Jupiter's mouth pursed stubbornly, as Tomas put on what she interpreted as a 'divorce court TV judge' voice to ask about Orion. An attempt of impartial but it made for great TV if Judge was, well judgy. If Tomas was gonna play judge, then she'd play plaintiff.
"Look, if you're friends with Orion Carnell, then I ain't gonna elaborate because you're just gonna tell me I'm wrong! 'Oh, but Jupiter, he's just misunderstood' blah blah. Good, fine. I misunderstand Orion Carnell then, I don't need to be his best friend."
When Sissie appeared to embarrass Jupiter further, Tomas went from 'TV judge' to 'charmin' country lawyer' in one fell swoop, like he was a regular on the goddamn Andy Griffith Show. It was Jupiter's turn to judge him, and the appearance of his ex-wife made it pretty dang easy.
"What in God's good name is this?" Sissie piped up first, her voice high and squeaky from all her smoking. She looked Libby up and down. "Ex-wife? Damn, Juju, you dodged a bullet. This boy's into some kinda thing."
"He was, anyway," Jupiter said smugly. She was being so petty, giving Tomas a look equivalent to 'nyah nyah'. She was a 47 year-old woman! But with her ghost-mom she just felt like that stupid 18 year old who ran away to LA.
"I'mma straighten this little fresh girl out -" Sissie lurched to grab at Libby's hair -
"Momma no!" Jupiter reached for her momma in alarm, forgetting her momma was incorporeal, and this was just a ghost-fight. What would that even look like? They were about to find out -
Sissie made to slap Libby in the face, but the ghost-on-ghost violence resulted in a loud clap of paranormal energy. The ghosts didn't disappear so much as exploded into ectoplasm, which splashed all over Jupiter and Tomas.
"Eiiiiiiiwwwwwwwww, oh my god. Oh my god as if this couldn't be more traumatic. I've been slimed...by my momma."
"Hey - don't take that tone with me, miss thing!" Came Sissie's disembodied voice, as the slime started sliding together, to reform momma.
But Jupiter was looking at Tomas. "That's...weird. When the ghosts make contact, it makes for a bad reaction, huh."
"Some kinda thing?" Libby said, highly affronted. She started patting at her red hair, saying unsurely, "...is it because I'm a redhead? The mean girls used to tease me all the time--"
"No, it's got nothing to do with that," Tomas said, sparing a narrow-eyed look at Jupiter for her clearly nyah-nyah tone -- but it seemed he was premature because Jupiter's mom was, indeed, going straight for Libby's hair. "Oh my god. You guys, don't," he protested, overlapping with Jupiter's entreaty to her mother, but neither ghost was paying them any attention.
And then they were both drenched in goo.
"Did we just ... get slimed?" Tomas asked, holding his hands up and watching ectoplasm drip from his fingers, running down his arms, his elbows. At least Jupiter was all covered in goo as well, which made him feel a tiny bit better. He snickered when Jupiter bemoaned getting slimed by her mother, saying dryly, "I'm pretty used to Libby leaving me in a mess once she's done with her dramatics."
He flicked goop from his hands and started trying to scrape some of it off Jupiter when Sissie's disembodied voice came out of nowhere, and some of the goo started sliding off them of its own volition, making a globby blob. A second one started to reform, too, and Tomas stopped scraping and just held his arms clear of his body, watching it string off.
"Hunh," he said. "I wonder why? I mean, it's a big question why they're here in the first place, but why can't they physically interact with each other? If they all, presumably, come from the same afterlife?" Not taking into account separate religious beliefs, of course; that was a little much to factor into this.
"Thought you could get rid of us that easy, huh?" Libby's voice said, from somewhere inside the bloopy glob that was forming. "Not this time, Tomas!"