Nightshift 49: 2nd Floor Staff Lounge

[guardiancomplex]

( From here.Touya stepped through the door and stopped. He'd been in quite a few closets in his time of various kinds, and this was not a closet. Not unless Landel started storing couches and paintings of puppies in his closets. Did he take a wrong turn

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[shorttank]

[from here]

Leela stepped toward the rainy, creepy street, but her boot landed on dry ground, indoors, and on something that cracked under it. Once the room decided it was going to stay put, instead of being an unsoothing blur of soothing colors, she looked down. "Ew!" Broken glass, with what seemed to be blood on it. Elaine's commandeering of the bar from the closet was looking smarter and smarter by the minute.

"Look out!" she said, sure that anything remotely dangerous that could be crashed into or stepped on by Chise would be.

[time-skip alternative]

[cryingweapon]

Chise instantly crouched down to the floor when she heard Leela's warning. Once the room finally stopped swirling, she noticed the scattered pieces on the floor. "It looks like somebody was here before us. The amount of blood doesn't point to a serious injury, but I could be wrong. I hope they're alright."

While exploring the room, Chise was surprised at the huge difference the room was compared to the rest of the institute. Several big differences were the reclining chairs, a mini-fridge, a TV, a coffee tab--oh look! Cigarettes! Something that a certain red-headed-nicotine-addict she met on a bus a week ago needed. After taking the package of cigarettes, she discovered that there was only 8 sticks left, enough to last a week if whoever smoked them was smart.

[shorttank]

"Me too," Leela said. She'd thought before that nervous, scared humans running around was a recipe for disaster. Make that humans with weapons and no idea where they were landing next, and you had the olive in the disaster double diet martini.

For her part, Leela couldn't believe her eye--er, eyes. A coffee maker! "What do you say we take a little rest?" It would give Leela a chance to get some much-needed caffeine, and Chise a chance to get her legs back under her, and... smoke? Leela gave the girl a curious look.

[cryingweapon]

"That sounds like a good idea. I'm still a bit nauseous from walking through those doors," she replied, Sitting down next to the nearest recliner chair. Very comfy indeed. It was as if she was eating the delicious meat they served in the army.

Lifting an eye open, she noticed Leela's stare before glancing down at the cigarettes she was holding onto. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know you want one. I'm just holding onto these for somebody else. Do you smoke too?" In Chise's eyes, Leela didn't look like the type who smoked often. But then again, she could be wrong about that.

[shorttank]

"Oh, no, I don't smoke. I try to limit my vices to ones that won't actually kill me." She smiled, and had to wonder if there was booze anywhere in the hospital. Probably not. If she knew anything about teenagers, and she'd been one twice, so she definitely did, half the patients here would've had bottles in their closets, and would be loaded within minutes of the doors opening. Liquor really was wasted on the young.

She left her flashlight on the table (forgetting it wouldn't turn off by itself), took the machine over to the counter, and gave it a suspicious look. "Coffee, please."

Nothing. Not even mockery. Was she really that far back? Leela knew she hadn't landed too far off from the invention of the suicide booth. Well, that was fine. How hard could making coffee the old-fashioned way be? Oh. It would have to be the really old-fashioned way, with the lights out.

"I don't suppose you have two sticks?" she asked Chise.

[cryingweapon]

So it was a week supply of cancer sticks for Badou then. Hopefully he won't die a painful death from lung cancer while inside the institute.

Chise could only tilt her head in confusion when Leela started talking to the coffee machine. Was she trying to use the coffee machine? From the look of things, Leela must have come from a world where machines were operated via voice commands.

"No I don't, but I think I can help you with that coffe maker," she replied. "I'm used to seeing people buy canned coffee from vending machines, but it shouldn't be too hard to operate this coffee maker." After 5 minutes of pouring hot water, searching for the coffee mix and filter, spilling said coffee mix on the table, turning the machine on, Chise had succeeded in making a fresh batch of coffee. "I'm sorry if it's a little sloppy since I rarely use coffee makers back home."

[shorttank]

"Oh, you're a life saver, Chise." Still a bit cautious, because you never did know when machines might decide to revolt, Leela poured a Styrofoam cup's worth of coffee. If nighttime was the only time the patients had to themselves, she was willing to sleep-deprive herself to make the most of it.

She decided she needed to approach the topic of when and where Chise was from, since she knew her way around a coffee machine much better than Leela herself did, and that was a skill that made friendship very appealing. It would take subtlety and finesse, an awareness of how people generally weren't open to the bizarre, and how they usually tended to put the 31st century in that category.

"Coffee machines don't talk where you come from, do they?"

Yes, Leela was a master--mistress--paragon of subtlety. Fortified by caffeine, she picked up her flashlight, ready for some more exploring. "And I'm ready whenever you are."

[cryingweapon]

"I don't think so, I've never encountered a coffee machine that talks," she replied. "Right now, everyone is pouring their money into military funds so there's no need to add voices to coffee machines."

Once Chise was ready, she opened the door and stepped out first.

[cryingweapon]

[portalling to here!]