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In the afternoon the poolhall in Mutant town isn't as full as it tends to be during the evening hours- even in Mutant Town people have jobs. Those who don't are often at places like this, anyways.
Among the jobless is one corpse of a Dead Girl. She sits at the bar, just bobbing along to the music playing from the jukebox- Elvis. It's a little out of tune, the speakers probably second hand or majorly repaired. Still, Dead Girl doesn't seem to mind as she sips a cola from a glass bottle.
Thea has finished a short shift at the clinic, and wants to snag some lunch, and maybe play a bit. Blonde hair is down, over the plain summer dress in a rose shade that matches lips and tips. There's the subtle sparkles in her ears, but no other jewelry. Heels click as she heads for the bar, that faint, pleasant smile her expression for the moment. She'll slide up onto a stool, closing her eyes and stretching her neck.
To someone like Thea, Dead Girl represents a very odd experience indeed. She's dead, after all, but still moving around. She lacks blood pressure, and for all intents and purposes she's brain-dead. There isn't even the slightest hint of life in her body. She doesn't even have any blood- it's just gone. For all intents and purposes she is northing more than a corpse sipping on a bottle of coke through a straw.
"Hey there!" Dead Girl offers over to Thea with a bright and friendly smile. "What's up?" she wonders, "I'm Dead Girl, nice to meet you." She offers a cold-as-the-grave hand over with a smile.
That was an interesting thing for Thea to 'see', maybe that was part of the closing her eyes and centering herself a moment. Brown eyes will turn, her lips curving as she will reach out to take that cold hand without hesitation. "Thea. Pleasure." There is no 'city' accent, the tone cool and casual. Her powers keep tugging at her, as she looks at the girl, like a distant beeping in her ear. "You have an interesting mutation."
Forge makes his way into the pool hall. It's mutant town, he tries to spend some time here discreetly. Metal hand flexing as he comes in, and sizes up the place.
"Nice to meet you, Thea!" Dead Girl offers, giving that hand a shake- friendly for a corpse. "Oh, the whole corpsey thing? Yeah, I've heard that it's pretty odd, even in a place like this." Dead Girl says waving around in every general direction. "I'm not even sure it's a mutation. I mean, it could be almost anything, right? Some kinda curse. Magic stone I touched as a kid, umm. Maybe I was denied entrance to heaven or hell for some arcane reason and here I am!" she offers some alternative options, "But, who knows!" She shrugs, "Not I." She says as she pulls a pouch of tobacco out and begins to roll herself a cigarette. "It's an interesting way to live, that much I can assure you."
"A little bit, yes. I've never seen anything quite like it, and seeing things is sort of my… mutation. I see things about other people's bodies, you know? And you have no blood pressure or anything, but here you are, walking around and being all polite and pleasant and everything." Thea gives a hint of a grin, before her eyes will find Forge. "Well hello, soldier. Come for payment, have you?"
Forge raises the hand gently to greet Thea, approaching the pair. "I hadn't, but we should arrange it," he says with a slight smile. "The young lady has been impressed so far with the materials I acquired for her suit, but they weren't cheap." He then nods to Dead Girl.
Dead Girl finishes rolling her cigarette, giving it a lick before lighting up with a match from the bar. "Hi!" she says then, towards Forge- lifting her bottle in quiet salute. "Nice to meet you." she offers next.
"Any yeah, I guess that makes sense. I mean, I'm pretty sure I don't have blood anymore." she reports to Thea, "Sort of bled it all out at one point."
"We should. I've been hoping to run into you, not wanting to pry into your life." She'll wink at Forge, before her eyes shift back to Dead Girl.
"So what do I call you? Do you have a name, or do you just like… being called Dead Girl?" Thea is not entirely sure how to handle this.
Forge hums. "Dead Girl? Forge," he says with another nod to her, stepping past to get himself a coke. He has to drive, of course. The top is easily cracked open with a metal finger.
"Dead Girl is fine." Dead Girl replies, "It's more appropriate than anything else, you know? So, might as well go by that." she explains with a smile, "Anyways, it's easy to remember. Perfect for branding, you know? There can be only one iconic Dead Girl!" she says, still grinning playfully as she bops away to the music that's playing- sipping her cola and smoking her cigarette. Enjoying the moment for what it is.
Thea smiles. "I do enjoy when someone just accepts what is and enjoys the moment." She'll lift a hand to the bartender, ordering a soda for herself. She may have to work later, after all. She will slip her hand into a pocket, before a curled hand is offered to Forge. "Been trying to catch you out and about. Here's a downpayment." It's a tight roll of rubber banded hundred dollar bills. There's several thousand dollars there, to help cover the materials for Amber's fabric.
Forge smiles and takes the payment. He glances, his thumb flicking at the cash to get a feel for how much is there. He then slips it into a sport coat pocket, and smiles. "Thank you. I'm sure she'll be most appreciative."
"Nothing else I can do about it, really." Dead Girl says, "It is what it is, you know? Sometimes things happen. Honestly, it's more luck than anything else. See, my boyfriend murdered me right- well, ex-boyfriend, obviously. I just happened to, you know, come back." she offers as if that was a perfectly normal subject for conversation. Being murdered.
"She's a nice kid." Thea says aside to Forge. "I like helping, when I can and people /let/ me." It's why a debutante who can pass for normal is in Mutant Town, why she works in the free clinic. "Well, I would certainly HOPE he's your ex at this point. I would have probably hunted him down and murdered him back."
Forge chuckles softly, lips barely moving, as he listens to Dead Girl's comment. "Did he get his justice?" he'll just ask flat out, before taking a long drink from his glass bottle.
"Why?" Dead Girl says, "There isn't anything to gain from murdering him. Instead, I'm just torturing him a bit. Showing up places he doesn't expect to see me, disappearing before he can get close. You know, driving him crazy." she says, "I mean, that's not a crime, you know. Well, the B&E is a crime, but it be hard to prove I broke in to his apartment when I just sort of float in through the door or wall…" she grins wide at that. "Show up in his bed. Get close so he can feel my coldness. Whisper his name in his ear and then- poof! Fall right through the bed." She grins wide and wicked at that, "He's barely sleeping these days. I'm hoping he gets sent to an institution, soon." she says simply. "He doesn't deserve to die, though. Just, you know, suffer."
Thea regards the dead young woman with brows lifted. "See, I disagree. I approve of the haunting and torturing. One hundred percent. But I'm a big believer that sometimes, people just don't deserve kindness." There's a glimpse of harder, more ruthless feelings under that polished service.
Forge shakes his head. "There's always the law. There's no statute of limitations on murder. He should go to prison for his crimes, if nothing else." That's enough words at once, so he sips again.
"Yeah, again, that's not punishment enough. He goes to prison for twenty years, not good enough. Madness." Dead Girl states, "Madness is his salvation, and nothing less. When he closes his eyes it'll be my face that haunts his dreams. And he'll never forget what he did to me- and he'll never forget that I never let him alone." she says, "Anyways, you ever hear of someone reporting their own murder? How do I get that through- no one gives a shit about that. You do it yourself, when you're dead." She notes, "Who's going to believe a man's dead girlfriend is haunting him?"
Forge hums quietly, sipping. "Seems to me there's no less malice in your heart, than if you killed him. Why talk of murder as a bad thing, if you intent is to do worse? Kill the animal before he kills again."
"Forge does have a point. You drive him crazy enough, he may just kill anyone that reminds him of you." Thea picks up her soda for a sip, watching the curiously dead form that's moving and talking.
"And? People die." Dead Girl notes, "That doesn't mean I killed them." she notes, "That's a choice he makes. Anyways, I'll be there if he goes that kind of crazy. I did a favor for a ghost, and he's watching him for me. Pretty much twenty-four seven." she explains with a grin, "He gives me daily updates. Most he's had to do in a century, all I had to do was fix up his grave and put flowers a few places. I mean, really easy to take care of." she offers, sipping her cola again. "Anyways, ideally, he'll kill himself."
Forge shakes his head, unsure of what tot hink of that. He hums quietly. "If there's a snake in the yard, somebody has to stop the snake."
"People die, that don't have to, because someone could have stopped a murderer?" Thea asks, brows lifting. "Him dead is the best result for anyone, I'd think."
"Nah." Dead Girl says quietly, shaking her head, "That's the way the living think. Not the way the Dead think. I can't really explain it to you, you know." Dead Girl notes with a quiet shrug. "And, I don't want to kill him. I'm not a murderer. Murdering him won't change that I'm dead- and I can't plan on the potentialities or possibilities of what hasn't yet happened. The future doesn't exist." she notes, "And the past is only a memory." she continues, taking a slow and quiet breath. "I'm not a killer."
Forge looks at her. "Bullshit, lady. You so much as admitted you're trying to get him to kill himself. You're the same as him. You just won't admit it."
"If he kills himself because you drove him to it… you're a killer as sure as if you shot him." Thea says softly. "People kill when they're driven to it. He killed you, I can't think of a better reason for him to die."
"Eh. I respectfully disagree." Dead Girl notes, "Anyways, this is my row to hoe." she continues, "And I'll take care of him how I want to take care of him." she says, "It's my choice how I move forward. I'm not going to kill him- it would be too easy. I sat in a coffin, under ground, for months." She says, looking at the pair. "Unable to move or talk or anything- anchored in myself just resting in my own grave. Months. Being murdered wasn't the worst thing that happened to me because of him."
Forge shifts where he's standing, and hums again. Face very serious. "IT's your problem, until it's someone else's problem. If he hurts another girl, then it's not your problem anymore."
"I'm sorry for what happened to you. I just don't want to see people who don't deserve it - other than you- die for it." Thea says gently, sipping her soda. She'll glance back behind the bar, pondering if she has time for something to eat.
"Eh." Dead Girl shrugs to Forge. "Is it, really? You're acting like it's a sure thing." she notes to Forge, "But you don't know the future." she notes, "I can't plan my life based on what *might* happen. You let me do me, and you do you, old man." she grumps over to Forge, "I'm not a heroine. I'm just one Dead girl." she notes simply as she finishes her cola and smokes the rest of her cigarette- flinging ash into an ashtray. "I don't need your opinion, man- and that is what it is." she says over to Forge, "If he hurts someone. He won't even leave his apartment- he's scared shitless. I know what I'm doing, man."
Forge raises his metallic hand with an open palm. "I said if." Then pausing to sip again. "If all I did was me, I'd be in Washington making good money builing weapons for the government. Instead I spend my free time in New York, building community and hope for mutants. Some of us are less fortunate, and need others to care."
"You know what you're doing? You have a handbook, or something?" Thea asks, brows lifted as she watches. "Even one Dead Girl can make a difference. You can do things to stop bad things that other people couldn't."
Dead Girl shakes her head, "Maybe I don't want to." she says simply, "Anyways, I should get going. I've got things to do." Dead Girl says as she puts a few coins on the bar to pay for her drink, "People to haunt." she looks over to Thea, "No, but I do have the collected wisdom of the dead." she says simply.
Forge watches the dead girl getting ready to leave. "You have another chance. It'd be a shame if you let it go to waste. That might haunt you longer than you'll ever haunt him." He then sips, showing no emotion despite the buttons he's trying to push.
"Maybe it will, maybe it won't. We won't know until the choice is made." Dead Girl says simply over to Forge as she heads out. "See you guys later!" she says simply before she's out the door and back on the street.
"I sound like some do-gooder. What the hell is wrong with me?" She mutters, a glance at Forge. She'll signal the bartender, and order a whiskey.
Forge chuckles. "I'm the unlikeliest do gooder around, lady." He slaps down a 10 dollar bill, and heads on out himself.