Jyo rolls a wish to get a tattoo. And who am I to refuse her? She's not been in good humor lately, and the house will be relying on her for that. This old man slaved to the tattoo chair in places we never view, finally gets some screentime for it. He's probably rich too, and has to work like a dog thanks to NRAAS settings. Thank you old man. I think it's old man Capp's second cousin, or something.
Then she dances downstairs with this other old man because I was busy and didn't tell her not to.
I love the party room in the holiday House. It's the main room that is changed with the seasonal lot marker (the outside also gets changed normally). We all know how I will complicate this.
“Glad you could make it, Everet.”
He holds her hand gently and tries to make his smile seem genuine. “How are you holding up?”
“I'm fine.”
“It's alright if you're... not, you know.”
She blinks. “What do you mean?”
“If you need me to stay for a bit, I can.”
“Thanks Everet, but you have your own situation to get back to.”
"I see." His relief is evident. If only she knew...
Surprisingly, one of Casimir's classmates shows up. They're barely acquaintances, so I slap some patterns on her in the most lazy was possible. She likes green, but the darker version to Caz' lime favorite.
She's seen him in debate. “Debby!” He greets her.
“Bibi.” She corrects him.
“That's what I meant! Who invited you to my grandpa's funeral?”
“I did.”
“Oh. Cool.”
“We didn't hire any magicians for this event, so I will be your entertainment.”
“Niiice.”
“Yeah it is. This is my impression of Dustin Sparrow.”
(Apparently it's hilarious?)
She smirks at him and all he can do is wonder if this is her normal expression, and if she invited herself here just to attach herself to the family like everyone else does. One day he'll classify this as her 'cunning rabbit' face. Ears down, of course.
Caroline looks him up and down before bothering to greet him and it gives him a weird shiver. He notices that she really dressed up for this. Could this just be a normal day, instead of a crappy sad one where he has to entertain people that he doesn't know how he should be acting around?
Howard is also here this evening, and he looks just as awkward as an adult as he did as a teenager. Child and YA were his time. Look at that pout.
Jyo greets him, and he goes off about how she's not been to the gym as much lately, has she been taking care of herself? She breezes through the conversation, happy to have her mind off of what life is going to look like after this.
Ev decides that swimwear will honor Dustin's memory the best. Meg notices, but she hardly cares about something like that.
Everyone can mourn in the way they see fit.
Predictably, those are the best photos that I had.
Through the eyes of Casimir, no one here understands grandpa Dustin as well as he did. How hard he worked, how much he put aside the things he wanted to do because the family could be better if he made sacrifices of time or rest, Caz feels like he saw him in a way that nobody else had. Ultimately, his own dream of doing nothing with his life and lazing around starts to seem ...petty. He still plans on doing it, though.
Across the room is Emir, wondering how much he has missed with someone that he didn't ever get to properly meet. Dustin had greeted him when he visited last, but he hadn't even stayed for a meal. Dustin didn't ask him anything and Emir had been all wrapped up in his own worries. Not wanting to take any risks, not realizing that that compromise led him not to know someone so well-loved and honored. Dustin Sparrow had put on a show for the world, and only his family knew who he was at the core. Emir should have been in that precious core group, but missed the chance by rejecting a single dinner invitation. The moment he missed will stay with him.
Jyoti left her mother and Casimir to greet the guests, she's having trouble leaving the garage, where she stashed all of her dad's stage props and equipment. Facing other people seems like a lot right now.
If Emir is here, then so is Malcolm. She's not alone for long before he finds her and holds his arms open. She has a moment of weakness and allows the embrace, before shrugging him away without saying anything.
His tone, at least, is genuine. “Jyo, I'm so sorry, your father was always-”
She tenses up. “Don't say sorry to me. Not this time, Malcolm. I want you and Emir to move in with me, effective, now.”
He looks almost exactly like a deer caught in the headlights would. Jyoti's never come across one on the road actually, but this face is her exact imagining of such an expression. They stay standing here for a while, hearing all the distant sounds of the door's chime and footsteps while guests filter in. This feels like it's going to be a long and delicate conversation.
Emir gets up to talk to other guests. It's an odd sensation to be consoled when he has very little idea about who he has lost. Soon he will greet Amelie (on the left). She's the one who visited during Jyo's adult birthday party when he had chickened out, and is quite close to him as they share classes and are on the same schoolbus most days. This little girl is her sister or cousin, or something.
It was somebody's (brilliant) idea to let Casimir be the usher to show everyone in. This is what most of everyone gets to see at the beginning of the viewing. What may seem like a chance for him to develop some people skills and maturity is likely going to be a good reason for him to avoid social gatherings later on. The adults he should be able to rely on right now are absent. Just like his grandpa is.
Jyoti's preoccupied listening to this guy's excuses, none of which she can find real fault in. He has every right to be cautious in general, but she can sense that he is wavering. Really, she needs the steady sound of his voice at the moment, whatever is coming out of his mouth.
Ghost dog approaches you and orders you to sit down on the sofa so it can receive pets.
You;
A) Walk away and hope that something like this never happens again, possibly running for dear life in the process, or
B) Do what it says. It just spoke beyond the grave. Also maybe give it smoochy kisses on its wispy forehead?
C) Dress like your pajamas are good enough for a funeral.
“I just feel like he really did a lot for me as a child, you know? The one who understood me the most.”
Caroline nods slowly, unsure how to tell him what he would like to hear. She's not the doting type. “It's good that you had him for so long.” She finally manages.
The ghost dog is, by now, the least of Jiraya's worries, as he has no idea how to comfort his elderly mom. She is complaining, through garbled words and choking sobs, how she never should have lived such a healthy lifestyle and run such long distances in search of specimens because she's sure it made her outlive her husband. He has no words for the internal crisis this creates for him as a surviving son.
She's not forgotten about the death flower she used, but in her mind it's a wash. Dustin used one too. So where is he right now?!
Hearing her bemoan so many choices in her life is hard for Jiraya. There seems to be so much he thought he'd known, that he simply doesn't. Adults aren't confident, they make mistakes, they second guess. They are sometimes even weaker than he is. Unreal. The most that comes out of his mouth is stuttering, and she interrupts what he's saying to her anyways.
By the time she zones back in, she sees his eyes are somewhere far, far away.
Most of these guests haven't been properly sad yet, and here they are playing video games. Ungrateful! Ahem. Maybe Virginia Supine in the plum gown just thinks that this is Starlight Shores protocol for sending off the deceased. Anyways...
Jiraya tries to get his mom back onto something encouraging, a good memory, maybe? “Dad used to say that traveling with you was of his favorite things to do, even though you would both go off on your own, that in the evening you'd get together and share adventure stories with each other. Is there... someplace you would go back to, if you could?”
But she's decided not to answer him, and a vapor that seems like it should be noxious fills the air around them.
Jyo would have half a heart attack to see what her mom was downstairs doing, but she can't bear to be at the actual viewing, so she asks Malcolm to head outside for some precious alone time with him, instead. The effect of his presence on her life is here in the room more than ever, she feels so peaceful.
Jiraya is busy unlocking a new trauma. Ghosts float through the air like fishes through water. Are fishes not really alive, are ghosts like fish swimming through a past time, or just an echo? All at once, Meghan's voice comes through clearly. “It worked, the formula!”
Learning that it's not real , that she didn't just die right in front of him, doesn't really slow his heart rate down all that much.
She spends the rest of the funeral pretending to be a ghost. Because she's certifiably crazy, nobody second guesses this or thinks she is making fun of her own husband. Everyone processes grief differently, after all.
Everet is a bit relieved to find her handshake to be firm. "You're really there." He breathes.
He has a hard time pretending that it's normal for long though, and soon his natural charisma is overcome by an unusual floundering awkwardness. He is likely thinking something along the lines of When can I head back to the desert...?
Casimir tries to find out what he and his half brother share as interests. Of course, that only means arguing with people and video or arcade games.
“Casimir, you imbecile! This is not the time to talk about speedruns of MarioPaint!”
Theerrrrre it is. Emir proving that he deserves to be among this crowd. :D
“Who wants to daAANnnnce???!”
…Why did Kevin accept our invitation? He should have known it was just to be polite, and he was supposed to refuse.
But Emir is not done. “You are supposed to be here celebrating the life of a precious family member, but all you've done it waste it by talking about worthless subjects! The chance you have to honor our grandfather's memory is slipping away, yet you don't seem to have anything nice to say about him? You had so much time and what for if you don't even remember anything?!”
“Don't project your own insecurities on to me, brother. You know very little about me.” Casimir growls, realizing that Emir is not the docile, useless kid he was starting to think he was. Not that this is any better. “You'd better back off.” He warns.
“Or what, you're going use Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-START?”
It's true that there are times when people argue at a funeral, but really guys, how low class of you both. I just took this picture because Casimir is usually unaffected by other people's oddities. He looks genuinely angry here. Appalled, probably.
Jiraya just lets everybody else complain, most days.
Emir and Amelie watch tv together in Caz' room. The subjects are mundane, but the two teenagers seem to really enjoy time together. She is no nonsense, and he appreciates the lack of drama when she's around. They're not in our family directly, so it's hard to label the relationship.
...why does the school trip to the graveyard always give out this poster of ghosts? Why do school students have to tour the mausoleum? Is death being respected, tolerated, or mocked? Yes, in this story.
After a beat of silence she asks him how upset he is. He takes a moment to answer. “Not upset, I didn't really know him.”
“But you wish you did?”
Emir mulls that over. “Yeah.”
Jiraya doing damage control. "Hey, calm it down, we both have to keep it together here, we can't be losing it like the adults."
He manages to cheer him up this time.
The Fae have no idea what this 'human party' is all about, really. This went on for hours, and if they had some patented Swift-family Fairy Punch, it would be into the next afternoon. Let's just assume it's in their systems anyways.
There are also outdoor pillow fights, at a funeral.
...and Kevin's being inappropriate. Jyo invited him as a courtesy because he's always been a family friend. That doesn't mean that she expected him to actually be here, or that she wanted to talk to him at all. He's in Casimir's room, which apparently, being right next to the party room, is fair game for any guest who wants to wander in.
“That would be so fun. So you've... never gone camping, not once? Fall has great weather for it-” Casimir laughs lightly as Emir tries to patch things up from his outburst. That is never never, ever going to happen. Their mom would go with Emir most likely, but Caz isn't trying to give her away to some other kid anytime soon.
Just to blur the lines of reality as much as possible, Dustin crashes his own funeral after most of the guests retreat for the evening. We ought to have expected this, really.
The face of someone who was never not messed with by their spouse, not even once.
“Ew.....”
“On second thought, since I'm only imagining things...” (slurpy echoes)
(sob)
Well played, Meg. You sure showed him.
Then she sang at him all romantically.
It's not fair, and it'll never be fair. She wishes she didn't use that last death flower now. When she's in her right mind, that is. Or they would be together now.
Meghan doesn't know this at the moment, but she's going to be looking forward to the future more than ever as an elder-not only in the hopes of meeting Dustin again one day, but to watch over their family and be able to tell him everything he is going to miss. It would be great if he could be proud of her, or if she could live with herself, and stand in front of him, smiling, one day.
When she wakes up in the morning she will see this all as another good reason to research ways to help the world to overcome death, but right now... she can only see that she misses him, and that half of her is gone (the most sensible half) that she will never get back. There was nobody with her more than him, in life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Dustin is as predictable as ever, even in death.
Glad for Malcolm to be such a calming factor in this story, and in my game in general. I like to think that bringing peace to other people in a room is one of the most valuable skills one could have, ever. It's hard to be a peacemaker though- sometimes it means not letting bullies or disruptive actors have their own way. The peacemaker is often also the 'nail that sticks up'.
Everet and Kevin, they're just the faithful attendees that shake a few hands, eat half the food, and do whatever they like the rest of the time.
