Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The water was cold and kind, buzzing with slothful energy as it surged around him, pale foaming bubbles rushed from around his fingertips and hair like his blood on a battle field. In a few eternal seconds it tickled his cheeks and hands as large bubbles slipped from his screaming mouth. A hand reached towards him, a vampiric blue face looking on in steadily growing shock as it dimmed with his sinking. 

Pure instinct told him to never take it.

The cool water muddled his thoughts, filling his mind with a soft cotton that shielded him from the world.

You are safe dearest child of the zone, it whispered, curious and kind to him.

It filled his lungs like smoke. Into its depths he sunk and the shadows writhed around him, beasts rising to drag him down further. They drifted, seemingly nothing more than strange masses, tendrils writhing and moving with a strange grace as large impossible faces that shifted and changed with each molasses like thought stared at him.

Who brought such a creature to me to be reborn? What crimes could such an obsession commit?

The water seemed to purr around him as he was cradled. He’d been so afraid, so so alone. Alone and afraid because nobody knows what its like to be stuck in between a veil. To be trapped in life and death and trapped once more in life.  But he isn’t alone is he? That’s not right. 

He has something to love, to protect, to care for and see live, he…

What does he have exactly? What has he lost?

You do not need this second chance dear one, yet it is a gift I cannot yet remove. I will perhaps give both you and another a gift.

His lungs burned, he can’t breath. His core ached and squirmed in his chest as it keened for help, for anyone, any comfort, any one of his people. He’s pushed upwards by the sea. 

He doesn’t belong, he never has and he never will. The horrible darkness seemed so large as it reigned endless around him and he has to fight, he needs too.

But why does he fight? 

Danny thrashed for his own sake, he didn’t need to breath but that doesn’t stop it from hurting. Why does it hurt so badly? Why do his scars hurt? Spindling needles of pain that branch across his chest, glowing with a dull sickly light. He remembered they’d faded, but the memories slipped from his core like the cosmic sands of time.

His skin felt like it was peeling off, stabbing needles reaching through like the shards of light that cut through the earth’s sea. This was not the Earth’s sea. He saw the pinpricks of stars overhead, green in both their own color and from under the swirling green waters of the sea.. He had to reach it, he was so so close. He had to breath. He had to be free.

Rise anew, dear prince. I know who your core so belongs to, pray you return to them soon. Fight onward in their names and hope you will one day remember.

He thrashed until the ocean pushed him upward, breaking through the surface into the warm windy air as he sputtered and water poured from his mouth. His muscles twitched and burned and protested movement as did his core, energy sluggish as it refused to move through tired limbs. He could barely breath, movements slowing as dark pinpricks danced in his vision.

No energy to move. No energy to do anything and it hurts. It was all so fuzzy, so so annoyingly fuzzy as his core begged for him to continue fighting but for what? Why does he fight?

He’s so tired.

He reached up with a last attempt, straining to keep even his fingertips above the water as his face dipped back in and his legs failed. 

A hand grabbed his own, rough and warm as whoever was above held onto him tightly and reached into the water, grabbing under his shoulder awkwardly in an attempt to get a good grip. He was hauled up and out of the sea, pulled into the arms of another. An angel maybe. Through spotted vision he was able to gleam a soft green glow of worried eyes and a hopeful voice asking something, so muffled and far away as Danny smiled to himself.

Perhaps he’s finally fully died, he thinks dully to himself. And this angel finally finally got enough sense to drag him off to hel, or probably one of his chosen parent’s lectures.

He has those… doesn’t he? Yes, he believed he did, that’s a nice thought. There is someone out there, this angel would help him until than.

He smiled slightly, shoving his face into the soft fabric of something or another, cheek against a cold brooch as hair tickled his ear. He could hear through half muttered assurances and curses as the person struggled slightly to hold him securely but refused to let him fall back in. The water quickly dried on his skin, the stinging faded into a dull afterthought as his core purred slightly at the thought of safety.

Without many other thoughts, he drifted off into sleep, water still trickling from his mouth and nose and cuts and bruises he can’t remember ever receiving stung with ectoplasmic salt. 

May the faded bless you dear prince of the ghost’s core, rejoice, and meet my own children.

The world swayed, gentle as was the soft padding of rain on a wooden roof. It sounded like music around him, unsteady yet constant in the swirling tired confusion of his mind. The room creaked lightly with each slow rock, low and just displaced enough in his mind to be easily forgotten into the background. He pulled the soft yet thin sheet closer to himself, it was cool and soft against his too hot skin, driving away the strangeness in his core, leaving only the reassurance that he’s safe.

Dully he thought he was perhaps in a lair and how inherently dangerous to any ghost that would be, but there was a safety that sends a tired lull in his bones and despite the strange displacement from an unknown familiarity, and his core tells him he’s welcomed here.

Yet it was cool and comfortable and he swayed lightly in time with both the general room and the cloth hammock that held him. A cool breeze rocked him like it was a cradle, tickling his cheeks and ruffling his hair.

He cracked his eyes open with a slight groan, core kicking into wake up the fuck up you half dead bitch mode as it hummed with a sort of safety he’s surprised he’s unfamiliar with.

His eyes snapped open the rest of the way. He sat up, blinking and looking around in confusion.

He couldn’t tell where he was, he couldn’t tell who he was. A terrible wrongness started clawing through his core and heart, choking him slightly. He doesn’t know why, no memories besides his own name, his species, and who he is, not even a purpose or anything else besides those simply unsimple things. He held this close to his heart and took in a breath. Focus on what you can see, a small voice tells him, focus and it will be alright eventually.

The room was made of a dark wooden ceiling and floor, walls a dark blue as countless papers and pictures are tacked to it, shelves holding many kick-knacks, reverently placed and obviously loved. 

It was cluttered, yet a comfortable organized chaos he was strangely familiar with. The furniture was scarce besides the pillows and blankets and a few scattered chairs and a wood carved desk. A simple bed sat nearby, it could’ve hidden by billowing white curtains had they not been fluttering in the breeze as they were held up by thin wooden poles, furs and pillows were piled on the bed itself in almost a nest like way. It looked super fucking warm compared to a hammock but he had to be fair, he preferred the cool breeze. 

Blankets and pillows sat stacked up around the bay window his hammock was strung up in, the window open as it overlooked a mirror like sea, the green stars above reflected down in perfect harmony, only disrupted by the slight rippled of the ship’s edge. 

The sky was a deep and dark greenish grey he couldn't quite place the location of in his empty bank of locations. It had to be a lair, ghost instincts muddled and confused as he could practically sense that he was somewhere in the ghost zone. It wasn't a terrible feeling, a comfort that there in a lair no one would dare enter unless his… well not angel but ghostly savior would let them in. 

No memories to his name, he had to trust someone. He could only remember one someone anyway, even if he didn’t know them besides their eyes and muffled kind of fucked up version of their voice. Eh, it was rather nice voice as far as voices go.

Another thing caught his eye. Drawings and pictures, each hand drawn in charcoal, were tacked to the walls and stacked in piles about. Star charts, half completed or parts of one as well as a multitude of other things from people to plants to places.

A set of constellations and their representatives were painted carefully across the ceiling as well. He stared at them in wonder, letting himself float up to actually see a close charcoal drawing of a two headed lobster until the door was opened and he dropped back into the hammock.

A wolf man entered, sparking a sort of familiarity in Danny, though why he couldn’t tell as even without his memory he was sure he’d never met this wolfish figure before. 

His fur was thick and darker than eternal night as the shadows shifted strangely in his long and groomed coat, almost wispy as his ears stood tall, flicking as the sound of the rain in the room. Bright gold eyes, far too intelligent to not be terrifying stared into his own. His dark leather coat swished as he walked, hiding his bulk and muscle well. He was tall, taller than Danny for sure, and stood proud, shoulders set and stance readied for a fight. His lips were pulled back slightly to reveal long silvery teeth in an annoyed sneer.

Everything about the ghost sent a small voice screaming danger through his core, the power emanating from the wolf was something to behold. He blinked and realized he’d readied an ectoblast in his hand, power crackling and cold and probably a habit. He kept it ready even if he truly didn’t mean to summon it, just in case the wolf turned out to simply be an invader of some sort.

The wolf approached, claws clicking on the wood floor, which had no right being that intimidating. Guy was obviously a ghost from his unearthly glow and general inhuman disposition so he had no actual need to walk. Dramatic Bastard. Danny liked him immediately.

“Hello, child,” he rumbled, voice perhaps once smooth but now scratchy and more animalistic than anything else. “I see you’re not dead, if I were any other wolf I’d say that’s incredibly impossible. Congratulations.”

He stopped just out of reach, snout pulling into a slight smile as he warmed amicably. He had an actual ascot as well as a lantern attached to his hip and Danny was half tempted to listen to his instincts and ask if he’s about to start screaming about a white whale.  He was sure he knew someone who would appreciate that thought but for the life of him couldn’t remember who, unsettling as any information came up as a blurred blank. He smelled like sea and salt and considering Danny was half sure they were in a lair meant to mimic a boat, which was fair. Maybe he had a harpoon. That would be rad.

Danny, as much as he likes this wolf man’s style, hated feeling like he’s at a disadvantage if he needed to fight such a guy, quickly transforming out of an ingrained habit to get on a slightly more even playing field. 

He’s glad he knew something in an unfamiliar world.

The wolf stared at him in slight surprise before he grinned wolfishly. “Ah, well it seems our newest recruit is full of surprises,” he murmured to himself before somehow straightening more, ungodly tall and imposing. “So than, I suppose I must welcome to the Sonder, the only ship willing to sail the Celestial seas, under the command of Captain Fernweh.”

Danny blinked, “Not to seem like an ass, Mr. Wolf Sir, but is that supposed to mean anything. Heads feeling kinda… fuzzy right now.”

“No, I suppose its not meant to mean anything to you, child ,” He snorted before regaining that terrifying ghostly composure, “You’ve lost any memory relating to your obsession just like every other ghost whose dipped their cores into the waters of the souls. The captain commands these seas so you were brought to him before the monsters could  devour your core or the water could dissolve your ectoplasm into its own heart.”

“Brought in by the sea?”

“Aye, by the sea, show some respect to it, child. It holds great power over the rest of the zone, and it has decided your own fate,” he said.

Alright than, drama much? Fucker even said aye like a damn pirate. Though being eaten by monsters is something he did not want and filed away a mental note to thank the mysterious Captain later. Probably that angel that grabbed him. He’s still calling the ghost an angel because fuck it he’s a ghost too he can be just as dramatic.

Danny nodded, phasing through the hammock with a bit of trouble as the wolfman motioned for him to follow. He thought that maybe he could steal the sheet because it was really soft and would make a neat cape, but a quick glare from the wolf told him that’s probably illegal among… Pirates? Sailors? Furries? 

He also makes a note to check out those neat star charts after borrowing a sheet because they’re cool dammit. 

They walked through the lair door and into the thin hall of a ship, doors and doorways on each side as an incredibly steep stairway leading upward sat down the hall. Black wrought iron lanterns containing green ghost fire swung from the ceiling with a low creaking groan. The lair door behind him matched almost perfectly to the rest, the only actual technically ‘strange’ door being a metal one seemingly cloaked in shadow.

Oooh, mysterious dungeon door, that’s fun.

“I’m Hati Managarm, technically quartermaster and a gunman of this ship.” He closed the lair door and lead him to the stairs, paws… Hands… things behind his back and power walk on fleek. “Now I’d recommend that you keep to your ghost form. These seas are dangerous and while  the crew will not harm you, I cannot speak for the inhabitants of the islands we visit, especially as we will sail into uninhabited territories.”

Danny really wished to point out he just called the uninhabited habitated but hey, what did he know? Probably nothing.

He turned his head slightly, looking to Danny with a low rumbling growl in his throat, “Do you understand? I’m in charge of security, ‘Distrust & caution are the parents of security.’ I will not have you endangering this crew by getting a bounty on your head.”

It wasn’t meant to be menacing, the guy probably couldn’t help it but Danny gulped and nodded anyway.

“Er… Shakespeare?” He took a wild guess to who he was quoting, shrugging slightly. Anything to defuse that aggressive dogfight tension.

Hati shook his head smiling lightly and continued on, tail wagging slightly. 

“No Poor Richard.”

They made their way through the thin hallways to the steep stairs, the wolf not bothering to climb them as he landed on the deck. Danny floats lazily behind him, looking about in surprise. His core shifts its own gravity to match the boat’s rock, keeping him from knocking into the walls. It was mildly disconcerning as he could feel the sway as if he were standing on the deck. Hati’s demeanor shifted, loosening as they reach the light of the general outside ghost zone, standing on the dark faded green deck. He took the lead easily  as the scene around him unfurled and the salty wind, cool and refreshing, blew though his hair and the fresh scent on sea clouded his nose. 

Hati turned, a wolfish smile stretched across dangerous teeth, “Welcome to the Celestial Seas!” he practically bellowed, arms splayed as he walked backwards across the deck. “Sometimes known as the Aught Tides or the Sobbing Seas. Don’t fall in or you’re memory will simply reset again and any knowledge of this ship will disappear and as this ship is here to help, that would be less than pleasant. As well it can dissolve your form and core if you stay in too long or anger it, much like the rest of the zone.”

“Cheerful place.”

Around them ship stretched a churning green sea, deep and dark as it met the horizon of a similarly colored sky. It seemed almost too grey to be the ghost zone, no doors or floating islands as far as he could see. But his core told him it was, the ectoplasm thick in the air and tingling with energy. 

Clusters  of glittering stars stretched above, reflecting in the cresting waves below as they glow an acidic green. It was endless around them, violent and crashing and oh so different from the mirrored calm in the lair’s window.

The ship itself seemed to glow its own grey-green, like a faded photo of the ghost zone. It creaked and swaying with the pounding waves as the tall sails caught the wind. More ghostly lanterns were strung about, mixing in the rigging  and casting an eerie glow from above as two figures, harpies, swooped about, cackling. They spun across the sky, glowing bright green as their white feathers stood out from the sky.

“Its not much compared to the rest of the ghost zone,” Hati continued, catching Danny’s attention, “But its become an accountable home and it’s the safest place to refind an obsession that I know.”

“Why’s that,” Danny found himself asking, head cocked as he drifted upside down simply because he could.

Hati hummed lightly, “Most ghosts won’t last out there without their obsession to lead them forward. They’ll fade without a hint to it. Die. All because they don’t know what to do with themselves.” He motioned around, to the incredibly lax and minimal crew. His eyes softened slightly and he huffed, shaking his head. “But this ship is a safe place, you can have a job here until you find your obsession.”

He turned back to continue walking towards the front of the ship, Danny following out of lack of anything else to do. Nearby two ghosts sword fought, or rather one used a rather dull sword lit with obnoxiously red fire as the other wielded vines that seemed to grow in place of one of her arms and hung around her figure, black skirt billowing in the breeze as they laughed together. One laugh more menacing than needed as they sent blow after blow at one another in a halfhearted attempt at a battle. They zipped about in time with one another, the vine girl less practiced but still formidable in battle.

The one with the sword noticed him, expression shifting into a violently dark scowl as his red flame hair crackled and he changed tactics at the drop of a ghost dime. He sent out a powerful volley of swipes and slashes, forcing a shift in her defense one way as he dropped and shot a fiery wave at her skirt. She yelped and flew backward, patting the flames off from it. Her brows furrowed as the flowers growing on the vines around her glowed a brighter pink, writhing and struggling to reform into the vague shape of an arm.

“Muller!” She shouted in annoyance, “You promised you wouldn’t do stuff like that!”

Muller shrugged, sending one last glare at Danny before turning to his opponent, “Sorry, Flowers! Simply forgot, I’ll do better next time alright?”

In return she shook her head like this happened too often, which didn’t quite settle right in Danny’s stomach. Nor did his sudden weird hate of Danny, like come on he didn’t even know the dude!

Danny glared back at him, he didn’t like that he wasn’t being careful, or hell he should at least be helping her to learn so they could be on an even level. And he’s using fire, obviously not normal ghostly flames since it lit her on fucking fire, on a ship. A wooden ship. He had half a mind to go over and kick his ass and show him whose really on a higher level AND basic fire safety while he’s at it. 

That’ll show him for hurting someone. 

The vine lady huffed and launched at the other. She caught Muller by surprise and knocking him to his ass. Danny snorted as another ghost, a snake-tailed woman who looked like she belonged in an ancient greco-roman mosaic lounged wrapped around the ship’s railing nearby smiled as well. 

Never mind than. Vine lady could’ve definitely kick all of their collective asses. Dully noted.

The snake lady turned a page in her book, four arms making for an incredibly easy transition between. One hand waved to Danny as he passed, she looked up to offer a kind smile, eyes a pure white, startling and almost haunting. She daintily lounged, black hair sitting in neat curls atop her head and her chiton as stark as her eyes against the dark sky, draped so elegantly it had to be intentional. It made her look statuesque and regal. Her golden jewelry jingled lightly and her green scales and skin glowed softer than most of the neon rave ghosts. She just seemed like a total mom.

Danny, for his credit, could not remember if he had any moms, so in his humble opinion, snake mom is best mom, no meeting her needed. 

He hummed, returning to look at Hati, “I mean, it’s not like I have any damn memories, and I kinda feel bad for you guys saving my ass and me dipping, so I’m down. Do I have too like, swab the deck or something?” 

“No,” Hati rumbled, “That would be the harpy twin’s job.” 

He led Danny to the very front of the ship, stopping to stand dramatically at its tip. His fur ruffled in the breeze, nose twitching with the salt as his eyes glinted with an unearthly light. The ends of his coats swayed and lantern on his hip lit with a golden fire, crackling lightly. It cast a haunting glow across him, a reminder he wasn’t your garden variety spirit.

To be perfectly fair, Danny had to hand it to him. The part of his ghost monkey brain that didn’t function off memories told him that ghosts are naturally inclined to be dramatic. And the furry whale hunter sure as hell could be dramatic. 

Danny hoped he could learn from such a master.

“Even than, each of us does have a job here,” Hati continued. “I make sure things run smoothly and protect the general crew. Our Captain rules and navigates, he owns the seas as well. Mira runs her own small shop and is head botanist for ground exploration. The twins are on clean up and watch detail. Muller helps me as a gunman.” He soured at the mention of Muller, snout wrinkling and Danny, in his infinite knowledge of the crew, agreed with that sentiment. “Viper does as she will. She makes sure we don’t fall apart and we leave her be. Tell me, ghost boy, what skills can you remember?”

“I uh,” Danny paused, wracking his brain. “I can punch and scream good?”

Most ghosts can punch and while the wail is an arguably unique talent to him, he knows it doesn't come out like that. Yet for some hel forsaken reason that made the wolfman actually consider him for a moment.

“We can work with this,”  he decided. “You can be on security. The Captain dislikes fighting what the ocean attacks us with so usually me and Mulller take care of the monsters.“ He thought for another moment and nodded to Danny, ”Welcome to the crew. I’ll talk to Viper about getting you a proper place to sleep.“

With that he turned and left Danny at the front of the ship like a man going off to war, leaving his bride behind to stare after him, misty eyed and yearning for more answers. Except the bride was very sure he wasn’t engaged and the misty eyes was salt and the answers he yearned for were actually his yearning for cheap junk food.

His hair whipped about in the wind as he could feel the spray of the sea, the ship traveling quite quickly. The stars above shone, twinging as did his memory, something clicking slightly. A fact he knows. A fact he can grasp. 

He wondered if there was any place for him to return to or if its just him, the ship, the crew, and the ocean. Nothing else, no one to look for him. Nobody out in the rest of the ghost zone to come and find him in this impossible place. 

But the cool spray of sea foam was a fascinating feeling and the stars seemed like nothing he’d seen before. Perhaps this impossible place was a fine space for him to be. Safety. Hope.

Another thought occurred to him.

“Damn furry didn’t even ask for my name!”

Chapter Text

He sat on the front railing and basked in the wind. It sung and whistled around him in a growing cacophony, seemingly the very edge of a storm, just waiting to burst free. It was an impossibility in the Zone, an unknown and endless something creating it. But it was as impossible as the water so Danny was at a loss for it.

He had half a mind to try and find the captain, it seemed like the nicest thing to do considering the guy’s his new boss. Formal introductions and all that, or not being made to walk the plank or other pirate shenanigans. Ancients, he still really had no idea if they were literally just sailors or pirates. Pirates would be rad though.

But still Danny sat and watched the stars pass lazily overhead. They didn’t move how he thought stars should; stationary compared to the ship’s movement. Odd, like an incredibly detailed painting. They shone a neon green against the depths of the swirling sky, bright and oddly nice to look at.

He traced each one that passed with his eyes and he wondered if there were even stories about them. He wondered if he’s ever seen them before as well, or seen something wildly similar.

The strange familiarity they seem to share tell Danny that there’s something wrong with them, what that being he couldn’t tell. He knows they’re meant to be as infinite as the realm they reside in, and he wonders if these stars stretch to the rest of the zone as well. 

The sea started to churn more violently, waves being thrown about, and than he seas it, the serenity dissipated as something rose from the sea. Tendrils of inky black whose mutating flesh was covered in gunk and small tooth-like hooks flailed towards the sky, its voiceless shriek echoing across the ship. It reverberated with a terrible sadness that leeched into anger and the tendrils crashed onto the railing, grabbing it and beginning to tip the ship.

The ghost crew tensed, turning immediately to see the beast as Muller and Hati shot high into the air, gazes trained onto the monster.

Danny shot upwards as well, hovering as he flicked through his options. He didn’t remember his usual battle strategies, hell he didn’t know if he even had any. Sure he liked to punch things, but that means practically nothing. 

His eyes widened as he watched the beast slowly rise from the water, beaked face pushing through the waves and its small face tentacles flailing in the air. It was disgustingly cool, wisps of smoke seeming to rise from its flesh as the shadows from the waves bent and absorbed into its skin. Tiny bead like eyes shone a poisonous green and stared up from its face, millions blinking and bright as they seemingly pulsed to an unknown beat.

Each one locked onto Muller, arguably the farthest from the monster as he pointed a sword at it, grin sharpening into pure malicious joy.

Hati called “CHASE IT OFF!” as his only incredibly complex instruction, letting out a roaring battle cry that rivaled the monster’s. He dropped to the deck and immediately caught a flailing tendril at full force, claws extending and ripping into it as he used his own maw to pull chunks away.

Danny let himself drop as well, Muller followed for a moment though gave up on relying on gravity and flew past in a rush. The halfa fell past the side of the ship, stopping in the air close to its face and firing off a shot into its eyes. The beast shrieked and pulled back as Muller called something from above and a large tendril, severed in half and spraying grossly thick ectoplasm, fell past, hitting the water with a fwooom.

It formed into a macabre dance and Danny was quick to realize why the monster was just so dangerous. The water that soaked its being sent needles of pain through his being each time it caught him in the stomach. Each strike flung him uncomfortably close to the sea’s surface and unlike the salty spray that was a soothing tranquility, it sent sparks of pure unfiltered fear through his core. The ship listed to the side as it put its weight onto it and the flurry of tendrils made it difficult to take to the air as nobody was able to phase through them and the monster actually learned unlike most mindless beasts, dunking into the sea each time Danny neared its face alone. 

The battle passed in a whirlwind as adrenaline pumped through his veins and an energized smile crossed his lips, each movement was fluid and natural as he realized that improvising was practically mandatory while fighting alongside the others.

The beast only targeted Muller, who was more than happy to slash and hack through each tentacle that came his way as well as unintentionally make a huge scene by screaming almost incomprehensible and rather nasty insults. But he was slower than either Danny or the large wolf man, and was caught more times than he would admit, screaming profanities as the beast pinned his arms to his sides. Danny and Hati worked together to cut through the tendrils each time Muller was grabbed, letting the monster rock the ship while they focused on freeing Muller. It detached itself each time, trying to pull away and leave with Muller in its grasp. Hati would not let this happen, angrily howling and biting through the pulsing flesh like it was nothing. 

Hati served better when fighting with Danny than happy slasher Muller, digging with his claws and covering Danny as he lets out volleys of ectoblasts. He was quick to shatter the ice Danny encased the tendrils in, the beast as it pulls back at the shock of the rapidly changing temperature and the needle like shards piercing it. Hati was easy for Danny to track and easy to have watch his back, sticking to the deck and to running across the tendrils and willing to offer an amused huff at Danny’s jokes. Each howl was an alert to something or another and Danny decided he was annoyed the monster didn’t respond to his rather uncreative puns.

Than again there are only so many sea and squid jokes one can make without resorting to kinks.

It took one last crack at its eye, actually freezing them as Hati shattered it with a slamming punch, did it give a powerful shrieked. It shook his eardrums, causing him to clamp his hands over his ears as he fell, and barely managed to catch onto the side of the ship. Muller slammed to the deck, screaming in pain as Hati was in the same boat, stumbling across a convenient tendril trying to get away from the beast and to the deck’s minimal protection.

The shriek was so much like his own wail, countless voices mixing in a strange sadness unlike the anger and pain contained in his, creating an unholy cacophony that ebbed and stripped away at his core and spirit and he slowly slipped down the ships side. Slowly it petered off into holy silence.

Danny peaked out at the sweet silence. He watched in a growing horror as it wrapped its hooked tendril around Hati, who had collapsed, whimpering in pain. It raised him high into the air, preparing to throw him in the ocean. He sucked a breath and pushed away the already fading pain in his ringing ears, kicking off the ship’s hull and swooping into the air. Twin shrieks followed and who he could only assume to be the harpy twins whip past, raking sharp talons along the side of the monster. Their plumage shone like bright beacons and their uncomfortably human faces were twisted in anger. 

They maneuvered through the tendrils, Danny following them easily, almost on top of their tail’s. He neared the top. His hands crackled with energy and he slammed a powerful, booming ectoblast into it, the harpies cackling as it shot a rather clean hole through the beast, flesh tinged and smelling of burned ectoplasm. 

Hati was drooped from its grasp, flailing before he shot back into the air just in time to drag Muller out of the way of a wayward harpy who chased a rather destroyed tendril.

He followed as one splits off, almost breaking his back in the sudden twist downward that was both unneeded and rather fun. They shot downward, the harpy looking back to smile brightly at Danny, shark like teeth shining brightly.

He shifted midair and his eyes glowed an ice-like blue. His foot slammed into the beast’s face as he used it as a spring board, launching back into the air as the harpy guided his flight path.. Ice bloomed over the churning sea, cracking and covered in ghostly frost. 

The monster began jerking and writhing in fear, swings turning short and frantic. Hati and Muller landed on the deck as loud footfalls pounded across it across the deck.

“Captain on deck!” The harpy farthest from Danny called, voice turning to a joyful chirp.

Dressed in dark blues and neon green’s, the captain wasn’t quite the blackbeard Danny was expecting, instead he was met with a guy his age who looked rightfully pissed, long hair being flung wildly as he shoved a pirate hat, which probably had an actual name, onto his head. The wind tore and whipped his coat and scarf and oh god he was as dramatic as the whaler fury.

Danny’s ice cracked and the beast let out a pitiful howl. The captain’s eyes turned to the same pulsing poisonous green and he raised a glowing hand, frown twisting to one of pain. The green raised into crackling flames over his raised hand, dancing and licking his sleeves.

The beast let out another shriek and started to unlatch from the ship. Hati moved to stand by the Captain’s side, the harpies backing away as Danny followed. Muller frowned and actually started to hack away at the remaining tendrils, honestly keeping it from unlatching. Danny raised an eyebrow as the harpies moved to closer to hover besides Danny, staring at Muller with an air of mild disgruntlement. 

Hati finally had enough and moved to drag Muller back as the captain stumbled slightly and backed up to the actual middle of the deck, blinking as he fidgeted with his coat and watched the monster retreat.

One of the harpies finally turn to grin at Danny, still uncomfortably human and uncomfortably monsterish. “Nice fighting newbie!” one screeched, voice like wonderfully cheep sandpaper.

Danny smiled brightly in return, “Thanks! You both fight good as well! Fancy flying anyways, like a bat outta hell. Or bird I suppose.” 

One cocked their head in confusion as the other titters in a bright and almost sweet sing songy laugh. A strange comparison to their scratchy voice.

“Well it better have been, it’ll be hell to get out of out nails later.”

The other groans in annoyance, “Oh I know, how in the ancient’s fuck am I supposed to work with talon’s like this?! I have books to bind!”

“By not working and goofing off?” Danny shrugged as the harpies laugh.

“Only in my dreams does Aleixo ever quite,” one sighed as their sibling, Aleixo shrieked in a mock indignation. 

“Oh shut it, Agape, you’re worse than me!” they veered off, dipping backwards and spinning just to show off. They stuck out their tongue at their sibling as Aleixo lets out a shriek and chases after.

Danny smiled and followed them to the deck, landing on the deck as Hati rounded on the captain and was seemingly lecturing him, Muller far in the back and scowling at him with a different kind of fury in his eyes. He rubbed at the dark lichenburg scars pulsing in a muddy green as they climbed up his neck and face. Danny flinched in return at that, he knew that feeling all to well.

Slowly they faded and Hati’s lecture seemed to end when the captain looked properly chastised. He backed off with a nod, smiling and ruffling the other’s hair, knocking their hat astray. The feathers stuck in it, probably belonging to the harpies, bobbed in the wind that slowed to a gentle yet strong breeze, perfect for sailing. Peace seemed to settle across the ocean, the sea stopped its churning and changed into the original pounding waves.

The captain turned to Danny, taking a step forward as he smiled rather amicably. He was less ghostly than the usual specter, actually on the deck like Hati and seemingly holding a strange partial yet not complete weightlessness that only halfas possessed. He clutched the odd compass around his neck like a lifeline.

"Are you shitting me dude?!” Oh. Oh Muller was definitely an ass, an A-lister stereotypical ass as he flew forward, arms crossed and eyes crackling with an angry fire. He huffed. “I fucking knew it. Couldn’t you have done that shit before? I mean come on!”

“Dude,” Danny immediately interjects, stepping forward almost on instinct, “lay off, at least he got the shitty hentai to back off.” He raised an eyebrow and drifted forward. He wasn’t afraid to pick a fight with Muller, especially when he decides to attack some dude at random who just saved their asses probably.

The ghosts immediately scowled at Muller, Hati nodding to Danny in approval. 

The captain shot him a thankful look, smiling lightly until Muller scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Well at least we fucking fought the thing when he could’ve just magicked it away!”

Danny had the incredible impression of a kindergarten wedding when someone says “we object”! and he’s being forced to be emotionally involved with the objector when he really just wants the wedding to happen so he can be the dog when they play house later. Danny also doesn’t remember being in kindergarten but Muller was dragging him into a part of a fight he did not want to be a part of.

“Dude, Hati could kick both of our asses, you see how he ripped through that thing with his own mouth?” Danny waved absently, “I mean, we all contributed, but dude this school project obviously has bigger participants. But what matters is we got a B- at best and can move on.”

“You’re missing the entire POINT!” Muller shrieked, not explaining his point. 

Danny did get his point, and was half sure that edging him on was not a good idea. But he was too far in and ancients be damned people have lives outside of what you know. 

He held up his hands and hoped to anything that he wouldn’t be starting a fight. The captain shot him a fairly impressive disappointed face that he could feel being aimed at his neck for the edging. “Alright, alright, I’m sorry. I’m right but not listening. What’s your point?”

“Look newbie-”

“Danny, Danny Phantom actually.”

“Look bitch.” ouch but okay. “I don’t think you understand,” he didn’t but go off king, “Every single fucking time there’s a damned monster attack he can just magic it away, but every, EVERY time we always get the shit kicked out of us. And he doesn’t even fight! He just sits there and I just…” Muller let out a screech of annoyance, throwing up his hands as his hair crackled.

Danny blinked. Was… was this guy serious? Could people really not just ask the captain? Where his communication skills that shit?

“Muller-” the captain started, sounding incredibly tired as his limbs drooped and he rubbed his eyes.

“Don’t Muller me!”

“Okay than, Flameboy,” Danny muttered. Muller immediately turned and Danny congratulated himself for already making an enemy on day one. “I may not have been here for maybe even seven hours-” “thirteen” “-thanks, but even I can tell you’re full of shit. Newsflash buddy, you are totally allowed to be frustrated but hey, even bigger newsflash, you ever think about how hat kid over here had actual shit going on with the monsters? Do you even own a lick of empathy?”

Flameboy growled, eyes flashing brightly as his stance shifted midair just so. Danny narrowed his eyes, tensing on instinct as does Hati, who stepped in front of both the captain and the rest of them.

The captain, bless his probably already damned soul tried again with a, “Guys, lets just sit down and talk, alright? No need for fighting-”

“THAT’S THE ISSUE, YOU NEVER FIGHT. WHAT KIND OF GHOST ARE YOU? YOU FREAKISH-”

“ Don’t you dare finish that,” Hati growled, voice low and rumbling.

“NO! WHAT KIND OF GHOST DOESN’T FUCKING FIGHT, HUH?!”

“A sensible one?” Danny butted in.

Muller gritted his teeth. “Shut it halfa, you don’t even fucking count here, just like out ever so ‘esteemed captain’.”

“Muller,” Aleixo piped up, “The captain would never, but we won’t hesitate to rip your eyes out without hesitation, do not test us.”

“No, the tongue,” the other shook their head, “That’ll teach you to be ghostly you little-”

“ALRIGHT!” the captain called before they could finished, voice echoing with annoyance and fury. He gritted a smile at them, eyes flashing and posture rigid. “Let’s settle the fuck down alright? We’re sailors not mad men.”

“Debatable.” Agape hummed, glaring at Muller until they twisted their mouth shut tight as the captain sent them a tired and pleading look.

Muller moved to open his mouth but a glare shut him up as did the readied stance of Hati and consequently Danny who was more trusting of the wolf. If Danny were to be honest, he was ready to throw down side by side with the big buff wolf, even if it was against this fellow twink.

He continued, “Muller, go take the crows nest as look out, we’ll be nearing an island soon.” Muller growled and flew away quickly. “Agape, Aleixo, mind rechecking the rigging? Hati, check for hull damage and can you please check on Mira and Viper for me? They’re in the office.” Each nodded and Captain Fernweh relaxed slightly, shoulders dropping as he smiles at them slowly starting to take their leave. “Danny? I guess you can do whatever. I hear you’re on security so keep an eye on the waters just in case the water gets rough again.”

Danny nodded, he could do that, after all its kind of hard to fail to sea the ocean around them. Everyone petered off, the captain letting out a frustrated huff and rolling his shoulders.

“So monsters, huh?” Danny said, raising an eyebrow, “Not going to lie, that’s not what I was expecting when I woke up.”

The captain snorted, shaking his head. His eyes faded to a softer neon green, which frankly is somewhat impossible in anybody but a ghost. “Yeah, the usual recruit gets an island or two down before the general weirdness starts up.” He started float walking, Danny falling in step as they head to the stern. “Good fighting out there by the way. Not many ghosts are inclined to shift tactics to work with others.”

“Thanks but it was mostly the fuzz-man. But pretty good for no memory though, huh?”

“Oh trust me,” Fernweh, “Better than most. At least you haven’t tried to blow up the ship in the first five minutes.”

“That… that’s happened?” Danny was mildly disgruntled but honestly not that surprised.

The captain shook his head, “We see a lost of different characters around here. Lets just say we’d rather they destroy my lair than the ship outright.”

“That seems… less than alright?”

“One I can repair myself, the other is annoying to find supplies for. All that to say, thanks for being alright with all of us or… so far I guess.” He sent a thankful smile over, shifting to sit on the railing and cross his legs. 

Danny shrugged, “I guess I’ve gotten good at reading ghosts, its not like I can just…” He motioned with a hand.

“Remember it? Yeah I get that, trust me.” He shook his head as he fixed the scarf around his shoulders. It was probably the really soft thing from earlier when he was happily about to drown and have death II boogaloo. “Sorry though about the monsters. Its… just hard to get rid of those things. I’d much rather leave it to the actual fighters to try and scare them off.”

Danny grinned easily, “Ey, don’t sweat it. I may not know him but Muller’s a dick, don’t listen to him. You did what you could and honestly that’s alright. Now, what’s this about islands? Could’ve sworn this sea would’ve been endless.”

Fernweh smiled brightly, hopping off the railing and spinning on a heeled boot. He motioned with a hand to an island slowly growing in the distance before them. Purples and pink’s made up its coasts, a light mist rising to the sky form it casting a note of serenity.

“Here in the Celestial Seas, we have many different kinds of islands and isles ,” He proclaimed with a wide grin, excitement replacing lethargy. “Right now we’re in wisp territory so the islands aren’t really inhabited by the normal more powerful ghosts. Not many dangers out here anyway besides the occasional blood blossom, monster, or trade town willing to fight and be down for just a tad bit of piracy.”

Danny smiled, “What’re we going for on this island for anyway? Certainly the oh so mad sailors aren’t just here for vacation.”

“Dunno!” the captain cheered, “That’s half the fun I guess! Its always different and changing and its always fun to see what we can bring back for Viper’s and Mira’s businesses and to trade and such. You wanna come onshore?”

“As long as Muller’s not going because I don’t need those bad vibes and I get to tell Hati he’s the goodest boy, I’m down.“

“Don’t know what that means but Muller isn’t allowed onshore anymore because the last trade town we docked at he burned down the stereotypical sketchy bar we were meeting old friends at.”
Danny blinked. Well than. “Exactly how many chances are you willing to give this guy?”

“Depends really. Its… complicated.” The captain shrunk slightly, frowning.

“Complicated enough to get me in trouble for kicking his ass?”

“Oh!” Fernweh let out a startled laugh as Danny smiled brightly, “ Be my guest on that one! Anyways, who knows, maybe you’ll find some special interest or something on the island. Always a good step to figuring out an obsession or just yourself really.”

He snorted, “Ah yes, the perfect time to learn my kink for bountiful violence.”

“Ancients, than you’ll just be another Muller.”

“Well that kind of explains a lot about him than huh?” 

The captain shrugged, “Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, people are far to complex to tell. Just like the stars or something.” He yawned, “to tired for metaphors that would make Viper proud.”

Danny snorted, staring upwards to the stars. They coated the sky in a thick blanket, twinkling brightly, a reassuring constant that he felt deep in his core. He hummed in thought for a moment. They weren’t normal stars, he knew that much, these lied as a never changing road map in a constant night. Always there, always staring, yet always a companion. 

It left a deep hum in his soul, a knowing that he’s stared at them perhaps a million times. It was a strange feeling, a strange sort of familiarity. A strange sort of curiosity that itched at his mind.

“Hey, actually, could I take a look at those star charts of yours?”

Chapter Text

Fernweh as it turned out, was a huge fucking dork much to Danny’s unending delight. He was buzzing with energy to show off his countless charts that apparently showed the spanning known depths of the infinite sky. It was infectious even as his shoulders sagged and he yawned continuously. They took over the quarterdeck, papers spread out and kept from the thieving hands of the wind by paperweights Viper produced. 

Viper herself had been glad to sit with them, smiling kindly as she lounged nearby. The end of her bright green tail flicked lazily as she fixed a loose curl and turned a page in her book. She seemed rather uninterested in it at any rate, huffing and frowning lazily. 

Danny actually recognized the characters on the spine but couldn’t bother to read them, no matter how mind numbingly familiar they seemed.

Fernweh stared at the countless maps from where he floated next to him, frowning and humming in thought.

“What’s wrong, Star Child?” Viper asked, shutting her book with a sigh. “You look like you’ve seen the world end once over.”

He sighed and shrugged, rubbing his eyes for a moment, “I don’t know, I think my eyesight decided to fuck off to the barrens of the Zone, can’t seem to remember the pattern to make it work.”

But to Danny it seemed like they were perfectly placed, even as Fernweh continuously shifted them. Lines were just slightly unaligned but connected enough in a strange and wondrous thing. Each collection of stars—dotting clusters of varying side—were connected across weathered paged by carefully drawn lines. The tracings of drawings were imposed over each constellation, animals and people in a wonderful miasma. Battles took place across them, frozen in time among fierce and kind animals and strange creatures.

They were utterly captivating in a way so ultimately familiar to him, spinning in untold stories that spanned who knows how long. Oh they would love these!

That thought stopped him. It’s a habit perhaps, something he knows and strives for. But he didn’t know why. It sent a pang of horror through his core, thin needles slowly pulling it apart. He doesn’t know. He should know, its so important, why doesn’t he know?

But the pang faded as the stars shine above and over the papers and he doesn’t know why. Why would it hurt so much, why is it so crushing?

Why does he not care.

He hated that it didn’t bother him, he hated it, utterly loathing it because he knew he should want to move to help them, find them, show them this. But he doesn’t. Because the stars were fascinating and soothed his soul. Because his core whispered he’s safe and that was alright for now.

Guilt chewed through his mind, eating at his bones and its not that he needs to find them, no its that he can’t help but not worry. He hoped he wasn’t ignoring anyone, that usually leads to people being mad. 

He didn’t like it when those who care are mad at him. 

He glanced back and realized that Fernweh had practically collapsed against Viper, blinking tiredly and watching him with slight worry. The captain’s words had perhaps dripped of into a steady quiet and he looked with a detached wonder over everything that Danny thinks he knows the look all too well.

Danny floated up to lounge in the air with a sigh, tracing the stars with his eyes. He still wondered that the stories behind them are. Surely they aren’t the ones he knew, there was no way they could be. 

He wondered what those he’s supposed to know are. 

But still he pushed it away and hoped he could learn these, maybe someone else would be happy to listen about them from him. It’d be nice to share, to make someone happy.

“Are you alright?” Viper spoke up, more so focused on trying to smooth down Fernweh’s unruly hair than watching Danny drift over the star charts, checking continuously to see if any mirror those above. “You seem like you’ve seen Hati in his underwear.”

“Oh what?!” Danny exclaimed, shooting up to stare at Viper who simply hummed noncommittally. “Why the fuck am I creeping on people?!”

Her jewelry jingled as she waved him off, “You aren’tcI hope but it did get your attention. Now tell me, what’s wrong? I’ve been here long enough and met enough ghosts to know when something is eating away at you. You don’t need to talk but its best you do.”

“I-Well than. Sorry it just feels like this whole memory thing should make me feel so much worse.” Danny flinched at his own words. He flipped over to float on his back.

“What do you mean?” Came a quiet question.

Danny glanced to her. Viper still simply focused on Fernweh’s hair, slowly braiding a curly portion as the ghost appeared to be asleep. A dull comfort spread in his core, like he’d been in this kind of situation before with another, explaining his woes. Simply safe.

And so a leap of faith.

“Its just” He grasped at his thoughts, usually he’s so good at speaking but now… “I feel like I’m supposed to be falling apart but I’m not. I’ve lost everything that gives me purpose and here I am ignoring it like it means nothing.” Danny said, huffing. He drifted down and did a small flip, curling up slightly on the deck, hugging his legs as he ran a hand through stark white hair. “I don’t know, am I supposed to feel terrible?

Am I supposed to invade the ghost zone? Steal? Pillage? Cry? Dance? I know somethings, missing but I-”

“Can’t bring yourself to care even if the world is falling apart?”

He looked over to her and nodded simply. Her luminous white eyes crinkled lightly as she smiled knowingly. She waved for him to continue.

“Yeah,” He sighed, “Before I was just confused and trying to remember but now its just… I feel like I’ve found an answer to something I wasn’t asking and I don’t know what both those things are.”

Viper hummed, folding a set of hands before her the other wrapping around the captain like he was nothing more than a child instead of a teen cosplaying a dead pirate. And in a sense Danny realized he is. A child that is not just a dead pirate. They both are. Just kids stuck in an afterlife. He wonders how long he’s been doing this, helping people and watching the stars. The detailed charts before him speak of a facet of an obsession. A forceful balance to correct for something missing.

Ghosts are known to hold multiple obsessions, each a crutch of emotional stability to guide them to have a purpose in the big green fuck you grave. They aren’t strictly necessary for a ghost, but without them one will wander endlessly, falling into a seemingly emotionless existence. Decisions stem from obsessions after all, countless ones as does the core of ghost attitude and being.

In true theory he should be sobbing, utterly distraught and lost without his and yet…

“Obsessions are not all you are,” Viper started, cutting through his thoughts, “But it is an important influence. To receive your memories is to admit to yourself what each one of your obsessions is. The core of it can reveal a life you’ve lost, but to gain the fullness, to actually understand your memories like you once did, it takes admitting what your obsessions grew to be.”

She reached over and motioned to the stone clasp at the captain’s shoulder, a delicate image of carved poppies blooming in an abstract sun. It was dainty and beautiful and seemed to glint in an unseen light. “My own obsession stems from statue and stone, ” She said with  sigh, “I know this deep in my heart and it brought me to know the kingdom I hailed from. This I can admit, yet I did not understand who I was.

But before I could even know the kingdom it was simply something I did for fun, empty as it was it simply brought me joy.” She looked out over the countless pages with a smile. “Obsessions hold such weight to us spirits. Perhaps fighting was that missing piece, perhaps everything may stem from that. Perhaps its something different. Your core will always know your obsession even if you do not. It will keep you from worrying even as you don’t remember, because it feels content and safe with a purpose now.”

“And my purpose?”

“To heal,” She smiled lightly, “To find peace. To learn and grow.”

She shifted one of the papers, stars twisting to match one another on a few surrounding pages. A glow erupted from them, snakes appearing in the air like a hologram. Its mouth was open and filled with fangs, venom dripping as it coiled ready to strike. He could almost see its muscles tightening, its head slowly drifting back in a cold anger.

He stared at it in a wonder. It was a beautiful thing really, he was halfway tempted to try and grab the snake. 

Viper sighed, Danny turning back to her.

“Its okay to not feel something, its okay to not care now, as long as you don’t stop trying. If you know something is missing, if you can acknowledge that and move forward knowing you’ll perhaps find it one day, than I  truly believe everything will be okay.” She said it with an air of certainty that warmed Danny to the core, a sure fire stone in the middle of a storm. She sent a fanged smile to Danny, kind compared to the snake in the picture.

Danny grinned back, “You know, you really don’t seem like a Medusa. Was kind of expecting a lot more eating my spleen or turning me into a statue or whatever.”

Viper laughed and shook her head, growing solemn, “Well there’s a reason Medusa was once such a feared myth, Danny. The devilish details must come from somewhere.”

She sighed than, like it was a bad thought she was ashamed of. Viper tucked the captain closer to her as he let out a small snore—oh how Danny wished he could sleep that easily—and settled to stare off into the sea.

“It’s hard for some of us to admit our full obsessions though,” She sighed, “Just be careful alright?” Her chiton draped lightly over her tail as she held herself almost statuesque, the gold glimmered dully as did the inlaid green jewels on her finery and he thought this is perhaps what a queen looks like. He couldn’t imagine her as particularly evil in any way.

“I’ll try.”

But if the crew was working Hati and Viper and Fernweh in the very least having known each other for so long, why weren’t they admitting their obsessions? What have they done?

What has he done?

“Miss Snakes?”

“Yes dear?”

“Do you think I’m here because I did some real bad shit?”

“I don’t know,” She hummed simple, “Its hard to tell, we just met you after all but I’m sure that either way it won’t exactly matter in the end.”

She pointed a hand to point at the crows nest. The harpy twins flew around the main mast and through the rigging. They screeched in delight as they chased one another with wild abandon, green feathers glowing against the dark sky as the green flaming fair of Muller peeked over the side of the crows nest. Danny could feel the glare sent his way and to the harpies, sharp and burning and incredibly fucking petty.

“Truly it depends on if you’re able to change, if you’ve done something so utterly terrible. But if not, than this is simply your chance to make connections and learn more about yourself. Nothing is set in stone.”

“Ancients you sound like someone I know and I can’t even tell you who the fuck it is!”

Viper laughed even if it wasn’t particularly funny, a booming thing befitting a powerful ghost as Fernweh jerked awake in surprise.

“WHO DIED?!” He shrieked in panic, scrambling up as Danny choked on a laugh.

“I mean technically all of us but hey, who am I to judge.” He shrugged as Viper laughed again and reached over to fix Fernweh’s fallen hat. “Now what the fuck did you mean by getting it to work, I’m old and confused and demand answers.”

“Look whatever floats your boat but something tells me you can’t even drink,” Fernweh smiled, rubbing his eyes before he crouched and shifted a few of the pages just so. “I picked up a trick from this rogue band of banshees on the Isle of the Sun—which doesn't have a sun before you ask—while helping out with a job. They’re creative devils to say the least, used these to create alibis.”

One last shift and the drawings alight, darkness seeming to encompass the pages below as the stars appeared in the air, glow connecting into a tapestry of animals and battles. Lines of a bright white wove and interlocked, moving and shifting slowly as animals ran and dodged and Danny gasped in amazement. Wolves hunted as the figures of ghosts raised swords and moved to fight one another and a king gets crowned in one corner with a procession heralding his grace as creatures he could never dream of hunt and play. They rose a simple foot above the pages, a fantastical picture as smaller dotting stars seemed to float higher like fireflies. The light bounced off Fernweh and Viper, the captain looking proud at the glowing miasma.

“Holy shit dude!” Danny shrieked. His eyes shone and glittered as he waved his hands in excitement. “You’re makin’ stars!”

“I know right?!” Fernweh was grinning wildly, “I don’t really know how actual stars work ‘cause the ones above us don’t work the same but I like to think this is less destructive.” He shrugged as Danny buzzed with excitement, drifting to float next to him. “Kinda don’t wanna break the boat.”

“Oh!” Danny clapped his hands. He knew this! He knew this, this is one of his things! His ghost things! Or at least a piece. “So you know how literally everything was once this kinda giant dust bunny?”

“Wait no what the fuck?”

“Okay so there’s all this dust alright…”

Chapter Text

The isles glowed with a dim light, odd as it shone through the heavy foliage of gnarled trees filled with strange hollowed holes. The dry grass rustled on it, perhaps an incredibly boring island as sharp wolfish eyes stared about it, watching a few members of the crew drift about the shores, a few perhaps fascinated by the crystals to be found in the broken rocks.

But there were a few things different catching the more living of the ghosts’ eyes.

"Oh! Wisps!" Danny whispered in amazement, eyes wide and gleaming. "Oh I'd forgotten about these lil' guys."

Small fairy like balls of fuzzy light floated around him, chiming lightly in soft musical tones. Their miasma of rainbow colors danced across the canopy of trees above them as their zipped about in excitement at their visitors.

Fernweh laughed, raking a hand through dark hair. "Well I can't imagine why you'd ever forget them. I mean come on, waddya got, amnesia?"

"Oh shuddit!" Danny scoffed, "Just shocked to see them is all, could of sworn the only things in this place are like, weird trees and I don't know random sailors?"

The captain grinned, holding out a hand to catch one of the louder ones. "Well they're quite common out here actually, the islands in this archipelago are pretty good for 'em. We used to have some around to help out with energy and such but with the monster attacks we just leave em. I don’t know why they love it here but hey, I’m not a wisp."

One of them landed on Danny's shoulder as he let out a rather terrible imitation of their noises. It was warm, carrying a surprising amount of weight and sending a tickling sensation through his shoulder like a soft pile of dandelion fuzz. Contentment trickled through his core, a familiar thing really. Child ghosts are rather sensitive to emotions and energy and such, even if they have a bit of an issue absorbing or processing it. But these wisps were careful to not overwhelm them, rather simple notes of warmth and love flooding through his core, like a good nights sleep with a blanket at home. Home...

Danny hummed happily, more flew over to perch on him as he snorted and laughed at the many trying to steal Fernweh's scarf. He'd ditched the coat and hat today because apparently wisps didn't have as big of a sense of dramatics. That or he didn't want it for exploration.

It was probably the first.

They tangled and spun in the scarf like they were the wind themselves trying to mimic some dramatic scene. They danced practically, happily humming and chiming to the captain in greeting and happy for any light brushes or any sort of attention.

"So, you've been here before?" Danny cocked his head curiously, "These guys seem familiar with you." 

Fernweh shook his head and sighed as a few wisps decided to make a nest of his hair, "No, not this island. I'm familiar with the overall tribe but we try to visit a different island each time we pass so the smaller ones I've never formally met."

They chimed in agreement as Danny laughed at them, drifting around as the wisps chased him. He felt like the beginning of a marching band as Fernweh laughed and helped round up more.

"So what're we doing here anyway?“ Danny asked after a time, letting the wisps practically explode into a dancing mass instead of a rather neat line. ”I mean besides visiting these guys. They may be the light of my life right now but this place is new and cool and I expect more in a random creepy ghost island."

"Oh, there’s some neat cave systems around!" the captain cheered, he straightened his scarf and the strange compass around his neck, letting the wisps drift down to settle again onto him. "I wanna look for some crystals here, I'm trying to find just purple ones because I've got all the others in this isle system. Mira is collecting flowers here at any rate so we’d thought I'd kill two birds with one stone."

"The twins?"

"Yeah why else would I need the crystal?"

Danny snorted and laughed lightly, “Ah so danger is indeed your mistress. So... spelunking?"

"I prefer misters and I don't know what that is but it sounds pretty neat. Cave time!"

"Hell yeah, queer cave time!" 

They both let out loud cheers, laughter light and airy. Fernweh turned to the wisps and let out a string of hushed ghost speak, strange and new. Danny, by all accounts, could remember only a few shards of ghost speak. It came with time after all, but strangely enough this didn't sound particularly familiar. It seemed rougher like the sea itself, grating and thick and he was only sure its ghost speak from the strange echo to it.

The wisps whistled back, fluttering up and swirling around them until they sipped off into the foliage to lead the way. 

Danny paused to question the odd ghost speak but decided against it, instead grinning, "See ya pirate boy."

He took off, phasing through bushes and trees as wind whipped past him and Fernweh shouted in indignation behind him. He didn’t try to match a particularly top speed but he was definitely going quick, hair sweeping back and his skin cooling. There was a crash in a bush and a curse. He turned slightly to see Fernweh stumbling from a bush but quickly picking up speed in a mad dash.

He skidded to a halt at the mouth of a cave, seemingly skull shaped and dark inside. Fernweh stumbled from the bushes and walked over, smiling brightly with a wild adrenaline.

"Well it sure is a ghost cave," he said with a raised an eyebrow, putting his hands on his hips with a sort of pride as he let out an appreciative whistle. "To be honest I expected absolutely nothing less from a ghost island."

"Yeah, it sure is a nice ghost cave. So... we going ghost hunting, loser?"

"Keep that up and it'll be your ghost we're hunting."

Danny grinned, "Ay ay captain!"

"That’s the spirit!" 

They followed the wisps inside, who cast soft light across the ceiling. It was rough terrain for a time, walls the same dull grey as any other stone on the island. Small crystals seemed to pop up, pinks and greens that slowed lightly even without the help of the wisps.

Slowly they grew larger and larger until the walls were made of crystal and some grew so tall they were shining pillars that held up a high cavern roof. Beams of natural—or as natural you can get in the ghost zone—shone through and bounced about, alighting the small flecks of dust floating about. 

"Damn," murmured the captain, placing a hand onto one of the tallest crystals. He began making his way to one of the raised sheets of crystal, perhaps forgetting he can fly as he climbed and hopped happily.

"Wish I'd brought my sketchbook." He spun in small circles trying to see every detail of the cavern.

Danny blinked and flew up, "Oh, I can fly back if you want, I'm quick as hell after all," Danny smiled brightly at him, honestly interested in seeing something from Fernweh other than the constellations.

But he could feel the spark of fear from Fernweh. His shoulders hunched and a frown curled on his his face as he shook his head.

"No! No, it's fine," He said a bit too quickly, "It's uh, best to not get separated around here."

Danny watched him for a second before dropping it easily humming in agreement, "Alright, cap. If you say so. You draw these places a lot?" He drifted closer and glanced about as well.

Fernweh blinked before relaxing slightly, "Yeah I uh, don't want to forget these places and well, every place is special and beautiful in its own way. The ghost zone, while its not a place of change, does shift constantly and I just like capturing small pieces because it'll never be the same special piece."

"Well than I guess this can just be a piece between you and me," Danny said, smiling brightly as Fernweh chuckled.

"Makes it more special I guess?"

"Well yeah!" Danny cheered. "Course it does! I’m a pretty cool dude and I’ll say you’re pretty cool as well. Makes this a pretty cool memory." 

“Well I don’t have any ice powers so I’ll take your word for it.”

Danny huffed, “And I do so you’ll have to deal with being cool!”

Fernweh shrugged, smiling happily to himself with a sort of probably misplaced pride. 

Danny glanced around and spotted a few smaller pieces of crystal broken and laid scattered across the floor. He drifted over and cocked his head in curiosity. "Hey can I steal some crystals, I..." 

Familiarity, want, a need from an obsession he doesn't know.

He wanted to grab a piece to remember this, to share, to show. The crystals would be perfect, they glow just right and Fernweh seemed to like them as well so there's another person to hold a piece.

"I feel like I want to take a piece from this place, I think there's a few someones I want to share this part of the Zone with."

Fernweh shrugged, "Sure! I can store it for you in my lair if you wanna keep 'em safe."

"That'd be great!"

Fernweh waved it off and tromped over to help Danny collect the crystals, helping break a few better pieces off. They laid cool and smooth in Danny's hand, almost like ghost ice. Each one shone a dull purple, glimmering with a rainbow in the light of their ghostly glows, more so green from both of them.

Yeah, he thinks, they'll  love these. Now he just has to know why he wants that.

Chapter Text

Wind rustled his hair, the smell of salt and burned ectoplasm drifting along it in a familiar comfort. It was cool against his cheeks, not quite biting his skin and it simply and quietly sung as an impossibility in the Ghost Zone. Simply an anomaly he didn't care to figure out, no matter how much Aleixo—who apparently once resided over an important ghost library or something—chided him for not listening to his unending tirades. While it was indeed fascinating, it also just hurt his head. The borders of possibility and impossibility and territory and what is part of the zone and what is not simply is just confusing and often mashed together when speaking of the zone.Yet still that impossible wind whistled and sung around him as he stared around for anything to do. It was a rather boring off day, everyone but him busy and honestly he'd had too much sleep and too much ghost coffee—made from ghost beans of course—to simply sit around. 

He stood from where he'd been sitting against the main mast, stretching as he lazily floated upwards. Fernweh would probably find some random thing for him to do, anything from actually untangling the shit show of rigging to distracting Muller so Mira could catch a break. He was on that duty far more times than he could count and he wouldn’t be honest if it wasn’t fun to poke at the flaming bear.

Danny hummed lightly and set off to the office, the captain had been busy work with lately. Far more work than Danny expected for a guy living a literal child's fantasy of being a pirate.

Well than again they were one of the few if not only large ships moving across the different isles, and no ghost could draw enough energy from the odd ectoplasm around them to fly across it. And carrying heavy objects? Danny would rather die. Again.

Some 'nights' he wonders why he's been hired by basically ghost fedex and other nights he thinks that his life might as well be this, he doesn't know any better of a life and if anything, free shipping for him.

He easily crossed the deck, checking the sea around him with a simple glance for any trouble. 

It was perhaps routine by than, and it was perhaps why he was startled by the gruff "Daniel?" from behind on his way to the ladder.

He twirled around so see Hati, eyes glowing just slightly so and mouth set in what would've been a hard line on any human face though appeared more of a grimace on his wolfish snout.

"Oh hey Hati!" He exclaimed with an easy grin, "Long time no sea, you doing alright?"

Hati snorted, stare softening as his posture loosened. The wolf was admittedly intimidating when stressed or mad or happy or really in general, but Danny learned after a good two hours of seeing him interact with Fernweh and the twins that the guy was a real softy and a fan of puns and books.

"I'm doing alright, Phantom," he rumbled, "Can I ask where you're heading? Its going to storm soon and I'd rather keep track of you hooligans."

Danny shrugged, "Imma go check up on cap'. Need something to do and since he's been workin forever I as local cool teen expert dictate he needs a break."

"And giving you work is the best way to do this?"

"Yep."

He nodded, "Reasonable. Thank you, Daniel, I'll leave you to it. And remember to please keep in during that storm. No more 'sick tricks' in the middle of it."

"I don't think I'll listen but thanks Hati!" Danny cheered before he shot off with a salute and easily slipped down into the halls of the ship.

He found the office easily enough, one of the few doors always open and always lit with a cheerful glow that seemed to come with Fernweh's lair. Danny had once asked if it was particularly dangerous to have his lair always open and disconnected in parts but Fernweh had simply shrugged with a "Probably" and honestly Danny could understand that. Every ghost had a particular lair attached to them, and usually their haunt. Danny could feel the tug of his own lair, ever present yet incredibly faint. Ghosts don’t particularly enter another’s lair—though something tells him that his is the exception—but he feels no sense of danger or displacement as he enters the office and Fernweh’s lair.

Piled about the office was an organized mess of papers and books and scrolls, some documents in them and some framed to cover one of the walls. A bookshelf covered the other and a window the third with a desk so lovingly in the center of it all, piled with papers and Fernweh who was agonizingly staring at a paper. He scrubbed tears from his eyes and constantly back tracked to reread another part. His hat sat barely on his head, threatening to fall as it cast shadows over the page and his face.

Danny knocked on the door frame before floating in, moving to flip and stare over Fernweh's shoulder as the captain jumped in surprise.

"Heya Captain!" he cheered, smiling worriedly "Ya need help? I'm absolutely bored and need entertainment."

Fernweh let out a wet chuckle, sniffling as he leaned back and stretched. "Well I uh, shit, not gonna lie I'm far to out of it for this. You wanna read this super important document and make sure we aren't getting fucked over?"

"Oh hell yeah! We love getting fucked over."

He snorted as he handed over a glowing green scroll decked with obnoxiously small text. "I'm sure we aren't going to be cause honestly this guy is pretty trustworthy but I wouldn't put it past another ghost to falsify something."

Danny shrugged and grabbed it, floating lazily to settle on the seated ledge of the window, stretching over the cushions like he owned the place and started to squint at the words. Fernweh turned and grabbed a far different paper and began reading over it, the text actually fairly big and Danny huffed in jealousy. Though truly the feeling faded at the relieved smile that crossed the captain’s face.

It was a long piece of hell that he barely skimmed first. Mostly it spoke over how they weren't allowed to alter an artifact or wear it or affect it in anyway and a bunch of other stuff like only Fernweh being allowed to handle it or to fight of any guy named Vlad, clause after clause of how to store and pass it off and how to be sure and the words blurred together slightly and Danny realized whoever wrote this is terrible.

Some of the words though were larger than the rest, glowing a slight purple as they regarded who could handle it and it was a handwriting so annoyingly familiar.

"Oh ew I hate this," Danny muttered as Fernweh snorted.

"Yeah, my brain isn't working right today so its just... shit."

"True Shakespeare, good sir. What am I actually working towards?"

The captain hummed, leaning back in his chair. "That it actually says Clockwork throughout it and that we aren't handing over, I don't know, a bomb or something? Our souls? Our demise?" He stretched and shifted to face Danny more.

Danny smiled lightly, "Oh, Clockwork! Yeah the purple must be their handwriting, I-"

He stopped. He knew the handwriting. His core knows them, a dull thrum, he's read this handwriting before. Small notes, small words. Its so familiar it makes him sick. How did he know them? How did he know them?

He sat up and waves of confusion and guilt and nausea bubbles in his stomach like acid and slowly eroded his core, freezing his brain in its place. The captain was by him in an instant, pushing him back from where he'd begun to curl and fall from the seat. The paper was pulled from his hands before he could crumble it and Danny latched onto Fernweh out of habit, trapping him in a panicked bear hug. 

He's scared. He's terrified. Its painful and boiling and who else has he lost? How many more is he going to lose? He's lost someone bound to his core, he can't lose more he has to grab on he-

"You aren't supposed to remember people like this, or find proof of someone so close to your core. 'specially as a child ghost." Cory muttered as Danny snapped to attention to listen, wrapping his arms around Danny to try and return the hug. "I'm sorry, Stars, I know its gotta hurt. Just keep breathing, alright?"

Danny sucked in a shaky breath, perhaps useless in the long run as a ghost but still a thing to focus on. Slowly the pain receded and his joints unlocked, core settling into a worrying thrum. Fernweh ran a hand through his hair and purred like an ancients damned cat, something that really only occurred from contentment or an attempt to help heal as he knew he'd once been told.

Danny sure as hell felt injured.

"You can meet him if you want, I'm bringing Hati with me and I think he'd appreciate a lil’ comedy backup," He sighed, "Its always nice to assure people you’re safe, even if he probably knows I mean a ghost named Clockwork is bound to come with the drama of omnipotence. Still you can talk to him, I don’t know if he'll say anything but..."

"Some information is better than nothing?"

"Mhm, not many are able to meet people from their past that they're actually connected to and aren't... well immediately going to fight." He sighed, "The amount of people who've showed up to 'kill Hati for eating Pluto's moon!' or 'avenge a stone turned family member!' could fill this damned ocean. Its always Pluto though, I mean seriously? I get the statues but Pluto?"

Danny let out a shaky laugh, "Okay well at least he didn't eat Pluto itself or else I would riot."

"He's the moon eater not the planet eater."

"Of course, he’s a wolf of good taste!" Danny said as Fernweh snorted. He loosened his grip though didn't think he could actually let all the way go.Danny took a breath and let it out slowly again, core soothing as he let himself sink into the familiarity of the ship. The familiar sway and occasional low creak as warm light filtered from the flickering of lanterns. The smell of sea and tea and old papers and the low glow of the sea outside. It was wholly familiar, wholly here and he couldn't help but sink into it.

He took in another breath and untangled himself from Fernweh, regrabbing the paper and leaning against the cushions with a new found hope.

"Alrighty than, lets get this bread. You need me to grab anything for the paperwork? I'd uh, prefer to stay here." Danny sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

Fernweh nodded and pushed off the seat to float to another paper, "Not particularly but if you could crunch some numbers after that would mean the world to me. I'm only good at calculus and physics, basic shit like this absolutely hurts my mind without more steps to go with it."

Danny nodded and made a grabby motion, "Yeah yeah, gimme. If I wasn't a c-student in my past than I'll riot so you better check my shit after this."

"Anything to not have to do it first." He sighed dramatically, collapsing with another stack of papers onto the other side of the cushions. Danny laughed and gently kicked at him, sticking his tongue out.

Around Danny buzzed a contentment. Safety and warmth hanging about in the air. He was safe. The people around him were safe. That’s all that particularly counts, he could find Clockwork later. Even if he is one of his people.

He missed his people, even if he couldn't remember who they are. But at least he had some of his people there, people he knew, people who were safe.

He hopes he can keep them as his people in the end of it all.

Chapter Text

He was being drowned. It was as simple as that. The water filled his lungs, burning, stinging, pressing against his ribs. His core throbbed with an excruciating pain, refusing to let him phase, to let him free himself.  

A screaming met his ears from above, yelling and crying and voices oh so familiar yet oh so far away It hurt. It hurts. Its not meant to hurt anymore why why is it-

He thrashed and kicked and screamed but no matter how he threw himself the hands pushed him further. They were hot against his skin, crackling with a sickening electricity that brought tears to his eyes and he knows who it is but he doesn't. 

He hates them, he hates them so so much, they've hurt his people, they've hurt his people why are they here these ones were meant to be safe why why leT ME GO

Nails dug into his skin and the burning came from the water, making him squeeze his eyes shut and stealing his screams as he can feel his own heart beat crawl to a grating stop. Shards of pain stabbing into his neck and shoulders and chest and core, a thousand needles piercing his very muscles, dragging him further. Further.

He couldn't keep kicking, keep fighting. It hurt. It hurt so so much and the voices turned into screaming that ripped through his ears and they were hurt! They were in trouble! They! They... who were they...

Why can’t he…

But the water pressed around him, hissing in anger and fear, far too alive his mind whispered. Far too smart. The hurt dulled, electricity still stinging as the water seemed to numb it now. It wouldn't hurt its

people... would it?

It didn't matter...

He couldn’t fight. 

He couldn’t save them.

He sucked in a breathe of water, stinging cold replacing the unpleasant temperature from before, and simply let go.

He shot up with a gasp, sucking in a lungful of salty air. It was still in his lungs, the crushing pressure around him, the hands digging into his skin that hurt, oh how it hurt. Another pressure engulfed him as he hunched into hugging his legs, cool and different than the crushing water around him. It was real. God it was real it was here he’s… he’s her.

He grabbed the edges and pulled it closer around him, using it as a shield against everything and nothing. The screaming still rung in his ears, still whispering in its utter familiarity. But he slowly blinked his eyes open to the dull shadows of the ship. Of 'home'. 

His hammock swayed under him in his little corner that could be curtained off at will. His shelf of knickknacks that threatened to tumble off, 'housewarming gifts' as they'd been handed off sat at the edge of his view. A dull glow hovered next to him, familiar in its blue hue as he sucked in another breath, releasing it before he looked up. 

Fernweh hovered just near him, eyebrows drawn in worry. Hair ruffled and drawn back loosely and doted with the small braids Danny had done the day before, still not undone.

"Good morning," Danny murmured, voice scratchy. Guilt formed a gross taste in his mouth, "Was I screaming again?" 

Fernweh shook his head, "no, I'm just making my rounds before heading up to stargaze, came to see if you wanted to join."

A total lie but Danny nodded all the same, sighing lightly as he buried his head in his knees once more, letting what he assumed was Fernweh's favorite jacket consume him. A moment in the tranquility, the soft snort from his friend as he let out a tired yawn and he sat up far more awake than he had any right to be. 

He flipped out of the hammock more so on accident, crystal necklace hitting his chest, a half thought gift from Fernweh who had way to much time on his hands sometimes. He fixed the coat to be more secure around his shoulders and sent a glare to Fernweh who held up his hands with a soft smile. It was rare to see him without his coat and Danny almost had to laugh at how tiny he really was, any sense of an 'imposing pirate' lost in the funny poofy sleeved shirt. 

Danny noticed the cold permeating the air before glancing to himself. Human. With a sigh he retrieved one of the sheets piled into the hammock as a makeshift cape and source of warmth. Going ghost... he knew the sense of panic would be greater, hurting his core instead of the dull panic he felt than as a human.

They trecked through the storage room and up the stairs, listening to the rest of the crew below. Cheering and talking and generally making a jovial ruckus that warmed his core and dampened his beating heart.

He noted the ghost next to him drooping, glow dull and almost tired. He nudged Cory lightly, earning a soft smile.

They headed over to the raised quarterdeck and ducked under one of the alcoves, one side barred and revealing a rather turbulent sea as they were shielded from most of the wind. Fernweh ducked into it, Danny following. 

He wrapped the sheet around the other, who smiled and thanked him quietly, and curled under the warmth of it and the coat. The islands around them briefly seen the day before were frozen so he assumed they were simply in a cold area of the Celestial Seas, practically freezing. He briefly contemplated transforming, to at least give him something to combat the cold, but the warmth of being human was nice, even if the ghost next to him was cold like almost all were. Until he wasn't.

It was a shock of an almost similar transformation to his own passed over the ghost, more ragged than the crisp rings, leaving in Fernweh's place a rather tired looking version of the captain, eyes the same ectoplasmic green and ashen face tinged in blue. Hair still long and simply more tangled. Blush dusted his cheeks as he pulled the blanket around himself more. He was human, he was the captain, just less glowy and oddly... dead looking from the bags under his eyes and the rips in his clothes. And that was coming from someone who was usually a ghost, so that’s saying something.

But he was warm and still the same Fernweh and Danny really should've expected that, and with an annoyed grumble he more fully snuggled into the other's side with a, "Could've been warmer but noooo, someone just had to be all dead here."

Fernweh laughed, grinning lightly, "To be fair you're usually freezing."

Danny hummed with a shrug, , "Can't help the whole frozen thing, you're just lucky I haven't gone all icy on you."

"Ancients forbid you ever resort to such an icy demise."

"Hey now, don't be so cold about it." Danny grinned, "Don't you know? Halfas either have the shittiest or coolest looks. I mean look at me!"

Fernweh glanced to him, raising an eyebrow. "Hey now, don't go insulting yourself."

He scoffed and nudged the other lightly. "Well excuse me, my dear Captain. Its not like I expected there'd be more halfas. And considering, ya know, memory? The sample size is as big as its gonna get right now, count yourself lucky you placed so high on the cool looks squad."

Fernweh shrugged but froze as a rattling boom of thunder sounded, grabbing a hold of Danny. His breath stopped for a moment and they paused for a moment before he let out a shuddered sigh and shook his head.

"Technically not a halfa," he said, "More ghost than human, don't know how. Hati calls me liminal for simplicity sake because I ain't human enough to be fully dead but not ghost enough like this to be dead."

"God here I am thinking my philosophical thoughts on being a monster are terrifying but jees dude," Danny shook his head, "You win, you get the prize!"

"Because of my status on death ?"

"Yeah, that’s a shit show dude, why can't you have a confusing mess of half and half like me? At least than you’re only sometimes dead."

Fernweh just laughed, shaking his head before beginning to struggle to shove his hair behind his pointed ears. "Well, Hati says that its bad for me to think about and that death is an enigma that should be illegal."

"Hey. Hey captain? What the FUCK does that mean?"

He shrugged in a way that answered every question as Danny scoffed and pulled the coat tighter around himself. It seemed to transform with him, simply leather now as he noted it was more worn and torn, rehemmed and probably antique if he was being honest. Antique road show would love it.

"Sooo.... Liminal?" Danny asked, looking up at him.

Fernweh shrugged, "Yeah, even got a human name, waddya know! Its not as ingenious as Phantom Fenton but eh still, 'ts a thing I guess."

"Oh the shade!" He gasped in mock hurt, hand over his core, "The fucking shade! And what's your name? Uh...“ He trailed off, struggling for any joke and while usually many came to him, it seemed the god of jokes would not bless him, ”Okay admittedly the only ones I have are curses or plants so this isn't working well is it?"

He snorted, shaking his head as Danny stretched and shifted, pulling the sheet closer as a few drops of rain hit the deck. Fernweh stared at them in betrayal and pulls part of the sheet out of the storm's general way.

"Ah, so there's the storm Hati mentioned," Danny hummed as Fernweh let out an annoyed groan.

"Man, nobody tells me anything these days," he sighed.

Danny hardly thought that was true as Fernweh's the only one who usually knew the incredibly weird and yet ultimately useless gossip that traveled around the ship. Usually it was about the ghosts on other islands but honestly for only 8 people on a ship there was a surprising amount of drama.

The one he was still trying to make heads to tails of was Muller, Mira, and Fernweh and whatever the hell spider web that drama was but he'd been told to just ignore it and he was inclined to do just so.

Danny sighed and glanced out of the out cove. No clouds covered the sky or what could be considered such, instead the rain just obscuring the stars slightly. He wondered if it was ectoplasm or actual water, it didn't burn anyone and if anything it was only dangerous because it made it hard to defy gravity, even in the ghost zone were gravity wasn't even an option usually.

"My uh, my names Cory, Cory Lancer," the captain mumbled, curling slightly into myself. "Fernweh's my ghost name, based off one of the constellations. Ya know, like a nerd."

Danny smiled lightly, "Can I call you that or am I going to walk the plank?"

He snorted a laugh and nodded as Danny cheered. Names were always incredibly serious among most ghosts, even if it was something as dumb and small as knowing a human ghosts dead name. Asking for one from a regular ghost was grounds on getting beaten up. For some it was a reminder of their death. Others chose to leave who they were behind completely. And of course many just wanted to reinvent themselves.

But the seas worked differently, Danny knew this. Halfas or liminal or whatever the fuck as well. So it never hurt to ask really but he was sure than any other ghost on the ship would attack him. Not completely but probably just beat each other up a little bit. In a loving way of course.

"Which constellation?" He asked, curiosity overpowering any sense of honor or awe he felt, trust warming his core.

Fernweh, or well, Cory hummed lightly, smiling to himself as his eyes lit up literally and metaphorically. "You can't see it now, we just passed it but its one of the constellations not directly a faded ancient or some history. Fernweh is one created from the song of a clan that’s kind of just gone now. Hati thinks its the original travelers of this sea but he's not sure."

He shifted to bring up the compass around his neck, turning it to show a detailed collection of flowers detailed on the back along with a ship. A sea of flowers deeply engraved in an almost impressive detail.

"Its a song but it takes the form of a group of poppies. Probably symbolism there considering this is the Ghost Zone, death I guess. Maybe sleep. I dunno its not the most interesting of stories. Stars of important events or ancients have more, ya know stories. I just liked this one cause It made me feel less along." He shrugged, letting the compass fall back against his chest with a matching shard of crystal to Danny's.

There was a growing blush on his cheeks, ears flicking and red as he hid his face in the sheet. “The clan, in some of the caves around, would leave behind stories. Even if the Ghost Zone doesn’t exactly have… time? Its… Its still amazing, to be connected at one point and another no matter how far. Its uh, yeah not that amazingly fascinating.” 

He’d once said he found it embarrassing to know a lot about the constellations and their stories, Danny had simply shaken his head at that, he thought it was awesome and rather cute. Ancients know he loves the stars as well.

"I think its cool," Danny hummed, "Anyone who doesn't can catch these hands. Now, what's this I hear about the ancients? I know the star charts had like, people fighting on them but man I never realized that they'd actually be more than you got bored."

Cory laughed and shook his head, leaning back to stare off as if remembering it all. "Alright so… okay firstly do you know what the stars are here in the ghost zone?" A shake of the head, "Shit okay, so basically ghosts are made up of emotions with a conscious and vague form or just, other things? Its more complex but basically, stars are what remains of ghosts, their overall emotions, when they choose to fade aka rest finally. Its usually very very powerful ghosts so mostly bunches of ancients, powerful beast animals, or even actually some events? Ghosts emotions get trapped and become memories and stars, weaker ghosts become part of the waters below, turbulent emotions and memories mashed together. Its not as cool as exploding gas though. Its simply a mark of a life, an eternal piece of their story and a memory to guide those along the Sea of Souls even if the rest of them has been forgotten."

"Okay, firstly, you have a very weird idea of what counts as cool, and secondly, please don't tell me this place has a million names or something. I thought it was the Celestial Seas."

Cory laughed, shaking his head, "Oh, it is, but yeah a bunch of names. Celestial Seas is what I dubbed it because that encompasses so much to me. I really like how other ghosts outside of the seas use this place, even if its necessary sometimes, so I stuck with my name. The current ancients use it as a prison, a final test that’s the… life or death of the ghosts. Seeing if they can really change when reverted to nothing without their obsessions to drive them... Anyway! So they call it the Ocean of Judgment, Hati says the other spirits though called it the Sobbing Seas. History buffs the Sea of Souls. But everyone on the islands if you notice call it the Celestial Seas like me."

"Stars?"

"Yeah, I call it that cause of the stars," He hummed, motioning out to the churning sea, "Sometimes when the sea is flat as a board, you can't tell where the horizon begins and ends, so it truly looks like the ocean around you is nothing but the skies above."

The rain came thundering down more heavily, another boom as Cory jumped and Danny grabbed him into his arms.

He took in a shaky breath and squeezed his eyes shut, continuing on in a shaky voice in what Danny thought was more of an attempt to distract himself than to spill everything he knew. "When I first arrived here, it was all I could see for days. So it always was something special, when I was alone with nothing but the ancients and ghosts above to accompany me."

The wind picked up and Danny shifted to have Cory lean against him, ignoring the slight rumble of his core. Any other time he'd probably be embarrassed for purring but he couldn't find it in himself too. "Can you tell me about them?" He asked in a soft voice.

Cory nodded, shifting to free an arm from the sheet and pointed upward to the sky. The rain was heavy but he could still see that there was a shining cluster of stars, one singular one the brightest among them. It had always been one of the few brightest in the skies, never moving as if it followed them unlike the rest of the stars.

"That's the Ferryman," he said, "Once a long long time ago, he was the first sailor of these seas. This is actually his ship but he didn't sail like we... I do. He simply took lost ghosts where the veil was the thinnest and let them go or let them simply make their own lives on islands. We have a portal now on the ship across the veil but still."

He hummed, curling into Danny's arms. Danny shrugged off the coat and moved it across their laps, careful to keep it away from the rain. It didn't pool onto the ship but definitely absorbed into things, and ghosts, weighing them down almost annoyingly until it either... not evaporated but Danny didn't know what else to call it. Was processed? That sounds about right.

He sighed and let those thoughts go as Cory started talking again. "This was his punishment, his curse. He used to lead armies against the first ghost kings, drawing souls from the depths of these seas and giving them a faux life, or what life only emotions can provide. Mindless zombies, a skeleton crew. Literally. He tore through the Ghost Zone barrens with them at his beck and call. It took a court of ancients and the king working together to defeat him, as each time they sliced through his armies, he'd return here to draw more up."

He moved to scratch at the scars tracing up his neck as Danny grabbed his compass, energy humming through the cold metal. He ran a finger over the glass, the many hands slowly moving across it. It held a glow under the face, a dull constant thrumming of ghostly power.

"So," Cory continued, moving to look at the compass as well, "They trapped him here, binding him and any with the same kind of core with a curse so that he and the sea were one yet different. Since he stole away the souls at peace here and made them his prisoners, he became the seas prisoner instead. Its a curse, any with his core, the core of souls, is affected, and sadly the Sea must choose a spirit to have it."

"And the souls?  That sounds pretty weird, stealing ‘em I mean," Danny shrugged, letting the compass settle back against Cory's chest. 

"The monster's that attack us. If you take a soul from the sea, it cannot fully return. So they combined, memories crashing into one another, emotions mixing in a big ol' shit storm. They, after he was sentenced, was supposed to protect the sea and destroy the ship, to torment him until his core faded."

He sighed, flinching at another boom before he let out a small yawn. Motioning to the same beasts on the horizon, dark shapes moving, agitated. Mira had once commented that storms upset them, probably because they upset Cory.

"But he changed in this sea, learning and finally making peace with it. The sea and the monsters grew to care for him, and he the sea. He became part of the stars after making that peace, not one of the first ones still, but he points to where the veil is the thinnest, above the Isles of Aught."

Danny had heard of them before in passing, the islands that many ghosts actually stayed at, or at least a surprising amount. Spanning bridges across scraggly peaks, cavern systems that contained sizable cities. It was a connecting anchor to the Ghost Zone barrens. Utterly alive despite being... dead.

"Did this ol' Ghosty teach you how to sail here?" Danny asked with a grin.

Cory frowned though, "No. Nobody taught me as far as I can remember. I showed up alone, some island without memories. I... I had no idea who I was or what I was doing, running the ship off pure muscle memory and it was honestly just...terrible. I was alone for what I can only assume is a year, no answers besides letters I couldn't read and weird old books." Danny’s purring grew louder, sadder. "My core hurt constantly because sometimes the beasts had to push the ship because the ropes were so damn old not even death saved them apparently." 

He let out a humorless laugh that broke Danny's heart, strangled and small and nothing like the usual snorting laughter that warmed his core. 

"I was so lost without memories, that it hurt. That... that terror of being alone just hasn't gone away. I... I used to think I did something wrong. Because I have the same core as the Ferryman, the same punishment. Its why I want to help others find who they were. I... I know what its like to hurt, to not be able to remember and to feel hopeless. To feel like you’re in a prison with no way out.“

He shrugged and curled up, head laying against his rumbling core. Danny glanced down to see tears singing his eyes. 

"But.. So is the way of the sea. Its beautiful if you listen to it though, it's a siren to me I guess."

Danny stomped down on his purring to listen.

The sea hummed around him. The see sung. It cried and wailed and screamed for attention in a blinding furry at the very edges of his mind. A humming that reverberated though his as if the very water itself had a million things to say, a million stories and places to show. Each crash a cacophony that built in a growing crescendo and in the buzzing of his mind he can feel each tide and each moment of wind. It tore through the sails, existing in every way it should not as the wind met the waves in an impossibility flowing beneath them. 

The memories swirling as they called to him, neither to join or to leave but instead to live.

Around him the sea sung. Around him the sea sobbed. 

Around him he understood the very thing that made the sea churn, the very spirit that flowed through the heart of every spirit on the ship, the need to see it all, to understand where it calls them if they were so inclined to give away their obsession for a simple chance. To see if it will steal them away or give them back what they so love.

Next to him the captain stared out at the sea, a sad longing swirling in his eyes as tears welled in his eyes and the sea cried with him. The wind rustled his hair and for the briefest moment, Danny thought he perhaps really was an angel, lost among the memories of countless spirits who either lost or left themselves into the oblivion. A sailor on the sea of stars. A child, lost just like him. A friend who offered everything.

The ocean sung to him and in its fury and sadness he found peace. The waters wouldn't touch him, he's been deemed for a future that he both fears and reaches for and he wonders if perhaps the water blessed him.

A new life. A new beginning. All he had to do was listen to its song. To watch the stars above as they change with and leave behind them with each rolling wave as they travel into the unknown. He could build a life there, welcome crew with a laugh and a joke and see them leave to their own afterlife, gone and never seen again.

But it itched and burned in the back of his mind. He had to leave though, for he knew this is not a song truly meant for him, but instead a briefest showing of it. The sea and salt would not welcome him forever, not yet. And as his friend stared into the sea and gave a rueful and twisted grin as if he were thanking it, the same song around him told of one cruel joke after another.

"It gives so much," Fernweh whispered, "Its given so much and yet it takes everything away. Funny isn't it?"

Danny couldn't bring himself to answer, the salt... ectoplasm... the air too thick as it pressed against his lungs. Like he was drowning. 

"But one day you'll leave as well," he sighed, "And Danny?" Cory glanced up to him and smiled sadly, more honest, softer, "I hope you find your way home, its a terrible thing to never be able to find."

"But what if home is in the people around me?" Danny forced from his throat, to many things to say and no way to say them, "I mean haven't you heard of that sappy stuff? What if you guys are home as well? Why can't I, why can't I come back to this home after I find my first?"

Cory looked back to the sea, shaking his head, "Its been the nature of ghosts as long as I've been captain. They remember their obsessions and if they're happy with them, they realize they can't find that here.

This place only starts hurting them then, starts becoming a prison. I... I can tell whatever you cared for makes you happy. There’s nothing out there for me in truth, but there’s a million things for you. And I can’t let you hurt like that, ‘ts not right."

The sea no longer called out to Danny, instead the storm took over as it crashed against the deck. Thunder boomed and Danny tightened his hold on Cory, a frown on his face. The rumbling purr started in his chest, a hope to comfort both of them.

He paused, mulling over himself. "You know, any obsession that takes me so far from my friends and forces me to never return is kind of shit." He looked down and smiled as Cory looked up to him in surprise, green eyes wide. "And I'd be a shit friend if I didn't return. And hey, you said there’s nothing out there for you?"

Cory nodded, his eyebrows drawn in confusion as Danny simply shrugged. 

"I guess I'll have to be that nothing, I mean," Danny let go of Cory, earning a yelp as he frantically grabbed his shirt to keep him from falling over his lap completely. He splayed his arms wide with a laugh, "Ancients, I'm a freak of nature! No one better to be an ol' fashioned good for nothing nobody than me!"

Cory let out a snort and than a laugh, hiding hid face as he fell into a fit of surprised giggled, "Don't test it Fenton. That means I'm an even bigger freak."

"Hey, hey no! My sentiment! We can't both be nobodies!" Danny gasped in mock offense.

"That's quitters talk."

"Says the one quitting on me."

Danny grinned triumphantly as Cory sputtered and frowned, resorting to good ol' fashioned childish pushing. But upon failing to push Danny away he just turned and pouted, Danny laughing at him. After a moment Danny sighed, catching his attention before trapping him in a hug. He smiled as Cory relaxed against him, hair tickling his cheek as his cored purred in contentment, happier than a cat out of hell. A quiet sniff earned his attention and he pulled the other tighter.

"Promise me you aren't bluffing, ghost boy?" was mumbled against his shoulder. 

Danny smiled lightly. He was not one for promises, something telling him he'd broken them before but, perhaps this wasn't a place to do so. "Of course, captain, swear on my own obsession."

"You don't know your full obsession."

"Well this is future talk! Get your head in it. Don't make me throw you overboard!"

Cory gasped, stifling his own laughter and a yawn. "Oh a mutiny, my first one, we need to celebrate."

Danny laughed lightly as Cory continued to giggle and snort against his shoulder, voice muffled as the air around them seemed to lift and breath as they continued on talking. The rain let up a tad but continued in its torrent, a comforting thumping against the wood boards. The waves pushed them in tandem with the impossibility of the wind. Two impossibilities pushing them on a sea of memories, two impossibilities curled tightly as they laughed at small tired jokes in hushed voices.

And after a lulling moment, the sea rolling beneath them as it rocked them slowly, Danny wondered aloud in a quiet voice as if one wrong thing would shatter their peace. "It gets better right?"

Cory hummed in a questioning tone, raising his head as he blinked blearily.

"Not remembering," He clarified, "It gets better?"

Cory let out a yawn and nodded, "yeah it does. You make new memories, find new people to love, so on. So many who pass through here leave because they have a life to return to. Some stay on the islands 'cause they don't. Hati and Viper are really the only one's who've been here since the beginning. They weren't good originally, and neither was what they could return to."

Danny smiled lightly, "And they changed?"

"'course they did. Hati was a total bitch to deal with originally. Imagine Muller but actually trying to murder everyone who looks at the ship wrong and... being able to murder them. Viper just didn't wanna have anything to do with this."

Cory shifted into a more comfortable position, face smooshed against Danny's core as he fell quiet and Danny asked one thing that he knew would haunt him until he gained his obsession.

"Do you think I've changed?"

"Nah I," A loud yawn, "I thing that the ghosts who the sea sees as good stay the same, cause they're makin’ good decisions cause that’s just how they are. Evil ghost or something or ghosts who were evil because they realize they just, don't wanna be that and realize they can change for the better and do. Some just change cause its natural. Others don't. Muller... I... I used to think he'd change but now? Not so much." He shrugged half heartedly.

"And me?" he pressed.

"You're a good guy Danny," Cory hummed, "You're kind and smart and funny and just wanna protect people and I think that’s nice. Like a dead superhero! That’s nice. You're nice. That doesn't stop when you lose memories, doesn’t stop being nice…" He trailed off into a mumble, smiling as Danny chuckled.

"Thank you, your nice to," he whispered as Cory blinked up at him, "You think there’s anything else out there?"

Cory shifted, pulling the sheet closer as he frowned at the part that slipped into the rain. "Day's still young, so's this part of the realms," he whispered, voice barely above the rushing waves and shouting storm,

"There's... so much room for potential above us. The stars fade 'n change n' show us somethin' else. Don't know how much I wanna look for it but either way I’m gonna. But… I think you'll be up there one day Danny, when alls done and said... said and done. If you ever fade that is. Gonna lead the next group a' chucklefucks, keepin' them company. Still bein' nice."

Danny hummed, core warm and purring as it curled in his chest, "But what if you're not by my side up there? Who else am I gonna get dragged to cuddle with? Who’s gonna put up with my bullshit among the stars?"

"Me. I'll drag your ass back down to whatever hell I've ended up in and force you to swab the deck for leavin’ us, rookie," He growled, huffing as Danny laughed and swatted him on the shoulder.

"Dude! Our moment. Ruined!" 

Cory turned to stick his tongue out at him, "Yeah yeah yeah, some moment. Forgive me oh great king of humor."

Danny snorted and fell into laughter as Cory gave a tired and proud smile, "Ah yes, manual labor, what a wonderfully funny thing."

"I'm still in charge Phantom, don't think I don’t have the guts to give you a broom," he shrugged and huffed. 

"Yeah yeah ya sap, I'm sure you will," He muttered with a yawn. Cory opened an eye to send him a glare before shaking his head and curling up almost impossibly closer, not that he’d ever mind. 

Danny smiled, contentment running through his core. They were safe, they were happy and here and oh. A rumbling purr met his ears, groggy and low. It warmed him, a sense of safety as they sat there purring. They were there and safe. Maybe if he could find his other people he could bring them this kind of safety as well and...
Other people...

He sucked in a breath, shaky as it was. He had other people he needed to get to.

Cory grabbed and pulled lightly at his shirt as the captain’s purring grew louder in an attempt to sooth him, a reminder that someone was still there. He let out a slow breath and settled. 

He knew he had other people, and he knew he had to keep them safe but...

Maybe, just maybe he could rest for a minute and keep this part of his people safe.
Maybe for once Daniel Fenton could sleep.

And he did.

Chapter Text

Clockwork was everything Danny knew and didn’t know, an embodiment of mystery and power and a past that Danny was only beginning to find through the haze of memories. His core called to be near the ghost, near the familiarity and safety that it promised was offered. To be near a piece of his home.

But he had a job to do.

He stood tall and proud as one could next to Hati, fidgeting with the bandanna tied loosely around his neck, a token from the Captain who he could faintly hear on the ship docked nearby. He quelled the keen of his core with a deep breath, a promise to himself to figure it out later. He had all the time in the world right than, all the time in the world to lay his thoughts besides the stars and see if he could navigate through them.

Yet he still couldn't help but stare at Clockwork with a tentative gaze, only to be met with a kind smile.

After a moment in the dreary silence, the ancient spoke up, "You're doing great, Daniel," they said. Danny unintentionally relaxed at the sound of their voice, shoulders slumping and smile pulling at his lips at the pride embedded in it. "And there's no need to worry, your other home is safe."

He nodded, a stress and weight he'd forgotten about melting from his shoulders. A burden forgotten, or perhaps always there. 

"And the ship?" he found himself asking, if anything to know the full extent of it all.

Clockwork nodded back, looking off to where it was docked with an almost unreadable expression. "Yes the ship will be safe as well, prince. I'd say not to worry again but I think you and I both know that's impossible." They sent Danny a slight wry grin and Danny snorted, rubbing his neck sheepishly.

He leaned slightly against Hati, who to his own credit didn't comment beyond simply shaking his head, ears flicking at the sound of crunching in the grass growing closer. He bumped Danny’s shoulder, an acknowledgment to him as the wolf let a rather giant paw fall onto his shoulder. 

He didn't realize he was shaking slightly, throat tight at the kind look Clockwork sent him. 

It sent him spiraling slightly again. But he straightened, taking in a breath again. He had a job to do, backup in case anything went wrong, not that he thought it would. Danny looked up and nodded at Hati. He straightened as tall and imposing as what he imagined a gunman would be. 

He still had no idea what a gunman was but that’s also because the twins were terrifying when it came to the book horde and would bury him in pirating encyclopedias to learn on his own. And not that he minded, but it was getting rather annoying to every five minutes bring the book over to one ghost or another, when the ghost speech was far to old for him to have learned and the Captain only learned something far older and far newer.

It was at that thought that he turned lightly to a rather disgruntled Cory, coat newly fixed and actually wearing his hat—most likely Viper considering how long it took to make a five minute trip. It was, in Danny's humblest opinion of wearing a lab safety suit and bandanna as clothing, incredibly silly in a way. But Danny had to hand it to him. He pulled off the ghost captain look.

Mist clung to the edges of his coat, swirling around as if cast shifting shadows  about, reflecting in an odd light from the compass now hung at his hip. His eyes glowed that eerie green like the stars above as his hair moved to an invisible wind, rolling in ringlets as Danny wished for that power. The island was humid for absolutely no good reason and he knew that the breeze on the seas was always cool.

In his hands sat the Crown of Fire and Ring of Rage, flames dully crackling as it lit the air around him with a toxic glow. Danny could feel the solemn power rolling from the pair, a buzzing that tingled at the edges of his senses, a familiar thing, like he'd been near them before. 

He paused before Clockwork, giving a light bow of his head before straightening and presenting the two. Clockwork accepted them with a reverence that could only come from old people.

"Thank you, King. I assume it was no trouble?" They asked, inspecting the crown slightly. 

Cory shook his head, hooking his hands behind his back in a rather easy confidence that Danny didn't see often in the Captain. "No more than usual, we'll be after the mirror next as I'm sure you know."

They nodded in acknowledgment, bringing the crown and ring close to them with another smile. "Your service is appreciated as always. Trust you keep safe on these seas, child."

Danny almost flinched away from Hati who glowered at that 'child' comment, but it turned into a suppressed snort when Clockwork turned to send a look at Danny, humor obvious and not the usual actual brash comment from people not living on the sea.

"That applies to you as well, Daniel, I know your wacky hyjinxs and I do hope you have enough sense to not drag the Captain into them for the time being.“

Danny blinked at him before offering a grin, "So that's a go ahead for future hyjinks? I’m sure we have all the /time in the world."

"Retrieve the mirror first, you'll see when /time/ comes," Clockwork nodded, smile growing for a moment before falling into neutrality as they shifted to leave, "Oh and King? Daniel? I do trust you to understand that the mirror shows a future that is easily avoided. Merely a suggestion of what could be, but won't. I know it won’t. And Mánagarmr? Do keep them from trouble." They said in a voice far to amused and far to caring for someone supposedly detached from time. Hati straightened as he said so, ears standing to attention as Clockwork exchanged a brief goodbye and left.

They stood in a brittle silence, Cory turning to them with a hesitant expression before Danny spoke up.

"So Mr. King, whats with the crown."

Cory snorted, "Oh shuddup. It fell into the sea, stripped or something. I haven't been listening that close to the oldies recently."

"To think you rule these seas," Hati shook his head, Cory letting out a 'HEY' as he held the wolfish version of a smile. "It was sent here to strip it of the past reign of Pariah Dark, as well for another motive I cannot begin to comprehend." He thought for a moment before glancing to Danny. "But… prince? seems like there's more to you than just a couple bad puns."

"Oh fuck off ya furry," Danny waved him off as Cory laughed, "I know were Mira hides the less than pleasant results of chemistry and don't think I haven't watched enough cartoons to know how to rig a trap."

Hati shook his head, beginning to herd the two back to the ship. "Be careful with your words Daniel, as Poor Dick ways, 'what's begun in anger ends in shame'."

"Hey you started this! And please don’t say dick, I don't think I can mentally handle the psychic damage of a wolf saying dick in a voice that rivals Morgan Freeman." 

Hati shook his head and patted Danny on the back with a grin, Cory snorting with laughter beside them. "Whatever you say oh dear prince, just let us know if your shoes need shining."

"To be fair I had no idea."

Cory raised an eyebrow, "That your shoes needed shining? I thought it was obvious."

"Ancients help me I will banish you two." Danny growled, no anger in his words as laughter threatened to bubble from his throat.

Hati simply laughed, stooping to pick up the two as they let out protests and shouts. Danny was almost thrown over his shoulder as Cory was curled into his arm like a baby, each grumbling slightly as Hati let out a rumbling purr. "Alright, children. Lets get this show on the road."

The trees gleamed in all the ways of dry bones as they jutted from the grey skin of the island, cracking and splintering into limbs that reached upward to a sunless sky. The bloody leaves painted the canopy, bright and gleaming as the thorned vines swirled up each trunk to meet them. The red blossoms bloomed among the thorns, creating a nauseating scent that sent their stomach's reeling, one more so than the other.

They picked their way through the brush, using a rather awkward and dull sword to cut their own path as the needles of the vines threatened to slice through their skin and the roots of the trees threatened to trip them.

Danny had thought about taking one, the small saplings that dotted the ground among the larger ones, it itched that someone he knew would adore it, would laugh at him but smile lightly at it all the same. But he let them be, simply content to laugh as Cory cursed out the island. If they loved plants as much as Mira, than removing one of the trees would be a death sentence.

Or worse if he was being honest.

But they neared what could've been an actual path and started on the trampled grey grass of panicked footprints from long long ago. The canopy above sent hoards of shadows across the ground, waving in a silent breeze. Nothing truly moved nor called out, not even the distant chimes of wisps or the sound of the ever present sea seemed to be able to reach them. All Danny could truly hear was Cory's hums, some dumb shanty of one type or another that he was halfway inclined to join. Anything to create some sort of life around them.

But in the pressing silence around them, it was almost too strange to disturb.

By all known laws of horror movies, there would be something large and terrifying on the island, a beautiful and surprisingly peaceful place known as the Island of Blood. It was one of the last placed that Blood Blossoms bloomed naturally and one of the only places that assured only the captain could reach. Sadly this was no horror movie and would lack such excitement.

It was almost a shame that only the more human of ghosts could explore such a pretty place, no matter how much it seemed like a murderer was chasing them through the wood or the air made him want to puke. It was rather fitting for the object that they stumbled upon, resting in a clearing thick with fumes and puke if they stayed there long enough.

A  mirror stood tall, propped up by a leafless--dare Danny think dead--tree, blood blossoms curling across its silver frame. The frame itself was made to seem like tree limbs, twisting in gnarled knots and branches, all joining at the skull of some beast or another that was fixed to the bottom. It still stared, eyes hollow and menacing as small poppies grew around it, dotting the ground of the clearing in odd clumps. Ghost poppies. If Danny could remember English class than he's sure this would be about the time he'd have to annotate.

It was covered by a purple sheet, draped delicately as it blew in the same unfeeling breeze that drifted through the canopy. 

"So uh, should we be worried about that... thing coming to life," Danny asked, eye brows raising as he motioned to the skull.

Cory hummed, stepping over to grab the sheet. "It's a sphinx skull, used a long ass time ago to infuse things with the truth? Maybe? I dunno maybe it was the muddled truth." He shrugged. “It should under no circumstances come to life, this thing has rather passive power.”

"So... lets get our Harry Potter on than?"

"Hell yeah."

With far too much fanfare, Cory pulled the sheet away, letting it flutter in the wind for a moment before stuffing it under his arm. Danny stared up into the mirror in surprise as Cory froze next to him, almost crumbling into himself.

"Its... Its.. I-" he sputtered, taking in a breath. "Well that's an unsurprising surprise."

Danny could help but agree, through the growing haze of confusion clouding his mind. He could easily see himself, standing tall and strong. His eyes burned an] neon green as his hair whipped to an unknown wind into a wispy flame. The Crown of Fire rested on his head, flames forever frozen in shards of ice, the same that encrusted the same coal black armor he wore. The ring of rage shone with his own crest on it, glowing bright with the fury of every spirit. 

Frost was splashed across his face. Frozen across jeweled studs that decorated the armor, none of the color able to give it any semblance of life or joy.

The future stared down at him, what must've been an ornamental sword in hand and frowned, bearing fanged teeth in a grimace. He could feel the buzzing power from the pair of artifacts, feel the cool fog that rolled as mist from his cape and this Danny was alone. So so incredibly alone.

A war waged behind him, four armies clashing in a roving bloodbath. Vines grew to fight warriors of sand and bone as laughing beasts of flesh and ocean rot plowed through their masses. Fright Knight stood nearby, gazing out as armies of the Ghost King marched into the fray. Desolation as ice slowly froze over the battling armies, encasing them in a foggy demise. No winners. No remains, not even his own army given a second glance.

Cold sadness, regret, lonely anger yet not a raging fury to destroy completely.

This is not Dan.

/This is NOT DAN./

Danny sucked in a breath, every inch of cold anger that radiated from this one. It wasn't that insane fury, that anger. But why did it hurt to gaze at?

He reached over and grabbed Cory, pulling him closer for some form of reassurance. He blinked and the mirror changed in a swirling miasma of fog.

"Shit, is that you?" Cory barely managed to mumble. Danny would ask the same. Shit indeed.

He could only assume it was Cory, fully ghost and adult with deadly green eyes that peered into his, any warmth gone from their dull glow. His hair docked short and covered by the familiar hat, missing any of the joking green feathers or ornaments that they’d once spent so long attaching. His strangely pristine coat blew in the wind as it swirled the fog around him. Shifting forms of souls screaming for release, quiet as the eternal night. He could practically hear the creaking of the dreary ship. No stars glowed on his coat and he looked rather dead without them. 

Danny vaguely remembered once upon a time seeing pictures of naval captains, buttons shining and mouths set in a firm line as they stood tall and proud and joyless. Its what Cory seemed to become, chin tilted down as a shadow cast over his face. Those scars crawled further up his face as his compass sat strapped to his side, smashed and its glow dead. A sword encrusted with barnacles and rust and other mementos of years in the sea was strapped to the other, crackling with electricity that climbed up his arm in a white hot fury. It still remained sharpened to a deadly degree, perhaps able to slice through the zone itself.

Hati stood at his side. He wasn't alone than, not like Danny. But he was different, foaming at a muzzled mouth as he hunched in a barely contained fury, eyes glinting as they stared at him. Ever muscle tense as he prepared to spring at Danny, only held back by a hand on his arm. Viper.
Hands resting on Hati's and Cory's shoulders almost possessively, she smiled warmly at Danny with that familiar inviting air. That sense of home. But it seemed more of a dull lie than anything else.

Immaculate silver and emeralds that glimmered across her figure, more befitting of an empress than his crew mate. Cold fury and an acidic tone dominated once stern yet kind eyes that sent a dull thumping panic in his heart. He felt little more than a prey being hunted.

Dully, Danny acknowledged they weren't on the seas, but instead the barrens. A ghost crew worked behind them, pulling rigging and wandering about made of skeletons and muck from the sea. The same odd flesh that made up the monsters that attacked them coiling and sliding across the worker's frames, stone limbs weighing them down as they staggered in between frozen statues of ancients. Puppets under a bitter king's control. Not that Danny had appeared so much better.

"Cory?" Danny found himself saying, a shaking panic in his chest cooling every so slightly as he remembers Clockwork, "You know that’s not the present right? You're here."

Cory leaned against him after a moment, eyes shut and face screwed in an unreadable expression as he sagged under the weight of the stars. "Yeah, I... yeah I'm here. Gotta love facing shit huh?"

"Oh yeah," he tried for a rather shaky grin. "Ya know, I have absolutely no context for this future beyond it being one of the shitty ones, and I'm about 90% sure I've seen a worse future so honestly, this is just a marginally terrible day."

Cory snorted, offering his own smile back. "Well, you do look pretty cool either way."

"Dude, we both do. Forget war and shit, you get to be tall... er. Slightly." 

He was met with a snort and a light shove, "Yeah yeah, that'd be pretty nice. You're one to talk though Mr. Prince."

"I am indeed one to talk, I look sick as hell in armor." Danny grinned, "Now lets get this thing back. I'd much rather sleep off this whole experience like usual."

The Captain nodded and shook out the sheet with much less flair than before and layed it on the bumby ground. Through a mixture of ghost powers, pure unadulterated luck, and a lot more panicked singing, they managed to get the mirror actually wrapped around all the way—only breaking off a tooth from the skull which was quite remarkable considering it was a freakishly big mirror—and headed off. The smell of blood blossoms was still overpowering as they walked on the ashen ground, dirt crunching beneath worn sneakers and Danny reveled in the present of the moment.

It was just another stupid future, he reminded himself. A stupid future. He's not a king, he'd never fight his friends, fight a war alone. And besides, he thought with a smile as he joined in a sea shanty about ghost wales and kings, its not like he'd ever be truly alone. Its his job to protect his friends and home and everyone who needed it, not bring on a path of of destruction.

Its his job. Its his job... no... no its not truly, its his-

The grass turned into gravelly sand that crunched under his feet and gave way to the sea, the ship appearing through the swaths of trees and flowers and leaves. Hati stood tall and proud at the edge, staring off into the distance with all the regality he so commanded and none of the ferality that befitted a possible future. He hadn't seen them yet, and Danny laughed when he realized that the wolfman's tail was wagging.

A dog waiting to welcome his human home.

Just like Cujo...

The gangplank was lowered and after a fit of yells and creaking wood, the mirror was hauled on deck as Cory sent a rather snide remark about flame hair at Danny who laughed. He called back about getting a cape and barely caught the angry sneer from Muller who helped pull it over the railing and settle it onto the deck. The ghost’s own flaming hair burning with intensity.

Danny and Cory transformed, Danny drifting by as the captain sighed with a frown on his face. He nudged him lightly. "You doing okay?" He asked quietly.

"I'm mostly dead, I don't think I'll ever be okay," Cory nodded anyway, smiling all the same.

"If he jokes he's fine," Agape crowed from nearby, perched on the railing to cuff Muller over the head with a wing. Muller himself seemed inclined to start hissing and spitting like a cat. "We heading out, boss?

Can barely fly with all these blood blossoms nearby." Aleixo landed next to the twin, their feathers both ruffled but smiles content on beakless faces.

Cory nodded, drawing himself to stand tall in the sometimes rare 'I'm in charge now fuckers' pose, but kindly smiled. "We'll head out as soon as the sea provides wing. Muller, twins, get the sails set right if you could."

"Oh come off it captain," Aleixo grinned, "You and I both know you're controlling it."

"Nah, its just my friend."

Danny sighed, "Why do you get such cool friends? I mean mine are neat and all, a goth, a secret furry whose a nerd, and this really nice sailing crew I met, but come on. The wind is so neat."

Aleixo perked up from his perch as Agape took off in shaky flight, "Oh! Oh! Am I the goth!? Can I be the goth!?"

"Sadly, no. Imagine Mira and Hati combined but less ghost and furry," Danny shrugged, flipping to float upside down for the heck of it, "You can be the emo friend though, don’t got one of those yet. Sad to say you just aren't as terrifying as her."

"Oh a true monster than, never thought I'd see the light," Cory shook his head.

"Oh just wait you haven't seen my report card. If my fuzzy memory serves, its more disappointing than anything else."

"Bold of you to assume I know what a report card is."

Danny gaped at him with wide eyes, "Shit, how I gotta drag you off to school with me! You haven't existed until you've been in the hormone thunderdome of disappointing parents."

"But I already know calculus and modern philosophy, three languages AND how to write a formal treatise which… I assume is close enough to an essay to count as school stuff," he sent him a grin, Danny laughing.

"Damn, captain. How much free time do you have?"

Cory hummed, making a so so motion, "An eternity technically, if I choose to succumb to my own fleeting morality one of these days."

"Captain, dear, please stop pondering immortality, we have a job to do," Viper slithered over, gently placing a hand on Cory's shoulder as she smiled kindly. It was gentle and understanding, not at all like the mirrored future's. An amusement painting her tone.

Cory nodded and turned to shoo Aleixo, who stuck a forked tongue at him in mock annoyance and took to the skies. He was unsteady in the air, the scent of blood blossoms still sour but through sheer will power and perhaps some intervention of the sea's own magic, they got the sails uncurled. 

As Danny expected, the wind took to them easily, blowing in its own furious song as Cory headed over to the wheel, more so to rest against it than anything else, Mira joining in an idle chatter with him. Danny drifted up to one of the beams, letting himself lazily drape across it as he shut his eyes for a small nap. The wind lazily tousled his hair, whistling as a weight was both lifted and a different one pressed against his core, a thousand responsibilities, a thousand names, a thousand faces. But perhaps it could wait for a moment as he drifted off, song floating from below in laughter and joy.

His name is Danny Fenton and he knows who he is.

Chapter Text

It rose from the water, tendrils flared about in all of its horrific lovecraftian glory, its face-less visage letting an ear splitting shriek shake the air. It was far too squid like to be comfortable as it thrashed in the ocean like a drowning man, having wrapped its tentacles around the ship.

Hati sliced through the smaller tentacles with his claws as Muller sliced through the larger with his flaming sword, shouts of anger and calls traded between them as slowly the monster pulled itself upward. A duo only in fighting these beasts, flames singed Hati’s fur as he cut to close to the fiery ghost’s attacks, relentless and aggressive.

Wind tore through Danny's hair as he wove through the beast's tentacles, trying to just get a good look at the thing. He regretted it though as soon as he found a small clearing, cringing at the shifting miasma that laid just beneath the waves, eyes opening and closing as it stared wildly, as mouths opened to scream and cry in a voice far to human.

The thing, as far as he was aware, wasn’t acting like those beasts before. It was desperate. 

Hati lept among the tendrils after being burned one to many times, passing him with an easy grace and power that many ghosts didn't dare to take on when letting gravity control them. Danny would kill for that kind of grace when going human, at least he'd be able to dodge Dash better. He flew alongside the wolfman though for a bit, firing blast after blast to draw them away from Viper who curled near the monster's head, eyes glowing bright as she turned tentacles to stone for the wolfman and halfa to destroy. 

He reveled in the feeling of a fight for a few moments, the wind howling and tearing through his hair and stinging his eyes as he flipped and spun. But he hissed in pain as he was slapped away from Hati’s side. Pure muscled flesh felt more like a truck of cement as he dropped for a moment in shock before regaining his senses.

Muller hacked away at those latched to the ships as Danny backtracked to fight along side him instead. The teen ghost scowled and screamed in a barely contained rage as Danny joined his side. 

He flew off after a moment of hearing quip after quip, Danny shouting after him with a “No need to be so cold, lavaboy!” before letting out a yelp, a tentacle wrapped around him, lifting him in the air as his arms pinned to his side. He let out a yelp and thrashed around, unable to turn intangible as the water dripping from from the appendage. It stung his skin through his suit, needle like in all attempts to warn him to stay away.

A shout and Cory was by his side, bounding from the ship with a grimace as he blasted through the tentacle and let Danny free fall down with a quick salute. The twins spiraled down around him, keeping tendrils away with sharp claws and cackling laughter. Danny set his sights on the base of the tendrils wrapped around the ship, grinning with the harpies as Cory followed after. 

He slipped through the thrashing limbs as if it were second nature, the monster making no move to hit him as he battled it back with a few ectoblasts and sad looks. Only the screams of a heaving betrayal acknowledging him before they turned into an uncontained anger as Muller took a rather hacking swing. 

Muller barreled past them, almost slicing clean through Danny as they focused on the thicker of the tendrils, earning shouts of annoyance. 

"Watch it dude!" He called after the flaming ghost, ripping through a tendril with Agape's help, "I don't wanna be a shish-kabob today!" 

Muller only glared back at him before burning the beast, earning more thrashing as it moved to pull the ship tighter. “Shuddup halfa, some of us are trying to help.”

“Tough crowd,” Danny muttered as Cory only sent him a snort before they all fell into a familiar rhythm of fighting monsters, annoying and still terrifying as it always was. Yet as they cut through the tentacles, more and more began to rise. Even with the added fighter, something so rare Danny forgot for a few moments until Cory grabbed his arm to pull him away from the beast, it was difficult in its endless barrage.

They worked upwards slowly, pushed there by the oceans rising waves and the beast managed to wrap itself completely around the hull and front of the ship and tip it its side, laying its full weight of unfiltered souls onto the creaking wood. The twins shot up past in an attempt to dive bomb but in an instant they slammed into the hull of the tipped deck, the culprit a rogue stone tentacle as Viper flinched back and screamed her sorry. It remained attached to the beast, unable to do anything but slowly drag them lower and lower towards the sea.

The foaming waves seemed to surge towards them in an angry attempt. It wasn’t its goal but it was good enough.

Cory let out a yelp from nearby and was pulled to be below the beast, held  close to its still submerged body as he struggled to try and free himself, dipped slightly beneath the waves.

Danny hissed as Mira was hit into the hull with a sickening crack, the vines she was using to keep the ship from totally capsizing holding strong but letting out their own flailing distress. He landed on the deck in front of her and screamed at them to shut their ears, wind howling to carry his voice as waves crashed below. Wild panic surged through his mind as his friend disappeared in the water.

The twins managed barely as he dug his heels into the side of the ship. Hati landed behind him, Viper grabbing the railing as Muller flew over the side and on deck to god knows where.

And Danny opened his mouth let out a wail, a thousand pained voices melding together in a hauntingly grating miasma as the creature drew back shrieking. Every fear and frustration and piece of anger he’d forgotten, his hope a fiery rage, the destruction of something he holds as supposed to be safe, the endangerment of his friends. Oh the anger and need to protect. Oh the power of a ghost’s purpose.

Slowly he walked towards it, forcing it to lower itself into the sea as Cory was shifted to the side, flinching back until Danny moved to direct his wail at the more general tentacle mass. Hati bounded past him, his rather insane amount of handkerchiefs stuffed into his ears as he was sent skidding lightly by the sound waves until he launched himself at the stone tendril. It shattered and the creature screamed in pain, the twins shooting upwards before they reached the sea's grip. They began slicing through the smaller tentacles once more, talons wide as they attempted to free a struggling Cory, but as Danny stumbled back, energy drained from his limbs, the captain sputtered and was pulled beneath the waves by the beast. 

Danny rose up into the sky as the ship began to right itself, the beast pulling back. He heard Muller shout and return to the deck a Mira grabbed and yanked him back. She glanced at him in a silent worry before returning to try and remove the tentacles wrapped around the railing and threatened to break it. Danny knew she wasn't a fighter, even by ghost standards. Give her any plant and she'd make a poison strong enough to kill an ancient but straight on she wasn't good. 

Danny began helping her, lamenting in a tired mind that they didn’t have many plants on board. He was too tired to to get back in there and he had a slow growing fear that he'd hit the crew like how Sam and Tucker sometimes accidentally hit him. He trusted Cory enough to get out of the ocean, it wouldn't erase his memories like it did the rest of them, or so he'd been told. 

But a panic still dribbled like molasses through his gut and he couldn't help but look over the side to the churning sea at the light glowing green beneath its surface. He glanced over as Muller joined him in staring at the same sea, an anger in his eyes as Mira shouted at them to just help already. The fight was seemingly slowing as it reached up towards them, weakened by the sonic blast but still relentless in its slowing crawl.

Danny turned back to his work and barely recognized a shriek as Muller shot past him and a fwoom after a moment. Someone in the water. He launched over the side in an instant, a yell on his lips as the twins screeched and tackled him back and a familiar burning hits his nose. His vision alighting in a powerful staticky lightning as his body froze in an instinctual fear. It crackled at the edges  of his vision, air pushed from nonexistent lungs as yells met his ears.

The twins rolled off of him and Danny scrambled up, staring as Hati let out an angry roar and its fucking Muller. He smiled proudly as the beast let go of the ship, warbling cries and sobs from its mouths as electricity trailed its twitching limbs and a half crazed look alighted his fiery eyes. 

A barnacle encrusted sword in hand. The one from the mirror as it crackled with all the power of a storm, seeming to almost eat away at Muller's arm. But he didn’t notice in his prideful air, the smile all to happy for a man torturing an angered beast.

The ship righted itself and Danny launched himself past Muller, adrenaline overpowering that sickening fear and he barely stopped himself from plunging into the sea, Cory rising from it instead. He shook as Mira was clutched into his arms, wide eyed and panicked as the vines making up some of her limbs curled and writhed, unsure of both herself and the general air. He glanced up at Danny, a tight pain on his face that Danny knew his mirrored to a lesser degree. That same electricity singed the edges of his and Mira's hair, crackling up his scars and forcing breath pained. 

Danny grabbed his arm carefully, pulling the captain up onto the deck as Viper was on them in an instant. She pulled Mira from the captains arms who looked five minutes from curling up on the deck and sobbing, Danny half inclined to join him. 

Cory stared at the sword in Muller's hand in a growing horror, eyes wide in an unkempt fear as the sea rolled beneath them and the wind pushed against them, the screaming of monsters oh so close, ready to pounce on the ship. Danny had never heard them so close, so utterly angry as their yells tinged the air in pain and betrayal. The electricity remained in the air, crackling at the edges of his ears and burning his mouth as the ghosts landed on the deck, staring at their crew mate.

Muller stood tall, looking back at them with a smile on his face, "Well than. I'd say that ended well."

Chapter Text

"That fucking bitch," Aleixo hissed, feathers puffing as his wings flared, Agape in a similar position to Danny's other side. "We fucking hid that sword for a goddamned reason."

He was half willing to guess what that reason was, and he was half willing to forget it.

Hati tensed next to him, a low rumbling growl building in the wolf's throat. Golden eyes narrowed. A predator held back by only a string. 

He'd once been told that Hati was dangerous, and Danny himself had felt that. Felt the raw power in the ghost as he bounded through the air, passing by on silent steps to shift and meld into shadows like he’d been born to roam the night sky. And he had been. 

And that beast he’d been told to fear, standing tall and not caring for pride or future or anything besides to protect, was a pissed off ancient ready to rip into this fiery twink.

Mira sniffed behind him, and he watched as Muller looked at her with a scowl that melted into a false concern, he took a step forward as Hati tensed and Danny shifted, limbs sore and breath short. 

He was tired but he would make it work. He’d worked on less after all, fumes compared to the full nights rests and actual good ghost good he was able to get. Fighting late meant no sleep. No sleep meant sleeping through meals. But it meant the world to keep those around him safe.

Especially than, even if it meant against a friend or foe.

"Get off my fucking ship," came a low growl, sinking deep into their cores with an untapped fear. 

They paused and Muller snapped his gaze to the captain. Cory stood on unsteady legs, tears in his eyes and a curdled frown on his face as he was about to break into ugly crying and he looked scared.

"No Captain, I don't think I can," Muller said, voice calm as he sent a rather soft look at him, flaming hair lowering from its inferno into what Danny thought would've been a soothing fireplace. "This is a committee situation after all and I'm simply doing what needs to be done. It was you that said we must do what best for the ship some days, wasn’t it?"

"You know what I meant by that," Cory took a step forward, Hati and Danny both shifting to remain in front of him as the twin's stalked forward as well. "Do not make me repeat myself. We aren't actual fucking pirates Muller, this isn’t how that works. I'm the captain. So I say you get off my goddamned ship."

Muller frowned, opening his arms in as nonthreatening as he could get, almost like he forgot he was holding a sword crackling with a fiery electricity that branched toward anything that came near like a snaggly limb. 

"But it was after Mira, Cory," that low growl from Hati started again. "I had no choice. It wouldn't stop until it had one of us and we can't lose the ship. You can't lose the ship. And, she remembered her obsession after all, its time she left." And he smiled, a crawling smile across his face as condescending as it could get. "Oh, oh I see. You don't want her to leave so you sent the monster after her, didn't you? I don't blame you, I want her to stay as well. Oh you're even fighting to! A real captain now huh?"

Danny had a feeling the only thing keeping back the ghosts around him was Cory's rules. But he could hear the wood cracking as Hati's claws dug into the wood and the hissing from Viper and those rules were crumbling.

Cory yanked him back, Danny turned to see the captain staring at Muller. He hadn't even realized he was walking forward.

"Its not after her Muller," he said, almost unheard over the howling wing. "And that’s not an excuse. I didn't... I didn't want to fight it either! I didn’t…" He sucked in a breath, closer to tears. The sad betrayed sobs of the beast seemed to hang in the air.

"But you did! And you did so well. Because now you're SO helpful, and I know you are!“ He smiled, ”Just like how you're SO helpful with us finding our obsessions." 

Hati let out a huff, "Be very careful of your next few words child, you're already out of ice to stand on." He took a step in front of the crew, claws scratching the deck again. "I'd shut up before I throw you back into the hellfire that bore your dumb fucking petulance."

Cory let out a small sound of disquiet as Muller turned to Hati, any ounce of remorse gone as the inferno returned and the sword crackled with a new energy.

"Oh shut it dog, you've already found your obsession," Muller snapped, before he offered a mean and nasty smile only seen on the faces of the worst A-listers, "You know, its weird since the captain can't even find his own obsession! Home. How fucking pathetic you can't find something so childishly simple you-"

Hati stomped up to him and he stopped talking, claws extending on his pawed hands and let out a growl loud enough to shake the ship. The rest took a step back, Danny throwing out an arm to block the others as if it would be any defense against either a fire dick or a furry.

Muller turned back to Cory, for a moment face kind again as if to ask for him to call of Hati, but it grew angry as soon as he noticed the captain had latched onto Danny’s arm, shaking as if he would fall any moment. "I thought you were supposed to help all of us," his face split into a frightful grin, fangs long and vampiric as Cory flinched, "But oh look at us now. Fighting! You're adorable attempt at leadership has led us to this, your mutt going feral!"

"Muller," Cory began, taking in a breath until a scoff cut him off.

"Oh? Oh you have something to say? Oh what are you gong to do? Summon your big ol' monsters? The ones you can't even control like the lil’ abomination you are? Come on, Cory, do something for once you little-"

Hati grabbed his shirt, lips pulled into a snarl as saliva coated shadow like fur. Cory froze next to him  as the hair on the back of Danny’s neck stood and every ghostly instinct told him that this was not a good place to be.

Ghosts fight as a basic social interaction, it was just something they did. But there was a big difference when fighting for fun, and fighting out of actual vitriol. Especially when an adult ghost, an ancient at that, fights for their child. Ghostly parents weren't something you ever mess with.

Frostbite had been the one to tell him to avoid those at all costs. Frostbite had also been the one to defend him on occasion, icy claws digging into ghosts.

So he stared, a few meters away from one, forcing the crew behind him to back up and flinching at the crackling of electricity. Cory was tense as he was herded to be behind him. Even as tired and emotionally dead as he seemed, Cory was tense with a nervous energy, ready to spring in between the two as Viper grabbed him into her arms with Mira and the twins stood next to Danny, tall and angry.

Ancients bless Viper's dislike of using her own powers on sentient ghost or Danny was sure they'd have a new rather annoying figurehead for the ship. Not like they had one before really in the first place.

It was a deathly silent, each a low growl building in their throats, one of an echoing ghost and the other of a ghastly wolf. Wind whipped fur and fire about as Hati lifted him up. A challenge strung between them. 

"Guys," Cory called over Danny's shoulder, voice pleading but quiet.

Muller set his hand ablaze and slammed it into Hati's shoulder, alighting fire in a torrential inferno as the wolf reared back and let him go. Muller pushed off and for a moment they hung in time, Hati staring at Muller and Muller at the singed fur. And slowly the ‘oh shit’ on his face turned into a grin of a confident madman.

Nails clacked on wood and Hati launched at Muller. He grabbed him by the shoulder, teeth sinking into him as Hati jerked his head and threw him across the deck. Muller skidded for a moment before he shot up, smiling brightly as he brandished the sword.

"Lets dance mutt," Muller growled with a smile. 

Hati gave a grin and they began a furious dance of metal and claws. Sparks flying as Hati forced Muller into a quick defensive, his movements dangerously fluid and quick, moving so fast he seemed to become a living shadow as his fur blurred into wisps and his eyes glowed with an angry fervor. 

Fire shot around Muller as he leapt and bound in each attempt to bat away the powerful swipes. He stomped, a ring of flame shocking Hati back for a moment as fur sizzled and Muller swept across his legs and Hati fell. A pause and he launched at Muller, tackling him into the deck before letting how a yowl and pushing away. 

Electricity arched from him, dancing in dark fur as Muller let out his own yell, the same charge clawing his arm in burns of sizzling ectoplasm. The horrid smell hung in the air, a lab explosion gone bad came to Danny’s mind in one moment, his own death the other.

"GUYS STOP!" Cory yelled, drowned out by Hati's howl and they were on the floor again.

Ripping through skin and flesh, Hati tore into Muller as Muller returned in kind, setting his famous coat on fire and cutting through him with ease. No ghost powers to fight with tactic, just raw anger.

The wind had been wild and ragged and it no longer was, the world seeming to stand oh so still beyond the yells and clashes and shrieks of metal. 

Aleixo and Agape froze, training eyes on the sea out of a sort of horror and fear. The hand on his arm tightens and a low rumbling growl erupts from Cory, his eyes glowing a brighter green.

It was a mirror, like they were floating on the sky itself. Every ripple disappearing as the ship seemed frozen on stars. They twinkled and reflected about, an endless horizon. The only disturbance the waves rippling around beasts that rushed around them, unsettled, angered. Something they shouldn't be.

Muller never noticed, thinking the ship was against him, thinking it moved for Hati as they were pushed by storm and wind. He launched himself to burn the wolf’s throat, flying over him in a rather stupid looking move, Hati ducking and turning. He barely kept himself from slamming into the deck, not that it mattered much.

Hati was on him in an instant, fur a mess of wisps as teeth buried into his shoulder and claw dug into his arm. The sword was forced to the ground. Lightning crackled and and arched between them as it became its own deafening roar. Danny flinched back, fear panging in his core as the sword shakes in Muller’s hand before being ripped away.

Cory pushed in front of them, sword flying into his hand with a grace and ease. The electricity danced up his skin before dying out, the metal humming as he shook. His breath ragged as his death scars pulsed with a putrid green. A pause and the captain lets out a breath, eyes squeezing shut.

And Muller laughed, voice wild with a shaking anger. "Oh so fucking rich. You always hide under that stupid fucking idea of what you can be. Oh we really thought he'd ever try and help us! What fucking useless bastards you all turn out to be in the fucking end." He laughed before choking, Hati wrenching him into the air before slamming him down again. But he just let out a choked laugh, “Oh if only your mom could see you now Cory.”

The sword clanged to the ground and his eyes snapped open, Muller's laughter echoed through through Danny's head. But Hati backed up, releasing the ghost who pushed himself up to float. A growl still prevailed but he glanced to the captain in worry, head tilting slightly.

Muller’s form flickered for a moment before he simply summoned bright flames to his hand, "Giving up already, Moon-Eater? Oh how you sad you must make your dear father."

"You're a heartless fool, Muller" Hati growled, turning back. "I'll rip your core from your flayed body."

"Bring it, Hróðvitnisson. Prove you're worth something you damned lap dog.“

He tackled Hati, grappling as fire smoldered on fur and ectoplasm splattered from claws ripping at Muller's chest. He bared his toothed maw in a warning that Muller ignored, earning his already burned arm being ripped into as he shrieked and clawed gouges into Hati’s neck. He reared his hand back and slammed a hand full of fire into Hati’s eye as the wolf howled and ducked to ram him back into the deck. The wood cracked and the ship shuddered and the creatures shrieked in anger in time with the captain.

"I said, STOP!"

A beast erupted from the Ocean of Judgment, slamming into the deck with a furious shriek. Hati and Muller were grabbed before they could once more pounce at each other. Hati was dragged away and let go. He sagged as Cory leveled him with a glare, a sheepish wag of a tail as leftover electricity made him twitch slightly. Muller was slammed back into the deck with a yelp.

"Muller, off my ship. NOW." Cory shouted, voice shaking as he drew himself upwards, walking toward them. His hand twitched and Danny followed to intimidate. He scrubbed his eyes after a moment and looked admittedly terrifying despite needing to probably break down in a moment. Danny thought so at least. 

At least with wind he looked like a ghost and not an incredibly pissed and betrayed pirate captain.

Hati joined them, receiving a glare for a moment before being allowed to be back up beside Danny. He gave a a careful pat on the back. The electricity would remain burned into him for a time or until he rested for a moment and Danny knew that feeling all to well. Most injuries didn't affect a ghosts physically as it did humans, but he had a feeling that the sword had more power than Muller let on.

Muller faltered under the glare of three ghosts, "I uh, ‘cmon captain I-"

"No." Cory snapped, glancing behind him, "Aleixo! Agape!" 

The harpies stood at attention, rushing over in a flurry of feathers and angry hisses, talons clacking against the deck. They grabbed him, breaking into smiles of a bright furious anger. Muller blinked in surprise, letting out a yelp as Aleixo sunk claws into his damaged arm. Sizzling ectoplasm burning Danny's nose.

"Escort him to the door, please."

On any other ship that would've been a stupid thing to say because in theory a true pirate would talk of the brig or maybe broom closet if you're an unlucky scalywag, but to the crew it was the their version of walking the plank. Not into the ocean of course, they hated littering. 

Muller started thrashing, fire burning along his skin as he shrieked. The twins didn't complain as they dragged him over to the ladder, the rest beginning to follow as they struggled to get him to duck through. 

Danny glanced back to watch Mira kick the sword over the railing with a frown before being led over by Viper, who murmured lowly to her with a kind smile. 

"Mira!" tore her attention away, Muller looking back as his voice turned frantic. "C'mon! We're friends! You always said second chances, don't let some stupid thing like water change change you!" 

Mira frowned, eyes as soft as they'd always been as she shook her head. "I don't know who you are and frankly, I don’t care to learn." She kept her voice quiet as Muller scowled and started hollering.

Danny tuned him out as they walked on and finally approached the odd door that had always been at the back of the ship hallway, right by the lair. The odd metal one that was always cloaked in shadow. Ooooo mysterious. Muller sagged as they approached, frowning as the fire burned low across his skin and smoke huffed from his nose. 

Danny coughed and frowned. So rude. Never considering those with lungs.

There was always something odd about the door, or well odder than usual. A nook in it. 

Cory removed the compass from his neck, fitting it in the nook easily and not pausing for any drama. It glowed a soft green, alighting a detailed carving that was invisible otherwise. Intricate designs or skulls and crowns and flowers. He began moving the four plainest needles with ghost powers and the power of a small hidden dial in the center, hands almost shaking to much to do so. 

He glanced back to Danny, "Your maker's portal doesn't move right?"

Danny shook his head, "Nah, stays in the same place. Please don't litter at my home dude."

"No promises."

Cory nodded with a quick small smile and moved the hands once more before backing off to open the door. A glowing green portal that they all knew led to the empty ghost zone. 

Each straightened, Hati and Danny framing the twins for the ghastly drama that every send off needed.

Cory opened his mouth to say something, a choked noise in his throat and every ounce of anger extinguished in a tired sort of giving up. He looked to Viper who let Mira settle into the back of the crowd and shoved past them and stood beside the door, or really partially in front of it. Ghost drama greatly overestimated the size of the hallway, and as such Danny was literally standing on Hati's paw. Not flying of course because everyone has to be as dramatic as Hati.

They were failing.

"Muller, I'd say its been a pleasure," Viper said, more annoyed than anything else, "But that would be a lie."

Muller let out a yelp and they all glanced to the stone encasing his arm. It crawled up his damaged one until it stopped at his shoulder, making him sag under the weight.

"Let this be a token," she hissed with a frown, "Of your damned inability to let people grow and change. We do not tolerate fighting as you do, and we will no longer tolerate your slights against our captain."

She nodded to the twins and they grinned, shoving him through. He left screaming and Viper slammed the door shut behind him, it clicking with a sort of lock before silence prevailed for a moment. The ship started to rock lightly again, moving on as they each sagged with an agreed upon tiredness. 

"So," Danny started, "Uh. What now."

"I'm going to murder Hati," Cory huffed as Danny just laughed. 

But Cory was a man of his word. The captain turned and starting laying into the wolf man, tail between his legs and ears flattened as he looked properly chastised at being torn apart by a 16 year old. They all tuned into the ghost speak easily, the twins leading Mira off, puffed with pride as the others slowly herded the captain and the wolf into Cory's lair. 

The air lifted as Danny and Viper interjected into his anger at Hati letting himself get hurt with small jokes and corrections. It just made it worse for Hati, who was stuck between disappointment in them and disappointment in himself. 

Cory gave up after the seventh 'sheep dog' pun and just cut himself off to grab the wolf in a right hug, earning bright laughter as he mumbled into his fur. 

"Well," Viper hummed, as Cory pulled away, "At least its better than Danny's phone call will be."

Danny let out a long winded groan and Hati let out a rumbling laugh, bringing him and the captain back into a hug. They didn’t even bother to protest as Viper patted the wolf on the back with a sigh, each smiling at the laughter outside as Mira called something to the twins. 

Danny could accept that as a consolation prize for the electricity. In all fairness, Hati was very nice to hug. And the captain shook like a leaf next to him, buried in fur and coat and memories, and Danny pulled Cory into a hug after Hati let them be.

He sighed lightly, and in the rocking of the ship they each frowned in their own ways, and smiled in others. Everything would indeed go well.

Chapter Text

Slowly the world rocked, the soft rain above a constant tempo in the air around him as it mixed into chimes and song. The storm was light, constant in a deceptive way as it promised to grow heavy. Yet never had he heard it fulfill such a promise, even as the room creaked occasionally with each sway of the ship.

It was almost unnoticeable, so easily displaced into the background as it'd grown to be second nature. To be able to bask in the peace and the soft reassurance. To move with each sway when in flight as if it were the only ground to exist and to be lulled to sleep in its movement in the deep dregs of an eternal night. 

The lair around him was warm and filled with the soft trilling of wisps as they fluttered about, a multitude of colors shining behind his closed eyes. They always brought a soft smile to his face as warmth flittered from them and a sense of everything being simply alright grounded him. It warmed his core as the soft breeze from the open window brushed his cheeks and wisps ruffled his hair. 

His bag was heavy as it leaned against him, strap tangled in his hand as he hummed with the wisps. A song of goodbye, drawn out in its own opera. 

They were new to the ship, being brought to a new home as their last had sunken into the sea. But all the same they were happy to be around him, content to soak in apparent protective aura of his core and he was content to sit in the warmth and joy they brought with them. 

They finished their apparent song and settled into Cory's scarf that had been wrapped around his neck, letting Danny stop his sing and instead began calling and talking amongst themselves. Small tunes of flutes and wind and the occasional rather shitty kazoo.

He opened his eyes with a sigh to the familiar room, drawings pinned about still as white chalk traced stars above into the dark wooden ceiling. He almost laughed at his own unsteady handwriting marking each carefully, Cory's somehow worse handwriting labeling a few others. He remembered putting stick on stars in his own room with his dad, bossing him about as the man good naturally let him. 

Each one had to be perfect after all in his opinion as an eight year old. And the sentiment was shared with the ones drawn above him.

The chalk would be painted over soon he thought, the captain's lair was like the ship, a place of permanence, but the smaller things  liked to shift and change and grow. Danny wondered how long the lair would leave the earth's constellations up, how long the wisps would float above as makeshift stars, small balls of practical dandelion fluff alighting them in a soft glow. 

How long until he would see them again, and he promised to himself and to the wisps in the quiet staccato of the rain that it wouldn't be long. Because he knew who he was, he knew his purpose, and a small voice he had always trusted in the back of his head said it would be alright.

He raised his head a little as the door opened, hinges creaking in a way that only came out of a want of home and Cory's 'unconscious' need for the dramatics. Hati ducked in, a familiar calmness about him as he offered a smile. It wasn't a particularly happy smile, rather sad, but he welcomed it all the same. Danny understood it well and returned it with his own. 

"Hello Daniel," he rumbled, nails clicking on the floor as his ears twitched and coat swayed in the breeze. Dramatic enough to get him to grin for real. He walked over to stand above Danny. "If you're done dying, I believe its time."

The wolf reached out a paw and helped haul him up. His ascot was missing and Danny had a feeling that it was stolen but he kept up his charade as a whaler as his lantern flickered with an amicable warmth. Danny was still not sure why Hati even had it, but he wasn't inclined to ask.

The wisps rose up and away from Danny's hair and scarf, swirling around them as agitated kazoo noises filled the air. But they hesitantly soothed into chimes of different tunes and songs with the same calmness from before when the furry let out rumbling ghost speak in greeting. 

Ghosts often didn't take well to Hati at any rate, or those few they'd met with from outside the sea. He was literally a big ass wolf and power swirled around him marking him as a danger as he strode with an undeniable confidence and had a growl that could silence a room. He was a dangerous ancient, Danny had to say and agree with that. But he'd also seen Hati stick his nose in a bush and snort a ghostly bee for no other reason than they'd lost Agape in a Scooby Doo chase scene.

There's no coming back from loony toons shit when it came to big fuck you wolf men. 

Danny didn't think he'd ever be able to wear his team Edward shirt again though. It would be an insult to the furry.

"I was born to die, so there’s never time."

Hati huffed, "It that’s what you believe than praise be to it. The Sonder is prepared to lose another member of the crew temporarily, but... I don't think the rest of us still are." He shook his head, turning to lead the way from the bright lair and into the gloom of the ship. “I do hope you’ve said you’re goodbyes

Danny swung his bag bag over his shoulder, thankful for ghost strength because of how heavy it had grown. He'd left some smaller things in his corner of the storeroom, really just books and blanket's he'd picked up along the way. But it also meant he wanted to bring a lot of the random shit with him. Like rocks. And mainly rocks if he was being honest. And a few stolen drawings that he’d gotten permission to take from half asleep Cory.

"Yeah I have, well at least this isn't goodbye truly?" He gave a grin. "No way you can get rid of me forever."

Hati laughed, "Aye, we're trying at least."

Danny scoffed and rolled his eyes, smiling all the same.

There wasn't anyone besides the captain in the hall, the rest above working with a somber edge to everything. They'd already said their dues, the twins screeching poetry to him with tearful eyes and Mira stuffing seed packets for Sam into his bag. Viper had insisted on buying him new clothes and he felt more pirate than he probably should have in his simple shirt and shorts and astounding lack of shoes. His parents probably wouldn't appreciate ghost clothes but at that point in his life he'd take it over arriving almost butt ass naked.

His pants had been destroyed sword fighting—and in the process had a new rule added in his honor that the Dick Snatch no longer being a valid move—and three nightmare sweats too many had made his shirt smell so bad.

He understood why Cory preferred to stay a ghost. He was also too lazy to do so.

So pirate clothes it was, and he matched the crew and captain more so that was always fun. 

Cory grinned at him, nodding to Hati in turn as the furry clapped Danny on the shoulder, making him stumble and almost fall.

"Stay safe out there, dear prince," he rumbled, voice far to pompous to be serious but far to kind to be taking the piss. "We will meet again under the stars so long as they follow you, and remember as Lord Poor Dick says, 'a right Heart exceeds all.' You will see the greatness before you, and you will succeed."

With that he turned, coat flaring around him. The ship creaked around him as the lantern swung at his hip, the ones above casting their own eerie glow across his golden one as shadows swirled from his fur. 
Power danced around them, the buzz of an ancient leaving. Not many exuded their powers, many keeping it inside. But Hati’s leapt about from wisps of shadow of his fur and promised an ever present danger with each clack of his claws. 

And the furry was gone, just as he'd arrived. 

A damned dramatic bastard, the fury of every moon able to crack in his jaw and eyes to pick apart a man's greatest weakness. And he didn't even give Danny a hug goodbye.

"You got everything?" Cory said from behind him as Danny gave an exasperated groan and turned. 

"Yes captain."

"Are you sure cause one guy left his whole ass arm here and I don't want you being stuck without something I think is kinda important."

"Firstly, what the fuck but okay valid, and second I'm sure I have all limbs." He raised his hands as if to show  his limb-ness. 

Cory grinned, "You better, rookie, or I swear I’ll turn anything you left into a mop."

"Fernzy c'mon! I'll be fine."

"Fine is what Viper says when she's pissed and I'd appreciate you not biting my head off later.“

Danny snorted, shaking his head in mock exasperation as Cory just huffed and folded his arms. "I promise I have everything," he said, slinging an arm around his shoulders, "'sides, I already double checked. I'd be murdered on the spot without gifts!"

Cory rolled his eyes, "You have so many rocks and plants that your bag is its own shitty ecosystem. I mean, there cannot be that many people vying for your eternal love."

Danny grinned, chuckling lightly, "I mean..."

"Ancients be damned, you got some mates at home, lover boy?" 

"Wow ghost terms are kinky as shit and for your information, dear captain," Danny straightened, puffing out his chest for a moment with the air of superiority before deflating with a, "Nah I don't, please help, Jazz won't stop analyzing it."

Cory snorted and headed over to the ship's portal, tall door imposing as always. "Remind me to never introduce her to Hati or Viper."

"What? The bootleg philosopher group mom and Viper? Wouldn't dream of it."

Despite the lilting humor in his tone, Danny frowned and shifted his things as the compass was inserted into the door. The glow emanated from it, the design apparently having changed since the last time Danny had seen it in use. It still held the flowers and crowns and skulls but they'd  moved to frame twin swords on either side of the compass. Cory clicked to the right coordinates before turning back like the ship wasn’t being its usual slightly weird self.

"Normally I'd give a whole speech about how valuable you are to the crew and how much you've grown but I think you already know how much you mean to us, even if its only been like a few months?" He shrugged and smiled, "Time’s weird. You'll always have a place here no matter what. I hope the stars bless you, Danny, with guidance or wisdom or something for your foolish ass. I'll miss you alright?"

"I'll miss you too, Cory."

"Good luck than, I'm rooting for you. You're home awaits, Danny."

Danny took a step forward towards the door before pausing, hand motioned to grab the door handle. He turned back as Cory smiled rather confusedly at him and Danny could feel the discomfort and fear radiating from him. His friend was sad. His person was sad. Danny stepped back and hooked an arm around his shoulder, pulling him close. 

Cold as any ghost, the underlying warmth that came with any halfa was a dull reminder that he wasn’t alone. He buried his face in the captains shoulder, hair tickling his cheeks as the hug was easily returned.

"Remind me again, how do you find the door to get back?" he murmured, voice muffled by shirt.

Cory paused for a moment. "As stupid as it sounds, you just have to want to show up. If the compass is set to open the doorway, than you should be able to feel and find it." 

Danny smiled brightly, "Well than, I'll be back soon," he said. "I promise. Make sure you don't find new stars without me, okay cap?"

Cory hummed lightly, "No promises on the stars unless we're finding you." He pulled Danny closer to him, a rattling purr shaking his chest as Danny's core hummed in joy, a calming hope that comfortably thrummed around them. But he pushed Danny back and looked at him with a sad smile on his face, fixing the scarf, "Now go find where you're meant to be."

"And if that’s multiple places at once?"

"Than find whichever suits you better for now, we'll be here in the meantime. There’s always time for sailors like us."

Danny grinned, "Good because I belong on this ship as much as anywhere else, and Cory?"

He hummed, raising an eyebrow as Danny grabbed his hand, squeezing it in reassurance as the knick-knacks clinked in his bag and he opened the door with a bit of telekinesis and a wave of another hand.

"Love ya, Captain," he grinned and kissed him on the nose before he launched backwards through the portal.

Cheeks burning, he closed the door behind him and spotted the open portal to Fenton Works. To home. With a hesitance and a sigh, he entered. 

"Danny!" three cheers loudly greeted him and he smiled.

"Hey guys! Long time no sea."