Day 57: Arts & Crafts Room (Fourth Shift)

[gald_digger]

When she left the lobby, Anise still didn't know what to think about her visitor. All this time, she thought the one person the institute would never truly get to was the Colonel, and that if he was gone, then maybe he was hiding somewhere, plotting a way to rescue the rest of them. Now that she thought about it... maybe that was naïve of her. She

Comments

[scintillatingly]

Being outside had been nice, but as the sun had started to lower into the sky the cold had become too much and Sora had decided to retreat inside. Just judging by the faces of the people leaving the Sun Room after the third shift, the movie didn't seem like it was a good one, and so Sora decided to skip out from that once again. Instead, he moved into the Arts and Crafts room, partly because he was curious to see if there were any special activities going on (nothing had been announced, but who knew?) and partly because he'd gotten attached to the room after running a club named after it

[thatdemonbitch]

Ruby was about six centuries too old for arts and crafts. Kristen was only about fifteen years too old, of course, but that didn't excuse the faculty for insisting that she get some stress relief by heading in. After the suggestion was made, though, it wasn't too tough to convince her. Not because she was exactly eager to go messing with construction paper and deco-scissors, but the bonus was plenty of chatting going on. Chatting meant getting something she could use outta these people

[scintillatingly]

Someone had come to sit across from Sora before he even knew it, and more than that, the person in question took his blue marker. The boy glanced up to see a dark-haired lady who seemed a little too old to find any of the stuff in here that interesting. Then again, he wasn't the sort of person who believed you could outgrow anything, so he wasn't about to judge

[thatdemonbitch]

Recognition colored her expression suddenly and she sat back, giving up her hold on the blue marker to fold her arms over her chest. For a moment, she just inspected him, like she was sizing him up. No wonder they called themselves the Arts & Crafts club, it was made up of a bunch of kids who were in over their heads -- or, not so much over their heads, in Roxas' case. That sword … she'd never gotten the chance to ask him about it.

"Arts and crafts. Cute." There was something humorous to finding him actually playing with markers upon realizing that he was in the, apparently aptly named, club. She realized he probably had no idea what she was talking about, and after a beat, clarified. "The club on the bulletin board. That's you, right?"

It didn't fully excuse how she knew him. Maybe she'd seen him with Roxas, though -- if they were in their little club together, they had to hang around each other, right? It was the best explanation she could muster up, anyway. Ruby didn't like having to come up with her own

[full_score]

As much as Claude wanted to spend the next shift with Guy, things hadn't worked out that way. But it had been nice to sit with his friend at all, even if the movie had been a lot more depressing than Claude expected. Maybe he should have been more careful about his vote. Then again, considering they'd only had war movies to choose from, the outcome might have been the same regardless of what they'd seen.

Still, as he left the Sun Room, there was a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was probably better if he didn't think so hard on it right now. With nightshift right around the corner, Claude knew he needed to steel himself for a potentially difficult evening.

He didn't get left alone with his thoughts for long, though. As he wandered into the Arts and Crafts Room, one of the staff approached him and thrust an envelope into his hands. "Appleby, Thomas," he said, as if the name had come from a list. Claude glanced at the front, eyebrows furrowed. Was that...Leon's handwriting

[gald_digger]

In the end, Anise had to read the letter twice. The first time, her mind was buzzing with so many worries and questions that she couldn't even focus on the words. The second time, she carefully read every sentence

[full_score]

Claude could sympathize with how jarring it would be to receive that kind of letter from family -- by now he'd seen his mom and dad both as patients and visitors. No doubt it was just as unnerving for Anise to contemplate the idea that both of her parents were trapped somewhere in this world. The thought made his heart ache. No one needed that stress on top of the daily perils in Landel's

[gald_digger]

Leon... That meant that Claude had lost some friends from home, too. Anise offered him a sympathetic look to show that she understood. When he went on to mention that his parents had visited him, she realized they both had to have a good understanding of what the other was feeling. When it came to their friends and families, they were in really similar situations

[mugenreppa]

Eventually, anger and petulance got tiring, and at the new shift, she wandered out into the Sun Room after the intercom announcement (she'd finally realized something was strange with the thing-for one thing, wasn't it Aguilar now?).

Where a nurse called her name (not her name, ugh), and gave her something. A letter? Mele ducked into the nearest room to see. All the address things were blacked out, but Mele didn't care as much for that as she wondered who would be sending her a letter, of all things

[tasteoftruth]

Badd had given up on his solitaire game and wandered into another room. This one looked like a first grade classroom with all the art supplies scattered around, and Badd felt vaguely insulted. He was 60 years old. It was annoying to be treated like a child during the day and then nearly killed at night, nobody just respected him, as a human being. Then again in this deathtrap respect for human rights seemed to be a rare privilege rather than a default.

"Theo Savalas!"

That name again. Ugh. Badd turned and raised one hand resignedly, only to find himself presented with an envelope.

"Mail," the guard snapped. Badd plucked it from his hand and gave a nod of mocking thanks before finding himself somewhere to sit. Mail? Who would be sending him letters? It was probably just more of Aguilar's games. He forced back the small hope that it was Kay sending him a message that she was all right, hidden in code to sneak in under Aguilar's radar. No, they'd never let it get that far.

Badd tore it open and read "Theo's" letter with a detached

[mugenreppa]

There was some weird survival instinct that was still active despite her emotional turmoil, and Mele looked up when she sensed movement.

All of a sudden she snapped back into herself. Disgruntled that she had, for what felt like one long, extended moment, been 'Airi' (what just happened), Mele twitched the photo to cover it from the new guy (not that he was looking), and observed him without looking for a minute while she got her thoughts in order.

How did she recognize the handwriting? How did she recognize the desk? How did she know that, because he couldn't visit, he'd gotten her a flower and then taken a picture of it to send her? It was all Airi, and it was like she was being split in two directions, which was stupid, because she'd never been Airi. Was that what her day as 'Airi' had been for? For this?! Even so, it was nice to see him.-Augh, enough! Shifting in her seat so she could sit on her card and photograph (damned if she was going to let the nurses take it back), Mele leaned forward so she could put her elbow on the

[tasteoftruth]

Badd shook his head, still staring at the damned picture. "It shouldn't be possible," he said, frustrated once again by Aguilar's machinations. "Why would they go to all this trouble to find out about my life and then mock up a picture to contradict it?"

He pulled the letter out and started reading over it again, now directly searching for little clues and hints related to his real life. The little girl, that had to be Kay, there were no other little girls in his life. The blacked out names were a pretense of censoring things that didn't exist, he'd figure out that part later. But who was this murderer that Theo Savalas had supposedly been so obsessed over? There were hordes of killers and criminals in his life.

No. They couldn't be talking about him.

[dork_at_duty]

After his talk with the Chief Prosecutor -- no, ex Chief Prosecutor, as Meekins had to keep reminding himself! -- Meekins had scoured the shelves in the Library to find something interesting enough to read. Lots of books that he'd been forced to read in school, but not even a single Encyclopedia Brown book. His face glum, he left the Library and wandered back out into the Not So Sunny Room, which was still playing that boring movie

[selfnighted]

Maya needed to stop getting distracted and find someone who could give her the information she sought, but this was...bizarre. "Would it not be more comfortable to take a seat?" she said as she approached.

He seemed quite energetic at it. Perhaos it might not have been prudent to disturb him, but whoops!-too late for that now. "I'm Maya," she added. May as well add the pleasantries while she interrupted. "Pleasure to meet you."

The Arts Room wasn't too bad, Maya supposed. It at least wasn't as crushingly disappointing as the Music Room; however, she had forgotten that the asylum's taste in supplies was quite lacking. She should have mentioned the art supplies in that little survey on the bulletin board, but there was no worth in dwelling on what was past, was there?

Hahaha, sorry, but this was kind of a mistaken identity waiting to happen for him XD

[dork_at_duty]

So engrossed in his work, Meekins didn't even notice the woman approaching until she brought up the fact that he was standing at the table. He gave a little start, spilling glitter all over one of the pictures he had just finished. "Ooops!" Thankfully, the glue on it had already dried... and actually, the glitter that remained on it after he shook the bulk of it off did make it look kind of nice.

"Erm... sorry, Sir!" he turned to address the woman, his face glum. "I'm supposed to stay standing until dinner. I'm carrying out my punishment for talking too loud to one of the soldiers last night, Sir. But you're very welcome to take a seat, Sir! Please allow me," he brightened up, as he saluted the lovely lady and pulled out a chair for her.

"A pleasure to meet you, too, Sir! I'm Officer Mike Meekins, at your dut-- whaaaa?" he exclaimed in complete surprise as the woman's name sank in for him. In his amazement, he nearly tipped over the chair that he was still grabbing onto. "Maya? As in the Maya Fey?" Come to think of it,

xDD

[selfnighted]

How unfortunate; was talking too loudly truly now a punishable offense? It must be an excuse for some more sinister design, surely? Though it seemed the soldiers (and nurses, she supposed) were in quite the optimal position for abusing their power (imagined or otherwise) over the patients. The general certainly seemed inclined to take advantage of it. But, enough. -It seemed a case of mistaken identity awaited her.

"I've not gone by that surname, no," Maya answered as she took a seat in the offered chair. And that was the second time she had been mistaken for someone else. What an unpleasant feeling. However, the asylum insisted she wear a name that was not hers; this new development should hardly be of note-but a lesser evil is still an evil, yes?

"Would I not know you if I were your acquaintance?" she asked cheerfully. "One can hardly forget you, I'd think." If only for calling women 'sir,' if not for the enthusiasm he so readily exhibited.

[the_prosecutor]

The trip that Edgeworth had taken to the library was refreshing if nothing else, even if he hadn't found much in the way of clues. The most relieving thing, he supposed, was that a good deal of the novels were by authors he actually recognized. That at least told him that despite everything else, his reality didn't differ too greatly from the institute's - and even if it was a meager relief, it was still something nonetheless

[in_your_defense]

Only a few hours prior, Phoenix had made a decision - he had decided that no matter what anyone else said about him, no matter what anyone said about the person that had been here before he had arrived, he was himself - and he refused to let everything that had been told to him drag him down. Complicated as everything was, Phoenix couldn't help but to remain stubborn about the fact - and in an effort to manage his stress, he'd resorted to expressing it through the best way he knew how - by putting his memories of his life down on paper

[the_prosecutor]

Phoenix's efforts to cover up his drawing were a bit late as the prosecutor had more than enough time to secure a good look at it before the defense attorney had realized that he'd had an onlooker, and slight amusement had crossed his features in the meantime both from the content of the drawing and from Phoenix's reactions, though he said nothing about either.

"I don't find that particularly surprising," Edgeworth gibed, his gaze flickering away from the defense attorney to the many drawings that lined the table. Reaching around Phoenix and plucking up a drawing of Maya and Pearl, Edgeworth scanned the detailing in Phoenix's artwork. "...you've been busy." Knowing Phoenix as he was, he didn't expect him to have much of an eye for detail - it was usually the most obscure of things that caught the defense attorney's attentions - and admittedly he found himself somewhat impressed with what he saw, from the lines of shading on Maya's clothes to the beads and shape of her magatama.

[in_your_defense]

"H-hey!" Phoenix exclaimed, both in protest of the fact that Edgeworth had taken one of his pictures and for the thinly veiled insult. Said like I like looking like a bum! he thought to himself in dismay, though he didn't verbalize it, knowing that Edgeworth would dance all over the grave he'd dug himself if he did.

Sitting there expectantly for a moment as Edgeworth studied his drawing, he exhaled a soft sigh and turned back to the rest of the pictures, picking up his pencil and tucking it behind an ear as he began to carefully collect them together into a pile. "I thought it might be a good idea to keep some records of everything," he started, his tone casual, "and u-um...I had some time, so..."

There was a soft tap as Phoenix managed to pull all the pictures together and pulled them upright lightly, letting them fall together into an organized stack like a deck of cards. Concealing the picture he'd drawn of Edgeworth, he placed the pile down on the table and rested his hand upon it as he waited for Edgeworth's verdict.