Dayshift 36: The Cafeteria

[rope_victim]

Miku hurried away from her new friends (and kitten) to the cafeteria. For some reason she was just terribly ravenous. Her nurse smiled, relieved that her patient had finally chose to eat something and wouldn't continue that backslide into poor health. She loaded the girl's plate with French toast and fruit, dusted the bread in powdered sugar and a

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[metamollusk]

Despite the gnawing pain in his middle, it'd be impossible to say Fwiffo was actually looking forward to his meal. Eating hunam-fashion was so difficult; it made walking look like encrustling-play next to it. Fortunately hunams seemed to prefer softer foods for their morning meal; the things called "waffles," for example, could be easily torn into small enough pieces that very little chewing was required. And then there was juice and milk, both of which the Captain had said were good for the hunam body -- Fwiffo took a glass of each.

Of course, this still left the problem of getting all his food to the table. Today the hunams in white had apparently had enough of bringing his food to him, yet another example of the sadism behind whoever was in charge of this place. Tightly clutching his tray, Fwiffo concentrated on small steps, small steps -- and nearly dropped the whole thing when he heard a yelp from not too far away. Looking around wildly and fearing the worse, Fwiffo was relieved to realize it had just been some hunam sitting at a table close by. And there was the Captain, sitting right next to him! How fortunate! Fwiffo hurried over (for a given definition of "hurry") and set his tray down on the table with palpable relief. "Good morning, Captain," he mumbled, awkwardly sitting down. Benches were yet another thing he still hadn't gotten used to.

[captain_hunam]

Zelnick was torn between laughter, trying to help Wally reclaim his breakfast, and genuine worry at Wally's injury-- he'd hurt his leg? Or a monster had. Neither were good things, especially when they happened to someone Zelnick kinda liked.

"Don't try that again," Zelnick said, amusedly, and raised his eyebrows at the impressive amount of food Wally had before him. "Hungry this morning?" He had thought he'd taken a lot, but it looked like a light snack next to Wally's mountain.

And there, on his other side, was Fwiffo, looking as happy as Fwiffo ever did to be there. "Good morning," he said, amiably. "Have you talked with Captain Hitsugaya?" It looked like Fwiffo was at least going to try and eat, though Zelnick noted a decided lack of protein on the plate. He'd have to get Fwiffo to at least try some sausage or something...

[scarletspeedstr]

Oh, he'd forgotten that he was supposed to be keeping his metabolism on the down low, along with his powers. "I, uh, have a dietary problem. I need to eat a lot more than normal to get by." Hopefully that would be a good enough explanation for Zelnick, 'cause there was no way he was taking any of this back.

He looked up as they were joined by a scrawny, nervous looking guy and waved absently. "Hi, I'm Wally. Friend of, uh, 'the Captain'." Geez, this guy looked like he was on the verge of starvation or something, but his tray was almost empty. "Are you sure you've got enough to eat?" he asked with obvious concern. His own choice of food was almost three times as much, which would have made him feel guilty if he hadn't been starving. He snagged a couple of waffles as he waited for the newcomer to introduce himself, digging into them happily.

*milk* has protein in it, you know

[metamollusk]

"Ah...oh, yes," Fwiffo said, tearing his eyes away with some effort from the practically literal mountain of food the strange hunam had on his tray. While Fwiffo was certainly no expert of hunams, he was pretty sure it just wasn't normal for them to eat quite that much. He just hoped the stranger wouldn't decide to eat his tablemates if he was still hungry at the end. "He'd said he'd have my assignment ready by the end of fourth shift, I think..." And wasn't that a depressing thought? Fwiffo began nervously shredding his waffle, trying to distract himself. Maybe eating would give him enough extra energy to have something almost halfway approaching a fighting chance when he was inevitably attacked by a ravenous beast.

And speaking of ravenous beasts..."Thank you, but I'm fine," he said tremulously the stranger -- Wally, was it? It sounded like a hunam name, but Fwiffo wasn't about to let himself be fooled so easily. "My name is Fwiffo, former captain of the Spathi voidship Starrunner...um. Captain Zelnick and I were allies in our home universe."

so you say~

[captain_hunam]

"Ah, gotcha." Zelnick accepted it without question, since it explained the breakfast-stealing the day before, as well.

"Good," he said about Fwiffo's assignment-to-be. Getting Fwiffo out and about and both doing things and making connections was going to be... well, he didn't expect Fwiffo to enjoy it, but he reassured the Spathi, "You'll be fine, Fwiffo. Stop destroying your food and try to actually eat something-- you'll need the energy." A bit unsubtly, he transfered a few breakfast sausages to Fwiffo's plate and started peeling an orange.

Briefly, he explained to Wally, "He wasn't human, before this place. He's still getting used to things like legs and teeth and such." He smiled kindly at Fwiffo, and said quietly (and rather obviously for Fwiffo), "He's actually been doing really well."

Pfft, Wally's never eaten anyone... that he's friends with anyway. >D

[scarletspeedstr]

Fwiffo hadn't been human? Now that was interesting. Wally finished his waffles and started industriously working his way through the rest of his pile of food. "So, you were an alien?" A pretty odd looking one, if legs and teeth were new to him. Even J'onn hadn't had that much trouble adapting to life on Earth. "You didn't try invading Earth or anything, did you?" It was mostly joking, as the broad smile that accompanied the comment tried to show. If Fwiffo acted the same in his normal body as he was right now, then he wasn't exactly the invading type.

"So, that guy on the message board might be getting us to work together or something," Wally said to Zelnick. "Though I'm still not quite sure what he wants."

so you say ;3

[metamollusk]

"It's easier to chew this way," Fwiffo protested, giving the sausages a dubious look.

"What?" he asked, looking back up at Wally in surprise. Where had that come from? Was the (possibly not actually a) hunam on to him? "I, well. Not me personally, I was more like a, a guard, not even by choice! But..." He cast a helpless look the Captain's way.

Chat logs say differently~ x3 Or isn't Captain a friend?

[captain_hunam]

... erk. Wally had probably been joking, but... "Ah... no, the Spathi themselves never invaded Earth, and didn't even want to be on the opposite side from humanity." He smiled awkwardly. "I'm pretty sure they'd have much rather hid on Spathiwa and pretended that the War wasn't going on."

Zelnick nodded thoughtfully. "I think he was thinking about trying to autopsy the monsters, see if they have any clues about this place or how to defeat them or something. I'm all for the pursuit of knowledge, though his goals were rather, ah, fuzzily-defined."

... well, that was an explanation, of sorts, though he wondered why Fwiffo hadn't just taken a soup or something. Well, maybe he didn't know enough about human food...

Fine, he's never eaten anyone in a way they weren't going to enjoy~

[scarletspeedstr]

Wally paused in the act of laying waste to his breakfast, momentarily confused by the sudden turn the conversation had taken. "Oh, right. You mentioned a war yesterday," he said, finally catching up. "Sorry, I guess I wasn't thinking when I made that joke." But then that meant... "Wait, so these, ah, 'Spathi' did fight Earth? But he helped you anyway? That's pretty cool." He grinned at Fwiffo, hoping it would help put the guy at ease.

"I guess I was mostly joking 'cause the Earth I'm from has been invaded a few times, though we've managed to hold our own pretty well. Sometimes it's like every alien species wants to invade or something. Like it's an interplanetary hobby." He laughed lightly and turned his attention back to his food, consuming it at a surprisingly fast rate.

"Autopsy? That's not really my field. I mean, I did dissections in University, but that's it. Maybe if they wanted some chemicals analysed and had a lab ready, I could help, but otherwise..."

do you two need to find a room? XD

[metamollusk]

"W-well, it's more like the Captain helped me," Fwiffo felt compelled to explain. "We Spathi were viciously tricked into joining the Ur-Quan Hierarchy as battle thralls, but managed to avoid any direct fighting during the time the Hierarchy was subduing Earth. Unfortunately our masters eventually presented us with the choice of doing our so-called duty, or facing complete destruction. So we had no choice but to assist the Ilwrath in mounting the Earthguard, in order to keep tabs on the conquered hunams...That lasted for a few years, until the Ilwrath got bored and went home. And then the main body of our part of the fleet was required on Spathiwa to prepare for combat against the Ultimate Evil...by the time Captain Zelnick arrived in the Sol system, I was the only member of the Earthguard still left in our base on Pluto. I owe him a great deal for recruiting me into his fleet." Fwiffo wrapped up his little speech with a murmured, "Even though he's insisted on putting me in one dangerous situation after another since then," before scooping a few small chunks of the shredded waffle into his mouth. He hoped Wally would find his situation satisfactory; the last thing he wanted to deal with was some strange hunam deciding to avenge his homeworld for imagined slights, especially one with Wally's apparently limitless appetite.

Hey, now, Captain's not that kind of guy! >.>

[captain_hunam]

"Yeah, pretty much that," Zelnick confirmed, expression rather serious. "It was the Ur-Quan-- well, the Ur-Quan Kzer-za-- that... well, they didn't exactly 'invade'... it's complicated. But they were the leaders and conquerers, not any of the species fighting alongside them; the other species had the choice of either being confined to their homeworlds forever or fighting to conquer other races. Earth chose confinement." He sounded almost proud of humanity for choosing that, limiting themselves instead of helping their conquerers.

"Well, it's not like I have a lot of experience with cutting things open, either. Not on Earth animals, at least... most of what I know is textbook stuff, or fauna from Unzervalt." Musing over the request, he took a few bites of a breakfast pastry.

Of course he's not~

[scarletspeedstr]

While the whole deal about the war was pretty interesting, all the names being tossed out were starting to make his eyes glaze over. It was an habit that had gotten him in trouble more than once with the League too. Of course, part of his distraction was probably due to how the painkillers had worn off completely and his knee was really starting to protest about his decision to run after being injured. He shifted in his chair again, trying to find a position that didn't hurt as much and kept his leg as straight as possible. "So, in the future where you're from, Earth'll get locked inside a giant dome or something. Right. Well, at least the Justice League'll have something to say about that where I'm from?" Provided they weren't the same place after all. Trying to puzzle out this whole other dimensions thing wasn't helping his head any.

And his tray was empty now too. When had that happened? He hoped he hadn't been eating too fast, but Zelnick and Fwiffo probably would have said something if he had. Wally gazed wistfully at the buffet again, wondering if it would be too weird for him to grab something else to eat and if he'd be able to manage it without falling over spectacularly. It didn't sound like they'd be getting any other chances to eat until dinner, so an extra helping would be a good idea... if he could get away with it.

"You know... I'm still a little hungry, and Fwiffo would probably do better with some soup or something..." He looked hopefully at Zelnick.

The chat logs say different~ ;)

[metamollusk]

"Soup...?" Was that a food item, or something else? The Captain would undoubtedly know, so Fwiffo looked to him. "What do you think, sir?"

Fortunately Wally didn't seem unduly upset by all this talk of wars and invasions and slave shields, though Fwiffo didn't have the first idea what he meant by a "Justice League." Perhaps it was similar to the Alliance of the Free Stars. It probably wasn't any of his business anyway. Meanwhile, he still had a shredded waffle to finish.

Shush! If Xigbar and ZEX find out, they'll want in on it, too~

[captain_hunam]

"... Justice League?" But then Wally was giving him a hopeful look, and he laughed quietly. "I don't know where you're putting all that food. And soup would probably work better-- it's a sort of thick liquid, sometimes with small chunks of more solid food," he added for Fwiffo's benefit, "so very little chewing." He got up off the bench and headed for the buffet, leaving the two of them alone for a moment.

I STILL think we need a poll to see who's after the Captain. XD

[scarletspeedstr]

Wally smiled his thanks and watched Zelnick leave. Hopefully Zelnick wouldn't assume he'd only be eating a little and return with a couple of pieces of fruit or something. Though even if that did happen, there wouldn't be much he could do about it.

He turned his attention back to his other lunchmate. "So, Fwiffo, I guess all this must be a pretty big change for you. Suddenly being human as well as being in this place, not to mention the monsters and all... How are you handling it so far?"

I think we need a poll to see who *isn't* after the Captain XD

[metamollusk]

Fwiffo hadn't been expecting the Captain to leave! Now he was all alone with a strange hunam who apparently possessed a literally limitless appetite; a sure recipe for disaster if Fwiffo had ever heard one. But no; this was one of the Captain's allies, wasn't it? Surely Captain Zelnick wouldn't leave him alone with someone he didn't consider trustworthy? And besides, they were in the middle of a crowded room absolutely full of other hunams! Surely Wally wouldn't attack him here...?

Fortunately, he only seemed interested in talking...for the moment. "It has been quite strange," Fwiffo agreed, "and very frightening. Not so much the monsters; we Spathi have always prided ourselves on having a clearer view of reality than other species, and are used to the idea of possibly being attacked and devoured at any moment. But this body..." He tapped his chest in nervous frustration. "Having legs, teeth...It's completely different from what I'm used to. Of course," he hastened to add, "Now that I've begun to master walking, perhaps things will improve, if only slightly." It wouldn't do, after all, to let on just how helpless he was.