The Ghost Hunting Meme

[hauntedasachild]

Maybe you're part of one of those big paranormal research societies that have their own TV show, top of the line equipment, and everything. Maybe you're an aspiring director who's noticed the boom of paranormal TV shows lately and decided to cash in the time is right for your art. Or maybe you and your friends just decided that messing around in someplace that's supposed to be haunted sounded like a fun way to spend an evening, especially when there may or may not be beer involved. Whatever the reason may be, you've decided to go

GHOST HUNTING



Choose your haunting, or let he RNG pick for you:

1. Setting Up: You're on location, and the locals have told you about the place's super creepy history and why it's definitely haunted. It's time to start unpacking your gear and encountering some ghosts. You just noticed that the clouds in the sky are forming an X over the location - just like the electrical tape X's you used to mark locations for your infrared cameras! - so you know you're going to get a lot of activity tonight.

2. YOU GUYS WHAT WAS THAT NOISE: There's no way that was just the building settling, and wind definitely doesn't make a sound like that! Clearly, something paranormal is afoot (a spooky, disembodied foot) here.

3. Era Cues: One of the best ways to draw out ghosts is through the use of stimuli from the era in which they died - so put on some oldschool jazz, light up a cigar, and start cooking some down-home southern cuisine. It's for science!

4. EVP Time: Your completely uncalibrated EMF detector just started spiking, and you may or may not have felt a cold breeze just now, so the spirits must be with you! Switch on that tape recorder and start asking them some questions, and maybe you'll be able to pick their responses out of the background noise (what is a "pareidolia," anyway?)

5. Motion Detector Mayhem: The device you bought to make a horrific racket if anything moves is making a horrific racket, and what could possibly move in an empty, dark room where your teammates totally haven't been except for a ghost? You haven't even seen any huge moths since you began this investigation, so it has to be something paranormal!

6. COME AT ME BRO: Provoking the ghosts is a really good idea. Shouting and posturing at the air like a tough guy makes you look cool, and it's always the best way to-- oh god, did something just scratch you?!

7. The Infrared Camera Just Caught Something: Or maybe it was the ultraviolet camera, or hell, maybe even the regular old visible light camera. Either way, it definitely wasn't one of your teammates sneaking off to take a leak or a smoke without telling anyone else, unlike the last four times, because everyone is finally present and accounted for. Which leaves only one thing it could be...

8. That Object Just Moved!: Despite the fact that you finally wised up and placed the trigger object far away from your camera cords or anything that you could trip over, it just fell over. And that piece of concrete that just landed next to your foot? It totally didn't come from the ceiling - it had to have been thrown by something!

9. Possession: Suddenly, one of your teammates can't quite seem to remember his last name, and is talking about how he'll "scuttle your legs" - or maybe he's talking about how this place fills him with demonic rage, or just acting dumber than usual. Either way, he's obviously been possessed by an entity!

10. Other/Pick One: Choose your own haunting.

Comments

dr. leonard mccoy | stxi | open

[aviophobia]

[available in modern day au, teen au, and regular!verse varieties!]

#3; teen plz!

[hypospraying]

[Christine finishes pinning back her hair into Victory curls and checks her reflection in the mirror on the backside of the sun visor in Leonard's car.]

There: every person who's been here overnight says that acting like it's the 1940s brings out the ghosts. You ready?

o7

[aviophobia]

This is fucking stupid.

[He scowls at himself in the rearview mirror, smoothing a hand over his heavily gelled hair, which looks like (in his [correct] opinion) a duck's ass.]

Why are we doing this again? Don't we remember what happened last time?

[hypospraying]

Oh, please. If you were so against this, you wouldn't have bothered to pick me up in the first place. And stop messing with your hair; it's fine.

[One more check in the mirror and she flips the visor back up.]

I know, but that's not an experience I can just set aside and try to forget. Don't you want to know more from a scientific standpoint?

[aviophobia]

Like hell am I gonna let you do this alone, either. And if I didn't pick you up, someone else would.

[He puts his hand to the inside pocket of his jacket, where his phone is safely tucked away. Acting like it's 1945 means no cell phones, either, but he's not leaving it in the car.]

Let's go.

[hypospraying]

[She opens the car door, to better hide her smile from him. It's true that there were plenty of other guys willing to drive Christine out to an abandoned house in the middle of the night. However, none of them would be interested in ghost hunting. They'd be more interested in what was under her faux vintage dress she brought off the internet.]

So from what I've read, the woman who lived here died in an accident at one of those factories women worked at during the war? And when her husband came back from the front, he was inconsolable for a long time and finally moved away. But it's said that both their ghosts are here.

[aviophobia]

[That's not to say that Leonard isn't interested in what's under that faux vintage dress, either, but his main concern is that she makes it out of this in one piece.

He walks alongside her up to the front door, hands shoved in his pockets.]

Okay, so what do we do to get them out? Talk about what hep cats we are, or how we've got to 23 Skidoo?

[hypospraying]

I don't think we have to lay it on that thick, McCoy. We just, y'know, talk about the war, and Glenn Miller, and Roosevelt.

[She leads them up onto the dilapidated porch, carefully testing her weight on each step first. At the door, there's a cinder block in front, as if that will deter people from sneaking in the unlocked door.

She looks from it to him.]

Time to show me those biceps, I guess.

[aviophobia]

Ooh, Miss Chapel, ooh.

[He rolls his eyes and shoves at the cinder block. It takes a little more effort than it ought to, like something's holding it in place, but he does get it out of the way eventually. Once he does, he pushes the door open cautiously, peering in.]

All right. C'mon.

[hypospraying]

[She follows him in, peering into the darkness.]

Well, I brought this.

[Reaching into her bag, she pulls out a big flashlight. It's not exactly accurate to the time period, but it's big and bulky like the ones then would have been.]

Hello? Anybody home?

[aviophobia]

Hello? Anyone here?

[He fights the urge to get his phone out to use the flashlight on it, reaching out to take Christine's arm instead. In a gentlemanly, 1940s sort of way. Right.]

[hypospraying]

[She glances over at him, smiling faintly.]

Do you think the war will end soon? I don't want you to get drafted.

[aviophobia]

[...okay, so they're doing this.]

Hope so. Jim's older brother got drafted, over in the ... Pacific theater now. He's not having the greatest time.

[hypospraying]

[They are so doing this.]

I hear it's awful. But Europe is too, of course.

[There's a creaking noise on the second floor. Maybe just the house settling, or maybe footsteps?]

[aviophobia]

Lucky we're here. Hopefully things stay over there, and our boys can take care of Hitler.

[He glances up at the ceiling at the creak, nervously.]

[hypospraying]

Yeah. Yes.

[She shifts so she's pressing her arm against him.]

But I'm willing to do my part. [She pauses, listens, and continues.] I'll get a job at the airplane assembly plant after school.

[aviophobia]

You gotta be extra careful there. Tie your hair back really well. Don't girls get their hair caught in the machinery?

[Another creak. Leonard glances at Christine nervously.]

[hypospraying]

[And she glances back. It's okay, she tells herself. It won't be like last time.]

I heard they do. One even... I heard she died, not long ago.

[And now it's super cold there.]

[aviophobia]

Um. Jeepers.

[Did they say 'jeepers' in the 1940s? If he could look it up on his phone then he could be sure, but they're pretending it's the 1940s so he can't.]

Got kinda cold in here.

[hypospraying]

Yes, it did.

[She swallows hard and shines the light around, heart pounding against her rib cage. Nothing else happens beyond the cold, and she slowly exhales.]

Let's walk around a little.

[aviophobia]

Yeah.

Uh, here, take my jacket. It's too cold for just your dress.

[He takes off his jacket and drapes it over Christine's shoulders so her arms are covered.]

Let's look at this floor.

[hypospraying]

[She's surprised, and can't help but wonder if he would have done that anyway, or if this is him being all 1940s sensibility.]

Thanks.

[Drawing the jacket tightly around her shoulders, she points the way with her flashlight, wondering what to say next.]

I hope we'll win the war soon, though it looks like that'll be hard to do in the Pacific.

[aviophobia]

Yeah, uh -

[oh god his name his name you just looked this up on Wikipedia last night it was - ]

Hirohito's boys are putting up a fight over there, aren't they?

[hypospraying]

Mmm hmm. It's terrible. I wonder what's worse: the heat in the Pacific or the cold in Europe.

[The cold dissipates the further away they get from the spot it originated, and she isn't quite so nervous now.]

My mom complains about rationing, but I tell her that's a silly thing to worry about while Dad's away fighting.

[After the last word, there's a long creak from overhead.]

[aviophobia]

I hate it, too. Never have enough sugar in the place.

[He looks up.]

Wonder if someone's here after all.