Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Obviously.

Author's Note: This is part of the Danny Phantom Fic/Art Exchange 2017, organized by narwhalsarefalling on Tumblr. I was paired with #art (hashtag-art on Tumblr), and wrote this fic based on phanart they made based on the concept of a ghost language. Link to the piece: hashtag-art dot tumblr dot com/post/120500076357/what-if-in-a-hypothetical-ghost-language-they (Please replace the "dot" parts with actual dots. It's been years, istg ffnet staff needs to fix this freaking formatting problem! Sorry for the rant.) Please check it out!

Enjoy!

Daniel Fenton was not known to be particularly squeamish when it came to pronouns and talking about gender. Years of having Sam beside him meant that he was intensively trained in social justice issues whether, he wanted to be or not. That's not to say that Danny was uninterested or unconcerned with the problems of less privileged people, it was just that he had other things on his mind. Like keeping angry ghosts from killing everyone in Amity Park.

But ghost hunting with Sam at his side meant that Danny was, in fact, quite well-versed in social justice issues. Although, it was admittedly sometimes difficult to understand the complexity of the sorts of subjects Sam often ranted about, protested about, or talked to Tucker about. Many times Danny had sat quietly as Sam and Tucker had discussed privilege and identity, power and politics, feminism and the Black Lives Matter movement. Danny could still remember clearly the first time he realized how important these issues were to Tucker, when a jock had used a racial slur against his friend, and both Sam and Tucker had seen red. It had been with no small amount of guilt and embarrassment that Danny had then been forced to realize that these issues were important, that they affected people's everyday lives. From then on, he had done his best to become more aware, and tried harder not to tune Sam out.

So as Danny grew older, social justice became a larger part of his life and education. He tried his best to be an ally to underserved communities, and to better understand the people who lived in his town and the world. It rarely played a large part in his life, however, as he was quite busy with his actual education, as well as with his ghost-related "extracurricular activities." Though as it turned out, Danny's continuing exploration of the Ghost Zone became one of the most useful elements of his social justice training.

The first time it happened, Danny thought he was finally losing it. The Fright Knight had caught him by surprise, jumping out at Danny from a suddenly appeared portal. Danny had barely even registered the Fright Knight's presence before there was a sudden pain in his neck, and he fell unconscious.

Waking up was not pleasant, nor was it particularly quick. Danny drifted into and out of consciousness, struggling to maintain a strenuous hold on reality. He could hear voices nearby, so he made sure to stay as still and quiet as possible. With any luck, his captors would spill just enough of their plans or identity for Danny to be able to find a way out of his predicament.

Except… as Danny's mind became clearer, he began to realize that the muttering that he had initially assumed he was still too addled to understand wasn't getting any clearer. The voices were, but the conversation... not so much. He panicked at first, until he suddenly reached the only possible conclusion – his captors were speaking a different language.

But what language? At times, Danny felt like he understood snippets, or got the overall gist. They were talking about Pariah Dark, and… a plan to reawaken him, maybe? There was also talk of some sort of amulet, or charm, or item… and the Far-Frozen?

These snippets, these vague glimpses of comprehension were what weirded Danny out the most, why he had initially thought this last blow to the head might have finally permanently addled his brains. After all, Danny couldn't remember ever studying any other languages. Excepting, of course, a couple videos on introductory Spanish that he had watched because, well, Paulina.

And yet… he could sort of make sense of the speakers' conversation. It felt strange, like a half-remembered dream, or the sort of déjà vu people experience when walking through places associated with their childhood. There's a feeling that they should remember, and that maybe they do, somewhere deep in their subconscious. But in the person's waking reality, those thoughts and memories are just barely out of reach; haunting, infuriating, terrifying. The person knows they should remember, but despite their best efforts, they just… can't.

As he lay there, trying to figure it all out, a slow realization began to build in his consciousness. Danny chanced opening his eyes, and the low green glow all around him told him everything he needed to know. He was in the Ghost Zone, which made sense based on what he could grasp of the conversation and the involvement of the Fright Knight in whatever was going on. But could that mean… that the language he was hearing… was a ghost language? Danny had never before heard ghosts speak in anything other than English (or Esperanto in Wulf's case), though he had met ghosts that had accents (Technus), or came from foreign countries (Desiree). The more he thought about it, though, the more sense it made. After all, the Ghost Zone was a separate place from the human world – it had different types of inhabitants (not all of whom were human, like Cujo or the Far-Frozen), different myths and histories (the Ghost King and Pandora, to name a few), and different laws (upheld by a patchwork system of the Observants, Clockwork, and Walker). Why shouldn't they have their own language? It might also explain why he could sort-of understand it. Sure, usually people learn languages, they don't just carry the knowledge in their genes, but this was the Ghost Zone, after all. Normal human rules didn't always apply.

Danny's musings were cut short by an explosion rocking the foundations of the building. Apparently, the cavalry had arrived. Danny wasted no time, using a surge of his own power to burst open the ecto-bonds around his wrists and ankles. There were skeletons nearby, but Danny was quick to overpower them with an ice blast, freezing a dozen of them were they stood. He flew through the door, looking for the source of the explosion, glad to be in familiar territory. He had spent enough time in Pariah Dark's Keep to know his way around the place.

As Danny finally flew out of the building, he found Sam, Tucker and Jazz blasting ghost from the Specter Speeder. He swooped over and landed next to them, yelling, "Cover your ears!" They all did so, and Danny sucked in a breath, letting out his Ghostly Wail.

Immediately, the ghosts facing them were blown backward, knocked down and aside by the force of Danny's voice. It was only when even the Fright Knight appeared to have been knocked out that Danny let the howling force die away, collapsing to his knees. It had been more than a year since the first time he had used the power, but Danny's Ghostly Wail still left him shaken after using it. Still, Danny realized, when he had first used his Ghostly Wail, his powers had maxed out. Now, its use left him merely winded. He was getting more powerful, more like his dark self. It was a dawning realization that always left him unnerved, that awakened a niggling fear deep inside.

But he buried it, as he always did, in the rejoicing over their victory. He was glad to see his friends and family backing him up, and relieved to know that their rescue mission had not left any of them injured. As they all piled back into the Specter Speeder and flew towards the Fenton Ghost Portal, Danny gave his companions a description of the events that had transpired since the Fright Knight had nabbed him earlier that day.

The revelation about the fact that there might well be a Ghost Language did not receive the sort of excitement that he had expected that it would. Only Jazz seemed truly interested, but even she seemed more interested in what exactly the whole plot had been hoping to achieve. So Danny stowed the information for later.

"Later," of course, meant the next day, which Danny began by entering the Ghost Zone and heading straight for Clockwork's tower. He had barely slept, as the thought of a Ghost Language had not left him alone, especially after he had realized, somewhere around 1am, how many ghosts he knew who utilized sound.

His Ghostly Wail had been the first thing that popped into his mind, and he wondered; could that yell actually mean something? Then he remembered Ember – her power was clearly centered around her voice and music, around sound. Even Spectra took on a new level of suspicion now – she talked people into mental instability, after all – that couldn't possibly just be the psychiatry. Danny arrived at Clockwork's Tower desperate for explanations.

"Ah, Daniel – Right on time," Clockwork greeted him, smiling mischievously in his child form.

"Hi, Clockwork! Did you see what happened yesterday?"

"Of course. I know everything that has been, is, and could possibly be. You're curious about the ghost language, correct?"

"Yeah! How can I understand it, despite never having learned it? Does it relate to my powers, like the Ghostly Wail?"

"You can understand it because all ghosts can understand it. But you can't speak it because you're only half-ghost. And you're correct in your assessment – many ghosts have powers associated with sound, and the language we speak has much to do with it." Clockwork eyed him, his aged form grinning at Danny the same way his child form had. "Was there something else, Daniel?"

Danny grinned back, excited. He wasn't sure why the prospect of a Ghost Language was so intriguing to him, but it was. "Could you teach me? Or do you know who I could learn it from?"

Clockwork's grin widened.

The following weeks were a blur. Danny was sure he had never been so busy, what with juggling school work, ghost hunting, and now, learning the Ghost Language. Clockwork had initially suggested that he take lessons from the Ghost Writer, but Danny had refused quite adamantly, so Clockwork himself provided Danny with lessons four times a week. And the more he learned, the more interested he became. He often regaled Jazz with information on the Ghost Language, watching as she took notes, excitedly comparing its structure to that of other languages. Sam loved hearing him speak it, insisting that it sounded wonderfully creepy. Tucker seemed to think it could be used to better understand the technology used by Skulker and Technus. Apparently, it was only the enormity of the encounter with the Fright Knight that had made them all temporarily dismiss the revelation that there was a Ghost Language.

Danny surprised himself with how quickly he was able to learn it, as well as by what it gave him. Now, when he spoke to ghosts, he could better understand their intentions. It was almost as if there was an undercurrent of the Ghost Language even when the ghosts spoke in English, which conveyed their true emotions better than words. He could also resist their influence better – no ghost could overshadow him, and the powers of Spectra and Ember could no longer touch him. His Ghostly Wail was strengthened as well.

And as he often discussed with Jazz, the Ghost Language gave Danny a new way of looking at the world. As it turned out, Mr. Lancer had been right when he had babbled on about different languages offering unique perspectives. The Ghost Language made him think about life and death more, and what these concepts truly meant to the ghosts. As it turned out, the ghost language identified and qualified things based on whether they were alive or dead, so trying to describe his own condition to the ghosts Danny talked to gave him pronoun problems of a whole different kind. It was frustrating, and reminded him painfully that he didn't really belong in either world. But through his pain, Danny found peace, as he always had – he may be different, but this was his greatest gift.

After all, that difference was what allowed Dany to save his friends and family from destruction countless times, and to befriend strange beings in a different world. It allowed him to empathize with the struggles of others, to understand the feelings of loneliness and pain experienced by those less fortunate. And if those countless adventures and experiences he'd had were only possible because he was different, well then…

Danny guessed he could deal with having to play the pronoun game.

I hope you enjoyed!

Love,

Red