Thank you all for answering my questions earlier! You're all great!

For right now, with updates, I think that I will try updating on Friday and Sunday, with an optional update on Tuesdays. How does that sound?

I feel like I'm making too many OCs... But the scenes I want to write going forward won't work without them. What do you guys think?

StormFen: I loved your artwork! You're really good at the show's style. If anyone else wants to see try stormfen/ art/ Mirage-760105011 . Vlad isn't exactly a good guy in this, but he isn't a bad guy. He's going to cause Danny & co trouble later on, and his fixation on Maddie is intended to be creepy, but he genuinely cares about Danny.

jiffy185: I considered having that be a thing... But I decided that is didn't really fit. Creating Danielle and the other clones was definitely a privacy violation, ultra creepy, and a whole lot of other things besides, but it wasn't a direct physical or mental assault against Danny until that last bit with the 'prime' clone and the mid-morph DNA. So, it didn't really fit with the definition I had come up with for Acts of Rapine.

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Chapter 59: Nomenclature

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"We're coming up on the last questions now, just bear with me here, okay?" said Adrestia. "You keeping up, Meg?"

"Heck, yeah. Gosh, this's so much easier with shorthand."

"Since when do you know shorthand?"

"Since I took that correspondence course, duh."

"That had better be legible at the end of all this, Meg. Anyway," she said, bringing her attention back to Vlad. "Do you know if Phantom has been formally claimed, or if any adult ghost has formally declared themselves to be responsible for him? In other terms, do you know if any ghost has been appointed, or has appointed themselves, his guardian? If so, whom?"

"To the best of my knowledge, he doesn't have a guardian, beyond his biological parents," said Vlad, wearily. "He is friendly with the Far Frozeners, however, and I have frequently met him near the Time Locked Lands, so perhaps he has allies there whom I am not familiar with."

"Okay. Does Phantom have any other adoptive, returned, or steadfast family, any family-by-theft, any oath-siblings, or any other bonds of fraidship that have not yet been mentioned?"

It took Vlad a moment to unravel the terms. He so rarely had the opportunity to use them. "Other than Jasmine-" he paused. "He does have a cousin-by-theft."

"Ah. We hadn't heard that yet. Details?"

"Her name is Danielle," said Vlad, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "The last time I saw her, she was almost identical to Daniel."

"Do you know where we can find her?"

"No."

"Anything else?"

"He's offered sanctuary to a few ghosts in Amity Park, but I doubt that any of that amounts to fraidship, or even vassalage."

"Hm," said Adrestia. "You guys have any questions?" she asked the three winged girls.

"Nah, I think you've got everythin,'" said one of the girls, waving a lazy hand.

"Great. One last thing. Would you be willing to appear as a witness in court? You would, of course, be allowed an advocate in the preliminary committee as a major witness, and you may pull out at any time before the conclusion of the preliminary committee."

Vlad raised an eyebrow, but he was not surprised. It was obvious that he would be a star witness, considering that he knew both the victim and the suspects. This would be an excellent opportunity to get rid of Jack for good! Now, if he could only arrange for Maddie to emerge unharmed... Perhaps he could even argue for Daniel to be released into his custody... "I will have to consult with my advocate before I make any guarantees."

"Make sure to go to the Hall of Justice as soon as you make up your mind, but, sure," said Adrestia. "Anything you want to add before we go?"

"Actually, yes," said Vlad, surprising even himself. He cleared his throat. "I have reason to believe that members of the Group for Inter-dimensional Warfare are planning an expedition with the stated purpose of retrieving Daniel and his classmates. I doubt, however, that that is their only goal, and even if it is, well, I am sure you are aware of their reputation."

Adrestia's lips moved silently. Then, "The Guys in White? Yeah, we know about those maniacs. We'll make sure that word gets out. Alex, fix his arm before we go, will you?"

The ghost scoffed, but zoomed up to Vlad and prodded his broken arm before zooming away again, moving faster than he could react in human form.

"Latter, man," said Adrestia, giving him a negligent wave before zooming off herself.

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"Of all the times for the eyeballs to hold a meeting," groaned Adrestia.

"You should show them more respect, Adrestia," said Astraea, disapprovingly. They were standing in one of the many private conference rooms in the Hall of Justice.

"I show them plenty of respect," said Adrestia, "I just don't feel any. They're massive jerks, and I could take any one of them."

"Right. Just like Plasmius thought he could evade the three of you. Issitoq is as old as time, and his inner circle is almost as old as he is. Not to mention that there are a lot of them."

"Yeah, yeah. I get it, I've got it, but we've got the other bureaucratic nightmare to deal with. You're gonna tell your mom, but then what? Lady Themis is at the thing, and, many things we are, we aren't a police force."

"We do have resources, though. The Eumenides aren't your only crew, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't know about having them out and about near human children. Some of them are kind of, er, wild, if you know what I mean."

"I do, but we may not have a choice. Let me talk to Mother, and then we can figure out what to do. If nothing else, we can go to Walker."

"Gross."

"I know. But, hopefully, we can get into contact with the Reeves. We can certainly gather our cousins."

"What about the Egyptians?"

Astraea shook her head. "Other than the dynasts, the wannabe dynasts, and the loyalists, who are, well, you know, always fighting with one another and themselves, Ma'at is the only central authority."

Adrestia sighed through her nose. "It's almost enough to make you wish that we were human, huh? At least they can cooperate on short notice."

"Don't even joke about that. I'm pretty sure that's a myth, anyway."

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"Okay," said Fractal, smiling at the class, "are you ready for some walking today?"

The students stared sullenly up at the shadow. Many of them had not appreciated the way Mirage had chosen to wake them, which had involved, in several cases, ice cubes. Danny's lips twitched. He shouldn't have been so amused, the whole thing had been massively inappropriate, considering the circumstances, and yet he was.

"Great," said Fractal. "Now, since you're going to be out in the wide open Zone in a few days, you all should learn how to interact with ghosts without insulting anyone. Otherwise, your chances of getting back to Amity Park unharmed are going to drop significantly. Not," he said, pointing warningly at Jack and Maddie, "because ghosts are trigger-happy, or easily offended, or violent, but because you get a bunch of ghosts from a bunch of different eras, and even in some modern human cultures some insults warrant physical responses, and most ghosts aren't used to dealing with people as fragile as humans. Therefore, Danny, Jazz, Sam and Tucker-"

"Why am I always last on these lists?" complained Tucker, good-naturedly.

"I don't know about anyone else, but for me, it's because your name is last alphabetically. Anyway, those four are going to be telling you about how not to get yourself into trouble."

"Why not you?" asked Mikey.

Fractal blinked. "I thought that went without saying. Of course I'll be helping them. Of course, I'm not human at all, and what's obvious to me may not be obvious to you. These four, on the other hand, they've been on the learning side of all of this."

"It would have been nice to get some warning, though," said Sam, grinning sardonically.

Fractal pushed up his glasses, and shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry. It isn't like we've had a lot of time to plan this. This is only the second night you've been here."

"Just giving you a hard time," said Sam. "No worries."

"She does that," said Tucker.

"Wait a sec," said Dash. "You're gonna make us listen to the nerds?"

"Um. Yes?" said Fractal tapping the tips of his fingers together.

"Hasn't Jazz tutored you before?" asked Danny.

"Shut up. I wasn't talking about Jazz."

Tiffanie huffed, and looked away from Dash.

"Babe," he protested, "I'm totally over her."

"Right," interrupted Fractal. "If you'd all follow me, please," he said, starting towards the stairs. "We can get started on what definitely not to say. Would you start, Danny?"

"Well, first off, never ask a ghost how or if they died."

"Why?" asked Ricky. "Wouldn't that be the first thing that you'd ask? Like asking them where they come from?"

Danny frowned, about ask what was wrong with Ricky, to even ask that, when Jazz dove in.

"PTSD," said Jazz. "It isn't exactly the same, but you wouldn't interrogate a stranger about the worst moment of their life, would you?"

"I guess that makes sense," said Ricky.

"What do you mean 'if' they died?" asked Mikey.

"Well..."

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"... then, if someone gives you a name, use that name. Don't go, 'Hey, Zagreus, I heard you went by Bacchus back in Rome! Was that whole thigh thing true?' Because they hate that. Like, they really, really, hate that," said Tucker.

"Did you... Did you do that?" asked Mia.

"I resent that allegation. And no. But the idiot who did it, yikes."

"Nicknames and descriptions are usually alright," said Danny, "if you're close to the person in question or you want a fight. So don't risk it. Titles are fine, if they give them to you. If you want to be safe, just stick with what they explicitly tell you to call them."

"Any questions on that?" asked Jazz.

"So, calling Phantom Invis-o-Bill..?" asked Sarah.

Danny cringed. Ancients, that name was awful. "Bad. Really bad."

"You're all lucky that he's so easy going," said Fractal. "There are many ghosts who would have snapped at you people, given what you've put him through." He frowned. "Not necessarily you, specifically. Just Amity Park in general."

"I would have snapped," said Sam. "I'm not even a ghost."

"I wouldn't say many," started Danny.

"You do see how angry Skulker gets when you call him tin can?"

"Or how about Aragon, Prince of Nothing?"

"Or," Tucker pitched his voice high, "Technus, Master of Long-Winded Introductions!"

"Or anytime Jazz tries to talk to them?"

"Hey, I'm not that bad with names!"

"You called Skulker 'Ghost X' for almost a year, Jazz," said Danny.

"Yeah, because it was hilarious."