Today in particular and this week in general has been pretty terrible. Comments please. :')
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Chapter 226: Implied Satan
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The ghost, their sibling, floated sheepishly in the corner, not looking at anyone, clutching at the shroud with skeletal gray fingers. The shroud hovered a few inches over the ground, and Danny saw no evidence that the ghost had any feet.
"Hi," said Danny. "Er, how are you?"
"Fine," said the ghost, wringing his fingers.
Ellie shot a hopeful smile at Danny. Sam and Tucker shrugged. Jazz gave him a variety of thumbs-ups, okay signs, and peace signs from the other side of the bed, where she was attempting to tidy up some things that had been knocked askew in the commotion. Her hair was still blue in places.
Fright Knight, meanwhile, looked enchanted, which was a weird thing to say about someone when the only part of their body you could really see was their glowing eyes. Sojourn was watching with an attitude of extreme caution, half hiding behind a bed post. Frostbite was staring at Nephthys in confusion. Nephthys was lying on her face. On the floor. Pandora looked like she was trying to hold back laughter. Her cheeks were tinged faintly green.
Nocturne was, as before, half asleep on the bed, watching proceedings with an amused expression.
"What," said Dan, voice more gravely than usual, "happened." He took a menacing step towards where Nephthys laid.
"Our new friend spooked her a little," said Sojourn. Danny saw him open a minuscule portal behind his back, as if in preparation for an escape. "So now she's embarrassed."
"No one will take me seriously ever again," moaned Nephthys into the carpet. "Everything's changed and not in a good way. Oh, woe is me. Things will change again; I can feel it. It's all downhill from here for me."
"Stop being melodramatic and get up, you weirdo," ordered Dan, poking her with his foot.
"Woe, woe is me. Even my own child is bullying me!"
Dan froze.
"Anyway," said Danny, deciding to ignore both Dan's real existential crisis and Nephthys's fake one.
(He knew his Aunt's tactics. He also knew that adult lions pretended to be hurt by the bites of cubs to encourage them.)
"Uh, have you guys done introductions yet?" he tried to run his fingers through his hair, and was once again thwarted by the crown.
"It's, um, it's okay," said the ghost in a voice that reminded Danny a lot of Jazz's or Dani's, except a few shades deeper and a lot dryer. It was almost papery. "I know who everyone is." His gaze was firmly fixed on the ground.
"It's okay if you don't want to deal with this right now," said Ellie. "We can probably get you your own room if you want. Then you could have some time to… Process? I guess?"
If they kicked someone out, yes, they probably could. Most adult ghosts wouldn't be too terribly bothered by being asked to move to accommodate a child ghost.
"You can have my room," said Fright Knight.
"Um," said the ghost. "Okay?"
Despite having his face almost entirely covered, Fright Knight still managed to give off the impression of beaming.
Pandora snickered. Fright Knight snagged a pillow off the bed and threw it at her face, without looking at her.
Danny winced. On top of the broken glass on the floor and the residue remaining from the earlier explosion… "You guys know we still have to sleep here, right? We have to clean this up. You get that, right?"
The Ancients contrived to look mildly ashamed.
Danny returned his attention to the clone. "So… happy birthday, um…?"
"Oh, no," said the clone. "I mean, I already kind of existed, so… Oh. You want my name."
"Only if you have one," assured Danny. "No pressure."
"Sure," said the grey-skinned ghost. "Um. How about Damien?" This was followed by a full body wince. "Shoot, no, that's from a horror movie."
"Hey, spawn of Satan is pretty accurate, considering what Vlad is like," said Ellie, "and the anti-antichrist trope is pretty cool."
"I thought you were implying Danny was Satan for a second there," said Jazz.
"Well," said Sam, "he is sort of the king of hell, right?"
"The Infinite Realms are not hell," said Clockwork.
"Specific parts are distinctly hellish, however," added Nephthys.
"Isn't there a town called Hell?" asked Tucker.
"Yeah, but that's on Earth," said Danny, keeping an eye on Damien. The banter seemed to be relaxing him.
"Damien is a wonderful name," said Fright Knight. "It will strike fear into the hearts of your enemies!"
Damien brightened for a moment, but his shoulders quickly crept back up to his ears. "Enemies? I have enemies?"
"Probably more my enemies than yours, but… Yeah," said Danny. "Since we're family and all."
"You know what? I probably should have expected that." He slightly adjusted his shroud. "I do have a lot of your memories and all… You don't think I'll be getting his enemies, do you?" he asked, pointing at Dan.
"I don't have any enemies," said Dan.
Everyone stared at him with varying levels of incredulity.
"I'm from an alternate timeline, you freaks."
"… Wait," said Tucker, slowly, "is he right? He can't be right. But if we're not his enemies anymore…"
"What about all those Observants you beat up or chased off?" asked Danny.
Dan snorted. "They don't count."
"They do count."
"They're too weak to count," insisted Dan. "Besides, I ended most of them." He said this with a grin and pounded his fist into the palm of his opposite hand.
"Dan, just because they're weak doesn't mean they aren't your enemies."
"I get to say who my enemies are."
"Well, in that case, I don't have any enemies either!" Danny crossed his arms.
A beat of silence.
"I changed my mind," said Dan. "I have so many enemies. Can't even count them all. You're all my enemies."
"Why are you like this?" asked Danny, rhetorically.
"You know why I'm like this."
"You're right, I do."
"Listen," said Fright Knight, "having enemies is a good thing. It is difficult to strike terror into the hearts of your friends!"
"Tell that to Danny," said Jazz. "Within a week of me finding out he was Phantom he gave me fifteen separate heart attacks."
"You've never had a heart attack in your life."
"How little you know."
"With enemies," continued Fright Knight, undeterred, "you can inspire horror, dread, despair! My understanding is that is considered rude to do that to friends."
Pandora started snickering again. "That's one way to put it." With visible effort, she straightened herself and walked over to pat Fright Knight on his armored shoulder. "Don't worry too much about Danny's enemies. You look different enough that most of them likely won't look twice at you unless you announce your relationship publicly."
"Or if they're people who fight with everyone," cautioned Danny.
"Ah, yes," said Sojourn, who hadn't really contributed to the conversation. "The universal enemies. Annoying, but strangely useful."
"The weaker ones are excellent practice for young ghosts such as yourself," said Fright Knight. "But until such a time as you can go forth and battle them, I will teach you everything I know."
Damien nodded, slowly. "About fighting?"
"Yes! And about fear!" Fright Knight raised a hand as if grasping at something in the air above him. "It would be the gravest of crimes to allow you to go without tasting the sweet ambrosia of the darker emotions!"
"Okay," said Damien, blinking.
"And I will guard you with my life! As I guard your brother!" He suddenly froze, as if remembering something. Stiffly, he turned to Danny and bowed. "If that is acceptable to you, my lord."
"Sure?" said Danny, bemused.
He hadn't exactly expected his new sibling to be instantly adopted by Fright Knight, but, honestly, he wasn't complaining. It seemed to be making both of them happy, anyway. Seeing Fright Knight happy was still so weird.
Danny wondered if he should be concerned about the rest of his siblings being spontaneously adopted by the Ancients. So far, they were four for four.
Wait. No. Scratch that. Dan was not his sibling. In any capacity.
He was slowly warming up to the idea of him being a cousin. A distant cousin. Because Nephthys was basically his Aunt. If she was going to 'adopt' Dan (even if Dan was way too old to be considered a child ghost), then Danny would have to accept that.
But brother? No. Not yet. Probably not ever.
(Something that could have been either precognition or simply a very well-developed sense of when he had tempted fate laughed in the back of his head.)
Back on track. What would the implications of that even be? Would it be a problem politically? He hated that he had to consider politics at a time like this. Being prince sucked.
(He was not a king, not yet.)
More importantly…
"You are okay with us being siblings, though, right?" asked Danny. "I mean, if you aren't… I know we didn't exactly start off on the right foot…" Speaking of feet, the one he'd filled with glass in the fight against Issitoq was kind of aching. He'd been vertical for too long.
Damien's eyes went wide. "What? No! I want to be family." He fiddled with his shroud. "I—" He abruptly listed sideways.
There was a flash of light.
Instead of a ghost in the corner, a tall, skinny human teen with white hair and reddish eyes leaned against the wall, blinking furiously.
"You know what?" said Danny, calmly. "I hindsight, I feel like we really should have expected this."
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Finding clothes for Damien and getting him to calm down again (he was under the impression that he was destabilizing) was another ordeal. By the end of it, however, the room was clean(ish) and no longer looked like the site of a small explosion. Even though it had been. The site of an explosion. A small one.
It turned out that between the several godlike beings in the room (and Danny most definitely did not want to count himself among that number) and the comparatively normal teenagers, they could scrape together enough skill to clean a single room. Barely. They did, however, make fun of Danny's desire to vacuum the walls.
Right up until Dan revealed that he had lost ninety percent of his cleaning skills either in the fusion with Vlad or over the decade where all he did was wreck stuff. His inability to hold a broom or use paper towels effectively was… Actually, it was a little pathetic. Objectively hilarious, but pathetic.
Then Nephthys revealed that she had managed to get Dan to register his name with the Court of Libra as Daniil Phlebotinum and everyone lost it.
Dan denied this, claimed that she had stolen his paperwork and insisted that everything out of Nephthys's mouth was lies and slander.
"Don't talk to your mother like that, young man," said Clockwork, in a mild voice, murdering everyone in the room once again.
An angry pterodactyl shriek came out of Dan's mouth and he launched himself at Nephthys.
The teenagers (did Damien and Ellie count as teenagers?) sat on the bed, absolutely exhausted, watching the exchange as one would a movie. Danny's foot was throbbing.
(Shouldn't it have healed already? Maybe he could ask Frostbite to take a look…)
"Hey," said Tucker, waving at Sojourn, "can we have some of that popcorn?"
"Is that what this is called?" asked Sojourn. "It's quite good." A small portal opened above the bed and a large carton of popcorn fell out. Nocturne caught it. Sojourn shrugged and summoned another carton of popcorn for the teens.
"How do you have it if you don't know what it is?" asked Damien, reaching for what was going to be a horribly unhealthy first meal as a human.
"To be honest, I simply sent my portals out to search for appropriate snack food. Even when I was young, it was considered appropriate to eat food at these kinds of spectator events."
"Spector events," said Danny, quietly.
Ellie elbowed him in the gut.
He turned his slight gag into a cough, which, predictably, got everyone's attention. "Hey," he said, "I'm enjoying this and all, but maybe you should do it somewhere that isn't the room we just cleaned?"
"Yes," agreed Fright Knight, "duels should take place at an agreed upon time and place, where there is plenty of room for battle."
"THIS ISN'T A DUEL. GIVE ME BACK MY PAPERWORK."
"Nah," said Nephthys.
"I could just… Dump them out," said Sojourn, waggling his fingers. "On the lawn, perhaps."
"Please?" asked Danny.
The room became much quieter.
"Thanks," said Danny.
"I can take anyone who would like to watch," offered Sojourn.
Pandora, Ellie, Sam, Fright Knight, and Frostbite took up the offer.
"Actually, Frostbite?" asked Danny. "I was wondering if you and Clockwork could take a look at my foot. It's sort of bothering me."
"Of course!" said Frostbite. "You should have said something before."
"Eh, it isn't that bad," said Danny. "Just… Felt like a good time to mention it."
"Hm, yes."
"Are you sure you do not wish to watch this duel, Lord Damian?"
"Yeah, I'm sort of… tired." Damien shrugged.
"Rest well, then, Lord Damien, my lord."
"Have fun," said Danny. Then he looked up at Clockwork and Frostbite. "So, should I turn over and lay down or something?"
"That would make it more convenient, yes," said Frostbite.
"Okay," said Danny. He turned to Nocturne. "I'm going to lay on you."
"That's fine," said Nocturne, who was still eating popcorn.
Danny flopped around, attempting to poke Jazz in the process, because it seemed like the thing to do. Alas, he opened himself up to be poked in turn by Damien. Curses.
With a moment of focus, Danny phased off his shoe and sock, then Frostbite started to unwrap the phase-proof bandage.
"Ah," said Clockwork.
That didn't sound good.
