Ahem: a collection of stories from my older sister's birthday last year that I am now posting individually.
Rules: I shall put my music library on shuffle and pair her top 10 ships with the first 10 songs. Each ship gets a story related to the song with decreasing times: ship #1 gets 10 min., ship #2 gets 9 min., ship #3 gets 8 min., etc. So ship #10 is a hot mess 1 min. panic attack.
You don't HAVE to listen to the song first...but you might want to. And author's notes are bolded.
2. EmilyxGeorge (The Haunted Mansion) - "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift - 9 min. timer
Not gonna lie, this song was a stretch.
Again, I don't actively ship George/Emily, but I have ridden on the Haunted Mansion more times than I can count. Considering her username, I felt it was fair to make 1000th Ghost an actual character in this one.
Also, I'm impressed as heck by how much I managed to write in nine minutes with this prompt.
Emily was sick and tired of the attic. It was dusty and dirty and held far too many horribly haunting memories. Then again, she supposed she herself was a horrible haunting memory, but she didn't care because one way or another, she was sick of it.
Sick of flowers and candlesticks and beating hearts and grudges that, in reality, had probably gone on for far too long at this point. And so, when the newest member of the Haunted Mansion (Emily recalled the brunette happily shrieking something about being the 1000th Ghost) invited her to join the banquet downstairs, Emily threw caution to the wind and accepted. She was allowed fun, too, every once in a while! Right?
The 1000th Ghost had quickly removed the part of her gown that was snagged in the trunk and freed her for the first time in years and years and years.
She ran a careless hand through the haphazard tangles of her curls before rushing down the stairs to join the party. She found the 1000th Ghost immediately and had the time of her life - err - well, death. There was cake and presents and precarious chandelier swinging, but what Emily liked best was the dancing.
When she was dancing, it felt like all of her troubles were sliding away like droplets of water and all she had to do was shake them off. Which she did. A lot. Never in her whole life - umm - afterlife, had she ever had this much fun.
And, best of all, the 1000th Ghost told her that the hussy who was Madame Leota had gotten her head stuck in a ball, and now she could only move around when someone else had the will to lift her. And no one ever did.
Emily did not dare ask of George, but the 1000th Ghost's eyes held a sort of knowing look that scared Emily to her wit's end. Finally, the brunette admitted that she knew all about her tragic love story and was there to set things right. She hurried into the corridor and tugged out the handsome ghost of her lost love. And all the years of built up sorrow and anger flew out the window. Or maybe they were pushed.
Emily and Master Gracey ran to each other and kissed while the 1000th Ghost flipped out on the sidelines.
"And all this," Emily thought blissfully as her lips crashed into his, "is just because I let myself shake it off."
If 1000th Ghost dying and immediately trying to set up Emily and George isn't the most in character thing that I've ever written, then I don't know what is.