and on this casket's back sits a little lonely ghost [open to multiple]

[deadeyedchild]

He can feel Tim leaving him, waking up, and he tries to follow. He doesn't know how. This is all new territory, following someone from one plane of existence to another. He tries to visualize himself holding onto Tim's hand. It's embarrassing but it works.

He thinks it works.

He feels different.

The world feels familiar - not the empty void he'd been inhabiting, but the world, solid and real, tangible. He's here. He's back.

He still feels like he's looking at it through glass, though. He looks down at his hands, which are - sort of there, at least, he knows they're there. He can almost see them. Except not quite.

"Oh come on," he mutters, and no sound comes out. He knows he's spoken but he can't quite hear it. He tries to lay a hand on his own arm and he feels a buzz of static as his fingers pass through himself. Oh, god.

He's a fucking ghost.

This is not quite what he had in mind. He knows it's not what Tim had in mind.

It's better than nothing.

He takes a moment to try and figure out where he is. He finds that he can move, not exactly by walking, but sort of drifting along the ground. He accidentally passes through someone, who shivers violently and looks thoroughly spooked for a few seconds. He is unable to get anyone's attention, or interact with anything.

He has to get to Tim somehow, but he can't really take a train, can he? He's not even sure what part of the city he's in.

So he rambles. After a while he finds it's easier to just move through walls than to try to go about things the normal way. Shortly after that revelation he starts picking up the very bizarre skill of moving up through a building, in and out of offices and apartments.

Travel is easy, but communication is nearly impossible.

He searches, having nothing else he can do, for someone he knows.


[[Jay is wandering all over kingdom come today so if you want your character to have a weird ghost encounter, pick a location and we'll see what happens. It's going to be super hard to notice him if you don't have any kind of telepathic/other helpful powers, but that's okay, we can do short shenanigan threads if you're into that. A quick little ghost encounter! Hey, maybe Jay can overhear some awkward dialogue or embarrassing secrets. Maybe he'll accidentally figure out how to knock something off a counter and then go nuts trying to do it again. The sky is the limit. Have fun!]]

UPDATE: as often happens with this kind of thing we have Jay on a pretty tight schedule now. The Balladeer meets him around lunchtime, and then the line of Rush/Iman - Daniel - Greta gets set into motion sometime after. Greta will be taking Jay back to his building in the late afternoon. If you want to meet him when he's out and about it'll now have to be prior to lunch or snuck in between lunch and his adventure through the former ROMAC apartments. There is still plenty of room in there for nonsense, it just won't be able to lead to Jay actually getting home. SHENANIGANS!

Comments

[deadeyedchild]

In some ways the park is more difficult to navigate than buildings. Buildings seem structured for the way he moves, like he can reverberate himself off the walls. The park is open, largely flat. There's no momentum. Maybe that's why you never heard of a haunted park.

He's fussing his way down a path when suddenly, weirdly, he's intensely aware of somewhat looking at him. It takes him a moment to look back.

That guy. THAT GUY.

He has no idea what his name is, and he's - well, Jay's pretty sure it's the same guy. The one from the dream where Tim was all wrong. He knew what was going on in his head, somehow. And he knew Johnny. And Johnny knows Tim.

"Hey!" he struggles to say, still generating no sound. He tries to wave his arms and it feels like nothing. Movement isn't going to help him here. "Can you see me?" Neither is talking. Give him a break, he's frustrated here.

[singthesong]

The Balladeer doesn't react to anything Jay does. He just glances from one side of the path to the other again, frowning. Is that...that isn't Daniel. Daniel's song is many things since his ascension, but "creepy" is not one of them.

"You okay?"

The voice makes him start, and he turns back to his companion, who's watching him with concern. "Uh, yeah." Nodding slowly, he darts another quick glance over in Jay's direction, seeing only trees and open sky. "I'm fine, sorry." Could it be Bee's friend? He's supposed to be trapped in dreams, though, isn't he? It could be unrelated. It's hard to tell when he's only heard Jay through the fog of unconsciousness, but there's definitely something going on over there.

[deadeyedchild]

Nooo no no. Shit, Jay has to do something. This guy is picking up on something, but it's not enough.

He floats himself closer and attempts to sit beside them but that doesn't work too well. He can't really sit on things. He flails vaguely and feels another faint buzz of static as his arm pass right through the guy's chest. Oh. Uh.

That feels horrendously rude. He pulls it back tentatively, watching to see his reaction.

[singthesong]

The Balladeer tenses as Jay get closer, straightening his shoulders and leaning almost imperceptibly away from the ghost as he tries to settle at his side.

It's not nearly far enough to be out of flailing range. He jerks back against the wall as Jay's arm passes through his body, clutching at his chest with one hand. His friend startles a little as well before placing a hand on his shoulder and peering at his face with concern. "Y'don't really seem okay. You need a doctor or something? I know a clinic..."

"Um." The Balladeer shudders, then works up a smile. "Well, maybe I am coming down with something." That's a common symptom, right, chills? He can't think that he's ever been sick before.

He's not sick now, and he knows it perfectly well. All he can do is shoot a sharp look at the empty air on his left as he rises to his feet. "Sorry, Vince. I think I might just head home for the day." Or maybe he'll just go stand in a corner somewhere and try to tell off this ghost that's...wait, did someone just ghost-tackle him? Honestly.

[deadeyedchild]

Okay, well. That's something. Jay frowns, or thinks about frowning, as the man stands up, making his excuses to the other. Is he going to go somewhere private and try to solve the mystery Jay is clumsily presenting? Or is he really going home?

Even if he does try to solve the mystery, or ask questions or something, Jay's not sure how to answer.

[singthesong]

The Balladeer says his goodbyes, not making a huge rush. Whatever's going on here, it's annoying that it had to intrude on his lunch like that.

Still, if something's going to happen, it's going to happen to him when he's alone. These people aren't equipped to deal with the dead. Even he isn't used to dealing with ghosts, if that's what it is, but...well, he can handle it. He'll make do.

He doesn't ask the entity to follow him. He just walks the path home for a while, then veers off sharply into the Ramble, away from the noise of the crowd. Once he's somewhere nearly silent, standing on a rocky hill in the thick of the trees, he stops and turns towards where he can still hear the sound. It's louder now, still not quite a song - there's static. Why is it always static? It sets his hair on end to hear just that alone, and he braces himself, looking half-ready for a confrontation.

"Do you want something?"

[deadeyedchild]

Following people is a pain in the ass, Jay is quickly learning, but he manages, trailing after the guy as close as he can, clinging to the hope that he's being led somewhere. When the man finally stops and turns to his general direction, and speaks to him, he lets out a soft, desperately relieved laugh - before again having to face that issue of now what.

What can he do? He can't answer in the normal way. He casts around for something to work with. He tries to pick up a rock but he can't touch that anymore than he can touch a person.

Well, at least they can kind of feel that. So far that's all he has.

Reluctantly but choosing not to waste anymore time, not wanting to lose this guy's interest, he reaches out and gingerly dips his fingers through his hand.

[singthesong]

The Balladeer shifts uneasily as the silence stretches on. It's quiet, but still plenty loud; he knows it's still there. He's only just starting to consider leaving when his hand suddenly goes ice-cold. "Geez!" he snaps, snatching it away. "Could you not do that?"

A second later it occurs to him that maybe they can't not do it. "Can't you become visible?" he asks, this time sounding a little more concerned even as he rubs his affected hand gingerly with the other. The song's frightening, but Johnny's was too and he's since come to realize that maybe Johnny isn't a terrible person in and of himself. And even though he dreamed this before...he hasn't since. It hasn't latched onto him the way that house did. Maybe he should try a little harder this time.

"Are you - oh, wait." He thinks a moment, then taps first his left shoulder and then his right. "Here for yes, and here for no. Okay?" Without waiting for any kind of response, he charges forward. "Are you Jay?"

[deadeyedchild]

Oh thank fuck for this guy. If Jay had knees, at least in the sense that they were holding him up, they'd probably buckle from relief right now. He reaches out quickly, too eager now to be nervous, and bats at the man's left shoulder as directed. This isn't much but it's something, it's acknowledgment, for the first time in a while.

[singthesong]

The Balladeer grits his teeth, fighting the urge to step back as the chill jolts through his shoulder.

"Okay," he says, a little breathlessly. "O-kay. I thought you said you were stuck in dreams?" That's not a yes-or-no question, he knows, and he starts getting out his phone and fiddling with it as he continues. "Sorry about all that. I wasn't really myself in that one...I'm not sure how many of us were. Could you back up a little? You're getting loud."

He still doesn't react to any noise Jay actually makes, but he doesn't seem inclined to explain himself. "I'll let Bee know you're out. She was looking for you earlier."

[deadeyedchild]

Jay falters a little as the guy starts barreling off in a direction he can't follow. To be fair he's not sure what else the guy can ask, it's not like they know each other really, it's a miracle enough that he even remembers who Jay is.

And what the fuck is getting loud supposed to mean? He drifts awkwardly back a few paces, feeling vaguely disgruntled. "I thought you couldn't hear me," he blurts, but there's still no sound. That's not what he means, somehow. Whatever.

Who the fuck is Bee?! Jay feels more lost than ever, but he can't do anything but wait for more cues.

[singthesong]

A brief flurry of texting ensues. After a moment, the Balladeer makes a small surprised sound. "Oh, sorry. I thought you two actually knew each other."

He himself doesn't know who on earth Tim is. It's lucky Jay used to live in Bee's building, too, because the Balladeer's never actually been there. "Okay. She says she knows Tim, and she wants you to head back to your building - she lives there too." Can she still see his patterns when he's invisible? Probably not...but there's still the cold spots. "Sound good?"

[deadeyedchild]

Jay watches him text with mounting impatience, waiting for some kind of payoff. This is not going at all in the direction he thought it would, though to be fair, when has anything in his entire life. Remember when Alex gave you two bags of tapes he'd planned to burn, told you never to mention it, and then attacked you and left you sprawled in the grass? No, you don't. False memories and inexplicable turns of events, that's all your life is now.

Hearing that Bee knows Tim - okay, that's better. That's something. Maybe she was that tiny girl who was with him in that weird dream? She'd acted like she knew him.

Well you're in luck, Bee, he wants to get to his building too. But he has no idea where it fucking is. His sense of direction was never very good to begin with and now it's completely off.

He wrestles for a moment with what to do. He can't really ask questions. He doesn't want to signal no because that would be too misleading. But this guy doesn't seem entirely equipped to help him beyond that.

Sighing silently, he struggles forward and reaches to tap his left shoulder again. He'll figure it out. He'll find his way home, and at least someone knows he's here - and she can tell Tim that, presumably.

[singthesong]

The Balladeer suppresses a shiver at the touch. "Great! Okay..." He taps out a quick acknowledgement to Bee, then puts his phone away. See, that wasn't so bad! He helped out, and while the song is still creepy, he doesn't feel any headaches or worse coming on.

"Right, well." It feels strange to just send Jay off alone. He could follow him by sound if he really cared to, but this isn't his business. Bee's obviously got some kind of plan for this - his hesitation has nothing to do with how utterly freaky Jay is. The Balladeer grins a little sheepishly, looking at a spot a little to the left of where Jay actually is. "Good luck?"

[deadeyedchild]

Sure, yeah, okay buddy. Jay can't really do anything to acknowledge that, outside of touch him again, and he's pretty sure he doesn't like that. No one seems to.

So he starts to float away, wandering back the approximate way they'd come, still no damn idea where he is or where to go. At least Tim'll know he's back now. That's something. He picks a direction and heads in it.