damned_institute | Day 54: Recreational Field

Well, that was the most exhausting lunch Elena had ever experienced. And she didn't get around to eating very much either. Her headache was a least somewhat bearable now, but as the shift ended, she realized how stupid it had been to not get something in her system before the shift ended. But that apparently wasn't in the cards. In fact, just as she stopped panicking long enough to try and get some food down, her nurse was sweeping to her side.

"Shift change, m'dear." Like she hadn't noticed everyone getting up out of their seats and leaving the cafeteria. "I'll take your tray for you, and you make sure to get out to the field on time."

"On time?" Her blank expression must have given away more than she realized, because the nurse was giving her yet another sympathetic look.

"You slept thought a lot this morning, I'm afraid. I'll explain along the way."

By the time they had reached the Rec Field, the nurse had explained most of what had happened with the food fight, and the tear gas, and it only served to damage her calm yet again that day. Of course she slept through something like this, and of course the boys and girls were split up this shift, and of course Elena would have to wait around for some uniformed man to call out her fake name before she could get to Stefan.

At least her last name was near the stop of the list.

"Bailey, Samantha-"

"Here! I'm here. Can I go back inside now? Please?"

Though she didn't even wait for an answer before turning back and heading for the building. As far as she was concerned, she did what she was told, and there was no good reason why she couldn't make her way to the Sun Room right this very second.

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In the midst of spacing out, Chise was suddenly interrupted by the presence of another patient. This time it was a foreign lady who appeared to be just a tiny bit older than Chise.

"Ah, hello, I'm Chise. Sorry for asking, but how long have you been here?"

If the woman was a new patient, Chise might have a tough time convincing her that not everybody was crazy enough to unleash catastrophic food-fights every morning.

With the other girl, Chise she called herself, having initiated conversation, Celty wondered over if the nurse would be coming back anytime soon with that new journal she'd mentioned. For now though, she'd have to wing it, though not by talking. She wanted some time that night to herself to... she didn't know, practice maybe. Talking the way she had was so much different than talking, and she didn't want to do it unless she was sure of a few things.

Particularly the matter of if she wanted to use it at all.

She took a seat beside the younger woman and held up three fingers as she shook her head. Hopefully the girl would understand that as three days, not a long time. Hopefully.

"Three...what? Um...three hours--no wait! Three days, right?"

Chise could only tilt her in confusion, puzzled by the woman's actions. Why was she using body actions to communicate instead of talking? Unless...

"I-I'm sorry for being rude, but, are you unable to talk?" If this was true then it'll be a tough time to maintain an ongoing conversation. She hoped that the woman won't get too upset if she manages to misinterprets the woman's actions.

Three hours. If Celty had been there for only three hours, she'd be far more flustered than she was currently, and that would have been without the gassing and sedation! But the girl seemed to figure that out quickly enough and following a correction, got a nod and a smile from Celty.

Then came the question Celty dreaded to answer, either for the girl or for herself. She let her hand fall along with her eyes before shaking her head. That wasn't it; she could speak only... was she scared to? Really, she'd known she was capable of it since she'd gotten he--this head, but when it came right down to it, the sense of dread just would not leave her mind. If speaking caused her to become more accepting of this and then she found out that the head really wasn't her's...!

She'd been through enough just trying to find her head. That would have been too much.

"I see...I've been here for about two weeks. And just so you know, food fights in the cafeteria aren't frequent every week." Chise replied. If only she had her journal with her to provide the other woman a means of communication. On another note, how does one introduce themselves if they can't speak? By writing in the air?

"By the way, what would like me to call you? Just for now until you can write it down. Would a type certain color or...an animal work?"

Please don't take it as an insult please don't take it as an insult.

Two weeks was not that long of a time in Celty's mind, but when she gave the idea of being in this place for that amount, she couldn't help but think the environment would make it feel like much longer. She could just imagine it and felt more than before that getting out needed to be a priority. Too bad her list was stained orange and probably in a trash can somewhere.

Which led to problems in communication all around. With her refusing to speak, she couldn't call the girl by name or ask questions either, and Chise was at a loss for how to address Celty herself.

Where is that nurse...!? Celty huffed in her head before trying to think of an answer. An animal or color would be weird, but if she went with that, the girl would have to pick which one and that could lead to having a really strange name! But how else was she supposed to explain unless... wait, this girl was speaking Japanese. That meant she should be able to understand if Celty spelled things out for her!

Leaning forward a bit, Celty pointed to one of the girl's hands before turning her palm up.

If Chise had a choice, she would either pick 'neko' or 'seal'. But she never got a chance to voice her opinion when the woman pointed to her hand.

"My hand?"

Curious, Chise followed her instructions and turned her palm up.

With the girl cooperating, Celty reached her own hand to catch beneath Chise's upturned one. Next she brought her other hand up, index finger ready, and began tracing the characters for her name as best they worked in Japanese. I wonder if she might know English too... Celty couldn't help but think, given that it was entirely possible she could end up called something other than her name. "Celty" didn't translate into characters that well, but "se", "ru" and "ti" could at least give Chise a ballpark idea.

Day 54: Recreational Field

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