"Everything is in place, is the camera ready?" Dipper asked as he stood next to the ritual circle.
"Ready to film some spooks! Boo-oo!" Mabel answered while waving said camera, causing the image on the screen to shake.
"Mabel, stop!" The feed was cut for a moment where only static was shown, and a second later it was Dipper again, brows furrowed in a frown. "As I was saying," he continued curtly, "now that everything is ready, we can finally start the summoning of the Spirit of Protection!" He approached the camera and showed the Third Journal, flipping a page back and forth to show everything written in it. "The Journal says that outside the ten types of spirits the author first faced he found The Book of Summonings! We, uh, we couldn't really find the book referenced in the Gravity Falls Library, but the Author made sure to copy the summoning ritual for the Spirit of Protection!"
"And how do we know this isn't another demon who will backstab us the moment it gets what it wants?" Mabel bellowed off-camera.
"Because…" Dipper dragged the answer just like they had rehearsed it, "we looked for more sources besides that book!" He put aside the Journal and showed the new pictures on his camera roll, of him, Mabel, Wendy and Soos hiking the Gravity Falls hills, taking in the sights, doing funny poses, unearthing the secrets hidden within the dark, never-ending cave… unsupervised unrestrained summer fun, as usual.
Dipper continued, "We found this cave with all these wall paintings! I tried to take pictures of them, but all of them came out blank. It must be some sort of protection system, or- or you can only access that knowledge if you climb there, and anyone else isn't worthy and-"
"And we're lucky you're a nerd with a good memory who memorized it on the spot!" Mabel complimented him teasingly.
"What we could understand spoke of a kind, benevolent being who protects people in need, that matches the Author's description of the Spirit of Protection he got from The Book of Summonnings, and considering how we had to face Bill in our Grunkle's mind… we could use all the help possible, you know?"
"I know! Now less talking, more chanting!" Mabel demanded.
"Ok, ok, I'll do it!" Dipper complied, but couldn't hide the excitement in his voice.
Dipper moved behind the circle, and Mabel approached, better capturing the intricate symbols drawn on crayons –Mabel had used their chalk that morning for some Mabel juice– in the centre was a stylized D, surrounded by a circle pointing at the four cardinal points: north being a Venus flytrap, south what looked suspiciously like part of a circuits' board, east was a red-tinted and angry-looking skull, and west was a green flam; each symbol was encapsulated in a circle of their own. It was simpler than expected, but Dipper had followed the journal's instructions.
Lowly, Dipper could be heard mumbling "This doesn't sound like normal Latin but here goes nothing…
"Reĝo de fantomoj,
guidanto de la mortintoj,
terura malamiko,
valorega aliancano.
Mi estas en granda dangero
kaj tial mi alvocas vin.
Bonvolu helpi mi."
The wood boards creaked, starting from the ceiling and running through the four walls and under their socked feet, until it reached the summoning circle.
Along its way, as the wave passed the sparse candles littered on the room, their flames flickered and turned green, and when it finally reached the Circle, a bright white light emanated from within it in a blinding ring, making the twins cover their eyes and step back.
"My eyes!"
"Why is it so bright?!"
"I can't see any-! Hey! Bright colorful figures!"
"Mabel, focus!
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me."
Danny looked down at the kids as they rubbed their eyes and tried to regain their sight, stumbling about on what clearly was their bedroom.
"What's there? Who is it?!" The boy said, trying to open his eyes without pain.
Danny vanished his more outstanding regalia sending his crown and ring back to his pocket dimension. He kept his fur-lined cape, however, because he had learnt how to make the inside of it reflect the Amity Park starry night sky. In his opinion, he really rocked it.
The first one to recover was the little girl (because, unknown to Danny, she was better adapted to bright neon colours blinding her eyes.)
She gasped, squeezing her cheeks in her hands with an almost drooling smile. "Hot boy!"
"What? Mabel, this isn't time for- oh, you're right. I mean!" Dipper squeaked, cheeks red and hands suddenly sweaty. "I mean, who are you?"
"I don't know, kid. You tell me. Who did you mean to summon?" Danny said out loud, wondering how had he managed to do that. Ancients, every time he thought he had gotten rid of these How To Summon instructions, someone else found a way to get a hold of him. It was becoming so annoying.
"You are the Spirit of Protection? But- you're just a teenager!"
Spirit of Protection? That was a new one, and at least that meant these kids weren't trying to summon the Ghost King, that wasn't as bad. Still, though…
"I was a teenager when I died which was a long time ago, you know?" Eight years was a lot of time, actually.
Both kids flinched and looked at him with wide, sad eyes and Danny had to hold back a groan.
It's a good things kids are not used to other kids dying. He had to remind himself. Even if it's annoying when they give you The Eyes.
"Never mind that though. What do you think you're doing summoning spirits willy-nilly in the middle of the night with no adult supervision?" So what if he sounded like his parents? He was right!
That changed their mood quickly, from sad and pitiful to chastised and yet unrepentant.
"Well, you see, mister, er, ghost… my sister and I are visiting Gravity Falls for the summer, and this place is really weird and cool! But there are also all these dangerous things like zombies, and gremnomes, and Bill Cipher!
"He's a dream demon that's been tormenting us this summer!"
"Dream Demon? Do you mean a Nightmare?" Danny asked.
"Uh, no? Well he is a nightmare to deal with but he has called himself a dream demon, because he invades people's dreams and stuff."
The Spirit of Protection's frown deepened. "Demons can't do that anymore the Lord of Dreams banned them from his domain years ago."
"I don't think Bill got the memo, then, or cared about it."
Danny mumbles, "That's not good." He looked at the twins, who were hiding their yawns and blinking away their tiredness. Yeah, he couldn't just leave them like that. "Look, dreams and demons are not my domain so I will need some more info before I can set anything up, alright?"
"Isn't your domain Protection, though?" Asked Mabel. "Can't ya just 'poof!', make a magic shield around the Mystery Shack?"
"Nah, Protection is my Obsession, but you didn't summon the Spirit of Protection… at least, I haven't been given that title yet." He finished with a worried grimace. He'd talk to Frostbite and Clockwork about it.
"Wha- but then, who are you?"
Danny let his Crown and Ring return in a flare of green fire and drama.
"I am the Ghost King." He declared.
But rather than the awe or fear that would have amused the young King, Mabel squealed in delight and Dipper spluttered in disbelief(? That didn't sound like indignation to Danny, anyway).
"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"
"What? That can't be! The journal said-"
"Do you have a pony? Do you have a castle? Have you seen a unicorn?!"
"-of Protection! It doesn't say anything about a King-"
"Wait, is the unicorn dead?! Can you bring it back?!"
"-the difference between a Spirit and a ghost, anyway?"
"But if the unicorn is already dead then it won't ever, ever die again! Okay, then, hand it over!"
Flicking both middle fingers in a gesture that would remind one of Spider-Man, Danny covered the twins' mouths with ectoplasm gags that would dissolve soon with no damage done, effectively shutting them up at once long enough for him to speak.
"One at a time, alright? Okay, first off, yes, I have a castle, no, I don't have a pony, yes, I have seen a unicorn: it's not mine and it's an asshole, so you won't be getting it." There was a muffled, disappointed sound. "Second, everything has a spirit, but only the dead can be ghosts (unless you're speaking metaphorically, of course, then anything is possible), it's like, all ghosts are spirits, but not all spirits are ghosts, and even then, sometimes the lines get blurry.
"And finally, I am the Ghost King and you called me here so either you got your ritual mixed up, or something is up to someone." The ghost explained.
"Don't you mean-" Dipper started, watching as the ectoplasm that had been covering his mouth disappeared in wisps of smoke.
"I said what I said."
"Uh, okay then, mister- sir- your Highness-" Dipper stuttered.
"Phantom."
"Mister sir your highness Phantom!" Mabel said cheerily, making the ghost sigh.
"Just Phantom."
"Okay, Phantom, the Author said it was a ritual to summon the Spirit of Protection and usually if he makes a mistake he corrects the information- oh."
That 'oh' turned out to be Dipper flipping the ritual's leaf back and forth, and separating them in two, revealing two other pages with symbols and writing.
What Danny could see from his position were big, green letters that read HOW TO SUMMON THE GHOST KING.
"You were saying?" Phantom said in a deadpan.
"Ugh, what is it with the Author starting a new page mid-sentence?"
"Don't you worry about that, I'll be taking these"
Before Dipper could react, Phantom had taken the Journal and torn out the pages about summoning him.
"What are you doing?! No!"
"Hey, that's mean! Don't do that!"
Danny ignored them and went intangible when the kids tried to swipe at him to get the book back.
"Hm, yeah, I'll have to talk to Clockwork about this, whoever is giving away these titles is being far too generous. Or a real jerk." He flipped a few pages, ignoring the protesting pre-teens. "Hey, this is actually accurate. Nice find, kid. I've seen a few of these too… well, their ghosts, but that counts for something, right? Although I think I can help ya with the ghost types, if you kids are facing guys like these on the regular you need to be prepared."
"Wait, that means you're not taking the Journal away?" Dipper asked hopefully.
"Nah, just the stuff about me. I don't like people having the means to summon me and try to bind me to their whims." He flipped some more pages until he found a blank one, took Dipper's blue ball pen from his nightstand and scribbled on it. "That gives me, y'know, a choice in whether I come or not."
"I- that's-! Thank you, Phantom! And sorry, for the summoning, didn't mean to bother you…"
"Don't worry, kid." Phantom breathed in deeply (just for emphasis, since he didn't need to), and said, "Alright, you two, time to go to sleep. No! Don't fight me on this, you won't win. I will come back tomorrow, around ten in the morning, I gotta check out on this Cipher guy with some friends of mine, I need more info. But don't worry," and the next thing he said was with a heaviness of absolute truth that left no doubt in the twins' minds about his Royal status, "no one will bother you tonight."
Okay, translation from Esperanto of the summoning chanting:
King of ghosts,
leader of the dead,
terrible enemy,
invaluable ally.
I am in great danger
and therefore I summon you.
Please help me.
That's what Dipper ended up saying, but since I didn't show it, I gotta tell ya, this was the Spirit of Protection's own "chanting":
Spirit of protection, defender of the defenseless,
I speak to you and I ask you to come to my call.
I am in great danger
and that is why I call on you.
Please help me.
And the Ghost King (Pariah, at the moment Ford wrote the journal) was this:
King of ghosts, leader of the dead
Terrible enemy, invaluable ally.
I demand your hearing and to my will I bind you.
Carry out my mandates without repercussions
May my adversaries suffer your curses!
which was quite an effective way to have him do your bidding. Good luck Ford had bad writing habits! Since they didn't say the part of the binding, it couldn't tie Danny to anything. They only spoke of a protective ghost king, and the summoning brought them exactly that, so it doesn't matter if the title of Spirit of Protection is or isn't actually Danny's, he's /a/ protective spirit; so they got to the perfect answer with a Frankenstein of an equation.
This one I had a lot of fun writing! I feel like I should've put some more action since last chapter actually showed the result of Danny's interference, but I liked the banter of this. I'm more of an "interactions" writer, tbh. I once did a crossover with Lucifer (TV) just to see how Danny and him would interact. This is a warning for future chapters, btw