I’ll go with ghost. I’m already used to my cats making a ruckus in the middle of the night. So a ghost doing the same isn’t going to phase me all that much.
Plus, if I can get on Casper’s good side, maybe I can get him to scare the crap out of family members and house guests that have over stayed their welcome.
Depends. Is it the ghost of the wife whom I locked in the trunk and sent careening off a cliff? That would change the equation.
As a guy, I’d rather deal with the live stranger.
I figure, even if the ghost and the weirdo can do about the same amount of damage, the stranger probably will do more. I mean, even if the stranger is just a really desperate homeless guy or something, he’s still probably stealing my food-- And that’s the best-case scenario. The ghost, though, will probably mind its own business unless I have its murderer over visiting or something.
Back when I lived in NYC, I once actually surprised a stranger in my apartment. It was the night before I installed a burgler-proof window gate for my fire-escape window. This time I’ll try a ghost.
I’m undecided. If you decide you want to get rid of the ghost, our traditional methods for getting rid of ghosts are largely untested, whereas if you decide you want to get rid of the guy, you can always murder him. Then, of course, you might have a ghost.
Okay, THAT’s a worse roommate than the two options, the known roommate but she’s the kind that thinks everything can be solved by burning sage and putting crystals everywhere. And she’ll totally pay you rent, as soon as the trimming is done.
I think I’d go with ghost.
When it comes down to it, if a stranger is in your house, something is very wrong. That person almost certainly knows they’re not supposed to be there, and is liable to do desperate things when caught. Regardless of whether they’re a thief or a squatter, they may become dangerous in a bid to get out or not get caught. Especially since the kind of stranger liable to be actually squatting in a living person’s house is going to be rather desperate already to be doing such a thing.
With ghosts, I guess it does in large part depend on what rules you’re using, but there are a lot of scenarios where ghosts can be neutral or friendly. Sure, you may get a super psychotic ghost that offs you on your first night there, but generally even with evil ghosts you get fair warning before they start trying to throw knives at you. Ultimately with a ghost the stakes get higher what with possessing your kids and all that. I acknowledge that. However, I feel like there’s more potential for safely diffusing the situation with a ghost. Hell, there’s potential that the situation doesn’t need diffusing at all, whereas with a stranger something is wrong 100% of the time.
A stranger living in my house is much creepier to me. How would I “discover” the ghost?
29 posts and no actual experiences with ghosts.
Unlike the movies, I only have to see the walls bleed ONCE and I’m fucking out of there!
Oh what the hell, it just as well be me. I picked the ghost because I already know what living with a ghost is like, a stranger on the other hand is a wild card I’m not willing to play. I’d rather live with the sounds of someone running up the stairs and slamming a door at the same time every day and know when I look no one will be there than actually finding a stranger in my home.
What kind of ghost are we talking about? A creepy Japanese Onryō popping out of the TV and spilling water all over the floor? A screaming ball of ectoplasm? Or am I Mark Ruffalo and the ghost of Reece Witherspoon show up in my newly rented apartment nagging me about coasters and shit, she helps me get over the death of my wife while I help her figure out how she got this way and we eventually fall in love?
I chose ghost. If there’s an actual, verifiable ghost in my apartment, then I have a chance at making a major scientific discovery by finding out exactly how ghosts function. A stranger would also be a lot more awkward than a ghost.
If there’s an actual verifiable ghost in my house, I get the Randi Prize first, then book deals and guided tours: “Spend the night in an actual real haunted house!” I’d see if I could communicate with the ghost so we could work out some kind of split, to see if the ghost had any use for cash, like if there was a cause it supported or something.
You’ll be surprised (maybe not) at the kind of sounds a two-storey wooden house can make on its own, along with some natural element. Both sounds you mentioned I hear often enough when I’m alone in the house: cats and rats gamboling between ceiling and roof, wind closing a door that didn’t latch shut, all sorts of creaking. One brattice wall i have with rubberized tarp on the edges opens and closes by the wind and makes a sound very much like a teen-aged kid whispering “Hi!”
At 2:35 every afternoon for years, and witnessed by dozens of others?
Cordelia managed pretty well with her ghost roommate Dennis in Angel. (well, after they dealt with the ghosts mom) If I had one like that I wouldn’t mind
^^
Maybe you could start a new thread. Was there any attempt to (scientifically) verify the noises?
Not that I know of, and quite frankly I never cared enough to bother, I wasn’t really that freaked out. The house was owned by the town Library where I worked for 25 years, and sat on the Library grounds. In the 19 years they rented it out 26 families came and went, most lasting less than 6 months. When my husband and I bought an old house we rented the place for three months while major reconstruction was being done on ours. during that time at least 40 friends and family witnessed the same thing. This is a very small quiet town and there was no other building close enough for the sounds to be coming from. Call it a ghost, an imprinted memory, or mass hysteria of hundreds of people over a twenty year period, it makes no difference to me. All I know is that it was a hell of a lot less upsetting than finding a stranger had been living in your home without your knowledge.