[ prp ] when we were young ( lurks & tink + reese )

[its me debz]

(post-sahara)

He didn't remember where he got the chalk, but it was his now, and with it he drew boxes and circles and squiggly lines on the sidewalk, smiling as he did. He traced his toes, he traced the cracks in the pavement, eventually settling on his course.

Lurks Beneath was going to play shadowhop, and--

"Hey," he said to the unwitting intruder as she wandered over his hard work, alarmed, "you are in my way."  

[Rejam]

She obligingly danced backwards a few clumsy steps, damn near tumbling over as she did so in her hurry to get out of the way. "In the way" was Catinka's usual place of residence, and she would forget in thirty seconds that she'd felt bad about being there once more, but that was thirty seconds from now and her face was a picture of pained, confused apology.

"Oh, goodness. I'm sorry, I--I was--oh! this is that game," she said delightedly, derailed as she examined the lines her red-painted hooves had just scuffed up. "I tried to play once but the other girl was so tall, you know, with such long legs, and she put the squares all big and far apart and it I didn't do a very good job, really. Who are you playing with?" And then, politely: "Also, my name is Catinka, and if you like I can show you my things, they are very nice. I am sorry I did not knock you down first."

astrazilla

 

[its me debz]

"It is fine," Lurks replied, after a pregnant pause before deeming her apology acceptable, "but you should draw in more to replace what you made go away." Lurks fluttered to his box of chalks, rummaging through them until he found the reddest red in the small, pilfered collection.

He handed it to her, his hands of skeleton-bone and shadowy centipedes, beaming suddenly.

"I am playing with them," he said, and a wispy bug fell to the ground, wriggling, and a moth flew from his mouth, waiting. "But you can play too, even if you are not going to be as good as Mother or Something That Waits or the Original."

Not that the Original had wanted to play anything very much at all. He gleefully ignored the rest of her words, finding them unimportant.  

[Rejam]

"You will probably win," she said, and she sounded mournful but it didn't last. "Thank you for letting me play also." She gathered up her skirts, tucking them neatly into her waistband so that she could kneel without ruining them (lacking a free hand to keep them in), and began marking the ruined lines back out with, it must be said, a certain degree of artistic care. She may or may not have drawn a few red flowers on red vines climbing them.

"Is it hard to play games with them?" she indicated the shadowy shape on the ground, adding dreamily: "Once I wanted to teach the bells how to play Cat's Cradle because I don't have enough hands but they don't have any hands, so I tried to teach them how to play hide and seek instead, but it is not hard to find a bell unless it holds very still and they are bad at it, even worse than I am at this game."

astrazilla

 

[lizbot]

Quietly, a small distance away, Reese sat cross-legged, floating an inch off the ground as she watched the two interact. Catinka nearly falling made her frown, but the one in all the cloth was not terrible to her. It was acceptable. For now. Carefully, in a notebook she'd found abandoned on the way, Reese copied over the drawing of this game, and waited for them to proceed. The grim's addition was particularly pleasing in a way that Reese found pride in by extension, which was worth considering at a later time.

It's possible that she should greet Tink, but she'd done that just the other day and this was new. She wanted to see what would happen.  

[its me debz]

Lurks watched with curiosity as she drew, chirping pleasantly as she drew the flowers of his clan.

"Those are mine," he proclaimed, shining with pride, "from home, from mine. I am Famine."

It wasn't far from the truth: he was a piece of a well-oiled machine, a cog that settled nicely into place. Against all odds, Famine would survive. Even under duress they would thrive, quiet utilitarian weapons of destruction and drought and terror. He was horrible because it was home.

"Yes," Lurks said, not differentiating whether he was referring to her admission of his coming victory or answering her question, and after a moment of curious observation at Tink's precarious balance--

Pushed her over.  

[Rejam]

She toppled easily, in a swirl of heavy wool and flailing hooves, and she hit the ground with a thump that would have winded her had there been air in her lungs.

She remained motionless for a blink, gazing at Lurks with a baffled lack of comprehension, and then, gently, without a change in that gently bewildered face at all, her eyes filled with tears.

astrazilla

 

[its me debz]

Lurks stared at her impassively, with an air of light curiosity and no regret.

"Oh," he said, kneeling down in front of her holding a hand in front of his face as he laughed just a little, entertained by her flail and topple. Lurks patted her head, bony fingers carding through her hair lightly, gently, like he had played with the Original. "I was very very curious," Lurks explained, "what would happen."

Unlike the Original and other humans, Tink did not shake when she cried: there were only tears, silent and inoffensive. The chalk was smudged just so where she fell, but he supposed he'd excuse her for it. "I'm bored. Let's play now."

Lurks made no move to help her up.

rejam

 

[lizbot]

Something that seemed much, much heavier than it should be slammed into Lurk's side. Fists clenched, Reese stared down at it with wide, glowing eyes. "CRUEL."

Turning away she offered Catinka a hand to help the other ghoul up, face grimly unhappy.

astrazilla

rejam

 

[Rejam]

She took the offered hand and scrambled gracelessly back to her feet, the chalk she'd been drawing with a crushed-up pile that she left behind, and she scrubbed her eyes on her shoulder so she wouldn't have to let go of Reese's hand as she smiled a watery smile and said: "He was just curious. Hello. Are you also going to play?"

She was not sure she still wanted to, but it seemed rude not to.

lizbot

astrazilla

 

[its me debz]

Lurks toppled with a screech, recovering swiftly in a swirl of cape and scarves and a small, buzzing swarm of shadowy bugs. "That," he said with a frown, "is a very very fitting name for you!"

He blew a raspberry at Cruel, watching her help Catinka stand.

"Cruel cannot play," Lurks said, loftily, "it is my game, and she cannot, because she is Cruel, and also I say so." It was extremely circular logic, logic that wasn't nearly as bulletproof as he thought it was.

"It's true! I am very very curious about a lot of things. I was going to ask if you have met the Mother, but no one here has, so it is very sad indeed." A moth fluttered out of his ribs, leaving behind a sinewy trail of shadow in the air before landing on the grim's head, as if it were a hairclip.

"It is called shadowhop and Catinka can go first."

Lurks then, of course, did not explain the rules, and instead circled back around them and pushed them both along towards the starting point, Cruel only being moved because she was connected to Catinka, and it was Catinka's turn.

"Go on! I will keep you company!"

rejam

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

Reese held on and offered a grim smile. She did not want to play. She wanted to take Tink away and clean her face and explain what kinds of curiosity were not okay. She understood curiosity. She enjoyed the pursuit of it. But she knew some things were not okay. And hurting Catinka for the sake of curiosity was not okay.

The air grew heavy and ominous as she stared at the creature in robes while he gave her an incorrect name and denied her the right to play. With a frown, Reese considered the foolishness of this person but was distracted by the strange piece of shadow that had landed in Tink's hair. Was it dangerous? Was it another curiosity.

She reached up to pluck it out, even as Famine urged them toward the game.

rejam

astrazilla

 

[its me debz]

It did not try to escape. Instead, it just fluttered in Reese's grasp, wispy around the edges.

lizbot

 

[Rejam]

"Her name isn't Cruel," said Catinka gently, gazing in bafflement at the shadowy thing plucked from her hair. The tears were already drying out, the wrong quickly forgotten. "Her name is Reese, and she is lovely, and has nice things. She would never push me down," she added, and it was less accusingly than apologetically explanatory. "But I wish you would let her play."  

[its me debz]

Cruel held one of his friends, and stayed silent. Catinka corrected him, and did not make much sense.

"Cruel is a better name," Lurks proclaimed, decisive, primarily because it had been his decision and therefore superior to whatever reality was. "I want to see your things," he finally said, directing it to the both of them. He had no intent to destroy them: mostly, he wanted to inspect, to cling to, to investigate with his shadowy extensions of self. Destruction, of course, was still on the table: he was over-eager and frequently found next to broken fragilities.

(Oops, he'd say, eyes wide with no remorse at all and clutching the shards of a vial. Oops.)

"Why?" Lurks asked, "she won't be very good. You won't be, too, but I want to see."

Catinka's failure, of course. That is what he wanted to see.

He was curious.

rejam

lizbot