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Haunting. Poignant and evocative; difficult to ignore or forget. The adjective itself sums up Aimsey’s experience with ghosts. Both the haunting itself done by said ghosts and the feeling leftover by the time they’re gone. Difficult to ignore or forget. Aimsey had been haunted more times than the average person, though for a long time they only considered one experience to be an actual haunting. The others were just companionship. For the most part.
The first haunting came from a ghost named Beep. This was one Aimsey didn’t consider to be haunting or a bad experience for a long time, Beep was a friend! He couldn’t tell Aimsey his name, he was quite aloof, whenever they asked for his name he made a beeping noise so they called him Beep. He often spoke in sounds and song rather than words, sounds pretty strange but overall being friends with a ghost was pretty strange so Aimsey went with it. When they felt most alone Beep was there for them, he was a good friend. He kept them company and showed them things they had never seen before. Things that you couldn’t imagine even in your wildest dreams. They travelled everywhere together, Beep showed them a whole new way of life! Aimsey thought it was incredible, they didn’t want it to end. But it had to eventually.
Over time, things with Beep started to go a bit south. He started to get more demanding. He claimed Aimsey was his disciple and needed to start doing tasks for him that he couldn’t. Aimsey was blind to this for a long time. They thought they should do them to be a kind friend, he can’t do much as a ghost so Aimsey should do it for him, but they slowly realized the dynamic that they had grown into. By the time Aimsey woke up it was too late. They had already joined Beep travelling across the world. Across multiple worlds. They left the BearSMP to travel with a ghost. A ghost that was using them.
After a falling out with Beep involving interdimensional travel, the collapsing of a planet, Beep freaking out and attempting to harm Aimsey, and Beep being sent back to his realm Aimsey decided to return to the BearSMP, to see what was left of it. Aimsey was free of the haunting following them so they left to go home. This turned out to be quite the bad idea.
When Aimsey arrived home they found one particular thing that left them pretty irked. Guqqie. Guqqie! A long time friend of Aimsey’s in the BearSMP. This should have been fine, of course Guqqie decided to stay all this time. Find a way to go home. But the fact they never actually got home made Aimsey feel a bit sick. Guqqie looked sick. Very, very sick. They had a giant bandage wrapped around their entire arm, or what was left of their arm, the bottom half of it stained red. When Aimsey had decided to travel with Beep, they didn’t really know what to say to Guqqie so they left it. They left it until the very last second and then told them they were leaving. Of course Guqqie hadn’t reacted too well but AImsey convinced themself it was for the best. They left Guqqie behind because they had to go figure out their life.
When Aimsey met Guqqie face to face that day, all hell broke loose. Guqqie yelled at them, screaming about how it was their fault she stayed. It was their fault they left, it was their fault she looked like this, their fault everything stayed the same while she rotted away. Aimsey was quick to defend themself. It wasn’t their fault she stayed, it wasn’t their fault she did this to herself, and while they loved her it wasn’t their fault this had happened. That they wouldn’t change anything they did. They yelled back and forth until Aimsey got fed up and left. Guqqie yelled after them until they were gone. Aimsey still felt sick.
Guilt ate away at them, surrounding and drowning them until they eventually gave in two days later and returned back to the BearSMP to apologize. To make amends with their friend. Except they didn’t find Guqqie, instead they found her corpse beneath her tower and an air headed ghost looking at them fondly. That’s when Aimsey’s second haunting began.
Guqqie’s ghost, or Ghostqie as she had named herself, was a pain in the ass if you were to ask Aimsey. Considering the terms Aimsey and Guqqie ended on, her ghost was absolutely insufferable. She remembered nothing bad about anyone or anything. She couldn’t remember the fight they had two days ago, that Aimsey left the SMP at all, any arguments or even small habits she disliked about them. Nothing. It was driving Aimsey crazy. Aimsey and Guqqie screamed at each other just hours before she died and suddenly this ghost thought Aimsey was the best person in the world. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair to Guqqie. Aimsey screamed and cried at the ghost but she just couldn’t understand what happened between them and her living counterpart. Aimsey felt so guilty and so scared. So alone. It took them a long time to recover and move on.
Aimsey learned that moving on was hard, especially with ghosts following you around. At one point Aimsey even got attached to Ghostqie, decided they could pretend she was Guqqie. That didn’t last very long. Eventually Aimsey had to start accepting Guqqie’s death and it was hard. So Aimsey did what Guqqie had; stayed. Aimsey stayed in the BearSMP for a while to find their home, to find who they were and where they belonged. All the things they thought they were figuring out while traveling with Beep but never actually did. They stayed and came to accept Guqqie’s death, grow as a person. They grew up. Eventually the pain started to ease and each day was better than the last, so next Aimsey started moving physically.
They left the SMP and went to travel once again. They traveled for months before finding a new place to stay. The DreamSMP.
The DreamSMP was like nothing Aimsey had ever seen before. It was strange, the people were simultaneously kind and hostile. They welcomed them into their land yet warned them to tread carefully at all times. The entire land was one giant ghost town. Not literally, there weren’t any ghosts as far as Aimsey knew, but everywhere they looked something was abandoned. Forgotten about, ditched, never to be continued. An entire server of dead land and wasted projects. The worst part was that nobody seemed to care anymore.
Despite the weird nature of the server Aimsey still managed to make friends. They met a guy named Ranboo. He was a little strange, like the rest of the SMP, but he seemed kind enough. He didn’t give them any strange warnings or hostility, he just sort of showed them around the server and answered questions. He even gave them a home! A nice mansion in a secluded snowy biome, apparently he used to own it but now Aimsey could live in it. It was nice to have a friend again. They couldn’t remember the last time they did have a friend. This was nice.
All good things have to come to an end, they suppose. Aimsey lived in the mansion for a few days until someone decided to kick them out. The whole ordeal was still confusing. One moment they’re walking through the nether and the next someone has stopped them and stolen the flower they were carrying with them. It still feels like a blur, nothing about it really made any sense. They walked together and argued the whole way. Eventually this person stopped them on a bridge. This guy, Tubbo, said that he was the one who owned the mansion and was pissed off that Aimsey just decided to live in it. They didn’t really understand, Ranboo was the one who said they could live there, he didn’t even mention Tubbo.
Tubbo started yelling. Started yelling about how the mansion was his, it didn’t belong to Ranboo, Aimsey had no right to live there, that they’re evicted.
“What gives you the right to kick me out?” Aimsey yelled, exasperated, from the bridge.
“Because it’s my house!” Tubbo yelled back, equally as frustrated.
“But it’s Ran’s house too and he said I could live there, why are you taking this out on me?” Aimsey groaned.
“He doesn’t count.” Tubbo said stubbornly.
“What does that even mean? Why the hell shouldn’t he count?” Aimsey was so lost, pulling at their hair as they spoke.
“Because he’s dead!” Tubbo said, as if it were the most nonchalant fact in the world. “You were given a house by a dead man and now the living owner of the house is taking it back, seems pretty fair to me.”
“...what?” Aimsey whispered and Tubbo heard.
He groaned loudly, flinging his head up dramatically. He looked back at Aimsey, about to retaliate again, but he faltered. Aimsey stood frozen, entire body rigid and their hands were shaking. The most off putting of it all was the look in their eyes. It was as if their worst nightmares had come true, they looked terrified. Tubbo knew that look. He’s felt the same look creep onto his own face many times. He could see it in the back of their mind, just behind their eyes, just barely looking past the fear to see it. To see that this all looked a little too familiar for them. Aimsey looked like they were haunted by something.
Still Tubbo snapped back. Caught up innocently or not, Tubbo was angry and hurt, and if Aimsey was the only person in front of him to take it out on then so be it.
“You were given a house by a dead man. He is dead.” He said.
Aimsey then started babbling hysterically, muttering, laughing in disbelief.
“What- no, no he can’t be. He’s not. Ran’s not dead. Ran’s not dead! RANBOO’S NOT DEAD!” Aimsey shouted.
Tubbo took a step forward. “Yes, he is.”
“He would have told me.” Aimsey whispered, mainly to themself.
“Yeah, well he didn’t, so.” Tubbo snapped coolly.
The argument replayed in Aimsey’s head over and over again. It always sounded the same no matter how many times they tried to convince themself they had imagined it. Tubbo yelled and groaned as if Aimsey were an annoying bug on his shoe, treated them like the least important thing in the world. Then he said Ran was dead. There was no way Ran was dead, he was walking and talking normally. He can’t be a ghost, he would have told them. They trusted him, he would have said something, right?
Aimsey walked quickly down the path that led to their cafe. A few tears slipped down their cheeks as they walked, they wiped them off fiercely. They took a deep breath as they saw him standing by their tree house and hesitated. Aimsey stared at him for a moment, almost studying him, staring him down and attempting to recognize some sort of sign. Maybe they missed something, maybe if they looked a bit harder or paid more attention. Maybe they would have been able to figure it out on their own. They shook their head and ran over to the tree.
“Aimsey! Aimsey, there you are. I saw the mansion, we’ll find who did this to you alright? We’ll find out.” Ranboo rambled.
“Ran-” Aimsey tried to interrupt but he kept going.
“Really it’s alright, I’m sure you’re safe. We’ll find out who robbed you, okay?”
“RAN!” Aimsey shouted.
Ranboo saw the look on their face and faltered. “Yeah, what’s… uh, what’s up?”
“Can I ask you a question?” Aimsey’s voice trembled as they asked.
“I mean yeah, sure. Is everything okay?” Ranboo looked down at them, noticing the way their lips quivered and how they were clenching their fists.
Aimsey inhaled sharply, as if to build up their own confidence. They stared up at Ranboo. Ranboo was a friend, a trusted friend, and this question would change everything. They knew it would, they already had an idea of what the answer would be. They looked at Ranboo and almost backed out. Did they really want everything to change? Did they really want to do this to their only friend in so long? The answer is no. But they knew they had to anyway.
“...”
“Are you dead, Ran?” Aimsey finally asked, keeping their voice steady this time.
Ranboo took a step back in shock, his eyes blown wide and his jaw slowly dropping. He stumbled backwards a bit more before recovering.
“I meannnn, are any of us really alive?” He avoided the subject and laughed nervously.
“Ran, I had someone come up to me today and kick me out of the mansion claiming it was theirs, yell at me, tell me you were dead, then push me off a bridge. Don’t you dare lie to me.” Aimsey snapped, but it was clearly out of fear rather than frustration.
“You were pushed off a bridge?! Who-” Ranboo yelled out.
“Ranboo.” Aimsey stopped him.
His shoulders dropped and he stared back at Aimsey sadly. He quickly seemed to grow frustrated and tugged anxiously at the cloth he wore.
“Fine. Fine! You wanna know? Fine.” He quickly ripped off his armour, tossing it on the pavement by the tables with a clang. “There. See? I was stabbed. I was quite literally stabbed in the back and I am dead.”
Aimsey felt as if their world collapsed right in front of them, falling and crumbling apart that very second. Aimsey staggered back and gripped a table behind them tightly.
They struggled to catch their breath as they realized their third haunting had already begun. Three. Three different times they had been haunted.
No matter where they went, no matter how far they travelled, Aimsey was utterly and truly haunted.