Solo Veronica

Adeliz meets another resident ghost

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Syka is a new settlement of primarily humans on the east coast of Falyndar opposite of Riverfall on The Suvan Sea. [Syka Codex]

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Veronica

Postby Adeliz on October 26th, 2020, 1:39 am

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Fall the 37th, 520 AV

Today, the sun was lazy, as was the wind, as were the clouds. Morning rains had come and gone as they always had this season, but the clouds that had brought them still lingered. Petrichor was different in the jungle than it was elsewhere. Constantly wet with humidity, it didn’t bring the marked change in the way the air smelled, not like it did in places that saw far less rain and dew. What it did bring though was a lessening of the sweltering heat that could sap one’s will to do anything. The breeze was enough to bring some relief but not enough to move the clouds, at least not quickly, and they drifted at a pace to match the lackadaisical attitude that Syka seemed to bring for the tourists, covering a sun that didn’t care whether or not it showed itself. Perhaps with the relief it was a good day to be working, but most just took the opportunity to relax, unassailed by the usual burn of the sun.

But these were all worries for those who could sense and feel such things. For those who could not, it was a perfect day for stalking. The hidden sun left little light to cast shadows, and for some, shadows weren’t a concern.

This was the way things were for the cat. It was incorporeal, its limited materialized form not enough to block the light that reached it. To call it a cat was a misnomer. It was still a kitten, perhaps had been for all its existence, its coat still sticking out in only the way a kitten’s can. Whether it was out of some memory of its past life or for the benefit of its little girl, one couldn’t tell, but it occasionally tripped over its paws though it had no physical paws to trip over. Still, it plodded across the sand, stalking something as it did. It took anyone watching a long while to determine what it was the kitten was hunting, but eventually, they could see the miniscule creatures scurrying along the beach ahead of the tiny predator. Sand crabs. They were incredibly fast creatures, scurrying along the sand with a nimbleness no other animal could match on the shifting surface.

No other creature except the cat. In a fashion belied by its clumsy kitten antics, it kept several steps ahead of its quarry. Sand crabs, speedy beasts they were, skittered from hole to hole, always keeping an escape route open, but for the past half a bell, the cat had pounced about, cutting the crab off from each hole as it tried to escape. After a few attempts of trying to catch other crabs had failed, the ghostly cat had learned the strategy and was now employing it flawlessly against its prey. Every time the creature darted near a hole, the cat leapt in its way, and it was forced to scurry another direction. Occasionally, the cat’s pounce would carry it close enough that it could bat at the crab, and bat it did, sending the little shelled creature spinning in confused circles at the sudden icy shock of contact with another soul. In a few brilliant attempts, the crab made its way for one hole only to change direction at the last moment, but the kitten just blinked between the crab and its new sanctuary. Once the predator revealed this power, the prey lost all sense of reason and just ran as fast as it could but to no avail. Eventually, it just gave up, sitting still while the kitten batted at it until it grew bored and went off in search of another.

Stalking the cat, a good couple dozen paces behind, was a little girl, its little girl. She wasn’t particularly sneaky about what she did, but she stayed far enough back and the cat was so entranced by its prey that she remained unnoticed by her pet. If it wasn’t for the way she seemed unnaturally well for not looking it, people might not have noticed she was dead, such was the skill of her materialization. That, and the way the sea breeze shifted nothing on her and her feet made no prints in the sand.

For several bells, the girl followed the kitten who wandered on its way down the beach sometimes chasing crabs and sometimes just frolicking. Every so often, the cat would burst into a storm of blinks that carried it every which direction. On a couple instances, one of the blinks would drop it into the shallows of the sea, and it would erupt back out of the gentle surf, shaking its paws in disgust though it hadn’t got wet. When it was satisfied it was dry, it turned toward the waves, arched its bac with its fur standing on end and its tail bottlebrushed, and hissed at the offending water. Whenever it did this, the girl erupted into laughter, and the cat, doubly offended at being caught, sulked, then began to groom its paws and ears excessively as if it could rid itself of the stench of embarrassment. Once it was sure it had, the cat started on its way again, and the girl picked back up where she had left off following the cat.

She was oddly content with nothing more than the stalking and the watching of the kitten. She took no notice of the things about her, not the sea, not the clouds, not the sand, not the jungle, not even the other ghost who tailed the two of them, an unseen shadow that matched them step for step, break for break, silent smile for their every laugh.
Last edited by Adeliz on November 9th, 2020, 4:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Adeliz
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Veronica

Postby Adeliz on October 28th, 2020, 12:31 am

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Adeliz had been following them since the rain had stopped. Truthfully, she had been following them since before then, but the cat and its girl hadn’t been going anywhere, not because the weather was stopping them but because the weather seemed to stop there from being anything to do. There had been no crabs about during the rain, and though it couldn’t get wet, the kitten still seemed to have an aversion to water of any sort. So they had waited until the rain stopped, and Adeliz was content to wait with them.

It had been Adeliz’ intention to talk to the girl from the beginning, but there were several things getting in Adeliz’ way. First, she didn’t know how to introduce herself. What did someone say when the only thing they had in common was that they were ghosts? Hi, I’m Adeliz. I’m glad you died. Let’s be best friends. No. Aseliz might not have been the brightest ghost ever, but even she knew that was a dumb thing to say. She was still working on a good way to say hello. Introductions were only half of Adeliz’ issues though.

The other was the living. They were always everywhere and always getting in the way, asking questions, interrupting. Sometimes the dead just needed a little peace. So for that reason, Adeliz was even more content to wait. If the girl or the cat took them far from prying eyes and ears, all the much better, and that was exactly where the cat had wandered, a secluded beach that wouldn’t have any tourists on it until the sun showed itself a bit more.

The girl was Veronica, as long as everyone Adeliz’d asked over the last several days wasn’t incorrect. That would be a lot of people to be wrong, but the world had a way of accepting things as truths even with little proof. If the stories were to be believed, then Veronica was the namesake of the Veronica, Captain James’ ship. She was his daughter. People seemed certain of that much. What they weren’t certain of was what had happened to the girl, how she had passed. Few dared ask such a bold question directly to the captain’s face, and those who were brave enough never got an answer from him.

But it wasn’t Veronica’s history that had Adeliz so interested in her. It was the fact that if the girl’s materialization was accurate to her age at passing, then Veronica had experienced little of life, much the same as Adeliz had. If both had died young, then that gave them common grounds, and Adeliz desperately needed someone who understood. The only other ghost she had encountered so far was Talia, the ancient librarian who had lived long and lived in death far longer. She was old, older than the Valterrian itself, and such long living hadn’t made her understanding to the plights of children, those who had suffered death far before their time. No, Adeliz needed someone her age, and Veronica seemed to fit the ticket.

Except the longer Adeliz watched, the more Veronica seemed far older. It wasn’t her appearance. She very well may have died while she was very young, because her materialization never slipped, never hinted at her being even slightly older than she showed. No, her age showed in her skill in her materialization. It was so crisp, so perfect, that Adeliz wouldn’t have been able to tell what she was had it not been for the telltale signs, the lack of shadows and foot prints, the way stray waves swept through her legs undisturbed, the way her feet moved on a plane inconsistent with the undulation of the sand. Her age came in death. She was far too experienced to be freshly dead, and Adeliz had to wonder how young James had been when he lost her.

In fact, Adeliz was so lost in this thought that she missed Veronica’s utter disappearance. She was there one moment and gone the next, leaving behind only the little kitten who was currently batting at a strand of seaweed that had been washed up. Cursing, Adeliz began casting her gaze up and down the beach, trying to figure out where the girl could have gone, but it was as empty as it had been before Syka had ever been settled. Since Veronica was a ghost, there was literally no trace left of her. There was only the clouds and the breeze and the sand and the sea and lazy sun watching over them all. No ghost.

“Shit,” Adeliz cursed in Myrian.

“That ain’t a very good word to say.” The voice of a little girl came from behind Adeliz.

Ghosts had an advantage in that they didn’t have to turn or spin to face the opposite direction. Instead, they could simply fold their mist on itself, and their direction changed. Adeliz faced Veronica. The young girl ghost glared suspiciously back at her.

“You do speak Myrian?” Adeliz stumbled through her Common but managed the appropriate inflection at the end to make it a question.

The glare never leaving her eyes, Veronica shook her head. “Nah. My da’s just a sailor, and he know every swear word in every language. He says ‘em a lot, but then he says I ain’t allowed to. ‘s all a load of monkey shit if you ask me. Now, why were you sneaking around following me?”

The question was a reasonable one, but it caught Adeliz off guard. She scrambled for an answer. “I want say hi to you. Hello.”

It was not the introduction she’d been hoping for, but it also didn’t go as poorly as it could have. At least, she hadn’t begun with I’m glad you’re dead.
User avatar
Adeliz
Forgotten sister
 
Posts: 48
Words: 68069
Joined roleplay: April 25th, 2018, 2:30 am
Race: Ghost
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Plotnotes


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