pris and the spurrrrping mud ][ open

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while pris had school today, lumie hadn't been there for any of their classes. he hadn't told her he'd be absent, but whenever he was it was usually because he was helping mister planet save the universe. it was a quiet walk back to the inn for pris, leaving the eccentric girl alone with her convoluted mind long enough that she was withdrawing into the images playing through it.

this march day was damp, and the dampness made it feel a little chillier than it actually was. but there was no wind and a clear sky with a bright sun, so it was a mild end-of-winter day that had worked hard at melting the last of the snow. what was left of the morning and afternoon's bright work was just some piles of white slush and a whole lot of mud. as pris veered off the walkway which lead to the front door and trampled instead onto the lawn, her Wellies with small Happy Bunnies stamped all over them went slide and squish.

after a few steps on the slick ground, pris started mimicking the slide and squish noises. quietly at first, soon she was making sound effects for her feet that sounded exactly like the ones her feet were actually making, only louder and with facial expressions that were so exaggerated some might think them comical. she wasn't doing it to be funny, though. the sound had just found its way into her thoughts and she was following it by echoing it. it was something to focus on, besides the unpleasant images and unsetting dot-connecting that went on in her head these days.

while she hadn't planned on going somewhere other than donald's room, she was already halfway to the entrance of the garden. unless she had to veer around a wayward pile of melty snow, she had a forward march pace that really made her slide and squish sounds have a beat like a little song. but pris never made it inside the garden. because a few feet away from the entrance there was this one part of the ground that had no grass, and with all the water that had melted today it looked like a perfectly sized mud box.

mud box. like a sand box, but with mud. pris used to like playing in the mud when she was little, so as she came to a stop a few feet away from the mud box and looked between it and her mud-covered Wellies she was thinking back. "ssspuuuuuurp…wwwwwwuuuuriiiisshhhhh?" it was the language of the mud squishers, spoken to herself like an internal debate. a moment later pris dropped her big black shoulder bag on the grassy ground and went straight into the small area of wet dirt.

right away pris dropped to her knees at the center of the mud box. the fact that she could feel the cold wet of the mud seeping through her black and white skull and striped tights not a bother to her. her winter coat that was made of all different swatches of loud fabrics patchworked together was also brushing against the dirty ground, but she didn't mind that either. she was focused on the mud. leaning forward pris sank her hands into it, sinking her fingers deep enough that the cold dirt reached all the way up to her wrists, getting glop all over her plastic bracelets.

"ssspuuuuuurrrrrrrp. wuurissssssshh. sssspurrrrrpppp." even though she was no longer making those sounds with her Wellies, pris continued to mutter them to the mud. it was her way of helping it to be relaxed and comfortable as she continued to knead her fingers deeper, loosening it all up and mixing it so that it was all a uniform texture. she took her time doing this, kneading and loosening everything that was within arm's reach. to reach even a little bit further she plunked her elbows down into the wet gunk so her fingers could get that little extra stretch.

by the time she sat up, her arms were a dirty mess and so was the front and the skirt of her black and red striped dress. there was even some mud in her red wig, which was styled in a straight cut that reached just underneath her ears and curled inward in a sleek bob. but pris didn't seem to notice. her big emerald eyes were looking in front of her here there and everywhere, making sure that all the mud she'd squished and squashed between her fingers looked how it was supposed to look. "ssssssspurrrrp!" was her satisfied proclamation with a firm nod. now she could work.

it started with her spreading her fingers wide, reaching her arms as long as they could reach, and pulling all the mud her arms could tug towards her so that she could make a very big tall pile.