Past meets current

[Guest]

Nero sighed a little as he walked through Briggs and soon entering the cafeteria as his stomach rumbled, running his hand through his hair before looking around and going to order his food. He took his sweet time getting to the person who took the food orders and sighed before speaking. "I'll take my usual." He said before the person gave him his usual and he took the tray and soon walked over to a random seat. He usually didn't eat here, but he decided to eat here at least today. He sat down and started to eat after removing the mask he wore over his nose and mouth and started to space out a little before continuing to eat. "Sometimes, I wish the food here was better..." He said to himself before taking another bite of his food before scratching the back of his head and spacing out slightly.

[Iris]

Another lunchtime spent in the cafeteria, was another poorly made salad with frozen veggies and greens. Nothing said 'crispy' like ice-cube lettuce. Today she wasn't bothering to look or even care about the calories of the dressing she was to consume. Oh delicious distractions. The sweet and tart sauce made taking a bite less painful as it made her sweet tooth literally ache. Was it from the sheer cold or a cavity? She didn't honestly care enough to figure out. All she knew was that her stomach growled and she needed to eat. Yeah, dancing on the lines of daring. The thrilling high of not knowing what dressing she was eating, was all too exciting. Her pink eyes closed and her breath escaped in a silent sigh. Typical day for Fort Briggs.

When Iris HAD found a seat, it was at a table with only one other person there. She didn't bother looking at him, and didn't bother saying hi. It was for this instant, Iris sat in her seat, grabbed her fork and poked at the frosty vegetables according to edibility. It was a few seconds later, that the pink-haired woman debated trashing the whole meal and simply walking away. Maybe she could get some of that last minute paperwork done. Then again, she really didn't feel like making her way back to the office just to give her John Hancock on eighty papers. So, the answer remained to be procrastination.

A carrot was pressed coldly to her lips. Even though she nibbled on it gently, she couldn't get much of a dent in the frozen orange produce. After one large bite, the crunch resounded and made her sick. She couldn't eat it. The half uneaten was placed on her plate, followed by her fork. Quickly, she tried to rid herself of the awful carrot and chewed desperately. It was then swallowed and a sip of her diet soda chased after. Military food was sometimes worse than prison food.

[Guest]

As he continued to eat his meal, Nero sighed as he finished off his half frozen slice of bread before continuing on and taking a bite of a sandwich which literally made a somewhat loud crunching noise. Nero was somewhat glad he didn't bite through all the way and just dropped the sandwich down. He then soon noticed a woman sitting near him not saying anything or even looking at him. He sighed once more before trying to bite into an apple, which he hoped wasn't frozen, but the moment he bit into it, he was sadly mistaken. The apple almost made the noise of metal hitting hollow metal. One of his eyes twitched a little before setting the frozen apple next to the half frozen sandwich. "Seems I'm not eating lunch today. And how's the salad today, miss?" He said looking over at the woman, smiling a bit chuckling slightly as well. "My name's Nero, what's yours? I apologize for the stupid joke, I couldn't help myself, really." He said, scratching the back of his head before taking a sip of his water which had frozen over and hit him in the nose. After very carefully putting the glass down onto his tray he sighed once more.

He pushed the tray away from him and rubbed his eyes slightly. "Why can't food be better here? We do our stuff and we get worse food than prisoners do." He said, before looking at the woman. "Don'cha agree?" He said, smiling slightly and chuckling a little as well.

[Iris]

"Seems I'm not eating lunch today. And how's the salad today, miss? My name's Nero, what's yours? I apologize for the stupid joke, I couldn't help myself, really." A voice must have been talking to Iris, because she could feel the eyes staring into her skull. Answer they said. The moment she had to give a response to a man she hardly knew. It seemed only natural when she looked up and asked with all seriousness "What lunch?" A cruel joke, but the terrible food in Fort Briggs was in her opinion less than appetizing, just like the terrible salad she was poking at. Maybe she'd been spoiled on grease saturated burgers and thick fries that were so crispy and fluffy it was like magic. They were magic fries not French fries. Oh yeah.. he'd asked about the salad. Go figure. "It's limp and frozen, didn't think it was possible." As if to thoroughly evaluate it, she picked on rather solid leaf and took a bite. Gag.. tasted like dirty water.

"Why can't food be better here? We do our stuff and we get worse food than prisoners do. Don'cha agree?" Well as she did agree with that statement, she had to admit it had to be hard keeping food edible in below freezing conditions. Iris managed a nod before swallowing her disgusting lettuce with a long sip of hard diet soda. The sweet washed out the bitter taste and soon the foul flavor was gone. She was okay, again. "It's kind of dumb, but hey, they COULD starve us or make us hunt.. aa shit.. what the hell live up here..? Polar bears? I dunno some penguin soup sounds kind of good." It made her wonder. What DID penguin soup taste like? Was it anything like chicken? Oh well, maybe some day she'd find out. For now she had a man asking her questions.

"Oh. My name is Iris, by the way." Her pink eyes would rise and that normal almost devious grin grew on her face. "Jokes are fine, just don't cross into puns, mkay?"

[Guest]

Nero smiled as he listened to the woman speak. He nodded in agreement at what she said about what lunch. "A couple people I know could say that about guys they know... luckily, I'm not one of them..." He said, chuckling a little. All jokes aside from now, he continued to listen to the woman as he looked over her way. The moment he looked over at her, she had taken a bite of pretty much frozen lettuce. He watched her take a large sip of her soda and chuckled a little. As soon as he listened to her mention penguin soup, he kinda started to day dream, but would speak out loud. "Penguin soup... If it tasted good, it'd be the first good thing I'd have eaten since I've gotten here. All warm... steaming... the meat in it..." He said, almost drooling but holding back before snapping back into full reality hearing her introduce herself.

"Nice to meet you, Iris. And don't worry, I don't try to do puns. They're always unintentional. So, if you don't mind, what's your position here? But allow me to be polite, I was formerly the Head of Defense, but currently I'm the head of Power here at Briggs." He said, not knowing if he had cut her off before she even started to speak, or not.

"Anyway, how'd you arrive here at this lovely little fort?" he said, most of that being a joke as the cold kept it from being lovely, to him anyway. "I honestly don't think anyone here can really stomach the food here. I have an idea, more or less, anyway. I'll treat ya to somewhere where the food is actually good, ya'know. Not somewhere where the food is almost always frozen almost right after being made. I'd rather not skip lunch, ya'know. And eating alone isn't my favorite thing to do." he said, smiling a little, looking over at iris still.

[Iris]

Oh great, it was another man who talked too much. Iris rolled her eyes inwardly. Why did she always get the chatty ones. On the bright side, she supposed she didn't have to speak, which.. was admittedly an okay thing. Although, she did get tired half way through his lengthy sentences. It was irritating and she just wanted a break to breathe. Was he nervous or something? The last time a boy had so much to say was when he was too nervous. Quickly, he asked about her arriving to Briggs and then not long after invited her out of the fort for dinner. It was a trap. That was her immediate reaction. After all how often did men invite people they just met away from work that day for lunch? Maybe she was just being paranoid, but partly she just didn't feel like going all the way to the town to get lunch.

"Eehhh.. I'm not really up to going away from the building. Lunch will be over soon and I sure as hell don't want to be late." Her words morphed into a laugh as her lips pressed once more to a straw that sad idly near her mouth. "As for how I got here.. it was a lot of moving." Her shoulders shrugged and the pink eyes fell down to look at her empty plate. It wasn't like she was lying. She just simply didn't feel like going into detail. Her being moved wasn't a big thing, it wasn't as if she'd been kicked from central. Sometimes.. people were just re-stationed and Reila Tsukino for some reason, wanted Iris in Fort Briggs.

[Csilla Angelis]

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