Ji-Ho passes through the world unseen, unheard, unfelt. But he sees, and he hears, and he -- okay, well, if he feels, it's only metaphorically. His hands pass through the world with less presence than a breeze.
He's a Helldiver, but right now the only Hell he is diving is the hell of extremely tedious and yet strangely lucrative surveillance and no, he doesn't want to know why he gets such a nice bounty on finding someone's PIN for the safe in their office, he'll just take the payment, thanks. And then relax, taking a strange sort of comfort in the way people pass through him as he--
OH. FAMILIAR FACE.
With nothing better to do, Ji-Ho trails after Javi as he enters a building, walks up a hall, and settles in for class with a whole bunch of questions filling his eyes at the sight of Javi's _companion_.
Javi does not notice Ji-Ho, of course. Ji-Ho is not a ghost. There //are// plenty of ghosts here, obviously, and some of them try to talk to him, but he pretty much ignores any of them who aren't his companion.
It's pretty easily discerned which one that is. It's a young man -- a kid, really, maybe 18 or 19, who bears a striking resemblance to the //other// young man who is actually alive. The ghost's hair is wavy more than Javi's riot of curls, he's a little finer-featured, and looks a lot more serious (though it's a little bit difficult to tell, since he's, you know, a ghost), but they definitely look alike.
They're heading down the hall together, until they get near a door that must be where Javi's class is. "See you in a minute," Javi murmurs, before he heads inside. The ghost, however, stays //out//side, perhaps so as not to disturb him. Of course, there really isn't much a ghost can do, so he ends up just sort of...lingering in the hall, reading a poster about the current health care initiatives in the hospital.
Ji-Ho glides on up to read over the ghost's shoulder and goes, "Soooo. Are you the one he's talking to sometimes?" exactly like normal people wouldn't.
The ghost turns away from the poster to look at Ji-Ho, blinking slowly. There's something similar about his expression to Javi, though muted -- at a four, whereas Javi's have all been dialed up to eleven.
"Yeah." He squints, studying Ji-Ho for several seconds before he continues, "You weren't dead before."
"I'm still not. Ji-Ho," he introduces himself, before pausing for a beat and saying, "I guess you knew that. Uh. Sorry about -- you know. Not being dead. About you being dead. Is that rude? I don't talk to a lot of ghosts out here."
"Nacho." Nacho doesn't offer his hand to shake, but he does lift a hand to wave at Ji-Ho with a little smile. //Definitely// subdued compared to Javi. "Thanks. It's fine. I don't really talk to a lot of ghosts, either." He glances toward the door where Javi's disappeared into, but it's brief before he looks back to Ji-Ho. "So what are you, then? If you're not dead." Is //that// rude? Well, he doesn't really seem to consider it. Of course, he is a ghost.
Ji-Ho stares at the poster on current health care initiatives with fixed and focused attention that shatters at nothing in particular. He glances around, startled, for all that nothing seems to have made a noise. Finally, he looks back at Nacho: "Oh. Ah. Different." He pauses a beat. "Changed. Alive, but definitely -- changed. I used to be weirder, you know." There's already enough about him that is weird, but little of it slips the edges other than what they've _already_ seen. "Used to be somewhere else. Now I'm here, different."
"Oh." Unlike Javi, who might have at least been a little curious about that sound that he couldn't actually hear, Nacho doesn't seem to notice it. He's intensely focused on Ji-Ho, ghostly eyes moving around those edges as if trying to make a note of everything possible. "You're another one of those." He doesn't sound like it's a compliment, but he also doesn't necessarily sound like it's an //insult//. Maybe slightly more toward the latter than the former -- or maybe it's just a little wariness. But eventually: "Cool. Well, hey. Nice to meet you."
"Yeah!" Then after a moment, Ji-Ho says, "Wait, what do you mean _those_?" in a definitely shifty kind of way. He may or may not waver around the edges beneath Nacho's scrutiny as though he is pulling himself in closer and tucking the shadows back where they belong. Nothing but perfectly normal shadows here!!
"You know." Nacho flicks a hand, another less exaggerated version of something Javi might do. "One of those. Those people who used to be somewhere else." //You// know, Ji-Ho. Surely. "He knows someone else like that. That guy's kind of a dick." However, a moment later he adds, grudgingly: "But I guess he's fine." He carries on with that intense scrutiny of the other...well, whatever...before he adds, "You're not as much of one so far."
"Yeah, maybe," Ji-Ho says, more than a little cagey as he shifts and fidgets under Nacho's scrutiny, as though a ghost's gaze might pierce with physical force. "Haha, anyway, so. What's _your_ deal? Do you gotta stick around? Wandering halls has to be boring. You're family, right? Sorry about that."
It doesn't seem to actually cause physical damage, at least, for all that it's a little unnerving. But when Ji-Ho deflects things back on onto him, Nacho shrugs. "Yeah," he replies. "I guess so. He knows how it works better than me. He's the one who's always sending all of us home for whatever reason. I didn't tell him to do that." In case Ji-Ho was wondering. "But yeah. He's my brother." He pauses, then amends, "//Younger// brother." As if this might be a thorn in his side -- since of course, Javi is now older than he'll ever be.
Ji-Ho, of course, only makes that particular thorn push a little deeper given his obvious immediate surprise in the way he says, "Oh, I-- Uh," and then awkwardly shuts up when he CLEARLY wants to make some remark about their relative ages. "I don't really know how that works. They've got ghosts where I come from, but it's all a different kind, and -- uh, it's sort of like once you die there you become even more what you were made, and less what you were before. I don't know if they even have homes any more."
The look Nacho gives Ji-Ho when the other man SO OBVIOUSLY wants to say something about it is a little flat -- but when it goes mostly unsaid, he also lets it lie, focusing on the rest. "Oh. Huh." He takes a few moments to consider it, before he adds, "I don't really know if we do, either. He says we do, though." He looks again to the door behind which his brother presumably is, before he shrugs again. Apparently he's not too worried about it. "It's kind of whatever for me. I have to hang around him, but I want to, too, so it's not a big deal. That's probably why I'm still here."
"I've spent a lot of time in halls, too. A lot of time between. Spaces between here and there, back side of the mirror. I guess sitting outside a classroom isn't that bad, in the end." Ji-Ho takes a little peek in the door and, "Oh, fuck. They are wrapping up in there. Hey, I gotta pop back in, I'm getting hungry. Act cool, okay? We're good?"
"Mm. Yeah. Sure." Does Nacho understand any of this at all? Probably not! But he acts as if he does. "I just wish I could turn pages." That's said a little wryly, but still subdued. He's not too broken up about it, whatever that would mean for a ghost.
He turns to look at the door, too, before he turns back to Ji-Ho and lets out a little huff. "I don't have to //act// cool," he remarks. It's really that which makes him seem the most like Javi. But whereas whenever Javi says that sort of thing about himself, it's mostly joking, Nacho is much more serious about it. Though still a little amused, even if it's directed more at Ji-Ho than himself. "Sure. We're good. See you around, I guess." Maybe.
"You act like an older brother, you know. It's not that surprising," Ji-Ho says, pausing before his pivot as he stops to look over Nacho. "If I had an older brother, I bet they'd be like that. You know." His smile flickers, quicksilver. "_Cool_. Oh -- want me to stop by next time I'm between like this? You gotta be dying for someone else to talk to, however cool you are."
This is the first thing that gets any sort of real expression from Nacho. It makes him laugh, and he lifts a hand to point at Ji-Ho, poking the finger toward him in the air a few times. And actually, it seems to be at both the first comment, and that whole 'dying' thing. Ha ha.
However, once it's faded again he takes a moment to really consider it. "You know what," he admits, "that would actually be great. Thanks. I love him but yeah." It's been a while.
Ji-Ho looks briefly mortified: OH. THAT'S A BAD CHOICE OF PHRASING. He covers his face with his hands and takes a step back, then another, clearly ready to phase out of this reality, too. His hands fall to reveal a smile as Nacho yields to his OBVIOUS CHARM. "Awesome. Ghost friend. Okay. Tell your brother hi, but don't tell him when I passed it on. I bet that'll drive him nuts." And obviously irritating people is a good thing!! "Catch you around, Nacho." Then he jogs off, leaving him to the posters as the noise level rises in the classroom, suggesting they are beginning to wrap up.
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