kaisou | [semi-open] i'm not the same ghost i was before

i. undertown shopping spree
[If there's one thing Nick hates about his 'arrangement' with Charon, it's the cost invoked from purchasing spell components. Every week, he takes a trip to Undertown to see what the marketplace has to offer, and every week, what little money he made taking regular cases gets drained into keeping himself alive.

Of course, there were other things that were disagreeable about Charon, but as far as Nick was concerned, if Charon had really wanted to help him, he should have given him some coupons.

This is how Nick finds himself arguing with a stand owner, gesturing angrily at his wares.]

You've gotta be fucking kidding me. I paid half as much for lindworm blood last week. You know there's nothing stopping me from taking my business to someone else's stand, right?

[The stand owner, a greasy little man twirling a keyring full of trinkets in his fingers, leers at him. The stand is host to a dozen frayed woven baskets, both on the ground and hanging from the stand itself. Most of them contain live animals. There's salamanders, tiny lindworms, regular crabs, beetles, and more. The baskets bulge from the sheer volume of the creatures writhing in there, threatening to burst open.]

Can you really afford to search out another person who sells lindworm blood who can guarantee its quality? High quality means high prices. Don't come running to me if your little exorcism goes wrong.

[Nick scowls, shoving his hands into his pockets.]

Extorting your customers won't get you very far, you know.

[An idea comes to mind. He leans over to the nearest person and says in a loud whisper:]

Awful. Just terrible, y'know? It's almost as if he wants the world to be overrun with vengeful and violent ghosts.

ii. void denny's
[At some point or another, Nick will find himself at Void Denny's. Not that he meant to go there, you just...sort of end up there. A semi-permanent confused expression seems to have been etched onto his face as he sits at one of the bar seats, staring in bewilderment at the menu.

A large, bird-like creature approaches him for his order. He starts, abruptly turning to look up at it.]

Uh--I'll have the--uh--just some pancakes.

[The bird jots it down, lets out a squawk, and then turns back towards the kitchen. Nick rubs his forehead, resting his elbow against the counter.]

I've been down here hundreds of times and I didn't know that Undertown had a Denny's.

[Doesn't help that it's not marked on a map.]

So...you come here often?

Edited 2022-12-29 19:59 (UTC)

[The imp sitting there with a junior order of pancakes (he doesn't really eat much at his new size, after all) and a cup of coffee, as well as a tea pot sitting nearby on the counter, answers.]

Oh yeah, all the time! I mean...since I'm an imp there's not a lot of options when I want to eat out, so this is pretty nice.

[Pretty much any shop or restaurant he wants to go to should probably be in Undertown, after all.]

[Nick tilts his head to the side, raising an eyebrow. The rest of his expression remains static.]

You know, they sell glamor potions and spells if you want to leave Undertown. Might cost you a pretty penny, though.

[A pause.]

Wouldn't normal people just see you as a really short guy, anyways?

They do? I'll have to look into that.

And they do not. Apparently between the size and the tail, I don't register as a person at all. They see me as a possum.

[Nick and Jane had arrived at the manor just a few hours ago and had gotten to work straight away. After Nick had a slight mishap with the vacuum cleaner that resulted in a large amount of dust exploding out of the bag, he had resigned himself to cleaning the old-fashioned way--with a duster, a wet rag, and air freshener. Of course, it doesn't take very long for them to figure out something's up.

It's the third time that Nick has come in and out of the living room, and he's decided to take a break in the foyer. He wipes his forehead, eyebrows furrowing as he casts his gaze upwards.]

So...like...is it just me, or does the furniture in this house not want to be cleaned?

[They do make an odd pair, the two of them - the bubbly young Englishwoman and the grouchy private investigator - but Jane is sure that she could not hope for a truer friend, and she had never been anything but a true friend in return. Thus, when help had needed on this particular venture, she had been all too pleased to give it.

After the mishap with the vacuum cleaner, she is firm in directing him away from it while she takes up the handling of any equipment with a power cord. It seems like they're making good progress, she thinks, until she starts to get a... strange feeling.

A feeling that is brought into focus when she hears Nick's exasperated statement.]

You know... I wasn't going to mention it. [Because it seemed he was already in poor enough humour.] But I do believe you're right. [Jane plants one hand on her hip, frowning.] Something funny is going on.

[He tosses the rag he's holding onto a nearby console. It's probably making the surface dirtier, but...it's fine. They have more than enough cleaning supplies, after all.]

We're not cleaning any more of this until we figure out what's going on. We've only got so many hours to burn, after all....

[A pause. He glances back towards the living room and the elaborate decor inside. In the time that he's spent talking to Jane, the furniture has once again decided to reshuffle itself.]

Maybe it's a ghost. Or maybe this is a Beauty and the Beast situation, where all the furniture is alive, cursed to face the horrors of existence.

[He sounds serious about the latter thing. Surely he's joking.]

[She almost makes a face at him, a 'really, Nick' kind of look, but then she remembers how much strange stuff she's seen in the last few months and her expression shifts into a kind of pinched grimace for a moment instead. Ghosts, then... Yeah, maybe. It would not be the oddest thing she's experienced.

Instead, she has something else to comment on.]

... You haven't watched Beauty and the Beast in a while, have you?

[Unless all the furniture was people first, there's probably nothing to worry about on that count. Still, she does give a wary look around at everything. It has moved again.]

How is it moving around without us noticing? I didn't even hear anything.

Could be that it's muffling the sound somehow. Or it's tricking our perception of reality. Or, the simpler explanation could be that it's really, really fast at levitating things around.

[Whatever the case may be...it's cause for concern. He frowns, scratching at the stubble on his chin.]

Well, ghost or not, we'll need to figure out where it is and how to draw it out. Any ideas?

[She scrunches her nose up. There is an order in which those things are alarming and she thinks she prefers the idea that whatever they are dealing with is just very good at moving things around without being seen.

But... ah, the question. She presses her forefinger to her lower lip.]

I'm an artist, not an medium. [Jane points out with a thoughtful pout. True, but she's still thinking about it!] What do ghosts usually want? Some kind of unfinished business stuff, right?

[He'd been tracking this meddlesome poltergeist for days. Several apartment buildings had been reporting strange occurrences--nails being placed out in the hallway for people to step on, water being splashed onto the stairs and frozen in the hopes of causing them to slip and fall, heavy objects being thrown about, and other harmful 'pranks'. Every time Nick thought he was closing in on it, something would happen--the ghost would slip away, Nick would get a brick thrown at his face...the list goes on.

Well, his streak of bad luck would end here. He was confident that the ghost was returning to the local park every night, and if he were to locate and contain it to its original haunting grounds, it would be unable to escape his grasp.

Of course, it never occurred to him that there might be another ghost in the area.]

Edited 2022-12-29 20:20 (UTC)

[ This time of day was Danny's time to work on his powers. He was out of school, homework was done and his parents wouldn't be home until late. Tonight he was working at the edge of the park, working on speeding up how fast he could bring up his shields. He floats at the edge of the park, bobbing gently a few feet above the ground as he throws up a hand and summons a flat panel of translucent green energy.

It doesn't occur to him to worry about anyone seeing him. With the perception of the people in Kaisou back to normal, he figured they'd just think he was a rare bird or something. ]

[Nick catches a glimpse of the green flicker of energy out of the corner of his eye--then does a double take. He stares at the glow, then begins to briskly walk towards it, careful not to break into a full sprint. As he peers out from behind a nearby tree, he spots a small figure hovering above the ground.]

What the--

[It's a ghost. His senses confirm it. All that work tracking down that poltergeist, and now it's just here in the park, readily visible to him?

No time to waste. He cautiously puts his hand in his pocket, ready to use the spell components he bought earlier today.]

Stop right there!

[ In this life, Danny had barely even met other ghosts. He'd never met ghost hunters or paranormal detectives. Technically he was aware that they were a possibility. He'd read the biography of his past self, and it had briefly mentioned some of the problems that that Danny had experienced. But as he'd already learned, that account had left out quite a few important details, and large parts of it still didn't feel real to him.

He doesn't make the connection at first, as he blinks down at the new arrival with confusion. ]

Uh, stop what?

Don't act coy with me. You know perfectly well what you've done. Your trail of torment and "pranks" end here!

[Maybe it's his increased frustration with this stupid poltergeist that leads to this case of mistaken identity. Maybe it's the fact that he still hasn't exorcised any spirits for a few days and is well aware that his possession timer is ticking down. Whatever the case is, Nick seems unusually eager to get things over with.]

Now, we can do this either the easy way, or the hard way. What'll it be?

[ Danny was just completely bewildered by all of this. Was this about the puns?]

What? But I haven't done anything!

[Danny had never once experienced anything like this before. Not in this life. But the Danny he'd been before had been all too familiar with this situation. And just as he starts to feel a growing sense of indignation, the memories slam into him. The accusations, the distrust. Being hunted by the government and worse, his parents.

Danny emerges from the memory regain with horror and a sincere desire to hide somewhere very far away until he could process this. If that was even possible. How did you deal with knowing something like that? He knew his parents from that life had cared about him.... so how? Why?

But he didn't have time to process this, because he still had this guy threatening to do who knows what. Danny's expression takes on an air of panic as he rises up into the air]

Wait! Hold on a moment! What are you even trying to do?

Edited 2023-01-06 17:07 (UTC)

Right. Sure you haven't.

[Nick let out a snort, but...this guy, despite all his stammering and panic, still isn't flying away or going invisible. That strikes him as odd--in all his previous encounters, the poltergeist simply slipped away without so much as a laugh.]

What does it look like? I need to send you back to the spirit realm. Nothing personal--it's just business.

[And his contract price. Even now, he can hear the whispers of Charon intruding in on his mind.]

So, as I said--you gonna come quietly?

[Danny had no idea what was going on anymore.]

The Spirit Realm? Why? [His voice breaks a little in stress at the question. He cautiously starts to float a little higher as he asks the question.]

Is this a kidnapping? Er, a ghostnapping? Is that something that the Spirit Realm does now?

[It's been a hot minute since Nick has set foot on a college campus, and even longer since he's even looked at a frat house. He stands awkwardly out in front of the building, squinting at the windows, trying to make out figures and movement.]

And we're absolutely sure she's still in there?

[He's not entirely sure how he ended up with this teenager accompanying him, but it's hard to argue against someone with a Gun in their possession.]

With a frat as loud and rowdy as this, I doubt she's getting any sleep. Though, I guess the best way to observe and study something is to live like them.

Edited 2023-01-11 16:15 (UTC)

[ Despite being the half of this duo closest to college aged, Ryoko looks distinctly uncomfortable and out of place here on campus. I would love to tell you it's because she has some sensible concerns about this whole thing but I think it goes without saying that's not quite it. ]

It's the best lead that we have. If it runs completely dry, at least we can be confident we've investigated as thoroughly as we can.

[ Not that Ryoko at ALL wants to investigate this place. They haven't even gone inside yet and the noise is already giving her a headache. ]

And if nothing else, they might be able to give us some clues on how to proceed.

[Nick nods, bracing himself to enter the dorm.]

Right. Just be cool, and, uh...try not to wave around that gun unless absolutely necessary, okay?

[Little does he know that they're doomed from the start.

From within, the two can hear what sounds to be raucous laughter, loud, booming dance music. The stench of alcohol and old cat litter lingers by the entrance. Nick wrinkles his nose, then rings the doorbell. The noise from inside dies down. Footsteps can be heard approaching the door, and when the door swings open, a scruffy, lanky dudebro greets them.]

'Sup, dudes? You here to join the party?

[ Be cool he says to the girl somehow radiating more intense cop energy than the actual cop here. But she just huffs and gives a sharp nod. ]

Fine. I won't cause any trouble if they don't.

[ ... Or so she says, but she can't keep her expression from turning increasingly sour the more time they spend here. The noise is bad enough but the reek in the air is worse – she's full on scowling by the time the door gets answered and thoroughly at the end of her patience.

Oh boy. ]

Not exactly. [ Not on your life she almost says, but manages to catch her tongue in time. ] We're here to pick up your guest. Assuming she's still here.

[The frat bro frowns, raising an eyebrow and leaning up against the doorframe. Perhaps in an attempt to intimate them with his lanky stature? Nick is certain that, under normal circumstances, he'd be able to just bowl right through him, if not for the werecat thing.]

Umm, I don't know what you're talkin' about, dude.

[Nick's face remains stoic. From his pocket, he pulls out a picture and flashes it to the frat bro.]

Researcher. Daughter of a very important person who is worried about her.

[Here, the werecat takes on defensive body language--crossing his arms and sneering with distaste. Elsewhere in the house, there's a commotion. Nick and Ryoko can probably spot heads poking out from the hallway and various doors, eyes shining eerily in the dim houselights.

Reinforcements, maybe? Nick took a small, inadvertent step back.]

You the fuzz?

[A low, rumbling growl.]

[ While Nick takes a step back Ryoko, perhaps unwisely, stands her ground. Though she should know better than to pick a fight right now, especially when they're so outnumbered, being here has her in a foul enough mood that she kind of can't help herself. In a way, her sour attitude is a bit of an asset – she manages an utterly withering look, like she's just been asked a truly braindead question, and sets her a fist on her hip with a stance that could not more clearly telegraph fight me. ]

I'm sixteen. [ And absolutely not remotely up to snuff, physically speaking, for any sort of policing work. She's pretty sure that goes without saying. ] And I'd sooner live on the streets than work with the cops for a living.

[ N–no offense, Nick. Presumably. ]

We're just here to make sure there's no trouble where there shouldn't be.

[semi-open] i'm not the same ghost i was before

throughout january, OTA

II. Void Denny's

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paranormal slacktivity [closed to jane]

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ghost huntin' [closed to danny]

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....and the bag's in the river [closed to ryoko]

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sorry for the huge delay LOL

some crimes can NEVER be forgiven

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