Day 48: Cafeteria (Breakfast)

[should_be_dead]

Luckily for Mele, the night had ended before Tenzen had changed his mind and deemed Mele appropriate for target practice. Even if the situation of who was mocking who had seemed to change into the Iga ninja's favor. Despite her behavior, perhaps the insolent woman could serve some sort of use nonetheless. He had been trapped in this place for a

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[finalwitch]

Upon waking, the last in the line of Endless Witches decided on a few small but relatively important details.

Firstly, despite the sneaking and lock breaking, nights here were rather uninteresting. Perhaps on its own, her dull lifestyle was imposing upon the environment. No weird hospital, patient, or supposed monster could break the mold of monochrome and drab. Secondly, despite his exterior, Rolo was acceptable company. Certainly, they failed to hold much of a conversation, but such was an ideal, far preferable to giggling schoolgirls.

Finally, she decided Battler, Beatrice, and their incarnations had to have been some delusion. Yes, likely born from her usual addled mind. After all, it...

It wasn't important.Sense took proper hold of the young woman, and she noted with indifference that she had been escorted to a seat in the cafeteria, food tray in hand. The escort had probably been her nurse, though the woman was nowhere to be found. In whatever case, Ange pulled up the tray and started stabbing her sausages with a fork, the

[whos_da_man]

Junpei was both relieved and disappointed to have the night end. The bad was he and Asuka were removed from each others' presence. The good was he and Asuka were removed from each others' presence. Gods, the girl was hot, but what a bitch. Oh, he hadn't been as fooled by her sweet and sugar act as she probably thought he'd been. He was just willing to put up with a lot because she was a hot redhead that piloted a GIANT FRIGGIN' ROBOT. The Evangelion's cool points totally canceled out the bitch points

[finalwitch]

She stayed oblivious to the young man and his smile, albeit the fault tied more to past experience than a failure to win. Ushiromiya Ange, after all, had no social life. A boy wanting her company was outside of her range in comprehension. Therefore, she continued poking unceremoniously at her food, until the sausage links seemed to be on the verge of shredding.

Finally, eventually, Ange caught the tail-end of his question. Join her? "Eh?" she blurted out, blue eyes glancing up at the taller figure. It took a second to make out exactly what he was asking. "...Yeah. Sure."

[whos_da_man]

The seconds ticked by in silence and Junpei was starting to wonder if he smelled or something. He hadn't exerted himself the previous night in any way, so he didn't think he smelled. Maybe the chick was just stunned by his rugged good looks and was at a loss for words. Never mind that she wasn't looking at him

[finalwitch]

Babe? What? Were people here now resorting to calling her names to her face as well? Her face contorted at the teenager, as if to ask, "What kind of term is that?" Her words, on the other hand, weren't quite as friendly. "It's Greta," Ange spat out. She seemed ready to brush off the male with a few selections of her own. There was no use living with this kind of behavior here, after all.

Then he introduced himself, causing the young woman to blink in dumbfounded suspicion. Usually bullies didn't bother offering their names, now did they? Upon retrospect, his tone did not touch on any sarcasm. He...sounded friendly, if she was being honest with herself.

So instead of lambasting him, Ange simply looked away. "Who can say?" she muttered.

[whos_da_man]

At the vaguely venomous retort, Junpei raised his hands before him in a surrendering gesture. He didn't need another hot redhead pissed at him for no apparent reason. Geeze, what was with these girls and their aversion to being called something cute?

"
Woah, woah, easy there tiger," he replied with a good-natured smile. "Just a turn of speech. Kinda a habot for me. Sorry, ba--" He caught himself in time. "--Greta."

Okay, now that all told Junpei that Sweet Greta here - mental sarcsm, no - was definitely not used to being around friendly guys. Hell, he might have bet the latest picture of Mitsuru-senpai in a bath towel that this chick was from one of those... what were they called again? Catholic high schools that Western chicks sometimes went to. All girls with those skirts and a need to rebel against the sisters. Yeah, like that

[finalwitch]

His attempt to soothe the situation was strangely endearing, and although Ange failed to lessen the severe expression, she did not harden her voice again. Well, so long as Junpei meant no actual harm...

"Sorry," she answered, eyes closed in obvious irritation. "I'm not used to talking to boys." Boys her age, specifically. For one, Saint Lucia Academy was an all-female school. For another, any poor sap who dared approach the heiress to the Ushiromiya fortune was immediately kicked to the curb. In most situations, this result was literal.

It served as a reminder on how much certain aspects had changed. True, her life had yet to evolve out of its never-ending drudgery, but Ange had gained formerly unavailable freedoms. The fact that a teenage male was sitting across from her spoke volumes on the matter. Yet somehow, it did not feel quite enough. Not enough at allShe sighed and considered both his remark and question. "I don't see much of a difference between here and where I came from," she finally stated. Rude, but honest. Ange raised

[whos_da_man]

Maybe Greta only had one expression, maybe two. That was a shame, since Junpei thought she'd look really cute with a blush on her cheeks. Real cute, but not cute enough for him to try; he was rather fond of the family jewels.

"S'okay," he replied with a shrug, "but that surprises me." A pause in thought. "Well, I guess that would make sense if you just didn't talk to them. I ain't gonna lie - a lot of guys are dogs." He gave a sheepish shrug. "I'm only half-mongrel."

With Greta's comment about the institute not being much different from her home, the junior's eyebrows climbed up on his forehead. "You mean that figuratively or literally? And I've been here a couple weeks now. Let me tell you, this place just gets more and more exciting the longer you're here. Only not really. Like at all."

[finalwitch]

"So I hear," responded Ange. Technically, she'd only known of the axiom due to snippets of schoolgirl conversations from her roommate and the aforementioned's friends. Other than that, there was nothing else for her to go on with the statement. "Girls are no better. If I had a choice, I wouldn't talk to them either."

For multiple reasons.

If she was gauging his reception correctly, Junpei was surprised. Ange didn't have to figure out exactly what part of her answer brought that on. "Figuratively, literally... No difference." She shrugged, as if that settled the question. "You seem to be doing well, considering how long you've been here."

[whos_da_man]

A loner. Such a shame. Maybe she just needed to thaw out... Maybe he was reaching here.

"Yeah, I know I don't look like much, but I'm kinda used to places that turn into living nightmares when the sun goes down. And, well, I run really fast when I want to." It also helped he could take a walloping and be mostly fine the next day,

"So, what's your personal hellhole like? Mine's, haha, actually my school. Twisted tower of evil shit. And disco lights."

[finalwitch]

Oh? He was used to this place's mechanics? Sounded like Junpei was well based entirely on experience. He even explained how, words which touched on her curiosity. "What do you mean by living nightmares?" Monsters, perhaps. Normal people found them to possess a "nightmarish" quality, did they not?

Ange continued while brushing off his own question. She didn't feel like elaborating on her life today. Not to mention, she'd already said enough to Rika and Hanyuu. Even Rolo and Albedo had gotten the bare minimum. "Sounds like any normal school to me," the girl commented with a shrug.

[whos_da_man]

"Well, yeah, except more," Junpei gestured, searching for a word, "evil. I guess you eventually get used to the puddles of blood and the jump from three stories to... a whole lot. It's called Tartarus for a reason

[finalwitch]

Ange did, in fact, think Junpei was crazy. Not many people would ramble on about their school being named after a section of the underworld, getting used to puddles of blood, seeing black coffins, and coming home from late-night karaoke. If this was an average life for him, it was beyond average for her. Which ultimately meant she needed to get out more.

"I don't blame you," she said smoothly, brushing aside a strand of hair. "People and coffins shouldn't mix." A sardonic sniff ended that train of thought, as though the girl had found a kind of amusement. Not in him, of course. Being insane meant being in good company. Junpei should be glad.

And also willing to divulge more. She had become curious. "What's the reason behind them?"

[whos_da_man]

At least Greta had done as Junpei asked and pretended she didn't think he was crazy. Or, miraculously, actually didn't think he was crazy. Probably the first option, though. Before his own run-in with the Dark Hour, he would have thought he was crazy, too.

"The coffins? Hell if I know," he replied with a shrug. "I figure it keeps them safe and protected from the Shadows or something."