* FRIEND // FAKED

ELLEN  //  THE WITCH’S HOUSE

she’s back with a vengeance. it’s me. i’m the vengeance.

local sick child. but don’t underestimate her. she’s absolutely Evil.

maybe stole a girl’s body once. and then proceeded to steal her father. just for fun, you know!

oh yeah did i mention she’s a witch too? hence the witch’s house haha

cannot stand black cats. crows are safe. for now.

she has a knife. she’s gonna go stabby. stay out of her way when she does.

but hey; come make friends with her, she likes friends!

Oh, what was she saying  ...  of course it is! Only they would have a message blaring from her phone early in the morning and confirm to her something she was hoping had just been some silly memories from a dream. But no, what she was getting glimpses of did happen to be real. Except it wasn't her that had lived through those moments  ;  only a mere clone of herself. As if they couldn't resist adding more insult to injury! To remember memories that weren't even her own  ...  that sounded quite familiar. She never did see that woman again, did she? Is that what was going to happen here as well? To have those memories just fade over time? As much as she'd like to pretend she'd be happy about that  ...  she can't.

She was always selfish like that, wanting to grasp onto anything good and keep it for as long as she could. Even if it wasn't her own to begin with.

While she’s not able to hear, there’s that presence lingering at the back of her mind, letting her know that there is someone there. Maybe they’re passing by, and she would look but the girl’s drawing. Oh, she’s rather focused, tongue out at the corner of her lip and all.  When that presence does get closer though and she feels a gentle tap on her shoulder, Windy lifts her head and turns it to look at Ellen. Mm? Eyes lowers to the delicious apple treat. 

“Wah! Ellen!” She gasps, a big smile on her face now when she looks at the other girl. She LOVES anything and ALL apple flavored desserts so there’s no way she’d not like an apple tart slice!

“You’re the best~!” Grabbing the pastry, she sets it down just to give Ellen one of her best hugs, because let’s be honest. Ellen deserves ALL of the best big hugs. “Heeheee, thank you! I’ll enjoy it~.Apple tarts are yummy~!”

It had taken some time for Ellen to initiate contact with most of her family, but Windy had been the one she had most hesitation with. Perhaps it came from the fact she had been an only child before being taken in? She had no idea what a sister was supposed to do  ...  and there certainly weren’t any good role models to take from. That wasn’t to say that the other girl wasn’t on her mind. After all, she had seen the apple tart and bought it for her in an instant. That was sisterly of her, right? Even if she was rethinking her decision as the other turned to look at the slice on the plate.

...  But judging from her reaction, it was a very sisterly thing of her to do.

Her head began to tilt when she saw the pastry being put down  -  was she not going to eat it yet?  -  when she suddenly felt warmth envelop her as she was in her sister’s arms. On the contrary, Windy would feel the constant coldness radiating from Ellen, her illness being a leading factor in that. At first, she was just stiff. Not reacting at all. How was she supposed to react? Sure, she’s received hugs before, but she’s never received any as a sister  ...

spardae:

WITH  A  SMILE,  HE  LISTENS  TO  their excited chatter. Face visibly shifting into overexaggerated expressions– first brows raised with surprise. ❝ Flowers? That sounds very exciting. We’ll have to tell your mother right away. Perhaps after dinner she can help you both find a nice spot in the garden for your plants. She’ll be delighted to know that there are budding green thumbs in the family. ❞

He shows them his thumb in a thumbs up gesture, before he baps them both gently on the nose with said thumb. ❝ Perhaps you both can even teach me how to plant flowers. Then I can learn something new, too. ❞

Though of course when Ellen offers her hard work to him, his attention shifts at once. ❝ Oh, you did, did you? May I take a look, Ellen? ❞ He asks before he takes them, adjusting his monocle as he skims them, nodding with approval after each one. Including the ones littered with the red scrawl of correction. ❝ Very remarkable! I have quite clever girls. I’ll have to take a closer look when we get inside. ❞

He stands, extending a hand out to both of them to take so they can begin the walk up the winding drive back to the house. ❝ Did you bring home some work with you, Windy? ❞ He asks, head turned in her direction so she can read his lips, ❝ I see you did some writing today. If you wanted to practice, we could translate what you wrote into sign language. How does that sound? ❞

( He hopes you both know that you can ask for a piggy back ride or to be carried if your legs start to hurt, @hcneycrxsp. )

Windy can go all day about the flowers and about the things she learned in her classroom. BUT mainly the flowers. Windy enjoyed doing hands-on-work. Writing is just as important of course. In fact, she spends extra time writing, but hands on were so much fun because you got to go outside….usually. 

“Ellen and I will teach you how to make flowers!” All four of them can be green thumbs. A house full of green thumbs. When he’s now focused on Ellen’s work, she wants to see too. She hadn’t seen her work before so naturally, she leans against Sparda to get a good look. OOOOOOH, ELLLLEEEEEN. Windy looks at Ellen with the biggest smile on her face before backing up a bit and grabbing hold of one of Sparda’s hands. 

“I like that sound very much!” She says looking up at Sparda, “Ellen and I were in the same class when we were writing.” Ellen and her were definitely going to get there. Practicing using signs, but of course Windy had gotten mildly distracted, it never happened. 

@soulsickened

Ellen still wasn’t quite sure what to think of the hands on work  ...  because of her legs, she preferred to just stay indoors. But it’d be a lie to say that she hadn’t enjoyed getting to plant her own flower seeds. Maybe if they do it more often, her legs won’t hurt as much anymore! It’d be a couple of days still before she could actually see them in their garden, but she knows she’ll be very happy to see them.

She wasn’t so happy about the sudden bap on her nose, getting a small whine out of the girl as a hand went up to rub at it. Okay, she wasn’t that unhappy, but she could pretend!

Showing off her work was great, but she couldn’t help but feel embarrassed over all the teacher notes on them  ...  so what if her handwriting was sloppy or she didn’t know how to spell something? Ellen has hardly held a pencil before and the way she was taught how to made her hands sore. The grips on them didn’t help much with being able to adjust them either  ...  but as long as they weren’t being pointed out, she wouldn’t be the one to do so. If anything, she’ll happily keep silent about them.

As well as happily grabbing onto her father’s hand.

...  Unfortunately, with the prospect of having to walk a little further, the girl became all too aware of the aches in her legs again. Eyes were quick to look down at the bandages and while they were clean for the most part, she could see the tiniest hint of red begin to leak through them. They served their purpose and survived the school day, but she was hoping they’d stay clean a little longer. In her observations, Ellen had stopped walking entirely. She really wanted to carry on walking, but at this point, it might make her skin a lot worse and painful. And she didn’t want that at all.

“  ...  My legs are sore again. “

@spardae​ inquired ; [ cover ]  to cover your muse with a blanket / jacket / coat when they’re lying down

Ultimate Affectionate Gestures ( accepting! )

She really shouldn’t be up at this time. Far too late for a sickly girl like her to be on the move around the mansion, but that didn’t seem to deter her from her ventures at all. The girl was quite determined to do something in particular  ...  something that apparently required her to drag her bed duvet across the floor. Thankfully, Ellen had purposefully chosen to keep it as clean as she could today. It wouldn’t really be good if it was stained with the blood from her legs, would it? The idea had been in her head for quite a while, but she never stayed up late enough to actually go through with it.

Except from tonight.

Sometimes, if she was paying really close attention, she found that people did like to sleep anywhere they could. Yes, she did it as well, but she didn’t think she’d find grown-ups doing the same thing. It astounded her so much the first time she caught glimpse of it that she had to see it again a couple of times before confirming it for herself. Those times she just immediately went back to bed  ...  but tonight seemed to be quite cold. Ellen could go without her blanket for one night. The cold never really bothered her once she was asleep.

Tiny feet were tiptoeing closer, eyes peeking at the man to make sure he was actually asleep. If he were awake, she might’ve just dropped the blanket and fled. The poor girl just wasn’t sure if she was allowed to do stuff like this. She knows that her  ...  well, that her previous father wouldn’t have let her do this at all. Just once. Just once and then she’d never do it again!

With that motivation, tiny hands began to carefully place her duvet over him as best as she could  -  which was quite hard to do. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t actually get it past his lap. Frustrating, but then the girl could’ve sworn that she saw him move slightly. And that was more than enough to get her to just leave the duvet as it was and quietly run back over to the doorframe.

spardae:

HE  WAITS  AT  THE  SIDE  OF  THE  ROAD  for the school bus, arms folded across his chest simply to avoid having them hang idle at his side rather than out of impatience. A warm smile crosses his face when it finally grinds to a halt, and his two darling girls come out. He greets them both with a warm smile, kneeling and opening his arms to invite them both in for a hug.

❝ Did we have a good day, girls? ❞ He asks after, even pulling back to practice signing with Windy– asking the same question he did out loud but with his hands. ❝ You’ll both have to tell me what you’ve learned today. I’m quite eager to hear. ❞

( It never gets old, Sparda thinks, and he’s ever so happy that he’s been given the chance to raise another pair of children now that his own have flown the coop. So tell him, @hcneycrxsp, @soulsickened – what have you learned today? )

There’s so many things that Windy is excited for. She’s excited to talk to her sister, Ellen about school and show dad all the new things she’s learned! OH, she’s so excited she can’t really keep still while being seated on the bus, but when the bus finally stops by the road of that leads up to their home, she’s eager to greet Sparda with a hug. She giggles, hand in Ellen’s and when off the bus, she rushes into those already welcoming arms. 

“Mhm!” She replies after reading the signs. It’s taken her  a long time. It’s definitely been a journey, but she’s now able to sign AND she’s gotten pretty much better at reading lips as well. She looks at Ellen with a big smile, “We got to plant some seeds for flowers to grow. They’re going to be super TALL, riiiii~iiiiight, Ellen~?”

Ellen wasn’t even sure if she was going to make it through the day without getting sick  ...  but admittedly, having Windy at school too made her all the more determined to stay the whole day. Sure, her legs were sore, but at least she got tons of time to sit down with what they were doing today. Especially on the bus back home  ...  those seats were a little more comfy. While her sister might’ve been more keen to tell their father about the fun activities, Ellen was wanting to show him the worksheets they were doing before planting the flowers. She thinks she did quite well on those.

Maybe she should’ve been paying more attention to the fact that she was now being guided off the bus.

Sometimes her legs just didn’t work with her mind if she wasn’t paying attention, and so she did nearly trip over her own two feet when getting off the bus. Thankfully, the support of her sister’s hand gave her something to grip a little tighter  ...  and she didn’t trip! That wouldn’t be fun. And then she found herself in her father’s arms and the new pain beginning to settle into her legs wasn’t as apparent to the girl anymore.

...  Ellen almost forgot she was a part of the conversation, simply staring down at the pieces of paper in her hand as the sound of her name got her attention, giving a simple ‘hm’ in response before speaking up. “ Oh! Yeah, they are! And we can take them home with us soon too! “ Something about them waiting for the flowers to start growing  ...  She didn’t really pay attention. “ And we did some worksheets too! See? “ Tiny hand was now holding the worksheets up, the one in direct view looking flower-themed. Ellen was choosing not to show the ones with her writing on them right away  ...  those ones got quite a few teacher’s notes on them about said writing.

Well, it was more along the lines of hiding. Not because she didn’t want to be seen, oh no, it wasn’t that at all! She was just waiting for the perfect moment  ...  one where she was certain she wasn’t interrupting anything. That was the worst thing about leaving the mansion and coming back  ;  everyone has already moved onto something else and you’d have no clue how far along they were unless you asked. And Ellen didn’t like asking. But she also couldn’t just stand around all day  ...

How hard was it to just offer an apple tart slice? Especially after all the effort she put in to get it from the cafe too.

Ellen has long since eaten her pastry and left the rest of the family with theirs as well  ...  it was just Windy’s she had to give now. And just thinking like that was enough to get her to move away from the doorframe and into the room. One step at a time, Ellen. Just to make sure she doesn’t drop the pastry onto the floor. That would really suck. After a couple of seconds, bare feet make it close enough to the other girl that Ellen taps her on the shoulder to get her attention. She remembered being told that she needs to make sure the other can see her when she’s talking, so she’s doing just that.

...  Wait, what was she going to say again? “ Uhm  ...  “ Eyes briefly looked down at the plate, suddenly second-guessing herself. What if this wasn’t enough? Should she have gotten another slice? What if she didn’t even like apple tart?! Oh, she should’ve just left her pastry alone until she gave everyone else’s out  ...  then she wouldn’t be feeling so stupid.

Regardless, she’s quick to put a smile on her face and offers the plate with the apple tart slice forward. She could always get something else from the kitchen, right? “ I got this for you! It’s apple tart. “