Day 41: Breakfast

[oftemptation]

Endrance turned his head to look at the intercom, giving it a look that would wither an entire rose garden in an instant. He would never get used to ending up in his room again from somewhere else in the Institute

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[tartaros_avatar]

Last night had been quite productive, by the standards he was reduced to in this place. Recluse took a tray of food and sat in a corner of the still mostly deserted dining hall, taking out his journal and jotting down some coded notes in his thin, spidery handwriting, eyes on the doors to the hall, watching any who filtered into the room. He did try to catalog who was here, after all. It wouldn't do to ever be surprised by anything in this prison.

[Who wants some premium evil overlord? Limit: any]

[haplesstracker]

Syrup! First good thing to happen to him since nightfall. Scourge took as many pancakes and pieces of fruit as he dared, and snagged nearly a cupful of syrup when the food guard wasn't looking.

Still couldn't get a fix on Kon--he really wanted to talk to him about playing nice with Blitzwing, but if he was too obvious about it Blitzwing would know something was up. Maybe he could find him at lunch, or whatever happened next shift. He'd heard something about showers...oh dear, they were going to get naked, weren't they?

Keeping a watch out for both Kon and his bosses, Scourge casually walked into the tabled area and sat down at random, barely looking at who was next to him.

[tartaros_avatar]

Recluse watched the man who approached, someone he didn't recognize. He did look quite a bit like a member of the Tsoo, but he didn't seem to have any noticeable tattoos and... pink never seemed to be one of the colors allowed within the villain group's color scheme, something he was vaguely thankful for.

"Good morning." Actually it wasn't, precisely because it was morning. His eyes were constantly causing him pain with all of this damned light, but he refused to let that show.

[haplesstracker]

"Morning," Scourge replied, not even looking at him. He was far too involved in pouring syrup over absolutely everything on his plate, including the fruit, wavy meat, and the squishy egg stuff.

Oh, this was going to be nice.

[tartaros_avatar]

Recluse raised an eyebrow, watching the man do his best to murder his breakfast. "I assume you aren't originally human?" He didn't really want to know what sort of human would enjoy the taste of maple syrup-drenched eggs.

[haplesstracker]

Scourge hefted his fork, already nearly drooling over the feast before him. "If I said no, would you..."

And for the first time he turned to see exactly what flavor of human he's talking to. "Laugh?" the tracker finished weakly, staring up at the large man looming over him. Damnit, why did he always seem to wind up with the tall ones? This one was nearly as big as Lugnut!

[tartaros_avatar]

Well, at least someone here seemed appropriately intimidated by the sight of him, even if he was currently missing eight of his limbs.

"No, I would not. I was not human myself." Not for the past eighty years, at least. "I am Lord Recluse." He doubted by this point that the name would be recognized, but he would not introduce himself with his original name.

[haplesstracker]

"Scourge." The tracker timidly waved his fork at the imposing not-human, before turning to face the more welcome sight of his tasty breakfast. "What were you?" he asked as he dug into his pancakes, momentary bliss crossing his features with every bite.

Lord, even. Ugh. Probably the overlord type, wordly but useless.

[tartaros_avatar]

"Tartaros incarnate. What most tend to call Hell." It was far easier to put it like that than to go into any real detail.

He kept writing in his journal without looking at the page, starting a new entry for Scourge. He'd seen quite a lot of messages from this one. "You were a Decepticon, then." He'd never seen such things in his dimension before, but it didn't surprise him at all that races of sentient machines existed elsewhere.

[haplesstracker]

"Yeah..." Scourge eyed him warily. "How'd you know?"

Hell sounded familiar, but he'd seen it referred to as a place of suffering, something like the Pit. "Hell incarnate" had to be some kind of overblown metaphor, because on TV no one'd mentioned it being a cityformer.

[tartaros_avatar]

"The bulletin isn't exactly private." It was amazing what people seemed willing to post there. So much useful information, and no one had the sense to keep from broadcasting it to any who might be watching.

[haplesstracker]

"Oh. That." Scourge had assumed it was something akin to a physical comm network, he'd never bothered hiding any of it.

"So you're keeping watch on us?" he asked as he continued eating. It made him a bit worried, if someone was keeping tabs on Decepticons. Especially someone that big. Blitzwing might put up trouble, but Scourge would be the first one abducted.

[tartaros_avatar]

"I watch everyone. But your faction is rather interesting, if generally fractious." It seemed fraught with all the petty arguments that always seemed to occur with any group of Villains. Fortunately, these Decepticons seemed to be far less adept at keeping such things private than those in Arachnos. Such information was always useful to him.

[haplesstracker]

"You mean chaotic," Scourge grumbled, poking at a goo-covered bit of orange fruit. "Starscream's a traitor, Blitzwing's a nut, Lugnut's...well, he's a nut but he's a different kind of nut. I don't even know what Lockdown's deal is. This place seriously needs a Cyclonus."

He looked mournful for a moment, and his next bite didn't even make him crack a smile. He could deal with the humanness, but he dearly wanted someone to show up and actually do some reasonable leadership for once.

[tartaros_avatar]

"Yes, precisely." Recluse continued to ignore his food. He didn't actually require taking time out of his schedule to eat three meals today. "Without any focus, it seems they are amazingly inefficient." It was obvious they were all lackeys, even if one of them seemed to think he was somehow entitled to be in charge of everything. It would be amusing if it wasn't setting such a bad example of his own profession.

[haplesstracker]

"With Galvatron we at least had a figurehead, you know? Someone to be loyal to. How do you run an army when you're all loyal to a guy who isn't actually here?"

It was nice to have someone to complain to, for once. Made it a bit more cathartic, a bit less frustrated that nobody quite got it.