The Early Girl Gets the Worm (Rather Against Her Will) - Grounds

9 Feb 2021, 03:41

February 1st, 2021

@Ashley Coulson
@Suzanne Byrd

It was a bright, sunny Monday afternoon. There had been terrible storms all last week and into
the weekend, but today, the sun was shining, the sky was fresh and the air smelled clean. Of course it was the day Calypso would encounter a giant, slimy worm.

The young Gryffindor and her two friends, Ashley Coulson and Suzanne "Annie" Byrd, had
been walking on the grounds, taking in the freedom that came with the end of the last class of the day. When they had passed the Groundskeeper's cabin, however, they had been met with a strange sight. The Grounds Keeper, Mr. Eliseo Cespedes, had appeared to be handing out some sort of...ugly babies? Out of curiosity, the girls had drawn closer. The chubby, swaddled creatures had not been, in fact, babies. To quite a few people's disgust and horror, they had been flobberworms. Now, Calypso herself personally had nothing against worms. She recognized their essential role in nature and the circle of life, and when she saw one struggling on the sidewalk she always rescued it by bringing it to the safety of the grass (and most of the time she simply picked the creatures up with her fingers. She wasn't squamish). But, dear reader, you must understand that flobberworms are quite a different matter altogether. They are huge -ten inches long on average. Slimy, and blobbish, and wriggling and, well, it is safe to say that Cal wasn't particularly fond of the creatures.

Ashley and Annie and Cal were now standing right there next to the cabin, and Mr. Cespedes
spotted them. He asked if the three were there for the task of babysitting the flobberworms for a day so that he could build a temporary enclosure for them inside his cabin. Apparently, he had accidentally ordered a whole bunch of the creatures. Cal found that a little suspicious, but that wasn't her primary concern now, as the man was currently placing a large, pulsing, swaddled blob of a worm into her arms. She looked to her friends, and saw that they, too, were being saddled with giant annelids. Poor Ash looked more disgusted than Cal was, practically pale in the face, and Annie simply seemed as if she were trying to like the wriggling thing in her arms. "They're so...cute?" Annie suggested more than stated. Looking at the Groundskeeper, Calypso didn't want to be rude, so she hastily agreed with Annie, and launched into a rambling speech about the greatness of the worms. Ash gave her a strange sideways look as if she thought that perhaps her friend had finally gone round the bend, but stayed quiet. The three gave their goodbyes to Mr. Cespedes, and their assurances that no harm would come to the creatures under their care, and walked off together back toward the castle.
"So," Cal began, shifting the weight of her worm to her hip. This was not what she had had
planned for her afternoon. "What now?"

Word Count: 495/800

Reducio

Permission to god-mod given by @Ashley Coulson and @Suzanne Byrd

Last edited by Calypso Starling on 14 Feb 2021, 17:50, edited 1 time in total.

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be
insane by those who could not hear the music."

Suzanne Byrd

Second year, Gryffindor

82 19

11 Feb 2021, 21:36

@Ashley Coulson, @Calypso Starling
Mr. Cespedes handed Annie a flobberworm. Annie had always believed that all creatures are created equal. But it was pretty hard to find a reason to like flobberworms. "They're so... cute?" She tried. Hm, not quite. The worms were really slimy and were so blobbish they felt as if they were just gel wrapped in flobberworm skin. Annie didn't usually have much of a problem with slime, but the flobberworms had much more slime than the average worm. Despite this, Annie set the worm on her lap and studied it intently. They were definitely... interesting. She had never actually seen a flobberworm before. Annie's was about ten inches long and looked like a large grub. This was slightly repulsing, but Annie decided she was going to have to ignore that, given the students were to babysit them the rest of the day. She looked at her friends. Cal looked disgusted. Ash looked close to panic. "So," Calypso said, "what now?"
"I don't know," Ash said, frowning.
"I guess we could just... walk around?" Annie replied, uncertainly. They ended up wandering aimlessly around the grounds, and eventually came to a stop at the great lake. The girls sat down by a tree and Annie looked out across the lake. Was that the giant squid? She had only seen glimpses of it so far, a tip of a tentickle or maybe the top of his head. But here it was, much closer than she'd ever seen it. Annie wondered if the giant squid would eat a flobberworm. She was pretty sure squid just ate fish. I wonder what flobberworms eat? Annie thought. She voiced her question aloud:
"What do flobberworms eat?"

WC: 279/800

Permission to god-mod given by @Ashley Coulson, @Calypso Starling

Ashley Coulson

11 Feb 2021, 22:09

@Calypso Starling | @Suzanne Byrd

Ashley gagged, holding her flobberworm out at arms length as she sat sown next to Calypso and Annie. Babysitting for a flobberworm was not high on her list of likes. In fact, it was pretty much dead last. Ashley believed all animals deserve a life, she really did. But this . . . thing . . . she wasn't sure. Ashley felt her breath quicken to what could almost be considered hyperventilating as the slimy creature wriggled in her grasp.
"What do flobberworms eat?" Ashley heard Annie's voice from beside her. She didn't sound as panicked as she should be.
Ashley thought about it, keeping her face as far away from the massive worm as possible. "I have no idea. Probably bugs, or something equally gross." Ashley's fiery red hair started blowing in her face, but to brush it away, she would have to either set the flobberworm down, which she was most likely not supposed to do, or hold it like a baby, which was so not happening.
They sat there by the water for a while. It was a gorgeous day. The water sparkled like jewels and the turquoise sky was bright and clear. But that was all ruined by the worlds ugliest babies that the three girls got stuck babysitting for.
After about five minutes of sitting there, holding the flobberworm, Ashley decided that as horrifying as the creature was, it needed a name. She studied it carefully. He (or she? Or they? Ashley wasn't sure) looked like it could have an old-fashioned name. Like . . . Henrietta! Nah. Or . . . Bob? Okay, Ashley thought to herself, maybe not an old-fashioned name. After much contemplation (Bree? Cole? Mia?) she finally decided on Sylvie.
"I'm naming mine Sylvie," Ashley announced to her friends, smiling at the weird-looking Sylvie in question.
Annie and Calypso laughed, and so did Ashley. She hoped that no one named Sylvie would be insulted. The name was purely coincidental.
"So," said Ashley, turning towards Annie and Cal, Sylvie still held away from her body, "What are you going to name yours? Like, the names probably won't be permanent, but we might as well have fun while we're stuck with them."

Permission to goddmod given by @Calypso Starling and @Suzanne Byrd

Word Count - 346/800 (Not counting other dialogue)

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