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'Gearhead's Garage' presently stands with open bay doors. In front of one is a parked camero-locket two-tone '56 Nomad, …behind there, between the pistons of the shop's lifts is a …very shiny black late thities Studebaker woodie. The parts that aren't nicely-refinished wood. What's underneath may be a different matter, as under the strains of rock and roll radio playing via a transistor set sitting out on the shop floor, comes a stream of Italian that's sounding critical of *something* under there.* Welding sparks fly, then after a pause, there are some sounds of heavy nuts hitting concrete, as a girl slides out from underneath in welding goggles and a leather mask.
Dead Girl really didn't have any sense of spaces being off-limits to her anymore. Not since she discovered she could just float through doors and walls.
Today is no different as she peeks out from concrete ground- two glowing red eyes rising from the floor in response to the swearing. "Hey Diz, what's up?" she wonders as she floats up further still to just sort of float on her back not far from the ground where Julie has slipped out from under the car. "Neat cars!"
Julie shuts off a tank-valve, and peels off her face-guard, jumping a bit as Dead Girl, …well, does weird floating things. "Ah, hey! It's you! How ya doing, ah, Dead Girl, or whatever you said. Actually, it's anything but neat underneath, but that's what we're fixing. Someone slapped a really choice shell on a frame in a hurry here, gotta do the whole jb over again if it's gonna be actually good."
"Oh, you know, just doing that thing the dead do. Hanging out." Dead Girl says as she continues to just lounge-float in the air. "I don't really know all that much about cars, to tell you the truth." she admits, "I'm more into singing, dancing, acting, guitar. Surfing, for sure." she says with a grin. "They look really cool to me, though." she offers as she just sort of hangs out half-in and half-out of the material plane. Indeed, she has no physical substance right now.
Julie ahs, "Sounds like you oughtta check out California, then. I kinda just got back, well, a couple years ago, at this rate. Probably where this thing'll end up going, kids wanting to head out there, catch a wave and all. And you can run." She winks. "This ol' guy got the show, someone tried to add the 'go,' just weren't too careful about how they put the two together."
"I grew up in California." Dead Girl says, "And I don't want to be in movies, I wanted to be on broadway." She says, "Can't do that in Berkeley!" she remarks.
"Anyways, you can surf on this coast, too." she continues, "I've got a board- I go out all the time! You should come with me, but, only during the summer. In the winter, it is *super* cold and you might get hurt."
Julie shrugs, a little. "I can surf pretty good, got pretty good balance. Never thought of trying it in Jersey or something when the scene's cool enough or whatever. I like the music, mostly. And in Cali, you can run 'em on the strip all year round." She raps the side of the woodie. "These things, kinda shouldn't sit through too many New York winters, but they're really in, right now."
"Yeah." Dead Girl says with a quiet nod, "I miss it sometimes, but, you know, there's a lot of culture and stuff out this way. It's totally different. I mean, where else but New York City could a Dead Girl get along with so many people?" She wonders, "Yeah, I guess the salt would really eat up the wood, hunh?"
Julie nods. "Well, salt you can handle by washing em. Just better keep em dry in the winter or sooner or later the carpentry's gonna start failing. Not like they didn't make em right, it's just wood's wood. I guess now that you mention it, a bit of marine varnish wouldn't hurt anything."
"Glad to be of service!" Dead Girl says with a grin. "So, is this what you do all day? Just work on cars? Is it a passion thing, or a money thing? Both?" Dead Girl wonders as she rights herself and becomes far less translucent- going solid. " I mean, it's a really cool skill. You don't see a lot of ladies who know how to do this stuff."
Julie ehs. "Hey, it's a family business, really, but if you ain't doing it for the love you might as well be reading Betty Crocker cookbooks," she winks. "You still gotta eat. In this case, it's kind of a combined thing with the boys here, though. Long story."
"Speak for yourself!" Dead Girl says, "I keep this ghoulish figure by abstaining from all food." Dead Girl says, cocking her hip and giving a little shimmy with a grin. She's a tall woman- lovely in all the right ways. Apart from the whole being a corpse thing. "Anyways, it is a good thing to work with family, I guess. I mean, I never did, but it's a good thing to be close to family."
Julie smirks a bit. "Addams family business, you're in, maybe?"
Dead Girl just grins wide, "Hey, I love that show. And the Munsters." she admits, "They're both fantastic! I really connect with the characters. They really speak to me- it's a lot like my life, you know?" Probably not what the writers had in mind.
Julie laughs, a bit, "Well, I only seen it a couple of times, but it's pretty smart. The stright world's uptight even if you don't call yourself Frankenstein's monster or something." She indicates the Woodie there, though. "But if you like that stuff, check out this ride, could be right up your alley. I dunno who does Woodie sheetmetal in black, but that, at least, got done right. Gonna need another mill in there, but he comes with a Ford chassis underneath just needs some fixing. The previous owners, well, let's say they totally smoked an engine trying to make an impression, but between me and the boys here it oughtta be for sale in a month or two."
Julie does add a bit hastily, "Not that this place is to do with mi familia's businesses, but this part of town people oughtta help each other out. They could use the interest."
"Cool!" Dead Girl says, "I mean, none of that really means anything to me- but you say it really well." Dead Girl offers with a friendly grin, "I really don't know cars. I know showtunes, though." she says, as she takes a slow breath. "So, this isn't your family business- you're just helping the people out. That's far out, man. Way cool." The Zombie-Ghost Dead Girl says with a nod of her head. "I mean, I usually just play guitar for a few bucks here and there."
JP came strolling down from teh apartment upstairs in just what one could expect of him: jeans and a tight black t-shirt with the pack of smokes rolled up in his sleeve. The Cajun drawl was hard to miss and while he dressed like a greaser and thug holdover, he also looked showered. "Diz, I thought were you I was hearin talkin pretty at mah garage." That grin came easy; the kind that often came too easy and only found trouble. "Bonsoir, soeur." Those curious brown eyes shifted to the new comer and mused out loud, "Aww you bringin, friends too? "Ses amis sont mes amis. How do?"
Julie smiles as JP comes in. "Hey, JP, this is, ah, DG. She's new to the neighhborhood, I guess we like some of the same music. Maybe not so much show tunes, but hey, I told you surfers would be interested in this one. " She adds, with a smirk. "Anyway, I tacked some rebar under there so we can lift the body off the crying, screaming, hair-tearing shame of how they did it all underneath, except the steering column and the speedometer ca——Wait a sec." She kicks a pan under the car and holds out a hand toward nearly-its midsection, there's a VRR sound, and she continues, "Except the sterring column," she then corrects, and offers a door to Dead Girl, "Wanna try him on for size before I do that?"
Elmo comes in from the street, schlepping a big canvas bag full of Things. In sharp contrast to JP, he's wearing moddish clothes, a suit in brilliant electric blue with a sunny yellow shirt. He also looks exhausted, with big dark circles around his eyes. The sight of Dead Girl stops him in his tracks. She's tall, she's dead, she's wearing a scandalously tiny shirt. "Uh?" he says, nervous.
Dead Girl is, indeed, quite tall for a woman of the era. And she is 100% completely dead. Anyone who's seen a corpse before knows in an instant that Dead Girl is exactly that. She has zero bio-electric signature. How, exactly, she's moving is a mystery. She looks over to the newcomers, grinning wide. "Hi! I'm Dead Girl!" she offers, waving- friendly, despite the baleful glow of her red eyes. Piercing from beyond the grave- red. Angry.
And yet, Dead Girl seems as far from the angry avenging dead as could be. She's smiling. Bright. Dressed in true hippie fashion with her little shirt. " Doing pretty good there!" she offers to JP, "What? Try who on for size? I'm not much of a driver." She admits, "I'm reaaaally not good behind the wheel."
Julie smirks a little. "Well, don't worry about *that,* if you cared about being much behind the wheel, you'd want something else anyway. It's a Woodie, if you want to turn in quarter mile times, you don't want a Woodie. This is a surf wagon, just needs to be respectable. Maybe some fun. I got a flathead in mind for this one. Kinda traditional, and all. Everyone wants the new mills for really going real fast anyway."
JP was definitely curious, however, there was something alarmingly unalarmed in JP's demeanor. The glib commentary was dependably on hand. "Try who on fo' size?" Looking back to the DeadGirl he chortled, "We jes' met though I'm tol' I'm a pretty damn good driver." He grinned to Elmo laughing, "State trooper seem t'think so." Looking at his ever-worried partner he re-made introductions, "Julie ask t'use the bay cause … company." Very dead, and very obvious company Julie's very very mundane family would have many many questions about no doubt. "DG, Elmo, business partner of this here garage. Sparkplug, this' DG." Looking back to Elmo he just grinned, "Maaaaan good thing Louis ain' here none. He'd never focus again."
"Uhh. Hi," says Elmo, wide eyes on Dead Girl. "The guys call me Sparkplug. You really are dead, huh? It's like electricity falls into a black hole around ya." He finally manages to get moving again, setting his bag down next to a workbench with a grimace. "Diz, hey, good to see ya. Friend a yours?" He stretches, and rolls his eyes at his partner's glib rattling-on. "Yeah, for more'n one reason," he replies, about JP's little brother.
"Well, I like enjoying the trip." Dead Girl offers to Diz with a wide grin, "And I could use a place to stay when I go wandering. I love road trips." she says with a bounce as she wiggles her hips in a sort of happy way. "That I can do, drive slow. It looks ike a fun car, that way. And I do love the wood- so natural!" she grins, "And it would look good with my board. And I could sit in the back and play my guitar, and it be pretty good on the beach." she nods to herself, convincing herself that the car is great.
"Nice to meet you, Elmo- Sparkplug." Dead Girl offers with nod, "Yeah, I'm dead. Completely, totally dead. Part zombie, part ghost, all Dead Girl." she says towards Elmo with a grin. "Spooky, huh?" she wonders, "I can go all ghosty, float through walls and things. Fly." she offers, "It's pretty neat, really."
Julie hrmphs, a bit, perhaps surprised a bit that Dead Girl might actually be *dead.* You never know what to take literally around here, perhaps. She raps the roof of what she's dubbed the 'Phantom Woodie.' Looks to JP. "This guy. DG's a regular surfer girl, and all that. Thought she might be interested. And, hey, I figure you guys should get a cut of the sale if you wana do some work or at least outta thanks for letting me stash this heap here a while." She adds to Elmo, "Well, she seems pretty nice, generally." Smirks a bit to Dead Girl. "You guys got like a quarter-inch drift and a mallet for unhooking this steeering, speaking of which?"
JP has to agree on the car. "Ya know I love it too. Very natural. Tons of fun." He grinned waiting for Elmo to just slug him or stomp off. The quesiton about the quarter-inch and that pulled him out of conversation and right around to the job. "Yeha I got you' hook up, Diz. And if it don' fit, you an' I jes grab it and we make it come loose." Yeah he was going to catch hell from Elmo on at least 5 citations of civil infractions to his senisbilities, but really they were worth it. "Real surfin an' that? Maaaaan, I love t'ask you some quesitons but I don' wanna be rude now. Sparkplug'd back over me wit' me own car."
Elmo gets flustered when Dead Girl does that thing with her hips. He agrees, "Spooky," rubbing the bridge of his impressive nose, trying to cover up that he's turning red. "You, uh, you a monster? …Is that a weird question? Just I know a couple monsters, they're kinda like you. Nevermind, forget I asked." Now he's really red. "Yeah, Diz, gimme a second." That's a great excuse to turn around and start rummaging around in the big rolling toolchest. But he lifts his head to glare at JP. "You know I will, so zip it!"
"Oh, yeah, I've got a board and everything." Dead Girl says, "And I play some really sick guitar for rocking out in all the right ways for surfing. I just need to find someone to play the drums, and maybe a bass, and we'll be all set." she notes, "We could get an East Coast Surfer thing going. The Manhattan Molesters.." She starts to think of a band name, "Abe Lincoln Teaches Killing. Yeah. I like that one." she nods to herself, "Abe Lincoln Teaches Killing. Alt-K. Yeah, that's good! Right? You think that's good, right?" She wonders over to Dizzy.
"How much are you going to try and sell it for, huh?" she wonders, "Why do you need a mallet to do that? Can't you just pull it off or unhook it without a hammer, or would that mean it be too easy to come off when it was driving or something?" Lots of questions in this Dead Girl.
"Oh, go ahead, ask all the questions you want! Surfing is all about being one with the ocean for me, like really riding the waves and feeling it out. It's far out! I'm always happy to bring someone else into it, you know? It's like your first acid trip- really opens your mind up, man."
Dead Girl still smiles to Elmo, "I don't know. Maybe a little. I mean, I'm not alive. So, you know, it's very possible I'm some kind of monster. I think, though, maybe I'm a mutant maybe? I mean, I got murdered, right, and then I was like dead- but I wasn't dead? I was just like.. There, in my body, but not awake or able to move or anything."
Julie looks a bit askance at what DG thinks may seem like good band names, perhaps. She does explain, "Well, generally they hold your steering inn with a roll pin or a drift pin. It ain't something you can unscrew, cause… You don't want it soming unscrewed. " She winks, then decides to sit on a runnningboard of the car and light a cigarette. "I dunno if not-completely dying makes youse a mutant, but I guess I seen weirder. You know, though, who's gonna complain around here if you keep to the local etiquette about who's a mutant or who's not, and, well, this neighborhood's the only place some kids and their families got to go right now."
JP just grinned when Elmo snapped at him like he was so DAMNED proud of himself. The fellas were grabbing a couple things they were going to need, and maybe that might be all they ever agree on willingly. Walking over he offered to DG handing Dizzy the quarter-inch, "Mon petite frere? Mah' lil brother Louis? He a mutant. Half his friends is dead. His gift. Make it all able to… do… things. " He paused and admitted, "I honestly dunno how th' hell it works but he had this skele frog he kept as a pet til mama made em put it back. So you ever get in trouble? Might be able t'hook you up-" He paused and didn't look but sighed. "Sparkplug I can feel you givin me //tha'look, mon ami. Yous can stop now, man."
"Look? What look? I don't know what you're talking about." Elmo denies everything. He brings over the mallet and a couple other tools that seemed likely. "Knock yerself out, Diz. This guy'll be a looker and a mover when you're through with him." He eyes the car, a mutant like them, appreciatively. Gaze drifting back to Dead Girl, he listens with interest—and tries real hard to keep his eyes above her collarbone. He winces. "Murdered? Oy vey, that's terrible." But how do you ask a murder victim about their own death? That's a minefield of awkward he's not prepared to navigate. So he just pulls out his own cigarettes and offers Dead Girl one, then JP.
Dead Girl first takes a cigarette, reaching into a pocket to pull out a zippo style lighter. Puff-puff, and soon the cherry of the cigarette glows as angrily as her eyes. "That's pretty cool." She offers over to JD. "I see ghosts." she offers, then. "I can see them pretty much everywhere. I can control my body even if it isn't like attached or anything.. Ooh! I'll show you that. Someone cut off my hand." Dead Girl says holding out her left arm. "Don't worry, I don't have blood. So, it won't bleed or anything." she assures, as if that was the weird part of this request.
"Oh, yeah. My boyfriend stabbed me twelve times." Dead Girl says over to Elmo, "He was super jealous- I got my first part outside the chorus, right, in this little off broadway show- like almost Broadway, but not quite- and I had a speaking part and everything! I mean, it wasn't a main player, but, I got some stage time!" she explains, "And so, like, he got super jealous right and he said some things, and then I said some things and then he stabbed me…" she mimes the motion into her chest. "Twelve times."
"That makes sense, Diz." Dead Girl offers next, "I might be able to help without a hammer though, I'm like really strong now that I'm dead."
Julie hrms, to Dead Girl. "That's …Well, that's rough."
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 16
JP pointed outside the shop. "You dead, we ain't. Light up on teh porch, sil vous plait. " With that he crawled over to give Dizzy a hand holding the piece so she could pop the other side off. "Soooo this beau of yours? What his name? Where he livin for the very short future?"
Elmo seems to fluster easily, and Dead Girl's offer of dismembering her for fun makes it worse. He looks away, shoulders hunching up. "I'm not gonna cut off your hand, jeez. I'll take your word for it. You don't got nothin' to prove to us." When she describes what her boyfriend did to her, though, he looks back at her, eyes narrow. "He. What." Static tension fizzes to life, menacing as a rearing cobra. "Yeah. Where can we find him." Here's one thing he and JP don't need to argue about.
"Chad." Dead Girl offers simply, "Oh, you don't need to worry about him." she says, "I'm driving him mad." she explains, "See, what I do is.." She pauses as JP says to smoke outside. She looks to Elmo and Julie- both of whom have cigarettes, and shrugs, walking to the bay door and leaning there as she smokes and speaks.
"So, I sneak into his apartment late a night, right, dressed in the stuff I was buried in." she takes a slow inhale, "I've let it get a little nasty. You know- like dirt and mildew smells- anyways, I float in through the floor. Under the bed. Wait for him to get into a *deep* sleep and then I go up through the bed and phase back in, right?" she explains, hands waving. "And then I wake him up- a kiss like I used to give him, behind the ear. Cold, dead lips. I whisper his name in his ear and then reach around, right.." and she lifts her hand then, fingers and fingernails shifting and changing until they become claw like. Wickedly sharp. "And I do this, and a just gently graze across his chest where he stabbed." She grins, "Then BOOMPH! I fall right back through the bed."
JP looked at the other two, "Guys, I know yous are very talented, but I'm a remind almost none of us here can blow up. Le's not try to evolve the hard way- DG, no offense." He paused though all work when the tale went on and became more gruesome. THat was a story for the ages. Frankly it was haunting as hell and while JP could be cavalier about a great many things he had to ask, "We never went out did we? I jes wanna know if I'm in any trouble I dunno about cause that is messed up. I mean good for you, but you one lady I ain' interested in settin off."
Elmo grunts at JP and tucks the unlit cigarette behind his ear. You win this one, Bonaventure. As Dead Girl tells her story, his eyebrows go up. They're thick and expressive and what they're expressing now is 'holy shit'. "Damn. That's a hell of a revenge plan. Well, listen, you gotta take care of him how you want, but if you ever want some help? You let us know." He snorts in reluctant amusement over JP. "That'll teach ya," he says to him, the corner of his mouth curling in a one-sided smile. The static hissing around fades, but remains present.
Julie hrms a bit, selecting a pin -punch and mallet from what Elmo offers, with a nod of thanks. "Well, that sounds real bad, maybe that guy needs a good education, and all, but I dunno. If I was dead I dunno if I'd wanna be alll wound up in what the mook that croaked me thinks very long."
"Yeah, well, he *did* murder me." Dead Girl offers as she takes another inhale of her cigarette, just enjoying the remembrance of taste. "I mean, I think I'd be within my right to like kill him back, but I'm content just, you know.. Driving him fucking bonkers with guilt." Dead Girl says, "I just sort of show up places." she notes, "So he can see me walking through the crowd. Then, I slide through a wall or something when he gets close."
Dead Girl grins over to JP, "Well, I mean, I like regenerate, too. I can survive being blown up. See, right, when I first got control of things I was reaaaally despondent, right, so I tried to die for real." she explains, "I blew off my head with shot gun, I got crushed by a truck, I tried to drown myself, electrocution, immolation.." Dead Girl just starts listing them off- ways she tried to commit suicide. "…ripped apart by dogs, decapitation, taking a bath in acid…"
Dead Girl then pauses to take another smoke of her cigarette. "You'd think that, Diz, but most of the dead who stick around are pretty fixated on something. I mean, ghosts, man. They've got no cool. It is on one-hundred percent of the time. Nonstop emotion. Seriously, they are all obsessed. Sometimes it is in a good way, sometimes in a bad way- but always obsessed. Or cursed. There are a few who are more cursed, like from bad mojo or something."
Julie waves an outward sort of 'Ok' sign with her left hand. "I guess maybe try not to be cursed so much. Someone tells you you're cursed, you tell em to take their curse and sit right on it."
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 3
JP listened and furrowed his brow. Glib was failing and this was just, well, distressing. "Where Chad live? I jes… wanna say hi. You can still haunt em." A sharp whistle like one might be calling a hound or a horse and from around the building pulled up that black and red '64 GTO. Looking up he murmured to her, "He won' go to far. Not without kneecaps."
"If I wanted him dead, I'd have killed him myself." Dead Girl says simply. "If I wanted him to be physically hurt, I would. No. I want him to lose his mind." Dead Girl says to JP, "I had to sit in my own coffin for *months*. I couldn't move. I couldn't talk. I couldn't do anything- I almost went crazy. I want him to have trouble sleeping at night, that's what I want. I want my face, my name, my murder to be in his thoughts until he breaks down and either offs himself, goes completely bonkers, or turns himself in for guilt." she states simply, "I'm doing what every ghost wants to do, trust me, I know." she says taking a slow breath. "Anyways." she says, "Thanks for the cigarette, Sparkplug." she says to Elmo.
"I gotta thing I need to do." Dead Girl says, "I'll come back to see the car." she grins, and salutes before just sinking through the floor. Dead Girl has left the building!
Elmo, drawn to JP's distress, slips an arm around his waist after the Dead Girl makes her spooky exit. Gives him a squeeze. "Sounds like she's got it handled, boss. He's her problem to take care of. She don't need us."
JP set his teeth and wached her go with a two finger wave. His head wobbled before he looked back to Elmo resting elbow on his shoulder a moment, "Eeeeh remindin' me too much a' Yvonne. I don' like it. Ain' right, but ya know you right. She wantin' help she' ask. She want a car? weeeeeeell then we fix a car. I'll kick the coffee on. You wanna get the Michel LaCroix playin we can make some progress on' this before Diz' gets back."