Day 40: Sun Room [Fourth Shift]

[clockmongler]

Well, that was... special. No wonder he was losing respect for this place--the fearful Martin Landel was coming undone, most probably with boredom. So scary. Even Nursey seemed a little exasperated, though that most likely had more to do with X's constant insistence to stay in the Sun Room rather than go inside the Greenhouse

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[thatdamnedninja]

"Ugh," Yuffie mumbled. Okay, so, face-planting into the bulletin board had not been on her list of Things To Do. Her little stunt had been more than worth it, and she'd do it all over again in a heart-beat… but she really could've done without the sedatives. Really.

Peeling herself away from the board, she shook her head. Pressed the heels of her palm into her eyes and scrubbed lethargically, then shook her head again. The sedatives sure were making it hard to feel properly victorious, but even that didn't quite keep the lazy, smug smile off of her face. For better or for worse, she'd gotten some recognition - as much as she could've hoped for. As cool as it would've been, she hadn't really expected to single-handedly spark a revolution right then and there. That hadn't been the point, anyway. She'd had a bit of fun. She'd done what she damn well wanted for once, instead of dancing along to the Institute's tune. By the time things had been drawing to a close, she'd been a little preoccupied… but before that, she hadn't missed some of

[thatdamnedninja]

As it happened, Yuffie could write straight. Barely. She'd managed to tack on a few quick messages here and there; fortunately, her handwriting wasn't all that neat to begin with, so it hadn't taken her half the shift. Urk, kinda felt like it had, though…

"You'd probably collapse if I s' much as poked you," she retorted, far less sharply than she'd intended, when a guy grumbled at her. "Let alone fall on you." Not that she'd do something dumb like that, anyway. Nope. Not her. She was way too cool, and now she had an appearance to uphold. Yuffie rubbed her eyes one more time, peering at the interloper from between her fingers. Crutches… Bulletin board… Wait a moment, why did that ring some bell in the back of her head? Had she seen him before, or…?

In a futile attempt to get the metaphorical cogs in her head turning, she dropped her hands and, quite unabashedly, began watching the guy and what he was doing. For a moment, she was kind of tempted to pretend to fall over -- on him -- because it really, really wouldn't be very

[fourtharcana]

While being outside earlier had been fun, Akihiko declined the offer to go out to the greenhouse that afternoon. Plants were not particularly his thing, and he had a little bit of a headache after that conversation at lunch.

Well, at least neither Ken nor the girls within earshot, or they'd have killed both of us, nurses and staff be damned - either figuratively or literally. At least that was reassuring. If there had been any chance of any of them hearing, he'd have been outside this shift despite the slight headache, just to avoid certain death.

He flopped onto a couch not far from the bulletin board, rubbing at one of his temples absentmindedly.

[So what he's really saying is 'please scare the crap out of me, Mitsuru'.]

[marin_karin]

Lunch had gone remarkably well. It added to everything that needed to be looked into, where the Institute was concerned, but at the same time it gave Mitsuru a much better idea of the situation before she'd arrived. She also had the name of someone to speak with, when she got a chance.

Mitsuru was debating whether or not to go outside for the shift when she spotted Akihiko on one of the couches. She'd been planning on speaking with him at the beginning of the night, but now would work just as well; she could get his impressions on these club leaders, and give him the assignment for the night at the same time. It could even test a theory; the less things were said on the bulletin, hopefully the less Landel would be able to interfere with them.

So she walked over to stand in front of the couch. "I wouldn't have guessed a headache would prevent you from trying to further your training in a greenhouse," she commented, giving him an amused smile.

[fourtharcana]

Oh, shi--

Akihiko sat bolt-upright on the couch, stammering out a very surprised "Oh, h-hi, Mitsuru. I, uh, well. You can't really run around in an enclosed space like that, you know?"

Okay. Keep it together. You can do this.

"So, uh. What's up? You look like you've had a good day..." He added a silent 'please don't kill me' to the end of the sentence.

[marin_karin]

Mitsuru quirked an eyebrow up at the stammer. Had he gotten into trouble of some sort that he didn't want her finding out about? Well, if so, it would likely get back to her at some point. She'd deal with it then. "I suppose not," she replied. "And it has been a fairly good day, all things considered. There's so much to learn about this place, but it's helpful. It's nice to see what others have gathered, from their own points of view."

She took a seat next to him on the couch. "You said you would be up for an assignment tonight, correct? How would you feel about seeing what's over the wall, and how far you could get?"

[rope_victim]

She felt better after lunch, and resigned herself to writing a thank-you note to Soubi later. Even if Alfons' disappearance was still painful, she could feel her nerves loosen slightly in relief. It seemed as though Soubi would do a good job on the picture, and she was certain that Ritsuka would enjoy it.

Miku decided that Soubi was a better person than she originally thought - at least until he said something perverted to Ritsuka on the board and the whole cycle began again. With a little laugh, and a bit of praise from her nurse for eating over half of her meal, Miku settled down on a couch and sighed.

Today had been entirely too emotional, it would be nice to have a quiet moment now.

[For Hikaru♥ and Kaoru♥]

[totallytheseme]

Hikaru was still in a very good mood after lunch. Sure, Tamaki hadn't been there either and fuck, that was worrying, but some girl had gotten onto the table and said everything Hikaru had wanted to say and more. She was, for the moment, his Landel's hero. Unfortunately, she was surrounded and sedated before he could tell her so. He really hadn't wanted to deal with the nurses, especially not when he moved at approximately the speed of stink, thanks to his crutches

[rope_victim]

"Oh, certainly!" Miku nodded and scooted herself into the corner of the couch, offering Hikaru wide berth. She hadn't been thinking very much, reaching for the quiet spot in her mind seemed to put other things to silence. The boy had been around a long time - just like she had, if she remembered correctly, and she smiled at him.

Nothing bad had happened to him, at least, nothing that she could see. "It's nice to meet you, I'm Hinasaki Miku," Miku bowed her head politely, and kept her feet curled under her. And then shot him with the long-inactive moebeam.

[totallytheseme]

"A pleasure, Hinasaki-san," Hikaru said with a slightly more Tamaki-esque bow. "I'm Hitachiin Hikaru. Nice to meet you." He shot her one of Tamaki's thousand-watt smiles and then decided that he needed to ease up a bit. He didn't want to come off as a complete skeeze.

"...Or that's what I would say if I were working, anyway," he amended cheekily, looking a lot more natural. "But I've been off the clock for...oh...three weeks now. So. Nice to meet you."

[oftemptation]

The strain from the prior shift was clearly evident on Endrance's face. For once, his nurse decided not to push going outside on him a second time; she allowed him to rest in the Sun Room, and he took that chance with only a silent nod in reply.

He sank down on one of the couches near the windows, and was surprised when not a moment later, he felt something small jump onto the couch next to him. He looked down and was shocked to see what appeared to be the same cat from the night before - white with dark-tipped ears, the spitting image of the smaller, frailer Mia - rubbing against his arm and purring.

"You..." Endrance trailed off, the words catching in his throat. He swallowed hard, just as the cat jumped into his lap and curled into a ball.

It was all he could do to look at her, really.

[The Video Game Addicts Anonymous meeting will now take place in the Sun Room. Matt, your attendance is cordially requested.]

[whohitreset]

Matt had hoped that the crowd in the sun room this shift would allow him to sneak quickly into the game room and out, but he was wrong. It was like the nurses were waiting for him to make this move. He was grabbed roughly on the arm by an orderly as the nurse rattled on about how they weren't visiting the game room that afternoon (such crap - they never let him in there) and he found himself seated none-too-gently next to a girl with unnaturally blue hair that had to be a dye job.

Or, hold it. Not a girl. Great. Not that it mattered. He crossed his arms and leaned back in the seat in a bit of what he knew was a childish huff. But so what if it was? They were bastards, all of them.

He wanted a cigarette. And a gameboy. And he hoped Mello had fallen off a cliff and died.

[oftemptation]

The cat in Endrance's lap drifted off to sleep, only interrupted when Matt sat down next to him. It meowed once, then turned in a circle and went to sleep again.

"You look as unhappy to be here as I am...I'd rather be playing The World right now." He sighed, looking in the direction of the game room. "You'd think they'd at least let someone check their email...or something...

...you know?"

[whohitreset]

If he'd still been uncertain about the gender of his new acquaintance, the voice cinched it. Definitely male. He gave the boy his attention, head resting on one arm.

"Yeah, that'd be nice." The way he spoke of 'playing the world' didn't make him sound like the world dominating sort, so he could only assume it was a sort of game. The mention of email and his glance toward the room Matt had tried to get in previously made him certain. Fellow gamer?

"What's this game, then?"

[thecamellia]

[Superboy!]

Spending a little time in the Greenhouse had been calming, and lunch had been quiet for her, but in a small way, the calm was almost as difficult to deal with as the terrible danger that came around at night.

Were the staff really a part of it? Were Michiru, and Thursday Next, and Toph somewhere safe? What had happened to the souls of the slain shinigami? And what about the faceless people on the intercom, who could sound so amicable and silly? Were the people she’d met here and the people she’d tried to rescue doing all right? Was… Black☆Star all right? Her parents, her friends, her home? Did they even know she was gone

[gottabetactile]

Kon was quieter than normal as he was led away after lunch. He still felt bad about Bart getting hurt last night, even if it wasn't that bad it was still something that wouldn't of happened if he'd said something or been there.

He didn't feel like going to the Greenhouse - he'd never done much gardening and didn't really feel like learning now - so wound up in the Sun Room. Which was boring but maybe he could check the bulletin board and... do something.

Wandering discontentedly over to the board, he paused as he caught sight of a familiar face standing in front of it. He hadn't spoken to Tsubaki since they had lunch together, not that he didn't think she couldn't take care of herself but it was good to see she was doing alright. Coming up alongside her, Kon said as cheerfully as he could manage, "Hey, babe. How's it going?"

[thecamellia]

Tsubaki turned at the sound of a familiar voice, drawn out of her musings. The spark of relief that came to life inside her brought a smile to her face. No one called her 'babe' except Superboy, and he was one of the people who came to mind when it came to her worrying about people's wellbeing

[gottabetactile]

Kon relaxed a little at Tsubaki's cheerful greeting, his grin becoming more sincere, though he was still feeling pretty bummed out. "Glad to hear it babe."

He shrugged off her question about him, not really wanting to talk about it. He'd been feeling great this morning but now, not so much. A distraction was always welcome though, if he started brooding and being all gloomy Robin would probably come beat him up for stealing his gig. And that would not be cool.

"A friend of mine from home showed up here the other day," he offered instead. It wasn't like anyone could've missed Bart's notices or not seen who they were addressed to so she should already know.