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

[feartehreaper.livejournal.com]

Haseo was a tad surprised at having the box moved closer to him, but then quickly obliged the favor by idly going through it anyway. Most of the utensils were markers though, and an experimental removal of one of the lids only revealed a halfway-dried tip. Great. He distractedly pulled out a regular pencil instead- one of the cheap kind you had to twist to bring the lead out. It was pretty sad, all things considered. At that point he might have preferred one that you actually had to sharpen manually, so long as it had better lead.

"Hrm, yeah," he answered, "The head doctor... did something to whatever they use here to translate everything." The Rogue had suspected beforehand that there was some sort of translation going on, but it was still hard to accept-- especially when the best kind of software you knew of or could imagine that could accomplish that kind of thing... well, didn't do it spontaneously, and definitely didn't do it in place of the original speech or writing.

"The only reason we noticed was because our files and the intercom announcements were all in English instead of Japanese," he elaborated, sounding a little bitter. He sighed and pulled open his journal to where he'd written down the results of the poll he'd taken on the board, staring at them thoughtfully. It was possible Leon had answered the poll too, but since there hadn't been any names given and Haseo wasn't really skilled enough to pick out different handwriting styles, he couldn't have known.

"I wrote down..." he started, but then trailed off abruptly, glancing up. "Wait, Claude?" he echoed belatedly, "Uh... blonde guy, wears a hairband...thing?" He frowned at himself, since he just barely saved himself from saying blind instead of blond at the last moment. Whether or not Leon knew about whatever had happened, Haseo figured... it probably wasn't the best of things to bring up.

[heraldric.livejournal.com]

The boy watched his friend with some curiosity. It looked as though he was searching for a specific writing utensil. Something in red? "I can ask for another box for you if you want." Or Haseo could do it himself, but he felt like being polite.

He glanced down at his paper again, adding a few marks that resembled the ones on the teen's cheeks as something of an afterthought. These patterns didn't mean anything anyway. They only resembled actual glyphs and weren't functional in of themselves.

Then he forgot about the artwork completely, the glue beginning to dry as he neglected the glitter. The description was short, but it fit. As far as Leon knew, there was only one Claude in the Institute to begin with. Startled that Haseo had recognized the name, he nodded slowly. "Yes, Claude C. Kenni. Big Brother Claude. Have you met him?" Landel's wasn't large, and coincidental meetings were very common. The young mage had experienced many himself, so it should have been a given that those two would meet sooner or later with or without an introduction from him. "Was he well? I haven't spoken to him in a couple days myself."

[feartehreaper.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Haseo answered, although he was realizing pretty quick that he probably should have let the realization about Claude just go unremarked on. He stared down at his journal on the table, suppressing an uneasy shift in body language at the series of questions that followed those descriptive remarks. Why were things almost never easy?

It was looking like, if there was any specific reason Leon hadn't been as cheerful as usual earlier, then it didn't have to do with already knowing what had happened to Claude. The Adept Rogue had a strong suspicion, but didn't actually know the exact details behind why the blonde was having to try and make do with bandages covering his eyes- when they'd spoken, he'd been able to tell that his questions did nothing more than cause discomfort, so he'd just dropped it at the time. After all, he wouldn't have wanted many pointed questions after he'd gotten himself hurt, and especially if it had to do with night-time experimentation.

"Actually, I... I think he might have gotten in trouble a few days ago," he answered with difficulty, drawing a lazy, crooked star in the corner of one of his journal's pages. It seemed his habit of skirting around the issue with vague words was still intact lately- it was too hard for him to say more without further prompting.

[heraldric.livejournal.com]

Talking about his friends was definitely one way to get Leon's rapt attention, especially when it came to his 'big brother'. "What? What happened to him? You saw him? Is he hurt? Did he get taken for special counseling? Experimentation? He's still alive, isn't he? I know he has to be alive..."

He should have been doing a better job of keeping tabs on everyone. He hadn't even heard from Ashton or Dias in a while. The young mage mentally berated himself for not checking in with Claude before this. Taking for granted that the blond would always be able to take care of himself was a mistake. Even if he couldn't do much, he still needed to be there for him. He glanced around the room as if he might be able to spot his friend among the other patients there but had no such luck.

[feartehreaper.livejournal.com]

"He's fine!" Haseo said, quietly but forcefully and trying to put an end to that runaway series of questions, "I met him yesterday, but... I don't know." The Rogue tensed a little, troubled at the thought and hating the realization that he was actually meaning the word 'fine' to mean the same as 'alive.' He really hadn't expected to suddenly have to break news like that to his young friend, and certainly didn't want to. But if he had already known he was friends with Claude, would he have been more prepared? Maybe not... but still the warning would have been appreciated.

"He wouldn't tell me what happened, except that- it wasn't caused by monsters," he continued slowly, then took a breath, still staring downward. "His eyes were all bandaged up though, so... I guess he was probably taken for experimentation." He glanced up and watched for Leon's reaction with an unusually bothered look on his face, although he felt like he probably didn't want to see it.

[heraldric.livejournal.com]

"He was...!" That was the worst thing he could have heard. The worst! ...Aside from hearing that Claude had been killed, but he was panicked enough that this didn't even come to mind. To have been taken for an experiment, though... He'd seen the way others, like Ashton, had come back from those. That Claude had been through that and he hadn't known, hadn't been there to help him, was horrifying to learn.

Leon gave Haseo a frantic look. "That's not fine! That's not fine at all!" He had bandages covering his eyes now? What had they done to his eyes? Was he blind? how would he be able to fight if he couldn't see? The young mage wasn't sure what he'd even do if he ever lost the ability to see. He figured Claude had to be in absolute agony.

[feartehreaper.livejournal.com]

Haseo looked down and drew back in absolute abashment. "I'm sorry," he said awkwardly, and for once meant it entirely, "I mean, I know, but..." He grit his teeth- there just wasn't an acceptable excuse to defend his wording, and in this case the fallback of becoming angry to cover it wouldn't have worked at all. Good going there, Ryou, came the mental self-chastising, which only amplified his frustration and embarrassment.

The only thing he could think of was that it could have been worse: Claude had seemed a lot friendlier than Haseo himself had been after his own ordeal. Maybe he was just good at hiding the things that were bothering him, though. After all, their conversation had only lasted a few minutes, making it near impossible for someone like Haseo to have been able to tell during it.

"I think you should go talk to him and judge for yourself," the teen amended after a beat, wanting to be of some help, "I haven't seen him today but... he's gotta be around here somewhere." He put his hands in his lap, leaning forward in defeat; in the end, he just couldn't think of another way to soothe the boy effectively, and so the sooner it was out of his hands, the better.

[heraldric.livejournal.com]

The young mage bit his bottom lip. Claude had better still be around. He couldn't go and disappear after having something like that happen to him. Finding him had to be his next priority. Leon decided right then that he wouldn't allow his nurse to take him back to his room for dinner unless he'd spoken with the blond. It was just too important.

"Y-yeah. I'm going to find him for sure." He couldn't get mad at Haseo. The teen hadn't meant to say anything wrong, and he hadn't even known there was a connection between him and Claude until Leon had mentioned it. He was just supremely anxious now, and this shift couldn't end soon enough. Haseo would understand if he hurried off, wouldn't he? This couldn't wait.

He glanced back up at Haseo, feeling just a little bad for the way he'd responded. "Thanks anyway... I mean, for telling me."