Somewhere near the preserve, Saturday after dark

[stykera]

It had been a very pleasant week here on Fandom. Stark was a little nervous that meant something terrible would happen soon but hopeful that it wouldn't. For now he was going to enjoy the animals and concerts and things like the shooting stars the other night.

So Saturday after seeing the dog perform some songs he went for a walk around the island, occasionally looking up to see if there were more shooting stars. He hadn't seen any yet. That didn't mean they weren't coming. If they didn't at least he could watch the fireflies. There were plenty of them and he did enjoy the little glowing beetles.

Of course, sometimes there were other things glowing in the dark.

[For one particular glowing thing but also open]

Comments

[fh_animalcrossing]

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN

A spherical, ghostlike creature was just minding his own business, floating among the trees and enjoying life, when all of a sudden he saw this... this...

"N-N-N-N-NOOOOOOO! A G-G-G-G-GHOOOOOOOST!"

[stykera]

Stark was not expecting anyone to start yelling about ghosts. He hadn't seen anything that would be considered a ghost for quite some time now. Well, until right now.

He jumped at the yelling, turning towards the sound. Then he frowned. That...seemed to be a very cute, round spirit of some kind. He had a lot of experience with dead things. Occupational hazard. They usually weren't so round and smiley. And they often needed help.

"Excuse me?" Was the ghost calling him a ghost? Stark was reasonably sure he'd know if he'd died.

[fh_animalcrossing]

But unfortunately for Wisp, he was too far in the grips of fear!

He seemed to explode in a glow of light, causing five swirls to begin circling him before finally popping off and floating their own ways around the island.

This meant Wisp was really just a shell of his former self, a small and pale floating thing that looked a little like a blue flame. "What do you want from me, ghost?! This is how it ends for me, isn't it? This is how I go..."

[stykera]

This was an entirely new reaction for Stark. He'd helped countless souls cross over. He'd never once seen one explode like that.

"I'm not a ghost," Stark assured the ghost. He considered telling the ghost that it was a ghost but somehow that seemed cruel. "I'm not dead." Again, he was reasonably sure on that point. "I'm Stark."

[fh_animalcrossing]

Wisp blinked, confused. "Huh? A human? A real live human?"

[stykera]

Stark shook his head. "Not a human either. Banik. Stykera. Live though, yes."

[fh_animalcrossing]

"I've been around a long time but I've never seen a Banik Stykera before! Let me introduct myself. My name is Wisp, nice to meet you... Well, I'll just be honest with you. I love the darkness, especially nighttime. But I'm afraid of ghosts! Whew! This little run-in with you has me all shaken up..."

Did you know spirit things could sweat? Because they could.

"You scared some pieces of my spirit right out of me! Looks like they flew off when we bumpd into each other..."

[stykera]

Stark stared for a moment. Sweating ghosts was new. Round, adorable ghosts was new. This week was ending on a very strange note.

"I'm sorry I startled you," he said. Apologizing seemed like the correct choice. "But it's good to meet you, Wisp." Poor little confused, exploding ghost.

"Do you need help?"

[fh_animalcrossing]

So yeah, about that?

"Umm. I'm sorry to ask this of you, but... Could you maybe the collect the pieces of my spirit that flew away? Otherwise I'll be like this forever. And I can NOT deal with that!"

[stykera]

"I..." He couldn't just ignore something like this. How could he, a Stykera, possibly refuse a request like that?

"We can't your spirit divided forever. But, how would I collect spirit pieces?" Spirits weren't corporeal. He couldn't just grab them out of the air!

[fh_animalcrossing]

"There should be five pieces. You can collect them with the net in your pockets, and then bring them back to me!"

Spirits were apparently corporeal enough for a net.

[stykera]

"Nets can catch spirits?" Stark asked. He'd never caught any before. He just crossed them over. One might think that after all that time on Moya and on Fandom he'd eventually run out of things that were surprising. One would be wrong.

"I will do my best." At least he still had his star net.

[fh_animalcrossing]

"Thank you! I'll be waiting!" Wisp said. "And hurry!"

Seriously, he was stuck like this! It was an indignity!

[firstofitskind]

With Verity all squirrel-y, Liam had fallen back into... well, she would’ve called them bad habits. Liam was just going to call them old habits. Namely, not sleeping any more than was strictly necessary. Therefore, he spent a lot of time wandering around the island after dark.

Liam smiled a little as he watched the fireflies tumble about in the air, blinking merrily. But then, as he neared the Preserve, there was something glowing that was most certainly not a firefly.

“Uh, hello?”

[stykera]

It had been a while since Stark had taken off his mask in a public setting. As much as wandering around the woods at night was public, anyway. He had put it back on only loosely after getting the Wisp situation sorted out and, well, sometimes that led to some glowiness escaping.

"Hello?" he called back. Hopefully it wasn't another adorable exploding ghost lurking amongst the trees.

[firstofitskind]

Not a ghost! Though he had spent a significant amount of time being dead and incorporeal, so maybe former ghost, by some people's definition? 'Adorable' was also a highly subjective definition.

"It's-" Liam had been about to announce himself, but then he got distracted because... "You're leaking. I mean. You're glowing."

Such a way with words.

[stykera]

Funny, Stark had also been dispersed that one time but the glowiness came in handy for surviving that whole being suddenly incorporeal business.

"I...suppose I am," Stark said, hand going up to his mask. "I do that sometimes."

"I was catching ghost pieces," he added after a pause. Because that was a helpful explanation.

[firstofitskind]

It was a strangely specific thing to have in common, really.

“Ghost pieces?” Liam asked. “Wait, no, let me guess. A ghost floated up and asked you for help collecting them.”

He hadn’t met any ghosts here himself, but he’d been asked to run around and do a few collection tasks for random people over the course of the week, yes.

[stykera]

Maybe they should start a club for glowy and not entirely corporeal Fandom residents.

"First he exploded," Stark clarified. "And five pieces floated off. He was frightened because he thought I was a ghost. And then he thought I was a human. And then he wanted me to catch the rest of him in a net."

[firstofitskind]

"And you were successful?" Liam asked, curious.

[stykera]

"I was." Stark tapped his mask with one hand. "I have some experience with spirits." Slight understatement there.

"And," he admitted, "they hadn't gone too far."

[firstofitskind]

Funny how that worked!

"Experience?" Liam echoed, noting that mask-tapping. "You've dealt with ghosts before?"

[stykera]

It had been a while since Stark had explained himself and how he worked. He thought about his answer, tightening the buckles on his mask as he collected his thoughts.

"Not ghosts so much. Well. A few." Valdun had certainly felt full of ghosts. And he'd heard Zhaan. And that poor woman trapped at the siren star. "Sometimes there have been ghosts."

"Mostly the dead. Dying. I...help them cross over, to the other side, when I can. Ease their passing. I'm a Stykera. It's what I'm for."

[firstofitskind]

"That's..." Liam paused, collecting his thoughts. "Not something I hear too many sentient beings say. That they're for something."

[stykera]

"Sometimes believing there's a purpose makes it easier," Stark said. "Not always. At the very least it's what I do. Not here, usually. But before."