"...I suppose it's a similar concept, yes." He can't deny that much, okay. "But you won't actually be in the marble, anymore than you're actually in the ground there right now. You'll just be tied to it, which means you can be moved around with it."
Then, after a moment of thought, he added, "And it's small enough that, once you've got some strength back, you could theoretically move it around on your own."
Maurice looked to his pit when Ginko mentioned it. He suddenly felt like the world was moving in slow motion. Was Ginko saying that with time he could just become his own ghost? He could go where he wanted when he wanted. Maybe even contact his family after a time...or at least watch his nieces grow up?
"Oh..." He took his hat off so that he could have something to hold onto. "That'd...that'd be just great. You'd do that for me? I can't even pay you back I don't--I don't have any money or a will or anything!"
Ginko gave a small smile, sliding the hand not holding the marble into his pocket. "I don't see why not. And don't worry about it; it's no trouble."
He crouched down, keeping the marble in the palm of his hand as he set his bag on the ground. He started rooting through his supplies, and, after a few seconds, produced a small bag of salt. "If you can point out where, exactly, the connection point seems to be, I can move the tether now."
"You gotta! You gotta let me do somethin' in return! You just--you just think on it, alright? I'd sleep a lot better knowing..."
Maurice shut his mouth before Ginko could have time to change hid mind. He turned to the pit and started to circle it. He reached forward to grab the tether and lift it. It manifested as a chain in his hand and after giving it a good yank and disturbing some of the discarded branches, its base revealed itself.
He gave a quiet laugh. "Alright, I'll think about it."
Ginko nodded and stepped closer to the base, pouring some salt into his hand. He glanced at Maurice before sprinkling the salt onto the base. "This might feel a little strange."
"Salt is a mild repellent for ghosts; the strength of the aversion depends on the individual, but even if it's pretty weak in your case, this should make it easier to disconnect you from this spot."
He poured a couple more powders, one after the other, in a circle around the base. Then, holding the marble just above the base, he produced a lighter from his pocket and set fire to the topmost circle of powder.
It was quick; a flash of light as the fire spread around the circle, not catching the leaves thanks to the layer of flame-retardant powder below it. A sort of ripple traveled from the ground and swirled into the marble, vanishing from view a moment later.
From Maurice's point of view, all he would feel would be a brief dizziness, a sense of falling - and then the world would stabilize itself again as the connection reformed.
"Dude, look at me." He patted his stomach. "I loved salt."
But now Ginko was doing something interesting and Maurice couldn't help but pretend to stand on the ground and crouch down to inspect it. He lost count of the powders and by the time the flash appeared, he wasn't ready for it.
The world disappeared for him for a moment. It became a terrifying swirl of colors and his form rocked backwards. If he'd been solid, he would have landed hard on his ass and knocked his elbow against a nearby tree. Instead he just seized up and floated oddly through it. THen it was over.
Had it been...a year? Two years? Five minutes? He couldn't tell. Suddenly the world came back into focus and there was Ginko.
He planted a hand against the spot his heart used to be. "Whooh you...you wadn' kidding that. That was something. Oh, man. Gimmi a minute."
Sure enough, Ginko's ritual had been a complete success!
Once the transfer was finished, Ginko straightened up, giving Maurice another small smile.
"Seems like it worked, though. You want to see if you can hold it?" He held up the marble, which looked largely the same as it had, except for a faint buzz of energy surrounding it.
Maurice righted himself and reached out warily, as if he were afraid that if he moved too suddenly this amazing thing would suddenly stop existing. He'd still be chained to his own grave in a pine wood nobody visited.
His fingers passed through he marble but he felt the energy popping off of it. And it was his. Even if he was currently too weak to carry it himself, he couldn't help tearing up.
It had worked. And this was real.
"Now look...you went and made me all...drippy again." He swiped a thumb under one eye. Indeed, his outline had started to sort of melt, but for once it was from joy. "I can't thank you enough. I've been stuck behind this bar for...what's gotta be three years now with nobody to talk to. I'm gonna start workin' on carryin' this ball and chain right away!"
And, of course, he meant it. Even if he couldn't save the bar (and, in fact, kind of ended up doing the opposite by trying to contact the ghost), it was good to know he could at least help Maurice after the fact.
"Anywhere in particular you want me to put this for now? Should at least make sure you've got more to do until you can carry it on your own."
Maurice opened his mouth. The first thing he thought of was home. He wanted to go home. He wanted to haunt his parents' house. To watch the kids grow up.
But something dark tugged at the corner of that dream. What if they were glad he was gone? Maurice the fuckup, Maurice the drunk, Maurice the blacksheep that always made family dinners awkward.
He closed his mouth and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
"Uhhh...somewhere outta th' weather would be nice."
He nodded, then turned and looked through the woods, back toward the lot. "Makes sense... if you're not sure, I guess we could drive around town some and see where you like?"
The thought of just having the luxury of driving around was enough to lift his spirits again. Ghosts were emotional beings anyway and he only had room for a few feelings at a time. Luckily he was MUCH more keen on being excited and grateful.
"Sure! Hey, I can show you Todd's if it's still around. Best pizza you ever put in your mouth! And--oh man. I need to see if Fred's is still there! Aw man, I hope Mr. Corey was able to find somebody else to shadow under him. He's a great mechanic."
Maurice drifted right along behind him like a balloon. It was so strange not feeling that perpetual yank on his core back to the woods. Strange and great.
"I bet he'll cut you a good deal, especially if you're down on your luck."
He was going to go out on a limb and assume Ginko's business wasn't exactly booming.
"That'd be good... at this rate I'm going to have to start holding seances or something just to buy gas." He sighed and shoved a hand through his hair.
Once they reached the car, Ginko pulled the passenger side door open for Maurice - which, he supposed, wasn't really necessary, but it seemed more polite than just making him phase in. After some wrestling with the handle on the driver's side, he dropped into the seat.
At first glance, Ginko's car seemed just as cluttered on the inside as it was broken-down and decrepit on the outside. The backseat was covered with cardboard boxes and plastic storage containers, mostly filled with books and newspapers and the occasional article of winter clothing. A dark blue trenchcoat, the edge of a faded purple scarf, all looking just as baggy and worn as what Ginko was already wearing. Despite the mess, though, there was still a sort of organization to it all.
There was also the matter of the distinct scent of cigarette smoke permeating the entire interior.
Ginko grimaced and reached over to remove a pile of papers - letters and notes and receipts - off the passenger seat, dropping it on top of a box in the back. "Sorry about that."
A wobbly grin crossed Maurice's face when Ginko opened the door for him. He couldn't remember the last time anybody had done that. It made him feel like he was really there--a real person and not some moaning shade.
"Thanks."
And then he saw the state of the car. Now, Maurice's own truck was never a model for cleanliness. On any given day when you opened the door a small flood of beer cans spilled out. But Ginko's ride had a very... 'I don't actually have a home' vibe to it and the ghost's brows furrowed as he settled himself in the seat. He hoped he could keep himself stationary when they drove instead of just trailing behind the car like a kite.
And then there were the stains. As a ghost, Maurice's sense of smell was near non-existent but he knew what tobacco stains on glass looked like. He'd stayed in the bar for three years after all. And. You know. Ashes in places told the story pretty well. He pulled his ghost hat off and put it on the dash.
"It's not a problem at all, makes me feel at home t'be honest."
"Ah... well, glad it doesn't bother you." He wasn't sure what that said about what Maurice was used to, of course - he knew that most people wouldn't exactly consider these to be ideal conditions.
He made sure Maurice's marble was secure in his pocket before starting the car - which, indeed, made an awful sound and started and stopped a couple times before settling into a more consistent rumble. He gave a quiet sigh of relief and pulled out of the lot.
"Alright, where first...? I'm definitely going to want to visit that mechanic and the pizza place you mentioned, but is there anywhere you want to check out beforehand?"
"Hmm..." Maurice rubbed his face and tried to think. There was that DAMN PIE SHOP that he found the twenty dollar bill in front of. Man. If he'd just bought pie instead of beer he wouldn't have died. But how many people would have died due to the thunderghost?
"Why don't we just drive around. If anything jumps out at me, I'll let you know. Fred's is just at the edge of town there headed north. Can't miss it."
Ginko nodded and they set off down the road, in the general direction Maurice had indicated. He was mostly pretty quiet as he drove, used to just being on his own for hours at a time, but... having someone else in the car made that feel a little weird.
Unfortunately, Ginko wan't the best at thinking of topics for small talk. So instead he watched the road and tapped his fingers against the steering wheel, and, every so often, glanced at Maurice and started to open his mouth like he was going to say something. He generally gave up a moment later.
Maurice fell silent as well as the buildings and benches and little groomed trees passed them by. Dogtrot was a small town that had been trying very hard to revive itself the month he died. Now, years later, it had mostly succeeded. There were fast food restaurants on corners that hadn't been there before. There were new apartment buildings and a few new quick loan places and a YMCA where an entire block used to be. The streets were no longer stained with red clay from the construction of the new highschool.
It still looked like Dogtrot...but it wasn't his Dogtrot.
"Three years is a lot longer than I thought..."
As they neared what Maurice had called the older part of town, a knot of dread started to form where his stomach used to be. Fred's Gas 'n Go was nowhere in sight.
As he picked up on Maurice's conspicuous silence, Ginko gradually dropped his efforts at idle conversation entirely. He glanced out the window, watching the buildings go by.
His only answer to Maurice's comment was a quiet hum that might have been agreement.
He slowed down when he caught sight of Maurice's expression. "...You alright?"
"Yeah I...I just guess. I don't know what I expected."
The empty block presented itself. Piles of bricks ready for laying and heaps of leveling dirt sat lopsided from the rains.
"We weren't doing too good t'be honest...lotta small businesses were already dying out before I died. I guess Mr. Corey packed up and carried on."
He grabbed his hat from the dash and looked at the logo sewn into it. He'd always been a little sad that his uniform said FRED'S instead of his actual name. Everyone called him Fred by mistake. It had annoyed him but now it was nostalgic.
The ghost furrowed his brow. That's how he would repay Ginko.
"Well shit! I'm a mechanic! I'll fix your car! It's the least I can do."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
"You wanna put me in that there marble like a po-ke-mon?"
Well.
no subject
Then, after a moment of thought, he added, "And it's small enough that, once you've got some strength back, you could theoretically move it around on your own."
no subject
"Oh..." He took his hat off so that he could have something to hold onto. "That'd...that'd be just great. You'd do that for me? I can't even pay you back I don't--I don't have any money or a will or anything!"
no subject
He crouched down, keeping the marble in the palm of his hand as he set his bag on the ground. He started rooting through his supplies, and, after a few seconds, produced a small bag of salt. "If you can point out where, exactly, the connection point seems to be, I can move the tether now."
no subject
Maurice shut his mouth before Ginko could have time to change hid mind. He turned to the pit and started to circle it. He reached forward to grab the tether and lift it. It manifested as a chain in his hand and after giving it a good yank and disturbing some of the discarded branches, its base revealed itself.
"Right there."
no subject
Ginko nodded and stepped closer to the base, pouring some salt into his hand. He glanced at Maurice before sprinkling the salt onto the base. "This might feel a little strange."
no subject
"Salt...? You tryin' to make me taste better? Good luck."
But he was going to see where this went.
no subject
He poured a couple more powders, one after the other, in a circle around the base. Then, holding the marble just above the base, he produced a lighter from his pocket and set fire to the topmost circle of powder.
It was quick; a flash of light as the fire spread around the circle, not catching the leaves thanks to the layer of flame-retardant powder below it. A sort of ripple traveled from the ground and swirled into the marble, vanishing from view a moment later.
From Maurice's point of view, all he would feel would be a brief dizziness, a sense of falling - and then the world would stabilize itself again as the connection reformed.
no subject
"Dude, look at me." He patted his stomach. "I loved salt."
But now Ginko was doing something interesting and Maurice couldn't help but pretend to stand on the ground and crouch down to inspect it. He lost count of the powders and by the time the flash appeared, he wasn't ready for it.
The world disappeared for him for a moment. It became a terrifying swirl of colors and his form rocked backwards. If he'd been solid, he would have landed hard on his ass and knocked his elbow against a nearby tree. Instead he just seized up and floated oddly through it. THen it was over.
Had it been...a year? Two years? Five minutes? He couldn't tell. Suddenly the world came back into focus and there was Ginko.
He planted a hand against the spot his heart used to be. "Whooh you...you wadn' kidding that. That was something. Oh, man. Gimmi a minute."
Sure enough, Ginko's ritual had been a complete success!
no subject
"Seems like it worked, though. You want to see if you can hold it?" He held up the marble, which looked largely the same as it had, except for a faint buzz of energy surrounding it.
no subject
His fingers passed through he marble but he felt the energy popping off of it. And it was his. Even if he was currently too weak to carry it himself, he couldn't help tearing up.
It had worked. And this was real.
"Now look...you went and made me all...drippy again." He swiped a thumb under one eye. Indeed, his outline had started to sort of melt, but for once it was from joy. "I can't thank you enough. I've been stuck behind this bar for...what's gotta be three years now with nobody to talk to. I'm gonna start workin' on carryin' this ball and chain right away!"
no subject
And, of course, he meant it. Even if he couldn't save the bar (and, in fact, kind of ended up doing the opposite by trying to contact the ghost), it was good to know he could at least help Maurice after the fact.
"Anywhere in particular you want me to put this for now? Should at least make sure you've got more to do until you can carry it on your own."
no subject
But something dark tugged at the corner of that dream. What if they were glad he was gone? Maurice the fuckup, Maurice the drunk, Maurice the blacksheep that always made family dinners awkward.
He closed his mouth and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
"Uhhh...somewhere outta th' weather would be nice."
no subject
no subject
"Sure! Hey, I can show you Todd's if it's still around. Best pizza you ever put in your mouth! And--oh man. I need to see if Fred's is still there! Aw man, I hope Mr. Corey was able to find somebody else to shadow under him. He's a great mechanic."
no subject
"We can check by all those places. ...Might want to talk to the mechanic, anyway. Engine's been having some hiccups lately."
Again.
no subject
"I bet he'll cut you a good deal, especially if you're down on your luck."
He was going to go out on a limb and assume Ginko's business wasn't exactly booming.
no subject
Once they reached the car, Ginko pulled the passenger side door open for Maurice - which, he supposed, wasn't really necessary, but it seemed more polite than just making him phase in. After some wrestling with the handle on the driver's side, he dropped into the seat.
At first glance, Ginko's car seemed just as cluttered on the inside as it was broken-down and decrepit on the outside. The backseat was covered with cardboard boxes and plastic storage containers, mostly filled with books and newspapers and the occasional article of winter clothing. A dark blue trenchcoat, the edge of a faded purple scarf, all looking just as baggy and worn as what Ginko was already wearing. Despite the mess, though, there was still a sort of organization to it all.
There was also the matter of the distinct scent of cigarette smoke permeating the entire interior.
Ginko grimaced and reached over to remove a pile of papers - letters and notes and receipts - off the passenger seat, dropping it on top of a box in the back. "Sorry about that."
no subject
"Thanks."
And then he saw the state of the car. Now, Maurice's own truck was never a model for cleanliness. On any given day when you opened the door a small flood of beer cans spilled out. But Ginko's ride had a very... 'I don't actually have a home' vibe to it and the ghost's brows furrowed as he settled himself in the seat. He hoped he could keep himself stationary when they drove instead of just trailing behind the car like a kite.
And then there were the stains. As a ghost, Maurice's sense of smell was near non-existent but he knew what tobacco stains on glass looked like. He'd stayed in the bar for three years after all. And. You know. Ashes in places told the story pretty well. He pulled his ghost hat off and put it on the dash.
"It's not a problem at all, makes me feel at home t'be honest."
no subject
He made sure Maurice's marble was secure in his pocket before starting the car - which, indeed, made an awful sound and started and stopped a couple times before settling into a more consistent rumble. He gave a quiet sigh of relief and pulled out of the lot.
"Alright, where first...? I'm definitely going to want to visit that mechanic and the pizza place you mentioned, but is there anywhere you want to check out beforehand?"
no subject
"Why don't we just drive around. If anything jumps out at me, I'll let you know. Fred's is just at the edge of town there headed north. Can't miss it."
no subject
Unfortunately, Ginko wan't the best at thinking of topics for small talk. So instead he watched the road and tapped his fingers against the steering wheel, and, every so often, glanced at Maurice and started to open his mouth like he was going to say something. He generally gave up a moment later.
no subject
It still looked like Dogtrot...but it wasn't his Dogtrot.
"Three years is a lot longer than I thought..."
As they neared what Maurice had called the older part of town, a knot of dread started to form where his stomach used to be. Fred's Gas 'n Go was nowhere in sight.
no subject
His only answer to Maurice's comment was a quiet hum that might have been agreement.
He slowed down when he caught sight of Maurice's expression. "...You alright?"
no subject
The empty block presented itself. Piles of bricks ready for laying and heaps of leveling dirt sat lopsided from the rains.
"We weren't doing too good t'be honest...lotta small businesses were already dying out before I died. I guess Mr. Corey packed up and carried on."
He grabbed his hat from the dash and looked at the logo sewn into it. He'd always been a little sad that his uniform said FRED'S instead of his actual name. Everyone called him Fred by mistake. It had annoyed him but now it was nostalgic.
The ghost furrowed his brow. That's how he would repay Ginko.
"Well shit! I'm a mechanic! I'll fix your car! It's the least I can do."
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)