[Closed Log]

[schrodingersghost]

Who: Danny Fenton and Pitch
What: Nightmare Stalking
When: Very early morning
Where: Danny's Room, 405

Danny had absolutely terrible sleeping habits.

With no sisters to nag him, no parents to hide from and no school to worry about he had taken to staying up past the early hours of the morning patrolling as a ghost. Most days he didn't even see his room until three or four in the morning.

This was a pretty typical night for him.  He'd floated through his door at three in the morning, then collapsed into his bed without out even bothering to kick his shoes off. In a flash of light he turns back to his human side and quickly falls into a deep sleep.

Not even the usual nightmares were going to wake him easily this night.

Comments

[fearbringer]

Pitch also spends most of his nights patrolling the Castle-- but unlike Danny, he doesn't need to sleep. This is the fourth room he's hit tonight, and he's still going strong.

He comes in through a dark corner, and soundlessly makes his way over to the bed, leaning over its occupant. It's time to watch some nightmares.

[schrodingersghost]

It doesn't take long for the teen's expression to start twitching faintly as he falls into one of his usual nightmares.

He was in the Ghost Portal again. It was dark and empty. Dead.

But he knew what was coming. If he could just turn around.... If he could just leave, everything would be fine.

But he couldn't stop himself. There was something inevitable about this. He steps further into the dark hole on the wall. He trips over a loose cable on the floor. He falls. He catches his hand on a switch.

And then there is nothing left but blinding light and pain.

It felt like dying and being reborn, all at once.

[fearbringer]

Pitch leans closer. He doesn't know the context of the dream, but that's all right-- that's not the important part. What he wants is the fear, and he's getting that in spades.

[schrodingersghost]

The boy tosses and turns in distress as the dream continues.

Finally the pain ends and he stumbles out of the portal and collapses to the ground. He could still see the strange energy from the portal running through his fingers as his limbs flicker in and out of visibility. In one flash he almost thinks he can see the bones of his hands. Slowly he drags himself to a mirror and looks into the face of a stranger (and a face all too familiar). White hair that glowed with its own light. Luminescent, alien green eyes the color of ectoplasm.

And in a flash everything changed. He was being held up by an dark glowing ghost as she whispered poison into his ear. What are you? A ghost pretending to be human? Or some creepy little boy with creepy little powers. Not a ghost, not a boy... Who could love a thing like you?

[fearbringer]

The circumstances may be strange to Pitch, but the sentiments expressed in the nightmare are very familiar-- children all over the world fear being alone; being unloved. Sometimes, it's even a justified fear-- not all of them have good parents, after all.

He keeps watching.

[schrodingersghost]

A small part of his mind was struggling to remember that this was Spectra. THis was the ghost that he'd beaten time again. Nothing but a washed up wanna be school psychologist who lived off of children's misery now.

But knowing that had never helped him stop her from finding his every fear and insecurity and ruthlessly exploiting them.

He struggles against her as she whispers more poisonous words into his ear.

And he falls out of bed with a loud crash.

[fearbringer]

That happens sometimes, too. Pitch just jumps out of the way.

[schrodingersghost]

Danny just sits there for a moment as he tries to reorient himself after that dream. At last he drags himself back into bed without bothering to look around the room. He drops his head face first into his pillow and mumbles into it.

"I hate dreams. What, it isn't enough I have to deal with this stuff in the daytime?"

[fearbringer]

Pitch shifts in the shadows a little, but doesn't step out yet. Still, Danny might see the movement out of the corner of his eye.

[schrodingersghost]

Danny instantly catches the movement. He rolls out of bed. He doesn't shift into his ghost form. Not yet. But he's ready to make a dive for the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick.

Okay, so it was a baseball bat. But it did have the Fenton logo on it.

It was his parents idea, okay.

"Who's there?"

[fearbringer]

Still from the shadows:

"Go back to sleep."

It's a voice Danny may or may not recognize from the network-- they've talked before, but not for long.

[schrodingersghost]

"Riiight. Creepy voice from the shadows tells me to go back to sleep. That's really convincing."

Danny was terrible at voice recognition, and didn't recognize the voice at all.

[fearbringer]

He doesn't really have a tactic for dealing with teenagers in times like this-- sometimes little kids would wake up and see him back at home, but by the time they're Danny's age, they've stopped believing. So he's... kind of flying by the seat of his pants here.

"Well, what else would you do? Confront me? I'm not doing anything."

[schrodingersghost]

"Introductions would be nice. Cause you know, I kind of have a terrible track record with middle of the night visitors. They do things like try to put me to sleep permanently so they can feed off my dreams for eternity. Or kidnap me so they can mount my pelt on their bed and my head on their wall. Or maybe it was the other way around. I stopped listening to that guy after the first ten times."

Danny was even slightly serious about this.

[fearbringer]

"I have no intention of doing either of those things. I'm here for your nightmares only."

[schrodingersghost]

"Riiight. I feel so much better now. Here's a question. Why?"

[fearbringer]

"Because it's what I do."

[schrodingersghost]

"I repeat, Why? Cause let me tell you there aren't many good reason for creeping on people at night."

[fearbringer]

There's a flash of teeth in the darkness.

"I'm the Boogeyman."

[schrodingersghost]

There was a very awkward silence coming from Danny's side of the room.

"Be very glad my parents aren't here right now."

[fearbringer]

"I doubt they would make any difference. Four-year-olds stop being able to see me when their parents tell them they don't exist, but if someone your age still believes in me... that's something that's not going to go away so easily."

[schrodingersghost]

Danny blinks.

"Oh, right. You wouldn't know."

He closes his eyes and shifts into his ghost form in a flash of light. Slowly he floats into the air and points at his chest.

"Did I mention I was part ghost?"

[fearbringer]

... Welp. That's pretty surprising, and something that Pitch isn't at all familiar with.

"No, you didn't. How is it possible to be part ghost? Are you alive, or are you dead?"

[schrodingersghost]

The ghosts shifts awkwardly as he rises further into the air.

"And that's the big question. I don't really know. I'm a ghost, and I'm a human. But I don't really know how the whole thing works."

[fearbringer]

"You mentioned your parents. Is one of them a ghost?" Pitch has temporarily forgotten about getting Danny to go back to sleep-- now he's just interested.

[schrodingersghost]

Danny snickers.

"Not even close. They're ghosthunters. Which is why its a good thing they're not here right now. Pretty sure they invented some anti-Bogeyman weapons when I was a kid."

[fearbringer]

"I've yet to see one that works."

[schrodingersghost]

Danny scowls in remembrance.

"Trust me. If they built it? It might have a really dumb name and look stupid, but it will work."

[fearbringer]

"All right, how then? How could they repel me?"

[schrodingersghost]

"I did mention that they invent anti-ghost weapons for a living, right? Dad's not too picky about his supernatural creature targeting."

[fearbringer]

"That's not really an answer. How would their machine work?"

[schrodingersghost]

"Don't ask me for the science. I just know that getting shot by those things hurts."

And yeah, not thinking about the whole being shot by his parents part.

[fearbringer]

"It can hurt, but I'm sure it wouldn't destroy me."