John Constantine knows full and damn well that Phantom isn't a thousands year old ghost.
He knows because, in the middle of a fight against a deranged warlock, Phantom let out a small, warbling chirp in response to getting hit.
He'd quickly covered it up, but Constantine knows that that chirp is.
What if no ghosts respond to Phantom because the cry doesn't register as a cry to them? Because he's a halfa.
Sure, he can make the sound, and it sounds correct to human ears. But the flesh muffles the core resonance that accompanies the sound. Without that core resonance, to other ghosts, it sounds like mimicry.
Maybe it triggers an uncanny valley kind of response, where it sounds like something other trying to lure you in by pretending to be a baby.
And with Halfas being so rare and/or the Realms still in such disarray since Pariah was originally sealed (having lost the centralized knowledge and archives of a unified people as various smaller, independent factions arose in the High King's absence), no one knows about this unfortunate interaction of flesh and core in Halfas. If anyone ever did, that knowledge has long since been lost.
(Consequentially, this would put Vlad in basically the same boat here. No wonder he's so desperate for family. He's abandoned too.)
hear me out what if the ghosts that DO hear him make this noise think he’s trying to lure them into a false sense of security (uncanny valley train of thought here) and get mad??
Mad, or creeped out, cuz they think Danny is a lure for a ghostly angler fish. They all believe they're fighting a part of a larger being that's targeting ghosts near the Amity Portal.
Still thinking about this concept because i love the idea of both Danny and the ghosts from the Zone fighting to protect their home. Danny thinks the ghosts want to terrorize Amity Park, and the ghosts think Danny wants to consume the ghost neighborhood after being stuck in the human realm for centuries. No wonder he can defeat them all!
Constantine would have an uphill battle proving Danny is young, and not just a young mimic ready to eat someone.
(Some people mentioned why skulker might feen for Danny in the comments because he sounds like an extinct ghost predator who mimics and what happens if Danny’s flesh wasn’t covering his core. So I’m merging them together.)
One day Skulker says he’s going to put a end to the creature that’s been terrorizing the infinite realms by amity park. So he broadcast his hunt across the realms like an episode of river monsters. Even some of Danny’s rogues come to watch from the sidelines. As Skulker chases Danny on one of the more rainforest looking floating islands.
Skulker takes it to far and basically gouges a hole in Danny’s chest somehow. Either with a new weapon or his hands and Danny is on the verge of dying. His core is now exposed as the flesh hurries to regenerate to cover it. However the whole realms is now hearing the frantic, pleas and scared whimpers and cries of a baby. As Danny has tears in his eyes as his struggling to free himself from Skulkers grasp.
Skulker himself his traumatize upon realizing. All this time. He was hunting and hurting a child, a literal baby who was lost and confused and just needed some help. Who’s ignorance on ghost culture and life wasn’t a facade but genuine because he was newly dead. Who’s speed and fighting weren’t predatory instincts but adrenaline induced fight or flight responses to keep him alive from the threat…..them. They were the threat. The ghost child as he called him in disgust and mockery was just that. A child. A infant. A new born. He looked upon the bloody scared face of the kid they knew. The fear the distrust. The panicked wide eyes that had seen too much.
They had made a grave mistake.
HurtPainFear
Was all that was felt across the realms as Danny’s cores screaming resonance was finally covered up by skin once more. Danny freed himself from Skulkers loosened grip and fled the scene.
What had they done?
Not Danny being the ghost version of a high support needs autistic kid in the middle ages.
"He's some kind of creature pretending to be a child! We must chase him into the wilderness, or kill him, so his dangerous abnormality doesn't threaten our way of existence!"
Danny, just doing his best going to school and living his (half) life, and trying to survive adults from both of his species hunting him for sport:
