Bean asks the question in Spanish, a language he still associates with the merchants of Jonker Frans Straat. He's a little fascinated by children his age, but this...
It reminds him of Poke, dead in the river with a knife through her eye.
It's the right language, and Bean suddenly has Santi's absolute hero-worship. He's standing right in front of him (well, a few feet away) bleeding from the forehead, dark eyes wide and unblinking. The water sloshes around him.
"Someone beat me up and then put me in water so they wouldn't find me."
He can think of lots of reasons why, particularly from his time on the streets. And while he's seen dead bodies - dead children - before now, he's never spoken to one before.
It's the question he'd want to be asked, Bean thinks.
Hoo boy. Matthew had no idea how to deal with children at the best of times. This was not the best of times, considering that the child in question was dead. He crouched down so he'd be closer to the boy's level. "Um... hello." Quite frankly, he had a little trouble dealing with dead adults, too (he recalled a man by the name of Stark, who'd apparently been beheaded). "How are you?" What Matthew really wanted to ask was how he died, but he could tell that conversation wouldn't go well.
He sets his hand in Matthew's. It serves to convey three things: One, how small he actually is. Undernourished and only seven. Two, that he's very dead, and drowned. His skin is cold and clammy. Three, how nerve wracking this whole thing is. His fingers are shaking. All of him is shaking, really, and flickering like a light bulb about to go out.
"Interesting effect," I murmur. Seems that whatever magic cured Matt of any scars he would have had from dying doesn't work on him. I vaguely remember that ghostly girl who hassled me at my own sorting. I wonder if there's something to that.
For the ease of the mun, who speaks... acceptable Spanish, but whose keyboard is just not cut out for such accenty gymnastics, all 'Spanish' dialogue will be typed in English. As follows;
Witch Baby has seen ghosts before. She's spent several weeks in New York with her adoptive mother's dead father as a guide. Santi's a first for her just for his appearance. The ghosts she's used to were much better preserved, although maybe that's to be expected. Charlie Bat died of an overdose, after all. There's no reason why he should have much different than he did in life. Clearly, this kid had died horribly. Witch Baby gulped.
Witch Baby smiled very slightly, a smile that was almost a smirk, though not one really directed at Santi. More of a smirk at life in general. "As far as I've been about to find out, it's a magic school in Scotland. Kinda crazy, huh?"
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Bean asks the question in Spanish, a language he still associates with the merchants of Jonker Frans Straat. He's a little fascinated by children his age, but this...
It reminds him of Poke, dead in the river with a knife through her eye.
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"Someone beat me up and then put me in water so they wouldn't find me."
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He can think of lots of reasons why, particularly from his time on the streets. And while he's seen dead bodies - dead children - before now, he's never spoken to one before.
It's the question he'd want to be asked, Bean thinks.
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Whoops, missed that one, Jacinto. Talk about mistakes coming back to haunt you.
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"Fine-thank-you-how-are-you?"
It's obviously a trained response.
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"And you... did you study very hard?"
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The blood makes him shudder, but Santi is so small.
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"My name is Santi, what's yours?"
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"Hola."
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"I'm Santi. I'm lost."
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"Hello. D'you know where you are?"
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It's a castle, there's magic, but... how did he get here?
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And this from the little corpse-child.
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