vivarium | The sleepless night [Open]

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The sleepless night [Open]

By the evening of day 69, when things were at least reasonably under control, Heiji was pretty tired. And while he did want to just fall asleep on the nearest flat surface, wasn't this the perfect opportunity to actually enjoy what they could while Zero still didn't have full control of the warehouse?

Answer: Yes.

A: Gutting a fish, setting up campfire stuff
The last time he'd been allowed into the maze with Hershel, they'd both regretted the lost opportunity. A whole fish tank room full of fish, most of them the kind that were actually supposed to be eaten rather than looked at. And they were going to die soon, anyway, right? Without power.

So technically just leaving them would be terribly wasteful and tl;dr Heiji was carrying a giant floppy wet salmon in both arms over to the river where he was going to (in theory) gut it and scale it and cook it because you know what, he wanted some actual food.

B: Campfire dinner
After a great deal of effort and setup, the smell of cooking salmon began wafting over the garden; once it was near to done, Heiji would start contacting people over the bracelets to tell them what was up and to bring any food or supplies they wanted if they'd found any. Who knows, maybe someone'd find some vegetables they could cook or something.

C: Reading mystery novels/textbooks/language guides
After dinner was over, Heiji was just going to set down with a stack of books and start reading some mystery novels, maybe offer to read something he'd found in the library with someone. HE MISSED READING OKAY, it was his life.

D: Music room
And of course now that the music room was temporarily open, Heiji was looking everywhere for Snake to hopefully listen to some piano playing for real. ...Although he wasn't above trying it out for himself, as well as the other instruments. Or maybe just shredding some cloth in here for bandages.

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"... you what?" Does he even want to know. Probably, it sounded kind of awesome. "How did you manage that exactly?"

He headed to the tank as directed, brow furrowing as he tried to get some mackerel. After a few moments- "Ah, there we are." He managed to sweep up two, pulling them out and hurrying to the bucket. "What else?"

"Yeah, we baited 'em and ran into the pool room. Their metal feet don't work too well with how slippery the pool is, so I used the gurney to give them a little shove. Encourage 'em, y'know?" Ha ha yeah, it was great.

"...We locked one in the freezer, too, but it's probably frozen by now." It's cool, it's cool. Probably.

"Hmm, I dunno. What kinda fish do you like best? Flounder? Cod? We've kinda got a buffet going here. Once we get the campfire up, I bet we could make some tea, too!"

"It sounds like you two had fun." He's really not as surprised as he should be anymore. So was life. "I'm glad you didn't get hurt in all this excitement, or that blasted squid didn't cause trouble." Can you imagine.

"... if didn't have any limbs falling off, did it?" That would explain a lot.

And he smiled. "Don't worry about me, I'm more than happy trying what we have. Do you think Sasuke has a preference though?"

Yes, Hershel. You might even say... buckets of fun. Dohohoho

"Not too sure. It was pretty dark at the time. Actually, we kinda lucked out on that one, because it practically walked in all on its own. All we had to do was shut the door after it. If we'd had to fight it, it would've been a lot more trouble, I'm sure."

"Sasuke'd probably like the same kinda fish as me. So... let's try a couple sweetfish!" He pointed out one of the tanks. "After that, I think we'll be outta room for that bucket, but I guess that's okay. We'll need to actually eat all this stuff we're cooking."

You should be arrested immediately.

"Definitely, those things were stubborn." He sighed. "We got swarmed by a bunch of arms when we found food, blasted things didn't want to let go. Then Ema and Jake set them on fire." What a life.

"Sweetfish it is." And off he went to scoop out a few. He came back with his prize, placing them into the now quite full bucket. "Alright, there we are. Let's get back before something unpleasant finds us." Who knew what was lurking around, robots, octopi, Jake.

"Just what I was thinking!" Farewell, soon to be dead fish!

"Oh, that's right. Let's pick up that shrine on our way out." The shrine room wasn't hard to find, and it was as creepy as ever. That didn't stop Heiji from gathering up as much as the Calhoun merchandise as he could, though. Burn it. Burn it all.

"...Man, some bad taste went into this."

"Calhoun loves himself very much." Someone had to, I guess... Hershel helped out gathering the kindling, making faces at some of the more ridiculous nonsense. This was such a weird, weird thing.

"I hope this is all flammable." He was really looking forward to the fish. Real food was always the best, can anyone blame him. He holds an armful out for Heiji to inspect. "How's this? Enough, you think?"

"Yeah, but we can always get more if we need to." So back up to the garden it was, with their ill-gotten fish and campfire fuel. Clearly this was not ridiculous at all. Somehow, though, this was ending up a lot more like camping than he'd thought it was going to be...

"You wanna start putting this wood together, or start cleaning the fish? I totally can't wait to set fire to this thing."

This did end up to be a camping event, go figure. Hershel pulled the bucket up some.

"I'll work on the fish, I wouldn't dream of taking the duty of burning that mess from you." Heiji truly deserved to have that honor, fuck Calhoun. "I'm assuming there's no special way to prepare these ones as compared to the others, right?"

"Gotcha." Heiji started breaking up pieces of the shrine, making them into manageable bits for the fire. As long as they were making one, they might as well put it at the site of the last one, right? Keep things isolated.

"You basically do the same for those guys; it's just that they're a little smaller." And thus a bit trickier, but Hershel seemed like the careful type.

Not burn down the world, always a good method. Hershel nodded and got to work, probably doing a better job with the scales and such now that he had even the vaguest idea how it worked. It might even taste good? Who knew?

"There we are." He said after he gutted and descaled the first little fish. He's a real cook now, truly. On to the next one. "I hope we have enough to share around a little. Everyone could use it I think."

"No worries, we'll definitely have enough!" said Heiji, breaking apart some of the bits into even smaller pieces he'd use to coax the starter flame to grow a bit bigger.

"I can't wait; this is gonna be the best!" He apparently really, really missed real food. But was anyone surprised? Alfendi could murder someone for some pizza... or maybe not. He seemed to actually like the gruel, what a total weirdo. "Too bad we don't have batter. We could make the 'fish' in fish and chips."

"Maybe we could gather everyone, it'd be rather nice." Sweet murdergame fish party.

"Oh, did you like the ones from that cooking bit to acquire a taste? You'll be a proper British gentleman at this rate." Just imagine, what a horrifying world. "Will these sweetfish be put in the foil too then?"

"Let's do it. Now that we got these bracelets to communicate with, it should be easy to get everyone in the same place!"

Heiji grinned. "They were pretty good, I gotta admit. Though fries are the best when you steal 'em from someone else's plate." Shocking, how shocking. This was your future British gentleman.

He sat down to start helping with the fish. "We can, but I think we've got enough wood to make a few skewers, too. They're best that way, I think."

"It is rather convenient, isn't it? I hope Zero allows us to keep that function." Hershel doubted it because when was Zero ever not a shitlord extreme.

Also have a bemused look at that answer. "Ah, I see. Maybe not a gentleman just yet." Tsk tsk, Heiji, tsk tsk. Most of the smaller fish were done now at least, he was real useful see. "That shouldn't be a problem, there's plenty of sticks and such in the garden as well."

"Well, it's not like I ever claimed to be one." Heiji went for a quick search around the garden, and came back with a few sticks, which he began stripping of their back. It wouldn't do to get that all up in the fish, after all.

"Just thought it'd be useful to learn some formal manners in case I need to blend in somewhere." Like at a dinner party, you'd be surprised how many of those Heiji got invited to...

"Well, first rule of thumb is not to nick chips off people's plates." Cutting edge etiquette learning, right here. "Would you say you need to blend in to strange places often? Another set of strange adventures, I imagine." Not as strange as motorcycle chases at least.

Hershel laid the fish out neatly for Heiji to skewer when the sticks were ready, brushing his hands of scales and such. "Regardless, good manners are universal." Stuff him in a locker, seriously.

Heiji looked like he was resisting this rule. "Hershel, you need to live a little. Nothing wrong with a little nicking!"

Words to live by, man. You'd better watch your plate once there was something on it other than gruel. "Well, when tailing criminals, you gotta blend into the crowd, right? And even normal people need to go to fancy dinner parties once in a while."

Heiji skewered the first of the fish. He was pretty good at it, too, so apparently he'd done this before.

Last time he heard things like that people fell down ravines, Heiji. Clearly this is life and death. "That's uncouth, Heiji." He said with an amused tone. "Very improper, living such a way. No side dishes would be safe."

"Ah, I see, sounds adventurous. You might be spotted if you mix up your spoons you know." Hershel paused. "I'm not entirely sure how Japan does formal dinners, really. I imagine they're more sensible than the English with all the extra bits and baubles."

With enough fish taken care of, Heiji flicked his lighter on and applied it to the little bits of crumpled paper at the center of the campfire, and began coaxing it to grow larger.

"Didn't know British folks took their chips so seriously," said Heiji. There was just a hint of mischievousness there, not planning on taking Hershel's fries the next time they had the opportunity, certainly not.

"Well, you do have some wealthy types that like to do the whole western-style mansion thing. Maids, a butler named Sebastian. You know."

Sebastian...

"We're a very serious people you know. Quite dour on occasion." Hershel said primly, and the effect was ruined because he totally cracked into a smile when he was done. Clearly blissfully unaware of the danger Heiji would pose to his chips. "As you can see from the assortment of Englishmen we have here." Maryjanes, a mareep and Alfendi. Yup.

Ah, so their butlers occasionally offer paranormal type contracts. Hm. "Really? I wouldn't have expected that. I suppose there would be some good to learning the proper etiquette of that type of house after all." Don't go fighting demons, Heiji.

"Y'know, I speakin' of food, I wonder how Alfendi ever got to his height. He don't really seem like the type to eat his vegetables." How much could you really grow on pizza and takeout...

Look this has nothing to do with Kuroshitsuji or whatever Hershel, butlers in Japan are always named Sebastian or maybe Tanaka-san, it's a rule. A RULE.

"He doesn't, does he?" Hershel mused. No, that didn't seem much like Alfendi at all. "Maybe his parents made him for long enough that he actually got some nutrients. I suppose we won't know until he gets more memories back- and shares, since he isn't always keen on doing so."

Japan is a properly mysterious place... "Though look at Clive, he seems the type to eat properly. Genetics are fickle."

But that would mean Alfendi had at some point had parents, as opposed to being sprung from the abyssal depths, oozing pizza-smelling slime. That's silly, Hershel.

"I keep tellin' Sasuke he needs to eat properly, or he won't get taller. He ain't seem to care too much, though. I mean, how's he going to reach things? At least he's tall enough to get on rides..."

That's weird AU other Hershel you're talking about, he's the abyssal, pizza smelling slime depths. I can't really argue that though.

And have a light frown. "He does eat rather peckishly, doesn't he?" Uh oh, he's starting to hone in on Sasuke's bad eating habits. Have strength, Sasuke. "I suppose it's rather difficult to eat properly here, though. I'm not sure any amount of gruel is going to help much." He smiled a bit. "I don't know how you stomach it as well as you do."

The sleepless night [Open]

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