[DPRP] Thinking Ahead (Thezil & Hollandaise)

[its me debz]

"I do not think anyone new could provide me with assistance better than what I could give myself," Thezil replied, including Hollandaise within that group, too. It was nothing personal. Her attempts were thoughtful, but inevitably fruitless.

"But you are correct, I do not find social interactions a trial." His husky voice thrummed, a film of smoke clouding around his carved mouth. "They are interesting."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Hollandaise hummed again, a creaky sound like branches rattling in the wind. "Assistance better than what you give yourself? Yes, I see you are doing an adequate job in locating your head. Ah, supremely competent." She tucked her hands at her sides and leveled a look at him that said his actions were wholely inadequate and didn't he even care about his head?

"Very well - what is your plan of attack?"

cherno astra

 

[its me debz]

Her core was in the right place, he knew. Holly sought to complete: if there was an action to take, it should be taken without hesitation. She was both decisive and judicious, but such broad tactics would not work for the location of his head.

"It is not of your concern," Thezil said, without cruelty and kindness alike. "I would prefer to make one, educated strike instead of shots to the dark. So the answer is to research more, to wonder what I might have been before what I am now."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"A human of some sort, I would gather." She paused, looking him over carefully. Undead did not remember (and most seemed to not care about) their previous lives. Hollandaise knew that to read a tree's life, she would cut it down - a life only reread in death. She did not think Thezil would take kindly to being cut in half to read the rings of his previous life. However, it was an entertaining thought and her fingers twitched.

"Of course it is not my concern, I am merely curious. Have you found any clues to your previous existence?" The very idea of a previous existence still made her skin crawl a bit - the thought of life after life still somehow unnatural.

cherno astra

 

[its me debz]

Thezil resisted the urge to disengage. Hollandaise truly thought she knew so much. It was tiring.

"Pergaps," he said, dully. "You are aware that not all undead come from humans? It is possible I was nothing, before."

It wouldn't matter if he were to be cut down, anyway: he would simply dissipate. Death was nearly impossible, or so Thezil had been told, so pain and suffering held little meaning to him. It would all come to an end with a brief pop, and then he would be fine.

"I must not, in the name of accuracy, forget that this is a possibility."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Of course. I have read up on the undead as warder education is lacking in that area." Her twitching fingers she set to work braiding a thin lock of her hair. "If you were nothing before, then why would you have the urge to locate a head - which, consequentially would also be nothing?"

cherno astra

 

[its me debz]

"It would be my design," Thezil explained, watching her work with intrigue. "Do you not feel any urges that are more an imperative than a conscious choice?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

She paused for a moment, then her fingers resumed their work. "I cannot think of any. Though I suppose you could compare it to sexual urges in other creeple? Maybe - I am not sure." Hollandaise hummed lightly, cataloging the things she felt compelled to do and dismissing them one by one as survival instincts or other things hardwired into her systems - the pursuit of warmth, the ease around plants.

"I suppose I could liken it to my like of teeth... perhaps?" she said unsurely. "I do not know how it compares to a head, however." These sort of hypothetical musings were never easy for the warder.

cherno astra

 

[its me debz]

"Maybe. But they are not necessary to procreate. It is more...a canine instinct to run after prey. A reaper must reap. I must seek. But I do not know, admittedly. It is easy to speak in absolutes, but the world is shades of grey."

He tilted his head. "Your like of teeth?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Oh! Does every one of your type seek a head then? I did not know it was the case." It would be sad, she thought, if that were the case. Especially if they were born from pumpkins and not from being alive previously. She shifted a little, vaguely uncomfortable.

"Yes, I... like you said, it is an urge. When there are exceptional teeth, I want to see them, touch them. It makes me feel quite shivery."

cherno astra

 

[its me debz]

"I do not know," Thezil admitted. "I have never met another like me." The flame inside his pumpkin dimmed, saddened by the thought. It was a new sort of feeling: the Object Head had never been put off by act of being solitary. But to be alone, in all of the world of Halloween?

He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"I would say that it is comparable, in that regard. Intertwined with the way we exist."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

'-the way we exist.'

Hollandaise did not want to dwell on all the thoughts that brought up inside her. The way she existed was wrong, by Warder standards, and she realized not a one of the warders in her home forest would think her interest in teeth suitable. It was just another way she was wrong, wrong, wrong. Not a real warder. Her teeth clenched and she felt her muscles tense, ears flattening. Then, she deliberately relaxed. Warders were slow and immovable; they did not become easily upset.

Abruptly, she shifted and turned to leave. "I apologize, but I have forgotten something important. Goodbye." It was not graceful, nor tactful, or even very polite. If she were nice, or kind, she would've stayed to listen more to Thezil, caught the sadness in his solitude. And she did see it, would remember it. But right now, she was not polite, and this was Hollandaise leaving and not thinking.

lurks beneath

wow i thought i'd tagged forgive meeeee