Episode: 7.13

--- Ozzy ---

With Trish leaving for work without him, he ended up sleeping in the next day. Though given how much tossing and turning filled most of his nights, it did very little to actually leave him feeling rested.

Once he was up and moving, he made a simple breakfast of eggs and toast. Admittedly the fact that he was eating six eggs and eight slices of toast was a little less simple.

(Honestly, I probably should’ve expected a change in metabolism…)

Though on the flip side, eating so much had helped dull that aching hunger that had been building in the back of his… well, everything. Which left him feeling more than kind of relieved that he hadn’t been hungering for human flesh like the (undead cannibalistic monstrosity) that he was.

(Yeah, just an accelerated metabolism…)

Since Trish had already guessed he was a Deviant it’d be easy enough to explain why he wanted to have thirds and fourths of everything, (barring certain details of course.)

Finally feeling semi-filled for the first time in days, he just needed to decide what to do with the rest of his day, because he was honestly getting kind of sick of TV and was feeling a little jittery to sit down and read one of Trish’s numerous books.

Glancing around Trish’s living room a bit, his eyes eventually fell on to his hand as he remembered the events at the clinic a few days prior.

(I mean it wouldn’t hurt to figure out how my ‘ghost-zombie’ powers work…)

He’d known plenty of kids had fantasized about being in his position, -(excluding the living undead thing)- about discovering whatever cool Deviant powers they had, and all the things they’d be able to do with them, (like becoming a hero.)

Now he just had to figure out what his powers were.

His first instinct was to just look it up on the internet, like when he’d tried to grasp the basics of his transformation. The problem though, was that looking too closely into Deadmen might raise a flag with Sanctuary, something he wanted to avoid desperately. (Especially while I’m staying with Trish.)

Which meant that he was just going to have to figure this out on his own.

“Come on, you’re a straight A student, you can work this out on your own.” He told himself as he began pacing between the living room and kitchen, “Alright. So first off, what kind of powers do Deadmen typically have?”

He’d grown up in Amityville, Deadman capital of America, so while not an expert he did have an idea of what the undead Deviancy was capable of.

(Let’s see… lasers, invisibility, flight, super-strength, phase through walls, possession, duplication, construct manifest-) He began to list before shaking his head. “No, that’s too many complicated things, what I need to do is start with the basics after all mom always did say ‘the fundamentals are fundamental’.”

“So, in that case what do I know I can do?” He asked himself.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

(Alright, I’m a ghoul so basic of the basics would be… super-strength. Easy. Now just have to test it. Even easier.)

He moved back to the living before grabbing the edge of Trish’s couch. (1… 2… 3… Lift!)

With a bit of effort he managed to pick up one end of the couch, which was all and good if not for the fact that, “Damn it, this is probably as high as I could’ve lifted it before.”

Lowering the couch, he began to pace once more.

“Okay, so no super-strength, which sucks since I’m pretty sure all Deadmen have some kind of strength enhancement…” He considered it for a moment before going to his laptop. He may not have been capable of outright searching the answer, but that didn’t mean there weren’t a few loopholes to that problem so long as he didn’t dig too deeply into the subject.

“Let’s see, just got to word this right…” (‘How are Deviants capable so strong?’)

The first dozen or so hits were more political in nature than he cared for, so he went back and tacked ‘science’ onto the end of his search. Which culled the worst offenders of the previous search results.

“Let’s try… this one.” He clicked one of the links to an article from a popular science magazine. One that luckily gave links to articles on how the scientific community theorized different Deviancies worked.

(Okay… ‘Arcane reinforcing muscle density through-’ nope. Um, ‘Tactile Kinetics of psychics.’ No. ‘Wonderlander’s disruption of local physics through dimensional overlap.’ Wow, that’s a mouthful of a title. Ooh, ooh! ‘Ectoplasmic energy overlay.’ That sounds like a winner!)

Clicking on the science magazine’s article, and then exiting out of the ad pop-up for a subscription to said magazine, he opened a page with several diagrams about Deadmen.

(Let’s see here, ‘Powers derived from ectoplasm,’ knew that… ‘When active can interfere with or cause reactions between different energy types, such as temporary negation of gravity over a localized field.’) “And if that doesn’t sound like a scientist’s super-strength!”

“Now I just I figure out how to do that.” He reminded himself while staring at his hands.

(I already know powers are at least part will and instinct, based on that mishap back at the clinic…) Figuring that was the closest thing to controlling his ectoplasm; he closed his eyes and tried to remember what exactly he’d been feeling at the time.

(Alright so a… cold chill… slowly spreading…)

Something in his chest began to thrum, and once more he began to feel the cold creeping along his flesh until- “Oh shit! It happened again!”

Once more his arm had been split in two, with the flesh and bone being separated from each other.

The moments following this event were a mix of blind panic, disgust at his (floppy noodle) arm, and then focus as he finally remembered how to set his arm back into place.

He spent several minutes staring at his hand before eventually deciding, “Yeah… I’m going to want to get that under control.”

Based on common sense, he should be starting with an easier power like his super-strength thing, but that was on paper. In reality, it was looking like he needed to figure out ‘ectoplasmic manipulation’ to figure out any of his abilities. Unfortunately, he only knew he had one power in that category.

(Just because ‘in theory’ it’s harder to do, doesn’t mean learning it will be harder to do.)

It was definitely something worth considering, even if it was bit counter-intuitive.

(‘Then again a lot of answers in this world are.’)

Feeling he was onto something with that thought he began to call on the creeping chill once more, letting it crawl up his arm. Only this time he took the time to make sure he was focused on phasing his entire arm rather than just his bones. And once the chill began to cover his entire arm, he pressed his palm against Trish’s coffee table until- “Oh come the fuck on!!!”

He was really getting sick of this.

But at the very least the irritation was keeping him from panicking.

A detail that proved very useful for his next dozen or so failed attempts. During which he’d alternated between his hands and even his feet, always getting the same result of his bones passing through objects, but never his actual skin and muscles.

“Does… Does this mean I can only phase my bones through things?” He couldn’t help but ask aloud, the silence coming off as more of a reluctant confirmation than anything else.

He took a calming breath to try and think this through.

He pinched the bridge of his nose to try and workout the ache between his eyes.

Eventually though, he gave into frustration and shouted his exact feelings on the matter.

“That is such a fucking rip off!”