Chapter Text
For every time that Red has been possessed, what used to be a light smear or blur in his peripherals started to become faint shadows before him. Flickers and movements of colours and shapes, became something a little more recognizable. Stick figures. The quietest of murmurs, easily brushed off as ambient noise, becomes the faintest of whispers, then a low mutter of thoughts, to faint comments like hearing a conversation through a wall.
It doesn’t happen often, mostly in the Outernet really. It throws the others off when he stops to stare sometimes, when one catches his attention, the ghosts. Some seemingly frozen in time, a moment captured, others seem to follow a loop, daily rituals, going through the motions, rarest from the few seen, follow or seem to wait for someone, and murmur quietly when they’re near. Those are the ones he has the worst time telling apart from the living. He's worked out a system with his friends to help him identify ghosts, learned tricks Blue showed him to identify if something was really there. Red feels a lot more comfortable about it now then when he first started seeing ghosts...
One of the first Red sees is one that appears on empty stages of Animate sometimes. Just before Alan and Orange start a project.
At first, he thinks it’s an impression of The Chosen One burned into the screen and points it out to the others, but none of them can see it, or so they say. With Animate up, he traces the figure for them as best he can, to show them where it is and what it looks like.
He thinks he drew it really well if he doesn’t say so himself, and judging by the others reaction at the completed drawing, he’s captured the ghost-sticks expression well too. Defeated, despondent, a little anxious or fearful, tired, the shoulders slumped down and in, head low, but eyes looking up and out, wary of something to come, or something on the other side of the screen. The others, uneasy, laugh it off as a prank. “Creepy” Orange complements, noting the pose and expression he captured was really good, saying they’d have to work on a haunted house together sometime.
Red, unsure of what more to say or do to convince them, goes along with it until Alan practically freezes when he walks into the room and sees the figure on the stage. He can’t quite see the details like they can on their side of the screen, but he clearly recognizes something about the drawing.
“Is that a friend of yours?” Alan types slowly, almost nervously. Hesitantly.
“Nah, Red’s just trying to convince us he can see ghosts and the program is haunted.” Green types back. The rest of the colour group is laughing about it, but Alan’s certainly isn’t. Neither is Red. Red isn’t sure what Alan is thinking, with such a conflicting expression on his face, but it clearly isn't good.
“We asked him to prove it, so he drew this! It’s pretty good actually! Really has that creepy vibe going on.” Orange complements Red's traced figure again.
“Maybe we should put this to rest…” Alan jokes as he draws a grave over the drawing, even putting a little R.I.P. on it and everything. Red frowns a little (Alan looks a little unnerved behind that faint smile), but the others laugh at the joke as the animator clears the Animate stage. He opens a different project to work on with Orange and every one moves on.
Red has to wonder about the whole thing and Alan’s reaction, but he doesn’t see the figure on the Animate stage again. He starts to second guess himself on having seen anything until the figure turns up again months later, looking just the same as before.
Red tries not to think about it. What happened to them?