Day 58: Lunch

[full_score]

Although it had been good to see his mom again, Claude entered the cafeteria with a dark expression on his face. He was glad she felt comfortable enough with him to share her experiences from last night, but that didn't make him any less angry at the military for using her to do their dirty work. Why couldn't those bastards clean up their own

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[gald_digger]

Wow. Anise was more worn out than she thought. After breakfast, she stopped by the Sun Room, lay down to take a brief rest... and wound up sleeping through the whole shift. Maybe it wasn't so weird, since she did have a pretty rough night. Still, it felt like a big waste to lose time like that.

When she woke up to the sound of patients being shuffled over to the Cafeteria, Anise quickly realized she was starving. Since she'd felt a little sick that morning, she didn't eat much at breakfast. Now that she was well-rested, she could probably handle a big meal. Those hamburgers were smelling pretty tasty, too.

With her appetite back in full swing, Anise fetched herself two burgers, loaded with lots of toppings and accompanied by a glass of milk. With her tray in hand, she found a place to sit and eat. She was still a little groggy, and her movements were slower and less graceful than usual, but she picked up one hamburger and started eating right away, hoping to get all of her energy back before nightfall.

[for Lelouch!]

[gald_digger]

Anise watched with a mouth full of hamburger as a tall, skinny boy took the empty seat next to her. He didn't even give her a glance before sitting down and immediately shoving his face into his notes. Boooo. Anise's cuteness should have been way more eyecatching than that!

She was a little curious, though, so Anise sneaked a glance at what the older boy was writing. It looked like something she'd seen on the bulletin before... Maybe he was one of those guys who collected lots of information about all kinds of weird stuff? It couldn't hurt to ask.

"Hey, what are you writing there?" she asked, leaning closer to see. She didn't consider the possibility that she could be bothering him. Anyone would be happy to have a cute girl like Anise talk to them, right?

[gald_digger]

Oh, good, a smile! He wasn't exactly beaming, but it was nice that he wasn't in a hurry to get rid of Anise.

"Oh, like the one that used to get posted on the bulletin," she commented when he replied, though it was hard to guess at whether he had been around for that or not. A veteran patient could have given him most of his current information, after all. He had the gross food that the soldiers gave lower-ranking patients, so he at least hadn't been around as long as Anise.

Since they were right next to each other, it only seemed polite to offer the benefit of her experience. "Maybe I can help!" Smiling, Anise held up her military-issued dog tag, the words S Class gleaming as it dangled in front of her. "I've been here for a pretty long time, and even though I'm this cute, I pay really good attention to what goes on around here."

[gald_digger]

The same? It didn't take long for Anise to start connecting the dots. Those big notes on the board had stopped showing up for a while, and then yesterday there was an "L.L." saying he'd slept through a few days... The boy soon confirmed her suspicions, and Anise's face brightened with recognition.

"Oh, that Lelouch! You're the one who's always posting those really long notes on the bulletin, right?" She giggled. "I think we've talked before, but this is our first time meeting in person. I'm Anise! Anise Tatlin."

She had to stop to think when Lelouch suggested she discuss her experiences with him. Anise didn't know how much he already knew, or how much she was able to say without that weird mental block kicking in. "Hmm... I don't really know where to start, but... well, have you heard much about the ruins outside the institute?" It was something safe to start with, and besides, there were still a lot of things Anise wanted to understand about that place.

[gald_digger]

Anise nodded. "I visited there a few times, and I think I've seen most of it," she began, prodding idly at her food as she talked. "I mean, there isn't a whole lot to see since most of it's just rubble... but there was a store and a school and a church that were still kind of standing."

The details were kind of depressing to think back on, but she'd already offered to tell Lelouch what she knew, so... "From the looks of the ruins, um... it looked like something really bad happened there, like something just smashed the whole village to pieces, like a big earthquake or... someone said it could have been a bomb, too." Anise still found it hard to believe that a bomb could do that, but if her time at Landel's taught her anything, it was not to underestimate Earth's technology.

"Um... did you already hear about the townspeople?" she asked, looking a little hesitant. Discovering those bodies had been a disturbing experience for Anise, so she wanted to skip that part if she could.

[gald_digger]

That wasn't the answer Anise wanted to hear, and she frowned a bit as she continued. "In the church there... there were bodies. Lots of them. They were all huddled on the pews, like they knew something was going to happen, but they gave up on running away..." She trailed off as she recalled the horrific sight. For Anise, who considered the church at Death her home, it was especially disturbing.

"They were mostly bones. I couldn't really tell how they died from looking at them." Of course, Anise wasn't a coroner or anything, so maybe that didn't mean much. It did mean that there weren't any obvious wounds or anything, though.

She felt a little relieved once the gory details were out there, and after taking a long, slow breath, Anise continued. "There weren't a lot of clues about what happened there. We looked all over, but there was only one message that looked like it had anything to do with the incident. 'You will both burn'... It was on the wall in the church."

[gald_digger]

Anise nodded. "Yeah..." At least Lelouch seemed to acknowledge what she'd been through. Anise couldn't even look at the institute's chapel the same way after what she saw back there

[gald_digger]

"A version of Earth?" Anise echoed, tilting her head curiously. She'd seen people talk like that on the bulletin, but it was still kind of hard to wrap her head around. "You mean... a different time? Or is the whole planet different...?" As far as Anise knew, there was only one Auldrant... wasn't there?

"Anyway, I'm not from any Earth, so I figure that information means a little more to you than it does to me, hehe." She grinned sheepishly. Anise was trying to learn a lot about Earth, but a few weeks of captivity didn't compare to a lifetime of experiences and knowledge.