#Copia/ghouls

[ghoulangerlee]

gonna post this real quick before I go make dinner but; after seeing the movie Saturday, I went to bed, woke up and felt the urge to write this little thing.

RITE HERE RITE NOW SPOILERS - please do not read this if you haven't seen the movie and don't want to be spoiled

takes place shortly after the movie ends, a quiet moment with Copia and his ghouls.

---

“Frater,” Aether’s voice cuts through Copia’s haze of thoughts—he's staring down at the ornate desk in front of him, large and grand and all imposing; it had been Sister’s, her paperwork still neatly stacked on top of it—the dust barely settling before the cogs of the church shuffle him into her place.  

Copia blinks a few times, clearing his thoughts and turning to face the doorway; Aether’s there, just beyond the frame of it, and Dew behind him, both in uniform but sans masks, “Ah, you know there’s no need for the title—” he says, and the words sound harsh to him, “I’m just Copia.”  

Aether smiles, something soft and brittle as he comes further into the office, the one he’d been in numerous times before, previously, when Sister had been here still. “And there’s no doubt about that,” he says gently, stopping barely a foot away from Copia, “But, you also deserve the respect of the title.”  

He scoffs, tries to deflect, but Aether grabs his hands and pulls him closer until they’re standing toe to toe, “Don’t sell yourself short, Copia,” Aether says, firmer this time, a frown gathered in the corners of his lips.  

With a heavy sigh, Copia deflates just a little, turning his hands in Aether’s grasp so he can tangle their fingers together instead, “You’re right,” he says, it sounds wooden to his own ears, but his emotions have been all over the place since that night, since watching Sister collapse, since her... 

He doesn’t want to think about it, squeezes at Aether’s hands before finally letting them go and stepping back, putting space between them even though he wants nothing more than to fall into Aether’s arms and allow himself a moment to mourn.  

“I need to...clean things up in here,” Copia says softly, hesitantly, looking around at the packed shelves of books, the knickknacks spread around, small little hints at Sister’s own personality among the stuffiness of the church. “They’ll expect me to move offices, give mine to the new guy...” he trails off, feels a helplessness sort of settle in his stomach. 

He holds absolutely no interest in his current office, there’s nothing special about it beyond it being a room with four walls and a window that looks out over the courtyard. In his later years, he spent most of his time doing paperwork in his own room or in the ghoul den with his ghouls, or occasionally among the pews during services.  

It just feels wrong in a way, to move from one room to another with very little time to mourn the person who used to sit at the desk he’ll be placed at soon. Sure, there had been a service, a funeral, a proper burial, Sister Imperator laid to rest with the higher-ranking members of the clergy—with Nihil and his sons, just as she had wanted.  

It still settles sourly in his stomach.  

“Let us help,” Dew says, stepping up to the desk, running a delicate fingertip along the edge of it, “She was...different, from the others, you know. I dare say she actually respected us at the end,” he then picks up a pile of paperwork, shuffles through it, pausing a long moment before he admits, even quieter, “I miss her too.”  

Copia feels his heart clench tightly, an ache settling deep within him as he recalls the way all of the ghouls had gathered around her at the end, growling and hissing at anyone that had tried to get near her body, even as medical personnel loaded her onto a stretcher, the way Dew had pressed a kiss to his hand in the moments after, once he’d cried over her for several long minutes, murmuring how he and Rain would go with them to see that her body be properly taken care of.  

In that moment, Copia didn’t think much of it, the ghouls were his, they all shared a bond and knew what he needed intrinsically as if the very fiber of their beings were melded with his own—he didn’t think they were mourning her in the same way, just protecting her body because they knew what she’d meant to Copia.  

“Dewdrop,” Copia murmurs, and it’s all he can say as he slides an arm around his shoulders and pulls him into a side hug; he bows his head and rests it against Dew’s, eyes closed.  

Dew hums a bit, shifts in his hold until he can wrap both of his arms around Copia’s middle, still holding tightly to a handful of paperwork, typed neatly with Sister’s looping scrawl at the bottom.  

“I’m not sure when the shift happened, when I stopped resenting her for things and when I started caring about her instead,” Dew mumbles into the still somewhat stiff fabric of Copia’s new jacket.  

Copia laughs, somewhat wetly as he holds Dew tighter, pressing his face into his hair, “Probably around the same time I forgave her for leaving me to grow up alone,” he whispers, “She did her best, with what she had, I think. Raising me from afar. She didn’t want to be seen as weak. With her leading the church. I think. After becoming Papa and seeing how things were, that’s when I sort of got it. Understood why she did the things the way she did them.” He admits quietly, “She was a terrible mother, but an amazing leader.”  

Dew hums quietly in agreement, squeezes Copia just as tight, “She knew the church would be safe with you.” he whispers, sniffling softly, rubbing his cheek against Copia’s jacket, “Just like she knew the Papacy would be safe with you. Like she knew we would be safe with you.”  

He swears softly, closes his eyes tightly and tries not to think about the implications, all those years ago, of assigning three almost broken ghouls to his care while simultaneously making him the defacto leader of the Ghost project—she couldn’t have known then that he’d end up where he is now, back then, when she was still speaking to him in a clipped and firm tone.  

He doesn’t quite have it in him to dwell on that now, and he’s sure that later on, he’ll start looking back, overthink all of it until he’s worked himself up—old habits die hard, even with the new title and new responsibilities.  

“This has turned into a reminiscing session instead of a cleaning session,” Copia eventually mumbles, rubbing his own cheek against Dew’s hair before he pulls away, allows a moment to straighten himself out. “I think we should go through the paperwork first, it’ll be the easiest,” he tries to switch over to professional again, even though he still feels raw and painful inside. “We’ll worry about the rest of it later.”  

The silence settles over them for a moment as Copia’s direction sinks in, and Aether moves to collect some paperwork off of the desk, artfully bypassing Sister’s chair and taking a seat in one on the other side of the desk instead.  

A knock, a gentle rap of knuckles against the door frame and Copia looks up— 

The rest of the pack stand there, gathered just outside the door, as if waiting.  

“My ghouls, what is it?” He asks, briefly feeling concerned that something would bring them all to him. “Is something happening?”  

Swiss and Cirrus share a look but Cumulus is the one who steps forward, lets herself into the room, “We came to help,” she says, there’s a quiver in her voice as she speaks, one of pain and loss, “What can we do?”  

Copia’s eyes track from one ghoul to the other—Mountain, Cirrus, Cumulus, Rain, Sunshine, Swiss, Aurora and Aeon all standing there, waiting for their orders.  

He seems to snap out of it, shaking his head and motioning for them to come in, “Come to the desk, we’re working on sorting this for now,” he says—mountains of paperwork stacked everywhere on the wooden top.  

(Sometimes he wonders if this was the reason she seemed so stressed. He wonders what it means for him.)  

Quiet chatter fills the room as the others file in, standing close to talk while they sort through it all, piling all the things that can be filed away in one of the empty corners of the desk while the rest of it gets thrown into a trashcan to be shredded later.  

As they work, Copia glances up from the frankly concerning amount of tax forms he’d been tasked to sift through, doing a double take when he catches sight of her.  

In the furthest corner of the room, near the ornate fireplace stands Sister Imperator, her arms crossed over her chest as she watches the bustle of the room, the corners of her lips curved upwards in a small smile.  

Copia blinks several times, almost tempted to reach up and rub his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things—but then Sister, she looks over at him, her smile softening into something fond.  

I love you, she mouths, and then, flickers out of existence.  

[farter-imperator]

Okay, I know this isn't for everyone, so here's your prewarning. Pregnant Copia ahead.

It's completely an accident. He knows straight away what caused it, a ghoul rut that triggered a domino effect of ruts and heats. However, he isn't in a committed relationship with any of his ghouls, and he doesn't know whose kit it actually is.

Poor Copia gets quite sick. Thankfully, most people put it down to either hangovers or anxiety when they see Copia shuffling around, looking sickly green.

His tummy grows quickly. He did have a soft belly, with a bit of an apron, but it's quickly hardening out and becoming rounder.

However, there's a problem. He's due to go on tour and he doesn't want to cancel it because he's pregnant. The amount of fans that he would disappoint by cancelling his tour doesn't bear thinking about.

Of course the ghouls can smell the kit on him. They sniff the air around him and tip their heads from side to side, making curious noises until Copia confesses. He then gets tackle hugged by an entire pack of ghouls.

Travelling while still getting morning sickness is NOT fun. The ghouls learn to have strategically placed bowls and bags around the bus, just in case Copia suddenly goes that funny colour again.

Copia sings his heart out at every venue, skips around the stage like nothing has changed. Even though his cassocks keep getting tighter and tighter, and every night he has to lie with ice packs on his feet and ankles post-show.

Of course the fans start to notice, too. Some bring up that he's put on weight in the photos from on stage, but others are quick to shoot them down, telling them that it doesn't matter what size Papa is, he's still their Antipope and they still love him.

Copia finally announces it on stage one night. The Clergy didn't even know about his pregnancy before this. He finishes singing Prime Mover, specifically added to the set for one night only, and then chuckles to himself as he paces the stage. Rests one hand on his belly and says "You know... It is not that bad, really."

There's a loud cheer from the crowd, who think he's joking around. Some of the crowd members look rather lost or confused. Copia goes straight into the next song without skipping a beat.

That night, a photo is posted on the Ghost Instagram of Copia sat backstage, all of the ghouls surrounding him with their hands on his belly. All the ghouls are grinning at the camera.

The Clergy is Not Happy.

[gabitzart]

Some RHRN Copia moments for y'all

[oranpo]

📽🎞IT'S GHOVIE DAY! 📽🎞

Here we have everyone gathered to enjoy themselves and their participation in the movie, as well as the previous Papas being overjoyed for their brother's debut!🖤 You can see the love oozing from them

To anyone going to see the Ghovie in LA - I will be giving little mini prints of this illustration, so see you then! :' )

And to everyone, tag your spoilers and have a lot fun!🖤

[lyzpuffs]

This is exactly what I imagined when i read it at first.. inspired by @em0bussy ‘s post

[ghouley-pop]

[frontalgarf]

Rushed ghost fanart because I NEEDED to get something out to celebrate rite here rite now (btw saw the movie it was incredible I loved it it was soooooo so sososososo silly)

[robboyblunder]

Remember how I said I couldn't stop thinking about Ghouls? yeah LOL. Anyways, I finally finished my "Ghoul Guide" which is a comic featuring made up lore about summoning nameless ghouls as well as things about them and their roles!

this by no means is comprehensive of everything I've made up for them, but I'm testing the waters with this comic! if it gets enough love I'll make an additional comic about ghoul origins, element types, and maybe even design non-assigned ghoul outfits for each era costume hehe.

ID in ALT text! transcript for comic text under the cut!

Transcript is numbered for each page the text is for!

A rite of passage for becoming “Papa”, It starts with a will and your judgement

A specialized chamber is necessary, 1) to avoid interference 2) to prevent escape.

After all; feral ghouls are raw elements, And to survive, one must tame them.

Each element has a diversity of strengths and rarity / and the first ghoul summoned sets precedent for how a leader is perceived.

Additionally, the first is the personal servant and an important assistant for life; Often times assistance is needed for future summoning, but a limit of 2 maintains respect to show you’re still capable.

However, they must accept you- you must earn their respect, and they only choose if willing. And they are not always willing.

One must be prepared to face Hell itself. To prove one is worthy to take the stage, controlling the devil’s magic is key.

It’s important to roll the dice and summon a variety, but one may only tame as many as the power of their sin allows, which, naturally, varies.

And while they’re loyal as determined by one’s rank… / Remember: The ministry comes first.

Ghoul records broken by copia.

Record: Most ghouls summoned at one time: 8 (10 including past members), Record: Most obedient first summon (for an amateur).

Record: Most powerful summons (2 S-Class ghouls); All consuming Hell Fire (AKA: “Sodo” or “Dew”); Hurricane From Hades (AKA: “Cumulus”); Record: Most elemental offshoots summoned (3). Offshoots of (then lists the symbols for quintessence and fire).

ghoul roles.

Assistance, Fighting.

Personal Guard, And of course: Performing.

end transcript.

[kabukiaku]

some halloween ghost commissions! had to share em, they were very fun to work on 🎃🖤✨

[faiyx]

Missing aether hours

[tasty-ribz]

Remember to sin all year round not just for one month

[aghoulettewithnoname]

Into the endless depth of Satan's eyes🛐🔥

[niceandcozycave]

I HAD TO DRAW THIS [reference]

[hecetas]

Happy Rite Here Rite Now release day!

photos by hecetas at Isleta Amphitheater

[fieldghoul]

Rite Here Rite Now, Ritual

[acandlecastingafaintglow]

Prequelle

Portrait of Cardinal Copia and background inspired by the medieval theme of the album Prequelle. Rats! Ghouls and skeletons! Dance Macabre!

digital drawing

Bonus: The Cardinal without his makeup 🤭