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 Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 12:25 pm
Danny was late. She was sooo late. This nice red ghoul had promised to tutor her, and she was already late! Danny's black sneakers skidded on the smooth school tile as she rounded the corner, letting out a tiny squeak.
She had her snapsack with her, filled with papers and pencils (you used those to study, right?), but as she was running down the halls, quite a few were dropped out and fluttered to the ground uselessly. At least Danny was leaving a trail. Then again, it was never really hard to find her. Just look for a room filled with things burnt to a crisp.
Still, she was really excited for this meeting. Not for the tutoring part of course- studying sucked. No, she was excited for the lunch she had brought to eat afterwards. She had made herself one of the greatest sandwiches known to man, and planned to share it with the ghoul who was supposed to tutor her. It was going to be the best lunch ever.
Speaking of the ghoul, apparently she was named Taryn. Danny had only met her once, and couldn't really remember anything except how she looked and her name. As soon as she had offered to tutor the flame demon though, Danny had taken her offer. She had promised herself at the beginning of the school year that she wasn't going to fail any classes so she could make her mummy and deadie proud. Of course, that was an extremely slim chance, but hey- why not give herself a little advantage?
Finally the door to the library came into her sight. Honestly, Danny had never been in the library. It was all rather foreign to her. Her idea of a "good time" wasn't sitting with a bunch of books- it was lighting them on fire (which she had asked to do, and been gruffly told no with astonished faces from the librarian).
She dashed into the library looking around for the Taryn girl. Where was it she said they would meet again?
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Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 4:45 pm
Honestly, Taryn hadn't even noticed that her study partner was late. It was still within the marked time that she had been arranging her supplies on a table out of the way at the back of the library. It wasn't her fault that she'd seen a new publication on human climates! She'd wandered over to the booklet and took it out to read, standing in the aisle as she did so, and as she returned it to its place saw an illustrated piece on thermodynamics. She'd always enjoyed having visual aids...
It had gone from there, from book to book and aisle to aisle until the chimera ghoul was totally lost in the words of others. She felt kind of guilty, as she stood there with a cookbook in her hand and nobody to smack it away. Maybe she'd borrow it. Maybe nobody had to know. Taryn had no idea of the time when she heard someone thunder in and start toward the back. Oh, Jack damn it, she had to tutor. She tucked the cookbook under her arm, beneath a botany pamphlet she had found, and peered around the aisle herself. Yes, there was the familiar shock of red hair and hyperactivity that she had met earlier in the week. Having never honestly tutored before, she breathed deep and exhaled with a sigh.
How bad could it be?
She remembered to smile about halfway to meeting the ghoul... Danny, right? It had been a male name... and raised a hand in greeting.
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Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 1:35 am
Danny glanced around looking for her mysterious tutor. Oh there she was! At least, Danny thought that was her ... after all, Danny had only met the ghoul once, and had sort of forgotten what she'd looked like. The red skinned ghoul was standing there with a bunch of books and ... and glasses though! This just had to be her tutor.
Danny threw her scrapsack into a chair and said, "Uhm ... I'm Danny. You're my tutor, right?" No no, Danny wasn't about to play it cool. She was going to bluntly ask whether or not Taryn was the right person.
This could get awkward if it wasn't the right ghoul ...
Either way, Danny started pulling out odds and ends from her bag. First came the basics, some pencils, a stack of paper. Then came odder things: a loaf of bread, a toy race car. Last, but not least, Danny pulled out the grand finale.
It was a giant, leather bound book with two locks formed from bones and a jaw. The book was covered in a sort of furry texture, which was oddly soft to the touch. The oddest thing about the book was definitely the eye that was stuck smack dab in the center of the cover. It was blue and ... pulsating? Danny hadn't quite remembered it doing that.
Carefully she set it on the table, and said, "Uhm ... so ... how do we start?" Danny had been tutored by a lot of folks. A lot of folks had left her after one study session. She was used to a lot of different styles of teaching, and from experience she knew that every tutor had a different method of getting the pupil to retain knowledge. She would just have to pry open what this ghoul wanted her to do.
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Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:16 am
"Yes, I think so..." Taryn responded, and immediately felt like an idiot for it. She remembered this ghoul, her name, her looks, she didn't think she was the tutor, she knew so. Maybe it had been a last-ditch effort to bail on the whole ordeal before there was time to begin. The ghoul was somewhat unnerved by the contents of her pupil's bag... bread? A toy car? Just what kind of teaching did she expect to go on here?
Taryn politely sat down and looked over her materials. She had paper and pencils herself, along with textbooks and reference material spanning several subjects. Come to think of it, they hadn't really discussed much what was expected to go on here. Maybe that had been a bad idea.
"Well..." the chimera began, "Do you have any tests coming up? Any subjects you need more help in?" She finally looked up to Danny, praying that there was something specific needing assistance. It had been her understanding that Danny was coming to her for help, not to learn a slew of random information. Besides, this ghoul looked like she might be a bit of a pain to teach...
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Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 6:42 pm
Danny took "I think so" as a complete conformation. She smiled happily as though she had known Taryn her whole life. Taryn might have been unnerved, but it was just the way Danny was.
Already Danny had dragged another chair over and put her feet on top of it. Any pretenses about this being a library were out the door. As far as Danny was concerned, if she was studying, she wanted to be comfy. Her mind drifted back to her bed with all it's pillows on it looking so nice and squishy and if she just slept on it for a second ...
No! Danny Shook her head to clear that thought out. Study first, lollygagging later. She picked up the loaf of bread and tore off a chunk. Her hands lit up for a split second to toast it (she was careful not to get any of Taryn's nice books on fire) and then threw it in her mouth. Nothing like burnt crispy bread.
With a full mouth she said, "Um welf ... dere's diff one fing," she swallowed and then continued, bread still in hand, "In Sex Ed, Cricket said to find out what mating means. I greugled it, but it was really weird, and there were pictures of pumpkins everywhere."
She paused to take another bite of bread, then continued telling her epic quest to find the meaning of mating. "So I went to the library the other day and found this book, but every time I try to open it the stupid thing just snaps at me and then growls. See watch!" As she spoke the last two words she reached over to unlock the book by the little clasp on the side. Immediately the book starting snapping and ... well sort of barking at her like a dog.
Danny slowly brought her hand away and the book returned to a slight simmering hiss in her direction. "So yeah I un really know what to do," she said. Danny tossed a final chunk of bread in her mouth and looked at the chimera ghoul expectantly.
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 9:17 am
Although Taryn found the demon ghoul's manners to be lacking, she said nothing about it. She was hired on to tutor this ghoul, not give her a lesson on proper library behavior. It was becoming steadily clearer that Danny didn't spend much time studying as it was.
The chimera winced as her companion chomped on a bit of bread and began speaking with her mouth full. How foul! She forced her face to relax, though, and she tried to focus on Dann'y eyes and forehead rather than her lips, but she couldn't seem to control herself when she heard the class.
Sex Ed?!
Taryn's cheeks went hot and her eyes went wide, and one may describe her posture as suddenly sinking into herself. Oh, by Jack, she couldn't believe this was happening! She hadn't even taken the class, and had planned to not at all! What in the world was she supposed to do, tutoring a ghoul on Sex Ed?!
The ghoul realized she was panicking, and she forced herself to take a long, deep breath. Alright. She could do this. It was only a definition. She flipped through the dictionary at her elbow and came to the proper page, heaving a sign before speaking.
"To pair or join for breeding," she read aloud, feeling her ears begin to burn as well. She forced herself again to look up at Danny, her face twisted into an uncomfortable frown. "So it's the... act of... making a baby..." Oh, Jack help her, she was going to die right here. "The... the wishing, I assume..."
Of course, it meant something entirely different when it came to animals. Oh, Jack...
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 10:50 pm
If it was possible for the reddish chimera ghoul to get any redder, she was certainly doing a good job of it. Danny watched her worriedly and flicked her tail back and forth as Taryn read the long explanation. Something was definitely wrong, but if Danny had figured it out, she certainly wasn't showing an signs of recognition.
Okay, something was definitely up when the ghoul stopped talking all together. Danny was worried the sickness she had last week had maybe started to somehow infect Taryn from afar. Did illnesses work like that? Hell if Danny knew.
Still, she felt as though she should say something so she carelessly blurted out, "Uhhhh are you okay? We can stop if you don't feel good. You don't look good at least. Your face is going all red. Do you have a fever or something? I was sick last week, it might be my fault." She was very excited to use the word "fever" because she had just learned it a few days ago.
Danny would gladly take Taryn to the nurse (if only for the chance at petting Cricket's bugs again), but part of her also wanted to stay and continue the lesson. Truthfully, Danny still didn't know how a baby was made. Cricket had said something about fear mixing, but Danny had always been taught that a couple went to the pumpkin patch, filled out a form and then the next day a magical undead stork carried the pumpkin to the couple. Cricket had said that was wrong though, didn't she? Danny tapped her hands on the desk. "If you wanted to do this another day we could?" Her voice was filled with half-hearted concern. She really did want to learn, surprisingly.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:00 am
Oh, boil. Apparently Taryn's embarrassment hadn't been lost on the other ghoul, even if it had been misconstrued. If anything her blush deepened, and she looked down at her lap and wrung her hands together. She had been expecting to tutor botany or human studies, not sex ed of all things. She'd never... done the deed herself, and her figurative future children weren't even twinkles in her eye, so talking about it was one of the very most awkward things that could ever happen.
"I'm fine," she reassured Danny, taking a deep breath and sighing. She could make it through this, all she had to do was imagine everything in a clinical light. This was what specifically-gendered people did, and how everyone in Halloween made babies. It was natural. She could do this.
Having no source material on the subject, Taryn was forced to look back up at her pupil, lacing her fingers together on the open dictionary and steeling herself against whatever was going to come.
"We can do it now, it's okay," she nodded, sounding much more confident than she felt, "What is it you don't understand, exactly...?" That was it, treat it like mathematics!
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 2:09 am
This tutor seemed a bit slow. No, not slow. Flustered? Was she angry at Danny? The fire demoness automatically shrank back in her seat. She didn't do well with angry people. Then again, maybe she was just having a bad day? Or maybe she was hungry- Danny always got upset with people when she was hungry. Hell, Roch would probably beat someone up if he ever got really hungry (not normal hungry, since he was never hungry).
Danny just decided to keep a stiff upper lip. After all, she was here to study, and studying was going to be done dang nabbit! "Well, we could either look through your dictionary and greugle to find out what mating is ..." Somehow Danny didn't think that method would get very far. After all, she had already attempted the greugle, and it hadn't worked out well. Then again, Taryn could probably search a lot better than her ...
Continuing her thought, Danny said, "... or we could attempt to get this book open." She patted the fuzzy eyed book, and it almost seemed to purr in response. For a book, it was really rather alive. Then again, a lot of books in Halloween were alive. It wasn't that surprising to find animate books.
Danny decided to play with her toy car that she had brought- simply out of nervousness. She didn't run it along all of the shelves like she would've if she was alone. No, she simply rocked it back and forth in her hands like a kid biting their nails or pulling on hair. It was in Danny's nature to fiddle and fidget- and that was exactly what she did.
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 6:38 pm
"Mating..." Taryn repeated, oddly unphased by the word. It was clinical as well, something to learn about rather than be embarrassed about. The problem was... just what had the teacher been referring to? The act of reproducing, or perhaps... intercourse? She couldn't be sure until she went through the text the Amityville professors referenced, and then she could never tutor this subject.
...not that she wanted to ever again.
The feeling of failure was niggling at the ghoul, though, and she turned to look down at the book. It certainly hadn't looked happy in the first place, but it had calmed. How to get it to open and stay open, though? Manhandling it was out of the question with jaws like that... but there was always a way. She turned to Danny again and tilted her head. "Can I have some of your bread...?"
She couldn't be entirely certain, but maybe this book had a stomach as well. Perhaps it could be teased and bribed like a minipet, although they'd certainly have to be careful with their hands once they got it open.
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 10:26 pm
Danny looked at her bread sadly and then back to the ghoul. Give away her bread? But ... but it was her bread. Danny held the moldy loaf closely like it was her own scareling. Part of Danny wanted to just shove the ghoul off and tell her to get her own bread.
But ... if she was hungry, Danny would feel bad about starving her. Being hungry was never a good feeling.
Alright, she would do it. Just this one time. She would be a good denizen and lend her bread. Carefully, she tore off a chunk and gave it to the ghoul. Internally, she was mourning the loss of her precious bread, but externally she said, "H-here you go."
That was definitely all she was getting though. Danny nodded in determination and told herself, that's all she's getting! No more bread would be shared today!
... Unless Taryn used some puppy dog eyes. Danny would probably fall for that ploy instantly. She just couldn't deny someone who was hungry!
Now Danny hadn't figured out that the bread wasn't going to the ghoul, but instead to the book. She hadn't put two and two together- heck she hadn't even put one and one together. For now, she would just mourn the loss of her bread.
Taryn better not have her eyes on the toy car too.
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 9:32 am
Boy, that ghoul was sure protective of her bread, wasn't she? Taryn gave her a bit of a confused look as she held her hand out to take the morsel, but that was the only Look she got. The chimera ghoul's attention turned right back to the book. She could honestly say that she had never met a text this active or this willing to remove fingers. This would be a chore.
"Hey, boy, you want some?" Taryn teased, holding the bread within view of the book's eyes. She wiggled the bit of food just out of reach. "Open up~"
Would this work? Probably not, the ghoul thought, but how many options did they have? The book clearly had no desire to open previously, and while some stroking had gotten it to calm down, she was certain it wouldn't remain that way. Of course, there was also the question of how to keep it open once they got it there.
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 3:15 pm
WHY WAS SHE FEEDING THE BREAD TO THE BOOK?
This made absolutely no sense. First she made Danny give up the bread, and now she was just throwing it away by giving it to a book that didn't want it! This was absolutely unheard of. Totally bonkers.
Except it wasn't. Almost as soon as she brought the bread closer to it, the book began slowly opening its "jaw." What in the world. Books didn't eat. Books just sat there and looked dumb because they involved reading. Then again, Danny didn't know very many books. She never read, so how would she know what they were like? For all Danny knew, all books had to be fed, she just never bothered to.
Danny was beginning to think maybe this ghoul wasn't a very good tutor. Her mother had always told her that the best tutors make the best tutors but ... well Danny liked Taryn. Taryn didn't yell at her, or force her to write things she didn't understand a million times. Even if she didn't learn anything, Danny definitely liked Taryn. She would much rather have fun learning something than be the best at knowing it.
"So... what now?" she said, referring to the book being open now.
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 4:13 pm
Aha! Success! Taryn slowly slipped a hand into the book's... mouth? Ugh. She got one hand in and, before the beast could snap shut, slipped in the hand containing the bread in and smacked the book open flat. Hah! So, barring any unusual feats of strength by the book, they could keep it open so long as she didn't move. The chimera ghoul grinned triumphantly, even if she did feel a bit bad about near-abusing what was apparently a living creature, and looked down to the source material.
"I, uh..." she began, looking down at the book. It would snap down on her wrists given the opportunity, she just knew it. She nodded to Danny and then back down at the book. "If you flip the pages, I think we can do this," she grinned, experienced an ever-rare adrenaline rush. She lifted her thumb on one side so Danny would be able to grab the page in the first place, prepared for an epic page-turning maneuver.
The awkwardness that Taryn had initially felt was gone. This ghoul, however odd, was pleasant enough company, and if she could teach her properly then all the better. Once she knew what the professor had been referring to, she would have a much better grasp on the subject. As much as she wished it was, this was not maths. She couldn't run Danny through a few equations and call it a day. On the other hand, she had somewhat fallen from her position as teacher in not quite understanding the subject herself. They were nearly equals, and that was a much more comfortable position to be in for a very first lesson.
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 6:02 pm
Woah. Brainy ghoul got some skill! Danny was actually pretty impressed that she snapped the thing open and still holding the pages down. Danny clapped enthusiastically for the ghoul. It was quite a feat after all! The book was putting up a bit of a fight, but it could tell it had lost. It was slowly going into silent purrs.
On the downside, it looked like Taryn was getting a little tired too. Besides, it was Danny's book- she didn't want Taryn getting bitten because of it! Danny slid her hands over the pages onto the covers and held it down together with Taryn. "Howsabout I hold it and you flip? You'd know what you're lookin' for anyways, right?"
Surprisingly, now that the book was open, it wasn't all that hard to keep down. It was a fighter, but nothing too bad. She could handle it. It was just getting it open that was the hard part. With her thumbs, she stroked the furry cover and whispered, "There there wittle guy. After this, you can have all the bread you want!"
Complete and utter lie. Danny wasn't giving up her bread for anything!
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