#“dad i was just doing some jumping jacks and getting some light exercise i swear”

[mahalidael]

Those Familiar Spirits

(*sprints up to the podium* FIRST FLYNN FANFIC. sort of. if you don’t count the phantomrose96 one, but flynn doesn’t actually appear in that one so make of it what you will)

Danny was two years old when the police came to their house. He must have thought the flashing lights were fireworks; he ran outside alone to look.

He saw uniforms, a funny black and white car, and a great deal of shouting between the grown-ups. It was July, and very muggy. Flies buzzed around the police cars’ lights as Mom and Dad talked very quietly, and Aunt Alicia yelled, and the police said ma’am, please, we’re trying to help, could you just, ma’am. Ma’am.

Danny ran up to get a better look but was promptly swept up by a police officer and carried back inside as he craned his neck to hear what they were saying.

Mom went inside for a minute and made him and Jazz sit on the couch. She told them gravely, “We’re just going to talk to the nice policemen, okay? Don’t go out there.”

Danny huffed. Jazz noticed his irritation and spoke up. “Can we watch TV if we stay inside?”

“Mm-hm,” said Mom, looking out the window at the lights again, already standing up and gravitating towards them.

Jazz reached for the TV remote and hit the power button with an ease that a four year old will only exhibit when provided with sufficiently busy parents. Danny started chewing on his shirt sleeve as images flashed on the screen; they were big kid cartoons that he had no interest in.

“Mom?” said Jazz, peeking up over the back of the couch.

Mom paused in the doorway and addressed one of the policemen before turning back to Jazz. “Just a second — yeah?”

“Where’s Flynn? He likes this show.”

“Um,” said Mom.

She cleared her throat.

“That’s what the policemen are going to help us with. I’m sure he’ll be back before it’s over.”

Their cousin was not back before it was over. He wasn’t back at all, but this, like most everything else from when he was two years old, fell through Danny’s memory like it was water.

...

Jack had been wary of his sister-in-law coming over for a week. He’d also been wary when Maddie described her sister’s marriage as “getting better” and said that she was “calling off the divorce.”

Anyway, within two days of the visit Danny had gotten it into his head that his uncle’s name was Damn-It-Bob.

But the most disconcerting thing was that Jack couldn’t do much about the situation. Alicia was a notoriously private person, and considered the matter of her marriage between herself, Maddie, and Damn-It-Bob. Trying to get close enough to be allowed into that inner circle was an exercise in self-endangerment. He had tried exactly once in college, and the dislocated wrist he’d gotten out of that arm wrestling match nearly cost him his scholarship.

Getting through to Damn-It-Bob was even more frustrating. Alicia, at least, cared about Maddie’s studies. She didn’t understand them, but looked on with interest as Maddie expertly extracted a sample from the latest ghost specimen and held it up to the light for her sister to see.

Damn-It-Bob was worse than an outsider. He was a snob.

Damn-It-Bob looked like if Alicia didn’t already have a pickup truck, he’d drive a Prius, and if he ever tried tikka masala he’d brag about it. Jack had to assume that if Alicia married him, they had to have some kind of common ground, but damn if he couldn’t figure out what it was. And apparently neither could they.

He had a degree in aerospace engineering, which he constantly emphasized was a really useful science. Alicia didn’t even have to work at the logging company if she didn’t want to keep up the family business.

He tried to charm the kids with pictures of the rockets he’d designed. It worked on Danny, which, yeah, okay, he was two years old, but Jazz seemed to pick up his intentions and tried to steer Danny away. Jeez. If Jack left her alone for five minutes, she might be doing calculus when he came back.

And then there was the kid.

He didn’t even notice that he was there until the Walkers were standing in the living room. Jack had walked behind Alicia to hang up their coats and suddenly saw him standing right behind her.

The kid hadn’t said a word in the entire thirty-minute production of his family coming inside — or if he had, he hadn’t been listened to. He had this sort of rust-colored hair that stuck out in all directions, like they tied up a big ponytail on the top of his head and chopped it off instead of giving him a real haircut.

Getting closer,  Jack finally saw why the kid wasn’t talking. He had his nose buried in some book. Oh, so he was one of those, Jack thought. He hadn’t personally been a child who devoured books like a woodchipper, but Vlad had.

In any case, silent reading hour was over. “Hey, bucko!” said Jack. The kid nearly jumped out of his skin, one hand snapping the book shut like a cell phone at the end of a tense call. “Thirsty for knowledge, I see? We’ve got more down in the lab.”

He shrunk away. Alicia noticed and put a hand on his shoulder as she turned her attention away from Maddie. “—so that’s how the union settled. And you two remember Flynn, right?” she said, ruffling the kid’s hair. “We brought him to Danny’s baby shower. He was so shy back then you thought the table was set by a ghost for a solid thirty minutes.”

Maddie’s eyes landed on Flynn and lit up in recognition. “Oh, yeah! I remember. You were at least a head shorter last time we saw you.”

Flynn nodded, staring at his shoes. He hugged the book to his chest like it was a stuffed animal.

Alicia and her husband chuckled politely. “Well, you might have seen him earlier if you didn’t pull out your toys to try and find that ghost,” said her husband, less politely.

“Bob, could you please be civil?” Alicia said under her breath.

“The event was delayed by an hour and we missed our flight over a bunch of—”

“Damn it, Bob—”

“It was a poltergeist, technically,” Maddie laughed nervously, stepping between them, a note of oh lord not this again in her voice.

“Hey, kids, how about we go down to the basement and check out some cool gadgets?” Jack was itching to take Flynn and the children downstairs. He had to ditch the conversation before it went south. “Wanna see what ghost bones look like?”

Flynn actually looked like he was going to respond to that, but Damn-It-Bob cut in. “Flynn probably wouldn’t be interested in theoretical science. He likes studying useful things.”

Yeah, ectoscience was theoretical. You could tell it was bad because it was italicized.

Jack resisted the urge to get passive-aggressive right back. Not in front of the children. “There’s plenty of physical things in the lab that I’m sure Flynn’s gonna love. Every kid loves lasers. Right, Danny?” he queried his son, who was chewing on the leg of the coffee table.

Danny blew a raspberry, which he assumed was a yes. Jack managed to whisk them away before the Walkers started swearing at each other.

He put Jazz and Danny down in the little area of the lab that they’d sectioned off with a foldable plastic dog gate, where Jazz made herself busy putting all the crayons in a straight line before Danny picked them up and started scribbling on the rubber tiled floor.

“So, Flynn! We’ve got some whosits and whatsits to check out. That catches ghosts,” Jack said, pointing at the gadgets skewed across the counter like exploded, “this blasts ghosts, that catches and blasts ghosts, and this is a hot dog maker. What do you wanna see first?”

Flynn shrugged and shuffled an inch backwards.

Okay, this wasn’t going anywhere. Which was odd — they’d opened up the ops center to tourists in the past for alternate revenue, and kids always seemed to be the most excited about the gadgets.

Plan B, he guessed. “What’s that book about, anyway?” he said.

Flynn hesitantly held out the book. Jack took it. It was a big, heavy book, with a hard cover titled The Collected Jack London. Jack went to open it to a random page, but was interrupted when his leafing caused something to fall out from between the pages.

It was a flower. Flynn quickly snatched it off the floor and took his book back, scowling. “It’s sabatia geu — sabatia geutianoides,” he muttered. “It’s one of the rarest flowers in Arkansas, so I can’t pick another one.” He then very carefully flipped to another page in the book, counting the page numbers in whispers until he found the one he was looking for and slipped the flower back inside.

Ah. He could work with that. “Really? Is it the rarest one you’ve got?” he said, posing a challenge.

“Uh, I have Stern’s medlar, but just a leaf I got off the ground. They’re cruh — crit — crit-i-cal-ly endangered.”

“We’ve got some samples of a pretty rare plant ourselves.”

Flynn’s eyes lit up. “Can I see them?”

Jack took Flynn off into a side room. This room was mostly like the last, though being closed to visitors, it was far less organized. He picked Flynn up and lifted him over a heap of spare parts on the floor. “Watch your step.”

A cacophony of containers were heaped on a table in the center of the room. Only a few of them were planter pots that they’d already owned; the rest were old shoeboxes and burned-out pots and pans. They were all filled with soil. Their occupants stretched their purple-black stems towards the overhead sun lamp.

“Rosa sanguinea, also known as the Massachusetts blood blossom,” said Jack. “They were grown in the 1600s — apparently they release an anti-ghost vapor. Unfortunately, we can’t prove whether it works, since we don’t have any intact ghosts to test it on, but they’re delicious.”

“That’s so weird.” Flynn rubbed a black leaf between his fingers, as if he expected the color to come off. “Roses aren’t normally hardy enough to grow inside. And the leaves are naturally black?”

“Yep. Well, maybe. We think they were mutated by long-term exposure to ecto-energy. The biggest patch of them is around Salem, and that place is a hotspot for the natural portals to the dimension ghosts live in,” he said, pointing at the pictures of such that they’d pinned to the corkboard across the room. Jack himself couldn’t believe some of the places that they’d found natural portals in. One of the pictures on the corkboard was of a portal they’d found in a public toilet. “They’re stubborn little buggers, but only in ecto-energized soil — we had to cart the dirt in these pots all the way back from Massachusetts.”

Jack snapped his fingers.

“I’ve got an idea.” He picked up a blood blossom growing in a mason jar and handed it to Flynn. “That’s yours now. Take it back to Arkansas, and it’ll protect you from ghosts.”

“Really?” said Flynn, seemingly more awestruck by the plant itself than any properties it might’ve had. “I can have it?”

“All yours! After all, who knows when you might need it?”

...

Flynn hadn’t wanted to leave Arkansas. He hadn’t wanted to sit in Mom’s funny-smelling truck for ten-odd hours while listening to them argue about money, and ghosts, and damn it Bob, would it kill you to put the toilet paper in the holder the right way just once?

At some of the rest stops, Flynn had stood in the bathroom and stared in the mirror. The door was right behind him and Dad hadn’t left the stall yet. He could just turn around and run into the woods, so Mom and Dad would talk about something other than their horrible marriage.

Because Flynn was ten years old, and the problem that he saw was nothing as complex as an incompatibility of personality, or people growing apart. The problem he saw was that they needed to shut up about the divorce.

That was all he wanted. Something to come in and make them shut up, and make the divorce go away, and put things back where they were supposed to be.

But obviously that’s not how things work. Flynn went outside and picked dandelions that were growing at the edge of the parking lot, and he held them outside the window while they were driving so the seeds would scatter all along the road, and he still ended up visiting Uncle Jack and Aunt Maddie in New York, and Mom and Dad were still fighting over stupid stuff.

Flynn kept trying to put off the tour. He knew that Dad would hate the lab. He stuck with real things, metal and chalk numbers — never mind that one of the major points of contention was the slew of Young Living boxes sitting in their garage. A better statement was that Dad rejected any science he didn’t think he could exploit. Like, son, wildflowers are nice and all, but you know that the real money’s in saffron, right? It sells for twenty-five hundred a pop and it’s not getting any cheaper. Just think about it, son.

“ —converts ectoplasm into a power source.” Aunt Maddie was showing them something embedded in the lab wall. Flynn didn’t really like ectoscience either, but that was mostly because the topic freaked him out. He didn’t like when his friends played that pencil game that let you talk to ghosts, much less when his uncle talked about ripping them apart mmmolecule by mmmolecule.

It just felt kind of rude. They were people, at some point. Everyone knew a dead person.

“Quaint,” said Dad, turning over the hot dog maker he had found on the counter. “Very quaint.” It was his usual word of condemnation. “What’s that hole in the wall?”

It was barely a hole. Not so much because of size, but because it was so badly occupied by a tangle of wire that actually entering it would be impossible. Aunt Maddie said: “Our prototype for a stable portal into the ghost zone.” Dad scoffed, but she smiled tightly and ignored it. “With a reliable and stationary portal, we can collect data faster.”

“And it took you ten years to think of that?”

“Bob, if you don’t want to see it, you can just wait in the guest room,” said Mom, rubbing her temples.

“No, it’s fine, Alicia.” Aunt Maddie sighed. “We’ve been thinking of it. It just took this long to make sure building a portal large enough for a human to enter would be safe. A few years ago, a friend of ours was injured by one that wasn’t any bigger than a car tire — precautions needed to be taken—”

Dad put up his hand in a ‘halt’ gesture. “So, wait. You know that those things can hurt people, and yet you build a big one in your basement, and let your kids in here ?”

“They’re at a safe distance — they’re not even on the same side of the lab,” said Aunt Maddie, eyes narrow.

“Oh, thank goodness you let your toddlers play some paces away from a potential biohazard! ” Dad threw up his hands in fake relief. “I guess that makes it okay, then!”

Aunt Maddie looked like she was gearing up to shout. But she glanced at her kids in their little corner hutch, and seemed to think better of it. “Look, Bob, I — help me understand. Five minutes ago you were calling ghosts ‘fairy tales,’ and now you’re getting on about potentially endangering my children with something that, by your own logic, shouldn’t do anything. What’s your real problem?”

“My ‘real problem’ is that, ghosts or not — and there are certainly not — the fact that someone got hurt at all tells me that you’re tampering with something that you don’t understand—”

“Bob, that’s enough —”

Seed dispersion was one of the fundamental adaptations of the plant world. A seed that dropped straight down from its parent plant was a dead seed. It wouldn’t be able to access sufficient nutrition, water, or light so close.

Mom exiled him and Dad from the lab so she could have a good talk with Aunt Maddie. Uncle Jack awkwardly let them sit on the couch and watch NCIS with him.

“I just think that pseudoscience has no place in being the primary income for a family,” said Dad.

Uncle Jack nodded with a poorly disguised grimace.

“Anyway, have you heard that lavender has anti-autism properties?”

Uncle Jack suddenly excused himself to go to the bathroom. Luckily, Dad seemed to think that the distant laughter was coming from the TV.

Dandelions had a nasty taxonomy. They were wind-dispersed, able to fly up to sixty miles away from their parent plant, where they isolated and readily speciated. This was a large part of the reason why Flynn couldn’t appreciate them without every adult in an eighty-mile radius screaming it’s a weed!

By Sunday, Mom and Dad couldn’t be in the same room together without shouting.

By Wednesday, they wouldn’t speak to each other at all.

By Saturday, they started calling the divorce lawyer again.

That night before they went back to Arkansas, Flynn slept on his aunt and uncle’s couch. He could hear Mom and Dad talking in the guest room above. At indoor voice levels. He didn’t know whether that was good or bad.

The potted blood blossom sat on the end table atop Jack London.

He was woken up at two in the morning when something spritzed him in the face like he was a cat. Flynn squinted in the darkness for what it could be and was immediately spritzed again. He wiped the spray off his face and jolted at the sight of a red smear on his wrist.

A faint hiss was coming from the end table. Flynn watched as the blood blossom emitted a quiet red steam into the air.

He looked around the room nervously. Then he looked out the front window.

At the very end of the street, between the buildings, there was a faint green glow that looked very much like Uncle Jack’s pictures.

Well, of course dandelions were weeds. When something survived too well, humans inevitably got all up in their business, trying to trammel them in. It was a weed because it didn’t cooperate with that.

Flynn didn’t need to pack his bag; he had already loaded everything from the trip back in, but he added some more anyway. He got a knife, a frying pan, and a BIC lighter out of the kitchen. And of course, he took his book and the blood blossom.

Then he walked out the front door for the last time.

It was a muggy July night, and all the lights in the windows were out. The streetlamps pooled in the road. The green light creeped into the alleyway on tiptoe.

Flynn stood before a hole in the world and found himself alone. The hole didn’t appear to properly occupy the alley. It looked like a bad photoshop in person. Just standing a foot away from it, he could feel the static electricity. It felt like it was ruffling his hair in a gesture of approval.

There was a deep hum that might have been the portal, or the flies buzzing around it, or Flynn’s heart getting ready to tear itself from his chest in excitement or fear. He did not know which.

The blood blossom was beginning to overflow its mason jar with red condensation. Flynn poured it out onto the ground. It mixed with the dank puddles in the mundane depressions of the concrete that, absurdly, continued to exist in the presence of something so otherworldly.

Flynn reached through the portal. It felt like cold water — strange, but not icy enough to be unpleasant.

This was what he needed. Something he didn’t know, somewhere his parents couldn’t find him. He could find shelter with those familiar spirits for a little while, and his blood blossom would protect him as his parents looked for him, and then he would come back and they would be so happy and angry to see him that they wouldn’t talk about the divorce again for another year at least, and it would be nice, and it would just be so nice, it would just be so nice when he got back.

And then the light consumed his vision.

...

Twelve years later.

“Jazz? Did you just come through the portal?” Danny squinted at the readout on the specter speeder — the constant green light of the ghost zone made it hard to read at times.

“No?” she said over the speeder’s radio. “I’m still in the lab, why?”

“Because the radar’s picking up signs of life.”

[leafgreen6]

Two Worlds Collided- A collab with @books-of-lunacy

Did a writing exercise with @books-of-lunacy​ where we each wrote half a story, in our character’s points of view. After the war is over, Jack Montro and Jade Starr visit Aliee Horebath on their planet. 

“I’ll be right there, Jade.” Jack eased onto a bench in the alien city on the strange planet. His years were starting to weigh on him.

A young girl ran out in front of him, and planted herself right in front of Jack, staring up at the strange man.

“Alice!” A woman called, presumably her mother. “Don’t bother him!"

“It’s all right,” Jack said. “Cute kid. How old are you?”

"She's just turning-"

  "I'm six! It's my birthday today!"

“Well, happy birthday.”

"What do you say?" Aliee looked down at her bubbling daughter. 

"Thanks! Happy birthday to you too!"

Jack laughed, harder than he had in a long while. “It’s not my birthday. But, thank you. Let me see…” He dug into his pocket and pulled out a gold coin, “You take this. Spend it on whatever your mom says you’re allowed to have.”

"Huh. I haven't heard of anyone using gold coins for… centuries. You're not from here either." Aliee sits on the bench next to Jack, telling Alice to go play with her friends. "Where are you from?"

“Through a portal. A magic world called Mahica. Fairies, Mermaids, Dragons- Those are recent.”

"Mermaids, huh? What I wouldn't give to be with them right now." Aliee laughed softly. "You seem tired."

Jack nodded, “I am tired. I’m going on a hundred and twenty years old. Can’t keep up with the Princess anymore. I may have told your kid a slight lie… Believe it or not, it’s my birthday too. But I don’t celebrate. Hard to, when you don’t have family left.”

"A hundred and twenty, and no kids, no wife? Well, you're welcome to come home with Alice and I, my husband is making dinner for us." Aliee smiled brightly, standing and offering her hand to Jack.

Jack looked back at Jade, who was on top of a building, investigating a strange light. He wasn’t even going to wonder how she got up there. Only hope the kid didn’t see. “I’ll take that meal. You can tell me your story, and I’ll tell you mine.”

"My story is hardly fun, but fair's fair. Let's get out of here before my daughter inevitably sees your friend climbing like a spider." Aliee glanced up pointedly.

Jack laughed, and with a flick of his wrist, Jade was slowly floating to the ground, with her good arm on her hip.

“Why’d you do that? I was safe!” 

“A friend invited us to have dinner. You can play with the kid. You have a lot in common.”

"Hi. I'm Aliee, this is my daughter, Alice." Aliee smiled once again, holding her hand out to Jade. 

"Hi! It's my birthday today!" Alice chimed in.

Jade frowned at Alice, “Hi… Jack, you know I don’t do well with kids.”

“You wrangled Luke and Cayden just fine,” Jack laughed, and the duo followed Aliee down the path and to her house.

*

Once inside the bright home, Alice ran up to Tel'iah, excitedly showing him the gold coin in her hands. 

"Impressive. I'll bet it was those new friends of ours who gave it to you, huh? Did you thank them?" Tel'iah glanced up and nodded his head at Jack and Jade. 

"Oh…" Alice turned around and sheepishly thanked the pair for the coin. 

"Go clean up. You're a mess from playing all day." Aliee chuckled and lead her to the stairs. Returning to the table, she kissed Tel'iah's cheek and introduced the tall alien to their guests. 

A pleasure to meet you,” Jade said. “I’m Princess Jade Starr, and this is Captain Jack Montro.”

"Oh! You're a Princess? Oh I wish I had known! I would have tried to clean up the house a little better." Aliee jumped from her chair to start clearing the table of papers and dishes. 

“Don’t go to the trouble,” Jack laughed. “Jade is notorious for being messy. Her staff has to prepare two dresses for every event, because she destroys them. Whether it’s a bad spell, or a bad fight… Blood, climbing things she’s not supposed to.”

Jade narrowed her eyes at him, “I’m going to go annoy the kid, because obviously, I’m not welcome at the adult table.”

Aliee hesitantly sat back down, blinking rapidly. "Well… what just happened?"

“She’ll be fine,” Jack sat down across from Aliee. “So, what’s your story?”

"Where should I begin? There's not much to tell, honestly." Aliee shrugged modestly, trying to ignore the snort from Tel as he stirred a bubbling pot of food.

“You’re obviously not from this world. So, where’d you come from?”

"Actually that might be a long story in itself. We came from Earth, a long, long, long time ago. The people there built a massive spaceship. Called her the Exodus. So many people hoped for their lives to change on that ship, and it did. Since it was a colony ship, they had kids. Those kids had kids and a couple decades later, the last generation was born on that ship. My-" Aliee swallowed thickly and looked down at her hands. "My brother and I were part of that generation. We would be the ones to inhabit this planet and make it our own." 

She glanced up at Tel, grinned and looked back down. "We didn't know there was someone here already. By the time we found out, it was too late. A virus in the computers destroyed the Exodus, and most of us… well only a few people made it this far. Alice was about four then."

“My family died too,” Jack said. “My mother died when I was a boy- Killed herself after my father, a man I am ashamed to call my father, broke her Genie Bottle. I found her body. I was thrown out of the tribe, joined the war- Met my wife. She was a nurse,” he smiled softly, “Used to yell at me all the time for getting myself hurt. At first, they were accidents, but I may have taken a punch or two I could have avoided, just to see her face. We had a kid, one I spent my entire life searching for. She’d been tossed in the dungeons because she wanted humans to be treated fairly. See, where I come from, humans are seen as weak, mindless creatures. I’ve never heard of humans going to war for a hundred years. She had our kid in the dungeons, and he was taken before I even knew he was a boy.” Jack took a deep breath, “I met Jade, and through her, the boy I found out was my son. We, um, we don’t really have a relationship now. I do have a grandson though. Just a baby, he is.”

"Well, one, humans are about as far from mindless as one can get." Tel said, setting plates of steaming meat, rice, tuber roots and fruit on the table. "And from what Aliee has told me, war is just another facet of life they dealt with on earth." Looking down at Aliee, he smiled and added: "And I certainly know how well this one fights. Since dinner is ready, I'll go get Alice and Mylo. And our princess."

"Well, he's not wrong, at least. I do hope those two haven’t entirely devoured her."

“Jade’s strong. She likes to pretend she doesn’t do so well with kids, but she’s got a little girl at home. Kaida’s her name. You and your husband are right- Humans are an amazing creature. They’re strong, powerful in more ways than one. In fact, one of the most respected queens I’ve ever seen was raised like a human. And she brought glory to our world. You know, Aliee—” Jack smiled softly, “You’re a smart girl. And you’ve got a story worth telling. At least, it was one this old soul was happy to hear.”

"Well, I'm glad I could give you some joy. I'm sorry you say you have no family today. I certainly think you do, in that princess. Speaking of, where are they? It shouldn't take so long to get a toddler and a princess down here, should it?" As Aliee started to stand, Alice ran down the stairs, soaking wet with Tel'iah equally wet and carrying Mylo.

Jade tried to slip into a seat beside Jack, but he shoved her back. “I know exactly what you and your magic did, Princess, so you’re going to use it to dry those folks off.”

With a grumble and a few curse words under her breath, Jade waved her hand and drew all of the water from Alice’s clothes and hair.

"Mama! She can do magic! She made a duck! Out of water! But dad opened the door… and he got wet!" Alice giggled, making wild hand movements. 

"Well, I imagine that must have been a sight to behold." Aliee smiled at her daughter. "So I take it you must be one of those Mermaids Jack was talking about." 

“I’m more than a Mermaid. I’m Princess of Mermaids. I rule all of the Mermaids, and the ocean, and to be fair, it wasn’t entirely my fault the water got everywhere. However, your bathroom is clean, so... We’re even?”

Aliee laughs, snorting. "Well if it means I don't have to give a bath to Alice, I'll take it. Princess of the entire ocean? That's… impressive. I can't say I'm jealous." 

"That, my dear, is a lie." Tel muttered as he fed a spoonful of rice to Mylo. 

"Well.. okay fine. I might be a little jealous that she can swim underwater. As much as she wants. I wish I could do that." Aliee started handing plates and bowls of food to Jack and Jade. 

Jade pulled the remaining water from Tel’s clothes and pressed her hand into a fist. “Jack, if you will.”

He snapped his fingers and the water materialized into a silver necklace.

“Visit us anytime,” Jade held the necklace out to Aliee. “Press a hand to it, and you can visit Mahica whenever you’d like.” She smirked at Alice, “Kaida could use a bad- I mean good influence every once in a while.”

"I swear, if I find out my wife decides to move into your world, I might actually have a fit. Your offer may be too much temptation for her. She might never come back." Tel'iah groaned, but reached a hand to hold Aliee's. 

"I would always come back. Not just for you but… for Avren as well." Aliee suddenly fell quiet. "Amazing how the dead can hold too much sway on the living, isn't it?"

Jack nodded, “But, they make us appreciate the living, all that much more.”

"That is true. Well, eat up. I'm sure you have a long night of climbing buildings, Princess." Aliee shook her head and smiled. 

"Climbing what?" Tel'iah choked, staring at Jade.

Jack smirked knowingly at Aliee. “That’s a story for another day.”

[phandom-phriend]

Day 2: Retirement Home

AO3

It may not come as a shock to learn that there is no ‘retirement’ for ghosts. What need would there be? Possessed with more energy than their living selves, there’s no reason to retire as a ghost unless you were moving on. With no rules and only the Ancients having jobs (unless it was your obsession like with Walker and Ghost Writer. But they enjoy what they do so it hardly counts) it’s as if the Ghost Zone is their retirement home.

But humans are another story.

Jazz, now in her early 50’s, makes her way into the large stone building. The white walls and chemical smell that would be toxic to most didn’t phase her in the slightest. When you live in a three story lab for most of your childhood these things become second nature. Along with being cautious of food and expecting things to blow up at random, of course.

With powerful steps, Jazz’s black flats marched right past the front desk, having been coming here once a week and with her studious nature of hers, she was sure she knew the layout better than some of the staff members at this point. 52 and still on top of everything, just as it always has been, and always will be.

Howling laughter echoed in the hall of a voice she knew as well as her own. Chaos swarmed around her in the form of flying paper and fleeing patients but the orange haired girl could only roll her eyes and ignore it. Two months here seemed to not hinder the absolute chaos of her family. Well, she certainly wouldn’t have it any other way.

Entering the door to her left that is covered in scorch marks and dents, she smiled as her father pointed his new invention made from the bits and pieces of the retirement home. It seemed to be another blaster of sorts, soon to be confiscated like every other thing he and her mother built. Even in retirement those two can’t even pretend to slow their energy down.

“Dad, you’re scaring the inmates again.” Jazz scolded softly, knowing that no matter what she said right now, she would walk into this exact same picture next week.

“Hello, Jazz!” her mother called. Even with age she is lean and fit, keeping up with a good diet and exercises that no warning for her health or fagil bones could stop. She still wore her jumpsuit as well, although the hood and goggles haven’t been part of it for years since Danny confessed his fear of them.

“Jazz! Not bringing the family today?”

Their daughter shook her head. “No, they’ll be here next week though.”

Maddie nodded. “And Danny?”

The older sibling paused and looked down. Ever since Danny turned eighteen the boy had stopped aging altogether. Jazz theorized that it was because boys were typically fully developed by 18 and with no more to do, his ghost half stopped the process altogether. And things were fine for a while. Danny did have to come clean to his parents when he was 20 after some intense questioning, but things had smoothed out. For a few years. Until, that is, the rest of their ageing became more apparent.

Danny, looking youthful as ever, hated seeing their wrinkles and tired eyes they had developed over the years. Jazz thinks it’s because he’s watching them fade away and leaving him alone, but Danny insists that it’s just because of the old people smell.

“I’m not sure.” Jazz confessed. “He hasn’t called me this week.”

“Do you think he’s okay?” her dad asked worriedly.

“Oh, he’s fine! He was on the news this morning, stopped a ghost from taking over the world.”

“That’s my boy!”

“He’s certainly gotten quicker. I hadn’t even heard of a ghost attacking!” Maddie chimed in, proud.

“Yeah, he’s been working hard.” Jazz agreed. “I still wish that he’d-”

Before she could finish her sentence, a white haired ghost flew through the ceiling into the room. Slight fangs, one glowing blue eye and updated jumpsuit, but still the hero they knew and loved.

“Sorry for the weird entrance.” he began, transforming back into Fenton. “I had to take care of something and this seemed easier.”

“Glad to see you Danny-boy!” Jack cheered, hitting his sons back with enthusiasm.

“Danny! How have things been? We heard you stopped another evil ghost!”

The younger sibling scratched the back of his neck bashfully. Getting praises were still weird to him, even now. It was a lot easier to deal with his haters at times. “Good! Good. Uh, I’ve been meaning to tell you guys something.” His ice blue eyes locked with Jazz’s ocean blue. “All of you.”

Even now Jazz was typically Danny’s go-to consultant with news and help, so it came as a shock that there was something, seemingly important, that he hadn’t told her. “What is it, Danny?”

The younger boy pulled out a pin about the size of a golf ball from his worn jean pocket. It was a yin and yang symbol but one side was a green ghost and the other a sun rather than the usual balck and white. “I have officially been deemed an ancient.”

“What?!” The three other Fenton’s howled in unison.

“Yeah… I couldn’t believe it either. It’s been hundreds of thousands of years since an ancient was formed. Everyone kind of assumed that was it. But, here I am. Breaking another boundary. Guardian of Peace.”

Maddie jumped up and hugged her son tightly, Jack and Jazz joining in soon after. “That’s fantastic! My son! A guardian! How wonderful!”

The halfa laughed lightly. “It’s still weird to me but…” He pulled out three more of the same pins from his other pocket, putting the original back where he got it. His family backed up, watching intently. “I would like you to be part of this with me.”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked.

“If you clip this pin on you are officially seen by the Ghost Zone as my close companion or partner. Some use them for subjects or servants, but that’s not how I roll.” He rolled his eyes and shuddered at the thought. “Basically all you will have to do is tap it to contact me directly, no matter what form I’m in. And if you’re in trouble or hurt anyone with a pin will be given an indicator, like a buzz or light. Well, except for me because mine is different. It’s more of a disguise for my human half so I won’t have an energy aura around me.”

“Do all ancients have these?” Jazz questioned in awe.

“No, only those who want to. It’s not an easy process to create so most don’t go through the effort.”

Maddie took hers and pinned it to her suit, swearing that she could feel it’s energy and love surround her. A constant reminder of her ghost fighting son.

Jack and Jazz put theirs on at the same time, smiling at the same feeling. It was peaceful, nice. A calm that the Fenton’s all needed, even if just for a moment.

But that moment was broken by the blue air of Danny’s ghost sense. “Sorry, guys. Duty calls!” And with that Danny Transformed and was gone.

“....So want to see our newest invention?!” Jack asked his daughter excitedly.

Well, when you’re a Fenton, there is just no such thing a weird anymore.

“Sure, dad.”