Need more friends

[bellsanddreams]

Who: Rhyme, The Undertaker
What: The Undertaker comes to visit Rhyme and see her new bird, Ciel.
Where: Rhyme's room
When: July 1
Rating: PG - PG13 depending on how creepy The Undertaker gets.

Comments

[undertaking4u]

The hallway of the girl's dormitory was entirely too well-lit. Or perhaps life in the tunnels was just ~spoiling~ him. Either way, dressed in black and gray and creeping through the hallways with an urn and a borderline-psychotic grin, the Undertaker knew he looked decidedly out of place.

But no matter. He had a little child and a bird to visit. Children were always more amusing than adults. They laughed easier and said funnier things without even trying. And birds had such short life-spans. He needed to eye it and see how large of a box to prepare for it, just in case it didn't take to Lady Rhyme's tender care.

When he reached Rhyme's door, he drummed on the door with his long nails to signal his arrival.

[bellsanddreams]

The little girl turned at the sound of his tapping. What an odd way to knock on the door. Ciel didn't fly off so she figured the bird was all right with her visitors and Rhyme moved to open the door....but what she saw wasn't what she expected. She'd heard tales of this Undertaker guy but she'd figured they were all just bad rumors. She didn't know until now that they'd all been true.

However, Rhyme was nothing if not very polite so she smiled brightly to the man and stepped aside. "Come on in! I'm Rhyme...but you already knew that! It's really nice to meet you! I'm sorry I didn't get to meet you sooner. I've been...a little...well...I've just had a lot on my mind."

Ciel gave a little chirp from the window, fluttering his wings a bit to hover in the air and catch a better glimpse of the tall, grim man.

[undertaking4u]

The Undertaker bowed to Rhyme and tipped his hat to the bird. "Yes, life has been rather ~chaotic~ lately, ~hasn't~ it?" he agreed. He entered in to her room and looked around. "Is ~this~ the bird you spoke of?" he said, gesturing to Ciel. He tried to imagine its little beak turned up in a scowl like its namesake. It was not very similar. But perhaps it had the same sweet tooth.

Lifting his cookie urn, the Undertaker pulled out one of his cookies, shortbread this time. "Do you ~think~ he would like a ~bite~?" he asked the little girl.

[bellsanddreams]

"It has!" Rhyme agreed. She was still trying not to stare too much at the Undertaker. He was being nice, there was nothing to worry about now...right? She shouldn't be mean and just stare.

"Oh! Yeah, that's Ciel! That's such a pretty name!" She noticed a somewhat far-off look in the Undertaker's eyes and wondered if maybe he already knew a Ciel. "Where did you get the name from? Did you just know of it?"

"You can try! He likes all the food I give him but I bet he'll really like your cookies!" Rhyme moved to sit by Ciel. "Wanna try a cookie, Ciel?"

[undertaking4u]

The Undertaker was used to strange looks, so he didn't mind when Rhyme stared. "An ~associate~ of mine bears that name...although it suits ~this~ Ciel ~better~." The only link between Ciel Phantomhive and the sky he was named after was his deep blue eyes. He wondered if the bird would squawk if he poked it. The earl always made the most ~adorable~ faces, but he never made a sound when the Undertaker toyed with him.

But for now, he would befriend the bird and the girl. No reason to be impolite. It was much easier to get away with creepy amusing behavior after he made himself indispensable to the other person. Otherwise, the other person would avoid him instead of sticking around and making him laugh. He crumbled up the cookie and held it flat in his palm.

"You are ~welcome~ to try one as well," he told Rhyme as he held out the crumbs to the sparrow.

[bellsanddreams]

Rhyme watched him hand the bird the crumbled up cookie. It was sweet that he'd brought Ciel some sort of gift. The sparrow warmed right up to anyone bringing presents and the Undertaker, despite his appearance, was no exception. He pecked away at the crumbs, flapping his healed wings once.

"Oh, thanks! I... should have gone out to get us some treats. We can go out for a snack in a little while and I'll pay?" Rhyme tugged on her skull cap, now embarrassed that she was being a bad host. "What kind of cookie are they?"

The bird had meanwhile finished his cookie and was hopping around on the sill of the window for the Undertaker's entertainment.

[undertaking4u]

Hmm, the bird seemed quite healthy and in no immediate danger of death. Oh well, he could wait. "Do not ~worry~." he said to Rhyme, who seemed distressed somehow about his having brought cookies for her. "Would the ~restaurants~ on campus allow ~animals~ inside?" Althought wouldn't that be interesting, watching someone eating turkey or chicken and then looking up to find themselves staring at an innocent little bird chirping in horror. Heh heh heh...

"They are ~shortbread~. I though something ~plain~ would suit a bird's tastes more than ~chocolate chip~ or ~ginger~."

[bellsanddreams]

"Well, I don't know if they let birds inside the restaurants but Risa has taken Runt into the cafeteria before. I don't think anyone will tell me not to. He's too cute, how can you say no to that face?" She asked, laughing as Ciel gently pecked at the Undertaker's hand for another cookie.

"That's really thoughtful of you. I'd like to try one if you don't mind." Always polite, Rhyme wasn't going to snub his cookies when he was nice enough to bring them. "So...Do you have any pets?"

[undertaking4u]

The Undertaker held the cookie urn up for Rhyme, then crumbled up another one for Ciel. As the bird pecked his hand, he poked its crest like he would have done to the other Ciel's cheek. He did it gently enough as to not hurt the fragile bird, but just hard enough to get its attention, just to gauge its reaction.

"I have a few ~spiders~ living with me in the ~tunnels~. ~Maylene~ just laid an egg-sack, so soon I will have ~many~ more." He smiled widely. There had been a brief moment of sadness when Maylene had devoured Tanaka-san, but when he thought of how he was going to be an uncle, the loss seemed more acceptable. And, of course, his spiders always disposed of their corpses very neatly in their webs, just another reason why he admired them so.

((ooc: oh gosh, pets names after characters make for some crazy crack pairings...))

[bellsanddreams]

((If only I knew the fandom XD ))

Rhyme listened to his chilling story about his'[pets' but tried not to think much about it. While she wasn't very fond of spiders, she didn't have a massive problem with them so she shouldn't judge if he wanted to keep spiders as pets. Some people did that back home too.

She chewed silently on the cookie while he lamented and watched as Ciel tilted his tawny head to the side, as if asking the Undertaker why he felt the need to poke him. "I don't think I've ever seen a baby spider, actually. Do they have all eight legs when they're babies?"

[undertaking4u]

The Undertaker nodded. "Oh, ~yes~. They ~hatch~ perfect little ~replicas~. All they have to do is ~feed~ and ~grow~ larger." He dragged his nail lightly down Ciel's back, petting him. "I will have a ~time~ digging up enough ~insects~ to keep them all ~fed~."

Sadly, most of the tiny spiders would not survive into adulthood, but that was the way of the world. It was probably for the better, otherwise the Undertaker would run out of names of acquaintances and have to start going back to the names of customers that he reapedburied. "Does ~Ciel~ eat insects, or does he live on ~cookies~?" Hopefully the little bird was not the spider-eating variety. The Undertaker would have to keep an eye on him if he ever flew into the tunnels.

[bellsanddreams]

"I've been feeding Ciel fruit, mostly, but I guess he might eat some bugs when he's not in my room." Rhyme shrugged a little.

"So...why do you like spiders so much? They're not something a lot of people really like." She tugged again at her cap and chomped on another bit of the cookie. She'd heard someone that spiders were actually really great pets but she didn't know if she liked them -that- much.

[undertaking4u]

The Undertaker grinned. "Oh, many, ~many~ reasons. They spin ~webs~ to decorate your ~room~, they eat up the ~flies~ that linger around ~bodies~, and they ~dispose~ of their prey very ~neatly~. Each one is a little eight-legged ~undertaker~." His little nieces and nephew-spiders were going to make him so proud.

[bellsanddreams]

Rhyme really didn't understand this man but she would try. He was nice enough so far, if weird. She just moved to Ciel's side and stroked his back gently while he pecked at the crushed up cookie. "So...did you want to take Ciel outside with me to see if he'll fly?"

[undertaking4u]

The Undertaker paused. The sun was rather bright outside...but he had his beloved hat to protect him from sunlight touching his pale skin. The novelty of the mental picture of himself of walking around on a beautiful sunny day with a happy little girl and her songbird was just too great for the Undertaker to refuse. He would take his amusement wherever it came.

"Of ~course~," he crooned. "A bird ~belongs~ in the sky, especially one ~named~ after it. Let's ~go~."

[bellsanddreams]

She offered her wrist to Ciel, who hopped onto it with a happy chirp, and turned to the other person in the room. Smiling, she started toward the door and led him out into the nearest little green patch of land.

"Ok, Ciel. We're gonna see if you're ready to fly today! But don't push yourself. Remember, a stitch in time saves nine."