Gustav Gloom

**Gustav Gloom** is the halfsie son of Hans Gloom, his late wife Penelope Gloom, and Penny's shadow. He is also best friends with Fernie What.

## Biography

### Early life

Penny Gloom became pregnant with Gustav some time after the death of his paternal grandfather Lemuel Gloom. She and Hans returned to the Gloom House, Hans’ ancestral home, and took up what was initially intended to be a brief residence in the House Inside the House. However, Penny eventually decided that she wanted to raise her child in the same home his father had grown up in, and Hans accepted her decision. Tragically, this provoked the wrath of Howard Philip October, a dangerous man the couple unfortunately believed to be their friend.

October enlisted several of his shadow allies to cause a car accident meant to kill Hans, Penny, and the unborn Gustav. However, Hans was not in the car at the time, and Penny's shadow managed to save Gustav despite Penny dying. She carried him for the remaining three months of his development until birth. This act of love had the effect of making Gustav into a halfsie: half human, half shadow.

Penny's shadow, who had learned of October’s involvement due to the presence of October's shadow in the car, informed Hans. He took off to confront October, and both men ended up falling down to the Dark Country. Penny's shadow was thus left to raise Gustav with only the aid of a few other friendly shadows, such as Great-Aunt Mellifluous. At some point, she went to the Hall of Shadow Criminals to ask Hieronymus Spector to ask if there was any way Gustav would ever be able to live a normal life. Hieronymus claimed that there was not, adding that he would face ever greater dangers as he grew older as a result of his halfsie status.

In spite of this, Gustav’s early childhood was in many ways happy in the care of his shadow mother. Among the amusements she was able to provide were rides on a carousel built by Lemuel Gloom. Unfortunately, many of the Gloom House’s shadows were apathetic, if not outright hostile, towards the young Gustav. Notable among the latter was Cousin Cyrus, who on one occasion attempted to ruin movie night by playing the bagpipes during *The Princess Bride Returns*.

Gustav’s mother took Cyrus to task for this with such severity that Cyrus thoughtlessly promised to make it up to Gustav at one point, placing himself in Gustav’s debt. Despite their antagonism, Gustav would later assist Cyrus with a number of adventures, incurring further debts that Cyrus repaid, albeit grudgingly. These included helping Cyrus against the Story Thieves, the Soul Bunny, and one Commodore Phantagore who had established a Museum of Inexplicable Antiquities.

After Gustav turned five, a number of notable incidents occurred. His small circle of shadow friends was joined by the shadow of a man named Mr. Notes, whom Gustav briefly spoke to when he visited the Gloom House. Mr. Notes was an unpleasant individual, and his shadow chose to abandon him when they both came the Gloom House. Gustav’s mother also told Gustav the truth about what had happened to Gand and Penelope, though not that Hans had ended up in the Dark Country. Sometime after this, Penny’s shadow disappeared as well, and Gustav came to believe that it was his fault that anyone who loved him ended up going away.

One occasions where he required information that he could obtain by no other means, Gustav visited Hieronymus Spector. He would later claim to have had four conversations with the shadow criminal. Hieronymus, by way of amusing himself, usually demanded that Gustav perform some task before he would agree to answer whatever questions Gustav had to ask. On one occasion, this resulted in Gustav being forced to collect a thousand spoons, a task that took him a week to accomplish. Then, after he brought them to Hieronymus, Gustav was told that his questions wouldn't be answered until he returned each spoon to where it had originally come from. This contrasted sharply with Gustav's friendship with Fluffy, a shadow dinosaur.

### The People Taker and Fernie What

By the time Gustav was ten, the Gloom House had gained a most distasteful resident in the form of the People Taker, a criminal who had initially entered the house to escape the pursuit of law enforcement and various justice-seeking citizens. He ended up making his way to the Pit Room, where he then fell to the Dark Country and was recruited by the evil shadow Lord Obsidian. As part of his ongoing war to conquer the Dark Country and, eventually, the World of Light as well, Lord Obsidian sent the People Taker back to the Gloom House armed with various abilities and a monstrous pet known as the Beast. The People Taker, already a veteran kidnapper, was tasked with "taking" people from the World of Light and throwing them into the Pit to the Dark Country, where they would become Obsidian's slaves.

The People Taker rather naturally targeted Gustav but failed to catch him over the course of several months. Among the means Gustav used to elude him was a door leading to a never-ending series of closets. Unfortunately, though Gustav was able to avoid being "taken" himself, he was unable to do anything to stop the People Taker from kidnapping seven people from outside the house. Gustav also somewhat fatalistically accepted the People Taker's presence due to the dangerous nature of many of the other beings that inhabited the Gloom House.

A truly momentous day came when Fernie What, her father Sidney and sister Pearlie, and their cat Harrington moved into the house across the street from Gustav. Observing their arrival, Mr. Notes' shadow hoped that Fernie and Gustav might become friends, though Gustav was more concerned with warning her about the People Taker. Fernie and Gustav met after she followed the shadow of a dog named Snooks, which had run away from the dog to play with Gustav. Fernie, who had never noticed shadows separating from the things that cast them before, was utterly baffled as Gustav and she discussed the occurrence. Gustav warned her, and also mentioned, without going into detail, his inability to leave the Gloom estate grounds.

Gustav later came to Fernie's rescue when, having followed Harrington into the Gloom House and ended up in the library, she was set upon by the People Taker and the Beast. He led her through the Dinosaur Bedroom and to the dining room, doing what he could to help her understand the bizarre nature of their surroundings as he did so. There they met Great-Aunt Mellifluous, who-like Gustav-was startled when Fernie's shadow demonstrated the ability to hold Fernie in place. On Mellifluous' recommendation, Gustav began leading Fernie towards the front door of the house in order to get her home, promising to continue the search for Harrington by himself. In response to her somewhat irate inquiries, he explained that Lord Obsidian sought to make a world in which shadows walked upright and people were dragged along behind them, and that what Fernie's shadow had done now made her an even more valuable target.

On their way to the door, the pair passed through the Gallery of Awkward Statues, only for the Beast to arrive in pursuit of them. After they managed to bury the creature, Fernie surprised Gustav by apologizing for an earlier comment about his house, noting that it hadn't been the sort of thing a friend would do. Gustav was surprised to find that Fernie considered them friends, though he admitted that he had hoped they would be able to be. Unfortunately, when they were then passing through the Too Much Sitting Room, they once again ran into the People Taker.

Despite Gustav's considerable speed from being raised by shadows, the People Taker was able to seize him, only to throw him into a nearby chair after Fernie bit the People Taker's ankle. Gustav lamented his apparent imprisonment more for Fernie's sake than for his own and was so saddened that he began to cry-only to find that he was able to wipe away his tears. Discovering that he had not, in fact, become bound to the chair, he quickly departed in search of the captured Fernie. He reached the Grand Parlor just in time to see a disguised People Taker welcoming Mr. What and Pearlie into the house and attempted to go and warn them only to be met by a furious Beast.

Gustav managed to outwit the monster and make his way to the Pit Room to help the Whats; to his surprise and delight, Fernie was also there instead of already on her way to the Dark Country. Together the pair, their shadows, Pearlie, Pearlie's shadow, the shadow of an unconscious Mr. What, and Harrington and his shadow managed to defeat the People Taker and knock him into the Pit. The Beast followed its master into the portal, and Fernie then introduced her sister and Gustav to each other before all three collapsed from exhaustion. Gustav escorted the Whats out of the house, but when Mr. What offered to let him come and stay with them, Gustav revealed that he couldn't leave his property without perishing.

Fernie thus became determined to stay in her new house, despite her father's desire to move her and Pearlie to a safer location. All three then paid Gustav a visit. Having learned that Gustav's shadow had kept him alive all his life by eating for him, and that Gustav had thus never tasted food himself, they brought him a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Though initially hesitant about this new experience, Gustav was persuaded to try one, which brought a rare smile to his lips.

## Personality and traits

As a halfsie raised by shadows in a shadow house, Gustav was considerably more capable than the average ten-year old boy. He was exceptionally speedy and possessed a high endurance, though being half human meant that he did run out of energy eventually. Gustav was also stronger than an ordinary human boy his age, though in this too he had his limitations. He knew how to fight with a sword, was a gifted climber, and possessed an incredible sense of balance allowing him to slide down long staircase railings with ease.

Gustav could touch a shadow even when the shadow was not solid enough for an ordinary human to do so. Having done so all his life, he could read the books from the Gloom House library, which were black ink printed on black paper. A prolific reader, Gustav often carried around such books, and left many of them aboard the Cryptic Carousel after taking them there to read. He continued to do this even after ceasing to ride on the carousel for fun following the departure of Penny's shadow. He also read his family's collection of ordinary books, including the works of both his grandfather Lemuel and Howard Philip October, his greatest enemy.

## Notes

1. ↑ Stated in *Gustav Gloom and the Four Terrors* to have taken place when Gustav was six. However, this is later contradicted or retconned in *Gustav Gloom and the Castle of Fear*, which indicates that Penny’s shadow left when Gustav was five.
2. ↑ Stated in *Gustav Gloom and the Nightmare Vault* to have taken place when Gustav was seven. However, this is later contradicted or retconned in *Gustav Gloom and the Castle of Fear*, which indicates that Penny’s shadow left when Gustav was five.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 As revealed in *Gustav Gloom and the Nightmare Vault*.
2. ↑ As revealed in *Gustav Gloom and the Cryptic Carousel*.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 As revealed in *Gustav Gloom and the People Taker*.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 As revealed in *Gustav Gloom and the Four Terrors*