Day 46: Breakfast

[repeatingfate]

For the second time, Rika found herself waking with a start. She blinked at the grey light streaming through the windows, and looked across the room. Anise was still asleep. So. I'm still here. Let me just check...Rika put on her slippers and walked over to the desk, checking the drawer and breathing a light sigh of relief. Good, the knife was

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[euphemise]

Euphemia was a bit sad to hear that it was going to be rainy. She had hoped there was going to be some sun - even if she wouldn't be going out, she wanted to at least see some sunlight. It would cheer her up, and she needed that right then. Even the full night's sleep that she had gotten, while it had helped, wasn't entirely enough to pick up her spirits. It had just been a horribly painful day yesterday, and...

No. Thinking about it wouldn't help. She got out of bed and tossed on a sweatshirt, wishing she could at least brush out her hair before breakfast. When her nurse came, she asked about it, was told 'maybe later', and led off to the cafeteria.

At least everything smelled good, and she had to admit she was hungry after barely touching her food the night before. She topped a waffle with strawberries and whipped cream, added a side of fruit and a glass of orange juice, then sat at an empty table. It didn't seem like a lot of people were awake yet, so it was a little eerie.

[Closed to Lelouch.]

[euphemise]

"I'm sorry. I have to ask first." Euphemia swallowed around the lump that had formed in her throat the moment she saw Lelouch. Was it Lelouch, or was it Brendan? If it was the latter, she didn't think she had much else to say to him. If it was the former, though, she needed to talk to him. She couldn't let what had happened yesterday go without closure, even if it was that her brother wasn't anymore

[oftemptation]

[This one okay?]Endrance woke, his fingers touching his lips lightly, as if reminding himself that hadn't been a dream. When his nurse escorted him to the cafeteria, he was in a bit of a daze, still, enough that the woman checked to see if he was running a fever before escorting him through the cafeteria line. He sighed, loading up a plate with a waffle and fruit, then taking some juice

[oftemptation]

[\o/]

"Thank you...the staff here can be rather pushy when it comes to interactions." Endrance set his tray down, then took his seat. "My name is Endrance," he said, finally remembering to introduce himself at the beginning of a conversation. It was hard when one was used to having someone be able to click on their PC and find out their name and the like.

"I'm still not entirely used to it myself...I'm not very extroverted, usually." He let out a small, forced laugh. That much was certainly true. Endrance wasn't still entirely comfortable being part of a crowd in such a large room like this one, or even the Sun Room, and he doubted if he ever would be. It was one of those things where either you were okay with it from birth or not, he suspected, and he definitely wasn't so comfortable with it.

He started to say something else, but decided against it, picking at a piece of melon and chewing it thoughtfully. At the same time, he scanned the room out of the corner of one eye, keeping a watch for Haseo.

Lockiedowners!

[stillandstrike]

Prowl had blacked out, but when he came back online he still seemed to be human. Must have been a glitch in Soundwave's program. How did he even keep coming back, anyway? And how did he get Prowl here after

HEY THERE, HOT STUFF

[ruthless_hunter]

Lockdown's eyes flickered open and he held his head when he sat up in bed, groaning. Primus, what had happened to him yesterday? It all felt like a dream now. A messed up dream. One thing he knew for sure though was that he'd been convinced he'd been that Lance meatbag! What was Landel's problem!? Why did he feel like torturing him like this?

He growled at his nurse when she came to tell him it was breakfast time. Right now, he didn't want to deal with Landel's cronies.

Lockdown grabbed some food and went to go find a table. Then a voice caught his audio. A very familiar voice. A voice he couldn't forget even if he wanted to. The bounty hunter turned to where the voice was coming from and saw a young man with black hair talking to a nurse. There was something about his face that was familiar. As he kept on listening, it hit him: Prowl.

He was here now?! How, why? Lockdown was part overjoyed, and part angry at Landel. As much as he liked the ninjabot, he also didn't like the idea of him being Landel's prisoner too. Then again, it

D8

[stillandstrike]

Prowl froze, fork halfway to is mouth and looked. He wished he hadn't, but besides a small twitch, he hardly reacted. Quickly putting on a confused expression, he lowered the fork and smiled politely.

"I'm sorry?"

Oh, he knew who this was. It was hard not to recognise him. The voice, the markings, the build, even. And, really, he wasn't sure Lockdown would be helpful.

[ruthless_hunter]

He'd seen he twitch. Prowl couldn't fool him. Kid probably still wanted to avoid him after that last incident. Even though Lockdown hadn't tried to push his point at the time, he wasn't just going to give up that easily.

"Don't try playin' dumb with me, Prowl, I know it's you," Lockdown replied. He smirked, "You honestly think I wouldn't recognize my favorite ninjabot?"

[world_makeover]

Another uneventful night, and Dist was seriously starting to doubt the Institutes's sinister nature. Still, Jade seemed to have experienced it so he was willing to go with it at least a little bit.

He was given very little time to make himself presentable by the nurse that came to get him[not that he had much to work with] and he grumbled a bit about it, but as always she seemed patronizingly unflappable so he gave up fairly quickly.

Again, Dist lamented quietly about the food they were being served; it all looked quite delicious, as usual, but anything drenched in sugar was not going to be conducive to keeping him slim. He was hungry, though, so he took what they gave him, found a quiet table to sit by himself, and started sectioning his food into neat portions.

[for Anise!]

[gald_digger]

Another show to view...Those were among the last words Anise heard before the abrupt end of the night. She woke up once again from a restless sleep, feeling much better than she had the previous day, but still far from great. Seeing Guy alive was an enormous relief, and getting that apology out was a load off her chest, but it didn't change the fact that all of those horrible things still happened. And if the Head Doctor was saying what she thought he was, something similar had just happened to another group

[world_makeover]

Dist wasn't expecting anyone to come sit with him. They never did back at Oracle headquarters and here should have been no different

[gald_digger]

Normally, Dist would be easy to pick out in a crowd. In fact, normally, he could be spotted from miles away, with his gaudy outfit and his big floating chair. But at Landel's he didn't have either of those things, and so Anise had completely failed to notice the man until he was right in front of her face.

At Dist's comment, Anise let out a small groan. The familiarity of the situation wasn't lost on her. The cafeteria had always reminded her of the one back at Oracle Headquarters, and now here she was, sitting across from the very same guy she used to share her meals with back then.

It was actually kind of embarrassing to think that she'd once been friends with Dist of all people. Part of Anise regretted befriending him, but she knew that if it weren't for that, he wouldn't have modified Tokunaga, and she might not have had the power to stand up for herself and to protect Ion. She owed a lot to Dist.

Of course, that didn't mean she was going to be nice to him, or anything.

"Since when are you here?" she asked in a haughty tone,

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie woke up to the feeling of hands around her throat.

She sat bolt upright, fingers probing at the aches, her breath shuddering. Right shoulder, right arm, sternum, throat, cheek. Nothing terrible; the last one the list was patched up with a big ol' band-aid, and a few cursory pokes told her that it hadn't been stitched. But her throat…!

It didn't even occur to her, not until she was sitting slumped in a chair in the cafeteria with a plate of waffles and a cup of OJ in front of her, that she felt like herself again. Everything she had was focused on the horror-show from last night. Stupidity, desperation, hopeless-helpless; everything she hated and everything she tried to avoid. The scene didn't even have the courtesy to be a blur! It ran through her mind in hi-def, from the first meeting with 'Blake', right through to Cloud's voice registering, dim and angry, on the edge of her consciousness.

Cloud"Oh, man," she breathed, her voice a bruised rasp. Groaning, the girl-and ninja once again-buried her face in her palms. The aches

[notthistrain]

"Is this seat taken?"

Cloud hadn't been happy to wake up back in his bed, and he'd questioned his nurse angrily only to be told that Hannah was fine and he'd see her at breakfast. He didn't understand it (What had knocked them out?) but catching sight of the girl sitting alone had assuaged some of his fears. While the nurse had insisted he fill his tray before going to sit with her, he'd made his way over as soon as possible.

She was injured. It wasn't bad, but it still caused a pang of anger in Cloud's gut to know she could have been killed if they'd arrived any later than they had. He couldn't really blame Kenshin for wanting to grab allies, but that didn't make the situation any better.

"Or are you going to call a nurse to shoo me away again?"

[thatdamnedninja]

The marks around her throat were dark blue and purple, livid and spotted with red where the monster's nails had dug in. Yuffie hadn't seen them, but she didn't have to; they were definitely there. And unless she did something, they were gonna be there for a while. Maybe in some weird, self-flagellating kind of way, it'd serve as a reminder? 'What happens when you're a monumental dumbass with stupidity instead of reflexes, and why that must never, ever, EVER happen again. Ever.'

At the sound of Cloud's-Cloud's; it was so jarring to think that he was back-voice nearby, Yuffie peeked through her fingers, but avoided meeting his eyes. "I'd tell you to sit your ass down and drink your goddamn tea, but that's not my line. And you don't have any tea." Yuffie kept her voice low and quiet, kept her breathing perfectly even. It wasn't too painful, that way. "Was that you last night?"

[notthistrain]

The blond smiled, taking a seat next to her so he could take in the damage better. He also took a sip of his juice. She was right, it wasn't tea, but a small bit of humor couldn't hurt the situation any. Yuffie was such an energetic person normally that seeing her down was enough to make anyone depressed. Telling her that they could find her a scarf and they'd pretend the marks were hickeys was probably pushing things too far, though.

"It was. Me and that red-headed friend of yours, Kenshin. And his girlfriend." He frowned, not liking the missing piece of memory between then and now. "What happened after we showed up? It's like I blacked out." There hadn't even been any impact to the back of his skull, or any disorientation this morning that would indicate he'd been knocked out by force. He'd just... woken up. As if the night before had all been some sort of incredibly lucid dream.