damned_institute | Day 51: Arts & Crafts (4th shift)

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Day 51: Arts & Crafts (4th shift)

There were very few activity shifts, Cloud was sure, that could possibly make him feel more like he was being treated like a child. He took a seat at one of the tables and blankly examined the materials set out before him. A pair of the dullest scissors he'd ever seen were labeled 'ages 3 and up'. It was good to know where the patients stood in this.

He wasn't much of an artist, and he ignored most of the paints and other drawing utensils in favor of a few sheets of colored paper and instructions on how to make origami. That sounded vaguely familiar. Didn't Yuffie have throwing weapons made out of paper at some point? It was something to do anyway, and thus Cloud began the process of crafting what ended up being very elaborate paper wads.

Sadly, his attempts to keep from dwelling on the subject of his missing friend failed when he realized this was something Aerith probably would have enjoyed greatly. Tonight, he and Yuffie would go out and try to accomplish... something. It was depressing to think there really might not be anything they could do, that they might all end up the same as the flower girl eventually.

[for a hopefully more optimistic materia thief]

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[from the showers]

Though Anise's pigtails were hanging a little flat from the shower, Anise knew they'd go back to being fluffy if she just left them alone for a bit, so without giving them any more thought, she made her way out to the Sun Room, then over to the Art and Crafts Room. Origami had been really fun when she tried it out with Ilia, so she wanted to try some more crafts.

Anise sat down at a table with origami supplies laid out, and started flipping through the books. She found the animal book she had used earlier that day to make a rabbit and a pig, but she set that aside for now. The next one she picked up was titled 'Mythical Creature Origami'. That sounded pretty interesting!

Some of these looked really complicated... There was a multi-headed serpent craft that took more than one sheet of paper, and there were other monsters with so many details that it looked like it'd take a thousand folds to complete them.

... And since when were griffins mythical? Anise tilted her head at the book, finding herself a little bit confused by its contents.

[Tear!]

Despite the efforts she put into gathering information, there were parts Tear couldn't fully understand. She knew the institute's days were controlled by Dr. Landel and his staff, and the activities seen were mere facades. She knew the truth was in the institute's nights, when the building was overrun with monsters, laced with experimentation and brainwashing. Those parts were simple to understand; a young child could easily recite the logic of such a place.

The problem, however, was the why. The motives, the reasons-- They did not make sense like the actions and the people. She could look over the bulletin ten thousand times and overhear countless conversations on the topic, but the soldier could never fully extract the why. Perhaps that was a foolhardy task; no one ever said the reasons led to the end of actions. Furthermore, focusing on the former was bound to lead to trouble with the latter.

Still, it bothered her. Still, Tear didn't know why.

The accompanying nurse noticed her troubled expression. In a matter of good will, she suggested the teenager take a break in the Arts and Crafts room. It was a strange name for a room, but Tear supposed rest could only help her case when night fell. Without protest, she followed the woman into the aforementioned room, fully intent on a distraction-free environment.

What she found instead was the opposite: bright colors, varying shapes, multiple elements that suggested the space was strictly for children. To her surprise, however, most of the participants happened to be adults. Adults who looked equally as perplexed at their presence as Tear was, but the fact stood. Without thinking, she found herself gawking at nowhere in particular.

Her eyes eventually settled on a familiar head of black hair. Anise? That was her, wasn't it? Both Luke and Guy had confirmed her presence in the hospital, and that figure couldn't be anyone else. Tear slid past the tables to the younger, stopping just at her peripheral to offer a greeting. "Hey."

Anise was still looking over the pages when she heard a voice nearby. The girl gave a small glance at the source, then did a double take when she realized just who was standing there.

'Hey'!? What kind of a greeting was that!? Anise jerked her chair back a bit to give herself a better look at the older girl, and stared up at the familiar face with her mouth hanging open. After another moment, she managed to get out the words that sat on her mind, though they practically all came out at the same time.

"Tear!? When did you get here!? Wow, it's been weeks! Did you see the others yet?"

Compared to Tear's calm, succinct greeting, Anise's was more of a jumbled mess of questions and exclamations. Weeks had passed since Tear's disappearance, and she'd almost given up on seeing her at Landel's again... but now here she was, out of the blue! Anise had plenty of reason to get as excited as she was.

The 'enthusiastic' mix of questions and statements might have unnerved the teenager another time. Thanks to a combination of previous conversations, however, Tear managed to understand the basic gist of what came out of Anise's mouth. More surprisingly, she was able to give her answer almost immediately. It was no easy task when she was still reeling from other things.

"I just got here this morning," explained Tear, voice calm and steady. "Luke and Guy told me what I needed to know." She finally sighed. Anise must have had enough to worry about if her reaction was of any indication. "I'm glad to see you're all right."

Well, mostly "all right". The bandage didn't escape Tear's sight, but she figured it would be best to leave it out of the conversation unless otherwise prompted. First, they had to get the basics settled.

The barrage of questions might have overwhelmed the average new patient, but Tear was as cool and collected as ever. That was the soldier Anise knew! The familiarity of her demeanor was kind of comforting, in a way. As Tear spoke, Anise's face lit up with a smile.

"Naturally!" she chirped in response to Tear's comment about her. Anise had been doing a good job of staying out of trouble! ...Most of the time. "Ehe, and I'm glad we caught you before nighttime. Luke and Guy told you all about that, right?" If they had, then Tear wouldn't have to guess at what 'that' referred to.

Though the girl was still excited, she remembered the books in front of her, and picked one of them up again. As she skimmed the pages for interesting-looking crafts, she seemed to suddenly remember something else important, and looked back up at Tear. "Oh! Did you see the bulletin board yet?"

Tear couldn't help but smile. Anise had, at times, an infectious enthusiasm. Combined with knowing the girl was both well and keeping it upbeat, the Melodist had plenty of reasons to appear relatively glad for this meeting. "They did, thankfully." If not for Luke and Guy's help, she would have been in quite a bind come nightfall.

As Anise returned to her task, Tear took to a nearby seat. In another's company, she might have watched out of propriety, but with her teammate, Tear was genuinely curious. What was she planning to do with all those books? What better way than to ask the person herself?

Only she was briefly sidetracked by another question, one that was considerably more important. Therefore, Tear answered that first. "Yes, I've been keeping track of it since breakfast," she said. It had been informative, but the information contained within tended toward the ambiguous scale. Lots of coding, though for good reason. "It seems to be used often. Is that the only method of communication available here?" Aside from face-to-face talking, of course.

Looked like Tear was on top of things. That was good! It meant Anise wasn't going to have to explain quite as much. "Pretty much, yeah. It's really handy during the day, but the nurses keep a close eye on it, so you have to watch what you write there. People use a lot of codes and stuff when talking about what happens at night."

Anise flipped through a stack of origami paper as she explained, looking for a good color to use. There were lots of pretty patterns, which only made it harder to choose. The floral patterns were really cute, and the abstract designs had such vibrant colors...

"...Oh, and speaking of codes, me and the others have been using Abyssman code names to talk to each other. Keep an eye out for them!" Tear might have figured it out anyway, but it was best to make sure she knew ahead of time. "At first we used them just to be extra careful, but now that we've got creeps like Sync running around, it's really important to keep our plans private." It didn't exactly help when Sync managed to find her at night anyway, but it did give him less opportunities to ambush them and sabotage their efforts.

That was unfortunate; another means of communication would help keep avenues open in the event one became unavailable. From the sound of it, however, the patients' resourceful use of the bulletin was keeping the board from being taken down. Codes could be a headache to decipher, but as long as they worked, she supposed she could be content with what was available.

"I see," replied Tear. Her eyes remained fixed on the decorative paper Anise was sorting through. She couldn't help herself: some of the patterns were attractive to look at. Of course, she still had no clue as to their use, but now was hardly the time to wonder about that.

Especially as Anise continued. Tear was surprised to hear the Abyssman code names being their group's signature way to communicate, but upon further consideration, it made sense. As silly as the names were, it would only be comprehensible to them. "I'll watch for them," she affirmed. "Though, I still can't believe Sync is alive." And here, of all places. "He hasn't been interfering, has he?"

In the pile of paper, Anise selected a golden yellow colored one, spotted with bright orange flowers. That would be good for making a duck, right? Anise set the others back in the center of the table and laid out her selection next to the open book, looking to the page for folding instructions.

Tear's comment about Sync made her pause just after her first fold, however. She couldn't believe he was alive? That meant she was either way behind Anise, or way ahead. Anise knew she ought to answer Tear's question before asking any of her own, though.

"Uh... interfering is one way of putting it," she answered somewhat delicately, her grin turning weary. "Since he doesn't really have a boss or a main goal here, I think he's made 'messing with everyone' his new goal. That creep's done a lot of damage." That last statement came out in a grumbling tone. Anise wasn't sure if she should give Tear the full story of everything that had happened with Sync's schemes when she had so much she needed to absorb already, but at the very least, she was going to make it very clear how big of a threat the God-General was.

"Hey, Tear?" This was probably a good time for Anise to ask her own question. She wanted to know what she could expect Tear to know. "What's the last thing you remember? Before you wound up here, I mean."

It took no effort for Tear to understand: Sync had more than interfered. His very presence had caused enough trouble for the God-General to be labeled as a viable threat. Though, the fact shouldn't really surprise her at this point. If there was one constant to stick to, it was that there would always be someone under Van's command getting in their way. She would just need to take that into account, on top of everything else.

Before she could properly vent out the building frustrations with a sigh, Anise brought up a question of her own. Its nature took the Melodist aback, but she eventually agreed on the logic. She canted her head slightly--a contemplative move--and then answered, "We had stayed in Belkend for the night, and--"

Here, unlike the previous time, Tear hesitated. The others hadn't really known about her intentions, but Luke had reacted well to her reveal. In fact, he hadn't questioned it. This, however, did not necessarily mean Anise would feel the same. "--I boarded the ship to Ortion Cavern with the fonimin gathering team."

At first, the look on Anise's face was somewhat puzzled at Tear's response. For a moment, she had to stop and think about just when that had happened. When it clicked, her eyes widened and she took on a more surprised look.

"Whoa... that's pretty far behind!" What all had happened between then and the point that Anise last remembered? Ion's death... that came to mind immediately. And with it, there was Tear's cure. If Landel was able to manipulate time, rather than just erasing memories, then did that mean that Tear was sick again? It couldn't be... right? After everything they'd been through, and what Ion had sacrificed, it just seemed too cruel.

"Um... did the others mention how all of us remember different things? My last memories are few months ahead of yours, and some of the others are years ahead!" Anise was used to being the farthest behind, so it was weird to think Tear remembered even less than she did.

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Day 51: Arts & Crafts (4th shift)

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