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[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night. SIDNEY POINDEXTER sits centerscreen.]
JAZZ: (Offscreen.) Okay, it’s set up. Here, you can clip the mic to your shirt.
[LOCATION: Royal parlour in Ghost Zone. QUEEN DORATHEA sits centerscreen.]
JAZZ: Do you mind if I clip this to your dress?
DORATHEA: What is it?
JAZZ: (Moving into frame.) It’s a microphone; it’ll help pick up your voice for the video.
DORATHEA: How remarkable! Is it similar to the telephone you were telling me about?
[LOCATION: Dining room in Ghost Zone. LUNCHLADY and BOX GHOST sit centerscreen.]
LUNCHLADY: (Adjusts BOX GHOST’s microphone.) There you go, sweetie pie.
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
SIDNEY: (Takes mic.) This is a microphone?
JAZZ: Yep!
SIDNEY: Golly! Really stressing the micro part, huh? (He clips the mic to his shirt.) So, uh, what do you want me to gab about, then?
JAZZ: Whatever you feel comfortable sharing.
[LOCATION: Amity Park gazebo, night. JOHNNY 13 and KITTY sit centrescreen.]
JOHNNY: What, you want us to talk about how we died?
JAZZ: If that’s what you want to share.
[LOCATION: Dining room in Ghost Zone.]
BOX GHOST: Oh, I uh, I don’t wanna talk about that.
[LOCATION: Fentonworks Ops Center, night. PHANTOM sits centrescreen.]
PHANTOM: I, uh...
JAZZ: You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.
PHANTOM: No, um, I just...I’m not really sure where to start.
[LOCATION: Royal parlour in Ghost Zone.]
DORATHEA: It was such an awfully long time ago.
JAZZ: Would it help if I asked you some questions?
DORATHEA: Perhaps so, yes.
JAZZ: Okay, um. How old were you?
DORATHEA: I was not yet sixteen summers.
[LOCATION: Amity Park gazebo, night.]
JOHNNY: I was twenty-one.
KITTY: I was eighteen.
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
SIDNEY: I was seventeen.
[LOCATION: Casper High football field, night. SKULKER stands centerscreen.]
SKULKER: I was forty-four.
[LOCATION: Dining room in Ghost Zone.]
LUNCHLADY: I was sixty-three.
[LOCATION: Fentonworks Ops Center, night.]
PHANTOM: I was fourteen.
[LOCATION: Amity Park gazebo, night.]
KITTY: (Laughing.) My mother said Johnny was too old for me, but gee, I couldn’t have cared less.
[LOCATION: Royal parlour in Ghost Zone.]
JAZZ: Where were you?
DORATHEA: I was... In truth, I do not remember it so clearly. The fever was terribly disorienting. I assume I was in my bedchamber.
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
SIDNEY: I was at school. Outside my locker, you know the one.
[LOCATION: Casper High football field, night.]
SKULKER: I was deep in the jungles of Africa, hunting lions.
[LOCATION: Dining room in Ghost Zone.]
LUNCHLADY: I was in the hospital when it actually happened, I suppose, but the last place I remember being was at work.
[LOCATION: Amity Park gazebo, night.]
JOHNNY: We were driving together, just like any other night. Don’t remember what road it was.
KITTY: We were on the expressway.
[LOCATION: Dining room in Ghost Zone.]
LUNCHLADY: It was just a normal day. I’d been under a lot of stress, and I wasn’t feeling well. In hindsight, it wasn’t surprising, but of course, I didn’t expect it.
[LOCATION: Royal parlour in Ghost Zone.]
DORATHEA: I was hardly the first. Many of the peasants had been suffering the foul sickness for months by the time it reached the palace. We thought ourselves safe locked behind gilded walls.
[LOCATION: Amity Park gazebo, night.]
KITTY: It was an accident.
[LOCATION: Fentonworks Ops Center, night.]
PHANTOM: It was an accident.
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
SIDNEY: It was an accident. He didn’t mean to...
[LOCATION: Casper High football field, night.]
SKULKER: Oh, she meant to. Out in the middle of nowhere like that. She knew she could get away with it. I’m sure she did.
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
SIDNEY: He was a couple’a years older than me. He’d been bullying me for ages, but I know he never meant... A-at least, I don’t... It was just a punch gone wrong. Bad luck.
[LOCATION: Fentonworks Ops Center, night.]
PHANTOM: I didn’t think anything would happen, but...
[LOCATION: Amity Park gazebo, night.]
KITTY: It was quick, at least.
JOHNNY: Yeah. I remember the headlights coming close, that bright light...I tried to swerve, but... Well. (He shrugs.) You know.
[LOCATION: Fentonworks Ops Center, night.]
PHANTOM: I didn’t think- I just... It... When I tripped, I reached out to catch myself and I hit the power switch.
[LOCATION: Casper High football field, night.]
SKULKER: She left me out there, one in the chest, one in the leg. Couldn’t follow her. Tried crawling back to camp. Didn’t make it.
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
SIDNEY: Honestly, it was so quick that I didn’t even feel it.
[LOCATION: Fentonworks Ops Center, night.]
PHANTOM: It hurt so much, Ja-
[LOCATION: Amity Park gazebo, night.]
KITTY: The last thing I had done was argue with my mom. She said I'd break my neck riding that no-good hoodlum's motorcycle...
JOHNNY: (Wrapping his arm around her.) I'm sorry.
KITTY: Screw her.
[LOCATION: Fentonworks Ops Center, night.]
PHANTOM: I couldn’t believe it at first... I didn’t want to. I couldn’t be a ghost. I couldn’t be dead.
[LOCATION: Casper High football field, night.]
SKULKER: When I formed in the Infinite Realms... Well, she might have killed me, but I got the last laugh.
[LOCATION: Dining room in Ghost Zone.]
LUNCHLADY: I was very confused, of course. I grew up going to church, and I was quite upset to see what actually awaited me beyond the grave.
[LOCATION: Royal parlour in Ghost Zone.]
DORATHEA: I thought death would be a balm. I would be raised from the sickness and stench of foul infection to the arms of God. I would be freed from the restrictions and expectations I had always lived under.
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
SIDNEY: I was honestly kind of relieved. My life had been... bad. When I realized I was a ghost, I figured this would be a chance to finally start anew.
[LOCATION: Royal parlour in Ghost Zone.]
DORATHEA: I had oft heard of the souls of the departed reuniting in heaven. I had no desire to be reunited with my family, yet there they were. Nothing changed, and I began to despair that nothing would ever change. It was five hundred years before I was able to overthrow this kingdom with Sir Phantom’s aid and make changes as its queen.
[LOCATION: Fentonworks Ops Center, night.]
JAZZ: What is it like? Being a ghost.
PHANTOM: It’s... Hm. I guess I’m still getting used to it.
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
SIDNEY: It’s been, gee, I guess almost sixty years now? That’s probably the strangest thing. The way time passes. Ghost powers are kooky, sure, but the way years can fly by and days last forever? It doesn’t make sense, that’s for sure.
[LOCATION: Amity Park gazebo, night.]
KITTY: Sometimes, it feels like it all could have happened yesterday.
[LOCATION: Royal parlour in Ghost Zone.]
DORATHEA: To me, that accursed life feels like far more than five centuries past.
[LOCATION: Dining room in Ghost Zone.]
LUNCHLADY: I spent my whole life focused around cooking. I still love it.
JAZZ: Do ghosts eat?
LUNCHLADY: Of course! Ghosts need nutrition just as much as any creature!
JAZZ: I suppose that your nutritional needs are different than those of living humans, though, right?
LUNCHLADY: Oh, certainly. The living need all kinds of complicated vitamins and minerals, proteins, fats, calories... With ghosts, we just need ectoplasm. There are plenty of ghosts that just absorb that ectoplasm from the Infinite Realms, but I find most tend to want a real meal.
JAZZ: So, how do you make a meal out of ectoplasm?
LUNCHLADY: The Infinite Realms are very much shaped by intention. This house is all ectoplasm. Our bodies are all ectoplasm. When I cook, the ingredients are always all ectoplasm. The flavour of a dish is all in the way you cook it. If I believe I’m making a meatloaf, I will make a meatloaf.
BOX GHOST: You make the best meatloaf!
LUNCHLADY: Oh, thank you, sweetie! (She kisses him.)
BOX GHOST: It’s box-shaped!
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
SIDNEY: Not all ghosts have obsessions, and it’s typically rude to ask about them. That said, it’s also usually pretty obvious when a ghost has an obsession.
[LOCATION: Dining room in Ghost Zone.]
BOX GHOST: I am the Box Ghost!
[LOCATION: Royal parlour in Ghost Zone.]
DORATHEA: I wish to honour and support my people in every way I can. The greatest struggle I have found with this is when different obsessions clash.
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
SIDNEY: An obsession isn’t always good for the ghost that has it, either. I know for a long time, I populated my haunt with these shades of bullies because it was what I was so used to. I obsessed over it without ever cutting myself some slack.
[LOCATION: Amity Park gazebo, night.]
JOHNNY: We don’t choose our obsessions, you know? Whatever they are, we kind of just have to roll with them.
KITTY: Honestly, it’s not as if that’s just a ghostly thing. The living have obsessions, too, you know? We just feel them a little differently.
[LOCATION: Fentonworks Ops Center, night.]
PHANTOM: I can feel it right in my core. This...drive. When I ignore it, it actually hurts. I feel guilty, and- (He flinches.) That was probably too much to say, uh...
JAZZ: Can I ask what-
PHANTOM: No.
JAZZ: Sorry.
PHANTOM: No, it...it’s okay, just... Ghosts don’t like sharing what their obsession is. Sharing specifics can make them vulnerable. Someone else could exploit their obsession to convince them do something... You can usually kind of figure out a theme, though.
JAZZ: Right. I would guess yours has something to do with protecting the city?
PHANTOM: (Fidgeting.) Yeah, something like that. Can we talk about something else?
JAZZ: Of course. You mentioned feeling it in your core? What’s that like?
[LOCATION: Casper High football field, night.]
SKULKER: A core is the brain, the heart, the nervous system, the very soul of a ghost. It is the first thing that forms when you die, and the only part of you that cannot be restored if destroyed. (Proudly.) I’ve been blasted to bits time and time again, but there’s not so much as a scratch on my core.
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
SIDNEY: There are many different types of cores, and they allow ghosts to have different powers, or at least to have an aptitude for different abilities. Any ghost could make an ectoplasmic fire, for example, but it’s much easier if you have a fire core, and those with fire cores usually can make a much bigger fire.
JAZZ: May I ask what type of core you have?
SIDNEY: I have an electric core. I mostly just use it to avoid having to use the TV remote, honestly. (He laughs.) But it has also helped me to keep up with all the snazzy tech that keeps on flowing.
[LOCATION: Dining room in Ghost Zone.]
LUNCHLADY: We both have force cores, which let us move things around.
BOX GHOST: Like boxes!
[LOCATION: Amity Park gazebo, night.]
JOHNNY: I have a core of darkness.
KITTY: It doesn’t sound cool when you say that, you know?
JOHNNY: Of course it does.
KITTY: No, it doesn’t, and you don’t have a darkness core, Shadow does. (To camera,) Johnny has a probability core.
JOHNNY: Yeah, but that just sounds nerdy!
JAZZ: Kitty, what about your core?
KITTY: I have a wind core. Some people also call it a travel core. Same diff.
[LOCATION: Royal parlour in Ghost Zone.]
DORATHEA: Mine is a fire core.
[LOCATION: Casper High football field, night.]
SKULKER: Wouldn’t you like to know?
[LOCATION: Fentonworks Ops Center, night.]
PHANTOM: (Rolling his eyes.) Skulker has an electric core.
JAZZ: Like you?
PHANTOM: Huh? I don’t have an electric core.
JAZZ: But-
PHANTOM: Your core doesn’t have anything to do with how you died. Zone Natives all have cores, too, and they were never alive in the Material Realms. I have an ice core.
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
JAZZ: Do you think your existence as a ghost is very different than life before dying?
SIDNEY: Hm, well, yes and no. I think ghosts and the living have more in common than not.
[LOCATION: Amity Park gazebo, night.]
KITTY: It’s like, as a ghost, there’s no limits, you know? You can go anywhere, be anything, do whatever you want. Some nerds might spend eternity studying, if they want, but I’d rather keep having awesome adventures forever.
JOHNNY: Exactly. Why stick around if not to have fun?
[LOCATION: Dining room in Ghost Zone.]
LUNCHLADY: Just because we’re dead doesn’t mean we don’t keep on living. We laugh, we cry, we scream, we love.
BOX GHOST: I love you.
LUNCHLADY: I love you, too, pumpkin.
[LOCATION: Fentonworks Ops Center, night.]
PHANTOM: Yeah, I mean, obviously it’s different; I’m different. But there’s enough that doesn’t change. I still have friends, people I care about.
[LOCATION: Royal parlour in Ghost Zone.]
DORATHEA: Being a ghost does indeed bring change. There is power, and magic, but at the deepest heart of things, we are all the same. The Infinite Realms are but another part of the soul’s journey. I have seen many ghosts come and pass on to whatever lies beyond. As a ghost, the outer layers, the facade that so many of the living are forced to bear, it whithers away, slower for some than others, but in time, we all see who we are, and decide what we shall do about it.
JAZZ: Do you like being a ghost?
DORATHEA: An intriguing query. I do. I feel stronger than ever I was when alive. For centuries, I feared that power, but now I am proud to embrace it.
[LOCATION: Casper High football field, night.]
SKULKER: Being a ghost? I wouldn’t give it up for anything.
[LOCATION: Dining room in Ghost Zone.]
LUNCHLADY: Well, if I hadn’t become a ghost, I never would have met my husband!
BOX GHOST: I love you! (They kiss.)
[LOCATION: Amity Park gazebo, night.]
KITTY: I think being a ghost rules.
JOHNNY: Hell yeah.
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
SIDNEY: It took some getting used to, but yes, I do enjoy being a ghost.
[LOCATION: Fentonworks Ops Center, night.]
PHANTOM: ...
JAZZ: You don’t have to answer that if-
PHANTOM: I love it. I didn’t at first, but... I love it. I can fly.
JAZZ: That is pretty cool.
[LOCATION: Royal parlour in Ghost Zone.]
JAZZ: Is there anything you’d like the living to know about post-mortem ghosts?
DORATHEA: Post-mortem ghosts... Interesting. Many of the ghosts who originate in the Infinite Realms merely call us human ghosts.
JAZZ: Really? (DORATHEA nods.) Would you consider yourself human?
DORATHEA: (Laughs.) Only sometimes.
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
SIDNEY: I figure we are still basically human.
[LOCATION: Amity Park gazebo, night.]
KITTY: I guess that they should know, they could become one of us at any time.
JOHNNY: Yeah.
KITTY: But that’s not something to be scared of! It’s cool.
[LOCATION: Casper High School; science classroom, night.]
SIDNEY: So... just treat ghosts kind of like you would anyone else. We can be friends.
[LOCATION: Dining room in Ghost Zone.]
LUNCHLADY: I’d want to tell them that... Their loved ones still remember them. And we love them. (She dabs away a tear.) Do you want to tell the living anything, sugar?
BOX GHOST: I am the Box Ghost!
[LOCATION: Fentonworks Ops Center, night.]
PHANTOM: ...Just that... I don’t know.
JAZZ: It’s okay. Take your time.
PHANTOM: ...I guess. Even if ghosts are dead, they’re still-um, we’re still alive? In a way? We have feelings, and we aren’t just violent, dangerous monsters. We’re people. We never stopped being people. ...That’s all.
JAZZ: Thank you.
fin.