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Clerise had a boy to check on. She'd watched one weep, watched him come apart in his arms, and her only regret was that she couldn't be in six places at once.

But it was morning, now, and that meant checking on the next person on her list.

Clerise was armed to the teeth: the redhead was pulling a wagon of dubious origins, piled high with blankets and pillows. There were a number of zipties at the bottom, along with some bars of chocolate and a couple of large, runic-powered flashlights.

Clad in pajamas, the Life huntress didn't even care if it was two in the afternoon. She was going to be comfortable, damnit.

Reaching out, she banged her fist against the door. "Prodigy!" she yelled, jostling the handle a little. "Lemme in!"

Clerise smirked victoriously.

"Prodigy, I knew you were capable of reason."

She wheeled in the wagon, a look of determination on her face.

They had lost at least one hunter, out there. While she wasn't familiar with Ceres, it was a heavy burden to bear, watching an ally die. They did all the time, but it rarely got easier. She couldn't take away the pain, and she certainly couldn't make Tenya appear from nowhere.

But she could distract people. Entertaining, amusing, enthralling-- it was Clerise's area of expertise.

Kicking the door closed behind her, Clerise kept her priorities straight, and did the first thing first: hugging Otto. The Life huntress pulled him close, wrapping her arms around him in an embrace.

"The silence is going to be deafening for a while."

"Who? Also, don't you trash my ********' blankets. I trained you to be a pro, not to be a b***h."

She poked at his ribs a little bit. "I'm not babying you. If I was babying you, I'd be trying to feed you-- which, if you want that, I am sure I can arrange something, cafeteria food is sort of, kind of like baby food in that it is textureless and bad, god, if you want to be a child you'll need to get someone else to treat you like one, jeeze."

As he cut off mid word, Clerise preened contentedly and occupied herself by scritching at his back, as if he were an irate kitty needing placations. "Dakota said the weapons were tablets, and they're quiet. So I figured that'd apply to you too, so."

She pulled back, a little, and gave him a lopsided grin. "We don't need to talk about it, or. You know. Whatever. But talking in general will do you good, because the quiet gets loud. And, since you don't talk that much, I can probably do the job for the both of us."

Clerise gestured at her materials. "Blanket forts are a sacred bonus."

"I know that," was Clerise's reply, punctuated by a subtle jab to his ribs, right in between two of them. "You are a man of few words. That, or your vocabulary is the size of Lichtenstein. Maybe some of column a, some of column b, yeah?" She snickered, pulling away with a ruffle to Otto's messy hair and an exaggerated kiss to his cheek.

She surveyed his room, stroking an invisible beard all the while. "I think I have enough sheets," Clerise muttered to herself. She pulled one out-- plain cotton, dark blue, and a plastic container holding zip ties and thumb tacks, which, for safekeeping, she put in her bosom.

And then she opened the top drawer of Otto's dresser, sliding the edge of the sheets in and sliding it shut. She grabbed a thumbtack out of the container and put it back down her shirt, and pinned it to the wall. Precarious, for now, and it'd need reinforcing.

"Will you get me your chair? Put it in the middle. Don't even give me that look, I will tickle the s**t out of you, Prodigy~"

Clerise's lips jumped into a grin. He didn't even wipe it off, maybe she didn't have cooties in Otto's eyes! Huh! When Otto brought the chair, the Life huntress once again pulled the plastic container out, getting a zip tie, and tying one of the corners to the back of the chair. She peered around the room, trying to figure out what she wanted to do next.

"Hmm...." Clerise went back to where Otto was standing, throwing an arm over his shoulder, casually invading his space as if he were a buffet and she was a broke intern. "Well, at least it's got a middle now," the redhead mused, trying to think of something to make things less...silent.

The redhead hummed, tapping her fingers against Otto's shoulder before digging in the wagon again, groping around for the RIGHT blanket.

She settled on a safe topic: "Have you eaten since you got back, Prodigy?"

Clerise offered Otto a sympathetic grin, and dug out a bar of chocolate, chucking it at him. He was a teenage boy, his reflexes were probably better than hers. "Hope you have a sweet tooth~ If not, I have some snacks in my room, I can go upstairs and grab them, if you want."

Funny how it had over a month now, of Clarice being back, and Clerise still considered the room to be hers. She just wasn't ready to give it up, apparently.

She went about putting another blanket up, attaching it to the chair and Otto's bed, this time. Clerise huffed momentarily. "I wish we had some ******** christmas lights. They're the best for lighting up the insides, and s**t. I swiped some runic flashlights, but who knows what they do. They're labeled
IN ALPHA TESTING, so we might be ********."

The two of them shared a sweet tooth, apparently. Clerise smirked, and resisted the urge to eat the other one. "Whatever you say, Prodigy~ Maybe I'll bring you some vodka. I doubt a teeny tiny thing like you could hold your liquor, though, huh?"

Oh, Clerise. You are a bad influence.

"I didn't wake up until like, February!" she said with a shrug. "I got here after the party was over, sorry~" The redhead's curiosity was piqued, though, by the mention of a celebration. "I'm surprised, I didn't know this place celebrated the holidays, or whatev."

"Are so," Clerise replied instantly, her voice taking on a sing song tone. "I adore you anyway, you know. Even if you're bite-sized." The redhead blew a raspberry in his direction, clearly playful. "It's not like you're going to get a growth spurt this late in the game, dude. Relish in the fact that you are small, and work it. Bitches call me a giant, I try to stomp on their toes."

Clerise frowned at the mention of Julie. "I see," she murmured. "Well. We may need to make our own cheer this year, huh?"

She was already plotting how to mass transport alcohol.