Re: A Sight to See

[Nyako-Chan]

"As you like, then." A few sips at the coffee made him sigh in mild content. He had to give the kid credit for holding it out as he did. He wondered how many ghosts he saw per day. "Why do you work at A and F?" he asked, using the abbreviations to say the store name instead of bothering with saying it properly. He had taken to that after some of the people at his community college poked fun at his accent for how the name came out. It got annoying eventually, so he just called it clothes store or A an F.

[RippedNose]

Draylen shifted again, unable to really find a comfortable way to sit, so he settled with stretching his legs a bit under the table, careful to avoid Nathaniel's feet, leaning his back against the chair. "Hmm, well my parents decided I wasn't doing enough with my life, so I needed to pay rent. Now I work two part time jobs to pay my parents to live at my own house. A bit stupid, but I understand their reasoning. As for why A&F, it's because I was taking anything I could get with moderately good pay. I work there, and at the Duncan Doughnuts" he explained, tapping his foot absently.

[Nyako-Chan]

"Two jobs, huh? Are you in school still?" Balancing two jobs and educational values was not close of a doddle. It was enough as it was for him to take whatever shifts he could and community college. Study, work, school, not in that particular order, usually. He sometimes studied while working, either his job or odd jobs people hired him for. Sleep had to be thrown somewhere in all of those, so he got about a day's worth of sleep spread out in a week. Not very healthy, neither was his eating habits. He'd live though.

[RippedNose]

"Nah, I finished highschool, and never got to University or anything. I've been looking for a more permanent job, but nothing's come up so far. Everything calls for University or something, and I don't have the money for that even if I wanted to go right now" Draylen explained, not too happy with the situation he was in sometimes, but he was dealing with it, and he was still leading a pretty good life, so he shrugged it off most of the time, knowing better than to get too stressed.

[Nyako-Chan]

"Yes, most places do fancy a college degree of any sort," Nathaniel nodded. "Adults go to colleges too, so even if you must wait, it'll be fine anyway." He'd probably have enough money by the time he was an adult depending on how well he saved his money. That was theorizing though, in any case, scholarships were made for reasons. "Ever try for a scholarship of some sort?" he asked, sure that most people could get at least a small part of one. Unless they just weren't college-material, then they wouldn't be able to get even the smallest of them.

[RippedNose]

"Mhmm. That's what I was planning if I couldn't find something better" Draylen nodded, fingers tightly clenched on his coffee cup, despite the casual conversation. "I was thinking about that a while ago, well more my parents threw the idea at me, but I havn't had time to look into that recently" he had been busy between work and his few hobbies, as well as avoiding ghosts and for the most part, his parents. "What about you? You still in school or what?" he asked, wondering what kind of an education the Brit had.

[Nyako-Chan]

"College, or rather," he corrected, brushing hair from his eyes. "Community college. Not that far away. You know how the gas prices are and what not." They were worse where he was, and quid ran the same currency as U.S. dollars. That had been a simple transition for him, actually. He was sure he would have gotten a knack for it eventually, but this was easy enough. "I don't suppose America allows squatting, does it? Or do they tear your buildings down on the spot?" If Daylen needed to stop paying rent, he could go squat, but he wasn't sure if America did that.

[RippedNose]

"Yeah? That's cool. What courses are you taking?" Draylen asked, wondering what college was like. He had a few friends who were off at college or university, but they didn't really talk about what it was like, other than the parties, and the girls. "Squatting? What's that?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows slightly in confusion, trying to think of the term he was sure he didn't know. To him, it sounded like peeing in public or something, and he was sure Nathaniel wasn't talking about that.

[Nyako-Chan]

"For now, I'm just taking classes I won't be focusing on when I make it to a higher college." Why should he waste money on courses he didn't necessarily need? "Squatting, well, it's usually living with others in abandoned houses." He did it once out of spite. He ran away for a few months, found some abandoned areas and picked a group to live with for a while. Definitely not a sanitary idea. They had to pinch whatever they could off of unsuspecting passerbys. "Dangerous game, watch out for the police." The police usually just kicked them out and let them run, then find them again and repeat.

[RippedNose]

"Ah" Draylen nodded in understanding. "How boring is it?" he asked, always having found school boring the the point where he wanted to fall asleep, but he had a guilty concience, so he never had. "Oh. Yeah, I think that's pretty illiegal in most places" he frowned slightly, unable to imagine living in an abandoned building. Thanks to horror movies, those just screamed 'ghosts' at him, haunted or not. "You've done it before?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

[Nyako-Chan]

"School necessarily isn't boring. That's what most Americans seem to think, but really, kids like the challenge of thinking, and they like the victory of accomplishing their work." How many people realized this, really? Brits were like that too, but he found more American slackers, is all. "Yeah, I've tried it. It's not for someone who gives up as soon as they're cold and there's no heat, or if they get bored, and need the telly." Some of the new ones they greeted while he had been there had opted out first day.

[RippedNose]

"I mostly find it boring because half the teachers don't know how to teach" Draylen explained. His attention couldn't be captured by somebody talking for an hour long. It was just annoying. And he had heard that that was all that happened at college and university. He was slightly surprised that Nathaniel had 'squatted' before, but he didn't say anything about that, simply giggling slightly. "The telly?" he grinned, knowing what it meant, but it just sounded funny. "Very Briti-" he stopped in the middle of his word, letting go of his coffee as his face paled and his head snapped around, the ghost that always stayed in the corner approaching them. He stiffened, before panicking and throwing himself around the table and throwing his arms around Nathaniel, not knowing what else to do, as the room felt like it had dropped a few degrees.

[Nyako-Chan]

Nathaniel had been caught off guard when Draylen seemed to have a panic attack of some sort. His face turned an unhealthy color, and he had brought himself to Nathaniel's side of the table. "You, what are you doing?" he asked, looking at the people who had stopped conversation, or typing on laptops to see what they were doing. "You see it doing what?" He looked in the direction Draylen's panicked expression was directed to, not seeing anything. This must be something awful when Draylen was in public alone, not that it wasn't awful as well for him being with a friend in public. Nathaniel, not sure what else to do, wrapped his arms around Draylen's waist, tightening to get his attention. "Look, calm down," he hissed, "wait until we get elsewhere to have an eppy."

[RippedNose]

Draylen hadn't even noticed the other people in the shop, or thought of them when he threw himself at his co-worker. "It's coming towards us" he whispered in a terrified voice, aware that he was shaking slightly. He was watching it, too scared to look away. He chanced a look at Nathaniel when he felt the arms squeeze around his waist, and he was a bit shocked to see how close they were. He blinked for a moment, colour rushing back into his pale face in the form of a blush. "Ah, shoot, I'm so sorry" he replied quietly, biting his lip and looking back to the ghost, that was still approaching them. The thing that scared him the most was that it had never left the corner, and now it was coming at them, with an angry, cold aura surrounding it. He could feel how angry it was, but he had no idea the cause of that.

[Nyako-Chan]

"Hm," Nathaniel hummed at the closeness of their position. He certainly hadn't expected to have this happen to him in America, let alone today. "If it draws near, then why not book it?" They could leave, he didn't mind. They might as well walk the mall. That was always fun, having someone around to talk to was nice too. "What will it do if it comes near?" he asked, not sure what kind of encounters Draylen had with the ghosts he saw. He doubted he ever let them get close to him to harm him, at least not consciously. If this ghost was as malicious as Draylen described, they may as well leave it be.

[RippedNose]

"Um, I would have, but I would have felt bad because I would have just run without you, and I also kindof panicked and didn't know what to do. I'm just glad I didn't throw myself on a random stranger" Draylen explained, sighing and removing his arms somewhat reluctantly, needing something solid to hold onto, but somebody he had just met was a bit awkward, even if he felt safer in Nathaniel's arms like that. "I have no idea. Every ghost is different" he shrugged. The closest he got to ghosts were when he was a child, or when he was asleep or something. The rest of the time, he stayed as far away as possible.

[Nyako-Chan]

"How close is he?" he asked, not sure how to gauge the distance of what he saw through. Normally he just followed eyes, but Draylen's eyes were pointing in the right direction, he assumed, but looking at the thing, meaning Nathaniel only saw the direction and not the object. He could look at that direction as much as he wanted and not see anything. "May I suggest that I believe this might have happened before?" he questioned, because it sounded like Draylen already knew what he might do if he panicked from a ghost. Maybe he'd already done this before, thrown himself at a poor stranger.

[RippedNose]

"Two tables over" Draylen replied, his eyes focused on the angry looking man, curious as to why he was so angry, but also not caring enough to stick around long enough to find out. "Yeah, I uh, accidentally did it. . . twice" he grimaced. That had been embarassing, and he never wanted to relive that. "Um, can we go? Sorry" he sighed, feeling bad to be the one making them leave, even if Nathaniel didn't mind. He just wanted to get out of the room with the angry ghost before it got too close. It's anger was starting to hurt his head.

[Nyako-Chan]

"I was just waiting for you to say so," Nathaniel told him, shaking his head slightly. Waiting until the last moment, honestly. "Let's head out then. No sense biting off your arm over this one." Wouldn't want Draylen to have a worse episode than he was having now by letting the ghost get closer. "After you, if we're done here." He took his coffee with him, having about half left. He drank coffee like one would drink fruit punch, which probably wasn't what it was for. He drank tea slower than he drank coffee, come to think of it.

[RippedNose]

Draylen nodded, still feeling a bit guilty, but he grabbed his coffee and pushed in his abandoned chair anyways, and was out the door in a moment, clenching his cup tightly, but being careful not to spill it or something, which had happened many times before. He turned around when he felt the ghost's anger grow, and he risked a glance back at it, still coming towards him, but at the same pace.

[Nyako-Chan]

"Come on, if it bothers you so much then there isn't much reason to faff about." Draylen must really be concerned about this one. If he hated it so much, he should just talk to it to figure out what was wrong with it, otherwise he would never get rid of him. The ghost would remain here until another, braver person with the Sight fixed whatever problem it had. He wondered if there was any way he could convince the other male to sit down and talk to the ghost calmly.

[RippedNose]

"Faff?" the repeated word made Draylen raise an eyebrow, looking up to Nathaniel. He started walking now, forcing his legs to cooperate, walking at a normal pace instead of running or speed walking as something inside him was telling him to do. He had felt that urge around certain people or places, or even things before he even knew what ghosts were, and what was different about him. He just knew when to stay away from a place, and when it was fine to approach something.

[Nyako-Chan]

"Yes, faff. No malingering," he repeated, sighing. He put one hand on Draylen's back and touched it lightly, just to show him that they may as well be moving if he really wanted to get away. No sense in continuing to look back at the ghost if they were just leaving the place it haunted. "I'm British, just saying." Didn't everyone know it, though there were those who couldn't tell the difference between Australians and the British. The accent sounded the same, maybe, but they were completely different, both sides took offense to the confusion.

[RippedNose]

"Ah" Draylen gave a slight nod, understanding now. He started walking, dragging his eyes away from the Starbucks ghost when he felt the hand on his back lightly. He looked up at Nathaniel, nodding and smiling slightly. "I know. I can tell most of the time the difference between accents" he said, shrugging with one shoulder. He let out a sigh after a moment, looking to the floor before back up to the brown eyes of his new friend. "I'm sorry, again, for, ah, throwing myself at you" he appologized, grimacing slightly. He hated that that had to happen to him, and that he couldn't control himself as he would like to.

[Nyako-Chan]

"Don't worry about it. The body may react before the mind comprehends the action, sometimes." Or sometimes, as he read, the mind wouldn't comprehend it and wouldn't let the body move. Fear was quite the state to be in and to lock up the mind. "The day my tarot cards scare me will be the day we call it even for when I jump at you." Not that he would. He liked to think he had a bit more self control than that. He felt more for the poor strangers Draylen had thrown himself at in the past. Confusion was a dreadful bugger too. "What shall we do then, hm?" They were still getting to know each other, why call one mishap in the coffee shop over?

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