and
Mondatta had fun sitting at the table and listening to the little comedy show that was running close to him, holding a hand to his face as he chuckled at the antics.
"Well that was assuming," he spoke to Marianne once the other party left.
"Would you like some more tea, or should we go and search other rooms?"Not sitting too far from the trio that was Mary, Daimyon and Noel, Marianne's eyebrow shot up at the very antics Mondatta was chuckling at. She quietly sipped the herbal tea from one of the teacups they had acquired with a definite, knowing smile at her lips. There was a thing or two she knew about romance!
"I think I feel so much calmer, Mondatta. Thank you." she gave the robot a cheery smile, and tucked the box containing the present-hat under her arm, the e-handbook just given to her in the other hand.
"Actually, shall we drop this stuff off at the room I was assigned, first? Would you know how to get there from here...?"Mondatta nodded, his eyelights turning into a smile.
"Of course. Let me show you the path, miss Roche." The Infinite Monk then extended an arm for Marianne like any gentleman would, and the two left the dining hall. He was glad that he could spend a moment of sipping tea with someone, as he believed that the consumption of tea was one of the best ways to bonding with another person. Not that he needed to try and become friends with Marianne, as it seemed to come as easily as breathing. Finally, they arrived at the dormitory section where the door to Shona's room was.
"Miss Moffett..." He sighed, lowering his head.
"This is where you wanted to go, yes? Shona Moffett, the Infinite Knight, once owned this room."Few had actually entered Shona's room, so they hadn't seen all the knight paraphernalia lying around the place before. The room was not especially tidy. That was not to say Shona was a slob, it's just that a lot of things were out of place.The first thing everyone noticed was the hole in the door to her room. Resting on the floor was a piece of paper with the words 'Save him if you can.' written on it. It also had a hole in it. There were also a slew of books and magazines piled on a table, half gone through by the knight in her final moments.
"...this is my room now."The Herbalist found herself clutching her few belongings ever tighter. Her hand with the handbook had moved up, and she was absently clutching at the lipgloss tube hanging from the black cord around her neck. It was a tell she was made uneasy by the environment.
"I certainly won't have to worry about privacy." A dry chuckle escaped the herbalist at noticing the hole in the door. It was more like a croak, actually. The tea appeared to be wearing off.
Marianne tiptoed into the abandoned room, and placed the box and handbook gently onto the bed. It was most definitely eerie to be there alone, but she would need to get used to it sooner as opposed to later. She retraced her steps to the front door and stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame and trying to muster a reassuring enough smile up at the man in the metallic suit.
"Thank you for bringing me here, Mondatta. ...I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to allow me to sort out my room, before anything else. It's not quite livable as it stands."She hesitated, a twinge of hurt at sounding so dismissive,
"...shall we meet up at the casino as soon as I am finished? I would much like to continue exploring with you! I shall be there as soon as I can, so when we are done, I can come back to a tidy bedroom that is a little more livable in."Mondatta opened his palms before her, showing he had no problems with her request.
"I won't mind at all. I can wait for you to get accustomed to your room, miss Roche."The monk then closed the door, and stood next to it, his hands in his sleeves as he looked up to the ceiling.
It is difficult to occupy a space that once belonged to the departed...But I am sure miss Moffett won't mind that her room will see more life in it...---
The herbalist carefully shut the door behind her, leaning with her back against it as she took in the room properly for the first time since entering it. Just by the door, she carefully bent down to pick up a small piece of paper, using the door-handle as leverage to pull herself back up. In a way, it was good she was bending and stretching, else her body would get stuck stiff. Although, a small part of her still worried that if she exerted herself too much, her stitches would tear open, and she most definitely did not want any of the crazies at this institution to give her a thorough 'fixing up.'
The air in the room was thick still, and the mess intimidating. It was as if Marianne was intruding into someone else's private property, even though this would now be her own room. She looked at the note in her hand, hole torn through the words in legible print on it, with her head cocked to the side in thought. Her free hand went back to her necklace pendant, giving the little tube a minute squeeze. She had heard the story from everyone in the break hall earlier that morning, and yet, it was so impossible to still believe it was real.
Maybe cleaning up would make the situation a little more bearable, she had thought.
And so, with her very few belongings on the bed (the cleanest of all surfaces in the room) to sort for later, Marianne began carefully sifting through the paperwork strewn across the room. A majority of it pertained to Shona Moffett and with each magazine excerpt or sheet of paper, the herbalist could piece together a better picture of just who the Infinite Knight was. Although she was interested in reading the material strewn about her new room, her first priority would be to clean it. Idly, she piled up all the magazines neatly after scanning the contents of the pages that were open, and then she moved onto miscellaneous pieces of paper.
Here, she found things, including some letters, which she put into a very neat pile to be snooped-through and re-read later. She did catch herself peeking at some of the contents, but it was strictly to see what the previous inhabitant was like - nothing more!
What bothered her most was the newspaper cuttings. Something was common in the themes, about this incident that faintly resonated in the young woman's head. It was something she had heard of in stories, and maybe even experienced, but she was so young that it seemed like a distant memory to her. Through sorting, and more sorting, and more sorting, it would seem like she would never really underst-
"...!" a pair of teal eyes, formerly half lidded and unengaged, shot open. The herbalist's hands clutched tighter at the particular piece of paper she was holding, and her eyes scanned the page once, and then once again, as if trying to commit every word of memory.
"Oh my god..." she breathed sharply.
"...it can't be. Can it? It couldn't. It mustn't."The large workdesk now organised and spotless, with three neat piles of documents on the floor to the left of it, she placed the sheet of paper square in the middle of the desk, along with the note from the door. One more article of interest sat on the desk, and all three of these played on Marianne's mind as she made it a point to clean the rest of the room as well, and try to reclaim some of it as her own, so it would not forever remain the room of someone who was once an absolute stranger, but now seemed like a much closer, much more personal friend.
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