#ill only tag for whoever asked to be tagged in the previous part for simplicity's sake

[waspsarebetterthanbeesanyways]

Only the Dead 3

part 1

previous next

“What?” Damian asks. “Overshadowed? Who are you? What are those things?”

The entity raises his hands defensively, palms flat in surrender. “Uh? Those are ghosts.”

“Bullshit,” Damian says. “Ghosts aren’t capable of affecting the mortal world to this extent!” He jabs a finger at the entity. “Tell me the truth!”

“I am!” the entity squawks, hastily lowering his hands. “Look, normally we don’t have enough ectoplasm to interact with the human world, but it can happen under the right circumstances!”               “Such as?”

“I don’t know. Maybe if someone opened a portal to the afterlife? Or maybe if there was a big enough mass murder in the vicinity.” The entity grimaces. “Considering the general atmosphere of Gotham, maybe if someone dropped a nuke on Newark?”

Damian doesn’t like the sound of either of those options. “You didn’t answer all of my questions. Who are you?”

“I’m, uh...” The entity shuffles awkwardly in midair, avoiding Damian’s gaze. He wraps his arms around his chest protectively. “You can call me Phantom.”

“Phantom,” Damian repeats skeptically. “And you’re one of those things, Phantom?”

Phantom cringes and shoots Damian a green-eyed glare. “I’m not a thing,” he says. “And I’m not subsentient like those thralls. And I didn’t come from where they came from, either. I was already in Gotham when this started.”

“You’ve been here? Doing what?” Damian asks.

Phantom wilts. “I’ve been trying to help the civilians, but I don’t have anywhere safe to escort them and I don’t have any way to contain other ghosts right now.” He floats a few inches forwards, looking Damian in the eye. “I saw that skeleton try to overshadow you. Please, if you can resist it, you’ve got to work with me!”

Damian doesn’t miss that Phantom dodged the question, but he lets it go for the moment. “What do you mean, overshadowing?”

“It’s like possession? Only possession is specifically for dead bodies,” Phantom says, “and overshadowing is for living people.”

“They’re taking over bodies?” Damian asks, aghast. He takes a deep breath and deliberately relaxes. “Fine. If they’re capable of possessing people, why can’t they possess me? How do I fight them?”

Phantom shrugs. “You punch them? There’s anti-ghost weaponry, but I don’t think you can find any in Gotham. As for resisting overshadowing, uh... I don’t suppose you’ve died and been resurrected or something? Maybe with a big personality change afterwards?” Damian stiffens. “Or maybe if you’ve just been around enough ectoplasm for long enough. I don’t suppose you’ve seen any weird ass glowing green pools of goo? Or white? I think humans without enough exposure see it as white instead?”

Damian’s never heard of someone seeing the Lazarus pit as white, but they certainly fit the description of a glowing green pool of goo-- and as for resurrections...

“I see,” Damian says, nodding. Phantom tilts his head, but Damian doesn’t elaborate. “If that’s the case, I may know where we can find someone else who can resist possession. We need to go to Crime Alley.”

----

@thegreawizards @gin2212 @theauthorandtheartist @rosecinnamonbun @yazz-frost @coruscateselene @caraafton @just-for-dpxdc