Dan liked the lair that lay beyond the Dark Door (the pocket of void-like space that he'd ever so gracefully dubbed); it was a nice quiet space that, for now, was all his own. He knew that with the ever expansion of the Ghost Zone, it would only take so long before someone else discovered this place and set up shop, but for now he would revel in the quiet of the void-like place. It gave him a good place to think, if nothing else. "Y'know, this sweater ain't so bad" Dan mused to himself as he bounced off of a wayward boulder, his voice echoing around him. The oversized sweater—"For you to grow into, ghost child!"—in question easily rested at his thighs and pictured various splotches of green and khaki in a camouflage print that alluded to whom the deathday present was from."Still a bit odd to think of Skulker making it, though"
Following the whole Phantom Planet episode some years previous, the hunter had more or less backed off in his role of absolute hunter, instead turning out to be more of a belligerent grandfather. Y'know, the kind that indulged in the occasional death threat, had an innumerable kill count, a building dedicated to his 'rare artefacts', utterly set in his ways and hobbies you'd never peg him for. Like knitting. By this point, Dan was sure that the man was going to build him his own exoskeleton, one piece of knitwear at a time. It never ceased to crack him up whenever he thought of the hunter bent over a pair of knitting needles, surrounded by mounted heads and a pair of granny glasses perched on the end of his nose.
Scratching at the thin elastic strap that sat tucked beneath his chin in order to keep the party hat in place, his thoughts then turned to his most recent deathday party in the Kingdom of Aragon. Let it be said, that Dorathea knew how to throw a party! Deathdays in general were lovely things, particularly when he was younger. They had come as a surprise, obviously, and the first time he had celebrated one it had been the Lunch Lady who had sat him down and explained what was going on, before presenting him with a never-ending supply of cookies that appeared whenever he opened his lunchbox throughout the day.
Deathdays, much like birthdays, were days of celebration of whence you were essentially 'reborn' as a ghost. An unspoken truce came forth on those days, which had the other ghosts utterly avoiding him, sans for present drop-offs and congratulatory well-wishes. In fact, the only real difference Dan ever saw between a birthday and a deathday celebration was that one was filled with the dead and the other with the living. None of his friends or family really got the whole deathday celebration-thing as they mostly just wanted to stuff those incidents under the metaphorical rug and forget about them. They were always so weird on those days.
"Anyway!" Dan physically shook off the depressing thoughts and instead played with a loose thread in the sweater that he had already worked free as the loose ends of the purple feather boa he had acquired at some point during the party, floated around him like snakes. "None of that now! What's done, is do~ne!" His voice cracked despite his chipper tone as he talked to himself and resolutely ignored the tears that were starting to bud in the corners of his eyes. He didn't even believe himself.
Of course, the last thing he expected to see inside the lair that lay beyond the Dark Door was a pair of mortals. Very familiar mortals, very familiar screaming mortals. "Ack! Oof!" Dan gasped when two bodies suddenly collided with him, sending them flying off course and becoming entangled in each other like a pile of puppies. "What the—?"
"You okay, Tobes?" Jim asked as he pulled himself free.
"Ow! My head!" Toby whined, clutching onto his nose as he floated upside down in his makeshift armour that made it look like he was playing dress-up. Let's just say it didn't hold a candle to Jim's.
"Jim! Toby!" Dan snapped, suddenly irritated. He could already feel his eye begin to twitch.
"Dan?" Jim furrowed his brows in puzzlement as he took in the party hat, sweater and feather boa.
"Danny!" Toby gasped, his voice a little nasally from where he had bumped his nose.
"What the hell do you think you're doing here, huh?!" Dan steamrolled over the two reactions he got from the juniors, going full-on overprotective guardian on the two as he spun each pair around, inspecting them for damage. So much for the retired hero, huh? God, he was such a worrywart!
"Wha—?"
"—What part of 'DON'T TOUCH THE PORTALS' do you not understand—?!"
"Dan!" Jim tried to butt in as he was flipped upside down.
"—Is this some kind of sick joke to you—?!
"Danny!" Toby tried.
"—Do you wanna die—?!"
"Daniel!"
"What kind of idiots think it's a good idea—"
"—DANIEL!"
"What?!" Dan snapped as Toby helped to right his best friend.
"See…the thing is…" Toby trailed off, sparing a nervous glance with Jim. "We, uh, we're trying to find Claire…"
"…Are you telling me that girl got herself killed again?" Dan heaved a sigh, exasperatedly running a hand down his face.
"No, uh, actually she got kinda possessed?"
"…What?"
"Yeah! Yeah! By some old witch called Morgana—" Toby began to babble.
"What?!" Dan's eyes snapped up at that, eyes wide at the name. Even Skulker was scared of that name alone, let alone the person attached to it.
"—And now we gotta go get Claire's soul before Morgana takes over forever and—!"
"—Nope, nope! Not gonna happen" Dan interjected, a little hysterically at the idea of taking on an all-powerful twelfth century witch.
"What?!" Jim grew enraged as Dan floated in front of them, blocking the way. "But Claire—!"
"I don't care!" Dan yanked Jim back by the collar and round in front of him when he tried to make a break for it. Toby remained floating there with wide eyes as he clutched to a raggedy old sock bunny. "I'm not having two more suicidal idiots die in here 'cause they can't listen!"
"We did listen—are listening!" Jim tried to wiggle free from the tight grip but soon found his efforts to be futile. "But we have to get to Claire—!"
"Well, it's my deathday and what I says goes!" Dan retorted a little childishly as he stuck both of his thumbs into his mouth and bit down hard enough to draw blood.
"What's a deathday?" Toby puzzled curiously as Dan drew a lightning bolt-shaped rune on each of their cheeks in his own green blood; one that would hopefully send them back to their bodies without any further damage.
"Toby!" Jim scowled, annoyed with how his friend's attention had so easily shifted from the prize at hand. Even if he too, was curious.
"What?"
"Seriously?" Dan sighed, pulling back so that he wouldn't be taken with them and mentally preparing to corral the Nuñez girl back into her body. Again. "It's in the name"
"That doesn't help"
"C'me on, Tobes, we need to—" Jim began as he moved to push passed the albino, only cutting himself off when he felt another odd pinching sort of movement deep within his chest. It was kind of similar to the one they had felt when Suzy Snooze had first launched them forward, only this time it was trying to yank him back out and up. "Hey!"
"Ah—! Jim—!" Toby joined him not too soon after, exchanging the sock bunny for the feather boa in his attempt to stay put. It didn't work.
"Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!" Dan called out after the two before turning to search for the wayward soul with bunny in hand.
Falling ass over kettle, both Jim and Toby soon found themselves back in Claire's bedroom only without Claire and Suzy Snooze. Jim was not happy. "We're alive! We're alive!" Toby cheered, throwing his fists up into the air in celebration before they quickly dropped back to the floor so as to avoid a flying lamp.
"Master Jim!" Blinky cried in surprise upon seeing the quick return of the trollhunter and his oddly dressed friend."That was impressive, Master Jim, well done!"
"We didn't find her" Toby sadly shook his head as Jim got to his feet, irritably scratching at the bloody mark that was already crusting on his cheek.
"What?"
"Dan was there" Jim spat bitterly, but said no more as he only had eyes for Claire's possessed form. "He kicked us out before we could find her"
"Masters?" Strickler puzzled, grunting with the effort to keep the portal open, although it was smaller now.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Toby nodded furiously, his ridiculous makeshift armour clunking with each movement as he babbled. "He kept going on about portals and death and warnings and—and—"
"—He called us idiots for trying to save Claire" Jim scowled.
"He seemed more worried about the whole suicidal thing on our part, Jimbo"
"He shouldn't have been there to begin with!"
"W-well, he's done it before, r-right? I-I mean, didn't he put her soul back after that huge portal in troll market and—and—he's, I mean, he's done the whole soul and ghost thing before, right? So he'll be okay, right?"
"You heard him, Tobes, he's '…not a hero anymore"
"But how did he send you back without the Shadow Staff?" Blinky puzzled, brows furrowing as Toby fumbled to his feet. Aight that would've been amusing if not for the situation.
"He bit his thumb and then drew this weird thing on us" Toby grunted, using the upturned bed as leverage. "See? Wonder what it means…"
"Sowilo" Strickler grunted as Blinky was suddenly there, fingers gripping tight to the pudgy boy's chin to keep him from jerking out of his hold so that he could see the rune imprinted there.
"Huh?" Toby hummed, trying to move his head to see but unable to do so. He could just barely see the green blood crusting on his skin out of his peripherals.
"It means sun" Blinky explained studiously, "Coming from the Proto-Germanic language and adopted from the Old Italic or Greek Sigma—"
"—Uh, Blink? What does that mean?"
"The guide leads you to the doorway, then waits for your return" Strickler replied instead, grunting and groaning under the pressure of keeping even the smallest portal open.
Following his Ghost Sense with glowing sock bunny tucked neatly under his arm, Dan soon found himself looking at the Nuñez house—or a version of it—upon a large boulder that rolled and roiled with the odd gravity of the lair. "Whelp" Dan sighed, popping the 'p' as he stood before the large foreboding image of the house. "Like Dad says, 'When it's weird, you gotta go into it"
Heaving a great big sigh, Dan entered the house via the front door, phasing through the wood as if it were just another day. 'Cause why bother with doors when you didn't need to, right? It was just as dark inside the house as it was outside of it, Dan had come to find, especially as none of the lights seemed to work despite his incessant flickering of the switches and the whole house seemed to give off a horror movie-style vibe, only this time he was one of the monsters in the house.
Despite the dark vibe, everything seemed to be in its place, in fact the whole house—or at least the lower half of the house in which he stood—appeared to be lived in. From the baby blocks strewn across the floor to the pile of laundry sat upon the washing machine and topped with socks. There was even dirty dishes still sitting in the sink, untouched. It was like someone had just plucked the place straight off of their street in Arcadia and dumped it here in the lair beyond the Dark Door. It was certainly eery. A feeling which did not abate when Dan bumped into the TV remote that had lain forgotten on the floor.
["…I'm scared Jim!" ] Claire's voice echoed out from the TV, making Dan jumped at the sudden noise which seemed to rip through the house like thunder.
"Jesus!" Dan cursed, core thrumming fast at the sudden noise. Turning to face the TV, the albino stood and watched as Claire's memories played out in a mismatched order like some kind of warped movie.
["…AHHHH!"] Claire backpedalled from the goblin that prowled toward her in the thick of the forest, darkness clinging to everything that she could see.
KRRCH!
["…That's our stone!"] Claire charged forward towards Angor Rot with determination set in her features. ["We need that to save my brother!"]
["CLAIRE!"] Jim cried as Claire was tossed into the dark portal laid before them.
KRRCH!
Claire stood in a wooden containment of some kind with the small changeling clinging to her ankles in fear as she tried her best to open up a portal and water continued to flood the room. The water just kept climbing higher and higher alongside her panic. ["Oh no!"] Not-Enrique wailed as he launched himself up onto Claire's shoulder in an effort to evade the rising tides.
["I can't! It won't work!"] Claire despaired as the staff flickered in her hands, but no portal opened.
KRRCH!
The room was filled with violet light, her eyes dark and her very being crackled with so much magical energy that it was literally destroying her from the inside out. But still she persisted. ["IT'S KILLING HER!"] Jim wept as she raised the staff in the air with much effort.
KRRCH!
["Jim!"] Claire raced forward to clasp her hand in his even as he hung from the iron cage above them. ["Don't let them do this to you!"]
["Wha—AHHHHHH!"] The cage in which Jim sat was hauled over to a large dark pit and dropped down without a second thought.
["JIM! NO!"] Claire weeped, only held back by her friends.
"…And here I was thinking Pandora's place is creepy…" Dan blinked at the television before turning on his heel and moving further into the house. In the end, it was more so his Ghost Sense than the crying baby that had the halfa trotting up the stairs to the only furnished room on the second floor. It appeared to be a nursery of some kind with little rockets and stars painted along the walls and crib. "Awe cool!" Dan cooed over the model rocket made of lego that sat atop the dresser, "It's the Apollo-Saturn 5 Carrier Rocket! Man! I wish I had one of these!"
"Enrique! Mi hermanito!" Claire suddenly appeared behind the halfa, putting him back on track as he turned to face the ghostly girl who appeared to be cradling her illusionary brother. "Shhh! There, there"
"Well…that's—that's a new one" He hummed, putting the rocket down in favour of the violet outline of Claire Nuñez who now stood across the room from him. That alone would've startled anyone, but it was the fact that Dan could physically see her soul submerged within her shell that made him pause.
Typically there were two kinds of ghosts—those who could form bodies and those that couldn't. But Dan could kind of remember the Lunch Lady had mentioning something about the vague shells that Drifters tended to take whenever their bodies were possessed, overshadowed or just plain comatose. She'd likened it to a sandwich in a lunchbox, much to his confusion. The sandwich may have disappeared from the lunchbox, but that didn't mean it was eaten. He didn't really get it at the time, he did now.
"Er, Claire?" Dan tried, as Claire danced about trying to soothe a baby that he could not see.
"So much to do!" Claire sighed as if he wasn't there. Dan was used to people not being able to see or notice him, but ghosts? Ghosts always knew who he was. It was unsettling to have that notion disturbed. "Mom and Dad will be so mad if I don't finish it all—!"
"Tiger parents?" Dan mused as Claire made her way over to the window. Outside a trail of books, a mascot head and a guitar floated passed.
"—Calculus homework, band practise—I gotta be the best daughter! Mom needs me to be good! Can't cause trouble for the campaign…Ah, shh!"
"Right…" Dan mused aloud as he trailed after Claire, moving from the nursery to her room like some kind of cold shadow. "How to wake you up, hm? Usually, I'd overshadow your body, but I very much doubt I can take on a twelfth century witch. I mean, Pariah Dark was no walk in the park and even then I had help. Still doesn't stop Frostbite from calling me 'Great One' though…"
He sat himself atop her bed as she bustled about, gathering up the needed textbooks and muttered to herself about studying this and that in preparation for finals. "I guess I could always just take your soul back with me, but I've never done it with a Drifter before and who knows what'll happen if I bring you into the Ghost Zone? It could kill you and I don't think Jim'll be very happy with me"
"Maybe it's best we don't risk it, eh? But then what?" Dan flinched as Claire passed through his tail as she flopped into her office chair settled before her desk. It was always odd having the living pass through him than the other way round; where they felt a shock of cold, he always felt like someone had burnt him. Perhaps it had something to do with his core and their souls interacting? Or was he just special because he was a halfa?
"Ay, it's cold in here" Claire shivered, pulling Dan from his thoughts. He glanced down at himself wondering if he'd done more than the usual to increase his usual cold spot. As it turned out, the edge of the duvet he had sat on now lay beneath a generous coating of frost the emanated from his pale fingertips.
"Oops"
"Did I leave the window open?" Claire tilted her head back so that she check the bay windows in the corner of her room. It was too dark to tell from this distance so she got up to check. Only she got about halfway across the room before she tripped over one of his feet that had been languishing on the carpet from where he sat.
"Huh" Dan hummed, getting to his feet as Claire righted herself with an embarrassed chuckle.
"Good thing no one saw that, how embarrassing!"
"Well, almost no one" He smiled as he raised a hand to poke her. Predictably his hand fell right through the violet shell, but again the girl shudder at the coldness emanating from him. He spared a glance towards the bay windows as Claire forward to check them. "Hmm, I wonder…?"
Coming up behind the junior, Dan blew a soft breeze onto the glass so that it would frost over enough to write on. "Ay, it sure is cold tonight, huh Suzy Snooze?" Claire murmured turning back to the desk.
"Hey! Where're you going?" Dan yanked the girl back to his side, barely paying attention to where his hand was going until he felt a zap of warmth flood up his up, which had him yelping in shock as core collided with soul. "Ah! Magic soul! Magic soul!" He whimpered around the finger stuck in his mouth but was nevertheless glad when Claire turned to face the window once more, this time a look of surprise written on her features at whatever had just happened.
"Claire, this isn't real" Claire read aloud, squinting slightly to better make out the frosted words. "It's me, Dan, wake up"
"Hope this works" Dan hummed as he stood back to watch the girl, hoping that she would actually wake up least more drastic measures be taken. "Can…you see me?"
"Y-yeah, I can see you" Claire nodded, her eyes a little bug-eyed. "What are you even doing here?"
"Oh thank God! That could've been…anyway, how're you feeling?"
"Why is everything so weird?" She glanced down at herself, taking in the violet shell that enveloped her soul. "And—and why am I see-through? Holy shish-kebab! I'm dead!"
"You're not dead! It's more of a possession by a notorious twelfth century witch, leaving you a Drifter in a lair of the Ghost Zone"
"Morgana! I'm gonna kill her!"
"Well, at least you know her name, which is more than I can say for Jim & Toby"
"Oh my gosh! Jim! Toby! Where are they? Are they here?!"
"They were, but I kicked them out. Mortals should not be in the Ghost Zone unless they want uncertain death"
"But I'm mortal! How am I not dead?!"
"You see your soul there?" Dan pointed to the little orb that sat at about her navel. "Its cord is still connected to your body, making you a Drifter. Which means you can still die, but the rules are different for magic users"
"I'm…magical?"
"Not just anyone could wield that staff, y'know" Dan smiled what he hoped was a reassuring one. "But anyways, let's get you back first or Jim might mount my head…"
"So…how do we get out?" Claire wondered as they stood on her front porch, her with one hand clutching tight to Suzy Snooze and the other threaded through Dan's cold hand.
"Well, the door I came through is probably out" Dan hummed, his free hand scratching at the back of his head in thought.
"Probably?"
"Like I said, Mortals don't do too good in the Ghost Zone. Going that way'll probably kill you, but if we're lucky then the door the boys came in will still be open"
"And if not?"
"Er…"
"Shadow portal it is then!" Claire decreed before pushing off from the ground and headed towards the only light source in the whole place (It turned out that the Dark Door lair was officially named the 'Shadow Realm', an kingdom under Morgana's reign for a time which made the zap of faint magic he'd felt make more sense). And so ensued a game of zig-zagging between large boulders and smaller bits of lazily floating debris on their way to the exit.
"I AM YOUR DOOM!" A maniac laugh cackled across the Shadow realm, halting the two in their ascent.
"Well" Dan spared a glance toward Claire who stood across from him on an adjacent boulder. "That can't be good"
"Morgana!" Claire hissed.
"Hey, isn't that staff yours?" Dan mused as a golden star shot between the two, heading further into the realm.
"Get it!" Claire cried, already swimming after it. "It's our only way home!"
Whilst Claire shot off after the staff, Dan remained patiently waiting atop his chosen boulder and instead intermittently shot blasts of ice towards the projectile in the hopes of at least slowing it down. Ugh! Should've just tried the shields! Dan huffed as he sat back and watched the projectiles shatter into snow as the staff whipped passed.
"Ugh! This isn't working!" Claire grumbled coming to a standstill as Dan was the one to shoot off after it this time. Speed was not one of Dan's strong suits and so when his icy fingers barely clenched around the end splinters he couldn't help but let out a small cheer.
"Haha! I got it!" Dan cheered, although the smile was soon wiped off of his face as the staff was yanked further and faster than before.
"She's controlling the staff!" Claire called out as Dan tried to regain his bearings.
"That was a bad idea" In the end, he found himself hauling himself out of the boulder he had become halfway embedded in during the chase. Once free, his legs collapsed beneath him as his gaze still swirled uselessly with vertigo.
"Azazazuth Kinekh Thoon!" Claire chanted with her eyes closed and hands outstretched towards the dancing staff as she tried to ignore Morgana's laughter ringing in her ears.
"How're you doing that?" Dan stumbled to his feet as he watched with wide eyes how the staff shone violet for a moment as Claire fought for control.
"I dunno! These words…there in my head! Azazazuth Kinekh Thoon!" This time the staff flew towards Claire, coming mere inches away from the girl until control was ripped from her. "Eurgh! She's stronger than me!"
"You can do it, Claire" Dan joined her. "Age does not equal power, only experience"
"Right. I can do this, I can do this! Azazazuth Kinekh Thoon! Azazazuth Kinekh Thoon! You don't control me!"
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD, CHILD!" Morgana bellowed in primal anger.
"AZAZAZUTH KINKEH THOON!"
"YOU DARE WIELD A WEAPON OF MY POWER?! MY SKATHE-HRUN WILL BE YOUR END!"
"It's not yours anymore! I made it mine! And now I'm taking it back!" Claire tucked Suzy Snooze into her chest as she sparked with so magic and potential. "Okay, Suzy Snooze, it's you and I! AZAZAZUTH KINKEH THOON!"
"RAAAAAAAAAH!"
"RAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Holy hell…" Dan breathed bug-eyed as he watched Claire successfully fight against a twelfth century witch. And win. "Note to self: do not piss off Claire Nuñez"
Their exit from their on in was swift and stomach churning as they were both yanked along by the staff, out of the Ghost Zone and into the Mortal Zone in less time that it took to blink. One minute they had been floating in the dark and the next, Dan was collapsing into Claire's very busy bedroom where Jim had all but pounced on the girl tied to the chair behind him. Only they hadn't exactly rolled out the welcome wagon for him; quite the opposite actually.
"Dan!" Claire gasped upon seeing that the albino stood before her with a blade poking out of his chest, green blood oozing down the blade and the wound.
"Oh my God!" Toby gasped hands slapped over his mouth in shock as he paled.
"You impaled me…" Dan trailed off with a petulant wince, as his gaze turned to the gobsmacked history teacher and six-eyed troll who stood on the other side of the blade. Neither of them could have dropped the hilt fast enough.
"Oh my God! Are you hurt?! Are you dying?! Can ghosts die?!" Toby blathered as Dan wiggled the magic-infused blade out of his chest and waddled over to the floor-length mirror so he could see the damage. Mindless of the trail of ectoplasm he was leaving in his wake, the halfa calmly tossed the knife aside and pulled up his shirts so he could see the wound, thankfully it was already healing over. Whatever the blade was made of, it wasn't enough to damage him.
"Well, at least you missed my core" Dan hummed in relief, barely sparing a glance towards the thump behind him as Toby hit the floor in a dead faint with the sound of pots and pans clanging around him. "But this sweater is new, like brand new and it's gonna be a biscuit to get this all out! Hope Skulker doesn't find out, he'd skin me alive"
"Mr M-Masters?" Strickler stumbled, not quite believing what he was seeing. Sure, there had been the whole thing with the gravesand, but gravesand did odd things to humans, so how was he to know?
Dan merely spared a glance over his shoulder as he poked and prodded at the closing wound on his chest; party hat all lopsided. "Y'know, this it not how I thought I was going to spend my deathday"
