farewell, fair cruelty {open}

The earth fell from sight as budding pillars of grass took its place. It had been a long time since they sky looked so blue, so alive. Her body lay sprawled out upon a blanket of wool, the thick fabric scratched at her flesh though other things sat atop her mind. Long fingers ran through auburn waves, spreading them out then bunching them up again before finally tying it off into a sloppy bun. Gentle orchestral music trickled from her phone, setting the nostalgic mood. Her attitude this evening was one that cried for company to break the loneliness that plagued her. Good company was hard to find, and it was even harder to find someone that actually caught her interest and also took pleasure in spending time with her. 

Olwen sighed obnoxiously before humming along to the lullaby. It was a piece by her favorite pianist, Horowitz. No matter what mood she was in, he could always bring her back to good feelings. Thoughts of the piano made her think of the violin in her closet, enveloped in a thin layer of skin particles and dirt, untouched, unloved, but never far from thought. Ever since she had spoken its history aloud, her fingers had started to ache for the fingerboard. Longed to dance across strings and play like she once did. 

She cried out and rolled over, tired of thinking about the things that could be but that required effort and time. "Damn my inability to open closets!"

    The meadow was a calm and tranquil place, he had thought. He could use it as a place to escape the aura of idiocy that the worthless mortals constantly gave off, he had believed. Oh, how wrong he had been. The first time he journeyed to the meadow some worm-being had been producing wretched music to ruin his nature-watching, and apparently now another meat-sack had decided to pollute the air with some wretched tunes of its own. 'This is why these brainless fools should not be allowed nice things, they do not appreciate them,' he mentally sneered.

    Tucking the book he was carrying into a pocket, the limbo lord began striding to the source of the offending music when he heard someone cursing their failure at opening a closet, the voice coming from the same direction as the faint music. 'This one must be a defective, which means it should not be too challenging to get it to leave.' Chuckling silently to himself, Knell phased into the ground to hasten his approach.

    Moments later he appeared next to the noise-making fool. "You are having trouble opening your closet? Why not go ask a staff member for assistance? I'm sure there's a few wandering the school at this very moment. You should go find them. Right now," he suggested, not caring that his sudden appearance, or his appearance in general, may have startled the worm. Any other time he would have been trying to appear friendly to earn the stupid thing's trust, but he was just in a hurry to see it gone. 

A darkness blocked out the kiss of sun and an unfamiliar voice broke the bubble she had surrounded herself with. The creature wasn't exactly human, but no one on campus was really. One of its arms glistened in the sunshine, as if it was made of some ebony metal. From the deepness of its voice, she assumed it was male though couldn't tell due to the state of the rest of its body. 

Without looking down, Olwen lowered the volume of her phone. His opening comment really didn't affect her in the mood she was in so she replied simply and it was obvious that he wouldn't care about how she replied. "I believe you misunderstand the message I'm trying to get across, sir. I'm able to open closets, but it's the things behind them that concern me. You see..." she leaned in slowly, "I'm terrified of the monsters in my closet." Olwen shrugged nonchalantly and turned away from the towering shadow-man. He wasn't the company she had expected, but with no one else round, what could she do? 

Slender fingers reached out toward the stranger openly, unsure whether he would return the gesture and take her hand or leave her hanging. "Since we're both here, might as well make introductions. Call me Olwen, and you are?"

    Knell stared at the girl in disbelief, his head tilting quizzically. It had been easy for him to believe that it had been incapable of opening a door, but not being able to open the closet due to fear of monsters struck him as completely absurd, even for a feeble-minded mortal. "Forgive me, for a moment I had believed you to be attending the academy, but your fear of monsters makes attending a school housing  everything from lab-born mutants to a god seem improbable," he concluded sarcastically before noticing the fool was introducing itself and offering to shake hands.

    While a handshake could be a useful tool to make someone more comfortable with his presence, the Limbo god  found the act of it to be greatly demeaning, believing that a deity like himself should not to participate in introductions with lesser beings; there was also the fact that this worm had ruined his plans for the evening. Still, the thing had  quieted its moron music,  so with some reluctance he reached out and shook this 'Olwen's' hand. "I am known as Knell, God of Limbo."

    Since it seemed that the girl would not be leaving anytime soon, Knell decided that if he wasn't going to get his peaceful reading time he'd at least attempt to procure some information on this intruding worm. He glanced up the sky momentarily before reaching into his pocket and retrieving the book he had brought along with him, a copy of the novella Of Mice and Men, which he began to slowly thumb through the pages of. "So...what's your story?" he asked while he glanced over the pages of his book, his voice sounding  a bit uninterested. 

  For a second there she was quite sure she had heard him use the word "god" when describing himself and confusion settled in. His hand sat in her's for a second before she did the up and down motion that was associated with the greeting and then let it fall. If Foresta was accepting gods into the hallways, what other creatures would find their ways inside?

   Olwen had heard mention of Limbo but never thought there was a deity who ruled over such a place. It was supposedly some form of Hell so if he was its god, what did it mean. These thoughts did nothing but cloud her mind so she pushed them aside, unwilling to make herself more of a fool around a creature who was so quick to judge.

   Although she would've hoped for some sort of human to speak with, like normal people, it seemed like she would be trapped talking about herself to a brick wall. Olwen fell back onto the pillow-like backpack and spoke as if Knell the God of Limbo was some sort of psychiatrist and she was his patient. "I was born with glass bones and paper skin. Every morning I broke my legs, and every afternoon I broke my arms, the cycle seemed never ending until I reached the age of five. My bone modification was finally something I could control, but people still thought I was a freak. I left Scotland after a while for... reasons, and now I'm here,” she said. Her eyes fell to Knell and nudged him gently, "What brings the God of Limbo to a high school for weirdos?"

    He had asked for a story, but what she had told him sounded more like a joke. “Glass bones and paper skin? That is something only a sponge would believe, if it were true your repeatedly broken bones would have punctured your organs and you would be quite dead. Were you just exaggerating the durability of your past-self or is this whole story a jest?” the gaseous god lowered his book as he asked this, and his face gained a look of pure un-amusement. “I do hope it’s not the latter, I am in no mood for jokes tonight.”

    Now all he had to do was respond to the second question, but Knell didn’t really feel that this worm was deserving of knowing even a tidbit of his marvelous past. After a moment of thought an idea popped into his non-existent brain, and his frown flipped to a delighted grin “Well you see, I was born with gas skin and no bones. Every morning I broke my dinner table’s legs, and every afternoon I noticed I had asymmetric arms, a cycle that went on since the beginning of time till about recently. My complete superiority over everything was finally something I could prove, but people still thought me an apple. I left god-land for vague-reasons, and now I am telling you I am here because that is not obvious,” he said mockingly, which was followed by a fit of hysterical laughter. He could always count on himself to brighten his mood. “Apologies, but I do believe I told you a lie earlier. I am always in a mood for jokes, assuming the joking is being done by me. Did you find that humorous Olworm?”

Black coated finger nails played on an invisible piano as the wise creature pointed out the improbability of her story. He was correct; it was a slight exaggeration of what her true condition was like, but this fellow probably wasn't going to hear it anyways. He didn't seem to care enough to listen very well to anyone but himself. This point was proven as he proceeded to mock her sad tale, but she didn't bother to enjoy the humor behind it. Knell took great pleasure out of completing his joke and presenting her with a nickname she hoped to never hear again. 

Olwen's wrist swiftly rose to eyes that seemed to look a nonexistent watch before falling down again. Her body jerked up and she began packing her things, unamused by his foul behavior and ready to sleep it off. "You're hilarious, Neil, but I've got to...ah, write a paper on narcissistic behaviors most commonly found in males. Do you think I could use you as a example?" The young woman smiled sweetly before doing a little curtsy. 


ooc: sorry I took so long to reply <3

    "So that's it then, is it? You hide out here not because you fear your closet and it's contents, but because you are an emotionally stunted brat who is convinced that only half of her pathetic species is a bunch of greedy little maggots," the Limbo god asked before ending the sentence in usual-Knell-style, that is with an amused chuckle. He had come close to believing that the Olwen was capable of providing him with an interesting conversation, but alas he had forgotten that mortals were prone to throwing spontaneous temper tantrums over the smallest of issues.  "I must admit I am a bit disappointed Olworm, I was looking forward to the tale of your humble upbringing. Hopefully one day you will be graced with a sense of humor, and perhaps then we will be able to have a chat without you displaying your sexist bigotry."

        He tucked his book back into his pocket, and reached over to pat Olwen on the head like one would to show fondness for a child. "Fare thee well, ignorant Olworm. Do not trip over a rock and break your neck until I am long gone, I hate explaining those sort of things." Not that he had ever had to, every human death he could possibly be associated with were all completely isolated incidents, and he'd prefer to keep it that way. He began to walk in strides back to his dorm before remembering he had supernatural abilities and disappearing into the ground while simultaneously face palming.

_{(Me thinks it should be me apologizing, dear lord I'm awful)}