Day 37: Arts and Crafts Room

[host_club_honey]

Honey was relieved when breakfast was over.  Even though there'd been plenty of sticky-sweet french toast to be had, the company left him feeling a little inadequate.  Usually girls fawned all over him, but Callisto had been downright mean.  Had he done something wrong?  What kind of girl wanted to fight rather than play?  It'd only been a few days

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[whiteychan]

[for Toph]

As the day progressed, Hitsu's mood remained as sour and morose as when he'd woken. Being forced by the nurses to go to the arts and crafts room did not improve his mood in the slightest. "Here, Tommy," one of the nurses said. "Why don't you draw a pretty picture? You'll like that, won't you?"

The captain didn't even dignify her with a response. As she prattled on, suggesting activities he might enjoy, he entirely tuned her out and focused on his own thoughts instead. Rangiku was right, they should do something for Renji's departure...but what? He was never good at the emotional side of things...maybe he should just leave it to her.

In either case, he wasn't about to play nice with the nurses. Not today. Not likely ever again.

[neutral_jing]

Ugh. That was a depressing conversation. Of course, hearing about anyone dying was bound to put a damper on things, but somehow, this place made the news worse. Probably because everyone was so far from home.

Regardless of the case, Toph was frustrated. She literally stomped into the Arts and Crafts Room, teeth bared and fists clenched. The girl was technically readying herself for this shift's activities, but her nurse took it as a sign of aggression and nudged her over toward a more vacant area of the room. An area that happened to contain a patient and their nurse. This Toph knew by the fact that only one of them was talking her mouth off.

"So." Her eyes focused on the silent individual, as if she could see them. "Come here often?"

[whiteychan]

"Not by choice," was his immediate, gruff response. He loathed the shifts when they split the children with the adults. Every single time some obnoxious little brat would come and sit next to him and try to make conversation...and every single time it seemed they decided to chat with him at the most inopportune moments.

Still, there was no reason to be rude. "Captain Hitsugaya Toshiro," he said as a means of introduction.

[neutral_jing]

The happiness was awesome in this room. She could already tell it was overflowing with this one.

Toph stomped her foot once in an effort to get a clearer profile of the guy. Anyone might have seen it as a strange response to an introduction; the earthbender didn't exactly care. "Toph Beifong," she returned after a brief pause.

Her head bobbed up and down then, continuing that facade of observing Hitsugaya. "Aren't you a little too short to be captain?"

[whiteychan]

The foot stamp was a little odd, but Hitsugaya saw no need to point it out. So what if the girl was a little eccentric? His nights included a 14-year old boy genius with a tendency of overthinking everything who had a love of faeries and a dog. A little eccentricity of behavior no longer surprised him.

Her response, however, was a bit annoying. Yet another person who didn't reply. "I'm older than I look," he responded, biting his tongue to avoid calling her a moron. No matter how irritated he was, she wasn't his subordinate. Proper etiquette was required. "But yes, in the Gotei 13 I'm known as the youngest division captain on record. I take it you're new, then? My description has been posted on the boards more than enough times for anyone to recognize me by now."

[neutral_jing]

Older than he looked, eh? No reason to disbelieve his claim. Toph had no way of actually confirming it anyway. For all she knew, the guy could be a cranky old midget. He certainly sounded like one. "That's pretty impressive," was all she said on that matter.

When he mentioned the boards, the realization took its time setting into the earthbender's brain. "Boards?" she repeated, appearing slightly dumbfounded. Finally, it clicked. "Oh, you mean that thing in the Sun Room." Toph smirked, glad the guy hadn't figured it out yet. It made the conversation more interesting, keeping any previous thoughts of death out of her mind. "Sorry, Captain. Even if I had gotten those descriptions, I wouldn't have been able to use them."

[whiteychan]

"Oh?" Hitsugaya asked, an eyebrow raised. A rather curious response from a rather curious little girl. There was the obvious suggestion that she was possibly blind, which would mean she'd have to have some heightened senses like that traitorous former Captain Tousen. But to even suggest such a thing if she weren't--and she was certainly acting like she could see just fine-- would be horribly rude. "Why's that?"

[neutral_jing]

That suggestion was about to be truth. Toph tilted a head. "I can't read, let alone track down someone based on their looks," she explained. "I'm blind so...yeah." No other explanations needed, she hoped.

"Though, man." Toph crossed her arms in thought, completely ignoring the good captain for a second. "The way everyone rattles on about this board makes me think I'm missing something huge." Winry had once offered to help with that, but given the girl's current condition, she probably wouldn't be able to provide assistance any time soon.

[whiteychan]

Huh. Well, that explained it. Seeing as Hitsugaya had dealt with Tousen on multiple occasions, the fact that she was blind was less surprising and more impressive. Few people were able to move about without the use of all their senses. Even the shinigami with their access to the sixth sense of reiatsu almost entirely cut off were at a disadvantage simply due to the mild disorientation...but to lose something so vital as sight? It had to be difficult.

"Funny you should mention that," Hitsugaya commented briefly. "There's a boy here by the name of Toboe who never learned how to read. He's working for me, now, but it does raise a problem for coordinating things. Arts and Crafts tends to organize most of its functions entirely over the boards, knowing that direct communication is all but impossible on such a large scale. Have you considered enlisting someone's help. Hell, even the nurses are helpful enough with such things during the day if you need it."