damned_institute | Day 60: Arts and Crafts (Third Shift)

Sora wasn't quite sure what to make of his talk with Doctor Facilier. The man hadn't revealed much about himself even as he'd asked all those questions, so it was hard to form an opinion. Sora could only hope that he had proved himself to be more than just a kid over the course of their conversation, though if not, then that was the doctor's loss, right? Sora figured that he was a pretty good resource in this place after having been stuck here for so long.

As for the note that he'd put up for the club, it had gotten a lot of responses already, which he was glad about. It meant that his friends were all safe and sound, and more than that, they wanted to keep working with him. He'd even gotten a few new people to sign up, counting Renji and the other person who had apparently been recruited by Soma. So while they had missed an important opening last night, Sora wasn't going to let that get him down.

Oddly enough, there was a slight change for today, which was that they weren't going to be eating lunch in the cafeteria. Sora stared down at the bagged lunch that was put into his hands. They were usually only given something like this when they went out to Doyleton, but...

If it meant that they would get to go somewhere else for the shift, then Sora wasn't about to complain. The problem was that he'd already been to these rooms so many times that nothing really struck him as exciting. They'd gone to the Game Room just yesterday, though, so in the end he picked out Arts and Crafts.

Figuring that he should get his meal out of the way first, Sora took a seat at a table and started to dig through his lunch. "Hey, grilled cheese!" Nothing to complain about there. Sora unwrapped the sandwich and took a bite. It felt weird to be eating in here, but he wasn't going to let that stop him.

[For Woody.]

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It unnerved him, the way people could seemingly drift in and out of this place, with memory gaps and no idea of what happened between one day and the next. The thought made Woody's skin crawl, almost as much as not knowing where his actual body was right at that moment. There was just so much wrong with this place, and yet Sora managed to stay upbeat and keep a smile on his face -- chowing down on that grilled cheese sandwich just like he'd seen Andy do as a kid, even!

Hearing that his project had gained some momentum was good, at least, if only because Sora seemed pretty pleased about it. Not that Woody didn't wish him well, of course, but he would have felt better if Sora had an adult to help him run it. Whether he thought he'd been "chosen" to fight things before waking up in Landel's or not, that was still too much for someone so young to handle. Woody wondered how old his friend (Kiku, or Riku, or something like that) was, and whether he was into all this fighting stuff too.

Then again, when he thought about the sorts of patients he'd already met here, he had no idea what to expect. For all he knew, poor Sora had surrounded himself with raging lunatics and had no idea. "Oh, yeah?" Woody asked, trying not to look as wary as he felt. "Well, what kind of, uh...people do you have in your club, then?"

That was a question Sora was pretty sure he'd never been asked before. He blinked down at the brown bag in his lap for a moment, wondering how he was even supposed to answer something like that. It wasn't like all of the club members could be described in one word or even one sentence!

So he'd just have to try his best to describe the members one-by-one. He just had to make sure he didn't end up talking Woody's ear off. "Well, first there's Kairi and Riku! They're my two best friends from when I was a kid. We do everything together!" When they were actually all in one place, anyway, but Landel's had at least allowed for that. When Riku hadn't disappeared and when Kairi wasn't sleeping for weeks, anyway.

"Then there's Soma! She's pretty serious, but she's always willing to help. And Neku, my roommate. He's really nice once you get to know him. Mr. Kratos is also kind of serious... Oh, and there's Sonia! She's still pretty new. Tsubaki is another good friend of mine, but she only helps out sometimes. Oh, and Daemon and Renji both just joined! They used to be in the institute a while back and then they slept for a really long time, I guess. They just woke up again recently!"

In the end, he'd still managed to talk for a long while. Sora smiled somewhat sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders, hoping that he'd given Woody the answer that he was looking for. He grabbed for the apple slices from his lunch and started to munch on them while he waited for Woody's reaction.

Woody patiently listened to Sora explain about some of his club members. While his sandwich hovered near his mouth, he didn't quite take a bite out of it yet. Most of those names didn't sound familiar. Woody figured that would probably be the case, but he couldn't fight the small twinge of disappointment he felt as a result.

On the other hand, there was one person he'd met before. His face lit up at the memory. "Oh, you're friends with Kairi too? We played checkers together once. She talked a little bit about the beach she lived on." Real sweet girl, even if Woody hadn't wanted to believe anything she might have said about nightshift at the time.

"Must be nice, having your friends close by," he remarked, his gaze drifting down onto the table's surface. He still remembered how sad Kairi sounded when she mentioned that she hadn't seen her home or parents in a long time. Knowing she had someone as bright and upbeat as Sora made him feel at least a little bit about her situation, though. "Make sure you take good care of them, all right?"

Woody got the feeling he didn't need to remind Sora of that, but he still felt compelled to say it. With no idea of where Buzz was, he couldn't help but envy anyone who'd done a better job of keeping their buddies safe.

Whoa! Woody had met Kairi? Sora hadn't realized, though that was probably just because Kairi hadn't thought to mention it. She likely didn't know that Sora was a friend of Woody's, either. What a funny coincidence! Sora was going to have to tell the girl about that the next time he saw her.

"Oh yeah, we've been friends since we were little! We both lived on that beach for most of our lives." Sora could have explained how Kairi had washed up there one day, so she wasn't actually a native of Destiny Islands, but he figured that it wasn't all that relevant and it was more Kairi's story to tell than his. "She's really great, isn't she?" Sora couldn't imagine how anyone could dislike Kairi.

With the way that Woody went on to comment about how nice it had to be to have friends nearby, not to mention his request that Sora watch over them, the boy could only assume that something had gone wrong. Woody hadn't mentioned Buzz since they'd started talking, and there was something sad about the look in his eyes.

"Oh, umm... Well, I'll always take good care of them, but... has Buzz not been around lately?" Hopefully he wouldn't be stepping over any boundaries by asking. Though now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen Woody's friend around in a while.

Woody had witnessed enough boys hem and haw about having girls as friends, but Sora didn't seem to care about stuff like that. That probably said a little bit more about the kind of kid he was, and Woody could appreciate that. "Yeah, I'd say you're a pretty lucky guy," he responded, flashing him a grin.

Still, living on the beach with such good pals -- didn't sound like such a bad childhood, really. Woody couldn't help but smile a little at the thought, though it made him wonder what made Sora's life turn out the way it had. To be honest, all that "chosen to fight" business on top of someone so young and happy winding up here unnerved him.

When Sora asked about Buzz, Woody straightened his seat. Wow, was he really that obvious? "Oh, he's still around!" he hastily answered, but he didn't quite look at the boy. "Just...not around, I guess. Haven't seen him in awhile, but his roommate said he isn't...gone, or anything, so..." Woody swallowed hard at the thought of his buddy completely disappearing, or whatever happened to good people like Wally who just seemingly vanished one day.

So that was how it was. Sora realized that he'd been taking a risk by bringing it up, but he wouldn't have felt right ignoring it when the subject had been hanging between them like that. The only reason that Sora had met Woody in the first place was through Buzz, in a way, so it would have been wrong to not ask.

"Hmm... well, at least you know that he's not gone, then." In truth, people sleeping a lot and not showing themselves wasn't a good thing, but they shouldn't assume anything until Woody knew for sure that his friend had left this place. He was probably bracing himself for it, at least.

"What have you been up to, then?" Sora had allowed himself to not worry too much about Woody since he'd known that he had a friend to watch out for him, but with Buzz out of commission things had to have changed. Sora hoped that Woody had been smart enough to at least find someone to travel with at night -- or maybe he'd just stayed in his room.

Day 60: Arts and Crafts (Third Shift)

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