New Fiction Idea #45

Partially inspired by my recent obsession with Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, and a strange recurring daydream where a girl cuts her hand in the middle of slicing her throat open coolly but dubiously.

Working Title: Ghost Brigade

Genre: Fantasy, or maybe Supernatural?

Protagonist: Becky, an 18-year-old woman with blue eyes and dark, curly hair. She's a little too big to be considered slim, and she's below average height. She has a general depressive aura about her, is very prone to snarking, and has few friends outside the Internet. She's exceptionally talented in the detection of ghosts, although she tends not to pay much more attention to them than she does living people (that's not much, by the way), and it turns out she also has significant powers within the ghost world.

Other Main Character: George, a 21-year-old (30 years dead) ghost who is a total dweeb. He would have quite an impressive stature if he had the muscle to go with his bone structure, but, as it is, he just comes off as barrel-chested but lanky. He's very well-intentioned and determined but generally inept and not very intelligent. He doesn't have any unusual abilities in either the normal or ghost planes.

Antagonist: A serial killer, although not because of mental instability (at least, not that kind).

Setting: A modern-day urban area. Becky lives in an apartment with her parents (it isn't typically haunted). There are both ghost and normal planes, but they're technically the same world, just inhabited by ghosts and the living, respectively. The ghost world's appearance is sort of a negative of the normal world. Some ghosts can manipulate objects or people, but most can't. All can be seen by living humans at some occasions, mostly depending on the human.

Plot: George is determined to stop an upcoming chain of murders, but he's all but powerless. He manages, after some time, to establish a connection with Becky and, knowing her powers, convinces her to join him in the ghost world. Under the impression that her life is going nowhere, anyway, she takes the chance, and George manages to pull her spirit into the ghost world before it can get any farther. She retains the ability to reanimate her body (although she has to do herself in if she wants to go back to the ghost world) and can also influence quite a few things as a ghost. George does his best to lay out the situation he's discovered, and they work together (okay, Becky does most of the actual work) to save the lives in danger and avoid those in the ghost world trying to stop them.

Point of View: First person (Becky).

And I will conclude with a brief spurt of dialogue that hit me (starting with Becky):

"Hang on, can ghosts hurt each other?"
"Well, no, not normally. You're different, though, so you might be able to."
"Oh, so if I did this..."
"Owowow! What—Th-that wasn't very nice!"
"Well, you've been dead for 30 years, right? Isn't pain supposed to help you feel like you're alive again or something?"
"Pain hurts, though..."

New Fiction Idea #20

Look, something else that started as a Hetalia fan fiction! This one's actually fairly old, but I'm excited that I suddenly remembered it.

Working Title: Figments

Genre: Horror

Protagonist: Malcolm, a freshman Business major who's extremely sarcastic. He's rather thin and self-conscious about it, with short, brown hair and pale green eyes. He has always had the ability to see and interact with ghosts.

Other Main Characters: Corey, a freshman Art major who's been Malcolm's neighbour and best friend for years. He has shaggy-ish blonde hair and ambiguously-coloured eyes. Friendly but a bit squirrelly at times, he's terribly afraid of ghosts (to Malcolm's annoyance) despite being unable to really see them.
Darrell, a sophomore Biology major (aiming to be a physical therapist) who's intentionally annoying quite often but is generally likeable. He's a dark umber, with a good build.
Crystal, a sophomore Nursing major who's been Darrell's girlfriend for about three months. She's a good few shades lighter than him and keeps her hair in a low, short ponytail of braids. She's not that comfortable around other people, but she's working on it.

Antagonists: A group of ghosts, of overall ebony coloration, with rather long claw-like fingers. Their faces are mannequin-like, smoothed-out and without mouth or eyes, but they are still able to speak. To Malcolm's confusion, they are perfectly visible to everyone. They float, their forms fragmenting away about where mid-thigh would be. They feed on sanity to avoid a second death that would send them at last to Hell.

Setting: An old, rickety, bed-and-breakfast kind of building about a ten-minute drive from the local university. It's abandoned and rumoured (correctly) to be haunted.

Plot: As a sort of initiation ritual into a fraternity, Malcolm, Corey, and Darrell are "dared" to stay in the haunted house the week before school. Crystal tags along for moral support. They are not informed that no one has remained the whole time yet and they're not actually expected to last more than a day. But as the ghosts appear on and off and the group of students find themselves slipping from reality, it's up to Malcolm to keep them from losing all hope of recovery.

Point of View: First person (Malcolm).

I might default it back to fan fiction, but I kind of like how Malcolm (whose name could change) is turning out so far.

New Fiction Idea #3

This idea was sort of awkward, since it hit me in the middle of singing a hymn. I managed to push it down until the devotional was over, though it still interested me afterward.

Title: Crumbling

Genre: Sci-Fi/Thriller, perhaps?

Protagonist: Emilia, a ghost of undetermined age that was about 16 when she died. She has long, wavy brown hair and is rather tall and thin. She's a sort of hesitant person and can be a coward, but she's capable of really caring for others.

Other Main Character: Joel, a 16-year-old Protestant boy of about half-Latino blood. He's rather fun to be around, though he's usually shy, and he has the ability to see ghosts.

Antagonist: Not sure—probably just time.

Setting: Earth, somewhere in the future during a cumulative apocalypse, including a lethal virus, major storms, and tectonic actions. I haven't yet determined what I want to cause a dead person to be trapped as a ghost, but I'm aiming for something different since I don't want this to be a murder mystery.

Plot: Emilia hadn't taken action to free her soul for years, but when the world starts to crumble, she has no choice but to take action if she wants a fate other than perishing with the earth. The first Seeing human she can find is Joel, who may not be an expert on ghosts but promises to do what he can.

Point of View: Third person, omniscient.

This one's certainly not as fleshed-out as some of my others, but I thought it was worth noting here.