#Even if just Vlad was made aware of Dan

[anonymousapparition]

my favorite thing about TUE & all related fanworks is how they canonically state that Danny absorbs Vlad's ghost half too and then the show treats Dan like an older Danny only

Like, can all ghosts do that? Absorb other ghosts for power and remain the dominant personality? Was Danny even the dominant personality? Why exactly hasn't Vlad capitalized on this yet?

[starry-bi-sky]

thinking about Dan in CFAU and just how different he needs to be (in my opinion) in order for Danny's whole thing to work. Canon Danny with Dan's influence, would never even consider thinking of killing anyone even after losing people close to him because he'd be scared of becoming like him. CFAU Danny however has been festering in this hurt and anger for years and wants the Joker dead and is plotting it. I don't think he'd do that with Dan's influence.

I explained how Rath came to be in this post here. Things happened in TUE as normal -- Danny's family dies, he lives with Vlad, Vlad rips out his ghost half. The difference here is that not only was Danny in a grieving state (something exclusive to banshees that the post goes into) but he also doesn't end up fusing with Vlad.

What happens instead is that Danny's ghost half, consumed already with grief and now enraged by being murdered and lied to by Vlad, destroys him completely and disappears into the ghost zone. He traps himself unintentionally in a negative feedback loop of grief, and as a human spirit banshee, cannot mentally handle the constant agony and sorrow he's experiencing. What happens is that he ends up driving himself insane with misery.

So the difference here, ultimately, between Dan and Rath, is that at the end of the day; Dan is fully aware of his actions. He knows what he's doing is wrong, and delights in it. He acknowledges his lack of humanity and feels no remorse in doing what he does.

Rath? He's... not. Not really. Dan is a hulking mass of muscle; tall, towering, terrifying. He loves what he does and does what he loves. Rath, however, appears as a scrawny young boy in raggedy clothes far too big for him, hunched in on himself while dirty, unkempt hair curtains his face and hides whatever he doesn't have ducked down in his curled-in form.

Rath is locked in a constant, unending state of sorrow and misery. He, for lack of better words, is unable to perceive the world around him properly and lashes out terribly and violently at anyone or anything that catches his attention. The only thing that he knows is that his family is gone, his other half is gone, that everyone he loves is gone, gone, gone.

He is a zombie apocalypse wrapped up in the form of a malnourished child, wandering the world in search of people who are not there, and becomes furious if you're not them. He is constantly crying, but he's been crying for so long that he's all but lost his voice. Meaning anyone trying to keep an ear out for him has to listen for soft, pained gasps and quiet whimpering, and wonder if the sound they're hearing are hurt survivors, or the very thing they're running from.

As a result, Rath's influence on Danny isn't that he's scared of doing something bad and becoming like him. He's scared of losing control of himself and dooming himself and others to eternal misery. As a result, he's adamant that things that he's done were not done out of pure emotion, but were active choices he made.

Up to and including killing the Joker. There's enough grief and rage behind his views on him that anyone could argue, especially knowing that Danny's a ghost, that he was not in the right mind when he did it. He was blinded by his emotions and was not in the right mental capacity, he had no control over himself. It'd work as a convincing argument.

If it weren't for Danny himself arguing against it. Killing the Joker was a choice he made, fully and willingly. It was autonomous, premeditated murder and he won't accept anything else -- it was not a fit of passion, it was not act of insanity, it was a decision. He won't accept it being anything else but revenge either, and if anyone tries to claim that it was a necessary evil he will yell at them. He didn't do this for the betterment of the public, that was just a fortunate side effect. He did it for himself and Jason. If you wanted it to be a necessary evil, then you should've killed him yourself. It was a selfish evil and he knows it.

In the end, Dan’s existence would prevent Joker’s death. Rath’s existence only solidifies it.

Rath's complete difference from Dan is one of my favorite parts about this au even if he never makes a direct appearance.

[wolffallsintodanmeihell]

So I was talking to my bf the other night and made this rec eps list for fun. The idea pretty much was like to challenge myself to see if I had to recc someone who was hesitant to watch the entire show due to length and wanted to get a general gist, which eps would I recc for them to get a good feel, esp if they've maybe onIy had prior experience fics/art or want to delve on that but wanted to have an idea of canon first. I llimited myself to 15 eps with 5 extra "reccomended ", my focus being character dev eps and plot stuff like the lead up to reign storm, valerie's plotline, danielle, etc.

To be honest it was kinda hard at points lol, esp since DP is episodic moreso than plot heavy so it's not really like making a list for like a long running battle shonen or something, but hey this was fun to do fndnd.

Also again this is not a "you must follow this or else" type thing, I only did this for fun, I'll even link the tiermaker I used in case someone has their own version and opinions they wanna post as well which I'd honestly love to see.

To explain my reasonings

Req. Tier

Mystery Meat - First ep of the show, get introduced to main cast, set up yada yada

Parental Bonding - Introductuon to Paulina, first ep we get an idea for Sam and Danny's relationship.

What You Want - Tucker only really has two episodes during the show, so at the very least the first one focusing on him would be good to have to delve a bit into him.

Bitter Reunions - First Vlad ep, esp since he's Danny's arch-nemesis would be weird not to get introduced for later on.

My Brother's Keeper - Jazz finding out about Danny's secret, plus I really feel this is a great episode showing their dynanic and getting to learn more of how Jazz is.

Shades of Grey - best character Valerie gets introduced here, so felt it was pretty important to include esp for later on.

Public Enemies - This is the first episode where the status quo is changed and now Amity Park is just generally aware of Danny. Thinking he's an enemy yeah, buttttt still aware of Inviso-Bill i nearly typed in buffalo bill

Maternal Instincts - Danny and Maddie getting screentime together, Vlad's second appearance, and the start of Maddie straight up hating his ass lol.

Memory Blank - Mainly chose this one since it's where we learn how Danny first had the accident, so hey backstory stuff.

Reign Storm - The whole plotline with Vlad and Pariah Dark's ring and crown, more Valerie development, it's a fun episode imo. Too bad this didn't get followed in S3 but-

The Ultimate Enemy - Do I really gotta explain lol, Dan and Clockwork, Danny finding out Jazz knows his secret, etc etc like it's pretty much the episode every reccomends.

Flirting With Disaster - Big development for Valerie showing how she's developed imo, continues the Danny and Valerie stuff from Reign Storm, also again I'm biased towards Valerie lol

Reality Trip - Look I'll just be blunt I fucking love this episode, like it's genuinely my favorite of the three specials. It's a fun adventure, I love the Danny being revealed plot line, it's an exciting watch, could not leave it out.

Kindred Spirits - Danielle introduction plus more Vlad development as well, plus depending on your watch order I think this is counted as the S2 finale?

D-Stabilized - More on Danielle and Valerie's plotlines, and for a general bias honestly find it to be a pretty good episode and if any I'd say are "required" from S3 it would def be this one.

Recc. Tier

These were the most difficult cause there's still a bunch of episodes I'd rec.

Life Lessons - First ep where we see Danny and Valerie learn about each other outside of a negative context, plus pretty funny episode.

King Tuck - Again, Tucker barely gets any episodes so I do think his should be watched. Similar reasons to what I put for "What You Want".

Secret Weapons - First ep post-TUE where we see how Jazz and Danny are now that they're both aware she knows his secret. Get more development between them and more Vlad screentime too.

Eye for an Eye - This was such a hard one to choose between D-Stabilized and it, but I felt the former was more important in the end. Sets up the Vlad becoming mayor plotline that gies throughout S3 and also it's just funny like Vlad really rigged an election over a prank war with a 14 yr old.

Urban Jungle - I'm personally not the biggest fan of this episode, plus it's not really a special despite being advertised as such, but it does introduce the ice powers Danny gets that stays with him till the end so I felt it would be a good one to have listed as well.

Fun fact I actually had an earlier ver that incl. Million Dollar Ghost over Public Enemies, but when I thought about it I felt the latter had more bigger impact than the former simply setting up a plot line that Reign Storm goes more into anyway. Plus I really wanted to include Control Freaks cause it introduces Freak Show but again was limited 😭😭

Also it's very hilarious that for all the villains who's episodes I couldn't include, Desiree got BOTH her episodes in, like damn her impact 🤣

Anyways here's the Tiermaker I used in case someone wants to do their own!

[sunnys567]

Friends in Strange Places Ch. 3

What if Vlad was good instead of evil? Link to chapter 1:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/39040329/chapters/97656390

-------------------------------------------------- Within a secret lab in a castle that once belonged to the Wisconsin Dairy King, light flickered on the face of Vlad Masters. He was focused very intensely on the soldering project he was working on. He hadn't left the lab in the last seven hours.

In the corner of the lab, two green vultures were picking through a pile of various machine bits. They looked over at Vlad, who was totally absorbed by his work, then made eye contact with each other. One of them coked an eyebrow and the other nodded.

"Oi, Vlad, ve're gonna take a quick break. Stretch our vings a bit, ya know?"

"Yes, yes, very good." Vlad replied, not looking up from his soldering. "Take as long as you need."

"Vouldn't hurt to take a break yourself, yeah? You've veen vorking in here an awful long time."

"Perhaps later. I don't quite feel the need for one yet."

The first vulture looked at the second one who just shrugged. He set the machine part in his beak down, and the two of them turned intangible and flew through the floor.

They returned to solidity as they arrived in one of Vlad's libraries. A third vulture was perched on one of the armchairs by the fireplace, a newspaper in his wings. He looked up at the other birds' arrival.

"Dat lunatic's not still vorking, is he?" He asked the other two. They nodded solemnly in response.

"Ve tried to convince him to take a break," The raspy voiced vulture said. "But he vouldn't go for it."

"D'oh ver Pete's sake!" The lead vulture threw up his wings in indignation, his newspaper pages splattering across the floor. "Dis is just getting ridiculous! I'm going to go knock some sense into dat guy!"

With that, he turned intangible and flew up through the ceiling. The other two looked at each other.

"Think ve should go too?" The vulture with the glasses asked his companion.

"Nah. Poor Vlad's gonna feel attacked enough vith just him up there. Besides, I'd like to catch up on da local politics." The raspy voiced vulture replied, rifling through the pile of disconnected newspaper.

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

"Plasmius!" Vlad's heart almost stopped as the bird popped up from the floor. "I have a bone ta pick vith you!"

"Can't it wait? I'm rather busy."

"Dat's exactly da problem! Ever since you returned from Amity Park you've done nothing but vork, vork, vork! If you're not in da lab, you're on da phone! And vhenever you do go out it's just to talk vork vith da suits!"

"My apologies for having a job. It's a thing humans have."

"Don't you sass me! You know I know how all dat stuff vorks you great buffoon!"

The vulture perched on Vlad's work table.

"Even ghosts need a break from time to time Vlad. I mean, I get vhy you don't want to come down to Florida with me and da birds, but why don't you go back down to Amity, eh? Ve're close to securing a path to the Fenton's portal. I bet dat ghost kid would be happy to see you. You of all people know how lonely it can get, being in his position."

"He's not lonely. He has friends who are aware of his situation and understand and accept him for his 'position'." Vlad lifted his goggles and looked at the vulture. "He's a teenager. I don't imagine he wants to spend his time hanging around with an old man like me."

"Ay ay ay." the vulture shook his head. "Vell, vhat about dose other two, yeah? You should go down and catch up vith dos freaks."

"Jack and Maddie are ghost hunters." Realizing the vulture wasn't going to leave him alone, Vlad begun packing away his tools. "Do I have to explain to you why it's a bad idea for someone like me to spend long periods of time around them?"

The vulture slowly sighed.

"Vlad. You and I both know you're better dan dat. You've had twenty years of practice keeping your powers hidden. Heck, da kid's veen living vith dem for months and he hasn't veen found out. And if dat doofus hasn't been caught, you're more dan safe."

"I don't want to bother them."

The vulture raised his eye brow at Vlad.

"Dat's veak Vlad. Ve saw how happy dos idiots vere to see you when dey came down here."

"I told you to stop spying on me when I have guests!"

"And I vant you to stop lying to my face, but ve can't all get vhat ve vant, can ve?"

The two of them glared at each other.

"You know, Vlad," the vulture's tone became uncharacteristically soft "You've been cooped up in dis castle with no one but us ghosts for da last two decades. Change can be scary, but it can also be good fer ya, you know? Personally, I tink you deserve to go after what makes you happy for a change, yeah?"

Vlad stared at his neatly organized soldering kit for a few seconds.

"Perhaps you're right."

"Finally!" the vulture threw up his wings and smiled "You're starting to listen to reason!"

"I'm going to the cabin for the week. That should provide a sufficient break."

The vulture's sour expression  was back in an instant.

"Oh no, you're not fooling anyvun! You're gonna spend da whole veek collecting, and analyzing and basically da same stuff you do around here anyway. Dat cabin just means more vork!"

"Well, it'll be a break form your squawking, at any rate." Vlad said as the door to the lab slid open. "You three can handle the rest of the cleanup, can't you? Great. I'll be upstairs, packing for my trip."

The door slid closed before the lead vulture could respond.

"Oooooh, dat Plasmius." he fumed. "If he didn't give such good vacation time, I'd peck dat idiot's eyeballs out."

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

Maddie sighed next to Jack on the couch.

He was working on a cross stitch pattern of a ghost. She was holding an old photograph of a time she'd taken Danny to Amity Park Park when he was nine. In the photo Maddie was hugging the smiling Danny's shoulders. They both looked so happy.

They didn't seem to have days like that anymore.

"I miss Danny." she said out loud.

"I think he's up in his room." Jack responded without looking up from his work. 

"Or did I send him to clean up the lab?" he tapped his chin thoughtfully with the needle.

"No, not like that Jack. It feels like we used to be a lot closer than we are now. Danny would always come to me about everything. Problems, secrets, or even just to ramble about space." Maddy smiled briefly at the memory before frowning again. "I'd give anything for him to open up to us. Or even just hear him list the moons of Jupiter or something."

"Speaking of space, he is a teenager Madds. Teenagers need space to grow and figure themselves out."

"I know Jack." Maddie sighed. "It just almost seems like he's purposely been avoiding us for the last few months. Have you noticed how quiet and nervous he's gotten? And it feels like it came on suddenly. Ever since the-"

Their conversation was interrupted by the doorbell.

"I'll get it!" Jack cried, practically leaping from his seat. Maddie smiled. That man was like a distractible puppy. She sighed and went back to staring longingly at the photo.

Jack opened the door and met the most dour looking letter carrier he'd ever seen. He wordlessly handed Jack a white envelope.

"Thanks man." Jack said.

Were you supposed to tip delivery people? Jack thought the mail carriers usually just dropped letters in the mailbox and left, so he wasn't sure what the protocol was here.

He had heard stories about the US postal service that were scarier than any ghosts he'd ever faced, so he figured he'd better tip the letter carrier, just to be safe.

He dug through his pockets for a coin and flipped it into the mail carrier's hand. The coin almost seemed to disappear in his palm. Weird.

Jack began to retreat into his house. "By the way," he paused halfway through closing the door "You might want to get some sun, pal. You're as pale as a ghost." He shut the door the rest of the way before the carrier could respond.

There was no return address on the envelope. In fact, there wasn't any address at all. Not even a stamp. Not a clue as to who it was for. Guess I'll just have to open it and find out. Jack thought, as he sliced open the envelope with a Fenton Letter Opener they kept on the table near the door. He pulled out the contents, which were a piece of paper and a brochure. He quickly skimmed the letter as he walked back to Maddy.

"It seems to be for Danny." He said, handing the letter and brochure over to her. "Some kind of science-convention thingy he was randomly selected for."

Maddie sat up and hungrily scanned the papers. She was beaming when she finished reading.

"Jackpot!" Maddie pounded her fist in the air. "This is is exactly what the doctor ordered!" she said, seemingly talking to the paper. Where's Danny?"

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

Up in his room, Danny was in an intense state of focus. He summoned a small ball of ecto energy and held it, clenching his hand into a tight fist.

Tucker and Sam, who were sitting on a bean bag and an office chair respectfully, gave each other doubtful glances.

The energy around Danny's hand began to glow brighter. Sweat began to gather around Danny's forehead. He tried as hard as he could to maintain the ball's stability while feeding it more energy, but eventually he lost control and a giant ecto beam shot out of Danny's hand, the kickback knocking him off the bed.

Sam and Tucker ducked as the beam bounced wildly around Danny's room before flying out the open window. A horrible squacking sound was heard from outside.

"That...was probably nothing." Tucker said.

"Hey, um, maybe we should move this somewhere safer, preferably without delicate computers and open windows?" Sam asked.

"Ugh!" Danny grunted in frustration as he got up from the floor. "I've been practicing forever, but I haven't made any progress!" Danny looked down at his hand. "How did Vlad even do that?"

"Maybe you could ask him?" Sam suggested.

"I'd love to!" Danny threw his arms into the air before flopping down onto his bed. "But he hasn't been back since the Axiom fiasco."

"Wait, seriously? But that was..."

"Nearly two months ago." Danny finished for her.

"Really? Dang." Tucker said. He looked over at Sam. "I thought you said he'd try to clear up his schedule."

"It was an educated guess," Sam raised her hands defensively. "But still just a guess. Does seem kind of weird, though."

"I overheard Mom say she's basically given up on calling him." Danny said. Sam frowned at that statement.

"That's a shame." Tucker said. "I'd hoped we'd see him again. That guy was cool. Kind of scary, but cool. Equal parts scary and cool."

Danny laughed at that.

"I know what you mean. I literally thought he was a nightmare I was having the first time I ran into him."

"He must really hate your parents, Danny." Sam said.

"What?"

"I mean, he's obviously avoiding them. Unless he's got beef with you. You didn't say anything stupid to him, did you?"

"What, no! But why would he be avoiding my parents? They're his best friends."

"You know Danny," Tucker said "We're your best friends, and you typically don't go twenty years in between seeing us."

"Guys!" Danny was starting to get ticked. He didn't know why Sam and Tucker were so on Vlad's case. "When Vlad got turned half-ghost by the accident, he didn't have nearly as much information as we did. He was figuring everything out on his own. It's perfectly reasonable that he was worried about slipping up and accidentally revealing himself to someone, especially my ghost-hating parents. I mean, remember how worried we were at first?"

"Okay, but he can control his powers now." Sam said. "So why's he still hiding?"

That made Danny pause. Why was Vlad still-

Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by Danny's door being kicked open.

"Dad!" Danny said "What have I told you about- wait, Mom?"

"Sorry Sweetie, I know privacy's important, but I was just so excited to show you this!"

She thrust out a piece of paper towards him.

"The...Rekluks Center Science Symposium?" Danny read.

"Working to lure and capture unique scientific minds with our educational display of rare scientific collections?" Tucker read from the pamphlet.

"Yup. Pack you bags Danny, we're going to Florida!"

"What?" Danny said.

"What?" Tucker and Sam said together.

"What?" Jazz head popped into Danny's doorframe. -------------------------------

"At least you're going somewhere." Jazz moped. Tucker and Sam had long since left, and Danny was waiting in the living room for his mom to finish getting ready to go.  "Meanwhile I'm doomed to special alone bonding time with Dad."

"And I'm stuck on a plane all weekend with Mom. Want to trade?"

"I'd love to. That science symposium actually sounds interesting. Who were the organizers agian...Rekluks?" Jazz narrowed her eyes at the pamphlet. "Okay, that sounds more like some kind of Bionicle name than a real organization, which I guess makes sense for a company run by a bunch of weirdos in Florida." Danny raised an eyebrow.

"Bionicles Jazz?" he smirked.

"Oh! Look at whatever Mom and Dad are doing!"

Danny looked over and saw his dad handing his mom some kind of belt.

"To keep you safe from ghosts, I converted the family ghost shield into this! I call it the Spectre Deflector! No ghost creeps gonna lay a hand on you in Florida!"

Or talon, Danny thought to himself.

"That's wonderful Jack!" Maddie smiled, fastening the belt around her waist. "Are you sure you and Jazz will be alright without the ghost shield for the weekend?" Maddie smiled, fastening the belt around her waist.

"The two of us'll be fine. We've got all the other ghost weapons here. I'd rather you had the protection. You never now what can happen." Jack narrowed his eyes ominously.

"Yeah, I might get bored to death." Danny muttered.

Jazz patted him sympathetically on the back.

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

"Isn't this nice Danny?" Maddie smiled at him from the other side of the table. 

"Our own private plane for a weekend getaway with just the two of us?"

"Do you want the truth, or one of those little white lies I tell you to not hurt your feelings?" Danny scowled.

Maddie sighed.

"Look Danny, I know this was kind of sprung on you, but maybe we should try not starting off on the wrong foot. Just look out at that sunny Florida coastline!"

"Folks, this is your captain speaking," a voice on the overhead said. "If you look to your left, you'll notice the cold hard landscape of the Colorado Rocky Mountains."

"Colorado?" Danny looked out the window. "But that's nowhere near Florida!"

"And if you look to your right," the captain continued "You'll see me evacuating the plane before it goes careening out of control."

Danny and Maddie rushed over to the other side of the plane just in time to see the pilot falling for a few seconds before he was obscured by a parachute.

They looked at each other before rushing to the front of he plane. The cockpit was empty.

Maddie jumped into the pilot's seat and grabbed the controls.

"They're jammed!" she grunted, yanking ineffectively at the wheel. "I don't know how we're going to get out of this one!"

"I know one way." Danny quietly groaned. He crouched down and transformed. 

This wasn't at all how he wanted his mom to find out, but it was objectively better than dying.

He stood up and grabbed Maddie's shoulders. The light on the buckle of the Spectre Deflector glowed green, and Danny was suddenly enveloped in painful green electricity. He stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, transforming back into his human form.

Maddie, who'd been too occupied to notice what Danny had been doing, shortly gave up with the controls. She looked up and saw Danny dazed on the ground.

"Danny!" she jumped out of her seat. "Are you alright?"

She moved to put a hand to Danny's forehead, but he slapped it away.

"I'm fine mom!"

A brief look of hurt flashed across Maddie's face, but it was soon replaced by a focused determination as she scanned the cabin. She suddenly shot up and dashed back into the cabin of the plane, shortly returning with two grey backpacks with giant green 'F's stitched onto them.

"Put that on!" she said, thrusting one at Danny. "We're jumping!"

Danny swung the backpack over his shoulder as he followed Maddie out of the cockpit. Once she'd double checked Danny's parachute was secure, Maddie threw open the emergency exit door and she and Danny jumped.

They freefell for a few seconds.

"Three...two...one! Deploy you chute Danny!"

Danny pulled the string, and after the initial jolt, he and Maddie were both gently floating to the ground.

"Why on earth did you bring your own parachutes?" Danny asked, the adrenaline beginning to wear off.

"In case ghosts attacked the plane."

"Seriously? Why would a ghost ever be involved in hijacking a plane?"

"Folks, this is your captain speaking," Maddie and Danny both looked over to see the pilot floating down next to them "I'm here to inform you that you've been the victim of a cruel hoax."

There was a sudden pop and a flash of light, and the pilot and his parachute were transformed into a green ghostly mail carrier.

"Happy landing!" he said before flying out of sight.

Maddie gave Danny a smug look. He crossed his arms saltily as the two of them descended below the treetops.

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

They passed the next few hours in silence, Maddie slicing her way through the foliage, Danny following closely (but not too closely) behind. He was very careful not to accidentally touch her.

Eventually, the sun began to dip below the horizon and Maddie decided they should stop by a small stream to make camp.

Maddie put Danny in charge of making the fire while she set up camp. Luckily, she'd happened to bring along sleeping bags in dehydrated pills, which Danny thought was kind of insane, but admittedly convenient.

When she was done setting those up, alongside a lean-to shelter, Maddie sat down next to the tired Danny by the fire. She started rifling through her hip bag.

"Fenton jerky?

"Why do you have all this?" Danny asked, taking a piece.

"It never hurts to be prepared Danny. Case in point." Maddy gestured to the woods around them.

"Yeah. You wouldn't happen to have a cell phone in there, would you?"

"How would that help you if a ghost attacked?" Maddie laughed.

Once Danny had finished his jerky, he noticed that his mom hadn't even started hers.

"Y'know Danny," she said, fiddling with the jerky in her hands "Being stranded in the woods aside, I'm glad we're getting to spend this time together."

"I guess."

There was another pause. Maddie sighed.

"I feel like we haven't been doing that a lot lately."

"I'm a teenager now. I have homework, and I hang out with Sam and Tucker, and you and dad have your ghost stuff."

"I know teenagers have their own lives and don't want to hang out with boring adults all the time, Danny. I was a teenager once and I've already raised one." Maddie laughed briefly before her face turned serious.

"I understand that you need space, but it just seems like ever since the accident-"

"The accident has nothing to do with anything!" Danny said a little too quickly. Maddie looked at him for a few seconds before she continued talking.

"Look, Danny. It's okay if you're mad at your father and me. I wouldn't blame you. It's just that, whatever's going on, I don't want you to feel like you have to hide it from us. "

As Maddie was talking, she reached out and brushed Danny's hand. Danny yelped at the shocking sensation and pulled his hand away.

"Don't touch me!" he snapped. Maddie looked like he'd slapped her.

"Danny, I'm sorry, I-"

"I'm going to sleep now." Danny shot up and began dragging one of the sleeping bags away from the makeshift tent. Maddie didn't stop him.

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

Danny was having trouble sleeping. He couldn't get his mom's hurt face out of his head.

He hadn't meant to snap at her. Really, he hadn't. The Spectre Deflector just hurt. A lot. He knew how that must have looked to his mom, but what was he supposed to tell her?

Danny rolled over and sighed. What did she mean about the accident? Sure, some of his time had been eaten up by ghost hunting, especially when the portal first opened, but major ghosts only popped up a few times a month at most now. He'd actually gone back to making his curfew and turning in his homework. Things were getting better, so what was worrying his mom?

Had she noticed him trying to hide his powers? Did she notice how nervous he got whenever they brought out their latest device? She'd never noticed his powers acting up, but did she notice him running away at random times?

Danny thought he'd been hiding it well, but his mom seemed to realize that something was off. Were other people noticing? Did his dad and Jazz notice? Okay, his dad probably hadn't, but Jazz had been offering to drive him to school a lot more lately, and there was that incident with the guidance counsellor.

At the time Danny had been focused on the fact that Spectra turned out to be a joy-sucking ghost, but Jazz really had been trying to get Danny some help.

She'd also mentioned the accident. Just like his mom had.

Was keeping his ghost powers a secret affecting his relationship with his family?

Danny sat up and got out of his sleeping bag. This was a lot. He needed a break from thinking, and he needed to pee.

He'd barely walked a few feet into the trees when he felt the familiar chill run up his body and out his mouth.

His ghost sense.

Danny was suddenly on high alert.

He barely heard it. An almost imperceptible click, but it was enough to make Danny instinctively lean left, just in time to see a blue beam shoot past him on the right.

He squinted in the direction the beam came from and spotted the faintest glow amongst the branches. There was a soft rustling as the glow retreated into the woods.

"Oh no you don't!" Danny said, thrusting up his arms. "I'm Going Ghost!"

The woods were briefly illuminated by the dual white rings that travelled up and down his body, changing him into ghost form.

The woods darkened again as his transformation concluded, but now Danny's ghostly aura lit up the area around him, making it easier to navigate the woods.

"Even when I'm on vacation, you ghosts just can't leave me alone!" Danny complained as he flew after the ghost.

He didn't have to fly for long before the light from the other ghost was once again visible through the trees. Danny quickly shot out an ecto blast. He heard the snapping of wood and a deep grunt as the blast hit its target.

Danny stopped flying as he emerged into a small clearing. Standing at the other end, shoulder slightly smoking, was none other than-

"Skulker?"

"Surprise whelp!" Skulker said, a bazooka on his shoulder, that Danny somehow hadn't noticed before, whining to life.

Danny barely moved out of the way in time to hear the crunch of a tree splintering apart where he had just been.

"What are you doing in Colorado? And how did you get back in your ecto skeleton?"

"If there's one thing I've learned as a hunter, it's how to be patient and resourceful!"

"Um, actually, that's two-" Danny was interrupted by Skulker whipping out a wrist blaster and nailing Danny square in the chest. The blaster wasn't as powerful as the bazooka, but it was enough to knock Danny back into the trees.

Danny recovered pretty quickly, though, and managed to look up just in time to see a blue net headed straight for him. He quickly blasted it to shreds before retreating into the trees, hoping that would make it harder for Skulker to hit him.

After flying a good distance away, Danny looked over his shoulder. He didn't see Skulker.

Danny stopped and looked around. He couldn't spot any signs of Skulker anywhere. Where was he?

A jolt of electric pain suddenly hit Danny in the back, making him cry out. The pain spread through the rest of his body and lingered, forcing Danny out of the air. He felt himself transforming back into human mode.

"What the-" Danny tried to transform back but it didn't work. "How did you-"

He looked up and saw Skulker standing over him, a wide grin on his face and a small taser-looking device clutched in his hand.

"This device designed to suppress your ghost powers. For the next few hours, you're nothing more than a pathetic human. I call it, the Ecto Minimus!"

"Wow, did you come up with that name all by yourself?" Danny hoped his sarcastic tone was covering up how terrified he was.

"You may have bested me back on your own turf, whelp," Skulker said, hoisting Danny up by his shirt collar "But the great outdoors is the domain of Skulker, the greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone!"

Danny gulped.

Suddenly, a shrill unearthly battle cry rang through the night, and a large shape descended on Skulker from the treetops, causing him to drop Danny to the ground.

Danny watched as Skulker struggled to remove the attacker from himself, but they clung on tight and relentlessly pounded at his helmet.

"You get your filthy mitts off my son you giant hunk of ecto-junk!"

"Mom?"

Maddie Fenton continued to slash and yell. Sparks began flying off of Skulkers helmet in every direction. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Skulker turned himself intangible, Maddie's screams finally relenting as she fell to the ground. Skulker flew backwards a few feet and then turned invisible.

"Your invisibility tricks won't work on me ecto-freak!" Maddie yelled into the trees 

"If I see you anywhere near me or my son I will personally slice every limb of your ecto armour to shreds!"

Maddie turned and walked towards Danny, her face softening.

"Danny, are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm okay..."

"Then you'd better have a good explanation," her face hardened again "for what you were doing so far from camp young man."

She reached down and grabbed Danny's arm.

"Wait! Mom, don't-"

"Oh no, you are not getting out of this." Maddie interrupted, pulling Danny onto his feet. "Running into the middle of the woods by yourself as night is incredibly dangerous."

To Danny's surprise, the Spectre Deflector didn't go off. Wow. That Ecto Minimus really worked. The name still sucked.

"I didn't run off, Sk- the ghost attacked me at camp."

"And you ran into the woods instead of towards me? Danny, that's basically playing right into its hand!"

"It wasn't like I was trying to get killed by a ghost!"

Maddie sighed. It wasn't an angry sigh, though.

"I'm sorry Danny. You're right, it's not like you got attacked on purpose. I was just so worried. When I woke up to those horrible noises, and then you weren't in your sleeping bag, and- anyway it doesn't matter."

Maddie began rifling through her bag. She pulled out a key and inserted it into the Spectre Deflector.

Danny felt more guilt being added on to the already immense pile in his stomach.

"Mom, I-"

Before Danny could finish speaking she'd snapped the Deflector around his own waist.

"I didn't think we'd actually run into any ghosts on this trip," she said "But, since I seemed to have been wrong about that, you'd better wear that for protection Danny. And stay close to me. Who knows what could be lurking in these woods."

With that, Maddie turned around and began slicing through the foliage. Danny gave the Specter deflector a few experimental tugs. It was not coming off.

"Well this is just great." he said to himself before setting off to follow his mom.

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

They walked in silence for a long while. Maddie was continuously scanning their surroundings as they walked, ready for action. She didn't notice how Danny flinched every time a leaf so much as rustled.

He hated to admit it, but Danny was feeling incredibly off-kilter and vulnerable without his powers. It was like a part of him was missing. A part of him that would be really useful if they happened to get attacked by a ghost, which was likely in this situation.

Maddie suddenly froze and threw her arm out in front of Danny. He almost bumped into her in the dark.

She turned to look at him and pointed ahead. Danny wasn't sure how he missed it but, just on the other side of the bushed they were standing behind, was a glowing green moose. It's head was bent over a small stream.

Danny had never seen a moose before and was rather taken aback by the creature's size. Was it just huge because it was a ghost? Danny knew moose and deer were different, but this ghost was a lot bigger than the deer he'd seen back at home.

The ghost moose lifted it's head and turned to look directly where Maddie and Danny were standing.

All three of them just stood there looking at each other for a solid minute. It felt like an hour.

"I'm going to approach it." Maddie finally whispered. "Try and scare it off."

"Mom are you crazy!" Danny hissed back. "Look at the size of that thing, there's no way it'll be scared by you!"

"No matter how big it is, Danny, it's still a ghost. And any ghost that knows what's good for it will fear me."

That statement kind of made Danny fear her, even if he wasn't technically a ghost right now. He held his breath as Maddie stepped out from behind the bushes. She approached the ghost slowly but confidently, Fenton Machete poised in front of her torso.

The moose's fur began to fluff up and its ears went back.

Did that mean his mom's plan was working? Was the ghost scared?

A rustling from above made Danny to snap his head up. Above him in the trees, three pairs of glowing red eyes were staring down at him.

"Mom?" Danny said, right as another rustle sounded in the bushes behind the moose.

"Shh!"

"Mom, the moose isn't alone."

Maddie turned her head around to look at Danny. That was when the the moose began to bat the ground with it's front hooves. Danny didn't know how he knew, but he knew that that wasn't a good sign.

"Mom look out! The moose!" he shouted.

Maddie barely had time to jump out of the way as the moose attempted to charge her. It sailed past, but turned right back around and started pawing the ground again.

A bunch of green glowing goats jumped out from the bushes Danny had seen rustling earlier and started bleating like crazy, their cries causing a cacophony of chaos and confusion. Many of them tried to ram Maddie, but she fought them back expertly, dodging half of them and deflecting the other half with her machete. It was both incredible and terrifying to watch.

Danny's eyes were drawn away from the tense battle by the sound of horrible hissing above him. The raccoons were all standing straight up and their teeth were bared menacingly.

In the distance Danny saw some large green birds approaching from above. Danny assumed they would be about as friendly as the rest of the ghost animals.

"I can handle them Danny!" Maddie called from the throng of goats. "It's you I'm worried about! Run!"

It was like a battle was going on in his body. On the one hand, he was powerless, unarmed, and in great danger here, but he couldn't just leave-

"I SAID RUN DANNY!"

The part of Danny's brain telling him to run won out at the desperation in his mother's voice, and he was suddenly fleeing from the ghost animals as fast as his legs could take him.

It was hard to navigate through the thick brush in the dark. Danny almost tripped at least twenty time, but he kept running. His lungs began to burn, but he didn't stop.

After a bit, Danny noticed a light in the distance. For a second he was worried it was Skulker, but the light was more yellow than Skulker's sterile white aura. Danny had no idea what that light could be, but he decided to find out. He got as close as he could without being detected and stopped running.

Big mistake.

Every muscle in his body was suddenly overwhelmed with exhaustion.. Danny began panting, gulping in as much air as he could, but it didn't help the burning in his lungs.

Danny looked into the light. His vision had actually gone blurry from the exertion, but he could see that there was a person holding an electric lantern. He hoped they were friendly.

"Daniel?"

Wait a minute, he knew that voice.

"Vlad?"

"What in the sweet sarsaparilla are you-"

The sound of rusting leaves interrupted them.

"Get behind me." Vlad commanded, reaching to push Danny out of the way.

"No, Vlad, wait I-"

Too late. Vlad's hand made contact with Danny, and the light on the Spectre Deflector went off. Vlad screamed as green electricity enveloped him. He yanked his hand away from Danny and fell to the ground. The sparks faded, but Vlad was still dazed.

Danny's head snapped toward the woods where the rustling was getting louder. He realized he was too weak and tired to fight back or run as he looked between the dazed Vlad and the rustling trees, panic rising.

He braced himself for the worst as the noises were suddenly right next to them. A group of small green animals burst from the foliage, heading straight towards Danny and Vlad. They were moving too fast for Danny to identify them all, but he was pretty sure saw some rabbits and chipmunks.

Danny instinctively threw his arms up in front of his face, but the animals just ran right past the two of them, disappearing back into the woods. They either ran around or between Vlad and Danny.

Danny watched the swarm of animals until they stopped coming. A green squirrel jumped down from above somewhere and landed beside Vlad. It turned to face him and began chittering wildly, waving it's arms frantically.

"Sorry, Joe." Vlad said, leaning on his elbow to face the squirrel. "I left the translator back at the lodge. I don't know what you're trying to tell me, but rest assured, if there's trouble afoot, I will find and take care of it." Vlad said the last bit with a finality that almost made Danny shudder.

This seemed to satisfy the squirrel, who ran off after the other animals. The woods were suddenly quiet again.

"Well," Vlad grunted, pushing himself onto his knees. "Something seems to have gotten them riled up."

"Yeah. Uh, are you okay?" Danny asked, offering a hand to help him up.

"Yes dear boy, I'm quite alri-" as Vlad grabbed Danny's hand, the indictor light on the Spectre Deflecter went off again and Vlad was once again screaming and sparking. Panicking, Danny dropped his hand, causing Vlad to fall back down to the ground. The electricity quickly vanished.

"Oops, sorry. You should, uh, probably avoid touching me."

"Noted." Vlad gritted from the ground.

Danny was worried he'd done some serious damage. He let out a sigh of relief when Vlad finally sat up.

"Beef brisket," Vlad swore as he rubbed his head "Whatever you've got there packs quite the punch."

"My dad calls it the Spectre Deflector. He converted the house ghost shield into a belt to protect my mom from ghosts on our trip."

"I suppose a personal protective device of that nature would require such a powerful regulator." Vlad nodded. "But why on earth isn't it effecting you?"

"My powers got disrupted. I'm all human for the next...well, I don't actually know how long." The Ecto Minimus did wear off, right? Skulker had implied it did. Danny sure hoped it did. "But I am zero per cent ghost right now, I guess." "The Spector Deflector can disrupt your powers?"

"No, it electrocutes me too. I ran into Skulker earlier. He's got some kind of new gizmo."

"Butter biscuits! I thought Skulker had abandoned this area! And here I thought this would be a nice peaceful week of quiet research." Vlad floated back onto his feet and brushed himself off. "You mentioned your mother. Is she around?"

"Yeah, but we got separated a bit ago. I think Skulker rigged up this whole trip as a way to get to me."

"I suppose that makes sense. Which direction were you with her last? We should start walking."

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

"...and so after my mom kicked Skulker's butt we ran into a buch of ghost animals and got seperated." Danny finished explaining as he and Vlad walked.

"It seems Skulker's caused you quite a bit of trouble this weekend. He always has been rather persistent. And annoying."

"Can't argue with you there." Danny laughed. "So, what brings you to this neck of the woods?"

"Ghost research."

"Can't you do that back in Wisconsin?"

"As it happens, Skulker used to use these very woods as a sort of practice hunting ground. He left it many years ago, but the spirits' of the beasts Skulker slayed still linger here, making it one of the most lucrative spots for ghost research. Outside of the Ghost Zone itself, of course."

"I didn't know animals could leave ghosts."

"Didn't we fight three such spectres the last time we met?"

"Oh. Yeah, I mean, I kinda thought ghosts like that just...formed I guess?"

"It is true that some creatures seem to be able to manifest a form from the excess ectoplasm in the Ghost Zone. I assume the formation of the ghosts in these woods was somewhat relevant to the spectral nature of their hunter, but it is quite difficult to determine what truly causes a ghost to form. Similar trials have yielded completely different results, so the question of what ghosts are and where they come from may perhaps always be a mystery."

Danny was too stunned to speak. It was like someone had taught his parents to talk fancy.

They continued to walk in silence for a bit.

Danny suddenly rememebered something that he wanted to talk to Vlad about.

"Vlad." Danny said. "We haven't seen you in months."

"I've been busy, Daniel." Vlad said. "Between my CEO duties and arduous ghost research, it can be rather difficult to find the time to stop by."

Danny thought back to his conversation with Sam and Tucker.

"Do you...actually want to see us?"

"What? Of course, don't be ridiculous."

Vlad seemed genuinely taken aback by Danny's accusation. Danny didn't want to offend him, but something about the whole situation just wasn't sitting right, and Danny knew that it would continue to bug him if he didn't find out. And if he didn't find out now, then he might not see Vlad for another few months.

"To be honest, if really feels like you don't."

"Daniel, I told you, I'm extremely busy, and-"

"It's been months. You've only stopped by once since the reunion. And you don't pick up the phone when my mom calls you."

"As I said," Vlad's tone was steadily getting less friendly. "I'm-"

"Busy, yeah, I know." Danny was running out of patience too. "I get that you've got a lot going on, but honestly it just seems like you can't be bothered to haul your butt down to Amity to see us."

"That's enough Daniel. Drop it."

"Are you telling me you're too busy for a five-minute phone conversation? Or even an e-mail?"

"I said drop it."

"I just want to know why. Are you still angry at them? You say you're not, but you act like you-"

"How could I be angry at them?!" Vlad's eyes glowed a dangerous red. "They're my only friends! You have no idea what you're talking about!"

Danny took a startled step back.

The red glow faded from Vlad's eyes. He looked horrified by what he'd just done.

"Daniel, I-"

A blue blast suddenly came out of nowhere and hit Danny, knocking him back into a tree.

"Daniel!" Vlad cried. He turned to face where the beam had come from, anger in his eyes.

Skulker stepped out from the shadows, a wide grin on his metal face.

"Well, what do you know," he smiled "I didn't expect to run into both halfas in the same place."

A black ring appeared around Vlad's waist.

"You have five seconds to explain who you are and what you want," the ring split in two, transforming him into his ghost form. "Before I personally tear you apart piece by piece."

"Vlad, that's Skulker," Danny said from the ground. The impact from the tree had left him too dazed to get up. "He's here for my pelt."

"That's Skulker? He was a lot smaller the last time I saw him. When did he get that armour?"

"You like it?" Skulker gestured to his suit. "I've had some upgrades! Now,"

Skulker raised his arm and fired at Vlad with a double barreled wrist blaster. Vlad went intangible and sunk into the ground.

Danny felt Vlad grab him from behind and rise into the air. He set Danny down on a particularly thick tree branch.

"Stay here." Vlad said, voice firm. "This shouldn't take long."

"Where else would I go?" Danny muttered, clutching the trunk of the tree as Vlad flew away.

After getting some distance from Danny, Vlad threw some pink energy blasts at Skulker. Unfortunately, he was able to dodge most of Vlad's hits using the the trees as cover. A few of Vlad's blasts did manage to hit Skulker, but they didn't seem to do much damage to his sturdy armour.

Skulker soon began firing back with his wrist blaster, but Vlad was able to use the trees to the same advantage Skulker had. Vlad was more nimble than Skulker, so he managed to avoid all of Skulker's blasts.

As Vlad dodged, he moved closer to Skulker and Danny saw him charge up ecto energy in his arm like he had the night he fought Technus. Once Vlad was close enough, he dashed over to Skulker and grabbed his wrist blaster with his charged-up hand, melting the blaster clean off Skulker's arm.

Vlad smirked as he unceremoniously dropped the deformed lump of metal to the ground.

Vlad threw a punch at Skulker, but Skulker managed to dodge it and jabbed Vlad with a familiar device. Danny's heart stopped as he watched him fall to the ground, screaming and surrounded by pink electricity.

The black rings returned, reverting Vlad to his human form.

A rare look of panic crossed Vlad's face. Some black stars sparked around him as he unsuccessfully attempted to change back into his ghost form.

Vlad pushed himself up from the ground and threw all his momentum into a punch directed at Skulker.

Grinning, Skulker reached out and caught Vlad's oncoming fist. Vlad could barely stifle a pained noise as his hand made contact with the hard metal of Skulker's armour.

"Nice try, Plasmius." Skulker sneered. "But I'm afraid both of you are useless in this form, and that terrifying blue hunter is currently occupied by my previous conquests, leaving both your pelts ripe for the picking."

"Ew." Danny and Vlad said at the same time.

"Complain all you want," Skulker pointed his arm canon directly at Vlad's face 

"There's nothing you can do to escape your fate."

The gun began to whine. Vlad shut his eyes from the glare. Danny clutched the trunk of the tree even tighter.

SHWINK!

There was a sudden blur of motion, and Skulker's canon arm fell clean off, the glow from the barrel fading away.

Danny didn't recognize the figure standing beside Skulker right away. They were covered from head to toe in dark mud and leaves, which was probably why no one had noticed their approach.

"I warned you to stay away from my son ghost!"

"Mom?"

"Maddie?"

Maddie moved with incredible speed. She danced and hopped around Skulker, hacking at his armour with her Fenton Machete.

Skulker tried to fight her off, but his clunky armour clearly wasn't designed to take on such an agile opponent at close range. Bits of metal and sparks flew off of Skulker as he desperately flailed about, failing to hinder the enraged Maddie in any way. His other arm soon joined the first one on the ground.

"This is what happens when you mess with me ghost!" Maddie cried as she jammed the Fenton Machete into Skulker's face.

Skulker's head went flying and landed a few meters away. A tiny green blob with limb's crawled out from inside of it.

"I yield! I yield!" he squeaked "You are the superior hunter! I admit it! I'm out of here!"

The tiny Skulker turned intangible and dove into the ground.

Behind Maddie, the body of Skulker's now empty armour swayed and fell to the ground with a crash.

Danny and Vlad just blinked.

Maddie looked at Vlad.

"Now, what in the sweet sarsaparilla are you doing in Colorado, Vlad?"

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

"It's very fortunate we ran into you out there, Vlad." Maddie said. "You're sure it's not a bother having us here?"

"Oh don't be ridiculous Maddie." Vlad smiled "What else am I going to do? Just send you two out there to fend for yourselves in those treacherous woods? Preposterous. Anyway, this is where you'll be staying."

After clearing up some confusion and getting Danny out of the tree, Vlad had led the group back to his log villa. It was smaller than his mansion, but it was still quite big. Vlad told them it was a very old structure, but it had had electricity and running water installed at some point, which Danny was very thankful for.

Vlad had offered to give them a tour, but after spending hours on edge in the woods at night, Danny and Maddie just wanted to go to sleep. Vlad was very understanding and had led them directly to the spare bedrooms.

"Ooh, this is much ritzier than our makeshift campsite, eh Danny?" Maddie gently elbowed Danny in the side. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to change into a less muddy jumpsuit."

With that, Maddie walked into the bedroom and shut the door.

"She brought an extra jumpsuit, but no cell phone." Danny wasn't even surprised anymore.

"Yes, that does sound like Maddie." Vlad smiled fondly. "I'll show you your room now, Daniel."

Danny took a look around as they walked down the hall. All the walls in this house seemed to be made of wood planks or logs. It was kind of cool, looking at all the knots and long swirls of the grain. The floors were also wood, but they were mostly covered by fuzzy red carpeting.

They turned a corner, and Danny was blown away by the number of doorframes he saw. This house seemed to have infinity rooms.

"You sure have a lot of spare rooms. I didn't think you'd have too many guests here."

"Oh no, besides for the all the ghost animals, I never have company. The ones who originally built this house likely did. I believe that they had a rather large family. Anyway, here we are."

Vlad stopped walking and opened a door to reveal a room that was pretty similar to the one Maddie was staying in. Danny stepped in and looked around. The colours of the bed spread were very pale. The whole bed looked very soft. And comfy. Just looking at the bed seemed to increase Danny's already pretty high levels of tiredness.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard a chittering sound somewhere behind him. A green squirrel seemed to fall from the ceiling and landed on Vlad's shoulder. Vlad did not seem particularly surprised by this.

"Much appreciated, Joe." he said, accepting something shiny from the squirrel's mouth. Vlad tossed the object to Danny.

"Figured you could use that." he said.

Danny looked at the object in his hand. It was a key. He inserted it into the Spectre Deflector and turned it. There was an audible click and the belt unstrapped itself and fell from Danny's waist.

"Thanks." he said, picking up the Deflector and stuffing it in his pocket with the key. "But how did you get it?"

"I simply asked my friend here." Vlad smiled, gesturing to the squirrel on his shoulder. "I would have retrieved it myself, but it seems my intangibility yet to return."

The squirrel chittered indignantly on Vlad's shoulder.

"Ah yes, of course." Vlad dug somewhere under his collar and pulled out an acorn. He held it out to the squirrel, who snatched it and scampered away.

"You'd think providing them sanctuary would be enough of a reward on it's own." He said, watching the squirrel dart down the hall. "Then again, I suppose this isn't my house. I just pay for it."

"Wait, the animals live here?"

"Yes. Many years ago, when Skulker used to terrorize the animals here, I found out that he would persist after them even when they'd already been killed. I suppose he was testing the effectiveness of his gear on ghosts as well as the living. It felt cruel to torment those creatures endlessly, and Skulker had learned very quickly not to mess with me, so I told the animals that they could hide in the house. Even after Skulker left most of them stuck around. I still see them going in and out of here every time I stop by."

"So it's a real animal house here." Danny said.

Vlad smiled a little at Danny's joke.

"Your powers haven't returned yet, have they?" he asked.

Danny looked down at his hand. He tried to turn it invisible, but nothing happened.

"Nope."

"Shame. I wonder how long this lasts." Vlad stared at his own hand for a few seconds. "It's strange. For quite a while I actually despised my ghostliness and would have done anything to get rid of it. Even today I don't know if I'd say I like it, but now that it's gone, I feel sort of..."

"Incomplete?"

"Yes, that's the word. Anyway, I'll leave you now. I'm sure you're anxious to get some sleep." Vlad gave Danny a wave as he walked away.

Danny stared at the door where Vlad had just been. He knew exactly what he meant. The first month after the accident he'd have done anything to undo it, but now, well, he wasn't so sure. He'd kind of grown to like his powers. He probably wouldn't have any problems with being half-ghost if he didn't have to keep it a secret from his family. That was kind of the only downside. That, and getting electrocuted by the Spectre Deflector.

Exhaustion began to overtake Danny. He gave in and faceplanted into the bed. He wanted to lay there forever, but after about thirty seconds his body reminded him what he had been doing before Skulker showed up.

He'd needed to pee two hours ago and he hadn't. Now he really needed to pee. Quietly grumbling, Danny pushed himself off of the bed and began searching the halls, on the hunt for a bathroom.

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

Danny was completely lost. He couldn't find a bathroom, or the way back to his room.

Having the ability to fly and turn intangible would have been really helpful right now, Danny thought bitterly to himself. After another few minutes of roaming, Danny suddenly noticed a rhythmic creaking noise.

Crrk

Crik

Crrk

Crik

Curious, Danny walked in the direction the noise was coming from. He turned a corner and saw a light coming from a nearby room. He walked closer and peeked past the doorframe.

At the back wall of the room, near a large window, Danny saw the source of the creaking: an ancient looking rocking chair was steadily rocking back and forth. Why Vlad hadn't mentioned someone was here. Wait, hadn't he said he never had people over?

Danny froze when he noticed the spectral green tail hanging over the edge of the seat, swaying along to the rocking of the chair.

His powers still hadn't returned, so he had no way to protect himself if the ghost was hostile.

Maybe the ghost wasn't hostile?

Danny figured he should go tell Vlad about the ghost just in case. Even if Vlad didn't have weapons, his mom certainly would.

"Is that you, Vladdie dearest?" a voice asked from the rocking chair. Shoot.

"Um...n-no. My name's Danny. I'm staying here with Vlad for the night. Um, do you know him?"

The ghost laughed. It wasn't a mean laugh.

"Of course I know him dearest. Come in, come in. It's a bit foolish carrying a conversation from the hallway."

Danny stepped into the room. There wasn't much in it. Just a dresser and a bookshelf filled with knick-knacks. There wasn't even a bed. The light he'd seen was coming from one of those old oil lamps on the dresser. The walls were made of the same unfinished wood as all the other walls in the house, but there were a few colourful flowers crudely painted on them low to the ground.

"Don't be shy now. Come over here where I can see you, dearest."

Danny gulped. The ghost seemed harmless, friendly even, but he couldn't help feeling vulnerable without his powers. How did Sam and Tucker face malicious ghosts like this all the time?

Danny took a few steps towards the window. He almost jumped when the rocking chair began to float a few inches off the ground. The chair turned 180 degrees and sank back down to the ground.

"That's better." The ghost smiled. She was quite tiny. Her glowing skin was the translucent green colour that ghosts often were. She was wearing a matching dress and  bonnet that were a horrendously pink gaudy floral patterns. Danny might've barfed if he'd seen that pattern in any other context, but they strangely seemed to suit the ghost that was wearing them.

She peered at Danny through the thinnest wire glasses he'd ever seen. Her eyes, despite glowing a menacing red, were shaped into soft slits as if she was half drifting off to sleep.

"Hmmm, the first human guest Vlad's had in years and it's a child. Strange. Are you Vlad's son perhaps? He's never talked about you." "What? Oh, no. I'm just a friend. My mom's friends with Vlad, and she's here too and she brought me along." Danny wondered if the ghost could tell how nervous he was.

"No guests for nearly twenty years then suddenly two guests? My that Vlad is a strange one. Ah, but where are my manners? I know your name, but you don't know mine. Danny, my name is Bernadette. My friends call me Bernie, though." She paused and narrowed her eyes at him. "You can call me Bernie, you seem like the friendly sort."

"It's, um, nice to meet you Bernie." Danny felt his body relax. He was 99% sure Bernie wasn't going to attack him at this point. That did leave Danny with the awkward problem of not knowing what to say to an elderly ghost.

"So...are you friends with Vlad?"

"Ah, dearest Vlad." Bernie smiled fondly. "What a nice young man. He takes such good care of me. Well, I suppose I don't need much taking care of, being a ghost and all, but the sweet thing always comes to see me when he's up here. He doesn't come up too much, he's so busy with his big company. He runs it, you know. But when he does come he always visits me. Asks how I'm doing, if I need anything, just sits and listens to me gab away. What a doll." Bernie looked over at the bookshelf.

"You know he brought all my treasures down for me from the attic when he first found me. Being a ghost makes it awful hard to pick things up, let me tell you. I do love not having to cook anymore, though. Anyway, Vlad went and fetched all my things the seconds I told him about them. He said it was to apologize for infesting my house with all the wild life, even though I didn't mind one bit. I rather like the little critters. Even the bears and such don't cause trouble. I always wanted to see some live bears up close when I was alive. Ma and Pa never let me get to close to them though. Quite dangerous creatures, when you're alive anyway. Which I'm not, so there Ma and Pa!" Bernie chuckled.

Danny felt a yawn coming on. He tried to stifle it but it had been a strenuous night, and it was quite late.

"My goodness!" Bernie's eyes widened slightly, as though she were snapping out of a daze. "How rude of me! I do forget you humans still need sleep! And here I am rambling away when you're so clearly tuckered out, you poor thing. Off you get now!"

"Oh, yeah, thanks. Sorry, I am kind of tired."

"No need to apologize young man. You've been nothing but patient and polite with me. Don't you worry about hurting my feelings. I've got nothing but time, and I'll go on for forever if you let me. Now off to bed with you."

"You wouldn't happen to know where the bathroom is, would you?"

"Considering I've been living in this house for the last five hundred years, I would hope so." Bernie laughed. "It's down the hall at your first left turn."

"Thanks Bernie." Danny said as he headed out the door. "Goodnight."

"Such a polite young man. Goodnight Danny."

As Danny left Bernie's rocker floated into the air and turned to face the window again.

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

Danny sighed. He'd found the bathroom, but now he was having trouble finding his room again. Why did everywhere in this lodge look the same?

He stopped when he heard voices coming from a nearby room.

His mom and Vlad must've been in there talking. Danny stopped by the doorway and peeked inside. The two of them were standing by an unlit fireplace, a nearby lamp giving the room a soft yellow glow. Danny assumed this was some sort of sitting room.

"...couldn't get the ectoplasm out of the carpet for weeks!" Danny heard his mom say. "You can still see it glowing when it's really dark outside!"

They laughed for a bit and then there was a few seconds of silence.

"You could come back with us, you know." Maddie said. "Jack would be ecstatic to see you."

"Sadly, I can't Maddie. I've got a tight schedule to keep. I would love to come down, but I simply don't have the time to spare."

Maddie picked up an ornament from the mantle. She looked at it as she spoke.

"You know Vlad, it's alright. You can tell me the truth."

"What do you mean?"

"I know you're still mad at us about the accident."

Vlad blinked a few times before responding.

"What? Of course I'm not mad, that was all in the past. I've told you, I don't hold any resentment towards you or Jack. It was an accident, after all."

"Then why don't you want to see us?"

"What? Don't be ridiculous, of course I want to see you. You and Jack are my best friends!"

"You say that Vlad, but you never stop by. I've called you. Many times, and you never call back."

"I'm CEO of a very lucrative company Maddie. That keeps me rather-"

"Busy. I know. Too busy to fit a five minute phone call in over the course of three months."

Maddie put the ornament back on the mantle and faced Vlad.

"And then the few times we do get to see you, you seem anxious to leave as soon as possible. You barely seemed like you wanted to be at our house the one time you stopped by. And even when you invited us to your place, you disappeared five minutes after we arrived, and then we barely got to see you at the party. There was an actual ghost attack, and you missed it!"

Maddie took a calming breath.

"I want to spend time with you, Vlad. I miss you. Jack and I both do. It was so painful, not seeing you for the last twenty years, but when we do see you now it feels like it's just to tease us before you go right back to ghosting us."

Maddie probably didn't notice how Vlad tensed up at that wording, but Danny did.

"We want to be friends with you again, Vlad, but honestly it doesn't seem like you really want to be friends with us. You don't trust us and that hurts. I can't stand what you're doing to me. I want to stop re-opening the wound you left. The worst part of all of this is that you can't even be honest about it."

Vlad didn't say anything. He didn't even move. He just stood there with a stupefied look on his face.

"I should go to bed." Maddie turned away from him.

That seemed to break Vlad out of his stupor.

"Maddie, I-"

"Thanks again for letting us stay the night."

Danny began to panic as his mom approached the door. He managed to turn himself invisible just as she entered the hall.

He turned invisible? Nice, his powers were back!

He turned visible again as soon as his mom was out of sight.

Danny peeked around the doorframe into the sitting room. He wondered if he should go in and talk to Vlad.

He took a deep breath and entered the room. Vlad turned at the sound of his footsteps.

"Oh, Daniel." Vlad's ever-present smile nowhere to be found. "What are you doing?"

He didn't sound angry, just tired.

"Uh, my ghost powers are back."

"Oh, good." Vlad didn't seem that excited about that news.

"Also I, uh, kind of heard that last bit of your conversation." Danny rubbed the back of his neck.

"Oh."

Danny had no idea what to say. He wondered if maybe he should have just left.

"I'm...sorry for snapping at you earlier." Vlad said "That was uncalled for."

"Oh." Danny said awkwardly. "It's fine."

"No, it was completely inappropriate." Vlad sighed. "I suppose the things you were saying weren't completely untrue. You and Maddie both. I just...didn't want to face them. You were right. I've...I've just been awful to Jack and Maddie, haven't I? To all of you."

Vlad sat on the sofa and buried his face in his hands. Danny had no idea what to do.

"I want to see them, I really do. I just...I can't risk them finding out."

"I get what you mean, I really do, but it's not too hard a secret to hide from them. 

I've done pretty well, so it shouldn't be a problem for y-"

"No, Daniel," Vlad put his hands down and leaned on his lap. "It's different for me. I just...on some deep level I just can't risk Jack and Maddie finding out. If...if they knew what I...what I really was...I can't lose Jack and Maddie, I just can't! Then I-I'd have nothing..."

"It kind of seems like you already have."

Vlad looked at Danny. The most deflated expression he'd ever seen flashed across Vlad's face, but it quickly replaced with a neutral expression.

"I think," Vlad said as he stood up. "That I should go to bed. It's late."

His tone was level. Too level. Expressionless, he proceeded to walked past Danny.

"Wait!" Vlad stopped at the doorway. "I'm sorry, Vlad. I-I didn't mean to-"

"You didn't do anything wrong Daniel. I'm just...tired. Very tired. This night has...given me a lot to think about."

With that he turned around and walked out into the hall, leaving Danny alone in the sitting room. He sighed to himself. If only Jazz had been here. She'd probably know how to fix things between Vlad and Mom.

Not that she'd be working with the full picture, but still, she'd probably have done a better job than Danny did.

Vlad wasn't the only one that was tired. Danny yawned before heading back out to the hall to continue searching for his room. At least it would be easier to find now that his powers were back.

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

Danny wasn't sure what time he woke up the next morning, but the sun had fully risen. He stretched and put on his clothes from yesterday (which felt pretty gross).

The lodge was slightly easier to navigate in the daytime, so Danny only wandered around the halls for a little bit until he found the kitchen. His mom was already there, fully dressed and cooking some eggs.

"Good morning Sweetie. Did you sleep alright?"

"Yeah, I did. Is Vlad up yet?"

"He left a note." Maddie turned back to the eggs. "He said he had to set out early to get some stuff done, so he won't be around to see us off."

"Oh." Danny picked up the note from the island. His mom had summed it up pretty well. "Wait, what's he saying about a helicopter?"

"Oh, we discussed it last night. Vlad keeps a helicopter out here for emergencies, and he's letting us take it to get home."

"Wait, you can pilot a helicopter?"

"Of course. Breakfast is ready!" Maddy scooped some scrambled eggs onto a plate and handed it to Danny. "There you go."

Danny noticed that his eggs looked paler than normal.

"You put milk in the eggs?" Danny said as he sat down.

"Is that a problem?" Maddie looked worried.

"No, no! That's actually the way I like them. Jazz thinks its weird, and she's usually the one that makes the eggs, so I haven't had them in a while. This is...really nice."

Maddie smiled and took a seat across from Danny.

"Your father hates it too."

"Really? Dad hates a food?"

"That's the one food he won't eat. Well, he'll eat it, but he'll tell me how weird I am the whole time."

"So for about two seconds?"

"Daniel!" his mom feigned offense.

Danny laughed at that. His mom laughed too.

They ate very quickly. Danny had been too tired last night to realize how hungry he was.

"Did you make your bed this morning?" Maddie asked as she collected Danny's empty plate.

"Ummmm, yes?" Danny smiled wide.

"Alright, you can go up and double check your bed while I was the dishes, and then we'll set off."

Danny rolled his eyes as he headed back to his bedroom.

After he finished actually making the bed (to the best of his ability), he decided to make a quick stop before heading back to the kitchen.

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

"Bernie? Hello?" Danny pushed open the door to Bernie's room.  She was sitting in her rocker like last night, only now the curtains were closed and she was facing towards the door. Her eyes were shut and her hands were folded on her lap. She looked so peaceful.

Her eyes fluttered open.

"Oh, sorry." Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

"Oh don't be silly." Bernie waved a hand at him. "I was just resting my eyes."

"Oh. Well, anyway, my mom and I were about to leave, and I just wanted to say goodbye real quick. You're pretty much the only friendly ghost I've ever met."

"Well how nice of you Danny." Bernie beamed. "Come here, I have something for you."

"Oh, " Danny stepped into the room "Thanks, but you don't have to-"

"Oh nonsense! Now, hold out your hand."

Danny held out his hand. Bernie waved her hand over his palm. Three green (what Danny assumed were) wrapped candies appeared in the air and fell into his palm. They glowed faintly.

"Um, thanks Bernie." Danny hadn't expected that, but he guessed it made sense for an old lady to have hard candies.

Bernie closed Danny's fingers with her hand. Her touch was so gentle Danny barely even felt it. "Poor Vladdie. He's so good to me, but he never talks about his own friends. I can sense his loneliness. He reminds me of my own son in that way. It's good he has friends now, though. You share those with Vlad and your mother now."

"I will. See you Bernie" Danny smiled. He turned and began towards door.

"Goodbye Danny." Bernie began to relax back into her chair. "Do me a favour and take care of Vladdie for me. Won't you?"

"I will." Danny said as he walked out the door.

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

Getting ready to go was a very fast process when all your luggage had been lost in a plane crash. They were soon in the air heading back to Amity. "

Did you...ask Vlad if he wanted to come with us?" Danny asked. "To, like, maybe visit Dad?" He hoped his mom didn't notice how tacked on that last part was.

"I did. He said he was too busy."

"Oh."

Maddie's expression was neutral. Too neutral. She wasn't disappointed that Vlad wasn't coming, she'd accepted that fact. Maybe before she'd even invited him. It made Danny feel worse for his mom than he would have if she'd looked sad.

They flew in silence for a few minutes before Maddie sighed.

"Look, Danny, I'm sorry about this weekend."

"What do you mean? You're not the one who hijacked the plane."

"No, I meant that conversation by the fire."

Even after all the chaos, Danny hadn't forgotten about that night. He still felt terrible about it.

"Mom, it's okay."

"No Danny, it's not okay. You haven't been acting okay for a while, and I assumed I could just jump in and fix everything in a single weekend. If we're being honest though, I should've addressed this months ago. I shouldn't have let things go on for as long as they did. I told myself you needed some space, but maybe I was just too scared to face the fact that, even if it was unintentional, your father and I hurt you. A part of me was scared that if I brought this up, it'd just end up pushing you further away. But that was irresponsible of me, and not at all how a parent should act. You weren't getting better by not talking about it, but I was being too cowardly to help."

Maddie took a calming breath before continuing.

"I just want you to know that, if you hold any resentment towards me or your father, we understand. We messed up big time with the portal. And other things. But whatever you're going through, I want to be there to help. Your father and I both do. Even if it's something you think we won't want to hear, we can take it, I promise. I know you're getting older and you need to figure some things our yourself, but we want to be there for you in whatever way we can."

Maddie turned to face Danny.

"I love you Danny, and I want to be a part of your life. I'm sorry if I've been forgetting to show you that lately."

Danny didn't know what to say.

How long had she been thinking like this? How long had she assumed everything was her fault?

Why hadn't Mom said something earlier? Why did she hide this from him? Finding out she'd been keeping this information a secret from him for so long made Danny feel so hurt and guilty.

...Oh.

The knot that had been in Danny's stomach for the last fifteen hours began to loosen as he realized what he had to do. He put a hand on his mom's shoulder. Maddie seemed genuinely surprised by the physical contact.

"It's not your fault Mom." Danny said. "I've been...going through some stuff. It's nothing bad, it's just..." Danny struggled to find the words. How could he explain it without telling the truth? "I just...didn't think about how it would affect other people. I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm sorry." Danny looked at his feet in shame.

"You don't have to be sorry."

Dany looked up from the floor when he felt something touch his hand. He saw his mom's black gloved hand covering his own.

"You can always tell me about it, you know."

"I..."

Danny looked into his mother's eyes. They were so hopeful.

"Not...not today. But maybe someday."

Maddie was smiling, but Danny wasn't sure what kind of a smile it was.

He wasn't sure if he meant what he said. Maybe he did. The thought terrified him.

Danny didn't want to think about that right now though. He'd think about that later when he was alone. For now he needed a distraction.

Danny reached into his pocket.

"What have you got there?" Maddie asked.

Danny pulled out a tiny bottle filled with orange pop.

"I found a bunch of these in Vlad's kitchen fridge." He said, uncapping the bottle.

"And you took one? Without asking?"

"Vlad's a gazillionaire and he had like, a million more of these things." Danny took a swig. "Oh, wow that's nice."

"Daniel James Fenton, that is not the-"

"You want some?" Danny held the bottle out to her.

Maddie stopped speaking. Sharing pop had been a strange but special sort of tradition with her and Danny. One they hadn't done in years. Maddie thought Danny had forgotten about it.

"I- well...alright, hand it over." she accepted the bottle from Danny and took a drink. Her eyes went wide. "Holy moley, that stuff is good!"

"Right?"

"Seriously," Maddie turned the bottle around "What is in this?"

"Eyes on the road, Mom!"

"We're in the sky Danny." Maddie said.

THUMP!

Danny and Maddie nearly jumped out of their seats when a seagull crashed into the helicopter's windscreen. They both just stared at the surprised bird as it slid down the glass and out of sight.

"But, yeah, I'll just look at his when we get home." She said handing the bottle back to Danny.

Danny rolled his eyes affectionately.

This really was nice.

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

"You know Danny, I'm thinking maybe we shouldn't tell them what happened on the trip." Maddie said as they approached their house. "Your father will be so disappointed to hear he missed fighting ghosts and seeing Vlad."

"I'm okay with that."

"We're home!" Maddie announced as they opened the door.

Jack was sitting on the couch working on his embroidery while Jazz sat on the other end reading a very thick book.

"Hey, welcome back! How was the trip?"

"Oh, you know," Maddie said.

"Boring." Danny added.

"Nothing interesting."

"Snooze."

"Who even cares?"

"I'm gonna go call Sam and Tucker." Danny said. He made to leave, but then stopped and kissed his mom on the cheek. "I had fun though. We should spend more time together."

Danny went upstairs. Maddie watched with a smile on her face.

"So," She turned to Jack "Anything interesting happen here?"

"Oh, nothing really." Jack said.

"Same old same old." Jazz added.

"Boring."

"Ho hum."

"Yawn."

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

Danny had barely opened his bedroom door when he felt his ghost sense go off.

"Seriously? I haven't even been home for five minutes!"

Danny went over to his window and threw it open. He looked around. He didn't see any ghosts.

"Aaaaaaargh!" Came a war cry from below. Danny looked down. A giant green beaver ran out the front door, with Jazz on its back, her arms wrapped around it's neck.

"Dad execute maneuver nine!" she commanded.

"On it Jazzy-pants!"

Danny couldn't see his father from this angle, but he did see Jazz barrel roll off the beaver just in time for it to get tangled up in a bunch of metallic rope.

While the beaver struggled on the ground, Jack came into view and gave Jazz a high five. The two of them looked down at their handiwork with pride.

Danny stuck his head back inside and closed the window. Jazz ghost hunting? With their father?

That was the strangest thing he'd seen all weekend.

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

Epilogue --------------------------------------------------

"I don't know about you two," Tucker said as they sat down to lunch on Monday "But I'm ready to die after the test Lancer just gave us."

"It wasn't that bad if you actually read the book." Sam smirked. Tucker glared at her. "What'd you get Danny?"

Before Danny could answer, he felt the cold chill of his ghost sense. He looked up and saw something green whizz by the window.

"Guys, trouble!" he said, standing up from his seat.

Before anyone could do anything else, Danny saw something else out the window; a red figure floated in place on a hover board. They fired a few pink beams from an ecto blaster before zooming out of sight, presumably after the ghost.

"Did you guys see that?"

"Oh, yeah, we actually-" Tucker started to say.

Danny was running towards the door before he could finish his sentence.

He burst outside and stopped at the sight above him. The red Figure and the ghost were locked in battle high above him, the red person shooting furiously at the ghost who was weaving around, dodging their blasts.

The red person didn't seem to have great aim, but they eventually connected with the ghost who gave off a howl and shot off in the opposite direction of Casper High.

"And you'd better stay away you gooey creep!" The red person shouted after it.

Once it was clear the ghost wasn't coming back, the red person zoomed out of sight.

Danny blinked at the sky.

"Okay, who the heck was that?"

"The Red Huntress." Sam said. Danny hadn't even noticed that she and Tucker had arrived.

"Wait," he said "You know her?"

"Yeah, we saw her hunting some ghost Sam and I were about to go after while you were in Florida."

"Colorado." Danny corrected Tucker.

"Colorado." Tucker repeated.

"We didn't get to talk to her," Sam said "But she seems pretty driven. Shouted her name at the ghost she was chasing. Fancy tech, a lot of confidence, but not a lot of experience, I'm guessing."

"Yeah her aim's not great." Danny frowned.

"She doesn't seem to have a thermos or anything to contain the ghosts she hunts either. That costume's awesome though!"

"I can agree with you there." Sam nodded.

Danny put his head in his hands.

"I was only gone for ONE DAY!"

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

[kitty-av]

Hello, I have been thinking of making the clone gang into my OCs for a while now ( kinda inspired by Mortified because it's a great fanfic, I love me some characters we see for 1 min being utilised and explored ) so I kinda just... Did.

Ok so here are my bois, first I shall show a group line-up, then I introduce them in segments.

Sound good? Ok, here they are!

These are the clone squad in human form, though I'm still debating on whether they are hypothetical forms, or if they're all halfas like Dani.

Also I have never really drawn Danielle, so she may look wonky until I get the hang of it lol

Anyway, introductions:

This man is Dante, he's the skeleton ghost, and I based his design off of two things: his nose looks like it would be different than Danny's, and he had a bedsheet.

So therefore, he gets wavy hair, and a similar build to Danny, except his nose is different and I tried to define his brows and their wrinkles a bit more ( I don't know how to explain it better )

Dante is quite possibly the most laid back from the clone squad because there really weren't any expectations he had to deliver on, unlike his siblings.

He's the second oldest, which means Vlad was just ok with him existing because he was still getting the hang of the whole cloning thing.

This means he had time to work on his hobbies, like art and gardening and just wind down after Vlad inevitably did something terrible.

He has leg prosthetics but because I was too excited to post, so I haven't figured out how to draw them yet, so for now he has long pant legs.

He's the mom friend of the gang, will frequently drag the rest of them out of their pods for bonding time because he knows they can get caught up in their problems.

They poke fun at him for his ' bedsheet ghost ' routine but he thinks it's funny and he's vibing, so they just kinda accept it. He actually uses the spooky voice too, just because.

He's the ' We have food at home ' sibling along with Dorian, but can switch to ' McDonalds ' sibling when he wants to make Danielle happy •^•

Now these two.

Oh, boy.

These two are traumatized let me tell you that.

Let's start with Dorian, who for the purposes of my sanity will be Dan level beefy instead of his canon beefiness. Just because I couldn't figure out how to draw it, and it's my design so screw it.

I had the idea of him looking like Jack because he's the oldest sibling so Vlad accidentally tapped into some genetics he probably didn't like.

As you can probably guess, Vlad is not his biggest fan.

Dorian is just the sweetest boi. He's the Jazz of the squad. Often ignores himself and accidentally becomes the therapist friend when there's nobody there to help him set his boundaries.

He's really into social justice, reading, and also rock/metal music ( because why not, it fits his ghost aesthetic too )

He just wants the best for his siblings, even though he's painfully aware Vlad is just... Vlad.

He will not hesitate to curb stomp you if you become a threat to his family, and while he's very patient, the clone gang has sorta given him a sixth sense for detecting mischief.

I'm serious, he walks into a room and just knows they did something.

He chooses to wear formal adjacent clothing himself, it isn't Vlad that made him do it. He feels comforted by the routine of styling himself.

Now, Dominic: I'm gonna put the pic back here for reference.

This lil man

He is just... Full of anger. And issues.

First, his design was meant to have a lot of triangular shapes to kinda match Danny's, as well as to bring more attention to his face.

His eye is just gone in human form as well. It falls off constantly, so he doesn't bother and just carries it in a pouch in his pocket. Dorian finds that understandably disturbing, and Dante is somewhere between ' I can make eye puns when he brings it up ' and ' dude I wish my brother would have better care for himself '.

He's the third clone, and Vlad's favourite until Danielle happened. Unfortunately, because we can't have nice things, he's constantly unstable in ghost form, and because of that Vlad pushed him hard enough for him to develop the shrinking, purely out of his want to disappear and hide.

Dominic despises Vlad from the bottom of his heart, because unlike with Dani, Vlad didn't bother hiding his disappointment and loopiness when it came to his ' almost perfect son '

He's pretty jaded because of this, and he swore to himself that Dani would not suffer like he did, so he allowed himself to get blackmailed into behaving by Vlad. Basically the deal was that Dominic would obey without question, and Dani will be happy and oblivious to the fact he literally doesn't care.

Later on, Vlad tells him that he'll have Danielle overshadow Danny, but he volunteers instead because he knows it won't end well, and he's absolutely right. Vlad probably knew this so he told him specifically so his ' problem child ' wouldn't be a problem.

He would literally fight anyone, despite the fact he has bad depth perception, a lack of real offensive abilities, and an incredible lack of solidity/stability.

He probably waits for the summer with anticipation because he can fire tiny ectoblasts at Vlad and pretend it was mosquitoes.

Besides all the angst and trauma, he has a passion for theatre and mischief. He and Dani are incredibly close and prank everyone. Dominic probably taught her the ' faint to get out of a difficult conversation ' trick.

He can't talk in tiny form, it just sounds like bells ( like Tinkerbell )

Dante probably teases him for ' doing puberty wrong ' and Dominic strikes back with digs against the ' bedsheet ghost routine '. They're vibing.

Dorian and Dominic are also Metal/Rock music buddies and will listen to music together while Dorian is reading some book or other. Dominic is incredibly grateful to have his support despite all the headaches his mischief cause, and he often serves as Dorian's ' boundaries cheerleader ' so to speak.

He's the ' One black coffee ' sibling if you hadn't noticed. Only he'd probably hand it to Danielle because she's his partner in crime.

Now Dani herself, she absolutely adores her brothers. She doesn't understand why Vlad doesn't, but she thinks she can change his mind because he ' likes ' her. Then when he calls her brothers ' mistakes ' she goes ' ok I can't, but if he stabilises me, I can maybe save them too ' because she's precious like that .

Unfortunately, things don't work that way, and so when she leaves Amity park she's kinda confronted with the realisation that ' oh damn, I actually helped murder Dorian, and Dominic wouldn't help Vlad without good reason so he probably took my place ' and that's not exactly a pleasant realization.

The reason she doesn't come back for help earlier than D-stabilized is actually because of guilt. She doesn't feel like she deserves the help after what happened. Then she reminds herself that her brothers wanted her to be happy and goes off to find Danny.

I know this was a lot of angst, so here, have some sketches to balance it out OwO

I'm thinking I also have them come back as ghosts because I want my children to be happy together, but I haven't figured out unique ghost designs for them yet. It feels cheap giving them their clone designs when they're now their own people yknow?

Thank you for reading all this, I'm really happy to finally share my bois with the Phandom •^• if y'all have any thoughts or questions feel free to share.

I'm just glad I did this because doing character design in the DP style is fun, especially considering how Dorian and Dante's facial features had to be built on top of skeletal/unfinished structure ( their noses in particular ) so that was exciting to figure out (ㆁωㆁ)

[dannyphantom-justiceleauge]

What if Danny Fenton became a green lantern?* Like, ghostly obsessions could be called similar to absolute will, and Danny literally fought death in a very strange machine to stay alive so he could be with his friends and family and keep everyone safe. bonus points if the ring chooses him in front of his parents and loudly declares "Daniel J. Fenton, you have overcome death and shown great willpower. Take this ring and use it to protect your sector." And that how he gets revealed.

*yes, I know he'd already be considered overpowered in the DC universe, but listen, maybe some of us want to see Batman froth at the mouth as he's torn between the desire to adopt the overpowered child or come up with some sort security ghost proof measures in case Danny goes bad (again).

okay first i think danny should receive his ring after he defeats dan. survival and near death experiences are acts of will but they're also fairly common and don't a green lantern make. there's far more will in holding yourself accountable to never become an evil version of yourself. the other criteria for a lantern was being 'utterly honest and born without fear' which i don't think fully fits danny. because lets be real danny lies his butt off not and not just for legitimate reasons like protecting his secret identity. but for petty kid reasons like being popular and staying out of trouble. and he definitely has fears.

but i'm still gonna roll with him becoming a lantern. because despite hal being the one for earth. the corps, when made aware of the ghost zone, decide they probably need a lantern for the zone. that's basically what i'm most excited for in this au. danny's sector is literally the ghost zone. he also received his ring because out of all the available ghosts (and half ghosts) he was the best option.

so as such, danny is somewhat revealed as a ghost or at least as someone who has to spend a lot of time in the ghost zone. i have a feeling that his parents are going to massively misunderstand the situation and miss the fact that danny is phantom and instead fully support him as a superhero to the ghost zone. meaning danny is now kinda a superhero in both identities, and his parents are trying to make him compete with himself and prove himself a better hero than phantom. they're also going to outfit him with weapons and protective gear even though the ring can already do it all.

either way danny is stressed he is still a teenager and he has school. having two superhero jobs is a lot. i think he is going to try and keep them somewhat separate. like he only uses the ring in the zone for external or cosmic threats. most of the time he's trying to ignore that he has it. the rest of the time when he's fighting ghosts and such he's just phantom. he likes being just phantom. the responsibility is a lot.

then you add in hal, alan, and maybe some of the othere bats coming around and trying to adopt him. and lets be real danny isn't fond of that because he has enough adults trying to adopt him. adding bats to the mix just bugs him further. i should be clear that bats is very much trying to do both. he wants to adopt danny and prepare a safety protocol for if things go south. the lanterns got dibs though. alan and hal sorta fighting for custody. because alan is more into the mystical stuff which fits with danny's ghostliness. but hal is the current corp member. also danny is just a cute, troubled kid.

i'm also mentally seeing them getting pissed on his behalf and fighting vlad. i also want hal and danny to relate about flying. hal was in the air corps and danny is interested in space. so hal teaching danny about planes and aeronautics would be cute as hell and bring danny around on the whole lantern thing. and you better beleive danny is going to lose his shit over being able to actually go to space and meet aliens. all in all. a fun concept.

a friend also suggested danny with a black lantern ring which makes more sense for him and his position as the ghost zones lantern. but would also have negative implications associated with it. so i'm gonna talk about that in a separate post. - Hestia

[dannyphantom-rewrite]

Timekeeper's assistants AU

Alright y'all! This is gonna be my info dump post for the Timekeepers assistant Au- buckle up cause it's gonna be a long one!

Inspired by @queendibz post here

The entire purpose of the assistant squad is to keep all the time lines running smoothly- this can range from stopping a world ending event to making sure things misplaced by natural ghost portals get put back into the right time and place.

So First up on the crew list,

Dan:

-Dan definitely isn't a homicidal maniac anymore but he's not 100 percent "redeemed" either.

-I mean he's probably still a bit of sadist but he tries not to be?

-The best description I can give is that he's in recovery, basically.

-So, Clockwork knew that Dan would eventually bust out of the thermos just because it wasn't built to hold a ghost of his power level for a prolonged period of time. But beyond that?? He has no idea about anything in regards to Dan. Since Dan's creation was averted, his timeline doesn't exist anymore. He's a paradox that exists outside of time, and unfortunately, that means he's the one entity in the multiverse that exists in Clockwork's blindspot. There's no way for him to know what Dan's going to do next.

-Anyway, Dan eventually breaks out of the thermos fully intending to Fuck Shit Up, And Clockwork makes a point of informing him that if he leaves the clock tower he will cease to exist. (Like Dan, the tower exists outside of time, so he's safe there.)

-Dan is the first member of the assistant squad. Granted, it took a while for him to come around to the idea of helping Clockwork but he got there eventually.

-Dan is an entity that was born out of the rage and grief of two very broken people and he has so much shit he's working through as a result

-One of the first things he had to do was recognize and accept that he's an entity that's completely separate from Vlad and Danny. He might have all their memories and the weight of their mistakes on his shoulders, and on top of that, the atrocities he himself committed because of them. The first step is realizing that he doesn't have to be defined by the people that made him.

-It's a really fucking difficult thing to do tho and he's got a lot of weird emotions in regards to Vlad, Danny and the Fentons as a result. A near constant identity crisis, self loathing, daddy issues, something that could arguably be called an Oedipus complex, (FUCKING THANKS, VLAD)

-Cannot stand the smell of fast food, it makes him nauseous and the sight of Nasty Burger sauce alone is enough to make him vomit Ectoplasm.

-He's just a hot mess all around y'all

-He tries to keep his interactions with the Danny's as minimal as possible at first bc of this. The first time he meets them in person he shape shifts into Danny like he did in TUE and just pretends to be one of them. Some of them have had interactions with their respective Dan's already and would be super wary of him and probably pretty freaked out otherwise.

-Dan is eventually allowed to leave the clocktower for supervised "Field missions" with the aid of a time medallion to keep him from poofing out of existence, but it takes a while for clockwork to build up that level of trust.

-Dan's shapeshifting ability Actually comes into play a bit on a lot of those missions, since he can Mimic Danny it also makes sense that he'd be able to impersonate Vlad in the same way. Granted he's not incredibly comfortable taking on either of their appearances but it does help him hone his shapeshifting ability to the point where he's able to pick and choose features from both Vlad and Danny and sorta make his own human disguise.

-Most of the time he acts as the eye in the sky from the tower, monitoring for timeline anomalies and then notifying the appropriate member of the assistant squad.

-He has a room under the clock tower that he operates from. I kinda like the idea of there being like, catacombs down there? Anyway he's got all kinds of monitors and view screens and he very rarely leaves. It also doubles as his "living space." He doesn't need to sleep but he's got a big mess of a pillow fort that he crashes in regardless bc sometimes you just NEED to be unconscious for a while. The catacombs are also absolutely full of those little blob ghosts that wander around the zone bc They're attracted to the ecto energy the tower gives off. He's really annoyed by them at first but they grow on him after a while and now he just dotes on them.

-There's a specific throw pillow sized one that likes to hang out in Dan's room a lot and he ended up getting a little over attached to the stupid thing. His name is Dorian. Bc he's a gift.

-SIR THATS MY EMOTIONAL SUPPORT BLOB

-Dan's appearance has changed slightly. He wears his hair loose now and it's kinda just this big fiery mane when it's not contained. His cape is more of a cloak now, it has a hood and he wears it sorta pinned together at the shoulder so the DP logo is covered.

-Dan's relationship with the rest of the Danny's is kinda weird, and a little strained. He has a hard time being around them for very long because, well, he used to sort of be them? Except not really? He does care about them tho, and the last thing he'd want is for one of them to end up like him.

-His relationship with clockwork definitely starts out pretty familial, after he becomes his assistant, anyway. There's room for that to develop into meddling minutes but I'm not entirely sure if I'm gonna go that route yet.

-The Danny's only ever hear his voice for a while before he finally let's them meet him for real, so they end up calling him Charlie for a while as a joke. Cause Ya know. Charlie's angels. Even after Charlie still ends up being his designated name on missions.

Mer! Danny:

-Was recruited bc a lot of the shit that gets sucked through natural portals ends up in a body of water somewhere and when that happens he's on call to retrieve it.

-Is Actually not at all ghostly! Mer Danny's situation is basically the plot of H2O (just add water), or if you haven't seen that, Aquamarine. And by that I mean he's only a merfolk in water.

-He's an electric eel

-His Jack and Maddie are marine biologists, with a particular interest in marine cryptids

-We're taking sea monsters baby!!!

-Not entirely sure how this Danny ended up half mer yet but I'll figure it out, lmao.

-14 years old

-His nickname/ designation is "Moray"

Crown Prince! Danny:

-Nickname/designation is Prince / Princey

-16 years old

-Not allowed to go anywhere in the zone without the Fright knight bc of some ancient ghost law bullshit, so he has a constant babysitter.

-He's next in line bc he sealed away Pariah, but can't take the throne until he is both, A) at least 18 years and B) Completely deceased

-Vlad is his Regent bc he did have a part in the whole sealing the previous king thing, but he's also not completely dead so his power is super limited there.

-As Prince Danny has the crown of fire in his ghost form, although now the name is kinda ironic seeing as it's completely frozen over. It's blue now and it smokes like dry ice.

-As Regent, Vlad has the ring of rage for "safe keeping"

-Vlad and Danny are pretty much constantly at each other's throats, fright knights probably had to shut down more than a few of Vlad's attempts to usurp the crown from Danny through combat.

-Princey deals with the timeline issues that involve the ghost zones' internal / political affairs, and he's gotten very well versed with dealing with the Observants.

Winged! Danny :

-15 years old

-Mallard duck wings

-His Vlad is a swan

-Comes from a family of waterfowl, Jack is a goose, and Maddie is a white swan. Both he and jazz are ducks bc of their grandparents.

-As Fenton his wings are white, like jazz, and as phantom they turn black with a green iridescent sheen.

-He's trans

-Nickname/ designation is inviso Bill. Bc ducks have bills haha get it-

-Ghostly wail?? Nah son he's gotta killer QUACK

-Absolute besties with Mer!Danny/ Moray, sometimes they go swimming together after a mission.

Clone! Danny:

-Physically he's a 12-year-old, but he's only been alive for a few months.

-Alt universe where Vlad manages to stabilize the perfect clone with his own DNA.

-Dani still exists, and the original danny from his time line also rescued the other problematic clones.

-Doesnt like the fact that he's a clone, and very much wants them all DEAD. Bc them running around is a reminder that he's not the real danny.

-Human half looks the same aside from the widows peak and the mallen streak. His ghost half takes after plasmius. Blue skin, and the Hazmat kept it's original white colors.

-Probably has fangs and a forked tounge.

-Not so much a member of the squad as he is someone that they need to be keeping an eye on.

-Does NOT get along with them.

-Dan enjoys making him uncomfortable.

-Designation is Masters / the brat (not to his face tho)

Family Breakfast AU! Danny:

-A BABY

-The boy is a fucking overpowered todler okay. He's an 8 year old.

-The biological son of his Vlad, was born a Halfa. Jack, Vlad and Maddie got their shit together and are in a healthy poly relationship.

-Got separated from Vlad one time in the zone and inadvertently adopted by the assistant squad and clockwork.

-His Vlad is aware of the squad and just. Dad's the crap out of the Danny's as a result. It makes for some..... interesting interactions.

-I can't think of a nickname so I'm just gonna be lazy and say he gets to be the one Tru Danny bc cute little kind privileges lmao.

Full ghost! Danny:

-15 years old, will always look 14.

-Nickname/designation is Toast

-Died in the portal accident and got fucking FRIED.

-He always smells like somethings burning.

-He's really bright and sorta sparks a bit, you can see his bones glowing through the hazmat.

-He still leave the zone to protect his version of amity, but lives with clockwork full time.

Canon Danny (NOT PHANTOM PLANET COMPLIANT) :

-Basically show Danny, except phantom planet never happened fuck you

-Joined the crew after the events of de stabilized

-Also he's trans fuck butch

-Franken! Danny

-Yall remember that Headless Danny Au? This is my take.

-Is Actually 20 years old, but physically stuck at age 14. Bc he's a walking corpse :)

-Came from a timeline that was directly parallel to Full ghost! Danny. He dies in the portal accident, but jack and Maddie are in the lab when it happens and manage to sort of bring him back using a combination of science and freaky ghost junk.

-So he's basically possessing/ stuck inside of his own dead body. Which, is thankfully not rotting or going into rigor mortis bc Ectoplasm is rather similar to formaldehyde, but he's not the most durable thing and bits and pieces fall off from time to time.

-Like his head. For example.

-He's pretty desensitized to it at this point and if he loses a leg after a ghost fight he doesn't see anything wrong with sitting down on the curb of a main street to stich it back on. His being dead isn't exactly a secret.

-Don't ever ask him to "give you a hand" bc he can and will not hesitate to pop one off and Chuck it at you.

-Said hand and any other body part will continue to function just fine even if it isn't attached to anything, btw.

-Nickname/ designation is Adam. Bc. Ya know. that's the name Frankenstein's monster gave itself.

Post Phantom Planet! Danny:

-A very jaded 22 year old who is driven only by spite and enough caffeine to kill a horse

-Very, very tired of the hero thing.

-Being a global celebrity isn't all it's cracked up to be.

-Decided to follow Vlads lead and fuck off to space for a while. Partially to get away from everyone and also partially bc he kinda feels responsible for the fact that the only other person like him and probably floating DEAD in the void somewhere? And yeah Vlad fucked up all on his own but what if he'd tried harder to get through to him things could have been different-

-Joins the crew after a natural portal opens up in space and decides to help out and use clockworks resources to try and track down his Vlad.

-Nickname/ Designation is Polaris, aka the north star.

[screechingcreature]

Lets Talk Shop: Vlad's Anger

I think the seed of this anger would be sown by a man named John Hunyadi, another striking figure in Romanian history. Hunyadi was a Hungarian General of Romanian ancestry who was elected Voivode of Transylvania in 1441, tending to the lands around the Hungarian border which at that time Transylvania was included in.

(Which makes it a bit funny that Dracula is always referred to as being in, around, from, ect Transylvania in the media because they were his sworn enemy at the time even though they were both fighting against the forces of the Ottoman Empire.)

Vlad’s father, Vlad II Dracul, was Voivode before Vlad III and a member of a militant fraternity The Order of the Dragon, which is where he earned his name Dracul (The Dragon) and his son later becoming Dracula (Son of the Dragon), whom Hunyadi met during his induction to the Order when he himself was page to the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund though the two men never grew close by any account.

The first betrayal came when Hunyadi came to Dracul at Tîrgoviste in 1441 on a mission from the newly elected Polish king of Hungary, demanding the renewal of the crusade against the Turks, which the Wallachians had forsaken during a change in leadership. Persistent Turkish military pressure at Belgrade, a Hungarian fortress, and the civil strife in Hungary made it imperative to secure Wallachia as loyal since they were border bound. The Hungarians further relied on the fact that as a member of the Order of the Dragon, Dracul would find it impossible to not renew his pledges to the Christian cause. On the other hand, Vlad II wasn’t blind.

Dracul was too well aware of the strong military position of the Ottomans, by 1442, controlled the whole line of the Danube, and their garrisons occupied important fortresses such as Giurgiu and Turnu on the Wallachian side of the river. Added to these logistical factors, an argument that had some bearing on Dracul’s decisions was a treacherous game played by Hunyadi, who, while appealing for his support, continued to give secret assurances to the son of Dan II. Basarab, the rival candidate for the Wallachian throne, who had made his headquarters in Transylvania. This last factor may have been decisive in Dracul’s decision to preserve his neutrality between Ottomans and Hungarians, at least for a time. When the Ottomans entered Wallachia in March 1442, under their commander Sihabeddin, bey of Rumelia, Dracul remained neutral, simply allowing the Ottoman troops free access into Transylvania.

Where they were devastated. Absolutely wrecked.

SO!

Dracul’s not exactly exuberant fulfillment of his role as a vassal made Sultan Murad suspicious. The governor of Bulgaria, according to a Turkish historian, Mehmed Nesri, helped cast further doubt on Vlad II’s loyalties saying that neither Hunyadi, a third party named Brankovic, nor Vlad II were loyal, calling Dracul “fickle” (We’ll see this again later). The Sultan answered to invite the men to his court in the spring. Brankovic, with his suspicions of Ottomans, stayed away in his fortress at Belgrade.

The Sultan was known for being a man of good faith so Dracul, taking his two youngest sons, Vlad II and Radu, set out for Gallipoli (It’s always Gallipoli) to meet the Sultan. As soon as he had reached the city gates, the prince was seized by a Turkish contingent, and bound with chains. His two young sons were taken away to the mountain fortress of Egrigöz in Asia Minor.

Dracul was held in Turkish custody at Gallipoli and later, for just short of one year, in the Ottoman capital city, Adrianople, a “guest” of the Sultan, while his eldest son, Mircea, Dracul’s favorite, ruled in Wallachia for about a year, we’ll get more into that a little later. Dracul was eventually released upon the promise, sworn on both the Bible and the Koran, not to participate in any further action against the Empire.

He was made to pay a tribute of 10,000 gold ducats, but to this was added the obligation of sending a contingent of young boys, five hundred strong, destined for the Ottoman janissary corps, a new act of fealty known as devshirme. Which is the Ottoman Empire’s practice of a “blood tax” where they would forcibly recruit soldiers and bureaucrats from the children of their Balkan Christian subjects. This actually produced all of the grand viziers from the 1400s to the 1600s which is the second most powerful position in the Empire. The practice however was dead or dying by 1648, nepotism and an internal religious movement putting it out to pasture.

ANYWAY-

And as a further guarantee of future loyalty, Vlad II Dracul was forced to leave his two sons behind.

Vlad III, age eleven or twelve, and Radu, who wasn’t older than seven, spent the next six years among the Ottomans without ever seeing their father or mother. They did not speak the language. The religion of the Empire was strange to them. It is safe to assume that the boys must have felt abandoned by their father, family, country, even religion. Contemporary Turkish chronicles tell us that they were held captive, at least for a time, at the fortress of Egrigöz in the Kütahya district of the province of Karaman in western Anatolia. They were later transferred to Tokat, in the interior of Anatolia, and later to Adrianople. Dracula was held in Turkey until 1448. Radu stayed until 1462.

Dracul apparently had been convinced by the summer of 1445 and was in an absolute state. Writing in a despondent letter to the Governor of Brașov “Please understand why I have left my little children to be butchered, for the sake of Christian peace and in order to subject myself and my country to the king [of Hungary].”

The two little princes did not meet the hands of a Turkish executioner, nor were they blinded, as happened in the case of the sons of the Serbian Despot, George Branković.

Hunyadi at this time had ambitions of his own, extending not only to seeking the Hungarian and perhaps even the Polish crown but also to securing the principality of Wallachia for himself. At the very least, he wanted to secure the succession of an ally in Wallachia. He found one, in Vladislav II, a member of the rival Danesti clan, who had been residing at Brasov. A cousin of Vlad III Dracula.

Hunyadi launched a propaganda campaign against Dracul, his second and final betrayal, portraying him as a “fickle ally” (I mentioned we’d see this again above) who had always secretly supported the interests of the Sultan.

Sometime during November 1447 he met in person Vladislav in Brasov, then crossed the Carpathians heading towards Tîrgoviste, in the company of his new candidate. Forewarned, Dracul and Mircea ordered the city to close its gates, but a boyar revolt took place, hatched by the partisans of the Danestis.

In the end they were forced to defend themselves with only a few loyal boyars within the city. Mircea was captured by the citizenry of Tîrgoviste, tortured, and killed in a disturbing way, being buried alive. Vlad Dracul succeeded in escaping the city during the night, hoping to reach friendly Ottoman troops on the Danube, but he never got that far, being caught and assassinated by beheading in the marshes of the village of Bălteni close to Bucharest, where a small chapel stands in his memory at the very place where he was killed by his Dănești enemies. A few faithful followers took his body and buried him in a small wooden chapel, at the site of the present Monastery of Dealul near Tîrgoviște.

Dracul’s tomb and that of Cneajna, his wife, have never been found, nor have any paintings of them survived beyond the fresco recently uncovered at Sighișoara. After his death, however, Dracula’s father was fondly remembered by all, but the traitorous boyers. The official court historian at Budapest, the Italian humanist Antonio Bonfini, who we can thank for many records of the goings on of the Dracul/Dracula family, wrote that Dracula’s father had been “a righteous and unconquerable man, the mightiest and bravest in battle, since with only a few men at his disposal and due solely to his own heart and wisdom, he waged a long war with the Turks, supported by his soldiers, who proved to be valiant beyond belief and without any foreign help, and the war was such that even all the Christians put together could hardly have faced.”

Dracula was officially informed of his father’s death by Sultan Murad II at the end of the year 1447, since letters travelled slowly from Wallachia to Adrianople. Dracula was then made an officer in the Turkish army under the assumption he’d be more controllable now that he had nothing tying him to Wallachia; he was also given to understand by his Ottoman masters that they considered him as a candidate for his father’s throne, his stern character and leadership qualities had impressed Murad. The actual assumption of the Wallachian throne was to await the first favorable political circumstances which came to pass which they did October of 1448 when Vlad was eighteen to twenty years old, less than a year after his father and brother’s death.

For about three months until he was unseated by his cousin Vladislav II.

(Part 2)

[princess-of-the-corner]

I kind of love that headcanon about Vlad due to the fact that it means that he has made his obsession completely impossible to achieve.

His Obsesion as it is /now/ is impossible to achieve!

So I do have a longer fic planned that involves a few Reveals and such and there are a few scenes talking about Obsessions. One is explaining the Obsession stuff to one of the Humans(I'm thinking either Valerie or Maddie.). The other is Danny talking directly to Vlad about it.

And the biggest thing in the conversation is that like. Danny, while he hates the stuff Vlad did, doesn't hate Vlad himself because he 100% understands why he's doing what he's doing.

Danny has his own Obsession too. And he struggles with it just as much. Yeah his is protecting people/keeping them safe/ etc. And usually that involves fighting Ghosts that threaten the town. Sometimes even working with the Ghosts to find them less destructive ways to satisfy their own Obsessions.

Sometimes though it gets bad. The instinct to be so... Controling. It would be better if his friends/family just listened to him when he ordered them to stay somewhere safe. Perhaps he could just lock them in a safe, Ghost-proof bunker. Sometimes he gets worse ideas like "hey... Weapons are great for self defense. But they would probably be safer if the also had Ghost Powers!".

So he totally gets Vlad's ways of thinking and how he can go down certain fucked up paths. Danny usually has support from Human friends and family to keep him in check, plus healthier outlets like the previously mentioned Ghost Fighting. Vlad has been alone, likely only discussing thjs with other Ghosts who would enable the Obsession because that's what Ghosts tend to do.

And Danny is also aware that not only is Vlad going through all that, but after his first few plans failed, Vlad began to go into an Obsession Breakdown.

I've discussed this before, but it's a thing that happens when a Ghost is unable to fulfil their Obsession and become more and more desperate to fulfil it. Tending to become destructive and angry and lash out. And if a Ghost completely fails their Obsession? Well. That's why Dan is a thing.

So Danny knows. He understands what Vlad is going through. And despite everything, while he doesn't want to be Vlad's son/evil apprentice, he wouldn't mind having another Halfa to... Properly relate to in a way he can't relate tk Humans or Ghosts.

But the point of when he has the conversation with Vlad, is basically to point out that it's his Human Half getting in the way of his Obsession. The Human side has decided on what his perfect family should be. Aka: Maddie as his wife, Danny (and I guess Jazz) as his kids. Basically replacing Jack. And that Vlad has been doing things to try and get as close as possible, creatjng programs and clones.

But the best way to fix it? To get what he wants and satisfy that Obsession? Take time to truly think about his Human perceptions of the "perfect family".

It would definitly take a lot of time, even if he were to realize that second how to fix this. Because he did a lot of fucked up shit. But the double irony is that Danny is the one who is the most welcoming of the change, because again, he knows what it's like. Things aren't perfect like they were before, but it's a new kind of perfect.

[coolingdownanddrawing]

Conner hates this whole “possessing's and being in charge of a teenager” business and honestly can’t blame him

also dan phantom is able to make portals in the future with a flick of the wrist, no build up or effort exerted, this its just a matter of stumbling into the basics of the power then learning semantics like how does one remove a portal once they have made it, or the destination, or if you open the portal in the ghost zone if you’ll end up in the time and place you were aiming for on earth, or closing it fast enough that you’re enemies dont immediately return through the portal you opened to kick you’re butt while you’re being a disaster 

since this is a post on the topic of power progression and conner’s focus involving learning dannys powers-

iso to summarize if you dont want to read my ramblings

  powers conner’s focusing on mastering-

roulette portal creation (later portal creation/dismissal)

intangibility  

duplication

ecto energy manipulation

powers conner struggles with

ecto blasts

flight

invisibility

cytokinesis/ice powers  (not available for most of series, less time to master) everything listed below

powers he is unaware of until stumbled upon

 pyrokinesis (conner is unreasonably angry danny has both ice and fire powers) teleportation (conner screams with joy when he’d made aware of it

)powers conner is unable to use

possession

ghostly wail

telekinesis

conner is what one might call, a public hazard to birds and anything that be funny to be hit by a stray ecto blast or slammed into face first, conner doesn't really focus on mastering these abilities either so its the main source of comedy when he’s forced to fight and or run away from a fight with his tail tangled in his arms 

sometimes just, goes invisible without realizing it and freaks out people who just see floating equipment or have a disembodied voice talk to them, its almost gets him in trouble a lot of times and he cant get as good a grip on it as intangibility

part of making him bad at powers danny and vlad tend to default to is to make his fighting pattern distinguishable from the real danny, as well as just his power use in general

conner is unreasonably angry when he finds out through trying to get ice powers to work before their ready to work that danny has fire powers, FIRE POWERS conner doesnt remember this, why does the boy need TWO elemental powers what is he the ultimate thermostat

powers involving the mind or head just, do not function for conner, he theorizes its part of the whole not being the real danny thing but for whatever reason he cant get it to work even in theory, his chokes on his own lungs before he can ghostly wail, he just goes indelible when trying to posses people, he destroys whatever is hit by his ectoblasts or  noticeably contaminates them when manipulating ectoplasm to do it (somewhere on the fenton property there is a rake given sentience with a pension for standing at the edge of beds with people sleeping in them and Staring, conner fails to destroy his frankenstienien creation and knows no sleep in the fenton house)

[phantomphangphucker]

Ectober Day 30: Disguise - The Guise Of Change

When Danny died he really didn’t change much at all, and that was a problem. But ghosts only resembled their living selves rather than looking the same as they once did.

Danny’s well aware his disguise is flimsy at best, borderline non-existent at worst. The divide between his two halves was practically reliant on the fact that being half-dead was illogical and should be impossible. Like, literally and explicitly impossible; even in the opinion of ghost experts. Slapping on a jumpsuit and some colour changes does not a good identity-hiding costume make. He had felt a little jealous of Vlad in that regard. Put Masters and Plasmius next to each other and almost no one is going to think they’re even related. The face shape was pretty much the only similarity, but the shadows a ghosts glowing eyes could throw across their faces really changed the way their faces looked. Ancients, that’s probably the only reason his parents’ hadn’t recognised Danny Phantom’s face as being identical to their son's face. Same for the rest of his body honestly, his jumpsuit didn’t exactly hide his figure. If he lost his glow he would have probably be screwed. Utterly screwed.

Problem was, he couldn’t change his ghost form. That was literally just his body, his suit was basically a second skin. Hair couldn’t be dyed and if he wanted to wear a mask it would get constantly destroyed, and he’d have to carry it with him constantly. The chances of someone finding said mask on human Danny Fenton was too great a risk and absolutely would get him revealed in a heartbeat. And he wasn’t about to ask Vlad how the heck his ghost form looked so different from his human one. Even the guy's physique changed. Masters was a skinny man, Plasmius had a comically broad chest. But Danny’s not about to let that man think he’s learned anything from him. Vlad is not going to be his mentor in any shape, way, or form. Fuck that guy and his villainous ulterior motives.

So that had kinda left him in a bit of a pickle. So what did he do? Eh, what he usually does. Ignored the problem and hoped it went away, while also making his paranoia just that much worse. Did that usually work out for him? Hell no. It usually bit him squarely and directly in the ass soon rather than later. So whole ass, he expected to get bit; and probably by some stupid mistake or something ridiculously simple. Like someone taking a photo of him and accidentally turning on their phone’s colour invert. His parents’ tech messing up was always a possibility and had almost shattered his disguise more than once. To this day he is supremely glad that Dash is a bloody moron and that his dad is stupidly easily distracted. But standing in front of his mirror changing between his forms, he thinks he might just avoid that ass bite for once in his half-life.

Watching the muscle on his arm change, shrinking down in human form to the point where he’s borderline scrawny then bulking up in ghost form to the point where he thinks he’s got a more muscular look than Dash does. Even his bone structure seemed to be changing now. His ghost form had a muscular broadness that his human form simply didn’t. Even his hands got bigger in that strong man muscular way. It weirded him out a little actually. But his running theory was that all the fighting and his increasing ecto-level was all going to his ghost half, rather than his human one.

Sure he knows now that some of the other changes -like his fangs, claws, and tapered ears- were just him starting to develop into an adult ghost. His jumpsuit was going through its own changes naturally too, but that really doesn’t help him disguise himself at all. Plus the similarities to Dan’s jumpsuit, that he was starting to notice, was hard to feel happy about. At least he hasn’t started forming a cape or anything yet; even if that actually would help make his body look different between forms. Well okay, the pointiness did frame his muscles in a way that made them a little more noticeable. So he guesses it does help a little.

The wavy smoky look his hair was taking definitely hid its shape, he just seriously hoped it stays wavy thick smoke and doesn’t transition into full-on flames. Sure that would make his forms look even more different, but he’d rather his forms look similar than look like Dan. But... sighing and shaking his head at the mirror, Dan was his future self, that’s probably what he’s going to look like no matter what he does. Well, excluding the red eyes. ClockWork had told him how the eye colour change had been due to Core damage that the whole ‘tearing out his humanity’ thing caused. He used to tell himself that he wouldn’t wind up looking like Dan since future Vlad said Dan was a combination of Phantom and Plasmius. But nope, according to the much more trustable resource that is ClockWork, Phantom had cannibalised Plasmius in pretty much a psychotic bout of madness. Since apparently completely cannibalising another ghost can make you stronger and even steal their powers. Danny is never making use of that information.

Changing back human, another good thing was that none of the injuries he got ever scarred. Because no way could he explain all the kinds of scars he would have otherwise. Running a hand over his jaw, even his face was leaner in human form; and his cheekbones and eyes were a little shadowed/sunken like he didn’t quite eat or sleep enough, which he didn’t. He was starting to get facial hair in both forms though, at least it was kinda smoky in ghost form though. Running his thumb over the stubble, it annoyed the heck out of him how it was growing in as a pointy goatee and literally nothing he did seemed to change that. He’s pretty much resigned himself to the look at this point because he is not just shaving it off. He’s also resigned himself to Vlad making ‘approving’ and ‘mocking’ comments about it. Whatever, the guy can shove it.

Now, the only thing he didn’t like about the differences between his forms was that it wasn’t just his appearance. He actually was physically weaker in human form. He didn’t just look scrawny, he was scrawny. It was annoying as Hell and very often he forgot that he couldn’t lift something in human form that he could in ghost form. It almost annoyed him enough to make a damn point to workout in human form. Problem was, that would run the risk of his human form developing in the same way as his ghost one. He didn’t want to make his forms look even more similar. And Ancients, both Fenton and Phantom bulking up? Talk about suspicious. That would be just another thing for anyone suspicious of him to add to their lists of suspicious shit. So he’d rather put up with the annoyance and inconvenience of a weak human form. Hell, he wore baggy clothing to accentuate his skinniness.

Moving to flop down face-first in bed, changing between forms a bit just to feel his feet dangle off the bed slightly and then not at all. The height difference was something else getting annoying. He’s blaming that on him not eating enough, his ghost forms height had nothing to do with a good diet, unlike his human form. He honestly expects that as an adult there’s going to be a solid foot difference between his forms. Maybe more. Honestly? He’s just gonna have to get used to the differences. Even something as simple as rolling his shoulders or taking a deep breath felt so different between forms. But hey, it was worth his secret identity not being nearly as see-threw as glass. Now it was more like very foggy glass.

The personality differences he made a damn point to emphasis between his forms probably helped too, which used to be hard to do but now it just felt natural to be meek and timid while human then bold and carefree while ghost. Which Jazz worries wasn’t exactly healthy, for him to effectively be juggling two personalities, that he genuinely might have forcibly developed two personalities. Even his friends have pointed out how he’d act a little differently based on form even when it was just with them. But needs be musts. If he had a level of a split personality then so be it. Besides, being stronger made him feel bolder, being smaller made him feel like more of a pushover. That just seemed right and natural. Being tiny just makes people feel tiny. Being large in a muscular way just makes people feel imposing. That’s normal, right? Eh oh well, if it’s not then it’s not. He’s not normal in the first place anyway. And yeah, he wasn’t doing the whole superhero disguise thing even remotely normal or according to the movies and comic books. But fuck it, it seemed like it was going to work out for him, and he doesn’t have to carry around a suit or disguise crap. There will be no changing in phone-booths for him or wearing a jumpsuit under his clothing (which honestly? Talk about an easy way to get caught).

Hell, maybe those fictional heroes should be jealous of him. All he had to do was alter his molecular/genetic structure and the substance his body was made out of, not cart around a whole ass disguise and perpetually speed change. And now that his body was changing, well maybe he actually was lucky.

End.

[darks-ink]

Commission for @kaiofficialdp, featuring Dan and their OC Kai. Thank you Tumblr for eating the linebreak, please don’t do it again when I go to post this please

---

Kai slowed his already casual flight as his eye caught on a speck of sharply contrasting white and black. Neither of those colors were rare in the wastelands around Amity Park, but together? Together, they were most commonly found on Dan.

He steered towards the speck. And, as he had expected, found Dan. The ghost was sitting on the edge of some ruins that Kai didn’t care to identify. Dan’s posture, slumped forward and leaning his elbows on his knees, with his face down-turned, suggested that he was moping.

Or so Kai thought, at least, until he came closer. Now he could more clearly see the set of Dan’s shoulders, the tenseness in his muscles, the emotional flickering of his hair. Even with his face hidden from Kai, it was clear that Dan wasn’t just moping. No, he was genuinely distressed.

Well, he can’t let that lie, can he? If something was serious enough to distress Dan, maybe Kai could help.

Touching down on the same crumbling ruins as Dan was sitting on, Kai landed almost silently, bar the quiet patter of debris stirred by his boots. Dan didn’t respond in the least, but this was not particularly surprising, as very little in the wastelands was a threat to him.

“Dan,” Kai greeted him, crouching down next to Dan. He only got a grunt in response.

“You look…” Kai paused, digging for the right word, “…troubled. You look troubled, Dan.”

A black gloved hand flapped vaguely in his direction. “It’s nothing,” Dan hissed back, but it felt dispassionate, without heat.

“It doesn’t look like nothing,” Kai countered, narrowing his eyes. “Tell me what happened. Was it Valerie? Something in Amity?”

Dan snarled, his lip curling, then shook his head. Remained quiet.

Kai sighed, placed his own gloved hands on the edge of the ruins, and kicked his feet out in front of him, sitting down next to Dan. The dust would doubtlessly stain his black coat, but that was easy enough to fix later.

“What can I do to help?” he prodded, since Dan still hadn’t answered his prior question. What could possibly stop that ghost from answering?

Dan just sighed, deeply and heavily, before flapping his hand at Kai again. “Go away.”

Now that was just weirdly out of character for Dan. Kai wavered for a moment before setting his shoulders and, unable to meet Dan’s eye, settled for staring at him earnestly. “No. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing,” Dan said, after a long pause. “Nothing new.”

Kai clenched his jaw, but Dan still didn’t look up at him, and likely didn’t even realize. “So it’s something old?” He wasn’t sure what to do with that information. If something had just happened, he could help, could maybe fix it or something. But something in the past? That had never bothered Dan before.

Or had he just kept it hidden from Kai?

Dan sniffed, twisting his head towards Kai, finally. His red eyes were narrowed, his mouth drawn in a grimace, fangs glinting in the low light. “You’re still not leaving?”

“I wanted to help,” Kai countered, shifting slightly to sit more comfortably. “And that’s still true. If it’s something in the past I probably can’t change it, but talking about it might help.”

He got a skeptical snort in return for that. “It happened a decade ago,” Dan said, faux casually. “I highly doubt that you could change that.”

Well, fair enough. “Talk about it, then,” Kai insisted. Even if he wasn’t the best at emotional stuff, he could at least sit down and listen. That alone might help some.

“It’s stupid.” Dan grunted, as if displeased with himself. “It happened so long ago. What’s the point of all this if I’m feeling emotional about it now?”

“Sometimes it takes a little time for something to settle in,” Kai offered, but it felt silly even to himself. That usually meant hours, or perhaps days. He couldn’t imagine it taking years, but, well, he wasn’t exactly an expert, was he?

Dan snorted, clearly just as convinced as Kai himself was.

“I thought I had gotten away from it all,” Dan finally said, voice so soft it was almost a whisper. “I had pushed it all away, gone through all that just to get away from this stuff. And now…” He made a sharp, derisive noise. “Now this.”

Kai cast around for the right words to use, to comfort his partner. “You can’t heal from the past just by ignoring it,” he finally settled on, fiddling with his fingers and wondering if touching Dan would help. “Tell me, Dan. Let me help.”

“All the stuff that happened years ago finally caught up to me,” Dan said, his black-clad fingers combing through his flaming hair. “Everything that I pushed away, that I thought I’d gotten over… It’s finally hitting me.”

Dan shook his head suddenly, jerkily, then snarled, “It’s hitting me again.”

---

It was stupid, was all it was. After all he’d done to separate his weak, pathetic human side, to get rid of those hindering emotions, they just came back? Absolutely ridiculous. What was the point of becoming an all-powering full ghost if he could still be haunted by his memories, by emotions he had left behind a long time ago?

Just obscene. That’s what it really was. Horrifically stupid. He was supposed to be beyond this! He had moved past it all years ago, when he split his human side away and merged with Vlad’s ghost instead. So why did it come back now? Why was he suddenly overwhelmed by events that transpired a decade ago?

Every time he closed his eyes, he could see the fireball that took out the Nasty Burger, and his loved ones with it. Every moment of silence was filled with the phantoms of their screams, the pressing silence that followed the explosion.

Whenever he approached Amity, his eyes were inevitably drawn back to the place where it had all happened, to the charred place that, to this day, remained untouched by Amity’s survivors.

To the statues that rested in front of it. The permanent marks of his friends, his family. Set in stone, forever the same. Unchanged and unchanging.

He made a sharp noise, aware of Kai watching him. Keen vermilion eyes were set on him, impossible to dismiss. Despite his earlier attempts at getting his partner to leave him alone, Kai insisted on being here.

Well, if he wanted to hear it so badly, why not?

“A decade ago, my family and my friends died,” Dan said, his voice low and rough. He stared ahead of himself, not meeting Kai’s eyes. “My father, my mother. My elder sister. My two closest…” He scoffed, harshly, then corrected, “My only friends.”

Kai didn’t speak, so Dan continued on. “They were at the Nasty Burger, all five of them, because of me. Do you know how much extremely flammable and explosive material they keep there?” A sharp humorless cackle. “Let me tell you, they had a lot of it! And most of it not particularly ghost-proof either! So if a ghost fight ever happened there, like for example, if amazingly heroic Danny Phantom shot a few ecto-blasts while chasing a ghost…”

Dan snapped his fingers. “Whoosh, just like that. Just one spark, and then everything goes. Like a big chain of fire and explosions.”

They sat in silence for a moment, as Dan’s mind relentlessly replayed his memories of that day. Sometimes he wished he could reach into his core and just rip out those pesky thoughts, the recordings of the whole chain of events. Why would he ever need that information, anyway? It had happened. It had led to this, to the here and now. That was all he needed to know, wasn’t it? What good was it for him to remember all of it to such a degree? To get caught up in emotions over it?

No good, that was the answer. It was absolutely pointless. If anything, it was actively harmful, a distraction and a bother.

“It’s not your fault that Nasty Burger didn’t properly secure their material,” Kai pointed out, finally, breaking Dan out of his chain of thoughts. “If they possessed material that so easily caught on fire when exposed to ecto-rays, they should have guarded it better, especially in a town such as Amity Park.”

Dan scoffed, unconvinced. “Yeah, right. The other ghost didn’t fire any rays. It was only me, and only because I was so focused on chasing ‘em. If I had held off until we were away from the restaurant, from the people… Or if I had behaved better, and none of them had come to the Nasty Burger in the first place!”

He forcibly snapped his mouth shut, teeth loudly clacking. What on Earth was he doing? Spilling emotional garbage all over his partner? Ugh. Bad enough that he was feeling these dumb emotions that he should’ve been over, but now he was spewing them at Kai as well? What was next, telling Valerie? Yikes.

“There’s no point in blaming yourself,” Kai told him, posture stiff, clearly uncomfortable with the task of making Dan feel better. “Perhaps you could have prevented it, but you can’t take the entire blame for it. And you have learned from it, haven’t you? It was a mistake, but one you won’t make again.”

“Hard to repeat it when I only had the one family to get killed,” Dan scoffed, shaking his head.

“You have me,” Kai pointed out, raising a challenging eyebrow at Dan. “Or do I not count as a loved one?”

Dan hummed at that. Well, Kai wasn’t wrong, was he? Instead of acknowledging that, however, Dan changed the topic entirely. “It’s not like I can repeat what happened afterwards, anyway. Hard to split off my ghost half when I am already full ghost.”

Kai made an agreeing sound at that. “And even if you could, where would you find a second half to stabilize yourself with?”

“Hm.” Looking back, it was rather stupid of Vlad to not have considered that. Dan hadn’t even needed to overpower the older half-ghost, as the element of surprise had been enough, both to split Vlad and to merge with the separated ghost half. “Once was enough.”

“Are you feeling better, then?” Kai leaned forward to catch Dan’s eye, but he looked away. “Now that you’ve talked?”

Dan harrumphed, unwilling to admit that it had helped at least a little. He still felt terrible, still felt haunted by the past, but… talking about it had eased the strain some. “I could’ve managed,” he retorted instead.

Kai caught his eye, staring at him intently, like he was trying to find the words to tell Dan in Dan’s own eyes. Clearly Kai didn’t know what he was doing either, struggling to find the right things to say, to find a way to comfort Dan. “You’re allowed to miss them, you know?” Kai settled on. “Even if you’ve been around so long without them, there’s nothing wrong with missing them. Acknowledging it, being willing to process the pain instead of shoving it away, that might help.”

“Oh, how would you know?” Dan dismissed with a flap of his hand. “I’ve been fine so far, and I’ll be fine for longer.”

“Will you?” Kai countered, leaning back slightly. “What do you want me to tell you instead, then? That at least your parents and friends aren’t suffering? That they would be proud of how strong you’ve become?” Kai scoffed. “That you’re better off without them holding you back?”

Dan huffed, squinting at his partner. “You’re not the type to tell me things you don’t sincerely believe.”

“Fine.” Kai shifted suddenly, standing up next to Dan. With a few short movements he dusted off his black jacket, then with a jerk, offered his gloved hand to Dan. “Come on. Moping around here clearly isn’t going to fix it.”

“And what do you plan to do instead?” Dan asked, raising an eyebrow but already extending his own hand to grasp Kai’s.

“I’m sure we could find something to do that would make you feel better,” Kai said, pulling Dan up. “Shall we?”

Dan looked at the navy fingers tangled with his own. “Yes,” he agreed. “Let’s.”

[2boats]

Clockwork, Danny & Dan: an essay on ‘The Ultimate Ennemy’ and Time Travel in Danny Phantom

Part 1: How Time travel work in Danny Phantom.

Warning: I barely talk about DP in this part, I’m just rambling about time travel

We all have things in our lives that we’re embarassed about; and for me one of these thing is being a homestuck fan (especially considering what it became).

but one of the reasons I loved homestuck was its ludicrous use of time travel.

I could talk to you for ages about different types of time travel, however, not only is it not what you signed up for, it start to get pretty confusing after a while.

However, it is cannon in the Danny Phantom universe that all ghost can time travel. And to fully grasp the what I want to adress, we must first understand how this time travel work. which mean I will ramble a little bit about time travel theory.

Linear time travel and its limitations

the original base theory for time travel is ‘one dimensional’ and present itself thusly:

the timestream is linear, and by changing one event in the past, you alter the future. (ex: if you kill baby Hitler, there won’t be a WW2.)

However, we end up butting head with our first problem: ‘It’s a time paradox’

if time is linear and there is only one timeline, correcting the past would remove the motive behind your time travelling to the past, i.e. you didn’t time travel, i.e. the past was never altered, I.E. nothing happened !!! (ex: you killed baby Hitler, so there was no WW2, so you never went back in time to kill baby hitler, which mean Hitler still caused WW2.)

in order to avoid this paradox, several possible solutions have been theorised, for example:

event that alter the timeline remain, regardless of weither the changes they’ve brought would’ve affected them. this way, any event affecting the timestream is treated as immutable and acausal: and the timestream is thus corrected through “waves” (implying a sense of simultaneity baccross the timeline, but I won’t go there). (ex: you kill baby hitler and return to your time, the timeline correct itself, WW2 never happened, you’ve never traveled back in time, and baby Hitler died in mysterious circumstances year ago.) it’s how time travel work in “the sound of thunder”.

the time traveler is treated as external to the timestream. (ex: you kill baby Hitler, the timeline correct itself, you return to your time, the timeline has changed, you didn’t) (1.5 : the timeline is changed first, and then you are (like in shrek 4))

a stable time loop; i.e the things you did in the past already happened in the original timeline, as such, you didn’t actually change anything in the timeline. often involve a “bootstrap paradox”, wherein an object exist solely within the loop. terminator provide a good example of this; seeing as skynet couldn’t have been invented without the remain of the T-800 it sent back in time.

the existence of multiple timeline A.K.A. Multiverse theorie  (actually multiverse theorie encompass a little bit more than that, but I still haven’t talked about Danny Phantom yet)

Bi-dimensional time travel

alongside stable time loops, one of the most widespread theory regarding time travel is that there is an infinite number of timeline and that any act or decision anyone make create at least one new timeline.

this theory, combined with the previous ones open a whole new realm of possibility regarding alteration of the timestream without creating paradoxes.

you may even resolve a bootstrap paradox this way. all you would need to do is say that rather than dealing with a true stable time loop, we’re actually dealing with an infinity of near identical timelines; one of them being the original timeline from which the paradoxical item of contested origin hail from.

anyway, the important thing to pay attention to is:

How does the time-traveler interact with these newly created future timelines ???

can they only return to their own future much like trunk in dragon ball ???

can they go to whichever timelines they want ???

can they only return to the future from the most probable timeline at the time of their departure ???

It should be noted that that last one appears to be how time travel work in Danny Phantom.

I Finaly start talking about DP. you literaly don’t need to read anything before that point.

the only information we have on time travel in dp are from “The Ultimate Enemy” (we’ll come back to this one later), “Masters of All Time” and “Infinite Realms”.

while in TUE travels to the future, both MAT and IR involve Danny travelling to the past

in MAT, Danny goes back to the past in order to prevent Vlad’s accident. however when getting back to his time, he finds out that this is such a drastically different timeline that he doesn’t even exist there. Yet, besides a lack of social security number, he himself is not directly affected by these changes. he end up removing the changes he made to the past in order to go back to his own timeline.

in IR, Danny (and Sam his following Vlad to different points in time; the later is trying to alter the past so that he may go back to a future he rules. Danny, naturally, is trying to stop him. Ultimately, when they all return to the present, the timeline is almost the same as when they left, with the addition of proof of Phantom’s presence in the past (although one could argue that this is a stable time loop scenario and that we just weren’t aware of these particular details).

thus in danny phantom, there exist several timelines, but you can only acess one at a time; travelling to the future will only lead you to the currently most likely future timeline

and as such altering the past will only change which timeline you have access to.

[vigilante-rpg]

Welcome Rachel! We’re pleased to announce your audition for Garrett Hall / The Heir has been accepted! Please send your account into the main within the next 24 hours. We can’t wait to have you join us!

{{ PLAYER INFORMATION }}

NAME: Rachel

AGE: 19

TIMEZONE: PST

PRONOUNS: She/her, though I’m pretty relaxed about pronouns addressed to myself.

ACTIVITY LEVEL: I’m not normally busy over the summer. I could write at least once a day unless executive dysfunction takes hold, which isn’t a normal situation for me. My free time will slim during the weekdays when September starts due to school, but I keep my schedule spaced out so I can get writing and other things done.

PREVIOUS ROLEPLAY EXPERIENCE: I first made a role-play blog in 7th or 8th grade, and have rped for several years afterward on Tumblr and other platforms such as Google Drive, Discord, and RP Adventures. While I’ve had good times and made a couple close friends online, I have admittedly left Tumblr altogether because none of the communities I found were safe spaces for me. But I’ve had Karo, Lance, and Rachel advocate for this group and I’m really missing a quality rp experience

PERSONAL TUMBLR CONTACT: Removed for Privacy

TRIGGERS: None that I know of right now. I have some pretty strong trypophobia? But the things that I see as triggers are very personal, and not something that can be easily set off online.

{{ CHARACTER INFORMATION }}

CHARACTER NAME: Garrett Hall

PRONOUNS: He/him

AGE: 30

ORIGIN: The Heir

FACE CLAIM: Dan Stevens (Primary) or Arthur Darvill (Secondary)

QUOTE: “I never wanted this destiny. But now, I need it more than ever.”

OCCUPATION: Having recently left a lofty career as a lawyer outside of Newhaven, Garrett has recently gained a job as an accountant for a humble bakery. The explanation will be included in his biography.

PERSONALITY: [Intelligent] Even without the dual wielded powers inherited from his parents, Garrett grew up a prodigy of all kinds. From a young age he mastered languages from the English, Russian, and French he heard daily, to Spanish, sign language, and Mandarin. Kinesthetic intelligence developed in his training and play, both effectively honing his body for a future of constant movement. In school, he set academic records that have yet to be beaten. For much of his childhood, he was educated in classes above most children his age until his parents moved him back down, rightfully fearing the neglect of his emotional needs. With the focus on his own growth, Garrett came to brush off those who seemed lesser than him, whether he meant to or not. Sometimes he did. Without establishing connections with the rest of the essentials for life, Vlad and Chantelle worried for his future. However, Garrett refused to ease his burdens, continuing to cultivate his mind and the skills he proved good at. After all, it’s what all the people wanted from him, right?

[Blunt] One of the few things Garrett struggled with has always been social interaction. He can and has come off to others as rude and irritable, not just because he is, but also because he lacks the understanding of sensing others’ emotions and following that to a proper response. As a result, he simply says and does what is on his mind.

[Emotional] While he would argue his brain to be his greatest strength, Garrett is almost entirely emotionally driven, and rather impulsive at that. He is the type of person to act first and apologize later than to ask for permission or another’s point of view. As much as he pretends to be an impervious wall to those around him, Garrett is prone to wear sad eyes and scrunch his face to avoid a fit of helpless snickers. Plus, there’s the avoidance of sad films; he has made many people uncomfortable with gross tears. He has also grown acutely aware of his personal traits and needs, as well as the ways his actions affect the lives of others. This may be the biggest cause for his return to Newhaven.

[Observational] This trait is somewhat tied to those addressed before. Garrett is smart; he sees things and does everything he can to understand the who, where, when, why, how, and what to do next. It is much easier for him to go through this experience with the theoretical, scientific, mathematical, and rhetorical than it with the human mind. Humans are not so predictable, and Point A does not always lead to Point B with them.

[A Grade A Asshole] That’s it. This is him. We’re done here. In slightly more seriousness, he can really be a jerk. This is important when connected to his impulsivity and inability to understand people. Garrett has made a number of mistakes that hurt other individuals in his own self-destructive spiral. When he says and does what he believes needs to be done, his methods can be… questionable at best. 

[Troubled] Both Garrett and Legacy behave complete differently for the same reason: he doesn’t know how to amend the person he is with the person he wants or needs to be, as well as what is expected from him. His entire sense of self has been fractured, and it shows. Garrett attempts to push himself almost completely from the kind of person most would accept, much less want to be around. Legacy is quite the opposite, the golden boy he was fated to be since the very beginning. But neither of them are the real him. He doesn’t know how to get that back.

BIOGRAPHY: On March 28, 1990, everyone in Newhaven knew about the first son of Gryphon and Bogatyr, heroes of The Guild. The journey of Gryphon’s pregnancy was followed by the public since she first left the front lines to preserve her health and that of the baby. His name was never released, of course, lest the heroes, his parents, would be revealed.

They called him Fledgling, born with the beak of an an eagle and destined to follow in the footsteps of his father and mother.

Behind the mask, the Halls were a loving, if somewhat overinvested nuclear family. Vladimir Hall, cheerful father and knightlike superhero, lived as an interpreter of numerous Slavic languages for immigrants such as himself. Chantelle Prevost-Hall had more of a challenge to balance out her heroics and her civilian life as a popular stunt actress, but she was more than up to the task for what she felt was the right thing to do. They adored Garrett, and later their second son, Vincent, who inherited none of the family’s powers. But if Chantelle were to look back, she would see that her presence in the boys’ emotional conflicts was a place she fell short, and where she was needed more than ever. For Vlad, he was kind, he was affectionate, but the man simply could not empathize with his sons of a different generation and culture. Where they faltered to meet their children’s needs, they compensated in support of their education, social lives, and especially Garrett’s own unique abilities.

Along with his astonishing prowess throughout his years of education, Garrett was trained in his superhuman abilities — plural after his secondary power manifested at age 4 — so that he would flourish as a sidekick to the heroic power couple Gryphon and Bogatyr, and eventually ascend to become a hero of The Guild. Everybody knew this. People gossiped, journalists followed the masked child’s every move, and where they failed to catch anything of note, they could glean some off of the proud parents themselves. Nobody was more excited for Fledgling’s next development than them.

That is why Garrett never told them how he really felt. His fears, his anxieties and insecurities were clutched to his chest, and he never spoke a word of his peers and other adults who saw him as the loner, a shortcut to their own successes, or the perfect target to push into the dirt. When he came home with a soggy bookbag and a busted lip, he said he fell into a fountain. When given the silent treatment by his younger brother, powerless and painfully average in everything but heart, he said he had eaten the last of Vincent’s favorite snack. When someone spoke about Fledgling and his sparkling future, he smiled and kept his mouth shut, even though he screamed on the inside, “Does anyone care what I think?!”

The last flickering light of hope turned to smoke when he learned the answer. Almost 18 years old, freshly dubbed a hero in his own right, and he had nobody. Even his best friend, his favorite person, his first love, only looked up to the heroic side of the mask. Just like everyone else.

Fledgling was so lucky, wasn’t he? To be the child of heroes, to be anywhere close to Spectrum, to be a hero himself.

That’s not me.

The rest of that day was a blur. He went to his room, threw on a jacket, got in his first — and only — fight with his dad, and then he was gone. He doesn’t remember what he said that evening. Only the rage, the guilt, the fear, but not enough to pretend he could ever make his family proud. Fledging was declared to have stepped down a week later, when the Halls had to realize that Garrett wasn’t coming home.With no contact, no leads, no motivation for him to completely run away, it was as though Garrett simply dissolved into thin air.

The years following were just as foggy when Garrett tries to look back. He wandered the streets, learned what it’s like to fight for his life, hitchhiked out of the city, and worked the odd job here and there until a kind samaritan had pity and took him in. He got into college with a double major in law and accounting, then law school because you can take the boy away from heroics, but you can’t take the hero out of the boy. He became a lawyer in the city on the outskirts, and a good one at that. It wasn’t until the last year that he was found by his brother, now an officer who begged and bothered for his return.

He got through to Garrett. This was not the life he wanted to lead anymore. In the span of a day, he quit his job, said goodbye to the person who took him in those years back, and disappeared into the night. The second time he ran, this time to the very place he yearned to leave behind.

His abrupt resignation would not bode well if he applied to another law firm, and between the deskwork and the effort outside of the office, he would hardly have time to have a full night’s rest. It was Vincent’s suggestion to start small instead, so Garrett pulled out his second degree and took the first accounting job he could get, at a bakery just mere blocks from the apartment he rented out. It was the perfect foundation to slip into the evening sky for the first time in years, wings bared for all to see.

After everything he did, it all lead back to putting on those golden shackles.

{{ VIGILANTE INFORMATION }}

VIGILANTE NAME: Legacy

PRONOUNS: He/him

APPEARANCE: In his teens, Fledgling was designed by his parents a fun little getup of dark gray nylon striped with scarlet lightning bolts beneath his armor. The material of the armor (described in powers) remains a mystery to both Bogatyr and his son. It appears as strong meteoric iron, but has never been broken beyond a few significant dents, which is repaired on its own when released from the wielder. In that time, he always wore his helmet to conceal his identity, shaped like the head of an elaborate eagle for his gryphon traits within.

Years later, it is hard to tell if the newly named Legacy has changed completely or not at all. The body armor stays the same as it was, though larger to fit his grown physique. Underneath, he bears a flexible black shirt with a jagged gold stripe up the front and two slits near his shoulder blades, a fairly plain pair of snug black trousers, golden bracelets that reach from wrist to mid-forearm, and a set of sandals that shift to wrap around his legs when his feet transform into the claws of a lion. When without his helmet for protection, Legacy wears a gold and silver masquerade mask of a gryphon, similar to the kind his mother used to own.

SIGIL: A heraldic emblem of a gryphon in silver.

COLOUR SCHEME: Goldenrod (#DAA520), silver (#ACACAC), and black (#000000)

FIGHTING STYLE: Close combat, minimalizing serious damage.

CLASS TYPE: Offensive 

MORAL ALIGNMENT: Lawful Neutral

POWERS: [Gryphon Physiology] From his mother, Legacy possesses a genetic structure that can shift from fully human to a more animalistic form. This ability is not powered by emotions or the person’s control, but is merely another body for him to inhabit. However, the more he changes at once, the more painful the process becomes. He has to physically make alterations to his muscles, bones, and every part of his body, which is hardly a natural effort. The most he can accomplish without causing significant injury to himself is manifest his wings, talons, claws, and bird-like eyes. Garrett has only tried to fully transform once as a teenager, but he failed impressively and never made an attempt since.

His strength and other physical attributes rely on his own fitness, except for the strength of his wings, massive and powerful to carry the weight of a grown man and then some, thus entirely capable of blunt damage should he risk injury to one of his most sensitive body parts. Another consequence is that his clothes get torn from the transformation if they are not specifically altered for this ability.

Gryphon and Bogatyr discovered his inheritance as soon as he was born; it was undeniable when they saw a beak in place of a wrinkled nose and mouth, and a head of pale, downy feathers. His parents made the decision while the medics tended to the newborn. They kept his identity a top secret from the disappointed city, known only to the doctors and the closest members of The Guild as they trained him parallel to his growing up.

[Armor/Weapon Manifestation] “He is his father’s son,” said Gryphon, hiding a smile behind her hand as Bogatyr slammed the door open with 4-year-old Garrett swinging a knife behind him.

“Mama! Look what I made!”

Bogatyr is able to create a full suit of armor around his body as well as an impressive range of weaponry as long as they are predominantly composed of metal. Legacy, on the other hand, can only make himself a sophisticated shortsword, shield, and the very basics of armor: visor, breastplate, shoulder guards, and simple coverings for his arms and legs. This ability also lasts for no more than a couple hours without causing significant strain (one and a half hours while part-gryphon), and can only bear up to the force of twice its mass without visible damage, likely due to a weaker version of the mutated gene. But the flexibility works well when he shifts forms with Gryphon’s power. For both men, the properties of their manifestations has no match to any known type of metal, but most closely resembles heat treated L6 Bainite. Between them and those who worked on research with them, they suspect the armor may be connected to iron and other materials from their bodies. For obvious health-related reasons, though, there have been no tests on either Bogatyr or Legacy.

{{ STATS }}

OBSCURITY: 1/5 (-1 obscurity)

CONTROL: 4/5

LUCK:  3/5

---

STRENGTH: 3/5

SPEED: 4/5

CHARISMA: 2/5

INTUITION: 3/5 (-1 intuition)

AGILITY: 3/5

STAMINA: 3/5

INTELLIGENCE: 5/5

DURABILITY: 4/5

{{ EXTRAS }}

HEADCANONS: -Even though he contains enough issues to fill a personal Pandora’s Box, Garrett does not come from a life of abuse or neglect. At this point in time, he’s come to accept that a number of different causes – miscommunication, insecurity, undiagnosed anxiety and depression, and outside forces that would take a second list to name off – resulted in his ultimate act of running away. He only wants to make his round of apologies and decide where to go next.

-He’s a devoted night owl, for better or for worse.

-Those from the Guild are likely to know his real identity.

-Because his father’s Russian, his mother’s French, and he was raised in Newhaven, poor Garrett speaks with an accent that is an unholy amalgamation of all three.

-Sometimes he tries to meme. Don’t let him.

-Legacy is surprisingly good at working with others. Garrett’s just an ass.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: -Garrett is part of Dimetre’s ex-lover/friend plot, but with a couple minor changes. He’s the character who inspired that plot, haha!

-Songs: Luck by American Authors, Stroke by Stroke from Jasper in Deadland, I Was Me - Imagine Dragons, You Don’t Know from Next To Normal, May I by Trading Yesterday, Lullaby for a Stormy Night by Vienna Teng

-Aesthetics: Papers and folders on a tabletop, the constellation Lyra, tears smearing the ink on a letter, golden wings, fallen angel, coffee with foam art, snowfall on a veranda, gleaming steel.

[monotype-on-phantom]

Ah, I’ve been waiting for this moment since I started this blog. After all this time, I’m going to talk about a fascinating TUE exclusive character. One who’s both tragic yet disturbing in his very existence. One who could’ve so easily been the future of our beloved protagonist.

The traumatized, psychological mess that is…

This kid:

Did...anyone actually believe I was talking about Dan? I won’t be surprised if nobody fell for that. I have mentioned in the past that I find TUE Fenton fascinating, and the recurring word in those screenshots is “human.”

Still, with the number of fans Dan has, I couldn’t exactly resist the opportunity to try a trick like this. It is strange that I’m talking about the character who appeared on screen for like a second before the main antagonist.

I debated whether or not to cover Dan first, because really, I can’t talk about either half without talking about the other. Unlike Identity Crisis, though, this situation is complicated and talking about both in one post would go way too long.

So, I’ll just do my best to cover each half individually.

I’d recommend reading my Identity Crisis analysis in order to fully understand this post, but if you don’t want to read through the whole thing, I’ll give you a summary.

The conclusion I came to is that when Danny splits himself in half, the result is the two halves becoming the extreme of his intentions for them. Ghosts need some sort of consciousness to exist, or they’re just puddles of ectoplasm. In order to maintain itself, Danny’s ghost half has to take half of Danny’s consciousness with it. What it takes is up to Danny, though. Just like any other ghost’s consciousness is formed around their obsession (the thing keeping them from moving on when they died), Danny’s ghost half will take what Danny wants it to, allowing his human half to play out the other intended role.

The events of Identity Crisis were probably what made Danny aware of this fact. The fact that he’s half ghost allows him to remove parts of his personality simply by splitting the two parts in half.

Moving in with Vlad was probably the worst possible thing for him in this situation, because this couldn’t happen anywhere else. Vlad’s the only human left in the world who knows his secret, and he’s more than a little messed up himself. On top of that, living with Vlad, Danny was probably allowed to do whatever he wanted. Vlad’s rich ass can pay for cleaners, so Danny probably had no chores. I doubt he’d make Danny go to school or anything, and fighting ghosts was something Danny made himself do.

With nothing to occupy his time or mind, Danny would only have to sit and sulk day in and day out, which would only make him more miserable and depressed. There’d be nothing to help him cope and nobody for him to talk to. Just sitting all day feeling sorry for himself and missing his family. It makes sense that he’d start thinking that essentially surgically removing his emotions would be the only way to stop the hurting, and Vlad’s probably the only person in the world who would agree when the child under his care asked him to do that.

While we’re never told the details of how this was supposed to work, the wording “human emotions” and “rip out my humanity” implies that the emotions were intended to be left with the human half. Perhaps they were planning on keeping the human half comatose or something, or hell, maybe Danny secretly planned to off himself from the start. We don’t know, but the only conclusion I can come to is that Danny planned on living as a ghost, leaving all his baggage behind in his human body.

All things considered, it’s probably a good thing that human half didn’t exist for long. If the ghost half was going to be the extreme of lacking “painful human emotions,” then the human half would be the extreme of nothing but that. He’d lose any ability to feel apathetic or, possibly, even mild emotions. Danny’s already a child who cares too much, and this would only make things worse for him. He’d be left with nothing but amplified, painful emotions. Guilt, grief, sadness, loneliness, anger, and even the emotions that made him care about his loved ones in the first place.

He’d be a mess, and it wouldn’t be too long before he either completely lost his mind and made himself unbelievably ill.

Of course, that doesn’t mean his death was pleasant, either.

We don’t know exactly what happened to him. There are only two individuals in this timeline who know, and they’re not talking. Dan, despite usually loving to brag about the horrible things he’s done and plans on doing, just leaves this at “I surrendered my human half.” And Vlad? He visibly cringes upon being asked.

It’s worth noting that when he talks about Maddie’s death, he does so with ease. Everything up to that point wasn’t a problem for him. This, however? He turns away and says “some things are better left unsaid.” Not “I don’t want to talk about it.” The words he used were “better left unsaid.”

Why couldn’t he just say “he was killed”? If Vlad’s been able to tell Danny everything up to this point, even talking about everyone Danny loved dying and the pain he felt as a result of that, why is that sentence so hard to say?

It could be that the writers just wanted to leave things ambiguous, but the only explanation for all of this I can think of is that, for whatever reason, Vlad’s unable to leave it at that or he’s unable to bring himself to think about it.

Whatever Dan did to his human half, it was horrible enough to actually traumatize Vlad Masters. And horrible enough that Dan won’t even talk about it (whether it’s because it’s something he considers a good memory that nobody else deserves or because it’s the one time where he went too far even for himself is up for debate).

I wonder a lot about this human half of Danny. What would he have been like had he survived? Did he have a funeral? Was there, perhaps, a reason he couldn’t? What would he be like if he somehow came back as a ghost, perhaps unable to move on without the other half he’s likely terrified of at this point? If he did come back as a ghost, what would a reunion between him and any of his loved ones be like? Dan mentioned that it would’ve been very touching if he had any humanity left, so what would the other extreme look like? Or would he even be able to remember them any more behind everything else that made up who he was?

This is why I find him so fascinating, despite the fact that he only appeared onscreen for maybe 2 seconds. To me, there are more “what ifs” and other questions here than there are with any other character in TUE.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to watch an episode of My Little Pony or something to make myself feel better, despite pretty much never watching it in the past aside from with my baby cousin and a couple times out of curiosity. I am depressed.

[dannyphantom-justiceleauge]

Time and Again

When Bart Allen crash lands in the present, it’s strange, and he’s strange, but Danny has long been used to strange. He bobs his head when the YJ team relates to him what Bart had said about the future; his eyes closing when the knot in his chest releases at the telling of Impulse’s future. He’s not a monster.

Bart screams the first time that he sees Phantom.

Dan glances up at the natural portal over his head, double checking that it was indeed still open, the Infi-map thrumming in his belt. He turns his gaze back to the workers laboring away. 

Blue looks up at him, squinting into the empty space created by invisibility. Dan knows well enough now that the Reach suit can read the ecto-magnetic signature of his core. That had been established decades ago. The psionic cannon whirs, and Dan grins, flickering into view; red eyes dancing with mirth and revenge.

Dan’s howl neutralizes the blast; the air vibrates with the tension of conflicting sound waves. 

Small things here and there trip Bart up. A comment here, a sidelong glance, stiffening abruptly when Phantom phases through the wall, staring a little too long at Danny (both human and ghost) as if he’s trying to catalog the differences. Danny’s skin prickles and flashes of the desolated landscape from his future echo.

He relates these to Tucker and Sam; they vaguely remember the incident through a fog, but they nod and write down the instances that Danny lists. The journal confirms Danny’s suspicions that Bart is lying about his role in the future.

An electric blast from Black Beetle illuminates Dan’s frame, highlighting the glowing scar that sit across his chest, slipping across his collarbones and bisecting the insignia. Dan remembers dying; he remembers the pain and distress at watching GIW and Reach scientists alike poke and prod. He remembered his human side violently rejecting him, barring him control while it slipped out of the black hazmat and into civilian clothes to bleed out and find rest. Phantom, the halfa now dead, remembered their names and faces.

He didn’t kill them. He just worked to be a constant nuisance, a thorn in their side. He was angry, yes, but he refused to become that creature from his nightmares. It was a line he’d drawn. Helping out the workers made him feel better, overshadowing them to share his strength and let them rest for a moment.

That was how he’d found Vlad, actually. The older halfa had been doing much the same. Plasmius’s eyes had echoed the loneliness Phantom felt inside as they discussed how he’d come to be captured, how the Reach tech had learned to corrupt both Valerie and Jazz’s suits. The discussed the era of the fallen heroes. It was nice to reminisce even if those memories were tainted with anger and revulsion from how those heroes had been vanquished. Plasmius asks after the specifics, and Phantom state–as a distraught Vlad had told him in a future so many years ago–that some things are better left unsaid.

Time ticks on. Both are acutely aware of Clockwork’s radio silence.Vlad ceases to aide as Plasmuis now that the Reach follows him everywhere. Apparently, they finally deemed Luthor’s files worth a read. Vlad has not been a young man for years, and now Phantom helps as he does with the laborers, sometimes overshadowing Vlad through the worst of it. He works carefully to avoid expelling him as Point Dexter did so many, many adventures ago (was that even him? it couldn’t have been). 

Dan remembers dying then too, the feel and slide of Vlad’s body tiring, how it felt to lose that last vestige of humanness and how the collapse into a single  wavelength of their two separate ghostly cores rippled across their (his?) being. He remembered how the grief and loss resonated through and that spark of defiance and vengeance hollowly drove at him.

Dan Plasmius was a ghost that killed. He razed the testing labs, freeing as many of the Metas as possible, but ultimately, he wasn’t willing to sacrifice his existence. Dying twice (4 times technically including the accidents) does that to you. There was a speedster there; Dan swallowed down the nostalgia that came from that. 

Bart evades Danny like it’s his job.

Danny hunts him down like he’s freaking Skulker or something. Probably more like Walker honestly. He has to know though. He has too!

He can’t go into this fight not knowing if at any second he’s going to trigger his change into Dan Phantom. Danny can’t go through that again with this family.

Clockwork’s intervention isn’t what he’d expected. Be drastic. Be bold. Be enough of a ‘rival’ bad guy to create a scientific time travel back.

Blatant support to misuse the rule of the Ghost Zone? Granted. Dan doesn’t atriculate the unease in his core as he reestablishes himself as ruler of the ghost zone. His memories as Plasmius call this hollow, but Dan shrugs his discomfort off and works at it. The Phantom memories balk at being trusted with so much power and responsibility, and Dan soothes that away with a reminder that they’re not 14 anymore, that they have experience and know the risks and rewards.

Being a hero is hard. Knowing that this is the best way is even harder.

Under new management. That’s your threat. You challenge and harass the Beetles and the Reach. You talk up how much better the Ghost Zone is doing (which it is). You make sure that the laborers (slaves, Plasmius corrects) can always see your confrontations. You thrum in sympathy because you know that you’re making their lives harder. You know that you have the potential to start an apocalypse, but that’s not who you are.

You don’t care anymore how the people see you; you’re too focused on fighting the Reach. You overshadow Blue Beetle and Jaime’s psyche welcomes you with shock and relief and so many emotions that you can’t even comprehend them.

The scarab changes its electrical signal shortly after and Dan Plasmius is thrown away. There’s a speedster that watches this, and Dan aches in pity of his former teammate. He doesn’t leave the Ghost Zone again.

Getting Bart to talk legitimately takes a trip to Clockwork. Danny taps his fingers while Bart makes his feet thrum on the floor. Clockwork’s been ignoring them, flitting through his castle and choosing to do other things instead. Danny jumps when on one of the passes, the time ghost sets a dented (still sealed, thank god still sealed) thermos on a table just beside them. 

“We’ve been expecting you.”

Dan Plasmius glances around (between the younger half him and the speedster, between clockwork and the sealed thermos, and all around).

“I guess I owe you an explanation,” he directs to the ginger, “Surely, you’ve figured out now, that I’m just 90% talk with the power to back it up.”