Dayshift 31: Game Room (Fourth Shift)
"Games are a perfect way to meet new friends, Akihiro!" Sousuke's nurse gushed after dragging him away from Hinasaki and into the Game Room. He didn't quite understand her fascination with making him do these ridiculous activities that seemingly had no point, but for now he'd follow her lead. He didn't want to be sedated again, not when he had a
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It was more out of curiosity than anything else that Scar entered the so-called 'game room', though his entrance had yet to enlighten him of its purpose. Because, apparently, human games were different than the games he played when he used to be a mere cub.
These games didn't involve rolling over the ground while biting on anything you could get your teeth on. At least it was an improvement, in that regard.
The nurse had given him what she called 'a deck of cards', though the former lion wasn't quite sure what to do with them. The nurse's explanation before running off to attend to the next patient wasn't quite helpful, either. He picked up a card that had both a heart and an 'A' on its surface, looking at it with mild interest.
On the bright side, at least he could practice picking them up. Bending his 'fingers' was still an alien gesture for the King.
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He'd used to be such a loner, but now... Now, he had people he needed to take care of and he couldn't fail them for any reason.
And so, Scar made his way into the Game Room, thinking that River, at least, would be more likely to show up there rather than the Sun Room. He didn't see anyone when he entered, however, and found himself forced by a nurse to sit down near some stranger along with some comment of playing 'go fish.' Scar didn't listen, sitting with his arms crossed and looking towards the door as soon as the nurse left.
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Well, at least there was a chessboard here. And the nurse, insipid as she was, knew how to set the board up so the poor wheelchair-bound man didn't have to do it himself. Black for him, white for... well, for the moment, also him.
Reaching across the board to move the pieces was a little bit painful, but at least one of Vlad's shoulders hadn't taken quite so much of a hit last night, and he used that arm to stretch. It did feel a slightly strange to be playing by himself in public, but he wasn't about to ask the room in general for company, and besides, everyone here seemed to be busy enough. Drawing, talking, picking up cards...
Nonetheless, the nurse was looking at him a little oddly. Well, conindering that the woman's voice was apparently perpetually helium-infused, she didn't have much space to be criticizing others' ways of spending their free time. He'd have invited her to join, except Vlad doubted her ability to provide more of a challenge than his own game.
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And it looked like a lot of people had the same idea, since there were a number of people in the room when the small girl arrived. It wasn't easy deciding who she should talk to, but then, Ururu saw someone who was doing something rather curious. Most board games she'd seen were played with two people, but the man looked to be playing by himself. Did that mean he was lonely?
At any rate, Ururu thought he looked like it hurt each time he had to stretch, and that was no good. Deciding that maybe she could help, the girl headed over to the man and his chessboard, looking up at him innocently.
"Hello. My name is Ururu. Are you okay?"
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Was he wearing a cologne that was especially attractive to children today? Particularly ones who made stupid observations or asked stupid questions? 'You were angry last night after being very thoroughly beaten!' 'Are you okay, person in a wheelchair, covered in bandages?' In fairness, most of them were under his clothes, only a hint of them showing around the edges of the sleeves. Daniel hadn't really aimed for his arms, and... he hadn't thought before, but it was odd that his face wasn't bruised more than it was. At least some lingering effect of how changing forms could repair the body? He could hope.
With that optimistic thought, he mustered up a friendly smile. Or maybe she's like your nurse and has some problem with people who play games solo. "Yes, I'm all right, thank you, my dear." Idle curiosity inspired the addition, "Do you play chess?"
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"No. What's chess?" Ururu tilted her head to the side, looking at the board curiously. It looked a lot like a checkerboard, except that the pieces were much taller, and none of them were red. "Is it like checkers?"
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Games room, huh? Kenren thought it might provide a little amusement at least. Something to pass the time until night came and he could have some fun of a different kind.
He walked into the room and scooped up a pack of crads. No Mahjhong unfortunately (and he frowned because Mahjhong had never been his game) but he sat down and began laying out a game of solitaire. Not as good as poker perhaps, or any kind of gambling, but better than nothing unless someone showed up to play.
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"Kenren!" she announced happily, not showing to be the slightest bit drugged as she went over to him.
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"Hey there kid," he said, leaning back in his chair comfortably. "Glad to see you looking better today."
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Games. Man, Xigbar needed some sort of entertainment. Somehow. The talk with Kenren was great and all, but what was the point in the end? Landel's. Was. So. Boring.
The Freeshooter occupied himself by taking a deck of cards and building a card house... then idly knocking them all down, to start again. Boring, but so was anything else. He didn't have a heart to be interested in anything, after all. Knowing his luck, ZEX probably wasn't going to be that colorful a character either. If Xigbar's guess had been right, then he already knew what made the guy tick... and where was the fun in that, really?
"Just gotta make it to night time," he quietly muttered to himself, "it'll get interesting then..."
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ZEX went over what Xigbar had mentioned in his note... grey streaks, one eye... shouldn't be too hard to identify, right? Would he be pretty? ZEX hoped he'd be pretty.
There, he finally got a glimpse of someone that had to be the right one. Quite a change from the other humans he'd seen so far... this one looked somewhat battered and scarred. How fierce he must have been! This was intriguing in a very different way.
ZEX approached, limping just slightly from the bang to his shin at lunch. One of their eyes was covered... it made him feel a bit more comfortable.
"Are you Xigbar?" ZEX asked, attempting a human smile with his usual clumsiness. "I'm Admiral ZEX, from the message board?" It was hard not to follow that with Please do not be frightened, but circumstances were very different here than on Cerenkov.
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...and huh, first impressions said that wasn't going to be the case. Something about ZEX was just off, and as a former psychologist-dude, it was Xigbar's duty to figure out what that was.
"Hope you don't mind me talkin' to you out of the blue, but I was talking to your 'delectable Captain' at breakfast an' he made you sound pretty interesting. So I thought I'd see if he was right."
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"I'm pleased to meet you as well!" ZEX tried to mirror his grin with unreliable success. "You did make me very curious, and I certainly don't mind any sort of attention from humans. Especially one as unique as yourself."
Ah, the Captain! One of his favorite topics. "Ah yes, I recall you mentioning that earlier. He's so beautiful, isn't he?" ZEX sighed fondly. "Ah, I hope he didn't give the wrong impression about me..."
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Momo was now quite worried about Signum's absence. She'd been worried the night before with the knight having been involved in the riot and knowing how sadistic this place was, but now she was considering trying to track her via spirit thread. Signum wouldn't appreciate it and Momo would be breaking her word, but the need to know if the knight was alright overrode any of that in the shinigami's mind. The knight hadn't reported in and that felt like a solid rock in the shinigami's belly.
She just hoped Signum would come walking in the door any moment.
Momo was also worried about Saber, as she hadn't seen the woman at all, and she did want to ask her a few questions about Archer. And if neither showed, well, Hokuto would as she'd at least been seen a couple times throughout the day ( ... )
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She looked up from her journal as Hokuto spoke, a small smile coming to the vice captain's lips. Her eyes immediately moved past Hokuto as she looked to see if Signum and Saber were following behind her.
Nothing - just another nurse.
The small smile stayed on her face, but it immediately left her eyes and, for a moment, Momo really seemed her age with the tension and weariness in the corner of her eyes.
"Please sit down, Hokuto-chan," Momo said, her voice even. It seemed like Hokuto wanted to be elsewhere, so the shinigami would move things along quickly, especially since the gnawing in the pit of her stomach, warning her something was very wrong, was increasing.
"Tell me about last night."
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She noticed that Momo wasn't as cheerful as usual, either, but didn't know what to say. Whatever was going on, it wasn't good, but--that was nothing new.
I want to go home... She closed her eyes, doing her best to still her mind. She couldn't, and she knew that, and she couldn't let herself dwell on it.
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