what's the point in all this screaming? | no one's listening anyway

[mulder_trustno1]

Characters:  Fox Mulder, Camel
Rating:  Uh, maybe PG-13 for language
Time Period: Modern
Location: Cemetery
Relative Date: Night of the [dance] directly following this
Status: Closed. Completed!  <3

Mulder really couldn't run anymore.

It didn't help that he was searching blindly, and only on a whim at that.  It finally struck him, as his lungs started

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[talkingcamel]

Camel tilted his head, ever so slightly, examining the man intently. He'd met a lot of interesting humans during his stay in the castle. He had the luxury of observing confusion, anger, and even kindness, on a level he had never been able to before.

Until he came to the castle, Camel had only been able to look upon humans as selfish, single-minded bipeds consumed with the need to control and destroy anything that they could grasp. Until he came to the castle, Camel had never entirely understood what it meant to be human.

He stood up, lumbering around the headstone. He folded his legs again to rest beside the man. He knew enough of human culture to know the traditions in which humans buried their dead, and he knew enough of sorrow to know that, whatever happened, this man was grieving greatly for someone he had lost.

Huffing what sounded like a sigh, he turned his attention to the headstone. It wasn't marked with the name that the man had spoken, and it concerned Camel greatly that the man was clearly paying respects to the wrong grave.

[mulder_trustno1]

The camel was certainly a big guy, Mulder observed, as it made its way around the grave. And... it was wearing... a top hat...

Well then.

The camel looked between Mulder and the grave after sitting down next to him, as if asking a question.

"No, it's not hers," Mulder said with a sigh. "Her body disappeared. I don't think they can bury bodies that stop existing." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I wanted to hope that meant she wasn't gone, you know, but it might be the most definitive proof that she is." It pained him to say it aloud much more than think it. "And if she is, then what?"

[talkingcamel]

Camel nodded heavily, debating the man's question carefully. He knew probably less of the castle than the humans did; he had never seen anything quite like its mysteries. All the humans seemed just as confused - and just as trapped - as Camel was, and if people were dying and disappearing it only served to complicate their situation greatly.

But what touched him most was he understood the man that knelt beside him. Camel had lost someone once too; someone who had disappeared, someone he could never fairly grieve. It never seemed right to grieve empty space. It was a lot like weeping in front of the wrong grave.

If Camel had been a man, he probably would have put a comforting arm around the man's shoulder. But he was only a camel. So, instead, just nudged the man's should gently with his nose.

[mulder_trustno1]

For whatever reason, Mulder wasn't annoyed by the sudden bump to his shoulder - it felt like the camel wanted to communicate something, not eat his shirt or something like that. Mulder looked at it strangely.

There was something distinctly odd about its expression. Its too human eyes.

"Thanks..." he said. He guessed it wasn't really all that stranger than people who talked to dogs, after all.

[talkingcamel]

Camel opened his mouth to respond. He snapped it shut quickly, wondering why such an action would seem so second hand after so many years of trained silence. He lifted his head stiffly, suddenly put off by the whole situation. There was no reason for him to put his guard down, no matter what kind of pain his companion seemed to be going through.

Instead he nudged the man again, this time trying to communicate some sort of hope. After all, Camel had met that other strange man a while ago, the one who had claimed to have been shot. There was something off about the castle, and Camel would be the first to argue that anything occurring within it's grounds was probably more than it seemed to be.

He thought about leaving the man in peace, but decided to sit a while longer. It seemed like the man wanted to talk, and for some reason, Camel wanted to help him.

[mulder_trustno1]

Mulder was getting a very strange vibe from his odd companion, almost as if it were trying to...

Encourage him.

He looked over at it cautiously, glad for the distraction anyways. "What are you doing out here anyways?" Strange for there to be a camel in this place, stranger for it to be hanging out in a graveyard. He glanced around, wondering if there was something out here that he'd missed. He hadn't really seen much, just a haze of headstones.

[talkingcamel]

Camel's eyes widened - he wasn't exactly expecting his companion to attempt and make conversation. It made him a bit uneasy. But he hadn't spoken to anyone at the castle, not yet anyway, and there was no way the man could know his secret.

Unless, he had encountered other Camels before. Unless it was he that sent that cryptic message to begin with.

Either way, Camel had to admit, guarding his secret had become more than daunting. Frustrating. Exhausting, really, with all the other humans he had been forced to interact with. He could sense that they found him an oddity, moreso than any other animal, and it was only so long before one of them caught on, anyway.

Huffing a breath through his nose, Camel tilted his head at the human curiously.

"I was sleeping," Camel finally replied, matter-of-factly.

[mulder_trustno1]

Mulder's entire face seemed to freeze, everything feeling like it was going numb for a moment.

This was it. He had finally, finally lost his mind, like everyone always seemed to expect he was going to. Scully's death had been the straw that broke the ...

Well, no, this camel's back seemed properly aligned.

He blinked, yet again.

It was still looking at him.

"Oh," he heard himself say, as if he were completely distant from the voice speaking now. "Sorry if I woke you up."

[talkingcamel]

Camel was still a little surprised at himself. Talking to this human like it was completely normal and completely safe.

The human's reaction simultaneously calmed and concerned him. Humans in the past usually reacted with fear or amazement when confronted with his abilities of speech, but rarely did one respond with such ease as this one did.

In way, it made Camel sort of respect the man.

"No need to apologize," Camel replied. "As I understand, humans don't generally expect any being resting in a cemetery to be roused."

[mulder_trustno1]

"Uh, well," Mulder said, hoping that he would be struck by a moment of lucidity in which he realized how ridiculous this was. So far it just felt oddly surreal. "As a general rule, humans also don't expect camels to talk. You are talking, right? This isn't just me experiencing some kind of post-traumatic stress..." His hand flew to his forehead, as he looked back at the tombstone, then back at the camel.

"To be honest, I'd much rather deal with the implications of you being able to talk than me simply hallucinating it all."

[talkingcamel]

Camel huffed, at first ever so offended that the human would imply that he was hallucinating that an animal could speak to him. But, to be fair, the man was right, and Camel certainly hadn't set any sort of precedent. Even he himself, after all, had met other camels who were, quite frankly, morons.

There were few left of his kind, and he couldn't begrudge a mere human for expecting to him to behave exactly as an animal should.

"Whether it's a hallucination or not is completely irrelevant," Camel said haughtily. "What truly exists as reality and what we perceive to be reality are often different, but one does not negate the other, not matter how illogical it may prove to be." Camel tilted his head, studying the man. "But whatever the difference, all things should be used to help, not hinder, whatever it is you seek."

[mulder_trustno1]

Well, the Camel had a point. Mulder wondered what had happened in his life that he was now giving conversational ground to an animal in a top hat.

"What I seek..." he repeated. Unwittingly, his eyes trailed back across the graveyard, across the horizon, back towards the castle, back where... He cast his eyes down, breaking the invisible line of sight. "It hardly even matters anymore. I guess I've always seen myself as someone who seeks truth," he said, and there was almost a sneer to the way he twisted the word now. "And people have died as a result. Everybody in my life. Except me, for whatever reason. I'm still here, and I don't know how much closer I am to whatever it was I was looking for."

He sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I don't know what to do next."

[talkingcamel]

"There shouldn't be any knowing," Camel said, trying to offer some comfort to the man next to him. "One step taken should always follow the last. The sun does not know it should rise, it simply does so because there is nothing else it is meant to do."

He nodded towards the cemetery. "As for whatever truth you seek, it is an oddly general term. Truth is reliant upon a specific untruth, it is not a state of being. Perhaps your frustration lies in seeking guidance from an obscured path."

[mulder_trustno1]

Mulder opened his mouth to protest, but shut it quickly, as he reviewed the Camel's words over again. He gave him a measured look, as the advice sunk in, and then it finally hit him again that he was taking a lot in stride here.

"Alright. Maybe you're on to something. Do you mind if I... ask you a question? I'm not trying to be rude. Just curious."

[talkingcamel]

Camel widened his eyes. "Of course not," he replied. "Although, I can not guarantee I have an answer."

If there was anything Camel knew, it was that a long, well travelled life did not equate to infinite knowledge. But he had some compassion for the man's plight.

He braced himself for any number of questions the man could present.

[mulder_trustno1]

"It was a question about yourself, actually. And maybe you don't have an answer. But how... how is it that you can talk to me? Or... where did you come from? I've never even heard of anything like this." Mulder was really bursting with a ton of questions, but he tried to narrow it down to just a couple to begin. He wasn't sure if the Camel was capable of really being insulted, but he wasn't about to waste the opportunity to learn about it by pissing it off right away.