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the boardwalk ; wednesday evening

More often than not, Sam found himself out of the cabins during the evening hours. He didn't mind the small space (his previous apartment had been pretty damn small) or the people in his cabins but he missed things like hitting the streets of Seattle with just his board and his thoughts and riding until his feet ached.

He didn't miss werewolf attacks and while he couldn't rule that out here (which he would have found weird a few months ago), he didn't think anyone was going to come after him on purpose. It made riding his board up and down the boardwalk easier. Riding here, unlike Seattle, meant he could smell the salty air and hear the nearby ocean. The ambiance was pretty damn sweet, he had to admit.

And that ambiance was helping distract Sam away from the fact that Brooke had appeared as soon as he'd started riding and was currently jogging next to him, taking advantage of her ghostly form since it meant she didn't get winded.

"I'm not gonna leave you alone until you tell me about the Council meeting," she kept saying, cutting back and forth in front of him so much that Sam actually worried about hitting and hurting her which was just dumb.

"Not now," he muttered, shaking his head. "I'm kinda busy, Brooke."

"Kinda busy?" Brooke repeated, getting in front of him and running backwards. "Hey, I didn't have a body for awhile and I still made time for you!"

Sam grimaced and said, "Low blow, Brooke. Low blow."

She kept poking and Sam kept avoiding. It was a familiar push and pull.

[post is open and brooke won't be visible to anyone unless they can see ghosts or they get close enough to sam and brooke happens to stick around. if you can't see brooke, feel free to see sam jabbering to the air.]

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Mercy was out walking, wondering if she dared go across the causeway out into the countryside and shift to get in a good run for the first time in literally months. She smiled when she saw Sam and waved. "Hey, Sam."

She didn't recognize the girl jogging beside him, but smiled and waved at her too. "Hey."

Sam hadn't expected anyone to be able to see Brooke even if he should have, really. The first time he'd met Mercy, he'd picked up the differences between her and a regular human being but hadn't thought it connected to seeing the dead.

Brooke wasn't phased and waved back. "Hiya!" She was a friendly ghost. Sam had to remember to actually stop his board so he wouldn't fall off again.

"Uh, hi." And that was all he had. He wasn't eloquent on his best nights.

Sometimes Mercy didn't realize she was talking to a ghost until someone else wanted to know who she thought she was talking to. She smiled again at the girl. "I'm Mercy," she said. "I don't think I've seen you around. How are you two liking the cabins?"

Brooke glanced at Sam before she laughed and shook her head. "I don't really do the cabins," she explained before jerking a thumb at Sam. "Too crowded, too small, too smelly."

And with one last smirk at Sam, Brooke blinked out of sight, leaving no trace that she'd ever been there. Sam was left scowling at the spot Brooke had just been in.

"Uh, cabins are fine," he finally answered, deciding to just...try to ignore that Mercy had seen his dead friend that was now a ghost. "I kinda miss doors and privacy but it's not the worst place I've ever slept."

"Yeah, I wish -" Mercy started, just as the girl disappeared. She stared for a moment, then shook her head and tried to focus her attention on Sam when he spoke. "Um, right, yeah, me neither. You... you can see ghosts too?"

She'd never known anyone else who could do that and Bran and Charles had always said she should just keep quiet about that ability so she'd never told anyone else about it either.

"That's -- that's what it looks like, doesn't it?" Sam answered warily. He could feel the surprise rolling off her when she spoke which he guessed was better than fear or intimidation.

He hadn't felt that from anyone in awhile but he was still careful of it. The way she worded that whole thing was weird though. He didn't know what to make of it. "Guess I can't get away with saying she was my imaginary friend, can I?"

"Well, generally people's imaginary friends don't talk to me," Mercy said, still looking a bit stunned. "Wow. I never - Nobody else I know can even tell ghosts are around, much less talk to them."

Sam chewed on his lower lip and crossed his arms, still looking wary of divulging too much. After some thought, he shrugged and laughed humorlessly.

"Well, you know, some people have near death experiences and some people see ghosts," he quipped, forcing lightness into his voice. "Maybe that means I'm on death's door or something."

She looked at him skeptically. "Right. But hey, I get all about the not sharing some things." Oh boy, did she. "I won't mention it to anyone, okay?"

"Yeah." Sam realized he was being kind of an ass about this but it wasn't something he'd readily prepared for or anything. "It's kind of a new thing for me, the whole ghost thing. I'm still getting used to that happening, honestly. Some people prepare for college, I prepare for visits from the spirit world. Go me, right?"

She nodded. "It's hard. Especially being different in a new place. I didn't even know I was talking to dead people at first. And sometimes I still don't - like today."

"Brooke doesn't act like she's dead," Sam shared, shaking her head. "Besides, she didn't die very long ago so she's still pretty new to the whole thing. She always did go against the grain so I guess it's not too strange that she's doing it even when she's...not alive anymore."

"There's a rancher out where I used to live," Mercy said. "He still goes out every morning to throw hay to the cattle the way he did every day when he was alive. He'll wave sometimes or tip his hat, but he won't answer. They're all different. At least from what I've seen."

Yeah, Sam had seen that too. He remembered the undead panda sitting in the corner of his cage and he remembered David Davidson being humiliated by Douglas Montgomery.

A second later, Sam nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I've been getting that impression over the last few months. Seems like they're treated differently too. Some people use them to frighten, some just let them be. Guess it depends on what you want out of the dead."

Mercy frowned. "I wouldn't know about that. I've never met anyone else who was even aware of them, much less be able to use them to frighten people. Ghosts pretty much always just seem to do what they want."

Sam knew there was probably some elaboration necessary here but he still wasn't sure how much he wanted to reveal. He'd slipped up when talking to Kate so he was being even more careful now.

"Yeah, I guess." He scratched his cheek. It might have been news to her that he could control those ghosts depending on their will and his own will. He hadn't really practiced that yet. "Brooke the first ghost you've seen in awhile or just the most annoying?"

"First one I haven't realized was a ghost in a while," Mercy said with a smile. "She seemed nice though."

"Yeah, she's all right," Sam said and rubbed the back of his neck. "I knew when she was alive so I'm kinda glad she stuck around when she didn't have to. She used to work with me before she, uh, died."

Before she was murdered, actually, but Sam was going to keep that detail to himself.

"So she travels with you?" Mercy said curiously. "I never knew one that did that. But then, I haven't been to a lot of places, so I suppose ghosts can do more than I've seen."

"Well, she's dead," Sam said, shrugging. "She can go wherever she wants. I mean, I don't see her all the time or anything. She just shows up to talk to me sometimes. I don't know if that means I'm just irresistible or being dead is boring."

"Huh," Mercy said, then grinned. "Kind of got your own ghostly stalker, I guess."

Yeah and she wasn't the only one. Ashley was a little different than Brooke though and didn't pop up as much mostly because she was a lot busier than Brooke.

"Yeah, I guess," he said and chuckled lightly. "Though, I think she'd object to the word stalker. Too many negative associations. I think she'd call herself...I don't know, a friendly presence? A friendly frequent presence who likes to poke and prod me for information."

"I have to say I'm kind of glad I don't have one following me around," Mercy admitted. "Must be kind of hard to explain sometimes."

"Well, most people don't usually see Brooke doing her thing," Sam admitted with a shrug. Sure, people could see ghosts he'd woken up if they happened to be close by but, unless they were another necromancer, they hadn't been able to see the ghosts.

Did that make Mercy a necromancer? Sam thought to ask the question but it felt way too forward so he just shook his head. "So, if I have to explain anything, it's why I'm talking to the air or talking to an empty room. People just think I'm crazy."

She nodded. "Yeah, I get that. Like I said, I never even met anyone else who could see them. And there was this one time I was talking to this girl - I didn't even realize she was a ghost till my mom came by and asked me who I was talking to."

Mercy bit her lip. "She... doesn't know I can see them. I figured she had enough to deal with already."

"Guess I got lucky because my mom knows," Sam shared, nodding. "She knew before I did, though. You know how you can pass down hair color and eye color and stuff? Yeah, you can pass down being able to see ghosts too."

"Yeah. I... probably get this from my dad, too." That and the whole turning into a coyote thing.

Oh hey, they had something in common there since he'd gotten the whole necromancer thing from his dad. He felt kind of bad that he was keeping that from most people but he still had to get used to it himself.

"That a good thing or a bad thing?" Sam asked, hesitantly curious.

She shrugged as if it didn't matter, but her face showed her hurt despite her best intentions. "Just makes me different. My mom kind of... sent me away to be raised by somebody else when I was a baby because I was. And when they had enough of me they sent me home to her and I found out she'd had a whole other family for 12 years and never told me about them. Or them about me."

"Sorry," he said quietly. Sam didn't think there was much more to say without overdoing it. Sorry was simple but effective. "You stick around when you discovered all that? Or was that too much?"

It probably would have been too much for him. His dad had run off and gotten himself a new family but that situation was a little different than this one.

"I managed for a few months and then everyone decided it might be easier if I came here for a while." She shrugged again. "It's a little easier here. I don't feel like I have to work so hard to try and be perfect and normal all the time. Not that they weren't great to me. I'm just... a hard person to lie to."

"Yeah, me too." Sometimes he hated being able to see what other people were feeling especially when it came to how they were feeling about him. "This place isn't too bad, I agree. Could be worse."

He was worried about Ramon, he wanted to find his uncle but he hadn't had to deal with psychopaths or anything like that here.

"I miss Seattle food but hey, can't go wrong with a greasy cheap pizza either."

She laughed. "The Chinese isn't bad either."

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