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Science
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"But how do you know ghosts are evil?" asked Danny, staring at his mother across the dinner table, the weight of his head propped up on his hand, the heel of it digging into his eye and making sparkling patterns. He switched his one-eyed gaze to his father. "How do you know that they aren't, like," he cringed internally at the suggestion he was about to make, "you know, those animals who wander into cities? You don't want them there, and they can cause trouble, but you wouldn't call them evil, would you?"
Comparing himself and other ghosts to wild animals was... uncomfortable, but he'd take anything he could get at this point, when it came to softening his parents' view of ghosts.
"Nature documentaries," said Jazz, jumping in. "Wildlife researchers. Zoologists. They study their subjects in their natural habitats, without killing them. Animals don't have human morals, but they aren't evil."
His parents stared blankly, and Danny resigned himself to picking at his food. It was worth a shot.
"Seriously," continued Jazz. "The only interactions you have with ghosts are the ones who come through the portal. You can't really think that's it, can you? Doesn't that skew your data a little bit."
"Jazz," said Maddie, "we knew that ghosts were evil before we even opened the portal."
"Why'd you even build it then?" mumbled Danny.
"In other words, before you even saw a ghost. You do realize how dangerous it is to form an opinion like that before collecting any data? Confirmation bias is a thing, you know, especially in psychological research."
"This isn't psychology, though, Jazzypants," said Jack. "Your mother and I both know it can be tempting to look at everything from your own specialty, but this is ectology."
"But is is psychology," argued Jazz. "You're making arguments about their minds."
"More people might believe you about ghosts if you had understandable data," said Danny. Hey, if Jazz was going to fight this fight, he wasn't going to let her do it alone. "Like, Jazz and I grew up with all of this, and we don't get all the formulas. Other people aren't going to."
"People see ghosts doing evil all the time," said Maddie, slightly flushed with frustration. "You see ghosts doing evil all the time! They attack the school. They've attacked you."
"Phantom hasn't," protested Danny.
"He ripped your face off!"
"Mom! I told you, that wasn't me! It was that shape-shifting ghost who kidnapped me!" He groaned. "You're not going to listen. I have homework I need to work on." He wasn't stopped as he pushed away from the table and trudged upstairs.
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"Maybe the kids are right," said Maddie.
"About ghosts not being evil?" asked Jack, in tones of disbelief.
"No, about people not realizing that Phantom is evil until we have proof they can understand." She shook her head. "Even the ones who were sensible after the invasion, when he held the mayor hostage, he's fooled them into thinking he's turned over a new leaf. We need to show them that isn't true."
Jack thought about that for a minute, then nodded. "Wildlife documentaries," he said. "Do you remember that one where they put cameras on the animals?"
"Oh, yes," said Maddie. "And if we couple it with the boomerang... We'll have to be careful, though and make sure Danny doesn't get hit. The boomerang does seem to like him."
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Danny flew high over the streets of Amity Park, keeping an eye out for trouble. This was mostly a pleasure fight, to unwind from the weird tension that had been building up in the house since that fight at dinner a few days ago, but he figured it might as well double as a patrol. Ghost activity was dying down as Christmastide approached, but most didn't start the Truce quite this early.
He flew over the park and flipped over onto his back, stretching. There were too many clouds in the sky for good stargazing, but the halo around the moon was interesting, and what he did see was pretty.
Something flashed in the corner of his eye, and he dropped, dodging instinctively. Whatever it was sailed several feet above him and vanished into the dark. Danny twisted to see who had shot at him.
That's when something hit him in the back of his neck. Weightless as he was, that sent him tumbling head over heels. He caught the thing dropping past him.
The boomerang, of course. His parents were out hunting. He let himself fall the rest of the way into the park. It would be easier to hide from them in the trees.
His neck itched. The boomerang had left something on it. A secondary tracker? He prodded at it with the hand not occupied with the boomerang. Whatever it was, it had wrapped around the collar of his jumpsuit. Was it a collar itself? Some kind of strangulation device, waiting to be activated? No, his parents wouldn't do that, they didn't think ghosts needed to breathe.
To be fair, they didn't. Not even Danny. Most ghosts could get on fine without their heads altogether.
Danny had never tested that one himself, though, and he wasn't eager to do so.
So, what was this?
Although it was primarily wrapped around his neck, part of it sat on the upper part of his chest, an inch or so below his collarbone. He scrunched his chin down to stare at it in the dark
Was that a camera?
Oh, no.
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To be continued in 'Day 6: Stuck.'