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!]

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[martyrs]

Elena was quick to look up at the girl who sat across from her, because for a split second all she saw was blonde hair and thought 'Caroline!' but, it wasn't. So she too wore a strange expression - one of high hopes that leveled out to confused curiosity in seconds flat. Awkward. But then, maybe not. Sure the blonde wasn't a friend of hers from home, but she looked about the same age as her, and she wasn't a nurse, so that was already a step up from anyone she had run into here so far.

Well, besides Damon. But he didn't count.

Elena shook her head, giving the girl a smile again to make up for the fact that she was being kind of a weirdo about this. "Oh, no. That seat is completely free, if you want it," she said, her voice just a little louder than library volume. This place gave her the creeps, that much was obvious, but she still really had no concept of how to act around here. Sure there were rules, but there didn't seem to be a guide book on how to go about your day after being kidnapped and forced to assimilate.

She pushed that worry aside for now though, because there was some excitement to be had over the fact that she wasn't the only teenager that seemed to be stuck making crafts with the younger inhabitants of this place. Patients? It seemed like a hospital, the more she looked around and observed everything. Maybe a rehabilitation center. Trying to figure out what this place was was only serving to push her into a bad mood again though, so she cut those thoughts short.

"I'm Elena." And she almost held out her hand, because for the most part in Mystic Falls she's only ever had to introduce herself to adults (..Salvatores excluded), so it was a force of habit. However, her hands were still trapped in her fortune teller, so it luckily prevented her from doing so. Instead she just kind of lifted both hands, then set them flat on the table again. "And I'm really bad at this whole... origami thing. Obviously."

[autophoenix.livejournal.com]

Well, that was a shocker. She seemed normal. Which, all things considered, was pretty good news -- Claire was short on friends to begin with. Bella aside, she hadn't met any girls she could even talk to here. Her second best option was Elle, and that definitely wasn't going to happen. So, well … what harm could talking to Elena do, right? Besides, she couldn't really see anyone who she knew around anyway. Most of them had probably split up and bailed on the kiddie party. Like she could blame them.

"Tell me about it. I can barely make a paper football, trusting me with … cranes and patterns is like … " A shrug. "Well, it's not a very good idea." She chuckled and got more comfortable in the seat, pulling a piece of plain white paper over and offering a warm but wry smile. "I'm Claire," she offered. It was nice. Acting normal almost helped her pretend she was normal. Or that anything about this was. With that, she began folding, making sure that it was as exaggerated as possible so that Elena could understand the difficulties she had with origami.

"Banners, I can do. Posters, you know. That kind of thing. Origami? Not so much. But, I guess we don't really get a complaint box here." Another chuckle. It almost felt like it wasn't hindered by the fact that she was trapped in an asylum that time. "You should've been here yesterday, we wound up watching King Kong. The original." Oooh, bad thing to bring up. She could barely remember a thing about the movie because she'd been too busy threatening to rip Sylar's head off, and now she was torn between anting to scream and wanting to throw Sylar out the pretty sun room window. Yeah, definitely better to not share that little adventure with her new potential friend. She forced a smile, regardless of how obvious the fact that it was forced was.

"Supposedly, we voted for it, but I'm not convinced that they actually listened, you know what I mean?"

[martyrs]

The whole situation was weird, she knew it, and it was a fair assumption that Claire did too, but Elena couldn't bring herself to break the illusion that this wasn't weird by asking her questions. It was tempting, definitely, especially because it appeared Claire had been there for-- Well, at least a day, and that was more experience than she had with the place. But no, ignoring where they were and pretending that this was just another high school class they were required to take, that was actually kind of tempting.

"Oh yeah, that stuff I'm pretty good at. Decorating, or cutting shapes and making those snowflake things? Bring it. And I'm a pretty mean tie-dyer if I do say so myself." She all but brushed off her shoulder, though it was obvious she wasn't completely serious. Although now that she mentioned it, the clothes they were wearing could use some sprucing up. Huh. "But anything that has to do with putting corner B into newly folded slot F just confuses me to no end. Same with those fancy knots you need to do to make a friendship bracelet. Yikes."

It was good that Claire changed the subject, because Elena didn't even realize she was probably rambling. Her fortune teller got a little bent out of shape as she absently fussed with it, though she didn't seem to notice that either. However, she did notice Claire's shift in expression, but didn't think to ask her what made her so mad about King Kong. Maybe it reminded her of a crappy ex-boyfriend or something.

"These people don't seem to listen to anything we have to say, now that you bring that up. My nurse only got fussy with me and then got my name wrong the whole way here," she muttered, side glancing to see that said nurse was still over by the door, looking around. And looking mean. "She called me Samantha, which is weird. And not even close to Elena."

[autophoenix.livejournal.com]

Another new patient. Was she attracting them today or something? Or, well, really she'd kind of gravitated towards Elena, but Stefan had found his way to Claire first. That was pretty even, she supposed. All the same, Claire offered a thin-lipped smile as her chuckling at Elena's tie-dye talents died down. She paused in he folding of the paper, sighing.

"Yeah, that seems to be a pretty common theme here. Trying to convince us that we're not who we think we are," Claire shrugged a little, raising a brow. "I don't know if it's ever actually worked necessarily, but, well. They try anyway. Apparently, my name's Emma, and I need to stop deluding myself into think I'm Claire Bennet." But, if there was any doubt after she saw Peter, it had all been blown to the wayside by her little talk with Sylar. As much as she'd like to believe that Claire Bennet's past two freaky years had just been some bad dream, she wasn't that lucky.

It was hard to let herself break the illusion to, however casually, discuss the actual workings of the Institute. So much for pretending she could be normal for five minutes. But, Elena deserved to hear that she wasn't the only one with these issues, and Claire had gone through it thoroughly enough with Stefan that she didn't mind being the guide one more time. After all, helping people was the whole point of this agent thing, right?

"I'm not really sure what the strategy is with the arts and crafts, though. I'll let you know when I figure it out," she continued, sighing. With one finally sympathetic, weak smile, she went back to folding the paper. A few precise, purposeful and possibly overdramatic folds later, she had a fortune teller of her own, and grabbed for the markers to brighten it up.