Mutated Ectoplasm

44. Control Freaks

Work has kicked my ass all week due to a fair being in town. I'm outright exhausted, so sorry if the quality suffers a bit in this chapter. I wanted to do a few things different, but here we are.

I hope you enjoy it either way!

The situation with that biker couple may not have started out exactly as he planned, but Oberon couldn't argue with the results. A good thing for them too, since he would've likely gotten rid of them if they had ended up truly useless.

He hadn't been able to catch everything about the fight, but he'd seen enough to know that Vantas had won it quite easily. His son had done a good chunk of beating Johnny and his little pet back, which did earn a little pride, but considering how Kitty had set the other halfa off, it wouldn't have mattered much anyway.

Eridan had arrived homes lightly traumatized, which was to be expected after seeing a ghost and/or halfa go into an obsession state. Didn't even dare talk about it, probably as a way to make sure he could still hang out with the boy. If his son hadn't intervened, there was a good chance Johnny and Kitty would've been killed, something he no doubt realized. Just one step in separating the two and getting his own son on his side.

This experience showed him something that he hadn't thought up before too; he could try to manipulate Phantom's obsession.

Sure, he'd been doing that implicitly by encouraging ghosts with ill intention out into Amity Park, but not to a proper extent. Ghosts were led by emotion, and so were halfa's. And Vantas had a very manipulable obsession. And even if what he was cooking up didn't work

The only problem is that he had to make a call to a very unpleasant associate.

Oberon frowned, the worn book of names on his desk opened to a particular page. He'd made sure to not interfere with that man for years, but here he was, asking him to work on something he would've loved to do himself.

...It wouldn't get any easier if he just sat here, he supposed.

Oberon let out a breath, a groan sneaking out as he dialed the number. After three rings, the phone was picked up, and he could hear that dreadful music being played in the background.

"This is Barry's BBQ and Grill, you kill 'em, we grill 'em." A gravelly, lilting voice on the other end said in a laugh. "Ah, I'm just screwing with you. Who the fuck is calling?"

Oberon closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose before a tired sigh left him.

"Oh come on, you have to find that funny. Or normal people fucking would if they had a sense of humor." The laughter came again, which was honestly worse than hearing the music. "But I think you were disqualified from normalcy a long time ago, Dualscar."

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you have a working memory. I figured the secondhand pot smoke from your son would damage it." Oberon wanted to get right to business, and he supposed that was his way in. "I'm cashing in a favor. I'm planning something and I think you might be a good fit."

"You're asking for my help? Wow, the world really is going to hell. Last I checked, you didn't want to hang out." The joking tone vanished a second later, the change abrupt. "What do you want, Dualscar? Desperation ain't a good look for you."

"It's less desperation then wanting to speed something up. I've been trying to finish a plan for a good while now, but a roadblock occurred." Oberon licked his teeth, snarling. Vantas really needed to go, and soon. "I'm assuming you know of Amity Park?"

"Everyone knows Amity Park. Scientist breaks open a dimension that I've been trying to get full access to instead of picking up random ghosts off the street." There was irritation there but seemed tamed by some level of respect. "Got to admit, didn't think anyone academic like that would try it. Must be some kind of nuts."