piper90npcs: (Default)
piper90npcs ([personal profile] piper90npcs) wrote in [community profile] goneawayworld2020-12-01 08:29 pm

HERE, HAVE SOME SPIRIT

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.]]
bringinghopewithme: (oops)

Re: Past

[personal profile] bringinghopewithme 2020-12-08 09:58 am (UTC)(link)
"Sure, but it's not mine to see if she hasn't decided to show me it," Bunny insists, again, to the same spirit.

He's caught between his own whole nature as the sort of animal that this family would have caught, dressed for the oven, and his higher awareness' appreciation for the fact that this is a home, a family, possibly one Kenzie doesn't have anymore.

The prickly werewolf herself is not around to see him cast a concerned glance at her sleeping form, so he goes ahead and does it anyway.
ragefeathers: (And I've been raised to kill)

just kinda making this up as i go honestly

[personal profile] ragefeathers 2020-12-08 08:57 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's not for you, nor me, nor her to decide what exactly is shown," the Ghost says cryptically. "You should know that best, should you not, creature of spring?" It is said without malice, only a matter-of-fact acknowledge of what Bunnymund is and what the Ghost themself is as well. They turn back towards the scene, watching as the blonde woman tugs a bottle from the fridge--unlabeled except for a handwritten one--perhaps some kind of homemade brew? She crosses over to the couch where Kenzie is just stirring, blinking herself awake in the warmth of the fire. The bottle is opened and offered over and Kenzie reaches out to accept it with a blurry smile.

"Here, on the house," the blonde woman says.

"Thanks, Lydia," Mackenzie mumbles and takes the bottle. She swigs and reaches out to nudge the sleeping wolf with a foot, but Lydia puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Let him sleep," Lydia says and flops down onto the couch to lean up against Mackenzie in a cozy, sisterly way. "It's Christmas."

"Oh, I thought food was ready..." Kenzie mumbles between swigs of home-made beer.

"Nah, it's in the oven and Eli and Gabby are finishing up the rest of dinner."

"Mm," Kenzie murmurs. "At least we're not neck deep in banes like last year."

"Nice to have it off for once, right?" Lydia laughs. "Anything you want from Santa this year?"

"Uhhh, a girlfriend?"

"Vibrator, got it." Kenzie clobbers Lydia with one of the pillows off the couch and there's a dissolution into laughter and playful roughhousing that never goes quite far enough to spill beer, though it comes dangerously close at times. There's no doubt that what's being seen here is family--Mackenzie's family or the closest thing she ever had to it getting to enjoy a quiet moment together. A break from her constant war.

"She had so much only a year ago," the Ghost opines in their maddeningly calm and even voice.
bringinghopewithme: (oops)

<3 <3 u do u boo

[personal profile] bringinghopewithme 2020-12-09 03:33 am (UTC)(link)
"And this year?" Bunny asks, without really realizing that's a different Ghost's purview. He never read A Christmas Carol. But a little dread grows in his heart as he looks at the warm home, the friendly banter, the affectionate roughhousing and reframes it as something for Kenzie to have lost.

He both does, and doesn't want to know.
ragefeathers: (But the thought of fresh meat)

[personal profile] ragefeathers 2020-12-09 10:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"That I cannot say. I am the Ghost of Christmas Past, not the Ghost of Christmas Present," the Ghost opines.

"But she did lose all of this. That much I can say with certainty."
bringinghopewithme: (like two fleas arguin who owns the dog)

[personal profile] bringinghopewithme 2020-12-12 01:39 am (UTC)(link)
"Huh." There's so much to be said about the tragedy of losing all this that he doesn't have the context to go into in any meaningful way, besides which, this is a ghost he's speaking to, not Kenzie who suffers this absence herself.

Bunny looks at the ghost instead.

"What do you want to get out of this?" he asks. "You want her to take something from this, remember it, forget it, what's your goal with me here?"

He'll do anything he can to help any mortal, even this side of their being a child, but he's so woefully lacking in any actual communication with Kenzie. Yet here he is walking around in her own memories, uninvited.
ragefeathers: (To be brave)

[personal profile] ragefeathers 2020-12-12 08:06 pm (UTC)(link)
"To enlighten," the Ghost says thoughtfully. Of course, it's cryptic, too. Ghosts like to be cryptic, right?

"To promote an understanding of where you have all come from, to show the commonality. Or perhaps simply hardships. It's not my place to say what you should get from such visitations--only that you should have them and think on them."
bringinghopewithme: (I saw TV at a m8's house once)

[personal profile] bringinghopewithme 2020-12-16 08:57 am (UTC)(link)
"Okay, well, I got 'em, I'm thinkin. You know this isn't my holiday, right?"

An Easter vision would hopefully have Kenzie running free, frolicking with her friends and her family, not bedded down snoozing for the winter with a kill on the fire for him to be awkward about.

"Look, she's not gonna take kindly if I point out that humans don't stop maturing until 25. They don't like that. I wanna help her, but if you've got insight as to how - teenagers and young adults ain't exactly my target audience. I could use the insight."
Edited 2020-12-16 08:58 (UTC)
ragefeathers: (I could keep you warm)

[personal profile] ragefeathers 2020-12-16 04:37 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm aware," the Ghost says with a laugh.

"You see her as a predator. A wolf, because that is what she is. But like all creatures when wounded, she seeks to hide it. For her, showing that she is hurt, showing vulnerability would be the same as admitting that she is weak and helpless. Two things she has been taught to despise in herself by her people."