made up fic title: To each their bones
First of all, that's metal as hell. May get that tattooed on my ass. It'd go great under the horse skull that takes up my whole back.
Speaking of horses and bones (I say as if those aren't the two things I'm most likely to be talking about at any given moment) my gut reaction answer: my ghost horse oc gets her own villain and it's this.
Alt answer: I'd steal the vibes Hozier has going on in In A Week. Specifically the theme that our flesh is only borrowed matter, etc. I'm thinkin' an AU where ghosts are only able to leave the GZ until there's nothing left of their bodies but their skeleton unless they can recover said bones and maintain possession of them (or burn them? ...or maybe destroying the bones lets your spirit move on altogether?). A ghost has however long it takes before their flesh has decomposed before they're unable to cross through any portal, natural or otherwise. Idk I just love the idea of maintaining a mind-body connection after death. Bones have quite a bit of staying power, but they're not of much use to us without the squishy meat that returns to the earth so quickly.
Obviously the circumstances of one's death and the conditions in which their remains are left means some ghosts have more time than others. Ghosts do not form magically having knowledge of this phenomenon, and it's not common knowledge among the living. Either you run into another ghost that knows and you track your bones down yourself, and/or you're stuck and have to send someone to find and retrieve your bones for you. Bringing them back to your own little area in the GZ is usually a safe bet, but not always. Skulker has his own skeleton on display.
Natural portals are so rare anyway that it's not much of a Thing until the Fenton portal is activated. Who cares about being able to navigate the living world when it's so hard to get there in the first place? But when Danny activates his parents' very strange machine, he gets caught up in a bunch of ghosts' mad scramble to find the bones of an ally or an enemy. Lots of graves are dug up. Some cold cases need solving 👀
Of course the whole issue isn't a problem for halfas since they've got a pretty good handle on his bones at all times. Danny finally catches a break. Perk of being alive: you don't need to keep track of your skeleton! It comes with you everywhere!!
Not sure where a single story would go with this. Maybe a re-hashing of 1.13? Johnny doesn't need to find Kitty a host, he needs to find her body... what's left of it, anyway.
