Day 59: Sun Room
Erika stood back to survey her work, and she had no idea why no one seemed to care.
By 'no one', she was referring to the soldiers who were on guard, who should be looking particularly anxious due to the atmosphere of this place. It didn't make sense in her mind. Someone who just took up a large chunk of the middle of the Sun Room to build a ( Read more... )
By 'no one', she was referring to the soldiers who were on guard, who should be looking particularly anxious due to the atmosphere of this place. It didn't make sense in her mind. Someone who just took up a large chunk of the middle of the Sun Room to build a ( Read more... )
This entire situation was madness. His eyes narrowed the longer he starred at it, mind still too tired and wracked with pain to come up with a sufficient answer to all of the questions this brought up. Why weren't the military members doing anything? Why were they just staring with the same disappointed expression that he was instead of doling out those pointless punishments? Why was that woman making a--
"Zanuff?" The response came not a second later after the other man's voice entered his ear, and he almost fell backwards with the speed at which he whipped around to face it. No, there hadn't any mistaking that voice. The source was the same mass of pale white and loud noises as before and he still carried that same insistence to stand directly in Venom's face when he should have known the assassin preferred his personal space untouched. A combination of both that and his own disbelief forced the Guild Head backwards, almost stumbling back to regain said space. "What--" Him? "Why?"
For weeks, he had been the only representative member of his world. After Bridget's disappearance, he was the lone person with any knowledge regarding his time and personal matters. Of all the people they could have brought, of all the minds they could have used for their plans, they brought...
"Hey!"
If Zanuff's sudden presence could temporarily force a break through Venom's facade, Sora's presence did wonders to fix it. The disbelief in his face turned directly back into exasperation and he raised a hand toward the boy. "Sora, I apologize. This is..." Well. It almost fixed it. The words still slipped by his grasp at the moment and his raised hand soon found a spot on his forehead. "Zanuff, how long have you been here?"
Reply
The last part was the only thing that stuck when Harry poked his head into the ever-originally named Sun Room (TM). (Did they patent that shit? They should, it was a classic.)
Well. Okay, then. What? Was there a reason for...? Not that you ever needed a good reason to build a blanket fort. They were pretty cool, you know, if you were, like. The age of ten. Or the age of twenty-three and really, really wasted while watching episodes of SpongeBob on loop.
But no. Seriously. Did he miss an announcement? Was this some weird soldier training obstacle course? It could be. They were probably on budget cuts or something, the economy sucked these days.
Harry was too busy circling the entire structure to even notice the familiar Man with the Blue Eye Hair...Thing (shut up, he had something going for awhile there) or his happy reunion. The kid, he did notice. When he stepped on the kid's foot.
"Oh, shit-jeez, sorry. Hi."
Whoa, wow. Okay. That was some hair there. You could lose an eye on that. Harry suddenly wasn't sure what was more impressive, the fort or the boy's hair.
He pointed at the mass of blankets and chairs. "Did you do this?"
That Venom guy just didn't seem the type to make blanket forts. Maybe it had to do with the fact that even the eye painted on his hair looked like it was glaring at everyone.
Reply
Before Chipp could ask, they were interrupted yet again by another person, a guy who had also taken interest in the damn fort and ended up stepping on the kid's foot. Well, wasn't this a crowd... Luckily for Chipp, his ability to not pay attention to most shit ended up swinging in his favor for once as he kept his attention focused on Venom for the time being (Seriously, was the kid his ... friend or something? Chipp didn't even know that Venom had friends).
"Huh? I just got here last night! I woke up in some room and I ran into this guy, Daemon, and we went upstairs n' wasted time talking to this Harrington asshole. Do you have any idea what the hell is going on?" Daemon tried, really, but maybe Chipp was still hoping that this whole thing was some stupid ass plan by the Guild. See, he could handle the Guild. He didn't know anything about this military or Harrington's boss or any of that shit. Even though Chipp was asking Venom, he was looking around, as if addressing that question to everyone present.
Reply
"Ow!" He wasn't given much of a chance to worry about that, since the next thing he knew someone else had wandered over. The man was a stranger to Sora, but he seemed friendly enough and he clearly hadn't meant to step on his foot. The bad language made the boy a little uncomfortable, but he'd been exposed to it enough in this place that it didn't bother him too much.
"No, I didn't make it!" he explained with a glance back to the growing fort. "It looks like a lot of fun, though." He still thought they should go inside, but maybe adults didn't get what the appeal was. He could always move away from them and go play on his own, though.
Venom's friend started talking then, explaining that he was brand new to this place. That had to mean that Venom knew him from home, and... what was his name? Zanuff? What was more surprising was that the man had run into Daemon, and more than that, had met with Harrington! What an action-packed first night. "Hey, I know Daemon!" Well, he'd literally just met the man last shift, but that wasn't important. "You guys really got to talk to Harrington? What did he say?" This was the sort of information Riku would definitely want to know.
Though the boy then realized that he had just talked to two strangers without introducing himself. Not very good manners, was it? "Oh, and I'm Sora! I've been here for a while. I'm Venom's friend." By his measure, anyway. For Sora, friends were made after the first time he talked to them, if they were the sort of people he liked.
Reply
His internal concern by being surrounded by three blindingly optimistic people was enough to turn the trio's words into unimportant mush. He took another step away from them, eyes briefly casting down and at Sora's trodden foot (he'll be fine) before taking to watching the three before him. It was enough that Harry already reminded the assassin of Zanuff without having the actual ninja there with him. It was enough that Sora's cheerful disposition was here without having to add Harry's constant unease on top of it. And it was enough that Zanuff persistently failed at listening to others without having two more people speaking to him at the same time.
If this asylum had succeeded in whittling down the Guild Head's pride, he would have slipped out the second the other white-haired man opened his mouth. Unfortunately, it hadn't. Even worse was the fact that he was interested in what was being said. Harrington? That was--
I'm Venom's friend.
"...Friend," he questioned quietly, the word crawling off his tongue like a cat with a hairball. He would never understand how Sora could use that word so easily with someone he didn't even know. It was true that Venom never held much animosity toward the boy and always attempted to treat him with respect, but... Friend? "We're acquainted," he corrected eventually. Venom didn't have friends.
"Ah." Since they were on that subject... Again, his hand found its way into his hair and against his forehead, his other hand vaguely gesturing from one person to another. "Sora, Harry, this is Chipp Zanuff. He's an... associate of mine. Zanuff, what was it you were saying?"
Reply
This was one moment. It was awkward. He should probably remove himself from the equation since clearly, Venom had a thing going on with these two, but they were already being introduced, so. You know. Although it was a little weird watching Venom throwing off the word friend like it was a damn peanut allergy. Like saying he was friends with a sixteen year old boy would make Chris Hansen spring up behind him and tell him to why not have a seat.
Harry lifted a hand, and then returned it to his back pocket. He rocked on his heel. "Hi. Nice to...meet you."
Okay, seriously. Someone needed to explain these names to him. Did the military just kidnap the offspring of all the pothead parents who made bad life naming decisions for their kids? 'Cause this just wasn't right, when he was the only one who didn't have either a fictional name or a totally whacked out one.
Maybe he should just change his last name to Potter so he could fit in a little more.
Reply
"Hey, Venom, don't act like that. The kid said he's your friend, so you're friends!" That's how it worked in Zanuff-land, and he turned to the two and smiled boldly. "And yeah, I'm Chipp Zanuff. When I become President, this guy is gonna work for me, so don't give him too much trouble." And he sounded quite serious, like he wanted to make sure that Venom was going to remember the promise they made. It was pretty important to him!
While Chipp didn't really have anything else to talk about, both Venom and Sora had asked him about that Harrington bastard. Since Harry was still around, Chipp naturally thought that he was also interested and looked down at the moment, as if trying to arrange his thoughts. In truth, he was checking if his sleeve was still singed; somehow, they managed to get a brand new shirt on him without him noticing.
Damn, he didn't sleep that heavily, did he?
"Uh, anyway, about Harrington... You know, we didn't get anything out of that asshole, except he can set people on fire. Like me," Chipp looked mad just thinking about it. "Daemon was trying to ask him about... shit, Aguilar? Anyway, he was trying to ask him all sorts of important stuff and Harrington just kept saying it was classified, or that he didn't know. I dunno if that bastard was hiding stuff or if he was telling the truth, but I think..."
Crap, he said something that Daemon found important... Without knowing who any of those people they talked about were, it was like Chipp had a hard time putting things in context.
"Anyway, it was pointless talking to him. All I really figured out was that he can set people on fire. Stupid bastard."
Reply
Convincing Venom of that was going to take a lot more work, though. Sora just got that feeling.
He didn't really get what Chipp was talking about with becoming president and all that (president of what, exactly?) and so he decided to focus on what the man had to say about Harrington. Unfortunately, it turned out that he hadn't been able to find out that much after all. That probably shouldn't have been too surprising, since the soldier had apparently been placed there to collect information, not to give it out.
"Set people on fire? That sounds dangerous. Were you okay...?" Sora, of course, could only think of Axel. The Nobody was on his mind when he normally wouldn't have been, seeing how he'd spotted his ghost in the forest last night. But even as the boy questioned the other man, he started inching closer and closer to the growing fort.
"Hey, did any of you want to check that out?" he asked, jabbing his thumb in the direction of the pillows, chairs, and blankets. It was worth a shot, right?
Reply
He really didn't need anyone encouraging Sora's over-exuberant ability to "make friends." Why couldn't anyone else understand this as the horrible thing it was? Not everyone was going to respect him. People were going to use him and betray him and only distance could keep that from happening.
The assassin had been in the process of an exasperated sigh, fingers dragging down across his face in the motion of dropping them back to his sides, when Zanuff's next statement cut off the breath leaving his mouth. "Fire?" He wasn't entirely sure why the notion of the soldiers being able to wield Magic like so many others here never crossed his mind. It just never seemed practical to assume that, with their penchant for using heavy weaponry. The very fact that they could do such things and were apparently willing to use it... The same question of are you okay danced on his tongue, but it never left his mouth. Instead, his arms crossed over his chest as he allowed Sora to ask it instead.
And ask that question Sora did, along with another, less acceptable one.
"Don't be so immature, Sora." The words weren't cruel or sharp, only lecturing as always. His head turned toward Harry, as if expecting back-up on this--or to be able to scare some out of him. The man always had been flighty.
Reply
When Harry looked at Sora, that was full-on surprise right there. Really? The kid was into the fort? Not that Harry had any issues with the fort or held anything against people being into forts. It was just, Sora was, what, like, teens, right? Like, fifteen, sixteen, or something? Definitely not younger. Anyway, most of the teenagers he knew were less of the Ferris Bueller type and more likely to stack their shelves with Linkin Park.
And now Venom was looking at him like he was supposed to agree which was just. Okay, this was really awkward. Was it just him? It was awkward, right. Why did he suddenly feel like the cool dad withering away under the wife's insistence that their kid not go to the concert tonight?
He flicked his gaze back and forth. See, the thing was, Venom was right about his flightiness. What he was wrong about was the degree of it. Which basically meant that instead of backing Venom up, Harry decided to make the greatest fucking escape since Steve McQueen: into the fort.
"You know what, you're never too old to be immature," he said, and dove right in.
Reply
Anyway, he didn't think he really had to reply to the question of "Are you okay" since it was so obvious, but Chipp just shrugged and waved his hand dismissively anyway. "Yeah, I just got my sleeve singed a bit. And then the bastards gave me a new shirt. And put it on me without waking me up."
Wait... when did he even get to sleep?
Suddenly, it was like Chipp had just now noticed something was weird about this whole situation, and it was probably a good thing that Harry chose that moment to dive into the fort since Chipp might have hurt himself if he tried thinking about it more. Not that he thought the fort looked particularly fun, but... Chipp looked at Venom and shrugged. Why not? The moment he crouched to get into the fort himself though, he could feel the glare of the approaching soldier who was ready to yell at him for trying to break that "no sitting" rule.
Determined to get in some form of resistance, no matter how pathetic, Chipp quickly scrambled inside the fort and stood straight up, lifting the blanket up with him. Since there were so many, he didn't quite destroy the fort, but now Chipp looked like a guy trying to pretend to be a ghost with a sheet as he aggressively waved his arms (or tried to, from underneath the blanket).
"Screw you, I'm still standing! I don't need to sit to get in the damn fort! Back off!"
The soldier just gave Chipp a pointed stare before warning him once more about the punishment for insubordination and something about being tired of babysitting his stupid ass. Though Chipp's face was obscured by the blanket, one could still see the shit-eating grin on his face in his moment of greatest triumph.
"Stupid bastard." He looked down, as if trying to figure out where Harry went or if Sora joined them yet.
Reply
"That's the spirit!" he chimed out in reply, moving to follow the older man. Before he got the chance, though, Chipp went in as well, except that it seemed that for some reason he wasn't allowed to sit. Sora had seen other patients who had to stand around all day, which probably meant that he'd gotten in trouble with the soldiers somehow. That wasn't a good sign, but at least the fact that Chipp was standing caused one of the blankets to raise up, giving Sora an easy opening to head inside.
It was a shame that Venom was probably going to ignore all of them after this, but at least this gave him a chance to get to know the man's friends (or acquaintances, whatever he wanted to call them) a little better. He settled down next to Harry, seeing how it was going to be tough to talk to Chipp when he was standing like that.
"So," he addressed the man as he tilted his head at him, gathering a pillow into his lap, "how did you meet Venom?" It was probably the same as any other meeting here, that they had just happened to talk during the day at some point, but Sora was still curious.
And anyway, this fort was pretty cool! He felt protected from the prying eyes of the soldiers, which wasn't something they were granted all that often.
Reply
But yeah, okay, it wasn't that bad in here. He'd mostly done it to get away from Venom's crazy intense eyes (eye?), but it was nice, right? Pretty nice.
He looked up at the man who would soon be Mr. President Chipp Zanuff (hey, why not. They could use a president who had a name that didn't sound like it came out of Tom Clancy's character lineup) and cocked his head.
"Oh, you, too, huh?" Venom hadn't been allowed to sit, either, when Harry had met that first time. This was officially the weirdest ragtag fort thing he'd ever been in, but Harry decided to just go along with it. His head was going to fall off if he thought about it too much.
He'd sat down with his legs under him. Ever tried doing that when you were in your mid-thirties and your only exercise was running away from the cops? Hint: not recommended. Ow. He dragged his legs out and flopped down into a position that felt less like he'd spent the night trying to keep up with the local yoga instructor.
"I, uh, just kinda ran into him between the-" He held up his hands, marking off a size of space of arbitrary measurement. "-Oxford English dictionary and Stephen King. Really Woody Allen romance, except. Not." He pulled up a pillow, too, just because. "Um, what. What about you?"
Reply
Sora had asked Harry a question, about how the two met, but it didn't make much sense to him; mostly because he didn't know what 'Stephen King' and 'Oxford' was. A place? It sounded like street names to him, so ... but wait, where was there a street in this place? Did Harry meet Venom before they were kidnapped? That made sense... he guessed. What the hell did romance have to do with it?
"You met him where?" Chipp asked, sort of looking down at Harry and Sora before turning back to Venom (or at least, where he thought Venom was, because he couldn't see). "And aren't you coming in? The rest of us are in here!" That sounded like a good enough reason to have Venom follow, right?
Reply
"The library?" he asked as he leaned back slightly, starting to get more comfortable. He felt bad that Chipp had to stand while the rest of them were relaxing, but at least he would know how to avoid getting into that kind of trouble in the future. Sora had managed it, and if he could, so could everyone else, right?
But the question had been turned back on him and for a moment Sora had to think. His first few conversations with Venom had been pretty run-of-the-mill, but they'd kept running into each other after that. Venom was an interesting guy to talk to, even if he was pretty grumpy. "I just talked to him over a meal one time, and we got to know each other better after that." They'd gone out together one night, although Venom had been pretty badly drugged at that point. There'd also been the time when they'd escaped the gas after that food fight... Yeah, he and Venom had been through a few things together, that was for sure.
Now, though, the guy was being a real spoilsport. Sora glanced over when Chipp urged Venom to come in, nodding along with him almost immediately. "Yeah!" He fell onto his side and then slid himself toward the fort's entrance, lifting up the sheet so that he could poke his head out. "There's still space!"
Reply
No.
It was because he shook his head that he managed to catch sight of the solider his business partner had taken to arguing with earlier. The guard's face read of quiet, silent disapproval (although that tended to be the expression everyone had when speaking to Chipp Zanuff), his eyes staring straight into that pile of blankets and immaturity. By the time the more relaxed members of the conversation looked back out of their next, the Guild Head's arms had already dropped to his side, his head tilted in consideration at that upset soldier.
...He wasn't doing this because they asked him to. He was doing this because he hated that solider--him and all the other ones. There was something altogether too pleasing about the idea of being childishly spiteful at every opportunity, enough so that he barely winced at the pain in his side as he knelt down to join the others. As a more crass man would say: Fuck them. They don't deserve my respect.
His expression remained blank even as he sat with them, one hand drifting to one of the items holding up the blanket. "Zanuff, help me flip this couch onto its side. That should give us more head-room." They also wouldn't be able to tell if the man was sitting afterward, though the assassin was only going to call that a side-effect rather than his being sympathetic to the other man's plight.
Reply
Leave a comment