#Danny now has a bunch of new people to annoy at school

[mkarchin713]

Batman had to admit that if he had to pick between the Drakes and Dr. Crane he would chose Dr. Crane, however Tim was not immune to Fear Gas and even with Dr. Cranes lab safety accidents happen, and humans don’t bounce back like ghosts and liminals do.

In the end they make a deal. Dr. Crane will share custody of Tim with Bruce “totally not Batman’s sugar daddy” Wayne. In exchange Scarecrow gets a little leeway, as long as he isn’t targeting civilians or putting innocents in danger Batman will ignore his less than legal hobbies (Bats is a vigilante he has no place to judge) and Danny gets a full scholarship to Gotham Academy.

…

Tim now has three dads and Jason gets two little brothers.

Prompt 45

Hear me out. Danny gets de-aged and thrown into Gotham, everything’s sort of normal there. He’s somewhere between 4 and 6 and absolutely tiny. Looks a little sickly, covered in his death-scars and looks like some sort of fae child or something. 

Now it’s Gotham, normally this would mean he’d have gotten kidnapped, gotten stolen from the streets or something. The thing is though, he wasn’t dropped into Gotham all alone.

It’s kind of hard to take a child when there’s a giant eldritch abomination of a knight seemingly living in the kid’s shadow that causes terror with its very presence.

[raaorqtpbpdy]

Death by Exposure

Written for the Phic Phight Prompts: At first Danny had been worried sick that Wes had figured out that he was Phantom, but when no one believed him it had sort of become funny. Still, after the anti-ecto act, and the GIW, and his own parents very public very violently vitriolic screeds against ghosts, Danny had to wonder what he'd ever done to Wes that the guy would risk exposing Danny to all that. (from @hpwotters-blog, or at least I think that's you're tumblr.), Wes Weston wakes up to find an injured Phantom on the fire escape. (from @half-deadmagicperson), With how much time he spends on basketball and his delusional conspiracy theories, no one would ever suspect that Wes Weston has another secret hobby… (from @kadziduo), And Wes has been spending more and more time around Fenton and Co. lately - hey! he’s only trying to get some much-needed evidence against them, not trying to get all buddy-buddy with them. And anyway, they’re an entirely annoying bunch, so he wholeheartedly blames them for the fact that he’s currently being monologued at by the ghost holding him hostage. (from @a-closet-emo)

Chapter 5: Exposed

AO3 Link

[Warnings death mentions and kidnapping]

Much to both boys' surprise, Wes and Danny bonded during the remaining days of spring break. Even after Danny was fully healed and could go home, they hung out together. Wes even helped him in a ghost fight once or twice. When Sam and Tucker got back from their respective trips, they were dumbfounded.

"Danny, this is definitely just another ploy to gather evidence that you're Phantom," Sam pointed out. "I know you're not the brightest bulb, but even you have to see that."

"First of all, rude. And second of all, I showed up on his fire escape, bleeding out, and he patched me up," Danny told her. He'd already told her twice before. "I really don't think he's all that eager to expose me anymore. For now, at least."

"And how long is that gonna last?" Tucker asked. "How do you know he'll still feel that way tomorrow? Or next week?"

"I rarely ever say this, but Tucker's right," Sam said, crossing her arms. "Your parents and the Guys in White have created a propaganda machine that's constantly pumping out new anti-ghost sentiments. Wes may have resisted so far, but for how much longer?"

"Will you two just trust me?" Danny pleaded. "Ever since he figured out I'm Phantom, Wes has learned a lot more about ghosts than your average Amity Parker. He knows as well as we do that the Guys in White are lying about ghosts being non-sentient. And you're right, he still wants people to know I'm Phantom, but you were also right a couple months ago when you said he didn't want me to get hurt. Do you remember that?" 

"We do trust you, Danny," Tucker said. "We just don't understand why you'd trust Wes, unless you're like, being overshadowed, or you lost your mind or something."

"Is that it?" Sam asked. "Have you gone completely insane? Next thing you're gonna tell us is that you've started thinking of Vlad as a father figure."

"Ew," Danny cringed. "It's nothing like that. I just think maybe we misjudged Wes a little bit."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Sam scoffed.

"Great, 'cause he's having lunch with us on Monday, when school starts back up again."

"WHAT?"

Sam and Tucker were none too pleased when Wes joined them in the cafeteria, just like Danny had said he would. But he didn't go on his usual tangent about Danny's secret identity, and, "How am I the only one seeing this? Wake up!" Even when Danny openly mentioned something that happened while fighting ghosts as Phantom, Wes kept it confined to their table.

He did ask a lot of questions about ghosts, though, and every time Danny answered them, Sam and Tucker would give him a look like he'd just sold Fenton Works for a handful of beans.

"What are you doing?" Sam hissed in his ear. "He's going to use this information to expose you!"

"Eventually, maybe, but relax," Danny muttered back. "He's changing his tack, okay? He wants to prove ghosts are sentient first and get the anti-ecto acts repealed."

"Oh, sure, that's a totally attainable goal for a high school student." She rolled her eyes. "Do you really believe he's going to do that?"

"I don't know, but he seems to," Danny told her with a shrug.

"I know you guys are talking about me," Wes said. "If you won't say it to my face, don't say it at all. Put up or shut up."

"Sam says she has no faith in you," Danny told him, and she gasped and punched him in the shoulder. "Ow!"

"That's fair," Wes said. "She's gonna eat those words, though."

"I'd like to see you make me!" she sneered.

"I'd like to see that, too," Tucker piped up cheerfully. "It's always fun to watch Sam eat her words. Those words better be vegan, am I right?"

Danny laughed before saying, "actually, I think words are technically an animal product, since they come from humans. Guess Sam may have to go off her diet." The two of them busted up while Sam scowled, and Wes looked confused for a moment before chuckling awkwardly, just so he wouldn't be left out.

Wes continued to spend more time with the three of them. He could often be found taking notes on things they said about ghosts for his new conspiracy theory about the G.I.W. covering up the fact that ghosts are sentient in order to enact the legal genocide of an intelligent species.

"What are you doing hanging out with that loser so often?" Dash asked derisively as he caught the ball Wes sent his way and passed it to Josh. Wes had just told him that he was meeting Danny and his friends once basketball practice was over. Dash faked a gag for dramatic effect.

"Lay off, dude, I'm gathering evidence," Wes said. The whole school still thought Wes was obsessed with his 'Fenton is Phantom' theory, and he didn't have enough evidence to start spreading his new theory yet, so he used that as his cover. It was harder than he thought to prove that ghosts were genuinely sentient when the commonly held belief was that they were pretending to be sentient, for God only knew what reason. "If I spend time around them, they'll eventually slip up and give me everything I need."

"Dude, you're off your nut if you're still trying to prove your stupid theory," Dash said with a snort. "He's not Phantom. Just admit you're crushing on him and stop making excuses."

"I am not crushing on Danny Fenton!" Wes snapped, insulted by the insinuation, one that was made far too often for Wes' liking. "Fenton's a complete dumbass, a liar, and an asshole. I'm gay, not stupid. I would never be attracted to someone like that."

"Uh-huh, sure." Dash clearly didn't believe it. Wes just sighed and stopped arguing, knowing it would be useless if he did. Nobody ever believed anything Wes said, so that was hardly new. It was annoying though. 

When basketball practice ended, he headed to Fenton's house. Sam, Danny, and Tucker were all going to teach Wes how to play Doomed, which promised to be an... interesting experience.

Wes had never really played any video games before. He'd tried out a few at an arcade once, years ago. Kyle got to pick where they had their party on odd numbered years, so they went to one for their eleventh birthday. Wes hadn't lasted more than five minutes on any of the games there, and it ranked among the worst birthday parties he'd ever had for the pure frustration. He got back at Kyle for their twelfth though, when Wes got to choose the place and they had their birthday party at a bird sanctuary.

He knocked on the door when he arrived, and Danny answered it and immediately ushered Wes up to his room before his parents could intercept and trap Wes in a one-sided conversation about ghosts. Well, actually, with Wes there might've been some audience participation.

After an hour, Wes had made a character and approximately nine thousand derisive comments about video games, but he hadn't even managed to beat the first level. The other three were extremely amused.

"I told you I'm not good at video games," he reminded them, having to shout to be heard over their uproarious laughter as he repeatedly ran his character into a wall... again. "I told you all, like, a dozen times, but you insisted!" Even Sam had, which had surprised Wes, because she didn't seem like the gamer type. "I don't have the finger reflexes and shit."

"You spend all day behind a camera!" Tucker pointed out, panting with laughter. "How do you not have finger reflexes?"

"It's different reflexes!" 

"You know what, Wes, maybe you should stick to bird watching," Danny said, patting his shoulder with fake sympathy.

"I didn't want to play in the first pla—"

"Bird watching?!" Tucker shouted, interrupting him. "You're shitting me right now."

"No, I saw his bird watching journal," Danny said. "It's intensely nerdy." Wes shot to his feet to chew him out for exposing his shameful secret, but whatever he said, it couldn't be heard over Sam's witch-like cackle.

In the end, Wes couldn't help getting dragged in, and started laughing himself. Even as he said, "Fuck you guys," he was smiling.

They took a break from gaming when Danny's parents left to check out a ghostly disturbance that Tucker had called in a fake tip about. The four of them headed downstairs to the lab to give Wes a tour.

"If he's going to hang out with us, he needs to at least know how the ghost portal works," Danny insisted, though Sam and Tucker grumbled complaints the whole way down the stairs. "Let me show you." Danny gave him a demonstration of how he returned ghosts from the thermos into the Ghost Zone, and how to know when the portal was just closed, and when it was actually sealed.

"This is pretty cool, actually," Wes said. He'd heard about the portal, of course, the Doctors Fenton could hardly shut up about it, but looking at it was a different story, "seeing another dimension."

Danny snorted. "Careful, Wes," he warned lightly. "That's the same thing I said, right before I died in it." Wes stopped cold.

"You what?"

"Oh... I guess I forgot that for all your yelling, you don't actually know how I became half ghost, do you?" Danny's smiled turned pained. "Yeah. The portal didn't work at first, and Sam and Tucker convinced me to check out the inside. It uh... kinda turned on while I was in there and...." Danny trailed off for a moment, swallowing and furrowing his eyebrows, as though he was remembering something deeply unpleasant. "Well, short version is it kinda killed me, kinda didn't, and that's why I am the way that I am."

"Just so you know, Wes," Sam said darkly, "It's super rude to ask a ghost how they died."

"It's okay, Sam," Danny told her, pulling himself together. "I'm the one who brought it up."

Wes refrained from making a biting comment about how he wasn't the one who'd goaded Danny to his death to begin with. It seemed like it would be in poor taste, given the setting and present company. Danny clearly didn't like thinking about it. Instead, Wes pointed out a huge object against one wall, covered in a tarp, and asked what it was. 

Danny jumped on the subject change and tore the tarp away to reveal the Specter Speeder, and told Wes all about how it worked. "Maybe some other time, we'll take you with us on one of our trips into the Ghost Zone," Danny offered.

"Really? That would be awesome!"

Sam and Tucker groaned. They still weren't fully on board with Wes spending more time around them, and it wasn't like Wes wanted to get all buddy-buddy with them either. If anyone brought it up, he'd tell them the same thing he told Dash. He was gathering evidence against them, nothing more. They were all annoying, anyway.

Wes left when it was starting to get dark out. All told, despite monumentally sucking at Doomed, he'd gathered a lot of good information on ghosts and ectology when he was in the lab, and he could definitely use it to support his theory. As soon as he stepped off the front porch, something grabbed him out of nowhere, and he was flying away.

"What the?!" Wes struggled, but it was no use. He looked up to see his kidnapper, the ghost of some kind of medieval nobleman or something, wearing fine purple and black robes and a bitter expression on his blue face. "Fan-fucking-tastic." Wes pouted and crossed his arms. Of course something like this would happen. This is what he got for befriending Danny Fenton. 

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[swordshapedleaves]

Notes I took for my partner for 4 Sided Dive 1/4/23 because he has a real job and doesn't have time to watch

This is about 2700 words long and includes anything that could be considered lore for the game, along with the jokes I personally found funny and some commentary on the parts I didn't find funny.

The Cast: Travis, Sam, Liam, Ashley

Sam is host.

Recap and Chat

Cheney has been a werewolf for only a few months. Travis doesn't know if Chetney has passed the curse on. 

Liam would be a wererat. Sam says he'd be a were-eagle. 

Travis loved fighting the rest of the party. He had a bunch of extra hp and a scary howl. Liam also loves being turned against the party. Travis' goal was to give everyone at least one good smackdown.

Travis' early childhood comfort toy was a plastic werewolf. He's always wanted to be a werewolf. 

Orym got his sword blessed by the gods! Very exciting. He now has reach and grasping vines to spiderman around. 

Liam Seedling - The Wayward Pilgrim has a different punctuation every time to annoy Danni.

Predathos and Plane Rider Ryn is shit that has clearly been in the background of the world but is just now being revealed.

Travis thinks Matt has a huge overarching plot he's been hinting the whole time. Liam points out that dunamancy is also very physics and time and space based.

Liam thinks the Luxon might be Predathos. The beacons are Predathos poops.

Danni Carr is not given any hidden info. She only has what has been revealed to the public. She confirms that the primordials working with the gods was first revealed by Ryn. All other stories we've heard previously is gods vs primordials.

What is Bell's Hells gonna do about all this? 

Fearne has been to the feywild but Chetney and Orym have never been to other worlds before going to the pof. Sam doesn't know what FCG did back in the ancient past but has no memory of leaving Exandria before going to the PoF with the others.

Sam really wants to learn more about FCG at the university but is concerned that the main plot will get in the way.

Travis asks what the city on Ruidis might be. Liam suggests that it was the chunk of exandria had a city in it and they're just living up there maybe. Also maybe Predathos can make people. Danni theory is that the people are those who had faith in Predathos. Liam asks if Predathos gains strength from the faithful like gods? We just don't know. 

Otohan was previously devout Raven Queen follower. Does she have a new *God*? Or a new cause?

Galaxy Quest reference! "Is there air??? You don't know!"

Bell's Aeronautics and Space Administration

Dead god domains: death, winter, order, fate. Matron didn't replace the eaten death god, but the new death god. 

We had a fun gambling episode! Do y'all gamble or go to Vegas? Liam thinks gambling is boring. It feels like a job that is less fun than his actual job. Travis like playing niche trashy slot machines like Viking Lover. Sam likes playing Craps because people cheer. Travis says Laura loves to gamble. She plays craps and sickbow dragon. Travis is not allowed to be near Laura when she's playing. She gets real serious about it. Ashley has only ever played War. She did not win or lose money. Liam would rather buy a Nintendo switch or watch a show.

Tower of Inquiry! 

Travis pulls and FAILS

CONSEQUENCES

He has to do pushups situps or run around giggling like a school girl every time he doesn't win at Quiplash later

"What genre of video game would your character enjoy?"

God love you are so right the ToQ questions are always so shallow and inane. 

Fearne would play the Sims and just fuck with the little people.

FCG would like Duck Hunt (kill birds!) or Hit Man (kill humans!).

"What would be your character's favorite Broadway musical?"

Chetney: Beauty and the Beast

FCG: Starlight Express

Orym: Billy Elliot the Musical

Fearne: Ashley doesn't know musicals very well. Into the Woods is a little on the nose. Maybe Hadestown? She doesn't know about it but it sounds cool?

"What would be your character's guilty pleasure reality TV show?"

Ashley loves reality TV shows. Lower Decks! It's like Downton Abbey but it's on a boat and very trashy.

Sam doesn't know about reality shows and asks if there's one about therapy. There is! It's on showtime and called Couples Therapy. It's hard to watch. It's rough. The therapist is great though. 

Chetney would watch PBS! Bob Ross. NOT Bob Vila.

Liam also doesn't know about reality TV. Someone suggests Ninja Warrior or MMA. 

Sam declares that as the host he can change the rules and questions for the ToI no longer need to be evergreen.

Deep Dive

There was a fake cockroach stuck to the bottom of Travis' mug!

Teleprompters bring back childhood trauma for Ashley about having to read out loud at school and fear of messing up in front of everyone.

Sam: What was the inspiration for Shithead the undead bird and what was that like for you?

During the early design phases of character art, they were asked about animal companions or accessories. Sam said nah, and then had a second thought. He has always shat on other people's animal companions like Trinket and Frumpkin. But what if he had a bird companion? So someone designed it, and then he was like, "but I hate familiars. No. I'm done." So he showed it to Matt. And Matt took it from there. 

Liam: Orym's sword has gotten an upgrade! What's your favorite part of that and how does the name relate to Orym and Will?

Liam loves spells and magic, so playing a fighter after playing a wizard has been interesting but kind of restrictive. So he likes having grasping vine. Matt also encouraged naming the sword. A plant's seed can be blown for miles away from its parent plant before touching down and growing roots. And that's how Orym feels right now. Group consensus: Orym is a sweet guy.

Ashley: What does Fearne know about her grandmother's dealings? Does she truly believe that Morry will do them a favor with no strings attached.

Sam feels that Fearne has always known more than she lets on. Fearne thinks grandma can do no wrong. Grandma is amazing and Ashley believes she will help us. 

Travis: "No strings attached?"

Ashley: "That I cannot answer."

Travis: "What do you mean? You can't answer or you won't answer?"

Ashley: 😏

Ashley: every game I am actively trying to make you all uncomfortable. Fearne's backstory has elements added by both Matt and Aabria. They worked with me and also with each other so I don't know everything. But that's her Nana.

Liam: Nana is fucking dangerous. True neutral at best. Fearne is her darling little rapunzel. 

Travis: Why do you think Ruidis was affecting Chetney Specifically? Do you have any theories?

Chetney is worried but doesn't have any specific theories. It's the first time he ever lost control. Liam suggests the people on Ruidis are "monkeying with their god machine". Sam suggests it could be something people on Exandria are doing to Ruidis that caused this. Travis suggests Predathos wants more werewolves. 

Sam: FCG has taken an interest in cooking. What sparked this interest despite them being unable to taste or eat?

It's not despite but because of it. FCG is desperate to sense things they can't, like smell and taste and love. Also to dream. Maybe tasting is possible? Wants to understand the mechanics of cooking and food. The others suggest Sam bring in baked goods like how Travis brings in wood objects. 

Liam: Orym made a wolf figurine for Chetney but received a fairly brutal assessment of his woodworking skills. What was it like to receive that feedback from the Master Craftsman and why did Orym make the figurine in the first place?

It went about as well as Orym expected. He was trying to return Chetney's kindness after Orym told C about Will. Orym never forgot that and wanted to repay him in a way that Chetney valued. The dressing down was not unexpected.

Ashley: Fearne was able to talk to Laudna and Orym about the coin flip for their lives. How is she feeling about that coin flip now after having spoken with them? How did that decision affect her? 

Ashley couldn't even look at Marisha. She was depressed for a week about it. She felt SO BAD. You just get in the moment. It has affected Fearne in a very big way. In a protective way. She hasn't had a lot of human experience before coming to the material plane. Life and death stakes are new for her. And this choice is what made those stakes feel real. It's complicated and she doesn't understand it yet. She's still dealing with it.

Travis: How is Chetney doing now that 'the beast within' has been tamed a bit more? Does he notice a difference or is it too early to tell?

It's too early to tell! Travis doesn't believe that sneak Matt Mercer for a fucking second. We'll see what happens the next time Ruidis flashes. He knows that unfortunately Chettney unleashed will not be there but if he keeps wolfing out every time it's gonna get interesting. Sam wonders what will happen when they land on the moon. What will happen to Imogen up there? Who is gonna lose it? Ashley points out there was a weird red fire figure standing behind Imogen that has yet to be discussed. Alien looking thing. Doesn't look like anything we've ever seen before. Oblong skull!  

Sam decides to mix it up for round 2 of the Deep Dive and people will read questions for each other.

Travis reading a question for Sam: What does FCG think of this Shithead albatross for possibly no real reason as Shithead said during their conversation?

Travis: We already answered that, gimme that cup

Travis reading a new question for Sam: What did FCG think of the Speak with Dead ritual that they witnessed with Lord Esterosh? How do they feel about such clerical practices?

It's odd because FCG is technically a cleric but they don't have a religion. Speaking with a dead body is something FCG has never experienced before. It's super creepy and gets into soul stuff. They have an idea about how souls work, but if you can just talk to someone after they're dead, what are we? What is a soul even? What do I even believe? This is plaguing me as a human being named Sam Reigel and also as a character named FCG. What DO I believe? I don't actually know yet and it's going to be fun to figure it out.

Ashley reading for Liam: With Orem's high history, what does he think of their options in regards to visiting the Fay realm versus shadowfell? 

That's super easy to answer because while Orym does have a high history, just the way Sam chooses when to pay attention to the rules or not, I will say that Orym does not know shit about other planes. All his history is of the world of exandria. 

For the record Sam does not willy-nilly choose which rules to not follow, he just does not follow the stupid ones. Luck is a stupid rule.

Liam reading a question for Ashley: Fearne seems to be enjoying her new role as Professor Callaway, Teacher of Fire. What was it about teaching ladna that spoke to her so much?

Laudna asking Fearne to teach her something made her feel very special. It's just fun. Fearne is fascinated by all the different little things people are good at, what makes them tick, and why they are able to do those things. That Laudna was fascinated in turn by what Fearne is good at was very flattering. She just had a blast with that. (Not clear if pun was intended)

Sam ASHLEY reading a question for Travis: How did Chetney feel to have his original howl go unanswered by the Gorgynei and need to rely on the howls of his friends to get their attention?

It was just a bad roll of the dice but Travis likes the metaphor behind it. Alone he wasn't enough, but together they can accomplish anything. Sam points out that a failure now leaves room for success in the future.

Because Ashley stole Sam's chance to read a question for Travis, he goes and pulls a question from the broken Tower of Inquiry. Danni lets him read from her tablet.

Tower of Inquiry

"What would your characters Smash Ultimate main be?"

Holy shit this is literally your example of a shitty inane question. Your stupid media premonition ability strikes again!

Sam doesn't know what any of those words mean. 

Orym would choose Link. A no brainer.

Chetney would choose Princess Peach.

Sam and Ashley say they have to look up the options, but before they can, Ashley says she'd pick Bowser if that's an option. Sam says in flat, obviously lying voice that he loves to play smash and would choose Lucario? (This is the first name he saw and he doesn't know what a Lucario is). Oh it's like a fox thing. Liam suggests Kirby for FCG. Sam says he wants to play as a robot. There's gotta be a robot. Liam asks if MegaMan is in smash bros. Danni suggest Samus. Sam finds R O B and says that's what FCG would be. The 1980s Nintendo robot toy that looked fun but was not fun to play with. 

Sam as the host has asked that they play a special little mini game. His New Year's resolution is to finally learn the names of our beloved crew and staff. So we're going to play a little game show called Sam Riegel Name that Crew Member.

I don't think this will have any relevant character information and I'm tired. So I'm skipping this bit.

It was a bit. He guessed wrong every time, including when it was Marisha Ray. I didn't enjoy the bit.

Okay we made it past the break.

Almost done!

Quiplash!

Ashley is Smashley

Travis is Butt butter

Sam is Travis

Liam is Also Travis

Deep Dive mixed into Quiplash

Sam: FCG has been reaching out to the Changebringer in various ways, looking for little signs from her. How is he feeling about this journey so far?

Real confused. Changebringer hasn't really asserted Herself in his life so far. They are desperate for any sign. Could try another god. He is easily swayed in the gods department.

Ashley: It's possible the group will visit the Fay realm and get to meet Nana Morri. How do you feel about that potential?

Extremely excited about that potential. I hope we go. Can't wait for everyone to meet Peepers. (This question was answered in 30 seconds in between quiplash rounds)

Travis: How did Fjord feel about losing his sense of the Wildmother and having replaced by the Cloaked Serpent? What was it like when she returned to him?

"That sucked! I was super bummed. I got my ass kicked and had to give up the crystal super fast that first game and I was really grumpy about it. I did it for love. I was pissed! And then it was kind of nice having a betrayer god be like, help me take down my runaway demigod. It was fun. But it was nice feeling her come back because I was real confused both in character and in real life." Danny suggests that the wild mother was suppressed rather than gone and Travis agrees that that is probably what happened.

Liam: Caleb was so deeply tied to the Cerberus Assembly. What is it like as a player to have the Assembly's machinations reaching into Campaign 3?

Caleb is just sitting in the back of Liam's head pointing excitedly and going, "Ooh! Ooh!" He can't wait for more Ludinus lore drops. He loves/hates the Cerberus Assembly and can't wait to learn more. What are they up to? Sam also wants to know what's up? Danni asks what if we get to see NPC Caleb and Beau because they're still tracking Ludinus. Sam says, "run into Caleb and Beau? ON THE MOON??" 

Ending Announcements

No 4 sided dive next month because we'll be having watch parties for LoVM

The lights went black and everyone screamed! When they came back up the broom had been murdered. You know, Broomy, the happy set broom that we all know and love. Looks like we have a murder mystery to solve when 4 Sided Dive returns in March!

[rhys-writes-sometimes]

Music Worth Making Part 4: The Hollywood Ghost Club

Requested: sort of

Warnings: mentions of death, bad writing

Series Summery: When the reader’s life is ripped away from them, they’re distraught. But with her two best friends and three certain ghosts, maybe the afterlife isn’t so bad after all. 

Chapter Summery: The boys learn about Bobby, and drag you along to haunt him. They also drag you along to the Hollywood Ghost Club

Words: 4310

A/N: sorry this took so long, I didn’t write for a few days, and I didn’t expect this chapter to be so long. I think this is the longest fic I’ve ever wrote! please tell me if you catch any mistakes, because once again, i did not edit this. also please tell me (on anon or not!) if there is a trigger warning you want tagged. hope you enjoy! (side note: i did a little research and gentlefolk is in fact the gender neutral term for gentleman)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 5 | Masterlist

______________________________________________________

“You’re…… a ghost,” Flynn said, her face morphing from confusion, to surprise, to something that looked like regret.

You nodded glumly. 

“So that’s why you weren’t in school today? Because you died?” she shook her head. “I can’t believe this. I- I need a minute.” She ran out of the garage. 

Your face fell out of the expression you didn’t realize you had been putting on for Flynn. Taking a deep breath, you sat down on the couch, not knowing what to do.

“Hey, Y/N, I-” Julie stopped when she saw you. “You okay?”

“Huh? Oh, oh yeah, I’m fine,” you lied. You could tell that Julie didn’t believe you, but she didn’t push. You were thankful. You didn’t even know what was off.

“Okay, well, I just wanted you to know that Danny’s staying in Carlos’s room now.”

“Really?” you asked, standing up. “Thank you Jules!” you went to hug the girl, but then remembered you were made of air. 

“Yeah, no problem,” Julie said, trying to make what you had accidentally created a bit less awkward. “Well, I gotta go do homework. I guess that’s one perk to being dead, you don’t have to do school anymore.” She laughed a little as she waved goodbye. 

That was true. You had a lot more freetime now. Maybe even time to sing?

Looking around to make sure no one was there, you closed your eyes and could practically hear the start of your favorite song. You started singing along, quietly at first, but soon you were belting it out at the top of your lungs and dancing all around the room, passing through the furniture that was in your way. 

The song ended, and you smiled, happy for the first time in a while. Before you could continue on to the next song, your moment of bliss was interrupted. 

“I didn’t know you could sing,” Luke said from his spot in the doorway. You jumped slightly. You had been so caught up in the music that you didn’t notice him watching you. 

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, stepping into the studio. “That was really good.”

You felt your face heating up. “Thanks,” you said quietly. It was the first time you had been complimented on your voice, never having the guts to sing anywhere outside of the school choir. 

“Do you sing much?” he asked, moving to sit on the couch. 

“Um, not really, no.” You sat next to him. “My parent’s wouldn’t let me. I only sang in the ensemble for the school choir.”

“Wow. That was amazing for someone who doesn’t sing much.” You felt yourself blush slightly. He smiled at you. 

“Hey, um, would you wanna join the band?” he asked, fidgeting with his rings. 

Your eyes widened. “Join- join Julie and the Phantoms? I, I’d be honored to, but what about Alex and Reggie?”

“What about them?”

“Well, shouldn’t they get a say in it? Julie too? I mean, it’s their band, too.”

Luke waved his hand dismissively. “I’m sure once they hear you sing, they’ll agree with me.”

You bit your lip. “Even if I did join, there’s a risk of someone recognizing me. How are you going to explain that the dead kid is singing on stage with Julie?”

“I’m not. Julie would explain that,” Luke smirked, earning a playful glare from you. “Seriously though, you could wear a disguise or something. I mean, you said you just moved here a few years ago and you’re pretty shy, so most people don’t know you, right?”

“Maybe….” You knew that someone was bound to recognize you, but decided that it was a problem for Future You to figure out. “Alright, I’ll join.”

Luke bounced up. “Yessss!” he exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air. You squeaked slightly when he pulled you into a tight hug. “Sorry,” he said, loosening his grip. You smiled at him, letting him know it was fine. “Welcome to the band.”

-----

“We’re playing a school dance? Sweet!” Reggie said, looking at the poster Julie had shown you. 

“It’s not exactly the Strip,” Luke muttered, making you roll your eyes slightly.

“And you’re not exactly alive, so you should be happy we have our first gig,” Reggie retorted. 

“I wasn’t in love with the idea at first either,” Julie admitted, “but it could be a great way for us to build a following, right?”

“Yeah, we need to play wherever we can, whenever we can,” you said, nodding at Julie. 

She raised an eyebrow at you. “We?” 

You felt your heart start to speed up as you realized you had accidentally told her you joined the band. Luckily, Luke saved you from having to explain yourself. 

“Ye- yeah, we. I invited Y/N to join the band earlier. I hope that was okay,” he said, throwing an arm around your shoulders and hugging you to his side. 

Julie nodded hesitantly. “It’s fine, I just wish you had asked us first.” Reggie nodded his agreement. 

“I know, and I’m really sorry-” you started, but Julie cut you off. 

“It’s fine, Y/N, really.” She smilied at you. 

Luke smiled. “Let’s rock those kid’s faces off! And then play the clubs.”

“And then record a single that gets a billion streams?” you said hopefully.

“I don’t know what that is, but hopefully it gets us a manager and a tour,” Luke said with a smirk.

“And then we release a bunch of hit albums!” Julie said excitedly. 

“Put out a country album that does surprisingly well.” You all stared at Reggie. “I shred on the banjo,” he shrugged. 

“Then I’ll learn how to fiddle,” Julie said, fist bumping him. 

“And before you know it, we’re being inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame!”

“But one of us isn’t there,” you said somewhat ominously. “Because we had a blow-out in 2032.”

“My money’s on Alex. He’s just so sensitive,” Reggie said, making you laugh slightly. 

“What are we waiting for, let’s get rehearsing!” Luke said eagerly. 

“Uh… where is Alex?” Julie asked just as he poofed back into the room. 

“Oh, hey Alex. Where’ve you been?” you asked the drummer. He looked slightly out of breath, and had a faint glow of happiness to him. 

“We need to start practicing,” Luke said, slightly annoyed.

“Yeah? For what?”

“Dance news!” Flynn called out as she walked in. “I don’t have a date. But I don’t care because I’m so psyched to see you guys perform.”

“Oh man, we’re playing a dance?” Alex asked, his disappointment evident in his voice. 

“Of course dude. That’s how we get a following nowadays.” Luke sat in the chair behind him. You laughed quietly. 

“Yeah, get with the program, Alex,” Julie laughed along with you. 

“What? The guys are here? Hey guys!” Flynn waved in the wrong direction. 

“Other way, sweetie,” you chuckled. “They’re sitting over here, with me.”

“Oh, yeah.” Flynn said quietly and waved in your direction. Reggie waved back.

“Okay, well, now that Alex has graced us with his presence, can we start working?” Luke asked, impatient.

“Yes! We’re gonna rehearse, you wanna stick around?” Julie asked Flynn, who frowned slightly. 

“I’m supposed to blow up 500 balloons for the school dance, but this sounds way better.”

Just then, Carlos burst into the studio and accidentally walked through Alex. “Hey Julie! Remember those orbs in dad’s pictures? I…. I think they’re ghosts.”

You, Julie, and the guys all shared a look. 

“But don’t worry,” Carlos continued, scanning the room. “This room is…. Is….” You sat forward slightly, waiting to hear his verdict. “This room is clear. I’m not getting the ghost tinglies.”

“Wrong again, little dude,” Reggie laughed. 

“Have no fear. If they come back, I will protect you because I am the man of the house.”

You laughed. “Isn’t Ray supposed to be the man of the house?”

“Isn’t dad supposed to be the man of the house?” Julie asked, echoing you. You smirked. 

Carlos crossed his arms. “There can be two,” he muttered, causing you to laugh again. “Dad needs all the help he can get, right?”

He held up a salt shaker. “According to the internet, this burns their souls out. A little sprinkle will keep them from ever coming in here.”

Your eyes widened with fear. It couldn’t possibly be true, could it? Taking no chances, you pulled your legs up into the chair you were sitting in as Carlos threw some salt your way. 

“No!”Alex screamed as some salt hit him. “Nooo! Oh god, I’m…. I’m fine. I’m totally fine,” he said when nothing happened to him. You sighed in relief.

“Flynn, could you…?” you asked, nodding your head to indicate taking Carlos out of the studio. In times like these it was useful to be a ghost that only some people could see. 

“Hey, Carlos, you know who’s hungry? Me,” she said, taking your hint. “Um, salt me a path to the kitchen.”

“Shall we try this again?” Julie asked once they were gone.

“Yes please, but remind us later. There’s some Sunset Curve songs that we wanna show you,” Luke said, standing up again. 

“Oooo, show me now,” Julie said, pushing away her microphone. 

“Yeah, okay!” Luke said, putting down his guitar and walking over to his journal. He took a paper out of it and read the title of the song: “‘Home Is Where My Horse Is’. Reggie, stop putting your country songs in my journal.”

“That was a gift,” Reggie said, winking at you. 

“Thanks, buddy.” Ignoring Reggie as he tried to get Luke to look at the song, he walked over to Julie and handed her his journal. You walked over to look over her shoulder. “I dog-eared the ones I think you would slay.”

“Who’s Emily?” You asked, the name catching your eye as Julie flipped through the pages. 

“That one’s not dog-eared,” Luke said, frantically trying to get the journal back. Julie held it to her chest. You mouthed “sorry” at him as he looked at you.

“‘If you could only know that I’d never let you go’,” Julie read out loud. “Wow Luke, I didn’t know you were such a romantic.”

“He’s not,” Alex said, walking over. “That one’s actually about-”

“No one.” Luke cut him off. “Uh, that’s just something that I tried…” Was it your imagination, or did his eyes flicker over to you? “B- but if you go to the next dog-eared page, I got a tune that’s just…. It’s got a killer beat.”

He started playing the song on his guitar. You tilted your head to the side, sure that you had heard the song before. 

“So you wanna sample,” Julie spoke up, cutting Luke off. You realized where you had heard it before. It had been one of Rose’s favorite songs. 

Luke scoffed. “What do you mean, ‘sample’?”

“Sample someone else’s music,” you chimed in. 

“My mom and I used to sing that song at the top of our lungs in the car all the time.” 

“It’s a classic Trevor Wilson song.” 

Julie nodded, thankful that you knew what she was talking about.

“Nope.” Luke picked up his notebook. “It’s a classic our song.”

“Pure Sunset Curve,” Reggie said with a smile. “I’ve never even heard of Trevor Wilson.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re mixing it up, you know, with another song,” Alex said. 

“Julie doesn’t mix up songs,” you said. “Trust me.”

“Yeah, me and his daughter used to be best friends. We used to hang out at their place all the time! I know that song.” You looked at Julie. Having moved to Los Angeles after Julie and Carrie stopped being friends, you forgot sometimes that they used to like each other. 

“Here,” she said, pulling out her computer. “I’ll prove it.”

“His first album had a bunch of hits, but none of his later stuff is as good,” you said while Julie searched his name.

The boys gasped as she turned the computer around. You looked at her in confusion. 

“That’s Bobby,” Luke said.

“Seriously? I just told you his name is Trevor,” you said, slightly concerned for his memory. 

“Okay, so he changed it, alright? That’s definitely Bobby. He was our rhythm guitarist.” Alex spoke up. Reggie stood still, clearly in shock. 

Julie scoffed. “Trevor Wilson was in your band?”

“I can’t get over how old he looks…” Reggie finally said. 

“Oh, he looks like a substitute teacher,” Alex said in disgust. 

You looked at Julie in confusion again. Sure, you had had a few bad substitutes, but you didn’t think it was enough to be an insult. 

“Julie… what were his other hits?” Luke asked hesitantly. 

“”Get Lost’.”

“Yeah. I wrote that.”

“‘Long Weekend’?”

“Yeah, Luke wrote that one too,” Reggie spoke up. You and Julie looked at him, the surprise evident on her face. 

“‘Crooked Teeth’?”

“And that,” Alex said. “It was about Reggie.”

“What?” Reggie exclaimed, shocked and slightly hurt. “I thought that was about you! I don’t like that song anymore.” You held in a laugh. 

“Wait… this is freaking me out. Trevor’s songs are kind of big to me,” Julie explained as Luke picked up some darts. “He’s the one who introduced me to rock.”

“Yeah, and Julie introduced me to rock using his music,” you said. You were freaking out a little too. You loved Trevor’s songs, so it was pretty weird to think that the ghosts standing in front of you had actually written them. 

“Yeah, Luke introduced you to rock,” Alex scoffed. 

“So this whole time, I thought you were connected to my mom. But instead, you’re connected to Carrie’s dad? Out of all the people, it had to be the one girl who had it out for me.”

“All right, well, add it to our list of questions,” you muttered. 

“Back when Carrie and I were friends, the three of us used to talk about music all the time.” Julie looked at the guys. “He never mentioned you guys.”

“And that’s unbelievable!” Luke said, throwing another dart at the board. “He can take all the credit and he doesn’t even mention us?” Reggie shook his head slightly. 

“And he’s rich,” you said. The boys all looked at you. “He has his own helicopter.”

“With his face on it,” Julie added.

“And he parks it in front of that hotel?” Reggie asked in shock. 

“No. He gets to park it in front of his mansion.” You rolled your eyes. 

“Mansion?” Reggie’s voice cracked. 

“Dude, we live in a garage,” Alex spoke up.

“It’s not about the money, it’s about the music!” Luke said, but it sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as anyone else.

“It’s a little bit about the money though!”

“A little bit about the money!”

“He could have shared it with our families! Maybe then my parents wouldn’t have had their house turned into a bike shack!”

“What he did is steal our legacy.” 

You felt really bad for them. You couldn’t even imagine how it would feel if you had worked that hard on something, and then someone stole it. 

Luke turned to Julie. “Where does he live.”

She sighed. “Above the beach in Malibu. 

“Let’s go teach him a lesson,” Reggie said. The boy’s face was usually so kind and bouncy, but now it was stone cold. 

“Wait, what? Guys! We have to rehearse for our dance! This is our first gig, and Y/N’s first time singing with us!” Julie said frantically, standing up. 

Alex glanced at you in confusion, and you remembered you hadn’t told him yet about you joining the band. 

Before you could say anything, however, Luke grabbed your hand and poofed out. 

-----

“Bobby’s house is ridiculous!” Alex exclaimed as you looked around.

“Have you seen these platinum records?” you asked.

Reggie turned and looked at them. “Platinum?”

Luke was staring at a different set of records. “He recorded ‘My Name Is Luke’...” he muttered. “My name is Luke!”

Just then a man walked in wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket.

“It’s him!” Reggie said. 

“Hey, Carrie! I’m gonna meditate!” Bobby called out. 

“He wears sunglasses indoors,” Reggie said, disgusted. 

“I’m in the den!” Carrie called out. 

“Cool!” Bobby called out before going upstairs. 

Reggie shook his head. “I can’t stand him!”

“Time for his past to haunt him,” Luke said, a scowl on his features. 

He started up the stairs, with Reggie following him and you following a bit more hesitantly.

“Wait!” Alex called out, making you all turn around. “You know, it’s my…. It’s my first time haunting someone. I wanna make it special.”

You looked at him, confusion written on your face. “Okay, Alex,” you said before turning around and continuing up the stairs, Luke and Reggie joining you. 

“Yeah, that was weird, okay,” you heard him mutter as he followed you. 

You made your way into Bobby’s room, where he sat with candles lit. 

“Agh!” you said as you felt another jolt of pain flair through your ankle. The boys looked at you, concerned. You shook your head to let them know you were fine. It was the weirdest thing, it’s like it flared up when it was the most inconvenient….

You watched the boys giggle as Luke gave Bobby a wet willy.

You and Alex snuck over to the candles, forgetting for a moment that no one could see you, and blew them out. 

Reggie turned on the music player, which started playing a rock song. Bobby walked over and turned it off, but Reggie just turned it back on, causing Bobby to unplug it. 

You hadn’t noticed Luke sneaking away, but he was gone when the shower turned on a moment later. 

“Carrie?” Bobby asked. You giggled with the boys.

Bobby walked into the bathroom to see the shower running just as Luke turned it off. The mirror across from the shower was now foggy, and perfect for a ghost to write on.

“Ooo, Luke, you should write ‘Hello, Bobby’ on it!” you suggested through a fit of giggles. Reggie pointed at you to show his agreement. 

Grinning, Luke wrote on the mirror in his best creepy handwriting, which also happened to be his best handwriting. 

Bobby tried to run out of the bathroom, but Alex held the door shut.

“Let�� Me…. Out!!” he shouted. Alex finally let go of the door and Bobby practically fell out of the room, causing all of you to laugh.

Luke grabbed your hand again and you poofed down to the patio just as Bobby was leaving. You watched as his helicopter flew over your heads. 

“Oh! Quick, let’s moon him before he gets too far away,” Reggie said, causing you to roll your eyes. 

“He can’t see us,” you reminded them.

“Oh it’s not for him, it’s for us,” Luke said as he pulled down his pants. You averted your eyes. 

“So, did you guys have fun in there?” Julie asked, storming outside. 

“Okay, you’d do the exact same if he stole all of your songs,” Luke defended them. 

“But you guys have new songs. With me. The best way to get back at Trevor is for this band to do great. And to do great, we have to play at dances, then clubs-”

“And tours, I know.” Luke walked up to her. Julie still looked mad.

“I’ll see you guys at the school. We go on at nine. Please don’t be late. There’s gonna be a lot of people there.”

“We got it, alright? Don’t worry,” Alex said. 

Julie sighed as she headed back inside. 

“I don’t care what Julie says! I’m glad we scared Bobby,” Reggie said with a small grin. “We should’ve done more! Like… like written ‘thief’ on his forehead.”

“And Alex, how did you shut the door earlier? You could barely open a garage door,” you asked, confused. 

Reggie looked at his friend, proud of him. “Learned that from your new friend Willie, didn’t ya?”

Alex blushed slightly. “Yeah, well, he taught me some things, we screamed in a museum…” he caught the look of confusion on your face. “It’s a long story.”

Luke smirked. “You think he has a few other tricks up his sleeve?”

“Let’s find out,” Alex said with a shrug. 

-----

You landed near a beach, a boy on a skateboard coming to a stop in front of you. 

“Hey, what’s up man?” he said to Alex, doing a short handshake. “You brought friends.”

“Yeah, these are my bandmates, Luke, Reggie, and Y/N.”

“Cool, I’m Willie. So, you guys here to learn some tricks?” He waved his hand in the direction of two police fourwheelers, making their sirens go off. 

Reggie’s mouth hung open. “Do it again!”

“Actually, we were thinking a little bigger,” Luke said. “An old bandmate stole from us and we wanna confront him, face to face.”

“Alright, is this, uh, friend of yours a lifer?” Willie asked. 

“Oh, that’s fancy ghost lingo for the living,” Alex said before you could ask. “Little something I picked up.”

You caught Willie smiling at Alex. 

“Ah! Then yeah, he’s a lifer,” Reggie said, using the fancy ghost lingo he had just been taught. “Too much of a fancy-pants for street dogs.”

You snorted. “Wait, that’s how you guys died?”  Julie had never told you, and you had just never discussed it with them. 

“Uh, that’s not important-” Luke started to say, but Willie cut him off.

“Wait, you didn’t die with them?”

“Uh, no,” you said, trying to stop laughing. “Some guy killed me.”

Willie winced. “Ouch.” You nodded. 

“Anyways,” Luke said, trying to get the conversation back on track. “Can you help us?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Willie said, shaking his head. “Speaking to lifers is even out of my lead.” The guy’s faces fell. “You know, but there is one ghost who might be able to help you guys. He’s kind of a big deal…”

“Literally, anything would help,” Luke said. 

“Oh, alright. Well, um, I gotta take care of some things, but I’ll meet you where Alex and I met, eight o’clock. See ya.” He skated away. 

-----

“Right this way,” Willie said, leading you into a huge ballroom-type room.

“Whoa,” Luke muttered. “So this is where your hot-shot ghost lives, huh?”

“Yeah, we’ve walked past this hotel like, a million times. How come we’ve never heard of it?”Alex asked. 

“That’s because this area has been sealed off for decades,” Willie said with a grin. “I mean, you wouldn’t even know this place exists unless you’re invited. Alright, I gotta go make sure everything’s cool, but I’ll be right back.” He turned and disappeared into the crowd.   

You inhaled sharply as the pain in your ankle flared up again. Luke looked over at you, confused, and you pointed to your ankle. He nodded, understanding.

“‘The Hollywood Ghost Club’?” Reggie asked, oblivious to what had just happened between you and Luke. “Man, this place is creepy.”

“Yeah, well, so are we.” Alex smiled.

“I don’t know about this,” you muttered. 

“Well, if you get scared, you can always hide behind me,” Alex said. “I’ll be hiding behind Luke.”

“You guys need to grow up, okay?” Luke said as Alex moved behind him. “We’re gonna get back at Bobby. He needs to pay for what he did to us.”

“Yeah.” Alex said. Then he whispered to you: “I’m still gonna hide behind him.”

Just then, Willie came back. “We’re all good!” he said with a smile. 

“Oh, uh, cool,” Alex said, flustered. “Hey, just so you know, we have like, an hour. We’ve got a gig with Julie.”

“Oh yeah, no worries.”

“Cool.”

“Let’s go.”

You all walked down the stairs, taking in all the fancy clothing people were wearing. Well, the four of you walked. Willie slid down the railing. 

“I think we’re a little overdressed,” Luke said. You smirked.

Suddenly a woman walked through Alex. 

“Whoa! I thought these people were all going to be ghosts,” Reggie said. 

“Nope. These are all lifers.” Willie gestured to the entirety of the club. 

“Oh, uh, lifers are actually-”

“Alive people, I was listening,” Reggie said, cutting off Alex with a smirk. 

“But this is a very exclusive crowd. Everybody here has uh, paid a lot to get a sneak peak at the afterlife.”

“I always knew rich people did weird stuff like this,” Reggie muttered, making you laugh. 

A ghost appeared behind you. 

“Gentleman, my lady,” he stopped and looked at you a moment. “I have a table for you.” Your heart sank as he misgendered you, but you didn’t correct him. 

“Oh, uh, Y/N here is actually non-binary,” Luke said. You beamed at him. 

“My apologies, gentlefolk. Right this way.”

You followed him to a reserved table in the front, right in front of the stage. 

Luke pulled out a chair for you to sit. You blushed. You also squealed internally when you noticed Willie do the same for Alex. 

“Okay, so who’s gonna make us visible so we can confront our old bandmate?” Luke asked Willie once everyone was seated. You looked around in wonder at the club.

“Oh, no, no. None of these lifers have the power to do that.” Dramatic music started to play out of nowhere. You thought you recognized the melody, although you couldn’t quite place it. “Oh, but here comes the ghost who does!”

“Ladies and gentleman,” boomed a voice from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, “back from the dead by popular demand, Caleb Covington!”

Willie cheered along with the rest of the club’s members as a man appeared floating above the stage. 

“Did you miss me?” he asked.

You gasped, your eyes widening.

“What?” Luke asked you. “What’s wrong?”

You turned to him with fear in your eyes. “That’s him.”

“Who?”

“The man who killed me.”

tag list: @sunsetcurvej @ifilwtmfc @xplrreylo @phantompogues @caitsymichelle13 @yagorlemmalyn

[twoidiotwriters1]

Written In The Stars CXV (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: I like my book and I’ll write the plot however I want but at the same time I want everyone to like my story pls like my story -Danny

Words: 3,849 

Series’ Masterlist

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Listen to: ‘No Goobyes’ -By Dua Lipa

Chapter Thirteen: Dumbledore's Army.

As soon as she sat down next to Ron, a head popped out of the fireplace.

"Sirius!" Ron and Mel exclaimed together.

"Hi," He smiled.

"Hi," They all responded, kneeling around the fire.

"How're things?"

"Not that good," said Harry. "The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams —"

"— or secret Defense Against the Dark Arts groups?" said Sirius.

A second passed.

"How did you know about that?" Harry demanded.

Mel pulled Grey away from the fire while Hermione kept Crookshanks far from it as well.

"Who didn't know about that?" Mel said grumpily.

"You want to choose your meeting places more carefully," said Sirius, his grin only getting wider. "The Hog's Head... How's your Grandad, Mel?"

Ron and Harry, who had no idea of what that meant, turned to look at her with confusion. Mel let out another groan.

"I had to play dumb and pretend I didn't know him," She looked at the boys with a tense expression. "The bartender's my grandad."

"What?!" Ron and Harry asked at the same time.

"Well, it was better than the Three Broomsticks!" said Hermione. "That's always packed with people —"

"— which means you'd have been harder to overhear. You've got a lot to learn, Hermione."

"Who overheard us?" Harry demanded.

"Mundungus, of course," said Sirius laughing. "He was the witch under the veil."

"That was Mundungus?" Harry said. "What was he doing in the Hog's Head?"

"What do you think he was doing?" said Sirius. "Keeping an eye on you, of course."

"I'm still being followed?" asked Harry in outrage.

"Yeah, you are, and just as well, isn't it, if the first thing you're going to do on your weekend off is organize an illegal defence group."

"Why was Dung hiding from us?" asked Ron. "We'd've liked to've seen him."

"He was banned from the Hog's Head twenty years ago, and Mel's gran' got a long memory. We lost Moody's spare Invisibility Cloak when Sturgis was arrested, so Dung's been dressing as a witch a lot lately... Anyway... First of all, Ron — I've sworn to pass on a message from your mother."

"Oh yeah?" said Ron fearfully.

"She says on no account whatsoever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group. She says you'll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also advises Harry and Hermione not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over either of them and simply begs them to remember that she has their best interests at heart. She would have written all this to you, but if the owl had been intercepted you'd all have been in real trouble, and she can't say it for herself because she's on duty tonight."

"On duty doing what?"

"Never you mind, just stuff for the Order," said Sirius. "So it's fallen to me to be the messenger and make sure you tell her I passed it all on because I don't think she trusts me to."

"What does my mum says about it?"

Sirius smiled again.

"She said 'Why do I even bother?' "

Mel snorted.

"So you want me to say I'm not going to take part in the defence group?" Ron said sadly.

"Me? Certainly not!" said Sirius, raising his eyebrows. "I think it's an excellent idea!"

"You do?" said Harry.

"Shocker," Mel replied sarcastically.

"Of course I do! D'you think your parents and I would've lain down and taken orders from an old hag like Umbridge?"

"But — last term all you did was tell me to be careful and not take risks —"

"Last year all the evidence was that someone inside Hogwarts was trying to kill you, Harry! This year we know that there's someone outside Hogwarts who'd like to kill us all, so I think learning to defend yourselves properly is a very good idea!"

"And if we do get expelled?" Hermione asked.

"Hermione, this whole thing was your idea!" said Harry.

"I know it was... I just wondered what Sirius thought," She shrugged.

"Well, better expelled and able to defend yourselves than sitting safely in school without a clue," said Sirius.

"We won't get expelled," Mel rolled her eyes. "Not as long as my uncle is Headmaster. He won't throw us out knowing we're being hunted. We're safe as long as we learn how to play our cards."

Sirius gave her a funny look.

"You've been practising your skills, little Em?"

Mel winked at him.

"So," said Sirius, "how are you organizing this group? Where are you meeting?"

"Well, that's a bit of a problem now," said Harry. "Dunno where we're going to be able to go..."

"How about the Shrieking Shack?" suggested Sirius.

"Hey, that's an idea!" said Ron excitedly, but Hermione clicked her tongue.

"Well, Sirius, it's just that there were only five of you meeting in the Shrieking Shack when you were at school, and all of you could transform into animals and I suppose you could all have squeezed under a single Invisibility Cloak if you'd wanted to. But there are about thirty of us and none of us is an Animagus, so we wouldn't need so much an Invisibility Cloak as an Invisibility Marquee —"

"Fair point... Well, I'm sure you'll come up with somewhere... There used to be a pretty roomy secret passageway behind that big mirror on the fourth floor, you might have enough space to practice jinxes in there —"

"Fred and George told me it's blocked," said Harry gloomily. "Caved in or something."

"Oh..." Sirius frowned. "Well, I'll have a think and get back to —"

His eyes widened slightly, and he turned his head to the side as if hearing something.

"Sirius?" Harry asked quietly. Sirius' head pulled back abruptly. "Why did he — ?"

A hand had appeared amongst the flames, groping as though to catch hold of something; a stubby, short-fingered hand covered in ugly old-fashioned rings...

The four of them stood up and ran, Mel and Harry both stopped and looked back at Umbridge's hand in the fire. Both frightened, wide-eyed, before disappearing into their rooms.

"Hermione," Mel whispered so Parvati and Lavender wouldn't wake up, closing the door behind her. "I talked to Erick today."

"About what?"

"I think we solved the communication problem," She said, pulling out her watch and handing it to her friend. "But I'll need your help."

"Silencio!" said Hermione hastily, pointing her wand at Harry's frog, which deflated silently before them. "Well, he mustn't do it again, that's all. I just don't know how we're going to let him know. We can't send him an owl."

"I can send one to my mum," Mel objected, silencing her raven with one swift wand movement.

"I don't reckon he'll risk it again," said Ron. "He's not stupid, he knows she nearly got him. Silencio!" Ron's raven only sounded louder. "Silencio! SILENCIO!"

"It's the way you're moving your wand," said Hermione. "You don't want to wave it, it's more a sharp jab."

"Ravens are harder than frogs," said Ron. Mel gave him a look as she held her mute raven.

"Fine, let's swap," said Hermione. "Silencio!"

The raven stopped making a sound.

"Very good, Miss Granger!" said Professor Flitwick. "Now, let me see you try, Mr Weasley!"

Mel snorted, earning a nudge from Hermione.

"Wha — ? Oh — oh, right," said Ron. "Er — Silencio!"

He poked the frog in the eye; it gave a deafening croak and jumped off the desk.

"I already told you I'll help you with charms!" Mel exclaimed, trying to aim to Peeves, who was floating above them and attempting to throw an ink pellet at the students.

It was raining hard outside, so they were left to hang out inside the classrooms with little to do.

"Like you helped me last week?" Ron asked bitterly.

"I said I was sorry, all right?" She rolled her eyes. "Lost track of time..."

"You didn't want to help me," He argued.

"Don't be silly," She retorted. "Watch this..."

She flicked her wand and shot a splash of ice-cold water towards Peeves' butt. The Poltergeist yelped and turned around, but Mel had hidden her wand and was now looking at Ron, pretending to be focused on the conversation. Peeves left the classroom fuming, once gone, they erupted into cackles.

"You shouldn't taunt him, Mel," Hermione warned her. "He can be cruel if he wants to."

"Me too," The girl smirked.

"I've got permission!" Angelina ran into the classroom. "To re-form the Quidditch team!"

"Excellent!" said the boys.

"Yeah, I went to McGonagall and I think she might have appealed to Dumbledore — anyway, Umbridge had to give in. Ha! So I want you down at the pitch at seven o'clock tonight, all right, because we've got to make up time, you realize we're only three weeks away from our first match?"

She left as quickly as she had appeared; Peeves flew back in, his arms carrying a bunch of new ink pellets to throw at them. Mel felt the slightest sting of worry.

"Hope this clears up..." Ron said looking out the window. "What's up with you, Hermione?"

"Just thinking..."

"About Siri... Snuffles?"

"No... not exactly... More... wondering... I suppose we're doing the right thing... I think... aren't we?"

Harry, Mel and Ron looked at each other.

"Well, that clears that up," said Ron. "It would've been really annoying if you hadn't explained yourself properly."

"I was just wondering," She said, clearer this time, "whether we're doing the right thing, starting this Defense Against the Dark Arts group."

"What!" said Harry and Ron together.

"Hermione, it was your idea in the first place!" said Ron.

"I know, but after talking to Snuffles..."

"But he's all for it!" said Harry.

"Yes! Yes, that's what made me think maybe it wasn't a good idea after all..."

Peeves floated above them, all four lifted their bags to cover their heads.

"Let's get this straight," said Harry, once again in a bad mood, "Sirius agrees with us, so you don't think we should do it anymore?"

"Do you honestly trust his judgment?"

"Yes, I do! He's always given us great advice!"

"You don't think he has become... sort of... reckless... since he's been cooped up in Grimmauld Place? You don't think he's... kind of... living through us?"

"What d'you mean, 'living through us'?" Harry retorted.

"Oh, yeah he's definitely doing that," Mel admitted. "But what's wrong about it?"

"I mean... well, I think he'd love to be forming secret defence societies right under the nose of someone from the Ministry... I think he's really frustrated at how little he can do where he is... so I think he's keen to kind of... egg us on."

"So what?" Mel frowned. "It's still the right thing to do, him having no power over his life it's exactly where we are as well. The difference is that we have a chance to do something, and he wants us to take it."

"But there's so much at risk!"

"Sirius is right," Ron said in disbelief, "you do sound just like my mother."

Hermione didn't speak to them after that.

The next day Harry told them all about Dobby's visit in the middle of the night, waking him up after falling asleep in the common room by accident. He told them he'd found a room where to hold their meetings, which was great news, considering the girls had figured out a way to communicate without being too obvious.

The walls were lined with wooden bookcases, and instead of chairs, there were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors, and a large cracked Foe-Glass that Harry was sure had hung, the previous year, in the fake Moody's office.

"How wonderful!" Mel walked towards the bookcases.

"These will be good when we're practising Stunning," said Ron, looking at the cushions.

"And just look at these books!" said Hermione standing beside her. "A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions... The Dark Arts Outsmarted... Self-Defensive Spellwork... wow... Harry, this is wonderful, there's everything we need here!"

There was a brief moment where Mel and Harry looked at each other, both with the same excited expression. Harry was about to say something when someone knocked on the door. Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati, and Dean had arrived.

"Whoa," said Dean. "What is this place?"

Harry explained everything to their classmates as more started to arrive. At eight o'clock the place was full, every cushion occupied. Harry closed the door and turned the key. Everyone looked at him and Mel. Hermione set her book aside. Mel got up and stood next to Harry, feeling strangely out of place after all that time away from him.

"Well," He said. "This is the place we've found for practices, and you've — er — obviously found it okay —"

"It's fantastic!" said Cho.

"It's bizarre," said Fred. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then..."

"It changes depending on what you need it to be," Mel shrugged. "It became a toilet room for my uncle once."

Many laughed at her statement.

"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" asked Dean.

"Dark Detectors," Harry moved towards some objects. "Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled..."

"Well, only the sneakoscopes, really," Mel added. "The Foe-glass is harder to trick, only if you know your way around technicalities..."

"Well," The boy looked at her carefully, then moved his gaze to the group. "I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and — er —" Hermione raised her hand. "What, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader."

"Harry's leader," said Cho at once. Noticing the way some stared at her, she blushed and added. "Mel too, of course!"

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione. "It makes it formal and it gives them authority. So — everyone who thinks Harry and Mel ought to be our leaders?"

Everybody put up their hands.

"Er — right, thanks," Harry blushed madly. Mel scolded herself for thinking how cute it was. "And — what, Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name! It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina.

"Or the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.

"I was thinking," said Hermione, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"The Defense Association?" said Cho. "The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Yeah, the D.A.'s good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it? And after all," She smirked at Mel. "A Dumbledore is our leader."

Mel grinned, a couple of students laughing along and agreeing with Ginny.

"All in favour of the D.A.?" said Hermione. "That's a majority — motion passed!"

She grabbed the parchment with all of their names on it on a wall and wrote DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY at the top.

"Right," said Harry, then he turned to Mel, "shall we get practising then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful —"

"Sure," Mel shrugged. "Could do it in my sleep..."

"Oh please," said Zacharias Smith with annoyance. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

"I've used it against him," said Harry sharply. "It saved my life last June. But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave."  

No one left, of course.

"No objections then," Mel continued, "stand up, hope you brought your wands with you, otherwise it'll be a very boring night..."

"Okay," said Harry. "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."

Mel was kind of used to being listened to at that point, after all those weeks being the centre of attention of her new group of friends. Harry was a whole different story, he would usually try to hide and be quiet when he didn't want to be noticed, and she could tell he was having a hard time being the boss. She took the matter into her owns hands and paired everyone up, Neville was the last one standing, so Harry and she took turns with him.

"Right — on the count of three, then — one, two, three —"

Glancing around he thought he had been right to suggest that they practice the basics first; there was a lot of shoddy spellwork going on; many people were not succeeding in disarming their opponents at all, but merely causing them to jump backward a few paces or wince as the feeble spell whooshed over them.

"Merlin..." Mel was divided between shock and amusement.

"Expelliarmus!" Neville yelled without warning and Harry's wand flew out of his hand. "I DID IT! I've never done it before — I DID IT!"

"Good one!" said Harry. "Listen, Neville, can you take it in turns to practice with Ron and Hermione for a couple of minutes so Mel and I can walk around and see how the rest are doing?"

Mel took one side of the room and Harry the other. For a group of beginners, she thought they were doing all right. Harry and Mel met halfway and stopped to watch everyone side by side.

"What are your thoughts on this?" Harry asked her.

"I think you should've let the twins mess with Zacharias Smith a bit longer, he definitely needs to be humbled down..."

"We have weeks to do so," He replied casually.

"Ginny's doing great though, she did it in her first try!"

"I suspect Michael is only pretending to suck."

"If he is, he's doing the wrong thing to impress her," Mel smirked. "Anthony tried to show off when I walked past and he threw his wand directly at Smith's face!"

"Sometimes I want to throw a wand at Smith's face.."

Mel laughed, locking eyes with Harry. Her chest tightened at the sight of his silly old grin, and for a moment she felt like maybe not all hope was lost. Maybe they could find a way to be friends again.

"Er," She cleared her throat. "We should give them new directions now."

"What? Oh, right. Okay. Stop!" Harry shouted a bit clumsily, turning to look at their classmates. "Stop! STOP!"

"There," Mel nudged his arm and pointed to the whistle on the bookcase next to him. Harry took it a blew it.

"That wasn't bad," said Harry once they all stopped, "but there's definite room for improvement. Let's try again..."

As they continued to help around, Mel noticed he was letting her take care of Cho and Marietta. This, of course, reminded her that even though she was still having a hard time getting over him, Harry had long moved on from their... thing. So she avoided the pair until Harry had no choice but to go to them.

"Oh no," Cho blushed furiously as he approached. Mel lingered a few feet away, pretending to examine the Creeveys' techniques. "Expelliarmious! I mean, Expellimellius! I — oh, sorry, Marietta! You made me nervous, I was doing all right before then!"

Mel rolled her eyes at that. It wasn't that Cho was annoying, it wasn't even that Cho deserved to be disliked, but Mel was barely keeping it together every day and now she had to stand there and watch as Harry flirted with his crush twice a week.

"That was quite good," She heard Harry lie, after a second, he corrected. "Well, no, it was lousy, but I know you can do it properly, I was watching from over there..."

Marietta looked at them with exasperation and turned to leave. Mel watched as Cho leaned closer to whisper something to Harry's ear and that's when she decided she'd seen enough. The girl turned around.

"Hey, watch it!" Someone yelled at her.

Mel drew out her wand and stop the projectile before it stabbed her in the eye. She picked up George's wand from the ground and handed it back.

"You guys are doing great," She teased.

"Thanks," Said George. "Fred's enthusiastic."

"Talking about enthusiasm," Fred discretely pointed towards Harry and Cho with his head. "What's that about?"

"I don't care," Mel replied, making a face. "As long as it doesn't distract him from what we're doing here..."

"He looks distracted already," Fred raised a brow. "Want me to bring him back to earth?"

He waved his wand as if to jinx Harry, Mel grabbed his arm and moved it away, giggling.

"I'm afraid you're not allowed to hurt your teacher," She replied humorously.

"If you're done flirting, it's my turn to practice!" George called out.

"We're not, actually," Fred put an arm around her shoulders and pointed to George with his wand. "You're going to have to kill me first!"

"No killing tonight!" Mel laughed, stepping away from Fred's grip. "Stop fooling around, keep practising!"

"Sure thing, Professor!" The twins replied.

Ten minutes later, when Harry and Mel finally called it a night, everyone looked flushed and tired, but happier than they'd looked in months.

"Well, that was pretty good, but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"

"Sooner!" said Dean.

"The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!" Said Angelina.

"Let's say next Wednesday night, then," said Harry, looking at Mel for her approval. She nodded. "And we can decide on additional meetings then... Come on, we'd better get going..."

"You all were brilliant," Mel smiled. "Hope to see you all again next time!"

"That was really, really good, guys," said Hermione when they were finally the only ones left in the hall.

"Yeah, it was!" said Ron. "Did you see me disarm Hermione?"

"Only once! I got you loads more than you got me —"

"I did not only get you once, I got you at least three times —"

"Well, if you're counting the one where you tripped over your own feet and knocked the wand out of my hand —"

"No bickering tonight, guys!" Mel said brightly. "The whole point is for everyone to learn and be better! I'm really proud of everyone– Neville especially, he looked so sure of himself!"

Mel glanced at Harry and found him staring at the Marauder's Map, his finger hovering over the dot with the tag 'Cho Chang'.

Next Chapter —>

Taglist.

@dee123ksha @vampiregirl1797 @siriuslysirius1107 @stardusthigh @mikariell95 @vernon-dursley @thesuitelifeofafangirl @tomshollandz @kylosleftbuttcheek @reverse-hxlland @bloodorangemoonlight @omiwashere @t-rexs-world​ @sarcasticallywitty15 @21bruhs

[tw-anchor]

40. Unusual Halloween

Anchor Stiles Stilinski x Original Character

Episode: 3x16; Illuminated

Word Count: 8,199

Warning(s): Mature language, canon violence + gore, sex scene (18+ only!)

Author’s Note: Hey guys, sorry I haven’t updated lately. This has been the busiest--and worst--season of my life, so I haven’t felt up to writing much. Unfortunately, it will probably be a while until I update again because I’m starting my new job full time next week while going to school full time as well. Wish me luck! I hope you enjoy the chapter and please make sure to tell me what you think, reblog, and like!

"So, when did you get there?"

If Olivia had to stare at Agent Rafael McCall for another five minutes, she was gonna punch him in the face. She wouldn't be at fault, either; how could she be responsible for her actions when she just went through something as traumatic as a teenager could go through? A serial killer kidnapped her new friend and they all rescued her, but they were the ones being questioned? Where was the justice in the world?

Yeah, if she did end up punching Scott's dad in the face, she would totally blame it on her stressful night. It wasn't because she couldn't stand the smug son of a bitch; even if he wasn't a dick when they first crossed paths, she still wouldn't be able to tolerate him—especially because of what he was doing to Noah. And now, after he ushered in Olivia, Stiles, Scott, Kira, and Lydia into Noah's office, he was asking repetitive questions about their experience.

Hey, Olivia was all for justice and all that—but what exactly could the FBI do about a bunch of werewolves, a banshee, an anchor, and whatever the hell Kira was? Barrow was after kids with glowing eyes and as far as the up-tops were concerned, no such thing existed. They put Barrow in the Eichen House for a reason.

To put it simply, she was not in the best of moods. Kira was some kind of supernatural creature that could absorb electricity, Stiles and Scott were almost electrocuted to death by Barrow, and Isaac was at the Argents, his tether recovering from what had happened to him, even though she had no idea what that was. She did not want to be at the police station at midnight, squished into a small couch with Stiles, Scott, and Kira—Lydia was the lucky one with the armchair—while the jolly green giant questioned them.

To her left, Stiles responded, "At the same time."

"At the same time as who?"

"At the same time as me," Scott told his father.

"By coincidence?"

"What do you mean coincidence?"

Things were not helped when Stiles decided it was time to be a sarcastic little shit. It was well known that Stiles hated Agent McCall—she had heard many, many rants about his best friend's dad—so everyone knew what he was doing. Answering questions with questions, offering sarcastic quips that answered nothing, and silent smirks were what they've been having to deal with since their questioning started. Olivia loved Stiles Stilinski, she really did, but he was wasting their time, precious time where they could be sleeping. He really lived up to his mischievous name.

"That's what I'm asking you," Agent McCall gestured to Stiles and Scott. "The two of you arrived at the same time. Was that coincidence?"

Scott's face twisted in confusion. "Are you asking me?"

"I think he's asking me," Stiles mused.

"I think he's asking the both of you," Lydia said dryly, as annoyed with the boys' antics as Olivia was.

"Okay," Agent McCall interjected sternly. "Let me answer the questions."

Olivia rolled her eyes at him, completely unimpressed with his sense of professionalism, and glanced at Stiles. His lips were pursed ridiculously, like he was taking a selfie with the terribly cliché duck face; she had to admit, it did make her want to laugh, especially when she caught sight of Noah holding back his own laughter.

Seeing the amused faces staring back at him, Agent McCall realized his mistake. "Let me ask the questions," he corrected himself. "Just so I have this absolutely clear: Barrow was hiding in the chemistry closet at the school. Someone left him a coded message on the blackboard telling him to kill Kira. Then Barrow took Kira to a power substation and tied her up with the intent of electrocuting her, which blacked out the entire town."

He closed his notebook, where he had been writing down the information they gave him, with a final snap.

"Sounds about right," Stiles sighed; with his right hand, he idly played with the ends of Olivia's ponytail.

"How'd you know he'd take her to a power station?"

"Well, cause he was an electrical engineer," Stiles scratched his temple with his free hand. He shifted his other away from Olivia until it was folding over his stomach. "Where else would he take her?"

There were a billion other places that Barrow had taken Kira, but they couldn't exactly tell Agent McCall that they knew they were at a power station because of Lydia's newfound banshee abilities. Then they'd be shipped to Eichen.

Agent McCall raised a dubious eyebrow at him. "That's one hell of a deduction there, Stiles."

"Yeah, what can I say? I take after my pops, he's in law enforcement," Stiles swiftly smirked, winking at his dad from where he sat behind McCall.

Noah audibly snorted, amused by his son's answer, but covered it with an awkward cough when McCall gave him a glare. "Stiles, just answer the man."

"We made a good guess," Stiles said finally, wrapping his arm back around Olivia's shoulders. She closed her tired eyes and rested her head in the crook of his neck, inhaling and relaxing at the scent that was pure him. Stiles always smelt so good, like sandalwood and musk and minty gum.

Agent McCall set his sights on Scott and Kira. "What were the two of you doing?"

"Eating pizza," Scott answered at the same time as Kira spoke, "Eating sushi."

Olivia rolled her eyes but didn't bother opening them; couldn't they have gotten their story straight before McCall started questioning them?

Scott and Kira glanced at each other awkwardly and cleared their throats.

"Eating sushi."

"Eating pizza."

Jesus Christ.

"Eating sushi and pizza," they finally said together.

Olivia opened her eyes just as McCall looked back at Noah in disbelief. "Do you believe this?"

"To be honest, I haven't believed a word Stiles has said since he learned how to speak," Noah spoke candidly, ignoring the offended gasp Stiles gave in response. "But I think these kids found themselves in the right place at the right time and that girl sitting there is very lucky for it."

"Kira," all heads turned to her when Agent McCall addressed her. "is that how you remember it?"

At once, Stiles, Olivia, and Lydia leaned forward to stare at Kira, giving her their own keep-your-mouth-shut looks. Kira only hesitated for a second before she answered him. "Yes...Could I get my phone back now?"

The police hadn't taken the rest of their phones, but apparently Barrow had started videoing Kira while in the power station. It was officially evidence. Which meant...

"Sorry, but no," McCall refused her as he stood from his seat on Noah's desk. "All right, I think that's it for now. If I have anymore questions, I'll get in touch with you. Kira, a deputy is going to take you home but we'll need you to fill out some paperwork first."

Olivia sighed in relief once they were ushered out of Noah's office. Sticking close to Stiles and Lydia and as they exited the police station, she pulled out her phone. She needed to call Isaac and see if he was okay. Because while Scott and Stiles were in danger with Barrow, Isaac had some other trouble that he had gone into.

-

There was no electricity pulsing through Beacon Hills unless it came from a generator. Despite this, the students of Beacon Hills High still had to attend their regular classes. Though the sun provided some light in the dark hallways and classrooms, everyone was still bathed in shadows and had to resort to their phones for flashlights if it was too dark for them.

Thankfully, Olivia's house had a generator that ran long enough for the food in their refrigerator to stay fresh and their phones to stay charged. She didn't want to be one of those people, but she would be seriously lost without her phone.

"Class starts in five minutes," Coach boomed through his trusty megaphone as he walked past Stiles' locker where he and Olivia stood before classes started. "Just because there's no power don't expect there to be no school."

Olivia looked up from her phone to narrow her eyes at him, knowing that something was off with that sentence.

"That was a triple negative," Stiles called out as he dug through his locker. "Very impressive, Coach."

"Copy that!"

Olivia snickered and shifted so she was leaning on her side at the lockers next to Stiles'. "Your relationship with Coach is so intriguing."

Stiles chuckled at her, smirking. "What, like how madly in love we are?"

"Exactly," Olivia laughed while pointing a manicured finger at him. "So, am I considered the side chick, or...?"

"Actually, you are," Stiles nodded seriously. "By the way, on a completely unrelated note, I have to cancel tonight's plans. I'm busy..."

"You're gonna Netflix and Chill with Coach? Damn..."

Stiles' amused face immediately creased into one of disgust. "Okay, gross. We took it too far."

Olivia laughed, her heart racing when Stiles gave into his amusement and chuckled along with her.

"Speaking of tonight," Olivia said when their laughter died down. "I'm kinda, sorta, throwing a party?"

Stiles blinked at her in shock. "You hate parties."

"But I don't hate Danny and every year he throws a Halloween party," she explained. "Jackson's not here to help him out and now with the power out, he doesn't have a place, so Lydia and I offered our house because we have the generators."

"At least I'll finally be invited to one of Danny's parties," Stiles paused and looked down at her with wide eyes. "I am invited, right?" when Olivia teasingly grimaced; Stiles' jaw dropped in offense. "Livvy!"

"Of course you're invited, sweetcheeks," Olivia rolled her eyes at him and shifted closer to him in order to wrap her hands around his right arm. "I was just teasing you."

"I have a fragile heart, you can't tease me about that kind of stuff," Stiles ducked down so he could whisper in her ear, his lips grazing against her skin. Olivia shivered and tightened her grip on him. "You know, unless we're alone, hopefully in a bed, though I wouldn't be against a shower or the back of Roscoe..."

Olivia held back her gasp but biting her lip. "But your fragile heart...?"

Stiles chuckled and quickly pressed his warms lips against the sensitive spot behind her ear. "You caught me. My heart's fine, it just beats really fast in your presence so I thought I might have a heart condition."

"You're so fucking cheesy, Stiles Stilinski," she giggled and lightly pushed him away from her. In the process, Stiles' backpack brushed against his locker, making his keys fall to the floor. "Oops, sorry."

"It's fine—and you love my cheesiness, by the way," Stiles winked at her and then bent to retrieve his key ring. He paused when he noticed a key that he didn't recognize. "Hello, where did you come from?"

"What, the key?" Stiles nodded at her; Olivia shrugged. "Maybe your dad put it on there. Oh, there's Scott."

Stiles, who was about to disagree with her about the key, turned around to see his best friend stepping into school. He waved at him, but Scott's focus was not on Stiles or Olivia. No, Scott was staring at Kira, who was at her locker down the hall. Before Scott could even take another step in her direction, Stiles quickly intervened.

"No, no, stop, stop," he directed Scott over to Olivia by his locker.

Scott gave him a disgruntled look. "What? I need to talk to her."

"No, you need to remember someone left a coded message telling Barrow to kill her," Stiles corrected him.

Olivia sighed. To be honest, she was with Scott on this one. Kira had a serial bomber go after her and try to kill her, and though she was mysteriously able to survive an astounding electric blast, Kira was a sweet girl and they needed to check up on her. It was out of the norm for her, she was fully aware, but since Kira was like them—at least, she was supernatural—maybe she needed friends, or a pack, to help her along. Olivia and Scott were willing to extend that olive branch.

"That's why he needs to talk to her, Stiles."

Stiles gave her a betrayed look. "Don't take his side!" he looked at her and Scott sternly. "Guys, until we figure out if she's just another psychotic monster that's going to start murdering everybody, I vote against any and all interaction."

"Stiles, she uses an elephant backpack, for crying out loud," Olivia rolled her eyes. "Does that seem psychotic to you?"

Stiles cocked his head, seriously considering her question. Before he could answer, Scott spoke, "What if she's like me?"

Scott's comment seemed to make up Stiles' mind. "That girl walked through 1.21 gigawatts of electricity," he pointed out, annoyed, and slammed his locker shut. "She's not like you."

Olivia turned her head toward Kira's locker. Kira seemed nervous, as though she could feel their eyes on her, as she rummaged through her locker. Quickly, she grabbed a textbook, shut her locker, and walked away, glancing back at them only once.

"Maybe Stiles is right," Olivia gave in, looking over at Scott. "Werewolves can't take that level of electricity. So...until we find out what Kira is, maybe you need to give her some space."

Stiles gave her a proud look while Scott sighed and shook his head. "Fine," he finally agreed. "Let's go to class."

Together, they walked to physics class. Today was the first day that Olivia's aunt, Natalie, would be taking over Mr. Harris' classes. Olivia was very proud of her aunt and excited to be able to learn from her, as she usually didn't have time to sit down and discuss the sciences with her whilst at her previous job at the local television station. No longer would they have subpar substitute teachers trying to teach them about higher levels of science—if Olivia was going to be challenged for the rest of the year, she needed a real science guy and Natalie more than fit the bill.

"Scott, Stiles," Natalie greeted the boys when they passed her to find their shared table. "Olivia, sweetheart, can we talk?"

"Sure, Aunt Nat," Olivia stepped aside to allow her classmates to walk into the room. "What's up? Are you nervous for your first class? Because you don't have to be. You're gonna be amazing."

Natalie smiled gratefully. "Well, thank you, Liv, but that's not what I wanted to talk about. I know we discussed the party at the house tonight, but Sherry's house doesn't have power, so I was hoping we could have book club at our house. We're the only ones with working generators..."

Olivia smiled to hide her disappointment. "Don't worry about it, Aunt Nat. I'm sure book club will be fun. I have to go talk to Danny, though..."

"Of course," Natalie nodded. "I have to pass out these worksheets anyway."

Olivia gave her aunt one last smile before scurrying over to the lab table where Danny was seated. Usually she and Lydia were lab partners and Danny shared with Aiden, but they could handle a switch for one day. She clambered onto the lab stool next to Danny, and gave Lydia, who was seated at the table in front of them, a significant look. Lydia could read her easily and since she knew about the party plans, she was able to realize that something was going on.

"You're my lab partner today, huh?" Danny gave Olivia a confused look.

"It's because I have bad news. We can't use my house tonight, my aunt's having book club."

Danny visibly deflated. "So we have no venue?"

"Do we know of another place that's big enough for a party and has generators?" Olivia mused. The only other place that she, personally, could think of was Derek's loft. Derek would never go for it, would he? "Wait a second..."

Every Halloween, since Derek was around fourteen, his mom, Talia, would take him and Laura to a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was very shocking that Derek enjoyed such an event, but he never failed to go each year, even after Talia died. Olivia had been with to the show with her cousins once, and though she liked the movie, she didn't much enjoy being surrounded by strangers who sang louder than the actors or threw stuff at the screen.

Yes, she was entirely aware that she was a party-pooper, thank you very much. The point was that Derek wouldn't be at the loft, as the nearest showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show was an hour away. He'd be gone all night and would be none the wiser of a party.

Danny perked up, seeing the scheming look on her face. "You have a plan, don't you?"

"I know a place where we can have your party."

She pulled out her phone to text Derek.

Ollie: Are you still going to Rocky Horror?

Derek: Yeah, why?

Ollie: Jw. Have fun and be safe!

-

When Stiles thought about how his Halloween was supposed to go, he certainly hadn't thought of today's events. He'd been expecting a scary movie marathon with Olivia by his side, allowing him to hide his head in her neck at the scary parts. He'd been expecting them to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters that stumbled upon the Sheriff's house because the Stilinski's always gave out the best candy in their neighborhood.

He wasn't, however, expecting a rave at Derek's loft—that Olivia helped plan, by the way—or helping Scott and Kira break into the police station.

When Scott had approached Stiles, asking for help get into the police station, he had immediately said no. Agent Jackass McCall was already trying to get his dad impeached, and there was no way he was taking part in any plot that could get Noah into even more trouble. Unfortunately, he felt obligated to change his tune when Scott told him exactly why he and Kira needed to break into Agent McCall's office.

Apparently Kira had already known that something was off with her before the Barrow incident. She had taken a picture of herself and found a sort of aura around her, one that definitely couldn't be explained if you didn't know about the supernatural happenings in the world. Now that McCall had Kira's phone, he had access to that picture and they absolutely could not let him know about the supernatural side to Beacon Hills, let alone his son's current nature.

So, instead of helping Olivia, Danny, and the twins set up the rave at Derek's loft, he was stuck playing sidekick. Fun. Yeah, it was totally what he wanted to do on Halloween.

Bitterly, he chewed up the rest of the Snickers bar he had been snacking on and threw the wrapper away in the small bin he kept in the backseat of his jeep. When he turned back, facing the front, he saw Scott and Kira pull up on Scott's bike.

All right, here we go.

It wasn't that Stiles didn't like Kira—honestly, he didn't know enough about her to like or dislike her—but he certainly didn't trust her. After everything they went through since Scott was bitten by Peter, how was he supposed to trust anyone new? Especially when she happened to be immune to electricity and instantly took a shining to Scott.

Stiles grabbed the station keycards that he had sneakily copied from Noah and handed them to Scott one by one. "Okay, this one will get you into all of the perimeter doors," he passed another one. "this one into the evidence room, and this one's for my father's office."

Scott looked at him, alarmed. "You didn't steal these, did you?"

"No, I cloned them using the RFID emulator."

It was clear that Scott nor Kira had no idea what he was talking about. "Is that worse than stealing?"

Stiles rolled his eyes; the two of them had done a lot worse than stealing before. "It's smarter."

Scott nodded, his lips quirking up, impressed by Stiles' actions but he was quickly pulled away by Kira. "Scott, can I ask you something?"

Stiles narrowed his eyes at her. That wasn't suspicious at all. "Okay, I'll just...wait here..."

Luckily, Kira and Scott's conversation was brief. They joined him back at the jeep, Kira smiling widely up at him. "Okay."

"Okay," Stiles mimicked her, raising his eyebrows as he glanced between her and Scott. "So, now almost everybody's out dealing with the blackout, but there's always somebody at the front desk, dispatch and usually a night shifter or two," he pointed at the only door in the alley where he and Scott parked. "You guys are gonna use the service door entrance by the dumpster, all right? Nobody uses it."

Scott and Kira glanced at the service door and nodded obediently.

"Now, I'll text you if anyone comes out," Stiles continued. "But, Scott, if you get caught, I can't help you. My dad's under investigation for an impeachment because of your dad, so if anything happens, I will run and leave you both for dead."

Kira blinked and smiled nervously at him while Scott nodded, knowing how serious he was. "I got it. Seriously, dude, thanks."

Stiles pressed his lips together and nodded. "I'd ask my dad, but you know..."

"No, I know," Scott assured him earnestly. "I get it."

"All right, just, uh, hurry up," Stiles waved them off. "Be careful."

Scott and Kira scurried off and once they were inside, Stiles let a big sigh of relief. Hopefully they'd have no trouble and get in and out after deleting the pictures on Kira's phone. However, a part of him knew that it wouldn't be that simple. When were they ever given the easy way out? The answer was that they didn't; they had notoriously bad luck.

Stiles waited silently, impatiently fiddling with his key ring. He tossed them round and round his index finger until he caught sight of the key he had noticed earlier at school. He didn't know what it was for and he knew the purpose for all of his keys. He had his house keys, his jeep keys, his dad's car keys, Scott's house keys, and even Olivia's house keys...but this key? Well, he had never seen it before and it was bugging him out. How could he not remember putting a new key on his key ring? How else would it have gotten there?

Bright headlights seared his eyes for a moment as a vehicle pulled into the alleyway behind the station. He didn't know who it was that had parked there until the headlights went off and the man got out of his car; Stiles would recognize that tall, lanky figure anywhere.

Fucking asshole, he cursed to himself as McCall rounded the front of his car. Fuck, Scott, where are you? Come on. Oh, fuck it. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Despite telling Scott upfront that he would leave him and Kira, he couldn't do it.

"Fuck," he opened his door and jumped out as McCall entered the station. "I'm go going to regret this."

He quickly ran around the building, entering only a few seconds after Agent McCall flashed his badge to the deputy at the front desk.

"Hey, hey!" he called, waving to the workers at the desk before catching up to McCall. "Wow!" he exclaimed when the agent turned to face him, confused. "Thank God you are here. Oh, boy! Thank the lord!"

As always, Agent McCall was not impressed with his antics. "What do you want, Stiles?"

Shit, now he had to come up with something to talk about. "I was...I was just...I was thinking on the case," he blurted out nervously, his absentminded thoughts taking over for him. "I was thinking I should clue you in on my thinking. Here's my thinking, I was thinking this..."

He grimaced at the annoyed glare McCall was giving him. "I was thinking that Barrow, right...I was thinking that Barrow received the information about who to kill at the school, right, you know that?" he was fully aware he was rambling but the more his brain worked, the better he felt about this excuse of a conversation. "So, I was thinking that maybe the person who gave him that information—check this out—might actually be someone at the school."

Agent McCall raised his eyebrows and Stiles laughed awkwardly, poking his chest. "And that's, uh, my thinking."

McCall hummed for a moment, eyeing him suspiciously Stiles honestly thought that he was caught and he had just given him the very reason to fire Noah, but then the older man spoke. "You're right."

"I am?!"

"Yeah, we, uh...we started looking for links between Barrow, faculty, and students last night," McCall informed him.

"So you already, then, know that stuff?" McCall nodded at Stiles' question. "You already thought of that."

"Your dad did," McCall shared, his mouth twisting into a disapproving smirk. "His one useful suggestion."

A storm cloud of rage bubbled in Stiles' gut as McCall went to enter the bullpen. He was so fucking sick of this man coming around and ruining everyone's lives just because his sucked so bad. McCall made his bed and instead of laying in it, he was destroying everyone else's.

Without thinking, Stiles firmly grabbed McCall's arm, stopping him from entering the bullpen. "You know, this attitude that you have toward my dad? You can dress it up to all the professional disapproval that you want, but I know the real reason you don't like him."

McCall chuckled sarcastically, sending Stiles deeper into his silent fury. "Is that so?"

"Yeah," his voice lowered threateningly, his nostrils flaring angrily. "because he knows something that you don't want him to know. And guess what?" his whisper took on a sing-song tune before quickly diving into a hard whisper. "I know it too."

McCall swallowed uncomfortably and a thrill went through Stiles as he congratulated himself on being able to intimidate an FBI agent who was trying to fuck up his dad's life. "Go home, Stiles. There's a curfew."

Stiles smirked as McCall pulled himself from his grasp and stepped around him, clearing his throat awkwardly as he entered the bullpen. Without another word, he left the police station, riding the high that the whole interaction had caused him.

He waited only a few minutes by his jeep until Scott and Kira ran out of the building, huge smiles on their faces.

"We did it," Scott told him enthusiastically. "All the pics are deleted."

"That was awesome!" Kira crowed, bouncing in place. "I mean, terrifying, completely terrifying...but kind of awesome! I've never done anything like that before. Have you guys?"

Stiles snorted and shared an amused look with Scott. "Yeah, once or twice."

Scott grinned back at him and then sighed, looking to Kira. "I guess I should take you home."

It was very clear to Stiles that Scott didn't want to stop hanging out with Kira. They were obviously having a good time and, really, what trouble could they get up to at a party? Olivia liked Kira, too—as much as he could like someone that she hadn't really hung out with—so it wasn't like Kira would be unwanted at the rave.

"Hey," he patted Scott's shoulder pointedly. "Don't forget, Livvy's throwing that party at Derek's loft."

"Oh, yeah," Scott perked up and glanced back at Kira. "You wanna go?"

Kira smiled shyly—that was all the answer the boys needed.

-

Olivia was only a little tipsy.

She was being responsible tonight—well, as responsible as one could get while throwing a party at your cousins loft while they're out of town—and not drinking as much as Danny. He needed to have fun and relax a bit, and while Olivia wanted to have fun too, she didn't need alcohol to do so.

The only reason she was drinking at all was because Lydia had begged her to take a couple of shots with her and it seemed socially unacceptable to not drink a beer at your own party.

So, yeah, she was feeling a little bit buzzed but not enough to feel it in the morning. She knew her limits and she wasn't the type of person to go over them.

All around her, people were dancing, drinking, and having fun with neon paint dripped all over their bodies. The black lights that she, Danny, Ethan, and Aiden put up around the loft made everyone glow in the dark and with the pumping of the loud music that the awesome deejay that Danny hired played, it was enough to make anyone excited. She didn't even like most parties and she was having a great time. Besides, after what Beacon Hills went through with stupid Jennifer and the million human sacrifices, they needed a time to let loose.

So, even though she normally couldn't stand Aiden—or Lydia spending time with him, for that matter—she couldn't help but smirk when she saw him and Lydia dancing up on each other. No doubt Lydia was trying to keep her mind off of Scott and his newfound crush on Kira by focusing on the former alpha. It wasn't the best way to deal, but who was Olivia to tell Lydia how to live her life? Lydia was completely capable of taking care of herself.

"I cannot believe that Olivia Martin threw a party," her attention was caught by Allison as she and Isaac walked over to her. "at her cousin's loft, no less."

Isaac laughed and added, "I'm guessing Derek can never know about this?"

"Maybe in a couple of years," Olivia quickly wrapped her arms around them in a short group hug. "How are you doing, Isaac? You never got back to me."

She didn't like the way that Isaac and Allison immediately shared a loaded look with one another, as if debating on how to answer her question. She wasn't dumb, she knew they were hiding something. Why, she didn't know.

Isaac knew that she wouldn't give up and though he knew he owed her some sort of explanation, he had promised Allison and her dad to keep his mouth shut for twenty-four hours. "Enjoy the party, Liv. I'll tell you after."

"Promise, both of you?" Olivia gave the two of them a serious look.

Allison grinned while Isaac nodded, both of them speaking together. "Promise."

"All right, fine. Why don't you guys get something to drink?" Olivia glanced around the group of dancing bodies before pointing out where the bartender was set up. "Oh, and get painted up, too."

"Yes, ma'am," Isaac hooked Allison's fingers with his and pulled her away, pointedly ignoring the amused look their friend sent their way.

Olivia shook her head, eyes following Isaac and Allison as they slipped into the crowd. She should have known something was going on there, but she guessed she had been a little preoccupied with everything else going on in their lives. Still...Allison and Isaac? Yeah, she could see it. Allison was badass and strong and she was the firm ground of support that Isaac needed and Isaac was light and funny and could definitely get Allison to let loose. They complimented each other, they were cute.

They didn't need her approval whatsoever, but they had it anyway.

Out of nowhere, a sharp pulse came from Derek's tether before fading away. Olivia paused, her hand on her chest, and focused in on him. He was fine now, but it was odd, they way he lit up and went dark so soon after. Right now, it didn't concern her. Maybe he almost missed a red light or something...

Thoughts about Derek slipped away as she spotted the loft door opening. She recognized the neon-striped t-shirt that Stiles had worn to school earlier that day, and was instantly on her way toward him. She was tipsy, she wanted to have fun, and her hot-ass boyfriend had just entered the premises. There was no way she was just going to stand there and wait for him to come to her.

She made her way through the jungle of her drunk classmates, her eyes never leaving Stiles. As she got closer, she heard Scott—who was with Kira—asking him about leaving so they could figure something out. Before Stiles could respond, she was grabbing his arm, turning him and standing on her tiptoes so she could kiss him on the cheek.

"Happy Halloween, sweetcheeks," she purred into his ear, giving him a seductive look before letting him go.

"It can wait, it can wait!" Stiles shouted at Scott over the music. As Olivia began to slip away, he grabbed her hand so she would take him with her. "See ya!"

Olivia smirked knowingly when Stiles tightened his grip on her hand and abruptly pulled, swiftly turning her to face him. "Look at you, baby."

She was fully aware of what her outfit would do to him. Other than the fact she thought she was hot, she knew that her short, flowy shorts, and neon orange bralette would turn him on. And the body paint brushed all over her, well, that was just a bonus. "You like?"

"I love it. You're so fucking hot," he pulled her closer to him, their fronts pressed together; Olivia instantly grabbed his biceps, not fighting when he smashed their lips together.

It had been about a month since Olivia and Stiles had sex because of their busy lives. Of course, they did other things when they were in the mood but they never had time to go all the way again. Both of them were feeling the strain; they were crazy in love and so terribly attracted to one another, so of course, hormones were always pulsing through them. That night, they reached a pinnacle of tension that they couldn't ignore.

Within minutes, Olivia and Stiles found themselves upstairs in the bedroom Olivia used when she stayed over at Derek's loft. The both of them completely ignored the full-sized mattress in favor of the back of the door that Stiles pressed her up against, the wood soothingly cool against her back.

Stiles' hair was a mess under Olivia's fingers as she lost herself in his mouth, tongues wrestling together in a fight that neither of them wanted to lose—or win, for that matter. Stiles' palms were hot against her thighs, pushing her up until her legs wrapped around his waist, and when they moved tantalizingly slow to her ass and squeezed her cheeks, she gasped and arched her chest against him.

"Shit, Stiles!"

"Mmhm," Stiles moaned against her lips as her movement pressed deliciously against his cock. Slowly, he kissed away from her mouth and down her jaw to her neck, sucking harshly against the smooth and silky skin he found there. He loved the way she reacted to him, pushing herself against him again as she groaned under his demonstrations. "Livvy."

An indescribable warmth curled in Olivia's belly as she and Stiles rubbed up against one another. Letting go of his hair, she moved one hand down the length of Stiles' body to the band of his jeans. She easily popped the button and took a second to play with the wiry hair of his happy trail, knowing that it would lead her right to paradise.

"Mm...want you, baby," Stiles abruptly pulled away from her neck to stare at her with blown eyes. "Can I have you?"

Olivia didn't need to think about it. She wanted him just as much as he wanted her. "'Course, babe."

A wickedly sexy grin split Stiles' lips and Olivia's head nearly hit the door with how forcefully he kissed her. She was so caught up in their kiss that she didn't notice Stiles using one hand to pull her bralette down, freeing her breasts; it wasn't until he pulled away from the kiss and wrapped his lips about her right nipple when she realized. She moaned loudly, the pitch arcing higher when Stiles pushed his left thigh between hers to take some of her weight so she could grind down on him.

"Fuck, Stiles."

Stiles playfully bit at her nipple in response, prompting a pleasured sigh that turned more intense when he sucked at her. Shit, he felt so fucking good.

"Please..."

Stiles pulled away from her breast, licking his lips, and smirked up at her. "Please what, baby?"

Olivia's chest heaved as she breathed, "Please fuck me."

In a rapid succession of movements, broken up by awkward giggles, loving kisses, and whispered promises under their breath, Stiles and Olivia stripped from the rest of their clothes. The heat turned back on once Olivia's panties were officially out of the way and Stiles took it to his advantage, playing with her clit with the pad of his thumb.

Olivia moaned and ducked her head into his neck, her mouth finding traction between his neck and collarbone.

"Ready?"

"Mmhm."

Both of them moaned together as Stiles slipped into her with one single thrust. Quick to find a rhythm, they moved their hips together, taking pleasure from one another that was freely given.

"So fucking good, baby," Stiles groaned into her collarbone, gently nipping the skin there. By now, some of the neon paint on Olivia's body was starting to rub off on him and boy, did he not mind. They were like some kind of sexy painting together, they could totally be in a museum. "Love you."

"I love you," Olivia returned, arching back when he hit a particularly good spot inside of her.

She gasped when he licked from her collarbone all the way up to her chin before uniting their lips. Pressing her up against the door so most of her weight was resting on it, Stiles moved one hand to hold her jaw, keeping her lips on his, and the other to her clit, rubbing it firmly.

"S-Stiles..."

"You gonna come for me, baby? Huh?" he dragged his lips over to her ear, whispering to her with hot and heavy breaths. "C'mon, baby. Come with me."

The coil of pleasure that had been starting to build since she first kissed Stiles that night was wound too tight. Even though it felt so, so good to stay on the edge while Stiles thrust in and out of her and played with her clit, heading over the precipice would be even better. That's just how orgasms with Stiles went: pleasure, pleasure, and more pleasure.

Moving her right hand from where it was attached to the firm muscles in Stiles' back, she grabbed the back of his head and pulled her back to her lips. Their moans harmonized together as they reached their peaks, coming within just seconds of each other with sharp sighs.

Ten minutes later, after waiting out their aftershocks and post-orgasm bliss, they cleaned themselves up, shared a few more kisses, and went back downstairs where the party was still going strong.

Reminiscent of their first dance together, Stiles pulled Olivia onto the dance floor. They made fools of themselves as they danced crazily together, pulling out silly dance moves from the blue. The goofy grins on their faces told outsiders how madly in love they were and the warmth inside their chests proved it to themselves—not that they had any doubt, either way.

Before long, Stiles mentioned how thirsty he was, so they scored a couple of beers off the bartender and went to sit down.

"Let me see your bottle opener," Olivia held her palm out to Stiles expectantly, knowing that he kept one on his key ring.

"Oop," Stiles rummaged through his jean pocket and pulled the key ring out, handing it over to her. "Here ya go."

"Thanks," she detached the caps from their bottles and paused, her eyes lingering on his keys when she went to give them back to him. "You know, your key has phosphors on it."

Stiles furrowed his eyebrows. "Phosphors? What the hell is that?"

Olivia rolled her eyes and smiled patiently at him. "It's any substance that luminesces," she told him. "It's in your teeth and your fingernails, laundry detergent, this paint," she brushed her thumb against his lips, where some of the leftover lipstick she had one glowed against his flesh. "this..."

Stiles cut her off, urgently smashing his mouth to hers. Her stomach flipped pleasantly as she kissed back. After a few seconds they pulled away, both of them inhaling deeply.

"It reacts to the UV light," she finished, breathing heavily. "that's why it glows."

"How would I get phosphors on my key?"

"Probably lots of ways," Olivia shrugged carelessly. "You could have touched them after chemistry class, or after you washed your clothes..." she trailed off when she saw the frown playing at his lips. "Stiles, are you okay?"

Stiles forced a smile. "Yeah, yeah...um...I'm sorry, I just thought of something and I really have to go."

"What?" Olivia was understandably confused. "Stiles, what are you talking about?"

"I want to stay, I really do, cause I love you and you're so fucking beautiful," Stiles rambled quickly, standing up and setting his beer bottle down on the floor. "but I need to go see something, so you stay here, okay. I love you. Drink a bottle of water, okay?"

"Stiles, wait—"

"Love you, be careful!" he called, slipping away before she could stand and go after him.

"Stiles!"

Olivia wanted to follow him, she really did. She knew something was bothering him and she wanted to know what it was so she could help him. But before she could chase after him, Lydia's tether flared brightly and disappeared just like Derek's had before. Just like Isaac's had the night before, which could not be a coincidence.

Worriedly, she dived into Lydia's tether and looked for her. In a daze, she started walking, not even noticing when Danny had started to follow her, worriedly calling out her name.

"Liv, what are you doing? Olivia!"

Lydia, Lydia, Lydia...

She opened the door that led to Derek's balcony and paused when she saw her cousin laying still on the ground, her fingers seizing lightly. "Lydia!" she rushed to her and knelt down, finally noticing Danny. "Go get Aiden, hurry!"

"I'm so sorry, Lyds," she murmured, using all her strength to pull Lydia into her lap. She wrapped her arms tightly around the shivering red head and dug her head into her neck. "It's gonna be okay. You're gonna be fine."

What the hell happened to Lydia? What had attacked her and left her freezing on the balcony, unable to move or call for help? Whatever it was, was this the thing that got Derek and Isaac?

It was only a minute before Aiden and Danny rushed back out to her and Lydia.

"What happened?" Aiden asked as he knelt down next to the girls.

"I have no idea, but she's freezing," Olivia's eyes stung, feeling helpless, as she helped transfer Lydia to Aiden's warm arms. "I think she's hypothermic. We gotta get her inside."

Aiden nodded seriously and got to his feet, lifting Lydia with ease. "Let's go."

"Over here," Danny pointed to the nearest wall as they passed him to go back into the loft. "there's a heating vent!"

"Thank you, Danny," Olivia placed a grateful hand on his shoulder before following Aiden.

The former alpha set Lydia down in front of the heat register—thankfully the building used propane for heat, so the lack of electricity didn't affect it—and held her tightly, rocking her back in forth in order to get some heat back inside of Lydia. Olivia immediately started rubbing Lydia's bare legs, hoping that friction could offer some heat too.

"I'll try to find a blanket," Danny volunteered.

"Upstairs, the first door to the right," Olivia told him; he nodded and took off into the crowd. "Lydia," she called loudly so her cousin could hear her over the music. "Lyds, what happened? Can you tell me what happened?"

Lydia stared at her, wide-eyed, and gasped, "They came out of the dark."

"Who?" Aiden asked. "Who came out of the dark?"

"Lyds?"

"They—they looked like n-ninjas," Lydia stammered, her teeth chattering. "I—I couldn't scream, it took my scream."

Olivia and Aiden shared a dreadful look, both of them thinking the same thing. Shit.

Then, Olivia heard it, the ferocious growl that filled up her whole mental map. Derek's tether lit up brilliantly as he called out for her and Scott. It was then that she realized that she had horribly screwed up, ignoring his tether earlier. She could have done something if she just took her warnings of Derek and Isaac's injuries seriously. She was a horrible person.

"Derek!"

Aiden looked at her sharply. "This happened to Derek too?"

"I think so."

Danny quickly came back with a blanket and draped it over Lydia's shoulders. Though the redhead was still kind of out of it, she was slowly warming back up to the point where Olivia felt a little better about her health. Just as she was about to suggest they move Lydia to her room, the music was abruptly cut off.

"GET OUT!"

Yeah, that was definitely Derek. Olivia was so fucking screwed.

At once, the crowd started running for the door. Olivia helped Aiden get Lydia to her feet and let Danny take some of her weight. "Can you take her home please? I'll deal with this."

Danny nodded, giving a very angry Derek a wary look. "Yeah, okay." And with that, he towed Lydia out of the loft, leaving only Olivia, Derek, Aiden, Ethan, Scott, Allison, Isaac, and Kira.

Well, there were the dark shadows that appeared out of nowhere, too. Just like Lydia had described them, they looked like ninja assassins, with silver masks and glowing yellow eyes draped in black robes.

In unison, the robed ninjas took a step toward Aiden and Olivia, their glowing eyes glaring at them.

"Guys," Aiden called to the rest of the pack, reaching for Olivia to move her behind him. "Guys, they're looking at us. Why are they all looking at us, guys?"

"Ollie, go!"

Olivia didn't hesitate, taking Derek's warning. She ran away from where Aiden stood toward Isaac, Allison, and Ethan, who was leaning heavily against them. At the same time, Derek and Scott attacked, turning as they went to fight the dark ninjas.

Olivia focused on Derek, watching with a grimace as she realized that the ninjas were much better than him and Scott at combat. Sure, Derek had experience and strength, but these guys that came from the shadows seemed unbeatable. At one point, Derek had even snapped one's neck, only for it to pop back in place.

Derek was not doing well in his fight, his tether pulsing brightly, and neither was Scott. Once they were both on the floor, tapped out, Isaac stepped in, sharpening his nails into claws as Olivia took the rest of Ethan's weight to help Allison.

Isaac growled at one of the ninjas but the being did not look at all intimidated. In fact, he pulled a long, sharp sword from the middle of his chest and held it out toward Isaac, swinging it around threateningly. Smartly, Isaac stepped back—protecting Aiden, of all people, was not worth the sword to his stomach.

The ninja turned away from Isaac, facing Aiden like the others.

"Someone do something!" Allison called out, looking between Scott and Derek.

It was too late. Two ninjas grabbed Aiden's arms and held him still while a third stood in front of him. He looked into the former alpha's eyes and cocked his head, reaching up to grab a hold of his ear. A rattling noise came from its chest as it used one strict flick to make a mark behind Aiden's ear; Aiden immediately collapsed onto the floor, looking much like Lydia had when Olivia had found her.

Another step and all the ninjas were looking at her.

"Oh, shit."

Scott raced in front of her, Ethan, and Allison, growling fiercely at the beings. Before any of them could take a step forward, the sun began to shine through the large window. With only a touch of the rays against the ninja's, they disappeared in a black mist.

Finding his strength, Ethan left Allison and Olivia's grasp to run across the room to his brother. At the same time, Olivia went over to Derek, helping him up from the floor and wrapping an arm around his torso to keep him upright.

"What the hell were those things?" Scott asked, looking around the room for any answer.

None of them knew...except maybe Allison and Isaac.

Isaac stepped forward, glancing at Allison. "Your dad's twenty-four hours are up."

(Gif is not mine)

[nightmarenoise]

Just comparing two cartoons I love

I understand that nobody asked in any capacity, but here I go anyway:

It feels fair to compare Ducktales 2017 to Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2018), not only because they're only about a year apart and truly, what is a year, but also because they

1. Both use this style that looks like it jumped straight out of a comic book. Okay, it's mostly the solidly inked shadows, but it gives me, personally, comic-y vibes.

2. They have taken what's arguably the main characters (the triplets for DT, the Turtles for TMNT) and shaken the formula up a good bit. Were the triplets formerly indistinguishable and all had the exact same personality, interests and voice actor, they are now three entirely separate entities with different traits and appearances. And while the turtles had about one defining personality trait and looked basically the same, save for the color of their masks, Rise made them different species of turtle to justify giving them radically different designs and three-dimensional personalities. Both shows faced criticism for this decision from people who cannot deal with change. Despite this, in both cases, it just works and does so incredibly well.

3. The oldest bros wear red.

4. We have two middle bros associated with the color blue who are both voiced by Ben Schwartz.

5. Both shows have a focus on family, with Ducktales especially focusing on found family and Rise on brotherhood.

6. Anime references!

Ducktales has a larger cast overall, with a lot of different characters all interacting with each other and they all have the most pleasant voices I've ever heard in my entire life. It's all solidly animated, the style is consistent and the animation is fluid, the characters are diverse and they're all lovely in their own right, except for those who aren't. The writing is top notch. Everyone feels consistent despite the large cast and it's delightful to watch all those interesting people interact with each other in their own way. The show also handles its mystery elements and occasional action scenes incredibly well, building suspense and delivering laughs and gut punches without hesitation. They juggle different tones like a professional clown, except the true clown was us, the audience, all along, for ever having doubted them.

The overarching plot of Ducktales, for its first two seasons, was mostly to uncover the mystery of what had happened to the mother of the triplets and all that would entail. Mystery and mythical elements will likely continue to be afoot for season 3.

Rise works with less focal characters, we have the Turtles, Splinter and April as well as various bad guys, but more than makes up for it with a lot of animation. A lot a lot of animation and it's all high quality. There's usually so much going on on-screen that a watching it once isn't enough to catch it all. Despite that, it doesn't feel crowded or rushed. Lots of dynamic shots and incredibly-choreographed action scenes, but nothing the thoroughly solid writing has to hide behind. Even when the baddies aren't the main concern, they're still well-rounded, interesting characters with unique abilities and motivations. Although, most of the mutants are just really feral. Still a delightfully diverse cast.

The turtles on the other hand spent their first season trying to foil their various foes, from a yokai trying to mutate all of humanity, to his mutants, to dealing with random mythical stuff, to the nefarious Foot Clan trying to reassemble the Dark Armor in the shadows. It's generally a more action-driven show, but they still find the time for some heartfelt moments.

The triplets 2.0

Despite their conventiently color-coded caps, they were really mostly the same character possessing three different bodies at a time. Well, the times of eerie The Shining like-twins, except extended to triplets, are over!

We have Huey, the oldest brother, voiced by Danny Pudi. He's a gentle, intellectual soul who values red hats, science, scout badges and checklists. Huey is arguably the closest in characterization to the original triplets, with some additional neat freak sprinkled in for flavor. He tries to be the responsible older sibling and keep his brothers under control and out of trouble. He also seems to have the most fiery temper of the bunch and should clearly not be pressed to the breaking point. He's my personal favorite and I heard season 3 will bring more focus to him, which makes me elated to hear. 888/10.

Middle child Dewey, the blue one, voiced by Ben Schwartz, who will inevitably come for all the iconic blue characters. He's very clearly the middle one, because he craves attention and validation and occasionally dreams of being an only child. Dewey is the one who started the investigation into their mom's disappearance and kept it from his brothers, partially to save them from hurt, but also because he wanted to feel special. He's the most interested in going on adventures with their uncle, but can get reckless when doing so. He's a bit of a spotlight hog, who has his own talk show that nobody watches and sings his own theme song when he needs to get hyped up, or just to fill this silence. This may sound kind of negative, but rest assured, he's a good, sweet boy. The focal triplet for the first season. 500/10.

Louie, the evil triplet, a schemer and a conman. Voiced by Bobby Moynihan.  The youngest of the bunch. While they call him evil, he's really far too lazy to cause serious harm, except for when it's his laziness that's causing him to take dangerous shortcuts, oops. He dreams of making a fortune, but without having to work for it and preferably without any responsibility either, thank you. He also occasionally dreams of being a spoiled fat cat. Despite his chill demeanor, he can be a bit of a crybaby and those tears are only fake 50% of the time. I feel like he likes getting babied, but mainly because that means there's less work for him to do. Season 2, which focuses more on him, reveals that he's actually quite brilliant, capable of seeing all the angles and giving him some chessmaster-like qualities. He needs to learn to use those abilities for good. 665/10.

Hi, she's Webbie! The honorary triplet, who also got a massive makeover, from annoying token girl tagalong to socially awkward, adorkable action girl. Be careful who you call ugly in middle school, indeed. Like a more ferocious  Mabel Pines, she has a grappling hook and years of martial arts training under her belt. Webbie can absolutely decimate you, but won't, because she's a sweet girl. Voiced by Kate Micucci. She continues to like unicorns and the color pink, but assuredly in the most badass of ways. She helped Dewey with his quest to uncover the mystery of his missing mom, but works well with all of the triplets, with Huey taking her under his wing a bit and Louie trying to get her to chill out more. Webbie is a sweetheart and I would die for her, were it not completely unnecessary, since she's more than capable of taking care of herself. ∞/10.

A lot of the supporting cast also saw updates and changes, for instance Gyro being a genius without social skills and Fenton being an adorkable scientist, but again, they work really well. They're interesting new takes on beloved characters. Even the new additions to the cast are great. In short, I love me some birds and am excited for season 3, Disney, get your scheduling together.

The Turtles 2.14.2 - I upgraded my upgrade in the middle of the upgrade

Also, these guys have seen so many different iterations in their, what, 30+ years of existence. As someone with no prior attachment to the turtle brand, I don't have a lot to say here. Leo's not the leader in this one and Raph has more personality than being angry at Leo for being the leader. Donnie is not just a random nerd spouting technobabble and Mikey has more depth than yelling the catchphrase every now and again. Apparently, this made people upset. I don't know how to help you with that.  The middle brothers exude some high chaotic energy and should not be left unsupervised, but the oldest and youngest seem fairly stable.

Raphael, the red-bandana'd alligator snapping turtle is an imposing figure. He's the oldest and therefore team leader by default. Raph has no reason to be upset at Leo, so he isn't. Despite his ferocious appearance, he's a soft guy, who likes teddies and doting on his brothers, but fears puppets. He's a bit of a knucklehead, most of his plans involve smashing things with his tonfa and he may refer to himself in the third person in the heat of the moment, but he possesses emotional intelligence, is open about his feelings and looks after his brothers. He is big and and strong, but his heart is bigger and stronger. He especially loves small animals animals, who don't usually return his feelings. RIP in F. This responsible guy is voiced by Omar Benson Miller. 300/10, very soft. Somehow both the heart and the big guy of the group.

Donatello has been upgraded from second-to-youngest to second-to-oldest, not that it makes much of a difference. His color of choice is purple and he continues in the character's tradition of being a nerd, although this time, with self-confidence. Donnie is very sure of himself and his abilities. As a spiny soft-shell turtle, he's less sure of his shell, but that's okay, he's made robotic battle shells to make up for it and his bō is the mother of all multitools. This guy can build you a tank out of a buggie and upgrade your animatronic into something to give the FNAF franchise a run for its money. He's the smartest of the four and when not focused on his phone, very focused on the mission. Due to having to deal with his bros, he can be exasperated a lot. Thinks of himself as an emotionally unavailable bad boy, even though he's just really sensitive and wants his dad or someone parent-aged to tell him they're proud of him. Theater kid. 999/10, give the middle child a hug and some coffee, you can't tell me he has a healthy sleep cycle. This sarcastic nerd is brought to you by Josh Brener.

Leonardo, Ben Schwartz's second blue character (Sonic (2020) being the third under his belt) and also his second ninja after Randy Cunningham. He's not the leader. He's still a good character. Leo has approximately 800 charisma and unwavering faith in both, his family and himself. Mostly himself though. Like Louie, season 2 revealed that he is a master of prediction and playing people like the cheap kazoo you can't tell me he doesn't have to play Darude's Sandstorm on. He dabs, he boards, he will pun you to death and back and he has an Odachi that can cut through space. Leo likes hogging the spotlight when given the chance and wants to be showered with attention and praise. Having four kids really only means twice the middle child nonsense. Leo is a red-eared slider, the original species of the TMNT, as I've been told. He's also the best at being a ninja, but usually too lazy to really apply himself. He's younger than Donnie, but tumblr suggested to read the two as twins, since they're approximately the same age, which sheds a whole new light on their dynamic and frankly, makes way too much sense. 420/10, for our memelord Leonardo.

Michelangelo, the eternally youngest of the bunch. An artiste, who puts stickers on himself, tags the lair, has a spiritual connection to his skateboard and the color orange. Mikey loves all things arts and craft, but he also tries his hands at cooking. He idolizes famous TV chefs and can do pretty much anything out of and into pizza. He's funny, without being annoying, like I feel a lot of other iterations of this character are. It's an easy pitfall for comic relief guys, but this one is more than that. If that's an issue, feel free to leave my house. Mikey is genuinely sweet and happy, optimistic and soft, but also the one brother who knows when it's time to take off the gloves and just get straight to the point. He's open about and in touch with his feelings. He's just baby. Don't treat him as one though. A lot of promo stuff says Leo has taken him under his wing, but he's had more episodes together with Donnie. Not that I'm complaining, they work very well together. Mikey and Raph are both the emotional centers of the group. Does not mind being yeeted after retracting into his shell, as box turtles may do. (Disclaimer, do not yeet actual box turtles!) His weapon of choice is a Kusari-Fundo that can turn into a fire-demon and is about as unpredictable as he is. Likes to jump and bounce around. Probably does parkour. Voiced by Brandon Mychal Smith who is audibly having a blast. 500/10, just an all around Kusari-fun guy.

For last, but certainly not least, April O'Neil, my girl, who saw an upgrade from flip-flopping love interest who was vaguely ninja-ing, but mostly damsel in distress-ing, to all-around spunky powerhouse and by God, she is glowing. Rise has her more as a big sister figure to the turtles, and I will not be told otherwise. She is independent and don't need no man, mutant or no. She has her teleporting pet, her faith in herself, her pinpoint baseball hitting skills and the a complete and utter lack of fear. Despite being a weirdness magnet, April is perfectly comfortable. She would like to be able to keep a job, maybe, but she has loving friends who respect and love her. Surprisingly good a ninja, fearless and fun. Occasionally thinks about being popular at school, but it's really not a big concern, she's not gonna throw a tantrum over it or anything. April is very chill. Not likely to be damseled. More likely to run after the turtles and clean up their messes or save them and everyone involved is fine with that.

The late 10's are really coming in to show us how dynamic and well-written female characters that aren't just "strong", but three-dimensional and relatable are done, huh?

An iconic performance by Kat Graham and ∞/10 for being the honorary better ninja non-mutant non-turtle and best big sister.

Here we have it, two older properties, having new life breathed into them to make them fresh and enjoyable. Have a new spin put on them, to better fit in with our current world. You can feel the love oozing out of every frame. At the end of the day, of course, it all boils down to taste and whether or not you like something. I gave Ducktales 2017 a go because a lot of the staff from Gravity Falls went to work on it and if you don't know me, I love me some Gravity Falls. It's a good show and I enjoy it. I recently got into Rise and while I don't know much about the people working on it, it is also a greatly enjoyable show, easily on the same level as Ducktales, if not above, yet with far less people speaking about it. Which is frankly saddening. I can only recommend the two of them wholeheartedly. If you love animation, yourself and occasionally feeling things, these are for you!

[phantomphangphucker]

The Substitute Ghost - DannyMay - Day 12 History

Summary: Phantoms the teacher and you will learn, or so help me.

(spiritual successor to my fic The Lessons A Mother Gives)

“So you all want Phantom... a ghost. To give this lesson?”

Pretty well half the class nods or claps excitedly while Valerie looks like she might just crush her pencil. Danny is having a hard time not laughing but at the same time, what if they actually ask him? Like sure he’s better at duplication now but uh, it’s hella risky to have Phantom and Fenton in the same room. Though yeah, he’d honestly prefer a ghost, or half-ghost in his case, teach ghost history than his parents. Heck! They really didn’t know anything about ghost history if he was honest. Meanwhile, Danny had lived a bit of it, and ClockWork was a damn good mentor. So he knew pretty well every major and quite a few minor things, be kind of sad if the ghost king didn’t know ghost history. Danny can’t help but chuckle to himself, at least ghost history was way more eventful and interesting. Even if most aren’t for humans, or even other ghosts, to know.

Danny gets startled out of his head by Mr. Lancer, “What do you think Daniel? How much do your parents know about ghost history?”. Again Danny can’t help but chuckle before responding, “they’re scientists and hunters, not historians. It’s unlikely they know much of anything. If they do know a bunch, they never talk about it”, obviously the class likes this as most of them are grinning, even Valerie seems to nod at that. 

And honestly, even if his parents were super knowledgeable on this, he’d really rather they not be the ones to teach others. Because unlike his parents, he wasn’t biased against ghosts. It would be like having a mouse teach the history of cats; an actively cat hating mouse. Danny has had to sit through his mom being a guest teacher before and that was on something she was actually well knowledgable on. He still can’t believe how much she managed to restrain her anti-ghost crap, though if he remembers correctly, she still rubbed that class the wrong way. Heck didn’t Mr. Lancer even voice displeasure with her directly to Danny himself? Yeah, Danny’s pretty sure he did. 

So he’s not too surprised by Mr. Lancer's response, even if it means he’s going to have to figure out how to do this, “then I’m inclined to agree with the near entirety of the class. Phantom is a friendly Ghost and many of you have already met him in person”. Danny almost feels bad for Valerie as she slams her head on the desk loudly, earning glares from a good portion of the class. Pretty well everyone knows she doesn’t like ghosts nowadays, which has actually made her way more of a social outcast than even the weirdo trio. Pretty much everyone else at school is majorly pro-Phantom, though Danny thinks he might just be starting to get on little Red’s good side.

Paulina shoots up her hand, “I’ve got an idea! Why don’t we just find some ghost and get it to chase me? Phantom will always save me because why wouldn’t he?”. Even Danny glares at Paulina, because first off she shouldn’t be willing putting herself in danger and secondly, she does that to an annoying degree just to get his attention.

“No, we will not be doing that. I’m the teacher and the adult, I’ll get him”, Danny’s pretty sure he’s not the only one that catches Mr. Lancer mutter, “somehow”. Seeing as it looks like Paulina’s decided she has another idea, “well what about Fenton? Pretty sure hunters have ghost tracking stuff and Phantom shows up around him all the time?”. Danny has to force himself to not glare holes straight through her head, since that would be a bit suspicious, seeing as pretty well the whole class is looking at him questioningly now; with some even nodding thoughtfully. Seriously wishing Paulina had kept her mouth shut as he responds, “trackers aren’t that useful on Phantom unless he lets you track him. My parents get frustrated to no end over his ability to randomly become undetectable”.

He’s not about to give them actual ideas since he’s not sure if teaching a class, especially one that he’s in, is such a good idea. Though apparently, the class is choosing to ignore Mr. Lancer statement to let him get Phantom as Mikey speaks up, “we could just ask him? Just wave him down after one of his fights? It’s not like he’s never around”. Danny definitely glares at Mikey, because no, don’t stick around a fight; that shit’s dangerous. But how often does Danny actually hang around town as Phantom outside of fighting? Outside of patrolling and flying, pretty well never. Guess that does make him a bit of an elusive bastard.

Thankfully Mr. Lancer agrees that idea isn’t the best, “that’s far too dangerous, even Phantom gets hurt in those. And we all know ghosts are much more durable, so no one is to be near a fight just to talk to him”. A few people snicker, including Danny, at how Mr. Lancer glares specifically at Paulina; who, predictably, rolls her eyes.

Danny jolts a bit as Tucker kicks his chair and leans over, whispering, “dude, you should probably just bite the bullet on this one. Before someone actually does one of these dumb ideas. And pretty sure you’re not actually trying to talk them out of this, can’t say I really blame you on that though”. Danny sighs and shrugs at Tucker, he knows he’s probably right. It’s too bad he hasn’t figured out how to duplicate invisibly yet, otherwise, he could just do that and have a Phantom duplicate pretend to be thrown through the class wall. Let it stick around long enough to get asked before zipping off like he has a fight to finish.

And leaving class is out of the question, asking to go to the bathroom and then having Phantom show is just way too suspicious. Maybe he should start a blog or something, as Phantom, so people can actually contact him? Sure he’ll end up with lots of fan crap, even if that is enjoyable; it’s nice to be liked and needed you know. But it would help for situations like this, which are bound to happen again.

Blinking as he gets an idea, sure it’ll bite him in the ass a little but that’s better than someone getting themselves hurt chasing after Phantom, and he thinks it’s believable enough. Heck might even be able to use it as a way to explain Paulina calling him out earlier, “well, you all seem pretty set on this. This all stays a secret from my parents though”. Pretty well the whole class is nodding and Mr. Lancer is giving him a quizzical look while Valerie speaks up, “yeah even I don’t want them barging in or going off about ghosts”. Valerie stares Danny a bit before continuing, “what idea you got Danny. Clearly, you have one”. Danny smirks, knowing full well she’s going to be a bit pissy at him and the rest of the class is going to pester him. Flipping out his phone as he shrugs, “I’ll just call him”.

Everyone predictably gapes at him, while he pretend dials and Tucker tries damn hard to keep his laughter from being audible.

“You have his number!”

“He has a phone?”

“Why would he want a Fenton’s number?!”

Danny can’t help but snicker at the questions as he has a pretend conversation with himself. Coming up with random code words on the spot to make this seem more routine.

“No, no eggs”

“You could say weirder sure. Apparently, you’ve got a teaching job now. Well, for one day anyway”

Danny intentionally laughs, though it’s actually genuine since this is rather absurd.

“No forwarding involved. Just a teach wanting ghost history”

“As if, still a blt”

Danny mouths “when” at Mr. Lancer, who promptly starts checking the schedule and calendar.

Danny rolls his eyes and chuckles a bit, pretending he can hear Phantom eating or something on the other end, before Mr. Lancer responds a little bit frazzled, “tomorrow actually works out best”.

Danny gives a little nod before continuing the fake call,

“Oh yeah they can and do. Whole class”

“Of course”

“Dude, not even a little kid is enough of an idiot to give out your number”, Danny glares at the class hoping they get the message and don’t pester him for Phantoms’, aka his, number.

“Class six-b, a bit after ten”

“Yeah, welcome to schools, everything’s stupid early”

Snickering a bit, mentally pretending Phantom made some comment about drowning himself in the noddles he was eating, “well you get right on that then, later”.

It only takes a couple seconds after putting his phone away for some to ask, “why do you, of all people, have Phantoms’ number?”. While someone else mutters, “guess it would make sense he’d have a phone though”.

Danny rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, “non-ghost hating Fenton here. Living with people who constantly make new anti-ghost stuff and whom frequently converse with those GIW morons”. Danny can’t help but chuckle as it’s clear he needs to make this more obvious, “dudes gotta have a way to know what all the anti-ghost stuff is and does. You’re looking at it”.

Danny can tell Valerie’s not impressed as she gapes at him, “so you’re helping him and basically spying on your own family. For a ghost”. Danny rolls his eyes but can’t help but snicker, in a way he is actually spying, “he's the good guy Val. The GIW are idiots and my parents are beyond biased. They wanted me involved in the family business, they got it. Just not the way they’d planned”.

Mr. Lancer shakes his head a bit even if it’s clear he’s smiling, “well I think it goes without saying, that this conversation stays in the classroom. I’ll request that no one brings recording devices tomorrow or tries taking photos. You’re here to learn, it’s not a meet n’ greet”. While Danny’s thankful and hopes they’ll actually listen, the rest of the class groans.

Danny doesn’t even get a chance to walk out the class door before Valerie springs on him, “seriously Danny? I’d have thought you of all people would know ghost everything is dangerous. And helping a ghost? Really?”. Danny makes a point of holding himself proudly, “just walking into Fenton Works is dangerous. There’s no getting away from ghosts for a Fenton. Again, Phantom’s good. Most folks help him, I’m just a bit more helpful”.

Danny’s not sure if it’s his stance or words but Valerie just sighs and shakes her head before walking away. Though she does look over her shoulder and the pair share a slightly hurt wistful look.

Tucker slaps him on the back as they sit to eat, “dude, eggs? Forwarding? Blt? Congrats on being confusing”, Danny can’t help but snicker. Finger-gunning as he responds, “emergency ghosts or gear. Aka ghost fight or new Fenton tech. When people forward emails there’s that little “FW” symbol, like Fenton Works. And blind living town, as in no one knows about some secret or another”. Tucker looks genuinely impressed, “those, those are actually useful. Damn”. While Sam just looks utterly confused, “ok what happened now?”. Tucker slaps Danny on the back again, “Phantom’s a teacher now and-”. Tucker gets cut off by Kwan, “Fenton, dude! Phantom’s spy? That’s got to be cool! Bet you have, like, codes and shit?!”. Danny rolls his eyes while Sam tries to not look shocked, “you know the point of “spy” is to be a secret?”.

Kwan actually has the decency to look guilty and just scurries off, while Sam mouths “what?” at Danny. Leaning towards her, “Lancer wanted someone to teach ghost history and everyone was determined it’d be Phantom. The running story is, Fenton has Phantoms’ number and is keeping tabs on the Fenton’s and their gear for him”. Sam nods readily accepting this while Tucker smirks a bit. Because really, the two of them are Phantoms real little spies.

Danny, as Phantom, phases through Mr. Lancers’ ceiling, “so ghost history?”. Danny can’t help but laugh as Mr. Lancer jumps; Danny’s got to get his mischievous side out somehow. Besides this kind of crap is what ghosts do. Mr. Lancer clearly agrees as he doesn’t even give Danny shit, “yes, I imagine you know it better than any human? Though I hope it’s not too much trouble”. Danny waves him off as he comes to stand in his teachers living room, which is a bit surreal, “you’re not wrong. Heck! I’ve been at the forefront of some of it. And yeah pretty well everything any human knows is either only half the story or wildly biased”. Mr. Lancer nods with a frown, “I suspected as much”, he sips his tea before continuing, “since this is for only one class, because I don’t doubt we’ll draw negative attention if we do this for multiple days. Stick to the bigger things. Leaders, any major battles or wars, important ghosts and why they are or were important, major traditions and how they came to be, and so on”. Danny knows full well he’s going to have to omit some things, like who the current ghost king is. Though really, it’s almost sad that it isn’t obvious. He’s literally flying around with a crown and cape, that shit is pretty damn noticeable. But until someone asks or flat out calls him out, he’s not saying shit. Nodding at Mr. Lancer, “and obviously people are going to asks me stuff. But somethings with ghosts, in general, are need to know only, so there's some info I’m just not going to give”.

“I’d expect as much. Humans and ghosts don’t exactly get along. Yet anyway”

“Yeah, though I’d like for that to change. Someday maybe. Stuff like this might be a good step”, Danny’s almost sad that didn’t hit him before. People fear what they don’t know and ghosts are a pretty big unknown. Humans might be able to relate more knowing ghosts actually have their own history. He’s sure some folks just think ghosts don’t do anything other than toy with humans.

Mr. Lancer nods with a bit of a smile, “my thoughts exactly. Though I doubt you’re exactly experienced with teaching or are a historian”. Danny laughs and shakes his head, “course not! But I know a thing or two. There’s a lot of aspects to what I do. Not just here but in the Zone as well”. Mr. Lancer only gets to nod as Danny’s ghost sense goes off, “well duty calls, toddles”. Danny hardly heard Mr. Lancers “have a safe night” as he waves and flies through the wall.

Danny Phantom high-fives Danny Fenton, it was a pretty easy choice to make the clone play the role of Phantom. Since Phantom just up and disappearing suddenly isn’t exactly all that weird.

Fenton patting himself down as he leaves the bathroom, while Phantom flies and sits invisibly in the classroom.

Sitting down, Fenton’s sure he’s the only one who knows Phantom’s here. Well, until Valerie comes in, glares at her sensor before glaring at the front left corner of the room.

Mr. Lancer raises his eyebrow questioningly at Danny Fenton, so Phantom takes that as his cue to pop into visibility. Scaring the crap out of half the class and Mr. Lancer, even Valerie snickers at that; while Fenton, Phantom and Tucker smirk. Danny seriously hopes that the attention stays squarely on Phantom him as Phantom starts talking, “so obviously I’m not actually a teacher. And I’m a fly by the cuff kind of guy so don’t expect this to be structured”. Phantom, shrugging at Mr. Lancers raised eyebrow, “what? I’m not a planner”, before turning to the class and deciding to just start this before he gets bombarded with questions, “I’d figured I’d start with Pariah Dark, since you’ve all actually met him in a sense. That and he’s old”. Most of the class looks confused already, so clearly, Danny’s doing a great job here. Phantom, chuckling, “Pariah’s the guy who transported Amity into the Zone for a while. He’s one of the oldest ghosts around and once held the title of ghost king. Though he was a tyrant, ruled through power, fear and destruction of other ghosts lairs. Originally defeated by a group of, now unknown, ancient ghosts”. Danny really hopes Paulina has an actual question not a confession of love, as Phantom calls on her, “but didn’t you defeat Mr. Floaty face alone?”.

“I had a strength-enhancing suit but otherwise yes. Hopefully this time he’ll stay sealed away”, Phantom elects to move one before they ask if there’s a new king, “we do have other rulers though, some areas of the zone are kingdoms or nations. Those places all have a ruler or leader of some kind. Most have ruled their entire existence, like Pandora and Frostbite. Queen of Mythos and Leader of the FarFrozen. So there’s really no stories there. Ghosts don’t have elections or change leaders the way humans do”.

Phantom smirks as he crosses his legs, floating in the air, it’s really no surprise to him that his classmates are actually paying attention. “Queen Dora is an exception. She actually overthrew her brother, after he tried to forcefully wed a human and that human-made her see that she didn’t have to tolerate her brother’s abuse anymore. Aragon, her brother, was and still is a basket case. He trapped his whole kingdom in the dark ages and pretty much hated technology and happiness. Dora undid that though, so the kingdom of dragons is much happier now”.

Fenton can’t help but laugh a bit, only managing to school Phantoms’ expression as he overhears someone mutter, “wow, what a dick”. Phantom, tapping his chin, decides he doesn’t really care if the Observants don’t like it. He’s gonna talk about them, possibly just to bug them, “we also have another more universal governing body, kind of like checks and balances. The Observants, they watch pretty well everything every ghost does or is going to do. Acting as judge and jury, but never actually interfering. They just make others do their dirty work”.

Mr. Lancer shakes his head, “so like our government then”. Phantom nods as he points at Kwan’s raised hand, “well why didn’t they do something about that ghost king guy? Or get someone else to do something?”.

“Because they knew I would, that and Pariah wasn’t a zone or earth destroying issue. The Observants only meddle in the most extreme things. Pariah instilled fear not destruction, on ghosts. So he likely wasn’t much of a concern to them”, honestly Danny feels they really should have done something. That guy was pretty well fucking with everything, but Danny did defeat him so he can’t complain too much. Plus, if he were to ask ClockWork, he’d probably say Danny needed to become the ghost king and that had been the only way; or the least unpleasant way.

“Do you work for these guys?”, Danny can feel the mistrust and accusation in Valerie’s voice. “No, I’ve never done any work for them and I don’t work under them. Only one ghost actually works for them, but they can and will ask pretty well any ghost to do a job. I wouldn’t be too surprised if they eventually ask something of me”.

Phantom floats to the floor laughing a bit as ClockWork pops up, waving his hand at the time ghost, “yeah yeah I get it. I’ll shut the hell up. And you know I wouldn’t tell them about you, or Dan”. ClockWork still bops him on the head with his staff for good measure, “Oh I know, and yes the Observants are thoroughly bothered”. Both of them smirk as ClockWork takes his leave, Danny’s going to just assume he was about to say something stupid to the class. No clue what but that’s expected really. That or someone was about to ask something stupid, and Phantom suddenly changing positions instantly would catch them off guard enough to not ask.

Phantom turns his head back to the class, who all look a bit confused. Phantom just smirks more, “there was a visitor, nothing to worry about though. Friendly fellow”

“Can ghosts sense each other!?”, Danny’s honestly surprised it took this long for someone to ask more general ghost shit. Though Mr. Lancer glares at Mikey a bit, sighs and turns to Phantom, “you don’t have to answer that. This isn’t a q and a”. While Mr. Lancer’s right, Danny can’t really blame them. Heck, he’d probably get bombarded with questions if he actually stuck around after fights. Well, that and get shot at. Though he knows that if he really indulges the question he’ll be inviting more of them, “you’re teacher’s right, but that ability is unique to me. Anyway, that’s pretty well it for ruling ghosts. Most ghosts are loners rather than living in an established group. But we do have an overarching society. Mostly just norms everyone follows, like not destroying others lairs or making your name known to a worthy opponent. And there’s really only one real holiday, rather than the many humans observe”.

Danny can tell Valerie is suspicious of something, not sure what but still. So he calls on Dash’s raised hand before she can say something, “that must be one big holiday and party then”. And Danny catches one of the geeks' mutter, “bet is Halloween or something like it”.

Chucking Phantom addresses the Geek, who clearly didn’t expect his comment to be heard. more so than Dash, “while I have a soft spot for Halloween, it’s actually Christmas. Known as the Christmas Truce, like with humans Christmas used to be called Yule and was started by some of the first ghosts. As a way to instil unity and decrease the, at the time, near constant fighting. No fighting is allowed and ghosts all get together with friend and foe alike, for food, drink and merriment. Skulker’s renowned for his unusually good lemon Creme pie”. Danny catches a few people muttering, surprised, about how ghosts actually eat food. Danny apparently didn’t do a good enough job at distracting Valerie as she points accusingly at Phantom, while Fenton groans and mouths “here we go” at Tucker. Both Fenton and Tucker turn and mildly glad at Valerie, as she talks or more so snaps, “ignoring the idea of ghosts being “merry” and cooking in their spare time. With ghost rulers, I’m pretty sure you glanced over yourself, unless that crown is just for kicks”. Danny can tell she’s feeling smug as a couple people look at him and nod. Though Mr. Lancer looks like he wants to interject again, as Mr. Lancer remembers that Phantom warmed somethings would be off limits, so Phantom shakes his head at him.

Danny’s not about to give Valerie the satisfaction, and there’s really no good reason to not respond. People are going to keep asking, eventually, “I was wondering how long it would take for someone to call me on that. I intentionally left myself out purely to see how long it would take. I enjoy a bit of harmless mischief you know”. Smirking at Valerie’s annoyed grimace before actually answering her question, “and really the answer is why I even know all this stuff. Ghosts generally don’t know much of our history, we don’t get taught it after all. Most only know what they’ve actually been around for. Though any ghost who wants to know the publicly available bits of ghost history could do so easily, most simply see no need to”. Now Valerie’s just plain annoyed with Phantom and Tucker is trying hard not to laugh while giving Fenton discrete thumbs up. Both Danny’s smirk at Tuckers’ clear approval of dragging this out just to bug Valerie.

Phantom, shrugging exaggeratedly at the class, “I’ve been taught it because, after all, it would be pretty sad if the Ghost King didn’t know his subjects and worlds history”. Mr. Lancer’s the first to audibly react, choking on his tea a bit and staring at Phantom incredulously. Danny’s classmates are quicker to accept this as true and Valerie looks flat out pissed off. Half the class nearly shouting at him, “what!”. While Tucker and Fenton both put their heads on their respective desks in an attempt to muffle their laughter. Danny’s trying to get all his laughter out through Fenton, since he doesn’t want Phantom to look mocking. Though he can’t keep Phantom from snickering and laughing a bit as well, “that was my original reaction!”. Composing himself a bit and giving a lazy smile, that he hopes is reassuring or comforting, “but yes, I pretty much usurped Pariah from power and thus took his place as Ghost King. Even if I didn’t even know that was possible at the time”. Phantom gives Valerie the best subtle, I’m-not-a-power-hungry-asshole look he can; without making the rest of the class suspicious.

Mr. Lancer is clearly a bit frazzled, as he adjusts his tie, “that is a bit startling Mr. Phantom. But I guess you really were the best choice for this then”. Meanwhile, Star whispers at Fenton, “oh my god, you knew”. Fenton only nods while wheezing and Phantom forces himself to not comment on that.

Instead addressing the whole class, “indeed, really if you need any ghostly info I’ve probably got it. Doesn’t mean I’ll actually tell you though. And if I’m refusing to give you certain information then it’s not something you should, or want to, know”.

“You're a ghost. No reason to trust you on that”, most of the class, including Fenton, rolls their eyes at Valerie. While Danny decides to have Phantom pretty much do his job and mediate between the species, “true, I am a ghost, but that matters not. You’re coming from a place of opinion not reason. But that’s expected. Listening to what I have to say, whether you agree with it or not, is well enough. Somethings I know should not be known by others, not because it could harm ghosts, but because it could damage the timestream, reality itself, or drastically increase the chances of mass destruction”. Danny’s not sure what to make of Valerie’s facial expression, like a mixture of shock, confusion and complete annoyance.

Knowing full well he’d rather not have another incident like when the GIW tried to destroy the zone, “Further, anything that seriously damages the Ghost Zone will have the same effect on earth. Our worlds exist in duality, due to that only certain ghosts known everything. Ghosts that get along with humanity or at least don’t wish to harm humanity. In a sense part of my job is this, keeping the peace and making sure nothing serious happens to either world”.

Giving Valerie a soft smile, “I may be the Ghost King but I am also earths protector. From uniformed human actions, to truly evil ghosts, and outside forces”.

This seems to pull the rest of the class into normalcy a bit though,

“Who’s the most powerful ghost?”

“Do you have servants?”

“Castle?”

“Can you make people knights?”

“Do you rule over Amity too?”

Mr. Lancer actually stands up at this and puts his hands up, “enough, enough. None of that has to do with history”. Phantom shrugs a bit, “well technically anything to do with me is history, or will be. My very existence was even prophesied and I’m worshiped as a god by some, I’m pretty well the only ghost worshiped by other ghosts. But I’m not here to talk about myself. So any history questions that aren’t specifically about me”. Danny does overhear a couple people muttering, “he’s a god?”, and, “just how many titles does this guy hold?”. But he doesn’t want to feed that train of thought, otherwise, this is going to take way too long. Specially if he was fully honest, which he can’t be.

“Has there been any other ghosts like the Pariah Guy? That had to be removed or sealed or whatever?”

“Are there things besides ghosts that are important? Like how the Statue of Liberty is?”

Danny’s not really surprised it’s the geeks with the questions, as Phantom responds, “yes there have been, three of which I’ve dealt with myself. Vortex, the one responsible for the really strange weather for that short while, UnderGrowth, the one responsible for all that vine and plant stuff everywhere, and the last one isn’t to be talked about”. Phantom frowns to emphasise his point before continuing, “other than that, Betrex is the only other. Betrex enslaved a large portion of humanity back in the human dark ages. Both Betrex and Vortex were dealt with originally by the Observants. And there are lots of different artifacts that are important, but most are supposed to be kept a secret so that no one uses them. But there are some I can talk about, for one Pandora’s Box is very much real. It’s used to siphon out evil energy from the zone”. Mr. Lancer looks thoroughly pleased with this which makes Phantom smirk.

“That’s the only one you’ve likely heard of though. But you have seen another one, the red crystal ball staff that circus gothica guy had. Staff Of Minds, it’s called, it can mind control ghosts. Make slaves really, it’s destroyed now”. Phantom shakes his head and chuckles, “really Freakshow has a bad habit of getting his hands on powerful ghost artifacts. He also had the Reality Gauntlet, which is what Thanos’s Infinity Gauntlet is based off of”.

The geeks in the back row look like they’re having a field day so Danny decides to be a bit of an ass, “which has also been destroyed”. Yup, the freaking out geeks look decently crushed, “but it was one of the more important artifacts. Since it created the Ghost Zone, the Reality Gauntlet can completely control all of reality. So it’s vastly more powerful than its comic book counterpart”.

Valerie is pretty much the only student that doesn’t look impressed, instead she just looks horrified, so Danny decides to make a bit of a point, Phantom looking at her while running a hand through his hair, “technically I didn’t have to destroy it but I decided it wasn’t worth the risk of someone stealing it from me. It was enough of a pain getting it away from FreakShow as it was”.

Tucker decides that’s the time to speak up, pointing at Phantom, “it did look good on you though”. Both Fenton and Phantom nod, completely agreeing. Honestly, sometimes he wishes he kept it. Sure he’d never use it for anything more than fun and to fix major fuck ups. But it really was better destroyed.

“Everything looks good on you”, Paulina barely bothers to whisper and Danny has to stop both of himselves from groaning. Valerie, however, flat out groans; though she’s eyeing Phantom a bit confused.

“The only other major items I can really talk about is the Ring of Rage and the Crown of Fire. Both of which Pariah used to strengthen himself. You need both to use either. Basically, the wearer has accesses to infinite power, but it’ll destroy the wearer if they’re not strong enough to handle the base power of the items”, Valerie looks drastically more horrified and Danny can’t blame her, she was literally wearing the ring. Phantom points at Dash, “dude, then how the heck did you even defeat him? How do you defeat infinite power?”.

Phantom smirks, “he could only access the amount his own power and body could handle. Just because you have access to infinite power, doesn’t mean you can actually use all of it. The suit I had, amplified my strength a hundredfold, which was only barely enough”.

“So this suit is stronger than the crown and ring?”

Phantom screws his face up a bit, “no, not even kind of. That suit nearly destroyed me, and it would have killed any human who used it. I destroyed that as well. The suit was a hundredfold but the crown and ring is easily, for me, over five thousand fold”. This time Danny catches Valerie actually look for the ring on him, which he is of course wearing.

Glaring at him, “you’re wearing them”. Even Mr. Lancer looks at him worried due to Valerie’s remark. Phantom smirks, “of course, they’re also known as the kings crown and rulers ring for a reason. Technically, they’re a requirement. A painful one, but still”. And this is why Danny’s glad he’s got an absurd pain tolerance. Though it clearly startles his family sometimes.

Mr. Lancer clearly wants to change the subject at this point and it’s also clear he’s cringing a bit, “well, we’re running short on time so any other important events or people?”.

“Basically all the important ghosts I can talk about are rulers so that’s a no. As for events, the blood blossom purge was a big one and the Bermuda Triangle caused a war for a good ten wars. Basically, anything that disappears there, shows up in the Ghost Zone. And it causes an issue every time. Ghosts fight over what to do, and if anyone owns the random things”.

Frowning a bit, “the Blood Blossom purge was more serious. It’s a plant that was intentionally driven to mass extinction. From pictures, it looked a lot like book burning but with plants. Still to this day, it’s basically a requirement that if anyone finds one of those flowers they have to destroy it. Not doing so is pretty much the harshest rule you could break”. Valerie smirks a bit, “those plants must be pretty harmful to you guys then”.

Phantom glares at her a bit, “in a sense. And while ghosts really don’t care about, mind or will even encourage ghost hunting gear. Anything Blood Blossom related isn’t tolerated. If, say, a human, whether hunter or not, had Blood Blossoms and was making it difficult or impossible for ghosts to destroy it. The Observants would get involved and would have no problem erasing that human from existence. Either by flat out killing them, making it so they were never born in the first place, or destroying the entire town. There’s a reason no one likes the Observants, they do not care about anyone’s existence. They see only the bigger picture, if they decide obliterating half the zone or killing off hundreds of humans is what’s best, they’ll see it gets done; unless someone makes doing that impossible”. Danny’s sure he went a little too hard there but, based on Valerie’s face, his point was made.

Tucker whispers to Fenton, “a little overboard dude”. Turning around to him a bit, “you should have heard CW’s speech. The big O’s are more than just serious about this”. Tucker and Fenton share a grimace.

Aiming to soften and lighten the mood a bit, “I’ve already had to get in their way once, so they don’t exactly like me and I don’t care for them. Even if they are needed and do their jobs exceptionally well, they just have wonky priorities”. Snickering a bit, “pretty much every ghost who knows about them intentionally bugs them. Annoying them is the original reason I even mentioned them, and they can’t do anything about. Even if there is around five thousand of them”.

Mr. Lancer shakes his head a little startled, having not expected ghosts to be quite so powerful, “I can’t say I like these guys either, Mr. Phantom”, turning to the class, “does anyone have any final questions. Questions that are actually relevant please”.

“Do you guys celebrate the creation of the Ghost Zone? And what about birthdays?”

Phantom can’t help but chuckle, “deathdays actually and yes we celebrate them. It’s up to the individual ghost how though, and before you ask, don’t ask a ghost when they’re deathday is. It’s insanely rude, and no I won’t, or more specifically can’t, tell you mine. Very few actually know when the Ghost Zone was created for sure, so no we don’t celebrate it”. Danny can tell the class is torn between finding “deathday” funny or unpleasant. Though Danny’s just impressed that Valerie actually puts her hand up this time.

“What about the existence of hal-”, Danny knows where this is going and Phantom promptly cuts her off with an ecto-gag. Because it’s way better to be a bit suspicious than having her blab about that while his human form is within easy comparison sight.

Glaring at her, “you’re being quite the trouble maker. That’s pretty well one of the number one things that are not to be talked about. So keep that to yourself unless you want to get people killed”. Thankfully, Valerie only glares as the gag dissolved while Tucker covers up his gaping mouth with his hand.

A couple people mutter, wondering what it is Valerie knows but promptly shut up at Phantoms mild glaring. “I’m not going to withhold information or keep something secret without a good reason. So don’t go questioning her about this”. Pretty well everyone nods as the bell goes off, but Mr. Lancer motions for Phantom to stick around. Which leaves Danny even more glad he’s gotten good at this.

Phantom floats, legs crossed, in the air as Mr. Lancer sits back down, “I’ll admit, I learned more than even I expected here. I don’t think I grasped just how powerful of a ghost you really are”. Phantom smirks, “yeah my small size and general light-hearted demeanour can be a bit misleading. I don’t act remotely as strong as I am and I have no interest in doing so. I only exercise major power or my position when it’s really needed”.

“You’re a very surprising fellow, Phantom. For seeming so young, you’re clearly wise. I’m glad the position of king fell on someone like you and thank you for coming in”, Mr. Lancer reads Phantoms slightly amused face before asking the question that Phantom knows he wants to, “feel up to doing this again sometime? Obviously not on a specific schedule, too risky for you”.

Phantom smiles lightly and nods, “I’ve had lots of experience with lots of things. And experience begets wisdom so to speak. But sure, I’d be up for it. Though dealing with any ghost issues comes first so don’t be surprised if I occasionally cancel or suddenly leave”.

“But of course, I wouldn’t expect anything different”, with that the two wave as Phantom phases through the ceiling.

Meanwhile, Fenton promptly gets corned by Valerie just outside of class. “question, do you know what I was talking about in there? Before I was rudely cut off by your “friend””, Danny can tell she’s unimpressed and still very much not fond of Phantom. “If what you’re thinking of involves a little girl, then yes. If the wrong people hear or find out about that the gov will destroy her. So seriously don’t”, obviously Valerie takes Fenton more seriously and nods curtly.

“All right Danny. I’ve got no problem believing you and that does make sense. Still don’t like that you’re helping a ghost. But it’s your life I guess”. Chuckling, “you don’t know the half of it”.

End.

[imsorryforthechaos]

Tanner's fun experience.

A story written by someone who should honestly see a therapist. Aka me.

"Hey guys come check this out! I think it's a body!" Squeaked a borderline psychotic child. His curly, dusty brown hair bounced as he excitedly poked the body bag. Piercing blue eyes filled with joy at the sight. The almost paper white skin he had clashed with the dark, metal pole be was using to poke the lifeless corpse. The boy looked like a walking skeleton.

"N-no, I don't wanna see any more d-dead things, Jasper." One scared girl stammered. Her long, unnaturally red hair covered her face as she looked down at the ground with terrified purple eyes. An older, lanky boy was passing by and heard the notoriously creepy kid picking on the innocent girl in his class again.

"Yeah you showed her a dead cat yesterday. How did you even get a dead cat into school?" The boy questioned hesitantly. Instantly regretting even talking to the younger kid. His brown eyes filled with terror and concern as he wipes his blonde bangs out of his face.

Jasper turned towards the two frightened children with a devilish, wide grin. The horrid smile got wider and wider and his teeth got sharper and sharper.

"Do you want to see where I keep my collection? Maybe you could help me add more. I could always use more trophies." Jasper stated in a stereotypical demonic child voice.

"Okay, seriously?" The "scared" little girl asks, clearly annoyed. "You are a demon, I'm guessing? Why do you have to have that stupid voice? It's so overused. Be original for once, excuse my potty mouth, but holy crap! You have obvious powers. You can surely pitch your voice different or talk in a different tone. Or are all demons boring and the same? Not to mention your complete LACK of originality in your word choices."

Jasper's jaw is firmly planted on the ground at this point. Never has anyone talked back to him and made him feel powerless. This girl surely has to be an equal. Jasper walked calmly over to the girl.

"What is your name? No one has ever made me feel powerless. You must be as strong as me. I could have a girl like yo-" Jasper was cut off by a knife made out of a demon tooth being stabbed into his stomach. It started to burn him as it was coated in holy water.

"Where did you- AAAAGGGHHHHH!" Jasper screamed in pain.

"What a waste of time, you can't even turn into a demon yet. I wanted to make a new demon tooth knife. Whatever."

Reyna takes out a very long sword from her, seemingly, tiny backpack and cuts the demon boy in two. He roars in agony. His upper and lower halves fall away from each other. Jasper tries desperately to crawl away.

"Please, I don't want to go back down there. You don't want to know what it's like. Please, let me go."

"Hm, guess you shouldn't have done something to go to hell in the first place."

Reyna stabs the sword into Jasper's head. A bright light surrounds the two halves and he explodes into light particles. Reyna sighs a breath of relief, puts her tools back in her back, and starts to walk back to class. Her stroll to class was interrupted by the cries of the older boy. Reyna turns around to see the boy wide eyed, on the ground, in the fetal position, and crying. She casually walks over to him and kneels down next to him. Her tiny arms wrap around her equally tiny legs.

"What's your name?" Reyna asks innocently.

"T-Tanner." He stutters. Still staring off, visibly traumatized.

"Last name?"

"D-D-Dent."

"Ah, the Dent family. Such a wonderful bunch of people. Loving, caring, and just genuinely good." Reyna says to herself as she takes her backpack off and takes out a notebook. She sits crisscross on the floor and takes off a pen that is resting on the notebook's binder rings and opens the book.

"What are you g-gonna do? Also, h-how do you know m-my family?" The crying boy asked in a cautious manner.

"Oh, I'm sorry here." As Reyna says her last word, she snaps and the world is then turned into a white, neverending room "I'm your... well you see... Ugh, okay, I really don't know how else to put this and I'm sorry if this freaks you out, I can assure you you're safe with me here. Okay?"

Tanner gets up off the now white floor and wipes away his tears. "Okay."

"I'm your spirit guardian. Before you ask, no, not a guardian angel, those are completely different. Spirit guardians are new because guardian angels have to protect their human from a bunch of other dumb things. Like their choices, for example. No offense." Reyna smiles sarcastically. "Also, if you're wondering what this place is, it's your soul. It's not filled with much because you are still fairly new to life. The only things that are in here are your parents, video games, and basic things that a child can love with their heart and soul. I'm also writing down your name and the experienceso your guardian angel can help you forget." Reyna further explains. "Now I need you to do something for me. I need you to say you fully trust in me."

"Why?" Tanner questions.

"I need your trust as consent. So, you're not completely crazy when you grow up. Because you will have flashbacks to when a 5 year old girl pulled a sword out of her backpack and chopped a 5 year old boy in half and then he exploded."

"Yeah, okay, I trust you."

"You put your full trust in me?"

"Yes, I put my full trust in you."

Reyna smiles and turns into a giant, gray and black monster like creature. Sharp, barbed claws attached to disgustingly, wrinkly, pale skin that looks leathery to the touch. All the skin on it is grotesquely wrinkled. "Good." She says in Danny Devito's voice.

Tanner squints in confusion at the voice and then has a sudden realization. "Wait a second, why am I in elementary school? I'm 26."

As he finishes that sentance he is hit in the stomach with an unknown, powerful force that shoots him into a wormhole.

"BRO! BRO! YOU GOOD BRO?." A worried voice echos.

"Wha-"

Tanner comes back to his senses. He is laying on his old, broken couch. He looks around to see his cluttered apartment. He smiles a tired, half smile.

"Yoooooo... dude... you will NOT believe what I saw!" Tanner says in an exhausted but excited tone. Tanner went on to explain everything he saw to his friend, Cam. Who was completely entertained at his friend's experience.

"How did I pass out anyway and how long was I out?" Tanner asks Cam.

"Oh dude as soon as the tab started hitting you ran around like Naruto and slammed your head into the table really hard. You were out for like 5 mins. It felt like forever though. I love you bro, I thought I lost you." Cam explains, getting sadder as the statement goes on. His pale, soft blue eyes brimmed with tears. Tiny bits of brown baby hairs, that aren't long enough for his low pony tail, lightly touch his face as he looks down.

"Nah, bro, I'm invincible! You're never gonna lose me, bro." Tanner yells flexing his nonexistent muscles. "Yo we should watch a movie on this!"

Both men rush to the DVD cabinet and look for the trippiest movies. They settle on Shrek and flop on the couch.

"What do you think demon girl Danny Devito was going to do?" Cam asks a little bit into the movie.

"Probably offer me girl scout cookies. She looked mean but I think she had a heart of gold." Tanner replied.

They marathon Shrek and then cry about their life until they pass out.

The End

[ecto-american]

Bidding War

Challenger name: @fabnamessuggestedbytumbler

The Challenge: This year at Amity Park's yearly charity event, the committee has planned a "date auction" with the City's most eligible bachelors. Somehow, they even manage to rope Phantom in- after all, a celebrity like him is sure to win a fortune for the charities.

Rating: T

Pairings: Implied Danny/Sam, implied Danny/Dash, implied Danny/Paulina, implied Danny/Tucker

Word Count: 3259

Warnings: None

Other Notes: This is for the Phantom Phic Phight contest and I’m so sorry this is unedited NONSENSE I’m just tired of nitpicking at it my APOLOGIES to fabnames oaisfh

“Danny, this is a terrible idea.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. It’s just a charity bachelor auction,” he repeated himself for what felt like the millionth time. He was looking in the mirror at himself in his old room. The halfa glanced over at his sister, who was sitting on his old bed. Her hair was already styled very formally, make-up done and dressed in a nice dark teal dress. “Do you know anything about tying bow-ties?” Jazz sighed.

“No,” she admitted. Danny shrugged and put the bowtie into an inner pocket of the tux. “Danny, you’re going to get seriously hurt. I don’t think you should do this.”

“Come on, Jazz, even Sam’s on board,” he argued. He studied his reflection. Jazz had cut his hair for him a few days ago, so it looked presentable, and it was styled neatly. Snow white hair was contrasting the black tux, and in a sense, he looked as he usually did when in his Phantom form. “And Vlad’s already agreed to help take precautionary measures. I’m not afraid of ghosts, why would I be afraid of a few fans?”

“Can you really trust Vlad though?” Jazz wondered. She stood up, going over to stand with him in front of the mirror. The graduate student was now just an inch shorter than her brother. She leaned in to check her eyeliner.

“Vlad’s…different now, I think,” Danny said slowly as his mind raced back to the memories of the past few years. “But if nothing else, I doubt he’d want me to ruin his big Christmas charity event.”

“Just, be on your toes,” Jazz told him. “I’ll keep a thermos in my purse.” Danny patted his tux.

“I got one too,” he replied confidently. “Do you have your Fenton lipstick?” She nodded. Danny beamed at her.

“I’ll see you there then,” he said, taking a deep sigh.

The Christmas Charity Party that Vlad had hosted ever since his first mayoral election. Every year, there was a publicity stunt done to raise money for charity. Well, multiple. Every year there was a gingerbread decorating contest, snowball fights, the usual. But then there was always the big event. And this year…

“Mr. Phantom, it’s so fantastic to see you here!” Lance Thunder chirped, holding a microphone up as a camera crew filmed the party. Just like every year. Danny smiled politely at him. He had barely stepped foot in the door when the reporter began bulldozing through the crowds towards him. “May I ask what made you decide to participate in the auction?” He desperately held his mic out to Danny as he finally came within two feet of him.

“It felt like a great opportunity to participate in the charity event,” he explained. “So when Mayor Masters asked for volunteers, of course I signed up.”

“And your girlfriend doesn’t mind?” Lance questioned. The cameraman had properly caught up and was rolling, and Danny shifted uncomfortably.

“I don’t have a partner at this current time,” Danny replied.

“What do you expect your winning bid number to be?” Lance wondered. Danny shrugged his shoulders.

“I hate to sound full of myself, but I hope for the sake of this event that it’s high,” Danny picked his words carefully. “I’m really hoping that we can raise a lot of money tonight. I’m also hoping that everybody stays safe.” Fuck was he saying hope too much? Christ, Fenton. Lance nodded.

“Of course, with the bachelors available, our news team is expecting this to be the best year for this Christmas Charity event,” Lance replied. Danny raised an eyebrow and gave a small noise of pretend interest.

“I really hope so,” he replied. Use! A! Word! Other! Than! Hope! “Uh, I need to check in and get my auction number. Have a good evening, Mr. Thunder.” Danny extended his hand out for a friendly handshake, which Lance eagerly took. The reporter began to direct his attention to somebody else.

Danny began to wade through the crowd with surprisingly less stares than he was fearing. He made his way to a table with a sign announcing the bachelor sign in, and he smiled happily at a friendly face. Sam’s bored mood seemed to cheer up as she saw her friend, and she broke into a grin.

“Hey, Danny,” she chirped. Her elbows were on the table, head resting on the back of her hands as she held a pen in her hand. Danny felt his heart warm.

Sam was dressed up for the event in black and dark purple, hair that had grown so much since their freshman year of high school so long ago neatly braided. She had grown a lot actually. Even though they attended different schools, Danny always believed that it made them closer still. He cherished what time they spent together when both were home from college on holiday break, like now. He had yet to really even properly spend time with her since he had gotten home, and he felt a dull, annoyed ache over that.

“Hey, Sam,” he replied as he got to the table. He put his hands down on it, leaning casually. “Boring night already?” She snorted in amusement.

“Yeah, a bit, but once all the bachelors are checked in, I’m free to come hang out with you,” she told him. Danny felt eyes on him, and he glanced over his shoulder to see a familiar face looking at him. Dash was staring at him with awe. Sam glanced over at Dash too. “You already need rescuing?” she teased. Danny flushed.

“Nah, I’m good,” he replied. He turned his attention back to her.

“Maybe I’ll just buy you at the auction and save you a bunch of trouble,” Sam teased before giving a nervous giggle. Danny felt himself give out an awkward chortle as well, his cheeks flushing green. “Sign in, clueless,” Sam continued, handing him the pen.

Danny smiled as he took the pen and signed his name next to his printed one on the form, and he got a pin. Bachelor Number 42. Danny had begged Vlad to put him as 42 on the list specifically for the number.

“Thanks,” he replied, and he put the pin on. Sam stood up, leaning forward to help him pin it on. Once it was pinned, she lightly patted it.

“Looking fly,” she grinned.

Danny smiled, saluting her with two fingers as he began to back up.

“Sam?” he spoke, and she raised an eyebrow curiously. “We really should hang out later. I miss you.” She burned red, but nodded in agreement, making the motion that she’d call him later.

Danny turned and took a few steps before realizing Dash was still staring at him. Dash had changed a lot since high school, since Danny had last talked to him outside of Facebook. The ex-bully had even delivered a proper apology that Danny never expected or believed he’d get. They weren’t really friends, but they were more friendly. Dash had become more friendly and nicer. Better to be around. They talked on and off on Facebook about the Packers.

Danny found himself giving an awkward wave before feeling an excited yet anxious stomach turn when the other took that as an invitation. He quickly came over to the halfa.

“Danny Phantom!” he quietly exclaimed, happily holding his hand out. Danny smiled, taking his hand. Dash gripped it tightly, his other hand happily clasping on his upper arm. “Dude! I can’t believe you’re in the auction! I’m totally bidding on you!” Danny’s eyes widened a bit in surprise. Somebody was super eager to bid on him? Already? And it was Dash?

“Oh, awesome!” Danny replied happily, gripping the handshake in return. He didn’t really feel uncomfortable by the touching. Dash was always super friendly to him, and it was...oddly nice to be around people who didn’t want to punch him. “I look forward to seeing if you win.” Dash beamed, and Danny smiled back.

“I can’t wait to go flying with you and have dinner!” What? Oh, right. The date Danny had promised on his application was going for a flight and having dinner. In that specific order. He had learned from Tucker to do that specific order to avoid having to make a trash can pit stop to throw up.

“Yeah, that’s what the app says, but we can always make adjustments if that’s too mushy,” Danny promised. Dash’s cheeks flushed a bit red, and he finally let go of Danny’s hand.

“Uh, actually,” he began, and Danny felt this odd spark of hope he hadn’t expected begin to flow through him. “I’m...I kinda like both. So I wouldn’t mind a date.” Dash quickly added, “But like, if that’s too weird for you, I-I-”

“Dude, it’s chill,” Danny held a hand up to stop him. “I swing both ways too. Lots of people do. Truth is, I don’t really care if I end up with a girl or a boy winning me. It’s all for charity.” Dash exhaled an intense sigh of relief.

“Cool,” Dash replied. “Because you’re just so cool, and I wanna get to hang out with you more, and I just,” the ex-bully began to ramble, and Danny patiently listened for a few moments. Dash soon stopped himself, and he flustered more. “Sorry for all that. I’m just excited. I’m actually getting auctioned off too.”

Danny glanced and noticed that, indeed, Dash had a bachelor pin on his tux jacket. Number 58.

“Oh dude, that’s great,” Danny spoke lightly. “If I had money, I’d def bid on you.” The words left his mouth before he could really process his own thoughts, and he was left lightly flushing green. Dash was staring at him in an awed, but excited, shock.

“Really?” he asked. Danny nodded, and he remembered a piece of advice Vlad had given him. Mingle as much as possible during the auction, to both help Phantom’s image by interacting with his fans, but to encourage people to bid on him. Vlad’s advice, only when it came to public image, had...annoyingly, failed to let Danny down yet, and so he cleared his throat a bit awkwardly.

“I need to go and socialize more,” he told him. “But it was great seeing you.” Dash was in a seemingly stunned silence, and he nodded as Danny quickly made his exit.

No sooner than he took a few steps that a familiar voice called out to him.

“Ghost boy!”

Danny turned to see Paulina eagerly going up to him, and despite being Phantom, he could feel Fenton’s heart skip. She looked beautiful, in a dress that complimented her perfectly with finely done make-up and hair mostly up. She smiled a dazzling smile at him, and he instantly felt weak.

“Hey Paulina,” he greeted her eagerly, and her eyes seemingly sparkled in excitement.

“You remembered me!” she said happily, and she clutched her hands together at her chest.

“Of course, I could never forget my biggest fan,” he replied. She stared at him for a moment before giving a light frown.

“Where’s your bow-tie?” she asked, pointing to his shirt. Danny flushed, putting his hand to his throat.

“Oh, I didn’t know how to tie one,” he admitted. Paulina hummed.

“Do you have it with you? I can tie it for you,” she offered.

“Oh, yeah!” Danny immediately began to pat himself down as he tried to remember which pocket his bow-tie was in. He soon produced it, and he handed it to her. She gestured for him to lean over a bit, and he did. She slipped the bow-tie around his neck and began to expertly tie it with practiced ease. “How have you been?”

“Great!” she replied warmly. “I’m on the dean’s list at my school, and I’m on track to graduate a semester early. How have you been?” He had forgotten that she too had gone to college. For chemistry, of all things. Danny had always been on Sam’s side in assuming that she did terribly in high school. Apparently, that’s just what she wanted her classmates to think.

“Good,” he gave the social answer. Truthfully, it really wasn’t, but when had his life ever been such a way? Not since the accident. He accidentally locked eyes with Paulina. She looked unusually serious.

“Danny, how have you been?” she asked, her voice more gentle about it. Danny felt a bit of a mental whiplash. She rarely called him Danny, and his voice got caught in his throat. He coughed awkwardly.

“It’s...been a bit rough,” he said slowly. She nodded understandingly. She finished tying the bowtie, and she carefully pressed his collar.

“You’ll get through it like you always do,” she told him confidently. “I believe in you. I always have, and I always will.” Danny felt his cheeks turn green as he stood up straight. This was going to be a trend, it seemed.

“Thank you,” he told her. “I hope you can graduate soon. I miss seeing you around Amity Park,” he told her honestly. Paulina laughed.

“I keep up with you on the news,” she confessed. “And I’ll be seeing you when I win the auction.” Danny nodded. A date with Paulina sounded magical, he couldn’t lie.

“I look forward to it if that’s the case,” he replied. He remembered what Vlad had told him. Socialize, and he reluctantly continued, “I’ll let you mingle with others. I hope to see you again soon.” Paulina nodded understandingly.

“I’ll see you at our date, Danny!” she replied confidently.

“Dude, you’re on fire.”

Finally, a voice he actually really wanted to hear. Tucker had found him, and he looked great in his tux. Instead of a white shirt, he had opted for a dark orange shirt underneath. It suited him perfectly.

“Hey!” Danny eagerly greeted him, and the two immediately fist bumped happily. “You look great! You should have signed up to be a bachelor.” Tucker chuckled, shrugging.

“Yeah, I regret it, but I was dating Mia at the time,” he reminded his friend. “She wouldn’t have been cool with it. In hindsight, probably a sign.” Danny just shrugged sympathetically.

“I’m just glad you’re here,” Danny told him. “I already ran into Sam, Dash, Paulina, and damn. That’s not even counting Lance Thunder. I know Harriet Chin’s around somewhere too.” Tucker gave a low whistle.

“Damn, that’s quite the roster,” he said.

“Honestly, it wasn’t so bad. Especially since I know there’s friendly faces like you here,” Danny commented. Tucker chuckled.

“Do I need to bid on you to free you from your torment?” Tucker teased. Danny laughed.

“I already joked to Sam that she should, but man, we’d probably have a lot of fun,” Danny admitted. Tucker snickered.

“Wait until my birthday so you can truly wine and dine me,” he joked. Danny felt his cheeks flush a bit, but he laughed again.

“Like how last Valentine’s day we just made ourselves each other’s Valentine’s?” Danny questioned. Tucker nodded eagerly.

“Yeah, and instead of going out to eat sushi like we planned, we ordered Domino’s and did nothing but play DOOMED and get sick on bread bites.”

“Dude, I’d rather do that with you than go out on a date anytime,” Danny told him. Tucker flushed a bit in return.

“Same,” he agreed. “I love hanging out with you more than I ever did Mia.” Danny made a noise of agreement.

“Yeah! And same with you, honestly!” he chattered on excitedly. “Dude, just buy me! They’re giving me a free food coupon, so we can just buy a bunch of pizza again and pig out!”

“Dude, I can make you take me out for free, but I’ll place my bets and see how I fare,” Tucker assured him. He lightly punched his shoulder playfully. “I’ll leave you to socialize. I’m gonna go see how Sam’s surviving.”

“Catch up with me later! I really wanna hang out with you!” Danny called out after him as Tucker passed him. Tucker flashed a peace sign in response, and Danny exhaled deeply.

People were so exhausting. How could Vlad do this all the time? Danny decided to just break for some food. His eyes scanned over the options as he approached. The buffet style options had a wide range of options, from fancy looking shrimp to chicken to salads. He picked up a plate and began to serve himself some food. It was time to take advantage of all the free food.

He picked up a few pieces of food, setting it on his plate. He grabbed a drink and settled into a chair to eat. There were so many people here. He only talked to those few, but people...really wanted their chance it seemed. And it made him feel terrible for only really wanting to be with one of them. He couldn’t help it. He truly hoped that they won.

The poor halfa didn’t even get to take a bite when he was distracted by a voice, but he didn’t mind. He flashed a happy smile to the one that was already on his mind, who stood before him with their own plate of food.

“Can I join you?”

“Of course.”

Danny stood before the crowd, trying to look cheerful and confident but it was very obvious that he was anxious and nervous. He could only pray that he could mask at least part of it. Vlad lightly patted Danny’s back encouragingly, and it oddly helped ease his anxiety. The billionaire was standing on the makeshift stage, mic in hand and a stapled packet of papers in the other with the bachelor’s information on it.

“Ladies and gentleman, this is Danny Phantom,” Vlad spoke, and he began to read from his paper. “He stands at 6’3’’, and he considers himself nerdy. He’s very interested in science, specifically astrophysics and engineering. In his spare time, when he’s not fighting ghosts, he enjoys playing video games, science fiction movies and astronomy. For your date with Danny Phantom, he has promised a one of a kind dating experience in a flight through town before you two have a nice dinner at the restaurant of your choice!”

The crowd was murmuring excitedly, and Danny felt a nervous bead of sweat begin to form. This was the most information Amity Park had ever really been given about him, and he could see Lance in the corner, taking intense notes. Other people seemed surprised at the listed hobbies of choice and interests.

“So, as part of tonight’s charity auction and due to Mr. Phantom’s popularity, I propose we begin the auction a little higher than normal, at $100,” Vlad said, and no sooner than he spoke, every hand in the audience shot up. Danny’s throat tightened.

“Oh, it looks like it’s going to be quite the contest,” Vlad lightly teased, and Danny glared at him briefly. “Do I hear $150?”

The entire bidding was a rapid blur. Danny’s head shot around as the bidding war went crazier than he could ever imagine. He began to space out.

“Anybody higher?” Vlad asked for the billionth time it seemed. “No? Going once.” Danny’s attention snapped back to reality as he scanned to see who was on the verge of winning him. “Going twice.” Danny’s chest tightened anxiously. “And sold to bidder number 113!”

Danny locked eyes with the winner, and they exchanged smiles. To his relief and joy, the person who won him was the one he had been wanting more than any other all night.

[thisdiscontentedwinter]

Stella and the Wolf - Chapter 24

You can read it on AO3 or find the Tumblr Chapter Index here. 

Tuesday floats by without incident. Stiles eats lunch at the popular table again, this time joined by Danny and a bunch of other people—including Allison and Scott—so werewolf business if off the table, but it’s kind of a relief to be talking about normal, boring high school stuff, even if half the cafeteria is still watching like they’re expecting Stiles and Allison to get into a throw-down fight.

Please. Stiles isn’t that stupid. Allison would wipe the floor with him, and he knows it.

Stiles does get the chance to talk to Scott in Biology though, because Mr. Dalloway is a year away from retirement and stopped giving a fuck about a decade ago.

“You have to stay away from Allison for a bit,” Stiles warns him. “Like, her grandfather is as psycho as Kate. If he finds out what you are, he’ll kill you.”

Scott’s brows draw together in a worried expression. “I mean, I get it, but she needs me right now, you know?”

Stiles pinches the bridge of his nose. “Scotty, bro, invite Ally to your place or something, but do not go to her place, okay? Look, her parents aren’t going to complain she’s not spending time with dear old granddad, trust me, even if they hate your guts.”

“They really do,” Scott agrees.

“So promise me, okay?” Stiles presses.

“Yeah.” Scott’s forehead creases. “I promise.”

A part of Stiles breathes a little easier. The rest of him continues to quietly freak the fuck out.

***

“Take your Adderall,” Dad reminds Stiles on Wednesday morning, which is a good point, because Stiles woke up like he was trying to climb the walls, and now, after breakfast, he’s twitching like a strung-out squirrel.

He gulps down his pill with the last of his orange juice, and grabs his keys. “Stella, let’s go!”

Derek walks them to the front door.

“You feeling okay, big guy?” Stiles asks him. “With the moon and stuff?”

“I think I should be asking you that,” Derek says. He reaches out and squeezes Stiles’s shoulder gently.

“What?” Stiles might have missed the question because he was staring so hard at Derek’s mouth that he somehow didn’t hear the words that fell out of it.

Derek smiles at him, and is it Stiles’s imagination or is there something a little sharp in that smile? Something a little knowing. Something a little smug even, like he knows exactly what Stiles is thinking when he’s staring at his mouth.

Stiles doesn’t know if he wants to kiss that mouth, or just watch it work its way all over his body. With bonus teeth and tongue. And maybe even some growling.

Derek leans in close and says, slowly, his breath hot on Stiles’s ear: “Are you feeling okay, Stiles?”

Stiles’s breath hitches, and he turns his face.

Too late. Derek is already leaning back, so a scrape of stubble against his jaw is all Stiles gets. Somehow though, that’s still enough sensation to go straight to his dick.

“Um,” he manages. “’m good.”

Derek suddenly looks way too fucking innocent, the asshole. “See you after school, Stiles.”

Stiles just blinks at him dumbly as Stella pulls him through the door.

The news van has finally given up and gone, so at least there’s not video evidence of Stiles’s face right now.

***

Dad’s working on Wednesday night, so Stiles and Stella and Derek make tuna casserole. Well, Stiles does. Stella makes a mess grating the cheese, and Derek makes her clean it up. So it evens out in the end.

The night is bright, the worm moon bathing the town in silver light.

“Okay,” Stiles says, as they wait for the casserole to cook, “so if we weren’t all under house arrest, what would an Alpha werewolf do on the night of a full moon?”

“When I was a kid, the pack would all gather in the Preserve, and run,” Derek says.  “In wolf form if we could, but in beta form if not. Sometimes even the humans ran with us too. My cousin Kellan, he was twelve. He always used to run with us, and then get tired, so we’d have to take turns carrying him home again.”

Stiles’s chest aches at the mention of Derek’s cousin. Just another name on the black granite Hale memorial now. The unfairness of it makes him want to cry, or scream.

“Where would you run to?” Stella asks from the floor, where she’s sweeping cheese bits into the dustpan.

“Just around the Preserve,” Derek says. “Nowhere special. It’s… it’s hard to explain.” There was a time when Derek would have stopped right there, but those walls have long since tumbled down. He makes the effort now, for Stiles and Stella. “The moonlight has a pull, like it’s magnetic. It’s stronger when it’s fuller. It’s… it’s our territory, and our blood, and our pack. Running as a wolf under the moonlight is… joyful.”

Except his voice cracks on that word, and Stiles’s eyes sting as he thinks of the magnitude of Derek’s loss once more. Even the faint echo of brought forth in conversation feels like too much, and he’s struck again by how astonishing it is that Derek’s still here, still standing. Stiles wouldn’t be. If he’d had to carry the weight of Derek’s grief, he thinks it would have crushed him years before.

Does Derek even know how strong he is?

“I’m sorry,” he says, and swallows. He crosses the kitchen to where Derek is leaning against the counter. “You don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to.”

Derek swallows too. His green eyes shine as he holds Stiles’s gaze. “I like sharing things with you.”

Oh, fuck it.

Stiles steps forward, and doesn’t even care if he smells like tuna casserole. He reaches out and cups Derek’s face with his hand. Feels the scrape of stubble on his palm. And then he’s leaning into Derek’s space, his eyes fixed on Derek’s lips as they part slightly, and they’re kissing.

Stiles closes his eyes, and Derek’s hands come to rest on his hips.

It’s amazing.

It’s heart-stopping.

It’s—

“Gross!” Stella exclaims, and Stiles flails away from Derek.

“Um,” he says, and at least Derek looks as flushed and embarrassed as he does, right?

Stella’s stare judges them both harshly.

“Oh my god,” Stiles says. “Don’t you have homework or something?”

“Don’t you?” she shoots back.

“Well,” Stiles says feebly, “this is awkward.”

Derek laughs, and reaches out and threads their fingers together. He looks at Stella, eyebrows raised, and is the Alpha werewolf actually challenging the eight-year-old girl? Stiles thinks that’s what’s happening. He also has no idea who’s going to win, honestly.

“Gross,” Stella mutters, but shuffles forward so that Derek can pull her into a hug with his free arm.

Crisis averted, Stiles supposes, until Stella spills her guts to Dad and then Stiles has to explain what just happened. And honestly, he’s not sure how that’s going to go down just a few days after his ‘honest, Dad, we’re just being friends for now’ talk. Facebook is right. Relationships arecomplicated, and Stiles feels is very much on a learning curve here. And, for the record, Stiles doesn’t like learning curves. He likes the learning part, just not the part where he doesn’t already know everything about any given subject. And on that note:

“Hey, Derek,” he says. “Is there some kind of amazing Werewolf for Dummies book, but in Latin, floating around or something?”

“What?”

“Lydia said she found all everything she knows from a book,” Stiles says. “If there’s been a book this whole time, and I’ve been accidentally clicking on links to furry pages for the past few months, I’m going to be annoyed.”

“Maybe,” Derek says, and shrugs. “Deaton probably has some, I guess.”

“I don’t think Lydia knows about Deaton though.”

“I mean, my family had books,” Derek said. “But most of them…” He shakes his head. “I guess there were some in the vault, but nobody can get into that.”

“Oooh,” Stiles says. “A vault! I have ten bucks and a lock-picking kit that calls you a liar!”

“No, I mean nobody except a Hale can get into it,” Derek says. “It’s magically protected.”

“So much for my lock picking kit,” Stiles says. And then, for Stella’s benefit: “Which I don’t own and was totally lying about.”

She side-eyes him.

When the oven timer dings, Stiles takes the casserole out and sets it to cool for a few minutes. Stella grabs the jug of water from the refrigerator, and Derek hunts down the plates and cutlery and glasses. Stiles like the familiarity of this. He likes how easily Derek has slotted in to their little family, and he’s pretty sure that Derek does too.

They eat at the kitchen table.

“So tonight’s the worm moon,” Stiles tells Stella. “That sounds super creepy, right?”

Stella shrugs. “I like worms. If we didn’t have worms, farmers wouldn’t be able to grow food.”

“Point,” Stiles says around a mouthful of tuna casserole.

“We have a worm farm at school, Stella says, and proceeds to regale them with tales of the worm farm. Stiles won’t lie, he’s had worse dinner conversations, and he likes watching Derek’s smile while Stella chatters at him happily.

His phone chimes in his pocket and he digs it out. It’s a message from Scott: Allison’s grandfather is in town. I’m staying away like you said.

It’s followed a moment later by a message from Dad: Gerard Argent has arrived in town. Stay alert.

Stiles sucks in a deep breath, and shows the messages to Derek and Stella.

“At least the grapevine’s working, I guess,” he says.

“Nobody will get in here, Stiles,” Derek tells him firmly. “I’m going to watch out for both of you, okay?”

“Okay,” Stiles says, and picks up his fork again. “We’ve got this, right?”

***

Stiles dozes off sometime around ten, thinking about the kiss he shared with Derek and fantasizing about where it might have ended up of Stella hadn’t been there. He flails awake again at an indeterminate point later when his phone blasts at him, the screen lighting up his bedroom. He reaches for it, misses, but gets it on the second try.

He squints at the screen, and answers it. “Jackson?”

“Stilinski,” Jackson says. He sounds tense. Like someone-stole-his-hair-gel tense. Worse than that though, he sounds scared.

Stiles is instantly awake. “Jackson, what’s going on?”

Stiles is aware of his door opening, and Derek standing there. Werewolf hearing, right.

“We’re out at the Hale house,” Jackson says.

“Why the fuck are you—”

Jackson cuts him off. “Right now Gerard Argent is pointing a gun at Lydia’s head. I’m so fucking sorry, Stiles, but he says if he doesn’t get Derek within the next twenty minutes, he’ll kill us.”

The call ends, and Stiles’s blood runs cold.

[sumukhcomedy]

Seinfeld: The Show That Treated Race Like Nothing

Seinfeld was a “show about nothing.” It was the most popular sitcom of my generation and arguably considered the greatest sitcom in American television history. Of course, the show wasn’t purely about “nothing.” It had concepts that were strong enough for nine seasons and a massive amount of syndication money and even a fan base that eagerly embraced a return of the cast for a season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Over the almost 30 years since the show’s premiere, a criticism of the show has been its handling of race. Much like its longtime “Must See TV” lineup teammate Friends, the show was criticized for its lack of non-white characters in New York, a city filled with every single type of person in the world. Such criticism can head directly back to the show’s creative team and writing staff which were largely white and male throughout the show’s run.

Seinfeld wasn’t racist. It actually was a fine example of revealing white people’s uncomfortableness and awkwardness with race. This was exemplified both by the characters on the show but also by the writers themselves in how they created episodes and guest characters. Perhaps the comedy of Seinfeld still resonates 30 years later which is why people still love watching it. But episodes revolving around answering machines, pay phones, fax machines, and an inability to get in contact with someone else immediately reveals its age. If anything, race and the manner in which Seinfeld handled it from a white lens may be the topic that has truly stood the test of time.

When the show touches upon race and succeeds is when it reveals its main character’s weaknesses and awkwardness towards race. Its failures occur when the white writer of an episode unintentionally infuses his awkwardness into the plot of the show.

One of the best episodes of Seinfeld that highlighted the awkwardness of race is “The Cigar Store Indian.” In it, Jerry is attracted to one of Elaine’s friends, Winona. He brings over a cigar store Indian statue to her apartment as a gift when Winona is over and begins to joke around with it only finding out later from Elaine that Winona is Native American. Jerry apologizes and is able to go out on a date with Winona but his interactions with Winona over the rest of the episode are a series of uncomfortable situations revolving race. None of the Seinfeld characters are seen as particularly good but Jerry is still an understanding individual who isn’t portrayed as a racist. He is well-meaning but certainly has had a white upbringing (like the others) and clearly doesn’t fully grasp the effects of racism even with his comedy in casual conversation. While the episode clearly had moments that don’t make anyone feel good for either comedy or racial equality 30 years later, it still was probably the best example of Seinfeld balancing humor with its characters’ inability to deal with race properly.

Similarly is the episode “The Diplomat’s Club” in which George feels he must validate that he doesn’t think all black people look alike to one of his bosses, Mr. Morgan (who he thinks looks like Sugar Ray Leonard) by introducing him to one of his black friends (of which he has none). He ultimately ends up trying to pass off Jerry’s exterminator as an old high school friend. Again, the episode does a good job of showing George’s neuroticism towards all things including race. His desperation to show he believes in equality and is not racist makes him look even more ridiculous and insensitive, which is a main characteristic of George Costanza throughout the show. Though, the episode ends with a black waiter validating George’s belief that Mr. Morgan looks like Sugar Ray Leonard rather than continuing to make him look like a fool. 

“The Chinese Restaurant” was a wonderful early episode showing how much laughter could occur in just one setting on the show. It choreographed like a funny play. Despite the host of the restaurant (played by the masterful acting veteran James Hong) being the start of many stereotypical immigrant characters on the show, his innocence and zaniness towards seating the Seinfeld characters worked really well for the situation.

Not surprisingly, when the show attempts to venture into race in a bit of a deeper way or involving interpersonal relationships and more depth to a character of a non-white race, it fails. An episode like “The Chinese Woman” makes little sense. In it, George’s phone line is crossed with a woman named Donna Chang. This leads Jerry to asking Donna out and relishing his first date with an Asian woman only to discover when they meet that Donna is not Asian. Jerry believes she is playing up the Asian angle of her last name. At one point in the episode, she pronounces ridiculous “ridicurous.” She ultimately ends up giving advice to Estelle, George’s mother, over the phone. This advice leads Estelle to remain in her marriage and she tells Jerry that the advice were some words from Confucius. However, Estelle is disappointed to find out when she meets Donna Chang that she is not an Asian woman. The lines of thought towards Asians in the episode are absurd and insensitive (seriously, “ridicurous” as a punchline?) and culminates with Jerry’s suggestion to Donna that she perhaps change her name. Whether Donna is purposefully playing up being Asian or it’s another example of Jerry and the gang misconstruing race’s presence in their lives, it’s just a terrible episode in its humor and perspective on Asians.

The limited relationships depicted on the show where the characters date people that are not white also are perplexing. In “The Wife,” Kramer dates a black woman, sleeps in a tanning booth for too long, and shows up to meeting her family basically in blackface. The episode concludes with her father saying, “This isn’t a white boy! This is a damn fool!” It’s a strange end and not worth much in the realm of laughter given its punchline ultimately comes down to being minstrelsy. In “The Wizard,” Jerry believes Elaine’s new boyfriend is black. Elaine isn’t sure. She spends the entire episode trying to determine if he’s black. Once again, a bunch of stereotypes come up and it ultimately culminates with her and her boyfriend realizing they’re both white (the boyfriend thinking they were in an interracial relationship because she was Hispanic). Once again, it’s an uncomfortable punchline of “Oh no, we’re both white?!” to end on when you’ve spent an entire part of the plot shredding interracial relationships for not great laughs.

Seinfeld likely fails the most towards immigrant characters of all races. Actor Danny Hoch was originally cast as the role of Ramon in “The Pool Guy” but objected and asked for changes because of the way the character was depicted. Seinfeld and the other decision makers refused and Hoch was re-cast. There was no purpose to the character’s ethnicity being present as part of his annoying pest ways. “The Puerto Rican Day” is easily the worst episode of the show with nothing funny and just seems insulting to Puerto Ricans and even pregnant women who aren’t married. Babu Bhatt, The Soup Nazi, the Parking Attendant at Jiffy Park, Coco the cleaning woman, the Korean nail salon workers, the list goes on and on of guest characters on the show who were stereotypes and, in the case of Babu and The Soup Nazi, became some of the most memorable guests who returned for the finale. Even the people of color who are Americans aren’t done with much grace on the show.

Seinfeld is an indication of what happens with a show with a lack of representation that chooses to discuss issues of race but, in doing so, it also perfectly exemplifies where white people in America are even today. They are uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and awkward with the topic of race even when they supposedly embrace equality. A character like Elaine Benes who throughout the show is depicted as an ardent feminist is still awkward when dealing with an interracial relationship. It speaks a lot to much of the current criticism of white feminism and white liberals when dealing with race.

Seinfeld was the most popular sitcom in the 1990s for a reason but it’s still popular today for another reason and it’s not nostalgia. The comedy still stands the test of time in a variety of ways. Now as I’ve gotten older, an episode like “The Pen” is so accurate. My parents in their older age behave exactly like Jerry’s parents and the other senior citizens in that episode. I also can’t deny that Seinfeld was extremely influential in making me love comedy and want to be a stand-up comedian. Jerry Seinfeld made stand-up comedy accessible each week especially to kids who didn’t have cable TV like me. And, even with a show with adult themes, once I saw Kramer running on a runway in “The Airport,” I laughed so hard and was hooked. The show’s goofiness and Michael Richards’s physical comedy managed to make it funny for children, too.  

But years later, I can look back on the way that race was handled on the show and see that the show is still appealing because white people’s handling of race hasn’t changed much since the world and comedy of Seinfeld existed. The show wanted to exemplify that its characters did their best to try to be understanding of race while also being clueless towards it but it truly revealed that the creators of these stories and characters lacked similar compassion.

There is a recurring line in “The Wizard” when discussing Elaine’s possible interracial relationship where each character says, “I really don’t think we’re supposed to be talking about this.” That line could sum up Seinfeld’s approach to race as a whole. It could also sum up many white Americans’ discomfort with race. But what’s troubling is that feeling is still the same today as it was 20 years ago when Seinfeld ended. If there’s one thing that shouldn’t have stood the test of time in Seinfeld, it would be its comedy towards and depiction of race and yet it has. That’s likely because many white Americans, even the ones that supposedly yearn for equality, have been as progressive over the past two decades towards race as the Seinfeld characters they love.

[twoidiotwriters1]

Written In The Stars XCIV (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: This has nothing to do with the story I just want to say I believe in Bi!Fred Weasley supremacy -Danny

Words: 2,621 

Series’ Masterlist

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Listen to: This kiss -By Faith Hill

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Unwanted Attention.

Their little trip to the kitchens ended up in a bad note when they found Winky drunk in butterbeer and Hermione broke, yelling to all the house-elves about their rights. 

Least to say they were unpleased. They kicked them out, Ron was so angry at Hermione for ruining his chances at getting more free food that they didn't stop bickering for the rest of the day.

Normally, Mel and Harry would've complained and roll their eyes, but considering this as a huge opportunity to finally spend time alone, they left the angry pair in the common room and went to the Owlery, where they sent a package filled with wonderful food to Sirius.

They stayed there for a while, leaning on the windowsill and talking. Closer to each other as the night started to fall.

"I wish things were a little bit different," Mel said wistfully. "I would take you on pretty dates, not caring about useless rumours..."

"I don't want dates, I only care about being with you," Harry shrugged, playing with her fingers. "Everything else doesn't really matter... unless it does to you?"

"Not really...  I'd love to have a quieter time in school, but that's impossible when you're here," She teased. "You bring nothing but trouble, Potter."

"You like it, though," He smirked. "At least a bit, if you've stuck around for so long, I doubt it annoys you that much..."

"What d'you want me to say?" She scrunched up her nose, knowing the question would only make him even keener to tease.

"I'd love to hear that you like me," He replied boldly. "Don't you like me?"

She caught his hand playfully and stroked the back of it, humming to herself.

"Do you?" She finally questioned.

"I like myself plenty," Mel slapped his arm playfully and he laughed. "I fancy you a lot."

"You know," She looked away. "I really like this weather."

She fixed her eyes on Hagrid digging outside his cabin, perhaps planting something.

"I like you," Harry beamed, his hand closing around hers. "I also like to say that I like you, feels good to admit it."

"Been dreaming about this for a while, have you?" Mel smiled, still not looking at him. She was trying to keep her composure, even though the air felt charged and it was getting harder to breathe.

"You haven't?"

Madame Maxime got out of her carriage and walked to Hagrid, seemingly trying to start a conversation.

"Not at all," She said absently. Harry stiffened beside her and she giggled.

"You're funny..." He pouted. Unexpectedly, he reached for her waist with his free arm and pulled her closer. "Really, you crack me up."

Hagrid responded to whatever the woman was saying but he didn't talk much. In the end, the woman walked back to her carriage looking defeated.

"I think Madame Maxime regrets what she did to Hagrid," She said. Harry, who'd been half-looking at the scene as well as shamelessly flirting with her, nodded with very little interest.

"Guess she realized how stupid it's to worry about what others think..."

"Isn't that kind of the same to what we're doing?" Mel frowned.

"What d'you mean?"

"We're hiding from all of our loved ones. We care about what others think."

Harry came out of his daze then, blinking in confusion.

"This is different. We're not hiding because we're afraid, we do it 'cause we know Skeeter would bring it out of context."

"Okay then, why do we hide it from Ron and Hermione?"

"Well," Harry looked away. "I don't know..."

"We know they'd be happy for us..."

"Yeah."

"Then why do we hide it?"

"We don't want to ruin it," Harry shrugged. "You know what I mean, I won't try to explain it."

She smiled at how easy it was to talk to Harry now that they knew about their feelings.

"You know, sometimes you can be clever..."

He scoffed, shaking his head in amusement.

"Look at you, all cute and frustrated," She cupped his face with her free hand and squeezed his cheek lovingly.

"Quiet, Mellow."

However, before she could decide whether or not to be quiet, Harry leaned further and kissed her.

Mel wasn't expecting to see any reaction from her classmates when the article about Hermione and Harry's relationship spread around school. Few people believed it, but the most they would do was stare, wondering how come Harry was so comfortable around her despise his 'heartbreak'.

She knew –because Erick told her– that most people were confused, they'd thought that Harry and Mel were the ones dating. Now that those rumours had been killed by the article and none of the people involved were interested in clearing things out, the interest has worn out, most students moved on; Harry and Mel were being less watched, which gave opportunities to sneak away from prying eyes more often. However, they completely forgot that it wasn't only the Hogwarts students receiving these articles and reading them in their spare time. On Monday morning, they got a very unpleasant surprise.

Hermione mentioned a subscription to the Daily Prophet and was waiting to get it when an owl came down to their table.

"How many subscriptions did you take out?" said Harry when four other owls landed next to the one.

"What on earth—?" Hermione took one of the envelopes. Mel took another and examined it. "Oh really!" Her friend scoffed.

"What's up?" said Ron.

"It's — oh how ridiculous —"

She handed the letter to Harry, it was a bunch of letters from a newspaper cut out and rearranged messily:

'You are a WickEd giRL. HarRy PotTER desErves BeTteR. GO back wherE you cAMe from mUGgle.'

"They're all like it! 'Harry Potter can do much better than the likes of you...' 'You deserve to be boiled in frog spawn...' Ouch!" A liquid with a strong smell came out of the last letter she'd opened and poured over the girl's hands.

"Undiluted bubotuber pus!" Ron winced.

"Ow!" Hermione teared up, trying to clean up her own hands.

"Don't spread it!" Mel stopped her, she took Hermione's arm and helped her up.

"You'd better get up to the hospital wing," said Harry, looking at her in concern. "We'll tell Professor Sprout where you've gone..."

Mel made an attempt to follow her but Hermione mumbled 'Get rid of the rest', before hurrying out of the Great Hall.

"I warned her! I warned her not to annoy Rita Skeeter! Look at this one..." Ron picked one up and read in horror.  "'I read in Witch Weekly about how you are playing Harry Potter false and that boy has had enough hardship and I will be sending you a curse by next post as soon as I can find a big enough envelope.' Blimey, she'd better watch out for herself."

"Who do they think they are?" Mel asked in anger. "Feeling entitled to attack a fourteen-year-old without knowing the whole story!"  

When they were heading to Care of Magical Creatures, Pansy talked from a few feet away:

"Potter, have you split up with your girlfriend? Why was she so upset at breakfast?"

"She found out your brain's beyond repair and that just broke her," Mel spat, pulling her friends forward.

They studied nifflers for Hagrid's class, made a funny little competition out of it, which Ron surprisingly won. However, for some reason that didn't please him. Hermione got back at the end of the class with her hands completely bandaged and informed Hagrid about her misfortune.

"Aaah, don' worry," Hagrid replied softly. "I got some o' those letters an' all, after Rita Skeeter wrote abou' me mum. 'Yeh're a monster an' yeh should be put down.' 'Yer mother killed innocent people an' if you had any decency you'd jump in a lake.'.. Yeah, they're jus' nutters, Hermione. Don' open 'em if yeh get any more. Chuck 'em straigh' in the fire."

Ron was unusually quiet, frowning at the prize he'd won in Hagrid's class (a chocolate bar from Honeydukes).

"What's the matter? Wrong flavour?" Harry asked gently.

"No... Why didn't you tell me about the gold?"

"What gold?"

"The gold I gave you at the Quidditch World Cup. The leprechaun gold I gave you for my Omnioculars. In the Top Box. Why didn't you tell me it disappeared?"

Harry and Mel shared a look before they finally remembered what was he talking about.

"Oh! I dunno... I never noticed it had gone. I was more worried about my wand, wasn't I?"

"Must be nice," Ron said quietly. "To have so much money you don't notice if a pocketful of Galleons goes missing."

"Listen, I had other stuff on my mind that night," Harry replied sternly. "We all did, remember?"

"I didn't know leprechaun gold vanishes," He said with embarrassment. "I thought I was paying you back. You shouldn't've given me that Chudley Cannon hat for Christmas."

"Forget it, all right?" Harry insisted.

Ron stared intently at the food of his plate and mumbled, "I hate being poor. It's rubbish. I don't blame Fred and George for trying to make some extra money. Wish I could. Wish I had a niffler."

"You're not poor," Mel patted his hand lovingly. "Not in the ways that matter– look at Malfoy, he has all that money and he's always in a terrible mood. He's got terrible friends as well."

"Yeah, but it wouldn't hurt if I could buy new things for once, would it?" He pouted.

"Well, we know what to get you next Christmas," Hermione tried to lighten the mood. "Come on, Ron, it could be worse. At least your fingers aren't full of pus? I hate that Skeeter woman! I'll get her back for this if it's the last thing I do!"

With the arrival of Hermione's hate mail also came a new wave of interest for Harry's love life, which meant they had to go back to the stage of walking on their tiptoes to avoid any unwanted attention, and it was driving them mad.

Hermione grew obsessed with finding out how Skeeter was getting all the information, Harry suggested that maybe she'd put microphones around the school but Hermione quickly brushed it away, reminding them about how that sort of Muggle technology was of no use around school.

The teachers were handing them more and more work as the end of the year started to inch closer. Mel and Dumbledore finally moved on from wandless spells to tracing hidden magic and she was doing splendidly well, mostly because she wanted to get everything done so they could start with her animagus studies.

The last days of May, Harry and Mel were in the library discussing Percy's letter while searching for some books for her lessons. Ron didn't want to join them and Hermione was busy with her research, so they found themselves in the bliss of another moment for the two of them only.

"Percy's in denial, he's too fond of his new position," Mel commented as she reached for a book in a higher shelf. "He's a pain, too young to be given all that power..."

"I thought you admired Percy," Harry replied.

"I appreciated his dedication while he was in school but I this is getting out of hand, something tells me he's not apt for the job."

"I reckon he strongly disagrees," Harry took the books as Mel handed the lot to him.

"Well, we're as close to figuring that out as we are to finish our assignments. I can't wait to be back home next month!" She tried to take the books from Harry's hands, but he refused to let go. "Just imagine– Glasses, knock it off! I'm capable of carrying my books!– As I was saying... picture us with all the time in the world to do whatever we want..."

"We could go to the movies!" Harry offered. "I have no muggle money, but maybe Emily could take us to Gringotts so I can exchange a few galleons..."

"I like the sound of that, we're old enough to do so," She happily walked up to the table on the corner.

"Been dreaming about it, have you?" Harry teased. She left the books on the table and stopped.

"What I've been dreaming of," Mel said carefully, "is for the tournament to end. I feel like I'll only be able to rest once it's over."

"I haven't been terrible in it, have I?" He tilted his head.

"You know I don't mean that," She lifted a hand and pushed some strands of hair away from his eyes. He sighed shortly, leaning into her hand instinctively.

"Just one more task," Harry said quietly. "Then it'll be over."

She nodded in silence, that wasn't the only thing she was thinking. Mel was hoping for the moment when they would finally be together in peace, without articles and journalists nagging around... Mel moved her hand from his cheek to the back of his neck and, catching him off guard, kissed him.

This one, though still innocent and short, conveyed all the emotions she was feeling. A loud thud startled them and caused her to bump noses with Harry. She heard him grunt as she held onto her own nose, tearing up a bit.

"My apologies!" A voice came from behind. "Did I take you by surprise? Well, I dare say you're not the only ones..."

"Not you," Mel groaned. "Why, of all the people that could've found us it ended up being you..."

"It's a gift," Erick smiled with no hints of shame, sitting down at the table they were planning to take. "It gives me the opportunity to eavesdrop a bit, and Merlin, it's always worth it."

"You can't tell anyone!" She hissed, finally letting go of her nose. "Not even Hermione!"

His eyes widened in wild interest. "Why, is this the first time that happens?" He looked at Harry. "Well, it certainly didn't look like it. Most of us think you're almost married. What is it?"

Mel felt so stupid, caught red-handed after all their efforts...

"You know what Skeeter would do with the information, now more than ever," She grumbled.

"That doesn't sound fun, does it?" Erick inquired, she'd never seen him so ecstatic.

"Just keep your mouth shut, will you?" Harry spat, his voice came out muffled since he was covering his mouth. Mel was about to scold him when Erick let out a hearthy laugh.

"Never been one to gossip– I'm happy for you though, it's been exasperating, flirting with Mel without her noticing to get a response from you. I had to hold back from getting involved so often!"

"That was you holding back?" Mel scoffed. "Can't imagine what unrestrained would look like... What are you doing here?"

"This is a library," He replied with a grin. "Believe it or not, I study without you."

"Okay then, study."

"I'm about to, this is my table."

"I don't see your name on it–"

"We can share it–"

"Not after what you just saw, I won't tolerate your teasing," Mel blushed furiously, picking up her books. "We'll go back to the tower, Harry, c'mon..."

"Be my guest," Erick half-bowed from his seat.

"You're enjoying this too much," She glared at him.

"Haven't even reached the I-told-you-so phase, you've seen nothing," He retorted. "Take your girlfriend before she sets the library on fire, Potter."

Harry rolled his eyes at the pair. He wasn't going to admit it, especially not in front of Flint, but he'd felt a pleasant boost of energy at the word girlfriend.

"Come on, Mel..." He nodded at the boy. "I hope to never meet you like this again, Flint. Bye."

"Have a good night, lovebirds."

Next Chapter —>

Taglist.

@dee123ksha​ @vampiregirl1797 @siriuslysirius1107 @stardusthigh @mikariell95 @vernon-dursley @thesuitelifeofafangirl @tomshollandz @kylosleftbuttcheek @reverse-hxlland @bloodorangemoonlight @omiwashere​ @t-rexs-world

[ibelieveinahappilyeverafter]

Putting the Cat in Catastrophe Chapter 1 (edited)

Bonjour, mes chers! I’m about to upload chapter two in half an hour or so here, but this is the edited chapter of TCC where I had to edit a few things to make it work better once I finished plotting it all out. Enjoy! Also, a new thing, I’ll be uploading the chapter fully onto tumblr. Neat, huh? 

If you’re a Patron of mine then you can find a link the the old version of the story - and even notes of what I wanted to do! - on my patreon at mjanderson! You can pledge as little as a dollar a month and get access to a bunch of cool things. Go check it out!

Click here to read on FFN Click here to read on AO3

Summary:   Danny Fenton has just escaped from a secret government testing facility and runs straight into Andrew Riter - a busybody librarian who seems to be obsessed with helping a stray black cat - said stray black cat happening to be Danny himself. The Government gets interested when they find out a seemingly ordinary human can shapeshift into different animals. Danny just wants to return to his family and try to find his lost memories, but he's having a hard time doing so when he's finding less and less reasons for leaving Andrew's side. He couldn't tell anyone his secret - not again - but... But why did he want to trust this man so badly? (Iambic Prose) (Shapeshifter Danny AU)

Warning: This story will have references to laboratory testing, mentions of vivisections, blood, wounds, character trauma, and things of a similar sort. Most mentions of such things will be vague, but there will be heavy mentions of it and warnings at the beginning of chapters when it gets explicit.

<<Next Chapter>>

Chapter One

:: 

It could be said that how a person’s day went was largely determined by their mood and their personal worldview. With such an outlook, it would be correct in saying that if you looked upon the day with a cheery smile and attitude, then you would have a happy day no matter what bad things befell you.

Andrew Riter would like nothing more than to punch the face of whoever had said that. Preferably with a knife, but a regular punch and kick to the balls would work just as well, he was certain.

See, Andrew would readily admit that he wasn’t that optimistic of a person - in fact, he was usually downright sour to people and for good reason. He dealt with enough stupidity at work and school, he didn’t need it in his daily life. There was a reason he avoided social contact as best he could. He still did his best to enjoy his days and take them one at a time, of course, but that was very difficult when his day had become a giant shitshow.

It started, as always, when he woke up to nothing but wonderful peace and quiet. That was very bad since it meant his alarm hadn’t gone off. A look to his piece of shit alarm clock had showed he only had an hour to get ready for work. It wasn’t the best, but at least he hadn’t slept through the start of his shift. Which, that was fine. It could have been a still okay day since it meant he got more sleep, but, no.

He quickly found out his depression and anxiety medication were completely empty. Completely as in there was a post-it note reminding him to refill the damn things, but he hadn’t, so screw his past self. The day could have been saved by a good cup of morning coffee and a muffin or two, but his cabinets were dismally empty and the only thing in his refrigerator that wasn’t expired were some eggs and milk. He hated dairy. As for the new bag of coffee he got… He grabbed the wrong one last time he was at the store.

So with a horribly cold shower because the water in his apartment sucked, Andrew had gone out the door and had been five seconds away from a full blown panic attack because of the fucking espresso coffee he bought that existed for the sole reason of people hating themselves. It may not have been as bad if he hadn’t been stopped on the stairwell three times by his neighbors.

Vidya, his sadistic landlord who he was absolutely certain was a witch of some sort due to the fact she always smelled of plants and wore a lot of black and green and had grey hair when she was thirty, had wanted to discuss that month’s rent and was not assured by Andrew telling her - quite often - that his paycheck would be coming in just a few days and could she please stop threatening eviction when she never went through with it? Either commit or don’t, but stop acting like his life wasn’t in her hands, honestly.

He had then been stopped on the second floor by Sam who had spent almost half an hour screaming at him over the ethics of animal testing. Sam was a childhood friend who had ‘coincidentally’ wound up in the same apartment as him and tended to dress on the more vampire side of goth. The black hair fooled no one when the roots were so quick to fade back to blonde. Ugh. She also had this thing about animal testing. Andrew was of the opinion that he didn’t care at all and Sam seemed to think him a monster for not caring about - what even had she been upset about this time? Eyeliner on bunnies? Andrew couldn't care less. Actually, he probably could care less! This was him! Not caring!

Oh and then Tucker. Tucker, another ‘coincidental’ childhood friend and certifiable genius when it came to mechanics and computers and looked like a nerd straight from the 80s or early 90s, had stopped him five feet from the door and spent thirty minutes trying to talk to him about theoretical physics. Andrew was just trying to get his Associate in Arts and then transfer to a nice four-year to study Creative Writing - maybe Journalism if he got curious and or desperate enough. He was not killing himself with a double major in Engineering and Physics or whatever the hell it was Tucker did. Of course, that did nothing to stop the ‘genius’ from talking his ear off. By the time he got outside to his bus stop the bus had been gone for twenty minutes and his shift started in ten. His job was fifteen minutes away by car.

Needless to say, that left Andrew very cranky and running through alleyways and down not so safe streets as he tried to take shortcuts in whatever way he could in order to get to the library he worked at on time. Three minutes of trying to find the right street and proving he had just circled a block and wasted time almost sent him to tears before he heard his phone buzzing with a familiar ringtone.

Taking a breath, and trying not to hysterically laugh at the ‘Werewolves of London’ song he now had playing and couldn’t figure out how to change, Andrew clicked accept call and tried to stay calm. Focused. Peaceful. “Bonjour, grand frère.”

“What did you do and what do I need to fix?” Rude. Randy had called him, thank you very much. “Andy, you only call me that when you want something or you’re about to have a nervous breakdown. Are you about to have a nervous breakdown- Shit, you took your meds this morning, didn’t you?” Dammit.

“I’m not screwed up enough to forget my meds, thanks.” How did his brother always manage to call right when he was feeling at his worst or when he ran out of his pills? He was pretty sure the man had him bugged. It wouldn’t surprise him. He took overprotective to whole new levels. “Why did you call me?”

“Lunch!” Oh. It was one of their lunch days, wasn’t it? “Our lunch breaks should align today, so I figured we could meet up at our usual place around then?” It was ridiculous that Andrew could hear the ‘are you okay’ hidden in those words.

“Lunch sounds fine.” Randy was annoying, but he had this ridiculous way of making Andrew find a reason to not just curl into a ball and never wake up. He also made Andrew feel better about his own wreck of a life considering the messes he got himself into. “You’re paying, Mr. $82,000 a year.”

“Hey, I’m not that good of a vet yet and I’m still paying off student loan debts!” Feeling a small smile on his face, Andrew sighed softly. Randy somehow always made it okay again. He would die before telling that to his face, of course, but still. “I’ll meet you in a few hours. Try not to get lost in your books, Andy.”

“Try not to flirt with the owners of your patients, Randy.” Honestly, his decision to become a veterinarian had come out of left field, but Andrew couldn’t deny he did a good job. “Especially that one you’re so fond of. Now, what was his name… It started with an N?”

“Bye, love you, gotta go!” The call disconnected and Andrew gave in to the urge to laugh. Seeing the time, his laugh quickly fell and, right, he should at least call in to let the library know he was going to be a little bit late. Of course - of course - he got four rings in before his phone died. Because apparently his phone hadn’t charged from the night before even though Andrew had unplugged it this morning.

And as if the gods had somehow heard of his day and decided he needed to suffer even more, the clouds above him rumbled with the menacing beats of thunder and lightning cracked against the sky like a jagged edge of a wound. It took only a second for Andrew to realize he was fucked and two for the rain to begin falling.

Within fifteen minutes he was late, soaked, and felt as if he had offended some minor deity over something or other - or maybe it was Vidya making him suffer for being behind on his rent. Mm. Maybe he had broken a mirror or spilled some salt, actually. That sounded like his kind of luck. Heh. Maybe it was divine punishment. He obviously hadn’t suffered enough for what he had done, right?

By the time he got to the library he was pretty sure his clothes were ruined and he would never be dry again. At least he could get inside and clean up in the bathroom before sitting himself right over a heating vent and sorting books. It was a nice, quiet library and it was raining like it wouldn’t stop for forty days. He was sure the owner wouldn’t mind. In fact, he could even… He… He could stare at the locked doors and dark windows.

Gaze caught on the white notice posted to the main door, Andrew could only stare, utterly speechless. It was Memorial Day. They were closed on Memorial Day. Andrew had just walked for what was probably close to thirty minutes in the rain and… And… At least he wasn’t late. That was great. That was fucking fantastic.

Shoving a hand in his bag to see if he had some magical solution that would fix all of his problems, Andrew stared at the purple umbrella that came out and began mocking him at once. He stared for what felt like an eternity before he clicked the button and ducked into the alleyway. Sitting down on a set of side steps that led to an unstable backdoor, Andrew propped the umbrella up over him and stared at the red brick wall across from him.

It wasn’t even noon, yet, and his day was completely ruined and shot all to hell. The worst part was that this wasn’t even the first time this had happened - maybe the exact circumstances were, but getting screwed over by life? No, no, Andrew was very familiar with getting screwed over.

Glasses fogged up, breath still short from his running, and soaked through to the bone, Andrew could only bury his face into his hands and make a noise that he hoped was closer to a groan than a sob. It was always like this. Life built up to where he couldn’t handle the strain, everything came crashing down around him, and he shattered. Eventually he would put himself back together, but it kept feeling like it was harder and harder to be able to do that.

A clash of thunder and lightning and gust of wind had him trying to bite down another sob/groan. Of all the things he expected to happen next in his life, it wasn’t to hear an answering hiss to his own pathetic noise.

Head jerking up, Andrew stared down at the pathetic scrap of fur that sat in front of him, just as soaked and just as pissed as he felt himself - although the scrap of fur looked to be as broken as Andrew probably looked. Staring for a moment, Andrew huffed and looked at the black cat with a wry smile, “Bonjour, chat noir. Are you the cause of my bad luck today, then?”

At least animals didn’t judge you for speaking French first instead of English, he mused. Sighing, Andrew fixed his glasses, trying to see. He had given up wiping them off after the first few minutes of the rain storm. “Would you like to add to today’s woes, then? I’m sure there’s nothing else you can do to me, at this point, but you’re welcome to try.”

There was a rumbling little growl that sounded utterly pathetic, Andrew huffing out a laugh as he stared at the mangy thing. No doubt the cat was covered with fleas, ticks, and other unsavory bugs. The ribs poking out showed he hadn’t had a decent meal in weeks - maybe months. Poor thing probably wouldn’t make it through the night.

Tilting his umbrella forward, Andrew propped his cheek up on his hand - elbow balanced on his knee - as the fabric kept anymore rainwater from getting on the cat. “There you go. Might as well. Not like I can get much more wet myself.” The rain was freezing as hell, of course, so Andrew was being a complete idiot by doing this for a cat that looked ready to claw his eyes out. Ugh. Why did he have to pity small, tiny things?

The cat grumbled and stared at Andrew hard before leaning forward and giving as quick a headbutt to Andrew’s leg as he could, Andrew amused to see that the cat looked disgruntled at even that much. “You’ve had a very hard life, haven’t you?” The meow sounded like utter, sarcastic agreement. Maybe Andrew was projecting. “I know what that’s like, petit chaton. Would you like to hear about my cursed day?”

So, of course, Andrew spent the next however long telling a cat about how terrible his day had been. The cat seemed to be an attentive audience, at least, nodding along and making little rumbling noises close to a purr as he said something particularly witty. Andrew wasn’t sure if that was meant to be amusement or a reprimand- A cat. He was projecting emotions onto a cat. He had fallen far, hadn’t he?

“I imagine your story is much more interesting, though.” Andrew stared down at the mangy little stray, the cat staring back up at him before jumping up into his lap. Andrew scrambled to keep the thing from falling and not dropping the umbrella, calming his racing pulse down. “A warning would have been nice, you know.”

The cat meowed with what sounded like derision, Andrew huffing and ready to argue before going utterly still and silent as bright blue eyes caught onto him own. “I didn’t know black cats had such bright eyes.” The cat only settled down tiredly, looking utterly exhausted, but those eyes… No. No, it had been years and it was time to get over it. Happy endings like those in his books didn’t exist in this world. The sooner he realized that days like this one were the norm, the better off he would be. After all, you couldn’t get disappointed when you expected the worst, right?

But, still. Andrew couldn’t stop himself from threading his fingers through the small creature’s fur, the threat of tears starting to fade. The fur was rather soft even with the rainwater that drenched them. Actually the storm was starting to lessen into a drizzle.

Leaning back against the unstable backdoor, Andrew sighed and closed his eyes, biting his lip as his fingers tightened on the fur. Black fur with blue eyes. That… “You know, I like to think that black cats are actually lucky.” It wasn’t possible - it wasn’t - but… It wouldn’t hurt him anymore to keep hoping, right?

Just one last time.

[aion-rsa]

Best Movies Coming to Netflix in August 2021

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As quickly as the summer movie season of 2021 seemed to come upon us, it’s already about to begin its long, languid slide through the dog days of August into fall. That’s not to say that theaters won’t still have plenty of interesting fare to encounter, with films like The Suicide Squad, Free Guy, Respect, Candyman and The Night House all on deck. Hopefully the other hideous sequel happening at the moment — Pandemic 2: The Delta Variant — won’t set any of these potential hits back.

In the spirit of keeping August entertaining, Netflix is rolling out a slew of new streaming additions as well, including an underrated Spielberg gem, fantastic teen comedies both old and new, a couple of stoner classics and perhaps the finest film from the canon of one of the modern era’s most revered directors. We’ve rounded up our recommendations below, and hope you stay cool and healthy whatever you’re watching!

Universal

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Beethoven (1992)

August 1

Hollywood in the 1990s was a glorious and furry era when studio executives never met a family movie that couldn’t be improved with the addition of at least one animal character. Beethoven is one of the most successful examples of this winning formula. Directed by Brian Levant from a script co-written by John Hughes himself (alongside Mystic Pizza co-writer Amy Holden Jones), Beethoven is basically the story of how a husband and father, Charles Grodin’s George Newton, feels threatened by the attention his family gives their new dog, a St. Bernard named Beethoven.

George eventually works through some of his issues and accepts the charming Beethoven into the family, a process that comes to a head when Beethoven is dog-napped into an animal experiment scheme run by evil veterinarian Dr. Herman Varnick. (Honestly, the plot isn’t dissimilar to the story in cinematic masterpiece Paddington.) The deep supporting cast includes Bonnie Hunt, David Duchovny, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Oliver Platt, Stanley Tucci, and Everybody Loves Raymond‘s Patricia Heaton. The film’s sequel, Beethoven Second, will also be available on Netflix starting on August 1st.

Dreamworks

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

August 1

As one of Steven Spielberg’s most charming and laid-back efforts, Catch Me If You Can is a breezy and star-studded entertainment. The story is loosely based on the real grifts of conman Frank Abagnale Jr., who beginning as a teenager was able to pass himself off as a pilot, lawyer, doctor, and many other things. But really, this is a cat-and-mouse chase movie between a still baby-faced Leonardo DiCaprio as Abagnale and Tom Hanks as the FBI stiff who hunted him down. It’s all good stuff, with the movie enjoying a light touch and fresh take on Spielberg’s favorite subject matter: fathers and sons.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Deep Blue Sea (1999)

August 1

A shockingly entertaining B-movie about a bunch of genetically engineered super-sharks which break out and take over a testing facility, this is horror silliness at its best with great turns from Samuel L Jackson, Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows and LL Cool J. Partially shot on sets built around the same water tanks used for Titanic, with animatronic and CGI sharks, Deep Blue Sea is action-packed, schlocky fun from director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger).  

STX Entertainment

The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

August 1

A bit like Lady Bird before there was a Lady Bird, Kelly Fremon Craig’s Edge of Seventeen is an underrated gem that stars a teenage Hailee Steinfeld as a young woman stumbling through an especially awkward time in her life. Steinfeld is terrific in her best performance since True Grit, playing Nadine as a bundle of insecurities, yet still nobody’s victim. Also of special value is Craig’s hilarious and authentic script, which captures the specificity of growing up in the social media age while being near-universal in its accessibility and empathy for a wide ensemble which also includes Kyra Sedgwick, Haley Lu Richardson, and Woody Harrelson.

Paramount

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

August 1

Just in time for the dog days of summer comes one of the best summer movies ever. Relying on charm and sharp characterization instead of special effects for its spectacle, John Hughes’ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a truly great teen comedy that follows the easygoing bon vivant (or secret sociopath?) of a high school’s senior class when he decides to take the day off in the best fashion: by faking he’s sick and then guilting his BFF into giving him the keys to his dad’s Ferrari.

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TV

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TV

Never Have I Ever Season 2 Review: This Netflix Teen Comedy Deserves to Run and Run

By Louisa Mellor

It’s silly yet curiously honest stuff about the pressures of young adult life, at least in 1980s suburban America, and a beguiling showcase for an ensemble that includes Matthew Broderick in his coolest role, as well as Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jennifer Grey, and a seriously stoned Charlie Sheen. If you haven’t seen it yet, you’re due.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Inception (2010)

August 1 Still Christopher Nolan’s most complete and satisfying film to date (yes, even more so than The Dark Knight), Inception is a cerebral sci-fi set of stacking dolls combined with a rollicking James Bond adventure that all happens to be mostly situated inside one guy’s head. Leonardo DiCaprio leads a team of professional thieves who steal things from people’s minds — only this time they’re hired to implant an idea, even if they have to dive deep into the mark’s subconscious to do it.

Mind-bending imagery and several jaw-dropping action sequences are wrapped around a surprisingly emotional core, with only the usual unwieldy exposition there to remind you that there are some things Nolan may never get right.

Lionsgate

The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

August 1 Based on a novel by crime writer Michael Connelly, this gripping, suspenseful 2011 drama arguably kicked off “the McConaissance,” a shift from rom-coms to more serious roles by Matthew McConaughey that launched a new, largely acclaimed phase of his career.

McConaughey is formidable as attorney Mickey Haller, a slick lawyer who works out of his Lincoln Town Car and undergoes a crisis of conscience as his new case starts to feel disturbingly like an old one. In addition to McConaughey stepping up his game, this Brad Furman-directed thriller is the kind of character-driven, literate melodrama we don’t see much on the big screen anymore — although we see plenty of them these days on, of course, Netflix.

Paramount Classics

The Machinist (2004)

August 1 Director Brad Anderson followed up his cult classic 2001 horror effort Session 9 with this surreal, Kafka-esque psychological thriller. Christian Bale plays Trevor Reznik, whose inability to sleep leads him to cause an accident at his industrial job that costs a co-worker (Michael Ironside) his arm. Already physically and mentally deteriorating, Reznik begins an even deeper descent as he tries to unravel what’s happening to him and why. Bale is intense and viscerally shocking as the emaciated Reznik, with his riveting performance anchoring an atmospheric, visually striking film that is sometimes an exercise in style over substance.

New Line Cinema

Magnolia (1999)

August 1

Boogie Nights pushed director Paul Thomas Anderson into the spotlight, but it was his massive, sprawling jigsaw puzzle Magnolia that made him into a superstar filmmaker. Following multiple narratives and numerous characters all finally brought together by a climactic storm of frogs, this is high art packed with standout moments.

Read more

Movies

Top Gun: Maverick Footage Shows Tom Cruise in Real Jet Behind the Scenes

By David Crow

Movies

Best Modern Horror Movies

By Don Kaye

Tom Cruise is electric as a toxic motivation speaker, Julianne Moore is brittle and tragic as a trophy wife who has grown to love her dying husband, while the burgeoning relationship between Melora Walters’ addict and John C. Reilly’s cop added sweetness and hope to a tale of messed up people and damaged families. Epic.

Sony PIctures

Pineapple Express (2008)

August 1 After its trailer introduced everyone to M.I.A.’s amazing “Paper Planes,” Pineapple Express’s work was already done. It didn’t even have to produce a satisfyingly funny movie on top of that. Thankfully the filmmaking team of Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and David Gordon Green decided to give us one anyway, because Pineapple Express is the ideal of the little-seen-or-attempted stoner action comedy.

Rogen stars as process server and marijuana enthusiast Dale Denton, while James Franco portrays his annoying drug dealer Saul Silver. When the pair witness a murder, they are forced to flee hitmen, a pair of corrupt cops, and worst of all, Danny McBride. The Rogen/Goldberg comedy catalog has very few misses and this one is particularly excellent.

Universal Pictures

Seabiscuit (2003)

August 1

No one would ever accuse Gary Ross’ Seabiscuit of being subtle. With its voice-of-god narration by Ken Burns fave David McCoullough, which helpfully spells out the themes of the movie every few scenes, and its achingly sentimental score and dialogue, Seabiscuit is a Cinderella story which all but asserts its titular race horse ended the Great Depression. Yet Ross captures some of the simple American grandeur of Laura Hillenbrand’s non-fiction source material book, as well as the beauty of this true story where a horse that everyone counted out as worthless was nursed by three men into becoming one of the greatest racing animals of all-time.

It’s the type of feel-good yarn that won people over in the 1930s and which is still winning now. When coupled with a handful of strong performances, including from Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, Tobey Maguire, and a seriously underrated Elizabeth Banks, you have a crowd-pleaser that actually pleases.

Paramount Pictures

Team America: World Police (2004)

August 1 Roger Ebert’s one-star review of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Team America: World Police sums up the film’s nonsensical political stance nicely. “I wasn’t offended by the movie’s content so much as by its nihilism,” the great film critic wrote.

Rog was right to criticize Team America’s incomprehensible worldview. Nearly 20 years later, its seeming position that Alec Baldwin and Kim Jong-Il are equally bad hasn’t aged that well (despite Mr. Baldwin’s best efforts). But it’s hard to argue that the South Park creators’ nihilism doesn’t lead to some great comedy. The novelty of Thunderbirds-style puppets saving the world amid graphic sex acts and voluminous barfing never quite wears off.

The post Best Movies Coming to Netflix in August 2021 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[unleashthemidnight]

SPN goes NSP: Guess Who’s Back (Just In Time For The Christmas) pt 2

Christmas Calendar: Masterlist SPN goes NSP: GWB part 1, part 2, part 3 Chapter name: Dinosaur Laser Fight People: Reader (x Gabriel), Winchesters, Danny Sexbang Synopsis: You were doing preparations for the Christmas celebration with Sam and Dean in the bunker when the party invitation threw you in the loop. Will you learn something new? Word count: 1100+ Warnings: Crack, language, song lyrics usage, The Frying Pan™ Notes: This is second part of the GWB and also part of the Christmas Calendar. NSP is amazing band called NinjaSexParty, whose songs, covers and music videos I have used. Songs are listed at the end of the fic. I would like to thank @serendiptious-esparza for helping me do some references by answering my questions; thank you darling <3 Here we go again, hope you all enjoy! This is still the shit that no one asked for. Reblogs and comments are loved Do not repost

It had been years since you were in school. Your hunting days happened shortly after graduation so you basically had more typical childhood and teen years compared to Winchesters. Sometimes you wondered how life would have been if you hadn't choose the hunter life. Would it have been even possible to just not do it? Would you have managed to avoid it all? You would probably have job from your field and somesort of apartment somewhere, maybe a significant other to go on your days and roam different stores and cities with. Someone who would hold your hand and whose hugs would tell you that everything would be okay. Someone who you would kiss in the rain. The things that you had with Gabriel. It would have meant that you wouldn't have met him. It would have meant that you wouldn't have met the Winchesters. You wouldn't have met Castiel. Sure you wouldn't have got yourself hurt multiple times and suffered from the pain unimaginable to most people, but thinking about your loved ones and not meeting them, the thought of that... You didn't regret any of that.

The hunter life wasn't easy, it never is. As much as you had have horror and pain in your life that you couldn't talk about to the most of the population, you didn't want to change a thing. You loved your memories. They made you the person who you were today. And you loved your brothers. They might have not been your real brothers, but family didn’t end with blood. And there you were now, back at the school, waking up at the familiar school desk near the windows in the backrow. Whiteboard, maps on the wall, cheap shelf for the books about different things. The technology was advanced since you had been in school but this classroom still used ever so familiar older school technology, the ones you could always seen in tumblr posts. The teacher’s desk was a mess; unfinished papers, tests to have, pens everywhere else than in the holder. Under one tipped over paper pile you could see handle of the… frying pan? What the... Your eyes soon found Sam and Dean next to you at the same row. ”Where are we?” you asked. ”Uh, school?” Sam answered shrugging his shoulders. ”Oh, are we now.” Sam received annoyed blank stare and sigh from you as you channeled your inner assistant district attorney from Manhattan. ”I just really - Wh- Why I can't move?” The boys didn't know and couldn't move either. As you tried to free yourself from the invisible force, other people, students by the looks of them, started to come in and found their own desks. You quickly decided to see where everything would go while Sam was more interested in what he would learn. The teacher walked in. You, Dean and Sam looked at each other not sure of what you were actually seeing. ”Hello class. I'm sorry but your normal professor couldn't be here today. So I'm your substitude teacher, Danny Sexbang, and this ninja science lesson's gonna rock your world. Are you ready to learn?! Alright, don't care, let's hit it!” Danny welcomed everyone. The substitude teacher was the same man as the host in the garage party. This time he had proper clothes on, a suit that would actually fit for the teaching job. 10 points to Gryffindor, you mentally noted. Only two things had remained the same with your jumping in different places: Danny Sexbang and the frying pan. By the process of elimination you made determinations on who just might be behind of the party invitation and knew more than wanted to tell. It has to be the frying pan. Everytime you tried to ask about something about the party invitation or the world shifting from your “teacher”, most peculiar things happened that either stopped you from asking things or you couldn't understand the response so you basically gave up with that. Maybe when class would be over, you could actually move and ask questions from other people. You didn't pay any attention to the teaching, Dean slept and Sam was naturally making notes on the papers that he had borrowed from another student. Sam said that he might as well make use of the situation when you couldn't leave. Danny walked over to your desk. ”Am I in trouble Mr. Sexbang?” you looked at him while playing your innocent card that was very familiar from your actual school days. Maybe you should have become an actor. Maybe you would have ended up getting a role as Marla McGowan on Broadway or the role of the doctor in The Normal Heart. ”Uh-huh,” Danny's voice got your attention again, ”But as much as I like to gaze into your beautiful starry eyes, I need you to close them and travel back in time with me for the next history lesson,” Danny answered to your question and whispered to your ear, ”It's gonna blow your mind.” Something in that made you shiver but still trust him. You closed your eyes. ”It was very ordinary day, day like this one at Dinosaur High, when stegosaurus raised his hand and called for high-fives. Tyrannosaurus saw this and got pissed because his tiny wrists caused his high-five to miss and he was like ”Fuck this!” Oh yeah, oh Hells yeah, it was classic old school futuristic prehistoric throwdown known as Dinosaur Laser Fight! But it was quiet because in space there's no sound. Did I mention that this took place in space? It did. Also, there were robots and sharks. It was a goddamn, balls out Dinosaur Laser Fight in space, with sharks - -” ”Doctor Sexbang, did this really happen?” one of the other students asked interrupting the monologue. The question made you open your eyes. You really wanted to see Danny's reaction. ”Uh, yeah. It's fucking science. Just ask Albert Einstein, he invented space. So shut your face,” Danny answered hurt from the question that interrupted his historically accurate storytelling, and then continued, ”- - and then bunch of fuckin' aliens from Mars showed up all ripping solos on V-neck quitars. The dinos, the sharks and the robots saw that the aliens came in peace so THEY KILLED THEM WITH LASERS. HOLY SHIT, CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT!?” The yelling managed to wake Dean up. ”And then they had a giant laser party. A Dinosaur Laser Party. The end. The assigment is to write 10 page analysis of one of the aspect of the aftermath of this fight. Mostly about the party. Make sure to add pictures so I don't fall asleep while reading those.” ”What did I miss?” Dean asked still half-asleep from you two. ”Just a punch of non-sense really,” Sam sighed disappointed. ”Mister Winchester, are you saying that my teachings don't meet your standards? This might not be Stanford but it doesn't mean you could be disrespectful,” Danny spoke to Sam making all of you tense up. Seeing your faces made Danny chuckle. Oh, he would have fun with this if the circumstances were different. ”Well then, I take that you won't do that again. Class dismissed.” For the third time, the world shifted making the classroom and everyone around you to disappear.

Christmas Calendar tag: @sumara62, @authoressskr, @be-fantastic, @pizzamanteachings Gabe tag: @nobodys-baby-now, @dlb1999 Hit me with ask or message if you would like to join!

NinjaSexParty's songs used in this fic, not in order

Dinosaur Laser Fight x

The Decision x

Ninja Brian was so Ninja that you couldn't see him in the locker that was in the hallway. The place where you never went.