Eli encounters Wisminous.
*I know the formatting looks... debatable in quality.
I'll fix it later if I remember to.
August 26, 2022
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The train rattled to a halt, the other passengers standing and stretching and filing up to get off.
Eli remained slumped, watching dully as the children and the couples and the friends all bantered and bustled.
All ready to go home and continue their lives. So lively, they must be.
?: “You know, I can always do another lap if you need time, Eli.”
Said a chirped twang. Eli looked up beneath their bangs at the train conductor.
E: “No, it’s okay Terry… I can go home now. You blow enough fuel on regular transport let alone all the other laps you do for people.”
Eli pulled herself up with the chair in front of her, Terry stepped aside to let them out.
T: “You know, I’m not ‘blowing’ any fuel taking you around the water another time, Eli. You’re not making me waste anything.”
E: “Only your time, I’m sure.”
Terry’s ears quirked at this comment. Eli shuffled past him and down the aisle to the door.
T: “Well, safe travels, Eli. You’re always welcome back on the train whenever.”
Eli nodded, almost indecipherably, and crunched onto the river bank’s sand.
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Turning the key, Eli locked the door to their apartment. The cold click echoing dully in the house. Well, it was just her again.
They turn and head deeper inside, plunking their bag and umbrella on the hallway mantelpiece. The rain outside tinkering sharply on the window as her stove snapped sparsely.
They almost wished their sibling lived with them. But Sallet’s work kept them bouncing between realms too much for them to stay with her. And besides… Sallet can hardly get hurt by Eli if he is not around her anyway. It is for the better…
She clicks of the stove and pours her mild, meager pot of mac ‘n cheese in her bowl. Eli takes it with them and sits down at the minute table in the living room, nudging the extra pillow chairs aside to sit on the ground bare.
Their spoon clinking against the bowl. The rain troubled at their window. The stiff white light from the glow bud above. The rigid carpeting bristling slightly with fur strands from Eli’s travels.
Eli vacantly took it in. Would it be so bad? To have Sallet visit some time? They could bring their snobby onini coworker with them if they liked… if only so the house was not full of unfilled words and dust-covered hopes.
…On second thought, maybe Sallet should continue living his life. Maybe Eli should get a life. Maybe if Eli had a reason to have a life… Maybe if Eli was not such a coward and a dead weight. Dead weight…
Eli got up and set the bowl in the fridge for later. Re-heated macaroni was still macaroni.
Sliding the clunky door open, Eli headed to bed. Barely attempting to pull their blanket over themselves, resulting in it being over her legs in a triangle. The rain was louder now… crashing away on the window, threatening to shatter the glass and flood Eli’s minor home…
‘Maybe it should do that…‘
They thought, their eyes watching the rain with vague interest. Her eyes blurred slightly at the rims and she closed them to not rival the rain.
‘…or, if someone wanted to do so instead. That would be fine too…’
Eli’s mind drifted listlessly off.
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It was the silence that woke them. Silence? No that is not right, it is always raining in their realm.
Eli’s eyes shifted open, blurry.
Oh that is cute, a poster on their wall of a colorful jackyl. Did she put it up long ago and forget it? Why is it coming into view now?
The poster shifted with the air conditioning, tilting its head at them. A light belling rings.
Ah, what a cute ringing… wait. Eli does not collect items. They do not collect bells, not posters, not posters to hang on the wall.
Eli’s eyes open more, scouring for clarity. The poster smiles slightly with a floating chuckle.
Eli is now awake. They sit up in a rush and the poster’s head follows them. No, not a poster.
An actual jackyl that managed to get inside her house despite the door being locked. She locked the door right??
How did this intruder get in- unless they did not lock the door actually and--
Eli crashes to the floor on their heinie.
E: “Ow- ow--!“
?: “Hahaha~ Are you alright, Ms. Dietra?“
E: “Ye- wh- okay no who are you?! Why are you in my house?! And how do you know my name, I’m a hermit!”
The jackyl stands up more, the bells ringing.
?: “You’re rather chatty for a ‘hermit’, miss.”
Eli is not sure if they are embarrassed or mad, their emotions muted.
?: “From the top! I am Wisminous the Wisher! I am here because you- yes YOU- called me here, Ms. Dietra. I know your name because it is on the work pin on your jacket.”
Eli patted their jacket and yeah- she still was wearing her work clothes, name pin included.
E: “Why… why would I ever summon an eerie, nightmare clown directly into my house?? How would I even do that?”
W: “Nightmare? No no, you have the wrong jester, miss. That aside, you summoned me here because of the dead dream in your heart and will. Well, what’s left of the latter, anyway.”
Eli looked at the jester with concern.
E: “That’s nice and all, but I’m afraid you’ll be wasting your time, Wisher. I have no dream.”
W: “Ah! You say that because of the aforementioned ‘dead’ part of said dream. And must I say miss, your situation is rather intriguing to me!”
E: “What? My little house?”
W: “That too, it’s truly adorable. But I refer to your lack of will. It is so low! So slow. It has no glow, no glow~”
E: “…right. Well, I do still need you to leave. I’m pretty sure breaking and entering is a crime?”
W: “Aside from that, I do believe I am on a time-crunch yes.”
Wisminous leaned down into a bow.
W: “Would you be willing to meet up another time then, Mi. Dietra? Perhaps at a coffee house or a carnival?”
E: “I don’t go to either of those places though… I don’t know where I’d find one.”
W: “Quite. Perhaps instead… on that little train?”
Eli is briefly surprised before casting such surprise away. Of course he would know about Terry’s train, nobody in the realm did not. It was not suspicious.
Eli nodded slightly and Wisminous smiled, a clear joy going across his face. He stands up.
W: “Well then, I will see you on that train then. Eli.”
Wisminous appears to fold into himself and disappears. Eli looked at the dry spot he once was at. Noticing how empty the room was now without another person.
The rain outside began once more.
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