Clown Around and Find Out
Pairing: Eddie Munson x You
Summary: Eddie decides to play a prank on Evil Woman, and quickly finds out just how dangerous that is.
Contains: A quiet night alone, a bad idea, an Evil Woman secret, excessive cursing, panic, rage, attempted murder, happy ending.
Words: 1.8k
Note: This takes place in the fall of 1990.
"She's gonna murder you."
"No, she's not," Eddie grins, admiring his outfit in the mirror.
"Don't you think it's kinda mean?" Jeff asks.
"That's what makes it funny!" Grant insists.
"She is literally going to murder you," Gareth reiterates.
"She is not! It's just a jump-scare, she's gonna know it's me in like a second!"
"You're gonna give the poor girl a heart attack!" Jeff tries again.
"You guys are no fucking fun anymore," Eddie grumbles, picking up the mask he'd found in a clearance bin after Halloween and modified for this very occasion. "I'm outta here."
"It's your funeral, man," Gareth shrugs.
After a few years of living with Eddie, you learned to appreciate your alone time. You loved him with everything you had, but even (mostly) domesticated, your beloved trash panda was still a lot to handle. So somewhere along the way, a night of band practice for Eddie started to mean a quiet night alone with a book or a "chick movie" for you. You'd never admit it to him, but you enjoyed these peaceful nights.
However, about a week ago, you and Eddie sat down with a bowl of popcorn to watch the new Stephen King miniseries.
IT.
You'd both read the book when it first came out and thought it was awesome.
Seeing it in your living room, on the other hand, was not so awesome.
You hated that fucking clown.
The mile-high forehead. The nose that looked like a blood blister about to pop. The fucking fangs. The whole luring-children-into-the-sewer-and-eating-them thing. Nope, nope, nope.
Eddie had watched the whole thing with fascination. You'd focused your eyes on the dusty little houseplant that lived below the TV whenever that thing was on screen.
And still, it invaded your nightmares.
So tonight, your quiet night alone was something of a nightmare as well. It was so quiet, every little creak echoed through the house.
You put on a movie - an old favorite that calmed your nerves for its duration - but as soon as the soothing whir of the tape rewinding ended with a clunk, the house resumed its creaking. You decided to do some laundry, hoping the washing machine would drown out the little noises that kept making you jump.
You gathered the basket of dirty clothes, hauled it to the laundry room, and began sorting. Still too quiet. You started singing the first song that came to mind to combat the silence as you loaded the washer and poured in the detergent.
When you turned to reach for the cap, you gasped.
There was a fucking clown standing in the doorway. Big forehead. Round nose. Frizzy hair. Ruffled shirt with ridiculously large pom-poms down the front. White gloves.
It's not real. Remember when a cardinal flew past you the other day, and you freaked out because all you saw was a flash of red, and you thought of that fucking clown? It's not real.
And then it fucking moved.
You shrieked and jumped backward, colliding with the wall of your tiny laundry room. There's no fucking way out of here. There are no weapons. If you survive this, you're going everywhere with a machete strapped to you for the rest of your life.
It crosses its arms.
Just like you've seen someone else do on occasion.
"Edward Munson, if you don't have that fucking mask off in 3 seconds, you are in for a WORLD of fucking hurt."
The clown throws up both hands in an exaggerated shrug.
It's just Eddie, right? Fucking with his poor little chicken? He'd laughed after you told him about the first clown nightmare, giving you an "awww" and a patronizing kiss on the forehead. It's just Eddie thinking he's funny. Which he's not. He's really not.
"Eddie, I'm fucking warning you."
But what if it's not him?
It takes a leap toward you.
You grab the handle of the laundry detergent - the big value-sized kind in a jug - and hurl it at the clown with everything you've got.
As if it were traveling in slow motion, you see the blue liquid begin to spill from the spout, somehow spreading in every direction; if you lived through this, you'd probably spend the next week scrubbing laundry detergent from every square inch of this room.
The clown ducks and misses the heavy jug, which hits the wall in the hallway and falls to the floor, but still gets doused in blue. It looks down at the liquid seeping into its stupid ruffly shirt, and you reach for the jug of bleach on the floor.
"You think this is funny, motherfucker?"
The clown holds out one of its gloved hands and takes a step closer, and it fills you with rage. If this is Eddie, you're gonna kill him and bury him in the back yard. If it's NOT Eddie, you're gonna kill it and call the cops. You fling the bleach at it, and this time, it's not quick enough. The clown tries to duck out of the way again, but the bottle makes contact with its side before falling to the ground.
The clown bends over with a grunt, clutching the spot where you hit it. Its massive forehead slowly rises to look at you. All you can see are dark holes where eyes should be. You grab the bottle of fabric softener and send it flying toward the clown's face. Direct hit, and a muffled cry from the clown.
You reach for the iron and grip the handle hard. If you die tonight, at least you're gonna take that ugly-ass motherfucker down with you.
The clown grumbles something from behind the mask, but you can't understand it. It stumbles backward. You raise the iron, wishing it were hot so you could melt this motherfucker's face off.
The white glove starts fumbling with the frizzy red wig, then pulls it off. A familiar mop of brown hair comes into view.
You're relieved for half a second, and then you're back to irate.
"You fucking ASSHOLE! What is WRONG with you?!"
"I thought it would be funny," he winces, standing and rubbing the spot on his side where you'd hit him with the bleach. "When did you get so violent?"
When did you get so violent?? You can feel the rage bubbling over again, and Eddie can see that he's still in danger. You slam the iron down on top of the washer, and he jumps at the sound.
"Okay, woah, I'm sorry," he says, backing toward the door. "I didn't think you'd freak out this bad."
You slowly advance on him, filling with fury.
"Stop. Stop." He holds his still-gloved hands up in surrender. You clench your fists and prepare to strike.
He makes his move a split second before you do.
You pounce, and he escapes. The door slams in your face.
"YOU'RE A DEAD MAN, MUNSON!"
"I said I was sorry!"
You try the doorknob, but it won't turn. This door locks from the inside. He's holding onto it.
"You really think locking me in here is a good idea?" you seethe.
"You're not locked in."
You smack your hand on the door where you suspect his face is on the other side.
"Hey!" Damn, you're good.
"Let me out."
"Not until you calm down."
"Is it ever a good idea to tell a girl to calm down, Edward?"
A thump comes from the door, as if he's just banged his head against the other side.
"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't know it would freak you out that bad. You said you had a dream about the clown, and I thought it was cute, then I saw the mask and decided to fix it up and mess with you."
You feel the adrenaline draining from your body at the sound of his stupid voice. You both love and hate this power he has over you.
You sigh and lean your head against the door. "I've been dreaming about it every night," you admit, removing your hand from the knob.
"Every night?"
"Every night."
"Fuck."
You step away from the door and shimmy yourself up onto the dryer, sitting on top with your legs crossed.
"If I open the door, are you gonna murder me?"
"Only time will tell," you deadpan.
The door opens a sliver, and you see puffy red eye staring at you through the crack. He eases it open the rest of the way, but remains in the hallway.
"Are you okay?" he asks.
Your life-or-death rush has faded; you're too tired to shoot him the withering glare he deserves.
He approaches you cautiously, still not entirely convinced that he'll live to see tomorrow.
"Take that stupid shirt off."
He whips it off and throws it over his shoulder. The gloves follow.
"Are you okay?" he asks again.
You sigh, close your eyes, and lean forward. He closes the distance and wraps his arms around you.
"I really am sorry," he whispers into your hair.
"I'm sure you'll find a way to make it up to me."
He hums in acknowledgement and holds you tighter. You rest your cheek against his warm chest for a few minutes, replaying the events of tonight. You'd probably be laughing about this in a few years, and telling this story at parties. But for now, you were just glad you hadn't really killed him. You quite liked this idiot. Most of the time.
"Are you okay?" you ask. "Aside from your slow reflexes?"
"Couldn't see shit in that mask."
"Excuses, excuses. Answer the question."
"I'll be fine," he chuckles. "Just like being back in high school and fucking with the jocks. 'Cept your aim's better. And they never cuddled me after they threw shit at me."
Both of your shoulders shake in silent laughter.
When you pulled away and opened your eyes again, you were greeted by the sight of blue splatters everywhere. Everywhere. How did one jug even hold that much? How the hell did it get on the ceiling?
"Looks like somebody jerked off a Smurf in here," you observe.
Eddie snorts, which makes you snort, and then you both start laughing. And just like that… everything was okay again.
Two Days Later
The Corroded Coffin boys put down their instruments and stood together when Eddie's van roared up the driveway, waiting to hear about The Pennywise Incident. He took his time getting his guitar and approaching the garage, then walked right by them without a word. He turned his back and ignored them while he set up his gear.
The trio closed in on him.
"How'd it go, man?" Grant prompted. "Did she freak?"
"Did she make you sleep in the van?" Jeff laughed.
Eddie turned around and took off his sunglasses with an unamused huff, revealing the black eye the fabric softener had given him.
"Told you so," Gareth smirked.
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Concept: Ghost Empathy and why Vlad is Emotionally Invisible
So, in the DP fandom we all play around with ghost abilities and characteristics, but one of the main fanon things is that ghosts are emotion, they are empathy. Ghosts are ectoplasm which is emotion manifest.
Why, and in fact how, then would Vlad be Emotionally Invisible?
Simple! Repression.
Vlad's half human (at least, personally I love the fanon that Vlad's not a full halfa because he didn't die in one shot) which means that he has more ability to emotionally regulate than beings that are made entirely of emotion. Vlad's also an adult, a billionaire, a politician, and a business man; all things that require emotional control and compartmentalization. Why would that not carry over to his ghost side?
I like to think that Vlad started to feel the ghost empathy, and he was like "cut that shit out" immediately. He walled himself off from feeling anything from other ghosts, which dampened his own emotional signature/projection.
Ghosts, who are beings of empathy, don't feel Vlad. He disappears from their perception if he's not within eye/ear shot or just close enough for his cut off trickle of empathy to reach them, because all ghosts rely on emotions for spacial awareness. The empathy is probably how they can tell if they're getting too close to someone else's haunt.
Danny does the rest, not that he realizes that he's masking Vlad from the rest of the ghosts.
Danny's a teenager and a ghost, i.e. the Most Emotional Being possible. Danny's projecting his feelings everywhere, all the time. So, whenever the ghosts come to Amity to blow off steam and stuff, they come across this fountain of frustration and their empathy goes "ah, upset baby, a good fight will help him calm down." Of course, not realizing that they are the cause of a lot of that frustration.
Once Danny learns what ghost speak/ghost empathy is and what it feels like, his relationships with his rogues get a Lot better, because now he understands! These guys are just looking for enrichment/ a way to let off some steam. Meanwhile the ghosts feel accomplished that the baby has calmed down and started using his words.
But what Danny doesn't understand, at least at first, is why the ghosts seem to believe Vlad, even when his lies aren't that great. Especially when it seems like he never gets anything past them.
It isn't until the next time he fights Vlad and feels how-- empty-- Vlad is that he gets it. Then he catches on, his emotional signature is giving him away.
None of the ghosts take the time to think that Vlad would lie to them, because what's the use lying to the dead? The living, sure, they're easy to mess with because they can't sense emotions, but none of the ghosts ever think that Vlad would cut himself off from the rest of them. He's just got a weak emotional signature, right?
That's also why Skulker doesn't hunt Vlad. He doesn't think that Vlad is a halfa, or if he knows, he thinks Danny is the stronger halfa due to the difference in their emotional signatures, so of course he'd go for the more difficult hunt. (he's right, but only partially because of the empathy)
I also like to think that the empathy is the reason that Danny gains so many new powers and control so quickly (compared to Vlad, anyway, he had 20 years to learn and he's still got fewer powers than Danny.)
Oh! It would also be fun if Danny had, like, a Resonant Core. Like, because he's so empathic he can alter his core to Resonate with the cores of the ghosts around them and copy/borrow their abilities. He's a halfa, and still growing, so his core hasn't settled and won't settle fully until he's Full Dead. (at which point the boy has an Officially Recognized Resonant Core, which means he is Certified Terrifyingly Powerful and it's a good thing for the Infinite Realms that he doesn't want to be a despot.)
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