Disclaimer:

Question:

My Answer:

Characters: Mars X Lucas, as requested.

Summary: Inspired by the book 'The Secret To Lying', and the conversations James has with 'Ghost' online.

Confessional

Ghost101 has logged in

SmallTown4 has logged in

SmallTown4: Hi; I don't think I've seen you in this chatroom before. Is this Dawn's new account?

Ghost101: Of course not.

SmallTown4: Who are you, then?

Ghost101: A ghost, obviously. Are you a ghost, too?

SmallTown4: ?

Ghost101: I'll bet you are. Most people are, actually. It's a little-known fact.

SmallTown4: What are you talking about? Are you saying that most people are dead?

Ghost101: In a sense. They're- we're- dead inside, but we pretend to be alive all the same. We try harder to be alive. And yet we'll never be alive, will we, Lucas?

SmallTown4: Who is this? How do you know my name?

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SmallTown4: Hey, you haven't been here in forever.

Ghost101: I've been busy. Why, do you miss being haunted?

SmallTown4: No, but you left me hanging and seriously creeped out. So, who are you?

Ghost101: 'Who' is such an overrated, irrelevant word. I could be anyone: a pedo, a preteen, a teacher… and even if I do tell you 'who' I am, I could easily be lying.

SmallTown4: Fair enough, I guess. Can I ask you another question, then?

Ghost101: Shoot.

SmallTown4: Do I know you?

Ghost101: Yes and no. You know me enough to recognize my physical self, but my emotional and mental self is a stranger to you.

SmallTown4: So why are you being so mysterious? Why not talk to me in person?

Ghost101: Because, Mr. Champion of Sinnoh, even though we're both ghosts, we're different types. You're a manifestation- people can see you, breathe you, touch you- but I'm a poltergeist. I can throw things around all I want, and act out until the world ends, but people will never see me.

SmallTown4: You're not a ghost. I'm not, either.

Ghost101: If you think that, then you're missing the whole point.

SmallTown4: Wait!

Ghost101: ?

SmallTown4: Don't log out.

Ghost101: And, like a ghost, you have an uncanny sense of premonition.

Ghost101: Give me one reason not to.

SmallTown4: I like you're ideas. They're interesting.

Ghost101: Lay off the small-talk, Lucas. Flattery won't get you anywhere here.

SmallTown4: 'Here'?

Ghost101: Well, the internet is like limbo, isn't it? You're nameless and bodiless in limbo, too. And, like in limbo, everything can be laid bare here. You can hide yourself completely, or not at all.

SmallTown4: If this is your version of flirting, it isn't panning out.

Ghost101: See what I mean? I know you, and you're way too sincere to say something that snarky in public.

Ghost101: You there?

SmallTown4: Yeah, just thinking.

Ghost101: And?

SmallTown4: And, I think it's easier to talk online than in real life.

Ghost101: Cue the applause- you're finally catching on! Tell me why it's easier.

SmallTown4: Less pressure, I guess. In real life people already know who you are.

Ghost101: But on the internet, you can be the person you want to be?

SmallTown4: Yeah. Here, I can say what I want. I can be snarky.

Ghost101: I'm the opposite of you, you know. Here I can be sincere.

SmallTown4: So what did you do to be a ghost?

Ghost101: I thought you didn't believe in what I was saying.

SmallTown4: Humor me.

Ghost101: Fine. I grew up.

SmallTown4: ?

Ghost101: I started caring about waist sizes, and what people think. I fell in love, and then broke my own heart. I disappointed the only family I ever had. I grew up.

SmallTown4: You make it sound like a death confessional.

Ghost101: It is.

SmallTown4: Well, then what did I do to become a ghost?

Ghost101: I'll leave you to ponder that. Bye, Lucas.

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Ghost101: So, did you ponder?

SmallTown4: Yep.

Ghost101: And?

SmallTown4: And I still don't think I'm a ghost. I just think that you want me to be.

SmallTown4: Hey, you there?

SmallTown4: Don't be mad.

Ghost101: Calm down, I'm not mad. Not anymore, anyway.

SmallTown4: But you were?

Ghost101: A little. Mostly at the fact that you are a very confused little boy.

SmallTown4: That was harsh.

Ghost101: The truth is harsh, Lucas. I just don't understand how you think you're still alive: you sit on your Champion's throne all day, await challengers, and then crush their dreams and send them home. You pretend to be intimidating and powerful in battles and such, and yet you donate all your money to charity and always look homesick enough to puke whenever you get interviewed on TV. You're consumed by your image, and since your image is blurred you're becoming blurred, too.

SmallTown4: What's it to you?

Ghost101: It's sad to see a fellow ghost, Lucas. It's sad because I can try and reach out all I want, but you won't ever see or hear me.

SmallTown4: I hear you, Ghost. And… if I tell you something, do you promise not to tell?

Ghost101: The dead can speak no tales.

SmallTown4: I hate being Champion. I hate being cooped up in that room all day. I hate seeing the faces of challengers when they're sent home.

SmallTown4: Actually, the only time I'm not hating is when I'm talking to you.

Ghost101: I'm glad. You're one step closer to being revived.

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SmallTown4: Hi.

Ghost101: Hello.

SmallTown4: Can we play 20 questions?

Ghost101: Only if there's no 'who' questions.

SmallTown4: I think I know who you are anyway, so that's fine. Anyways, you said you fell in love- who with?

Ghost101: Someone that I could never be with. Someone that made me realize just how much of a ghost I really am.

SmallTown4: That's all the explanation you're going to give me?

Ghost101: That's all the explanation you need. My turn: have you ever been in love?

SmallTown4: Give me a minute.

SmallTown4: Yes. Once.

Ghost101: Well, what happened?

SmallTown4: You just had your turn; now it's mine. Why couldn't you be with him?

Ghost101: Not only were- are- we wrong for each other, but we were sworn enemies.

SmallTown4: Like Romeo and Juliet.

Ghost101: Ew, no. I hate that story: not only was it overly corny, but they both die in the end. Not much of a love story, if you ask me.

Ghost101: No, we… we don't match, no matter how much I want us to. We don't… line up right.

SmallTown4: ?

Ghost101: Well… his head's in the clouds, but I'm grounded.

SmallTown4: Maybe he could show you what it's like to fly, and you can keep him tethered to Earth when he wants to remember what it feels like to stand.

Ghost101: I'm soprano, and he's baritone.

SmallTown4: They balance each other out nicely.

Ghost101: If he's white then I'm black, and when they mix they create the ugliest of colours. What do you say to that?

SmallTown4: I say you're wrong. Gray can be beautiful. Gray is when the moonlight's reflected on the sea, and it looks as if it's a silver runway stretching from coast to coast. Gray is when the sun rises into the sky, and among the streaks of pink and purple it is the background shade that sets everything else off and makes them what they are.

Ghost101: Wow. And I thought I was the poetic one.

SmallTown4: You are. I just have my moments.

Ghost101: Clearly. Okay: what happened to the one you loved?

SmallTown4: We weren't right for each other. We were sworn enemies. We didn't line up right. We didn't match, no matter how much I wanted us to.

SmallTown4: My head was in the clouds, and she was grounded.

SmallTown4: She was soprano, and I was baritone.

SmallTown4: I was white, and she was black.

SmallTown4: There was this constant attraction-repulsion thing going on between us, and I think it was too much for her. She left. I tried to find her, but I couldn't.

Ghost101: Why are you speaking in the past tense?

SmallTown4: Because that's what I thought then. I know better now. I know that we can make things work.

Ghost101: She had her reasons for leaving.

SmallTown4: I know you did, Mars.

SmallTown4: It is you, isn't it?

Ghost101: What gave me away?

SmallTown4: You told me that you were a ghost before, remember? Right before you left.

SmallTown4: I know that you're scared, but we don't have to end up like Romeo and Juliet. I'm not fickle, and you're not caught in an arranged marriage.

Ghost101: No, but you did kill Paris. Our version of him, that is.

SmallTown4: Cyrus's greed killed him. I didn't.

SmallTown4: Besides, that's all in the past now. Come back.

Ghost101: No. Sorry, Lucas.

SmallTown4: Why not?

Ghost101: Because even though we want to pretend that our relationship was more beautiful and complicated than it was, what we had was so much better. Our relationship was ugly and painful and real. Our relationship made me feel, Lucas.

Ghost101: But the truth is, is that we never had a relationship at all.

SmallTown4: I love you, Mars, and I know that you love me, too.

Ghost101: I won't let you be a ghost with me, Lucas.

Ghost101: I won't let you hang on to something that never was.

Ghost101: Just remember that, like ghosts, love fades.

Ghost101: I know that mine already has.

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