Day 31: Breakfast

[tsunagari]

And then he was back in his room again. Sai frowned at the ceiling momentarily, but was soon sitting up. He was back in the Landel's uniform again, which really saved him the trouble of having to change, didn't it

Comments

[vladville]

Vlad woke up with a wheeze like a death-rattle, but he woke up, and for now that was the important thing. There was something intensely unfair about the fact that he was in so much agony and hadn't even done anything wrong. Not even something so minor as taking something from the prison's stores. In fact, he'd really been on excellent behavior last night, which just went to prove that no good deed would go unpunished.

There was no time to linger in self-pity, unfortunately, as a nurse arrived with a wheelchair to carry him off for breakfast. Perky as always, and astonishingly failing to note anything at all strange about the fact that he'd gone to bed in perfect health and woken up half-dead. (Hah. Droll.) They weren't trying very hard at pretending all of this was truly an institute, were they? She did natter something about an 'accident', between bright forecasts of a beautiful day and a wonderful breakfast and rainbows with pots of gold and other things he managed to smile and nod at politely

[manhattan_red]

Brooklyn just shrugged at Vlad's question. "It's just weird, you know? Suddenly having all these people I can't place."

He couldn't help but smile and wave off the praise, if it could be considered praise, about his reading ability. Being self taught for the most part, it was a slight ego boost.

[vladville]

"Yes, it's a problem we're all dealing with, isn't it?" Vlad managed to nod sympathetically. Not that I've had much luck with the individual I do recognize here. "I suppose you could consider it a fourth category. Gargoyles, humans, fae, and 'everything else,' hm? There's too much diversity right now for everyone to get their own spot, I think."

Brooklyn's reaction to the mild compliment about his reading capacity was gratifying, if restrained. Whatever else, the younger man seemed receptive to praise. Vlad was a little tempted to ask for his age, but resisted the urge; he might not age as humans did, and then a number of years would be as useless as asking where Brooklyn was from. Though--gargoyles, from Manhattan, named Brooklyn? At least Brooklyn wasn't in a panic concerning the state of the moon, or anything awkward like that.

[manhattan_red]

That caused Brooklyn to chuckle again. "Yeah, I'm sure most of the patients here would really go for that. I could just call them 'Others.'" He shook his head. "I think I'll just give up on categorizing altogether. This place doesn't really seem to allow for it."

He leaned back a bit, running a hand through unruly hair. The nurses had tied it back in a loose ponytail again and he couldn't help but wonder if he should do something else with it. Perhaps he could ask Vlad? The other man seemed to know how to handle longer hair well enough. But it was just such an odd question to ask.

[vladville]

"It doesn't, does it?" Vlad agreed mildly. Watching Brooklyn play with his hair was a little odd. It was quite messy, like Daniel's, but otherwise resembled Vlad's hair in shade and in style. Vlad had gradually aged into the premature whiteness of his own hair so that it might have been natural, but Brooklyn's hair seemed to be the same, white-haired before a human normally would be. Then again, Brooklyn might be older than he seemed, or hair colors might not have the same rules for him. For that matter, there was no way of knowing if the young man (without knowing his actual age, Vlad still thought of him as 'younger,' intellectually if not chronologically) had hair in his usual form. Asking that might seem like an insult, and Vlad certainly didn't want to insult his good new friend here

[manhattan_red]

Brooklyn made an aggravated sound, pushing a few loose strands back behind his ear again. "I'm just not used to having to deal with it," he grumbled. And since Vlad didn't seem too weirded out about the reveal of what his true form was (probably didn't actually believe him, but whatever) he explained further. "Usually the horns and wings keep it in place."

He held both hands up to his forehead with the palms facing backwards, trying his best to show how his horns worked. "And my ears were large enough that there wasn't much room for it to fall forward, see?"

[vladville]

"Hmm." Vlad frowned and tilted his head (ow, blast it) then bent it back straight again, wincing. He thought he could get a mental picture of Brooklyn, at least. "Well, it could be worse. At least you're used to having hair; might have had nothing, or flames rising from your head, or something equally disconcerting. Some of the non-human individuals I've met have had traits like that

[manhattan_red]

The expression on Brooklyn's face went from unsure to downright weirded out as Vlad went on. All of those options sounded particularly... girly. He didn't want to come out and say this, however, on the off chance that he might insult is new acquaintance. Instead he just gave a rather unconvincing smile and nod.

"I'll, uh... keep all those ideas in mind." Now that he gave it more thought, he could deal with the few occasional loose strands. Girls went for wild, didn't they?