[PRP] Creepy Guardian Angel (Tink & Aisha)

[iloveyouDIE]

Aisha was having a hard time. After her incident with Holly she'd had moods fluctuating from deep despair to complete confusion to roiling anger. She'd called her Papa who did his best to comfort her but told her that she needed to work through it. The emotions were tough because of her age and eventually they would settle.

Her emotional roller coaster had hit a steady level of mild depression this afternoon and the zombie was on the edge of the forest, where the trees were spaced far apart, listening to music and stewing. She was within view of the school buildings but was lost in her own little world of circular thoughts.

rejam

gimme dat bby lamb

 

[Rejam]

Catinka, on the other hand, was simply lost.

Or, well, sort of. She'd orient herself to face the school again, only to find herself distracted halfway there by a leaf scudding along in front of a breeze, or she'd walk down into a hollow where she lost sight of the school and when she came out find she'd totally lost her direction.

Truth told, though, she wasn't trying especially hard to be found again. Where Aisha was stewing, Catinka was fairly frolicking, enjoying the chance to stretch her legs, enjoying a day without the pressures of a schedule she'd inevitably fail to adhere to.

She eventually caught sight of someone else between the trees and far away, and hesitated. Yes, a day without pressure was enjoyable, but Catinka's kind moved in flocks, and so the idea of company was more enjoyable still. She thrived on chance encounters, although certain more recent ones had left her with a taste for caution. But surely most creeple were good, right?

On that note she trotted in the general direction of said company and--after occasionally getting sidetracked again--eventually found herself popping up between two trees, flustered and breathless and her scarf all askew, and opening her mouth to say something before the words died in her throat as she recognized Aisha as the girl from the booth and her cheeks went darker still. Had she had a friend handy to hide her face against she would have. As it was she simply pulled her scarf over her mouth to hide behind it and shyly said: "Oh. Hello."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Aisha's headphone blared noisely so it was only when the tiny ghoul's shadow fell across her did the zombie look up. She blinked in surprise, so sunken into her oversized hoodie that she looked like merely a skullface with glowing orange eyes until she slid the hood back to remove her headphones.

Aisha recognized Tink, though she didn't remember if she'd ever gotten her name. She seemed really nice so there would a concerted effort made not to be a drag.

"Hey..." She tucked a dread behind her ear. People didn't often stop to speak with her so she immediately jumped to conclusions. "Am I... in your way or anything?"

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[Rejam]

She cautiously lowered her scarf a bit to look left and right, in bewilderment at the many alternate routes of travel available to her.

"No," she decided, after giving it a few seconds of grave consideration. "Are you sitting on a secret tunnel?"

She was not making fun of her, or if she was, she was doing it with the straightest face in history.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Huh?" A tunnel? She hadn't quite grasped the train of thought but hopped up to check anyway. She poked and prodded with her foot to find nothing but dirt.

"Nope.. But I found a tunnel near the library the other day. My f-" She paused, face falling from the excitement of a good story into something slightly distraught.

"A ghoul I know found it.." Aisha muttered.

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[Rejam]

At the sudden shift in tone Catinka stopped hiding behind her scarf entirely, looking concerned.

"What was wrong with it?" she asked.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Nothing's wrong with it." She had to turn her headphones down because the thumping around her neck was louder in her ears than Tink's voice. "It led to the hot springs.. which is pretty cool, right?"

Aisha had the impulsive urge to just babble all her problems to Tink, everything all at once in a rush, but then the insecurity struck. Maybe this ghoul hated undead too? She didn't think any of them had reason to hate each other but she must have been wrong. She lapsed into contemplative silence for a few moments.

"What's you're name? I remember you from the festival.." Yes that was a better middle ground. Maybe lay all the cards out first and see what happened.

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[Rejam]

The shyness abruptly returned, as did the scarf pulled up in front of her mouth.

"Catinka," she said. "I remember you too. Can I sit down?" she added, apparently not feeling any hatred whatsoever. "I didn't know there were hot springs."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Oh yeah.." Aisha moved aside to spare a patch of grass and sat back down as well. Catinka was really cute, if not shy, but she could sympathize with the desire to just disappear into your clothes.

"I'm Aisha." Then almost blurted, with desperation to get off on the proper foot, "I'm a zombie."

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[Rejam]

"Oh! That's a pretty name," she said dreamily as she sat down (not very gracefully) and began absently twisting the fringe of her scarf between her fingers. She had only one hand to do this with: the other sleeve was knotted at the elbow and hung empty. "And I don't think I've met any zombies yet. You're the very first. I'm a sort of a ghost," she added politely. "Called a grim. Some of us are dogs. I am not a dog, though."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Common sense told her it was stupid to have a knot in her stomach when telling someone her species. Thankfully Tink was polite and unphased by it and the tension in her unraveled little by little.

"There's so many dogs around.. that's so last year." Aisha joked. "You're the first ghost I know too... I think!"

She'd found herself often feeling awkward in conversation, mostly because she didn't know what people wanted to talk about. It hadn't been so bad with Holly but...

"Hey uhh... is there any like," how could she ask without sounding bad, "species or anything that you don't like?" It was blunt, out of nowhere, but she had no one else to ask.

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[Rejam]

This question faintly baffled her, and her brow wrinkled in consternation, fingers falling still. Her eyes, milky and faintly luminescent, wandered away from Aisha's face as she considered the question solemnly.

"Yes," she said eventually. "I do not like Lurks-Beneath of Famine Clan, because he is a bully."

Apparently one Horseman counted for a species, or possibly Catinka was just confused by the question. It had, mercifully, spared her from politely asking where all of last year's dogs had gone this year.

"Why?"

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Oh.." Aisha piped, "I met a horse lady I didn't like. She was..." her mouth twisted. "Actually really, really awful." Another reminder of how difficult this place could be sometimes. She tried to brush the memory away.

"Oh ummm..." Aisha actually blushed a bit, ashamed to talk about it. The blush was more of a faint orange under the skin. "Someone told me they didn't like undead people.. that we were disgusting and gross and unnatural.." As she continued the words became quieter mutters. "It hurt my feelings. I can't stop thinking about it. I wanna.." She made shaking motions. "Just shake her and shake her until she understands."

rejam

 

[Rejam]

The perplexed look intensified at this.

The idea that one could arbitrarily decide to align themselves against an entire group of creeple was a new one, one that had never occurred to her, and it was strange and unpleasant and suggested frightening things about the world at large--an abrupt wondering if anyone had ever dismissed her outright because she was a ghost, because she was a ghoul, because she had hooves, because she had only one arm, for a whole list of reasons that might land her into some censured demographic.

"Oh. Why would she think that?" she asked, bewildered. "I don't understand. She must have been confused."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"I dunno.." Aisha fiddled with the worn edge of her sleeve. "We were friends I thought. We did things together but.. as soon as she found out I was a zombie.."

Aisha's shoulders rose and fell in a shrug of defeat. "I was really upset! And then sad.. and then I didn't understand," She exhaled heavily, the motion unneeded as she didn't breathe, but it was a comfort thing. "Now I'm kinda mad!"

Aisha now idly fiddled with her headphone cord. "I wanna.. I dunno. Yell and scream and just FORCE her to get it. But..." She pursed her lips in thought. "Maybe she's not even worth it, ya know?"

rejam