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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[its_the_mileage]

The shower (during which Indy didn’t talk to anybody; there were limits on times even he wanted to gather information in a place like this) was refreshing, and when the shift changed, a rebandaged and clean-shaven Indiana Jones made his way to the cafeteria and found himself a hamburger and a seat by himself. The bulletin board exchanges had cleared up most of the loose ends from last night (everyone was all right; no one had gotten anywhere; clear enough, although that latter point raised the question of why the hell not), but he was still hoping to run across some of the participants in the botched expedition. If only to confirm that he wasn’t going crazy.

He took a bite of the burger (done through but not too charred; not bad) and thought. That Captain Kirk fellow had given him plenty to think about. Right now, though, Indy pushed theories of alternate worlds and patient disappearances aside and focused on last night again. It was clear that his strategy-get everyone you can together and hope enough of them show up for a reasonable team-wasn’t going to work. Too difficult to coordinate, and traveling all together made them easy targets. What they really needed, if they wanted to get the basement or anywhere else explored, was probably smaller, more autonomous units that didn’t need him for direction. That had been Ryuuzaki’s strategy too (assuming he didn’t actually want a personal task force, of which assertion Indy still wasn’t completely convinced). The problem was the right leaders. To manage one of the groups in such a potentially dangerous situation, you’d need smarts, fighting skills, a cautious nature but the ability to act quickly in a crisis-in other words, Indy thought modestly, you’d need to be Indiana Jones. That was always the question in situations like this. Luckily, just like here, there were usually competent people around who could step up if needed. Usually.

[for Peter and Scott!]

[vsyourface]

Sitting down with Agatha for a bit had been good for Scott. For one, it reminded him that yes, ladyparts as they existed on actual ladies were not scary or out to get him. For another, the talk had just been kind of nice and casual. Scott felt like he didn't get nearly enough of that kind of talk in Landel's. Even with the people he considered his new friends, a lot of their talk inevitably just ended up being about escape plans and terrible nights and such. Not that he thought they ought to just stop trying to escape, but still. When could they all just stop, sit down, hang out, and shoot the breeze like normal people, he wondered?

Probably not today, at least, Scott thought with some disappointment when he spotted the (now-shaven) face of Indiana Jones nearby in the cafeteria. He was pretty sure that after a night like theirs, now probably wouldn't be the best of times to start swapping funny stories from home or complaining about the state of comic-book-to-movie adaptations nowadays. Still, he wasn't about to avoid the guy; despite what had been said on the board, Scott did still want to make sure Indy was okay, and to assure Indy in turn that he wasn't stuck in a constant fetal position after the whole boobs thing. Besides, even now that he was on more casual terms with the guy, Scott still had to think: who could say no to sitting down with Indiana Jones?

"Uh, hey." Scott waved with a hesitant smile as he came up to Indy's table. There was a brief, awkward silence from Scott before he set his tray down and slid into the seat opposite. "Soooooo. New way to the kitchen, then?"

[its_the_mileage]

As luck would have it--and "lucky" was a novel way of describing any encounter with Scott Pilgrim, but damn if Indy didn't find himself thinking of it in those terms anyway--Pilgrim came over and set his tray down across the table, followed a few seconds later by Peter Parker. Indy took a big bite of hamburger and tried to glance at them over it without being too obvious. Looked like they were both back to normal, just as advertised. It also looked like they were both a touch shy about it--not that Indy could say he blamed them. If he'd been turned into a woman, he might be inclined to be red about the ears the next day too.

"Yeah," he agreed with Pilgrim's suggestion once he finished chewing. He nodded to both of them and waved Peter toward the chair. "We could go around the back, get over the courtyard wall and into the kitchen that way. It'll take longer, and I can't guarantee it'll be much safer, but at least we'll avoid the Sun Room." Peter was right; It seemed like the wisest bet, especially with a group. Sometimes you got lucky going through there, Indy reflected. Most of the time you didn't.

He hesitated for a minute, studying the burger, then said awkwardly, "Sorry about that. Most of the time it's just a sword or a...you know, something small." He made a vague gesture at Peter to indicate whatever the hell it was he'd fought with. "Haven't run across anything yet like that girl." Indy picked up the burger again. His furrowed brow was as troubled as his voice. It bothered him, when the rules were broken that way and he couldn't reconcile them with anything he thought of as a proven fact of the universe. People changing into girls wasn't the half of it.

[vsyourface]

Scott nodded in understanding at Indy's apology; though he didn't want to admit it, he knew last night was partly his own fault too for suggesting the route in the first place and thinking it would be doable. Sure, he hadn't exactly wanted to run into someone like the Red Douche again, but a man with a gun definitely counted as "small" compared to, well, that. He had been nervous, but pretty confident that with a group like theirs, they could get past a threat in that room. No more. He would have taken on ten of Red Douche before confronting anyone like That Chick In The Dress again, especially in a closed space.

"Hey, it's not your fault. I mean, none of us knew something like that would be in there, right?" Scott assured the older man, which felt a bit weird to be doing. "At least no one got hurt super bad." He paused briefly. "Physically." A quick few shakes of his head. "Uh, and anyway! She disappeared in the end once she got caught on the floor, too. Nice one," he said to Peter next, reaching over and giving him a friendly bop on the upper arm.

It took a moment for Scott to realize that any sort of physical contact with Peter following last night was bound to result in a sharp, critical rise in awkwardness levels. Red warning lights and klaxons blared in Scott's mind as his hand moved in starts and stops right back to where it had been before. "Uhhhh. So yeah." He fumbled for words for a few more seconds before finally stumbling on something he ought to tell both of his tablemates. "Oh, if we want go it again from another angle, I can't do it tonight. My... a friend from home showed up today, so I'm gonna take her to get a weapon tonight."

[its_the_mileage]

"Yeah," Indy agreed shortly with Peter's suggestion that they split up. That was nothing he hadn't already thought of himself. "Your friend Logan--" that with a look at Scott, "--was the one who suggested two groups, one with about four people, but I'm not sure how practicable that is. We might just have to take our chances." At least last night had demonstrated that the two kids could hold their own, although Indy still wasn't crazy about the idea of putting them into harm's way without backup. Then again, he thought, Pilgrim was older than Indy tended to give him credit for, what with the dense act. Come to think of it, he probably owed them all a little more credit, Keman included. At a distance of more than twenty years, Indy sometimes forgot that he'd gone off to war when he wasn't much older than Peter.

He nodded at their mentions of other plans, unsurprised. He'd known it would be difficult to coordinate a group on consecutive nights, especially if the first attempt went badly. "Badly" was a real understatement in this case.

"Good idea," he said to both of them. "It'd be a bad idea to head down there without being prepared anyway. Get yourselves armed and rested, and we can give it another shot sometime in the future." Assuming they were still around to try it. Then again, other than the possibilities of getting killed or disappearing into thin air, it didn't look like they were getting out of here any time soon, Indy thought grimly. They had nothing but time on their hands.