Day 51: Lunch

[sanguinario]

Edward was glad to wake up to a period of respite. While he had been conscious during breakfast, he'd requested to remain in his room for extra "sleep", which had consisted waiting until the room was vacated to ingest the vial of Venom's blood. The vampire had lost his chance last night, but that might have been for the better; this way he wasn't

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[witchdetective]

With plans made for the night, Erika couldn't have been in a better mood. While Momo was ending up to be an oddly convenient piece on this board, she knew there was a purpose behind that; whether it was good or bad, Erika did not know. However, the girl didn't seem at all bothered by that possibility and might have even embraced it. This gameboard was a poorly set up one, but there was some hope for it yet. Unfortunately, now she had nothing to do but... wait.

Or did she? Certainly, there were still things to do. People to speak to, and new information to uncover. While Erika had done her best to map out the area as soon as possible, she was distracted by Marc's mission and neglected that; depending on how things went in the basement tonight, she might have to reprioritize mapping out the Institute's layout. Perhaps she should focus on that.

It would be easier to think if she wasn't served such terrible food. The all-American lunch was definitely not up to Erika's tastes as she collected her food and chose a seat at random, in front of a man who looked like he had just sat down to get started on his own lunch. Good, so she wasn't interrupting anything.

At least, if this place was in Japan, she would be able to eat the greasy death contraption with chopsticks and not have to dirty her hands. That was why Erika grabbed a plastic knife and fork, and with her tools, she began to cut into her burger like one might cut into a steak, bun and all.

As if she would dirty her hands with all of this disgusting grease. She had things to hold, after all.

"It's not one of my favorite meals, but I suppose there's no point in skipping lunch, is there?" Erika looked up at the man with a pleasant smile, seemingly unconcerned with her strange behavior.

[brooklynisangry]

"Huh?" Beelzemon looked up, swallowing a mouthful of food. "I dunno, 's pretty good!" Tasted totally different than the food he'd had in Tokyo, too. "Still don't get why they're giving us this stuff, anyway," he gestured with his half-eaten burger, "I mean, the guy upstairs ain't the nicest human 've ever seen." Nice humans were okay. Ones like that guy deserved to get pounded flat.

"Oh, right." Introductions. That thing. "'m Beelzemon. Who're you?" Not the most graceful attempt at introductions the world had ever seen, but he tried anyway.

[witchdetective]

... Manners. Erika did her best to ignore her companion's lack of them and instead continued to cut up her burger into neat pieces. As she completed her task, she gave Beelzemon a curious look. One might have thought it was from his strange name (it did bear a resemblance to a certain cheap paperweight that she knew), but it was actually from his teeth. His teeth were quite pointy, she noticed, but it was just a passing conversation. It was a little difficult to see the actual teeth with all of that burger and such stuck in his mouth.

"I'm sure Landel-san has an interest in keeping us alive, which is why he feeds us. Wouldn't you think so?" Erika offered her answer to Beelzemon's question, which of course was the correct one. Although they were pieces, they still had to eat. Landel-san must have enjoyed a realistic board, but it was a shame that his cafeteria chefs were nothing like Gohda. Then again, that man wouldn't be caught dead in an institutional cafeteria, wouldn't he...?

"Furudo Erika. I am a detective." Since Erika did possess manners, she did not let Beelzemon's introduction go unnoticed. There was something potentially interesting about what he said, actually, which was why she was more than happy to carry on the conversation.

"Have you actually seen the man upstairs, now that you mention it?" She was going to see him tonight, but there was no reason not to collect information before then. Knowledge and logic were the detective's tools, after all.

[brooklynisangry]

"Guess so. Still, people disappear all the time, right? So, why'd they bother if they're not gonna keep a lota people?" He wasn't complaining, he liked food, it came with being a Digimon, but still.

"Nah. Never seen the guy." He was right not to show his face here, cause Beelzemon and about umpteen million other people here would jump him the second they figured out who it was. "Don't think anyone I know has either, and I got a friend who's been here for a while."

[witchdetective]

People disappearing... That was the first time Erika heard of someone referring to it blatantly like that. It sort of made sense; what with monsters running around and such, a few people were bound to get killed. It wouldn't be a decent gameboard without some murders to help spur the mystery. So maybe it was the way he put it: 'disappeared'. And how nonchalant he sounded, like it was fact. Might it have something to do with the "sleep study" that Nunnally was forced into? She came back, but maybe she was one of the lucky ones.

"Isn't that interesting? No one has seen him, yet you all accept that he exists," Erika mused, though she wasn't exactly doubting the existence of Landel either. Not entirely; it was clear there was someone pulling the levers behind the curtain, but much like Oz, Erika knew a fraud was lurking behind that. The entity that was Martin Landel; the point of the board was to find out that illusion and crush it. She would expose this man for what he was, and if Momo was correct, she would be able to do that tonight.

Until then, she was left with clues to assemble. Why wait until tonight to find out the answer? That wasn't her style, when she could begin cracking that answer right now.

[brooklynisangry]

"Well, yeah. Certainly sounds like he does," Beelzemon pointed out, giving Erika a funny look. "And like people're causing him a load 'a pain in the behind, like they should." Too bad that pain wasn't from Beelzemon booting the guy out the door.

"And you're a detective, huh?" He'd heard it the first time, he'd just sort of forgotten to comment on it, since he was already focused on something else. "You'd prolly get along with a friend of mine." What with the being reserved and mysterious and everything.