Ectoberhaunt 2023. Day 5. Hunt and Haunt.
~Well, here we go again, good old Ghost Hunger AU~
Description: The Ghost Zone is inherently a violent place. You can hunt or be hunted, there is no other options. However, for some reason the Halfa does not understand what is happening. And no one rushes to explain it. NB! ghost cannibalism is mentioned.
Prompt after memes
Suppose there’s a conventional division among ghosts. Some of them are potential predators capable of hunting their own kind, while others are only able to absorb the surrounding energy and therefore build up power more slowly than hunters.
So, predation is used as a method of survival in poor ectoplasm areas of the Ghost Zone, less often as a means of gaining power. Even less often hunters are created.
It is obvious that the appearance of a hunter who is the son of human ghost hunters in a haunting place without stable sources of ectolasm has caused panic in the society of the dead ones. For the newly formed ghost to have ectoblasts, fangs or ghost sense is a rarity and great luck. So the newcomer had everything and more to be a serious threat. An awful danger for the surrounding spirits…Right?
But Danny doesn’t know the specifics of his new biology ectology!
Even though he’s a hunter, he’s never had a ghost hunger. Probably because thanks to his parents he has an amazing ectoplasm concentrator in the basement.
Soon everyone understands that the boy does not attack first. Those who return through the portal never report any losses at all. He does not bite or attempt to capture cores of other spirits. At first, the ghosts think it's a trap. Smart enough for a beginner. Not everyone has the tenacity to pretend to be an idiot to get close to them. But the Phantom never feeds on them. He’s…safe?
What’s more, Danny seems to think they’re a threat to the city. Which is fun and weird. Normally, there is no competition for feeding using human emotion. But the owner of the lair did not like the smell of fear in the air. Is this ghost broken?
When the ghosts who visit Amity realize that the halfa does not know that he can hunt them, rather than just guard his territory...Well, it explains a lot. Everyone agrees not to explain the situation to the boy so that the city behind the portal remains a relatively safe haven during the during a "hunting season" and other troubles in the Infinite Realms.
~~~~~
The problem arises when Phantom begins exploring the Ghost Zone. What if the other hunters make the boy stop being a freak?
In addition, more experienced ghosts may well attack the careless halfa. And Amity Park under the control of a more predatory spirit would be a terrible outcome. Most dead ones near the portal are used to the fact that the area before Wisconsin is open to travel and migration without the threat of being eaten.
All rational ghosts try to avoid the territory of hunters. If you can’t defend yourself, there’s too much risk of being a free meal. It’s much safer to settle down with spirits with similar energy levels at door clusters. If the hunter does not purposefully show up at your lair, you will have a much better chance of keeping the afterlife.
Those of the Ancients who have won their position and those of them who were created for it have become accustomed to isolation. Although all the Ancients have lost the need to eat 'cause they have absorbed enough energy, legends about their past are still be nightmares for all spirits. Just because they don’t need to eat other ones doesn’t mean they won’t. It is clear that a weaker hunter can also be hunted. No reason to risk.
Therefore, how freely and fearlessly Phantom communicates with Frostbite, Clockwork or Pandora is puzzling. Does he feel threatened at all?
The Ancients find this experience refreshing. Lil communication without fear makes them feel sympathy for this youngling. Danny is always glad of their company. And the boy is not afraid to express his opinion. It is strange but...pleasant?
Their minions from time to time complain that they teach a potential enemy but it is very difficult to see a possible rival in Phantom. Danny is always in trouble. The youngster is silly and careless. Like a wet kitten that can’t even make a threatening hiss. So Ancients, to their own surprise, don't mind helping him. Why isn’t his naivety annoying?
For example, Frostbite’s trying to teach Danny hunting and tracking techniques because he thinks the little cub doesn’t know how to be what he supposed to be. Meanwhile Danny sees his attempts as a course of self-defense that he can use against ghosts who try to infiltrate his city.
~~~~~Bonus~~~~~
Some insufficiently powerful ghosts mimic predators to scare away dangerous spirits and protect themselves.
Skulker is quite pleased that he managed to deceive halfa:
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This is mostly crack but anyways...
Another AU where Danny is the ghost king! ..right?
Pariah Dark proclamed himself the ghost king, not because he was crowned, or because the zone choose him or whatever
"Ghost King" is just a title! He is powerful enough to defeat the Ancients! (when they are alone ofc) Ghost are scared of him! He's not actually the king of the ghosts (just don't say that to his face)
Do you know how hard it would be to choose a ghost to represent ALL of the Infinite Realms?? Is called "Infinite" for a reason! The Observants alredy have a hell of a time trying to get ghost to listen to them!
So when Phantom defeated Pariah! He didn't become the ghost king by right of conquest or whatever, so people didn't care about that (they were happy for pariah dark being gone again of course, he was an asshole!)
So everyone is happy, the evil is defeated, friendship are made and all that jazz (HA!)
Everything is calm now! ..right?
Well the ghosts - the one familiar with phantom at least, most of the others don't care about it to much - decide to prank him
"Hey you know what would be really funny?"
Anyway the gjsot go on their way to prank Phantom, they are giving their best! They are all dramatic bitches! It would be impossible for someone whos not a ghost to not believe it!!
"Phantom you are the ghost king now! Fix our problems xoxo"
"w..what did you say?"
Anyway Danny believes their lie, and the ghosts surprised that Phatom believed them, decide to take advantage.
So Danny goes and...does a really good job! He fixing personal problems, ending fights between groups and ghost, fixing literal political problems in the Zone! He is 100x more tired now of course, but he helping people, he is protecting them! He is the ghost king now! He has to do his job, its probally his fault that this is happening anyway
The ghosts now have another problem in their hands
Having to tell Phantom that this was all a joke, that putting all these problems on his back, calling it his job to fix it, was all a prank!
The don't know what to do! The effectively put a 2 year old on an made up throne! And its worse because the 2 year old is doing an hell of job! He making the Zone a better place!
(They are also just a bit scared of telling him, he defeated Pariah Dark, one of the strongest ghost on the Zone, and two Ancients! How is he so powerful alredy???)
So...what do some of the other ghosts who do know Danny but didn't participate in the prank
Clockwork? They are seeing all of this and thinks its the funniest shit ever, and they see that this mishappen leads to a bright timelime, so he is not interveining, just giving advice here and there
The observants are all having a collective mental breakdown, how can a CHILD do their job way better than then????
Frostbite and Far Frozen? The are overjoyed! The know that this Ghost King stuff is not actually real, but they are happy that Phantom is some of the most powerful ghost now! Would you like to hear more about him? Our lord and savior Phant- wait where are you going? They are not a cult! He swears! Please come back here-
Back on the living realm, team Phantom (which is just Tucker and Sam now, Jazz went to college, and Danny didn't want to worry her) also believe the lie! The ghost sounded very truthfull! Why would the lie about this anyway? The dance number was very convincing after all!
But they are very worried about Danny, he somehow managed to become even more overworked! So they are trying to help him as always...
Okay so, sumary:
Danny thinks he is the "Ghost King" because of a prank by his ghost frenemies and does a way to good job at it (despiste being, technically, a ghost toddler)
The ghost now don't know how to tell him the truth because it will be very awkard
Clockwork finds this funny, the Observants and sobbing, Far Frozen is a cult happy for Phantom, Team Phantom are confuses and worried, Danny is on the verge of his limit, but he never seens to tip over line because his obsession is being fullfilled (in a very stressfull way)
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Harmonic Frequencies, Chapter 7
Another Harmonic Frequencies update!
In which Clockwork finds some sense he needed, and Frostbite gets some answers he didn't want.
Words: 2149
Characters: Clockwork, Frostbite, Jazz
For @five-rivers and @kawaiijohn
Clockwork phased his tail through Jasmine's legs and brought it to rest around her. Daniel would be no less secure for the adjustment–as comforting as Clockwork found it to wrap himself around Daniel as best he could, he had assured Daniel's safety by other means.
Even if his core sang with warning that Daniel was too far, and others too close.
It was wrong.
Read the rest on AO3, or below the readmore:
There was the lair, and there was Clockwork himself. It would be enough.
Especially, he reminded himself, since no one within the lair would harm the fragile child tucked away behind Clockwork's coils, even given the opportunity.
This, he knew. For each of the intruders to his lair, he had crafted himself six eyes; two for their past, two for their present, and two for their future. To Daniel, he had devoted another twenty-four.
No threat would escape his notice.
Clockwork flexed around the tank, feeling the smoothness of metal and glass against his skin, and where the brass ribbing of his tail left lines of pressure against it. If the tank itself were a danger to Daniel, like this Clockwork could–would crush it in an instant.
Skin slipped from where he had wrapped it around his distorted frame, and there was a skrrrrr-r-r as a bare brass rib met the metal of the tank casing.
Yes.
Clockwork had the upper hand.
This was why he had been calm as Frostbite and his people had entered his lair, why he only watched as Frostbite approached and finally stopped, mere paces from the tank.
He squeezed. The metal gave, just a little.
"Clockwork," Frostbite addressed him. "Thank you for allowing us into your lair. I know doing so was difficult."
Clockwork nodded. Some of his hair obscured his eyes with the motion. No matter. It did not obscure his vision.
"How was the transfer? Did you have any difficulty?"
"No," Clockwork said. "Not with anything material." The pain had been expected. The howling emptiness without his little Daniel safe where he could feel him was…it could be dealt with. Even if he felt hollow, hollow, lost and lonely. Even if the insecurity of Daniel’s absence was just as great as Daniel’s pain had been. Greater.
Even if the thrum of his own core keened with the idea that Daniel would not, could not heal with Clockwork so far away.
It was wrong.
There was the tank.
Daniel was safe, was healing better than Clockwork could do for him. Upset surged through him at the thought he wasn't good enough, and the tank suffered another dent.
"Did you happen to notice the drawer?" asked Frostbite.
"Yes," Clockwork said.
Of course he'd noticed it. He'd confirmed that nothing within it would harm Daniel. Nothing was beyond his sight.
"With the pills?"
"Yes."
"...Did you take one?"
Clockwork paused. He had not.
There were instructions printed on a pamphlet in the drawer, in several different languages of the Realms. They explained how to use the tank, what to do and not to do, how it worked. Everything an overprotective parent wanted to know before trusting their child to it.
The pills had been labeled for use by the parent, and were therefore irrelevant. Daniel was the one in danger.
"No."
There was a blooming of possibility as Frostbite selected a response. "Without asking how you are feeling, if you are upset at the loss of Daniel's core, the pills are intended to help."
Oh.
He'd forgotten. Or it had been irrelevant. Or he hadn't wanted something that was going to calm him down when Daniel could be in danger.
Clockwork wasn't certain. His thoughts were difficult to navigate at the moment.
Gingerly, he unwound himself from the tank enough for the drawer to be accessible. Or he would have, if the drawer weren't stuck from the dents he'd put in it.
"Ah," said Clockwork.
"That happens more than you might think," said Frostbite, wryly. "Or not, I suppose. We have extras."
He offered one to Clockwork, who spent a moment examining it with a few eyes before sinking it into his torso.
The relief was not immediate, but as Frostbite turned away to help set up a slightly more permanent camp in the foyer, Clockwork felt the glacier-grip of paranoia begin to melt. He let some of his eyes melt away with it, felt the ragged edges to his appearance begin to smooth as he watched.
The process of setting up the camp was a long one, and still stressful for everyone involved even if the doctors did their best to give Clockwork his space. The edge to Clockwork's nerves didn't vanish completely, even as the false core settled near his own and began to echo Clockwork's own energy. Even if the howling loneliness was dampened enough to tolerate, it was not gone.
It was stressful, that was, for everyone but Jasmine. She spent the time pressed against the glass of her brother's tank, watching him carefully. Clockwork didn't know what she was thinking but it was easy to assume the generalities. Occasionally her face would contort in sorrow, or guilt, or relief.
Behind her, boxes of equipment were unpacked onto portable shelves, and a secluded corner set aside for a call tent and a cot.
Finally, hours later, it began to quiet.
As preparations wound down, Jasmine began leaning more and more heavily against the glass. She was struggling to keep her eyes open, still checking to see that Daniel was there.
Clockwork felt a surge of compassion for her–they were both so worried for Daniel, and she couldn't feel the whisper of Daniel's energy as Clockwork could. He moved to let her use his tail as a seat but then paused.
Suddenly, puffing himself up so large felt excessive.
No one here would attempt to hurt Daniel in any future he could see. Clockwork's lair was secure. Clockwork was powerful.
Daniel was safe.
Clockwork let his extra size melt away as he finally relaxed back into his accustomed form.
Jasmine would likely find it more comforting to be spoken to like this, anyway. He was far closer to her in size and shape, now.
"Jasmine," he said, brushing her shoulder to get her attention. "You look exhausted."
When she turned her head to look at him, her eyes were bleary. There was a red mark on her forehead where she’d been resting it against the glass, and slight creases marked her cheek where it had folded as she sagged.
"I don't want to go back to the ship."
"I know," said Clockwork. "There is bedding here."
"I don't want to go. Away,” she said.
Then his words caught up. She frowned. ”You have bedrooms?”
Clockwork did. "I meant down here."
She turned around. Blinked. "Oh. I hadn't noticed."
"You were occupied."
Jasmine swallowed. Looked back up at Daniel, still swaying gently with the flow of his ectoplasm bath. "Is he…I thought–I hoped."
She bit her lip.
Clockwork waited.
"Is he asleep?"
It was not the only question she could have asked. There was another, barely there in the flutter of possibility.
"No," said Clockwork. "But it is something like that."
"Oh."
And with that, Jasmine returned to looking at Daniel.
Before she could fall asleep slumped against the glass, Clockwork interrupted again. "We could move one of the cots out here."
Jasmine looked at him.
"For you to sleep on."
So she didn't need to stop guarding him. It was a bit easier to admit to himself, now, that she probably wanted to guard Daniel as well.
Jasmine nodded. "Okay."
Clockwork left Jasmine to fall asleep on her cot and returned to his own vigil. He would eventually require sleep himself, but as a ghost of considerable power he needed it far less frequently than any human.
Still, he found himself glancing her way now and again. Even laying down and exhausted, she was fighting sleep; her eyes would slip closed only for her to wrestle them open again to watch Daniel. Like if she let herself lose track of him again, the question she hadn't brought herself to ask might find him instead.
Clockwork turned it idly in his head as he kept his own guard.
Does Danny remember me?
He knew the answer, of course. That did not mean he knew how to say it.
The first shift of many over the coming weeks and months wound down, with more and more of the crew returning to the Tempered Wisdom to rest, recuperate, and plan Daniel’s care now they had more information on his injuries and current condition.
On his final return of the shift, Frostbite carried a shock blanket folded over one arm.
"It's hers," he said by way of explanation as he settled it around Jasmine. With her asleep, he'd switched to Middle Spirit, a language he and his yeti morphology both found more comfortable. "Though she's had it only since she showed up, the smell should at least be a little more familiar."
Clockwork hummed, not particularly committed to pointing out how nose-blind humans were.
Jasmine seemed to take some comfort from it regardless. She mumbled in her sleep and tugged the blanket so it piled higher around her head. After a few more twitches, she settled back into stillness.
They watched her.
Or Frostbite did. Clockwork’s attention returned too easily to Daniel to say the same. He looked just the same as he had for the past hours, shifting only slightly in response to the currents keeping his ectoplasm bath fresh and circulating.
"I also came to speak with you," Frostbite said.
Clockwork returned his attention to him, then pointedly to the yeti doctor who had taken the first shift of monitoring Daniel in person.
"It's policy not to share this information with anyone outside of Danny's care team,” said Frostbite in answer to the unspoken question. ”We can discuss this with Hoarfrost nearby."
Hoarfrost wiggled her claws in a wave. She did not look away from the tablet she was reading.
"We could also discuss this elsewhere, if you wish."
Even with the anxiety quelled and most of his rationality returned to him, Clockwork didn't want to leave Daniel.
Not alone.
Not so small and vulnerable and lonely.
A quiet croon escaped him. Not loud enough to reach Daniel. Barely loud enough to hear himself. But yetis had good hearing.
Frostbite's ear twitched. "Here, then.”
Frostbite schooled the patterns of his energy into something like a calming breath. "When I was discussing Danny's condition with her earlier, Jazz said their parents did this to him. I know they're ghost hunters, but he's rarely expressed significant concern about them in the past. Did they really…?"
He stopped at the look on Clockwork's face. Or perhaps it was the dark and vengeful edge his aura had taken on.
"They have an invention," Clockwork snarled, "which uses the resonant frequency of a ghost's core to shake them to pieces."
"You don't mean–"
"Daniel tuned it to himself the night before they attacked him. He was using it to feel safe."
Frostbite blanched. "That's monstrous."
"That's typical for them."
Hoarfrost’s paw froze above her tablet screen. Worry and confusion shot through Frostbite’s aura.
"I thought–he said he was safe. That he knew how to keep them from hurting him." He trailed off into silence as he thought, core lowing like heaving ice.
Clockwork looked back over to the tank, Daniel still inside. And to the lump of Jasmine's body, curled on her cot. Her head was still angled towards Daniel even in sleep.
Frostbite followed his gaze. "Is Jazz safe?"
"That depends," said Clockwork, "on whether she can convince her parents that she's not under the influence of ghosts. After panicking at the news that they'd killed Phantom, running into their lab, and stealing their experimental ghost zone vehicle before they could stop her. And going through the portal with it."
Frostbite's aura firmed. "Then I will make sure she knows she can stay with us. I made the same offer to Danny, but he didn't take it." He sighed. "I don't think he really thought his parents would hurt him.”
Clockwork stayed silent. He knew many things, but the inner workings of Daniel’s mind weren’t among them.
Hoarfrost’s clawtip completed its journey to the glass of her tablet. She returned to work, claws clicking faintly against the surface.
"If they show up, what will you do?"
Frostbite asked it as if it were an afterthought. It wasn’t. It was a question asked of all parents in such circumstances.
Clockwork bared his teeth in answer, slow and sharp.
"When they show up, how I respond will be a matter of how they got here. Before that…"
Jasmine had taken the speeder. None of their other vehicles would fit through the portal doors.
Clockwork’s smile grew wider. His teeth, sharper.
"They'll have to get here, first."
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