A little too late, a little too much, a little bit left

[killorder]

WHO: Jake Jensen
WHERE: Around the South villge
WHEN: Just before everyone takes ill
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: None noted yet.

---

There was something about the mining trip that had made Jake feel a lot better about himself and this place and how life is. He needed to feel useful again, something he hadn't thought he might find here without the technology he is used to. Now things were so much better.

Or so he thought.

He got home, started cleaning things up, and in the process knocked some black dust loose from his pack. Coughing and choking, he got things to clean it up, throw it all out and thinking nothing of it with all they had done in the mine and it was no big deal.

Right until he couldn't turn a doorknob in trying to leave the Inn. It took him three tries, the last with his sleeve pulled down over his hand and it finally opens. Then he goes down to the forge to see if there's anything he can help with. Trying to open the door, his hand passing through the door.

Jake shrieks, backing up. "Oh. My. God. Did I die? Am I ghost?"

He freaks out a tiny bit as it goes on, heading back for the Inn and his house, and finding himself walking through a wall with little resistance. Oh man, this is so bad and so not good, and he's kind of freaking out as it goes on before it wears off.

Comments

[alittlelonger]

Rinoa also was very glad she went on the mining trip. She did her best to be useful on it, although she knows she couldn't do as much as everyone else. But she did something and that is satisfying. She wasn't about to let Squall do everything on his own. She washed the dirt off her and changed into clean blue clothes, heading back toward the inn to see if anyone else was around. She loves Squall, but making friends of her own is a priority.

That doesn't prepare her at all for a man seemingly to walk through a wall in front of her, and Rinoa let out a little shriek. First of all, the last person she saw walk through a wall was someone supremely dangerous who possessed her, second of all, she wasn't expecting it, and third of all were there ghosts there? She jumps backward and into the wall behind her, jamming her elbow really hard in the process.

That stung big time, and she looks at the not-quite-ghost for a few moments, before realizing she recognizes him. Not by name, but he was on the trip too! "What happened to you?"

[killorder]

The moment Jake realizes he's gone through a wall, he realizes he's scared someone else. Jerking back, he half phases through the wall. Startling away from that, he glances around, hands up.

"Whoa whoa. Hang on. Didn't mean to scare you," he manages, though his voice is willowy and airy, like he's talking through a fan almost. "Don't know? I was cleaning my gear and..." He gestures at himself, frowning. "Then this."

And he isn't sure what this is, but it's kind of terrifying realizing he's walking through walls, and what else that can mean. "I... It's... I swear I was alive," he says, revealing he's had the same thoughts she has.

[alittlelonger]

Oh, he's sweet worrying about scaring her when he's phasing though walls. Rinoa's heart immediately goes out to him, and she comes closer and tries to touch him, but her hand goes through. Oh that's definitely worrisome. "You are alive! We all got back from the mines safely, so ...." She refuses to think someone just died out of no where, okay? That's too scary a thought. Although if ghosts were real there, that's also something to note.

She frowns. "Maybe this is magic? Magic can do a lot of things." But no one there has magic. So it can't be that. Unless the people running this place did it to him. Rinoa frowns and looks over at the book and info in the inn. "Maybe there's answers here? You might not be the only person this happened to!" She goes over there immediately to try and read through. What does she look under? Becoming a ghost?

[killorder]

His face screws up as her hand passes through him, not sure what to think of that but, like the walls, he can't feel it. That doesn't make it any less creepy to know someone is putting a hand through him. Jake stumbles back a bit, but stops before he goes back through the wall. "I was fine when I started on cleaning. I couldn't have... I'm not that bad that I someone killed myself cleaning my clothes," he says, face screwing up though considering that. Had he done something to kill himself cleaning?

"I didn't mess with any of the powers either," he says, because that is the closest he knows to magic. "And my power they gave me isn't this. I've done it and it's nothing like this."

Moving a step closer then, he wonders how much of this is normal here, but they haven't experienced it enough to know. "Is magic... is that something you know a lot about?" Maybe he should start looking into it, living in a place where that seems more common than anything technological that he's used to. "You've been fine since the mines? I've heard there are moths that make you forget. Maybe..." He shifts, moving back again, nervous.

In doing show he steps into the shadows, not that Jake notices that he's a bit more solid then, less easy to see through.

[alittlelonger]

"No way, you are definitely alive, no one has talked about any ghosts being here. That is definitely something they would know!" She sounds confident about that, and she only kind of is. It makes sense though. Rinoa starts going through the inn records, looking for ghost or intangible. Cave will have to be next, since he got it from there. "Maybe it's something that was in your clothes." Like the dust moths, only ghostly.

Rinoa's spine straightens for a moment at the question, but she tells herself to relax because it's not like he could know. It's no one's fault but her own. "Yes, I ... I know about magic. We have magic in our world." She had the most powerful magic in her world once, and that is something she does not want to relive. "There was a sorceress who was able to walk through walls, so there is definitely a spell for it, I'm just not sure it's anything helpful here because we don't have magic." And it's not like she could ask her how she did it.

"You haven't encountered the moths? Be glad! That's such a confusing experience. Is there anything ---" She cuts herself off because she looks at him and blinks. "Wait are ... I think I can see you better." Rinoa carefully reaches out a hand toward him. "That's so weird. Maybe it's a light problem?"

[killorder]

Jake wishes he felt as confident as she is, biting at the inside of his lip even as he nods as if agreeing. If nothing else he's going to agree because she's willing to help him and if nothing else, that helps to calm the racing of his heart. At least he thinks it's racing, it's not as if he can feel it at all.

"Huh. I guess you see weird things like this all the time then huh?" Interesting as it is, Jake's kind of glad his doesn't. They make things like Snukes and the wars he's been through, and add magic to science and he's not sure it's something he'd want to face. Except that he kind of is now.

"What's the difference between magic and however it is they give us powers, or the machines do it?" And asking as a legit question, not trying to be a dick. To him it's magic that he can channel his pain and anger into blasting the hell out of things, after all.

"Uhmm, no. No moths. Saw some odd things on the mining trip, but not mot... What? You can?"

He moves forward, excited as he looks at his hand... which has faded back to basically nothingness. His expression falls then, sighing. "Or not?"

Though even as he say it, he backs up once more. "Uhmmmm...."

[alittlelonger]

"Oh, ah, yes, actually. All the time! We have monsters and magical ones at that, and we can use their magic against them. There are different kinds." Rinoa often feels like she knows not much at all compared to others, so to have answers to actual questions makes her feel good. Not that it's important, when he's stuck like this. She may have to go find a scientist or an expert for this one.

Rinoa pauses and then shakes her head. "I don't know. I honestly think it is magic, of a kind. It makes as much sense as the idea that a machine can simply give you unusual abilities. That could be stored magic simply absorbed by you for short periods of time." She thinks that science may be similar. "We have science and scientists too, so their work back home is separate from what magic is to us."

She watches him change before her, become more tangible and then not again. "This means you're definitely not a ghost!" She brightens. "Because you wouldn't turn more solid in any situation." Okay, phew, that was officially off the table. Rinoa could focus on it without quite as much panic. She looks through the book of possible flora, and then claps her hands. "Oh, I think it's this! Maybe? It's some kind of thing you breathe in and then you turn intangible!" She points at it in the book, where he can read over her shoulder if he wants. "It says temporary?"

[killorder]

Jake has fought as a soldier in wars. He is literally in an elite unit. The people he's meeting in this place makes him feel like his life is really a children's book compared to some. Especially when they start talking about magic and world's like this he's hearing about.

"I mean, that makes more sense than a lot of things I've heard of. I can't even imagine some of these and what all it means. It's like storybooks in my world." And he's loving learning about it, when even at the same time he's having a damn time wrapping his head around it all. "Okay that's cool though. Most times it just seems like it's one or the other," he admits. "So cool."

And it is, though it's cool if it wasn't mixed like that either. It's magic, after all!

Cooler than suddenly being a damn ghost. Well, a ghost that isn't a ghost, apparently.

"I'm not! I'm just... A shadow?" His nose wrinkles, trying to imagine what that even means. And how to make it stop.

He peers over her shoulder, reading. "Uhmmm, I went mining recently, and I was just cleaning up my gear. I wonder if it was on there and I breathed it in." He's trying not to sound hopeful at the idea of it not being permanent.

[thecatinahat]

Cougar's been scouting ahead, which is normal for him. He's used to being out there alone and feeling like he has the whole of nature to himself. Even here, he's been doing that, making notes about what he sees and finds. Doubling back to follow his tracks back to where Jake is, he's not expecting to find Jake looking much less whole than he last did.

Digging out the small notebook he keeps tucked inside his shirt, he flicks through the pages until he finds his notes about it, and then nods. He'd seen this happen once with an animal, but it never prepared him for this.

"I see you," he promises. "Or you're haunting me." Which he'd be very pissed about, because they only just got to a new, good part of their relationship. Eyeing him warily, he's not sure what the fix is, but he has an idea. "Come," he says, with a gesture of his head.

[killorder]

He can't hide the panic in his eyes, the sheer terror there because he's just walked through a tree and he shouldn't be able to do this, and he hates that thought that won't stop, appropriately, haunting him.

Of course he dies now that he and Cougar have finally gotten to this point of their relationship. In that it's an actual relationship.

"I would so haunt you forever if I died," he says, not sure if Cougar can hear him or not. He can hear himself, but could a ghost not hear themselves? He just has no idea.

[thecatinahat]

"I hear you," Cougar deadpans, because the haunting him forever? It's not very nice, which means that he gives Jake a look that hopefully shows how displeased he is with the idea. He reaches out to push Jake along, but his hand passes through him, making Cougar frown.

Not dead, but not something he's seen yet. He digs out his notebook one more time and coaxes for Jake to speak with a nod of his head, because he's sure there's a story behind this.

It's just a matter of getting the ball rolling.

[killorder]

"What? I should leave you th... HEY!"

He jerks away at that, wide eyed, and scared, and trying to hide it. With anger and rudeness, apparently.

"What? You're writing about this? Now? I don't... I'm a ghost, Cougar! How did I become a .. Oh! What if I'm like that chick from the mutant comics? I mean, doesn't she go all nothingness to phase through walls?"

Nope, probably not helping.

[thecatinahat]

Cougar's still writing before he tucks away the notebook, giving Jake an unimpressed look. He misses the telepathy, because it had been so much easier to communicate when he didn't have to speak. This is awful, too, because he can't just shove Jake.

No, now he needs to will him into submission with glares alone.

"What did you touch?" Each words is slow and firm, with a point to it. Because this sort of thing doesn't just happen, Jake must have come into contact with it. After, he points to the springs, a pointed look at him. "Walk."

[killorder]

"Oh come on. Don't give me that look. I get you probably wouldn't care if you were a ghost, since people have thought you were one for years, but this is awful." If he had a keyboard, he couldn't even touch it! That thought is there, and it's painful. More than it likely should be.

"My gear," he says, shrugging which likely has not much effect given since everything behind him can still be seen. "I was cleaning up from the mining trip, figuring out what I needed to wash." Trying to be good and keep what few clothes he has clean. This is why chores are lame.

"And where are we going?" Not that he doesn't walk that way but he asks.

[thecatinahat]

Cougar doesn't think Jake is thinking about all the other practical aspects of what he could do, being a ghost. It would let you slide into things, give you access to places that you would normally have to break into.

True, he'll be very pissed if Jake got killed before they even got going, but he doesn't think that's what happened. "Healing springs," he says firmly, wishing he could get a hand on Jake. There's no panic, which is good, but only because he's shoving it away.

"Something happened," he insists. "If you died, you would know."

[succored]

As far as Ty knew, powers were confined to what color scrub you had on when arriving and whatever power was selected out of the vending machine. Considering that Jake was freaking out, it didn't seem like he had chosen to become intangible, and it might be par the course for the Observers to swap around super powers as soon as one got comfortable with them. At least this one was something he was familiar with.

"You're not dead or a ghost." Ty said quickly, keeping a short distance from Jake just in case being unable to touch Ty only freaked him out more. "Maybe the powers that each color comes with have changed? If you have my power, freaking out isn't going to help."

[killorder]

He is kind of freaking out, just having no idea what to think about any of this. It feels normal, except the way he kind of felt cold, and he's trying to come up with an idea of what he's done. He had to have done something.

"Does that happen? Do they change them often?" Not that he thinks Ty has an answer, but why him? "Wait, is it going around? Have you heard that happening to others?"

He hasn't heard anything of it, but that's a better thought than somehow, somewhere he screwed up and caused this to happen to himself. Even if he knows it's likely.

[succored]

"Not that I know of, but given this place, I don't think it would be unheard of." Ty said calmly, reassuringly. He hadn't heard of this happening to anyone else, but there was always a first right?

He took a step forward, keeping his stance light and easy, as if Jake was a touchy patient who might spook easily.

"When did this start? Walk me through it." He said, hoping that between the two of them they might come up with a reason this was happening, and then more importantly, formulate how to turn Jake back to normal.

[killorder]

"So no. The answer is no, they don't do this." And while he's not panicking, there is a screechiness to his tones, showing that he's definitely not comfortable with this and trying to head into panic mode.

"This morning. Like now. I was cleaning up from the mining trip, and next thing I know I'm walking through walls." And what correlation is in that, he has no idea. Except maybe that cleaning is a bad choice.

[succored]

"Look, we don't know yet. Let's retrace your steps, okay?" Ty said soothingly, gesturing for the other man to lead the way. "And we should check in with the others who went on the expedition too. You might not be the only one this is happening to."

[killorder]

Jake nods then, figuring that's the best option. Even if he has no idea what it could have been. "All I was doing was unpacking," he admits, but he turns to start heading for their house by the Inn. "No one I know has mentioned going invisible. Have you heard anyone talking about that?"

[succored]

"Did you bring anything back with you from the mine?" Ty asked, glancing at his wrist device to start scrolling through the networks to look for any panicking posts. Seeing none didn't really mean anything, though.

"I haven't, and the network seems to be quiet. But it'd be pretty hard to text for help if you can't touch this device."

[fishermansweater]

This man is one of those people who'd been here once and then gone disappeared, only to reappear after a long time away. Jake is his name, if Finnick remembers right, and he almost always does. (Remembering names and facts about people has been very important for his information-gathering in the Capitol.) But the two of them aren't acquainted, as such.

Not that it stops the shriek from attracting Finnick's attention. The opposite, in fact; Finnick reaches for a knife and starts to dash towards the forge, before the guy actually starts talking and it becomes clear that he's not screaming because of some attacking mutt, but because something strange is happening.

Finnick slows to a walk, but he keeps his hand on the knife hilt just in case.

"You're talking a lot for a dead man," he says, wryly.

[killorder]

Jake is reaching out, trying to just brush his fingers along the wood on the door of the forge. Instead his fingers just barely go past the edge of the wood, dragging down along it and feeling nothing. No splinters. No ridges along the wood. Just as if he is passing his fingers maybe through water, nothing more than that.

Catching sight of someone coming closer, lifting his head as he jerks his hand back as if to hide the fact that he's not solid. As if being see through isn't likely to make it perfectly... well, clear.

He glances up, frowning though at the words or that the man is arming himself against some one that might be a spirit or the comment. Though it's the latter he can't help but to comment on.

"You know a lot of dead men to judge that on." Which is inviting answers he likely doesn't want, but he can't help himself. How does someone know that?

[fishermansweater]

Finnick is a victor, and though that apparently means little here, it informs almost everything he does, from always carrying a weapon and the reaction he has to the sound of screaming to the hard edges on the personality he shows to the people he meets here. And to the fact that he knows a great deal about what dead people do and don't do. They may be reborn into mutts at the sadistic pleasure of the Gamemakers, but they didn't fade partly out of view like this.

It had happened, before, though. Quite some time before, when they'd been in the first (or whatever it was) version of the village, but it had happened.

He shrugs. "Guess I do." Or dead tributes, more specifically, but he doesn't need that much specificity.

"If you're talking about your hand going through that wood, it'll probably pass." Yeah, he noticed, even if the guy tried to pull his hand back so quickly. Finnick notices little details like that.