forum You Look Familiar // OxO // CLOSED

Started May 11, 2021 by @Fraust

tune

"Okay!" Atlas trotted after Magnolia over to the sink and looked up, huffing upon finding that he was still too short. He held his arms up, trying to reach the sink to no avail. "Mmmmm… how am I supposed to clean them?"

“Oh, I think we have a step stool somewhere…” Magnolia turned and curiously opened a small cabinet before producing a small, cube-shaped step stool. She pushed it underneath the sink.
“Here we go. Just climb onto that, hold out your hands, and I’ll show you how. But we’re going to have to be quick about it,” she added, remembering how much time they must have.

Atlas carefully stepped up onto the stool and held out his hands, still pretty confused. "Okay… why do we have to be quick, though?" He asked. He honestly had very little idea of what was happening around him at this point.

She waved him off. “Oh, it’s fine, don’t worry about it.” She didn’t want to make him anxious or anything.
Magnolia got up behind Atlas and took his hands in hers. With the stool, he came up past her chest, which was honestly kind of surreal.
“Is this alright?” She asked. “I think this is a little weird for both us.” She chuckled, though truthfully was starting to get a little anxious herself.

"Um… okay… and yeah…" Atlas replied softly, still seeming pretty nervous. He quietly allowed Magnolia to assist him in washing his hands, although he didn't particularly like having his hands held like this. Once they were freed, he held them close to his chest and glanced around from the stool. "Where's miss Claire?"

"Um… okay… and yeah…" Atlas replied softly, still seeming pretty nervous. He quietly allowed Magnolia to assist him in washing his hands, although he didn't particularly like having his hands held like this. Once they were freed, he held them close to his chest and glanced around from the stool. "Where's miss Claire?"

(Skjdkj sorry for the delay- I’ll just go for it ig)

Magnolia glanced at Atlas uncomfortably. She knew she had made him uncomfortable as well, and was regretting her decision to touch him like that.
“Ah, she’s still asleep. I guess she’s still tired from work, even if they let her out early.”
But she wasn’t very worried about Claire. She kneeled a bit so she was eye level with him. “Hey, I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I… I’m obviously not used to teaching someone like you how to… well, how to do things humans do. I just did what came to mind. You can always tell me when you don’t want me to something, okay?”

(Np ^^)
Atlas watched Magnolia closely to try and be polite, but he was clearly struggling to make eye contact with her. He felt as though he'd done something wrong. He'd made Magnolia feel bad for trying to help him, and that was bad, right? Even if he didn't like the way it felt, it wasn't really his place to say anything, right? He wasn't used to his opinion being taken into account. He'd never been able to speak for himself before. He relaxed slightly at Magnolia's comment, although he didn't really feel a whole lot better, and he nodded nervously. "R-Right… sorry…" He replied softly.

“No, no, you don’t have to apologize. You didn’t do anything.” Magnolia sighed, her brow knotting up with concern. She was uncomfortably aware of the situation, how Atlas being human caused a huge shift in how they treated him. After a moment’s hesitation, she softly ruffled his hair, relaxing her expression into a cautious smile.
“It’s alright,” she said, both for his sake and hers. “We’re still learning, I think. Uhh…” she glanced at the clock, then turned back to Atlas. “I’ll just my things and then we can go, alright?”

Atlas closed his eyes and relaxed a bit when Magnolia pet him, still keeping his arms and his hands close to his chest. "Okay, miss Magnolia…" He replied softly. "I'll stay here and wait for you to return. Is there anything you need me to do in the meantime, miss?" He asked.

Magnolia made a soft noise of amusement, her smile growing at how he wanted to stay on the stool. It was kind of cute. “Okay. Uhh, I don’t think there’s anything for you to do.”
She stood, then went over to the entrance hall where they kept their shoes, bags, and other things on hooks and shelves. She grabbed her purse, rummaged through it, then went around the apartment collecting the things she needed. Mainly a small book, a bags of animal bones and dead plants, her phone, and a folder with some papers in it.
She returned to Atlas’ spot. “Alright, I think I’ve got everything. You ready?”

"Okay…" Atlas stood quietly where he was, still on the stool when Magnolia returned. He glanced around the kitchen curiously, clearly still unfamiliar with his new higher vantage point. Magnolia's footsteps caught his attention, and he looked up as she walked through the doorway. "Yes, I'm ready to go whenever, ma'am…"

She petted him again. “Oh, you don’t have to call me that. Just Magnolia or Mag is fine. Let’s go.”
(Timeskip?)

(Alrighty)
"Okay, Miss Magnolia…" Atlas replied politely. He kept quiet on the journey to the funeral home, seeming pretty enthralled by his surroundings. Everything looked so different now that he was human. He snapped back to attention when they reached the building, however.

They walked to the bus stop, got on the bus, and then walked again when they got off. The funeral home was a simple dark brown building, neither large nor small, standing next to a sizable field filled with graves and headstones. Some yards away was the gate to the field, labeled Kolstone Cemetery, and in front of them was was a gate labeled Kolstone Funeral Home.
Magnolia, and by extension Atlas, would’ve seen a few ghosts as they traveled, but here there were many more than just a few. The see-through figures looked like they came straight out of an old photo, milling around the cemetery and conversing with each other. A few spotted and waved at the witch and her familiar.
Magnolia glanced at Atlas. When she had first made him her familiar, Mr. Khua told her he would be able to sense ghostly presences. Now that he was human, he may be able to actually see them instead of merely sensing them.

Atlas kept very close to Magnolia, seeming uneasy. He didn't necessarily seem afraid of the ghosts, but he wasn't sure what to do when he saw them. He held tighter to Magnolia's hand whenever a ghost waved at him, cowering a little. "S-So… um… what does the man want us to do for him?" He asked softly. "I don't really know what all I can do when I'm human like this… does he know that I'm human now? That's gonna be an uncomfortable conversation…"

Magnolia squeezed his hand in reassurance. Biting her lip, she said, “Yeah, I probably should’ve messaged him yesterday… he doesn’t know. But I don’t think it’ll be too bad, maybe just a little awkward? I mean, if I can explain it to Claire, I can explain it to anybody.” She chuckled a little bit.
She pulled a key from her purse and unlocked the gate, and held it open for Atlas. As they walked, she explained, “Well, there’s a guy coming in to be cremated today. We’re just going to ask his ghost a few questions to see what he wants to do now that he’s dead, then he has to sign a paper and we have to put it on his record… a lot of it is boring paperwork, to be honest. Then we go over any other ghosts who’ve applied to pass on or to reincarnate, and that’s more paperwork. Oh, but we also have to tell the guy’s family what he’s decided to do…” she rubbed her neck apologetically. “Ah, sorry, that must sound a little confusing. Don’t worry, Mr. Khua handles a lot of the boring stuff, though I have to learn from him and do it myself sometimes. Usually the new ghosts aren’t used to being dead, or they don’t know they are, so we have to tell them, and I would show you to them to help them calm down. I don’t know how they’ll react now that you’re human, though.”

Atlas listened closely as Magnolia talked, but it was clear that he was only taking in a bit of it. It was pretty confusing, and definitely difficult for him to process. He'd never had to worry about that stuff before when he was a cat. Technically he still didn't have to worry about it much since he still didn't know how to read or write or anything.
"Well, um… I still feel like… cat-like, I guess…" He said softly after the explanations. "Like… I'm a person now, but I don't think my soul or whatever has changed much. It's possible that I could still be reassuring to the ghosts, even in human form, right?" He asked as he headed inside with her, seeming both curious and very nervous.

She studied him, putting a hand to her chin. “Yeah, the spell only changed your physical form, anyway,” she said. “Them being ghosts, your physical form probably doesn’t matter too much to them.”
The inside of the funeral home looked as if it belonged to an old couple, but way less decorated or cluttered. A simple white carpet covered the floor, and a faint scent of flowers was in the air. A few artworks and photos hung on the walls, and a small table stood with a few armchairs around it. Magnolia led Atlas into a hallway, after passing few doors, she found Mr. Khua speaking to Ms. Atkin, the funeral director, in her office. Unsure if she should go in, she waited outside the door for an end to the conversation.

Atlas looked around curiously once they were inside, still holding tightly to Magnolia's hand while the two of them waited for the conversation to end. He shuffled his feet a bit, not really sure what to do with himself. The building seemed so empty to him… and it was eerily silent besides the one conversation in the office and the faintest of whispers from the ghosts outside, which sent shivers down his spine.