Chatting Up the Dead

Who: Lauren and Jesse
When: lunch
Where: school

So it had already been an interesting morning. He'd gotten assaulted, yelled at about the end being nigh, snowed on, rescued by Nic, and had a pop quiz in Latin. It had kept Jesse on his toes, at least, and that was ... what that was. He might sleep well that night, at least, and that was always something to be grateful for, the rare occasions that it happened. Lunch came, and he wasn't hungry, so he dodged around the rush of students toward the cafeteria, in favor of just having a good wander. He settled his headphones over his ears and hit shuffle. It was Zeppelin first, that was possibly a good omen. Humming low to himself, Jesse pushed his glasses up on his nose and rounded a corner in the hallway. Ahh, solitude.

Lauren had come into school late, sort of having difficulty with things considering she wasn't exactly used to having a schedule. It wasn't like she slept, or had an alarm clock to wake her up, or anything of the sort, so, it was just a weeee bit late when she finally managed to stroll into school. Plus, it sucked outside, and while the snow and cold didn't bother her in the slightest, that did nothing for pure visibility problems. When you couldn't see the other side of a narrow street due purely to that much snow blowing in the damn air, it made for a tough time navigating.

Eventually, however, she made it, guided mostly by the street lamps which had kicked on hella early due to just how damn dark it was outside. That and having been in the town for freaking ever. When she walked through the doors and in the side entrance, she looked around and breathed a sigh of relief. Well, at least she'd made it. Maybe if she started trying to find class schedules, she'd be able to figure out what classes she wanted to attend...

Seeing as how the hallway was mostly empty -- and that weird bad-weather dark that seemed to war against the best efforts of the fluorescent bulbs -- Jesse saw the girl as soon as his eyes came back up from the floor. The, er ... ghost. He blinked, as he hadn't seen one in school since Halloween, and that had mostly been flickering. But there she was, real as anything, and looking slightly lost. If the Norm People were treating the actual spirits as badly as some of them were treating everyone else, even if it was in a different manner, she already had his sympathies. Curious and with nothing better to do, really, he walked up toward her, pulling his headphones down. "Hi," he said. It was as good a starter as anything.

It took her a second to recognize the fact that she was being addressed, mostly because she was used to an existence where people around her greeted one another all the bloody time--they were just never addressing her. However, it didn't take long to note that say, everyone else was absent, and on hey! He was looking at her and everything. So she blinked then brightened, the lights above them flickering somewhat. "Hi!" she said, waving--though quickly she recognized that she was waving with her mangled hand and she quickly stopped that and hid it behind her back, as if he might not have caught the whole smooshed thing. "I um...hi!" Yep. That was all she had at the moment.

His eyes widened slightly at the ... whole waving mangled stump thingie, but he didn't look horribly grossed out by it or anything. There was just some blinking. And then a bit of smiling, because she sounded genuinely enthusiastic about her 'hi's. Not many people were psyched to greet him, so that was pretty cool. "Hi," he said again. "You just looked like you really wanted to know where the bathroom was in a foreign-speaking country, and you're the first ... y'know, one of you I've really seen in here. So hence the random sneak-up-and-greet. ... I'm Jesse." And the strangest thing was happening ... he was getting readings off of her. Huh.

"Oh god, did I?" she asked, mortified even if she was still smiling. He wasn't mean yet, so she was happy to keep talking. Plus there was that part where he hadn't screamed and run away. "Thankfully, I don't actually need directions to the bathroom. But cool that I'm the first me you've met. Ghost, I'm assuming, here, right?" she asked, not seeming to take offense at that. It wasn't like two weeks ago she'd be having this conversation at all, so it wasn't his fault he hadn't spoken to a ghost before. Though it did kind of make her want to make a good impression.

"A little yeah," he said with an amiable smile. Most of what he was getting so far -- which was just a little bit muted, with the whole sort-of different planes thing -- were from past lives, seemed like. She'd been a lot of males. "Yeah, ghost, sorry, I don't know the politically correct terminology yet," Jesse told her, tucking his hands in his pockets. "It's like, 'ghost' or 'spirit', which one's better? Or do they call themselves something completely different, and ghost is like a racial slur? Not like most people have had the opportunity to ask until just recently, so it would be easy for us to make a gaffe, as they say. What's your name?"

Lauren looked mildly confused for a moment as she tilted her head to the side while he spoke, but she looked a little amused as well. "I don't think we call ourselves anything special. Ghost, spirit, dearly departed...I prefer 'Lauren', really." she offered, answering his question about the name as well. "What's yours?" she asked. "And are you usually this easy going? Because that's...nice, actually."

"Jesse," he told her again, not minding at all. He'd thrown it in while he was rambling, after all. A habit that his mom constantly reminded him was difficult for people to hear through. It was good to hear that he wasn't going to offend her, though, especially after what Nic had said that morning. "Nice to meet you Lauren. ... and yeah, pretty much," Jesse added with a grin and a single-shoulder shrug. "Just don't see much to get my panties in a wad about most of the time, yeah? Perspective is easier when you're not givin' yourself ulcers." And this? Was really just kinda neat. He was talking to a dead chick.

"Nice to meet you, Jesse." she said, heading closer to an outlet, because her energy was kind of dwindling, so she needed to try and get some more. She knew she could be seen a lot better than heard. "And I suppose it is, most people just don't subscribe to that mentality. Or, at least, in my experience they don't." she admitted.

He watched her kind of move away, then moved to follow, since they weren't done talking or anything. Jesse walked right through the cold spot she left and paused for a second, a weird expression crossing his face. Okay, that was slightly unsettling, but whatever. "It's too bad for people, really," he said, even though her voice seemed to be fading out a little. He wasn't getting a whole lot off of her, mentally, but there were some distinctly seventies-ish scenes in there. "They miss out on a lot. Can I ask you something that might potentially be rude as hell?"

"Sure?" Lauren suggested, sitting down next to a power outlet, and she reached out to lay her god hand over it, starting to attempt to draw energy from it. Which meant her form was slightly less flickery, and her voice was clearer, but the overhead lights suffered a bit. "I reserve the right to ask you why?" she added on there.

Jesse stared at what she was doing, and then up at the lights in the ceiling. ... huh. Well that ... was interesting. "Of course," he said in a momentarily distracted sort of tone. Then refocused on her. Oh look! The memory flashes -- brushing teeth, laughing with friends, walking around in those really hot lined stockings and a dress from the forties in a different body from a past life ... the girl had died young before -- were brighter too. Huh. "Always question the questioner, no other way to do things. But uh ... okay two questions. What are you doing right now, and what's being dead like?" He crouched down where he was to stay on her level, wetting his lips and looking fascinated. "No pressure on an answer, totally up to you."

"Oh!" Lauren said, having expected something way more rude. She didn't know if what he'd asked could be termed as rude, just curious, so she didn't at all take offense. "Well, I'm um...I'm drawing energy?" she told him. "I'm not very good at it yet and if sparks shoot out and I short it out or something, I'm really sorry, so you might wanna move over a little so just in case that does happen, you're not in the line of fire." she advised apologetically. "I didn't know I could do it before, or maybe I couldn't. But if I draw energy, I can talk easier to people. See, people can see me now without problem, but sometimes it's still hard to talk...I can come out a little garbled, or so I think. So, energy." She smiled at him, hoping that had made sense for him. "And being dead is like one of those dreams where you're walking around and no one can see you or hear you. Where everyone's ignoring you entirely? Was I the only one who had those?" She shrugged and gave an apologetic half smile. "It's kinda different now, I guess, because people can see and hear me. But I've been dead a long time now, and it's not been like this. It's been kinda...I don't know. Strange. Like I'm around to witness time pass or change. Now I just want to go to school."

Jesse moved a bit away as she suggested, just in case. No sense in tempting fate, right? He stayed crouched instead of sitting, listening to her with rapt attention. He hadn't tried talking to any of the other ghosts wandering around yet, and this was ... interesting, to say the least. At least she was friendly about it. Maybe she was more approachable because she was in school, who knew. He got another flash or two from her, riding around in the car with the radio on, playing music that was pretty familiar to him but hadn't been fresh for about thirty years. "When did you die?" he asked her, though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

"Nineteen Seventy Four." Lauren answered. "A couple months before graduation, I was kinda mad about it. I thought I'd come back, and finish off. I've had this vague nagging feeling since then that I really wasn't finished yet, so maybe this'll help that." she explained, giving him more information than he'd asked for, but she tended to do that. "I guess that makes me like...fifty one, if we count up all the years I was alive and dead." she added thoughtfully.

Seventy-four. Wow. Jesse wet his lips, just looking at her and trying to imagine that. "Do you feel fifty one?" he asked after a pause, a little quietly. At least the flashes he was getting made sense then. Not a past life, but the one she'd been in before she died. He wondered in a vague way how all that shit worked, who moved on and who became a ghost, and if those were the only two options. But he didn't think those were answers he was likely to get.

Lauren had to think about that before she could give a proper answer, and she hummed lightly as she did so. "I suppose sometimes I do. Sometimes I feel like it, because I suppose I've seen enough, watched time go forward without me. But at the same time, often times I don't, because I was around, yes, but I wasn't participating. So, I haven't gotten to talk to people, I've just been a witness?" she said, hoping that made some sense. "Sorry if that's not a very good answer..."

"No no, it's a perfect answer," Jesse said, still quietly watching her. Until he cleared his throat and blinked for a second. It wasn't really comparable -- seeing how he wasn't dead -- but a lot of the time he felt older than he really was, because of the things he'd seen. Every bit of life he'd gotten from other people that wasn't really his. But the color of experience was in their memories, in the lives they didn't even know they'd lived. "And all you want is to go to school?" he echoed her earlier statement with a little smile. "Most kids here are chomping at the bit to get out. Guess, y'know ... hi, perspective."

"I didn't finish." Lauren said. "I was almost done, and I had a four point oh. I was going to go to school, so I could study music later, but...I just had like two months left, y'know? It just...really bothered me, I suppose. Even if I didn't get to go following my dreams or anything, I still would have liked to have finished that first huge milestone." she tried to explain, knowing it probably sounded weird. "People take things for granted. Things they've lived through, experiences they've had."

It didn't sound weird to Jesse. Few things that people were passionate about sounded weird to him -- as long as they didn't hurt anyone else, anyway -- just because they were passionate about them. And that was something to hold onto. Apparently even when you were dead. "Ain't that the truth," he murmured with a faint chuckle. He plopped down where he was, seeing as how his legs were starting to fall asleep, and hugged his knees, looking at her again. He kind of wanted to tell this ghost-girl what he was. If only to ... have someone listen, he didn't know. But that was probably kind of selfish of him. He didn't know why a dead girl would be any different than anyone else, aside from the fact that she might believe him more readily. "Sorry, it's just ... I dunno, thought-provoking, I guess," he said after the pause, waving a hand.

"I guess the other part of it is just that...yeah, people want to get out of here. Everyone does, it's how it goes. If everyone wanted to stay in high school, then society wouldn't work that well. But they want out of here, because they have things to do, places to go, dreams to chase. I didn't get to do that." Lauren said, still thinking about it, and her tone was thoughtful as well. "I died. So...I didn't get out to go on to bigger and better things. Just...kinda disheartening, long standing things."

"Just watching?" Jesse asked, his eyes still on her. "Or is there ... anything else to do as a spirit? Like is there another world you can shift into, or are you just ... stuck here?" He was terribly curious, in a sad kind of way. She seemed nice and cool enough, he would hate to think she'd been in this fucked up kind of limbo for that long. The seventies were an ass-long time ago, when you really thought about it. She'd died back when his parents were still kids.

"No other world, just here, just hanging out here." she said. "Though, weirdly enough, I guess I can be here-here at a place called Babylon? It was a huge surprise, I totally fell on this really sweet guy. I was lucky he didn't drop me. Because as it turns out, when I'm manifested? This actually matters." she said, and she pointed to the femur jutting our of her thigh. "It doesn't hold me up."

His eyes ticked down the injury he'd only halfway-noticed before, as interested as he'd been in just her flat-out ghostness. A lot of them had stuff like that: injuries. He'd just never really been close before. Jesse let out a low whistle, not seeming disgusted or otherwise put-off by the wound, even if it turned his stomach a little, just for the gross factor. "Does it hurt?" he asked, looking back up at Lauren's face. Which was probably a stupid question, but he didn't see any way around asking it. It just had to be asked.

She shook her head. "No, it doesn't hurt. My hand doesn't either. Even when I'm manifested, they don't." she said. She guessed once you were dead, things just didn't have a pain factor. She also didn't seem to think it was a silly question. She knew back in the day if she'd seen someone with bones jutting out of their skin, and missing appendages, she would have wondered. Mostly, she didn't mind answering because a lot of people she noticed looked, but didn't bring themselves to actually asking. She'd rather just answer and get it over with. Curiosity wasn't exactly uncalled for in this circumstance.

Jesse made a soft 'hmph' sort of noise and was quiet for a second. "That's pretty cool, I guess, it would suck even worse to be in pain all this time," he summarized. Which was true, even if it was a pretty pitiful bid for looking at the bright side. "I'm guessing you don't like ... get hungry or have to sleep or pee or anything either? All that physical crap is gone?" What would that be like, being conscious 24/7? Being just a consciousness. It was odd to try and think about, one got very used to being tied into their corporeal body.

"Right. I don't have a form that requires any of that, so there's no need for it. and let me tell you, your sense of time goes really strangely when you don't have those markers in place? Like sleep, or meal times, or anything of the kind. There was a period of I guess a few years that I was kinda...I suppose the best word I can think of is 'dormant'. I was there, but not really conscious, in the proper sense of the word." Lauren rambled, just handing out information since he seemed curious, and she was more than happy to provide the info.

He was most definitely curious, and was taking mental notes of all this. Maybe that was why some of the ghosts seemed really lost and confused. They'd been sleeping -- so to speak -- when this change came about, and then suddenly ... poof, there they were in reality again. His eyes ticked down to where her hand was still over the socket. "Do you need to stay by that, or like ... want a tour or somethin'? Dunno how much has changed since seventy-four, but we could take a wander, yeah?"

She thought about it. "I might sound weirder." she warned, but she stood up, because a walk around was going to be nicely nostalgic for her. "So if you can't understand me let me know. But here, I'll try to take some to tide me over!" she said brightly, and she tried--only she did in fact, short out the socket, and the lights above them flickered then died. She made a face. "Oops. Sorry."

Jesse blinked behind his coke-bottles and looked upward at the burnt out light. Then he laughed a bit, he really had to. "It's okay, there's more sockets all over the school," he told her, faintly amused. "I'll let you know, though." He turned in that expectant kind of way, and made sure she was with him before he started to walk. Strolling through school with a ghost. Interesting where life took people. Or death. Or both.