Day 36: Arts & Crafts Room

[notaleaf.livejournal.com]

The nurse had told Wash he could go anywhere he wanted and the thought Is home included in that? crossed his mind, but that sounded too pathetic to say aloud, even for him. So he silently eenie meenie minie moe'd through his options, ended up choosing the Sun Room, and then promptly decided the Arts and Crafts room would be more interesting. At least there might be stuff he could fiddle with and distract himself.

A part of him couldn't decide if he was relieved or not he didn't get a visitor. He didn't think it would've gone the way a proper visit was supposed to go, but...

He stepped into the room and sat down at an empty table, rifling through the materials absently. This place looked much too cheerful. Although maybe that was better than looking much too scary, but it was so cheerful it was almost scary and now he was starting to confuse even himself.

After a second, he picked up a pair of scissors (these weren't scissors, they were more like plastic chopsticks) and a sheet of construction paper and began cutting.

[hi Badou~]

Comments

[missedfortunes.livejournal.com]

"I don't get how everyone's always so goddamn calm about it," he grumbled quietly. Almost every single person he met so far was ridiculously casual about their situation here. He didn't get it. While Kaiji definitely enjoyed some aspects of dayshift, namely actually being fed decently and being housed, it wasn't enough to keep him from frequently moping around and snapping in anger if he felt like doing so. And breaking down and sobbing every so often. Kaiji was very much ruled by his emotions and he didn't really see it as a problem. It did seem to be an abnormality, though. Both here and elsewhere.

He was a reasonably honest person. Often a little too honest.

Kaiji was a failure of a cheater. Actually, he was a failure of most things, but especially of a cheater. The suggestion that they cheat the head of this operation caught his attention prominently. "No one's figured out the 'rules' yet?" Were there any rules to this? Well, obviously the daytime hours were structured and riddled with all kinds of rules and regulations, but overall? Nighttime seemed like a total free-for-all and the only thing Kaiji could figure constituted as 'cheating' in any way shape or form were those radio clues that he had been talked into finding. That couldn't have been the key to it, could it have been? The setup was far too convenient from what he had directly observed. It was suspicious.

He turned his card over, still irritable, letting the 'E' face up. He didn't comment on it. "Cheating..." he said thoughtfully. The last time Kaiji tried to cheat at something, he was caught and his opponent cheated right back. And he got his fingers chopped off.

Cheating, therefore, was typically not the best idea in Kaiji's book.

[vladville.livejournal.com]

"Well, I've seen people get quite upset over it, but it's only resulted in sedation by daytime, or a lack of positive effort by night. So even if I'm angry, I do try to keep my temper about all of this. The people who post rants on the bulletin board or who make fights with other patients for no reason don't seem to accomplish much, but perhaps they simply enjoy the outbursts. It isn't my style." That was a bit of a biased view, but Vlad supposed what Kaiji didn't know about a certain Jack Fenton's effect on his temper wouldn't hurt either of them. Daniel had been exhibiting an increasing talent for being less an amusing diversion and more an open problem, even within the Institute, as well...

The game was Vlad's loss, which went without comment. The mood was calming, at least, which hopefully would help Vlad in the next round. He took his cards back, shuffling again, slow and idle hand movements. "But as for cheating... the rules here are created by the doctor, the 'game' we play is orchestrated by the doctor, and it seems that if there's any way of winning for us, it wouldn't be by playing within the doctor's rules. Then again, I suppose calling it cheating when the deck's already been stacked against us might be uncharitable. Finding a way around the rules and barriers, then."

[missedfortunes.livejournal.com]

Vlad's explanation seemed to do a fine job of putting Kaiji in his place. One of the last things he wanted was to get knocked out against his will again if it was avoidable, and he wanted even less to be shoved into the same category as the bleached bastard. He sank down a little, looking increasingly miserable with every addition. Having mostly come down from his rage, he was now steadily drifting to another extreme.

The description of the Head Doctor's game wasn't lightening Kaiji's mood any. Vlad was right, of course. "It sounds like things are always going his way," he whined. It was probably a bluff and Kaiji had only been here for a short while, but it seemed that every announcement that the Head Doctor made was absolutely perfect. Sure he had expressed some form of worry at a couple of points, but within a few hours everything was happy and wonderful in his horrifying little world again. "But I know what you mean." Even the creepy old man who had led Kaiji to so many deadly and frightening gambles had the courtesy of giving him the rules plainly and clearly before pulling him into things. And the rules were typically fair on some level, ranging from extremely simple to somewhat complicated to explain.

This was just... Who even knew?

Kaiji didn't seem to be at all satisfied by his victory, but he did remember to update his makeshift scorecard: Vlad still had a score of five, and now he himself had a score of one. He slid the sheet over to Vlad. "We can either switch cards and see where this goes, or we can leave it like this and just top it off." Had he forgotten to mention that it was possible for the Slave and the Emperor to switch places between sets? Either way, he didn't sound like he had any strong feelings about either option so it was completely up to Vlad.

[vladville.livejournal.com]

Vlad looked at the score sheet, considering. At least Kaiji had calmed down, although now he seemed to be in a bit of a funk. Really, he was quite an emotional sort, wasn't he? But not too unpleasant company, despite that. The game had been enjoyable enough, and the man was neither openly threatening nor unbearably stupid in Vlad's judgment thus far. Considering some of the people he'd met, Kaiji's presence was quite bearable.

"Yes... it does seem that way, doesn't it? It's rather frustrating for me, as well." To switch metaphors to a game he understood a bit better, chess was fine, but he wasn't used to being one of the pieces... or worse, not being able to see the board at all. "I can't deny that. Do you have many friends here? It helps to at least have a few contacts, I find." Vlad hadn't found any such thing, but he imagined it was likely, and Daniel at least qualified as a contact if not a friend. "I mean, friends from your own home, or individuals you've become close to here. Considering the circumstances, I've taken up the philosophy that one can never have too many friends among those patients who aren't dangerously psychotic."

He nodded at the cards. "Let's switch. Otherwise, if I understand the scoring correctly, the outcome is already determined. Besides, I haven't tried the other deck, I'm curious."

[missedfortunes.livejournal.com]

One thing Kaiji had to count against Vlad was that he seemed to have a special talent for (probably unintentionally) asking painful-to-answer questions. He shook his head without saying anything, obviously holding in another highly emotional outburst: he didn't have friends. Well, he had, but every time that happened, either something unspeakably horrible happened to them or they did something unspeakably horrible to him. It was a pretty black and white state of affairs that was attributed to his talent for working effectively in desperate situations as well as his unfortunate bouts of altruism, which meant that he had many hastily formed but meaningful connections at various points.

This was part of why Kaiji was so reluctant to consider himself in any way fond of anyone here or anywhere, since he knew all too well how easily it could end in heartbreak. His unattractive appearance and equally if not even more unattractive personality should have been enough to drive most people away, but an overwhelming amount of people were strangely tolerant of and sometimes even attracted to both.

The denial of having people who he held in high regard wasn't entirely true: Kaiji respected his first acquaintance here, Sora, as well as a small handful of others. Surely there were plenty of respectable people who had been pulled from wherever they were from and brought here, but Kaiji was still fairly new and always sort of antisocial unless the alternative was absolutely necessary.

"Sure." Kaiji listlessly separated the 'E' card from the others and sent it over to Vlad with a push of his finger, figuring that it would be a sufficient switch since the only difference between the two sets were the 'S' and 'E.' It would have been easier to cheat or be suspected of doing so, after all, if the cards were shuffled around between them and handled too much.

[vladville.livejournal.com]

No strong connections, it seemed, even though Kaiji hadn't answered his question directly. That was helpful to know as well, since it meant both that Kaiji might find himself in need of assistance or more inclined to assist someone he only knew on slightly-friendly terms, and that if Vlad needed to he could get rid of Kaiji without risking a small army of good friends or allies coming for revenge. Vlad took the Emperor card and gave the Slave card back in return, glancing down at the unassuming E on the more powerful card in the game.

Well, more powerful if one had slightly better timing or was slightly better at a game face than his new good friend here. His lack of control of emotion seemed to be a benefit even if by accident, however, and Vlad resolved to try not to alter his mood from the melancholy during this last hand. Instead...

"It's so nice that you've found something fun to play, but it's time for dinner." The nurse's approach from behind actually made Vlad jump in surprise, which resulted in an extremely sour expression that didn't seem to bother her one bit. As if by cue, the intercom cut in then, so the cheery voice of the doctor could give them some extra details. Wonderful, doubtlessly overcooked cheap steak.

"We've actually only got one more round to play, so if you don't mind..." If he won this round, then he'd have won cleanly, absolutely even. Two of three games, six to one in points. This was too close to a tie, and besides, he still wanted to at least try his hand at the new deck.

Which would be harder as the nurse actually took the improvised cards from him. Rather than protest or take them back, he just sighed, and massaged his forehead a little. Well, he'd won by points, that was something, wasn't it? "Thank you for the game, Kaiji. It was nice meeting you. We'll probably see each other again sometime, hm? Maybe we can continue then." Managing a passable smile at his game companion, Vlad stood to allow himself to be led off.