In the Shadows We Fight (for justice and ourselves)

What are the differences?

Tommy poked the ground with a stick he found that was about half his height in size. A small depression appeared in the light brown dirt, revealing that there was not a hidden tripwire or some other trap. Tommy didn't expect there to be, but he was having the time of his life pretending that he was an adventurer getting involved in a cursed temple surrounded by a booby-trapped jungle. Well, he was having fun saying booby-trapped. He didn't really care to keep up the charade of being an adventurer, but Ghostbur was excitedly pretending to be Tommy's assistant who had been allowed to come along for the journey. Tommy didn't have anything else to do besides indulge Ghostbur in his fantasies. Tommy found joy in seeing his translucent friend brightly smiling. Ghostbur was like a child in a lot of ways, and Tommy was quickly discovering that despite all his arguments, he had a soft spot for children.

Tommy turned to look at Ghostbur. The phantom was staring at a piece of tree bark, pretending that it was the key to the next part of their adventure. Tommy wondered if Wilbur had been like this as a child. It was incredibly difficult to reconcile with the fact that this version of his friend was not only Wilbur, the charismatic older brother figure, but also Banshee, the man who had captured Tommy and made him fight other people for sport. Tommy shuddered as he made the connection once more.

Ghostbur wasn't like Wilbur or Banshee in a lot of ways. Ghostbur was naive, easily excitable, and extremely hard to annoy. He was hyperactive and imaginative. When he got confused, he asked questions in the hopes that he would no longer be confused instead of bluffing that he knew and was pretending not to know. Both Wilbur and Banshee were nothing like that. They were both experienced, hypnotic, and poised figures that could easily sway people to their side. Wilbur was hilarious and agreeable. He liked people and music. More than that, he loved Tommy as his little brother. Banshee was an alluring siren on the horizon who loved to manipulate his victims in any way he could. He actively discovered new ways to influence the brain. Banshee was as sinister as he was mysterious. Banshee did not 'like' Tommy. He saw Tommy as a variable that could make any experiment fun.

How could either of those beings be related to each other, much less to Ghostbur?

Still, Tommy noticed that there were some traits that carried over. Ghostbur was still in love with music, especially his guitar and singing. He cared about the people close to him with an almost ruthless kind of love. Ghostbur had Wilbur's laugh, and he had Banshee's curiosity. Ghostbur liked to figure things out, and he even liked to invent a handful of things. They were usually toys for him and Tommy, but they were contraptions Tommy had never seen before. That kind of creativity was not lost even when Ghostbur was just an apparition of the person Tommy knew.

"Hey, Ghostbur," Tommy started, getting the ghost's attention. Ghostbur turned around. Tommy no longer flinched when he saw Ghostbur's completely blue eyes, but that didn't mean he would ever get used to seeing it. Ghostbur looked like both Wilbur and Banshee. Just enough that Tommy couldn't ignore the fact that they were the same person, but not enough for him to fall into the same rhythm of liking Wilbur and despising Banshee. "What can you tell me about that fucker, Banshee? Was he doing something before all of this happened?"

Ghostbur's happiness falls off his face like blindingly white snow off a mountainside during an avalanche. Tommy can feel the coldness bite at his soul, and he quickly turns away from the force of nature that will surely suffocate him. He hated making Ghostbur upset because it didn't happen often. Ghostbur's sadness was a thousand small knives prickling beneath Tommy's skin, slowly puncturing through the skin to release themselves from their fleshy prison. Tommy can hear Ghostbur stuttering, grappling for something to say that will fix the situation he thinks he has caused. "I- well- he- I didn't- I shouldn't- he doesn't-"

"Drop it, Ghostbur. Sorry for asking," Tommy says swiftly to end his own misery. No matter how much they looked alike, Ghostbur was not Banshee in a lot of key ways. If Tommy were to put this all on a spectrum, Wilbur would be the center. He's the real person. He's the one who was born into this world by normal means and experienced it to its fullest. Banshee dominated the evil end of the spectrum. Banshee was the version of Wilbur who indulged in his obsessions and twisted sense of curiosity. Banshee was Wilbur with no morals and tons of resources. Ghostbur, by process of elimination, was Wilbur's entirely good side. Ghostbur was Wilbur if the man had never experienced a horrible day in his life and had never heard of the word 'villain'. Ghostbur was Wilbur's childlike innocence. Even though Ghostbur and Banshee came from the same source, they were the deviations at the end of the path. It wasn't fair to say Ghostbur and Banshee were the same person... they weren't. Ghostbur was the same as Wilbur, and Banshee was the same as Wilbur, but Ghostbur and Banshee did not equal each other. It confused Tommy, but this was the only way he could justify everything.

"I forgive you! I don't remember what we were fighting about!" Ghostbur said, a dopey smile reforming on his face. Ghostbur returned to his job of trying to figure out the tree bark connected to the cursed temple. Tommy stared at Ghostbur's back, watching as the apparition pretended to read words off the tree bark to himself.

"That's fucking disturbing," Tommy mutters more to himself than Ghostbur. He didn't like it when Ghostbur immediately forgets what their conversations are about, but he didn't have any control in the matter.

"I don't like negativity, remember?" Ghostbur reminds Tommy as he pulls the tree bark off the tree. Tommy keeps his mouth shut. He knows that Ghostbur doesn't like negativity. He doesn't like it so much that he forgets all about it. Ghostbur doesn't have many memories before he came to Logstedshire- what Tommy named his new home. Ghostbur only remembers happy, positive memories and people. He remembers how Wilbur and Tommy used to play together, but he doesn't remember Banshee tormenting Tommy several times in their intertwined lives. Any time Tommy brought up Banshee, Ghostbur would get upset but promptly forget about what they had been talking about. Tommy couldn't get any information out of Ghostbur other than the simple truth that Wilbur loved Tommy as if he were his younger brother.

Tommy was about to say something- though he wasn't sure what- when he heard something snap near him. He whirled around to see there was another figure in the forest besides him and Ghostbur. The apparition floats behind Tommy as the two of them look the new figure up and down. It was a hybrid, but they weren't a Mob hybrid like Tommy expected to find this far away from the main city. It was... a cow hybrid? Tommy blinked a few times. It was an older man, probably middle aged. He had brown hair with a few strands of white hair mixed in. He possessed doe brown eyes that stared right back at Tommy and Ghostbur. The hybrid traits included a pair of floppy ears, hooves instead of feet, and a whip-like cow tail.

"Good afternoon," The hybrid said, nodding his head at the both of them. Tommy looked towards Ghostbur, but the phantom had his attention captivated by the hybrid in front of him. Tommy hoped Ghostbur would accidentally say something racist. He knew children were sometimes given a free pass for saying something offensive to hybrids. Hopefully, this guy would be as compassionate as those other hybrids. "My name is Henry jr., but most people just call me: Henry."

Tommy has been beyond the walls of the Essempei for a little over a week. Dream had visited him once to replenish the food and reset the electronics, but other than that, Tommy had been left to his own devices with Ghostbur. This was the first time he was seeing a hybrid. He hadn't even seen a Mob yet, and those things were supposed to be crawling all over the place out here. Tommy was left wondering why that was. He had to find out. "What the fuck are you doing out here?"

Henry blinked at him like he didn't expect the curse words to come from the mouth of teeanger that young. Tommy was used to people expecting less from him. They thought he would be more refined since he was Dream's sidekick, or less crude since he was only a few years older than a child. Tommy didn't bother himself with proving those people wrong. He just did what he thought needed to be done. "Not everyone is welcomed behind those walls, especially hybrids with nothing to their names. You'll find a lot of us out here. We barely get by, but we at least try to survive despite our circumstances."

Tommy froze. He knew that hybrids weren't given a lot of the same rights as those who weren't hybrids, but he didn't think it was this bad. He didn't know that there were people who weren't threats and yet were locked out of the city. This is an issue that Tommy wants to personally take care of, but he doesn't have any power in Logstedshire. He can't do anything about this until his exile is lifted.

Ghostbur, however, does not consider Tommy powerless, as he says, "You should stay with us in Logstedshire!"

"Ghostbur, I do not own a fucking halfway house," Tommy snapped, turning around to argue with Ghostbur. He finds himself looking at empty space. Tommy turns once more to see that Ghostbur had wandered over to Henry. Ghostbur is affectionately petting Henry's head. Tommy wonders if Henry can feel anything. Ghostbur hasn't shown any signs of being solid before, so Tommy didn't know if Ghostbur could make himself partially solid to pet someone.

"I can help with the chores. I can even start a garden to feed myself," Henry says instantly, ignoring Ghostbur as he begs Tommy. It makes Tommy feel uncomfortable. Henry is probably twice his age. Tommy should not have any power over this man. Tommy had never been on this end of begging, either. He didn't know if he was supposed to give in or stand his ground. He didn't want to live with anybody, but he did want to help hybrids like Henry. Tommy breathed out slowly.

"Alright, alright, you can stay in Logstedshire with me. But there's gonna be a man that comes by. Don't let him see you. If he does, we're both dead meat," Tommy said, crossing his arms.