The World Outside

Who: Gabe and Skye
Where: MSHS hallways
When: Before school starts

Sometimes Skye's aunt was a little oblivious to things like schedules and nonsense like that, especially when she was off doing damage control because of ghosts. Skye wasn't processing that last bit very well, it was just maybe the last straw on her capability too wrap her head around things in general, but it did mean that she was dropped off at school way to early for even her own personal tastes. Somehow school always felt empty and echoing when there was no one in the hallways.

So Skye was kind of wandering around, feeling kind of lost and lonely and unsure of what to do in an empty school, which did have people and some of them you could see through.

Like Skye's aunt, Gabe's mother was also doing damage control, though hers was on a much larger scale. With reports that ghosts had been spotted all over the world, she'd gone into work early, just to check on things. Then she'd promptly turned around and left, realizing she could never get any work done in an over crowded morgue. Furthermore, the spirits wanted answers that she didn't have, so she'd consulted with Gabe to ask where his friends had gotten the books he had. While his books weren't on ghosts, he was at least able to point her in the right direction.

It was a very odd start to his eighteenth birthday. As his mom dropped him off at school, he reminded his mother it was All Saint's Day, or All Hollow's Day, and that maybe she should send the ghosts to church. He also gave her directions to Nevermore and made her promise not to stay at the morgue if the ghosts were capable of violence. He didn't know anything about ghosts.

Sitting by the window, he watched people full up and park, another day at school while chaos broke out around the world. He looked up as Skye walked down the hall and gave her a smile, wondering how she was handling it all.

Skye smiled back. It was a sad excuse for a smile, but at least she'd accomplished that much. Better than nothing. "Hey." She looked out the window, then at Gabe, then at the window again. "...okay weather today, huh." Mentally, she rolled her eyes at herself. That was so bloody lame if it was a horse it would've been put out of its misery. "Lemme try that again. Hi, Gabe, how are you?"

"I'm not sure," he said with a little laugh, accepting her second try, rather than her first. Skye seemed to have a difficult time with conversation, though sometimes it seemed to be only because she tried too hard. "Did you see the news this morning?" he asked. If not, then it would be a bit hard to explain why he was feeling off. If so, he wanted her take on it all.

"I did my best to ignore it. Didn't help." Skye sighed, and looked out the window again. "Sort of waiting for the really trashy tabloids to come up with the headlines 'Oh My God We Were Right', all that kind of thing." Rubbing a hand against the back of her neck, she frowned. "The bible said something about the dead rising from the graves, but I only know that from Ghostbusters so that may not be the most reliable source of information."

"You think this is the end of the world?" Gabe said, raising a brow. Somehow that hadn't even crossed his mind, but now that she mentioned it, he was thinking a huge number of people would think the same thing. "I don't think the ghosts came from graves... though my mom did say there's a lot wandering around the graveyards. I'm just... kinda shocked it made the news. That we're not alone."

"If it's the end of the world and we're going by Ghostbusters, I want to see the giant marshmallow man before the last." Skye decided, with another faint smile, and she nodded. "Yeah. I mean, it just seems so..." she couldn't think of the right word for the situation. She shook her head. "I don't know. But it doesn't seem as if they're hurting anything I guess."

"Death by marshmallow," Gabe said, laughing softly. It wasn't the way he wanted to go, but it was still amusing. "They don't seem dangerous," he agreed. "I guess I'm most surprised that it's happening other places, not just Marquette. How messed up is that?" In such a short time, he'd gotten used to the idea of weird happening in Marquette. He was never prepared for it, and poorly educated at best, but he'd come to understand that it happened. This was just the first time he'd heard of it happening anywhere else. The enormity of this particular instance was... frightening.

"Yeah, messed up. Of course, I think your city in general is messed up between... well, everything. So who am I to say what's messed up and not for this place? Outside it, yes. Very messed up." She grinned, a little more brightly and broadly. "Back at the farm my biggest concern was making sure that we got cows to the calving barn on time and making sure none of them kicked me. Not the fact that the spirits of my ancestors were coming back to critique my branding techniques."

"But they could be there now," Gabe pointed out, fairly certain that wherever she was from had not been excluded from this dose of mind-fuckery. "You could be dealing with calving and dead ancestors, since Marquette's not alone in being crazy this time. The news said it was happening all over." He wasn't sure that was a good thing, but it was nice not to be singled out for once.

"But I'm not, so I at least don't have to deal with the calving or branding." Skye said. "I was going to phone mom and dad tonight, to find out what's going on over there, anyway. It's not like they're going to have a choice about what they do - they're going to have to milk the cows either way, I guess."

"Checking on family's good," Gabe agreed. "My mom's down at the morgue. Or, she was, but now I don't know where she is. I told her not to work today if it's dangerous." Calving or branding would be much safer, he thought. There couldn't be that many dead bodies that would want to hang around a farm. Maybe he should advice his mom to go into farming...

"Do you think they're dangerous?" Skye asked, slightly worriedly. "They seem kind of ... as confused as me, really, and kind of... I dunno." She frowned and turned to the window. "Maybe I should call the family now, just in case."

"I don't think they're dangerous, but... any being in large groups can be. I just don't like her being down there by herself," Gabe said, still worrying about his mom. "Calling might be good. Just, you know, to check in," he said to Skye with a little smile. "Even if they're just fine, sometimes it's nice to hear their voice, let them know that you're okay."

"I think I'll call just before first period then." Nodding, she looked up at him. "How're you doing?"

That was such a loaded question with Gabe these days, but he wasn't going to completely dump everything on Skye. They weren't really that close, so he figured the question was in part due to Chrissy's death, along with everything else. "I'm okay, I guess," he said with a half shrug. "What about you?"

Skye shrugged. "More okay then I was, less okay then I was before that. Been here for a whole month now, and I think I surpassed my emotional rollercoaster quota for the rest of the year." She paused. "And weirdness quota."

"Yeah," Gabe sighed. "You're not the only one." He was pretty much sure things couldn't get any worse, but he didn't wanna risk saying so, sure that would bring hell down upon him. "This has been a crazy year. I don't think anyone saw it coming," he said, grabbing his book bag and rising to his feet.

Skye sighed. "And only a few more months to go before it's over. Hurray. I'm going to remember this next year when I get to choose whether or not to stay in this school. Anyway, it was good seeing you." She gave him a crooked little half smile.

"See you," Gabe said with a little wave as he headed off towards his locker. He wasn't sure he'd get the choice she got next year, but then he was the one going off to college. Or something. Maybe he wasn't going anywhere. And maybe it didn't matter. Marquette was wierd, but it seemed like the whole world was catching up.