2014.01.31 - The (sexy) Frighteners

It was a dark and moany night out in South Gotham, and more things than just ghosts were rolling around. 'Ghosts' said with a bit of amusement, as if there are far worse things out there, like men who dress up as bats, or maybe radical feminists. A low fog rolled across the cracked, cold and perpetually wet and seedy looking pavement, slowly approaching a pair of older looking hobos crouching around a burn barrel. A half-finished glass bottle of Jack in one hand, they had salt in their beards and seemed to have been around here for a while. Maybe winos or just the occasional thug down on their luck, wrapped in heavy jackets.

Of course, as the svelte form of a woman seemingly appeared out of the dog at them, their attentions may have been distracted elsewhere. Particularly by how she seemed to pose and bend over, motioning for the less inebriated of the two with a come hither motion. Of course, it would take him a moment to actually get a good look at this sultry prostitute that was apparently offering one over for a free bop, until he came closer and saw what she REALLY looked like, and then there might be some terrified screams.

While you meander down the street, before they catch sight of you, its hard to miss little snippets of the conversation. One of them was gesturing wildly as he told what sounded like a campfire story.

"I'm telling you it jumped clear out the wall at me!", he shouts in a hoarse wheeze. "Could see m'self in the mirror clean through it!"

"An' I tell's ya, there ain't no such thing.", his companion shouts back angrily. This clearly wasn't the first time this story had been told.

"But..."

"Shut up!" came a quick reply. The irritated one perked up, then squinted down the street. With a drunken smirk, he first pointed at himself, then with a little encouragement, started to swagger over.

Still, even on a night like tonight, with no-one else to be seen on the streets, there's an odd... feeling lingering on the air. A feeling of being watched. That prickling on the back of the neck.

Though it didn't appear the man was terrified at first, Dizzy in the fog might have been thinking just then 'WAIT, hold the spooky truck up one minute here, WHO is stealing my schtick?!' her face perhaps not the overly makeup appliqued whorish vision of loveliness the man had been expecting, and as he got sight of those bat ears and long, ivory fangs, would promptly flee. Dizzy didn't even seem motivated to try and hypnotize or trance the man to stop him for a quick bite, either, instead stomping right up into the front of that theatre and letting herself in. She'd felt the weird aura around this place apparently, and was looking to get to the bottom of it.

It happened just as you stormed your way through the front doors of the theater! One of the giant letters breaks away from the front of the building and lands on an abandoned car just outside, sending windshield glass spraying all around it. Then, the front door's slam shut, as though someone just threw them closed... and all the while that feeling lingered. You swear, just out the corner of your hearing, you hear a faint, irregular heartbeat. Slow, deathly slow, but there. Faint.

The lights of the theater start to flicker, then slowly come to life. Music plays in the lobby, but it sounds twisted and distorted, like coming out of a record player spinning to slow. On the wall beside you, big splotchy red letters are painted on the wall in something thick and dark red. "GET OUT!"

Dizzy jumped a bit at the sudden crash of metal and glass flying outside, likely sending crackheads and winos scattering as a few car alarms went off, perhaps distantly. "Well, I don't much approve of the tingling on the back of the neck, but I can see where you're going with it," the bat woman shrugged a little as she stepped in further, peering up and around as the lights suddenly come on, illuminating the interior. Damn, how many people had used this place as a crash, murder AND fuck pad? There was broken bottles, needles and soiled mattresses all over the place. She blinked a little, stepping back from the letters that suddenly appeared, looking around in alarm. Was this place even getting to her, too?

The eerily slow music through the lobby comes to a screeching halt, like the needle just skipped off the record, and the lights go out again. Well, the ones in the front of the lobby do. The concessions area in the back is still lit up! A soft popping sound and the warm smell of butter drifts from the ransacked looking shopfront. From the concessions counter however also comes a hoarse whisper. Like something that could barely speak was trying to shout, but could only barely be heard.

"Get out... fleeeeee... run away. Go home.... death awaits."

Dizzy's boots clomp over the dirty floor, crunching what might be glass or old candy beneath as she heads over to the concession area, rapping a few of her nails against what was left of the glass popcorn display. "Too many ghoulies in one area, honey, come out so I can talk to you, maybe we can work out a deal," Dizzy shook her head a little, folding her arms. It seems the ghost here had a good enough thing goin on, the only issue was it would appear to be in an area the bat woman frequented, or so it appeared.

In sharp contrast to everything else, the popcorn and soda machines were clean enough to trust whatever came out of them. Still, when you sound less than impressed, the power goes off again, lights and machines alike. As though the fun had been spoiled. It was quiet for a long few moments. It was just as you'd folded your arms. A chill behind you, like something cold suddenly moved right behind you. The whisper that comes is close enough that you can feel a chill breath on your ear.

"What's to work out?"

There it was again, that faint, slow heartbeat. Right behind you, but.. drifting away. Like that chill, drifting suddenly back after it whispers.

Diz turned with a bit of sharpness, eyes going a bit wide as she realized whatever it was wasn't coming out just yet, though it was close, very close. "Ooh, I love it when people blow into my ears like that," she laughed a little under her breath, giving her big ear a flick before shaking her head. "See, you're scaring all the living critters around, I don't know if I want them that scared, I'm something of an unquiet dead, you see, or undead. Not really, kiiinda dead," she smirked a bit, those ivory fangs denting her red lips. Just then her ear picked up that heartbeat, focusing in on it, trying to find it's source. Her ears able to zero in on the noise. "You're right there, and you breath, huh?"

It was strange. She was clearly moving around, since it sounded like it came from a different direction each time you heard it. No person had a heartrate this slow. Not only that, but you couldn't hear any breathine. None... until..

FWOO

A sudden cold brush of air washes over your left ear, and a chill spot,like a fingertip, strokes down along it. That soft, slow throb keeps moving around, suddenly becoming increadibly faint and muffled, like through a wall, only to suddenly be behind you, above you, always moving around. Easier to pinpoint is a burst of girlish giggling.

"You can hear me huh? Pretty impressive... most people can't even tell I'm there. All right..."

Finally! Finally something starts to fade into view. Like a projection on a sheet of glass, you can see clear through her, but at least you can SEE her! She was laying down in mid air, head propped on one hand and kicking her legs like a teenager sprawled out on her bed.

"But don't think I'm too keen to share my new pad with some ugly warmbloods."

The bat blinked as she realized she was being touched on her ear, the conical ribbed things twitching, more a flicking, her body turning as finally the ghostly image of the... young girl is present. "Oh! there you are, and you're pretty young too, hrm," Diz even approached with a length of measuring tape she took out of her coat, tapping her foot a little. "You seem 'live, but you're all ghosty and such. Some kind of mutant power?" she circled around the girl just lying in midair like that, peering at her.

"Oh yeah? is that what the deal is? you don't like the 'pesky livin' critters' around? Bio-exorcisting them?"

With a little huff at the measuring tape, she fades suddenly from view, and reappears a few moments later about eight feet off the ground, standing... on the wall? It was like gravity just didn't care about her. Arms crossed, looking...'up'?... at you, the word 'exorcist' seems to touch a nerve. Fully visible and opaque now, her tone of voice is cold enough to cause a light mist in front of her mouth when she says,

"What would you know of exorcists? Your parents try torture too?"

"Nuh uh, my mother was a church goin' woman, so sorta, but not really," Dizzy sounds like she might have some southern twang in her voice, putting her hands on her hips as she looked up at the ghost with those cat-like yellow eyes of hers. "I don't quite take too kindly to the church going folk now, they don't like me so much anymore, for obvious reasons," she gave a cheeky grin, gesturing to herself. "Little old me being blood sucking vermin and all," she nodded. "Did someone try to exorcise you?"

She doesn't answer right away, this strange gravity defying girl. She just pauses to give you a good long look, as though trying to decide if she trusts you. Finally, with an exaggerated sigh, she starts soundlessly walking down the wall. You can see her feet move along the surface of the wall, transition to the floor, but she doesn't make a sound! Except for that faint, slow heartbeat.

"I know the bible thumper parents bit. Long story, ended in tragedy. Wound up in the care of a bunch more... torturers...",she says, pausing on the last bit to rub the back of her neck uncomfortably, "... now I'm here and I find it comfy."

She doesn't take a second look at your appearance, talks to you calmly as though nothing was strange or out of the ordinary. Walking past you.. and... THROUGH the counter top, she fills herself a bag of popcorn from the machine.

"I like being left alone... so I scare off anyone who might wanna bother me. I let them keep doing their thing in the streets though...", and there's a small smirk on her face again, "... they make the funniest faces when they piss themselves after all."

The heart beat Dizzy can hear. She can hear a beetle scurrying about too if she really wants to, not that she focused on every little thing that often. "But you ain't dead, you got not much business running around out here. Sometime someone not so nice is gonna find you, and well, I hope you at least got powers to protect youself," the bat lady shook her head a little and rocked back on the heels of her boots, her arms still folded over her front a bit.

"So this where you been livin, hmm?" she moved over and leaned against the countertop, her hands on the edge. "Heh, that is pretty funny yes, I must admit," she leaned back, sounding a bit less like a parent now, and younger thanks to the tone shift. "Just want you to be careful, sure there's lots of very bad men that'd like to get their hands on your pale and transparent skin there, sugah."

Phantasma gives a little smirk when you start to sound worried about her, casually munching on a kernal here or there. She keeps walking through things.. walls, counters, tables, chairs, as though they weren't there, at one point even reaching inside a vending machine to pull a soda straight out through the display.

"Right. Because the guys hanging around here are so brave and fearless. Its notlike any of 'em could lay a hand on me anyway."

There it was. The overconfidence of youth.

"But how about you huh? You tell me how dangerous it is around here, but it sounds like you make a habbit of coming 'round...", there was a little bit of an awkard pause, as her voice had almost cracked a little "uhm... 'r-round here... Shouln't you be worried 'bout yourself?"

"Well, there is I dunno, fucking Batman, as well as a guy around here who's a ghost hunter, Coventry I think his name is," Dizzy shook her head a little, one hand on her hip now, peering at the girl. "Well, that's the thing, I'm already dead, and you don't seem to be. It's not exactly that fun," she shrugged. "At least, most of the time," she grinned. "I still gotta find those two chuckleheads out there and maybe get a bit of food in me tonight though, so if you ever need Dizzy's help, you just give her a little call," the vampiress flashed a flip-top style cell at her, handing over her number too.

The look on the ghost girls face at the mention of Batman would be comical if it weren't so surprising. She looked utterly baffled. "Batman? What's that, a circus act? Or is it some guy like you? Gotta admit, ears like that'd be cute on a sexy guy... Ooooh or is it more costumed wierdos? I swear, I thought I was a frea~... w-huh?" She stops mid taunt, blinking at the offer of a number, and looking at the phone... curiously? Was this girl for real? She looked a little off put, like she didn't know how to respond. There's a few moments silence before rather awkwardly, looking uncomfortable, she asks in an embarrassed tone 'W-what.. are you.. whats this?' There was even a tinge of pink showing in her pale cheeks as she holds up the phone number.

"Well, he is sorta hot to think about, but he's not from a circus, hon," Diz blinked a little as the girl suddenly looked confuzzled and as if she didn't understand. "I like you, so I want you to call me if you ever need help, and Dizzy come a runnin', you hear?" the southernish twang and authority crept back into the bat lady's voice, before shakes her head. "Just take it now, do what Diz tells ya," she handed it off, tucking the phone back in her fur coat. "I'll have to catch you later there, phantom trixie, I got work to do before old man son comes up.."

Confusion starts to blend a little with suspicion, but she takes the number off you all the same. She keeps looking at your cell phone like she had an idea what it was, but had never really seen one before. "T-thanks.." she says uncertainly. She stands there awkwardly now, that little blush creeping lightly ito her cheeks again. An awkward bit of rubbing the slip of paper, looking up at you, then down again, she doesn't really find her voice again until you turn to leave. Perhaps a little more forcefully than she intends, she says "I-if you.. uhm... ever want to catch a movie.. I.. uhm.. I stole some working equipment. I have one of the theater rooms running. A-and... the basement is pretty dark.. if you need a place to hide sometime..."

"Oh yeah? no shit? Well, guess we'll be bunking together some nights if I need a place to crash," Dizzy grinned and flashed her fangs a little over those ruby red lips of hers. "Dizzy B will see you again, hon," she gestured to herself before heading out the door, her boods clattering as soon those disappear too, fading away. More force than person, in some ways.