Arknights | Ikebana

[veryroundbird]

Rating: Mild
Words: 664
Characters: Matoimaru, Click
Summary: Click interviews Matoimaru about her hobbies for a Rhodes Island promotional video; it gets philosophical.
Notes: Written for an anon from my Pride Month 2021 requests.

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"Huh? You want to hear about my hobbies?"

Yeah—we're trying out doing a promotional video. Giving a little bit of personal color to the Rhodes Island staff and operators, to give off a friendly impression.

"Oh, that makes sense. I mean, people get kind of suspicious of us, right? Since we're an organization for the Infected—even though I'm not one, people say things like 'monster!' when they see me on the battlefield—"

Yeah, super weird. I mean, a battlefield's a battlefield, they should expect fighting.

"Right! So one of my hobbies is sparring! Oh, except I don't have anyone to spar with. Unless you want to? Oh, but you're filming—"

Hah, well, maybe it shouldn't be a combat thing, anyway. People know about that stuff already.

"Oh, duh, right! Well, I'm in charge of the Rhodes Island intramural soccer league! We need more teams, though."

Oh, yeah? Is soccer popular in Higashi?

"Eh, a little bit! There's a lot of sports, though. It's just nice to be able to stretch my legs like that, and have some fun friendly competition. There's a lot of things in the world that need to be taken seriously, so it's good to have something like that."

I hear that you're pretty ferocious on the field, though.

"Well, yeah! I don't want to do anything with anything less than my best."

Though they're still having to repair the goal nets...

"...ahaha, yeah, that's why the league's on hiatus... Although, I guess that leaves me more time for my other hobbies, for now!"

Oh, there's more.

"Well, I actually do a lot of flower arranging. I put out arrangements in our dormitory suite every week during my practice time."

How did you get into that? Just curious; it's a pretty different hobby.

"It's important to have, like—balance, right? And discipline, in practicing martial arts. And you've gotta keep that in mind in all the parts of your life."

So it's like, a gentle thing in contrast to all the fighting and competition?

"Sorta? But especially in martial arts, and here at Rhodes Island, we're in a lot of conflict, and see a lot of bloodshed and death. Ikebana is about preserving life, and being in harmony with nature.

"I guess you might get it more since you're out filming the world a lot! A lot of people think of nature as a thing that needs to be controlled to be able to live, like—with Catastrophes, and everything."

Well, yeah, it can get pretty scary out there if you're not well-equipped. But I think I see what you mean. It's sort of like adapting yourself to work with nature?

"Yeah! And also, since there's a lot going on—flower arrangement is also about constructing meaning, since all the flowers mean things. So it can be kind of like... making meaning out of the world."

That I definitely get. It's art, right? I think most art has that going on, where some of it's about trying to make sense of what's around you.

"Taking a lot of things together and weaving them into one coherent whole... something like that, anyway. I guess it's also kind of like Rhodes Island."

You think?

"Well, we're a lot of different people and everything. I know not everyone understands me, and I can't understand what it's like to be Infected, exactly. But we're making something together here, right?"

Yeah, I guess that's true. Lotta different people here, but everyone's working together.

"Exactly! And it still requires patience, but in the end it's beautiful. Is that the kind of thing you wanted to hear about?"

That's perfect, actually. I can use a lot of this—people are gonna love it.

"Nice! Although, there's one thing—"

Yeah?

"If you're going to put me in the video, can you still show me doing a cool thing with my sickle?"

Hah—yeah, listen, I wouldn't miss it. Lemme get set up to get a good shot.