This is the last time I get to cheat.
l-l-l
The spirits left mutter amongst themselves as if irritated that they are stuck here while the strangely-lit boy stepped up to the silver-haired man with his pleasant smile. After stumbling over a particularly large and unevading crack in the pavement, Dib looked up fearlessly, as if awaiting a verdict that would condemn him to a lie he suspected behind the man's pleasant smile. It was beginning to look like a smirk to him, so he did not return the expression.
He did, however, flinch slightly at the first voice he's heard distinctly since Zim's.
"You may call me Darius, Dib," he suggested, pulling out of his sleeve a small bag strung on a thin metal chain.
"Why would I call you anything? I'm probably never going to see the likes of you again no matter how long I'm here..." He trailed off at that thought when the elder did not contradict him. Dib was going to be here a very long time. Longer than his precarious grip on sanity could handle, most likely.
He made a face, but his eyes are now curiously on he small bag hanging from the chain. The boy squinted at it from unreal glasses that he had no use for anymore, mouth slightly open in awe.
"What is it?" he asked. After so many years of dealing with the paranormal, the human knew far too well what beauty could hide.
The small cloth bag had a color far brighter than anything he had seen so far in this place. A sharp magenta, the individual threads seeming to glint in the nonexistent light here. Its fabric gave of the idea that it was hiding, protecting, something precious. Something that wouldn't be seen but by the shapeless figure framed by the color.
"Yours," Darius replied quietly, lifting the chain to lower it over Dib's head and ignoring the slight shying away from his gentle hands. Dib lifted the bag once the chain had settled around his neck, feeling the weight in his palm carefully.
"It's not cursed or anything, is it?" he inquired tentatively, blinking as a new feeling settled upon him. He felt real again, solid. Whole. Maybe even more himself than when he had lived.
Dib swore to himself for another thought about then. This was now. There is no Earth to save, no enemy to fight with...nothing but this colorless world he felt he was alone it.
The boy sighed again, sensing the action would be a reoccurring thing as he glances back at the group in the street, brow furrowing to realize they were gone.
Darius chuckled softly, his face seeming to age and tire as he finally decided how to answer the poor lost soul.
"Of course not, Dib. Not anymore."