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ghosthunthq · 8 years ago

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@samantha-girlscout we regret to inform you that your ghost was, in fact, accidentally exorcised prior to the event this weekend. o_o*

Please accept this humble gift as a consolation. It was always for you anyway.

- @tiffotcf

This is an Anastasia themed AU that focuses on the backstory of Oliver(Dimitri) prior to the events of the movie.

December of their seventh year ended with their mother’s death.

But it was only the beginning.

Ten days later, the men from the palace had arrived. The villagers had tried to stop them, to keep them away from ‘the devil’s hut’. The woman there had been seduced by Lucifer himself, they said. And her cursed offspring were the proof of her infernal pact. It was said that they would wonder the frozen tundra, speaking to the souls of the tormented. That they could steal a portion of your very soul, should you let them touch you.

“No souls themselves, you see,” an old man had explained. “You can feel it when they stare at you with their glacial blue eyes. There’s no heat to them. Nothing alive.”

These facts had only spurred on Rasputin.

His men had smashed in the frozen door and after the discovery of the fallen mother, they assumed their mission to once again be a failure. But then he noticed the hearth, still struggling with a small flame.

There, buried beneath a pile of furs, were the boys. Huddled together and too weak to move, they seemed past saving. But then one of them shuddered against the cold and Rasputin watched as a log rolled sloppily towards the fire pit, a shower of smoke and sparks flaring momentarily in the dim space when it hit.

Rasputin grinned as he looked down at the small forms below him, wind chapped lips splitting and bleeding.

Yes, they would do nicely.

* * *

Noll knew that they were part of something dark, something wrong, even if his 9-year-old mind couldn’t fully comprehend what it was.

Rasputin had given them things the boys had never dreamed of, a warm home and warmer food, fine clothes, an education. But Noll saw it as he walked by his master’s side amongst noble and common folk alike.

He recognized the sideways glances when they thought Rasputin couldn’t see them. The fear and distrust—no, disgust—that hid behind false smiles.

He felt it in the fact that Rasputin only allowed one of them out with him at a time. How he only referred to them as “my boy” if he was forced to acknowledge their presence beside him. He knew it in the way the others had begun not so secretly calling them his “creature” instead.

He understood when Rasputin commanded him and Gene to pilfer small objects from those they met with. How later Rasputin would force Noll to use ‘his gift’ to pull secrets from the objects until he and Gene were both so tired that the servants would have to carry them through the wall passages back to their room. Leery eyes trained to their exhausted forms as if they were venomous snakes that could wake and attack at any moment.

Noll didn’t know his master’s plans or how their roles supported him in his influence of others and sowing dissention against the Romanovs. But he knew that something was building around them and it would only end badly.

He knew, and he said nothing. And again, he knew why. It was that same squint, that same dark coil that ensnared all those that knew Rasputin. Fear.

Fear of what might happen to Gene should Noll refuse or even question the will of their master. Rasputin was a smart man, in the most horrible of ways. It was as if he could look into the eyes of a person and instantly know how to make them his. And it had not taken him any time to mark Eugene as Noll’s weakness. So, Noll said nothing of the gathering storm.

Besides, who would he tell? There was Lin, a vikont who had refused to cower to Rasputin when all his peers had done so. The man had approached him with his greetings more than once, but Noll knew he would never take the word of one of Rasputin’s creatures seriously.

To complicate things, Gene had taken to watching the princesses and prince of late. Once he had even joined their highnesses at play.

Noll’s stomach had been in knots the whole time he had watched them from their window. But he couldn’t bring himself to go down to stop Gene from having fun, being normal, just this once. He had always known that he could never pass for ‘normal’, but Gene... Gene could smile, laugh. Just like any other child. So, didn’t he deserve at least a moment to live the life he should have and possibly could have had, had he not been born Noll’s twin?

Instead, Noll had found him after their games and reminded him that they had no place playing with them. That they had no place playing with anyone.

Gene had refused to let him into their room that night and Noll had slept alone for the first time on the sofa in the study. Only to awake the early the next morning with Gene curled up beside him. Noll had taken his brother’s hand in his own and let himself sleep in that morning.

Only a few months later they had tempted fate a second time. Gene had watched the guests arrive for the ball from the window of their room. Marveling at the gilt and glamor and the way it light up the night, reflecting off the ice and snow. He had begged Noll to let him sneak out to see the ball first hand. And finally, despite the tightening of that heavy coil in his gut Noll had agreed. They used the servant’s passages within the walls and followed the growing sounds of life to the ballroom.

Gene had promised to only watch, but it wasn’t long before the pageantry of the evening had pulled him further and further from safety. Noll had called out to him silently across their mental link. Reminding Gene of the risk should anyone see him. Gene had ignored him, his attention locked by the pageantry that surrounded him.

When one of the servants caught sight of Gene, Noll feared the worst. But they had mistaken him for a kitchen boy and after a quick scolding had sent him back towards the kitchen.

Through their link Gene attempted to calm Noll’s fears. Promising to meet him in the passages near the kitchen.

But Noll didn’t head back towards the kitchen. He didn’t know why. Maybe it was madness. Instead he found his feet moving forward, peering from his hiding place to see all the pomp and majesty that was so close and yet part of another world. He watched the room pulse and sway with color and life. It was intoxicating.

A giggle burst atop the overture of the room and pulled his eye. One of the young princesses (Matryona, the youngest girl, he had been taught in his lessons) was being lifted in the air by her father, the Tsar. She beamed as she floated above him, bright laugher continuing to bubble from her mouth. Her smile was infectious, and it widened the grins of all those around her. Just as he had seen her do with Gene and the others when they were at play.

Set down, she ran to her grandmother, burying herself in the warm arms of the Dowager Empress, joy radiating from her every movement. Noll was dumbfounded, enraptured in ideas of family and comfort that he had never even considered. Because of this he didn’t even notice when the man picked him up and began carrying him away with a grumble of ‘didn’t I tell you to get back to the kitchens boy’.

* * *

The night of the revolt, Gene was once again at their window. But this time he watched in horror as the dark of the night was swallowed up by the angry oranges and reds of torches and fires. When the rioters broke through the gate and stormed the palace he panicked. Noll attempted to calm him, explaining what he knew of the situation and Rasputin’s role in all of it. Noll told Gene that because of this it was unlikely that anyone one would come for them. That they would be safe should they remain in their room.

But it was not himself Gene was worried for, it was his friends. Noll couldn’t understand what Gene meant. It was then that Gene confessed that he had met with the royal children on more occasions since that first day. Noll was staggered, Gene had kept this secret from him? But why?

“Because I knew it would only make you worry”, Gene explained when Noll asked.

Gene begged for his brother’s help to save his friends and Noll relented. Noll unlocked the door with his PK and they set out through the secret passages once more.

They had searched, but the chaos outside the narrow space within the walls made it near impossible to recognize anyone. Noll had nearly given up hope when Gene said that he saw one of his friends. They ran in the direction Gene had seen, reaching one of the nurseries. The finery of the furniture and toys glinting in the coppery light. There amongst the glow was Matryona and her grandmother. They had to help them escape. Gene turned back to his brother and could see that Noll was frightened. He couldn’t hide it from Gene.

Gene was frightened too. He didn’t want Noll out of his sight, but danger lurked around every corner. Gene told Noll to hurry on ahead in the tunnel to check to make sure they were still alone between the walls.

Noll wanted to argue, but gave Gene a strong nod before heading down the passage, quickly turning from view. Gene opened the hidden door, instinctively ducking as a crash sounded from outside the room.

* * *

Noll waited, pressing himself against the wall of an adjoining passage as he watched Matryona and her grandmother flee past him. He waited, ears straining to hear the sound of his brother following them in their escape. He waited, calling out through their link for Gene to hurry up. But he received no reply.

Noll made his way back to the nursery, encouraging his anger along the way as it was much better than the fear that lingered beneath it. But when he arrived, the wall door was shut. And when he pushed it open he found the room was empty, the furniture and toys in the room, trampled and smashed. Noll called out again for his brother, but there was nothing.

Heat rolled in from the door to the hall. Noll noticed something glint on the floor by his foot. Without thinking he reached for it. He barely had time to register its gilded decadence before the vision pulled him in.

He knew whose hands it was he saw pushing the secret door closed, sealing away the only means of escape. He understood, in horror, as the view swiveled to the hall door and to the men that were there. He felt his brother’s fear, trapped, as the men came into the room. Frenzied from the anger of their sufferings they didn’t even hesitate as they cut Gene down. His bleeding form only one more destroyed thing left behind in their wake. He heard his own calls, his pleads for Gene to hurry, petty and needy sounding in his own ears. He could feel Gene smile in response to his voice, his mental presence.

And Noll knew that smile. A smile that had gotten them food when they had been starving. A smile that had made friends with royalty despite the very idea being impossible. A smile that Noll could pretend was his own so long as Gene wore it, despite never having been able to duplicate it.

A smile, he now understood, he would never see again.

Alone again, Noll dropped the ornate box from his fingers. His knees hitting the ground only seconds later. Around him the palace burned, the cries of the unfortunate ringing out, but he did not notice. His brother was dead.

Noll could not remember crying before this moment. Misery had always resulted in a hollow feeling that had been quickly repressed as he turned to address the unhappiness of his brother. But now, there was no one else’s sorrow to brush aside his own. Hot, sticky tears ran down his face and into his open mouth as he wailed.

* * *

It was there that Lin found him. Sobbing amongst the ruin and the smoke. He grabbed the boy, who offered no resistance, and as an afterthought the extravagant box that rested next to him, making his way out of the room. He stopped, shocked to see a copy of the boy in his arms across the room, half buried in the debris. His large blue eyes wide and empty. He could not save that boy, but Lin thought he could still manage to get him out of this place. He was half way towards him when loud shouts filtered in from the hall once more. If he stayed to gather the second one he only risked the life of the first. So, he fled, Noll heavy in his arms.

Lin used what money and connections he had left to secure them a small place in the slums of St. Petersburg. Money was tight, but Noll was quick to discover that the secrets harvesting and trickery Rasputin had previously used he and his brother for had merit in his new life. Between his silver tongue and small uses of PK he could con or pickpocket any number of unsuspecting marks. When over zealousness in PK usage had left him bedridden more than a handful of times, Lin finally put his foot down.

When they lost their flat, Noll only grumbled once that they could have kept it should Lin let him really work the crowd. Instead, he took to finding them better accommodations. Grander accommodations.

To say Lin was surprised when Noll showed him through the hidden passageways and into the heart of the long abandoned and looted palace would be an understatement. Lin had known that the boy had always been reserved to the point of coldness, but he had never expected Noll to choose to return to this place.

It was only temporary of course, Noll had explained. And it was the most logical choice. With the rent anywhere else they would never be able to make enough to get out of St. Petersburg. With this option they had a chance. Lin could not argue against his logic so he agreed, but it didn’t take him long to notice that while Noll was willing to be here, he would not set foot down the eastern wing.

Eventually, they came up with it. The way to get out. The city was abuzz with rumors of the princess Matryona’s survival. The last Romanov! And the word was that her grandmother in Paris was paying a reward to whomever found her! It was perfect. They knew the history and they had the music box.

Now all they had to do was find the right girl…

#GHW2017 #Ghost Hunt #GHHQ #Samantha-GirlScout #tiffotcf

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ghosthunthq · 8 years ago

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2017 Ghost Hunt Fandom Weekend

@ghosthunthq is excited to host the 2nd annual Ghost Hunt fandom exchange!

(Oh, and yeah, the puns are back. You’re Welcome)

Do you want to make your second weekend in April something that transcends human understanding, or perhaps for the more analytical of us something that at least deviates from the natural?

Silly question, of course you would!

How to have a hauntingly good time?

First things first, make sure you follow @ghosthunthq so you can participate and get all of our updates.

Then,

Ghost Writer/Artist media exchange!

Rules: You must give in order to receive. This is an exchange, so signing up means you are willing to create something for your client. It really is obvious, but it’s always important to spell it out.

Ghost Writer/Artist: you are a ghost, your haunting can vary in intensity, but should remain anonymous. That is part of the fun.

Minimums: Fics must be 1,000 words + and art must be more than a quick sketch (multiple sketches or a singular more intense work for example).

Step 1: Sign up for the GH Ghost Writer/Artist media exchange!

You will sign up for the exchange via a submission form. Sign ups will be from January 18th- February 1st. Keep an eye on your dash for the submission form on the 18th.

On this form you will provide information both on what you will like to give as well as receive.

Your tumblr name. This is important for a litany of reasons not the least being so your ghost writer/artist can creep on you to get a better idea of what you want or annon message you to more directly try to get info. And definitely not so we can make tumblr hitogatas of everybody.

What type or types of media you would like to receive

A small prompt for the subject of the media. Don’t get your case rejected, so please keep it at least semi-professional guys.

What type or types of media you are willing/able to create

Using a number of spreadsheets and a complex algorithm we will match a Ghost Writer/Artist with their client. We will contact everyone to let them know who their client is and what has been requested. You will get your prompts Feb 3rd or 4th depending on how long it takes us to take care of the maths.

Step 2: Get to work, this isn’t a cafe.

Last day to drop out is February 28th. Anyone who loses their specter or client will be provided with the assistance of a gifted medium to search for a new match.

Check-ins/Reminders will go out: March 2nd and again April 2nd.

Step 3:��Submit!

Submit your completed gifts to the exchange blog making sure to mention/tag your client so they know their gift has arrived. The exorcism is set for the weekend of April 8-9th so we area setting up a soft deadline of the 7th for submissions. This will help us with making the schedule.

Be sure to ask the GHHQ if you have any questions!

And please share this with your friends!

#Ghost Hunt #GHHQ #GHW2017 #fanfiction #fanart

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