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Post by jarahamee on Dec 31, 2022 23:21:21 GMT -6
Ru nodded in agreement, shaking his hand. The ghost was so earnest, he knew he had to do his best to see this through. Especially since he hadn’t heard from his family in so long. How would he feel if he never saw his own family again? Even thinking about it sent a cold, sinking feeling down in his stomach. How would it have felt if he was a ghost who thought he’d never see his family.
“Yeah I’m the conduit, but most people forget after a little while. I have a pretty androgynous look so I can speak as a man or a woman.”
He rubbed his cheek, considering. It was always awkward explaining how things were going to work mechanically. As for timing, he’d need to set up a circle, and think about exactly who he’d be conducting.
“I should be ready in about 24 hours. So any time after that should work for me. Photographs, or things they owned will help me locate them, but it should still work even if you don’t have anything. That ok?”
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Post by beastly on Jan 1, 2023 7:28:26 GMT -6
Jonny tilted his head as Ru spoke, trying to imagine Al or Elena saying his words. It would still be very strange, but it didn't matter. He'd usually been shooed away by most legitimate mediums, of which he'd met a few. He had a 'negative energy', a 'bad aura'. But. He'd seen enough while snooping around to understand the gist.
"It's not gonna bother me."
Upon hearing that it'd only take a day before Ru was ready, Jonny grinned. A day was nothing! But then his brow furrowed. He didn't have anything that had belonged to them. He was a ghost, and carried no physical things on his person. He went through far too many walls.
"A day is nothing but...I dont have anything. Maria, my sister's granddaughter, has all the old family photographs, but, see, that's all... back home," he looked slightly anxious, although Ru said it'd still work," But you can still do it?"
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Post by jarahamee on Jan 8, 2023 1:04:30 GMT -6
Ru paused, thinking. He could still do it, with Jonny’s help, but it’d be a lot harder. He rubbed under his chin, thinking deeply. Part of this was helping Jonny connect after all. Maybe they could find resources online to make some photos. Maybe that was the link they were missing this whole time!
“I think…the easiest way is…I don’t know if you can follow me home, but I can use our computer to look up their names, and that’s a good first step to start the chain. I can also use you, since you’re their blood relation, but it’ll take a little more effort. I’ll probably end up summoning the one who was the closest to you, if you know what I mean.”
The vampire smiled. Hopefully one of these should help link his new friend up with his family.
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Post by beastly on Jan 8, 2023 20:46:53 GMT -6
The computer. Sprinkles had a vampire doing the computer, Trevor was his name. It was something far beyond Jonny. He knew a computer was something you could get information from, and do money things with, but if sat down in front of one he wouldn't know how to operate. This vampire knew computers too, fortunately enough.
"Yes, the computer," Jonny nodded like he understood how a computer was used," I can follow you, if you live in Wathais. I can tell you their names, you don't need to computer it...If you 'used me' it might be enough to get my mother, or my sister."
He wasn't sure what 'using him' involved, magically. He hoped it wouldn't hurt, but if it did, it'd be a small price to pay for seeing long dead family.
He felt jittery, but, conflictingly, also more calm than he had in a while. Looking out the window into the unfamiliar darkness didn't hurt as much. He had something to hope for, something to cling to. Even if it was only for a little bit. He returned Ru's smile, not a smirk or a sideways grin.
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Post by jarahamee on Jan 10, 2023 0:23:11 GMT -6
“Let’s try to get a computer hit first, and then, if that doesn’t work, I’ll use you as my anchor. Let me drive you to the house so that we can try the easy method first.”
It wasn’t a long drive back to his apartment; they had driven quite a ways while chatting. Would this help free Jonny from his obligations? Would he just be happier when all of these matters were settled? And why had he relocated? Did ghosts need jobs?
Soon enough, he pulled into his parking spot, rolling out and opening the door, as if the ghost would need such a gesture to get into his house. Was it weird for a client to know where he lived? He supposed for other vampires it wasn’t great, since they could pop in and murder him but this was a ghost who needed help so…
Hopefully it was ok.
The apartment was small and sparsely decorated. There was a lone laptop computer sitting on the desk across the single room apartment. A sad and unused kitchen was across from the room. There was a bed, which appeared to be either very clean, or never used, and a few rooms which might have been a bathroom and a closet.
He turned to Jonny and smiled;
“So, what were their names? I’ll start my search and see if I can link them on this genealogy website!”
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Post by beastly on Jan 10, 2023 12:13:40 GMT -6
Jonny would have just walked through the door, had Ru not rushed to open it. But he had, so Jonny didn't. He followed the vampire into the apartment, curiously looking around his surroundings. He didn't spend a lot of time in people's personal homes, so even the sad little apartment was a bit interesting. Had he not been so focused on his mission of getting Ru info on his family, he would have poked around the kitchen a little.
"Nice joint," Jonny commented to try and be polite.
He didn't recognize the laptop as a computer at first, not until Ru started using it. He had been under the impression computers were boxes, but he was receiving different information now. It was thin, like a book.
He watched in wonder as it turned on. Somehow, Ru would use it to find pictures of his family. He positioned himself behind Ru to watch him work. He assumed a genealogy website was something computer by context.
"Ab-so-lutely," Jonny agreed, nervously excited, " My parents are Matteo and Rosetta Angello," he paused, looking at the keyboard," A-n-g-e-l-l-o. My brother, we called him Al, but he's Alfred on paper."
Jonny found his lighter in his pocket, running his thumb along the engraving on the bottom. He really wanted this to work.
"My sisters are Julia Marino, Elena Angello, and Maria Alessi."
Buster Alessi had been a very good man, Jonny had always liked him a lot. He'd often joked if Maria wasn't going to marry him, he was going to. He'd been so good for Maria. Buster had actually outlived all his siblings, and he'd visited the man once or twice, but by that time his mind had been muddled with age. He was surely reunited with Maria up in heaven.
"Now, uh, hows that thingamajig know what they look like?"
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Post by jarahamee on Jan 13, 2023 1:37:56 GMT -6
“If we’re lucky, someone uploaded their photos, which will help me channel them.”
He smiled at Jonny, placing entries into the genealogy page. He wouldn’t know if anyone was linked yet, but this was a decent number of contacts; someone should have information in the database. He didn’t exactly love the group that helped perform all the tracing, but it would help Jonny reach his goals, and help Ru get a handle on who he was looking for without any other point of contact.
“…Right….right…. Ok. It’s searching.”
And sure enough, it found enough to link together a tree. Photographs, records. Not complete, but enough that Ru would have something to work with. Maybe he could use them to help search for the others in the abyss of the afterlife. Not permanently, but temporarily. Just a few moments of time.
“Oh…we have some hits… Do these faces look familiar?”
Ru shuffled away from his laptop, clicking on the grainy photo of Rosetta Angello first to give him a good look. It must be strange for the ghost to see what they could accomplish with computers and machinery these days.
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Post by beastly on Jan 13, 2023 8:27:09 GMT -6
Jonny hunched over the desk, squinting at the screen. Who was- the ghost rose a full half foot off the ground and Ru felt a supernaturally cold hand grip his shoulder excitedly.
"That's ma! That's my mother, Ru! You found her!"
Jonny honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd felt... whatever this was. Happy? Truly happy? He hadn't seen his mother's face in decades, not since he'd last gone through his niece's attic to look at old pictures. There she was, though, preserved on the glowing screen. She'd been in her early thirties or there about when they'd had their pictures taken. She looked back at him, hair done up and wearing her Sunday best. She was strong and sturdy, despite working a job and keeping five children and a husband alive.
They were on the right track. Whatever Ru was doing was working. He reluctantly pulled himself away, so Ru could work more computer magic. Jonny couldn't help but pace beside him, still six inches off the ground, staring at the screen.
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Post by jarahamee on Jan 16, 2023 0:20:55 GMT -6
“Oh good! Then I found the right files. Oh wait!”
More entries began to appear, and Ru opened each and every one in front of Jonny, confirming identities. After all, some of these were wrong.
“Matteo Angello!”
The vampire pulled up an article and another set of photos for Jonny’s father, which seemed linked to even more family members.
Below them were grainy images of the other family members who appeared under the two of them in a tree, organized in a linear fashion as a fold-out menu.
More family members presented themselves, and the tree expanded. Ru sifted through all the entries with his eyes, and then found something he didn’t expect.
“…Did…you have children? You have some listed under you? I think that’s you?”
He leaned in, squinting.
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Post by beastly on Jan 17, 2023 0:43:52 GMT -6
The spirit was overjoyed, standing behind the vampire to look over his shoulder. He was mightily impressed by Ru's computer wizardry, watching him sift through people and names. There was his pop, his sisters, his brother. It was good to see their faces.
Jonny's expression wrinkled in confusion, he was on there? That made sense, he'd just forgotten he'd be included. But... *children*? No, he hadn't had children. He got an uneasy feeling in his ghostly guts even as he answered, however, trying to understand what he was looking at.
"Children? Me? No...That *is* me," Jonny's mouth went dry, looking at his name,"gotta be a mistake there, I never..."
But it wasn't *impossible*. He'd never really thought about it before. In life, he'd had two (relevant) weaknesses: dames and drinking. He'd liked mixing the two. Had he woken up in a gal's bed a few times with no memory of the night prior? Yes. Beyond that, even sober... Suddenly it seemed more than just possible. And. And...
"Can you look at them?"
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Post by jarahamee on Jan 17, 2023 1:27:44 GMT -6
“Well, I think they are linked by genetics, but… you can go ahead and look.”
The vampire clicked on his icon, enlarging it to get more details. After he was satisfied, he moved away from the computer so that Jonny could get a better look. Sure enough, under his name there were two children from two different mothers, whose tree branched off and away from the rest of the family’s.
The names read:
June Mann, and Angelina Bello.
June’s profile image was of an elderly woman, wearing clothing from the 90’s. She is surrounded by other family members in his chosen photo, but the image’s cropping made them impossible to see clearly. A birth and death date were visible below the photo, with more attached family members beneath.
Angelina’s photo was of a beautiful young woman with sad dark eyes, and short hair that had been transformed with the help of curlers into rippling waves. A birth and death date were visible below the photo. There were more attached family members beneath.
“Does that seem right?”
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Post by beastly on Jan 21, 2023 22:07:58 GMT -6
Jonny stared at the pictures on the laptop, silent as the dead. There was no denying June - she clearly took after the Angellos. He could see his mother in her expression, and she had his nose and curls. That old woman was his baby. Angelina was less obviously his, but he knew those eyes. Those eyes were his own, but sad where he was angry. She was a very pretty young lady, and he wondered quietly about her life, expression falling as he read their birth and death dates.
June had lived to be an old woman, but Angelina had barely made it out of her thirties. And he'd missed them. Completely. The girls had lived and died without his knowledge at all. The smell of gunfire filled the room as the ghost tried to wrap his mind around the two women on the screen.
Nobody had ever come to him about a baby or a pregnancy. Had they- had they, he would have taken care of them. Supported his child, married the mother. Like a man should, right? He would have, right? Why hadn't he been told? Or found out somehow? Why? Had he come off as such scum that the mothers hadn't wanted him in their babies' lives? Had they found better men to marry and hadn't wanted to confuse the issue? Were the children products of his affairs with married women, and were passed off as the husband's baby? Or they themselves hadn't been aware who the father was? Maybe they had all been drunk and young together, ignoring the church and the older generations before them and living life the fun way, like death couldn't touch them. He couldn't remember the mothers. It might have just been they couldn't remember him.
Why changed nothing.
He held his hands in front of him, eyes fixed on his palms as if imagining an infant in his arms. He'd missed them. Hadn't been there for them. He'd had daughters and they hadn't had their papa. He hadn't known they'd existed. What if they'd needed him? He would have clawed the moon out from the bleeding night sky if he'd- but he hadn't- Angelina had died so young-
Jonny's face went skeletal, and he only noticed because his hands followed suit. Normally, his ghostly flesh only left him after a few bullets to the chest. That's about how he felt, actually.
He turned empty sockets briefly to Ru, then started walking towards the wall facing the street.
"I gotta... think."
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Post by jarahamee on Jan 23, 2023 3:12:42 GMT -6
Ru watched the slow progression of thought take place in Jonny. His entire emotional journey. Maybe he should have thought harder about all of this before he showed the fate of his whole family. But how could he have withheld information he didn’t know existed about Jonny’s own children and family?
The vampire nodded, expression solemn. Hopefully all of this would go over well.
“Hey, take all the time you need. I have to see other cases, but if you have a way of contacting me… you can give me a ring and we can meet and I can help you look up more about your family so you can process everything before we meet them.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, watching the ghost stare into the wall like he could see through it. Would having a family change anything for him? Would he want to stay more?
Ru wasn’t really sure, but maybe this would be helpful.
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Post by beastly on Jan 25, 2023 20:39:28 GMT -6
"I still wanna talk to them. I do. I didn't know about..." The skeleton trailed off, standing by the wall, "I know where you live. I can't call you, but I can knock."
Jonny mimed knocking on the door with very little enthusiasm. He was torn inside, the crushing weight of his failure as a father brought against the hope he had felt at the chance to speak to his family again. The new information had him shaken. He knew what he was, he'd known what he was, he held few illusions, but this was a fresh new sin. Some new element of the past he hadn't been aware of, and it'd hit him hard.
"Thanks, Ru."
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Post by jarahamee on Jan 26, 2023 0:53:31 GMT -6
Ru smiled sadly, watching the ghost leave. It must have been a lot, to see that he had daughters, and then.. that they were no longer alive. There was no way he could have been part of their lives, or likely, even their unlives. He could ask them questions and talk to them, but would it bring him closure?
He wasn’t really sure.
“Of course… Any time, just um, knock when you want to drop in. I have to work Monday to Friday in the evenings, but I’m free from 4 am to 8 pm!”
The vampire did have to sleep in those in-between hours, at some point, but he usually had a couple hours of time to himself before and after work. He was sure that Jonny would understand.
“… Let me know when you feel up to it, ok?”
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