recolle | [Open] Drifting Graves

[Open] Drifting Graves

WHO: Elda Marker and You
WHERE: The Cemetery, Enprise (From Dust Till Dawn, Sandiego Foundation Building), City Hall
WHEN: The first half of the month
WHAT: Elda is doing a little funeral for someone she's never met, exploring this new shop (what is "dust...?"), using monopoly money to take over somewhere else, and moon watching
WARNINGS: None I don't think but if you could do my blood permissions that'd be great

Please assume that all of these prompts, unless you want to do something else (wildcard me!) happen at night or at least after sundown! Elda can't be out during the day, after all!

I: Recollé Cemetery
[ As she announced at the beginning of the month, Elda is spending a far bit of time at Recollé's cemetery. She both has a few graves that she extracted granite from she's intending to repair (... with gorilla glue and some other granite unless convinced to instead take photos to recut new stones or something) but also to do a little funeral because, well...

Because James was dead.

It hit her like a truck, really, that even if that world would be restored, that man would not be back. It's something that sees the woman going there and setting up a little shrine there. It begins with just her frowning a little makeshift stone she sets up in a corner of it, but soon enough she adds a sketch of the man in question and she might be seen huddled there staring at the little shrine while hugging a cute dirty bear? Honestly she's just not sure how to handle grieving someone who was already dead. Run into her? She might even be crying some nights. ]

II: Enprise: From Dust Till Dawn

So... why do they sell colored dust? You got any idea?

[ Is the store even open? Either way, Elda Marker is asking this to you here in the evening as she's looking in on this new store in town. Chances are it's been imported from someplace else, right? Like how everything is...? Either way, she hums a little bit and - well, assuming it's open she just heads on in, but if it's not open, she considers breaking in, thinks better of it, and sort of burns a hole in the window by staring through it.

... Metaphorically, of course. ]

III: Enprise: Sandiego Foundation
[ So that monopoly game everyone's been playing in Enprise? Elda's bought out this one! And honestly? She kinda loves this? It's changed to reflect her increasingly gothic fashion sense with high spires, dark curtains, severe and somewhat dated looking (red tinted) interior...? Not to mention all the overhead lights, dimmed, give off read light? This building's become a bit of a deco nightmare as long as he monopoly money will own it, so ... like. Do you dare explore?

... and why are there so many bats around it? ]

IV: City Hall
[ And then some nights, up too long and feeling weirdly pensive? Well, then you hang out at City Hall. ... On top of City Hall? Next to that weird faintly glowing stone that's near City Hall now? Actually, she'll just climb up on top of the Sorcerer's Stone, perching herself and looking up at the... moons.

Moons plural. ]

... Man my world's gotten so weird I just look at it and shrug these days.

[ She says to not one in particular. Unless you happen to be out near City Hall at night. ]

V: Wildcard
[ Hit me up with whatever else you want! After all, I know these are a little specific! Elda's mostly getting ready for Thanksgiving and trying to keep her head on straight after all the shenanigans over the last few months. She can't be out during the day for the most part, but you can visit her at her house? or network her? ]

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[ May had been on her way there because she'd promised Elda to help clean up, but she hadn't... really expected to stumble on something like this. For a long moment, she just stands to the side on the pathway, not saying anything, not really able to think of anything TO say. All of the signs made it obvious what was happening but... she'd never met the guy. She had no real clue who he was. She had only the vaguest idea of how important he was to Elda.

She really felt like... she didn't have a right to speak at all.

So she didn't. ]

[Wesker still comes here from time to time, and he's been here often this month in particular; there's something about the ghosts that has him thinking about this place more than he normally would, even though the person that he usually comes here for can be found within the city proper nowadays.

He doesn't really know what he's doing here. It's part of the grieving process, he knows that cognitively, but he doesn't even know who he's grieving for nowadays.

So he's here because it's quiet, and maybe it'll come to him if he spends enough time among the graves, and when he comes across Elda it's very... Well, it's not unexpected, perhaps, in its own way. Melancholy, however, it's definitely melancholy.]

...Elda.

[His voice is quiet when he addresses her; he knows better than to ask if she's okay, no one is ever really okay when they come here.]

Very, very weird.

[ Bart recognizes the voice, even if he actually missed seeing her climb up so wasn't aware she was up there until she spoke up. But... moons. ]

Is that better or worse than plain and ordinary?

Oh gosh, someone's there?

[ Elda slides off the Sorcerer's Stone thing to glance down over at the man and... yeah. Sure is a second (blown up) moon there, so ]

Mmm, I'm not sure, myself!

[ To be fair, Elda Marker (the human) of this world has never met him - had never "met" him other than in her memories but...

the hope she still holds to is that expanding portrait, the families of herself, of Silver and Albert and the others. Just meshing everything together (May included) as the worlds return. And she, to learn that this man wouldn't be back even then... She knows it's a sad, silly thing to be so stuck on, but she sniffles all the same, her face in her knees as she - well, she smells, more than anything, May approaching. Once she does, she picks up the dirty bear and stands, using it to dab out her big red eyes.

And she mutters, ]

Sorry about that.

Hello, Albert...

[ She sort of trails off a little, holding that weird dirty bear closer to her chest. She's... she sort of bites her tongue, not really sure what she wanted to say now, some excuse or just being genuine. In the end she sort of shrugs her shoulders and stands straighter. ]

It's been strange, lately.

It has.

[He's personally been spending more time among the dead than the living lately.]

Is it meaningless to ask if you're all right...?

[ And so soon after his wedding too. That was a real highlight. She's sure that a similarly offscreen thanksgiving will be fun too, even if this year she'll have far more people not on the app at it, which'll strain things in and of itself. No to mention she can't eat. Albert either can't or barely eats?

Either way, she... ]

I'm just... Well, no, I'm alright, just having a silly grieving process.

[It...takes a moment, for things to click into place a little.]

Is this for the husband, or someone else...?

[Elda's mentioned her past life's husband, after all; the fact that it's a sketch and not a photo she's set up is...well, it's a thing that might be indicative, anyway.]

[ She nods. ]

... It's silly, because he was never alive in the first place, for me. But I suppose- somewhere along the line, I got charmed by the idea of that world coming back, to meet all of those family folks face to face. Maybe combine them with the family I had here.

[ . . . ]

But, then... I suppose someone who was dead before whatever happened to it probably can't cheat out past it, you know?

[ A light inhale and... she glances away, ]

It was hard to remember her learning about his passing.

...I can imagine, yes.

[He doesn't know exactly what it's like, honestly; his past life was never really close to anyone. There were a few exceptions in the form of friends, maybe, but no one he actually felt love for; just people he was more attached to than the others, and even that had been...odd, if he's feeling charitable.

At the same time, he can't imagine losing Jaeger or Elda and dealing with it anywhere near the vicinity of "well", so there's that, at least.]

I don't know if we can give them a way to cheat death... Perhaps we can, if those worlds are being reconstructed through what we remember of them. There are some that I would like to meet properly as well.

[But that's... He doesn't have too much faith in that, honestly.]

I'm sorry, Elda.

[ She nods, quietly. The fact is that she was getting ahead of herself - she had always been getting ahead of herself. But... she swallows and she hugs the little bear thing closer to herself and... ]

Or would it even be right to cheat it like that? There is some amount of order to things...

[ It's a weird thing to say to a zombie or a vampire though, and she recognizes it a moment after she says it. That's her rationalizing it to herself, really. ]

[That just gets a small noise out of him, more amused than offended.]

The person I would want to meet most is the one who helped me cheat it in the first place. So perhaps in my case, it's simply repaying the favor.

Ah. ... Ah, yeah.

[ She shakes her head. ]

... I've said before, I think, but vampires in that world I've remembered are mortal, it's the darndest thing. Would you believe he actually died from under-eating of all things?

That's...

[...Kind of awful, all things considered, holy shit?]

Was there a specific reason, or...?

I don't know - I'll probably remember some more details in time but if I had to guess, I think he worried about troubling people he fed on. ... That and I'm near certain he had a good couple decades if not a century on her.

[ So maybe he just was sore and slow to it. ]

I see.

[...]

You've been keeping up well enough with that sort of thing yourself, I assume?

[The whole. feeding thing.]

... I was bad about it for a while, if I'm honest. Might've noticed me aging a bit?

[ As opposed to the nebulous looking 30ish at best she looks like now. That said, she laughs it off and... ]

But I picked up a line to get a continuous stock from the hospital.

[I mean, he wasn't going to say anything, because he likes not being slapped. But at the same time, yeah...]

...That's good to know. I am concerned about these things, you know.

No, no... I - I know! ... Honestly, it still sort of strikes me as a little unethical to be getting the supply I do have, even if I know I need it as much as someone who needs a transfusion, just because it is different. I kinda kept going longer than the body probably wants between sips.

[ She sort of slouches her shoulders and, ] Probably a good test of my limits, though.

...No, I understand. And if nothing else, limits are a good thing to know - I can't say I didn't test mine once it was obvious that things weren't quite the same as they had been.

Mmmhm! And I'm sure on some level I'd've not approved of every little test.

[ Maybe. Probably. ... anyway. Cough. ] Regardless, for me I think it's more or less a minimum of a pint a week to not feel hunger pains, but more than that - and fitting my tastes - to keep my skin proper. I'm still noticing little signs here and there sometimes.

[...Ah. He at least has the general decorum to let himself glance away a bit at that first part, though he isn't exactly sorry. Between Elda and Jaeger he is pretty sure none of what he was doing was actually approved of...

...Anyway.]

And that certainly is good to know. I imagine it will take some trial and error yet, but at least knowing the minimum is a good thing.

[In the event that we're dragged out somewhere again.]

Mmmhm, particularly if we're gonna get dragged somewhere wild now or again!

[ She laughs, but it's not really that mirthful. Man, it feels like everything's gone batty over the last several months. She's barely kept up with it all, and she dreads if/when she decides to try to parse out information for that guide again. Lordie. But that said... ]

... If anything, I worry about the sun every time something like that happens.

Understandably so, yes.

[That is a concern, he will admit.]

As always, you can let me know if there's anything that I can do for you, should you require it.

I test basically every time something happens - as it turns out a digital sun doesn't count, even if it bothered my eyes.

That makes a given degree of sense now that you've mentioned it, but it's not something I would have thought of, I'll admit.

Given it was a Grid thing I wasn't sure if it'd be mind over matter or what.

Ain't got nothin' to be sorry for...

You said you needed my help with somethin', right?

Y-yeah, I did! ... Right.

[ inhale, exhale. ]

... I've got a bit of intense glue and some granite here.

We usin' glue to patch stone? Though I guess that'll be less ugly than a line of concrete...

That gorilla glue stuff! ... That will work, right?

[ #rich person who has never had to mend anything herself pretty much ]

Obachan, these are heavy slabs of granite. And we can't use a glue that'll look ugly because, you know. Respect and all.

Hi. Sorry for startling you - it is a lovely night for a stroll... if the weird is not too much. Good evening.

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[Open] Drifting Graves

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