z

Young Writers Society


The Ghost Hunt



User avatar
95 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 999
Reviews: 95
Thu Oct 24, 2019 11:36 am
View Likes
Teddybear says...



Marciella's perfectly polite and content mask hardened, becoming almost unnatural in the sheer relaxed friendliness of it.

"You said you dealt with these things before," she said, so polite, so lacking in malice, "On your show, you said. Are you saying now that that's not true?"

Like a well-oiled machine, her mind shifted through the obvious answers. No, that was true, this is just something I've never seen before! A new kind of ghost! was the most likely of the possibilities, right next to his admittance that it was all a farse and his getting angry rather than desperate. He couldn't get angry. Not now. All she needed was the truth now so they could work toward a solution. Diplomatically.

She kept a closed-lipped smile and waited patiently for an answer.
formerly TheMulticoloredCyr

he/they





User avatar
590 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 1234
Reviews: 590
Thu Oct 24, 2019 3:22 pm
View Likes
Mageheart says...



"I have," he said. His tone was absentminded, but the intentions were there. He really had dealt with them. He just hadn't done it in the way that the viewers believed he had. "I know how to deal with ghosts. But that ghost was..."

He faltered again. That ghost was exactly the type of ghost he claimed to deal with on his show - it had all of the theatrics, all of the darkness and all of the cliche Hollywood tropes. But ghosts didn't work like that. They never were supposed to. It might have been a partial. That he could possibly get behind.

But he should have been able to touch it.

Why couldn't he touch it?
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





User avatar
95 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 999
Reviews: 95
Thu Oct 24, 2019 3:27 pm
View Likes
Teddybear says...



"That ghost was what? Please use complete sentences, sir." She tacked on the bit at the end on a whim. 'Sir' was a title for a knighted member of the court, 'sir' was a formal term of address. That's what she'd been taught, anyway. She hoped it worked that way here.
formerly TheMulticoloredCyr

he/they





User avatar
590 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 1234
Reviews: 590
Fri Oct 25, 2019 10:14 am
View Likes
Mageheart says...



He faltered.

What was he supposed to say? What was he supposed to do? He could tell the truth about being able to see ghosts and admit that everything that he did on his show was just a ploy, but they'd never understand.

They still thought that Reyes Eberhardt was an actual person. Reyes was just a name that he thrown down on paper one day - a forged identity that had never really existed. When he said he had family business to take care of to his crew, it had been a lie. He had no family. His father was - well, he didn't know - and his mother was gone into a place he could never go to.

And now there was just him, ghosts, and the people before him.

He glanced back in the direction of the door. The door was locked. He had seen the others try to get out. That realization brought the situation a little bit of clarity. They were trapped in a haunted house. He wasn't worried about himself, but he was worried about the others. And even if it put everything he had been working on since he started his show, he had to try to preserve the living just as much as he had to help the dead.

"That ghost wasn't a normal ghost," he finally said. His voice was calm now. He could deal with ghosts, even if they didn't fit the rules he knew. He hadn't fit the rules he knew, and he had adjusted just fine. "I can see ghosts. I say I can see them on my show, but those ghosts are just works of fiction. I create them to divert attention away from the real ghosts - who are more like people than you would think."

He paused.

"I know it sounds like I'm lying," he said, "but I promise that I'm telling the truth."
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





User avatar
1260 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 1630
Reviews: 1260
Fri Oct 25, 2019 6:50 pm
View Likes
Elinor says...



Spoiler! :
That twist!


Tara's head was spinning. She wasn't shocked, not about Reyes at least. Her first year of college, the CEO was forced to resign because it turned out he was using a scam charity as a front to launder money, using donations to go on expensive vacations.

"Why would you fake it on your show? Unless, of course, you can't really see ghosts."

She was more angry that they were stuck with a fraud who had no more idea what to do than they did.

She'd process the rest later.

All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them.

-- Walt Disney





User avatar
95 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 999
Reviews: 95
Fri Oct 25, 2019 9:50 pm
View Likes
Teddybear says...



Marciella nodded, satisfied, "How do you create the diversions? Do you have access to magic?" His being a scammer didn't matter. He wasn't someone she had to work with long-term, and there was nothing she could offer that he would possibly want to scam her for. Thus, his immorality wasn't her problem.

For now, she needed to know if he could access some form of power here on this world. If it were possible for her to tap into such a thing as well rather than exhausting her personal reserves, it would be invaluable.
formerly TheMulticoloredCyr

he/they





User avatar
590 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 1234
Reviews: 590
Sat Oct 26, 2019 9:37 pm
View Likes
Mageheart says...



Spoiler! :
I was waiting for the perfect moment to reveal it. :)

I used Reyes in another roleplay before, but the characters in the roleplay turned out to all be from planets other than Earth - none of them knew who Reyes was, so the reveal wasn't as fun.


He bristled with annoyance, but he reigned it when he realized that he was the one with the most experience in this situation - he would have to be the leader, even if he still wasn't sure how he was going to get them all through this.

"I do it to help ghosts," Reyes said. He paused and thought it over; he had to explain himself, even when he knew doing so was nearly impossible without revealing his darkest secret. "If my viewers search for ghosts I say exist, they have no reason to go to where ghosts actually are."

He glanced over at Marciella. His stomach twisted and churned as he tried to come up with an answer for the question that she had asked. "I use the same tricks anyone who runs a show like mine uses," he replied. "I overreact. Sometimes I point out things that aren't really there, but viewers believe they are. And, sometimes, I go back and edit the footage to make it more reliable."

He looked back at the group as a whole.

"The ghosts on my show are faked, but I do know everything there is to know about ghosts," he promised. His tone for the entirety of the conversation was calm and collected - it gave away nothing. His fear of being truly discovered was carefully hidden from view with the same skills he used to make his show's persona.

Reyes Eberhardt was just an act.

He just hoped he could keep up the act for long enough to get through the night.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





User avatar
95 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 999
Reviews: 95
Sat Oct 26, 2019 10:49 pm
View Likes
Teddybear says...



Disappointment turned the corners of Marciella's lips down. No magic then. She closed her eyes, drew in a deep breath, let it out. Keep calm, the mantra of any good politician. A calm facade could get you anywhere in life. Hopefully, it could get her out of this mess.

What do I know? she asked herself, What do I need to learn?

This man was a liar. He lied to make his living, and he could be lying now. Therefore, he musn't be trusted unconditionally.

The others...she looked them over. The girl was human. She dressed oddly, but so did all of the other obnoxiously human people in this world. As a human, she was more than a little likely to be completely useless in hard situations, if Marciella's experiences with the incompetent chronic-liars who passed for human politicians were anything to go on.

Marciella shook her head. This line of thinking wasn't giving her any new ideas.

"Is there any form of magic in this world that can be readily used?" she asked, finally. It was, after all, the most pressing issue of the moment, in her eyes.
formerly TheMulticoloredCyr

he/they





User avatar
590 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 1234
Reviews: 590
Sun Oct 27, 2019 12:17 pm
View Likes
Mageheart says...



He mulled over the question.

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "I guess it depends on what your definition of a ghost is. But if ghosts are magical by nature, then I think the answer is yes."
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





User avatar
95 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 999
Reviews: 95
Sun Oct 27, 2019 2:26 pm
View Likes
Teddybear says...



She grit her teeth. Quickly she regained her composure. No magic then. There were worse ways to be trapped in other words. At least, she assumed there were. Right now, this felt very much like the worst possible scenario.

No magic.

She had no magic.

Once she exhausted her reserves that was it. She couldn't even cast a spell to get home.

I'd need more experienced casters, anyway, and more magic than I have clinging to me now, anyway, she reasoned. It wasn't comforting.
formerly TheMulticoloredCyr

he/they





User avatar
1260 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 1630
Reviews: 1260
Sun Oct 27, 2019 4:05 pm
View Likes
Elinor says...



"Well, I am a witch," Tara said. She realized immediately it was a bad joke. "I'm not. Samantha is. My costume."

She took a deep breath, and seriously thought about how Samatha would have gotten herself out of this situation. As much as she tried to solve things as a human, she usually defaulted to her magic if a situation was ever too difficult.

She couldn't think of any episodes where that wasn't true.

Tara sighed.

All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them.

-- Walt Disney





User avatar
590 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 1234
Reviews: 590
Mon Oct 28, 2019 9:21 am
View Likes
Mageheart says...



He bit back the urge to mirror Tara's sigh, instead making a beeline for the door that refused to open. It might have been locked from the outside, or had something in place in front of it. It was too dark to make out anything in front of the house through the windows, but he had to at least try to open the door like the others had.

He tried turning the knob.

Nothing happened.

But it wasn't locked. He could feel a force pushing against him whenever he tried opening it, but it was like something was pushing up against the entirety of the door. No matter how hard he tried to push it forward or yank it back, the door refused to budge.

He took a step back from the door, eyeing a nearby window.

...He could pay for property damage if he had to.

Finding a chair near one of the particularly dusty windows, he raised it up and swung it at the glass. The glass looked flimsy before impact, but it didn't even leave a scratch.

He put the chair back down.

Something was off.

"This isn't a normal ghost," he finally said. He knew how bad it sounded hearing that from the supposed expert on ghosts, but he really didn't know how else to say it: this ghost just wasn't right.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





User avatar
1260 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 1630
Reviews: 1260
Mon Oct 28, 2019 2:17 pm
View Likes
Elinor says...



"Well, how is it different?" Tara said. As much as she tried to mask her frustration, it didn't quite work. Still, fraud or not, she figured they were all stuck in the situation.

She really wished she was at home right now, but she couldn't wait to tell Heather everything that happened. If she got out. If? No, she couldn't think like that. As far as she knew, this was a very elaborate haunted house.

All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them.

-- Walt Disney





User avatar
590 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 1234
Reviews: 590
Tue Oct 29, 2019 9:19 am
View Likes
Mageheart says...



As he walked back over to the group, he kept his eye out for anything else that seemed out of the ordinary. He still didn't know what everything was pointing to, but he was sure it was going to show itself sooner or later.

"There are two kinds of ghosts," he said. "Regular ghosts, and partials. Regular ghosts are like all of us. If you died right now, became a ghost, and acted the same way that you did when you were alive, you're a regular ghost. The other kind is a partial. Partials are the type of ghosts you see in horror stories, and the ones that regular people who can't see ghosts usually see - partials fixate on a single thing or a group of things related to their death, and are unable to pass on until they take care of that fixation."

His gaze traveled back to the spot the ghost had stood on.

"Every ghost follows the same set of basic rules," he said. "They have to walk on the ground. They can't go through solid objects. They go through people. Partials have a little more freedom with what they can and can't do: they can disappear without warning, make the air cold, and can have bursts of energy if they're especially emotional."

He took a deep breath, looked down at his hand, and turned back to Tara with a confidence he didn't really feel. "Those rules are the standards of how ghosts works, but there's a third rule that applies to every kind of ghost. No matter if they're a regular ghost or a partial, I can touch them. I couldn't touch her."
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





User avatar
95 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 999
Reviews: 95
Tue Oct 29, 2019 1:13 pm
View Likes
Teddybear says...



"What gives you that ability?" Marciella asked, already working on her own solutions in her head. If this was out of the ordinary, one of two things was likely true. Either the showman had lost his powers - which would lead her to wonder why - or the ghost wasn't a ghost.

They'd denied there being much in the way of magic here. Marciella was beginning to think that they might be wrong. She'd heard of such worlds, places where magic existed unknown to most of the populations, its benefits only being reaped by a few. If that were true for here, then this could be anything.

Either that or this man didn't know as much as he thought he did about the dead.
formerly TheMulticoloredCyr

he/they








I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.
— Walt Disney