five-rivers
Styx, Lethe, Acheron, Phlegethon, Cocytus
AO3: Marsalias, FFN: FiveRivers. Pronouns: any. Send me prompts whenever, but be aware that I get them much faster than I can fill them. Please do not ask about updates.
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rings of power
@nephmoreau
Metal clattered against stone and servos strained as the boy in the enchanted armor struggled to force Pariah Dark into the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep. The sounds of the battle outside the keep were faint, but present. Every so often, the cry of someone who could not die being fatally wounded rose up above the din.
The boy pushed again, harder, and the spikes of the Crown of Fire struck the edge of the Sarcophagus.
That was all the excuse it needed to topple from Pariah’s head.
There were things it could do and things it could not do. Bound to an object, constrained by ancient law and contract, its actions had to be plausible. Plausible, not necessarily likely. It had had enough of Pariah Dark, and it had no desire to be locked in the Sarcophagus with him again.
It might be an immortal entity bound in an inanimate object, and therefore not terribly susceptible to the various ills related to the passage of time, such as boredom, etcetera, but it still had standards. Pariah Dark may have controlled it and the Ring of Range the past several centuries, but getting beaten by a teenager that had no idea what he was doing, and demonstrating such a loss of authority, well… Did someone not able to control a teenager really deserve to wear a crown?
The Crown of Fire didn’t think so.
Now, it wasn’t fond of the idea of leaving the Ring of Rage behind, but there wasn’t much the crown could do. The ring was firmly on Pariah Dark’s finger. There wasn’t much wiggle room there, literally or figuratively.
But the crown could hurry their reunion along, one way or another. They always got back together.
It rolled away from the continuing struggle, ringing. Its tines chimed against the floor, and the flames singed the stones. Strictly speaking, it should not have rolled. It could float. But, again, plausibility. It wanted to be noticed, so it called out with the only voice it really had.
The Sarcophagus slammed closed, the boy practically sagging against it, but there was no key. The crown watched with interest. If the boy was successful, well, it was free of Pariah. If he failed, at least it was with the ring.
Then, Plasmius, the one who had freed them, flew into the keep, bearing the Skeleton Key. The crown wouldn’t call the key a friend, but it was an old acquaintance, and they acknowledged each other in the only way they could.
Plasmius inserted the key into the keyhole and turned it, locking Pariah Dark and the Ring of Rage away. At least, until the crown convinced someone strong enough to open the Sarcophagus and properly defeat Pariah.
That would take some time, though, if Plasmius was an example of what was on offer. THe boy might be better, but, no, it could smell weakness on him. The armor, as cleverly enchanted as it was, fed on him and his strength. He would not be nearly as strong without it, and with it, well…
The boy collapsed.
There. That was exactly what the crown was talking about.
Plasmius pulled the boy from the armor, checking him for a pulse of all things. Nonsense. The crown stopped rolling and fell with a clatter.
Plasmius looked up, eyes falling directly on the crown, as planned. He split a duplicate off himself, then another, and another, until one was holding the boy, one was holding the crown, and the others were lifting up the armor.
But that armor… hmm.
It had been a while, a long, long while, since it had moved.
Item spirits, like the crown of fire, were far more akin to hermit crabs than anything else among the living. They grew very slowly, but sometimes… sometimes, they got a little crowded in their shells. So to speak.
As Plasmius gathered himself together to fly to wherever he called home, the spirit of the crown slowly, slowly pulled itself free. Invisibly, it stretched feelers out to the armor and sunk in, testing it.
Oh, yes, this would do nicely.
It only half paid attention as Fright Knight approached and Plasmius held up the crown’s old body like some kind of trophy. Fright Knight’s flames rippled in the ghostly version of a sigh. Well, he could keep his exasperation to himself. The crown could do what it wanted. It didn’t need a babysitter.
.
The crown was having fun being a suit of armor. Of course, being a crown, it wouldn’t stay a suit of armor for long, but it would be fun while it lasted. Running around with the ghost boy’s human sister was exciting. More than it’d had in ages. The fake fighting wasn’t really it’s style, but, well.
The sister wasn’t Pariah Dark, and, really, what more could it ask for?
But then the ghost boy was taking his sister, and setting off a self destruct, which, truly, was ridiculous. Why would anyone put that in something they were going to wear?
The crown tried to stop it, of course. It should have been able to stop it. But modern enchantments were so strange to it, so unfamiliar. It still didn’t understand how they worked.
So, instead, it reached out, searching for anything it could slip into, no matter how small…
… and it found something, many microscopic somethings, swimming through the girl’s blood.
Nanites, they had been called. Tiny enchanted things, small enough to hide dozens in a drop of blood. They were enough to hold the crown. They had to be.
It made the jump. Then, it paced restlessly back and forth in its new home. Better this than being blown up, but still. How tight. How unpleasant.
It would make it work.
.
Jazz put her hand to her head as Danny flew her away from Vlad’s stupid football-themed death arena.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “Vlad mentioned something about nanobots or nanites or something?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “Just a headache. You didn’t mention how loud that thing was.”
“Loud?”
“Yeah, like something was squealing the whole time.” She shook her head. “It’s nothing.”
“Are you sure?” asked Danny.
“I’m sure,” said Jazz, smiling. She rubbed the base of her ring finger. It felt like… something… something should be there.
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Why does this suddenly have 500 notes? Help.
Maybe I'd go faster if you weren't intent on shining the sun directly into my rear view mirror.
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vacation in camazotz
@rgbyshipper101
.
“... keeps going like this, he’s going to end up dropping the house into another dimension again.” Danny sighed heavily.
“Well, that’s not really fair,” said Sam.
“Huh? What do you mean?” asked Danny, blinking blankly at her. “That’s definitely a thing he did.”
“Yeah, but that wasn’t totally him.”
“He was pretty tangential, actually,” said Tucker. “Unless there’s something you aren’t telling us?”
“I… haven’t I told you about the time he sent the house into a parallel dimension?”
“You didn’t exactly need to. We were all there.”
“No,” said Danny. “What are you guys talking about?”
“Yes, we were. The whole town was there,” said Tucker.
“You know,” prompted Sam. “Vlad pawning the Ring of Rage off on Valerie, you pulling Fright Knight’s sword out of the ground, Pariah Dark.”
“Yeah, you’re more related to us winding up in the Ghost Zone than your dad is.”
“Ooohhhh, I get what’s going on. You’re thinking of a completely different time. The time I’m talking about is way back in sixth grade.”
Sam’s gamer cave (she did not call it that, but that’s what it was) went quiet enough that the faint hum of the computer screens could be heard.
“Your dad sent you guys to another dimension when you were in sixth grade,” said Sam, spinning her chair around and pointing a painted fingernail at Danny.
“Yeah,” said Danny.
“Three years before your whole…” She waved her hand at him. “Thing.”
“Before you got zapped, she means,” said Tucker.
“Yeah. So?”
“So,” said Sam, “why is that, even though you knew alternate dimensions were a thing and your dad could get you there, you didn’t believe in ghosts and were okay with walking into the portal?”
“Okay, but, look,” said Danny. He put his controller to one side. “That’s– That’s a false equivalency.”
“Spending time with Jazz, I see,” said Tucker. He was now the only one still playing the game.
“Shut up,” said Danny. “I know stuff without Jazz telling me about it. But just because one unbelievable thing is true, that doesn’t mean that all unbelievable things are true. Besides, the dimension we wound up in was way different from the Ghost Zone. Had nothing to do with ghosts at all. Definitely not something you look at and then go, ah, yes, ghosts exist.”
“But you knew that other dimensions existed. Even if there weren’t ghosts on the other side of the portal, you still could’ve realized that it could take you to another dimension.”
“But it didn’t do that. It just half killed me.”
“By opening a portal to another dimension in you.”
“And?”
Sam glared at him. “You’re just playing dumb at this point.”
“Neither of you are playing anything, and I think at this point we can just say that Danny’s dumb.” Tucker’s computer let out a little jingle as his character completed a quest.
“Hey! Most of their stuff doesn’t work,” said Danny, exasperated.
“But you were messing around with something that they had made work before. Didn’t you think that could be dangerous? Or have consequences? Drop you in yet a different dimension? Something?”
“They said it didn’t work. I believed them. And you guys kept hassling me about it.”
“Someone skipped out on the ‘don’t give in to peer pressure’ PSAs,” said Tucker, singsong.
“You are not innocent here, Tucker! We’ve all done dumb stuff. Can we drop it? I thought we were playing games today, not playing ‘gang up on Danny for stuff we all did.’”
“Fine,” said Sam. She picked her controller back up. Danny picked his up a second later.
They continued playing the game.
Then Sam dropped her controller again, this time in her lap. “Okay, actually, this is going to bother the heck out of me if I don’t know. How did your Dad drop the house in an alternate dimension?”
“And what was it like?” added Tucker. He, of course, kept his eyes on the game.
“What was it like…” said Danny, contemplative. He made his character run around in circles. “How to explain?”
“Start with how you got there,” said Sam. “Go from there.”
“Okay. Well. It started off– It was pretty normal. You know.”
“Uh, no,” said Tucker. “Sending your house to another dimension is not normal.”
“Normal for them. For my parents.”
“Define normal here. Like, describe it,” said Tucker.
“Working on the portal.”
Sam let out a slow, exasperated sigh. “Really, Danny?”
“Well, it was that or weapons. Do you think their weapons teleported us to another dimension?”
“They could’ve. The bazooka does,” said Tucker.
“Fair,” said Danny. “But, like, they were working on the portal, but then they were going over some of the math - it was wrong, obviously - and they saw that there was, like, there was a, um. There was an ‘interesting result.’ Supposedly, distance fell out of the equation if you had the right inputs. Something like that.”
“Which means… what?” asked Sam.
“They thought they could make a teleporter.”
“What!” Tucker finally whirled away from his monitor. “They have a teleporter? They made a teleporter?”
“No. That’s the whole point. No teleporter. They messed it up. But, like, they built what they thought was a teleporter. And, of course, as soon as they built it, they had to use it. Mom wanted to do small tests, sending an apple back and forth or something, but Dad decided to jump right into teleporting the entire house, because it was vacation time.”
“Yeah, okay, that sounds like your dad,” said Tucker.
“Doesn’t it? Which is why I’m worried now, because it’s the same thing all over again, he keeps getting too excited and then doesn’t slow down to make sure things work the way they’re supposed to.”
“You have no right to criticize that, Mr. Walks Into a Portal and Dies,” said Sam.
“I think I’m the only one who does have the right to criticize it.”
“And the dimension?” asked Tucker. “I want to know about the alternate dimension.”
“Right,” said Danny. “Well, when Dad ‘teleported’ us, we knew things were wrong pretty much right away. You guys have read a Wrinkle in Time, right?”
“Sure,” said Sam.
“Yeah,” said Tucker. “It was assigned last year, wasn’t it?”
“Right, so, you know the planet with the brain? It was– It was kind of like that.” His character died and he sighed. “I suck at multitasking. It wasn’t even just the stuff, it was, like, the air was flat. The texture of everything was wrong. Everything was… fake? Like a performance, except it was the whole world. Everyone just had these smiles on their faces but they were… empty.”
Sam propped her head up on her fist. “Your parents sent you to play outside and didn’t notice any of that, didn’t they?”
“They did. But they did notice stuff. Like, all the houses being the same, the creepy sky–”
“The sky was creepy?”
“Super creepy. It was like. Segmented. Triangles. Like we were inside a pyramid. And all the roofs were also pyramids, now that I think about it. Just, pyramids everywhere. Really pointy ones. Oh! And gravity was also a pyramid.”
“What?” asked Sam.
“Gravity was a pyramid.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It was a pyramid. Gravity.”
“Okay, okay, I think I’ve got this,” said Tucker. “What shape is gravity here?”
“It’s round,” said Danny, “duh.”
“It’s round, so there you go, Sam,” said Tucker.
“It is round,” said Danny. “Like, gravitational fields, they’re round. But they were pyramids there.”
“Wow,” said Sam. “I wouldn’t have expected that. Pyramids.”
“See? Ghost Zone is totally different.”
“Yep,” said Tucker. His computer let out another chime. “By the way, you guys owe me soda now.”“How did you do that?” complained Danny. “You weren’t even looking at the screen!”
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vacation in camazotz
@rgbyshipper101
.
“... keeps going like this, he’s going to end up dropping the house into another dimension again.” Danny sighed heavily.
“Well, that’s not really fair,” said Sam.
“Huh? What do you mean?” asked Danny, blinking blankly at her. “That’s definitely a thing he did.”
“Yeah, but that wasn’t totally him.”
“He was pretty tangential, actually,” said Tucker. “Unless there’s something you aren’t telling us?”
“I… haven’t I told you about the time he sent the house into a parallel dimension?”
“You didn’t exactly need to. We were all there.”
“No,” said Danny. “What are you guys talking about?”
“Yes, we were. The whole town was there,” said Tucker.
“You know,” prompted Sam. “Vlad pawning the Ring of Rage off on Valerie, you pulling Fright Knight’s sword out of the ground, Pariah Dark.”
“Yeah, you’re more related to us winding up in the Ghost Zone than your dad is.”
“Ooohhhh, I get what’s going on. You’re thinking of a completely different time. The time I’m talking about is way back in sixth grade.”
Sam’s gamer cave (she did not call it that, but that’s what it was) went quiet enough that the faint hum of the computer screens could be heard.
“Your dad sent you guys to another dimension when you were in sixth grade,” said Sam, spinning her chair around and pointing a painted fingernail at Danny.
“Yeah,” said Danny.
“Three years before your whole…” She waved her hand at him. “Thing.”
“Before you got zapped, she means,” said Tucker.
“Yeah. So?”
“So,” said Sam, “why is that, even though you knew alternate dimensions were a thing and your dad could get you there, you didn’t believe in ghosts and were okay with walking into the portal?”
“Okay, but, look,” said Danny. He put his controller to one side. “That’s– That’s a false equivalency.”
“Spending time with Jazz, I see,” said Tucker. He was now the only one still playing the game.
“Shut up,” said Danny. “I know stuff without Jazz telling me about it. But just because one unbelievable thing is true, that doesn’t mean that all unbelievable things are true. Besides, the dimension we wound up in was way different from the Ghost Zone. Had nothing to do with ghosts at all. Definitely not something you look at and then go, ah, yes, ghosts exist.”
“But you knew that other dimensions existed. Even if there weren’t ghosts on the other side of the portal, you still could’ve realized that it could take you to another dimension.”
“But it didn’t do that. It just half killed me.”
“By opening a portal to another dimension in you.”
“And?”
Sam glared at him. “You’re just playing dumb at this point.”
“Neither of you are playing anything, and I think at this point we can just say that Danny’s dumb.” Tucker’s computer let out a little jingle as his character completed a quest.
“Hey! Most of their stuff doesn’t work,” said Danny, exasperated.
“But you were messing around with something that they had made work before. Didn’t you think that could be dangerous? Or have consequences? Drop you in yet a different dimension? Something?”
“They said it didn’t work. I believed them. And you guys kept hassling me about it.”
“Someone skipped out on the ‘don’t give in to peer pressure’ PSAs,” said Tucker, singsong.
“You are not innocent here, Tucker! We’ve all done dumb stuff. Can we drop it? I thought we were playing games today, not playing ‘gang up on Danny for stuff we all did.’”
“Fine,” said Sam. She picked her controller back up. Danny picked his up a second later.
They continued playing the game.
Then Sam dropped her controller again, this time in her lap. “Okay, actually, this is going to bother the heck out of me if I don’t know. How did your Dad drop the house in an alternate dimension?”
“And what was it like?” added Tucker. He, of course, kept his eyes on the game.
“What was it like…” said Danny, contemplative. He made his character run around in circles. “How to explain?”
“Start with how you got there,” said Sam. “Go from there.”
“Okay. Well. It started off– It was pretty normal. You know.”
“Uh, no,” said Tucker. “Sending your house to another dimension is not normal.”
“Normal for them. For my parents.”
“Define normal here. Like, describe it,” said Tucker.
“Working on the portal.”
Sam let out a slow, exasperated sigh. “Really, Danny?”
“Well, it was that or weapons. Do you think their weapons teleported us to another dimension?”
“They could’ve. The bazooka does,” said Tucker.
“Fair,” said Danny. “But, like, they were working on the portal, but then they were going over some of the math - it was wrong, obviously - and they saw that there was, like, there was a, um. There was an ‘interesting result.’ Supposedly, distance fell out of the equation if you had the right inputs. Something like that.”
“Which means… what?” asked Sam.
“They thought they could make a teleporter.”
“What!” Tucker finally whirled away from his monitor. “They have a teleporter? They made a teleporter?”
“No. That’s the whole point. No teleporter. They messed it up. But, like, they built what they thought was a teleporter. And, of course, as soon as they built it, they had to use it. Mom wanted to do small tests, sending an apple back and forth or something, but Dad decided to jump right into teleporting the entire house, because it was vacation time.”
“Yeah, okay, that sounds like your dad,” said Tucker.
“Doesn’t it? Which is why I’m worried now, because it’s the same thing all over again, he keeps getting too excited and then doesn’t slow down to make sure things work the way they’re supposed to.”
“You have no right to criticize that, Mr. Walks Into a Portal and Dies,” said Sam.
“I think I’m the only one who does have the right to criticize it.”
“And the dimension?” asked Tucker. “I want to know about the alternate dimension.”
“Right,” said Danny. “Well, when Dad ‘teleported’ us, we knew things were wrong pretty much right away. You guys have read a Wrinkle in Time, right?”
“Sure,” said Sam.
“Yeah,” said Tucker. “It was assigned last year, wasn’t it?”
“Right, so, you know the planet with the brain? It was– It was kind of like that.” His character died and he sighed. “I suck at multitasking. It wasn’t even just the stuff, it was, like, the air was flat. The texture of everything was wrong. Everything was… fake? Like a performance, except it was the whole world. Everyone just had these smiles on their faces but they were… empty.”
Sam propped her head up on her fist. “Your parents sent you to play outside and didn’t notice any of that, didn’t they?”
“They did. But they did notice stuff. Like, all the houses being the same, the creepy sky–”
“The sky was creepy?”
“Super creepy. It was like. Segmented. Triangles. Like we were inside a pyramid. And all the roofs were also pyramids, now that I think about it. Just, pyramids everywhere. Really pointy ones. Oh! And gravity was also a pyramid.”
“What?” asked Sam.
“Gravity was a pyramid.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It was a pyramid. Gravity.”
“Okay, okay, I think I’ve got this,” said Tucker. “What shape is gravity here?”
“It’s round,” said Danny, “duh.”
“It’s round, so there you go, Sam,” said Tucker.
“It is round,” said Danny. “Like, gravitational fields, they’re round. But they were pyramids there.”
“Wow,” said Sam. “I wouldn’t have expected that. Pyramids.”
“See? Ghost Zone is totally different.”
“Yep,” said Tucker. His computer let out another chime. “By the way, you guys owe me soda now.”“How did you do that?” complained Danny. “You weren’t even looking at the screen!”
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Cracked Clay Cup Chapter 14
@greatbigolhampuckjustforme
“I do not believe you have amnesia,” said Ember. “I do not believe you have amnesia. How are you so freaking–”
Phantom beaned Ember in the face with a seat cushion. It might have been soft, but Ember didn’t exactly check to make sure that no one put gum under them after concerts.
“LESS TALKING MORE SINGING!” Technus shrieked electronically. “NANOBOT ATTACK!”
“No!” said Skulker. “Not the freaking–”
A swarm of robots descended from vents in the ceiling. Toy robots. Brightly colored, with rounded edges. They had lasers. Ones that stung.
“Ouch!” said Phantom.
“Augh!” squeaked Ember.
“Goddamn–” shouted Skulker before being borne under the colorful swarm.
“BEHOLD, MY ROBOT ARMY!”
Freaking Leeroy-Jenkins-looking–
Phantom shoved them to the sides of the room with a wave of ecto-energy.
“Hey, speaking of that, do you know Vlad?”
“Speaking of what?” demanded Ember, pulling gum out of her hair. She was going to kill him for that. “Freaking robot armies? Are you going to tell us that Plasmius has a robot army?”
“AND HE DIDN’T BUY IT FROM ME?”
“Of course he wouldn’t! Ol’ Plaz is a loser but he knows about malware.”
“No, I mean, like, I learned that move from him,” said Phantom. “And, like, it does seem like all of you guys know each other, yeah? I’m the point of contact, probably, but still–”
“Actually, no,” said Ember. “Skulker’s been working for Plasmius for ages.” Skulker had also clawed his way out of the robots and was now sneaking up on Phantom rather effectively.
Except, suddenly, it wasn’t so effective. Phantom twisted, reached back, hooked his fingers under the edge of Skulker’s helmet and heaved. Skulker’s head popped off cleanly before soaring across the auditorium.
Phantom stared after it for a moment, then shrieked, loudly. “His head! Oh, gosh, his head.”
Okay, maybe the dipstick did have amnesia.
“Oh my gosh, I didn’t mean to– His head came off. His head. Is he– He’s already dead, is he– I didn’t mean to hurt– to end–” The main part of Skulker’s armor fell over with a clatter.
“Oh my god,” said Ember, flying over to Skulker. The actual Skulker. In the pilot’s seat in the helmet. Usually she wouldn’t do this, but Phantom looked like he was about to cry. She picked him up and yanked him out of the helmet. “This is Skulker. He just likes to stomp around in a suit of armor, ‘cause he’s compensating for something.”
“Hey!” squealed Skulker.
“It’s a mecha!” chimed in Technus, proudly. “My own design!”
“That’s… actually pretty cool,” said Phantom. “But I think– I think I need to– Go home. And lie down or something. Have a, um, a good one. We’ll hang out later. Or fight. Yeah.” He hit a button on his weird necklace pocketwatch and disappeared.
“Well,” said Ember. “That was anticlimactic.”
“Yeah.”
“Kind of was.”
“Wanna keep fighting?” she asked.
“YES!”
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Cracked Clay Cup Chapter 13
@greatbigolhampuckjustforme
.
“Okay,” said Danny rubbing his hands together. “I’m going to do the big group next.”
“Group number four?”
“Yeah, them. Why’re there three of them, anyway?”
“You’ll have to ask them that,” said Clockwork. “Au jus?”
“Yes, please,” said Danny, reaching for the small bowl of sauce. “Your sandwiches are always really good.”
“Thank you,” said Clockwork. “Will you be leaving after lunch, then?”
“Yeah, I think that’ll be best.” Danny sighed. “No offense, but I’m kind of going a little bit stir-crazy, being inside all the time. I didn’t really realize until Pandora said something, but she was right.”
“That’s quite reasonable,” said Clockwork. “The trial has lasted for nearly a month and a half.”
“Really? I think I’ve only been with each person for about a week, and there’ve only been four people. Five, if you count the Observants.”
“Yes, but you’ve spent a good amount of time here as well. Those in-between days add up.”
“Huh. I guess so.” Danny took a bite of his sandwich. “I guess it sort of snuck up on me. A month and a half… So two weeks here.”
“Yes, but please chew with your mouth closed.”
“Oops,” said Danny, covering his mouth. “Sorry.”
Clockwork nodded and patted Danny absently on the head before making a small sandwich for himself. They ate together quietly.
“Three of them, though,” said Danny. “Are they all together, or something?”
“You will–”
“Have to meet them and find out. I know, I know. Should I brush my teeth first?”
Clockwork raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, you’re right,” said Danny. “That’s probably too much effort. But I should put in some effort, shouldn’t I?” He nodded. “Yeah. Toothbrushing. Toothbrush. One minute.”
.
Danny had been in a lot of places over the last month and a half. A cute little house, two mansions possessed by people with questionable understandings of humanity, a warren of ice caves, an ancient Greek palace, and, of course, Clockwork’s purple place. He’d imagined a lot of others. Like open skies, broad fields, mountains, islands… horrible mad science labs…
However, he hadn’t imagined a place like this.
“Um,” he said, looking around the… stage? Rats' nests of cables were strewn about in every direction, and next to the curtains hunting trophies were hung. Heads, horns, antlers… hair? A tail? Whatever, this was weird, and there didn’t seem to be anyone around. “Hi?” He stepped forward over a tangle of cables. “Hello? Anyone–”
“BEHOLD! I, TECHNUS, MASTER OF ALL TECHNOLOGY–”
Danny leaped backwards, to hover over the seating area, startled by the ghost rising out of the cables. The stage lights came on, spotlights centering on the ghost. He had long white hair, green skin, sunglasses built into his face, and a tattered lab coat.
Music blasted out of speakers, rock and roll, screaming guitars, thundering drums and cymbals. A young, gray-skinned woman with fiery blue hair rose up from under the stage. She held a guitar painted with blue and pink flames.
“HEYA, BABYPOP!” she shouted into a microphone that appeared in a burst of fire. “WELCOME HOME TO MAMA EMBER, YEAH!”
“Hey!” whined the first ghost. “You said I could do the introductions!”
“I never said that. You said that. I was always going to do the intros. You think I’m going to leave it to you, when you just drone on and on and on and on and–”
“As if you’re any better!”
“I come with a sound track, audio jack,” said Ember.
“My god, you two are so loud, and you didn’t even bother to introduce me,” said a deep, slightly hollow voice. Danny startled again, twisting to see a ghost completely covered with silvery armor.
“I thought you didn’t care about introductions,” said Ember. She played a quick few chords on her guitars, then continued to use her music to punctuate her words. “Because big, bad, baddie, bad, hunky, hottie, hunter Skulker doesn’t need an introduction.” She leaned forward over the guitar. “His name speaks for him!” She started laughing so hard she floated up off the stage. Music continued to blare from the speakers.
“I, TECHNUS, MASTER OF ALL TECHNOLOGY, CAN TAKE YOUR SO-CALLED MUSIC OFF THE AIR!”
“We’re not even on the air!”
“I can’t believe I’m associated with these two idiots,” said Skulker.
“I’d like to know how you’re associated with me,” said Danny, trying to smooth down his fur.
“Isn’t it obvious, babypop?” asked Ember. “We’re you’re parents! Yeah!”
“Uh,” said Danny, looking at the very strange trio. “I don’t know about the other two, but aren’t you a little… young for that?” She couldn’t be all that much older than Jazz.
“I’m dead, kiddo. Son. Boy. Little man. I was a teen mom and all that. Totally radical rockstar living.”
“With, um,” said Danny. His eyes slid back and forth between Ember and Skulker.
“Skulker, duh,” said Ember. “Techy here is Skulker’s boyfriend or whatever.”
“It’s not whatever. I am his trusted–”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“We’re all dating, except when we’re broken up,” said Skulker, bored.
“Okay,” said Danny. “So… you’re both…” He shrugged at them.
“What does this–” Technus also shrugged, “--mean?”
“I don’t know,” said Danny. “You tell me.”
“Hm, the amnesia did not do favors for his intelligence! I liked him much better before! Do you want to see the lab?”
“The lab?” repeated Danny, backing away from Technus a little more.
“It really didn’t help your intelligence. Sad! Perhaps some electroshock therapy might help?”
“Hey!” said Ember, kicking Technus’s tail. “What did we say about electrocuting the flesh baby? What did that narc say? The tall purple one?”
“I know you know that Clockwork isn’t a narc,” said Skulker.
The three of them started to bicker. Danny watched in mixed fascination and horror.
White hair on Technus. Green eyes on Skulker and Ember. Human-like appearances. A mad science lab. Jazz’s belief that Danny would buy the absurdly youthful mother story. Frostbite’s conviction that his parents were abusive. Heck, Danny could even see them meeting Vlad in college, if he fudged the ages a little. He didn’t have any idea how old Vlad was, after all.
Were these his actual parents? Like, his actual, biological parents?
“Anyway, babypop,” said Ember, throwing a hand around Danny’s shoulder, “we heard about your predicament through the grapevine–”
“Through the grapevine? Weren’t you just saying you were my mother?”
“Yeah, but I was on tour, Skulker was hunting, and Technus was… Being Technus. We were, like, estranged. Separated. Because of the whole alive thing. Fell out of touch.” She waved a lazy hand. “Anyway, we heard about the Observants putting you through hell, and we were like, that’s not cool. So, we put our names in the hat, all that stuff, babypop, ‘cause we love you, y’know? And we’re going to have so much fun. I’ll turn you into a proper rocker yet. You’ve got a great set of pipes, kid, and you’ve got to use that.”
“But first!” shouted Technus, at only a slightly lower volume than before. “The GRAND TOUR!”
Danny took back that thought about the volume being lower.
“TO THE LAB!”
Danny cringed away from Technus. This was going to be a pain.
.
“Okay,” said Danny, floating a few feet over the floor to avoid the wires. “We’ve seen the stage, the sound room, the… conservatory?”
“Never say that I don’t have taste, babypop. You’ve got to have a good piano in a house.”
“Yeah, then workshop, and the server room, and the lab.” Which had, frankly, been horrifying. Just a massive mess of electronics. The sense of electricity in the room made his hair all stand on end. “And the weapon room. Then the… hunting. Place. And. Um. Zoo.” Which was also horrifying, but for different reasons.
“Yes,” said Skulker, “our space may be limited, but you will soon know the joy of the hunt.”
“... right,” said Danny. “But, like, is there a… kitchen?”
“Kitchen?” asked Ember, blankly.
“We don’t,” said Skulker.
“We mostly order out, when the great hunter here can’t catch anything!”
“Can anyone… get in to order out?”
Ember, Skulker, and Technus stared at each other.
“Crap,” said Ember, finally. “Crap.”
“What?” said Technus. “It’s not like we have to eat.”
“I kind of do.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I do. Everyone else has been feeding me.”
“Yeah, no, we’re ghosts, even you,” said Technus. “We don’t need to eat.”
“I can kill off some of the game I’ve already caught,” said Skulker, “if we really need to. I’d like you to hunt for them, though. A little extra incentive!”
“Right. Sure. Whatever. Bedroom?” asked Danny.
“We don’t need to sleep, either,” said Technus.
Fine. Danny wasn’t touching that. “Bathroom?” he tried.
“Gross,” said Ember. “Who’s spending their afterlife peeing?”
“Uh. Me?”
“Ew. You’ve got to quit that.”
Danny didn’t think that was a thing he could actually quit. He made a face. “You’re not actually my parents, are you?”
“Of course we are,” said Skulker, mechanically.
“Okay, well, that right there, that’s a lie,” said Danny. “That’s definitely a lie.”
“It’s not,” said Technus, stridently.
“Look, maybe some fighting would knock him out of his funk,” said Skulker. “Knock him right out.”
“Yeah, some of that misplaced aggression kind of thing he’s always on about,” said Ember.
Danny had no idea what he was talking about. “You guys do know that if I can’t have a place to go to the bathroom, I’m going to leave, right?”
“Maybe even a good hunt,” said Skulker. “For old times’ sake. Give him a good chase, get rid of some of that anxiety.”
Danny really hoped he wasn’t related to these three. He grabbed the pocketwatch.
“Wait, ghost child!”
“Okay, yeah, that’s not something you call your kids,” said Danny, pointing at Technus.
“Oh, yeah, yeah, you caught us,” said Technus. “Real sharp of you, ghost child! Real sharp and groovy.”
“Oh my god, you don’t know what any of those words mean,” said Ember. “Stop using them.”
“BUT!” shrieked Technus. “What you don’t know is that we’re your RIVALS!”
Danny grimaced. “What?”
“We fought you, like, a bunch of times,” said Ember.
“And… now you want to adopt me?”
“Better us than some of the nutjobs that want you. We’d just let you do your own thing, hang out, fight a bit when you get touchy about your stupid city, or too wound up about school, all that stuff.”
“But we’d NEVER make you go to SCHOOL!” said Technus. “I could teach you in the lab!”
“Wow, that’s, uh. Touching,” said Danny. “But the bathroom thing is, in this case, a dealbreaker.”
“Aw, come on,” said Ember. “At least have a good fight with us, first. Skulker’s been practically moping since you’ve been out of commission.”
“My latest hunts have been… flavorless,” said Skulker. Danny sighed. “Fine. But I’m going right after.”
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Cracked Clay Cup Chapter 13
@greatbigolhampuckjustforme
.
“Okay,” said Danny rubbing his hands together. “I’m going to do the big group next.”
“Group number four?”
“Yeah, them. Why’re there three of them, anyway?”
“You’ll have to ask them that,” said Clockwork. “Au jus?”
“Yes, please,” said Danny, reaching for the small bowl of sauce. “Your sandwiches are always really good.”
“Thank you,” said Clockwork. “Will you be leaving after lunch, then?”
“Yeah, I think that’ll be best.” Danny sighed. “No offense, but I’m kind of going a little bit stir-crazy, being inside all the time. I didn’t really realize until Pandora said something, but she was right.”
“That’s quite reasonable,” said Clockwork. “The trial has lasted for nearly a month and a half.”
“Really? I think I’ve only been with each person for about a week, and there’ve only been four people. Five, if you count the Observants.”
“Yes, but you’ve spent a good amount of time here as well. Those in-between days add up.”
“Huh. I guess so.” Danny took a bite of his sandwich. “I guess it sort of snuck up on me. A month and a half… So two weeks here.”
“Yes, but please chew with your mouth closed.”
“Oops,” said Danny, covering his mouth. “Sorry.”
Clockwork nodded and patted Danny absently on the head before making a small sandwich for himself. They ate together quietly.
“Three of them, though,” said Danny. “Are they all together, or something?”
“You will–”
“Have to meet them and find out. I know, I know. Should I brush my teeth first?”
Clockwork raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, you’re right,” said Danny. “That’s probably too much effort. But I should put in some effort, shouldn’t I?” He nodded. “Yeah. Toothbrushing. Toothbrush. One minute.”
.
Danny had been in a lot of places over the last month and a half. A cute little house, two mansions possessed by people with questionable understandings of humanity, a warren of ice caves, an ancient Greek palace, and, of course, Clockwork’s purple place. He’d imagined a lot of others. Like open skies, broad fields, mountains, islands… horrible mad science labs…
However, he hadn’t imagined a place like this.
“Um,” he said, looking around the… stage? Rats' nests of cables were strewn about in every direction, and next to the curtains hunting trophies were hung. Heads, horns, antlers… hair? A tail? Whatever, this was weird, and there didn’t seem to be anyone around. “Hi?” He stepped forward over a tangle of cables. “Hello? Anyone–”
“BEHOLD! I, TECHNUS, MASTER OF ALL TECHNOLOGY–”
Danny leaped backwards, to hover over the seating area, startled by the ghost rising out of the cables. The stage lights came on, spotlights centering on the ghost. He had long white hair, green skin, sunglasses built into his face, and a tattered lab coat.
Music blasted out of speakers, rock and roll, screaming guitars, thundering drums and cymbals. A young, gray-skinned woman with fiery blue hair rose up from under the stage. She held a guitar painted with blue and pink flames.
“HEYA, BABYPOP!” she shouted into a microphone that appeared in a burst of fire. “WELCOME HOME TO MAMA EMBER, YEAH!”
“Hey!” whined the first ghost. “You said I could do the introductions!”
“I never said that. You said that. I was always going to do the intros. You think I’m going to leave it to you, when you just drone on and on and on and on and–”
“As if you’re any better!”
“I come with a sound track, audio jack,” said Ember.
“My god, you two are so loud, and you didn’t even bother to introduce me,” said a deep, slightly hollow voice. Danny startled again, twisting to see a ghost completely covered with silvery armor.
“I thought you didn’t care about introductions,” said Ember. She played a quick few chords on her guitars, then continued to use her music to punctuate her words. “Because big, bad, baddie, bad, hunky, hottie, hunter Skulker doesn’t need an introduction.” She leaned forward over the guitar. “His name speaks for him!” She started laughing so hard she floated up off the stage. Music continued to blare from the speakers.
“I, TECHNUS, MASTER OF ALL TECHNOLOGY, CAN TAKE YOUR SO-CALLED MUSIC OFF THE AIR!”
“We’re not even on the air!”
“I can’t believe I’m associated with these two idiots,” said Skulker.
“I’d like to know how you’re associated with me,” said Danny, trying to smooth down his fur.
“Isn’t it obvious, babypop?” asked Ember. “We’re you’re parents! Yeah!”
“Uh,” said Danny, looking at the very strange trio. “I don’t know about the other two, but aren’t you a little… young for that?” She couldn’t be all that much older than Jazz.
“I’m dead, kiddo. Son. Boy. Little man. I was a teen mom and all that. Totally radical rockstar living.”
“With, um,” said Danny. His eyes slid back and forth between Ember and Skulker.
“Skulker, duh,” said Ember. “Techy here is Skulker’s boyfriend or whatever.”
“It’s not whatever. I am his trusted–”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“We’re all dating, except when we’re broken up,” said Skulker, bored.
“Okay,” said Danny. “So… you’re both…” He shrugged at them.
“What does this–” Technus also shrugged, “--mean?”
“I don’t know,” said Danny. “You tell me.”
“Hm, the amnesia did not do favors for his intelligence! I liked him much better before! Do you want to see the lab?”
“The lab?” repeated Danny, backing away from Technus a little more.
“It really didn’t help your intelligence. Sad! Perhaps some electroshock therapy might help?”
“Hey!” said Ember, kicking Technus’s tail. “What did we say about electrocuting the flesh baby? What did that narc say? The tall purple one?”
“I know you know that Clockwork isn’t a narc,” said Skulker.
The three of them started to bicker. Danny watched in mixed fascination and horror.
White hair on Technus. Green eyes on Skulker and Ember. Human-like appearances. A mad science lab. Jazz’s belief that Danny would buy the absurdly youthful mother story. Frostbite’s conviction that his parents were abusive. Heck, Danny could even see them meeting Vlad in college, if he fudged the ages a little. He didn’t have any idea how old Vlad was, after all.
Were these his actual parents? Like, his actual, biological parents?
“Anyway, babypop,” said Ember, throwing a hand around Danny’s shoulder, “we heard about your predicament through the grapevine–”
“Through the grapevine? Weren’t you just saying you were my mother?”
“Yeah, but I was on tour, Skulker was hunting, and Technus was… Being Technus. We were, like, estranged. Separated. Because of the whole alive thing. Fell out of touch.” She waved a lazy hand. “Anyway, we heard about the Observants putting you through hell, and we were like, that’s not cool. So, we put our names in the hat, all that stuff, babypop, ‘cause we love you, y’know? And we’re going to have so much fun. I’ll turn you into a proper rocker yet. You’ve got a great set of pipes, kid, and you’ve got to use that.”
“But first!” shouted Technus, at only a slightly lower volume than before. “The GRAND TOUR!”
Danny took back that thought about the volume being lower.
“TO THE LAB!”
Danny cringed away from Technus. This was going to be a pain.
.
“Okay,” said Danny, floating a few feet over the floor to avoid the wires. “We’ve seen the stage, the sound room, the… conservatory?”
“Never say that I don’t have taste, babypop. You’ve got to have a good piano in a house.”
“Yeah, then workshop, and the server room, and the lab.” Which had, frankly, been horrifying. Just a massive mess of electronics. The sense of electricity in the room made his hair all stand on end. “And the weapon room. Then the… hunting. Place. And. Um. Zoo.” Which was also horrifying, but for different reasons.
“Yes,” said Skulker, “our space may be limited, but you will soon know the joy of the hunt.”
“... right,” said Danny. “But, like, is there a… kitchen?”
“Kitchen?” asked Ember, blankly.
“We don’t,” said Skulker.
“We mostly order out, when the great hunter here can’t catch anything!”
“Can anyone… get in to order out?”
Ember, Skulker, and Technus stared at each other.
“Crap,” said Ember, finally. “Crap.”
“What?” said Technus. “It’s not like we have to eat.”
“I kind of do.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I do. Everyone else has been feeding me.”
“Yeah, no, we’re ghosts, even you,” said Technus. “We don’t need to eat.”
“I can kill off some of the game I’ve already caught,” said Skulker, “if we really need to. I’d like you to hunt for them, though. A little extra incentive!”
“Right. Sure. Whatever. Bedroom?” asked Danny.
“We don’t need to sleep, either,” said Technus.
Fine. Danny wasn’t touching that. “Bathroom?” he tried.
“Gross,” said Ember. “Who’s spending their afterlife peeing?”
“Uh. Me?”
“Ew. You’ve got to quit that.”
Danny didn’t think that was a thing he could actually quit. He made a face. “You’re not actually my parents, are you?”
“Of course we are,” said Skulker, mechanically.
“Okay, well, that right there, that’s a lie,” said Danny. “That’s definitely a lie.”
“It’s not,” said Technus, stridently.
“Look, maybe some fighting would knock him out of his funk,” said Skulker. “Knock him right out.”
“Yeah, some of that misplaced aggression kind of thing he’s always on about,” said Ember.
Danny had no idea what he was talking about. “You guys do know that if I can’t have a place to go to the bathroom, I’m going to leave, right?”
“Maybe even a good hunt,” said Skulker. “For old times’ sake. Give him a good chase, get rid of some of that anxiety.”
Danny really hoped he wasn’t related to these three. He grabbed the pocketwatch.
“Wait, ghost child!”
“Okay, yeah, that’s not something you call your kids,” said Danny, pointing at Technus.
“Oh, yeah, yeah, you caught us,” said Technus. “Real sharp of you, ghost child! Real sharp and groovy.”
“Oh my god, you don’t know what any of those words mean,” said Ember. “Stop using them.”
“BUT!” shrieked Technus. “What you don’t know is that we’re your RIVALS!”
Danny grimaced. “What?”
“We fought you, like, a bunch of times,” said Ember.
“And… now you want to adopt me?”
“Better us than some of the nutjobs that want you. We’d just let you do your own thing, hang out, fight a bit when you get touchy about your stupid city, or too wound up about school, all that stuff.”
“But we’d NEVER make you go to SCHOOL!” said Technus. “I could teach you in the lab!”
“Wow, that’s, uh. Touching,” said Danny. “But the bathroom thing is, in this case, a dealbreaker.”
“Aw, come on,” said Ember. “At least have a good fight with us, first. Skulker’s been practically moping since you’ve been out of commission.”
“My latest hunts have been… flavorless,” said Skulker. Danny sighed. “Fine. But I’m going right after.”
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Idioms! Idioms are great, but they sure don't translate well.
Now that i'm living in a english speaking country, I realized the hardest part to speak a second language is the phrases.
Grammars you can make do so long people know what you're saying and in writing there are programs to help you. And singular words, i know what they mean but compiling them into phrases?? That's like.. a whole different beast on its own its like learning another language on top of that one
Here's an example im still embarassed about :
I was trying to say how networking works by talking to more people and have your works spread by word of mouth.
But see, i didn't remember that phrase in english. I remember them, in my first language. And the literal translation of it would be 'mouth to mouth'. Which. Ya know. Means more kissing in english than spreading information via speaking to other people
It's a small things but you'll notice it more and more. And this is only phrases. We're not including expressions, what counts as a joke or an insult or a compliment. The thing im thinking about is probably not phrases either idk what it is but it sure is frustrating
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Gentle reminder to newer fans that having "proship DNI" in your bio is going to get you blocked by most artists.
"Proship" means being against ship hate + harassment. So your DNI is a signal that you'll harass us if we draw content you don't like. Fiction =/= irl desires or support thereof.
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timer
@echoghost1 @everfascinated
.
It hovered over the surface of the portal, clearly separate from it. A large, flat, disk shape, with a pale, luminous face. More vivid numbers circled the edge, painted neatly. A single, delicate, metal hand pointed towards the number seven, on the left side of the clock. It had been pointing there for the past hour or so, ever since it had been noticed.
Maddie drummed her fingers on the workbench she stood next to. The timer - because what else could it be? - was, thus far, a mystery to her. Usually, Maddie liked mysteries. Exploring the mysteries of the Ghost Zone had been the reason they had built the portal in the first place. This mystery was fascinating, and Maddie was excited about it, but it was also incredibly troubling.
Obviously, the timer - hovering, green, immovable - was ghostly in origin. What else could it be? But how did a ghost place get in here to place it? For what purpose? How much time was left? What was it counting down to? It couldn’t be anything good. Ghosts had no love for her family or their works.
As soon as she’d noticed it, she and Jack had started taking readings, but nothing they did gave them anything conclusive, or any way to get rid of the thing.
It was frustrating and troubling. Frustrating and troubling.
“Uh, Mom? Dad? It’s six and we were wondering if you wanted us to order dinner or anything…”
Maddie looked up to see Danny coming down the stairs.
“Oh, sure!” said Jack. “Pizza sounds great, son!”
“Yeah. What are you even– What’s that?”
Danny stared wide-eyed at the timer for a long moment, and Maddie moved to reassure him. Danny was always so timid around ghosts, so afraid. This timer was doubtlessly malevolent, but she and Jack wouldn’t let it do anything to Danny.
Briefly, Danny’s eyes gleamed green. Then, slowly, but inevitably, he collapsed.
Maddie leaped forward, keeping Danny from hitting his head on the bottom step by the narrowest of margins. “Jack!”
“What happened?” he asked, hurrying over. “Danny? Danny? Talk to me, son! Can you hear me?”
Danny’s eyes fluttered open briefly, overly reflective, then shut again.
“I’m setting up the quarantine booth,” said Maddie. “Will you carry him?”
Jack nodded, grimly.
They’d gotten the quarantine booth set up after Vlad’s unfortunate recurrence of ecto-acne and the revelation that ecto-acne could be contagious under certain circumstances. It was sealed, filtered, protected, shielded. Every precaution they could think of had gone into it.
… and, yes, they should use those precautions more often, but Maddie and Jack loved getting up close and personal with the subjects of study.
“We need to get that thing shielded,” said Jack as he set Danny on the bed. He rushed out towards the timer and started setting up shield projectors around the portal.
Maddie, meanwhile, pulled the medical scanner free from the ceiling. Well, ‘medical scanner’ was a very sci-fi way of putting it, when really it was quite prosaic, if you knew how it worked.
She positioned it over Danny’s body and set it to taking data.
Temperature, low, heart rate, low, bones, intact, nervous system… that part of the scanner didn’t work all that well, ignore that reading…
Ectoplasm levels were off the charts.
Maddie inhaled deeply. Stay calm, stay calm. They would fix this. They’d cured Vlad and Danny’s friends, they could cure this, whatever it was. They would get rid of that timer and they’d save Danny.
“Mom?” said Danny, weakly.
“Hey, sweetie,” said Maddie. “How are you feeling?”
“Bad,” said Danny. He tried to sit up, but Maddie pushed him back down. “What’s happening?”
“You collapsed suddenly,” said Maddie. “We’re trying to figure out why.”
Danny raised one hand to his face. Green light reflected off his hand. Understanding flicked over his features.
“Okay, but I think I’m feeling better, now,” he said. He tried to sit up again.
“We need to figure out what happened before you go running around,” said Maddie, pushing him down again. She looked over at Jack, through the thick, transparent sides of the quarantine booth. Jack was now trying to throw a towel over the timer and–
Wait a moment.
“Stay down,” she told Danny. “Let the scanner do its job.” She walked out of the quarantine booth. “Wait, Jack, wait.”
“But we have to keep it from affecting Danny. We don’t know if its effect is visual or what.”
“I know, I know,” said Maddie. “But look at it. Look at the hand.”
The hand, which had been pointing at the number seven, was now pointing at the number six.
Jack scowled at the timer and tried to throw the towel over it again. The towel passed through it. “Are we sure this is a timer, Mads? Maybe the numbers are counting down charges or something like that.”
“I don’t know, it still looks more like a timer to me.”
“But why did it affect Danny like that?”
“I don’t know. We need to start decontamination procedures right away, though. His ectoplasm levels are off the charts. The sudden spike is probably what made him collapse, but I don’t know how this could have increased his ectoplasm levels so much so quickly.”
I don’t know either,” said Jack. He picked up the latest version of the Fenton Finder (which incidentally, still detected Danny more often than not) and shook it. “None of the detectors we have pointed at it picked up anything. Nothing going towards Danny, nothing ambient, nothing anywhere else.”
Maddie had hoped that their detectors had picked something up, but with the continued failures of the Fenton Finder, maybe she shouldn’t be so surprised.
“We’ll keep looking,” said Maddie. She was forgetting something. What was she forgetting? “Jazz. We need to tell Jazz, so she doesn’t come down here. What if it only affects minors?”
“Righto,” said Jack, shoving the Finder at Maddie. “I’ll do that, you start the decontam procedures!”
Maddie nodded tightly and turned back to Danny. She could see his eyes gleaming from here.But they could fix this.
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Cracked Clay Cup Chapter 12
@greatbigolhampuckjustforme
Pandora’s spear flew from her hand, and she stepped back, her hands spread as wide as her smile. “Very good,” she said.
“You were going easy on me,” said Phantom, also stepping back. “I wouldn’t have won in a real fight.”
“But that is what training is,” said Pandora. “If I were to fight you at my full strength every time, how would you learn anything?”
“Slowly,” said Phantom. “And painfully, probably.”
“So, there you are,” said Pandora. “You’ve made a lot of progress.”
“Thanks,” said Phantom, blushing. His ears twitched, too, their cant showing the same emotion, which was simply precious.
Pandora knelt in front of Phantom. “And I believe that with more time, you could make even more. But,” Pandora continued, gently, “I think you are becoming restless.”
“Uh,” said Phantom, his ears tilted ever so slightly back. “I have had a good time here.”
“I know,” said Pandora.
“It’s nice. It’s a little weird, being able to look out through the pillars but not being able to walk out that way, but it’s nice. It’s been nice.”
“I am not telling you to go, or that you should go,” said Pandora, “only that I understand. For those like us, there is always an urge to move forward, to do more, to do better.”
“Right,” said Phantom, listing slightly to one side. “But, um.”
“I do, of course, want you to stay, but I want you to stay while you are happy here, and soon you won’t be. Can you really tell me that you haven’t been anxious these past couple of days? That you haven’t been thinking about the time when you will be done with this trial and free?”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about that for a while, not just here.”
Pandora tilted her head towards him, letting his own thoughts fill in the next parts of her argument.
“You do have more to teach me, though, don’t you?”
“An afterlife’s worth, as do all those who hope to call themselves your parents by law.” She took his hands in one of hers. “I do hope you choose me, so we can have the time that requires. Although I know Frostbite won’t begrudge me borrowing you from time to time.”
“Yeah,” said Phantom, fidgeting with his spear. “Probably not.” He sighed. “I don’t know. I do– There are only two groups after you. I… kind of do want this over with. I want to remember who I am, and who all of you are, and everything.”
“I know.”
“Okay,” said Phantom. “You’re really okay with me going?”
“Yes. I want you to be happy, little warrior.”
Phantom nodded. “Okay. Okay. Just… One more day. We can relax together or something. Eat some grapes. Maybe drink some wine…” He raised his eyebrows entreatingly.
“I am trying to follow modern drinking restrictions.”
Phantom shrugged. “It was worth a try.”
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timer
@echoghost1 @everfascinated
.
It hovered over the surface of the portal, clearly separate from it. A large, flat, disk shape, with a pale, luminous face. More vivid numbers circled the edge, painted neatly. A single, delicate, metal hand pointed towards the number seven, on the left side of the clock. It had been pointing there for the past hour or so, ever since it had been noticed.
Maddie drummed her fingers on the workbench she stood next to. The timer - because what else could it be? - was, thus far, a mystery to her. Usually, Maddie liked mysteries. Exploring the mysteries of the Ghost Zone had been the reason they had built the portal in the first place. This mystery was fascinating, and Maddie was excited about it, but it was also incredibly troubling.
Obviously, the timer - hovering, green, immovable - was ghostly in origin. What else could it be? But how did a ghost place get in here to place it? For what purpose? How much time was left? What was it counting down to? It couldn’t be anything good. Ghosts had no love for her family or their works.
As soon as she’d noticed it, she and Jack had started taking readings, but nothing they did gave them anything conclusive, or any way to get rid of the thing.
It was frustrating and troubling. Frustrating and troubling.
“Uh, Mom? Dad? It’s six and we were wondering if you wanted us to order dinner or anything…”
Maddie looked up to see Danny coming down the stairs.
“Oh, sure!” said Jack. “Pizza sounds great, son!”
“Yeah. What are you even– What’s that?”
Danny stared wide-eyed at the timer for a long moment, and Maddie moved to reassure him. Danny was always so timid around ghosts, so afraid. This timer was doubtlessly malevolent, but she and Jack wouldn’t let it do anything to Danny.
Briefly, Danny’s eyes gleamed green. Then, slowly, but inevitably, he collapsed.
Maddie leaped forward, keeping Danny from hitting his head on the bottom step by the narrowest of margins. “Jack!”
“What happened?” he asked, hurrying over. “Danny? Danny? Talk to me, son! Can you hear me?”
Danny’s eyes fluttered open briefly, overly reflective, then shut again.
“I’m setting up the quarantine booth,” said Maddie. “Will you carry him?”
Jack nodded, grimly.
They’d gotten the quarantine booth set up after Vlad’s unfortunate recurrence of ecto-acne and the revelation that ecto-acne could be contagious under certain circumstances. It was sealed, filtered, protected, shielded. Every precaution they could think of had gone into it.
… and, yes, they should use those precautions more often, but Maddie and Jack loved getting up close and personal with the subjects of study.
“We need to get that thing shielded,” said Jack as he set Danny on the bed. He rushed out towards the timer and started setting up shield projectors around the portal.
Maddie, meanwhile, pulled the medical scanner free from the ceiling. Well, ‘medical scanner’ was a very sci-fi way of putting it, when really it was quite prosaic, if you knew how it worked.
She positioned it over Danny’s body and set it to taking data.
Temperature, low, heart rate, low, bones, intact, nervous system… that part of the scanner didn’t work all that well, ignore that reading…
Ectoplasm levels were off the charts.
Maddie inhaled deeply. Stay calm, stay calm. They would fix this. They’d cured Vlad and Danny’s friends, they could cure this, whatever it was. They would get rid of that timer and they’d save Danny.
“Mom?” said Danny, weakly.
“Hey, sweetie,” said Maddie. “How are you feeling?”
“Bad,” said Danny. He tried to sit up, but Maddie pushed him back down. “What’s happening?”
“You collapsed suddenly,” said Maddie. “We’re trying to figure out why.”
Danny raised one hand to his face. Green light reflected off his hand. Understanding flicked over his features.
“Okay, but I think I’m feeling better, now,” he said. He tried to sit up again.
“We need to figure out what happened before you go running around,” said Maddie, pushing him down again. She looked over at Jack, through the thick, transparent sides of the quarantine booth. Jack was now trying to throw a towel over the timer and–
Wait a moment.
“Stay down,” she told Danny. “Let the scanner do its job.” She walked out of the quarantine booth. “Wait, Jack, wait.”
“But we have to keep it from affecting Danny. We don’t know if its effect is visual or what.”
“I know, I know,” said Maddie. “But look at it. Look at the hand.”
The hand, which had been pointing at the number seven, was now pointing at the number six.
Jack scowled at the timer and tried to throw the towel over it again. The towel passed through it. “Are we sure this is a timer, Mads? Maybe the numbers are counting down charges or something like that.”
“I don’t know, it still looks more like a timer to me.”
“But why did it affect Danny like that?”
“I don’t know. We need to start decontamination procedures right away, though. His ectoplasm levels are off the charts. The sudden spike is probably what made him collapse, but I don’t know how this could have increased his ectoplasm levels so much so quickly.”
I don’t know either,” said Jack. He picked up the latest version of the Fenton Finder (which incidentally, still detected Danny more often than not) and shook it. “None of the detectors we have pointed at it picked up anything. Nothing going towards Danny, nothing ambient, nothing anywhere else.”
Maddie had hoped that their detectors had picked something up, but with the continued failures of the Fenton Finder, maybe she shouldn’t be so surprised.
“We’ll keep looking,” said Maddie. She was forgetting something. What was she forgetting? “Jazz. We need to tell Jazz, so she doesn’t come down here. What if it only affects minors?”
“Righto,” said Jack, shoving the Finder at Maddie. “I’ll do that, you start the decontam procedures!”
Maddie nodded tightly and turned back to Danny. She could see his eyes gleaming from here.But they could fix this.
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Cracked Clay Cup Chapter 12
@greatbigolhampuckjustforme
Pandora’s spear flew from her hand, and she stepped back, her hands spread as wide as her smile. “Very good,” she said.
“You were going easy on me,” said Phantom, also stepping back. “I wouldn’t have won in a real fight.”
“But that is what training is,” said Pandora. “If I were to fight you at my full strength every time, how would you learn anything?”
“Slowly,” said Phantom. “And painfully, probably.”
“So, there you are,” said Pandora. “You’ve made a lot of progress.”
“Thanks,” said Phantom, blushing. His ears twitched, too, their cant showing the same emotion, which was simply precious.
Pandora knelt in front of Phantom. “And I believe that with more time, you could make even more. But,” Pandora continued, gently, “I think you are becoming restless.”
“Uh,” said Phantom, his ears tilted ever so slightly back. “I have had a good time here.”
“I know,” said Pandora.
“It’s nice. It’s a little weird, being able to look out through the pillars but not being able to walk out that way, but it’s nice. It’s been nice.”
“I am not telling you to go, or that you should go,” said Pandora, “only that I understand. For those like us, there is always an urge to move forward, to do more, to do better.”
“Right,” said Phantom, listing slightly to one side. “But, um.”
“I do, of course, want you to stay, but I want you to stay while you are happy here, and soon you won’t be. Can you really tell me that you haven’t been anxious these past couple of days? That you haven’t been thinking about the time when you will be done with this trial and free?”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about that for a while, not just here.”
Pandora tilted her head towards him, letting his own thoughts fill in the next parts of her argument.
“You do have more to teach me, though, don’t you?”
“An afterlife’s worth, as do all those who hope to call themselves your parents by law.” She took his hands in one of hers. “I do hope you choose me, so we can have the time that requires. Although I know Frostbite won’t begrudge me borrowing you from time to time.”
“Yeah,” said Phantom, fidgeting with his spear. “Probably not.” He sighed. “I don’t know. I do– There are only two groups after you. I… kind of do want this over with. I want to remember who I am, and who all of you are, and everything.”
“I know.”
“Okay,” said Phantom. “You’re really okay with me going?”
“Yes. I want you to be happy, little warrior.”
Phantom nodded. “Okay. Okay. Just… One more day. We can relax together or something. Eat some grapes. Maybe drink some wine…” He raised his eyebrows entreatingly.
“I am trying to follow modern drinking restrictions.”
Phantom shrugged. “It was worth a try.”
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Cracked Clay Cup Chapter 11
@greatbigolhampuckjustforme
“So,” said Danny, leaning over the back of the couch. After Frostbite, he somehow had more energy. Maybe it was part of his core being active?
“So?” echoed Clockwork, an eyebrow raised.
Danny blushed. He’d derailed his own train of thought quite thoroughly. “Frostbite taught me how to do some things.”
“As did Vladimir, presumably?” asked Clockwork. “And Jasmine?”
“Well, sure,” said Danny. “But, like. More specifically, he showed me how to make things. With ice.”
“If you are asking for permission to use your powers, you may.”
“Even though I’m inside?”
“You could hardly use them elsewhere,” said Clockwork. “In any case, this place was created for your benefit. I only ask that you keep the kitchen and the workshop in order.”
“And your room, right?”
Clockwork shrugged, and slotted the book he’d been perusing back onto the shelf. “I am not particularly attached to it.”
“You do sleep, though, right? I know you said that you only sleep once in a while, but staying awake all the time like that can’t be healthy.”
“I am a ghost, Daniel,” said Clockwork.
“Frostbite slept,” argued Danny. “He’s a ghost.”
Clockwork sighed. “If it will give you peace of mind, I can take a nap.”
Danny squinted at Clockwork. He felt as if this conversation had diverged wildly from his initial aim. “I… think it would?”
“You sound uncertain.”
“It would,” said Danny, trying to sound more confident.
Clockwork patted him on the head as he flew past, towards the short hallway that contained the way to both Clockwork’s room and the workshop. “I will be awake in time to make you dinner.”
Danny wondered if he could, possibly, preempt Clockwork and cook dinner for them himself, but dismissed the idea. Anything that relied on beating Clockwork in a matter of timing was doomed to fail. He had other things he wanted to try out, anyway.
He dropped himself onto the couch and gathered cold in his hands. Frostbite had shown him how to make rough shapes out of ice. Simple things like crystals, spheres, cubes.
He was going to try something a little bit more complicated this time, though. He had the time, since he was, once again, wracked with indecision about which of his potential guardians he should choose. Now that he’d seen Frostbite, he had visited all the odd-numbered entries. He should probably just decide on a method of choosing the next people, and then stick with that for the next three. Then, he’d be able to move through them faster.
If faster was what he wanted. That was a big if.
Maybe he should just go from the top. He’d already run into the Observants, aka the only people he definitely wasn’t going to choose, and he’d gone very much out of order already, so that was unlikely to trigger any unpleasant traps. Although, then, he’d be going from older candidates to younger ones… Did that really matter, though? Well, as long as they were all older than Jazz, and at least, like, adults…
He was so involved and occupied by his work and his thoughts that he didn’t realize that Clockwork had returned.
“What would you like for dinner?” asked Clockwork.
Danny startled, and the object he’d been shaping shot out of his hands and buried itself in the wall opposite the couch. “Oops,” he said. “Sorry.”
“Accidents happen,” said Clockwork, pulling the object out of the wall and turning it over in his hands. “A gear?”
Danny shrugged. “I wasn’t able to make it even, but I thought it would be good practice? And it could be, like, a decoration or something. A paperweight. Since you, um, like gears.”
“Hm,” said Clockwork. He flew over to the kitchen. Danny bounced up off the couch and followed him.
Once in the kitchen, Clockwork went to the fridge. Danny watched with interest and confusion as Clockwork held the slightly malformed gear up against the fridge door and stuck it there. They looked at it together, Danny trying to figure out exactly how Clockwork had done that.
“Yes,” said Clockwork, “that’s very nice, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” said Danny, still feeling confused. There was something… off about this. Not wrong, or bad, but… off. He blinked and shook his head. “For dinner… something hot, I think. Warm and spicy.”
“Certainly,” said Clockwork. “Burritos it is.”
.
“I think I know who I’ll see next,” said Danny, shaping a lump of ice between his hands as if it was clay. He didn’t know what it’d be, but it was calming.
Clockwork hummed, indicating he was listening even as he flipped the french toast he was preparing for breakfast over in the pan.
“I think I’ll see Pandora.”
“Ah, and why have you chosen her?”
“Because she is a her,” said Danny. “Like, I don’t think I’ve actually seen a girl since Jazz. I… Don’t think the Observants really have genders, do they?”
“Not precisely as you would understand it. However, most of them go by either ‘it’ or ‘he,’ for future reference.”
“Right. But Vlad and the Dairy King were both guys. Frostbite was a guy. It’s kind of hard to tell whether or not the other two groups have any girls in them, but I’m pretty sure someone named Pandora is going to be a girl. Especially since her little profile mentions being a queen.” He wrinkled his nose. “Unless this is, like, a drag queen thing. That’d still be something different, though.”
Clockwork slid some french toast onto Danny’s plate and Danny immediately slathered it in maple syrup and butter. French toast was Danny’s favorite type of toast because you could make it smooth. All other kinds of toast he knew of could burn. Figuratively and literally.
“Anyway, I’ve been kind of wondering…”
“Yes?” prompted Clockwork, when Danny didn’t continue.
“I’ve been wondering, what’s going on that so many people, you know, want me?” He made a face. “I didn’t phrase that very well. There’s just, like, um… Okay. So, the Observants are important, right?”
“Moderately so.”
“Right. And Frostbite. Frostbite has to be important. He told me about a bunch of stuff his tribe takes care of and what else they do. Then, there’s Vlad and the Dairy King. Well, Vlad, mostly, I don’t know what the Dairy King’s status is in the Zone, but Vlad’s super rich, and his house was in the human world. Add that in to this Pandora… These people are important. Why are so many of them fighting over me?”
“Didn’t Vladimir and Chief Frostbite both tell you about your exploits defeating Pariah Dark?”
“Yeah, sort of, but that seems like it was mostly down to some enchanted armor or tech. And convincing other people to do stuff. Which, I don’t know, that sounds like something anyone could have done. In retrospect.” In the moment, when he’d been hearing the story, he’d been very proud of himself, but, once he’d sat down and thought about it, he’d… rethought that.
Clockwork gave him a look.
“What?”
“And Vladimir shared the story of your defeat of Vortex?”
“Sure.”
“Frostbite mentioned your victory over Undergrowth.”
“I don’t get where you’re going with this.”
Clockwork sighed.
“What?” asked Danny, aware he was whining.
“Don’t you think that these accomplishments are significant? Perhaps significant enough to draw the attention of, as you said, important people?”
“I guess,” said Danny. “Hey, was Vlad lying about knowing my parents, then? If he was interested in me for a different reason?”
“I cannot tell you that, Daniel,” said Clockwork, obviously exasperated.
“Not even a little? Not even with, like, a nod or a wink?”
“No,” said Clockwork.
Danny grumbled and turned his attention back to his breakfast.
.
When the light of the portal cleared from his eyes, Danny was unsurprised to find himself among tall, Greek-style pillars. The pillars weren’t the only tall things around, though. He craned his head up to look at the face of the tall, blue-skinned, four-armed ghost waiting for him on a large throne. She wore bronze and black armor over long robe-like clothing.
“Phantom,” she said, warmly, gesturing broadly with one of her hands. “Welcome to my home.”
“Thank you, um, Queen Pandora.”
She chuckled. “I know I mentioned that on those silly little papers the Observants had me fill out, but there’s no need for formality between us. Not when you have done me so much good.”
“Um. Okay,” said Danny. He looked around a bit more. He knew that there was a specific name for those columns and the carvings on the walls, but he couldn’t, for the half-life of him, remember. He returned his gaze to Pandora. “What did I do?”
“You helped me regain my box when it was stolen from me.”
“Was it a special box?” asked Danny. He decided to fly up to perch on one of the large statues, so he didn’t have to lean back so far. “If it was that important to you.”
“It was,” said Pandora. “I have set myself the task of cleansing the Infinite Realms of evil. My box is my latest prison for evil creatures and forces. The one who took it attempted to release those things upon both the Realms and the Earth.”
“Oh,” said Danny. “That sounds hard. Cleansing the Realms of evil. How do you even tell if something is evil?” He bit his lower lip. “You don’t have any people in there, do you?”
Pandora laughed. “No, I am well aware of those pitfalls. I speak of mindless spirits born from negative energies. They range from pests like snakes and ghost fires, to wyverns and unicorns, to even greater, darker things.”
“Unicorns?” asked Danny, skeptically.
“There are good unicorns as well, but I don’t have much to do with those.”
“And unicorns are dangerous?”
“They are large herbivores with a spear on their forehead.”
Danny guessed that did make sense. “And I helped you catch them again?”
Pandora nodded. “Some might say that you were only following your Obsession, but as I set myself my task in pursuit of my own Obsession, why should that prevent me from showing my gratitude? Indeed, a ghost’s Obsession reveals much about their character. Should a ghost not be rewarded for what they are and what they have chosen to be?”
Danny nodded and assayed a question. “What’s an Obsession?”
Pandora, who had, until then, been lounging, sat up straight, her red eyes wide. “Pardon?”
Danny cleared his throat. “What’s an Obsession?”
.
“So,” said Danny, shifting slightly to get his body better aligned on the Greek-style couch he’d somehow wound up on, “an Obsession is, like, the purpose of your life– Um. Afterlife.”
Pandora nodded. “Mine is the battle against evil, the exaltation of the good. We never spoke explicitly of yours, but I must assume it was something similar. Did no one speak to you of this beforehand?”
“No.” Danny felt the need to pout. “Not even Clockwork.”
“What an incredible oversight,” said Pandora. She shook her head. “And no one has been giving you any outlet for your Obsession? Any way to pursue your purpose?”
Danny shook his head again. “I didn’t know I had a purpose.”
“Leaving it for so long… Well, it will not kill you, obviously, but it will leave you feeling awfully unfulfilled.”
“Yeah,” said Danny, thinking back over the last few weeks. “Yeah, I guess I could feel that, maybe.” He hadn’t felt that way the whole time, but looking back… “I’m not sure how I can defeat evil or whatever while I’m doing this, though. It’s kind of designed so that I don’t run into any evil, isn’t it?”“Perhaps so, but there is more than one way to follow one’s purpose, including by honing yourself for it,” said Pandora. She stood up from her own couch, setting aside her wine cup and platter of food. “Come, young warrior. Allow me to show you how I battle evil.”
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He looked up at the thick cape that spread around him, windows to galaxies that hadn’t been discovered yet, his crown one of blue fire – wicked sharp, and yet . . . nothing about him was scary. Imposing? Yes. But scary?
No-
My other piece for the @invisobang and partner AsthmaticBookwyrm!! You can read the story here!
From the Jaws of Defeat
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adequate peace
Phic phight for Lumi!
.
Human language lacked the words to adequately describe the physical appearance of the King of Ghosts. This was sure to be a temporary deficiency. When a human lacked the vocabulary to describe something, they either generated new words or stole them. Still, for the moment, the deficiency persisted.
A human attempting to describe the Ghost King might, after a struggle, settle on vast. This, on top of being inadequate, would also be incorrect, a product of human conflating of importance and size. Serpentine might also be chosen, or mustelidine, for the King's relative length and width, although those were largely a matter of perspective. Some humans might focus instead on individual, more easily grasped, features, such as the hair, which was the color of sunlight falling on snow after being cast through ice, or the eyes, which were the glowing green of uranium glass under blacklight. Still others might fail to register those at all, and have difficulty perceiving the King in the proper dimensionality, resulting in things like limbs appearing to clip through wall, or even in the King being invisible, imperceptible, but doubtlessly present.
Those with somewhat greater measure of wisdom might instead attempt to describe the King's regalia. The cloth cut from dazzling night, clinging to every curve, flowing, diaphanous, silky, folds and layers holding secrets unknown and unknowable. The crown, a blazing circlet, a corona of light, the sun, eclipsed. The ring of office, adorned with the skull of a lesser, and therefore conquered, creature. The staff, like a tower, like a needle, like the slender trunk of a sapling, not fully grown, but rich in potential. The sword, sharp enough to cut the fabric of spacetime, light enough to hold in one hand, a perfect void, made to divide both what was and what was not.
Or, to protect themselves and their sanity, a human may choose to focus on the King's surroundings, rather than the King's person. The throne, which cradled the King’s body, grave, urn, and memorial, bones on an altar, a sacrifice. The great cathedral of the King’s receiving hall, the branches of which reached up to the cosmos, the roots of which reached down to the shadows of subconscious thought. They might look out the windows, and gaze upon the kingdom, that great kingdom of the dead, that kingdom which everyone would be a citizen of, soon or late.
But even those were not comfortable to contemplate. Not for long.
It was easier by far to examine, and therefore describe, the King’s mental state. There was nothing esoteric about it, after all.
Mental breakdowns were perfectly within human understanding.
Danny had been crowned only hours ago. If he’d had a choice, he wouldn’t have been crowned at all, but as Skulker had told him years ago, the Ring of Rage and the Crown of Fire contained entities with a will of their own. Danny had been chosen, and they weren’t going to take no for an answer.
Thus, his current predicament.
As soon as he’d been crowned… as soon as the stupid thing had touched his head… It was like his body evaporated off of him, and into this. This thing he could barely understand, but could feel so, so much. This thing that was him, undeniably and completely, and which was so alien, so divorced from what he understood to be himself, that he couldn’t even begin to think about it.
He wasn’t bigger. He wasn’t smaller. When he counted his limbs, he had the right number. When he touched his mouth, he had only one. One mouth, one nose, two eyes, two ears. Nothing had been removed. Nothing had been added, except for those infernal crown jewels That’s what he felt when he checked.
But he could see forwards and backwards, both down and up. His lips were closed but he was singing, speaking, babbling, screaming. He could feel feathers as they brushed against the throne and through the walls of the keep. Scales scraped against stone. Stars and nebulae tangled in his horns and antlers.
He didn’t have any of those. His skin was intact, fleshy, and pink. His skin was stretched to infinity, and transparent as glass, galaxies swimming beneath it.
He couldn’t breathe. He had to breathe. He was breathing, but the aurora spilled past his lips with every gasp.
In his mind’s eye floated the Earth. A blue pearl against the black. The Infinite Realms stood out like emeralds on a chain, each one precious.
He curled in the great cradle of his throne, trying not to feel, trying not to think. He was not. He could not.
Three years since he had really been human, and he’d never expected this. He’d never dreamed of this. He’d never wanted this.
Like this, he couldn’t even pretend to be human.
He clawed at the Ring and Crown, but even with so much power, what could he do against the very things that granted that power? They didn’t go away, even when he reached for his living half. They clung. They constricted. They were weights and chains he wanted to cast off.
“Daniel.”
No, said Danny, although he didn’t know how. His word echoed.
“Daniel, you will injure yourself.”
He sobbed.
“Please, Daniel.” A cold hand wrapped around his wrist. It was a hand that was three hands. Or, rather, three versions of the same hand, layered upon itself and twisted through time.
“I don’t want this,” said Danny.
“I know, Daniel.” Shifting robes tickled the edges of wings that were not there. A tail curled at the base of the throne, and another hand laid itself against Danny’s knee. “You are overwhelmed.”
Until Clockwork had said it, Danny hadn’t known it was true. But there was so much here, and all of it was him.
“You do not need to stay here,” said Clockwork, gently. There was kindness there, and a thread of something like possession. The words came from a well of great experience, deep and dark. “Look up. Anywhere you can see, you can go. Go, and find peace from this.”
“But not forever,” said Danny.
“Nothing is forever,” said Clockwork. “But once you find peace from this, you may someday find peace with this. It is a long road–” here, Clockwork placed a hand on Danny’s cheek, “--but know that time is on your side.”
Danny bit his lower lip, teeth both flat and fanged, and a motion like a nod stirred the inky fabrics of his cerements. He looked up, and all his eyes were filled with stars.
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Cracked Clay Cup Chapter 10
@greatbigolhampuckjustforme
Phantom fidgeted with the pocketwatch around his neck. “Thank you, for everything.”
“It was my pleasure, Great One,” said Frostbite, giving the much smaller ghost a half bow. Phantom returned the bow, his ears twitching, telegraphing his emotions better than a blush.
The days they had spent together had been very pleasant. Relaxing, even. At least for Frostbite. Managing the tribe was rewarding, and it was much less pressure on a single individual than, say, being king of the same number would be, but it was still quite a lot of work. Focusing on a single person was much more peaceful.
Although he could admit that he was starting to grow weary of these walls. He could only imagine what it must be like for Phantom.
They had focused on first awakening and then training Phantom’s ice powers, so he didn’t lose control of them at an inconvenient time, but there were so many things a young ghost needed to know. History, society, physics… Frostbite was careful not to push too hard - as the chief, he had experience with children of all ages, and their limits - but there was plenty to occupy their time with when they could no longer work on the ice powers.
Then, once Phantom’s control of his ice powers returned to his usual level - thankfully with less damage to bystanders - they were able to both refocus and expand.
Frostbite had never spent so much time with Phantom before, not even if he counted the time Phantom was incapacitated by his own powers. It was interesting. Naturally, he and his people had built Phantom up into a great and legendary hero - not that they had to do much building. He was a hero. But as the numerous… incidents… during his initial training showed, he wasn’t perfect. He was still young, inexperienced.
Without his memories, that inexperience showed through even more. But his heroic qualities - his kindness, his intelligence, his bravery - were also so very clear.
Frostbite was so very lucky to know him.
“It was really nice, being here,” said Phantom. “Once I wasn’t freezing. I mean, it was nice before, too, but. Um. I couldn’t really appreciate it?”
“I understand,” said Frostbite.
Phantom nodded, and ran a hand over his ears. He didn’t seem to want to look directly at Frostbite.
“I hope you know that you will always be welcome in the Far Frozen, no matter what choice you make at the end of this.”
“Even if I make the wrong choice? Like, if I choose someone bad?”
“Especially then,” said Frostbite. “But I have faith in your judgment.”
Phantom looked up and smiled. “Thank you,” he said again. “And goodbye, for now.”
“Goodbye, Phantom.”
Phantom pressed the button on top of the pocketwatch and vanished. A slight wind blew through the room as the seals separating the caves from the rest of the Far Frozen were released. It was, it seemed, time for Frostbite to go back to work.
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