ic Fine Spirits [IC]

[Gizmo]

"I think Dan would mostly deal with growing his beard and complaining about 'kids today' if it were up to him," Kimber laughed in response, nose crinkling slightly as she did. "But if it's not haunted cabins, it's wendigo spirits possessing unsuspecting folks or some Igneous radicals stirring up trouble on the surface, eh? You know the drill." Taking a moment to look out into the street, the apparition noted a few passersby adjusting coats and scarves and immediately slapped her palm into her forehead. "Oh jams, did you want to go back inside? I sometimes forget what it's like to be cold, which is kinda ironic but what else is it gonna do to me, right?"

[trollthumper]

Eric glimpsed at his watch - his break was running a bit long, and the sooner he was back at the cafe, the better. "Yeah, we can probably go inside," he said. He led Kimber back to the Black Petal and took a seat at one of the tables. He still had a few minutes left on his break, so it might be best to use them in an area where the autumn winds weren't picking up. Before hitting the table, he picked up a drink, the kind of thing he was allowed to comp during his breaks. He came back with a pumpkin latte and handed it off to Kimber. He was kind of curious what she'd do with it - his little message had resulted in her spilling the first one, so he'd never got the chance to see her take a sip. Most of the ghosts he'd encountered either drew the spiritual reflection out of the food and feasted on it, or only gained sustenance from it when it was spilled or destroyed. He'd never seen one actually take a latte and drink its physical substance.

"So Daniel's a backwoods explorer of the strange," he said. "Not bad. We've got a few of those down here - some of them are kinda fettered to the places of the strange, but you've got the occasional roamer."

[Gizmo]

"'Backwoods explorer of the strange', hee! You're really good at making things sound cool," Kimber grinned, taking a moment to make sure she was floating atop the cafe chair convincingly. She'd gotten a fair amount of practice with that already, sitting in class, but it was tough when you couldn't actually feel the seat underneath you. With that assured, the ghost seemed fairly enthralled by the coffee cup's raised lid and the steam rising from the small opening in it. After a beat, she shot Eric a sheepish look, lowering her voice to a whisper. "Er... I can't actually drink it. Obviously! I just thought it'd look weird if I was sitting without a drink." Lowering her chin closer to the beverage, she gave it a contemplative stare. "I don't know if I can actually do anything with it, honestly. Guess I didn't really plan that out..."

[trollthumper]

"Hmm..." Eric also studied the latte. "Well, during the Day of the Dead, offerings of fresh food are left for ghosts - candied pumpkin, sugar skulls, fresh-baked bread. The meals aren't destroyed, but just left out to the air. The ghosts draw the spiritual reflection of the food out, and feast that way. Mind you, there are cases where you can draw on the substance by destroying the item - I know a ritual that allows that - but it might look silly just dumping the drink after buying it."

He went back to the counter and bought another pumpkin latte - this one out of pocket - and sat across from Kimber, his eyes fixed on his own cup. "I've done it this way a few times before," he said. "Just think about the processes that went into creating the coffee, and how they involved life being plucked from life. The coffee cherries pulled off the stalks, the seeds removed, roasted, and crushed before being boiled into espresso. The sugar taken from the cane and mixed with the juice wrung from pumpkins pulled from the vine. The milk taken from the udder and pasteurized to kill bacteria..."

Sure enough, a spectral reflection began to form around Eric's cup, like an after image of the drink. He reached for it, and the physical cup remained -- but a spectral cup sat right next to it. He lifted the invisible cup to his hand and took a sip -- the flavor was there, but muted, like the espresso had been boiled three times and they'd used skim milk instead of whole. But the essence of the drink was still there, in some sense. He placed it back into the physical cup, and took a sip of both - the two halves formed a whole, the latte he was used to. He looked to Kimber. "You try."

[Gizmo]

Kimber's eyes went wide as she watched Eric draw out the spiritual essence of his drink, slapping her hands down toward the table in surprise then quickly compensating when they naturally passed right through the surface unhindered. "Oh. My. Goodness. You can do that?!" she whispered urgently, clearly struggling to contain her body language to avoid drawing undue attention. "There truly needs to be some sort of ghost orientation package that explains this stuff. Okay. Deep breaths," the phantom continued at high speed, forcing herself to slow down to concentrate. "Well, not actually breathing, but... Focus! Plucking life, plucking life, plucking life..." Rubbing her temples and setting her jaw with determination, Kimber squinted at the latte for several long beats, muttering her mantra under her breath until a faint shimmering energy gradually lit about the cup. Clapping her hands together, the girl let out a sound of delight. "Eeeee~!"

[trollthumper]

Eric smiled as he watched Kimber summon up the spectral latte. "Took me a while to realize it could be done, too," he said. "Fortunately, I ran into some ghosts in Austin who were willing to explain the process." He took a sip of his own latte, but kept his eyes on the clock - he only had a few minutes left before he had to go back on shift, but there was a lot he wanted to explain to Kimber. "There's not really a good trainee course for ghosts. Most people who find themselves stuck on this side of the Great Beyond and aware of their state help out others, but that's the most formal program there is. Let's see... you've obviously learned how to pass, you have a basic understanding of telekinesis, and you're not doing badly on the tangible/intangible bit. Are you having trouble with electronic devices? Some ghosts throw up jamming signatures during periods of upset."

[Gizmo]

"Ooh, yeah, TVs and things go all staticy when I'm invisible," Kimber confirmed without looking up as she gingerly reached for the latte's spirit duplicate, pulling the ethereal beverage out of its solid shell. "One of my friends at school is sort of a hologram, so I try not to do it too much! I already fried one of the school's computers when I floated through it; so embarrassing." Holding the glowing cup in both hands, the phantom took a few moments to appreciate actually being able to pick something up for once. "The bigger problem is more that if I'm not paying attention I kinda freeze everything around me. Luckily my super rad alien roomie doesn't mind!" Finally taking a tentative sip of the coffee, her sea green eyes lit up and she took a second, larger gulp. "Oh my goodness, it totally, totally tastes like pumpkin! How do you even do that?!"

[trollthumper]

"Only by harvesting the right pumpkins under the light of the new moon," joked Eric. In truth, Eric was honestly surprised by how vivid the summoning was this time; usually the lattes had notes of pumpkin or hints of spice, but this time it was like being hit in the face with a pumpkin pie. Then again, he wasn't tasting it through buds that probably hadn't tasted anything for over a decade. He was also trying to recover from Kimber just reeling off "my friend is a hologram" and "super rad alien roomie" like they were completely casual. Life at Claremont likely prepared one for these things - and after all, his circle of friends included a practicing witch, a revenant, a teenager who channeled eldritch horrors, a former inhabitant of Avalon, a man who literally painted magic, and a young man who occasionally turned into a bear. Not to mention an angel.

"Cold spots can be a tricky problem for ghosts," he said, "and are usually one of the number one signs among mundanes that there's spectral activity afoot. I'd say focus on imagery like a burning fireplace and the wick of a burning candle - heat and flame, gathered in one central place. It should draw the chill inwards and help to negate it."

[Gizmo]

Kimber swallowed her second mouthful of latte awkwardly at the mention of heat and flame, in a manner that surely would have induced choked coughing had she actually needed to breathe. "Don'like fire much," she mumbled indistinctly as she regained a degree of her composure, holding the glowing reflection of the real cup in both hands and staring down at it. A faint, frost-bitten tint of blue began to slowly spread over the girl's cheeks before set her jaw and forcibly rallied, her corporeal disguise reasserting itself along with her good cheer. "Anyway, it's not hard to control as long as I don't forget!" she assured Eric earnestly.

[trollthumper]

Eric wanted to smack himself about the forehead, but realized that might have been a bit conspicuous. Of course - Kimber had frozen to death. It's only natural that her ectoplasmic body would have taken that cold within herself as a circumstance. Ghosts who died in violent accidents had an aptitude for telekinesis, and ghosts who burned to death knew how to summon phantom flame. "My bad," he said. "It sounds like you've got a good control mechanism in place already. As long as you watch it, it should be okay." He took a look at his watch. "Dang. I'm skirting it on the break. If you've got anything else you wanna talk about, I'm gonna be at Lantern Hill tonight. Come on by if you wanna learn the lay of the necropolis."

[Gizmo]

"Oh!" Kimber exclaimed, straightening in her seat with immediate concern when Eric mentioned the quickly approaching end of his break. "Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to take up all your time," she apologized profusely, ducking her head guiltily. Looking at he clock herself, the poltergeist bit her lower lip in consideration. "Well... I'm kinda breaking curfew already," she admitted, reflexively hiding a bit behind her latte, "but it's not like I'll get in any more trouble if I'm out later! Plus I'd be learning, so that's practically school-related!"

[trollthumper]

8:05 PM

The workday was long done, and Eric had wrapped up his shift. After time for dinner and a shower, he was in costume and ready to hit the streets. Nick Cimitiere left the apartment the way he usually did, remaining low on the fire escape and creeping his way down to the street. After that, it was a simple matter of relying on the shadows to cloak him as he made his way to the storage facility that housed the Pale Horse on its first floor. The car started smoothly - though he noted that it would need some gas by the end of the night - and he made his way to the gates of the Lantern Hill Cemetery for another night of checking on the denizens.

Nick's usual routine was somewhat affected by the fact that he was trying to balance a bright pink box of pastries under his arm for most of the journey, his little round of offerings to the local ghosts - and possibly to Kimber as well. He took a seat on the hood of the car, cracked open the latest issue of the Clarion, and waited for the young ghost to show up.

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox sat cross-legged in the middle of the graveyard, arms resting on each knee, head tilted slightly back as she relaxed in the lotus position. The hem of her coat slid gently along the grass in the breeze even as her body levitated a good couple of feet above it.

Her mystic senses were reaching out across the graveyard, looking for any stray magic flying around. As her magic was fairly grounded in life and the natural world, the undead were not generally going to show up on her senses... but any necromancer activity should do, especially around the time of the year the curtain to the afterlife was thinnest.

<Find anything?>

The little raccoon scurried to and fro, sniffing in the air with her nose, and yet not with her nose. As a witch's familiar, Hayley was able to smell magic just as well as any food which had been brought into the house for her. <No. Just dirt. And horrible muzzy smells.>

Then, all of a sudden, both of them pivoted to the gates as a familiar trace of magic approached. <Cookie man!> proclaimed the raccoon, bounding off towards the car as it pulled up. Equinox just shook her head and smiled, coming out of the lotus to float towards the gates and her friend.

[trollthumper]

Nick heard the scratching of claws, and lowered his paper. The brown and black missile, however, was very good at blending into the ground at night, so he didn't so much see Hayley as feel her impact with his leg at top speed. In a shot, the raccoon was up his leg and using his belt as a perch while it rooted around his jacket, eventually latching onto a bag full of offerings for the dead. Before she could tear into them, however, she looked up at Nick, as if pleading.

"Not all of them," he said. He took the bag out of her paws and pulled out a chocolate croissant - the Black Petal, like most other cafes, split unsold pastries at the end of the day between the staff, and Nick often made use of them as offerings. "But I think this one will do."

Nick watched as the croissant quickly vanished from this plane of existence, then looked up the path to see Equinox floating his way. "Fancy running into you here," he said. "Let me guess - keeping watch to make sure nothing like last year happens?"

[Gizmo]

While the mystic practitioners conversed, a spectral, pale blue form rose slowly from the ground over which Equinox had been floating moments before. It's humanoid form was obscured by a tattered reaper's cloak that flapped eerily in a wind which was not truly present as it freed itself from the soil of the graveyard. It's hood concealed the phantom's features except for two faint points of icy light where eye might have been, reflecting a deathly chill while the figured slowly coasted toward the warm, living bodies.

Once she'd gotten a little closer, Kimber pushed back her hood to free her long, wild hair and waved excitedly to Nick over the shoulder of the dark-haired woman's coat. A domino mask made a token effort to disguise the poltergeist's features, but combined with the bold 'G' emblazoned on her chest under the cloak it effectively robbed her of any lingering terror, particularly given the broad grin wrinkling a nose dotted with beryl freckles. Despite still being undetectable to ordinary senses, she still used a loud, stage whisper when she cupped her hands around her mouth to ask, "Am I interrupting anything?"

[trollthumper]

Nick saw Kimber coming long before he heard her. Mind you, he didn't exactly know it was Kimber until she threw her hood back, revealing enough of the ghost he'd seen earlier to know it was her, domino mask be damned. He turned to her by reflex, saying, "You're not interrupting anything."

Nick then realized that he wasn't entirely sure Equinox could see the dead unless they were manifest - and while she likely knew he wasn't talking to thin air, it would probably be good to give her an idea what the hell was going on. "I ran into a ghost earlier," he said, being keen not to use Kimber's name - he felt that if Kimber wanted to introduce herself to Equinox, she'd do so. "She's a free roamer, and she's been getting the feel of the city under her feet. Thought I'd show her the local necropolis."

[Gizmo]

"Not just a ghost!" Kimber chirped cheerfully as she faded into sight while floating around to that she wasn't directly behind Equinox any longer. Pulling her hood back up with both hands she affected a comically dramatic tone. "Ghost Girl! Dun-dun-dah!" Letting the hood drop back down to her back she tugged at the front of her top to better display the letter upon it. "See? I've got a 'G' and everything! Isn't it rad?!" Grinning from translucent ear to ear, she clasped her hands in front of her for a moment before almost immediately being distracted by the furry creature perched on Nick's belt. "Oh my goodness, what a cutie!" the phantom teen gushed, crouching slightly even as she tipped forward in the air to get a better look at the raccoon, floating almost horizontally above the graveyard's dirt.

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox just raised an eyebrow, remarkably unfazed by the ghost appearing behind her. Worse, and more creepy things had come out of thin air behind her.

"Nice to meet you, Ghost Girl," she said, inclining her head in greeting as she slowly pivoted in the air to face both other participants in the conversation, a few leaves blown up as she did so. Meanwhile, Hayley was having more problem with the concept of a ghost. She sniffed the air a few times, and frowned at not finding a scent. She batted a couple of paws at the ghost, but was perplexed at them phasing through. <Buh?>

"Stop going through the ghost, furball, it's rude," muttered Siobhan absently. "Anyway, are you new to the city?"

[Gizmo]

Kimber giggled brightly as the raccoon's paw passed right through her crinkled nose none the worse for wear. "It's okay, it probably does seem pretty weird!" she admitted, telekinetically scratching the confused familiar behind the ears without moving either hand. "I'm not much good for climbing on," the phantom addressed the diminutive creature, "but you go through me if you like. Her fur pattern is so rad, what's her name?" She straightened to turn fully to Equinox, remembering that she'd been asked a question herself and answering before the levitating woman could respond. "Oh, yes! I'm originally from Thunder Bay! That's in Canada?" she supplied helpfully. "And, I mean, 'originally' in the sense that I definitely froze to death there, but I'm pretty sure I lived there, too? I'm here now, anyway!"

[Dr Archeville]

A ghostly howl pierced the night, a howl Equinox and Nick were both fairly familiar with. Ghost Girl had heard howls similar to it before, though this was perhaps more primal than any she'd heard before. The source of it soon became apparent: up on one of the cemeteries' numerous hills stood a tall, thin figure, illuminated from behind by one of the old iron street lights so the only feature that could be made out were the twin orbs of green flame in his eyes. The hound beside him, a massive St. Bernard or Mastiff, had similarly glowing red eyes, which were baring down on Ghost Girl.

Or, more accurately, on Hayley, who was right in front of/in Ghost Girl.

Raccoooooon!!!

Mutt loped down the hill, in his naturally intangible state, making a beeline for the furry familiar he enjoyed chasing so much -- for all he was a creature of Guinee, he was also still a dog -- but the small woodland creature was too nimble, and hoped out of the way. Mutt continued into Kimber, and crashed into her, just as a regular dog would a living, breathing girl!

Ghosty Girly!

Mutt quickly lost interest in Hayley, and instead focused on licking Kimber's face.

[Gizmo]

Kimber looked up, blinking interestedly at the sound of the howl, any inherent intimidation in the cry largely lost on her as she tried to make out the pair of figures on the hill. Her squinting inspection was cut off abruptly by the massive mastiff barreling down on her and then slamming quite unexpectedly into her torso. "Oh my jaaahaha!" she cried in surprise, arms pinwheeling animatedly as she was knocked from her floating position to the cemetery ground, the high-pitched shriek dissolving into laughter as a rough, canine tongue set out her face. "Ahaha - pbbth - haha, hello puppy, haha!" Reflexively throwing her arms around he dog's thick neck, she found it effectively solid to her touch, scratching the beast happily about the scruff of his neck.

[trollthumper]

"Looks like Mutt is up and about tonight," Nick said, pulling a Milk Bone - one of the few Hayley hadn't touched - out of his jacket and offering it to the spectral hound. He then took Hayley into his arms and handed her off to Equinox, before she did any permanent damage to his midsection. "This is Mutt, Dead Head's dog. Well, he came from Legba - one of the loa, the gods of vodoun - but he's close to his master. And takes very kindly to ghosts." He turned to Kimber. "Do you want to see the necropolis proper?"

As they passed through the cemetery gates, Equinox felt what she usually did when she visited Lantern Hill - the presence of death, the slight chill of the grave. Then again, that was what most felt in a graveyard at night. To Nick and Ghost Girl, however, the graveyard was bustling with activity. Ghosts of soldiers from wars throughout the centuries were off to the west, trading stories from the field. A bustle of invisible activity came from the family crypts to the north, departed clans reunited on the other side. The place was packed with the dead, dating back to the founding of Freedom City - and, in the case of a few socializing spirits in tribal garb, before.

"What do you think?" asked Nick.

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox just took the bemused raccoon into her arms and shushed it with a curt hiss and a couple of mental commands. The small furball just clambered up to perch atop her shoulder. She wasn't at all sure when her life had started to progress to the point where necromancers, ghosts and zombie Scooby Doo didn't even faze her anymore.

She just settled for standing back and letting Nick show Ghost Girl the spirits mingling in the graveyard. Academically, she knew they were there. But here and now, she was incapable of communing with the spirit world without lengthy and involved rituals, simply due to lacking the knack.

[Dr Archeville]

As soon as they passed through the cemetery's gates, the fight atop the hill waved at the trio. "Hey, heads up, I'll be right down!"

The eerie silhouetted figure stretched his arms up high, then brought them back down to the sides of his head. With a sickening POP that could be heard even from the bottom of the hill, he tore off his own head, and held it up high with both hands, the green flames in his eyes flaring as he did so. He tossed his head back and forth between his hands a moment, and around his body a few times -- nowhere near as graceful as a Harlem Globetrotter, but he had been practicing -- before rolling it down the hill towards the trio like a bowling ball (which caused Mutt to leap off Kimber and run towards, then around, the rolling head)...

... only to appear, suddenly and silently (thanks to the teleportation trick he had worked out, with help from Nick & Phantom) behind them, just in time to stop his errant cranium with one foot. As he bent down to pick it up, Equinox and Nick saw he was wearing a new outfit: faded brown-orange loafers, brown slacks, and a green sweater vest over a black dress shirt, all very dirty and threadbare. Around his neck -- which was in the process of reconnecting with his head -- was a length of hemp rope, tied into a noose.

"Didn't know y'all were coming over," he said to the two mages as he brushed his wild hair out of his face, "else I would've cha- oh, hey!" He met Ghost Girl with open arms, "I thought I sensed someone new!"

[Gizmo]

Kimber floated back upright as the lumbering beast jumped off of her, still laughing uncontrollably with a strip of her pale blue hair about as wide as her wrist sticking straight up from Mutt's eager greeting. She hurried after Nick and Equinox, feet passing easily through a few upturned roots and fallen branches, but she was quickly distracted by the third figure's antics as he came down the hill. Between her supernatural night vision and the desiccated head's glowing eyes, she was able to make out the routine pretty well, bringing on a new peal of a giggling.

She lost sight of him for a moment and yelped loudly when he abruptly appeared from behind the small group. Whirling about as the zombie reattached his cranium, she clapped delightedly. "Hahaha, that was just outrageous, I love it!" she gushed, bobbing up and down excitedly. "You must be Dead Head, right? I'm Ghost Girl! Is that your dog? He's so big! And he could touch me! How do you do that with your head?! And how'd the rest of you get down here so quickly?!" The teenage phantasm was talking almost too quickly to understand, floating about as absently as her train of thought as she tried to simultaneously interrogate the new arrival and take in all of the necropolis' activity at once.