Day 51: Arts and Crafts [Second Shift]

[gald_digger]

They actually listened to some of the suggestions people put in that box? Anise thought the Head Doctor had to be joking when he said that, but she soon heard him mention something that she herself had suggested: sewing supplies. They were really going to get some? Anise could finally get a real needle, so she could make repairs to Tokunaga whenever she needed to. She swiped one of their blunt, plastic needles before, but using that just left big holes in the fabric. Using it on Tokunaga made her feel bad, like she was hurting the poor doll.

"Isn't that nice, Dolores?" The nurse must have caught Anise's hopeful look. "But remember, you'll need to be on your best behavior until then."

"I know, I..." Anise began with her usual dismissive reply, but quickly remembered that the intercom had said 'behavior and attitudes', and instantly changed her tune. "I'll do my very best! Hee hee!" She forced a smile for the old hag.

Unfortunately, the sewing supplies weren't here today, so Anise had to find something else to do for now. Stepping inside the Arts and Crafts room, she quickly found that several tables already had paper craft ('origami,' they called it?) supplies laid out for them, so she guessed she'd just occupy herself with that. The girl sat down at one of the tables, opened up one of the books, and started looking through it.

Cranes, frogs, horses, turtles... There were lots of familiar animals, and a few unfamiliar ones, too. The rabbits looked kind of cute.

[For Ilia!]

Comments

[moral-liberty.livejournal.com]

The woman sat him down at a table, and slid the box of instruments towards him. There was already paper set in front of him. Kaworu reached into the tangled collection of markers, and came out with an orange one. He had seen it clearly through the plastic wall. It was a color that did not come alone. It carried memories, but before those images would come to him, they would be preceded by emotions. He would see the impact of the events before he could recall details. This color first came to him as familiar, but also dark. He expected to smell blood, and not the sting of alcohol when he removed the cap.

"This can be a very nice way to express yourself," she told him, after having spent several moments quietly watching him. "Just draw whatever comes to your mind. It's not important what it is."

Kaworu smiled up at her. "That isn't true," he corrected.

"Well, not strictly, I guess," she admitted, laughing lightly. "We want to know more about you, and we want you to be able to show us how you feel if you don't think you can talk about it. Give it a shot, okay?"

Her hand found his shoulder for only a second before she drew away, receding from his thoughts. Kaworu let the tip of the marker rest on the paper, and although his hand was poised to respond, his mind emptied. He thought to project an image on to the white surface, as instructed, but there was nothing. Ink bled out onto the page, running between the fibers of the paper in tendrils, creating a pattern beyond his control. The nurse had hoped for images, a window into him, to find the damage they suspected was there. But images didn't manifest. There were only imprints, noises, sensations, and the discomfort that had come to linger too close to him.

He loosened his grip, and the marker rolled out of his hand. As it fell, it had created a small sweep of color. Nothing that had been left behind was Kaworu's own. He wasn't empty. His mind, his heart, they were full, but without words or images to show them to Lilim. Lilim only wished to understand, to be understood, and Kaworu wanted to know them as well. Did he want to be known? When it was offered, the willingness of a Lilim to listen if he spoke, and to try and understand, Kaworu couldn't find words that would comfort them. He couldn't find an explanation that would make them happy. They sought not Kaworu himself, but answers to their pain. Why must this happen. Why must they feel this way. He supposed then that he didn't need to be understood, because he already knew them.

[For Toji!]

[sangouki.livejournal.com]

Fumbling would be a good adjective as to how Toji left the cafeteria. He had a kind of fatigued scowl his entire way to the Arts and Crafts Room, though his expression didn't hold much gusto; the nurse merely had to shove him in the right direction and he'd follow along.

More than once he felt like kicking his foot in aggravation: he actually did, once, on his way out of the cafeteria. When he realized he kind of needed that leg stapled to the ground, and he fell back ass-first onto the cold, hard floor, something clicked in his mind that said that foot-kicking as a bad idea. After the nurse helped get Toji back onto his foot, the two continued in silence. An awkward, unwarranted kind of silence, where one party wasn't at all inclined to say anything, and the other party was paid and trained to, but didn't necessarily want to.

The nurse clasped her hands nervously over each other and shot glances back at Toji then at the floor, and made extra sure to be a little bit behind her patient at all times, especially with the recent falling incident.

He needs some breathing space, she reasoned. Perhaps letting some frustration out will help him.

A little smile grew on her face as she kept the doors to the Arts and Crafts Room open for Toji.

A long, hard stare at the room before him seized to soften once he hobbled into the room. "What th'hell is this, goddamn kindergarten?" His voice was barely a whisper-- it was a low, nearly indecipherable croak.

There were art supplies all over the place. Crayons, markers, colored pencils, the whole she-bang. For the first time in his life, Toji felt a tinge of fruitiness invade his body. His nostrils flared in disgust when he noticed guys his age coloring and actually enjoying it.

Once he was done with his initial inspection of the place, he shook his head and started to hobble over to the nearest empty table. Shaking her head, the nurse gently pressed her hands against his tensing shoulders, then innocently pointed toward the nearest table next to the one he wanted: a single kid and his nurse was stationed there. A kid with strange, white hair, whose marker was working effortlessly at creating something on his piece of paper, and looked a hell of a lot like a show-off.

Smiling, Toji's nurse waved in greeting at Lilim. With a desperate tinge of cheer, she interjected, "Perhaps you'd like to sit with this young man over here, Mr. Tanaka? You shouldn't sit all by yourself, you'll get lonely."

Toji merely stared at Kaworu, brows creased. Like hell he'd respond to that.

[avengingfists.livejournal.com]

Just thinking how someone may have cleaned her body while she was unconscious made Ilia squirm. How could they do something like that to her without asking first? But it didn't help to dwell on it now, not when she had enough already to deal with in this crazed facility. This human zoo, as Leela had called it. Ilia hadn't appreciated how her nurse had led her away from Leela without offering any further explanation than "breakfast is over." She had gained some great information, but she still had questions. She could only hope the next patient she stumbled upon would be just as open and helpful.

Given the choice between either the Sun Room or Arts and Crafts, Ilia had no real opinion. Since it was an institute, she doubted either would be particularly stimulating for a scientist of her caliber. She would just endure it until she found out how to crack this place and get back to Roak. So, she allowed her nurse, who continued to call her Elaine, to pick the activity. Arts and Crafts it was.

She sat down at the nearest table, which was already occupied by a little girl looking through one of the origami instruction books. It tugged at Ilia's tender heart seeing such a young girl forced to stay under observation in a place like this. She must miss her family and feel so lost and alone. Smiling her gentlest smile, Ilia turned to her and spoke in a soft, comforting voice. "Hello. My name is Ilia. What's yours?"

[gald_digger]

When someone sat down nearby, Anise looked up curiously from her book. It was a woman, fairly young, watching her with a smile. When she spoke, her voice was gentle and... almost motherly, in a way.

It wasn't so strange for people to act that way around Anise. She probably looked so cute and helpless, they couldn't help but want to come to her rescue! Anise wasn't about to correct them by insisting she was capable, so she usually just basked in the attention it got her. Like now.

"It's Anise!" she replied cheerfully, grinning up at the woman. She set the book down on the table, leaving it open to the page explaining how to make the rabbits. Maybe she'd give that one a try, but for the moment she was going to be polite and give Ilia most of her attention. She studied the woman briefly, then went on to say, "I don't think I've seen you around. Have you been here long?" Anise had been here a pretty long time herself, so she liked to think that she could recognize most veteran patients at a glance, even if she didn't know who they all were.

[bodhiandspirit.livejournal.com]

Following Riku's advice from the previous day, Rita had posted a note on the bulletin board, asking for maps in a somewhat vague (though fairly obvious) way. When she returned from breakfast, someone had replied. It looked like this method of acquiring information was effective after all.

...Though perhaps it was still too early to say that. She'd know for sure after she met with that 'Hayes' person and got what information she could out of him.

Meanwhile, her nurse was giving her a lecture of some sort. Apparently, she was still going on about that little incident at breakfast. "If you want something from someone, Paige, you need to use your words. Some people don't like being touched - and around here especially, there are many people who are sensitive to that sort of thing... Understand?"

Rita shrugged. She was only half-listening.

The nurse eventually gave up and led the mage to the Arts and Crafts room in silence. There, Rita seated herself at a table far from the center of the room, where she could hopefully go the whole shift without any nurses trying to make her participate in 'origami' - whatever that was.

She opened her journal to a blank page, and picked up a few colored pencils from a cup in the center of the table. Rita had finished making notes about the place she explored the previous night, and she supposed it might be helpful to draw up a small map of what she saw. The snow-covered mountains, the wide, icy lake, and the fisherman's hut at the mouth of the river... It wasn't much, but perhaps if she showed it to someone familiar with the surrounding area, they could tell her where, in relation to the institute, she had gone to.

[inherited]

It wasn't that his talk with Rei was completely effective, but he hadn't minded having someone who would toss questions back and forth. He wasn't sure if he'd ever see her again, but he decided he'd try. Some part of him wondered how a girl like her would handle this place. It hadn't occurred to him when he was caught up in communicating with her in that clipped way, but the moment he was pulled away, the thought occurred to him. The same way it had with Shinji, actually.

Of course, he hadn't talked to that guy since his first day. Maybe it was time he finally followed up on it.

Riku considered heading to the Sun Room to do just that, but his nurse came and cut him off, placing both hands on his shoulders as a bright smile lit up her face. "You've just got to show us what kind of artist you are!" Her voice sounded a little too shrill for his tastes, but he allowed her to turn him in the direction of the Arts and Crafts room. Right. Great. Just what he wanted to do.

Fortunately, he saw a familiar face right away. Rita. She had been new the day before, but that didn't mean she hadn't done anything interesting. He left his nurse's side and moved toward her. Without asking if it was okay—he didn't really care if it was, he realized—he dropped down and slipped into a relaxed pose.

"How was last night?"

[jouer-sans-voir.livejournal.com]

The routine of the intercom announcements prompting the supposed patients on to their next activity was starting to become a familiar one, and Nunnally usually found little of interest in what Dr. Landel had to say. The nurses would insist upon whatever activity had been chosen, and she would go, and in the meantime wish that she had more choice in the matter or, even better, could return home. She made no protest, of course, and often was praised by the staff for how cooperative she was, but... the fact that she was patient and disliked confrontation hardly meant that she enjoyed the routine.

Today, however, at this announcement she visibly brightened and almost even outpaced her nurse on the way to the Arts and Crafts room. Today's activity was origami? And with instruction on how to create figures that she didn't know? Now that she could see the various origami figures with her eyes rather than her fingers she especially wished to try it for herself, and see what she could make other than a simple crane.

The nurse seemed delighted at her enthusiasm and led the girl to a table with both supplies and instruction books. Nunnally politely refused any assistance and drew one of the books closer, turning the pages with obvious interest and examining the pictures and diagrams as she tried to decide what she could make. They all looked fascinating -- perhaps if she started at the beginning, she try to fold as many as she could before the shift ended.

[for Lunge]

[herr-inspektor.livejournal.com]

"Really, Mr. Jung. You can't just sit in here all day like you always do. Why don't you try and get the most out of the activities on offer, hmm?"

Lunge's expression remained glassy. There was, admittedly, little point in waiting around while so many people were in the showers (possible implication: the patients involved in the 'meeting' are possibly adults/ >18?), and the chance of his presence putting anyone off answering was still there. Besides. He had other objectives he needed to chase up. But even if he couldn't think of a way to justify moving, he was in no position to argue. It wasn't long before he found himself whisked off to the arts and crafts room.

He scanned the room briefly from the doorway. The majority of people here were teenagers, give or take a few exceptions. It was difficult to imagine being able to insinuate himself into a conversation and simply start asking questions with any real ease, given how out of place he now was- but it was worth a try. His best chance was to find someone who was already alo-

That girl. Why did he recognise her? His fingers twitched- small, pale, curly light brown hair- and his mind produced an answer. Wasn't she the girl Lelouch seemed to spend so much of his time with? He hadn't been monitoring the man all that closely, per se, but it was hard to miss how much of his attention seemed to be occupied by the young woman.

It was, of course, an opportunity to dig, and he didn't waste opportunities. Besides. He could multitask. Putting on a softer expression (the attentive policeman again), Lunge made his way over to her table. "Excuse me. Would you mind if I sat here?"

[idkmybfframen.livejournal.com]

According to the bulletin board, Sakura would be in the Arts and Crafts room. Naruto wasn't sure why there even was an Arts and Crafts room. Seriously, who was going to just sit around and paint or something? Didn't everyone want to get out of here?

What a weird place this was!

Well, either way, here he was now. He couldn't just do nothing, either, since the nurse was looking at him. He found some origami paper on the table and sat down, flashing the nurse a smile.

As she left, he stared down at the paper and realized he had no idea what to do with it. Great.

He looked around the room, but there was no sign of Sakura yet. Maybe if he just sat here for a few minutes, she'd show up. He sure hoped so.

[Sakura]

[see-my-back.livejournal.com]

Sure enough, Naruto was right where he said he'd be. That in itself was a relief. With how little she'd seen him before he'd been released, it was good that he was feeling well enough to be out and around again. But his methods were so... typically Naruto that it was probably best to get him some solid plans before he hurt himself.

She took a seat at his table, giving him a friendly smile, "morning."

[rischiarare.livejournal.com]

Suggestions box? There had been a suggestions box? Since when? Roxas was trying to imagine how he'd missed it yesterday while his nurse led him to the room. This particular room was one he'd never been in, and he wasn't sure what to expect - arts and crafts? Was that like... drawing? He wasn't a big artist himself. In fact, he'd never tried to draw anything before. When it was revealed that the room was stocked with more than paper and pencils, the Nobody had to take a moment to absorb it all. Claw, pencils, markers, sheets of paper of varied sizes, and even a whole table dedicated to squares of colored papers that were all the same size. Some books were strewn around the table as well, with an assortment of nurses standing nearby.

Was this the origami?

Taking a seat at that plastic table, Roxas picked up one of the books - "Origami And You: How-Tos!" - reading up on the history of origami first at the front of the book. Though he didn't know what Japan was, his curiousity was caught by this "art of paperfolding". The book had detailed pictures, explicitly stating how to create creatures and shapes from a simple square of paper. Some of the shapes were familiar, like the crane - though that didn't look particularly like any bird he'd seen - and some were not, and those were the more interesting ones to him.

He picked a square of blue pattered with clouds, folding the first step of the dragon.

[lighthearted]

The talk with Venom had left Sora with a lot to think about, but not all of it was bad. Even with all of those examples of the ways that Landel could brainwash them, there was also proof of the fact that the effects couldn't always last all that long. Or maybe it was something where it only worked some of the time. It seemed like Donald had been suffering from it for a long time, after all, so maybe that had been one time where it had "worked."

But they could undo it. He was sure of it. He and Venom could work on it together, and Sora would try to get help from his other friends, too.

Of course, he also had to worry about the Arts and Crafts club. It was sounding more and more like everyone wanted him to lead it. He was still kind of nervous about screwing things up, but the more people who said that they believed in him, the more confident he felt. He wanted to wait until the end of the day before he announced for sure that he was taking charge, since it wasn't like he wanted to accidentally upset someone.

As the boy walked into the Arts and Crafts room, he took in what the head doctor had to say about origami and tilted his head curiously. What was this? Folding paper? He started to wander around and see what was set out on the tables, and that was when he suddenly saw his Other doing the same thing.

"Roxas!" he announced as he moved over to the other boy, grinning in greeting. "How've you been? Do you, uhh..." He paused and glanced down at what the Nobody was doing with the sheet of paper. "Know how to do this?" While they generally had the same memories, there were some things that Roxas had been through that Sora hadn't, and vice versa. Maybe Roxas had learned about origami during those times.

[stealthetruth.livejournal.com]

The heck was this, third grade?

Kay scowled at her nurse, pulled away from the well-okay-not-that-productive conversation with Beelzewatchum, and grudgingly let herself be deposited at a table. "Why don't you draw something, Alice?" the nurse suggested, brightly, and Kay scowled darker.

"My name isn't Alice," she insisted, again, and nursey-lady patted her head, with a way-too-cheerful smile.

"Don't worry, dear, we'll make sure you get better," Nursey-lady said, and left Kay to her own devices.

Well, fine! If they were just going to leave her here, she was going to do something useful with all this kiddy craft stuff, so there! With a toss of her head, Kay went to the cupboards, ransacking them for stuff what she could use for Justice!

[Kaito! :D]

[flashyaudacity]

Yukari was gone.

To be honest, he wasn't sure what that meant—if she'd been sent back home where she belonged or if, like the nurse said when he'd asked after her to be sure, she had 'gotten better' and been 'released'. If it was the latter... The only thing he could guess was that she'd been brainwashed like he had that one day, and bought into the other life they tried to sell... And if that was the case, did that mean she was at least with her dad now?

Kaito had spent most of breakfast thinking about it, and he was still feeling glum when the nurse led him to the arts and crafts room afterwards. He needed to cheer up—to distract himself with something. Maybe he could make some more makeshift props for tricks, or...

...Or maybe some energetic company. The long-haired girl that was currently raiding the supply cupboards seemed like an enthusiastic choice, plus she looked to be about his own age. Putting on a grin, he came up alongside her, peering into the cabinets. "Looking for something specific?"

[hasnomeaning]

After eating and trading responses with that one, Rei was led to a new room. Arts and crafts. It offered outlets for creativity, but Rei couldn't really consider an activity to choose. She sat at a table filled with paper and paints, pencils, and crayons. If anything, perhaps, she would choose to draw. Perhaps to paint. But that was so intimate a notion, the outcome could give away too much of herself to another to pour over and take apart to use for their own. To be misinterpreted. Manipulated. Skewed. She had no want for it.

The construction paper closest to her was as blue as deep water. She reached to touch it, the material somewhat rough under her fingertips. It was a loss, she thought idly. To lose the sensation of floating.

[open]

[selfnighted.livejournal.com]

Maya took a seat beside the curiously pale-haired girl, and then proceeded to ignore her for a few minutes as Maya fiddled with the black paper she'd selected. It helped to keep her mind off the utterly vulgar notion that she'd been 'cleaned' while unconscious. Eh-euck.

"Origami," she said conversationally as she folded, "a form of art, yes? Not as beautiful or engaging as music, perhaps—" One last fold, and there was a flower in her fingers—the only arrangement she knew—which she offered to the girl. "But the point is to instill emotion, yes?"

She put on her pleasant smile, and tilted her head. "I'm Maya. It's a pleasure to meet you. May I ask what you're thinking?"

[windstwilight.livejournal.com]

The scene from breakfast was sobering, too much of reminder of time that had already passed. Hokuto's brokenness only reminding Senna of Momo, in all too different ways. There was loss here, constant and overwhelming, and no matter if she wanted to ignore it, it was all around them. It touched too close to her. Falis was gone. Just like the people that had left before her. Just like....

She was uncharacteristically quiet when led to the arts and crafts room, and the name seemed too ironic with another loss. The girl shoved a hand through her bangs and sighed loudly. This wasn't something so easily escaped. This was hard. And she couldn't yet figure out how to move and start being Senna again. As if she knew who that was. Someone that was her, huh? Well. That wasn't so clear a thing sometimes. The girl stood off to the side near the door, as if contemplating which craft to try.

It was close enough.

[Peter Parker!~]

[tightsofmight]

Food seemed to have helped. And a cursory follow-up on the bulletin board told him that Kurt was doing better than he thought. Hanging out with cute girls, really? This required investigation. A smug look crept onto his face as he looked through the herd of patients being driven out of the cafeteria. So which one was she? There were a freakish number of really hot girls here, even though they were vastly outnumbered by the guys (so unfair). Not that he had been deliberately looking or anything. You'd have to be blind not to notice.

In other news, Peter wasn't so ecstatic about another shift in Arts and Crafts. For one, it reminded him of both Miku and Kitty. Miku had been released ages ago and he would never stop feeling like crap over what he'd done to Kitty. Any version of Kitty. And she hadn't been around for a while, either, which meant that she was probably gone too. The one time he did have fun in here was when that crazy pigtailed lady started that paint fight, and there was no way he was getting away with that again.

Aside from that, Arts and Crafts? Not his thing. If they let him at some test tubes and beakers, on the other hand...

But the moment he stepped inside the room, he decided that wasn't the attitude he was taking with today. He would make this fun. Why?

Because he owed her one.

Peter's hands closed in on a slender pair of shoulders and pushed the girl away from the wall, steering her forcibly from behind towards an unclaimed table.

"Sorry Senna, no room for moping today. It is forbidden. Today we are going to build armies of paper animals and wage a fearsome war with them. Failing that, we will make silly hats. And failing that, we'll...think of something else." They had arrived at an empty chair. Peter gave her shoulders a meaningful pat, refusing to sit until she did. "The only thing we are not doing is focusing on our dreary, miserable lives for once. Okay? That is the only rule for the next hour and a half."

Normally this was the sort of crazy thing Mary Jane did to him. She'd always come bouncing into his basement and drag him out of his pity pile to watch movies or head to the park. Something silly to get his mind of things. Peter wasn't used to being on the other side of that particular equation, but he figured it was about time he paid it forward. Senna looked like she needed the lift, and she'd been feeling pretty low the last time they'd met too. So Peter put on a wide grin for her and hoped for the best. Cheer up, damn you.

"Think you can manage?"

[heraldric.livejournal.com]

Leon was annoyed that he'd missed breakfast, but at least he'd gotten that extra bit of sleep. He was just going to have to go hungry through arts and crafts until the next shift, which wasn't so bad considering he was still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. One thing he could count on this place to do was keep its patients fed.

He'd forgotten to leave a note for the next person on his alchemy list, and he mentally berated himself as the nurse led him over to an empty table with sheets of multi-colored paper and glitter. Once he'd had a chance to wake up more, he'd get right on that. He had to make sure they had time to get a response back to him. If he was going to put it up fourth shift he might as well not put it up at all, and that would make him look entirely unprofessional.

The young mage took a long look at the incredibly dull scissors he'd been provided and sighed. These wouldn't cut clean lines and shouldn't be anywhere near proper artwork. It was good thing this was nothing more than a means of wasting time, then. He picked out a sheet of purple paper for himself and began creating intricate symbols on its surface with the glue.

[Haseo]

[feartehreaper.livejournal.com]

After all that, Haseo had begun to fear breakfast would never come to an end. It wasn't really one his habits to be eager to escape the cafeteria, but there would have been very little that kept him from trying to get away from that Maya lady once the intercom finally indicated the meal's end. Not that he would have admitted to doing so, of course. He'd just had enough of... that sort of attention, and was ready to move on.

Even checking up on the bulletin board again wasn't luring enough to keep the Adept Rogue in the sun room for long, and so though at any other time he probably would have shunned the idea of visiting the arts and crafts room, he kept his irritated protests to himself as he wandered in, scanning the kids already there. It seemed imperative to actually find someone he already knew to hang out with, for some reason.

Fortunately, Leon was hard to miss. Without a second thought, Haseo approached the younger boy, sliding into a nearby seat and crossing his arms on the table. "Hey Leon," he greeted a moment later, trying not to act too awkward. It was probably kind of weird that he hadn't had much contact with him in a day or so, right? Especially after the Lumina Cloth incident. He was also a little baffled at the artistic... whatever the boy was doing, but decided to keep that to himself for the moment.

[no-dont-go.livejournal.com]

After breakfast Aigis made a quick stop at the bulletin before following her nurse into the Arts and Crafts room. It shocked her to the core to see a note claiming Yukari had been released the night before when she had seen her friend as recently as the previous night. It chilled her and left her feeling numb. As a result, the notes she wrote were left even a little more clipped than usual.

She sighed heavily as she sat down at an empty table, the pressure around her eyes building once more. She thought it had loosened during her talk with Heat, he always made things seem so much better, but the feeling was back with a vengeance. She could practically feel something hot stinging her eyes from within her skull.

Taking a shallow breath, Aigis picked up one of the colored pieces of paper in front of her. Origami, the Head Doctor had said. The Japanese art of folding paper into intricate yet delicate shapes. One of the books on the table had been opened by the nurse who had placed it there to the most iconic of origami structures, the crane. Forcing herself to read the instructions, Aigis began to bend the red paper for the first crease. Her hands, shaking with the effort to perform the nimble task and also from something else entirely, only managed to rip the thin sheet. Seeing her mistake, she didn't even try to fix the problem and continued to rip the piece into two separate parts. And then she ripped those pieces into four parts, and those into eight.

Aigis let the pieces fall from her hands to the table. Staring down at the shreds before her, Aigis let herself succumb to the numb feeling.

[revolutionise]

Despite not having worn herself out with fighting or running or anything during the night, Utena found herself being woken up late - past breakfast, even. Her head throbbed a little from the excess sleep; what had brought this on, she wondered?

That wasn't quite so worrying, however, as what she heard when she asked a nurse if Himemiya (or "Delilah", as they wanted her to be called) had already gone to join in activities for the day. Apparently, the other girl was also sleeping late, and for longer than she was. Falling asleep way early? Staying asleep way late? Uh oh. She's not getting sick, is she? Utena worried, glancing back at Himemiya's door as she was herded off to the next shift. If the girl wasn't out by third or fourth shift, then Utena decided she was going to demand to be let into that room. This was the sort of thing that had happened around the time before Hughes and Celes had disappeared, and damn it, she was not going to let that happen again if she could help it.

At least Ema and Lana had been all right by the end of the night, she reminded herself. Their friend hadn't ended up attacking before the usual blackout, and either the auto-translator was working again, or the nurses all really did speak perfect Japanese. And in the bigger picture, she had finally made it through a night in 2-Center without getting seriously hurt, too. That was kind of a relief, she thought with a soft sigh. Maybe that was a sign that the institute wouldn't keep holding her down for much longer.

Speaking of down. Upon entering the Arts & Crafts room, one of the first familiar faces Utena spotted was Aigis's, and the android girl didn't seem too chipper, to put it lightly. Poor girl, she thought. Landel's really is a lot for anyone to take, fighter or not.

She made her way over to the other girl's table, leaning over it with her hands splayed over her knees. "Hey. What's up? You feeling okay?" Utena asked, tilting her head in concern.

[byname-bynature.livejournal.com]

Ah. Arts and Crafts, yet again.

By this point, Artemis had at least given up trying to persuade his nurse to excuse him from the 'age appropriate activities' after three weeks. He was in a giving mood, too. Apparently a result of talking to Nunnally, who seemed to have infinite patience for Artemis' social ineptitude, around females especially. So he humored his nurse and let her guide him to the Arts and Crafts room, where she showered him with every supply in the room. Apparently pretending to be interested in glitter and glue had paid off. That is, if he were interested in glitter and glue as bargaining chips.

He sighed and pulled a piece of blue construction paper over to the workspace in front of him. Selecting a plain glue, he began squeezing lines onto the page.

...except that the glue was coming out in a tiny, tiny string, probably due to blockage in the cap. Artemis watched the unfruitful results of his labor and sighed, agitated.

When he was an evil overlord, he would make certain his prisoners had glue bottles that functioned as glue bottles instead of stress balls.

[For Nigredo!]

[falseblack]

Like most everything in life, Nigredo regretted.

The primary focus of the emotion centered on eating. He had taken in too much, exceeding the capacity of a starving stomach. No part of him would oppose throwing nutrients out, but the child could not bring himself to move accordingly. Better stationary, it seemed, even when sick. Thus, his nurse brought him to Arts and Crafts.

The room appeared as colorful as Nigredo last remembered. Only now, the cheery atmosphere served to heightened the sensation of weight at the pit of his stomach. An absence at the back of his mind. And what did his nurse expect for him to create? There was little a boy with one functional hand could do in such a place.

He stared the length of the room before moving to an empty seat. The table was also occupied by an older boy, who appeared just as agitated as Nigredo might have felt on a better day. As he was, he...

A hand touched the back of the chair. "May I?" Nigredo asked in a bland voice, as if pleasantries were simply a consequence to deal with.

[timeseal.livejournal.com]

The talk with Greta was... nice. Acceptable was maybe the word Rolo was looking for. He wasn't too sure why she spoke about it when it didn't involve her, but Rolo couldn't exactly say having someone agree with him was unpleasant. It calmed him down a lot to think rationally, at the very least, so he was a lot less moodier to his nurse when she came to collect him.

Arts and Crafts. That wasn't what made Rolo angry walk into the room, it was the unwelcome sight of her in the very same room, sitting at a table with some paper. What was she doing? Rolo was very interested, though when he made a move to sit with her, there was a hand on his arm and someone was pulling him away. Away? He resisted, of course, until that hand was put on his shoulder in a warning gesture. Rolo knew that one well, which was the only reason why he stopped.

"Spike, maybe you'd like to sit here? There's plenty of space for everyone and we don't want you to overtax yourself. Here, sit here."

"I'm fine," Rolo muttered curtly, but the nurse seemed adamant in making him sit away from her, shifting his injured arm slightly so it was resting on the table. Since he was injured like this, apparently the nurse took it as a sign that he was too weak to collect his own "craft" supplies and before he knew it, an array of construction paper, gluesticks, glitter and scissors were laid out for him.

So, even the nurse thought he was weak too.

Rolo grabbed the scissors with frightening speed, unhinging them so they were wide open, one side pointing down, and he stabbed. He stabbed at the paper, not even leaving the smallest cut, the blades digging harmlessly into his skin. Of course. It didn't deter him from continuing to slam down on the paper, not caring if anyone was looking. Damnit. Damnit all.

Obviously, whatever good mood he had gained from breakfast had vanished in an instant. Brother. He had to find his brother and report. Now.

[ HAY ALBEDO I GOT HIM ALL NICE AND CRAZY FOR YOU. ]

[purgatio]

[OHHH YEAAAH--shot-]

Sanity could rise and peak--the calmest in the presence of another that he had been. But existence was deeming the opposite necessary. If he didn't want to spend every moment (Rubedo was gone) considering his siblings (Nigredo rejected him) and how he was (--left him, they had--) starting to become (oh, how the quiet--) as alone as he had been (...it came in the silence on the link, the absence of a double-beat). No, he would suffer a total breakdown soon enough. Giving in to a sweet sensation was fine for now.

...Was necessary, for now.

And so five steps from the cafeteria, Albedo was humming. Accompanying a tone in his head as he quietly forgot the one he had left behind to remember later, as he instead remembered the past night's dealing, and the satisfying sounds Klavier's body had made as the metal swung into it repeatedly. At the cries brought forth that were so intimate that only Albedo knew. Ahh, now. That was something to mull over. Why didn't he do that more often?

The arts and crafts room had been stepped in before, but it called too boring right now. He sighed exaggerated, and moved to wander the room, the nurse eying him carefully. No worries, of course.~ He was the most innocent of patients, of course.~ As long as there was nothing that seemed to garner more amusement than playing nice. Amusement, perhaps no, but attention was assured at a repeated noise, vaguely familiar on the edges of memories. A repeated downward thrust. Now, what was the memory in that, hmm?~

Albedo ambled closer, head tilted curiously as his mouth lifted in a smirk of a quiet grin. Now, this person was familiar. The one whose emotions were so easily read before. He sat across from the other without asking, still wearing the canary eating grin. "Mm, you know, you'd probably have better luck with a knife."

[sainted]

His conversation with Claire was interrupted by the now-familiar voice of the man who'd made the announcements he'd heard this morning and the previous night. Doctor Landel, a nurse explained to him as she tsked over his barely touched breakfast, but proceeded to usher him out of the cafeteria anyway to the next shift activities. All around him, Stefan saw grey-clad patients also being herded in the same direction, some of whom got up and left without the urging of an escort. This was the routine here.

Stefan followed without fuss, his mind absorbed with what the girl had told him about Landel's Institute. On the surface, this place appeared to be a mental asylum, but was actually a prison. He'd been kidnapped (how? how could no one know how they'd ended up here?), apparently so they could call him by a different name and make him believe that he'd imagined his whole life up until now. Stefan scoffed. If only he were so lucky.

So he'd told Claire that he trusted her, but if he were being honest, her claims of a faceless, omnipotent They were a little hard to swallow. On the other hand, was it any less believable than the idea that the Founders Council had somehow grabbed him from (during? after?) the fiery building and not killed him?

When the nurse asked if he'd be fine doing origami, Stefan nodded, then turned his head slightly when he noticed her join another nurse on her way out of Arts and Crafts. He followed them with his hearing, listening to them talk about "new kids" and "good behaviour" and— and then, suddenly, their voices muted, blending with the rest of the low, indistinct conversation in the room. Stefan turned the rest of the way to confirm: the two women hadn't even left yet, and were still well within his normal hearing range.

This wasn't vervain. Maybe vervain had been used to knock him out and bring him here (but then what about everyone else?), but whatever it was that affected him now, it wasn't vervain. Was this part of the "delusion"? It wasn't as if he could mistake his present weakness for being human, and what he was was the single craziest part of his life. So if he hadn't deluded himself into thinking he was vampire, then he probably hadn't imagined all he'd set into motion in 1864, which in turn meant he hadn't imagined about everything which had happened in the last year, which meant he hadn't imagined... Elena.

With a sigh, Stefan moved to shove his hands into his pockets before realizing that he had none, and so awkwardly crossed his arms instead. He remained standing as he watched people do origami, idly musing to himself that Damon would probably have a few Damon-witty remarks about his little brother as a psych patient.

[8(]

[saviored]

When Damon left the girl, he knew roughly one percent more than he did upon waking up, and half of that led to several questions he wasn't sure where to begin answering, if only because the answers were based on whether he even trusted her or not. Which, at this point, was highly debatable. Still, it was something to keep in mind as that irritating voice came on again and he was shuffled off. This was already getting old, by the way. He wasn't in high school, for God's sake. That was Stefan's American dream, not his.

On the topic of Stefan—he was here, wasn't he. Damon couldn't decide whether he approved of the situation or not. Stefan's presence, that was. He supposed this way, he wouldn't have to concern himself with whether or not John Gilbert might catch up to his brother in Damon's absence because Lord knew Stefan was too stupidly attached to save himself by leaving the way any intelligent creature would. Besides, more than that, this meant he could pass the protect-Elena torch back to her boyfriend. Though...on the other hand, who said he didn't want to hold onto that torch? It wasn't his thing, of course, but he could certainly do it if he wanted, and he wasn't going to lie: sliding into Stefan's place because his brother was less than capable for some reason or other—it wasn't unpleasant, he'd put it that way.

Oh well. Stefan was around, those were the facts, and Damon could take advantage of this just fine, as much as he could've if Stefan weren't here. He should just go find his brother then. Say hello and everything. It would only be polite.

The only thing now was locating him, but fortunately, Stefan's always-exciting personality meant that he wouldn't bother going anywhere else except where most of the nurses were bent on leading the patients. Folding paper it was, then.

The room was moderately sized, full of things that Damon had never bothered to glance at, never mind touch. He'd been far beyond the age of schoolchildren by the time it became common for teachers to have their students draw stick figures in place of actually doing anything useful. He stepped carefully over the threshold and paused, though not for long. It was less crowded here than it'd been in the dining hall, which made his little brother twice as easy to spot. Especially since said brother was standing in the middle of the room, looking for all the world like a poorly placed statue. Typical.

Oh, and there was Elena. Tucked away, but there and seemingly fine. That was good. And Stefan hadn't noticed which made things much more interesting than they'd been only a minute ago. He must've not even been looking for her in the first place. Really, if Damon hadn't run into her last night, he never would've thought her to be caught up in this, either.

He looked away from Elena before she noticed anyone watching; he'd rather have his conversation with his brother uninterrupted. He swiped a sheet of origami paper as he wandered up and stopped a foot or two behind Stefan.

"You should make a crane for Elena," he said, folding the sheet of paper neatly in half, his eyes on Stefan. The paper's pattern was pink and flowery. "It'll be...romantic. And I promise I won't tell her that you used to eat them."

He didn't know she was here, and since he didn't know, Damon was always one willing to inform his brother about these things. In a manner of speaking, anyway.

Granted, he could've said something about the fire, but while he was willing to thank Elena and even the witch, Stefan was different. Stefan was—Stefan.

[buryyourdemons.livejournal.com]

Naruto was here. Of all things, somehow this remained prominent. Being removed from the larger room, he was escorted to another, that was off of another large area. That--if he remembered Minato's details--was the main one that they were in during the day. His eyes moved upward to note the railing they had stood against the night before. Hm. He was carefully memorizing the details afforded to him of the layout so far. The two levels seemed like they would expand. Searching out the details, if they were trapped here, would be a logical step. Were there other levels, sub-levels? A place to trap others was not as straightforward as first glance would assume.

As proved opposite with the place he had been led in. It took his mind a minute to catch up with the seemingly sudden shift in surrounding. The woman with him smiled and gestured to a table, and he wondered why she insisted on that particular one. Still, he was taking in information, and would acquiesce. And so, the Suna-nin found himself seated before construction paper. And glue. And colored glitter. He stared at it for a moment, willing some sense to appear in the situation.

[sister!~]

[bothersomewoman.livejournal.com]

"Take me to my brother, now."

Those were the first and only words Temari said to the nurse, and the kunoichi refused to take a single step until the had the woman's promise of compliance. Even knowing about the risk of sedation, Temari doubted the staff would go that far in face of a non-violent protest, and she'd been right--though the nurse assured her that it was only because they were both scheduled for Arts and Crafts now anyway.

Every bit of harshness she showed the woman vanished when Gaara came into sight, however, and Temari couldn't help but smile in spite of the situation. He looked completely and utterly confused by the harmless materials before him, and as a big sister, Temari was well within her right to appreciate that unintended cute side her brother had. And maybe the fact that Gaara didn't look any older or (thankfully) any younger than she remembered helped with that too.

"I don't think you have to take those things so seriously, Gaara." Temari could at least hope that the strange sparkling vial wouldn't turn out to be sinister; from what Shikamaru had said, it seemed like their surroundings were relatively safe during the day. She took the seat across from him, her mind turning to what Gaara had already faced. Temari had no way of knowing yet just how long her brother had been awake, and he didn't have his gourd with him. Was he really without the shield of sand? "How long have you been here? Are you hurt?"

[martyrs]

Back at home, Aunt Jenna had accepted after just a few weeks of living with Elena that some mornings, she was just not up for getting out of bed early before school. It was something Elena had come to love about her aunt, the way she somehow just knew not to bug the hell out of her certain mornings to get up and start her day. This was absolutely not the case for whoever the nurse was that came barging into her room that morning. Late morning, as far as Elena could tell, because the nurse had gone on and on about how she should not have missed breakfast, how she needed to 'follow the schedule' and 'keep to the rules' as she was lead down different hallways.

What the nurse didn't seem to understand was that Elena still had no idea where she was, or how she got there, or why she had a good couple weeks worth of memories missing for no reason whatsoever. 'Following the rules' was quite literally the last thing she cared about!

As she was lead to Arts and Crafts -- Arts and Crafts? Seriously? Whoever the voice on the intercom belonged to needed to get a life. Or a clue, because she was seventeen not seven -- she stayed silent, her expression stoney and annoyed. Why was the nurse acting like everything was normal? The more she thought about everything that Damon had told her the night before, the more she wanted to try and make a break for it, just to get away from the cheery nurse.

According to Damon she met her mother. Her birth mother, Isobel. But she couldn't remember it, and certainly couldn't remember any details. And then her Uncle John had tried to kill her boyfriend along with all the other vampires in Mystic Falls, but Damon and Stefan both managed to escape that fate. Apparently. Seeing as Damon was trapped in this place too, and Stefan- Well, Elena really only had Damon's word to go off of on that. Which made her feel sick. And frustrated. And a number of other unpleasant things that made her want nothing to do with Arts and Crafts.

It didn't take long before she was being escorted to a seat at one of the tables in the room, a stack of colored paper and some instruction sheets placed in front of her. The Intercom Guy wasn't kidding about origami, apparently. She looked around, half-hoping to find someone she knew in there with her, but came up with nothing. Of course Damon wasn't forced to make birds out of paper with her, of course. Elena took the top sheet of folding paper off of the top of the pile and set it down flat on the table, immediately folding the corners in.

Origami? Whatever. Somewhere in the back of her mind was the skill to make a paper crane or a frog, but her first creation was nothing of the sort. About a minute later she was sliding her fingers into the slots of the neat little fortune teller she just made. Sure things really sucked right now, but she wasn't about to cause a scene if all they were forcing her to do was make things out of paper. For now she would sit and plan her eventual escape. And fold. And write little fortunes in this thing if she could only find a pencil...

[For Claire]

[autophoenix.livejournal.com]

Breakfast was altogether unexciting. She, like the previous day, had eaten her body weight in food for some reason, and she still hadn't been able to decide what to think of the guy she'd run into. Easy to talk to, yes, but maybe a little … too easy. She was still trying to work her way through her thoughts as she was ushered by a nurse to the arts and crafts area. Her dad would have been so proud, she thought to herself a little spitefully, that she was being so careful about who she trusted. Who she told. That she was being so damned responsible. Bitter, she tried to shove the thoughts from her mind. It felt wrong to still be that angry with him when she hadn't gotten to see him for days and didn't have any kind of indicator for when she would again.

Faintly, she wondered if he was searching for her now. Sylar had mentioned that Noah had been in the institute, hadn't he? Why would he break out without taking Claire with? It was a heavy weight, that thought, and it was definitely one that put a temporary dampener on her mood that the chance to draw and color would fix.

Speaking of … all things considered? The fact that arts and crafts was actually considered the closest to a comfort zone Claire was going to get in Landel's was pretty sad. Being shoved in with the kids was already a little humiliating, and the fact that they'd decided the patients were all crazy enough for arts and crafts to be fun again was equally insulting -- despite the fact that it was still fun for Claire. But, that didn't mean she wanted to make necklaces out of dry macaroni noodles. There was a girl with long, straight brown hair that Claire guessed was Bella and she immediately moved to sit across from her.

Spoiler: it wasn't Bella. Which … made this a little awkward, on second thought. Claire kept the cringe off her face, and instead tried to look like it was intentional.

Yeah, that didn't work.

Plan B was to just look apologetic and smile real pretty and hope she'd be forgiven.

"Sorry, I thought you were someone else, I --" But, she hadn't seen this girl around before and, granted, Claire hadn't met everyone in the institute, she liked to think she'd at least gotten a pretty good look. So, she hesitated. "Was anyone sitting here?" She asked, hesitating in her shuffle to get out of the seat. It really didn't make sense to assume it was taken in the first place, considering most of the people here tended to not fill all the seats at their tables anyway, but Claire's inclination toward politeness was hard to shake anyway.

[fuzzy-diablo.livejournal.com]

Kurt felt better after talking to Logan, and found himself looking forward to the mission despite how dangerous it was bound to be. A mission was a mission, and it beat the heck out of watching the cafeteria looking for Terry.

If only Terry would come back. They'd have a perfect team, then.

But all he could do right now was hold onto Terry's suit and keep it safe for him. Terry wouldn't have wanted him to mope around, doing nothing but waiting. At least, Kurt thought he wouldn't. He was pretty big on the 'doing stuff' front.

So, X-Men accounted for, Kurt turned to the other important thing: Minako. Who he was undeniably developing a crush on--not surprising though. How many non-mutant girls had seen him and not freaked out? Amanda, Orihime, Seiya, and Minako. Four. He could count that on one normal-hand.

So she was a big deal, obviously. He wanted to thank her. Sitting down at one of the tables, he sifted through the origami paper until he'd picked out a variety of shades and some patterns. He didn't know what color she'd like, so he just picked a bunch. Okay, he had the paper, now what to make with it...? He pulled over a book and started flipping through it, wincing as he went. A lot of this seemed a little complicated, and Kurt had never had to maneuver four fingers before...

[repelling.livejournal.com]

"Well now," the nurse began, standing behind him as the intercom clicked off, "that sounds nice, doesn't it? You came just in time, Gerard; ah, you do like to sew, don't you? So"

and she went on, went on as he cleaned up the breakfast tray, went on as they walked through the Sun Room, went on as she ushered him through the door to the Arts and Crafts Room. Detaching himself from the garrulous wart, Uryuu moved to examine the sewing supplies they did have. They weren't promising. In fact, they didn't deserve to be called sewing supplies; they hardly qualified as for-toddler designed substitutes. Features pinched with displeasure -- as if, really, sewing was a priority! but, if forced to take part in insipid activities, might as well -- he sat himself at a table with origami supplies.

It had not only been a sewing club, back in Karakura. Uryuu had been the president of the Handicrafts club; origami didn't quite apply, but he still knew how to fold some shapes without looking. It had been a nice, quiet activity, relatively mess free, for a boy to do when silence was not only a virtue, but a commandment.

As he thought over the migraine inducing information given to him during breakfast, Uryuu's hands moved, as if on their own accord. When mind and fingers stilled for a brief interlude, he noticed that he'd folded a crane. Even the West knew, these days: 1000 cranes, and one's wish came true. With alterations as to what, exactly, the reward was. He didn't believe in wishes, in luck or chance or any of it. His lips twisted into a wry, skeptical mockery of a smile at the thought of it. People wasting time folding hundreds and hundreds of cranes, rather than working. But--

Surely, only because Inoue-san had also been a member of the Handicrafts Club. She'd wish for something ridiculous, like for every period to be lunch, or for it to rain jam and breadcrumbs (the smile, lingering, changed), or for Kuros. Uryuu resumed folding, a second crane materializing.

It wasn't a wish, of course. Merely his best behavior, should he still be trapped tomorrow. Orange and blue; he took and creased a green sheet.

[for kairi!]

[kingdomless.livejournal.com]

By the time Kairi entered the Arts and Crafts room there were already quite a few people - for one, she saw Sora speaking with Roxas. That made her smile ... to see him spending so much time with the other boy had her wondering what her Nobody was doing. She'd have to write her a message on the bulletin asking how she was doing.

However, within moments of looking around the room, Kairi's eyes fell upon a boy who appeared to be folding things out of paper ... making birds, it looked like.

Without thinking, the once princess moved towards him, a bright smile on her face as she tilted her head slightly so she could look down at the cranes the boy had just folded. "Wow! These are beautiful. I was never good at origami, so I pretty much made only flowers. Or ... attempted to," she looked from the cranes to the boy, giving him a smile instead. "My name is Kairi. May I sit with you?"