That morning, Marian woke up with a fire in her bones, an urge to move and do. She skipped breakfast and greeting her friends and roommate to get right into cleaning. Up the stairs from the cellar, into the main church, and around the circular staircase. Through the door into the residential area, and to the janitors closet to get some cleaning gloves, windex, and the usual cleaning things.

The clearing of the broken pots and dead plants was the first part, the second was the hardest. She has to take apart the ruined planters after removing all of the dirt. And then the mopping, cleaning the glass, making sure the ventilation is good, substantial heating, and humidity.

No time like the present.
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After several hours of clearing the dirt, scrubbing and general maintenance, it was 4pm and Mari decided it was better to finish it up tomorrow, when Swiss wandered in with a curious expression.

"Fuck!" He tripped over a bucket full of cleaning supplies and landed on the damp but warm stone floor.

"Oh! Swiss, are you alright?" Mari went to help him up, picking up the cleaning supplies and dusting him off the best she could.

"Yeah I'm fine, thanks. I just thought I'd stop by to get you to take a break. Rain's been bothering me to." He picked up the bucket of supplies and put it off to the side before looking around the mostly empty room.

"Really? Why didn't he come up here and tell me himself?" She chuckled, her laughter echoed off of the hard floors and smooth clear glass.

"He..." Swiss tried to put it in a gentle way, "Cardinal is writing a lot of new music and one of the newer ideas are bass intensive and Cardinal called for his input since he's the bass player."

"I suppose that makes sense... well, thanks for pulling me out of the cleaning, I'm starting to get nauseous from the cleaning chemicals." She took off her latex gloves and pocketed them to put them in the trash.

"Then let's go get some fresh air, don't want you getting sick." He smiled and opened the door out into the cold hallways behind the church's hall of ritual and worship. He held her hand and helped her out of the room. His charming and suave demeanor made her feel comfortable, like an old friend who you knew was too cool for you, but they keep you around because there's genuine connections between the two.

The clergy members and ritual goers watched the exit the hall, they wondered if it would be another accident. The church is known for its mishaps and accidents, like poisonings, accidental injuries, etc. But nothing of the sort would happen.

"Thanks for this, Swiss, the air is so clear and light out here." Mari took a deep breath. Swiss chuckled and smiled.

"Yeah, we always have the best weather here, with the exceptions of the occasional blizzard, but it's perfect this time of year. Unfortunately, we get a lot of pollen. Mountain is allergic to pollen." He grinned.

"Really? I didn't think ghouls could have allergies, I know I don't."

"It's different for everyone." He said absentmindedly, "I'm allergic to shell fish, Aether is allergic to cats, cirrus is allergic to hay and certain medicines."

"Really? That's interesting. Is anyone else allergic to anything?"

"No, but I don't know about the other ghouls with the other papas. Terzo has Dew's twin mist on the bass, fire, breeze, dust. Secundo has Alpha, omega, aqua, field, draft. And Primo has Fire, quintessence, water, earth, air. And us. Cirrus, cumulus and I are the closest thing to siblings, Aether is related to Breeze, Omega, draft, and Quint. Dew has his twin Mist, fire and the other fire. It's kinda confusing but it's okay. Mountain is distantly related to dust, field and earth. Rain is brothers with aqua and water."

"I'll probably just write that down later. It sounds important."

"No it's fine, just when they come back, don't expect them to be very nice, especially Primo's and Secundo's ghouls, they're all business."

"So Rain's brothers are assholes?"

"Pretty much. That's one of the reasons why they don't live with us anymore."

"Thats... I wanna say nice, but I don't have siblings, or to my knowledge I don't. And I don't know what it's like to be Rain." I thought while looking out over the large entry way of the church. The church is much like any gothic era church. It sits on a large bit of land that has a graveyard, a morgue, and a memorial place for all the past Papas and clergy staff.

I took time to peel off my gloves, stick them in my pockets.

"I hope Sister doesn't get upset about the greenhouse, I mean the money I'm spending for the greenhouse. Copia gave me access to the reserved money for the clergy. And I'm definitely budgeting, I just hope I don't tear a hole through the clergy's wallet."

"Wai-are you kidding? You don't need to worry about that, we're going on a tour between the four main churches, we'll definitely have more than enough money for the clergy."

"Still... this means a lot to Rain, and I hope it works out. Even on a limited budget."

"You care a lot about him?" Swiss asked with a nearly normal tone.

"I think so, I don't really know what it's like to have friends or something like that. I've been pretty alone since mom died and I've just been roaming." I reflected on those hard years briefly.

"How long have you been alone for? I'm sorry if it's a personal question, I just want to know more about the person haunting our halls." He chuckled warmly.

"Oh it's no problem. I've never really been asked that before... I think I was born in the 1300s? Mom died not too long after that and I've just been traveling the planet."

"That's a long time. That would make you around seven-hundred... give or take a couple decades." He chuckled, he looked a little puzzled and he caught me staring.

"Oh! I don't mean anything by it, personally I'm eight-hundred twenty-four. We're all about the same age except for maybe dew and aether. They're around the same age as each other but they're a little bit older than us by another hundred years." He nervously smiled.

"It's a relief that you all are closer to my age. 'Give or take a couple decades'" I mimicked him. In a literal sense I mean.

His mouth hung open.

"I-I didn't know you were a mimic!" He grinned.

"I'm a nearly perfect mimic. Since my mother was mostly mortal, part of me can't shift the whole way like normal shifters and mimics. It's my tail that doesn't shift. It's my giveaway unfortunately. I can't tuck it away as easy as ghouls can."

"Can I see yours?"

"My what?"

"Your tail? I know it's a rude question and a lot of ghouls don't like their tails touched outside of the bedroom but I'm really curious. My tail," his tail peeked out from his pants and curled around himself.

I was shocked to find he had no spade or crest, it was like a normal tail.

"My tail doesn't have a crest and all the others have one and I just hoped I might not be the only one."

I nodded and pulled it over the hem of my pants, pulling the waist high pants down with the tail.

It's once bony look was a little fuller now and it was smooth. The spines that had run along it had retracted with my former form. It was spadeless too.

I turned to see him comparing our tails with wide eyes. He made a noise like he meant to say something.

"I've... been here for years without someone who had this in common with me. You probably don't really get it, but this really made my day." He neglected to thank me, he seemed at a loss for words. His eyes were soft and his expression was pouty with emotions I couldn't quite read.