Realistic or Modern 𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚕, 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚒𝚝.

[Uxie]

ravensunset

still,

to love it.

ravensunset // uxie

 

[Uxie]

//////////////////////////////

cosette

ghost

to see the world in all its tainted glory

cosette awaji

文思永 / 淡路 汐恩

japanese/chinese

twenty-four

nov 30

astrophysics major

deceased (2 years)

for a dead person, cosette awaji is pretty spirited. a bit of a character, with a bright smile and a loud voice — she seems committed to making her presence known in every room she steps into. cosette is often found lamenting her situation, although she seems quite content with it at other times. maybe she's just looking for someone to talk to, since being a ghost must be quite a lonely affair.

weirder even is her home, as much lived-in as it is desolate. the furniture is well-maintained, but stunningly outdated — you swear that couch was last popular a decade ago, and the hot water keeps running out — despite her insisting she's been dead only two years. the locked doorway down the hall from her bedroom, too, seems to hide secrets you might be a bit too afraid to confront. perhaps blood leaking from the walls, or even worse, her corpse?

( cosette reminded you the stench would have made the place unliveable already if that was the truth. )

despite her forthcoming nature, cosette herself seems to be quite an enigma. she chatters animatedly about her past routines, her interests, but they all seem to be in relation to this little house of hers. you know, at least, she used to be a masters student, but she seems to become cautious when you ask about her family or friends. you took a peek into her bedroom once, and it was a far cry from what you would have expected of a girl like her — dreary, and a bit unlived-in — like its resident was no more alive than she is now.

( cosette told you that she died in a car accident, somewhere near her school. you wonder why she's tied to the house, then. ghost logistics seem finicky. )

she shows you her planetarium projector, an old model you feel like you remember seeing on the shelves when you were younger, and you watch her fumble with the batteries with non-corporeal hands. when she finally figures it all out, triumphantly, she points out the constellations on her ceilings to you. the twinkle in her eye is unmistakable, and it is times like these she feels so human — you suppose she once was — at least, until she drifts through another wall.

you conclude that cosette wouldn't make a bad roommate at all. so long as she stopped appearing in the mirror while you're brushing your teeth.

night train

milena

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[ravensunset]

//////////////////////////////

june

human

to love something death can touch

Ha-Jun "June" Choi

twenty-five

korean american

alive!

entomology master's student

march 3rd

You're twenty-five and your life is starting over.

You still think about what life was like when you were five, and you've just been accepted into graduate school.

It's not wholly unfamiliar. It's not the first time you've left home for school, not the first time you moved. Usually, though, you weren't alone.

You've made friends, and you're enjoying school, which is something you once thought you'd never say. You're trying to be alive! You're really, really trying.

You're excited, of course you are, and you're afraid.

You found a house for cheap. A whole house! One of the other students in your program made a face when you told her about where you were staying, but didn't elaborate on why. You know it's kind of old, but you can deal with drafts and leaky windows. It's better than undergraduate dorms. Do your best not to think about the adultness of it all, or about the noises you hear at night.

night train

milena

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[Uxie]

ravensunset

one: first encounter

[ sometime in august ]

 

[ravensunset]

//////////////////////////////

june

human

to love something death can touch

The trees outside were in full bloom, leaves green and vibrant, and it was only a matter of time until they turned blood red and fell to the ground.

June didn’t think she’d ever get used to moving. She always felt off-balance in a new place, like her feet didn’t quite connect to the ground. Still, she was (or at least she was trying to be) happy to be there.

She paid attention on the plane ride as clouds revealed blocky, toylike land, which in turn changed to the very real buildings and nature she’d picked as her next home. June navigated herself out of the airport— it wasn’t large enough to cause an issue— and got a taxi to take her to her new address. The driver raised his eyebrows when she said the address, but wouldn’t offer her more of an “Oh, nothing, don’t worry about it,” when she prodded him for more.

The key took some wiggling in the lock before it clicked and rotated the front door open. June’s suitcase thudded onto the floor in the hallway. There was some time before she had to unpack, she figured.

got here safe

, She shot a text off to her mother when she made it inside. She didn’t have all too many things. The necessities for school, field work supplies, personal devices, clothes (though not enough to guarantee she wouldn’t need to shop soon). But memorabilia was scarce enough to count. The house had thankfully come furnished, even if the styling was a little outdated. Well, a lot outdated, and maximalist in a way that put June on edge, but usable.

June managed to find her way into the bedroom she was to inhabit— her bedroom, that was, though she couldn’t quite think it yet— and collapsed on the bed. When she woke up a couple hours later, the light from the window was growing dim, the edge of the sky tinted orange. So much for getting her sleep schedule in line for the semester.

June wandered back downstairs, hitting light switches on and off absentmindedly as she did. She had to get used to the place somehow, which to her, meant interacting with it. Like turning a rock upside down to find all the life crawling beneath it.

There was something missing about the house. No shortage of colorful furniture, but empty spaces on shelves. Hardly any room to walk between the couches and tables, but the seats stiff and lacking comfort.

Whoever had lived there before her had left something behind, sitting almost ritualistically dead center on an otherwise empty coffee table. June picked up the toy: a colorful hamster, as over-designed as everything else in the space. She opened one of the cabinets lining the room, then another, more curious than purposeful, but settled on one to put the fuzzy hamster into. Out of sight…

June turned around, ready to leave the room for the next one, and jumped as a voice sounded behind her.

the living room.

night train

milena

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[Uxie]

//////////////////////////////

cosette

ghost

to see the world in all its tainted glory

When there was no longer a reason to count them, the days tended to bleed into one another. The electronic clock sat by her deskside still worked, but it was no longer a habit to check it every morning, not when she barely spent any time in her bed anymore. Not that there was much to do outside of her room, either, especially since they'd cut the power off four months ago and plunged her back into the stone age. She couldn't even light a candle at night for fear of setting the house ablaze — though perhaps that might be her key to moving on.

On the day she had finally dug out old candles, smelling of pine and lilies, the lights flickered back on.

That evening, the door had clicked open.

From the top of the staircase, she'd watched the girl step into the hallway, luggage in tow. Her uninvited guest was pretty, a bit standoffish, and looked around her age. She darted aside as the girl climbed up the stairs, trying a few doors — thank god she usually kept them locked — before settling on what used to be the guest room. She'd followed her in, stared at her from the corner as she flopped onto the bed and promptly passed out.

She's from out of town. There wasn't a single resident here who didn't shy away from the aura of death that must emanate from this house. She'd heard the whispers even from back when she was alive.

No matter. She'd be gone soon enough.

Why was she flicking the light switches?

Cosette watched her curiously, feeling most like a scientist for the first time in years, as the lights blinked behind her like a makeshift runway strip. Was she testing it, to see what each one did? Surely, there was no need to click it more than once, then.

Discreetly, she followed behind her with careful, tiptoed steps as if her feet might ever make a sound. Copper — as she'd elected to call her, chosen carefully by the colour of her hair — wandered next into the living room, and seemed to catch sight of Starwhisk at his rightful place as the coffee table's centrepiece. She picked him up, and Cosette regarded Copper with a wary, judgmental eye as she turned around to the cabinets.

You wouldn't dare.

"Hey!"

The shriek, shrill and ghastly, was enough for Copper to whirl around, and Cosette took the opportunity to snatch up Starwhisk from where he'd been wrongly confined. With gentle hands, she replaced him at the table at the very same spot, helpfully demarcated by the only clean spot on an otherwise dusty surface.

The audacity to begin redecorating when you'd been here less than a day. Not a shrivel of respect for former owners — had Copper even knocked on the bedroom door before going in to sleep? Cosette would be an agent of karma today. What else was it that ghosts did in horror movies?

Without warning, the TV flickered to life. For a few, brief moments, it displayed only static, accompanied by the grating fuzz and buzz that threatened to drive one insane. Only when the other girl turned did the channels begin flipping through rapidly, showing show after show until it finally stopped on HGTV. As if on cue, the man on screen muttered, "...to get these things outta the house."

Perfect! She had a real talent for this.

the living room

outfit

walk in the night

moon sujin

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[ravensunset]

//////////////////////////////

june

human

to love something death can touch

A sharp noise sounded. A scream, or a cry, something that echoed through walls. June spun around, but the view was exactly what it had been: the wall, cupboards, the dark screen of the TV.

In a somewhat sheepish manner, June ran a hand through her hair. She definitely hadn’t imagined it entirely, but–

The TV turned on. The channels were static, the kind of TV fuzz June remembered growing up, but when was the last time she’d flipped through cable?

"...to get these things outta the house." The voice boomed out of the TV’s speakers as the channels stopped flipping, settling on a show.

Fucking weird. If there was something wrong with its wiring, June had absolutely no idea how she would fix it.

Thankfully, the remote had just been left on the coffee table. June turned to get it, and– Oh. The hamster-looking object was sitting next to it, right in the middle of the table. June pulled her eyebrows together, scrunched up her face, closed her eyes and counted to three before opening them again— but no, it was still there. June picked it up, again (its fur was quite soft, actually) and inspected it for some kind of magnet or something attached to it, but no, it looked just like a particularly oddly designed toy animal.

If she’d been home, she’d have invited someone over to make sure she wasn’t going insane.

Wherever home was, anyways.

The man on the TV raised his voice again, saying something or other about keeping things tidy, and June clicked the power button at him. The colors of the TV blinked into a thin line across its middle, and then away completely. At least she’d been given a working remote. She then tossed the stuffed toy in the air, bouncing and catching it a couple times.

June gave the living room another scan, as if daring something else to move out of place. Nothing did.

She opened another drawer.

The toy dropped out of her hands, bouncing once on the floor. June’s breath had caught in her throat, something she found rather embarrassing despite no one being there to see it, and she forced herself to inhale and exhale a few times at a normal pace.

“What the fuck,”

She said under her breath. It had to be another weird stupid toy. It looked convincing, but not more so than any at Halloween stores. The owners had a weird sense of humor.

the living room.

night train

milena

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[Uxie]

//////////////////////////////

cosette

ghost

to see the world in all its tainted glory

The newest tenant of 412 Rosemary Lane seemed to have nerves of steel and limitless audacity. She was bouncing him. Bouncing him! Like he was some tennis ball she had found lying about.

Oh, she'd show her.

True to her nature as a scientist, Cosette had spent the many months after her death experimenting wildly with what she could do as a ghost — it was a fascinating thing, and the supernatural turned out to be surprisingly logical. By now, she'd more-or-less mastered the art of morphing her appearance, though the realism of it all might prove difficult. She didn't recall her head being quite this gorey when she died, so every splatter of crimson and stray lock of black hair was coming purely from the imagination and whatever few horror movies she'd consumed in her lifetime. The drawer slid open, and the ghost braced herself.

For a few moments, it was silent. The corners of her lips dropped into the slightest frown. This had to scare her. There was no way this wouldn't work.

"What the fuck." Cosette smiled inwardly.

Run away! Get out of the house! Call that snakey landlord and demand a refund!

Why wasn't she saying anything else?

Her eyes flicked open, peering up at Copper through sullied black locks. She was stood stiff and unmoving, her expression more reminiscent of annoyance than any sort of fear. Cosette's gaze darted to the ground, where poor Starwhisk lay sunken into the patterned carpet. She nearly gasped aloud.

"Ugh! What is wrong with you?!"

She flitted out from her position, her hand immediately going to scoop up her poor hamster toy, cradling him gently within her palm. She shot the girl a glare.

"Boo! The house is haunted!"

she huffed, zipping back to the table to replace the figurine,

"Won't you leave, now?"

the living room

outfit

walk in the night

moon sujin

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[ravensunset]

//////////////////////////////

june

human

to love something death can touch

The eyes opened.

Like, actually opened. Dark, and terrifyingly human, incomparable to any toy.

June narrowed her eyes at it, then closed her eyes tightly and rubbed them with her palms.

When she opened them again, it was still there, and moving.

“Ugh! What is wrong with you?!”

“What are you?”

June’s voice came out quiet and slow, not quite directed at the figure in front of her. Some kind of weird, really advanced, really specifically designed robot? June reached out, trying to tap its shoulder.

Her hand went right through.

“Whoa.”

June’s hand quickly shot back. She stepped back, her jaw remaining open after making the sound.

It- she, maybe?- was moving around the room, and saying something June couldn’t quite process. Long, dark hair flowed behind her, tracing motions that seemed free in a way June had never seen before, as if unlimited by gravity or muscle strength.

Eventually, she stopped, placed the hamster toy all too gently on the table, and turned to glare at June, clearly expecting a response.

“Um. Sorry?”

June asked, her mind racing to piece together what had been said. Out of the house?

“Um, hi, I’m June. I live here. Sort of, or, as of today anyways, I’m renting.”

June creased her features into a cringe as she said it. The words were awkward enough for her to hear it, but she couldn’t tell if that was worse than her speaking to someone who’d, apparently, stepped out of her drawer. Through her drawer, maybe. Should she be calling the police? That option seemed only riskier, especially as she was being stared down in a way that made her pulse quicken.

“Sorry. Who are you?”

the living room.

night train

milena

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[Uxie]

//////////////////////////////

cosette

ghost

to see the world in all its tainted glory

Would you try negotiating with a ghost?

When Cosette considered it herself — in a situation where she was not-dead and very-much-alive, and happened to find herself in a haunted house with a pissed-off, scary-looking, out-of-a-horror-movie non-corporeal being — she was quite confident the answer would be no. Maybe she'd come back later, maybe she'd end up studying them as a curious phenomenon, but as a first instinct?

Definitely not.

"Um, hi, I’m June."

Therefore, Cosette thought, what was little Copper in front of her doing? She doubted the girl could even see much of her face through the dark, greasy strands of long hair she was peering at her ominously through. Wasn't negotiation supposed to have that human touch?

"Sort of, or, as of today anyways, I’m renting."

She cocked her head to the left, her scowl deepening. She hadn't realised the house had been reclaimed. The lady she'd scared off previously had probably been the real estate agent, and she'd scammed Copper — June — after having the daylights scared out of her.

She'd call it cruel, if the girl in front of her had not bested every one of her attempts thus far.

“Sorry. Who are you?”

Cosette huffed, her arms crossed.

"The real owner of the house, of course."

She flitted back to June, closing the distance between them in a flash.

"I've been here ages, you see, and I have no intentions of leaving."

she barked, locking the other girl in her best attempt at a leer. What kind of a crazy tenant had that crazy lady found? To be so unfazed in the face of... her. Or perhaps her disguise wasn't up to par?

She zipped away again, this time to the mirror hung near the entryway. The girl that stared back at her in the mirror elicited the slightest jolt, her hands shrinking back in alarm. No, she looked horrific — some of her best work, even. Maybe she should've tried a different strategy, something more in the long-term.

"And I've no plans of sharing, either!"

she added, her voice echoing into the other room as two fingers pinched at a loose, hanging strand of her hair, tugging it into position.

the living room → entryway

outfit

walk in the night

moon sujin

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[ravensunset]

//////////////////////////////

june

human

to love something death can touch

The corpse-woman only continued staring at her. Scowling, really, and looking only more angry by the second. Even with the dark hair covering her face, with the zombified skin and hollow cheeks, she had the most expressive eyes June had ever seen.

She zipped up to June, only inches away from her. June gulped, her muscles clenching up.

“The real owner of the house, of course.”

June’s mind raced to process the words, fighting against the rush of adrenaline facing up against the corpse-woman caused. The owner? June hadn’t met the owner, just their agent, but she’d been really thorough about checking the lease she signed was legit. She thought she had, anyway.

“Um,”

June tried to say, but the sound didn’t quite come out. The woman, at least, was intelligent, capable of communication, even if June didn’t know what to do with any of her words. And, not harmful– unfriendly, sure, but June thought back to how her hand had passed through her, and how despite the aggression the woman hadn’t laid a finger on her.

After barking another assertion, she sped away again in one fluid motion.

Left alone in the living room, June stepped back and sat down on the couch. She put her head in her hands, pushed her fingers up through her hair, and let out a deep breath, coaxing her muscles to relax again. Definitely a more eventful start to her move than she’d anticipated. June wasn’t convinced she wasn’t dreaming, or hallucinating, or simply going out of her mind, but she didn’t really know what she’d do even if that were the case.

The words rotated in her head. The woman, or apparition, or whatever it was wanted her to leave– that much was clear.

She couldn’t just pack up and leave. She had school starting, she needed a place to live. She could try just ignoring her, but trying to live and study with an angry something constantly bothering her didn’t seem like a viable solution, either.

Which meant she’d have to sort it out, somehow.

“Look, I’m sorry if this is your house!”

June called out. She got up and started to walk in the direction the woman had sped off in.

“Um, I’m renting it right now. Do you know what renting means? I’m not pretending to own the house. I’ll move out if you want me to, but it’ll take me some time to find a new place.”

the living room.

night train

milena

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[Uxie]

//////////////////////////////

cosette

ghost

to see the world in all its tainted glory

"Look, I'm sorry if this is your house! Um, I’m renting it right now. Do you know what renting means?" Her words elicited an offended scoff. "I’m not pretending to own the house. I’ll move out if you want me to, but it’ll take me some time to find a new place."

"Of course I know what renting means,"

she snapped, head poking through the wall into the next room to shoot June yet another glare,

"How old do you think I am?"

What era did this girl think she came from? The 1800s? Bearer of an ancient curse from whatever-hundred B.C.? When was renting even invented? Regardless, she thought the whole greasy-hair, crawling-around-the-ceiling look was very 2000s.

"The Grudge came out in 2004, you know?"

She would know — her father had been a big fan, and 7-year-old Cosette had gotten far too many glimpses of it when it'd come out on DVD. She was sure they still had it somewhere, in one of the numerous boxes stowed away in the storeroom upstairs. She hadn't thought to look after he'd passed.

Her head popped back through the wall, and when she walked back into the living room — heels still dipping slightly through the wood floors — her appearance was as normal as could be. Slightly transparent, still, but at least she no longer had to peer through hanging strands of dead-black hair. Dressed for the wrong season, perhaps, but truthfully, Cosette didn't quite know what season it was anymore. It had been easier to keep track when she still played around with stargazing and planet-watching, but she hadn't stepped out to the balcony in the past several months. That tree, visible through the foyer window, had been dead since she'd still been breathing, too.

"Anyways,"

she began, crossing her arms,

"I don't want you here. If I could, I'd throw you out on the street right now. The absolute disrespect you've shown!"

She stabbed an accusing finger in her direction.

"You're no better than all the idiots who sneak in here for their stupid little tests of courage. That stupid lock on the backdoor's been broken forever, and I can't even get it fixed. Do you know how many of them break in every month?"

Cosette paused, as if awaiting an answer, but tagged on a moment later as if it were rhetorical all along.

"Too many! It's tiring having to chase them all away, and then you come along and you're... you—"

She fumbled for a word, brows furrowing. A moment later, she threw her hands up in frustration.

"You're not scared of anything! How ridiculous is that!"

entryway → the living room

outfit

walk in the night

moon sujin

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[ravensunset]

//////////////////////////////

june

human

to love something death can touch

“Of course I know what renting means,” The yell came from the other room, making June cringe at the question she’d just posed. Yeah, she hadn’t exactly thought through saying that one. In her defense, how could she have been expected to know what the woman knew or didn’t know?

“The Grudge came out in 2004, you know?” A movie reference. June’s mother liked that movie. It only then clicked in June’s mind that yes, the decaying face barely peeking out from dark hair was very much like the spirit from that movie, though June didn’t have a clue of what to make from that connection.

The woman walked back in, and it was still unmistakably her, everything from the slight transparency to her voice to the posture and attitude she commanded and her unexplainable appearance in the house confirmed that, but it was also someone new entirely. She looked around June’s age, or at least like someone June wouldn’t have thought twice about seeing hanging around on campus. Her hair wasn’t greasy and covering her face anymore but shiny black and the arms-crossed, pouty, frustrated expression seemed so familiar, so human it threw June off far more than the previous appearance had done.

“Oh, you’re young.”

June said, again before she had a chance to think about the words.

“Um, sorry, not that you looked old before, or I guess maybe that was you and this isn’t? It’s fine either way, I just–”

June cut herself off before she finished the ramble, realizing not a single statement she’d made had pleased the woman thus far, and she knew better than to immediately comment on appearances, even if she was dealing with something she wasn’t sure was human at all. She looked human, especially now, with hints of pink in her cheeks and full lips and a sweater that looked warm and soft.

She wasn’t anywhere near done talking, talking about others sneaking in and how she couldn’t throw June out even if she’d wanted to, which only confirmed the thought June had previously– harmless– but she only grew more frustrated as she went on.

You're not scared of anything!

June had heard the words before. From her mother as a young child, after she’d fallen out of a tree that was in retrospect too tall for her to attempt to climb. From a classmate at school, after she’d come up to a group at recess and opened her hands to show off a spider she’d caught, to absolutely none of the interest she’d been expecting.

She had never thought it was true. She was scared of a lot of things, even if the wrong things, even if never in time. Her mind just always felt a step– or a whole mile— behind her, racing but unable to catch up.

“Scared of what? You still haven’t told me what you are,”

June’s voice raised in response to hers, as if she’d finally gotten on June’s nerves, or was finally being addressed as another proper member of the conversation,

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. If there’s a broken lock I’ll have to call to get it fixed, or buy a new one, or— did you say people breaking in?”

June’s brow furrowed at the thought. She definitely hadn’t been warned about that, nor was she particularly equipped to deal with intruders.

“Why?”

the living room.

night train

milena

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[Uxie]

//////////////////////////////

cosette

ghost

to see the world in all its tainted glory

"Scared of what? You still haven’t told me what you are," Cosette's eyes widened at June's raised tone, though her features immediately twisted into a grimace as she processed her words. "I don’t know what you’re talking about. If there’s a broken lock I’ll have to call to get it fixed, or buy a new one, or— did you say people breaking in? Why?"

She fixed her with a deadpan look, her eyes expressing all of her disbelief without even a word having been uttered yet.

It was after a long pause that she pressed two fingers to her temple, eyes squeezing shut in exasperation. Her words came out haltingly, punctuating each syllable,

"I said. It was. Haunted. What do you think?"

This time, she didn't even give space for the illusion of a genuine question.

"I'm a ghost!"

Her finger motioned to a slice across her neck, eyes rolling upwards in a quick, dramatic gesture.

"I'm dead! What else could I be?"

Cosette let out another huff, flopping onto the couch and nearly slipping right through the fabric before she bounced right back, perched just above its surface.

"I don't think there's a person in this neighbourhood that doesn't know about this place. They said it was cursed, even before I passed—"

A hand jumped to her mouth, eyes wide at her misstep, before she hastily continued,

"E-either ways, it keeps most others away, but teenagers look for trouble, you know?"

She gave June a once-over, gaze passing over her with ill-disguised judgment. Maybe not her. June looked like the sort who wouldn't care for such activities, especially if she hadn't a clue what the modern onryō looked like.

"No one's lived here for the past two years, in case you hadn't figured that out either,"

she said, eyes shifting towards the TV, then the coffee table, then to the remote still clasped in June's hand.

"So no one to fix — know, even — about the lock."

She leaned over the armrest, extending a hand that was just slightly more opaque than the rest of her body, expectantly.

entryway → the living room

outfit

walk in the night

moon sujin

♡coded by uxie♡