Hey, look at what I found! A Tuesday bonus chapter! Enjoy!
Reminder- My guaranteed posting days are Friday and Sunday. On occasion I will post a chapter the night before (10 or 11 ish) rather than the day of, but I usually don't.
Speedyowl152: I'm glad you like this, but *puts on teacher voice* don't neglect your real life! Take care of yourself, okay? The door thing is partially because of the way he died, but also because he doesn't like to be isolated, and because of his nature as a kind of open door/ link/ bridge between the GZ and the material world. It is also because doors are just hard to do in lairs.
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Chapter 79: Permissions
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Ellie had, at first, feigned a general disinterest in the lair. She didn't want to get the shadow's hopes up, or her own. But, soon, she found herself intensely, obviously, interested in her surroundings. Gosh, those stairs were so cool. But, she did have other things on her mind...
"Didn't you say that there were people in here?" she asked. "Other than, you know, the Guys in White?"
"Yes," said Mirage. "There are. Lots of people. There are even some still upstairs, in town. We can go back, and I can introduce you, if you'd like? Or we can skip that and go forward. Danny's Dad is down there. Did I mention that?"
"Can't remember," said Ellie.
"Or," said Mirage, "we could ignore both of them and play a game. Did Vlad ever teach you chess? Or, ooh, checkers. Checkers is good. Or a word game. Or concentration. Have you ever played concentration? I have cards. Or we could track down another couple of people and play doubt. Or we could figure out how to play tarrock. Or bridge! I think I have a rule book somewhere, but it's just so weird. I don't understand bidding at all. Or, um, what else do I have? I think, Candyland? Yeah. And trivia games? It would get really confusing, because we've only got the one board, and, like, not a full set of cards for anything. But it would be really cool, thorough, random, trivia, don't you think? Oh, and we've got a library. A big library. Not as big as Ghost Writer's, or the Library of Tongues, or anything like that, but big, you know?" The shadow bounced, excited.
"So... Name something that the library is bigger than."
"Um. Most city libraries, I think, but not libraries in really big cities. I think that it's about the same size as Clockwork's, actually." He bit his lip, staring up, thinking deeply. "Yeah. I think so. Did you ever see that?"
"Hm," said Ellie. "Yeah. Just a couple of times, though. His place is weird."
"Yep. So, up, down, ignore the lot of them? Fly away?"
"Mhm. Haven't decided yet," said Ellie. She jumped up, onto the railing, then sat on it, swinging her legs out over the void. "Does this have a center?"
"Yeah," said Mirage. "It's like a die. One of the fancy ones that you use to play Dungeons and Dragons with." He held his hands out, and formed a twenty-sided polyhedron out of ectoplasm between them. "It's a little like this, only with, um, more dimensions, I guess?"
"What's at the center?" Ellie asked, peering down.
"Want to see?" asked Mirage, mischievously.
"Maybe later," said Ellie. "How about you show me who's upstairs first. Anyone I know?"
"Valerie."
"Really? Cool. I haven't seen her in ages. Take me to her!"
"Are you sure? She's a little... You know. She's a hunter."
"Yeah, but-"
"She tried to hurt Danny. She tries to hurt him all the time." His eyebrows were knitted together, and he looked up at Ellie petulantly. "I know that he forgives her, but... She's so trigger happy. She's so angry. I'm worried."
"About what?"
"That she'll take her anger out on you. She was almost killed, she'll be looking for someone to take her anger out on. We've got her with Mrs Ormolu and her grandson, and Mrs Ormolu is a tiny old lady. Not threatening or ghostly at all."
"I see," said Ellie. "I still want to see her." She flipped over, dramatically. "You'll protect me, won't you?" she said, pressing her hand to her chest.
"Well, yeah. So, want to bring a game to break the ice?"
"May-" Danielle broke off as a green blur ran right into her, knocking her off her feet. She rolled over, coming up in a defensive stance before taking note of who it was who had knocked her over. "Cujo!" she exclaimed happily. "Where have you been, my dog? My doggo? My dig-dog-diggity-doggitty-dog? My best best besty dog? My fave?" She giggled as the small green dog licked her face. "No, for serious, where have you been? I missed you." She almost whined the last two sentences.
"Some of the time," said Mirage, "he's been here. He's really good at getting around." He bent down to scratch the little dog behind the ears. "He's a little like you and Danny, isn't he? With the transformation, the portals, and all."
Ellie snorted. "They do say that people wind up looking like their pets, yeah?" Her smile faltered. "I guess I shouldn't visit Valerie with Cujo, though." She sighed. "You know, considering that story Danny told me and all. I want to see the other people upstairs, though, okay?"
Mirage bowed extravagantly. "Certainly, my lady."
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It took hours for Danny to wake. Nephthys peeked in, once, but excused herself quickly. Jazz had nothing against the ghost, but having the Ancient Master of Death sitting by Danny's bedside (Jazz didn't think 'deathbed') would be something of a bad omen. A number of wisps flew in, cuddling up to Danny. The doctors had given them very specific instructions about ectoenergy output, so as to not inhibit Danny's recovery. Dora had stopped by, though she couldn't stay for long. She had duties, as Queen of Mattingly. Poindexter visited, as well as a whole host of other young ghosts. Ember had come by, but had been so loud that everyone else chased her out. Johnny and Kitty had sent a card, via the Unstoppable Mailman. Several of the Far Frozen had come in, before stepping out to talk to the doctors. Clockwork had gone with them, briefly, before returning. Then the Unstoppable Mailman had come back, with a much larger packet of mail.
At that point, Jazz stopped paying attention to the comings and goings happening in the room. There were just too many of them, and she was exhausted. Still, she couldn't go to sleep. She had to stay awake until Danny was. She was just... She knew that core damage was the equivalent of brain damage, and she was worried that he might not wake up.
But then he started to make these tiny little sugar sweet mumbling noises. Literally sugar sweet. Somehow, they put the taste of sugar in her mouth, and raised the hairs on the back of her neck. Ghost stuff could be weird like that. They could hear half-formed words and names in the mumbles. Mostly their own names, as it happened, and words like 'fluffy,' 'hug,' and 'boat.' Yeah. Jazz didn't know what was going on with that, either. But whatever dream he was having seemed to be good, at least. Not that Jazz had doubted Nocturne, exactly, just...
Honestly, she was a nervous wreck, right now.
But then, Danny came, softly, slowly awake. He smiled sleepily at all of them, before grimacing. "Owww," he complained.
"I'm sorry, Daniel," said Clockwork.
"Not your fault," slurred Danny. "Hm. We're not dead?" He frowned, blinking. "Wait... I'm dead... Clockwork? Are you dead? Oops that's rude. Sorry, sorry. What's wrong with me?" He whispered the last sentence.
"Do you want that list alphabetically, chronologically, by body part, or mentally?" asked Tucker, looking at Danny.
"Mm," said Danny, pushing himself back into his pillows. "Where am I? It's hot."
"Duat Hospital," said Jazz.
"Egypt?" asked Danny.
"It was founded by those who might be described as Egyptians, yes," said Clockwork, gently brushing hair out of Danny's eyes.
"Oh. Okay. That makes sense." He blinked, slowly. Then sat up suddenly. "The Core! The Guys in-" He gasped, clutching at his chest, falling back. Clockwork caught him, and lowered him to the bed.
"It's alright," said Clockwork, "they were defeated. You helped."
"Good," said Danny, breaking off into a high-pitched moan. "Hurts," he complained.
"I know," said Clockwork. "You have been severely injured, Daniel. That's why you're at a hospital."
"Far Frozen?"
"We couldn't get you to the Far Frozen in time," explained Jazz. "Adrestia brought you here as fast as she could."
"Who?" asked Danny weakly.
"Adrestia the Inescapable," input Pandora. "She works for Libra as something of a bounty hunter and an investigator. I suppose that the best equivalent in human terms would be a detective, if I recall my modern human law enforcement correctly."
"I believe you are correct, or nearly so," said Clockwork. "However, it should be noted that the terms are not interchangeable. In many ways, Adrestia's role is more akin to that of a marshal, or a county detective, rather than a police detective."
"Um," said Danny, squinting up at the older ghost. "If you say so?"
Clockwork patted him lightly on the shoulder. "My apologies, Daniel." The gentle smile Clockwork wore faltered. "You have wounds all over your body, and your core in particular has been wounded. It isn't something that will heal on its own, unfortunately. Not for quite some time, in any case. It's something that must be treated by hand."
"Oh," said Danny.
"I will need your permission to do so," said Clockwork.
Danny frowned. "You don't need my permission to do anything," he said. Well, mumbled, really, but Jazz was well versed in Danny's mumbles. His waking ones, in any case.
"In this case I do, Daniel."
"Okay," said Danny. "Okay."
Clockwork ruffled his hair, and Danny leaned into his hand as he withdrew it. "I think that I will ask you when you are more awake."
"Hm," said Danny. "It's hot, here."
"I know, Daniel. We have been arranging for your transfer to a cooler climate."
"Hm?"
"We will bring you somewhere cooler as soon as possible," clarified Clockwork, " and Frostbite is outside, talking to the doctors here. He will come in soon, and then you will feel cooler."
"'Kay," said Danny. "I think- Mm. Ugh. I don't feel so good..."
"Hey," said Tucker. "Should we maybe tell a nurse or someone that he's awake? Isn't that what people do in movies?"
"No need," said a nurse smoothly, wheeling a cart into the room. "This is a ghost hospital, after all. Are you hungry, love?" she asked Danny. Danny shook his head, wincing. "Alright, I'm just going to take your vitals, then."
"Okay," said Danny.
As the nurse checked Danny's heart beat and temperature, he dozed off again. The nurse pulled back after checking blood pressure, and sighed. "We have guest facilities," she said. "You shouldn't sleep here."
"Why not?" asked Sam.
The nurse raised an eyebrow, and gestured at the crowed room. "Do you really need me to answer that question? In any case, it may not be healthy, for humans. When injured or ill, many, though not all, ghosts tend to either be silent, or make a great deal of noise. Much of that noise is beyond the normal human hearing range. It is my understanding that subsonics tend to negatively impact humans. I am several years out of date with current human medical research, but I do make an effort to be aware of effects that ghosts can have on humans. And of effects attributed to ghosts."
"Oh! I read about that!" said Jazz. "They cause hallucinations!"
"But- We help Danny when he's hurt all the time, and he doesn't do either of those things. I mean, he keeps talking, and we don't hallucinate."
"That we know of," said Tucker. "Some of the things we've seen, they're weird enough to be hallucinations."
"Yeah, but we all see them," said Sam, a little annoyed.
"It is possible that he doesn't do either of those things," agreed the nurse. "He is liminal, after all. They are rather strange, if you don't mind me saying so."
"That is true," said Pandora.
The nurse sighed, once more. "In any case, if you do decide to sleep elsewhere, anyone who works here can direct you."
