Third floor common room, Friday afternoon

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae was determined never to do anything properly in Seivarden's class -- and was so far doing very well at that -- but the assignment today, to write poetry about someone they cared about, was actually something that got her thinking.

Something that got her interested.

So after class, she grabbed her journal and a blanket from her room and went to go curl up on a common room couch and try to write a real poem.

"This house is haunted,"
you said.
And you died.
You were right.

You said
"They feared death."
You were right.
I'm afraid all the time.

"They feared death,
So they ate the young."
I'm afraid all the time
of what's eating me.

So they eat the young.
And you died.
What's eating me?
. . .
"This house is haunted."

It was probably terrible. She was sure it was terrible. It didn't even rhyme.

She stared at the page for several long moments, idly doodling her grandfather's face next to her poem.

She wished it would snow.

[tiny emo post is open! Mae's poem is an extremely rough pantoum, aka baby-creative-writing-major!Bella's favorite poetic form. . . .]

Comments

[white_oleander]

Astrid's brows furrowed slightly. "A squishy cat toy?" she asked "Was that when everyone turned into toys? Because I think...I think I was actually here for that. Or ot was a dream. I remember it, anyway, and I called Sabine and she said it all happened, just like in my dream...

"It didn't really make a lot of sense."

Just imagine how much weirder it would feel when she found out that there was still a recording from her doing radio that week, too.

"But what ever does, about this place?"

[thishouseishaunted]

"Right?! And yeah, it was that week. I got so upset when I dropped a breakfast plate. It was literally a piece of plastic with a breakfast sticker on it." She shuddered. "I liked the vampires better."

[white_oleander]

"Well, if I remember right," said Astrid, with an unpleasant twist in her stomach that made her feel glad she hadn't actually gotten to her soup yet, "that would have been a pretty serious offense."

That she would have jumped on in a heartbeat.

All the more reason to just ask, "What happened with the vampires?"

She would have thought that you knew it was bad if the vampires were better, but she also figured Mae would have thought vampires were better in a lot of cases.

[thishouseishaunted]

"I hit them with a stick."

Her toy-hands had been all soft and squishy and squeaked when she hit things. And she'd barely even managed to hold a plastic plate, much less a stick!

[white_oleander]

Okay. Astrid probably should have expected that, in retrospect, but she hadn't, and it made her laugh.

Well. It caused her to let out an amused snort that was as close to a laugh as she'd had in a long time. When even was the last time? Fishing in Mexico. Moments before Claire begged her not to kill the fish.

But she killed it anyway.

So the mirth softened, just a bit, but Astrid tried to keep it there, practically clinging.

"You're pretty good at that, huh?" she said.

[thishouseishaunted]

"Oh yeah. I can beat the shit out of anything."

To a fault, sometimes, but Astrid didn't need to know that part.

[white_oleander]

"I was actually thinking of going and hitting things with sticks later," Astrid admitted. " Down at the salle."

Because she remembered, all of a sudden, that she'd once learned how to use a sword. At least, she thought she remembered, and she just wanted to make sure, because reality seemed a particularly fragile thing right now.

"Well, the practice swords, but those are pretty much just glorified sticks."

[thishouseishaunted]

"Wait, there are practice swords down there?!"

Mae had no idea what a "salle" was, no.

[white_oleander]

"There were back when I had my sword class," Astrid said, "but I haven't checked yet to see if they still are. I don't see why they wouldn't be, though."

Then she hesitated. It seemed a pretty safe bet, really, as far as gambled went, to ask Mae to go hit things with glorified sticks with her, but that also meant it would feel even worse in the event that she said no.

Then again, nothing could hurt worse than what she'd been through. Not even the volcano had been worse.

So she asked. "Want to come with me?"

[thishouseishaunted]

"Um, yeah," Mae said, still too excited to learn there was a whole room of practice swords to notice her hesitation. "After your lunch?"

[white_oleander]

Astrid glanced over toward her abandoned soup amd shrugged. "I really wasn't all that hungry in the first place," she said, which was ever true. She really didn't have much of an appetite these days. She mostly ate because she knew she should, it gave her something to do, and it got her pit of the room. "I can just bring the crackers with me."

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae looked at her sideways. Astrid had been extra weird since getting back, enough for Mae to notice and start to worry about. "Are you sure? Hitting things is less fun if you're hungry."

[white_oleander]

"I'm sure," said Astrid, even though now she wasn't. Not about not being that hungry, but maybe about Mae, that she'd probably want to go hit things with sticks with her, by herself, and she stood up from the couch, as if to prove it, in defiance of her doubts. "Hitting things can also help work up more of an appetite, too, right?"

[thishouseishaunted]

"Oh, totally." Mae could eat pretty much any time that wasn't right after she'd just eaten too many things, so she had no real idea. "That sounds legit to me."