Day 58: Cafeteria

[gald_digger]

Anise woke up feeling lucky to be alive. She still felt a bit waterlogged, even though her skin, hair, and clothes were completely dry. During last night's adventures, she'd swallowed a lot of water, and it still felt heavy and disgusting in her stomach. Her arms and legs were tired from treading water. Lying still in her bed, she still kind of

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[heroesdontshave]

This was not going to be an easy day for the poor soldiers who normally walked Snow from room to room during the day. That much was clear right from the start, when they were greeted with yelling as soon as they opened the man's door. Despite the quiet day he'd spent in his room all of yesterday, Snow was incredibly irritable and excitable for no discernible reason. Not that they cared. They only wanted to get the man under control and out into the cafeteria sometime before the shift changed.

Irritable didn't really begin to cover it. Snow was pissed plain and simple. For a while there, it really did seem like it was going to break out into a full on brawl and he was going to be dragged to the cafeteria in a half-conscious stupor. But it was actually that threat that eventually kept him in check and got him to cooperate. He was furious, frantic, fists shaking with effort as he forced himself to resist doing what he wanted and beating everyone's face in... but cooperative

[affictitious]

Aguilar was going to die. New fact of life. Water is wet. Cows moo. Hershey's was a cheap imitation of real chocolate and Aguilar was going to have his organs squeezed out of his very human, very real skin.

The problem was figuring out how to do this. But Gabriel? Gabriel was nothing if not determined. This was not about being playful or inventive or being the Trickster once again. It wasn't about teaching a lesson. The archangel knew very well by experience that some men did not change. They would always live with hate in their heart. Hate. Or wrath. Or greed. The seven sins, blah blah, it would fester from the inside and rot the outside. No. All of this was about revenge.

There was a reason he had left Heaven. A damn good one. It was why he had spent the last thousand years stuck on the mortal plane with his wings tucked under his ass. Remember the family in Texas Chainsaw Massacre? The Devil's Rejects? Try that sort of familial connection, add a little more corruption, place in blender and hit chop.

You didn't touch family, no

[heroesdontshave]

Any other day, there was a pretty good chance Snow would pick up on a sharp change in mood (about 50-50). But not when he was emotionally charged himself. Even if he normally couldn't be called the most attentive of people, he was even less so when all wound up. And wound up was a pretty damn good description of how he was right then. He was confused and angry and ready to lash out at almost anything by this point. His mind was bouncing all over the place. He wasn't even capable of focusing on a single thing for very long, let alone figuring out a reasonable course of action

[affictitious]

You have got to be kidding him.

Gabriel, to show how very interested he was with this human's rant, touched both his index and his pinkie finger to his tongue then ran them over his eyebrows.

"Woooow, do I ever not care."

[heroesdontshave]

Well, okay. Let's revise that. It would've been a while before that happened provided someone didn't grind his thought processes to an absolute halt. Which is exactly what just happened. It was kind of amazing actually, how someone could go from near homicidal pissy...um...ness to blank surprise within a matter of moments. It was like someone had clicked a switch.

Honestly, if you had asked Snow what kind of response he was expecting out of the guy, he wouldn't have been able to answer. He didn't know what he wanted. Maybe he hadn't been expecting a response either and had just been talking for the sake of talking. So when he got an answer, let alone one like that...

"Not care?" he repeated, obviously far more confused than hurt in any way. Then it registered. Ohh. Actually, he completely understood what the guy was saying, but unfortunately, Snow was gonna have to disagree on this.

He sighed lightly and shook his head a little, exasperated. "Yeah, I know. I know. Doesn't exactly feel like anything real important, right? I figured

[affictitious]

Gabriel had met his match.

A man literally too stupid to be insulted.

And somehow, that? Made Gabriel like him a little more. Morons were simple-minded, sure, and that was pretty redundant, but they were easy to deal with. No power games, no subtle manipulations, no wool trying to pull over a freaking angel's eyes.

Besides, Gabriel was pretty sure he didn't have a mean bone in his body, or he was wasting charades on the very last person who they'd work on.

"Right. It affects every sad sucker in this place." The archangel propped his head on a hand, leaning forward towards the other. He just had to. He had to. "You know what could really help you sort through these important issues?"

Wait for it.

[heroesdontshave]

Snow would never go so far as to call all the victims here "sad suckers," but at least the guy agreed it wasn't something they could just ignore anymore. Maybe he didn't care enough to start playing at info-gathering and reconnaissance, but he knew figuring out at least the basic questions was important, kind of. And that was just the thing. That kind of stuff wasn't his style at all. Maybe that was part of why he felt so uncharacteristically lost right then.

So when the guy suddenly spoke up like he had some kind of solution, Snow was definitely all ears. Surprised, but listening. "What?"

[affictitious]

Aw, he was so kind to go with it. And Gabriel, bless his little angelic soul, had been waiting since 2001 to ruin someone's life with this. Even someone who was as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as the world's most spoiled squirrel.

"An orange mocha frappuccino." He held up a hand before the giant could get a response out. "Look, I know it's contrived, but you were asking for it. Wow. That felt good."

He then rolled his hand, the signal to go on. "Anyway. You're not doing too well at this whole getting out thing. Don't you figure it's about time to give up?"

[heroesdontshave]

Wh--? Huh? A... An orange wha? Moe kuh fap poo? What was he even saying? For a second, it was like that first night all over again, with the sudden, nonsensical words spilling out of the guy's mouth and everything. Then just as suddenly, he put a hand up to Snow, like he'd already figured he was gonna ask what he was talking about, and went back to talking normal again

[affictitious]

That was one of the most horrible contortions Gabriel had ever seen in a human's face, and this was after a thousand years of seeing the most awkward orgasm faces his Father could come up with. It was totally a personal joke. He could see it. This guy's face? It was naked naivety and determination and rallying, all rolled up into one convenient sushi roll of optimism.

With the speech skills of Tommy Lee Jones. Wow.

Gabriel regarded the thick-headed meatshield with a face equivalent to a teacher being very amused and very patient with a first grader who'd gotten his head stuck in a paper bag and couldn't figure a way out. "Right, hero. Do you even know where Aguilar is? Have you ever seen the guy? He's kind of the Caesar type. A little. Throne and all, but with more being heard and less of the being seen."