"Absolution" Recorded Live In Los Angeles Was Released Along With The Movie Trailer. Pre-order Full Soundtrack

Tale from the Green Room

Ever wonder what Copia has to say during the pre-Ritual Ghoul meeting? Yeah? Me too!

I feel it goes a little something like this…

The Green Room was noisy and smoky as Papa walked through the door. The Ghouls stopped their conversations as the leader of the Satanic Church cleared his throat to gain their attention.

“All right, my children, we will go on stage soon and here is what I want for tonight. Rain and Dew, I need you two to choke each other at some point. I don’t care when or who goes first, I just want to see hands around your throats at some point.”  

“Sure thing, boss!”, both Ghouls answered.

“Phantom, sweet Phantom. I’m going to need you on your best cat-like behavior. Seems the fangirls go crazy for cats. Oh, and do the bendy thing with Rain.”

Phantom raised his fingers in a mock salute as he continued his preparations for the upcoming Ritual.

“Cumulus, Cirrus, and Princess Aurora, my lovelies. Please just be your awesome self. You ladies know what you need to do.”

The Ghoulettes did not bother to answer as they knew they were awesome.

“Mountain, you are perfect in every way. I just need you to be ready to lead us into the night with your rhythms.”

The gentle giant flushed at his Papa’s praise and continued to fidget with the drumsticks in his hands.

“And last but not least, Swiss, my multi-Ghoul, during Watcher in the Sky, I need you to…”

Mushy May Day 3 & 4 - Massage & Wound Tending/First Aid (Aether/Dew)

Ended up combining days 3 and 4 into one fic. Based loosely on that time Dew (presumably) injured his arm during the Prequelle era. As always, thank you @forlorn-crows for organizing this and to @ghuleh-recs for the dividers!

Day 3 & 4 - Massage & Wound Tending/First Aid (Aether/Dew), cw for Dew's shoulder injury. Hurt/comfort, fluff, 1518 words

Aether notices it right away. The way Dew seems to be favoring one arm. The way he furrows his brow and rolls his shoulder seemingly every five minutes. How he makes soft little grunts and sighs of discontent at night when he’s trying to settle into his bunk above Aether’s on the bus. 

When he broaches the subject, Dew denies anything is wrong. His shoulder is just a little sore is all. Maybe he slept funny, he says, brushing off Aether’s concerns.

But Aether knows the truth, and is pretty sure the whole pack knows what’s up actually. It’s Dew’s new guitar. The Fantomen. For as beautiful as it looks and as powerful as it sounds, the son of a bitch is heavy. Even for Aether it can be unwieldy at times.

Of course Dew hasn’t let it affect his playing. He never would. He’s far too proud, and rightfully so. Dew’s the best player Aether has ever seen anywhere in his life. And his playing continues to be immaculate, so Aether doesn’t want to push. Instead he watches Dew power through their set each night for weeks.

Until Dew’s shoulder gives out completely in the middle of a ritual.

A missed note, glaringly obvious. Rare to be due to Dew’s mistake and not because of some equipment malfunction (or Aether’s own mistake throwing Dew off, something he can admit has happened more than once). Aether whips his head towards the fire ghoul, knowing immediately that something is seriously wrong. Copia and the other ghouls are watching him now too.

Dew curls in on himself for just a split second before catching himself and resuming his perfect playing. But Aether knows the damage has been done when Dew purposefully ignores the rest of his stage cues and instead shuffles unsteadily towards the back of the stage as he finishes out the song.

Thank Satan they’re at an intermission. Time for Copia to change out of his white suit and into the red cassock. Instead of taking his usual water break, Aether books it towards Dew, who he finds leaning against the wall just past the curtain.

Aether knows it's bad because Dew has his mask off. His face is pale and he’s sweating bullets, cradling his arm against his body as he struggles to even out his breathing. But before he can do anything there’s chaos. Copia and the crew are scrambling to do what they can to keep the show going. Aether is being ushered back to stage before he can get a word in. 

In the end Dew insists he can finish out the show from backstage, perched on a stool where he can rest the weight of the Fantomen on his lap. He even comes back onstage for final bows, cradling his bad arm gingerly, and Aether finds himself trailing behind him protectively instead of his usual routine of throwing out guitar picks and interacting with the audience. 

Finally, the curtain goes down and they’re free to go. Thankfully it’s a hotel night and then they’re off for two days before they travel to the next city. A small victory.

As soon as they’re in the room, Aether is looking Dew over while Copia watches on worriedly. Dew keeps grumbling that ghouls heal fast, so he’ll be fine, but Aether can see otherwise. The shoulder is swollen, angry red and inflamed. Dew’s definitely pulled something, maybe even a tear, and then he continued to irritate it night after night until it gave out. Aether feels guilty that he didn’t notice it was this bad before, that he wasn’t more insistent. He could have used some of his quintessence to keep it from going this far… He shakes the thought away for the time being.

“Alright,” Aether sighs and turns to Copia. “The bad news is, as of right now his shoulder’s fucked,” he says point blank. No point in sugar-coating any of this now. Copia pales and he hears Dew swallow nervously and shift from where he’s sitting on the bed behind him. 

“Good news is, I can fix him up in the next two days.” He turns to Dew to see a wave of relief wash across his otherwise stoic face. “But he’s gonna have to take it easy for a while after that. And that much healing takes a lot of quintessence, a ton of energy. If we push it any farther than that, you’re gonna end up out two guitarists.”

Copia agrees and they make arrangements for Aether and Dew to stay in his suite while Copia takes one of the regular rooms. The cardinal bids them goodnight and lets them know he’ll get them anything they need to be comfortable for the next few days while Aether works on Dew’s arm.

As soon as he leaves, Aether turns to Dew. He wants more than anything to scoop the little ghoul up in his arms and shower him in kisses, but he knows better than to jostle his bad arm. At any rate, Dew hates to be fussed over.

“How do you feel?” Aether chances, popping the cap of his water bottle and handing it to Dew along with a couple painkillers. 

Dew snorts, avoiding Aether’s eyes. “Like absolute dogshit,” he answers, blunt as always, before swallowing the pills and chugging half of Aether’s water.

“Alright then,” he motions to the compression shirt Dew still has on. “Let’s get this thing off of you so I can work on getting some of the swelling down.”

It isn’t easy, but they work together to hold Dew’s tender shoulder steady while Aether slowly peels the fabric from Dew’s body. Dew winces as he finally pulls his arm out of the sleeve, and Aether presses an apologetic little kiss to Dew’s temple.

The kiss seems to break some of the tension, and Dew’s body sags. He looks up at Aether with a sad little frown on his face. He looks guilty. “Sorry, Aeth…” he starts. “I know I should have said something before it got this bad…” he trails off.”

Aether shakes his head, tells Dew not to worry, that he’ll have him fixed up in no time. Jokes that thanks to his bum shoulder, they get to lounge around in Copia’s suite for two days in a king sized bed and in the jacuzzi tub. Says that if they play their cards right, Copia will probably even let them call for room service to their hearts’ content. The mention of room service seems to lighten Dew’s mood even further.

Meanwhile, Aether works Dew’s shoulder, pressing feather light touches to sensitive flesh while he focuses his energy on delivering enough quintessence to calm the inflammation. Once he’s satisfied with their progress, Aether pulls away to go draw a hot bath. Before he can go Dew reaches out, grabs his hand and pulls Aether back to him.

“Thanks for taking care of me,” Dew says softly, looking up at Aether. He holds Dew’s gaze, contemplating, before leaning in and kissing him on the lips, carding his fingers through Dew’s hair until they’re both humming contentedly against each other. 

Later, Aether sits beside the tub while Dew soaks, periodically working another round of quintessence into Dew’s shoulder as the little ghoul dozes off, finally beginning to relax as the pain goes down thanks to Aether’s ministrations.

Aether helps Dew out of the tub and wraps him in a fluffy bathrobe from the closet. Between the quintessence, the painkillers, and the hot bath, Dew is ready to crash. Aether guides him on wobbly legs to the bed, helping him lay face down into the pillows. From his prone position, Dew wriggles his shoulder.

“Feels better now,” Dew slurs, eyelids fluttering closed. “Can move it now n’everything.” He moves his shoulder in another little circle to demonstrate.

Aether chuckles. He loves to see Dew like this, blissed out and sleepy, he just wishes it were under different circumstances. Aether feels exhaustion pulling on him as well, between the crash of adrenaline after Dew’s injury and the copious amounts of quintessence he pumped into the little fire ghoul, his body is feeling beat. He’ll need rest soon, too.

But first, he climbs onto the bed and straddles Dew’s hips, careful not to press down too hard or to knock into his arm.

“Backrub?” Dew asks, eyes still closed and face pressed into the pillows.

“Backrub,” Aether confirms, leaning in to run his palms up Dew’s back, letting another dose of quintessence bleed from his fingertips into the fire ghoul’s soft skin, paying special attention to his injured shoulder. He massages Dew’s back until the little ghoul is half asleep and purring into the sheets.

Two days later, and they’re back on the road, en route to the next venue, Dew feeling better and set to shred once again, under the caveat that he doesn’t overdo it just yet. Aether has appointed himself Dew’s own personal masseuse. Now, after every ritual, Dew gets a nice, long, quintessence-infused shoulder rub.

Dew is happy to let Aether fuss over him, just this once.

New hc just dropped: Kevin summons all the ghouls

Gonna need yall to stop putting Biden is Just As Bad propaganda on my dash. Had to unfollow someone because I don’t want to a start a fight with them over it, but I’m about to bite the next person who puts that shit in front of me.

If you don’t like Biden, vote in your god damn local and mid term elections for third party or further left candidates so that we get better democratic candidates for future elections. But this one is already fucking decided, and I’m NOT ending up under a Trump led dictatorship because yall value protecting your personal sense of moral purity over the collective good. Whether it offends your personal morals to vote for Biden is IRRELEVANT in the face of the alternative.

This isn’t a lesser of two evils situation. One guy sucks. The other guy is LITERALLY PLANNING TO OVERTHROW OUR DEMOCRACY AND INSTALL HIMSELF AS A PUTIN STYLE DICTATOR.

PLEASE look up Project 2025 and stop acting like abstaining is some kind of personal ethical decision!

MUSHY MAY 2024

DAY 20: GARDENING

1600 words

Phantom ghoul, mountain ghoul, Aurora ghoulette, Dewdrop ghoul, Cirrus ghoulette

Phantom and the others try to ease Mountain's stress by tidying his garden as a surprise but it doesn't go too well. Mush ensues.

Thanks goes out once again to @forlorn-crows for organising Mushy May, and also to @ghuleh-recs for making the pretty dividers 🖤🖤🖤

This ficlet was inspired by a real life scenario that happened to me just yesterday. Basically I'm Phantom 🤦

Read below or on AO3

A procession of six ghouls and ghoulettes trudged through the gardens towards the Abbey's greenhouses. They were dressed in their work gear, laden with tools and snacks and sharing banter under the late afternoon sun.

Phantom hadn’t spent too much time out here since he’d been summoned a couple of months ago for one reason or another, but he was looking forward to doing something nice for his pack mate Mountain.

The big earth ghoul had been so kind to him since he’d arrived in this strange place. It was so very different from the Pit that he’d grown up in and it was taking the young quintessence ghoul a long time to become accustomed to his new life here at the Abbey. Everything seemed to be a learning curve and Phantom often felt like a kit again when faced with the barrage of new experiences and challenges.

The rest of the pack had been supportive, of course, but Mountain especially had been very patient and understanding when Phantom messed up... Which pretty much happened on a daily basis.

He’d overheard a conversation in the common room between Cirrus and Rain. They were worried about Mountain. He hadn’t been himself lately, but Phantom wasn’t sure why.

He’d felt it from him too though. There was an innate sadness and a world weariness to him that seemed to be growing worse as the days went on. Nobody seemed to be able to figure out what they could do to help him.

The idea had been Dew’s, surprisingly. They’d all noticed the way that Mountain had been stressing about all of the springtime work that he had to do in the garden so Dew had suggested that they surprise him by going to tidy up the flower beds. If the pack did a little weeding and some of the tedious but essential maintenance jobs, then Mountain would be free to do what he loved best; planting. The garden was his pride and joy and this would hopefully take some of the pressure off him and make him more relaxed.

Swiss had been tasked with keeping Mountain distracted for a couple of hours while the rest of them got to work.

The pack reached the garden that stretched out along the long side of Mountain’s greenhouse and they made an organised pile of the things they’d brought, placing them carefully onto the wooden bench where Mountain often liked to sit and watch the sun rise.

Phantom had joined him in this peaceful activity on a regular basis when he’d woken from the nightmares that plagued him, panicked and gasping for breath. He would come aware to the comfort of a large body curled around him, kind words in his ear and calloused but gentle palms stroking soothing circles around his back.

Mountain would hold him until his heart had calmed and then lead him out into the gardens. Their morning ritual never failed to clear the fuzz from Phantom’s head and they’d sit quietly for a while, side by side, watching in comfortable silence as the dawn broke.

“Okay, if we pair up then this will work better. Cirrus and Rain, Phantom and Aurora, me and Cumulus,” Dew said, pointing to them all. “Is everyone okay with that?”

They all made noises of agreement and went off to the areas Dew had allocated to them.

Aurora put on the gloves she’d brought and handed a pair to Phantom. She looked around at their patch of garden and sighed.

“I don’t know why they put the two of us together. I’m guessing you’re just as clueless about Earth plants as I am? How are we supposed to know what isn’t meant to be here? This bit has been a bit neglected, hasn’t it?”

She was right. There were larger plants that clearly belonged, but the soil was filled with a variety of smaller, leafy plants too that could just as easily have been rare flowers as weeds.

Phantom huffed a laugh, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out the phone he’d been given by Papa.

“Secret weapon,” he said, holding it up. Aurora looked confused. “Google Lens. Rain showed it to me. You take a picture of something and then Google tells you what it is. That way, we’ll know what to keep and what to get rid of.”

She eyed the phone warily for a moment and Phantom grinned at her. He was confident that they’d be fine and his confidence must have rubbed off on Aurora because she shrugged, picked up a small trowel and knelt down in the dirt.

“Sounds good to me,” she said.

It didn’t take long to realise that the two of them made a great team. They used the phone plenty of times to check what they were dealing with and after a couple of hours they had cleared the area that Dew had given them to tidy.

The pile of weeds was bigger than Phantom had anticipated. It must have been a while since anyone had done anything in this part of the garden.

Dew wandered over to them carrying cups of juice.

“Refreshments,” he said as he handed them one each. He looked at the pile of weeds they’d gathered and raised his brows. “Wow, you two have been busy!”

Phantom grinned and he felt Aurora’s pride that the two newest members of the pack had done such a good job.

Cirrus came to join them but she took one look at the pile and cursed.

“Please tell me you guys didn’t just pull up any old thing without checking what it was?”

Phantom frowned.

“Well no, we used Google Lens to check them.”

Cirrus’ eyes widened.

“I don’t think Google Lens is very reliable, guys. Mountain has some hybrids and flowers that he’s spent years on and they probably couldn’t be identified with an app.”

Phantom’s stomach dropped and he heard Aurora whine beside him.

“I... We checked them! It said they were weeds!”

He could feel panic welling up, constricting his heart when he realised what they might have done. Mountain would be devastated when he saw it. He’d be so angry that all of his hard work had been ruined.

Cirrus crouched down and picked up some of the plants that had been pulled. Phantom watched in horror as the realisation dawned on her. She held up one of the green stems. It was broken in half.

“Sorry to say, but I think these are Mountain’s petunias.” She pointed to a bare patch of earth. “They should be there.”

Phantom’s heart picked up speed and the panic bubbled up further, twisting his guts and wringing them out.

Memories of his old life in the Pit threatened to overwhelm him. Something like this would not go unpunished there and Phantom found his instincts taking over as his rational thought processes began to fail.

He turned on his heel and ran.

___

The smell of blood broke him out of it and Phantom blinked, coming back to his senses. He was curled up in a recess of earth underneath a fallen log, arms wrapped around himself. Tremors wracked his body and a sting on his cheek made him remember falling and catching it, grazing the skin.

A twig snapped close by and Phantom’s head snapped up, wide eyes searching for the threat and landing on Mountain who was walking carefully towards him.

Phantom whimpered and cowered further back towards the bark of the trunk.

“Hey, bug,” Mountain said softly. “What’s all this about? The others said you ran off in a panic.”

Phantom shifted again, not daring to take his eyes off the other ghoul and trying to reach out with his quintessential self to read his emotions and give himself some kind of warning as to what his reaction was going to be.

“I... I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to! We were trying to help out. It’s my fault, we should have asked the others. Please don’t be mad at Aurora.”

Mountain stopped a few feet away and put his hands on his hips. He tilted his head and frowned, kind eyes searching Phantom’s face. He sighed, coming to a realisation.

“I’m not angry, Phantom, not angry at any of you.”

Phantom concentrated on his emotions and sure enough, he didn’t sense any anger, only sadness and relief that he’d been found.

“You’re not?”

Mountain shook his head and smiled warmly.

“Of course not. It was an easy mistake to make. You weren’t to know. I’m sure we can replant some of them. Why don’t you come out and we can go back and give it a try?”

Phantom eyed him for a moment, feeling the last tendrils of panic letting go of his heart.

Mountain crouched down in front of him and held out his hand. Phantom inhaled a deep breath and took it. It was warm and it brought him comfort, chasing away any thoughts he’d had that Mountain would hurt him for doing something wrong.

The big ghoul pulled him to his feet and then let go of his hand. Phantom wrapped his arms around his torso tightly and looked up.

“We can plant them again?”

Mountain smiled and nodded.

“Sure thing, bug.” He slowly put an arm around Phantom’s shoulders and gently encouraged him to start walking. “Do you want me to teach you about the plants too? You can come and help me out in the greenhouses if you like? There’ll be plenty to do over the next few weeks and I could do with another pair of hands.”

Phantom grinned up at him, his heart swelling with relief and with joy that he could give Mountain something back after everything he'd done for him.

“I would absolutely love that,” he said as they headed back to the gardens.

Thanks for reading 🖤 check out my AO3 page for other Ghost band works 🖤

I want you to remember:

The fascists hate you too and they just will pretend otherwise until after they've killed the rest of us, before they turn on you.

Mushy May Day 15

Painting on each other

Pairing; Dewdrop/Aeon

Notes; Welcome to the halfway point! Aeon uses they/them pronouns. thanks as always to @forlorn-crows for the prompts list!

Aeon was always mesmerized by all the ghoul’s tattoos. From Rain’s tiny one’s to Dew’s extravagant pieces, they decided early on into their earth life that they needed to join the club. The nights they were wrapped around someone else’s limbs, they’d trace and map out the ink lines that ran down their partner’s arms and body, committing them to memory.

Their problem, as they’ve confided to Dewdrop on multiple occasions, was how they wanted their tattoos. Any meaning behind them was easy, it was the placement. Looks. They didn’t want to travel so far out of the abbey to a tattoo parlor just to regret the placement. So when Dew found an ad for them, he hatched an idea.

“Star?” Dew knocked on the door, hands behind his back. When he got a murmur of confirmation, he stepped into the room and met the eyes of a very sleepy ghoul, still waking up.

“What time is it?” Aeon slurred and squinted up at Dew.

“It is…” Dew peeked over at the clock and smiled, “it is one in the afternoon.”

Aeon sat up in bed with a disgruntled groan, stretching out their arms. They murmured a quiet curse at the time and stared him down.

“Did I miss something?” They ran their eyes down his figure and pouted, pointing towards him. “What are you hiding?”

“A gift.” He strutted over with a playful sway in his hips until he was standing right beside them. “For you.”

Their pout grew suspicious and tilted their head. “Why’d you do that?”

He shrugged with an easy smile. “Thought you’d like it. Could be a bonding thing for us.”

“Is it a sex thing?” They questioned.

He laughed and shook his head, bending down just slightly in the process. “No, bug, it’s not a sex thing. Here.”

He pulled his arms out from behind him and with a healthy pause in between, Aeon’s eyes lit up and they gasped dramatically, no longer sleepy. They made grabby hands for the product and Dew could never deny the quint anything.

“Holy shit!” They held the pack of tattoo markers with a grip that could rival Aether’s, turning the package around to further inspect. “These are awesome!”

“You know about them?” Dewdrop couldn’t stop smiling.

“Well, no,” Aeon faltered just slightly but began ripping into the cardboard with the same enthusiasm as before, “but I do now!”

Dew sat down right next to them and continued to watch as they kicked their blankets away to set their prize down. Once the pack was fully dumped out, they grabbed the black marker and paused.

“What’s up, buggy?” Dew tilted his head as they worried their lip between the teeth. Their gaze flickered between the marker, Dew’s arms, and Dew’s eyes. He could already see the question.

“Can I try them on your arm?” They asked, eyes wide.

Dew’s smile grew wider and he grabbed a marker of his own. “Only if I can draw on your leg.”

“Deal.” Aeon uncapped the marker and took Dew’s arm into their hands, a plan already brewed and steeped. Dew used his free hand and pushed their shorts out of his way as he began the same process.

They both left the room an hour later covered in half hearted doodles and ideas. Aeon showed Dewdrop a tentative sketch of what they wanted and with careful consideration and drawing, the two found a perfect spot for it. Dew was covered in swirls of black and blue, a rogue bat or rabbit or any other animal scattered across his skin. Aside from the, what Aeon called "the perfect tattoo," they were covered in geometric shapes, things that Dewdrop has been experimenting with in terms of design.

Seeing the smile on the young quint’s face as they examined the ink with Swiss, who awed and oo'ed at their markings, he knew they’d be doing this again soon.

if i may request raindrop for day 25? 👉👈

Mushy May '24 Day 25: Sharing a secret comfort item

WC: 540

Relationship: Rain/Dewdrop

Notes: Maybe not fitting the prompt perfectly but idccc, I love newly summoned fish and still water idiot being awkward <3

Read under the cut or on AO3.

Rain does not like it.

He was summoned around two days ago and he’s in misery for no explainable reason. He’s cold and his skin feels wrong and he is really so close to sneaking out through the window—if he’d manage to figure out how it works—finding the closest body of water and hiding in there unless someone would haul him out.

He doesn’t know what’s wrong and he doesn’t feel comfortable asking anyone for help. He’s just met them, he can’t.

So Rain huffs and wraps himself up in a blanket that neither warms him up enough, nor feels good against his oversensitive skin.

He whines and grumbles to himself, tossing and turning in something that’s supposed to be his new nest, but it’s nowhere close to being a cozy one made of rocks and seaweeds that he’s used to.

The water ghoul jumps when he hears a tapping sound on…the door, he thinks. He has no idea what the purpose is and it hurts his ears a little, but it soon stops and the door opens. One of the ghoul’s he knows is his pack now peeks his head in, a shy smile on his pretty face. “Hi!”

“Hello,” Rain answered quietly, hiding behind the covers.

“Dunno if you remember, I’m–” the other ghoul starts, coming fully into the room and shutting the door behind him.

“Dewdrop,” the water ghoul finishes for him. He does remember, Dewdrop caught his eye immediately. “You’re also a water ghoul.”

“That I am,” he confirms. He carries something in his arms, a big bundle. “Freshwater.”

“I like salt,” Rain blurts out. “I mean…I’m–uh, I’m saltwater.”

Dewdrop giggles, but the new ghoul doesn’t take offense. His laugh sounds nice. 

“Anyway, I brought you something. Sorry it took me a few days, I wanted to wash it first.” Rain perks up, cocking his head to the side as Dewdrop outstretches his arms to drop the bundle into the other’s lap. He looks down at it with slight confusion and Dewdrop clears his throat, “It’s a blanket. It’s different from what you have there, it’s…more water ghoul friendly. It's special, actually, made for water ghouls, I got it when I got summoned from an older one. It's bigger, softer, and warmer, I know how the normal stuff feels and I’m sorry you had to deal with it.”

“Huh,” Rain replies intelligently. He reaches a hand out to touch the bundle and it is, indeed, so soft he lets out a gasp when he feels it. His eyes light up—his entire face does—and he shuffles around trying to get comfortable. It’s a big blanket, though, and he’s very clumsy out of the water, so he gets…well, trapped, essentially.

“Oh, uhm…lemme–” Dewdrop comes closer and—rather awkwardly—helps Rain untangle himself from the blanket and get under it properly. He puts the other comforters that the new water ghoul got over him to add warmth and only when he pulls away he notices that Rain started purring. It sounds a bit weird, the ghoul obviously not used to doing it out of water, but Dewdrop quickly realizes he absolutely adores it.

When Rain thanks him and snuggles further into the blanket Dewdrop realizes he absolutely adores him.