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linghxr · 10 months ago

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Exploring Chinese names of Taiwan

A while ago, I stumbled across this press release for Taiwan's National Names Statistical Analysis report. Then I clicked on the full report and spent days glued to my screen reading it!

So, courtesy of Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior, let's look at some of the data. We will look at: top given names, top full names, and top unisex names.

Top 10 given names (by decade)

The report shows the top names by decade, which is really fascinating because you can see how tastes and trends changed over time. I'm just going to show the overall top 10 and last three full decades (1990s, 2000s, and 2010s) but you can see the rest on pg. 280 of the report (pg. 281 of the PDF).

Male

Overall

家豪 Jiāháo / 14,038人

志明 Zhìmíng / 12,719人

建宏 Jiànhóng / 12,196人

俊杰 | 俊傑 Jùnjié / 12,187人

俊宏 Jùnhóng / 11,189人

志豪 Zhìháo / 10,676人

志伟 | 志偉 Zhìwěi / 10,563人

承翰 Chénghàn / 9726人

冠宇 Guànyǔ / 9655人

志强 | 志強 Zhìqiáng / 9101人

1991-2000

家豪 Jiāháo / 4039人

冠宇 Guànyǔ / 3603人

冠廷 Guàntíng / 3399人

承翰 Chénghàn / 3008人

宗翰 Zōnghàn / 2831人

柏翰 Bóhàn / 2594人

彦廷 | 彥廷 Yàntíng / 2502人

冠霖 Guànl��n / 2114人

俊杰 | 俊傑 Jùnjié / 2084人

承�� Chéng’ēn / 1918人

2001-2010

承恩 Chéng’ēn / 2997人

承翰 Chénghàn / 2636人

冠廷 Guàntíng / 2452人

冠宇 Guànyǔ / 2206人

宇翔 Yǔxiáng / 1938人

柏翰 Bóhàn / 1885人

彦廷 | 彥廷 Yàntíng / 1610人

冠霖 Guànlín / 1509人

柏宇 Bóyǔ / 1471人

柏谚 | 柏諺 Bóyàn / 1409人

2011-2020

承恩 Chéng’ēn / 2215人

宥廷 Yòutíng / 2036人

品睿 Pǐnruì / 2021人

宸睿 Chénruì / 1904人

宇恩 Yǔ’ēn / 1860人

宇翔 Yǔxiáng / 1713人

承翰 Chénghàn / 1556人

宥辰 Yòuchén / 1532人

柏睿 Bóruì / 1511人

睿恩 Ruì’ēn / 1503人

Female

Overall

淑芬 Shūfēn | Shúfēn / 31,879人

淑惠 Shūhuì | Shúhuì / 30,420人

美玲 Měilíng / 27,487人

丽华 | 麗華 Lìhuá / 25,624人

美惠 Měihuì / 25,015人

淑贞 | 淑貞 Shūzhēn | Shúzhēn / 23,904人

雅婷 Yǎtíng / 23,407人

秀英 Xiùyīng / 23,020人

淑娟 Shūjuān | Shújuān / 22,828人

秀琴 Xiùqín / 22,266人

1991-2000

雅婷 Yǎtíng / 5797人

怡君 Yíjūn / 3575人

怡婷 Yítíng / 3183人

雅雯 Yǎwén / 3084人

诗涵 | 詩涵 Shīhán / 3006人

钰婷 | 鈺婷 Yùtíng / 2775人

怡萱 Yíxuān / 2729人

雅筑 Yǎzhù | Yǎzhú / 2700人

郁婷 Yùtíng / 2600人

宜庭 Yítíng / 2555人

2001-2010

宜蓁 Yízhēn / 2629人

欣妤 Xīnyú / 1643人

诗涵 | 詩涵 Shīhán / 1610人

思妤 Sīyú / 1561人

雅婷 Yǎtíng / 1439人

宜庭 Yítíng / 1394人

佳颖 | 佳穎 Jiāyǐng / 1375人

品妤 Pǐnyú / 1336人

子涵 Zǐhán / 1271人

怡萱 Yíxuān / 1258人

2011-2020

品妍 Pǐnyán/ 2421人

子晴 Zǐqíng / 2087人

咏晴 | 詠晴 Yǒngqíng / 2001人

品妤 Pǐnyú / 1697人

禹彤 Yǔtóng / 1578人

羽彤 Yǔtóng / 1434人

芯语 | 芯語 Xīnyǔ / 1342人

宥蓁 Yòuzhēn / 1226人

语彤 | 語彤 Yǔtóng / 1221人

苡晴 Yǐqíng / 1164人

Top 10 full names

In Mainland China the most common full names are usually something like 张伟 and 李娜. In Taiwan, 单名 (single-character given names) are much rarer, so the results are very different. We can also really see the dominance of the surname 陈 here. The rest of the top 100 are on pg. 268 of the report (pg. 269 of the PDF).

Male

陈冠宇 | 陳冠宇 Chén Guànyǔ / 4021人

陈建宏 | 陳建宏 Chén Jiànhóng / 3524人

张家豪 | 張家豪 Zhāng Jiāháo / 2890人

陈俊宏 | 陳俊宏 Chén Jùnhóng / 2801人

陈冠廷 | 陳冠廷 Chén Guàntíng / 2469人

陈柏宇 | 陳柏宇 Chén Bóyǔ / 2383人

林建宏 Lín Jiànhóng / 2375人

陈柏翰 | 陳柏翰 Chén Bóhàn / 2353人

陈彦廷 | 陳彥廷 Chén Yàntíng / 2249人

陈信宏 | 陳信宏 Chén Xìnhóng / 2120人

Female

陈怡君 | 陳怡君 Chén Yíjūn / 5744人

林怡君 Lín Yíjūn / 4401人

陈淑芬 | 陳淑芬 Chén Shūfēn | Chén Shúfēn / 3747人

张雅婷 | 張雅婷 Zhāng Yǎtíng / 3491人

陈美玲 | 陳美玲 Chén Měilíng / 3235人

陈怡如 | 陳怡如 Chén Yírú / 3121人

陈美惠 | 陳美惠 Chén Měihuì / 3103人

陈淑惠 | 陳淑惠 Chén Shūhuì | Chén Shúhuì / 2921人

林淑惠 Lín Shūhuì | Lín Shúhuì / 2903人

陈淑贞 | 陳淑貞 Chén Shūzhēn | Chén Shúzhēn / 2751人

Unisex/gender-neutral names

Do you want a name that doesn't strongly lean towards masculine or feminine? The report also highlight the common names across genders. It seems their criteria for this was names falling between 40% male-60% female and 60% male-40% female.

To clarify, they actually looked at the top 100 full names, not given names. For instance, 宥均 Yòujūn was on the list three times with three different surnames. But I re-sorted the list by given name since I was curious to see that. You can find the original data on pg. 270 of the report (pg. 271 of the PDF).

宥均 Yòujūn Total: 1804人 Male: 54.77% Female: 45.23%

佳霖 Jiālín Total: 1111人 Male: 51.67% Female: 48.33%

家华 | 家華 Jiāhuá Total: 923人 Male: 53.41% Female: 46.59%

郁文 Yùwén Total: 847人 Male: 43.68% Female: 56.32%

禹安 Yǔ’ān Total: 789人 Male: 51.71% Female: 48.29%

以恩 Yǐ’ēn Total: 730人 Male: 49.32% Female: 50.68%

孟儒 Mèngrú Total: 643人 Male: 55.05% Female: 44.95%

冠桦 | 冠樺 Guànhuà Total: 643人 Male: 52.26% Female: 47.74%

靖恩 Jìng’ēn Total: 621人 Male: 44.93% Female: 55.07%

品辰 Pǐnchén Total: 600人 Male: 58.83% Female: 41.17%

Notes

The report is INCREDIBLY detailed. I'm not kidding. The body of the report is not that long, but it has a very long appendix with about 200 pages of tables. Here are some examples of data included that I didn't mention:

Most popular given names people changed their names to

Most common 单名 and 叠字名字

Most common last names by city/county

Indigenous peoples' use of the Latin alphabet for names

Prevalence of multi-character surnames

And so, so much more!

And FYI, the report uses the ROC calendar, which starts with the founding of the Republic of China. To convert from the ROC calendar to the Gregorian calendar, add 111. Ex: 1年=1912 112年=2023

Pronunciation & tones

冠 is a 多音字 that is pronounced guān or guàn. I went with guàn because that seems to be more common in names from what I've observed.

柏 is also a 多音字 that can be pronounced bǎi or bó. MDBG says Taiwan doesn't have the bǎi pronunciation. I usually hear it read as bó in names, so that's what I'm going with.

MDBG also says 淑 is pronounced shú (not shū) in Taiwan. Likewise, it says 筑 is zhú (not zhù). I'll take their word for it.

I tried to put apostrophes in the right places (like for 承恩 Chéng’ēn), but I'm really bad at knowing when and where to use it. Please pardon any mistakes!

See similar posts: Chinese surnames that are more common in Taiwan A closer look at Chinese names Analyzing Chinese names: Syllables & tones The evolution of Chinese names (Kontinentalist)

#chinese names #taiwan #chinese name #taiwanese names #taiwanese name #chinese #mandarin #mandarin chinese #chinese language #studyblr #langblr #learning languages #language learning #chinese langblr #mandarin langblr #languageblr

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vigilant-insomniac · 8 months ago

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Ashes rain upon your scalded palms final part

Prev | Part 3/3 | or read on AO3

Chapter words: 2205

Fic word count: 9655

Maddie is yet again displaced and has to face another ghost. One that claims to be the god of time. He is the one behind it all it seems

Contains Clockwork and Maddie having a chat. And descriptions of off screen death.

Made for @phicphight

____

Chapter three

Never in her life had Maddie ever felt more helpless than when she opened her eyes and she was, again, somewhere new and alone. Unharmed, even though she was certain her son’s grief had torn her apart. There was no rubble this time. No destruction or any other signs of the nightmare she had just lived through. She still was way from home and her family. Instead she stood in a place like the inside of a clock. Gears floated and spun around pointlessly and she herself was standing on something that seemed to be a giant clock face. The sound of slow ticking was the only thing she could hear for a while and she wondered if this was another quest to find her son.

She closed her eyes and exhaled shakily. He must have been so scared. So lonely. She could feel it back there, what had happened to him.

That last wail, it did something, since her head was filled with memories. It was like all his grief and despair had been projected right into her min.

She really didn't like any of what had happened to her son. And that he was. Maddie had no doubt. Actually she had lost that doubt the second Danny had looked at her back there.

But there was undeniable truth to the things she saw during those last moments.

Her Portal had done this to him. It had been nothing other than his well intent, that made him step into the machine in an attempt to fix it. It cost him his life and the destruction of everything he had known. Himself included. And then there was a hundred years of grief and despair while his heart broke to pieces.

When she had found him, he had already been fractured beyond saving.

Maddie didn’t get time to release the tears that were welling up, because just as uncannily and unexpectedly as before, she was face to face with a ghost.

Resignation made her merely frown at the purple cloaked spirit who shifted his appearance like they were made of sand.

"You've found your son." The old man stated.

"I have." She replied.

He studied her intensely, and Maddie had the impression he was seeing more than just her face.

He didn't seem very forthcoming, Maddie realized, he was somewhat distracted.

“So I assume, you are the one who’s been pulling me along?” Maddie didn’t have it in herself to keep her hostility in check.

“you are correct.” The ghost replied almost sagely.

“Who are you? What’s the purpose of this?” she demanded.

The ghost turned away from her, and stared at who knew what. Was he senile? After a moment too long, he began his introduction.

“I am Clockwork. I am Chronos. I am The Ancient of Time…. some even call me Time itself. I have many names, but I am not known to many mortals. Yet still I felt the need to talk to you, Maddeline Fenton. You were a necessary exception.” Maddie already knew this conversation was going to be miserable. She just wanted to have a good cry and go back to her family. She wanted to hug Danny while he was alive and happy. She did not want to deal with this ghost. Even her scientific interest was not enough at this moment to push itself to the forefront of her priorities.

“You were the voice I heard back then? The one to send me to find and save Danny? The one to send me there, into the future?” she pressed when it seemed like the ghost was again just staring off into space.

“I was.”

Maddie was going to strangle him.

“So what now? I failed him. I couldn’t save him at all. Whatever I was meant to do back there, I didn’t and my son-” She couldn’t say it.

“You didn’t. Not yet. Not anymore.” Clockwork turned to her with sorrow.

“But you want me to? Right? I don’t know why someone akin to a god would be concerned with my family, but for some reason, you care about him and you want to save him, but you can’t do it yourself, you need me to do it.” He confirmed it with a sage nod.

“So send me back!" Maddie pleaded. "Send me back to a time when it isn’t already too late, and I will make sure the portal won't ever find its completion. Let me prevent this. Even if I have to turn my back on science and everything my life stands for. Even if I have to tear everything I’ve built, down with my bare hands. If it means I can stop this future I would do anything.”

And Maddie meant it. Her Portal was a scientific marvel and the pinnacle of her achievements to date. But if it killed her son and her family and everyone else in the neighborhood, then she wouldn't. It was as simple as that. Even if it hurt.

For a long time, Clockwork just watched her as she fought back her grief. This ghost, so powerful, and apparently yet so impotent, oddly enough, seemed to share her grief. His expression wasn’t an easy one to read, especially on someone who’s face kept shifting between ages. But Maddie could tell.

“You cannot interfere with this. The portal needs to be. And so does he need to be as he will be. This cannot be changed.”

“You are telling me, what,... That this is his Fate? Some perverse Destiny that chains my son to an early death? How dare you call yourself a god.” Maddie spat.

“Let me show you something.” he said calmly even in the face of her disdain.

Without waiting for her reply, vivid visions erupted in her head. Maddie doubled over in pain. Her head was bursting, but what really made her scream into her balled up fist was the endless stream of-

When it was over Maddie was rendered breathless.

“Is there really none?" She asked with growing hopelessness. "No future in which he will get to grow old?” she managed to whisper.

The after images of blood, broken bones and so so much sickness haunted her head. This time she was glad the ghost took so long to reply she struggled to gather herself. It had hurt, to get Danny’s death shown to her when he had broken apart in her arms. But what the ghost, Clockwork had done, was as if she had seen into an infinite amount of realities and in each one, Danny would die. Sometimes he wouldn’t make it out of infancy, sometimes it would be a sickness or an accident. Sometimes it was murder or catastrophe. No matter the cause, the effect was always the same.

“That is why you won’t let me go back to tear down my portal? Because it would not make a difference?”

“He will die. That is Fate.” said the God with regret in his voice. “But, you are misunderstanding the crucial part."

Maddie looked at the ghost with weariness. "Danny will always die early. In every reality, no matter what measures are taken. Yet in the timeline you hail from, in which he steps into your Portal, he conquers and fools the very Destiny that has him bound. He died, yes, but just this once, he did the unimaginable-”

It suddenly clicked for her. All those deaths blinded her to what Clockwork was trying to get her to focus on.

“He lived.” Maddie concluded.

"He did."

“You.. you don’t need me to save him from the portal at all, then?”

“I do not.”

Hope was a mean beast. But she welcomed it with open arms. Her mind reeled at the implications of an existence that would be torn between life and death.

She had seen Danny. He had been a ghost, yes, but then he had turned back into a human. He had been alive. Even the short moment she had to embrace him, she could tell he had breath and a pulse.

Suddenly though, she wasn’t sure if she should be as relieved as she was. That version of Danny had been miserable.

“So as long as he lives on after his death, he will be… safe?”

“Fate isn’t easily fought,” he stated.

Maddie considered this. “He still… died. In the Time you sent me to. Not just that, he lived in a wasteland for a century and suffered through every moment of it, I… I don’t want that for my son. This can’t be the timeline you want him to arrive at. Surely it’s not.”

“Fate has a will of its own and will not let go of who it has burrowed it’s claws into. It is determined to drag Danny back by force. After he enters the path towards becoming fully liminal, he may be one step ahead of Fate, but its meddling will have already set off the chain of events that will cause him to break. His Heart, you see, which is his greatest strength, is also Fate’s final attempt to stop him.”

The way the Ghost spoke of it, it almost seemed like Fate was its own entity. Standing here with Time itself, as he had called himself, it made sense that it would be. But then…

“I’ve asked you before, why you were so concerned with my son, but the way you speak, I would rather know why Fate seems to be so determined to interfere with him. What is…Fate so afraid of.”

The Ghost’s eyes glinted “Because if he isn’t stopped, Danny will be something beyond Fate's reach. That’s the loophole. Danny is effectively running a race to become an entity that will be above mere things like Fate. And Fate was never fond of having anyone oppose it.”

Maddie’s eyes widened “He’ll… He’ll be like you.”

The God of Time smiled gently, neither confirming or dismissing her.

She needed a minute to just sort her thoughts. Danny would… live. As long as he escaped fate and became something beyond a human or a ghost. But it was a race to find a path that would lead to that result before he died without the portal or despaired after the portal.

There were conditions he had to meet and Maddie wasn't a scientist for nothing.

So she sorted it in her head:

1. Danny had to die in the portal.

2. He had to ascend in some way or form.

3. … and he had to do so without having his heart broken irreparably.

So her portal needed to turn on, but without causing the apocalypse. Her portal had to work. So all she needed…

“I see.” she sighed. Her smile was accompanied by tears of relief. “So this is what needs to be done. You know, you could have just said so.” She wiped at her eyes with something between a laugh and a sob.

“Your stubborn nature is a great strength, Maddeline,” Clockwork said warmly, “strong enough to rebel against Fate and Time. I know not one reality in which you would follow a plan, not forged by your own mind. You had to see for yourself, know for yourself and come to your own conclusion.”

Maddie wished he wasn't speaking the truth, but she was glad. They would save Danny.

“I never liked those things like Fate. But Time, I see, can be tolerable.” she admitted, “Although, do not be fooled, I intend to stay ahead of my Time. Who knows, maybe someday I will even show you something you couldn’t see coming.”

“I will be keeping my eye on you and your family." The god of time promised.

_________

Maddie woke up like she had for the last many years. Next to Jack and with her kids still sleeping just down the hall. She stretched languidly before picking up her phone and skimming her to-do list.

Today would be the day.

Maddie hummed along to Jack’s favorite playlist while they were down in the basement lab. She installed the final piece of titanium plating in her portal's insides with a triumphant cheer that Jack joined in from the outside where he ran a final check on the programming.

Today they were writing history.

Before joining her husband outside to do the honors of plugging in the portal, she paused in front of the small console she had added to this version of the portal.

With a melancholic smile she pressed the “off” button.

Today they would be “failing” to turn on the portal.

She consoled her husband when the Portal stayed silent after plugging it in. “We'll have it up and running in due Time, Jack.”

Today their son would die.

Jack cried when they returned to the lab after their break, to a functioning portal.

Maddie did too.

Today their son would live.

Maddie stepped out on the roof of the ops center later that day for some fresh air. There was not a cloud in the sky and the dusk colored the wide expanse in front of her in a beautiful set of colors. She let herself breathe deeply.

Today their son had defeated Fate and the future never looked brighter.

#danny phantom #phandom #dp fic #dp clockwork #mydannyphantom #mywriting #danny fenton #ao3 fanfic #maddie fenton #comments and notes are appreciated #originalwork

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randomreasonstolive · 1 year ago

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Reason to Live #9655

Making friends while volunteering!– Guest Submission

(Please don't add negative comments to these posts.)

#help #hope #mental illness #mental health #reason to live #guest submission

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oneterabyteofkilobyteage · 6 months ago

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original url http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Cottage/9655/ last modified 2008-02-12 07:14:01

#Heartland #2008 #Explorer6 #WindowsXP #800x600

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cottoncandiescupcakes · 7 days ago

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#gladiator 2 #gladiator ii #gladiator #paul mescal #pedro pascal #denzel washington #joseph quinn #fred hechinger

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unplaces · 2 years ago

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9655 Tesla Rd, Livermore, California.

#Livermore #California #January 2020

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nonopapa-ramen · 6 months ago

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博多ラーメン専門店幸ちゃんラーメン博多本店@博多区博多駅前

2024年5月6日日曜日12:22

ラーメン ¥750

住所：福岡市博多区博多駅前3-13-15

TEL：092-929-9655

営業時間：11:00〜23:00

定休日：

note

#博多ラーメン専門店幸ちゃんラーメン #博多区 #ラーメン #ramen #醤��豚骨ラーメン #博多ラーメン

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weirdsatellites · 1 year ago

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Transmission #9655 from Zuma (ACCM) 1. School of Sand 2. Warehouse of Sea Shanties 3. Library of Lemurian Milk

#surveillance #weird #maps

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micah-pl · 2 years ago

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ADD ME IN POKEMON GO LOL

1747 4241 9655

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sexylonestar · 8 days ago

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Sock # 9655

#sockfetish

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vigilant-insomniac · 8 months ago

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Ashes rain upon your scalded palms pt 2

Prev | Chapter 2/3 | next | or read on AO3

Word Count 3571

Complete Wordcount: 9655

Maddie builds a Thing and finally seeks out the Ghost to get some answers. She had to find Danny. She had to save her son. The Ghost was her best lead, and if she had to face it, armed with nothing more than her determination, she would.

Contains: Maddie & Danny, Post apocalyptic vibes, and the usual bucket full of angst! @phicphight submission

------

Chapter Two

Before she could save anyone, Maddie needed to be more prepared than she was. Fenton Works was very much out of the question, since the only part of it still standing was the leftovers of the Portal. Scavenging from it felt like a bad idea.

But, there should be some workshops around that would carry the necessary equipment to build a very rudimentary shield or device. Jack's ancestors had a lot of know-how on how to contain evil spirits without high tech. Maddie had used their papers in a lot of her research and was pretty confident that she would be able to build something from what she would find lying around.

Danny had been an apprentice at a copper smithy, and she was fairly certain she still knew the layout of the workshop from when he had shown her around.

Mind made up, Maddie grabbed whatever she found promising in her current location. Which included the vacuum. That was some of the most advanced technology she would find in an average household, and if Jack’s ancestors got this far by just relying on analogue mechanics and plants, she could definitely do even better with some cutting edge tech. She also found a jar of salt that would help as a rudimentary protection against ghosts.

The radio she found was a bit too bulky to carry around, so she hoped that the workshop had one.

Her walk through the outskirts of the ruined townscapes felt eerie, she didn’t quite feel the same gooseflesh inducing sensation as she had closer to the portal, but she felt on edge in a way that felt purely instinctual.

The copper workshop was easy to break into since it decidedly lacked one of its walls. Maddie had hoped to escape the heat some more, but to get to the coppery, she had to get back into the zone of destruction, which meant that the buildings wouldn’t be intact anymore.

Still she was lucky. The workshop was mostly in one piece. Ash still coated everything, but she could still see that only some parts of the main room had really caved in.

So she started to rummage and explore.

Fairly quickly she had gathered a generator and fuel, enough copper and tin to build almost anything, tools to cut and bend, and wires and components from the vacuum. She even did find a radio that was in just as bad a state as the rest of the technology she had found so far, but still, it was a welcome addition to her arsenal.

The best thing was the soldering station though. In less time than she could have hoped for otherwise, she managed to build a construct that, in theory, should act like some kind of vacuum.

She didn’t have a container for the spirit she was hoping to catch, so she would need to watch out to keep the generator up and running.

As long as it did, the suction of the device would keep the ghost from going anywhere. It was a risk though. Even the generator itself was about to just fall apart, and her fuel supply was a joke at best.

She still needed a weapon. That was the conclusion she arrived at when she looked at the somewhat misshapen pile of wires and plates that were soldered together sloppily. To think she was going to bet her life on a device that was maybe as big as a dinner plate, that was untested and unheard of…..

A glance at the sky made her stomach sink. It was hard to tell with the diffused lighting, but slowly and steadily the sun had made its way across the sky. It was August, so days were fairly long, but she maybe had two more hours before dusk. Once it got dark, she’d be even more defenseless. Running would already be difficult enough with all the rubble, but in the dark? When ghosts were the most active too?

Maddie turned around and tried to find something that would work as a weapon.

There were the workbenches and the cupboards and the drawers with tools. She opened them haphazardly but nothing really stood out. She did manage to find a knife, and there was the salt she had pilfered from the house earlier, so she might be able to at least coat the blade and hope the theories were sound.

While she looked for another, better, alternative, her eyes fell on something she had dismissed as another pile of broken equipment.

She drew closer though, on her search, and noticed that the misshapen lump was a tarp over something.

Her hands moved carefully and she held her breath when removing the tarp shook up a cloud of ash and dust.

It took a moment to clear, but when it did, Maddie let out a shuddering exhale. Before her was a half finished telescope. It showed off craftsmanship and passion even in its half finished state. And it would never be finished. It would never be used to look at a night sky.

This was Danny’s.

There was paper under the parts. Plans and schematics, and more than a few drawings of constellations, that Danny would surely have gotten into trouble for, to be writing them on the margins of his work as just an apprentice.

Maddie couldn’t help the anger that flashed unbidden. She would fix this. Danny would get to see the stars through his telescope. She was going to find him and then bring him back somehow. They would find a way, and then Danny would finish his telescope and she would finish the portal and make sure nothing like this future would ever happen. She would eradicate every ghost beyond existence before letting them use her portal as a bomb.

“Focus on the tasks at hand, Maddie,” she told herself. She had her ghost trapping device, and she had a knife that she could coat in salt.

Next would be finding said ghost, and getting answers.

She nodded to herself and began pulling the tarp back over Danny’s unfinished telescope. It felt strangely mournful, but fitting in a way. She just didn’t like this association with her son. He had to be alright.

Maddie couldn’t stay here any longer. Time was of essence.

Quickly she found another tarp, folded up half heartedly on another shelf, and began gathering her makeshift machinery in it. She’d have to sling it over her shoulder so she would have her hands free to carry around the generator. She cursed internally that there was nothing like a battery that would both fuel an invention like that, and survive 100 years in an apocalyptic oven.

It mattered none. She wanted to get out in the open. Ghosts would be at an advantage anyways, whether she was within four walls or an open field, but with their supposed ability to walk through walls, which she herself decidedly lacked, she didn’t want to encounter the energy where she could be cornered.

The ghost had been around the portal and some part of her, the one that would shudder when she thought about going back to the epicenter of it all, knew that they were connected. She would bet that the ghost was the one to blow up her portal in her future.

It still mainly counted as a guess, but it was the only lead she got, so there was that.

She looped the tarp around her torso and made sure it would hold the delicate machine. Her handkerchief was back over her mouth and tied behind her head. The knife was in her belt and just one motion away.

So with a grunt she hefted the generator on her shoulder and began to move back out into the open.

Even just after a few meters, every step was already a struggle, and in no time she felt sweat run down her back.

One foot in front of the other.

Breathe in hot air, exhale hot air.

Find Danny. Save him.

Find Danny. Save Him.

The mission became Maddie’s mantra throughout the trip and no matter how much her legs shook, she didn’t stop until she could make out her portal's shadowy silhouette again.

Heat flared up and gooseflesh rose on her arm. Not yet to the same extent as it had back then, when she saw the ghost. But she knew it must be close. She could even feel its eyes on her. That, or her mind had decided to give in to the heat.

But it proved her right. She hadn’t been certain before, but now she would dare say, the ghost wouldn’t come find her without an added incentive. She had made quite some noise back in the coppery, and had almost expected to be discovered. So if it didn’t seek her out itself, she had to come to him.

The problem just now presented: setting up would take some time.

The closer to the portal she got, the longer she’d had to endure the heat, which already felt more than she could handle for long, and the more likely it would be that the Ghost would actually engage her before she was done.

She put down the generator with a resounding thud. Her legs almost gave out. Maybe she didn’t have that much room for choice anyways, it felt impossible to lift the generator back up again.

At least she was at a relatively flat part of the whole mayhem.

It would have to do.

Maddie began setting up her invention in silence. It was unnerving. The heat and exhaustion were making her hands shake and more than once she almost broke something off.

The sun was now definitely reaching towards the horizon too, so she felt compelled to hurry. To rush.

The threat of being stranded here at night sat in the back of her mind- she felt uncomfortable to even take a moment to double check if everything was connected properly before turning on the generator.

The disc shaped machine sat in place though. No wire disconnected and all parts undamaged from her trip ups during the walk.

There wasn’t a lot of fuel, so she had to make it count. Meaning, she had to get the ghost to come to her, before turning it on. Otherwise it might run for minutes or hours that she couldn’t spare.

She could still feel the ghost. The hair on the back of her neck, that refused to lie flat. It was somewhere around here. And just because she couldn’t see it, didn’t mean that it couldn’t be watching her this very moment.

Her running hypothesis was that the ghost had, for some reason, destroyed her portal to use it as a bomb. So, assuming it didn’t know all that much about tech, she could bluff her way through this.

Her mouth felt dry. Find Danny. Save him. She had to do this. For her son.

She kept her hand over the switch of the generator. For her son.

Deep inhale and hope her voice would hold after a day of impure air. For her son.

Showtime.

“VILE SPECTER! YOU MAY HAVE CLAIMED THE FENTON PORTAL, BUT YOU SHALL NEVER HAVE MINE. I WILL TEAR THROUGH THE VEI-”

Green.

Her vision was filled with the sight of a pair of glowing green eyes inches away from her own. She flipped the switch and for a terrifying moment she couldn’t breathe. She was in a furnace and any inhale would surely burn her lungs. Instincts screamed at her to runrunrun get away!

But her SON. Her SON needed her. She stood her ground even as teeth were bared and a growl made the very air oscillate.

A maw filled with razors opened so close she could feel its hot breath on her throat. Black smoke coiled around her like bindings.

Then the generator hummed and she could only sink to the floor with her entire being shaken, while the ghost thrashed and spat in fury at the sudden interruption of its meal..

The Disk was doing its job. It sucked the ghost towards it, like on a retractable leash. It had a bit of a radius it could struggle against, one that Maddie had to stay conscious of, but it couldn’t get away. It was confined, even if it hadn’t sunk in for the creature yet.

It screeched furiously and Maddie wondered suddenly if it was even capable of human speech. It had to. If it didn’t, her whole plan was about to fall apart.

For now, she could get back into her composed self. She was deeply shaken, the ghost had appeared out of nowhere. From one moment to the other it just had been there. Right in her face. It could have snapped her neck before she would have known what had happened.

Now she would be relatively safe. As long as the generator held.

The Scientist in her made her stop and observe for at least a moment. This still was quite groundbreaking, even under the circumstances, and who knew when the next time would be, that she could look at a ghost from such a short distance.

Now that she looked, she was fairly certain the ghost would be able to understand human speech after all. It only hissed and snarled right now, but it was fairly humanoid. It was built like a lanky teenager. Long limbs ended in clawed and blackened hands. Its body looked like it was covered in a black fabric that stretched over bony ribs and shoulders. The face was distorted in its fury, but while the features were humanoid enough, they were also somewhat otherworldly. Its white hair that was as long as it was tall, hid some of it, but she could still make out the most important bits. The eyes were a shade of green shed never seen before. Glowing and bright. The sclera was black though, which added to the strangeness of the green. Its bone structure looked rather delicate for a being this terrifying. Now that she looked closer, not much muscle could be seen either. Yet she had no doubt it would be able to overpower her with one hand.

Well, she would like some answers before that became the case.

“Stop that.” she ordered with a hoarse voice. The ghost growled in response.

“Let me guess, it’s your first time being caught? Then let me tell you the rules. I ask you questions, you answer them. If you do, you will be let go, and will not learn what sort of inventions I'm keeping in my lab coat.”

It still snarled at her, but it had its eyes locked onto her now. It definitely understood, it just didn’t seem to agree. Maddie fought to suppress a shiver at the intensity of its glare.

“Why did you destroy the Portal.”

More posturing was what she expected, but it actually froze for but a moment. Not for long though. It found renewed energy to throw itself against its incorporeal restraints.

“Hah!” she scoffed, “So I was right! You are the one responsible!” Maddie hissed herself. It didn’t take a verbal reply to get answers. Its behavior was clear enough.

“So you just decided to do all this?” she gestured around the wasteland, acutely noting the rise in temperature. “You somehow blew up the portal, about a century ago, to do what? Was this your goal? To turn a whole city into a hellscape?” Her voice rose and for the first time the creature seemed to not just want to get out of its cage, but away from her specifically.

"Answer me!” She yelled and the ghost all but flinched.

"Why did you do all this?!” Maddie’s fists shook as she held them pressed to her side. She wanted to kick and bite and tear apart. But this thing. She wouldn’t stand a chance. It made her sick.

The ghost didn’t reply.

“No matter." Maddie took a steadying breath. It was getting hard to really think. The air was thick and heavy. The temperatures have been steadily rising and her makeshift mask was soaked and starting to make it even harder to catch her breath.

“What I’m really here for is to find Danny. You have something to do with this, don’t you?!” She snarled not less viciously as the ghost had. “You’re the key to finding him, so I will not let you go, until you tell me where he is!”

“No.” That was the first thing she’d heard from the ghost that wasn’t just a sound. Its tone was disbelieving.

But then it said it again. And again. Anger rising and heat flaring. It’s body turned to smoke at the edges like it was getting singed.

“you know something!” She yelled in the face of that admittance. The ghost lashed its tail like an angered cat.

“Go away!” it screeched.

“Not until i have found Danny.” She screamed back. It was flying in circles, looking for a way out of its enclosure. It was furious, Maddie could tell, but so was she.

“What did you do to him? Whatever it is, he didn’t deserve it. He is kind. He is bright. And he deserved nothing you could do to him.”

It turned to her and bared its fangs once more. “Oh, you didn’t like that, huh? Cant handle the truth that you are none of those things?” Maddie grit out.

“How would you even know?!” The ghost roared in fury and Maddie couldn’t take the heat anymore. She needed more air. She tore off her makeshift mask and gasped.

“How couldn't I know,” she breathed into the unexpected silence " when I’m his mother.”

The air that had been charged with tension until then, suddenly imploded.

“No,” it began to mumble again, “No, this cannot be.”

“I killed you.” it confessed, and Maddie had expected as much. What she wasn’t expecting was the shift in mood. Where before there had been anger, now there was despair. The sky darkened and flakes of ash started to fall like a sick mimicry of snow.

“So you did. And if you have any morsel of humanity left, you will give me back Danny.” Her voice was firm in the face of its dismay.

“I killed you.” It repeated again.

She was about to snap.

“I killed everyone.” it whispered and the expression on its face distorted to one of pure anguish as it clutched its chest.

Wind, something that had been absent since her arrival, picked up and whipped her hair around. Ash stung her eyes and exposed skin and she had to brace against the gusts of hot air.

The ghost started to rock back and forth with wide unseeing eyes.

“I killed them. I killed everyone. I-” Maddie reached for her knife nervously.

Its head snapped up and-

crack.

A noise that was akin to a clap of thunder suddenly originated from the ghost and everything stopped.

The temperature too, cut like hot metal being plunged into water.

But Maddie barely even recognized it, when following the cracking sound, the ghost dropped the rest of the way to the ground like gravity had suddenly been turned back on and a ring of blinding light sprung forth from the center of its- his chest.

It took barely a moment, but something had fractured and the ghost, like a broken illusion, got replaced with a human.

He looked up and Maddie dropped her knife. Framed by black hair that pooled on the ground, her son's face, his eyes stared at her with an expression of utter grief and despair.

“I know that Danny isn’t any of those things, because I am Danny.” There was none of the echo anymore.

But this- surely this was a lie-

“But I killed them. I killed everyone I ever cared about. Everyone is dead. They are all dead. It’s all my fault, If i hadn’t- I had to bury you. I killed you. I killed my own mother, my own family. I’m a monster. I-” in agony he doubled over and Maddie scrambled up to rush to her son. This was wrong. This had to be a mistake. She had to find Danny. (He’s here.) She had to save him! (he was already gone.)

Her hands hovered over his thin shoulders.

“Danny-” The boy in front of her, didn’t even hear her. He curled up, and a scream built. The sheer desolation was palpable. Then the scream grew in intensity, it got hard to breathe again, she clasped her hands over her ears but it pierced right through, until it became a wail and Maddie knew nothing but her son's agony as if it was her own.

The image of him kneeling on the ground next to her, his forehead pressed into the ash would probably be the last thing she would see. It made her heart break almost as audibly as whatever had broken in her son.

She knew whatever was happening would mean an End, and after a century, maybe that was what he needed. She embraced him then, even as her eardrums ruptured and her lungs burst. Maddie had found him. If only she could have saved him too.

At least she would hold him, until this ashen world of gray, finally turned to black.

“Time out.”

#phic phight 2024 #phan phic #phic phight #phic phight 24 #fanfic #ao3 #dp #danny phantom #phandom #mywriting #originalwork #mydannyphantom

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