Day 44: Arts and Crafts Room, 4th Shift

[quarter_english]

The day had been slow for L so far, slower than he required: the events of the previous night were traumatic, but they did not outweigh his need for information and a useful way in which to apply whatever he might learn

Comments

[hamelinschild]

Creative...how creative could you be when you had a timer over you head that counted down toward your death? (--or potential maiming. Some capes thought they were interchangeable.) But regardless of his figurative Doomsday Clock, Hartley still had a promise to keep.

Even if it was a ridiculous, glitter-covered one.

He was rather impressed with the selection of supplies provided. Most elementary schools would sacrifice their third grade class to Neron for this much crap. So after a quick look around, he grabbed up some construction paper and yarn and dropped it off at one of the middle tables (a place easily spotted), and returned for glitter and cheap paint.

As he set out with white paint smeared all over his fingers, he wondered that perhaps later he should come back (or just steal some supplies for himself) and make something for James. He was sure the other would have approved of nothing less than a glitter and macaroni portrait. Hart offered a quiet chuckle to the idea, wondering idly what the man would say if he could see his Piper now.

'Hey--watch out. You're going to smear that and mess up the sign! And what's this--? M-I-N-D...T-H-E...F-O-R...

Hey, Hart, how come I don't have a sign from you, huh? I mean, I was only your best friend in the ENTIRE WORLD.'

At that, Hart paused, a paint-slicked finger hesitating over the crossing of a 'T'. He...he really missed James more than he'd like to admit. He really missed home more than he'd like to admit. And here it was only his first day. How was he going to survive anyway?

"--one day at a time..." he sighed, words soft on the exhale. "One at a time." With that, he returned his attentions to the project at hand.

[For Statesman]

[zeus_incarnate]

Marcus had managed to get a glimpse of who he assumed to be the Piper he was looking for putting a note on the bulletin board. What sort of villain name was Piper, anyway? After a moment's pause, Marcus made his way over to where the guy was making a sign in arts and crafts as though he were a kid. Given the behavior Marcus had seen so far, he wasn't expecting anyone capable of acting like a sane, mature adult. Especially given that it seemed as though he was talking to himself.

"Piper?" Marcus asked, standing over the table where the Piper was seated. This wasn't a conversation he wanted to have right now. It was not going to go well, and he didn't have to be a Fortunata to know that. But this needed to be resolved before things got any sillier or even more out of control. It was also probably best for Piper's safety that this all came to an end.

[hamelinschild]

Had he never met the people in life that he had, Hart would have never stooped to this sort of thing--what with paint all over his hands, threatening to dash the whole thing over with glitter. But truth of the matter was that he had and nothing was going to remove that which they'd given him; the ability to lighten up.

"Pied Piper, Hartley Rathaway, Henry Darrow--what have you. I am he." he replied calmly, affording a small glance over as the other sat down. "--for your sake, I'm assuming we're skipping the hand-shaking. Mine are a bit--" He rubbed thumb and forefinger together, feeling the paint tack up against his skin. "--untidy at the moment."

As much as he ought to bow out and be sweet and meek for the moment, the defenses were on the rise. The snark would be out in no time, and as such would be unwilling to retreat unless physical harm was threatened. This...oh shit.

This would be tricky.

"I believe you wanted to talk?"

[zeus_incarnate]

It was good that Marcus had the right man. He didn't want to try to track someone down in the arts and crafts room of all places. "Yes, we're skipping the hand-shaking," Marcus confirmed.

"Lets get some things straightened out. Your little club seems to be all in good fun, but if you hurt any of the patients here, I will get involved. I'd much rather deal with the real enemy here, but I won't tolerate any bad behavior. Second, you should stay away from Stefan. Either he's behaving himself, or he's decided not to decapitate you because then our truce would be off," Marcus wondered for a moment if Stefan wasn't just playing along with this and encouraging Piper's behavior because he knew how irritating it would be. Stefan was certainly manipulative enough that it wasn't outside the realm of possibility.

"Lastly, he's not my boyfriend. He's..." Marcus paused for a moment. He wasn't quite sure how he wanted to phrase this or get into it. This really wasn't something he wanted to discuss but he needed to completely eliminate any possible way someone stubborn and insane might put this off as denial. "He's family. And you are never going to bring that up or ask any further questions about it." It was said in the most menacing and threatening way Marcus could manage at the moment. Although any ties they'd had to one another were severed along time ago.

[hamelinschild]

There was just something about Statesman--that sort of Superman-ish aura he was giving off... It was the kind that sent lesser villains to cower and the innocent to cheering.

Hart had met his fair share of heroes--villains too. And while the feeling tugged at him, it wasn't enough to unsettle him. When backed against the proverbial wall like this, his earlier nervousness faded too readily into a defensive snark. But as he wasn't home and there were no others around to back him,

('I'd have your back, Pipes.' Pbbbht. Yeah, sure you would, Tricks.)

--there was very little choice than to try and cap it off quickly.

"First off," Hart managed not to snap back, which was excellent as a start. "I've never had intention to hurt any patient here. I've had some rough times, but I'm on the side of angels. I'm no villain, despite what's written on the board. That's in the past."

He'd managed to bogart himself a good deal of glitter, and with the written portion of his sign done ("Evil Club Notice: Beware of Fort. He bites!") he proceeded to smatter the wet and drying paint with enough of the stuff to choke a small child.

"What you've read, if you have in fact read all of it, should be the best indication that the club is, yes, a joke. At most, we'll be trying to bother the so-called 'establishment' here. No one likes it and people suffer." When he did look up form his work, it was the look of a man no less than completely serious. "--I left the villain schtick behind because there was greater things to worry about and people that needed help. I'm not just going to sit by and let someone else suffer here to. If what I;ve heard about this place is right, no one deserves to be here."

Hart doesn't bring up the family comment though, instead leaving himself to the task of painting up a spider in blue paint in the space left behind by the slipshod lettering.

('Looks like the Blue Beetle's sig to me.' Cram it, Jesse. You try to do better.)

"And--" One more thing. He was at his most settled here, trying his damnedest not to reminisce in front of Captain Beef's boyfriend, Sergeant Sirloin. "I've known my fair share of the nasty. So when I say I want to get to know him better--" The 'him' being fairly obvious. What other ambiguously-relationed spider lords were there here? "--I mean it. If I get hurt in the crossfire, you can be the first person to tell me that you told me so."

Finishing the spider-beetle, Hartley frowned, then pointed to the moon-and-star glitter he'd set aside. "--could you pass me those? Eh....my hands..." Yes, Hart. They're an abomination and a freak mess of paint and glitter. Everything you touch now will catch The Gay.

[zeus_incarnate]

"I'm all for turning over a new leaf," Despite how infrequent it happened. Marcus knew all too well just how. "But don't slip up." At least Piper seemed like he'd come to his senses about being a villain.

"You may have known your share of villains, but I sincerely doubt you've known anyone like him," Marcus was fairly sure that Piper wasn't from a closely related dimension, and it seemed like incarnates were non-existent outside those where he and Stefan had found the Well.

Marcus grabbed the glitter carefully and set it near Piper, trying to avoid getting any of it on him. Well, he'd be changing before he went out for the night even if he did get some on him. This was just absurd, Marcus had known children that acted more like adults than this.

[hamelinschild]

Don't slip up? Nice. How many times had he heard that and from how many sides? He didn't want to think about it.

'Well, there were the Rogues...' James, no. 'Wally, with every time you went to help out.' No. 'He did it mostly. I exaggerate. You know that.' James, please. '--you mean I can't continue my list?' Shut -up- already.

And that was going to have to stop right there. Hart shook his head in attempt at beating back his self-inflicted Jiminy Cricket. Imagine, instead of internal monologue by Morgan Freeman, one voiced by James Jesse.

He murmured a word of thanks at the passing, and taking up his glitter, Hart shook it over the sign, giving the spider-beetle a fresh, new coat of obnoxiously space-themed shimmer. And with the nature of glitter as it was, Hart too wound up with a fresh coating of said sparkly mess.

"You know--" he glanced back up at the man, honestly trying to push a lighter tone to his voice. "We're going to be here for a while. You might as well make the best of it for now. Unless you have another places to be." It was either the most avoidant or the most inviting statement in the world. Have fun.