Chapter Text
Days passed and Plasmius refused to eat, sleep, or do anything that menace asked him to.
The three of them took shifts, exchanging details, or lack thereof, in their various watches.
“He started pacing front to back instead of left to right for a few hours.”
“He shot the tent four times instead of five last hour.”
“He sneezed and it scared me half to death.”
That was the first week.
The second week, his head started to hurt again, but this time he didn’t have any ghost zone plants to blame. At least, as far as he could tell. The longer the headache went on, the more he suspected one of his captives. He held his tongue at first but as the headache got worse, so did his temper. “What are you doing to me?!” He snapped at Danny late one afternoon.
“Are… oh you’re actually talking again!” Danny set his phone down.
Plasmius was of a mind to go back to ignoring him after that but his head was killing him. “Yes, I am, now tell me what you’re doing to me. I can’t stand it. Is it in the air?”
“In the air?” Danny repeated, mystified. “I'm not putting anything in the air. Why would you think that?”
“Because you’ve drugged me twice now.” Plasmius said plainly. “Just admit it.”
“Vlad, you’re breathing the same normal room air as me. If I was somehow putting ghost stuff in the air, it would affect me too. That wouldn’t exactly be smart.”
“Then why do I feel like my head is splitting open? Is that part of your room air?” He asked critically. A spike of pain shot through his head as if to prove his point..
“Oh… no.” Danny frowned at him. “I think that might be the Orb.”
Plasmius narrowed his eyes. “The Orb isn’t here… is it?”
Danny looked… uncomfortable for some reason. “No. Thankfully.”
“Thankfully? Of course you would say that.” Plasmius scoffed. This menace child and his irrational hate for things he didn’t understand. “If it isn’t here, then how can it be causing my headache?”
“I only have personal experience to go on, but just being away from it is like detoxification. Or at least what I think that might feel like? You think we were overusing the slumber lily but like the Orb is the best ghost drug there is and I’m pretty sure you were at that circus a while. The thing is, even though it makes you feel great, it also has the worst crash. You’re probably on the downswing now which is good ‘cus your head is clearing up, but it’s gonna suck. No sugar coating that.”
“And how do you know that?” Plasmius questioned.
“Like I said, I’ve had some personal experience with it.” Danny grimaced. “It was awful.”
“Sure you have.” Said shortly, then continued his pacing.
“You aren’t the first ghost that skeezeball controlled, though you probably figured that much out.” Danny tried to keep the conversation going but Plasmius didn’t respond.
His mind was racing however, did he really mean that he was under the Orb at one point? How did he just leave? Why would he risk stealing someone else away? None of it made sense but as his headache worsened it was all he could think about.
——
“Oh good, you’re here.” Tucker jumped up the second Danny entered the room. “He hasn’t moved, like, at all for the last hour and it’s starting to freak me out.”
“What?” Danny dropped his bookbag and raced to the anteroom. “Hey, Vlad? Vlad, can you hear me?”
“‘M name’s not Vlad.” Plasmius mumbled from his position hunched up on the floor.
“Oh thank fuck.” Danny sighed. “What’s wrong?”
“Same thing but worse.” Plasmius curled in on himself a little more. “Stop talking so loud.”
“Your headache’s still getting worse?” Danny asked in disbelief.
Plasmius winced. “Yes, now can you please stop?”
“Uh… yeah.” Danny turned back to Tucker. “How long has he been like this?”
“Like I said, about an hour.” Tucker said.
“Right… uh… can you go get my first aid kid?” Danny said, looking a little lost.
“Sure thing man.” Tucker left and it was only Danny.
“Vlad?” Danny tried. No response. He had said not to call him that name, but what other name did he have besides… “...Plasmius?”
That did get a response. Plasmius squinted at Danny. “So you can use someone’s preferred name.”
“Yeah, I can.” Danny actually felt kind of bad for taking so long to figure that out. “I’m just used to only calling you Plasmius when we fight so uh… my bad.”
“As opposed to how we have been interacting since you abducted me.” Plasmius curled back into a ball. “All pleasantries and cordial conversation.”
“Look, this is the most peaceful interaction I have ever had with you. It’s kinda weird.” Danny admitted. Usually by now, one of them was trying to throw the other into something at terminal velocity.
“That’s because you have me trapped in a ghost proof kiddie tent.” There was a long pause. “So you are insinuating that you knew me… before?”
“Yeah, I knew you before the… ringmaster… got to you.” Danny sat down on the other side of the tarp, frowning. “And sorry, the kiddie tent is for your own good..”
“You knew me before I died.” Plasmius said slowly, seeming like it took a lot of effort to express that question. It also felt… wrong somehow.
“No, not before you died. You had the accident before I was born.” Danny admitted. “But I knew you before you were with the circus.”
“Oh.” Plasmius rubbed at his temples, willing the headache to hurt just a little less. He had questions and it was making it hard to think. Part of him knew that the headache was getting worse due to him wanting to ask questions but… for the first time in his admittedly spotty memory, he had that want. “How does a human get on a first name basis with a ghost?”
“Well… you use your human form, what do you think that is?”
“Answering a question with a question… should have known this wouldn’t be easy.” Plasmius muttered. “It’s a disguise. To fit in with humans.”
“Sorry… I’m just trying not to give you too much at once… I know it can get confusing.” Danny sighed. “Well, yeah. You can look like a human, and you can look like a ghost. It does help you fit in, but ghosts generally can’t look human, not like you can.”
“So?” It was easier to have someone just tell him what was true, even now. “What?”
“I’m not gonna spoon feed you the answers Plasmius. Come on, I know you can connect the dots.”
“So I’m not… not…” It was like he had to draw every thought out, kicking and screaming. “Not ghost or human?” That sounded silly, if he wasn’t ghost or human then what was he? But… it also sounded right.
“Yeah, there you go. I call it half ghost, you used to call it a human/ghost hybrid. We’re the only two like us.”
Plasmius looked at him again. “Like us? What do you mean? You’re a ghost too?”
“Yeah… uh… you might want to look away if you have a headache but…” Danny shifted to his ghost half. Vlad refused to look away, even though the flash of light was physically painful. “Tada?” Danny’s voice echoed around the room.
“You are like me…” Plasmius said, completely taken aback. “It’s not a disguise?”
“No, you’re still alive. So am I.” Danny said simply.
“Oh.”
“Hey guys I found the-“
Plasmius hissed and hunched over, covering his ears.
“Quietly Tuck, quietly.” Danny said softly.
“Oh, right… sorry.” Tucker said in a hushed voice. “I got the first aid kit.” He handed it to Danny.
“V- or Plasmius?” Danny asked.
After a few moments he looked at Danny warily. “Yes?”
“I have some painkillers here, would you agree to taking some? It won’t fix things but it might make you feel a bit better.”
“You’re giving me the option now?” Plasmius asked skeptically.
“I’m trying to give you as much freedom as I can.” Danny shrugged. “You know, aside from the whole kiddie tent thing.”
“I suppose either it has the possibility of making things better or worse… which is more than I have going for myself at the moment. Yes, I will.”
Danny squinted at the bottle and shook out several glowing pills.
“You sure that’s right?” Asked Plasmius before he could stop himself.
“Well, full disclosure, I’m still learning Ghost but it’s one more than I usually take and you’re a full foot taller than me so… probably?”
“Let me see.” Plasmius floated himself over to the dividing wall and Zone everything made his head hurt.
“Oh yeah, I guess you might have that one down better than me huh?” Danny held the bottle up.
“It says… one capsule per pound of weight. You weigh three pounds?” Plasmius asked skeptically. That seemed dense for a ghost of his size.
“Dunno. Never checked. I have a scale in the bathroom lemme grab it.”
Danny was gone and back in a flash. He stood on the scale curiously. “Huh… 1.5 pounds. What do you know?”
“So you’ve been taking double what you were supposed to.” Plasmius said flatly. “And you were going to give me more?” This is what he got for having children as captors. They were going to kill him the rest of the way.
“Hey, I’ve tried less before and it does nothing. It must be a half ghost thing. I have to take extra human medicine too.” Danny said defensively.
“Right… just give me the painkillers before I change my mind.” Plasmius said with a sigh. It wasn’t like he had a lot of options in here, and if Danny and him were similar, it was all he had to go on.
Danny put a glass of water and the medicine in the anti room and Plasmius took them.
Right now the pain from the headache was worse than any potential poisoning incident. That’s what he told himself. He took the medicine, and then realized how refreshing the water was and chugged the whole glass.
“Enjoy that?” Danny asked, looking amused. “I can get you another glass of water if you want.”
“I suppose I could do with some more water.” Plasmius allowed.
“Alright, alright. I’ll get you another glass of water… and maybe some food?”
Now that Vlad… damn it. Now that Plasmius had the water… food sounded like an amazing idea. “Maybe so.”
After his fifth slice of pizza, Plasmius conceded that maybe, occasionally, he could make use of food.