Chapter Text
Grian is known under many names. His friends see him as human, as their friend, and a bit mischievous but otherwise just a nice guy. They see him as Grian, the guy who works at the town’s café, who studied architecture at the community college an hour drive from their town only to not do anything with it, the one who likes to pull pranks on them but would be by their side to help them at a moment’s notice. They also know him as the man who complains about their adventuring endeavours but still tags along.
His friends don’t know a lot about him. First of all, he is absolutely not human; that’s probably his biggest secret. They also don’t know about his activities in his free time, and they certainly don’t know why Grian complains about their outings to look around the relics near their hometown.
They don’t need to know.
Other people and beings call him differently, however. The new ghosts call him an angel. He is not one, and tells them as such. The old and experienced ones call him the Guide, though that is simply a name they’ve given him. Other beings call him what he is; a Watcher. They avoid saying his name. The Watchers call him Xelqua. He does not mind that name, but it’s not his chosen one. It’s more of a title to him. Lady Death calls him Her vessel. He is one of many. She uses all of his titles, however. Sometimes She calls him Grian, sometimes Xelqua, and sometimes simply Watcher.
Grian likes his life on Earth. It’s simple, yet so exciting at times. He also enjoys fulfilling his duty most of the time, even if it is tiring at times. He has to do all kinds of things; sometimes he has to resurrect someone who’s time hasn’t come yet, sometimes he has to guide lost ghosts, and sometimes he has to work with other beings. Watchers essentially just do everything that needs to be done on Earth.
Though he often tries to keep his two lives separate, sometimes they like to mix uncomfortably close. This is one of those times. Grian stares at Lizzie with an unimpressed look as she sits on the table, kicking her feet up and down happily while staring at Joel. Her fluffy white wings are draped behind her, and her halo is tilted a bit on her head. Her bubblegum-pink hair is tied into two high buns. He knows nobody can see her other than him right now, but that does not make this situation any better.
“Why are you here, Lizzie? We talked about this, you can’t just come here to crush on my friend,” he says when nobody’s paying attention to him.
“Oh, but it’s harmless! He’s cute.”
Grian glances at Joel, who’s currently cursing up a storm because he burned his hand on the coffee machine, before turning back to the angel with a raised eyebrow. “You sure?”
Lizzie huffs. “Don’t judge me.”
“Is there anything else you need here are are you visiting just to check out Joel?” he finally asks.
“Oh!” She lights up in recollection. “Yeah, I’m actually here to do my job for once. Here.” She hands him an envelope, which he takes with a nod.
“Thanks.” He turns to get back to work before pausing and looking back at her. “Lizzie?”
“Yeah?”
“Just how often do you come here without my knowledge for matters other than my job?”
The silence is quite telling. After a moment, Lizzie speaks up, “Do you think he’d like me if I met him in my disguised form?” Her voice has a daydreaming tone in it, and Grian knows he needs to kill that idea immediately.
“Lizzie, no,” he says firmly. “You know better than to mix up with mortals. That could go wrong in so many ways. What if he finds out what you are? Then it’ll be my problem to fix.”
“But you get to hang out with mortals all the time!” she complains.
“I’m a Watcher. I’m serious, Lizzie, that’s such a dangerous idea.”
“I’d be careful—“
“No.”
Lizzie huffs in annoyance, but drops the topic. When her gaze catches Joel again, she seems to forget all about the topic, smiling and continuing to admire him. Grian just goes back to his work.
When he turns back to where Lizzie had been sitting, he finds that she’s gone. He sighs. He’s not too sure whether she hasn’t just made herself invisible to him. Right now, though, he needs to get back to serving customers.
When Grian finishes his shift, he waves a small goodbye to Joel and Mumbo, who’s switching out with him. The moment he gets home and locks the front door, he pulls out the envelope Lizzie had given him. He opens it and pulls out the letter, reading it quickly. It’s a simple enough task; he just needs to guide some ghosts out of one of the ancient relic places. Something about the place being too ‘sacred’, or something. Well, it’s not Grian’s job to try and figure out why he has to do something.
He pulls out his phone, clicking onto the group chat.
The explorers
Grian: I found a good site for us to check out
Grian: [screenshot of maps]
Gem: Ooh, looks fun!
Mumbo: Do we really have to?
Joel: yes, absolutely
Timmy: good find!
Timmy: wait
Timmy: grian did you change my name??
Grian laughs, putting his phone away. He signs the letter and it dissolves into thin air, which he watches with awe. No matter how many times he does that, it still looks cool.
He goes to the kitchen, pouring some water into the kettle and turning it on, before preparing himself a cup with a teabag. Once the water is boiled, he finishes making the tea and takes it to the table, letting it cool off a bit while he heads over to the cabinet in his living room. He opens up a hidden compartment inside, one he’s greatly familiar with, and pulls out his journal. He doesn’t technically need to hide it, seeing as he lives alone, but it’s good to have that precaution. He carries the book back over to the table, sitting down.
The journal is an old thing, now. He’s had it for decades, and takes note of every place he goes to for a task, as well as anything else that can help him in the future. It’s leather-bound, the edges now worn and slightly discoloured. He loves it anyway. It’s coloured in a mix of grey and dark purple, with the Watcher logo of the front in a brighter purple that never seems to fade. It’s also kept closed using a simple black belt around it.
Grian flips through the pages to find a blank one, grabs a pen, and begins writing about all the information he’s learned in the past few weeks while sipping on the tea.
When he glances up, something catches his eye in the corner of the room. Upon seeing the shadowy figure—something that would most definitely freak a typical person out—he sighs without any malice.
“Hey, Pearl,” he says. “Do you have to do that? You know you won’t scare me.”
Said ghost steps into view, the features on her translucent skin finally being distinguishable and a cheeky smile on her face. “Absolutely. It’s funny.”
“It’s overused, is what it is.”
Pearl rolls her eyes. “You’re just no fun.” She floats up to the table, peering at the notes he jotted down in his journal. “Ooh, you’re going to Withering Arch? It’s a nice one, quite a complicated layout.”
Grian raises an eyebrow at her. “You know you’re not supposed to go there, right?” When the ghost just shrugs without care, he chuckles. “So, you know the place?”
“Of course!” She perks up. “I can come with and help you out, if you want.”
“As long as you don’t scare my friends.”
She smiles in that innocent way that he does not trust whatsoever. He crosses his arms, and they hold eye contact for a beat before she awkwardly looks away with a small sigh of annoyance. “Fine…”
When she glances at the rest of her room, however, something catches her eye. “Gri…”
His eyebrows furrow in confusion. “What?”
“You still haven’t cleaned that up?”
His eyes widen, and he lets out an awkward laugh. “Well…”
“Mate…” she begins.
He claps his hands together suddenly. “Anyway, I’ll find you at the usual place to tell you when we’ll be going to that site,” he says. “But I’m sure you’re a busy person and have lots to do, as do I.”
“Grian—”
“Nope, I’ll see you later, I don’t mind, I promise.”
Pearl shoots him a look that clearly says ‘this is not over’ and then floats out of the room. Grian breathes a sigh of relief. Look, he could just organise his things, but he just doesn’t feel like it, so he won’t do it. He turns back to his tea, only to realise with severe disappointment that Pearl being around it cooled it down. Now he has to make another one…
“Do we have everything?” Impulse asks while sifting through his bag. They’re gathered next to his van, which they always use for these explorations. It’s the only vehicle in the group that can fit them all without issue.
Gem nods. “I think so.”
Grian watches Pearl float up to them and wave at him. He’s about to return the gesture when Jimmy starts talking to him, and he decides against looking like he’s hallucinating and waving at thin air.
“So, is there any reason you chose this place, G?”
“Uh, not really,” he lies. “Just heard about it and thought it looked cool.”
“Ah. Well, either way, I agree, it does look cool,” Jimmy says.
Joel nods in agreement. “Who knows, maybe we’ll even get some ghost activity.”
“Ooh!” Gem perks up. “True, we haven’t had that in a while.”
Pearl’s expression turns mischievous and Grian shoots her a warning glare. Now is really not the time for her to terrify his friends. He’s pretty sure Mumbo still has nightmares from last time, when she made his phone die and the radio all staticky at the same time. It didn’t help that it was in a dark area and his torch was already dimmer than usual. Pearl is very capable of scaring people when she wants to, that’s for sure.
Once they all gather their things, they head into the site. It’s pretty, Grian can admit. It may just be old stone buildings that have half-fallen apart, but there’s a certain kind of magical feeling to it. Especially the way vines and moss cover them, flowers blooming from the cracks.
The moment he has the chance, he separates from the others, turning to Pearl, who had been silently following him. “So, could you find where those ghosts are?”
She flashes him a grin. “Of course.” With a small mock-salute, she floats away.
Grian nods, beginning to look around for himself. He enters one of the more intact buildings, coughing when his steps stir the dust covering everything inside. He reaches into his backpack, pulling out a respirator and putting it on. He should’ve probably done that before, to be fair.
It’s dark inside, but fortunately for him, being a Watcher has its perks, like night vision. He finds a wooden table and two chairs, all looking like they’ve certainly seen better days. No ghosts, however, so he moves on.
Just as he joins onto one of the paths outside, Gem skips up to him. “Hey, Grian! I found a part underground, it’s really cool, you should come check it out.”
That’s perfect, actually. He’s basically guaranteed that the ghosts will be there. He follows Gem around the corner and down the old stone steps, where they switch on their flashlights and begin looking around.
The walls underground are surprisingly fully intact. They’re filled with intricate carvings of plants. The ground is slightly overtaken by moss and flowers, but that just adds to the atmosphere of the place.
But there’s one other important detail Grian notices; the place buzzes with magic. He can feel it thrumming inside him in a way he hasn’t in a while. He knows Gem can’t feel it, though, so he tries not to show too much of a reaction to it.
Well, it explains why he was asked to get the ghosts out. They shouldn’t be in a place so concentrated with magic, that could go south far too easily. He’ll ask Pearl to avoid this place from now on too.
Based on what this place looks like, and, well, the magic in it, it was probably a shrine of sorts. Which means that this whole site was a sanctuary once. That would explain a lot, actually.
Grian lets his fingers brush against the carvings in the stone walls, before remembering why he’s here. Right, the ghosts. He walks further into the room in the opposite direction of Gem.
He feels a cold draft and knows he’s on the right track. A ghost comes into view, tilting its head at him. Grian lets himself show his Watcher form to it, and it perks up.
“You’re… an angel?” it asks. Before Grian has a chance to answer, another voice pops up, equally echoey.
“No, he’s a Watcher,” the other ghost corrects as it floats to them.
The first ghost shrugs. “Same difference.”
Grian raises an eyebrow. “It’s absolutely not but let’s not get into that. I’m here to kick the two of you out, this place is a sanctuary.”
“So what?” Ghost 1 crosses their arms.
“It means,” he says. “That this place is sacred and ghosts that aren’t from here will just taint it, first of all. Second of all, the amount of magic in here will absolutely make you fade away if you stay in it for a longer duration of time.” The second part is absolutely not true but Grian needs to scare them off and he’s absolutely not going to be explaining the repercussions of getting addicted to magic.
The two ghosts share a look before sighing and floating out. That was surprisingly easy, to be honest. Usually, they put up more of a fight. Well, Grian won’t complain.
He walks back over to Gem. “There’s nothing here, let’s go back to the others,” he says, and she nods.
The two end up walking with Impulse and Mumbo. They enter one of the larger buildings, the inside dark.
“Remind me why we’re doing this?” Mumbo asks, fiddling with the edge of his jacket. “Because this does not seem worth it.”
“Oh please, it’s fun!” Gem says in a cheerful tone. She sets up a stronger light so that they can see, and they find the room mostly empty.
Meanwhile, Impulse fiddles with setting up their ghost box. “Let’s see if we get any activity.”
Static noise fills the room from the small device. Grian then spots Pearl floating into the room, and her eyes catching it. A grin grows on her face as she approaches it, ignoring Grian’s look, trying to tell her to not do it. She leans close to it, before whispering, “Boo.”
It registers in the device and Grian internally facepalms while Pearl giggles as Mumbo yelps in surprise. The sound comes through the ghost box too. Impulse takes a step back from it, while Gem looks at it with pure joy.
“It works!” she exclaims.
“Yeah, I’m not doing this,” Mumbo says, already turning around and beginning to walk out of the building. “I’m going to go find Jimmy, or something.”
Impulse seems to have calmed down again, stepping closer to the ghost box again. “Hello?”
Pearl seems to be content with what she’s already done, though, or maybe she’s just already lost interest, as she floats away top the other side of the room, looking around.
Gem’s shoulders slump in disappointment at the lack of response, while Impulse switches the device off. “I was hoping to get to talk to the ghost more,” she complains. Grian hums in understanding, feigning confusion.
Pearl glances back at Gem, her head tilting. “Wait, you wanted to talk to me?” She floats back to the box. “I can talk! I’m here—Wait, it’s off.”
She frowns, looking at Grian. “Tell them to turn it back on.”
Grian just slowly shakes his head at her. That’s what she gets for ignoring when he asked her not to do this. Like hell is he turning it back on.
Impulse backs the ghost box back into his bag, and Pearl sighs.
The group spending a bit longer looking around the entire site before deciding to call it a day, and heading back home.
When Grian arrives at his apartment, he drops onto his sofa, leaning his head back. Lizzie proceeds to pop up in his living room, because of course she does.
“Grian! I need to know your works schedule,” she says.
He raises an eyebrow. “Why, exactly?”
She huffs, crossing her arms like it’s obvious. “I… need to know when I can give you tasks. It’s hard to find out where you are sometimes.
He doesn’t trust that for a second, but Lizzie doesn’t back down, so he writes it down on a piece of paper and gives it to her. She smiles, before lighting up in recollection. “Oh! I have another task for you.”
She hands him his usual envelope. Grian sighs. “Already?”
Lizzie shrugs. “It starts in, like, two weeks, so you’ll be alright.”
He purses his lips while the angel disappears. She never says goodbye, does she? Despite knowing he has time before he needs to do it, he decides to look at the task now. When he pulls the letter out and reads it, though, he freezes. Oh, fuck.