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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[host_club_honey]

Honey felt a lot better after cleaning up and talking with Kaoru. He just hoped the other felt better too. He made sure to get Usa-chan back before he was led into the cafeteria again.

The food was okay, and he took a decent helping of the normal stuff before seeking out anything sweet. Macaroni and cheese wasn't too bad, but it tasted a lot like the commoner stuff. He looked for a table, but there weren't even any cute girls to cater to since he was pretty early. Well, he'd just have to wait a little while and see who showed up. He set his tray down and climbed into his seat, Usa-chan in his lap.

[Yuffie will be by eventually to steal a couple posts and drop off candy, but open to anyone who wants a cute little Loli-shouta? :D]

[mukuchi]

He felt...sluggish

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie managed, somehow, to sweet-talk her nurse into letting her run back to her room quickly. It'd only take a second, she promised! Just a second. She just wanted to grab a pen - see, the one she'd been using had run out already! Okay? Okay. Despite the nurse's increased vigilance, she still wasn't any match for some good old fashioned ninja tricks; the candy was soon palmed, and Yuffie was soon sauntering into the cafeteria.

There weren't many people around yet, but that was just fine with her. It'd give her a nice head-start before her meeting with the snuggle-bunnies -- uh, the Turks. She actually felt up for that now, at least; chatting with Guy had been hella awkward and occasionally jerked on her nerves, but it… it'd been good to talk to somebody, she had to admit. Not to a therapist. And not to somebody who really knew her. So, despite her anger at Landel, despite all the other messed up feelings… she actually felt kinda good. And that was neat.

Well, it also gave her a couple of minutes to run a little errand

[host_club_honey]

It took a lot to get the better of Honey. Usually he had no problem keeping up his happy and energetic attitude. Sweets helped of course, but when people he cared about got hurt, that was just too much. When he saw Takashi being escorted in, he watched with concern as the other boy went through the lunch line

[not_rly_fai]

He hadn't had near enough time to talk with Ururu, but he could always post to the bulletin board and find out if she wanted to meet up or not. He followed his nurse inside and picked up a tray, taking what they gave him, and as usual, a large glass of juice.

There were plenty of empty tables, so he picked one, having no real preference since the number of patients in the room was still fairly few. It seemed a little warm inside after being out in the chill, but he did his best to focus on his meal, a soft smile on his lips.

[Free for threading. Limit: any]

[himetsuru]

[disrupting Fai's meal briefly, then she's off.]

Falis, damp hair handing down her back, bypassed the food line and went straight to Fai's side. Without a word, she reached a firm hand out with the intent to turn his face to her so she could get a good look at it - specifically, his eye. The hunter needed to monitor her future kill's progress as he turned.

[not_rly_fai]

Yuuhi nearly spilled his juice glass when the girl from the other day showed up. She went straight to putting her hands on his face and he was so stunned, he made very little motion to stop her. After a few twitches he held still, both eyes glancing up at her.

"Ha... Nice to see you again too?" he said, not bothering to hide the surprise in his voice. "You know, most places they do say hello first, I think."

[himetsuru]

Falis' lips curled up into a sweet smile. "Hello."

She then narrowed her eyes, the smile gone, as they bore into Fai's. How much further had he progressed? Had the gold spread? Was he thinking about biting her freshly showered and slightly exposed neck? Any vampire or soon-to-be bloodsucker would want a bite of her given what she was.

Sadly, she didn't expect him to.

[littlestrawdoll]

[free and limitless~ like the horizons of the sky! dur]

The doll hoped everyone else was doing their part in not letting the Head Doctor’s overdone cheer get under their skin; he sure was. He came out of the courtyard obediently at his nurse’s assistance, changed slippers, and strolled into the cafeteria with one hand ruffling his hair.

Ren wasn’t one of the hungry--breakfast felt too fresh in his mind and stomach--but he took a tray and put some fries and chicken strips on his plate. And an apple, for good measure. The mac and cheese, though, that was very down-to-earth, and the servant left it alone, opting instead to take what he had and sit.

Cafeteria hadn’t filled up much yet; he was ahead of the crowd. He took a seat on his own, noting Javert and the familiar faces, and nibbled the end off a chicken strip in inspection. Not that bad…

[for_marian]

It wasn't that Leon wanted to talk to Ren, but the other man had helped him out with his errand and not gotten anything out of it, so it felt like Leon owed him at least a little bit. The aid with the bird creature had been unasked for and unwanted, however it had turned out in the end, but these past two nights that they'd been working together had been in the understanding that it was to mutual benefit--and Ren hadn't benefited.

And now there was the complication of Stahn's arrival. If the blond moron found out Leon was "friends" with Ren, he'd no doubt run off at the mouth at the first opportunity. "Ren."

[littlestrawdoll]

The lyrics of the song he’d been murmuring to himself earlier came back to him while he was taking a drink of milk to help wash down his food, and he ran them through his mind while he sat, watching the others. Not the last recorded words--those had been added in later--but the originals as he remembered them, making it a strange song to ever sing in front of a group of historical Japanese figures from Earth…

He had one arm propped up on the back of the chair when Leon came over, slouched comfortably, any residual signs of his talk with Maki long gone. It was the sound of his “first name” that really got his attention--and one would think it wouldn’t, considering how many people had uttered it at one time or another while he was in disguise--but somehow coming from Leon it felt almost… suspect.

“Hey,” the doll acknowledged, dropping the strip of chicken to his plate. “What’s up?”

[for_marian]

Leon ignored Ren's attitude of repose and continued on talking like he hadn't interrupted anything or ruined Ren's apparent good mood--not that Leon could ever really tell what Ren was actually thinking. "Someone from my world arrived today."

For more than two weeks, Leon had been here alone. Blessedly alone. And now, of all people, Stahn had arrived. He'd known that things had been going too smoothly lately, but this was a bit much!

[braidless]

Obi-Wan had spent the better part of last shift meditating, which helped clear some of the left-over fog that had still been clouding his senses. He'd obviously been out of commission far too long. It would probably do him well to be more alert in the coming days. Not that Obi-Wan considered himself to be careless, but apparently he hadn't been careful enough, either

[secret_orchard]

Going back inside was a bit of a disappointment, but Armand knew better than to protest. He simply bit his tongue and kept his eyes down. It was so easy to get annoyed at the staff here now. He reviewed the conversation he'd just had and wondered if being so frank had been a good idea, but then again, it wasn't as if he had much choice about his honesty either. The nurse was still following her campaign to fatten Armand up, and piled chicken and potatoes on his plate. She didn't object when he added salad and chose to drink water. With all this, he still worried he'd be fat in a few short days

[gothamnight]

With the exception of those with Wally, meetings for Bruce Wayne always seemed short, rushed, and to a point, futile. There were typically very few matters of substances discussed, few ideas exchanged, and even fewer plans made. The knowledge that whatever organization had created this "Institute" was formidably intricate and difficult to crumble had been enough for Bruce to take the "lack of progress" with a grain of salt, but in the light of Clark's death nothing seemed enough.

Nonetheless, meeting with Statesman had been...useful. Not a distraction, at least. Cowl or no Batman did his best work with the mask off; the amount of "useful" his conversation with Statesman had been was enough to testify to that. Batman the detective became with each step towards the cafeteria Bruce Wayne the billionaire, but this time more than ever Bruce was forced to consider whether it was the masks that kept him from doing. Whether, if only he'd been able to make that crucial step and throw the billionaire aside, perhaps he would've gotten

[braidless]

((Still on hiatus, but am taking advantage of airport wi-fi. \o/))

Even as the nurse practically shoved the poor man into the chair near him, Obi-Wan made sure to keep a pleasant demeanor. It not only put the staff at ease, but it tended to help smooth over a potentially awkward conversation.

"Not at all," he replied with a quiet, polite smile. "I'm afraid I've had to keep to myself the past few days, so the extra company will likely do me some good." He took a small sip of his water. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. St. Just. You may call me Ben if you'd like."

He generally didn't like going out of his way to hide his true name, but he had to consider what he needed to do to avoid unwanted attention. It was still strange to think that his name was so well-known on such a backwards planet like Earth, and yet Obi-Wan knew he had no choice but to accept it for now.

It wasn't long before Mr. St. Just's other companion appeared, and Obi-Wan gently inclined his head in greeting.

[fourtharcana]

[closed to Kanji at first for Emperor Arcana bonding time; possibly open to canonmates after the first few posts.]

Damn. Well, Aki thought as he walked through the cafeteria line, it could be worse. He could have all of S.E.E.S. pissed at him, not just a few members. And Mitsuru had jumped in before things had gotten too much worse. The trick now would be getting his temper completely cooled down before night began.

Well, maybe food would help. It wasn't the beef bowl he'd normally go for at a time like this, but protein was protein, and at least it looked better than the soggy fries at Wild-Duck Burger. He filled a plate with fries, chicken strips, and macaroni and cheese, added a smaller plate of food and glass of cranberry juice, and found his way to a table.

...man, he could stand to go for a run right then. Maybe they'd let him do a quick jog before forcing him into a shower? It didn't make sense the other way around.

[liveforthispart]

Stupid freaking place with it's stupid freaking people and it's stupid freaking nurses... God, it was worse than school could ever be. At least they didn't have people carting you around all day there. He'd been here for maybe a few hours and he was already sick of this place.

The hag led him to the lunch line, like he couldn't figure that much out on his own, and then started running her mouth about the food or something. He wasn't paying any attention. Not like any of it mattered; food was food, right? And he was starving. 'Least if these guys were treating them like they were nuts, he was getting some free food out of it. He was sure to have them pile it on when he got to the front of the line. Now this was what he was talking about!

He was happy enough with his heap that he didn't much care who or what he sat by, so he just picked the first seat he happened to see. Long as he got to eat. Sure enough, he started going at his food as soon as he sat down.

[fourtharcana]

Akihiko only looked up from his food when someone else parked himself across the table. Well, this could be interesting - particularly because something seemed oddly familiar about the guy, even though he was sure he'd never seen him before. "At least if this place seems to be designed to stress the hell out of everyone in it, they're feeding us well enough to make up for it," he said, by way of offhanded introduction.

A few more bites later, he added, "I'm not gonna lie and say it wouldn't feel a lot better if they let you occasionally get away with smacking the person who's causing a lot of the stress, though," with a wry grin.

[liveforthispart]

Kanji looked up at the guy sitting across from him who... was talking to him? Huh. It was actually kind of off putting to have someone just kind of randomly start talking to him. He wasn't really used to it, outside people coming over to yell at him or something. And it might have been even more off putting if it had been some kind of casual bullshit small talk, like the type he completely failed at any time he ever tried.

But that wasn't the case. The guy had said something that not only made sense but that he could totally relate to.

"Can say that again," he said between chewing. "Some cases, I'm thinkin' they might need a little more than just a smack. If they're really trying to stress us all out, they're doing one hell of a job."

He did have to admit the grub was awesome though. Didn't beat home cooking but it was good. He finished swallowing his food before continuing. "You sound like you been here a while. I kinda just woke up so... just been playin' it by ear and stuff."