[open] no one's listening anymore

[spectra]

Spectra

She is oblivious to the storm beneath the living sister’s skin, the thunder in her chest that tells her to move, the effort it takes to quiet it. The ghost is such a weary thing, laying the weightless head on the hip and releasing such a thin breath, spectral breath. (She does not need to breathe, but it is a comforting thing.)

And Tirza sister asks if the ghost wants to rest and she lifts her head, meeting the real eyes with her transparent ones. How does a ghost rest? She has tucked herself into the shadows, away from the bones, and closed her eyes but she has never woken feeling refreshed. She has always woken feeling like nothing has changed at all. She has always woken feeling like an hour could have passed or a thousand years and none of it made any difference. 

She shakes her head now with a kind of mournful smile. “No, Tirza sister,” she murmurs. It is such a kind thing to offer, she thinks, to protect. But a ghost cannot be killed or harmed any more than it can die. There is no danger for her here. The only danger is in being alive. She is older now but this terrible darkness has killed whatever vegetation might have sustained the viper (and she is no longer a viper, is she? No longer has the fanged teeth. Only the blunt teeth of an equine made for eating the grasses that wilt around them now.)

“It is so wonderful just to have you here,” she says and means it. And then asks, “are there others? Other sisters?” She means siblings but she doesn’t know the word. 

ALL I WANT IS BEACHES FULL OF DEAD BIRDS. A FLOOD OF LIMBS
WASHED UP ONSHORE. SEASCAPES SPARKLING BRIGHT WITH BONE

@[Tirza]

[Random Event]

@[Tirza] your temporal repairing has mutated into astral projection.

[Tirza]

Spectra’s words about how it is wonderful to have Tirza here make the once-viper mare’s heart hurt in the way only true kindness can. She loves this ghostly girl, just as she loves her brother - with a fierce desire to keep them safe, keep them whole. She’s not surprised that she already feels this way about the kind ghost. The only good things her parents had ever done in their wicked lives were the children they created. And, for giving her the siblings they had, Tirza could willingly hate them a little less.

“I’ll stay with you.” The words are spoken softly, softer than any Tirza has ever spoken before, but there’s an iron promise in there. Now that she’s found Spectra she wants to keep this part of her family close. She is already holding so tightly to that vision of the three of them, free and as alive as they can manage to be.

The question brings a smile to her dark grey eyes. If there are other sisters, Tirza does not know them (she wonders now, though, but is not sure it worth another conversation with Gospel).

“No other sisters but we have a brother - his name is Gravitas, but I call him Gravy and you can too, no matter what he says. He’s my identical twin.” For Gravitas and Spectra, Tirza thinks, she’d resist trying to shedding her galaxy markings that remind her of a father she had dismissed upon their first meeting. She wonders if there is a way for them to all change, to be painted in something new - something that marks them for what they are. A family.

TIRZA

@[spectra]

@[The Monsters] it's not my fault you made this fun. Let's mess with astral projection!

[Random Event]

@[Tirza] your astral projection has mutated into tasmanian tiger shifting

[spectra]

Spectra

Oh, the ghost could weep with relief with the gift the living sister gives her. What a sweet promise, she will stay and the ghost will not have to be alone. The ghost will not have to wander. Tirza sister is here and the ghost is not damned or condemned, she is loved. Even if the Memory had not wanted her, even if the Memory had not told her that there were others. Even if everyone else is dead. The ghost has the living sister and something called a brother whose name is Gravy.

The ghost smiles. She smiles so adoringly. How the ghost’s face would light up if it were a real face! How the eyes would water with unfettered joy if they were real eyes! How she would tremble with glee! She does not know what a brother is but if it is anything like a sister she is certain she will love it, too. 

She shifts back into her equine body fleetingly, just long enough to feel the thundering electricity of her pulse. Just to feel the excitement, the happiness as it courses through her. This is what it means to be real. This is what it means to be family. This is what it means to be whole. But the hunger is savage and she swallows and it burns and she slips quickly back into her ghost skin where she is safe.

“I can’t believe I found you,” she whispers, breathless. “I can’t believe you’re the only living thing in all the world.” She continues, wide-eyed. “I’m so lucky.” She grins then. She is not alive and she is not dead and there is nothing she wants more than to get a moment’s rest, but she says, “I’m the luckiest girl, Tirza sister. And I cannot wait to meet Gravy brother. I cannot wait for us to be together.” And she hopes (but does not say) that they never have to be apart. 

ALL I WANT IS BEACHES FULL OF DEAD BIRDS. A FLOOD OF LIMBS
WASHED UP ONSHORE. SEASCAPES SPARKLING BRIGHT WITH BONE

@[Tirza]

@[The Monsters] please mess with her immortality!

[Random Event]

@[spectra] your immortality has mutated into starlight wings.