An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Bailey (Ghost Trick), Jowd (Ghost Trick), Lynne (Ghost Trick), Sissel | Amnesiac Ghost, Alma (Ghost Trick)
Additional Tags: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, FFVI GT AU, Fluff
Series: Part 11 of Final Fantasy VI/Ghost Trick Alternate Branches
Summary: Their newest member of the group has some moves to show off. Jowd has one of his own.
Fictober Day 07
Promptless
This doesn't time out correctly in the main AU, as Bailey had joined the group in the World of Balance for the first time, but he's new to them here in the World of Ruin, so it's in the alternate stuff.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Cabanela (Ghost Trick), Jowd (Ghost Trick)
Additional Tags: FFVI GT AU, Final Fantasy VI AU
Series: Part 124 of Final Fantasy VI/Ghost Trick
Summary: Reunited in the ruined world Cabenela, Cidgeon and Jowd travel the Serpent's Trench. Long days and longer nights bring their own struggles
Jowd stared into the darkness, wholly still at last. It was hard to gauge time these days—he vaguely wondered if he'd ever truly regained the ability after his freedom from Vector—but he had the sense it was late. It had felt like hours before Cabanela finally settled into sleep from pacing their camp and weaving sparks between his fingers in a silent show Jowd couldn't quite bring himself to look away from.
Now there was silence and stillness and somehow Jowd found himself missing those sparks. They were easier to watch than the cause. They were a distraction from his own thoughts. Instead only the flickering dying embers and the darkness existed to suck at his gaze and there was nothing to distract from the ever present temptation darkness promised, yet life continued to contrive to snatch away.
A small sound caught his attenion briefly but he had to have imagined it. All was still and silent. It wasn't until the flicker that wasn't the fire that he saw the fizzle of sparks around Cabenela's hand. He froze, uncertain of what he was seeing, or if he was honest, certain but not quite willing to believe because that tension meant it was a groan closer to a whimper he'd heard earlier, and that couldn't be possible from him. But no, there it was in plain sight, Cabanela's hand clenching into the dirt and the scrubby sorry excuse for grass.
Slowly, feeling as though he moved through sand rendered to mud, Jowd inched around the fire. He crouched next to Cabanela and feeling even slower, rested a hand on his shoulder.
Where was that perfection? The shiver under his hand didn't belong to that face.
But maybe it did belong to this one.
His grip tightened despite himself. Cabanela's soft exhale might as well have been an explosion for how loud it felt in the silence.But he didn't wake and his hand stilled. The wavering sparks died out.
Jowd waited for an eternity or mere minutes. When Cabanela continued to show no signs of stirring he backed off. The journey back to his place at the opposite side of the fire was just as long as the first. He sat, pulling his knees up to rest his chin in his hands, and he stared at the embers.
Until morning dawned and Cabanela sprung up seemingly as fresh as a spring daisy if such things could ever exist again. Jowd remembered sputtering sparks barely lighting the dark.
As they rose to continue the long dull journey toward a town that may or may no longer exist, following a sense he thought too dulled to be of any use with the uncertainty he could even trust it, he couldn't keep his gaze from Cabanela. The man stood straight and proud as ever and Jowd tried to remember the last time he hadn't seen that tension thrumming through him threatening to snap something.
The Shadow…
What words built up in his throat through the long night died there. And the dull grey day sat heavy between them once more.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cabanela & Pigeon Man (Ghost Trick)
Characters: Cabanela (Ghost Trick), Pigeon Man (Ghost Trick)
Additional Tags: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, FFVI GT AU
Series: Part 94 of Final Fantasy VI/Ghost Trick
Summary: Post poisoning, post Kamila's Rounds Cidgeon tries a second time to visit Cabanela.
Fictober Day 18
Cidgeon woke to stare in confusion at the familiar ceiling above that wasn’t the ceiling of the sick room. He’d gone to finally sit with Cabanela and held some hope he would wake so they might talk without the terse and urgent details of medications to try to keep him comfortable—they hadn’t felt enough—or without the cloud of delirium in the way. It had been a relief to see him sleeping more peacefully even if it had brought up uncomfortable memories of other bedside waits.
With a snort he sat up. At least he could be assured this wouldn’t be a year-long wait. And still none of this explained how he had ended up back in his own room. It must have been one of the family, but they could have woken him.
He set about getting ready for the day while Lovey-Dove watched on and when he was ready, she swooped over to land on his head.
“Shall we go see that crazy character?”
“Cooo!”
“Hmph, you could have woken me up last night.”
“Coo!” That sounded decidedly like a scolding. So, he probably did admittedly need the sleep. Still, he could have walked himself back. However, Lovey was no less stubborn than the rest of the lot and there were more important things to do now than argue an already lost battle.
“Let’s go then.”
Cabanela was propped up against several pillows when Cidgeon entered. While his smile was wan and tight it still lit his face.
“Mooornin’ prof!”
Cidgeon eyed him critically as he took the chair by the bed back. He sounded awful; he didn’t look much better, but he was awake and lucid. That at least was proof he was on the road to recovery now.
“I’m gettin’ quite the string of visitors. Miiight start feelin’ spoiled.”
“It takes several to keep you in line,” Cidgeon said dryly over the surge of relief. It had been one thing to see him last night, quite another to talk to him now. How many close calls would it take?
“Jowd and Alma came by earlier and you just missed Tabatha.” His brow furrowed. “I thiiink Kamila stopped by last night. Tellin’ what’s real or not got a biiit sticky.”
“I’d say she did.” Which explained his situation. She found him and instead of waking him up she must have fetched someone. Bunch of busy-bodies. “How are you feeling?”
“Peeeachy.”
“Yeah? Want to try being honest now?”
“Like a stampede of chocobos passed through and used me as their stage.”
“It was a slow-acting poison, but all the more vicious for it. Someone wanted you to suffer.”
“It wouuuldn’t be the first time,” Cabanela said airily as his hoarseness would allow.
Cidgeon scowled. “Fool boy. You can be remarkably similar to Jowd and that’s not a compliment.”
“Looow blow, prof.”
“This isn’t the time for flippancy.”
“They failed. We’ll catch ‘em. A new investigation, nothin’ like it, baby!”
“You don’t need to push it. This isn’t the island.”
“Prof…”
Cabanela shuffled over, movements slow and stiff as he sat up at the edge of the bed. Leaning over, he caught Cidgeon in a clumsy hug. He was too warm, muscles shivered against him, the scent of illness hovered around them, and he was doing exactly what he just said not to do. Cidgeon returned the hug.
“You’re hopeless.”
Cabanela slumped back onto the bed. “I’m nothin’ but full of hope.”
“Not what I meant, and you know it.”
And yet it was almost worth it for the sparkle in Cabanela’s eyes even as he sunk deeper into the pillows. “I got youuu keepin’ me on my feet, after all.”
“Off was the point,” Cidgeon said wryly.
Cabanela covered a yawn with one hand and gestured to the bed and himself. “Followin’ doctor’s orders, seee?”
“Yes, well done. If it lasts more than an hour I might be impressed.” His gaze fell on the nearly empty pitcher of water by his bed. “Now see about getting more sleep if you can manage two orders. I’ll top this off.”
“Go ooon then, but there’s plenty of time for nappin’ later.”
“Yeah, right.” As if Cabanela didn’t look halfway there already.
And when he returned with the full pitcher he could only shake his head at Cabanela’s sleeping form. Pulling the blankets more securely around him, he let a hand linger at his shoulder. Too damn close, but they made it. He made it. Now the challenge would be to keep him on a sensible road to recovery. A daunting challenge in its own right, but a far more welcome one.
