Who: Nita Culver and Deimos Moon What: Epic first meetings of insanity with a hint of necromancy thrown in. Where: The Culver household When: A year-ish ago Warnings: Body harm, references to eating brains, gross-ness, and utter epic length.
It was still kind of messed up that the voice in Nita’s head was an actual voice, and not just some weird side effect of the meds her mom had her on for her “behavior problems” - sure, she knew the doctors had said there wouldn’t be any serious side effects, but doctors lied all the time. They could have been lying about no side effects. Hell, they could have told her mom that it would make her break out in purple polka-dots and she still probably would have put Nita on them if it made her “easier to manage.”. Not so coincidentally, she was already crossing off days until her eighteenth birthday when she could flush that shit down the toilet legally.
The tangents (okay, the real term was distractibility) were actually a side effect, so Nita didn’t give herself that hard a time for it in spite of Lydia clearing her throat in her head - and how fucking weird was that, seriously? “Okay, yeah, hold your horses.” God, they’d been spending all day figuring out what Lydia could still do, she thought she should be allowed a few minutes to think about it all.
No, it’s been all day because you keep getting distracted. We’ve really only spent a few minutes looking at it, and the rest of the time...
“Shut up, just because you’re in my head doesn’t mean that I won’t find a way to punch you.” Nita flopped back on her bed, sighing. “So, we’ve figured out the photography, and the drawing, and the fact that I now know a lot about bugs which, by the way, coolest part yet... what else is there? I mean, you don’t exactly have a lot of epic skills, right?” The crazy levitating dance was not possible, Nita had insisted on testing it even though Lydia had told her that was all the ghosts - wait, the ghosts...
Well, we could go look at your car and see if I still know how to fix them... um, I don’t like where you’re going with these thoughts...
“Hey, what about summoning that Betelgeuse guy, do you think I could do it?” That would officially take the place of the bug knowledge as the coolest thing Lydia had brought with her, if it was true.
Lydia, however, sounded way too nervous about the thought. I don’t think that’s a good idea, he’s kind of... well, he’s a bad idea. Really.
“I thought you guys were best friends?” Nita waved off her concern, then bounced up off the bed and onto her feet again. “I’m going for it. Betelgeuse...”
No, no, you have to think about this a little more first, he just-
“Betelgeuse.”
turns everything upside down, come on, Nita, just listen to me, you really don’t want to-
“Betelgeuse!” Before the whole suffocating-in-sleep-and-now-dead thing, Deimos hadn’t minded the Neitherworld. Nah, the place was swell. It’d been fun to escape there when the world of living being bloody idiotic or when it made sense with Camelot on his tail. He’d even spent a few nights down in old Beej’s house, because it was somewhere he could go. He liked the spookiness, the ookiness, and generally morbid state. And being feared by everyone as the current Ghost with the Most? It was positively thrilling.
Of course, the dying aspect and getting trapped there didn’t sit as well with him. Not by a long shot. It took him promptly a week to get bored and after three months of terrorizing the locals and bemoaning his situation, he was antsy. The fucking bitch who put him there was on his list of people to terrorize should he ever get out - which was looking less and less likely. He’d have thought someone would have been smart enough to utilize the rule of three with the power of names and GET HIM OUT OF THERE BUT NO ONE SEEMED TO BE ABLE TO MANAGE THAT, COULD THEY?
Needless to say, Deimos was pissed.
Oh he had a few good theories. For all his time as a reincarnate, he and Beej had looked for Lyds. Girl was probably the only person the ghost would have cared about (Doomie was a stretch, as was Jacques and Ginger). And frankly it was a good idea to keep track of the girl you once-might-have-used-a-scarpia-ultimatum-on-but-was-your-best-friend-really-and-why-the-hell-could-she-control-him? Just a bit annoying.
So, there was only one answer for the entrapment. Either everyone left from Core (or...what was left of it, if his few spyings from mirrors and news-clippings that made it over were to be believed) had gotten themselves in a situation where they couldn’t speak or remember who he was or were dead. Or he was stuck waiting for a Lydia. He really wasn’t looking forward to eternity.
That said, that day, he’d been lounging on a moldy couch - he’d tried cleaning it, but the mold seemed to be part of accessorizing from Beej’s laughs - when a tingle went through his body. Somewhere, he thought he heard Beej’s name. Considering the state of the Neitherworld and how often they forgot that his name was in fact DEIMOS people shouted and blamed him. Deimos simply shut his eyes and settled further down on the couch. The next tingle - which was a little more urgent - was harder to miss.
He let an eye open, listening more. Female voice. And a little too echoey to be part of the Neitherworld. Which really meant only one thing...
‘Betelgeuse!’
No mistaking that echo. It felt like bindings had left him, leaving him unshackled. The high limits of the Neitherworld were penetrable. Betelgeuse and Deimos crowed as one, “HELL YES-” before taking advantage of the opportunity. Less then twenty seconds later, he was in the middle of a bedroom. Enough of a sign of girly items to guess it did belong to his summoner, though smothered by other items enough to make him be relieved that Lydia hadn’t ended up in some kind of girly girl. With him came a cloud of dirt and dust, that in another time would have driven him insane. Instead, he spun about and pumped his fist - noticing the pin-stripe suit. Ha. “I am free. Hell yes, it only took three bloody months and-” And further spinning landed on the girl. Woman. Everyone felt like a girl after 200 years.
Still, Deimos had a good idea of who she was and stepped forward, grinning broadly. “Babes, it is good to see you. Where’ve you been all my life?” Beat. “I mean, I’m in my afterlife.” Summoning Betelgeuse had seemed like a fun idea, but having a man suddenly pop into existence in her bedroom? And the dirt. She totally didn’t scream, though. Nope. Not at all.
Okay, maybe a little.
“HOLY SHIT GET THE HELL BACK!” Thanks to numerous self-defense classes, on top of the kick-boxing lessons, Nita’s first response was simple: incapacitate him so he couldn’t come after her and she could get some space. The obvious way to do that? She judged the distance carefully, and leaned into bringing her knee up so it would hit him in just the right place to cause unimaginable pain with the least real damage.
Then, of course, she scrambled backward, plastering herself against one of her posters. Kurt Cobain’s watchful eyes wouldn’t do much to defend her against a real threat, though, so she grabbed for whatever was nearby. Teddy bear - uh, no. CD case - sharp corners, but not heavy enough to actually do anything. Big, thick book - perfect.
She kept her back to the wall, brandishing The Handbook for the Recently Deceased that she’d retrieved, along with Lydia’s camera, pretty much immediately. “Stay back, or I will beat your fucking brains out.” Yeah, the cussing wasn’t necessary, sure, but she thought it made her sound a lot cooler and tougher, which was really what she needed at the moment. “I mean it.”
Oh God she was going to get raped. ...Alright, that kind of reaction wasn’t expected. Logical, but not expected. Deimos decided now was an excellent time to not play on the obvious fear in her eyes - wide, her leg coming up and - “JESUS.” And he was bent over hands at his crotch. Not that he hadn’t been kicked there before, but damn.
Yeah, he really didn’t feel like playing on her fears right now. Not even because she was Lyds. Supposedly. She didn’t look a thing like her, he thought as he squinted - mainly from the pain, versus a better look. He didn’t feel like getting beaten up his first day out of the metaphorical hell. “For the record, you summoned me.”
Calming down frightened people wasn’t something he was unfamiliar with, but generally he was in a less contorted position. Deimos winced, yet again. The good news? At least he’d still be able to feel things in his undead body. A set of good news. Kind of. He hadn’t really wanted to deal with limbs falling off - he liked them where they were. He looked about before eying the book in her hand.
Yeah, definitely Lyds. “Babes-” No, wrong impression. Deimos took a deep breath - not necessary but it was a relief after the Neitherworld - and began again. “Look, I’m not here to hurt you. You’d be much more of a quivering mess by now, trust me.” Beat and he winced. “Actually, we wouldn’t even be here, we’d be at my office.” That said he slowly straightened and snapped his fingers.
Book left her hand and entered his with a slap. “I’m Deimos Moon and the current Ghost with the Most.”</i> Oh holy crap, Betelgeuse was in her bedroom and hadn’t he tried to marry Lydia? Nita thought she remembered that part from the movie, and that was totally not cool. She grasped after the book as it floated out of her fingers, and then looked around for anything else that she could defend herself with because holy crap, holy crap, he was scarier than she’d expected with all the stuff about quivering messes and his office and HOLY CRAP.
That’s Beej. Lydia sounded resigned and, what the hell, a little bit - smug? I did tell you it was a bad idea to summon him. Maybe from now on you’ll listen to me about these things, I mean, it’s not like I have more experience with him or anything like that.
Oh, fuck that shit. If Lydia was going to be a bitch about it... Nita put down the CD case she’d settled on as a backup weapon and took a deep breath. Okay, he was on the other side of the room, and she’d already proved that she could hurt him if she needed to.
And hey, now that she looked closer, he was kind of cute for a disgusting dead person. She took another breath and tucked her hair behind her ears. Not so scary, not so scary... “I’m Nita. I’m y-” No, not ‘your,’ that gave totally the wrong impression and she was not going to give him permission to be a creeper. “Lydia. I’ve got Lydia in my head. You’re not going to, like... you know...” Was there a good way to ask someone if they were going to rape you or force you to marry them? She was pretty sure that was a big fat no. “Be a perv, right?” This seemed like a good sign. He tossed the book back - she got permission to have it if she wasn’t going to kick him again. Though granted, next time he’d be more on his guard. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me and all. “Anita, Juanita...something else that ends with Nita or just Nita?” Chatting, conversation like. Nothing to be afraid of. Nope.
He flopped down on the edge of her bed, a hint of dust - from his limbs, not her sheets, he figured - puffing up as he did so. “Perv? Nonsense. You’re a little young for that.” Beat. “Alright and you’ve got Lyds. If you didn’t have her, I might rethink it but you get an exception list.” He gave her a dazzling grin. “Be thankful. Only family usually ends up on it.” When they showed up naturally.
Deimos leaned forward, resting his elbows on knees. “Anyhow, how long have you had Lyds for? Beej wants to know and if she’s alright. Been awhile. Feels like longer then a couple centuries.” Nita fumbled the book for a moment, but it didn’t hit the ground. That was good, she was not going to embarrass herself even more in front of freaking Betelgeuse or... whatever he’d said his real name was, she’d been freaking out too much to actually remember it. “Do I look like a fucking Juanita to you? Not Mexican, dude.” Then, grudgingly, she admitted, “It’s short for Anita, but no one calls me that.”
An exception... whatever, she’d take it. Anything was better than having to worry about him creeping on her, though Lydia was warning her that she shouldn’t really trust anything he said. ‘Your best friend,’ she thought as pointedly as she could, which did a pretty good job shutting her up. She wanted to say that she was not too young, she was pretty much an adult, but that might get her taken back off the exception list and that was not cool. She left it alone. The next part was more important anyway. “Sorry, can’t really help you there, she just showed up. Like, a couple of weeks ago. Maybe a little more, but a couple of weeks ago was when I got the whole ‘you are a Reincarnate, rejoice!’ speech.” Then, her forehead wrinkled as she thought hard about the rest of it. “Wait, Beetlejuice didn’t even exist a couple of centuries ago.” Okay, so maybe she hadn’t really paid that much attention to the details that didn’t apply to her. “Do I look Greek?” Deimos shot back. The smile was present, but there was a hint of a mocking nature in it. It was generally a good rule to ask. “Noted though. It’s surprising how many people don’t like their full name....” Himself included. But he wasn’t about to go and analyze her right now. Not quite needed. And besides, some things were better drawn out....
...and this was Lyds. He needed to remember that.
A couple of weeks in a mortal was a while, but Deimos was hardly going to point that out. “The Agency’s special,” he said lightly. “And tends to leave too much out in their explanation.” And that was about as neutrally as he could put it. At least Nita didn’t seem anything like Delia. If that had been the case, Deimos was sure Beej’s biffle would have been in trouble. Nita here seemed to hold her own. “And no, it didn’t. Good catch. That’s not always necessary, so to speak.” Beat. “That said, the dead thing is a new thing. You just missed the immortal me.” “As far as I know, yes. It’s not like I know any Greek people.” Nita rolled her eyes, completely forgetting to be afraid. “Are you one of those old people that just assume everyone should know about the good old days? Because I really hate history.” And yeah, if he was going to give her shit about not wanting to be called Anita, she would give it right back. Of course, the fact that she had a couple of centuries less experience at put-downs did occur to her, but she ignored that too.
Since everything seemed to be cool, she flopped down on her bed again - no sense being formal or anything. “Yeah, I kind of ignored it all. Most of it, anyway. I thought Lydia could help me figure it out instead. Or, hey, you’re old and wise, right?”
Of course, he was also Betelgeuse, which got a little more awesome whenever she thought it over again. He probably wouldn’t be the best teacher in the world, but it’d be a lot more fun his way, she’d bet. Then she got distracted by... “You’re dead?” Well, okay, maybe that should have been obvious, considering, but apparently he hadn’t always been so it wasn’t that stupid to be surprised by it. “Cool, how did you die?” Whatever, Nita didn’t have to be delicate about it. It was his fault that she was going to have to vacuum her bedroom before her mom had a heart attack. “And how would I know that?” Deimos countered. The rolling of eyes was a good sign though. Less cringing. Funny that he didn’t want it from her. Beej’s fault, entirely. “And no. Not unless it particularly annoys someone. I can’t say I can stop myself then. Generally?” He leaned forward, smirk confidential. “The twenty-first century far exceeds those before it. Count yourself lucky.”
He snorted there. “Old, yes. Wise, is up to debate. Knowledgeable, I’ll agree to quite easily.” He made a point of slipping over and back, leaning against the wall. “Suppose you’ve got questions? I’ve been caught up in this whole business for longer then most. Probably longer then even your caretaker has.”
...and how had she missed that? He took the moment to raise his sleeve and arm and sniff it. Eau De Mort was still fairly strong. Probably would be until he combatted that fully. Damn, he hoped his apartment was still in his possession. If not, he was going to need to borrow Nita’s bathroom until he set something up. Death was a fucking nuisance. “Three months and counting.” Lowering his arm, he sent her a look. “What? Never see a walking talking corpse before?” He held back from waggling his fingers in her face. “And nothing too noble. Strangled in my sleep by a bitch spy for Camelot.” Deimos took the moment to crack his knuckles. Definitely needed to deal with her. “Whatever.” Nita knew it was very typically teenager and she kind of hated resorting to it, but sometimes it was the only thing left to say. She didn’t exactly want to talk about knowing nothing about Greek people. It was sort of boring.
Questions, yes. She sort of had those, but she’d have to actually sit down and come up with a list. She liked lists, okay? They helped her keep things straight, which was hard enough on a day to day basis with the stupid side effects. “Yeah, I’ll probably have some questions later. I like to figure things out myself first, though.” Really, it was just too cool having someone that could answer the questions without being preachy and boring for her to focus on any one in particular. Even though it wasn’t exactly its fault, she glared at the bottle of pills on her dresser, anyway. Stupid lack of focus.
The death thing was more interesting, anyway, at least. “I figured you were just really dirty. Come on, corpse isn’t the first thing you’d think, is it?” Except for all she knew, zombie apocalypse might be his first thought on a regular basis. Again, whatever.
And there was her first question. “Okay, so what’s Camelot and why did a spy kill you?” That was one they definitely hadn’t covered, she’d have remembered stuff like that. He chuckled and let it drop, beyond a- “How old are you?” That statement had too much weight to go for anyone older then mid-twenties and this long in the Neitherworld had him unsure of things. Best to ask and if she tried to punch him for it, he’d avoid it.
“Works for me,” Deimos said. Better to work with non-insipid questions she could figure it out. His gaze followed hers about the room, falling on the orange bottle. From here, he couldn’t make out the words. A quick look over her spotted no discernible sign of illness - not that it mattered to him in terms of catching it - before he all but leaped to his feet. “Nita, you’ve got drugs?” His grin wasn’t mocking, but positively gleeful. This wasn’t a one-off bottle either. Something regularly refilled, probably on for awhile. And Catapres. Nice.
“I’m impressed. What’d you do? I want the full story or-” He felt around in a pocket, trying to remember if he had a wallet. Bottle went back down on the counter and he searched the other pocket, dumping in turn - a dead rat, a deck of Aces, a molded malt ball, a half-melted chocolate bar, a handful of centipedes...before finally finding his snakeskin wallet. Sending a slightly nasty thought towards Beej about what he kept in his pockets - Deimos’ tastes were far more standard, he leafed through the thing. Only a few credit cards and gift cards. “Damn. I’m broke.”
It probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that he spine decided to stop holding his body together and he collapsed in several different pieces on the floor, but Deimos still freaked. “BLOODY HELL, WE NEVER HAD THIS PROBLEM BEFORE.” The force sent his head rolling towards her bed. He shut his eyes to fight dizziness and hoped that she’d stop. Moving his hand elsewhere wasn’t going to stop him from colliding - only have his fingers end up with dead rat. It took Nita a minute to figure out if ‘almost eighteen’ would sound more mature than seventeen. Then, she had to ask herself why she cared about sounding more mature. Then, a little angry at herself for even thinking about it, she made a face and told him, “Seventeen.” If he had a problem with it, he could kiss her ass. Or not. Yeah, preferably not.
She started to come up with some bullshit about the meds, but hey - he created his own distraction. Totally-not-screaming again, she pulled her feet up on the bed and looked down at him in horror. “What the hell! Oh my God this was a lot less gross in the cartoon...” Crap, what should she be doing? Should she be helping him put himself back together? Ew, she did not want to mess with that. But what if he couldn’t do it himself? And which part of him was she supposed to look at?
Settling on looking at his face, and trying to ignore the fact that his head wasn’t attached to anything, she swallowed against a little bit of nausea and decided to just ask. “Do you need help?” Please say no, please say no...
He’s going to say yes just to make you squirm.
‘Oh, shut up, Lydia.’ Nita would not squirm. Nuh-uh. She wasn’t one of those girly girls who got grossed out... she’d be fine. Right. Ha. Younger then he thought. For some reason it amused him, but Deimos had long since given up on sorted out what should and shouldn’t have done that.
His head connected with the bedpost soon after, expression turning into a double grimace at the pain and her not-screeching. That was going to hurt afterwards. Yes, indeedy. His left hand continued to drag itself about, using the fingers to pull in what hopefully was towards him. Right hand shoved the rat away and his legs just gave a reluctant kick. His torso wasn’t responding at wall, beyond him hoping those centipides didn’t crawl through the neckhole. Beej’s cackling wasn’t helping matters either.
Nita’s question didn’t surprise him as much as spark an eyeroll. “No. I think if I crawl about here enough, my hand might find my head eventually and might be able to roll it in the right direction.” His hand knocked into the wall and he grimaced, trying to look for her. “Now, preferably.” Ugh. Well, she’d wanted a Betelgeuse, hadn’t she? Ignoring Lydia’s snickering, Nita slid off the bed and picked up his head, drawing it close to look him in the eye. “I think you should probably cut the attitude when I’m the only one here to help you pull yourself together.” Oh, shit, she sounded like her mother. Ugh, ugh, and double ugh. That was not a good sign.
Tilting her chin up, she reminded him, “I don’t have to put your head back on the right way. I could put it on backwards.” That might not keep him long, but it was the only threat she really had. “Or shove it up your ass.” Ha, that was a little better.
She tucked his head under her arm and went off to retrieve a couple more pieces - namely, the wandering hand. She avoided the dead rat and grabbed the other, as well. Just the legs... she grasped his pants and tugged, dragging them toward his torso. It seemed like the best base to start from, possibly just because it was the only thing actually holding still.
With the parts all together, Nita stared down at him and tapped her foot. “So, what, do I need to put you together like a puzzle now?” Despite himself, he snorted. “I could call for your parents. You do have those, don’t you?” Wild guess, but if not, there probably was someone about who’d be traumatized by a man in pieces on a teenage girl’s floor. This might be a good move to use in the future actually.... Still he winced and shut up. Once he knew how to fix this himself, he’d feel better about jesting.
He remained quiet and still as he was dragged together. Lying down in pieces, he wondered whether this was what being dismembered felt like. Probably more pain. “Not sure. Beej isn’t exactly saying what I need to do to feel whole again.”
Another puff of dust and actually, he was that. Deimos blinked and moved an arm to his shoulder. Attached. “....Surprisingly enough, that’s only the freakiest thing to happen to myself. To others, I’ve seen worse.” He poked the shoulder again before sitting up. “Where were we?” “They’re out...” Actually, Nita wasn’t sure if they were or not, but she really hoped that if they’d been there and heard her not-screaming they would have come and checked (if only to tell her to shut up), so she was willing to guess that they weren’t. “And they wouldn’t be any help anyway.” Probably just tell her to clean up her messes.
Nita blinked as he popped back whole again. That was pretty cool, she had to admit. That was more like what she’d expected from having a Betelgeuse. She kind of wanted to poke him herself, just to make sure everything really was firmly attached, but she resisted.
Though the grime on the floor made her hesitate a moment, in the end she sat down beside him, Indian-style. The smell was kind of disgusting close up, but she could live with it. Hopefully. If not, there was a bathroom attached to her bedroom so she’d be able to make it to the toilet in time. Besides, it just seemed like he’d have less of a chance of escaping an answer if she was close enough to poke him. “Camelot. You were going to tell me about Camelot.” Whether he’d actually intended to or not. “Makes sense,” Deimos muttered. He tested his joints again, bending his legs towards him and then out. He wondered if they did yoga for post-separation people who weren’t referring to bad break-ups. “And I didn’t say they would be. It’s more of the matter of things.”
He tucked his legs underneath him, testing flexibility. A small part of him was pleased with her joining him on the ground. Less disgust. “Camelot, right.” He shifted. “So, you’re familiar with the Agency. Neutral folks. Intro-to-Reincarnation. They’ve been around for eons.” He tapped his knee. “Almost as long, we’ve had two groups - Camelot and CORE. CORE is an organization who-” He glanced at her, taking a gamble. “Is often labelled as evil. Might be. We tend to fall under such a title. Simply put, we’re working on our own terms to keep our reincarnates in positions of authority. Life simpler and after all, there’s a good hand in it.”
He paused, before admitting - as this was Lyds and it wasn’t like he couldn’t deal with her if she was going to run and freak. “Me, I’m with them because it lets me pursue my interests. I’m a psychiatrist, if you’ll believe it. Merely unorthodox. But you see, Camelot is-” And he raised his eyes to the ceiling, giving a massive sigh. “They’re uppity. Think they’re better just because their reincarnates were the good guys. What they’ve done is no different from what we have.” Small lie, but in the end they were the same. “Laws are slightly more upheld but they break them in the end too.”
“There was a war - is, was, it was back when I died. Didn’t know it at the time but the girl I was seeing?” He slammed a fist into the ground. “Took me out of the playing field. Gotten some news since. CORE lost, mostly went into hiding or went to jail. Of course, there’s another group...same values, just adding in a little personal revenge.” He eyed her, watching her reaction. Nita was silent a long moment - probably longer than he would be comfortable with, she knew, but she didn’t really care. It wasn’t every day that someone came out and admitted to being one of the “bad guys” in such an unapologetic way. No one could blame her for taking a few minutes to really process it, could they?
It was probably not in the way he expected she was processing, which was the primary reason the pause grew to eat up the minutes greedily. People always seemed to think it was the knights in shining armor who were the honest ones, the ones you could trust. Nita had known too many “good guys” to really believe that. She’d dated a few of them, and there was always something else they wanted, in the end. Hell, she didn’t even have to look any further than her stepdad to see a prime example; as far as anyone knew, he was a wonderful man, a wonderful father figure. He gave her everything money could buy even though she was no more his than one of Brangelina’s adopt-a-babies. At home... well, the fact that his seventeen-year-old stepdaughter knew that his money was dirtier than the current state of her floor said something for how much of a pretense that good guy thing was.
The bad guys, though, at least you could always know what to expect from them. Sure, it was kind of a general “bad things” but still, better than some backstabbing bitch of a supposed best friend or a douchenozzle who told you that you were pretty and then went and gave all the details about what you let him do to his buddies in the locker room - chess club, whatever, they were worse gossips than the jocks anyway. You knew not to trust them, and somehow that made them more trustworthy. Safer.
Besides, who said these CORE people had been so bad? Aside from the Camelot people who apparently had done the whole double agent thing and were obviously not so good and honorable, anyway. Yeah, she was smart enough to know she wasn’t getting the whole story, since it was obviously from Deimos’s point of view, but the fact that he came out and said it meant something, right?
And Nita totally understood wanting to be in control and do things her own way.
Decision made (and without her having any real memory of actually making it, but whatever), she reached over and patted his shoulder. “Good guys suck.” Granted, it was possible to make Deimos tense. There were things that could make him just as wary as his victims. But someone not answering him - Nita-part-Lyds more importantly - didn’t cause that. Worst came to worst, she’d for some reason start to send him to the Neitherworld. And see, Deimos’ senses were good then. One call of Betelgeuse and he’d silence her. As she continued to debate on (about what, he didn’t really give enough of a crap to pay attention to), he occupied his mind with a better matter. Like, if he had to silence her, how would he. Steel plate was Beej’s suggestion but a little overdone. He needed to use something a little more unique. And of course, permanent minus his magic.
He was just debating the benefits and losses of sewn shut lips – in vogue these days with the horror crowd, so he’d hear, though not as permanent – when Nita patted his shoulder and spoke. He blinked, reorienting himself before blinking yet again.
Yeah, they did. Pretty much. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred. But it hadn’t been the purpose of his little rant. See, he’d have had no problem with his ex going and being a spy. That’d have been fine. Expected even. (He’d winced enough over missing it.) The problem had more to do with her killing him so pathetically. Really, show some fight. Or terrorize a little.
But yes, the good guys did suck. It was just remarkable that she mentioned that. Deimos crossed his arms and shrugged. “That they do. Personal experience or just commenting on it, babes?” It slipped out not quite unintentionally. The endearment made Nita wary for just a moment, but Lydia reminded her, That’s what Beej calls me, it’s not personal or anything. She relaxed again, shrugging and then letting her shoulders slump further than before. “Oh, you know, a little of both. I’m a teenager, remember, I think everything sucks.” The hint of sarcasm spoke quite strongly as to how often the “teenager” thing was used as an excuse for the things she did - and not just by her, coming much more frequently from her mother.
Then, because adults always asked too many questions (even if Deimos wasn’t a normal adult and might not do it at all), she tried to derail him quickly. “So what have you been doing since then? I mean, aside from being dead, since obviously it hasn’t slowed you down any.” Okay, so maybe she was hoping for some epic stories about trouble he’d caused elsewhere. Was that so wrong to ask of freaking Betelgeuse? “Touche,” Deimos smirked. Thinking back to his own teen days was a little difficult - it involved a fair amount of fooling around with Martha and helping on the farm. A slight laugh escaped him. “Every few decades, your age group gets more complicated.” He pointed a finger at her, knowing. “Just be happy you haven’t been married off as punishment yet.” No, he didn’t have experience with it personally but he’d engineered it in the past. An excellent form of prolonged torture in his opinion.
He grimaced at the question. “Cleaned mostly. You have no idea how easily things get disgusting down there.” Beat. “No, you probably do. Or could find out. Minus the fact that I’d really appreciate it if I stayed in the land of the living a little longer. You know, things to do, places to see, people to torture...some other thing that on a more put together day I’d be able to name.” Deimos shrugged. Ugh, married off as a punishment was something Nita had not even considered and also something she knew her mother would try if she could get away with it, if only so someone else would be paying for the doctor’s bills. She made a nasty face at him for even making her consider it for a second, then decided she was just going to forget about that disturbing little idea.
That hadn’t even been something she’d considered when she realized that, hey, Lydia, and then found out that there was in fact a Betelgeuse. Nita couldn’t say she wasn’t excited about it, though, couldn’t even pretend to not really care. “But I can visit, right? After you get your stuff taken care of? That is awesome.” Deimos began to wonder if he shouldn’t have mentioned that. Sidestepping matters sometimes seemed to work better. He grimaced, raking a hand through his messy hair. “Sure. Doomie’ll be glad to see you. I don’t suppose I have to stress how much I don’t want it to be my permanent abode? I like the land of the living. You get better cable for instance.”
Among other things. Never ending supply of people to torture, the living he could meet up with, visiting his family’s graves...all those things the Neitherworld strictly avoided. There were a few reasons why Deimos had a problem with being sentient-yet-dead versus immortal.
“So. Enough about me. What about you?” Of course Nita wasn’t expecting them to spend all their time in the Neitherworld or anything... okay, maybe it would have been cool to not have to worry about family and school and all that shit, but she kind of figured Deimos would want to wreak some havoc in the living world. She shrugged, and nodded, and let it go. After all, it was still way too soon to trust him enough to go off somewhere with him, anyway.
As to the question about herself, Nita shrugged again and tried to figure out how to get around answering. “Oh, you know, just your average teenager. Nothing exciting here.” Hey, it was even mostly the truth. “Come on, you have better things to do than hear a seventeen-year-old girl’s life story, right?” Unless he just wanted to know more about the drugs. Totally possible. That was a satisfactory enough answer for him. Excellent. The last thing that could have happened here was that Lyds had been reincarnated into some chick who wanted to trap him in the Neitherworld. He was liking Nita more and more as time passed. And he’d only been here for twenty minutes, tops. Always a good sign.
If there was one thing Deimos knew it was that there was no such thing as average. Especially with reincarnates. People had their own uniqueness that showed in what made them tick. You just didn’t go and ask that outright though. That was asking for a punch in the face, which he frankly, had no desire for. “Nonsense,” he said, drumming his fingers on his knees. “And right now, no. Not really. I’m still acclimating to fresh air and all.” His smirk was winning, even if the look in his eyes was not. Oh. Nita had really expected that to work. Sighing, she slumped a little more, twisting to pop her back. “Okay, so, what do you want to know?” It wasn’t like she actually had to volunteer anything. If he didn’t ask about it, she didn’t have to tell him. Seemed fair.
There really wasn’t that much to tell, as far as she was concerned. Her family was just embarrassing, school was boring, and her personal shit was, well, personal. Obviously. So, whatever he thought he was going to get out of her? He was going to be really freaking disappointed. That was his problem, though. Not hers. Good question. Asking outright, as said, would do little good. Deimos made his tone light, going for non-probing. “We could do this the fun way with describing yourself in two sentences, summarizing your history - siblings, pets, highly dangerous allergies, near death experiences-” He was highly serious about the latter, even if he was smirking. It was merely the way Deimos rolled.
“Or we could do it the more monotonous way of going back and forth. If learning about you is going to be like pulling teeth, that’s an option.” “No siblings, the only pet I’ve ever had is a hamster and he’s dead now, no allergies, no near death experiences, blah blah blah.” Nita smirked right back at him. “If you want to pry my deep dark secrets out of me, you’re going to have to work for them.”
Of course, once she thought about it, she realized that would just convince him that she actually had deep dark secrets. Damn. “Okay, fine, I’ll get you started. The meds are to help control my impulsivity and aggression. I’m on them because I punch people. A lot. So obviously they’re really helping.” That would be good enough, right? “Boring,” Deimos sang. “We should fix some of these. Actually, three out of four. Though granted, being a reincarnate pretty much guarantees the last.” His grin remained wide and tone was casual, just as if he was talking about how he took his tea. One got used to things after awhile. “I hardly mind work. Good for the soul and all - yes, I do have one. Don’t be surprised.”
That one surprised him. “Sarcasm, right?” He reached up for the bottle again, twisting off the cap with ease and dumping a few into his pocket. Hmm. “How’s the side-effects?” And he glanced her way. “D’you actually take them?” “Yeah, usually.” Nita hadn’t actually thought about it, which was weird, for her. She frowned and tried to remember why exactly she did keep taking them. “I don’t know, they make me really dizzy and confused. Which is probably why I’m pretty cool with this whole you thing. I mean, now I’m cool about it.”
Then, as though it was the first time she’d thought about it, she said as much to herself as to him, “I guess no one would know if I didn’t take them.” It wasn’t like her mom actually checked. A new bottle just showed up every month. Deimos generally was the sort to encourage patients to keep up with their meds, but those effects along with his own hypothesis pointed towards a wasted opportunity. So, Nita got volatile without them? He saw no issues with that. Planting an idea, or furnacing it, was for her own good as well as hiw own amusement. “What? You won’t be in a few hours or whenever your prescription runs off?” He gave her a disapproving look, before the smirk settled once again.
“If they don’t check...” Deimos took one pill, crushing it between his fingers. Paranormal strength was useful at times. Dust remained there - until he closed his hand and opened it. Gone. “Toilets, sinks, drains...I suggest not using a plant as people generally notice.” He dumped the rest back in the bottle, putting on the lid. One musical shake and he added, “Or if you want, you’re welcome to some placebos.” Okay, so that was officially the coolest thing Deimos had done. A small bit of rebellion began worming its way past the resignation Nita had finally settled on when she realized that the drugs were happening whether she wanted them or not. Toilets, sinks, drains... it wasn’t like she didn’t have her own bathroom, so access to those wasn’t exactly limited. “Yeah, you know, I think I’m going to be pretty cool with this even after the drugs wear off.”
Then, ignoring the stench, she reached over to him and grabbed the hand that had crushed the pill. “Make the placebos taste good and we’ll talk.” Sugar pills, right? So if they didn’t taste sweet, they really freaking should. Or chocolate placebos, that would be epic. “Oh really?” Deimos’ smirk grew then. A little planted idea could go so far...and besides, this was for her own good. He’d rather see a non-drugged Lyds reincarnate anyhow. “I should hope so. Been eons like I said.”
He shot her a look. Not a difficult request but it was a rule for bargaining. “Define good. I’m not as fond of insects as old Beej, but that doesn’t change other people. I also know people who can’t stand mint, but they’re also-” He gave a slight nod of his head, jerk of the shoulders. “And how often do you get a refill?” “You know, sweet. Like candy.” It couldn’t have been that hard to figure out what tasting good meant. Nita rolled her eyes at him. “You know those little sugar dots that you get on the piece of paper and they’re pretty much just pure sugar with food coloring? Like that.” It was old candy, she thought; not as old as him, but he’d have to know what she meant.
As for the refill... “Once a month. Two pills a day. Because, you know, making your teenage daughter a zombie is fun.” Then, a quick glance at him, and she decided she’d better add, “No offense.” Candy came in flavors and he rolled his eyes again. “Varied then?” He took the bottle, giving it a shake then. Approximate of how much were in there... A few were dumped into his palm, rolled about his fingers to test for size. Had to match weight as well...all but one was dumped back in. He pulled his hand from hers, keeping one pill in his right one. The left was empty to start. With it closed he focused on recreating the object - coming up with it was easy, but this was about dramatics. Deimos was all about showing off. A moment later his palm opened with a matching pill in it. He held it out to her to take.
“No pill popping just because they’re candy,” he warned. “You’re only getting that amount then.” It’d make his life easier and make it a safe deal. Though that sparked a glare. “I am not a zombie. I am undead, but I am not a brain-eater.” Nita grabbed the pill out of his hand and popped it into her mouth, chewing it up like she never could a real pill. “Not bad, not bad at all.” Yeah, like she’d resist having more than one. After all, no one really paid attention...
Oo, looked like she’d found a button to push. A grin spread very, very slowly over her face. “How do you know you wouldn’t like brains? Have you tried them? I mean, they can’t taste any worse than bugs, can they?” She was going to have to watch more zombie movies for ammunition. “Deimos Moon, Candy Confectioner. It’s got a nice ring to it.” He pointed a finger at her before surreptitiously replicating the bottle. The pills got dumped into the new bottle and that was tucked into a pocket. Her bottle was tapped on top. Not a moment later, pills rained down. He tossed it to her, with a cocky grin.
“I have.” An experience he wasn’t going to explain or replicate. “And no, they aren’t as bad. Think gooier.” Alright, maybe with that look. ‘Sides she did have control over how long he was out of the Neitherworld for. “It’s a bit of a long story...”