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Mountain. The quietest, calmest, and most grounded individual out of the Ghost Project’s pack of ghouls and ghoulettes. A drummer, but, fundamentally, an earth-type demon, hence the qualities already named. A centered being that’s in touch with nature. An aloof creature that seldom is provoked by the throes of passion, be it born out of negative or positive emotions.
To summarize: he chill as fuck, y’all.
Or, at least, that’s what people usually think upon meeting him and getting to know him a little bit. That he’s quiet, stoic, reserved, and a bit of a loner. However, Mountain isn’t exactly like every other earth-type demon. No, he’s somewhat different than the rest, even those who are former drummers of Ghost as well.
You’ll see, Monty has a secret. One that is known in itself, but the motive behind it remains untold.
The reason why that is? Very simple, actually. Fundamental, if you ask any demon.
Being seen as deficient, having a weakness, can be very dangerous for a creature of Hell.
And in Mountain’s case, he was unfortunate enough to be born with a “defect”. One that has been pestering him throughout his life. It was worse when he was a youngling, but despite him learning how to live with it, the nuisance is still a bitch to deal with sometimes. It’s so bad, that it even gets in the way of his work. Because yes, it affects him when he plays the drums.
He usually can manage during the day, doing whatever chores that are assigned to him. It doesn’t really bother him when he has to do daily tasks. Yet it does make it more difficult for him to play his instrument decently. Even more so when he’s rehearsing with the others. And don’t even get him started on what a pain in the ass it can be when he’s on stage.
The solution to that problem is a rather unorthodox one, especially when the band is out touring. Problem is, that’s the only way he has found so far to deal with the issue in a way that doesn’t hinder his performance, even though it’s a bit…“unsightly”.
Despite his fellow bandmates having grown used to it a long time ago, a lot of people who have seen what his chosen fix is –be it via photos or videos taken during the final bow at Ghost rituals, or by being present at said concerts– can’t help but to ponder the reason behind such a distinctive feature of his. It is quite a curious detail regarding his appearance, after all, given he’s the only one who does it.
And it isn’t just the fans who wonder about that particularity that makes the drummer stand out, but some Siblings of Sin are intrigued by it as well.
For example, a Sister and a Sibling who are tasked with shelving returned library books end up delving into that very same topic when it spontaneously comes up during their conversation regarding the enigmatic drummer.
“Pride & Prejudice?”
Alex asks their companion as they peruse the tome in their hands, mentally swearing they put back that same book a few weeks ago. As one of the librarians that work in the abbey’s library, they are tasked with keeping track of all the books that leave the shelves. So they know that particular book isn’t requested much except for one patron…
“Yeah, Mountain came by a little earlier to return it,” Sister Margaret answers, barely glancing at the Sibling beside her.
“Isn’t it like the fifth time he has read it?” Alex questions next, a note of disbelief present in their voice. “I swear to Satan; he might as well have read all the books in here.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you looked through the log books and found out that he has done so.”
“Tells you how much free time those ghouls have besides playing for the Ghost Project,” they sarcastically complain with a light sneer.
“Is it so bad that he likes to read a lot?” Margaret retorts, a hint of defensiveness apparent in her otherwise demure voice. “I mean, at least he isn’t setting fire to half the abbey, you know?”
They both know to which ghoul she’s referring, no need to specify with names, and the mention makes Alex snort, even. Still, Margaret’s defensive stance is odd enough to catch the other’s attention. As Alex shelves the book that kicked off their little chit-chat, they can’t help but ask about the girl’s particular interest in the earth ghoul. They even go as far as to think that the Sister might fancy the demon in question.
“I guess. Why are you so protective of him, though? You like him or what?”
Hearing their teasing question makes Margaret blush a little, which she tries to hide by looking away before excusing herself.
“He’s the only one of the musician ghouls who comes regularly, it’s exciting!”
“If you say so…” Alex says as they side-eye the other and before sighing.
“Besides, I think he’s cute. Don’t you think so too?”
Margaret looks back to the librarian with flustered hope, searching for acquiescence from them. However, what she gets instead is unimpressed, almost apathetic disinterest. In consequence, their response garners a scandalized reaction from the woman.
“Hard to tell when they all look almost the same with their uniforms on.”
“There’s more to cuteness than appearance, Alex!”
“Like what?” They prompt, eyebrows high on their otherwise deadpan expression.
“Mannerism, personality, speech, the like,” Margaret lists while she makes vague hand gestures.
“Right,” comes the librarian’s dry reply.
“Whatever. He’s cute, okay?”
With that defensive and offended retort, the Sister continues working, realizing they only got a few more books to shelve before they are done. Beside her, Alex sighs, content that the other has finally given up on that topic of conversation.
Still, there’s something that has always piqued the librarian’s curiosity. And now that they know their companion is interested in the mysterious drummer, they can’t help but take the opportunity to voice the question they have had for a long time. Because, maybe, Margaret might at least have a theory on the matter.
“Don’t you find it weird that he always plays the drums without shoes on, though?”
The question gives Margaret pause, making her freeze with her arm holding a book in front of a shelf for a second before the inquiry registers in her mind. Once it does, she manages to react and answer as she places the book in its place.
“No, I think it’s one of the little quirks he has that adds to his overall cuteness,” she says with a small smile.
“Well, I think it might be some kind of fetish,” the Sibling jokes with a deadpan tone of voice and expression.
“Oh, shut up, you ass!”
Margaret is about to throw a book at Alex’s head but remembers at the last second that she shouldn’t do that. Seeing the outraged state of the other, the librarian snorts in amusement, deciding to stop pestering her for a while. With their conversation coming to a close, they finish shelving books without much fuss.
“Excuse me, can I take a book out?”
The deep voice coming from behind both Siblings is unexpected enough to startle them. As they turn around to see who the newcomer is, they discover with a certain level of embarrassment that it’s none other than Mountain, the very demon they had been talking about, accompanied by a fidgeting Rain. And upon realizing that he could have been standing there for an unknown amount of time while waiting to ask for their help, Margaret’s cheeks turn scarlet.
On their part, Alex tries their best to reign in the snicker that threatens to leave their mouth, finding hilarious the notion that the drummer might have heard the Sister calling him cute. Still, looking at how flustered and flabbergasted she is, they decide to hand over the task to the blushing lady.
“Yes, of course. Sister Margaret here will help you check out what you need,” Alex replies smugly, side-eyeing their companion.
In response, Margaret gapes at the librarian’s audacity, feeling betrayed and humiliated at the same time.
“But I’m not even a libra–”
“You know the drill,” the Sibling interrupts her before she can object further. “Now go help him out before you waste more of everyone’s time.”
With Alex’s feigned stern dismissal, Margaret turns back to glare at them before walking away to help the ghouls with their queries, since she doubts the bassist is just there to keep the drummer some company. Knowing the water demon, he most likely wants to borrow a book as well.
It is at times like those that the librarian is thankful for having trained Margaret enough to be able to lend books.
“What were you looking for?”
Margaret cheerily asks both musicians as they start walking back toward the front desk. At the same time, Alex keeps sneaking glances at them and containing their giggles until they can no longer help their instinctive curiosity. With a quick sweep of the eyes as the other three turn their backs to them, the librarian peeps at the earth ghoul’s feet, noticing the B&W shoes that are part of the band members’ uniforms.
‘Cause, in the end, they are really intrigued by the drummer’s secret.
After Margaret helped out the two ghouls in search of reading material, said demons exited the room and joined another one of their bandmates, who was on his way back to the ghoul dens when he ran into them. Because of that, he decided to go with them since they all had a common destination, he just had to wait for them while they made what was supposed to be a quick stop at the library.
“The fuck took you so long?”
Dewdrop questions his friends as soon as he sees them stepping out of the library. He’s standing against one of the walls next to the entrance, right foot tapping furiously on the stone floors and tail swishing angrily behind him. The smaller demon’s tone is dripping with exasperation at having waited for the other two for longer than expected, thus why he’s demanding an explanation.
“The Siblings working weren’t at the front desk,” Rain explains, calm as an undisturbed pond. “They were also distracted, talking amongst themselves.”
“Gossiping?” The fire ghoul inquires further with a snort.
“Yes, actually–”
Before the bassist can give more info about what the Siblings’ little chit-chat was about, he gets interrupted by Mountain, who’s eager to drop that particular topic of conversation.
“They were wondering why I play the drums shoeless.”
“So does everyone else, big guy,” says Dew while rolling his fiery eyes.
“Yeah, that’s not what was important about their conversation,” Rain points out, much to Monty’s chagrin.
That is enough to pique the guitarist’s curiosity, making his pointy ears twitch slightly under his balaclava. Because, even though he would never admit it, he enjoys hearing about the abbey’s gossip as much as the rest of the Clergy members do. He doesn’t partake in it, though.
“Then what was it?”
“Nothing, really,” the drummer attempts to dismiss but he’s ignored by the other two.
“They were saying that they find Monty cute.”
The water ghoul sounds more excited than he usually does, even though he’s revealing something that shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. After all, the musician ghouls and ghoulettes are quite popular amongst Siblings of Sin. However, given Mountain’s impressive height and his particular demeanor, he can come across as intimidating even though he’s a laid-back individual. That leads people to sometimes avoid confessing to him their feelings or attraction in fear of being rejected.
“Only one of them was,” Mountain clarifies, blushing under his mask.
Being the center of attention often makes him feel embarrassed, much like it does to Rain. So he would rather change topics of conversation and not make a big deal out of the whole affair. Nevertheless, his elucidation gets even more of Dewdrop’s attention.
“Was it the librarian?”
Upon hearing the fire demon’s question, the two other ghouls exchange a look before staring at the guitarist in silence, interest piqued by his seemingly overly curious inquiry. It is rare that Dew shows interest in anyone else than himself and those closest to him. Even less common would be the fact that he’s interested in someone like the young librarian, given that he never even goes to the library and they hardly cross paths anywhere else in the Ministry grounds.
If only they knew how many times the guitarist has walked in front of the library’s open door, just so he could take a peek inside and see if Alex was working the front desk or not.
“What?”
Dewdrop attempts to make his question sound clueless, yet anyone that knows him well enough would be able to detect a slight undercurrent of nervousness in his voice. He tries to play it off as if it’s not a big deal that he’s asking such a thing. Too bad for him it doesn’t work, even if his two companions let him off the hook for the time being.
After all, that’s not a conversation that they should be having right in front of the library’s entrance.
“No, it wasn’t the librarian, it was the Sister helping them,” Mountain dryly reveals.
“Okay, whatever, I don’t care,” Dew scoff while crossing his arms in front of his chest and avoiding their gazes. “Can we go now?”
“Sure you don’t, buddy,” Rain mocks under his breath.
Despite his attempt to go unheard by his best friend, the fire ghoul’s sharp hearing manages to catch his jesting sentence. And, of course, it only serves to rile him up even more.
“What was that?!”
“Nothing. Let’s go.”
Mountain’s the one to dismiss Dew’s threat concern instead of Rain, given that the water ghoul’s twitching tail indicates slight agitation. Since the bassist rarely makes fun of the guitarist, he isn’t used to having Dewdrop’s volatile temper directed at him. But with the matter momentarily settled, the three of them resume their journey back toward their common room.
“So, did you tell them?” Dewdrop asks as soon as they are at a safe distance from the library.
He really can’t help his curiosity.
“Tell them what?” Mountain retorts, feigning innocence.
“Why you play the drums shoeless,” Rain clarifies.
“Why would I tell them?”
“Dunno,” Dew shrugs before an idea pops inside his head. “You saving that for when you go on a date with that Sister who likes you, then?”
Neither of the other two ghouls can see Dewdrop’s expression under his mask. Then again, they don’t need to do so in order to assume that the little devil is waggling his eyebrows underneath it. The implication carries well enough through the teasing tone of his voice and the long undulations of his wispy tail.
Obviously, the question manages to irk the interrogated drummer. Which isn’t easy to do, but it’s clear to the other two that the matter makes him feel either embarrassed or uncomfortable. Or both, it’s never easy to tell with Mountain. Still, the earth demon denies Dew’s suggestion and shuts down his bandmates’ attempts to get a straight answer out of him.
“No, and I’m done with this topic of conversation.”
“Killjoy,” Dew mutters while rolling his eyes but ultimately desists from pushing the other further.
“I still remember when the Cardinal first found out about that,” Rain comments with a faint smile.
He doesn’t need to clarify for the other two to catch on to what he’s referring to. And they remember as well, although they had different reactions toward it. While Dewdrop found it funny at the time, seeing Copia so horrified and offended by the shoeless drummer, Mountain didn’t have such a great time dealing with the clergyman’s scandalized outburst.
Contrary to Terzo’s usually easy-going attitude, Copia demonstrated to be more uptight and controlling ‒despite his apparent awkward and anxious personality‒, a consequence of the immense pressure he was already under. Thus, the man couldn’t allow one of the band members to present himself in such a state of disarray, even if said member was the one sitting behind the drums throughout the entire performance.
So, during their first rehearsal, once the band was complete after summoning the remaining needed ghouls and ghoulettes, Copia ordered Mountain to put back on his shoes and play while wearing them.
That’s how the Cardinal came to discover how awful and out of sync the earth ghoul plays his instrument whenever he has a more substantial barrier between the soles of his feet and everything else.
After making the demon try and try again to play correctly, Copia gave up and allowed Monty to remove his shoes once more. Only then did the drummer start playing flawlessly again, to no one’s surprise except for the Cardinal’s. Still, the man remained skeptical for a little while, thinking that there really wasn’t a problem and that the earth demon was just being stubborn about the whole ordeal, acting like he can’t play well while wearing shoes as an excuse to be allowed to play shoeless, and that in reality it was all driven by a desire to be more comfortable even though appearing disheveled.
It took Aether to pull the man aside one time, during one of their rehearsals, and after the frontman was being particularly irked by Mountain’s appearance, for the truth to be revealed. Because, despite knowing that he could have told Copia what his issue was, Mountain didn’t feel like he would be taken seriously. And, besides that, he didn’t have a close relationship with the man as the quintessence ghoul did, so he opted instead to ask Aether if he could talk to the Cardinal someday and tell him the truth, giving his full consent for his secret to be shared.
That was how the new leader of the Ghost Project learned that Monty was born with a flaw that hinders one of his senses and forces him to rely more heavily on one of the others. Because, as it turns out, the earth ghoul is hard of hearing. As Aether exemplified at the time, for the ghoul drummer is like having a regular human’s hearing ability when he should have a demon’s one, which is heightened when compared to mortals’.
So, in order to compensate, he uses the vibrations he can feel through his sense of touch to fill in the missing information. That gives him the ability to “hear” as well as other demons, and also to play the drums in a masterful way.
That also serves to explain the ghoul’s aloof demeanor and the fact that when he doesn’t pay attention to something, most times isn’t because he’s just ignoring it, but because he didn’t become aware of it. And as the rhythmic guitarist reiterated, Mountain can get by well enough on a daily basis, but when it comes to music, he’s a disaster unless he can make full use of his sense of touch, in order to keep up with the rest.
The explanation –and Copia’s trust in Aether– served to make the man accept the ghoul’s slightly disarranged appearance, understanding that it would be best that he’ll be allowed to play well than to look impeccable on stage. Especially when he’s the one whose feet would be seen the least.
It still bothers him a little bit, though. Up to this day.
Sister Margaret is at the front desk –while Alex looks for a few books Seestor asked for earlier– when Mountain enters the library. He’s carrying the book he checked out the time he found both Siblings talking about him. That’s what makes Margaret blush like a schoolgirl as soon as she notices him approaching her. She also notices that the earth ghoul is alone, proving that Rain isn’t as avid of a reader as Monty is.
“Oh, you’re back already! That was fast,” Margaret comments offhandedly as she tries to cover her flushed face.
However, the casual and unprompted remark makes her blush even harder and avoid the demon’s eyes. Still, she extends her hands to receive the book offered by the demon.
On his part, Mountain finds her reaction to him…cute.
“Yes, it was a good book,” Mountain replies, serene and unbothered by the woman’s words. “Thank you for the recommendation.”
“No problem,” the Sister manages to stutter, face pink and eyes downcast. “I can suggest more books if you’ll like. Now or later, whenever you want.”
The embarrassed woman barely gets the words out, one stumbling after the other, yet the drummer understands what she means. In fact, not only is he interested in getting more recs from her, but to get to know her better as well. Thus why he decides to take the plunge and ask her out.
Well, sorta.
“How about we discuss more books over some tea? Next Friday afternoon, if you’re free.”
The earth ghoul is amazed that he managed to pull that off so smoothly despite the nerves wracking him. He’s also thankful for the silver mask covering his face, which feels incredibly hot under the balaclava. If he didn’t know better, he would believe he’s turning into a fire ghoul all of a sudden.
“Really?” Margaret asks, shocked, confused, and excited, before floundering to answer him properly. “I mean, yeah, sure. I would love to. And I think I’m free this Friday.”
“Cool.”
With their interaction coming to an end, and Mountain walking away with another book, Margaret waits until the drummer exits the library to do a little victory dance. And when she turns around, she finds Alex watching her with a smirk plastered on their face, giving her a double thumbs up while she flips them the bird.