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Joseph keeps his eyes trained on Aesop’s face for a moment more before nodding. “I see!” A soft laugh. “Then I was wrong. And that tells me the answer for both… Ah, but even if that’s cheating… You seem excited. I’m more interested in that.” He says this as if he isn’t actively trying to hide the fact that he’s most likely even more so.
“Mm… I don’t know if what I have to tell you is what you’re wanting, but I’ll try anyway.” He taps a finger to his lips, gaze drifting away from Aesop’s face in thought. He stays like this for a bit, considering his options. He’d rather not dump anything too distressing or personal on Aesop, (or anyone, for that matter,) so he would need to find a different way to word things.
He finally settles on something satisfactory. “…I’d say… the most memorable one, that convinced me it must actually be that, was… once, when I was younger. A boy who looked a few years younger than me. One I recognized from a photo of us my parents had taken as a formality, someone I’d met when we had both been his age.
They claimed not to know what I was talking about when I asked, thoughーin any case, I remember being young and disoriented enough that I came to greet him, thinking he was just being shy, and didn’t really realize what was going on until after the fact.” He hums. “Sorry to disappoint if you were expecting something exciting,” a thin smile, “but now I know something new about you, as well. I didn’t take you as the type for ghost stories.”
“Aha, is it really that obvious...?” Well, it’s not like he was exactly trying to hide it or anything, but Joseph pointing it out is making him more acutely aware of it. Tiny bit embarrassing. He’s choosing not to dwell on him apparently being interested in that, either.
Aesop’s perfectly patient as Joseph thinks over what he wants to say, reclining back in his chair again but keeping his attention focused. It’s true that the story he hears is not quite up to what he’d been hoping for, but he doesn’t appear bored or bothered by that in the slightest. Life isn’t a horror movie ( most of the time ). They can’t all be dramatic hauntings and ominous wailing. The simplicity of it is... charming.
“It may not be exciting, sure, but I wanted to hear your experience. I couldn’t be disappointed with that.” That it wasn’t some tall theatrical tale makes it feel like Joseph told him something true, not just some fabrication he invented. Is it actually true? He can’t possibly know that, but he wants to believe it. “I’ve always rather liked this sort of thing. Growing up where I did, it was... hard not to believe in ghosts, in spite of my father’s insistence they weren’t real.”



















