fandomhighdorms | Fifth Floor Common Room | Late Morning | Friday

There wasn't a lot to do today. That fact didn't particularly bother Bod, though. He'd learned to find entertainment in the smallest things so making his way down to the common room seemed like a logical place to start.

Of course, once there, a few options were presented. He could find something on television to watch. He could spend a few minutes flipping through the channels to find something good to watch and the probably settle on something boring (he'd spent time in hotels, he knew how television worked) or he could try and make himself something to eat.

Now, that option made him hesitate. While he'd been in the graveyard, Silas or Miss Lupescu had done the majority of the food getting. Since leaving, he'd mostly stuck with fast food and prepared meals. This would almost be cooking.

Okay, no it wouldn't. There was cereal (something called Captain Crunch to be exact) and Bod figured he could manage a bowl, milk, pouring and a spoon. Still, it was more than he tended to do. With that done, he was free to find something boring on television.

[common rooms are open places!]

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She looked at the almost-yellow pieces of cereal floating in the milk. Before Fandom, her idea of 'cereal' had been that hot, mushy concoction that Hasamemorri in New Kelvin had been so fond of preparing. With a shrug, she took up a spoonful.

"Does you know," she managed (after chewing and swallowing, thank you), "what the taste is supposed to be?" she couldn't define it. It didn't really taste like grains, there was far too much sugar for that. If he was from this world, perhaps he would know.

Bod swirled his spoon around in the cereal, trying to come up with a way to describe the taste of Captain Crunch. In the end, all he came up with was, "Sugary?"

Obviously, food descriptions weren't a talent of his. "I don't know either. It's sweet but it's not one defined taste that I can place."

"Much human foods is like this," Firekeeper replied, trying not to sound critical but simply observing a fact. "Am not sure," she added, after a few more bites, "if I know your name?" Her memory was much more suited to scents and sounds, the things Beasts used most to communicate, than the faces, letters, words of the human world.

"I'm new," he explained, shaking his head, "so not many people know my name. It's Nobody."

He was still using his full name as kind of an experiment to see how people reacted. While traveling, most had laughed. Here, he thought it might be a little different. This place different.

"Nobody Owens," he added.

Firekeeper actually found his name to be something of a pleasant surprise, eliciting a pleased (as opposed to amused at the novelty) grin. She typically could find little sense in the way human names were chosen, they offered little or no insight to the person they belonged to. "A name you pick, or was picked for you?" she had to ask. She knew with humans it was typically the latter, but with a name like that she wasn't ruling it out.

"I think an argument could be made for both," said Bod after a moment's thoughts. "My parents gave me the name because I didn't look like nobody but myself. So, I suppose I contributed a bit."

"It is good thinking," Firekeeper nodded approvingly. "Almost like how Royal and Wise Beasts give names." She felt like she ought to give an example, so: "I am called Blysse, by most, but my wolf-given name is Firekeeper. He is Blind Seer," she nodded at the wolf by her side.

"Hullo, Blysse and Blind Seer," he said, using the first name since she'd said it was used by most. He didn't want to overstep on something that was sacred or important. Not yet. "I go by Bod by the most of the time. What does it mean to have a wolf given name?"

It sounded obvious, yes, but Bod also didn't know half the civilizations people here came from and learning it from the source was always beneficial.

"I live as wolf since a time when I were very small," Firekeeper explained. "They give names, or take names, that speak of their deeds, or perhaps some physical thing. Blind Seer's name is this second, see, because he have blue eyes." Blind Seer obligingly lifted his head and tilted it so that Bod could indeed see.

Bod peered down at Blind Seer's eyes and grinned again. He hadn't noticed Miss Lupescu's eyes when she'd been in hound form but the reminders were still there. It was easy to be so comfortable around Blind Seer when the reminder was a good one.

"You lived with wolves?" asked Bod, coming back to the conversation. It sounded...similar to his own upbringing save for the wolves. "I lived with ghosts. In a graveyard. They named me."

She did wonder at the easy way he seemed to deal with Blind Seer's presence. Most she'd met seemed, if not afraid, at least wary.

"My mother ask them to care for me," she said with a nod. "Ghosts? I did not know such was real." She'd seen them on television, of course, but had no experience with them in the real world.

Nodding, Bod said, "They're very real. They just don't show themselves to humans. Could you imagine the reactions most people would give if they saw ghosts in every graveyard?"

A lot of screaming, Bod figured. He briefly thought of Scarlett but that was different. He shook his head.

"My mother asked them to care for me too," he shared, echoing her words. "There were extreme circumstances that allowed her to see them."

"Probably same as if they see a pack of wolves Blind Seer's size," Firekeeper answered with a grin. There were still servants at both Eagle's Nest castle and the Kestrel keep that refused to go near Firekeeper's rooms whenever she stayed at either place, and that was only a single Royal Wolf they had to deal with.

"Exactly," Bod said, nodding and taking another look at Blind Seer. "He reminds me of someone. She was close to me."

And she'd died. Bod, though, kept that emotion bolted up behind a wall. He didn't keep much there but what was there wasn't coming out easily.

"Which explain why you do not seem afraid," Firekeeper realized with a nod. "Ghosts in stories is often bad," she said, turning this thought over in her head, "but this must not be true- or not all true- if they were taking care of you."

"Some of them are bad, I'm sure," said Bod, nodding. "The ones I was with, they were good. They were caring and sympathetic and helpful. I think ghosts, like wolves probably, get a bad reputation in general society. It's not always true."

"Wolves is wild creatures," Firekeeper agreed. "Dangerous, yes, but not bad." Most wolves had little interest in harming humans, with a few notable exceptions, after all. "Some forget there is a difference."

"Ghosts are like that. This graveyard of ghosts didn't want to harm anyone. They had the ability to haunt but I was the only that really used that." And he'd used it for a good reason, he thought. Even if the situation had spiraled out of control, he'd started with good intentions. "A lot of people don't take the time to find out or ask, I've found."

Fifth Floor Common Room | Late Morning | Friday | January 8

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