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Danny winced, overwhelmed for a moment at the emotions Hood was projecting. A flurry of f ear, anger, not again, pain being shoved at him as forcefully as if someone were screaming in his ear.
Danny raised his hands in surrender. “Look, we don’t mean any harm. I honestly have no idea what pits you’re talking about, but I do know a lot about the being dead thing.”
Hood didn’t move, just kept glaring at him.
Danny took a chance and projected peace, want to help, it’s ok.
Hood’s angry aura faded and he stumbled back a step.
“What was that?” Hood growled and Danny gulped as Hood’s aura flared again with anger, confusion, fear.
“Sorry.” Danny said. “I forget that new liminals aren’t used to projecting, but it’s just another form of talking. And you don’t need to worry, I’m also dead adjacent. “Though,” Danny paused, “I don’t know what the lazarus pits are.”
Hood was still tense but his aura had pulled back a little. “The Lazarus Pits are lakes of glowing green goo.”
“Huh.” Danny gleaned at Jazz. “We call the green goo Ectoplasm. But if these pits are what brought you back, I think they might be rancid. You stink.”
“Excuse me?” Hood took a step back as his aura flared with indignation.
Jazz cleared her throat.
“What my brother means is that the ectoplasm that brought you back may have been polluted. He can tell because he also has ectoplasm in his system which allows him to sense other sources of ectoplasm.”
“Explain.”
“Look,” Jazz said, “Why don’t we all sit down and I’ll make some tea and then Danny can explain better.” she sent a pointed look in his direction.
“Fine.”
Jazz nodded and turned and walked toward the kitchen where there was a table and some chairs. Danny followed her and so did Hood.
Danny fiddled with his hands as Jazz was making tea. Honestly, Danny was trying not to comment on the fact that the fully dressed vigilante looked kind of ridiculous sitting at their kitchen table.
“Would you like some tea?” Jazz said, looking toward Hood.
Hood paused before responding. “No thanks.”
Jazz nodded then turned back toward the kettle.
“Soooo….” Danny started. “Before we go on, i do need to know if you actually died, or if you just encountered some green goo.”
Hood didn’t say anything.
Danny sighed. “If it helps, I actually died and was brought back to life via green glowy stuff.”
Danny waited and was about to give up and wait for Jazz to lead the conversation when Hood finally spoke.
“I died, I’m not sure what brought me back. But then I was dumped in a Lazarus Pit.”
“Huh.” There weren’t a lot of things that could bring people back from the dead as far as Danny knew, but with all the craziness he’d already experienced in his own life, he wasn’t surprised. Though it was interesting that Hood had been exposed to ectoplasm afterward. What would that make Hood? A liminal, or a halfa like him? But as much as Danny would like someone else like him, since it wasn't ectoplasm that brought Hood back the man was probably just a liminal.
“Here you go, Danny.” Jazz said, setting a mug in front of him and then taking a seat next to him.
Danny inhaled the warm scent of spices and then looked at Hood. “So, how do you want to do this? I can do a quick info dump and then you ask questions, or you can just ask questions and I’ll answer them?”
“Info first, then I’ll ask questions.”
Danny nodded.
“First of all, ghosts are real.” he paused, but when Hood didn't say anything he continued. “They live in an alternate dimension and are fueled by and made of ectoplasm, the green glowy stuff. There are various things that can make a ghost, but we don’t need to get into that now. This is just the basics. When a human has a near death experience, or is exposed to ectoplasm they have the chance of becoming what we call liminal. That just means that they lean a little toward the ghostly side.” he glanced at Jazz, his gaze questioning and she nodded. “That’s what me and Jazz are. And that’s what I think you are.” Danny waited for a moment, clasping his hands together in front of him. “Any questions.”
“How did you heal me?”
“Oh, yeah.” Danny shrugged and sat back. “As liminals we actually need some ectoplasm to survive and it can help heal us. Usually, the ectoplasm in our bodies heps us heal ourselves, but I think yours can’t since,” Danny wrinkled his nose, “whatever source you got yours from is obviously rank.”
“What does that even mean?” Hood said, but he sounded tired not angry.
Jazz smiled gently at him. “Ectoplasm that stays too long in the Living Realm, here, can absorb pollutants. Think of it like,” she hummed and tapped her finger against the table, “like air in an improperly ventilated area. If air isn’t allowed to move and flow it can become stale. The same with ectoplasm. It’s a form of energy that needs to flow and be filtered in the Infinite Realms, where the ghosts are, or it needs to be filtered by ghosts. But if it’s allowed to just sit in one area and build up, continually absorbing energy, but unable to filter or release it then it grows rank.”
“It’s complicated.” Danny said. “And neither of us is the greatest at explaining since we’re still learning. But yeah, ectoplasm is a form of energy that flows between dimensions.
Danny smiled at Hood, there were faint feelings of confusion, disbelief, denial, no true, not true, I’m alive. But Danny did his best not to push anything toward the other liminal. He didn’t want to scare the man.
“I need to go.” Hood said, standing abruptly.
Danny startled, but nodded. “Yeah, of course.”
Jazz stood. “You’re welcome back here anytime if you have questions.” Jazz smiled.
Danny felt the briefest glimmer of attraction come from Hood and while Jazz was good at not projecting, Danny could tell from her face that she was feeling similarly toward Hood.
Danny smirked. This would be fun.