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This was ridiculous. Merope knew that deep down, he she should have known how to do it. It looked so easy! How could she screw up something that simple? She failed. Failed. Bombed it. Should she even bother going to the peer study? She already tried three times; what was the point in trying further.

When she got the text message, Merope dragged herself to the meeting place, dragging her talons as she concentrated on wrestling with the jerking box in her hands. The shrubbery Professor Malcom sent to her room was not content to be in its box, and Merope had the sinking feeling that the bush was the same one she had attempted to intimidate in class.

“Um,” Merope began, looking up at the Siren in the tree. “Are you... Israfel? Will you stop that!” She snapped at the box at her hands as it shook, attempting to lunge free.

This was Israfel? Merope stared at the knob, trying to think. He seemed familiar, yet... Christmas? Was this the same purple-haired person who helped her then-his tongue from the metal pole there? No -- that person looked different. They sound a bit similar, but...

Merope pushed those thoughts aside, nodding. “Yeah, I’m Mer-” She clung to the box before finally dropping it. Stunned, the box didn’t move as Merope sat on it to pin it down. “Argh! This stupid thing! If I wasn’t sitting on it I’d kick it!” She hissed, crossing her arms in anger. “I just... I just -- nevermind. Yes, I’m ready to learn.” The undead ghoul ran a quick hand though her hair, trying to smooth her expression into neutral. “What do we start with?”

The ease at which Israfel grabbed his shrubbery was a bitter pill to swallow. He did it so easily! But wait. Was Israfel a he? Merope couldn’t help but to narrow her eyes into a squint as she scrutinized the winged student. The long, multicolored hair along with the frilly clothes and -- were those heels? According to the skellyvision, either Israfel was a chicken or totally ~*~FABULOUS~*~.

Or Israfel was neither which made the train of thought pointless. Even though genders had little time or place in Halloween, a majority of students she had encountered reacted rather... poorly to Merope’s choice, often gaping at her in surprise before outright asking about it. It was strange. For such a small thing, Merope did not feel comfortable talking about the change or the situation that prompted said change to any of them.

Merope sighed, realizing that thinking about it wouldn’t get her any closer to her goal, or towards working on the task at hand. “Great,” she grumbled as she stood up, getting ready to remove the box. “Just great. Stupid minipet, stupid homework, stupid assignment. Here I go.”

The undead ghoul removed the lid, and...



"Jackdamnit!" Merope cursed as the shrubbery wiggled in her arms, forcing her to drop it. Luckily it merely fell into the box. The ghoul made another snatch for it, this time getting a good grip around the body of the pet itself.

"Done! Now what?"

Where did she get her new assets? Easy: the Part Mart where undead can buy just about anything of varying quality and quantity. Merope’s research on the parts resulted in her losing interweb privileges until she managed to clear it up with the student board.

Israfel’s suggestion made Merope nearly drop the bushy minipet as she struggled to maintain a grip on it. “By how this one is acting,” Merope said in her still quite male voice, “You’d think that it is still wild!”

She maneuvered it around, hefting it up in order to stare into the bush. Was it looking back? Merope couldn’t tell. All she had to do was focus her Fear into her gaze, right? Israfel made it look so easy! Merope could feel the doubt settling in, and just thinking about it was enough to hurt.



Merope wasn't the only one who noticed. The minipet seized the opportunity and hissed, striking quickly with its claws at the offending hands holding onto it. Merope yelped, dropping the minipet as she tried to get a good look at her wounds. The minipet took the opportunity to run off, into the bog.

"Jackdamnit!" Merope cursed, lashing out to kick the box. "This sucks!"

"What?! JACKDAMNIT!" Merope yelled, giving the box another kick. She was a failure! She couldn't even do such a simple task! How could she delude herself into thinking that she would be able to do the task that was put before her? It was a mess! She was going to fail, nothing was going to work out, she --

Merope jumped, stumbling after Israfel as he pulled her along after the minipet. "It's no use!" She told him, "It's already gone! It could be anywh- wait! Is that it?" She pointed towards a bright reddish-orange bush, which jumped and began to scurry off. "What about your's? What if it runs off too?"

Merope wanted to protest. So what if the bush got away? She didn't like it, it didn't like her. It was a mutual agreement, and their relationship would have benefited if they left each other alone. Unfortunately for Merope, her grade wouldn't like that. Professor Malcom probably wouldn't either. Would he light another bonfire next class in retribution? Possibly. The shoerack was already gone, burnt to a crisp. Merope didn't think she could deal with another fire without it.

But worrying about fire wouldn't help her here. Unless the bog was on fire, but thankfully it wasn't. "How are we going to catch it?" Merope asked as she ran after the bush, "Just jump on it? I -- there!" Without waiting for an answer, Merope lunged forward towards the bush. She missed it completely, landing on a bush next to it instead. "Agh! Come here!" Merope snapped, trying to wiggle through the bush and grab at the errant creepin shrubbery.

The bush was digging into her at several points. It wasn’t comfortable, but at least she didn’t have her large back-fins on to add to the mess. Her day was already going pretty bad, and with holes and tears being ripped on top of that? No thanks.

But the longer she waited, the further the bush was getting away. She wasn’t convinced that using her Fear would help. It didn’t work before, why should it work again? Merope took a deep breath and focused.



For Merope, calling on her own Fear was like channeling a current. It was a pool of energy she needed to focus, to bring together and form into a wave. This wave crashed, shattered upon the rocks into nothing as Merope watched the minipet escape into the wilderness.

She stared after the minipet in disbelief, pushing herself off of the foliage to stand and dust herself down. “I...” She shook her head. “I just. It’s... look.” Merope looked up to Israfel, fins drooping. “It ran off. It ran off... It ran off before we began. I-I’m sorry, I don’t think we can continue on. Not like... not like this.”

“It’s not your fault, it’s mine. We can say that it ran off before we met, and because of that it’s impossible to complete the task,” Merope hurried on. “I just... I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I failed you.”