alive, phantom, and a dead man

Storm

It had been two years since the accident outside his window, now all that remained was the ghost of Quackity in his building and a young tree planted in the empty spot where the crash happened, Karl was sitting behind his counter a pair of vintage jeweler glasses pressed on his nose, the old pocket watch he was working on laying in bits and pieces on his counter, "it's pouring down huh?" Quackity said interrupting Karl's concentrated work "huh?" He said but then looked outside of his store window "oh wow- yeah it is-" he watched as the rain poured down and the trees swayed aggressively "Do you remember a storm being in the weather forecast?" Karl asked while starting to reassemble the watch "No I don't think so-" Quackity said and Karl shrugged as he heard the door to his shop open "hello can I help you?" He said looking up from his work, in front of him stood a soaking wet raveonette headed man "yeah can I hide from the storm here?" he asked as Karl put the watch down "of course you can, I'll put your jacket away" 

the man looked around the store, who wouldn't? Just as Karl his store was quiet... interesting, with a hard wooden mahogany floor and random vintage shit displayed everywhere it was quite the sight, what caught the stranger's eye was the rocking chair hanging against the wall near the ceiling, and a brown teddy bear in a glass cage with a handwritten note saying 'not for sale, do not touch"  the raveonette entered the store, his hair softly dripping rainwater on the hardwood floor, "you can take a seat in the back of the store, I'll make you some tea to warm up" normally Karl wouldn't just invite a random stranger inside the back of his shop but he saw a look of recognition onto Quackity's face, "Okay this has to be quick... who is he how do you know him?"  Karl asked the ghost, Quackity sighed "His name is Sapnap... you know the childhood best friend that made a scene at my funeral" Karl couldn't help but snicker softly, but he knew this was serious, as a dead person he had a couple of rules, he or the ghosts in his house had to follow,  there were a lot of them but Karl's favorite was one he didn't need to exist safely, he just thought it was fun. 

Rule 4: Don't tell people your dead, let them find out themselves or through others

Almost everyone in town knew, science knew. What no one knew, not even Karl was the answer to the question: "How?" You could see it as an unsolved murder victim, once every few years when science found something new they're pulled from their very needed rests and exhumed, that was the same for Karl, he would get called to the hospital sit there for way too long to just return empty-handed... "Do you know what teas he likes?" Karl asked Quackity thought for a second before shrugging "I dunno- he looks like a chamomile person though". Karl stopped reached up into one of his store racks and grabbed a bag of chamomile tea before slapping it on his hand and saying "you know what? He does look like a chamomile person." The brunette turned to look at Sapnap frozen, staring at him "Wh-" He didn't even get to the first vowel in his sentence "I know what you're gonna ask and...," Karl said, he couldn't help but laugh softly ", I'm dead-" the brunette said breaking out in soft laughter "Yeah uh- sure okay... let the tea be can I just... borrow an umbrella or is that too normal for you-" 

Karl looked Sapnap up and down smiled kindly walked past him but when he did, something in the known world changed, Karl was not only dead, he also was a type of ghost, and well if you know were to look, your ghosts can become puppeteers of reality "I will get your umbrella... What about a tour first?" Karl looked at Sapnap kindly, the known world snapping away to a weird desaturated version f it, "What is this shit-..." Karl shrugged softly not knowing either "What'd you put in that tea?" Sapnap asked making a canon reference to doctor strange "I haven't even made 'the tea' but... I was planning to give you chamomile-" before Sapnap could answer Karl decided to up the creepiness of all of this with a mega notch "Quackity said you'd like it".

Sapnap stopped looking at Karl... "How do you know him-" Karl smiled softly and sat down on the hard wooden floor, "He's a good friend of mine and has been living here for the past two years". Sapnap shook his head "That isn't true- Quackity's been dead for two years... your crazy" Karl shrugged and gestured for Sapnap to sit down on the somehow comfortable floor, "And I've been dead for 103 years... who's the crazy one now? I, a simple dead man? Or someone that's alive but hasn't lived yet" Karl laughed softly "Just give me that fucking umbrella-" Sapnap said as Karl stood up "alright-" he stood up the world turning back to normal... but still different, there was someone else in the room, a shorter raveonette, around 19 years old... "I'll be right back" Karl said smiling disappearing in the back rooms.

"I am... tripping fucking balls-" Sapnap said not believing what he saw, Quackity smiled... trying to not fucking cry, "hahaha- surprise," Quackity said adding to the unneeded MCU references, Sapnap walked to him "How-... how are you here-" he asked as he ran to hug him, and it may sound creepy but he still smelled the same, even in death. "I- I'm so sorry... I should never have invited you and- it's all my fault-" Quackity smiled and shook his head, "Sapnap, none of this is your fault-" Sapnap nodded softly, and Karl re-entered the room with an umbrella "oh- I see you've met my friend" Karl said smiling softly, "Anyways I called and paid a cab so... I don't know why I went out to grab an umbrella-" he said starting to laugh softly, Sapnap turned to him "I- how did you do this?" Sapnap asked baffled "oh it's quite a simple spell, but to explain the mechanics on how it works I need to schedule in at least an hour of my time and the cab is already waiting outside so we don't have the time" from Sapnap's perspective Quackity disappeared once more, what actually happened was that he was transported from the ghost's reality to the alive people's one, so nothing about his surroundings changed.

Karl normally was a nice person but whoever this Sapnap person was had pissed him off, so he just gave the same attitude back, just in his own Karl way, "You could guide your way outside I think" Sapnap sighed and smiled softly "alright... it was good to see you," he walked out of the door and as the bell above it tinkled Quackity turned to Karl "are you kidding me, Karl?" He asked as he turned to Quackity "He was rude okay so in my defense I was just returning the energy-" the brunette said giggling softly afterward, "Molly, c'est simple... il suffit de dire non". The French girl shook her head walking into the front of the store, a teenager with pitch-black hair neatly tied behind his head following behind, "Oh hi Daniel" Karl greeted as the kid smiled "hello" he greeted smiling softly.

{So I spend quite some time researching native American tribes because I am an uneducated white European kid and I don't want to spread bullshit, but if I do make mistakes, please tell me it'll make everyone's lives just so much easier}