Ember looked at herself in the mirror, observing herself as she ran her hands through her hair. The feeling was… wrong. The strands of hair sliding through her fingers didn't feel right; they were too smooth, too crisp. All of her senses were no longer muted by death. She could feel every single thread sliding through her fingers. The brown hair was too dark against her white flesh.

And it was flesh.

Or at least, it was the closest thing to skin that Ember had had in years. She watched as gravity performed its tireless work against her hair, and it fell into place, dangling from her scalp. The clothes on her body itched, the fabric rubbing against her skin rubbed against her in a way that she had forgotten. The loose-fitting tank top had a weight to it none of her outfits as a ghost had, and the belt around her waist pinched just slightly, not enough to be uncomfortable, but enough for her to be aware that it was holding her jeans in place.

She looked up at the mirror in the room Vlad had left her in and let out a slow breath. She was close enough that if she were truly alive, her breath should have fogged the mirror.

It didn't.

The door behind her opened, and she looked up through the mirror to see Vlad entering the room with a stack of papers in one hand and a bag in another. "Everything is in order," he said, getting right to the point. "Except for a few small details that we should go over before finalizing them."

Ember turned and faced him. "What did you do?" Vlad raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to elaborate. She indicated her body. "This… this isn't a transformation, this… what did you do?"

"Ah," Vlad muttered. He let out a hum as he reached into a pocket and pulled out a pen, clicking it twice. "Simply put, I gave you a human body."

Ember shook her head. "Nothing about that is simple. I thought I heard people calling you an ectobiologist, Skulker, usually. But… you gave me a body. I'm alive…" the last words came out of her mouth in a whisper.

"Hardly," Vlad began. He narrowed his eyes. "While you might look like a living, breathing, girl, you're not. The heart pumping in your chest isn't yours, and the air leaving your lungs isn't breath. Your soul is trapped in that body, but it isn't tied to it at all. It's a soulless body with no spark of life in it. Grown anew for you to inhabit. The alchemy alone was quite challenging, to say nothing of the difficulty of the more arcane rituals to ensure you could inhabit the thing."

Vlad set the bag and papers down on a nearby desk. "And as for the ectobiology statement… I never called myself that. The Fenton's did. Maddie loved her science, but as much as they wanted to dress it up in pretty words, what is opening a portal to study the dead but necromancy?"

"Alchemy? Rituals? Necromancy?" Ember asked, raising an eyebrow. "That shit's real?"

"Oh, yes," Vlad confirmed absently, picking up the stack of papers and sorting through them. "Not too reliable, it must be said, at least the knowledge on this side of the dimensional divide. Human conception of such things is a useless hodge podge of mad ravings, religious superstition and charlatans attempting to con the gullible, with the occasional kernel of truth in there. But in the Infinite Realms? Ah, the archives I've found in the depths of that place. I wish I'd built a portal earlier. So many missed opportunities. Ah well."

He held out a hand containing the selected documents. Ember took the papers from Vlad and looked over them. "What is this?"

"Paperwork, accommodating your transfer into Amity Park High School," Ember shot him a look which he matched, "I am aware it's not ideal, but putting you in the school will prevent additional questions about where you came from."

"You want to put a ghost next to the resident ghost hunter?"

"Hunters," Vlad clarified, "There are two in the school. Valerie Gray and of course Danny Fenton." Vlad grimaced and folded his hands behind his back. "Unfortunately, Amity Park has a law demanding highschool attendance until after the age of 18, unlike the rest of the state." He shrugged and continued unabashed, "It's helpful for keeping the boy from trying to do more of his "hero" work," Vlad said, making finger quotes around the word before folding his hands again, "but I'll admit it's an annoyance for now."

Ember grumbled but looked over the papers, seeing several sections left blank. "So what do you need from me?" She asked as she glanced up at Vlad with a quirked eyebrow.

Vlad waved a hand at the documents. "You need to pick your name."

"My name?"

"What will your name be in this human form?"

"Amber-"

"No."

"No?" Ember hissed. What was wrong with that name?

Vlad gave her a look. "The boy isn't completely stupid, and even if he was, Valerie is intelligent and perceptive. That's too close to your name, given enough time and the fact that we want you to use your musical talents to pierce what will be left of the veil, it's a risk that we should not take."

Ember huffed, but refused to acknowledge the statement beyond that. She looked back at the mirror and cast her gaze over herself.

Her new eyes stood out from her features, two pools of dark brown with little flecks of green in pale white skin. The face that was in the mirror was almost like hers, the girl she had been before, just… slightly softer, almost elfin in some ways.

Which made her think of a song.

"Rosie McCann…" Ember said, quietly. She turned and faced Vlad, "It's Rosie then."

"Rosie…" Vlad said dully, as if the name offended him. He shrugged. "Very well, if that's what you want."

Ember indicated the bag Vlad had walked in with. "What's with that?"

Vlad lifted the bag up. "Various items, a phone, keys to an apartment, driver's license, a credit card-"

"You're giving me access to your money?"

"It does have a limit, but I doubt you'll be able to hit it."

Ember was quiet for a moment before she huffed. "Just to be clear, no matter how much money you give me, I am not calling you daddy."

Vlad's eyes widened for a moment before he slammed his palm against his forehead and shouted, "Could you please have some professionalism about this?"

"Hm. Nah," Ember smirked. She really couldn't help herself - she should be grateful, probably, but good God the man just oozed condescension like a slug. It set her teeth on edge. "Like seriously, you can't just reveal you've got the ability to create teenage girls on a whim and not expect me to get some ideas about how you use it."

"Historically doing that hasn't gone well for me," Vlad deadpanned exasperatedly, before his eyes widened again. "Not like that!"

"... The fuck?!"

Danny leaned comfortably against the side of the car. While his dad had insisted on bringing him to these festival meetings, Jazz had volunteered to be the driver. That meant the drive was relaxing and not an exercise in crash course existentialism, where Danny was forced to confront head on the question of whether he was already dead or if his dad's driving would kill him.

Jack hummed along to the music that was playing on the radio, off-tune and very off-beat. Jazz cast him sideways glances as she drove through the town. Danny tried to get her to ignore him, mostly by voicing out loud any passing animals he saw to divert her attention, but eventually the supply of adorable dogs dried up, and Jazz turned to their father. "Dad, are you okay? I haven't heard you mention anything involving ghosts in the last 5 minutes."

"Ah… well…" Jack hawed for a moment, Danny saw Jack glance at him through the rearview mirror. "Maddie asked me to leave all the ghost hunting equipment at home today."

Danny blinked, and sat up slightly. He looked over his dad and realized that some of the pockets in his jumpsuit were empty. Jack's eyes met his and he sighed. The large man leaned back. "Your mom told me to take this seriously, and if I had any ghost hunting equipment on me, she thought I'd be too distracted…."

Jazz let out a hum and Danny felt her start thinking about him before she even said anything. "Jazz, don't even-" he started.

Only to be cut off by a sound like a beaver's teeth as Jack began gnawing at his gloves.

Jazz reached over and smacked his hand away, and then immediately pointed two fingers in his face. "Dad! Stop it!" She waggled her fingers back and forth. "You're not wearing regular clothes, you can stop pretending that you're having an allergic reaction."

Jack whined, "But Jazzy pants! I don't have anything to blast ectoplasmic scum with! It's uncomfortable!"

"You can live with it for now," Jazz said, sighing, "Mom did ask you to take this seriously…" She glanced back at Danny as she parked as far away from the front door of the community center as she could.

Danny looked at the hundred or so feet between the car and the building. "Jazz… why did you park so far away?"

"Two reasons," Jazz said, not yet unbuckling herself and giving her dad a look. "One, if a ghost attacks the community center, I want my car as far away as possible."

Danny sighed and unbuckled himself. "It says so much about living here that that's a valid reason."

"Two," Jazz continued as he got out of the car, "the library is closer here, and that's where I'm going."

Jack frowned. "You really think a ghost will show up at the community center?"

Jazz glanced up at Danny through the window. "Honestly? I'd be shocked if there wasn't at least one."

Danny groaned at the veiled joke and shut the car door. Jazz hadn't started unbuckling herself which meant she wanted to talk to their dad in private, which probably meant it was about him. He scratched at the back of his head and started making his way to the front of the car.

He couldn't say he didn't appreciate Jazz sticking her nose in his business. He used to hate it, but over the years Jazz had done enough for him that he couldn't in good conscience deny the fact that she really did help. He had plenty of people who could back him up in a fight. Jazz did something different.

Danny might have been the family's shame, at least publicly, but Jazz made it up for in spades. She hadn't graduated high school, yet she was far enough ahead in PSEO credits that she almost had her degree in psychology.

So when Jazz told her parents that they needed to give Danny space, they would listen.

Sometimes, at least.

Jack opened the door and stepped out of the car. The car's frame shifted with a creak now that it was no longer burdened with his massive size. He leaned back in and smiled brightly at Jazz. "It's okay, Jazz, don't worry, I'm just here to make sure Danny doesn't disappear." He patted the top of the car as Jazz stepped out. "I'll make sure to be on my best behavior so I won't embarrass him!"

"Too late for that," Danny muttered as he looked his dad's jumpsuit up and down.

Jazz rolled her eyes and got out of the car as well and the three of them split ways. Jazz crossed the street to the library, while Jack and Danny walked into the community center.

Danny sighed as he walked in. The Christmas and New Year decorations hadn't yet been taken down, but other than that, the center was immaculate. There were a few families milling about, probably for the pool or the basketball courts.

But, as Danny walked in a bit deeper past the bulletin boards, he started seeing another group of people, most of them had a good twenty years on him. The signs for the spring festival guided them deeper into the building.

Jack stopped and let out a hum as he looked at one of the signs. Danny turned and looked back at him. "Forget something?" Danny asked.

Jack shook his head. "No, just…" he pointed at two images printed on the directions. "These two sigils here? They brought me back to college, I haven't seen them in years." Jack tapped one. "This one is meant to keep your house safe."

Danny inspected the paper. It was a cross with the arms off-center making a large square in the middle. It didn't look like anything special to Danny, but then again, Danny wasn't the type to put stock in sigils or tradition as a form of protection.

That being said… "I didn't know you cared about stuff like that?"

Jack laughed and patted Danny on the back. "Well, I guess I can't fault you for not knowing. Your mother has always focused more on the practical matters. Breaking down what worked and didn't with experiment after experiment. But the Fenton's have been ghost hunters for generations, even back in the middle ages! Everything got passed down in the old family grimoire. Used to drive Mads nuts in college whenever I'd use it as a reference!"

"Not Vlad?" Danny asked, surprised. He was so used to seeing his mom indulge his dad's wilder flights of fancy, and Vlad taking any opportunity to knock the man down.

"No, of course not! V-Man was right here with me, arguing with Maddie!" Jack flashed a grin to no one in particular, tinged with nostalgia. "He always said that if we were assuming ghosts existed, there was no reason to assume the older means of dealing with them were without value until we could prove otherwise. He was worse than me! I at least backed down when we weren't getting anywhere debating. Vlad wouldn't ever stop arguing his point."

"That's… very much not the picture Vlad paints whenever he's talked about it to me," Danny muttered almost to himself, but his dad heard anyway. The smile faded a little.

"Yeah," the older man sighed. "It used to be me and him, standing up for the old ways, making sure what everyone that came before us went through wasn't dismissed out of hand. We even got this one," he said, gesturing to a third sigil. "Tattooed on ourselves."

"Really? What does that one mean?" Danny asked.

"It has a few meanings, but for me and Vladdy…" Jack said wistfully, brushing his thumb against the sigil. His thumb ran along the ring, before stopping where the circle turned into a hand, touching a heart. Jack stilled, and for a moment, Danny thought Jack wasn't going to continue.

"Friendship." Jack uttered quietly, breaking the silence. "It meant friendship."

Jack looked sadly at the second sigil whilst Danny stared at his dad. Did… Did he know that Vlad resented him, blamed him, hated him? He never thought the elder Fenton was aware of the bitter old fruitloops feelings, but…

Before he could ask, Jack shook himself, his big cheery smile returning to his face abruptly.

"Come on Danno, we'll be late!"

The two of them walked into the meeting hall where a circle of chairs was set up. Danny shoved his hands in his pockets and scoffed. "This feels like an intervention."

Jack let out a hum. "Not sure about that, usually they're all sitting down already." Jack turned and pointed at a table. "Oh! Punch! You want any?"

"Uh… no," Danny said, fumbling for words. "What was that about-"

"Alright! Have fun son!" Jack said, rushing off, "Oh! They have donuts!"

Danny sighed and rolled his shoulders. He sat down in one of the chairs, and as if he had set off some sort of signal the others began to drift into the seating area as well.

Eventually, just his dad and a few others stood by the punch bowl and snacks, everyone else sitting down, or they were the one lone figure standing in the center of the room. He was somewhat familiar to Danny, but he couldn't quite place them. That wasn't exactly unexpected, though, Phantom had saved everyone in town at some point or another, and Danny couldn't be expected to remember every single face he had pulled out the path of an ectoblast.

"Alright, well, it's a little late, but let's get started!" He shouted holding up a piece of paper. "Today, I think we're just looking for ideas. But if there's anything you feel really strongly about, I'm sure we can make it work!"

"Well, it wouldn't be our spring festival without the market!" Someone shouted.

"Of course, of course!"

After that it was a flurry of voices. There was some order to the chaos, but ideas were flouted and received with various levels of enthusiasm. Danny felt a part of him dying inside as more ideas were suggested. So many ideas sounded just so boring. He didn't want to spend all his free time helping set up a market, food tasting, or whatever else they were coming up with.

"Really? Are we planning a festival without music?" The familiar voice that cut across the room set Danny on edge and he whirled around to find the speaker.

And Danny immediately knew he had to have been mistaken. There was no way he had encountered this girl before in his life. She was just slightly shorter than him, like Sam, but Sam usually wore platform boots to make her taller, and around the same age, maybe a little older. Brown hair gathered in a messy ponytail fell down her back, and a few loose strands fell down either side of her face, framing an expression that had to be similar to his own - boredom and mild contempt. He felt immediate kinship with her on that basis alone. She was leaning against the wall with her arms folded.

She pushed off the wall and walked towards the chairs. She put both her hands on two chairs and leaned over them. The vest she was wearing gleamed with various pins and patches, which managed to distract Danny for a moment as he tried to place all the classic bands she was showing off.

"Really?" She continued, and Danny realized he had missed what the response to her question had been. "There's no one else in town? Amity Park isn't that small is it?" The statement was punctuated by a frown that was made more pronounced by her dark-painted lips.

Danny looked back at the organizer who was looking at his papers. "Else? Does that mean you're willing to do it?"

The teen sighed and ran her hand through her hair, glaring at it as she got it out of her face. "Yeah, yeah, I'll put together a setlist. It's… been a while since I've played in front of people but…" She shrugged and folded her arms again. The gesture felt oddly familiar to Danny, and he spent a few moments trying to figure out why before it clicked - it was a defensive thing he'd do whenever he was nervous about the people he was talking to, but couldn't show it.

Well, now he was just curious about this girl.

"Ah, well, Chris, err… Chris Vernon, I don't think you know him, do you, miss?" Danny recognized that name, he was a worker at the town's home improvement store, and often ran afoul of the box ghost.

But everyone in Amity Park knew of Chris, the constant ghost attacks meant that Chris was well known. There were several hardware stores in Amity Park, but Chris's was the biggest and most well known.

Instead of acknowledging that she knew him, she just huffed as she narrowed her eyes, and tapped her feet against the ground. Her reaction confirmed what Danny had already known, she was definitely new to Amity Park.

If the organizer was perturbed by her reaction, he didn't show it at all. Instead, he simply continued, "Well, he can help you get material together for a stage or something similar. We're not setting up anywhere there's one ready for you. The mayor's given us a bigger budget this year, finally, but not that big."

"Ughh…. Really?" She shook her head, and Danny watched her hair sway side to side. "Alright, that's fine. I'm sure we can come up with something."

"My parents can probably help with that," Danny offered before his brain caught up with him. The entire room turned toward Danny, everyone surprised that he had finally spoken since the meeting had started. After acknowledging his presence, the rest of the room slowly turned toward Jack with trepidation.

Except for her. She was completely focused on him, displaying the same amount of surprise the others had at his presence before she hid the expression behind a mask of indifference. Only then did she turn to look at Jack.

Jack's eyes widened and he took a moment to swig the last of his punch. He then shrugged and spoke up, "Sure, we probably have something around that could help." He brought a hand up to his chin in thought. "The anti-grav thrusters could probably work to help keep the stage up. We also have ectoplasm generators for the sound system…"

"Uh… I don't think that'll be necessary!" The organizer said, as soon as Jack trailed off, "But we'll keep you in mind!" The smile on his was just a little too wide to be real. "That being said, we've gotten some great ideas here! Anything else anyone thinks should be done?"

"Well, if we're planning on music this year, what about seeing if we can get that dance studio to help set up some dancing?" someone asked after a few seconds of silence. Once again, the floodgates were opened and people started.

The teen who had spoken up turned and saw Danny looking at her. She scoffed and raised an eyebrow. "There a problem?" she snapped.

Danny jumped and shook his head before coughing into his hand and straightening. Looking anywhere but at her…

Though… he might have kept her in the corner of his eye. Involuntarily. Obviously.

After she looked away from him, Danny slunk back down in his chair. Only to jump when he felt his dad clap him on the shoulder. "So… you think we should help the little lady, huh, Danno?"

"Uh… yeah!" Danny said, realizing that the meeting was coming to an end. He stood up and followed his dad out the door, glancing around and seeing that she was gone. "Oh… shoot, I didn't actually figure out what I was going to do for Lancer."

Jack chuckled. "Well, Danny, my favorite son of mine."

"I'm your only son."

"I think you'd like to know that one miss Rosie is going to be working with Mister Yates to set up the music performance this spring festival."

"Oh!" Danny said. "Thank you!" His dad's eyes twinkled with a knowing look, one that Danny was all too familiar with. It was usually proceeded by some comment or another about Sam. Danny immediately clarified, "For that project… thing… for find out something for Lancer."

"Mmhmm…" Jack hummed while leading them to Jazz's car.

She was waiting inside the car, with several books on the passenger seat. Those got tossed in the back seat causing her to squawk before sighing. She looked up at Jack, who was still smiling and sighed. "Well, it looks like it went well?"

"Yup!" Jack said, just a bit too loudly for the small car, "Danno found something he'd like to help with, or rather someone…."

Danny groaned and put his head in his hands. "Dad… no…"

"Dad, yes!" Jack responded, before continuing, "Danny couldn't keep his eyes off her. He completely missed the actual conversation about what she was planning."

Jazz chuckled. "Oh, really now?" she said looking back at Danny as she turned the ignition starting the car.

"Dad…" Danny began, "Weren't you supposed to not embarrass me?"

"Did you really think that was going to happen?"

"No," Danny huffed, slouching in the car.

At least he got something for Mr. Lancer.

Hazama: I don't have too much to say on this chapter. The song that Ember got her name from is Called "Star of the County Down" (which is where the title of this fic comes from). The version I'm most familiar with is the one sung by Orthodox Celts. (Related, this fic is gonna get really self indulgent on my part. I love music in general and I get to reference a lot of music in this).

Kilaknux: Similarly not much to say here, although I will say I'm particularly proud of my contribution to Jack and the old protection sigils part. A bolt of inspiration hit me when going over it, and I added what I think is the single best bit of melancholia I have ever written. Also as far as Vlad goes, take a skim over it again - who was arguing with him, who did he have flat out shouting matches with, and who was backing him up? Bitterness makes fools of us all, kids.