#not sure what else to call it jnbjx

[angeart]

I always want to hear abiut the ghost Hunter Grian & ghost scar au. Hello

Hi hello! Right. So, consider this.

Scar is a ghost. He lives in an abandoned, decrepit house. (It used to be nice once. He built it himself.) The house is famous for being haunted. This attracts two types of people:

One is ghost hunters. They're either amateur ones who fool around, or professional ones that are jaded and know what they came for. In and out, always. They come, they pretend like they care, get their content, pack up and go.

The second one is young people who come in because they've been dared to by their friends. Thrill seekers, cowards pretending to be brave, etc. You know the lot. They don't care about the ghost that's there. They care about spookiness and fear spikes and proving a point.

Now, Scar is as jumpy as we know him to be. Half the time he scares people, it's because he got scared first. But sometimes, he does it on purpose. Sometimes he likes to scare others. For a laugh. Just to cause mischief. To amuse himself.

But underneath it all? He's watching his house crumble around him, people who know nothing about him keep telling him (or more like, telling each other; very little of the conversation is usually aimed at Scar) that he's scary, that he's evil.

Scar can't do anything about any of it. He can just be.

It's the only thing he has left.

And he's so, so lonely.

Let's throw Grian into the mix. In a way, he does fall into one of the categories - he is a ghost hunter. But it's not as much for content, as it it for the sake of his own curiosity.

So when he's in the house and he tries to talk to Scar? It... feels different. Something about it is shifted. Maybe it's the questions he asks. The way he looks around. The way he speaks into the silence of the house, without knowing if there's anyone to listen.

Scar is there, and he listens.

And he tries to talk to him. It's hard. It's not easy to communicate when you're a ghost, starved and lonely and sad. But he tries. For once, he makes a proper effort.

Grian picks up on it, and maybe they have a halting, broken conversation through various tools. Staticky radios and flickering flashlights and taps on the wooden walls.

Once Scar finds out that Grian's trying to really listen and understand, instead of jumping to conclusions and putting words into Scar's mouth that he never intended to say, Scar tries to say so, so much. Words tumble out, but words are no longer his language, and they refuse to come across the way he shapes them.

He grows scared, then.

Because here's this one person who is trying to understand him, but just like everyone else, he's bound to leave, too. Right? So Scar panics, and he uses his powers to lock the house. He traps Grian inside, if only until the dawn.

At first, Grian freaks out.

This makes Scar panic too, and he strings up apologies and tries to somehow show him that he's not going to hurt him (it's hard. it doesn't work.) - but he's too desperate for company, for understanding, for someone to be there. For someone to act like maybe deep underneath all of this, Scar is still a person.

And maybe Grian catches on, after a while. And maybe they try communicating again.

And maybe it goes better this time.

And Grian comes to understand that this ghost is just lonely and sad.

He makes a deal. He promises to come back to visit again. And Scar... lets him go. He lets him go and he hopes.

It's all he can do.

(Here are supplemental thoughts of how the rest of it could go:)

(Grian does come back. Each time, the communication is easier. Scar tells him how upset he is with the way people come in and treat him. And the way his house is falling apart at the seams. And how everyone acts like he's this evil, demonic thing. How they scare him sometimes. How he doesn't want to deal with it anymore.)

(He doesn't beg Grian to stay again. But he wants to.)

(Now consider: what if Grian ends up buying the house. What if he ends up renovating it with Mumbo. What if they move in. What if they bring in potted plants that Scar offhandedly mentions liking. What if they bring in a stray cat (Jellie). What if down the line, when they're all settled and know each other fairly well, they just start messing with each other like the menaces they are. For entertainment. Always making sure to know where the boundaries are and what lines to not cross. Always making sure to check up on each other if something goes too far or wrong.)