damned_institute | Day 47: Sun Room [2nd shift]

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Day 47: Sun Room [2nd shift]

Cloud knew he should be taking the opportunity to check out the rec field during the day. The fresh air would be a welcome change from the crowded stuffiness the Institute usually provided, and he would have a chance to scope out the area when it wasn't all under the cover of darkness. When offered a choice, however, he remained in the sun room. He told himself it was so that he could watch the bulletin, him still being fairly new and needing all the information he could get, but the thought rang hollow.

The real reason he was here, he knew, was because he would be out there. Maybe it was weak of him, but he needed a chance to breathe. Ever since he'd arrived it had been nothing but one shock after another, and seeing Zack standing in the cafeteria that morning talking to Aerith had been the final card that caused his tower to crumble. He needed to just sit back somewhere out of the way and start rebuilding.

Being able to watch the bulletin from here was just a perk. Cloud made himself comfortable on one of the sofas, watching people come and go but not really paying attention to them. He took the time to try and rate this on a scale of the biggest messes he'd ever gotten thrown into.

(for Sheena)

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Mori really wasn't much of a conversationalist, was he? Anise had noticed this a long time ago, of course, but it was still weird how someone could stand to say so little. What was actually even weirder, though, was how Mori managed to do that while still keeping the conversation from turning horribly awkward.

Anise was a little surprised when one of the kittens was set in her lap. She'd never really interacted with the institute's cats before, and even back home, where plenty of strays roamed around, she didn't have much contact with cats. With her family's situation, they couldn't afford a pet, so Anise had learned not to get too attached to the ones she'd find around the city. That way, she wouldn't be tempted to bring one home, and then have to be told to take it back outside.

With one hand, Anise lightly rubbed the tabby's head, which caused it to shirk out from under it, then start to push its furry face against her hand, rubbing its whiskers against it. Huh. She didn't really get it, but it seemed to be happy doing that, so the girl returned her attention to Mori.

"Hmm...?" she hummed in response to that look he gave her. "You look like you want to ask something. Ah! Could this mean you're interested in me!? Hee hee..." She pretended to be oblivious to what he might have been wondering about, while taking the opportunity to flirt a little. Why not?

She was a little taken aback by the sudden appearance of the furball in her lap and Mori fretted for a moment that he'd done the wrong thing. What if she were allergic? Or afraid? Or-- She started to pet it and Mori let out a sigh as his worries dissipated into thin air. Maybe she just wasn't used to cats and that was why she'd been so surprised. The kitten seemed content at least, rubbing its face against her hand lovingly.

He smiled a bit and patted the calico's head as it continued to scramble around, finally settling on falling into his lap to curl up. He dropped his gaze to follow it for a moment and then looked back to Anise. She didn't seem to want to talk about whatever was bothering her, so Mori would leave well enough alone for now. Instead, he figured it might be okay to play along with her game and he nodded. It wasn't exactly a lie after all. He was interested in her. She was a nice girl and a friend of theirs. Wasn't it natural to be interested in friends?

"Ooh! You really are? That makes me so happy," Anise gushed. She wasn't sure if Mori was serious or if he was just being polite, but she was having fun, so she happily kept going.

"Well, since you want to know more about me... My favorite season is summer, my favorite color is pink, and my hobby is cooking!" she carried on excitedly, listing various bits of trivial information. The kitten in her lap, seemingly picking up on that energy, rolled over onto its back and began batting at her hand playfully. Anise played along, raising and lowering her hand for the tabby to swipe and grab at it. "What about you, Mori?" she asked, grinning at him. "Got any exciting hobbies or talents?"

Season: summer. Color: pink (like Mitsukuni, actually). Hobby: cooking. No wonder she'd joined the Cake Club in the beginning. Mori had already sort of guessed at that one when they'd first met. She'd been trying to taste all sorts of foods to figure out their recipes as he remembered. Maybe the next time he was in town, he'd go to the bookstore and try to copy some recipes from a cookbook down for her. He made a mental note to do that and continued listening.

In contrast to the lively kitten in her lap now, the calico was starting to go to sleep, curled up in Mori's lap. It matched their personalities a bit really. And as for Anise's question, he thought for a moment, then pointed to the animals because caring for them was one of his hobbies - what with Piyo and the tanuki. Helping Mitsukuni was a given. Oh, but there was one thing he did other than Hosting that might be considering 'exciting.' Hosting wasn't really a talent, either. He just did what he did naturally. "Kendo. Japanese sword." Just in case she didn't know what kendo was. He didn't need to boast about how he was the National Champion or anything. She'd asked for his talent, not his rank.

His hobby was... cats? Animals? Hmm. Anise supposed Mori was saying that he was an animal-lover. It wasn't something she'd normally guess for a big, quiet guy like him, but seeing the way the kittens here seemed to adore him, it was easy enough to believe.

"Kendo? Oh, Honey mentioned something like that before, but I didn't know what it was. So it's a kind of sword-fighting? How cool!" And it was 'Japanese-style'? Right, those two were from Japan. It seemed like a lot of people were. Anise had to wonder if maybe Japan was a really big country, if Landel was taking so many people from it.

"That must be a really useful skill to have around here, huh?" she went on after a moment. Better than her skills, anyway. It wasn't fair how fonists couldn't use their full power, no matter what equipment they had! Boooo.

Anise was cute. She was so eager to get to know people and such a friendly girl that it was easy to see why Honey had liked her off the bat. The two of them had very similar personalities actually and that set Mori at ease. He didn't feel the need to speak more than he usually did around Anise either. Like Mitsukuni, she seemed to understand what he was trying to say for the most part. No one could understand him like his cousin did, but Anise was doing a pretty good job so far.

He nodded in response to Anise's questions about kendo and shrugged a little when she said it was cool. It was just something he and his family did, like Mitsukuni and his martial arts. They were the sword and shield to the Haninozuka family, so it was only natural that he trained in those arts, too.

As for how useful it was, Mori had to pause for a moment. He was mostly using the staff techniques here rather than any kendo techniques. And his training in kendo club had mostly been for tournaments. He knew the more rough and tumble fighting techniques, of course, but he hadn't really had a reason to use them yet. Upon realizing that, he shrugged again and moved his hands to imitate the position when holding a staff. "Use a staff instead."

Lowering his hands, he looked at Anise and wondered what sort of things she used. He remembered her saying something about how she was a fighter, but he'd never had the opportunity to see her in action. "What about you?"

"Huh... so you can use a staff too? You're pretty amazing!" Anise enthusiastically commented once Mori clarified. Swords and staffs? It was pretty impressive. But what made Anise happiest was that it gave her an excuse to keep showering Mori with flattery. Guys liked that, right? Especially when it was their skills and strength being praised.

When asked about her own abilities, Anise placed a finger to her chin and thought for a moment. "Hmm. My abilities aren't that useful here. I'm a fonist and a puppeteer, so I usually blast enemies with fonic artes or make Tokunaga beat them up..." She tilted her head, groaning slightly as she thought about how she couldn't do much of either at Landel's. Her artes kind of worked, but they were pretty pathetic.

"I usually carry wands or maces back home, so I've been carrying a meat tenderizer here. It's kind of similar, I guess." Just, it didn't work as a fonic amplifier... which was usually the main thing Anise needed from a weapon. Earth's weapons kind of sucked as far as that went.

Mori just blinked in confusion when Anise kept flattering him, shaking his head slightly. Mitsukuni was far more impressive with his hand-to-hand combat. For his small size, he was able to throw Mori around like a rag doll and had done so on more than one occasion. To Mori, that was impressive. He only did what came naturally to him. A staff allowed him to make greater use of his height and his long arms, keeping enemies at a distance.

What Anise did sounded a lot more impressive. He wasn't sure what a fonist was, but a puppeteer? He knew that. Kind of. To think that Anise was able to make something else fight for her was pretty cool. But more than that, she was strong enough to wield a mace. A mace. Mori suddenly got the strange visual of tiny little Anise carrying a knight's iron spiked mace, clubbing mutated rats in the face.

Yeah, that was weird.

"Fonist?" he asked, looking for clarification of the one term he didn't understand. The rest was impressive enough, but to fully understand what she was capable of, he needed to know that one word.

At Mori's question, a small, sheepish smile crossed Anise's face. Right; someone from Earth would have no clue what a fonist was. She knew that, but it was hard to get used to that when it was such common knowledge where she came from. And what was even harder was that she couldn't explain it simply by talking about fonons, since he wouldn't know what those were, either.

"Hmm... I guess only people from Auldrant would know about fonists, huh? That's what we call people who can use fonic artes. It's... not exactly magic, but it might be easiest to think of it that way." Trying to explain fonons to someone who'd never heard of them would be too troublesome, after all. "Basically we can use, um... certain particles in the atmosphere to make attacks, like with fire or water. I only know how to use light and dark artes, though."

Did that make any sense? Anise studied Mori's face, wondering if he understood.

She was trying her best to explain what fonists were and so Mori did his best to understand. A fonist was only in her world, apparently, and someone who did something with fonic artes, which was a kind of magic. But it wasn't until she said something about using particles in the air that things started to click, causing Mori to lower his head slightly as he thought.

Fire, water, light, dark, likely air and some others, too. It was like concentrating the natural forces into a physical, controllable form. It all sounded so familiar for some reason, but he couldn't put his finger on why. But all in all, he understood, so when he looked back to Anise, he nodded, impressed with her skill. He could only imagine what sort of training that took to accomplish.

Anise studied Mori's expression. He seemed to understand, even if he only had the most basic of the basics. "Hehe. I guess Earth doesn't have anything quite like it, which makes it pretty hard to explain. What really sucks, though, is that I can't use any strong artes here. Some of the other skills I learned at the officers' school still come in handy, but..." Anise scooted a little closer to Mori's side of the couch. "I still feel a lot safer when I've got someone strong and cool by my side--"

But just as she started saying that, the intercom played its usual jingle, and the noon announcements began.

"--Aah! Of all the times to interrupt!" she snapped, glaring in the direction of the nearest speaker in sight. Startled, the kitten in her lap leaped to the floor and darted away, making Anise extra conscious of the outburst she'd just made. In an instant, she regained her composure and continued in a soft voice. "Ooh, I guess I'll have to see you later, then. Let's talk again sometime real soon, okay?" She tried to look up at Mori as she spoke, but since she had moved closer to him, their difference in height made that difficult.

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Day 47: Sun Room [2nd shift]

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