TUA s1 au: assuming the hc that Ben looked like the way he died when he first showed up as a ghost and that klaus had to- through effort and/or time, subconsciously or consciously -make it so Ben looked 'normal' and have him age along with klaus -> wouldn't it be fucked up if whenever klaus made him appear to others, ben still looked like the way he died to others?
Everything goes the same except they succeed at stopping the apocalypse at the end of s1. Everyone saw the blue outline of Ben fighting alongside them during the battle and encourage klaus to try to make him appear again (ben is super excited) and klaus finally does it- all proud and whatnot. But instead of happy reunions everyone is horror stricken; diego has to hold back a gag, allison is frozen, v looks away and starts counting down from 100 to keep the world-ending powers in control, five is trying to forget his siblings' dead bodies and luther doesnt know if he wants to yell or have another breakdown
Klaus and ben look confused and hurt at each other before questioning them. Finally klaus has the lightbulb moment: "oh! Benny you must look like how you first did when you spawned as a ghost to them!"
"Ohhhh okay that makes more sense"
Diego (or i assume diego) would say, "well what does he usually look like to you?"
And klaus just winks at benny making him snort, "hot as fuck! Hes our age, emo as fuck with his black hoodle and skinny jeans, always reading that godamn book," ben rolls his eyes fondly and then klaus would look at them with a half sympathetic smile, "but i get it, i know i had a rough time the first few years before ben's image changed for me! But he'll probably look how he should eventually, ill keep working on it!"
And that funny enough doesnt stop the horror because they just realized that the bloody and torn apart vaguely-an-outline of their sixteen year old brother was haunting their other brother for years looking like the worst moment of most of their lives
