Waking up was hard to do. Griffin Folklore realized his cell alarm hadn't gone off for some reason, perhaps in his tired state he hadn't set it correctly. Sun bright and shiny through the semi tractor's windshield he at least knew he was off to a blue-sky day. Too bad there were no birds to sing to him. Yawning he crawled from his cabin bunk and stretched the kinks out. Smelling his arm pits he caught an agonizing whiff. At first, he cringed at the bedding he had slept on, knowing full well the driver likely didn't do laundry that much on the road. While yes, that nagged at him, he also knew his own scent well, "I need a shower bad. I'll drop these parts off at mom's then grab one in her room." Putting his boots on he moved to the driver's seat of the tractor and rolled his window down to grab a wake-up breeze. It felt incredible.
Peering over at the HiMa Facility he saw his trucks reflection in the mirrored exterior walls. Only him, the congregation of lost souls that were there in the moonlight were long gone under the brightness of day, yet most likely still nearby. "I wonder if they're all still standing there. Mirrors usually show me where folks are but with the harsh sunlight maybe the spectrum is too broad to reveal them. Sucks but what can I do? If I touched them all, it would be chaos. I'd be offering explanations for hours. Better to just get back to mom and..." He opted to call her just to see if she were around. No answer had him worried. "Great! Mom must have blinked back to her holographic state and can't touch her cell. Strange how Sune Yi could touch things, but like she said, it probably attributed to her ninja training. "Crazy! I know a real ninja!" He grinned with pride, "So cool!"
Firing the truck up he let it idle then jumped down to load up his parts which he left outside covered by a tarp that the driver had under his bunk. Carefully placing his plastic totes of parts up on the bunk through a side door he shut it and climbed back in. "I could have put them in the trailer, but chances are they'd shift around and get damaged. Safer up here with me." Looking up Sune Yi's Hotel on GPS he realized it was closer than his mom's lab. "With mom ghosted for the moment I guess I could go after Sune Yi's sister Bao and bring her back here first. Get down to it we have all the time in my world. Mom would understand."
Slapping his face to wake up better, he set the tractor in motion and headed for the highway. Even that would take forever in reaching the hotel Bao was staying at. He had one way cleared but the other way was quite the cluster fuck. What should have taken twenty minutes at best took Griffin three hours. It got to the point he even disengaged his trailer alongside the road and proceeded without the burden of length, telling himself he would just find another way to haul his bike home, wherever he chose home to be. The one thing he did do right was check the interior of the trailer and found breakfast and lunch together in the form of canned ravioli with pull tab easy access. Even unheated it tasted darn good. The owner of the rig had plastic forks and spoons, so it was a meal fit for a king. Three cans down, a case in the cab for lunch, dinner and tomorrows repeat.
One final push through the abandoned traffic he reached the hotel and searched for parking. Laughing he simply pulled up on the front lawn and left the keys in the ignition. Who was going to steal his ride? Hopping down he took his jacket off. Now that the temperature was rising, he was getting sweaty which added to his stench. Chuckling over his aroma he just took his t-shirt off and left it in the rig. Who was going to complain over his semi nudity and pit stank other than him. Of course, he considered Bao's thoughts on stench should he find her and bring her back into current existence.
"Shit! I guess I could take a shower in Bao's room before I bring her back. She won't know. Maybe I can confiscate a shirt from a resident even." Thinking on this as he walked toward the hotel entrance, he worried that if he borrowed any clothing, he'd likely be followed wherever he went like a magnet. "I'll just have to live with swiping other people's things. I know I sound selfish but dang it I own this planet now." A maniacal laugh made even he feel badly for acting the way he was. He wasn't raised this way.
"Get over it, Folklore." He sighed dramatically, "Nobody can use their clothing or personal effects anymore unless I find a way to save humanity. So, I need to get over feeling bad about it. Just get up there find Bao for Sune Yi and reunite them the best way I can then haul my ass back to mom. She could be my only solution to this worldwide dilemma. If I can move mom over to HiMa's labs maybe she and Sune Yi can work together to figure out a way to stabilize people. It sucks that it's only short term but it's better than nothing, right? Bad part is babysitting them to piece shit together when they can't touch it."
In passing through the front door, he used his compact mirror to guide him away from any wayward ghosts that might be up close. He had been fortunate as to not go running into anyone on the outside world, that or maybe in the severe ultraviolet radiation outside he was actually stepping into people and not knowing it. Not even Grif knew much concerning how he was able to bring people back, only that his DNA was key. Anyone that he had brought back was inside out of direct sunlight. Now moonlight or dusk it seemed possible, like the truck driver and that girl at the truck stops pimp. Of course, he had merely guided those assholes together not technically bringing them back. Luring ghosts seemed easy enough to navigate using personal items to lead them. Everything he did was a learning experience. If he accidently brought someone back at even brushing up against them, he'd simply hurry away and let them fade off again. While inhumane to a degree, he simply didn't want to explain everything, especially when he didn't know it all himself.
"Experiment time! Let's just put the mirror away and risk it. I feel guilty but I need to move past it. Let's just see what happens." Compact closed and pocketed in his jeans he located a universal hotel room key and found the code for the penthouse. Easy enough, it was just like he had done at the other hotel he called home that first night. Even though Bao was not in the penthouse but rather a lower room, he intended to enjoy the privacy to shower first and make a good first impression on the girl.
Heading upstairs with a managerial key he discovered a secondary elevator just like his own. Code punched in and key card swiped he found the elevator cooperative. Once inside he felt closed in for some reason. So uneasy that he had to utilize his compact to understand why. Slyly he clicked the lid open and scanned the mirror about toward the floor and found multiple feet around him. "Oh, crap!" Six sets of feet stood around his. Why would there be six sets in a private elevator? He was almost too afraid to find facial reflections. What seemed odd was there was no clothing in the elevator as any warning sign. Just... bodies!
