"Can people... leave there... if they decide to go? Ghosts, I mean."

"When the veil between this world and that one is thinner, such as it is right now, or in the dead of night. Or when the Netherworld is supercharged with ghostly energies, which can cause portals to pop out places, and then we have to go fix that."

...okay.

He feels like he's been thinking/saying the word "okay" a lot, recently. Maybe he's just a kind of person who says "okay" a lot. But he shouldn't actually jump to any conclusions about that because he's been having a bit of a time.

"That's balderdash, you know," opines a ghost, walking up to them holding a paper plate in one hand and a sandwich in the other.

"...what is?"

"This whole 'ghosts' thing. Ghosts aren't real."

"...sir, you're a ghost."

"Not you, too," he groans. "Why does everyone like playing that game? Ghosts aren't real!"

"Am I going insane?"

"Nah, that's just Kai," she says. "Kai is like that. He died a bit ago to a crow attack but he thinks ghosts aren't real so he doesn't believe that."

"Mr. Kai, would you please place your palm over mine?"

"...huh? Sure?" He does.

"Now would you push down as far as your hand will go?"

He does.

It goes through Peter's hand.

He stares at it like he's having a revelation.

Did no one seriously think about something like that. Showing this guy evidence. More evidence.

Peter is feeling kind of over it, so he just steps forward and through Kai.

Kai tries to scramble out of the way, fails, feels Peter walk through him, and shrieks.

"Hopefully that'll trigger an epiphany. Is the food free?"

"Yeah."

"Cool. Great to chat, everyone, I'm gonna go do something else now, I'm sure you won't mind."

They don't, in fact, mind.

Yeah. And the food is alright.

But that was, actually, kind of cheering? Maybe he'll get depressed again if he meets the Grim Reaper and it turns out he's terrifying but after the initial spooks and that extremely rude one ghost earlier it was all really reassuringly mundane. He's still not sure what's up with the tree and the tarot cards and he feels like a better, more together version of him would look into those things as the obvious plot hooks around, but honestly, he's not in the mood. It's enough that if he dies he can just stick around and be a ghost.

This means he has time. Assuming he doesn't do anything as reckless as trying to go actively poke the seams in the world, the "twelve week" deadline is gone. He'll be fine. He's still kind of concerned about how everyone around him behaves around the topic and he feels like people might be "moving on" a bit too easily but, like, he will be fine. He can breathe easy.

Now, about that bog?

It's probably the eerily purple glowing haze over there amidst some dead trees.

This place is so weird. Do people not find it weird? It's just so weird. But sure, he'll go check it out.