Day 32: Sun Room (2nd shift)

[heraldric.livejournal.com]

After the couple glasses of water Leon managed to gulp down during breakfast, the mage felt immensely better. He was still a bit tired, but that was nothing a little lounging on one of the sofas wouldn't cure. Stretching his arms above his head, he couldn't help but wish he'd had the chance to grab one of his new doctor's coats before leaving his room that morning. Maybe they would have let him get away with wearing it. Maybe.

He grabbed an empty sofa, pulling out the journal he tried to keep on him at all times. It was nearly complete now. Just a couple more pages to go. It might not improve his spellcasting that much, but any improvement was better than none. It was getting to where it might be too dangerous for him to use spells at all, if it left him so worn out without even finishing a monster off.

Comments

[intoindra.livejournal.com]

The pale man jerked as Esmeralda spoke, not expecting her to speak to him. And that smile... it had been too long since he'd seen something like that. If his eyes chilled her, her smile warmed him; moreso than he'd felt in awhile. That song, too, was distantly familiar, but where had he heard it before?

A smile crept on his face, relieved and open at the same time. It was nice to feel human again. "More than you can imagine. I'm Roland... I don't think we've had the pleasure?"

[jingledoughnut.livejournal.com]

"Esmeralda," she offered, pausing from her dance to merely sway with the music in her mind. "And I guess we haven't." Her smile grew wider, kinder.

"I planned on asking around a bit, but I guess I just got distracted. What is this place- is it really an asylum?"

[intoindra.livejournal.com]

...damn. Where did she come from? Gray stuff didn't suit Esmeralda at all, and yet she definitely managed to seem graceful and stunning even despite the circumstances. "Esmeralda," he quietly repeated, a small smile on his face as he lightly asked, "I don't imagine you've been to Paris, have you?"

He was thoroughly expecting to be teased, so he quickly moved to answer her other question in a hope that that would keep her there. "It's not really an asylum, no. By day it might seem that way, but at night it takes on a different face entirely." And whereas Argilla could more than handle herself in this sort of situation, the jury was still out on Esmeralda.

[jingledoughnut.livejournal.com]

...how did he? "Yes, actually." It was kind of a pleasant surprise to hear that, and it showed on her face. "That's where I was before..." Before she found herself here.

Hm. Mason had told her the same thing, really. She wasn't sure what she was expecting to hear from Roland, but a part of her wished he hadn't said the same as before. "Yeah," she replied, the smile dying as she crossed her arms over her chest and glanced around at the other patients. "I heard that. Still not sure I want to believe it."

[intoindra.livejournal.com]

"...in Notre Dame? Phoebus and Quasimodo and Clopin and all?" Roland blinked at that, a little baffled. Now that he thought about it, she did have the right looks and grace, and that song was familiar as though he'd read it somewhere before. But surely a work of fiction couldn't show up in reality, could it?

Then again, 'gods' had shown up in his world. Why not a gypsy?

As for the other part, though, Roland grew a little more serious. Fiction or not, this woman was clearly part of the patient body, which meant that she had to be warned. "I'm afraid it doesn't matter if you want to believe it or not, however. It's an objective fact that there are monsters running around at night. If you do go out, make sure that you have someone with you who can protect you, all right?"

[jingledoughnut.livejournal.com]

Even if this were a hallucination, it was becoming increasingly worrying. Esmeralda found herself taking a step back and staring at the man, eyes narrowed in angry disbelief. "How do you know about them?"

Oh, first he brought up people he shouldn't even know, then had it in him to underestimate her? "And I can take care of myself, pal." Just where did he get off?!

[intoindra.livejournal.com]

...huh. Perhaps he'd gone just a little too fast with his questions. But now he knew one thing; she thought she was Esmeralda. Whether she was one, honestly, was a bit of a question still. "...I know about them because they were tied in with you, and you're more popular than you might know."

A safe guess, if she was a fictional character. Or even if not; it wasn't like her story was published while she was alive. "And I know that you might be able to protect yourself under normal circumstances, but I'm not exaggerating when I call these things monsters. Large teeth, sharp claws, poison... it's not easy even for people who are well-armed."