raisetheearth | It's not stalking when he's a ghost

Who: Misa Amane and YOU (and a ghost)
Where: Shepherd's Haven
When: August 10th, 2016 (night)
What: Misa has spotted a certain ghost, with a face that has been burned into her mind ever since her first echo. Light Yagami. Well, it's not like she's not going to follow him.
Status: Open
Warnings: Some PG-13 sex suggestions in the thread with Lazarus.

The first time she saw him, saw that familiar face that somehow still belonged to a stranger, Misa had stopped dead in her tracks and lost him. By the time her heart had stopped hammering in her chest and she decided that yes, she should look for him, there was no harm in looking, he had disappeared. The disappointment was acute, but even with that one glimpse the figment had haunted her thoughts for the remainder of the night.

Light Yagami.

There was so little she knew of him, and what she did know often conflicted, missing pieces making the puzzle all the more confusing. Her Other had loved him enough to do anything for him. Misa had amassed enough echoes to find that thought terrifying rather than simply romantic, but even so she still desired to know more.

Who was Light Yagami?

A ghost could not tell her that. Not this one, anyway. The phantom glided silently through the streets, never speaking, a bored look on his eerily beautiful face. Misa walked along beside him, staring. At first she had been more discrete, but after twenty minutes of trailing behind him it became clear that this ghost didn't care about her presence in the least. He didn't so much as look at her.

Misa more than made up for that with how hungrily she looked at him. Time passed by them both, and soon she had lost track of the hour, wandering obliviously through the darkened streets.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It isn't that Nathan is any more comfortable with the idea of their little community being haunted. This very much still bothers him, but the fact remains that there are things that need to be done and the ghosts have yet to be hostile. So he tries to shove down his instinctive fear as much as possible.

He is not ignoring the ghosts as he walks; that would be foolish, in his estimation. Just as foolish as . . . following them would be. Which is exactly what he sees Misa doing. He debates speaking up; she's probably fine, but he is still very wary of what's happening in the village right now.

Quietly, as he always speaks: "... Misa?"

Misa jolts at the sound of her name, spinning around to face Nathan with wide eyes. She hadn't noticed him approach; for a split second she is convinced one of the ghosts has spoken to her. But no, just another one of the living.

"Nathan... hi," she responds slowly, glancing back at Light's apparition. She doesn't mean to be dismissive of Nathan, but it is hard to look away. "I was just on my way home."

In Misa's defense, Nathan looks ghostly himself even on a good day, with his white hair and natural pallor.

"I realize they've yet to be hostile, but I am not sure following any of them is a good idea." But Nathan does have a tendency to take caution to extremes that other people would not.

He is not offended when Misa's eyes stray back to the apparition. His own follow, mostly out of a desire to keep watch on everything that is happening . . . Hm.

"Ah. I suppose that is him?"

The apparition fits her description well enough, and even upon sight his previous opinion has not exactly changed. He can certainly see why she'd find him good-looking, but he still doesn't register as distinctive in Nathan's mind.

Misa nods, eyes still on Light.

"I wasn't following him," she protests weakly. "We were just... going in the same direction. But he hasn't noticed me at all, I think it's fine."

She finds herself wishing she was alone with the apparition again, for reasons she can't justify. It's not as if the ghost paid any attention to her before Nathan arrived either.

He doesn't begrudge her still watching the apparition. He'd kept his eyes on Mello's for quite some time when he'd seen it, albeit for different reasons.

Nathan can miss a lot in conversations, often falling flat in reading common social cues or why they crop up. But here, the protest is noticeably weak and the hesitance obvious. She is lying, and not doing a very good job. Like she is trying to convince herself of her own words as much as she is trying to convince him.

"Your house isn't in that direction . . ."

"Hm...? Oh, I guess not. I must have... gotten turned around..."

She tears her eyes away from Light to look at Nathan; it's too difficult to concentrate otherwise. When she watches Light it feels impossible to focus on anything else.

"Sorry, I'm kind of distracted, with all the ghosts," she admits, trying to play it off as a more general phenomena than it is. "It's weird, isn't it?"

Turned around because she feels compelled to follow the ghost. But sometimes even Nathan manages tact and thus he doesn't mention it. She isn't distracted by all of the ghosts. Just that ghost. She'd gotten angry with him on this topic earlier, though, and he'd rather not get yelled at in person.

"It is very strange, yes."

His gaze perks up a little as another passes by -- elderly, clean-shaven, small spectacles perched on his nose. Nathan knows few faces from his old life, but that is one of them. He lets it pass without comment, however.

Misa turns to follow his gaze, but nothing catches her interest. There is no echo or flicker of recognition as she takes in the elderly ghost walking past. Probably for the best; there's no telling what she might get back, and Nathan always makes her feel wary with those dark, searching eyes when it comes to keeping secrets.

"Hopefully they won't stay long, right? The slime disappeared, so they should too."

She tries to sound chipper when she says it, but the idea of the ghosts disappearing suddenly fills her with dread. She chances a quick glance back to make sure Light's ghost is where she left him. The relief from seeing that he is still there is dizzying.

He does not remember getting the Echo that allows him to recognize the old ghost; that one had occurred during those lost days before he had contacted the network for the first time. But that ghost is Watari, the one who had looked after Near.

"Possibly. But the slime is the more anomalous of things that have appeared; most have stayed unless they'd been actively removed."

That doesn't make things any more or less worrisome, does it? The ghosts might remain until some way is found to get rid of them. Or they might vanish in a few days' time. Either one seems equally possible to Nathan at the moment.

"Yeah... you're right," Misa agrees, and try as she might she can't keep the relief out of her voice. "I guess we'll just have to get used to them."

It's not stalking when he's a ghost

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