>> “Yes, very dangerous. I’ve heard it can even start making people like glitter. And sometimes disco balls.”

Krisz chuckled, and as soon as Alli turned her back he started putting on the clothes, as fast as he could. It was a bit tricky, getting dressed while sitting on the ground, but he had long years of practice. His hands were still clumsy from being a voice for so long; he fumbled with the buttons and zippers, but it was still better than asking for help. He did not like to do that.
Finally he was all dressed and presentable, wearing jeans and a T-shirt and even a short-sleeved shirt that had the bookshop logo on it and he did not care to button it up. As for shoes, he had none. It felt a bit silly, but it beat the book anytime.

"All right I'm decent" he announced, looking up "No more naked boy to scare the customers."

“Personally, I’m more worried about certain idiot employees scaring you. The customers will just be back tomorrow, and confuse Shannon when they try to tease her asking if you’ll appear again.” Allison directed a final glare at the--this time, oblivious--new kid before turning and moving back to Krisz, collecting the remaining books and stacking them. She’d put them back on the shelves some time later.

“So, seeing as most people do not consider the floor to be the most comfortable place to sit, want a chair or a table?” Personally, if she was tired Allison would’ve picked one of the giant reading chairs; the tables weren’t all perfectly balanced, and the giant chairs were more comfortable than the chairs at the tables anyway. Though, she’d probably fall asleep in the reading chairs, too, which she generally tried to avoid.

>>“Personally, I’m more worried about certain idiot employees scaring you. The customers will just be back tomorrow, and confuse Shannon when they try to tease her asking if you’ll appear again.”

"And I apologize for that" Krisz grinned. Poor girl. There were only a few peole in the shop when he crashed, but he had no doubt that the story will be all over the city by tomorrow, ranging from 'drunk naked guy' all the way to 'raining men'. Probably fallen angels too. That would be flattering.

>>“So, seeing as most people do not consider the floor to be the most comfortable place to sit, want a chair or a table?”

"Umm, chair would be nice." he agreed with a frown "But... I might need some help getting there. I was not lying about the legs."

He hated this part; even the thought made him blush. Especially since he got used to flying around and moving freely. It just felt... embarrassing.

“Oh, don’t bother. Shannon’s face will be hilarious when she hears.” Allison should, maybe, be more concerned, but it was extremely unlikely that they’d lose any business to uptight moralistic people that they wouldn’t regain in teenage girls who heard about a naked boy in their favorite section. Who, admittedly, wouldn’t be buying many books, but would buy plenty of coffee and ice cream and sandwiches.

Allison tilted her head slightly, trying to decide if she’d be able to help the no-longer-naked boy by herself. Support yes, carry no, most likely, she decided. She raised her voice just enough to call Mark back over before returning her attention to Krisz. “No problem. I don’t know of anyone who would lie about them.”

>>“Oh, don’t bother. Shannon’s face will be hilarious when she hears.”

Krisz chuckled at that. Even though the guy called Mark insisted she was not the boss, Alli sure seemed to be acting like one.
Mark arrived to help her lift Krisz into a reading chair. It was kind of embarrassing, but they had no other option, so he just bit his lips and tried his best to help the process along.

"Thanks" he muttered once he was comfortably seated in the reading chair "I'll just... sit here for a while. At least till I can shift back. I don't really own a wheelchair... umm, on this hemisphere..."

Or anything else, for that matter. Ghosts travel light.

The shy girl handed him the tray with coffee and food. Krisz rewarded her with a smile that sent her blushing into the opposite corner. The food disappeared fast; he found he was starving. And the coffee was a life saver too.

“This hemisphere?” Allison repeated. “That sounds like an interesting story. Not many people own things in different hemispheres.” She moved back to her seat behind the counter, playing with the bookmark in Kushiel’s Dart, and smirked at Mark when she noticed his expression.

She raised an eyebrow at just how quickly Krisz was eating, and waved a hand at the blackboard behind her, covered in a--fairly smudged, it’d have to be redone soon--menu. “Coffee, tea, smoothies, shakes, ice cream, cake, sandwiches, brownies, salads, fruit, yogurt, most combinations of the above. What’d you like?”

>>“This hemisphere? That sounds like an interesting story. Not many people own things in different hemispheres.”

Krisz nodded, too busy eating to actually answer. That was probably rude, but he suddenly had a body again after all this time, and that body demanded him to eat. Alli noticed.

>>“Coffee, tea, smoothies, shakes, ice cream, cake, sandwiches, brownies, salads, fruit, yogurt, most combinations of the above. What’d you like?”

"I'm... um." he stopped and swallowed the last bite before he blushed a bit and looked away "Thanks, Alli, but... er, here's the thing, I can't exactly pay for all this. It's not like I'm some kind of mutant homeless guy it's just, I kinda... lost track of how far I've traveled since I turned into a ghost and... yeah, I left all my stuff at home." he looked up at her, all puppy-eyes "At home, as in. in Hungary. Shoulda told you sooner..."

Allison waved the lack of money off. “You fell out of the sky naked. If you did have money with you, I’d be extremely skeptical about touching it. It’s free.” She paused for a moment to consider just how much she could give away before Shannon quit rolling her eyes and started demanding it be paid somehow, and shrugged. “If you somehow manage to eat some insanely excessive amount, I can call my father and he’ll be able to find someone you know in Hungary to send whatever you need. Personally, I think you’d need a few days to manage that much, though.”

>>“You fell out of the sky naked. If you did have money with you, I’d be extremely skeptical about touching it."

Krisz snorted, and was very grateful that he had not started drinking the coffee yet. Alli really did had a sense of humor. And she was right about the money. There were not many places to keep it. Kangaroos had that advantage over humans.

>>"It’s free. If you somehow manage to eat some insanely excessive amount, I can call my father and he’ll be able to find someone you know in Hungary to send whatever you need. Personally, I think you’d need a few days to manage that much, though.”

"Define insanely excessive" he chuckled, then shook his head "No, I am fine. I guess it just comes with suddenly regaining my body... I don't think I have eaten anything in the past few... um, weeks?"

She offered to help call someone in Hungary. Krisz winced.

"Yeeeah... that's... kind of a long story..."

“Oh, I don’t know, a hundred fifty maybe? Then again, I have seen people drink a lot of coffee at once... only before finals, though.” Krisz refused and she shrugged. “Let me know if you change your mind. A few weeks is a bit longer than most people go without eating.”

Allison raised an eyebrow. “Ending up halfway around the world is generally a long story. ...As is falling out of the sky with no warning. And doing both naked. We’ve got at least three long stories running together here.” She shrugged. “If you want to get ahold of someone, my father can probably do that. If not, whatever. You’re not five, you can take care of yourself.” She snorted. “As can a surprising number of five year olds. Sneaky little brats.”

>>“Oh, I don’t know, a hundred fifty maybe? Then again, I have seen people drink a lot of coffee at once... only before finals, though. Let me know if you change your mind. A few weeks is a bit longer than most people go without eating.”

He smirked at the coffee. "Been there, done that. University does that to a person."

One could actually live on coffe for up to a week. But when he finally crashed. he crashed hard. With alcohol. That's what exam period is all about.

>>“Ending up halfway around the world is generally a long story. ...As is falling out of the sky with no warning. And doing both naked. We’ve got at least three long stories running together here. If you want to get ahold of someone, my father can probably do that. If not, whatever. You’re not five, you can take care of yourself. As can a surprising number of five year olds. Sneaky little brats.”

"They can be quite a handful" Krisz agreed. He really liked kids, but never knew what to do with them. They were usually too much of a challenge to bother.

"It's actually one story." he sighed, sipping his coffee "See I did not know I was a mutant until... a few weeks ago, I guess. Then, suddenly, boom." since he was still holding the coffee cup, he just made the sound, not the hand gesture "One minute I am there, the next i am floating above my chair looking down on my empty clothes. I thought I was dead. Seriously, for days."

Looking back now, it sounded kind of silly.

"So did my father when he came to visit, and I... I guess I did not want to scare him by being a voice without a body. His heart, you see? So I just... hummed. I can't really keep silent at all, but I did not speak. So, pretty much everyone thinks I'm dead. And sine I was stuck as a voice... I decided to travel to places I never had the money to go. So, here I am." he smirked as he looked around "I never knew what I was going to do if I ever shifted back, though. Guess I wasn't thinking that far ahead."

“That wasn’t that long.” Allison smirked. “At least you didn’t do anything crazy to have to explain. That makes stories a lot longer.” She shrugged. “Personally, if I started floating, stopped eating and drinking, and no one could see me, I’d probably start questioning whether I was alive or not too. ...Nor would I start planning what to do when I came back to life. It’s really not the most common occurrence.” She stretched and played with a bookmark before speaking again. “So, think you’ll be able to re-ghost soon? Or want to? Because planning might be needed, otherwise. Unless you have convenient time powers too, nothing’s going to get here from Hungary too quickly even if you do want to call someone.”

>>“That wasn’t that long. At least you didn’t do anything crazy to have to explain. That makes stories a lot longer.”

Writers make stories a lot longer. He had expecience with that. He was just giving her the back-cover-blurb version of it.

>>“Personally, if I started floating, stopped eating and drinking, and no one could see me, I’d probably start questioning whether I was alive or not too. ...Nor would I start planning what to do when I came back to life. It’s really not the most common occurrence.”

"Yeah." he smirked "I am still not sure how I figured out I was a mutant, and not dead."

>>“So, think you’ll be able to re-ghost soon? Or want to? Because planning might be needed, otherwise. Unless you have convenient time powers too, nothing’s going to get here from Hungary too quickly even if you do want to call someone.”

"I hope I'll be able to shift again soon" he nodded. He really hoped. His pwoers were just to awesome to lose like that. "But no matter whom I call I'm not going to be able to identify myself, and my story is... well, not easy to believe." he sighed "I might need to... do something. Get a job. I'm a writer, but... that doesn't really make quick money." he looked into his coffee for answers "I could just shift back and fly home, but to tell the truth, I am kind of enjoying the adventure..."

“Possibly the coming back to life bit. That’s probably when I would’ve started to wonder. Or quit wondering, I suppose.”

Allison nodded absently. “Yeah, that’d be hard without going back. Though, probably not the hardest. Someone must’ve thought to wonder where the body went.” She shrugged. “You could probably work here. Shannon likes writers; I’m pretty sure I’m the only one here who isn’t.” She grinned. “And, hey. When you’re a ghost you’re immune to anything that could kill you, when you’re not most people will decide you’re not dangerous. It’d be just about impossible to have a safer adventure. Sounds like the kind of thing you’d want to take advantage of.”

>>“Yeah, that’d be hard without going back. Though, probably not the hardest. Someone must’ve thought to wonder where the body went.”

"Yeah" Krisz mused over his coffee. She had a point. Still, it would take a lot of explaining, and a lot of proving, and frankly, right now, he was just too lazy for that. He had unfinished business over here. For once he had to live an adventure instead of writing about it. As cliché as it sounds.

>>“You could probably work here. Shannon likes writers; I’m pretty sure I’m the only one here who isn’t. And, hey. When you’re a ghost you’re immune to anything that could kill you, when you’re not most people will decide you’re not dangerous. It’d be just about impossible to have a safer adventure. Sounds like the kind of thing you’d want to take advantage of.”

He smirked.

"Working in a bookshop? I could be the spirit of the place." it actually sounded nice. As far as jobs went, it could have been a lot worse.
Alli was musing about his powers. He smirked again.

"Yeah. Except, I am not really sneaky. I speak a lot, and I can't keep quiet. Plus, apparently there are ways to pull me back together. I met this woman... she just muted me, and bam." he nodded towards the reassembled pile of books, it did not need to be said "and then, just now. I don't know what happened... but I'd rather not get into trouble until I've figured out how this works."

He looked at the girl with the tattoo.

"But I guess that's the same for every mutation..."