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#1 2020-06-06 07:32:04 PM
- BlisaMarshmellow
- Member
- From: The State of Confusion
- Registered: 2016-12-14
- Posts: 1,380
Angela is good with crazy people (IC RWA RP 6.6.20 Dibbun Slavers TP)
SCENE: Redwall Abbey's first orchards
CHARACTERS: Sola, a female hare. Angela, a female mouse.
LOG:
Angela has a lot of things to be worrying about right now. The Dibbuns were kidnapped by wicked creatures. Her granddaughter is off trying to rescue them. Her great-granddaughter has been given the responsibility of Gatekeeper, which the old mouse isn't sure she's ready for. She also has been upset since Tuesday -- the Healer suspects it's because Lily killed someone else for the first time. The old mouse is also worrying about the safety of the Abbey and the sanity of her friend, the Abbot. And all her patients in the Infirmary, too. Which brings Angela to her latest worry: the newly arrived haremaid, Sola. The elderly Healer is sneaking her way around outside, looking for the hare without being spotted. This is something the mouse is actually quite good at.
Sola is a bit of an odd one out among the group of hares. She's got more scars than most of them (Possibly with the exception of Monty but she might still win that contest by being half blind) but she's no fighter. Neither is she a healer though she followed instructions to help at least during the battle. Refusing to go near any injured vermin species including the Ferravale beasts didn't win her any friends though and now she was helping with the cleaning instead. She isn't too hard to find. She has gathered a couple of old rugs and hung them up between the trees so she can beat the dust out of them. She mutters to herself a lot but it's even worse and almost constant when she's on her own.
Oh, there she is! Angela follows the mumbles until she's hiding behind a peach tree, watching the haremaid and listening closely. The old Healer takes special interest in insanity, and she suspects there's some of that in the hare. She wishes the hare could have continued to help in the Infirmary -- even beasts who can follow directions are valued.
Sola doesn't look relaxed. Her eye is focused on the job but her ear and a half are constantly moving and on the alert, her nose twitches and she looks tense. The slightest breeze rustling the trees makes her ears move and perhaps that's why they can't focus on the mouse trying to sneak up on her. It helps that the healer is hiding on her blind side though "But they can't come back or the would have but if they can then they will but they can't but they're there but I won't look, I won't and they'll make me but I won't" go the mutterings. There's definitely some crazy going on there.
Angela prides herself with her silent tread. However, she's not so great at hiding behind trees that are awkwardly shaped. Peaches are strange plants. After listening for a few minutes, the mouse steps out from behind the tree. "I think y'should hit those rugs 'arder, if ye can." Because taking aggression out on innocent inanimate objects is helpful for curing mental illnesses.
Sola freezes, breathing in sharply as she's surprised. She doesn't move but her eye looks around wildly, just not in Angela's direction because when you think things are hiding behind every tree they're all a possibility for mysterious voices. Nothing matches the voice so she finally slowly turns her head until she can see the mouse. She stops. Staring for longer than normal until she finally, in a polite, calm but firm voice says "I am hitting them firmly enough for the task" she sounds calm but it's only a second afterwards her ears are back to twitching.
Nodding, Angela sits down on an overturned wheelbarrow that's basically left out here for this purpose. "Aye, f'r the task, yes. But not for your agitation." She rests her staff across her lap, the poisoned crystal at the top glinting in the filtered sunlight. "You seem worried. We're relatively safe here in Redwall, despite what y'may have seen and heard."
Sola takes another deep breath but slower this time "I do not need to hit things like a barbarian. I am cleaning. Nothing more" her eye flicks around the trees cautiously before it fixes once more on Angela at the idea the abbey is safe. Her lips purse, she doesn't believe it "Yes, your badger said that too...between kidnappers, rat hordes and numerous vermin staying within the walls I'm afraid I can't believe it. We are always running from one danger to another, it's no different here"
Angela cocks an eyebrow. "The vermin we're allowing t'stay in our walls 'ave proven themselves t'be trustworthy allies. We take our safety very seriously. As for the kidnappers....that was an unusual occurrence. We're usually pretty safe." I mean, except for how every year somebody tries to conquer them. But the hare doesn't need to know that. "An' how does smackin' a rug as hard as y'can to get all yer anger out bein' a barbarian? Pray explain that t'me."
Sola gives her that same disbelieving, disapproving look again when she talks about the vermin but it's not an argument that she chooses to start again so she doesn't say anything about that. She's half blind, scarred, had half an ear ripped off and is missing fingers, with the exception of the ear everything is very neat, purposeful and unlikely to have been caused by a quick slash in a battle. It's not hard to guess where the dislike of vermin comes from. "I am not angry" she merely replies, pausing to beat the rug a little harder a couple of times before she adds "And I am not crazy" because she knows she is but she's trying to pretend otherwise which is why she's keeping the muttering to herself now.
Angela has been looking at those scars, all right. And this conversation is giving her some clues as to how those scars came to be. But instead of commenting on that, or on the hare being angry (which the harder hits on the rug are suggesting she is), she instead pounces on the last statement. "Crazy? I didn't say anythin' about you bein' crazy, hon. What makes y'mention it?"
Sola wasn't angry until she started talking to the mouse, she's normally too busy being afraid to get around to anger "Because that's what they always think. It's not my fault that they're always there, how am I supposed to handle that?" she starts beating the rug again in an oddly calm way as she breaks in to a full blown rant "Now I know they're not there but they are. I can't just believe them away when I see them, I can't stop seeing them and now they can come back and they will though they can't"
Angela just listens, quite calm, herself. Crazy people don't seem to bother her too much. "I don't care whot other beasts think" which is kind of obvious from the way she treats people. "But who is this 'they' you're talking 'bout, hon? What do y'mean by them coming back when they can't? I'd like t'understand." She is speaking in a gentle, inquisitive tone. She is making absolutely sure that she doesn't sound accusatory or argumentative (a feat within itself).
Sola finds it hard to stop once she's started, she's not thinking straight lately, all the travelling and vermin has her mind back to the days when she first escaped "Them, them, the..." she stops to stare at the trees, her ear perked. The calm is gone. Now she's paying attention to all the things she imagines to be lurking out there she's frozen in place, just her eye moving. She's breathing fast but so quietly like she's trying to go unnoticed "They're dead" she whispers very very quietly.
Whoo, boy. Angela frowns slightly. She hasn't had to deal with this level of crazy since Blisa was rescued from Ormaz. The mouse looks around -- she knows this helps people who see things. "Hon....if they're dead, whot's t'fear? Please tell me."
Sola grips the bat she was using on the rugs as is for a second she looks like she wants to fight back but she can't, even fighting imaginary vermin she's too afraid to do and she slowly puts the bat down instead "They can come back. He died and came back. I think he came back. I wanted him to come back...if they come back..." she's afraid of that idea.
Angela has a good idea of what the hare means now. "I doubt they'll come back, hon. If anybeast 'as come back, it's 'cause they had such good hearts, Dark Forest thought they needed to do more work here on Earth. Hellgates doesn't release back those who would hurt others."
For the first time since Sola started her crazy ranting her eye turns back to Angela and she looks confused "I...Is...Is that a rule? How do you know?" the crazy hare thankfully accepts crazy reasoning.
Angela doesn't actually believe a single word she's saying. But she's dealt with enough crazy beasts to be able to bluff her way through things like this. "Course it is. Wouldn't it be just so unfair f'r villains t'be able to come back, just like good beasts? So Hellgates keeps shut to keep them in, while Dark Forest, on occasion, sends back those who have good hearts to continue their work here amongst th' living. If y'don't believe me, as Martin the Warrior." She only hopes the spirit of Redwall's Hero Founder will back her up if he decides to start speaking to crazy people.
Sola starts to frown as she explains further and it begins to poke holes in the logic for Sola "This world isn't fair" if it was she wouldn't be half blind having lost years of her life to slavery "...If the good come back why didn't your warrior?"
Angela nods. "Aye, life ain't fair, ye're right. But the afterlife /is/. Remember, the evil cross Hellgate's threshold, while the good live forever by quiet streams in the Dark Forest." She smiles and shakes her head. "Martin didn't come back because his work was done. D'y'know how many lives he saved as a Warrior? Then he founded Redwall, became a Brother of the Order, an' died as an old mouse. And now he comes back as a spirit and speaks to us when Redwall is in danger. His work was done while he was alive, so now he comes back in beast's dreams."
Sola frowns again but looks thoughtful "Oh..." she says quietly. It's clear that she has to think about this for a while but she seems calm again. Properly calm. Not just pretending this time "Alright..." she sounds slightly unsure but she's currently accepting it as she quietly thinks while she gets back to work, beating the dust from the rug.
Angela relaxes. She always gets a little nervous when she's dealing with crazy people -- she's always concerned she'll say the wrong thing. But this looks like it turned out pretty well. The old Healer stands and hobbles to a different part of the orchard, leaving the haremaid to think through what she said.
~*END*~
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