Hello! Thank you for the many reviews! They make me so happy!
StormFen: IIRC, there was hardly any lore in the original at all. On the other hand, a lot of what I have in here is fan consensus. Like, I don't think that the original work ever mentioned lairs, or obsessions. That's all from other fans. Some elements of the lair are explicitly borrowed from other fics. But the stuff with the Taboos and shadows are my own thing. A lot of this story is me taking something minor from the show, mixing in some headcanon, and extrapolating the heck out of it. Like, with Sydney Poindexter and the other sepia ghosts, if the other ghosts are real, you have a lot of ghosts who have decided to spend their afterlife harassing Sydney. This implies that they all died at the same time, when they were young, and blame Sydney for it... Which goes into school shooting territory, and I just don't see Sydney as that kind of character. So they can't be real. They have to be shadows. As for Danny's shadows, I've thought of Echo as more of a shadow of Danny's self-preservation instincts and repressed resentment of his parents, which is why he's so weird, but thinking of him as a shadow of Danny's obsession is just as valid, since I'm not planning to make it explicit.
Jadejem1: Thank you for pointing those out. They have been repaired. :)
MsFrizzle: The reasons for the GIW wanting to kill the Fentons is mentioned in an earlier chapter, but basically, they want control of the FentonWorks patents (which include stuff like teleporters and anti-gravity) so that they can continue to be powerful even after destroying the GZ.
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Chapter 38: Extract
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Fractal looked utterly miserable, standing there, looking at the giant platter of cookies, trying to figure out why no one was eating them. Like a kicked puppy. The lights behind his glasses blinked slowly, sadly. Something blue and chalky ran down his cheek from behind his glasses.
Danny, who had stood up and had been slowly approaching Fractal, froze. He was convinced that the liquid was not a tear, ectoplasm infused or otherwise. There was something wrong, terribly wrong, with the shadow, and Danny hadn't the slightest idea how to help.
Fractal looked up, wiped the blue ichor off his face with a handkerchief, and smiled at Danny. "It's nothing really, but thank you for your concern."
"Excuse me," said Sarah, who having been much closer to begin with, had reached Fractal before Danny.
Fractal looked at her hopefully.
"It isn't that we don't like cookies," began Sarah. "But what we'd really like is a way to get home. If you're here as a guide, could you tell us the way out?"
"I..." Fractal looked cornered. "That's..." He sighed. "I know you want to leave. I can't say that I understand it," he continued. "But I do know it." He looked around, teeth set on his lower lip. "Your request is more complicated than it initially seems. Perhaps you should all sit down?" suggested Fractal. "This might take some time to explain." He gestured, and a number of wooden chairs sprouted from the ground. "In the meantime, you can have cookies!"
"Maybe it would be simpler for you," said Maddie, a threat in her voice, "if we made it a demand: let us go."
"No. It doesn't," said Fractal, his voice going cold and hard. "Please, sit."
They sat.
"How- How much do you know about Obsessions?" Fractal asked, suppressing a flinch to look directly at Jack and Maddie, and somehow managing to capitalize the last word.
"They are what drives a ghost," said Maddie. "Any ghost. It is an unhealthy, unnatural fixation on a single, specific, person, thing, or action. Everything that a ghost does is in furtherance of their obsession."
"That description is just correct enough to be both misleading and offensive," said Fractal. "I mean, c-considering that you established that theory working from third-hand accounts and minute quantities of ectoplasm, it's quite impressive, but it's still not right. It's akin to saying that, uhm... I don't want to offend anyone. It's like saying that because poor communities have lower education levels, and that they have higher crime rates, and using those statistics to imply that the people in those communities are all thuggish criminals."
"Are you trying to say that ghosts don't have obsessions?" asked Maddie, disbelief obvious in her tone and posture. "Because now that we have the portal open, we've seen clear and direct evidence of obsessions."
"No, of course not. Evidence of obsessions are readily apparent to anyone who has encountered any but the most restrained of ghosts. What I'm trying to say is that obsessions can be more complex than you give them credit for. As a point: most sapient ghosts have more than one obsession. Actually, the more intelligent the ghost, the more obsessions they tend to have, although, generally speaking, there will be a 'primary' obsession. One that has higher priority when compared to the others." Fractal paused. "It might be better to say, in fact, that ghosts have a primary Obsession, a set of secondary obsessions, and a general tendency to obsessive behavior." He tapped his fingers on the table. "Ghosts are constructed quite a bit differently than a human would be. Compare a Hard Disk Drive and a Solid State Drive, they can contain the same information, but do so in somewhat different ways." Fractal noticed the blank stares of the 'popular' segment of the class, and shook his head. "Never mind. There are physiological components of an obsession, but getting into that..." he grimaced. "Forgive me if I don't want to give you more ammunition, Dr Fenton, Dr Fenton."
The Doctors Fenton glared.
Fractal looked away. "A-anyway, for child ghosts, not new ghosts, but child ghosts, either young Deathless and certain kinds of Neverborn or the ghosts of children, usually the obsessions are all tightly related." Fractal interlaced his fingers. "He- Phantom- falls in this category."
"And this is supposed to make us- what? Trust him?"
"Uh. No. That's not the point of this. I'm just trying to help you understand. A ghost's Obsession doesn't come from nowhere, you know. Not if they're one of the Dead." He licked his lips and sighed. "This is difficult. Obsessions aren't something that you talk about except in the most general of terms. It isn't polite." He addressed the next question to the entire group. "What do you think his- Phantom's- primary Obsession is?"
"Heroism?" asked Dash.
"Gosh, no," said Fractal, making a face that conveyed both disgust and offense. "If that was the case, the arguments of Dr Fenton and Dr Fenton might have a leg to stand on. Ghosts can freely choose how to fulfill their obsessions. Any obsession, even one that looks malevolent can be turned to good ends. By the same token an obsession that appears entirely benevolent can become problematic. A 'heroism' obsession would be terribly prone to that. Can you imagine what would happen if the ghost attacks in Amity ever stopped? No. Try again."
"Helping people," said Mr Lancer.
Fractal favored the teacher with a radiant, sharp-toothed smile. "Yes. And related to that?"
"Considering what your... friend Echo said to us earlier, I would say protecting people from harm?"
"You could call him my brother, if that makes you feel more comfortable, but, yes. Now, do you start to see the issue?"
"You're saying that you can't help us find the way out, because you want to protect us by keeping us here?" asked Mikey.
"That's one facet of it. The GZ is dangerous. Beyond that, Amity is dangerous. Here you would be safe. But you're assigning me agency that I don't have. Remember, I'm no more an independent person than the chair you're sitting on. Nor can you blame this on him. Excuse me, on Phantom," he said, cutting off Jack and Maddie. "This isn't something that he has conscious control over. These things that drive us shadows are the illogical half-formed fantasies of the id. We polish them somewhat, but there you are. Besides, I haven't finished yet.
"As I said, one facet of this problem is that we want you to stay. It really would make things easier if you did," Fractal adopted a cajoling tone. "He wouldn't have to leave then. We can make so many things here, but we can't make real people, and you're the ones he wants the most. He could be safe, too. Finally. Any we could make anything here, anything you'd like. What we can't make, we can acquire. You'd be shocked at what is here already."
"We are not staying her at your mercy. Or Phantom's," said Maddie.
"We're going home, ghost," grumbled Jack in agreement.
Fractal sighed heavily, leaning back. "I thought as much."
"But wouldn't that be problematic for you, too?" asked Hannah. "Danny told us Phantom would starve if he stayed stuck."
Danny suspected that if Fractal's eyes were visible, they would have flicked towards him. "Not entirely rational..." he muttered. Then, more loudly, "There are people in the Zone that can help with that. Danny is far more capable than he seems."
"Gee, thanks."
"You're welcome," said Fractal. There was a clear undertext: From one harmless nerd act to another. Even if it was technically the same harmless nerd act masquerading as two. "But... that's actually part of the issue: There are people in the Zone. People. Despite how you dismiss ghosts as sub-sentient manifestations of post-human consciousness, they are people. People who do not deserve to be tortured by you," said Fractal very pointedly. "We have a duty to prevent that."
"Then keep us," said Jack. "Let the kids go. They don't deserve to have their lives destroyed."
"I was hoping you'd say that, but I'm not finished yet. That's actually part of the balance. We want to help you, and there are different kinds of helping. We don't want you to be unhappy," he said, turning slightly so that it was clear he was addressing everyone present. "I think that you could be happy here, but if you don't..." he shrugged. "He values choice. He also cares for Amity Park, which we understand, even as we are jealous..." he trailed off. "Sorry," he said to no one in particular. "I mean to say, he is fond of the people of Amity Park. All of them, although you are the ones he wants the most. The ones he knows best.
"As it stands now," continued Fractal, "we cannot, in good conscience, help you leave. Equally, we cannot force you to stay. We couldn't harm you, in any case. You may be able to find the way out on your own, or with the aid of the wisps. These ones are the Three Winds Clan, by the way. That's the best translation. The tribe calls itself Bright Harp. Just so you know. But you probably won't."
"So this whole thing was to tell us that you won't help us?" said Ricky, annoyed.
"No. It was just to explain the... pertinent issues to you. To tell you why I can't just let you go. Why I can't show you the door. Not without you," he was now looking back at Jack and Maddie, "doing something for me first."
He pulled a roll of paper out from his sleeve, followed by a small, spherical bottle from his belt. He placed both on the table. The bottle was about an inch in diameter, and was full of dark red-purple, almost black, liquid.
"Ever hear of a Stygian Oath?"
