Closed [The Dust Bed] Curious Ghost Girl (Twister)

[Fubuki Kouri]

"Ha?!" Kouri couldn't believe this guy, he made her question his sanity with every rambles he spouted from his mushed-up brain. A ghost like her, beings known for their fickle mind, could think one of the living as crazy, Jebediah had earned himself an award. "Are you cray cray, Jebebiba?!" She messed up her Common not on purpose, but she didn't care. The image of this man speaking to chickens didn't sound odd by now. He wanted to converse with her, calling her impatient, even when he was facing a powerful ghost who could literally slice him apart with her serrated tendrils.

Know all my kind too well? She quirked an eyebrow at that particular statement though, he spoke as if he met ghosts often. Well, he lived here after all, meeting her kin would be normal. However, this brought her suspicion back, he might be a spiritist, and to act this calm in front of her meant a lot of things. First, he might be a very powerful spiritist that Kouri's presence meant nothing to him; second, he might be bluffing, he was actually scared of her and acted calm to avoid certain death; or third, he was a hopeless imbecile. The child ghost opted for the third, this man was an idiot who spent a lot of time with ghosts, nothing more. "Hmph..." She retracted back her tendrils and grudgingly follow him. "You better not trick me... or you'll play." She muttered in Vani, not really caring whether he understood or not. This man had wasted a lot of her time with his rambles.

As they walked, Kouri's now-crimson eyes kept darting left and right, observing the eerie tombstones and mists flowing on the ground. "Aaaagh! Hurry up!" For some reason, he decided that cleaning the tombstones was more important than taking her, didn't he realize she could tear him apart in less than a tick? Wait, the man was an idiot, Kouri forgot about that. Giving a long exasperated sigh, the ghost girl waited each time he stopped to brush dirt off, plucking acorns, and other trivial things. "You can do those later, idiot." As usual, she whispered her frustrations in Vani. No one seemed to speak her native language around here, she longed to speak with another Vantha. The Vantha whom she met was Madame Lyrri, Kouri hoped the musician was alright. She was a fellow Snowsong and the ghost girl felt a sense of kinship with her.

At last, they arrived, the sight was expected, but surprised Kouri nonetheless. So the man was not lying, a group of ghosts was gathering here. A dried-up fountain in the middle of an open space circled by tombs, looked like a good meeting place for ghosts. "..." Kouri went silent as she floated forward with her arms crossed over her chest. She gave each of the assorted ghosts a mean childish look, all of them looked older than her, the girl was still annoyed at them eating all the food for themselves. Her expression softened when she saw the calm old lady, she respected elders, they were far wiser than the young ones after all. Realizing she was now surrounded by ghosts of unknown power, Kouri calmed herself down. These beings could attack her if she did something hostile and even with her power, she was severely outnumbered... not that she wanted to fight, not with the old woman around. Like a well-behaved girl, she didn't want her elders to be disappointed of her behaviours.

"What... is in here?" She asked to no one in particular as she sensed the powerful energy flowing from this particular place. Kouri swiveled her body in search for the source, then her large eyes turned to Jebediah... who was offering her a gel-like substance which was unmistakably soulmist. "Y-you... you..." The ghost girl took a instinctive step back, the man revealved himself to be a Spiritist. From the soulmist he offered her, the ghost sensed a powerful, enticing, lure. This man's soulmist really looked delicious... which meant, he was a powerful spiritist! Far more than Kriemhild! The Nuit maid's soulmist was mildy sweet at best, but this man's... she felt her fear being washed away by hunger. Like a little girl drawn to candy, her hostility dropped, Kouri cautiously approached Jebediah's hand, then materialized her hands. She hesitated for a tick, looking into the Spiritist's eyes for any signs of hostility.

"D-don't try anything!" If the man was keen, he could detect the fearful tone in the ghost girl's voice despite her attempts to sound brave. Giving in to the lure, Kouri grabbed the man's wrist then motioned her head to lick his palm, absorbing some of the soulmist. "A-aaah~" She closed her eyes in pleasure, the senstaion flowing through her small body. It felt so good, she moaned with voices unfitting for a girl her age. The ghost girl then proceeded to suck at each of Jebediah's fingers, lapping the soulmist clean. When it ran out, Kouri pouted and looked at him with her puppy-dog-eyes. "I want more... give me more!" She forgot about everything, her mind taken over by how good his soulmist tasted.

[Twister]

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For a man like Jebediah, not many things would actually throw him off of make him uncomfortable. He admitted with his odd stares at the ghost girl that her licking and suckling of his fingers was making him unsettled at the very least, though he managed to contain his discomfort and instead continued to chew at whatever he had stuck in his mouth, swallowing tiny bits from time to time. After a few ticks, he reached in a small pouch within his jacket to retrieve a piece of wet, reddened dough that he quickly rested on his stretched-out tongue and absorbed into his maw, resuming his chewing after he lapped up the red fluid sticking to his fingers. The observant would know or be able to tell that it was a mixture of blood and something else, but most definitely blood.

As he chewed and continued to swallow, more gel-like soulmist started to appear from various spots in his skin. He carefully brushed it all together and gathered it in his palm for Kouri to reach and devour as she pleased. "Now, don't get greedy. This is a depletable resource and you wouldn't want the others to be getting jealous, would you?" He motioned to the gathering around the fountain. ... None of the other ghosts present were actually watching Jebediah and the girl, wrapped up in conversation or departing the area to spread out into the rest of the graveyard. The elderly woman remained together with five others, adults and the young kid.

"You said you wanted to go to the Ridge, correct?" Jebediah said after a while, having swallowed down the last bit of dough and collected the remaining soulmist in his palm. He'd cupped up a small portion of it before Kouri could get her hands on it and stored it away in a glass jar that he'd been carrying around, dangling off the side of his belt. It swirled around within once he sealed the lid, glowing subtly behind the thick glass of its container. "It's a very old place, filled with people from another age altogether. What do you hope to find there, if you go?"

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[Fubuki Kouri]

Like a spoiled daughter of a rich noblewoman, Kouri's materialized hands kept tugging the man's sleeve, urging him to work faster, she didn't realize her earlier behaviour was a jarring twisted mockery of a child consuming a piece of candy nor did she realize Jebediah's odd stares. Despite this, she paused for a tick when her crimson eyes found the sight of red fluid on his fingers, it was... blood, she knew it all too well with how many she had shed. A sense of disgust welled up within her, she didn't know that soulmist was created from blood. That meant all of those soulmist she consumed from various spiritists were all made out of their body fluids. In short, she was a bloodsucker, in all her life and unlife, the little girl never thought the day she will consume something so repulsive would come. Sure, she shed a lot of evil people's blood, but she never thought of drinking it.

"..." Kouri barely broke off from her trance and released Jebediah's hand, though the lure was great, she was torn in between ignoring her feelings and just consume those soulmist or save what was left of her human persona. In the end, she chose the latter... for now. "I... uuh... i-it's fine, I... I had enough". She didn't want to tell him the truth, a little ungrateful child she would be if she dismissed his soulmist as something disgusting after so eagerly consuming it. Nevertheless, the man proved friendly and undeterred to her threats, he was also a spiritist, keeping up her rude act would do her no good. "T-thank you..." Kouri stammered, how the tables had turned. She gave a few ticks to look around her, noticing no other ghosts were actually paying attention to them, but knowing her kin, each of them could surround her at a moment's notice. They seemed to respect this spiritist, just another fact to prove angering him was dangerous.

By the good graces of Morwen, he done her a lot of favor by changing the topic. Now Kouri had something to focus her mind on other than his soulmist, also bringing her back on track. "Mhm," She nodded slowly, far meeker than before, "I want to go there, w-well... uh...". His tone was calm, but she couldn't shake the feeling that this 'Ridge' held some kind of ancient monster only told in bedtime stories. No! I didn't come here for nothing! The Vantha ghost steeled her resolve and plowed on, "Well, if it's old, there should be some good stuffs in there, right? I want one!" She smiled with all the childish innocence she could muster, "I'll share some of it with you, you'll come with me, right?" In her mind, Jebediah knew this place in and out, nothing would dare to harm him.