a little conversation (aradia and clara)

[warmheartedly]

SOMEWHERE OUT THERE

There are times that Clara isn't the brightest one in the box. She isn't dumb. Not by any means she likes to think. She's practical and patient but she isn't bright like Magra or clever like Willard. It takes time for her to connect the dots of some more obscure things, notice the clues to people or items that, to some, would be considered right in front of her face and yet she never realised it until the very lost moment.

Like right now. Just as she watches some of the kids play tag, something in her head just clicks as overheard snippets of others in Redbright to gossip from elsewhere finally falls into place and she recognises it as something coherent, solid, and being about what Aradia had done in regards to some lightbulbs. The people never said her name but she can extract enough hints and information that it was her.

It immediately causes some alarms in her head to ring, ever so faintly, as a sudden bubble of guilt and concern gets the best of her.

While the children need to be watched over, Clara thinks that they can have one day of their ghostly guardian not watching over them as they pal around in the park. This is an emergency. They'll understand. So she excuses herself on deaf ears and heads off in order to look for her fellow ghost.

It takes her a while to find Aradia, exploring more than she's ever explored before, but she finds her soon enough after enough false stars and dead ends that would frustrate some but not Clara. Not when it concerns someone she worries and cares for.

"Aradia?" It's her. Of course it's her. Not wanting to waste anymore time she quickly adds, "Can we talk?"

Comments

[warmheartedly]

"Ummm..." The questions and comments are good questions to ask, to say. She wishes she had real answers to them. "Maybe? I don't know much myself, honestly. Only things I learned from other spirits and from things I saw."

Clara never understood the strange rules the spirits had to live by. Vampires? Werewolves? She had a rough idea what they had to abide to. Fairies? A little obscure but if you look hard enough, you'll learn.

Ghosts? There's not a lot of things said about them besides the type of ghosts out there and why there are ghosts. There are no rules of how to be a ghost, how to interact with other ghosts or vampires or people who turned into different animals. One find themselves just as a spook and need to learn everything from the ground up, no knowledge gleaned from the past one could trust. Anchoring is a concept she learned 'fairly' recently -- Around fifteen years back.

Maybe someone should write the next young adult series on ghosts. Spread awareness. Make the public interested in knowing more about ghosts besides trying to speak and/or banish them.

"Listen: If you're not interested in it now, Aradia, then don't feel pressured to do it." Really. There'll be no attempts to set her up on anchor dates or the like. "I want you to know because I care for you."

and the 'late tag of the century' award goes tooooo....

[megidoomed]

What little progress Aradia had made into ghostly studies before her death had been just that - before her death. There was only so much she could learn from the living side of things, and all these little details were easily missed when her flesh was in the way. Not that she'd wanted to die, but... it's best to take the good points into consideration when one can.

So admittedly, the topic draws at her in ways she can't really describe. It's an opportunity she would've pounced on as a medium, a chance to explore the limits of what she could do and help others avoid the same mistakes. And maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Maybe it'd actually help her work towards her goals, finally get some closure--

-- but then the moment passes and she shuts down again at Clara's worry, because she can't leave anything behind. She can't. "I'm okay. Really. It sounds like an interesting topic but... I should be fine? There's no real guidelines for how it works. Maybe I don't need one."

Too late does she realize that her instinctive denial comes across as callousness. But at least this is a bridge she can mend later, if she has to.

[warmheartedly]

Clara doesn't seem to believe those assurances one bit as she tilts her head to the side while her lips thin in worry. All the same, she doesn't want to push too hard thanks to her experience of raising too very stubborn boys.

"Could you-- Could you consider it at least?" Clara asks her, believing that's the only thing she can think to ask right about now.

She doesn't want to pressure Aradia if she ultimately decides that, yes, she is better off on her own with no anchor -- And maybe she is! Maybe an anchor is only for weaker ghosts and Clara thinks Aradia has proven to be much more stronger than her in many ways since meeting each other as spirits. -- but surely it wouldn't hurt to weigh the pros and cons.

Especially the cons if there is a risk of danger to the ghost being more vulnerable to harm. "You can just sleep on it for a little bit," she says and she finally cracks a smile at this point. "Or 'sleep' on it since we don't need much of that anymore."