<strong>(OOC: Intrigued by you both - thanks for joining!</strong><br/><em>Back to business...)</em><br/><br/>Maggie walked on down the street but part of her was, figuratively, still back at the apartment. She knew it was safe to leave Michael alone, but then again could she ever really know? If anything happened she'd get an alert near immediately on her phone - near enough that she could call for an ambulance just as quickly as if she were there beside him. If necessary - and of course race back home, but....<br/><br/><em>bzzZZzz bzzZZzzz</em><br/><br/>Speak of the devil - rather, the devil device.<br/>Her phone was already in her hand and she raised it to her eyes to read Michael's text. Only it wasn't a text. She had the phone on vibrate instead of ring and this was an incoming call. Not even from Michael.<br/><br/>Maggie squinted at the number. It displayed no caller ID she recognized. Did she know the number? She was pretty sure no.<br/><br/>Far from being the type to ignore random phone calls, because you just never knew -unless she had already sat down to dinner, then sorry caller try back later- Maggie was on the cusp of answering when she plowed into a man (Chase).<br/><br/>"Ohff!" she stumbled off balance, her bag taking her down the rest of the way to the ground.<br/>Sprawled in a position as if she'd come down sideways from a kneel, Maggie looked the few feet ahead of her where her phone had slipped to from out of her hands -luckily after she hit the pavement and not from standing. She hated people who went around with cracked phones and didn't want to have to count herself in that set- still vibrating with the incoming call.<br/><br/>"Sorry," she said more offhand to the man she ran into as she moved to recollect her phone.<br/>Said offhand because, though Aggie was a polite person, she sort of had a tendency to collide with people more than the general person, and it was always a toss-up if they'd even notice, so.<br/><br/>Why? She was an attractive blonde, the type who<em>usually</em>got noticed, maybe with some stereotypical assumptions made about them.<br/>Except remember that bit about Maggie lucking out BIG time with her job? The reason it was such a big luck-out was for the fact of her condition.<br/><br/><br/>See -or not-, Maggie was invisible.<br/><br/><br/>Rather,<em>unperceived</em>by most of the general population: not seen, heard or felt.<em>Literally</em>. At least not to a believable degree.<br/>Let's just say, Maggie was the stuff ghost stories were built on.<br/><br/><br/>Of course there were those, like her family, like her two best friends, like Michael, who could perceive her as wholly as they could anyone.<br/><br/><br/>As for those in the non-perceiving set, it could be that they couldn't see her at all, or they might glimpse her apparition-like. Maybe not even whole body, just some ghostly arm or face.<br/><br/>Unfortunately, a lack of visual presence didn't translate physically, hence Maggie's higher tendency to collide with people. Except the physics were off- the person hit<em>may</em>feel her as normal, and just bizarrely be left wondering why it felt like they hit somebody when it didn't appear anyone was there, or it could feel less apparent. More like a nudge or just as if they lost balance on their own.<br/><br/>But for Maggie, the impact was unmitigated no matter the perception level.<br/><br/>And that perception level also applied to her voice. To non-perceivers, it could go entirely unheard, as if she never spoke aloud at all, or it may come across disembodied or whisper in the wind-like. Hence her offhand "sorry". If Chase didn't perceive a collision with someone, a 'sorry' wouldn't really matter.<br/><br/><br/>Nevermind the chance he could possibly still hear her well enough, even if he couldn't perceive her much otherwise.<br/><br/><br/>The specifics of her condition were variable like that. The levels of touch, sight and sound didn't have to match.<br/><br/>Yet they<em>were</em>, come whatever degree, consistent across technology.<br/><br/><br/>Which meant it was just as much of a perception toss-up if the man on the other end of the phone would be able to hear her voice.<br/><br/>Forgetting about Mr. Collision Man, Maggie answered the phone all-the-same; you just never knew: "You've called Maggie Veray and she is speaking. What's your story?" On paper her answer could sound curt, but in voice there was an agreeable edge to the directness. A hint to her spirit.<br/>