Roof Emo Garden, Thursday Afternoon

[goldfishontherocks]

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!]

Comments

[always_someone]

"Oh. Uh." Norman actually didn't know how to reply to that. He fumbled around for a few moments, and then said, "Well, then it'll be good to have you around the next time something attacks."

[crack_that_whip]

Trevor gave him a thumbs up for that, clearly amused by his fumbling. Because no one had been a particularly annoying piece of shit. So saving them wouldn't be a pain. "My family is sort of known for that."

Since literally no one had apparently heard of them.

[always_someone]

"Yeah?" Norman smiled crookedly at that. "One of those families with a long history of dealing with stuff everyone else doesn't really understand, huh?"

He could kind of relate.

[crack_that_whip]

"Yeah," he said with an almost pained half smile. "That's what we were."

[always_someone]

Norman didn't miss that 'were,' no.

"... Sorry," he said, after a pause. "You don't have to talk about it if it's..." He waved a hand around a little. "Complicated."

That was a good, flexible word, right?

[crack_that_whip]

"Complicated?" Trevor asked with a snort. "Sure. That's a word for it."

All that repressed man pain.

"I'll have to remember that one."

[always_someone]

Norman shrugged a little.

"Complicated can be a lot of things," he admitted. "I didn't want to assume anything."

[crack_that_whip]

Give him a few years and some ale to sullenly shrug these things off, Norman.

"No, no. It makes it seem far more interesting than the fucking Church deciding to go screw itself."

[always_someone]

And that was a grimace from Team Norman, over here!

"The religious types made things ugly, huh?"

[crack_that_whip]

"Not many non-religious types back in Wallachia," he replied. "Tend to end up burned by thugs in priestly garb."

[always_someone]

Norman blew out a little breath.

"Yeah, that sounds about right."

He'd been threatened with a horrible burning death while a cop waved a gun in his face back when he was eleven. It had a funny way of giving a kid some perspective in that area.

[crack_that_whip]

Hey! They were nearly burned to death at a young age bros!

Trevor sniffed, rolling his shoulders like he was shrugging that right on off with some more good ol' repression. "But that's what the Belmont name is known for. Being that last blade against the darkness."

[always_someone]

There were probably worse things to bond over, right...?

"Huh," Norman replied. "My family's mostly known for being crazy. Or witches. Or crazy witches, I guess."

The witch bit had sort of lived in infamy for a few centuries. The crazy was comparatively new.

[crack_that_whip]

Trevor gave him a critical once over. "Nah. Not enough warts."

[always_someone]

Norman wrinkled his nose a little at that.

"That's just a stereotype," he muttered. And then sighed. "But we're not really witches, anyway. That was just the excuse."

You know. To sentence little kids to death and so on.

[crack_that_whip]

Or kickstart the vampiric apocalypse!

"Long as you're not hurting anyone, I really couldn't care less." So, you know, don't summon some nightspawn or some shit. "She's very clearly a witch of some sort," he added, waving a hand over at Keyleth.

[always_someone]

"A different kind than I am," Norman agreed, nodding toward Keyleth. "She seems more attuned to life."

Aaaand he was not.

[crack_that_whip]

"Riiight," he drawled slowly. "Still couldn't care less. Unless it ends in screaming and blood, not my problem."

There was a slight pause before he added, "Maybe stay away from the local church to be safe."

[always_someone]

"Yeah, the graveyard is just outside the church," Norman sighed. "Not," he added quickly, "that I'm going there to raise the dead or anything. There are ghosts there. They get lonely, that's all."

[crack_that_whip]

Not a devil forgemaster! That was good.

"And you... talk to them?" That sounded horrifying.

[always_someone]

"They like hearing news from the mainland," Norman confirmed. "Or just chatting about my classes, or telling stories about when they were alive. Sometimes they ask little favors, like to bring new flowers, or to pick weeds. They're mostly just normal people."

But dead.

[crack_that_whip]

The only ghosts Trevor had run into or read about, for the most part, were angry and murderous. So, color him surprised.

"Normal people still tend to be awful." Or apathetic.

[always_someone]

"It helps that these are normal people who can't really do much but talk," Norman replied. And then smiled sheepishly. "I kind of prefer most of them to living people in general."

No ghost had ever stuffed him into a locker.

[crack_that_whip]

That's because people were horrible pieces of shit! And such was life.

"Not too a bad a choice, I guess."

[always_someone]

"Seems to be working out for me, anyway," Norman agreed with a shrug. "And even if it wasn't, it's not really something I can turn off, either."