It was something new, another upset for Albert to deal with. Just knowing that Marian Gran had some influence in making sure he didn't wind up as a drooling mess on the floor, was one thing. But also knowing that that protection was finite in nature, was just the cherry on top.
'Thank you.' A heartfelt thanks was sent out towards the spirit, silent gratitude reached across the barriers of life and death. 'I'll drop by later to leave flowers or something.'
While it did feel a bit inadequate, he honestly didn't know what else was appropriate.
"I would probably go visit her when you have the chance." Marceline added, easily seeing his unasked question. "Maybe bring some of her favorite flowers? Wood lilies, I think?"
"I thought that ritual allowed her to pass on?" With a new target to latch onto, his mind pounced on the mystery. Anything to move forward from the memories welling up. While they weren't nearly as weighty as before, that didn't mean they were pleasant by any definition. And getting a better idea on how her Psychopomp abilities work was always a good idea.
"Technically, Marian is 'gone'." The brunette waved her hand side to side, mouth turning up as she tried put her thoughts into something coherent. "What we did was severe her Earthly attachments in this world. Her grief and anger, sparked by her attacker stealing her broach, were like chains that she was unwilling to set down to pass on, which gave her a lot of power in that given domain around the school grounds. And when we returned it to her, she was freed and could finally leave….but that's when thing's get a bit complicated. I don't really know exactly what happens in the afterlife, I just lead spirits to it. But what I do know, there is price to pay for them to stay in this world that grows exponentially. And before that is paid in full, they're not really going anywhere anytime soon. Sometimes I get the vague feeling that she's waiting in line but everyone else around her can continue forward while she's stuck. Maybe in the future, I'll be able to push her along or scrub away at her debt but for now, there isn't a lot I can do. But, you can help her. Usually, by visiting their final resting place someone, who could invoke strong reactions before they moved on, and offering a farewell or some sort of gift it can help alleviate that debt some. It's not a lot but I usually make the rounds every year to thank them for protecting me all this time..my grandmother especially."
He couldn't say he could fully understand what was going on, but again he wasn't the Medium for a reason and stuff like this, it was simply better to just take her word for it.
'I know what I'll be doing after this party is over.'
Besides, it wasn't like he had anything else better to do.
"Thanks." It was soft and only a single word, but it was loaded with so much that emotion that only a full therapy session could untangle. She didn't need to share so much, nor did she need to distract him from the memories that scrapped against his mind. But Marceline was a great friend and now he knew why she had so many people so willing to go to bat for her.
"It's no problem." The brunette slugged his shoulder lightly, a small grin plastered across her face before craning her head to something behind her."Anytime. Really, you can come to me and I will always be open to talk...but it looks like Lin got kicked out of the snake pile."
Looking around her, he could see Angeline walking through an ever thinning crowd as another bundle of humanity visibly moved off to who knows where. Despite being essentially muscled out of the inner group, the blonde did not look upset in the slightest. If anything, she was pleased beyond belief. That slight stiffness to her shoulders nowhere in sight.
"That was awful." The blonde didn't try to lower her voice in the slightest as she walked past them to lean up against the wall. His eyes darted around in confusion as he looked around at the room. Sure, a majority of people were focused fully on Barbara but that didn't mean people weren't at-least somewhat paying attention and given how spite some of them might be, badmouthing their peers openly like that was surely just inviting trouble. But if that was a concern, she sure didn't show it. "I'm glad that's over. I wasn't even the main focus and with how much those vultures were sniping at me, I thought I was going to smack their front teeth out of their stupid, smug mugs. Let them say some of that stuff in an alley somewhere and give me like five minutes and I'll educate them the manner their parents skimped out on probably teaching them. How Barbara isn't going on a rampage, I have no idea."
"That bad? I thought they would've tried to schmooze her over to gain something?"
"They'll try." Angeline shrugged, her tone dripping with disdain. "But this is apart of their game, they're feeling her out to see what they can get away with and what'll cross the line. If it was anyone else, I would worry about some sleazy bastard trying to drag her to one of the rooms...but I get the feeling she'll actually shove a boot up their ass if they tried. That and, those elements aren't really here. You the know the type, monsters willing to spike your drink just to see what happens. It seems their keeping their more predatory members on a tight leash."
"Do you have list of names?"
Albert butted in. It was always a good idea to keep track of such predators, who knew maybe one of them would be the perpetrator in a future case. That and, he wanted to know just in case he was ever invited to one of these parties again. Being drugged wasn't high on his bucket list.
"Sure, I'll text them to you." The blonde nodded then turned to her friend. "I'm done with what I had to do, you ready?"
"Yep!"
Marceline chirped, rising 'tall' and looked right about ready to disappear off into the mansion, not to be seen again until the end of the night.
"Where are you guys going?"
He hated feeling so nosy and clingy, but there were few things worse than being left alone in a party full of strangers. Especially those that treated him like the he was infected with some sort of highly contagious disease. With his 'date' occupied and his only two friends disappearing, he would probably spend the whole getting tossed from group to group trying to break into a conversation.
"That right," The brunette snapped her fingers before rubbing her hands together with a massive smile, that soon spread over to the blonde. Greed glinted ruinously in two pairs of eyes. "You don't know the plan! I'm calling it operation 'Treasure Planet'. This mansion is old, meaning a bunch of spirits are here...I won't tell you have many but a lot of them are wearing suits. Like real expensive looking clothing even by today's standard. And we're to try to get some of them to cough up any...hidden assets they might have. Just think of it, abandoned treasure right here in Gotham of all places!"
"Should you be really talking, so loudly I might add, about robbing a bunch of rich ghosts?"
It was too much. The scheme, them not even attempting to lower their voices at the slightest. Even if The Veil could cover up a lot of what she just said, there must be something slipping through.
"My dear, lucky, lucky friend." Marceline shook her head smugly, pointing a single, black painted finger up to the ridiculous tiara atop her brow. "This isn't just a fashion statement."
"It's a very corny fashion statement."
The blonde spoke up from besides them.
"Hush you, tiara's are always in." Waving away her friend, she continued. "I got this recently after listening to an opera's singers final song. You know how Specter Pieces are defensive in nature? Well, this one breaks the rules a bit. It won't protect me worth a damn but it does passively makes our conversations nearly impossible to hear. To them, it's just some mumbling. Isn't that awesome?!"
"It's really creepy." Angeline shivered in place. "I can kinda hear through it, but the first time Michael nearly had a cow. For him, he could hear you one moment and the next, bam! Couldn't hear a damn thing."
That was...actually pretty interest. All of his own understanding of Specter Pieces came from Marceline but he had to remember at the end of the day, that they were technically still considered enchanted objects. So it made some sense, maybe that tiara was towing the line on what was considered 'defensive' but it was still protecting her from a very particular source. Eavesdroppers. Neat and it also opened up a whole new world of possibilities.
'Is there a Specter Piece that could protect the wearer from the gaze of others? Like a pseudo invisibility cloak? What kind of spirit could do that though?' His mind spun with possibilities. 'If an opera singer could grant sound jamming, then could a...body artist grant such an ability? But, no. She's been at this for years, and this is her first time running into something off the beaten track. So it couldn't have been that simple.'
"Going back to...operation 'Treasure Island'-"
"Treasure planet."
"...Treasure Planet." The blonde rolled her eyes hard, nearly with enough force that he kinda expected them to come flying out. "I've been telling her it's not going to work. If there's one thing rich people are good at, it's with-holding money...and this is coming from experience. Do you know how many times I've seen my own mom legally evade taxes? And that's with them, us, being scrutinized under the law. But for the dead? I don't suspect they'll have that issue in the slightest. I'm betting they'll be so tight lipped about any treasure that we'll just be running around circles...Marcy's a real sweetheart, even if she's cheated out of a Specter Piece she'll still help them out."
"Nooo!" The brunette cried aloud. "I'm a moody spooky girl! You're gonna ruin my image!"
"Actually," He had think back to what felt like a lifetime ago, from their first meeting in that shelter. Her along with her mysterious second group, all came together to give off a very threatening and yes, 'spooky' vibe. It was probably that vibe alone that he'd even tried interacting with the group obviously up to no good. "Were you trying to pull that off when we first met?"
"Depends." Marceline grinned. "Did it work?"
"No."
"Liar." She shot back, crossing her arms. "You looked like you were ready to piss yourself."
"Aren't you guys just stalling? I'm sure there's so many ghosts about ready to wander off to the afterlife while you're trying to prove whether or not I was going to piss myself."
"…." Giving him a concerned look, her next sentence was a bit hesitant. "Do you want to come with? I can promise you it most likely won't be something similar to Marian Gran if that's your concern. Her case was are and she was powerful...I don't expect we'll run into someone like that here. But if we do, one more person there wouldn't be a bad thing. Right, Lin?"
"I don't mind." Angeline might not have been there while he was spilling his guts out, but that didn't matter especially when she was receiving looks from her friend. Looks, the tanned girl probably thought were well hidden. "Really. I won't say it was fun last time...but I can promise it'll be better. I was bit of bitch to you when we first met and I don't think I ever apologized to you for that. So take this as my apologies. You were innocent and had nothing to do with the few bad experiences we had with random cameramen."
"I understand and it's no problem." She might've been a bit prickly when they first met but it wasn't anything too extreme. Just some warning looks and disparaging comments. "But, I think I'll pass this time around, but I do appreciate the offer though."
While most of the attendees were going to treat him like air, it still sounded better than huddling around a ouija board speaking to the dead. Call him old fashion but he found the living way more tolerable to be around than the dead. Besides, he really didn't wish to intrude. This was something they both planned together and there was no way he was going to but in and possibly ruin them. If he had to spend a majority of the night alone, then so be it.
'At least some of us will have fun.'
"Are you sure?" The shorter girl asked. "It's really no problem! Who knows, maybe you'll be able to induce a strong reaction from them like last time!"
"No." In that moment, Albert didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Sometimes, there were moments where he really regretted having such a low APP score. Would his life had been better if he'd just chosen to forgone the Pulp Cthulhu package all together? "Really, I'm fine. Go on and...'hunt for treasure'."
"Well… If you insist. C'mon Lin, I think I saw one near the shrub maze?"
"Of course you chose there first." Angeline shook her head and, once nodding once to him, dragged the excited girl in what he suspected to be the complete opposite direction. "Let's go somewhere we know for sure there's going to no axe murdering lying in wait. Didn't say you saw one down here?"
"Bye Albert! If you change your mind, te-"
After the pair left outside of arm's reach, the last bit of her sentence petered off. Not like it suddenly got cut off but more like someone had turned the sound down to something barely distinguishable. Despite that, the message was as clear as day.
Waving at them, he sat back and took in the army of cold shoulders around him.
'Let's try mingling for a bit. There has to be SOMEONE that would be willing to speak to me..right?'
***
"-and I said," A voice so full of pomp and self important snorted out a barely contained laugh, something that was mirrored by a few of the man's colleagues. "If your chefs can't even make a medium steak, then they should go down to the slums and get a job flipping burgers with the rest of the rift-raft!"
At that, the small group of elites are burst into uncontrollable laughter. Clutching barely filled glasses holding amber liquid that shook as they chortled, which spread from the inner circle all the way through the outer circles.
Albert, the 'rift-raft', could only barely keep a small smile on his face. One hand forcing small pile of cards further into his pocket. With that, he turned and slowly melded back into the crowd the best he could.
'There's no way I'm going to help anyone like that.' He might be willing to bend the knee in exchange for a ludicrous payout but that didn't mean he was going to accept work from just anybody. There needed to be standards, and people that so willing told or enjoyed such a story was not up to his standards. Call him a hypocrite but after hearing such terrible and disparaging things, he'd had change of heart. Even if he knew they wouldn't just parade his cards around just long enough to rip them to shreds, his desire to build connections with these people was firmly in the toilet. Another set of familial names were added to an ever growing list. 'No service for you buddy, you can thank your youngsters for that.'
If it wasn't clear before, things had not been fruitful in the slightest. The haughty or disdainful looks were one thing, but being outright ignored had been common. The amount of times he'd mustered up the courage to go up to a random group of people and been treated as though he didn't even exist was staggering. Whether it was because of his friction with the host or because of his lesser background, it didn't matter. What did matter was this.
A break was needed. If not, he was sure the next person who ignored was going to get a monumental earful.
Scanning the crowd for what felt like the umpteenth time, a group suddenly spoke out to him. Not verbally of course. But more from the lack reaction to his lingering gaze. Such a thing hadn't been something rare, there were plenty of brats there that were more drawn to the novelty of his rather alien, to them anyway, existence. Like he was a sort of zoo animal dancing for treats and attention. Not directly hostile but it brought around a different set of issues.
Pity. Like one would give to a wounded creature, an ugly one at that.
Great for getting into the door but not for anything more. Those were the type of people to smile in his face if offered a business card with a large 'friendly' smile before tossing it in the next trashcan they could find.
For this particular group, it altogether checked all the boxes. Numbering around five people in total, with a pretty even spread of opposing genders but more favoring the female variety. Something he found tended to cut down a lot on the immediate macho rejection of his presence. Combine that with the fact that two of them shared the same shock of red hair, chances were only further skewed in his favor. That, and it seemed the group was in a bit of lull and in desperate need of something to spark things back up.
Putting a smile on his face, Albert slipped through the crowd. Gaze locked onto a pair of dark green eyes that assessed him placidly. They roamed over his skinny frame, taking note of the way his suit slightly hung off his frame, shoes that while nice were very obviously used. It wasn't really something he could do, no amount of shinning was going to get rid of the visible creases or rubbed smooth soles.
"Hello." If an assessing gaze that light was enough to turn him aside, then it wouldn't have been worth it to even show up. People were always going to judge, those born into privilege weren't above that. Rejection was just something everyone needed to grow use to it. Holding his hand out to the group, he introduced himself. "My name is Albert Nelson, it is very nice to meet you all."
There was a moment of silence between the group, most sending each-other uncertain and/or uncomfortable looks. Before the trio turned to the pair of red heads, an obvious sign that this interaction would be solely on the shoulders of those two. Up close, their similarities grew from a passing resemblance that cousins might have to if they both stood in-front an empty frame, people would think their was a cross-dressing mirror before them.
From their same high nose, sharp cheek bones and identical dark green eyes, it was clear they were twins. Looking to be in their mid-twenties, possessing atheletic builds and even to be nearly the same height as each other. Only the women, with long braided hair that trailed over her shoulder and down her back, wearing a simple green dress and a pair of high heels that gave her just enough leverage to barely edge out on her male counterpart.
Something, that he heard from other twin's experiences in his old life, was surely the cause of a very heated argument.
In that beat of uncertain stillness, the twins shared a look. An entire conversation was had faster than thought, and unheard by the outside world.
"Hello." It was the male sibling that spoke up first, whether it was from their telepathic conversation or the 'subtle' elbow delivered to his side. A hand gripping the teen's outstretched appendage."My name is Andres Vreeland, and this...is my twin sister Sabina Vreeland. And it is a pleasure to meet you as well."
Smiling Albert resisted the urge to react as that single greeting had truly unleashed the floodgates, as what followed was a good few minutes of just introductions as he shook hands with everyone in the group. Even some of more hesitant or unwilling members still played along just to avoid alienating themselves.
'That was good.'
Now that he'd gotten the awkwardness out of the way, his mind began to spin as to whether to leave them a card or even how to bring it up without it coming out as disingenuous, like a spotlight was being shone down on his actions thus far and expose his true desires. But for once, the universe seemed to be on his side.
` "I just want you to know that I do not agree with the way our host treated you." One of the women, looking to be around twenty, cajoled with a familiar look in her face that made him want to roll his. It seemed not everything had gone to plan. "There shouldn't have been an issue, if you're hungry and can't afford to feed yourself then I don't see a reason not to let you take some food home. In fact, our friends here are known for their fundraising and charity events! I'm sure they can get you in contact with a few..what are they called again? Soup kitchens?"
"Food Banks."
"Yes!? She nodded at male twin in thanks before continuing. "Food Banks. I'm even sure they can get you on the list for assisted aid to help get you and your family out of that absolute dangerous and drug filled neighborhood! I think they can even help get you guys some affordable living conditions!"
With every word, every twist and tacked onto detail of his life, Albert barely resisted the urge to gape. The women was nice, empathetic in a way that a lot of the people there weren't capable of...but it was still clear she had grown up in the exact same environment as everyone else in that mansion. Maybe she truly meant every word and though she was providing or shepherding the wave of change, but it still came from a position of superiority. Subconsciously of course.
And that's why people like her were so infuriating. It was one thing to be sneered at or degraded because of someone's upbringing, and another thing if they were just hiding behind a mask of kindness or understanding while not believing a single thing they said...but it was those that truly believed they were being sympathetic, view skewed by their own lenses. Completely oblivious.
Someone whose heart was in the right place but their understanding wasn't.
A person that would one face someone who would absolutely retaliate against their pity, a simple argument or something more violent and drastic.
Something, that a 'street rat' like him was sure to dish out without care of recourse.