"Deep in earth my love is lying 🥀 And I must weep alone."

[ectoherbology]

Who: Wendy, her ghostly sister, and you
Which: Open Log
Warnings: Wendy frequently mentions the macabre, themes of death, mourning and violence may come up


Where: Reverein
What: In town, a lone child wanders around and explores, donning a mourning veil. She's asking for help getting equipped for winter!


Quite unlike the world Wendy had been trapped in before, the presence of a town was something to immediately take advantage of. Cradling the silken red flower containing her sister's soul in her hands, Wendy was traveling between each building open to anyone, hoping to take advantage of what was here. On her back was a large sack woven from grass and reeds, though it was currently quite empty.

Her first bit of luck is getting a winter coat from a seamstress, one that's several sizes too large for her but nonetheless will help keep her warm. Blowing soft puffs of warm air on her fingers to ease the chill, she moved on, careful not to accidentally step into someone else's path.

Catching the fact that a stranger's gaze was upon her, she approached, staring with eyes slightly too eerie and hollow to truly belong to a kid. "Excuse me. Is there a method of currency here, or particular item for trade? I don't have anything, yet, but it's quite cold."


Where: Outskirts of Reverein, near the lake
What: Wendy and her ghostly sister Abigail are working on crafting a base outside of town for survival


To anyone familiar with the struggles of wilderness survival, the appearance of several things between Reverein and its lake made quite a bit of sense - baited rabbit traps woven out of long grass, trees chopped and saplings stripped, rocks disturbed and dug up from scavenging for the right size and shape for tools...

At the center of all of this activity is a massive firepit, circled with heavy stones to keep fire from spreading. It was currently lit, but low, at the moment only serving to slowly cook a few tiny fish that had been fished up from the lake. Sitting atop a stump nearby was the young Wendy, wearing a simple scarf even in the frigid chill of the outdoors. She's preoccupied with crafting something - but whoever approaches will first be 'greeted' by a frightful ghost popping up in front of their path and interceding them from approaching Wendy. There's a supernatural chill in the air, and a glowering, pinkish glow, but it subsides the moment Wendy simply says, "It's okay, Abigail."

Comments

Outskirts

[sos_pilot]

Being a seasoned explorer, Della often went to the woods for basic training and exercise. So she was rather surprised to suddenly find it inhabited! And by the newest batch of adorable little youngin's!

She waved cheerfully even after Abigail attempted to spook her. "Hey, girls!" She chirped pleasantly. "What're you two doing all the way out here?"

[ectoherbology]

"Hello, miss Della," Wendy greeted, even as she was still sharpening a blade on the end of a handmade spear. "I am establishing a survival base. I could simply sink into one of the provided beds and wait for death, but Abigail insists I be prepared," she replied. "We don't know if this place, like the Constant, intends to attack and kill us."

[sos_pilot]

Yep, Webby would definitely get along with these kids. Della, for the moment, assumed this was a "just in case" base, and that they weren't actually living out here...

"Well, I dunno if I'd go that far, but this place isn't always safe and sunshine either." She shrugged one shoulder before going back into cheerfulness. "Any way I can help? I've camped out plenty of times! And for a couple of years I tried to use the nearby woods of my uncle's mansion to try and catch Santa Claus, so I know all about building good traps!"

[ectoherbology]

"You tried to catch Santa?" That catches Wendy's attention, and Abigail curiously started circling Della. There was a tiny glimmer of curiosity in Wendy's eye, but all the excitement was coming from Abigail, who was presumably shouting at Della in excitement even if it wasn't clear.

"...Abigail wants to know if you ever caught him."

[sos_pilot]

Dawww. These kids were adorable, even if one was presumably dead. "Nope... he's a tricky guy. Just about caught a Wendigo, but not a Claus... and I stopped trying to catch Claus once I got the full story out of my uncle. I always thought Santa was a bad guy, but it turns out my uncle wasn't telling me the whole truth."

She figured this was probably going to lead to even more questions, so she went around looking for a particularly smooth rock to sit on.

[ectoherbology]

Darn. Wendy goes back to looking at what she was doing, but Abigail was much more visible about her disappointed pouting. "I've unfortunately encountered a very cruel Klaus, but he appears more closely related to Krampus, not to Santa Claus," she replied, setting the spear aside and pulling up a collection of chopped logs. Her hands were blistered from all the hard work, but she seemed to be completely oblivious to it as she started braiding reeds into a rope so that it could be woven into the logs.

"The both of them are quite dangerous, Klaus moreso... I have met my painful end a few times through conflict with him. Most winters, I avoid him and instead focus on preparing for the deerclops."

[sos_pilot]

Wow, this went from adorable to worrisome real quick. "... Oh, I have so many questions and none of them are fun." Yikes on bikes.

After a nervous throat clearing noise, Della decides to get back up and kneel next to Wendy. "But for now? How about I take over the physical work? Your hands are all kinds of 'ow'-looking."

Outskirts

[your_best_friend]

To a flower that's basically done everything within the mountain he dwelled in, new things were always a plus and this is definitely a new thing, this dreamworld. Flowey just couldn't help himself to explore and sate his want for new things.

It is only mildly surprising when a ghost pops up in the middle of his exploration. A ghost... now, that's familiar. But before he could greet the ghost, a nearby human interrupted. Flowey shifted his gaze past the ghost to the approaching human.

"Howdy!" he began. "So its name is Abigail?" Flowey turns to the ghost. "Howdy, Abigail. I'm Flowey. Flowey the flower!"

[ectoherbology]

Wendy stared incredulously at the flower, but slowly picked up a knife she'd sharpened a bit earlier. Glancing at Abigail, the ghostly sister let out a soft sound - distant, not-quite-discernable words muttered by a child far, far away.

"You can see it too?" Wendy relaxed, setting the knife back down. "...I'm Wendy," she finally replied, polite even if it was terribly delayed.

[your_best_friend]

A familiar expression to those meeting him for the first time. That one Liar had the same expression. That one Biker had it, too. Oh, and the Pirate! Hee. He could get used to being amused by them staring at him like that.

"Wendy, huh? Golly, nice to meet you, Wendy! Never thought I'd get to meet a new ghost."

Flowey turns back to Abigail. "Are you friends with Wendy? Good to see that a monster can get along so well with humans, even if they are from different timelines!"

The way Flowey said 'monster' is like he called a duck a duck or a panther a panther or a cat a cat. No disparaging or accusatory tone in his voice at all, almost as if 'monster' is just a species to him.

[ectoherbology]

Abigail floated small circles around Flowey, the distant whispering still coming from her. "Abigail says she is not a monster... but you are not so different than the other specters in the Constant, Abigail," Wendy hummed. Abigail's brows furrowed, and her whispering increased a bit frenetically. "...She objected to the idea."

[your_best_friend]

Flowey raises an eyebrow and makes a little o with his mouth in curiosity. "Not a monster, you say...?"

He takes a quick up and down look at Abigail. "...I've never seen a physical ghost before. All of the ones I know are made of magic. Well, unless they fuse with an object. And Abigail doesn't seem to have fused with one."

He abruptly takes a look at Wendy. "I'm not a monster, either. At least not anymore. Haven't been for thousands of years. This flower's all physical, and no, I wasn't a ghost, either. Just a normal Boss Monster."

[ectoherbology]

"Abigail is not fused, but she is bound to something," Wendy said, watching as her sister floated back to her side. As for Flowey... boss monster? She wasn't sure entirely what that entailed... perhaps something like MacTusk and how he led several ice hounds? But no, more to Wendy's curiosity... "Spirits manifest with magic, to your knowledge? How are the dead summoned?"

Outskirts

[abyssbound]

She isn't the only one who opted to live outside of the city--Asura had built a comfortable farmstead for himself out in the farmlands some time ago, and in the winter months when crops won't grow, he routinely patrols the edge of the Wildlands to ward off any potentially dangerous creatures that might attempt to harass Reverein and its inhabitants. The smell of smoke and cooking fish is enough to draw his attention to the small fire and the girl nearby.

A cursory glance around the site reveals that she at least knows the basics of roughing it, so when Asura steps into the light of the fire, he ignores the defensive spirit and only asks:

"Need anything?"

[ectoherbology]

Ah, now that was the look of a person who'd also learned wilderness survival. Wendy relaxed, even as Abigail grouchily 'shouted' at the stranger. "Have you got any extra warm furs or fabrics?" she asked plainly - no need to be humble, after all. "I didn't have much to offer for barter in town, but I did accrue a few things - but I don't know if it will get more bitterly cold than tonight or not."

[abyssbound]

He'd had to learn survival skills when he wasn't much older than her, so there is certainly some level of empathy there.

"Not on me," so he says while half-naked in this chilly weather like he can't even feel it. "But I can bring some blankets back. In the mean time,"

Asura snaps his fingers and the fire gains a bit more life, its warmth extending several more feet as the flames glow brighter.

[ectoherbology]

The trick has her blinking a bit, but not as surprised as one may expect. "Ah... a similar trick to miss Willow. But you don't seem as easily chilled to the bone as she does," she observed. "Are you not vulnerable to hypothermia? It isn't such a terrible way to die, at least."

[abyssbound]

He'd beg to differ, that dying of hypothermia seems to be an agonizing way to go if what he'd witnessed in the Hell of Ice were anything to go by.

"My body gives off a lot of heat, so I don't really feel the cold in the same way as humans." He's been compared to a walking furnace before. But her words strike him as peculiar... "Have you died from hypothermia before?"

[ectoherbology]

"Many times. It is much easier to bear when so much of you goes as numb as a broken heart," she nodded in the affirmative. "Much preferable to a flaming demise."

In Town

[fishflakes]

[As a jujutsu sorcerer who is used to sensing residual energy from ghosts and Cursed Spirits, Toge senses something peculiar about this young girl. It's not the malicious nature of Cursed Energy, but it's definitely something supernatural. As such, he can't help but be curious as he notices her wandering around town. He was willing to let it be and go about his day, but then the girl had approached him. He shakes his head.]

Bonito flakes.

[And since that... isn't really a clear response, and he knows that isn't a clear response, he lifts his hands up and gestures to her, using sign language to 'speak'.]

["Do you sign?" He isn't sure who knows and who doesn't but he's started asking people now that he has learned how to sign. If not, he still has his journal, worst case.]

I had to reflect for a moment what kind of sign language she'd learn from a french mime in 1910sish

[ectoherbology]

[She pays close attention, but doesn't have much clarity. She signs back... intending to ask if he can understand her, though she wasn't sure if her memory of sign language she'd learned from Wes would be very fluent, let alone if she even knew the right sign in the first place.]

Hahahaha welp

[fishflakes]

[It's a little rough, but... hmm. He can kind of understand her. He nods.]

Salmon.

[But then he pauses, before reaching into his pocket to pull out his journal. He takes a moment to write a few words to her, before showing it to her.]

Sorry, can't speak much. But I can understand you. The people here are nice, mostly do barter and will give you things for free if you're new.

she did her best....!

[ectoherbology]

[She feels a bit ashamed for not being quite fluent enough, but she won't say as much. Politely, she waits for him to finish before taking out her own pen to reply.]

Would you prefer I speak aloud or in writing? I can also continue to sign, even if it is French sign.

She did! Wendy is a good bean

[fishflakes]

[French sign? That would explain why he had issues understanding it. And while he knew his way around English and Japanese, French was another matter. He shakes his head.]

Tuna mayo.

[He then writes down some more before showing her his journal.]

It's ok if you talk.

[ectoherbology]

[She read, and nodded!]

I will continue, then. Please feel free to keep using sign, too.

[She needs to learn, after all!]

I am Wendy. This is my twin sister, Abigail. Thank you for speaking with me.