Room 316 afternoon

[ihatedenmark]

On this bright and cherry Monday, Hamlet had decided to stay in his room and avoid the strange cacti that seemed to be popping up all over the place. He'd propped himself up against the headboard of his bed, and had started reading a very large tome titled The Big Book of Darque Poetry, a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore

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[the_merriest]

Rikku had a few hours until she needed to meet Deadpool for sparring purposes, and she happened to notice her big brother's door standing open.

Oh, good. She'd been needing to pester him anyway.

She leaned her head in. "Hey! Oh! Are you busy?" She couldn't help giggling at the title. "Darque Poetry?"

[ihatedenmark]

Hamlet grabbed a scrap of paper from off of his bedside table, and stuck it in the book to mark his place. He set the book down on his bed before looking up at Rikku. "Books can always be put on hold. I'm never to busy to talk with a friend. What would you like?" he said in a friendly tone of voice.

He shrugged at the title of the book. "I found it in the library. Despite the silly title, there's some rather well written forgotten lore in here."

[the_merriest]

Rikku smiled. "I didn't get to talk to you at Detention. Is it always that fun, by the way? I'm tempted to go again just for the heck of it."

She laughed. "I didn't know you could spell 'dark' like that. Al Bhed's way easier than this one. It's got too many rules."

She sat down hesitantly. "You don't mind? Really?"

[ihatedenmark]

"I think it usually is. I've never heard of it being especially punishing from the reports they have on the radio," he said. "And apparently you can, as 'darque' seems to be pronounced the same way as 'dark'. I sympathize with you on the language issues. English is my second language as well, and it has so many more rules about spelling words than Danish does." He smiled. "Although I have to say that your articles about learning to speak Al Bhed have been interesting."

Hamlet shifted positions to give Rikku more space on the bed. "Of course not. Is something the matter?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku giggled. "Man, I might have to just go some week, whether I get Detention or not. ... Nah, thinking up rules to break has to be half the fun."

"You should do a guest article! For the paper! 'Learn to Speak Danish', for one week! Man, there are all kinds of languages here, huh?"

She sighed a bit and got more serious. "Do you think ... if there was a way ... okay. Hypothetically? If you knew how to ... if you could make your father not be dead any more - not change the past, just bring him back - would you do it?"

[ihatedenmark]

Hamlet grinned at Rikku. "Exactly. Detention might be fun, but the way to get yourself thrown in there is even better."

"I don't know about the article though," he said. "I'm not very good at writing newspaper articles and the mun doesn't speak any Danish that isn't food words, which would make that hard."

Hamlet sat in silence a minute, playing with the edge of the book as he thought the question over. "I think I'd try," he finally said. "My Father, he... He was a very imposing man. He frightened me while he was alive, and he's absolutely terrifying now that he's dead ... but he's still my Father, and I still love him. I hate the ignoble way that he died. I hate what happened afterwards. I'll even admit to missing him terribly. So if there was a way to bring him back to life, I think I'd at least give it a shot." He looked over at Rikku. "Why do you ask?"

[the_merriest]

"We have to go on a vandalism spree. Maybe steal some things. Not anything worth anything, just ... random mischief." There was a grin accompanying this.

"Okay, I won't put you on the spot or anything. But you totally need to teach me Danish some time. It sounds neat, just listening to it."

Rikku nodded, considering. "I think ... I think I can fix something that should be fixed. But I'm not sure and it's kinda dangerous and ... you know, all of that. But that's what I keep going back to, that I have to try. You know?"

[ihatedenmark]

"Well, if there's vandalism of public property involved, you can certainly count me in," Hamlet said, with a grin that almost matched Rikku's. "I can formally induct you into the Fandom High School Beautification Committee before I have to graduate." He leaned back on the bed. "And we'll see about teaching you some Danish provided the mun can find a basic phrase page or something."

Lines of concern started to spread across Hamlet's face. "It's not going to hurt you, or demand a sacrifice by doing this, is it? Even if there is a ghost that you want to bring back, you shouldn't sacrifice your own life and existence to do so. You're worth more than that."

[the_merriest]

"The Beautification Committee? I like the sound of that. Similar work to the mutiny? Because I think we definitely made Hades's office a bit prettier." She grinned. "Maybe we leave graffiti in thoroughly handwaved Danish and Al Bhed. It'll be educational!"

She bit her lip. "No, it ... it shouldn't. I think I know what I'm doing. It's ... it's kind of for someone else. She needs ... I'm supposed to protect her. Official Guardian and all that, you know. It'll be fine." She wasn't entirely convinced of that herself, but she smiled quickly and hoped he couldn't tell.

[ihatedenmark]

"Oh, very much like the Naked Mutineers," he said. "The Beautification Committee was the very first group to vandalize school property, way back when Fandom High was still relatively clean and new. That's also the reason that Zero and I and some others started dying our hair, in an attempt to hide our identities. It didn't work."

Hamlet watched Rikku a minute before speaking. He caught some of her apprehension, but couldn't completely read why. "As long as you're absolutely sure that it won't kill anyone or destroy the universe, give it your best shot. Just promise me that you will be careful. Magic seems as though it can go terribly wrong, terribly fast."

[the_merriest]

Rikku smiled. "I thought Zero just dyed her hair for the heck of it. You, too. I've thought about asking her to do mine, I mean, I love it blonde, but it'd be fun to have, like, green stripes for a week or something, just because."

"I ..." Rikku looked away for a moment, then nodded. "I'll be as careful as I can. It probably won't do anything anyway. A lot of worrying for nothing, yeah?"

[ihatedenmark]

Hamlet shrugged at Rikku's comment. "Oh, she likely does dye it for the heck of it, but I'm fairly certain that that was the first time she dyed it here," he said. "If you're interested in it, you should talk to her; I'm sure she has many, many colours of temporary dye."

Hamlet didn't quite believe Rikku but could see that she seemed determined to go through with it. "Hopefully."

[the_merriest]

"How temporary is temporary dye, anyway? I'd hate to be stuck with green stripes for months; I'd get bored of them sooner than that."

She gave a nod to the latter part. "I'll ... I'll give you the whole story later, and you can laugh at it with me."

[ihatedenmark]

"I'm not sure," Hamlet said. "Zero seems to change her haircolour once a month, but I don't know how long her dyes are supposed to last on their own. The bleach I use stays that way until the hair grows out."

He smiled at Rikku. He supposed that was all that he was going to be getting of her plan tonight. "I'll be looking forward to that," he told her.