busybetty | (no subject)

Lisa looks at the clarinet case laying open on the coffee table where the girl, Gwen, had left it for her. They’d done the whole exchange: Lisa had used the voice activation and face unlock and whatever other weird techno things Mouse had done to her phone to let her pay Gwen back for it, and Gwen had even offered to let Lisa try to possess her — like maybe a willing, aware human would override whatever weird Darrow block there was.

It hadn’t worked, but it’d been nice of her to offer, at least.

Now, Lisa is staring at the clarinet, trying to figure out how to grab it. When she tries to possess people, she can sort of touch them. She'd learned that months ago, and she'd seen it again with Gwen. So, can she try to… ‘possess’ the clarinet? Lisa reaches out, trying to imagine jumping into it, like she can make it her body. Closing her eyes, she lowers her hand to it…

And feels her fingers pass through it, that now-familiar cobwebby sensation itching through her skin. She sighs and drops her hand.

“Great,” she mutters.

Maybe if she weren't so focused on her current plight, she would have noticed it arriving. It's blocks away, laying on the ground outside a café, and in truth Lisa wouldn't know one way or another if she can sense something like that — but maybe if she could, she would, and maybe if she weren't so focused on the clarinet in front of her, she could. Instead, unbeknownst to her, it lies: a slightly dainty beaded necklace, the name LISA spelled out in larger beads in the center of the strand. It stands out bright against the gray of the sidewalk, directly in the path of one Jade Herrera.

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Jade is just stoned enough that when the necklace catches his eye, he stares at it for a long time. It’s bright enough that it stands out significantly against the grey day, the snow still melting, winter still hanging on just enough that nothing looks nice yet.

Finally, after staring at it for a long while and without really thinking, Jade leans down and picks up the beaded necklace.

“Lisa,” he reads, head tilted. “Hey, I know a Lisa. Right?”

Talking to no one in particular.

She feels that, drawn out of her clarinet-induced reverie like an electric jolt. For a moment she can't even place what it is. It's just a sudden awareness, a sudden awakening, and for a staggering moment she remembers Edgar, staring down at her with that stony, smug face.

How long have you been awake? How long have you known? Understood?

Two weeks before that, Olivia had found her bracelet. There's no way Olivia is here now, right? Would Lisa actually know?

She has to find out. She shivers and reaches for that sensation, that tingling awareness centered on one thing, the same way she reaches for her friends when she wants to visit them quickly. That familiar whooshing sensation rises through her, and in just a moment, she's beside—

"Jade?"

“Jesus fucking Christ!” he exclaims, nearly dropping the bracelet, his coffee — when the hell did he buy a coffee? - and maybe even nearly shitting his pants.

“See, this is what I mean when I say I can’t deal with the dead people thing,” he says. “You can’t just pop up beside me and say my name. What if I was in the shower? What if I was fornicating?”

He’s being a dick, sort of, but she really had nearly scared the shit out of him.