#Danny: this isn’t the first time I’ve seen the light | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

reallydumbdannyphantomaus · 1 year ago

Text

The Apocalypse Club

(ao3) (art 1) (art 2)

Valerie, Kwan, and Paulina find out Danny's biggest secret while Amity Park is invaded by a strange new ghost. Now, all four of them have to work together to save the day. ...If they can stop fighting each other first.

Hey!!! this is my @invisobang piece for 2023!!!! it hits in at about 15k words and i got to work with @minnowmarsh and @trolithfoxyflint for the amazing art that comes with it! now you crazy kids have fun reading :D

----------------

“How,” Valerie said when she could talk again.

Danny shrugged and looked away. His face was tinted green, though whether from nausea or the swirling portal on the wall of the lab, she couldn’t say. Kwan didn’t look much better, ashen gray, hair sticking up in all directions from how much he’d been pulling it. Paulina’s eyes hadn’t left Danny’s face since…

Well, since.

“Is that the most important question right now?” he said, rummaging in the desk.

Yes, she wanted to scream. But it wasn’t, and she knew it wasn’t, just as much as she knew that he was avoiding the question.

But she was a professional. She’d worked with… Danny… before. She could put aside her personal feelings until they were safe.

“What’s the plan?”

“We need allies,” he said, still not looking at her. “The only place left to find them is the ghost zone.”

“What?” Paulina said. “You want us to—to go in there?”

“What about our families?” Kwan said.

“Isn’t it super dangerous in there?”

“Look, your families’ best chance is if we get help. And you don’t have to come with me, but I think it’s more dangerous to sit here and wait.”

Valerie rolled her eyes. How was she ever friends with these two? Here they were, whining about danger, when they were missing the most obvious issue with this plan. “Where are we going to get allies in the ghost zone? The whole thing’s just full of ghosts!”

Maybe it was a trick of the light, but for a moment his eyes flashed acid green. Her hand snapped to the ectogun on her hip. “You’ve worked with ghosts before, Val.”

“No, I’ve worked with you before, and who the hell knows what you are.”

The words spilled out her mouth like poison, acid. She didn’t know if she meant them or not, but she did notice his full body flinch.

(She filed away the sore spot for future reference.)

“Jesus, Val,” Kwan said, running his hand through his already messed up hair.

She looked away. “Sorry.”

“Look, I have allies in the ghost zone. Even some enemies who, push comes to shove, will help me out if only so they get to kill me themselves. I’ve never seen or heard of this ghost before, okay? If it’s this powerful, and I’ve never heard of it, that’s a really, really bad sign. We need all the help we can get and we can’t afford to be picky about where it comes from.”

Valerie stared harder at the wall. Her skin crawled at the thought of making nice with ghosts. “Easy for you to say.”

“I’m working with all of you, aren’t I?”

Valerie’s eyes snap to meet Paulina’s, then Kwan’s. She’d forgotten, somehow, that Paulina and Kwan (and she, once upon a time) had always treated him and his friends like garbage. She’d forgotten that for all that Phantom was her enemy, she’d once used his cousin (or whatever that relationship actually was, who the hell knows anymore) as bait to capture and torture him.

“Fine,” she said. Deliberately, she dropped her hand from her gun. “So how are we doing this?”

The ghost zone was a lot… greener than Paulina expected. It made sense, in retrospect: green was the color of ectoplasm after all, but in her head she always imagined it to have more of a Sam Manson aesthetic. Black. Maybe some purple. But deep and dark and depressing.

(Last time she saw Sam Manson, Manson’s eyes were totally black and she was clawing at Paulina’s face, spittle flying from her mouth. Not a totally unexpected reaction, she had to admit, but there was no intent or reason, just pure feral violence.)

“So,” she said, “where exactly are we going?”

“The Far Frozen,” Fenton said, hands white-knuckled on the steering. “I have friends there.”

“It, uh, sounds cold,” Kwan said. “I didn’t bring my jacket.” More like a swarm of zombie-football players had tried to drag him down by his collar and he’d only escaped by letting his letterman jacket slide off.

“Frostbite’ll have coats.”

“And what is Frostbite?” That was Valerie, still glaring at Fenton like he’d pissed in her Cheerios. Paulina really didn’t understand what her issue was. Sure, Paulina was shocked to find out that Fenton was her beloved ghost boy, but she was more awkward than angry. Valerie seemed to take the whole situation personally.

“He’s a yeti.”

“A yeti? A dead yeti?” Paulina crossed her arms. “Are you telling me that yetis are real?”

“Look, not all ghosts were once alive. Sometimes, they’re the ghosts of beliefs or ideals or stories. Things we used to think about and believe in. Pandora’s here, too, along with a lot of pantheons, but they won’t tell me if they were ever alive.” Fenton’s lips curled up in a little smile and his face softened. “I’ve been trying to weasel it out of them for months.”

They lapsed into another brief silence before Fenton spoke again.

“Look, if you have any other questions… now might be the best time. It’ll be a bit before we get to the Far Frozen, and I don’t know if we’ll have any time after that.”

Paulina had a million questions, but she couldn’t think of one she wanted to ask right now. How? Why? When? That could all wait until after the day was saved. Her nerves were still twitching and she dug her fingers into her wrist to stabilize, remember the now and not two hours ago, watching Star, black-eyed and snarling with one arm bent out of shape, leap for her throat. She said nothing.

“Are we… just gonna stay in the For Frozen?” Kwan said. “Like, while you save the world?”

“Far Frozen, and yeah. That was the plan.”

“I’m not staying in some frozen wasteland so you and your ghost buddies can fuck up saving the world.”

Paulina couldn’t help staring at Valerie. What the hell was she talking about? Phantom—Fenton—Danny had saved the world plenty of times before.

“I was talking about Kwan and Paulina, Val. I know you’d never stay out of it.”

Valerie curled her lip. “Just so we’re clear. I have to keep an eye on you, anyway.”

“What is your deal, girl?” Paulina said. “If you two are our best shot at saving the world, being pissy at each other isn’t going to help.”

“Stay out of it!”

“The world is ending! We don’t have time for you to be stubborn.”

Kwan shrank back at their raised voices. “Uh, I don’t think this is a good time to fight, either.”

“Of course you don’t. Since when do you ever think for yourself?”

“Hey!”

“Shut up! Just be quiet, all of you. Jesus.” Danny turned around to glare at them, his eyes flashing green. “Valerie and I have worked together before even though she hated me. We can do it again.”

Paulina wasn’t so sure about him using “hate” in the past tense there, but Valerie was nodding.

“I can put my personal feelings aside to save the world, and fuck you for thinking anything different. But then, I guess you never thought much of me, did you?”

“What are you—”

“Seriously? You have to ask?”

Paulina bit her lip. When Valerie’s dad lost his job, Valerie lost everything. Including her friends. Like Paulina. No, she thought after a moment, I suppose I don’t.

Danny groaned from the front. “I changed my mind. No more questions. Let’s just… be quiet.”

Paulina had to agree.

The Far Frozen was, in fact, cold.

Kwan shivered in just his black t-shirt, but truthfully, his letterman jacket would’ve only helped so much. This was a bitter cold, a deep-winter cold that took three blankets, a hot chocolate, and fuzzy socks to banish.

Kwan really hated the cold.

“Great One!” the yeti in front of them said, arms (one of flesh and fur, the other of ice and bone) spread wide like he was offering a hug. Was it some kind of yeti cultural thing?

Fenton jumped up and embraced the creature. Apparently, it was just an offer of a hug.

“What brings you to my domain?” the yeti said once he put Fenton down. “And with such strange company as well!”

Fenton rubbed the back of his neck. “We need your help, Frostbite.”

Kwan’s teeth started to chatter. Valerie and Paulina’s arms were dotted with gooseflesh, alongside his own. How was Fenton not fucking freezing?

“Can we have this conversation inside?” Paulina said, rubbing her arms.

“W-w-w-with jackets?” Kwan’s chattering teeth brought out a stutter. Embarrassing. “Ma-y-be a f-fire?”

“Of course!” the yeti said. “Your fragile human bodies require excess warmth to survive. Please, follow me.”

The yeti, who introduced himself as Frostbite, led them to a cave where they were each presented with a delightfully warm coat, almost thick enough to banish the cold from Kwan’s bones.

(Almost.)

Valerie spent the whole trek glaring at Frostbite like she expected him to turn around and start biting the second she took her eyes off of him. She kept one hand on her blaster the whole time. Kwan couldn’t imagine going through life with that kind of paranoia. It must be exhausting.

The cave itself was almost cozy. It was decorated, had furniture and artwork and books like it was someone’s office. With a jolt, Kwan realized that it was an office. Frostbite’s, most likely. On the wall, there was a portrait of Phantom (Fenton?) standing victorious. What the fuck.

“What’s with the whole ‘Great One’ thing, by the way?” Kwan said.

“It is demonstrative of our unending love and gratitude for the Great One, who saved us all from subjugation at the hands of the villainous Pariah Dark!”

Valerie snorted. “‘Villainous.’ Like you’re not.”

Frostbite tilted his head in confusion. Kwan hated to admit it, but it was kind of adorable. “I am unsure what your meaning is. I assure you that we denizens of the Far Frozen have no villainous aims with any friend of the Great One.”

“I’m not gullible enough to believe you.”

Frostbite opened his mouth to reply again, but Fenton cut him off.

“Just ignore her, Frostbite. You’re not going to change her mind and we don’t have time to argue. A new ghost is attacking Amity Park, and we need your help.”

It all happened so fast.

All four of them escaped by sheer luck. Kwan managed to dodge the football team and hide in the bleachers next to Paulina, who’d nearly been bitten by Star and Sam in the bathroom. Valerie put on the Red Huntress suit as soon as she realized what was happening, giving her some protection against the spreading infection. And Danny?

Well, Danny could fly.

Danny stumbled upon the other three by chance, checking through the school for anyone who’d managed to avoid the plague, though he didn’t have much hope. He’d found Kwan, Paulina, and Valerie—two useless people and one who absolutely hated him.

Still, he couldn’t leave them there, unprotected. He grabbed Paulina and Valerie hoisted Kwan on her hoverboard and they’d raced to FentonWorks.

He’d intended to stay in ghost form the whole time, but he hadn’t realized that the infected were still capable of reason, at least on some level. That their attacks weren’t mindless. That his mom could hit him with an ectogun that would short out his powers, however temporarily.

And now three new people know who he is.

Three new people who he can’t trust in the slightest.

(What if they tell people? His parents? The school? The Guys in White?)

But he can’t worry about that, because the world is ending.

“I see,” Frostbite said after Danny had explained the situation. “This is… worrisome. If it escaped—”

“It? Frostbite, do you know what this is?”

“Mm. It sounds like Pestilence.”

Danny frowned. “Like… pesto?”

Paulina scoffed and whacked Danny on the head. “No, idiot. Pestilence. Like disease and stuff.”

“Yes. Considered by certain branches of Christianity to be one of the four Horsemen that herald the apocalypse.”

“One of four? You mean there’s three other horse-guys?”

“Indeed. The belief in this specific end of days has largely died out in the modern day, so the Horsemen became ghosts. However, they were so dangerous, so suddenly, that we ghosts banded together three hundred years ago to seal them away. If one of them is out…”

“...then the others might be out, too.” Danny rubbed at his forehead. “This gets better and better. What are the other three?”

“War, Famine, and Death,” Paulina said, counting them off on her fingers. Valerie raised an eyebrow at her. “What? Everyone knows that.”

“You are correct, Delicate One.”

“Um, my name’s Paulina.”

“None of those sound good.” Kwan scratched his head. “Also, why is Death separate? Don’t War and Famine and Pestilence all kill people? Does Death extra kill people or something?”

Frostbite shrugged. “How should I know? I’m already dead.”

“Can you be dead if you were never alive?”

“In any event,” Frostbite said, “your best chance is to put Pestilence back before any of the others break free.”

“And how are we supposed to do that, ghost? We barely escaped in the first place!”

Valerie had a point: they knew what they were fighting, now, but it didn’t solve the problem of we can’t beat this guy. Danny rubbed his temples. Maybe if he could get Skulker to work with them, Skulker would help convince the rest of the Ghost Zone and they might actually have a shot.

“Your best chance is finding the Panacea.”

Danny scrunched his eyebrows. “The what?”

“Panacea is, like, a mythical elixir thing that can heal any disease.” Danny, Kwan, and Valerie stared at Paulina, who was tapping on her phone. She looked up at them and rolled her eyes. “What? Everyone knows that.”

“Okay, so where’s this Panaderia at?” Valerie said.

“Patience, Suspicious One. Allow me to explain.”

“What the hell did you just call me?”

“The Panacea is hidden in the far reaches of the Ghost Zone, near Pariah’s Keep.” Frostbite pulled out the Infi-Map from his desk and rolled it out on the desk. “Legend tells that Pariah wanted it for himself, but could never get through its protections.”

“Protections? Like—ghosts and shit?”

“Not quite. The story goes that there are three trials one must overcome to obtain the Panacea. The first is a trial of courage. The second is a trial of compassion. And the third is a trial of truth.”

Valerie threw her hands up in the air. “What the hell does any of that mean?”

“The legend does not specify.”

“Of course,” Paulina said, “because when the world’s at stake, you want as much ambiguity as possible.”

“Quite.”

Courage, compassion, and truth. Well, Danny was decently brave. He spent half his time fighting ghosts, at least, and protecting people. It had to count for something. Compassion… he could probably work on that part, but he did care about people. That’s why he protected them. Truth?

That was a little stickier.

He lied, all the time. It was for a good reason, but he wasn’t sure the trials would see it that way. Maybe he would just have to tell the truth in the moment? Ugh, this whole thing was so complicated.

Maybe Valerie would do better at the truth thing. Though, she also had a secret identity. Whatever. They’d figure it out.

Lost in his thoughts, Danny didn’t notice Valerie approaching him until her hand wrapped around his arm and she pulled him away.

“Woah, what are you—” Danny squeezed his eyes shut as he was yanked back into the bright light of the outside. The snow sparkled in the glow that permeated the Ghost Zone almost like sunlight, but half as warm.

“If you and I are going to do this, we should have a plan.”

“A plan for what? We don’t even know what these trials will look like.”

Valerie’s hand tightened around his bicep. “So you just want to fly in blind? Hide behind me and let me figure it out so you can swoop in and ‘save the day’ or some bullshit?”

“That is not remotely what I—”

“Save it! You’ve been lying to me this whole time. For years. And I—I actually thought that you cared about me, which is the really stupid part.”

“I do care about you, Val.” Danny reached for her arm and she flinched back. He sighed and stared at the ground.

“No, you don’t. You can’t. Ghosts don’t care about anything or anyone. You just like the attention. You like the praise. You may have everyone else fooled but I see what you are. No more tricks, Phantom.”

Danny choked out a laugh. “And you wonder why I lied to you.”

Valerie sneered. “No, actually. It all makes perfect sense, ghost.”

His eyes stung, which was stupid. They really didn’t have time for him to go cry in a corner because Valerie didn’t like him. But his feelings didn’t care about the facts, and tears pricked at the corners of his eyes.

“Whatever,” he said, and he tried to ignore how his voice cracked. “Let’s just get through this.”

“Yeah,” Valerie said. “Let’s get through this and then never talk to each other again.”

He’d really thought he could talk to her, if she ever found out. He’d really thought he could convince her. That hurt the most, he realized: he’d always known she’d be mad, but after what happened with Dani, there should’ve been room for them to be friends as Valerie and Danny and as Red Huntress and Phantom.

He was the stupid one, it turned out.

“Okay. If that’s what you want.”

Valerie turned away. “It is what I want.”

“Okay.”

They fell into awkward silence.

“So—”

Distant screaming cut Danny off.

Somewhere along the way, wires had gotten crossed in Danny’s brain. Screams of terror and pain were usually a sign that people should stay away. If some did get closer, it was usually out of curiosity and panic would take over once that curiosity was sated. Danny, of course, ran straight for the danger every time.

So he wasn’t surprised, exactly, when one of the yetis, eyes dripping black, lunged for him. He’d run into enough fights that ducking out of the way of her claws was second nature. Beside him, Valerie blasted the infected yeti away. Of course. Valerie was just like him: she ran into danger.

“We need to get out of here!” She fired again at another yeti, snarling in the snow.

Danny reached for the electric cold in his chest, but it was still weak and flickering from the gun his mom had used. He was powerless.

“Danny!” Before he could blink, something slammed into him and he was speeding away from the yetis on Valerie’s jetboard.

“Wait—Wait!” Struggling to stand on a fast, open-air vehicle, he pulled himself up using Valerie’s shoulder and she shot him a withering glare. “We can’t just leave them there!”

“Us getting infected doesn’t help anyone, and you trying to play hero to get on my good side won’t work anyway.”

“I’m not—” The jetboard tilted to avoid a leaping yeti. “Why won’t you listen—”

“I did listen to you! And you lied. So I’m done with that.”

Valerie angled down to the cave entrance where Kwan, Paulina, and Frostbite were and jerked to a stop. Danny couldn’t stop his momentum and tumbled off onto the floor of the cave, landing at Paulina’s feet.

“Um, hi?” Paulina said.

“We have a problem,” Valerie said.

Apparently the “problem” was a horde of zombie yetis right on Valerie and Danny’s tail. Paulina thought “problem” was underselling it a bit.

One black-eyed yeti burst through the opening, only for Frostbite to slam his flesh arm into it, knocking it into another oncoming yeti. He then hit a panel on the wall and sealed the cave shut. Panting, he lumbered over to Danny, green goo staining his pristine white fur, grabbed the map-thing off the desk, and thrust it into Danny’s arms.

“Great One and friends, you must take the Infi-Map and find the Panacea.” The yeti looked down at the goo (his blood?) and groaned in pain. “I fear I shall soon turn as well.”

“Frostbite…” Danny said, reaching out one hand like he wanted to comfort him. And wasn’t it weird, to think of a ghost needing comfort?

“Great One, you do not have time to worry about me. Help me by bringing back the Panacea and saving us all. You must go now, before I lose my rationality and attack you as well.”

Danny squeezed his eyes like he was staving off tears. “Okay. I—okay. I’m sorry.”

Paulina felt bad for the dork (hero), really, but they so didn’t have time for this. She latched onto his arm and yanked him away from Frostbite, who was starting to snarl. “Thank you, Mr. Frostbite,” she said. “Now let’s get the fuck out of here.”

“Everybody hang on,” Danny said, opening the map. Paulina tightened her grip as Valerie and Kwan grabbed on. “Take us to the Panacea.”

Frostbite jumped at them, teeth bared, and the map whisked them away in a green light. Paulina wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but this was not it. The sudden acceleration stole a scream from her throat, and the rush of air brought tears to her eyes. The last thing she saw was Frostbite’s icy arm, outstretched, and then she could see nothing but motion.

There was nothing to do but hang on for dear life, then all of a sudden they were standing again, in a cavernous hall. Paulina wobbled on her feet, then vomited.

A hand rubbed at her back, and she turned to see Kwan, awkward half-smile on his face. “You okay?”

The hall was massive and crumbling, stone pillars in pieces. A mosaic pattern tiled the floor, and she looked up to see a perfect reflection in the roof, except for a couple of holes where the swirling Ghost Zone peeked through.

“I’m fine,” she said. “Except for, you know.”

“Everything?”

“Yeah, that.” She bent over and spat a couple times, trying to get the taste out of her mouth. She’d lost her water bottle sometime in the multiple life threatening situations they’d been in in the past 4 or so hours, so saliva was her best option. “We weren’t supposed to be here. We were supposed to just sit there in that frozen wasteland and be safe. I can’t do this, Kwan.”

“But you have to, now,” Valerie said. Her voice was firm, but not unkind. “We’re all here, and there’s no half-assing this like you half-ass school, alright?”

“Excuse you?”

“We both know you could do just fine in school if you tried, Polly! You’re smart, girl. And we need smart on this mission, not smart trying to be stupid.”

Paulina stared for just a moment, then laughed. “Girl, that was the most backhanded compliment I’ve ever heard.”

Valerie rolled her eyes, but the corners of her mouth twitched like she was trying not to smile. “At least it was a compliment.”

“Setting our bar real low here, huh?”

“Paulina, when my dad lost his job, you all dumped me as soon as you heard. I lost everything, and then I lost all my friends. You’re damn lucky I’m not just cussing you out.”

The words were almost humorous, but there was a bite to Valerie’s tone now. Paulina couldn’t blame her.

“Listen, I wanted to say—”

“Guys!” Danny's voice echoed through the chamber. “I found something!”

Paulina swore as Valerie and Kwan both ran over to where Danny stood in front of a massive double door.

“Is that—”

“Yeah,” Danny said. “I think it’s the entrance. The trials are probably through here.”

“So,” Kwan said, pushing on the giant stone doors, “how do we—”

As he spoke, the doors lit up and slowly, slowly, rumbled open.

“Huh,” Kwan said.

It was dark inside. The glow of the Ghost Zone seemed to come to a complete halt, swallowed by whatever was beyond the threshold.

Paulina didn’t like it.

“Let’s all go through together,” Danny said.

Paulina nodded, grabbing Danny and Kwan. She couldn’t speak, her mouth suddenly dry. Why was she here? She wasn’t ready for something like this. She couldn’t save the world! Oh god, she needed to get out of here—

As one, they stepped through the door.

Kwan blinked.

“What?”

It was the Casper High cafeteria, except the Casper High cafeteria should be overrun with Pestilence’s zombies right now. But there was Dash and Paulina and Star (wasn’t Paulina back—where—what—what… day was it? Tuesday? Right, right. They had an essay due in Lancer’s class. Of course. Kwan had stayed up all night writing about… writing about…)

“Dude!” Dash said, waving Kwan over. “You ready to pummel Brantford tonight?” The last part of his sentence became a shout, directed at the whole cafeteria. Students applauded. Dash stood with one leg on his seat and one on the table, a true showman. Over in the corner, Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley rolled their eyes. Dash threw his milk carton and beaned Fenton (Danny?) in the head. Milk splashed down his head.

Something twisted in Kwan’s gut.

Dash let out a roar and ripped off his shirt, tearing it in half. The cafeteria screamed in approval.

Kwan grinned up at Dash. For all his flaws, Kwan loved this guy.

(black, black blood dripping from his mouth and eyes, Dash snarling, reaching for Kwan—)

Kwan jerked back and tore his eyes away. Dash didn’t notice as his best friend looked for the exit. Kwan’s heart pounded. It wasn’t real. Not real. Just a bad dream. Or was this…?

In the background, Valerie (his friend? not his friend? no, no, they’d dropped her because she’d lost everything, right? but no, no that was cruel, too cruel even for Dash and Paulina, that couldn’t be right) was sneaking out the door just as Danny Fenton gasped and rushed in the same direction.

Something wasn’t right.

“Hey dude,” Kwan said, “I gotta run to the bathroom.”

Dash didn’t acknowledge him. He was leading the cafeteria in the Casper High fight song.

Kwan ran after Valerie and Fenton (Danny), bursting through the cafeteria doors just in time to see them turn the corner. “Wait!” he said, sprinting toward their shadows. Rounding the corner, he saw the Red Huntress and Danny Phantom (Valerie and Fenton—Danny, Danny, it’s Danny, Danny wants to be called his name, remember that he has to remember that—it was Valerie and Danny behind the heroes, he knew that, though he wasn’t sure how he knew) fighting a ghost.

It was massive and ugly, all claws and teeth and glowing fur. Kwan couldn’t see any eyes, but he’d learned after years of dealing with ghosts that that didn’t necessarily mean that it couldn’t see. It had six legs and two jaws that opened in concert to let out an earsplitting screech.

Glowing green spittle flew out of its unholy maw and landed on Kwan’s letterman jacket. Gross.

The ghost slammed Danny into a locker with one leg and used another to pin Valerie to the ground. It lowered its face to Valerie’s, ready to take a taste.

“Hey!” Kwan said, throwing the first thing he could grab—his phone—at the ghost. It bounced harmlessly off its head, but startled the ghost enough that Valerie was able to slip out of its hold and Danny was able to knock it down. A flash of light from Danny’s thermos, and the ghost was gone.

“Are you okay?” Kwan said. Valerie’s suit retracted and Danny transformed back into Fenton. Both of them were bruised, Danny cradling his ribs, but they were upright.

“We’re fine,” Valerie said with a glare.

“Hey,” Kwan said, holding up his hands in surrender. “I’m just trying to help.”

“Yeah, right.” Danny snorted and looked away. Kwan could still see milk in his hair.

Kwan frowned. “Look, I know it wasn’t much, but I’m just a guy! I did what I could!”

“Yeah, you did. Probably saved our lives with that phone.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“You only care because we’re heroes!” Valerie got in his face so he could clearly see the bruise lining her cheek. “You wouldn’t care if we were hurt because your bestie decided he wanted a punching bag. Helping the Red Huntress and Danny Phantom isn’t a risk to you. It makes you a hero! You’re so cool for helping to save the day. But you’d never help Valerie and Danny because what if someone saw ?”

“That’s not…”

“Face it, Kwan. You’re a coward. Always will be.”

Then they were gone, and Kwan was alone in the middle of a destroyed hallway.

“Kwan,” Dash said, “we need you to be on your a-game for this. They’ve got a real beast on their D-line, and you’re the only one with a chance of keeping him off me. I don’t wanna spend the whole game with my ass on the grass, so I’m counting on you, okay?”

Kwan blinked. They were huddled on the field, in full pads. Dash was giving the pre-game directions. It was gametime. Wasn’t it lunchtime? Or… was he… what?

“Kwan!”

“Uh, yeah! Yes. I’ve got it. Big guy, coming right at me. Yep.”

Was he going crazy? Something was wrong. Something other than what Valerie and Danny had said to him.

(And it was wrong, it had to be. He wasn’t a coward. He faced scary stuff all the time—a hazard of living in Amity Park. He couldn’t be a coward.)

The nameless d-lineman stared him down, eyes black as pitch behind the grill of his helmet. Kwan took a deep breath as he lined up against him. He could do this. This was easy. He was made for this.

A flash of green in his peripheral vision caught his attention. He turned his head just as Dash hiked the ball, and his mark blew right past him, laying Dash on the ground while Kwan stood, dumbly staring at the green he knew had to signal another ghost attack.

“Kwan!” Dash ignored the hand offered by one of the other offensive linemen. “What the hell, dude?”

Kwan jerked back. “What?” He took in the scene: Dash, with a clump of grass stuck in his helmet and dirt on his jersey. The ball, being moved backward by the referee. His teammates, glaring at him. “Oh. Oh, sorry. Just—I think there’s a ghost over there?” He pointed at the green light.

“So?” Dash said. “There’s always a ghost. Leave it for Huntress or Phantom to deal with. We’ve got a game!”

“Yeah. Yeah!” Danny and Valerie could totally handle it. They were heroes. It’s what they did. And football was what Kwan did. Division of labor and all that stuff.

And the thing is that Kwan was really good at football. He was the best left tackle in the state, easy. His coach said he could be the next Tony Boselli—though, hopefully without the injuries. With his mind on the game, no one got even close to Dash before he’d thrown the ball.

The forest glowed again. Kwan ignored it. There were eight minutes left on the clock for the second quarter.

A piercing scream floated over the field. Kwan turned to see Valerie, in her Red Huntress gear, slam into the ground head-first before being dragged back into the woods like a limp puppet.

“Oh shit.” This was bad. Valerie was hurt, bad. She wasn’t half-ghost like Danny. She was just a person. She needed medical care, and fast.

Could Kwan help?

Should Kwan help?

Kwan shook his head. Head injuries were no joke; he’d heard it from Coach often enough. Valerie needed help, and she needed it now. There was no time to wait for someone else to realize the problem.

He turned to leave the field.

“What the hell are you doing?” Dash said, catching his arm just as he reached the sideline.

“She’s hurt,” Kwan said. “She needs help.”

“We have a fucking game to play.” Dash’s fingers curled in the grill of Kwan’s helmet and jerking him around so their helmets clacked together. This close, Kwan could see the faint line of Dash’s eyelashes, the bright blue of his eyes. He thought about apologizing. He thought about kissing him.

How long had he been in love with his best friend? More importantly, how long had he let his best friend be an asshole because he loved him?

“I’m an idiot,” Kwan said.

“You don’t hear me arguing! Now get back on the damn field.”

“No.” Kwan almost continued, almost listed everything wrong with Dash, all the times he’d put everyone else around him down, all the people he’d hurt, how he’d hurt Kwan, even, but Dash would never, ever hear him. He knew that now. “I’m outta here,” he said instead, ripping off his helmet and sprinting toward where he’d last seen Valerie and Danny.

The world vanished.

Kwan blinked, and he was back in the chamber, staring at Valerie, Danny, and Paulina. “A test of courage…” he said to himself.

It was just like the room they first came into: a little more together, more whole, but otherwise almost identical. Across the room was another massive set of double doors. He turned around and saw the door, the first chamber beyond it. He’d barely stepped inside. It couldn’t have been more than a second or two.

“Yeah,” Valerie said with an eye roll, “that’s what we’ve been say—”

Kwan cut her off by sweeping her up in a hug.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry that I never stuck up for you. I’m sorry that I hurt you. I’m sorry that I was too scared to help you even when I knew it was wrong.”

Valerie froze, stiff in his arms. “What?”

“You were right, this whole time. I was a coward and a jerk and I’m sorry.”

Kwan could feel Danny and Paulina’s eyes on him, but for right now, all his focus was on Valerie.

“What the hell are you—”

“I was a really terrible friend to you. We all were. You were hurting and we all made it worse.”

Valerie pulled back. “You’re serious. This… you mean this.”

“Yeah. I mean it more than anything I’ve ever said to you before.

“You—do you think I’ll forgive you? Just like that?”

Kwan let her go. “No. You always could hold a grudge.” He looked her in the eye. “I still needed to say it.”

Valerie nodded, a rough jerk of her head. “Okay. Just so we’re clear. Not forgiven.” She looked off-balance and confused. It figured, since Kwan had very much just dropped this on her with no warning. Whatever vision he’d received, it seemed like it was limited to him and only him.

“That’s okay. Let me know if it changes?”

Valerie stared at him for a long moment, brow furrowed, before it smoothed and one corner of her lips curled in a smile. “Whatever.”

Kwan grinned. “I’ll get there.”

Paulina coughed. “Uh, not to break up a tender moment, but can we save it for after we get the magic potion?”

“Unfortunately, Paulina’s right,” Danny said. “Not that this isn’t great, but we need to figure out the test of courage. We’re running out of time.”

Kwan was pretty sure he’d already seen it, but he didn’t even know where to begin with explaining. Instead, he said, “Danny! You, too! I was also a jerk to you, when you didn’t deserve it and I knew you didn’t deserve it. I’m so sorry about that. I wanted to be liked but I—”

“Woah woah woah,” Danny said. “I… appreciate it, but we really don’t have the time right now, dude.”

“No. No, see, this is exactly the time. I think this is my test, okay? Well, some of it. Part two, or whatever. Part one was this weird vision thing that I had to go through like some kinda fucked up dream. And I think part two is—well, bringing it into the real world.” Obviously, he couldn’t bring the ghost attack and the football game into this real world, but realizing he was wrong? Taking responsibility?

He could do that.

“How is apologizing to us a test of courage?” Danny said, head tilted in confusion.

“I was scared of… something really fucking dumb, now that I think about it. And I hurt people because of it.” Kwan glanced at Paulina, who was looking anywhere but his face. “I’m not going to let it control me anymore. And I’m sorry that I ever did.”

Silence for a moment, like the room was holding its breath, then the entire chamber began to shake. The doors at the end of the room swung open and revealed another pitch black unknown beyond them.

“Wait. That was it?” Paulina said. “You’re telling me the Ghost King couldn’t get through these trials, but Kwan did it by saying I’m sorry?”

“Woo!” Kwan said, pumping his fists in the air. Take that, Mr. Lancer’s final exam. Who was going to achieve nothing in life now? Not Kwan, he passed the Trial of Courage. Official and capitalized. Helping to save the world and all that shit.

“Well, let’s not look this particular gift horse in the mouth. Are we all ready for the next chamber?” Danny said.

Paulina coughed. “Hang on, does anyone have a breath mint? My mouth still tastes nasty.”

“Oh, yeah.” Kwan fished in his pocket and held out a stick of gum.

“Thanks.”

“Ooh, can I have some?” Danny said.

“Sure, dude!” He grabbed three more sticks of gum, handed on to Danny, who grinned, stuck one in his mouth, and held out the last one for Valerie. “Val? You want in on this?”

Valerie stared at the gum like she thought it might bite her. “Yeah,” she said after a moment. She took the gum with her thumb and forefinger, delicately. “Yeah, okay. Thank you.” She cleared her throat. “Let’s get a move on.”

As they headed for the inky blackness at the far end of the room, Kwan felt something grab his arm. He whirled around to see Danny, hand curled around Kwan’s elbow.

“Thank you,” Danny said, “for, y’know.”

“The gum?”

“No. Well, yes, but that’s not—I meant for apologizing.”

“Oh. Oh! Yeah. Honestly, should have done it forever ago. Just kept coming up with excuses, y’know?” Kwan laughed. “An apology was really the bare minimum.”

Danny let go of his arm and started walking again. “You’d be surprised. I can’t remember the last time anyone apologized for hurting me.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep.”

“Dude, that’s messed—”

They crossed the threshold.

Paulina was much more confident going into the next chamber. These trials were easy! If all Kwan had to do was apologize, then compassion was probably something like saving a kitten and truth was something like—well, she was less sure about that one. Maybe just telling a secret? Or something?

Except—something was different. Last time, they’d walked in and immediately the chamber had brightened. Kwan apparently had some weird vision as part of his trial, of course, but none of that happened.

Instead, it was still pitch black, and she could no longer feel Valerie’s arm where she’d latched on, or Kwan’s hand. “Guys?” she said, and her voice was swallowed by the void. “Hello?”

“—see her haircut?—”

“—the look on his—”

“—honestly thought I liked her!”

Paulina’s voice, first a whisper, then louder and louder until she couldn’t hear her own thoughts. Her laughter, shrill and piercing, reverberated through the space. She pressed her hands over her ears, but it did nothing to block out the noise. Her head started to pound and hot tears leaked out of her eyes.

“Stop it! Stop it, stop it, stop it!” She was sure she yelled the words, but she still couldn’t hear over her own laughter.

“Why? Why should I stop?”

“It hurts. It hurts!”

“Aw, but that’s never stopped you before!”

It was so loud. A sudden, sharp pain in her ear and she could feel warm liquid on the hand covering it.

“Please! Please! I’ll do anything!”

Suddenly, silence. Paulina fell to the floor with relief. She pulled her hands away from her head; the right one was wet and smelled of metal. Liquid dripped from her ear—had it started to bleed?

“Anything?”

“Yes! Yes, please!”

“Entertain me!”

“I—what?”

In front of her, stark against the black of the room, Valerie appeared, then Danny, then Mikey, then Sam Manson, then Tucker Foley, more and more and more of her classmates, standing and blinking in confusion at her.

But she was with Valerie and—or was she? But Manson was definitely not—this couldn’t be real. Was this real? She stared at her hand. Was she real?

“Paulina?” Valerie said. She sounded like she was underwater. The black of the room turned into a hallway. Casper High. It was—Friday. There was a football game she had to cheer for. She needed total focus for that. If only the stupid voice would leave her alone.

“I said entertain me!”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Valerie stared at her. “It’s your name, girl. Are you okay?”

“Make jokes! Like you always do. I gave you your material and everything!”

Material? Paulina looked at the crowd, and realized that all of them were… well, losers. The voice just wanted her to make fun of them?

Nothing she hadn’t done before.

“I’m better than you, apparently,” Paulina said, ignoring the pit in her stomach. “What were you thinking with that outfit?” It was a dumb, dumb comment. Low effort. It was just—in that moment, Paulina couldn’t think of anything to mock. Nothing about Valerie seemed worth jeering at.

Valerie looked down at her—admittedly, fine—shirt and frowned. “Jesus. What is your prob—your ear’s bleeding!”

Sure enough, pus and blood painted the palm of Paulina’s hand, and she could still feel something rolling down her neck.

(“Still”? When did this happen?)

“We need to get you to the nurse’s office,” Manson said, crouching down beside her. Why was Paulina on the floor?

“Oh,” she said. Manson offered her a hand up, and she took it. “Thank you. Sorry, Valerie. Your shirt’s fine.”

A piercing screech, metal on metal, filled the air. Paulina doubled over, hands back over her ears.

“That wasn’t funny, Polly!”

She could feel hands on her arms, but her eyes were squeezed shut and she could hear nothing but the voice and its (her) hideous laughter.

“You just want me to be mean!”

“Duh! Mean is funny, right?”

Paulina opened her eyes just enough to see Valerie, Manson, Foley, and Danny in front of her, concern in the lines of their faces. Danny’s mouth was moving.

“Look! It’s the little tech weirdo. He names all his phones. Like, unironically.” Foley stood up and directed other students away. Danny moved past her to do the same on the other side of the hallway. “Or the ghost kid. His parents were already freaks, and now he’s an extra special kind of freak. Easy money.”

“Please. Please just stop.”

“Entertain me, and I will. Tit-for-tat, babe.”

Paulina felt a sob jump out of her throat. Why wasn’t she just doing it? It hurt so bad. She’d do anything for it to stop.

So why wasn’t she doing this?

“I don’t want to!” she wailed. What she must sound like. What she must look like. Surrounded by people who had every reason to hate her, bleeding and crying and talking to nothing. “Pick something else!”

“But you do it all the time.”

“I change my mind, then!”

Was it that simple? All along? Could she just—change her mind? Be a better person?

“No you don’t.”

“I don’t want to hurt people anymore!”

The noise, somehow, got louder. Paulina vomited. Something wet trickled from her other ear. She wanted this to end. But she didn’t want to hurt people to do it. Why did she only get two options?

“So you’ll get hurt instead?”

“No!” She curled in on herself, falling back to her knees and closing her eyes again. “You’re choosing to hurt me. You could choose not to!”

“And, what? That’ll make it better? You’ll forgive me and we’ll be best friends?”

If Paulina could think clearly, if she could do anything beyond speak the first thing that sprung to her lips, she might have lied. She might have said “Of course I’ll forgive you” so the stupid voice might listen to her. This, however, was not a choice she had the brainpower to make right now.

Instead, she said: “Of course not! You’re a fucking asshole.”

“Then why should I?”

“Because I’m a person and it hurts!”

“You’re a little late to that realization, querida. Wasn’t Valerie a person when you ditched her? Do you think you can be Valerie’s friend again after this? That you can prove yourself to her or something?”

“I can’t fix it! But I can stop making it worse!”

The noise stopped. Blessed silence returned.

Paulina looked up through tear-blurred eyes and saw Valerie, Danny, and Kwan crouched over her. She couldn’t hear past the ringing in her ears

“I’m sorry,” she said. Her throat ached. She must have been yelling, before. “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

The exhaustion hit her all at once. Her ears pulsed with pain as she continued to babble apologies. The ground shook beneath her and Kwan caught her before she could topple over. A hand rubbed at her back, soothing circles, and she curled into Kwan’s chest.

“Think ‘m gon’ sleep, now, mkay?” she said, and then she was out.

“Holy shit,” Danny said, collapsing next to Paulina and Kwan and brushing the hair out of her face. “Is she—is she okay?”

Kwan held his fingers over her wrists. “I think so. Her ears are bleeding, though.”

“What happened?” Valerie said. “Your trial wasn’t anything like this!”

“I don’t know! It’s not like I’m an expert.”

“Stop yelling,” Paulina said, shifting against Kwan’s chest. “I can’t really hear you anyway.”

“Polly!” Kwan said, naked relief on his face. “Are you okay?”

Paulina pointed to her ears. “I can’t hear you, querido. My ears—it was really loud. In the trial.”

Dried blood still stained her neck. Danny had a feeling that “really loud” was an understatement.

In halting sentences, Paulina explained her trial. The voice, the laughter, the deal for making the pain stop. Danny was impressed; he wasn’t sure he would have withstood it, in her position. He could understand, now, how Pariah wouldn’t have made it through the trials.

They asked questions throughout, which Paulina couldn’t hear. It got a little better when they spoke slower and enunciated, but it would be a struggle until her ears healed, Danny feared.

“Let’s go over what we know,” Danny said, counting off on his fingers. “One, in both of the trials, only one person was picked to do the trial. Two, neither of you remembered it was a trial while it was happening, right?”

Kwan and Paulina both shook their heads, though Paulina winced as she did it. “It felt real,” Kwan said. “Like—I knew something was wrong, but whenever I tried to focus on that wrongness, it vanished.”

“I knew it was a trial at first,” Paulina said, throat scratchy, “but when it got too loud, I couldn’t really think straight. Then I was in school, and I completely forgot about the trial thing, even though the noise was still there. I forgot it wasn’t supposed to be there.”

Danny wanted to apologize to Paulina, for getting her involved in this, but he had a feeling she wouldn’t exactly appreciate it. She looked rough. Dried tear-streaks on her face that she hadn’t wiped off yet, hair a mess like she tried to rip it out, blood trails from her ears. They were pretty sure she’d burst both eardrums during her trial.

(It was a little over-the-top, Danny thought, to torture someone in a trial of compassion. Paulina had her flaws, sure, but that didn’t mean she needed to be hurt to learn a lesson. Kwan’s trial had really lulled them all into a false sense of security.)

(He could see, now, why Pariah Dark could never make it through.)

“Three, the trials seem to pick people on purpose.” His eyes slid over to Kwan and Paulina. “I think it picks based on those who… struggle the most with the thing the trial is all about.”

“Huh?” Paulina said. Right. She could only kind of hear right now.

“He said the trials picked us because I’m a coward and you’re mean.”

Danny winced. “That’s not—”

“Oh. Well, duh.”

“So, if truth’s next, it’ll be you, right?” Valerie said, looking Danny up and down.

“Hey!”

“You’re the one with the big secrets here.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, did you forget that you have a secret identity, too?” Danny felt like Valerie was probably right, all things considered. His secret was, ultimately, way bigger than hers.

Still, she was getting on his nerves. He’d known she had a grudge against ghosts, especially him, but this was getting ridiculous. For fuck’s sake, she’d worked better with him on Skulker’s island, when she thought he was a full ghost.

“No, but my dad knows all about it. And so did you, apparently, though you lied about that, too.”

“Oh, wow, two whole people. Except that I told your dad, not you. And you never told me anything! I happened to find out on my own.”

“Uh, guys?” Kwan said.

Valerie rolled her eyes. “Okay, yeah. But we broke up because I didn’t want to endanger you. And now it turns out you can take care of yourself just fine!”

“Oh, so if you knew I was half dead, we’d still be together? That’s my fault now?”

“Of course we wouldn’t. But I lied to you to protect you. You lied to me to protect yourself!”

“Yeah! I did! Now think for, like, two seconds about what I needed protection from!”

“Guys!” Kwan said. “Could you stop?”

“You know what? Maybe you’re right. Maybe it will be me. But not because I lie more than you. Maybe these tests are meant for humans only.”

Danny felt his eyes flash green. “So that’s what this is about? You hate me because I’m a freak?”

“I hate you because—”

“Okay!” Kwan said, jumping between them. “I think this conversation needs to stop immediately, before you both say… even more things you will regret. Valerie, dude, I know we’re just now trying to maybe be friends again, but as your maybe-future friend: you’ve gotta lay off.”

Danny stared and blinked at Kwan a couple times. Was Kwan… defending him?

“You’re taking his side?”

“Yeah, I am. I think you both need to cool down, but you’re wrong about this. And I think you know it, too.”

Valerie huffed. “I’m not wrong.”

Danny was so, so tired. “Okay.” He turned away and walked over to Paulina, who was still on the ground, and offered her a hand.

She stared up at him before grabbing on and pulling herself up. “She is wrong. She’s just… stubborn.”

Danny sighed. “You heard all that?”

“Bits and pieces. I got the gist. Hey, do you think the Panacea will fix my ears?” Danny opened his mouth to reply, but Paulina kept talking. “Never mind. What I mean is: sorry you had to hear that. I know you care about her, you know? It must really suck to hear this stuff from her in particular.”

“Yeah, I knew she wouldn’t take it well, but I didn’t think she’d take it this badly. I mean, she was okay with Danielle!”

“I’ll be real with you, I only caught like half of that, but, uh, who’s Danielle?”

Oh, duh. Danny smacked himself in the face. “Right, sorry. Danielle’s my half-ghost cousin. Well, we call each other cousins, but technically she’s my clone. She’s her own person, and all that but—yeah. Anyway, the guy who cloned her is also a giant asshole and he was planning to melt her down to study her remains, but Valerie helped me save her.” This time, he spoke a bit louder, and made sure to enunciate so Paulina could try to read his lips too.

“Dude. You have a clone?”

“Yeah.”

“Someone cloned you?”

“Yeah.”

“What the fuck?”

Danny laughed. “Yeah, that’s about right. He’s a real fruitloop, that Vlad.”

“Hang on—not Vlad Masters?”

Danny laughed harder. “Yep!”

“What the fuck, babe!”

“You’re telling me.”

“Why?”

Danny started to answer, then thought better of it. It was, after all, a long story, and he had a feeling that, although she was great at faking it, Paulina was still only catching parts of what he said. “I’ll tell you when your ears are better,” he said, tugging on his own then pointing at hers to make his point clearer.

Paulina rolled her eyes. “Fine. But I’m holding you to that! This is some juicy, juicy gossip”—Danny flashed her a panicked look—“that I will take to my grave and never speak of again.”

Paulina kept talking as they rejoined Kwan and Valerie. Mostly jokes about how he should change his ghostly outfit (“Seriously, querido, you’d look great in a crop-top!”) or about him out-gothing Sam (“You went and died! Manson will never be that hardcore.”).

Maybe he and Paulina could be friends after this.

Valerie was sure she was right.

She was sure she was right as she and Kwan waited in stony silence for Paulina and—for the others to join them. She was sure she was right as they walked in a group, the other three linking arms while she refused Kwan’s hand. She was sure she was right as they crossed into the black.

She was less sure when the room stayed dark.

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me,” she said. She worried at her lip for a moment, then yelled, “I’m the Red Huntress! Is that the truth this thing wants?”

“Uh, yeah,” Danny said. “I already know that, Val.”

Valerie grinned, just a little. It wasn’t like anyone could see her, and the fact that he was here, too? Vindicating. “Well, look at that. It’s both of us!”

“Yeah? It’s both of us. Together. In some strange room. In the dark.”

“Okay, well I said my big truth. You say yours.”

“What? Why?”

“We need to get through this trial, dumbass!”

“Trial?”

“Yeah, the truth trial. Obviously we’re both in it—wait. You don’t know it’s a trial! Ha, then this is totally your trial and I just got pulled in for… reasons. I knew it!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Why is it so dark? Where are we?”

Valerie waved him off, though he couldn’t see it. “Oh, that’s not important. What is important is that you need to tell the truth. Probably to me, which is why I’m here.” Yeah, that made sense. He needed to tell the truth about how he’d hurt her, how he’d hurt everyone, how he’d played hero to earn his fawning fans. He needed to stop pretending to be something he wasn’t. And she was here because she deserved to hear it directly from him.

“What truth? Again, Val, what are you talking about?”

“Stop calling me Val. We’re not friends.”

“What do you—”

“Did the trial make you forget? I know you’re a ghost.”

“Oh.”

“I destroy ghosts.”

“But… But I’m also a human.”

“You’re a liar, is what you are.”

“For good reason.”

“No, I’m a liar for good reason. You’re just a coward!”

There was a long moment of silence where Valerie could only hear her own heaving breaths. Then, softly: “Wouldn’t you be?”

“No!”

“Really? You wouldn’t be the slightest bit afraid that people would try to kill you?”

“No one would kill you.”

“You said you know I’m a ghost and then immediately threatened to destroy me.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“Oh? How was I supposed to take ‘I destroy ghosts’ then? A joke?”

“Stop trying to turn this around on me. You’re the one who needs to tell the truth!”

“What truth? You already know the secret!”

“I’m talking about the rest of it! How you lie and manipulate people, how you fake being a hero, how you ruined my life!”

“Is that what you think?”

“Yes.”

“Is that really what you think?”

“I don’t think. I know.”

“Gah! It’s impossible to talk to you about this shit.” There was a rustling sound, like he was walking away.

“Hang on! You can’t walk away; you still need to complete your trial!” She ran to where she heard him moving, tripped, and then she was falling, falling, falling…

…and landing with a thud in the same black void.

“She’s a ghost! And I destroy ghosts.”

“But she’s also a human!”

Was that… her? Back when they had been talking about Danielle. Danielle, who was human and ghost and just a little girl. Valerie and—they had saved her from Vlad, who was also human and ghost.

“Was this a trick, too? Was Danielle a liar, too?” she yelled. No answer. “Where the hell did you go? We aren’t done here!”

“Valerie?”

Valerie twitched. That voice—

There, bright and glowing against the blackness of the room, was Danielle.

“Valerie!” Danielle said with a grin, flying forward and giving her a hug. Valerie returned it with stiff arms.

“Hey, you… Uh, I’m looking for your… cousin. Do you know where he is?”

“Danny? No, I haven’t seen him in ages. I’m kinda off exploring the world, y’know? Anyway, how’ve you been?”

“I’m—good. Look, I really need to find him.”

Danielle floated up and shrugged. “Well, he’s not here, but I can help you look.”

Valerie nodded. “Thanks, kid. And, uh, would you mind changing back to human?”

“Huh?” Danielle landed on whatever passed for the ground in this featureless void. “Why?”

“It’s just—uncomfortable, is all.”

Something strange passed across Danielle’s face.

“Oh. Well, I mean, I’ll be a lot faster if I can fly.”

Valerie clenched her fists. “Fine,” she said through gritted teeth.

Danielle’s answering smile was tense as she lifted herself through the air. “I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

“Wait, if you leave how will”—Danielle zoomed away with an impressive burst of speed—“we find each other. Great.” Valerie groaned and slumped to the ground. “They just keep running away, huh?”

“Yeah,” Star said, “I wonder why that is.”

Star and Valerie were on a hill, watching the stars. Star was really good at finding constellations, seeing connections where Valerie saw points, seeing a picture where Valerie saw light pollution, so stargazing was always fun with her. She’d always loved space because of her name, she said. She wanted to know all about what she was named after.

The moon was full and bright. Valerie could see Star clearly, half-swallowed by the long grass. It was a cool, pleasant night. Peaceful, in all the ways Valerie was not.

(She was looking for someone. To do… something.)

“It’s ‘cause they know I’m right,” Valerie said.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure.”

“Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe you need to be less sure.”

“What are you—”

And Valerie was falling again.

Detention with Lancer. Never fun, not even when he kicked his feet up and fell asleep. She and Phantom had both gotten it for skipping class to fight ghosts. The ghost himself was sitting in the back of the class, balancing his pencil on his nose and staring out the window.

After a long moment of silence, Phantom said, “You don’t have any questions for me?”

“Already know all the answers.”

“Oh yeah? Then why’d I fight Pariah Dark?”

“For attention.”

“I thought I would die.” Phantom’s tone was light, conversational. This isn’t a big deal to him, just a fact. “Like, all the way. I thought that suit was gonna kill me if Pariah didn’t kill me first.”

“You’re lying.”

The pencil fell to the desk with a clatter. “Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Whenever I say anything you can’t argue against, you just claim I’m lying.”

“It’s because you’re a liar,” Valerie said without thinking.

“See! There you go again. Not addressing my actual point, just deflecting.”

Valerie opened her mouth to refute again, then paused. Calling the ghost a liar had become reflex. She didn’t have to think about anything he said if it was all a lie, after all. Then again… “But you did lie to me.”

“Yeah. I’ve been lying to everyone for years now.”

“So why should I trust you?”

Phantom shrugged. “Have I ever hurt anyone?”

“That doesn’t mean you won’t start.”

“You could say the same thing about literally anyone, though.”

“You ruined my life!”

“You told me you liked being a ghost hunter. That you like your life as it is right now. Was that a lie?”

Valerie grit her teeth. “No.”

“Then why are you so upset with me?”

“Because you lied!” Valerie yanked her hair in frustration. “Isn’t that obvious?”

“Not because I’m a ghost?”

“No!”

Valerie gasped even as the word came out of her mouth. Lancer grumbled in his sleep at the front of the classroom and shifted to the side. Phantom grinned at her, showing off the fangs in his mouth.

“Wait, no, that’s not… I’m also mad because of the ghost thing! Ghosts are evil.”

“Am I evil?”

Yes, she wanted to say, but her lips wouldn’t form the word.

“Is Danielle evil?”

Danielle, screaming, dissolving into goo, and Valerie put her there—

“No.”

“Are you angry? Or are you using anger to cover the hurt?”

“I—I’m not—”

And Valerie was falling again.

“One of these days, ghost,” Jack Fenton said, shaking his fist, “I’m going to catch you and rip you apart molecule by molecule!”

“She’s a ghost!” Valerie said. “And I destroy ghosts!”

“Ghosts are nothing but the imprint of a human consciousness manifesting in ectoplasm after death,” Maddie Fenton said, shocking the ghost on her table as it screamed. “They don’t actually feel anything.”

And then—

Frostbite slammed the door closed, even though he got infected. Even though he was a full ghost and shouldn’t have cared about them at all.

And Danielle flew away, young and eager to explore the world. A child, who’d never really been free before.

And Danny—

Danny laughing with her. Danny hiding with her from Dash and Nathan. Danny forgiving her for being mean in school. Danny begging her to help him save Danielle (a child, who’d done nothing wrong and Valerie had given her away to a man who would destroy her). Danny, just as invested in protecting that stupid flour sack for their grade. Danny, revealing her to her dad, smug little grin on his face. Danny, who could’ve died that day and no one would have ever known what he’d done for them.

Something ached in her heart.

“No,” she said, choking on a sob, as the scenery around her changed again. “No, I can’t be this wrong.”

She was in a lab, now. Jack and Maddie Fenton stood to her left. To her right stood two GiW agents. On the table in front of her, strapped down, was Phantom.

Was Danny.

“Ms. Gray,” one of the agents said, “we were so pleased when you brought us your capture. Such a unique specimen will fuel our research for decades.”

Valerie swallowed. Danny stared at her, uncanny green eyes boring into her own. He didn’t say anything.

“Decades?” she said.

“Of course! We’ll take it slow; we wouldn’t want to destroy it before we’ve learned everything we can. Not like some people.” He looked over at Jack and Maddie, who rubbed their heads sheepishly.

Decades. Decades as a test subject. If Danny was just a ghost, it shouldn’t matter. He couldn’t feel anything.

Right?

Valerie couldn’t look away from his face. He looked scared.

“No,” she said. Her fingers clenched into fists

“Hm?” the other agent said.

“No, I won’t let you do this. It… This isn’t right!” With every word she spoke, she became more sure.

Danny was afraid. It wasn’t a lie or an act. He was really, truly afraid.

“Valerie?” Maddie said. “Dear, you know it’s not a person, right? It can’t actually feel.”

“You’re wrong!” She stepped forward, pulled out her gun, and blasted away the restraints holding Danny down. “I’ve been wrong, too. This whole time.”

“It’s out!” one agent said, pulling his ectogun and firing. “Recapture maneuvers, now!”

“What did you do?” Jack grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. Danny flew around the room, avoiding the ectoblasts from the agents and Maddie. “What did you do?”

“The right thing,” she whispered. And she knew that, this time, she was correct, and it hit like a bullet to the chest.

Then she was soaring, ripped out of Jack’s grasp, flying through walls and agents until she was outside the building, in Danny’s arms, free.

He set her down on a rooftop across the city. “Thank you,” he said. “I couldn’t—”

Heaving sobs burst out of her. “I’m sorry! God, fuck, I’m so sorry.”

“I—Huh?”

Fat tears rolled down her cheeks. “I just didn’t want to admit it. For so long, Danny.”

“Are you okay?”

Valerie laughed. “No. I’ve been convincing myself that I was right and ghosts were all evil all the time because if they weren’t… if they weren’t, then what was I even doing?”

Danny’s face, inexplicably, softened. “Val—”

“And then I found out your secret, and all I could think was that you lied. That you didn’t trust me. And I knew why! But if I acknowledged it, then I had to acknowledge everything. All the—all the ways I hurt you. What if I hurt other ghosts that did—didn’t deserve it either?” Valerie hiccuped. “I—oh, God, I’m a monster.”

“You’re not a monster. You’re human. This is the kind of mistake that humans make. Me included.”

“I would have let Vlad destroy Danielle if you didn’t talk me out of it. I would have been fine with it!”

“But you didn’t. Don’t torture yourself over things you didn’t do. It doesn’t help anything.”

Valerie’s throat was sore, aching with each new sob, but she couldn’t stop. “I’m sorry. I made you a liar in my head so I could keep lying to myself. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Danny’s arms circled around her, and she let her head hit his shoulder.

“Okay,” he said. “Okay.”

Kwan didn’t expect Valerie to come back crying.

He’d kind of figured she’d get the trial. She’d been so sure it would be Danny that Kwan thought it had to be her. Like, cosmically or whatever. And after Paulina’s… whatever that was, he knew it would more than likely be intense. But ever since her dad had lost his job, Valerie had lost her softness, too. She didn’t cry when she was upset anymore. Instead, she got angry. She got even.

But when the light flashed on, Valerie was huddled on the floor, hugging herself, sobs heaving from her chest. Her face was dark and splotchy, dark stains of mascara trailing down her cheeks. Time was Kwan would have run to her, put his arms around her, rocked her back and forth. But this wasn’t that Valerie, and he wasn’t that Kwan.

He walked slowly, and knelt beside her.

“Valerie?”

“Oh God,” she said, choking through her sobs. “I—I really messed up.”

Kwan couldn’t help but turn his head and stare at Danny, holding Paulina up across the room. If she meant what he thought she meant… well, he couldn’t exactly argue.

“Yeah,” he said. She looked at him, tears still dripping from her eyes. “What are you gonna do about it?”

Valerie lifted a shaking hand and wiped at her eyes and cheeks and chin. “Ugh, nasty.” She looked tired more than anything. “Yeah. Yeah, I gotta do something, right?”

“You should probably start with walking. I don’t think he’s gonna come to you.”

Kwan stood with her, holding her elbow as her knees started to tremble. He glanced over her real quick, looking for any injuries like Paulina’s, but whatever had messed her up seemed to be more mental than anything.

That didn’t stop her from almost collapsing when she took her first step, grabbing on to Kwan’s hand at the last moment.

“Val!” Danny said, making an aborted gesture like he wanted to come over to help.

“I’m okay,” she said. “Just give me a sec.”

Kwan didn’t quite buy it, but she was determined. He kept his arm out, just in case she fell, but with each step she became steadier, almost normal by the time she reached Danny and Paulina.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I was wrong about you. About everything. And I knew it, see, but I didn’t want to face it. So I just kept lying to myself. And I hurt you because of it. And I’m sorry.”

Danny froze, staring at Valerie in disbelief. “Oh,” he said.

Kwan looked over at the door at the far end of the chamber. He awaited the tell-tale rumble, the sign that they’d finished the last trial and the door was opening, but nothing came. Confused, he stared at Valerie, who shook her head.

“I don’t think I’m done just yet,” she said, sitting down in front of Danny. “I’ve done a lot of talking since this started. Said a lot of things… things that I regret. I haven’t listened, much. I think I need to listen, now.”

“Listen to what?” Danny said. “Like, what am I supposed to say?”

“Anything you wanted to tell me.” Tears spilled over her eyes again and her voice broke. “I’ll believe you. I swear.”

Danny laughed, just a little. “Even if I said the sky was green?”

Valerie pointed at one of the holes in the ceiling that revealed the swirling Ghost Zone outside. “Isn’t it?” she said.

Kwan couldn’t help but laugh at that, too, just as Danny and Valerie fell into giggles. Paulina mostly looked confused, but Kwan didn’t really have a good way to explain it to her right now. He waved her off.

“Well, I guess—Vlad’s a half-ghost, too. I thought you should know that.”

“Oh, uh, I already did. Know that, I mean”

“You did?”

Kwan held up his hands before they could get any deeper into that discussion. “Wait, wait—the mayor?”

“Yeah. He wants to kill my dad, marry my mom, and make me his evil half-ghost apprentice. So. It’s uncomfortable at best but sometimes I egg his house.”

“You egg his house?”

“After he cloned me, I figured all bets were off.”

“He cloned you?”

“Jesus, is that where Danielle came from?”

“Who’s Danielle?”

“My cousin. Well, technically, yes, she’s my clone, but that’s weird so we just call each other cousins.”

“Yeah,” Kwan said, feeling faint, “that makes the situation much less weird.”

Danny shrugged. “It’s just my life, dude. You get used to it.”

“Hang on,” Valerie said. “I don’t think we can gloss over the fact that Vlad Masters wants to murder your father, marry your mother, forcibly adopt you, and clone you, and the proportional response is egging his house?”

Danny rolled his eyes. “It’s not proportional but I’m not rich enough to do much more than be petty. If I reveal his identity to anyone then he’ll reveal me, too. Mutually Assured Destruction, and all that. Only so much I can do outside of that.”

“Okay. Okay. Shit. This is crazy. I hate this.”

“Tell me about it. How did you know Vlad was a ghost, anyway?”

“Oh, uh, I flew back to check on him after Danielle. And he was. Monologuing.”

Danny laughed again. “Of course he was. He’s such a little loser. You know his cat?”

“Yeah, Maddie—oh shit, that’s your mother’s name.”

(What the fuck, Kwan thought. What the fuck the mayor was so creepy.)

“Yeah, heh, well, the cat was my idea.”

“What?”

“Yeah. I told him he was so lonely and pathetic that he should stop trying to get my mom to love him since she never would and instead fill that hole with a cat. I still can’t believe he listened to me.”

They broke down into laughter again. Kwan thought it sounded a little hysterical, but he figured they deserved to go a little crazy.

After they calmed down a bit, Valerie wiped at her eyes. “What else?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, is there anything else you want to say to me? Stuff to tell me?”

(Kwan actually wanted to spend a little more time on the whole the mayor is an evil ghost thing, but this wasn’t his show.)

And Danny talked.

He talked about walking into his parents’ portal, thinking it was broken. About turning it on while he was still inside. About how much he sucked with his powers to start. About Ember McClain (she’s a ghost?) and Spectra (she’s a ghost?) and the Lunch Lady. About how scared he was, fighting Pariah Dark. About how much fun it was to fly. How funny it was to mess with Vlad.

Sometime, in the middle of all this, the door opened. Kwan and Paulina both felt the rumble, both looked at the door, but Valerie and Danny were too engrossed in their conversation to notice. Paulina opened her mouth to say something, but Kwan shook his head. The fate of the world didn’t rest on them moving immediately. Thirty more seconds wouldn’t matter.

After another minute, Paulina raised her eyebrows at him, jerking her head at the door. Kwan bit back an instinctive retort. She wouldn’t hear it anyway, and she wasn’t wrong. They couldn’t wait forever.

“Uh, guys?” he said, when there was a slight lull. “Not to interrupt, but the door’s open.”

Valerie and Danny’s head whipped around. “Oh,” Valerie said. “Right.”

Kwan winced. They’d been having a good time! Getting along! He’d been hoping for that since the beginning of this mess and now that they were there, he had to break the tender moment up. Unfair.

Necessary, but unfair.

“We’re done, right?” Danny said. “I mean, this last one should be the Panacea?”

“Should be,” Valerie said. “Unless we fucked up somehow. Or that legend was wrong.”

Kwan peered beyond the opening, but just like every other time, it was pitch black. They’d only find out for sure by walking in.

“Hang on a sec,” Danny said, eyes squeezed in concentration. Before Kwan could ask what he was doing, a bright white light engulfed the room.

When Kwan could see again, there was Danny Phantom, standing in place of Danny Fenton.

“Woo! Finally!” Danny said, floating up and doing a couple flips.

“Wait,” Kwan said, “could you… not do that before?”

Danny laughed. “Of course not, dude, or I’d’ve been in ghost mode the whole time. Ghost Zone is dangerous and all. That gun really knocked the wind out of me; I only just got the connection to my ghost half back.”

Kwan had been kind of avoiding thinking about Danny’s ghost half because he wasn’t really sure what to think. He didn’t have a problem with it, not like Valerie did, but it still felt… weird. How could someone be half-dead? Wasn’t it, like, painful?

Watching now, the grin on Danny’s face as he unleashed a bright explosion of ectoplasm like a firework over their heads, he knew there was nothing to worry about. Danny was half-ghost. Danny was happy about it.

It was good enough for him, Kwan decided.

He glanced over at Valerie. A smile played around her lips. Paulina was cheering beside her, elbow resting on Valerie’s shoulder. In a moment, they’d all link arms and walk through the last door, a truly united front.

Kwan cheered with Paulina as Danny landed. Valerie’s almost-smile became a grin. Danny bowed, a huge sweeping motion.

He could get used to friends like this.

“If we walk through this door and there’s another trial,” Danny said, looping his hands through Kwan and Valerie’s elbows, “I’m gonna be so pissed.”

Kwan and Valerie laughed, but Paulina groaned. “I can’t wait to find this stupid Panacea so I can stop missing all the good stuff! Stop being funny while I can’t hear!”

Danny couldn’t help laughing again as they stepped over the final threshold.

Immediately, the room lit up. Danny raked his eyes over the other, making sure none of them were shaken up or hurt like they’d been before, but they all looked the same.

“No trials?” he said, just to be sure.

“No,” Valerie said. Kwan shook his head.

Paulina rolled her eyes. “I still can’t hear you.”

Danny gave her a thumbs up, then pointed at her, and shrugged.

She giggled. “Okay, yeah, I’m good. No trials or anything, if that’s what you’re asking.”

With that settled, Danny examined the room for the Panacea. At the far end, raised on a pedestal on a dais, was a white, crystalline bottle, glowing just slightly.

The Panacea.

Kwan whooped and raced toward it. “Wait!” Danny said, afraid of another trap.

Kwan made it to the dais, but stopped at Danny’s shout. “Sorry! I got excited.”

“Yeah, I get it, but we need to be careful.” Danny floated up next to Kwan, Valerie and Paulina right behind him. “Maybe… Maybe you should all step back.”

“What?”

“Danny, no!”

“What’d you say?”

“Listen! I’m faster than any of you. If something gets triggered I’m more likely to be able to get away.”

“But—” Valerie started to say.

“Am I wrong?”

“No—”

“Look, I appreciate it. Really, I do, but I think it’s best if I get the thing. Just in case.”

Danny couldn’t exactly explain why, but he was absolutely certain that he needed to be the one to grab the bottle. Everything he said was true enough, but there was something else niggling in the back of his mind that said he was the only one who could do it. He couldn’t let anyone else touch it.

“What’s going on?” Paulina said to Kwan in what she probably intended to be a whisper but was loud enough for everyone to hear. Kwan pointed to Danny, then to the rest of them, then pointed to the other side of the chamber.

“Yeah, that doesn’t really help,” she said, “but thanks, querido.”

“Are you sure?” Valerie said, steady gaze meeting his own.

Danny swallowed. “I’m sure.” He wasn’t sure why he was so sure, but he was.

She bit her lip, then nodded and stepped back, pulling Kwan and Paulina with her. That trial really had changed things; just ten minutes ago, Valerie would never have listened to him like this.

Once they were far enough away, Danny took a deep breath and grabbed the Panacea.

It came off easily, but before they could take a moment to celebrate, a bright green box formed around him.

Of course it did.

Danny reached out to touch the green wall, and a painful zap had him yanking his hand back. So no walking through. Ugh.

“Oh, come on!” Paulina said, tearing at her hair in frustration. “We passed your stupid trials! Just let us save the world!”

“Don’t worry, dude!” Kwan said. “We’ll get you out of there.”

It hit Danny all at once, a certainty that he knew exactly what needed to be done.

Valerie had already run up to the trap, Kwan and Paulina close behind, and was examining it. Probably looking for a way to get rid of it.

She couldn’t, though. Not like that.

“Val! Take the Panacea!”

Valerie, sharp as ever, narrowed her eyes at him. She’d already caught on. “We aren’t going to leave you here, Danny.”

“You have to.”

“No way!”

“What’s happening now?”

Kwan pulled out his phone, typing something before showing it to Paulina. She gasped. “Are you stupid? We’ll figure something else out. Don’t go playing martyr on us now.”

“No, listen! You have to. This is my trial, okay?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Every trial picks something that we suck at, right? Well, this one picked me.”

Kwan frowned. “I don’t—”

“It’s trust. I—look, I’ll be honest, you three are not high on my list of people to trust with my secret. Or, at least, you weren’t.”

Valerie opened her mouth, then winced. “Okay, yeah, that’s… fair.”

“But how can this be a trial? No one else’s trial took place in the real world!” Kwan stopped himself, furiously typing on his phone to show to Paulina. “This is the real world, right?”

“It’s real,” Danny said. He knew it like he knew he needed to grab the Panacea, like he knew exactly what needed to happen next. “This trap won’t go away until we put the Panacea back. But when we put it back, it’s gone forever. We’ll never find it again.”

“So, if we get you out…”

“We lose the Panacea.”

“No, no, no! We’ll figure something else out. There has to be another way.”

“Guys, guys, chill. You just have to bring it back when you’re done, okay?” Danny held out the Panacea through the force field. It passed through just fine. “I’m not offering to stay here forever. Just until you get back.”

None of them moved to grab the bottle. “But… but how are we supposed to fight the ghost without you?”

It was a fair question, and Danny wasn’t sure how he would have answered it yesterday. But the Panacea would be Pestilence’s ultimate weakness. And they’d faced plenty of stuff on their own today.

Danny wiggled the Panacea. “You’ll figure it out. I’ve got faith.”

(He was lying, just a little. But this wasn’t the truth trial, and what was faith without a little doubt?)

Valerie hugged herself. “I don’t know that we can,” she said. She straightened. “But we have to anyway, right?”

“Pretty much,” Danny said with a laugh.

“Do you have, like, snacks? For while you wait? Do you even need to eat?” He opened his mouth to respond, but Paulina shook her head. “Never mind, I can’t hear you anyway. Just… be careful?”

He couldn’t do much else, trapped as he was. He smiled and gave Paulina a thumbs up.

Kwan reached out and took the bottle. “How come you get to know it’s a trial, anyway? I didn’t know what the hell was going on.”

“How the hell should I know?”

“Fair.” Kwan started to move away, then paused. “We’ll figure it out. Promise.”

“I know,” he said. (Did he?)

“See you soon.”

Danny’s palms were sweaty under the suit. “See you soon.”

And they left.

Waiting sucked.

He was more bored and more anxious than he’d ever been in his life. Sure, he’d talked big about trusting the others. He even meant it. But he’d lost his phone somewhere in this whirlwind of a day, so he had no idea how much time had passed. An hour? Two hours? A day?

Okay, it definitely hadn’t been a day, but still. He worried. Valerie could hold her own, and Kwan could throw a decent punch, but was that enough against a veritable army? Even with the Panacea?

He wasn’t used to sitting aside and letting other people save the day.

(It was the right choice. It was the only choice. He hated it.)

He drummed his fingers on his knee. He tried a few breakdancing moves, fell, and laid on his back for ten minutes. His bladder started to ache. He thought about pissing through the barrier, but he couldn’t risk the chance that it would instead ricochet. He squeezed his legs together. He sang Billy Joel songs at the top of his lungs until his throat started to hurt.

“Jeez, you are not a singer, my guy.”

Danny’s head jerked up at Kwan’s voice. There, crossing the threshold, were Valerie, Paulina, and Kwan, hair and clothes a little messed up, but looking perfectly fine.

“You’re back!” He stood up and attempted to meet them, only to slam into the barrier, zapping himself once again. “Ow.”

“Of course we are,” Valerie said, a smirk in her voice. “Never a doubt.”

“This Panacea stuff is amazing.” Paulina pointed to her ears and wiggled the bottle. “Fixes everything. I love hearing and sound.”

Danny laughed, relief tingling down his spine. It worked. They did it. They won.

“Thank fuck,” he said. “Now get me out of here.”

“Hm, I don’t know,” Paulina said, tapping at her chin and frowning. “This stuff is pretty cool.”

Before an icy hand of fear could grip his heart, Kwan and Valerie were already yelling at Paulina.

“Polly!”

“Come on, girl.”

Paulina giggled, waving her hand. “Sorry, sorry. Wrong crowd.” She passed it through the barrier.

He snatched it out of her hand and placed it back on its pedestal. The barrier fell, and the room rumbled once again. As Danny stumbled to his friends (yeah, they were friends, weren’t they?), the chamber collapsed in on itself, leaving just the four of them, floating alone in the Ghost Zone.

“Guys,” Danny said, “I have to pee so badly.”

And they collapsed on each other, laughing. It didn’t help the burning in his bladder, but he could wait a minute or so more.

All four of them had split with little fanfare, exhausted from the day's events. He'd sent a quick text to Sam, Tucker, and Jazz, promising to explain everything tomorrow, and promptly fell asleep.

Jazz drove him to school and he gave her a rundown on the way. She smiled at him. Patted his shoulder. Said she was proud of him for making such a hard choice.

“Wasn't much of a choice,” he said with a shrug.

“That still doesn't mean it was easy. You did good, Danny. And now maybe you've got some more people, too.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Maybe.”

The thing was, Danny had watched The Breakfast Club once, with Sam and Tucker. At the end, Sam looked over at him and said, “Bet they go back to school the next day and never talk to each other again.”

Tucker blew a raspberry at her. “Boo!” he said. “You're no fun.”

“Yeah,” Danny had said at the time, “They're all friends now. They aren't just going to give it all up to go back to how things used to be.”

“They spent one afternoon together in detention,” Sam said. “How life changing could it be?”

Danny pointedly did not think about that conversation as he walked up to Casper High the day after Pestilence's defeat. He didn't think about it as he pushed open the front entrance. He didn't think about it as he opened his locker. He definitely didn't think about it as he saw Dash shove Mikey to the floor.

Business as usual.

“Hey.”

Danny jumped, smacked his head on the locked door, and turned to see Paulina standing behind him.

Paulina giggle. “You good, cariño?”

“Don't sneak up on me like that!” Danny rubbed the stinging at the back on his head. “You'll give me a heart attack.”

“Can you get a heart attack?” Paulina tilted her head. Danny thought for a moment: his heart didn't actually beat in ghost form so theoretically...

“...Don't ask me that.”

“Hey, Fenturd! Leave Paulina alone.”

And there was Dash, looming behind him like Skulker, but only half as scary. Danny managed not to flinch as he turned to face him.

“I started talking to him, Dashie.”

Dash blinked in surprise. “Well,” he said, “he still shouldn't bother you.”

“He isn't.”

“Oh.”

Dash stood for a moment, mouth open, like he couldn't believe any of this. Danny could hardly believe it himself. But then Paulina rolled her eyes and said, “Seriously, Dash, that's enough. You can go now.” She punctuated her sentence with a dismissive wave.

“I—what?” Dash shook his head. “No, no, this doesn't make sense. Polly, are you—are you still possessed?”

Still possessed. Did Dash think that Paulina had been under Pestilence's spell? Or did he think she was somehow under Danny's spell? What exactly did everyone else think had happened yesterday?

“Just because I want to talk to Danny and not—”

“But he's a loser—”

“Don't talk about him like that!”

Dash's mouth flapped like he wanted to speak but no words came out. “I—you—what did you do to her, you little freak?” He turned on Danny, who had pressed himself into his locker, caught in the middle of this argument. Grabbing Danny's collar, he hoisted him up, knocking his head against the locker door again. Ow.

“I didn't do anything! Maybe Paulina just grew up!” Danny had never been good at keeping his mouth shut. Even now, when the obvious answer was to just get this whole thing over as soon as possible, he still had to sass Dash.

Paulina's perfectly manicured hand wrapped around Dash's wrist. “Seriously, Dash, he didn't—”

Dash ignored her, shoving her off. Paulina stumbled back, then hit the ground with a thud.

“Get off of him!”

And there was Kwan, pulling Dash off of him, arms looped under and around his shoulders. Danny sank to the ground, rubbing at his head. To the side, he saw Valerie help Paulina up before they both turned to glare at Dash.

Despite the twinge in his scalp, despite the stares of the rest of the school, despite his own lingering exhaustion, Danny couldn't help but smile. Take that, Sam. The Breakfast Club lives.

“Kwan?” Dash pulled away as soon as Kwan loosened his grip. “What the hell are you doing?”

Kwan ignored him and turned to Danny and Paulina. “You guys okay?”

Before either of them could respond, Dash shoved him. “Hey!”

“What is your problem, dude?”

“You're the one who suddenly came at me!”

“Yeah, because you were hurting Danny and Paulina.”

Dash blinked, like that hadn't occurred to him. It probably hadn't. Sometimes, Kwan thought that Dash didn't realize that everyone else in the world was a person, too. That they all had thoughts and feelings of their own. To Dash, everything was all Dash all the time.

(It wasn't entirely true, Kwan knew. He remembered a different Dash, eight years old, crying over Old Yeller and pretending he wasn't. Swiping at stray tears and yelling it's just dusty it's allergies don't laugh even though Kwan was crying, too. He doesn't know when exactly the pretense became reality, but he'd lost his Dash a long, long time ago.)

“Sorry Polly,” Dash said, not even looking at her. “But she’s acting weird. Fentonio’s using his parents’ ghost stuff to control her or something!”

“He is not!” Paulina yelled.

“Do you have, like, proof, or are you just pulling this insane theory out of your ass?”

They had long since attracted a crowd. Danny had slipped over to Valerie and Paulina at the front of the mass of students, and behind them stood just about every person in the school. Even Mr. Lancer, who by all rights should have been stepping in and stopping this, was standing by and watching. Like he was curious how things would go.

Asshole.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying you need to back off of Danny and everyone else!”

Dash straightened up and pushed up his sleeves. “Oh yeah?” he said. “Who’s gonna make me.”

The crowd around them went wild, frenzied kids hooting and hollering at the prospect of a fight. Kwan made eye contact with Danny, Valerie, and Paulina. Paulina pointed at Dash, rolled her eyes, and faked a gag. Valerie gave him a thumbs up. Danny mouthed sorry at him. Behind them, Lancer hid his face behind a book.

Kwan wasn’t stupid. He knew what Dash was asking for. He knew Dash thought he’d win the fight, easy. He’d always won before, after all. Except—Kwan had been stupid in love with him. And a Dash who won was way happier than a Dash who lost.

The truth: Dash was a quarterback. Decently strong, for sure, but his main job was throwing the ball around. Kwan was an offensive lineman. His main job? Throwing people around. When the playing field was level, when Kwan didn’t pull his punches, there was no competition.

If Dash had thought about it for more than a minute, he would’ve realized that there was no way he was stronger than Kwan. But he’d long since lost that kind of self-awareness.

Kwan could be sad about all the ways Dash had changed tomorrow. Today was for kicking his ass.

Dash pulled his arm back to throw a haymaker. Without pausing to think, Kwan sidestepped the attack and swung an uppercut, hitting Dash square on the jaw with a nauseating click.

Dash flopped to the floor, mouth hanging open. Blood dripped down his chin; he must have bitten his tongue. For a moment, he froze, staring at Kwan in shock.

“You’re an ass,” Kwan said, “and I’ve been an ass right next to you. But I’m sick of it. Paulina’s sick of it. Everyone else in school is sick of it. I’m not holding myself back just to make you feel better. And I’m not gonna let you keep being a dick, either. So I suggest you stay down.”

Dash opened his mouth to say something, but Kwan cut him off. “I don’t wanna hear it,” he said. “Just… grow the fuck up, dude.”

And he walked past his oldest friend, bleeding on the ground, toward the cacophony of students and his 3 new/old friends.

“Jeez,” Valerie said, giving him a playful smack on the shoulder, “you’re so dramatic.”

“That was… public,” Danny said. The students started to disperse, heralded by Mr. Lancer. Lancer looked over at Kwan, nodded in something like approval, then shepherded people into their classrooms, leaving the four of them alone in the hallway just before the bell rang.

Kwan scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, sorry about that. Sorry you got in the middle there.”

“No, no, I mean… thanks for stepping in, but are you guys gonna be okay?” Danny’s eyes flicked between Paulina and Kwan.

They looked at each other. Paulina giggled. Valerie shook her head with a smile.

“Yeah, dude,” Kwan said. “We’re gonna be just fine.”

#danny phantom #my writing #my fic #invisobang 2023 #invisobang #paulina sanchez #valerie gray #kwan

309 notes · View notes

aceviscontiswife · 2 years ago

Note

pretty please a scenario or whatever you’d like for gn/fem reader x danny johnson where reader is super obedient but likes to be manhandled?? like if he chokes or spanks them they’re all like “thank u 🥺”

basically he has a bit of a dilemma because reader wants to be punished and handled but they don’t really do anything bratty that warrants it, like for example “you’ve been such a bad girl for uh… *checks notes* staying up past… bedtime?”

“oh okay, i’ll go sleep but i thought you wanted to watch this movie together :(“

Devil In Disguise… Or Not || Danny Johnson

Thank you anon! I really loved your request, but definitely struggled to come up with an idea I thought you’d like. So, I’ve split this into two parts. Part one (this one) will only have suggestive themes, as well as some touching at the end. Part two, however, will mainly be smut. I apologize if this isn’t what you want, but writers block hit me like a bus halfway through… Sorry! Hope you enjoy. ❤️

Afab! Reader. Warnings: Danny being suggestive, slight choking, talk of wanting to be punished, touching self (at the end), this is kind of short.

There were only two survivors remaining: you and Vittorio. You didn’t want to tell him, but you wouldn’t be getting sacrificed this trial. Danny was the killer, and you knew he wouldn’t hurt you.

You had stopped working on generators long ago, deciding to cleanse totems and open chests rather than work on escaping. You only had one chest left to open—the one in basement. You worked your way to the shack, avoiding Vittorio as much as you could as to not cause any conflict between the two of you. He didn’t like to see survivors off of generators, and could get a little rude at times when he caught you doing something other than a ‘main’ objective.

You hadn’t seen Danny once your entire trip to shack. You didn’t pay it any mind though, Danny was extremely stealthy and the chances of you seeing him during trials were low. A sudden shiver ran down your spine as the killer shack comes into view. Maybe Danny was here? Ever since your first trial with Danny, your body seemed to sense whenever he was near. Even when he was cloaked, you always knew where Danny was, and often times you found yourself staying near him. This trial was not the case, however.

When you step inside, a gloved hand reaches out and grabs your neck, pinning you against a locker. You gasp, a husky chuckle blessing your ears—it was Danny.

“Hey, Dollface.” A shaky sigh escapes your lips as his hand loosens its grip on your neck, eventually leaving to tangle itself in your hair. “Hi, Danny… W-Why’d you move your hand..?” Your voice was quiet, cheeks flushing pink as you spoke. This earned a laugh from Danny, who gave your hair a light tug.

“You’re too sweet to choke, sweetheart. I’m gonna need you to work for it…” He shoots you a wink from beneath his mask, bringing his other hand to cup your face as you let out a whine. He knew you liked it when he was rough with you… which was probably why he teased you like this so often. “Oh… okay. What do you want me to do?” Your words evoke another laugh from Danny, who takes a step away from you, his eyes roaming your body.

“You’re too innocent, dollface. You’d think, for someone who’s been with a killer, they’d be a little…” He steps up to you, his body pressed against you, his face only inches away from yours. He leans his head down to level yours, his voice smug as he whispers: “Naughty.”

“Am I too nice..?” You raise a brow, your head tilting slightly. Danny chuckles, lifting his mask up enough to expose his mouth. “You’re my perfect little angel.” He trails his fingers down your neck, hooking his index and middle in the collar of your shirt. “You’re not too sweet to rat on your teammates, are you? Once I kill what’s-his-name, we can cuddle all you want. Maybe we can even do something a little more.” When Danny stops talking, he presses his lips to your neck, sucking and nipping at your skin. You hum out in pleasure, your eyes closing and your head tilting back slightly.

You sigh and a soft, almost inaudible moan slips past your lips. “H-He’s at the smaller boat… by the edge of the realm.” Danny hums, tangling a hand in your hair and pulling your head back roughly, giving him more room to attack your neck with bites and kisses. Your breath hitches in my throat, and a strangled moan escapes your mouth. God, you loved it when he was like this… “Yes… T-Thank you, Danny…”

Danny pulls away, smiling as he pulls his mask back down. “You’re welcome, dollface. You’re too sweet, y’know that?” He chuckles, his hand leaving your hair and cupping your face. “But… I know what that sweet, innocent mind really wants.” Your cheeks burn red at his words, and your gaze falls to the ground, unable to meet Danny’s lustful stare. “Danny…”

“Let me kill your teammate doll, then I’m all yours.” You nod, sighing softly as you reach up to press a kiss against Danny’s mask. “Wait here, doll. You better not do anything while I’m gone… wouldn’t want me to punish you,” Danny pauses, leaning down to whisper into your ear. “Or would you?”

“I-“ Your words fail you, Danny laughing at you. “You fluster so easily, dollface… I’ll be back soon..” He steps away from you, gripping his knife. He was back to being Ghostface, and you look away as he shrouds.

And with that, Ghostface blows you a kiss before leaving the shack to go find Vittorio. You were frozen for a moment, your hands gripping the hem of your shirt as your heart raced. Why were you so excited? Well…

What Danny hadn’t known, was that his perfect, innocent little angel… had lied to him. He’d still find Vittorio, but your mind could only wonder how mad he’d be, and what he’d do to you when he returned. Your body felt hot, and your clit throbbed with the want for attention. You were usually so obedient, but you wanted Danny to punish you, manhandle you and use you for his pleasure. No…

You needed it.

#dead by daylight #danny johnson #ghostface dbd #ghostface x reader #ghostface #danny johnson dbd

176 notes · View notes

maskedemerald · 2 months ago

Text

Weaving Webs CH9

Here is chapter nine of my Invisobang fic! Enjoy the hardest chapter to write and some Danny POV!

The wonderful @pricklenettle did some fantastic art that you'll see embedded through out the first half of the fic so if you haven't seen it go check out their blog now!

You can check out the fic here or on AO3!

If you like this consider dropping us both a follow!

Warnings: Body horror, manipulation, Spectra is her own content warning, Burns, Spider - for like 2 chapters then it goes away.

The Fenton parents were there when the accident happened, they saw Danny die in an act of sabotage. Now they’re just trying to go on with the strange ghost that is all that's left of Danny. While their old college friend is wondering where the subjects of his revenge are.

[First] [Previous] [Next]

Chapter Nine

Fizzt fizzt, the old screen crackled flickering with sparks of white in the black between his fingers. He chewed on its corners. Night, like night. He frowned, eyes cast towards the window. Blocked, hide, Mom said he had to hide. There was still light escaping through the gaps. Not night yet. He was bored. Night meant stars. Not that he could see. Hiding. Sneak a peek while everyone’s eyes were closed. He grumbled a bunch of crackles as he curled around Jazz before starting up a more constant rumbling. She crackled back. Better. Leaving soon. Miss having her.

He startled, loud chime. Door. Guests. Hide even more. Mom said. Worried about him. They’d take him. Take Jazz. Then he couldn’t keep safe. Jazz untangled herself from him. He whined and flickered out of sight.

Mom got there first. Guest? Unfamiliar voice. Sharp cold that stuck in his visor. There was something in his house. Looked human. Wasn’t.

“Dr Spectra? What are you doing here?” Jazz asked. Irritated. Fake.

“Oh you must be the school counselor?” Mom started.

“I’m here to check up on your brother. A wellness check considering how you yourself are doing.” False smile. False cheer. He agreed with Jazz, she was irritating.

“He’s fine.” Jazz replied, firm. Want gone.

“What Jazz means is Danny is fine but not really well enough for visitors.” Mom was more polite, worry.

“I would like to see that for myself.” She pushed her way into the house as if she had been let in.

“I’d rather you not!” Jazz snapped. “I’m not having you talk to him like you’ve been talking to me!”

“I don’t know what you mean. I’ve been helping you. You just don’t understand that.” she waved her off. Sour, liar.

“I think I understand very well.” growled Jazz, he almost expected a flicker.

“Maybe we should get the authorities involved if you are going to refuse me?”

“Ah there’s no need for that… I’m sure we can work something out. Another time though, really Danny isn’t ready for…” Mom tried.

“It is rather neglectful to refuse letting a traumatized child talk to a therapist.”

Red, rage. Snapped thread. “Like hell you’re a therapist!” Jazz snapped.

He was angry too. Head hurt, sharp cold stuck. Building. This one had hurt Jazz. That wasn’t allowed. But he had to hide. Hold it in. He had to hold back. He growled a low crackling growl. Sharp cold slipped out. Too loud, too obvious. A sharp hiss, like boiling water. It curled in the air, too slow to fade. The threat’s eyes fixed on him. No through him. Still invisible. Still hidden.

“Oh what was that?” She stepped forward.

Jazz grabbed her arm. “Nothing, just an incense burner.”

“You really are a terrible liar.” She smirked, pulling her arm free and knocking Jazz to the ground.

Not accident. Intentional. “Oh, oh no. I am sorry. Mr and Mrs Fenton. I am concerned your daughter might be smoking. Leaving a lit one like that is such a fire hazard.”

Jazz bubbled with anger. Fear, from his family. Satisfied feeling. Not his. Someone else consuming. No, those were his. She didn’t get to do that. He didn’t even get to do that. They didn’t like it. He stopped. Safe feelings only! Not allowed. Not human. Not like family. No need to hide. Need to defend his.

Danny charged as she held out a hand to help Jazz up. False. Pretend. Would hurt her again. He lunged between them, returning to visibility with a vicious crackling. Aura expanding. Defensive, protective, angry.

“Danny” Jazz hissed.

The intruder’s face cracked with a toothy grin. Dangerous. “So this is the dirty little secret that you’ve been hiding.” A feeling of victory. “How disgusting that you keep him around like that, no better than just parading his corpse around really.”

“How dare you!” Mom snapped, her body lowered. Tense. Ready. Attack intended.

“He’s more… he’s still here. It's not disgusting.” Jazz defended.

Her eyebrows raised. “Wait? You’re ghost hunters, are you really keeping the little ghost like a pet?” crackling laughter.

“Danno’s not a pet and we… we’re not hunters, not anymore. Right Mads!” Dad said.

“Ghost scientists then.” she waved her hand. “Maybe it was intentional? You have two children, it makes sense really. Kill one and then whala you have a ghost to study. Not like you need two.”

Anger, rage. “Never.” Dad growled.

“How dare you insinuate that.” Mom reached for her. Fast. Violent. Impact… no impact.

Her fist passed through. Not human

“You! You’re a ghost! That’s why you kept it cold,” Jazz said with a sharp woosh of air, gas. Shock, bitter, anger.

“Wow, you would think the child of ghost hunters would figure that out faster,” Spectra teased unfazed as pistols were turned on her, “Oh well I suppose there’s no more need to play nice.”

She shrugged and then her skin seemed to unravel, peeling away against the licking of black flames that ignited across her body. She seemed to expand. The room darkened. Shadows blending. No, she couldn’t do that. This was his house. His space. It should bend to him not her.

“Bertrand, feel free to join the fun.” she called out.

Another intruder faded in. Shorter, shifting. Leopard. Danny growled, he’d missed the second one.

“About time. I have been so bored.” He grinned as the dark swallowed him and the rest of the room. Leaving them only what Danny’s aura could fight off. He flared. Family shivered, he hated that.

Danny growled defensively at the dark behind them, tail swishing. Hovering close to his family. Green shot over his shoulders into nebulous dark. Too dark. Not night. No stars. Dark flames flickered and reached out snatching at Jazz’s legs. Would be easier if she didn’t have those. She still needed them. He snarled, pulling her away, snapping at the black. Was it edible? Could he deal with it that way? Smelt like batteries. He wasn’t allowed batteries. He held her close, guarding. Safe.

“You really think that little monster is a good thing to have around your still living daughter.” The voice echoed out of the dark. Laughing. Smug.

“Danno’s a Fenton! He won’t hurt her! He’s a good ghost!” Dad snapped back, right. Danny wouldn’t.

“He might be harmless now but it's only a matter of time.” The green coloured leopard that was Bertrand leapt from the shadows lunging at them. “Just look at Bertrand here. Look at me even” Dad’s shots went wide as he scrambled to dodge the ghost. Red eyes hung behind Mom and clawed hands reached out. Danny lunged, snapping, unwrapping from Jazz. Shouldn’t, shouldn’t. Bad. Couldn’t be in two places.

Hands pulled back. Mom shot blindly into the dark. He curled round her defensively. Too many to protect. Too many places to be.

“Pathetic, you aren’t really that good at this whole ghost hunting thing.” Spectra taunted from the shadows. “Missing someone?”

Danny whipped round. Mom, Dad… no Jazz. Jazz was gone. Stolen. He screeched. Or tried, it came out weirdly quiet. Just the phone speaker. She’d stolen the house.

“Give her back!” Dad started blasting wildly. Danny growled and bit at the shadows with glass teeth.

“Some parents you are. Letting your daughter get taken so easily” Bertrand taunted slipping out of the shadows.

“Back off! Give her back” Dad bellowed, blasting at the ghost.

Green seared and Bertrand snarled, leaping back into the shadow at the hit.

“And miss this tasty misery? Not happening.”

Danny resisted the urge to chase. He flitted between his parents, staying close and growling like grinding gears. He wanted to save Jazz but that would mean leaving someone unprotected. If he stuck close to Mom then Dad wasn’t safe. The same in reverse. He couldn’t stay near both. Not when the two in the shadows were driving them apart with attacks.

He was knocked from the air by Bertrand’s pounce. He struggled and bit at the ghost pinning him down. The green tasted like the green he was both allowed and not allowed.

“Speaking of tasty, this ones pretty fresh. It's been a while since we’ve had a new ghost.” Bertrand sniffed.

Mom blasted him off with a well aimed shot, “stay away from him.”

Danny bolted up, darting over to her. Clinging close. His head swiveled till he found Dad. Good, no one else had been stolen while he was distracted. He couldn’t let that happen again.

They kept being pushed back, up the stairs. Shots firing. Danny hated. Hated feeling helpless. Couldn’t grab. The intruders mostly were too quick to bite. Useless. Unable to fight. Mom’s blaster beeped.

“Jack? Please tell me you left some more weapons up here?” she asked. Urgent, hopeful.

He shook his head, “not with Danno, some in the ops center I think.”

“Then we need to get there.”

Mom made a break for the upstairs. Dad followed behind blasting. Danny hated being stuck in the middle. He wanted to help. To protect. The ladder dropped.

“Trying to escape? Honestly, what kind of parents are you, abandoning your daughter?”

“We’re not!” Jack snapped.

“Jack, don’t listen to her!” Mom yelled blasting where she hung on the ladder.

“Right, right. We’ll get the weapons and then rescue Jazzy.” He clambered up and Danny clung to him defensively while it was harder for him to protect himself.

Mom slammed down the hatch after them. Danny was comforted by the static fuzz from nearby speakers and the light. He didn’t flicker that. That would scare his family. Even with that comfort he didn’t leave the hatch. Floating back and forth as Mom and Dad rummaged for weapons. Batteries. Anything. He wanted to go after Jazz. Not wait. But wait was needed.

It took far too long for Danny’s liking. He was grumbling frustratedly by the time Mom reopened the hatch. A snowstorm of static background noise filling the ops center. The bottom of the ladder was completely lost in the dark. Mom shot a few testing blasts into the dark. Nothing shifted. Nothing reacted. He whined as she started down. Shot down after her. Curling round her and casting a small light. Not safe.

Dad stepped onto the ladder. Dark shifted. Danny panicked. Wrong. Mistake. Shouldn’t have left. The ops center went dark and clawed hands pulled him back with a yelp.

“Jack!” Mom blasted into the opening hoping to hit spectra.

“Woops there goes the oaf. Bet you think you’ve got a better chance without him. How heartless.”

“Shut up.” Maddie growled.

“You can’t really not think that. He was pulling you down. Loud, obnoxious and incompetent. Everyone knows you’re far more capable.”

“We’re a team.” She defended.

“And yet alone you could just leave.”

The dark vanished, pulling back like it was peeling from the walls. There was the stairs back to the living room, clear as day. There was a silence. Danny snarled. Trick, lie. Wouldn’t leave Jazz and Dad anyway. Mom kept her weapon drawn as she approached the stairs. The way to the lab was still wrapped in shadow. Danny clung close as they approached. One left he could still protect.

“Please don’t let them have taken them through the portal.” She muttered.

Danny growled, not through. He hoped not. Portal was bad. Portal was dangerous. Portal hurt. Other side was curious but dangerous. Like stars. Interesting but not a good idea to try and touch. He curled round her as she stopped in front of the door.

She shifted trying to get out of his tangle. “Danny no, you can’t. You can’t come with me. I can’t lose you too.”

“Have to. Need to help. Keep safe.” Danny growled back with static.

“No, no. Don’t worry I’ve got this. You’ll be safe up here and I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Lie, need help. Not safe here either.” He whined.

Mom nervous, anxious. Fear. Glanced around. Sigh, “Okay, fine. I can’t leave you here either. She’d just pick us off the moment we split up. Stay close… and Danny if this goes wrong leave. Get help somehow but don’t get yourself… caught.”

“Help protect.” He grumbled.

He didn’t want to leave. He wanted to help. If she could lie then so could he. He nodded. He’d help. He’d protect. He’d watch her back as best he could. He wanted a better weapon than biting though.

Danny clung close to her as she descended into the lab. His glow barely piercing the dark. Mom scanned the dark for anything distinct. He couldn’t even see the portal. Shadows clung tight, not like the small bubble they’d been given before. All a game. Just toying with them.

“Foolish.” Spectra laughed. “You could have left. You could have saved yourself and yet you walk into the lion’s den to save them. How stupid.”

Bertrand lunged out of the shadows knocking Mom down the stairs. Clattering. Painful tumble. Thump. Danny screeched and rushed at the dark. He couldn’t see her. He heard the whine and zap of Mom’s pistol.

“Useless. Should have fled while you could. You know what that means for him right?” Bertrand chuckled a growl somewhere in the dark.

“He’s so fresh, just a few months. Oh how tender he’ll be.” claws grasped at him. “And how sweet your misery will be to see it happen.”

He lashed out at the grasping hands, his hands tingling. Burning cold. There was a flash and the intruder hissed. He launched himself in the direction of the hiss. Mom shot green blasts from somewhere. He had to help her. He had to fight. He caught sight of Bertrand. Too many limbs. Half way between the leopard he had been and something with far more legs. Too many eyes and insect like. He hit something. Sticky and tangling.

[First] [Previous] [Next]

#writing #danny phantom #fan fiction #eldritch danny #full ghost danny #invisobang 2024 #good parents fentons #hazmat au #invisobang #weaving webs fic #caught in the spiders web series

11 notes · View notes

jusvibbbin · 2 years ago

Text

Graduation Frustrations

Kenickie x Reader: Epilogue 1

1 | 2 | 3

//my original trilogy is near and dear to my heart, and since its been popping off recently i’ve decided to write a few epilogue chapters for it :) i hope you enjoy and feel free to send me more grease requests <3

“I’m sorry kiddo, but it looks like you’re going to have to repeat senior year.”

Kenickie stared back at Mrs. Murdock, mouth slightly agape. The shop teacher awkwardly looked around the classroom as the rest of the class had started to pack up. Graduation was one month away and she knew that boy’s only chance was finals.

“REPEAT WHAT?!” Kenickie had finally processed what she had said.

“Come on, Kenickie. Are you really surprised? You’re passing my class but only because you actually showed up. How many times did you go to history? English?” She threw her hands up, exasperated, and walked over to her desk. Kenickie paused for a beat before following after her.

“What the hell do I do now?” He chewed his bottom lip, a nervous habit he developed years ago.

Mrs. Murdock looked at him and sighed, sitting in her chair.

“Study, kid. Study til you drop.”

At that, Kenickie rushed out the door.

Your head slipped off your hand and smacked against your desk with a loud thud. You groaned lightly as you sat back up. Looking out the window, it was much darker outside than you thought it should be.

A short knock at your door scared you out of your thoughts as you quickly tucked the ring on your necklace under your shirt.

“Come in!”

Your dad’s head poked around the door, an eyebrow raised behind his glasses.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed? I thought you had a big test tomorrow.” His eyes scanned the room carefully as he spoke and you rolled your eyes tiredly.

“Kenickie isn’t here, Dad. I’m studying calculus.” You stretched your arms and stood up from your chair. Glancing at the clock you realized he was right. Two a.m. was way too late.

“I know that.” He huffed lightly.

“I know you do.” You crossed the room to give him a hug before pushing him out of your room. You turned off your light and sat by your window. Hearing your dad shuffle back down the hall, you pulled the ring out.

The engagement ring sparkled in the moonlight making you smile softly. It was beautiful, plain and simple. But would that be enough to ease your parents' worries? You still hadn’t found the right way to tell them Kenickie had proposed. You knew they liked him, but would they approve of him? He was your first relationship, a high school sweetheart. You sighed as you twirled the ring around your finger.

You decided you’d figure it out once finals were done. Right now all you needed to do was sleep.

“YOU DID WHAT?”

The T-Birds were utterly gobsmacked as Kenickie smirked proudly. Unlike yourself, he had told anybody who would listen that he had put a ring on your finger. His mom was overjoyed and started ringing all her friends to tell them the good news.

“Kenickie freakin’ Murdoch is getting tied down?”

“A married man?”

“Never to be seen again?”

There was a cacophony of mock groans and weeping as Kenickie rolled his eyes. The only one of them who was quiet was Danny, who simply gave his old friend a genuine smile. He had already asked him to be his best man, the only guy around for the job, and Danny accepted wholeheartedly. Kenickie had waited to tell the rest of them because of this exact reaction.

“Don’t be so dramatic. You know (Y/N) doesn’t mind havin’ you idiots around.” The guys all whooped and high fived.

“Me on the other hand… I don’t know.” Kenickie chuckled as they shot skeptical looks his way. His face turned serious as he remembered why he was telling them all this in the first place.

“Look, we can talk about weddings all day long, but it’s not gonna happen if I don’t graduate. How the hell am I gonna pass five classes before the end of the year?”

The T-Birds grimaced then looked thoughtful as they tried to brainstorm any possible way for Kenickie Murdoch, the king of skipping class, to get passing grades.

“You could threaten all the teachers so they raise your grade,” Doody suggested.

“Yeah,” Sonny chimed in. “Just tell em that they’ll have to have you again next year!” He laughed loudly as the other boys just shook their heads.

“Why don’t you ask (Y/N) to help you cheat? You’ve got a couple classes together,” Putzie said. The T-Birds agreed with shrugs and ‘yeahs’, but Kenickie frowned. He wasn’t sure about getting you involved in his mess, especially if that put your reputation on the line.

“Why don’t you just pay some nerd to tell you what you need to know?” Danny piped up.

Kenickie grinned and slung his arm around his buddy’s shoulder.

“And that’s why you’re my best friggin’ man!”

The gang cheered and walked across campus to find just the right nerd.

As the bell rang on your calculus final, you breathed a sigh of relief. It was out of your hands now and that meant there was no point worrying. You picked up your things then headed back to your locker to find Kenickie waiting for you.

“Hey you,” you said with a smile as he opened your locker for you.

He sent a sheepish smile your way and you instantly narrowed your eyes.

“What is it, Nickie?”

“Do you think you could uh, introduce me to one of your smart friends?” He rubbed the back of his neck as he said this, and looked anywhere but at you. To no one’s surprise but the T-Birds, they didn’t exactly have the best track record with the ‘nerd community’ so finding help had been damn near impossible. You quirked your eyebrow and nudged his foot with yours. His eyes finally met yours and he turned a bit red.

“Do you need help with something?” You made a slight face, a bit hurt he didn’t want your help. He scoffed and waved your comment away.

“No, no, no. Uh, Putzie needs some assistance with a history project.”

You gave him a suspicious look as Kenickie stood there starting to sweat.

“I think Alyssa Monroe has the extra time to help him out.”

Kenickie smiled and quickly kissed your cheek.

“Thanks, babe. He owes you one.”

You waved him off and he headed back down the hallway as you looked after him.

You walked up to your house, wondering about Kenickie the whole way. As you walked past the dining room, you noticed something glittering on the table. You took a couple steps backward to look again and to your horror, it was your engagement ring. Before you could snatch it, your parents came in from the kitchen.

“Hi sweetie, how were your tests?” Your mother sat down next to your father and motioned you to sit as well.

“Good,” you replied as you nervously took a seat.

“I found that on the bathroom counter this morning,” your dad remarked, picking it up. “It's a sparkler that's for sure. Where’d ya steal it from?”

“Dad!”

“I’m only kidding!”

Your mother rolled her eyes at his antics as she took the ring from him and handed it to you.

“You know you can tell us anything, sweetie.”

“Yeah honey. Most of the time we know already.” Your mother elbowed your father in the ribs as you squinted your eyes at them.

“Wait… you already knew? How?” You were utterly confused.

“Kenickie came by two months ago, asking if we’d accept him proposing to you. We said ‘of course’, you know we love that boy.” Your father beamed at you.

“We’ve been waiting for you to tell us,” your mother said, looking at you expectantly.

You hadn’t realized you were crying until you felt the first tear roll down your cheek.

“I was scared you wouldn’t approve. Not of Kenickie exactly, but the fact that we’re so inexperienced. He was my first boyfriend and now we’re getting married.” You let out a shaky breath as you processed what you had said. You two were really going to be together for the rest of your lives.

“Sweetheart, we just want you to be happy. If that boy makes you happy then who are we to say anything? No one is ever really ready.” Your mother grabbed your hand from across the table and your father reached to cover both.

“Thank you,” you said softly, feeling the stress from finals and the engagement finally fading away.

“No, the war of 1812 has nothing to do with the Spanish Inquisition. Are you even listening?” Alyssa Monroe had her head in her hands as Kenickie looked over his notes again.

“Shit, I wrote that on the wrong line,” he groaned as he erased and rewrote.

“I still don’t understand why you didn’t tell (Y/N) that you needed help,” she started. Kenickie shot her a look and she simply huffed before looking around the local library. It was getting dark and people were beginning to gather their things.

“Look, it’s getting late. How bad can your grades really be?”

“Really fucking bad, okay? Bad enough to get dumped. Okay, I’ll work on the history later, let’s go to geometry.” Kenickie pulled out another piece of paper. Alyssa stared at the greaser, wondering if anybody had ever seen him care about school before. She opened the textbook and started going over what he needed to know for the final.

After studying for days on end, Kenickie was ready to blow his teachers away. He had prepped as much as he could and thanked Alyssa tremendously. He tried to pay her but she declined, stating she’d rather consider it ‘volunteer hours.’

One by one, he blazed through his tests, even finishing early in history. All he had left was geometry. He was about to walk in when you grabbed his hand and tugged him around.

“What’s up, hun?”

You pulled him down to plant a kiss on his lips then pulled away with a smile.

“Good luck, handsome.”

Kenickie flushed as a grin spread across his face. He squeezed your hand then headed into his final, confident as ever.

“A D-?! What the hell?”

You bit your lip, listening outside to Kenickie as his teacher graded his test on the spot. Mr. Roberts simply shrugged, and swiveled his chair away from him to do something else. Kenickie stood there, heartbroken as he looked at his test. He had been so close to just barely skating by. Now it was a wash and he would have to do it all again next year.

“Excuse me,” you piped up. Kenickie snapped his head up to look at you in the doorway. Mr. Roberts smiled as you walked in.

“(Y/N), one of my favorite students! You could learn a lot from this one, Murdoch.” He gushed over you as you looked over Kenickie’s final. Several moments went by until you set the test back on the mathematician’s desk.

“I don’t think you graded this right.”

The two men looked at you and then the test as Mr. Roberts picked it up again. He looked over it briefly before shaking his head.

“You must be mistaken. He missed several.”

You glared at the teacher, walking over to the board and writing all the problems he had marked incorrect. You began solving them and as Kenickie looked on, he realized his test looked like what you were writing.

You turned back to Mr. Roberts as he looked on shamefully.

“You don’t have to like him, but you have to treat and grade him fairly. Kenickie, you got a B-.”

Kenickie was sure he had stopped breathing. Here you were, his shy, sweet, brilliant fiance, telling off a teacher in your own nerdy way. And he was in awe of you.

Mr. Roberts changed his grade as the two of you walked out and headed to his car.

“Once again, a round of applause for our valedictorian, Patty Simcox. And now to introduce our honors students, our salutatorian, (Y/N) (L/N),” Principal McGee announced as you took to the stage.

Kenickie cheered obnoxiously loud for you, as you stepped up to the mic. You were glowing with pride and all he could do was thank his lucky stars that he was yours. He thought about your year together and all its ups and downs. He thought about how you had changed him for the better in so many ways. And he thought about what you might look like on your wedding day. He hollered for you again as you got your diploma and you sent him an overjoyed smile. He had never been prouder. As the honors students left the stage, he made eye contact with Mr. Roberts and gave him the finger.

With graduation over and done with, the seniors had one last day of celebration at Rydell. The school had shelled out for a carnival on the field and everywhere you looked people were having a good time. You walked with Jan as she stuffed her face with cotton candy.

“Isn’t this great?” She said with her mouth full. You laughed, nodding as you tore some of her cotton candy off the stick. The two of you walked over to where the T-Birds and the rest of the pink ladies were watching Danny and Kenickie compete at the shooting gallery. Kenickie grumbled as he lost by a few points until you slipped your hand in his. He smiled in that way that he saved just for you and let you drag him away when no one was looking.

“We’ve been so busy I feel like I’ve barely seen you.” Kenickie nodded in agreement as you stopped at a ring toss game. You pulled out a quarter to play while he stood by and watched you.

“Gonna win me somethin’?” He pointed at a long stuffed snake and you knew you just had to get it. A few quarters later, Kenickie had a brightly colored ‘scarf’ around his shoulders. The two of you walked, chatting about everyone else’s plans for after school, when you walked into the line for the ‘Tunnel of Love.’ You sent him a look but he just wrapped an arm around your waist and pulled you close to him. As you got up to the operator, Kenickie slipped him a few bucks before you got in one of the cars shaped like a swan.

“What was that about?”

“I just wanna get some extra time for us,” he said as he pulled the bar over you both.

The ride started up and you cuddled into his side. You entered a dark tunnel that suddenly lit up with all sorts of colors and shapes. You looked around at everything, but all Kenickie looked at was you. Your eyes met him and you leaned forward to kiss him. He held you to him as you made out in the middle of the tunnel of love.

Around the corner you could hear the groans of the people in line as the operator lied that it was down for maintenance. You giggled into your kiss and Kenickie pulled away to chuckle too.

“We’re getting married.”

You opened your eyes to find him studying your face.

“I know. How do you feel about it?”

Kenickie thought for a moment as he played with the hair at the nape of your neck.

“I’m the most excited I’ve ever been. I’m happy that you said yes. And I’m hopin’ that I’ll be enough for you, forever.” His eyes flicked away as he finished and you put a hand on his cheek to guide them back to yours.

“I’m a little nervous too. But I know we’ll be okay, because I love you. And we make a great team.” Kenickie kissed your forehead before traveling down to leave hickies on your neck. You moaned softly which only spurred him on as he groped at your hips.

With a jolt the ride started up again, Kenickie letting out a frustrated noise which made you laugh. Blinking at the sudden sunlight, you exited the ride and walked around until the sun started to set. Everyone was standing around Kenickie’s car as the day ended, discussing where to go after.

“You guys have fun, I think I’m gonna head home,” you said with a smile as the other T-Birds begged you not to go. You waved to them and, as you turned to walk home you heard footsteps come up quickly behind you.

“Let me drive you, it’s getting dark,” Kenickie grabbed your hand to twirl you around.

“It’s not that far.” But he had already started leading you back to the car, ranting and raving about how dangerous the neighborhood could be.

Parking in front of your house, Kenickie kissed your hand sweetly. You kissed his cheek and moved to get out, before he tugged you back gently.

“Can I take you to lunch tomorrow?” You pulled an amused face as you nodded. Kenickie smiled and let you go, only driving off once he was sure you were safe inside.

Lunch had been simple, just a date at Frosty’s. But as he started to drive back to your house, you noticed Kenickie was going a very roundabout way to get there.

“Nickie, what’s up?”

“Huh? What do you mean? Ain’t nothing’s up.” Kenickie was not a very good liar, but there wasn’t much else you could do as he drove you in circles for another twenty minutes. Finally, he pulled into your driveway, getting out quickly to get the door for you. You punched his arm lightly at the gesture, starting to walk up the porch. You looked back to see him peering intently through a window before snapping his attention back to you, an awkward smile on his face. You narrowed your eyes and pushed open the door…

“SURPRISE!”

The lights were thrown on, a bottle of champagne was uncorked and a confetti cannon popped. You gazed around, startled, until you saw your family, friends, and a large banner that read ‘Happy Engagement!’ You started to tear up when the T-Birds brought a cake out of the kitchen.

“Ah shit, did we miss it?” Sonny exclaimed as everyone else just laughed.

You turned to Kenickie, who was standing by your parents, and it all clicked.

“How long have you been planning this?”

“Since he asked if he could propose to you! Isn’t that right, son?”

Kenickie looked at your father, mild shock written all over his face before he quickly nodded. You wrapped your arms around his neck, whispering how much you loved him in his ear. Kenickie grinned as he held your waist, appropriately in front of your parents of course.

As you pulled back to look at him, he looked slightly worried.

“What’s wrong?” You reached up to put a hand on his cheek.

“We still got a whole wedding to plan!”

You chuckled and planted a kiss on his lips.

“Well then, we better get started.”

#Grease #kenickie #Kenickie Murdoch #kenickie x reader #kenickie murdoch x reader

223 notes · View notes

i-suc-at-art · 7 months ago

Text

Day 6: immortal

Ik this isn’t exactly danny phantom but it’s my dp oc so id like to think it counts.. This also is something i’ve had in the google doc vault for like ages lol it takes place during beyond batman, i was eventually going to have danny join the story but this is only the first part so don’t come for me that danny isn’t in this.. I still think it’s good writing so take pitty on my and read it pretty please 🥺🥺

“We have a ghost problem in Gotham” Terry says

“I don’t think so.. I’ve seen everything, Zombies, vampires, only one ghost though..”

“A real ghost?” Terry asks while sitting on the desk, Bruce was repairing the Suit sitting down in a chair.

“She was a half ghost but yes. She was once the ward of Vlad masters, she came to Gotham when she was 17, the two of them weren’t on good terms.”

“Woah, rich kid huh?”

“Didn’t act like it, but she was dangerous, vindictive too. She didn’t love that i wasn’t willing to go the extra mile in stopping bad guys” Bruce continues working on the suit not looking up

“Freaky.. Wait, wouldn’t she be like 40 by now?”

Bruce looks up at Terry and sighs. He stands walking over to the bat computer “Computer bring up file on Clover Morte.”

“Clover Morte, previous identities unknown, alias: Reaper, Age:17, metahuman powers: increased strength, intangibility, invisibility, increased sight, flight, overshadowing, ghostly fire, immortality, other powers unknown.”

“Do you know where she is? or how to find her?”

“I have a few ideas, you worry about the bad guys, i’ll worry about finding the ghost who haunts Gotham.”

“Right.” Terry puts on his suit and heads out in the batmobile.

Bruce steps into the middle of the small graveyard in Park Row, his cane hitting an inground plaque he side steps to not stand on the grave.

“My eyes must be deceiving me! Is that the one and only Bruce Wayne? The living ghost?” A voice asks from the shadows

“I could say the same about you Reaper.” Bruce turns to where he heard the voice

“Ain’t nobody called me that, not in a long time..” Clover says landing silently in front of Bruce

“You still look good for 37..” He smirks down at the young ghost, her body still looking 17

“You look good too, for a dead guy.” A burst of fire lights from her hand as she passes Bruce patting him on the shoulder with her non burning hand “So, whatcha need? There’s no way you’d see me just to visit.”

“You ever talked to your Dad before he passed?” Bruce follows her and Clover slows her pace so they can walk side by side

“Vlad? Oh no he’s alive and well, he’s also a halfa, naturally created halfas age slower than humans, but they age.” She pauses and opens up a decently sized mausoleum to have a dry place for the two to talk.

“Ah.. That’s good to know that Mr. Masters is alive, still, that bastard’s probably going to live longer than Mcginnis.”

“You’re the one who's going to outlive us all Bruce..” She steps further in motioning for him to follow “So that’s your new ward? Or maybe the new Batman that I've been hearing whispers about?” Clover pulls up a chair for Bruce to sit, clearly she had made this some sort of home. A cot bed in the corner, a couple empty takeout containers sit in a trash bag, looking around Bruce is seriously considering offering Clover a room

“Perceptive as ever. You know you should really talk to Vlad before it’s too late.”

“I mean we’ve talked, he knows I'm alive.. well half alive, but still. He understands that my place is here. Though I haven’t seen him in about 3 or 4 years now, I'm really thinking about it..” She pauses and looks at Bruce, his eyes darting around inspecting the room

“I don’t need a room Bruce. This is my haunt, take me away from it and I won’t hesitate to bring your spirit here myself.” She glares at him and he can’t tell if she’s being serious or not.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He sighs, eyes focusing back on the ghost girl. She lights a couple of small torches on the walls with the fire from her hand. A bright green ring glows around her waist; it splits and starts to change her body, her hair falling from its fiery ponytail, to equally fiery red hair that reaches her shoulders, her bangs black and eyes a bright green. She now looks to be 17 or 18 but her face looks just as aged as someone in their late twenties. Her eyes suckin in, mouth positioned in a frown, she looks troubled. Bruce can tell she isn’t hiding it either.

“Ok, spit it out.. you didn’t just come here to pass along fatherly advice, and exchange pleasantries.”

“Mcginnis says we have a ghost problem. But i’m not so sure. It seems to..” Bruce pauses searching for the right words “high school to be a real ghost.”

“What do you want me to do? Play high school?” She crosses her arms and leans against one of the walls

“That might be a good idea.. Mcginnis does need someone out there who I trust helping him learn the ropes.”

Clover sighs “My guy.. I was joking, I'm not going back to school. Last time it was kinda a hellhole.”

“I’m sure it gets lonely here..” Bruce says

“One; that was out of pocket, two; Jason visits quite often ok?” she pauses “I know what you're doing.. I quite enjoy my simple life I've carved for myself so why don’t you stop trying to carve your dick into it.” She glares her green eyes turning a bright blue for a moment

“It would be good to get to know your peers.” He continues to push her buttons

“Oh yeah, like I'll be able to connect with a bunch of teens who were just sperm when I started my haunt.” She rolls her eyes

“It would be nice to have an inside man. Dont adult actors play teens all the time?” He questions.

She sighs, “If you stop nagging I’ll give you one week. When we get this figured out and I'm back in this graveyard. If you make me stay any longer I swear I will make good on my threat.”

Bruce just nods then sticks out his hand for a handshake, clover grasps it tightly “Death.. I can’t believe that worked..” She balls up her fist and hits it to her forehead.

#danny phantom #ao3 author #ao3 fanfic #ao3 writer #clover masters #danny phantom oc #oc #dp fanfic #dpxdc #oc & canon #dannymay2024 #day 6: immortal

13 notes · View notes

maebird-melody · 1 year ago

Text

Fic Stats Game

Rules: Give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most bookmarks, fourth most comments, fifth most words, and your fic with the least amount of words.

Thank you so much @aowyn for tagging me! I’ve seen this one going around and it seems fun!

First most hits: The Last Time

After settling into his new anonymous life, Peter picks up a new coffee habit. But is it really just for the sake of routine, or is it an excuse to see his old friends? Peter resolves that today is the last time, and then he will truly cut ties with his past. After all, that's what he wanted, wasn't it?

You may not know this about me, but Spider-Man is my oldest and deepest obsession. I didn't like how No Way Home ended. I didn’t want to rewrite canon or anything, but I did want to explore how Peter (especially MCU Peter) would do a terrible job at staying away from his friends. Most likely this fic only has such a high hit count because the fandom is massive.

I wrote the first chapter of this fic as a oneshot, but it’s become a multi-chapter slow burn identity reveal fic now and I am atrocious at updating with any semblance of a reliable schedule. I’m trying to get a lot of it outlined and several chapters written before I start posting again.

Second most kudos: Glockwork

Sometimes, the answer is violence. In which Clockwork rescues Danny from the Guys in White in a more conventional manner.

Joining fandom events (especially for Danny Phantom) has resulted in several one-off crack fic ideas. This is one of them. My second-longest obsession after the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films has got to be Danny Phantom. I somehow managed to avoid phandom participation for nearly 20 years. And honestly, y’all are insane, but in a good way I think.

Glockwork isn’t even my joke. I just couldn’t think of a better pun than the meme this was based on. I am glad to have contributed any small part to fandom lore. Also, Clockwork with a gun is hilarious. The original art that inspired this fic was drawn by @ravenatural-art

Third most bookmarks: Waypoints

When an unnatural cold settles over Casper High, the trio know that something more than they can see must be going on. But their search for answers yields more than they bargained for. Ghosts are haunting Amity Park with their shattered memories. Only by reliving those memories can they free the mortal realm from ghostly influence, restore the broken cores, and ultimately, help the ghosts pass on. Yet there is a sinister force at work behind the scenes. Someone…or something…caused this. Who is pulling the strings? Why? And how do they make sure none of this happens again?

Another Danny Phantom fic! This is the piece I’m writing for Invisovang (yes, writing, as in present tense—I didn’t finish by the deadline it’s fine). My longest fic by far, it’s amazing what actually planning out your story will do for you.

Probably has so many bookmarks since I'm still actively updating it, and many people prefer to read completed longfics. Also, there are just so many Danny Phantom fics out there. If you want a fic that doesn't involve dissection, maybe this one's for you.

Fourth most comments: Geduldh’s Fate

In which Heisshitze learns of the consequences of his meddling in Ferdinand's affairs. SPOILERS FOR PART 4 VOLUME 8 It is the first Interduchy Tournament since Ferdinand left for Ahrensbach, and Heisshitze is feeling very pleased with himself for having orchestrated Lord Ferdinand's freedom from Ehrenfest. But as he is about to learn, no good deed goes unpunished.

My current obsession, Ascendance of a Bookworm! It’s a slice of life turned high fantasy political thriller light novel series. I highly recommend it. Let’s just say, I was unhappy with the turn of events in Part 4 Volume 8, so I wrote something to deal with that. Ironically, a lot of what I’d written and wanted to happen actually came to pass, if not in exactly the same way. This was also written at the turning point where I stopped waiting for the paperbacks and ended up reading all the way up through pre-pub. I haven't quite gone so far as to read to web novel.

Fifth most words: The Long and Winding Road

While traveling the West Road, Alistair becomes the unwitting guard of a merchant caravan. When he leaves camp later that evening to gather firewood, he meets a strange, enigmatic elf who is lost in the forest. They spend a brief time together before their paths diverge once again.

This was written for a Dragon Age event! It was a fic exchange in which people requested either romantic or platonic pairings with Solas. I picked the Solas & Alistair platonic pairing. I have them sharing a camp together for the night. It’s a very moody, contemplative piece, I like it.

Least words: Uthenera: Fen’Harel Ver Na

"I lay in dark and dreaming sleep while countless wars and ages past." This song blends the Lost Elf Theme and the Thedas Love Theme, and also introduces a new theme of my own devising which can be heard in the opening bars of the piece. This is a programmatic piece, which means that each part of the song represents an unfolding story. For program notes, see the end of this page.

Feels like cheating though cause it’s not words at all. It’s music. Dragon Age inspired music (though I did lift part of a theme whole cloth for this piece, it was too pretty to deconstruct).

Fic with the fewest words that is actually a fic would be A Terrible Bedside Manner.

By the power of fan fiction, the laws of time and space have been broken to bring us this little nugget: what if Richard Maxwell was working for Regis when he first came to Odyssey? This tiny bit of chaos was incredibly fun to write. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

It’s Adventures in Odyssey crack fic based on the two most compelling characters in the series, who also happen to be the villains (in a series that Did Not Need Any Villains).

I feel like most of y'all have already played by now. Well, if you've already done it, please feel free to ignore the tag! Or instead, share a fic of yours that you think is underrated and doesn't get the attention it deserves. :)

Tagging @imakemywings @seaglass-skies @the-oaken-muse @bibliophilea @sailorpunksenshi @theelibugs

#tag game #tumblr tag game #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 fanfic #mae writes #mae plays #my hypnos fic didn't make it onto this list which makes me a little sad

3 notes · View notes

jeeperso · 2 years ago

Text

D&D Quotes Without Context

Ravenloft Edition, Fundertainment Land Arc FINAL

GM: A deep and dark hole, darker and deeper than any hole seen before, and at the bottom lays the ultimate horror; a stillborn dead godling, a true lord of the dead. One that has never been alive. Jonni: “Yeah, yeah, we’ve all seen Pat Sajak.” And suddenly, Gusto, Marshal's griffin mount, is there, gnawing on his head. Again. "Nope, nope. There has to be another way down there. I can't see the bottom, if there is a bottom.” “Maybe it’s a leap of faith? Eddie, you jump first.” You suddenly hear deep and ominous laughter from the hole. “Yeah, no.” GM OOC: Rule number 1 of evil baby hole. Do not mock evil baby hole. OOC: Unless say, you wanted evil baby to come out of its hole. Gorbash: “Okay flight options: Poom and I have our brooms, Marshal has a griffon gnawing on his head, Jonni has rocket feet.” Nyx: "You nasty thing, if that was a friendly warning it was disgusting. You really are just a big baby.” Nyarlathotep: "Probably of the ‘man’ variety.” Jonni: “Please. Do you how many ominous red lights in dark holes I’ve seen?” Poom: "Why are there red lights in said holes? Wait, I don't want to know.” Poom gets on her broom. Azathoth: "And your little dog, too.” GM OOC: So you guys are heading down the murder hole. “Go with your nerd heart.” “Just remember, what happens in the vessel, stays in the vessel.” There's a lot of bones, and heads on pikes, mostly elves and Tabaxi. Poom: "Homey decor.” GM: No sign of Danzi. "Danzi either ran, or got absorbed by the dead godling.” “Or the death tyrant.” GM: Or maybe he was never here at all. OOC: No, he was here. I mind-crushed him. "Gorbash. You are NOT eating the Atropal.” "This isn't your average everyday cold...This is...Advanced cold.” A giant rotted corpse of a baby, bigger than any of you, its milky dead eyes starring right through you. Jonni: “Yeah, yeah, I’ve seen Danny DeVito.” "I am the Atropal. But you may call me SUPER KAMI ATROPAL.” The hooded figures pull back their hoods, revealing horrible faces twisted in horror with black empty eyes. Poom: "It's like kindergarten all over again.” Holy flame lights up the chamber as Marshal's slab-sword ignites. It gets even brighter as Gorbash ignites his Sunblade. And just slightly brighter as Poom puts on mirrored shades. “Beacon of Hope!” Marshal shouts, as each of his allies feels the warmth of a blue corgi trying to give them kisses. OOC: Can't smite the shit out of them if I don't get closer. OOC: I think Stav made them so dead they are alive again. "If you want someone murdered right, DO IT YOURSELF!” GM: *rips off shirt* Come on. I CAN TAKE IT. I CAN TAKE IT. Kentucky fried Atropal. Sadly not even in the bottom 5 of Marshals worst dishes. Gorbash: “I needed practice for the next god-bomination on my shit list. You were an okay warm-up.” Suddenly the room is full of spectral figures; Park patrons, workers, elvish and Tabaxi nobles. Jonni: “Ladies.” "You all are fired. Go in what peace you can find in the Domains of Dread.” "Why do so many bosses rig their places to collapse after they are defeated?” "Scab labor.” "Hey Jonni, when’s the last time we did it on top of a pile of our vanquished enemies?” “What day is it? Friday? So last week I think.” “Damn, that long?” Jonni vaporizes a guard beating an ice cream mascot. Edmund: "This is insane!” Poom: "Do you mean more than usual?” "...." Edmund gestures with one hand, like weighing a scale. Gunder: ”THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!” Jonni: “I need you to be more specific.” Poom: “Why?" And they proceed to choke each other before the YetiTarrasque steps on them. Poom: "They tied.” Jonni: “Guys, we’ll catch up. Vesh ‘n me are gonna do it on that burning carousel to warm up for later.” Poom pees on something. Marshal: "My Lord HADES! the great evil upon the Domains is banished. but many need a new home worth living. In thy great name, I would lead this exodus." Jonni leans over to Gorbash, “He knows where his boss works, right?” Gorbash: “He's on a roll, let him have this.” Gorbash: “So Marshal, you just razed the birthplace of your nightmares to the ground... How do you feel?” "I'm pretty sure eating there gave me a parasite, and I'm a genie. My stomach is a literal furnace.” “It’s true. She got acid reflux once. Thirteen people died.” As you watch, a huge metal tripod suddenly emerges from the forest, moving slowly towards you, it emits a deafening noise. Azathoth: "B-movie territory, woohoo!” It looms over, and fires a blast of concentrated heat at Vesh, which....does nothing. Vesh: ”HA! You think thats gonna hurt me? I bathe in hotter shit than that. You're gonna have to do a lot better....” Then it tries stepping on her. Vesh: ”OH CRAP ITS DOING BETTER.” Jonni: “No one steps on my wife but me! And maybe Crushinator, if she’s into it!” Poom, broom, vroom. OOC: Exchange at work: Co-worker: Are you a licensed professional? Me: No, but I am an enthusiastic amateur! OOC: Ever sell any haunted houses? OOC2: That’s Realtors. OOC: Ah.....Ever appraise any haunted houses? OOC2: None that anyone told me they thought were, but I know someone that did. Fun fact, you can be sued if you sell a house you believe to be haunted and you don’t disclose it. OOC: You can’t kill Real Estate. Realtor: “So how was the home?” Family: “Oh it was fine except for the HORRIBLE MONSTER HAG NEXT DOOR.” Realtor: “Oh right, her. But aside from that it’s fine right?” Guy: “Alright real talk, my boss caught me writing inappropriate comments about him in the bathroom stall so now I get all the creepy nightmare houses. Believe me when I say that this is the least terrible place I could have showed you. Be grateful I didn't show you the pig house. I lost three people giving a tour of that house.” OOC: I'm here. What'd I miss? GM OOC: The evil hole cabbage burped on you.

#dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #quotes without context #ravenloft

2 notes · View notes

hazel-da-basil-deactivated · 2 years ago

Text

Hazel Muses about dead peoples romantic/sexual lives and if they were queer or not.

So Like trying to put labels on people isn’t the best. But I’m trying to figure out this whole Sylvia Fine Danny Kaye thing and its like historical curiosity I guess. Like in the time and place they lived you couldn’t really talk about these things and knowledge of them sometimes just wasn’t there.

Like looking at Danny Kaye, traumatized youth who became a funny guy to survive. just pretty normal human stuff. But also learning to dance in like 6 months for a movie, becoming the top non-asian chinese chef, learning to pilot planes, learning to conduct despite not being able to read music, able to replicate accents well enough that native speakers would be really confused they couldn’t understand the utter nonsense he was saying with the accent, etc. This seems to me like he was probably autistic. Not that uh thats what I’m getting at. just a tangent.

So Danny was married to a woman named Sylvia Fine. And this seems to have been primarily a business/friend relationship. They did have a child, but only one. Danny was known to cheat on Sylvia, but I wonder if it was actually cheating, because really from what I can tell Sylvia seemed mostly okay with it. Other than a long affair Danny had with Eve Arden early in their relationship anyway.

So I’m kind of wondering if they were polyam or at least open in their relationships. I’ve seen no mention of affairs on Sylvia’s side. This could be because she was more discrete than Danny, or because she didn’t have them, or just because I have so little info.

From descriptions of her I at first felt, was she a lesbian? But the more I think about this I kinda feel like she was ace. Like she just wasn’t really interested with Sex, but since Danny was she let him go out and have sex. I’m not sure the two even had a strong romantic attachment. I’ve seen stuff that says they didn’t here. And descriptions kind of make me feel like Danny was aromantic/demi romantic. And maybe Sylvia was as well. Like they had a light romantic connection, a strong bond that many people wouldn’t necessarily recognize as romantic.

But I have no way to know really. They’re both dead. I can’t ask them. They’re daughter is still alive, but how aware are most children of their parents sexual/romantic lives?

This could also just be me just not wanting Danny being some Philanderer who was constantly Breaking Sophie’s heart and torturing her over their long marriage.

Anyway I feel like they were a queer couple. And looking at all this old music, you just see so many examples of queer people, that we just pretend weren’t. And because we pretend they weren’t the fact that they were gets lost to history, so that later generations don’t realize they were. So it seems like queer history is empty. It always looks empty.

But we know a lot of these people were queer. I don’t mean like by analyzing and wondering like I’m doing here. We know that one of the Andrews sisters was queer. Her long time partner has talked about it. Billie Holiday was bi apparently. It wasn’t even really a secret at the time. Not to people who knew her at least. But this history is hidden. Sure today it’s not too hard to find if you go to look for it. Details perhaps are lacking, but I don’t need to know the names of Billie Holidays various lovers. It’s just so strange that all of this is shoved back and hidden in the depths of a dusty old broom cupboard. Like queer people have always existed. People that you love, whose voices have moved you, whose acting has brought a smile to your face are queer. But you can’t love that part of them? You have to hide it and pretend it doesn’t exist? How can you love queen’s music, and not acknowledge that you love a queer person? You pretend that Freddie Mercury wasn’t bi when you listen to it. Most of you think he was gay, but you know he was queer. But you pretend that he wasn’t when you listen to his music. You hate queer people, oh but that Freddie Mercury you love his music. How? I just don’t understand how you can love someone like that, but hate such an integral part of them.

How are people homophobic, when they love so many homos?

#queer #danny kaye #sylvia fine #lgbtq #rant #love #erasure

3 notes · View notes

sailor-toni · 2 years ago

Text

I posted 545 times in 2022

That's 355 more posts than 2021!

109 posts created (20%)

436 posts reblogged (80%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@ii-zi

@moonlightsdreaming

@13thcat

@sailor-toni

@auroraphantasma

I tagged 128 of my posts in 2022

#art - 48 posts

#danny phantom - 39 posts

#writing - 21 posts

#fanfiction - 20 posts

#reading journal - 18 posts

#youtube - 13 posts

#journal - 12 posts

#bullet journal - 12 posts

#book journal - 10 posts

#video - 9 posts

Longest Tag: 54 characters

#three studies for figures at the base of a crucifixion

My Top Posts in 2022:

The Grandfather You Never Wanted

You can also read on AO3, FF.net, and Wattpad

“Danny? Danny! Danny I can’t understand you. You're gonna have to use actual words,” Tucker said, his phone pressed up against his ear.

“Walker, and my Mom, and him! And ME!” Danny sputtered.

“Is Walker also after your Mom? How many ghosts want to bang your Mom dude?”

“What! NO! Ugh!” Danny took a breath, before restarting his tirade. “I was in my attic with my Mom, and we found some old photos of my Mom’s side of the family, and and and I saw my grandpa, I mean I’ve seen him before but like I’m pictures and such but I know him Tuck, he’s in the ghost zone -”

“Your Grandpa is in the ghost zone? That’s awesome, maybe you can get in more time with him or-”

“No Tuck, my grandpa is Walker.”

The Casper High library was quiet, it’s maroon walls and wooden bookshelves look like they jumped out of the 70’s. Wherever there could be, that shade of deep forest green penetrated the room.

In the far corner, jammed between Emily Dickinson, and the complete 1967 collection of Time magazine sat the trio. Holding a thick scrapbook.

“Your Mom never told you Walker was your grandpa?” Sam said.

“She mentioned him a few times. Like his name isn’t walker but Daniel, and that he died in a prison riot. Also one Christmas he almost burnt the house down with Christmas lights but not much else,” Danny said.

Sam held the picture of Walker up to the scrapbook image of Daniel Walker Smith. In the image he held his wife’s hand as balloons and streamers rained upon them. The next image showed him with his daughters, one looked uninterested to be there, the other had a diamond in her eyes. A shiny new first place trophy in her hands. Walker held them both, a big smile on his face.

“It’s so weird to see him like that,” said Tucker.

“Alive?” replied Danny.

“No, the smile.”

“Walker has never smiled before.”

“Not like that.”

“True.”

“What if you showed Walker this?” Sam spoke up, “Maybe it would jog his memory? Get him to be nicer to you? Or give you a free pass?”

“Oh! Hey Sam's on to something here. Maybe you can pull a few strings and we could finally get somewhere without a ghost map,” Tucker said.

“Yeah, but what if he doesn't care and wipes the floor with me again?” Danny said.

“You never know until you try?” Sam

-----

The cold stone, polished to resemble a large granite wall. Its walls were void of any crack or crevice for one to shove a foot or hand into. And bare of any markings or signs of age. It was the ghost zone eternal prison, where rule breakers could stay for the rest of their afterlife. A dismal existence for sure, and one Danny did not want for the remainder of his mortal life.

What was he even doing here? Even if Walker had forgotten most of his human memories, like some ghosts did, he wouldn't suddenly turn good. Maybe?

Danny envisioned Walker in a pink Hawaiian vacation shirt, khaki cargo shorts, and flip flops with socks on, walking to see Danny's science fairs, or treating him and his sister to a movie, or just hanging out and sneaking him money. Like what Sam's grandma did. But instead of him being dressed in all black, he would be glowing, and floating a few inches off the floor.There was a fat chance of that ever happening but if there was a chance, Danny would like to know if this man was actually his grandfather. Does Walker know already? Does he know and just not care? That would match up with how his Mom described him.

A scream from the prison echoed across the stone walls, the sound bounces off its surface. Danny cringed. Maybe he wouldn't be like that, but if he knew, maybe he would do crazy stuff like frame him for kidnapping the mayor. Actually no, this was a horrible idea. Danny's thought, as he retreated from his grandfather's castle of nightmares. Why would the guy who did that? ! Suddenly try to become grandpa of the year? This was a dumb idea and he knew it.

“Hey who’s there?” Danny froze, behind him was a guard, green oily skin, red eyes, and a face that only a mother could love. Floating there, a baton charged with energy in his left hand. A flashlight in the next.

“Freeze! Ghost boy!” Danny flew, his feet were swept off the ground by his own flight response, their ghostly trail trying desperately to catch up with his torso.

See the full post

90 notes - Posted November 3, 2022

Watch me do a speedpaint of this picture here!

91 notes - Posted September 3, 2022

The Danny Phantom fandom is cool and all. But it really feels like the people in here would willingly stomp you to death in order to maintain the image of a small peaceful, no issue fandom. An example might be "hey, can you not say you don't like ghost hunger fics? B/c someone who really likes ghost hunger fics might become discourage and leave the fandom. Thanks and try to be a better person next time! 💖🥰"

Fam, people are allowed to leave fandoms for whatever reason no questions asked. Its not a social club, its a bunch of random people online who like the same 2007 children's show. If someone wants to leave after such a cold take. I would let them. Why force them to stay in a place where even a slightest disagreement makes them wanna run?

104 notes - Posted September 22, 2022

You were only 14 when you decided to fight the world.

Ectober day 6

150 notes - Posted October 12, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Am I the Asshole for trying to ask my college sweetheart out after her husband disfigured me?

I (42M) was friends with (names changed for privacy) Molly (42F) and John (44M) in college. John and I were good friends and we both had crushes on Molly. I was going to ask her out on a date, when during an experiment John dumped the wrong chemical down the hatch and the experiment blew up in my face, disfiguring me for life. I spent the next ten years in the hospital fighting for my life. While John asked Molly out. They are now married and have two kids (16F and 14M). I have mostly recovered and have reconnected with my friends. While they never visited me in the hospital I have forgave them. I still have a crush on Molly so I asked her if there was any change between us. Her son overheard and now the family won't talk to me. Am I the asshole?

EDIT John claims he never meant to disfigure me EDIT 2 Some of you have been asking why would I ask a married woman out? I feel like my life was stolen from me and the least they could do as my friends was give me a chance.

172 notes - Posted May 7, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

2 notes · View notes

writetogetherstaytogether · 6 months ago

Text

The Wall

Danny was pissed when he whisked himself into his bedroom and slammed the door. This was the final straw, he thought. He was shaking when he decided he couldn’t stay here anymore and he began gathering his things. He was pulling his mitt out of the closet when a dim, gold light flickering in the back of the closet caught his eye. He moved some things around to get closer to where the light seemed to be coming through. Once it was clear, he could see that the light was fluttering through a small crack between the wall and floor. Curious and confused, he reached his hand up the wall and jerked himself back when something clicked and a three foot by three foot portion of the wall slowly creaked open as if it were a little door. He stood there astonished. He has lived here all of his 15 years and had never seen anything like this. He was planted for some time, unable to process what his eyes were telling him. He thought for a moment he was dreaming and was reaching to pinch himself but froze when he heard a scratchy voice muttering from the other side of the door. He considered running away, but then remembered what was waiting for him outside his bedroom door. With that thought he moved to his bed, put on his backpack then took small steps toward the open wall, offering a timid “Hello?”

He heard hushed whispers and shuffling noises which piqued his curiosity and he took a bigger step closer. He crouched down and the first thing he noticed was the smell. It was starkly different than the smell of his bedroom. It was a musty, closed up sort of smell and it burned in his nostrils. He could now see that the dim light was coming from several candles in the center of a long, old, wooden table. He could see what looked to be the inside of a cottage for something much smaller than himself. On the wall near the table he could make out what looked to be ancient writings. The floors were dirt and there was one small circle with a dark night sky making the window nearly invisible. Near the table he saw a funny shaped bed that looked like it could hold ten tiny people. He could see on the far wall was a large fireplace with only orange embers crackling inside and then he froze when he spotted the small dark figure standing in the far corner. It was facing him and he could only make out the big eyes that he thought looked more afraid than what he felt. Somehow, after looking into these fearful eyes for a moment, Danny felt brave enough to move himself into the small doorway and say reassuringly “It’s ok. I won’t hurt you. My name is Danny. How.. how are you in my closet?”

Slowly the eyes moved forward from the shadows and Danny’s mouth popped open as he struggled to understand what moved into view. Creeping slowly toward him was a creature that looked like nothing he had ever seen. It appeared to be a tiny old man, but not quite human. It was about two feet tall, frailly thin with silvery grey skin and moved with a cane. Its small clothes looked like something a farmer from the 1800s would wear. The only hair Danny could see were the long red stragglers on its oddly shaped bare feet. The big eyes never left Danny as it crawled forward in a way that suggested each movement was a struggle. As so many questions whizzed through Danny’s mind, one made him sit up straight. Maybe this creature isn’t afraid. He suddenly deeply regretted his choice to be brave, but just then the creature, seemingly sensing the apprehension, stopped moving, stood as tall as he was able and with a voice aged and deeper than Danny expected, said “Yes, yes I am Clarance. Do not be afraid child, I did not mean to alarm you. I have created this door to you. Forgive me, I was not expecting you to open it. Please, if you like, come inside. I’ve just made some tea. Yes, yes child come in. You should fit without a problem and the tea is very good.” As he spoke the tiny man moved to set cups and a kettle on the far end of the table. Danny was frozen, not with fear completely, but mostly just in shock. Trying to process words that refuse to find meaning in his mind. Finally clarity came around some of the words and Danny managed “you.. made.. the door?”

“Yes, yes I made it for you dear child. I’m here to help you. Please come in now. Come in and have some tea. We can talk and I will help you.” He spoke reassuringly.

At this Danny wasn’t sure he wanted to go in but he felt strongly this tiny mysterious man would be able to help him. When he thought of how desperately he needed help, he began slowly making his way into the room. At seeing the boy’s movement, Clarance cheerfully said “yes, yes come in child. The tea is hot and tasty and I have a special chair here for you that will be just the right size. Here, here dear child, come sit. It’s quite comfortable.” Danny had to stoop, but not too much and once he got to the chair and sat, he was shocked to find he felt quite comfortable in such a cramped space. He sat looking around, not sure what to think or say. The smell was still overpowering and everything was covered in a think layer of dust. The dirt floor had bugs carving busy paths across the room. At the other end of the long table Danny noticed a stack of very old books. There was nothing comforting or entertaining about this room and something Danny couldn’t quite put his finger on was wrong with it. He felt pity for any creature living in this kind of home and finally found words. “I would like to help you as well” he offered kindly, “do you live here alone?”

“Oh child yes, yes. You will help me. And I have many friends who have shared this space with me over time, but they are all away at the moment. Better, let us discuss what brought you to my door. You are very special and I have been watching you for some time now. I have seen the difficulties you face at home and at school. I have some excellent ideas for what we can do in that regard but first you must have some tea. Yes, yes. You drink my boy and I will tell you all about what I know and what I propose.”

Clearance went on to describe with grace and encouragement all of the problems that Danny had been struggling with. He was understanding of Danny’s side and was adamant for his justice. In such great detail that Danny found himself feeling slightly intruded on. He wondered how this little man in a hovel could know all of this about him. He didn’t even have a tv, just some dusty books and a strange bed. As if he could read Danny’s mind, Clarance stop talking and gave a caring look. “Yes, yes. You must wonder how I know these things about you. I care about you child so I watch out for you. I have ways of hearing poor children in need. Children who are struggling. Now here am I to help.”

Danny was oddly feeling at ease, hopeful even somehow in this strange, dingy place. He felt warm and told himself the sensation was from hope and the kind words of his new friend. He felt seen and understood and thought to himself this man must be my guardian angel. Clarance continued to explain Danny’s problems to him and if Danny’s cup was ever running low, Clarance would pause just long enough to pour a refill. After his third cup of tea, Danny began feeling more than warm. There was an exhaustion slowly enveloping him. He quickly became aware that something was wrong. He was so lost in trying to sort out why he was suddenly feeling strangely that he didn’t notice the silence in the room. After a few moments the silence was screaming in Danny’s ears. He turned his head to see that the tiny man was no longer sitting in the chair next to him. He squeaked out a “Clarance?” His eyes swiftly began scanning the dim room then finally he realized what was wrong with this room and it sent a chill down his spine. Other than the door he came through, there were no other doors in this room. How is that possible, he thought, frantically trying to make sense of anything that had happened. He tried to stand from the chair and slumped right back into it. His legs didn’t seem to be working. Panic set in and tears rolled down his cheeks. “Please Clarance. Help me. YOU SAID YOU WOULD HELP ME!” After a moment of silence Danny quietly added “I don’t think you want to help me. I think you did this to me. Why?” With each passing moment Danny scrambled to make sense of this creature and this place. Nothing he could come up with would explain a single thing he had experienced and the questions piled up in his mind. Where could he have gone? How did he know so much? What was this creature? What does he want? Why does his only door lead to my closet? Why did he say he would help me? More importantly, what had he put in that tea?! Panicked, Danny realized this was probably his only chance to leave so he let his body slump from the chair and started carving his own path thru the dirt. He was only a few feet from the chair when small grey feet moved into his view.

Danny then heard one strange word in the familiar ragged voice, “frezaria.” At the sound of this word Danny was completely immobilized. He could move only his eyes, the rest of his face and jaw were frozen in an expression of pure terror.

“Temporary, child. No need to worry. Your body will move again.” He said as his feet moved toward the table. He opened a book and began reading in a language Danny didn’t understand. As he read, the warm sensation grew downright hot and Danny could see the man’s skin beginning to glow brighter and brighter. Danny wished he could scream, but he was still locked in place. The two grew brighter until the glow was blindingly white and then everything was dark. In the darkness came a voice, but Danny sank into complete dread when he recognized it was his own voice that he was hearing.

“I am thousands of years old and I intend to have a few more. So here is my proposal child. I will help you by removing all of these horrible people from your life and you will help me by giving me a fresh set of years to live. You will live out the rest of your days in this space. Do not cry dear child, you are free your troubles now.” Next Danny heard footsteps and then a strange scraping sound.

After what seemed an eternity, the stars in the round window began working and Danny’s eyes were able to make out the shape of the table, which now seemed much larger. After another moment Danny felt some feeling slowly coming back into body. First his fingers and toes and then his jaw loosened and he felt a moment of relief to finally be able to close his mouth. His fingers began moving and the feeling moved up his arms and legs and with a hard thunk he could feel his heart pump. As he pulled himself to his knees, he saw his hands. But not his hands. Old, grey hands. His knees under him, small and invisible in jeans that no longer fit his body. He threw himself back in repugnance, rolled across the dirt floor and landed in a heap of clothes and tears. When he opened his eyes he saw something that made him give a sorrowful cry. The only door in this room, the way back to his home and his life, was now gone. He looked around for any possible escape and stopped when he saw the window. He stood and shook the oversized clothes to the floor and made his way to the window. After pushing up a chair and climbing to peer out, Danny crumbled into hopeless sobs when he saw there was nothing. No ground, no trees, no streets. Beyond this window, somehow in all directions, there was only a dark night sky filled with stars.

In the closet, Clarance, now in the form of Danny, dresses in Danny’s clothes and makes his way downstairs. His parents are cleaning up after dinner and he walks over to each of them with a silent hug. He steps back and says “I am really sorry for how I acted at dinner and I want to do better. Can I help you guys clean up?”

#short story #magic #mystery #writers on tumblr #writing

0 notes

bubble-you · 7 months ago

Text

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el2zhkd1GIU my favourite scene!!! it’s so good to see them again. i need this

i bought essays on series8 and peter capaldi’s time in the tardis (series 8 and 9)

i love that restaurant scene where it gives them time to sit and talk — you can see he’s at first all happy and confused and smiley — clara tells him to stop (poor dr. i know what it’s like to live with someone who wants, needs control and becoming kind of stern, undermining and shouty yourself. sometimes undermining as a habit, not realising it’s to regain control.) (but he cares about clara as she is so … of course he stays. he trusts her to guide him through his regeneration. why else would 11 regenerate in front of her?)

and he’s actually so gentle saying ‘i don’t want you to change’ comfortably sincerely putting his hand on hers. this hand-touching is the kind of moment that doesn’t happen again until dark water (in which it is a very… squeeee kind of moment) which goes to show how much tension there is between them, between those episodes. maybe clara pushed him away this episode (which i’ve seen metas of, in fanfic — but that i didn’t always get, until now.)

this essay isn’t well-structured at all on any level but it is very much my hobby to think about them, and also my hobby to write (not, you know, structuredly) so this is pretty enjoyable for me.

i’m a little envious of them in that they always come back for more after they’ve pushed each other away. there’s something really compelling them to each other that is unbreakable (except by — you know — literally seeing the destructive nature of their desire to be with one another, over primal things like life and death).

also, one thing i’ve noticed. even here in listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV8FKSzZmus when they’re feeling scared and wanting to calm themselves, the doctor turns to talking about clara’s date. he does want the answer — and it’s juicy enough of a topic that it would serve as an interesting distraction from the horrors that are outside. perhaps he is using this discomfort to compel her to talk about it. it’s useful. it’s like when in the restaurant scene in deep breath he says he bought the smelly coat because he ‘was in a hurry, there was this terrible sme-‘ (and then realises and smiles). it has me thinking about the way malls are formatted (the layout, the internal design. i forget what that’s called) to be as uncomfortable as possible, so that people come quickly and make quick decisions and always keep moving. let’s go to a new paragraph to talk about this

for example, the benches in malls are never placed out of the walking traffic like there are benches on the side of roads — they’re always placed in the middle, exposed, where people walk by. the hard white tiled floors reflect light from all the signs in the stores, and reflect sound from all the people talking and walking, making you uncomfortable, unlikely to think slowly and clearly, and unlikely to stay long in one place. it’s clean enough that it makes the mall cohesive, but dirty enough that you couldn’t sit on it if you cared about your clothes (plus it’s uncomfortable, and you’re exposed).

one time i went to a mall and needed a break from walking and i put on my headphones to listen to meditation music and closed my eyes while sitting on a bench in the middle of foot traffic. this was very good, this was the most restorative time i think i’ve ever had in a mall, ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SlRj5nK_s4 the doctor’s going loopy alone, he’s forgetting what he’s done — ‘some idiot turned the safeguards off’. listen! there’s nothing to hear. nothing, anywhere. not a breath, not a slither, not a click or a tick, all the clocks have stopped. yea peter capaldi my favourite place to go would also be teh end of the universe. the space train orient express is also pretty good too.

clara literally doesn’t want danny and the doctor to get along. they have very different beliefs about who clara is, but that’s not all, because they also … think the other person is bad for clara? and she encourages that animosity. she wants there to be at least two versions of herself, to have both those narratives.

also just an aside, samuel anderson is so chill, i wish danny was also more chill. just found out his socials tag is the black paddy, paddy as in irishman… i did not know! <3

i think it’s easy to forget that danny is actually.. just cool with the doctor & clara’s relationship sometimes. like in the forest of the night, when he finds out they’re still adventuring together, he’s not really that bothered by it. it’s just in death in heaven when clara tells the truth to him about her and the doctor’s relationship that i guess he gets some criticism in about the doctor’s morality and ruthlessness.

i just want to say that since series 8 aired there are so many different interpretations of their relationship. there are fics that are like ‘i don’t understand why clara would suddenly declare in dark water her undying love for danny’ and then write something to fill the gap (e.g. What Lies Beneath by D_Veleniet). so i guess it goes to show life is a mystery, and living through stories is a really good way of ‘getting’ them. it’s empathy from experience. clara & 12 have just been such compelling mysteries to me that i could only understand more and more with time.

‘she reacts to seeing him again like he’s a mirage in the desert’ hhhhhhh

i do think i always found series 8 to be more interesting than series 9. as if series 9 was like the post-honeymoon fallout of their relationship or something. like the consequences of having what you want, and how that changes you. like how desire is very much about fantasising about what you do not have (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqloPw5wp48 twilight by contrapoints). series 9 is also not as much a character-focused piece i think. what do they become when you bring them together, and they refuse to be parted? neodymium magnets. unobtainium. also adding missy to the duo is fun too, all the cracked mirrors. i liked the girl who died for having so many conversations that explore what they have become, like overly dependent on each other. (well, that’s subjective) but yeah they don’t really have that many character-centred episodes in series 9 the way that the girl who died is.

intimacy discretion pan in hell bent. (emotional, verbal, obviously — but who knows?) i don’t think they actually said ‘i love you’ — because what does that mean to them? when some two humans on earth say ‘i love you’ to each other, do they mean the same thing as what the doctor and clara would say to each other in the cloisters? i don’t think so. so what words would be enough? English language is too limited. The story speaks for itself. So it’s better that their relationship is ‘undefinable’.

(OP’s tags) I’ve never shipped the Doctor before, Four/Sarah Jane is the only other one I may get behind, how do people still think this was a father/daughter thing, I find that baffling and gross, it's fine if you want to see it as a just a super-intense friendship, they deliberately leave room for that because we can never have an unambiguous Doctor/Companion ship it's the law, but it's so not a familial thing, I've seen brother/sister too and it's almost as wrong, nO, but like they leave room for the platonic interpretation BARELY, you have to be ready to be in active denial, it's so blatant in series nine, this is a romance I mean come on, it's canon, I should really watch Dark Water/Death in Heaven again before posting this but I just didn't like it that much, and I'm so catastrophically depressed, those episodes have connotations I can't deal with right now, I ship it because it hits nearly all the criteria on my list of Things I Like Very Much in Shipping, in case I left anyone hanging on that, that's my manifesto.

girl what are the connotations of dark water/death in heaven…

There was a comment on reddit where someone asked to be given an explication of the entire ‘the Doctor and Clara are really, obviously, it’s not even particularly debatable in romantic love with each other’ interpretation, so I tried to give one and accidentally wrote a dissertation on Whouffaldi (which I was going to finish/expand for this post but then I didn’t, so we’re only really covering series eight).

This isn’t a ship manifesto, because I’m not so much explaining why I ship them as why I think it’s very difficult to argue they weren’t written as a textual, canon romance.

So, Clara ran off with Eleven because she fancied him (she admits this while affected by the truth field) and they subsequently had a mutual flirtation/romantic attraction. The Doctor acknowledges that it was mutual after he regenerates, but he now thinks he shouldn’t have let himself have that kind of relationship with her ('I’m not your boyfriend […] I never said it was your mistake’) because he’s a Time Lord/he’s centuries older/he’s a bad man/he can’t give her a normal life/additional alien angst. He’s remembered how different he is from humans and he’s trying to take a step back. Except the Doctor doesn’t make a clean break where their relationship is going to be strictly platonic from now on, he sends mixed signals. He says that, then immediately preens for her and asks her how he looks. He tells her she’s home (in the TARDIS) 'if [she] wants to be’ in a tone which could easily read as flirtatious. Then, knowing that it’s himself calling, he tells her to pick up the phone because 'it might be your boyfriend’ and is very emotionally vulnerable in asking for her acceptance that he’s the same person as the man on the phone.

Deep Breath also has their instantaneous old married couple bickering and his gentle, sincere 'I don’t want you to change’ in their very first actual conversation. That mundane intimacy and no-strings-attached caring underlines that they still know each other really well amidst the all the drama about uncertainty. Nothing essential between them has been lost. Vastra chastises Clara for thinking the Doctor was her ‘young gentleman friend’ by saying she might as well flirt with a mountain range and Clara snaps back that she always understood what he was but if anyone could flirt with a mountain range, it’s her. She thoroughly rejects the idea that looking older could ever change her feelings for him.

Their relationship in the next few episodes is very deliberately deconstructed and strongly re-established as being an equal-to-equal, adult partnership. The show bends over backwards to make it clear that the Doctor is not Clara’s mentor or father figure, she is not dependant on- or subservient to- him, he is learning from her and she has all the power in their personal relationship. He says something along the lines of 'I need you’ to her over and over, while she’s the one setting limits and maintaining a life outside of their time together. In Into the Dalek there are escalating situations where she takes him to task and she is right to do so. He calls her 'Teach’ and explicitly checks with her that he’s learning correctly; Clara tells him ‘You’re not my boss, you’re one of my hobbies’ to remind the audience that he is not in charge of her- she chooses to be there. Robot of Sherwood shows again how capable Clara is- being seen as the leader, talking her way to victory over the Sheriff- and allows that to co-exist with the suggestion that the Doctor is 'her hero’. That she admires and trusts him doesn’t mean she’s helpless without him.

(We’re also seeing a lot of the Doctor being childish in these episodes to remind us that neither his actual nor his apparent age has made him emotionally mature. Clara is good at pointing out to him when he’s being petty or intrusive, but she really isn’t any better than he is when it comes to her own behaviour, so they are on a very even keel here. His calling out of her is way more subtle than hers of him, for obvious reasons.)

Whenever the Doctor tries to pull his 'I’m a superior alien’ card on her she turns it around on him and she wins (eg: the 'do as you are told’ exchange and how it’s reversed in Listen). Also in Listen, the Doctor is wrong about what’s happening for the third episode in a row; he’s not infallible, he doesn’t always know better than humans, being the smartest person in the room doesn’t necessarily make him the best or most effective for the job at hand. He will always have more material power than Clara does- his experience, knowledge, access to technology, and superhuman abilities are sources of potential imbalance- that’s why she is exhaustively illustrated as having so much emotional power and such unshakable personal strength. She doesn’t need to be his material equal to be his equal partner.

So we’re seeing a lot of Clara as teacher, but just in case you missed it they explicitly spell it out in The Caretaker. The Doctor tells her 'I used to have a teacher exactly like you’ and she says 'You still do, pay attention’. She has enormous authority in this relationship and the Doctor looks to her as a source of moral constancy and accountability when he doesn’t trust himself.

HOWEVER, he can’t put her on a pedestal and forget to actually be her friend and support her emotionally the way she supports him, as he learns in Kill the Moon. She needs to be an equal, meaning he can’t treat her like a child or like an avatar of all humanity without individual frailties and foibles of her own. This episode was about not seeing her as just another human but also not seeing her as an exception. Neither of them is completely right or wrong in this situation, but the Doctor did have to learn that respect for a friend includes recognising when they need to be helped in less tangible ways instead of thinking they’re invincible. Being strong does not make her an island.

Meanwhile, Clara’s idealised image of him has been getting torn to shreds by his 'veils’ falling away in every episode and she needed to go through the wringer doubting him so that she can see him as he really is, not as a fantasy hero but a flawed man doing his best. Her acceptance can’t be conditional, she can’t treat him or their adventures like a storybook or a game. All of this being hashed out so openly and so thoroughly prevents the potentially icky power dynamic from ever forming and makes a romance possible.

Moving on to why I think it is a romance, there are little things which continue to remind us of the romantic tension after the conflict was set up in Deep Breath. In Time Heist, for example, the Doctor straight up says 'beat that for a date’ about the adventure they’ve just had, which is transparently competitive and puts their travels together in the same category as her going out to dinner with Danny. He doesn’t say 'let your date beat that’ or something similar which would mean the same thing but exclude the romantic aspect from a rivalry, but instead implies that the bank robbery was a date. In Listen Clara tells the Doctor she thinks his accent is sexy in a ‘like, enough already with your sexiness!’ exasperated way, showing an attraction to him which is totally incompatible with familial feelings.

Then we have The Caretaker where the Doctor is incredibly jealous and acts like a jilted lover. He was okay with Clara supposedly dating Adrian because Adrian reminded him of himself and that convinced him she wasn’t over him. His gratification that she’s still hung up on him is palpable and his wounded denial when he discovers he’s wrong is inexplicable unless he’s not all right with her moving on. He pushed her away for what he thinks are important reasons, but he doesn’t actually want to see her go. Clara is put on the defensive when she’s forced to confront her double life and she digs her heels in, hard. This sets up the Danny/Clara/Doctor triangle which drives much of Clara’s character conflict for the rest of the series. Tellingly, Danny is instantly shut down when he thinks they’re related (and the Doctor is super offended), but is unanswerable when- given more information- he intuits what’s really going on ('Do you love him?’ 'No.’ 'Really had enough of the lies.’ 'Not in that way.’ 'What other way is there?’). He knows Clara isn’t being honest with anyone about this relationship, including herself.

Mummy on the Orient Express is so blatant that the subtext has become pretty much exclusively text. Everything that’s wrong in their relationship is wrong because they aren’t honest with each other, especially about how much they care. Maisie saying 'Life would be so much simpler if we liked the right people, the people we’re supposed to like, but then I guess there would be no fairy tales’ is a spectacularly unsubtle summation of the romantic subplot. The Doctor is being an idiot martyr, making sacrifices for Clara’s happiness without actually finding out what she needs ('I thought [never seeing me again] was what you wanted’, 'Would that make it easier [to believe I am heartless]?’ He will play it however she wants him to). Clara’s control freak need to have the 'right’ kind of life and to make the 'right’ choices is clashing with what she really values most. She tried to move on, but she’s not over the Doctor, she tried to choose stability and normality but she is never going to put Danny first and she’s never going to be satisfied with just the quiet part of her life.

When she sees the truth about the Doctor, why he operates like he does, she realises how she (still) feels about him and surreptitiously confesses (her 'I love you’ on the phone is blocked and acted as directed to the Doctor, this is also how Jenna Coleman confirms the scene was intended). Her crap about being addicted to life or death decisions is just an excuse to avoid the truth, her reason for travelling with the Doctor has actually never changed. We were set up for this in The Caretaker when Danny asks her why she does it: she says because she ‘sees wonders’ and Danny questions why that’s something she would need to keep from him, to which she has no answer. From MotOE on, she lies to Danny that she’s not seeing the Doctor any more, even though Danny never once asked her to stop, because she knows this is an emotional affair and she feels guilty.

You don’t sneak around maintaining plausible deniability when confessing your platonic love to your friends. You don’t lie to your boyfriend about hanging out with friends when he tells you it’s fine. She also blames Danny for the almost-breakup when telling the Doctor she’ll stay despite Danny actually encouraging her to make it up with him, thus distancing herself from the very personal upset she revealed in Kill the Moon. Pretending it’s all about the adventures keeps her safe from needing to choose between the two men and from the Doctor rejecting her again. She’s glossing over that she was devastated by him treating her as 'human, of humanity’ rather than as Clara, individual and equal.

The Doctor quickly catches on in Flatline that she is lying to him about Danny knowing, but he doesn’t know Danny actually would have been fine with it and yet he never presses her to come clean. He’s way more upset that she lied to him than that she’s still lying to her boyfriend. He does not press her to resolve the situation because he knows it can’t be resolved without confronting the issue neither of them are willing to face. Her lying to him that the breakup was Danny’s idea also suggests she wants to keep the Doctor at odds with Danny, just in case he might try to include him on their trips or otherwise get along with him for her sake. She needs them separate to keep pretending. The Doctor lets her because he’s terrified if she’s forced to choose, she won’t choose him.

In Forests of the Night, Danny discovers her lie in very typical love triangle style, including verbiage ('you haven’t seen him for months?’, with suspicion and jealousy of the Doctor) but he isn’t really angry and doesn’t want to come between them. This reaction emphasises that none of this is about Danny getting in the way of her adventures or their friendship, none of this is Danny being unreasonable. He is completely okay with what Clara claims is going on, even if the adventures worry him, even though he doesn’t like the Doctor; he is willing to trust Clara’s judgement and only asks that she be honest with him. There is no reason whatsoever for there to be a problem or for Clara to lie except that she knows Danny is mistaken to think there isn’t a conflict between their relationship and her relationship with the Doctor.

The resolution to the triangle makes it clear what’s really going on. Clara wants to draw a line in the sand because she’s been half-caught in her lies, the guilt is too much and she needs to come clean with Danny. Her post-its in Dark Water are about how long she’s been lying to him and what the lies were, including her traitorous 'I love you’ (hence her bizarre insistence she won’t say it to anyone else from now on). She intends to choose Danny because she thinks that’s for the best and that the Doctor will never return her feelings. When Danny is senselessly and pointlessly killed before she can make it right with him, her grief and guilt and controlling nature are the perfect storm and she burns her most important relationship because of her need to fix things. Or, she would have, if it were possible for anything she does to destroy her relationship with the Doctor. His declaration of love ('Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?’) is the first time she has any inkling about his devotion to her and it’s too late for it to change anything.

But we still get the definitive answer re her priorities, as if it weren’t obvious: Clara gives a speech entirely about how the Doctor is the 'closest person in the world to [her]’ and 'the one man [she] would never, ever lie to’ and she’s giving this speech to Danny without realising it. The audience knows she’s finally showing her hand and giving him the straight answer he kept asking for, but she doesn’t because she would never admit this if she did. When it’s revealed who she was talking to, she doesn’t even try to take it back. They both know she was finally being honest. As to the Doctor’s priorities, it was never really in question, but he was willing to go to literal Hell to save a rival he dislikes, just for her sake. Immediately after she betrayed his trust and threatened him.

And then Clara and the Doctor both AGAIN put the other’s happiness before their own and tragically split up thinking they’re only hurting themselves, necessitating actual Father Christmas getting involved to show them they belong together. Clara tells the Doctor he’s the only man she would marry, she reacts to seeing him again like he’s a mirage in the desert, he begs her to elope with him (and she does), it goes on and on. Last Christmas is about them moving forward together and savouring every second.

Series Nine is like… off the charts romantic. From his poetic pick up lines about only seeing her face in a crowd and playing her Pretty Woman, to 'look at you with your eyes…’, and her 'if you love me in any way you’ll come back’, 'don’t apologise, make it up to me’ with naked suggestiveness all the way to 'we’ve have enough bad timing’ to them getting a romantic discretion pan away from their conversation in the cloisters. There’s nothing they could say in that moment that a)they haven’t already said and b)the audience can’t be allowed to see unless it’s the Doctor actually admitting to being in love with her. There’s nothing ‘bad timing’ could mean that’s platonic, friends don’t have bad timing. The entire series plot was literally that they love each other so much that them denying/repressing it could have ended the universe. They said ‘I love you’ and probably made out. I’m missing a mountain of stuff, but yeah.

I was going to rewrite this from the Coles notes version and do series nine properly while also bringing up the bits that left me scratching my head and some problems I had with both Danny and Clara’s arcs, but then I realised no one cares what I think.

#i don't think tumblr has a structure #but actually there are conventions. usually reblogs stay on topic unless they deliberately ironically stray from topic #as if you were talking to someone -- kind of group texting? there are stock phrases there are expected structures for #different kinds of posts #but if there's anyone who likes to do things in an unconventional way it's me #this is just a free-thought-flowing thing. stream of consciousness -- that.#i'm kind of in my deconstruct-the-conventions/narrative phase which i've kind of began since i watched series 8 probably #this impetus has gotten much stronger since i became independent of course. so really like pandemic times

73 notes · View notes

moon-ursidae · 2 years ago

Text

SESSION #9!

as always: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR BOTH GAMES AND THE HBO SERIES BELOW THE CUT!!!

ngl i’m not really feeling this rn so i might not play for very long. and these posts are kinda getting to be a chore and i want them to be fun haha. so idk if i’m gonna keep doing these. i started them so that i could remember my thoughts and stuff when i play. 🤷🏻‍♀️ ANYWAY

total play time: about 3 hours!

hostile territory?? oh geez

i just started the section where abby and manny go to find owen

i’m scared

i’m also fucking horrified for when i get to the ellie fight bc i’ve seen a lot of people say that ellie fights the way that you’ve been playing her??

so she’s gonna be placing hella bombs and is gonna be stealthy as hell and i’m SCARED

god this game is fucking gorgeous

“fuck danny. i’m jealous owen got to shoot him before i did.” hmmmmm. HMMMMMM.

the more i learn about abby the more that i REALLY understand how revenge gets the best of her as well.

abby thanking manny for a bunch of stuff? hmmmm that definitely isn’t a sign of anything

WAIT I’M ON MY OWN AGAIN?? NOOO

i hate being on my own so fucking much

close quarters branch??? hmmm

i like the difference between ellie and abby’s branches

shows a lot about their fighting styles

i hate this long hallway i have to shimmy through

i’m gonna get jumpscared

GODDAMNIT I FUCKING KNEW IT

FUCKING CLICKER JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

damn abby REALLY doesn’t like the seraphites

goddamn

“yea may she guide you right off a cliff” like holy shit bro

“these freaks are in our backyard.” i love how they’re setting it up though. she clearly doesn’t like the seraphites AT ALL. so how she forms her relationships w lev and yara later are really important

i miss seeing what ellie would draw and write in her journal :(

i hear footsteps…

big ones…

am i about to get my shit rocked when i shimmy through this doorway

i was wondering when i’d see infected

i love how you don’t need the code for the safes anymore

i just go through and listen for the different clicking sounds it’s so fun

wait is this egg a goddamn jak and daxter easter egg

fuck yea ‘relic of the sages’

is there an uncharted ring somewhere?

i hope so

SHOTGUN ACQUIRED BABY LET’S GOOOOOO

WHY ARE THERE MORE INFECTED GODDAMN THEY KEEP COMING FROM FUCKIN NOWHERE

woooaahhhhhhh this seraphite truck is cool

“you want peace? stay on your island.” she REALLY doesn’t like them jesus we get it abby

NEW HOLSTER LET’S GOOOO

seraphites!

i’d rather fight people over infected any day of the goddamn week

NO I DON’T WANT TO GO THROUGH THIS CRAWL SPACE

NOPE. I DON’T WANNA

OH MY GOD THIS IS THE ROOM WITH THE FERRIS WHEEL IN THE DISTANCE THAT I SEE ALL THE TIME

i’m about to go crazy in photo mode >:)

WORKBENCH FINALLY

THIS SHIT IS SO EXPENSIVVEEE

there are so many fucking seraphites in here oh my god

god that took so long to stealth bc it was so many different levels oh my god

WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT IS THE FIGHT SCENE WHERE THEY TRY TO HANG HER HAPPENING RIGHT NOW??????

I’M SCARED

flashback first!

the lights are so pretty in here 🥺

DOG???

DOG WHEN?

is he trying to make moonshine??

LMAO the way he went “abigail.” when she shook the jar

OH I’M ABOUT TO FUCK THIS SCOREBOARD W THIS BOW

YEAAAAA I GOT EM ALL

FUCK ALL YA’LL

13 BITCH LET’S GOOOOOOO

oh my god this is a mural of fucking salt lake city isn’t it?

YUP.

YUP. almost exactly from the pov where joel and ellie were standing

that’s crazy how that’s painted from memory

goddamn

aw the xmas decorations 🥺

THE MUSIC IS SO GOOD

wait is she about to ask him to go to jackson or is this after??

good mood because she found TOMMY.

SO THIS IS BEFORE JACKSON.

I HATE IT HERE.

“who’s more about justice than isaac?” you mean revenge?

everytime i start to like her more they remind me of the crime she committed that was killing joel miller.

but i also see how they keep pushing revenge on both ellie and abby’s side. joel took out the whole hospital to get ellie. to get revenge for taking her from him. for not giving her a choice. then abby wanted revenge for her dad. then ellie wanted revenge for her dad. it all goes in a never ending loop.

if ellie killed abby, lev would want revenge. then someone would want revenge for ellie, and so on and so forth. it would never end. so ellie had to break that cycle.

this is just so crazy bro

ugh okay now that i got that out

please don’t tell me it’s where they’re trying to hang abby

GODDAMNIT I SAW THE RAIN LIGHTING AND TREES AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE FUCK IS ABOUT TO GO DOWN

OH GOD

THE SOUND DESIGN????????? ARE YOU JOKING????????

SO GOOD.

this looks fucking amazing

if you told me this was shot live action i’d believe you

THIS IS INTENSE

OH MY GOD

IS THAT EMILY SWALLOW????????????

THE FUCKING ARMORER?????????

HELLO????????

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE HAHAHAHA

HOLY FUCKIN SHIT

YARA!!!!!

CLIP HER WINGS????

ARE THEY GONNA BREAK HER ARMS??????

OH MY GOD PLEASE NO SHE’S JUST A KID

I CAN’T.

A HAMMER????? WITH A FUCKING HAMMER?????????????

I’M GONNA THROW UP

HOLY SHIT. THAT WAS ABSOLUTELY LEV.

YUUUUUP I SAW HIS BALD LIL HEAD

HOLY SHIT ABBY LET’S GOOO

IT BEGINS.

GIMME THAT HAMMER BITCH.

OH SHIT STALKERS??????

THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME. THE SINGLE TORCH THROUGH THE DARK ASS WOODS???

FUCKING AWESOME.

OH IT’S THAT ONE BITCH THAT AMBUSHED ME.

OH. MY. GOD.

THAT WAS BRUTAL.

SITTING HERE W MY JAW ON THE FLOOR.

GOD THIS EVEN STARTS OUT LIKE JOEL AND ELLIE.

ESCAPING THE QZ AND ESCAPING THE ISLAND

ABBY’S ATTITUDE “fine don’t tell me. i don’t really care.” LIKE JOEL WHEN HE WAS LIKE “i don’t care how you got infected.”

AHHHHHHHH NAUGHTY DOG I’M GONNA YELL

NEW MANUAL LET’S GO

INCENDIARY SHELLS??? AYO???

that’d be good as hell for rat king huh?

poor yara man :(

awe abby’s “stay behind me” she’ll deny she cares but you can tell that she does even just a little bit

more infected!

OH SHIT

SHALMBLER I AM BOOKING IT GOODBYE I AM HORRIFIED

I’M OUT

WAIT.

IS THIS A FUCKING AMBULANCE?????

WAIT IS RAT KING NOW????

I’M SCARED WAIT IT CAN’T BE

NO BC ABBY HAS A JACKET

IT’S DEFINITELY LATER

AND NOW CARRYING YARA AND RUNNING LIKE JOEL DID W ELLIE

WHAT THE FUCK

her hand is so red 🥺

oh my god her arm looks fucking awful :(

THE MUSIIICCCCCC

🎶on my own again🎶

wait. is the fucking boat scene coming up?

i’m scared. this building looks like bad news.

LONG GUN HOLSTER LET’S GOOOO

i was fully expecting to see seraphites out here not infected jfc

ALABAMA COIN

“should be a straight shot from here.” abby you forgot that this is a last of us game

it’s not gonna be that easy

WHAT THE FUCK DID I SAY ABBY

i cannot express how much i DON’T want to go into this building

i’m almost at 30 hours 😳

i think i’m gonna end here actually bc it’s almost 6 am haha

super intense this time!

in only a few hours of playing!

#the last of us #the last of us part ii #the last of us part two #the last of us part 2 #tlou #tlou part ii #tlou part two #tlou part 2 #the last of us spoilers #tlou spoilers #the last of us part 2 spoilers #the last of us part two spoilers #the last of us part ii spoilers #tlou part 2 spoilers #tlou part two spoilers #tlou part ii spoilers #mads plays the last of us!🌿#mads plays the last of us part ii!🍃

0 notes

five-rivers · 3 years ago

Text

Jack-o-Lantern

Exhumed was the second winner of my poll, so here's a fairly short, fluffy piece for it!

Warning: mentions of dead bodies and past violence, none actually shown 'on screen.'

“Detective Patterson,” said Danny, “why did you leave five messages on my phone on a school day?” After the whole ‘I’ve been sort of dead for a couple years and also I get into massive amounts of trouble all the time through no fault of my own’ revelation, his parents had gotten the whole family cell phones.

Danny still generally preferred talking to people face to face, but he was definitely developing a slight addiction to cell phone charms.

“You didn’t listen to any of them?”

“Why would I do that when I can just call you?”

He heard a loud groan from the other side of the line.

“Oh, is Detective Collins there, too?”

“You heard that?” asked Patterson. “That’s- Okay, Collins. I’m getting there. I know we’re in a hurry. Look, how fast can you get here, Fenton?”

“That depends entirely on where you are and which one of me you want. Also, can Sam and Tucker come? We were going to hang out.”

There was a sort of staticky blaat from the other side, and the skritch skritch cha of a phone being moved, accompanied by unintelligible arguing. “Did you really just ask if you can bring your friends to what might be a crime scene?”

“Is it a crime scene?” asked Danny.

“Not yet,” said Collins.

“So?” prompted Danny. “Can I bring them?”

“You don’t respect us at all anymore, do you?”

“I respect you plenty,” said Danny, “but I like hanging out with my friends, I’m doing this for free, and there aren’t any explosions where you are.”

“You tell him, Danny,” said Sam, giving him a little fist bump, even though she was mostly watching Tucker play bootleg Tetris on his PDA.

“Just because there aren’t explosions doesn’t mean there isn’t anything dangerous,” argued Collins.

“Sure,” said Danny. “But it isn’t like they aren’t in danger all the time anyway. Ghosts attack the school, like, daily.”

“That is a terrible argument.”

“But true,” countered Danny.

“Fine, they can come. Just get here quickly.”

“I would, but you know, you still haven’t told me where you are.”

Danny, when touching down in a nearby alleyway, didn’t see anything particularly out of the usual. For Amity Park, that was. Except that no one was out on the streets, and there were several police cars. Still, that could be for anything. Normal things, even.

Except, they had called him.

“You don’t think it’s a dead body, do you?” he asked. “I mean, I don’t really want to see a dead body…”

“If there’s a dead body, I’ll be throwing up on you,” said Tucker, who had, as a matter of fact, been icy calm when faced with Danny’s body the first time around, and had only had a breakdown the next day. “Just, you know, as revenge. Between friends.”

“They did say it wasn’t a crime scene, right?” asked Sam.

“Yeah,” said Danny. He returned to human form. This way, he didn’t have to worry as much about people connecting Sam and Tucker to Phantom… although, that might be a lost cause. He had seen that ‘who is the ghost boy dating’ article a while back.

“So, there probably aren’t any bodies,” she said, reasonably.

“Right,” said Danny. “That makes sense. I think they were this way.”

The street they walked onto was heavily decorated for Halloween. There were skeletons and streamers, blow up monsters, orange and purple lights, spiderwebs, black cat statuettes, blood splatters, houses that almost looked really abandoned, except for the neat lawns… The neighborhood had really gone to town, especially given that this particular town was Amity Park.

Of course, there were also dozens upon dozens of jack-o-lanterns. They were lit, too, which was odd in the daytime, flickering with rainbow colors. Maybe someone was doing a Pride event?

His core chilled slightly, and a thin stream of mist emerged from between his lips. “Oh,” he said, delighted.

“Hi, Danny,” said Patterson, briskly walking over to him from where she and Collins had been observing the street. “We got the call a few hours ago, apparently a bunch of little ghosts have infes- Uh. Gone into all the Halloween decorations here.”

“Were you about to say ‘infested?’”

“Maybe,” said Patterson. “Sorry.”

“Apology accepted, please continue.”

“Anyway, after the whole ghost invasion thing where we got sent to the shadow realm-”

“Nightmare Realm,” corrected Tucker. “The Shadow Realm is completely different.”

“I was making a Yu Gi Oh reference,” said Patterson. “But people are sensitive to this kind of thing.”

“Have they done anything yet?” asked Danny.

“No, but we’ve issued an advisory,” said Collins, finally joining them. “Do you know why they’re here? Or how to get rid of them?”

“There’s not really any reason to get rid of them,” said Danny. “Wisps are mostly harmless. Here, I’ll show you.” He jogged over to the nearest jack-o-lantern and waved the others over.

“Hey, is this the best idea?” asked Tucker. “Aren’t these the guys who accidentally drugged you?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” said Danny. “We’ve moved past that.” He knocked on the top of the pumpkin, and several wisps flew out, happily whirling around Danny. “See? They’re just little guys.”

“Great,” said Collins, “why are they here?”

“Uh, because they were invited, basically?” said Danny. “They’re will-o-the-wisps. And these are jack-o-lanterns. They’re, uh, originally, both of those were names for the same thing, and jack-o-lanterns are supposed to ward off evil spirits and represent good spirits, or house good spirits, and stuff, so…” Danny gestured vaguely.

“This is going to be a city wide thing, isn’t it?” asked Collins.

“Probably,” said Danny. “I mean, wisps are basically all over the place. They’re good little guys.”

Collins placed his hands in front of his face like he was praying. “And if the GIW come after them?”

That would be bad. Danny felt himself bristling.

“The GIW are dumb enough that we could convince them they’re just candles, as long as no one told them otherwise,” said Sam.

“Maybe sow the idea a little bit beforehand,” said Tucker. “Put an ad out for rainbow tealights, maybe?”

Collins looked at them, unamused. “And we’re going to be the ones doing most of that ‘convincing,’ aren’t we?”

“You are the adults,” said Sam, shrugging.

Danny felt himself tearing up. “You guys are the best friends,” he said.

“Oh no,” said Tucker, eyes wide. “It’s happening again.”

“What, what’s happening?” asked Patterson.

Sam pulled Danny away from the wisps. “Wisps are great,” she said, “but they can overcharge other ghosts.”

“In other words, they make Danny high,” explained Tucker.

“I’m not high this time,” protested Danny. “I can’t be grateful for good friends?”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” said Danny.

“Right,” said Collins. “Well, we’re going to give you a ride home. Patterson, you get to explain to the Fentons what happened.”

“What, why do I have to tell them that ghost drugs are a thing?”

“Because I had to tell them about the time his arm came off.”

“I still don’t get why you’re so upset about that,” said Danny, “I put it back on, like, a minute later.”

“That is, in fact, part of why we’re upset.”

“I don’t get you guys.”

#danny phantom #ectober #ectoberhaunt treat #ectoberhaunt 2021 #ectober 2021 #exhumed

379 notes · View notes

dp-marvel94 · 4 years ago

Text

Fangs or No Fangs

For Phic Phight 2021. Jack and Maddie know that Danny is Phantom. They saw him transform and they knew they should talk about it with him. But...even after two weeks, that conversation feels impossible. And so Maddie has a plan: a trip to the planetarium to cheer Danny up, to finally see him smile, and to pave the way for the truth.

Word Count: 8,191

Also on AO3 and Fanfiction.net

Note: So this story is a bit of a mess of three prompts. I started with the first one and it veered into this. Part reveal fic. Part post-reveal family bonding (err....Jack and Maddie know and Danny knows that they knew but they haven't talked about it and no one's acting like they know so...?) Either way, it's all an unholy mix of fluff and angst.

Prompt by @amabsis : The Fenton’s notice that Danny isn’t smiling as much, so the only reasonable thing to do is take him out to cheer him up! What happens when they do manage to get him to smile, and they find out he has small fangs?

Prompt by @charcoalhawk: Maddie and Jack find out that their son is phantom and fully support him. Danny and Jazz however did not get that memo.

Prompt by @phan-pheeking-tastic : Post-Reveal Family Bonding

It had been two weeks since Maddie and her husband had found out what the portal had actually done to their son. Two weeks since they learned that their baby boy was a ghost. Two weeks since they saw their ghostly enemy, Phantom, turn into their son.

It was on a normal ghost hunt. They’d been following Phantom, for once not yelling their normal insults but stalking him silently. The pair turned around a corner, to find Phantom standing with his back to them, a ring of light around his waist. Maddie tensed, anticipating an attack. Then the ring passed over the ghost’s head and the woman gasped. Her heart just about stopped, staring at the figure in front of her.

The figure, wearing jeans and a t-shirt and now with black hair, turned around. His blue eyes widened in panicked fear.

“Danny?” Jack whispered in awe beside her.

The boy’s mouth fell open, body stiff with fear. Maddie blinked and the boy in front of them, their son, their Danny, disappeared.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two went home, numb with disbelief. Maddie thought it was a dream at first; she must have imagined it. Or this was Phantom playing a trick on them except…

Maddie knocked on her son’s bedroom door to check on him. “Danny?” The sound of feet pacing and heavy breathing came from behind the door. Then there was a sudden clatter, a yelp as if the boy had ran into something. The woman frowned. “Can I come in sweetie?”

“Just...just a second.” Danny called, voice echoing but unusually high with obvious nerves.

There was a flash of light, visible from under the door. Maddie paled, wheels turning in her head. Then seconds later, her son pulled open the door, opening it only wide enough to see his deathly pale face. “Yeah? What’s….” He coughed, forcing his voice into a more normal pitch. “What’s up?”

The mother stared into his wide eyes, biting her own lip. “Danny….” She hesitated, suddenly unsure. “Is there...do you want to...Is everything alright?”

The boy paled at the question, shaking slightly. “Yeah. Everything’s...everything’s fine. I’m fine. You’re fine. Everything’s fine.”

Maddie frowned. “Danny...are you sure-”

He cut her off, starting to push the door closed. “Yeah. Yep. It’s fine. I’ve...I’ve got homework. Seeyouinthemorningbye!” The teenager said the words so quickly, Maddie could hardly understand them. Then the door slammed in her face.

Dread dropped like a rock in the mother’s stomach. Shaking herself, the woman turned back and started down the stairs. She and Jack needed to talk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“It’s true. Isn’t it?” Her husband said, as soon as he saw her weary face. “Danny’s...Danny’s Phantom. Our son…”

“Our son’s a ghost.” Maddie whispered. Danny’s panicked expression in the alley and just minutes before in his bedroom, flashed in her mind. “It must be true. All the evidence is there.”

How their equipment targeted their son. The injuries he tried to hide, to blame on bullies. Skipping class, the detentions, the missing assignments. Missing curfew, sneaking out. His constant exhaustion. Their equipment going missing, only to end up in Phantom’s hands. Their children’s fervent support of the ghost boy.

Danny was Phantom. He must be. They saw him change. They saw him as a ghost. Danny….he was a ghost, meaning...he was dead. And it was the portal. It must have been. The portal, their life’s work, the machine that he had said just gave him a little shock, must have killed him. Except….did it? It had been two years since then and Danny had grown. Maddie had hugged him since and he was warm. She’d felt his heartbeat. He seemed to be alive so….?

The parents didn’t know. Danny was a ghost...and yet he was not? Or he was still alive but had some kind of ghost powers?

Maddie put her head in her hands. “We should talk to Danny.”

“In the morning.” Jack yawned, rubbing his tired eyes. “I’m exhausted and Danny….” He looked down, guilty.

The mother sighed. “He must be tired too, if he’s not already asleep.” They had been talking for hours at this point, processing what they’d seen and hypothesizing. Both of them needed to lay down and calm their racing thoughts. So the pair went up to bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maddie really had wanted to talk to Danny in the morning. But he’d dashed out without as much as a word to them. He did have school. They could wait and talk to him after, right?

Then after school, he raced up to his room with the excuse of homework before Maddie could even look at him. Soon after, he disappeared from his room and the mother saw a report about Phantom fighting the hunter ghost in the park. Guilt stabbed at her heart.

When he came home after curfew (and luckily uninjured), the woman didn’t have the heart to chastise him. And he looked so tired, so weary. He ran up the stairs, muttering an apology.

Talking to Danny the next morning turned into that afternoon again, turned into the next day, turned into waiting for the weekend. But then the boy was always over at his friends’ house or busy doing homework. He was nervous, flighty, skittish, and tense the brief times he was near his parents. And when he was, Danny wouldn’t look at them, wouldn’t talk to them, could hardly stand to be in the same room.

Maddie cursed herself. She knew they needed to have this conversation. She and Jack needed to talk to their son. So why couldn’t either seem to gather the courage? Why did the thought of talking about what the portal had actually done to their son, about how their work, their words, their actions, had affected him, make Maddie’s stomach roll? Why did it make her heart lodge in her throat, her lungs refuse to take in air? Why did it feel so insurmountable, like the guilt, the secrets would bury her alive?

Part of her wished that Danny would say something himself, that he would break the silence. Hell, she wished Jazz would call them out but no such luck. Instead a few days turned into a week, turned into two weeks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maddie sighed, looking down at her coffee. It made her insides squirm anxiously, thinking about all this. All that they’d done before they knew, her continued silence. The guilt was eating the woman up inside and Danny’s sober mood broke her heart. It had been so long since she’d seen him look anything but nervous and distrustful, since he’d been in the same room as them for more than five minutes. The mother’s shoulders fell. He looked so sad, so anxious; she’d given anything to see him smile again.

A soft yawn sounded beside her, causing the mother to look. The boy himself was swaying sleepily, standing at the counter. How had he gotten there without her noticing? He was so quiet, silent as a ghost. Maddie shook her head at the thought.

Then she frowned, letting out a short gasp. Danny’s had his hand through, literally intangibly, through the cupboard.

The boy turned, eyes widening; he suddenly looked very awake. He pulled his hand out, clutching a box of cereal. “Uh…. morning, Mom.” He paled, eyes widening.

Maddie’s frown deepened at that. “Good morning sweetie.” She eyed the coffee pot, trying to wipe the surprise off her face. “Do you want some coffee?”

“No.” Danny shook his head, biting his lip. “I’m good. I’ll just...uhh...bye.”

The mother held out a hand. “Danny. Wait.”

The boy didn’t respond, instead turning and practically sprinting away at almost inhuman speed. Maddie wanted to chastise him for running in the house. Instead, she put her head in her hands. Did Danny do things like that all this time? If he did, how the hell had they not noticed? They were really that bad parents, weren’t they?

Annoyance at herself flared at the thought as Maddie raised her head. She balled her fists. “We need to do something.” The woman looked at her husband. “We have to talk to Danny. Today. Actually….” She stood up, looking in the direction her son had gone.

“Wait Madds.” Jack interrupted. The mother looked down at where he was still seated. “We can’t just spring this on him.”

Maddie’s eyes twitched angrily. “Jack.”

“Just listen.” The man held up his hands. “How about we go out and do something together as a family? The Amity Park Science Center, they have a new planetarium show. Danny will love it. He’ll have a good time. He’ll get to relax and see that...see that we want to spend time with him.” The man worried his lip, his voice wavering with emotion. “I just want him to feel comfortable and safe talking to us, Maddie.”

Maddie’s expression softened and she sat down, grateful for husband’s insight. “You’re right.” She sighed. “Maybe doing something like a normal family will help him relax. And then...then we can talk to him when we get home tonight.”

With that, the parents agreed and informed both of the kids, earning wary but tentative agreement from both. Maddie frowned at that. The distrust stung but both Fenton parents had earned that distrust. They were ready to do what they could to fix that, starting with removing or deactivating all of the anti-ghost weapons in the GAV. They’d already moved all ghost hunting equipment into the basement and discussed dismantling some of the more dangerous-to-ghost equipment. But the ghosts, ones that their son had unbeknownst to them been combatting for the past few years, were still a very real threat to the town. They’d need to find a way to keep their weapons from being able to hurt him (Maddie’s heart ached at the thought) but that was for another time.

Now, Jack and Maddie were waiting downstairs for both kids to finish getting ready. Jazz walked down the stairs, a tight frown still on her face.

The girl raised her brow at the sight of her parents. “What are you wearing?”

Jack glanced at his wife and then down at himself. “Just jeans and a t-shirt, Jazzarincess.” He scratched at his neck, trying to look less uncomfortable than he was.

“But...you’re not in your jumpsuits?” The girl asked, still unsure.

Maddie shrugged. “We just wanted to wear something a little different, sweetie.” And a little more normal, the woman hoped she implied.

If Jazz understood the implication, she didn’t comment. Instead, she turned as Danny came bobbing down the stairs. The two shared knowingly looks, the boy’s eyebrow twitching as he noticed his parents’ clothes.

He stopped at the bottom of the stairs, shifting nervously. “Where are we going?” He asked quietly.

“To the Amity Science Center.” Jack beamed. “They’ve got a new show at the planetarium. Doesn’t that sound exciting, son?”

For just a moment, interest sparked in Danny’s eyes at the word planetarium. Then the wary look was back. Maddie sighed. “Come on kids.” Hopefully, he would enjoy himself and this would in fact help him to loosen up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The fifteen minute car ride to the Science Center was quiet and tense. Danny glanced anxiously around the GAV as if expecting weapons to activate and point at him. He flinched at every bump in the road. Jazz looked worriedly between her brother and her parents, her brow furrowed with thought. Honestly, Maddie wasn’t expecting much better but it still stung. Half-heartedly, she tried to idly chat with Jazz but the teen just looked all the more wary.

Soon enough, the family arrived at their destination. They quickly passed through the queue to pay and then entered the first room, a geology exhibit. The kids wander off, softly talking to each other while passively looking at the displays. Maddie could pick up the worried tones but walked away, deliberately not eavesdropping. They were probably wondering about why exactly their parents were being so ‘weirdly normal’ and taking them out for a family day. But after a minute, the pair drifted apart, Danny wandering to the back while Jazz looked at a large display on the left wall.

Maddie was reading about volcanoes when she spotted her son at the case to her right. His eyes roved over the display, widening at the words. His frown slowly ticked up. The mother raised a brow at his expression, feeling relief.

She then looked into the case wondering what had him relaxing. Oh, of course. These were the meteoroids. They even had one rock from the moon that had mystified Danny even since he was a little boy.

Danny’s eyes lit up at the exhibit, literally. For just a moment, neon green flashed in his eyes. His teeth flashed in a smile. Maddie let out a small relieved gasp at the sight.

It was then, Danny noticed her. His eyes widened and his head turned, hand automatically moving to cover his mouth.

The mother’s expression instantly fell and she wondered at the behavior. But she didn’t say anything, instead allowing Danny to wander off again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The family continued exploring, slowly moving from exhibit to exhibit. To Maddie’s dismay, Danny was tense at first. She hadn’t seen him smile again since the meteors. His expression was uncharacteristically neutral. It’s not that he was bored (not that he’d even been bored on a trip here) but he was visibly anxious, not allowing himself to relax.

That eventually changed, as the group entered the heart of the museum, the dinosaur exhibit. Life-sized replicas of T rex, Triceratops, and Raptors loomed over them, faux rocks, plants, and wall murals simulating Earth when the dinosaurs walked on it. With the shifting lights, the occasional dinosaurian roars over the speakers, and the excitable little kids running around, it was lively. Danny and Jazz were huddled over a display of replica triceratops eggs while Maddie looked at a fossil of a primitive flowering plant.

“Oh Danny! Stand there. I want a picture.” Jazz’s voice came from behind her and the mother turned.

“No. Jazz. Come on.” Danny pouted.

“Please.” The girl begged.

After a moment, Danny huffed. “Fine.”

The boy moved to stand in front of the replica raptor what his sister had pointed out. He forced a closed lip smile, holding out two fingers in a peace sign. There was a flash of light from Jazz’s phone, leaving the other teen blinking. “Jazz.” He whined.

“Sorry.” She smiled, sheepishly. Then she held out her phone. “Now take my picture.”

Danny wrinkled his nose, obviously displeased but played along anyway as his sister came to stand beside the raptor. “You should stick your hand in its mouth and look like you're screaming.”

Jazz rolled her eyes, instead just smiling at the camera. That is, until a roar sounded from the speaker directly behind her. The girl shrieked in surprise at the noise, jolting forward and holding her hand over her heart.

Danny blinked in surprise before suddenly cackling with laughter and pointing at the now huffing girl. He snapped a few pictures, capturing her undignified face.

Meanwhile, Maddie beamed. Hearing her son laugh after so long was a beautiful sound. She walked forward, wanting to join the moment.

Then Danny spotted her. He blushed, covering his mouth with one hand before his chuckles quieted. His mother’s expression fell again. That was odd. This was the second time he’d covered his mouth once she’d seen him enjoying himself. She raised a brow as if to ask but Danny ignored the look.

Instead, he started leading Jazz away. “Come on. Let’s get some pictures in front of the T rex.”

Maddie turned, watching them walk away and noting the oddity. Jazz had been the one wanting pictures. The girl also wore a disappointed look as she softly said something to her brother, earning a frown from him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This continued as Danny seemed to enjoy the trip and grow more comfortable. Maddie would catch glimpses of him smiling at an exhibit or laughing at something his sister said. Then he would see her watching from a distance and cover his face. It was deeply bothersome. Did he not want his parents to see him enjoying himself?

By the time they were waiting for the doors of the planetarium to open for their show, Maddie’s stomach was flopping with anxiety over the behavior. Along the walls of the hallway leading to the theater was a display about the history of space travel. Ever since they'd first brought Danny here as a seven year old, this section had always brought her son such joy. He would smile and ramble, often even jumping up and down in eager anticipation for the doors of the planetarium to open.

Now, Danny was visibly trying to contain himself. Even as his wide eyes eagerly roved over the displays, his lips were forcefully pinched closed, almost as if the boy was exerting great effort to not smile. The display broke Maddie’s heart.

Then, the woman’s face set in determination. She wasn’t having this. They come here to cheer Danny up, for some parent-child bonding, so that’s what she would do. Maddie took a step forward, preparing to ask Danny what he was looking at. But then the doors to the planetarium opened.

Danny turned at the noise, meeting her eyes. His mother gave him a comforting smile. “Come sweetie. It’s time for the show.”

The boy nodded, giving her a closed mouth smile. He walked in front of her, into the theater and Jack and Jazz followed.

Maddie paused in front of a group of four seats. “How’s here, Danny?”

“Looks good.” The boy confirmed, sitting down.

Jazz sat to his left and after a moment’s hesitation, Maddie took a set to his right. Briefly, the boy tensed.

“Danny boy!” Jack’s enthusiastic exclamation cut through. “Are you excited?”

The boy blinked, turning. “For what?”

“For the show, dear.” Maddie chuckled.

“The show. Right.” Danny nodded. “It’s supposed to be about blackholes.” The corner of his lip turned up. “The poster looked awesome.” At that, the boy relaxed, letting out a breath.

Beside him, Maddie settled into her seat, relaxing as well. She hoped Danny would enjoy this. Soon, the lights dimmed, an image of the Milky Way appearing onto the dome in front of them.

“It’s starting.” The woman whispered happily to her son.

Danny perked up, his eyes widening at the sight. Music played through the speakers and the image shifted, the stars and clouds of the galaxy moving as if in a time lapses. “Wow.” The boy awed.

But the show was just getting started. Narration began playing through the speakers, the story of blackholes and their discovery. The life cycle of stars and their death. It was mesmerizing, the swirling images above and in front of them in the dark. It made Maddie’s lips part in a pleased smile, the beauty making the breath catch in her throat. Space really was incredible; the woman understood why her son loved it so. Thinking for her son….

Beside her, Maddie heard an excited gasp. She looked to the side, slowly taking in her son’s face. His eyes were wide, staring at the wall as the corner of his mouth turned though his lips didn’t part. He was clearly enamored with the program and therefore didn’t notice the mother’s observation at all. The woman smiled; he really was adorable when...he….was….

Maddie’s thoughts trailed off, her eyes widening. For a second, something flickered in Danny’s eyes before disappearing. The woman’s brow furrowed. A breath later, she saw it again. Ethereal green light flicker in his eyes, circling his iris before disappearing. Slowly, the boy’s lips parted. He blinked. The glow, the ghostly glow returned and Maddie’s jaw dropped. The light swirled like galaxies, overtaking his irises.

The mother stared. At the glowing eyes. Her son's glowing eyes. She recognized that shade of ghostly green. Phantom’s eyes. Maddie tried to shake away her surprise. She knew her son as Phantom. She did. She knew he was a ghost, or part ghost, or...she didn’t really know but….

Danny’s mouth parted into a grin. And Maddie’s heart skipped a beat. He was smiling. Danny was smiling. The ghostly light was swirling in his eyes, the light reflecting off his cheeks, his freckles. His freckles… they were glowy faintly and… shifting across his face, forming constellations. It was almost...beautiful. No, not almost. The boy’s smile widened, his teeth shining in the dark. He looked so happy and it was the most beautiful thing Maddie had seen in weeks.

All too soon, the planetarium show ended, the lights slowly turning on. Danny stayed looking forward for a bit as the ghostly light of his eyes dimmed. But he was still relaxed, smiling widely. At that sigh, Maddie finally noticed something. His teeth were...odd. On the top and bottom, his canines were unusually long and sharp, almost like….

The woman gasped, drawing her son’s attention. He paled, eyes widening in alarm.

Maddie pointed, quietly asking. “Danny? Are those-”

“No.” Danny cut her off, his mouth snapping shut. He covered his mouth with his hand as he rambled. “Of course not. Of course, I don’t have fangs. That’s ridiculous. Why would I have- Umph.” Jazz elbowing him cut off.

The woman frowned, opening her mouth to reply. But she had no idea what to say.

Luckily, Jack came to her rescue. He patted her knee. “Let’s go get some lunch, Madds.” His voice lowered. “And we can talk about…” He pointedly looked at Danny, letting the statement linger.

Maddie nodded in agreement. “Come on kids.”

She stood up and fronted. Danny looked pale and worried again. She offered him a comforting smile. At that, his eyebrow twitched but his anxious expression lingered. Then Jazz nudged him, before standing. “Come on Danny.” She offered her hand, pulled him out of his seat, and started walking out of the room, deliberately standing between her brother and her parents.

Disappointment rose in Maddie at that but she pushed it down. They would talk about all this soon enough but as for now… the woman’s stomach growled…. Getting food sounded like a good idea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ten minutes later, the family took their seats at a secluded table in the Center’s cafe. They’d bought overpriced sandwiches and now Danny was taking small, tentative bits of his meatball sub. Maddie looked down, picked up her reuben, and started eating. At the same time, Jack dug in and Jazz nibbled on her chicken salad.

There was silence for a long while, the buzz of the other patrons surrounding them. The woman wanted to make conversation, to ask what Danny had thought of the planetarium show. He’s enjoyed it, clearly. But Maddie wanted to hear him ramble excitedly about it. She wanted to see him smile again.

But Danny looked so tense now, so worried. His shoulders were hitched, almost all the way up to his ears and he was pointedly avoiding looking at his parents. The sight of her son's fangs and his face once he realized that she’d seen them flashed in her mind. She wanted to ask about those. When did he grow fangs? And why? It was because he was a ghost, wasn’t it? Many ghosts they’d seen did have fangs. But did Phantom? Maddie couldn’t remember seeing them before, not that she’d seen that version of her son up close often. Granted...she hadn’t seen him smile in either form for what felt like months. The woman’s heart fell.

Danny’s quiet voice broke through her thoughts. “Are you gonna ask?”

Maddie looked up, the corner of her lips twitching down at the sight. His shoulders hunched, eyes downcast. The mother reached forward, wanting to squeeze his hand comfortingly but hesisted. Instead, she offered him a caring smile. “Do they hurt?”

The boy looked at her, brow furrowing in confusion. “What?”

“When my wisdom teeth came in, I remember my gums and jaw being really sore.” The woman shook her head, focusing on the boy’s closed mouth. “I know it’s not the same thing but…. If they’re giving you problems, we can take you to the dentists.”

Danny frowned. “No. I don’t...I don’t need to go to the dentist.” He wrung his hands. “They don’t hurt or anything. Haven’t at all really.”

Jack raised a brow. “Even when they were growing in?”

The boy opened and closed his mouth before covering his face with his hand again. He glanced at his sister, worriedly. Jazz raised one brow, frowning deeply. She then looked at the parents briefly, her expression all the more confused.

Danny’s forehead wrinkled. After a long moment, he answered. “They... uhh… I just woke up one morning and...my teeth were like this?”

Maddie blinked in surprise, taking in the words. The fangs just showed up overnight? Well…maybe that was better than them slowly growing and causing the boy pain.

With that thought, the woman forced the confused expression off her face. “Can we see your teeth, Danny?” She gently asked.

The boy’s eyes widened and he vigorously shook his head.

Beside the mother, Jack’s expression softened. He reached forward, patting the boy’s arm with surprising gentleness. “It’s alright Danny-boy. You can show us.”

Danny didn’t flinch at the touch, instead looking thoughtfully between the two adults. Slowly he opened his mouth. There on display were his small fangs.

Maddie leaned forward, observing. Unlike last time, she wasn’t surprised. She’d known what to anticipate and to her shame, the woman had expected to feel discomfort or even disgust at the inhuman dentistry. But no such feelings arose. Instead her expression softened. She smiled authentically. “Aww sweetie.... They’re adorable.”

Danny blushed, gapping at the reaction. His embarrassed expression intensified as Jack replied.

“Ah come on Madds. You can’t call him cute.” The man grinned. “Our Danno’s fierce! And those fangs just make him look more badass.”

The boy blinked rapidly, like he could hardly believe what he was hearing, like the words just didn’t compute. Jazz looked equally confused.

Maddie waved the man off. “No one said he can’t be cute and fierce.” Her smile widened. “Our fierce little man.”

Danny facepalmed, whining. “Mom!”

The response was so normal, the typical reaction to a teenager being embarrassed by their parents in public. It made Maddie’s heart sing in relief, so much so, she started laughing. A moment later, Jack did as well.

The kids stared at the adults, both looking embarrassed and slightly tensed. But slowly, the pair relaxed, a soft smile crossing Jazz’s face. Danny’s lip parted as he snorted as well, shaking his head.

After a long moment, Maddie and Jack’s chuckling stopped and Danny’s smile faded. He eyed the adults, with crossed arms and a raised brow. “So...are you gonna ask why….?” He trailed off but Maddie knew what he was asking.

The parents looked at each other before Jack shrugged. “If your teeth aren’t bothering you and you’re happy with them, we don’t need to worry about it. Do we?”

“Um...I guess… but…” Danny still looked unsure, glancing between the two.

Maddie tried to comfort him. “You don’t have to tell us why, if you don’t want to. If you’re not ready.” Her expression was just serious, just forceful enough. Hopefully, he understood what she was really trying to say, what she was implying.

The boy uncrossed his arms, looking at her thoughtfully. “And...you’re okay with me having...having fangs?”

“Of course we are.” The woman’s expression softened. “We love you no matter what you look like.” It was odd wording for comforting her son about his strange teeth but that wasn’t what this was really about.

Something that might have been realization flashed in Danny’s eyes. He might just have understood.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of their time at the museum was much more relaxing after that. The family talked more freely as they finished eating. After lunch, they finished exploring the museum exhibits and visited the aquarium portion of the center.

“Look! The shark feeding’s in ten minutes.” Danny pointed at the tank, his fangs poking just below his lips as he gave his parents a tentative smile. “Come on.”

He bounded forward, positioning himself near the front of the growing crowd. Maddie stood right behind him, the two chatting about the earlier planetarium show while waiting. The corner of Danny’s mouth gradually turned up as he got more involved in the conversation. Then he was actually smiling. For a second, his hand reflexively swung up to cover his mouth but then he lowered the appendage. He smiled unsurely but when Maddie made no comment, nor did her open expression change, he relaxed. Soon, the boy was talking animatedly and Maddie cherished every word.

Minutes later, the shark feeding and subsequent educational talk captured the mother and son’s attention. Or rather, it just managed to wholeheartedly capture Danny’s interest. Maddie’s eyes flickering between the tank, the volunteer answering questions, and her son’s happy face, small fangs included.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The family continued exploring. Danny cheered softly at the touch tank, once one of the stingrays finally paused long enough for him to touch it.

“Yes! Finally! See. That wasn’t so bad.” He talked to the animal, gently passing his fingers along the soft skin.

He smiled at Jazz cooing over the adorable poison dart frogs.

“Awww. I just want to pick it up. Cup the little guy in my hands. It’s so cute.” The girl leaned against the glass.

The boy chuckled. “Jazz. It’s a poison dart frog. You’d be deader than me in five minutes.”

The other teen huffed, blushing before she rolled her eyes teasingly.

Danny and Jack stopped in front of the jellyfish tank, their translucent bodies hovering behind the glass.

“Danno! Ghost jellyfish!” The man pointed excitedly.

The teen shook his head. “There’s no way that’s what they’re called.”

Jack thumped the sign. “Yes they are!” Danny blinked, reading the sign in disbelief. The man continued. “Imagine it son. Ghost jellyfish that came back as ghosts. Ghost ghost jellyfish!”

Danny laughed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After that, the family explored the outdoor exhibits. Meerkats, Tortoises, Gibbons, Lemurs, Nile Crocodile, Red Pandas. The zoo’s star exhibits: the tigers and wolves. Yes, even the petting zoo.

They enjoyed all of it. Maddie asked the zookeeper's questions. Jazz took pictures. Jack peered through the glass with his normal boyish excitement. And Danny smiled.

Danny nudged his father. “Hey Dad. Can I have a dollar to feed the goats?”

“Sure kiddo.” Jack fished out his wallet and pulled out two bills. “For you and your sister.”

The boy nodded, handing the bills over to one of the employees and receiving two cups of feed. He handed one to Jazz and entered the enclosure. He smiled as the animals crowded up, eagerly sniffing at the cup.

“Alright. Alright. Here you go.” He grabbed a handful of pellets and held his hand out. An enthusiastic goat ate the food out of his hand. “Hey! Hey! That tickles!” The boy chuckled, scratching the animal on its head.

Maddie watched, enamored. Her son looked so happy, smiling so brightly.

“Oh, do you want some?” Danny asked, holding his feed-filled palm out to one of the sheep. The sheep licked the food out of his hand and he petted the curly wool.

True to what she had said, his little fangs were cute. And what’s more….

His eyes flickered towards Maddie’s face, noticing her attention. He didn’t stop smiling as he finished giving the goats, sheep, and donkey food and pets.

Ten minutes later, he turned over the empty cup. “That’s it guys. I’m out.”

The animals sniffed, wandering away as they seemed to realize they wouldn’t get any more food from the boy. That same enthusiastic goat persisted, nudging and licking Danny’s open hand. “I don’t have any more food for you.” He laughed. The goat bayed. “You can complain all you want. You’re not getting any more from me.” He petted the animal’s head anyway.

What’s more, seeing Danny enjoying himself and not turning away when Maddie noticed him smile, made the woman feel happy herself and hopeful. Spending time with the kids as a normal family did seem to get Danny and even Jazz in a better mood and more relaxed, like she and Jack had hoped. And Maddie found that she had enjoyed herself as well, despite the bumps. Yes, this was a day well spent and the mother wished it wouldn’t end.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But all too soon, the Science Center closed and the family had to leave. They piled into the GAV and as Jack started driving them home, the reality of what they’d have to face, the conversation they’d need to have once they got home, struck Maddie. Her insides flopped with sudden nerves. They needed to talk about it. Danny’s accident and his ghostly abilities. His alter ego, Phantom. The ghost fighting and resulting injuries. All the secrets. Guilt sunk in her stomach like rock. There needed to be apologies. For her and Jack’s part in the accident. For the times they’d ranted about capturing Phantom at the dinner table. The insults. The times they chased him, they shot at him. Danny’s fear filled face when they’d seen him change in that alley flash in her mind. They had terrified him and -

“Can we uh….can we stop somewhere for dinner?” Danny’s nervous voice cut through her thoughts.

Maddie frowned, glancing back at him. He was pale and biting at his lip. The woman furrowed her brow wondering at the sudden change in mood. Maybe he had picked up on her own nervousness. She glanced at her husband. Jack was also quiet and uncharacteristically focused on the road.

“We can.” Her eyes flickered in front of them, spotting a Nasty Burger a few blocks away. “There’s Nast Burger right there.” She frowned. “Wait. That one doesn’t have a dining room. Is eating in the cat alright?”

“Sure, Madds.” Jack nodded and turned into the parking lot less than a minute later. He rolled down the window after pulling up to order.

“Welcome to the Nasty Burger.” Came a voice through the speaker. “What would you like?”

After some deliberation, Jack recited the orders and pulled forward. He paid and then received the bags of food which he handed to Maddie. He pulled away from the window and parked. The woman surveyed the meals and passed Jazz and Danny’s food to them in the back seat.

The family ate in near silence for a while. Music softly filtered through the radio and outside was the sound of traffic but inside the vehicle, no one spoke. Maddie’s mind swirled, going over possibilities for the upcoming conversation. Where to start. How to approach this. Should they apologize first? Hint that they know about Danny’s secret identity. Just come right out and say it? Really, they should have done that long before now. They knew that Danny was Phantom and he knew that they knew. They should have talked to him about this weeks ago but...why was this so hard? How hadn’t they noticed sooner? Why couldn’t she just-

A gasp sounded in the back seat. Maddie stiffened, looking back in time to see a blue mist exit Danny’s mouth. The mother’s brow furrowed. It wasn’t cold enough to...Wait...understanding hit her as the boy’s eyes flickered side to side. Something glowing and green flashed in front of the GAV and there was an echoing roar.

Maddie paled. In front of them in the parking lot was a giant ghostly beast. It was a mix between a bear and a cat, snarling and hissing fiercely. The ghost growled at some teenagers sitting at a picnic table near the ordering window and in response, the kids bolted away, screaming.

Behind her, Danny was fumbling with his seat belt. His eyes widened panickedly as he looked between the scene in front of them and his parents. “I uh...I need to….” His hands were shaking as he fumbled over his words.

The mother glanced between her son and the attacking ghost. Part of her screamed to move; it was her job as a ghost hunter to protect people but….

“Uh...I need to...I need to go to the bathroom?” Danny stood, his knees knocking together even as his eyes flickered from his mom to the spectral attacker.

Maddie’s heart fell; she knew what this was actually about. “Danny.” She said softly.

Jazz bit her lip, turning from her brother to parents. “Shouldn’t you get...get out there?”

“Jazz.” The mother frowned. “Danny.”

“We’ll be fine.” The girl’s pitch rose as she flopped a hand, forcibly casual.

“Yeah.” The boy took a step back, eyes still pinned on his mother. “We’ll be fine. You guys go deal with the ghost.” He motioned behind him, towards the GAV’s toilet. “And I’ll just be in-”

“Danny!” Maddie interrupted. She stood up and turned, standing in the gap between the driver’s and front passenger’s seat. “We know. Danny. We know that you’re Phantom.”

The boy paled, his eyes widening with shock. “What? That’s not-”

Maddie pointed through the front window, forcefully. “Go.”

Danny’s lip trembled. Fear flickered over his face and underneath it, hurt. The mother’s eyes widened at the reaction before it hit her. She’d said the wrong thing. She’d messed up. Why do she keep-

“Go deal with the ghost, son.” Beside her, Jack had turned. His normally booming voice was so gentle. “You can change. Go deal with the ghost and we’ll be here when you get back.”

The boy stared at the man, anxiously searching his face. He was still shaking slightly and...were his eyes watering? Maddie remained frozen, watching. She wanted to speak up, to offer him comfort and reassurance. But the words stayed locked in his throat.

Then there was a roar outside, a boom. Danny’s head turned and he sprinted. Maddie blinked, paling as he literally passed through the closed door. A second later, something flashed out the corner of her eye. Maddie turned, watching as Phantom….Danny flew out in front of the GAV, shooting an ectoblast at the other ghost. Her knees shaking, Maddie fell into her seat. The bear-cat growled and shot a fireball at the ghost boy.

Maddie’s heart skipped a beat, her hand twitching over the door handle. They should go out there. She and Jack should be dealing with this. She reached for the holster on her belt. Her brow wrinkled as she found...nothing. Wait...she wasn’t in her hazmat suit. No belt, no holster, no ectogun. She frantically looked on the floor, before glancing behind her. There had to be something, someway to-

“Mom.” Jazz’s quiet voice came from behind her. “Danny will be fine. He knows what he’s doing.”

Yes. Maddie nodded, trying to agree. She had seen Phantom in action and he was competent. But...this was...this was Danny. Danny was out there fighting the ghost. Her heart rate increased. “No. We need to-”

Jack’s hand was on her arm. “No. We can’t, Maddie.” His voice wavered. “No guns. Not..not after we….”

The woman swallowed, understanding. No. No. They could go out there, wheedling guns, not after….Maddie shivered as the memory hit her. Pointing a bazooka at Phantom….Danny… his eyes wide with fear. Chasing him down while yelling insults. Danny...Danny, her son, even if glowing and floating with green eyes and fangs...Danny dodging their shots.

Maddie felt her breath quicken. No, they couldn’t go after the ghost in their current state. They shouldn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t dream of, pointing any ectogun in Danny’s general direction. Not when they hadn’t made sure their weapons won’t target him, that they couldn’t hurt him. Not when…..Danny’s fearful face, just minutes ago...not when he might think they...they wanted to hurt him.

Another growl and a crash and the mother’s head suddenly whipped up, just in time to see a flash of blue light. Floating twenty feet in front of them was Danny, holding a thermos and pointing it at the other ghost. The bear-cat hissed as it was sucked in but seconds later, it disappeared.

Maddie let out a relieved sigh, as her son caped the thermos. Then the boy’s head turned, his eyes meeting hers through the window. His shoulders were raised, his wide eyes misty. His lip trembled and then he disappeared.

The woman gasped, reaching forward. “Danny. Come back.”

The boy didn’t reappear and Maddie’s heart skipped a beat. Her hand reached for the door again. She needed to find her son, to reassure him, to -

A knock sounded at the side door, across from where Jazz and Danny had been sitting. Maddie flinched, looking back. Another knock.

Maddie frowned, brow furrowing. “I don’t see...anything.” Nothing and no one was visible through the window but...that didn’t mean no one was there.

“Danny.” Jazz called, standing. Warrily, she glanced between her parents. She bit her lip. “Mom? Dad?”

“Danny’s….Danny’s invisible, on the other side of the door. Isn’t he?” Maddie asked.

The girl nodded. “I think so.”

“You can open the door for him, Jazz.” Jack sighed. He looked down guiltily.

Hesitantly, the teenage girl stepped forward. Her hand hovered over the handle before she pulled it open. “It’s okay, Danny.” She whispered. “You can come inside.”

There was no reply as Jazz stepped back. The hair on the back of Maddie’s neck raised as the temperature dipped. Her eyes widened as the door slide closed, seemingly by itself. Then there was the shaky sound of someone sighing. And finally….Danny reappeared.

Maddie’s heart skipped a beat. There he was. The ghost boy. Phantom. Danny. Her Danny...her son, floating in the mind of the GAV. He trembled nervously in the air, his misty green eyes flickering between the ghost hunters. He looked so scared and...something in Maddie broke.

The woman stood up, suddenly. Her hands started shaking, her eyes watering. “Danny.” Her voice shook.

“Mom?” His echoing voice questioned.

Maddie nodded, hesitantly approaching. “Yes, sweetie.” She reached forward, gently touching his arm even as he flinched. “I love you so much.”

Danny’s eyes watered, his voice trembling. “You...you really mean that? Really? Even though I’m…I’m...” He shook his head, unable to force more words out.

Tears started to blur her vision. “Oh, baby. Yes. Yes. I love you so much.” Her breath quickened, a sob threatening to escape. “We...we should have said something sooner.”

“No. I….I should have…told you. I should have...” Danny looked down, sniffling.

Maddie gently pulled the boy into her arms. “I...I should have reassured you.” Danny stiffened before relaxing into the hug. “I should have made you feel safe, like you could trust me with this.”

Footsteps sounded behind him. “Danny boy.” Jack squeezed in beside the two. “I am so sorry, son. I love you so much.” The man wrapped his arms around his son and wife.

With that, Danny finally started crying. A soft sob broke forth from his throat. “Mom. Dad.” He whined. “I just... I’ve been waiting...waiting for the other shoe to drop and you’d see. You’d finally say...say something and…. And...” He sobbed. “You’d see what a monster...what a freak..a freak I...I am…”

“No. Danny. No. You’re not...you’re not a monster. You’re..You’re my baby boy….You’re my baby, no matter what. I’m...I’m so sorry you ever...we ever made you think….” Maddie cried, squeezing him tighter as he cried. He was cold. So cold. But solid in her arms. She could feel the slight fluttering of his heart, pressed up against her own heart. And the ectoenergy swirling under his skin. That was new, something she’d never felt before. And she thanked the heavens that she hadn’t, that she’d never laid hands on Phantom when they hadn’t known the truth, that they had never landed a shot on him. Maddie choked through her sobs. “We messed up. We messed up so badly. And I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I need to do better.”

“Danny. I’m sorry.” Jack reassured, sniffling himself. “I’m so sorry too. I have so much to make up for. Me and your Mom...we...we will...we’ll make this up to you.”

Danny warbled. “Mom. Dad. I...I love you guys. I love you guys so much.”

The words pricked at Maddie’s heart as much as they uplifted her. All that they had done and he still said that. All the woman could find in herself to do right then was hold her son tighter.

For a second, the woman saw movement out of the corner to her eyes. A flash of red hair and...relief on Jazz’s face. The girl joined the group hug. “I love you little brother.”

Danny sniffled, nodding in acknowledgement even as he continued crying.

For a long moment, the family stayed huddled together. All of them were crying, trembling slightly with emotion. But through the sadness, another emotion broke through...relief. Danny sighed, the corner of his lip turning up slightly as his tears slowed.

Finally, the boy gently pulled out of their hold. He wiped his wet face. “You really...you really mean all that?” He looked between his parents. “You’re okay with….this?” He motioned up and down his body. “You’re okay that I’m a ghost? That I’m Phantom?”

Maddie offered him a watery smile. “Yes. I love you no matter what or who you are.” She placed one hand on his face and Danny’s lips parted just enough to see his fangs. “No matter what you look like, you’re my son.”

Dad nodded. “Fangs or no fangs. Ghost or human or….something inbetween.”

The woman glanced down, at the slow movement of his chest, the glow radiating from his body, the air below where he floated. “We don’t really understand this. But...I know I’d like to.”

For a moment, Danny looked worried. He floated back, away from Maddie’s hand.

Jack’s expression softened. “We want to know what life is like for you now. How we can help and support you.”

Maddie agreed. “We haven’t been there for you for a while but we’re here now.”

Danny nodded. “Okay….Okay...I think..I think I believe you.”

The parents looked at each other and Maddie’s stomach flopped. His tentativeness was understandable but still… it made her heart hurt. They’d lost much of Danny’s trust and would have to work to gain that trust back. They were fortunate he was willing to try rebuilding their relationship at all.

The mother sighed. “We do have a lot to talk about but….” She motioned around the crowded GAV. “We should go home first.”

Danny nodded. “Yeah.” With that, everyone stepped away, returning to their seats. The teenager glanced down at himself, blushing. “I’m still in...ghost form. I’ll just….” He bit his lip, closing his eyes.

Then a ring of white light, the same one that started all of this, formed around his waist. The light passed and Danny, now with black hair and blue eyes, gracefully touched down. He picked up his fast food bag and pulled out his half eaten burger. He took a bit before looking up at his parents, both of whom were standing and marveling at his recent transformation.

He smiled sheepishly. “Uhh...can we get milkshakes?”

Maddie blinked at the seeming random question. Beside her, Jack laughed. “Sure thing, Danno.” He walked to his seat and buckled. “What do you want? Peanut butter and bacon?”

Jazz wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Ew. Why would you eat that?”

Meanwhile, Danny laughed. “Because it’s delicious.” He addressed Jack. “Yeah Dad. That sounds amazing.”

The man nodded. “Madds, what about you?”

The question drew the woman out of her observation. She returned to her seat, answering. “Mint Chocolate chip sounds good to me.”

“I’ll do strawberry cheesecake.” Jazz piped in.

“Okay. Peanut butter bacon, mint chip, strawberry cheesecake.” The man listed off. “And I’ll do...peanut butter banana.”

Jack repeated the list while he pulled back into the drive through line. And Maddie sighed, relieved. Finally addressing Danny’s secret had not gone as she’d planned. But…. she glanced to the back to see Danny and Jazz were eating and chatting with each other, looking as relieved as she was. It went well, all things considered. As she said, there was much to figure out. But...today they’d had a fun time as a family. They’d relaxed, they’d bonded, they’d finally seen Danny smile again, after months. And...the truth was out. Apologies were made. After the fear, mistrust, and anxiety, Danny and Jazz as well knew that she and Jack would fully support Danny, ghost powers and Phantom alter ego included.

Maddie looked back, meeting Danny’s eyes in the rearview mirror. He gave her a fanged smile. Yes, it felt like...everything would be okay

#Danny Phantom #Phic Phight 2021 #Phic Phight #My fic #identity reveal #Maddie Fenton #jack fenton #jazz fenton

439 notes · View notes