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"Owww." He rubbed his shoulder. "What was that for?" Horace, of course, knew exactly what it was for and made very little fuss as he settled back into watch. Ghostbusters was actually more entertaining than he remembered.

"D'you think we're kind of like ghost busters?"

Horace ate the chip.

"Shadow things? I... dunno how to categorize everything, honestly. But it's all FEAR creatures and that's what matters." He tilted his head, curious, and looked at Micah. "You have shadow and zombies?"

"That sounds astoundingly creepy. Did they ever, like.... follow you?" He took another drink from his soda and balanced the can carefully on the bed. "I had trees."

Horace tried to imagine being watched by shadows, seeing them in more places than the forest. "Do you think... they noticed you noticing them?" He shuddered, too. He could bar windows, live far enough away from the forest, but no one could escape shadows. Maybe, eventually, his own shadow would have risen and watched him with holes for its eyes. Great, now Horace was creeping himself out.

"I hate windows," he said emphatically. "I used to have a blackout curtain for when I slept over places, but my... ex still has it." His face tightened and the word had a sort of strangled sound to it. Horace ran his fingers along the bed near his leg. "I can't sleep with windows... the trees used to crowd up against the glass, stare at me with yellow eyes. One night I forgot to close the window and woke up with roots across my face." He huffed out a breath that might have been a laugh.

"Good thing this floor ain't got windows."

"More like ******** terrifying." Horace was intensely glad he hadn't seen those too. "I think almost every hunter here has some kinda the same story. Different circumstances, but all spooky. It's something to do with bloodlines and special ability to see what normally is unseen. Makes you feel crazy, though, before you know. Did you family see?" He jerked his thumb over at the picture on Micah's bookshelf.

"Have been thinking lately about trying to sleep somewhere with a window again. Dunno where, of course - such a hassle. It's just that, I guess-" He shrugged and tried to speak nonchalantly. "Turns out humans are far more terrifying than creatures staring at me through a window."

The pat startled him a bit, and he shot Micah a confused look. Of all people, he hadn't excepted some token of comfort from him. So he smiled brightly, if a little falsely. "Don't worry bout it - I'm over it." 'It', of course, was not elaborated on. Horace deliberately turned his mind back to trees and shadows and things that stared.

"Hereditary for some, triggered for others. My grandma called me a liar every time I mentioned it, so I learned not to," he offered. "Dunno about my parents seeing s**t, like I don't even know their names." He snorted. Horace had always thought that bit of withheld information was a little ******** ridiculous, but grandma Dora had been stalwart.

"A lot of people end up with family on the island. Like sons, or siblings, or what not. Kind of cool, I think. Like we chose this, but how much better would it be to have someone you trusted along?" He paused for a moment and frowned. "Although I heard something about deliberately tryin' to breed hunter-types. Dunno what's that about. Could be insubstantial rumor; probably is."

He laughed. "Yeah, don't wanna sound crazy, after all. Had one girlfriend told me she saw it too. Turned out she was lying so it's extra nice to have people unequivocally believe." He pulled a face. September's lying had been more baffling than it had hurt, really, especially now, when it was kind of distant.

"Yeah, Lawr's got a son here. Jordan's got a brother, Felicia is related somehow to Dwight. Cousins ******** abound in this place. I don't have much family or it'd be damn tempting to wander the pod to see if anyone was here." Horace waggled his fingers at Micah. "Yeah, better be careful or you might get sent out on missions to ******** chicks." When lightly said, it didn't seem awful' it seemed the stereotypical masculine thing most men would want. But it was ******** up, Horace thought, if that sort of thing really happened. He kind of hoped not.

"Someone else told her. She actually used it as a 'hey thing in common let's date'. In retrospect, that was kind of weird, but-" He shrugged. It was all over; Darren had been a bigger figure in his life, anyway, in terms of dating. "Were you the dumper or dumpee?" He drew his leg up and rested his head on one knee, angling his head to look at Micah. Micah was nice but had a prickly pear air about him, so Horace was gonna guess dumpee.

Horace snorted. "It's okay; I get it; you're straight but don't want to sleep around." He wasn't going to pull the sexual jokes on Micah right now, even if he found it very silly that Micah seemed to need to remind him of his preference. "I'm not fond of sleeping around either, too impersonal. And you never know - you could find some long-lost relative here. Though I don't know how you'd know you were related. There's records somewhere of it, but I'm not high enough ranked in Death to have access."