sleepwalker dreamtalker

“Oh, still coming, huh?” Sergei saw the spirit hovering after him. Maybe this guy wasn’t as much of a square as he’d originally thought.

“We can hit Gluggery like you suggest. Maybe a couple of bloody mary’s. Then what?” It was a playful challenge. No malicious intent at all. He wanted to test him, see what kind of shenanigans a guy like this would wanna get up to. Sergei could always use a couple of pals outside of the Brotherhood. Sometimes it was refreshing to get up to a little trouble without your life being on the line for once.

Rei couldn’t quite figure this guy out. But he seemed like an interesting sort. Rei could tell as soon as he’d fallen through him that he wasn’t quite...how was the polite way to note it? Alive? Yeah. Of all the accidental falling-through-people he’d done in his life, he could now pretty much tell the difference from the feeling whether the victim of his falls was alive or...undead? Not having much ‘life’ in himself, being a spirit and all, Rei decided that maybe that was something these two would bond over, if nothing else.

Aw. Now she felt kinda bad for getting mad at this… Huh. What was this kid? He looked weird. “It’s not a picture,” she replied, turning back to her failed masterpiece. “It’s magic. Have you never seen a sigil before?” That was odd. Even outside of covens and witch communities, sigils were pretty easy to spot. The specifics were personal, each witch with their own style, but the general idea was obvious. Weird lines, circles, the whole shebang. 

Joly laughed aloud at the color critique, tossing the paintcan between her hands. “It is really neon, huh? I wonder how many times it’ll get spotted and removed before they figure out that I’m just gonna keep doin’ em.” Campus security would be far better off if they had security tapes to catch her in the act, and they’d also be better off with some stronger firewalls on their system. It hadn’t taken her even five minutes to turn the feed around McMillan to black. Most the people inside the dorm didn’t care - who was gonna turn down magical help?

“No, no, come back! If you’ve never seen a sigil before…” She trailed off, grabbing one of her phones and checking on the camera status. “Help me find a spot for this one’s replacement, and I’ll let you watch!” The phone was slipped back into a pocket, and her gaze returned to the tall weirdo. She stuck out a paint-stained hand, a bright grin on her face. “I’m Joly. What’s your name?”

He looked up in surprise. Rei was used to pissing people off, so it was quite a nice change to hear someone actually not sound pissed off? Huh.

“I’m...Rei. I...thank you. I haven’t seen a - what did you call it? Sigil? - before. It’s pretty interesting though. I’m gonna guess it has some kind of magical properties? It’s not just your regular bit of street art, am I right?”

He wasn’t entirely sure if Joly could hear him, as her brow furrowed when he spoke. He often forgot that his spirit form did not really allow him to hold much volume in his voice, and people often struggled to hear. 

But once he had finished speaking, the witch seemed to glow with excitement. She took out one of her phones (how many of those things did she have?!) and started walking in an obviously specific direction. Rei hovered next to her, aware that he needed to keep a somewhat human-like pace. 

The End of Yesterday by Delia Mihai

Wow, what a square. The on campus bar? This guy was even more boring than Sergei had first suspected. He shook his head and smirked, amused. He kept babbling on and as he stepped through the door to leave the basement, Sergei’s eyebrow arched sharply.

“My… tip… what?” Slang in any other language than Russian always eluded him. “Listen. My name is Sergei, and if you don’t have to follow me if you don’t want to. Don’t miss your bedtime for me, мышка.”

“Drink. What do you like to dri- never mind. I can see you’re not interested, kechi.”

Rei could see he’d pissed off the guy; it was quite normal for him to do so, what with his incessant babbling and affinity for half-shifting into non-human forms. This guy seemed like a right warugaki, but there was also something interesting about him.

“Oh, just wrong place wrong time.” Sergei relaxed. This guy sniveled like he owed Papa money. He wondered if he’d come from a rough neighborhood or something to be so afraid of someone after just doing the ghost equivalent of bumping into them. He wondered how long the brothers would laugh at him if they’d heard Sergei had squared up to fight a ghost.

“Yeah. You can show me something better to do tonight. I don’t have to work tonight and I don’t want to waste it.”

He jerked his head towards his shoulder as a sign for the spirit to follow him and started shuffling out of the aisle. Yeah, they were strangers; but Sergei wasn’t really afraid of ghosts. One had never given him a reason to be. He’d pissed them off before, sure; but a ghost had never really hurt him.

“Well? Got any ideas…?” he paused, gesturing forward towards the spirit with one hand and waiting for a name.

“Ah. Sure. Sorry. I forget other people exist in the conscious plane sometimes...”

Rei’s new companion looked at him suspiciously. Goddamnit, Rei. Stop talking spirit gibberish. This guy seemed like he could take anyone on in a fight, but also kinda like he’d cower away if shit got too real. Rei could feel a similarity between them - they both worked better in the night. 

“Geoff’s?” he asked, somewhat dryly. He could already tell this guy was a regular. It was always full, no matter the time, but there was always a corner you could duck into to be alone and mull over life and the days events. 

Rei wasn’t much of a drinker himself, to be honest. It’s not like he really needed the nourishment. But he guessed it wouldn’t hurt to have a beer or something with this guy. Plus, it was getting towards the general sleeping time of most students, and he needed some sort of energy boost to keep ahead to get rid of all the nightmares before dawn. It was exhausting work.

​First rule of urban magic: All buildings needed protection. Sigils were super easy, once you had training - Joly was lucky they were her mother’s favorite subject. She could basically draw sigils in her sleep. But! She wasn’t asleep now. The winter sun was shining, the world was busy, she’d had three shots of espresso, and the can of neon green spray paint in her hand was as wide awake as she was. Dormancy was traded for activity, the tip of Joly’s tongue caught between her teeth as she drew an purposeful set of symbols across the old brick.

The sound of footsteps close by made her jump, dragging a line off course. Ugh! Joly could almost see the magic fizzle into the air. Didn’t people know better than to disrupt a witch at work? She huffed, spinning on her heel to face the interruption, a white knuckled grip remaining on the can of paint.

“Can I help you?” she asked, foot tapping one-two quick. “I was nearly done with that.”

Shit. He’d done it again. Rei cursed at himself once again for not getting the human-shift quite right. He was always too transparent or too loud or too...not human-looking. This time it was the shoes. He’d tried so hard today to even put shoes on. Damn these stupid things.

“Ah...nope. Was just...going for a walk, y’know. Happened to stumble upon your little picture. Pretty cool, albeit a li’l...uh...neon.”

Rei could see the frustration not budging from the graffiti artists’ face. He always seemed to rub people up the wrong way.

“Not that there’s anything bad with neon green! Uh...quite cool, really. I just...uh...” he fumbled with the unironed white tshirt he seemed to own a tonne of. “I can’t shift into colours so everything bright is...so cool.”

He realised his incessant muttering was probably only adding fuel to the fire, at this point. 

Sergei had never been one for movies; or, at least, he wasn’t super into them. There was a screening tonight, however, for Lost in Translation starring Bill Murray. A certain, excitable, ghoulish acquaintance of his had wholeheartedly recommended it to him. He had nothing- and no one, better to do tonight, so the film screening had become his evening plans. Maybe it would give him a little more to talk about with her.

This film was certainly no summer blockbuster. He could appreciate it for what it was, but personally he was starting to get a little bored. Only a small handful of students were there in the basement of the Meadows house watching the screening. He figured there would be no fuss if he got up and left early. He stood up and pulled his jacket over his shoulders. That’s when it hit him.

Sergei had not felt such an icy chill in many, many years. It struck through his bones and vanished as quickly as it’d hit him. He felt his stomach lurch and exclaimed his discomfort. His head whipped around to see what the fuck had just happened and, as instinct would have it, immediately took a defensive stance in the tightly spaced row of theater seats.

That’s when his eyes fell on the wispy spirit that had just fallen through the ceiling. Another ghost? He seemed to be pissing off a lot of them lately. First his neighbor and now whatever he’d done to offend this new guy. Yikes.

“What… what the fuck?” Sergei’s eyes furrowed as he looked at the other. “Can I help you with something?” His voice took a slightly irritable tone and sarcasm was evident on his words.

“Ack! Sorry! Sorry!”

As Rei tried to reassemble himself into a form another could see clearly, he noticed the mix of confused and angry emotions displayed on the guy’s face who he’d just so rudely fallen through.

“I’m...I didn’t mean to. I totally spaced out on the roof and forgot to focus on where I was...I just...fell through the roof. You uh...just happened to be in an unfortunately convenient place for my absent-minded falling. Sorry, sorry...”

Rei tried to gather himself into a somewhat less-rambley mess, focusing hard on staying in his human-like form and on the ground. He’d already raised this guy’s temper, he didn’t want to freak him out further by levitating in his path. He didn’t even have a clue what this guy was. For all Rei knew, this person could dissolve him in a matter of seconds. The icy stare he was receiving seemed to imply he could do just that.

“If it makes you feel any better...I would’ve left that film too. Way too overhyped.” He stuttered. He couldn’t really tell what this person was feeling in reaction to him. Perhaps the incessant apologies weren’t working? He really needed to work on not falling through people more.