#underteika

She catches them in the middle of the graveyard. As she approaches, her boots crunch against the snow.

"Hey."

Her tone is laden with concern and suspicion.

She simply asks them:

"You work here?"

drunken confessions meme | accepting

"Uh...Heh, listen, headstoner," he pulls out his phone, snorting into his beer.

It had been the first and last (not really) time she'd seen them. However, this version of the ghost she saw back at that mansion was different. For one, they were not a spirit that she had to banish. Still, the memory of that time is fresh in her mind. She's been close to death so many times before. You know, being a shaman such as herself, it came with the job. Mediumship, shamanism, summoner, they were all connected to the world between life and death and she walked that very same path.

Anyway, all that to say: She wasn't avoiding them at all. She just wasn't sure how to approach someone that---well, from what she saw, was supposed to be dead. Maybe being dragged to this place saved their life?

You can never seem to find a happy middle ground between needing less noise and needing more. Too much, you can’t filter out what’s unimportant— it sets your head buzzing like a hive of angry bees. Too little and it’s like you’re playing ball against a wall by yourself in a room with no exit. Both are a torment and the tolerable margin between them is so thin you’re not sure it even exists.

Clearly there’s nothing for it but to test the limits of each extreme. Given how utterly alone you are now (save for your small, loyal pack of creature companions who still come and go as they please), today you’d rather deal with the beehive.

The Dome sounded like as good a place as any when you learned about it. And the band playing today is certainly loud— the overwhelming noise of their powerful rhythms drowns out your thoughts, and you can’t parse even half their lyrics but you feel no pressure to... it’s actually kind of pleasant. In stark contrast to the chaos of those in the seats around you, you’ve settled into your chair with hands folded and eyes closed, enjoying the numbing thuds that rattle your skull…

At least up until you feel a pair of hands on your arm, lightly jostling you back to the present. Your gaze darts sidelong at what you think is a human, relatively young, their mop of violet hair drifting into their eyes little by little in their efforts to get your attention. They’re clearly trying to tell you something, but—

Sal had been caught staring in this stranger's direction, but his focused hadn't been on them, but instead something floating right behind their head.

"Huh...oh, shit! My bad man." Sal also did a little side-step. "I wasn't trying to block your path. I was...distracted. Heh." He raised his hand a little, pointing. "You've got..." Wait, should he say it? No, probably not.

"There's a bee."

Your semi-hiatuses will be noted, Egg!

Of course there had to be portals to the Infinite Realms opening up here. Was America's Most Haunted Town, hot-spot of supernatural activity in the Midwest, not enough? The GZ just had to expand its influence into whatever this place is?

At least the portals weren't just a one way trip. He can work with this. Is familiar with this sort of song and dance, actually, even though he was hoping he really wouldn't have to participate in it again. He wishes he could just find a hole to hide in; that he could let this storm blow over. He technically wasn't the only one capable of dealing with crazy shit like this...

...But these ghosts were coming from the Zone. They were his brand of crazy. He was the only one who knew how to deal with them best. The only one who knew that not all of them actually meant any harm.

Not just that others were out, nor that Yuan had left once again, but the house was never empty.

And yet there was no prick at his senses when he crossed the barrier, and he had known Anda had disappeared before his hand even made it to the door. Pressing a hand flat to the door, there was...Simply nothing. As though he had gone to work earlier that day and come back to a completely different space.

"Ah."

It was normal, typical, to remain when others leave, but this was different. Anda had never left. Anda leaving was...A horrid concept - Yuan, Grey, Rider - all of them were returning to a known. A solidified concept, and they were all safe (to varying degrees). But this was...

No, this was different. This sent a chill down his spine. Not just for himself and his own loneliness (dulled as that loneliness was, and never quite alone as he could ever be), but for Anda's sake. For Anda's present in their own time.

And for what would happen if Anda were to learn something new - unpleasant, experience something horrid and then return, dropped back into this place.

He swallowed, hand pressed against the door. There was no way of knowing how long he had to prepare. Based on the last eclipse, it could be moments. Or it could be years.

...

...

It had, in reality, been little more than 24 hours. There was no guarantee it would be today, but he would be waiting by the platform, focused on the incoming individuals, scanning the crowd with determined features.