fandomhighdorms | Roof Emo Garden, Thursday Afternoon

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Roof Emo Garden, Thursday Afternoon

Keyleth hadn't made her way up to the dorm roof before today for some reason, and that was a shame since she'd clearly been missing out on the little garden she'd discovered up here, with its fascinating spiky little plants.

After the experience of having an unexpected shark crash into the simulated common room during class today, being around the plants was oddly soothing -- as was the altitude, which made her feel a little more at home. She busied herself with conjuring water to fill a bucket with which to tend to the plants, then carefully examining them and using her druidcraft to coax some of the more slowly growing buds and shoots into a healthier state.

It was a comforting way to spend an afternoon, really.

[OOC: Post is open, of course!]

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No classes today, no work, the folks in the graveyard weren't expecting him to visit until the weekend, and Norman mostly just wanted to just kind of hang out in quiet somewhere that wasn't his room. And so he'd made his way up to the roof, figuring he could just chill out and watch the jello dragon ghost do weird gelatinous cartwheels in the sky or something.

He hadn't really been expecting one of the new kids to be up here poking at the garden. It earned a blink and a little tilt of his head as he made his way across the roof to find a place to sit.

"Gardening, huh?"

"I didn't plan to," admitted Keyleth, who looked up and gave him a bright smile. "I wasn't really expecting there to be a garden up here, really, but when I saw it I had to, you know?"

"It's pretty," Norman replied, smiling crookedly. "I mean, gardening isn't usually my thing? But I kind of envy people who have a green thumb."

He... did not.

“I was kind of born with it, I guess,” Keyleth offered. “Ever since I was a child, nature magic’s just come really easy to me, and I know plants really well. Probably better than I know most people. So what brings you up here? The view, or were you hoping for some peace and quiet, in which case I’m really sorry?”

"The view," Norman replied. "Mostly." He looked again at the plants, and then back at the girl who had been tending to them. Yeah, she was... not entirely human, was she?

Huh.

"My view isn't quite the same as most people's. It seemed like a good day to watch for ghosts."

Hey, if she was being up-front about having magic, maybe this wouldn't be weird?

He was still braced for this to get weird.

The antlers didn’t actually belong to her, at least? Though definitely not entirely human, no.

“Ghosts? You can see them?” Keyleth’s eyes had gone a bit wide, though that was as much genuine intrigue as surprise and hopefully wasn’t too weird. “Oh, wow. That’s — that’s kind of really neat. I mean, I know people can see them sometimes, in my world, at least if they choose to show themselves, but I don’t remember seeing any around here so far. Are there some?”

The antlers were really cool! But Norman was mostly making note of the ears.

And people said that his were prominent.

"There are plenty," he replied, smiling awkwardly. "Gremlins and... kind of dragons," he wasn't mentioning that they were jello, "some dinosaurs. There was a really, really big scorpion one day. That was..." Terrifying? "Different."

He smiled wryly, fidgeting a little.

"It's kind of my one party trick. I see ghosts."

With those weird faceted eyes of his.

"That's kind of amazing," Keyleth said with complete honesty. "I wish I could see that. Do you have any idea why there are so many ghosts around here? Wait, do I want to know?"

"Um," Norman replied.

Because the obvious answer was, 'because a lot of things die here,' but he was suddenly not so certain that would go over well with the kid who ran around doing magic on plants and wearing antlers.

"I guess this place has a history of invasions?"

...

How was that better, Norman?

Did the noise Keyleth made actually sound exactly like a muffled, high-pitched "Meep" because she had her hands over her mouth?

Yes. Yes, it did.

"My father mentioned something about the invasions, but I didn't think they were that bad."

Norman held up his hands a little in an attempt to placate her.

"They aren't. I mean, not that I've seen? We had snowmen a couple of weeks ago, and there were some... big meaty things, the first semester I was here. But ghosts... they stick around a long time, you know? Some of these ghosts have probably been here for centuries, and I don't see many of any one thing. Just a lot of... weird assorted invader stuff, of all kinds."

Surprisingly few people.

“Invader stuff,” Keyleth repeated, apparently cluing into the narrative. “You’ve mentioned dragons —wait, really, dragons? — and things, but not people, have you? And — wow, you’re really calm about all this. Have you always been able to see them?”

"Dragons - kind of... squishy ones? - and things," Norman confirmed. "Surprisingly few people. Most places have people. There are always accidents, or... you know, sometimes they're not accidents. My hometown is full of them, they're everywhere, going back for ages and ages, depending on how long the ghosts feel like staying. Sometimes centuries. But here... no. Not many people at all."

He shrugged.

"And... yeah. Always. Most of them just kind of keep to themselves and do their own thing, they're not really scary."

A little gruesome, maybe. But not scary.

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goldfishontherocks - 2019-01-12 06:28 (UTC) - Expand

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always_someone - 2019-01-12 14:57 (UTC) - Expand

It was new kid city up in this motherfucker. Or two new kids. Just the two. You know, so far.

Also, this kid would be deeply concerned about a jello dragon ghost, but only because he had no idea what jello was. But the rest of it sounded bad.

"Hey." So eloquent, our Trevor.

"Hey," Norman replied, nodding toward yet another new kid. Plenty of new kids all up on this roof. "Welcome to... I guess an unexpected roof party?"

This was where all the loners went to hang out.

They were alone... together. Just as long as they didn't start up a tabletop club up here---wait that was the best idea ever.

But only if they used it to traumatize a certain half-orc teacher.

"Wild parties thrown here, I see."

Fjord needed more trauma in his life. Science fact.

"Oh yeah," Norman agreed. "She's here to garden, she's here to sketch, and I... guess I'm here to just stare off into space."

At dead things. As you do.

"We're all very exciting."

Norman was probably the least exciting person on the roof.

Was it just because he wasn't from a different universe or time traveled?

"I can hardly keep up," Trevor replied, trying to look sincere. It wasn't a good look on him even now.

Mostly! But also because he tended to just talk his problems out with the supernatural. Weird kid.

"All this excitement is really just that overwhelming, huh?" Norman smiled crookedly and shook his head. "Yeah, this place has that effect on people. Right up until it becomes actually exciting."

...that sounded fake. Just whip it instead. Whip it good.

"Yeah?" TELL HIM MORE.

"... Did your sibling not warn you about when the island gets exciting?"

Oh no.

"I must have missed some of that." Or he'd just hidden with a massive plate of food. That might have been it.

"Huh." Norman shook his head a little. "Okay, so... sometimes, things attack the island. And sometimes it's stupid things, like angry snowmen," because of course angry snowmen. "And sometimes it's stuff like the large skinless demon creatures that were eating people's souls when they went outside after drinking."

"...alright." You know what? That was actually better and more reasonable than the nice things.

WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS, TREVOR?

Norman blinked.

"Alright?"

Just like that?

"You're used to that kind of thing?"

Or did he just think Norman was crazy?