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archetypical changes

@echoghost16 @ghostfox_fuyu

It started out small. Small enough that, in retrospect, Danny was surprised he noticed at all. But he did. At least, he noticed enough to dismiss it as nothing important.

It was just hair, after all. Just hair, growing a bit too fast. He knew that people did have different rates of hair growth naturally. Like, beards especially could grow fast. That’s why five o’clock shadow was a thing.

Just hair.

He wound a curl around finger, where it peeked out from under his left ear. This fast… He could probably brush it off. Maybe it was an extension of his healing powers. He’d just need to cut it more often, so he didn’t go to the barber too often. Would that even be something people would notice?

He’d noticed. It was his body. His hair.

Would anyone else?

He ran a hand through it, sweeping it back, and went on with his life.

“Hey, Jazz,” he said, a week later. “Will you give me a haircut?”

“Yeah, sure,” said Jazz. She turned from her desk and looked him over. “It is getting long, but didn’t you just get a haircut?”

Danny shrugged. “Does it matter?”

Jazz walked over to him and looked up and down the hallway. “Is it a ghost thing?” she whispered.

“No idea,” Danny said.

Jazz sighed, as if it was his fault he was a freak of nature.

Well. It kind of was. Still. She didn't need to act like it.

“Come on, we'll do it in the bathroom. I'll get the broom, you find the scissors.”

They regrouped in the bathroom a few minutes later. Jazz had picked up a chair as well.

“Go ahead and sit down,” she said as she pulled a comb from a drawer. She ran the comb through his hair.

“I did brush my hair before,” said Danny, leaning back slightly and closing his eyes.

“Sure,” said Jazz. “Just checking. How do you want this?”

“However it was before. Just shorter than it is now.”

“Well… I’ll do my best. But you know I’ve not done this before, right?”

“Yeah, but I can’t ask Mom or Dad, and I’m broke, so. This is about it. Unless I want to ask Sam, and I’m not ready to go goth.”

“Going ghost is enough for you, huh?”

“Pretty much.”

“Okay,” said Jazz with a sigh. “Let’s do this.”

The scissors snipped cleanly through his hair, over and over, ticklish strands falling around his ears and shoulders. Jazz didn’t get fancy. She kept things relatively even and didn’t attempt fades or different lengths or anything like that. The result was somewhat strange, but it was workable. No one would think he had some kind of weird hair-growing… thing.

Yeah. He was totally killing this secret identity thing.

Jazz ran a hand through his hair, shaking loose a few more cut strands. “Your hair is really fluffy, you know that?”

“Thanks, Jazz,” said Danny.

“Thank me by helping clean up. Your hair got everywhere.”

“Guess that’s why barber shops use those weird little capes.”

“Yeah,” said Jazz.

They cleaned up relatively quickly, and Danny spent the rest of the afternoon working on homework, secure in the knowledge that he had, once again, protected himself from discovery via stupid means, like supernaturally fast-growing hair. He didn’t have the time for it to distract him from what was really important. In this case, transformations of functions.

Math. What would he do without it?

Then, of course, he went to bed and fell asleep. No one disturbed him that night, ghost or human, which only happened about half the time, even if it felt like he was being woken up every night, sometimes.

He woke up and ran his hands through his hair. It felt longer than it had yesterday when he went to bed, but not by a huge amount. He might have to get Jazz to cut his hair once a week or more. Maybe he’d just have to learn how to do it himself. Ugh…

He went about his usual morning routine in his normal somnambulant state. Clothing, shoes, on to the bathroom…

His reflection blinked sleepily at him. Yeah, his hair was a bit longer, but only by a few millimeters. It wasn’t growing fast enough that anyone would notice over the course of a few days.

Dismissing the problem as one that wouldn’t truly become problematic for a few more days, he picked up his toothbrush and made a face at himself in the mirror.

Then he froze.

He leaned forward, over the sink, baring his teeth. He poked at his canines with one finger. Yep. Yep, that was real. That wasn’t a hallucination, even if it seemed like it should be.

His upper canines had grown long and sharp overnight. Their points descended until they almost touched his bottom gums. He opened his mouth and discovered that it wasn’t just his upper canines, but his lower canines, too.

His fingers roved over the rest of his teeth, searching for other changes. He couldn’t find any. That didn’t mean they weren’t there.

He pulled off his shirt, then his pants. He hadn’t noticed anything else while he was getting dressed, but he was so out of it in the mornings that his lack of noticing also didn’t mean anything.

His skin… still pasty white, still lightly freckled. His muscles seemed to move normally, but he wasn’t exactly an expert. However… He raised his hand to his side and slotted his fingers into the gaps between his ribs. It hadn’t been like this before, had it? He slid his fingers back and forth, thinking. It felt… oddly satisfying, but also very wrong. His hips also seemed slimmer, bonier.

He’d never had all that much fat, he took after his mother in that way, but he was pretty sure this was over and above that. Something strange was happening to him.

He put his shirt and pants back on and walked through the wall into Jazz’s room.

“Holy– Knock first,” said Jazz, throwing the first thing she could grab at him. Which was her pajama pants. Ew. “What’s wrong?”

“I have fangs now,” said Danny.

“What?”

Danny opened his mouth as wide as he could to show her.

“What are you doing, I don’t want to see your uvula, that’s– Oh.”

Danny let his mouth close with a click. “What am I supposed to do?”

“I’m–” Jazz looked lost. “I don’t know. You can probably hide, um, teeth for school. It’s not as if people are going to be looking in your mouth… Are there any other changes? Other than that and your hair?”

“Um,” said Danny. “I– Maybe?”

“If it’s important enough that you broke into my room–”

“I didn’t break anything.”

“--then you’d better tell me.”

Danny felt himself blushing. “It’s– I think that I’ve lost a lot of weight. Like, overnight. I can see my ribs now.”

Jazz hissed through her teeth. “That’s serious, Danny. That’s a serious health thing.”

“More than the fangs?”

“Way more than the fangs. I’ll call us out sick, and we can go visit your doctor friend. What was his name? Frostfight?”

“Frostbite,” corrected Danny. “You’re really going to help me skip school?”

“For a health thing?” asked Jazz. “Yeah. You basically are sick. Or, at least, there’s something strange going on with your body that we need to figure out sooner rather than later. Now get out of here so I can get dressed. Is it cold where Frostbite lives?”

“Freezing,” said Danny. “Wear long underwear and layers. Lots of layers.”

“Ugh. I might as well wear my hazmat.”

“Yeah, that wouldn’t be a bad idea,” said Danny. “We are going into the Ghost Zone.”

Jazz sighed. “Great, now, seriously, get out and get ready to go. I’ll get you when I’m ready.”

Danny fled back through the walls and dropped himself onto his bed. He waited, thoughts whirling. What could possibly be making his hair grow faster, his weight drop, and his teeth turn into fangs? Was this some kind of ghost disease? Ghost puberty? Some kind of weird curse?

Jazz knocked on his door not long after, and Danny leaped up, eager to get answers.

“I called us out,” she said, then did a double take. “Danny, your hair.”

He reached up and ran his hand over his head. “It’s longer,” he said.

“A lot longer,” said Jazz. “Visibly longer. I was only gone a few minutes. It’s getting faster. A lot faster.”

Danny forced a smile. “Well, good thing we were already going to see Frostbite.”

Jazz hesitated, then nodded. “I got Mom and Dad to run off to Elmerton. Told them there was a ghost sighting over there.”

“So they won’t notice us being gone. Smart.”

“I know I am,” said Jazz. She smirked down at Danny, then winked. “Come on, let’s go.”

Danny went ghost and floated next to her as she made her way down the stairs. “How are you on piloting the Specter Speeder?”

“I’m, well,” she made a face. “I haven’t gotten much of a chance. I’ve gotten up to level three on the simulator.”

“You should be fine to fly it, then,” said Danny. “It’s not like there’s a lot of stuff to run into– you’ll just go through it. And there’s no time to learn like the present.”

“Don’t use my words against me,” said Jazz, scowling slightly. Danny stuck his tongue out at her.

They went down into the lab, and started going through the flight checks for the Specter Speeder.

“I’ll fly ahead,” said Danny, clipping on a Fenton Fone. “Check for danger and all.”

“Are you sure you’re up for that?”

“Yeah, I feel fine,” said Danny. “Just… weird.” He licked his teeth. “Really weird.”

“Okay, go ahead. I’ll finish up here in just a couple of minutes.”

Danny flew through the portal and did a few laps of the portal. “Everything looks clear for you over here.”

“Okay,” said Jazz through the Fone. “Check your Fenton Fone. It’s skipping a lot of what you say.”

Danny grumbled but checked it. It seemed fine. He popped it back in. “I think we’ll just have to deal with it,” said Danny.

“Great,” said Jazz. “Stand clear.”

The Specter Speeder slowly slid through the portal. Once it was all the way through, Danny tapped his Fone again and waved at Jazz. “Follow me,” he said. “It’s a long way there.”

The Far Frozen was as cold as ever. Danny landed in the snow, his hair falling down to the curve of his jaw, and sighed at the pleasant sensation. Flying wasn’t difficult, per se. It wasn’t like walking or running, it didn’t really use muscles, but it was tiring, and the Far Frozen was far.

However… was he more tired than he normally would have been? Or was this another symptom?

“Great One!” greeted Frostbite, jarring Danny from his spiraling introspection. “What brings you here today?”

“Well,” said Danny, trying to get his thoughts together.

“Health things,” said Jazz, climbing out of the Speeder. “Oh, gosh, it really is cold out here.”

“I see,” said Frostbite, leaning closer to Danny. “You do not appear injured.”

“It’s more like… body… changes,” explained Danny awkwardly. He glanced sideways at the other yetis walking through the public space. “Can we go in?”

“Of course,” said Frostbite. He gestured Danny and Jazz onward and towards a well-lit cave. “Medical is this way, as you might remember.”

“I… guess I don’t, really,” said Danny, following Frostbite. “It’s sort of a blur.”

“Understandable. You were quite unwell.”

Danny could feel Jazz glaring at the back of his head. He decided to ignore that. Problem for later, if she remembered. The hair and teeth and weight loss were the problems now.

They reached the medical wing in short order, and Frostbite ushered him and Jazz into a smaller private room. There was a counter and an examination bench and a few cabinets. “So, what seems to be the problem?” he asked.

Danny, with Jazz’s ‘help,’ explained.

“Hm,” said Frostbite. “There are a few things that could cause that, but I need to make some measurements before I could say which one is happening here. Could you sit up here and take off your shirt?”

Danny flew up - it was a bit too high to just jump up - and pulled off his shirt. Frostbite produced a stethoscope, and asked Danny to cough and hum. He listened intently. Danny listened, too. Humming felt… odd, as if his chest were more hollow, as if the sound was brushing the very edge of his ghostly wail.

“And all this happened recently?” asked Frostbite, after a few minutes.

“Yeah. I noticed the hair thing about a week ago? Everything else seemed to just show up today.”

“I think I may know what is happening.”

“Is it a ghost puberty thing?” asked Danny, unsure if he should hope for that or not.

“I suppose it could be considered analogous to puberty,” said Frostbite, bemused, “although puberty isn't something that typically happens to ghosts. We don't age. It's more along the lines of adapting to a role after a period of malleability.”

Jazz let out a little sigh. “It's not something that will hurt Danny, then?”

“Unfortunately, I cannot say that for certain. There are a great deal of potential complications, which may be made greater by your half-human status, and the archetype you seem to be settling into…”

“What is it?” asked Danny.

“The role you have taken upon yourself is that of a tutelary, a protective spirit. You are developing a very thin, almost gaunt appearance, and your hair is growing rapidly. Fangs tend to be nonspecific, common to many types of ghost, the same with minor changes to your nails and skin tone. Your wail on the other hand…”

“I sort of felt it when I was humming, earlier,” volunteered Danny. “That hasn't happened before.”

“There is only one group I know of that matches all those traits,” said Frostbite gravely. “Here, in the Realms, they are called the Keeners, or the Mourners, or, on occasion, Those Who Mourn Before, for their predictive abilities. In the human world, I believe the more famous of them became known as banshees.”

“I thought banshees were all women,” said Danny, feeling a little blank.

“The famous ones are,” said Frostbite.

Danny wanted to know more about that, but shook his head and returned to the question at hand. “What's dangerous about that, though?” he certainly thought it sounded unpleasant and inconvenient to the whole ‘secret identity’ thing, but he could admit there was a difference between that and actively dangerous.

“A banshee’s wail is supposed to kill people, isn't it?” interjected Jazz.

“They do, on occasion,” said Frostbite. “Especially when they are younger and have less control.”

“I've had my wail under control for ages, though,” protested Danny, shooting a glare at Jazz. She gave him an apologetic shrug.

“When I asked you to hum, earlier, didn’t you feel something different? Something unusual?” asked Frostbite, kindly.

Danny shrugged. “Maybe.”

“This is a change,” said Frostbite. “One that affects more than your physical appearance. The powers associated with your archetype will change as well, including your wail, and those changes generally come with a loss of control, however temporary. The typical precaution in these cases is to, ah, use a gag, until a community of banshees willing to train the new one can be contacted.”

“I, um. I don’t suppose that’s something that I can do, like, overnight?”

“Not generally,” said Frostbite. “There’s some overlap between banshees and ice-cored ghosts, more than there is for fire-cored ghosts, but it isn’t a great enough number for us to have regular contact.”

“That’s… I can’t… Great. That’s. What am I supposed to do with that? I’ve got my whole town– The ghosts– I can’t just up and leave.”

“Danny, you can’t go back if your wail could just randomly go off and, you know, ki–”

“I know that,” interrupted Danny, dropping his head into his hands. He rubbed his face vigorously.

“You may not have that particular addition to your wail,” said Frostbite. “In fact, I would be rather surprised if you did. You are, like I said, primarily a tutelary. A protector. Banshees from such backgrounds more typically have predictive or clairvoyant abilities. They do not cause the deaths that follow their cry, they only are aware of them.”

“Well, I guess that’d just suck for me rather than everyone else.” He could already feel his mental health taking a hit. “But I’ll be good, I’ll stay here and do whatever precautions you want. Play the silent game, sit in the middle of nowhere in the Zone, the gag thing, whatever. You’d better come up with a good excuse for me, though. I think Mom and Dad’ll get suspicious if they don’t see me for days or whatever.”

“I’ll do my best,” said Jazz.

“Is there anything else I should know about?” asked Danny. “Like, am I going to spontaneously combust or grow a tail or what?”

Frostbite chuckled. “Probably not. But we should take some fittings for the sound-dampening gag…”

Danny sighed. “I really don’t want to wear a gag.”

“It will be temporary,” said Frostbite, “to prevent accidents before you can have proper training.”

Danny wrinkled his nose. “That sounds wrong.”

“How so?” asked Frostbite.

“Don’t want to talk about it.” He fell back to lay down on the examination table.

Frostbite patted his shoulder. “It will be fine, Great One,” he said. “Almost everyone goes through this eventually. And while you’re here, I can give you more details about what other kinds of changes you can expect going forward. I have simplified a good deal, after all.”

“Oh my gosh, it is just like puberty,” said Danny.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay without me?” asked Jazz.

“I’m more worried about you flying back.”

“We can give your sister an escort,” said Frostbite. “If Miss Jasmine is alright with that.”

Danny removed his hands from his face to stare Jazz into taking the escort.

“Alright,” said Jazz. “If it won’t put you out.” She walked over to Danny. “And if you are sure you don’t need me.”

“I’m sure. We can’t both be gone for who knows how long.”

She sighed and patted his shoulder. “It’s going to be okay.”

“I know,” said Danny. “I’m just going to complain about it the whole time.”

“As is your right. I know I wasn’t too happy when it started happening to me. I wasn’t always as handsome as I am now, you know.”Danny sat up. “Okay, now, I’ve got to hear that story.”

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