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theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin · 3 years

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You wrote your opinions on the Order of the Phoenix, what about the Death Eaters? That's another way of saying Lucius, Bellatrix, and anybody else. I honestly feel that we're running out of HP characters for you to write your opinion and reasoning about, so yeah~

We honestly are. When people start asking me questions about Harry’s nameless and faceless classmates I feel like we’re scraping the bottom of my barrel of Harry Potter opinions.

Though, that said, this is still a very large ask if you want me to analyze very Death Eater ever or even the Death Eaters as a whole (which is worthy of its own post).

So, we’ll compromise, and I’ll just look at the two you name dropped.

Lucius Malfoy

To me, Lucius is by far one of the more intelligent Death Eaters. He’s the guy who makes them almost look classy. I say almost, because Lucius is still a racist domestic terrorist and as the series goes on Tom gleefully drags him into being less classy by the minute (his house becomes a POW camp and housing for the dregs of society, Lucius just sobs, trying to be thankful he’s somehow still alive).

Lucius is rich, sophisticated, and is probably the most politically powerful man in the country. He has a beautiful wife he has... a son (sorry Draco, but you do not live up to your father) the guy has it all.

Which makes it very surprising that he got dragged into this mess. But you see, Lucius is paying for that tragedy we call youth.

Also, as a caveat, I’m about to headcanon hard and will not bother to get into the details of why I think x, y, or z in this post.

Ten years prior to the start of canon, Lucius is a very young man, probably very charismatic, certainly believes he’s intelligent and probably gets decent grades, but nonetheless the kind of stupid you see in men ages 15-25.

He’s likely chafing under his aging father’s strict guidance, knows he’s not going to be Lord Malfoy for years yet, wants to get out there, prove himself, and make a difference for his country. More importantly for Lucius, there’s this hip, exciting, new thing that all his cousins and friends are getting into called “The Death Eaters” (yes, I don’t believe the Knights of Walpurgis/Death Eaters 1.0 ever happened, I think it’s ridiculous that fandom and JKR does, I could go into why but not in this post).

The Death Eaters are led by the single handedly most beautiful, charismatic, man in Britain. (Yes, I headcanon Tom’s still blindingly attractive at this stage, because it makes much more sense to me but we’re not getting into that here.) A mysterious man by the name of Voldemort, Salazar Slytherin’s long lost heir, who has come to resurrect the wizarding world’s true heritage and purge the land of the muggle stain. (Yes, I do believe that no one, not even Lucius who is later given the diary, knew who Tom really was. I believe Regulus’ had only the vaguest idea, informed mostly by Tom’s use of Kreacher to place the locket.) This is the most exciting thing to have ever happened, the rallies probably consist of rich kids drunk out of their minds and maybe even high on a little wizard cocaine, and Lucius is down for it precisely because his father says “Lucius, this is stupid, please don’t embarrass the family.” WELL LUCIUS IS GOING TO EMBARRASS THE FAMILY, DAD! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?!

And for a while, it looks like Lucius made the right choice. Things are happening, they’re actually going out and killing the mudbloods! Unlike Regulus, Lucius never has that “wait a minute” moment as he realizes that Voldemort’s actually far more efficiently eliminating pureblood families and sowing dissention in what was once a unanimous force among the Wizengamot (the other pureblood lords aren’t necessarily pro muggleborn, per se, but they get a bit queasy at the thought of blowing them up or Merlin forbid actually blowing up their own public venues wizards use).

And then October 31st, 1981 happens, and it all comes crashing down. Lucius has to desperately lie his ass off, having only the flimsiest lie to rely on, has to hand out a shit ton of bribes, and manages to squeeze his way out of being imprisoned in Azkaban.

I’m sure Abraxas looked at his son, with his tattoo on his arm that makes him another man’s slave, at the utter destruction of the Black family, and just shook his head going, “Clean up your mess, Dumbass Son”

And Lucius does to the best of his ability. While some will always suspect him of being a Death Eater, while some know it, he’s able to climb very high in influence in their ridiculously tiny community. Granted, I do think he messed up, and could never for example run for minister given everything (if Crouch can’t rerun then Lucius certainly can’t). He also shows us that in some ways he is not above the law, he’s very afraid his house will be searched without warrant in The Chamber of Secrets, and this is in part why he dumps Tom Riddle’s diary off onto Ginny.

However, he wields total control of the Prophet, has a seat on the Wizengamot, has the ear of the current Minister, is on the Hogwarts’ Board of Governors, and has his hands in pretty much every pie he can.

I imagine during this period Lucius grows up. He brushes the indiscretions of his youth under the carpet, gleefully leaving it all behind him, and the only real friend he maintains contact with from that period is Severus, the least zealot like of all of them. (Crabbe and Goyle Sr aren’t friends, they’re minions).

Don’t get me wrong, he’s still a racist slime bag, and I don’t think he really regrets the domestic terrorism. He just regrets nearly getting caught and putting his entire family’s security on the line. He witnessed first hand what happened to the Blacks.

And then the worst thing happens: Tom Riddle rises from the dead. He rises, impossibly, from the dead when Lucius has his own hand caught in the cookie jar.

Lucius has been living a life of luxury and influence while his great master, the man he had pledged everything to, was dead. Worse, Lucius took what was described as a treasured item to be protected at all costs, and not only threw it away but sent it to Hogwarts where it caused massive havoc and was ultimately destroyed.

And Lucius, I imagine, no longer wants to serve a master.

But he has no choice. And so begins Lucius’ descent into misery and hell as he’s given an increasing set of impossible, horrific, tasks in punishment that involve him watching as his wife and son are put through hell.

I believe Tom holds a special place in his cold, black, passive aggressive heart for Lucius Malfoy.

First, Tom makes Lucius’ house his headquarters. Oh, Lucius, you have a very nice, very large, estate? Why don’t you host your beloved, mad, cousin, her equally mad husband and brother-in-law? Oh, Bellatrix threatened to cut off your ear? Well, she’s just so passionate!

Second, Lucius is told to go get the prophecy. Well, this is easier said than done. He nearly succeeds but then it all turns into the world’s largest clusterfuck that ends in two notable things. First, the prophecy is lost forever, shattered. Second, the government admits that Voldemort is truly resurrected. Both of these things are very bad in Tom’s book. And the blame can easily be put on Lucius’ head.

In response to this, Draco is now given an impossible task that Draco is too stupid to realize is designed to cause him (and his family) as much misery as possible. Draco is to assassinate Dumbledore.

Likely, Tom was already informed by Snape that Dumbledore was dying. The blackened hand was too obvious a tell coming from too obvious a source for the pair to have hid it. I think trying to hide such information would have immediately blown Snape’s cover. So, Tom knows the man is dying, and doesn’t see fit to tell Draco this.

Instead, he tells Draco, “Kill Dumbledore as soon as possible or I deliver you to Fenrir Grayback.” Draco, however, is young and stupid, so he honestly thinks he is doing this to restore the family honor, earn glory for himself and for the cause, and is expected to do this entirely by himself. As a result, when Narcissa begs Snape to aid Draco, Draco blows them both off and only accepts help from Bellatrix because HE CAN DO THIS ON HIS OWN! DRACO IS A MAN.

This, of course, doesn’t work out either. Draco doesn’t deliver the killing blow, Snape does, but Tom decides to give him a pass.

Instead he moves on to his next plan which is making the Malfoy manor his torture chamber and POW camp. Even Draco, at this point, realizes this all kind of sucks.

And then Voldemort finally dies a second time, and I’m sure Lucius just stares numbly at his malformed corpse, wondering if it will really take this time.

So that’s Lucius for you, paying always for his mistakes, and pretending he’s just as much of a nutcase as Bellatrix to fit in.

Bellatrix LeStrange

God, compared to the novel that is Lucius’ ridiculous life, I really don’t have much to say about her because I feel like there’s not much too her.

Bellatrix reminds me a lot of the Manson family, she gives off those same vibes. Point being, I think even before Azkaban (while Azkaban certainly didn’t help), she was insane and a little too worshipful of Voldemort.

I guess I can start there, I don’t think Bellamort is a thing, at all.

Tom may have, probably did, have sex with her before he died but afterwards? In that body? Forget about it.

That said, I’m sure Bellatrix both wanted to have sex and is convinced she did have sex to produce whatever the hell Delphi even is. It just wasn’t with Tom, and probably was Rodolphous with a Halloween mask on his face as they got a little too into role play.

And there we go, I suppose, I can’t take Bellatrix seriously. You often see her portrayed as sexy femme fatale Death Eater, the most competent of all of them, if a bit of a sadist.

Oh she might be a very good duelist but she’s... Bellatrix.

She prances around in corsets, shrieking madly, and just what part of that is supposed to be femme fatale? I literally cannot take her seriously on any level. When I even try to write her seriously, in very serious stories, I end up with lines like the following:

"My lord, if there's anything you need… Anything from me, specifically, as a woman…"

- Bright Eyes

That was my best attempt. That was the best I could come up with. It’s still something that belongs in a comedy.

So, I don’t think Tom really corrupted her. I think without Voldemort she still probably would have been blowing up Diagon Alley, just in a much less organized manner.

Even in canon she does ridiculous things. For example, Bellatrix, frankly, could have easily avoided prison.

For weeks after the dark lord fell neither she, her husband, Barty, nor her brother-in-law were arrested. Bellatrix in grief and utter disbelief that the dark lord could ever do something so mortal as die, said “remember that other house our lord mentioned, THEY MIGHT HAVE INFORMATION, LET’S GO MURDER THE LONGBOTTOMS!” They torture and kidnap Frank, demanding he tell them where their master is, THEY KNOW HE KNOWS. He doesn’t know. They go too far and torture the man into being a vegetable. “Shit, GET THE WIFE!” They go get the wife, do the same thing, with the same results.

They now have no information on the dark lord, two well regarded aurors tortured into brain damage, and are quickly caught and brought before the court with absolutely no “I was imperiused” excuse they can give out.

How am I supposed to take her in any way seriously?

I mean, to end your life killed in a duel with Molly Weasley. That just says it all.

#ask #anon

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duhragonball · 3 years

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Frieza for the character ask, please. I want to know if there's something you like!

Give me a character and I will answer:

Why I like them: I tend to divide all of Dragon Ball canon into two sections: the part that’s about Dragon Balls, and the part that’s about Super Saiyans, with DBZ Episode 66 as the dividing line. And Frieza’s original run as the main villain (Episodes 44-120) straddles that line.

He’s basically a bridge between those two themes. He starts off as a villain gathering the Dragon Balls to extend his rule, much like Emperor Pilaf or Commander Red, but he’s so insanely powerful that it almost doesn’t matter if he makes his wish or not. The only thing that gives him pause is the possibility of a Saiyan uprising, except there’s only a handful of them left in the universe, which means the only way they could threaten him would be if one of them suddenly became the strongest Saiyan in a millennium.

My favorite aspect of Dragon Ball is that it keeps raising the stakes. Vegeta was presented as the ultimate threat, and then it turned out that his boss is the strongest guy in the universe. And he’s treated accordingly. It takes forever to defeat him, mostly because it’s a lot safer to sneak around and avoid the guy, and when a final confrontation happens, no one has the necessary power to finish him off.

Somewhat understandably, a lot of fans think of him as the Final Boss of the Dragon Ball mythos. Goku becomes a legendary warrior to defeat the strongest guy in the universe. How do you top that? A lot of fans think that it was a mistake to try, and I’m pretty sure that’s where a lot of this “Toiryama wanted to quit after the Frieza Saga” mythology came from. What they’re really saying is: “I think Toriyama should have quit after the Frieza Saga, and I assume he agrees with me, because I respect him so much, which must mean someone forced him to continue.”

But I think that’s bunk, because Toriyama’s best work was built on Frieza’s vaporized corpse. How can you keep a martial arts epic going when the hero is stronger than the strongest person in the universe? Toriyama took that as a challenge. The androids could be stronger than Frieza because they hadn’t been built yet when Frieza was riding high. Cell and Trunks could be stronger than Frieza because they’re from the future. The Supreme Kai and Dabura were stronger than Frieza, but they don’t count because they’re from other realms beyond the “normal” universe. Majin Buu could be stronger than Frieza because he’s from the distant past. He’s been hidden away in storage for so long that no one remembers him. Same deal with Beerus literally sleeping through all of Dragon Ball and DBZ. And guys like Jiren and Hit are from whole separate universes. All Toriyama had to do was avoid introducing some ultra-powerful character who had been active during Frieza’s lifetime. The only one that springs to mind if Cooler, although he admits in Movie 5 that Frieza had an edge over him throughout their rivalry.

So I like Frieza for being that big milestone character. Guys like Cell and Majin Buu wouldn’t work as well without a Frieza to set them up as extraordinary challengers.

Why I don’t: The problem with Frieza is that his importance to the franchise has led to him becoming overrated. He’s got this 70-episode run as the main villain, but he spends most of it sitting in that goofy chair and literally refusing to do anything, even while his soldiers keep messing up. When he finally does take matters into his own hands, he holds back, apparently because he wants to torture his opponents as much as possible before finishing them.

People give Goku a lot of shit for showing mercy to his enemies, but no one ever seems to notice how Frieza could have wiped out Goku a hundred times over and just... didn’t. At least when Goku does it, you can say it’s because he’s too nice, but what’s Frieza’s excuse? There’s a lot of big long chunks of the Frieza Saga where literally nothing happens because the good guys are too weak and Frieza’s in no particular hurry to end it.

By contrast, you have villains like Buu, who really don’t waste time like that. He started killing people and while he wasn’t in any particular hurry, he didn’t drag it out either. In less than 48 hours, he destroyed the whole planet. That’s service.

I cannot stress enough how Cell is the superior villain compared to Frieza. The only lull in his run was when he declared a truce to allow his enemies to prepare for the Cell Games, and they were free to attack him during that time if they wanted. And there was a point to that. Cell had no particular agenda, so he decided to arrange a rematch with the Earth’s fighters.

But when Frieza wastes time, it’s for plot reasons. He’s just really lazy and unmotivated, or maybe he’s just incompetent. But the wider fandom sees this jackass and goes “RARRR BEST VILLIN 5EVAR!” Nah, he sucks.

Favorite episode (scene if movie): For my money, the coolest thing Frieza did was when he came back as a cyborg. He kept trying to declare victory in his fight with Goku on Namek, even after cutting himself in half, and then Namek explodes on him and he still won’t let it go. His dad finds him and after a long convalescence he decides to go to Earth and fight Goku all over again.

What makes it so awesome is that the cyborg parts are a silent testament to how monumentally stupid that idea is. All this guy had going for him was his top spot on all the power level charts, and now he’s lost that and he has no idea how to get along without it.

And this is why I hate the idea of bringing him back from the dead, because there’s nowhere left to take this character. He lost on Namek, and Episode 119-120 was just his last-ditch effort to defy reality. He doesn’t know how to survive in a world where he’s not the top dog, and he doesn’t survive, that’s the end of that story. Bringing him back just repeats the lesson, only without the cool cyborg parts to remind us that this never works.

Favorite season/movie: I guess Frieza Saga by default. It’s got some great moments in it, but it gets really thin in places.

Favorite line: “Peace? I... will... never... know peaaaace!” Or words to that effect. Whatever bluster he shouted at Goku when he tried to take that last shot at him before Namek exploded.

Favorite outfit: The cyborg look.

OTP: I guess he has the hots for Yamcha, so let’s go with that.

Brotp: Yeah, right.

Head Canon: Between the lore in the Bardock TV special and “Dragon Ball Minus”, I get the impression that Frieza is concerned with legends in general, not just the one about the Super Saiyan. I say this because in “Father of Goku”, he sent Bardock’s crew to conquer Kanassa, and the only apparent reason for this was because of the rumors of their psychic abilities. Frieza was likewise intrigued by the Namekian regeneration ability. I think in at least one translation he expresses some envy of Nail’s power, implying that he would want to find some way to acquire it for himself.

What I’m getting at is that Frieza’s so powerful that the only things he has to worry about are things that may not even exist. The Kanassans were probably no threat to him, but he may have considered that they could be, so he wiped them out before it could come to that. Or maybe his staff discovered a tale of the Kanassan planet being the source of their powers, so he decided he needed to control that planet before his enemies could use it against him.

Same deal with the Saiyans. in DB Minus, I got the impression that he’s got a whole team of researchers who check up on local folklore. Maybe they do this everywhere he goes, and he uses this intel to decide which planets live or die.

Unpopular opinion: Frieza’s main contribution to the Dragon Ball franchise was to provide useful genetic material for the creation of Cell, the true best villain.

A wish: Hit and Majin Buu kill his ass and Grand Zeno, Great Priest, and Shaggy Blanco all hold a press conference announcing that he’s dead forever and can never come back, no matter what. He gets sent to the same turbo super hell they have in Supernatural.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: Please don’t do any team ups with old villains and have Cell take orders from Frieza. That sucks and it shouldn’t happen.

5 words to best describe them: Final form is a corpse.

My nickname for them: LOWARD FUREEZA.

#ask duhragonball #dragon ball #frieza

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iamapoopmuffin · 5 years

Text

Victims With Numbers

Fandom: Nanbaka/Corpse Party (crossover) Genre: Horror Characters: Hajime Sugoroku, Samon Gokuu, Kiji Mitsuba, Kenshirou Yozakura, Jyugo, Uno, Nico, Rock, Tsukumo, Liang, Upa, Qi, Honey, Trois, Musashi, Sachiko Shinozaki, Ryou Yoshizawa, Yuki Kanno, Tokiko Tsuji, Yoshikazu Yanagihori, Yoshie Shinozaki, Takamine Yanagihori, some OCs to take the role of Kizami later on instead of actual Kizami Includes major character death.

Chapter 7 of ?

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"You're not bothered by the ghost? Or, you know, surprised we could see it?"

"I'm more surprised you could see it. I've kind of always been able to see ghosts."

Rock was walking through the dilapidated halls with Liang hot on his heels. Back in the classroom they'd woken up in, they'd been met with the spirit of a teenage boy who had explained to the two of them where they were. Supposedly, the ghosts of some murdered children had been angered with them, most likely because of Tsukumo's ghost story, and had dragged them into an inescapable murder school where there were different dimensions. According to the ghost, these overlapping dimensions made the appearance of the school slightly different between each one, and meant that you could be in the same place at the same time as someone, but you could not see that person. Rock and Liang were told they were lucky to have been trapped in the same dimension, but the spirit claimed he was certain none of their friends were there with them. The spirit had also warned them that if they died, they would feel the pain of death for all eternity, but he'd at least been nice enough to wish them luck. Liang had seemed transfixed on what the ghost had said, listening to every word, taking in the valuable information.

Rock was more concerned with the other ghosts. The ones Liang couldn't see. Because they were everywhere. Mostly teenagers, but some adults and younger children mixed in. Lots of people milling through the halls that Liang paid no heed to, and who paid no heed to the two of them in return. They were mostly just wandering around, clearly injured and with no set destination, wallowing in their suffering.

Rock had decided not to tell Liang about the abundance of ghosts around them for now. He didn't think it would go down well.

"So it's something you're used to?"

"I guess so. In a way." He flinched away from a passing ghost whose eye was hanging out of her socket and almost bumped into his friend.

"Are you okay?" Liang asked, placing a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

"Yeah. I'm fine."

He received a look for that, but no more prodding for the time being.

The two of them didn't really have a plan. They'd started to wander around, perhaps hoping the ghost would be wrong and they'd be able to escape or find someone else, but they hadn't yet discussed any kind of game plan. There wasn't much to report in the halls, either. Liang could see clearer as his vision wasn't blocked by the multitude of ghosts, but what he saw gave him few clues. There were dead bodies, notes scrawled frantically by the dying, messages to friends, about injuries or hunger or thirst, messages of fear and misery, and someone had even scratched 'kill me' into the floor. They passed an empty, rusting bucket near one of the classrooms. There was no way beyond this point in the hall as the floor had fallen out. Another reminder of the dangers they were about to face.

He heaved a sigh and cast a look around. There had to be a clue of some kind around here somewhere. There weren't any signs of life, and any sounds seemed to be coming from the rainstorm outside. The nearest door, to a room marked '1-A', hadn't opened when they'd tried it. It had seemed to be locked.

"It looks like we have to go back." He admitted.

"Back where?" Asked Rock. "There's not really anywhere we can go."

"There has to be somewhere we haven't been, somewhere we can still get to."

"There's holes and ghosts everywhere, man. We might be trapped..."

Liang frowned. "There's ghosts everywhere?"

Rock seemed to freeze up, then he crossed his arms and sighed. "This place is super haunted."

"Huh." He looked around again, as if suddenly he'd be able to see all the ghosts. "I mean, I definitely get a really bad feeling from this place. Like a dark energy. It's really bad." That was, of course, not even considering the corpses. "We're definitely in great danger the longer we're here."

Before either of them could say another word, the building began to shake around them. Another earthquake? Still standing at the lip of the hole, Liang felt his heel go over the edge as he struggled to keep his balance. If he didn't manage to stay standing, he was at a very real risk of falling to his death. The intensity of the earthquake was like nothing he'd ever experienced. It seemed far stronger than the one that had launched them into this nightmare, and honestly, he wasn't confident he could keep his balance until it ended. It didn't seem safe to step away from the hole either. He'd definitely fall if he tried.

Rock had had the intelligence to flatten himself against the wall when the shaking had started. He'd been right by the wall anyway, so using it for support made sense. He seemed to notice Liang's predicament, and tried to reach out a hand to pull him to safety, only to overbalance and end up flat on his face. Helpful. Liang stumbled in his attempt to keep his own balance, and gasped as one of his feet met with no resistance and he slipped down into the hole.

As he tipped back, there was an uncomfortable wrench as his other foot tried, unsuccessfully, to stay up on the ground. He grabbed as he fell, hand closing around the jagged remains of the floor he'd fallen from. The splintered wood bit into his hand and tore through a few layers of skin, and his grip was not very strong. It wouldn't last unless he could get a better grip. He glanced down and saw only darkness. For a moment, he felt sick, and shut his eyes. His grip was failing, he had to try and get his other hand up...

He let go. His fingers scraped off the ledge and he could feel himself falling again.

And a hand was holding his. Rock. Rock had crawled over and grabbed him at the last moment. He was lying flat against the floor to make sure he didn't fall as well. He held strong while they waited out the end of the quake, and once the shaking was over, Liang found it easier than he'd expected to pull himself back to safe ground. While he took a moment to examine the damage to his hand (which wasn't too bad, but it was pretty scraped up - he just had to hope he didn't get any of his cuts infected), a click sounded from somewhere behind Rock, who turned his head to see what it could have been.

"What the...?"

Liang looked up, following his gaze. The hallway had changed. The location of the holes, the bodies that were present, the notes here and there. It was like the same place, but undeniably different. The door to the nearby classroom had opened slightly while neither of them were looking.

"The overlapping dimensions look slightly different to each other." Liang muttered, "That was what that ghost had said, wasn't it?"

"Yeah..."

"So is this...another dimension?"

"If it's different to the other one..."

"Someone else might be here!"

Rock nodded and got to his feet, helping Liang up as well. "We just need to look, right? If more of us get together, we can get out of here!"

"The ghost said it was impossible to escape, but with not just us, but the guards as well..."

"We'll get out of here! All of us! The ghost made it sound like we'd never see anyone again, like we'd be trapped in our dimension forever."

"But we can move between the dimensions. Or rather, we can be moved between them. So if he got that wrong, maybe there is a way out after all."

They went quiet for a moment after that. Just letting the positivity settle in during an otherwise dark moment. Rock glanced down to Liang's injured hand.

"You okay? You could have gotten really hurt back then."

"I'm fine. A scrape and a splinter at worst." On that note, he probably should try to remove the splinters. "What about you? You fell pretty hard."

"I've fallen harder, I'm good." They both found themselves slowly looking away from one another, and toward the open door. "You think we should go in?"

"You think it might be a trap?"

Rock shrugged and reached out to open the door. "If it's a trap, we can deal with it, right?"

"Right."

The classroom was pretty much like the rest of the school. Broken and full of death. Liang looked at the notices on the notice board while Rock tried in vain to open a window. The notices were similar to ones seen in other classrooms, mostly just warnings about staying safe and the usual sort of faculty to student notices one might expect in a school. School trips, special services following unfortunate events, a notice about a planned upgrade to the second wing...

There was a second wing?

They would have to keep an eye out for that. He looked over to Rock in time to see him try and grab a chair from the floor. He wasn't sure what he planned to do with it, but assumed either the American had seen something out of reach, or he was planning to throw it at the window. Whatever he was planning, he couldn't manage it. The chair wouldn't budge an inch, no matter how much strength Rock put into his attempts to move it. Liang moved further into the room, but kept closer to the wall still. The chalkboard was marred with deep scratches, and he found himself running his fingers across them, curious as to what weapon had made them. There was a crude drawing on the board as well, of four figures surrounding a fifth. The fifth chalk figure had red on it, where something the other four held touched him. Liang brushed his fingers across this as well, and found the red was definitely not chalk. It appeared to be dried blood, as if the fifth figure were being stabbed. A strange decoration, but he wouldn't say out of place. He looked then to the teacher's desk, and picked up a piece of paper resting on it. It looked to have been torn from a notebook or workbook. The pages were lined as a writing guide. Upon it was a hastily scrawled note, clearly from someone they knew.

"Rock! Nico was here!"

"What?" He came over and pulled the note so he could read it too.

"The handwriting's familiar too."

"So you know who he was with? Other than the guard?"

"If they found the guard again...it's Upa's handwriting, I've seen it before." They placed the note back where they'd found it. "If they're waiting here again, they must be in a different dimension. They might still be out looking, though."

"We're not going to wait here, are we?" Rock asked, looking toward a body in the centre of the room.

"No, but it's something to remember. People we knew were here, and they plan to come back to this room. Maybe we should leave something to show we were here too. We should keep checking back here too, just in case."

Rock nodded, still looking at the body, or at a point just above it.

"You okay?" Liang asked him, tapping at his shoulder. He jolted slightly in response, but nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll write a note as well, to let them know we were here. I can use the scraps from the notice board. You go see if there's anywhere we can go."

Liang gave a slow nod, and hesitantly left, leaving Rock alone with the ghost of the weeping girl, crouched just by her own body.

#It is midnight and I think I made them both too positive there #It's fine Michael shut up #Victims With Numbers #at last it can be posted #it's just over 2000 words so a teeny bit shorter than the others #also ghosts #ghosts everywhere #oh god wish me luck with actually trying to continue this

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