CAMP NANO DAY 22
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Duke watched Phantom pace around the rooftop in growing bemusement. The kid was going over the notes he'd taken in his little pocket notebook over the course of his and Dick's Q&As with a rather deep furrow between his brows, muttering under his breath all the while. Duke chanced a glance at his oldest brother from where he sat as straight-backed as possible on his stool of shadows. Though Dick was fully masked and in character, Duke could read the older man like a book. His casual perch on top of the roof access shed held a shade of wariness and the set of his shoulders belayed his concern.
He fully understood, from what Steph and Jason had said, Phantom knew pretty much instantly exactly what both of them were as soon as he'd finished questioning them. He hadn't had to ask them more than ten questions total before he just knew. With Dick, however, he'd asked almost twenty five questions, and Duke was asked almost forty before Phantom had started up his pacing and muttering.
Right as Duke's anxiety started acting up, started whispering poisonous words about how he was a fake and a failure, that Phantom was going to declare him nothing more than a freakishly over powered meta and his family would turn him out on the streets over it, the kid abruptly stopped pacing and, without even looking up from his little notebook, asked the two of them, "So did you guys know you were both light deities before you came up here, or is that just a huge freaking coincidence? Because I've cross-checked the facts and crunched all the numbers, and you two are both minor deities of light, among other things."
Dick rolled his head dramatically to the side door a moment before asking in his raspy Raven voice, "Among other thingsssss?"
Phantom looked up from his notes with a blank startled look before understanding flashed across his expression. "Ahh, yes. Raven, you're a minor guardian trickster deity of light, your domains are pranks and tomfoolery, light, and protection. Signal, you're a minor guardian deity of light and shadows, your domains are both light and shadows, as well as protection. Basically, your domains are things that empower you and that you can manipulate and control with training. Eventually, you'll even be able to bless people within your clan's territory with any of your domains, such as blessing someone to find safety within the light of street lamps. Raven, as a trickster, you'll be drawn to areas and people full of mischief, and even feel the urge to start mischief, yourself," he explained. "As both of you are also guardians, you're inherently connected to the general wellbeing of the inhabitants of your territory. When someone is in danger within the city limits, you'll be able to tell. With practice, you'll even be able to hone in on the location."
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Cass watched from her spot draped across a crouching Tim's shoulders as Phantom gently smacked his forehead with his little notebook. He'd just finished questioning her and seemed to be having a small mental breakdown. She watched him for a little longer before softly whistling a question to her little brother in the family's secret conlang, Is he okay? Tim's chirped answer, I'm not sure, was followed by Phantom taking a deep breath and looking back up at them.
"Sorry about that, I wasn't expecting your clan to have so many minor deities in it. Ibis, you're definitely a kitsune, though I have no idea how many tails you have yet or what they can do, so we'll have to figure that out next time. BlackBat, you're a minor guardian deity of darkness and shadows, your domains are darkness, shadows, and protection. Like I told Raven and Signal, your domains are things that empower you. You and Signal share the domain of shadows, but as you also possess the domain of darkness itself, you'll be able to do things with shadows that he likely never will, no matter how much he trains his shadow domain," Phantom said before letting out a gust of breath and drawing his feet up to sit in midair. He ran a hand through his bright white hair, his entire frame screaming to her his astonishment and wariness. "Ancients, your clan is seriously OP. Batman is most likely a major deity since he has three minor deities under him, then there's the three of you minor deities. Condor's a Phoenix, Starling is a banshee, you're a kitsune with who knows how many tails, Ibis—" he pulled his hand from his hair and ran it down his face instead.
Tim and Cass glanced at each other at his words. Were clans... Not supposed to be like theirs? It felt entirely natural to her, especially since her family had started taking lessons from Phantom. She couldn't imagine her clan being anything other than exactly as it was.
Phantom must have caught the motion of their heads as he hurried to explain. "Most clans are made up of similar, if not the same, species. Your clan not only has a wider variety of species than normal, a lot of you are rare species that either have difficulties getting along with certain species also counted among your number, or aren't usually found in clans at all. Deities, major and minor, either form pantheons, which are different from clans, with other deities local to their territory or fiercely guard their territory from other deities and remain solo their entire existence. The fact that you have a deity in your clan, let alone three or more, is—is unheard of."
Tim froze in her grasp as he immediately began absorbing, analyzing, and extrapolating the new information they'd been given, but Cass barely noticed. No, what drew her attention more than the truly ground shaking information, was the beginnings of real, fragile hope began to show themselves in Phantom's body language. Where before, both the first time she met Phantom and just earlier that very night, he'd exhibited signs of relief and safety, this was perhaps the first time she'd seen him express hope. Cass wondered what he'd seen, what he'd experienced, that had led to him losing his hope in the first place, then she decided that, whatever it was, she wanted to punish the ones behind all of it for taking that hope away.
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AHHH I DID IT. I FINALLY FINISHED WRITING CHAPTER THREE. ಥ‿ಥ This took forever, and I apologize for that. I had to start writing this chapter five different times before I finally figured out how the heck I even wanted to begin. Anyway, I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and all the lore drops. Cass's POV kinda got away from me and I'm not entirely sure where half the stuff I put in there came from, but it works! I hope y'all enjoyed it! I'm hoping to get back into the swing of writing and posting nearly every day for the rest of the month, but we'll just have to see, won't we (^~^;)ゞ
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Kitsune au Preview (ch1) by ajility
Ectoberhaunt 2021, Day 18, Spider Lily (treat)
(Originally posted 10 November 2021)
This is an unbeta'd version of the first chapter for a much longer kitsune au fic I'm writing! @13thcat originally came up with kitsune au, though I'll be taking my version in a different direction :3c
Summary: Being from a family that has a history in exorcism mostly meant that he gets laughed at in school and his parents spend too much time building ridiculous weapons to fight things that don't exist.
...And then his parents decided to move to Japan, halfway through Danny's first year of high school, and he quickly learns that spirits do exist, and that finding them is a lot easier than his parents led him to believe.
Keep reading, or check it out on ao3!
Ch01 Sneak-peek:
Danny knows he’s dreaming in the same way that you know something terrible is going to happen to the protagonist in the beginning of a horror movie; it’s a fact, there’s nothing that can be done about it, but you still flinch when it happens, you still hold yourself back from yelling at the screen and telling the characters ‘no! don’t go in there!’
He’s in a forest, the same forest he always sees in his dreams, with trees too tall and wide to really exist and little dancing lights that flicker at the edges of his vision. There are a lot of things like the lights, that lurk and taunt and exist only until he tries to look at them more directly, but the lights are the most prevalent… and the only ones he doesn’t really mind.
At least they don’t make him feel like he’s being watched, like there’s something silently laughing at him and waiting for him to come just a little bit closer so it can pounce.
Leaves rustle and a stick snaps behind him. Danny spins around, already growling and ready to protect himself, but… there’s nothing there. Nothing he can see, at least.
Danny knows that ghosts aren’t real, when he’s awake — or at least, not real in the way his parents think they are. They don’t go around haunting and killing the living. They don’t hide items that are important to people. They aren’t malevolent, they aren’t the source of all living people’s problems, and they most certainly don’t need to be hunted with special weapons.
Maybe things were different in the past, he doesn’t technically have proof that they’re not real… but despite being from a long line of exorcists, his parents don’t have proof that they are real, either. You would think that a family of exorcists would have some sort of proof, if the things they exorcise actually exist.
But things aren’t as clear-cut, when he’s dreaming. Dream-him isn’t bothered by things like reality and science; he takes note of the little lights dancing just out of focus and thinks ‘will-o-wisps’. He sees strange shadowy shapes creeping between trees and thinks ‘bakemono’.
He does things like growl and bear his teeth at potential threats that never actually turn visible.
It’s probably a good thing he hardly ever remembers the dreams upon waking, because there are a lot of invisible potential threats in the forest, and it’d be really bad if Danny picked up a habit and started reacting to things by growling when he’s awake, too.
A gust of wind. More rustling leaves. A low growl builds in the back of his throat. A shadow starts building up just off to his right side, something growls back, and Danny slaps a paper tag in the direction of the shadow before taking off, twisting and weaving between the trees.
Branches almost seem to reach out for him but he’s gone before they can ever make contact, moving so quickly it’s almost like he’s flying, feet never even touching the ground.
He makes it to a stone path and stops for just a second, orienting himself and choosing a direction before continuing to run. He can just make out a splash of bright red through the trees and he grins — a torii gate. He must be near the entrance, if he can just make it through the gate-
A teasing laugh sounds out, directly next to his ear, and Danny lashes out with sharpened claws even as he’s jumping away. How did one get so close-?
A ripped paper tag drifts to the ground.
“Ohh, your reaction time is getting better,” a voice teases, from directly in front of him.
He growls in frustration, because he still can’t see the speaker. How can he deal with a spirit, if he can’t tell what type it is?
“You don’t want to step through that gate, though,” the speaker continues, either ignoring the fact he can’t see them or unaware of it.
“Why not?” Danny demands, “I want to go home.”
“And so did all of us, at one point or another,” the voice agrees, and it’d almost be sympathetic if the sharp edge of amusement wasn’t still present, “but that doesn’t make it a good idea.”
“So, what? You want me to wander around this forest forever?” Danny says sarcastically.
“No, of course not. This world has much more than a single forest, and you have a whole lot to learn.”
There’s a pause. He thinks that maybe they left or just don’t want to give him any real explanation, but then there’s a soft pressure on the back of his neck and the voice is directly by his ear again.
“We’ll see each other soon, but for now… What I want, is for you to wake up, little fox. Before you forget how.”
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Danny wakes with a start, only to get pulled back by his seatbelt and to find Jazz staring at him with raised eyebrows. He grasps at the remnants of his dream, trying to hold on to anything at all, but it’s already fading.
His fingers feel weirdly blunted and tingly, there’s an uncomfortable pressure in his jaw, and even the way he’s sitting feels wrong, like he shouldn’t be able to lean back in a car like this. He’s felt like this after just waking up before but usually it isn’t quite this vivid.
It’d probably help if he could remember what he dreams about — are they even dreams? Maybe it’s nightmares — but all he can call up is the thought of running, needing to run, and an impression of teasing laughter. He sighs.
“We’re almost there, honey,” Maddie says, “and look! There’s the school you two will be attending now. It looks nice.”
“It looks old,” Danny grumbles, crossing his arms. What a way to start a New Year: another weird dream, and an overly long trip because his parents decided they’re going to move to Japan halfway through a school year. “Why couldn’t we at least wait until summer for this?”
“The shrine won’t sit there forever, Danno! Great grandpa Walker left it to us, and it’s our duty to uphold the Fenton family name and hunt down those ghosts!” Jack says, with way more excitement than the situation warrants.
“Spirits, Jack. We have to be respectful,” Maddie reminds him.
Jack nods and brandishes the ecto-gun he’s been polishing since they got off the plane and started driving. “Right! Maybe your school will be haunted, wouldn’t that be exciting? It could be our first job in Japan!” He points the gun in the direction of the school as they drive past.
Jazz puts a bookmark in the book she hasn’t stopped reading since they left, and snaps it shut. “I’ll pass on that, actually. I plan on getting an education at school, not performing exorcisms.”
“Oh come on kids, quit whining. It’s fun to move to a new place, it’ll be an adventure!” Maddie insists, glancing back at them for a second. This leads to them almost missing a turn, and she dramatically spins the wheel to make up for it with a “Whoops!”
Jazz’s book slides into Danny’s leg, and Jazz probably would’ve slid into him too if it weren’t for their seat-belts. The road gets bumpier, then turns into dirt and starts slanting up. Danny suddenly has a very bad feeling about this.
Jazz does too, if the way it looks like she suddenly swallowed a lemon is anything to go by. “...mom? Why are we heading up the mountain now?”
“We’ve talked about this, sweetie. We’re here to take over the upkeep of a shrine.”
“Yes,” Jazz replies slowly, “but that doesn’t explain why we’re heading up a mountain when we’re supposed to be moving into our new living space today.”
“The shrine is our new living space Jazzypants!” Jack booms, “and everyone knows that shrines have to be on mountains! It’ll be great, what better way to learn more about the gho- er, spirits on this side of the world than to live right in a real shrine?”
Danny is pretty sure that isn’t true, that there’s no requirement that says shrines have to be on mountains, but arguing it is probably a moot point. It wouldn’t change the fact that this shrine seems to be on a mountain, and that his parents have, evidently, decided they’re going to live in it. Are you supposed to live in shrines?
He exchanges a glance with Jazz. At least they’re both annoyed about this, and Jazz hasn’t been able to muster up her ‘look on the bright side of things!’ attitude yet. They’re going to have to walk down a mountain every day to get to school, just because their parents are obsessed with ghosts, despite the fact that they’ve never even seen a real ghost — or spirit, as they’ve started insisting ever since they first learned of the shrine great grandfather left them.
Danny never met his great grandfather. He didn’t even know they still had any family living in Japan, but maybe if he’d known, he would’ve been able to beg the man not to leave a shrine to his parents.
Jazz leans over and whispers, “...maybe it won’t be that bad? People probably don’t send spam mail to shrines, and mom and dad can’t attach any weird giant signs to it, right? It’d be too disrespectful.”
When the shrine comes into view, any potential optimism they’ve dredged up disappears just as quickly as Danny’s memories of his dream did.
It might have been beautiful, once upon a time, but now… well. He’s pretty sure their grandfather hadn’t been doing any upkeep for at least a few years now. The paint is cracked and peeling and it looks entirely abandoned, some plants have even started wrapping around the wood and growing up through cracks.
The inside isn’t any better. Some of the wood is rotting and there are even more spiderwebs. The only upside is that since their grandfather lived there for so long, there are valid living areas, even if they desperately need to be cleaned and fixed up. Upon seeing the outside, Danny had been half worried that there wouldn’t be a kitchen or bathroom or bedrooms.
...actually, maybe it would’ve been better if there hadn’t been a kitchen. Then they would’ve had to find an alternate living situation, and their parents wouldn’t be excitedly discussing how they’re going to fix up the place and what additions they should add on.
Their parent’s enthusiasm hasn’t wavered at all, despite the state the shrine is in — and worse, the fact this is a shrine doesn’t seem to be stopping them from pulling out plans for a lab and workshop space. Now that it’s happening, he isn’t sure why he and Jazz expected otherwise; their parents are nothing if not predictable. At least the living quarters are separate from the main part of the shrine.
Jazz glances at him and offers a weak smile. “At least we’ll get to learn more about the other half of our heritage?”
Danny isn’t sure that’ll make up for everything else, but he nods. At least Jazz can work up some excitement over learning about the culture.
All he’s thinking about is Amity Park and Nasty Burger and everything else they left behind. He’s interested in learning more about Japan too, of course, but… he would’ve preferred to do it through the internet. Or anime. Or anything less extreme than ‘move to the country with roughly 24 hours of warning.’
The moving truck has already dropped off all their stuff, at least. His parents start bringing in all the larger boxes and furniture, while he and Jazz bring in small boxes and suitcases… then start the arduous task of cleaning.
Danny stops and turns around more than once, quite certain something is watching him from the forest that surrounds the shrine, but nothing is ever there.
They work late into the night, getting rid of all the spiderwebs and dirt first. The next day, they start going through cabinets and counters and shelves, dusting and clearing out any of the random stuff they find.
It’s mostly empty, but Danny finds a few old papers with calligraphy he can’t read and a surprisingly nice teapot. It’s heavy and black, probably cast iron, with a gold flower design going around the outside. It feels strangely warm when he picks it up, but he can’t get the lid off, so it must be a decorative piece.
He sets it down on the counter and goes to get Jazz, intending to show her the teapot and see if she can open it… but it’s gone when they walk back over.
“...so?” Jazz asks, glancing around the room with a raised eyebrow. “I thought you found a fancy teapot.”
Danny goes through the cabinets quickly, but those are empty too. “I left it right there, it was black and had gold designs!”
Jazz stares at the counter that very clearly has nothing on it. “...mhm. I think the dust might be getting to your head. Oh!” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a little rectangular charm. “I picked this up earlier, here. It’s an ‘omamori,’ meant for luck and protection. You can keep it in your pocket or hang it off a bag, and when it gets really dirty or a year passes, you replace it.”
Danny examines the little charm for a second, silk embroidered with gold thread, then puts it in his pocket.
“Shrines usually sell these,” she continues, “so we might end up having a whole bunch here. I have no idea what mom and dad plan on doing besides the exorcism stuff, but… we’ll probably have to start doing some shrine stuff too, right? It’s just a local shrine, but people must still know it’s here, so we might get visitors… I have to research it more.”
Right. The exorcism stuff. Danny wonders if people here will be more open to the idea, or if they’ll get scoffed at and laughed at again — no one in the US ever took them seriously, though they did occasionally get accused of being devil worshipers.
“Thanks for the charm, Jazz,” he replies, instead of addressing any of the other stuff. He has no idea what they’ll end up doing with the shrine, after all, and with how long repairs and fixing everything up is going to take… well. There’s plenty of time for his sister to research.
Jazz smiles and nods. “There’s a bunch of different types, I’ll have to figure out what each is for. For now though, let’s go outside? I think it’s time for some fresh air. We can finish inside once mom and dad decide where they actually want to put everything.”
There’s a loud crash as something is dropped in the other room, quickly followed by Jack shouting, “I’m ok!”
“...yeah, outside sounds like a good plan,” Danny agrees, and they go to sit on the freshly swept steps to the shrine.
Danny takes a moment to actually look at the area surrounding them for the first time. They’re around three fourths of the way up the mountain, and there’s a stone path that splits in two right outside the gate, one side going down the mountain and the other leading farther up, disappearing into the trees. There must be something at the top of the mountain then, right? Besides more trees, since it seems to mostly be forest here.
He turns his attention to the gate, which desperately needs a paint job, and notices a splash of color he hadn’t seen when they first drove up. Spider lilies. Had those been there yesterday?
“Hey Jazz,” he asks, pointing at the flowers, “were the spider lilies there when we drove up yesterday? I didn’t notice them.” Considering they’re the only part of the shrine that’s bright red, what with everything else being so faded, he definitely should’ve noticed them.
“Spider lilies?” Jazz repeats, looking towards the gate. “Oh. Those are red poppies, Danny. I’ll have to get you a book on plants, whenever we find out where the nearest library is… They were there, they just hadn’t been in bloom when we arrived.”
Not being in bloom is a good enough reason for him to miss them, but… Danny is pretty certain those are spider lilies. He might not be great at plants, but even he knows that poppies are small and roundish, and those flowers are large and spindly.
Maybe he’ll get Jazz a book on plants instead.
Whatever.
He stands up and stretches. “I’m gonna go for a walk. Be back soon, ok?”
Jazz sighs and also stands, brushing off her pants. “Ok. I’ll do a little more cleaning, maybe try to convince mom and dad to get our beds set up for tonight. Be careful?”
“Yeah yeah,” Danny replies, already heading towards the forest. “I’ve got the charm you gave me, I’ll be fine!”
As he walks through the gate, he stops for a second to take a closer look at the flowers and determines that yep, they’re definitely spider lilies. He’ll have to make fun of Jazz later, for thinking they’re poppies… Maybe she needs glasses? But for now, he heads up the path. It’s time to find out what’s at the top of the mountain.
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