A Memory
November 02, 2020 1:57 PM
Amongst the little stones. by A Memory
Faded and silvery, the ghost-like appearance of a very young girl with curly hair and dark eyes approached a spot near the fountain, looking down as if to survey someone sitting on the ground unseen. Someone must have approached, or else the figure would not have appeared, and that someone may have recognized the toddler as a younger version of one of the students at Sonora.She cocked her head with a small smile. "¿Por qué te gusta jugar con esas pequeñas rocas?" she asked. Then she frowned her nose wrinkling as she rolled her eyes. "Fine. English then." She had more of an accent as a toddler than she did now, and her voice was higher, but it was otherwise the same. In fact, the biggest thing that marked this person as a child, other than her stature and pitch, were the fact that she seemed utterly care free, even if just for a moment. She wore a soft linen sundress in a simple solid color, although what color exactly couldn't be ascertained from the silvery version of her that appeared now. "Why do you play with the little rocks?" she said, repeating her question. Her frown deepened as she paused, apparently getting an answer from the person only she could see. Her dark eyes grew sad and she looked a little harder at whoever she was looking at before taking a seat on the ground as well. "Don't," she said softly, reaching out to put her hand on a spot that might have been another young person's shoulder, or their back, or their knee if their knee was propped up. "Don't say that. I'll always love you, hermano mayor. Mama and papa will, too. You're good enough."
OOC: OOC: This post relates to this year's plot. The number of subthreads in reply is limited to two, hence the groupings below. Please see the OOC page for more details.
Subthreads: Subthread 1 with System, Wally O'Malley, Osvaldo Alamilla
Subthread 2 with System, Zara Jackson, A Memory
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A Memory
Amongst the little stones.
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A Memory
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System
November 02, 2020 1:57 PM
System
November 02, 2020 1:57 PM
Wally O'Malley
November 02, 2020 6:21 PM
A stone dropped in the puddle by Wally O'Malley
They weren’t allowed to tell each other where their Common Rooms were, which seemed like an odd rule, honestly. Wally was a rule-follower, so he didn’t ask where the others were, and he didn’t tell anyone where Crotalus was even though Stanley definitely asked a bunch of times. That being said, Wally was also quite observant. Really, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that it seemed like Theo and Stanley always came from and returned in the same direction as the Labyrinth Gardens. The Pecari Common Rooms were obviously somewhere that way.So when he was supposed to meet up with them, Wally would go near or into the Gardens - just somewhere near the entrance - and wait for them to show up. Tommy went with him sometimes this year, but he said he had something to do today, and so Wally went to the Gardens alone.
He didn’t usually mind being in the Gardens alone - unlike most of his little group, he didn’t mind being alone much in general, the darn extroverts - but today was different. Today, a little silver wisp caught his eye. The next thing he knew, the wisp was a little girl, faded into grey. He wasn’t sure if this was a ghost of some sort or what, but he had never seen one do that before, and it made him a little nervous. Plus, something about the little girl drew him to her. She looked… kinda familiar, but he couldn’t place it.
“Do I know you?” he began nervously, taking a few steps closer despite himself. She spoke, but not in English, and Wally startled, jumping back a bit. The little girl switched to English, but he still could not understand. “The little…?” he trailed off, confused. Her hand reached up, and something in him wanted him to get closer, to place his hand against it. This silver girl was young. It made him think of his little sister at home. This was hypnotic in its mystery. He missed Charlotte.
“You’re good enough.”
This shocked him even more, and he jumped again. What a mindful and sweet thing for a young child to say. It struck a chord with him somehow. No one had ever told Wally anything to the contrary, but sometimes, it was a little hard to believe. He wasn’t strong or bold like Stanley, or confident and unique like Theo, or smart and calm like Tommy. He was just Wally. Shy, scared, nervous little Wally.
She didn’t seem to really be talking to him, though, and he reminded himself of the fact and tried to return to reality. But was this reality? He turned over his shoulder frantically. He was desperately hoping to find an adult right now, but really, he would take anyone who at this moment could confirm he wasn’t just going crazy and hallucinating the whole thing. Fortunately, someone else was near. “Do you see her?” he asked. “Did you hear her? Wh...what do we do?”
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Wally O'Malley
A stone dropped in the puddle
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Osvaldo Alamilla
November 02, 2020 6:57 PM
What sort of nonsenese is this? by Osvaldo Alamilla
Why couldn't these children simply let well enough alone? Why did they have to keep messing up his nice, neat gardens? One of his jobs was to keep this place in order and he was beginning to think that the best way to do that was the make the gardens off limits to the children. That would make things much easier for him. Alas, that was most likely not to be, the deputy-headmistress would not agree to such an arrangement. He sighed to himself as he patrolled back through the gardens, the latest mess had been cleaned up, now he just had to see what else had been destroyed while his attention had been diverted.Then he spotted one of the children wandering about and decided he'd better follow the boy, maybe he could stop the destruction before it even started. The child found his way toward the fountain, if he had to convince the elves to clean that out again... The boy stopped though, and so did he. There was a strange wisp of something. Something that wasn't supposed to be there. Something caused by one of the older children perhaps? It shaped itself into a very young girl. One that looked vaguely familiar. She was not one of the school's ghosts, unless they had acquired a new one that he wasn't aware of. No.. she... it struck him. It was a much younger version of that child who had bothered him no end last year to 'sponsor' her fair booth.
It was about this point that the child he had followed here began to flail about wildly. "I did." He responded simply and calmly. This was, interesting. He hadn't seen anything like it before, what was it? "We, watch and listen." He calmly replied to the boy without allowing his eyes to wander from the figure before them. "I am not sure what this is, we must observe and learn. I do not believe it is a ghost, and it's behavior is not that of a patronus." He began to circle around the figure to see it from another angle. With a simple wand motion, he levitated a small rock up to the level of the girl's head and slowly moved to rock to pass through her head if she did nothing about it. There was something about it that itched at his carefully honed senses, what was it?
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Osvaldo Alamilla
What sort of nonsenese is this?
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Wally O'Malley
November 03, 2020 4:17 PM
I was hoping YOU knew! by Wally O'Malley
Oh thank goodness, Wally had found an adult. Or, really, an adult had found him, since he hadn’t exactly had to look very far and/or wide. Still, the second year was very glad to see the Groundskeeper standing nearby.To Wally’s further relief, the man had also seen and heard the girl as well. It was less reassuring, though, that Mr. Alamilla did not know what it was either. He didn’t think it was a ghost, which had been Wally’s only real guess, and he also ruled out some kind of patronus magic. The Crotalus thought he remembered knowing that some people could even talk through their patronuses, but those were animals, not people. Still, he couldn’t help wishing Mr. Alamilla had an answer. It was always more comforting when adults just knew.
“O-okay,” Wally replied, trying to be brave. Just watch and listen. Observe and learn. He could do that. The mystery and confusion of this event - of this… creature? - made him nervous, although reasonably, maybe he didn’t need to be. It didn’t seem like the girl wanted to hurt anybody. If anything, she seemed like she wanted to help someone. Who, he didn’t know. It would have helped if he could just place where and how he knew her, but he just couldn’t manage it. The familiarity nagged in his brain, though, and made him feel foolish. Who was she? What was she? Wally stood, silent, staring, because he did not know.
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Wally O'Malley
I was hoping YOU knew!
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Zara Jackson
November 06, 2020 3:54 AM
Got sticks and words to go with them? by Zara Jackson
Ghosts were like… a thing. They existed and it wasn’t usually a big deal. Zara didn’t cross paths with them much at Sonora, but when she did she tended not to get drawn in. Honestly, most of the people who could not deal with the idea of never being seen or heard again were old cis white dudes, and whilst some ghosts moved with the times and learnt what was what there were just a whole butt ton of real uncomfortable conversations that she wasn’t prepared to have.Kid ghosts were a whole different ball game though. There was just something awful about that, and it seemed cruel to walk past especially when the ghost looked sad. Or at least, Zara assumed both of these things - both that this was indeed a ghost, based on its appearance, and she guessed that she was sad from the fact she was looking down at nothing in particular. Zara was surprised to hear it speak in Spanish, and tried to re-evaluate its appearance, although skin tone was obviously a little bit lost given the… well, ghostiness. She wasn’t sure whether the ghost really reminded her of Leonor, or whether she was just projecting that because of the language. Obviously it wasn’t.
Obviously.
Besides the fact that a ghost of toddler age Leonor was impossible, there were the things she was saying, which Zara was pretty sure the real one never would have based on her actions last year. She felt her heart clench angrily at the thought of Felipe’s sister and how cruel she had been. Though she tried to push that aside, focussing on the person in front of her.
“Hey, who are you talking to?” Zara asked, finding that the ghost was acting kind of weird.
OOC: Open to someone else coming up to Zara and seeing this/joining in as well as letting the memory reply.
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Zara Jackson
Got sticks and words to go with them?
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A Memory
November 11, 2020 8:08 PM
A ghostly figure from the past is worth a thousand words. by A Memory
The figure of the girl frowned again, practically scowled. The figure she engaged with, invisible to anyone Zara, was speaking and the girl did not like what she was hearing. However, the frown on her face was the sort of sour expression that came with no small dose of entitlement, and not only sadness for the person who believed the message only she could hear."Stop that,," she said in Spanish. Then, rolling her eyes, she said it again in English: "Stop. You have everything, you don't need a pity party, too. You don't need to act so sad. What more could you possibly want?"
The girl's eyes searched where Felipe's face might've been, examining each shape and line and each marker of an expression he didn't deserve to be wearing for a lot of reasons. Then she looked down at her hands when it was no longer her turn to speak. It was only a short pause, though, and her eyes flashed back up again, a ravenous desperation and a cynicism that wouldn't let her have too much hope warring on her face. "You'd do that?" she asked quietly. "We can ask. Mama and papa would probably rather I do it, right? If you don't want to I mean. . . . you'd really do that?"
She pushed herself to her feet, not waiting for an answer, and extended a hand back down to the invisible sitting figure. Her gaze moved as the other person stood up, coming to rest several inches above her own head. "Let's ask," she said, more insistent than she should've been. "Come on, we can ask now."
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A Memory
A ghostly figure from the past is worth a thousand words.
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A Memory
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