damned_institute | Day 51: Arts and Crafts [Second Shift]

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!]

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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.

Artemis gnawed on his lip, glaring at the bottle as he continued to struggle. He was in Arts and Crafts hell, he knew it. This was a punishment for plotting to cut open a book for Badou, wasn't it?

He gave up and set the bottle down, picking up a new one, when another boy approached the table. Younger, it seemed, though he sounded not at all pleased to be where he was. Birds of a feather, then.

"Of course, please do," Artemis said, gesturing to the chair. He would be glad for some company, even if said company would be watching him struggle to draw elementary shapes in glue. Was it better or worse that it was someone Artemis hadn't met yet?

"You seem a little downtrodden," Artemis observed, picking at the glue cap with a popsicle stick. "Difficult night?"

With his request accepted, Nigredo fell quietly into the seat, partially relieved that he didn't have to find another. The older boy appeared focused on a bottle of what he vaguely recognized as glue. It was a rather primitive substance compared to the options available in his time, but given the nature of a Landel's day, 'primitive' was sufficient for the task. The question then was the nature of the aforementioned task. He watched him work without reservation.

Consequently, the statement almost passed over Nigredo's head. If not for excellent memory, he might have missed it altogether. He scrambled for an appropriate response, managing a decent half-truth at the end. "I was asleep in its entirety," the child offered. "It's worth some disappointment, I suppose."

He watched further as though entranced. "Do you need help with that?"

"No, I think I've nearly got it--" The cap came clean off.

Artemis stared at the bottle for a moment, then placed it upright in the center of the table, content to pretend it didn't exist. This was all rather ridiculous anyway. He should be sketching or doing something else productive instead of wasting time simply to waste time.

"If you tend to travel with people who tend not to speak the same language you do, then I suppose you could call that 'disappointment'. I however spent most of the night acting as a translator between three people and three languages." He selected a black crayon and began sketching Haku's portrait on the construction paper. "I would have been fortunate to sleep through it. The night ended before I could accomplish anything."

He watched as the cap popped from its position, stared as the bottle stood without its stopper. A more pleasant day might have had Nigredo distracting himself from smiling; today, he simply looked on. Perfectly stoic, as a brother or two might have hated. The humor of the situation was not lost--just stifled. He glanced back at the other.

"I'm surprised," commented Nigredo. "I thought everyone spoke the same language." The basis for this was shaky at worst but backed solidly by observation. The older boy's account of the night before happened to be the first instance of verbal confusion he had heard. "Something must have happened last night, then."

For him to sleep through, though? A waste was a waste, yes, but an attempt was better than nothing at all. Still, propriety would call for sympathy, no? He nodded as if to affirm the other's frustration. "Perhaps you'll have better luck tonight."

"If only everyone spoke the same language. That would make sense, wouldn't it?" Artemis said, turning the page at different angles to achieve better, cleaner strokes. Construction paper was not suited for this, but the materials in the room were so cheap to begin with Artemis didn't have much of a choice.

"However, in light of the confusion of last night, I can only reason that there is some sort of device translating for us--making it so we can all communicate in our native languages, comfortably. The device must have been turned off. Which causes me to wonder if there is a similar device limiting our supernatural capabilities. And whether or not it could be disabled as well."

That would be the ideal situation, after all. He confessed, he didn't know many people with 'powers' or 'abilities' beyond the scope of what was typically within reach of human standards, but it would be extremely advantageous as far as mass revolt would be concerned.

"I hope to have better luck tonight, it's rather crucial to my own sanity," he smiled, but didn't elucidate. "My name is Artemis Fowl, the Second. Forgive me for not introducing myself sooner."

[alsdjkfas sorry this took so long.]

"I see." A device for translations or forced communication... The other at least had a point in that such a device was related to whatever was dampening their powers (or in Nigredo's case, his waveform). As for the reasons one would turn it off-- He had a feeling his consciousness was required in order to come up with a decent hypothesis.

Another thought for another time, perhaps. For now, it seemed introductions were in order. His eyes stayed on Artemis. "It's okay," he said without smiling. "My name is Nigredo."

Day 51: Arts and Crafts [Second Shift]

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