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It was a fine day to be outside, now that the sky was in one piece, as it should be. The pumpkin sun's late-afternoon glow was just warm enough, and the trees cast long shadows on the grave-pocked 'front yard' of the undead dormitories. Malodore had comfortably settled itself against a unmarked gravestone to do its assigned reading.

Luce contented herself with tearing back and forth over the grass, leaping grave mounds and sarcophagi alike with great enthusiasm. The plague doctor kept looking up at her with a fond expression. Not that anyone else could tell. Plague doctor 'expressions' were notoriously subtle. Possibly only Riley could have picked this one up, and that was mostly because she cheated.

It was altogether an idyllic scene.

Luce spotted her. The ! was not audible, but it might as well have been from how clearly the cwn's body language expressed it. And then she was bounding over to Shehk, coming up alongside her with every sign of canine recognition and delight. Hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi missed you where'd go hi hi hi!

Malodore had seen Luce suddenly alert and then bound off; it had followed after a moment to put its book aside neatly. As it came around the side of a gravestone, it realized who Luce was wagging her entire body at. "Shehk!" it said, surprised - it hadn't seen the pricolici looking that at ease in... well, a year or more now. "Good afternoon," it added, to hide its surprise. It opened its beak in a smile.

Malodore tilted its head to one side, far enough that its hat started tipping alarmingly and it had to bring one hand up to keep the hat from falling off. "Si," it murmured, bemused. This was Shehk, wasn't it? It was fairly sure it could recognize her form, but perhaps there was another pricolici on campus other than Shehk and the new-ish professor. Hm.

"I am sorry, ah... perhaps I am incorrect. I am Malodore, and you are...?" it said, just to be sure of itself. Or at least to eliminate some variables.

Meanwhile, Luce was capering happily, only stopping once to nose at the abandoned rabbit before continuing to bounce.

Now Malodore was thoroughly confused. Why was she acting as if they'd only just met? It was as if she didn't-

Realization squeezed the plague doctor in a painful fist, and it stumbled back for a moment, bracing itself against a gravestone, its eyes wide behind the lenses. For a moment it was not Shehk that was before it, but Riley in a bogeyman's cell, Jericho condensed into a form not his own, and every eye unknowing. Every thought forgotten. They had both looked just like this.

Shehk-

It forced itself to calm, to swallow and in so doing to push away the unthinking fear that threatened to consume it. "It is... nice to meet you as well," it said, quietly, feeling that if it spoke any louder it might lose control of its voice entirely.

... It had not lost Riley. It had not lost Jericho. But those had been expected. This... had not. And yet, given her state the last time they had truly talked...

Luce put her ears back at Shehk's whine, but the plague doctor silently reached out with its power. Now that she was closer, she was within range of its empathy... and it felt none of the turmoil that had claimed her so thoroughly, the pain and the hunger that could not be satisfied.

The absence of the hunger was enough to make it open its beak in a smile, despite everything. "Ah, no, I am sorry for worrying you," it murmured. "A moment's strangeness, and hardly your fault. Tell me... is this the first time we've met?"

For her, at least. It had to know. It had to have the framework to see what might lie ahead.

She shifted back to her familiar humanoid shape, and Malodore took her hand and shook it, warmly... even as it wondered what had happened. But Shehk seemed to be herself, to be healed despite everything. And yet...

Should it say something? The conflict warred within the plague doctor for a moment. And how could this have happened? It saw no Insanity, and felt none of the instability in her emotions that it knew was a hallmark of damage to the core. Perhaps to mention it would be to shatter her anew, or to drive her away.

It could not bear either of those possible results.

"You remind me of someone I once knew," it said, its tone soft but light, amused. "But it is good to meet you. You live in the dormitory here, si?" It felt strange to ask questions it knew the answers to, but so long as it didn't ask things that might be construed as invasive or too personal, it should be all right. It felt like it was walking a careful tightrope.

"Your room didn't have your things in it?" Malodore tilted its head to one side, perplexed. If she'd lost time... it wondered how she was coping with the physical changes, if nothing else. Her very face had changed, with the former stitches being replaced with staples. Her name had changed. Surely there were cracks that could not be ignored.

It hoped they wouldn't destroy her.

Hmm. Perhaps Amrita herself was thinking along the same lines. "Perhaps a gnome took your things, then," it said, opening its beak in a small smile. "Rather than taking them to your room, I mean. It happens. They aren't terribly trustworthy creatures."

"My room is on the second floor," it added, with a bob of its head. "You are welcome to visit, if you would like. Luce would enjoy your company as well." The cwn pup perked her ears at the sound of her name, then barked happily.