ohhh i forgot to send in for your celebration.....
well, here I am now 😅
congrats!!! i'm so proud and so happy people decided to join your blog, and see all your lovely headcanons and thoughts.
for your celebration, may i request prompt #3 "the world doesn't care."
feel free to play with it how you like!
congratulations again xx
So I am combining this with @heronstairs2014 ask for Heronstairs and prompt 21. This one is based on this series of headcanons. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Also, I did not start writing this intending for it to happen, but as I was writing a character, it became clear to me that I was writing another character from an entirely separate series. You do not need to have read the Sandman comics to understand this fic at all, just be aware that “Dove,” a ghost, is in fact not a ghost. She is the personification of Death of the Endless. And Death is very kind. She is very human, and spends one day a century fully human, so that she can experience what life is like, and she always wishes that it was for longer. But she can never fall in love romantically, for all that she loves humans. That’s all you need to know about her. She can appear however she likes, and she’s chosen a form that would lead Will to assume that she is just another ghost.
The first words Will heard from Jem upon walking into his room were “What did you do this time?”
“Well hello to you too Jem. I’m fine this evening, and yourself?” Will grouched.
“That’s all you have to say Will? Really? You come home at 5 in the morning, clothes torn, a black eye, broken nose, and covered in blood. And that’s all you have to say to me? Get over here.” Jem had already started moving towards Will while he was speaking and listing off Will’s visible injuries. “You are going to get yourself killed one of these days Will. What was it this time? Another fight with a vampire or werewolf?” As he was questioning Will, Jem started stripping him of his clothes, to see what injuries he was hiding this time.
“Well if I had known that’s what you were in the mood for tonight Jem, I would have cleaned up before coming to you.” Will tried to say this as coyly as possible, but the image was ruined by the sight of his grimace when he tried to smile.
“Be serious Will,” Jem said, annoyed at Will’s pitiful attempt at dodging the question. He started drawing healing runes while Will talked.
“Oh fine,” Will murmured with a put upon sigh. “There may have been a disagreement over who won a hand of cards. I obv-OW” he yelped as Jem set his nose without warning. “Thanks for telling me you were going to do that.” came out with a nasally tone. “I won though, obviously.”
“If you won, I would hate to see what the loser looked like.” Jem remarked dryly. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up. You are not sleeping in this bed until that blood is gone.” As he led Will over to where he kept a bowl of clean water, to wash him up, Will smirked at the thought of the loser of the fight. “Oh, he looks worse than I do.” was mentioned airily and with a wave of his hand.
“I don’t want to hear about it.” Jem mentioned firmly. “All I want is for you to be clean, and in bed where I can make sure that you won’t be getting in any other fights tonight.”
As Will laid in bed with Jem curled warmly around him, Will thought back to the fight, and what had caused it. He hated lying to Jem, but it might improve everyone’s opinion of him, which he couldn’t have happening. Not, at least, if he wanted them safe.
He had been out making the rounds, visiting his spy ring of ghosts. The dead saw more than the living thought possible, and for Will, they could speak. He tried to make the rounds every two weeks, changing who and where he visited from night to night, unless there was more demon activity in one area than another. Ghosts, Will thought, as he tossed an apple in the air and caught it, were a wonderful asset to have in tracking demon activity. Plus, Will mused, they were good at helping catch criminal activity with the living mundane as well. He caught sight of the ghost he had been looking for and greeted him. “Hello Inspector. How’s the watch tonight?”
The Inspector looked at him, and out of his mouth came “Eh, relatively peaceful tonight. Just the usual nightly business.” The Inspector was a detective with Scotland Yard prior to his death, and when he died, was so dedicated to his job, that he came back as a ghost and was bound to his old patrol path. Considering the part of London they were in, the “usual nightly business” meant that the streets were filled with men looking for pleasure, to get drunk, to gamble, or some combination of all three.
“No sign then?” Will asked with a frown.
“None. Might have better luck down further though. Heard Dove might be looking for you.”
“My thanks.” When Will had first come to London, he had mainly stayed inside the Institute, unused to the city. As he remained in London though, and explored it, he was shocked by the disparity between the classes, and the conditions people lived in. There were women and children living in the streets, hardly dressed warmly enough to survive the winter, and selling themselves to get by. Some children were lucky and found work at gambling houses, and running messages for people, but there weren’t enough positions available for the sheer amount of children who needed them. And the women. Will didn’t know how anyone could treat women the way he saw them treated.
Some women were lucky, and Will mentally scoffed at the idea of it being lucky, but some were lucky enough to have a home in brothels, where they could ply their trade. Some of the brothels did treat their girls well, Will was aware of this, but there were far more that did not. And the ones who weren’t lucky enough, they just found an alley and anyone who came by, and couldn’t afford to care much about their safety. The people on the street were the ones Will concerned himself with, as they were the ones most in need of protection, but the least likely to receive it.
Will had a method you see, to making sure his reputation stayed as bad as he could make it. He would call in on some of the worst brothels, and gambling halls, and spend time there. Now the gambling halls held a dual purpose, as Jem needed the Yin-Fen to live, but with prices going up, his money didn’t go as far as it used to. Will was supplementing that money by playing cards, which he was very good at. And, it made his other vice far more affordable. See, Will liked to go to the brothels, and pay for a night with whoever looked like they needed a break. Whether it was because they just had a desperate look, or were still covered in bruises from another client, he would make sure that they could take one night off. Hell, he had helped to make sure that one of the worst offenders had a change of management six months ago, to make sure that the girls there would be taken care of properly after one of them had died. It helped that she had stuck around as a ghost and was already learning to rattle things. She spooked some of the clients off if they were being rough.
Will also helped if a girl just wanted out. Gambling halls were always looking for girls to entertain and make men spend more money, and he knew a few good places he could send someone if they needed somewhere else to go. He paused his thoughts for a moment to leave a hat with a young child who was sleeping near the entrance of an alleyway. It was starting to get cold outside and they needed it more than he did. Plus, Charlotte would get him a new one if he wound up needing a new one, and if she thought that he lost this one, it would make her annoyed, helping in his quest to ensure that she hated him. Everything Will did had its purpose. Including why he was seeking out Dove at the moment.
He didn’t know what her real name was, her English was occasionally antiquated, and for all that Will could speak 5 languages fluently, and was conversational and passable in many more, he wasn’t familiar with her native tongue which she would speak in when she wasn’t paying attention. Her English was very good though, which he supposed made sense since she had seen it evolve. When she heard that his last name was Herondale, she began to call him Little Bird, because she thought that he looked young. Dove wasn’t an exact translation as far as Will could tell, but her name had something to do with birds, and she knew what a dove was, and had decided that Will could call her that. She had been dead for a very long time, based on her clothing, so Will let her decide on a new name. Will also thought that she had been well off, or well traveled anyway, because she had a silver necklace around her throat, an ankh. She was one of the lonelier ghosts, and didn’t seem to know if anyone else from her time period was around. She also seemed to discomfort some of the other ghosts, but Will could never understand why, not with her personality. She was kind, so very kind. She reminded Will a bit of his mother, and of Charlotte. And he could see so much of Jem in her as well, which was probably why he was so fond of her, the one benefit of being able to see ghosts, he pondered ironically; it was that they were already dead. His curse couldn’t affect them so he could be as kind as he wished. Speaking of Dove, there she was now.
“Hello Dove. How’s the night been so far?” Will asked quietly.
“Hello Little Bird. The night has been well. There’s been no sign yet.” What Will, and several other ghosts in the area were looking for was a killer. Scotland Yard wasn’t putting too much work into looking for him, but if he was dropped on their doorstep they would have to deal with him. He hadn’t killed anyone important yet, which was why they didn’t care. When the ghosts in this area had alerted Will as to what was going on, he agreed to help catchhim. There was a speck of a girl, couldn’t have been more than ten, and she didn’t understand that she was dead at first. When she did, she showed that life had aged her before her time. She knew why the Yard didn’t care to look, the killer was just cleaning up street rats as far as they were concerned, the people they pretended not to see, that they didn’t exist everyday, until they needed someone to point a finger at for a crime.
“The world doesn’t care, not about us, not about the ones who live during the night and sleep during the day. They don’t care about the message runners, there’ll always be another brat who can do it, and do it cheaper, no cause for concern if they need to find a new one. They don’t care about a future whore, another blight on society. And why would they? They can pretend that their fancy lives, and houses, and carriages are all there is to the world and just ignore us until they need us or want us.” She was right too. People would walk by and pretend not to see, almost as if “that part of society” were covered in a glamour, the way the Downworld and Shadowhunters were. Will had a charm he used, that could make him appear as he wished, and he used it so that he wouldn’t be identified, that way no one would think to care for him for his actions, and when he wore it no one would give much thought about him, or who he might be. It was expensive, but it had paid for itself in spades for him to be able to help people. Which was what he was trying to do now.
He had gone over the locations, and victims, with the Inspector, and the other ghosts in the area the killer was targeting, he was following a pattern, and Will intended to catch him, tonight. Since the Yard wasn’t investigating, they didn’t know that there was a pattern, because there were bodies that hadn’t been found, or were thought to be dead for reasons other than this killer, which made most of their information incorrect. That didn’t matter to Will though. He was relying on his instincts, and the ghosts, to help him. They knew what he looked like, how he acted, and all Will needed was for one of them to spot him, and the hunt would be on.
Dove dragged Will back out of his thoughts, the faces of the victims who had stuck around until he was caught haunting him in his mind. “You are sad tonight. Why?”
“I’m not sad Dove, I just want justice. Sometimes, justice can’t always be found, or granted, but this time, it can. And I intend to see it happen.” What Will didn’t mention is that one of the victims looked very much like Jem did when he first arrived at the Institute, and that it made him think of the fact that there was nothing left to be done for Jem, except to help him live the rest of his short life to the fullest. He couldn’t find justice for Jem, but he could for these souls.
“This is about your lover, yes?” Dove mused with a look of wisdom upon her face. Will told her things that he never told anyone else, could never tell others. She was just so easy to talk to. And she understood. She would listen and give such good advice. And she didn’t care that his lover was another boy, another man, when many would flinch away in disgust. She was his closest friend besides Jem, regardless of others' thoughts that ghosts couldn’t be friends. It must have been a Herondale thing that went hand in hand with their ability to see ghosts clearly.
“One of the children who was killed reminds me of Jem, yes.” Will admitted freely. “It isn’t simply that though. I will never understand how the Yard can simply ignore this killer, not when children are being killed, regardless of their circumstances. Someone who can harm a child? Can kill a child, especially the way this killer is doing so? He’s dangerous, plain and simple, and the worst part is that he isn’t even a demon. He’s human.”
Dove glanced at him. “Why would it be easier if it were a demon?”
“It’s in their nature to be violent, demons. I know that not every demon has the same capacity for violence, the same way every human is different, but the fact is that they are more easily inclined to it. And every human is prey to them. This killer though, he goes after those who are too small and weak to put up a fight, he’s been doing this methodically, and covering his tracks. And some people are inclined to violence, I do understand that, but to choose other human beings as a target, and children at that?” Will shook his head. “I think that this killer is worse than a demon. And sometimes I think humans can be the worst monsters of all.”
Dove hummed. “You do have a point there I believe.”
“I just w-” Will was cut off by the sound of shouting. The Inspector! Will ran towards the sound of his voice calling for him.
“He’s here! He’s over here! Catch him, quickly!” Will ran as fast as he could, making sure his runes were active to hide him from mundane sight. When he came upon the Inspector, he didn’t bother asking for directions, Will just chased after him, following his lead. When he looked over, he found Dove keeping pace at his side.
When he caught up to the Inspector, and found the alley the killer went into, he slowed, making sure to be silent, and slipped in. Will saw him, standing above a child who couldn’t have been more than five with a knife, and he lost it. He tackled the killer to the ground and fought him for who knows how long. Will lost track of the time, the fight blurring together until he held the knife against the murderer’s throat. The child had woken up in the scuffle and ran off.
The killer gave a nasty sort of grin. “Going to kill me now then? Put me down like a mad dog? Get revenge? What’d I do then, kill your sweetheart?”
Will punched him for that comment, knocking him out. He still wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. He wanted revenge for those children, wanted them to be able to rest easy knowing that their killer was gone and no longer able to hurt anyone again. But he didn’t want to stoop to the killers level either, knowing that their fight was never a fair one, and that to kill an unarmed and unconscious man would be murder.
Will registered Dove standing next to him as he stood up. “What are you going to do then William?” Dove so rarely called him by his given name, that hearing her do so, was a shock. “Are you planning on avenging the children, like he asked?”
Will was still trying to decide. “As a Shadowhunter, my job is to hunt down evil and slay it in its’ path.” He paused. “It’s also to seek justice for those who cannot, for those who have been killed by that evil unwittingly.” A longer pause as he stared at the man lying on the ground. A man, who was just that, human. Mad, as he said, and certainly evil, but still, human, a mundane. “But if I killed him now, I think that I would be sinking down to his level myself. Because it wouldn’t be killing, it would be murder. And that is not part of my job.” He looked up to see Dove smiling at him, happy at his answer, and the ghosts of the killer’s victims behind her. “That is not to say, that some payback might not be in order, especially if we want him to confess. Even if I dump him on the Yard’s doorstep, without a confession, they won’t try him.” Will attempted a small smile. “What do you say to a small haunting until he agrees to confess to everything?”
By the time Will had made it to the main headquarters for Scotland Yard the man was swearing that he would confess if the children would leave him alone. Will tied him up and left him outside the gate, with the man raving loudly about the children he had killed.
He started walking back to the Institute, Dove still with him. She wasn’t quite bound to one place, the way some of the other ghosts were. She could move more freely, which is what might disturb the other ghosts, he thought. “They should be able to move on you know, the children. Now that they are receiving justice, and now that he can’t do anymore damage, they will move on. Children move on so much easier than adults you know.” Dove said this with a sad smile. “It’s rare for them to stay.”
Will looked over at her. “You know quite a bit about other ghosts.”
“I’ve been around for a very long time.”
“And you’ve never wanted to move on?” Will asked, suddenly curious.
“Why would I want to? Humans are fascinating you know, always inventing and changing so often. I just want to see it all. The only thing I wish is that I could experience it properly. Not just observe from the sidelines.”
“I’m sorry for bringing it up.”
“Don’t be. You should get home, you know, your Jem will be worried about you by now.”
“It’s not like I’m not headed in that direction anyway, you know.” Will said laughingly.
“Oh I know. You want to know what I want most? I wish that I could experience love the way you do, the way you and Jem love each other. I’ve never had that, and I wish I did. I always wished that I had more time also.”
That got to Will, and he sped up a little. She laughed. “You see my point now Little Bird? You should spend what time you have with your love. From what I've seen, there’s no such thing as too much time, and I’ve seen so many regret not spending their time with their loves more wisely.”
Will stopped in his tracks and turned to face her fully. “Thank you. For everything. And especially for tonight. You’re a good friend Dove, the best.” He turned back around, intent on returning to Jem as fast as he could after Dove’s words when he heard the sound of wings nearby. He turned again, to look for the source, only to find her gone. Will didn’t think much of it, she had a tendency to disappear and reappear to her heart's content, as did most ghosts. She would show up again Will decided, as he made his way inside the Institute gates.
Bonus for anyone who actually enjoys Sandman, or enjoys a bit of extra behind the scenes plot information:
“Did he pass your test then sister?”
“It wasn’t a test, but yes, his judgement is as sound as I had hoped.”
“I take it, that is a good thing?”
“Yes. I could tell when I breathed life into him as an infant that he held a powerful soul, and had an important destiny, I just needed to make sure that he was ready for it now. He’s one of my favorite humans you know? I’m not supposed to have them, but once every few centuries, I find one.”
“He must be very special then.”
“Mmm. Yes. You know, I gave Herondales their ability to see ghosts? So that there would be someone to speak for them. This one is the first one I have seen truly use his gift the way I had hoped.”
