got some big ass lo-fi energy earlier in the night while still simping hard
so decided to make this crappy liddol gif-
only 3 pics and still dragged it to 2:30am cuz my godforsaken ass kept getting distracted every 5 mins & played amogus on phone w/ friends later and kept forgetting which part did i change lol
The house was a mess. You knew it hadn't been inhabited in awhile, but you hadn't expected to need a tobacco cleanup before you even started. The woman you had hired did a good job but even she couldn't get it all out of the paint. The floorboards would need to be replaced, the walls would likely have to be sanded and repainted, and you had no doubt the carpet had to go too.
You turned the sander off, removing your respirator and sliding your headphones off your head to take a break. You walked into the kitchen area, opening the fridge. You shuddered as a cold chill ran down your spine and you looked around. Your mother would say someone just walked over your grave, but you weren't the superstitious type. You chalked it up to standing in front of the fridge after working up a sweat.
You pulled the sandwich out of the fridge and shut it, thankful the new owners had agreed to turn the power on. You sat down on an unopened five gallon bucket of paint and dug into your lunch. You looked around the house. You had pulled down the blinds and curtains to let the light into the small space. It was nice, homey. You wondered how it ended up abandoned.
You continued to work on the walls for the next few weeks until the house was repainted. Hopefully that would erase the lingering smell of cigarettes. The previous owner was obviously a heavy smoker. Maybe that's the reason it was abandoned, they finally had one too many.
You were going to start work on the floorboards today. There was no way you could just refinish them, years of neglect and tobacco had worked it's way into the wood. You had measured the rooms that needed it and ordered the replacements, now just came the process of tearing it out. But, the house seemed angry.
You smelled cigarettes more often now. But you figured it was because of the floorboards. You heard thuds from somewhere within the house, but you figured it was just the wind messing with the attic vents. You got cold chills often but chalked that up to the newly fixed air conditioner that hadn't been calibrated yet.
You finally had enough when a violent chill ripped through you one day as you were trying to rip up one particularly stubborn floorboard. You hooked the claw of your hammer under it and pulled upwards, splintering the wood. This board had been held in with twice as many nails, that were twice as large as normal flooring nails.
"Alright listen house ghost if you're upset then come deal with me yourself. But stop giving me problems!" You shouted to nothing, feeling silly. But shouting at this "house ghost" was a decent outlet for your frustrations at this remodel. You turned to pull the rest of the floorboard up, spotting something tucked within the floor joints. You reached for it, feeling your shirt sleeve snag on one of the nails as you pulled it out. You examined the hole in your sleeve before turning your attention to the item in your hand.
"Put it back." You heard a deep voice growl. You jumped, gripping the small box tighter as you looked up. There, sitting on one of the piles of ripped up floorboards was a tall man with a mysterious green glow around him. He was holding a lit cigarette in his hands. You sat back as your chest heaved.
"How the hell did you get in here?" You snapped. You had locked all the doors and the windows while you worked. There was no way he could get into the house without you knowing, the new owners hadn't even picked up their keys yet.
"No, how did you get here?" He asked, taking a breath from the cigarette. When he blew out the smoke was green and glowed with a strange light.
"This is my house, what are you doing here?" He asked. You held your hammer as a weapon as you sat back up on your knees.
"Your house? No, this house was just purchased. I know the owners and you're not one of them." You said. The man snorted, taking another puff from the cigarette. You took a moment to examine him. He wore jeans with a white t-shirt and a black jacket. He had a heavy pair of brown work boots on and a brown hat atop his teal hair that cast a shadow over his eyes. He would be handsome, if he wasn't scaring you right now.
"Bullshit." He said.
"Who are you?" You asked. If he was here to hurt you he would have done it already.
"I already told you, I'm the owner." He said.
"No you aren't. Who are you really?" You snapped. You were starting to get tired of him.
"I'm the ghost that had until now tolerated you sanding down my walls and ripping up my floor. But I need you to put that pack of cigarettes back, or we're going to have a problem." He finally said, standing up from the pile of floorboards. His feet made no sound as he walked towards you over the floor joists. He grabbed your wrist and shook your hand to loosen your grip on the small box, that you now realized was an old pack of Marlboro cigarettes. When his hand touched yours you felt a familiar chill shoot down your spine.
You dropped the cigarettes back between the floor joists and he stood over the pack protectively.
"I, ghost?" You asked. He took the cigarette from his mouth and blew more smoke as he nodded.
"Yes, the house ghost that you've been yelling at for the past week. My name is Garcello." He dropped the cigarette in his hand and it faded away before it connected with the ground. You looked up at him and he tilted his head.
"How, what?" You asked.
"I died, and apparently my spirit is tied to that pack of cigarettes. So it needs to stay here." He said, pointing to the pack of cigarettes between his feet.
"So you can stay here?" You asked. He snapped his fingers and another cigarette appeared between his fingers that he gestured to you with before speaking.
"Now she's getting it." He said, taking a drag from the cigarette.
"Why do you want to stay here?" You asked, looking around. It was a nice house but it was small and in a state of disarray.
"It's safe." He said, looking around. You tilted your head.
"Listen I did a lot of shit while I was alive, and for a few minutes before I came back I was in hell. Literal hell. I have no desire to go back." He said, taking another drag from the cigarette.
"Actual hell?"
"Yes, real hell, with satan and the fire and all that." He said. He pulled his hat off and ran a hand through his hair absentmindedly. It fluffed out for a moment before he pulled the hat back onto his head.
"So those cigarettes need to stay here because if anything happens to them I'm gone for good." He said. You looked at the cigarettes between his feet, then back to him.
"They can't stay here." You said. He let out a low growl and his hair flared out around his head. The glow around him grew a little brighter and the hairs on the back of your neck stood on end.
"Says you? Who even are you?" He hissed.
"I'm the one the owners hired to remodel the house. I can't just leave a pack of cigarettes, that has a ghost tied to it, in the floorboards. I'm pretty sure that violates some contract I had them sign." You explained.
"What are you going to do about it?" He took a step towards you, and although you knew he was trying to intimidate you, there was a hesitancy to it. As though he didn't really want to hurt you.
"Well I'm not going to burn it or anything, if that's what you mean." You said, reaching for the cigarettes. You picked them up and examined them. The pack was worn and faded and there were a few cigarettes missing from the inside. Garcello seemed distressed as you turned the box over.
"Please be careful." He said, holding out his hand.
"You're really nervous for a ghost." You said. He rolled his eyes and shoved his hands into his pockets.
"You would be too if the eternal damnation of your soul was being prevented by a pack of cigarettes." He said. You snorted, that was definitely true. You set the cigarettes on the counter next to you and he looked between you and the pack.
"You're just going to leave them out?" He asked. You knelt back down, hooking your hammer under the floorboards again and ripping the next one up.
"I mean for now. If you're so stressed then move them." You said, tearing up another floorboard.
"I can't." He said, standing next to the pack. You looked up to him in confusion. He could obviously touch things, he had grabbed your wrist and been knocking things over.
"Why not?" You asked. He took the cigarette from between his lips and touching the corner of the pack with the tip of his finger. There was a sizzling screaming sound that came from his, skin and the pack of cigarettes. He pulled his hand away to reveal a black spot on the corner of the pack.
"If I try it burns it. I'm not sure why." He said, replacing the cigarette between his lips. You stood from the floor, walking past him and examining the pack.
"Can you just like, put it in a box and bury it in the back yard or something?" He asked, watching as you picked up the pack again.
"It would take a long time to make a box that's watertight so this wouldn't fall apart." You said, setting it back on the counter top. Garcello rested his elbows on the counter and rested his chin in his hands.
"How did it even get under the floor boards if you can't touch it?" You asked.
"I was with people when it happened. They put it under the floor and nailed it back down. For awhile they came to visit but, I guess they got busy." He said. You looked to him to see him working the cigarette around his mouth.
"What if I take this with me when I leave. Will you like combust or something?" You asked, pointing to the cigarettes. He tilted his head.
"No, I'll just go with you." He said. You nodded.
"Well you can't stay here, and I'm not just going to let you burn in hell." You said. He took the cigarette from his mouth and narrowed his eyes at you.
"You're going to take a ghost home." He said. "Like i'm a kitten you found on the street." He finished.
"Well it sounds bad when you put it that way, think of it as a roommate situation." You said. Garcello raised his eyebrows and nodded.
"Could be nice. It's been awhile since I've spent time with people." He said.
"Well you can come home with me or, I can drop you somewhere else." You said. Garcello shook his head.
"I don't have anywhere else to be dropped." He said with a chuckle. You picked up the pack of cigarettes, walking around the counter to slide them in the empty pocket of your lunch bag.
"That settles it then. I guess you're coming home with me." You said. Garcello looked at you and cracked a small smile.
"Why are you doing this?" He asked.
"Well hell doesn't sound fun. And maybe I feel kind of bad that you've been stuck her alone for so long." You said, kneeling back on the floor and working to pry up the next floorboard. Garcello knelt next to you silently before placing the cigarette back in his mouth, gripping the floorboard with one hand and ripping it up. You looked at him in surprise and he grinned.
"Lesson one of having a ghost roommate, we're pretty strong." He said with a laugh, pulling the next floorboard up as well. You let out a laugh as he pulled another board out.
"Maybe you should come with me to every job I do." You said with a smile while the two of you worked together to pull up the remaining floorboards.
"Yeah maybe I should." He said, reaching down and gripping one of the leftover nails, pulling it out bare handed.
"It would be nice to see so many things." He looked up at you with a smile.
"So I guess you're just going to live in my lunch bag then?" You asked. He wrinkled his nose.
"I don't live wherever the pack is, I just am tied within a certain distance of it." He said.
"So is it a set distance or you can't like leave the building?" You asked, sitting back on your feet.
"It's kind of a distance. Like I can get halfway out the backyard, and out to the road out front, but I can't cross the street or anything." He said. You nodded.
"So are you tied to a distance from the pack as a whole, or if I took one of the cigarettes could you follow that one specifically?" You asked. Garcello approached you with a handful of bent and broken nails and held out his hand to you. You pointed to the paint can of nails next to the pile of floorboards and he dropped the nails in the can.
"I don't know. I never tried." He said with a shrug.
"I guess we have a lot of experimenting to do then." You said. He paused to look up at you before pulling up another floorboard.
"You're serious about taking me with you?" He asked. You furrowed your brows.
"Yes? What else would I do?" You asked with confusion in your voice.
"Drop it in the first garbage can or puddle you see." He said simply, pulling up a second floorboard.
"I wouldn't do that." You said. You saw Garcello's hair float around his head a bit more as the green glow intensified briefly.
"Why not?"
"I like you. You're nicer than most of the living people I know." You said. The halo around him intensified further and his hair flared around him like a lions mane. You watched as his cheeks blushed a bright pink and you smiled.
"Sorry, it's been awhile since someone said they liked me." He said.
"Can I try something?" You asked. He turned to you and nodded before taking the cigarette from between his lips. You leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. His lips were soft and warm. You pulled back and had to squint to see him through the green light. His hair was standing on end and his eyes were glowing green. He pressed his hands to his face to hide his blush and you had to hold back a giggle as his hat started to float off his head.
"Fuck I didn't know that happened." He said. You let out a laugh.
"It looks like we both have a lot to learn about ghosts."
Honestly, I love these styles, "sloppy". Especially if I want to draw something, but I definitely need to quickly. Or I'm not a patient person in this regard.
