Hello, everyone. So. I haven't been updating my fics on here because of reasons (they're lame reasons, don't worry about it) for the past six months, but I'm going to try and catch up with everything. I won't be able to do it all at once, but I'll be doing my best. To see all the chapters I've added to multichapter fics, just keep going until you don't see this message at the top of the chapter anymore. Sorry about this!

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Danny woke slowly and unhappily. His whole body was sore. On the other hand, he was still tucked into his cozy little bed-cavity. Except the walls of the cavity were so snug that his sore body couldn't scrape together enough momentum to overcome them and sit up.

He drifted off again. And again. And maybe a third time. He wasn't counting.

When he finally woke up enough to get up, he felt ridiculously luxurious, like his whole body had been twitched ever so slightly into better alignment with the universe. He yawned and stretched, then decided to look around his room.

There was a large glass of milky liquid that had a "drink this" label on it on his bedside table. He picked it up, and sparkly sediment unfurled in billowing clouds inside it. It tasted glittery, too. And sweet.

Also on the bedside table was a set of soft, loose clothing. It reminded Danny of the thin white gloves Clockwork sometimes put on while working on very small or very sensitive pieces. He followed the implied instructions and put it on.

Once he had, gears turned in the walls, opening a door Danny hadn't noticed before slid open, revealing a small bathroom.

Danny smiled. He was finding that he really liked being taken care of, and this was very thoughtful of Clockwork.

He cleaned himself up, watching the water for the sink fall from above, tripping paddles like in a water clock. He wondered if that was just for the aesthetic, or if that water triggered something.

Finished, he wandered over to the door to the hallway. It didn't open, and he blinked peacefully at his reflection in the glass wall.

The silver wire of the choker collar had sunk beneath his skin and spread out. Some of it traced the soft line of his jaw. Other parts looped down over his chest. The crystal still stood out above his skin, and it glowed faintly. He purred sleepily at the visible reminder of his transformation. Maybe he could ask Clockwork for other powers after this one was finished up… Healing powers, maybe? That would be useful.

A counterweight in the wall moved and the door slid open. Danny went out to find Clockwork.

As expected, he was in the workshop.

"Good morning, Daniel, did you sleep well?"

Danny nodded and floated over to sit next to Clockwork. This was nice, waking up in the morning like this. Danny could get used to it, if it happened more often. He was pretty sure Clockwork would send him back to Amity Park before he got used to it, though.

"Did you enjoy the changes to your bed?"

Danny nodded enthusiastically, then shrugged.

"You enjoyed it this time, but perhaps not every time?"

Danny nodded again.

"I will keep that in mind."

With that, Clockwork put aside his work and began to examine Danny. He tilted Danny's head back and forth and looked at the crystal with a jeweler's loupe. "You are still unable to speak?"

Danny shrugged, tried to say something, then nodded when all that came out was a rasp.

"As expected. You are progressing well," said Clockwork. He paused. "This next phase will be distressing for you, however, given your present inability to speak, this is the best time to do it."

Danny blinked up at Clockwork, waiting for his instructions. Lots of things that were distressing were worth it, in the end.

"The complement of sound is silence," Clockwork continued. "To effectively utilize sound, you must be able to do the same for silence."

Danny nodded hesitantly.

"As such, you will be silent. You will be completely silent, causing no noise or sound of any kind."

On the surface, that seemed like a simple request. Easy to follow. Just be quiet, and what else could he be, when his voice had been stressed to a breaking point?

Except, be silent went a lot further than don't talk.

Living bodies were not quiet. Breathing made sound. Digesting made sound. A heartbeat was a sound. Even in ghost form, Danny made many of these sounds from sheer force of habit. Every one was a failure. A failure of Clockwork, of his Obsession, of everyone in his life he should be helping, of himself.

So. He stopped.

He stopped breathing. He stopped the inner workings of his digestive tract. He stopped his heart. He stopped a dozen other tiny, almost unnoticeable functions. Because he did notice them. And if he noticed them, then it stood to reason that they were not silent.

But even when he'd stopped that, movement was still an issue. So, he stopped moving. Just to be sure, he should freeze himself in place. But slowly, so the forming ice didn't make any noise.

That was good, that was better, but still not enough. A solid body still disturbed the air, and those disturbances could be sound, or become sound.

Luckily, Danny could stop being solid. He could be intangible. It was hard to hold onto intangibility for a long time, but he'd done hard things before, to help people. This was the same.

His core still hummed in his chest, the barely-there auditory counterpart of his ectosignature. He… he didn't know how to fix that. Maybe if he kept freezing himself… If he could damp his core with ice, surely it would stop humming. Or would it make the ice hum, too?

Clockwork brought him back to reality by setting something down in front of him. A small box of gears. "Reproduce these in ice," he said.

Oh. Oh. This was going to be even harder than Danny thought.

Slowly, trying to keep the motion from making noise, Danny raised his hand. The ice forming in the muscles of his chest made the movement difficult, and as small crystals moved over one another, they squeaked and scraped.

Freezing himself had not been his best idea, it seemed.

His hand was shaking. His whole body was shaking. Every failure to follow Clockwork's instructions was pain, and that pain increased, like a vice around his soul. Tears poured down his face. This wasn't like with the gears, where he could try many times to get them just right, as long as he made one that was right. Every failure to be silent was just that, a failure.

Making the gears was going poorly, too. His ice powers weren't loud, but used like this they did make some sound, and so did moving the gears around so he could look at them. But if he didn't look at them, he wouldn't be able to make the gears properly.

He needed some way to make himself silent, even when doing things. Giving Danny this task at all implied that Clockwork thought he could do it. Clockwork didn't do things to be needlessly cruel, even if sometimes he did cruel things as a test, or to help with something else. Taking that in context, Danny was probably expected to develop some kind of silence-based power or ability.

He had no idea how to do that on his own.

Clockwork had guided him through developing a voice-based power, or maybe powers, yesterday, but Danny didn't really understand the process, and he was pretty sure it wasn't even done. Silence powers probably followed a different, maybe even opposite, logic. That made sense, right? But what was the opposite logic when it came to magical music boxes and tuning forks? Just lack of sound? But that was the goal, not the method.

Something grated in his core, and he held back a whimper. It was fine, it was fine. Clockwork had warned him this would be difficult. But he would figure this out.

He'd just… focus. Do the gears. Be as quiet as possible. Damage mitigation. He did that back home, during ghost fights, too. He couldn't always protect everyone, couldn't always catch the ghost right away, so he did the best he could.

Still, failing like this felt… more immediate. Like, he'd been given a very simple, very concrete instruction, not something vague or self-assigned, and he still couldn't do it. He should just be able to do it.

He continued, anyway.

The pressure on his core got worse and worse. He couldn't make himself stop crying. He couldn't make himself stop shaking. It took more and more tries to make the gears look right.

And then, abruptly, it stopped. It all stopped.

He was silent.

He touched his chest. His core still felt… sore. And also… unbalanced was probably the best way to put it. Something had been added, but something was still missing.

Clockwork ruffled his hair. "I knew you would manage it before long." He wiped Danny's face clean with a handkerchief, then patted his head again.

Danny nodded, and, feeling dazed but overall much better, went back to work on the gears. This was for an important project, and he wanted to do a good job.

He wasn't sure how long he had worked by the time he finished the last gear Clockwork had given him, but he was both tired and hungry by the end of it.

"Very good," said Clockwork. He set his own work aside, then turned to Danny. "We are going to run some tests. First, while remaining silent, clap your hands."

Danny brought his hands together. No sound.

"Again, but with snapping."

Clockwork had Danny attempt to make a number of other sounds, from whistling, to stomping his feet, to blowing on a small set of pipes. Each time, he made no noise. He did, however, get more and more tired, faster than he usually did. This power wasn't horribly tiring, but it still drained him, about as much as staying invisible for a long time.

Then, he examined Danny's throat. The crystal was gone, fully absorbed. The flesh beneath felt delicate, fragile, under Clockwork's fingers, but intact and soft.

Finally, Clockwork nodded in satisfaction. "Excellent. You may stop, now, Daniel. You need no longer stay silent."

Danny sighed heavily, relishing the sound of the air escaping past his lips. He breathed in, he breathed out. He let go of his tight control of his body.

Meanwhile, Clockwork started arranging things on the work table. Danny half watched, momentarily more concerned about pulling himself back together. He wiped his face.

"This is the next stage," said Clockwork, holding up a tiny vial.

"What," rasped Danny. He coughed. "What is it?"

"A banshee's tear. Do you have any familiarity with banshees, Daniel?"

Danny shrugged. "They scream?"

"Some do," said Clockwork. "Though not all." He took a small bottle of the golden honey and poured it into a crystal cup. Then, he uncorked the vial of banshee tears and poured it into the cup as well. "An echo of their power is contained in their tears. With the proper preparations, that echo can be transformed into a seed. And, of course, we have prepared the ground ."

Clockwork took a silver stirring rod and began to mix the honey and tears together. "Banshees are able to predict when misfortune will fall on their chosen wards. Generally, specific families. When misfortune, especially death, approaches, they are compelled to scream and weep."

"And–" said Danny, leaning forward, excited, "and I'll be able to do that, too?" His voice cracked several times through the sentence, but he persevered. "The predicting things part." The screaming and weeping would not be ideal, to say the least.

"Yes," said Clockwork. "The transferred ability will be dilute, in comparison to that of banshees, and will diverge from theirs in terms of exact functionality, but there will be overall similarities."

"Like?" prompted Danny.

"You should be able to sense when someone is close to death or ending. That sense will manifest as a sense of grief that becomes more acute as the danger increases."

Danny licked his lips, leaning in. He could smell the sweetness of the honey, the salt of the tears.

Clockwork removed the stirring rod, tapping it against the side of the cup. He slid the cup over to Danny. "Drink."

Danny didn't have to be told twice. He tipped it back– then gagged. The sweetness of the honey contrasted poorly with the bitterness of the tears. He pulled away, slightly, but Clockwork put a reminding finger on the bottom of the cup, pressing down ever so slightly. After the second swallow, the bitterness started to fade, the saltiness of the tears providing a much nicer addition to the overall sweet flavor.

He kept the cup tilted back for a few minutes after he'd finished, trying to get the last thick, syrupy drops. He licked the rim of the cup, then his lips.

Clockwork smiled. "There we are," he said, patting Danny's cheek.

"Are there any tests to see if it worked?" Danny blinked and licked his lips again. His voice was… different. Smoother. Sweeter. Not unrecognizably so, but still noticeably so.

"Not for the main power," said Clockwork. "I imagine that you would prefer for it not to be tested immediately, given what it senses."

"I don't know. I could go to a hospital or a nursing home or something…" He trailed off, slightly distracted by the new undertones to his voice. "That would probably be a bad idea, wouldn't it?"

Clockwork hummed. "I would ask you to think through how that would go before you had a chance to learn how to control the power."

"It'd be pretty awkward to start crying randomly when visiting a nursing home or hospital or something. I mean, people probably do that, since, you know, death, but, it'd still be weird."

"And how would you feel, knowing that so many people were near death, and you could do nothing to help them?"

Danny bit his lower lip. "I'd know it was like that anyway. I know what hospitals are. I know that elderly people are, um. That they die. Or that they're close to dying, a lot of the time. I know that."

"Knowing something and feeling it are different," said Clockwork. "Take some time to adapt before you overwhelm yourself. It is a new sense."

"Oh. Yeah. That is a good point."

"Now, several of the other portions of your new powerset, we can test," said Clockwork, briskly. "Sing for me, Daniel."

"What should I sing?" asked Danny, the question already slightly sing-song.

"Whatever you would like," said Clockwork.

Danny… didn't actually know all that many song well enough to sing them without music. With music, he could sing along to any number of things, but the last time he tried to memorize a tune, it had been for fifth grade choir. And he hadn't done a great job of it.

But… if he thought back further…

He began to sing a lullaby. One he remembered from childhood, from Maddie, from Jack. It was simple, rising and falling, repeating over and over.

Even singing, his eyes started drifting closed, the idea, the memory, of sleep drifting closer. He trailed off on the last verse and the lack of sound startled him so much that he jostled awake.

"What… what was that?"

"A somewhat common secondary ability. Ghosts with vocal powers can often imbue their songs with emotion or intent. It is not enough to truly cause anyone to act against their own will or inclination, or even to strongly influence them." He smiled faintly. "You are exhausted, and it did not even make you sleep. The main effect is to draw greater than usual attention."

"Huh," said Danny. "It's– It's not control?" He… still didn't want that, really, to be able to control other people, especially not so easily.

"It is not control. Nor can it be leveraged into control." He traced the edge of Danny's face with one hand. "I believe that portion of your core is now occupies enough space that other control-based powers will not develop."

"Okay," said Danny. "Okay. What are we doing next?"

Clockwork raised an eyebrow. "Resting. As I said, you are exhausted."

"Oh, um, yeah," said Danny, sheepishly. "I'll just. Go. Then."

Clockwork stood. "I will show you the way."

"You don't have to, I know you're busy." He'd already taken up so much of Clockwork's time.

"I have some additional instructions for you. Come."

Danny flew over to hover at Clockwork's side. "What are the instructions?"

Clockwork gestured for Danny to step into the hallway before he started speaking. "You are aware of the various bells, chimes, and other music-making devices that play throughout Long Now."

"Yes," said Danny, even though it wasn't really a question.

"Whenever you hear one, you are to wake and attempt to reproduce the sound as best you are able. Once you have done so to your satisfaction, you will drink whatever is on the table next to your bed and resolve any other bodily needs you may have before returning to sleep. You will continue to do this until you are able to wake naturally, without hearing music. Then, you will join me in the library."

Danny nodded, happy to have such an easy, clear set of instructions. "For practice?"

Clockwork nodded minutely.

"It will probably take a while for me to do that," Danny observed.

"I am aware of the times involved," said Clockwork, sounding amused. He patted Danny's shoulder. "Rest well. I have tasks for you, afterward."

Danny bounced. "Like helping you with the stabilizer?"

"Further afield. Some of them may give you the opportunity to practice your new abilities."

That sounded great, and Danny grinned. Before he could ask any other questions, though, they had arrived at his room. Clockwork opened the door, and Danny bounced over to his bed. It was flat and circular, now, the round, pillow-piled shape taking up most of the room. Danny burrowed under the pillows, gathering a nest around himself.

"It's different again!"

"I thought you would like to try something new."

"Yes!" Danny rolled over a few times, wrapping himself in a few layers of blanket and squiggling around to better fit among the pillows.

"Go to sleep, Daniel."

He did.

.

The first several times Danny woke, he had to try many times to repeat the chimes he heard, to the point where he had to exhaust himself all over again. Of course, he suspected that the time between each chime was less than an hour, so he was never really fully rested when waking to begin with. Then, even if he managed to get the sounds right relatively quickly, drinking the glass on his bedside table made him full and drowsy.

But, eventually, he started getting better. He got the notes right faster, sounded more and more like the bells and chimes he was supposed to be mimicking. It got easier, and easier, until he didn't have to wake up all the way before taking his drink and going back to sleep.

When Danny finally woke up on his own, he felt soft, as if all the liquid he'd drunk had been converted into pillows inside him. However, when he checked, all his muscles and other body parts were the same as they usually were.

When he found Clockwork in the library, he cuddled into his side, squeezing himself into the small space left over in the armchair.

"Are you rested?" asked Clockwork, turning the page in his book. With his other hand, he started carding through Danny's hair.

Danny, purring, warbled something back at him. It took him a few tries to bully his voice into speaking English.

"I'm rested," he said. "How long was I…" He waved vaguely in the direction of his room.

"About one day," said Clockwork.

"I'm going to need a really good excuse for why I've been gone so long, especially after the quests. Can I call them quests?"

"I don't see why not."

"Mhm," said Danny, enjoying the continued petting. "I need an excuse for why I sound so different, too. And my, mhm, powers."

"What do you think would be a good one?" asked Clockwork.

"Fell through a natural portal, maybe? Or kidnapped by a ghost? Not sure why a ghost kidnapping me would change my voice, though…"

"Obsessions may cause ghosts to do any number of things, logical or otherwise. A ghost Obsessed with music or song might have found the potential in a voice like yours to be irresistible."

"So it would be a good excuse? Saying I was kidnapped?"

"It is even somewhat true," said Clockwork. "You may even describe some of the processes that accomplished the changes to your powers."

"As long as they can't lead back to you?"

"Correct."

Danny sighed heavily as Clockwork closed the book.

"Are you ready for your 'quest?'"

Danny sat upright and nodded sharply. Clockwork ruffled his hair one last time, then, with a snap of his fingers, opened a portal.

"This leads to a natural disaster that occurred some four hundred and fifty years ago. This disaster killed hundreds of thousands of people."

"Am, um, I supposed to… get something? Or save someone in particular?" guessed Danny as he approached the portal. Other tasks Clockwork had set him had involved things like that. Usually, Danny tried to save as many people as he could during those errands, but that generally wasn't the main thing Clockwork wanted him to do.

"You are to save as many people as possible," said Clockwork, "and do not bother trying to hide yourself."

"That's it?"

"Is it not enough?"

"Of course! Just, usually, you have me do something else."

"Not this time," said Clockwork.

Danny wondered if this was a sort of apology for how difficult being silent had been for him. Clockwork didn't have to do that. Learning how to be silent had been difficult, but it was something Clockwork wanted him to do, and that was enough.

And now this was something Clockwork wanted him to do. Impulsively, Danny hugged Clockwork before fleeing through the portal.