bakerstreet | November in this house of leaves

November in this house of leaves

The Haunted Meme

There are ghosts all around, at any time, lingering in places where they died or that were emotionally significant during their lives. Some of them refuse to give up the life they once lived, some have yet to accept that they have died, and some just want revenge against those who are still living.

Wherever you are, whatever you were doing, you've happened across a place where a particularly strong ghost (or maybe more than one?) is lingering. The ghost might try to possess you, using your body to do what it cannot, it might try to torment you in whatever ways it can, or it might just try to attack you. What will you do? Who you gonna call?

HOW IT WORKS:
Leave a comment with your character's name and canon, and your preferences. Remember that the ghosts can possess your character (influencing their actions or outright taking control of them) or torment them (exerting an outside influence or attacking).

Please respect others' preferences when tagging, and if a thread goes somewhere you aren't comfortable, communicate with your thread partner.

1) ANGRY This ghost either died angry or has become so over time. It might want to take out its anger on someone else, make noise, or hit or break things, whether by itself or using your character's body or special abilities.

2) VENGEFUL This ghost wants revenge. Maybe it's against someone who wronged them in life, maybe it's against their murderer, or maybe it's just against the living. They might mistake your character for the target, or use their body to exact their vengeance.

3) REGRETFUL This ghost is much sadder and quieter, consumed by regrets of things unsaid and never done. They might just lurk about and increase the emo factor, or they could drive your character into despair.

4) DEMANDING This ghost wants something done. Maybe they want a message delivered or a hidden treasure found. Or maybe they just want to force your character to compete a task. Whatever it is, they won't stop demanding it until they're satisfied.

5) LUSTFUL Being a ghost gets very lonely. Maybe they want to possess your character to experience the pleasures of the flesh once more. Maybe the ghosts of star-crossed lovers will drive two people together. Or maybe your character might just feel an intangible hand copping a feel...

6) OBLIVIOUS This ghost doesn't realize it's dead. They might resent your character's presence or mistake them for the real ghost. Or they could accidentally inhabit your character's body and try to continue their normal routine.

7) INHUMAN This ghost isn't the spirit of a person, but something else. Maybe an animal, maybe a creature thought to be imaginary, maybe an alien that hitched a ride on a meteor, whatever it was it wasn't normal. And if it possesses your character, neither are they.

Originally from HERE,

knockyoursocksoff

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

((OOC: Would prefer no 5!))

Being dead was lame and unfair, but being dropped into some random world seemed like adding insult to injury. Maybe it was better than haunting the world he'd technically died in--he was pretty sure nothing was going very well there--but he'd sort of hoped for something more pleasantly afterlife-y. Maybe see his parents again if he was lucky. And so far no one had seemed to be able to see him, even. Laaaaame.

Which didn't stop him from being nosy and heedless, and when he saw a puff of smoke coming from the spiffy steampunk computer when it was supposedly being repaired, he reached out his hand and steadied a lever that was hanging loose. There, that should help.

Victor grumbles as he pokes through the guts of the difference engine, muttering about how these things always seem to break down on his watch. "It's like they wait until Doc's out of the shop until--ow!"

He jerks his hand away from some sparking wires deep in the machine, a puff of smoke following. "Oh for the love of -- I'm a biologist!" he tells it angrily. "The most mechanical work I do are those clockwork butterflies! I'm not right for this job!"

The machine's only response is the lifting of one of its levers. Victor glares at the offending part. "I -- wait." He blinks and leans closer, studying just how the lever attaches to the body of the machine. "That -- that isn't capable of lifting on its own -- is it?"

Arg. Even his helpful impulses don't do any damn good. "This is how I always felt in biology labs," he says in tones that would be commiserating resignation if he could be heard. Though there was a sort of flickering shadow there for a moment. The mere attempt to engage seemed to give him a little more of a link to the physical world. Kurt frowns to himself and decides to try again, though moving things is pretty hard work. He pokes at the wobbly lever again. It's not quite secured right, but he's more interested in what it does to him. Flicker. Neat.

"Ah!"

Victor jolts back as something flickers into existence for a moment, then out again. What -- what on earth -- The lever wriggles, and the shadow returns, mostly man-shaped, although the hands don't look quite right. . .and is that a tail he sees in the split-second before it vanishes again? Victor stares at the spot where the shadow was (is?), eyes wide. "Oh -- ah -- I d-don't think that's an intended feature. . ." Is he seeing things? Or has something REALLY gone wrong with this intended repair job?

Oops. He'd been hoping for useful data and all, but Kurt's not a fan of scaring people. With a face like his it's too easy to do accidentally. "Sorry, sorry..." Can he do anything not spooky to make up for it? Even if he tries to just be helpful, he can see where floating tools or self-correcting repairs wouldn't be much less alarming, if the guy even sticks around to see. Maybe just getting it all over with? He doesn't try to change anything this time, just focuses on touching the machine, fingers gently against gears and tail wrapped around a supporting tube of metal. A burst of careful concentration and he manages to stay properly visible for a little more than a full second.

Victor stares as the shadow flickers in again, then actually stays for a moment or two, giving him a chance to look at it properly. It's not a shadow, he realizes. It's -- it's a person! A rather unusual person, what with that blue skin (fur?), and the tail, but Victor's not one to judge on basis of looks. He's met enough Fabricateds to know not to stare.

The figure's gone as he blinks, but he keeps his eyes rooted to the spot, wondering if it'll appear again. "He-hello?" he offers up, aware that he probably sounds a bit dim. . .but what else can you say in this situation?

Oh, good, that sort of worked. Progress. He wishes death came with a decent instruction booklet. It's not like he doesn't enjoy the process of inquiry, but when it's getting in the way of even the most normal, everyday interactions... That and his results haven't been great so far. Concentrate really hard and maybe it'll help is a terrible step one. He shifts tactics, trying to be heard this time. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you..."

Victor jumps a little at the voice -- he was expecting another flash of a form, not that. But he's glad in a way too -- means he can communicate with whoever it is. "It's -- it's fine," he says, slowly moving forward. "I'm n-naturally jumpy, to be honest. . .who are you?"

"An inconsiderate dead guy, apparently." After all, his name isn't going to mean anything at this point. In case he runs out of juice, explanations are a higher priority. "Sorry, most of the time I have less luck than this." Talking is easier than being visible, at least at the moment. He focuses on that. "I guess I didn't expect to do anything, or not enough to spook people."

Victor thinks his name is quite important, but he's not going to quibble about that just yet. Besides, "inconsiderate dead guy" made him laugh a bit. "It's all right. . .just caught me by surprise." If that weren't obvious. "How long have you been here?"

"Not very. Just sort of drifted by and saw you had a wobble thing going in the switch there." Oh, good, he's the spirit of slightly helpful mechanical repairs. That's definitely what he wanted out of life. Death. He cracks himself up, sadly enough. "Not haunting the difference engine or anything. That would be weird."

"It's rather more than a wobble thing," Victor says, giving the difference engine a look before turning back to where the voice is coming from. "Doc would be able to better diagnosis it. . .but you're just sort of -- drifting around? I -- t-that sounds lonely." Especially if he can't normally interact with anyone.

"It's not all that emotionally satisfying, nah. I don't even get to haunt anything." Probably dying while jumping between worlds, neither of which was his own anyway. Or maybe not. There's a definite dearth of data on ghosting. "You want any help with that? I, uh, never did anything bigger than a clock in gears before, but..." He'll figure it out. Always does.

"I see. . ." Victor looks at the difference engine, then waves a hand. "That can wait. Unless you want to work on it," he adds hastily, not wanting deny the -- ghost -- something that might make him feel better. "I just -- I'm more interested in you. I've -- never met a ghost before."

"I'm probably a pretty lame place to start." But he'd probably be curious too, under the circumstances. He continues to hold tight to the engine, but talking is also making it easier to keep talking. Building a bit of a connection as he goes, perhaps. Maybe it's not normal to be an unmoored ghost, and he can fix that? Haunting something sounds better than just wandering. "And I'm definitely bad at it. I can't figure anything out." The shadow of a shape is beginning to flicker again, though Kurt doesn't notice.

"Not at all! You shouldn't be so negative about yourself." . . .This is coming from someone who had very little self-esteem before he arrived in Secundus. How mad science changes people. "Well, perhaps we can --"

He stops as the form flickers again. "Oh! I think you're starting to become more visible!"

"Huh." He briefly pauses to wonder how, exactly he can see when he's not even visible and doesn't have eyes to take in light and translate images. Probably for another time. "Really wish they gave you a guidebook. Maybe it's like radar. The more pings, the clearer the image..." The physics of the afterlife are obviously an important subject.

There's probably some long explanation that use the words "ether" and "paraphysical space" and stuff like that a thousand times. "I think some of our Reanimated would appreciate that too, even if they're a bit more -- ah -- solid than you are." He nods. "That could be it. The more steady contact you have with something or someone, the easier it is for you to manifest?"

"Seems to be working that way. I guess I haven't wandered by anything else I was that interested in. This thing is cool." The shadow, slightly more solid, runs oddly shaped fingers along the machine. Carefully. He doesn't want to mess anything up. "Poking things is maybe the answer to life after death?"

"Perhaps not," Victor agrees. then chuckles. "Cool but broken. Something's jammed somewhere inside, which knocked some other things loose. . . Of course, I can't tell exactly what's jammed." He laughs again. "Either that or massive amounts of electricity."

"I wish I knew more about this stuff. I saw one in a museum one time, but that's not really experience, as such." He could probably figure it out given time. He's good with anything mechanical. But he doesn't have much of a starting point.

"In a museum? Like Mr. Babbage's original?" Victor looks impressed. "It's all right, really. It takes time to learn all the ins and outs of these machines. I've been living and working here for over a year and I still don't know everything there is to know." Pause. "Not to mention you're, um. . .dead."

"Nah, reconstruction. And, um, yes, that's socially awkward, but I promise I'm not offended." Being dead, while definitely a drag, is certainly nobody's fault and nothing he can change, so he'd rather the nice guy who can currently kind of see him not worry about it. As much as is reasonable, anyway.

"Ah. And I'm glad -- I didn't mean to offend. I'm just -- like I said, I've never interacted with a ghost before." He studies the outline of the shade. "What's your name?"

Victor Van Dort | Steampunk Multiverse AU (Secundus: BTTF/CB/AMA)

3 mostly I guess? More that than anything else...

Okie-dokie

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject