Day 53: Lunch

[buryyourdemons]

There was little to be said of the daily business that went on. He allowed himself to be shuffled, mind embedded too deeply in things he shouldn't be dwelling on. The night was over, the shadows had vanished, and there was little more than bad memories to be left in their stead. This was logic, pure and simple, and should have been reassuring but

Comments

[unheroed]

Even if it hadn't necessarily done him any good on a practical level, meeting Ema Skye had still been interesting. It went to show how different siblings could be from each other; if it wasn't for the physical similarities, Harvey never would have guessed that she and Lana were related. On the other hand, Ema was still young, and a lot of young people had the same qualities. They were excitable, naïve, and oftentimes annoying. All things considered, Ema hadn't been so bad, and more than that...

She had been through something traumatizing and hadn't come out of it hating the world or herself (at least, not as far as he could tell). And that wasn't something that Harvey could claim about himself, was it?

With that thoroughly depressing thought, the bandaged man was led back into the cafeteria. He hated how so much of their day was centered around eating when he wasn't even allowed to have any solid food. Still, he'd been stubborn and had boycotted having any of his nutritional shake at breakfast, so he was going to have to suck it up

[thatdemonbitch]

Her first instinct upon walking into the cafeteria was to beeline for Sam and make sure she could finish up her explanation from that morning, knowing she wouldn't be able to if she planned on prowling around with the Hardy Boys that night. Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do but stand awkwardly near the food line after grabbing her tray (holding a slice of pizza on a plate, because there wasn't a demon in Hell who gave a fuck about dietary options) as she saw Dean also beelining for the table. Unfortunately, he appeared to have the motivation to make it there faster

[unheroed]

When a woman he didn't know sauntered up to him, Harvey watched her over the lid of his protein shake, already guessing that she wasn't the sort of person he was going to enjoy talking to. She was walking over to him with purpose, like she knew exactly what she wanted from him. Harvey had a guess for what that was, and he already wasn't in the mood for it.

The comment she gave in greeting was one he'd heard before, and if she thought that she was edgy for saying it then she had another thing coming. He would have rolled his eyes if he were able, but instead he finished his sip of his drink and then set the cup down.

"How observant of you," he said, tone somewhat biting. Then again, this wound wasn't the sort that was going to heal, so those "better days" were more or less a thing of the past. Besides, with the people he cared about dead, Harvey had to admit that there wasn't much he had left to live for. Just revenge, and right now Landel was at the top of that list. He couldn't get to everyone else until he got out of here. He

[thatdemonbitch]

The bitterness seeping out of him probably would have discouraged most people, but not Ruby. Instead, it just piqued more intense interest -- sure, she supposed, if half her face was blown to hell she wouldn't be too thrilled to have people commenting on it, but that didn't mean it was going to stop her from doing it. Not that she precisely made a hobby of that kind of hypocrisy, but she was willing to subscribe to it when it best suited her interests

[toxicspiderman]

They come in slices? Landel wasn't even fucking trying any more. What the fuck? Either something was wrong, or he was bored. Either way, S.T. wasn't signing up to play Velveteen Rabbit. They'd all been real all along, even the ones straight out of kiddie books. They didn't need Landel ejaculating all over them on a video monitor somewhere to know they were alive

[scalyfishman]

The upside of talking to Maya was that it came as a timely reminder to Depth Charge that there were people around here he could rely on to take care of themselves- she seemed smart and competent enough, from what he'd seen of her, and having two sets of logic circuits to rub together went a long way in a place like this. Then again, he'd thought the same thing about Hime

[toxicspiderman]

Well, there went the usual conversation opener. Name, rank, and favorite form of greasy fried thing were out as well, since the guy attached to the scowl was one of the few people S.T. knew well enough to answer that. (Depth Charge, giant fucking robot, and some toxic cocktail unique to giant fucking robots

[scalyfishman]

There. The look he got for that one was suitably sympathetic, if a little curious for a moment, but the man didn't take the bait. Depth Charge had figured that S.T. wouldn't start asking any overly-intrusive questions- it was good to see he hadn't been wrong. The last thing he needed to be doing right now was giving a play-by-play account of the second glorious freak-out of his stay here. He already owed the Scarecrow an explanation, and that was good enough for him.

Not that the question he did end up throwing out was much better. He gave another sigh, more irritated than anything this time but not aimed at anything in particular- that was happening a lot, he'd noticed. He was starting to feel like a 'bot with its tracking sensors cut at a shooting range, ready to charge but without the faintest idea of where to point the gun. "Zip. Might catch up with Search and Rescue, see if they need an extra hand tonight. Who knows? Maybe Marc'll throw us another bone already," It sounded like so little, but it was something. Not doing anything

[scarletspeedstr]

Okay, seriously? Wally was getting a little sick of the whole 'waking up with his blankets wrapped around him like some sort of weird cobra' thing. Either he was running in his sleep a lot more than normal - though really, he couldn't really blame himself for doing that, since he wasn't even sure when sleep happened in this place - or his bed was actually some sort of monster that tried and failed to eat him of a night

[tasteoftruth]

Gant had given Badd a lot to think about, and not just through his words. If he was right this wasn't just a randomly selected loony bin, but somewhere deliberately used to get rid of people. And if von Karma, a man who should have been hung years ago, was still here then something deeply nefarious and far larger than Badd was going on. Of course was always the option that Gant was insane, or pretending to be insane, or just flat-out lying for some hidden reason. That was why traitors went to the ninth level, they made the entire world untrustworthy after they were exposed

[scarletspeedstr]

Wally blinked as someone suddenly dropped into the chair opposite and shoved their tray aside.

"...uh, hi to you too?" he tried, not that he was really expecting much of an answer or a conversation at all with an opener like that. Still, he thought as his eyes drifted to the neglected tray, it wasn't like this sort of thing didn't have some benefits...

Shrugging casually and doing his best to look like this was totally normal, really, don't even bother asking questions about it, Wally started lifting the guy's lunch onto his own plate.

"So, bad day?"

[tasteoftruth]

Badd stared, mildly perplexed, as his lunch began to disappear. "I've had better," he commented dryly, pulling his soda close in case the man decided to commandeer it as well. He seemed more functional than the druggie kid from earlier, but that was no guarantee he'd be a good conversationalist. "So is taking people's food just your thing or are you worried about the government putting nanochips in your pizza?"

At least he didn't seem the dangerous kind of crazy. He'd seen a few people yelling at the nurses but little overt violence, so this didn't seem to be a ward for the criminally insane. And with the way the nurses kept a close eye on everything Kay probably wouldn't be in immediate physical danger unless they directly wanted her to be.

On the bulletin, if that had really been her, she'd sounded safe and reasonably happy. That was only the mildest of comforts.

[see_my_back]

She was two for two now on new patients, but hopefully the information she'd given them would prove useful. If nothing else, she took note of their names and intended to check up on them again come tomorrow morning. With any luck, they'd still be around

[sasuke_of_sound]

[SORRY THIS TOOK FOREVER OTL]

Sasuke was getting seriously sick of blinking. At the level of absolute immediacy, it was the apparent root of many of his problems recently -- involuntary bodily instinct, something that had served him little but benefit as a shinobi until now -- and it was utterly unavoidable, the sensation of blinking particularly deeply and opening his eyes again to having missed another twelve-hour chunk of time. A chirpy nurse scolding him for sleeping in; a terse note on the bulletin board that let him know he'd broken his word.

Absences, comings and goings, control scraped clean off the board. Something had happened last night, and for all that it was cowardice Sasuke couldn't avoid a sense of relief at having missed it. There might have been information worth noting, but the Institute had chewed down one too many sore points in recent days -- something that was in itself information, the fact that Landel (or whoever really had charge here) knew howWeeks ago, Sasuke had first asked that of someone who was now

[see_my_back]

Seemed luck was in her favor today. As hard as it was to get in contact with her teammates sometimes, once in a while she caught a break. Whether or not Sasuke still considered himself a part of their team, she had never ruled him out. So when the nurse led him over, she scooted her tray closer and moved over a couple of seats until she was sitting beside him. Daring perhaps, but this place hardly afforded her the luxury of being shy.

"It's Sakura," she said quietly, looking him over for any obvious injuries. She might not be able to be around him as much, but it didn't mean she couldn't help where possible.

"I haven't seen you in a while. Run across anything interesting?" she tried, looking hopeful. She slowly flipped her journal open to the page she'd pressed her paper flower into. She'd meant to give it to Sasuke almost a week ago, but hadn't managed to find the courage to say anything. It was a mess of tissue, pipe cleaners and glue, but Hanatarou had helped her make it look passable as a flower.

[sasuke_of_sound]

Sometimes Sasuke wondered if the nurses didn't know every aspect of their supposedly imaginary lives and play them off each other with that knowledge. Surely it couldn't be coincidence that he wound up running into Konoha-nin half so much as he did. As much as he was aware that the staff here transformed into just another bevy of monsters -- with the exception of Muraki, who had vanished and returned as a patient -- and abruptly Sasuke remembered the man he'd killed the other night --

The fool's own fault, without a doubt. The fool's and the sudden difference in languages; the fool and Landel, then. The greatest fool. What little appetite Sasuke had faded completely and he pushed his tray away, resisting the urge to wipe his hands clean (of nothing, the ooze and stench of blood growing stronger, more familiar).

What had Sakura asked?

"Very little," he said, short and honest and irritated at himself for it. Time had been stolen in handfuls rather than pinches, patches of nothing filling the spaces between one death or the next. "

[vodka_jump]

So far Ivan hadn't had a lot of luck in finding new friends to come with him tonight. He would have to remember to talk to TK over the bulletin if he couldn't find him in person. And maybe England and the others too. Depending on how many of them were still alive of course. England had already been injured. Maybe he'd been picked off at night too. But asking the nurses where England was only earned him strange looks as he was hurried off to lunch

[deadlyjuliet]

Pizza? Ugh. That grease would ruin his complexion. Would it kill them to have something just a tad bit healthier and more suited to keeping his girlish figure? Honestly! Most of the people here were international detainees anyways, so why didn't they do something more with the menu? And by more, Grell did not mean Americanize everything under the bloody sun. Wasn't the Empire supposed to stretch from one end of the earth to another

[vodka_jump]

When he finally did get another patient sitting near him, he didn't even seem all that interesting. Was that an English accent? Might explain some things. He even seemed to have injured his shoulder, just like his unfortunately weak country. There'd been a time, of course, when he'd admired England and all he did, despite being such a small country. But that was past and like so many other things, long behind him.

"Be my guest friend," he smiled lightly as he glanced over the other, offering his hand, "Ivan Braginski."