Chapter 300!

May go on a short hiatus in September because school is starting and I've run out my buffer. Be warned!

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Chapter 300: EVERYBODY CELEBRATE

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Last year, Danny had attended a few Truce celebrations. One with his sometimes (and perhaps, now, former) enemies, and another with those he was happier to call friends. The second one had been held in a great palace made of ice, the party and the construction of the palace itself had been carried out and sponsored by the Far Frozen and their allies. The party had been held on Children's Day, which coincided with the Feast of the Holy Innocents.

Today's celebration was different. It was the first day of the Truce this year, with Hanukkah not starting until the Ides of December. It was also the Feast of Healers and the Afflicted, which… Danny had to say that the name was a little archaic, but ghosts being ghosts, Danny supposed he couldn't be too surprised.

(A younger ghost had mentioned to him that it also lined up with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Earth, and Danny had been… taken a bit aback. An older ghost had then promptly informed him that it was also the feast day of St. Francis Xavier, who was the patron of plague epidemics (and the Propagation of the Faith) and that if Danny wanted to figure out a banner that covered all that, he was welcome to try.)

(In Danny's opinion, it was a bit late in the preparations for that, but he'd put it on his ever-growing to-do list.)

Anyway, the point was that it was a very important day, and that a celebration of it had to have a different texture from a banger thrown in Ember's lair or an honestly hedonistic party for children.

To summarize: Trying to figure out how to do it on top of handling the cure for Freakshow's control, sundry diplomatic efforts, Dan's burgeoning social life, and emotions over his newly awake siblings was… Hard.

Which was why it was a good thing that Danny wasn't doing most of the hard work of organization and logistics. He just had to handle theme, purpose, and other things like that!

Still hard.

Very hard.

Crushingly hard.

He got the impression that the Regency Council might be keeping some things from him, but whether those things were important political things, fiddly party planning things, something to do with his parents (who he couldn't talk about or hear anything about), or an entirely different thing, he didn't know. Part of him was glad of it, though. He kind of felt as if one more thing would make him explode. Or collapse. Something.

He was, possibly, not coping well with ninety percent of his new responsibilities being paperwork. Back in Amity Park, he'd been much more active, and then there was the whole… everything. His lair, the Tower, the time travel… Even the trial. Through it all, he'd been running around, fighting, searching, scheming… And for the past few weeks it had been paperwork. A bit of excitement with Walker and the evil vase, but mostly paperwork.

It was worse, now that David was awake. He'd thought it'd be a relief to have all of his clones awake and embodied, and it was, but… It had been a goal to work to.

And this was really off track from the party.

Danny shook his head. This was a fun day! It was going to be fun.

Instead of a castle, the venue was a pancake-shaped island, curated to look like a park. The plants had been selected to be hypoallergenic and medicinal. There were a few arrangements that used discards from the aglaophotis breeding project, varietals and hybrids that, sadly, didn't pick up the desired qualities.

Those flowerbeds would be denuded by the end of the party. Gifts for the healers. Danny had been informed that there would be feuds over some of those plants if there wasn't an organized way to hand them out. A fun thing to know about ghost doctors. Not as surprising as it could have been, though.

There were pools around the park designed to function as hot springs and cold springs, both for water and ectoplasm. The paths were smooth and gently sloping, good terrain for those who couldn't or didn't feel like flying for long periods of time, or for those rare ghosts who used things like wheelchairs or giant spider thrones to get around.

Danny thought it looked well put together, floating over it as he was.

Of course, this wasn't the only party today. It was only a very large, important one. One that Danny would open.

"I don't know why you're so nervous," said Nephthys, coming up beside him with an empty wine glass. "Half the people who'll be here still think of me as the great enemy. Death, you know."

"And… do you care about that at all?" asked Danny.

"Hm. Not really." She took a bite of her wine glass. "And you shouldn't, either," she said pointing the stub of the wine glass at him.

"Nephthys," said Clockwork, "what are you doing?"

"What are you doing?" asked Nephthys, taking another bite of the glass. "Trying to avoid helping out?"

"I am just now returning from untangling a paradox," said Clockwork, rolling down his sleeves.

Danny stopped him, catching his sleeve. "You have a cut," he said.

Clockwork grimaced. "An unfortunate side effect of not having my usual materials. Some paradoxes have teeth." He brushed it off and glared at Nephthys. "And you. Are you really eating the glassware? In front of Daniel?"

"Oh," said Danny. "I thought it was sugar glass. Kind of like the gummy heart thing."

Nephthys laughed. "So did Dan! Should've seen his face when he took a bite out of it."

"Sadly, my sister goes out of her way to be… like this. We are supposed to be setting a good example for the children."

"Maybe I just like the taste."

Clockwork regarded her flatly.

"Come on. It isn't like you've never eaten a paradox, just to see what it tastes like."

"Believe it or not, when I want to eat something, I usually make some food. There are plenty of things here that are intended to be eaten."

"Oh, so you're shaming the vitrivores now, are you?"

"Is that a real thing or are you just messing with Grandfather?" asked Danny.

"A bit of both, to be fair. I do enjoy the crunch of glass, but obligate vitrivores are pretty uncommon." She popped the remainder of the wineglass into her mouth. "Anyway, you don't have anything to worry about. People like you, you cleared the way for a big medical advancement, the caterers were here on time, all that good stuff."

"Are the caterers… not usually on time?"

"To be honest, I have no idea. Clockwork?"

"It depends upon the caterers and prevailing traffic," said Clockwork.

"There you go," said Nephthys. "Now, I have to go dig Dan out of whatever hole he's hidden himself in. He's so funny like that, isn't he?"

"The guests will be arriving soon," said Clockwork, indicating a bank of ectoplasmic fog with his staff. "You are still satisfied with the timetable we discussed?"

"If you still think it's okay," said Danny. He'd made plans to spend some time in Amity Park, at their very first Truce party, after this one became self-sustaining. In Danny's general experience, human parties didn't last as long as ghost ones, so the timing should work out alright.

"As far as I can see, it is still fine," said Clockwork.

"Then we're good to go," said Danny. He started to fly down to the island, then paused. "Grandfather, what kind of things do you need for your tools?"

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"… hope to usher in a new era of peace and learning," finished Danny. The ghosts who had gathered in the park's central clearing applauded politely, which was as much as Danny had hoped for. It hadn't been a… stirring speech, but it was adequate for the occasion.

He turned to his left and summoned a sphere of ectoplasm to his hand. He let it spill into the lantern placed there for this purpose. He pushed up on the bottom of the lantern and it floated to rest among the branches of the tree above.

"Let our lights illuminate the path that lies before us," said Danny. "And let us illuminate the paths of others."

The ghosts who were helping with the party started to pass similar lanterns out to the other guests. Soon, the dark trees overhead were filled with lanterns of all sorts of different colors.

Danny sighed. He'd been nervous that some of the lanterns might explode. It would probably have been laughed off, sure, most ghosts didn't mind an explosion or two, especially if it was in good humor, but it still might have hurt someone. Also, it would have been embarrassing.

But so far, everything was going well. He let his eyes sweep over the garden beds (some of which had already been raided by guests), the catering tables, and the springs.

Danny flew slowly to the refreshment tables and let himself be talked to. Clockwork and Damien closed in on him to help keep people circulating. Fright Knight followed at a more removed distance. With Clockwork's help, he managed his path carefully, until he reached a friend.

"Nice speech," said Tucker, fitting a large sausage-stuffed date into his mouth.

"Thanks," said Danny, tugging on the almost shear outer robe Tucker was wearing with the hand that didn't have a glass of ectoplasm. "Are you wearing this into Amity Park? It's cold there in December, you know?"

"Didn't you turn the whole place into a greenhouse?"

"Details," said Danny. "It is weird though, isn't it? It doesn't feel like it should be winter."

"Yeah," said Tucker. "Time's weird. Then again, I'm not sure how much you can apply seasons to the Ghost Zone as a whole, so…"

"True," said Danny.

"You're doing the ice sculpting, later, right?"

"In a bit, yeah."

Tucker nodded. "I should let you take care of things. I've got people looking to talk to me, too."

Danny looked over Tucker's shoulder. It was hard to tell who the people there were looking at. To complicate things, Clockwork might have some petitioners as well.

"Is it bad if I—Oh, you get it."

Tucker patted Danny's shoulder. "I hate to say it, but yeah. Yeah, I get it. We aren't the kind of people who chase fame." He raised his hand dramatically and gestured into the distance.

"We kind of were, though."

"We were kind of awful fourteen-year-olds, weren't we? Luckily, we are much more mature, now."

"Eh," said Danny, raising his glass. "Doubt."

"Ouch," said Tucker. "But, okay, you were an awful fourteen-year-old. I, as always, was Too Fine."

Danny didn't choke on his drink, but it was a near thing. Clockwork patted him on the back.

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Sojourn portaled them back to Amity Park for the opening night of the Truce. He'd extended the same service to the president, of course, but had been politely declined. As expected, the invitation came too close to the event for the president to accept it. That was fine. This was the season for the thought counting.

When Sam stepped through the portal, it was clear that Amity Park had been transformed once again. Even if they couldn't see most of the city from the center of the roof they'd chosen as a landing spot, the soft white shapes drifting through the sky.

"It's like every time I look away something new is different," said Jazz, giving voice to Sam's thoughts. She caught a falling 'snowflake' between her fingers. "Is this a plant?"

Sam plucked it from her fingers. "A flower. From a snowball bush, I think." Although usually those flowers weren't so… fractal. A ghost variety? Or just influenced by ghosts?

"Welcome back," said Mrs. Ishiyama, stepping through the roof access door. "Sorry to miss your arrival."

"Keiko," said Pamela, "don't worry about it, we're quite early. Motion sensors?"

"Motion sensors," agreed Mrs. Ishiyama. "Pity the president couldn't make it today," she continued with a grin that edged into wickedness.

"Ah, well, not all heads of state are as considerate as ours," said Pamela.

Remembering some of the names Pamela used to call Danny, Sam smothered a laugh.

"He is a good boy, isn't he?" said Mrs. Ishiyama.

As Sam recalled all the time Danny spent in detention, she almost choked. Jazz patted her on the back.

"If you will all step to the edge of the roof," said Mrs. Ishiyama, not noticing Sam's crisis, "you'll be able to greet your constituents."

"That's still so weird," said Sam.

"Or your…" she trailed off. "I'm not sure what their relation is to you, Mr. Sojourn, but everyone is still excited to see you and get things started."

"You know," said Sojourn, "I'm not sure there is a single English word that would define my relationship to your people. I am one of their sovereign's regents, but that's something of a mouthful…"

"Oh," said Sam, as they got close enough to the edge of the roof to look down. Part of her surprise was because of how many people had shown up. But the rest was because of the flowers. Amity Park had been full of flowers when she left, sure, but not like this. Not soft, white mounds covering the town like snowdrifts, highlighted by glowing neon vines hanging like Christmas lights.

"Also," said Mrs. Ishiyama, "I think some of us are just happy about not killing ourselves getting the decorations up."

"This just… happened?" asked Jazz.

"It isn't like we haven't seen Danny do something similar," said Sam.

"Sure," said Jazz, "but that was in his lair."

"It didn't just happen," said Mrs. Ishiyama. "Well, some of it did, but some of the cultists decided it was a great idea, and… spread the flowers around. It wasn't interfering with food production, so…" She shrugged.

"Got to love the cults," said Sam.

"I think the Phantom Phan Club helped, too."

"Sadly," muttered Jazz, under her breath, "I'm pretty sure that's still a cult."

Mrs. Ishiyama's walkie talkie chirped and spewed out a bunch of static that might have had words in it. Maybe.

"Oh, it sounds like Phantom has just come through the portal," said Mrs. Ishiyama. The walkie talkie chirped again and issued yet more static. "And a few others. They'll be joining us soon." Mrs. Ishiyama pressed a button on the walkie talkie and, with exaggerated enunciation, said, "Thank you, Damon."

Sam turned to face Fentonworks and managed to catch a glimpse of a shooting-star streak of light that terminated with Danny right in front of them, holding Tucker in a princess carry. His star-studded cloak snapped behind him dramatically. The crowd below cheered. The cheering became a little confused as other ghosts, some with a very strong resemblance to Danny, appeared, but regained strength in short order.

Danny set Tucker down on the roof, then waved down at the crowd. "Wow," he said. "Everything looks amazing."

"Doesn't it?" asked Sam, stepping forward to stand next to him. He leaned slightly into her, for just a second.

"Your work?" asked Tucker from Danny's other side. "Very floral."

"I was in DC," said Sam. "So, no. I can sure appreciate it, though."

For a moment, they watched Ellie lead the other Phantoms in swooping down and skimming the crowd.

"So," said Danny, catching Sam's attention again. His face was framed by the darkening sky and the neon-limned skyline. "A city-wide party. Where should we start?"