Library, Wednesday, All Day

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Sholeh had been excited to go to the library today. After two days of classes and with a plan to meet with Yeul had her more cheerful than she'd been in weeks.

...That cheer did not last long past her first interaction with flying, fire-breathing vegetables. She'd gotten chased all the way to the school doors after stepping outside of the dorms. She'd been dive-bombed, one of the ribbons in her hair was scorched, and it didn't matter how many times she glanced out the windows, they were still there.

Lurking.

Waiting.

Buzzing.

After recovering from her headlong dash, Sholeh marched right to the desk and started looking up ways to kill these nasty little things. She was going to try to invent some kind of spray-bottle flyswatter by the end of her shift if it was the last thing she did!

Comments

Re: Talk to Sholeh

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Sholeh glanced around for squirrels, then motioned Yeul to follow her. When they were good and lost in the stacks, she turned back around to face her friend, rubbing suddenly-sweaty palms on her skirt. "This is kinda weird, so don't freak out, okay?" she said.

"It's just that...when I talked about people suffering because I died, I didn't just mean people who felt bad, like Evan. I meant people really and truly suffered. Because, well, see...they were trapped with me. In me. And couldn't get out. This will make more sense when I show you my secret."

And then Sholeh closed her eyes and let her oldest sister come into view.

"Hi Yeul," Zhari said, looking a little unsure. "Been awhile, huh?"

Re: Talk to Sholeh

[pulseof_life]

Yeul had followed silently, primarily concerned for Sholeh and at a loss as to what the secret could be, if they needed to be deep in the stacks. Something to show her?

Then Sholeh warned her not to freak out which was, Yeul thought, more for Sholeh's sake than her own.

The rest of her words bore that out.

Then it was Zhari in front of her, looking uncertain, and all of the nervousness made sense. Yeul, however, had many, many lifetimes of not being surprised by anything to fall back on.

"Hello Zhari," she said, smiling gently, wanting to put the other girl at ease. "I had not realized Sholeh was one of your sisters."

Re: Talk to Sholeh

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"My baby sister," Zhari answered, which probably explained a lot about Sholeh's relative youth. "Zeela's in between. Oh, and, uh, you may have figured it out by now, but my name is actually Zhahar. Though I'm using Zhari here at the school because..."

Because running around calling yourself 'Zhahar' after your little sister was already known as Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar was just asking to be outed.

"You...you don't seem surprised. Did you guess?" Now Zhahar looked somewhere between relieved and crestfallen. It was a really good secret, okay?

Re: Talk to Sholeh

[pulseof_life]

It was a really good secret!

Yeul's smile nudged over into sort of amused. "I did not guess," she said. "I am just... very difficult to surprise. And both you and Sholeh have mentioned sisters and being close to them." She'd guessed at their relationship but nothing else. "Do you prefer if I go on using Zhari? Or would you prefer Zhahar?"

Re: Talk to Sholeh

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Zhari, please," she replied quickly. "We can't let people know that we're connected like that and if you use my real name, people will start to guess." Zhahar chuckled, though she didn't really find anything funny. "People get nervous when they find out they're going to school with demons."

Because that was what they were, didn't you know? Totally demons. Yup!

...At least, that was what everyone else called them.

Re: Talk to Sholeh

[pulseof_life]

"Zhari, then," she said agreeably, then hesitated. "Do your people go by the name demons?"

Because... well... that was not a very nice word.

Re: Talk to Sholeh

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Zhari nodded, reluctantly. "Well, I mean, we think of ourselves as Tryadneans. Three-in-one. But I guess we're technically part of a demon race. There are lots of them in our world. We're not really demonic, though. I mean, we don't even have magic. Just we're born as three children in one body."

But that was enough for some people.

"That's what Sholeh meant by suffering, though. We were trapped in her dead body for the rest of that week. To lose a sibling is a terrible, terrible thing. But to remain stuck within the shell? To remain voiceless and eyeless and formless? That was..." She shivered. "We were all a little traumatized when we left the dungeon."

Re: Talk to Sholeh

[pulseof_life]

Sholeh might have been the baby of the three of them but, really, after listening to that (could you hear the sound of Yeul's heart breaking?) there was really only one thing she could say.

"Did you want a hug?" she asked quietly. "I think you each deserve hugs of your own."

Even though she was almost certain that she'd never met Zeela.

Re: Talk to Sholeh

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"I--" Zhari hadn't been expecting that offer, no. "I think I would, please."

Look, it had been a really tough experience for all of them, okay! No judging. It felt really nice for Zhahar to be able to set aside her big-sister-cares and just enjoy a moment when she was comforted and babied.

"Thank you."