Oh Boo Hoo!

Let's Make a Deal

The living room was darkened, curtains drawn over every window, leaving only a candle in the center of the room that Ant was currently staring at, falling into a deep state of meditation.

It only took around five minutes until Bad broke the silence cheerfully, "alright, he's achieved astral projection. We're able to speak now."

"How can you tell?" Techno asked from his lazed position on a nearby armchair, simply content to watch Ant and Bad go to work.

Bad hummed, standing up and walking towards Ant, "if you come over here, his eyes have completely glazed over, as if he's spaced out. He also hasn't moved in the last two minutes, meaning that he's achieved separating his spirit and body."

"Wouldn't that... kill him?" Wilbur asked unsurely, his eyes flitting from Bad and Ant.

"Oh no, there's no need to worry! He won't die from separating his spirit and body because his soul is still intact."

"I thought souls and spirits were the same thing?" Techno asked this time, perking up into a more attentive sitting position.

"That's the case more often than not, but here we have three things that keep us... living." Bad explained happily, busying himself by opening the curtains and blowing out the candle. Ant didn't respond to any of the new lighting. "Everyone here owns a body, a soul, and a spirit. Your body keeps you tethered to the living earth, your soul is, in the simplest terms, life itself, and finally, you have the spirit, which is what remains after your soul leaves and your body dies off. Your soul will wander off and regain its strength before inhabiting a new life, whether it be a plant, animal, person, or whatever else is living. While your spirit will wander to... well, that part is unknown to most, but some spirits remain in the mortal realm, unable to achieve afterlife." Bad smiled, quickly adding, "if you believe in the afterlife that is."

"Bad, would you mind if I ask you a... personal question?" Techno asked, leaning forward in his chair, chin in hand. He was obviously completely engulfed in learning all that Bad had to say, but he was curious about something, which, in Wilbur's eyes, was normally dangerous, seeing as Techno had a habit of asking something that had the potential to make everything awkward.

"It depends on the question." Bad responded carefully, and a subtle fidgeting of his fingers told them that he was nervous.

"You have a lot of information about souls and spirits that I've never heard anywhere else. Plus, there is a really odd sense of truth that rings with your words, so I can't really find a reason to disbelieve in any of it." Techno said, laying out the facts with a terrifying ease, "but what really caught my attention, was the way you speak."

"What... What do you mean?" Bad asked, taking a seat on the couch and having a staredown with Techno. The entire atmosphere of the room changed, like waiting for a lighting bolt to crash, and for thunder to boom out. A nervous tension crackled through the room.

"When I asked if spirits and souls were the same thing, you said that, that was the case more often than not." Techno said, his gaze calm as he watched Bad under a calculating eye. "What did you mean by that?"

"Techno!" Wilbur hissed, but both people in the room ignored him.

Bad seemed to freeze, his nervous energy suddenly halting as if being frozen in time along with him.

Then unexpectedly, he smiled. "Good catch. You have a sharp ear."

"Thank you," Techno said genuinely, nodding at the compliment, "you seem more calm now that I've asked this, how come?"

Bad sighed, leaning back on the couch casually, "I suppose I can't just ask you to let this go? Let us both move on our merry way so you can remain none the wiser?"