A/N: *siiigh* so few… And yet I love each and every one of them for noticing this story! Kehe. Anyways Guest I really love your review a lot. It sorta what changed this Chappy up a bit. Only a bit. I don't think you'll notice really. Anyways I don't really mind the small stuff this is after all just something I wanted to write. I'm glad some people like it, though!
*Edit* Oops I forgot to add like, a chunk of words oops.
Enjoy!
This is Unbetaed
He knew what it was. He'll admit he knew the minute he tried to move it. He was growing a tail. By now it looked to have been almost fully grown with the occasional sore pain here and there. Clockwork had said not to worry about them.
Grown to a good 6 feet, his tail was longer than he would ever be tall. Covered in inch long black hairs it almost looked like a Persian cat's tail. It matched the hair in his human form. Black and slightly messy. He had once tried moving it again but stopped when he hit himself in the face with it instead. Clockwork had chuckled at his attempt. Danny ignored him, face turning red.
He wasn't quite sure what to think of his new… limb? Clockwork had said that he was still human. Just that he had a tail. So he let it be for now. It always was better for the Ticking ghost to explain on their own time. (Even if it'll take forever. Patience is a virtue, and all that. He learned that in the Christmas Event.)
After the incident last night, the portal had stayed off for the rest of the day. Clockwork had stayed with him giving him company for the day, simply following him around and chatting about the timelines. He wasn't quite sure why he was there but he was rather grateful for it, considering that he almost ended himself that morning.
It was a rather eye-opening experience to the actual mechanics of his ghost side. He hadn't really bothered with it, to begin with, and it's already been, what, two years? He'll admit it was about time.
When he asked Clockwork about it, he had smiled but shook his head and promised to talk about it later. It seemed that whatever it was would probably take a long time. Time that he did not have for now. Both Danny's friends and family were due to come in two days or so, and he still had to find a way to hide the obvious and can't-really-hide, tail. He would simply have to wait. Clockwork knew what he was doing.
The next day he opened the portal again. On the other side, surprisingly was Ghostwriter. He had scolded him immensely on how stupid he was, his Scottish accent getting heavier and heavier, while Clockwork had stood to the side with an amused smile. He had almost curled in on himself for worrying a friend(? Was he a friend?) until GW had pulled him in for a hug.
"I'm so glad you're okay." He whispered.
Never had he blushed so hard before.
Before Danny could say anything -not that he could, he was stuttering too much- Clockwork intervened.
"Now then." GW paused in his fussing. He slowly looked to where the voice came from. The ectoplasm draining out of his face made him look more, well, dead. He was almost shaking as he stared at the now baby Time ghost. Clockwork smiled.
"I am sure you're both wondering about the events that have transpired...?"
The writing ghost squeaked. Danny was confused.
They had sat down in Danny's room, having decided to be safer than sorry. Just in case someone came home early. Danny had decided to just let the rather long tail out. He hadn't bothered to hide it, thinking Clockwork had already known. What he wasn't expecting was for Ghostwriter to find out.
As soon as GW saw it his eyes had widened almost comically. Had it been for a different reason, Danny would've laughed.
"You've gone through Recensere already!?"
He looked up, having been staring at the ground in fear.
"I, what?"
"You have gone through Recensere or Change in Latin," Clockwork says. GW goes silent. Clockwork shifted into a baby. "In a way, you could call it puberty for ghosts."
"Puberty?" He frowned, his tail curled around his body slowly twitching. "Wait so this was supposed to happen?"
The Time Ghost nodded, form shifting again. "Yes, although every change is different for each ghost." A smile. "Or half-ghosts."
Ghostwriter tentatively interrupted, glancing repeatedly at Clockwork. "There's nothing wrong with it. It's quite normal for young ghosts going through their 'teenage' years to experience Recensere." While he talked, Clockwork made silent pictures out of ectoplasm showing small diagrams of what GW was explaining. "Recensere is usually a physical thing, say, for example, one could grow fangs or they could grow six feet tall. It all depends really, on the ghost."
Danny relaxed a little, realising that he wasn't actually a 'freak.' And that he won't be seen any different.
With a small thump, Clockworks staff connected with the back of Danny's head.
"Ow!" He rubbed his now sore head. "What was that for!?"
Clockwork glared. Danny glared back. Ghostwriter silently floated in the air, jaw open at what he was seeing.
"You were going to call yourself a 'freak'?" Danny flinched. Ghostwriter's expression turned from shocked to murderous very quickly. Clockwork patted Danny's head and almost pulling him in for a hug, but restrained himself. "You are not a 'freak'." He said the word with distaste. "You are a Halfa. And there is nothing wrong with it."
His mouth opened to protest, if even a little weakly, but at the look from both Clockwork and Ghostwriter he closed it. He looked down fiddling with his shirt as he tried to hide the tears that sprang up. What did he do to deserve such awesome friends?
Danny nodded meekly, a steel in his eyes as he absorbed what was said.
"A-alright." He said. And both ghosts relaxed. Clockwork knew it wasn't over but he was fine for now.
And they went back to the hand at matter.
Danny turned questioning eyes towards GW.
"Why did my Recensere end up being-" he gently waved the tail so as not to hit anything.-"this?" He had sat on his bed, Ghostwriter in the chair and Clockwork preferred floating.
A hand on his chin, Ghostwriter hummed.
"It usually reflects the ghost personality or desire. Recensere is usually something that can help a ghost be stronger or can boost their power."
He started to pace, -well, as much as a ghost can, he was floating after all-tugging lightly at his goatee.
Quietly he said, " I am not quite sure of what a tail could mean. It could represent an animal inside, so to speak." He stopped pacing.
Clockwork spoke. "Or it could simply be that your body had felt the need for it."
Danny turned towards the shifting ghost. Ghostwriter had gone silent again.
He tilted his head.
"Why would my, uh body need a-" he waved it again. "-tail?" He was getting the hang of this.
Clockwork smiled. He shifted into an old man. "Perhaps your ghost side subconsciously thought you were in need of it. In thinking so, it used the power boost in Recensere to create, -or grow-, a tail, hence making your human side a little more equal to its ghost."
Danny blinked as he thought. Wait.
"But I don't remember going through Recenseer or something."
"Recensere." Ghostwriter corrected. "And it's a gradual thing. Like Puberty." Referring earlier to what Clockwork said.
Danny tilted his head. Neither of the ghosts mentioned how innocent he looked at that moment. "But if Recensere was what happened to ghosts-That's right, right?-" Both ghosts nodded. "Then why hasn't my tail shown up in ghost form?" He briefly transformed into Phantom to point it out then changed back.
Clockwork nodded to what he said. "Simply saying that your human form is a part of your ghost form. Two sides of the same coin."
"But," He lifted a finger, stopping what was sure to be another round of questions from a confused Danny. "Your human form is too weak."
Danny winced at that. Yes, he was getting stronger in his human form, enough to handle the box ghost, Klemper and maybe Skulker but he would never be able to stand against most of the stronger level ghosts. He was able to handle himself much better in ghost form against them considering that he was, in a way, dead and had no limit. Plus ghost powers were much easier to handle than in his human form.
He looked to Clockwork again. "So my ghost side just thought to...strengthen my human side?"
Ghostwriter hummed, answering instead. "Exactly. Hence the reason why it has not show up in your Phantom form and only this one."
Danny nodded. He could accept that. Really, this wasn't even as weird as the time he tried duplicating himself. Now, he just had an extra limb. Permanently. Probably for the rest of his half-life.
...
Ok, so maybe it was a bit disorienting. He was sure he'll get used to it. His tail flicked at the thought. Yeah.
Hesitantly, Danny asked, "Well, now that we have that out of the way…"
They both turned to look at him. It was his turn to squeak.
"Hmm?" Clockwork had an eyebrow raised, a smile on his lips. He probably knew what he was going to say anyways. Jerk.
"H-how am I supposed to hide it?" He wrung his hands a little.
"You don't." Clockwork said.
Danny continued to ramble. "I mean, I have school still and I can't just walk around with a tail like it's-what?" Ghostwriters jaw dropped.
Clockwork smiled a little bigger. Danny narrowed his eyes.
"You do not need to hide your tail." He raised an eyebrow. "It would be rather awkward to hide a tail that size under your shirt."
True.
The time ghost reached a hand into his cloak and pulled out a metal bracelet of some kind. "Here. This will serve to hide your tail in 'plain sight' so to speak."
Clockwork beckoned Danny aiming for his tail. Slowly, Danny lifted his tail in front of the shifting ghost. The ghost slowly touched his tail being careful with it as he knew it was still sore. The bracelet itself looked kinda like those things Egyptians wear. An arm brace, or something. But it was for a tail. A Tail brace then?
It was a nice dulled platinum, about three inches wide that was thin enough to fit comfortably around his tail. There was engraved symbols on it that he found he could read if he focused really hard on it. The symbols wavered before slowly forming English words in his eyes. 'Sight.' 'Hide.' 'Mortal.' He mouthed the words, so intent on trying to read it he didn't notice Ghostwriter looking at him in small surprise. Danny continued to stare at it while Clockwork moved to clip it around his tail near the tip.
The moment it closed with a click, he felt a shiver from the tip of his tail and up his back. He could definitely feel its power. He lifted his tail closer to his face staring at the rather pretty piece of metal. It wasn't heavy, and if he was honest he could barely notice it's weight. With enough practice, he could probably never notice it.
"Push some of your power into it." He said.
Danny looked at Clockwork.
"Power?" What was this, DBZ?
Impatiently, Ghostwriter spoke up. "Ectoplasm, Daniel."
"Oh." He was saying that a lot lately.
Slowly he reached to grab both his tail and brace thingy. The metal was slightly cool to the touch as he traced the carvings on it. It seemed to pulse a little as if to betray some of its hidden power. Closing his eyes, he searched for that cold-warmth that was his ghost core. It was a little hard to find in his human form, what with a distracting heartbeat going in sync with it.
When he opened his eyes they glowed an otherworldly mix of both sides of the supernatural spectrum that was either ghost or human. Maybe both. An icy blue and toxic green shown from his eyes, as his hair started to shift in an invisible wind. He didn't notice that he was starting to float slightly. Clockwork simply smiled while Ghostwriter stood slightly to the side in awe of the strength and power that radiated from the Halfa. Let it never be said that he couldn't protect his hometown.
There, he found it. Grabbing a stray tendril of his 'power' he guided it to to the bracelet. The moment it touched he felt a small drain as the trinket raised its own tendrils and absorbed what he gave it and a little more, tangling with his core. A small constant drain. Not noticeably draining that it would tire him. Just enough to stay powered.
It glowed briefly the same color like his own, before fading as it activated. The hair(or is it fur?) on his tail stood on end as a cold sort of air washed over it. It kind of felt like if he were to stand in the freezer in his ghost form. Cold but comfortable. And then it faded hovering lightly above the skin of his tail. Invisible, but easily felt and, of course, ignored with practice.
Ghostwriter floated a little closer looking curiously at it with a bit of disbelief.
"I can still see it, though." He turned to Clockwork, eyes diverted from looking at him directly. "Is it faulty?"
Clockwork shook his head as he explained what it did. "It does not affect ghosts." He leant forward from where he floated and pointing at the words that read 'Mortal.' Danny shifted his tail so Ghostwriter could see.
"That symbol there says Mortal or human." He pointed to the one next to it. "That one says Sight." He flicked his hands forming another ectoplasmic construct of a ghost and human. The faux ghost held the same brace-thingy (He seriously needs to find out what it was called.) on its wrist. The human was an average one that sort of looked like Jazz if he stared long enough. Clockwork continued to talk. "When activated a normal human cannot see whatever the brace is attached too. But a ghost still can. Think of it like selective invisibility." As he talked the ghost wearing the brace pretended to infuse some power into the brace while the human started to look around confused. Another ectoplasmic ghost came along and pointed out where the other ghost was making said human to look in the general area but still looked confused.
Danny scratched his head. The animation was really cute(not that he'll admit it.)and he wondered if he could get Clockwork to teach him how he did that. It would certainly help when he played with the-
An amused voice interrupted his thoughts. "I will teach it to you later on Daniel."
Danny's eye twitched.
"Will you stop reading my mind!?"
"You know I cannot, 'read minds' as you say, Daniel," Danny grumbled as he pouted. He turned to GW instead.
"So, now what?"
Ghostwriter blinked, startled a little at the shift in attention.
"Well-"
A loud bang was heard from downstairs interrupting GW's speaking.
"Sweetie! We're home early!"
"Traffic was really empty, Son!"
'Probably because of your driving, Dad.'
"But how do we know it'll work?" Danny asked a little tense now that he knew his parents were home. They didn't know that there were two ghosts (and a half) in the house. They may be more open-minded but they weren't particularly open to having them so near. (and isn't that ironic?)
"Well…" Clockwork smiled. There was a glint in his eyes that sent shivers down his spine. No. He couldn't be thinking…
"There's only one way to test it."
And he was shoved out the door.
"Sweetie?"
The stairs creaked a little as his mom walked up the stairs. He squeaked. His tail was still out! Turning he turned to grab at the door knob. Locked.
'Clockwooork!'
"Danny?"
He went still. His tail dropped to the ground with a small 'poff' on the carpet. His mom stood behind him having taken the final step up. His dad was probably rummaging around the fridge for fudge.
Slowly the Halfa turned around to face her, hand automatically going to rub behind his neck. A nervous tick.
"W-welcome home mom." He smiled, praying desperately that the trinket worked. It pulsed in response. He almost tripped in place.
Maddie looked concerned.
"What's wrong sweetie?" She walked up to Danny. "You're looking a little pale." Lifting a hand, she put it on his forehead.
"You don't have a fever…" she mumbled.
He stuttered, trying to look innocent. "I-I'm fine, mom. Just feeling a little tired."
'Well besides the fact of having two ghosts in my bedroom that locked me out and that I grew a tail over the summer.'
She frowned.
"You weren't playing games all night were you?"
He jumped at the excuse. "Yeah! That. I played with Sam and Tucker and I guess I lost track of time." He looked away. "Heh. Sorry mom."
Her eyes narrowed, unnoticed by Danny. She let it go for now.
"Well alright. Next time, keep an eye on the time otherwise, you might oversleep for school." She ruffled his hair. He grumbled, a little embarrassed at the action. "It's a good thing it's still summer then, hm?"
"Y-yeah." He chuckled a little weakly.
And she walked away, saying that she was going to eat some fudge with Jack. The moment he knew she was downstairs, he collapsed on the floor, heaving a big breath. His bedroom door creaked open. Ghostwriter peeked his head out.
"Did it work?"
He got slapped on the back of the head for that.
"Okay. stupid question."
Clockwork chuckled, unseen, but earned a glare for it anyways.