So that was what had been going on with the rogue soldier situation? That's why that Landel person is back in charge, right? Haha, looks like the story's more complicated than I thought!"
"No," Kratos said with a certain finality. For him, last night had been nothing but business as usual, contrary to the experiences of everyone he had spoken to today. It was almost enough to make him envious, really.
He raised an eyebrow as Vino brought attention to his handwriting, but thankfully, it was only a passing comment and not a sticking point. "The man from whom I copied this told me to pass it along to anyone and everyone; it isn't a matter of trust." Honestly speaking, Kratos rarely trusted anyone whose acquaintance he had just made, but he had received orders (not really, but he could treat them as such), and if there was anything that he considered himself especially good at, it was following orders.
"I'm sure the story has always been far more complicated than any of us have ever thought," he added. "Unfortunately, there's little we can do to change that." He idly smoothed out his shirt sleeve. "What did you do last night that was so exciting?"
Thankfully, he could be stubborn when he wanted to, and, as he pointed out, only interested patients need go to the Music Room. He was not interested and therefore could be reasonably excluded from the activity.
So it was that Kratos found himself in the Sun Room as usual, pondering whether he ought to risk taking another nap. Last time he'd tried, it had gone disastrously, but perhaps that had been an isolated incident. Well...perhaps he ought to wait until there were more people in the room; then, he could gauge his probability of being so rudely disturbed. For now, he sat down stiffly on one of the sofas, arms crossed, mindlessly watching the other patients who were already in the room.
[for a fellow redhead]
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His nurse had been firm though, and Claire hated dealing with more trouble than necessary. She'd threatened orderlies on him again and, while Claire had no doubts that he could handle all the institute's orderlies at once and still come out on top, it really would be a lot of extra time wasted, right? So he'd done the nurse a favor (she better know it!) and gone back inside.
What to do, what to do? After this, he was pretty sure it would be dinner and then night. He couldn't wait! But there was still so much time to kill! Perhaps he actually should go to the Music Room, if only to find something to amuse himself with while he waited for night to finally set in.
But then, Claire noticed someone he thought was familiar. Another redhead was sitting on a sofa in the Sun Room, apparently doing nothing. Where had he met this one before? He sure was finding a lot of familiar people today, huh?
Ignoring his nurse, he wandered over in the other man's direction instead and plopped himself down next to him.
"Hey!" he greeted with a grin. "I know you, too, right?"
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His automatic reaction was to say, flatly, No, you don't, but that would be a lie because the young man who had just sat down next to him did know him, if one conversation in a chapel counted as enough to "know" someone.
"We've met before, yes," Kratos said, raising an eyebrow as his head turned to face the other. There was something slightly unnerving about the casual way that he had just been greeted, but he remembered that that feeling had sort of pervaded his last (and first) conversation with this particular person, that feeling of faint discomfort and uneasiness. "You're..." He paused as he tried to recall the man's name. "...Vino?"
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"You remembered my name!" 'Vino' declared with a grin. Perhaps that was an odd thing to say. But then, Clare didn't always make it a habit of remembering the names of all the people he'd met before.
"I think yours began with a 'K'," Claire continued thoughtfully. Life would be so much easier if people could just walk around with name tags, right? Oh, but wait, then where would be the fun in getting to know new people, right? Exchanging names was like a social ritual, wasn't it? It was kind of a nice thing.
"So what did you think of last night?" He jumped topics as they came to him. Whether or not the other redhead would help jog his memory for him didn't stop Claire from barreling onward in his conversation. "Something must have happened, right? All the soldiers are gone. Good riddance, I say! They were a boring, stern-faced lot, all of them. Never any fun to talk to at all, right?"
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"It's Kratos," he managed to slip in quietly before Vino, like last time, began directing the conversation wherever he pleased. This was actually somewhat acceptable since usually, Kratos was terrible at coming up with things to discuss once he had gotten his main line of business out of the way. With Vino, one could probably never want for topics.
"Personally, it was...not particularly exciting." He didn't find battling monsters all night interesting or new in the slightest, considering that he had done that all the time back in the twin worlds. It had truly been business as usual. "But regarding what happened, I received some information from an acquaintance recently that he wished for me to pass on," Kratos said, pulling out his version of Castiel's note from his pants pocket and unfolding it. He smoothed it out with a hand and then passed it to Vino for him to inspect.
"I would like this back, but you are welcome to copy it if you so like." He really ought to have taken more care with his penmanship, but the note was, technically, still readable. No one had ever had any trouble making sense of his reports before, after all--or had dared to tell him to his face, at any rate.
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Claire heard the name, didn't comment on it, wasn't worth commenting on. Who knew, if he heard it enough times, he'd actually remember it next time, right?
"You didn't think it was exciting?" Claire blinked. This was news to him! How could anyone not think last night was exciting? Well, then again, this Kratos guy hadn't been with him down in the basement, so maybe it hadn't been as amazing an experience for him as it had been for Claire. He would have gone on to brag about his experiences and how amazing this entire place was, when the other man pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and showed it to him. See no reason not to at least take a look at what he was being shown, Claire accepted the note and spent the next few (remarkable) seconds in silence as he read.
"The handwriting is a bit hard to read," Claire commented, seeing no reason why he shouldn't announce something like that, but then continued. "Huh, so that's what happened last night. That's interesting..."
He studied the contents of the note for a few moments longer, before passing it back to Kratos. Claire was confident he had the important points of the message committed to memory. While it tended to fail him in things he found rather pointless or unimportant, it worked perfectly fine where it mattered.
"Here you go! Hey, you showing it to me means you trust me, right?" He gave a sincere smile at that. "Thanks!"
"But that's interesting to know. So that was what had been going on with the rogue soldier situation? That's why that Landel person is back in charge, right? Haha, looks like the story's more complicated than I thought!"
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"No," Kratos said with a certain finality. For him, last night had been nothing but business as usual, contrary to the experiences of everyone he had spoken to today. It was almost enough to make him envious, really.
He raised an eyebrow as Vino brought attention to his handwriting, but thankfully, it was only a passing comment and not a sticking point. "The man from whom I copied this told me to pass it along to anyone and everyone; it isn't a matter of trust." Honestly speaking, Kratos rarely trusted anyone whose acquaintance he had just made, but he had received orders (not really, but he could treat them as such), and if there was anything that he considered himself especially good at, it was following orders.
"I'm sure the story has always been far more complicated than any of us have ever thought," he added. "Unfortunately, there's little we can do to change that." He idly smoothed out his shirt sleeve. "What did you do last night that was so exciting?"
Yes, time to change the subject.
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