This prompt and yesterday's are starting to feel more Christmassy :) And I quite having the eyes of the Ghost glittering a lot, that feels Christmassy too.
Glitter “It’s forbidden to help the dybbuk,” said Tristram. “We can’t do any-y-y….” His voice turned into a howl as the Ghost strode over to him and hoisted him up by an ankle. David shuddered, realising now that the Ghost was nearly three metres tall and had no trouble at all picking up a grown man one-handed and dangling him in mid-air. He stood up, and sat down again, his legs feeling weak, as the Ghost turned his head and glared at him. “Tristram,” said the Ghost, rolling the r’s in the name with enthusiasm. “I am not a dybbuk, and if you call me such just once more I shall tear your legs and arms off and throw you in the river to see if you sink or swim. I am… I am cursed, by that ancient bitch, the Crone of the Unreal City, Sosotris. And I am here now, and unbidden, and I will see that curse broken. You can help me or not, but you will not stand in my way.” “I don’t understand,” said David. “Why… how are you in a tarot card? Is it a prison?” “I don’t pretend to understand it myself,” said the Ghost. “I was caught and kept, tortured until I was near death, then somehow I was transformed into an archetype. The card projects the archetype into the world, but there are many decks of cards that I am bound to act for. In this world, however, is my physical body, and I want to free it. I have wanted to free it for so long now.” He gave Tristram a shake. Tristram jiggled and cried out as he bit his own tongue. “Are there other prisoners in the deck?” David picked the cards up and turned them over, but they were all blank. He shuffled through them, increasingly quickly, starting at each beige, empty face. “Get whatever you want to bring with you,” said the Ghost, dumping Tristram on the couch. It creaked and Tristram moaned. “You have ten minutes while I look around this wretched hovel.” He ducked through the door to the kitchen, and moments later they heard him stamping up the stairs. “What the ho—” started David, but Tristram cut him off. “You idiot,” he snarled. He rolled off the couch and stood up. “Why did you have to go and throw a card down like that? There’s no layout now, there’s no way to send him back and be done with him!” “What?” Tristram sighed and ran first one hand, then the other, through his hair. His eyes were glittering and his body was tense. “A tarot reading requires a layout,” he said. “You lay the card out in a certain order, and then you turn them over. When the last one is turned, the reading is done and the invocation ends. Only you just turned one card over and set it down, and there’s layout. Probably the only way to get rid of him is to do what he wants, which definitely isn’t what I want!” “That makes a sort of sense,” said David slowly. “So what is he then?” “He’s the Ghost of Christmas Presents,” said Tristram. “Normally he’d be a benefactor, a bringer of unexpected gifts. Inverted, they’d be the kind of gift you don’t want, like socks, or a present you gave last year regifted to you in the original wrapping paper. Laid down by himself he becomes a Signifier, a representation of your desires and dreams, only you chose him and I’ve no idea what you were thinking. Maybe you just wanted a satsuma in a stocking?” David shrank back slightly, for all he was bigger than Tristram. While David provided the muscle in most of their operations Tristram did the thinking and occasionally worked small magics, and David was aware that Tristram could be very tricky. “Whatever.” Tristram clearly wasn’t happy that David hadn’t answered. “Get your stuff, and let’s hope he’s going back to the Unreal City. I have a Throne to topple, and we’re going to have to make the best of a bad situation.”
Greg - you're welcome. Tried to make up for the rough prompt start, I think.
I am greatly enjoying watching this play out. You've got three well defined characters already, and have put them on a mission... however unwillingly some of them may be to be on said mission.
Pretty sure I like the ghost the most, but I'm keeping an open mind on that one.
2 comments:
This prompt and yesterday's are starting to feel more Christmassy :) And I quite having the eyes of the Ghost glittering a lot, that feels Christmassy too.
Glitter
“It’s forbidden to help the dybbuk,” said Tristram. “We can’t do any-y-y….” His voice turned into a howl as the Ghost strode over to him and hoisted him up by an ankle. David shuddered, realising now that the Ghost was nearly three metres tall and had no trouble at all picking up a grown man one-handed and dangling him in mid-air. He stood up, and sat down again, his legs feeling weak, as the Ghost turned his head and glared at him.
“Tristram,” said the Ghost, rolling the r’s in the name with enthusiasm. “I am not a dybbuk, and if you call me such just once more I shall tear your legs and arms off and throw you in the river to see if you sink or swim. I am… I am cursed, by that ancient bitch, the Crone of the Unreal City, Sosotris. And I am here now, and unbidden, and I will see that curse broken. You can help me or not, but you will not stand in my way.”
“I don’t understand,” said David. “Why… how are you in a tarot card? Is it a prison?”
“I don’t pretend to understand it myself,” said the Ghost. “I was caught and kept, tortured until I was near death, then somehow I was transformed into an archetype. The card projects the archetype into the world, but there are many decks of cards that I am bound to act for. In this world, however, is my physical body, and I want to free it. I have wanted to free it for so long now.” He gave Tristram a shake. Tristram jiggled and cried out as he bit his own tongue.
“Are there other prisoners in the deck?” David picked the cards up and turned them over, but they were all blank. He shuffled through them, increasingly quickly, starting at each beige, empty face.
“Get whatever you want to bring with you,” said the Ghost, dumping Tristram on the couch. It creaked and Tristram moaned. “You have ten minutes while I look around this wretched hovel.” He ducked through the door to the kitchen, and moments later they heard him stamping up the stairs.
“What the ho—” started David, but Tristram cut him off.
“You idiot,” he snarled. He rolled off the couch and stood up. “Why did you have to go and throw a card down like that? There’s no layout now, there’s no way to send him back and be done with him!”
“What?”
Tristram sighed and ran first one hand, then the other, through his hair. His eyes were glittering and his body was tense. “A tarot reading requires a layout,” he said. “You lay the card out in a certain order, and then you turn them over. When the last one is turned, the reading is done and the invocation ends. Only you just turned one card over and set it down, and there’s layout. Probably the only way to get rid of him is to do what he wants, which definitely isn’t what I want!”
“That makes a sort of sense,” said David slowly. “So what is he then?”
“He’s the Ghost of Christmas Presents,” said Tristram. “Normally he’d be a benefactor, a bringer of unexpected gifts. Inverted, they’d be the kind of gift you don’t want, like socks, or a present you gave last year regifted to you in the original wrapping paper. Laid down by himself he becomes a Signifier, a representation of your desires and dreams, only you chose him and I’ve no idea what you were thinking. Maybe you just wanted a satsuma in a stocking?”
David shrank back slightly, for all he was bigger than Tristram. While David provided the muscle in most of their operations Tristram did the thinking and occasionally worked small magics, and David was aware that Tristram could be very tricky.
“Whatever.” Tristram clearly wasn’t happy that David hadn’t answered. “Get your stuff, and let’s hope he’s going back to the Unreal City. I have a Throne to topple, and we’re going to have to make the best of a bad situation.”
Greg - you're welcome. Tried to make up for the rough prompt start, I think.
I am greatly enjoying watching this play out. You've got three well defined characters already, and have put them on a mission... however unwillingly some of them may be to be on said mission.
Pretty sure I like the ghost the most, but I'm keeping an open mind on that one.
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