(Untitled)

[get_her]

Ray had been on the island twenty days, and he was even more fascinated with it than the day he'd arrived, if that was possible. He'd been spending the vast majority of his time so far combing the terrain, first with full equipment and later just with the PKE and the Ecto goggles. His readings were all over the place; one day he'd get nothing on

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[great_thief]

There's an amusing sort of irony to discovering not only the song playing on the jukebox, but apparently who it's playing for; Bela's not the pop culture fiend that Dean is, but she's not had her head in the sand for the past thirty years, either.

"You won't find any ashtrays around," she calls from her seat across the room, hair pulled into a peppy ponytail. The style is so very American and innocuous, like her affected accent. "I don't think you're supposed to smoke in here."

[get_her]

"Oh, really?" Ray said, genuinely unaware. "Thanks."

He didn't have many left, and didn't want to waste this one after only one drag. "Hi, I'm Ray," he said to the woman with a slightly distracted wave and smile as he looked around for something to stub it out on, finally settling on giving the end a pinch with his thumb and forefinger.

[great_thief]

"Hi, Ray," Bela responds in kind, just buoyant enough to seem as if she might care to meet him, to know him. "I'm Caroline." The name slips from her tongue nearly as easily as her own, now, almost as easily as 'Alex' did for so long.

"Sorry for ruining your smoke," she offers, and seems legitimately contrite. "I'd just hate for you to get in trouble."

[get_her]

"Oh, that's ok, I can just smoke it later," he said, his smile turning more genuine as he pocketed the cigarette and waved away the lingering smoke with his other hand. "Nice to meet you, Caroline. Have you been here long?"

[great_thief]

He's so pleasant, so upbeat, that it nearly sets her teeth on edge. The amiable Akroyd smile beams down at her, though, and she has to return it, because that's how this works, and that's what the affable Caroline would do.

"Over two months now, maybe three," she lies. "After awhile, I just stopped counting. How about you, are you new?"

[get_her]

Ray nodded. "I've been here about twenty days, now," he said. "This is the first time I've really seen this room, though, I've been spending most of my time outside." He gestured towards the front of the compound.

[great_thief]

"Have you tried the bookcase, yet?" she asks, with a nod to the aforementioned menace. "It's enchanted or haunted or something. Really creepy."

This personality, Bela has decided, is far too perky, too damned nice, for her own good. There have been moments when she can feel the headache trying to push it's way forward and settle between her eyes, from so much pep.

[get_her]

"Really?" Ray said, eyebrows raised in interest as he took a glance back towards it. "I guess that explains the high number of books on the paranormal I was just seeing on it. So does it have different books for each person?" This definitely merited some research, like the clothes box. And the jukebox, for that matter.

[great_thief]

"Seems like it," Bela easily answers, her interest seemingly piqued as she leans forward. "Paranormal? You mean like... ghosts?" she asks, positively full up with wide-eyed curiosity.

[get_her]

"Exactly right," Ray answered, pointing a finger in the air for emphasis. "Do you have an interest in the subject?"

[great_thief]

"No more than anybody else, I guess," replies Bela, with an endearingly modest sort of uncertainty. "I never really knew if they existed. Are you an expert or something?"

[get_her]

"I guess you could say that," Ray said modestly. "I've kind of made it my life's work. A couple of my colleagues and I started a company for paranormal investigation and elimination."

[great_thief]

"Elimination?" Bela echoes, as if the word feels strange in her mouth. "Is that like an exorcism? I saw that movie once." She wrinkles her nose in delicate distaste.