Well, most of a skull. Her lower jaw's missing, poor thing, and the box we found her in has lost all of its jewels. It seems like she was forgotten for a long while—she says hundreds of years, but of course, who can trust a spirit's perception of time—
[ she's babbling again. ness forces herself to take a breath, slow down, stop trying to preempt trouble. the professor isn't accusing her of anything yet! concern is not accusation, it's just concern. he's concerned about a spirit! that's good!
but it does mean she should stop babbling and take him to rosamunde before he gets upset. she smiles, sheepish, and nods at him, finally. ]
Yes, Professor, of course, just let me clean up after myself.
[ ness goes quickly about the task of putting her books away, officially borrowing out emmrich's texts, and loading the small stack on her runed hoverboard. when she's ready, she smiles at emmrich again, and leads them out the doors of the archive and toward the stairs. as they go, she keeps talking, less nervously this time, about her plans to fashion a harness to keep rosamunde attached to her belt so she can come along on safer field missions, see the world—
the office they end up in is of a fair size, kept neat and tidy. bookshelves line one wall, though they're not terribly full yet. a dark wooden desk stands in the middle of the room, upon which sits a stack of loose papers, a quill and inkwell, and a cushion. on the cushion, there lays a skull, devoid of bottom jaw, but otherwise clean and fully intact. ]
Rosamunde, I'm back! [ ness pushes the book-laden hoverboard up to the desk and gently picks up the skull to present it, cupped in both palms, to emmrich. ] I brought a new friend, he was very excited to meet you.
[ the skull's eyes fill with the smoke-like green of fade spirit-stuff immediately. ]
A friend? How do you know? He doesn't look very friendly to me!
no subject
[ she's babbling again. ness forces herself to take a breath, slow down, stop trying to preempt trouble. the professor isn't accusing her of anything yet! concern is not accusation, it's just concern. he's concerned about a spirit! that's good!
but it does mean she should stop babbling and take him to rosamunde before he gets upset. she smiles, sheepish, and nods at him, finally. ]
Yes, Professor, of course, just let me clean up after myself.
[ ness goes quickly about the task of putting her books away, officially borrowing out emmrich's texts, and loading the small stack on her runed hoverboard. when she's ready, she smiles at emmrich again, and leads them out the doors of the archive and toward the stairs. as they go, she keeps talking, less nervously this time, about her plans to fashion a harness to keep rosamunde attached to her belt so she can come along on safer field missions, see the world—
the office they end up in is of a fair size, kept neat and tidy. bookshelves line one wall, though they're not terribly full yet. a dark wooden desk stands in the middle of the room, upon which sits a stack of loose papers, a quill and inkwell, and a cushion. on the cushion, there lays a skull, devoid of bottom jaw, but otherwise clean and fully intact. ]
Rosamunde, I'm back! [ ness pushes the book-laden hoverboard up to the desk and gently picks up the skull to present it, cupped in both palms, to emmrich. ] I brought a new friend, he was very excited to meet you.
[ the skull's eyes fill with the smoke-like green of fade spirit-stuff immediately. ]
A friend? How do you know? He doesn't look very friendly to me!