#Cyborg ate the fudge

[kizzer55555]

Oooooh….you can make this so much worse. When I read your take, all I could think of was Danny literally being at war with himself. His ghost instincts are screaming at him. They need to destroy something, to tear it apart to ease their anger. And at the same time, he is berating hismelf for everything. Essentially hating himself for stepping into that portal in the first place. And this self hatred, combined with Danny forcing the ghost instinct to not harm anyone else, causes them to turn on Danny instead. He’s clawing at himself, his arms and chest and neck, claws sharpening and digging in, drawing green blood.

He hates this. He hates this feeling, this pain from a trusted friend essentially desecrating his grave. He wants it to stop, make it stop.

He hates that he can’t be with his family. He hates that he’s like this. That he has to deal with these instincts and feelings. Why can’t he be normal? Why can’t he just go back in time and never step into that stupid portal.

It hurts.

It HURTS!

Make it stop.

And that’s how the titans find him.

They went out looking for Phantom and find him curled up and secluded in a graveyard. They hear him before they see him. Crying hysterical, gut wrenching sobs and surrounding in a pool of his own green blood as he’s physically clawing his chest open. Oh my God Phantom STOP!

They rush to him but he’s deaf to the world. Even as they hold him close, he’s still reaching for his chest, even as they try to pin his arms to his sides. Cyborg is hugging Phantom to his chest in what might have been a death-grip for a normal person. Beat boy, desperately trying to offer comfort in the only way he knows how and gently running his hands through Phantom’s hair as he ignores his vision blurring. Robin, and Starfire are trying to hold his hands and offer calming words but nothing reaches him (Robin subtly assessing the damage done so far). And poor Raven had frozen in shock, unsure what to do or how to help.

But despite their efforts, Phantom keeps struggling. Claws drenched in that green blood and smearing it over his teamates. He doesn’t even register that they are there. He just sits in cyborg’s lap and screams.

Dcxdp where Danny has been working with a hero team (did Bruce adopt him? Did he help the teen titans and got told to join them? Idk) for less than a year, maybe they knew eachother for longer, but Danny has been living with them for some months.

Now, I imagined this as a "Danny has to flee to a different dimension after a giw attack/reveal gone wrong" but it can work with other scenarios, the important thing is, death days are important for a ghost's wellbeing, but nobody knows/remembers Danny's deathday or that it's important to commemorate the dead. Maybe he hasn't told anyone yet cause he doesn't want to be a bother, or doesn't trust them enough yet.

So Danny takes the matter on his own hands, each year he goes to a quiet corner of the local graveyard, where he has a piece of marble and a small vase, he usually buys some flowers for his memorial grave and makes some fudge as an offering.

This year wasn't gonna be different, he told his team/family that he was gonna spend the day out, he chose an elegant but comfortable outfit, made some fudge, and saved it on the fridge with a note that said "phantom, do not eat".

The next part might work better with a young hero team, cause despite the note, someone took a bite of the fudge for breakfast.

Danny clearly gets mad, they didn't know, but they just ate an offering, a great offense to the dead it was offered to.

It all ends in a big fight, Danny doesn't want to admit that it was an offering for himself (it just hurts to admit that nobody remembers his death), and the other person thinks he's just having a tantrum over some fudge, like, c'mon, they can make you some if it's SO important to you 😒

And I don't know how to end it cause it came to me while falling asleep and don't remember more T-T

[cinder46231]

When Cyborg was done, he goes looking for Phantom who was nowhere to be found in the tower. Did he tap into the city cameras just because be felt terrible and wanted to properly apologize? Maybe.

The cemetery felt like both the wrong and the right place to find Phantom. It wasn't hard to find where he was in the large plot due to cameras in place in case of grave robbers or vandalism but the sight of Phantom sitting in a small corner away from all the other memorials was heartbreakingly lonely.

He looked so small and the slight shake in his shoulders suggest he's crying. Cyborg just packed up his fudge and head out. The others could stay to monitor. He had a friend to apologize to.

Seeing Phantom in person was worse because now he could hear the sniffles and the quiet sobs. Cyborg always had trouble keeping his steps quiet and for once he was grateful for it because once he got close enough Phantom heard and turned.

"What do you want?"

"I came to apologize and offer some apology fudge."

Once Cyborg got close enough, he could see the small vase of flowers and a little marble. He carefully joined Phantom on the ground and held out his Tupperware.

"I'm sorry for eating your fudge. I shouldn't have taken it, especially since you labeled it. You normally never label yours and always share it. I should have realized you would label it if you didn't want us to just take like usual."

Phantom sniffles once more before taking the container for Cyborg. He opened it to see a cranberry-orange marbled fudge. The sight made the flood gates open because tears started dripping from Phantom's eyes.

"Woah! Why? What's wrong? Do you not like it? I know it's not the same as yours but I promise it's also good! It's my Great-Aunt's recipe and she won bake sales with it!"

"I'm not crying cuz I don't like it. It's just. This is the first time someone's made me an offering that I didn't make myself and I'm just really happy."

It was a bit hard to believe with the tears and the sobs but the smile on Phantom's face was hard to dispute.

Cyborg just gathered his crying friend into his arms to let him cry it out. When he finished Phantom placed the fudge before the marble and vase.

"Who were they?" Cyborg was curious. He had gathered it was a memorial but there was no name or sign of who it was for.

"Oh. This is for me. I don't have an actual grave since I was never officially pronounced dead since I'm half alive, and I didn't have a body to bury when I died."

Phantom trialed his finger lightly over the marble.

"My sister and my friends have some trouble accepting the whole 'I'm dead' thing, so they didn't do the memorial thing either. They kind of treat it like when someone died but gets resuscitate where someone is technically dead for a bit, but it's not the same."

The silence surrounding them was really loud.

"I didn't do the death day celebrations until one of my old rogues talked about their's. The sense of peace they get on that one day a year. I was in a bad place at that time. My parents had just found out and I was hiding in the realms for the time being. I just needed something to give so I just found things that felt right."

Phantom picked up the little sphere, holding it up to the sunlight, the blue in it shining brightly when the beams hit it just right.

"This little one was just calling my name when I found it and it's been with me through quite a few dimensions. But this one was the first dimension that I felt would be a good place to set up a permanent memorial."

Phantom held the marble in his lap.

"Normally I just spend this day with this little marble and some fudge and just think about how my years was. Sorry I blew up at you earlier my ghost instincts jumped when they realized someone ate their death day offering. I should have told you guys not to eat it instead of just labeling. I know the label is not always a guarantee that no one will touch it."

Cyborg just punches Phantom in the arm before pulling him back in for a hug

"You have nothing to apologize for. You had every right to be angry."

"Still..."

"No. Your feelings were valid and I was in the wrong for taking something that you labeled as off limits. I should have respected that. Now enjoy your fudge because I worked hard on that and you shouldn't be spending YOUR day moping. You said today is a celebration, then we will. This year you got someone here with you so you'll have to tell me what you want to do."

"...Okay."

If Phantom's voice was a bit shakey and tears gathered in his eyes again, well the cemetery cameras were without audio and too low resolution to picked it up and Cyborg wasn't spreading his footage anywhere.

Dcxdp where Danny has been working with a hero team (did Bruce adopt him? Did he help the teen titans and got told to join them? Idk) for less than a year, maybe they knew eachother for longer, but Danny has been living with them for some months.

Now, I imagined this as a "Danny has to flee to a different dimension after a giw attack/reveal gone wrong" but it can work with other scenarios, the important thing is, death days are important for a ghost's wellbeing, but nobody knows/remembers Danny's deathday or that it's important to commemorate the dead. Maybe he hasn't told anyone yet cause he doesn't want to be a bother, or doesn't trust them enough yet.

So Danny takes the matter on his own hands, each year he goes to a quiet corner of the local graveyard, where he has a piece of marble and a small vase, he usually buys some flowers for his memorial grave and makes some fudge as an offering.

This year wasn't gonna be different, he told his team/family that he was gonna spend the day out, he chose an elegant but comfortable outfit, made some fudge, and saved it on the fridge with a note that said "phantom, do not eat".

The next part might work better with a young hero team, cause despite the note, someone took a bite of the fudge for breakfast.

Danny clearly gets mad, they didn't know, but they just ate an offering, a great offense to the dead it was offered to.

It all ends in a big fight, Danny doesn't want to admit that it was an offering for himself (it just hurts to admit that nobody remembers his death), and the other person thinks he's just having a tantrum over some fudge, like, c'mon, they can make you some if it's SO important to you 😒

And I don't know how to end it cause it came to me while falling asleep and don't remember more T-T