Welcome to Gaia! ::

Terra had been there all of--half a week! She totally counted three days as half a week! And she had found so many things! Including a pool of water that did not dry out every day at noon!

It was fascinating to the ghoul. In fact, she found herself sneaking out of her room that night, heading for this "lake" to see how the moon reflected off of it-- "Ahhhh, it is so beautiful!" she said as it came into sight. Her eyes were huge as she saw the reflection. It gleamed on the water and above the water and--ah, she was so happy!

She hesitated as she reached the rocky short, then dug through her pockets, pulling out a strange pedal with a cord attached to it. She placed it on the ground, then reached out, summoning her weapon. She hooked the cord to the violin, and got a super serious expression on her face as she tuned her violin.

She hadn't practiced in DAYS! She was a horrible student--horrible, horrible student! Revenge should not distract her from her art! Not that... she'd made any progress at all with the revenge...

"How did that song go..." she muttered, frowning slightly, before she began to play.

She was slowly coming to realize that she wasn't alone. Hesitating, Terra brought her bow down, looking at the undead on the shore. "Ah, lo siento," she said, flushing underneath her makeup. "I did not mean to interrupt someone."

She moved closer, scooping up her little pedal. "The moon, she is beautiful, no?" she said, seeing what he was looking at. "Both the moon and the reflection. I do not have such a beautiful sight where I come from--oh, but the desert is beautiful in itself," she admitted as she sat down on the shore about a foot away. "This is just a new beauty."

She turned, smiling at the boil. "I am Terra," she said. "Buenas tarde," she added.

"This is a present," she said, holding up the pedal. "It was a gift from my teacher--he bought it when he came to a big city like this, it has this little box on the side that allows me to play something and it keeps playing," she said, looking at the pedal curiously. She still wasn't sure how it worked--then again, she had only just been introduced to skelephones that weren't mounted to walls.

"I do not know why he chose to give me this, but it is one of my greatest treasures," she told him. "I am sorry you do not like the moon," she said, slipping the pedal into her pocket. "Are you homesick, as well?" she asked. "I have not been here long, but I am."

She felt guilty at that statement. "But--but I am not going to give up," she announced. "I will make mucho--many, many friends!" she decided. "And this will be my second home!" Then she looked at him, expectantly. "You will be my friend, no?" It was like being assaulted by a friendly puppy, that look. The poor boil.

She looked at him, as confused as he was as she tried to figure out what he meant. "I am asking if you will be my friend," she said finally. "Forgive me, I am not used to... speaking common all of the time. It is yet another reason why I find myself homesick," she admitted.

She was alone... with people that barely understood her half the time, and with a task at hand that she was worried she would not be able to accomplish. "I would very much like to have you as my friend," she finished.

"Boogey Tunas--" she repeated, surprised. Then she burst into laughter. "I do not boogey tunas! What have the tunas ever done to me? I am not even a boogey to do boogieing! It is buenas tardes -- good evening," she explained. "Buenas tardes and Gracias--they are the language of my home town, not common language, as they call the parts everyone understands," she explained.

Then she promptly threw her arms around his shoulder. "Gracias!! Thank you! Merope my friend!" she said happily. "I will happily be your friend!" she told him. "And we can be homesick together," she decided. "But that is harder to do because you are not so lonely," she added, trying to figure it out.

Ah well, she thought, smiling widely, she was happy, so it sort of mooted the point, anyway. "What is your home like?" she asked.

She grinned and squirmed at the poking, much like a little ghoul would. "I am from the desert! Los Muertos is--it is a beautiful little town with many beautiful Catrinas--they are lovely lady skeletons in beautiful, ruffly dresses--I try to do my makeup like them. Mi madre--my mother, she was one. She... decided that she had lived long enough," she said quietly. "She was very old."

Then she sighed, looking out at the moon on the water. "We celebrate Halloween, si, but we also celebrate Dia de Los Muertos--the day of the dead. So there are mucho--many, many fiestas where I come from," she said, smiling at him again. "There are parades and music and dancing... it is... very quiet here in comparison."

"I am glad you are here," she said after a long moment of thought. "I would not have liked it had you been eaten somewhere quiet and I had never met you," she decided. "It is interesting, though, how different the places we come from are. We are truly meeting in the middle!" she said, cheering up. "There is so much we can teach each other!"

She gave him a wide smile. "There is one thing I can do for you, if you feel it is too noisy, though," she said, scooting a little closer. "Would you enjoy some silence?"

"I can do this... thing," she said slowly. "It is what I like to call Silencio--or Silent Step. I can make myself and things around me silent. But it does not work as well as I would hope--and it terrified me very much the first time it happened. I was playing my violin at the time," she told him, grinning now that she looked back at it. "One moment I was playing--the next I was still playing, but there was nothing coming into being. I was stuck trying to tell people my problem with my hands for a full minute!"

Then she looked at him curiously. "What I was doing before? You mean practicing? I was trying to play one of the songs from the maul," she explained. "It is very pretty! I do not know if I am doing it right, though," she added, frowning as she tried to remember the song.