#Character Turned Into a Ghost

[briarruler]

My Dead Trio AU is the one where it is easiest to justify the trio's decision to not tell anyone what happened.

How can they bear to scar the people who love them with the truth?

They died. They're dead. Yes, they are ghosts, they are still here, but they still died. How do you tell your parents (your sister, your grandma) that you died. That they failed you so horrifically? Because what else can the death of a child, your child, a person that you are so deeply responsible for be: but a failure of yours, even if it was an accident, even if you weren't there, even if they were being stupid, even if they tell you it wasn't your fault.

How can they risk telling their parents something that might separate them from the only people who understand them?

They died in Danny's basement; and yes, they weren't supposed to be there, and yes, they knew better then to have walked into that machine, but it was still a Fenton invention that killed them. And the Fentons are ghost hunters and they are ghosts: how could they convince anyone that they are safe around them when they are not even sure of it themselves?

How can they tell anyone that they were so stupid?

How can Danny look them in the eyes and say: I told my friends about the failed Portal and I let them into the basement and they died because of me.

How can Sam look them in the eyes and say: I thought it sounded cool, the Portal, so I talked Danny into letting us see it, then into taking photos in it, it was my idea that killed us.

How can Tucker look them in the eyes and say: I knew it was dangerous, big electrical machinery always is, but it was fun so I never protested, even though I knew what we were doing was stupid, was against all safety regulations, because I never thought that anything would happen to us, but it did.

So why would they tell anyone they are ghosts? When they could simply...

Not.

And who would suspect them, of the living lie they tell? When they became ghosts, before ghosts are known?

[yewsoup]

Out of the Corner of His Eye

Words: 4790

Warden Ingo was a strange man. To others, but also to himself. He says words he doesn't know the meaning of. He strikes poses and is habitually loud, as if he often had to yell. He does not fear pokemon. He does not smile, at least not with his mouth. And his eyes glow in the dark.

He's also followed by a chill wherever he goes.

Ever since he visited where he was found, trying to find a clue as to where he's from, he's seen a white figure lurking on the edges of his vision.

The figure likes to stand on Ingo's right side, walking alongside him, unless there's something or someone in the way. When he points, he is Ingo's mirror. Doing the same things, but opposite. When he is by his side.

-----

What if Emmet came to Hisui as well? What if he didn't make the trip?

Can also be read Here on Ao3!

Warden Ingo was a strange man. To others, but also to himself. He says words he doesn't know the meaning of. He strikes poses and is habitually loud, as if he often had to yell. He does not fear pokemon. He does not smile, at least not with his mouth. And his eyes glow in the dark.

Nobody knew where he came from. Not even himself. Because Warden Ingo has amnesia. He does not remember where he came from. He cannot return home.

So he made pearl clan his home. Throwing himself into helping to avoid the things he did not tell people about, uncertain how to articulate them without sounding insane.

The dull pain in his chest, as if he was missing something but running anyways. A train engine with missing parts. And... Him.

Ever since he visited where he was found (where he felt a tearing in his chest and came to a stop, staring at nothing, name he was calling dying on his lips), trying to find a clue as to where he's from, he's seen him lurking on the edges of his vision. A white figure. He thinks the figure is a man, something in his heart insists so, despite the figure being too fuzzy to make out details.

He likes to stand on Ingo's right side, walking alongside him, unless there's something or someone in the way. When he points, he is Ingo's mirror. Doing the same things, but opposite. When he is by his side. 

The white figure is the opposite of his black coat and hat. (The ones his heart cries for if he doesn't wear.) And sometimes, Ingo swears he should be wearing them too. In white. But the figure isn't the right shape. Not with it's blurriness. His coat is supposed to flare, the collar, stand up and fold over properly.

He cannot tell if his coat does as well or not.

---

Later, when his coat is torn by the years, and no longer holds itself up at the bottom to flare outwards, he wonders if his coat is torn like this too.

---

Sometimes, he cannot see the figure, and worries. He doesn't know why. The figure can leave. He's seen the figure wander away from him to look at something before. (He's seen him hurry back to his side when he was leaving the area. And a coil that winds, worrying if the figure will leave, relaxes.) 

Ingo isn't even certain if the figure can get hurt. No other person nor pokemon seems to see him at all. He worries if he's imagining the figure, that he is a figment of a broken mind's imagination. 

...

He also worries if he is lonely. He wishes he could help. (The dull ache in his chest tends to grow when he wishes that.) Sometimes he wonders if he can even see him. Or if the figure walks on his own, unknowing of the mirror he walks with.

Ingo picks up the habit, when nobody else is around, to speak his thoughts aloud. (Only when no humans are around. Caliba gave him a funny look and asked him who he was talking to when he accidentally did it in her presence.) The figure seems to enjoy listening to him. He always lingers close when Ingo speaks, but makes no indication he should stop. (So the figure can hear him then.) 

---

The ghost pokemon of the Icelands do not like him. Gaeric thinks it's because of his glowing eyes ("ghosts don't like the light, that's why they haunt at night") that show no matter how dark it is. 

Ingo has other ideas.

(He's seen the way their gazes dart to his right side before they back off. Only the most determined ghosts try to fight him. Lady Sneasler takes care of those.)

He picked up the habit of waving at Ingo to alert him of pokemon that are not ghosts. Allowing him to take action. Because the figure cannot touch him. (His heart cracked when he first realized that. He does not know why.) He leaves Ingo cold when he passes through him. More than once, his hand has gone numb, and his breath puffed cold, from him trying to take it out of habit.

...

He finds he doesn't mind. Even missing it a bit, chest aching just a little more, when the figure realizes he can wave at him. (They see eachother and know it.) And uses that to grab his attention instead.

On particularly tough nights, when he wanders from lack of sleep, or lack of thought, he finds himself thanking the figure for conducting him home safely. He always tips his hat (how does he know he wears a hat) and the grin his heart swears the figure is wearing widens. 

(He knows a voice should be speaking. He cannot hear him at all.)

---

With time on their night walks, he and the figure grow complacent. Lady Sneasler trusts Ingo's pokemon and his reflexes to keep the warden out of danger. (He tried to tell her about him once, pokemon are easier to talk to, but his words still grew tangled in his mouth. He thinks lady sneasler has noticed him anyways, through Ingo's movements.) She does not always come with him on the night walks. The figure does not always stick right by his side.

The figure is not by his side to warn him when Ingo stumbles upon an alpha, tripping over the sleeping pokemon. It woke with a growl. Lashing out. Ingo could not react quickly enough. (He swears he heard someone screaming his name. But he has no idea who.) He does not remember anything after that, before he wakes up in his tent.

His body aches. His skin is clammy. His breath frosts in the air briefly. He hovers over him, worried. (Ingo mutters an apology for scaring him. And the figure relaxes, stepping back.) Slowly, warmth returns to his body, and he goes to attempt to sit up, only to be silently scolded by the figure. (Another apology escapes his lips.) He worried him. He just knows it.

Ingo checks over his side while laying down Instead. Pulling back the blankets to reveal his bandaged side.

He vaguely recalls the alpha. He does not know what happened afterwards.

---

Lady sneasler pokes her head into his tent, and cheers up, before looking back out and calling for someone. 

A few seconds pass. A distant voice speaks.

She climbs into the tent, settling by his side to look him over, churring her scoldings at him for worrying her. 

Melli pokes into the tent not long after. Shooing lady sneasler so he can check Ingo's bandages while he gripes at Ingo for scaring the living daylights out of him, turning up injured like he did. (Ingo did what?)

Later, when he finds out Ingo doesn't remember what happened, he recounts how he awoke from a pained scream in the night, and found Ingo stumbling through the dark. Eyes glowing bright enough to see by, and pale as death, blood dripping down his side.

He touches on how Ingo's breath was frosty in the night. And when Melli called out, Ingo turned, eyes wide like he was terrified, but a smile bared on his face, and whispered a simple "help." Before his eyes rolled back in his skull and he fainted dead on the spot.

Melli didn't know his fellow warden could whisper. (Ingo didn't know either.) And he doesn't admit it, but hearing Ingo whisper was unnerving.

He goes on about how Ingo was freezing to the touch. Like he had been out all night without proper gear for warmth. (He hadn't been.) And how he was lucky Lady Sneasler answered Melli's calls so she could carry him back to his tent.

(Ingo thanks both Melli and Lady Sneasler profusely that day. And he knows he thanks them too. Despite the lack of words.) 

---

He sticks closer to Ingo's side after that. Watching to make sure he doesn't hurt himself. Even on small tasks. (He prevents Ingo's mind from wandering, stopping his grip from slipping and cutting himself. Melli has watched him startle at 'nothing' a few times after that.)

Lady Sneasler and Melli watch Ingo more closely too. Melli checks in with him each day for the following week after the accident. Lady Sneasler refuses to let him leave her sight. She also no longer allows him to walk at night. Ingo thanks them both more. (They rebuke his insistences that they don't need to do this. Both have a soft spot he inadvertently wormed his way into.)

He is grateful for them all. Even if it can be a little overwhelming at times.

(He suspects Melli was quite scared when he found Ingo injured. Melli denies it. But does, let it slip one night, that he'd miss Ingo if he was gone.) 

(Ingo also suspects he's the only one who sits and listens to Melli often. He likes to think they're friends.)

---

Ingo often finds it harder to warm up, with him looming over his shoulder. An icy presence that chills him to the bone. But he finds he doesn't mind it. It's as comforting as it is chilly to have him so close, the dull ache in his chest abating slightly. Even if sometimes, he needs to put a little more effort into warming up.

Irida asks him, one hot summer day in the coastlands, (they were visiting Palina to check in, and help with a nearby alpha that was getting uppity,) how he's managing in the heat despite wearing his coat AND his pearl clan tunic. 

He does not have an answer for her. She just assumes he's used to it, like Palina, and leans into the cool fabric of his coat.

---

Warden Ingo sometimes faces nightmares. 

He never used to remember them. Forgotten worries and traumas. Even if they wracked him with worry and terror. But since the incident, one he can remember joined them. Of getting attacked by a massive alpha pokemon.

Sometimes, it is not the one that attacked him, but instead a massive golden beast. (he never remembers it past the sensation of pain and falling, someone slipping out of his grasp.) And he wakes up sweating, tears welling in his eyes as he cries for someone he does not remember, the loss of a place he no longer knows.

...

His chest is always particularly empty feeling waking up those nights.

---

He is always there those nights too. Rushing over to his side. (His heart pangs every time, he should be the one fretting over him and easing his nightmares. But he cannot do anything but talk to the figure to ease his loneliness.) He dulls the ache in Ingo's chest. Making it easier, even with the haunting, indistinct whispers, that ring in his ears.

The figure never seems to fully know how to help Ingo those nights. He does not know his presence is enough. Or maybe simply does not accept it.

His hugs are ice cold, and leave Ingo frigid, but he loves them anyways.

---

Irida, more than once, has walked in on him shivering in a perfectly warm tent, when Ingo stays in the pearl clan village. He excuses it as feeling cold from nightmares. She does not fully believe him, but he is not lying, he always hugs him after a nightmare now, leaving him ashiver. 

She stops asking after a while. Only making sure he warms up after.

(Nobody in pearl clan brings up the cold that seems to follow the stoic man no matter what nowadays. Neither side realizes the other knows about it. They appreciate Ingo's presence shooing off other ghosts.)

---

Irida thinks Ingo looks haunted in general. His thousand yard stare and lightless glowing eyes sometimes make him appear a ghost himself. 

But he always looks particularly haunted after nightmares. Or when he tries to remember things about his previous life. (She does not know of the white figure that always eagerly leans in, cheering Ingo on, when he tries to actively remember. She does not know his despair of not knowing who he is.) 

She worries about him. But there is nothing she can do, other than offer a gentle touch to wake him from his chilled thoughts. Though she offers a listening ear to him as well, he never takes it. (He has a listening ear in him. He does not need to burden Irida more.)

---

Sometimes, Ingo finds himself wandering the tunnels of wayward cave. The figure of white joins him at his side, and with time, they memorize the tunnels. Walking side by side with him through tunnels having an aching familiarity to it, just as battling does. Yet all he ever gets for trying to remember is a headache. He does not gain understanding into the meanings of the words he says, or the pointing he does, or why he is so comfortable with pokemon and in the belly of caves. 

Whisps of memory slip through his fingers like sand in an hourglass, even as unheard whispers dog his steps. Hints of meaning gleaned when he doesn't think too hard about it.

Maybe if he showed someone through. Maybe if he could find someone like him. Maybe if he could just remember -------!

---

When the space-time rift first opens, lady sneasler bundles Ingo into her den, holding him tightly. It is only when he keeps watch from the cave entrance that Ingo finds himself relaxing in lady sneasler's grip enough to fall asleep.

News does not come up to Ingo's area of the highlands quickly. Even when he can sit and listen to Melli. (He gets a little annoyed when Melli says the frenzies are a gift from almighty Sinnoh. This annoyance later grows. They remain friends anyways, much to the figure in White's bemusement.)

Ingo vows to do his best to help the skyfaller that has been quelling the frenzies through wayward cave, should it be asked of him. (It is, he does, and he does it well. He does not realize he will remember things.)

(He does not realize he will finally hold onto glimpses.)

---

The man in white hovers close when they walk in Jubilife. The skyfaller does not see the figure of same height leaning over Ingo's shoulder. But they do note the slight misting of his breath.

They meet him again outside the training grounds.

The air by him is colder. He is warm in voice, polite in words, but his presence holds the chill of death.

Irida doesn't seem concerned.

She always preferred the cold anyways.

Does she care her warden is a ghost?

(She assures them, when they ask, that he isn't a ghost. But she's pretty sure he's haunted by one.)

---

When Ingo leaves Jubilife, the white spectre lingers slightly. Staring at the skyfaller.

That child knows something.

He hears Ingo speaking to the guard duty, and hurries to catch up. (Can't lose him.)

There will be more time to observe the child later.

After all.

They'll be guiding them through the highlands.

---

Ingo watches the child approach. Their hesitance. The figure in white stands by his side, rocking on his feet as they wait. He greets them as cheerfully as he can, even as his hands are shoved in his pockets to keep warm.

They must not like dark caves. He thinks.

They have to travel with the ghost warden the whole time? They think.

How does a ghost even become a warden?

Nonetheless they listen as he gives them advice to aid against lord electrode, and muses the Pokemon's woes.

Melli, despite it all, is a nuisance. Showing up to challenge them and their resolve to quell his Lord once more. Testing their patience with his annoying personality.

They see the way he sidesteps around Ingo and his chill. Commenting that it's a bit cold out as if it were the weather, and not the unholy entity lurking beside him in a guise of friendliness.

Wait.

That's rude.

But he is a ghost or something.

Melli shivers slightly as he passes the chill of the ghostly warden. Neither one mentions it. Then he prattles on about the frenzies being a gift from Almighty sinnoh and other such nonsense. Challenging them to a battle.

They refuse. He already saw them battle Adaman. They proved their worth. They will not give him the satisfaction of a battle.

Ingo laments the man's selfish outlook when he leaves, but asks them what they want to do.

Nobody's asked if they WANT to quell the frenzies. At least, not in the way the ghost seems to. But they nod anyways.

This condemns them to walking through wayward cave with the man. For Melli has removed the torches from the path and left the cave unlit, therefore unsafe to travel.

Ingo would have guided them through anyways. But there goes their chance to debate it.

---

The skyfaller follows him into the the cave. Gaze flitting about with tense shoulders- do they not like the dark? That's fair.

He sends the white spectre a meaningful look. He moves forwards to scout. Keeping an eye out for danger.

The comforting chill follows, leaving him to warm up, and Ingo offers his hand to the child. Offering them reassurance. Though also a warning that his hands might be a little cold.

They're surprised anyways. He can see it in the way their eyes widen when they take his hand. (He has no way of knowing they didn't expect to be able to touch him, that they thought him a ghost.) And he gently curls his fingers around their little hand so as to not lose them moving forwards.

But still, they glance around warily. Their hand trembles ever so slightly. Why is a child the one quelling the frenzies? Why are they allowed to go alone?

They're fifteen, supposedly.

They look much smaller than that.

Ingo starts talking to ease their fears. Picking the first subject that comes to mind. Irida told them of his memory loss. So that ends up the subject he discusses. Despite normally coming up with dead ends discussing his memories.

He tells them he remembers a man in white. Not that he is haunted by him.

He tells them of the fragments of memory his mind can drag up. A smile that mirrors his frown. Flickering purple flames leading him onwards. (A common memory for him to get, wandering the tunnels. Not that he ever remembers it afterwards.)

The words "I like winning more than anything else" flash through his mind, and when he repeats them, the man in white shoots him a large grin.

The child seems more at ease when he speaks.

Unfortunately, fate holds no mercy for them. The tension comes right back when Ingo stops them from proceeding. Because the white spectre alerted him of a threat up ahead.

(Not that he says what or who alerted him to the alpha crobat. The skyfaller merely thinks he spotted it himself.)

Ingo resigns himself to the fifteen year old being stressed until they exit the cave.

(The man in white's features are a little more distinct in his mind.)

---

Torches set up once more, he shows them through the quarry. Only a minor stop when the ginko guild's least effective merchant stops them for a chat delaying their commute.

Volo distracts Ingo from offering the child help- If they can convince Melli- in quelling electrode.

The moment is not right again, before they reach electrode's station.

He has a feeling they would have denied him anyways. With how proud of their feats they are- at least, once he gets them talking about them.

The child can talk quite a lot about the battles and pokemon. Insisting they're strong enough to handle it when he questions how much they're doing by themselves.

No, the skyfaller wouldn't have accepted his help at all, he thinks.

(He sees the way they're relieved when he admits his departure after they beat him in battle and they have gained Sneasler's favour.)

---

He sees them again after the battle. Using the excuse of memory to check up on them. (Their hair is sticking up on end, singed, but other than that, they seem relatively unharmed by the ordeal.)

(He sees now, why they are the one quelling the frenzies.)

Ingo tells the folk present of a world he remembers. Of tall buildings and people and pokemon living, working, playing together in harmony.

He's completely spit-balling. But the words leaving his mouth pull the train whistle of truth in his brain. Images of these strange sounding things and places surfacing in the fog of his mind to fuel his recollection.

The man in white stands close. Ingo's breath fogging as a shiver runs through his body. For a moment, he thinks he can make out details. A face just as his. The same symbol adorning the hat. The large coat cuffs his coat had before they were destroyed. Large smile egging him on.

But still, the recollections end. He falls short of recalling anything detailed. And the face of his brother his face slips from Ingo's mind.

And so he takes his leave. Assured that everyone present is alright. Retreating to his station to ruminate on it all in safety.

---

The man in white sits across from Ingo outside his tent. Elbows perched atop his knees and chin resting upon the butt of his hands as he listens to the warden in black talk.

People have asked him why he has two seats always at his campfire. If he's that eager to have company. If he's that lonely out here that he always has a seat for visitors rather than making them sit on the nearby rock.

He tells them Sneasler likes to sit on the extra log. When she visits.

This is only half true.

The white spectre is alright with giving up his seat when people visit though. Instead sitting next to Ingo, warding him from the heat of the flames, or wandering the clearing, poking at the various plants and logs and leaving no trace of his presence.

People always sit a little closer to the fire when he does that.

---

Ingo catches the skyfaller once, while patrolling the highlands. They challenge him to a battle- well, once they get over the fright he accidentally gave them, calling out as he did. And the thrill of battle runs through his veins again. The ghost in white by his side. Mirroring his pose.

They tell him nobody battles like him. Nobody battles like them, either.

The suggestion of teaching comes up.

It sounds right.

And that is why Ingo ends up approaching Commander Kamado- after getting his leader's permission of course (she was thrilled to put a warden inside Jubilife to keep an eye on things like Arezu does for Adaman- and asks if he could teach people to battle in the training grounds in the village.

(Nobody in his clan, at least within the Icelands, enjoyed spending much time near him. Irida and Gaeric being the best at withstanding the chill he causes. So he has not taught much battling.)

---

The sky goes red and Ingo does not remember a single thing that happens during that time.

Melli tells him he had shown up to help with the frenzied gods. Smile stretched across his face and body trembling with how cold he was.

He was so cold his lips were blue. His breath puffed into fog as it left his mouth. His hands shook like nobody's business as he switched between rubbing them together and stuffing them in his pockets.

He was so cold he mixed up languages again.

He was so cold he had started out with the nonsense he was speaking when he first arrived in Hisui until he saw their blank looks.

He was so cold he- well. He was cold.

He was so cold his hands felt like Ice when he handed over some potions in an attempt to help when he wasn't allowed to come with.

People had thought, for a second, that he was a zoroark.

The skyfaller threw a pokeball at him.

He was not a Zoroark.

It is safe to say they made him go back down the mountain. Out of the snow and cold.

When the blue sky finally broke through the black, he had fallen over. Exhausted and shivering.

Melli scolded him for not taking care of himself in his worry when he found out.

He didn't want to stick around the mountain as much after that.

---

A new stop is added to his schedule.

Twice a week, he goes down to Jubilife village and teaches anyone who wishes to learn about battling.

Sneasler approves of him having a hobby that means he he interacts with humans other than Melli regularly.

She approves him having a hobby in general.

It is dull. At times. When there are no skilled opponents, or people willing to learn. But Zisu, the captain of the security corps, is happy enough to see him.

They have many fun discussions.

He likes the battles just as much. Standing right by the battlers, or cheering from the side. Egging them on with his silent actions.

A couple battles, he doesn't remember. He isn't sure the man in white does either.

They were fun anyways.

The best battles are against Zisu, or the skyfaller. The strongest members of the galaxy team.

People sometimes stop and watch those, and Zisu always joins in his dramatics.

---

Zisu asks him once, during a heat wave.

About how he manages to stand there with his black coat. Black hat. Black underlayer. And his pearl clan tunic.

She was wearing as few layers as possible and he was wearing at least three.

He has trouble staying warm you see. He tells her. Completely truthful as he shivers despite the warm weather. Ghost of white leaning over his shoulder as he listens in on the conversation.

That is the day she learns the best place to stand during a heat wave is next to Warden Ingo. The Icelands chilliest warden.

Which really explains why Irida immediately seeks him out if he's at Jubilife at the same time as her. That girl has the heat tolerance of an icecube in the middle of summer.

She doesn't talk about the ghost either. Beyond a couple jokes about Ingo being loud enough to wake the dead, or looking like he's seen a ghost.

Though she does ask, if he tends to be so cold, why he's partnered with a gliscor, and a tangela. Creatures weak to the ice and snow.

It's because he tends to keep his tent quite warm to counteract the chill. That it's quite warm enough for them.

---

When gods fight on mount coronet for the second time. Ingo is not in the highlands.

He is helping Irida with a project in the Icelands. Teaching the people of the pearl clan more about battling alongside Gaeric, and, because she decided to come and wouldn't leave, warden Sabi. A previous student of Ingo's.

The clan is not completely enthused by the lesson. But they learn a lot.

Ingo only hears of what happens afterwards.

He spends more time in the highlands again after that. Moving it down to one day a week he tromps all the way down to Jubilife.

He couldn't have changed the results if he was there.

After all...

The skyfaller won.

---

Slowly, since they met, the skyfaller warmed up to him. Vaguely becoming friends, perhaps.

He apologizes for not helping them with the frenzies. The gods on the mountain. The red sky.

They insist it's fine.

(They've gotten more comfortable with him since he figured out to keep a bit of distance from Ingo when they're around.)

Which means the eventuality of them sharing the theory that he's from another time. The eventuality of them discussing memories. Of places. Of people. Of pokemon.

Of homes long gone that they don't know how to reach once again.

The skyfaller still doesn't like Ingo, or being around him very much, but they recognize a kindred spirit of sorts. It draws them to him.

They would be alright to never see the ghost man again.

But they have to offer him the chance.

The chance to go home.

---

Ingo looks directly at a figure that only he can see. Staring at the ghost of his past haunting him in the form of his twin brother- the man in white. The clearest he's been in a long time.

"I don't think I can go home. I'd leave him behind."

[prokopetz]

Ghost hunting show that’s basically a reverse Scooby-Doo where in every episode the “ghost” turns out to be a different, unrelated supernatural creature or phenomenon. The main character is so focused on proving the existence of ghosts in particular that they’re always crushingly disappointed by this, and the moment they figure out it’s not a ghost they immediately lose all interest in investigating further. There is no indication that non-ghost supernatural phenomena are in any way commonplace or well known, and other characters react to them with the expected shock and fear – it’s just the lead who’s completely unfazed by any weirdness that isn’t a ghost.

[spiritsonic]

Well well well look who it is

[canisalbus]

is there a reason you usually answer asks with a . and talk in the tags? i got confused when i first saw that bc usually when people do that its a 'presented without commentary' thing but you do have commentary haha it feels like you're answering just in whispers like a ghost

.

[lifedistractions]

The time when Captain appeared on Horrible Histories

[herbgerblin]

Justin Tyler Mcelroy: i'm gonna DM a fun theme park world where big corpo's investment in hardlight tech is an active threat to the likeness, autonomy, and agency of the creatives that they employ lol

WGA, SAG-AFTRA, and other unions: *fighting to protect their likeness, autonomy, and agency from the threat of AI and other tech*

[starry-bi-sky]

more cfau miscellaneous things because Childhood Friends Danny and Jason have my head and heart always and I need to finish rewriting chapter two dammit (and redo the half-finished chapter 4 because its just Not The Vibes). i'm almost through I need to get through the graveyard scene. (i just stubbornly refuse to have it be shorter than the original chapter and thats the little death. that is the mind killer.)

Danny and jason’s ghost forms both smell faintly like burnt flesh and cigarettes. However, Jason has a more smokey smell while Danny’s smells almost,,, electrical? In a sense? Like he just straight up smells like burnt flesh and sulphur while Jason smells like someone put him in a smoker first.

It’s very much an unpleasant smell but Danny finds an odd comfort in it just as much as he finds a comfort in the smell of nicotine.

(Jason post-revival smells burnt flesh once and is immediately offput by the fact that it brings him an instinctive comfort. He doesn’t realize its because it reminds him of Danny, and is uncomfortable by it.)

-

In an au of an au, Danny’s altercation with Rath ends with Rath regaining enough of his sanity to snap out of the grieving state and ends with him breaking down. Instead of being souped and imprisoned, Rath, who is permanently 14, decides to Move On into the unknown. He’s exhausted, heartbroken, and tired.

(Is this influenced heavily by the ParaNorman scene where he talks to Agatha and helps her move on? Yes. But it doesn’t fit with the Original Storyline so im shoving it into an Au of an Au.)

Rath tells Danny that Jason lied to them (which he genuinely believes), and that he’s tired of waiting/looking for him/grieving. Jason is gone. He isn’t coming back, he abandoned them. And he wants his mom and dad, and his sister, and his friends. And he’s ready to join them.

He leads Danny out to Gotham, which other than Amity Park might’ve been the only city left untouched due to Rath’s own mental block on the place. They go out to the park he and Jason used to frequent or up to one of crime alley’s rooftops, and there Rath lies down and goes to sleep. Only to never wake up again, materializing into nothing as his soul moves on.

Before Rath leaves, he forces Danny to promise him that he’ll only wait for Jason for ten years. After that if he doesn’t find him, or if Jason doesn’t show, then Danny has to move on. Whether that be like how Rath does, or if its inly mentally/emotionally, doesn’t matter. He has to move on. Don’t wait for him. Don’t waste his time any more.

(“Oh, and if you find him, kick his ass for me.”)

Danny reluctantly agrees, and Rath lies down. Danny sings to him as he falls asleep.

(Angsty points if the vigilantes including Red Hood caught wind of their presence and were silently watching from the shadows. Rath might know they’re there, but Danny’s too focused on Rath to notice.)

(If only so that Red Hood realizes that this is what happened to Danny, and that Danny is gone before he can make things right. The tragedy, folks. The angst. The initial realization that Danny was Rath, and then also that Danny was dead and has been dead for years, and that before he moved on, he moved on believing that Jason abandoned him.)

(like i said it doesn't fit in the original timeline/storyline hence why its an au of an au and isn't nearly a fleshed out, but i was largely just focusing on the tragedy of Rath moving on and Jason being alive to see it and realize just who Rath is.)

-

Just like how the Lazarus pits shot Jason's twiggy 4'6-5'4 (depending on what you find) feet tall and 86lb ass up like a tree an essentially fixed his malnutrition, the portal did the same thing for Danny.

(granted i forgot about malnutrition and danny's likely stunted growth at first -- his family lived in crime alley and despite both his parents working, I don't think they had enough food all the time. He probably wasn't as badly malnourished as Jason was, but he wasn't healthy either.)

Granted his ghost in its "natural" state (14) is short, and his growth spurts were slow at first, it did result in him reaching his dad's height. There were points where it just happened overnight, like a baby. He went to bed one night 5’6 and woke up the next day 5’10.

Jazz is shorter than him. Although I have't decided if she's even liminal at all (and if she is, it didn't cure everything because she would have also suffered childhood malnutrition, and since in au canon their parents didn't get their hands on physical ectoplasm until after they got to Amity Park. So the exposure is less.)

-

Danny's voice absolutely sounds like canon Dan's. It kinda just dropped one day when he was 16-17 and never went back up. Sam and Tucker sometimes ask him to just talk about anything because they find his voice soothing.

I'm not sure yet how Danny would feel about it at first considering Rath, but I imagine that Rath, when he did speak, would have had a quieter and scratchier/weaker voice considering he's spent the last decade shrieking and crying.

(and i suppose technically that shouldn't have any effect on his throat considering he's a ghost and idk if that would actually affect him, but i like the idea so im keeping it)

In the beginning you could hear him from a mile away by the sound of his loud, echoing wails, but ten years later you can only really hear him by the soft, shuddering sobs he makes. Like he's gasping for air that isn't there. The future is full of very quiet survivors.

And it's much easier to speak when you pitch your voice upwards (especially when whispering/speaking quietly) so he might've spoken in a higher, airy pitch in order to be heard. So Danny might actually find a comfort in having a lower voice.

[whoopseydaisy]

The Overflowing Heart

I will tell you how I made this witch’s token, but you will have to find a way of your own. It is as Grandmother Wren told us,

“Remember always that some portion of magic is yours to wield, and that the world contains many, many truths.”

the recipe:

3/4 oz Kazuki gin

1 1/2 oz. Sake + tea mixture

1 oz. fresh squeezed grapefruit

3/4 oz. Strega

shake over ice, and serve in your finest or favourite tea cup

garnish with dried rose petals

notes:

Sherringham Kazuki gin— a collaboration of one of my favourite distilleries and my favourite local tea shop, Westholme Tea Farm. Made from Japanese cherry blossoms, and locally grown tea leaves with notes of yuzu, grapefruit, and juniper. I first visited Sherringham in a trio of my own, on a day long adventure, visiting a beach someway up the island. Westholme is run by an old coworker of my Aunt’s, and his partner who makes gorgeous pottery. I could not put words to my excitement when I first heard whispers of their collaboration.

Sake + Tea Mixture— I can never fully recreate this just the same. There is magic in that, I think. I have little left. I made it by taking a sprinkling of the following teas from Westholme, and cold steeping them in a mason jar with a large ice cube, topped with sake and a splash of moon bathed witch water.

featuring:

Blossom: (jasmine green, floral), for the cottage’s calendar

Bi Luo Chun: (green, delicate and earthy), for i thought it was grown here, over seven long years (I rolled a nat 1 on my perception check)

Pur-eh: (fermented, earthy), for its mushroominess and it’s connection therin

Dog: (black assam, vanilla and cardamon, from the Chinese Zodic series), the cardamom pod and a few leaves, for our beloved Fox

Witch Water: the witch water used in this potion was bathed in the Friday, October 13th New Moon (a day so witchy I thought for sure the class would be released that day!) in an empty kazuki gin vessel

~

Grapefruit— because it was pink and in season and a citrus I love dearly

Strega— the witch liqueur! According to legend, Giuseppe Alberti was given the recipe for this elixir after saving a witch falling out of the sacred walnut tree, under which witches would convene to dance and perform their rituals.

for the cocktail chapter of the @worldsbeyondpod unofficial cookbook

[isbergillustration]

A few doodles that did not quite stand on their own

[briarruler]

So a common Danny Phantom Crossover beginning is 'everyone dies and Danny has to move to live with his new guardian at crossover location' but often the angst-ness and/or OOC-ness of this set up can get a little much, so why don't we regularly see writers make it more fun in a universe where half the crossover deals with ghosts?

So sure the Fenton parents are dead and now some random adult from a different fandom has custody of Danny. But this is a world with Ghosts, who said that dead has to mean gone? The Fenton parents might be having an existential crisis over being both dead and now members of a species that they had heavy biases against, but ghost-dead instead of dead-dead parents is probably better for Danny's mental state?

Still just because Danny's parents still exist doesn't mean that people either A) believe they are around or B) that they have any legal rights. So Danny is still stuck getting a new human legal guardian.

Actually what would be really hilarious is a switching POVs between Danny who is talking to ghosts, possibly trying to be discreet about it given their lack of rights, and everyone else who is like oh, poor kid who had everyone he love die and is now in denial/suffering a mental breakdown.

[abhainnwhump]

Mind Control

(Content warnings: Necromancy, possession, demonic rituals, humiliation, major character death)

Whumper attaches a chip to the back of Whumpee's neck that gives them control of their nervous system.

Whumper only controls Whumpee's voice. No matter how hard they try, Whumpee can't say anything about them. Whumper forces them to lie to the cops and Caretaker. - Bonus if they have to say bad things about Caretaker and/or themselves instead.

Seeing through Whumpee's eyes, learning every secret about them.

Whumper controls Caretaker, but only occasionally and without a pattern. They black out when this happens, so one minute they can be cuddling them and the next they find Whumpee curled into a ball and covered in bruises.

Caretaker begs for Whumpee to stop hurting them, but they can't. The only thing they can control is their tears, which only increase as they stare at their friend's fresh corpse.

That moment where Whumpee falls to their knees and screams into the sky, clutching their head as they try to get Whumper out of it.

Eye color flickering eye color flickering eye color flickering-

Voice echoing voice echoing voice echoing-

Caretaker and Whumpee's other friends are suspicious. Whumpee is off in little ways. The way they sit, the way they smile and rest their face, it's all eerily similar to Whumper.

Whumper was killed when Whumpee was rescued. They come back from the dead as a ghost and possess someone for revenge.

Whumper performs a complicated ritual with a kidnapped tied-up Whumpee to bring their friend/lover back from the dead. Whumpee becomes the host.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

this is how it feels to chew 5 gum being a barnaby/howdy enjoyer. im Unwell

[grzybjek]

Self portrait(including my makeup looks from the last three days)

[starrysharks]

carnival kids

[momentary-moss]

so close