[Open] Sad little no longer a ghost girl

[picoboo]

🧙 WHO: Pico and YOU!
⚔️️ WHAT: Crying little girl
🕒 WHEN: Mid January to early February
🗺️ WHERE: In a remote corner of the hotel halls
⚠️ WARNINGS: FEELS! ALL THE HURTFUL, SAD, LONLEY, FEEEEEELS!

Pico couldn't remember her life as a human little girl anymore because it had been nearly a thousand years since then. It was especially difficult for ghosts who's reason for staying in the world of the living was as vague as hers had been before finding her Dolly. Now she was alive again, with all the perils, dangers, thrills, and difficulties that came with it, and she was alone. If Dolly were here she would know what to do, and how to reassure her that everything was going to be okay. If Ven were here, maybe she could fix everything because she was the dragon of the divine wind! No one she knew was here, she was alone.

Even when she was alone with Dolly in her deep sleep she could at least hold her hand and know that someday she'd come back if she was just patient enough. She didn't even have a picture of her to cling to, to hold her through these dark times until she appeared... if the two of them ever would be reunited. As a ghost, Dolly had been the sole reason Pico still existed in the world of the living, and now even that connection was gone. Pico was not one to lose herself to despair very often, she was such a bright and bubbly ball of chaotic energy, but right now? Now she was crying.

They say that rage is a secondary emotion, and she tried rage... now all she had left were these tears that wouldn't stop.

So here is the question... what would you do if you saw a little girl crying in a remote corner of the hotel by herself?

Comments

[troubadamsel]

What would Maribelle do? Head right for her, of course!

She began to kneel down, her face soft. "What's the matter, dear? Are you hurt?"

[picoboo]

"H-Huh?" Oh shoot had someone seen her crying? She'd tried to hide so she wouldn't be a bother to anyone, and now she felt sort of embarrassed. Still, this lady was very kind to come ask her if she was okay, so she's grateful at least.

"I-I'm fine I just..." Was she really fine? No... No she was absolutely distraught and the droop of her head in spite of her best efforts proved that.

"I... I'm alone for the first time in a very long time. I don't have my Dolly, or Ven, or anyone here who's my friend, and I'm very scared." People keep assuming that Pico was talking about a toy doll but she didn't particularly feel like explaining that wasn't what she meant right now. She hugged her own knees, curling up into a little ball of anxieties.

"Living here... is very overwhelming." She meant that more in the sense of being alive, but again... too complicated to explain fully, and it still got the general point across.

[troubadamsel]

Oh, this poor child. What a cruel system, to take someone so young! Maribelle sighed, taking out a handkerchief. "First things first... let's not keep that cute face of yours wet." She began to lightly dab and wipe under Pico's eyes.

"There we go... you know, I'm not fine either. A lot of people here will tell you they are fine, but I suspect a good number of them are just putting on a brave face. If anyone was entirely fine with this situation, I'd think they were quite mad. Overwhelming is the perfect word for it."

[colchismagecraft]

Oh- oh no. That poor girl. Caster had been heading back to her room when she saw the little one crying, but she just couldn't leave her alone like that.

...Hopefully it wouldn't scare Pico too much that a suspicious looking woman in a dark cloak was heading her way to crouch down near her.

"...Are you alright? You're new here, aren't you?"

Come to think of it, hadn't she seen this girl on the network? There was something familiar about her

[picoboo]

"Oh! I'm sorry I don't normally..." Get her face wet when crying? Yeah... being human is still going to take some getting used to. As a ghost if she cried they were just ghostly tears that wouldn't actually really accumulate, and it was rare for her to cry even then.

"Thank you... I'm sorry to be such a fuss, I didn't want to trouble anyone with my sorrows." Which was why she'd tried to find sort of a remote corner for her crying, but at the same time it was definitely nice to have someone to comfort her. She's going to take a few deep breaths to try to steady herself, breathing also being something she had to get back into the hang of doing.

[picoboo]

Dark cloak? Mystery woman? Well, she was a ghost before coming here so ominous any mysteriously spooky things were sort of her jam? This lady was being kind enough to check on her, but at the same time she also wasn't entirely sure what to make of her.

"I... I am new here, yes." Pico was also rather fearless since the only thing worse than dying was living, and she was already doing that. No matter how suspicious Caster might be, Pico wasn't likely to be intimidated by appearances alone. "I'm also very alone here. I don't have anyone from back home here."

As if hearing that and feeling slightly insulted, a small pink squirrely paw pokes out from under Pico's hat, and taps the girl on the head a few times. "Oh... except for Squeek-ems."

[colchismagecraft]

I mean, this creepy woman would look perfectly at home in the Obsidian Mansion, so perhaps that helps.

The appearance of the little squirrel made a smile come into Caster's face, but it was tinged was sadness at the girl's plight.

"It's horribly unfair, isn't it? Ripping us away from our homes so suddenly like that and leaving us all alone here," she said softly. "I'm sorry this place has done the same to you."

The people she did know here from back home were definitely not who she would call allies. Especially not the one who stabbed her in the back.

[troubadamsel]

Maribelle gently "tut tut"'d, continuing to wipe Pico's face. "Bottling up sorrows is the true trouble... then they're liable to pop out when it's most inopportune. It's much better to let it out the moment you feel them, especially in good company." And of course Maribelle considers herself the best company.

"There, now. When's the last time you've eaten? I've always found that after a good cry, I'm always very thirsty."

[picoboo]

"N-No I..." Pico shook her head, causing the little squirrel to hide back under Pico's hat as was its wont. "I don't blame them for bringing me here, it sounds like there wasn't exactly any choice in the matter!"

At least that's what they told everyone, right? That all worlds were dying, and frozen in time, and that in order to save all of reality they took who they could from any time or place and had them do what they could to repair reality as they knew it? At least that's sort of what it sounded like? Pico didn't really know what to believe, but if all of reality hanged in the balance she wasn't about to say no to doing anything she could to save it. She was a part of reality too!

"It's just..." Uh oh... she was crying again, except this time in front of her friendly stranger, where before she'd at least been trying to hide that she was crying.

"How could they take me and not Dolly!? I'm nothing without Dolly! I shouldn't even be! I... I died so long ago that all of this should be impossible. Why... why couldn't I even get to say goodbye before being dragged here? Or have a picture to remember her by? Why... why..." And Pico is curling back up into a ball of tears and sorrows.

[colchismagecraft]

Caster frowned as the poor girl dissolved into a sobbing mess. And everything she said hit- well, far too close to home for her liking. She would argue about the intentions of those who brought them here later, that wasn't important at all right now.

She carefully moved a little closer, resting a hand on Pico's shoulder to try and comfort her. If she was receptive, she would offer the little one a hug, but she didn't want to force it.

"I wish I knew," Caster's voice wavered as she spoke. "Believe me, I wish I knew why they tore you away from her so cruelly."

[picoboo]

Pico was sort of drowning in her own tears and sorrows, so any helping hand to keep her from slipping under the overwhelming current of her tears was welcome. So the moment Caster seems even the slightest bit receptive to a hug, she flings her arms around the woman, sobbing and probably getting her clothes wet from tears. She's just going to sit there in her arms for a little while crying, because it's been a really long time since she's been this uncontrollably sad.

After what seems like a small eternity with intermitant mumblings of 'Dolly!' and 'why!?', Pico finally runs out of energy and tears to cry, and simply sniffles a little in the arms of the comforting presence of the kindly stranger. "Hic! I-I'm sowwy... I'm such a mess."

She was... still sort of recovering from her full blown bawling. She was in the body of an eight year old girl, no matter how many years she may have lived as a ghost, parts of her still never completely developed. Some things were just hard, and sometimes she wasn't the most mature about things even if she was far wiser and knowledgeable than any child should be. "My name is Pico... and you already met Squeek'ems."

Pico lifted her hat, and it seemed that the little squirrel or chipmunk of a thing had been hugging Pico's head all throughout her crying, trying to comfort her in some manner even if it didn't fully understand everything.

[colchismagecraft]

Perhaps that reaction was to be expected. Once Pico all but latched onto her, Caster hugged her tight whilst she let out her tears, just hoping that even someone like her could offer a little comfort.

This world really was incredibly cruel.

She didn't seem to notice the fact that her robes were getting damp from the crying, focusing her attention on the little girl in her arms as she let a couple of tears slide down her own cheeks. After all, she hadn't truly grieved after being separated from her precious Souichirou-sama.

"Pico, hm?" she said softly as she started to settle down. "I..."

A hesitation, there. It seemed a little cold to hide her true name from her like that, but was revealing it really alright, under these circumstances? The last thing she wanted was for her name to be spread around, after all. For all her secretive nature, though, she couldn't quite apply her usual paranoia to a vulnerable child like this.

"...My true name is Medea, but I try to keep that a secret. Most here call me 'Caster'. I'll introduce you to my familiar when it gets back, it likes wandering off by itself from time to time," Caster offered her hand to the sort-of-squirrel-sort-of-chipmunk under Pico's hat, incase it wanted to be pet.

"But don't apologise. I'm not surprised you're so upset at being separated so suddenly like that...it was the same when I was brought here, as well."