Plenty. Maybe I’ll find somethin’ good. I dunno, American food is weird in general. Ever had a fried Snickers bar? Far out. Thought my arteries would clog immediately.
Fair enough. Yeah – mean I find there’s so many subcultures there – makes things interesting. Oof, a fried Snickers bar – that’s wild. But I did have a fried oreo once.. not something to eat regularly but it wasn’t a bad treat.
Once Eve’s eyes finish resetting, she lowers her hands so she can see what they are talking about. “Oh! Those are like, pretty cool though. Plus it makes you unique and stuff.”
“Thanks, I do enjoy them myself -such otherworldly features are a part of being me. Although being not really of this world makes me in no position to judge others for what they really look like.”
Nero eyes the stranger, looking between them and his frustrated owner. As if to spite Giorgia, the cat arches back in a stretch before hopping off the wall to go and investigate Saima, curling around their legs and sniffing. Gio let out a small gasp before pursing her lips. She murmured under her breath, “Oh you stop that…” before glancing back to Saima.
“Can you distract him? I’ll sneak up from behind. He likes ear and chin scratches the most.”
Saima couldn’t help but be amused by the fact that Nero did seem to respond if only to find out more about what exactly they were.
“Sure.. I’ll keep engaging him.“ Bending down to talk to the cat, Saima remained friendly with Nero. “Thanks for coming down, I know it was a lot – let me give you a few scratches for your effort.“ They began to give Nero some ear and chin scratches – just to make sure the cat was feeling good.
The perceived assumption that they would go before she did hung in the air between them and for the time being Lilli would simply let it be. She tried discussing this with others in the past, only to be met with vehement denial of the subject. Such a topic was painful. She understood this and yet she simply wanted it to be an accepted fact. She could trust Saima with this, someday, but today was not that day.
“Ah, how charming!” Lilli’s voice grew in volume and attained a forced brightness while she turned the subject to something far more pleasant. “Look at the birds in the rafters! I remember when it used to be like this with no glass to shut them out.”
What, exactly, had Saima brought her here to see? Oh, that was right. The musical echoes of times past. Lilli became so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she never paused to listen. How disrespectful of her.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized to them with a smile, “You wanted to show me a choir?”
The forced brightness only brought out a small sigh from Saima. As ‘unpleasant’ as the subject could be, changing it in that fashion got under their skin in ways that they didn’t know exactly how to express. Nonetheless, they did, in fact, notice the birds in the rafters.
“I do remember those days as well.“ They mention simply – waiting for her to allow them to actually get to the point of this visit.
Saima returns a small grin.“Indeed. Take a moment to listen, to listen and to observe- you’ll see something, hear something interesting.“ With that said, they became silent. And in the quiet, it becomes more and more apparent that an old song is being sung. The melody is haunting and yet calm moving through the church with a subtle power.
As the song goes on, it becomes more audible and with it – one would notice the movements of several figures towards the front of the church. It is there where the choir stays, singing their praise for their most high for all of eternity. In unison and with longing, they sing these hymns to express their experience in still existing albeit in a ghostly form.
“You do?” Eve is about to uncover her eyes, but then she remembers that they’re still glitching so she keeps them covered. “What’s weird about your eyes?”
“They are like the reverse of human eyes – so what usually is white in human eyes is blue-green in my eyes, and what’s usually some color in human eyes, is white in my eyes.” With that, they shift to demonstrate- letting their piercing and otherworldly eyes make their appearance.
“I can’t show you my eyes! They’re uh, ugly. Not my eyes…the eyeshadow.”
“I mean, I don’t mind if the eyeshadow’s a bit off. Hell, even if something’s with your eyes I don’t mind that either. I’ve got..odd eyes as well if I’m real honest with you.”
“That’s very sad,” Lilli commented under her breath while she thought of such circumstances. Of course, it was not her intention to imply that watching one’s loved ones was sad but rather that the spirits around could not find peace. How many times had she attended funerals or even regular Masses to pray for such peace for both the living and the dead? How many such prayers went unheard?
“Do you think that will happen to us? When we go?” Unlike most, Lilli preferred to look her own mortality in the eye. Perhaps it was the relatively small and insignificant state of her country which led to this surprisingly realistic outlook. Bigger nations with cultures more distinct than hers were dissolved within a single defining moment. She simply had to realize that her own humble state could be next.
“Would you be there if it did?”
“It can be, certainly.“ Perhaps it was their tendency not to be able to find much peace for themselves – but Saima didn’t always seem to see it as the worst thing. “Guess that’s why people try to be respectful when the time comes to honor ghosts – maybe they can help some of these souls move on to where rest can be achieved.“
The question about when ‘we’ go makes Saima pause once more. A sharp reminder that they have much more info about their own fate than that of Lilli’s.
“I think it’s possible for representatives in a way to haunt their homelands when they go. But I think it’ll be in a different situation than for most humans.“
A slight pause at the follow-up question, a bit reluctant to give the answer they know to be true.“… I don’t think I would be actually. “ It’s hard for them to actually explain this but.. it’s something they feel obligated to admit.
“I..I don’t think I would be. When I go, I know it’s somewhere else than where you’d end up. It’d be different from where representatives as you know it would end up. Not to say I couldn’t visit – cause my perpetual restlessness would likely allow that but… it’s an entirely different situation.“
I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I do wish that people would stop trying to help me with everything under the sun once they learn that I’m…sickly.
I’m not– I’m not wasting away in bed of some horrible Victorian novel disease, you don’t have to treat me like I’m made of glass. Jesus Christ. Is that hard to treat me normally.
Just goes to show how people still don’t really know how to best deal with a difference in some ways.
I’m not entirely sure what it takes for people not to do that – surely it comes across as patronizing in an insulting way.
Seekesotsibteadmist 