Finished Strengthening Family Ties and Other Bonds

Jeremiah did his best to dress well despite his condition. He couldn't wear normal shirts or pants and shoes were out of the question, but with a little ingenuity and sewing he could dress as well as he could. It helped, he thought, people not see him so much as a monster.

He was visiting Rafael at his grandfather's request and his mother's encouragement. He was still a bit wary after their first encounter after the incident. But he was hopeful that maybe time and reflection had diminished Grandfather's anger.

Jeremiah lumbered into their chosen meeting spot, marveling at the pristine Spring-like quality of the grove. The tips of his stilt-like feet sunk a bit into the soft earth, giving him better purchase as he moved, and his long, monstrous arms let him gently keep his balance by hunching his shoulders and walking at an almost ape-like pace.

The soft wine purple light behind his eye sockets brightened slightly when he saw Rafael. They reminded him very much of the types of clothes his dads used to wear, clothes made themselves by hand.

"Hello, Grandfather," he said quietly, almost reverently as he crouched down to rest on the grass. He used his hands and his feet to blanace himself, almost sitting like a dog on the forest floor.

"And a good afternoon to you as well," Jeremiah replied, the lower jaw of his bestial skull hanging open in an approximation of a smile. He canted his head to the side, pointing the tip of his snout away from Rafael to better look at him directly through one of his eye sockets.

Small vines grew slowly around his cheek bones, sprouting pale pink flowers. An approximation of a light blush. He hadn't expected an apology. Mother had warned him not to. Besides that, he knew that Grandfather had been right to be angry. Jeremiah had been foolish and had put himself and others in danger needlessly.

Still, he appreciated it. "Thank you. And I am sorry as well, to have worried you. I did not have any bad intentions when I performed the ritual, but I suppose that does not matter as much now. I am not angry or upset with you. I am just..."

He lifted one of his hands, looking at it. The light behind his sockets dimmed considerably and a light mist began to leak from the recesses of his skull. Tears, or something like them. "I just do not like looking like this. I scare people. Make them uncomfortable. I have tried to continue like I was before: gardening and going out. But..."

"I understand that," Jeremiah said with a hint of sadness in his voice. His jaw didn't move with his words, the sound emanating from within the cavern of his skull and sounding slightly more hollow for it. "But that doesn't stop people from being afraid and... disgusted by me."

The mist leaked out more profusely now, with small droplets of condensation dripping down the edges of his eye sockets like actual tears. "I am sorry that I didn't come to you. Da, he always told me that necromancy wasn't some dark, evil thing. It was just pulling at the strings of life, and could used for good as much as it was for ill. I thought if I brought that man back, Mother would be happier again and... I did everything right. I've read back over the books and notes that I used. I even used human blood like the ritual said, bought from one of the butcher shops in the city."

"I was not making a puppet though. I was calling to a soul, a very person to come back. I know not to control anyone. I am not my uncle, much as I know I remind you all of him."

Jeremiah sounded absolutely dejected at the comparison of himself to Tomas. He didn't know everything, but he knew enough. Enough to know that as sad as it was to say, Tomas' death had been no great loss to the family.

"But I understand all the same. As much as I hate looking like this, I am more upset to think that I may have hurt Shiro. How is she by the way?"

Jeremiah's head dipped low in shame as he remembered Tadashi and felt bad for forgetting his other cousin. They had not spoken much, and Jeremiah hadn't known anything was wrong at all or else he would have... "Maybe I could speak to Tadashi? I have not been the best family to either of them, but at least I know Shiro a bit more."

He glanced down at his giant wooden hands again, his jaw snapping shut in irritation. "I do not want to discomfort him though. I would like to at least look how I feel so that I may feel as I look. If that makes any sense... Grandfather, would you help me at least Glamour myself to look as I used to?"