the wily, windy moors

( sen mitsuji. cis male. he/him. wuthering heights & kate bush. ) supposedly HISASHI MIZUTANI 水谷久志 is actually a ghost, but i doubt it. they look like they’re 29, though they act like they’ve been on earth for 30 years. i recently saw them at grand central station — i think they haunt the trains there. when dusk falls, you can usually find them heading home to staten island by teleportation.

PINTEREST || SPOTIFY

Minh nodded at Hisashi’s question.  “Yes, because I wanted to know how many hours there is until the sun is going to come up. I feel things will be better in the morning.” She explained as she was a big ball of anxiety at the moment. Minh was trying to calm herself down but everything seemed to fail. “I got here early because I was avoiding the busy streets and meeting with a friend, but then it just got busier and busier here as well.”  Minh replied knowing that the bar had suddenly become the busiest place in the city.

&.

“about five more hours of all of this, it might be best if you find a safe spot to lock yourself away until then,” he suggested, worried about the human vulnerabilities the stranger may have, unafraid of his own non-corporeal nearness to all the wolves and their gnashing teeth. “the busiest and the bloodiest,” he quipped, turning back to look at some of the carnage that the werewolves had wreaked on the tavern. “how have you managed to avoid harm so far?” he wondered, there were few people left standing in the main room of the tavern. hisashi had wandered and meandered throughout the o’riley’s bar all night and had found most people barricaded in the bathroom. those who were still in the main area seemed to be other supernaturals; there were some attempting to break the runes that had locked everyone in, or others who were fighting the wolves.

She nods her head once, a simple answer to his question. “Apparently I was shot in the back of the head.” Samira explains in such a casual way, but it doesn’t phase her anymore. “What, this?” she asks and she knocks on the top of the bar a couple of times with a closed fist, the sound of her knuckles knocking against the wood was was audible. “You’ll learn. It just takes time.” It had taken Samira years of practice but she could blend in well as if she were still a living, breathing human being.  “Didn’t you bother to go and check your coroners report?” She asks, knowing that’d be the easiest solution to putting together the puzzle that was his death. “Well. It might get worse for everyone else, but what’s the worst that could happen to us? We’re already dead.”

&.

“ouch,” he winced, whistling through his teeth. “do you know the full circumstances of your death?” the question was almost rhetorical, a way to turn things back towards her. if she was going to continue asking things about his ghostly fate that even he didn’t know, how could she possibly know the answers about her own life and death? then again, she was tangible, meaning she already had a leg up on hisashi when it came to the spirit thing. “i’ve been trying for weeks now, and it’s felt like an eternity since i last held or touched something,” he explained, going to knock against the wood like she had just done, but his fist just sifted through the solid matter. “how long did it take you?” he asked. “i-” no one had ever asked him how he’d died, at least not yet. he hadn’t said it out loud before, voiced just how tragic his death was, “i don’t have a coroner’s report to look over. my body was hidden deep in the woods. no one has found it yet.” hisashi had seen his own missing persons poster and wondered who had even cared enough to put it up for him. he didn’t remember much of his family or friends. someone out there still loved and missed him, though.

-

      ——THERE WERE FEW considerations taken into the existence of ghosts - especially in this moment. once or twice he’d wondered who would linger upon their death, which then devolved into wondering how many ghosts he’d created in his time hunting. IT WAS NOT A THOUGHT THAT ALEKSANDER ENJOYED HAVING. there was simply no need for a senseless violence route in his work, and leaving behind souls to walk the earth felt like overkill. still, he gazed at the specter before him with slight curiosity reflecting back from dark voids. in his own right he had questions, but even aleksander knew the etiquette of species beyond human —it was best not to ask unless the information was willingly offered … and certainly not when bloodthirsty werewolves were prowling about.

      “ when i came home from the military. ” he wouldn’t be surprised if hunters had a connection to soldiers coming home. he had been approached quickly, offered a chance to keep using his specific skills while ignoring the injury that discharged him from the military in the good years of his life. “ a little over twenty years ago. ” AND WHILE SOME MIGHT ARGUE THAT HE WAS AN OLD MAN —while some might be right, he was still in ship shape. either his strict physical regiment or the little blue potions that he had brewed to enhance him against those prowling wolves … he was not to be underestimated. “ no, i’m not a ghost or a supernatural creature. i’m human. ” at least by genetic standard. “ i’m a hunter. ”

      the offer to help had a brow raising, and aleks nodded in acknowledgment to it. “ i’m assuming you can make yourself intangible? would come in very handy if one of them decides they want to come around and sniff at those people back there that don’t know their ass from their elbows. i don’t want to suggest you make yourself a nice distraction from them if that’s the case, but if you can … it would make it infinitely easier to incapacitate any of them. ”

&.

"a hunter for twenty years?” the apparition realized that he’d barely been alive longer than twenty years before he’d become this. what would it have been like to have done a profession for that long? he smirked to himself at the thought that van helsing-types were really out there in the world. hisashi thought that it made sense wherever there was one force, there had to be an equal or opposite reaction. for every vampire, werewolf, witch, and ghost there had to be a hunter to push back. “should i be worried that you’ll ‘ghostbust’ me? or, is everything straight between us?”

hisashi hated that in his ghostly form he’d been unable to do much for the past eight weeks. his life had been filled with a lot of watching, wandering, and wondering if he would ever regain a sense of tangibility. was he supposed to spend the rest of his days on this earth just haunting. “oh, all i am is intangible,” the ghost demonstrated his lack of bodily integrity by stepping into the bar. his lower half disappearing into the solid wood, his upper half remaining intact. “i don’t know if they’ll go for me, since i lack any of the blood and guts they want to spill. i can try my best, though,” he nodded, stepping back to see which wolves seemed the easiest to distract. as a creative, hisashi was almost glad to be able to take on the role of a permanent spectator, capturing the detail in each werewolves fur, their glowing, impatient eyes. if he could sketch, this would be a scene he’d want to recreate.

“Then why did you even come out here?” she asks, completely irritated. “So unhelpful.” that last part is muttered under her breath as she struggles with the man draped around her shoulders as she reaches to open the door. After a bit of protest from the man, she finally gets him into the back of the cab and then finds his wallet slipping half way out of his jacket pocket. She takes the wallet, opens it up and luckily there is an address. After telling the driver the address she throws the wallet back in at the man who has made himself comfy as he sprawled across the back seat. Closing the door Aslı huffs as she turns to look at the unhelpful other. She looks at him like he’s lost his mind as he speaks what sounds like nonsense to her. “Sounds like you’ve had enough too, maybe you should also get a cab.” she says a little too nicely for it to come across as genuine concern as she rolls her eyes before turning to go back inside.

&.

“i came out here to feel helpful,” he answers truthfully, but he clearly sounds frustrated. he can’t help anyone, not now, not ever again. he watches as she gets the man into the cab and sends the car on its way, and he can’t help but notice just how jealous he’s getting. jealous of the fact that she can make such simple motions like rifling through a wallet, throwing the wallet back inside the cab, closing the door and hearing that satisfying thunk. he missed it all, the cold, metallic feel of a car door’s handle under his fingers, the smell of a leather wallet worn by years of use, the feeling of coming loose that came with bring drunk and waking up the next morning to put yourself back together. she would get to feel all that, and more, while he would never get the chance. “i haven’t been drinking,” he yells as she makes her way back to the tavern door. “i haven’t had a single sip of anything or a single bite of food since JANUARY SIXTEENTH.” hisashi hoped that the date would ring a bell for her, too. 

“did you know, the last thing that i ate was a slice of margherita pizza from juliana’s in brooklyn?” he shouts, not sure why he was so angry. it wasn’t like he was mad at her, but he was angry at himself. “i didn’t even savor it, i scarfed it down knowing i was going to be gone come tomorrow morning.” he couldn’t help the scoff that came from deep within his throat, “i think the receipt was still in my pocket when i was run over.”

Minh was pretty on edge at this point in the night. She felt that she was living in a nightmare, and just waiting for things to get worse. Anything that could go wrong seemed to be going wrong. Although Minh wasn’t that surprised because it seemed that things around the city were getting worse and worse every day now. It was getting to the point where Minh was starting to think that she should just lock herself into her apartment.  Minh shook her head at Hisashi’s statement. “I wasn’t going to ask. I tried the door a few minutes ago myself, but I have a feeling that nobody is getting out of here until morning.” She said as that seemed to be what was going to happen at this point. Or at least at the very least the majority of the danger would be over there.  “I was going to ask if you knew what time it is.” Minh explained with a small shrug. Her phone had got lost in all of the chaos. 

&.

“you want to know what time it is in the middle of all this chaos?” he questioned, but hisashi looked around the room glanced at a clock on the wall. one that wasn’t visible from the hiding position behind the bar. “well, if you really want to know, it’s about two-thirty in the morning,” he answered her question. the ghost crouched down to meet her level. “how long have you been here? the whole night, or just before everything went to hell?” hisashi wondered aloud, whispering to avoid detection by the many beasts that lurked in the blood-soaked tavern.

location // the o’riley tavern after the plot drop

“i’ve got someone who needs help over here!” hisashi called out into the bar, hoping that someone who was still living, breathing, and able would be able to help the person he’d found bleeding from a wound in their side. “anybody?!”

location // o’riley tavern backroom after the plot drop

since hisashi really had no dog in this fight, he’d be floating from room to room checking in on the action as if it were a movie to take in. “i’m sorry, didn’t realize there was anyone in here,” he whispered after floating into what appeared to be a liquor storage room. “i was sure that most of the people had gone to hide in the bathrooms. i can go, if you’d like.”

-

      ——“ MY CONDOLENCES. ” AND while it sounded stiff, perhaps even cold, it was as genuine as aleks could manage. he wasn’t in the business because he enjoyed sowing suffering. it was just work - much like a firefighter to a burning building … aleks had his contracts. it was much easier not to connect himself to the lives that his marks lives, lest he start to feel some sense of regret ( and he told himself he’d never allow that again ), but that didn’t mean he was completely numb to the loss of others. namely the specter before him, who he held in a dark gaze while he shifted in his place behind the bar. it wouldn’t be safe there for long, and the hours before sunrise felt like eternities.

      “ once you open your eyes to it, you can never un-see it. ” the reality of learning about the other side of the world. it wasn’t just new york - supernatural being existed everywhere, for as long as the humans who knew could recall. and he chuckled softly, a sardonic little sound, at the comment of his preparedness. “ better to have it and not need it, right? ”

&.

“eh, offer it to someone who deserves it, not me,” hisashi had a chilling voice, one that was full of intention and direct. it was rare that he said something he didn’t mean. he genuinely felt like he didn’t deserve any sort of condolence or apology for being dead. it wasn’t like he could change it at this point, no matter how much he missed the feeling of being alive. when he had died, the first thing he noticed was how quiet his body was. all those sensations and sounds of the pain in his wrists from constantly drawing, the beating of his heart in his chest, the dull ringing in his ears behind all other sounds. they had all disappeared along with his corporeal form. it was strange, though, that at times he swore he could hear his heartbeat for just a moment in particularly adrenaline-inducing moments.

“when did you find out about the seedy underbelly of our society?” he was genuinely curious to know. the man in front of him looked so human, it was hard to believe that he would be a part of the wolfpack growling and stalking just beyond their little safe spot behind the bar. “are you a ghost, too, or some other supernatural creature that i should know about?” the ability to use a gun almost certainly ruled out the man being a ghost, but it wasn’t completely out of the question. “than to need it and not have it,” he finished the saying, with just the littlest laugh back. “is there anything i can do to help?”

After a glare is thrown in his direction she moves through the doorway following someone who just exited the tavern before them. Aslı should have asked them for help instead. “No I’m sure he can pay for it himself.” she says a little bitterly as she stands waiting for the cab. She’ll let the man and the cab driver sort that out between them, she wasn’t about to pay for him after he’d gotten too handsy with her. As a cab pulls over she walks the man over to the curb. “Uh. Do you mind at least opening the door?” she asks.

&.

its when the headlights of the incoming cab flood over him that the deja vu he had felt transforms into a full memory. eight weeks ago, hisashi had willingly stepped into the street, and he had seen her behind the wheel. she hadn’t stopped or swerved like the others. he’d closed his eyes and in a split second he was enveloped in the deepest, darkest blackness he’d ever felt or seen. it was different from any other time he’d fallen asleep, or even blacked out after a drunken night. what had happened to him after that? he couldn’t remember, so it must’ve been the way he had died. “i-i can’t,” he answers when she asks for him to open the door. he couldn’t care less about the drunken man, now. all he could hear was the rush of traffic and the thumping of his heart, the heart which no longer truly beats, inside of his hollow chest. he steps back from the curve as an onslaught of nausea rocks through him. “you’re the reason i’m...” but she wasn’t the reason he was dead, and now he knew it. hisashi had been in a dark and seemingly bottomless pit towards the end of his life. he couldn’t blame her for that. she had just been the tool he had used. “you were the driver,” he whispers to himself, horrified by the realization of his death.

“Because as soon as those appeared,” she points a finger at a run on one of the windows, “I’ve only been able to go between the rooms but no where outside of the building.” They were all trapped, ghosts included. She moves over to the bar as he talks and when she approaches she leans into it. Tangibility and making herself appear to be a normal human was quite easy for her now after years of practise. “You crash your car? Drive off a bridge? Road rage induced collision?” she asks as she was curious, not knowing the details of her own death was one of the worst things she initially had to deal with. “Wow.” she says dryly “Well at least it can’t get any worse.”

&.

“ah, so you’re dead, too,” he confirmed, feeling a kind of solidarity with her. if he could shake her hand, he would. “how about you, how did you die?” hisashi watched as she leaned against the bar, a jealousy bubbling up from his innards. “are you sure you’re dead if you can do something like that?” he had begun faking tangibility wherever he could, but he had never made it look as real as she was doing right now. perhaps she really had some tangibility. “like i said, there’s not much i remember,” he shrugged, his memory straining for any other bit of information. “i think i was hit. maybe i got run over while crossing the street?” he speculated. it helped to have her list off the many ways an auto accident could go wrong; it gave him the chance to exclude some options. “never say it cannot get any worse... it can always get worse.”

The laugh pressed his lips, and Sabine’s eyes flickered from the darkness of his eyes to the expression that now graced his features. He seemed so.. tangible, so human- not unlike herself. It was her own fault for keeping her distance from others like her; but that fear had been embedded into her so wholly, and with no guide through the afterlife… How could she have known any better? Closing in on her, Sabine continued to withdraw, pulling her arms into her person as she clutched her hands to her chest. The same hesitant stare followed his fist as he punched through the brick– his corporeal form fading quickly as it allowed his body to pass through it. ’Probably safe from me’, he’d said, and the possibilities burned through Sab’s mind like wildfire. “Safe is an interesting choice of words.” She’d managed to utter in a soft but unplaceable dialect. “So you… You’ve tried to, you know…” Sab glanced toward the door, a window, any opening in the building that might allow them to escape. “Even us– er, you? Trapped? How can that be?”

 From behind her, a terrified shout sounded out, and if her heart still bothered to beat, she’s sure it would have pounded right out of her chest. 

-

“at least i’m safe from the big bad wolves,” hisashi took his arm back from the wall, wishing that it hadn’t gone through in the first place. his memory, his tangibility, his taste and touch were all taken from him. “they won’t go for anything without a heartbeat.” he wished he could at least figure out how he died, and he would be grateful if he got the why. in the past eight weeks of being dead, he’d learned a lot about how fond he was of living.

today would have been his thirtieth birthday, and even with a limited memory he knew he was missing out on buying himself a single cupcake from magnolia bakery, and a candle from the drug store down the street. then he’d blow out the candle right before midnight. if hisashi were an emotional person, he may have cried. he had felt the same way when he wandered through an art museum last week, looking at all the paintings and yearning to be able to make his own. it was there that he regained a piece of himself, a memory came back to him that, ever since he was a child, he’d loved drawing. he missed it with a fervor that rivaled how much he missed living.

if she was trying to keep her status as a ghost a secret, there was a dead giveaway in the last thing she had asked him. hisashi's brows peaked when she mentioned “us,” then quickly went to cover her statement. “oh, i’ve tried and tried and tried. it’s the most tangible i’ve been since i kicked the bucket,” hisashi had been to every window and door and wall leading out of the tavern and had felt a resistance before he could go through. “what i’ve been told is there’s magic involved. symbols to keep everyone and anything from coming or going.” hisashi had heard of runes while he was alive, but it was in the capacity of fiction. he didn’t have enough of a working knowledge to expand on the fact that ghosts were trapped along with the living.

She’d known it was a mistake walking into that tavern, but in no way had that deterred Sabine. Today, like most days, she’d only briefly weighed feelings of immortality in death against an ever evolving fear of uncertainty. Now, here they were, trapped inside of a building by some unseen force to be reckoned with; Sabine still an infant specter in every sense. Scared? No, maybe not… But nervous? Anxious? Sab was having a hard time differentiating. What had pushed her over the edge though, wasn’t the number of wolves just moments away from the all-you-can-eat buffet that was now O'Reilly’s, but rather, the figure that had eased through the bar before her eyes. Another ghost, like her, and in such close proximity. “You–” Sabine took a timid step back, dark eyes scanning the figure before her with trepidation. There were now too many what-if’s in this bar for her to retain any comfort. “You can see me?” Duh, Sabine, she eased a breath past tensed lips. “I don’t– look, we’re all stuck here, I’m no threat to you. Honest.” Chalk it up to her inexperience with other Ghosts, but Sab only had the horror stories she’d heard from others to rely on; stories that pitted Ghost against Ghost. Energy against energy. Here she was, convinced that in these closed quarters, a stronger specter than her might ‘destroy’ her just to steal her energy. Paranoid much?

&.

“can i see you?” he scoffed, a rare laugh bubbling to his lips. he hadn’t realized that she was dead, too. for now, he just thought that she was a scared human. “now that’s a new one. usually humans are asking how they can see me.” he stepped forward again, observing her closely. “even if you were a threat to me, there’s not much i could do about it,” to make a point, hisashi punches the wall next to him and allows his hand to completely pass through the brick. “unless there’s a ghostbuster in the area, i think i’m pretty safe, and you’re probably safe from me.”

She frowns at the man before her wondering why he’s so unhelpful. She had asked politely. She continues with the drunks arm draped over her shoulder as she moves towards the door. “Yeah that might be helpful,” she says a little sarcastically. His apology goes ignored because she isn’t entirely sure what his problem is with her in the first place.

&.

he’s careful to follow her, continuing his accidental rudeness as he waits for someone else to open the door. it’s not like he could just go through the door in front of a stranger. he’d done it earlier, but everyone had been too drunk or busy partying to notice it. “i try my best to be helpful,” he returns her sarcasm, following her out into the dark, cool street. he moves towards the curb, waving his arm in the air to try and catch the attention of a cabbie. “do you have the cash to pay for his ride home?” he asks, also unable to help on that front. “i don’t have any on me.” he steps further into the street to gain better visibility, and something about the motion makes him feel an intense sense of deja vu.

OPEN starter for ST PATRICKS DAY event ||prior to plot drop

@duskstarts​

markus had just come back inside after having a smoke. He made his way to the bar so he could warm himself up with whiskey or perhaps splurge on some nice bourbon. His mouth savored just thinking about it. He waited to get the bartender his order. Markus looked down and noticed a sign. Well be damned, if it hadn’t been for the promotions near the bar, he would have nearly missed out on the two for the price of one deal. His tongue sat in between his teeth as he briefly glanced around. “ hey , i was just about to grab a drink. the two for one is making me feel generous. did you want anything ? ” He asked, hoping they wouldn’t take it as him flirting, though that wouldn’t be so bad.

&.

oh, he would kill a man just to taste a hot toddy. being a ghost caused him to have an insatiable hunger and thirst, which made him fairly grumpy. it was never helped by the fact that he was surrounded by humans carelessly drinking, not realizing that it may be their last. maybe hisashi could get the man to order it and just sniff it the whole night. it may be weird, and far from the true sensation of drinking it, but it was something. “you’re too kind,” hisashi thanked the man, holding his arms over the surface of the bar as if they were laying on top of it. if hisashi had lost his concentration for just a second, his arms may go straight through the wooden top, but he kept up the illusion of being human for a moment. “i’ll take a hot toddy.”

status : open @duskstarts location : o’riley tavern st particks day event  // before the plot drop​

“Okay sir, i think you’ve had enough to drink.” she says as she tries to stop them from putting their arm around her for a dance. “I’m not the girl that’s going to dance with you.” she says a little more firmly hoping they would get the hint, but they were drunk and Aslı found herself having to support their weight to stop them toppling over. “Uh, excuse me. Could you give me a hand. This guy needs to get into a cab.” she asked the nearest person to help her.

&.

he shook his head. “i can try and flag down a cab outside, though,” he muttered. hisashi really wished he could give the woman a hand, but unfortunately he did not have the tangibility to do so. his reasons for wanting to help weren’t even righteous or kind, he just selfishly missed being able to feel something. the woman seemed familiar to him, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. “sorry.”

-

     ——PERFECTLY TAILORED AND pressed suit had been sullied with blood by the time he sought shelter behind the bar itself. the group of civilians behind him had somehow become his charge, relied on the expertise and knowing of the hunter to keep them from becoming unfortunate victims of the evening. while he crouched aleksander ejected the magazine of his pistol, began reloading it with precise and quick fingers that were far too used to such violent actions ( for one reason, or another ). by the time he’d loaded it and palmed it back into place he witnessed the body simply APPEAR, then the expression on their face shift to something he’d describe as woefully annoyed, if only slightly. this was not the first ghost he’d encountered, but it didn’t mean he was any less surprised to see them here, of all places.

     “ please tell me you’re not the specter of someone who just died. ” it was half sarcastic, half hopeful that nobody had truly passed just yet. still some hours until daybreak, anything that could bring a situation from bad to worse would not be wanted in the least.

&.

hisashi watched carefully as the gun was reloaded, it was curious that the other man had brought such a weapon to a st. patrick’s day party. had he planned for a wild outbreak like this in the first place? “i died recently, but not that recently,” he deadpanned, crouching near the group. “while i was alive, i had no clue that there were actual werewolves, or even ghosts. i have been learning quite a lot about a whole other side to new york tonight.” hisashi stood back up and looked at the prowling wolves. “you came prepared, i see,” he said while motioning to the other’s pistol.