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Post by jarahamee on Nov 16, 2022 23:22:19 GMT -6
Ru looked over his shoulder, contemplating Jonny. What a strange ghost, to be so focused on conversation. He must know vampires. Or at least, have known some vampires. From his accent, he probably lived far enough away that they were probably not vampires he knew personally, but he knew of them, at least in the vaguest sense.
“I… escaped, you know. From my vampire master. He had complete control over me, but I’m free now. And I want to make sure all creatures who wish to be are freed from their bounds, should they want that for themselves.”
His voice quavered. The vampire had not told many people the end of his story, and it hit him to speak of it, leaving a knot in his throat. It was sad in its own way, but he had found his way out. He had completed his tale, and he hoped that others would be able to do the same with his assistance. Ghosts. Other vampires. Anyone who might need his aid.
“That’s my purpose in this undeath, since I can never return to being a human.”
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Post by beastly on Nov 17, 2022 0:53:20 GMT -6
The ghost looked serious for a moment, staring out at the road before them. Unfamiliar and strange, alien in its entirety. He looked back at Ru.
"It's good you got out of that. I..."
Jonny started a sentence then stopped.
"I worked with plenty of vampires back home," he said instead, making a wide gesture, " it's good to have things to hold onto, and what you said was noble, but I wouldn't worry much. You're gonna get older and not care about other people, and it'll get much easier, see."
He turned a half smile towards Ru, and despite the words from the spirit's mouth, he appeared to think that had been genuinely comforting advice.
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Post by jarahamee on Nov 18, 2022 0:57:28 GMT -6
Ru felt it. Jonny’s desire to talk about himself, which had begun, and then been stamped out. Sad ghost shit, he called it. He must have some if he was so opposed to talking about it, he was just doing his best to keep it all in. The vampire just needed time to work with him, and make him slip up a little. After all, ghosts /did/ love to talk about themselves.
“It wasn’t really me that got me out exactly. The old vampires were all very powerful, and had a lot of control over the city, and all the power over us, but a young vampire came who had taken the power from her elder, and then…well… started a war by showing young vampires how to become powerful and kill the old ones. It caused enough upset that I was able to leave quietly, though…I feel guilty because my Big Brother is still out there, fighting, without my help.”
He did, genuinely, feel bad about leaving Damien, but it was all for the best. The older vampire would do well without him, and after all, he’d been a tough knight before he was a vampire, he must have a lot more experience with fighting and..winning.
“I…hope I stay compassionate. I know…I will change as I age, but I don’t want to lose the way I care for others.”
Ru knew that the elder vampires were all…Well, no longer human, but if there was a way to avoid that, he’d be the first one. It would be an adventure to say the least, but he supposed there was no other way forward.
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Post by beastly on Nov 18, 2022 23:09:03 GMT -6
Jonny tilted his head as he listened to the vampire talk. Every now and then, power shifted from old to young. It was the way it had to be.
"Mm. You still left, which took moxie. From my experience, the old blood drinkers aren't exactly the forgiving type."
The ghost gave Ru an appraising look. He was young for a vampire. A baby, really.
"No disrespect, but I don't think you would be making any incredible impact by being chilled off in some war. You're probably better off here. ...it's a nice thought you got. "
Family was important, but any big brother worth a dime would want his younger siblings safe. He felt an ache in his own ghostly heart, thinking about his nieces and nephews.
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Post by jarahamee on Nov 19, 2022 2:08:35 GMT -6
“He probably knows that I’m safer hiding, honestly. I don’t think he wanted to recruit us in the war. We were too weak to be much use for them. They… The powerful vampires, they are so strong they can just tear us apart like tissue paper. It makes things tricky.”
He kept driving, wondering if Jonny would slip up again. He was going to take him the longest route for this drive, and perhaps that would prolong their conversation. If nothing else, being honest was going to help him bridge that gap between the ghost and himself.
“Most likely. I have a friend here, at least, and some in the department. We enjoy our work. You know, it feels good to help people.”
The vampire’s eyes shone grayish as he looked back over his shoulder at Jonny, studying the ghost.
“I know most people are cynical about society, but I think the desire to do good, and to be supported by others is an important need people have and always will have.”
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Post by beastly on Nov 19, 2022 7:14:13 GMT -6
"Cynical keeps you alive," Jonny gave a wry smirk, fully aware they were two dead men, " You're all you got, see. It's a nice thought, Ru, but you can't bet on most people being good or helping you."
I'm not good, he mused. He could hurt this vampire, badly, if he wanted to. He didn't want to. There was plenty of throwing lead when he was on the job.
"If you got friends you can count on, hold onto those. Whatever you gotta do."
Jonny himself didn't have anybody like that. The fellas at the decrepit remains of an old speakeasy he liked to haunt had been good company, but he knew they couldn't be relied upon. He missed them too, though. Even Milo and his damn obsession with blowing up the police station. He wondered, now that he was gone, if Sprinkles would keep it on the property. He frowned.
"...You know any joints with a lotta ghosts?"
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Post by jarahamee on Nov 20, 2022 2:13:18 GMT -6
Ru pondered the question. There were places that attracted ghosts in this plain, but most of them were unhappy places to be. The old prison, the docks, the bridge. There was so much sadness, so much dread, and he could understand why. The poor ghosts.
“Well, if you mean…fun places… um, probably the pub row. Most of those guys seem…like…well, as happy as ghosts can be. If they are sad it’s because they are eternally drunk.”
He didn’t mention the ghosts of dead sexworkers, which were definitely sad, but he assumed that that was a given with the area. It would probably take Ru ages to get rid of all the ghosts that wanted to go, and he wanted to start with the most violent, and least happy of them all. They were the most disruptive, the most powerful, and they attracted the most attention.
“I’ve..met a lot just wandering around but none of them are very fun. Or really that aware, you know?”
The vampire made a slight wince face. He wasn’t sure he wanted to go into detail but they had certainly been ‘scary’ ghosts. He wondered if Jonny could be a scary ghost. Probably if he had been a violent person.
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Post by beastly on Nov 21, 2022 1:15:06 GMT -6
Jonny considered, leaning against the car door and looking out the window into the night.
"Might pay the pub ghosts a visit."
Sad drunk ghosts was nothing new. He was a bit envious, giggle juice was unavailable to him, even though he longed for the ability to dull his senses. Lucky bastards.
Jonny looked back, and shook his head.
"Loop ghosts give me the heebie jeebies. Don't like those mugs," it was too sad, "there was a joint back home, I was fond of it, but at 2am it'd get attacked by a chopper squad. You got used to it, but..."
He gave a shrug. He'd never gotten used to it. It was, in a way, a haunting he was responsible for. He'd known Sprinkle's boys were going to fill it with lead, but had said nothing. It was a slaughter.
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Post by jarahamee on Nov 22, 2022 0:49:12 GMT -6
Ru winced a little. He didn’t know what a ‘chopper squad’ was, but it didn’t sound good. It was probably what had made them all ghosts, wasn’t it? He wondered what the pub ghosts were doing there. Maybe it was just all the drunk fools who had hit their head over the many years, or maybe drank too much. That didn’t sound too bad.
“I think these ones are here, just because it’s a very old pub. None of them are like… angry ghosts though. I sometimes wonder if they’re happy there, or if they don’t have the ability to know.. well, you know.”
He frowned, rubbing his cheek. The pub ghosts were pleasant in their own way. Some appeared to be a few hundred years old. Some were from only a few years ago. He wondered if being an old ghost gave them more power. Probably.
“The ones who seem happiest are probably at the Red Dragon Tavern. It’s one of the oldest on this coast, you know.”
The vampire smiled awkwardly.
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Post by beastly on Nov 23, 2022 13:03:22 GMT -6
"Buncha spirits out on the roof... 'Red Dragon Tavern'," The ghost repeated. If it was the oldest, it had history. There'd be fellas with stories. He'd visit it. It wouldn't be the same, but it would be something to do beyond wandering and haunting taxis. He shot Ru a sideways glance.
"...Were you gonna try and make me stop haunting hacks?"
If there was any sort of 'official attention' pointed his way, he'd likely have to give up his ghostly activity. At least for a while.
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Post by jarahamee on Nov 24, 2022 2:05:31 GMT -6
“Our attention was drawn to the haunting, yes. It is a little more direct than most of the city’s hauntings, even if it’s harmless.”
He was not levying a direct answer to the ghost; rather the point. He had indeed been sent to stop the hauntings, and perhaps to put the ghost to rest, but it seemed like that wouldn’t be possible now. If the ghost did not want his help, he couldn’t force it. He supposed they did have ghost hunters if things ever came to that.
“It’s just… a little more tricky, you know?”
The vampire smiled. He hoped the ghost would take it well. At least, as well as a ghost could being on official business.
“I took a little while to adapt to the rules of the city. We do only consensual and donated blood here.”
Ru shrugged. It happened to everyone.
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Post by beastly on Nov 25, 2022 7:16:06 GMT -6
Jonny sighed, resting an elbow on the door and his head in his hand. He was enjoying the hauntings. New York was a bigger city, though, and he supposed that's why he could get away with more. People didn't blink twice when weird things happened.
"It's not hurting anybody, and ghosts are the sort of thing you either believe in or you don't, " Jonny complained, half heartedly,"no matter how many times your aunt tells you about the man she's seen walking around the corner, if you don't believe in ghosts you're going to dismiss it as applesauce. Even pictures aren't worth anything, they're 'fake' or 'weird light'."
He knew that doing the same haunting weekly to the same population at the same spots was a bit much. He had pulled that haunting more sparingly back home, even. It was just the only one he felt he could do here with his limited knowledge of the city.
Ru mentioned the vampire rules and Jonny rolled his eyes. How was he supposed to know how ghosts were expected to act here? What were the ghost laws? Frankly, the idea of there even being such things was laughable to the spirit.
"Well, see, Ru, when they dragged my bones into the city nobody handed me the damn rulebook. What 'city approved' hauntings am I allowed, Mr. Vampire? Going to send me to the jug if I don't follow 'em? Or just be done with it and magic me off to hell?"
He wasn't sure why he was escalating, and things were slipping out he didn't necessarily want to say. He brought a hand to his face and rubbed his forehead.
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Post by jarahamee on Nov 26, 2022 15:19:33 GMT -6
Ru smiled patiently as Jonny complained. He understood where he was coming from. Hauntings were probably fulfilling to someone like him, but they had gathered enough attention that the WDSA had come to respond. Well, he was a social-worker, not an enforcer, so he didn’t have the same sorts of rules when it came to ghosts or ghouls.
“I think it’s ok as long as it’s occasional. It’s been frequent enough that we’ve had… more than a handful of complaints. Mostly about the financial aspect, you know.”
The vampire half-closed his eyes as he drove. He wasn’t really here to force anyone to leave, but he was here to try to help resolve situations without the involvement of enforcement.
“I’m sorry that happened to you. I’m not enforcement, so I don’t do that kind of thing, I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything I could do to help you out, and to let you know that it’s been noticed.”
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Post by beastly on Nov 27, 2022 1:52:01 GMT -6
The ghost settled some. Ru wasn't here to try and throw him in jail or demand he 'move into the light'.
"Dont need help. I'll do something else for a time. I had... I just dunno the city well," he admitted, " and... a hack haunting is a hack haunting wherever you are."
The spirit looked directly at Ru. He gestured out at the road.
"I don't like your city."
There was a lot more venom and emotion in the statement than the ghost intended, and his face shifted for a split second to something else.
"It'll probably just take a decade or two to grow on me," he recovered with a dry smile, " I'm learning."
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Post by jarahamee on Nov 27, 2022 12:32:01 GMT -6
Ru nodded. It was a city, but not a big city in the sense that New York or Los Angeles was a big city. It was an artistic city, a mostly brightly-lit city. A relatively quaint city in terms of cities. More akin to somewhere like Portland or Seattle in nature. Unfortunately too small for a ghost to go around haunting every cab that went from airport to elsewhere in the city.
“It’s probably not as big-city lifestyle as you’re used to, I imagine. We are um, very artistic here, and the city is ten times the size. There’s a lot less crime, believe it or not, and generally-speaking, our WDSA department is pretty lenient and aims to build trust and help over, you know, enforcing things.”
He poked his fingers together, wondering if the NYDSA would have called the Ghostbusters or something on a ghost like this. Probably. He didn’t really want to look into how things operated elsewhere, given what a pleasure Special Agent Decker had been.
“It can be really nice. The museum district is one of my favorites, especially when they do the late night galas. Or during any of the festivals. There's so many lights."
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