š²The Woods Have Eyes And See Allš² Featuring Old Gods of Appalachia/Build Mama a Coffin/Black Mouthed Dog, Welcome to Night Vale, The Backrooms/Liminal Spaces, Cryptids, my Randonautica adventures and other generally creepy and spoopy things
you pronounce it like "app uh latch uh" not "app uh laysh uh" and that's not a regionalism. that's not a quaint southern way of saying it. Appalachia is named after the Apalachee people who sought refuge in this region during the indigenous genocide waged by our colonizing founders in Florida. i'm done having this conversation with y'all. i know you think you're dunking on hillbillies but surprise! it was actually anti-indigenous racism! again!
As Steve Shell said at the very beginning of Old Gods of Appalachia:
"Appalachia. A word stolen from more than one language, it conjures images of the beauty
of Godās creation, and the darkness of manās various poverties."
I do have a eventual actual fic coming for this au so it wonāt be as extensively written out here like for my vampire au, it helps that itās also more canon aligned so thereās not too much extra world building involved.
World-
The world will be that of the canon world just with a tad more belief in ghosts/ they exist. Iād think itād be easy to believe in legends and ghost when driving alone at night in a plains state anyway.
With that in mind it wouldnāt be uncommon to see a cowboys final ride or a soldiers last stand play out again and again. The people of Tulsa know itās not just a building settling or the air conditioner.
Itās easy to believe if you open yourself to it, but you never expect your encounter to be with someone you knew. Ponyboy didnāt.
Ghosts-
All types of ghosts exist in this world, a lot of them being the more grounded āreal lifeā orbs and cold spots and simpler manifestations like that. There was moments that replay but arenāt a direct ghost more shadows of the past, buildings absorb negative energy and tragedy etc.
I want to focus more on direct apparitions as thatās what Johnny and Dally would be classified as, a bit of the standard fair when it comes to ghostsā¦ sudden or violent death, stuck in this plane etc.
But with a twist, I really want this au to explore the cycles of grief and how itās a non linear thing- and in this case affects the living and the dead. In the end no one moves on entirelyā¦
Itās all about what makes a ghost or what makes a person stay, the cycles of grief and trauma, the weight people carry of a place and time or someone. The power of memory!
A huge inspiration for this au, beyond cowboy and civil war ghosts was the line towards the end of the book where Pony is thinking about boys who crumble under street lamps and jump at their own shadow and even himselfā about how itās too late for some but not others.
And it reminds me of American Remains by the Highwaymen and its chorus:
We are heroes of the homeland, American remains. We live in many faces and answer many names. We will not be forgotten, we won't be left behind. Our memories live on in mortal minds. And poets pens, we'll ride again.
How broader issues connect people in their struggle and how people get left behind over and over but are never forgotten- they come back. Theyāre simultaneously forgotten and immortalized - so many alike but also individual. Pony already wrote about themā¦
The thought that memory and pain bind. People die but ideas donāt.
Itās late and I really hope itās understandable how this connects to ghosts and grief.
The au isnāt all deep subjects sometimesā¦ itās just neat spooky stuff.
Ghosts have a lot more agency when it comes to āmoving onā than traditional stories, itās that they trap themselves. Or forget. At the end of the day ghosts are human- their cycles are too.
Unfinished business is less of a task and more of something they have to figure out- find acceptance/peace with.
Ghost lore-
A lot of haunting involves utilizing energy and radio frequencies to interact with the rest of the world. In the modern (1960s) age- radio and power lines are abundant. Ghosts prefer to be visibleā with visibility comes personhood. Itās not constant, depending on energy and their connection it could be hard to keep it up.
Ghosts appear as they died, in most cases. Johnny tends toā¦ flicker. Sometimes itās a hospital gown, sometimes itās jeans and a shirt but the burns remain. When haunting and not just wandering heād prefer to be clothed.
[Included picture reference for Ponyboy as heās the only of the living gang to undergo a more ādrasticā change. The others would just look a little older.]
Dally may constantly bleed but his blood will not stain anything, it disappears a few minutes after he does. What will stain is a residue left behind from ghost interacting with objects (fun non angsty lore)
To communicate with the living theyād have to manipulate radio, to those they speak with theyāll be a warm crackle to their voice as they speak through it ā¦ the voice always sounds distant too despite being right in front of you. (Sort of like making themselves a spirit box)
Johnny and Dally are both Semi-cognizant at the start of the au, both hyper aware of death and the passage of time but for them no time has passed. It is always then. Stuck in a place and time mentally and physically.
Out there on the sides of roads, out there in the dark waiting to be noticed and spoken to. Their main sort of āterritoryā is the roads and fields leading to windrixville, only sometimes making it fully back to Tulsa.
Thereās been several times pony thought he saw them but it isnāt until they show up in the backseat of his car one late night drive itās revealed. Heās driven by enough times, the ghosts get tired of waiting. Their first interaction is brief as pony nearly swerves off the road.
The two of them want desperately to reconnect with the gang, Iāve recently heard this but they āhaunt for company.ā
Donāt quite know where itāll go yet but Iād love to hear ideas or see where others take it :)
Living-
Since this au is a tad more tied to canon these are also my general future headcanons, so if you see them in other worksā¦
-
Ponyboy: 17. more of a troublemaker than he was as a young teen. Heās not doing anything too wild but will jack a car or two, gotten his grades back on track but is unsure where he wants to go with his life. Currently working at a grocery store to help out.
Soda: 19. started a career as a trucker, is around less than usual but still communicates with everyone via radio (Steve had begged for one to be put in at the DX) and phone calls when he gets the chance
Darry: 23. still working the same two jobs but is aiming towards a bookkeeping focus (pony is trying to push him that way) can understand Pony a little better, is more worried about Soda on the road at the moment. Better adjusted as he managed to keep them all together and Pony is set to graduate down the line.
Steve: 20. Graduated high school! Is still at the DX working on cars, he worked towards a managerial position and hopes to own a mechanic shop of his own someday or work up to a dealership. Had a radio installed at the station so he and pony can talk with Soda more often than waiting for phone calls, he gets along better with Pony.
Two-bit: 21. Ultimately got his GED! Like Pony heās not sure what he is going to do with his life, is looking for a job (which Steve wonāt let him live down)
Music for the days when you believe in God, the Devil, and dark banjo licks. Stomp your feet, clap your hands, and string your fiddle, because itās time to down that whiskey and sing your song. This may be Godās country, but there are demons living here. The South is full of blood, blues, and belles, and there aināt a soul alive that can remember otherwise.
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