Hello Sunshine

Eirik happily settles into gila form amongst the bags in the back of the truck.

 

...yeah, that's probably just as well. On reflection, Corrie's not entirely sure whether it's legal here to have someone ride in the bed.

 

Sunshine is happily humming in your mind as you head into the desert on foot, hunting more photos, with Eirik trailing along - back on two legs, once they get out of town, scaled and humming.

Hey, are you gonna get too hot? He asks as they get deeper into the sands.

 

No, because I'm not going to fall down a canyon and spill half my water this time. Today's planned route is much flatter, and she is absolutely making sure to set up near what shade there is to be found. Overheating is horrible, even if you've apparently found an out for death.

 

Sunshine considers this, sifting through her thoughts on overheating.

Hey! Let me try something! Sunshine echoes in your mind, all smiles and cheer. You can feel him, around you, you can always feel him around you, but now his presence is undeniable, like a heavy stone weighing down upon your heart. You can feel him growing within you, expanding slowly until the heavy weight settles not only on your chest but your entire body, crushing you like a headstone. It slowly expands outwards, until the weight fills not only your body but spills out from it, the flames of his bones licking at the air around you. And then… it gets lighter. The weight slowly seems to drain from your body, until you almost can’t feel it anymore. And with each lightning of your load the fire around you seems to get stronger and stronger until you can actually see it shine from you, illuminating the air around with a hazy mirage-like image. As the fire around you becomes real you realize the heat around you decreases, the desert air no longer scalds your skin and the oppressive dryness doesn’t feel so… dry anymore. It feels like the fire Sunshine wrapped around you is eating up all that heat, soaking in the UV, infrared and waste heat bombarding everything around here, leaving you free to enjoy this desert in all its heatless glory.

(( Thank you, @Melkiah for the GMing assist. ))

 

The weight is oddly reassuring at first, worrying later, but after the crushing feeling passes?

It's euphoric. Free of the weight, free of the heat, free of the Sun. Free of the laws of nature and life and death. Where's thy vict'ry, boasting grave?

"What did you do?" she murmurs, delighted.

 

"...huh? What do you mean?"

 

I used your keystone to pull over a shroud! Sunshine replies proudly.

 

"Nothing," she says absently. She crouches to pick up a little sun-baked stone, and feels only a pleasant warmth from it. Midday, in a high desert summer.

You were right. We've got to find out what we can do. Did you already know about this?

 

Uuuuhm, I don't know. I mean. I just... it's... I realized that, with you, I could? Sunshine hesitates. Does that make sense? There has to be other stuff we can do... hmm.

 

"I... should keep going." And Corrie starts walking again. But this setup and takedown and snap, snap, snap, then find another spot, doesn't require all of her attention.

Half-formed ideas about how this might be working, and how it might be adapted, float through her mind. It would be easier to nail them down if she knew more about the physics, if that's even the right word, of ghosts- it's not that last night's googling turned up nothing, but she certainly doesn't trust a single word of it.

I'd say we should try the "fire with our minds" thing, but this is probably the wrong place. Smokey the Bear would be very disappointed in us.

 

Ooooh! Yes! Let's stay out late and show Eirik we're really cool and start a campfire with our mind!

 

It should be sad, how obviously child Sunshine is. On some level it is sad, really. But it seems less important that he's dead when he's not gone, but right here and full of excited energy.

Lucky for you we don't actually have a bedtime, huh? she teases.

To Eirik, she says "So you were living out here for a while, right? Got any favorite views?"

 

"..huh... oh! Yeah, sure!" Eirik points towards a far off outcrop of rock, much further than Corrie had reached yesterday. "I checked that place out a few days ago, it was really cool, plus there was a weird cave to explore. I didn't get to do it, yet. But it might be interesting? Plus. Uhm. The rocks have cool patterns?"

 

Sunshine buzzes with tenfold good cheer at the realization that the two of you decide when you do and don't sleep, and he gives an excited laugh that tries to bubble up through you, too.

 

The laugh doesn't quite make it all the way, but a wide grin (well, a slight widening of the one Corrie's already wearing) and a silent, chuckle-like exhalation do.

"Good-looking geology's usually an easy one," she says, adjusting course slightly. "What was weird about it?"

 

"Eeeh, Dad-Mom seemed to be really interested in it for some reason? That's usually a sign of him trying to dig out treasure or something, but then we had to leave!"

 

"Whoa-" she begins, before getting a handle again on "inside" versus "outside"- whoa, whoa, settle down, there is no need to shout like that. Because Sunshine, not at all surprisingly, is going ever so slightly completely nuts at the possibility of actual for-real buried treasure.

It's a good thing Corrie's already decided to check the place out, otherwise she might be wondering whether this constitutes rewarding that behavior.

 

"Woah?" Eirik grins hugely. "Can I try to drive? I can reach the pedals, and it's just sand from here to there," he wheedles hopefully.

 

"No."

She might have considered it, if the thing wasn't rented.