7/23/08 Instance: "My New Friend Is Dead"

[JSherlock]

Timelined: After Moonbeam meets Rae-Rae

Moonbeam: Moonbeam wandered down the halls slowly staring at all the beautiful paintings and fixtures throughout the mansion. She was in total awe at the pure size of each room and the diversity of students. "This place is so cool..." she kept whispering to herself over and over.

Raya: Raya fixed her veil to hang over her collar properly, opening the door from the small prayer room to confront someone she definitely didn't know. "Oh," she took a step back, halfway behind the door to avoid running into her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to run into you."

Moonbeam: "On, no it's my fault!" Moonbeam said apologetically. "I'm too busy looking around I didn't see where I was going." She put her hand out towards the young girl wearing the veil. "I'm Moonbeam, I'm new here."

Raya: "Um. Hi." Raya shook the girl's hand, though the cold and faintly sticky feeling made it short. "I'm Sooraya. You have cold hands," she said, rubbing her own. "Moonbeam is a pretty name."

Moonbeam: "Oh yeah, sorry about the hands, it goes along with my 'ability'." She smiled softly and looked away. "Yeah, it's a strange name. Still need to figure out where it came from. Sooraya is a very pretty name as well too. It seems just as beautiful to say... Sooraya." She whispered the name. "Nice. So what room is this?"

Raya: Raya didn't eactly know how to describe it without telling too much, so she just shrugged. "It's a prayer room." She stepped aside so Moonbeam could see the rather unimpressive carpet and incense burner, along with the small table next to the door. She smiled at the girl repeating her name, but kept the small pleasure to herself.

Moonbeam: "Wow. A prayer room... Hm." She walked in carefully and looked around. "I don't know how keen I am on God anymore... 'specially since my powers manifested... but I think this is a good place to spend some time with him." She looked back to Sooraya. "So you were praying then, I assume. Just habitual stuff or you
asking for some special attention?" She smirked.

Raya: "Kind of both. I pray five times most days." She tried a smile at Moonbeam and mostly, it worked. but the girl's statement made her curious, and she cocked her head to ask, "What are your powers then?"

Moonbeam: "Oh, they're pretty messed up." She said. "Technically, I'm dead. That's why I was so cold. I could totally like lop off my head right now and I could still do the Cha-Cha around the school, provided you were willing to follow me with my head so I could see where I was going.." Moonbeam giggled at the image as it appeared in her head.

Raya: Despite the creepiness of that image, it did make Raya giggle a little. "That's pretty unique, I guess. And that would explain you being cold. Do you feel it? I mean, being cold and stuff." Raya leaned back against the doorframe lightly, shifting her weight as the cold from the floor seeped through the soles of her bare feet. She habitually went without shoes while she prayed.

Moonbeam: "Nah," Moonbeam said in a dismissed tone. "I had an autopsy earlier, that was cool. Nurse Annie looked like she was gonna pass out."

Raya: "I bet; not everyone gets to see one of those everyday, and the person usually isn't talking and looking around." Raya looked after Moonbeam, standing in the middle of the small room. She was pretty, even dead, kind of pale and wispy, but it worked for her. "You're welcome to come here if you ever want a quiet place. No one else uses it."

Moonbeam: "No one?" She said, surprised. "Wow. Well yeah I think I might. I got some questions for the big guy up there if he ever feels like stomping on down and explaining himself to me." She sighed. "I've had some pretty messed up stuff happen to me, and I can only remember as far back as a little over a year ago!" She held her head as if the room were spinning.

Moonbeam: "Everything just seems to be happening so fast!"

Raya: "A lot of things do that. It seems like a million yers ago since I was at home last. And it's been less than a year." Raya stc her hands in her pockets and sighed lightly. "Yeah. I'm the only muslima here." She sucked on her lip momentarily, considering what to say next. "I think God would answer you. He might not give you a burning bush, but He wouldn't ignore you."

Moonbeam: "He's done a pretty good job ignoring me so far..." Moonbeam said with a grudge. "I mean hell, I've tried every tactic I can think of to kill myself and for so long I was so scared and then that stupid trucker and that messed up house of horrors..."

Raya: Raya listened to her new acquaintance talk, a little saddened by the tone of her speech. "God does love you, as He loves us all. But that doesn't mean there won't be any pain in your life." As unhappy as she was with that esoteric statement, Raya couldn't really think of another way to put it. She touched her shoulder with her fingertips lightly; it was freezing. "I'm sorry those things happened to you, Moonbeam."

Moonbeam: "I'm not." Moonbeam said. "For all I know my past life sucked. I have a new chance. Sure the whole Lawrence thing was a nightmare, but now I'm here and I feel pretty dang comfortable and at peace here." She looked pleasantly to Raya. "You know what, maybe that big guy does work in mysterious ways." She gave her a large wink.

Raya: "Oh, He does," Raya answered, smiling in return to Moonbeam's wink. "He has to. If He didn't people would think it too obvious to be Allah." She looked at Moonbeam's clothes, and recognized them from Rae's closet. "If you want to borrow some different clothes, you can have some of mine."

Moonbeam: Moonbeam shrugged. "I'm gonna go shopping later I think. It was either this or a paper gown from the medical ward. But yeah, I'll borrow any skirts if you got any. Her only skirts were really, really short."

Raya: "I have a lot. Most are pretty long....I don't really wear anything like Rae." She couldn't really explain the strange feeling that nagged at the back of her mind as it really connected that she was talking to a dead person. "You're going to fit in here really well, I think. You're very nice to talk to."

Moonbeam: Moonbeam grinned. "Making friends and getting clothed, it's a pretty good start." She agreed.

Raya blinked at the last portion of that statement, finding it more than a little odd. "Well...making friends is a goo start. I'd say you're a bit ast due to be getting clothes of your own. Did you not bring any with you?" Raya cocked her head to the side and shrugged the weight of her bag to a different spot.

"I uh... sort of woke up in the middle of the desert. I don't even have any recollection of who I actually am or was before whatever happened that made my abilities manifest."

"I had no clothes except the stuff i was in when they came to rescue me, but thankfully, they were destroyed.

"Oh. Well, that would be a good reason. Your clothes were destroyed?" That made her raise an eyebrow, but she didn't pry for a further answer. "I can't say I've ever had to be rescued. Or really ever wanted to be." Only a small lie in that one, really.

"Everyone needs to be rescued once in a while." Moonbeam said. The statement surprised her, as if it was someone else besides her talking. "I'm sure something is happenign or has happened in your life where you wanted to be rescued."

"I guess that would depend on what you count as being rescued." Raya shrugged, not knowing what else to say in the face of that. "There have been quite a few things I'd rather not have happened, but I don't know that I would be the same if they hadn't. And I like who I am now." Mostly.

Moonbeam pushed her grey hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear as she smiled. "You sound sure of yourself, good for you." She sat back in the chair and gave Raya a once over. "Your eyes though, they read like they're stressed..."

"Um. I guess I am. There's a bunch of things going on." Raya was surprised that the other girl had managed to hit on that; she thought she'd hid it fairly well. "You watch people a lot, don't you?" She asked in return, face tilted down slightly.

Moonbeam acknowledged the attempt to change the topic and grinned.
"Yeah well...I like looking at eyes that are filled with life you know?" She pointed to hers. "Yours are pretty vivid and electric. And they are right now scared, or excited,
not sure which."

"Of those two options....I'd have to guess more on the side of scared." Raya chewed on her lip, sliding down to rest against the table. "I don't know how they look anymore. I don't really pay attention to them." She left out that she purposely

"Scared huh?" Moonbeam asked curiously. "Anything you wanna talk about?"

"I don't know. It's a little strange to think about. Maybe sometime, when I figure out how serious it is." She rubbed idly at the slightly fading henna on her hand and flexed her fingers. "For now you should settle in here. And not worry about everyone else." She gave Moon a small smile.

"Why be concerned about myself? It's not like anything is going to happen to me..." She shrugged. "Regardless, if you need to talk, perhaps to someone who will actually respond, I'll gladly come back here and talk with you." She stood up and nodded to Raya smiling. "Thank you for being so kind to me."

Moonbeam hesitated but then figured, what the heck, I'm as creeped out by myself as they are. She embraced Raya and hugged her. "Nice to have some friends."

Raya pulled back slightly, ostly out of slight shck at the cold arms that wrapped around her shoulders. Then she smiled. "It is. You're a good friend to talk to." Slowly--incredibly slowly--Moon's arms kind of warmed up, though it was most likely just her getting used to the feeling. "I hope I see you in classes, and just around. Everyone kind of runs into each other." She smiled again and really meant it that time.


~END~