#i love the concept of instinctual shapeshifting so lots of that

[bennydwight]

A dialogue snippet that turned into this:

Standoff (TGAMM Oneshot: Spoilers for season 2)

Summary: Half-feral, trapped in a snare barely big enough for his fluctuating form and Oliver Chen's gun trained directly at his head, Scratch is out of options.

So why isn't Ollie taking the shot?

Intrinsically, Scratch was a pretty simple, lazy guy. He liked an easy routine, a familiar path. The hardest work he did most days was figuring out how to avoid hard work. He didn’t have the patience for strategy (why, when cheating was faster and easier?) and trying to think in multiple directions at once just sapped his strength and made his head hurt. All that variety, all that junk humans did to ‘better their mind’ was just so hard.

Astonishingly, it was made ten times harder when he was near bursting out of a containment unit, a wide barreled gun trained directly between his eyes.

He couldn’t even pinpoint where everything had gone wrong, too much focus funneled into clamping down on a base instinct: trapped in a snare barely large enough for his normal size and his afterlife on the line, Scratch’s scare form had started to take over.

He strained against the effort of keeping his ectoplasm intact, phantom breaths coming in rapid huffs even as his teeth lengthened, spines burst from his arms, his shape swelled and pressed dangerously against unyielding steel and electrons. Somewhere, quietly in the back of his mind and underneath the screaming need to SCARE SCARE SCARE SCARE, he realized dimly that he’d never been afraid of being crushed until now, after he’d gained the ability to phase through objects at will. Well, most objects. Go figure.

So it was here, desperately trying to reign in his higher processes, that through an animalistic red haze Scratch glowered into the eyes of his captor. Ollie stood mere feet away, that biohazard-yellow gun a shield between him and his helpless prey, and Scratch acknowledged a terrible gleam of satisfaction as even now the weapon trembled in the boy’s hands.

Across the other side of the warehouse, behind the orangey shimmer of the Chens’s forcefield, Molly lay prone, the tiny movement of her breaths the only reason any of the Ghost Chasers were still alive. Esther knelt next to her, first-aid kit in hand, expression one of barely-contained terror. Not his doing, but he’d take credit. Maybe next time she’d learn not to chuck a knockout bomb at a child. Well, at him. Molly had taken the metaphorical bullet (not a pretty mental image, given the circumstances), and if anything happened to her then Scratch was going to make all their lives a living hell.

Provided he got out unscathed. Somewhere, out of the thick of battle, Andrea fought to take the snare’s electronics offline, and no doubt June was blocking every attack with equal fervor. And even with legs as long as Libby’s, it would take too much time for her to reach the McGee’s house and bring back Pete and Sharon. Time Scratch didn’t have.

Imprisoned, half feral with the urge to survive, and one finger twitch away from total erasure, Scratch was out of options. Just him and Ollie, and the trap and the gun.

And the father.

Ruben stood, face and hands pressed against the forcefield, vibrating with adrenaline. His attention laser focused to his son, caught on the opposite side with the enemy (that was Scratch, he had enemies now), the shouts of excitement and encouragement died at Ollie’s hesitation and veered distinctly into confusion and urgency.

“Finish it, Ollie, it’s trying to take attack form! End it before it escapes!”

Ollie’s only acknowledgement was the hitch of his shoulders, eyes locked with Scratch in a way that felt like he was missing context. Scratch had seen this boy’s hatred firsthand, he put things on the internet that should not be there, so what stopped him now?

A memory flashed to mind: Molly throwing herself in front of the knockout bomb, and someone shouting ‘NO’ nearby, and Scratch swelled painfully against the snare as a fresh wave of rage tore through his ectoplasm like the hiss from behind his fangs.

Ah. So now he knew.

“We’re so close, Ollie,” Ruben continued to not shut up, voice like fingernails down Scratch’s strained self-control. “Our family’s whole legacy has led up to this! You can give us everything we’ve ever dreamed, just pull the trigger!”

The monster was caged, and still fear shone like a beacon behind Ollie’s eyes. Everything they’d worked for at his feet and he still didn’t move. Didn’t look away.

Scratch was not a smart man on the best of days and now, claws scoring uneven grooves in the ground as their length oscillated with his concentration, he was grossly, hilariously far from his best. “Do it kid,” Scratch snarled, sucking harsh breaths from between gritted teeth. “You know what it’ll cost ya.”

“Do it, Ollie! This is our only chance!”

A long beat passed.

Ollie’s hands shook, but his trigger finger didn’t waver.

From outside, a roar, and then a scream. Good old Geoff. The Chens’s heads whipped towards the door, and their combined fear-smell nearly whited out Scratch’s mind for good.

“Go help June!” Ollie’s voice pitched high with terror, and something else that tugged Scratch’s mind back to clarity. Surprise registered through the darkness clouding his mind as his parents obeyed, gathering a limp Molly into their arms, and a strange quiet settled over the warehouse.

And then, there were two.

Most of the threat and the fear-smell were gone, but Ollie still had a gun to his head and Scratch was still angry. His hue shifted, deepening to a sickly green, mouth stretching wide in a grotesque grin. “So what’ll it be, Ollie? Gonna finish me yourself? Or gonna make your daddy do it for you?” The snare creaked ominously as his growth strained the limits. The ropes of plasma burned fierce red lines through the green, but he barely registered the pain. “Either way, she’ll never talk to you again. Won’t even look at you. She thought better of you, y’know. Tried her darnedest to change your mind. You want her to wake up and find out she failed?”

Ollie’s eyes hardened, and Scratch’s temperature dropped several degrees. He really should’ve known better by now than to make calculated risks, this one might’ve just cost him his life.

Ollie’s hand moved, and Scratch bit back a flinch before watching it dip into a pocket and emerge with a square device. As he pressed the giant, terrifying button right in the middle, Scratch braced for pain.

Instead, the pressure around him retreated, and Scratch floated up into the air. Free.

Free, and alone with the Ghost Chaser, who kept the gun trained on his head even as scared tears pooled at the corners of his eyes.

They stared at each other in a stalemate, Ollie unwilling to put down his weapon and Scratch wobbling between forms as he considered whether to put his uncomfortably pent-up scare energy to good use. Or at least entertaining use.

“Run,” Ollie whispered, and Scratch couldn’t tell if it was a threat or a plea.

The instinct-induced haze lessened. If Ollie took the shot, he’d be disappointing Molly. (Who was he kidding, life without Scratch? He’d be devastating Molly!) But if Scratch proved the Chens thoughts on ghosts right, he’d be doing the same thing.

Ollie hefted the gun higher, looking no keener to use it. “Run,” he repeated.

The easy way out. No lie, Scratch had considered it immediately. Molly was safe enough with the Chens, and all he wanted was to disappear into a dark corner and forget this whole nightmare ever happened. He could run, and they’d be more careful, and this whole debacle meant Molly would stop hanging out with Ollie, and Scratch’s life could go back to normal. Save being on the run. Forever.

(Or until the Chens died out, and with Scratch’s luck this would absolutely turn into a multigenerational blood feud.)

Facts were: he was outed, and so was Molly’s connection to him. They’d never be safe, not while the Chens were determined to cleanse the world of ghostkind.

Scratch took a deep breath and thought of his family, and the last of his spines smoothed and his colour returned to its natural blue and his shape stabilized. It might’ve been easier to go underground, but even these past few months of avoiding their (many, many) ghost traps had triggered an exhaustion that would’ve been called bone-deep if he’d had bones. He didn’t want to put his family through that, and frankly, Scratch was just damn tired. All he wanted was to sleep for a century.

He'd finish this first.

“Look, Ollie,” he started, relieved to find the bass in his voice had returned to normal. “As far as ghosts go, I’m a pretty lazy guy. Rather take a nap, y’know? All that exercise ain’t good for you.”

Ollie’s eyes darted to the side, face screwing up in that ‘um actually’ wince that Molly liked to adopt whenever she annoyed him enough to bring up the flat-earth theory. The first flicker of character he’d shown since this whole standoff started. “Not how that works, but what do you mean?”

Scratch smiled at his mortal enemy, and somehow it felt natural. “Means I’m tired of running, kid.”

 END

[scholarlypidgeot]

yet another OC meme

I was tagged by @ratherinterestigmilkshake for this insanely long ask which may or may not take a day or two to get to.  

I’m going to take @that-catholic-shinobi and @snakesaredelicious because I want them to suffer like me (jk, they’re great writers and I want them to talk about their OCs)

1. Your first OC ever? 

Katrin Barton, she was a character for an RPG website.  My writing/design back then was cringy as heck.  

2. Do you have a personal favorite among your OCs?

I do but which one it is depends on the day, I think.  I have my protagonist, then there’s the one I make suffer infinintely, then there’s the one I kill off.  I think for the most part Eva and Ren are always my favorites to write.  

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else?

Agravein’s concept came with the help of Lavinia Love and a song we found at like midnight one night.  

4. A character you rarely talk about? 

Ninko and Marcus are my two least developed characters, so there’s not much I’ve been able to say. 

  5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be? 

Drake/Vlad.  He spans the whole series and is pretty popular with the people I’ve talked to about him so far.  

6. Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related?

Abathy and Eva.  Blonde hair, green eyes, similar stature, but they’re nothing alike, and definitely not related in any way. 

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories?

All of them are from my Prism series, so yes.  

8. Do you RP as any of your OCs? If you do, introduce one of your RP OCs here! 

I could if I wanted to, but at this point, the closest I’m planning to go is taking IC ask questions from other writers asking in character.  

9. Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else?

Depends on the character, or I could make a character if that someone else requested.  

10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design? 

Older Pat has a complicated physical design, while Ash and Erik are both complex mental messes for me to write.  Here’s the excerpt of my description of Pat after my series takes place: 

“A first glance revealed a middle-aged woman of average height, wearing a long, blue, drakeskin cloak over a black blouse and silver hi-low skirt over cheap black leggings, the kind shapeshifters usually wore.  Her brown-booted feet moved with the thoughtful, yet simultaneously instinctual, grace of a peryton’s hooves picking through underbrush. The visual comparison was only enhanced by the polished bone antlers attached to a headband holding back long waves of barely-tamed red hair.  A fine silver mask graced her smallish, pale face, resembling the emblem of the Seelie Court – the left half, a delicate Fae wing, the right a more heavily detailed Elf wing.  Around her neck hung a choker of gold lace, which Cody read as an interesting choice of material until she noticed the twin rubies marking what she could only assume were old scars.  Gold might be worthless, but it had its symbolism as the trademark of the Unseelie leadership – after all, they called themselves the Golden Crown.  Or, they had, while their empire still stood... Cody now noted the gloves – both white, one fingerless and the other embroidered with red Anglic runes.” 

11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”? 

Ash.  Everyone loves Ash and everyone’s certain she’s an optimist.  Underneath is another story, but at least on the surface she’s my most sunshiny character.

12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot 

Able, one of Lavinia Love’s characters.  He’s a heroic troublemaker and also the son of the character she named after me.

13. Do you have any troublemaker OCs? 

Yako, a young kitsune who doesn’t make an appearance until at least book 3, is probably my biggest troublemaker. 

14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory 

EVA STOCKTON. Also Renfield.  

15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people?

YES. All the time.  

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)? 

Doc Agon.  He’s a dracologist so that’s his tea.  

17. Any OC OTPs? 

EHEHEHEHE Absolutely.  A lot.  Many many many.  But I’ll leave that for you folks to see when we get there. 

18. Any OC crackships? 

Lavinia has had some great ones.  Like Erik x Henry.  One of mine is Vlad x Ash.  

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why) 

Eva means the most, probably.  She’s one of the oldest of these guys and I put her through a lot.  

20. Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)? 

Leland’s got a great voice.  He picks up songs he hears in taverns and stuff all the time and has been known to hum them while working.  

21. Your most artistic OC 

Ren.  He’s a painter, but not professionally.  It’s a coping mechanism for him.

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how? 

Lavina Love treats Leland like an innocent angel - which he’s not.  Penni does the same thing with Drake.  And y’know what? I’m okay with that.  Yep.

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

Todderick “Todd” Howards.  He’s become more gentle with work and time.

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why? 

Patricia.  And maybe I could meet the others vicariously through her.  

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?) 

Pat and I have the passion for storytelling, while Drake represents some of the worst bits of me (and even some of the best).  

26. Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about them against your will? 

I don’t think so.  

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song?  

Agravein, inspired by “Mordred’s Lullaby” by Heather Dale.

28. Your most dangerous OC? 

Ash.  She’s not the most threatening, but she’s definitely the most unstable element.  She can and most of the time will kick your ass.  

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going? 

Lindsey, my short story MC and Leland’s girlfriend.  

30. Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection? 

Ren.  

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)

All of them would be a fucking mess.  But Vlad/Drake would be a memelord, history buff, and science nerd. He’d misinform everyone about who he is and what he does.  Aesthetic would probably be reds and greens, with some pop culture character as his avatar and a Hubble Telescope photo of the stars in the background.  

32. Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why? 

Ash. She’s got the biggest skillset and would kick ass.

33. Your shyest OC?

Heather.  

34. Do you have any twin characters?

Next generation characters have a few twins.  Vlad/Drake had a twin who was killed about 100 years after they were turned.  

35. Any sibling characters? 

LOTS.  So many siblings.  Erik and Drake, Charles and Henry, Pat and Leland, to name a few major sets.  

36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends etc)? 

...yes.  I’m going to leave it at yes.  

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human 

Abathy is a changeling - a human child adopted by the Seelie who eventually absorbs some of their magic, becoming something a little more (or less) than human. 

38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer? 

Henry.  There are a lot but he’s probably the best at it.  

39. Introduce any character you want 

Ninko is the daughter of the kitsune leader.  She’s beautiful, strong, and eventually seduces Henry into... accidentally marrying her.  It works out but it’s a complicated relationship.

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share! 

Just late nights in front of my computer, lots of later nights not sleeping, and time in the shower figuring out how to torture them without killing them. 

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!)  

I am by no means artistic, so... no.  Whoever wants to send me some, though, feel free! Just credit me please.  

42. Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods? 

I’d say Marcus more than anyone else.  He’s that kind of nerd.  

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess

Tragic. Heavy suffering.  Nothing physical or personality-wise, I’m just kinda sadistic with them.  

44. Something you like about your OCs in general

That they’re all unique.  Somehow I managed to make a ton of different people with my dumb brain and I actually like them all.  

45. A character you no longer use? 

There was another vampire in my first draft of Crimson’s substory, Virginia.  She was an extra character, though.  

46. Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly?

All the freaking time.  And I revel in it.  

47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child? 

See answer 46.  

48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure

Ren.  Just... Ren.  

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes

Drake already knows a lot of memes, but the one who doesn’t know them but would appreciate them the most would be Leland.  And Lindsey.  But mostly Leland.  

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you want

*incomprehensible screaming, flurry of blurred words and overall excitement*

_____

The full list, for my tagged writers to copy:

1. Your first OC ever? 2. Do you have a personal favorite among your OCs? 3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else? 4. A character you rarely talk about? 5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be? 6. Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related? 7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories? 8. Do you RP as any of your OCs? If you do, introduce one of your RP OCs here! 9. Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else? 10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design? 11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”? 12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot 13. Do you have any troublemaker OCs? 14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory 15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people? 16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)? 17. Any OC OTPs? 18. Any OC crackships? 19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why) 20. Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)? 21. Your most artistic OC 22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how? 23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like? 24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why? 25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?) 26. Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about them against your will? 27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song? 28. Your most dangerous OC? 29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going? 30. Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection? 31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really) 32. Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why? 33. Your shyest OC? 34. Do you have any twin characters? 35. Any sibling characters? 36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends etc)? 37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human 38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer? 39. Introduce any character you want 40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share! 41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!) 42. Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods? 43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess 44. Something you like about your OCs in general 45. A character you no longer use? 46. Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly? 47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child? 48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure 49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes 50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you want