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 Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 12:05 pm
Michael knew, in a very general sense, what was happening. While he wasn't having a particularly good few days they weren't terrible either. He wasn't hiding and fighting so much as he was drifting, and that happened from time to time. He knew there was a baby. He had seen him. He knew that Toby and Maia had been chosen to adopt him. That was where his knowledge ended. He simply continued drifting.
- - -
"It's always a good place to start," Toby was saying as they headed for Michael's room. "I don't know if he's usually here or if he just knows if someone shows up, but trying to find him without checking here first can be difficult."
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 12:42 pm
"I find him here most," Maia said, smiling as she carried Mikey towards Michael's room. "When I didn't, he wasn't hard to find. He was scaring Seamus."
She rang the doorbell. "Michael? We have someone we want you to meet!" She hoped he was in. He'd really become one of her closest friends in such a short time. And now he was her baby's namesake.
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 1:36 pm
"Well, he'll scare who ever gives the best reaction, and we all know Seamus is a little dramatic," Toby said. He stood back as Maia rang the bell and looked around them to see if the ghost had appeared or was watching them from somewhere nearby. He didn't see him. After a second or two he did, however, hear the door unlock. "It's unlocked," he said to Maia, watching the knob. Normally he'd have been worried at this sort of an entrance, but that was the fault of horror movies and assumptions. Sometimes Michael was just a little weird. If Toby'd had psychic powers he'd probably have used them too. It wasn't anywhere near Michael's death date, after all.
Toby reached out to turn the knob himself, and though the lights were initially off they flicked on before the door had opened five inches.
"Michael?"
"Here," Michael responded, and though his voice sounded immediately close, the spirit was actually sitting in a chair against the far wall, beside the book case. Toby smiled to him.
"We have someone we want you to meet."
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 2:59 pm
Maia went in and smiled at Michael. "Michael, this is our son," she said. "We named him after you," she added. "I wanted you to meet your nephew." They could take him out of the nursery, which was nice when they had a moment off work.
"Do you want to hold him?" Michael had said he liked children, but maybe he only liked to see them? She wasn't sure how he'd react. Hopefully positively!
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 3:12 pm
Michael's brows raised. His gaze wasn't entirely focused, but it didn't look dangerous either. Drifting would do that. Along the same line, he'd heard what Maia had said, but it didn't quite process.
"Come in," the spirit said, and he stood. As he did so, his legs disappeared. It would be easier to use his energy on solidly supporting the baby than on looking alive. "Yes. Please." He held his arms out to take the child.
Toby recognized his floaty personality, and his lack of reaction was telling. They would need to be gentle, but it didn't look like Michael was in the sort of mood to disappear with the baby or make the walls bleed if Maia was a little intense. He was well used to her by now anyway.
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 4:47 pm
Something was wrong. Maia hesitated before handing Mikey to the ghost. Was he tired? He reminded her slightly of someone who'd had a bit too much to drink.
They'd have to be careful. She didn't want to upset him or overwhelm him, and she probably had. "I wanted him to meet you," she added. "Be careful though, he shifts."
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 5:46 pm
As the baby came over, a smile crept over Michael's lips. He did like children, quite a bit. This one was newer too than most he'd met, and that was saying something considering he'd met most after his death. The hands-off parenting style of wealthy Victorians had been a little odd, and children weren't even meant to be seen by adults, let alone heard.
"Hello~" he cooed to the infant and began to rock side-to-side in a way Toby hadn't seen before, and then he looked to Maia for an instant. "'Shifts?'"
"He's a shapeshifter. Just animals, as far as we know."
"Ah. Well. I'm not an animal often, but I know how it is. Come." Michael stepped back from the doorway to allow Toby and Maia further inside. His mind was clearing, well enough that Toby could see it in him. Bringing Mikey had been a good idea. "I'd offer you tea," Michael added, "but I'm dead." He smiled to the couple, clearly joking. "Make yourself comfortable. I'm not giving him back yet."
There were plenty of places to sit and Toby and Maia were generally welcome to all of them. People could be hesitant to use antique furniture but most of Michael's was replicas, and what wasn't was well taken care of. Not destroying a dead man's only earthly possessions was probably a good idea, but there was such a thing as over-careful.
"When do you take him home?" Michael asked. He didn't have to sit. it was purely habit and comfort for him. He didn't have a physical body, after all, so what would get tired? At the moment he didn't even have legs.
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 6:29 pm
Michael seemed to be feeling better already. So bringing Mikey had been a good idea after all. She sat in a chair across from Michael and smiled at the ghost.
"He turned into a sloth on me yesterday," she said. "It's startling."
She considered his question. "We have to get everything ready first, so it might be a few days," she said. "Dari's helping us paint the nursery."
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 8:03 pm
Michael laughed. He sometimes psychologically tortured people, but a sloth was startling? He'd keep that in mind. For now he stroked the baby's chubby cheek and stuck his finger in a tiny fist. Babies were warm and alive and pure. It was hard to imagine not liking them, especially now. Ghosts often gravitated toward children, and he wondered if it wasn't sometimes about that and not just that they weren't as frightened of death as adults or, worse, more pliable.
Toby sat down on the chaise and watched the spirit. Michael had been a good friend, but he had still sometimes been quite scary. 'Misunderstood' was an easy word to throw around when you weren't hallucinating people's heads falling off, but seeing the ghost like this made him a lot less intimidating. besides, he'd calmed down now that he got to be more social. Toby knew him, though. He knew the look he'd had on his face when they'd entered, and so: "Did you hear us?"
"Hear you? Do what?"
"His name."
"Yes?"
"We call him 'Mikey.'"
Michael laughed. "Good choice."
Nope. He still didn't seem to get it. Toby looked pointedly at Maia. She had named him, after all. Toby had only agreed to it.
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 12:06 pm
"His full name is Michael," Maia said, and smiled at the ghost. "We named him after you." Michael was really special. He'd gone from being the entity she'd feared most to one of her closest friends. "I wasn't sure how to thank you enough for saving Toby's life. I--" she paused and gave another smile. "We love you, Michael."
He'd saved Toby and he was good company anytime she wanted someone to talk to, he really was special. "You're his uncle, too."
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 1:57 pm
Now that he was more mentally present, the name seemed to click. Some people just liked the name 'Michael' after all. It was pretty common. That wasn't the case here, though. The ghost's eyebrows shot up and he watched Maia for a moment, trying to read her, then turned his head to Toby and watched him. Toby just grinned and nodded. "What? It was easy. I'd be dead without you."
Michael's smile had fallen in shock, but now it was slowly emerging on his lips again. He looked back down at the infant, and the strangest thing happened.
Suddenly, Michael had legs. They were real, solid legs that he didn't appear to have conjured himself. Toby's brow furrowed as he looked the spirit's face over. Something was different. The color, the lines... something. He looked almost warm? And, perhaps even stranger, Michael looked up suddenly from the baby and peered over his shoulder at nothing at all against the back wall, even turning to face it. His smile broadened. He shifted Mikey in his arms and waved at... nothing. Toby turned to Maia with shock and questioning on his face. What the hell?
For Michael it was less strange, but no less surprising. He had turned down to see Mikey and suddenly felt... different. Like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, like he was feeling joy for the first time without some oppressive shroud. He felt the light more than he saw it at first, then noticed the glow over his shoulder, and turned to face it.
It was the same as everyone else's. Upon his death, Michael had never even turned to see the white light, though he had felt it there. Now it was back, shimmering bright, with the same set of stairs and the silhouettes at the top. He recognized them immediately as his mother and father and, strangely, as the siblings he had never met. An old friend stood waving beside them. He waved back. Though the urge to join them was strong, he could choose to return to them any time. His white light had come. He simply had to will it back, like those he helped. For now, though, he still had an un-life to live. There was a child in his namesake. He had friends. Most importantly, he had a job to do. Feeling the warmth and welcoming of the light only made him further realize the good that he was doing in helping others into theirs.
His mother blew him a kiss. The light faded away. Michael turned back to his guests and... the looks on their faces? He smiled and shifted Mikey to hold him against his chest, supporting his bum and neck. My, he felt even more warm now. Michael turned his head and kissed the baby's hair and cooed softly to him. He didn't notice the tear the ran down his cheek because it felt so normal, so natural, to be happy enough to cry.
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Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2017 1:43 pm
What was going on? Michael seemed more solid, somehow, with the sudden appearance of his legs. He didn't seem to have summoned them, it was usually easier for the ghost to appear at the waist. She turned to see what Michael was waving at--but nothing was there. Could ghosts hallucinate? Probably not.
She gave Toby an equally perplexed look.
"Michael, you're crying," she said, and reached to put a hand on his shoulders. She'd never seen him cry before. Was he happy, then?
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Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 9:26 am
"Am I?" the ghost asked. He supposed he was. With an infant in his arms, though, there was nothing he could do to wipe the tears away. Instead he simply turned his gaze up to smile at Maia. "I saw my family," he said. For a moment his brows furrowed, a strange display of emotion that he usually did not show. "My white light. It came back."
Toby perked, standing suddenly. "What? And you didn't go?!"
Michael turned slightly to look to Toby. "Of course not. There's so much for me here."
Toby was, more or less, gawping.
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Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 9:37 am
His white light had come back, and he hadn't gone?! Maia stared for a long while before taking a step forward and wrapping her arms around Michael--and the baby--loosely. Michael helped so many other ghosts, helping them find their light, he deserved his. But he'd decided to stay?
"I'm glad you're still here," she said.
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Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:14 am
Michael leaned in to the hug from the neck, protecting the baby with his arms and chest. He leaned his head against Maia's. "Of course."
Toby watched. What had done it, then? Without someone to help him... god, had they done it? Had Mikey done it?
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