Welcome to Gaia! ::

Xiu had no idea why Junko had invited her and Lizzy over, but it sounded important, and Junko had stressed it as such as well. The moment she hung up, Xiu immediately abandoned her homework, pushed herself away from her desk, and got ready to leave.

I wonder what she wanted to talk about? Junko had requested that they be quiet and keep what they were talking about to themselves, or only within the student council. Was the council planning something? Could it be--...?

Shaking her head, the baku picked up the pace. When she arrived at the monster dorms, she was surprised to see that their friend was already waiting for them outside. "Junko!" She hurried up to her but she didn't ask what was going on--not yet, anyways. Xiu was certain that Junko would tell them once Lizzy arrived.

Junko was nervously chewing on the bandage-covered ends of her fingers by the time Xiu arrived, which was also when Xiu would see Junko's hair take her own hand and pin it against the wall behind her so she'd stop chewing on it. Ugh. Fine. Junko quietly tugged her hand away so she could wave to her friend when she heard her call her name. She was smiling but there was clear nervousness behind the smile. Lizzy wasn't long behind her. Oh thank Jack.

The first thing Junko did was throw her arms around both ghouls at the same time in a tight hug, hiding her face and clinging to them. "I-I am so sorry.." Xiu had gotten so hurt! How was her shoulder? Was it okay? She hoped it was okay. And Lizzy! She couldn't find Lizzy for a long time! Where had she gone?! Had...had she died like Seiji had? Oh, Jack. She didn't even want to think about that.

Eventually she let them go, wiping at the corners of her eyes with her knuckles and sniffling. "Thanks for coming, guys. I really need your help. I don't have much time but...well...there's something that needs to be done." She looked toward one end of the hall and then the other, quietly waiting and listening for any noises that indicated someone was coming.

The coast was clear. "Come on.." She had a feeling they would figure it out once they saw what was in her room. Junko turned to open the door, ushering the two ghouls before her. What they would see would be Junko's room filled with boxes upon boxes upon boxes upon boxes of red fabric. She'd lost count how much there was! In the direct middle of the room stood one of her dress forms, a pattern for a very familiar cloak pinned onto it.

Once the ghouls were inside Junko followed them in and locked the door closed behind her, clearing her throat and rubbing her lips together. "The student council is...going to be doing something for Red. But we have to be quiet about it...I can't sew all of these cloaks by myself with how my hands are. It takes too long just for me to do one. And I also need to make clasps for the neck. I want to make replicas of..her pin..." So she really could use the help.

She was surprised at the hug, but not for long as she soon brought her arms up around her two friends to return the gesture, "I didn't know that 'sorry' is the new 'hello'!" She giggled, giving her friends a gentle squeeze, not wishing to accidentally hurt any of them, given how both of them looked worse off than she was; she missed being hugged by them and she missed hugging them back... It was nice to finally have the luxury of enjoying the simpler things in life.

Entering Junko's room after being ushered in, she was once again surprised - this time by the amount of red fabric in her room. Walking up to one of the boxes, she ran a finger along the fabric, biting down on her lower lip; it was obvious who it reminded her of, as her expression soon became rather distant.

It was Junko's voice that finally snapped her out of it.

"I'm with Xiu," She nodded, frowning as she turned to face her friend, "If it helps, I have a pin press, and anyone with a good arm can probably make tons a day, if they put their mind to it. Not to mention you could get someone you trust to do it, so there's no need to involve anyone from outside... Since you want to keep it a secret."

Xiu beamed as the spider demoness brought up using a pin press. That would definitely make things a lot easier! Despite having only been there for a minute or so, it was clear that the baku had already taken this task to heart. She would have agreed to help Junko out with anything that she asked of her, but this particular task...

This was important, and it was something that would ultimately mean a lot to the students of Amityville, she was sure.

Xiu reached out to give Junko's shoulder a gentle squeeze as she noticed the tears forming in the ghoul's eyes. "Thank you for asking us," She smiled, turning so that she could take Lizzy's hand, "I've wanted to do something, but I didn't know what. But now..." Trailing off, she gave a little shake of her head. It wasn't going to be an easy job, though--with all this fabric, she was guessing that they were going to be making...well, as many cloaks as there were students, or as many as they could get out of all this fabric.

"Is there a deadline?" If it was soon, sleep could wait until that was over. Or, well, Xiu would have to plan her schedule so that she could snatch the occasional nap--it would be even less productive if she were to pass out.

"He had an accident during Terror Warrior and broke his leg." Junko winced at the thought and shook her head, rubbing her lips together a moment until Xiu squeezed her shoulder and Lizzy began to wipe away a few of the tears that had managed to fall from the corners of her eyes. She was crying? Damnit! She was trying not to, too! "I-I'm sorry. I guess I am being silly, huh? Heh." Junko giggled and smiled sheepishly as she rubbed at her eyes, sniffling a bit as she stepped closer to the dress form.

The pin press would save so much work. Junko actually sighed with relief as Lizzy continued on to explain what they could do with the pin press. "You have no idea how much work you saved us, Lizzy. You're the best. We were just going to take black material and paint red crescents over each one after shaping them into a button. Thank you so much." She seriously could not thank them enough.

As for a deadline? "We don't know how long it'll take to make all of these. I'm shooting for a week? I haven't been sleeping much either. I mean I slept when we returned home but I was...tired." Seiji had helped with that but..she'd still been exhausted to begin with. And then the pain of her fresh burns finally setting in as adrenaline had faded, and the bangs and bumps..it'd hurt a lot. She was happy to finally fall asleep. But after that she had had a lot of trouble sleeping. Seiji didn't need to sleep so it didn't bother him to stay up but...she didn't like seeing him worried because she couldn't sleep. seeing Seiji worrying so much about her made her chest feel tight with guilt; she didn't want to make him worry. This was why she had decided to just take her insomnia to her own room. If he didn't see it he wouldn't be as worried, right? That was how Junko was going to think of it. It made sense in her head. "I'm used to not sleeping anyway." The Mistress had stopped doing it but She had gone through a period when they first arrived at school of seeing to it that Junko did not sleep if She wasn't sleeping.

"Oh dear... Poor Jericho! Well, I'll go check up on him when I go drop the things off," She smiled sheepishly, feeling rather bad that she didn't know this till now, "And you are welcome! And you were what?!" Her eyes widened at hearing their original plan, "Well, this is a much more practical approach! I'm glad I could help!"

In fact, she was pretty proud that she was contributing to his project!

"Mmm, I'll go drop off materials at Jericho's as soon as possible, and then I'll come around to help," She smiled, giving a nod, "I hope you don't mind me staying over! I would bring some back to my room, but how do you move this many boxes without looking mildly suspicious?"

Hmm, stay in this room? "That works for me! But, ah...would you mind if I brought my Storm Melonkit with me, maybe? He's well-behaved, I promise!" If Junko really didn't mind, then Xiu would probably end up spending a great deal of time in her friend's room to help. At the very least, it would probably be more enjoyable and motivating to be working with Junko and Lizzy than alone. At least, for the hours that they would actually be altogether, since they probably wouldn't spend all their time working or in the room at the same time.

"It'll be like a sleepover...just without the sleep." Shaking her head to herself, Xiu eyed the boxes. "I'd better get started with those strong brews of tea. When are we starting?" As soon as possible? Xiu was definitely fine with any time--she was ready to dedicate the next week to helping finish this project.