(Untitled)

[phoinikothrix]

Despite his hypochondriac's respect for them, Francis has never liked doctors, not really--the way they poke, and prod, and ask absurd questions before ushering him out the door with an ineffectual prescription written in a careless hand, only to roll their eyes at him when he returned a few days later complaining of some new malady.

Three days

Comments

[patriotqueen]

Guy had come from Cole, who had demonstrated the latest version of a depressingly cheerful song he had perfected for the play. It had left the Brit quite cheerful. Depressingly cheerful. Honestly cheerful, not brought on by liquor or doubtfully harmless substances that were supposed to mimic alcohol. Something wrong there, surely.

He whistled a song as he walked into the room. There was no cigarette in his hands, but he carried the smell of years of heavy smoking with him as consolation; there would be a cigarette in his mouth shortly again.

He found Francis there, between books - nee, between art books. “Is it the stacking you’re interested in, or are you actually considering reading them?” He asked with a smile.

[phoinikothrix]

"Neither, actually," Francis admitted. "I'm looking for a gift for a friend, but I seem to have gone a bit overboard." He gestured at the piles before him with a wry grin. "You wouldn't want to help, would you?"

[patriotqueen]

"On art? Not my thing," Guy admitted. "Anthony's the art-twat, really." He sat down anyway, deciding to help whether he would be of use or of un-use. "Who's it for?"

[phoinikothrix]

"Dodge." He wasn't sure if Guy had heard all the details, but given his friendship with Anthony, Francis hoped at least one of them knew. "He's been in the clinic for a few days, and lovely as the compound is..." he trailed off with a soft, sardonic huff of a laugh. "Perhaps it's a silly idea, but I thought he might appreciate the gesture."

[liliesfromluce]

Luce pauses for a moment when she sees Francis with so many books, not sure that she's ever really nosy enough to start seeing what the reading material is, but she likes Francis well-enough and she hopes he wouldn't mind if she made her way over. "Book club, is it?" she teases.

[phoinikothrix]

"Only if it's one for people who'd prefer not to read words," he laughs in response, holding up a book full of moody black-and-white photographs. "Frankly, I'm shocked there isn't a book club of any sort here already--this would be the perfect place for it, don't you think?" Nudging the chair across from him away from the table with his foot, he offers her a place to sit.

[liliesfromluce]

Luce wanders a little closer, crossing her legs under her body as she squeezes in, trying not to take up much room at all. "I thought someone had one, once," she says, but it might be something she's making up. "I'm not a big reader. I mean, I will," she insists, tying her hair back, "but it's not a passion."

She cranes her head to the side to study the pictures. "That's good, what's that?" she wonders, pointing at the next page.

[phoinikothrix]

"Wheat field before a thunderstorm," Francis reads from the caption on the facing page. "It is lovely, isn't it?" He pauses, taking in the impact of the photograph--the dark and roiling masses of clouds, contrasted with the paler waves of wheat. "I wonder if it would look quite that dramatic in color--probably not."

[phoinikothrix]

Worried as he was, Francis couldn't help but grin at the girl's absurd (though impressive) antics. "Not a project so much as a dilemma," he admitted. "I'm trying to find a get-well gift for a friend, but now I think I have far too many options." He moved a stack of brightly colored travel books from the chair beside him, offering her the chance to sit. "What are you up to?"

[phoinikothrix]

"A juggler and a tightrope walker? You are a girl of many talents, Helena." He made space on the table for her notebooks, before shaking his head at her question. "I'm not a terribly good artist, I'm afraid. Stick figures are about the range of my talents."

[bothgodown]

There's a smile on Miranda as she walks into the rec room. Things have been good, quiet but good and while part of her is itching for something exciting to happen she has had years of waiting for the quiet to end. An easy few weeks is nearly nothing in comparison. Not when put next to a total of years.

She is after a new stack of things to read, though she spends enough hours as it is staying up to read instead of sleep. This is not much of an issue, but she feels bad sleeping through most of the morning. Weaving around a chair as she walks into the room, she smiles and gives Francis a wave. "Hello there, fair thee well?"

[phoinikothrix]

"As well as can be expected," Francis replies, putting aside the book he'd been leafing through to return the girl's wave. "How are you?"

[bothgodown]

Miranda doesn't actually know how well that is, but she decides that it is better to assume that he is better rather than worse. Surely if something tragic or awful had occurred he would share it. It simply would not do to be left alone in misery.

"I am quite well, if not suffering from lack of noise."

[phoinikothrix]

"Lack of noise?" he repeats, as always both amused and charmed by the girl's manner of speaking. "Don't tell the jukebox--you'll never get a moment's peace."

[dancin_maxxie]

Maxxie was, pretty standardly, short on things to do on the island. He filled up his days well enough, but it was amazing to notice just how many hours there were in the day when you weren't forced to fill them up with school or chores. He ended up at the bookshelf a lot. Not much of a reader, Maxxie used it mostly for films, magazines, comics, art books, anything that could hold his attention. But he always, always preferred real, live human beings to whatever sat on a shelf.

So, despite being on course for examining the bookshelf, Maxxie changed direction and wandered slowly over to the ginger. Simple, idle curiosity about a guy who had been stuck on Maxxie's radar. "Study session?" he guessed, his tone wry around a smirk. Maxxie could be bored, but he would never, ever be so bored as to take up school again.

[phoinikothrix]

"Hardly," he responded, an answering smirk on his lips as he looked up from his book--a pictorial survey of Roman statuary, to be fair, so not that far removed from his studies--to see the blond from the cave rave.

Evidently, it hadn't just been the influence of whatever questionable substances Francis had ingested at the party that made the other boy seem so lovely.

"I'm looking for a gift for a friend," he admitted in a less sarcastic tone. "I think I went a bit overboard."

[dancin_maxxie]

With that context provided, Maxxie's eyes widened as he considered the stacks of books anew. "Just maybe," he allowed, but the corner of his mouth hitched up in a smirk, lighting his eyes up playfully and taking any slight sting that may have been out of his words. "Unless this friend really, really likes fine art. And has nothing at all to do with their time.

"Which sort of describes me at the moment," he realized with a faint laugh. "So, I guess... do you want some help?"

[phoinikothrix]

"The part about liking fine art, or the fact you have nothing to do with your time?" Francis shot back, grinning. The question of friend he left unanswered, for now.

"I'd love some help," he continued, pushing aside some books to clear space on the table. "You know, I don't think I ever learned your name--I'm Francis." He tried to make it sound breezily casual, a passing introduction and nothing else.