Ghoul tapped his fingers against his desk idly, playing a game of cat and mouse with a rather interesting fellow hacker- 0rAclE- this little 'friend' had been hounding him for the last few nights, accessing his personal computer, getting only the decoy files before he got to them and shut them out. They were also following him around in his little hackings and photoshopping and tapping into billionaire's accounts. A few times, they'd shut him down. He was the better hacker, to be sure, but this person was good, and he was having fun for the first time in the weeks since he'd come home. "What natural disaster happened to make you look so happy?"

Ghoul sighed and hit 'send' on his little virus-surprise for his new friend. Now whenever 0rAclE got too close, or attempted to hack into his personal files, a grey smiley face with black rings around the eyes and bloody tears would pop up to the sound of the infamous Kefka laugh, and all his personal favorite gaming horror-stories mains would march across the screen as the words 'maybe next time' flashed behind the smiley face. Since it was a sleeper virus and designed to move once one part was deleted, he had a feeling '0rAclE' was going to develop a headache for the next week or two, perfect time for him to develop something more fun for them both to play. And deal with the annoying McGinnis who was breathing down his neck.

Terry raised an eyebrow. He wasn't nuts about hacking or computers-they each served their purpose-but he knew a virus when he saw one. Huh, he hoped the thing wasn't aimed at anyone he knew. Though he wouldn't be surprised. This was Ghoul. He forced himself to focus on the piercing grey eyes, and-huh, so the ex-clown did have eyebrows after all-an eyebrow raised with the steepled fingers brushing the bridge of his nose. Take away the blond hair, which was in a pony today, maybe lack of shower…? And replace it with brownish red, and it was almost the spitting image of the good doctor and master of terror himself. Almost. He needed the suits still. And to get rid of those combat boots. Then he'd really look like a Little Crane. "Well? Are you going to continue the staring, or are we going to 'talk' again" He'd put his computer to sleep again, Terry noticed.

Terry raised his hands. "Hey, 'Silence of the Lambs' much? Drop the Hannibal act and sure, we can talk" During the last week after their first meeting Terry had been subjected to watching recordings of Crane being interviewed-both before and after his fall into the persona of Scarecrow. He was scary smart, very much a modern day Sherlock Holmes. Because of the last meeting with Ghoul Terry had studied Crane to get an idea for the creepy directness he'd been subject to last time. Ghoul sighed and rolled his head, popping sounds coming from a neck that had been too still for far too long. He smiled slightly as he did so, the smile just as creepy as when he had the make-up on. "Mmm…Hannibal. I didn't know you watched classics, Terry" Terry shrugged, a flippant smile on his lips. "Well, guess that computer of yours can't tell you everything, can it?" slightly narrowed eyes told him he'd hit a nerve. "It was on the T.V. once. Weird, but interesting"

Ghoul shrugged, accepting the answer and leaning back in his chair. "So, I remind you of the great Hannibal the Cannibal, huh? I'd be almost honored but…yea, I don't really like him. And I'm a vegetarian" Terry blinked. "Really?" Ghoul laughed and spun once in his chair, feeling absurdly happy at the fact the black-haired teen had bought that. "No. But I really don't like Hannibal. He reminds me too much of someone" "Really? Who?" Ghoul waggled his finger. "Ah, that's my secret, Tiny Terry"

This time Ghoul was expecting Terry to attack him and he got out of the way as Terry lunged for him. Really, the whole thing reminded him of Batman, only this guy talked more, was more flippant, and was actually trying to be nice. Maybe he should stop riling up Terry, his parents were a little nicer since last week, and his mom was downright over the moon when he'd…thanked her…it still felt weird. Though now that he thought about it, if Terry was gone, it meant no more okay parents and back to screaming matches and onset of nightmares. And he was too leery of VR Rooms to get what he wanted, so, he'd have to play nice. Lovely. During thinking this he was dodging blows and lunges-not because it was easy for him, but when someone isn't hooked up to a target tracker, it made things infinitely easier to dodge. Though in the end he was knocked off his feet again. "There, now you look halfway healthy!" Ghoul got up carefully, watching Terry's half taunting, half sorry face as he felt his new swollen cheek. He got the joke, two swollen cheeks, instead of making him look like he'd gotten a beating, filled his gaunt face and made him look like a normal person. Someone who ate right and slept at normal hours.

"Ha ha McGinnis. You going to punch me every time we meet?" He went back to his fridge and once again pulling out a soda. He debated getting one for Terry, but ultimately decided against it. Stupid morons who thought with their fists didn't deserve a soda. Ghoul heard shuffling and knew Terry did feel bad about it. Hm… he was a guilty one, wasn't he? Or did he just feel bad that he'd let the skeletal teen get the best of his anger again? Probably the latter. "Gauging another's personality is the best way to escape the boredom of being here again" he murmured, deciding to be a little nice. "Don't react so easily to my needling if you feel bad about punching me" not all his cuts and bruises were from Batman, after all. Quite a few were from the ones who found his psycho-analyzing from absolute boredom to be both creepy and annoying. Not that he could really help it; it seemed it was sort of hard-wired into who he was.

Terry sighed. "Sorry. I just…don't do that, okay? It bugs the hell out of me" Ghoul thought for a moment and nodded. "Deal" He didn't push on whether it was calling Terry by random nicknames or the psycho-analyzing. He beckoned for Terry to follow walked to his computer chair, motioning that Terry could sit down as well. Which, he did. Again on the barstool and again Ghoul declined from pointing out the better chair. He'd been compared to Hannibal! Only Delia could pull of the crazy of Hannibal! Or the Creeper or Joker… He forced himself to focus and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Again, we've wasted a half an hour. What do you want to talk about now?" Terry gave him a look. "Again, creepy. Can't you, I don't know…" "Act normally? No. one, I can't seem to, and two, why do I want to?" He pushed up the sleeves to the rather ratty sweater he was wearing and showed off the stitched lines on his wrists and arms with pride. "Being something odd and strange is better than being bored, you know?" obviously McGinnis was torn about that.

"I'm getting you out of this bedroom next week" Ghoul almost choked on his own air. "No, you're not. You're really not" He had a feeling he was going to have to get used to that look in Terry's eye-the one that said if he had to, he'd blow up a fucking space station. The scary almost-batman look. "I'm taking you out next week" The blond smirked. "My, cheating on your girlfriend, McGinnis? And here I thought you didn't even swing that way" Terry backtracked and the face was just so funny Ghoul had to cover his mouth and turn away in case his snicker would cause Terry to hit him again. God, he'd been hanging around the Deeds way too long. "No! I-it's just as friends okay?!" Ghoul shrugged. "I know. I couldn't resist. You keep underestimating me; it's too easy to take advantage of that"

They lapsed into silence and Terry watched the blond watch him. He was stewing over the last sentence. He was right; it was far too hard to not underestimate Ghoul, the hair and clothes and preferred activities, and there was the fact that every time he'd met Ghoul as Batman, they'd not only never actually talked, but it was pathetically easy to knock him out. Now that he thought about it, hadn't it been easy for Wayne to knock out Crane, as well? What, was being ridiculously easy to punch out and preferring ridiculous costumes (okay, he couldn't talk, he looked more like a cat than an actual bat, but who's keeping tabs, anyway?) part of their villain strategy? If it was, he was going to put Ghoul on the top of his Rogues list just for that. Seriously….Ghoul snapped his fingers at Terry. "End of session. Out unless…" He smirked and tilted his head as Terry reddened slightly. "Wow, I guess mom was right; my rugged good looks brings in all types!" He leaned in close to Ghoul. "So, that why you rile me up? Because you're interested?" Well? If he was going to get those sorts of jabs, why not jab…okay wrong way to word that. He dodged the object thrown at him-an empty picture frame (why did Ghoul have that?)- and walked out of the room, grinning. "Later~"

Ghoul flipped off Terry's back and woke his computer up. On his screen was a magenta smiley face fist-pumping the air. At the bottom of the screen was a chibi Sheik standing victoriously on top of a pile of his little line-up of horror story characters. Behind in flashing blue and green was "NICE TRY 3" he'd muted his computer but he could imagine what was being played. If it were him, it would be one of the victory songs from Final Fantasy. Ghoul stared at the screen for several moments and then "SHIT!"