Day 43: Arts & Crafts Room (4th Shift)

[hajike-tobiume.livejournal.com]

When Momo left Hitsugaya's side, she felt both relieved to be away from him and disappointed that the nurses had separated them. Either way, she felt like she was suffocating, that she had too much building in her mind with all this on top of the message she'd been given by the undead knight on that rooftop the night before. There was only one way for Momo to relieve the pressure.

After leaving a note on the board for Senna, Momo headed into the Arts & Crafts room. She was still in a lot of pain, but Hitsugaya's healing, though minor, did make it much less painful to hold things. Taking all of the special markers, she stood before the large white board and uncapped the lightest of the colors - yellow.

Save thyself.

Those words would echo in Momo's mind for a very long time. She had much to thank the knight for, the least of which was leaving her right arm relatively undamaged. She needed it for many things, being her primary hand, but right now she needed it for one thing.

Momo began to draw.

[reserved for Senna]

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[windstwilight.livejournal.com]

Senna's expression shifted fluidly, past thoughts giving way to complete confusion. "Wait--what?" She rubbed at her eyes for a minute, then looked up again with the same expression. "They fought over a robot?"

Things here... Were getting stranger and stranger.

[hajike-tobiume.livejournal.com]

Momo couldn't help but give a light chuckle at Senna's reaction. "No, not a robot - the voice, Senna-chan. Where do you think it came from?"

Turning back to the board, the vice captain resumed the process of creation. "You will find that many a researcher, many a developer, will name important projects after someone or something that holds significance to them."

[windstwilight.livejournal.com]

She frowned, still a little confused. Yeah, she got that. Now. Named after a chick. Sure. Why not? Stranger things and all, and guys were like that sometimes. The question now being... "So. Who's the chick?"

[hajike-tobiume.livejournal.com]

"That, I do not know," Momo replied. "Perhaps a fellow researcher. Perhaps one of the original test subjects."

[windstwilight.livejournal.com]

"So what..." She thought out loud. "So where does that leave us?"

The us used gave rise to her own memory, and Senna blinked then, remembering. Ah. Shit. She swallowed, glancing to the side. "There was another thing I wanted to talk to you about. A&C." She paused, working over the questions she had. "Hitsugaya wants to lead again."

Fucking hell. That was not how she wanted to start this.

[hajike-tobiume.livejournal.com]

"I know," Momo replied softly, a bit of tension seen at the corner of her eyes. She appeared to focus more on the drawing before her than before.

"I spoke with him about it last shift," she continued. "Tell me, what do you want to happen with Arts & Crafts?"

[windstwilight.livejournal.com]

"Me? I..." The question came out of nowhere, causing her own questions to fall to the floor. Senna blinked, mimicking Hanatarou for a second--My opinion, my thoughts? Why would you want those? Momo's own eyes seemed locked on her picture, and Senna was grateful for that, staring at her in a kind of strange confused desperation. And what was she supposed to--?

...No, not supposed to. What did she want to happen? No matter her own strange decision, right now A&C was home, just like LDGC was family. Senna's eyes flicked down, gaze shifting from one foot to the other. "I want... It to be something for people to hold on to. Something stable and safe, even if it's not, because it's something, you know? Something there for people." Just people needed that, and being able to provide that.... Senna liked that. She liked being someone who could be a source of comfort, even inadvertently.

[hajike-tobiume.livejournal.com]

Nodding at the response, Momo added definition to the figures' clothing, the shorter one quickly looking like herself. She'd been right when she'd given Celes the warning about Senna. Momo almost wished she could be a part of it.

"And how do you see that developing? What do you think of Hitsugaya-taichou's decision?"

[windstwilight.livejournal.com]

"How do I..." Her brows creased, and then suddenly she blinked, frowning. "Hey. You know, these were the questions I was going to put to you. Among other things," she added with a sigh. Senna leaned forward, putting her chin on her arms. "Aren't you more qualified to answer those kind of things?"

[hajike-tobiume.livejournal.com]

"Why would I be more qualified?" Momo added Tobiume to the hand of her own figure. "I am no longer a part of Arts & Crafts, Senna-chan."

Momo didn't even notice that she'd changed Senna's honorific.

[windstwilight.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, but you were," she argued, leaving her head on her arms. "You ran it, pretty fucking well for awhile, and you're part of the thirteen divisions. A vice-captain. So you're qualified."

Senna frowned, feeling like she was whining. "I came to you because I wanted your opinions. I'm good with following people as long as we're going somewhere, you know? I want to make sure that's happening."

[hajike-tobiume.livejournal.com]

"I did not run Arts & Crafts well, but thank you for the compliment, as misguided as it was," Momo replied, switching back to the taller female figure. The knight's armor was added as was Laevatein, the knight's blade.

"Upon waking this morning and feeling the absence of Matsumoto's reiatsu, I have been thinking about Arts & Crafts among other things," she continued. "No, I'm not coming back, so please do not ask me. I will lend my aide, but it is best that I stay separate. I am concerned, because I don't think Hitsugaya-taichou is ready to take the Arts & Crafts haori and wear it. He's still too new."

She paused and looked back. "And you are more suited to leading small skirmish units, not divisions." She paused. "I have spoken to someone I trust and respect concerning Arts & Crafts."

[windstwilight.livejournal.com]

"I wasn't going to," she said softly. "I understood." That Momo needed to be away, be just Momo for now. That being responsible for others was just going to drag her down. Senna got that. She did. And yet.... She blinked as Momo said what Senna herself had earlier in the day. Too new. She agreed. The purple-haired girl nodded, slowly, in understanding and agreement.

But that left more questions, and Momo moved right along. Senna was content to remain silent in this, letting the solution unfold, and willing herself to follow it to its outcome. A short nod was her response to the comment about herself--Senna didn't want that kind of responsibility, getting used to the girls was fun enough, when they weren't in trouble of dying. And even then, her mind was working, stretching to find solutions that weren't known yet. But zero and zero still left them empty-handed, and so Senna followed up the pause, questions on her tongue and in her eyes. What she voiced was only simple words, belittling the thoughts. "And what did you guys discuss?"

[hajike-tobiume.livejournal.com]

"We discussed the prospect of bringing both Arts & Crafts and Cooking together under one banner," Momo replied. "That is not to say that both will cease to exist and combine into one, but in that they will be their own divisions under the command of one. A soutaichou, in way, as much as I dislike using that term to refer to anyone other than Yamamoto-soutaicho."

She turned back to Senna. "My roommate is General Celes Chere. She is quite experienced, very honorable, caring if a little blunt at times, and someone I trust. She is currently standing as Cooking's second, but is willing to take up the mantle of leadership for both these groups, these divisions." A pause. "I have asked Hitsugaya-taichou to speak with her on the matter. I ask you to as well."