Theorycrafting: How the ZFRP Universe came to be

Every now and again it comes up, and we opine on the idea, but ultimately, no definitive answer has ever been put forth on how the ZFRP universe works or how it came to be really, save from a meta standpoint.

And here in this blog... well, I won't be answering that. We're a collaborative community and I'd never make such a sweeping declaration about the nature of the universe without full approval from the whole of the class. HOWEVER, there's nothing wrong with putting forth my theory on how it all works and came to be, and its basically the understanding I use when I write my contributions to the wild wild world of ZFRP.

THE BEGINNING:

Zoofights Universe, First Cycle

Naturally, our history begins with the uniting force of our community. In 2005 Major Failure posted Zoofights 1, giving us our first window into the world and one most of us can only look at after the fact.

This Zoofights Universe is our starting point for the journey into how we came to be. ZFU, Cycle 1 was quite similar to our Earth. It's history and logic were mostly the same, but its development was different. People in this universe were more violent and this morality extended to animals, allowing something like Zoofights to exist on a large scale. Technology had also rapidly developed mostly in line with this behavior, with weapons and science far ahead of where the Real World was in 2005. Space travel was particularly advanced, allowing fans from across the universe to drop by and dimensional travelers to operate openly. Magic was also properly uncovered and harnessed, as well as demonic forces and other supernatural aspects of this world that would become a bit more normal than they are in the regular world.

Zoofights 1 and 2 would both take place in this cycle of the universe, and not many RP characters are likely to trace their lineage back to this one. Mainly because this cycle would soon be erased from history thanks to time travel. Following Zoofights 2, Major Failure and the gang wanted to get away from the clusterfuck that was that ending (and ending I still know too little about to give a more in-depth explanation). Looking for a fresh start for their third iteration (and likely trying to escape the specter of Swanmass and Necrogoat), Zoofights packed up and headed for the past, taking a throng of loyal fans but most importantly: their knowledge and tech.

Zoofights Universe, Second Cycle

Zoofights 3 and that time period is the start of the second cycle of this universe. The Zoofights Corporation was able to push ahead the already accelerated technological development of their future by bringing it back to the 1800s. Zoofights 3 took place in 1870, but it is likely that ZF Corp put its roots down first and drummed up interest and the tech required to put on the show.

Although Zoofights did try to maintain an aestethic by using steam-powered technology, they even pushed that field forward further than it ever got in the Real World, and they knew exactly how to dig up the mystical and supernatural as well. This quick advancement of technology lead to Zoofights 4, where things were in space and with all kinds of wacky technology, aliens, and time travel. Interestingly, despite literally going from 2006 to 1870, the Zoofights Corporation had to coerce Tesla and H.G. Wells to invent Time Travel: "Zoofights had also been lucky enough to force Nikola Tesla and H.G. Wells to invent time travel for it, widening the company's portfolio of monsters to include savage titans from the furthest reaches of the time-space continuum."

Likely, after the trip back to the 1800s, the Zoofights Corporation either couldn't use the means again (perhaps a Looper-like time travel rule, or something to do with changing history) or just lost the tech because they were that sloppy. Tesla and Wells's new method was more open and led to an unstable universe where even more dimensional travelers and unusual characters plopped on in, and soon divine forces were being tapped by centipedes and things generally went to shit.

Zoofights 5, thankfully, was not one of the things that went to shit. Probably the best Zoofights in my opinion! It was, however, on a post-apocalyptic world, one scoured by the price of playing fast and loose with so many powerful forces, technologies, and generally being drunk out of their mind as they did it. Technology was still pretty advanced, but the common person was often worse off, with Zoofights a bastion of technology and a place for the 1% to show-off how they still had resources. Surprisingly, it was a lucky cargo cult that would end up setting into the motion the events that would lead to the pivotal cycle of the Zoofights Universe.

Snake Preview was created by that Cargo Cult, originally just able to see the future, its tech was developed more and more, and over the course of Zoofights 5, soon, it would gain control of everything. This already unstable world of magic and advanced technology was about to turn upside down.

Zoofights Universe, Snake Fights Cycle

It would probably be more accurate to call this the third cycle, but the way Snake Preview would begin to change it as it began to change makes it impossible to determine how many cycles actually occurred here. When it lost its fight and was rebuilt as Snake Pilgrim, it became temporally unstable. When it was upgraded to Gamma Constrictor though, it began to harness the power to change time while being exempt to those very changes. The snake was angry, filled with as much hate as an aircraft carrier, and ready to fuck up time. Snake Fights was the most obvious and lasting of the changes and the one we had the longest window to, as it was essentially a Zoofights Universe save snakes ruled and many individuals that were once humanoid were now more snake-like instead.

However, the tournament continued. Characters like Widow Maker can trace their story back here (or, more likely, to the pre-Snake Fights version of the universe and just got dumped over here). As the final approached though, Croctopus took the title, but was not content to just win Snake Fights. He wanted to build a bote, and a bote made out of the lord of time and reshaper of the universe was his goal. The end of Zoofights 6 was an epic battle between Gamma Constrictor and Croctopus, where at one point, Croctopus drove a nail into Gamma Constrictor's head and unleashed his time powers wildly.

This is the pivotal moment. This is where the Zoofights Universe would begin to become the ZFRP Universe proper. Many universes, dimensions, and timelines were all upset and swirling by the break of Gamma Constrictor's mind, a whirling mass of incoherent space and time, but Croctopus persisted, not only killing the snake, but using its powers to achieve a perfect boat built out of the remains of the damaged Zoofights Universe Second Cycle and a rather large dead snake. What Croctopus didn't need?

It became the ZFRP Universe.

Zoofights Universe, Third Cycle

Not quite at the point we'd call it ZFRP Universe, Zoofights still had about 2 years in charge of things. This is the point we need to look at to understand our history though, as 2011, the year of Zoofights 6, was the true beginning of what we call ZFRP, with everything up to this just history.

Now, while most of the Zoofight Universe was, in fact, shaped into a boat by a crocodile with octopus arms, a major chunk was not, notably, not the Zoofights parts. Many fans, ZF Corp members, and some of their tech and such were all dropped into a different universe, the universe I call the ZFRP Native universe.

ZFRP Native was a universe that, up until 2011, was basically just like Real Life Earth. Its tech advanced just like it does in real life, most locations and people were the same up until 2011, and what strangeness it did have was not well known. For example, it is likely this version of Earth did have wizards and dragons in the medieval era, and under my assumption the Deck put an end to that, but most people thought that history a fiction and myth. Characters native to this universe are likely to be ones who had no exceptional gifts or powers (Fumes) or ones like Octavious, who was in a world where a Manticore was not something you ever expected to see.

When Croctopus was reshaping universes with Gamma's wild powers, ZFRP Universe got pieces from the Zoofights Universe, the Snake Fights Universe, and many others driven into it haphazardly. This would lead to a lot of unusual situations, but mostly it meant that a lot of things carried over and yet didn't make much sense at first. People in charge of maintaining time like Jumpropeman and Dialga were scrambling to make sense of it, but this lead to a strange period of either 2 years or 20, depending on which side of the merger you came from. For some, Zoofights 6 seemed to take place in one year, 2011, while others experienced that period as the 1980s. That's because in ZFRP Native it WAS 2011, but in Zoofights Universe it was meant to be pushing into the 1980s, leading to an incongruous time that people experienced differently, most of those who had been around Zoofights getting the entirety of the 1980s all in one year.

This would happen again in 2012 with the 1990s, but soon time was beginning to smooth out. Universal forces were balancing, but many things were held over from the period were a huge pot of Universes had been haphazardly mixed and nailed together. For a while, for example, people from Snake Fights called snakes "Stretch Lizards", but that was soon eliminated from their vocabulary for the most part. Many had memories of the Zoofights Universe going back to the second or even first cycle, and while history says many of the Zoofights Tournaments happened, many people don't know about them and their effects aren't quite present.

ZFRP began in 2011, but it wasn't quite our universe yet. This period of unstable time had to settle, and notably, 2012 had a lot of moments where dead Zoofights were back somehow (and not always by whipping up another batch), so time was still having trouble agreeing with itself on what was meant to exist. The end of Zoofights though meant the universe had time to stabilize, and then, ZFRP Universe was finally and fully created.

THE ZFRP UNIVERSE

The ZFRP Universe is a lot like the Real World, a remnant of it being the base for Croctopus to hammer in parts of other universes. The logic of the universe is the same as the real world, and characters who disobey that often do so through the nature of their creation, development, or origin. It is possible some planets existed in the native universe before it was merged, but definitely not Porphyrion due to its strange Star Festival tradition incongruous with what Earth would have been. Mostly, planets with life on them that couldn't space travel and were too far from Earth probably existed before the merger.

Time is relatively stable here, as are the dimensions. To enter it from another dimension requires and impetus or effort from your side, and while the timeline is not clean by any means, its coherent enough and the past and present are rarely in need of adjustment. Pieces from other times and universes exist in the present, throwing it off its initial course, and the Kobbers are a nexus for it most likely due to containing many of those carried over from the universes Croctopus smashed into this one. Things like magic and advanced tech are now more common but not by any means common or broadly adopted. The history of other universes are also here now, but while Earth might have islands it didn't before (Kuwahawi might be one of them) it does have the same general set-up as Real Life. Magic and monsters are still esoteric, and many in the world even dismiss the Kobber's existence since it still seems incongruous with what their native universe developed them to think.

Is this a clean explanation? By no means. But it helps explain things why people find Kobbers weird when some of them are supposedly long-living immortals, why the world isn't as Zoofighty was it once was, and how certain things exist. Being built off the back of a world like ours allows many gaps to be filled in, and no one will be saying things like "Australia doesn't exist" that way. I can't think of many ways to explain the many discrepancies, and I know some people like to think 2011 was just a 1980s themed year (which then contradicts explicit Zoofights/ZFRP statements and certain backstories). You can probably poke holes in my theories too, hence the period of universal instability from 2011/2012 to try and fix the issues that had no other hope.

But now, ever since 2013, we live in a universe that SHOULD make sense. Our history is strange, but the universe has precise rules, just it also had a bunch of strange people, places, and things brought over that can exploit them or know how to work inside them. This should ensure that we are in a world that makes sense to us as readers, is easy to write in, but prevents anything that could upset or undo the works of others.

There are certainly points where it can be edited, and while I mentioned Fumes and Octavious as possibly from ZFRP Native, its probably not a good exercise to determine who is and isn't (except explicit cases like Widow Maker who are from the Zoofights Universe), especially since it might lead to someone saying "but of course ZFRP Native Earth always had fire giants!" What's important is those fire giants are in the current ZFRP Universe, and unless there is some consensus on this idea as a whole, this is more a way to understand our world, and not a point to reference directly in canon as an explanation.

Feel free to tell me what you think! Maybe we can work something out that we can integrate in some way! And sorry for spending so long on figuring out the original Zoofights when mostly the 2011 and onwards is the important part!

A Flower on a Grave

Morning was a good time to be a gravedigger. Well, technically he was a groundskeeper, but Morris learned over a decade ago that people grieving the dead didn't want to be corrected on terminology. He was also technically working security for the cemetery, or at least as much security as a 61 year old man could provide at night. He'd certainly put all three titles on his resume if he ever had a hope of leaving the place, but there was always the chance the sprightly young 36 year old who keeps the place during the day might want to spend his whole life at the cemetery, so it was good to consider what Morris could do next. The fantasies of where his life could go if he only wasn't an old gravedigger made the nights easier to work, but when the sun begins to crest over the field of stone tablets, it always felt like a burden was coming off his back. One last look around the place to make sure his younger counterpart couldn't pin any problems on him, and Morris would have a good day of sleeping and nothing much else.

Had this been any other day, the worst he'd find is some wind had decided to move leaves and flowers around since he last walked by. He was hardly even paying attention as he passed by the graves, but he soon found his vision demanded by a brilliant white figure, illuminated by the creeping sun to add a touch of brightness to the still dim morning. It was a woman, sitting on the grass and leaning against a grave as still as the corpses in the ground she sat on. She was unnaturally white; Morris was sure you could bleach a set of bones and still not match her pale skin, and for a moment he feared that either someone came here to die or was already dead and pulled back out to be put on display. During the summer there had been a string of grave robberies that he got a lot of flak for not catching, but after he caught a brief glimpse of that girl in purple robes, they never had trouble again.

Had she come back and just left behind the body this time? It was a thought, but the next one in his mind was realizing that the woman wasn't wearing anything but a soft grin... a grin he made sure to focus all his attention on as he approached her, doing his best to put on an intimidating huff when he was actually too confused and creeped out to get genuinely angry.

He considers calling out to her, but remembering the lady in purple, he cautiously approaches her before calling out much too loudly for his own tastes, "Hey lady! What the hell are you doing here?"

The woman's eyes opened, but it was clear she hadn't been asleep, and neither did the yell seem to give her a start. She looked at him, and his eyes were now caught by two wide blue pools of blue as clean and cool as a glacier's ice. One another face they might harshly stand out, but compared to her complexion, they were subdued. She was not glowing, but the light liked to play off her skin, although her hair was a more earthy white, with a million bouncing puffs in it that reminded Morris of popcorn. When she turned to look at him, he could see green vines beneath her hair, and the groundskeeper couldn't remember the last time he saw a woman wearing a flower vine in her hair outside of a bridal catalogue. Not that he could seem to find what the vines attached to amidst that poofy mane of white.

The woman broke eye contact as she considered the question, before turning back to him and saying in an airy yet energetic voice, "Sitting, mostly."

The response did not reassure Morris, but it at least gave him a line of thought. She must be on drugs. "Don't get smart with me!" He said, putting on his best crotchety old man voice in his arsenal, "I've seen those Living Dead movies! You've come to dance on the gravestones naked, haven't you?"

She didn't consider this question nearly so long, "I hadn't thought of doing that. Do you want me to?"

The question pierced his façade, his discomfort immediately showing but receiving no answering expression from the girl. "Hell no! 'Sides, I don't even know how old you are. A young girl shouldn't be out here in... well, she shouldn't be out here anyway! It's a graveyard... cemetery really, we ain't connected to no church..." Morris had to remind himself not to pedantic, maybe this girl was mourning in her own strange way... with a lot of drugs involved. He had to admit he mourned his wife with more than a few bottles of alcohol now and again. "How old ARE you?" he asked, hoping to hear a high number to at least make himself feel less skeevy for standing above this young woman in her birthday suit.

The girl looked upwards, staring at the rising sun as if it held the answers. "My age? I had never thought to count the days. Perhaps its something I should start doing now..."

Morris was growing frustrated with the situation, "Why the hell aren't you wearing any clothes?" He demanded, although he knew he wasn't going to get a meaningful answer.

"I didn't know I was supposed to wear any." She said plainly, smiling at her answer innocently. Morris put his face in his hand and rubbed his temples. Craning his head back and exhaling deeply, he realized that soon there would likely be people coming, including his replacement. Pulling off his jacket, he realized how cold it truly was out, and when he looked down at the girl again, he had to ask.

"Aren't you freezing?"

"I'm positively chilled, but don't worry on my account." she replied simply, turning her face away from his now, "You should keep that on. You need the insulation."

"You kidding me? You're gonna put this jacket on now. I can't have you naked in my cemetery, and I certainly can't have you naked and dead, neither."

"But what about yourself?" she said, her voice finally cracking as it showed genuine concern for a man who had only hassled her since they met.

He was caught off-guard again... especially since he had plenty of padding on besides the top jacket. He figured he knew the root of the problem though, "It'll make me feel better for you to wear it. 'Sides, it'll warm my heart, and that will keep my warm enough!" He said, feeling a bit hokey after saying it, but he found old age also was quickly gaining him some freedom to say silly things like that.

The girl abandoned any attempt at argument at least, standing up and wrapping her body in the jacket. "Pull it down a little, so it covers most a ya..." the gravedigger said, trying his best not to explicitly say she should cover all her private parts. He let out a sigh of relief when she stood up and seemed content in the jacket.

"Is this good?"

"Perfect, now... you can't be lingering 'round a cemetery, so... go on. Head on home. You can keep the jacket I guess, ragged old thing anyway. Looking for an excuse to replace it really..."

"I don't have a home." She said simply, but when she saw how these words pierced him, she immediately injected concern in her voice again, "I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?"

"This whole time I thought you were some yuppie who got strung out and ended up here... didn't think for a second you were homeless." Morris turned away from the girl, rubbing the back of his head until he grumbled at himself for treating her the way he did. He nearly leaped when he felt the girl's hand on his elbow.

"Don't worry on my account. There was no way you could know."

Morris was thankful she disarmed the moment, but feeling her cold hand was enough to give him another line of thought, "Well... it ain't much, but my shift is almost over, and I've got a little shack near here with some hot chocolate bubbling just waiting for me. I should at least send you off with that, and who knows? Maybe the day will warm up and you won't need my jacket! ...We'd... we'd find you something else to wear of course."

The girl nodded, "I would gladly keep you company." It was a strange way to accept the invitation, but Morris was glad to quickly herd the girl away from the graves, trying not to push her along but always finding her able to speed up when it was clear he wanted her to. When they reached the shack, Morris swiftly filled up a mug of chocolate for her and bolted back to catch his daytime replacement, doing his best to act non-chalant.

"Hey, where's that beat up old rag you always wear?" Daniel asked. The younger gravedigger often joked about Morris's jacket, even offering to buy Morris a new one on occasion... an opportunity the old man might jump on sometime soon.

"Caught on a branch last night, got a hole big enough to bury a body in now. Gonna patch it up and hope it still fits." The lie came easily, and although he couldn't hide his discomfort at the eventful morning, Daniel didn't seem to be too good at reading people.

"I swear, Morris, you'd wear that thing in two halves if it was split down the middle!" Daniel laughed, and Morris laughed to be polite, and after the necessary transition of keys, information, and workplace humor that was only funny while at work, Morris headed back to the shack, only realizing now he left the girl alone with all his worldly possessions.

He threw the door open with more force than was necessary, looking around the shack as if he expected a tornado had gone through it... only to find the only thing out of place was the woman he had invited into it, with a mug of hot chocolate in her hands that wasn't missing a single drop. "You didn't drink any of it? Just warming your hands, huh?"

"No, I wasn't sure if I should. I was waiting to drink it with you." To say she said it with a smile was redundant; most of what she said was said while smiling, save when concern was on the agenda. There was a bit of a lift in her voice though, and he finally allowed his unease to defuse as he threw himself in a wooden chair across from hers, grabbing his hot chocolate and wasting no time pouring it down his throat. The girl finally lifted her mug, touching the edges of it with her lips and trying to drink it, but Morris could tell something was up.

"Too hot for ya?"

"No, it's fine," she said, doing her best not to flinch as she poured it down her throat, her long white eyelashes flapping repeatedly as she tries to keep it down.

"Let's let it cool then," Morris said, setting the mug aside and finding the girl more than obliging to mirror the action.

Speaking of "the girl"...

"You got a name?" Morris asked.

She considered this question for a minute, like someone being forced to recall where they were three months previous, but she came up with a diplomatic non-answer to break the quiet, "What would you like to call me?"

Morris laughed. The girl seemed pleased to hear the laughter, beginning to laugh as well before he waved a hand to stop her, "That's not how this works! Are you telling me you don't have a name? No... that's silly. Fine, if you won't share it, what should I call you at least?"

She began to think again, one hand busying itself in her long fluffy hair, pulling at the vines and revealing the blossoms on it looked exactly like her hair... but some dots don't get connected even by the most astute minds, and Morris was drowsy and baffled by the predicament. He focused instead on her reply, "You can call me Gypsum if you like."

"Gypsum's not a name! Give me something I can call a lady."

"I'm sorry, I'll think of a better one... is Gypsy acceptable?"

Morris winced at that name, "Maybe it was once, wouldn't like to call you that though. You need a proper girls name... Gysel. That's kind of like you were going for, right?"

The girl perked up at the name, "That is a marvelous name! Thank you for it!"

Morris couldn't help but blush, "Come on now, it ain't that creative. It is a pretty name though, I'll give you that."

"Not half as good as your name, I'm sure," Gysel said, nestling herself in the chair as if she was shuffling on her new name.

"Eh... Morris has got me this far. Too late to toss it out."

"I think it's a lovely name, Morris." Gysel said, Morris only able to resist the blush of receiving a compliment from a lady by disbelieving the compliment entirely.

"Alright Gysel," the name already seemed a decent fit in his eyes, "What's your story? If you ain't got a place to stay, there's better places then the corner of a gravestone to go to."

"I'd rather not burden you with my story," she said, not showing even an iota of sadness as she said it, "I'd rather hear about you."

"No no no... we're talking you. I've been at this place over 25 years, but you're the new person here." Morris's voice lowered as he leaned in, Gysel leaning in as well to better hear, "If it's something... bad, you can tell me. We don't gotta call police, or we can if you want. I don't need more details than you want to share."

Gysel places a hand on Morris's shoulder, another upgrade to her smile adding to her next words, "Your concern is very noble. I am glad to have a man like you looking out for me, but I am not hurt or in trouble."

"But something is off, ain't it?"

"No. I am sorry I can't give you a better picture, I just don't know the details myself." Morris pulled back from Gysel's hand now, sitting up in his chair to consider her again.

"You are a queer little girl... you sure you aren't on something?" he said, quirking an eyebrow.

Gysel sat back, looking down as she said, "Well I am on your chair."

That broke Morris. He begins to guffaw, Gysel trying to join in a mutual laugh but finding her small contribution overwhelmed by the old man's booming laughter. "Alright, alright! That's too clever for you to be strung out on something, so I'll leave you to that business. You know, you remind me of those Kobber people a bit. The ones that came to Vegas a few years back?"

"What's a Kobber?" Gysel asks, daring the hot chocolate again, or at least putting it close enough to her lips to make her seem like she's imbibing a bit of it.

"Surprised you didn't hear of them! I guess that's fair though, I didn't believe they were real until they started burying some of them here. Some people complained they were causing trouble or bringing trouble or whatever, but for me, just had to make the plots bigger or smaller and the rest didn't bother me none. I heard it drove some other gravedigger across town mad though."

"They... brought trouble?" Gysel's expression had taken a downturn. She wasn't angry or sad, but it seemed as if the concept was foreign to her and her brain was working overtime to understand it.

Morris waved his hand dismissively at that idea, "Rumors and hogwash, mostly. This part of Vegas at least never got scorched, or attacked by monsters, or whatever nonsense that bird on the TV said happened this week. The Kobbers... well, they're the good guys. They help people, but when you stop the bad guys, you can see the bad guys better I guess. They can't hide under rocks anymore."

"Hmm..." Gysel was pensive now, her mug sitting on her lap and reminding Morris to stand up and grab her a decent pair of pants and a belt she could tie to make it fit her right. "That's what I want to do."

"What's that?" Morris said, popping out of a bureau with the pair he deemed "least masculine" and thus fit for Gysel.

"Help. I want to make others look better. It sounds like the Kobbers need that, so people don't say they bring trouble anymore."

Morris nodded at the sentiment, even if he wasn't sure it was a wise or well-thought up idea. "Well you're a bit late to meet 'em. They left for a tropical paradise I heard, probably to get away from it all."

"Then I'll go there." Gysel said simply, only to be a little confused when Morris laughed, although she instinctively joined in without understanding why they were laughing again.

"It ain't that easy, sadly! You'd need to pay the plane fare, and that's no easy feat! You didn't even come here in clothes, you'd need a lot more to get out to K...Kiwihawaii or whatever it's called."

"I have nowhere to go, but Kiwihawaii sounds like a place I can do marvelous work."

"...You've got me in a pickle here. I hate to tell a kid not to chase their dream, but you just aren't cut for it right now-"

"Then will you teach me to be?" she asked.

"Ehh... not sure what I can do..."

"I can help here, until I'm cut for Kiwihawaii. Although I can stay here as long as you like of course. I wouldn't mind being here forever."

Morris suddenly recalled a young man in his thirties who thought the same thing and was now here thirty years later. He'd heard Daniel say similar things during his first two years of work here as well. Looking down at Gysel, her face full of optimism and a heart full of help, he couldn't condemn turn her away. Even if he couldn't get her to an island, he'd give her the means to leave this cemetery...

"I won't need you that long. If you want work though, I don't think we can really hire you... but... maybe if I pretend you're my daughter, we can work the same shift. They wouldn't care about a constant "bring your daughter to work day" I hope. You pull your weight, you get some of my pay, and we can get you in some nice clothes first."

"These clothes are very nice!" Gysel said, standing up now that she had the pants tied properly to herself... A brown tattered jacket that was too big yet still didn't close properly, a pair of old workpants hooked on her hipbones and threatening to become a pile on the floor any moment, and a belt that was really just a long cloth strap given a fancier name and a buckle.

"We'll get you something nicer. You can pick it, and before you go saying something like 'But you'd pick it better!', I pick for you to pick it because that's the best pick!"

"You got me there," Gysel smirked, Morris unsure if he had really won or if she let him win.

"Not sure if you're the right age to be my biological daughter... and it would make more sense to adopt you. I'm pretty sure you're no kid now, but I bet you can fool most into thinking you're sixteen at least. Do adopted kids get the last name or not though..."

"A last name? What is yours?"

"Gaye. Morris Gaye. Guess that'd make you Gysel Gaye, not much a ring to it..."

Gysel perked up as an idea reached her head and blurted itself out, "Or Nosegay!"

"...Nose...gay?"

Gysel adjusted herself to be more neutral, "It's the name for a small bouquet of sweetly-scented flowers. I might be overstepping my boundaries to choose such a name... but it makes an excellent pair with your name, without taking it or outdoing it."

Morris rubbed his chin, the sound of scratching stubble the only noise in the shack for a moment, "Not sure it doesn't outdo it... though I can at least keep pretending I'm Marvin Gaye's brother with my name. Never heard a girl... or guy, with your last name."

"I'm sorry, I should have chosen something less unique-"

"Keep it. Before we get another debate and you end up named Calcium or some other absurd name."

"That is wise," Gysel said. Morris wasn't a man used to compliments from anyone but his late wife, especially with Gysel handing them out like free samples at the grocery store. It would take some getting used to... but he didn't realize how much he was going to miss it.

It had just become February, and although he only had a few months left with her, he soon realized how much he wished he could have made her his daughter. Someone to talk to, dote on, teach and work with. She was always eager to please and perform, not afraid to get her hands dirty even when Morris himself balked at the task. She even had a way with visitors to the cemetery, much more consoling than the old gravedigger who had been hardened by his own losses. If Morris hadn't resolved himself to send her to the Kobbers, he'd have probably kept her the rest of his life.

For the months ahead though, Morris went from just trying to get her in a good enough shape to leave, to counting the days until he'd be forced to send her on her way.

Many people come to the cemetery to leave flowers for the departed, but to Morris, Gysel felt like a flower left on a grave just for him.