deadalready | 9th Swing [Video]

[The video lights up on Cato's face as he watches something off-screen with a very fixed look. Whatever it is, it grabbed his attention just before he opened his journal. It's only a few seconds before he looks back at the page and clears his throat.]

So does anyone want to tell me who's responsible for this --

[The video cuts away a moment, blurring as he shifts to stealthily show Clove hunkered down over some small piece of wood in her hands with a look of very intense concentration her face. There are little bandages peppering her fingers and she looks like she's trying to cut the little piece into something smaller. She keeps shaving away at it.

The video jerks back to Cato's very bemused face.]

I have no idea what she's doing. But it's been going on for days now and I'm a little....weirded out. Every time I tell her to stop because it's making her upset she just yells at me and she won't even show me what she's doing with it.

This is the first time she's cut herself with her knives in years. I don't think I've seen her this bad with one since we were thirteen and just starting out with our weapons.

Someone told her to do this, didn't they? It just...doesn't make sense for her.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Are her knives going blunt? Fuuko has cut Fuuko's hand before when the knife Fuuko was using was very worn out, it kept catching on the wood so Fuuko found it very hard to carve anything with it.

[On the journal, Fuuko holds up an old craft knife with a noticeably dull blade.]

[Cato looks much more attentive suddenly. Someone who seems like they know what they're talking about.]

That might be the problem? But she's normally pretty good about upkeep. We both are.

[Old habits die hard.]

And she won't exactly let me....look.

[It's almost embarrassing.]

Maybe she's carving something very important and she doesn't want anyone else to see it until it's finished. Fuuko would understand this!

[Makes sense to her. If she was carving something special and someone else saw it before it was done then that would ruin the surprise.]

But if the knife being blunt isn't the problem then maybe it's the wrong sort of knife for the job. Fuuko uses a smaller knife when carving smaller sculptures, a big knife would just be too dangerous and very horrible to use for that sort of thing.

I guess.

[This girl knows her stuff. Cato will remember that for future reference if Clove needs help. He doesn't really care that she's carving - it kind of makes sense when you know Clove that she'd want to do it. But he just wants to know who gave her the idea in the first place.

Cato peeks over at Clove one more time; he's got a sort of adequate view of her but what she's doing is completely concealed with the way she's hunched over it.]

The knife she's using right now looks pretty small. Could it just be that she's new at it?

Yes, that could be it! You don't just become an expert wood carver in a day, unless you know someone with special powers that can do something like that.

[Since for all she knows there is someone around who can make you become an expert at something in no time at all. Magic and such.]

Please tell her to carve away from herself and to keep her fingers far away from the knife! That might seem obvious, but Fuuko assures you that it's important to remember where your fingers are when you're carving.

[Cato nods, looking rather diligent in taking this all in.]

I'll do that.

Can I call you up if she has more problems? She wouldn't do it herself, I don't think.

If you want to! Fuuko is very adult-like, so of course Fuuko can handle a call like that.

[Seems as though now would be a good time for introductions, even if she's been saying her name this whole time anyway.]

Fuuko's name is Fuuko Ibuki. Who should Fuuko be expecting to call?

[The name thing is a little weird but he's seen it before in his District - usually in crazy people but hey, he won't judge. (Shockingly.)]

Cato. And I can give you a call whenever she starts...complaining again.

[That might be sooner than later.]

Okay! Fuuko will be waiting. Please remember that Fuuko can only handle the carving part of the call and not the complaining part. It would be horrible if Fuuko had to handle something like that.

[He smirks a little.]

Don't worry about it. You'll get only carving questions. I swear.

[Phew, well that's a relief.]

That's good, Fuuko feels a lot better about getting a call now. If you really came to Fuuko and you were complaining about the complaining then Fuuko wouldn't know what to do. Fuuko is nothing like a customer service desk after all!

A what?

[Dystopian future children don't know about the magical world of customer service and 'please hold'.]

[It's probably a good thing Cato has never heard about the dangerous, magical world of customer service.]

A customer service desk? Fuuko hopes a desk like that is not really something strange and different in your world than it is in Fuuko's. Fuuko is definitely not trying to say anything weird at all!

[It's the little things.]

No, I know what a desk is. [Duh.]

What's customer service?

Oh, well that's good! [Not all worlds might have desks!]

Customer service is something supermarkets offer to customers to make sure they're happy with what they have. For example, if Fuuko bought a craft knife but it was already done, Fuuko would tell customer service and they would do something about it! Now that Fuuko thinks about it, more places than just supermarkets have customer service...