[ prp ] havens to betsy (America & Gloom)

[lizbot]

October has been a good month, mostly. There was a successful cuffing just in time for Boyfriend Appreciation Day, fun costume plans, more folks learning the protect-y thing, baby chickens, the cutest ********' kitten deciding to follow her home. Hell, even the bats that had started showing up around her camper were kinda nice.

Some things weren't ******** nice at all. The mouth thing and the phrase that still left her mouth empty and silent. The specter of this rumored Court and the uncertain feelings summoned by friends moving to join it.

The evil chipmunk was still hilarious, though.

But the nice things just made the not nice more important, made them loom higher on her horizon. They cast long shadows that crept in her days. Fortunately she knew a sorta expert on shadows and safe places to hide away from the not nice things. And so here she was, wandering the same graveyard she'd met him in, a moment forever ago right next to just yesterday.

"Gloom Friend? You 'round?"  

[azuredreams]

Let it be known that Gloom greatly disliked evil chipmunks

Still Gloom was there when he was called upon. He was laying across the branch of the very same tree he had sent her back through the shadows of.

"Americafriend!" he crooned.

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

"Just the fellow I was lookin' for!" America beamed at him. "Strange seeing you here with no rain to shoo-away from us." She waggled her eyebrows as she reached up to offer him a friendly perch. "Is it nicer this way, or stranger when it's so different?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"It's strange," Gloom replied, nose wrinkling up as he stretched out on the branch before leaaaaaaaaning out towards America and then hopping out to her arms.

"... but good, friends stay dry and warm now!" There was a bit of a show of him getting situated, mostly because he liked America so much, and a pleased rumble of a purr reverberated in his shadowy form.

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

It was a sound that invited chin scritches and admiring strokes along his back. "True enough, hun. Speaking of staying dry and warm, would you know any good places a person could stay when they're over here? I ran into something kinda awful in the woods the other week."

The girl shifted a bit, taking a deep breath to try and ward away the skin prickles just the thought of it brought about. "It'd be nice to have a safe spot on this side to keep watch over things from and teach folks from to time, y'know?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

The sound stopped and America soon was nose to nose with Gloom. Mostly because the shadowy othercreature was looking her over and touching his nose to hers, then to her cheek, and then settled back down for scritches. "Americafriend looks okay. What kind of awful?"

He quieted, tail swishing and shadows wisping up and away off of him. "Y'don't mean like the hospital? Some place different? Some place like a home?" Homes, he knew, were the safest and warmest of places - or so his friends had him believing.

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

The inspection can't help but summon a quiet giggle from the girl, even if the subject was an unpleasant one, present company was clearly the cure for it.

"It was all sorts of mouths and screams and voices, it took a phrase from me as well as scared the s**t out of me. Coulda been worse, n'I'm fine now."

She gives a thoughtful hum at his questions. "A home of sorts, maybe. But maybe something that can be a make-do hospital is someone gets hurt over here. See, I've been getting to teach folks things, like your glyph and how to bond with a familiar. And I've been trying to...I guess figure out a way to get all of us who want to protect folks, to help keep watch over here. Be nice to have a safe place to teach and gather together."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

His nose twitches. "Y'should've called for Gloom, would've gotten rid of it for ya." He settles in her arms and makes a rumbly noise of thought. "Not a hospital. Like the hospital. The Healer is there. S'nice but also lots of spiders."

His tail swishes in thought. "A safe place here to teach, to hide and learn. Gloom thinks he might know a place."

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

There's a pause before America nods, answering with a chagrined sort of, "Yeah...I...to be honest, Gloomfriend, I'm not so great at calling for help. Always comes to mind a bit too late." It was maybe a thing to try and fix, but all the same she'd rather not have to.

That said, if she was to ask someone for help, Gloom would be the person to go to. Huffing a piece of laughter, she says, "Shoulda tried to find you straight away, hun, you know this place so well."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Y'need to reach for others like they reach for y'Americafriend." Gloom chitters softly, nuzzling at her hands before he stretches out some. "... but y'with Gloom now, so it's okay. Gloom will keep you safe. Safe like y'in a safeplace."

1izbot

 

[lizbot]

America nods, "I'll try harder to get better about it." She'll try harder. Maybe not the best mindset to approach reaching out for help, but it wasn't a no way, padre.

Running a hand down his near-forever back, America admits, "Does always feel safer with you here." Gloom was one of those who represented the nice parts of magic; the more America learned about the whole of it, the more important they became.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Gloom preens under the praise but then focuses on the matter at hand.

"... are y'wanting a big place? Or a small place?" he asks, ears flicking back and forth as his tail swishes. It's clearly a thinking look.

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

This, she has been thinking about. "Doesn't have to be huge, but does need enough space for maybe a dozen people or so to have a meeting if they gotta."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Hmm ..." Gloom's tail swishes back and forth slowly. "There's an empty place, abandoned and near the hospital? That might work for ya! Gloom doesn't know what it was before but it's got a big open room and side rooms once y'get inside but ..."

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

"Sounds just right," America comments. "Is the but a big butt? 'Cause I don't mind having to do a good bit of work to make it usable."

azuredreams