VI

[foreverphantom]

Comments

[foreverphantom]

Ah, I see. If they're topsiders, then that makes all of you bottomites.

[doublefists]

It makes us fissure folk, but sure, call me whatever you want.

[foreverphantom]

"Fissure folk"'s not bad. Makes it sound like you work on a boat, though.

[doublefists]

More like holes in the ground that spit smoke, not fish. [ amused. ] It's what we call ourselves. Undercity-ites doesn't have the same ring to it.

[foreverphantom]

So why bother living down there in the first place? Doesn't exactly sound desirable.

[doublefists]

[ looks... at him... ]

You think we picked to live down there?

[foreverphantom]

I don't know what it's like underground in your world. It might be fantastic, aside from the apparent lack of cows.

[doublefists]

You just said it doesn't sound desirable. Good guess. It isn't.

[foreverphantom]

Then what's forcing you down there?

[doublefists]

Topsiders. Piltover's finest. Money, elitism, a willingness to ignore anything that makes you uncomfortable.

[foreverphantom]

Ah, of course. Capitalism. The one thing I was right to destroy.

[doublefists]

[ help, that makes her laugh, brushing her mouth with the back of her hand. ]

Yeah? You destroyed capitalism? [ she does not believe you but ok ]

[foreverphantom]

[ for now he is treating the laugh as being at the absurdity of the statement, and not at the absurdity of this twink destroying anything ]

Not intentionally. But it turns out, when you destroy everything else, capitalism falls apart on its own.

[doublefists]

[ it's a little of both, to be fair. ]

Alright, so are you going to tell me the whole story, or.

[foreverphantom]

[ shrugs a little ]

Not much to tell. I wanted to destroy everything, so I did. There wasn't anything or anyone left that could stop me.

[doublefists]

[ finishes her steak, still looking at him with a raised eyebrow. ]

Yeah, but like. How.

[foreverphantom]

I'm a ghost. And I...used to be much more powerful than I am now. No other ghost could stop me. And the human world is generally ill-equipped to deal with ghosts. It was child's play.

[doublefists]

[



reaches over to poke him in the arm to see if her hand goes through. ]

[foreverphantom]

[ he is poked! he shoos her hand away ]

Obviously not now, with my powers suppressed. And even then, I got shoved back into a human body, so...it's more like being a ghost part-time, now.

[doublefists]

[ man, she's used to other people not being human or whatever but ghost is a new one. ]

So you're dead? Part time?

[foreverphantom]

Yup. Or half-dead, if you prefer.

[doublefists]

I prefer full-alive.

[ dryly. but. ]

So you destroyed everything at what... [ squints at him, appraising. ] Sixteen?

[foreverphantom]

I said I got shoved into a human body. It isn't mine--I'm not sixteen.

[doublefists]

Uhhh, right, okay, so how old are you, then?

[foreverphantom]

There's more than one answer to that, for me. But for the sake of simplicity, let's go with 26.