None of this was helping him ask the questions he really wanted answered. Elliot swallowed. "So I was wondering," he said, "When did you know?" Sure, Daphnel had died in an accident — but there had to been a moment, maybe several moments, where he could have prevented it.

  

---

avs by Bee!

Victor looked at Carmichael as though he had just segued into gobbledegook. "Know," he repeated, with one eyebrow raised.

---

  

---

Fabulous set by Lady!

Oh, wasn't it obvious? "That you were going to die," Elliot said, raising an expectant eyebrow at Daphnel.

  

---

avs by Bee!

Carmichael's clarification wasn't much of one. Did people generally have premonitions of their own death? Victor had never heard of that before, and it certainly hadn't been his experience. When was he supposed to have known?

"About seven seconds after I died," he answered dryly. His expression conveyed that he wasn't sure this was a particularly appropriate question for casual conversation.

---

  

---

Fabulous set by Lady!

Elliot could tell from Daphnel's expression that he was being weird and off-putting, but — didn't ghosts like talking about death? He remembered as much, from the Spirit Division. But maybe Daphnel wasn't there yet. "That's interesting," Elliot offered, "Not during the fall? I — assume it was a fall." (He had heard. People talked at the club, obviously, but it felt rude to say as much.)

  

---

avs by Bee!

Victor didn't like thinking about this, both because the experience of his death still made him uncomfortable and because there were two versions of it to keep in mind any time a question like this was asked: his actual experience, which sprang to mind immediately, and the story they'd crafted for society, which was the context he needed to use for his answers. He had fallen in the second scenario, too, because he'd had to follow the body down from the balcony so that he could be there to be discovered, but he obviously hadn't been thinking about whether or not he was dying at that point. He'd been preoccupied with the sudden realization that he didn't know how to stop himself from falling, as he recalled. It hadn't been a pleasant experience.

"I ought to go back home, someone will have missed me," he said, but that was a lie; no one wanted him around at home, and that was the whole reason he was here in the first place.

---

The following 1 user Likes Victor Daphnel's post:1 user Likes Victor Daphnel's post
   Elliot Carmichael

---

Fabulous set by Lady!

Disappointing. He'd have to wait for another new ghost, or he'd have to wait for Daphnel to come around. Elliot was sure that he'd want to talk about death eventually — but Daphnel had infinite time, and Elliot didn't. "Goodbye, Mr. Daphnel," Elliot said, "Good luck."

He wasn't sure what a dead man needed luck with, but Daphnel seemed like someone who would need it.

  

---

avs by Bee!