Out and About

A year passes, and Suds forgets all about the night after Aeolian vanished, unable to wrap his head around everything. The rest of the night, however, he thinks it'll be burned into his brain forever. So, when Aeolian appears by his side in the midst of him planning his costume for the year, quite literally out of thin air, Suds couldn't help but scream, falling to the floor from his chair.

"Hi!" says the drajin enthusiastically, completely ignoring said scream. "Remember me?"

As if I can forget, Suds thinks sarcastically. He's panting slightly, still recovering from the jump.

"Yeah," he says instead. "Uh - Aeolian, right?"

The other's smile somehow widens more, and he nods their head.

"I gave you the little scrap of parchment as a token of our friendship, and a reminder that I owe you a favor."

Not quite enough of a reminder, Suds doesn't say, having forgotten all about it. It's not like he was expecting anything in return, anyway - he was just happy to help.

"That's how I found you," he continues. "Now that you have it, I can appear to you! Neat, huh?"

Suds doesn't admit how much he's not the biggest fan of that idea. If he's expecting company, he loves it - right now, he's still a little bitter over his quiet night being interrupted. It doesn't seem to bother the other at all as they keep talking.

He goes on to explain that he still owes Suds a favor, then grabs a sack out of what might as well be their hammer space, saying they have a gift for him. After a moment of scouring the bag, they pull out a medium-sized trinket, glowing a faint blue.

"My own invention!" the drajin exclaims proudly, holding it over his head. "I call it the Ghost Compass."

The compass is handed to the trabble, who looks it over closely - opening the beak of his shell to do so. On it are labels on the four axes - "friendly" where a regular compass would point north, "angry" in place of the eastern direction, "evil (run)" where south would be, and "sad" rather than west. In between each adjective are two traits that apply to the adjectives they lie between. The compass is currently pointing just a little past "friendly" and before "angry", directly on "protects you".

"See?" he says after a moment or so, pulling Suds from his trance. "It's glowing because I'm here, of course," they explain, "and the pointer is aimed at the ghosts' intentions towards you."

"Ah-ha," says he, going back to looking at the compass in question. "So, then - "

"I will always protect you - the best I can."

The ghost is absolutely beaming, so much so that Suds bites back tearing up a little. He almost can't believe he's run into maybe the sweetest ghost in the world.

"And it has a handy carrying strap!"

A burst of laughter threatened to tear from Suds' throat - that was too cute, really. The gift is incredibly thoughtful, and he must've put a lot of hard work into the little tool. Fortunately, it seems Aeolian didn't notice the stifled giggle.

"Thank you," he allows, voice surprisingly soft. "It - it's very handy. I really appreciate it."

The ghost giggles slightly at the compliment, and he thinks they might blush if they still had blood.

"I must be going," they say, already fading. "Good luck, Suds. It was wonderful seeing you again."

"Same to you!" he calls before the other fully vanishes, ignoring the dread he feels at the "good luck" part.

There are three intentions written on the compass that he doesn't want to know about: "wants chaos", "wants blood", and "wants revenge". While he's afraid to ask, he feels maybe he should have in case they come up. Flippers crossed, then, that they aren't encountered.

It’s weeks later when the compass glows again - the day before Hattoween, specifically. While on a walk with his cloudee in tow, he sees it in the corner of his eye while it’s hanging on his wrist. Confusedly, he searches the street, the familiar behind him doing the same. No one’s around, from what Suds can tell. As soon as he looks ahead again, a fallen cappari is directly in his path, staring down at the ground below them. Given they weren't there a mere second ago, Suds lets out a startled yelp, the cloudee behind him jolting in its tracks.

Slowly, the cappari lifts their eyes from the ground to meet with the top holes in Suds’ shell, their head hanging low. Something about the eye furthest from him, though - their head is hung at an angle, looking almost shy - is glowing as faintly as the compass, a dark shade of fuschia leaving a slight trail with the wind.

Suds tries not to look at it.

Suddenly remembering the compass, he whips it up from his side, causing the band to swing slightly, and he catches it in his flipper with ease. Immediately, he feels his heart sink upon seeing the pointer fall just a little past “sad” in the direction of “evil”.

“Wants company,” the compass reads.

The trabble looks up cautiously, his familiar hiding behind him trembling slightly. He looks between the cappari and the compass a few times, then sighs in defeat.

“A bit lonely, huh?”

Their expression changes only slightly, now a little more hopeful than mopey.

Suds can’t help but smile. There’s never a bad time to make a friend, he tells himself.

He looks to his cloudee, giving it a gentle smile, and he realizes its not trembling anymore. The smile widens as he looks back to the cappari.

“Wanna go sit in a park and chat for a bit?”

The ghost’s smile is the brightest thing Suds sees all night.