thenten

[thenten]

"... something doesn't feel quite right."

"Like, I feel like a lot has changed and a lot of time has passed...

Did another time war happen that I wasn't involved in or something? Maybe a Celestialsapien made another retcon of the universe...?"

"I believe you may have had too many Lamb & Sardine Smoothies."

"As if there's such a thing as 'too many'."

[thenten]

In retrospect, a birds-eye perspective wasn't really the most useful thing considering the surrounding forest, but thankfully it did let him watch the group of four head on with a clear direction in mind, the specter following from above; even when the overhanging branches got a little too thick to see well through, the light kept them in sight.

Eventually, another clearing in the trees opened up around the entrance to a cave, where the same trail of damage went from the trees to the ground, and eventually even to the stone, as by the looks of it someone exceptionally strong was dragged into it.

The trailing Ectonurite floating down to examine the scene right as the group reached it, nodding at the sight.

"Yep, Kev is definitely in there." He says, not sounding the least bit concerned for his friend's safety despite the scene, before turning his gaze down to Alice. "This'll be pretty dangerous, so I can handle things from here." He said with complete confidence, in spite of the clear disparity between him and the group, and the fact he'd already admitted to losing. "Appreciate the help. I'll seeya to return that favor aft-"

The Ectonurite's words of gratitude were abruptly interrupted by what might've been recognized as the animated bandages of a mummy, dusted with an odd glowing purple substance, launching out of the darkness of the cave, instantaneously wrapping the ghost up, and after a comical pause of blinking, yanking him inside.

Before the heroes could attempt a rescue (or decide whether they'd even try), the sound of a rumbling growl rang out from up above.

Several beastly silhouettes outlined by the night sky atop the mouth of the cave, dropping down between the group and the poor stranger that just got whisked away, revealed to be... werewolves?

That's what it'd initially seem like as the small pack of three took a clearly hostile stance against the four, fangs bared...

... though, when the centermost wolf's jaws suddenly split into four and unleashed a tree-splintering sonic howl in their direction, that might've made them seem less likely of being normal werewolves.

With the fact of helping settled (much to her sister's reluctance), Alice watched the ectonurite fly up into the sky. She was briefly confused by his mentioning of 'returning to normal', blinking her eyes up at him before looking about the area. Sure enough, it wasn't particularly hard to find the carnage that stretched out into a trail deeper into the woods.

He was already so high up... so Alice figured he'd be able to spot the merry ragtag crew as they began through the clearing toward the path ahead, even as she used a spell to give them a bit more light to see their surroundings. It wasn't much, but at least they wouldn't be blind.

Maybe she should have asked what kind of 'thugs' the ghost was talking about, but it was a little late now. At worst, she supposed that they'd find out unfortunately soon enough!

[thenten]

"Ehhhh, that's probably not him. What would he need to be paper mache for...?" Ben answered, scratching his... well, scratching where a chin would normally be, in surprising consideration of the thought.

The singular green eye darts between the girl's different companions as they add their individual two-cents into the conversation, though he doesn't respond vocally to any of it... the Ectonurite's singular eye just starting to become ever slightly more concerned by their talk.

At Alice's (party-reluctant) offer, though, he refocuses on her.

"Oh, that'd be a real help! I'll owe ya one!" Ben says, nodding his head and turning to survey the area. "They can't have gone too far from here, I'd have turned back to normal by now if it had been that long."

Before Alice would be able to ask for any elaboration on what he meant by 'back to normal', the supposed ghost would fly up into the air to look down on the area with a birds-eye view, trying to get a bigger picture that he could pick out clues for.

Not that it would've really been too necessary, as those present that weren't limited to a singular eye would quickly & easily be able to notice a trail of damaged trails leading deeper into the woods.

Alice jolted a little when his eye traveled along his body to look at her, even if it wasn't totally unnerving. She hadn't seen any ghosts that could do that before- but apparently he was some sort of.. Ectonurite? Was that some form of subspecies or something? Her skeletal brow furrowed a tad, tilting her head somewhat. Was this person a Creepy...? Some of them had started Waking Up, after all...

His initial response to the name of the valley only earned a few audible blinks as they were unsure what the other meant. It was a somewhat standard naming convention in the Underworld.

When the next questions were asked, she did perk back up just a bit. So this person was looking for their friends...? Admittedly, the descriptions did sound vaguely familiar, but she sort of doubted they were the right people, considering.

"Um.. we know someone made of paper mache?" She offers, clearly aware that wasn't quite what he meant given she shook her head right after.

In the background, the android girl was staring at Ben still, before glancing at the others' way. "Scans indicate that this is a Ghost." She asserted, before returning her attention to the conversation.

"If it isn't a Ghost, a sample of a new species could do wonders for plague research..." The other skeleton murmured, barely audible over the ambience of the forest.

The peanut gallery was very chatty, at the very least, while the frankenling was more busy watching Ben with absolute silence. Imposing fella.

"We could-" "Alice, don't say it." "help you look!" Alice finished, earning a sigh from the other skeleton, who rubbed at her cheekbone with a defeated expression. Clearly, this was the norm for the girl.

[thenten]

While they were certainly a colorful bunch, Ben wasn't really surprised at all by the group- sure, he wasn't personally aware of any skeleton-like species in the Anur System, but considering how unexplored it was, that wasn't exactly a shock.

The Transylian and the android on the other hand were both entirely normal to him, of course, so he wasn't surprised about them.

What was a little surprising was how the skeleton responded, the specter not turning around, but it's singular green eye traveling along the black membrane to the back of his head to stare at her.

"Ectonurite, actually. Common mistake." He replied, before the eye would travel back to his 'face', before he turns back around to face the group properly once she'd sort-of answered his own question.

"Horrorvale, huh? That's a bit on the nose, isn't it?" He asks back, clawed hands on his nonexistent hips. He hadn't heard of the town or the valley, but again, that wasn't really unexpected. Really would have preferred a planetary designation for that reason, but there would be plenty of time for that later. For now, important things come first.

Like finding the friends he'd fell down here with.

"You wouldn't happen to have seen a glowing pink girl or a guy made of stone, metal, and/or wood on your way here, did you? My pals were helping me out in that fight I mentioned, but they're... clearly not here anymore."

The jingle from Alice's phone made her jump somewhat, answering it to see the familiar face(?) of Dr. Lingerstine. She listened to the sudden task being thrust upon her, and was about to remind the doctor that she had a time-sensitive, very plot-integral task at hand-

Before being promptly reminded that this device didn't actually receive audio, which meant that she could do nothing but show her begrudging attitude as he promptly hung up on her. Along with a comment behind her from Webs that she just as promptly tuned out. Right, if it was right there, she'd get to it... after finishing up what she was doing.

Hence it's why, a short time later, the party led by the skelie-witch headed down the pathway for the.. battleground? A blink, as bright purple eyes scanned the scene before her. Was a Creepy nearby...? Just as the thought arised to take a quick power nap before something happened, a voice that made her bolt upright.

A staff was raised overhead like she might have bonked the ghost clean on the head, though was stopped when he thankfully didn't seem dangerous either... at least for now. So the spirit was able to see the skelie-witch, the green-haired skeleton behind her peering around her with a look of discontent, the hulking frankenling behind them, and then finally the blue-haired robot girl flying just above Bolt to see Ben.

It was certainly.. a group.

Still, the witch's attention turned to the question at hand, along with the words preceding it. This was definitely a very strange night...

"And you're a ghost?" Alice would retort, in a rare moment of sass. "You're in Horrorvale- or, um, the woods around Horrorvale- though, the whole valley is also called Horrorvale.. um.."

The skeleton has a brief look of confusion, where geographical territories and convoluted naming has caused a brief moment of bewilderment.

[thenten]

Closed Starter for @spkyscry (Alice)

ALICE! It is I, Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein, speaking to you through your mobile communications device with an urgent request!

My readings have detected a strange energetic disturbance of a grand magnitude, through the woods directly south of your current location! Considering your proximity, I'd like you to investigate!

Reminder that this device does not receive audio, so if you are saying yes or no, I cannot and will not be able to hear it either way!

Thank you!

Click!

Thus would end the very one-sided phone call from the ever-eccentric Doctor Puddlebind, leaving the young skele-witch with yet another side-objective dotted down in her journal.

Regardless of whether she'd get to it right then or in the next hour, she would eventually trek through those aforementioned woods and find herself amongst the somewhat-disconcerting scene of what looked like a very fresh battleground, with trees smashed & splintered, still-smoking scorch marks in the grass, and an odd electricity in the air... an odd parting in the clouds up above.

Before she'd have a chance of calling Dr. Jingletime back, though, she (and any party members that happen to be with her) would be given brief surprise from a voice speaking up from directly behind them.

"Oh, good, you don't seem like you're with those guys."

A ghastly voice would say with relief, the source of which being sack-like head of a ghost sticking out from the ground, where he'd undoubtedly been hiding until they got there as he phased out.

"Hiya, sorry for the mess, had a scuffle with some thugs... that said thugs kind of won..." The spirit started to explain, before his singular eye would squint and his head would tilt. "Wait, you're a skeleton? I didn't know this system had skeletons... where am I, anyway?"

The ghost looks around and up, staring up at the blinking moon and blinking with confusion that was clear even without much of a face.

[thenten]

@digisland said: Ben would receive three messages in rapid fashion, two of them addressed from "the Digital World" and one from "Digi-Colloseum". Opening either would release their payload- the payload of small pixelated digital friends onto the screen, as their respective trainer sent them a letter of celebration for their birthday. Even complete with the Digimon singing Happy Birthday to Ben. Which is certainly cute, even if they're stumbling around the screen, clearly unused to actually being on a physical computer screen. Save Gatomon, who, when finished with the song, begins staring at Ben with obnoxiously large eyes. Cats, man.

Well, those certainly made him blink, and even more so when clicking on them both released familiar little guys on his PC screen, him instinctively reeling back as he expected them all to leap out.

When they started singing, as cute and clumsy as it was, it made Ben blink in dumb realization before a smile grew on his face.

"Oh right, that is today, isn't it?" He said with an awkward laugh, trying to conceal his slight worry about people actually having found out about that with his genuine joy at seeing the three.

Even Gatomon's giant-eyed cat stare made him wince just a bit. Cats, man.

[thenten]

"Aaaaaaal...right." An exhausted, small voice mutters out as they send off the last of what they always think a bottomless pile of messages in their public inbox, clearly having been at this for days.

"One last message of genuine goodwill, typed in native Galvan." He says, small body falling backwards into the far-too-large chair behind him when it's finally allowed to relax, a green FLASH enveloping him as Ben returns to human form, letting out tired sigh of relief.

Aliens finding out just enough about Earth culture through him to know there was at minimum three holidays being celebrated in the last few weeks, but not enough to know which he celebrates, leads to a lot of confused good-intentions being sent his way.

Which he'd never be so much of a grump as to complain about, but it certainly meant a lot of his time was spent responding to them all, and either returning or passing on gifts he genuinely could not use.

Now, at least, he could just enjoy the rest of the year... ... or, so he thought, until his system beeped with notification.

And another. And another.

"WHY AM I GETTING MORE?!"

Happy Birthday, Ben Tennyson.

[thenten]

When you're in the dead of night, and underneath the pale moon light, A Mystery Unfolds, It's a thrilling, eerie sight. Independent - Private - OC/Crossover Friendly - Roleplay Blog

[thenten]

Anonymous said: Hey Ben! Do your transformations sometimes make you act more alien sometimes? Sure you got the aliens powers and all but I mean in terms of mannerisms, body language, tics. Things that humans would never do but maybe that specific alien does? And does it ever transfer over when you turn back to yourself?

"Finally, an interesting question." Ben says as big grins forms on his face, lifting up the Omnitrix and looking down at it.

"The simple answer is yes- most of them absolutely have their own mannerisms! You can hear or see them all over the place. The most blatant ones are Rath and Grey Matter, who's big shifts in intelligence also come with big shifts in my personality. They've got their own tics and body language, and I don't need to transform for you to know what I'm talking about with either of them."

Between Rath referring to himself solely as Rath, and Grey Matter essentially acting & thinking like a young Azmuth, this all was obvious to anyone with any amount of experience with him.

"There's other examples, of course- XLR8 and Fasttrack are both super hyper and high energy on account of their super-speed, Pesky Dust has that super annoying purring thing he does, and then there's Wildmutt being Wildmutt." He lists with a count of his fingers, before waving it all off. "And as for whether they ever carry over, they do! Not often, but if I'm an alien for a while, their habits might stick.

Occasionally, their biology can even have effects on me as a human, too- like with Big Chill and Swampfire's lifecycle stuff."

[thenten]

@dyavol said: Skeptical? + A robot takeover

Send me Memes- ALWAYS Accepting!

"Oh, those are always a massive headache to deal with." Seasoned galactic & multiversal hero he was, not at all a surprise he'd seen many instances of this. "It's not always as simple as getting to fight robots, as simple & easy as that is... if they're proper sapient, it's generally treated as a planetary war by the Plumbers, which has a lot more red tape to deal with. Unless, of course, their goal is to eradicate the species that made them- that cuts right through it."

Still, always best to try and find a path to coexistence than wiping out either side. He's been a fair few robotic species before, and they're just as worth preserving as any other as far as he's concerned.

It just became a much more tedious thing to deal with.

"As for the chances of anything like that happening on Earth? We're still at minimum half a century off from anything as problematic as that, I'd think. Way easier ways to hurt ourselves in confusion."

[thenten]

@dyavol said: Skeptical? + The sixth sense

Send me Memes- ALWAYS Accepting!

"Assuming this isn't about that old movie, because I'd rather not think about seeing dead people..." He remarks with a light shiver and an 'eugh' noise as he did his best to shake off the ghastly thought.

Refocusing his attention the more traditional meaning.

"Choosing to ignore the fact humans actually do have more senses than just the traditional five as-is, more than six at that... do I believe in whether people can tell someone or something is watching them, even if there's no evidence from any of their other senses?

To that, I'd say... not really?" He mutters, drumming his fingers his face. "What I do believe in is intuition and experience. If my dad says he feels like we're being watched, it's probably just his heebie-jeebies. If my Grandpa says we're being watched? I listen."

[thenten]

@dyavol said: Skeptical? + Prophecies/predictions 

Send me Memes- ALWAYS Accepting!

"See, this is something I've actually seen before." Seen and even been part of at least one that he can recall of the top of his head.

That sure was a headache to deal with...

"That said, I don't exactly put a ton of stock in them, regardless of whether they're inscribed on ancient tablets or spat out by a computer." The hero says with a scratch at the back of his head, thinking back to those he'd been very acquainted with. "Not even because I doubt their 'accuracy', per se... they certainly can be accurate in seeing a future, but that's just one possible one.

Speaking as someone who deals with a very annoying, know-it-all time traveler on a somewhat regular basis, one thing I've learned is that nothing is set in stone, besides maybe the prediction itself. Sometimes, accurate predictions even change the future.

[thenten]

Anonymous said: Skeptical? + Fortune Telling

Send me Memes- ALWAYS Accepting!

"I mean, there's definitely magic that could do that..." He mutters to himself as he recalls various spells he's seen his cousin and other spellcasters do, and he could only assume that if magic could let you travel through time, telling the future would be easy.

All the same, though, that wasn't exactly what was being asked.

"Do I believe that every lady in a corner store with a crystal ball and deck of cards will actually be able to cast those spells? No, not really." He answers, with a shrug. "But, nothing is impossible."

[thenten]

@cartoonslackers said: 🌲 (your Ben & my Beast Boy?) -🌲 Get lost in the woods at night

Send me Memes- ALWAYS Accepting!

"Lemme see... poisonous, poisonous, poisonous... that last one's just a leaf. It's also poisonous." The bulky purple alien muttered off as he looked over the 'forage' he'd gathered over the course of the day, examining it through the more chemically-knowledgeable eyes of a Chemomorph... and finding his own efforts very wanting.

With an exhausted sigh, he tosses the collected mushrooms over his shoulder, finding nothing worthwhile. In retrospect, he really should've just done the foraging as Gutrot...

Evidently too late for that now, though, as the moon was overhead now, and with what they were out here for, they couldn't exactly afford to bumble around in the dark looking for food.

A finger taps curiously at the Omnitrix situated on his face, and his brows drop low as it gives an annoying beep of refusal.

"Outta communication range. Figures."

It was expected at this point, honestly- this wild goose chase had gotten severely out of hand and left them both out here in the middle of who-knows-where. And they hadn't even caught the goose!

As the thought comes to mind, his gaze lifts up to squint past the canopy, trying to catch green hair or feather of his partner in this little escapade, who'd been trying to survey the area from above.

"Hey, Beast Dude! Any luck?"

[thenten]

Send me “Skeptical?” + a subject for my muse to give their opinions about it.

- Ghosts - Vampires - Life after death - Aliens - Deities/Religion - Fortune telling - Magic - The occult - Wishes - Werewolves - Demons - Demonic possession - Fairies - Sea monsters - A robot takeover - Curses - Ouija boards - Bigfoot - The end of the world - Psychic powers (like telekinesis) - Alternate dimensions - Omens - Luck - Reincarnation - Mermaids - UFOs - Conspiracy theories - Mind control - Prophecies/predictions  - The sixth sense - Time travel - Necromancy/Resurrection - Heaven/Hell - Haunted houses - Superstitions 

[thenten]

Sparking Zero came out, so expect activity to drop.

[thenten]

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐘 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐌𝐍 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐒 (a collection of spooky autumn-themed prompts. Some are scarier than others!)  

Send one of the following emojis for our muses to:

👻 Explore a haunted house

🔮 Have a seance

🕯️ Use a Ouija board

📺 Watch horror movies

🌲 Get lost in the woods at night

⚰️ Spend the night in a cemetery

🏢 Explore an abandoned store/mall

🎡 Explore an abandoned theme park

🏥 Explore an abandoned hospital

📿 Perform or witness an exorcism

🐻 Try to find a cryptid (bigfoot, mothman...)

📚 Read out loud from a cursed book

👽 Look for UFOs

😈 Summon a demon

🧙‍♂️ Cast a curse

🔪 Get chased by a slasher killer

🧛‍♀️ Get chased by a vampire

🧟‍♀️ Get chased by zombies