someone has dust allergies, and ends up as a ghost….haunting a dusty library (and they quickly find out that allergies aren’t just for living people)
this can easily work for someone with pollen allergies haunting a garden. Dust/hay/animal allergies? Guess who’s haunting a farm. It can also work for sickness…Maybe someone died with a cold and now they’re stuck with it forever. Whatever floats your boat. Endless possibilities.
bonus: imagine ghost cannot interact with physical objects very well so they’re just stuck as a sneezy/ectoplasmic mess. U go into a haunted place expecting spooky sounds and creepy wraiths but it’s just some sniffly, rather miserable ghost that can’t stop sneezing and coughing.
Jordan has been able to see monsters ever since a bad accident during their freshman year of high school. Now they’re nineteen and have their place. It's an old house that used to be owned by an old couple who died in their sleep. No one wanted that house, so Jordan bought it for very cheap. Jordan didn’t want to be around a lot of people, so they moved in.
It's only been a few weeks into fall, and the weather was changing back and forth between warm and cold. With this change in temperature being so sporadic, Jordan was a little worried about catching a cold. Not that they couldn’t handle it, it just wasn’t something they needed especially since they just got a job at a small flower shop. So they did their best to remain healthy. Dressing weather-appropriate, drinking warm teas, and taking their vitamin c, seemed to work out well for the human.
While this was going on Jordan felt a presence in the house, one they couldn’t pin but could tell wasn’t bad. They just wish the presence would show itself to them.
Well wish and you shall receive.
Throughout the evening, Jordan would get this strange sickly feeling. The feeling of unwellness would sweep over them for a few minutes and then dissipate. This went on every hour until they went to bed. Jordan decided to go to bed earlier than usual hoping to shake this feeling. When the clock struck 3 AM Jordan woke up, but not to their own accord or in a nightmare. To the feeling that something was calling them. Repeatedly this voice said ‘hey! Heeey!’, even as Jordan opened their eyes the voice continued. It sounded raspy and tired. Jordan looked around and at first, couldn’t see a thing until a sudden sound came.
A sharp gasp, then another, and another then- “𝘏𝘌𝘚'𝘚𝘚𝘊𝘏𝘜!” Confusedly Jordan looked around for the source of the sound. Another set of gasps came then “𝘏𝘌𝘚'𝘚𝘚𝘊𝘏𝘜!” With the next sound that sounded much like a sneeze, Jordan saw exactly what was in their room. Honestly, Jordan was surprised to see it standing right in front of them, it looked rather pitiful if you asked them.
A tall young man about the same age in appearance as Jordan. Clad in a white button-up shirt and black pants. Skin pale almost sickly and dead, their eyes were completely blue the whites and all! Hair black and in a long tangled mess reaching the middle of the person’s shoulders. The face held a blue blush, the blue eyes sunken in and tired. The person was a mixer of solid and see-through in certain parts of the body.
Hunched over, shivering, sniffling, and rubbing at their nose the man-like figure coughed. This brought Jordan’s attention to them and not just their features. “S-sorry, did you want something?” Jordan asked, the thing was a ghost. The ghost was about to speak but was interrupted but another sneeze. “𝘏𝘌𝘚'𝘚𝘚𝘊𝘏𝘜!”
The ghost caught the sneeze in his hands that quickly cupped around his nose and mouth. When he pulled his hands away thick glowing blue slime dripped down and connected his hands to his nose. Ectoplasm...Jordan knew it was ectoplasmic snot, the sneeze did sound rather productive and wet so they weren’t surprised to see the stuff coming out of the ghost.
Jordan had a theory.
Standing up from their bed they walked towards the ghost and outstretched a hand that placed itself on the ghost’s forehead. Quickly pulling away Jordan frowned, the ghost was warm. Jordan knew this wasn’t normal, ghost, poltergeists, spirits, and other entities that didn’t possess a real heartbeat were usually ice cold.
Jordan grabbed a tissue from their nightstand and began to clean up the ghost who seemed to have a fever? Cleaning up the slime carefully to not get it on themselves knowing ectoplasm has a permanent stain to it. Cleaning up enough to let the ghost do the rest themselves, Jordan grabbed more tissues and handed them to him.
“Here, sounds like you need these.” Voice soft and sweet, the ghost nodded and help himself. While mopping up the mess the ghost thanked Jordan. “th-thagks for the t-tissues” Smiling Jordan replied, “You’re welcome, but are you okay?” Jordan had hardly ever seen a ghost in such a state. The ghost shook their head but immediately regretted it. Grabbing their head with a groan and clenching their teeth tightly. Jordan backed away a little nervous as to what was wrong. Then it hit them.
“Oh, you’re sick.”
The ghost gave a thick swallow and sighed. “Y-yeah, I amb sddrck” Jordan could help but give a little chuckle. The ghost looked at Jordan confusedly with a raised brow. Jordan noticed and apologized. “Sorry sorry, just never seen a ghost sick before, it's a little funny to me.” The ghost coughed roughly which seized Jordan’s laughter and brought on a more serious face. “Sounds like you did catch a bad chill” “I feel awful, haved’t beed ill id such a log tibe” The ghost answered back with a sad expression heavy on his face.
“Is that why I kept feeling sick because you were around?” Asked Jordan who placed their hands in his pajama pants pockets. “Yes,” Jordan thought about it before going into their closet. They pull out something that’s folded up, the ghost watched Jordan, perplexed by their actions, especially when the item Jordan brought out was draped around him. “Here, how’s this?” Asked Jordan, the thing was a blanket, it stayed on the ghost who tugged it around his shoulders. It stopped just past his hips, it was a very soft and fuzzy feeling. The ghost gave a small hum in relief as their shivering halted slowly.
“It's warmb, thagk you. Uh..”The ghost and human realized they didn’t know each other's names. “Oh, my name is Jordan” “cool bmine is Liu” “Well Liu, I’m going to guess that you woke me up because you are unwell. So let's get you feeling better alright.” Jordan offered a hand to the ghost, Liu hesitantly took it and was taken down the stairs of the old house towards the kitchen.
“Luckily for you, I just stocked up on remedies, and I know just the thing to make you feel better,” Jordan says as they get into the kitchen, they part from Liu and go through their cabinet and grab supplies. Liu curiously watched Jordan wondering what the human was talking about. Either way, Liu would be willing to try it if that meant feeling better.
Grabbing a pot, some chicken broth, carrots, noodles, and already cut pieces of chicken. Jordan put the pot on the stove and poured in the broth before turning on the heat to the gas stove and oven. Standing behind Jordan, Liu watched trying to piece it together until he couldn’t figure it out any longer. “What is that?” Jordan looked over his shoulder and jumped a little, they couldn’t tell the ghost was right behind them. Liu apologized for scaring Jordan.
“It's okay, just didn’t know you were there. Um, it's chicken noodle soup, I know it's an old wives tale but for some reason, it does make you feel better.” “o-oh okay” Liu nodded before he started sniffling, he sounded completely blocked up. Nothing was getting pasted that was of swelling in his sinuses and thick ectoplasm. Jordan then gave a suggestion. “Hey lean over the pot and try to sniffle, the heat of the soup turns into steam and that usually helps loosen things up.” Liu furrowed his brows but did as Jordan said.
Face just above the pot of warm soon-to-be hot broth, Liu started to sniffle. At first, it was just like before hard to get past the wall. Jordan coaxed the spirit with back rubs and verbal encouragement. “Come on you can do it.” “I know, you’re blocked up but it’ll help.” “there you go, there sounds like it's loosening up.” ‘sdrrck’s turning into ‘sdnrrff’s, Liu’s nose started to run as the stuffiness began to shift and move. But the ectoplasm was so thick it caused a tickle to brew.
The closer the snot-like substance ran towards the edge of Liu’s nostrils the worse the tickle got. His breath started to catch in sharp hiccups like breaths, his shoulders went slack. Head tilting back as he geared up for what was to come. Jordan saw this and quickly searched for something to catch the results. Grabbing a hand towel, Jordan pulled the entity away from the pot.
Still hitching towards what Jordan feared would be a horrendous mess if not prepared, Liu whimpered a little as his nose twitched and flushed a blue color. Then a huge gasp came and his head rocketed forwards. Jordan caught Liu just in time, holding the cloth over Liu’s nose and mouth as he had a fit, Jordan prayed that the rag would hold up against the inhuman substance.
Adjusting their hold with one arm around Liu’s frame while their other hand is busy holding up the hand cloth up to Lui’s face. This closeness gave Jordan the ability to feel the force of each sneeze Liu let out. Jordan was glad the cloth could contain the mess and spray or else there'd be a huge mess to clean up.
Still, the dark-skinned human couldn’t help but feel bad for the ghost. Seeing Liu so ill like this tugged at their heart painfully. Jordan was always a caring person and loved to take care of the entities they came across. The entities could sense it too, they could sense the caring nature the redhead possessed.
When the fit was done, Liu coughed a little before trying to sniffle again. Jordan hadn’t moved the rag yet. But could feel Liu’s nose twitch and wriggle around. “Poor thing, try blowing your nose.” He did, and boy did it make Liu sound worse than he probably was? Yes, Jordan honestly wondered where someone could be keeping all that snot or in Liu’s case ectoplasm.
When Liu finally finished Jordan pulled the rag away from Liu's face trying to keep the mess contained but well….there was a lot and it made a point of being the stickiest, slimiest, gelatinous thing on the planet.
Jordan decided to just trash the rag knowing that no matter how many times they washed it, it would still be covered and stained. “Bless you goodness, did that feel better Liu?” Liu gave a small nod and rubbed his nose. Then Jordan remembered the task at hand when they heard the roar of boiling chicken broth still on the stove. “Oh shit!” They cursed grabbing the noodles and putting that in first and lowering the heat a little.
After a few minutes, Jordan put in the solid contents and let it cook. Jordan looked at the ghost who seemed tired, so they pulled out a chair from their kitchen table and gestured for Liu to sit down. Once seated Liu laid his head on the table still keeping the blanket wrapped around himself. Liu could hardly keep his eyes open long enough to stay awake, so Jordan didn’t bother to wake up the ghost when he fell asleep.
When the soup was ready Jordan didn’t know if they had the heart to wake Liu up. They knew the ghost needed sleep but also needed to eat. So Jordan took a chance and gently shook the ghost awake. Blue eyes fluttering open Liu heard his name and rose his head up a little. “Liu?” Liu hummed sleepily looking around until he saw Jordan. “Hmm?” Jordan giggles a little and pats Liu’s back a little. “Hey there, wake up sleepyhead, soup’s ready.” Liu sat up at a slow pace as the bowl of hot soup was placed in front of him.
Liu shakily reached for the spoon after adjusting the hold on the blanket. Trying to take a spoonful of soup to his mouth was a whole chore it seems like. His arm and hand were achy and shaky, he was hardly able to coordinate his mouth and hand. Liu almost dropped the spoon too so of course Jordan was getting worried the other would accidentally burn himself (if that was possible for a ghost). So Jordan took the spoon out of Liu’s hand carefully. Scooted their chair closer to Liu and got a spoonful of soup.
“Here, I’ve got you.”
It was a few spoons of soup before Liu was almost asleep again. Still, he thanked Jordan for the soup before he was carried up to bed by the short human. Jordan laid the ghost down in his bed and brought the blankets over him. Then go back downstairs to clean up and package the soup for later. When Jordan looked at the time, it was six in the morning. So they headed back up to their bedroom where the ghost was sleeping all nice and warm in the sheets. Crawling into bed and under the covers, Jordan tried to give the ghost his space. Yet they couldn’t stop themselves from brushing black locks out of the ghastly pale face.
Falling asleep, Jordan woke up to the ghost cuddled up next to them. Head on Jordan’s chest with soft congested snores slipping from Liu’s lips. Cheeks and nose still flushed blue, speaking of the nose. Liu’s nose was running in his sleep, Jordan reached over towards the nightstand and snatched up a couple of tissues to clean up the oozing snot. Though even the ginger brush of a tissue triggered Liu’s nose.
Nose twitching and nostrils flaring, made Liu’s nose run more. Soft sniffles and snorts came from the sleeping ghost alarmed Jordan of what was to come. Hastily grabbing more tissues while Liu’s breath caught, Jordan pressed the tissues to Liu’s irritated nose and braced for impact.
“𝘏𝘌𝘚'𝘚𝘚𝘊𝘏𝘜! 𝘏𝘌𝘚'𝘚𝘚𝘊𝘏𝘜! 𝘏𝘌𝘚'𝘚𝘚𝘊𝘏𝘜! HEE𝘌𝘚'𝘚𝘚𝘊𝘏𝘜!“ The sneezes were a lot softer than earlier and tired. Jordan couldn’t help but find Liu’s sleepy sneezes cute. Though it did wake him up, eyes opening softly, Jordan cleaned up Liu’s face of the blue ectoplasmic mucus before he could register what happened. “Bless you sleepy” Jordan cooed gently. Liu gave a dopey smile and snuggled more into Jordan’s chest. Seeing those big blue eyes staring up at Jordan, Jordan couldn’t help but smile back.
