Some more headcanon stuff! Not much action! Forgive me. I like writing it. I hope you enjoy reading it. Suggestions and constructive criticism welcome. :)
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Chapter 40: Contract Negotiations
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They slowly returned to the tables. Danny was very aware of how Valerie stared at them. He hoped that she didn't notice his change of clothes. He ran his hand through his hair. He had tried to dry it thoroughly, but it was still damp in places. She shouldn't be able to see that, right? His hair was already black. Water wasn't terribly visible in it.
Jack and Maddie were coming back from the cabins, deep frowns etched into their faces. Danny felt bad, making them go through all this, when they so clearly didn't want to, but if they hadn't made such a terrible thing, this wouldn't be necessary. He hadn't thought all of what Fractal had said through himself, at least not consciously, but when it was laid out like that, it was obvious. It really would be irresponsible to let them back out without some guarantee that they wouldn't hurt anyone else.
They sat down heavily by the cookies. Jack took one. Ate it. His eyebrows went up. He ate another.
"So how are the cabins?" asked Danny, once he got into speaking distance. "Find any booby traps or anything?"
"No," said Jack, sullenly. Like he was disappointed by the lack of perfidy. "We didn't."
"Danny, Jazz," said Maddie, reflectively. "You trust these ghosts."
"I trust the wisps, and Phantom," said Danny carefully. "The shadows are part of him, so they're... I don't know. They're going to have to follow his rules. Like the whole no hurting people thing. They are a little creepy, though, aren't they?" He nibbled absently on a cookie.
"Do you think that we could get out with just the wisps' help?" asked Maddie.
"I don't think that it'd be impossible," said Danny. "But the shadows will definitely have a better way, and the wisps' way may not be totally human-accessible. I mean, they are quite a bit different from humans." He petted a fist-sized wisp that had landed on his leg. It purred, and nuzzled down into his flesh, so only it's top hemisphere was visible. It was a very ticklish sensation. Danny hummed, and fished a cookie off the table to feed to it.
"And you, Jazz?"
"I think that you should agree," said Jazz. "Having those weapons is just asking for trouble. Sooner or later, someone will find out, and ghosts are going to be less than happy. They already go after us sometimes. I don't want it to get worse."
"But we need those weapons," said Jack. "To protect ourselves from ghosts."
"There are more ethical ways to do that," said Danny. "Blasters aren't going to pose the same problems. Nor are shields. Or most of the weapons you've made in the past, for that matter."
"This is still an awful lot to ask, for just letting us go."
"Then ask for more."
"What?"
"Fractal did say that he was open to negotiation, right?" asked Danny, rhetorically. "So, ask to change something. Or ask for something more. I don't think you'll be rejected outright. They want you to agree to this."
The wisp, who had been delicately nibbling on a cookie, bounced off Danny's leg, into the starry sky, trilling. Danny frowned after it in concern. It had been talking too quickly for him to understand it. A few confused moments later, a huge cloud of wisps descended on the platter of cookies like a swarm of locust. Several startled humans took cover behind chairs and tables. When they cleared off, the cookies were gone. Completely.
(Danny was hoping that sugar wasn't harmful to wisps. Or addictive.)
"So, I understand you've come to something of a decision?" asked Fractal, hopefully. Wow, he was way sneakier than he looked. Or acted. Or actually was, considering his self-introduction. Teleportation it was, then.
Maddie and Jack both glared at the shadow, as if the wisps' actions were his fault. They were. In a roundabout way. He had made the cookies.
Maddie pulled herself back into her seat. "You're asking too much and giving too little."
Fractal spread his hands out to either side. "There isn't much else we can do. Shadows cannot exist outside the lair. Nor is there much Phantom can do, in his current state."
"But he is coming with us, regardless," said Maddie, glancing at Danny. "We'd like some guarantees on that front."
"Guarantees such as?"
"We want him to help us get home. If he is truly so concerned with 'helping people,' it shouldn't be too much of an imposition?" There was a great deal of venom in Maddie's voice, and Danny was glad that everyone was focused on Fractal, and couldn't see him flinch.
"Well," said Fractal delicately, summoning a chair for himself, "there are some issues with that."
"I don't see how there could be."
"How would you phrase such a requirement? 'Phantom agrees to do everything in his power to get us home as soon as possible?'"
"Yes."
"Well. That's a problem."
"How?" demanded Jack.
"'Everything in his power' covers a lot of ground, and includes things that he would consider immoral, unwise, or otherwise distasteful. 'As soon as possible' does not factor in his safety, or yours."
"So let's change that," said Danny, before either of his parents could respond with cutting words. It crossed his mind that arranging things like this was somewhat dishonest. He was actually on Fractal's side of this negotiation, not his parents'... On the other hand, he did want to get everyone home safe and sound, without agreeing to something insane. "Make exceptions. Like, he'll do that, unless it gets too dangerous, or if it interferes with his obsession."
Fractal nodded slowly. "That's a good thought." He hummed. "Let's say this. 'Phantom agrees to do everything in his power to get you home safely, unless it poses an existential threat to him, to others, if it is against his obsession, or if it puts him at odds with those entities charged with enforcing the Taboos.'"
"'The entities charged with enforcing the Taboos,'" echoed Maddie. She looked at Danny, frowning. "You never did tell us who those were," she said. Her tone wasn't accusatory, like he would have expected, but curious.
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. That hadn't been on purpose, exactly, but... He'd had bad experiences with one of those groups, and he didn't like to talk about it. Still, he needed to get his parents to agree to this. He needed those things to go away. He was tempted, highly tempted, to have Fractal explain. That was Fractal's job, wasn't it? But he doubted that his parents would be inclined to believe anything that Fractal said.
"There are three groups, organizations, that deal with the crimes when they happen outside a Realm," said Danny. "There used to be more, I think, but right now there are three. They are each headed by, um, a judge, who was appointed by one of the old high kings. The most powerful group right now are the Observants, who are headed by Issitoq the Watcher. My understanding is that their power is waning, though, so they're pretty well balanced by the other two groups. Um. Appearance-wise, they're green, they're tall, they each have only one big eye, no neck to speak of, no legs, they use tails exclusively, and they wear cloaks and robes. It's kind of like a uniform? They all have to look the same. Also, they can see the future. Kinda. Most of the Dead ones were clairvoyants or fortune tellers in life. But they've got an oath not to act on their prophecies. Someone forced them to take it early on in their existence, because they'd had a problem with self-fulfilling prophecies. They don't care for humans. They also really, really don't like Phantom. Like, they'll use any excuse whatsoever to end him, and they won't care if they have to kill me to get at him."
"What?" exclaimed Mia, horrified. "Why?"
"Who could hate the ghost boy so much? That's horrible!" said Paulina.
"Uh. It's a long story," said Danny. Also, there are two of them, but they didn't need to know about the other part.
"We have time, Danny."
"Uh. The Observants aren't supposed to interfere with time themselves, but there's a loophole in that. They can get others to interfere. They do this whole predatory Faustian bargain thing. They con ghosts into agreeing to serve them, without putting a time limit on the service."
"That's a bit of an oversimplification," put in Fractal. "There are apparently a lot of loopholes in their oath. The whole thing is intensely sketchy. Even if you do discount the indefinite indentured servitude."
"Right. But there are loopholes in those agreements, too. The Observants are legal authorities, so there are limits to what they can ask of their people. They can't break the laws themselves. Um. I don't know all the details. Or more like, I don't understand all the details... They said something regarding Phantom to one of the people they had a hold over, and that let him ignore them when it came to Phantom." He swallowed. "Now, the second group-"
There was a great sound of protest. Danny winced.
"Okay. Okay. Fine. So, at some point, they predicted that Phantom might- Might! Set off a chain of events that would, um. Basically conclude with the apocalypse. Kinda thing. I- uh. He isn't- hasn't ever been very eager to discus that... Sequence of events. From his point of view, anyway. I get that. Um. I was involved, too. I- Uh. I'm actually. Uh. More responsible? I guess I'd say. Or equally responsible. Don't know why they picked him over anyone else, I mean... I don't like to talk about it either. Clearly. Um."
"Of course Fenturd'd cause the apocalypse. He's such a klutz that I'm surprised he hasn't done already."
"Wouldn't it be 'again?'" asked Kwan.
"If you two imbeciles are quite done?" said Fractal, coolly. The glow behind his glasses was dim. He was leaned back in the chair, his arms crossed and his head tilted slightly. He smiled, lips tight. "Danny, if you want to go on?"
"Anyway, that happened. Or might have happened. Their thing, the future-seeing thing, it's based on probability. They usually are able to determine the most probable result but... You get things like... There are ninety-eight different good possibilities with one percent possibility, and one bad one with two percent possibility, and they see the bad one. So they went to one of the most powerful people who they had control over-"
"Who?" asked Maddie.
"His name is Clockwork," said Danny, reluctantly. "They never had as much control over him as some of the others, but they still retained the," Danny's face twisted into a scowl, "'right to call on him to prevent extreme violation of Taboo.' So they told him to get rid of Phantom. Except they didn't quite use those words, so he was able to out-loophole them, and not kill Phantom, and make it so that killing Phantom wouldn't... Uh. Solve the problem. And change the problem. So, no more apocalypse, so they couldn't tell him to kill Phantom anymore, 'cause it wasn't going to prevent 'extreme violation of Taboo' anymore. Um. Is this making sense so far?"
"Yeah," said Valerie, "except for the part about you causing the apocalypse. No offense, but you aren't really..."
