[PRP] Partly Cloudy (Chester/Gloom)

[Ashdown Whaler]

Gloom was watching him still with a measuring gaze. "Y'gonna have to listen to Gloom then and listen good."

He disappeared like smoke, the shadows melting away until he was against Chester's thigh. "Gloom is gonna show y'a thing. Something special, something just you can do."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"O... okay."

That was unexpected. It shouldn't have been, but there it was. Chester held still through Gloom's minor teleportation at the very least, nodding in response to his words.

"I'm listening."

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

Gloom pawed at a watch, pulling it closer. "Use this." Chester would need to pick it up. "Hold it in y'hand and close y'eyes."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He did as he was told, closing his right hand around the watch and putting his left over that. Double strength. Maybe. He closed his eyes.

"All right. Ready."

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

"Good." Gloom was laying himself across Chester's legs then, the shadow marten stretched out. Briefly it would feel as if something was pushing into Chester, something soft as silk, and urging something forward.

Something out.

"Y'listen to it," the watch in his hand, "see if y'can hear it speaking to ya."

... and Chester would, if he truly tried. It was there at the back of his mind. Not truly a voice but something that could be heard and felt.

Knowledge about the watch, about it's workings, about what could be done with it.

"Can y'hear it?"

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Magic was easier now than it had been when he'd first tried it a few months back, but it was still usually a struggle. Even though listening to a watch was one of the more ridiculous things he'd tried, as he did so, something changed.

It spoke. Not the watch itself and not in words, but Chester came to understand each piece of it in ways that barely made sense. He smirked, eyes still closed.

"I can. It sounds like possibilities." He opened his eyes again, surprised to see Gloom lounging across his legs. "I could do more with this than turn it back into what it was." It almost seemed a shame to think so small.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

Gloom let out a pleased chirp. "Y'can listen to other things if y'try. Maybe help them?"

Another item was pulled towards them for Chester to touch.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Sure." He picked up a second item, a pencil sharpener shaped like a monkey, as it turned out. It was much quieter inside, probably because of its simplicity when compared to the watch, though he couldn't have said for sure. When he closed his eyes again and concentrated further, he could see where the blade had come undone on one side, and how he might pry its plastic halves apart and reattach it, then how to glue it back together so that no one would know it had ever been broken. He had a feeling his physical skill wasn't quite up to accomplishing it all with such precision, but in his mind's eye, his work was flawless.

"I could probably do a decent job fixing any of these things, to be honest. I'd need tools, but... I wasn't expecting this. How did it even happen?"

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

"Gloom told ya. This is something only y'can do. Y'meant to. Gloom just ... guided." The shadow marten rolled around a bit in Chester's lap, a paw lazily pulling another broken item closer.

"Y'should take some of these with y'and fix them. They'd like it, Gloom thinks, to have purpose again."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Chester reached for a set of wind-up teeth and a four color pen, holding back a smile at the creature's antics. "Well, thank you for that. I'll take these and practice. And maybe I'll make them into something even better. Or different, at least. I can bring it back here when I'm done, if you'd like?" He didn't really have anyone else to show.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

"Gloom would like that, yes." His tail swished from side to side, rolling around so that he was on his stomach and stretched out across Chester's lap.

"Y'can come back sometime and show Gloom. Y'just have to call for Gloom and he will find ya." Glowing white eyes focused on Chester. "Do y'need Gloom to show y'how to get back?"

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Chester nodded. He shouldn't have been surprised that Gloom could get back to his Ashdown more easily than he could, but it really wasn't any more of a shock than Gloom's existence in the first place. He smiled faintly at the creature, struck with an urge to pet him like a cat, but he tightened his fingers around his broken treasures instead.

"If you could, I would appreciate it."

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

Chester would have gone up a few points in approval if he had petted Gloom.

The shadow marten stretched again and moved, like silk, from Chester's lap to his shoulders. "The tree right there," he said, pointing with his nose to a tree that was a little bit down the street.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He nodded again, rising to his feet as smoothly as he could with a marten on his shoulders and a handful of random crap. "A tree," he said softly, heading off in that direction at a decent pace.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

The tree was not far and Gloom stretched himself along Chester's shoulders as they reached it. Then, once they were close enough, he was hopping up to the lowest branch.

"Walk through the shadow," he told Chester, "and y'will be back on the other side, okay?" The shadow marten let out a pleased chirp. "Y'should come back and show Gloom what y'can do with things once y'learn. Y'a good."

His paw wiggled back and forth, as if saying goodbye. The moment Chester would walk through the shadow the tree cast he would find himself blinking into the light of Ashdown.

other ashdown left behind.

5merdle

thanks for playing! my posts are fin!