#just an absolute wild end to that episode and i couldnt help but think about trackers perspective in all of this

[strawberryniceblock]

just thinking about what a day that must have been for tracker. you've been working for months on end to get your religious revival movement off the ground and its going great. your new gf is helping finance and your following is growing steadily. you do a very public miracle and things are looking up for your movement.

then one day your ex turns up with her crew, says she accidentally killed her god (again) and is just passing through. your new gf is kind enough to take your ex and her crew on a little tour of the place despite the awkwardness of it. during this tour you come around and think your ex and her friends are disrespecting one of your religious relics but before you can stop them they accidentally summon a dead god. pure chaos ensues where you and your gf are thrown and injured, multiple divinities are interfering, and your ex and her crew just...fuck off into a briefcase??? you are left in a collapsing world to pray for survival

[mammalsofaction]

Even just from a world building and meta textual perspective, AT2D kicks absolute ass. You have VERY good taste my friend. If you're curious as to some good subtextual dark angst in the series though, (present possibilities, we exclude Heinz's tragic backstories for now), here's some good rewatch recommendations in a new light:

Cranius Maximus, S3, EP45: Is an entertaining twist on the A-plot C-plot routine. Here, the kids design a brain stimulator for Baljeet bc he thinks he got dumb over the summer. Long story short, he essentially became a mad scientist who tried to shift earth's atmosphere to the moon so he could analyse the stars better. It would have left the earth with NO atmosphere, and the whole episode was a tongue in cheek secret agent vs evil scientist roleplay....down to the trapping, decoys and monologuing. If Baljeet had won, we could've severely endangered the earth in general, and Phineas and Ferb would've been trapped and suffered knowing that THEY were indirectly responsible for that harm.

Undercover Carl, S2, EP42: Francis Monogram accused Carl of not being pro-active enough in his work performance review, and in a state of panic to prove him otherwise, Carl doctors a bunch of statements by Phineas to make him sound like he and his friends planned to help Dr Doofenshmirtz take over Tri State Area. Knowing Perry would be enraged if he found out they suspected his host family of wrong doing, they sent Agent P on a wild goose chase while Carl is sent undercover to find out what the kids were planning. The kids were VERY sweet and welcoming of this suspicious stranger, and he had so much fun with the invention of the day (an anti-gravity device) he forgets to check in with a VERY convinced and concerned Francis at an appropriate time. Francis reacts by dropping by the Flynn Fletcher house personally to check, and Carl hurriedly assures him he'd miscalculated in his earlier assumptions. Just at the nick of time....because Francis had summoned the SWAT army to apprehend the backyard gang. Carl had almost sent a bunch of innocent 10-year olds into OWCAtraz (a high security level detaining facility for the state's worst prisoners)...and Perry would have been none the wiser.

Where's Perry (1) and (2), S3, EPS 55 and 56 ; WP is definitely a gem not talked about enough in sheer angst potential. From an A plot, the backyard gang nearly falls to their death down a steep ravine at one point and their families wouldnt have figured it out, bc even Candace had embraced the jungle and left civilised society (she couldnt find signal for her phone). From a C plot perspective, Carl accidentally gets shot with the Make Everything Evil Inator, taking down OWCA from the inside and jailing all the agents, including Francis. He needed Perry's paw print for something, i think to access all of OWCA's tech all through the state as part of his plan to take over the Tri State Area. He had Perry hunted down with robot lookalikes of his own family, who had instructions to either capture him alive if possible, but cutting off his arm would do in a pinch.

Night of the Living Pharmacists, S4, EP 44: if you're part of the fandom, you'd know we have sung PRAISES about the angst potential of NOTLP. Where do i start. Its basically the dawn of a zombie apocalypse AU. There's no where to begin: the backyard gang get separated from the Fireside Girls and Isabella early on, and they quest to find each other while they lose survivors, one by one. The backyard gang loses Baljeet first, then Buford, Ferb, and finally Phineas. Candace finds out about Perry being a secret agent, before she goes, then Vanessa, then finally Perry himself, and Heinz bore witness to all of it, since he was immune. The three surviving witnesses by the end was Isabella, Doof and Stacy before they figured out the cure. They save the day....but the plague had spread beyond Danville. The entire world, in that case, had been zombified. In that timeline, Danville remains as the only Sanctuary. 10/10, give it a looksie.

Phineas and Ferb, Star Wars Special, S4, EP41: Ferb gets hit with the Sith Inator, which is the Star Wars-ified take on the Make Everything Evil Inator. Theres a scene where he tries to convince Phineas to join him on the dark side, and when he refuses, there is a fight to the death. Not actual death, its a happy ending (duh), but the angsty subtextual layers of the brainwashing is insane 🫡🫡🫡👍

Cheer Up, Candace, S2, EP29: The A plot is light and silly. Perry was fighting for his life tho, literally. Heinz had made a bunch of robotic Perry clones and sent them all to wreck havoc all over town to frame Perry for evil. OWCA attempts to apprehend Perry and send him to jail, and basically Perry had to hide from the agency AND his family while he finds Heinz to figure what was up and clear his own name. At DEI, he was forced up against DOZENS of extremely violent personal clones who were each beating him into submission. The angsty subtext is insane, bc what do you mean he was on the run from his own AGENCY, and he couldnt go home to spare his family, the two things he'd ever known, betrayed by a man he'd thought of as friend. If he'd lost at any point, his options were jail, death or indentured servitude to evil. And not to mention he would never see his family again.

The Remains of the Platypus, S3, EP34: This one's a bit unsettling, due to the non-linear storytelling, but its VERY fascinating and i beg you to give it a chance. Perry's shot with a Butler Inator, making him Heinz's evil minion and indentured servant. Again, Love some good brainwashing ethics.

Some more Honorable mentions for angst/potential angst because I could honestly be here all day:

Phineas and Ferb Save Summer

Primal Perry

No More Bunny Business

Return of the Rogue Rabbit

Meapless in Seattle (less angst, but there IS a brewing intergalactic war)

Phineas and Ferb and the temple of Juatchadoon (also less angst, though some betrayal happens)

Does anyone else think about how Phineas and Ferb basically doomed the universe to slowly loose all air in that episode with the tower or just me?

[ask-the-party-god]

Ask The Party God - Timeline

hi hi! as i mentioned earlier, i wanted to talk about my specific timeline so you guys are more or less aware of my situation when sending asks! thats me up there! the best doggy girl around ;o

as far as i am aware, theres not much of a difference between mine and... other timelines as far as the game goes! we beat sburb, we arrived to earth-c, we settled down, you know! the usual! i have my tower on a nice island, but its so far away from everything i barely go there, its... lonely!

i have a smaller house in the troll kingdom though! its a bit on the outskirts and like ten minutes away from dave and karkats, but i still crash at theirs or roses or roxys or johns way more often... X) its pretty standard all things considered, but i do have a bit of a basement lab to mess around with some side-projects of mine!

that aside... lets see...

thats john! my lovely ecto-bro! :D hes been a bit down in the dumps for a while so i try to cheer him up and keep him company <3 he lives in the outskirts of the human kingdom bordering with the consort kingdom, in a little mixed village... recently hes started to grow his hair out a bit too! i swear its just laziness so he doesnt have to take care of that messy mane, but i do think itd look cuter longer sooo...

he doesn’t... do much, which is why i have been trying to cheer him up and be around lately! he’s a bit more active at least and talks with the others, but i do wanna encourage him more >:/

5/8/20 edit: thats june egbert, my adorable ecto-sis whom i adore so so so so very much!!! weve been hanging out a bunch since her latest birthday!

shes been doing a lot better! more energetic, more open about the things that worry her... i only wish her the best of the best for the future, and im sure well be having lots of fun together from now on! :D

of course theres dave and karkat!!! they live together in the troll kingdom and have the moooost adorable domestic life i have ever seen, swoooon~ that being said theyre two awkward bottoms that couldnt realize their feelings even if they wrote a heartfelt love letter to each other and read it aloud, soooo its a... work in progress! i have tried nudging things along but thats an even worker in progresser, whoops

they also dont do much other than laze about most of the time, but dave has some creative side-projects with music and art that he shows me from time to time!

rose and kanaya maryam-lalonde!!! two absolutely lovely ladies whom i looove very very much! ;o their place is at the carapace kingdom, but kanaya spends a good deal of time in the brooding caverns as the matriarch of the troll race! i helped them install a transportalizer to speed things up so they have more time for each other, if you catch my drift ;)

about a year ago or so, rose got really sick for a short while, but she recovered and has been her usual lovely self since! since that scare though, they have been considering the idea of expanding their family! they could adopt of course, but they wanna try other stuff first! i occasionally help kanaya at the caverns with ectobiology machinery trying to find a way to properly mix troll and human genes, but its not exactly... easy

those are jane and jasprose! janes technically my mom but ive always seen her as a sort of cousin! we dont chat much but shes not bad! jasproses... well, you know! a wild kitty girl that knows how to have fun, hehehe, i hang out with her far more than my doggy alignment would have you know! ;o

a while back jane seemed pretty serious about running for office, and maybe because rose was in a bad spot or something, but jasprose started to pop up more and more often in public, and specifically messi around with jane? eventually she seemed to just lose interest in politics entirely and, while they havent said anything officially, i heard the cheshire cutie pops over by janes way too often to be just friendly visits ;o

roxy and callie!!! both of them came as non-binary around the same time, probably after talking it out for a while! hehe, rox has got that strider style going, and callie has been wearing their old wig more often in public! roxy and i have been messing around with their old lab equipment trying to give callie a fun surprise, but as it turns out messing around with basic biology with tech made to be used by 13 years old requires a looooot of tinkering... maybe some time?

i love them a bunch! theyre not really together i dont think so? but im pretty sure theyre more than just good friends that live together! im pretty sure callies still experimenting with identity and labels so, i wont pry really!

two cool dudes~ jake and dirk are nice, dirks a bit shy but ive gotten him to open up about robotics and we talk from time to time! jakes pretty much like jane, i pretty much see him as my cousin! we go hiking around from time to time in the weekends im not busy doing other stuff! :B

dirk got really concerned about rose when she had her episode, but dave helped him keep his cool about whatever was going down, and they hang out about once a month or so! also i was never sure whether dirk and jake USED to be dating or are STILL dating or whatever but, hey, much like with rox and callie, im not gonna pry!

tereziiiii :( shes away from earth-c plundering the corpse of paradox space! we barely see her but we keep in contact and send her supplies out into the furthest ring!

we worried for a bit that she was focusing too much on vriska and harming herself being out there, we kind of made it work in the end! some of our other friends are still out there and theres the possibility of finding some weird remnant of a timeline or something, so she keeps watch in case she can guide someone still living or trapped back to safety... and in the meantime she keeps watch for vriska, too, of course- ugh, i sorta just wish she got back already, im sure her being around would also encourage john to be more active! but as long as shes safe...

davepeta!!! the coolest cat around B) ive not... seen them in person since our little encounter near the green sun, but, terezi bumped into them a while back and sent a selfie! i dunno what theyre doing out there, but they mentioned about popping by earth-c eventually, sooooo, weve been holding onto a welcome celebration for a few months now!

and i think thats all? uuuh, if i can think of anything else i will add it, and you guys can ask me anything that wasnt clear or to elaborate on other stuff! hope this gives all of you a better picture of whats been going on in my life! :p

[your-iron-lung]

The Unsolved Chapter

aka, the crossover absolutely no one asked for; also available to read on AO3 

Story Synopsis:  While investigating what remains of the infamous Léry’s Memorial Institute for their popular channel, two Youtube celebrity ghost hunters go missing overnight, vanishing in a freak occurrence that has decided to lay claim to their souls.

While the world they were abruptly taken from grieves their absences and tries to figure out what befell the beloved comical duo, Ryan and Shane struggle to make sense of the new, terrible and violent reality they've woken up in. Drawn to a campfire that never seems to burn out, they meet others who have been condemned to the same, eternal fate and are forcibly taught how to survive in an attempt to keep their collective hope and souls alive.

Part 1 of 5

Chapter Word Count: 6031

Pairings: None; just a genfic

Genre: Survival Horror/Supernatural/Angst-y

Next Chapter: Part Two

Notes: uhh yep, here it is, a buzzfeed unsolved/dead by daylight crossover fic bc once i started to think about it, i couldnt stop. there will be temporary character death, lil bits of gore, and a fair amount of blood and violence in the story, just not in this installment. careful if you click the embedded link, as it might be loud

---------

‘Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters.’ Stephen King, The Shining

1

Léry’s Memorial Institute was probably the filthiest building Shane had ever stepped foot in, which, when you took into account just how many foul, decrepit locations he’d been to in the past, was really saying something. The building itself was beautiful in its own haunting way, as most older buildings often were, but Léry’s took the definition of ruined to a new extreme he’d yet to see before now. It was an architectural thing of beauty to be sure, but the grit and grime that covered the entirety of the stonework did manage to dampen his enthusiasm for exploring the dilapidated structure.

And he had been excited for it, originally; a chance to fly back to Illinois to shoot the season finale of Unsolved on his home turf had been generally appealing, even if he hadn’t heard of Michaelstown or Léry’s before. But then they’d all gotten their first look at the Institute, looming horribly tall over the long horizon of pines as they drove up to it from the bumpy dirt road, and he felt all his excitement leave his body in an instant, evaporating like a cold drop of water on hot asphalt.

The silhouette had been menacing and boxy, regal in an old fashioned way that modern constructions had abandoned in favor of more modern designs. It was, perhaps, one of the most imposing feats of architecture he’d ever laid eyes on; it certainly ranked up there with Waverly in his mind, and perhaps that was why he felt so inexplicably nervous as he’d looked at it. Rather than dwell on it, he compartmentalized his anxiety away in his brain and turned to make a comment about how spooky the hospital was to Ryan, but whatever effects looking at the building had had on him appeared to have hit his co-host three times as hard; Ryan’s brain already looked like it was melting, an expression of mute terror written plainly across his face.

Shane couldn’t fault him for that, considering his own momentary scare, and was actually grateful for his silence. If Ryan had pressed him for a comment on whether or not he thought Léry’s was haunted in that moment, then Shane might’ve reluctantly admitted that, in the event that ghosts were real, he wouldn’t be surprised to find a few here, but Ryan had been too horror-stricken to ask. In all actuality, no one on the team had been up for much conversation after that first initial glimpse, an uneasy vibe settling into all of them as they parked. They had all taken a moment to appreciate how terribly ominous it looked against the backdrop of a sunset red sky before TJ ushered them into their usual business routine, unpacking their equipment and getting their bodycams set up.

“Man, I feel like Jack Torrance walking into the Overlook here. This building feels downright predatory, man,” Ryan said, voice already shaking with nervousness.

Evening was falling fast upon them as they shuffled around in the entrance hall, carefully avoiding the large panes of broken glass and other debris that littered the floor. The layer of dust on the ground was so thick, distinct footprints could be seen as clear as though they’d been walking through snow, their tracks leading around in circles as they got their first look at the interior.

Shane hummed a noncommittal response as he shined his camera light around, disgusted by the amount of dust on the floor and in the air; if he were an asthmatic, he’d probably have run through several inhalers just from walking in.

“So tell me what I’m looking at here, Ryan; what’s the history behind this magnificent pile of rubble?” Shane asked as he nudged a thick piece of wood with the toe of his boot.

They would cover most of the history of Léry’s Memorial Institute in the voice over, but that wouldn’t be done until they got back to California and Ryan had yet to tell him much about the place. Keeping Shane in the dark about the past of some the places they went to was a good way to get genuine reactions out of him, but he felt that if they didn’t start bantering soon then Ryan would lose whatever was left of his poor, impressionable mind.

“I feel really weird,” Ryan said instead of answering, glancing around the area with wide, uncertain eyes. “There’s like, some kind of an energy in the air in here; do you feel it?”

“No,” Shane replied calmly, though that wasn’t entirely true. He could feel something akin to static in the air around them, but he didn’t register that as a supernatural phenomenon. The air felt charged in a way that reminded him more of an impending thunderstorm getting ready to unburden itself than it did of something unearthly. “It is a little chilly, though; probably should’ve worn more layers.”

“Good Christ, I hate it here already.” Ryan shuddered and rubbed at one of his arms as he turned to look down the dark hallway that lead further in. “Right, so. Léry’s. I couldn’t find any information on who the original owners were, or who built it, but I did find out that the original building was built sometime in the 1800’s.”

“This isn’t the original?”

Ryan shook his head and reluctantly took the lead in guiding them down the long, narrow hallway, adjusting the straps of his bodycam rig subconsciously as he went.

“Well, yes and no,” he said, stopping every few steps to shine his light and camera into any rooms they happened to pass. “The original building was just a really big mansion the owners lived in before they donated their land to the government; all this hospital space was added onto it during the Korean War to help rehab returning vets.”

“This is one hell of a remodeling job; the Property Brothers would be proud with how many square feet they managed to pump into this thing,” Shane remarked, grinning a little when Ryan let out a slight laugh. “So, army hospital?”

“Yep, up until the CIA took possession of it in the 60’s, and that’s where all my research brought me to dead ends. I couldn’t find what they wanted it for or what they did with it after they got it, but boy, the conspiracy theories run wild with this one.” He turned to flash Shane a conspiratory grin.

“Are you gonna use the voice on me?” Shane asked with a roll of his eyes. “Don’t lay it on too thick now; save some for the voice over.”

“Some say that the CIA turned Léry’s into a black site in order to perfect ‘information gathering’ techniques they’d wanted to put into practice during the war,” Ryan began, easily slipping into the professional tone of voice he used for narrations. The familiarity with which he spoke seemed to restore some of his confidence as they continued down the hall, as he no longer seemed to shrink away from the darkness surrounding them. “They reportedly hired a large number of staff to run the medical facility, but no records of anyone working here exist- at least to the public-, though there are rumors of one particular doctor who was well known for his sadistic use of electro-convulsive shock ‘treatments’.”

“Torture, you mean,” Shane said, shining his light into a room of indeterminate purpose. Ahead of him, Ryan nodded in affirmation. “Great, a secret torture hospital. I’m sure you’ll get a lot of angry, resentful ghosts to talk to here.”

Ignoring his comment, Ryan continued his monologue, clearly having spent time rehearsing it. “Supposedly. As the rumors go, they began implementing experimental interrogation methods on American citizens first before moving on to actual spies, and oh- oh my god, that’s a fucking big rat,” Ryan sputtered, his Unsolved voice breaking as he skipped back down the hall and almost knocked into Shane, who barely managed to sidestep his panicked retreat.

He couldn’t help but chuckle a bit as he put an arm to Ryan’s shoulder to steady him before stepping ahead of him, shining his camera light into what looked to be a large reception area. It was wide and spacious, full of dark corners with plenty of dust and run down furniture covered in graffiti. The rat Ryan had stumbled upon was underneath one of the waiting room benches, turned over on its side and very clearly dead, though it was exceptionally large.

They stared at it together contemplatively for a moment before Shane said, “I gotta tell you, Ry, that I am not at all thrilled about spending the night here. I think I might ask my mom to call your mom to tell you I can’t come to your little sleepover.”

From behind, they could hear Mark laugh before stepping into the room, aiming the lens of his camera at the rat for a dramatic close-up they could potentially use to promote the episode.

“That’s disgusting, don’t film that,” Devon said, clicking her tongue in disapproval as she placed her hand in front of the camera lens until Mark lowered it off his shoulder. “This place is foul; I can’t say I envy you boys for staying here one bit.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Ryan muttered. “Hell, I might cancel the sleepover myself, no moms involved.”

“You can’t, you already walked out of one overnight this season,” TJ cut in, to which Ryan responded with a quietly spoken ‘fuck’ under his breath. “Let’s just start filming, yeah? The sooner we get this done, the sooner morning will come, the sooner you can leave. Now, where do you think you’re gonna want the static cams set up?” TJ asked as Mark held up the bags he’d carried in with them.

2

Against Devon’s wishes, they decided to film the intro for the episode in the lobby with the dead rat, the compromise being that Shane and Ryan had to sit on opposite sides of the hallway that lead back the way they’d come so that the rodent’s body wouldn’t make it into the final shot. This was agreeable to all of them, but as Shane sat there, waiting for the camera to start rolling, he couldn’t keep his eyes from wandering back to its corpse occasionally, trying to deduce what it could have died from.

They tried to film with what little natural light they had left, but the sun had already been sinking when they’d arrived. Whatever light it managed to provide ended up fading away too fast for them to effectively use, eventually prompting TJ to insist on bringing in big, bright lights so they weren’t stuck filming in the dark. As Shane squinted into the newfound light source, his eyes adjusting poorly to the brightness, he managed to get a better look at the room they were set up in.

Based on his own opinion and how little he actually knew about Léry’s, it certainly didn’t look like the kind of place run by a malicious, CIA sanctioned group of sadists; to him, it looked like a hospital, plain and simple. The white paint along the walls was cracked and peeling, revealing discoloured splotches of drywall that furthered the eerie, run-down atmosphere the building had as a whole. Regardless of that and the dead rat, there was nothing in the general vicinity that implied Léry’s might have been used for something as sinister as torture- they even had what looked to be remnants of vintage motivational posters decaying behind the reception desk. Despite how foreboding the building had looked from the outside, inside it both looked and felt normal, which made him wonder again about where his original discomfort upon viewing the building might have derived from.

“This week on the season finale of Buzzfeed Unsolved: Supernatural, we’re investigating Léry’s Memorial Institute in Michaelstown, Illinois as a part of our ongoing investigation into the question, are ghosts real?”

Hearing Ryan’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. Unaware that they’d begun the segment, Shane turned to look at the camera Mark was holding and shook his head curtly on cue. The motion was well-practiced and concise, even if he was still squinting because of the lights.

He waited patiently as Ryan spoke of what he knew about Léry’s alleged history, repeating a lot of what he’d already mentioned to Shane earlier for the official intro. He went more in depth as he talked about the history of the building to the camera than he did with Shane, adding on some embellishments about the various conspiracy theories he’d dug up that involved what the staff at Léry’s might’ve been up to, and none of it sounded good.

“Léry’s was condemned and abandoned in 1983, and was even rumored to have been burnt down, but as you can see, since we are currently sitting inside the building, that clearly isn’t the case,” Ryan recited, shooting Shane a look that invited him in to begin a banter.

“Ryan, I swear to God if you’re trying to tell me that the building itself is a ghost, I will resign.” Shane forced his face into a serious expression that matched his disapproving tone of voice as Ryan laughed loudly. “You can get Brent back to be your new ‘ghoulfriend’ and you can just- the two of you can just run around these spooky places like a couple of headless chickens screaming about ghosts together.”

“No, that’s- that’s not what I’m saying,” Ryan said, a humorous inflection tinging his voice as he spoke. “What I’m saying is, is that someone either lied to cover up any potential future investigations into Léry’s alleged operations, or someone got it wrong; either way, Léry’s is still here.”

“And how’d you come to find that out?” Shane asked, honestly interested in Ryan’s answer. His friend had already admitted that researching the place had been hard and often netted him no real answers; if any and all official documentations surrounding Léry’s said it was no longer standing, then he wondered how Ryan was able to discover that it actually was.

“I looked up the coordinates on Google’s satellite image maps.” Shane raised his eyebrows at that, and Ryan shrugged in response. “There was a building here, and when I compared it to old images of the Memorial Institute I’d found dated pre 1980’s, they seemed to match. When I reached out to the current property owners, they agreed to let us look around as long as we didn’t try to ‘solve’ anything.”

“We never do,” Shane said wistfully, dramatically looking away for a moment, and again Ryan laughed, the sound of it echoing around the walls of the room.

“Alright, whatever, big guy; we can do all the ghost hunting we want, they said, but we have to let the sleeping dogs lie on whether or not Léry’s has a ‘tortured’ past or not; they don’t want any trouble with the government.” Ryan looked amused by his own pun, but Shane knew that his ability to find humour in little things like that wouldn’t last the night.

“Well, let’s get started then, shall we?” Shane said, slapping his hands to his thighs and beginning to feel his eagerness returning to him. He started to stand up, and Ryan sighed.

“Yeah, fuck, let’s- let’s get into it.”

3

“Is there anyone here with us right now?” Ryan spoke loudly and clearly as he addressed the spirit box, glancing around the room they were standing in cautiously as he held the small radio up between them. There was an overturned examination table and some rusted chairs in the room with them that Shane had initially tried to sit in, but found them too unstable to support him. “If there is, we’d really like to talk with you. My name’s Ryan, and my unnecessarily large friend here is Shane; I know he’s a little frightening to look at, but can you say either of our names?”

They waited for a response, Ryan pensively shifting his eyes around as though he might see a ghost hiding behind the old furniture while Shane did his best to not let his boredom show on camera. He waited silently for a moment, letting the spirit box spit out jumbled radio frequencies and broken fragments of words for Ryan to analyze later before deciding to chime in.

“Did you ever stop to think that the spirit box might be triggering these spirits you’re trying to contact?” he asked, voice drawling as he tucked his hands into the pockets of his denim jacket. “If that doctor you mentioned earlier really did exist, then don’t you think it stands to reason that the static from the box might be traumatizing them? Torturing them in their afterlife? Maybe that’s why they don’t want to talk to you.”

“You’re just saying that because it tortures you,” Ryan said, snickering. He opened his mouth to say something else in support of his use of the spirit box, but was hushed when it began to pick up an unusual, garbled sort of noise.

If Shane hadn’t been accustomed to the usual tones of static the spirit box produced as it skipped through radio frequencies, he would have chalked the sound that was coming through the speaker now as typical spirit box sounds, but innately he knew that it wasn’t. Whatever was coming through the radio now was different, in that it had cut through the previous channel of static to effectively broadcast the new sound.

He could tell from the stunned reaction on Ryan’s face that he, too, recognized the sound as something unusual. This wet, static noise that was coming through the receiver had been unheard by either of them before.

Ryan turned his head to look up at Shane, any trace of amusement he’d been displaying before now gone as he struggled to make sense of what he was hearing. Before either of them could properly process what they were listening to, the sound slowly tapered off into silence.

Shane stared at the box in Ryan’s hand, waiting for the usual sounds of static to come back through the speaker so he could explain the phenomenon away as some sort of malfunction. He was preemptively formulating a response to the questions Ryan was sure to start asking when the whispering began.

The voice was low and quiet, possibly male, and managed to speak uninterrupted for more than a few consecutive seconds. Shane felt his skin break out into goosebumps as he listened, leaning forward to try and get a better understanding of what was being said even as Ryan recoiled, almost dropping the spirit box in his fright.

If the voice was whispering in any known language, Shane didn’t recognize it; the words registered as garbled, barely distinguishable nonsense to his ears, but the tone with which it spoke, intent and persistent, had his hair beginning to stand on end. Everyone in the room was hushed, although Ryan was beginning to hyperventilate, his breath coming in fast, wheezing gulps. His hand was visibly trembling, but he resolutely did not drop or set the spirit box down, a small act of bravery Shane admired him for.

They didn’t have long to focus on what the voice was saying before a loud, burst of static tore out of the speaker, ending the strange noises abruptly and causing Ryan to shout in surprise. Shane blinked solemnly at the little box as it returned to flickering through regular radio channels before he met Ryan’s stupefied gaze.

“What the fuck just happened,” Ryan gasped out, quickly turning the box off and setting it aside to deal with his minor anxiety attack.

No one had an immediate answer.

“Did anyone recognize what it was saying?” Devon asked timidly. “Not trying to be an alarmist here, but that… didn’t sound human to me.”

Ryan moaned at the implication and sat down hard on the floor, uncaring of how dirty it was.

“Look, let’s just all calm down and take a minute to think about it logically,” Shane said, attempting to take control of the situation in order to soothe his companion’s panic, but he didn’t feel calm himself. His heart was thudding away rapidly in his chest, though he told himself that it was due in part to being taken off guard by the loud outburst of static that came through at the end of the transmission. “Do you know every earthly language that exists?” he asked Devon, who shook her head reluctantly. He repeated the question to Mark and TJ before directing it to Ryan, and all their answers were the same. “Neither do I; just because it spoke in a language we can’t immediately identify doesn’t mean it wasn’t human. Have we all forgotten we’re in an old, ex-governmental building that was run by the fucking CIA? The box probably just latched onto an old numbers station or something.

“And anyway, I’d expect you to be more excited about this, little guy,” he said gently to Ryan, trying to encourage a positive reaction out of him. “We caught all that on film, buddy.”

From the floor, Ryan had stopped his rapid breathing as he processed Shane’s line of reasoning. He still looked frightened, but his expression also seemed more speculative after listening to Shane deliver his cowboy speech. When Shane reached a hand down to help him up, Ryan took it.

“You’re right. We have evidence,” Ryan said slowly as he rose back to full height, his eyes lighting up as he clasped Shane’s hand tightly to his chest.

Shane winced and tried to pull his hand free, but the clammy grip with which Ryan held to it was strong. “It could be any number of things before it could be ghosts, Ryan, you know that.”

“But if it’s not any of those other things, then it- it’s real! We have actual, recorded evidence! Léry’s Memorial Institute is certified haunted, baby!”

He let go of Shane’s hand at last, his fear momentarily forgotten as he did a quick dance, pumping his fist up and down into the air in a celebratory fashion. Mark trained the camera on him to capture the moment, swapping from Ryan’s joyful expression to Shane’s look of bewildered amusement. Devon looked on with a congratulatory smile until TJ eventually spoke.

“You… do realize you still have to stay the night here, right?” TJ said somberly, knowing that what he had to say would was going to affect Ryan negatively, and already they could all see the impact his words had on him as he stopped dancing. “I’m happy for you and all, but don’t forget we have a whole episode left to shoot.” Fresh horror dawned on Ryan’s face, his excitement over finding proof of the supernatural immediately dying out when he realized it didn’t absolve him from fulfilling the rest of his contractual obligations.

“Oh, fuck, you’re right,” he said with a groan, his shoulders slumping at the remembered thought. He brought his hands to his face and dragged his fingers down, pulling at his skin. “Ohh, fuck, you’re right. Shit.”

“Certified haunted, baby,” Shane teased with a weak grin, knowing already that it was going to be a long, sleepless night for the both of them.

4

They explored the area a little further after the incident with the spirit box, but didn’t manage to capture or illicit any other supernatural responses to their presence, though not for lack of trying. Everywhere they went, Shane demanded that the ghosts repeat the strange audio they’d managed to capture before and called them out on their cowardice when nothing happened. Ryan grew increasingly upset with his behaviour, but Shane was out to prove a point: whatever they’d discovered through the use of the spirit box wasn’t something supernatural, and if the spirits weren’t willing to entertain them, then he wasn’t willing to entertain the notion that it could be ghosts.

The logical part of his brain demanded he debunk it immediately, even if it meant he had to poop all over Ryan’s parade in order to do so, and he planned on taking the mightiest shit he could before they wrapped up filming for the night.

5

Most of the upper floors of Léry’s were condemned and deemed too unsafe for them to explore, barring their ability to scope out the building in its entirety, but the ground floors were plenty big enough to take up hours’ worth of time to investigate.

With Mark and TJ’s help, they set up three static cams where Ryan thought they’d get the most activity: one in the room where they’d gotten the spirit box to communicate with them (with an EVP device they would leave on all night), one in the reception area pointing down the hall they’d entered through, and the final one in a room Ryan had called the ‘treatment theatre’, where they’d decided to bunk down for the night.

It was a circular room with one single, ominous examination table set up in the middle over a system of rusty, grated flooring. A large set-up of outdated lighting systems hung low and broken over it, hanging like an untended widowmaker’s tree waiting to collapse, and for the first time that night Shane wondered if perhaps Ryan’s torture theory might have some truth behind it. Copper stains could be seen leading from the table to the grated floors, and he resolutely decided not to focus on them.

On the floor above them, reached only by a set of stairs set into the back of the room, was a windowed viewing booth that jutted out from the wall. A sense of unease overcame him as Shane looked at it, wondering what the people of the past had need of to stand up there in a room such as this, but he knew in the back of his mind what the answer to that was.

He tried to tuck his discomfort away as he laid out his sleeping bag next to Ryan’s, and wound up unsettling some dust into the air as he smoothed it out and plopped his pillow into place. He grimaced and tried to suppress a cough, but doing so only made the urge to cough worse. Ryan watched him hack whatever he’d inhaled into the crook of his arm, a wry smile of amusement playing at his lips.

“Need some water?” Devon asked, stepping forward with a water bottle already in hand.

Shane took it gratefully and drank until he felt his throat clear up. “Thanks,” he said as he capped it and set the bottle down beside his pillow.

“Should we see you guys out?” Ryan asked as Mark finished adjusting the camera that was set facing their sleeping bags, the red recording light already blinking with purpose.

Mark shrugged as he stood, taking his big shoulder camera back from TJ, who had had been dutifully holding it for him so he didn’t have to set it on the dirty floor.

“Nah, I think we can find our way out on our own,” TJ said as Mark wiped his knees clean of the grime. “I know you’ll probably just bolt if you get anywhere close to the exit anyway, Bergara.”

It was Shane’s turn to smirk as Ryan scowled, knowing that there was definitely some truth in that statement. Ryan had been unusually on edge throughout the rest of their investigation after their incident with the spirit box, and all Shane’s goading had done was make it worse.

“Have a good night, guys,” Devon said, looking uncertain about leaving them alone. She gave a little wave as Mark and TJ each said their goodbyes in turn. “We’ll see you in the morning; be safe, okay?”

“We’ll be fine; what’s the worst that’ll happen? A rat takes a nibble out of one of our ears?” Shane mustered up a smile he hoped looked assuring, but Devon didn’t seem comforted by it.

“The closest hotel we could book is 20 minutes away, but even still, don’t hesitate to call if you need something,” she said, and TJ nodded in affirmation.

“We’ll come as quick as we can,” he said, and Shane wasn’t sure why, but his words left a heavy weight in his stomach.

“Guys, we’ll be fine, this isn’t our first rodeo,” Shane said exasperatedly, and Ryan backed him up with a nod.

“The ghoul boys know how to behave themselves during a spooky sleepover,” he affirmed, but didn’t have the confidence required to back up what he was saying.

Still, Devon looked a little less doubtful and finally relented. She bid them goodnight once more before the three of them took their leave, carrying all the extra equipment Shane and Ryan wouldn’t need away with them to make packing up a little easier in the morning.

None of them knew it would be the last time they ever saw each other.

Shane sat down on his sleeping bag with a slight grunt and listened to their crew’s footsteps receding out of the room and away from them, echoing down the hall ominously. He waited until he couldn’t hear them anymore before he started getting ready for sleep, peeling away the opening of his sleeping bag to tuck his long legs inside.

“And then there were two,” he said rather cheerfully to Ryan as he got comfortable. He was met with a miserable sigh as his co-host begrudgingly slid into his own sleeping bag. He zipped it up promptly and stared up at the ceiling bitterly.

“You say that every time they leave, give it a rest already.”

“But it’s true every time it warrants being said,” Shane replied, drawing his phone out of his pocket and opening up Twitter. “We’re the only two people left in here; anyone else doesn’t exist, and you seem to need reminding of that fairly often.”

Ryan sighed shakily and turned his flashlight off, casting them both into the gloomy darkness, broken only by the glow of Shane’s phone as he scrolled through his social media feed.

6

“Shane? Are you awake? I’m kinda freaking out hardcore over here, buddy.”

It took a moment for Shane to register that he was being spoken to as he blinked the sleep out of his eyes, rolling over in his bag to face where Ryan was laid out. As his vision adjusted to the dark, he could see that Ryan was wide-awake, still staring up at the ceiling where the viewing booth stuck out like a sore thumb.

“What?” Shane asked, his voice heavy and tired, rumbling out of his throat in a low timbre. “Whatsit?”

“I- I can’t sleep,” Ryan admitted, his voice sounding small.

“Surprising absolutely no one,” Shane muttered before yawning loudly and rubbing the crust out of the corners of his eyes; he’d only been just been able to fall asleep before Ryan woke him up.

“Shut up,” Ryan grumbled. “It- I can’t sleep because it feels like- it feels like we’re being watched. I know it’s just the dark, but sometimes I think I can see people up there, looking down at us.”

Shane turned his gaze up to the viewing booth, but couldn’t see anything that looked like what Ryan was worrying about. His eyes did try to force shapes out of the darkness behind the window, but he intrinsically knew that it was just his mind playing tricks on him, trying to get him to see things that weren’t actually there. “There’s no one here but us, Ryan,” he reminded him, turning his attention back to his friend.

“But the voice on the spirit box-”

“-was just a voice,” Shane cut in. “And look, I’ll be honest with you- it was a little jarring, and I’ll admit to being a little unnerved by it myself, if that makes you feel any better.”

“Wh- no! Why would that make me feel better?” Ryan spluttered, finally tearing his eyes away from the booth above them to fix his wide-eyed stare on Shane. “You’re supposed to be my, my grounding rock, my calming spirit; how can you be scared? You’re not allowed to be afraid, I- I’m the one who fears!”

Shane stared at Ryan for one wordless minute before breaking out into a hearty laugh, his voice carrying around the room and making it sound louder than it was.

“Alright, calm down there cowardly Heisenberg; I didn’t say I was scared, just unnerved,” he clarified. His laugh seemed to ease some of Ryan’s worries, as his face cracked into a tentative grin at his words. “It was weird, yes, but nothing else strange happened while we were walking around, did it?”

“No, I guess not,” Ryan admitted, looking a little sheepish now. He contemplated Shane’s words quietly for a moment before he asked, “Do you really think it was just a numbers channel?”

“I think it’s a possibility, yes,” Shane said, picking his words carefully so as not to exacerbate Ryan’s anxieties. He honestly had no idea what it was or what it could be, but he wasn’t anywhere near ready yet to admit that it could’ve had supernatural origins. “We’re in a weird old government hospital; I think the most likely thing to have happened is that our little boxy pal picked up on a weird frequency we weren’t supposed to have access to and gave us a glimpse into something that wasn’t meant for us.”

“Yeah, but, we’re in Illinois,” Ryan began, picking at the zippered hem of his sleeping bag as he put the thoughts he’d been ruminating on into words.

“So? If you’re about to start shit-talking this wholesome state, so help me God, we’re going to have to start exchanging some serious words here.”

“No, that’s not what- Look, Illinois is in America; what possible radio frequency being broadcast here could we have picked up on that doesn’t speak English, or any other spoken American language, or even human?” Ryan asked, gesticulating around them as he spoke.

Shane sighed and rolled onto his back, adjusting his pillow to better support his neck. “You don’t know that it’s not any known human language, Ryan, we established that. It was probably just some kind of a looping cipher the CIA forgot to turn off when they moved out, not some- some demon speaking to us in tongues.”

Beside him, Ryan groaned loudly and quickly withdrew his arms back into his sleeping bag, as though he were afraid that by naming it, one would suddenly appear.

“Please don’t say demon.”

“You just did,” Shane said, unable to keep himself from speaking rather snidely. Ryan shot him a pointed look of annoyance, but he couldn’t help his uncooperative attitude in that moment. He was sleepy, and could feel all the dust they’d been breathing in coagulating deep in his lungs. He was irritated, and he let it show. “Look, Ry, we can discuss this all we want tomorrow, but I am incredibly tired right now. Just… try and get some sleep, okay? We’ll pick this up later.”

“I think we both know that’s not gonna happen,” Ryan muttered, but he mercifully let the issue drop.

Whether or not their conversation had helped or hindered Ryan, Shane couldn’t say. It had been a strange night for both of them, all things considered, and he wanted nothing more than to just be done with it. As he closed his eyes to try and go back to sleep, the last thing Shane would later recall seeing was the darkness taking shape in the form of a face looming behind the window pane of the viewing booth, looking down upon them intently. A strange metallic taste wouldn’t leave his mouth no matter how much water he drank to try and ride himself of it, and although Ryan had forsaken the notion of sleep for himself entirely, he too eventually drifted off unawares.

And that was all it took; by the morning they were gone, taken without a trace, everything they’d brought with them left behind and undisturbed.

[thewhitecanaree]

Well as you said you took longer to respond, at least long enough for me to grow impatient and like not endure the kdrama gap in my life.

I have already finished "Moonlight Drawn By Clouds" just today morning. And like this is exactly why i sometimes take breaks or a long time to watch a kdrama.

It's because i fucking get consumed and addicted and oh god my addiction gets worse every time.

So i had to find another one and i started googling my fav actors and like.. i came across a couple of your recommendations in my thorough research. Tbh Bride of the water god sounded so appealing. But i was already thinking of like 10 kdramas to choose from and it didnt end up the priority.

I will come back to your recommendations when i finish the new one i started while i couldnt wait.

For now i would like to give you my recommendations.

I would love to tell you that these are my absolute fav kdramas and like uk how the kdrama world cannot be compared with hollywood and American series? Like they're 2 very different worlds so i dont use the same mindset to watch them. Kdrama would seem so cliche in comparison and I WOULD NEVER ALLOW ANYONE TO DISRESPECT MY KDRAMAS, let alone myself.

HOWEVER, Based on that note, i want to elaborate that these kdramas are sooo good, that if i used the hollywood mindset on them they would still be perfect and awesome.

So here they are :

~also in no particular order since they're all different from eachother :

• The Legend of the Blue Sea:

-Lee min ho very beautiful as ever

-Jun ji hyun (also known as giana jun) i think when i say jun ji hyun is more than enough.

~Generally about a con man and a mermaid , who fall in love, only to find out their fates are aligned beyound this lifetime. With a wonderful twist, and one of the best angst.

~Very humorous though, and very funny.

~It's basically a story of fate and unfulfilled destiny where people meet again in the next lifetime to fulfill their destiny as lovers and as enemies.

The best things i loved about this series :

1~It has these twists that got me so tied up and kinda gave me a mind blower.

2~The other thing is that, it is set in a very modern setting, and in a parallel old historical korean setting.

3~At a certain time the modern story was more captivating and at others they played to make the parallel old setting story catch your breath, and this alternation in storyline gave episodes the best mixture.

4~ I very much loved the aspect of mermaids, it was shown in a very graceful and dare i say real way. There is everything you would wish for and imagine : Swimming mermaids, Tails, legs, water scenes (scenes as in let ur imagination go wild). [Jun ji hyun worked so hard on the water scenes since they are so tough to shoot and require lots of physical effort, but she did them so perfectly without one trace of error or fault].

• Angel's Last mission : Love :

-Myungso (aka L) is an actual angel.

-Shin hye sun is a very beautiful and talented actress. I would describe her as an angel as well, but it would hurt the storyline.

-The story is borderline about a ballerina who's gone blind in an accident, and angel sent to help her find love but falls in love with her instead.

~It is about an angel sent to earth to do a minor role, as in collecting the souls of animals and taking them to heaven. He meets a girl and gets involved in her life more than should. And how everything is gonna be dealt with since angels are forbidden from interfering in human lives that way.

~I would say more, but i dont wanna ruin the story. Honestly shin hye sun is amazing in this , both in acting blind and in doing ballet.

~I became a bigger fan of ballet bcz of this show, and now i cherish myungso because he is such a soft little kitten who needs to be protected. At all costs.

+this show is definitely awesome from all sides, even if you wanna judge it by hollywood standards. It's this solid.

• Moonlight Drawn by Clouds:

~Set in the old historical era (you call it period drama?), both park bo gum and kim yoo jung are new to me. And i loved them both very very very much.

~borderline about a girl who pretends to be a boy who works as a couple counselor, and then falls in love with the crown prince after being escorted to the palace as a eunuch.

You might wanna read that like 3 times to wrap ur head around it, that's how wild the show is.

~angst level 101.

~i fell in love with park bo gum because of this. A sweet cutie pie handsome devil.

~ and now I'm desperate to watch more old setting era series but ik nothing will feel like this one. All the cast were amazing. The combination of these people together in the same show is a unique occurance and will never occur again.

~BONUS : very humorous, on how to pretend ur a guy, and a very beautiful concept where the prince develops feelings for a "eunuch", and a very beautiful addition to the cast : kwak dong yeon , which is a very hot assassin/ ninja / prince bodyguard.

•Honorable Mentions: The Heris, My love from the star, heartstrings.

And right now i started a short kdrama called The hymn of death, starring shin hye sun.

Set in the old times when korea was falling apart and some koreans went as refugees to japan, and how they were suppressed and how they try to keep the memory of their country alive in a foreign place.

Heyy there, i just thought maybe it would be fun if we traded our favorite kdramas (I'm kinda on the hunt for a new one) , so what about you tell me your fav kdramas and I'll tell you mine?? ;)

Oh gosh I've been running behind on my kdramas lately.... I mostly watch the more mainstream ones on Netflix since I've been too lazy to get on anything else.

If you've already seen these then I'm sorry, I'm fairly new and basic to kdramas due to work, video games, and most of the ones people talk about on here arent on Netflix

***Also, I'm really just saying why I like these shows instead of giving a summary of them because I suck at summaries and didn't realize I was really just gushing over why I liked each one until after I finished answering this***

But here's my top 5 in no particular order

- Bride of the Water God

I honestly remember reading the manga WAAAAAAAAAY back when I first got into manga and anime and consumed things like Fushigi Yuugi.

I was hesitant to watch it at first because I didn't really enjoy the manga and such but I liked the modern setting idea and gave it a chance.

Needless to say that one tore my heart out for many reasons but mostly because I related to Yoon so much and appreciated how there was a good focus and explanation on the psychological side of why we react to trauma and getting to watch an amazing character face and move past it was moving in an amazing way.

Also, Habaek having to come to the mortal realm instead of Yoon getting dragged to theirs was a lovely twist and pretty funny all on its own and reminded me a lot of Marvel memes where Thor has to teach the Asgardians about Earth tech.

- Because This is My First Life

Just an adorable story to me. Typical fake marriage trope but just a good cast of characters that you get to see rotating around the main couple.

Pretty much matches some of the experiences of my friends in rl dealing with dating and marriage and how they came to terms with it.

Really, just, I'm not gonna go on a huge descriptive reason why I loved this show. I just want it to be known that it's cute and funny to me.

- My Only Love Song

Just.... I can't even put all the words together for this one.

It's the first Kdrama I ever watched and it was a rollercoaster to me. It's a period drama with time travel and comedy.

I don't think I've ever laughed and cried so much in one sitting because I BINGED IT. It was a good show to watch for introducing me into the world of Kdramas. Just typing this out makes me want to stop everything else I'm doing and go watch it again.

- Black

JUST

I HONESTLY

This show is one I will be rewatching til I die and if I would rank the Asian dramas I've watched from start to finish, this one is going to be #1.

Just an amazing performance from everyone in it and a fantastic storyline that will confuse and amaze when it finally all comes together. I really felt for all the main characters in this show and the last few episodes threw me through a few loops and really caught my heart.

Not everyone enjoyed the ending but as a more novice watcher of Kdramas, I felt it was very well done.

If you wanna watch a good supernatural, detective, mystery drama, this is one I recommend.

-Mr. Sunshine

I haven't finished this one yet but I recommend it because I enjoy period dramas and this one takes place during an interesting time compared to most others I've seen and been recommended.

It takes place during the early 1900's, which is fun for me asthetic-wise because it's a transformation period with the mix of modern technology and fashion alongside it's traditional counterpart. (This is something I enjoy in any form of media because it gives a steampunk vibe)

It's kinda slow at first and doesn't completely follow historical accuracy, but its interesting nonetheless and I hope to get around to finishing it soon.

Other honorable mentions that I'm in the midst of watching or plan to watch:

Crash Landing on You (started)

Itaewon Class (on my list)

Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung (started)

When the Camilla Blooms (on my list)

Possessed (on my list)

My Holo Love (watched and loved it)

More Honorable Mentions, but these aren't Kdramas, and are mostly Chinese because I'm picky about Japanese ones for some reason:

37 Seconds (Japanese, movie)

Someone Like You (Cdrama)

Ashes of Love (Cdrama)

Love 020 (Cdrama)

Accidentally in Love (Cdrama)

Somewhere Only We Know (Cdrama)

Dad of Light (Jdrama? It's based on a book)

[strawberryniceblock]

just thinking about what a day that must have been for tracker. you've been working for months on end to get your religious revival movement off the ground and its going great. your new gf is helping finance and your following is growing steadily. you do a very public miracle and things are looking up for your movement.

then one day your ex turns up with her crew, says she accidentally killed her god (again) and is just passing through. your new gf is kind enough to take your ex and her crew on a little tour of the place despite the awkwardness of it. during this tour you come around and think your ex and her friends are disrespecting one of your religious relics but before you can stop them they accidentally summon a dead god. pure chaos ensues where you and your gf are thrown and injured, multiple divinities are interfering, and your ex and her crew just...fuck off into a briefcase??? you are left in a collapsing world to pray for survival