Fotia stared at Gradient as if she was offended by Gradient's choice of language (despite her own being quite a similar selection of vocabulary) and gave him a quick slap to the face.

"Language!" She scolded him.

Gradient just scoffed, her hand phasing right through him as his form changed to a slightly lighter opacity and then returned to its normal state. "No."

She tried to slap him again, but for the same result. Knowing this would only repeat, she stayed a good six feet from him and turned to look at the newcomer.

The newcomer was a surprise to both present ghosts. While Gradient simply asked who he was (in a quite hostile manner), Fotia seemed a bit unsettled by his sudden appearance, a wary sort of curiosity revealed with her voice as she said,

"Uh... hello?"

Her wariness quickly turned to annoyance when he didn't respond within the maybe five seconds she gave him to answer, and a ball of bright flame enveloped her hand as she stared at him with a sharp glare.

"Who are you, mysterious person?"

The newcomer was not a ghost. He was human, a human with brown hair, brown eyes, and a pair of lower-framed glasses set on his nose. He wore a grey coat and a dark orange scarf, and seemed slightly out of breath. His shoes were a rainbow color, as if he was wearing a pair of bright, colorful socks.

"I don't know who you are either, man. At first I was being chased by... sharp glittery things-" The stranger looked around warily, as if checking to make sure he wasn't being followed by said "glittery things," "-and suddenly I'm here." He shrugged simply.

"So, you were being chased by ninja stars...?" Gradient added under his breath, though no one paid that any mind.

Fotia decided to take one for the team and "introduce" Gradient to the newcomer. "So... this ghost beside me, that's Gradient, but I call him pathetic because... he really is."

Gradient sends a venomous glare her way, and if looks could kill she might've spontaneously combusted. But looks can't kill, and she remained alive, as all was as well as it could be at the time.

"Angry, huh?" Fotia teased him with a smirk. She responded to his silence with a quick, "Mhm" before looking back at the stranger. Gradient just rolled his eyes and looked back at him as well.

The stranger had been watching them the entire time, and felt quite awkward in his current situation.

"U-uhhh..." He found his words after a moment. "...hi?"

Fotia wasted no time in questioning him. "Hi. How are you here and why are you here?"

"That's already a lot of questions you're asking me." The stranger was over the initial confusion and wariness of when he'd arrived and now crossed his arms, not quite knowing whether to trust the two spirits or not.

"It's only two questions-"

"More than one is already a lot. Why don't I ask who YOU are first instead before I answer anything?" He pointed at the two ghosts.

"You can ignore her if you want," Gradient butted into the conversation. "She's a bit of a nuisance."

The stranger looked at Gradient with a curious expression, seeming intrigued by his odd appearance. "Hm, you look different, too... more... transparent..." he stuck his hand into his pocket, as if searching for something. "Are you both a certain sort of spirit?"

"I'm a yudae," Gradient confirmed. Not many had knowledge about yudaes, he knew, so he decided sharing it wouldn't be too big of a deal. "Not sure about this thing over here-" He motioned to Fotia. "-But yeah, she's some sort of ghost, I think."

Fotia's response was an annoyed sigh. "Mhm."

Gradient simply gave her an innocent grin - or, as innocent of a grin as one could give with a mouthful of black teeth closely resembling those of a shark.

As the two bickered again, the stranger spoke, though it was more to himself than the ghosts, considering they weren't paying too much attention to him.

"That's interesting. I wonder if..."

He sort of trailed off into his thoughts as he pulled a small, grey object out of his pocket. It was a translucent, crystal-like object, like the point of a star...

"...And I already said my name." Fotia seemed to be speaking to the stranger again, so he brought himself back to attention. He stared at her in thought for a moment before finally answering her.

"Fine. You can call me Socks." Socks paused a moment. "How much do you guys hate each other? Could you rate it one through ten?"

Only he knew of the sinister smile he hid as he twirled the crystal-like shard in his fingers.

While Fotia seemed to contemplate telling Socks the information, knowing that the said "scale" Socks mentioned would break with the grudges the two spirits held against each other, Gradient immediately sensed something off. Being someone who was also familiar with hiding quite sinister plans himself, he tended to pick up on things like that... most of the time.

He narrowed his one visible eye, the white slit that was his pupil thinning as he glared at Socks, specifically at the shard he quite carelessly shifted in his hand. "You're planning something. I'm not an idiot, what're you hiding?"

Socks, however, shows no sign of what Gradient had picked up on. It was a clever observation, which he noted to himself. "Oh, I'm not hiding much. I'm just holding a wish-"

Immediately he shut his mouth tightly, now gripping the shard instead of playing with it. "Whoops. Might've said to much-"

Fotia just rolls her eyes, not really reacting to the shard.

"A... wishing?" Gradient tilted his head, observing Socks closely. "A wishing? Wishing what?" He bared his teeth in an animalistic snarl. "What is it?!"

Fotia backed up a step, looking at him in something close to surprise at his outburst. "Calm the hell down- Hm. Wait, what were you saying?"

She, too, tried to repeat the word and recall anything that the mysterious shard could be, but also came up with nothing. Whether that was of her own mind's accord or by the fact that her eyes were locked obsessively on the shard, it was unclear.

Socks, realizing he'd gotten the two spirits' attention, took a step back, gripping th shard tightly in his hand. "Y-you heard nothing."

"You're literally talking to two ghosts!" Fotia snapped out of her trance to speak. "What is it??"

Socks' brown eyes flickered between Fotia and Gradient.

"...and I'm outta here-"

Immediately he turns and starts to book it in the other direction...

...only to run into Gradient, who had slipped into his path without him noticing. Socks froze and scrambled back as he ran into him.

Gradient tilted his head a little, an impatient scowl crossing his face. "Tell me. Or I'll have to resort to..."

The scowl quickly turned into a grin, a growing pleasure in his eye.

"Less merciful methods."

Socks held the shard tightly still, holding it up a little like a knife. "Don't make me use this."

Without warning Fotia was now there, a grey hand curled around Socks' neck. Her tone was serious with a hint of annoyance as she said,

"Just tell us. Or I will literally shove a fireball down your throat."

As if to prove her point, she used her free hand to summon a ball of fire in her palm, the flames crackling with her impatience.

Gradient simply shoved her aside, annoyed more at Fotia's actions than Socks' resistance to his question. Without saying a word to Fotia, he said to Socks,

"Tell me, and you won't have to."

Fotia flipped Gradient the bird and crossed her arms.

Socks stood there a moment, surprised at the short-lived attempt on his life by Fotia before continuing. "How can I trust to tell any of you what this is without having me killed anyway?" Now back to the attitude of someone who definitely has a few tricks up his sleeve, he dangles the shard in front of him tauntingly. "It would be a shame if any of you were able to take this thing away from me and attempt to wish for your deepest desires..."

He gave a nervous chuckle.

Sneakily, Fotia attempted to snatch the crystal from his grasp, but Socks kept it away from her.

Gradient simply gave him a sinister grin. "Ohhh, that was a mistake," he chuckled darkly. "Because one thing about ghosts..."

The expression that crossed his face so suddenly was not pleasure, not anger nor fury, but pure, wild glee with a cold laughter that couldn't possibly belong to anything humane.

"We know how to make vessels."

Without much more than a flicker in his eye, a frigid blast hit Socks in the chest as Gradient dove immediately into his body. Socks was knocked back a step or two, the breath knocked out of his chest.

Fotia blinked, then immediately dove for the shard as Socks and Gradient fought for control.

In the back of his mind, Socks gasped, clutching the shard tightly to his chest.

"HEY! DON'T. YOU. DARE. USE IT!!" He stays away from the area Gradient had entered his body.

Socks' eyes barely flickered bright white and red before returning to brown, and Gradient was suddenly outside of Socks' body, tossing the shard in his hand with a smirk. He now looked somewhat sane, not a glimmer of violence in his gaze.

"Hah. Oldest trick in the book. Idiot."

"Uhhhh huh," Fotia rolled her eyes.

Socks took a moment to reestablish the fact that he was now in control of his body before sighing, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Look, I'm warning you, man, you don't know how to use that thing. Just give it back, you don't know how it works."

Gradient's form flickered a moment, as if he was contemplating something. But he eventually disregarded Socks' comment.

"Oh, but I could. And I will figure it out, even if I have to s your soul from your body myself to do so."

The spirit sort of smiled at that thought, chuckling to himself as if amused.

Socks sighed. "Okay. Fine. I mean, it's yours now, right?" The only present living human crossed his arms in irritation. Aside he mutters, "I'm just gonna have to hope they don't wish for anything big with that thing..."

Fotia lets out an exhausted, angry sigh. Gradient smirks, satisfied.

"There we go. Now all you have to do is tell me how to use this thing-" he tosses the shard in his hand. "-and you'll be free to go."

"Gradient, that's the stupidest thing I've ever seen a ghost do in my opinion," Fotia remarked. Gradient ignored her.

Socks simply glared at the ghost, arms still crossed.

"I'm warning you to give it back before you use that thing." He was fully aware that Gradient would not just hand back the shard with his words, but he thought he'd ask anyway.

"Hah... you're funny." Gradient side-eyed Socks before suddenly he was in front of him, a black and white clawed hand wrapped around Socks' throat and a devilish grin crossing Gradient's face.

"Now. Tell. Me. How. To. Use. It." Each word was a staccato hiss, the shard gripped tightly in his free hand.

"Or you won't be around to see what I'll do with it."

Socks, however, stayed completely calm, even as he said,

"Alright. I'll tell you. But you have to promise you won't kill me afterwards."

Gradient, satisfied, backed off, his smile more smug now. He made an X motion over where his heart would be through the old scar in his chest as he swore,

"Cross my heart, you'll live."

Of course, his fingers crossed behind his back - him, keeping a promise? Hah. As if.

While Socks was distracted, Fotia snuck near him and attempted to step into his body and possess him. However, Gradient, not wanting her to mess up his gaining of information, yanked her out of the vessel.

"HEY!" He barked, aggressively tossing her aside. Fotia shoved him back with about as much vigor, annoyed. Gradient, however, did not expect the retaliation, and stumbled, catching himself in the air. The shard was still tight in his grip as he brushed imaginary dust off of his dark blue jacket.

"Ugh," he snarled at her. "If we're not gonna be working together, you need to stay out of my way. This is getting nowhere!"

Fotia blinked once, unfazed by his words.

Socks, however, had fallen when Fotia had been yanked from inside of him so suddenly. Something cracked loudly - bone. Socks groaned.

"Ouch..."

He sits there for a moment, checking his wristwatch. The hands moved along the surface of the analog clock on its surface, making a soft tick, tock, tick, tock. Upon looking at the watch, his eyes lit up in anticipation, a small smile crossing his face.

"He's almost here, I can't believe it," Socks said under his breath. Slowly he struggled to stand, limping slightly and seething from the pain that lit his leg alight with flames of agony. He then turns to the two ghosts, whose attention he'd at this point gained.

"This is going to take a while, but there's nothing you can do to stop him from coming," Socks said with a knowing smile, keeping his pain from showing on his face with difficulty. His face quickly changes to a frown.

"Unless you use that shard - which I'm hoping you won't."

Completely ignoring him, Fotia attempts once again to possess Socks. While she succeeded in getting into his head, she was suddenly met by two red strings, grabbing hold of her by the neck and threatening to close her airway. Taken by surprise, she froze for a moment.

"What the-" She snaps, before realizing that the strings were the ones choking her. She stared at them for a moment, intrigued. Why Socks hadn't done this to Gradient a few minutes before, it was unclear.

"Hm."

Gradient entered Socks' mind as well, but upon seeing the strings he freezes for just a moment, the strings bringing a memory to his mind. But he shook his head and left before the strings could bind him inside of Socks' mind as well. Instead he just stood, watching Socks carefully outside of his body.

Suddenly, the area begins to rumble, a tiny earthquake-like sensation rising in the ground and overtaking the area. Small footsteps lead into the area where the two spirits and already unnecessarily abused human stood.

Socks smiled a little as a small being appeared in sight.

A small... child. A child with blonde hair, ears like a bear's made from large peppermints, and an orange cape held by a red gummy bear head clip. Half of his face was covered in a red substance that could be either blood or just strawberry jam.

His face was that of tension, a deathly look in his black and blue eyes as he finally made it to Socks' side.

-

2532 words

I gained the motivation to write chapter two, hopefully we'll be able to complete this- :,)