Space Pirate is a Realistic Career Goal

Who: Leija and Porter
When: evening
Where: out on the streets

Leija was ... slightly dumbfounded, even though she probably shouldn't have been. It was kind of like what had happened in PA, only ... bigger. It seemed, anyway. After she'd seen the transparent and very confused looking young man walking through her front yard, she'd walked out and taken to the streets. They hadn't flooded the whole town -- which was what she had always thought would happen if spirits were suddenly visible -- but there seemed to be plenty of them. A couple had even run by in what seemed to be a panic. None of them seemed threatening, so that was something. As fucked up as it was, it was a little bit of a relief to have some weirdness that wasn't trying to kill anyone. Especially on Halloween.

It seemed to have kept the trick-or-treaters at home, however. As for herself, she was just walking around, looking at things with something like wonderment. Was this only for tonight? What the hell had happened, anyway? Oh god she recognized that one over there ...

It was definitely a relief to have some weirdness of the nonlethal variety, in Porter's book. He'd been planning to stay home regardless, but when his mother had commented on the strange, translucent figures on the street? Well, there was no need to go out and find himself some trouble. Trick-or-treaters seemed to be in an understandably short supply tonight, but Porter didn't really mind. Seated on the front steps of his house with a large, steamy mug next to him, he was more than happy to just watch the other visitors the town had.

He'd been sketching a while ago, recreating the street and dotting it with faint representations of each spirit he'd seen over the course of the night, though the sketch pad was set to one side for now. Porter had his phone out, both thumbs busily typing as he jammed out a quick news post for his website, raising the phone to click off a picture of the spirit Leija had recognized. It was only when he reviewed it and uploaded it that he noticed her at the edge of the shot, looking quite different than the apparently-dead people. Porter lowered his phone warily, grabbing his mug of more-sugar-than-coffee and sipping from it as he looked off in search of her.

Leija had been squinting at the spirit that she could've sworn she'd seen before, but it wandered around a corner. Frowning vaguely to herself, she looked around again and noticed a younger-looking guy sitting on his front steps with a notepad. For one split heart-squeezy second, the sketchpad, dark hair, and that she was a bit away from him and it was dark sent Caleb through her head. But it wasn't, it didn't look like him at all now that she'd had a second to look at him. She really had to stop doing that. Hoping to see him anywhere. Or anywhere that wasn't school, where they could actually talk. Since she was apparently still staring at Porch Guy, she gave him a small smile. "Happy Halloween," she said in a sardonic sort of tone.

He'd spotted the girl? But she spotted him too, and now she was heading his way. If she was a ghost, she didn't look like the others Porter had already seen tonight. She didn't sound like them either, and the two differences were enough to drive away the anxious wariness. "You too," he called over, managing a faint grin aimed at Leija. "Are you, um... you're alive, right?" he asked with a wider, awkward-but-genuine grin, pocketing his phone and wrapping both hands around his mug.

The question made her laugh a little, though it was sort of unexpected even on her end. She stopped where the walk met the sidewalk in front of his house, hands in her jacket pockets. "Last time I checked, yeah. Which was ... oh, about twenty minutes ago, just to make sure. With all the ..." she revealed one hand to wave it around in an encompassing gesture, "... y'know, going on." It was good to see that he looked relatively normal and wasn't completely freaking out. So many other people had to be. "You too? Blood pumping and everything?"

Porter laughed, freeing up a hand to feel the opposing wrist. He sat still for a long moment, eyes narrowed critically, then shook his head. "Apparently... no, no I'm not," he joked, looking either way down the street. The vague shadows that had lingered before were nowhere in sight now, it actually looked like a normal night now. "So I guess that means my line is 'wooooo'," he trilled in a falsetto, wiggling a hand Leija's way. Porter scooted down to one side of the front step, sipping his coffee to hide his smile. "I'm Porter, you, uh... want to sit? Kinda weird night for walking around."

"Oh gasp and shock, a ghost. You'd better get to wandering and looking confused with your buddies. You look far too with it," she joked back, smirking at him. Then shrugged and headed up the walk. Why the fuck not, right? It was probably in her best interests to be paranoid, especially of the innocent-seeming, but she honestly couldn't give a crap at the moment. Leija sat down next to him, hands still in her pockets. "I'm Leija," she introduced herself once she was settled. "Nice to meet you."

Was he with it? Even in conventional, living ways? As much as a human parasite can be, Porter decided, sliding his sketchbook back to make a little more room. Porter laughed a little, nodding at her greeting. Was it weird? Just... hanging out, watching ghosts go by? Porter had a feeling it was, but after killing a werewolf in single combat he felt like he had to reevaluate his standards. "So, maybe I'm just assuming too much of the first person I've seen out tonight, but what's going on? What, um, what is this? Ghosts, right? But how?" he asked, definitely far less fazed than someone would be if this was their first exposure.

Her eyes were out on the street, though there wasn't anything to look at just now. They weren't overrun with ghosts, so that was a good thing. She wet her lips and looked over at her new acquaintance. "Ghosts as far as I know," she said with a slight nod. "As for how? ... not a fucking clue." Leija quirked him a little half-smile. Though she was sort of a harbinger of death, she didn't know any more about the afterlife than your average person. "They don't seem to know either, I've asked a couple."

"You asked them?" he echoed, looking shocked by the audacity of the idea. Porter wouldn't have quite had the guts to approach any of the things, he'd just sat back through the night and watched, sketched, written notes. Porter seemed about to say more when the door to the house behind them groaned open, his mother peering out as lights from inside flooded around her. He spun around, startled by her appearance, and watched his mom's expression smooth out as she got a better look at Leija. "Who's this, hon?" she asked Porter, getting him to blink slowly. "A friend from school?" he suggested uncertainly, deciding that lie sounded better than 'a fellow ghost watcher'.

The door startled Leija into a very small jump, and she twisted around when Porter did to blink against the light. The voice and 'hon' indicated it was a mom, and she had a smile ready. She didn't know a lot of parents, but she knew what worked on her dad, and your average mom in Marquette had to be pretty fucking twitchy right about now. "Hi," she said, giving a little wave and rolling right along with the suggestion. "I'm Leija, me and Porter have English together." Everyone had to take English, right? She tried to look like a Nice Girl and non-threatening.

His mother studied Leija for a moment, eventually settling on a smile for her as she leaned over and mussed Porter's hair. "He's not out here convincing you he saw a ghost, is he?" she asked with a little laugh, "I swear, he must've scared off every little kid who just wanted some candy tonight! Good writer, this one." His mom had an encouraging tone, and to Porter he knew it was because she'd just found out he had two female friends after one week in town.

"He must've been inside trying to convince us for ten straight minutes," she went on, seemingly ready to keep going until Porter shot her a pleading look. "...Mom," he muttered, eternally grateful that she caught the hint. "Okay, okay," his mother relented as she moved halfway back inside, "Leija, can I offer you some hot chocolate or anything?"

Leija couldn't help but smile in that holding-back-laughter kind of way. The whole thing, the hair-muss, the tone in her voice, and the offer of hot chocolate ... Porter must've stolen his mom from an after-school special, for real. She managed not to laugh, though, as that would probably be alienating to some poor guy she just met who was being embarrassed by his mother. "We hadn't gotten to the ghost-stories yet, no ma'am," she told Mrs. Whatever. "But now I'm looking forward to them. I'm okay though, thanks."

His mom just nodded, shooting Porter an apologetic look before ducking back inside and shutting the door. "Sorry," he murmured to Leija, shaking his head over it all, "She's been really Mom of the Year the past few days, I'm hoping she'll get back to normal pretty soon." Which wasn't to say she was a bad mother, but she'd never been as intent on Porter's behavior as she was in the days following his fight with his stepdad. "Really, it's almost as weird as that, but not quite," Porter said, stretching an arm out to point at the wavering outline of what had to be a spirit, down the street by the lakeshore.

She chuckled after his mom shut the door, and followed his point to look at the strange light-twist that was probably a spirit. "It's kinda cute, though," she said, still smiling as she glanced back over to him. "It's always been just me and my dad, so it's kinda neat to see, even if it's temporary. Should I have taken her up on the hot chocolate, so she felt like she was doing a better job?" It was kind of strange, she guessed, sitting here with a total stranger and just chatting like they'd known each other a while. She didn't used to do this at all. Things were changing in her, it was becoming more and more obvious, and she had no idea if it was for the better or not.

"Whether you did or not, she'd be inside talking with my stepdad," Porter told her with a shrug, glancing over and smirking. "I think the only difference would be that she'd have an excuse to check up on us," he went on with a faint, bitter tone. As nice as it was to just talk with a stranger? Porter didn't want to dump all his strife with his parents on Leija, so he put on a small grin and shifted to face her evenly. "So... you do go to the highschool, right? I might have a problem making up what you do every day in English otherwise."

Leija wrinkled her nose up a little bit. She could well imagine the hushed whispers about some strange girl being out on the porch. But then, she didn't know if this guy had girls on the porch all the time or what. She didn't comment, though, taking the subject change easily. "Yeah, I'm a bona fide student, so you're safe. I don't think you're in my English class, though," she said with a small grin. Not that she spent much of it doing anything other than staring at the back of Caleb's neck, but still. "You can say I do crazy things like read and take notes," she added, grinning a little wider.

Porter smiled a little, thankful for the light note of humor. Even if his mom and stepdad did take issue with this? He was meeting someone else, and every person he could trust not to give him hell at school was a welcome one. Plus? Well, a cute girl was a plus in any light. "We might actually have a class together, you never know. I'm still pretty new, no way to tell anyone from my classes when I see them on the street."

"Yeah, I've kind of been in and out of town for a while," she said, turning herself as well to face him better and propping her arms up on her knees. That, and when she was actually in school, she was more or less trying not to pay attention to anything but class. Or she was called out. So anything was possible. "What grade are you in?" She didn't immediately jump on the 'where are you from?' question, as she more or less hated it herself. It got old pretty damn fast.

Her other option for a question still made Porter laugh. He more or less expected it, by now he was very used to people thinking he was permanently a freshman or something. "I'm a junior," he told her, grinning a little wider, "A few people have told me to go back to the middle school. And I don't think I can blame you for getting out of town now and then. This town? More than a little weird, and not just from the ghosts." Somehow, he was surprised it was still standing. And really, with how calm Leija seemed? He wondered if maybe she knew about more than what was apparent tonight.

"That's for fucking sure," Leija said in a muttery kind of way, twisting her lips to one side for a second. There was too much Weird to list in Marquette, and she was honestly wondering why most people were staying. Unless it was just that ... draw, the place had. Maybe it kept people there too. She kept coming back, after all. "You don't look middle school, though," she assured him, smiling. He did look younger than a junior, but he probably knew that ... "I'm a junior too. No worries, a baby-face'll come in handy later, when you're old." She was thinking much the same about him, as he seemed not at all freaked out by the sudden influx of ghosts wandering around. It wouldn't even surprise her anymore.

When you're old. Would he get there? Even if Porter wasn't living in such a compellingly strange town, he knew he didn't have the best odds of ever being old. He could push his power too hard or run out of ways to feed, and then it would simply be out of his hands. He'd read about that in the book from Nevermore, two of the accounts detailing the very young deaths of people like him. "Thanks," he eventually said, aiming a smile down at his knees. It never failed, girls complimenting him just made Porter all smiley, even if he was doing okay where they were concerned lately. "It'll be easier once I'm not surrounded by assholes five days a week, too. Maybe I'll keep an eye out for you? If that's cool, I mean. Seems like if you know someone else in the halls, people give you less grief."

"People giving you a hard time?" she asked rhetorically, smile fading a little bit, despite the cuteness of his lap-smile. Because, cute. Really, she would never understand why everybody didn't just shut the fuck up and find something else to do. "God, perpetual dickholes," she said with an eye-roll. "Sure, y'know ... say hi and everything if we cross paths. I'm not the most popular person or anything, so I dunno what good it'll do you, but I'm around." It would probably spark rumors that now they were knocking boots, and she was just going through all the brunette guys in the school one at a time, but whatever. She could not wait to get the hell out of high school.

"It seems like every person I meet isn't the most popular person," Porter observed, smirking over at Leija playfully, "Which is fine, I fit right in." Really? Medea, Kaysen, and now Leija had all said as much. Of the three, Kaysen was the only one Porter had actually heard mentioned in the hallway chatter, but he just met Leija, and tried not to listen for people talking bad about Medea. "Hell, maybe if there's enough of us, popularity'll get flipped upside down. We'll turn the cool kids unpopular, anarchy'll descend on the entire school, cheerleaders'll turn to cannibalism..." He trailed off with a brighter grin, eyes crinkled in amusement. "Think 'Mad Max' but with letter jackets."

It was the 'cheerleaders'll turn to cannibalism' line that really got to her. She could just see them crouched down over some poor sap, mouths and uniforms smeared with blood. Under other circumstances, that probably would've been horrifying, but while she was there on a port, thinking of Mad Max with letter jackets, it made her laugh. A lot. "We could definitely give it a try," she said eventually, between giggles. She was glad, at least, that her eyes didn't water when she laughed really hard like they did to some people. "If anything, there's strength in numbers, right? If one of us is getting crap for something, we can all melt out of the woodwork like ninjas and be intimidating."

It was Porter's turn to laugh richly, thinking on the fact that he actually had the gear for a ninja appearance sitting up in his room. And that this discussion could make a great two or three panel comic to post somewhere random. "There's definitely strength in numbers," he agreed, "I can't tell you how many times that gets brought up in comics." Really, he could, but she wasn't Medea and Porter highly doubted that he'd meet two beautiful girls who could listen to him drone on about spandex and super powers.

"It's definitely a theme, in pretty much everything," she said, still amused. "Comics, books, movies ... where would Frodo have been without the Fellowship, c'mon now. Even Jesus had disciples," she added with a grin. "Which, y'know ... might've all been fiction, but if the supposed son of God needs homies, who doesn't?" Aaaand, now she hoped that he wasn't religious. Good job, Leija. She pressed her lips together and pulled one knee up to hug and rest her chin on.

"But were his homies ninjas?" Porter asked, beyond amused with the topic. "I think the Romans might've thought twice about acting up if they were. Or one of them could've dropped a smoke bomb to help Jesus escape. Then he'd kung-fu fight Judas." For a first meeting? He liked this girl. She'd taken his mind even further off his problems with his parents than seeing the spirits had, which was invaluable. Porter glanced over at the pose Leija held, brow lining in interest. "Don't be weirded out or anything? But don't move for a second," he said, setting his mug aside to dig his phone from his pocket. Porter raised it Leija's way, fidgeting with the zoom before snapping off a picture and smiling sheepishly. "Sorry. I, um, I draw a little? And natural poses like that are hard to figure out without a comparison."

She'd been laughing at the mental picture of a bunch of guys in black pajamas kung-fu fighting Judas when he asked her not to move. Leija's eyebrows went up, but she didn't holding her position -- which was a natural one for her, she hugged herself a lot. The flash made her blink rapidly and she lifted her head more when it was done. The implication that he was going to draw her made her stomach feel a little weird, for reasons that had nothing to do with him at all. "I kinda figured, with the sketchpad," she said, reminding herself that he wouldn't be drawing her scars or wings or maybe not even her at all, just the body-positioning. "Can I see?" she asked, nodding to the pad in question.

"Hm?" Porter said wordlessly, thinking she meant the photo he'd taken at first. The nod cued him in, and he had an imperceptible pause as his thoughts rushed. It was a safe sketchbook, right? Just landscapes, rough work he did to figure out anatomy, personal doodles of things that made him laugh. It was safe. "Yeah, totally," he said at last, grabbing it from the porch and handing the sketchpad over. The top page was the street view in front of them, sleek pencils conveying surprising little details about the houses around them, the whole picture punctuated by pencil-shaded swirls that had bits of discernible features to them; the spirits wandering the street.

Leija took the pad and put her leg back down to rest it in her lap. She knew they were personal types of things, sketchbooks. Like visual diaries. So it was probably a good sign that he let her see it. She looked over the top page, bottom lip caught in her teeth. It was good, if a completely different style than ... well, than the only other sketchbooks she'd ever looked through. She flipped backwards slowly, looking over the sketches and rougher items. "Is this what you want to do?" she asked as she looked. "Or just a hobby?"

Porter couldn't help chuckling as she flipped past a mock-up he'd done for 'Varsity Undead'; a severed leg hanging from an open locker. He'd forgotten about it entirely with everything else going on lately. "I'd love to do something with it, really," he admitted, shrugging a little, "But y'know, the term is 'starving artist' for a reason, I don't know how lucrative it is." Which was a half-lie; sure, he made good money right now, but it wasn't enough to support himself if he was living on his own. "My stepdad says I should go into architecture, that art's a good skill for it. I kinda... that sounds boring as watching paint dry? And it's stupid, but I'd probably rather draw big, muscley guys in capes beating on each other."

"I can't really blame you," she said, twisting her lips to one side for a second as she looked at him. Then back to his pad. "I dunno, it's not ever a field I looked into or anything. My stick figures are of a questionable quality. So I dunno how competitive it is or anything, but ... you're good. So if you have to be like ... practical or something, maybe advertising? They make ads cartoonish all the time." And here she was talking like there might be a viable future in store for them, living here. It was that eternal hope thing that was going on. Once she'd looked a good amount, she closed the book carefully and handed it back to him. "Draw big muscley guys on the side, you never know. Might hit it big." She gave him a smile.

"The big guys in comics are the smart businessmen, not the artists," Porter said with a shrug, not wanting to dash her offered optimism, "But I'm not looking to be filthy rich or anything, either. Just to like what I'm doing. And really? When highschool's over, between the ghosts and the werewolves? I'll have plenty to do a comic about." His brain caught up with his tongue a second too late, making Porter flinch a little, but the admission was out there. Yep, he knew what had been rampaging around the streets on Friday, and a silent part of him wondered if any of tonight's ghosts had been victims of that rampage.

She caught it -- kind of impossible not to -- and it just confirmed the suspicion she already had about why he wasn't really freaked out. It had stopped being surprising when people knew things a long time ago, really. "You should've been here for the vampires and the shadow-attacks then," she said meaningfully, giving a soft chuckle. She pulled her feet up to the stair just below her and crossed her ams on her knees, looking at out the street again. The more people knew, the more likely they were to survive, right? So that was a good thing.

"Vampires?" Porter echoed in muted astonishment, grabbing his mug again even if it was cold by now. "Shadow attacks?" This was just turning into something straight from a comic, for sure. And it meant that what he'd seen in passing up at Nevermore was true, as true as the book about people like him. Even more, it meant that Porter needed to do some mad Googling about this town tonight, to try and correlate official stories with what Leija was saying. "Holy shit, you're serious?" he asked needlessly. Of course she was. "What... what's going on here? I mean, I'm from Baltimore, and it's not huge, but it's a lot bigger than here. But there's never anything like this back there."

Leija looked over and shifted a bit uncomfortably where she was. What was going on there? In her darker sort of moments, she thought it might be the end of the world, because things just kept getting worse. But she didn't want to get into that with a guy she'd just met. She probably shouldn't have said anything. "I dunno, there's just ... something about this town," she said with a shoulder-shrug. It wasn't any kind of explanation. "There was ... this roving group of vampires that came through and killed a bunch of people. And then some ... shadow-things that came out of the mirrors and attacked for a while. It's just ... been kind of downhill," she said.

He didn't want to keep echoing Leija, but she kept giving him reasons to. "Kind of?" he asked with a humorless smile. "There's literal ghosts out, which really? Sounds like a let-up from werewolves and vampires and shadow monsters or whatever. That's 'kind of'?" He shook his head slowly, resisting the urge to nudge her like they'd known each other far longer than the past half hour. "Makes you wish this town had a Superman or something, doesn't it?"

She didn't want to say that it could've been worse. Even though it could have. She just didn't want to be the one to say it, because then she would have reason to feel even worse if it did get worse. So she shrugged again instead, and picked idly at a spot on her jeans that had nothing really to pick at. "There are some people fighting," she said quietly, thinking of Thom and the big German guy with the gun in the Inbetween and Doc the war-demon. Though what he was fighting for was questionable, really. Honestly, she didn't think Superman could've done shit for Marquette. But that was all negative and cynical and she didn't want to spread that around. That was her problem, wasn't it. Spreading her own shit.

If he'd been able to read her thoughts? Porter would've pointed out that Superman once punched reality itself. But that was more a case of hackneyed writing than someone you could depend on. "Fighting... the creatures? Like, demon hunters or something?" he asked curiously, wondering just how far this world ran. There was an endless supply of movies, games, and comics detailing people who held back the darkness. Maybe they were all like the old myths; grains of truth buried in layers of fiction.

"Fighting demons, vampires, probably the werewolves to ... all kinds of hunters," she said. She was kind of doing some assuming on her part, but it only made sense to Leija. If they hunted one thing, they could always hunt another. There were probably those out there who would love to hunt her too, not demons but just ... people. Because people could be equally fucked up. Though she couldn't imagine to what ends. She blinked out of that thought and refocused on Porter. "Hope I'm not ... crashing your world or anything," she said with a humorless little smile. "I just pegged you for more or less in the know, but I guess there's different ... layers to that."

Porter shook his head in answer to her fears, though in truth it was a lot to contend with. He'd wondered just how much was really out there, if it stopped with the werewolves. It didn't. "I'm still pretty new? I, um, I ran into something kinda fucked up on Friday." He glanced back at the door of his house to make sure they were still unobserved, looking back to Leija. "You know... werewolves. And I was okay, but I knew what I'd seen. So I started doing my homework. Just... now I'm sorta figuring out how fucked up it all really is."

"It's plenty fucked up," she told him with an oddly gentle smile. "But here's probably not the best place to talk about it," she added, of course aware that there was an open door behind them with unbelieving people on the other side of it. She leaned a bit to pull her phone out of her pocket and went to the screen to add a new contact, then looked up at him with one pale raised eyebrow. "Want my number?" Since she wanted to be sure he wanted to exchange before she asked for his.

"Yeah, let's avoid Carter butting in," Porter groused slightly, brow knotting in consternation, "I don't need the 'are you on drugs' talk again." Because he wasn't ever on drugs. He'd tried a joint once? And sure, it had been fun, he'd had a real appetite, but then he'd needed to feed so much more than usual in the days after. "But sure," he said to her offer, digging his phone out, "Just in case I need to call in the uncool ninjas." Porter grinned, thinking that might work for yet another comic. Uncool Ninjas. I like it.

Leija grinned a little bit and recited her number to him, and then took his. Definitely not the traditional reason that teenagers exchanged phone numbers, but she'd long since given up expecting most things and interactions she had in this place being 'normal'. Folding her phone closed and putting it away again -- and she actually managed not to check her messages to see if she'd missed a text or call from Caleb, fancy that -- Leija glanced over her shoulder at the door to his house and then back to him again. "This might sound weird, but anytime, okay? I don't know the meaning of 'sleep schedule' anymore, and my philosophy is the more connected we all are, the better," she said.

It was good that she'd explained the offer; a girl offering Porter her number was more than enough to turn his pale skin red with a blush and render him unable to speak. As it was, he still grinned warmly and nodded, thumbing in her number and quickly assigning the picture he'd taken to show up if she called. "I'm getting there with sleep, too," he agreed, "So maybe if you feel like a walk some night? I mean, I can only assume you like them if you were out, but, um... it's not really safe around here, is it? So yeah, let's stay connected."

She caught the bit of blush in the light coming from the door and smiled more inwardly. Okay, he was officially adorable. Not that noticing that sort of thing ever got her anywhere, but still. She could observe. At his backpedaling, she gave him a bit of a grin. "Never stopped me before," she said, even though that wasn't entirely true. It had stopped her plenty when the Acherus were running around, and she wouldn't be out strolling on the full moon anymore. "As long as it's ... y'know, not a full moon. But I might take you up on that." It had been a while since she had someone to wander around with after dark, she found that she kind of missed it.

There was a darker whisper in the back of his mind that the full moon was nothing to fear, it meant he could feed. Porter wrote it off as cockiness mixing with his grouchiness over his parents, because he certainly wasn't eager to take on another werewolf. "You should," he agreed, nodding slightly, "I normally head right along the lakeshore? It's nice and all, but eventually I should see the rest of town too. Which, um... reminds me? Are you okay with walking home with all of this going on? I'm not trying to run you off or anything, my mom'd probably let me give you a ride though." Which, wow. Yeah, I'm cool. Just ask my mommy. Sometiems she lets me borrow the car.

Leija almost pointed out that she'd been fine walking there, but saw the offer as a genuine trying-to-be-nice kind of thing, and appreciated it. "I think I'll be okay," she said, and shrugged a shoulder. "But if you feel like getting away for a minute, I won't argue." There, that wasn't really damsel-in-distressy, but she wasn't opposed to accepting a ride home and talking with him a bit more on the way. It didn't even cross her mind to think he was uncool for relying on a parental vehicle; she hadn't even gotten around to getting her license at all yet.

"Let me go beg for the keys," he told Leija with a self-deprecating grin, rising and dusting off the back of his jeans before disappearing into the glow of the house. Porter was gone for a handful of minutes, at one point raised voices carrying out indistinctly, but eventually he returned with the keys hanging from his fingers. "God, you'd think they went to Iraq personally to get the oil for gas or something," he muttered, moving to settle back down on the steps near Leija.

She'd waited, and resisted the impulse to turn around and lean back to hear better once the yelling started, wincing a bit to herself. She'd heard plenty about people who had trouble with their parents, and always kind of felt bad for them. it always made her really glad that she and her father got along. Even though he was busy. She had to chuckle a bit as his crack when he sat back down, then, and kept the grin as she nudged him with an elbow. "Sounds like an invitation for a joy-ride to me," she said.

"You kidding? They'd go right into my account to fill the tank back up," Porter grumbled good-naturedly, shaking his head. "And I almost have enough for a car, so when that happens? They can shell out for their own gas." He laughed slightly, feeling more in synch with a parental view there than usual. Wasn't that what most parents griped about? His own chided him for being so easily ensnared by girls, by being so willing to tap into his money when he had a crush, or not bothering to hide his work as well as he should. All three were connected, and Porter didn't really give a damn about any of them right now. He could do what he wanted, and right now? That was just hanging out.

"Okay a short joy-ride," Leija said with a bit of a laugh herself. "Or you could just stick to the original plan and take me home, whatever works." Really, just walking around sounded fine to her at the moment, but so did continuing to sit on the porch. She was just easy to please at present. It was just nice to kind of talk with someone she didn't know without the pressure of other people around. Leija had never been a big crowd-loving girl. No, thanks.

"Let's just see where we end up," Porter suggested with a shrug, rising from his seat and offering Leija a hand. The longer they sat here, the more likely it was that Carter would poke his head out and volunteer to drive, not to mention potentially doing something terrible like offering to treat for ice cream. "Aim me towards your house, we'll get there eventually," he promised with a grin. Really, some music and some privacy sounded nice, everything else could come as it may.

"Sounds adventurous," she said in a teasing sort of tone. She took his hand and popped up mostly on her own, gesturing for him to lead the way to whatever car they were taking. The back part of her brain murmured something amused about how many car rides she was taking with boys she didn't know well. It was pretty much impossible for her to care currently, though. Rumors could fuck off, and if Porter had any ill intent ... well, she'd be hella-surprised and then she'd be fighting back.

Even if he'd set her up for the tease, the comment made him feel warmth in his cheeks again as Porter moved around to the driveway and his parents' car. It was nice, but not luxurious; a four-door sedan that he only really cared about for the stereo and rarely drove. "Yeah, that's me," he agreed as he unlocked the doors remotely, "Living on the edge in a Superman shirt, pretending I can fly." Porter moved around to the driver's side, patting his pocket to make sure he had his license as he hopped in. "You strike me more as a Batgirl fan, though, what with the matching hair color and all. Except she wore a wig."

Leija followed along amiably, climbing into the passenger side and settling down, looking around the interior of the car. It was pretty nice. Nothing to sneer at. She hadn't ever really thought about wanting a car. Maybe it was the wings. But a more mundane form of transportation so she wouldn't have to walk to school would be handy sometime. If life ever returned to some kind of normalcy. She smiled at Porter and subconsciously reached up to touch her hair. "Yeah? The only comics I ever really read and loved were The Maxx. But I was deprived of brothers and guy-friends for a long time, so maybe I'm just horribly under-educated," she said. Then added, "And hey ... you ran across a werewolf and still seem to have all your limbs. That's pretty close to flying."

"That was..." Porter trailed as he started the car, shivering with the memory of vitality coursing through his fingers and burning white-hot inside of him. "It was something else, for sure," he finally said, "Don't think I've ever run that hard in my whole life. My old track coach would've been amazed, for sure." Pulling the car out onto the street, Porter swung it down towards the shoreline. Regardless of which way they were heading, he could drive one side of it or the other and end up on course. "And The Maxx was genius," he gushed, "I've actually got the first seven autographed by Sam Keith, that's so kickass that you've read it! People at my old school hadn't even seen the cartoon."

His enthusiasm about the comic made Leija grin. she always loved seeing it when people were really into things. Watching others geek out was awesome. She knew that she did it sometimes; just usually to herself. "Yeah, I don't remember where I picked it up, but it was fucking great," she said, which wasn't exactly true. As macabre as it was, she'd actually nabbed one from the bedroom of a suicide victim and taken it home. After reading it, she'd gotten hooked and bought more. She left the subject on comic books, not wanting to bog him down with trauma with the werewolf. "I think I missed some or read them a little out of order, but I really liked them."

"Do you want to borrow the series?" Porter asked easily, swinging around a corner and idly glancing out on the moonlit lake. "I have trades of them all, plus the expanded stuff? And I don't really mind loaning them or anything, my autographed ones are still around." He was always willing to loan out his comics, gleeful about exposing people to the hidden troves of amazing concepts and writing. Hell, Medea still had several things he'd loaned out, and Porter was in no rush to get them back. "I could bring them to school if you wanted," he offered, gripping the wheel with one hand and plugging his mp3 player into the stereo with the other.

Leija'd more or less forgotten that she was supposed to be pointing him toward her house. It was too nice just riding around to remember to do. As she looked out toward the lake, she saw several more ghostly figures clustered together. If that lasted longer than tonight, it was ... really going to take some getting used to. "Sure, that'd rock," she told Porter, looking over again with a smile. And it would, it would give her something to do late at night, at least. "If you don't mind. Promise I'll take care of them. I would offer something to trade back, but I mostly have ... just books and tons of music, so." Speaking of music, she picked up his mp3 player as soon as it was out of his hand to start perusing it.

Porter grinned over at her, curious about what Leija might pick from his player. You could always glean some insight from the music a person would opt for first, and he had a good selection to pick from. She struck him as a Guster type, really. "Well, I'm always up for music I haven't heard, and sometimes I even like a book without pictures in it," he told her, swinging the car into the center lane to swoop past a ghostly figure clinging to the shoulder. They definitely creeped him out, but if Leija was freely walking around, at least he didn't have to worry about them being dangerous to himself or anyone else. As fun as the idea was to visualize, Porter wasn't genuinely eager to pull on his mask and go try fighting these things.

She only glanced up briefly as he swerved, and kind of liked that he didn't drive straight through the poor soul. If that's what they were. Souls. She went back to searching through his music, curious about the stuff she hadn't heard of, appreciative of what she had. She paused on the Radiohead, and then bypassed it for The Killers, hitting play and then continuing to browse. "At least you don't have shit taste in music, I think we can be friends," she said, looking up at him with a teasing grin. Because that was very important in the scheme of things. It said a lot about a person. Some part of her was relieved not to find anything so far as dark and ... sensual as some of the stuff she'd gotten off of Caleb's player. "I could school you some, though, I'll have to burn you some things to listen to," she added.

"Save your discs," he insisted with a smirk, leaning back a little as they coasted at a lazy speed, "Bring some in to school, I'll bring my laptop. We can get some lunch, maybe? And I can just rip them right there." His smirk turned into a smile that was appreciative of Leija's choice as the strained sounds of 'Spaceman' filled the car, and Porter nodded happily. "Great choice," he complimented, "I definitely think we can be friends." He had smatterings of darker music in there, but Porter had never really been a sensual guy, so the stuff that was there was only for a bad day or fueling an action scene in the comic.

"Deal," she said easily enough. She could just reload her iPod and bring in things that he probably hadn't been exposed to yet. Just by flipping through his player, she could think of some stuff he might appreciate. Music was her geek-out, it was what she knew. Turning the volume up a little bit, Leija settled back into the seat, slouching a bit and letting her head fall back. She watched the dark scenery go by them, how the moonlight glinted off of the water and the snow that was still clinging to the ground. Winter was going to be something.

Ah, the life and mind of a sixteen year old boy. Even if things were happening in the most wonderful of ways with Medea, there was something compelling about how she reclined there, pale and porcelain in the moonlight coming through the car's window. Not that Porter would say or do anything about the observation, but he was willing to take the odd risk in his driving to glance over, wishing he could take another picture just to have it. If the guys back east could see me now, he mused, leaving the lakeshore behind and pulling up onto Washington street. "So, um..." he said at last with a teasing grin as he hit a red light, "..am I headed the right way?"

Oblivious to any sort of compelling she was being, Leija just let her mind wander out and over the cold water. She'd been thinking about water a lot lately. It was probably something she shouldn't be doing, given the connotations. Part of her wondered if her mother was somewhere down south tonight, wandering around. She pushed the thought away, just in time for him to ask the question. "Huh?" she said first, intelligently, dragging her brain back to the present. "Oh." Leija gave a soft laugh and sat up more again, getting her bearings. A little sheepish, she gave him directions from where they were. It would only take a few minutes to get there, which was kind of unfortunate, but she couldn't monopolize the guy all night just because she was ... whatever she was.

"Well, let's hope the roads here make more sense than Baltimore, and we can take the scenic route," Porter offered, swinging around an early turn just to prolong the drive a bit. Now and then he saw a flicker of eerie light that must've been a ghost, but really? It only added to the strange, scenic appeal of the world passing by them at an easy speed. "I may as well get a big sticker that says 'taxi' when I get my car? But if you need a ride or anything, let me know. The bus is a private little hell, and I don't think walking's going to be much fun in another month, if that."

She felt pleased in an odd way when he started taking a more roundabout way toward her house. She didn't know if it was the night or the ghosts of the moon or the music or the company or her own head or what, but she felt nice and dreamy in the car with him. The redhead smiled expansively over at him. "I usually don't mind walking. But I've never wintered here before, so I might just take you up on that," she said. "When are you getting your car?" Tonight, despite the temperature, was a night for a sun roof. She had the weirdest urge to hang out the window for a minute.

Porter shrugged, lingering at a stop sign as a spirit moved away from a nearby park and crossed in front of the car. It wasn't really a pedestrian, but reflexes were reflexes. "Depends," he said eventually, stepping on the gas again. "I'm still saving up a little money? And I don't really know what kind I want yet. I just... I'm close." He grinned, shrugging his shoulders as he drove. "Definitely before the snow hits too hard."

Leija watched the ghost pass in front of them, and couldn't help but feel a little amazed, frankly. It was getting to be a familiar feeling. Because just ... wow. Yeah, shit was getting weird and it was strange to just see it and a) get a good look and b) not be threatened by it. "This is the most surreal car ride I've ever taken," she murmured. Because ghosts, and they were talking about something so incredibly normal.

"You and me both," Porter agreed, keeping it slow so he could glance back in the rearview mirror. He didn't get the impression that there were a lot; Porter had only seen maybe four or five total tonight, but the fact that they were there at all was a boggling one. "And weird as it sounds? I don't know what I want it to be like tomorrow, y'know? Like, if it's all back to normal, would anyone believe we saw this? I think I'd feel like I was losing my mind or something." But in spite of his doubts? He did want things back the way they were when the sun came up tomorrow.

"I think some people would believe, but most of them would just ... conveniently forget. They do that a lot here," she said, twisting around to look out the back windshield herself. She bit into her bottom lip, not sure herself which way she'd prefer. She wanted people to have their eyes open, yeah, but ... living with permanent ghosts? Turning and righting herself, she looked over at Porter again. "But at least we both know we saw it. And if you conveniently forget, I can totally remind you. If only to have someone feel crazy along with me." She smiled a little bit.

He smiled more, shaking his head at her concerns. "Trust me, I'm not going to forget. After last Friday? I'm not going to find excuses for anything that happens here. You could... I dunno, sprout antennae? I'd feel like I was going crazy, but I'd believe it." Really, would he feel crazy? Porter loved to live in his comics, and there was definitely a precedent for the suggestion there. "And if I'm not there, text me or call or something," he added, eager to make this more than just a casual friendship. Porter was tired of living on the fringes, and even if Leija considered herself uncool? He was liking her company. "I'd rather you say you saw lizard men coming out of the sewer than just stumble across them pulling on human skin disguises myself."

She couldn't help but laugh at that mental image. "So you want me to be your supernatural informant?" she said, highly amused. "Okay, I think I can handle that. Same, though, you have to call me too." she reached out to poke him impulsively, her grin teasing. "I want to know the whereabouts of weirdness." So she could potentially tell him to get the fuck away from it. She was, however, not going to keep this deal when it came down to her duty and people dying. She pushed the button to lower her window, giving into that urge from earlier, and unbuckled her seatbelt. They weren't going very fast, so the wind-in-the-hair effect was going to be minimal, but still. She got her knees under her and stuck her top half out of the window, closing her eyes into the ass-cold breeze.

Whatever reply Porter had would've been lost on Leija as she leaned and let her hair flow. He glanced over with a smile, speeding up just a touch for her sake. He would call her if things went weird, but it seemed like that was a given between them. He wanted to tell her to get in before she got sick, but that? That was far too parental.

She braced herself better for the increased speed, grinning briefly into the night air blasting her in the face. It was funny that she could fly, but she still liked to do this in cars. It was just a need feeling that didn't require any great energy expenditure, for a change. Once she couldn't really feel her nose or lips anymore, Leija pulled herself back in, looking flushed and wind-blown. "That's much more intelligent to do in the summertime," she said with a grin.

"When we're fielding a night like tonight, I think it's allowable," he assured Leija, grinning back at the flush of her cheeks and the windblown volume in her hair. "Just don't get sick or I'll spend all day texting you random facts about the X-Men while you're stuck at home. Guaranteed." He wasn't exactly sure how close he'd gotten to Leija's, what with the route he'd taken, and being a new kid? Well, all the streets looked the same to Porter. But if they were lost, he wouldn't complain about spending a little more time reorienting himself to get her home.

"That actually sounds a lot more interesting than math class," she said, shifting around so she was sitting properly again. Or at least not on her knees, as both legs were tucked off to one side of her. She had trouble riding the right way in cars. It also sounded less tense and awkward than English class, but she wasn't going to go into that. "I might just feign sick so I can learn things that might actually hold my attention," she said with a grin. "But in retaliation, I'll send you random historical facts about long-dead composers. ... do you know where we are?" she asked, looking around again.

Porter laughed softly, pulling to a stop at a corner and glancing out his window. Down the road to his left he could see faint lights, maybe a gas station. It probably wouldn't be too hard to reorient himself. "Not a clue," he admitted, twisting the wheel to try and get back on a main road, "But we'll figure it out. Just tell me if anything looks familiar?" He glanced over as they went around the corner, smiling at the shifted posture. Leija looked comfy, he could imagine her just tucking up like that almost anywhere. "And I never thought I'd say this? But I think your math class might actually be more useful than what's in here," he admitted, tapping a hand against his temple.

Leija actually had a pretty kickass sense of direction, and as soon as he'd turned, she knew where they were. "Left at the next intersection, and then right two more down, and that's my street," she said with confidence. And from there, she could tell him how to get back to his house. Unless he wanted a roundabout way again. To the rest of it, she made a scoffing sort of sound and shook her head. "Doubtful. Fuck algebra." And that was really all she had to say on the subject.

Really, there was no argument there. He had plenty of uses for basic math; calculating his own finances or figuring out the overall costs of his website's store, but algebra? "Yeah, fuck it," Porter agreed, managing to get the obscenity out smoothly, "Can't say I've needed it yet. Trigonometry too. Maybe I'll have to play sick myself, now that you've shed some light on the subject for me. Or at least spare you the really painful, soap opera-esque details of comics." Swinging the first left that Leija indicated, Porter turned the stereo down a little as he slowed, watching for the turns and wanting to make sure he could hear if she needed to point them out.

She watched the neighborhoods slide by serenely. "Hey, if you ever want a skipping partner, just let me know," she offered, glancing over at him. Maybe all this was getting to be a lot to offer to a guy she'd just met that night, but she'd more or less stopped giving two shits about perceptions like that. All of the important, non-family people in her life, she'd met by accident, more or less. "I'll be really lucky to pass this year, with all the days I've already missed, so what does it really matter?" She had a feeling they were cutting people slack this year, however. If they were even still paying attention. "That's the good stuff though, isn't it? The drama?" She grinned at him a little.

"I try not to cut class? But if I do, I'll let you know," he answered with a nod. Porter was still focused on some level at what would happen after school, when his GPA would be crucial to getting into a good college. Ghosts and werewolves were fine, but eventually? He'd need to have his shit together. "And I could probably help you catch up on classes or something." Which possibly sounded weird if she took it like 'come to my house and let's study', but he was just being that weird sort of accommodating and desparate that Porter had. "No offense to the people up here? But it's... kinda easy compared to stuff back home." Taking the next turn, Porter laughed again, shaking his head. "For me it's more about the character studies... and the super powers. I don't really care that Cable and Strye are the same person from alternate futures who both time-travelled back to confront their estranged father, Cyclops, whose own father is a space pirate," he rambled, grin growing wider, "Except that space pirates are awesome."

Leija was staring at him as he went into detail, and then? Laughter ensued. How could it not? Holy crap. She'd never been really exposed to the general world of superhero comics, and their cheese. It struck her as really funny at the moment, for whatever reason, and it took her a minute to recover. But she managed to point out where he should turn next as she did so. "Oh god," she said between giggles. "Okay yeah, I can see that ... not being the most important part. I stand corrected. Though one has to agree with you on the space pirates. It's hard to make those not-awesome." She made a gesture at a sizable house two or three down from the one they were currently passing. "That one," she said, still smiling. There were still lights on, her dad was still up.

He could've kept going, her laughter was like praise for him to do so, but Porter also recognized how easily it could slip from funny into sad. Sad that he knew that much and more, really. No Spider-clone, no Secret Wars. Mainly because hey, they were here! "Now I just need to convince the guidance counsellors that 'space pirate' is a realistic career goal," he joked, rolling to a stop at the curb and glancing out at Leija's house. It was big, bigger than his own, and he had to wonder what her folks did for a living. "Sorry it took so long getting you here, but, um... it was fun getting lost," Porter offered, sitting back and turning to regard Leija.

She was smiling at him, seemingly unperturbed about having been lost. Because she wasn't, at all. "It was," she agreed wholeheartedly. For a second or two, she considered inviting him inside, for hot chocolate or something. Would that seem weird and too forward? It was just hot chocolate and conversation. God, again with the patheticness that was her. "Think you can get home from here? I can draw you a map if you wanna come in for a minute," she offered instead. It was safer.

Porter didn't hold himself in very high regards, but that offer? Well, it made him smile awkwardly. Even if it was an innocent offer, it felt nice to think she'd had fun tonight. "I would, but I should really get home," Porter declined with a sigh, shaking his head, "I told my mom I'd only be a few minutes. And I think I can find my way back. But, um... I'll see you at school? It'll be kickass, or at least seem like it compared to everything else there."

Well okay, at least she didn't look totally stupid and desperate for company. That was always a good thing. "I'll be there, totally prepared for kickassery," she said amiably, and popped her door open, blinking against the sudden glare of the roof light. "Careful going back, and call me if you get lost, okay? I know the streets pretty well. ... nice meeting you, Porter," she said, hesitating for a second before she climbed out.

Porter blinked as well as the dome light came on, turning his stereo down entirely and watching Leija hop out. She wasn't the only one with a cling-reflex, but it seemed like both of them were handling it just fine, which was a plus. "You too Leija, and I'll see you there," he said, "Don't worry, I'll drive safe." And in a better mood than when he'd first stepped out, too. There was no way to have predicted it? But for a night where he discovered that the dead lingered among the living, it had gone pretty damned well.