To describe ethereal as beautiful is an insult.

The comfort

It'd been a heavy day for Lin. She had helped the elderly spirits to decorate their areas. It did bring a smile to her face when she helped these trapped spirits regain their will to exist, even if just for a small window of time.

By the time Lin came home to find Ash and Denise chatting, she was exhausted out of her mind. It'd been a long day and she needed rest. Luckily for her, Denise was the living embodiment of the Greek Goddess Euphrosyne.

She crawled over to where the lovebirds were sitting and rested her head on Denise's shoulder. Upon noticing the arrival of the teen, greetings were shared between the trio.

Due to Denise's (and completely not hers) clingy nature and Ash's tendency to give hugs, a warm welcoming hug was also shared as a greeting.

"Been a long time sweetie," Denise plainly stated. Lin hummed in response. It had been quite a while. Lin often had things to catch up to and, though she wished she had more time, she had to refine prioritized things.

It was a calm afternoon. The wind blew softly, with just enough strength within it to wave around in the air. A comforting aura was radiating between the three. Due to Denise's and Lin's time zones aligning and Ash's never-ending love for Denise, they were often found together. Meli, Brandon, and Callie joined them sometimes. It was nice when other people joined but it wasn't a necessity to have them there.

Yuan and co came to hang out sometimes. It was quite the party when there were a few of them.

***

The clock had reached past 4 o'clock. The trio made their journey to the polluted geyser islands to eat some delicious wax.  

"Ash, you are a total fucking dumbass," Lin said dryly. Said 'dusty boio' turned around to face her with a sly grin on his face

"Alright, brat."

"Hey! I am no brat. Amongst the two of us, I am a Cherubin!"

Amongst the light-hearted chaos, Denise giggled at the antics of her family. Often times both Lin and Ash would start petty arguments in which Lin would make smart, wordy remarks and Ash would resort to using some of Lin's previous remarks as a stand-in chance.

Unfortunately for Ash's ability to keep up, Lin always had a backup to any remark she made in the past.

"Yeah, no, sorry Ashy boio, you're in denial," Lin stated simply.

"The Nile is a river in Egypt Lin, I thought you were better at geography than this. I guess you CAN prove me wrong huh?" Ash wittily replied.

Everyone in the trio knew only Lin had said that before (TikTok kid 101), but who was she to own a sentence? So instead of focusing on all the legalities, Lin simply opted on shooting Ash daggers with her glare. 

"If denial is a river, you're fucking swimming in it," Lin said in a rather unforgiving tone.

Between the banter of the two, Denise had gone through from giggling to laughing uncontrollably.

Ash and Lin kept sour expressions on their face from their argument. It wasn't serious, it never was. They spent the next 10 minutes in a serene, calm atmosphere. That was until Ash threw a geyser ball at Lin's face.

Lin looked at Ash with an exaggerated shocked expression. 

"Ash, How could you do such a thing to your girlfriend's daughter?" Lin exclaimed with a theatrical expression.

Denise spoke up through staggered breaths and laughing fits, "Ash, that's my dearest daughter! How could you do such an atrocious act-"

Lin broke Denise's moment by throwing a ball of wax at Ash which ricocheted and hit Denise. If time could stop, this was a prime example of when it happened. 

"I'm... sorry..?" The two said in unison. 

"Ash, I think we should run."

"We should, shouldn't we?"

The two looked back at Denise, who was glaring at them back. 

"I give you 10 seconds. Whoever I catch first has to take me through the fire trial."

And so they ran in a twisted game of cat and mouse. Denise wasn't truly angry, and they were alright at finishing the fire trial, but it was the sentiment that mattered. Lin flapped her cape and went to the sanctuary elder to recharge. She then headed down to the hidden island area. God she really needed to learn the names of places, moth or not, names were important. During her travels, Denise honked to alert them. 

Apparently, Ash tried to hide in the Sanctuary caves. Denise found him with relative ease. And that is why she was the greater good between the two of them. She headed down to "congratulate" Ash on his travels to the trials.

-------------------

It had been months since the two girls had seen Ash. They didn't know what happened to him. No note, no nothing. He had disappeared and they had no chance of finding him. 

It hurt Lin to know that Denise thought it was because of her, so she did what she knew best, she made up many truths and lies to convince Denise otherwise. 

"Yeah, I heard that there was something going on in the forest. I'd stay away, but maybe we can look for him in the wind paths?"

Denise had been shocked at first hearing the news. She had stopped blaming herself, but at what cost?  Her self-esteem was back, but that was only so much. Lin was going to make this better, but first she needed a game plan. 

It was true that players had been dissapearing in the forest, but it wasn't necessarly obvious who the culprit was... Perhaps it was a krill and nothing more but Lin got a hunch that it wasn't. A mistery indeed. But it was also trying to figure it out. Best not to test fate with that one. Her luck already was in the negatives. 

Maybe she'd need to get protection with winged lights to face it- and gaining a 12 wedge did sound quite appealing... 

There were more pros than the cons the more she pondered. After all, she was known for irrational decisions. It never hurt to look, as her biological mother had used to say before she dropped down into sky.

Well, it was settled. She was going to do this. She was going to search for her own death. 

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Try not to mistake what you love for what you hate, it could go come the morning. - anon

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