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- "Fashion. It's life or death."
- — Ghastly talking about his work, Skulduggery Pleasant
Ghastly Bespoke | |
Character Information | |
Taken Name | Ghastly Bespoke |
Species | Human |
Gender | Male |
Birth | 02/07 some time in the 1600s |
Age | Over 400 |
Death | October 2013 |
Magic | Elemental |
Faction | The Dead Men (formerly), The Irish Sanctuary |
Titles | Elder (formerly), Tailor (formerly) |
Location | Deceased |
Relations | Ghastly's mother (mother) Ghastly's father (father) |
Ghastly Bespoke was a sorcerer and tailor that could get the measurements of a customer from one glance. He is notable for serving on the Dead Men during the war against Mevolent. Later he became an Elder of the Irish Sanctuary which he served on until being betrayed and murdered by former teammate and friend Erskine Ravel.
Biography
History
When Ghastly Bespoke's mother was pregnant with him, she was jinxed. Because of the curse, Ghastly had scars covered his whole head. Ghastly has tried many attempts to eliminate the scars but has failed to do so, but he received a facade tattoo from China to cover them up. Due to his rather hideous state this has apparently eliminated any chance in the "normal", non-magic world. Ever since he was a teenager, he had been friends with Skulduggery Pleasant, who was around the same age as him.
Although Ghastly continuously states that he received his love of boxing from his father and his love of sewing from his mother, it is actually the other way around. Ghastly's mother was a professional boxer that fought Nefarian Serpine and Baron Vengeous and beat both into retreat. According to Skulduggery Pleasant she had a right hook that could have taken off someone's head and, according to legend, actually had once. According to Ghastly, she made a mistake by going against Lord Vile single-handedly, and was killed. Ghastly was also part of a group called The Dead Men.
After The War ended, Ghastly didn't want to continue a career in magic, thus he opened his tailor shop.
Skulduggery Pleasant
Skulduggery and Stephanie visit Ghastly in his tailor shop. He begins making protective clothing for Stephanie. Stephanie tells Ghastly that they believe that Serpine killed her uncle Gordon to get the Sceptre of the Ancients. Ghastly and Stephanie get into an argument about how she is to young for the world of magic. Stephanie storms out, and Skulduggery asks Ghastly if they can have access to his family’s collection of art and books about the Ancients in the Vault. Ghastly does not give him permission and calls Skulduggery irresponsible for allowing Stephanie to be involved. Skulduggery then leaves.
Two days later, when Stephanie, now having taken the name Valkyrie Cain, shows up at his tailorshop, he tries to apologise for what he said, but she interrupts him, saying that Serpine has abducted Skulduggery. He believes her and they drive to the Waxworks Museum to see the Elders. The Administrator insists they need an appointment to see them, and one of the Cleavers blocks Valkyrie when she tries to barge past. Ghastly argues and covinces the Administrator to see if Meritoriouswould like to see them. Meritorious appears a while later. He is doubtful of Valkyrie’s claims, and says that if she is wrong, moving against Serpine could mean war. Valkyrie states the war has already begun. Meritorious relents and decides to help them.
A while later, they are ready to go rescue Skulduggery. Meritorious needs time to convince Morwenna and Tome that Serpine has broken the Truce, and so is only sending two Cleavers with them so as not to arrouse suspicion. Ghastly tells Valkyrie that Mr. Bliss has offered to help, sending someone to aid them. Meritorious leads them out if the Museum to a van where the two Cleavers and Tanith Low, sent by Mr. Bliss, are waiting. They get in the van.
Arriving at the castle, the Cleavers leap the fence in a jump and Ghasty gets over it by using air, landing the woodland surrounding Serpine’s castle. Tanith boosts Valkyrie over before following her herself. They approach the castle, and Tanith sends the two Cleavers to distract the mass of Hollow Men outside so they can get in, which Ghastly admonishes her for, stating she’s sent them to their death. Tanith unlocks the door to the castle with her magic and they enter. They go to the basement, where they split up to check the various rooms. Ghastly and Valkyrie meet up again and find Skulduggery, shackled to a chair in one room. Ghastly unshackles him, and he states he knows where the key is. They leave, running into a swarm of Hollow Men. Skulduggery and Ghastly make a wall of fire to slow them and they jump out a window and run back to the van, passing one of the Cleavers, now dead.
Later on, he joins Valkyrie, Skulduggery and Tanith to a warehouse to look for evidence on Serpine. The White Cleaver (which Serpine turned one of the dead Cleavers into) attacks them. Ghastly is forced to use the Earth power to save himself by turning into a stone statue just as the scythe comes down.
The Diablerie Returns
After spending two years as a statue, he finally returns to normal, and after being quickly checked by Kenspeckle Grouse, he is welcomed back by his friends. He aids Tanith in protecting Fletcher Renn at the Hibernian Cinema. When the Hibernian is attacked by the Diablerie, Ghastly engages in a fight with Gruesome Krav, but his fists do not affect him.
Afterwards, Ghastly tells Valkyrie about a vision his mother had about the world ending. Valkyrie dies and the world ends, but she doesn't care. She tells him that she is still staying, and Ghastly promises not to try to change her mind about getting her life back to normal.
Ghastly is also present at Liffey Bridge where the gang get Guild back, but lose Fletcher.
At Aranmore Farm, he tells Valkyrie that he has made new clothes for her. Ghastly is nearly killed by a Faceless One, but Skulduggery saves him just in time.
The Revengers' Club
While helping Valkyrie track down Skulduggery's skull, China makes Ghastly a façade. She burns two tattoos into him, and after twenty-four hours, he can transform his face into a normal one. He chooses to retain his face, and just remove the scars so that he no longer needed to use disguises. He is forced to stay out of the trade between the gang and Thames Chabon, the person believed to have the skull.
After the gang learn that Davina Marr, the new Prime Detective, had bought the real skull of Chabon. They plan to infilitrate the Sanctuary, but the plan goes wrong and they are all arrested. He is freed afterwards, but is arrested after he provides distraction from the Cleavers. Later on, he goes with Fletcher to check old pubs that Sanguine used to frequent. He goes to Serpine's old castle to arrest Scarab, but the gang don't succeed, but they do rescue Tanith and Grouse after they are kidnapped by the Revengers' Club.
He also helps the gang stop the Desolation Engine from going off at the Croke Park Stadium.
Fighting Tesseract
When invited to the Great Chamber, he declines as he does not like those kind of meetings. He also does not attend the interrogation of Davina Marr. When Tesseract defeats Skulduggery, Valkyrie, Tanith and, Erskine Ravel, Fletcher teleports to Ghastly and Ghastly briefly fights Tesseract before the two flee from Tesseract with everyone. He later claims that Tesseract was a powerful opponent.
The Remnant Outbreak
Ghastly spends Christmas with Skulduggery and Ravel. When the Remnants are unleashed from the Midnight Hotel, the Remnants possess Wreath, Shudder and Corrival Deuce, who all attack the three. Ghastly and Skulduggery escape when Ravel is possessed by another Remnant and Tesseract walks in. Ghastly and the others, including China flee to the Hibernian. They teleport to Gordon's estate to find information on how to trap all the Remnants in the Receptacle. They all see the Echo-Gordon, and Ghastly agrees to take Fletcher to MacGillycuddy's Reeks in Kerry, where the Receptacle is, while Gordon teaches Fletcher how to teleport a large group of people. Skulduggery tells Ghastly to take the Bentley but must not destroy it.
When they returns to the Hibernian, Ghastly gathers the courage to ask Tanith on a date, to which she agrees and kisses him. He is possessed by a Remnant later on, and witnesses Darquesse. After the Remnants are captured, he attends the second meeting at the Great Chamber to elect another Council of Elders. When Ravel takes the job of Grand Mage, and Madam Mist, a Children of the Spider. takes one of the Elder positions, Skulduggery tells Ghastly that he should be Elder to find a way to get the Remannt that had possessed Tanith out of her. Despite objecting at first, he agrees.
Duties as Elder
Due to his duties as an Elder Ghastly doesn't appear much. Skulduggery and Valkyrie visit the Sanctuary in Roarhaven to report what they have to the Elders. Ghastly openly expresses he does not like being an Elder and is focusing all his powers on trying to find Remnant Tanith.
When Skulduggery suggests they raid The Temple and kill Melancholia St Clair, Ghastly stops him but agrees to put out an arrest warrant. Ghastly is then visited by Fletcher who had been dumped by Valkyrie and asks for advice. Ghastly helps Fletcher on how he could win Valkyrie back.
Ghastly is next seen at the Requiem Ball with Dexter Vex, Skulduggery, Valkyrie, and China. Skulduggery, Valkyrie and Vex all tease Ghastly about his Elder status. As he is talking to Eliza Scorn, Melancholia sucks the life force out of him and all the others present at the ball. However, Valkyrie convinces her to give the souls back, and Ghastly is brought back to life with all the others.
The Maleficent Seven
Ghastly has a disagreement with Dexter Vex about whether or not he should have been told about Dexter's mission. At this point he confesses that he want's to kill Billy-Ray Sanguine.
The Betrayal
He was stabbed in the back by fellow Dead Man, Erskine Ravel, when he, Anton Shudder and Ravel returned to Roarhaven to confront Madame Mist about some of the new "security procedures" she put in place while they were away fighting against the Supreme Council.
Just before his death, Ghastly notices Ravel's golden tear filled eyes. Then Ravel sticks the blade into Ghastly's throat and leaves him to choke on his own blood.
The Dying Of The Light
Ghastly appears as a ghost in the Necropolis during the second test. He appears to Skulduggery and talks to him alongside many other people from Skulduggery's past. Ghastly reveals that being a ghost, he is aware of Skulduggery's actions as Lord Vile but forgives them, he requests that Skulduggery join them in the afterlife, and later attempts to drag him down along with all of the other ghosts. However, Skulduggery escapes their grasp, telling them it is not time yet.
Until the End
Ghastly's resurrection (brought about by Darquesse) is revealed when Valkyrie visits Ghastly's office in the High Sanctuary after Darquesse's reconstruction of the universe.
Powers and abilities
Magic
Ghastly is an Elemental. He once used the earth power in defense against the White Cleaver Serpine had created, resulting in him being turned to stone for two years. Though he is gifted, he prefers to use his fists, which are very strong, as shown when Ghastly fights Tesseract with hand-to-hand combat.
Other skills
Ghastly is a highly skilled boxer and tailor, skills which he inherited from his mother and father, respectively. He makes unique clothes that are able to withstand extreme damage e.g. Valkyrie's coat, which protects her from bullet impacts, cuts, and punches among other things. His boxing skills are mentioned several times.
Personality
- This section is currently under construction. Help Skulpedia by editing it and adding information.
He can be very stubborn but is mostly good-natured. He is kind and caring. He demonstrates this stubbornness by refusing to show information concerning the Sceptre of the Ancients. Although he is gifted with the use of magic, he prefers fighting with his fists and would probably rather live a normal life without magic if he could.
Relationships
Tanith Low
Ghastly had a crush on Tanith Low since he met her but was unable to work up the courage to tell her about his feelings. Ever since he reverted from a statue, subtle hints of romance have been sparked culminating in Mortal Coil where he gets up the courage to ask her out. She agrees and kisses him without his façade. However she is possessed by a Remnant at the end of the book. Since then Ghastly has accepted the position of Elder to find her and remove the remnant. According to Skulduggery, Ghastly, despite knowing that it is impossible to remove a remnant from a person after four days of possession, "he just doesn't want to believe it." Given that eleven months were spent tracking and finding Skulduggery's skull with the help of Tanith and Ghastly, it can be assumed that the two of them spent an awful lot of time together, this period of time being a nice way for the two to get to know each other more. Something to consider about their attraction to each other, is that Tanith's had a history with many partners; most of which being very attractive. Given that Ghastly has always been described as ugly, it should be taken into account that Tanith likes him for who he is (if you don't count that she "digs scars, too."), as opposed to liking someone just for appearance.
Description
- This section is currently under construction. Help Skulpedia by editing it and adding information.
Ghastly is described as being a tall and broad shouldered man with a strong boxer's physique, but the Ghastly in the parallel dimension that Valkyrie and later Skulduggery travels to had a physique that was more speed than strength. His face is riddged with symmetrical scars due to his mother being jinxed when she was pregnant, this probably being the reason for him being percieved as ugly.
Trivia
- His favourite colour is green.
- He was friends with Leonard Cohen.
- When asked by a fan, Derek Landy confirmed that the additional scar to Ghastly's head in Cassandra Pharos' vision (in Last Stand of Dead Men) was inflicted by Billy-Ray Sanguine, as an act of jealousy that Tanith had chosen Ghastly.
Appearances
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Armageddon Outta Here characters | ||||||||||||
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The Lost Art Of World Domination |
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Gold, Babies And The Brothers Muldoon |
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The Slightly Ignominious End To The Legend Of Black Annis |
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The Wonderful Adventures of Geoffrey Scrutinous |
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Myosotis Terra |
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Trick Or Treat |
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The End of the World |
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Just Another Friday Night |
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The Button |
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Across a Dark Plain |
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The Horror Writers' Halloween Ball |
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Friday Night Fights |
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Get Thee Behind Me, Bubba Moon |
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What Might Have Been is not included as it deals with deleted scenes from the first book that were replaced with other scenes and are thus non-canon. |