Day 65: Arts & Crafts Room (Fourth Shift)

[unpriest]

Seishin didn't have the opportunity to visit the arts and crafts room before, but handicraft wasn't something the former priest had ever been particularly skilled at. He would have been content with remaining in the library, but the nurse insisted that he'd pursue a more social activity than something so isolating as reading a book. Pushing one's own ideas of what was good for them onto others was not something limited to just Sotoba, he guessed, and in the end Seishin had little choice but to quietly follow along.

The room was still empty when Seishin entered, leaving him with little else to do but eying the materials with relative uncertainty.

[Dr. Facilier]

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[skeletonenigma]

Skulduggery was left, once again, wondering where on earth the bad feeling was coming from. Gabe was now, if anything, reminding him of Ghastly; and Ghastly was one of the most noble men Skulduggery knew. Stubborn, though. And he tended to make most of his clothes indoors, bent over a sewing machine in the dark. The image was suddenly amusing when Skulduggery compared it to Gabe's vision of knitting in the sunset.

The tape was a clever idea. Skulduggery followed suit, noting with mild interest that once he got used to the extra circumference and weight on his fingers, it wouldn't be too different from his own skeletal hands. It might take him a couple of days, but he would get that dexterity back. It was his lack of muscle and pathetic stamina that was worrying him most, particularly if he and Rita were going to try again tonight.

[impudentsongbird]

“Alright.” Gabriel spread his hands over their materials without touching them, and grinned. “We’re actually going to start at the middle of the twine and divide it in two parts. We won’t be actually knotting the centre yet, though, just keeping it marked.” He folded the twine over on itself, found the middle, and then pinched the place where the first knot would be made.

“Instead we’ll be starting with the first Ave of the third decade. Just three wraps, for them; the Paters will be five. We can consider the spacing as we go, though the Aves should be even, because the Pater will be spaced a little further past each decade.” The Archangel glanced up to make sure Skul was following, or see if the man had any questions.

[skeletonenigma]

Skulduggery stared down at his twine for a moment, held limply in his hands, and then glanced back up at Gabe. "Unless you're intending for this to take thirty years, I think I'm a bit behind on the terminology." He folded his own in half, pinched the centre, and began tying the first barrel knot in roughly the same place Gabe had marked on his. "I'll just follow what you're doing."

It really had been a while since he'd had anything to do with a religion that didn't involve the Faceless Ones. It was almost relaxing, in a way. Rather like meditation, without the inconvenience of having your skull nicked right off your spinal column. That was a grudge Skulduggery didn't think he'd ever be able to let go.

[impudentsongbird]

"I'm in no hurry to be anywhere," Gabriel answered simply with a smile. Human or not, imprisoned or not, if Gabriel was here then he was going to make the most of it. It wasn't like he'd had any pressing engagements before he'd woken up here anyway.

Even so, if that was how Skul wanted to do things, Gabriel had no objection. The Archangel spaced the knots evenly, except for the eleventh knot, which had a bit more distance, and went slowly so Skul saw how many rounds each knot took. "You're from Ireland, aren't you?" he asked. The accent gave it all away, really. "Which part? You implied you travel often."

[skeletonenigma]

Technically, Skulduggery wasn't in any hurry either, considering where he would be if he wasn't here. Still, three decades seemed like an unusually long time to be working on one project of any description.

"Dublin," he answered, his attention focused on the knots in front of him. "Well, just outside Dublin." He'd been spending a great deal of time in Haggard as well lately, a place he never thought he'd visit once Gordon no longer lived there. "I'm mostly in Ireland these days, but I did travel quite a bit for a while."

It was difficult to name any place in the world where Skulduggery hadn't been, or gone near, at least once. Most of those places were probably very different at the time, though. Damascus, for instance. "I even managed to squeeze in some sightseeing occasionally," the detective added absentmindedly as he worked.

[impudentsongbird]

That depended on the project, really. Three decades wasn't all that long, when you considered how some projects could be cultivated. Michael had been on the Garden Coast for centuries, after all.

"I haven't been there in a very long time," Gabriel said rather wistfully, and sang without pausing in his knotting: "'Fare thee well, sweet Anna Liffey; I can no longer stay. I watch the new glass cages that spring up along the quay. My mind's too full of memories, too old to hear new chimes; I'm part of what was Dublin in the rare auld times.' I really ought to visit again, when I leave here."

It wasn't much, or even very long, but the way Gabriel segued in and out of the quote was as natural as breathing. Almost as if Gabe could easily sing every word he spoke, because it would be instinct and passion, and simply chose not to. Even more notable was the fact that Gabriel didn't even seem to notice that he'd done anything that might be construed as odd. Instead he simply looked up and asked, "You travelled mostly for business, then? Where were your favourite places to go?"

[skeletonenigma]

Skulduggery's hands, which had slowly been gaining confidence as he moved through the knots, came to a stop when Gabe started singing. He gave the man a long, hard look, not quite suspicious, but not quite neutral either. There was nothing suspect about knowing the song itself - anyone who had been in Ireland since the 1970's would probably be able to sing some of it. But Gabe's voice, coupled with his comment of 'a very long time' and his apparent age, was making Skulduggery wonder all over again.

"Good to see you're optimistic," he remarked, referring to Gabe's use of the word 'when' instead of 'if.' Not that Skulduggery wasn't just as optimistic, but Landel did seem to be able to control almost everything here. Yomi and Detective Badd had both practically given up.

The detective went back to working on the rosary, looping the string through into another knot. "Not exactly business, no. But..." he hesitated. "New Zealand was beautiful. France wasn't bad, either. And the music from America around 1920 was particularly good."

[impudentsongbird]

"There's no reason not to be," Gabe said matter-of-factly. "All things must end, and that includes this. Something will happen, someone will find us or someone here will get out, and when they do it will leave a crack in Landel's defences." And then the rest of them could take advantage.

Oh, American music! Truthfully, once Gabe and Michael had started escorting the pilgrims West neither of them had really left America. Michael in particular--Gabriel still visited elsewhere, of course, but a great deal of his time was spent there, and the changing face of music had been one of his favourite parts. The Archangel beamed. "It was good, wasn't it? I always particularly liked Jimmie Rodgers, myself--I've always been fond of cowboys."

The last was said with a strain of impishness, as if there was an inside joke there no one else here knew.