#ghasdug

[neims-skeleton-obsession]

I need your thoughts on Ghastdug NEOW respectfully

HII HBL has made me absolutely deranged about them this post is gonna be. so comedically long + incoherent. fair warning.

i started typing this then realised i am absolutely gonna need to name skul's wife because if i type "skul's wife" one more time i will explode. random name generator go.

fuck it sure that works. for the purposes of this post she's called lyla.

I do fully think they weren't in a Romantic relationship at any point, largely because Skul is, to me specifically, somewhere on the aro spectrum. Would he ever say the words "I'm aromantic"? No. But I think he has been romantically attracted to exactly one person and that's Lyla. I do think Ghastly had a small. a teeny. crush when they first met but didn't necessarily do anything further with it.

Convinced Ghastly n Lyla were in kahoots because a) she absolutely matched her husband's freak b) Ghastly is a freak magnet. Very much a "this is my husband. this is my husband's best friend. he helps me handle my husband." he loved that whole entire family So Much. (he was just. part of the family i fear)

Ghastly is the Designated Skul Handler. That fuckass skeleton gets obsessed/angry over something (someone) and gets Irresponsible about it and Ghastly keeps his ass somewhat in check. Fig 1:

Fig 2 (this whole scene. god i love Ghastly):

my favourite thing about this is that both of them are. Scarily competent in many areas. But Skul can also be wildly fucking impulsive and Ghastly balances him out :]

Skul is very particular with physical affection, we know this. I think the two of em are very physical with one another, but Skul largely being the one that initiates. Standing shoulder to shoulder, sitting with legs-hips-arms pressed together, side hugs, pats on the back, all that shit. During the war especially it becomes contact for the sake of grounding, reminders that the other is still there, so on. Also the mental image of Skul getting Twitchy and Ghastly grabbing his ass so he settles down you feral fucking bastard is very funny to me.

And this could go in both directions because lets not forget that Ghastly "I want to kill Sanguine. Slowly. With a hammer." Bespoke is just as unhinged as all the other Dead Men.

(No I've reconsidered. Skul encourages his unhingedness.)

This probably changed to some degree after Skul died- took him a little while to readjust to how touch felt in a body that was pretty much alien, coping with the loss of Lyla and their kid, etc. Ghastly was there if he ever sought out the comfort (in any other form, too)

Tldr i think they do physical affection, esp during the war, as some mixture of reassurance (especially after a mission gone to shit) and working off adrenaline (especially after something goes right)

Not really an actual thought but I keep jokingly calling Skul "that twink" whenever i think about him. And he definitely isnt a twink. But i fear next to Ghastly fucking Bespoke, many people could look like one.

I think when Rustica met Skul for the the first time she called him "the lad my son fucks" purely to embarrass Ghastly. It absolutely worked.

There may or may not be more of this. im insane about them your honour

[lassieposting]

U kno I gotta ask for the ghasduggery

Send me a ship and I'll tell you what they get up to at the requiem ball fancy sanctuary parties during the war

"I hate these things" "I know, skul" "i hate these people" "i know you do" "I'm going to start shooting" "You Will Not"

"Absolutely not. I'm not going anywhere with you if you're wearing that...grotesque befeathered monstrosity" "ah, come on now, leave my hat alone, it's stylish" [no holds barred wrestling match ensues]

"You want satisfaction from how many people???" "Ah, calm down, I've never lost a duel" "WHICH IS A GOOD TIME TO STOP DEMANDING THEM, YOU FOOL" "eh, maybe. but you'll be my second?" "well obviously"

horny eye contact while ghastly fixes skug's cravat

Horny eye contact across the dinner table

Horny eye contact during dress uniform fittings

The incredibly frosty, "I'm spoken for" when skug gets hit on and ghastly is like, right there.

"I always feel like everyone is staring at me at these fucking things." "Don't be absurd. They're staring at me in this uniform. They wish they were you right now." "You are...you're unbelievable, you know that?" "I'm aware."

Skug teaches ghastly to dance for fancy sanctuary parties, hilarity ensues

Skug dishing on rich people's relationship drama from 30ft away bc he grew up in this bitchy backstabbing social circle and unlike sweet straightforward tradesman ghastly, he can smell blood in the water

That one scene in bridgerton where all the boys spot lady danbury and try to scatter, then do the quick guilty bow when she's like "too late, I've already noted you"? That's ghasdug trying to avoid getting wrangled and shown off by corrival.

When they're 'off again', Skug is either 10/10 best wingman or mr steal yo girl, there is no inbetween

Sharing a carriage home and either getting handsy or dozing off on each other's shoulders, depending on the amount of alcohol consumed

[morwenna-crows]

ghasdug divorced meme (original is here, art by dappyy)

[dead-men-disco]

Alright but. Skulduggery definitely showed up at Ghastly 's door at 3AM completely and utterly hammered on more than one occasion

If he wasn't drunk then he needed help hiding a bunch of bodies and/or starting several fights before morning

Ghastly isn't even surprised anymore he's just like. K. Lemme fetch a coat.

[neims-skeleton-obsession]

so sorry i need y’all to know that hell breaks loose fully confirmed my ghasdug feelings. which are of course:

a) I don’t think they’ve at any point been romantically involved but have been in every other possible way.

b) Ghastly is in charge. Take this as you will.

[neims-skeleton-obsession]

oh don't mind me. im just thinking about ghastly being so fucken worried whenever skug puts hhimself in the slightest danger post-death. during a war. maybe getting to the point of snapping at/being upset with him. because "I won't lose you again, Skul. I can't."

[neims-skeleton-obsession]

help im thinking about living skug AND ghasdug. at the SAME time

[lassieposting]

What do you think the Dead Men / other skulduggery pleasant characters pet names would be for their SO?

OKAY SO

here's the rundown

DEAD MEN

ghasdug: they don't really use pet names. ghastly sometimes calls skug skul, which skug hates, but he gets away with it by dint of having done it since they were teens. they get together at 16 and for most of their relationship skug doesn't use affectionate nicknames or pet names for anyone. He does sometimes fondly call ghastly bespoke, though.

sexter: dexter is just dex, mostly - not just with saracen, but with all his lovers. saracen is like 5'9 to dexter's 6ft, so dexter fondly refers to him as big guy.

shudderkin: shudder isn't a pet name person, but he is pretty much the only person who regularly calls larrikin by his first name, rover. on the flipside, larrikin will answer to pretty much anything, and shudder promptly gets nicknamed altar boy, in honour of all that religious guilt he carries around.

other: ghastly was a sergeant major during the war. everyone who doesn't outrank him still occasionally whines "but sarge," if he's telling them off for something.

BAD BOY BRIGADE

violent: their relationship is a closely guarded secret for a long time, so in public they're professional: vile calls mevolent your grace, and mevolent calls vile general. in private, over the years, mevolent will sometimes fondly refer to vile as rouquin ("little redhead" or "little ginger" in Middle French). vile doesn't use pet names at all, but he does call mev mevolent, rather than an honorific title, which isn't something many people get to do

nefmev: they don't do pet names, especially not from nef. he's pretty smitten with mevolent, but mev sees him as a convenient casual hookup whenever he wants one, so he won't get away with over-familiarity in the same way vile could if he was the pet name type. he's one of mevolent's closest advisors, and in the war room, to a certain degree he gets to talk to mev like an equal and argue with him, but that doesn't really carry over to the bedroom. nef is used to messed up power dynamics, so this never really strikes him as odd.

sorrowscorn: they're both rather fond of darling

baronscorn: they have their own little awkward thing where she calls him husband and he calls her wife. the rest of the court are not entirely sure whether these are affectionate pet names or whether they are just strange ultra-repressed oddballs who think that's how normal people speak. vile and mevolent have a running bet.

GOOD GUYS (MISC)

cassdug: she's not flowery at all about her pet names - he's usually either love or lovey, depending on her mood. he doesn't really go in for them with her, but he does call her cassie in private, which is. very unusual for him, seeing as he pretty much never shortens names.

skulpine: skug calls nef nefarian. this is significant to nef because he isn't on first-name terms with leibniz!skug, and he gets visibly annoyed when og!skug keeps calling him nefarian in lsodm/tdotl. as his obsession shifts from skug-as-enemy to skug-as-ally, he starts to like the informality, because it makes him feel like skug likes him, and at a certain point he starts reciprocating by going from "the skeleton" or "detective pleasant" to skulduggery. these aren't actually pet names for skug though - he and og!serpine are on first name terms the whole way through book one, so this is normal to him.

valdug: pet names are pretty rare from him, and non-existent from her, but he does call her dear every now and then. neither of them are really the type that show affection like this.

skugwife: easily the most petnamey couple here - he's my darling and she's dearest. when they're courting and writing to each other, him at the front and her back in dublin, his letters begin with "dearest clary" and hers always end with "be safe, my darling". they keep this sappy shit up until she's killed, and even after - he vaguely remembers hallucinating her comforting him and telling him to come with me, my darling when he was being slowly tortured to death in serpine's dungeon, and that's the incident her ghost tells him about in tdotl - "we watched you suffer, we tried to get you to come with us".

vilekyrie: not so much a pet name, but i've always had a headcanon that when vile has nonverbal periods, he communicates with little shadow emojis like the sandman in rise of the guardians. he has one for her, like (🙎🏻), and mostly uses it to show he's worried about her if she's upset (🙎🏻❓) or that he's happy to see her/wants to show her something (🙎🏻❗) or say "I love you" (🙎🏻❤). sometimes his shadows will make the little signs in his sleep, and she can tell he's talking to her in his dreams. she sees it as almost a pet name. when he's talking though, they don't really have any.

(@bubblemoon66 do they have pet names in the spy!au? now im curious)

soldug: they mostly call each other by their surnames (pleasant/wreath) or by titles (detective/cleric), so their version of pet names is just...informality. if they use skulduggery or solomon, it's usually affectionate or concerned.

skug's siblings: after skug's mother is killed, he gets custody of the five youngest siblings. respair, the youngest, is only like four, and still has a little-kid lisp, and can't actually say 'skulduggery'. So skug gets to spend several unfortunate years as...well...skug thkug. respair grows out of it - eventually. raising kids is a thankless, embarrassing job.

BAD GUYS (MISC)

vilequesse: she frequently refers to him as my little toy or my pet. he doesn't really have one for her (but vilekyrie!au vile does have a sign for darquesse, and it's different to his one for val, which is. a relief for her tbh because for a while she's not actually sure whether he knows there's a difference)

tanguine: brs is a good ol' southern boy, so he has a whole bunch of names for tanith. honey bun, sweetheart, sugar, dumplin', all the typical schmoopy food ones. if she asks him something, he'll often answer her with either "yes ma'am" or "no ma'am". tanith, being all remnanty, isn't overly given to genuine displays of affection, but in a world where he survives tdotl and they figure it out, she mostly opts for babe