fresh meat, page 15

[cups hands around mouth]
LAAAAAAAATE.

so when i ended the intake scene i thought, "wow that took a LOT more pages than i thought it would. i need to speed this up and just get to the supporting cast."
which was technically, supposed to be 2 scenes off. i went over what i'd written in the script, highlighted everything i thought had the potential to be cut or edited, and showed it to my wife for her thoughts on if i should NOT cut any of it.
she told me that she thought i should keep the instance of kim asking the nurse about when she can leave in, even though kim asks another patient a couple of scenes later about the same thing, expanding that she thought it added something to have a nurse explain more vaguely than the patient later.
so as i was drawing up these last 2 pages, i needed to edit in something i hadn't written in the original script, end the previous page on a note that didn't easily allow me to transition into the lunchroom, and decided to honor the advice my wife had given me in this one, because it would've been an awkward transition to abruptly cut to the lunchroom after 3 panels. in all honesty, if i'd had the time to draw them during the last page, i would've done that, and skipped what happens on this page almost entirely.

it ended up being a funny surprise that sugar and the aye-aye nurse were on the same page, because she originally wasn't supposed to be the one who led kim to the lunchroom (i'll probably post what the script originally had in it in a page or 2), considering i mentioned that she was probably what sugar would look like if not for a small change in her concept design.

about food in wards: i'm pretty sure every ward has specific meal schedules, BUT. majority of my experiences with "inpatient," even when not specifically in a program for that, were in places that focused heavily on treating eating disorders.
when i talked to other people about some of the "rules" some of these places had, i was surprised that food wasn't so strictly monitored, no brownie points or punishments in general for how much or how little you ate, what you ate, etc.
the milk thing always bothered me, even though it was only a rule in my first hospital stay, largely because i used to almost exclusively drink milk. i asked why i wasn't allowed to take more than 1 during breakfast and was told it was expensive.
in retrospect, this was weird because hospitals tend to charge you a flat rate for food and board. none of the prices were listed on food, either, but i'm not sure if i'm going to have kim point that out and ask or not yet. i found it questionable at the time, though, because i was often told to go drink some milk outside of mealtimes, which was openly available in a mini fridge in the day room, and, as far as i knew, no one was keeping specific track of what you drank or how much, so you weren't being charged for it. i asked why again a day or two later after being reprimanded for taking 2 and assuming they didn't even really care, and was told it was because there was a milk shortage. this was also weird because we were about 50 miles away from the state with the largest amount of milk exports... but i just accepted it at that point and drank it outside of mealtime instead.
the blood bag restriction made more sense to me, and it has some relevance to the literal plot, but it's a little awkward now with the recent news of rich people paying thousands of dollars for liters of teenagers' blood.