Description: Howard Rust, still in the hospital, really, really, really needs more paper... but why? What is he even doing? A curious Cammy White, despite knowing better, decides to investigate while the two of them are both stuck in a hospital for whatever reason. (Cameo by an ancient long since nuked OC inside!)
Howard's been in the hospital for a while, and at last, someone's bothered to call and ask about him. Here's the good news - he's not fired.
The expected bad news - he has no more paid leave days so, naturally, he's not getting paid.
Here's the really ugly news. His medical insurance is basically not covering his stay at all thanks to some previous incident with a weird illegal drug coursing through him (see: part four of LLK) making them not want to pick up any disease testing bills, and yet they still are asking him to fill out a bunch of paperwork for their files anyway.
Life is unfair.
Life is so unfair that he's... not weeping over any of it?
It's somewhat early in the morning. Still decked out in a hospital gown and maybe a good 48 to 72 hours of being clear to leave, the older man is hunched underneath his hospital bed. There is, surprisingly, a lot of room and clearance under that bed for him to, somehow, wedge half of himself underneath, the lower half of his body sticking out in plain sight for anyone who just chooses to walk in.
Breakfast goes uneaten on the nearby nightstand. He's not dead, as evidenced with a few twitches here and there in his legs as he works out a couple kinks.
...What the hell is he up to?
Cammy is loose in the hospital herself, though apparently for rather different reasons than Rust. Having had a funny turn and fainted in the airport, she got hauled off to E&R, and now she's in for observation! Why she fainted, who knows. It might have been something to do with Geese Howard hitting her very hard. It might have been something to do with Quon being threatened with death by her master, in not so many words.
Maybe it's due to her not eating anything for days, due to all these rumours flying around the base that the cheesecake addicted doll is getting fat.
Regardless, wilting like a daffodil in summer in customs isn't something the doll wants to get around. It's only fortunate she wasn't carrying anything incriminating at the time... of course it's possible that the doctors here might find /her/ incriminating if they do blood tests or something. She's not quite sure, though she does know that Dr Senoh would probably be annoyed in the extreme to find her here, which is something else for her to worry about, as it'll be her getting it in the neck at the end of the day.
And as anybody who has been to hospital will tell you, it's very boring to be stuck there. Fortunate she is very sneaky, so she is padding around the dim hospital in the small hours on bare feet, all curious, clad in her hospital nightie, which is actually probably more decent than her uniform, and even more unusually with her unbraided hair cascading down her back. For whatever reason, no nurse has yet assailed her and told her to get back to bed. Maybe everybody is busy.
In any case, the curious one is bemused to see what looks like... someone hiding under a bed. She promptly wanders over, bold as brass. "You have some sort of operation today and are scared?" she asks, in wonderment. Not yet having any clue who it is she is dealing with. She doesn't really recognise him by the lower half after all.
Whatever's going on down there, is something of great importance that nobody knows the specifics about - Cammy's voice being muffled from underneath where he is, the man suddenly bumps his head underneath the bed with a muffled 'ow!'
"N-No, not... not at, uh... maybe," he clears his throat loudly. By voice alone, given Cammy's astute investigative abilities, she should probably know who she's dealing with just by voice alone.
Or the obnoxious pop in one of his knees when he flexes a leg out. "I, uh... I got... uh, I got a problem, and, uh, I'm gonna... I'm gonna need more, uh, some of that paperwork, can you... get that for me?"
There is the faint sound of rustling paper.
Cammy's lip curls when she realises just who it is. With the balding pate concealed it's not quite the same, as far as target identification is concerned. But curiosity overcomes distaste. She's done so many distasteful things in the name of information gathering that this pales into insignificance. She's not quite sure if she should get the paper, or not.
Thinking about it she frowns at the thought that she even was considering being Rust's errand boy! So she just squats down next to him, to peer under the bed and see what's going on. "What are you doing under there?" she wonders, voice rather more cross now she knows who it is.
Also, consider the fact he's in a hospital g-- actually, no, it's better if we just forget mentioning this and continue assuming Rust is there without any further detail as to what /of/ Rust is there, okay? Seriously.
Ahem.
When he feels the presence of those footsteps coming up against the floor, more paper rustles about. He never once looks behind himself, or around himself - just what's in front of him, whatever the hell it is.
"Uh, I'm... I'm, uh," he stammers as he keeps whatever it is he's doing around his arms. It's very difficult to see what the hell this man is up to, "fightin' a... a mouse, yeah, we got a mouse problem or... or somethin'."
He taps a finger loudly against the ground. "Hear it? It's there, I'm, I'm... tryin' to get the paper back, it's been... stealin' all the paper, yeah, so, so I need more forms."
Cammy shakes her head. "You are lying to me! There is no mouse under there. I thought lies were bad in your universe. You were quite stubborn about such things, the second to last time we spoke.". The last time, after all, she was in disguise.
Clearly more direct measures are needed, as Rust doesn't prove to be particularly enlightening even when quizzed, so gets up and reaches out for the bed, to push it across the floor, so she can get a better look at whatever is going on underneath. "Are you stealing all the paper? I thought you hated stealing, too.".
"What? Hey. The hell are you--"
When Cammy starts trying to push the bed, the man immediately gets the arm further away from whoever it is to pull the frame back. One of his arms is probably a match for that lady's two. Whatever's going on down there, he wants to keep it to himself.
Maybe it's pornography.
"Look, lady, I don't, I don't remember speaking to you," much too absorbed into whatever the hell this is to recognize the voice - or maybe he dislikes it so much he's cast it out of memory just to put her out of mind - he jealously sweeps the other arm inward closer, with far more paper rustling. "I just... I just need more forms, okay, just... just if you could get me more forms, y'know, by the time you get back..."
Cammy is rather oblivious to property damage, so when Rust grabs hold of the bedframe to stop it moving, she soon gives up pushing - instead reaching for the rim of the bed and instead lifting it up, so she can peer beneath it. In the process probably wrecking the nice mattress that someone just made.
Holding it up at a forty five degree angle, she ducks her head to peer beneath, glancing around as she does so to see if any nurses are about to intervene. "Are you stealing? What are you stealing?" she asks, curiosity almost killing her! "Something compromising, perhaps?".
There's a short hiss as the mattress - surprisingly heavy - is lifted up and, with his pulling hand's fingers curled, proceeds to smash a hard, uncomfortable mattress to hard, uncomfortable bedsprings. Nothing showstopping when you're Howard Rust, the man who could survive being hit by a car walking to work and proceed about his day like very little happened, but in this specific scenario it allows Cammy the perfect glimpse of what she's looking for as he draws his hand back, clutching it in the other and at last removing the obstructing arm.
Her viewpoint renders such a success largely moot, but she can see it. Dim, crumpled paper shapes of... some kind. Tumbleweeds? Salad? The ugliness of Balrog's inner soul? (Hey, is that one crumpled paper there a sculpture of Francois? The lengths developers will go to ensure fanservice for long time MotM fans!)
"The hell are you doin'," sneers an angry Rust who turns around to see her face, at last--
Oh, it's /her/.
As though it were his very life, he suddenly sweeps his arms in front of the lot of torn, crumpled paper... things, gathering as many of them as possible underneath the safe, inviting cradle of whatever's underneath his chinto the sound of further rustling as one or two worthless crumpled balls of paper roll out of the gathered stack.
"Did /he/ send you to... to take 'em?" He growls. "You can't have 'em."
Cammy promptly goes to work on putting the bed back together again before someone comes in and moans. She'd rather be out of the hospital without anybody really knowing who she was, after all. "Papers." she says, after the bed is left in a state loosely approximating the one how she found it.
"No, I am not here on orders, I hardly ever am actually. I am asked that all the time, it does get quite tiresome." the Doll replies, reminded of how dull she found conversation with Rust near the end of their 'friendship'. "Why are you so interested in papers?" she wonders, nose wrinkling in curiosity. "And what are you trying to do with them? You are making shapes? Origami?" she asks. Hey, thats a tradition around these parts she actually heard of. "Have those Kyokugen people got you making paper shapes now?".
Papers, indeed. There's no writing on any of them beyond what's pre-printed in ink, from what little can be read from the crumpled husks of paper. Misjudging her gesture to put the bed back together as a further attempt to uncover what's going on, the man rises up with a start (kind of slow - this is Rust we're talking about, he's sore everywhere and his joints are so poppy), clutching what he can as balls of paper fall out of his grasp. Really, he loses most of them in the act of rising up.
"It's none of your, none of your goddamn busi--" Well, she figures it out right there. "Look, this... this doesn't concern you," he says as he starts backing away towards a door, a few more crumpled balls of paper falling out of his arms, "so... so why don't you just... just save us the trouble, 'n, 'n get the hell out?"
"I guessed right?" Cammy asks, smiling a little, and a little surprised that she was on the nail. And proud. She shakes her head, though. "They really are such fools, those Kyokugen people. Proof that you don't need intelligence to be good fighters, I guess. Bad luck for falling in with them, Howard Rust.". She does dart forward though, to grab one of the balls that he's missed, so she can examine it a bit closer.
"I will go soon enough, your conversation stopped being interesting weeks ago. What is it meant to be?" she asks, looking at the sheet of crumpled paper, bemused. "A... snowball?" she asks. It is, after all, just a round blob more or less.
The insults against Kyokugen are bad enough - and really, against his intelligence (although there is plenty of circumstantial evidence pointing to this not quite being his greatest trait) - but it's when she goes to grab one of the crumpled balls, there's the sound of more paper falling onto the floor.
Just like that, his left hand is on her wrist moments before she can pick up the 'snowball' as he snaps it up with the other hand, like a mother bear protecting one of her cubs. Except he's a dude, and not a girl, but, the analogy remains.
"Crane." He says. They look very, very little like cranes. Sure, a few here and there might come close, but there is irrefutable proof right here that this is a man who can't fold origami worth shit.
Or might be so far gone as to assume any crumpled piece of paper is a crane.
"'n I need each and every... each and every one," he says, his voice tense, maybe even crazed, "I ain't... I ain't lettin' you walk out with even one."
Cammy isn't going to fight over paper cranes. At least not when nobody is ordering her to do so, anyway. "Okay." she says mildly, apparently content with knowing what they are supposed to be. And, in fact... "I would not guess that they were cranes." she admits. So really, her grabbing was less enlightening than him telling her wha they were.
Or what they were supposed to be.
"Why are you in hospital? Oh, never mind. I'm sure there are many reasons for someone like you, or me, to be in a hospital. I will leave you to your cranes, I suppose. It looks like you need more practice, anyway.".
Cammy's wrist is released with the concession, although there is a stare in the man's eyes that suggests he doesn't trust what she says about not grabbing one of them - but one thing's for sure, her feelings would be echoed by just about anyone else who'd stumble in here.
After all, how in the hell are these cranes?
"'n I need more /paper/," he wheezes out angrily as he starts sweeping the paper... things by his feet back under the bed, passing by Cammy as though she's not there or, really, anyone of importance, "I dunno, I dunno what /you/ like to, to think of things," he points a finger at her without looking at her, "but this... this might be life or, or death for some of my friends."
So why is he saying this? Probably in the vain hopes she'll turn around and walk away with at least some semblance of empathy and human understanding. "And... and I'm not lettin' /you/ or... or any of your friggin' crazy terrorist buddies stop me."
Cammy is starting to get a bit of a headache already, in truth. She reaches up, to rub at her temples with her fingers for a moment, while her blue eyes fix a distinctly exasperated look upon Rust. "You and the other Kyokugen people will get along just fine, and you fit in there quite well already." she decides. "And I would guess that terrorists have better things to do than mess with your paper snowballs.".
She brushes her untidy mass of blonde back into position with her hands, before turning around and heading for the door, wanting out of here before the annoyance factor gets even higher than it already is. There's something they do in that Kyokugen dojo... it probably involves surgically grafting a Mosquito to their body or something, judging from the effect the students there seem to have on the doll. Headaches after a few minutes conversation.
"Cranes," he corrects with a mumble as he leans down to brush a couple snowball-shaped stragglers back underneath the bed, clean out of sight for the most part. He wants Cammy out of mind, he really wants all that drama surrounding her out of his mind.
It's like what Kazuki said, he really should be trying to focus on things one at a time. To the exclusion of Cammy's presence, his insurance provider breathing down his neck, his employer's breathing down his neck, and the fact his truck is almost definitely impounded for illegal parking, and Antoine being feral and on the loose, and Quon still not being on talking terms with him, and Zach being a murderer with a power he can't control, and his dad leaving an e-mail about how angry he was that he didn't come to visit him instead of going on some talk show with Ken Masters, and all sorts of other things...
As he affixes himself back underneath the bed, only one thing holds true to what he wants to - what he needs to get done right now, if for the sake of his friends. After all, right now there's no other way available - and the meeting with Ayame and the discovery of the true nature of the newly rechristened paper crane Clay keeps one thing true.
If he's going to go for a miracle he needs to fold a thousand of these things.
...Hopefully they all look close enough to being cranes to count.
Log created on 17:46:49 04/14/2011 by Rust, and last modified on 19:20:55 04/14/2011.