ii. video.

[thanatophobias]

[You can tell something about this message has been a long time coming when it first clicks on, revealing the bust of a young boy with uncertainty in his eyes. The moment he confirms it's recording is the moment he places down the communicator with small hands, before settling back and sitting down. His eyes are downcast, debating - until he gathers some more courage and starts talking.]

Someone died.

[There's a lengthy pause after the announcement. He just... doesn't want this to make him a freak. He has to remind himself he's not the only one with an ability no one else has. That's the only reason he's brought himself to reach out.]

I can see her sometimes. She wants my help, [As all the benevolent spirits who visit him do, in the end,] But she won't say anything.

I don't know what to do.

[Dr Malcolm isn't here to help him. They'd said goodbye once he'd helped that little girl back home, but - he wishes he were here to give him more advice, now.]

Comments

[foreshadower]

You don't? Expecting someone to do something simply because they can isn't rude?

I find it incredibly so.

[thanatophobias]

I never thought about it.

[there doesn't seem to be much of an option.]

[foreshadower]

Never thought to tell them to bugger off?

[thanatophobias]

I did.

[foreshadower]

Did you act on it?

[thanatophobias]

How?

[foreshadower]

Make your company so unbearable a lonely afterlife looks far better, of course.

[thanatophobias]

[That doesn't sound like him at all.]

I don't know how to do that.

[foreshadower]

Mmm, insult them, perhaps get under their skin. Find their weakness, and then exploit it?

[thanatophobias]

They might hurt me if I do that.

[foreshadower]

So are they ghosts or poltergeists?

[thanatophobias]

... I don't know the difference.

[foreshadower]

A ghost is harmless, a poltergeist is a dead being who has found a way to affect the world around them.

[thanatophobias]

Then - I guess it depends. Some of them just want me to help them. Some of them just wanna try to hurt me.

[foreshadower]

Want to? Are they capable of it?

[thanatophobias]

[a quiet nod. He has the scars to prove it, but they're better off kept hidden.]

[foreshadower]

Mm, that makes it a bit more complicated.

You would think the dead would preserve the innocence of a child.

[thanatophobias]

They don't care.

[foreshadower]

Mmm, I see.

That's dreadful, isn't it?

[thanatophobias]

I don't like it.

[foreshadower]

And nor should you! Can you get rid of them?

[thanatophobias]

Not really.

Not on my own.

[foreshadower]

Mm. There is a way, though?

[thanatophobias]

I don't know.

[there's a little tension in his voice.]

[foreshadower]

Mmm, what have you tried, then?