#the chains of kings | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

five-rivers · 20 days

Text

What Was Bound What Was Loosed Chapter 7

For Dannymay 2024 Day 2: Wish

AO3

Ellie gazed at the island skeptically.

“You’re sure it’s this one?” she asked.

Fright Knight grumbled.

“What was that? You don’t know, because the last five islands you brought us to were wrong?”

“I do not stalk this woman,” said Fright Knight. “Do you think I have a running tally of every place she has been, every home she has had, every whim she has pointlessly chased?”

“I mean, what else do you have to do? Be stuck in a pumpkin?”

“I have a vast variety of duties, your highness,” said Frostbite, stiffly.

“Uh huh,” said Ellie. “Sure. Whatever.” She started flying towards the island. Frostbite followed close behind her.

The island was arid, with few trees or other features. A circular building with an onion-shaped dome sat in the center.

“Are those glass bottles?” asked Ellie. “In the walls? Are they supposed to be windows?”

“I believe so,” said Fright Knight.

“A bit on point for a genie, isn’t it?”

“She does not like being called that,” said Fright Knight.

Really?”

“Really,” said Desiree, looming behind the pair.

“Oh, jeez, how do you do that? I thought I was sneaky.”

The corner of Desiree’s mouth twitched up. “I am what I must be. There are words you wouldn’t utter in my presence, and yet those same words are necessary to me.”

“Like, necessary necessary, or you just need them to do stuff?”

“Yes,” said Desiree, tail lashing back and forth, like a cat who had spotted a mouse. “But I assume you need something? No one seeks me out without a need.”

“Your king has a need,” said Frostbite.

Desiree stilled from the tip of her tail to the top of her head. “It’s true, then. It’s him.”

“If by him you mean Danny, then, yeah. They crowned him a while back.”

“And what makes him think that I’ll be any kinder with his wishes now than I was before?”

“Actually, I don’t think he knows we’re here,” said Ellie. “We kinda left without telling him.”

“Is that so?” asked Desiree. “What is it, then, that you two think I’ll help with? Money? Armies? Doesn’t he already have all of those things and more?”

“He’s having trouble sleeping,” said Ellie.

Desiree raised an eyebrow. “I was under the impression that it’s usually the other way around for new kings.”

“It was, for a while,” said Ellie with a shrug.

“And you want me to fix this?”

“We need some guarantees before you go all monkey’s paw on us, but yeah.”

The two older ghosts stared at her blankly.

“Wow, we’ve got to get you guys up to date on literature. I took lessons from Vlad for, like, a month, and I know that one.”

“Later,” said Fright Knight. “You would be handsomely rewarded if you could fix the king’s problem without… mischief.”

“Handsomely how?”

Ellie shrugged.

“I understand you have pretensions to a kingdom of your own,” said Fright Knight. “Our king is generous. You could have one, and be beholden only to him, no other.”

“Could,” said Desiree. “You have no guarantee of that. He doesn’t even know you’re here.”

“Then come with us to talk to him,” said Ellie.

“Talk to a new king? One so recently bound that he hasn’t even unmade anyone yet? One full of resentment and pain? My afterlife has flaws, but I enjoy it. Come back with an offer and a diplomat. Then we’ll talk.”

She turned away and disappeared into her house.

“Well,” said Ellie, “that could’ve gone better. Do we even have a diplomat?”

Fright Knight’s shoulders sloped ever so slightly. “No. Not yet.”

“You want me to what?” asked Vlad, peering at them over the cover of a large book. After being prevented from drinking himself to a second death, he had taken over a large set of rooms in the lower reaches of the palace, turning it into a sort of sad man cave.

“Be a diplomat.”

“On behalf of Daniel, I presume?”

“Who else?” asked Ellie with a shrug.

“And to whom?”

“Desiree.”

Vlad stared at her. “I'm too sober for this,” he said, finally. “Why would you even want me to do that?”

“Come on, don't be like that,” said Ellie. “You're the only person I know who is any good at negotiating and contracts and stuff.”

“Have you at least spoken to Daniel about it?”

“Is that really necessary? He's exhausted.”

“A state you are presumably trying to fix. You do realize, however, that my powers as a diplomat would derive directly from Daniel, and I would require his permission to act in his name.” He looked behind Ellie, where Fright Knight was standing. “Shouldn't you know about this?”

“It is good for the princess to learn it,” said Fright Knight.

Ellie stuck out her tongue at him.

“Come on, Vlad, you know this'll be easier to sell to Danny if we can show him an actual plan. And I know that figuring out what to give to Desiree will take a while. You know how badly Danny is sleeping. Help him out.”

Vlad sighed. “Very well. But both of you will be helping me with the research “

“Great,” said Ellie. “What first?”

“Organize my portal notes. They're in that cabinet, right there.

Ellie eyed the slightly moldy and water stained notes. “How… How do you even have these? Weren't they in your lab in your mansion?”

“I kept copies here in the Zone,” said Vlad. “I haven’t just sat around while you’ve been gone.”

“Really,” said Ellie.

“Don’t be so skeptical.”

Ellie squinted at the notes. “Are these in code?”

“Of course,” said Vlad. “I’m not careless enough to leave instructions for portals lying around where anyone could get them.”

“Uh huh. And how am I supposed to organize this if I can’t read it?”

“It’s a cipher I taught you,” said Vlad, waving her off. “I’m sure you’ll manage.”

Ellie sighed heavily and sat down next to Vlad. “This isn’t you trying to get back again, is it? Because I’m pretty sure that isn’t healthy.”

Vlad shot her a glare. “I haven’t been healthy since college, but, no. I am not chasing impossibilities. Am I not allowed to take pride in my own work? Am I not allowed to want to preserve it against future need?”

“Okay, okay. You don’t need to snap at me. How do you want me to sort these, anyway?”

“By topic, topics in alphabetical order,” said Vlad, already losing interest in her and returning to his book. Typical.

She huffed and looked up to rope Fright Knight in, but he was done. Wimp.

Clockwork had taken to carrying around a quilt.

Danny knew why. Now that he’d recovered somewhat from his coronation, he’d gone from borderline narcolepsy to insomnia, which, in turn, led to falling asleep when he was finally too exhausted to stay awake.

He didn’t like living like this, in a haze of permanent fatigue, his emotions raw from more than pain, more than the trauma of being bound as king, and he understood that Clockwork didn’t want him to act like this, either. The blanket was the closest he’d come to making a pointed remark about it. Well, maybe he should have thought about that before making Danny king.

And separating him from his home.

His friends.

Most of his family.

Most, because Ellie was here. In the Zone. Not in the palace. She and Fright Knight had disappeared somewhere the last couple of days, and since those days included Spectra coming to visit… Well, Danny couldn’t fault them for wanting to avoid him. He was awful company. But he was still unhappy about it. Especially the part where they left without telling him. At least, he couldn’t remember them telling him.

Danny’s current sleep habits were not conducive to memory retention.

So, he was unhappy. Layers of unhappy.

(And he also had the sneaking suspicion that he hadn’t just sent Spectra away, no matter what Clockwork said, and no matter that Clockwork had promised to be honest with him.)

A thrall approached and leaned close to Danny’s ear. Her highness has returned. Fright Knight has returned.

“Ellie’s back?” asked Danny. “And Fright Knight?” he added, as an afterthought.

There was a rattle of armor around one of the corners of the garden hedge and Danny looked up to see Fright Knight enter the small clearing around the fountain he was resting at.

“My liege,” said Fright Knight, by way of greeting. “I believe that I and the princess have found a solution to your sleeping problem.”

Oh, well, now Danny felt bad about being mad at them.

“What’s the solution?” asked Danny. He absently rubbed at the spot where the crown curled into his eye socket. He vaguely remembered Fright Knight saying something about Nocturne, and he desperately hoped that Fright Knight hadn’t dragged Nocturne here. He just… he couldn’t deal with Nocturne being here. He could barely deal with Clockwork and Fright Knight being here.

“The woman, Desiree,” said Fright Knight.

“Oh, wow,” said Danny. “That is… That sounds like a terrible idea.” Not to mention, Danny had no intention of letting anyone magic him to sleep, not after what had happened before.

“We could negotiate with her,” said Fright Knight. “She has desires as well.”

Danny opened his mouth to refuse, but hesitated. “What does she want?”

“A kingdom of her own.”

“I– Can I do that?” asked Danny.

“Yes,” said Clockwork. “Although finding such a kingdom residents is often difficult.”

“I… Is she here, too?”

“She wanted a diplomat,” said Fright Knight. “She forgets her place, but she could be useful.”

“Uh huh,” said Danny. He tried to lean back for a moment, forgetting that he was sitting on the edge of a fountain, and there was nothing behind him. Clockwork steadied him with a hand on his shoulder. “You… Maybe we could invite her, or hire her, or whatever, but… not for sleep.”

“Then what, my liege?”

Danny shrugged. This was probably an even worse idea than asking her to help him sleep, but… He wanted to know what he had done to Spectra. And… if he had done something terrible, well.

Well.It couldn’t have happened to a better person for it, but… if he had… he wanted to fix it.

#dannymay #dannymay 2024 #danny phantom #phic #what was bound what was loosed #the chains of kings

25 notes · View notes

bluerosefox · 7 months

Text

Over Tea

A sudden chill sweeps through Gotham, almost like Mr. Freeze had just attacked only thing was the man was currently locked away in Arkham, and was felt by all. And talked by all via word of mouth and on social media as well.

The clouds and smog that covered their dark city shifted and swirled, a rumble beginning deep inside them as the weather turned from smoggy to rain and thunder with no real warning. The strangest thing was the green glow that could be seen when thunder rumbled inside the gray clouds.

Then like a candle being blown out, the rumbling stopped, the rain ended, and the clouds parted all over Gotham.

For the first time in a while Gotham had a clear sky and it felt... it felt like something heavy had been lifted off the city.

It was this sudden shift and the all felt chill that had set off alerts for Batman and his family. Since early morning since the first change and shift happened he was in front of the Batcomputer trying to narrow down where it started.

After hours of searching with the help of Red Robin, Oracle and strangely enough Red Hood, they managed to narrow down where the odd power had been coming from.

Was still coming from, only very low.

The old and abandoned observatory tower.

-x-x-

"More ecto-tea Lady Gotham?" Danny asked, his hand waving towards the steaming pot nearby.

The woman smiled lightly, her dark painted lips curling up to show her sharp fangs for a moment before saying "No but thank you Young Kingling though I would like more cookies if you don't mind. Now where were we?"

Danny nodded towards her and signaled towards a maid skeleton ghost who walked forward with a tray of cookies. The maid swiftly placed a few more cookies on the spirit embodiment of Gotham plate before bowing and stepping away.

"We were just about to discuss the sentience of the Court of Owls." Danny said as he lightly tapped the large almost mountain of paperwork on the table they were sitting at, floating high above the floor as shooting stars and planets drifted around them. Many ghosts floated around as well, servants that had sworn their loyalty to the Young King, and were preparing things like snacks and drinks for two powerful beings in the room as they discussed business. Nearby doors and windows though were ghostly knights that stood tall and alert, making sure no interlopers interrupted the meeting taking place and ready to defend not only Lady Gotham but their King.

"Ah yes them." Lady Gotham grimaced as she took a drink of her ecto-tea. "That will take some time for us to discuss, they've been running around unchecked for to long and even with my limited abilities to hinder them has been less than ideal."

"You, Lady G, were deeply cursed for many, many years and I just broke most of it." Danny cut in quickly, he was not about to let this wonderful and powerful city spirit blame herself for something out of her hands "Due to said curse you couldn't do much so please don't go blaming yourself. Its mostly broken now, so you can freely start healing yourself and your city self now that jerk demon that cursed you is in Walker's prison for his crimes."

Lady Gotham grew silent for a moment, her dark eyes staring deeply at the young King but then warmly smiled, well as warm as she could seeing how she was Gotham itself. "You reminded me of my Knight, Young King, treating me like this. Not afraid to point out the truth and facts."

Danny gave a light laugh as he took a hold of one of the cookies on his plate and gave a bite "I'll take that as a compliment Lady Gotham. Now about those Court of Owls...."