norainu (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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damned_institute2011-12-11 01:48 am
norainu) wrote in damned_institute2011-12-11 01:48 am
Day 60: Music Room (Fourth Shift)
It wasn't often that Renji felt less like punching people in general as his day wore on. This was a new experience for him. A not unwelcome one, if he was being honest. And the fact that he felt less like punching Fai? Kind of mind-blowing. The sort of thing Zen masters would probably use as a kouan to reach an all-new level of non-punching enlightenment.
So he was back from the dead, almost everyone he'd known was gone, and yet bizarrely his day felt like it was looking up. Kind of. Renji wasn't sure what to make of this. Maybe his grumpy meter was just nearing empty. That was as good an explanation as the next, considering how this place made him feel.
Whatever the reason, he ended up in the music room. And he remembered oh yeah. He'd always kind of hated this damn shift. He grabbed a little book of music and a drum and retreated quickly to the far end of the room. He put the drum down in front of him just so he looked like he was doing something and opened the book. But he had no idea how to read music, and really, he was more interested in the ongoing puzzle of what the hell had happened in the last four weeks.
And brooding. Of course. There was always brooding to be done.
[Okay Tolten, let me lay it out for you. When there's a mommy and a daddy... or sometimes a daddy and a dadddy. Or, hell, sometimes a mommy and a mommy if you buy the right kind of wood cuts (and a third mommy if you go to just the right shop)... but anyway when they love each other very much, or at least a suitably large amount of money changes hands, there are some things that happen...]
So he was back from the dead, almost everyone he'd known was gone, and yet bizarrely his day felt like it was looking up. Kind of. Renji wasn't sure what to make of this. Maybe his grumpy meter was just nearing empty. That was as good an explanation as the next, considering how this place made him feel.
Whatever the reason, he ended up in the music room. And he remembered oh yeah. He'd always kind of hated this damn shift. He grabbed a little book of music and a drum and retreated quickly to the far end of the room. He put the drum down in front of him just so he looked like he was doing something and opened the book. But he had no idea how to read music, and really, he was more interested in the ongoing puzzle of what the hell had happened in the last four weeks.
And brooding. Of course. There was always brooding to be done.
[Okay Tolten, let me lay it out for you. When there's a mommy and a daddy... or sometimes a daddy and a dadddy. Or, hell, sometimes a mommy and a mommy if you buy the right kind of wood cuts (and a third mommy if you go to just the right shop)... but anyway when they love each other very much, or at least a suitably large amount of money changes hands, there are some things that happen...]
if by worst you mean best.
Sora didn't have too long to dwell on that, though, since Chipp jumped into his story soon after. And it turned out to be a pretty complicated one -- or was that just because of the way that Chipp was telling it? He was making it pretty exciting, even flailing his arms around as he spoke, but...
The mention of a shadow demon caught Sora's attention almost immediately. Had this Zato person been possessed by some kind of Heartless? Or maybe the darkness had just consumed him. Either way, Sora hadn't expected to hear that Venom had been working for someone who ran an assassin's guild. While Sora had to admit that he didn't exactly know what that was, he had to assume that it had something to do with killing people.
Venom had never mentioned that. Was that because he wasn't proud of it, or had he just thought that Sora was too young to hear about it? Honestly, Sora wasn't sure how to feel about it, especially since it had been kept from him.
Sora had ended up befriending people who he fought originally, so he could wrap his head around that, at least. He was surprised to hear that Chipp had won. He had to be really strong, to beat someone like Venom. But then he gave some more details about the guild. Venom apparently thought there was a need for it. Sora didn't know what that need was, but he was sure that it was a good reason. He'd just need to ask Venom about it himself.
Either way, this also explained why Chipp wanted to be president. To change things, right? That was what presidents were for: to make things better. At least, that was how Sora understood it. If Chipp wanted to make their world a place where a guild (whatever that was) wasn't needed, then that seemed pretty admirable to Sora.
"...Huh," he replied eventually, barely even registering the nurse who had come to bother them. He didn't mind hearing a story like this, especially since it would help him understand Venom some more. And Chipp too, for that matter. "So... what exactly is an assassin's guild? This is the first time I've heard about it." Sora wanted to get that figured out first, so that he didn't make any wrong assumptions.
i'm glad someone else sees how awesome this story is /bricked
It wasn't even that he felt that it should have been obvious just by going from the name, but... how could someone hang around Venom and not know what the Guild was? Of course, Chipp didn't even bother to consider exactly why this information was withheld from Sora, when it ought to have been clear as day. Then again, Chipp was never a fan of mincing words or hiding things.
Regardless, he wasn't sure exactly how to respond, evident by the fact he answered Sora's question with another question: "... You mean, he never invited you to join it?"
Chipp didn't know too much about Sora, but he knew the kid was able to hold his own against a place full of monsters with that weird key-sword weapon of his and come out looking better then he himself did. Venom would be interested in that at least, right?
no subject
If it was normal for Venom to invite people, why hadn't he ever extended that invitation to him? Not that it mattered much here, since this was clearly something that existed back home, but Sora had invited Venom to join Arts and Crafts. It hadn't been accepted, but he'd still made the offer, which was the important part.
"No, I... he's never talked about it before," he admitted. "Maybe he didn't want to talk too much about stuff from his home? He's kind of secretive about that stuff."
Mainly his conversations with Venom involved talking about the institute itself, trading information, and being given advice. Sora hadn't mentioned much about his own life either, but he hadn't been actively trying to hide it. Maybe Venom hadn't either, but Chipp was acting like that was the case, so just what was going on here?
no subject
"Well, if he ever does, I want you to refuse anyway. Wait until I'm President, then the Guild will be used for good, alright?" Indeed, Chipp had learned a long time ago that while the Guild in its current state was a goddamn mess, that was only half of the problem. It only existed because people needed it. Clearly, the world had to change first before the Guild could change.
Still... why was Sora upset? It couldn't be because he felt left out or something, was it? Actually, now that Chipp thought about it, Venom probably didn't invite Sora because it would expose the kid to all sorts of danger. ... Hm.
"You know, he probably just didn't want you to get hurt. I wouldn't worry about it. Besides, I already said you can't join." Yep, if Venom was intending for Sora to never get involved in that crap, then he was more then happy to oblige.
no subject
It was kind of weird that Chipp had just gone from asking him why he hadn't been invited into the Guild to forbidding him to join it. Sora was having a tough time keeping up, but if he understood right, the Guild wasn't exactly a good thing. If it really was for assassination, then that meant that the members of it were murdering other people, which --
Well, Sora had done that before, if Nobodies counted as people, but that was different. He doubted that this Guild was targeting people who were emotionless and friendless.
The idea that Venom hadn't mentioned it to prevent Sora from getting hurt made sense, though. Venom was usually overprotective of him, so that would fit in there. And Sora probably wouldn't have even wanted to join, so what exactly was bothering him about all this?
"Okay, so... what do you plan to do, if you're president?" Maybe it was better to focus on other things now. He could talk it all over with Venom later.
no subject
Besides, he was distracted with a better question. A far better question, though it turned out that Chipp didn't really have a good answer for it.
"What else? I'm going to change the world!" Of course, such a vague answer would have made anyone listening to him skeptical. Even Chipp was slowly starting to realize how empty that sounded. "... But I have to get elected first, don't I?"
no subject
Still, if Chipp was dedicated to that, then Sora saw no reason not to support him. It sounded like the place that he and Venom came from was in pretty bad shape, so someone who was interested in changing that was someone that Sora could only think well of.
"I guess so, yeah! I don't really know how that stuff works, honestly..." He scratched at the back of his head. "So, uhh, how do plan to do it? Change the world, I mean. Hey, what's the name of the place you're from, anyway?" That was yet another thing that Venom had never told him, although Sora had never asked. Well, he was going to be asking a lot more now.
no subject
"... Uh." Shit, he didn't really put as much thought into this as he should have, didn't he? Chipp frowned and crossed his arms, not sure how to reply to Sora's first question. But it was an important one... well, whatever he had to do, he had to become President to do it. It felt kind of crappy to have a kid point out a flaw in his plan though, especially one that was so obvious in hindsight. "Damn, I guess I didn't really put as much thought into this as I should have."
It kind of pissed him off to admit that, but he wasn't going to take it out on Sora. It was a good question, after all. Thankfully, Sora asked him something else that he could answer and was much more important!
“Oh yeah, I'm from Japan. But it's not there anymore, so I'm just traveling around trying to collect votes.” The sad thing was that while Chipp was blatantly lying, he seemed extremely serious about Japan being his place of birth and where he was from. He knew it. He knew it in his soul. So it wasn't really a lie, just a correction. Yep.
Before Chipp had the chance to lecture Sora about the wonders of Japan and the wisdom of the Japanese, the nurse who was watching them warily made her way around yet again, this time with an orderly following behind her. Just in case.
“Robert, it's about time to get ready to go back to your room. Why don't we-”
“What the hell did I do now?!”
no subject
That didn't mean that Sora wasn't going to support Chipp, though. He just needed to put a little more effort into figuring out a game plan, and then he'd be golden.
Either way, the location he gave for where he was from was one that Sora had heard a few times. Japan was definitely popular around here, for whatever reason. "I guess a lot of people are from there," he remarked out loud. He wanted to know what exactly Chipp meant by "not there anymore," since that was definitely the first time he'd heard that mentioned (it was probably a time issue), but he wasn't given the chance.
The nurses came by and Chipp almost immediately got testy with them, which made Sora laugh nervously. "All right, Mr. Chipp!" he said as he stood up. "I'll see you around. Good luck with those votes, okay? And I'll try to cheer up Venom, too." Actually, he had a few questions for the man, but hopefully he take care of both at the same time.
Sora offered Chipp a wave and then took off, eager to go put up the assignments for Arts and Crafts.