damned_institute | 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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Of all the explanations Zack had thought up, what Tifa ended up telling him was not one of them. Crashing into someone else's back while riding on a motorcycle? It didn't make the most sense to him, but that whole night had been odd for a number of reasons, and so he chose not to question it too much. There was no reason to doubt Tifa's words, either, since that really wasn't something you could make up off the top of your head.

"Yuffie helped you out with a bit, right?" he asked with a tilt of his head. "That was nice of her." Surprisingly nice. But it seemed that Tifa and Cloud were on the ninja's good list, so that would explain it. Zack wasn't sure that he would ever quite make it there, despite his best efforts to make sure the girl didn't die when she'd been younger.

He'd also attacked her home and taken one of its forts down singlehandedly, so he couldn't completely blame Yuffie.

"Yeah, that night was pretty crazy for us. I'm sad you weren't there," he said sincerely. "We got a Thunder materia out of it, but you got something too, didn't you?" They'd had to be vague over the bulletin, but now he could finally find out for sure. Yuffie had guessed at it being an Ice, but he'd rather double-check.

Three crayons were pulled out of the bucket: a light blue, an obnoxious neon orange, and a white. Blue it was then! She began coloring in a big oval with two lines sticking out of the oval from below. "I'd have been pretty SOL without her..." She hadn't even asked for a reward. Yuffie was growing up so fast! Or she should be suspicious of what the ninja would want in return in the near future.

"Yeah, I wish we all could have gone back together... I heard you guys were on the Highwind though, right?" Her squiggly blue chocobo was forgotten for more interesting matters. "And got attacked by a Tonberry of all things..." It was a pity something so cute could be so goddamn annoying. Her visit on Gaia hadn't been very pleasant or nostalgic. The King Behemoth romping through Mt. Nibel had been the least of her problems that night.

At the mention of the materia, Tifa scooted closer and leaned over the table, so none of the nurses still circling could hear. "I wound up with an Ice materia and a pry bar. The pry bar's yours, since I don't need it. It laid the zombies in Doyleton out flat pretty well..."

It sounded like Tifa had already heard all about their own trip back to Gaia, probably from Yuffie. Zack was kind of glad that he didn't have to go through with it again, if only because he'd explained it to a bunch of people already. He wouldn't have hesitated to tell Tifa if she'd needed to know, but it was nice having it taken care of already. "Yeah, we started off on the airship. That was pretty interesting, especially since it was my first time on one." He'd seen the thing on the ground, but riding on it was a whole different experience. Especially when it was in the middle of crashing.

The moment that Tifa started to lean in toward him, Zack followed suit, nodding his head when what Yuffie had told him was confirmed. And it sounded like there was something extra tossed in for him. He raised his eyebrows at the girl. "It's not a sword, but that'll definitely work in the meantime. Where'd you find it?" He doubted that she'd picked it up back on Gaia, which meant it had probably been around here somewhere.

Even though he wanted to ask Tifa about her trip back home, he knew that would only distract him from what he had to tell her. "And about last night," he eventually spoke up with a sigh, "well, we couldn't find Aerith anywhere. And I asked a nurse today, and she told me she'd been released." He didn't know if Tifa had been aware of what that meant, but he would pass on the information if need be.

Day 51: Arts & Crafts (4th shift)

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