(Untitled)

[stormweathered]

The classroom was strewn in disarray of copies of Lord of the Flies, newspapers (Castle felt a pang of guilt at destroying as much literature as they had for the project, but he calmed himself with the reminder that the bookshelf refilled often and handily), and the sticky substance best used to create paper-mache. It was, as far as he was

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[a_royal_bastard]

Alistair had never even heard of papier-mache before, nevermind made anything out of it. But there he was, trying his best to do as he was told. And if he was told to make a head on a pike, well, gruesome or not, he could attempt that. That he'd seen something like it in the Deep Roads at least gave him an idea of what they'd actually look like. Still, to put a child's head there -

He would just have to remind himself it was fiction.

So after some careful deliberation - mostly between Jack and Ralph, admittedly - when he settled on Jack as his choice. He knew the type, and knew how dangerous they could be even in smaller groups. Now, all he'd have to do is make the project.

Which would be the true test, as it turned out. He had signed up to learn, though, and he was certainly learning a new skill.

[stormweathered]

Castle knew of Alistair. He'd even come across him in the IPD office, but they had yet to have the soul-bonding connection that Castle had with Ryan and Esposito back home. "You're doing well!" he praised excitedly when he came across Alistair. Sure, it was still a work in progress, but Kate had given him a quick background and any artistic craft project was amazing. "Do you have any questions? Really, honestly, I'm here to help."

[a_royal_bastard]

Alistair had taken the class without connecting the name of the teacher with the man Kate had always spoken so highly about. Now that he had realized it, he admittedly felt even more pressured to do well, not wanting to come across badly. The offer had been made, however, and Alistair did know he could use assistance.

"Should I make the mix a little thicker?" he asked, showing him the bowl of the gunk he's working with. It's a little too watery even to Alistair's eye, but given it's the first time he's done it, he didn't want to over do things and waste the materials used to create what he'd be dipping the paper into.

[stormweathered]

Castle leaned over the table and peered at the mix, dipping his pinky in and raising it to the light to allow it to drip and for him to test the consistency. "No, I think you've got just the right ratio of newspaper to goop," he said critically, flashing a grin in Alistair's direction. "How did you find the book? Enjoyable?"

[a_royal_bastard]

"Ah, good. Good," he said, with a nod that was almost to himself. If he was going to do this sort of class, he wanted to do it right. He considered the question asked at him, and settled on one specific thought that'd kept coming up. "I did like it - I'm just glad this island isn't like the one in the book."

[stormweathered]

"I will admit, that was one of my biggest fears when I arrived," Castle said with a soft chuckle, walking around the head slowly as he surveyed the majesty of the project before him. "Though, at the same time, you'd have to hope that I would have power over a bunch of schoolkids. Mostly, I'd just say 'shhh' and work from there."

[a_royal_bastard]

"From what I've seen, just doing that rarely works," Alistair replied with a small grin. It certainly never did with him, during his days in the Chantry with the other boys training to one day be templars. "Unless they're exceptionally well behaved to begin with, and then you wouldn't even have to tell them to be quiet most of the time."

[stormweathered]

"Well-behaved is boring, though," Castle pointed out, which was definitely the story of his own life. Behaving had been too dull for him and so he had misbehaved in a variety of ways that got crazier as time went on. After all, the whole 'riding a horse naked' thing hadn't been boring. "What about you? Were you one of those well-behaved children?"

[a_royal_bastard]

"Oh, I was awful," he admitted, letting out a laugh. He took his studies seriously enough, as well as the training, but he still hated where he was as a whole. That equalled him doing everything in his power to not cooperate. "I'm surprised the Sisters didn't toss me out by the end of my first year. They probably wanted to."

[stormweathered]

Castle was already smirking as soon as Alistair conceded to being less-than-perfect. "I was terrible, too," he confessed. "My mother didn't know what to do with me and I took such delight in it. I had quite the arrest record," he boasted, casting a wary look to Beckett to make sure that she wasn't listening in.