#Danny and Vlad have a complicated relationship

[mkarchin713]

All I can think about if how absolutely thrown Bruce “martial arts expert” Wayne and Lex “I have Amazons for body guards” Luther would be watching Masters and his godson fight like a couple of football hooligans at the gala.

At least Masters didn’t start biting back until his godson dissed the Packers.

Vlad in the DC universe has got to be one of the most bizarre people within the billionaire circle ever right?

Owner of multiple extremely valuable businesses, all of which he did not start himself and bought through mysterious and suspicious means. He's clearly got an evil-mastermind hypnosis thing going on - but also he's not doing anything else with his mind control abilities and he doesn't live in any of the more populated cities.

Instead he spends all his time trying (and failing??) to buy the Green Day Packers (again, why doesn't he use his mind-control here? Some strange sense of honor? love?) and living in a giant castle enshrining the proud state of Wisconsin's history of cheese-making. (The equivalent of living in the Bass Pro Pyramid, or Blucifer.) But despite his love of Wisconsin he also just f*cks off one day to become Mayor of some middling town in Illinois where his big platform is fighting ghosts.

Like I'm imagining Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne meet him at a gala one day. Lex wants to scope out if he can work with/use Vlad and Bruce is investigating him. They're both thinking that he's just doing an eccentric billionaire act the same way Lex does his good-guy philanthropist routine and Bruce has his himbo-dad mask... except no, Vlad is really just in love with Wisconsin and he is actually obsessed with ghosts.

Halfway through the gala he starts fighting with his best friend's teenage son.

[catpriciousmarjara]

DP X DC: Dani Does Things and Leaves, Explains Nothing

Heavily inspired by this dp x dc prompt and the comments and reblogs under it:

Please go check it out and @stealingyourbones entire page. They have some great dp x dc content and meta.

Local Ghost Princess Decides to Help Out Fellow Clone, Leaves Chaos Behind, Heroes Left Concerned and Very Confused, More at 10.

Now Dani knew that this world had superheroes. She knew they had an organization of sorts that had a hate-hate relationship with various government entities and a love-hate relationship with the public, depending on who you asked. However she had no intention of being involved with them. She was on vacation after all. Besides this world was just a stopover anyway. Why bother when she wasn't here on official business? But it seemed that while she didn't want anything to do with the heroes, they, however inadvertently, wanted something to do with her. How else will you explain one of the worst cloning results she had ever seen crash into a tree right in front of her while she was enjoying a nice cup of litchi boba tea in the park?

The botched clone job slid down the branches and hit the ground with a thud. She raised an eyebrow at the the rampant malevolent magical lines running through the body exacerbating the overall instability of the clone's anatomy. Clearly this individual had run into an irate mage who cast some sort of destabilizing curse and shot them right out of the sky. Dani was thankful this was an isolated section of the park and that she had put a rudimentary avoidance ward over the area. Otherwise, a superhero crashing into a tree would've caused quite the ruckus and interrupted her boba time.

She took a sip of her boba and crouched down to examine the conked out hero. This one was the one they called Superboy wasn't he? She grimaced at the state of his engineering. Whoever did his cloning did not know what they were dealing with. Her own cloning went better and she was ectoplasmic goop half the time. And Vlad was dealing with halfa DNA! Probably the most complicated genetic material in existence. Superboy over here was constructed from actual tangible genetic sources and yet...ugh.

Honestly speaking beings of this plane probably wouldn't have noticed anything wrong. A level down in power scale compared to the individual who acted as genetic donor, most likely that Superman guy, and random instances of destabilization would most likely be the extend of their knowledge regarding their faulty cloning. And when those instances of instability gradually ironed themselves out they probably patted themselves on the back and thought all was well. She should cut them some slack.

Dani hummed as she chewed on her boba pearls. Unfortunately she wasn't known to be the most merciful when it came to ensuring the well-being of clones.

Suckers probably didn't pick up the fact they unleashed a possible catastrophe upon their world. Superboy was obviously fashioned from Kryptonian DNA. A species known for becoming near godlike upon absorbing solar energy from a yellow sun. That means that their bodies have mechanisms at play beyond simple biology. Specifically energy pathways and an energy processing core. Superboy wasn't a level down in power from Superman because of some biological imperfection, he was weaker because of flawed energy absorption and storage. And that meant that his energy core was unbalanced, and once it reached a particular threshold...well its gonna be a spectacular light show this side of the galaxy that's for sure. Of course it was just a possibility. There was no guarantee he would reach that threshold in his lifetime. Unless he ran into a white mage who was vicious enough to cast a juiced up imbalance curse that is. And what do you know! Turns out you can organically be that unlucky!

She put down her cup and ran a simple diagnostics. Sure enough the magic had intensified the issue. This man needed help, the kind of help that wasn't usually available in this part of the omniverse. But she just so happened to pass by and just so happened to have expertise in this field so today was somehow simultaneously Superboy's lucky and unlucky day. He really was going through it.

As to why she would interfere that's easy. She was the Guardian of Cloned Beings after all. She can't have a fellow clone suffer could she? And plus, what were the chances that he would end up like this right in front of one of the only beings that would know how to fix the issue? Dani grinned in glee. Truly the laws of causality worked in intriguing ways.

She stood up and let her talons manifest, plucking the strings of SuperboyConnerKon-el's make and striking them one by one in the tune of an old Krytonian melody. Shame what happened to them really, but all things had their fate. It truly was great to see some of them survive and make a home elsewhere. Dani wished them the best.

As she worked, untangling knots, and straightening out blockages, the hero finally began to stir. His eyes opened and they were understandably unfocused. Disoriented and confused, he looked kinda like a bamboozled Cujo and Dani felt her lips twitch up in a toothy smile. For some reason that seemed to startle him. She mentally frowned. Did he expect her not to smile at him? That would've been rude of her. Dani might be a gremlin but she was never impolite.

"I'm just about done with the curse", she told him. "Leaching out the corrosive magic was easy but I need to repair your energy coils and that's tricky. Don't worry though. Everything's on the house. Always did have a soft spot for the House of El ever since my aunt married into it for a short while."

Dani pulled a particularly stubborn power node open. "I would like your permission before doing that through. Body autonomy, informed decisions and and all! So yes or no? You'd detonate like a bomb if I didn't though."

The young hero's eyes widened. He still didn't seem to know what was going on so she hit him with a short term clarity spell. And a small information spell to cover her bases. That got him to gather his wits enough and she watched as he processed the influx of information. His complexion was ashen when he got through the bundle and he finally managed a shaky nod. Good enough.

Dani smiled at the Kryptonian. "Great! Now this would take like twenty minutes give or take five. You can sleep now." She promptly knocked him out cold and cancelled the spells so as to not overload his brain.

And just as she predicted, twenty minutes later, she plucked the last string with a flick of her wrist and surveyed her handiwork. Exemplary if she said so herself. One of her best work! Cheerfully she shot an awakening spell at Kon-el and crouched down again, patting his head.

"You might need to be careful for a few days while your body adjusts to its new energy capacity and conductivity. Your overall system has been optimized as well so be careful", she told the groggy young man.

She paused. "And don't worry. I didn't access your mind. This was all strictly physical repair aimed at preventing you from exploding like a supernova and taking the planet with you."

And once again that part made his eyes widen. Good. He truly understood the urgency. Or that could just be him being loopy after solar energy overload. It was a bright, sunny day after all.

She stood up, creating a portal to the next world on her itinerary. She looked back at the most likely high as a kite Kryptonian. "You kinda owe me for all that extra work hero! I might just come to collect one of these days!", she joked as the portal swallowed her body and she was lost to the spaces between spaces.

She'd already told him it was all on the house so Dani didn't think that anyone would take that last part seriously. However she forgot the fact that one Conner Kent was in her own words 'high as a kite' and hence might miss some crucial details.

She also forgot to leave behind an explanation packet.

And thus she was utterly unaware of the chaos she left in her wake, happily traveling through the multiverse.

..............................................................................................................................

"So you're telling me that not only did someone find me when I was out cold and get rid of the spell, but they also rearranged my guts and gave me an upgrade?"

"...Yeah."

"What the fuck?"

..............................................................................................................................

"Conner, do you remember anything? Anything at all? Whatever they did required some serious magical power. We don't know why they did it or how. For all we know they could've done something dangerous that we can't detect yet."

"Litchi boba tea".

"Kon what the hell?"

..............................................................................................................................

"...Its in bits and pieces...but I'm pretty sure there was a woman?...white hair, green eyes...something something on the house...something about an aunt and the House of El?...and there was this strange white symbol on her chest and this really soft music was playing that went something like this...(confused humming noises)...and something about me owing her?"

"Kara? Why are you looking at me like that? What's wrong?"

..............................................................................................................................

"Let me get this straight, Superboy was healed by the Kryptonian primordial goddess of portals, messengers, travelers and other such domains, and not only did she save him but also gave him a tune up? And explicitly said that he owes her now? And this powerful divine being, who is also supposed to be the daughter of Krypton's Death God according to legends mind you, is most likely still on earth with motives unknown? Plus your entire House is descended from her family?"

"...Yeah that about sums it up."

"..."

..............................................................................................................................

"Oh man why did this happen just when I was going to go on vacation? Why couldn't the Death God or whatever reschedule?"

"Death gods notoriously don't reschedule, they're death gods. Also she's the daughter of a death god, not one herself. Most death gods are also famously fair. If not fair by our standards, fair by theirs".

"...That's good to know?"

"I confess I don't know about the fairness of children of death gods however".

"...great. Thanks anyway J'onn".

"You're welcome".

..............................................................................................................................

"You okay there man? Someone just rifled through your body and did who knows what...that's gotta be terrifying. You want to talk? We're all here for you, you know that right?"

" Thanks guys. And yeah it was freaky. But apparently I would've exploded and blown up the planet with me if she didn't do that so I guess I'm more grateful than scared."

"...Explode and blown up the what now?"

..............................................................................................................................

"Is there anything more we should know about Clark?"

"Legends say she has a brother and he's associated with great calamities?"

"...."

"Bruce? You alright?"

..............................................................................................................................

DPXDC refuses to be done with me. Leave me be accursed crossover! Leave me be!

(Btw Kon didn't make the connection because he was really out of it, and not because Clark and Kara didn't introduce him to Kryptonian culture.)

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome!

[starwrighter]

Haven't posted a prompt in a hot minute, let's fix that.

We all know the DC universe is pretty complicated compared to the Dp universe (I'm trying to find a place to start reading the comics but theres 80 years of content to filter through lord help me 😭)

DC has hundreds of heroes and villains running around while DP only has a few.

Let's toss that DC into Dp >:)

Imagine how shellshockingly horrifying it would be for any of the DC crew to travel to the DP universe? Like they've seen post apocalyptic universes, how is this not one of them??

Imagine the world's greatest detectives seeing the utter miracle that is "Phantom's secret identity" they pin him as Danny Fenton immediately as would anyone with experience with the concept of revival.

Let Superman get chased by the Giw. While Clark Kent and Louis lane tear apart their shoddy, biased research as the best journalists the DP universe has ever seen!

Have Danny have a grudge with this random reporter because his article on explosive burger sauce got his favorite restaurant closed. While Clark is desperately to boost Phantom's reputation after the smear campaigns wrecked it.

Let Vlad get torn apart by every flavor of superhero for being an all around creep. Dani/Konner bonding over being clones.

Have danny be an avid fan of Damian, not because he's Robin but because he chased down Dash after he tried to shove him in a locker!

Constantine trying to scam ghosts without the bargaining chip of a soul. Danny and the rest of the trio cackling because it's working and the ghosts are pissed.

Danny's rogues are getting bullied left right and center because both villains and hero's are shooting snarky comments with twice the venom as Danny.

Spectra going after Tim and Damian because she thinks they'll be easy targets due to their seemingly hostile relationship. They team up to tear into her the moment this random therapist tries to insinuate that Dick said he wished the two of them were never brought into the family.

Desiree catching so many people off guard and ruining so many days with her monkey pawing until they turn her wishes around on her.

Have the DC heroes be competent and smart enough to outplay ghosts that are stronger than them.

[picturejasper20]

There are different versions of badger cereal depending on the fic/work you are reading. In some they argue a lot and in others Vlad is a distant but somewhat caring mentor figure. It also depends on how Danny gets characterized, if he is more grumpy and the situation he find himself in.

I think one of my favorite interpretations is from ¨Seeing is Disbelieving¨ fic that has Vlad and Danny having to work together to escape from a prison. You can see how they can do a lot when they set their differences aside and they begin to care for each other while working in trying to escape. However, there is a lot between them the two that still makes them clash, like their history of being enemies or how messed up their relationship is for different reasons like having different ideas of morals and the whole portal accident involving Vlad, Jack and Maddie.

So in a way they care for each other but it is still too complicated for them become something close to being friends or even allies. It is all very messy, meaning they can't help it with in part still remaining as enemies in spite of it all.

[qianqiancandyjar]

Ghost Hunter Family (Chapter 3)

Note: I stuff too many things in one chapter so it's a mess...

To explore the brother-sister relationship between Danny and Jazz, I made up a not-quite-complete background story of the two siblings. All I can tell is that they have a bad dad. I just leave it to your imagination since I couldn't decide which version is better.

I mean, I probably made four or five versions of this chapter. It's killing me.

Probably new settings:

Danny accidentally lost Jazz's doll in the Ghost Zone, and had an searching adventure alone when he was 6. It unlocked one of his ghost powers which I cannot tell you now. I may make a chapter of this in the future.

As their old partner, Vlad hasn't contacted them for a long time. He used to help taking care of little Jazz before the accident. He does care about them at that time.

I finally decided to go with the half-ghost Jazz routine, but in a weird way. I mean, imagine you have a half-ghost brother since birth and you don't have ghost power? Or in Maddie's position, imagine you have a half-ghost kid and suddenly gain another?😶

In a word, it's complicated.

List

[9haharharley1]

For the OTP 1-3 for both PomPep and BlackIce ^^

Pompep

1. Who's the better cook?

Both of them know how to cook very well, it just depends on what they're in the mood to eat. Danny took it upon himself to learn after reaching into the fridge at his parents' place and pulling out contaminated food, and he knows how to make simple, homey meals, but he panics at anything more complicated.

Vlad can cook up elaborate gourmet meals that could very belong in a 5-star restaurant, but also he's burnt a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup when Danny requested him to make it for him when he was sick one time. Danny laughed his ass off for a week about it.

2. Who gets up to cook at 2am?

Both of them have done this from staying up too late, Vlad with work, and Danny from either school or ghost-hunting.

3. Are they into PDA? Who initiates most?

In public, especially around Amity Park, they keep the PDA to a minimum. Elsewhere, there may be some hand-holding, maybe Vlad's arm around Danny's shoulders. Unless they're at a gala hosted by Vlad or something, they won't initiate much more than quick hug or a kiss on the cheek. Never enough for a lurking pap to snap a picture.

Blackice

1. Who's the better cook?

Jack is the better cook, but he doesn't necessarily enjoy it. Pitch is more of a baker than a cook, but he knows how to make simple meals.

2. Who gets up to cook at 2am?

Pitch, for sure. Chronic insomnia keeps his hours all over the place, and he more than once has baked full cakes and cupcakes while making huge bowls of spaghetti or something.

3. Are they into PDA? Who initiates most?

Outside the safety of Pitch's lair, they keep the PDA to a minimum (unless of course Jack is wearing something he shouldn't be and Pitch just can't keep his fucking hands to himself, the old perv). Jack doesn't want the Guardians to catch on, he wants to keep this one thing to himself and not have to explain himself to anyone. Maybe after things settle down and everyone knows, maybe he'll be more open about it, but anything more than handholding makes him look around for any wandering eyes.

Pitch is more than happy to initiate PDA, would love to be more open and flaunt his relationship with Jack, but he understands, and half of him is quite content keeping it on the downlow because that means he gets to monopolize all of Jack's free time.

[paxopalotls]

RAHH i just read both your tue danny / phantom / dan centric works, and how does it feel to be so correct and compelling and correct? more seriously - what about TUE / TUE Danny do you find most interesting to explore? do you have any characterization / headcanon that isn't necessarily canon compatible? and free space (please ramble about them as much as you want)

Sorry it's taken me so long to go through my inbox! I hope you don't mind the long text; TUE is one of my favorite episodes and Dan is a character that I find very fascinating.

Thank you for the kind words aahh! I don't often write so it means a lot that you liked my works. For context if anyone else is reading this, I wrote a couple IB fics about Dan/Phantom, and my thoughts about him, which I'll elaborate on here.

I have a lot of feelings about Dan, especially since he as a character is so tragic. It's strange to me that no one ever mentions the fact that when Vlad performed the removal of Danny's human half, it was Phantom that betrayed Vlad, not the other way around. I always thought that meant there was something wrong with Dan after the accident also. I delve into it a little in my fic, but I do have more thoughts about his attitude. It's interesting to me that the comic portrays his actions as being motivated by Vlad's self preservation and selfishness, and I don't necessarily disagree, but I do think it's more complicated than that. I personally believe his actions have a very complex motivation, more than just "Vlad is evil so fusing with him made Danny also evil".

It's difficult to deal with grief, and from the few scenes shown, it seems Dan dealt with it by shutting down. I also think he had a lot of conflicting feelings of grief and rage; Danny was the one who regularly defeated the ghosts, but he was also the one protecting them from the human ghost hunters, releasing the ghosts back into the GZ rather than allowing them to be taken for experimentation. I think it would anger him that his lenience towards the ghosts was taken advantage of, leading to the deaths of his friends and family. Vlad never showed an inclination towards abusing the ghosts, so this is what I believe caused him to do such uncharacteristically violent things like paralyze Johnny 13 from the waist down, permanently damage one of Box Ghost's eyes and one of his hands, and destroy Ember's vocal cords.

Something I touched on in my fic too is that I believe Danny has a weird relationship with death, due to the fact that he managed to come back from it, and also due to the general existence of ghosts in his life. AGIT states that all ghosts are people who've died, as well as that some lose their humanity over time. Due to this, I have a belief/theory that Dan expected his friends, if not family, to come back, and when they didn't, he dealt with his loneliness through anger. In TUE, he acts like he doesn't care about any of them, but I think he actually cares too much. He is caustic and taunting towards them, his parents especially, because his anger at them for hurting him is compounded by his grief at their loss.

In addition, the interference of Clockwork probably also contributed to his anger; there are two timelines that exist, the one where Danny lost and the one where he didn't, and the only reason that he won was because of the interference of Time himself. I think this is a lot of what motivates Dan's actions in TUE; he's trying to prove to Danny that the timeline is "inevitable" because he's trying to prove it to himself. His loved ones have already died, and he's angry that this alternate Danny gets a second chance. The only moment of true vulnerability we see in him during TUE is when he realizes that Jazz, his Jazz from his timeline, had always known who he was. It's obvious that despite his efforts to seem unemotional about everything, all of his actions are due to his turbulent emotions, and this is even more evident in canon due of AGIT confirming that ghosts are beings of emotion.

I do think Vlad's emotional state also compounds with this, since Vlad as a character is more prone to hiding his hurts than Danny, which is a large part of what makes up Dan's personality. In addition, Vlad's character is largely driven by a desire for family and affection, but he responds to this insecurity with a need for control and self-aggrandizement. Vlad's goals throughout the show are to amass power, largely to prove himself to those he cares about - Danny and Maddie - as well as to spite those he hates - Jack. His feelings for Jack seem more complicated than that, however; he is upset at what he sees as a betrayal by someone he obviously cared about; the two of them were best friends and roommates before Maddie was in the picture.

I think both Danny and Vlad center a lot of themselves on the people they love, though it's more evident on Vlad's side, and Dan as a combination of them does as well. His tendency is often similar to "splitting" in BPD, where he responds to a perceived betrayal or personal weakness with volatility, which is something Vlad does as well, with Jack, Maddie in some ways and especially with Danny. Dan as well responds with hostility towards people he is attached to who he perceives as hurting him, something that is complicated by the fact that part of what he blames them for is the fact that they died. He is especially ruthless with people he sees as betraying him or his lenience, like Valerie and the ghost rogues gallery; this is also a combination of Vlad and Danny's personalities. Vlad's hatred tends to be more long-standing than Danny's but he also tends to be more methodical with his actions. Danny on the other hand responds to his own anger with immediate aggression, but lets go of slights relatively quickly. Dan, as the combination of the two, holds grudges for a long time, but tends to rely on brute force rather than long term plans like Vlad would have.

He also has a lot of self-loathing, which he projects onto Danny and Vlad from this timeline, Danny especially. As I mentioned earlier, a large factor in this is Clockwork's direct involvement in the current timeline, which superseded his. In addition, I think that Danny and Vlad's interpersonal dynamic might have fed into this; both of them can't bring themselves to permanently harm the other but they do both hold some level of resentment for the other, Danny more-so since Vlad has an attachment to him. Danny's hatred for Vlad especially seems to derive in part from his own fears about himself and his selfishness, and I think that influences the way Dan interacts with both of them.

TLDR: Dan's specific concoction of mental illness derives from both Vlad and Danny, which affects a lot about how he acts and feels. There's a lot to explore about his trauma and how that relates to his new place in the current timeline, and I have a lot of feelings about him. (He makes me sad!!)

[home-of-renn]

Ya'll wanna know what I love? COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIPS!

That Danny and Jazz have a very close relationship due to their parent's neglect. Jazz is pretty much the true parental figure in Danny's life and for the most part, always has been. Jazz's nagging and constant involvement in pretty much all aspects of Danny's life increases after his accident, which Danny doesn't really seem to notice cause he's got too much shit on his plate after waking up half dead. (But also cause Jazz has always been nearby and reliable - which does wonders to soothe his Obsession, so he honestly doesn't take much notice of her mother-henning).

BUT, this does end up influencing his relationship with Dani.

Even though she's the only surviving clone, she's still extremely unstable and could pretty much dissolve into goo at any moment without warning. This makes Danny's Obsession freak out and go on high alert any time he's near her. Not to mention that Dani - despite being technically the same age - is viewed as being much younger by Danny (and pretty much everyone else as well) due to how inexperienced she is and the fact that she is literally only a couple weeks/months/years old.

So all this stress about Dani's messed-up situation and the fact that there is literally nothing Danny can do to fix it (since she wasn't really meant to exist in the first place), combined with the way Jazz treats Danny, kinda skews his perception of what a sibling relationship is actually meant to look like. Tucker and Sam don't have siblings and no one else in Amity is willing to even go near the Fenton kids without so much as a ten-meter pole, let alone comment on the obvious lack of parenting going on in that family.

So, from any outside perspective, Danny's relationship with Dani is bordering on being parental/paternal. Which freaks Danny the fuck out when he finally realises why Dani gets so cranky and snappish about his overbearing tendencies (she's never experienced any form of parental affection in her very short life). Sam and Tucker never bothered mentioning anything cause they know it's probably just Danny satisfying his ghostly urges, and they also know that both Danny and Jazz have always lacked personal boundaries - that and the fact that honestly, nothing about their family is even close to being normal, including the way each member treats one another. Not to mention, when you're dealing with the kind of spooky shit they deal with on a daily basis, it's better to be in each other's pockets than too far away when something goes wrong.

But then one of them accidentally lets slip that Danny's attitude towards Dani is very much abnormal and Danny feels like he's been dunked in cold water. Cause Dani was made using Danny's own DNA, and there aren't any hard or fast rules on how you should view your totally impossible clone.

Danny's been struggling with controlling his Obsession after the crushing realisation that he had one - just one more thing that chipped away at his already contestable humanity. He knows he's overprotective and he knows that Sam, Tucker and Jazz don't mention how smothered they sometimes feel. And then he realises he's been doing it to Dani without even realising it, and once the realisation hits he's faced with a second realisation - which is that his Obsession doesn't know how to properly categorise Dani. Cause he has absolutely no desire to display any kind of fatherly affection towards her, let alone view her as a potential daughter figure (also wouldn't that make Vlad the other parent? That thought alone makes his stomach churn).

It's an embarrassing, humiliating tension he's felt since the day he met her. A twisted thing he sometimes thinks about in the dark of his room when he's trying to fall asleep. It feels guilty and shameful and something that's too close to grief. He's never even mentioned it to Tucker or Sam, and as soon as the thought pops up he dismisses it and keeps his mouth shut. He hasn't even finished school yet.

Danny doesn't want to think about his future. He doesn't even want to entertain the idea of him one day having a family of his own. But Dani never fails to make him think about it (all the things he could no longer have).

Danny's feelings towards Dani will always be familial. When they'd first met and found out what their connection was he had subconsciously drawn that line in the sand and then shoved it into a box before abandoning it in some distant corner of his mind.

Maybe, just maybe, if Danny was older he would have viewed her as a daughter.

But he won't. He's already too close to her. One day she's going to dissolve and Danny will be left inconsolable. The small still-human part of him realises that - even if the ghost in him refuses to acknowledge it.

Sometimes he feels like his Obsession has already taken away so many of his choices. Limiting his decisions and swaying his judgement. He's not entirely sure where it begins and where it ends and it makes him wonder, just how much of a different person would he be without it? Would he even be the same at all?

The moment all these realisations bloomed in his head was the day he fought with himself and convinced himself to take a step back.

So, he watches Dani from afar.

She seems happier now that she has more freedom to do what she wants without anyone looming over her shoulder. She doesn't understand how he feels - she doesn't have an Obsession. She lives her life flitting from one whim to the next.

But now she visits more, no longer staying away from Amity for as long as she can without risking Phantom coming after her.

He hadn't realised she was staying away.

Now Dani is the one who seeks him out. She wants to spend lazy days floating above the clouds basking in the sunlight. She pesters him to try every item on the Nasty Burger menu and begs him to ditch his homework to go watch a midnight screening of some tacky old horror movie from the 80s. She even convinces him to teach her the names of all the constellations as they recline on a grassy patch behind the Amity observatory (even if there wasn't much convincing involved at all).

He indulges each and every one of her childish desires. Because every time he turns his head to tell her no, all he can see are bright blue eyes dripping into a toxic green puddle. It never fails to make him bite his tongue and nod his head.

They continue the rest of their relationship with Danny keeping a close eye on that line in the sand.

He adores Dani - loves her even - and it's a feeling that grows the more time they spend together. She will always be special to him, and whatever that special thing is, it's something that doesn't need to be defined. She will always be someone important - someone who he loves the same way he loves Jazz (he makes sure of it).

-------- BUT THERE'S MORE

Not only does this anxiety-inducing realisation change the way he interacts with Dani (he no longer actively seeks her out all the time) but it also opens his eyes to the role Jazz has played in his life.

He realises that all the jokes and complaints about Jazz acting more like his mum rather than his sister aren't far from the truth. He slowly comes to terms with the fact that Jazz had a heavy hand in raising him and still continues to watch over him. It changes the way he treats her and it leaves him with a lot of guilt.

Somewhere down the line Jazz ends up realising that Danny now understands that part of their relationship, the part that Jazz had tried to hide from him - something she did to cast her parents in a better light so that Danny could have some semblance of a normal, happy family while having to grow up being a Fenton.

It hits her while her parents are still tinkering in their basement and Danny's just slipped out the window in the middle of the night to go fight a ghost. He'd seen the light under her door and let her know that he was heading out - something he'd only started doing recently. He'd stood awkwardly in the doorway and wished her goodnight before slipping intangible and disappearing from sight.

It made her realise - like switching on a lightbulb.

She'd buried herself under the covers and gone to sleep that night with swollen eyes and her library-loaned textbook dotted with salty tears.

Danny didn't comment on her puffy face the next morning and she didn't question the bruise that was blooming on the back of his neck - just handed him an ice pack and continued scrambling the eggs.

Neither of them talks about it.

~~~~

Just Danny having a complicated, anxious relationship with his clone - who has zero idea what her pseudo brother is actually feeling.

If yall haven't realised, I'm a sucker for complicated relationships

And if I'm being honest, the way Dani and Danny are depicted as twins/cousins and the two of them just readily going along with it has always been a little boring and one-note for me. I feel like having a clone - especially one that you feel a little responsible for - would open up a gigantic can of worms in regard to how you treat them and how you should feel about them. Throw Danny's ghostly Obsession into the mix you have a perfectly complicated situation.

(also I actually quite like the trans!danny headcanon - especially in regards to explaining how Dani turned out female. But in regards to this ^^^^^^^ I kinda like having Danny being cis cause it implies that Vald not only stole Danny's DNA but also mixed it with someone else's. Cause genetically speaking, it would be physically impossible for them to be clones if one has an entirely different chromosome. Which just adds another whole level of fcked up to this whole mess and just Vlad in general. Cause Danny - or at the very least, Jazz - is definitely aware that Danny's "clone" shouldn't be female and somebody realises this but can't bring themselves to speak up. Cause god forbid all of them are too young for this and too traumatised and would rather just brush that little tidbit to the side and under the rug, just so they can all move on)

(also it would leave Danny wondering who makes up the other 50% of Dani's DNA and honestly Vlad is so messed up that he could have just found a way and used his own and that would make Dani the closest thing to Dan and I don't think Danny would ever be able to face that)

[nikki-pondtheauthor]

Howdy Nixxie!

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💗

thank you @oliveofvanders @halfagone @summerssixecho for the tag (sorry it took a while for me to finally answer this reply)

Ngl, most of my fav fics that I've written are the ones that I haven't published yet. But I'll go with the current WIPs posted on ao3 :)

House of Memories (dpxdc, Dick/Danny)

This fic comes to my mind first. I think one of the reasons why I have a soft spot for this one, in particular, is because this is the first fic that I felt I truly succeeded in writing angst. My first MCD fic as well. And I remember I've always wanted to write AU Soulmates for so long and this was the result. Plus I love Dick and wanted to give him more attention. Bonus is that I haven't seen many dpxdc fics where it is set to Dick is Robin.

Legacy (dpxdc, Danny & Jason. Biodad!Jason)

I love Jason. And I also love the thought of exploring Father-Son relationship between Jason and Danny (I'm used to reading deaged Danny, but there's something cathartic writing when it's Danny as a teenager while Jason, in his mid30s, exasperated at his son. That's the dynamic I want to explore) No joke that I immensely enjoy writing about Jason feeling guilty of not being there for Danny (and not knowing he existed). Last I checked, the draft for the next chapter of Legacy is around 4k words (I just havent gotten around editing it). Plus it's set where Jason is Batman, a trope that is not much explored in the dpxdc.

Two of a Kind (dpxdc, Jason & Danny, Halfa!Jason)

I will always be grateful to Kaida for bringing this idea to life of Jason being the second Halfa. I love the idea of Danny having a trusted adult he can come to this time. There's so many I want to gush about this, especially Jason's complicated issues with Vlad. You'll find Jason in this fic interesting because he has different priorities while feeling guilty at the same time. Plus we get some flashbacks (*nods to Red Hood: Lost Days*). Plus I also ADORE where this fic is set to Post-Infinite Crisis.

Dynasty | Loving You Was Like Dancing without Music (ATLA, Sokka/Zukko)

I remember the intense research I did for this fic. I have a separate word doc of writing the history and Fire Nation "legal documents". Even got 3 docs of flashbacks for Sokha, Mai, and Zuko (overall wc: 5k). And the fic is inspired from my fav kdrama show at all times so that's one of the reasons why I enjoy writing this fic.

Danny the Intern (dpxdc, GEN)

Ngl, I debated back and forth with this one because I have mixed feelings about this fic nowadays, but I can never forget the intense planning and outline for this fic and the 2 months I spent writing the buffer chapters just so I could be ahead of this fic. Part of why I enjoy writing this fic is that it's a Case fic. A mystery going on that I'm excited to eventually reveal, which I've been keeping my mouth shut for 11 months now. Currently, ch 6-11 have an overall 13k words. If it goes according to plan, Danny the Intern fic will be updated either this halloween or next month (for the 1 yr anniversary of DtI)

[crystal-wingeddragon-spikes]

Danny Phantom, a Glitch in Time and why I don't like the redemption.

[Spoiler]

The Ultimate Enemy's entire premise lies on Future Danny's lacks of remorse and regret.

Once he realized Danny travelled from the past and seeing his old friends Sam and Tucker again, his response is to ensure the bad future will happen. He left Danny stranded in the bad future, which to his knowledge, Danny should not ever be able to go back. When he impersonates Danny, he can choose to live the second life as a regular life with family, but he did not. He did all of these not because he misses his friends and family, he did it to ensure that they will die. His attitude is full of disdain toward Sam, Tucker and Jazz. We can clearly see his malice when Jazz confronted him about the test answers. The only reason he did not kill her is that he needs her to die in The Nasty Burger explosion.

This plot in a Glitch in Time came out of nowhere. It will only make sense if someone confuse fanon with canon. I understand we Danny Phantom fans have a complicate relationship with Butch Hartman and something he put in season 3, but this is just bad.

I don't, never, like the premise of Danny cheating on his SAT, I meant CAT exam, and it leads to the death of his entire support group, causes him to spiral in his grief, tried to separate his ghost power, accidentally becomes the strongest ghost/the new ghost king.

Please, he cheated on a standardized test by accidentally getting the answers (which is a classified government document). This is a very bad excuse for the darkest episode of this series.

-----

Vlad's redemption is marginally better. He was a more grounded character from the beginning. He is not a force of destruction, not a murderer (as in, he never actually killed someone even if he wants to kill Jack), his motive is something realistic, but taken to an extreme.

Still, I think his entire appeal is that he is a self-sabotaging tragic villain. He thinks he is a victim, and that prevents him from actually examining harms he has caused because he keeps justifying himself.

People actually taking a pity on him and want things to turn out better from him is missing the entire points. Vlad let one horrible disaster ruined his life because he victimizes himself, and he sees all of his atrocities justified, because he was wronged, by a mistake that Jack deeply regretted. No, he will not get better when good things come to his life because he is too busying wallowing in his self-pity.

He does not love Maddie, he loves the concept of him winning her over Jack. One episode, in which Danny created an alternate timeline where Vlad is married to Maddie. She would be happier with Jack, who shares and respects her ghost hunting passion.

Vlad could have a daughter who love him. If he treated Dani well, but it was clear that he is very manipulative and never really see her as a human. He wants Danny as a son, but not because he loves him. Danny is a status symbol for him.

That is the appeal of Vlad. Underneath all of his wealth, superior ghost powers, access to ancient ghost artefacts, political influence, and his cold-blooded cut-throat cunning; This meta human Lex Luther, is just a man child who refuse to grow the moment he was blasted in the college. That is why he is the opposite of the inexperienced Danny, hunted by hunter ghost Skulker and his ghost hunting parents alike, just a teenager who is considered a loser at his school, but his heart is good and true. Vlad spent his life using his ghost power to amass fortune and power, Danny stretches himself thin saving Amity Park.

As I said, I consider Vlad redemption to be better because he actually has a realistic epiphany. When he messed up so horribly, he stopped trying to pin blame on Jack and realize that he is a horrible person that drives everyone who love him away.

[saltynsassy31]

I have never read Lore Olympus, I don't really plan to? I've just sorta dropped into the rabbit hole of LO Critical stuff after Instagram suggested me this one account I now follow

And like, I technically have started reading it? But only in search of a very specific scene i have no hint of knowing where it is besides it being later episodes

So I'm jumping back between episodes, scrolling and skipping many stuff in search of it and I came across this episode

(S2) Episode 193

And

Huh?????? Whu??????

My???? Heart?????

One thing I'll admit, without context, without properly reading everything + based on what people have said, I feel bad for EVERYONE except Persephone and Hades

Though I'm also getting mixed feeling about Hera but that would for another rant

And this has shown to be especially true in this episode, from what people have been saying is that Zeus is made to be the bad guy but ?????? That moment he had with Artemis is killing me ?????? Maybe it has to do with the fact that I had a rocky relationship with my dad (it's getting better but still) and stuff like that absolutely send my heart and makes me weak, and I tend to love bad(not necessarily evil, just...morally complicated) guys who are actually good dads regardless (ex. Vlad with Danny, Techno with Tommy, Ganon with link (tho it depends on a lotta stuff), etc.), so like, I'm probably not the best judge for this.

So tell me LO Critical people, what should I worry about this man? Or has he just been misrepresented by Rachel like so many others?

I need to know! Cuz I'm (unfortunately) sorta attached????? Not to mention how I've seen so many sweet moments, it's hard to believe he should be worse than Apollo 😭😭😭 (he isn't perfect, but no one is, especially not in this series lmao)

[starry-bi-sky]

"Stillborn? No, still born" Danyal au -- VLAD MASTERS THE BITCH HIMSELF

*Points at Vlad* THIS MFER GOT SOME TEEFS TO HIM. !! Okay okay, Vlad Masters in the stillborn au is different compared to most of my other aus in the fact that I am far more heavily leaning into his original ambitions of wanting a family and being desperately lonely. Because you know what wanting a family implies? Wanting to be a parent.

Fucked up father figure that could've been Vlad. Complicated love-hate relationship between the only two halfas in existence.

Danny hates Vlad, but he hates even more that he's genuinely considered his offers of mentorship. Vlad is the only halfa around, and they both have fire cores. Danny has these powers he doesn't understand, can barely comprehend some days, and can't control. But Vlad does. Vlad can. And Vlad wants to help him. He's the only other person who can get close whenever Danny runs too hot. Whenever his igneous hair cracks, splits, and spits back out into magma and his friends can't get close, Vlad can.

His hair is made of magma, which runs so hot that people need specialized suits in order to get near it. He physically cannot get close to the living as a ghost unless he's calm enough for his hair to cool into igneous rock. Which isn't as often as he would like. And sometimes he's too hot for other ghosts to get near unless they have fire cores -- which Vlad has.

There have been many times when Danny's having a meltdown (literally) and gone somewhere to be alone, to let his anger and hurt and loneliness overflow and spill out, that when he's come back to, Vlad's right there with him as an anchor. It's desperately frustrating, it's the only time they can get along. They don't say anything, Danny just turns and clings onto the only person he can touch as a ghost.

Its not fair. Vlad wants to kill his foster dad, and Danny can't let him do that. But he wants to be trained by the man, he wants his help and wants what he can offer. But Vlad can't step away from his revenge long enough to let him. It's just not fair. He thinks for a moment that maybe it could work, and then Vlad does something to remind him that no, it can't.

Vlad Masters sees too much of himself in Daniel Brown -- from the way he holds himself, to the defenses he puts up, his quiet anger that builds and builds and builds until it explodes. That simmers beneath his skin. All the way down to the fact that they have matching cores. This boy is cut from the same cloth as him, and by god does he want to help him. He's always wanted to be a father, and Daniel Brown is too much like him for him to ignore. He genuinely, truly cares about Danny and his wellbeing.

He wants to help him, child just let him help you. Let him kill your foster dad so he can adopt you himself and help with these powers that terrify and intrigue you -- he knows what that's like to have something that you can't control, to have a heat that you can't cool down from. "We're in the same boat you and I, let him help you please."

But his methods are all wrong, and Danny is too much like him -- stubbornness and all -- for him to agree when they oppose each other so greatly. But again, Danny is much like him -- which means that Vlad is equally stubborn, and in every single one of their fights he's parental. He's annoyingly parental. He drops his interest in Maddie to focus his efforts in trying to coax Danny onto his side. It's like trying to get a traumatized cat to trust you, and on some levels it works. It's like he makes some progress, and then moves too quickly and the cat immediately runs off and you have to start back from square one.

TL:DR; Vlad and Danny both want to find family in each other but they're too different to get along and ultimately they are doomed by the narrative to be at constant odds with one another unless one of them is changes, and it doesn't matter who.

[halfagone]

So in the new DP graphic novel, it’s confirmed that Dan is barely weaker then Clockwork, assuming Danny is half as powerful as he is, does that help the theory that Danny is stronger then Superman?

SPOILERS FOR THE DANNY PHANTOM GRAPHIC NOVEL A GLITCH IN TIME

I will be leaving the rest of this response under the cut nonetheless, just to cover my bases.

I do own the graphic novel myself (I've read it multiple times, every time within half an hour lol) and I don't actually know if it's been confirmed how powerful he is? Obviously he does manage to best Clockwork the first time, although they inevitably break apart between Vlad and Danny's best efforts. But I don't know if that's simply because Dan is just that powerful or because of his nature in general. Let me give you an excerpt of what I'm thinking about:

Page 162, from Clockwork himself:

"He's been outside the timestream too long. His structural integrity has been compromised."

Of course the GN (I will be using this going forward to refer to the graphic novel, just so you know) also gave us a bunch of new DP lore about ghosts and what gives them powers. And from my understanding of the GN, ghostly powers (perhaps halfas specifically, if you'd prefer to headcanon it that way) are based entirely on a person's emotional and mental state of mind. Much like Jazz pointed out in the GN, it could be a psychosomatic response.

Therefore, it's very likely that whether Danny is more powerful than Superman is entirely based upon Danny's mental health at the exact point in time they fight. It could literally change during their fight, even. They could fight three different times and one time end up with a clear Danny win, one time a clear Superman win, and once an even tie.

To a degree, it could be argued that it helps the theory that Danny is more powerful than Superman. In another perspective, it could be argued that it doesn't prove anything at all. It's rather hard to tell because the writing of the show in general has always kinda gone up and down in terms of Danny's power level. And when you're talking about crossovers that have never actually interacted in official media (physical paperback, webcomics, animation, live-action, whatever you might consider a canon crossover), it makes it all that much harder to say.

I remember once upon a time a similar argument was making its rounds on Tumblr, and someone mentioned something Stan Lee once said. I couldn't repeat it to you verbatim, but it was something about how it depends entirely on the author on what character wins in a fight. A simpler, more straight-forward way of saying that it would probably be: Plot Armor. It's all about plot armor.

A more complicated response would be: how does the surrounding context of this fight affect the battle in question? Are either of them brainwashed, being puppeteered? Do they really want to fight or are they doing so against either or both of their wills? How do their morals affect their efforts? Or their relationship with the person in question?

After all, in a fic where Danny and Clark are good friends or even father and son, Clark would be a lot more hesitant to fight and possibly injure Danny in comparison to a situation where Danny is more like Dan- largely without morals and regrets- or where Clark is more like the Injustice Lord version of himself. All these things really affect the overall course of the fight.

(A lot of it does come down to plot armor, or just plot in general. I could have Clark go all out, use the power of the sun to totally blow Danny apart, but at the end of the day if I want Clark to die, he is going to Die.)

I know this is long-winded, and maybe only slightly answers your question? But the subject is rather complicated and there's no one clearcut answer and I thought it was better to expand on it than just dismiss it with a simplistic answer. <3

[madametamma]

Unpopular opinion: I love that they double down on Vlad being an asshole in the episode ‘Masters of all time’.  That episode gets plenty of fair criticism but the idea that Vlad would have been a better person if the accident never happened to him is one that I disagree with.

I just find the idea that Vlad was a good person until he became a victim from his best friend’s carelessness; that he WOULD be a good guy if only he could just finally get the family he always wanted, SO much less compelling than the idea that,

Vlad always had a touch of selfishness, controlling and manipulative behavior in him, and this one horrible thing that happened to him didn’t CAUSE him to be that way but instead gave him the excuse and the power to do what he always had in him.

It wasn’t the portal accident.  It was him. His choices.  That’s what makes him such a good foil for Danny.  Danny also went through the accident.  Danny also has to keep this part of himself secret.  Danny also has a complicated relationship with Jack and Maddie based on them not being able to grasp just how much they have hurt and continue to hurt him. Danny and Vlad just make different choices.

His loneliness and misery are all his own doings.  There ARE people who want to connect with Vlad, but he sees them as beneath him. He could have Maddie in his life, IF he accepted her friendship instead of her romance.  He could find a new love IF he didn’t see everyone as lesser.  He could have a strong bond with Danny, IF he had just approached him differently and didn’t make such selfish demands of him.

It’s all him. And what’s the best way to show that?

Take away the portal accident.  He no longer has his big excuse and he’s still got all his flaws.  He’s still controlling and cruel. In the normal time line, he’s convinced himself he deserves Maddie because of what he went through.  In this changed time lime, it’s just because he likes it this way. He’s selfish and no amount of getting exactly what he wants will change that.

That’s why his redemptive moment in TUE works.  He’s been stripped of everything BUT time to reflect on his own choices,

And it’s also why in Kindred Spirits, Danielle’s love for him isn’t the key to his redemption and change. He says all he wants love and family but he’s too controlling and selfish to accept Danielle flaws and all.  Everything had to be his exact way.

Vlad’s character changed in season 3.  I’ll give you that, but seasons 1-2, he is consistent. It’s just that fans wished for a different trajectory for his character.

[picturejasper20]

Got any post agit Dan headcanons?

-He has a ¨domestication arc¨ that lasts for some weeks until he begins to adjust to being a human again -Vlad gives him private education because he think it isn't the best idea for him to go to school. -He has to be reminded of eating, take showers and sometimes sleeping because he forgets he has a human body now. -Danny and Jazz often talk to him or visit him to keep an eye on him and to help if they can. -He has an specific relationship with Dani since she isn't someone he has been enemies with and they both have similar origins. -I think he has parts of Danny and Vlad's personalities and then he has his ¨main¨ personality. -Because of the previous point and having to adjust to a new reality he has a lot of identity crises. -His relationship with Vlad is complicated. They clash at first but get along better eventually. He sees Vlad as a bit of a uncle-guardian. However, he refers to Vlad by his name most of the time. -His relationship with Danny is complicated too. Danny has everything he lost, so in a way he can't helpy but feel jealous of him. He doesn't hate Danny and sees him as a bit of cousin. -He probably later takes a job? But that doesn't happen until waay later on. - I believe that the Observants may be after him post AGIT and they try putting him on trial at some point. Shenanigans happen.

[eyobis-andthe-bunnycats]

Okay, so I'm not exactly in the Phandom but hear me out:

An AU where Danny hasn't been revealed as a halfa (does the phandom still use that word?) and in which Maddie dies in an unforseen accident while on a trip out of state. Vlad at first tries to take advantage of Jack but ends up not having the heart for it after seeing how distraught Jack is and is like "you know what?! this does suck! and he's the only who can understand my pain." The two then rekindle their friendship over the loss of Maddie and Vlad tries to be a better friend to Jack but struggles with his past.

It turns out Maddie became a ghost but she's so weak in her new state, she's stuck at the location of her death and can't figure out how to get in touch with her loved ones. She has conflicting feelings of becoming a ghost and works through this new state of being. Befriending a local spirit, Maddie figures out how to leave her location but becomes lost in the Ghost Zone.

Danny, who had been away with Sam overseas for a college semester, finally gets back to Amity Park. He wasn't aware of how close his dad and long term enemy had been getting. Now Vlad and Danny have to work through their complicated relationship with this new situation.

Together the two of them with Jack find out what happened with Maddie. Upon discovering she's lost in the Ghost Zone, Danny reluctantly teams up with Vlad to track her down and bring her back home.

Haven't worked out what Jazz and Tucker have been doing in tandem with all this and I'm not quite happy with Danny's angle either but that's what I've got so far... Not sure if Danny and Vald would reveal themselves as half ghosts to Jack and Maddie but I do think that them being half ghosts could be used as a reassurance for Maddie as a full ghost.

Lots of angst and tons of healing and growth. Just putting this out there because I've been thinking about it all week and I'm trying to get more into the Phandom.