Day 41: Lunch

[perfectrecord]

Just as von Karma started to enter the doorway leading to the Courtyard to look around for anyone remotely resembling his daughter, that pretentious lunatic's voice rang out over the Intercom, heralding the approach of lunch time. Right away, the damned nurse practically dragged him back into the cafeteria and towards the serving tables, telling

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[hailmegatron]

Lugnut half-hobbled into the cafeteria on his a-little-too-short crutches, a nurse by his side, and looked around for his lord, his liege, the most glorious of the glorious...

There was one other person, but he didn't think it was Megatron, and thus ignored him, instead standing at the end of a table (and ignoring the nurse's attempts to move him) and trying to look... big. That had been the identifying description he had given the glorious and wise Megatron, after all! And he did so, so, so want to see his lord and master and object of worship....

After a moment, the nurse sighed and took off to collect lunch for her uncooperative patient.

[MEGATROOOOOOOOOOOOON <3 ]

[oil_connoisseur]

[LUGGERS! ♥ Waking up irritability from here.]

Megaton had walked into the cafeteria with his hands braced on his hips, and began eyeing off the occupants of the room with an irritated exhale. His nurse made a similar noise, briskly walking off to retrieve what he assumed would be yet another plate of food.

Humans had to refuel so often. Due to the nature of the way body utilized its fuel... not all of it would be used, and there would be an unfortunate by-product of the entire ordeal.

Megatron could not help the involuntary face of pure disgust.

There were many humans in the vicinity, some small, some short, some brightly coloured, some with appallingly strange head fur, ah, hair, but which one was -

YesStanding tall, proud, and decidedly intimidating in comparison to the rest of the human population, Lugnut seemed to watch the room with a thoughtful gaze. Quite the novelty for Lugnut. It was interesting that the Quintessons had given him a human form that scaled back to his Cybertronian size. There was a possibility that they

[hailmegatron]

Lugnut had watched the human approach with growing hope in his spark, and the voice decided it-- it was without its usual mechanical overtones, but it was, it was...

Dropping his crutches, Lugnut thudded down to his knees, fingers curling against the floor as he knelt to his liege, head bowed.

There was so much he wanted to say, so much swirling inside of him, reverence and worship and hope and adoration-- he could hardly think at all, let alone think of what to say first.

"... Lord Megatron," he tried, looking up with something like reverence in his usually blank face. "I... What do you wish of me, o glorious one?" He bowed his head again, and saw that his hands were trembling. Why was he trembling? He clenched them into fists, trying to still them.

[oil_connoisseur]

If Megatron had any doubts before, Lugnut's move to utter subservience had confirmed it. Despite the different body, there was a familiarity in the way he held his newly discovered hands, not to mention the posture was the same - Lugnut, not matter how low he could drop to the ground, was never able to bring his shoulders down with the rest of his body.

"It is you." Megatron’s voice was cool and almost blank, concealing the slight grip of relief he had felt when Lugnut had began to speak. His prospects were suddenly not so grim. Between Lugnut’s brute-force and Megatron’s speed, there would be few literal humans within the facility who could stand up to either of them - the Quintessons and whatever surprise they held were another matter entirely. If Blitzwing truly had also been captured, his presence would be a helpful addition.

Megatron walked forward, to stand directly above Lugnut.

"I wish for you - " He halted, eyeing the crutches that had clattered to the ground, and Lugnut's bound foot. "What did you manage to do to

[ruthless_hunter]

Like usual, Lockdown got to the refueling room nice and early. If he got here early, there was always a dozen empty tables, and therefor he wouldn't be forced to sit with others.

The bounty hunter grabbed himself some fried and what he assumed were the chicken strips. He also decided to get himself a couple of sides, settling on some sort of slop consisting of stringy vegetables and thin, white sauce, and a salad from the salad bar. He used a different dressing than the one he got last time, remembering the horrible taste of it.

Lockdown seated himself on a small table, closest to the wall, hoping that his client would be here soon enough, and started nibbling on a fry.

[closed to Ichimaru Gin]

[traitors_smile]

Crawford had been interesting, to be sure, especially his views on the people of this place as a whole. Gin couldn't say he held many of the patients in high regard, and their herd-like behavior hadn't done much to change his opinion. Still, Gin preferred to make his changes from the inside, rather than the other way around. It was trickier, but that wasn't to say it couldn't be fun.

"LD" wasn't difficult to find either. With such obvious markings, he stood out enough to be as easy target, yet... in this place, people with markings or strange hair colors or anything of the type were almost a dime a dozen. He picked up his tray and took a decent helping before wandering over to the table.

"Aft'noon," he said as he set his tray down, not waiting for an invitation.

[ruthless_hunter]

Lockdown looked up when someone sat down with him. Like most of the humans here, he didn't look the least bit interesting. Was this his client? Only one way to find out.

"You the one from the bulletin who was interested in my services?" He figured that would be ambiguous enough in case this wasn't the guy; and if he was, he would get it right away.

[traitors_smile]

"That's me," he replied easily, as though it were just another conversation. There weren't too many in the cafeteria just yet; a mixed blessing. Not many people around to see them chatting, but then, there were more to come. Not that he cared all that much.

"Thought it might be fun t'stir things up a lil'. Think you'd be up for it?"

[razing_phoenix]

Though it had been a little on the awkward side, Guy was still glad he had gotten the chance to speak with Yuffie. It was a lot harder to resent someone when they actually had a face, a name, and a personality. He didn't want to go around resenting people and carrying those sorts of feelings if he could help it, since he knew far too well how destructive it could be. So in the end, he had gotten something out of it

[full_score]

Okay, so his conversation with his father probably could have gone a little better, but at least it hadn't gone worse. Then again, Dad had never really been the sort who thought the worst of people, much less had an explosive temper. Most importantly, though, Claude had gone ahead and cleared up the name issue, so hopefully it wouldn't be a problem later. If his father was wary of him now because of it, then with a bit of luck it'd clear up over time. Really, the whole thing had been awful stupid of him now that he thought back on it. But hindsight was 20/20, right

[razing_phoenix]

As usual, Guy hadn't had to wait too long before Claude made good on their appointment and showed up. He sent the younger man a smile that, while more certain that Claude's, was still mild.

He wasn't surprised by Claude asking after him, and sent a glance down to his hip before shrugging. "I'm well enough to get around, so that's what matters. But I got off the easiest out of all of us. How are you? Are you feeling any lingering effects of the poison?"

He knew the chances of that were slim, but it was best to check. Claude looked much better today than he had last night, that was for sure. It was good to see his friend's face in the light of day (even if it was only artificial) rather than pained and paling in a dark room.

Not wanting to jump to the chase too quickly in case the matter at hand was a sensitive one, Guy grabbed one of the "French fries" and started to nibble on it.

[full_score]

((lol airport wi-fi))Well, it was good to know Guy was holding up all right. Apparently no one else had suffered any effects from the poison after all. It was weird that Claude had been the only one who'd been poisoned, but he knew he ought to be grateful it hadn't happened to the rest of their group

[scintillatingly]

Even though Sora would have liked to talk with Artemis and Sai for a little longer, he was also glad to be out of the shower. It had been tough trying to get himself clean while also keeping the soap out of his wounds, but he had managed it well enough in the end.

Though he wasn't as dry as he would have liked since he hadn't had much time to towel off. With his hair and his shirt somewhat damp, he made his way back into the cafeteria and was reminded of how his mother had always warned him that he would catch cold if he ran around with wet hair. Destiny Islands had been so warm that it hadn't usually mattered, but just thinking back on it made the boy unexpectedly nostalgic.

He distracted himself by choosing out what to eat, grabbing for some of the chicken and then getting the macaroni and cheese as a side. It was a pretty good comfort food, which he was in need of considering his injuries.

Speaking of which, he hadn't seen Xigbar around yet today. He wasn't exactly worried, but he did have to wonder where the Nobody had

[sitard3d]

Demyx had been watching the bulletin board closely all day, and not doing much else. From the moment it had looked as though Xigbar might have vanished - or, even more worryingly, been killed - he'd been anxiously monitoring the messages. He'd only finally relaxed when Luxord had confirmed that Xigbar was still alive...but had also confirmed that the warning Demyx had meant to offer Sora was going to be coming a little late.

Still...better than nothing, right?

The Nobody wasted no time; after he spotted Luxord's note, Sora was the very next thing he made a beeline for, sitting down next to him without even thinking about being afraid, or pretending to be. And the kid looked kind of the worse for wear, he noted. "Xigbar attacked you?" he asked, without even offering any sort of greeting. "Already?"

[scintillatingly]

Just as Sora had worked up the appetite to start eating some of his macaroni and cheese, he was interrupted by yet another Nobody dropping by to talk to him. He glanced up, straightening in his seat and placing a hand instinctively at his injured side as he did so.

Sora was a little surprised that Demyx already knew about what happened. It was only lunch time! Does word really travel that fast? Then again, the Organization probably had a pretty good communication system, even here. Still, Sora hadn't thought Demyx was all that close to Luxord and Xigbar, so it's still unexpected.

"Uhh, yeah," he admitted, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Though it's not really 'already,' is it? I mean, he's been here for a while and so have I." In a way, it was more shocking that something like this hadn't happened a long time ago.

[sitard3d]

"Well, I just meant that he only mentioned it yesterday morning..." Demyx trailed off dispiritedly. "Well, I guess he didn't really mention it, but I figured out what he was hinting at anyway. But I didn't even get the chance to warn you first."

Damn it, nothing was going right. How was he supposed to handle this situation? Xigbar had apparently proved in one fell swoop that one, Nobodies couldn't be trusted and were still hostile towards Sora, and two, that the Nobodies still couldn't beat Sora in a fight. That was just great. The only thing that had gone Demyx's way was that Xigbar and Sora had both survived the night, no matter how roughed up they'd become

[unmocked_lawr]

Finding Fuchs was simple; after all, Javert never forgot a face, and he'd spoken to his former roommate often enough.

But this was an interesting case. He'd read notes on the bulletin board about patients disappearing and then returning without memory of this place; he'd thought Fuchs was gone for good when he'd found himself with a new roommate, nurse comments about illness and surgery aside. But the man's memory was still intact, if his note to Javert was anything to go by. There was something suspicious about this, and he was determined to figure it out.

There - sitting glaring behind a large salad. Javert, who had considerably fewer qualms about the food here, filled half his plate with salad and the other half with chicken and headed over.

"M. Fuchs," he said, setting his tray down across from the other man. "It's good to see you well, though I wish it were under better circumstances."

[perfectrecord]

At the sound of the familiar, accented voice, von Karma looked up from his salad (at which he had finally begun to nibble now that the nurse was no longer scrutinizing him) to see the distinguished countenance of his former roommate from directly across him. Almost instantly, the deep scowl on his face disappeared, replaced by a fleeting smile -- a rare genuine smile, rather than his usual cynical, sardonic one -- as he nodded to the man in greeting

[unmocked_lawr]

A stroke! One of the more ridiculous excuses he'd heard from the nurses so far. Javert didn't know of many people who'd survived them, and those who had had certainly taken more than a week to recover. Even men like him, unacquainted with the medical world as he was, knew that.

"My assistance is yours, M. Fuchs. There's no doubt in my mind that what the nurses told you is deeply suspicious. If we can determine what actually transpired, we may be one step closer to finding out how this place works."

He fell silent for a moment, counting back in his head to the night he had last seen the other man, and shook his head slightly. "However, on the subject of how much time has gone by - it has been exactly six days since I saw you last. In that respect, at least, the nurse was telling the truth."

[perfectrecord]

von Karma nodded in a tacit "thank you" to both Javert's agreement to help and to his answer, then took a moment to reflect on what was said as he ate more of his salad. So, not everything the nurse said was a ludicrous falsehood after all. Though it was possible that Mr. Javert was lying to him, too, all of the information that his former roommate had given him had proved true thus far -- including what he had learned about his former student.

"Indeed. That is why I wanted confirmation of the actual time elapsed from someone far more trustworthy than this staff. Especially since due to my having been unconscious for most of that time, it feels as though more than six months have passed since then