Completed Where the Lines Overlap

[Gale Austin McCenry]

30th of Winter, 514 A.V.
Kelp Bar

Despite the man not having been fidgeting in his seat, the old stool still squeaked under the frail weight of the blonde. He had almost forgot how unreliable these mismatching chairs were, but his mind quickly wondered off, his eyes spying around the room.

It was a typical Kelp Bar setting. A couple of groups of men laughing and playing their card games with battered and torn playing decks, drinking gallons of Kelp Beer in a matter of ticks. The elderly women looking as if on her last stretch and on the last straw with the day tending to the men and women who entered, and those who ended up finishing their drinks. The scarce candlelight dimly glowing in the corners and on the occasional round table top.

The blue eyes flickered to the short and dissipating candle in front of him. With only an inch of wax peeking over the pool of melted wax within the shallow dish, the flame danced delicately, dancing it's last. The occasional appearance of wind, due to the entrance of a new patron, would waver the slight flame, blowing it to almost nothing before the breeze would die down, allowing the light to gain it's former, pale strength again.

Sometimes he felt like that little flicker of light.

With chin laying on his palm, Gale watched the last glow of the candle as a wooden mug was placed on his table. His gaze quickly turned to the woman who had placed it, mumbling a quick thanks just before she had left to return to her rightful throne behind the counter. The widower took the mug and slid it to himself looking at the green stench that he had all but grown accustomed to. His stomach growled loudly as his eyes devoured the beverage themselves. It twitched and jerked, lurching towards the salty liquid to appease it's own desires. Finally, Gale grabbed the hefty handle and gulped a large portion of the drink, feeling every second of the beer rolling down his throat, as if savoring it.

He then set the mug down carefully, cautious as to spilling, and then continued to stare at the candlelight.

[Kendhl Pilkvist]

Kendhl was worried.

Now, this wasn't completely irrational worrying. No, she was more worried about the fact that Zeltiva was in the midst of a famine, and Mathews Bay had frozen, and a fire had broken out at the University, and that the obelisks seemed to be linked to all of this, and that Gale could be in danger.

She hadn't seen him in three, possibly four weeks. Not after she'd run out to find Ricky. The ghost cursed inwardly, hating herself for being so stupid. She didn't know where Gale lived, either, and had no way of contacting him. She should've asked him where he lived beforehand, but she was so petching focused on finding Ricky she hadn't even thought of it.

Kendhl had already asked the people at the Loveless if they knew; they didn't. She'd dragged her fingernails down her face in exasperation at that point. She had nowhere else to look. If those at the Loveless didn't even know, didn't even care where her bondmate lived, then she was lost.

She would try the Kelp Bar again. Maybe she'd get lucky. Kendhl's feet were totally soundless as she made her way to the establishment. She walked through the wooden door, shivering slightly. It was still weird, being able to go straight through walls and such. She had to force herself to do it. It wasn't natural.

Kendhl blinked as her eyes adjusted. It was fairly dim inside. She squinted slightly, searching for the familiar blond locks. It took a moment, but there they were. There he was. He looked okay.

"Gale." The ghost's shoulders fell in relief. A smile crept across her lips as she whispered his name. She slid around to stand behind the handsome man and materialized. Kendhl laid a cold hand on his shoulder.

"I'm glad to see you're okay. Are you hurt at all? Have you been hurt? Are you hungry?"

Common - Fratava

[Gale Austin McCenry]

To Gale's surprise, as he thought to himself in silence about where he life currently was, he felt like he didn't have an opinion anymore. Recalling the past events in Zeltiva, like the University Explosion and the Obelisk awakening, and of course the massive famine, Gale honestly couldn't give a damn. It just seemed that his already bad luck was blown up to preposterous proportions and that all these things were just happening because they could. It was as if nothing was real anymore and all these horrible happenstances were just all apart of some big nightmare. He tried to comprehend the logic of the situation but his past kept getting in the way and making it all seem surreal. And because of this mass confusion that he's been dealing with for what seemed like a lifetime, which only grew worse over the seasons, he simply gave up trying to solve it all.

Which surprisingly was a relief.

Although he didn't necessarily feel a weight lifted off his shoulders, it was as if he grew accustomed to it being there. Instead of feeling the itching and pressing need to understand, he felt content with not knowing exactly what the petch was going on.

But astonishing enough, Kelp Beer had the same affect.

A sudden breeze swept through the Kelp Bar, the room becoming cold as the frosty air pressed against his green shirt and skin. But it was likely just someone entering the bar, seeing as the wind could have picked up and just rolled into the semi-warm atmosphere. But then his ears picked up a glimpse of his name, turning to his right to look across the tables. No one appeared to be looking at-

"Eeeh!" The man shrieking, feeling a bitter and tingly cold hand press on his left shoulder. His already cold skin protested and a chill ran down his spine, making the blonde visibly shudder. He whipped to look to his left, seeing the feminine spirit sitting down beside him, having already started asking questions.

Glad he was okay. Hurt? Hungry?

"Uuuh." He blinked, processing her questions the best her could. "Glad to see you too- uh- not really, I had a few scratches from the University explosion but hungry?" He glanced briefly at his mug. "A little," he was really hungry. "But I'm fine." He lifted his mug and took a sip, significantly less ravenous than his first, looking at Kendhl as he did.

[Kendhl Pilkvist]

Kendhl nodded slowly, pursing her lips. She dematerialized, taking her hand off of Gale's shoulder. Her eyes met his as he took another sip of his drink and she was glad for her insubstantial form. If she were living (and had blood), a faint blush would have spread across her cheeks. She blinked a few times before speaking again.

"Okay, well, um. How are you doing, besides that? I asked around at the Loveless and they said you weren't really around much. Are you still drawing and stuff?"

She shifted on her seat, crossing her legs and leaning forwards to prop her chin on one ghostly fist. Kendhl returned Gale's blue-eyed gaze with her own silvered orbs, hardly blinking -- she was a ghost, after all. She could probably stare at him all day without needing to blink.

Common - Fratava

[Gale Austin McCenry]

Gale set the mug down gently, his eyes flickering around to the people who glanced and even stared at the two. So it wasn't just him that thought this weird.

Having been going to the Kelp Bar ever since he was of age, Gale typically either drank alone or came with other men, such as Ricky or Valo. He was used to having male company and hardy laughs and drinking games rather than mature, feminine figures who drank only to spit it all out. Occasionally he would find a female sailor who could out drink her counter parts, but Gale never had a woman as such in his company. The last time he recalled drinking with a female was on his birthday... last year, he believed. Her name began with an R. Ronan, Reign? He couldn't remember, but he could tell she wasn't used to Kelp beer and that she wasn't entirely the best company.

Kendhl was different, however, but the thought of being in a bar, which more often than not ended up in fights, with someone as petite as her was a little unnerving. It also didn't help that she was dead.

"Uh, well, fine I suppose." The best he could be in a time like this anyway. "And I quit that job a long time ago." He looked at his mug while he swirled the liquid inside. "I only took that job to make sure I can raise Martin." Which is why he quit as soon as Ricky returned home. "But no, not really." He looked at his left hand, wiggling the two fingers almost aimlessly. "It's a little hard now so I kinda gave that up..." He frowned slightly.

Although he had come to terms with no longer being able to draw like he had before, it still amazed him how anything could be taken from you in a a single moment.

[Kendhl Pilkvist]

Kendhl tapped her bottom lip with a finger. She acknowledged his words with a short grunt. Her eyes roamed over the people drinking, glaring daggers at anyone staring at her. She'd only been in the bar once before, from what she remembered, and that was back in the spring when she was searching for Gale.

A somewhat mad urge to laugh bubbled up, beginning in her chest and making its way to her throat. Both times she'd actually been inside the bar -- not just poking her head in to check -- she'd been doing the same exact thing. The urge came out as a grin and a half-hearted chuckle.

Both times she'd been dead.

The ghost cleared her throat and uncrossed her legs, sitting up. "So wait, you aren't doing anything? You don't have a job? Gods, that sounds boring. What do you do all day, then? Mope around?"

She glanced at his wiggling fingers. "Wait, are you left-handed?"

Common - Fratava

[Gale Austin McCenry]

The small numbs on his hand hardly wiggled as he moved his hand and fingers around. Sometimes he could swear that they all were there and he could bend them and use them just like before. When they were first missing he could have swore that he could feel them bending and he could almost see there there again. But there were gone and sometimes looking at it made him realize that matter all over again.

He flipped his hand over to look at the back of his hand, reminding himself of the dim candlelight on the table with his low shimmering mark. But he was distracted by the sudden chuckle that came out of Kendhl. He looked up at her with a eyebrow raised. He wasn't able to ask what it was about, for she continued on and commented on his joblessness. "It's not like I'm not trying to find another job." It's just there isn't a lot he could do. Most jobs wouldn't even consider him given his current condition.

The man out his arm on the table and let his chin rest on his palm again, looking at short, dying candle. His eyes looked lazily at it, but the light gradually grew to allow the opposite edge of the table to be seen. "But I've had a lot of time to think." His head appeared to bounce as he talked with his jaw on his hand. "It's hard to focus on tasks and jobs while you're grieving." He noted in an almost tired manner.

His eyes lookedover to Kendhl as she questioned his dominant hand. "Yeah." He turned his head so his cheek was laying on his palm. "I thought you knew." After all, almost everything he did was with his left hand. Drinking, drawing, pushing his hair aside, holding her hand, holding knives...

[Kendhl Pilkvist]

"No, I haven't really noticed it. Maybe we could find something for you to do. I mean, you can't just drink all day long, can you?" She smiled and chuckled again. "Although, technically you could. It wouldn't be much fun, though."

Kendhl rubbed her eyes and groaned. She had that feeling again, the one that made her want to rip apart her Soulmist. Her hands subconsciously roved over her arms and legs, scratching. She ran her fingers through her hair at random intervals, looking around distractedly.

"Do you ever get that feeling that something isn't right, Gale? Like there's something in your throat that can't be swallowed? And it makes everything just seem so wrong? Because I have that feeling right now. It's probably because I haven't been doing anything. I need to do something, or I'm gonna die of boredom."

She spoke without realizing what she had said. The ghost stood and began pacing, still itching and fidgeting. It drew stares from the other patrons, which she was completely oblivious to this time. Kendhl's hair was messy and unkempt from her hands. She appeared to be almost paranoid.

"Gods, Gale. I can't handle it. I'm uncomfortable in my own skin. I don't get it." Her hands were shaking now. She put them to her face. The ghost peered through her fingers at her bondmate, grey eyes glistening.

Common - Fratava

[Gale Austin McCenry]

Gale only gave a single chuckle and a soft grin. He tilted his head again to return his gaze to the candle. The magnified light flickered in his eyes, his ears vaguely listening to Kendhl. The ritual of drinking all day was familiar. But that was when he actually had money and Zeltiva wasn't in a famine. As a matter of fact, besides some bread this morning, the mug of Kelp Beer was all he had today. It wasn't food but it was worth it to try and not stress as much about, well, life.

"Well, you never know, sometimes it could be fun." Drunk people were typically funny to watch as long as they weren't fighting. They talked funny, they did funny things and everything and they never remembered in the morning. How great was that?

Not that great, actually.

But yeah, he's felt like something was wrong. "All the time." And he's felt like he couldn't swallow something. "Like tears and bitterness." And one couldn't really die of boredom. That wasn't possible. "And I wouldn't worry about it too much because you're already dead." He mumbled lifting himself off his palm and gulping down the last of his mug.

He watched as Kendhl paced back and forth, complaining all throughout. "You can't handle it?" He scoffed with a irritated smile. "You can't handle it?" He scoffed again. He rolled his eyes looking back at his mug with a look of contempt. "Well..." His eyes caught a glimpse of the candle's last flame before it burnt out with a sputter and a trail of smoke.

"I'm not sure where you have been all this time, but I don't think you're the only one here who can't exactly 'handle it'." People were staring now, yet again, but Gale ignored it as usual, grabbing his five silver coins and dropping the in the empty mug. "It's like you're blind to the people in front of you." He grabbed his cloak and slipped it on. "All you've done since you've come back is torment me, and you think you have the right to complain about not being able to handle it? If you think I'm going to sit here and listen to you blabber on about how uncomfortable it is to be you then think again, because I refuse to listen to it." Gale glared and started to head out of the Kelp Bar, pressing the door open.

[Kendhl Pilkvist]

Kendhl was astounded. She was utterly speechless. Her mouth hung open as she watched her bondmate head towards the door. She turned to face him, closing her mouth and pressing her lips together in a hard line. Her eyes narrowed.

"Gale."

The word was short and sharp. The ghost's hands balled up into fists and she stomped over to the man, her small frame shaking from anger this time. She stood in front of Gale, her back to the street.

"Gale McCenry, you cannot say that you have it worse than I do! Sure, you got your fingers bitten off, and you almost died, and you tried to kill yourself and you're all depressed, but you know what? You can recover from that! Me? I petchin' died! I can't come back to life! I'm done! I'm gone forever! I can't touch anyone without freezing them, I can't do anything!"

One finger was pointed in Gale's face. Kendhl's yelling had ensured that the stares of patrons remained on the two. Her hands dropped back to her sides. She'd been through enough shyke just trying to get adjusted to being dead, and then Gale walks in and tries to tell her that 'Oh, being dead isn't that bad!' He'd gotten a petchin' gnosis mark, for Laviku's sake!

"Petch you, Gale." Kendhl whirled and stormed out of the Kelp Bar. She'd head back to her grave. She didn't need Gale. She didn't need anyone.

Common - Fratava