#Anyone and Everyone Danny fights even somewhat seriously is straight up not having a good time

[arbiterlexultionis]

The whole shebang is absolutely wonderful I’ve got my one(1) brain cell firing on all cylinders, but for no I’m just gonna put my thoughts about Danny’s fighting ability and vigilante skills. A lot of the stuff I’ve seen so far has had Danny technically being the one who’s been a vigilante longer and having some skills but no where near Bruce’s level because of how long Bruce spent training. This does kinda make sense, and offers a whole bunch of opportunities around Danny learning from and training under Bruce for ✨Familial Bonding✨ but I personally am super fond of making Danny surprisingly competent for someone who was thrown into the life of a kid hero with no mentor.

Bruce has a fancy shmancy college edumancation that gives him a massive edge with a lot of the more technical and investigative areas of vigilantism, and that should show and at the same time give plenty of chances for Danny to sit criss cross applesauce on the floor with stars in his eyes while Bruce picks apart a case, thinking of how amazing it would have been to have that kind of skill when dealing with all the possession/impersonation/evil fruitloop schemes etc etc.

But Danny does have his specialties. Firstly, he grew up in the house of mad scientist. I’ve already made a post about Danny being One Smart Cookie, and while I don’t think I would apply it to this to as extreme as an extent as I did in that post Danny being really good with tech could be nice, and you could also make it funny. The only people Maddie and Jack ever really talked science with were each other, they probably needed a lot of weird purpose built equipment, parts and tools because of them building Ghost Stuff and Jack was kinda scatterbrained at times. All this came together to give the Fenton parents no reason to talk in a way that could be even somewhat coherent to normal people, and as such they did not. This, in combination with Danny just being born into mad science and thinking ray guns, dimensional portals, force fields and who knows what else are just normal science fair projects leads to Danny pretty much never learning any of the proper terms for anything or the official way of doing things, instead learning Fentonese. He is fully capable of tearing the Batmobile apart and putting it back together better than he found it, can make a death ray out of a toaster and building force field generators out of washing machines but has no knowledge about how normal people do science. The first time he sat down with Bruce to make gadgets he, after spending days on end convincing him that he Knows What He’s Doing and Is Technologically Talented, looked his new kinda dad-ish dead in the eye and went “the fucks a capacitor? That’s not a capackitom, that’s a [insert name of ultra obscure type of cheese that Bruce instantly recognizes because he a weird rich dude].” Danny gets kicked out of the workshop, sneaks back in and builds a jet pack. Which he then drops at Bruce’s feet before looking up at him with puppy dog eyes like a cat that just “gifted” their human a dead bird. This could also go into Danny learning to speak Batman, as he’s already fluent in one flavor of weirdo language. Bruce reciprocates and learns to speak Danny. To outsiders it looks completely unhinged and makes zero sense, but to them it’s perfectly understandable. This could also go with how the other bat kids learn “hrn” speak to lesser extent than Danny, they also learn Danny Speak to a lesser extent than Bruce. “How was your day?” Danny, face scrunching up: “Wisconsin” *hisses like a ghost cat*

Danny other specialty is combat, plain and simple. Some say that experience is the best teacher you can have and if there’s one thing chronically ill, sickly Danny has an utterly horrifying and heartbreaking amount of, its combat experience. Depending on how long he was doing the whole Phantom thing for before everything went to crap, he could have been fighting for his life for years. And if we’re going Immortal 14 Year Old, when it’s Win or Die the one and only option is to win, no matter how many times you have to get torn limb from limb to do so. While pretty much the entire league fights a lot of people, the overwhelming majority of their opponents are just normal people. On the other hand, the only “normal” people Danny ever fought were the GIW, who in the DC verse would probably be kinda dumb and held back by their own prejudice but actually trained and dangerous-ish or at the very least have frigen’ jetpacks, sci-fi weapons, tanks and jets like they did in the show, the Red Huntress, who is the goddamn Red Huntress, and his parents, a mom who is a master combatant that if translated into the DC verse could believably wind up as roughly equal to a member of the batfam super early in their career/while still a young kid and a father with ridiculous strength and arguably CQC skills that while not cape and cowl level could pose a serious threat in when combined with his strength and size kinda like an Off-brand Bane with laser guns who’s ranged fighting style of choice can be described as “Accuracy by Volume of fire”.

Other then them all his opponents were full on superhuman’s/giant animal monsters with at least 3 powers each, decades if not century’s to hone their skills, occasionally high tech weaponry and/or obscure abilities that range from “scary if you stop and think about it”(pretty sure the box ghost has shown the ability to control stuff that he finds in box’s. Everything Comes In Boxes. Including grenades. He also got his hands on Pandora’s Box and used it to wreak havoc.) all the way to “damn near unbeatable.”

Depending on how long he was acting as the protector of Amity, he could have very easily had literally everything and the kitchen sink thrown at him dozens of times over and came out on top again and again. I like the idea of him not having any prior training from his mom, being thrust into the life of a vigilante with nothing but talent, wits and the will to never give up no matter the odds. But by the time he meets Batman, covered in blood looking like death warmed over, he has had more skill and experience than any one deserves to have no choice but to gain forced upon him. Powers or no, he is a force of nature on the battlefield. Sneak attacks are blocked and dodged before he even realizes he’s moving because of all the times he wasn’t able to block or dodge Skulker phasing out of the ground beneath his feet to sink a blade into his ribcage. He can drag Robin to the ground and barely a second later bullets scream through where they had both been standing because of all the times he didn’t realize he was in his own mothers sights before he felt the white hot burn of plasma and spent the next hours sobbing in his closet as quietly as he could while trying to get the bleeding to stop. Lessons that no one should ever have to learn were carved, burned and beaten into his flesh far to many times for him to ever let even a single member of his new family learn them while he still lives(and he will always live, always always always. He has no choice.) All the experience he has with dealing with completely new abilities, both his own and his enemies, on the fly makes him a bizarrely good strategist despite his age and demeanor. He picks apart powers, fighting styles and technology without even realizing he’s doing it, pulling countermeasure and plans out of nowhere like it’s nothing. Once Bruce figures out he has this skill, he nurtures it and helps Danny figure out what and how he does it other than it just being a base instinct by the time they met.

I am loudly pushing the batdad agenda i am loudly pushing the— DPxDC Prompt

“Woah. You look like shit."

Granted, that’s probably not the first thing Danny should be saying to the guy that just bit the curb, but in his defense; he’s not running on 100% right now either.

The man -- tall, towering, and broader than Danny is tall -- whips around on his heel, black frayed cape flaring out impressively. Danny would've whistled in appreciation, but he takes the time instead to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing the blood running from his nose across his cheek.

"Sorry." He blinks widely, not even flinching as the man with the horns zeroes in on him. "That was rude of me. I have a really bad brain-to-mouth filter; Sam says its what always gets me into trouble."

And she's not wrong either, per say. His smart mouth is what landed him in this situation -- with blood blossom extract running through his veins and cannibalizing the ectoplasm in his bloodstream. Thanks Vlad.

The man grunts at him; a short, curt "hm" that shouldn't make Danny smile, but he does because he's somewhat delirious and probably concussed. The man keeps some kind of distance, sinking towards the shadows of Gotham's alleyway like he dares to melt right into it.

If it's supposed to scare Danny, it doesn't work. Danny's never been afraid of the dark; he's always been able to hide himself in it. He blinks slowly at the mass of shadows.

"You look hurt." The shadows says, blurring together around the edges. Danny squints, and licks his lips to get the blood dripping down his chin off. Ugh, he hates the taste of blood.

"I am." He says, "My godfather poisoned me. M'dying." The agony of the blood blossom eating him from the inside out looped back around to numbing a while ago, so all he feels is half-awake and dazed.

"Hey," Danny stumbles forward towards the man, a bloodied hand reaching out to him. "You-- you're a hero, right? You're not attacking me; which is more than I can say for most costumed people I've met." Maybe it's a poor bar to judge someone at, but he's already established that Danny's not in his right mind.

The man makes no change in expression, but Danny realizes blearily that it's hard to tell with the shadows on his face. He stays still long enough for Danny to latch onto the cape -- stretchy, but almost soft under his fingers.

He looks up blearily into the whites of the man's eyes. "Can you help me? I don't-- I don't wanna die." Again. He doesn't wanna die again. He blinks slow and lizard-like. "I mean- I'll probably get to see mom and dad again, but I told them I'd at least try and make it to adulthood."

There's a clatter down the street, and Danny's ghost sense chills up his spine and leaves a bitter, ashy taste in his mouth. He immediately knows who it belongs to even before the deceptively gentle; "Daniel?" echoes down the way.

"Daniel? Quit your games, badger, Gotham is dangerous for children."

Danny's mouth pulls back, and blood spills against his tongue. "Please." He rasps, and grabs onto the shadow's cape with both hands. "Please. He's going to kill me. Please--"

"Daniel? Is that you?"

His lips part, dragging in air to plead with the darkness again. He doesn't need to, the whites of his eyes narrow, and the cape whirls around him before Danny can blink. Soon swaddled in shadows, the Night lifts him up, and steals him away.

[og-danny-dorito]

Hellboy Headcanons

it's MY blog and I get to choose the hyperfixation (also it’s yearning hours)

S F W :

- big man big man big man big man big man b

- i love big man v much, and let me tell u smthn it's not for no reason

- so, let's just get a few things straight, the dude is canonically 7 feet tall, meaning that he towers over pretty much anyone. on top of that's he's got horns, a tail, a big ass rock hand thing, and on top of it all a fiery temper. at this you may be asking yourself “danny, if the man hasn't like no redeemable qualities why do you like him so much?” unless you're here because you ALSO like him and know he has a lot of them. let me explain

- so let me start off with some simple facts; he LOVES cats. he loves cats so much so that he actually has a fuckton of them, as seen in the first and second movies (not the one directed by david harbor because i'm not even going to look in that general direction)

- in fact, he loves cats so much that he probably wants to go to a cat café. the issue is that his hulking figure would probably scare away any other patrons at the cafés, so sadly he can't go. as an alternative he just has a whole lot of cats. a lot of the time he'll find himself taking pity on the cats on the street and thus leaving out cans of tuna or cat food in places he might frequent

- he also has a pajama set with cats printed on them but NEVER tell him that it's cute or he may not make eye contact with you for a week

- ah, on that subject matter, he actually gets flustered pretty easily. the only issue is that it's not easy to tell when he does, and when he allows himself to feel like that. it's usually when he's sitting in his room and not really thinking about much of anything (aka: relaxed)

- you can tell by how his face somehow turns a slightly darker shade of red, and the frown and gruff grunt he gives as a response imply an almost evasive nature. he doesn't get how you can say something so innocent about him of all people, but regardless it makes him feel a little bit a somethin

- i know he LOOKS like he will crush your skull, but he's a huge softie. yeah, he comes back to the BPRD base looking like he just fought god bare handed and butt ass naked, but that doesn't mean he's a huge meanie. in FACT, if he really does like you that much he's probably going to treat you like the exact opposite of his stereotype

- he tends to be attracted to anyone who can make him laugh, which is pretty easy considering his biggest weakness is puns. yes, you read that correctly, puns

- catch this dude loosing his shit because you walked in to his room, saw his cats piled up on his torso to absorb his body heat, and said “Wow, looks like you've got a MEOWntain on you, Red.” seriously he won't be able to breathe for a good few seconds

- his laugh is pretty hearty and rumbles in his chest like a washing machine on spin cycle, ending with a dry heave. if you've cracked him up that much he will snort. tiny little piggy snort. and then deny it directly afterwards like a big baby

- he himself is a pretty funny dude, the only issue is that he's selectively funny. usually when he's relaxed and just chillin out he finds himself cracking more jokes than he normally would. making someone he likes laugh motivates him to make more jokes, especially if their laughter is contagious. seriously, he's weak against funny laughs he can't MAKE himself NOT laugh if you sound like a dying horse when you laugh

- he's also pretty affected by other people’s moods even though like 90% of the time he feels shitty. if you're in a good mood then he can't help but feel a little bit better. the positiivty is contagious and not even hellboy can resist it

- thus why he can't for the life of him resist any ounce of cuteness or innocence or impenetrable positivity. like, he just can't help but feel the immediate need to protect

- yeah he likes goth chicks (have you SEEN liz) but have you ever walked around with a literal ray of sunshine glued to your hip? cause big man can't handle the amount of joy it brings him to have someone so happy all the time next to him. it just,,, makes him weak

- that and he's a huge dummy for anyone who's smaller than average but also tends to be fiery and hotheaded like him

- like he doesn't even have a “type” appearance wise but catch him falling head over heels for a positive, firey, and outright goofy person to match his dry and dull attitude towards most things

- he tries to act like he's above it, but the man likes cute stuff. even when he gets caught red-handed petting a litter of kittens he'll just be like “what? never seen a demon before?” and continue with his activities

- if you do end up being his s/o you may very well be the person who has to take care of his wounds because he barely trusts anyone in the med bay to take care of him without trying to experiment or take weird samples without his knowing. that said, he really hates going to the doctor

- you'd be susprized how uncomfortable it makes him, really. so you're probably the one to actually make sure he doesn't fucking die

- it's rare he'll come from work unscathed. in fact, a good portion of the time there's a new scar to add to the count. when asked he'll play it off with some dry humor, barely addressing the fact that his muscles ache like hell and his joints are killing him. you'll have to pressure him into letting you take care of him, which results in a pout and grumbles of protest as he removes his shirt. if he has any injuries near his thighs he'll probably be really hesitant to let you take care of them until you've been with each other for like a month or so

- that and he lowkey would die of embarrassment if you were trying to tend to his thigh wounds and just saw how HUNG he is but i'm gonna save that content for possible NSFW headcanons in the future

- mans super gentle with his s/o, like SUPER gentle. he doesn't want to hurt them, honestly, and just leaving a small bruise from getting frisky or play fighting makes him feel like a fucking monster. in fact, it makes his self-esteem issues worse. he might not touch you for a while if you happen to get a particularly bad injury, on or off the field (implying that you work at the BPRD- if you don't he still feels like shit)

- which means that he probably would like some validation if he does start to feel like complete shit. his skin is thick from his experience over the years, but shit still happens and it always will. he's reminded every day that he doesn't deserve you just by seeing your visual differences. he knows he's a danger to you and the people around him, and it makes him want to avoid everyone. but some gentle words of affirmation and kisses all over make him feel 10x better. it isn't hard to get him out of a funk if he knows you love him too much to find disgust in him

- he doesn't seem very affectionate, but once he knows it's okay to touch up on his s/o like it's no tomorrow he will most definitely release all his touch-starved cravings and be attatched to you all the fucking time

- he's pretty much always holding your hand (although his hands are pretty big so he might just resort to having your and in his without linking fingers) or got his arm around you or, his favorite, having you sit in his lap. he tends to be pretty up close and personal with you if you're all about it

- the only real problems i can see with this are personal distaste or maybe the fact that he's a walking space heater. seriously, hellboy is quite literally hot as hell regardless of the environment, and turns his heater up crazy high. he thrives best in the heat and remains pretty much unaffected by all temperatures. he hates the cold because it makes the tips of his tail and ears cold, but that's pretty much all it does

- you could be in a freezer and the most discomfort he'll feel is that his ears are like a little 👌🏼 bit cold

- so yes, space heater, and it's great if you live in heat like he does. sleeping with him means you'll never get cold again, and since he takes up a lot of space in his bed it's very likely that you'll be sleeping on top of him or at least somewhat touching him. so win win for him, obviously

- he also likes to crank the heater up because it causes you to shed more clothes, probably leaving you in a tank top and shorts while a sheen of sweat forms on your skin and your hair sticks to your face. and if that ain't hot, he doesn't know what is (pun intended). he'll put it down if you ask him to though, begrudgingly. he just likes seeing you breathless is all- ow, don't punch his arm like that

- god forbid anyone look at you like that though. you're wearing something mildly revealing? hell no. there are some bad people out there with even worse intentions and he is not letting some asshole look at you like you're a piece of meat at a butcher's shop

- so obviously he's a bit jealous. well, he's actually a lot jealous, but he won't admit it. just like he won't admit that he was about to kill the guy that catcalled you while you were walking down the street. or that he glared down at the person chatting casually to you about your dress. or that he- you get the picture. he's very protective of you and wants everyone else to know, although it may be because of an inherent self-doubt that says you might leave him

- maybe one day you'll see that you've been dating a demon all this time and be horrified and scared of him, leaving him in the dust for good. it's probably best for you, he thinks, but you'd never do that...right?

- regardless, he's protective of you and thus gets jealous easily. one way to tell is that he tends to become somehow even more attached to you with the person in question nearby. if it gets bad enough he'll just scoop you up and leave, no questions asked. maybe for the sake of your pride and protecting your embarrassment he'll make up some excuse, but as soon as you can tell that he's following you around like a lost puppy it's clear to see that something is up

- if he's getting particularly annoyed though or just wants to tease you, he'll slide his tail up your leg and watch you squeak and jump until pretending he did nothing wrong. the only real way to one-up this is to pinch the head of his tail softly and watch him tense up and give you a look of betrayal because he's crazy sensitive there and gets super unscrewed if you mess with him like that

- of course, looking at him innocently and letting him go once he finally retaliates is always entertaining enough to do again. it may even become a competition between you two to see who looses it and gives out the quickest (spoiler: you're probably going to loose if your relationship is sexual- dude knows his way around the human body and WILL use it against you)

- but it's kind of cute how much he craves your attention, considering it seems he'll do anything to get you to stay by him most of the time. he hates being apart from you and hates knowing you could get hurt at the same time, so it's very likely that you'll have protection wherever you go (if you're in his line of work though he may consider making you his partner, but when he brings this up to Abe the fish man automatically is baffled that a person could bring this kind of reaction out of his stoic and dry-humored friend)

- now for my FAVORITE part; Miscellaneous Headcanons :

   he finds it hot as fuck when you wield weapons of any kind. like yeah you might be his soft precious angel and no one is allowed to touch you but him, but seeing you with a weapon of any sort makes him think about things he's guilty to even know to have though

  oh i forgot to add that he's probably pansexual but is more attracted to feminine body types. doesn't mean he won't fuck someone with a dick, but it does mean that he's a big dom and he likes tiny feminine figures so he's more well-rounded and comfortable with women

   calls you pet names all the time, including Doll, Kitten, Darlin, Sweet-cheeks, and maybe a shorter version of your name or a play at one of your defining traits (for instance, if your hair is red he might call you Little Red as a joke cause he's Big Red ahaha size joke funnyyyy). calling him a nickname in turn that isn't one of the usual like Sweetheart or Honey Bunches gets him blushing like he's got a fever. don't mention that to him though, or he'll get even more flustered (or do, your choice)

   tends to be super flirty with you for shits and giggles, but gets a little riled up if you hit him with an equally witty and flirtatious remark. a little bite never hurt anyone, and he enjoys it more than most

   he really likes spicy stuff, and is currently the champion of "The BPRD Fire-Eating Contest" which didn't involve actual fire from hell (opposed to popular belief) but rather various spicy foods from all over the place and even some from different realms. he won when he ate a concoction Abe made that involved multiple peppers that probably would kill a normal human if eaten all at once but just made Hellboy tear up a little bit and have a runny nose. anything else doesn't affect him at all, and thus why he puts insane amounts of hot sauce in food just to get a tiny sting from it

   his love language is physical contact

- and that's all! hellboy is an affectionate dude with a slew of insecurities. under those scars and rough exterior he can't help but feel his whole day brightened when he sees his s/o and/or best bud, regardless of his mood that day. as a goofball at heart and dad of a thousand cats, the guy is really just misunderstood. take a few minutes out of your day to get to know him over a beer or two and maybe you'll even get a new friend till the end of the line. once he likes you though, there's no way you're getting rid of this big teddy bear

[theomnilegent]

2019 Upcoming LGBTQA Fiction I’m Excited For!

A new year, a new top nine for women-lead LGBT fiction I’m looking forward to reading! There are, of course, a great many more books than the nine I’ve chosen this time ‘round - I think I will eventually make a part two to this post. I am so, so happy to see that this year we have even more diversity, even more stories about characters from all walks of life, from different parts of the LGBTQA umbrella, and even more LGBT novels. I remember a time where it’d be hard to find more than two YA novels with LGBT themes published in a single year - and now we have so many amazing works coming out!

The themes for 2019 seem to be gay witches, space gays, and explorations of mental illness in the LGBT community. I am so excited to read stories about girls and magic! I am more excited to read stories about girls and love! And I am definitely excited to see multiple books seriously addressing the issues of mental illness in young lesbian and bisexual women - it is a serious topic that has often been glossed over in the past, and to see multiple works that want to tackle these issues, and the issues of toxic relationships, in a healthy way is refreshing. 

Below you’ll find titles, summaries, and goodreads links.

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki Laura Dean, the most popular girl in high school, was Frederica Riley's dream girl: charming, confident, and SO cute. There's just one problem: Laura Dean is maybe not the greatest girlfriend. Reeling from her latest break up, Freddy's best friend, Doodle, introduces her to the Seek-Her, a mysterious medium, who leaves Freddy some cryptic parting words: break up with her. But Laura Dean keeps coming back, and as their relationship spirals further out of her control, Freddy has to wonder if it's really Laura Dean that's the problem. Maybe it's Freddy, who is rapidly losing her friends, including Doodle, who needs her now more than ever. Fortunately for Freddy, there are new friends, and the insight of advice columnists like Anna Vice to help her through being a teenager in love.

Starworld by Audrey Coulthurst & Paula Garner Sam Jones and Zoe Miller have one thing in common: they both want an escape from reality. Loner Sam flies under the radar at school and walks on eggshells at home to manage her mom’s obsessive-compulsive disorder, wondering how she can ever leave to pursue her dream of studying aerospace engineering. Popular, people-pleasing Zoe puts up walls so no one can see her true self: the girl who was abandoned as an infant, whose adoptive mother has cancer, and whose disabled brother is being sent away to live in a facility. When an unexpected encounter results in the girls’ exchanging phone numbers, they forge a connection through text messages that expands into a private universe they call Starworld. In Starworld, they find hilarious adventures, kindness and understanding, and the magic of being seen for who they really are. But when Sam’s feelings for Zoe turn into something more, will the universe they’ve built survive the inevitable explosion?

The Lost Coast by Amy Rose Capetta Danny didn't know what she was looking for when she and her mother spread out a map of the United States and Danny put her finger down on Tempest, California. What she finds are the Grays: a group of friends who throw around terms like queer and witch like they're ordinary and everyday, though they feel like an earthquake to Danny. But Danny didn't just find the Grays. They cast a spell that calls her halfway across the country, because she has something they need: she can bring back Imogen, the most powerful of the Grays, missing since the summer night she wandered into the woods alone. But before Danny can find Imogen, she finds a dead boy with a redwood branch through his heart. Something is very wrong amid the trees and fog of the Lost Coast, and whatever it is, it can kill. Lush, eerie, and imaginative, Amy Rose Capetta's tale overflows with the perils and power of discovery — and what it means to find your home, yourself, and your way forward.

Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi Sana Khan is a cheerleader and a straight A student. She's the classic (somewhat obnoxious) overachiever determined to win. Rachel Recht is a wannabe director who's obsesssed with movies and ready to make her own masterpiece. As she's casting her senior film project, she knows she's found the perfect lead - Sana. There's only one problem. Rachel hates Sana. Rachel was the first girl Sana ever asked out, but Rachel thought it was a cruel prank and has detested Sana ever since. Told in alternative viewpoints and inspired by classic romantic comedies, this engaging and edgy YA novel follows two strongwilled young women falling for each other despite themselves.

The Meaning of Birds by Jaye Robin Brown Before, Jessica has always struggled with anger issues, but come sophomore year that all changes when Vivi crashes into her life. As their relationship blossoms, Vivi not only helps Jess deal with her pain, she also encourages her to embrace her talent as an artist. And for the first time, it feels like the future is filled with possibilities. After In the midst of senior year, Jess’s perfect world is erased when Vivi suddenly passes away. Reeling from the devastating loss, Jess pushes everyone away, and throws out her plans to go to art school. Because art is Vivi and Vivi is gone forever. Desperate for an escape, Jess gets consumed in her work-study program, letting all of her dreams die. Until she makes an unexpected new friend who shows her a new way to channel her anger, passion, and creativity. Although Jess may never draw again, if she can find a way to heal and room in her heart, she just might be able to forge a new path for herself without Vivi.

The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum Ryann Bird dreams of traveling across the stars. But a career in space isn’t an option for a girl who lives in a trailer park on the wrong side of town. So Ryann becomes her circumstances and settles for acting out and skipping school to hang out with her delinquent friends. One day she meets Alexandria: a furious loner who spurns Ryann’s offer of friendship. After a horrific accident leaves Alexandria with a broken arm, the two misfits are brought together despite themselves—and Ryann learns her secret: Alexandria’s mother is an astronaut who volunteered for a one-way trip to the edge of the solar system. Every night without fail, Alexandria waits to catch radio signals from her mother. And its up to Ryann to lift her onto the roof day after day until the silence between them grows into friendship, and eventually something more...   

How It Feels To Float by Helena Fox Biz knows how to float. She has her people, her posse, her mom and the twins. She has Grace. And she has her dad, who tells her about the little kid she was, who loves her so hard, and who shouldn't be here but is. So Biz doesn't tell anyone anything. Not about her dark, runaway thoughts, not about kissing Grace or noticing Jasper, the new boy. And she doesn't tell anyone about her dad. Because her dad died when she was six. And Biz knows how to float, right there on the surface--normal okay regular fine. But after what happens on the beach--first in the ocean, and then in the sand--the tethers that hold Biz steady come undone. Dad disappears, and with him, all comfort. It might be easier, better, sweeter to float all the way away? Or maybe stay a little longer, find her father, bring him back to her. Or maybe--maybe maybe maybe--there's a third way Biz just can't see yet.

Going Off Script by Jen Wilde Seventeen-year-old Bex is thrilled when she gets an internship on her favorite tv show, Silver Falls. Unfortunately, the internship isn't quite what she expected... instead of sitting in a crowded writer's room volleying ideas back and forth, Production Interns are stuck picking up the coffee. Determined to prove her worth as a writer, Bex drafts her own script and shares it with the head writer―who promptly reworks it and passes it off as his own! Bex is understandably furious, yet...maybe this is just how the industry works? But when they rewrite her proudly lesbian character as straight, that's the last straw! It's time for Bex and her crush to fight back.

These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling Hannah's a witch, but not the kind you're thinking of. She's the real deal, an Elemental with the power to control fire, earth, water, and air. But even though she lives in Salem, Massachusetts, her magic is a secret she has to keep to herself. If she's ever caught using it in front of a Reg (read: non-witch), she could lose it. For good. So, Hannah spends most of her time avoiding her ex-girlfriend (and fellow Elemental Witch) Veronica, hanging out with her best friend, and working at the Fly by Night Cauldron selling candles and crystals to tourists, goths, and local Wiccans. But dealing with her ex is the least of Hannah's concerns when a terrifying blood ritual interrupts the end-of-school-year bonfire. Evidence of dark magic begins to appear all over Salem, and Hannah's sure it's the work of a deadly Blood Witch. The issue is, her coven is less than convinced, forcing Hannah to team up with the last person she wants to see: Veronica. While the pair attempt to smoke out the Blood Witch at a house party, Hannah meets Morgan, a cute new ballerina in town. But trying to date amid a supernatural crisis is easier said than done, and Hannah will have to test the limits of her power if she's going to save her coven and get the girl, especially when the attacks on Salem's witches become deadlier by the day.

[davidmann95]

why os batman great?

I tend to focus on the guy in the red cape at the expense of my second-favorite character, but let’s make something very, very clear: in terms of the sheer scale on which he and his iconography have imprinted onto the popular consciousness, the ratio of output to quality across all mediums for a character that’s experienced the kind of proliferation he has, and his ability to not only endure but remain at the forefront of the genre he practically co-founded across decades, Batman is easily the greatest superhero of all time.

Explaining why that’s the case is tricky to truly, substantively get right, because there’s a difference between what makes him great as a character, and what’s made him the most popular character in the world. Not to remotely denigrate the attention span/intellect of the average moviegoer or suggest they don't 'get it', but I have to imagine most people don’t love Batman because they've extensively thought about his complex motives and the fascinating symbolism that rules his world, but because he drives the world’s dopest car over to his job of suplexing crime into the pavement, which is valid because that rules. So we’ll start at the immediate mass-appeal stuff and work our way down, and the big one is something we’ve already touched on:

Batman’s cool as hell

There are certainly contrarian souls who would argue that Batman is not, in fact, relentlessly awesome. Think about him for a couple seconds, they might note, and he’s a silly manchild living in his parents’ underground basement who can only emotionally engage as an equal with literal children; they might drive the point home that his particular brand of macho hyper-capitalist performative Hard Man edginess is both shallow and ultimately passe. And if you’re engaging in a character-centered examination of his archetype as in The Lego Batman Movie or Morrison’s work with the character, those are fine points. But in terms of whether or not he’s surface-level cool? Pull your head out of your ass, peel open your eyes, and engage with the larger culture for a second: Batman is as close to objectively rad as it is possible for a concept to be.

Batman wears black body armor and drives awesome cars and sounds like Kevin Conroy. Batman lives in a mansion that also has a cave in it, and wears the slickest suits when he’s not being Batman, because Batman can buy anything. Batman is ripped and sexy.* Batman knows every martial art and parkour and can blend into the shadows, and he has a belt of James Bond gadgets. Batman is a genius who’s always ten steps ahead and can escape any trap. Batman has a pitch-black sense of humor. Batman is vicious even as he’s utterly cool in the face of danger. Batman fights horror movie villains of the supernatural, monstrous, fetishistically disturbing, and plain ‘ol slasher varieties, and wins (when he’s not busy dancing across the rooftops in pursuit of a leather-clad Anne Hathaway/Michelle Pfeiffer/Julie Newmar). Batman’s climbed his way back from chemically-induced psychosis, a shattered spine, and the gates of death, all by wit and sheer brutal force of will. Batman has a city that’s New York and Chicago and Vegas and Hell rolled into one, and when he’s needed it literally blasts his logo onto the sky in public acknowledgement of his supreme coolness, but he also travels the world to other cool-looking exotic locales so he can be cool there too. Batman has theme songs by Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer. And crucially, in spite of all of this, Batman is tormented. You can argue the validity of those conventions on an intellectual level, but what it amounts to is that Batman is a kickass figure of the night who’s the best at everything and has the best of everything, snarling all the while even as he keeps an air of amused detachment about the whole affair, and those are archetypes that humanity’s long since given the thumbs up as constituting capital-c Cool. We like people who can kick ass, the outlaws, the capable and the mysterious, so long as they’re in good stories that let us buy it. And more than anyone in pop culture aside from maybe Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine - and that dude’s done, while the Dark Knight forever remains - he’s That, the superhero.

* Yes, his depiction is more typically centered around a straight dude perspective of male physical perfection than anything actually particularly sensual or alluring, but the intent’s clearly there, and when you’ve been played by Clooney and Affleck I figure you get to claim ‘sexy’ as a fair semi-universal descriptor.

Batman is spooky

Of course, if cool was all there was to Batman’s general persona, he wouldn’t be cool at all, he’d be Poochie in a Dracula cape (which given it will presumably last until the heat death of the universe is a premise The Simpsons will inevitably have to get around to at some point, so remember you saw it here first). But what backs it up and lets people take it seriously is that he’s spooky. Not necessarily frightening - though he can most definitely be that too - but there’s an ethereal, shadowy aspect to his world that goes beyond the fright mask. It can take many forms for many situations and versions of him and his setting: lurking on a gargoyle over an alleyway, waiting for some poor unsuspecting punk to try and stick up an innocent family only to drag him ten stories up and leave him sobbing for his mother; karate-chopping his way through deathtraps and colorful henchmen, which for all its unabashed fun still carries the air of Halloween pageantry and neuroses let loose; haunting the grimiest parts of an urban hellhole, waiting to burst through the window of a roach-infested apartment or a musty disused warehouse to break bones and spill blood; appearing from nowhere, grappling with mind-bending chemical trips and fighting to stay one step ahead of killers in the shadows, dueling mad rich perverted cultists and literal demons of the underworld, overlooking a shadow city forever in flux to reflect the horrors of the moment. Even at his most innocent, there’s something irreducibly seedy and violent and enigmatic about Batman, and that not only provides immediate distinction and character to him and his surroundings - one that distinguishes both from their contemporaries - but legitimizes the entire enterprise as something that can be taken seriously.

Batman is playful

At the same time, Batman’s fun - even at his most serious he uses Batman-shaped boomerangs, and drives a cool car even though gliding and swinging lets him better avoid traffic. He needs to be fun for the kind of ubiquitous pop appeal he has, and it’s built in on every level of the brand no matter how far away you try and veer from it, letting a character rooted in loss and declarations of bloody revenge work just as well for four-year-olds as forty-somethings. The cave, the costumes, the sidekicks and signal and colorful rogues and utility belt and trophies, they give his world a size and dimension that lets him dip his toe in nearly any genre, with his inherent seriousness backing him up to let you buy him in any of those narrative territories. At the end of the day, the people shaping Batman at least subconsciously know it’s all a game, and in letting him have that kind of fun he’s granted versatility and the ability to invigorate as well as stun audiences.

Batman is emotionally, symbolically raw

And sitting at the heart of it all, giving him the gas in the engine that propels all of the above forward, is that he comes from the most viscerally, broadly relatable place of any superhero. The only one who approaches him is Spider-Man, and even there the meaning of his tragedy is somewhat displaced - there’s loss and guilt, yes, but that’s merely the catalyst for a message of responsibility. Here, that Bruce Wayne loses a concept everyone is on some level familiar with, of the happiness and comfort and stability that family is supposed to provide, is itself the point. He grabs the emotional lever right at the animal hindbrain and pulls until it snaps off: everything has gone wrong, and someone must pay for making things this way. Then for good measure he actually does make them pay while adhering to a righteous moral code that defies all he fights against, elevating himself from spooky fun action hero into myth. He’s surrounded by a city where abstract horrors consolidate down into entirely literal figures - for instance, in Gotham the fear that we can be outfoxed, overwhelmed, and systematically taken apart in service of evil stroking its own ego because we just aren’t good enough to survive is a dick in a neon green hat who likes crossword puzzles (as opposed to Superman’s world of much more personal and basic human concerns blown up to cosmic scale) - and he in turn becomes a myth of us persevering through the worst to fight back.

Batman is genuinely a good character

I place this last because this is really the nuts-and-bolts level. It’s essential, none of the above would work for 79 years and counting without it, but it’s not something many but the hardcore (which includes the comic readers by default at this point) consciously think about. But on the ground floor beneath everything else, Batman’s not just an effective piece of branding, atmosphere, and emotional manipulation, but a good character. In his motivations, with the anger that compels him often making many miss that underneath, he far more powerfully wants to ensure that no one else goes through what he did. The childishness of his methods and mindset regarding ‘the mission’ meeting the maturity of his dedication and brilliance, and the humor that can come from that disconnect (especially when his alternating disgust and amusement with his daytime masquerade as a normal person gets involved). The tentative, essential friendships he’s built with the likes of Gordon and Superman. The fatherly connection with Alfred, and the see-saw of the latter’s feelings of guilt, responsibility, and pride in his charge. The spark of his rivalries at their best. The detective work that can be as thrilling as a good punch-out when pulled off right. The forever changing complexity of the Family, a web of Robins and Batgirls and assorted hangers-on with him at the center, their existence and growth a chart of his own emotional progress and regression. His jet-black wit and self-awareness, his ability to empathize with fellow victims, his difficulties in trusting and openly loving those around him when his world is built on the knowledge of how easily those can be stripped away and how badly it hurts. The paranoia, the compassion, the drive and endurance. Beneath all the trappings, Bruce Wayne is just plain and simple a really, really good, interesting, multi-faceted character, fine-tuned under decades of creators and by his existence facilitating the creation and development of countless *other* good characters. And that’s really all it takes underneath it all to prop up a symbol that’s built empires, redefined cultures, and changed lives: the idea of a good man who refused to give up in the face of a cruel world when it forever scarred him, and made himself something greater to fight back and help others not have to go through it alone. That’s why Batman’s great.

[lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks]

'Oh no.'

'Oh no.' Tucker hadn't meant for this to happen. Honestly his tight ass would have paid any amount of money in the world to PREVENT this from happening. But it had happened. He had looked over at his life long best friend sleeping against his shoulder and had been struck by the very INTIMATE urge to kiss him on his adorable little freckled nose. This wasn't a good thing, because said best friend's GIRLFRIEND was sleeping against his OTHER shoulder, and every time her hair fell across her face he had to nearly bite his own fingers to stop himself from brushing her fringe aside out of her long lashed eyes. The three of them had sat down for a movie at Sam's place, it was one of those few calm nights where the ghosts were chilling in the Zone and NOT causing any trouble for once. Danny was absolutely delighted to spend the night with his friends doing something that DIDN'T involve ghosts. The two lovebirds had sat beside one another on the lounge, holding hands and being, quite frankly, UNBEARABLY adorable. Tucker warned them that he'd sit on them if they didn't stop being so mushy and things predictably escalated until they were all but a tangle of goofy limbs hanging precariously off the two seater lounge. By the time Tucker awoke it was late morning and he was seated firmly between Sam and Danny, both having cuddled right up to him in the night, his left arm was warm under Sam's weight, but his entire right side was borderline numb beneath Danny's clinging arms. Boy was a leach, he had always been clingy when they shared beds as kids but back then he didn't have a big ol' chunk of freezing cold ectoplasm sitting pretty in his chest. But cold be damned Tucker was squished up with BOTH his crushes practically sleeping on top of him, no force on Earth or in the Zone could possibly make him move right now. He was staying right here where he could stew in his delight and guilt for the rest of eternity. Until Danny stirred and an arm pressed against his bladder. Heck. He needed to pee, like, really REALLY needed to pee. Tucker stayed nestled up in the cuddle pile for as long as he could stand it before heaving a sigh so heavy even Thor couldn't lift it. Somehow he managed to wrangle himself out without waking either of his friends and he waddled to the bathroom to relieve himself. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears as he stood in the cold tiled room. Why. No seriously, WHY. How in the fresh hell did he manage to fall head over heels not only for ONE of his best friends, but BOTH of them, and to top it off they were both DATING each other. He literally could not have picked a worse scenario. He could wake up one morning with 'Bad Luck Tuck' tattooed to his forehead and he still couldn't possibly feel more unlucky than he did in this instant. It took all of his willpower not to always end his and Sam's constant meat vs vegan fights by smooching her on those enticingly smooth cheekbones, and Danny was even WORSE. Every time that asshole so much as SMILED Tucker's heart would start thumping like it was trying to put him into cardiac arrest, it was just all those freckles and that little chip in his tooth and- Oh God stooooop. He needed to stop, he needed to stop right the heck now before he became the first human being to pass out from overexposure to adorkableness. Honestly? Fuck his friends for being so cute. This was all their fault, they could at least have considered his feelings before growing up to be so adorably kissable. He'd tried so hard to deny it to himself, he tried SO hard to fall back out of love with them but after waking up that morning nestled between those two precious asshats he realised that he had lost this battle, and he had lost it HARD. But, at the very least, living with a superhero as your best friend taught you some pretty useful life skills. One of those skills being how to Lie Like a Motherfucker to Everyone You Care About. So without further ado Tucker washed his hands, took a moment to stare his lovestruck gaze away in the mirror, and went back out to throw a shoe at his best friend's head for making his arm numb through the night. He loved his friends, he loved them with everything he had and that was why he could never tell them how he felt. ------------ 'Oh no.' Sam was honestly pissed, no scratch that, she was more than pissed. She was FURIOUS. Her rage burned with the intensity of her mother's artificially whitened teeth, and she couldn't even take it out on anyone, because the focus of her ire was her own stupid stupid brain. She had always been equally close to both of her friends, in fact she had only very rarely hung out with one or the other alone, and every time she did it felt just... so uncomfortable. It took a long time to really sort out what that feeling was, but even when she did it made no sense. It was GUILT, she felt GUILTY. Why did she feel guilty? Danny and Tucker sometimes hung out together without her, and that was fine, she was fine with it, they'd been friends since before she came along, but why couldn't she do the same? Every time one of them was over her house without the other it almost felt like she was cheating on someone, and that only got MORE disturbing after she and Danny started dating. Because suddenly? It very well COULD have been cheating. But it wasn't. And she kept telling herself it wasn't. She had never kissed Tucker while she and Danny were dating. They had never even held hands. But God damn, the realisation that had just struck her was enough to make her want to slap herself for ever becoming such a cliché piece of romance movie tripe. She had just been sitting there, sipping on her smoothie when Tucker did that Thing. She hated that Thing. That Thing where he'd say something that he knew full well was the vocal equivalent of a tumblr shitpost but he ALSO knew she'd found it fucking hilarious and while she tried her damnedest not to let a smile loose he'd send her a big shit eating grin that made her stomach roll and her tongue feel dry. Yeah, THAT Thing. She was crushing on Tucker, she was crushing on Tucker so hard. She was head over heels for her best friend, her BOYFRIEND'S best friend. Literally EVERYTHING about this situation was the reason she hated 90% of the movies she ever saw. Love triangles were the worst plague fiction had ever suffered and suddenly she realised it had spread it's nasty little friendship killing tendrils into her life. She was determined, however, not to fall into the awful trap that so many would think was inevitable, and she did so by keeping her mouth firmly shut about it. She had the willpower to go face to face against ghosts twice her size, and had been through more than one bout of emotional and mental manipulation by others of the ghostly kind. She was not about to lose this battle with herself and destroy not only her relationship, but also the much more valuable friendship she held with both boys. Sam got up and gathered everyone's Nasty Burger food scraps to throw into the bin, taking the brief moment to let her face twist in grief over what she'd have to do. With the rubbish gone and her resolve hardened, she slathered her face in smiles and ease, walking back to the table and acting with the skill and grace of someone who had been lying to protect her best-friend-turned-boyfriend for years. Her true feelings shoved somewhere deep between a pit of self-loathing and the core of her love for the boys she cared more about than anyone on this earth, including herself. ---------- 'Oh no.' Danny was in trouble. Danny was in so so so so SO much trouble. Honestly? At first he hadn't even realised he was doing it, Tucker had been his friend for such a long time, it had only seemed natural to invite him out everywhere when he and Sam made plans. But Danny was starting to realise the tension it was causing. Neither of them said anything but sometimes Danny could pick up on... something. Of course he knew what it was, since he'd started officially dating Sam, Tucker had become somewhat of a third wheel. Danny had never considered his friend to be out of place or unwanted, but he wasn't sure Sam felt the same way. Maybe she wanted it just to be the two of them, maybe she just wanted some alone time with her boyfriend. She wouldn't say anything, Danny figured she didn't want to seem clingy or harsh but, why else would things suddenly start feeling so... weird? He tried to make the effort to go on at least a couple dates with Sam without inviting Tucker, but honestly he just couldn't help but think something was missing, and it really didn't seem to be helping with Sam's tension. She tried to hide it, she really did, and it wasn't as though she was bad at it, Danny just knew her too well. Her and Tucker, he was hiding something too. And Danny was starting to think he knew what it was. They had NOTICED. He thought he was doing such a good job keeping his feelings from being too obvious, he was used to acting differently around certain people by now (having an alter ego did that to a guy), but obviously his friends knew him too well. It might have been the touching, yep, yep it definitely could have been the touching. Danny was an extremely touchy person and his gentle caresses and nuzzles weren't particularly picky about which friend received them. He definitely remembered a time when he straight up snuggled his face right into Tucker's neck during what was probably an EXTREMELY un-platonic hug. Other events on the 'Danny is a two timing doofus' calendar included: 'Holding hands with both Sam AND Tucker while walking down the street.' 'Very delicately running his fingers over Tucker's leg one time when he'd thrown them on Danny's lap and honestly there was absolutely nothing heterosexual about that moment.' 'Every time Tucker laughed so hard he snorted Danny thought his heart would straight up melt into a puddle of goo, and then SAM would start doing that super adorable giggle that she was really self conscious of and her trying not to laugh made her pull this fACE and Tucker would lose his mind and start snorting all over again and-' Danny had to stop himself right there before his heart completely dissolved because for the love of the Ancients his friends were both way too hecking precious for their own good and he loved them, he loved them sooo much. He loved them both. And they probably knew it. And boy that meant he was in deep trouble. Would Sam break up with him? Would this ruin their friendship? Nobody was SAYING anything but Danny knew that stewing over something like this was just going to lead to an explosion of awkward raging teen angst worthy of a place on an MCR album. If they weren't gonna bring it up then Danny would just have to... get it out of the way. Oh boy, he did not want to do this, nuh uh, no sir, he did not want to be standing in his bedroom shifting uncomfortably before his two beautiful, patient, wonderful friends. He would have loved to be sitting BETWEEN them however he deemed such a position to be quite, how the professionals would say, INA-FUCKING-PROPRIATE considering the subject at hand. No, standing in front of them was slightly better, only slightly because Danny felt like an absolute nervous piece of half human trash. Maybe he could just jump out the window and throw himself into a dumpster, that would speed things along. He would probably end up there by the end of this conversation anyway. He decided to just do it, stop beating around the blood blossom bush and just get it DONE. Unfortunately Danny hadn't practiced what he was going to say beforehand, so when he finally resolved to just blurt it all out he literally did... just that. "I'VE GOTTA HUGE CRUSH ON TUCKER AND I DUNNO WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT." By the time his brain caught up to his words his dumpster diving plan was sounding significantly more appealing. There was probably some kind of banana skin pun he could have used there but he was far too stressed to figure it out. Tucker didn't respond, he appeared to be trying to bury his face into his hat. A kind of wheezing noise was coming out of him, Danny couldn't tell if it was a good sound or a bad sound. Sam let out a long breath that whistled between her lip piercings. "Holy shit me too." The Tucker sound continued, raising to a nearly imperceptible level. Danny was just beginning to think it might have been a Bad sound when Tucker pulled his face back into the world, his glasses were all fogged up but he stopped making the noise. Sam and Danny both waited for him to say actual words but Tucker.exe seemed to have stopped working. Once he'd gained his breath he was back to wheezing into his hat. Sam hesitantly put a hand on his back. "Are you actually okay or are you like, dying?" Muffled words were said into the hat, none of which could be repeated around children. Danny was juuuust about to start attempting to will himself into spontaneous combustion when he recognised a very distinct sound emanating from the hat. Snorting, Tucker was snorting like a god damn pig. Danny's shaky legs gave out below him and he sat on the floor, shoving his face into the carpet as he laughed along with his best friend. He didn't know what was happening right now, but he was Having Emotions and the floor just seemed like the right place for that. Also he needed to look somewhere that wasn't Sam. She was trying not to laugh and she was pulling That Face and Danny just couldn't handle it right now and really the floor was great why didn't he spend more time here. Tucker felt as though he was finally ready to leave the comforting world of Hat Land and face the unbeLIEVABLE realisation that all of his dreams had just come true in a ten second span of time, he felt like he had just been blessed by the gods, his skin was clear, his crops were flourishing and world peace had been established. Today was a good day to start ugly sobbing in front of the two most important people in his life. "I love both you guys too!!" Tucker half laughed, half cried, and then just straight up cried, "I've wa-wanted to smooch you both sooo bad for like, MONTHS!" The moment his snorting turned to sobbing he was immediately accosted by a pair of equally snotty emotional wrecks. Danny, still on the floor, had plopped his head on Tucker's lap and just started balling his eyes out, like he was really going for gold in 'Most Tears Shed on One Lap'. Sam, on the other hand, had commandeered Tucker's upper half for a simple bone breaking, teary hug. The next few hours were just chock full of used tissues, an inappropriate amount of snacks and some deep, heartfelt discussions about what the fuck their relationship was gonna be. Honestly they were just happy to be so open and at ease with one another again, the sun poured into Danny's bedroom window as the three of them dozed in the warm pool of light. Laying across one another, their imagined boundaries finally broken, they could finally talk shit about each other for making them feel so mushy. ------ "Oh NO." Paulina said out loud at the scene before her. Those three dorks were sitting together at their usual lunch table, all bunched up ridiculously close together and if she wasn't mistaken she had just seen Danny turn around and KISS TUCKER ON THE MOUTH while Sam, his GIRLFRIEND, just watched?! "Oh yes." Star deadpanned, not seeming too fazed by the weirdness happening before her. "I didn't think those three could get any more confusing, but I have no idea what's happening over there right now." Paulina sat back in her chair, arms crossed. "Really?" Star raised an eyebrow. "You seriously didn't see this coming? Those three," she pointed with a delicately painted pink nail, "have been perfect polygamy material for like, three years." "Perfect what material?" Paulina's face was all scrunched up in confusion, her little nose wrinkled up and her lips pursed in just the cutest little pout- Star's stomach fluttered alarmingly. 'Oh no.'

[omajishans]

Day 3 - Family/Friends

AO3

Danny Fenton has always been a freak.

He was the kid with the weird ghost-obsessed parents. The one who was too lazy, too eager, too different. Who chattered about space if given the chance and with friends just as freaky as him. Dash’s favorite punching bag. 

He had a weak demeanor but somewhat good grades. Still, no one really paid too much attention to him. He was on the bottom of the social ladder for a reason after all.

Then he vanished. Didn’t show up for school day after day. 

By the end of the first week some people had noticed and rumors floated about.

He got transferred to another school.

He ended up sick of his weirdo family and ditched.

He died.

He joined a gang.

His parents finally did something to him.

On and on and on. Tons of rumors and theories about why Fenton was missing. But no one was curious enough to actually ask the people who would have the correct information. The teachers, his freaky friends and his busybody of a sister. 

Fenton came back one month after he went missing. 

He looked the same as he always did. He didn’t seem sick or scarred. He wasn’t suddenly braver or more popular or any different from before. This made the most nosy of the students curious. Why had he been gone then?

Not even Star and Mia could find out what had happened, the self-appointed queens of gossip. 

Everyone was silent on the matter.

It would take months for anyone to know what had happened that time Danny Fenton skipped school for a month straight. And by then, it wouldn’t matter. Not really. 

Danny Fenton was the same meek freak he’s always been though. 

Except he really wasn’t. 

He got incredibly clumsy for one. A lot of people learned that every fragile thing he handled was bound to get broken eventually. 

He got banned in Science, Art and got kicked out of the Astronomy club. 

Sarah swore when asked, the moment Fenton had cried when he somehow broke the only telescope the club had, a freaky chill swept up the room. 

No one really took it seriously. 

He got even quieter. Only ever speaking up when Dash got into his business. 

Mikey said his eyes glowed from time to time if Dash was too rough on Fenton. 

It was just a trick of the light his friends told him. 

Heightened nerves. Dropping everything in reach, even his clothes. Stress visibly piling up. The sudden, growing, distance between Fenton and his friends. 

The little things would pile up in hindsight. Details that together, would’ve let anyone know the truth. If only they had looked closer. Cared a little more. 

If only they knew the whole picture. 

If only it hadn’t fallen on the wayside when ghosts turned out to be real. Something that used to exist only in fiction had become a threat to their lives. 

Students on Casper High became withdrawn and nervous. No one remembered to gossip about Fenton’s weirdness for the longest time as the world changed around them. 

Time went on. 

The Fentons weren’t openly seen as freaks anymore. They were the only source of means to fight back against the ghosts. Of self defense. 

The school implemented ghost drills and did many assemblies about what was ectoplasm, what to do and what not to do in a ghost attack, how to act when confronted with a ghost, etc. 

Fenton Wrist Rays became commonplace, just like the lipstick lasers and the translators. 

Amidst adapting and surviving, as they tried to maintain their head above the water…

Danny Phantom appeared. 

No one knew what to make of another ghost fighting its own kind at first but dead or not, Phantom showed he was one of them. A teen. 

Though he was dead, a lot of the students praised him and loved it when he appeared in their school. 

They weren’t blind however, how Casper High was the only place that was in favor of Phantom. 

That made them all the more determined to help out and fight back against the people who insisted that Phantom was a menace and just as evil and soulless as the rest of the ghosts.

It was when the town finally saw Phantom as the awesome ghost they knew him to be and Phantom’s rep was on the rise…

...that something else was withering away.

Those few that paid close attention would still remember the mystery that was Danny Fenton. 

And were witnesses to those last few months until…

It wasn’t as important as before, with the ghosts and all, but Danny Fenton had somehow become a delinquent. 

He slowly dropped in grades until everything he was handed was an F, said Jace. 

He rarely did his homework and slept in class all the time, said Sasha.

He was alone all the time now, said Mikey. They all became silent for a moment.

Everyone knew how Fenton and his friends had a falling out. Manson had yelled and raged in the hallway one day, while Foley held her back. Fenton hadn’t said a thing the entire time. 

No one knew what the yelling was about but they hadn’t been seen talking since. 

He was perpetually tired, said Star.

Like there was no life in his eyes. 

He seemed to always have bandages, said Kwan the one time he joined in. Probably hiding injuries or something. 

Several others confirmed it. 

Scars on his arms, his legs, and everywhere visible anytime Fenton got out of P.E 

Until Fenton wised up and they never saw him in the showers again, that is. 

Just once, Wes had seen blood on Fenton’s clothes. But it had just been ectoplasm the next time he saw Fenton even though Wes swore it was red. 

The evidence piled up and all six students wondered what was going on. 

Just a week before it happened Dash showed up, having been dragged in by Kwan. 

In a rare display of jitters, Dash didn’t look at any of them in the eye as he said. 

Danny was always cold to the touch these days. He had reacted less and less to whatever Dash had said that day and never fought back anymore any time Dash forcefully grabbed him. 

Danny wasn’t the freak from before high school but he wasn’t the clumsy nervous guy he was after missing a month either. 

He was like a shell of himself. 

Not a ghost. Not with actual ghosts being seen every day now. 

Still…

Just one week later, Danny went missing again. 

Only this time, he was never found nor he showed up in school again. 

Rarely anyone connected it with Phantom’s disappearance two days later either.

They saw the Fentons and even Danny’s former friends look for him with a frantic energy, and at the same time the truth about the missing month became common knowledge.

Danny had been in an accident. He had gone into his parents’ lab and figured out how to turn on the ghost portal after it seemed like a failure. 

How he spent the whole month in the hospital in a coma and with third degree burns all over his body that for some reason healed to be only visible under blacklight. 

It was too late for the truth though.

What had happened to Danny Fenton? echoed in the minds of many for years to come.