fandomtownies | The Graveyard - Wednesday Morning

Entry tags:

The Graveyard - Wednesday Morning

Caduceus wasn't one for making an entrance. It wasn't his style, honestly. However it's not everyday that a seven foot tall man with grey fur and pink hair just flat out walked out of a wall and into a graveyard. While on fire.

Alas the only thing to witness this fiery appearance was a small squirrel. With a hat. And a notebook.

Caduceus was panting heavily as swatted himself several times, putting out the flames on his body and clothing. "Fjord? Jester? Twiggy? Beau?"

No response.

He took a second to look around. Nope. No one was here. And here was not a room with a dragon. This was not where he was a moment ago. Not at all. Looking down at the squirrel he gave the critter a small smile and waved. "Hello, friend. How are you?"

The squirrel who was more used to being shooed away seemed a little bit surprised and chittered something back which Caduceus didn't understand but did his best to interpret.

"Oh, I'm good thanks," he said taking a moment to channel some healing energies into his arm and then leaned down so he could talk a bit more personally with the squirrel. "Listen, I'm not exactly sure what happened here. Can you tell me where I am?"

The squirrel nodded slowly in understanding. Clearly a newbie to this place. The squirrel then began a long stream of chittering and notebook writing which surprisingly Caduceus could read. The chittering? Not so much.

"Oh. You write? That's different. Fandom... Huh. Okay. This wouldn't happen to be part of a happy fun ball would it?"

The squirrel just stared at him. "Yeah. Okay. I don't know either."

Caduceus pulled himself back up to his full height and once again surveyed the area before returning his attention to the squirrel.

"Thank you my little friend. I appreciate the information."

As the squirrel wandered off, Caduceus sat down near a tombstone and brought out some incense which he lit with his trusty tinderbox. As the smell reached his nostrils he began to clear his head and see if he could reach his patron for one simple question. As he felt the familiar warmth of his diety embrace him he simply asked one question. "Why am I here?"

There was a small chuckle in response. "Well... to help people of course."

That seemed to be enough for Caduceus. "All right then. Well. I better get right to it."

He looked around at the graveyard and shrugged a bit. "I guess there could be some improvements made here," he said to himself as he began to quietly tend to the nearest gravestone.

[OOC: First post for Caduceus. Open!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Norman had, um, kind of been a crab? For a few weeks there? A ghost crab, naturally, because the island thought it was funny. But he'd woken up boy-shaped again this morning and after a little bit of time spent navigating the pillow fort (Delirium made the best pillow forts), had found his way out and about, stopping for a bouquet of flowers and a couple of newspapers on his way to the graveyard in order to make up for lost time.

He hadn't visited the graveyard locals in weeks too, after all, and there were a few of them who enjoyed hearing about the news on the mainland. The rest just appreciated that someone cared enough to leave flowers on their graves.

He hadn't really been expecting to see someone else alive there when he arrived. Which made him blink and kind of hesitate at the gate.

"Oh. Um. Hi. Sorry, I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"Hmm? Oh. No. Just doing a little tidying up is all," Caduceus said cheerily as he put aside some weeds and then waved his hand at the pile of weeds.

Hey maybe taking off his equipment might be a good idea. Yeah. Caduceus shed his pack on the ground. He stretched himself up to full height and offered his hand for a handshake.

"Caduceus Clay. Pleased to meet you."

... Oh. Oh, that man was tall.

And, uh, fuzzy.

Neither of these things were stopping Norman from rearranging the things in his hands in order to reach up to shake his hand, of course. Grandma Babcock would've thumped him a good one if she was able to, if he didn't mind his manners.

"Norman Babcock," he replied, shaking the offered hand. "It's a pleasure."

A beat.

"Are you, um, new here?"

He wanted to say he would have noticed a large, vaguely bovine-looking pink guy. But it had been a weird summer.

"Brand new, apparently," Caduceus said cheerfully. "Not exactly sure how I got here but apparently I'm supposed to be here. For some reason."

He pondered that for a moment and then shrugged. "It'll come to me eventually. Would you like some tea? Tea sounds good right about now. I'm going to make some tea."

He began to rummage through his pack and began to pull out a waterskin, teapot and a tinderbox for the process.

"Tell me Norman, what brings you to the dead and buried?"

"Tea? Please." A beat. "Thank you."

Norman wasn't big on tea, necessarily, but he wasn't going to turn down an offer of hospitality, either.

"And I'm just visiting," he added, glancing at the flowers. "It's... sort of just something I do sometimes? I come, I put flowers on the graves, I read."

The newspaper. Aloud. With ghosts leaning over his shoulder to listen or try to see the pictures or whatever.

"That's nice," Caduceus said as he slowly put together a small place for a cooking fire. "I'm sure the people who are sent here appreciate the flowers. Do you read for them or do you read for yourself? Or is it both?"

Oh, hey. There was a question Norman didn't get asked often. He blinked, and then he actually smiled a little, setting down the flowers and the newspapers next to a nearby headstone to see if there was any way he could help out.

"For them," he replied. "The ones who want to listen, anyway. I'm not usually big on newspapers."

That stuff was what the internet was for!

Caduceus tilted his head in thought at Norman's response. "Interesting. I'm assuming you see or hear them? And they aren't malevolent?"

He looked around looking for any kind of sign.

"Are they here now?"

Norman was definitely blinking at that reply.

"I, uh. They are. Here, I mean. Not malevolent. Most of them are just kind of lonely, really."

That tended to be the way of things, with the ghosts he encountered.

"Where I'm from ghosts tend to be a little more malevolent," he said thoughtfully. "Not lonely. I think these are more like spirits."

He looked around again at absolutely nothing and waved.. at nothing.

"Hello ghosts!"

Nope still seeing nothing. "Huh. Okay. Well maybe I'll read to them too. Anything in particular they enjoy?"

Norman actually grinned a little at that.

"Some of them say hi back," he offered. "And most of them just ask for the news, but I can ask around, if you like, and see if there are any stories they miss. Adventure stories or romance novels or whatever, you know? Just to mix things up a bit." There was a moment's pause, and then he added, "Are you planning on spending a lot of time in the graveyard, then?"

“Well it is kind of a family business back home. Wherever that is now,” Caduceus said as he pulled out a small pouch of tea. “I guess you could say that a graveyard is my favored terrain.”

He chuckled as he checked the water in the pot. “Still warming up. You don’t mind waiting do you?”

"I'm not in any hurry," Norman replied, smiling and shrugging a little. He settled in and watched the... very large man... start to make the tea. "It's weird, I never really spent much time in graveyards until I came here? But I guess ghosts are everywhere, not just where the bodies are laid out."

“Where I’m from ghosts tend to be a little vindictive. Usually have died by violent means or such,” Caduceus said checking the water again. Almost there. “Of cause there are worse kinds of undead to deal with. I’m just happy that this place just has spirits that like flowers. I come from a place where the graveyard is ful of living flowers. If the climate is right maybe this place could support it.”

There. Now the water was ready. He pulled out a cup from his mess kit and started the brewing process. “This is from the Dharts family and has a slight anise flavor to it.”

...

“Oh. Right. You should probably know that the tea was grown in the graveyard.”

Fair warning, Norman.

"It gets a little colder in the winter," Norman offered, "but you could probably get some nice perennials going? I think they'd like that."

Given the way a few nearby ghosts were nodding their thoughtful agreement, it seemed like a safe bet.

He leaned in a little as he watched Caduceus brew the tea.

"In the graveyard? The Dharts family?" That was kind of interesting, actually. "You mean the plants that grew on their graves, right?"

He had to check to be sure. Graveyard plants didn't seem all that weird. Maybe to people who were less used to death, but not to Norman. But if it was actually people, uh.

"Oh, yeah. Some people get a little weird about it."

BECAUSE IT GREW ON A GRAVE.

"And where I used to live it was way high in the North of my country and we could make the garden bloom all year long."

Norman shrugged it off. Grave plants? Every plant grew out of something that had died at some point, right?

"It's just plants, right? I've seen graveyards with apple trees in them before, too, this can't be much different."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Graveyard - Wednesday Morning

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject