Day 42, Noon: The Twin Pine Restaurant
Yuffie took the long way around, practically making it a tour of the entire town. She collared--not literally, since the nurses would've thrown fits--a few random citizens along the way, asked as many inconspicuous sounding questions as possible, and then moved on. Wash, rinse, repeat. Sneaking a few covert glimpses into stores and windows
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Guy had decided to make a quick getaway after so much awkwardness, and he figured that it was as good a time as any to get some lunch. He'd already been to Tasty Burger - while the food had been good, it wasn't anything that they weren't served up at the institute once a week. The "Twin Pines" restaurant, on the other hand, sounded like something that might be better quality and also have more variety.
It took some wandering around and then eventually asking a nurse for directions in order to find it, but he got there. He noticed the awards and newspaper articles that were proudly displayed as he walked in, and he could only hope that the food lived up to all the hype about it. He wasn't exactly picky, but he wasn't going to refuse high-quality food either.
The steak sounded good, although it was a bit heavy for lunchtime. Guy wandered over to the menu they had displayed at the front of the restaurant as he tried to pick out what he wanted.
[For Anise.]
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After parting ways with the doctor, Anise spent a little more time wandering around town and taking a look at the shop windows. Her gift from the doctor, a delicate, high-quality doll with blonde curls and a pink dress, was kept safely in her arms in front of her.
It wasn't long until the girl got hungry, and started keeping an eye out for restaurants. She soon caught sight of one that she had a coupon for: Twin Pines. It looked less tacky than the other restaurant, so she decided it was as good a choice as any.
While walking, Anise realized it was no wonder that it was mostly noble girls she saw with porcelain dolls. Now that Anise had one of her own, she realized she had to be careful with it if it was going to make it back to her room undamaged. For active, energetic girls, it was a bit of a challenge to refrain from running around or doing anything else that could be risky.
Which was why Anise was horribly disappointed when, upon entering the building, she came across a familiar blond, standing with his back turned. It would have been so easy to just run up and grab him! But if she did that, there was a chance the doll would get damaged, especially if he had a bad knee-jerk reaction to it. This day wasn't so lucky after all! Boooo.
No encounter with Guy would be complete without an invasion of personal space, however, so Anise walked over and squeezed in next to him to get a good, close look at the menu he was reading. "Hmm? See something you like?" she asked innocently, making sure to announce herself only after getting so close.
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He yelped, an unattractive noise that caused some of the nearby workers to stare at him as he half-shuffled, half-jumped away from the young girl. He ended up clinging to the front counter as he tried to regain the strength in his legs.
In all honestly, he didn't quiver nearly as badly as he had when he'd first met Anise, but the change probably wasn't very noticeable to anyone other than him. He'd like to think he was improving, but the fact of the matter was that he still had a long way to go.
His recovery time was decent, though, and after a few deep breaths he collected himself and assured the concerned waiter nearby that there was no problem. They all had to be convinced that he was insane now (who would be scared of someone as cute as Anise, even if she was holding onto a slightly creepy doll?), but Guy told himself that their opinions didn't exactly matter.
"Hey, Anise," he greeted the girl a little weakly. "Has your day been going all right so far?" Guy had learned that the best strategy was to act like it had never happened. He hoped it would eventually dissuade Anise from doing it at all, but he knew that was more or less a pipe dream.
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She did feel a little bad though, so she did him the generous favor of mustering up enough self-control to keep herself from giggling at him.
And she was also kind enough to go right to answering his question without any commentary on the spectacle! Really, Guy was lucky to have such a thoughtful friend. "Well, all things considered," meaning that no matter what happened at Landel's, she still much preferred to be anywhere else, "it's going great!" Between mooching off the doctor and getting to scare Guy, her day was definitely off to a good start. "How about you?"
The girl took a quick glance around the front area, confirming for herself that Guy didn't seem to be with anyone. "Hmm... Are you waiting for someone? You weren't thinking of eating alone, were you?" It was a sort of casual way to try to get an invitation out of him, even though they were probably close enough that she didn't need to use such a roundabout way of asking.
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"Nothing too exciting has happened for me yet," he said with a shrug. Being forced into one of his famous reactions didn't count as exciting for him. If anything, it counted as stressful, although he knew Anise certainly got a kick out of it. So did all of his friends from back home, come to think of it. Then again, laughing about it was better than seriously judging him.
He was curious about the doll that Anise had a hold of, but it might be better for them to get seated before he started asking questions. There was no reason why they shouldn't eat together now that they were both here.
"I was planning to just get a quick bite, but we may as well find ourselves a table now," he said with a half-smile. He turned to a different waiter than before and asked to be seated, and it wasn't long before they were being led to a vacant table.
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Her friend was ever the gentleman, quickly catching her hint and arranging a table for the two of them. Anise happily followed as they were led by a waiter, this time being considerate enough to stay within Guy's sight. Once at their table, the girl sat down and set her new doll on the chair next to her to get it out of the way. She figured Guy was going to prefer to sit across from her, anyway.
Anise knew she was probably going to have to explain where the doll came from, but she supposed she'd wait until she was asked before going into it. In the meantime, the girl picked up her menu and looked through it. "Ooh! We can get steak with these coupons? For free?" Steak was normally a little on the pricey side, wasn't it? Even if Landel's was mostly run by creeps, she had to admit it seemed kind of generous.
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Jade had been fortunate enough to spot a familiar pigtailed figure vanishing into a restaurant and had followed her at his own pace, judging by his late arrival. Since he didn't really have any plans for his day, as even the most cursory examination of the town and the security measures being taken had informed him that there was likely very little that could be gotten away with under the watchful eyes of the staff, there seemed nothing else for it but to simply make the most of the excursion. And, really, he didn't know many other people yet, and wasn't in the mood for making new acquaintances. The only thing worse for his blood pressure than a typical youth was a typical youth who wasn't even familiar.
Besides, that conversation on the bulletin board about Luke...even he couldn't be entirely unconcerned. Though Anise, at the moment, looked far less upset than her companion. She had mentioned Guy's presence to Jade already, of course, but this was the first time they'd had the chance to meet in person here...well, at least to Jade's knowledge.
"You're looking well, Guy," he observed as he drew up a chair from another table. This was a bit of a generous assessment, but if Anise hadn't taken the chance to scare Guy a little then Jade would have really been concerned about her.
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"I was wondering about that too," he said as he fished in his pocket for the appropriate coupon. It didn't say anything on it about not being able to order steak, so they would just have to ask the waiters for themselves and see. He'd prefer to get a look at the menu before he decided on what he wanted, though. "We'll have to ask," he told Anise.
Guy was about to signal a waiter to come over when a completely unexpected and yet very familiar voice cut in. His head snapped up to see none other than Colonel Jade Curtiss standing there as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Jade?!" Guy exclaimed, half-standing from his seat before he settled back down and simply stared at the older man. While Jade had been here before, it had been ages since then and Guy had hardly been ready for him to pop up like this. Not that it was a bad thing, but Guy's nerves had already been put through the meat grinder today.
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When Anise heard the familiar voice, she quickly looked up, shooting an angry pout in the newcomer's direction. "Hey, that's mean, Colonel! Boooo!" she protested as the man made his way over to the table. Even if she was still the youngest by far (and the gap may have even widened thanks to timeline differences), she was still a long ways past being treated like a little kid!
Guy's more startled reaction got a curious look from the girl, though. "Oh, you didn't know he was here?" It made sense, when she thought about it for a moment. When she ran into the Colonel just yesterday, it had already been the end of the day. He probably didn't have time to go around and meet the others.
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...'well' being relative, also, of course.
"I trust the two of you have been well?" he inquired, glancing at Anise. "My time here thus far has been...eventful. I'd like to hear what you both have been up to in the meantime."
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Guy did have to admit that he was a little surprised that Anise hadn't mentioned Jade's presence to him, though they had only just sat down -- he couldn't really blame her for it. In fact, the way he had found out just seemed that much more appropriate. So were there four of them now? But Luke...
Without really meaning to, Guy scanned the surrounding area for red hair. It had been a while since he had seen his friend now, and as far as he knew any messages for him on the bulletin board had gone unanswered. Had it really happened a second time? Guy didn't want to believe it, but staying in denial was no better.
He didn't think that now was the best time to bring all of that up, though. Jade was here; they should be celebrating that.
"Oh, sure," he agreed, gesturing to a nearby chair since he didn't see why Jade couldn't just pull it over to join them. "Me and Anise have both been here for a while. I'm not sure how much you know yet, though. I guess one of the first things you should know is that Asch, Van, and Sync are here." Or at least that was the count last time he'd checked.
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Anise nodded when Guy went through the list of people. She'd mentioned it to the Colonel when she saw him the day before, but it was always good to go over it again. The head count seemed to change every day or two. And on that note... she noticed he didn't include Luke. Had Guy seen the bulletin messages too? It seemed likely.
So Luke wasn't around anymore... That bothered Anise even more than his first disappearance had. He had just come back! And he even said all that stuff about saving Ion... now he needed saving, too! That idiot. Anise didn't want to speak up and say any of those depressing thoughts, though, so she just frowned into her menu as she tried to keep her mind from dwelling on it.
Instead, she latched on to the subjects brought up by the Colonel. "I'm always doing well, naturally! As for what I've been doing... well, I was at the kitchen last night with the Cake Club. I collected some metal while I was there, just in case." She grinned, proud of her own resourcefulness.
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"As for what I know," he continued, with a slight shake of his head, "I'm quite well informed. I met up with a man named Edgeworth on my first day who provided me with a great deal of documentation upon patient experiences here, a list of the monsters that have been encountered and the clubs that have been formed...I believe I know almost as much as most of the people here, even if the bulk of it isn't from personal experience."
For all that, though, he couldn't help raising an eyebrow at Anise. "The Cake Club...?" he repeated. "And just what do you intend to do with metal, Anise?"
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Guy didn't want to affirm or deny Jade's question about how many of them there were -- it seemed like he would be admitting defeat when he should probably hold out some hope for Luke still. It hadn't been so long that it was a lost cause just yet.
Luckily, Jade had more to say about what information he had gathered, and Guy would have been impressed if it wasn't completely expected. Leave it to Jade to find out more about the institute than the rest of them had in their time here combined.
Still, it wasn't like Guy didn't have some claims to make on his own behalf. "That makes our lives easier," he said with a quick smile. "Thanks for asking someone else to explain for once. Anyway, I've been working with some friends on exploring the basement. It can get tedious since it's hard enough just to get down there, but we're not the types to give up easily."
It was about time that they ordered, though, wasn't it? Guy drew his arm up to wave a waiter over.
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"The Cake Club's mostly about going to the kitchen and baking. Pretty much all the members are noblemen," Anise explained. She quickly realized what that was going to imply to everyone, so she hastily added, "so they're pretty helpless in a place like this! And I was generous enough to volunteer to protect them. Isn't that nice of me?" It was basically true, at least.
"As for the metal, it's for weapon-making. I can't expect to get rescued every time something bad comes along, right? ...As much as I'd really like that." The two big fights Anise had been in at Landel's were both won with sheer luck. The first, Anise had gotten a lucky blow, and the other, she had been lucky enough to have Guy and Claude show up just in time. If circumstances had been a little different in either scenario, she could have wound up dead. Anise didn't want to wait and see how long that luck would hold out. Even if she wasn't as skilled with weapons as some people, it would give her a way bigger advantage than what she had with a pipe.
Besides, she hadn't forgotten about her main goal: to get Ion back. Doing that was probably going to mean taking down Landel and the entire institute... She couldn't just sit and wait for someone else to uncover all the mysteries of the institute without doing anything herself.
- Right, food. Anise folded up her menu and set it down on the table to make it clear that she wasn't still deliberating.
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