So what wine goes with dead people?

[Jane]

One of Jane's great pleasures in life was Easy Mac. Despite the fact that she'd subsisted on it for months upon months in different points in her life, it was still delicious; she didn't care that it had the nutritional content of a piece of plywood. It was delicious.

She stared at the microwave as the ceramic bowl revolved slowly, watching steam begin to rise from dinner, her forearms propped on the countertop, bravely resisting the urge to claw her skin off. It had started itching at the back of her neck, too, and next to her nose, and down behind her knees, and... well, everywhere, quite honestly.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzn, said the microwave.

Forty-five... forty-four... forty-three...

The door clicked open behind her, and Jane turned her head to see who it was.

It was a man with his throat ripped out, carrying a box marked in the McDonald's logo.

Jane stared at him as he walked with his box to the door of the walk-in fridge, popped it open, and walked inside.

She made a very small noise in the back of her throat as another animate followed him, carrying a box that smelled like mustard.

At least her arms didn't itch now. Too bad she was paralyzed with terror.

[deadman]

Dead Man walked in next, though he carried nothing. He looked a combination of the two Dead Men from her dream... not quite as burnt, not quite as not-burnt. The red eyes were still flawless, always flawless. He took a step in, and turned his whole head rather than just the seeing orbs to look at her.

"Jane." he whispered, almost rasped. "I've been looking for you."

The look on his grey face was a bizarre mixture of longing and curiousity. He seemed to be looking half at her, and half inside of her, as if he could sense what was left of his battered spirit within the confines of her mind. He was as still as a statue, and behind him the Animates - four of them - were shuffling in and out loading up the fridge with supplies.

He licked his lips.

[Jane]

Oh sweet Christ in heaven.

"Jane. I've been looking for you."

"Ah," she squeaked. "Ah... hah."

No no no no no no no no no. He was dead. DEAD. He had been ELECTROCUTED by that bitch in Baltimore. He'd saved her life (though Jane usually edited this out of her memory) by sacrificing himself, i.e. dying.

He should not be walking around.

Something deep inside her, which had only been truly active for the last few weeks in her dreamscape, felt inexorably drawn to him - the part of him he'd said was in her. But that was a dream. It wasn't real.

This could not be happening. This kind of pure revulsion from an aberration of normality only happened in dreams; no feeling was so pure. Get away, she wanted to shriek, but her mouth wasn't working right.

Her right hand closed tightly around her left wrist, working the long glove and the skin beneath it.

Dead Man licked his lips.

Ohhhh no.

"Shouldn't you be dead?" she finally asked, backing into the counter so much that she felt the sharp corner dig into her skin, the pain anchoring her to reality. "More dead?"

[deadman]

He took a slow step toward her, more animatronic than natural, and cocked his head slightly to the side. “No, my dear, I am as I should be.” He told her hoarsely. “You, Jane, us. We created this. Don't you see? Out there, in Baltimore... what we had, what we shared... I could not simply pass into the night after that. Those sorts of experiences are rare in life, or in death. My soul cried out for you, and when it tried to flee from this shell – it found you.”

He reached a hand out, pushing a stray hair out of her face with grey fingers.

“So now I am a man of parts, one in here.” He tapped his temple. “And one in here.” He took the same hand, and brushed her cheek with it.

[Jane]

Jane felt desperately for somewhere to go, anywhere that wasn't closer to Dead Man, but without rational thought (which had escaped her) there was nowhere - she was already backed into the countertop, quite harshly. A little of the sticky goo that served her for blood escaped the scrape on her lower back to congeal on the counter's edge.

Ow, she thought distantly.

“No, my dear, I am as I should be. You, Jane, us. We created this. Don't you see? Out there, in Baltimore... what we had, what we shared... I could not simply pass into the night after that. Those sorts of experiences are rare in life, or in death. My soul cried out for you, and when it tried to flee from this shell – it found you.”

What had they shared? The day was something of a blur to Jane, a muddied memory of the smell of death and plants talking in her head, smoke-choked air and the sensation of deafness that comes after explosions too close to home.

"We didn't share anything," she said desperately. "You killed a bunch of people and then you should have died! That's all I remember!"

Ohsweetjesushetouchedherhair. Jane's hair was special; for one thing, it wsn't really hair: it was a system of fibers that happened to look a lot like hair. (A mad system that was curling impossibly at the moment, forming ringlets that now were tinged more mud than the spring green they'd been.) But they had sensation. Her scalp crawled in sympathy.

“So now I am a man of parts, one in here - And one in here.”

Jane could not summon the energy to push him away. All of it was directed towards a mix of disgust and paralyzing fear. And, though she didn't want to admit it, a section of a soul that was not hers crying desperately for the touch to continue, so that it could finally be back where it belonged.

She tried to force it out, but she didn't have the power of the knowledge to do so. She was stuck with a bit of him in her head.

"Can't you fix that?" she asked desperately, forcing herself further against the counter. "It's your soul, can't you get it out?"

[deadman]

Just being near Jane revitalized him, if such a word was applicable to his kind. The part of his spirit in her that was begging to rejoin it's collective was re-powering his weakening spirit, and even at this distance, he felt he could go a week or two without it again before he needed a recharge. It was a strange knowledge, but one that was present none the less.

Still, he really did want it back.

“I could coax my spiritual residue from you, my lovely, if you'd but allow me to do so.” He asked, now standing uncomfortably close. Though likely, any time you could see him, it was uncomfortably close.

“I believe a moment of brief, shared intimacy would provide the emotional stimuli for the transference.”

Then, as if that weren't clear enough.

“Kiss me, and you shall be free.” he whispered.

It made perfect sense to him, actually. The spirit within her was interacting with his strong emotions. He couldn't contact it directly, though his longing for her was pulling it towards him - almost as if in a response call. It was only natural that the kiss should pull it over the mark, and finally complete him.

It was very poetic, and Dead Man loved it that way.

[Jane]

“I could coax my spiritual residue from you, my lovely, if you'd but allow me to do so.”

Go to town before I freaking explode, Jane wanted to say, but first she needed to know exactly what was going to happen. She didn't want to cut out a bit of herself, for instance.

“I believe a moment of brief, shared intimacy would provide the emotional stimuli for the transference.”

Jane's head immediately went places she Did Not Want It To Go. There were some things no one would ever have to even imagine, and quickies with dead people was one.

“Kiss me, and you shall be free."

A slight improvement.

Very slight.

Jane's face was slack in horror, her eyes open in fear and surprise and her lips slightly parted for the silent scream that she wished she could give voice.

Ohhhh no.

"Is that..." How to phrase it so that he wouldn't make her a zombie sex slave... "my only option?"

[deadman]

My lovely, so concerned over the mortal world, so afraid of what lays beyond… with me. That will change, I am sure. You fear death, are repulsed by the dead, yet I draw you none the less… have you forgotten Baltimore?

“… eat your vegetables, fuckers.” He quoted her, chuckling a bit to himself. Then he met her eyes again. “There are other alternatives, of course, but I am a man of dignity and class… and wouldn’t offer such base actions for such a… lovely young lady.”

His smile could have been affectionate, but it made him look like a grinning skull. Not to mention the look that said he wouldn’t offer those actions, but he wanted them none the less. Or did it? Was that what he wanted – could he even do that?

“A kiss should do the trick just fine. You need but relax, let loose your inhibitions this one simple time, and I will be whole once more.”

[Jane]

“… eat your vegetables, fuckers.”

The microwave dinged behind her as if to reinforce the memory that suddenly came back.

She really had made something of a spectacle of herself, hadn't she? Dang...

"There are other alternatives, of course, but I am a man of dignity and class… and wouldn’t offer such base actions for such a… lovely young lady.”

The queasiness she'd briefly forgotten came rushing back as Jane's eyes refocused on Dead Man's. He looked like a death's head. Or like one of those starving African people, with nothing behind his eyes and sunken cheeks. Like a poet with consumption, except not attractive at all. (Jane had always been more for the vaguely scruffy musician and all-American types, but she did dabble occasionally in the pseudo-Byronic sphere of boydom, at least in winter.)

“A kiss should do the trick just fine. You need but relax, let loose your inhibitions this one simple time, and I will be whole once more.”

Ohhhh, damn. It really was going to be her only feasible option, wasn't it? She didn't want to have sex with a zombie. At all.

"Okay," she said, voice full of resignation. She winced as the cut on her back pressed more into the counter as she unconsciously tried to push herself away. "You can... um. I'll try."

[deadman]

Dead Man didn't need to concur, he simply moved forward. He did it slowly, of course, savoring the moment for as long as he could. This was probably the best day he'd ever had, all told – the past twenty four hours being filled with great wonder and joyous occasions.

Now he was going to get his mind back into once piece AND get to kiss the beautiful Jane. Death was good.

He leaned in, lips just centimeters from hers...

[Juggers]

The Juggernaut stomped into the kitchen having been drawn by a combination of a dinging microwave and the smell of something cooking. Something else smelled slightly rancid, like meat that had been left a little too long, then been allowed to dry out. Cain was easy when it came to food though.

"Oi oi!" He greeted jovially as he entered the room, not bothering to see who it was he addressed.

"Python comes back bearin' gifts by the smell of it an ... "

Then the scene before him actually registered.

McDonalds!

That explained the smell.

There seemed to be dead people too. Properly dead people; one had a bloody, gaping hole where he should have had a throat. Cain was pretty sure that was fatal.

"Am I seein' dead people?" He said, puzzled.

Then he spotted the suit-wearing figure pressed intimately against Jane by the work-top. She really didn't look terribly comfortable and considering the Dead Man all but had his lips pressed against hers in a lovers kiss it wasn't all that surprising.

"WHAT. THE. FUCK?!" Cain exclaimed in astonishment.

"NO. FUCKIN'. WAY!"

[Jane]

Uuuuull. He was moving towards her. Slowly. Slowly.

Why the hell was he going so slowly? Was he trying to drag out her torture?

Of course, he probably didn't think of it as torture, not if his creepy dead-courting has been any indication. Why did she only attract the dead ones?

She squeezed her eyes shut, tried not to look too disgusted and inwardly repeated a total reversal of the anti-sex mantra that every little boy and girl chants when it is completely socially awkward to be a little too interested: Taye Diggs. Hugh Jackman. Batman. That one dude from Baltimore Juggs probably killed. Meatwave. Oh, so not helping...

Just then, blessed stomping as if from heaven itself interrupted her and Dead Man's privacy.

"Oi oi! Python comes back bearin' gifts by the smell of it an ... "

Jane gasped and finally summoned the willpower to try to push Dead Man away, bracing one arm against his chest. This was too gross. Not. Gonna. Happen.

"Am I seein' dead people?"

Yes. Perverted ones.

"WHAT. THE. FUCK?!"

"Cain," she said, holding her face as far away as possible, "help me."

"NO. FUCKIN'. WAY!"

INCOMING.

"PleaseIthinkIchangedmymind," Jane said very quickly, the pitch her voice rising into the upper regions of the stratosphere. "IthinkI'mjustgonnagotrytogetitoutmyselfthatsoundsgooddonchathinkmayeAngieorsomething - "

[deadman]

Dead Man ignored Cain for a moment, concentrating fully on Jane. She was struggling against him, changing her mind… though at first, she seemed to fully embrace it. Maybe it was simply the idea of kissing him in front of the Juggernaut. Women were notoriously confusing – and he’d even been inside the memories of quite a few before.

So he took half a step back, giving her the space she needed. He even held out his arm, showing her that he would by no means force her. What is love, if it needed to be coerced?

“Very well, Jane.” He whispered – though as usual, it carried across the room. “Your mind is yours to change. I’d have it no other way… should you change it, my offer stands. As is, I’ll allow you to carry that small seed of myself inside you. Just being near it recharges me, so as long as we can be near on occasion, it will satisfy my need for just a bit longer.”

Then he turned fully to face Juggernaut. “Mister Marko.” He said, his voice trailing as his red eyes settled on the giant. “It’s a pleasure to share your company again.”

He wanted to share more, of course. The Juggernaut’s perfect body would make the greatest animate of all time. The downside is that DM couldn’t imagine what on Earth could kill the big man… but should something do so, he’d be there to pick the pieces back up.

As is, though, he actually liked Cain.

[Juggers]

"Were you two just ... " he paused, not actually wanting to think about it; there were some things that were just fundamentally wrong, even to the Juggernaut, " ... no way!"

He glanced at Jane who looked more than a little green. Well, even more so than usual. Probably.

She HAD been just about to lock lips with a dead guy.

"I guess it takes all sorts to make a world eh?" He said to the room in general. Cain had vague recollections of biology at school when he had learned that rotting stuff in the soil made things grow better. Maybe that's what the attraction was.

"Anyways," Cain said, returning to the present, "'eard you was dead, well, deader, or somethin'."

He looked the Dead Man up and down, "but then I guess you're lookin' a little worse for wear."

He glanced over at Jane again.

"You doin' alright there?"

[Jane]

Dead Man stepped back, and Jane actually felt the air around her loosen and lighten. It made it no easier to breathe. Whereas the idea of getting the bit of soul out of her had, seconds ago, trumped all ickiness, being confronted with said ickiness put things in a harshly different light.

And it was a fair amount of ickiness, too. She refused to feel weak.

“Very well, Jane. Your mind is yours to change. I’d have it no other way… should you change it, my offer stands. As is, I’ll allow you to carry that small seed of myself inside you. Just being near it recharges me, so as long as we can be near on occasion, it will satisfy my need for just a bit longer.”

He turned around to talk to Cain, leaving Jane sagged against the counter and feeling distinctly ill. There had to be another way. She was not going to kiss Dead Man. It was too weird.

She slowly became aware that she had a really funny look on her face, somewhere between the frozen appalled expression of someone watching Fear Factor from afar and the wide-eyed confusion of someone dropped abruptly into a situation too weird to compute. She had no energy to concentrate on changing it.

"Were you two just... no way! I guess it takes all sorts to make a world eh?"

She found that she did have the energy to change it into a death glare. This she did.

"Anyways, you was dead, well, deader, or somethin', but then I guess you're lookin' a little worse for wear."

He looked like barbecued corpse drug through the mud.

She had to get that bit of soul out. Why couldn't she get someone decent's soul stuck in her? It wasn't like she was picky. She just wasn't, you know, a necrophiliac.

"You doin' alright there?"

Jane stared at Juggernaut for a moment.

"No," she said, concentrating on forcing the syllable out carefully. "I am not."

Pushing herself off the counter with a hint of the noise made by a blunt knife through celery, she maneuvered herself past Dead Man and Cain to the exit while managing to keep exactly the same distance or more from the former until the door clicked shut behind her.

Then she bolted.

Distantly, she thought about her back hurting and the fact that she'd eventually have to make sure Cain understood that she, under no circumstances, wished to kiss Dead Man; but more important right now was a shower. Another one. She was going to scour off every inch of her skin and not reemerge until it grew back.

Yeah, that seemed like a good plan.

[exit unless needed/desired (not like that)]

[Aurora]

Aurora moved out of Jane's way as she hurried out of the kitchen. The look on the green girl's face made Aurora almost hesitant to see what was in the kitchen that Jane had been so eager to get away from. But she entered the kitchen, looking back at Jane's retreating back and giving Poseidon a slight shrug of her shoulders.

Ah. Dead Man. Probably why Jane was moving so fast. And in addition to him, Cain. Aurora smiled at the two, once again keeping her eyes from staying on Dead Man for too long. "Cain, let me introduce you to our newest addition, Poseidon. Poseidon, this is the Juggernaut." Aurora looked between the two as she introduced them. 'Manners, meet brute force,' she couldn't help but jab in her mind, a smirk threatening to appear on her lips.

[deadman]

Dead Man looked after the departing Jane with the listful half-smile of a sadistic lover. Then his eyes snapped back to Juggernaut, and his smile didn't fade – just became a little less creepy. If that was possible with him.

“I am now dead, before I was still cursed with life. I was brought over by that electricity elemental from the X-Men. I suppose I owe her a similar exchange.” He said, smiling. The smile was oddly genuine, and it looked jarred on his face.

“Though Jane carries with her a part of my being, now. Perhaps if she keeps it, I'll never truly be destroyable.” He said, thinking out loud. Then Aurora came in, and introduced Poseidon to Juggernaut.

By this time the animates were done with the loading, and Dead Man sent them down the hall to and up the stairs. They'd provide guards for the roof.

He waited against the counter, content with his life.

[Juggers]

The Juggernaut wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know what part of Dead Man Jane was carrying. He hoped it wouldn't start to rot or something and stink the base out.

"Uh yeah, well, bein' dead makes it pretty 'ard to get dead again I reckon," Cain said, running a hand over his scalp.

Then Aurora arrived.

There was a confident looking bald guy with her that Cain hadn't seen before. That meant new recruits.

Awesome.

A confident, bald, new recruit.

"Afternoon," the Juggernaut greeted the newcomer jovially. He stuck out one massive paw to shake the new guys hand.

"Welcome to the winnin' side."

[sy]

As the green girl ran past, Sy followed her with his sea-colored eyes, slightly jealous of her color. At least she was all green, he'd only gotten it in tufts. He'd have to meet her sometime when she was less distressed.

And then they were in the room and he was being introduced to quite possibly the largest man he'd ever seen. Sy bowed, but kept his hands comfortably at his side - he probably wouldn't hurt the big man with a little sting, but you never could tell who would be allergic to it. Didn't want to put anyone into anaphalactic shock with a greeting afterall.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Juggernaut. Forgive my hands, there is a chance that I would hurt you. Not a large chance though, I do not think," he added with a smile. As to the winning or loosing side he did not say a word, not believing it to be a contest. Sy just wanted to find a place to live where they appreciated him - if that included fighting for their ideals then so be it.

He also gave a small bow of acknowledgement to the Dead Man, not wanting to seem rude in the face of Hades.

[Aurora]

Aurora started toward the nearest stool, to sit down. As she reached the counter, however, she slowed and came to a stop. Her eyes were trained on the counter, and she gripped the edge of it as he face grew stony and her jaw clenched.

It wasn't a very noticeable battle outwardly, the fight going on in her head as she fought to push away the growing volume of the other presence in her mind. But as the others spoke, her hands gripped the counter more tightly until the tips of her fingers were white.

In the midst of the mental commotion, she knew that she had to keep it together. She could tell that some of them already thought she was crazy. So she looked up, speaking without hearing herself through the yelling in her brain. "Hey--I gotta go--" she said, sounding uncomfortable and dazed but otherwise alright.

Without waiting for a reply, she pushed away from the counter and turned, leaving the way she had come. As soon as she was out of sight, she became a blur, shooting down the hallway, pausing only at corners to find the next direction until she was out of the building.