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 Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:56 pm
Anna rolls her eyes. "What a baby," she says, picking up a brownie and taking a huge bite. Shrugging, she intones, "Not bad. I guess I do kind of like brownies."
Manta knocks softly on Faust's door. "It's open," says a voice inside, and Manta turns the knob.
"Whatever you see in here," he warns Shizuka, "don't let it scare you too badly, OK?"
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:57 pm
Shizuka nodded, promising not to look scared at the least.
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:03 pm
Faust is sitting at his desk, his head bent over a sheet of paper. Glancing up warily, he says, "Hey, Manta."
"Faust..." Manta sighs. "I'm so glad you're not...."
"Wasted? Me too. I thought about it for awhile, but I've built up dangerous resistances to pretty much everything I take. So I've got a new addiction: Sudoku. So far, my head hasn't exploded, even though the 'insanely difficult' level is supposed to do that."
Manta squints in the dark room. "You could turn on some lights in here every once in a while, Faust."
"Headaches," Faust replies cheerfully, but there is a forced quality to his voice. Just visible in the shadows is a bulge under the blankets of an otherwise perfectly made bed.
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:06 pm
Shizuka looked over his shoulder at the paper. After a little bit of looking, she pointed to one of the boxes and signed "4" with her fingers. She really like sudoku, too.
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:09 pm
Faust smiles. "Ach... danke....I thought so. You're pretty smart, aren't you Shizuka?"
"Definitely," Manta agrees, creeping over to the bed. Glancing sharply over Shizuka's shoulder, Faust nods almost imperceptibly as Manta begins quietly moving something.
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 8:28 pm
Shizuka gave a warm smile. For the first time in quite a while, she finally felt like she belonged. It waas a feeling she almost forgot with the cold creulty of others surrounding her for years.
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 10:44 pm
Faust returns the smile timidly. Then, he winces as Manta drops whatever he was moving. There's a clattering sound, like various lightweight, dry articles being strewn across the wood floor. Manta swears.
Faust covers his face with his hands. Taking a deep breath, he curls the fingers of one hand with a delicate whisper and snaps them. Manta gasps and leaps back somewhere in the darkness.
"OK," Faust says, "Now that she's together, could you please move her somewhere safe?" Thinking that the unorthodox events might have gained the notice of Shizuka, he hastily taps her shoulder and turns back to Sudoku. This row.... is 4, 8, 7, 2, 9, 1, 3, 5, 8.... right, Shizuka?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 3:41 pm
Shizuka was startled by the sound, and went to figure out what it was, but Faust had asked for her, and she decided to help him. After all, it was his room. She shook her head and pointed at the two boxes in the row that read 2 and 7. She was intending to say that they need to be switched around.
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 5:13 pm
Tamao was still in her room but she still heard Anna eat the brownies. "*sniff*Hmmm? Did I hear Lady Anna eat something?" She listen for a while. She didn't hear another sound. "*Sniff* Must of been my imagination" as she started to vacuum her room.
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 6:47 pm
Faust breathed a sigh of relief. "Ja, you're right, naturally. I never had a head for numbers...."
Manta appears, placing a stack of papers on the desk. "You should put these somewhere where people can see them, Faust."
Faust hastily puts his elbow over the ornate lettering on the top paper, but not before the words "PHD" and "Theoretical Trigonometry" have been in view for a couple of seconds.
"Seriously, I'm bad at math," he says. "What about this row, Shizuka?"
Manta stares. "Faust, there's one blank square in that row. Even I can figure that one out. Eliza's in the closet, by the way."
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 6:53 pm
Shizuka saw what Faust was trying to cover up before he could actually do it. She didn't know whether to feel angry or honored. Both thoughts clashed within her head as she stared down at the paper.
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 8:32 pm
Faust sighs. "The hell with it," he mumbles, starting in the upper left-hand corner and filling in each square one after the other. Setting aside the rapidly finished puzzle restlessly, he asks Manta, "Where did you find my degrees?"
"Under the floorboard, under the rug, under your bed," groans Manta. "Most doctors keep their certificates in frames, under good lighting and hanging on the wall."
"I'm not most doctors," Faust says simply. "This is how I do things, all right?"
"Why don't you want people to know you're smart?" Manta asks, frustration lending an edge to his voice.
Faust blinks, looking surprised. "Because," he says, looking up at Shizuka, "It is widely assumed that smart people don't ever need help."
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 8:40 pm
Shizuka nodded, unconsiously, lost in thought. This happened to her sometimes, usually starting out with a petty thing and moving on to almost unexplainable occurances. People who just began to get to know her and looked past her ability to see ghosts and her lack of a voice usually got sort of freaked out when this happened.
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 8:50 pm
Faust squints. "Are you all right, Shizuka?"
"Amaya?!" Manta asks, "What's going on?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 9:00 pm
"Not again..." Amaya shook her head.
"Umm... don't worry about this. Shizuka is just... thinking... for lack of a better word..."
Shizuka's eye's staed fixed at no apparent direction, blank and emotionless.
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