ritual crazy;; [open]

[ashleigh jane harper]

you make me wanna [SCREAM]

Ashleigh felt her stomach growl for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Food, food, food… what was safe to eat ? She hated the cafeteria. All that food just lying out so someone could do God-knows-what to it. She made her way through the line slowly, staring at all the options critically. Ravioli ? No, disgusting to begin with and you wouldn’t be able to see if someone hid a baseball in it. Pizza ? No, no, no. Swimming in grease and there could be so much more than grease on it.

It had been a while since she had eaten. She had this mind-set for days at a time, always obsessed with the idea of what could be in her food, her drinks. Nearly everything could be spiked. She also hadn’t slept in a while, though she had been faking it. First she would check everything in her room to make sure no one was hiding, then she got into bed and just laid there, facing the door with her eyes cracked open. It had been two days since she slept and all she had eaten today was a little box of cereal this morning.

God, everything looked so gross. She had been stopped in line for a while now, and suddenly the lunch worker cleared their throat loudly. Ashleigh looked up and saw she was being glared at, then finally began moving again. She paused a little further down and finally picked up an apple and began inspecting it. Nope, that one’s skin was broken. The next one had a large bruise. Anything could have been injected into that. Finally, she found one with no noticeable damage. Ashleigh grabbed two bottles of water after inspecting both of their seals, and got some silverware before heading to an empty table.

At the table, she went through the ritual of making sure it was safe. She began to break apart the fruit with her fork and spoon, and started to eat the center, completely avoiding the core and skin. Ashleigh took her time, completely absorbed in looking over the scraps of apple and making sure it all looked normal before eating it. She didn’t think about how odd she looked or how insane, and honestly she didn’t care. This was the only way she could let herself eat.

Eventually, she finished all she thought she could eat of the apple and started on the water, drinking as much as she could to get rid of the empty feeling inside of her. Ugh, she hated that feeling.

[Katsuo Stride]

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[ooc: Hope you don't mind me jumping in on this!]

This was going to be Katsuo's first meal at Michigan State.
His first meal.
And looking at it, he couldn't help thinking it looked like crap. By the looks on the other kids in the lunch line, Katsuo knew they felt the same.
He didn't know what he'd been expecting when he'd arrived here, but obviously he had been hoping for more than he was bound to get. After all, Michigan State was a place for people who had done something wrong, a place for people who had been labeled "mentally unsound." Why would the government want to spend too much money on real food for bad kids?

Bad food doesn't help bad kids, Katsuo couldn't help thinking to himself. He set his tray down on a nearby counter as his turn to pick food came around.

Suddenly, a large ladle swung around and deposited something on his tray.
Katsuo hadn't even realized he'd pointed something out he wanted, but he laughed anyway.
A large chunk of goop was now in his dish. (At least, the macaroni and his cheese now on his plate, which was of a grayish color, could only be described as goop). With his free hand, he gestured over to something he presumed was chilli, beaming at the woman serving. "I will have some of that slop, please!"
It dawned on him that he might not want to get onto the food servers bad sides just yet, not if he was going to be spending a while here. But he couldn't help it. He was going crazy with this place. He didn't really feel like he belonged...Yet the court had obviously disagreed with that. Anyway, he kept telling himself he would do his best to get out of Michigan State. The right way.

And the lunch servers would end up learning he was a bit eccentric, that's all.

Finally finishing up with his selections, Katsuo made his way through the cafeteria, trying to find a suitable seat. There were a lot of people around, a lot of people he had to admit he would like to try to get to know, talk to, but he just couldn't bring himself to. Not yet.
It was his first day. He knew he had plenty of time still to make friends.

He didn't particularly like being alone, but he figured he could make it through one meal on his own. Katsuo ended up finding a suitable enough table after a few minutes. There were other kids around, but there was enough space just at the end of the table for him to sit and eat on his own. From here, he also had a pretty good view of everything else going on in the lunch room.

He spooned up some of the goop on his plate and was in the process of looking disgusted while he ate it, when he noticed this girl.
She was by herself, first of all, just like him.
And she seemed to be studying her food like mad, trying to figure out how to best cut it up or something. It was weird, almost like she was trying to make sure the food wasn't poisoned before she ate it.

Katsuo had been watching the girl for quite some time before he decided to go up to her. He was certain he would leave this place, and very soon at that, but it definitely didn't hurt to make some friends while he was here. Anyway, she looked like she was distressed about something. Something serious.
But aren't we all? Katsuo couldn't help thinking.
Anyway, it didn't matter. He wanted to see if he could help her somehow.

And he was curious.

Katsuo slowly made his way over to the table with his own tray, then sat down. "You know..." He coughed slightly, hoping his accent wasn't making things too difficult. "The apple skin is the healthiest part." He lifted up the part she hadn't eaten and smiled. "My name is Katsuo. I just got here a few hours ago. What's your name?"

[ashleigh jane harper]

you make me wanna [SCREAM]

Darn it. Still hungry.
Sure, she had known that apple scraps weren't exactly a suitable meal, but she had thought that maybe it would take the edge off. Ashleigh looked up and saw the lunch monitor frowning at her apple peelings. Tomorrow she would need to at least pretend to eat more or people might think she was anorexic. That would really suck. She was still chugging her water with a vengence when the guy came over. Her first instinct was to panic.
Why had he sat my her ?
Had he been following her ?
Should she leave ?

Fortunately, her reasoning skills caught up with her before one of her panic attacks started. It wouldn't make sense for him to do anything to her here. There were too many people around. She was safe here, in this crowded room. Maybe he just hadn't been able to find anywhere else to sit... that was probably it.
Ashleigh hadn't realized she had just been sitting there with her mouth open staring at him for about a minute.

"Oh, s-s-sorry." She looked down, feeling her cheeks go red with embarrassment for letting herself stutter. She set her water down, close to her so she could be sure that he couldn't mess with it, and wiped her mouth off with the back of her hand. She was basically stalling so she could get her speech impediment under control.
"I guess I'll just have to skip out on some vitamins then," she murmured. Her hand went up to her head to shove her curls out of her face before she spoke again.
"My name's Ashleigh."

Normally, that would have been the most he could have gotten out of her, but she felt some sympathy for him. Her first day she had gone through two panic attacks, and had hidden under her bed for nearly three straight hours. But, she had a few more problems than your average joe. Just being this close to the guy who had joined her at her table was making her nervous. Of course, this was during one of her bad spells, so that probably had something to do with it...

"First day ? Those usually aren't so great..." She lifted up her water again and finished it, then started in on the second. Water cleaned out your system, she usually chugged it whenever she was worrying about her food and drink. Of course, she normally threw away more water than she drank. After a bottle had been opened, it wasn't safe anymore. She had to finish it all at once, or throw it away and get a new one.

[Katsuo Stride]

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Katsuo watched the girl's expression carefully and sighed. He had always been a bit too forward, but he had his reasons. He wasn't the kind of person to just twiddle his thumbs and hope someone would come up to him and start a conversation. He might have been that way once...probably when he first moved to the U.S. But he couldn't really remember what that was like. He was on one of his inevitable highs. But he had to remind himself that he didn't know this girl and she didn't know him. There was no point in making her more skittish than she already seemed.

He felt bad.
Especially because she seemed to be looking at him as distastefully as she had been when she'd been peeling away the apple skins.

She seemed to realize this after a moment. "Oh, s-s-sorry. I guess I'll just have to skip out on some vitamins then. My name's Ashleigh."

Katsuo resisted the urge to eat the apple skins in his hands, considering they looked one-hundred times better than the stuff in his plate. Looking down at the scraps, he instead resorted to fooling around with them. He had a hard time sitting still, often no matter what time of day it was, and it at least gave him something to do.

"First day ? Those usually aren't so great..."

Katsuo looked back up at Ashleigh and laughed. "I guess they can't really be too great in a place like this..." Lifting the spoonful of gray goop he hadn't gotten to eat before, he laughed again. "Not with this food anyway!"

Ashleigh finished her first water and started on a second.
Katsuo blinked, surprised.

"Wah? So much water? " Katsuo wrapped one of the apple skins around one finger for some amusement and leaned in close, looking around to see if anyone else was watching. "Are you planning some kind of escape? That's why you're drinking all that water, right? So you won't get dehydrated if you get out and get lost somewhere?" Katsuo nodded his head, as if that was the exact answer, and grinned. "Then you probably want to eat the apple skins too! You'll need those extra vitamins! But if you ask me, it's probably best to just wait it out...uhhh--" He struggled for her name again. Bad memory. "...uhhh...Ashleigh! That's what I'm doing."

He was totally unaware of how annoyingly wrong he was.

[ashleigh jane harper]

you make me wanna [SCREAM]

Ashleigh had been staring at his food long before he brought up its condition. It honestly looked disgusting. There could be anything lurking in there, whole items of silverware hidden away in the muck, there was no telling what kinds of pills, powders, or serums could be planted in it. She realized she had let her eyes stay fixated on his food for a slightly ridiculous amount of time and quickly lifted her gaze back to his face, hoping he hadn’t noticed but knowing he probably had. Then she noticed how he was playing around with the apple peel.

It was almost like he was too antsy to leave it alone. She had the urge to pull it away from him and to explain everything that could be on it, as well as throwing that slop he was eating away, but she had found in previous experiences, that people didn’t react well or understand her ways of reasoning. She used the hand that itched to protect him from the drugs that he could possibly be coating his hands with, to instead smooth over her hair. She had a habit of doing that when she wasn’t sure what else to do with her hands.

She almost smiled when he asked why all the water. The truth was, it just made the tiny meals she made herself eat so that she could be sure she was safe, feel a little less small. While it did leave her stomach feeling stretched and heavy like after a large meal, the ache of hunger never really left. She shook her head slowly, marveling at the funniness of her trying to run away. She’d start having a panic attack as soon as a guard started running after her. Oh, and the paranoia would probably make her seek out the police or someone else she thought could protect her, and they’d all bring her back to this place.

“No, no. I’m not much of a runner. I just… really like water. And I was thirsty,” she added. She had enough run ins with people and her eating habits to know that they normally thought she was anorexic. No, she enjoyed food. But since she couldn’t make her own food here and scrub everything she used to make it vigorously before she used it, she could never be sure it was safe. And that meant she didn’t want to eat it. Not if it meant risking being caught off guard or left unaware.

“What is that even supposed to be ?” she asked, looking at his food in horrified interest.

[Katsuo Stride]

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Katsuo noticed Ashleigh eying his tray, specifically the gloopy macaroni stuff, then tilted his head to the side, puzzled. She seemed to really be deep in thought about the whole thing. Katsuo looked up from his food to her concerned expression three times over before shrugging and resorting back to the apple peels in his hands. Truth be told, he wasn't entirely sure why he'd even allowed the fake macaroni and cheese stuff in his plate in the first place. He could have told the lunch server he hadn't asked for it. Anyway, it was probably better to stay out of too much trouble on his first day here. Though glancing briefly around the cafeteria, Katsuo noted that only one other kid he could see, aside from himself, had chosen the stuff, and he was fairly certain it was the only untouched portion on his tray as well.

Katsuo lost himself to thoughts about real, home-cooked food while he played the apple peels, so he wasn't even aware when Ashleigh finally broke away from her own reverie. Looking up, he realized she was explaining about the water.

“No, no. I’m not much of a runner. I just… really like water. And I was thirsty."

Katsuo laughed and shrugged. "You don't have to be a runner to escape. Just be really sneaky and sly and you can probably crawl away. Some of the guards seem stupid enough..." He actually considered the idea for a moment. The adventure part of it kind of seemed fun. But he quickly waved the thought away. This was his first day in Michigan State and he had to keep reminding himself that he would be leaving soon. He was going to explain it to someone, he wasn't sure who yet, and then he would be allowed to go home. After all, he hadn't really done anything to be sent here. Not in his opinion, anyway.

"Anyway, I'm not advocating escape," he added. Deciding he'd had enough fun with the apple skins, he unraveled them from his fingers and dumped them into the tray. It occurred to him that poor Ashleigh had been sitting by herself before he'd joined her, and he wondered why. She seemed pleasant enough. He hadn't noticed anything strange about her yet. Except, maybe, that she drank too much water. But he decided that would be the ultimately stupid reason to put someone in Michigan State.

Looking down at his tray, Katsuo realized where the apple peels had landed and pouted. He hadn't really wanted to eat apple chilli today...

Thinking he would eat the unnatural-looking stuff anyway, Katsuo picked up his fork and shuffled all the apple peels into the macaroni and cheese beside the chilli.

"Nasty..." He was saying it to no one in particular.

“What is that even supposed to be ?”

Katsuo looked up, beaming. "Which one? The chilli?" He gestured to the probably now apple-flavored brown hunk that he actually intended on eating, then brought his fork to rest over the other unhealthy recipe in his plate. He realized it was this particular food that Ashleigh was looking at.

Katsuo laughed again. "You mean this one, right? I didn't even pick it out, you know! They stuck it in my plate anyway. Should I go back in line?" He looked over to where all the lunch servers were standing, the counter, and the diminishing food line and nodded his head. In that brief instant, he'd decided he was going to go get what he wanted. He hoped Ashleigh would join him. For something more than water.

"Ashleigh, you should come with me!" Katsuo suggested happily. "I can get new chilli, without the apply-stuff in it, and you can get something to eat too. Peeled apples and water won't hold you through the day, believe me!"