HERE, HAVE SOME SPIRIT

[piper90npcs]

Who: Three Ghosts and the little New Hires
What: Sharing the Christmas Spirit
Where: Good question
When: Post-Rose Tattoo
Warnings/Notes: Possible violence, angst, likely visions of death.

Are you sleeping?

Maybe. Maybe not. It's hard to tell. This could be another ARE, after all. What you can tell is that the halls are filled with mist, the smell of pine, and the sound of jingling bells off in the distance.

And then comes the wailing.

Tearing past you, screaming like a damned soul, skeletal figures flood through the halls. Some of them wear business suits, weighed down by chains crafted from ledgers and money boxes. Some of them are soldiers, bound by their own twisted weapons. Police, politicians, no one seems spared. Someone whispers, warning you, begging you to pay heed. For you will be visited by three ghosts who are on an errand of great import.

And then something charges with a howl and all goes white. Slowly, the light dims, and the mass of spectral entities is gone. Instead there stands a figure, or maybe two or three of them. For each person, it's different, as they'll have different messages and purposes for each.

One is neither male nor female, the only certain features being a well-muscled, well proportioned body, wearing a white tunic and a beautiful belt of pearl. Its hair is long, white, as if ancient, but no matter how its face changes, there's no sign of age upon it. There seems to be an aura of white flame around its head and, in a voice that belies nothing but charitable warmth, introduces itself as the Ghost of Christmas Past. It will show scenes of someone's past, offering enlightening details with little judgment.

The middle one is a large man on a veritable throne of food, tantalizing and delicious, wearing a fur-lined red robe and a crown of holly upon his head. The Ghost of Christmas Present is a big man, with brown hair, and a booming, jovial voice that can turn blisteringly harsh and back in a single sentence. He'll show what the character was doing immediately prior to their arrival upon the rig. Perhaps what they're doing right now. But he'll also be content to walk either the character's home world or this Gone Away World, viewing the sights and people enjoying Christmas with the character.

And the final one, a phantom in a dark, green robe, green smoke billowing around it. Its skin is pale, pulled gauntly around whatever body part it exposes. The gaze underneath the hood is as cold as the grave, and it would be wise not to try to match that for too long. It remains utterly silent, simply guiding its guest through the Christmases Yet To Come with a pointed finger. It will show how a character dies and how they'll be remembered by others after. It acts cold and merciless, but this very visit is a mission of mercy, one it silently prays will succeed.

The surprise, though, is that they aren't showing the character that history. Instead, they'll be guiding their guest through someone else's life. Maybe just a fraction of it, maybe a full span. But when it's all over, it's as if no time has passed. In fact, no. The characters are returned to an hour before the ghosts visited them.

[[Remember, this isn't your typical memshare. The ghosts are NPCs, but they'll be controlled by the players. They will not show characters their own histories, presents, or futures, only those of different people. They can show the same scenes to different people or different scenes to different people. One person might not even see all three of the Ghosts.]]

Comments

[hallelujahjunction]

"That's his brother, I reckon." He gives a glance to the Ghost, remembering something Sam said about hunting monsters with his brother, those nights Sam and Dan trade notes about the different horrors of their worlds (so many demons! Christ! and who decided angels needed to be in this thing?). "Dean."

He smiles as he sees Dean get a little too much of the hard alcohol in the eggnog. Everything about this scene is warm, sweet - and faintly sad, as he watches the awkward silences at the gift exchange while the two brothers decide what to say next, while for just a moment both seem to carry a heavy sorrow, while the pauses in the conversation stretch on a little too loud.

He turns to the Ghost. "Why does this feel off? Far as Sam's told it, Dean ain't dead, but maybe...or if it ain't my place to know, then that's alright too."

God knows he respects the right for people to keep things to themselves.

He takes in all the details of his roommate's memory, though, the ball game and the clothing still packed up and the fact that the rooms in the hotel still have their beds made, but with the faint impression of people sleeping on top of them, like they're ready to fight at any minute. He wonders if this is what Christmas would be like if his sister hadn't taken that hex for them, if it had been the two of them roadtripping to hunt spirits and surrounded everywhere they went by unspoken ghosts.

[fromfryingpantofire]

"No. There will be other Christmases with Dean. Nothing quite like this, of course." The Ghost makes a motion to the room, to the Christmas tree and the hasty decorations and gifts. "But that doesn't mean there isn't sorrow coming. The life of Hunters in this world is not easy and there are many powers that wish to pervert their course.

"Between this Christmas and the one before, Sam died. And Dean, being a good brother, would do anything in his power or the power of anybody else to make that not happen. And some who are very eager to make that sort of deal."

[hallelujahjunction]

That explains a lot. Sam's already explained how Sam's world is lousy with demons, and they seem exactly like the witches of Dan's world in their cruel, self-serving machinations, in their eagerness to exploit people's sorrow and capitalize it to just make more hurt, more broken families, more graves.

And when he was with his sister, hunting a witch, she decided to do everything in her power to protect her little brother too. Dan sighs and rubs his face. He hasn't know Sam long, only a few months, and yet it's so obvious from what he's seeing here and the person Sam is that to lose Dean in such a way would rip Sam's heart and soul to shreds.

"Hunters really are all the same, ain't we?" His parents sold a soul to try and protect what they loved, and it backfired terribly. Dan wouldn't be shocked if Dean's deal had a similar dark end, even if he did in fact survive to see more Christmases. "You get into it because you think you got some kind of say in life or death, and then you just never get disabused of the notion."

[fromfryingpantofire]

"Mmm. Well, that's one way people become Hunters," the Ghost concedes. "Though it's rare for those in Sam's world. But that's a memory I don't have access to. What I hold are the memories and knowledge in these moments, in these few hours of Christmas."

He makes a motion to Sam and Dean. "There is more at work than they realize. Not that it matters at this moment in time. Here, they are only Sam and Dean and the world isn't any bigger than this room, for once."

[hallelujahjunction]

"No, not...not deals with..." Demons in Sam's world, he guesses, witches in Dan's, but the whole idea is that you take people who are in mortal danger and you divert their fates from death to salvation. And then, as all hunters do, you become so used to that idea of saviorship that you shove it in places it doesn't belong.

Dan knows. Dan's seen it. He's lived it. He shakes his head and sighs, then nurses his injured hand.

"Then it's good they had that moment. Sam ain't told me much about anything, just about the monster-hunting, but I ain't an idiot, I know things got real dark for at least a while." And yet they still had this moment. Small blessings. "I hope they got more of those."

[fromfryingpantofire]

The Ghost makes a sound of understanding, pulling away. "They don't often make an effort, actually. It's rare to have the downtime. The monsters don't tend to stop for the holidays, after all." Something that Dan may have more of an idea about. "But the darkness is why so many cultures have a festival in the deep of winter. When there is only darkness is when we must find the light. Or make it ourselves."

[hallelujahjunction]

"Don't I know it," Dan says about the monsters; quite a few of them seem to actually prefer the holidays, when the nights are longer and darker and people are more isolated in little clusters. "I'm just glad they got some light at least one year. Sam's a good kid, kind, smart, hardworking. He deserves some lightness."

Then again, Dan knows, so does everyone. Everyone deserves lightness and community.

[fromfryingpantofire]

The Ghost of Christmas Past smiles at Dan, obviously pleased. "It's good that somebody else sees him that way. I doubt that he will ever see himself that way, but knowing others see that would be a good thing for him."

[hallelujahjunction]

"Well, we share a room. I get to put a lot of thoughts in his ear without him reckoning it. Benefit of close proximity." It's a double-edged sword; you never know someone else the same way you do as when you live with them, but they have that same advantage. "Might drop some of that faith on him when he's least suspecting."

He runs his fingers over the bandages of his injured hand, watching the Winchester boys enjoying the football game, thinking of his sister.

"It's awkward to stay here longer," he says to the Ghost.

[fromfryingpantofire]

"Hmm. Yes, I suppose it is. It doesn't really get any better from here."

The Ghost of Christmas Past looks to the Winchesters again. "They would do anything for one another," they say after a moment, before turning away with Dan. "That's not always a good thing. But sometimes, that's the sort of thing that can save the world. Or so I've heard."