#if ghosts are a thing because of unfinished business then when i die its just gonns be because of my tbr

[dragons-and-yellow-roses]

Finishing the last fifty pages of Leah on the Offbeat at 4am because I'm feeling gay and nostalgic

[seung-mong]

seung-mong's kinktober 2024!

gulp~ they're right behind me arent they? well... more like on top!

☆BANGCHAN☆

whats your favorite scary movie? - after a mysterious call in the middle of the night threatens to ruin horror movie night with your friends, you cant help shake the feeling that someone's watching your every move. at this point you dont know what's worse: a creepy stalker managing to sneak his way into the house, or how awkward and fidgety chan's been all evening!

includes: ghostface!bangchan x fem!reader, stalking, choking, slight knife play, blood kink, +more!

☆LEEKNOW☆

and so the lion fell in love with the lamb - after moving to romania against your parents' wishes to live a peaceful life with your dying grandfather, your dreams are plagued with visions of pale, almost shimmering skin, droplets of crimson red blood with the taste of the sweetest wine, and sharp fangs that make you sweat in your sleep. your grandfather can only urge you to pray, despite the growing dread in the pit of his stomach at the sight of the bruises that linger on your skin. not to mention the puncture wounds right by the side of your neck!

includes: vampire!leeknow x inexperienced fem!reader, stalking, religious themes, marking, +more!

☆CHANGBIN☆

not all monsters do monstrous things - changbin's been acting different lately, and you're hesitant to talk to him about it. after the accident that left him bloodied and bruised, the last thing you want to do is bring up how he's become so distant lately, passing up on opportunities to hang out, refusing your physical affection, ditching you for the new group of friends that seemed to appear out of thin air. but when he stands you up on your birthday dinner on Halloween, you know he's crossed the line!

includes: werewolf!changbin x fem!reader, childhood best friends trope, depictions of gore and violence, size kink, manhandling, strength kink, + more!

☆HYUNJIN☆

its amazing, the love inside, you take it with you - finally, a space of your own! a safe space for you to practice your spells without accidentally setting your mom's heirlooms on fire. a safe space for you to brew your potions without your mom complaining about the smell and how you're doing it wrong (you've figured). a safe space for you to chat with your cat companion, milo, without your mother rolling her eyes. a safe space... with an awkward, clumsy, GOSSIP of a soul with unfinished business!

includes: ghost!hyunjin x witch fem!reader, voyeurism, pervy hyunjin, subby hyunjin, femdom raahhh, overstimulation, dacryphila, +more!

☆HAN☆

you could be happy here, i could take care of you. i wouldn't let anybody hurt you. we could grow up together! - han thinks hes seeing things. he usually enjoys camping by himself, but when a bright light and a high pitched noise makes his head throb and his nose bleed, he genuinely thinks he could die. now he REALLY thinks hes seeing things because.. is that someone falling from the sky? after deciding to sleep on it, he meets you. and uh, oh yea. he's definitely seeing things!

includes: loser nerd!han x alien fem!reader, subby hanji, han jisung is a SIMP LOSER, bondage, use of some kind of aphrodisiac, choking, +more!

☆FELIX☆

absence makes the heart grow fonder…or forgetful - never being one to believe in fairytales, you were the only one in your village brave enough to explore the thick woods across the train tracks just south of your home. finally, a place where you can think in silence, with no one to disrupt your writing. when the creatures of the forest begin to make themselves known to you, you ignore all the signs telling you to run. especially when the so-called evil trickster fairy is the most beautiful boy you've seen in your life!

includes: faery!felix x fem!reader, kinda inexperienced felix, lowkey corruption kink (litrally if u squint), felix has wings (that r sensitive), overstim, +more!

☆SEUNGMIN☆

this is true love- do you think this happens everyday? - seungmin is too young for this, he thinks. the youngest prince to take the crown in centuries, and the war between his kingdom and the kingdom of the forest is intensifying. his people are going missing, and he has no idea what to do. it does not help that the king of the forest scares him shitless. he turns to you for help, the last witch of your line- you can thank his family for that!

includes: prince!seungmin x witch fem!reader, kinda enemies to lovers (the trope belongs to him i fear), hatefucking, biting, bondage, +more!

☆JEONGIN☆

we all go a little mad sometimes. haven't you? - you really should have filled up your gas tank. your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and the storm outside only further dampens your spirits. its dark and empty for miles, besides the little light that flickers on the side of the road. you brave the journey on foot, shivering, and soaking wet. your heart drops when you see the shelter, old and run down. thank god the young gentleman inside is kind enough to offer you a bed for the night!

includes: serial killer!jeongin x fem!reader, primal play, fear play, choking, knife play, jeongin is really rouch, +more!

☆INTERLUDES☆

got a horror concept for a fic? dont be shy and request! (submissions open until september 20)

wanna get tagged? (specify the kinktober special!)

[rosie-kairi]

*Walks in with a slushie* hey so after I sent that ask it made me come up with a whole idea I've come to call the Ghost AU:

Picture this, Ephemer and Brain are the only ones from the original 5 to rebuild keyblade society and live actual lives growing up getting married, becoming masters, and having kids. Yet despite that they're both weighed down by the guilt and despair believing they abandoned their friends to die when escaping the digital daybreak town.

So at the end of their lives all they want is to reunite with their lost friends. When they die Brain and Ephemer do find each other in the afterlife (or the final world) and they're so happy and they missed each other soooooo muuuuuch. Except there's one problem, they can't find the others. So they go searching the afterlife to find them.

This eventually leads them to Strelitzia who goes on to explain that actually they're all still alive. Ven, Skuld, and Lauriam ended up in roughly the same time period just spread apart from each other but worse than that they're all in a pretty bad situation. Determined to right their wrongs Eph and Brain go back to the mortal world to take care of their unfinished business. But of course, being spirits they can't directly affect or interact with anything so they can only do so much.

Ephemer goes in search of Ventus and Brain for Lauriam, and then they plan on finding Skuld together. Ephemer unfortunately finds Ven in the clutches of Xehanort and is helpless to stop the neo shadows from ganging up on him. He reads Xehanorts heart and tries to whisper in his ear this is wrong, you know this isn't right he's just a little boy please don't. Whether Eph recognizes Xehanort as his descendant or not is up to you (personally i think it should be riku but we're not talking about that) but fails to stop the split and can only watch in horror as Ven is ripped apart and left in a cationic state on the near brink of death.

Desperate to save him Ephemer searches for a light strong enough to help, and guess who he finds? On the night of Sora's birth as his heart makes its way to the destiny islands Ephemer guides him to Ven and asks for his help knowing that a pure light will give Ven time to regather his strength. You can also imagine his surprise when he sees Ven dropped off at Eraqus' residence. The only real way for Ephemer to interact with the wayfinders is to go in their dreams and ask them to look after Ven and succeed where he failed. His messages are cryptic on purpose to keep Ven's true identity safe but also forge the subliminal suggestion to keep the younger keyblade wielder safe. And then Ven decides to journey on his own and Ephemer would've had a heart attack if he wasn't already dead and tries and fails to get Ven to go back to LoD. Only to regret that when he sees Eraqus draw the keyblade he once wielded and left to Brain be turned on Ven (it's a real good thing Brain wasn't here for this because ghost or not things would've gone from bad to worse seeing his grandson pull a stunt like that).

All the subliminal messaging pays off when Terra and Aqua go all out to protect Ven but it's still not enough. Ephemer tries to stop Ven from sacrificing his heart in the meta battle pleading for him to stop but if he couldn't stop Ven at 11 he wasn't going to have much luck with him at 16. When the battle draws to a close all Ephemer can do to stop Ven from fully fading away is to once again guide him to a heart that will keep him safe. He whispers to Sora's heart take him and protect him and over the next 10 years visit his dreams encouraging Sora to be strong and save him which unintentionally feeds into his savior complex (whoops).

Meanwhile Brain successfully locates a much older Lauriam but is unable to stop him from becoming a Nobody (and as a ghost he tries to throw hands with Luxu who he clocks instantly but he's dead so all he can do is yell insults and curses). Brain can only communicate with Marluxia when he's standing in front of a mirror or a reflective surface it's the only time he's visible and can get Marluxia to hear him. He keeps trying to get him to remember who he is, a dandelion, a union leader, a keyblade wielder. He tries to apologize over and over for failing to help him when he needed it. For giving Lauriam hope of finding his sister and then not following through with his promise to help find her.

This obviously does not go well for Marluxia too ashamed to fully face what he has become and what he has done. His heart is in turmoil and anytime Strelitzia is mentioned has him storming away or breaking the surface Brain is reflected in. This all comes to a head in CO, where Brain keeps trying and failing to get Lauriam to wake up and stop his schemes, and even though Ven's heart is currently with Roxas at that time the bond is still there and it's the closest Brain has gotten to getting through to Marluxia. But all it does is bring more anger and despair so instead of waking up he buries himself deeper and succumbs to darkness fighting Sora.

Now Ephemer and Brain truly feel like they've messed up. Ven's heart is damaged and not in his body, Marluxia is gone but Lauriam didn't show up in the afterlife so they didn't get him back, and they still haven't found any sign of Skuld. Standing in the CoW even though Ven is asleep and can't hear or feel them the boys can't help but marvel at how big he is now, they smooth down his hair and readjust his jacket and cup his cheek and even though neither can actually feel anything it just feels so good to see him again. Occasionally they both enter his dreams just to check on him and make sure he's okay but they can't bring themselves to actually talk to him.

They realize Ven is likely the key to bringing their lost friends fully back so they split up once again this time Brain trails Xigbar to see what plans he has while Ephemer tracks down Ven's heart and has the talk from the previous ask with Roxas so when Sora wakes up Ven will be safe.

When Marluxia comes back and meets Sora it's much more intense. Even though Sora doesn't remember he now has Ven's heart and his presence is reaching out trying to connect with Lauriam deep inside. Ephemer is still whispering to Sora to free him, bring him back over his shoulder which just confuses Sora. And when trying to unleash the power of waking Ephemer can directly speak with Sora guiding him through the process to release Ven's healed heart. Both Ven and Eph thank Sora for keeping him safe all these years but Sora won't remember that part.

It all comes to a head in the keyblade graveyard where both Eph and Brain try to use their keyblades to divert deadly attacks just off course enough to miss giving the others but mostly Ven more openings to attack. When Marluxia is defeated for a final time he finally remembers everything and the gold bleeds to blue and he smiles and cries realizing that he didn't completely fail and sincerely thanks Sora for "protecting him" which he doesn't understand.

Then the big attack happens with all the keyblades getting launched and Ephemer appearing proper he lends his strength to Sora and again thanks him for "keeping him safe" which just confuses Sora even more (weirdo cryptic guys never explaining anything to him story of his life).

So in the end they finally managed to save Ven so one day two more to go. They now have to find Lauriam all over again because Streli confirmed he's still not dead and he finally got his heart back so he's all complete and continue their search for Skuld. Unfortunately, 5 very unwanted individuals materialize outta nowhere 4 of which should not look like no time has passed for them at all. So despite being departed souls Ephemer and Brain ready themselves to try and stop old enemies from hurting their friends, they somehow have to find a way to make more direct contact and likely jog some old painful memories.

How the rest of this plays out depends entirely on what holes Missing Link and KH IV fills going forward.

Ephemer and Brain when the Nightmare is never-ending.

FR that sounds like it would suck soooo bad for these guys. Universe just does NOT want them to win.

[ashoss]

Hii!! This is waterunderthebridge12, I just stumbled across your art of The Robin Declaration and it made my entire week <3333. I love Duke so much and I'm so glad there are others who love him too!!! I would love if you dropped your Duke-centric fic recs, I've only read a few good ones (that aren't just him being an outsider) so any recs are appreciated!

oh my god! hii! im so glad u liked the silly little doodle lol i would love to do an actual drawing for either The Robin Generation or the Robin Declaration !! they were such fun reads and i absolutely adored the way you portrayed all of them <33

unfortunately i dont really have a lot of duke-centric fics but i have a couple!

WHEN EARTH FINDS STARS. by orpheusaki

duke & jason, pre-WAR and signal

15.8k words, 4 chapters (unfinished)

"Let it be known that I completely detest the implications of what this situation is mirroring," Red Hood grumbles to himself and it's the longest string of words Duke has heard from any so-called Gotham vigilante, let alone the one who's known for shooting more than he is talking. "The fuck?" Duke mutters, because if he's already going to die, he might as well try and make sense of it. "I'm not going to care about whatever sob story you have," is what Red Hood replies with instead of explaining, "Where are your parents?" "Gone," is all Duke says, because it's really none of this guy's business. It's also the truth. Somehow, Red Hood sounds even more anguished about this information than Duke is, "Ah shit." (Duke steals the tires off Red Hood's bike and somehow gains a family.)

YOU HEAR ITS SONG FROM THE MORNING BIRDS. (series) by orpheusaki

duke & bruce, duke & batfam

9k words, 3 words (unfinished)

A series of Duke Thomas centric works, mostly featuring his growing relationship with his new kind-of-dad-boss-friend, Bruce Wayne.

Keep Your Head, Your Backbone, and Your Heart by MrMich

duke & tim, alfred, bruce

54k words, 6 chapters

The last thing that Duke expected on what was supposed to be just a regular patrol was being suddenly thrown five years into the past, coming face to face with a darker, more violent Batman than the one he knew, a broken family, and a Tim who was a foot shorter than Duke, and not even Robin yet.

A silent shadow flitted past him, just barely visible on the cave walls. He went rigid, tracking the shadow in the corner of his vision. And then he dropped to the floor, just in time, as a familiar black gloved fist passed overhead. He just barely missed being hit by the punishing blow that would have landed right on his temple for a sure concussion if he hadn’t dodged. “Batman?” Duke yelled. He somersaulted forward, just barely avoiding another strike. “B, what are you doing?!” “Who are you,” came the growled response. A shiver crawled down Duke’s spine at the grim hostility in Batman’s voice that promised violence, and something tightened in the back of his throat.

Family-- by incorrectbatfam

duke & batfam

3.3k words, 1 chapter

“Your assignment over the weekend is to write a poem about your family.”

Strange Bedfellows by snackbaskets

duke & steph & jason

2.7k words, 1 chapter

Little known fact about bats: they're AWFUL at sleeping alone. At least, the ones in the Manor seem to be, if the half-conscious kind-of-maybe siblings using Duke as a body pillow are any indication. When did he sign up for this?

Ghosts Of The Past by PlatitudinalTeen

duke & martha, thomas, duke & bruce

7.2k words, 1 chapter

Shortly after moving into Wayne manor, Duke discovers he can commune with the dead when his grandparents, Thomas and Martha Wayne begin to accidentally haunt him. ------- "No powers?" Duke repeated, even more confused as he tried to recall everything he had ever heard about Ghosts. "So, you can't possess anyone or make the lights flicker? What about telekinesis and all the other scary stuff from the books and movies?" "Those things can only be achieved by malicious spirits, dear," Martha told him. "We may be ghosts, but we aren't vengeful." They had made peace with their deaths, and even if they were still tied to the manor, it was exactly where they wanted to be. Thomas chuckled. "Yes, that's more of our son's department," he quipped, using his fingers to mimic Batman's ears. "Vengeance is a young man's game, really."

Starshine by zodarii_dae

duke & bruce, reverse robins

3.6k words, 1 chapter

Duke Thomas is a Gothamite, through and through. There’s not a lot he knows for certain, but he knows that the bagels are great, that Bruce Wayne is stupid rich, and that Batman will always protect him. That’s just how it is. So when Batman promises to bring him to his family, he believes him. Neither of them expected it to happen quite the way it did, but it all works out for the best. Or How Duke loses his parents, gains a new family, and becomes a vigilante- in that order, with some stuff in between.

necessary reminders by Quillium

duke & batfam

5.2k words, 1 chapter

Duke, as Signal becomes known and as Duke becomes part of the Wayne family.

*ao3 acc needed

hope you enjoy !!!

[lickthehilt]

SCRAPPED Blade x Reader Drabble

a/n: okay so i had this idea in the back burner of my mind but no matter how much i tried to nail the opening paragraphs, i just couldn't. instead of letting this idea die with my creativity for this prompt, i decided to just post it so theres no thing on my part where im stressed about getting it perfect. i might rework it but ngl im at a stalemate with this. im starting to get wordy but its because im tired hee hee.

summary: your business in traditional portrait painting amongst the planet's digital developments is situated in a quaint alleyway. you get all sorts of customers, mostly old and all claiming an eye for art, but one day you get a customer-- more like a pest-- that lingers by your storefront.

none of the drafts are finished ^^

FIRST DRAFT:

There’s a ghost haunting your windows. Well, haunting the outside of your windows. You started to notice a few decades ago, thinking nothing of the lingering shadow. Maybe it was a cat. It probably was a cat, right? There’s plenty of cats in this area in particular, especially in your little alleyway where your shop is tucked away.

This little planet has a thing with cats. Small and big, fat and thin, long or short-haired. It’s unlike your home planet— ship— as your home town had more of a thing for dogs. You think.

The shadow is nothing but another part of your routine. An imaginary friend that remains invisible, a loose hair dangling from your hairline, a hangnail. It's just there.

So one day you're gazing into the direction of the haunted window and expect to see the feline orbs of amber, yellow or green. You pause when you don't.

His gaze is like a stamp branded into your skull; red, like the colour of peppers and ketchup. Rubies and you think you’ve seen a flower in that exact shade. Your heart staccatos under his shadowed gaze to the beat of a skipped stone before it sinks. Your stomach sinks.

When you blink, his visage is gone.

The door bell tinkles as the door swings open. She looks like one of your paintings: hair the colour of finely aged wine and dehydrated pink roses. You like the sound of her heels as she clack, clack, clacks into your store, thumbing at picture frames and—

“May I?” Her finger teases the sheet that you had pulled over your work-in-progress side project. From where you sit by your main easel, by your canvas, you can see the unfinished carvings made into the stone slab that made the torso. A pattern you could, would, never get right from memory.

“It’s not finished.” Your jaw clenches at the way her finger inches the cloth a bit higher.

“I don’t mind.”

A wave of heat blushes your ears, mouth twitching. “I think… I do mind, though.”

“Do you?” When she looks at you, you cower away. She chuckles, crossing her arms. “Kafka,” sticking out a coy hand, she inches towards you. You shy your hand towards her, briefly pausing to wipe your palms against your apron. “I’m here to collect.”

“Collect?”

“A commission.”

“Oh.” The holographic computer flickers to life as you sit back on your wheeled chair to scoot towards your desk and away from your painting. “It’s under Kafka?” Sliding your fingers to scroll through your orders, you pause. “Oh yeah, yeah. One minute.”

When you head into the back room, your heart sighs. It’s quieter back here. Not like it was much loud in the main room, but the quality of air, the atmosphere, is just different.

Your paintings are tucked away, pre-wrapped with clear film and half packaged. On the tables scattered around the room are figurines, sculptures of things, people, animals.

People don’t really commission old-style portraits anymore; too much time and material. Why wait days and weeks for a single picture when you can easily capture one through digital lens?

Adventuring further into the room, behind a dressing panel, is your most prized possession: a diorama. It’s a distant memory. You made this long ago, centuries amongst the stars, and after living for so long you can hardly remember the finer details. Are the bumps that made up their little noses replicating the real life subject accurately? Or is it a placeholder for something that you couldn’t replicate? What exactly was this scene and is it meant to be happy or sad?

There’s a blurry vagueness to it, lost intentions through the simplification of art. The whole thing is meant to move, too. But the key was lost to time, or just lost. When you pried the buildings away from the base, a system of gears are the canvas to dust builds the foundation.

You find Kafka's painting in one of the slots in the back corner of the room, already packaged neatly in a zipped folder.

"Everything alright back there?" Her voice rings closer as she peaks into the back room. "My, my. Is that the painting?" Her pleasant smile is still plastered onto her face as she motions forward.

"Stop!" Instantly you bite your lip, clearing your throat. "Uh, I mean. It's okay. I'm coming out."

She hums.

"Oh, is this room restricted from the public?"

Normally no, but, "Yes... something like that." She echoes you. Her gaze wonders, flickering from the dingy light hanging from above, to where your body blocks the entrance cradled by your dressing panel.

SECOND DRAFT:

There’s a ghost haunting your frosted windows. It lingers and spooks your customers, who glance back as they patter into your studio. They never complain though, well outwardly to you, only taking glances to the figure as you converse with them.

It never harms or interacts with you and whenever you tried to go outside to confront it, it disappears. Leaving trinkets for it does nothing as it never touches them, and food sometimes (on the very, very rare occasion) gets eaten. So you leave it be. The shadow is nothing but another part of your routine. An imaginary friend that remains invisible, a loose hair dangling from your hairline, a hangnail. It's just there.

Well, one day you're gazing into the direction of the faceless thing and pause.

His gaze is like a stamp branded into your skull; red, like the colour of peppers and ketchup. Rubies and you think you’ve seen a flower in that exact shade. Your heart staccatos under his shadowed gaze to the beat of a skipped stone before it sinks. Your stomach sinks.

When you blink, his visage is gone.

The door bell tinkles as the door swings open. She looks like one of your paintings: hair the colour of finely aged wine and dehydrated pink roses. You like the sound of her heels as she clack into your store, thumbing at picture frames and—

“May I?” Her finger teases the sheet that you had pulled over your work-in-progress side project. From where you sit by your main easel, by your canvas, you can see the unfinished carvings made into the stone slab that made the torso. A pattern you could, would, never get right from memory.

“It’s not finished.” Your jaw clenches at the way her finger inches the cloth a bit higher.

“I don’t mind.”

A wave of heat blushes your ears, mouth twitching. “… I do mind, though.”

“Do you?” When she looks at you, you cower away. She chuckles, crossing her arms. “Kafka,” sticking out a coy hand, she inches towards you. You shy your hand towards her, briefly pausing to wipe your palms against your apron. “I’m here to collect.”

“Collect?”

“A commission.”

“Oh.” The holographic computer flickers to life as you sit back on your wheeled chair to scoot towards your desk and away from your painting. “It’s under Kafka?” Sliding your fingers to scroll through your orders, you pause. “Oh yeah, yeah. One minute.”

When you head into the back room, your heart sighs. It’s quieter back here. Not like it was much loud in the main room, but the quality of air, the atmosphere, is just different. Your paintings are tucked away, pre-wrapped with clear film and half packaged. On the tables scattered around the room are figurines, sculptures of things, people, animals.

It's only a brief break before you're hauling the medium-sized painting back to her.

FINAL DRAFT START:

The ghost came to you in a dream. You could hear the distinct ticking of the clock, the beats as it swung side-to-side from your living room.  An itch bloomed from your scalp, in which you patted with flexed out fingers; the beating against your head almost jogged the memory of your dream back to the forefront of your mind as it faded into the crevices of your thought. Your sheets pooled by your hips, a shiver tickling your spine as you wiggled to get out of bed.

Padding downstairs, you pushed through your filed sketchbooks before pulling one out and sitting by your desk.

[textingtroublesanswers]

[Lore attachment: The concept of ghosts in tf2 always confused me. You can go to heaven or hell but also the Mann brothers ended up as ghosts (and eventually tried to drag the other to hell in a previous halloween map) and there were ghosts with rocket launchers in the halloween maps. My theory is that it's like usual ghost rules where theres unfinished business that needs to be done, meaning someone else can conplete that business to let their souls be free to go to heaven or hell.]

To all of the mercs, if a bomb were to drop on all of you while everyone was in the base, destroying all your possessions (which will remove the "unfinished business is an object" unless they didn't bring it to the base.) as well as destroying the respawn machine, rendering all of you true and permanent deaths, where would you all end up? Would you go to heaven? Hell? Or would you haunt the living?

(Have fun with this one! You can even mix it up a bit with other people being in the base with them as it happens! Like the babies, Zhanna, Miss Pauling etc. etc. This is all hypothetical so maybe even the characters themselves would bring it up! This is why its a bomb and not just that every merc dies.)

-🤡 (made this in french colors for fun hehe)

Before you're even done talking, Ludwig is already gone from the room. No one knows where he went, no one even noticed him leave, not even Misha. He is just gone, & everyone realises this very quickly.

"Do you think doc left an experiment on the bunsen burner again?" Tavish asks while scratching his beard. He & Mikhail were the first to notice Ludwig's absence, & Tavish was the one to bring it up to the others.

"He usually doesn't leave them on when we get questions," Dell says, scratching under his helmet. He's just as confused as the rest of the team, "But, going back to the question, I'd hope I'd go to heaven, although I'd probably end up as a ghost. I have a lot of blueprints to work on, & I'd hate to leave them all unfinished, even if I never get the chance to build them."

Jeremy shrugs, "Eh, doc's weird. He's never really been on board with the whole heaven & hell thing. See, one time Bug & me were talking to him, & he says that he grew up Christian, right, but his family was actually Jewish, so he grew up with a weird mix of ideas, but then as a young adult he stopped believing in god cause what sorts god would force him to live through all the bullshit he lived through." The rest of the mercs stare at him for a moment, wearing matching looks of confusion.

"Vati said that?" Bug squeaks.

"Yeah, when he was drunk. All three of us were, but you the most, so you don't remember it."

"Oooh, right."

"Anyway," Jeremy continues, "I'm going to heaven, duh. I'm god's gift to humanity after all."

Mick is shaking his head, draping an arm around Jeremy's shoulders, "I'm not getting into all that with doc's past, if he knew you knew he'd probably dismember you. But, I know for a fact that I'm going to heaven." There is a chorus of mumbles from the other mercs, ranging from Mikhail & Tavish saying they'd hope they get to heaven, to Jane claiming he is immortal & could never die, to Bug saying she'd prefer hell because of all the fire.

"You've been rather quiet, French toast." Dell says, coming over to Jacques.

Jacques takes out a cigarette, & looks down at Dell, "With all of my sins, I thought it was obvious I was going to hell. However, I can't shake the thought that Ludwig is not telling us something."

Dell wraps his arms around Jacques, standing on his tip toes to lean up for a kiss, "Ah, when is doc not, not telling us something? You know how sensitive Lu is about his past, he hasn't had an easy life."

"No, but this is different, labourer, I'm telling you. That man cannot be stealthy to save his life, & yet no one noticed him leaving," Jacques sighs, "He is hiding something from us, & I simply hope it's nothing bad."

Dell smiles sadly, "He hides a lot of stuff from us, Spah. A lot of stuff, trust me."

[numbugwritingblog]

The Miracle Mind of Serene: the Tale of a Girl and a Ghost (Chapter 2)

Previous Chapter

Index

---

18/01/2018

Serene swung back in her chair as she turned to face her phone, her telekinesis typing away at the computer without her even looking. “So! First of all, Mortis, I’m going to need you to gather up all of the information you can think of about Richard.”

“Well,” the phone blared out in that deep, distorted voice that it had whenever Mortis was talking through it. “He’s a bitch.”

Serene shook her head. “No, no, I mean anything that can help identify him. Stuff like surname, species, address, age at the time you, er… died.”

“Well…” Mortis paused for a moment, the only sound being that of Serene’s keyboard going clickety clackety on its own. “He was around 20, 30 years old, and… well I don’t know what his address was, but the people he brought into the United Federation arrived by boat on the South-East coast, and he’s a rat - that’s both literal and an insult.”

“Mortis, you can’t just call someone a rat like that.”

“... He’s a bitch. Is that there.”

“That’s… I suppose…” Serene turned back to the screen as the keyboard finished typing, her initial search starting. “Say, when did you die again?”

“1967.”

Serene stopped entirely, slowly turning in her seat to look at the phone. “... The 60s? Do-... Do you know how old he’d be then?”

“Yeah, yeah, he’d be like 50 or something.”

“No, he’s going to be 70 at the very least, maybe even 80.”

“... Fuck me.”

“He’ll be an old man who’s lived through most of his life by now,” Serene explained. “You sure you still want to find him? And not, I don’t know, find something else to do?”

“No. Finding him and drinking milk are the only two things I want now.”

“But-” Serene blinked in surprise at that last statement. “Wait, milk? I-”

“Milk is fucking delicious.”

She shrugged. “Alright, fair enough… But, well, what are you really going to do once you’ve found him and you’ve given him a piece of your mind?”

Mortis was quiet for a moment, before speaking up. “I assume I’d just fade away on the spot, like this is that unfinished business kind of deal.”

“You assume?” Serene asked aloud, staring at Mortis for longer. “Don’t you know what being a ghost even means? Maybe from other ghosts or-”

“Nah,” Mortis interrupted her outright. “I’m the only one I’ve ever known of, so I have to guess at what’s going on.’

That was when the doorbell suddenly rang, Serene flicking her head over to the approximate entrance.

“Eugh,” Serene grunted out as she rolled her eyes. “Just a moment, Mortis.”

“Why? What is it?”

“Oh, probably just a fan wanting to meet me,” she explained. “I always get some from time to time. Hard not to be famous when you’re the only psychic in the world.”

Mortis let out a huff, dropping out of the phone and following along behind Serene.

Serene immediately put on a smile moments before opening up the front door.

What she wasn’t expecting to see was a male buffalo in a suit, his I.D. labelling him as a government agent. “Serene Cirillo, you’re under arrest.”

Serene paused, her eyes slowly going wide as her smile faded very quickly. “Wh… Under what charges?” she mumbled out. Already her body was getting tense, hand clenching the door handle tightly.

“You violated your official agreement and went off surveillance”. The officer moved aside to escort Serene out.

Serene cleared her throat, holding out her hand. “Let me get my lawyer, because there’s clearly been a mistake-”

“At 9:01 PM last night you went off surveillance without approval.”

Serene glared at him, her eyes starting to have a faint white glow. “... I got approval. You can check the voice logs at 6:13 PM yesterday, the 17th.” She didn’t question how she knew the exact time down to the minute, right at this moment she knew something was wrong. Afterall, how could they forget? They never forgot.

The officer didn’t react beyond speaking further. “It likely is a misunderstanding, then, but until it’s cleared up you’re coming with us.” He then moved aside to give Serene the chance to walk out peacefully.

Serene hesitated, before seeing Mortis pass by and possess the agent right in front of her. “Mortis, no!” She held him in place, Mortis unable to even check the agent for any weapons. “Get out of him, now!”

“You know it’s bullshit,” Mortis hissed out in the officer’s voice. “There’s no way that they just-”

“Just stop,” Serene cut him off without pausing. “This is just going to make things worse. I’ll just get this misunderstanding sorted out, it won’t be long at all. Please.”

There was a long pause. Before finally Serene could see Mortis leave.

Serene then let the agent go, watching him drop to his knees as he hacked and coughed.

“I am following you now,” she explained immediately. “I am exercising my right to remain silent.”

The officer glared at her, but said nothing else as he let her lock the front door before cuffing her and bringing her along.

---

“Name?”

“Serene Cirillo.” God, even in interrogations Serene was still being asked the same routine.

“Age?”

“21.” Not a single thing had changed, despite the fact that it was a police officer instead of a neuroscientist.

“Occupation?”

“Can we just skip to the actual interrogations please?” Serene complained, getting to her feet. “It’s me, the psychic girl, and I can prove I’m the psychic girl real quick by using my psychic powers.”

With that she lifted herself off the ground, hovering for a few seconds before she landed back down. “Is that good? Do you believe that I’m the psychic girl now?”

The officer looked to Serene with a raised brow, but sat down in his chair all the same. “My apologies, miss Cirillo, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Serene dropped back down onto the chair, putting her hand on her forehead. “Thank you, it’s just… It’s been stressful. Today and yesterday.”

The officer nodded. “I understand why it’s so stressful, but hopefully we can resolve this swiftly. It says here that you’re under supervision due to your unique psychic powers.”

Serene didn’t say a word, instead nodding.

“And it says here you’re under arrest for endangering others via illegally interrupting that supervision-”

“6:03 PM yesterday, I rang up to organise my given week of no surveillance,” Serene repeated. “It’s in the logs.”

“I’m sorry, miss Cirillo,” the officer said with what seemed to be a genuine look of disappointment. “But the logs have already been provided, and there was no call from you yesterday.”

Serene’s eyes began glowing white again, silent as she processed this information. “... It must have been tampered with, then. I can provide evidence, too.”

The officer raised his brow again, looking back to Serene. “And what evidence is that?”

“Oh, it’s-” she paused, cogs turning in her head. They couldn’t have forgotten. And… And Mortis had to turn the surveillance off on her end… Why is she only realising now? They’re doing this on purpose. “... Actually, can I speak with Mortis first, please? He’s the ghost that’s been following around.”

The officer was very clearly trying to hold back a laugh, every fibre in his being telling him that laughter was a very poor action to take. Despite all of that, he still failed, a quick chuckle escaping his lips. “R-right,” he said, trying to regain composure - but it was already too late.

Serene blinked, looking over to the ball of fire that only she could see. “Mortis, can you hear me?”

Mortis obliged and flew into the officer, his posture abruptly changing. “Yeah, yeah, the sooner you’re done with this the sooner we can get back to business.”

Serene gave a nod. “Right. Before you even answer me, just ASAP, can you fly back home and into my phone, please? Guard it, just in case-”

She saw Mortis leave the officer’s body as he flew directly up.

At that same moment, the officer was hacking and coughing intensely, almost falling off of his seat. He slowly sat back up, eyes wide in realisation that he was just possessed for nothing more than a brief conversation. “You- the ghost- I-”

Serene nodded. “I haven’t been lying at any point in this interrogation, I promise.”

The officer let out a heavy sigh, getting to his feet. “Well for your sake, I hope you’re right. Don’t worry about Mortis, we’ll make sure the phone stays locked up in evidence until it’s time for the court case.”

With that, the officer turned and left the interrogation room, leaving Serene sitting there alone.

He turned to an officer that was waiting just outside, whispering into his ear. “There’s evidence in her phone, wipe it immediately. Don’t bring any weapons, and stick to a group of three or larger at all times. We don’t know what this ghost is willing to do, but he is real.”

---

Mortis had made his way back to Serene’s home (knowing full well in the back of his head that Serene’s bleeding heart was going to make him make it up for the unfortunate driver he used to get here).

The door was still locked, but that was no trouble, as he just phased through the door to get to the other side.

Guarding the phone… was going to be boring. As Mortis prepared himself for the dull task, he noticed something.

Serene’s computer was still on. And it was on a webpage. He slowly moved into the computer monitor right away, looking to see what he could.

…

He couldn’t scroll.

After a few awkward moments of moving between the monitor and the mouse, he managed to see what was on this webpage. Information on Richard. It looked like he founded a restaurant called the Delicious Den.

He could just go there, and linger until he found the little rat and-

Oh, he loved it so much.

… But they knew he’d be searching for Richard now, surely. Now it’s only a matter of Richard changing restaurants and he’d be back at square one. He couldn’t have that.

At least now he was getting help from that naive little girl, at least now he had a back-up if things went back to square one. So when he left the monitor, he made his way into the phone. He then lifted the phone up all the way to the roof. Might as well make it impossible to spot while he waited.

…

He might be able to make the machine do whatever he wanted, but that didn’t mean he knew how to navigate the web. Maybe now was the time to practice, while he’s stuck inside.

He tried to use this fancy schmancy search bar to find something to watch.

a… c… t… i… o… n… space… m… o… v… i… e… s…

…

Enter?

Ahah, that worked!

… What is all of this rubbish? Why does it look so fake? And why’s this one called volume 2? Guess they just can’t make movies anymore…

---

25/01/2018

Serene was confident that she’d come out of this court case with a success. Her lawyer was unusually incompetent, and the prosecutor was a clear expert, expertly weaving his words into compelling nothings. By all accounts, anyone would think this was a complete disaster.

But thanks to Mortis, she knew that her phone was safe.

And right she was, as when it came time to present that phone to court, the evidence that she had made the call was right in there, time and everything. Even despite the prosecutor trying to argue that the audio was faked, there was nothing he could say to throw it away as evidence.

So she was rather pleased with herself as she walked out of court as they pronounced her innocent, even managing to successfully argue for a full month of no surveillance. It was while she was walking out that a grizzly bear stepped out, wearing a government suit. It was the person in charge of her experimentation, General Thomas.

“Congratulations on the court case,” he spoke warmly, extending a hand. “I hope there’s no hard feelings, miss Cirillo.”

Oh, there were plenty of hard feelings. But Serene didn’t share any of them as she shook his hand. His grip was unusually fierce, her hand even hurting a little from it. “It’s okay, General. But I will be making sure the surveillance is actually off from now on. Hope you understand.”

He looked her right in the eyes with his good eye as he ended the handshake. Behind the smile Serene could see something focused, calculating.

“Of course, you can never be too careful. I’ll likewise be making sure that this embarrassment doesn’t happen again.”

Serene nodded, stepping to the side. “Well then, I’ll be seeing you for your next scheduled experiment in a month. Might even ask for two hours in exchange. Bye bye~” As she continued walking, she briefly twirled around in order to wave at him, smiling wide. Now it was a simple case of making her way to the bus stop.

An ear piercing, high pitched screech rang out from her phone, immediately followed by an annoyed huff from Mortis’s hellish voice.

“Wait for me, why don’t you?”

Serene let out a small giggle, turning the voice speaker off before putting the phone to her ear, as if she was making a phone call rather than talking with her ghost friend. “I did, I was talking with the man who was probably behind all of that. The big grizzly bear.”

“Oh him? He was angry as fuck, definitely trying not to swear in public.”

Serene let out a sigh, slowly shaking his head. “I really can’t believe they’d do this. I spent my whole life trusting them, and… eugh. I’m so glad I can trust you to help me out when I need it, I don’t know what I would’ve done with somebody.”

There was a small silence before Mortis answered. “Of course you can trust me.”

Serene smiled wide. She knew she could trust him, she had made the right call. It was then that the bus arrived. “Just a sec,” she said before lowering the phone.

Once she was on and seated, she brought the phone back to her ear. “And back.”

“Thank god, I was dying of boredom.”

Serene rolled her eyes. “Now that that’s dealt with, we’re going to continue looking into your reunion, aren’t we?”

“Sure am, while nobody was at your house I quickly checked what you left open on your computer. Richard was apparently the founder of some Delicious Den place.”

“Right, but…” Serene briefly pauses to look around, noting that around half of the bus has noticed her, some giving occasional looks, some trying to avoid eye contact entirely, and the few kids that are on the bus staring at her in awe. “... I can’t go as Serene. And besides, I’ve just gotten a big success, I really want to spend the night celebrating.”

She heard the long, drawn out groan from Mortis. “Fine, fine. But we’re going there tomorrow, no matter what.”

---

General Thomas was slumped in his office chair, his grip on his mug unusually tight. He was glaring at the files, just knowing what the week’s papers were going to say.

Psychic Girl Found Innocent Thanks to Supernatural Intervention!

All of his plans with experimentation on this psychic girl, ruined because of this stupid little ghost! This was going to set him back years if he can’t find a way to control the situation! Where did he even come from?!

No, no, he couldn’t let failure distract him, no matter how much it humiliated him. He had to figure out why Serene had searched up information about this ‘Richard’ individual, and why this ghost is helping her. Hopefully his employees have already-

“Sir.” He didn’t move, but his eyes glancing up to the agent that entered his office told that he was paying attention. “We’re in touch with Mr. Richard, and he’s asking for our protection in exchange for his information.”

At this, Thomas looked up to the agent, a brow raising. “Protection? From what?”

“From Mortis, sir. Claims that they knew each other.”

General Thomas paused, his frown slowly fading away. This could be the key to solving this little setback. “Very well. Let’s hear him out.”

---

Next Chapter

[maddestmewmew]

opinions on ghosts?

ok trying to get into my 2am mindset for this but also dont set ur expectations 2 high cuz this isnt something nobody has said before thats for sure lol.

i dont believe in proper ghosts. i think the idea that a "soul" or "energy" coming back, refusing to go to the afterlife bc of some "unfinished business". thats just not real sorry. i really WANT to believe in ghosts! i wanna look at a building that someone died in and go "that someone is still here". who doesnt? who doesnt wish someone lost was still right next to them? who would wanna know theyre really, truly alone?

ghosts arent real. not in the literal sense. but the whole thing thats going around, "haunt the narrative", thats how ghosts Are real, at the same time. everywhere you look, you stumble across small ghosts.

someone died in your school. dont worry this is purely hypothetical. but someone died in your school. or maybe they moved away. or maybe they graduated, or dropped out. either way. someone you saw every day, even just because you had the same route to classes, theyre gone. to you, theyre gone forever.

but theyre not. of course its not that simple. because you had the same route, from class to class. next week, you start your trek. you step foot outside english class, and the next foot carries you further. step after step. but now, theres no one with you. no one to echo your footsteps. as you walk through the hall, you realize, despite the bustling crowd, you are completely alone.

you never talked to them. you never caught their name. youre not even sure why they stopped showing up to school.

but you know now. you Literally walk this path alone.

so next year, when you find someone that takes the same route, you find yourself striking up a conversation. you see their laugh, the way their eyes sparkle. you become friends, and when you walk, you squeeze their hand tight, afraid to ever let go.

is that not itself a ghost? the character in this story, the hypothetical "you", while they didnt ever even know the first person, theyre haunted by them. they bothered to find someone else, to cling to them, out of fear, but also out of love, out of regret for memories never made, bonds never forged. you are haunted.

and, that other post, about how we carry a bit, just a bit, of everyone weve lost, one way or another. are those not ghosts? my eye passes over one of my clown dolls, and i feel a pang of guilt, of anger. One of my ex friends gave me that doll, it was the last conversation we ever had. Is it not haunted? hes not dead, but hes gone forever to me. i repeat certain phrases because of him, are they not haunted? am i not haunted?

even if you die never knowing a single person. if you live wild in the woods and everyone you knew before that is also dead. you still haunt the world. your bare footprints in the mud. the maggots that chew at your eyes. the flowers that sprout through your ribcage. small memories of you, that will carry and echo through the world, to say "we have lost." yet you continue to haunt. youre a ghost.

[ghostly-ghosty]

You know, it's a strange feeling, being dead.

Hi. I'm sure you're expecting me to tell you about myself. Well, the truth is, there's not a lot to say.

I have no name. You can call me Tormented, if that makes it easier.

I have no age, but you can rest assured that I am an adult in body and spirit/mind.

I have no gender, or pronouns. For convenience's sake...my gender is dead, and my pronouns are alternating between they/them and it/its, because neither feel quite right.

I don't even have a beating heart to call my own. Well. I do, but...

I inhabit a body, a living body, my living body, but I'm not alive inside of it. I'm not a possession. I don't know what I am.

I'm sure you have questions.

(I'd be surprised if you didn't..)

When did I die? That's up for speculation...some time in the past 10 years, is my best guess.

How did I die? I don't remember. I have a few theories, though all of them are pretty depressing...

Why am I here now? Unfinished business, I guess, like a lot of ghosts. Whatever that means is beyond me.

What does it feel like, being dead? ...Mostly very cold. The body, my body, shivers almost constantly...and it aches. It's like I don’t fit in it anymore... it's too heavy, and breathing is an uncomfortable thing that I'm near constantly aware of.

I hope that answers some of your questions...I wish I could provide more answers than I have.

If you have any more, or....if you'd just like to talk to me, then I'm here, I guess. :)

[maddambone]

log DL 2024,08,20

One of my main purposes throughout the years is being a translator from the dead to the living or vise versa but many questions I get asked are about the smaller things the basics and the day to day effects of ones death, as a DL this log will be less a research summary and more a introduction for those who wish to know better. A often confusing thing of one's after life is how greatly its affected by their cultures and how they died but for people with satisfying deaths don't normally come back as spirits at all, most natural spirits have a set strength and time before moving on to the afterlife [I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of the afterlife as I am still here] but most spirits don't stay for more then a week and will struggle to interact with physical objects as most spirits only need some time to think and process there death before disappearing, this means the rare spirits that are strong enough or smart enough to effect the living have some sort of greater unfinished business, or even rarer they are not a natural spirit. Given enough time the dead will develop their spirit form the anatomy of the spirit form is based on 3 things who you where before passing, how your cultures describes spirits as well the way people from your cultures mourn your death, and the most important factor that affects the spirit form is how you died, for example a ghost has no need for blood but there are spirits such as myself that have blood and can bleed, but people that saw very little blood in life and did not die in a bloody fashion will not have a drop of blood in there spirit form.

The power and effects of the spirit tend to pull more from your unfinished business and the cultures you base your self on, one time I met a yokai immigrating from Japan to Brazil I thought it was impressive how easily they were able to display their spirit form as human shapeshifting into a normal person with no signs of death speaking and interacting with the living using passive effort but when approached was more afraid then confident, for with mortal strengths comes mortal weaknesses and even after proving i was not human as them they would dance around the details of there nature but eventually told me something along the lines “for every yokai there is a solution” implying that this passive strength I was impressed with was normal but exploitable in some way. I have not gotten to research spirits from all around the world but i have seen many strange and amazing things, a human spirit developing into a bird, a whole band possessing skeletons to perform together, a drowned second mate giving directions from the seafloor to the land, a ghost that possessed TVs, the rare few that stay in the world of the living long enough to develop a spirit form are often unique in one way or another.

The abilities and effects that a spirit can use to interact with the world of the living like, phantom touch, possession, telekinesis, photon manipulation, shapeshifting, are all worthy of their own detailed logs, but those that develop their spirit form should end up with one or more of these affects even if they dont know how to use them or want to use them, as stated before the death has highest priority on how the spirit form looks so someone may never learn photon manipulation if they are afraid or embarrassed of what they now look like, just because a spirit has the ability does not mean they have the skill brains or strength to use it well and just because someone has these skills and strength to interact with the living does not mean they are comfortable with the method, and most spirits that have the abilities the strength and the experience to reliably effect the living dont always use it for selfless or nice reasions, on a unrelated note by talking to other passing souls have I learned that my natural talent in possession is not just impressive but disturbing to both the living and the dead.

Now that i have gone over some details on how diverse and complicated a wandering soul can be I can beguine on the more consistent aspects of the spirit, first thing first death its sad it can be awkward but it happens to the best of us and based on your philosophy it can happen more than once, after death the spirit will leak out of the body flowing and forming usually starting as something simple maybe just a ball or cloud slowly forming more as time goes on but no strong personal features not until some recollection and time to process ones death, once understanding the situation better the soul will try to learn moving usually by learning to safely push themself in the direction they wish to float or by remembering there legs and feet which they will then learn to have interact with objects like the floor, if they dont accept their death and disappear before learning how to move they will wander and visit loved ones this is when the cultural part of the spirit starts to form, people with weak social bonds or low spiritual beliefs dont develop as much but still important as it is usually the moment spirit realizes why they have yet to moved on and whether or not they will be doing so any time soon, the more time they spend after death the more they remember of there death but becoming completely content with the death may lead to the disappearance of the spirit.

[robynsscarf]

Ghosts: an essay :)

When I say the word “ghost” most people will immediately think about the ones in horror movies. The ones that like to scare people by moving objects in their house and randomly appearing behind them when they look in the mirror. But ghosts aren’t just cheap jumpscares to startle you when you don’t expect it, although using them as a scary monster in films can work really well if done in an original way. People are scared of the unknown, of what they can’t understand or see, and ghosts are exactly that. You don’t know what they look like, how they move, whether or not they can actually walk through walls and, most importantly, you don’t know what they want. Maybe they’re just curious or want to mess around a little bit, or maybe they’re one of your relatives or friends, who simply want to make sure you’re doing alright after you lost them. Then again, it is possible they want to scare the living hell out of you, and then kill you, or possess your body.

The most well-known type of ghost is what I like calling the “sheet ghost”. As the name indicates, this is the ghost that looks like a human with a bed sheet draped over ‘em, usually with two holes cut out where the eyes are supposed to be, so basically, it’s your typical Halloween ghost.

An evil spirit resembling this description is the one in the incredibly underrated “Under the Shadow”, a Persian horror film released in 2016. For most of the runtime, a mother and her daughter are haunted by something they can only manage to catch glimpses of, and if that wasn’t enough, their country is also being bombed. The spirit is particularly interested in the little girl, constantly hiding her toys and blocking her way to keep her from leaving. The reason why is unclear, but I’m guessing it wanted to either possess or eat her. Either way, its true form is finally revealed at the end of the third act, and it is not what you would usually expect: it looks like a bed sheet, but a massive one, and not one hiding a person underneath it. It can expand and move in a weirdly fluid way, and it turns into something resembling black tar. The little girl sinks in it as if it were sand, but she manages to get away, thanks to her mother. I like to think this creature is a collection of all the people previously lost due to the bombings, trying to claim the lives the bombs couldn’t, that won’t stop until it is defeated, or until it consumes every single person living in the country.

Previously, I used the word “haunting”. It is one of my favourite words, because of how many meanings it can take, and the weight that comes with saying it. It isn’t always something to be scared of, in fact most of the time, it just saddens me. Ghosts are, in my opinion, the saddest thing you could use in a film, whether it be a horror or something else. I view them in a more sympathetic way than most, because I see them as people, not scary monsters. Ghosts are people that have died, and aren’t ready to move on, or aren’t capable of passing to the other side for whatever reason. Oftentimes they have unfinished business to attend to, or weren’t, in any way shape or form, ready to die.

Writer and director Mike Flanagan aka the “horror king”, is the best at writing ghost stories. His most famous work, “the Haunting of Hill House” is one of the most incredible series I have ever watched. It is about five siblings, who’s mother is dead, and father absent from their lives. And then the unthinkable happens: little Nellie kills herself. The others are left wondering why she did that, and all blame themselves for not helping when she asked. They’re all haunted by the memories they have of her, as well as their own ghosts. For Luke, Nellie’s twin, it’s the tall man with the walking stick and hat; for Theo, the middle sister it’s the smiling man; for Shirley, the older sister, it’s the man she had an affair with; and for Steve, the eldest son, it’s mostly Nellie. Nellie, haunted by the bent-neck lady. Nellie, who haunted everyone.

The thing is, they’ve all been haunted since they were kids, since they moved into Hill House. Everything was fine before then. But the house ruined it all. It made their mother lose herself, little by little, until she almost killed her husband while sleepwalking. It scarred the children, a scar that will never fully heal. All because of some damn ghosts. They became adults, and lived somewhat happy lives, until their sister’s untimely death. After that, their ghosts came back to haunt them. Until they all came back to the house. Throughout the show, we are left wondering who these ghosts are, and why they choose to follow the kids. Most of them end up being people that used to live in Hill House, but one of them was an entirely different thing. The bent-neck lady, the one that haunted Nellie was… Nellie. She didn’t kill herself. Her own mother did. She died and she wanted her family back, so she strung a rope around her daughter’s nape, and watched her fall, breaking her neck. Nellie had been haunting herself the whole time. It’s like she knew it was going to happen, like she was trying to warn herself not to go back to the house. But she did, and nothing can change that.

In the end her father joins her and her mother, in order to let the others live. Acceptance. That is what Nellie represents. The final stage of the grief process. Because what are ghosts, if not our grief manifesting. Like Steve said: “ghosts are guilt, ghosts are secrets, ghosts are regret and failings. But most times, most times a ghost is a wish”. Ghosts can be anything, even memories. That is what makes the whole concept of ghosts such a sad one. Ghosts are the manifestation of one’s own grief and despair and fears. It can be someone you once loved, or a total stranger. Ghosts are anything and everything and nothing, all at once.

Another Flanagan masterpiece is “The Haunting of Bly Manor”. In this one, the main character, Dani, is haunted by her fiance’s ghost. He died seconds after she told him she wanted to call off their engagement. So she moves to England, to work as an Au Pair at Bly Manor, taking care of the two little kids. But her fiance isn’t the only ghost, because anyone that dies on the manor’s ground is cursed to stay there. No one who dies at Bly Manor ever truly leaves. The lady in the lake won’t let them go. The ghosts in this story are different from the ones in Hill House, because they can possess people. Two of them possess the kids, one because he wants the family's fortune, and one because she loves him. She changes her mind at the end, but somebody needs to take the lady in the lake’s place; and that will be Dani. Dani, whom Jamie, the florist, loved more than anything. Dani who restored her faith in people. Dani, who came to see her love every night, to rest her hand on hers, so they would always be together. Even if you can’t see them, they’re always there. Your ghosts, and only yours. They will never leave. That is why it is called a “haunting”. Everybody is haunted by something or someone. Whether they realise it or not is up to them.

But the ghost that really moved me was Hanna. Hanna was the caretaker of the Manor, and she died. She got pushed to the bottom of the well. But she didn’t know. She didn’t know she had died. She was so in denial, even the others could see and talk to her. When she realised what happened she wailed. She didn’t want to die. But that was something she had to accept in the end. It’s not like she could come back. At least she got to talk to the cook, Owen, one last time. Owen who knew she was dead, and helped her through it.

Being a ghost would be torture, because you can’t do anything. All you can do is watch. Watch your kids grow up without you. Watch your partner find someone else. Watch your family move on. You’ll miss out on so many experiences, so many of your dreams will never see the light. You’re helpless, useless, and completely, utterly alone. You’ll die of loneliness over and over and over again. And no one will know. No one will know your suffering and your pain. You will never be able to rest, unless you move on from your own demise. But how could you possibly do that? A24’s “A Ghost Story” is a perfect example of that.

Ghosts can be an apparition. They can guide you from another world and give you hope. In the very popular anime “Attack on Titan”, what happens is exactly that. I won’t get into its complicated and convoluted story, because the ghosts only appear right at the end. They appear in front of their living friends, after they had won the war, to show them that they knew. They knew that their death wasn’t in vain, and they wanted the people they cared about to know that they knew. That it was worth it. Levi, who lost literally all of his friends, finally found closure by seeing them one last time. By paying his final respects and giving his regards. All without having to say a single word. It is easily my favourite scene in the show. Sometimes, words are just not needed. I feel like ghosts are the perfect vehicle for that.

A similar thing happens in “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure”, but this time, the ghosts actually speak. They encourage their friends and family to keep going without them. They give them hope and that is exactly what a ghost is. Hope. Because you know that there’s a ghost looking out for you. There always is. Whether it’s someone you know, or a complete stranger, you can always count on the fact that you’re not alone. If you want to make that creepy instead of sentimental, go ahead. I’m sure your ghost is going to have fun with it.

Ghosts can be a friend. In the 1985 film “Night on a Galactic Railroad”, Campanella guides his friend Giovanni, on the best and worst train ride of his lifetime. While riding the train, the two see amazing and whimsical things. They explore interesting towns and have fun together. But Giovanni doesn’t know that this is the last time he’ll see his best friend. He died. Everyone in town is looking for his body. He’s on the train to the afterlife, or whatever lies after death. Campanella knows this. And he knows that he’s the one that has to get off at the last stop, leaving his best friend behind. So he makes sure they have fun on their last adventure together, before he inevitably has to say goodbye.

Finally, ghosts can be a helper, like the three kids in “Coraline” who aided her escape. That way she wouldn’t meet the same demise they did. They helped her, even though she was a complete stranger. But that didn't matter to them. They were selfless ‘til the very end.

[fubukiswifenoimnotjoking]

Omg but what about an au where Genos does die BUT he’s so stubborn about getting his revenge and being with Saitama and not completely leaving this world that he becomes a ghost, but when u see him he’s not in cyborg form he’s in his 100% organic form before the mad cyborg attack, reg eyes, reg flesh, everything. He doesn’t have time to care about that though because he’s terrified to see how saitama has fallen apart, his new HA apartment dirty and dark and Saitama curled up into a ball in the corner and he immediately wills himself to be more physical (corporeal?) and Saitama is so happy to see him he starts violently sobbing and tries to hug him but falls right through to the floor. They try again, this time genos putting in a little more effort to be solid, and they can hug and actually feel each other. It’s a beautiful reunion and Saitama cries for like two hours holding genos before they realize holy shit, genos is a ghost and he’s huggable and he’s not a cyborg anymore??

I think then on Saitama and Genos go off doing their usual, shopping, hanging, stuff except Genos doesn’t continue working for the HA and they decide to focus on finding the mad cyborg together. Saitama is so relieved to have genos back but is terrified to lose him again and worries that if he helps Genos w this then Genos will disappear, the whole ghostly unfinished business thing. He’s extremely clingy and emotional and more outwardly caring to Genos that Genos feels like he might die again just from shock, heartache and love.

Idk what else tho, maybe they do find and defeat the cyborg (maybe genos finds a way to fight things in ghost form) and they’re holding their breath, saying their goodbyes and finally admitting they love each other before Genos disappears before they realize hey, he’s not disappeared! He’s gonna stay! Because his other unfinished business is to stay by Saitama’s side for as long as possible. La la the end, not super happy au bc he’s dead af but idk I think its a cute idea and I’m trying to cope.

[wrenqueenisboss]

DSMP Angsty Imagines - React to Your Death pt. 3 --- c!Wilbur Soot

Part 3 to my series of “dsmp boys react to your death”:  Pronouns used: they/them (if mentioned) Warnings: explosions, spoilers for the events of Dream SMP, death, grief Words: 1.3+

The list: c!George c!Bench Trio c!Wilbur - (you are currently on this post)  c!Dream c!Technoblade - (coming soon!)

You had tried convincing your boyfriend not to blow up L’Manburg. But Wilbur Soot wouldn’t listen to you. He wouldn’t listen to anyone. Not in this state.

It had been a long time coming, honestly. Everyone should have noticed the signs. You should have noticed the signs, but it wasn’t as if you were actively looking for a reason to paint your lover as an insane psychopath. 

For months, Wilbur had slowly been descending into insanity. Looking back, the tells were all there. Very irregular sleeping patterns; sleeping not at all and then way too much, days when it seemed as if his emotions had been completely turned off, days when his temper seemed too volatile, the times when you’d catch him obsessing over books explaining the mechanics of tnt. It had all been laid in front of you, but you were too blind. 

That’s the thing about love, children. You either find yourself forced into relationships that make you unhappy or find yourself so in love with someone that it practically erases reality and judgment. There are a few lucky people. A few who find the loves of their lives and spend the remainder of their days in perfect happiness. No intoxicating amounts of infatuation, no feelings of emotional claustrophobia. You were not one of those lucky people. Not at all.

It was already too late to turn back by now. The two of you were already heading to the Button Room. Tommy, Tubbo, and Quackity were supposed to be with you, but they didn’t agree with Wilbur’s plan, so they stayed behind.

The three had been desperately trying to convince Wilbur to step down, to destroy the button and give up on his wild fantasies of watching his unfinished symphony burn to the ground. But that hadn’t worked, So they turned to you.

And as much as you agreed with their reluctance - and disagreed with your boyfriend, you had to support him. For that’s what he did with you. When you had been a newcomer to the server and no one would help you, he did. At the very least you owed him that. But you were beginning to doubt how far your support would actually go when you found yourself standing in the button room.

You and Wilbur looked up at all of the signs on the walls, each singing L’Manburg’s National Anthem in your head.

I heard there was a special place where men could go and emancipate the brutality and tyranny of their rulers Well, this place is real you needn’t fret with Wilbur-

“You’ve been so good to me, Y/n.” Wilbur’s unusually quiet voice interrupted the anthem playing in your mind.

“I’m your partner, Will. I’m also your friend. It’s my job.” For some reason, you could bring yourself to say it was because you loved him. Your heart knew it was because you didn’t love him anymore. Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. It was a different type of love now. Much less blinding, and much more clear.

Wilbur reached up a faintly-scarred hand to touch one of the signs on the walls. “You’ve stuck by me and supported me even when no one else did.”

You could feel your face begin to heat up. “Will, about that.... Are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure this is the right thing to do?”

Your boyfriend whirled around at that. And for some reason, your mind began to sing the National Anthem once more.

My L’Manburg My L’Manburg

“Don’t flake out on me now, Y/n. We’re so incredibly close. We’ve come this far together. You can’t possibly be thinking of abandoning me?” His eyes narrowed dangerously, sending ominous shivers down your spine.

My L’Manburg My L’Manburg

“No! Of course not! I just think it would... make sense if you... thought about this some more,” you stammered, desperately fumbling for the right words.

Wilbur stepped toward you suddenly and you flinched backwards. He didn’t seem to notice - or care. “Y/n, if you don’t support me in this plan, I have no choice but to kill you. You know too much. And yes, I do remember that you’re on your last life. That changes nothing.”

Your thoughts froze, so did you. Never, did you expect him to go this far. Sure, you’d been aware of the fact that he was slowly becoming insane for weeks, but threatening your life? That was something you could never prepare yourself for.

You were trapped. Either way, you were pretty sure you’d die. If you agreed, the explosions would kill you. If you didn’t, Wilbur would. 

For freedom and for liberty our nation sought to build on these a victory for all under our freedom

“I’m going through with the plan, Will. We’re going through with it.”

Well the darkness came and then it went we built a home and watched it sink and from the rubble emerged my great-

Once again, the anthem in your head was interrupted. This time by Philza. Philza Minecraft. Your boyfriend’s father.

Your heart raced as it realized how close to pressing the button Will had been only heartbeats before. Philza and Wilbur were having a whole debate in the background. It was only when your name was called that you snapped out of your trance.

“Y/n?” Will asked softly, placing a hand on your shoulder.

Your head snapped up. “Yes?”

You almost shut down at the sad acceptance in Wilbur’s eyes. Had it worked? Had Phil really talked him out of pressing the button and triggering the tnt?

“Phil here has convinced me that maybe the button isn’t worth pressing.”

Hope sprung in your chest. It spread its wings.

My L’Manburg My L’Manburg My L’Manburg My L’Manburg

Your boyfriend leaned down to hug you, head resting on your shoulder as his back faced Phil. You were just about to hug him back when his whispered voice reached your ears, making you shiver.

“It’s all up to you now, Y/n.”

He straightened and left the Button Room, but not before giving you a pointed glance. 

With bloodied hands and weakened knees.

Your body felt frozen, pinned by impossible choices. By the future and the past.

“Y/n?” Philza’s concerned voice carried across the cave. “Are you okay?”

You scrambled for a convincing enough excuse. “Y-yeah. I just need a moment. Today has been... rough.” None of that was a lie.

With a slight furrow of his brows, Phil nodded. He began walking away.

Our people rose like the phoenix

You stopped him, though. “Philza.”

He turned around.

Our empty fields and canals ‘round L’Mantree

“There was a saying, Phil, by a traitor, once a part of L’Manburg.”

Phil didn’t know how to react. He just nodded, clearly uncomfortable with the atmosphere, the tension.

With sweat and tears we armed our ranks we laid foundations in our land

“Have you ever heard of Eret?”

Once again, Philza only nodded.

You could feel your body heat up with anticipation. The moment was nearing.

And from every lips for here up to infinity

“Yeah, he had a saying, Phil.” You felt your fingertips ghost the surface of the button.

We sing L’Manburg We sing L’Manburg We sing L’Manburg We sing L’Manburg

“It was never meant to be.”

~-~-~-~-~-~-

Wilbur Soot was too busy smiling at the series of explosions going off behind him to realize the fact that you were dead.

And even when those around him cried as they mourned your death, not a single tear streaked down his cheek. No pang of sadness or remorse was felt by this man who had strayed too far down the path of insanity.

Perhaps once, he would have torn up the world looking for a way to revive you. But that Wilbur was long gone. That Wilbur was the one you’d fallen for, the one you’d follow to the ends of the server.

But you’d failed to realize that the Wilbur of today was not the Wilbur you loved. And that mistake turned out to be fatal.

[vyladromeave]

SHADOWKNIGHT HEADCANONS MASTERPOST

This is how Shadowknights work in my brain. It just is. 

(Warning this is super long. like really long. its literally like 3k+ words im not kidding. i did include a couple pictures to help break up the text though. so. good luck.)

Becoming A Shadowknight 

There is only one requirement for a person to become a shadowknight: they have to die. Anyone who dies has the potential to become a shadowknight. Whether they actually become one or not depends entirely on whether they would be of use to the Shadow Lord or not. 

The Shadow Lord picks new knights from many factors, such as if they were an important person when they were alive, are already skilled in combat/magick, are generally vengeful, or have unfinished business making them more willing to follow the Shadow Lord’s will of destroying the Overworld and its inhabitants. (For this reason, ghosts have become less common in the Overworld, since many souls who would normally become ghosts when they die are recruited as new Shadow Knights instead.) 

Not everyone who dies is able to become a Shadowknight. The Shadow Lord, especially without a physical form, is not strong enough to reach out to all dead souls. Souls that are more vengeful/angry in death are easier for the Shadow Lord to locate, and so are souls of those that die in the Nether. There are also specific rituals that can make it easier for Shadow Lord to reach out to a specific soul, but these are uncommon since they take a lot of time and effort to do successfully. Only very valuable potential Shadowknights get this kind of treatment. (This is what happened to Laurance.) 

 • 

Shadowknights and Immortality 

All Shadowknights are immortal, as in immune to aging. They can’t die of natural causes, and because of this they can hypothetically live forever. Some Shadowknights choose to take this to the next level, becoming virtually unkillable. This next stage is referred to as becoming a “full Shadowknight,” and can only be achieved when a Shadowknight kills a specific target. 

This target will be different for each Shadowknight. The only requirements of this target are that it has to be someone the Shadowknight cared about during their life, and that the Shadow Lord is the one who picks the final target. (So if you were a guard of a village, even if you cared about someone else more, your target would probably still be the lord you were protecting, since the death of a lord would cause a lot more chaos.) 

A Shadowknight who has reached this next level of immortality is virtually unkillable. Their physical body can be destroyed, but they will reform in the Nether in a new, identical body if this ever happens. (Their new, reformed body will be identical to the first one that they reform as, not identical to however they currently look. So if they lost a hand as a Shadowknight, died, and reformed, they would reform with their hand back. If they lost a hand before becoming a Shadowknight, they would always reform without that hand.) 

This next level of immortality is the expectation for all Shadowknights to achieve, although not many of them do. Shadowknights who do not are often looked down upon, and may have to prove themselves more rigorously than other Full Shadowknights. Shadowknights who are not Full Shadowknights are often referred to as “Premature,” “New,” or “Lesser” Shadowknights. 

However, besides being unkillable, becoming a Full Shadowknight has no extra benefits. It is very possible for a “Lesser” Shadowknight to be much more skilled or powerful than a Full Shadowknight, since becoming a Full Shadowknight doesn’t actually increase your strength at all.

A Shadowknight who can reform can still be killed under very specific circumstances. If a Shadowknight’s soul is destroyed, the Shadowknight is killed permanently. This can ONLY be achieved through magical means, and even then can be difficult to achieve. 

 • 

Shadow Souls 

Even when a killable Shadowknight dies, they don’t truly leave. When you become a Shadowknight, your soul is permanently bound to the Nether. A Shadowknight whose body has died becomes doomed to roam the Nether as a Shadow Soul for all eternity. 

With no body or mind left, Shadow Souls lose themselves quickly. They lose little pieces of themself until there is nothing left but a mindless, vengeful soul. Even the strongest, most collected Shadowknight would lose themself as a Shadow Soul in a matter of days. They have no desires other than wanting to be alive and have a body again. 

They have the ability to possess Shadowknights, although usually only ones who are newer or weaker. Most Shadow Souls are imprisoned in the jails of the Shadow Lord’s fortress to keep them from harassing and possessing Shadowknights. 

(This possession is what happened to Alexis. A lot of weird, special circumstances had to be met for her to be possessed since she wasn’t (and still isn’t) a Shadow Knight.) 

Even without possession, Shadow Souls can feed off the power and emotion of Shadowknights nearby. The most effective way to deal with a Shadow Soul is to use as little magic or power as possible, since they will feed and grow stronger on the excess, and can prevent abilities from being used by feeding off the energy that would be used to activate it. The Shadow Souls that are imprisoned in the Nether’s jails stop imprisoned Shadowknights from being able to use any of their Shadowknight abilities that might help them escape.

 • 

Consuming a Soul

Although it is done very rarely, a Shadowknight can consume another Shadowknight’s soul. This is INCREDIBLY taboo, since it can permanently kill a Shadowknight who has the ability to reform. This fear of permanent death ensures that any knight who consumes other Shadowknight souls will be killed, or treated as an enemy/exile if they can escape with their life. 

Consuming a Shadowknight’s soul can give the Shadowknight a small, temporary boost in power, both magickally and physically. The more souls they consume, the more powerful they can become, and the longer this temporary boost will last. 

Most Shadowknights will fight back against being consumed. Shadow Souls are easier targets. Full Shadowknights are much harder to consume since they are much more sentient/mindful/powerful/motivated by the will to reform, and often flee instead of being consumed. Also, their body must be destroyed before their soul can be consumed, which adds an extra step to the already tiring process. 

• 

Loss of Sentience 

Some Shadowknights become nothing more than a puppet for the Shadow Lord, a creature with no thoughts or will of their own. This usually occurs immediately upon being reborn as a Shadowknight due to the trauma of the event, but can also occur over time in Shadowknights who have lost a sense of self or sense of purpose. 

Some think that this happens because the soul of the Shadowknight tries to die or move on, but is unable to do so because of how it is bound to the Nether/the Shadowknight’s body. As a result, the knight is left with nothing but a mindless husk of their former self. Ultimately, there is no definite answer as to why this happens, although this is the most popular theory among Shadowknights. 

Shadowknights who have lost their sentience can never regain it, presumably because parts of them have already passed on and do not wish to/are not able to return. A Shadowknight without their sentience has eyes that are permanently cloudy-looking and less reflective (like how eyes cloud over on death). 

 • 

A Reformed Body 

When a person dies and becomes a Shadowknight, the new body they reform into is not the actual body they died in. The grave of a person who became a Shadowknight would still have a body in it. The body they reform into is a near perfect replica of the one that died, but it doesn’t “feel” the same. 

The only exception to this rule is if the Shadowknight died as a child, and their body wasn’t already fully grown. All Shadowknights have fully-grown bodies, regardless of what age they died as. This is simply because a fully-grown body is stronger and more fit to serve as a knight. This can be very disturbing to Shadowknights who died younger, since they have to adapt to a body that they can only vaguely identify as their own. (This is what happened to Vylad.)

 • 

A Sturdier Body 

The body of a Shadowknight is different from the body of a human. All Shadowknights are naturally stronger, fastier, hardier, and heal quicker than the average human. They are literally made for the sole intention of being mass-killing soldiers, so it only makes sense that their new bodies reflect that. 

When they heal, no scars are left behind. The only scars a Shadowknight will have are ones they obtained previously, before or on death. The only exceptions to this rule are if they lose a limb/eye/etc. If the Shadowknight is able to reform when they die, then their lost limb/eye/etc. will be back when they reform. 

Any scars associated with the Shadowknight’s death might be a bit more prominent than a normal scar. They usually look bright red and angry, almost closer to an open wound. 

All Shadowknights are completely immune to fire and heat. They can still feel fire and heat, but it doesn’t harm them. It can be a bit overwhelming to get used to at first, but most Shadowknights have to learn to grow used to it, since the Nether is like, 60% fire and lava. (Shadowknights actually take baths in lava in the Nether to stay clean, since there is no water.) (Also, technically they aren’t immune to fire on the INSIDE. If they like, ate fire, it would hurt pretty bad. Probably not as bad as it would hurt a normal human, but it would still hurt.) 

Shadowknights don’t require the same things as humans do to live. A Shadowknight can survive without food, water, or sleep, and can go without these things longer before feeling any negative effects. However, a lack of these things can definitely make them weaker, and more miserable. Seeing as water cannot exist in the Nether, and nothing else naturally lives there, the lack of food and water is pretty agonizing for any Shadowknights stuck there. 

Shadowknights aren’t completely exempt from natural human needs. They still need to breathe air, and they still need to keep their blood inside of them. 

 • 

Natural Abilities 

When a person becomes a Shadowknight, they gain new abilities. All Shadowknights have the ability to summon Shadow Armor. This armor is an integral part of a Shadowknight, and the form it takes is unique (but similar) for each knight. It’s a bit like porcupine spikes or pufferfish in that many Shadowknights will summon it instinctively when they believe they are in danger. It also summons instinctively while in the Nether. It’s fairly sturdy, but is better at protecting against physical attacks than magickal ones. Destroying the armor won’t hurt a knight, but it can tire them. Armor that is destroyed/damaged can be resummoned, but it takes a bit of time to fix. 

All Shadowknights also have the ability to summon a Shadow Weapon. Shadowknights can only form weapons that they are familiar with. They can only form tools that would be used in combat, and can only summon one at a time. (You can’t have your bow and arrows AND a sword AND a shield all summoned at once. Shadow WEAPON. Singular. No plural. Pick One.) They can also change the form of the weapon in between summonings, and in combat. Quickly switching between weapons can take some practice to perfect/get used to. Similarly to the armor, destroying the weapon won’t hurt a knight. It also won’t tire them, since a Shadow Weapon isn’t as much of a “part” of a knight as the armor is. A destroyed/damaged Shadow Weapon can be resummoned, but it takes a bit of time to fix. 

All Shadowknights have the ability to sense other Shadowknights by their aura, tell if the Shadowknight is fully immortal or not, and suppress their own Shadowknight aura from being detected/identified. This ability has to be practiced in order to become effective. A knight who neglects this ability may only be able to sense large groups, or only sense a knight that is extremely close by. They also might not be able to suppress their own aura at all. A knight who practices this ability can sense another knight from, at a maximum, 350-ish feet away. They could potentially identify a specific Shadowknight from their aura (and this becomes easier if they have spent a lot of time around this Shadowknight before.) They could also potentially suppress their own aura for hours at a time, with only a little effort. These are extremes, and most Shadowknights don’t perfect these abilities to this extent. 

 • 

Additional Abilities

Some Shadowknights gain new abilities in addition to the ones all Shadowknights gain by default. Oddly enough, Shadowknights who already have a preexisting magickal/witchcraft affinity are less likely to receive one of these abilities. Most gain only one from the following list, but very rarely can gain two. From most to least common, the list is as follows: 

•Dimming lights - They can blend in easier into shadows by dimming the light around them. They can also dim or put out lights, or make any light less bright for a short amount of time. (This obviously doesn’t work on stuff like The Sun, but I do think that if you got really good at using this ability, you could maybe make the moon appear dark or the stars disappear for a bit. They wouldn’t ACTUALLY stop shining, it would just appear that they did, if that makes sense?) (Sasha is a notable Shadowknight with this ability.) 

•Teleportation - They can only teleport to places they know exist, and they can’t teleport between dimensions. The further the location, and the more people they are teleporting, the more energy, effort, and concentration it takes. Most Shadowknights who can teleport aren’t able to do so while in the middle of combat because it takes too much concentration to do so. Hard to teleport while you are also trying not to get stabbed. Who would guess. (Vylad is a notable Shadowknight with this ability.) 

•Shapeshifting - They can change their own appearance into another. If you get really good at using this ability, you could look like someone else entirely. However, normally this ability is just useful for changing clothes/hair color/disguises. Maintaining a shapeshift also takes focus/concentration, and normally can’t be maintained for very long periods of time depending on the complexity of the shapeshift. If you just changed your clothes, you could maintain it for a couple hours. If you look like another person entirely, probably 1-2 hours max. A shapeshift is also hard to maintain in battle for the same reason as teleportation. (Zenix is a notable Shadowknight with this ability.) 

•Shadow Manipulation - They can create solid forms out of shadow, and manipulate these forms as they see fit. This is probably the most difficult ability to use, and also the most difficult to master. The larger/more complex this manipulation is, the harder it is to maintain. This ability is different from the Shadow Weapon in that it can’t really be sharp, and can’t form extremely defined/specific shapes. Shadow manipulation lends itself much better to blobs. (Gene is a notable Shadowknight with this ability.) 

 • 

Overwhelming Emotions

Shadowknight’s abilities strengthen when powered by emotion. For any Shadowknights who don’t care about the danger and destruction they cause, this is only a plus. For the rest, it is a curse. The link between emotion and power can be extremely overwhelming, making it much easier to get worked up and much harder to calm down. Death and destruction is a part of a Shadowknight’s nature, making these fits dangerous for anyone who dares to get in the Shadowknight’s way.

Because of this, there are two paths that a Shadowknight must choose between. Either they make the effort to suppress your emotions, cut off friendships, family, and other bonds. Or, they let their emotions control them entirely, weaponizing their existence and becoming a tool of pure chaos. Neither choice is very appealing. 

 • 

Seeing Red 

One of the most iconic and identifiable features of a Shadowknight is the eyes. Whenever using any of their abilities, wearing summoned Shadow Armor, or even feeling an emotion that is too strong, a Shadowknight’s eyes will glow red. Depending on the strength of their emotion or intensity of their action, this red can spread from their eyes to the skin around it. 

 • 

The Nether 

The Nether is the home of all Shadowknights, although not by choice. The Nether was never meant to be inhabited by anyone, which is clear from the lack of food, water, and habitable land present there. However, since the Shadow Lord is trapped in the Nether and not strong enough to leave, the Shadowknights he creates are bound to the Nether in strange ways. Shadowknights feel a natural draw to return to the Nether whenever they are away, and in extreme cases can even feel ill if they are gone for long periods of time. This urge is called The Calling. With time and practice, this urge can be suppressed, though it never completely fades. 

On the other hand, Shadowknights are somewhat stronger in the Nether, both magickally and physically. Fighting a Shadowknight on home turf is generally a bad idea, and it’s best to fight them in the Overworld instead. 

 • 

Lost and Altered Memories 

Although it isn’t inherently a part of becoming a Shadowknight, many knights find themselves without their memories from when they were alive, or unknowingly have had parts of their memories changed. This has become much more common among more recent Shadowknights. (Vylad and Zenix are some of the last notable Shadowknights to not have their memories altered.) This is largely because of Gene, the Shadow Lord’s most trusted knight. His magicks let him manipulate the memories of others, and the Shadow Lord encourages him to use his abilities to create a more willing army. Many knights who might’ve originally questioned the Shadow Lord and his goals have their memories altered so that they are more willing to follow the Shadow Lord, and kill in his name. (Sasha is a notable Shadowknight who this applies to.)

•

Thank you for reading!

Feel free to use any of these ideas in your own MCD fan-content, and if you have anything you would like to ask about/clarify, feel free to send me an ask or message!

[bansheeoftheforest]

this is a bit long, sorry about that.

Ghost AU my love ~❤️

I like all of the branches- Jekyll being a sad quiet ghost, a violent force that tears apart the society, or not knowing that he is dead and carrying on like normal. However, I have a proposal for a variant of the latter:

Jekyll’s ghost carries on with his usual routine of sorting paperwork, taking care of the society and such- however Jekyll isn’t really conscious of his actions or himself. It’s like his spirit is acting out of sheer force of momentum, but Henry isn’t really present— it’s as if his consciousness is asleep.

Quickly the lodgers and other people in the society realize that there’s a ghost- and through ghost shenanigans or thanks to Maijabi, they are able to see and communicate with this ghost. They all start furiously asking questions: “Henry is that you???” “Did you die??” “But how??” “Did someone kill you??” “Where is your body????”

But the ghost doesn’t talk or acknowledge them at all. It keeps going through its tasks, eyes unfocused, his movements stiff and expression perfectly neutral.

Sometimes however… things seem to shake the ghost out of its daze. Sometimes when people call his full name he slowly turns towards the speaker with a glint of recognition in his eyes, before going back to his “autopilot mode”.

Sometimes when Rachel or Robert recount some old memory or event from his past his expression shifts, his lower lip quivering a little.

Sometimes the lodgers bring him some exotic scientific artifact or experiment they are working on, and the ghost stops and stares; sometimes he even smiles warmly.

Everyone is devastated at the sudden loss of their leader, but the whole society silently agrees to try and comfort the ghost in whatever way they can.

- 🍷

uhAHJSHJHDJhhdhhdhdhdhdhhghghdhndndnddnd

Henry being a classic time-continue ghost, where he just repeats his life and the work he did when he was alive but... As a ghost. Soul stuck to the Society because that's where he lived, maybe where he died depending on the au branch, and that's where he has unfinished business he has to finish before he gets to pass on (if he ever gets to pass on, considering Hyde). He can't really acknowledge people or things that are new to his surroundings, he continues to walk the exact same route of the Society that he always has, even if the Lodgers redecorate or move things; he just walks straight through them as if they weren't there. Obviously, the Lodgers quickly realizing that they are getting haunted and asking Maijabi to help them figure out what the ghost is doing here only for them to realize that it's Henry. Henry is not even a sentient ghost, he is just... There.

Give me the Lodgers being so desperate to try to get Henry conscious and out of the auto-pilot mode that he seems to have. Give me them constantly repeating or chanting his full name to try to get his attention. Give me Henry having sort bursts of where he sees things in real time-- maybe, for him, everything is exactly like how it was before he died and he is experiencing some sort of time-loop that he doesn't notice, sometimes the "veil" becomes thin enough that he actually sees and recognizes the Lodgers in real time, although it's not often at first. The Lodgers trying to hold seances or use ouija boards or spirit boxes to try to get Henry to communicate with them and to get him to recognize them. Henry not realizing he is dead but continuing to mess around with their devices when the Lodgers don't notice him, thinking it's a game. Sometimes his "brain" thinks quicker than him, so when the Lodgers asks where his body is, he actually responds with "alley". Or if they ask him for his name (to see if he has somewhat sentient) he responds with "Henry". Henry slowly getting closer and closer to the other side of the veil where he is slowly getting more sentient until he can actually listen to what the Lodgers ask of him, like if they ask him to touch a door or touch them or a device. Just... dhdhdhdh <3

[furiosity-wills-the-cat]

Mettaton’s Backstory:

This is part two of my ghost meta. I’d highly recommend reading part one first, which should be right below this post on my blog. It’s titled “Chara, The Fourth Blook Cousin” and it has the background for how I think ghost might work.

I mostly talked about Undertale ghosts in general and how they could explain Chara’s mysterious presence in the game, but now I want to talk about Mettaton, Maddy and Napstablook, and explain my thoughts on their backstories, why they’re different from other ghosts, how they became a family. Because I think about them literally nonstop

METTATON

He is the baby of the cousins (until Chara comes along)

Ghosts dont age (unless they become corporeal) and the cousins (again except Chara who’s like 12) are all basically in their twenties, but MTT is slightly younger than Maddy and Blooky

And also he was formed extremely recently compared to them

I’ll explain them in depth later but they've both got a few centuries and Mettaton is like,, 70

Literally even Chara was formed longer ago than he was, but Chara doesn’t get adopted by the Blook family for a few decades so he joins first

So Mettaton is in this infuriating state where he is old enough to be losing track of years and struggling to keep up with technology and memes

But at the same time he talks to his cousins and they're like “Infant. Baby Boy. Imagine keeping track of what decade it is, you're so small”

He ends up being the self-designated cousin in charge of keeping track of time and pop culture and whatnot out of spite

He’s like “I’ll never forget what's relavent, its not because i’m baby, its just because i am better than you”

Tiny recap from my previous post- I think ghosts are formed when monsters die while completely unsatisfied,

the ghosts have no memory of who they were and they don't have souls unless and until they become corporeal, but they get their personality and some habits from whoever they were

And mettaton starts out being completely obsessed with this

He wants to know who he was and what life mission he left unfinished

He’s like “its gotta be super important because the universe literally made me immortal so i could finish it”

But figuring it out is… hard

It can take ghosts years to form after someones death and theres just so many monsters its impossible to narrow it down

When he does research he makes a lot of friends with monsters who have recently lost loved ones and he actually gets really good at talking to them and listening to their stories and letting them vent

This is a huge part of the reason he never starts to fade or sink into depression like most ghosts do at first, because he has people to talk to who need him

But also while doing research, he realizes that there’s no one he can find who he WANTS to be?

He’s like “yeah these all seem like they were cool monsters when they were alive but none of them seem like me?”

He has little hints of who he was, he knows he hates being alone and needs people near him always, he knows he’s super curious about learning about other people and reading dramatic stories and listenifn to gossip,, and he is for some reason extremely curious about humans, he knows he loves the color pink and the concept of the stars,,, but like,,, none of those are a life mission,,, they're just little quirks

So anyway like a year in to becoming a ghost, he is being emo and crying about this in waterfall when Maddy finds him and is like “shut up, youre scaring the snails” and he’s like “fight me right now… OH MY GOSH ARE YOU HOLDING A SNAIL THATS THE CUTEST THING EVER”

Maddy and Blooky do not invite him to join their family, he literally adopts himself

He is like. Lovely. Pretty farm. I live here now. I am building a house. I work here now. You are both my cousins.

And they just accept it.

He doesn’t ever really introduce himself to them officially?

He’s still convinced he needs to know who he was, so he’s kind of terrified of having his own opinion on his name or gender or anything because what if he’s wrong?

They both try to ask him who is is or anything about him but he’s just like “Nope Nope Nope, you are not allowed to percieve me yet. Give me attention but do Not perceive”

But he is happy to talk about the snails and to listen about how to care for them

Also he wants to learn more about ghosts because most other ghosts are just little lumps of sadness and regret who dont rlly talk so he tries to like,,, just lay on the floor in blooky’s house and see if theyll tell him things,, or he’ll just bother them until they tell him things

Blooky is the one who introduces him to music, and its mostly by accident

Mettaton is like,, actually fascinated by Blooky’s love of music and is like,, “wait IS it fulfilling? Is THIS what you died to do? Is it your greater purpose? Does it make your life worth living and make everything right and the stars align as you realize who you were before??”

And Blooky is like “I like… drum… sticks go click click and it is nice…”

And Mettaton is like “fascinting.. tell me more.”

So thats how Mettaton gets music lessons from Blooky

He also encourages them to play their music for others and start a band

Which Blooky ends up loving so so much

They dont like talking to strangers but they love performing, its a completely different energy

and thats also how mettaton is introduced to performance

And he’s like “oh. Oh ho ho. This is pretty nifty”

So anyway he continues trying to figure out who he was but he’s also kept more busy and realizes that just. Doing stuff is good

He starts a bunch of clubs and activities and stuff because he adores meeting people and being in the center of attention

Until eventually he makes the human appreciation club and meets a certain lizard

And she REFUSES to talk about herself and Mettaton doesnt know what to do with himself because SOMEONE’s gotta be vulnerable

So it takes him all of two minutes to start gushing about how he’ll never know who he was meant to be and it sucks because how can he ever be himself or become corporeal if he doesnt know what he was supposed to do or look like or be

And alphys is like. “Oh. I could try designing something for you. What do you want to look like?”

And mettaton is like. “Wait. I am allowed to want? I thought i was just. Something. And i have to find it.”

And alphys is like… “listen i am not a ghost expert but i feel like if u could be anything, why not be? Do u want pink swooshy hair?”

And he’s like “oh my god yes please”

He doenst tell his cousins because it still feels illegal to him to just. Decide who he WANTS to be instead of being who he was meant to by the universe

Literally neither of them would care, both of them are so confused by his destiny obsession anyway but unfortunately he is stupid

And then he moves in with alphys while she makes his body and he is just so so happy and he gets to choose what kind of character he’s reborn as

And eventually ofc he does tell his family and they are like “you are stupid. I love you”