Day 30: Arts and Crafts Room (Third Shift)

[rectifies.livejournal.com]

[Bother away~]

It was surprising how quickly the staff had lifted the lockdown, particularly for those who had a hand in this morning's "incident". Ken was certain they were going to be stuck in their rooms until nightfall and thus, felt wary of the intercom's announcement. Partly for possible ulterior motives, partly for the fact they were treating them as children.

This whole situation was one glorified time-out, when he thought about it.

Still, there were some benefits to the matter, which the nurse was now spelling out for him. "....choice of the Sun Room, the Music Room, the Game Room, or the Arts and Crafts Room--"

"Wait." Ken stopped short in the middle of the hallway. "Excuse me, but did you say Arts and Crafts Room?"

The nurse nodded and smiled. "Would you like to go there?" she asked. "You deserve it, considering you were so good during today's ordeal."

Perfect. He was hoping for a place to finish the copy of the map he had planned to give Yukari. This "Arts and Crafts" Room should have something more eye-catching than pens. (Blue and black ink were boring selections.) With a nod of approval, Ken allowed himself to be escorted.

In five minutes, the boy managed to assemble several choice markers and four sheets of white paper, which he took to one of the round tables in the room. There, he set to work, using the map within his journal pages as a reference.

Comments

[gald_digger]

Anise glanced up, her incomplete project cradled in her arms. It was a fully sewn Tokunaga doll, larger than the one Mion had seen her put together a few days back, although it was missing a few features; its face, for one.

It took a second to recall the girl's name. "Oh! Hi Mion," Anise said, returning the greeting with a little extra cheer to hopefully overshadow that moment of hesitation. Admittedly, she put a little more effort to remembering the names of men than those of other girls. "Did you come to see more of my cute creations?" she asked with a playful grin.

[inb4crazy.livejournal.com]

Mion looked at the doll as the girl looked up at her. It was definetely bigger than the one she had been working on before... Of course, the fact that she made one at all with that sling she had been in was pretty impressive in itself. If you could make a doll with an injured arm, you could fight with a metal plate in your head, right? Right.

"Heh, well I guess you caught me," Mion laughed, grinning back at Anise. "I haven't seen dolls made in person before, and yours are espescially nice."

[gald_digger]

With a giggle, Anise replied, "I'm flattered!" Not a lot of people appreciated Tokunaga's cuteness nearly as much as the too-too-adorable doll deserved. "This one's going to be a bit better than an ordinary doll, though," she added, her grin turning sly. Now that she was back to 100%, she could do far better work than before!

Mion was perhaps in the opposite situation, though. There were bandages around her head - maybe she'd hit it on something? It didn't seem tactful to ask.

Anise dug around in the cabinet a bit more, retrieving some white felt and sewing supplies. "What about you? Planning on making something today?"

[inb4crazy.livejournal.com]

"Better than an ordinary doll, huh?" Mion raised an eyebrow, though she supposed the design or something was special and therefore better than an average doll, so she left that there. Besides, it was probably personal or something anyway. Or not, who knew? Still, being friendly couldn't hurt either, right? "Can't wait to see it!"

"Me?" Mion paused and, thanks to habit, raised one hand to scratch the back of her head. She flinched at first after hitting a certain area, but then continued on in less than a second, the hardly noticable flinch being just that - hardly noticable. "Weeell... I don't really have anything particular in mind, but this old man figured I could do something fun and maybe make something neat while I'm at it, you know? Better than reading some book or sitting in the sun room, at any rate."

[gald_digger]

"I can't make it as cool as the one I had back home, but I can make it a little useful," Anise explained. If only she could make one like her prized fontech Tokunaga! But she hadn't seen Dist in forever, and he was the only one who knew how to make those vital modifications. And even if he was around, there were the issues of tools and materials, and of actually convincing him to help...

Oh well. She could make do with what she had in front of her.

"You're right!" Anise said to Mion's answer. "It's pretty boring to just sit around in a dump like this." She dumped her armful of materials on the table nearest the cabinets, but decided to wait before seating herself and starting her work, curious to see what materials Mion would go for.

[inb4crazy.livejournal.com]

"Well, at least you're trying to make one close, right? Better than nothing!" Mion hoped that hadn't come out wrong or anything, but her mind wasn't as up to date on 'being friendly 101' as it had been yesterday.

"Hmmm..." Mion looked over the different supplies. She didn't really feel like making anything in particular, but she didn't feel like drawing again either. But what could she do...

... and then an idea struck her. A weird, maybe even presumptuous idea, but it was something the leader in her, the one who wanted to protect and watch out for everyone in her; wanted to do. A grin coming to her face, Mion started grabbing fabrics, beads, thread, and scissors. She wasn't entirely sure what she was going to do with all of this, but it'd be good.

[gald_digger]

Anise caught that grin. "Got an idea?" she asked.

Taking that as a green flag, she sat down before the table and immediately began cutting strips and shapes from the white felt. The material would do well for both the doll's facial features and for the little modifications she planned to make.

[inb4crazy.livejournal.com]

"Weeell something like that..." Mion thought over her words. She did have an idea in mind, but as she said, it was still in the planning stages. "A baby idea that hasn't quite decided what it wants to be when it grows up I guess."

Following Anise to the same table, she set down her supplies and began cutting thin strips of different colored fabric. "Hmmm, this'll work."

[gald_digger]

That was better than nothing, Anise figured. She approved of Mion's color choices, anyway. If there was anything this boring place could use, it was some vibrant colors! Pink, especially. How she missed her cute outfits from home!

But as long as there was something she could do to brighten the place a bit, she might as well do it! Anise wasted no time in adding the last few details to the doll; its paws, its ears, and most importantly, its wide, pointy-toothed grin. Finishing that, she then took the long felt strips, folding and stitching each to make them thinner and stronger. Maybe they wouldn't make the best straps, but with the materials available they would have to do.

[inb4crazy.livejournal.com]

For a while, it seemed like Mion was just cutting and sewing random things together, sticking beads onto string and sewing that into the strips of fabric. A big, colorful, artistic mess; that was what it was. But soon it started to take form... many different forms, actually. If one were perhaps enough of a child they might have realized that Sonozaki Mion, master of just about any game you could find, heir of a family that kept a torture chamber in the basement, and sister of one of the most evil girls to ever be...

... was making friendship bracelets. Friendship bracelets which Mion wasn't even sure would be allowed to leave the room with her, let alone get to the people she intended them to go to. Plus she was meeting Rena after this shift anyway...

"Hm..." Mion selected a pink and red bracelet that was decorated with brown beads; and held it out for Anise. "Here, uh, this is for you."

[gald_digger]

When she had finished her straps, making sure they were thin enough not to get in the way, but strong enough to carry some weight, Anise set them aside, turning now to the doll. Carefully cutting the threads keeping its head on its shoulders, she cut until the head flopped over backwards. Then, she cut the seams of the 'neck,' and started pulling cotton balls out to make some space in the torso.

She sewed some more felt sheets together to make a sac, and stuffed it inside the doll to reinforce the inside. Anise then stitched all loose ends to make sure everything was in place. Now the torso was neatly hollowed! She added a flap over the top, and attached the head to said flap. Now she had just what she wanted: a Tokunaga bag that opened at the neck! All she needed now was to add the straps and buttons, and she'd have an adorable makeshift backpack. How resourceful and clever she was!

But Anise was interrupted from her internal gloating as she saw Mion offer her something. The concept of friendship bracelets was pretty foreign to an Auldrantian like her, but she took it anyway. Anise would never refuse a material gift, naturally! She turned it over in her hands with a curious look for a few moments before asking, "What is it?"

[inb4crazy.livejournal.com]

"What is it? Well, let's see," Mion honestly hadn't considered that Anise wouldn't know what it was. She figured everyone knew about them, disregarding however they may have felt about it. Still, who was she to not explain just what it was to Anise? A grin spread on Mion's face as she began to explain.

"It's a friendship bracelet! It's a handmade gift from me to you to show we're friends! It's not anything huge, you don't have to keep it if you don't want it but... Well, that's what it is," Mion put her hands on her neck and laughed a little. "This old man is gonna make one for all of my friends, and the first one's for you."

[gald_digger]

A token of friendship... so Mion counted her as a friend? Anise hadn't really had any friends her age since joining the Oracle Knights, and that was years ago. It was a little weird to think she'd be making one now, and in a place like this. Weird, but maybe kind of nice, too.

Anise slipped the bracelet around her wrist, tightened it, and shot Mion a smile. "Thanks, Mion. Maybe I'll return the favor sometime! After all, you even guessed my favorite color right." One would think it should be natural to associate Lovely Pink (as Anise called the particular shade she usually wore) with someone as cute and feminine as her, but it seemed the nurses were convinced her favorite color was yellow. It was a minor pet peeve, but it was really nice to see someone get it right.