ghostharasser | Open Post

[He already suspects he might have figured something out, just from that admission, but He just nods.]

Sure thing, man. It was super interesting.

[He logs off and takes note of Danny's shuffling around. Ah well, time to finish what he was working on. He gets up and grabs the VCR off the ground and heads out of his room.]

Was it good?

Got kinda sad at the end, but otherwise, yeah!

[Danny's squirting a packet of ectoplasm into a bottle of soda as he speaks, which he then re-closes and shakes vigorously. Dipper's seen him do this before by now - the ecto cancels out the carbonation, somehow. It's perhaps a little scientifically worrying, actually.]

So, what's up with your remote-eating VCR? It's not haunted, I'd be able to tell.

[Huh, how does a space documentary get s- oh right Apollo 13. Cough, anyway. Dipper watches him make ecto-soda and does remember the first time he saw him do this and the sheer panic he felt before Danny told him it cancelled out the carbonation. Weird!!!]

Oh, this? It was trying to bite students down in the AV room. It was under some kind of curse, but it wasn't anything too complicated to break. I'm about bring it back to them and maybe do some looking around to figure out who might be putting curses on electronics like that.

[He tucks it under his arm and waves a hand.]

I think we can probably rule out Shots!Wizard, but who knows what else might be lurking on campus.

Edited 2024-09-02 05:23 (UTC)

A curse? What, was someone trying to recreate The Ring or something?

[Danny takes a swig of the ecto-soda - it still tastes kinda carbonated, but that has more to do with the ectoplasm's acidic zest than anything else.]

Yeah, Shots!Wizard is too chill for that shit. My money's on the most unassuming person possible.

[It....... absolutely has not occurred to Danny that cursed objects should probably not be a normal college experience. He was already slightly too used to this stuff, and then his roommate turned out to be like, a paranormal obsessed warlock or something. What do you mean the majority of the world doesn't think the supernatural is even real?]

I would trust Shots!Wizard with my life, and I don't say that lightly about wizards.

[He's just a chill guy who wants to have a good time and is able to smuggle them in mysterious amounts of alcohol despite like half their floor being under 21.]

But yeah, so the magical theory behind curses are that they are an expulsion of negative energy. To create them, you are putting something nasty out into the world and hopefully warping it for your ends. Their intentions are usually to do outward destruction in some way, though the definition of "destruction" can be a little ambiguous depending on who you ask.

[Haha what a concept, living in a blissfully ignorant existence where one is capable of having no clue about the supernatural.]

That is to say, someone did this on purpose to try and do something probably to someone and even if this seemed mostly harmless, it's hard to figure out the scope of their intentions until I do some snooping. Best to stop it before it escalates and find out what's going on.

[That sure was a whole lot of magic nerd ramble. It really is impossible for him to turn it off. Danny doesn't seem too bothered though, so hopefully that was fine. He will head to the door.]

Well! Don't wait up. I've got about seven hours before the tank runs dry and I crash so I better make the best of it.

Not hearing anything that doesn't implicate the most unassuming person possible! But yeah, that tracks.

[Curses cast by ghosts work much the same way, so it's not unfamiliar territory. He's pretty sure there hasn't been any ghost activity aside from himself around here though, so hey, might as well let Dipper do his investigation. Either way, Danny is more than used to the magic nerd rambles by now, and simply waves Dipper off with a smirk.]

I got a couple of classes anyway, go do your thing.

[Dipper's been pretty good about getting back home before he crashes, so Danny's not worried. ...Of course, he likes the guy, and his nature won't let him not keep an eye out for his friends, so he'll probably be checking the clock anyway...]

[When does Dipper find time to go to classes- that is the bigger mystery of all of this. (He has a lot of wavers in place because of his nightmare problem so he does a lot of stuff online despite still being on campus.)]

I'll let you know when I figure out who it is, just so you know how right you were. Watch your phone.

[But he will give him a salute and head out the door.]

[He sets a timer, too, just in case. It's easy to lose track of time when he gets into an investigation, and he suspects he might be all over. Mabel has a timer set too, because she comes and helps him for a bit but then has to head off.]

[Seven hours come and go. On approaching the eighth, Danny gets a text from Mabel.]

Hey, have you heard from brobro? He's not answering his phone. :( :( :(

Edited 2024-09-02 19:30 (UTC)

[Danny squints at the text, looks at the time on his phone, then immediately slaps his forehead.]

no dont worry ill go find him, probably passed out somewhere near the apartment lol

[What he's not saying, of course, is that it's honestly not that hard for a half ghost to find Dipper. The guy doesn't trip his ghost sense, sure, but once he started paying attention to Dipper's particular brand of weird eldritch nonsense, Danny had quickly realized that it had its own tug on his awareness. It took concentration to track, but track it he could.

...and it was usually easier to do things like that as Phantom. Danny sighs as he slips his phone back in his pocket. He really didn't want to ever go ghost while at college, but at best Dipper had just conked out somewhere random, and at worst he'd invoked the wrath of whoever was casting curses and was in real trouble. Danny's not about to take half measures (ha) when it comes to bailing out his friends.

So, time to fly around invisible it is. He changes quickly - his Phantom outfit includes a bit more than just the hazmat suit now, a black and white hooded jacket with neon green accents appearing as well. In an instant, he's vanished and flown off through the wall, focusing on that familiar sense of not-quite-right that Dipper exudes.]

Okay plz let me know!! When i saw him last, he was checking out the east part of campus, u know the part under renovations or some junk?? said the trail was that way.

[Mabel is gonna go do her own thing right now which is prepare plan B magic. No one wants to know what that might entail. She is also waiting to contact their uncles because a Pines going missing is a big deal, however, Dipper's pride would wither if someone called the family on him and she knows this. Hhhh hopefully Danny's right.]

[He isn't. As it turns out, there is a collection of abandoned buildings in the east campus. Some have been renovated but some haven't, and still sit in disrepair, condemned to years of poor maintenence. It's a pretty creepy place, to be honest. The air is still, the vibes atrocious, and there's something deeply liminal about it.]

[A ghost who can just go through walls has a much easier time navigating this, but the eeriness is probably still palpable. It's not a ghost spooky, it's a Something Else spooky.]

[So in a room that was definitely a closet once, that opens up into another strange, secret room, there is Dipper. He's tied up from the ceiling by his arms, unconscious, with his clothes singed and burned and bloody. At his feet is a containment circle and his shadow...]

[His shadow is alive and it is writhing and convulsing like it's trying to escape the circle. Hands form out of it as if to claw at the invisible barrier, while some attempt to cling to Dipper's legs. Overall it's a pretty spooky sight!!]

[The feeling of something not being right only gets stronger as Danny makes his way silently through the abandoned buildings - his heart had sunk the moment he'd read "east" in Mabel's text. Of course it's out here. Why wouldn't it be out here, the giant freaking magnet for any manner of creepy shit. But something is definitely not right in more than just the way Dipper feels normally, and that only spurs Danny on faster. Dammit, he should have been watching the clock more closely...

The moment he finally finds that hidden room and enters it, he is IMMEDIATELY pissed. Whoever their little cursemonger is is about to have the wrath of a whole realm bearing down on them - but first, Dipper.]

Dipper!

[He hisses it in an urgent whisper, landing on the floor and dropping his invisibility as he dashes up to the circle. (There's a split second as he lands where the whole room flickers in green, where something gleams above his head, but then it's gone.)]

Hey, shh, shh, it's just me, I'm gonna get him out of here.

[That's said to the understandably agitated shadow, Danny giving it a brief "calm down" gesture.]

Scoot back a bit for me real quick.

[Whether or not the shadow moves - he'll just do his best to work around it if it doesn't - Danny turns his attention to the circle. He's really only had to deal with ghost containment circles before, and he can immediately tell that this is something different. Dipper could probably tell him what, but, well. Still, he's not about to hesitate, and most of these things that he's dealt with before buckle to raw power even when he doesn't know how they work.

Danny kneels down, smacks his palms onto the floor in front of the circle, and ice erupts along its lines.

It fights him. Maybe it's just a strong spell, maybe it's because it's not ghost related, but it's not enough. He grimaces, and pours more power into it. The ice glows stronger, and slowly spreads. Not enough. More. More.

Finally, reluctantly, the circle gives. The ice shatters, leaving only a smear on the floor under it, and Danny gasps in relief. Floating back up, he quickly scoops Dipper into his arms, and a small second of intangibility is all it takes to remove him from the ropes.]

Man, times like this make me wish healing was one of my stupid powers. Hang on, one more thing...

[Shuffling Dipper briefly to one arm, Danny fires an ice blast at one of the walls with the other, positioned to be visible upon entering the room. The ghost ice won't melt, and formed within the sheet are clearly visible words:

Hey fuckface: your ass is grass. Love, and then his symbol. Sure, he isn't notorious in the supernatural world yet, being such a new King, but this fucker can deal with it. The Ghost King's symbol might change throughout the ages, but it's always identifiable with a pretty simple spell, after all.

With a short, dark chuckle to himself, Danny shifts Dipper back into a comfortable bridal carry, turns them both invisible again, and takes off for home.]

[The investigation had gone so strangely it's hard for Dipper to pinpoint how it went wrong until it did. When he's awake again, he'll have to do a lot of thinking over to his approach. It's been an uncomfortably long time since something took him by surprise like that.]

[He definitely overestimated who he was hunting down.]

[But of course between being taken by surprise, and his own freefall into inescapable unconsciousness at the seventh hour, Bill had his first real good opportunity to fuck with him in ages, and the nightmares are awful, like he's pumping as much horror into Dipper's brain as if the opportunity will be snatched from him at any moment. Dipper can't escape because he's hit the exhaustion threshold at about 47 hours so he might as well be tied to a chair while it happens. Bill laughs and laugh and screams at him about how this is his own fault for how his family got him put here to begin with. He wants him to be as miserable as he is locked in this stupid fascility and- wait what? Hey! No! No!]

[Suddenly the nightmare cuts out, fades, and Bill is further and further and further away until he can't hear him at all. For a brief moment, he stirs, feels the wind against his face and he looks up. Who...wait.]

...Phantom?

[But then he's asleep seconds later, unable to hold on. And he sleeps ...good. He actually sleeps and so his body, after years of exhaustion, shuts down completely in one of the hardest sleeps he's ever had.]

[When they reach the apartment, Mabel is sitting outside their dorm. She has a messenger bag with her and she is fidgeting with her hair in a clearly nervous way, checking her phone every few seconds.]

Edited 2024-09-02 21:14 (UTC)

[It's not often that a chill gets to go down a ghost's spine, but Danny sure feels that when Dipper breathes his alter ego's name for a brief second before passing back out. Of course, of course Dipper must have looked up enough about him to hear about Phantom. Welp, he guesses he'll find out when the guy wakes back up all the way whether he remembers the flight and the jig is up or not! That's a fun anxiety to have hanging over his head!

So fun that he almost misses Mabel at their door. Thankfully, they're still invisible, so Mabel may or may not catch the small "Crap!" from above her as Danny corrects course and dives behind some nearby bushes. Setting Dipper down for a moment, he pulls out his phone and shoots her a text.]

found him but he's a little uh. not great. otw back, will be back at dorm in a few

[Now to figure out a path that isn't necessarily visible from their front door so it can look like he was walking from there. Yep, that one works, it goes around a bend with a giant boulder at the corner. Sorry for lugging you around more than he technically needs to, Dipper, but you know, secret identity reasons that may or may not already be moot.

By some small blessing, there's no one else out this time of night either, despite the two of them absolutely not being the only college kids on campus up at weird hours. Danny is able to bring Dipper behind that boulder, return to his human form, and make it look like he's been walking the whole time. Mabel will see Danny round the bend at a hurried power walk, Dipper collapsed in his arms. He calls out to her as soon as he can see her.]

Hey, Mabel! I got him! He's alive!

[Mabel is up the moment she sees the text, looking for where she can meet him half way. Danny is lucky he turns the bend when he does because she is right there. She doesn’t hesitate to take Dipper off Danny’s hands like he weighs as much as a couple of grapes.]

Let me use your couch and I can fix him up! I brought stuff. Where did you find him?

Those creepy abandoned buildings to the east, just like you said. Some asshole had him tied up, sooooooo I'm gonna guess he found our curse thrower, but we can worry about that later! Couch it is!

[Danny jogs ahead to get the door open so Mabel can bring Dipper inside. He's practically vibrating with anger and concern, and if Mabel is sharp eyed enough she might even catch his eyes flashing green on the word "asshole."

He's pissed at Curse Jerk, of course, but Danny's also no small amount of mad at himself. Dipper told him exactly how long he had! And the guy is super accurate with that stuff! WHY hadn't he set an alarm for seven hours and texted then?? No, instead he spaced out until Mabel texted him, because he listened to the voice in his head telling him Dipper can handle himself. What kind of retired superhero friend IS he, never mind future king?? UGH.

Danny lets Mabel bring Dipper to the couch and do whatever she's got planned to help him, but he's hovering in a much more mundane sense than usual, opting to rest his arms on the couch from behind and watch intently. He's jiggling his leg something fierce, too, trying to give his frustration enough of an outlet that he doesn't start encasing random things in ice.

...Which isn't to say he isn't creating quite the cold spot around himself without noticing.]

[Dipper tells Mabel a lot of things, so if she notices, she doesn’t call attention to it yet. She is also mad, but mostly because Dipper couldn’t wait on her to come back to help and hot himself in trouble because he was worried about his timer.]

You big idiot, when you wake up I am going to give you so much hell.

[She yanks off his shirt to look at his injuries, swears softly and starts pulling out…thread and a needle? It glows in the light as she starts threading it. While she does she notices something.]

[She leans over him in surprise.]

He’s asleep.

[Like… actually asleep???? Its been years.]

Edited 2024-09-03 02:06 (UTC)

Well... yeah? I dunno if he crashed or got knocked out, really. At least he doesn't seem to be having nightmares this ti-

[Danny jolts to a stop, abruptly remembering what Dipper had told him about his sleep habits.]

...Oh. That's weird, isn't it?

[The glowing thread barely even registers. Of course the Pines would have magical first aid kits. Why wouldn't they?]

[It is weird, but also Mabel frowns because-]

Yeah… and I’m gonna have to wake him up to do this. Stand back a little. He might flip out. [She sighs and reaches over to grab his nose.]

I’m sorry Dipper.

[She pinches his nose, startling him awake, to which he responds by roaring awake, lunging off the couch and swinging a fist at seemingly nothing. His hands engulfed in a blue fire and a wild look in his eyes.]

Come out or I’ll-

[Even with the warning and having taken a step back from the couch, Danny isn't expecting Dipper to wake up swinging, much less swinging with fire.]

Whoa-!

[He reacts on startled instinct, throwing his own hands up in front of his face, and... and maybe accidentally encasing Dipper's hands in ghost ice. At... at least that's a power he's kind of already let slip with the red bulls?]

...Uh. Chill? It's just us, you're back at the dorm.

[Danny will let the ice dissolve as soon as Dipper gets a grip on himself, but really, they're REALLY gonna lose their deposit if he sets anything on magic fire.]

[Mabel is also like WHOA when Danny freezes his hands, but Dipper is startled and not totally in the present enough that he whips around to square up with Danny, trying to shake off the ice and then-]

[Falls back onto the couch, like all he had in the tank were dregs and that little burst had been a fluke. He's gone way too long without sleep, he got his ass kicked by a mysterious sorcerer or some kind, and he was having the best sleep of his life, so his body is pissed it got woken up.]

[He groans miserably, face first in the cushions.]

That's what you get, you know. You scared us half to death! If you weren't covered in bruises I would smack you so hard, Dipper.

[He grumbles something under his breath.]

Good. Hold still while I put you back together. I was this close to texting the Grunkles.

[Dipper turns a little on the couch so Mabel can actually work, and she finishes setting up her magical first aid.]

...How did I get back to the dorm?

Edited 2024-09-03 03:34 (UTC)

I carried you. After finding you tied up in like, the creepiest building within twenty miles. What the hell happened, Dipper??

[Dipper might not be feeling up to giving the whole story yet, and Danny is vaguely aware that he's jumping the gun on asking a bit. He can't help it. He wants deets, so he can go put the fear of all ghosts ever into this sorcerer wannabe. Or punch them in the face a little. Whichever seems easiest.]

[So, Danny had to come find him. Ugh, he was so trying not to get him involved in his supernatural nonsense. So much for that.]

[He falls quiet for a moment and it almost seems like he's fallen back to sleep, but Mabel strings the needle and pokes it right into his skin. He makes a noise but holds still so she doesn't jab him worse. She does not appear to be sewing his wounds together, but rather seems to be ...kind of embroidering runes into his skin.]

I set up a magic scan of the AV room to find traces of what might have cursed the VCR. The ...footprints so to speak were well covered, so it actually lead me on a hell of a wild goose chase until I finally cornered the traces at the east wing.

[He rubs his face.]

They were onto me...must have known I was snooping around because it was an ambush. Got me before I even knew what happened. I put up a fight but ...something wasn't right about it. I couldn't even get a good look at who they were. Last I heard my timer went off and everything went black.

[He pauses to look at Mabel.]

I'm sorry, I know you wanted me to wait. I didn't have a lot of time left and I was worried I'd lose the trail, but you were right, I should have called in back up.

[Mabel sighs and says she forgives him. She punctuates this by sticking him again, starting on a new rune.]

I'm sorry too. I should've tried texting you earlier.

[Honestly, something about this makes Danny wonder if the whole thing was a trap. Maybe he can posit that theory once Dipper's a little less exhausted and not being sewn on, though. He stares down at what Mabel's doing for a minute, and it takes him a few moments to really register that wow, Dipper has kind of a lot of scars, huh.

Well. Makes sense. Danny only doesn't by virtue of... ghost healing or whatever. Like sure, there's a few he had before half-dying, but after that everything just healed up way faster and cleaner than normal. He doesn't even want to think about what his skin would look like now if that wasn't the case...

He shakes himself out of it before addressing Dipper again.]

Hey man, if you go after that asshole again? Take me with you. I know I'm only really used to ghosts and not all this magic stuff, but I can still hold my own, and they might think twice about jumping two guys.

[Dipper is quick to wave that off.]

No way, man. I got myself into trouble, so don't think me getting strung up is your fault. If anything I'm the one that's sorry for getting you involved.

[He knows Danny just wants to be A Guy, so having him come out to get him out of his weird supernatural trouble makes him feel really guilty actually.]

[Mabel finishes the rune, and with a bit of blood it activates, glowing pink for a moment. Then ...Dipper's wounds start stitching themselves back together all on their own. They leave behind scars still, since magic is no substitute for proper body healing, but he's not bleeding anymore at least.]

You should let him help, you know.

[It's like Mabel is reading his mind. She might be, who could say.]

...You know, being around me is just going to keep attracting trouble. That's the thing with my family, Danny. I'm touched by the offer but, I'm not going to hold it against you if you want to keep out of the weird stuff. Really.

Eh, getting involved was probably gonna happen one way or another. And there's no way I'm not helping out a friend if I can.

[Whether or not that ends up needing to involve his full range of powers... well, they'll see. Danny can do quite a bit without even needing to transform, after all. He smirks down at Dipper, folding his arms comfortably against the back of the couch once more.]

Right now though, I just hauled your ass all the way back here, so I'm gonna go to bed.

[Dipper makes such a bewildered face at that. Whether it be because his efforts to try and keep his business out of Danny's might have been moot all along, or that he just couldn't succeed, or that he's actually reeling from being called "a friend" it could be all three of them, honestly.]

Don't worry, this dumdum is also going to bed, aren't you brobro?

[Faint, exhausted gurgling.]

That's what I thought! Now c'mon

[She just dead lifts him off the couch and kicks open his bedroom door. To which, if Danny is still listening, he can make out her scolding him for the absolute shit state of his bedroom. "Dipper you bed is on it's side against the wall!! What were you doing in here!" gurgle mumble "Ugghh, I'm going to drop you-" Louder distressed n- OW "Stay there while I get your bed, you owe like three boxes of ice cream sandwiches."]

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