Constantine gets a pet Blob
So! Constantine is just doing a job one day when he comes across a little Blob Ghost.
He doesn't think much of it, just feeds it some physical Emotions he had in his pocket (magic stuff idk) and walks off.
But the Blob follows him. So he walks faster, and it follows faster. So he runs, and the Blob is now chasing him. Eventually he loses it by hiding around a corner, waits for it to pass, and peeks out to see if it's still there.
Its not, so he walks back out and opens a Portal back home. He takes one more look behind him, sees nothing, and walks in. Only to be met with the Blob floating in the center of his living room.
He figures after a while that he can't get it to leave, so he just names it "Blobby" and lets it hang around him whenever he leaves for a Job.
Turns put he is actually really helpful on Jobs, his ability to sense emotions was more powerful than even John's best spells. It's makes it really easy to solve missing persons cases when he can just have Blobby search for the person's emotions.
He's also really good when Constantine in making deals. Blobby is great at detecting when a Demon is trying to swindle him, even if he always catches it without his help.
Thats really it, I just wanted to give Constantine a Blob Ghost Sidekick
946 notes
·
View notes
The Indignity that is Hiccups
I leaned against the broom and yawned, tired in more ways than one. The mess in the storage hold was going to take a while to clean. And just because the universe has ironic timing, I hiccupped while my mouth was wide open. It echoed off the metal walls. Luckily for me, none of my alien crewmates were there to hear it.
Or so I thought. A bundle of tentacles and a curious squid face peered around the doorway.
I sighed, hiccuping again. “Yes it’s me; no I’m not doing it on purpose.”
Mur eased into the room, stepping carefully around the snowdrifts of flour from where a storage crate had broken. “Why are you making that kind of noise on accident?” He was carrying a bundle of something wrapped up in one tentacle, but seemed more interested in conversation than in whatever that was.
“It’s called hiccups,” I said. “I suppose it’s too much to hope that other species have to deal with this to-o?” As much as I tried to get the sentence out smoothly, I was betrayed at the end.
“None that I know of. So what is it? Some kind of compulsion?”
“No, nothing like that.” I went back to sweeping with irritated strokes of the broom. “It’s a muscle spasm that’s never been fully explained. It usually goes away pretty quickly for me, but it’s annoying. Much like this flour.”
“I bet,” Mur said, looking around the room. He uncurled his tentacle. “I brought batteries for the big gravity wand.”
“Oh, Paint just went to get some! Thank you. She’ll be back soon.”
“Good,” Mur said, wiping at the flour dust that was already settling on him. “Ugh, this is unpleasant.”
“Sure i-is,” I hiccuped, followed by an exasperated noise. “At least I don’t get acid reflux with the hiccups. Small mercies.”
Mur asked, “Get what?” as Paint arrived, wielding the big gravity wand like a broadsword.
“Stand back! Oh, hi Mur. These batteries are only half charged, so I’m going to clean as fast as I can!” As short as she was, she looked like a scaly child waving a grownup weapon that she had no business using. Which wasn’t entirely wrong.
“I am standing ba-ack,” I announced, taking my broom to the doorway where the air was clearer.
Paint gave me a sideways look, finger hesitating over the power button.
I sighed and brushed flour dust off my sleeve. “It’s a stupid human thing.”
“Muscle spasms,” Mur put in helpfully. “Apparently sometimes they come with acid?”
“With what?” Paint demanded.
“Not like that,” I hurried to clarify. “Some people get stomach acid splashing up their throat, just enough to hurt.”
“That’s terrible,” Paint said, concern all over her scaly orange face. “What causes it?”
“No one’s really sure. My favorite theory is that it’s evolutionary history, our brains trying to breathe with gills, but—” I paused for another hiccup. “—Pretty sure that’s not actually it.”
“Wild,” Mur said. “Here, Paint; I brought fresh batteries.”
“Oh, thank you! No wonder I couldn’t find them.”
That would have been a great time for the hiccups to stop, while the conversation had moved on, but no such luck. I leaned against the door frame and tried to breathe evenly.
Paint juggled batteries, finally setting the gravity wand on the floor to swap them out properly. After another loud hiccup, she asked, “What makes the muscle spasms go away?”
“They usually do on their own,” I said. “Some people get them for a long time, but I’ve been pretty lu-ucky.”
“Sure,” Mur said, picking up the old batteries. “Lucky.”
Paint stood back up. “Nothing makes them calm down faster?”
“There are a few things,” I admitted. “Mostly stuff to distract the person from paying attention to them, really. Drink water from the far side of a cup, get startled by something, hold your breath a long time. I usually just take a lot of deep breaths, and they go aw-ay.” I grimaced. “Not today, apparently.”
Something hard closed around both shoulders and yanked me backward into the hallway, to where open mandibles hissed in my face, surrounded by shiny black exoskeleton and terrifying faceted eyes.
“Ahhh! Good gods, Trrili!” I stumbled upright, gasping for breath as she released me with far too much smugness.
“You arrrre welcome,” Trrili purred. “Wasss that enough of a ssstarrrtle, orrr ssshould I find a nice hiding placcce to jump out frrrom?”
“I’m good; thanks!” I said. My heart was beating dangerously fast, but the hiccups were long gone.
“Hm. Disappointing,” Trrili said, dropping the hiss. “Let me know if you require further medicinal terror.” Then she glided off down the hallway on many quiet bug legs.
I shuddered a little. “Yeah. Sure. I’ll do that.”
Paint was wide-eyed, crouched to pick up the gravity wand where she’d dropped it. I’d dropped the broom too, and I hadn’t heard either of them fall. The batteries had fallen out again.
Paint asked, “Are you going to tell her next time you have those spasms?”
“Ha! No, I don’t think I will.”
“I might,” Mur said with a grin.
“Hey now,” I said sternly, bending to pick up the broom. “Don’t make me sweep flour on you.”
He laughed and danced out of range, and the three of us got back to work cleaning up with nary a hiccup.
I did sneeze at the dust, which started a whole other conversation, but at least they knew what those were.
~~~
The ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book. More to come! And I am currently drafting a sequel!
211 notes
·
View notes
It's interesting to think about how, to me at least, Dust and Killer are like mirror versions of each other.
One who joins a villain enthusiastically, jumps at the chance to leave his past behind and have a purpose again, and the other who has to be dragged in, would rather rot in the consequences of his own actions.
One who needs orders, needs the distraction and the action and the thrill, can't sit alone with his thoughts for too long lest he hear them clearly, and the other who can't bring himself to ignore the ghost over his shoulder, would rather sit in place and listen to his own self loathing parroted back at him than stand up and find a way to drown it out.
One who doesn't associate with his past anymore, that wasn't me and I wasn't him, and cannot stand the thought of going back from where he came, and the other who wants nothing more than to be his old self again but feels so strongly that he doesn't deserve to return to the life he tore down himself.
They both wear their new names like dog collars, but one is a gift given by someone else because he's theirs, he has somewhere he belongs that he's expected to return to, and the other is a choker tying him to a post, warning others of his danger while never allowing him to get out of arm's reach of his past.
And getting them both back-to-back while trying to understand mortals was probably enough to give Nightmare whiplash
194 notes
·
View notes