ghost with a love, who's not so easy to please. someone strong, willed enough to stand their ground when they need to, almost to an astonishing degree; they don't take any shit from anybody, including ghost. a tremor runs through each person encountering them, more of a phantom than simon, someone feared and respected enough to catch his attention. it's not only their strength physically that does it; it's their mental ability to just keep going. something he lacks, wants, desperately, on the nights he cannot keep pretending anymore. watches them grieve, feel, and move past it like someone normal. it's not, obviously, they're still more alike to him than anyone else out there, but it's the closest he's seen to a chance. taking it would mean admitting defeat, and his ego has not crumbled yet, but it will - once you get him in your sights. it's not a matter of just taking it, then; it's a matter of choosing. you leave it up to him, something knowing in your gaze, as if you've been there before, as if you've already lived through a moment in your life where you had to decide - between dying, the easier option, one most men like him would pick (too damaged, too broken, what's the point?), and living. a thought that seems simply enough, yet it renders him paralyzed, like a deer stuck in headlights, a newborn child opening their eyes for the first time.
in the end, he finds himself at a cross rodes. which option would have him be stronger than before, even after becoming a living corpse, a man who cheated death: dying, again, succumbing to the darkness and giving up, or continuing to try and do more than just survive.
