Day 50: Arts & Crafts Room (4th Shift)

[jouer_sans_voir]

It barely felt like she'd been outside for any time at all when the intercom sounded and the nurse came to fetch her. "Can't I stay a little longer?" she asked, but the woman only clicked her tongue and frowned, reaching to feel her forehead as though testing for a fever. "The weather simply isn't good enough, Natalie dear," the nurse said, once

Comments

[nobleobliged]

Where would I be, Natalia wondered, if I was Anise? The question posed quite the challenge; putting herself into Anise's mind did not come naturally to the princess. It seemed a slightly better tactic than wandering from room to room and peeking hopefully inside, yet for its likelihood of success, to wander may have been the best option. Still, Natalia felt happy enough to try.

She sought the younger girl in part out of a process of elimination; after Guy and Luke, Anise remained of her friends whose writing had confirmed their presence here. It would be erroneous to think of completion, as such a thing could only be possible with more, and in their world (for Natalia had accepted that this was a different one, yesterday in a more desperate, unclear fashion, and today with near-serene confidence, thanks to Edgar and her friends).

Listing the reasons why she wanted to see Anise was far less important than finding her, and after peering outside, then into the game room, Natalia faced opposition from her nurse, and little room to

[gald_digger]

When Anise returned to the Sun Room, she felt she knew what was going to happen next. Like every week, someone would come to visit her, and to tell her she wasn't who she thought she was. Would it be her parents, Ion, or someone else

[nobleobliged]

After her search had been prematurely cut short, Natalia had not expected to see Anise so soon. As such, the girl's voice made her jump, jerking into a sharp turn in her seat, hands shooting to her neck (one finger more dusted than caked in red, if dust were thick and nearly moist). Surprise gave way to that today-common joy, and she waved in exuberant turn.

"Anise!" Natalia breathed, and nodded, it had been a while. "I--I really don't know," a laugh, and she directed a quizzical look to the tube, "the nurse left this here, as if I should do something with it. It has quite an interesting consistency, I suppose comparable to bread or cookie doughs."

Not that Natalia had much experience with making successful doughs, but she had been present for the process in the castle kitchen on at least one occasion. The label said that it was edible; was she meant to eat it? Bringing the previously immersed finger to her mouth, she took a taste--and blanched. Terribly salty, to say the least. That couldn't be right.

"More importantly, how are

[gald_digger]

"Huh... so it's dough?" Judging by Natalia's reaction, it didn't seem to taste that good. Anise leaned over the table as she took a look at the container. 'Play-dough'... Dough meant to be played with?

The girl grinned when Natalia started asking questions. She sounded pretty happy to see her! But then again, who wouldn't be? "I'm doing good! Well, as good as you can get in a dump like this." It was hard to be completely satisfied when she was still technically a prisoner. "And I guess it's been... a little over three weeks now."

Anise may have appeared a bit distracted, turning her head to look over her shoulder at the shelves that lined the wall. "Oh! There's more of it over there." She stood and walked over to take a look, selecting several containers with lids of varying colors, then bringing an armful back to the table.

She picked one up and glanced over the small-print section of the label. So this was some kind of modeling clay...? Well, this was Arts and Crafts

[nobleobliged]

The wording on the tube outright stated that it was dough, thus to Anise's inquiry, Natalia gestured at the offending object with a helpless look. She knew as much as the other girl did; no more (but soon, much less).

Of course, the curiosity of the dough (ought to have) paled before finding Anise. Of course she was happy to see her. Even in these wretched, bleak uniforms, Anise looked just the same. As Natalia had expected, the girl seemed little changed or defeated by her three week stay; she bore the same energy, the same mischief lit eyes, the same so casual as to be coarse way of speaking. To think, that a time would come when Natalia would find comfort in phrases like, in a dump like this"I am glad to hear it," Natalia smiled, though her eyes were briefly troubled. Three weeks for Anise. Communication could possibly be delayed by that much time, but given Anise's rising position within the Order of Lorelei, Natalia doubted it. Though she had accepted the discrepancies in time, she could little help first reacting to it by

[gald_digger]

She really did it! The result was exactly as expected. Modeling clay had to taste the same no matter what color it was. And it probably tasted really bad, too. Poor Natalia. She even swallowed it!

Anise couldn't quite hold back her laughter, and a small giggle escaped her. To keep from looking suspicious, she immediately began talking again. "--Ehe! Well, since it's dough, maybe it won't taste right until someone bakes it." That was the best excuse she could make up on the spot. Hopefully Natalia wouldn't think to check the label and see that Anise was lying.

...Of course, if she did, the Guardian could probably still weasel her way out of getting blamed.

"Anyway, you haven't been here very long, right?" she went on to say, trying to change the subject before her trick could be discovered. "How much do you know about this place already? Maybe I can fill in a few blanks."

[nobleobliged]

Laughter and Anise had been familiar associates for as long as Natalia had known the girl; rather than be suspicious that Anise had encouraged her ingestion mishap, she assumed she giggled at her expense. Still culpable, but for schadenfreude; Natalia managed to keep a sulky look from her face, though not to keep from wishing for water or something to wash away the taste

[gald_digger]

It looked like she was in the clear, for now. Anise froze for a moment when Natalia looked over the label once again, but the princess just continued on as though she hadn't noticed anything suspicious. Anise was lucky today

[nobleobliged]

True, Natalia had a history of believing the absurd, but that did not equate to a complete readiness to dismiss logic. Laser-beaming eyebrows aside, it was quite something else to accept an entire other world. Jade, after all, made use of fonons to keep a spear within his arm; in that light, fonons from the eyebrows... ...well, it still wasn't a different planet and forms of time travel.

Instinctively, as Anise leaned, so did Natalia, tipping an ear toward the girl's hand. Her eyes widened at the information passed, her fingers pressing hard into the dough; blue got beneath her fingernails. As if monsters were not enough. As if kidnapping hundreds of innocents (so assumed), trapping them inside a prison, subjecting them to mental torture and a determination to wear them down was not enough! Brainwashing, experiments, turning friend against friend. Natalia's eyes watered, bright, with the vehemence of her reaction.

It was all she could do not to leap to her feet and make demands of the nearest nurse, insist that she be taken to see