dear_mun | on his username / voice testing?

I kinda want to see somewhere tourists go, but... not one with a lot of tourists. You know what I mean? Like, I want to travel a lot, but not as a tourist, as someone who's really part of things.

Yeah, I get it. That does sound like it'd pretty cool. I'd maybe like to do that someday too.

[Since most of the ghosts who pass through Blithe Hollow are wanderers, sometimes they'd tell him about all the places they've been to. So traveling has definitely also peaked his interest.]

Yeah! There's so much out there, it'd be a shame to just stay in one place forever. Not that most people think that... But that's people for you.

A lot of people are scared of stuff that's different. So they just... stay where things are the same.
I guess it's not as bad as it used to be, though.

Eh. I guess. My friends, though, they most of them just aren't interested. Camie tried to explain it once, that was years ago...

It's like... At home people know them. They're important. They're the best bush pilots around. Out there, they won't be anything special. Or something like that.

I guess that's kinda like how some people think they're better because they can push other people around. But really they're just big and dumb and that's all they know how to do.
You can't really stop them either. You kinda just have to not let them get to you.
... That's what my friend Neil says, anyway.

There's no one like that back home. Well, not much. Fixer's got a streak of it, but everyone likes Biggs, and he's my best friend and won't let people be awful around me. He's eighteen!

And he knows how sometimes if you find you're just good at something, you want people to notice, and be impressed. You feel like - like - like yes, this is who I am, this is what I'm for.

But people see that, and... that's not how they see it. Okay, with Biggs a little. Everyone likes him! He's the best!

But if they see the same thing with me, I'm no Biggs. It looks like I'm showing off, and think I'm better than them, and... that kind of thing. I don't, but even Biggs can't explain something like that, because what you hear and what you believe aren't going to be the same thing.

[Luke is the Master of incoherent points.]

[Norman seems to understand well enough, though!]

Heh. He sounds pretty cool then.
I know some people like that. Like Salma, she's a genius who seems like she knows everything, and she's smarter than all the adults in town... though that's not really saying much.

Though a lot of my other friends are...
Um...
They're not exactly... alive...

He's... he's just the best. I thought he'd be stuck up 'cause his family's rich, but he's not! He and Tank are the only others I know who're gonna leave home someday.

Adults aren't as smart or strong or... anything as they look when you're really little. They're just older.

...Yeah?

... Y-Yeah, they're...
They're ghosts.
I can see and talk to them.
They're a lot nicer than the living, sometimes.

[It was more like "Most of the time" until recently.]

...Huh. Weird! I've never talked to ghosts.

[wait for it]

....Welllll, maybe that one time. But that was years ago, and it was maybe a dream, so I don't know.

Really? What happened?

It was... I was maybe ten? [He's thirteen now, though he looks younger.] And I was sorta coming down with sand fever, which is really nasty, I'm glad I'm not prone to it anymore.

But anyway I was asking my aunt and uncle about my father. He died before I was born, no one ever wants to talk about him, I think he stole from my uncle before he left or something. And they wouldn't tell me, and I lost my temper and just... [He winces] yelled at them. So they grounded me. And then I went and was stupid, I think it was the fever, because I ran away into this huge sandstorm. Like, worst-in-the-century sandstorm, the kind that'll drown you if you go out without a scarf.

I had my scarf 'cause I wasn't that far gone, but I should've died. And I wasn't thinking about that. I was thinking about... like... how it wasn't fair that I didn't know anything, that he was like me, that he shouldn't have died. I couldn't think about anything else! Fever.

And there was like this... shadow, then. I don't know if I imagined it, 'cause I forgot my goggles and I was just oozing out the eyes, you know, really nasty. But it was there.

... O-oh... I see.
I'm sorry, about your dad.

... But maybe he is still watching over you.
I mean, when my grandma died, she was at peace... mostly, I think, but she didn't move on.
She decided to stay, because she promised to always look after me.
Maybe your dad's the same way.

Don't be sorry. I never knew him! My aunt and uncle are as parents as anyone. It's just, y'know, it bothered me back then. I'm fine now.

[Sure, Luke. Sure.]

I've thought about that. See, there was that shadow in the storm, and it was... I don't know. So... sad, and and lonely and in pain and angry, just all that turned in like it hated itself, and it said something, but I... didn't want to hear it.

And then it kind of... faded, and there was another kid there, and he didn't know how he'd got into the storm but he helped me. We talked. He wanted to leave too, he wanted it so bad, and he wanted to fix things and fly, he knew what it's like to be the little guy, and he was... like me.

I thought it was amazing but - he was... he was creepy, too. Kind of... I don't know. Later there was a krayt dragon and he disappeared.

He said his name was Annie, and I know my father's name was Anakin, and there weren't any other kids out there in that storm. So I don't know if it was a ghost or a dream or what, or if he watches me - I feel watched a lot and mostly it's this old hermit guy, people don't like him but he's always been kind - but... It would be kind of nice. If he was more like the kid than that shadow, I mean.

Well... if you don't see ghosts normally, than it probably was a dream.

But I think some ghosts can enter the dreams of the living. And sometimes they can even look different from how they died.
So it's... possible, I'm pretty sure.

Maybe he was both.
Ghosts can be sort of...
Well, there's different sides to them, I guess.
Depending on how they died...

[He can think of one he knows very well in particular who's angry and grief-stricken side was far different from how they truly were.]

Edited 2012-10-02 03:40 (UTC)

There was this one place. Nothing to talk to, just this feeling. But... seeing ghosts is like a Jedi thing and that's about it, in the galaxy. I might be kinda weird, but not like that.

Mmm. I guess it makes sense? You know, I bet I'm going to find out some day. I bet I have to go... out there. Somewhere. I have to go where he went, and see what he saw, and - know. If he did get all bitter like that, I want to know why it happened.

And if it was all, completely a fever dream just 'cause I got lost when I was sick and thinking about him, I'll still have been out there and done some of what he did, but not hurting anyone. That's good enough for me.

... Wait, Jedi?
You mean like, that Star Wars thing?

I've never really seen that movie, but I hear some kids at school talk about it sometimes...

[oh dear.]

[Haha. Luke assumes Norman's talking about propaganda.]

Ugh. My aunt won't have any Imp films in the homestead, so Biggs let me watch one at his this one time? And everyone's always saying I have weird tastes, but it was bad. It was really bad.

I hate it when they go and blame people who're all dead now for everything bad ever to happen. Jedi were supposed to be... not like anyone else, but not like blowing stuff up everywhere and cutting people's hands off.

... Uhhh...

I think Jedi are the good guys though.
But it's just a movie.

[Hey Norman, remember when you thought zombies were "just in movies"?]

Aaaagh, it just made me so mad! And Biggs said cool off, they're all like that, and we talked and he said that's the point of propaganda. Make some people look bad so others look good so people will think what you want. It's still stupid.

[rant mode is activated, he's not paying much attention to other stuff.]

Who would believe this anyway? When the Clone Wars were happening people loved Jedi! Skywalker was like the hundreth most popular last name anywhere, there's still a wine called that, and then they ended and everyone was like oooh, no, not Jedi! It's not like they fought the Seps or anything, no, that was all clones!

[... Wow. This guy must take the movie really seriously.
Sure, Norman loves his zombie movies too, but it's not like he believed zombies were real. At least not until he actually met some.
He doesn't want to seem rude though, so he just plays along. Even if he sort of thinks this guy might be a bit nutty now.]

... Umm, I don't really understand what you're talking about, but it does sound like it sucks.
Well, I mean I kind of do, about how some people deserve more recognition. I used to see people on TV who said they could talk to ghosts. No one's ever asked me to be on TV.

on his username / voice testing?

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