Sweet Grotesque IC

[Penny Royals]

It was five o'clock in the evening, the hot summer air rolling through the orphanage. The fires were long gone, fans were started and the air conditioners on the ground floor were on full-blast. The heat had come early this year- June was yet to leave and the temperatures were already in the hundreds. The adults were trying hard to keep the kids all happy and healthy- already a few of the younger ones were in the infirmary with heat illness and dehydration. It was now mandatory for every kid to drink a specific amount of water throughout the day, as issued by the nurse, Petra.

Sarah sat up in her room, half-dressed, using one of her old plastic and paper hand fans to try to cool down. She'd gotten a rather bad sunburn on her back, and it was still aching, really. Through her open window, she could see the sun setting beyond the trees, and could smell the far-off sea air. With a small sigh, she set down her fan, walked over to her dresser, put on an airy dress, and left her room.

The coolness of the hallways caught her then. She never really thought about it, but they were always drafty, and even in one hundred degree weather that was just how it was. She walked down, and turned a corner...

To come face to face with Origen, quite literally, bumping straight into the monster's chest. She fell back with a small cry. The monster's head looked down at her, the faces on the chest and the back moving from a state of calm to a state of panic and pain. Sarah closed her eyes tightly then, crawling over to the wall to lift herself up before opening them and running down the stairs. Maybe some of the other kids were up?

[lovely corte]

Omar was doing his best to keep in shape, to keep the regime he had set over the past year. Physically, he thought he was at his peak, but emotionally he was at the brink.

On his hands and toes, doing push-ups, he could hear the constant banter that degraded Omar his entire life, pretty much.

"You fucking failure!" Vulgar yelled, slurping on salt from the bag of chips he had oh-so kindly taken to eating everytime Omar would work out, "You've done thirty in ya' head, but you've only done like ten. Fucking nipples, Omar. Nipples hit the ground!"

Omar was done. It was bad enough being hot, sweaty, disgusting and icky, but having this constant bullshit put on him made him hate his life.

He grabbed the towel next to him, and his spare stack of clothes, and walked out into the hallway, heading for a shower to clean up, get fresh and maybe help with dinner. He walked to the constant degrading of Vulgar telling him he was chubby and that he'd never get a girlfriend.

[Anya the Purple]

One thing Sia didn't miss about her old life was the lack of paperwork. Which, as it turned out, there was a lot to do here. She and Teddy had been here since early afternoon, filling out all sorts of grant forms, IRS forms, and who knows what other kinds of forms. And it looked like they still had quite a ways to go.

"I'm gonna get a coffee. Want anything?" asked Teddy, standing up and stretching. Sia shook her head, intent on her work. "'Kay. Be right back," Teddy said, exiting the room.

As soon as he left, Jinn moved closer. Sia kept her eyes on her paperwork, determined not to meet the girl's blank gaze. She'd gotten used to this, but she still wouldn't look at what she had decided could only be a ghost.

~~

Meanwhile, Teddy was dawdling on his way to the kitchen, wanting to spend as much time out of the cramped, stuffy office as possible. The hallways were nice and cool, and he ambled towards the kitchen as slowly as was plausible.

Clearly, one of the little girls didn't share his wish to linger in the hallway. "Woah there," he said, catching her before she barreled into him. "What's the hurry... Sarah?" he asked, hating that he had to pause and think before he remembered her name. He tried to connect with these kids, he really did, but he just didn't have his uncle's talent.

[Penny Royals]

Sarah was suddenly stopped by Teddy. She nodded at the whole name thing.

"I... well... I was just... coming down here to see if anybody else was here, Teddy." She told him. It WAS the truth, really. She was just leaving out the bit about Origen. "Sorry I was running. Did I disturb anything?"

She was looking around her, making sure there were no small children she hadn't seen and had stepped on or knocked over in her flight.