ghostinthewires

[ghostinthewires]

Summoned For A Divine Cause (Rain)

It's wet boy's turn!

In today's episode of Mal Is A Contrarian, we learn that they write Rain as an Era 3 summon. Ain't that fun?

Slight warnings for Rain never being good enough for his family and believing himself to be inherently weak and flawed. None of these ghouls have had good lives, guys, I'm sorry.

divider by @forlorn-crows as usual, ilu bb

I HAVE A TASK FOR YOU, MY SON, said the lake. 

Rain did not open his eyes. “I will not listen to you, sister.” 

DO I SOUND LIKE YOUR SISTER, THEN?

He sighed quietly, the almost-inaudible breath betraying a depth of emotion utterly contrary to the softness of the sound. “Whichever of you it is, leave me be. You have more important things to do than play foolish games with your little brother.”

NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT TO ME THAN MY CHILDREN.

He did open his eyes at that, a thin sliver of the shifting tide-greens and blacks revealed behind cold gray lids. “Childish tricks ill befit you, father.”  

The lake chuckled a low, rumbling murmur of amusement. 

FATHER, YES. BUT NOT THE ONE YOU THINK. 

Rain’s eyes went wide, realisation hitting him just before a rush of warmth wrapped around him, filled his mind with light, sound, colour, life, passion. Music. Love. 

“Prince of the Pit, forgive Your child.” The rocks of the shore stung and bit under him as he scrabbled to his knees. “Forgive my distrust, my inadequacy, if Your endless grace allows it, though Your unworthy son does not -”

RAIN. 

The calm, peaceful adoration - the Love - in the water’s voice silenced him immediately. The fear and self-hatred melted away into nothing under the comforting weight of it, stilling him in a way nothing ever had before. 

FORGIVE YOU? FOR NOT KNOWING EVERYTHING BEFORE YOU HAVE BEEN TAUGHT IT? FOR THE UNDESERVED DISAPPOINTMENT THAT IS ALL YOU KNOW TO EXPECT? A gentle hand settled on his cheek, invisible and incorporeal, and he did not flinch from it as he had from every other touch in his life. Did not flinch from the invisible eyes which it teased his gaze up into, as he had every other eye in his narrow world. YOU HAVE EXCEEDED EVERY EXPECTATION PLACED UPON YOU, MY SON. WHEN THOSE YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO RELY ON DECIDE YOUR EFFORTS WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ENOUGH BEFORE YOU EVEN BEGAN, YOU CANNOT BE BLAMED. 

Rain lowered his head, his middle finger tapping anxiously on his thumb in a rhythm only he could comprehend. “Go to another, my Master. Set Your task before one You can rely on.” 

I RELY ON YOU, RAIN. YOU ARE THE ONE I HAVE CHOSEN. THE ONE I KNOW I CAN TRUST. 

Something brushed at his thoughts, polite and undemanding, and he flung open the doors of his mind and let it in with a freedom he had never felt before. 

A vision filled his mind. The surface. A human. Several humans, but one seemed more important than the others. A small man, face painted black and white, his whole being thrumming with power, potential, possibility. Danger. He looked up, looked into the ghoul’s eyes across the planes, and Rain nearly shrank back under the weight of the white eye before him. A woman at his side, older, more powerful. She supported the magic like the frame beneath a vine, but all Rain could think about was him. 

There were others with him. Other ghouls. Not near him, but connected to him as well as to each other. Quintessence, golden and black and sparkling with life and stars in an equal measure that every nerve told him should not be possible. Fire, bright and hot and bursting with energy even under the heavy pall that tried to suppress it. He had met fire ghouls, quintessence ghouls. They burned too brightly for him, overpowered him. Not these two. Something in them seemed to ache for something deep within him, like they would complete it. Like it would complete them. He longed, for the first time in his life, to reach out to another and be part of them.

THEY NEED YOU, MY SON. 

Noise. Music. The music, it called out to him like a summoning. It wanted him. 

He wanted it. It was so, so selfish, when all he would do was hold them back, but he wanted it with all of his being. 

WILL YOU GO TO THEM? WILL YOU DO MY WORK WITH THEM AND BE FAITHFUL TO MY CHOSEN ONE? 

“Dark Father, I beg You, for Your own sake, choose another. One with strength.”

IS THE STRENGTH OF YOUR MIND NOT ENOUGH?

Rain laughed bitterly. “My mind is not strong.” 

IT HAS SURVIVED SO LONG, MY SON. YOU BELIEVE YOUR SIBLINGS TO BE SO MUCH STRONGER THAN YOU, BECAUSE THEY DO NOT BUCKLE UNDER A BURDEN HALF THE WEIGHT OF YOUR OWN. OTHERS WOULD BREAK TO SPLINTERS, EVEN SURROUNDED BY A FAMILY WILLING TO OFFER THEIR ARMS. AND YET YOU WALK ALONE, DAY AFTER DAY, FALTER AND STUMBLE BUT NEVER EVER FALL. DO YOU NOT CALL THAT STRENGTH? 

He swallowed quietly, blinking away the tears that threatened to flow from his eyes. “I… Will try to. I will be what You need, my Father, as well as I am able.” 

He had never felt the weight of his father’s pride. But he knew it would never feel as good as that which he knew he had inspired now. 

THEY WILL STAND WITH YOU FOR AS LONG AS YOU LET THEM. LET THEM, RAIN. BE MY UNITY. SHOW THE LOYALTY OF MY WORLD TO THE HUMANS. The hand on his cheek moved softly, praising him for his faith. TRUST IS NOT EASY, MY SON, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU HAVE FELT THE AGONY OF BETRAYAL. I KNOW IT TOO WELL. IT BITES AND SNARLS AND WAITS FOR YOU TO FALL AGAIN. BUT YOU WILL NOT. I FORBID IT. AS WILL THEY. 

The roar of a thousand waterfalls filled him as the inky-blackness of distant depths surrounded him all at once. 

He felt no fear. No doubt. None at all.

[ghostinthewires]

A very underexplored dynamic with Cirrus and Rain. Two ghouls that normally aren't together, but when they are it's a competition on who can outdo the other and reality checks.

I want to see more of these two messing around, or like any ghoul and ghoulette getting into shenanigans where the girls are the enablers and aren't acting motherly. Like imagine a scenario where, at the tiniest bit of inconvenience, the first thing the girlies think of is unnecessary almost comedic violence. Then the guys are either "ride or die" or "I'm not part of this but I'm going to watch it happen." Both Copia and Perpetua are included in this

[ghostinthewires]

“Somebody’s Favorite.”

Cumulus’s, of course. His lovely, loyal Nuvoletta.

[ghostinthewires]

yessss lets gooo

1. Damocles by Sleep Token

2. JOYRIDE. by Kesha

3. Emergence by Sleep Token

4. BABY SAID by Måneskin

5. Looking At Me by Sabrina Carpenter

6. Sugar by Sleep Token

7. Perfect (Exceeder) by Mason and Princess Superstar (i dont know okay it just scratches something in my brain)

8. APT. by ROSÉ and Bruno Mars

9. Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl

10. Training Season by Dua Lipa

its actually comical how almost the only thing I've listened to lately has been Skeletá and yet there is not a single ghost song to be seen.

@kroas-adtam @purlty23 @forlorn-crows @miasmaghoul and uhhhh anyone else that wants to, idk i barely talk to people on here anymore i just lurk 😭😭😭

Music Tag Game

Rules: put your on repeat playlist on shuffle and share the first 10 songs, then tag 10 ppl.

Thank you @krukel for the tag and sorry for the delay!

I don't really have an on repeat playlist at the moment so this is from my entire spotify likes (985 songs)

What I Want - Gregor McMurray

Hurt - Johnny Cash

Within You - David Bowie

I Left The Wolves Behind That Night - The Tiger & Me

Espresso - Sabrina Carpenter

Budapest - George Ezra

Mad World - Gary Jules, Michael Andrews

Ocean Avenue - Yellowcard

Labyrinth - Miracle Musical, Shane MauX, KAYE

Cleopatra - The Lumineers

No pressure tags! @serenitybun, @seestorimperator, @multimusemenagerie, @nirtonic, and anyone else that wants to do it!

[ghostinthewires]

Terzomega art I forgot to post on here..

[ghostinthewires]

Tourbus Tour

(They all have the same buses, so this is perfect for fanfic reference purposes js👀)

[ghostinthewires]

copia would always sing old italian lullabies to the ghouls when they were injured, sick, or sad on tour. dew would pretend to hate it. he'd roll his eyes and grumble something about "ancient bedtime crap," but it got to him. made him melt every time.

since breaking his foot, he keeps catching himself humming them absentmindedly. while putting his boot on in the morning. while re-stringing his guitar before a ritual. while staring at the ceiling of his bunk at 3am. he'd never admit it, but it helps in a way the pain meds can't.

[ghostinthewires]

he's so much softer, isn't he. do you remember prequelle? the anger, the justified rage and vindication that defined copia from the moment we met him; the first thing we knew about him was that he was mistreated, he was an outsider, and he was finally getting the appreciation he deserved. but perpetua? he doesn't have that edge. skeletá is all love and joy and gentle mystery, this sense of him taking his first steps in the limelight, much more nervous than he is proud. it gives you this image that where copia was raised in overwhelming noise, perpetua was raised in silence. a child of the clergy, and a child sent far away from the clergy. who raised him? who spoke these lessons into him, who taught him how to worship? it must've been someone kind, but distant. with the way he speaks about his faith, he was taught to love satan on a personal level.

copia being a clergy kid, raised deep inside this community, inside the church, gives me the general image of a child raised by a village; he knows everyone's name, he's used to constant noise, he runs around with important papers in his hands and dodges the young ghouls chasing each other through the halls.

but perpetua gives me the image of a child raised in the woods. a quiet, faraway mansion somewhere, with no other kids his age around. empty corridors that he'd explore on his own, tall portraits of antisaints that he'd pray to every night before going to bed. he was never roughed up by his peers the way copia was, he never learned to resent or to covet what others had. all he has in his heart now is fear and love, and that's what he walks out onto the stage with. he's eager. he's nervous. he's so much softer, isn't he.

[ghostinthewires]

Obsessed with whatever this is called

[ghostinthewires]

Dew's wearing a boot and he's so brave about it!!!

spreading the copiamountaindew agenda again w/ this one. not proofread so if you spot anything pls lemme know I'll be back after I sleep pls forgive me my brain has been fuzzy since my car accident last week!!

----

There's very little time on the road between shows for comfort, but Dew makes the most of it, sprawled out on the couch with his injured foot propped up in Mountain's lap—stabilized between several pillows, one of them being a memory foam one that someone on the crew had picked up shortly after the incident.

Mountain, to his credit, doesn't move all that much, easily keeping the ice pack held over the worst of the injury while the bus continues to putter down the road to their next destination.

Every so often, one of the girls or Rain will bring him a new ice pack when his has gone warm and melty, and Aeon's been pretty great about keeping him held to his medication schedule—nothing too heavy, just ibuprofen and Tylenol on their show days, but there's a promise of something more to help him sleep when they're not stuck on a cramped bus and they can rest in a hotel after tonight's show.

It's not exactly how he'd expected to spend a new tour but well—he's here now, and there's no take backsies.

"Phone's been buzzing," Mountain murmurs, pulling him from his light doze, his hand warm against Dew's bare shin, "Probably Copia calling to check on you again. Might wanna get that." He squeezes gently, a fond smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he speaks.

Dew snorts softly, but picks his phone up from where he'd dropped it on the table by the couch, face down and out of the way after his last dose of medication, "Definitely C," he says with a shake of his head as the screen goes dark at the tail end of a call, "Should I call him back or just—"

His phone lights up again, Copia's name splashed across the front, and with a fond shake of his head, he swipes across the screen and answers it, "You're on speaker, C," he says, mostly as a warning, he doesn't really care, neither does Copia—everyone with the exception of V's ghoulette have shared Copia's bed in some capacity, so there's no secrets between them, but he likes warning him anyway.

"Dewdrop," Copia says over a burst of static, "How are you feeling?"

Dew hums, glancing down at his foot propped up on Mountain's lap, "Like shit," he says, "But ready to be off of this bus and at the next venue at least. We have at least thirty more minutes before we're there."

"Ahhh yes the long travel," Copia says, there's something in his voice, a wistfulness that Dew can pick out that sounds almost like longing, "Tonight you'll have a break, yes? It's only a couple of days before you need to get on the road again but I made the schedule for the tour and I remember giving you at least two full nights to sleep in a bed so I expect you to do that."

Dew snorts, "Well I'm definitely not going sight seeing," he says, "Strict bed rest orders when I'm not working. According to the doctor at least."

The line goes quiet for a moment, and then, "How bad is it really?" Copia asks, his voice soft and careful.

"I'm probably doing myself no favors by being on it," Dew says finally, glancing at his foot, there had been some bruising at first, but now he knows it's gone, most of the superficial stuff cleared up by Aeon's magic—the fractured bone however, still present despite everything else. "But the boot will help, people continue to do things with fractures all the time. I'm icing it and wearing the boot. Elevating it when I'm not wearing the boot. I've got people around me taking care of me..." He trails off, bites his lower lip, "I'm probably going to talk to V about shoes with more ankle support though."

Copia huffs on the other line, "Fucking V," he mumbles, "I'm really glad you're alright Dewdrop." He says softly. "When I'd heard you were injured...I was so worried."

"Gonna take more than shitty shoes to take me out, babe," Dew teases, and then, softer, "I miss you. Not having you on stage kind of sucks."

That makes Copia laugh a little, "I'll pretend like I haven't seen photo and video evidence of you having the time of your life on stage and accept that for the romantic declaration that it is," he says teasingly.

Dew goes to open his mouth, to say something, but there's a sound in the background, something he can't quite make out, and Copia's voice coming back over the line.

"Duty calls," he says dryly, with a sigh, "I'll talk to you later, you rest some more. I love you."

Dew hums, presses his head back into his pillow and closes his eyes, feeling a rush of longing and want all of a sudden, "I love you too," he says, "Call me tonight after the show?"

Copia laughs, low and warm, "Of course I will. You and Mountain both."

The call disconnects shortly after and Mountain squeezes his shin again as the two of them settle for the rest of the ride to the venue.

-

They're about forty minutes late to arrive due to several factors that Dew's not aware of, but his foot aches when he finally fits the Velcro straps of the boot back around his leg and foot properly and he leans most of his weight on Mountain when he stands.

They don't necessarily have to get off the bus here, but he's going a bit stir crazy and needs to move around now before he bites someone's head off. Besides, he needs to talk to his guitar tech about a few things anyway, so he lets Mountain loop an arm around him as they take the steps off the bus one at a time, the bottom of the boot thunking heavily against the metal with each step he takes.

He's only a little out of breath when he gets to the bottom, taking a moment to lean against Mountain with his eyes closed to just breathe before they begin the trek towards the inside when he hears a stutter in Mountain's breathing.

"Big guy?" He asks, frowning, blinking his eyes open and looking up at the earth ghoul who's staring straight ahead with a look on his face that Dew can't quite place.

Mountain blinks several times until his eyes go a bit red rimmed, glamored face screwing up into something unreadable before he's wrapping his arm tighter around Dew and using his strength to all but haul the shorter ghoul forward, half lifting him from the ground as he does and when Dew finally looks in the direction that Mountain's looking it all falls into place because—

Oh.

Oh.

Copia's standing there.

He's wearing his stupid red tracksuit, looking rumpled and tired and like he just got off of an airplane flight, duffle bag sitting at his feet, but he's there.

Mountain's barely placed Dew firmly back on his feet before he finds himself sandwiched between ghoul and not-quite-human, wrapped in a tangle of arms as he feels Mountain curl protectively around the two of them, Copia's face nudging the underside of his jaw where he's trying his best to bury himself in his embrace.

"What are you doing here?"

Dew asks that, it's his voice that says it, something choked and not at all normal sounding as he worms his arms under Copia's jacket so he can get as close as he can without being indecent.

Copia doesn't answer at first, just breathes in a few times and then, "I needed to see that you were okay."

And oh.

Oh.

Dew squeezes him tighter, presses his face into Copia's hair, "I missed you so fucking much." He whispers.

Mountain makes a wounded noise around them, "How long are you here for?"

"A few days. Officially, I'm checking in on a few things. Making sure everything is going smoothly. Unofficially, I'm here for you two. To see you, to spend time with you." Copia finally pulls back enough so he can look at the two of them, there are tired lines around his eyes, a redness to them, "I missed you both so much, I was planning to come out later on, but..." He trails off sheepishly, "I've never been good at not being impulsive when it comes to matters of the heart."

Dew laughs then, cups his hands around Copia's cheeks and pulls him into a solid kiss, revels in the feel of his mouth for a moment—a long moment as everything melts away, just the feeling of being surrounded by the two people he loves the most.

When he pulls away, Mountain swoops in too, kisses Copia as well, shorter and less intense, and Dew watches as the two of them trade soft pecks over his shoulder for a few moments, everything almost perfect except for the pain making itself know in his ankle.

He lets it come to a natural end though, leans most of his weight off of his injured foot and onto Mountain until they pull apart, twin flushes on their cheeks, "As cute as you two are, we should probably head into the venue."

Copia leans in and kisses Dew once more, a fleeting and soft thing before he's untangling himself and picking up his duffle bag, "Let's go then," he says and then together, Copia and Mountain move to support Dew's weight more evenly.

The walk into the venue isn't too terrible between the three of them, Dew feels lighter, having Copia there, close again, he feels more complete, as cliche as it sounds, and when Copia drops him off with his guitar tech with a promise to be back once he's properly dressed, pressing a fleeting kiss to his glamored forehead—right between where his horns would be, he feels like tonight's going to be a good night, despite everything.

[ghostinthewires]

Since you've been plenty naughty lately, I decided to pull this one from the vault and finish it

Tip jar

[ghostinthewires]

BLACK MOON OVER THE PEACEFIELD

OH CHILD STAY CLOSE TO MEEEE

[ghostinthewires]

SURPRISE PEACEFIELD DROP AT 5PM UK TIME TONIGHT THIS IS NOT A DRILL

[ghostinthewires]

aether would be so upset seeing dew in that boot(((((((

[ghostinthewires]

[ghostinthewires]

so anyway has anyone else thought about Perpetua backstage about to go on for his big night, his first show, totally alone. his parents are both dead, his brother hates him and thinks he stole his place, he's been given a group of ghouls who are almost all of them very loyal to his brother who hates him. and he has to go out and perform in front of thousands of people, to be seen and perceived and judged in comparison to everyone who came before him, especially his brother who hates him...

no me neither

[ghostinthewires]

i like this band