#42writes

The games were always exhausting, though the reason changed as each season went on.

Later the paranoia would start to set in. Alliances would strain. Trust would fade. For that sleep would suffer. Fights would get more frequent and severe. The threats would get bigger as people built up their gear and bases and traps.

But early in the game like this, before the Watchers really sunk their claws into them and began their manipulation, the exhaustion was just mundane new world stuff.

Grian had run back and forth across the entire map before finding a hobbled together group that would take him. Their bond formed of ridiculous puns none of them could seem to stop. They laughed and chopped down trees to build themselves a place in the southern most part of the world. If they ignored the impenetrable wall of magic locking them in, they could just pretend they wanted to be there. They could pretend they were having fun, before the reality of the game really sank in.

Here in this little bubble of time before they knew who would turn on who. Before they knew some of the people they promised now to keep alive, would be the ones to end them. In this time where the canary still sang and there was still peace, they could forget why the canary needed to sing for them at all.

And lying there, head still fairly clear for being involved in their game, Grian lay awake among his allies. There hadn’t been enough time to finish secure bases for all of them, nor enough wool for enough beds. So the five of them had settled down in a hole carved into the side of the hill.

Jimmy and Mumbo had drawn straws to share the bed, though being the two tallest of the group, there was quite a bit of lanky limbs hanging over the edge. Impulse, Martyn, and Grian were curled up on the floor nearby, the stone hastily swapped out for slightly softer dirt. Impulse was sprawled out on his back, volunteering himself to be the pillow. Martyn had his head resting on one shoulder and Grian the other. In return they cuddled close to Impulse to help fend off the chill of the night.

And despite their best efforts, and a long exhausting day of work, and somehow play, none of them were asleep. Though none of them spoke.

And Grian found himself fighting back a noise of disappointment as his thoughts dredged up a truly terrible idea. His stomach still hurt a little from how hard he’d been laughing earlier. And really he shouldn’t but his mind was on it now. And really what kind of ally would he be if he didn’t inflict some harmless suffering on his team. They were his allies too. They were supposed to share this sort of thing.

So, with a heavy sigh, “Sounds like we all have a bit of ins-aha-mnia.”

He grinned at the chorus of groans and tired, begrudging chuckles he got for it.

“I thought we we’re done with th-aha-t.” Martyn fired back anyways.

“Guys please.” Jimmy was pleading, while Mumbo was just laughing his endless stream of uncontrolled aha’s. Impulse wasn’t much better. Grian and Martyn’s heads bounced with his laughter.

“You guys are the wo-hurst.” Impulse’s accent didn’t lend itself as well to the bit, but the inflection itself was contagious and worsened by laughter and exasperation, which he carried in spades.

“I’m s-aha-rry.” Grian wiped at the tear forming in his eye. “I had to.”

“It’s n-aha-t even that funny.” Mumbo nearly wheezed. “W-aha-y is it so funny?”

“You’re not even doing it on purpose anymore are you?” Jimmy accused.

“No!” Mumbo fired back. Probably the longest sentence he could get out without laughing more and accidentally aha-ing.

“Gods why can’t I sleep.” Grian lamented. “I’m exh-aha-sted.”

“Please.” Impulse wrapped his arm around Grian and dragged him up to lay more on top of him. He held Grian hostage there, still mindful of his tightly bound wings.

“It’s your own fault this time, Birdy.” Martyn, showing extreme self restraint, skipped out on the pun opportunity. “I was nodding off.”

He brought his hand up to pet the fine feathers at the back of Grian’s head, remembering the times back on Evo together. So many of them had little tricks to get the others to sleep. It had been one of the only tools they’d had to try and keep each other from completely loosing it in the face of the Watchers meddling. So when better to use it again than there, in the Watchers’ game.

Mumbo and Jimmy were settling down again, rearranging themselves a bit. Jimmy had sprawled out across Mumbo’s chest in protest of his aha’s, but now neither of them seemed particularly inclined to re-separate. Impulse was beginning to doze off again as well, having pulled Grian and Martyn both closer to him. And Martyn relaxed as he continued massaging the feathers at the back of Grian’s head. He watched his old friend’s eye droop, as he too relaxed and quickly fell asleep.

With the last of their giggles worked out of their systems, the Southlanders drifted off into a deep dreamless sleep that matched the present peace. Temporary.

Soon enough these peaceful nights would dwindle. They’d be driven apart. They’d turn on each other. They’d fight and kill in a world made up only of friends. Friends who, for the moment, wouldn’t be. But for now,

"Gem is this even difficult for you?" Ren asked as she cut down Etho.

Again.

His wooden sword and a couple carrots were all that was left of him.

"Not really." She examined her sword before resting it on her shoulder. "Anyone else want a try?"

Ren took in a sharp breath before shouting, "Falsie!"

False rocked on the air, startled by the sudden shout but did change course to come in and land on Gem's murder beach.

"Falsieee." Ren cheered and sidled up to her, batting his eyes. "Will you fight Gem for us?"

"Uh… why?"

"She's scary." Etho whispered from where he was sitting on the nearby bed after his latest respawn.

She looked to Gem who just shrugged and held out the other wooden sword with a smile.

"Alright. If you're sure. Just wooden swords?"

"Yep!" Gem chirped happily. "There's barrels in the boat if you need. And a bed."

False nodded and walked over to set her spawn and dump her things in the chest because that was the thing to do when you're challenged to a duel. She came back over to Gem on the sands and accepted the wooden sword. Ren cleared his throat.

"Fellow hermits, prepare thine eyes, for the battle of the season." He projected and gestured dramatically to Gem. "In this corner, we have our defending champion of the death beach, GeminiTay!"

Gem grinned and half bowed to Ren, Etho, and Mumbo who were gathered loosely among the redstone blood and numerous model heads that decorated the edge of the sands.

"And in this corner." He lifted his other arm now to False. "We have the Queen of Heads, Hearts, and Body parts herself. FalseSymmetry!"

"What?!" Gem squeaked at the title.

"Ready? Fight!" Ren called out.

Gem, despite her surprise, fell easily into a fighting stance and readied to lash out. But rather than nervous laughter and noises of pain as he sword connected with her opponent, the crack of the wooden blades colliding wrung out across the sand.

False saw Gem's eyes widen in surprise for only a moment before quickly being replaced with a glint of glee and a happy grin. She returned the expression and the two began their dance.

Neither of them had a particularly clear upper hand as they pushed each other back and forth across the beach, trading hits and blocking what they could. Their crowd of three cheered them on loudly, happy to see a fight lasting more than the minute or so it usually took Gem to cut them down.

But ultimately, with a well timed hit to the torso and a return jab deflected by a large wing, it was Gem's inventory that littered the sand.

She respawned a moment later giggling and giddy.

"Waoww!" She bounced back over to False. "That was so much fun!" She trilled.

"It was." She agreed easily. "You're pretty good."

"You're amazing! How'd you learn to fight like that? Will you teach me?"

Ren then exchanged looks with Etho and Mumbo. "This might have been a bad idea boys."

"Oh no." Etho worried. "She's going to get even worse."

"I don't think my knees will be enough to stop her after this."

Ren nodded sagely as he watched the youngest hermit bounce excitedly as she talked with False, who, while less bouncy, looked just as lively. She was already demonstrating something with the battered wooden sword. And Gem was eagerly copying.

“Haunted.” Grian decided again right as they walked through the door.

“Alright. Not haunted.” Jimmy took the bet against him as he always did.

“You know what, sure. Not haunted.” Joel, for once took Jimmy’s side. “You can’t be right every time.”

Lizzie followed the group into the house and rolled her eyes but joined in anyways. “Boys have we not learned this lesson already?” She stepped up next to Grian but didn’t try to touch him. “Haunted. Thanks for buying dinner tonight you two.”

“Hey now. You gotta prove it first.” Joel pulled out his thermometer. “Now watch this. I’m gonna go find nothing.” He boasted.

Lizzie sighed. “Oh my big strong idiot.” She pulled out the EMF meter and followed him into the house. It didn’t take very long for Grian and Lizzie to solidly win the bet. They trailed along after Joel listening to him boast and bluster in all of his bravado only to cut off with a (very manly, thank you) shriek. That was then followed closely by a very passionate,

“Dang it! Stupid ghost!” Joel was dusting himself off as Lizzie and Grian came into the room. “Threw a blimmin’ book at me.”

Lizzie’s EMF meter went off a she approached him, only further damning him and Jimmy to their fates of buying dinner.

“Come on!” Jimmy complained. “One of these day you’ve gotta be wrong. It’s not fair!” Jimmy too was startled by a coaster getting flung his direction, which only gave Grian the giggles. He was quietly watching the whole exchange take place. His eyes trailed around the room as if following something.

“I blame you, Jimmy.” Joel turned on him pointing his finger.

“You didn’t have to agree with me!” Jimmy squealed. “You never agree with me. You can’t blame me.” He ducked under another coaster flung at his head. “Hey!”

“You called him Beginner’s Luck. You jinxed it.” Joel fired back. He yelped then as a throw pillow lived up to its name for once right at him.

Grian and Lizzie were now both in a fit of giggles. The ghost apparently thought better of them than it did of Joel and Jimmy. Grian watched as a flower lifted itself from the vase on the coffee table and flung itself at them. Grian caught it and handed it to Lizzie.

“Oh come on!” Joel spun towards the vase where the ghost probably had been. “Don’t flirt with my wife! Ow!” The ghost got him then in the back of the head with a dog toy.

I'll start with the ghosts themselves I suppose.

Ghosts are souls of the dead that are trapped in the land of the living. This can happen for any number of reasons, but it's usually not pleasant. Occasionally, the events leading up to the formation of a ghost aren't so bad and you'll get the rare 'friendly' ghost. It's still considered kind to help these ghosts move on, though they have a markedly lower priority than other ghosts for obvious reasons of safety.

Though friendly ghost jobs are often taken on by new teams, teams training new members, or research teams trying to learn more about specific ghost types. So they are usually still taken care of in a timely manor. And friendly ghosts don't necessarily always stay friendly either. So better to get rid of them while it's still safe to do so.

But for the majority of ghosts, the souls stick around because something terrible happened to them during or at the end of their life. The soul isn't what makes a person a person, so the actions of the ghost rarely reflect what the person would have done in life. Though that can happen on occasion too. People in this universe are, most often, a body and a soul. The degree to which the soul or body represents the individual can vary greatly. Creatures like angels and demons (the living ones, not to be mistaken with demon type ghosts) are much more soul than body. This makes it more likely that they will become friendly ghosts, assuming they were friendly in life too. And people like the vex often have tiny, pretty much vestigial souls. Ghosts arising from these would probably bear no resemblance to the living person at all beyond whatever trauma it was that caused them to become a ghost in the first place.

And to elaborate a little more on how souls and bodies work in this AU:

A body can operate without a soul, but a soul cannot operate without a body. People can lose their souls without dying, though it's not that common. This can happen in a tragic event, like those that lead to the formation of ghosts, but without the death of the person losing the soul. Though for soulless individuals, its actually far more likely the soul just dissipated one day and they probably aren't even aware it's missing. Still not common, but it is the more likely route to having a person living without a soul. People can also rarely be born without souls too. And people without souls, obviously, cannot become ghosts when they die.

As for the ghost themselves, like mentioned a soul cannot operate without a body. Ghosts, as a result, only become active when there is a living person nearby to feed off of. This works best if the person is actively within their haunt but they can feed a tiny bit from people near the haunt. Though not really enough to cause a noticeable effect on the person being drained.

And this energy drain is sort of what I go with instead of the sanity mechanic in Phasmophobia.

The longer you spend in a haunt, the more tired you get. And just like the sanity mechanic, this varies from ghost to ghost. Ghost events will sap more energy than interactions or just passively hanging out near the ghost. Hunts are the most draining thing. Ghosts like moroi and banshees can drain energy faster than ghosts like shades that don't usually interact with the people in their haunt as much. But it can also vary within one ghost type. No two deogens are exactly alike, no two spirits are alike, etc.

This means that in place of the sanity medication, ghost professionals usually reach for caffeine. Or they'll stop and rest for the rest of the night and the next day and pick up where they left off the next night. Obviously it's important for them to stay sharp, especially the investigators and the hunters.

And when a ghost kills someone they do so by tearing out their soul.

The soul is the most concentrated source of energy for them. Getting it out of the body dumps all that energy right into the haunt, fueling the ghost up like a quick charge battery. Some ghosts will take one soul and be satisfied for a bit, hence why some hunts end after only one death. And some ghosts will take that energy and use it to keep going, which is how you get chain hunting ghosts.

The crucial point here though is that the soul stays in the haunt. This is the key reason why people can be revived after dying to a ghost. For guardian angels that just means being able to pull the soul back into the body.

Since this world has magic, I'm sure there are some magic users powerful and knowledgeable enough to summon the soul back to the body as well. I admittedly haven't put as much thought into this avenue as I have for other methods cause it's not really one that will ever come up. But I do know whatever methods they use they are less efficient and more dangerous/prone to failure than revival by guardian angel.

However, even a guardian angel can be prevented from successfully reviving people if it's been too long since they died. This actually has less to do with how long the ghost has been in possession of the soul and more to do with the condition of the body. Pulling souls back into injured bodies is harder than unharmed ones. And pulling a soul back into a body that has already started the whole rigor mortise thing or any other stages of what happens to the dead is equally as difficult. Depending on the strength and experience of the angel, they might have a few hours to up to a day or two. (Skizz is definitely on the higher end here, he's kind of ridiculous between his size and corresponding size of his soul, his experience, his strength, and the fact he's been able to revive since he was a literal child, there's not a whole lot he couldn't handle when it comes to ghost related death with a bit of effort).

The other way to prevent revival is if the haunt gets fixed, meaning the ghost either moves on, or is made to move on by hunters. If the haunt dissipates, so do any other souls that may have been trapped within it. The only haunts liable to fix themselves are the ones with really weak ghosts and those aren't likely to be strong enough to hunt and kill. So that's not a common way to permanently loose someone. So investigators are actually fairly safe from this specific thing. It's the hunters that actually need to watch out. Cause if the ghost manages to take one of them down on its way out, that's it.

Thankfully hunters tend to die less often generally because the are equipped to actually fight back against ghosts. And they go in knowing exactly what they are dealing with and so can be as prepared as possible. Most hunting teams don't even have the capacity to revive themselves. But they still have a better survival rate than investigators because it's that much safer of a position within the GIN.

I haven't really touched on scouts much yet either, but in terms of survive-ability, they are usually fine. Scouting teams tend to get out before the sun even fully sets so their risk is pretty minimal if they are paying attention. They might have an occasional scare thanks to a particularly strong and/or aggressive ghost but it would usually be no more than an event, or at worst, a very short hunt. Even the most powerful ghosts can't do much in daylight without extreme circumstances, (such as a building full to the brim with tech and 1000s of people).

And then to get to the question that started this ramble: The haunts themselves.

There's a couple main types that I'll call typical, spontaneous and cursed.

Typical haunts are the ones you would normally think of. There's a place where something bad happens and someone dies and the soul sticks around as a ghost.

Spontaneous haunts can happen anywhere at any time regardless of whether or not some one died there recently or even nearby. Cause sometimes something bad happens and someone dies and the soul doesn't move on, but it happens somewhere the ghost can't settle. Like a hiker lost in the woods. Their soul might eventually find the nearest cabin or something. But it also could wander around harmlessly a while, not yet a ghost, but not yet dissipated either. (This is why it's so common for investigators to be sent to remote locations, often without a scout team checking it out first. If it's the only structure around and it's been a while, it's probably haunted.)

But the ghost also doesn't have to go for the nearest place. They may wander quite far before settling into a haunt. They may still wander even if they died in a place that can become haunted. They may wander to haunt somewhere else or they may wander a while before looping back around to haunt the place they died just at a later date.

Cursed haunts are kind of a mix between these things. Sometimes the creation of a cursed object or use of a cursed object can result in a death which leads to a haunt. (Tangled Haunt is an example of this. Grian's family started haunting the house after their deaths in the use of the summoning circle and his soul actually joined them there later.) Or a cursed haunt could come about because someone was messing with a cursed object like a summoning circle or a Ouija board and it brings the nearest wandering soul in to haunt the area they were messing around in.

The haunts are also usually buildings. The borders of a haunt once it forms are incredibly strict and having something like the walls and doors of a house helps reinforce that. Though less commonly other structures can form the bounds of a haunt. Like fences or garden walls, things of that nature. (This has me thinking now too it would be hilarious if like the paint lines on a soccer pitch worked like this. A very specifically haunted soccer pitch could be really funny. Though incredibly unlikely).

The bounds of the haunt also determine where the ghost is capable of going or interacting with things. And 99.9% of the time. That's it. The bounds are the bounds. But...

Sometimes haunts can break.

I have a story with a broken haunt in the works so I won't elaborate too much on it here yet. But a broken haunt would mean that much like the wandering souls that form spontaneous haunts, the ghosts can wander beyond their bounds. Except unlike the wandering souls, they are already fully formed ghosts, so that's bad.

Thankfully ghosts that wander far from their haunt tend to start to weaken, but considering broken haunts tend to require exceptionally dangerous and strong ghosts to form, that weakening can only help so much.

Also thankfully it's extremely rare. Like probably only like 5 or so recorded cases world wide, ever. Those haunts receive the highest priority when they happen because the threat to the public is so much higher. Anyone in the vicinity of the haunt is in danger of a hunt from the wandering ghost and since the haunts bounds are broken, there is no guarantee their soul would stay in the haunt, which obviously limits the odds of survival.

When these haunts are reported it's an all hands on deck type of deal. All the top teams from around the world will flock in and do what they can. These haunts are hard to investigate because finding the ghost can be so much harder. It's one of the only times you'll see different investigation teams working together, same for the hunting teams after them. And these are like, once in a generation type events, maybe less.

I also want to talk about the GIN itself a bit.

The GIN (Ghost Investigation Network) has four main roles within it.

The scouts are obviously the ones sent out to determine if a place actually is haunted. They are the most public facing group in the GIN and the one's who's actual day to day work can vary the most. They are the only ones who ever have to deal with clients directly, though they also try to avoid it.

Basically if someone is absolutely convinced their house is haunted, when it very much isn't, it's the scouts that have to talk them down and show them that it's ok. This keeps from wasting the time of investigators.

There's a lot fewer investigators than there are scouts or hunters because in a job that dangerous the retention rate of new hires is low. Not all of it's because of death though, some just leave the work or go become scouts or hunters instead, like Joker and Tango.

The investigators, like our beloved GIGGS, are the guys that go to haunted places and figure out what the ghost is so the hunters can come prepared.

These are the guys that are most likely to die on the job. To get around this the teams often take two different routes. There's the guys that rely on remote work, setting up camera's and sensors during the day and hanging out close to, but not in, the haunt at night, just monitoring. This works ok, if the ghost cooperates, but a lot of ghosts don't. It's also much slower and if the ghost does hide evidence, it's not enough to actually determine what they are dealing with. So remote teams are more likely to require a follow up investigation from the other type of investigative team.

The teams that go in at night. This is where GIGGS sits. Most of these teams have the capacity to revive. The ones that don't are extremely cautious, by necessity are very lucky and very good at what they do. And they still don't tend to last for very long.

And once the ghost type is determined it's passed off to the hunters who go in and actually fix the haunt. Like mentioned earlier, these guys don't die as often thanks to going in armed and prepared.

As for why the investigators don't go in armed: the weapons tend to piss off the ghosts and make them more aggressive, and the weapons are often also specific to certain ghost types to an extent. So ultimately it's safer for the investigators to go in unarmed.

The closest thing to hunting gear they will bring is the crucifix. And honestly in my AU I don't think it makes much sense for it to be a cross, but it wasn't something I'd spent much thought on when I got started writing. But I'd probably change it if I could. I imagine it would be more like some sort of magic based EMF suppressor or surge protector type deal. The higher the tier of it the more effective it is, but the more it's liable to be recognized by the ghost as hunting gear and make them more aggressive. So using them is always a trade off for the investigators. They would still function the same as the crucis do in the game and in my story though.

And after the hunters come through, depending on the conditions of the haunt, the scouts might come through again, both to triple check the haunt is fixed, but mostly to deal with clients again. Whether that means helping clean up after ghost damages, reassuring people the ghost is actually gone, or talking with police/detectives in the case of a murder. They are the ones that pass off what the GIN may have found about the victim during the whole ghost handling process.

And then that fourth role I mentioned is just the administration/behind the scenes side of things. The people that run the database, consult for the field teams, gather and analyze data from the reports, match teams to haunts, coordinate the sending of gear to be returned to the correct investigation teams after the hunters collect it for them. This also includes the people that go after businesses, organizations, or individuals who threaten or hurt their field teams.

These are the guys that took down the hospital that botched Grian's broken wing in Slamming Doors. They got every negligent person on staff fired, everyone who worked there had to reapply for their job and re-interview, with a representative of the GIN present to vet them. That hospital got worked over completely and is now probably one of the safest hospitals someone from the GIN could actually go to. These people take the safety of their field teams extremely seriously.

So there we go. Another long ramble. Hopefully organized well enough to be coherent. Questions welcome as always. I know there was at least one thing I thought of while I was finishing this up that slipped out of my mind again before I could add it. So that's fun.

Anyways. Thanks for reading!