#It was out of my control

[groundzer0s-art]

Someone should revoke my artist privileges

[imagionationstation]

Dona AU Rewrite - New Girl In Town

Leo was knocking before he could chicken out of it.

Normally, he would have thought twice about bothering April when it was so late at night, but he had no idea where his brothers had run off to and Sensei would be mad if he came home without them. He felt like he was going to explode if he didn’t talk to someone about the excitement bubbling in his chest.

Besides, who better to talk to about humans than the human girl who probably has had tons of friends over the years? It was so obvious!

Also, also, in all the comics and movies and books that he’s ever seen, teens love being awake at all hours. So she’ll probably be happy to have some company! It’s a win-win!

He raps on the window, careful to keep his voice low.

The last thing he wants is to attract her aunt. That’ll be a fun convo.

“April! April?”

The floorboard creaks. He stiffens and ducks back, relieved when a familiar face comes to the window with half-open eyes.

She squints at him, muttering his name.

He can’t really hear her, so he waves, giving her a moment to wake up. She grumbles under her breath, pushing open the window with a sleepy, “…etter be good.”

“Hey.” He smiles sheepishly, suddenly questioning his choices. He clearly woke her up. The way her eyes keep slipping shut tell the whole story. Hoping to be considerate both to her and to keep her aunt asleep, he’s careful to keep his voice low. “I- need to talk.”

“Can I wait ‘til morning?” She rubs her eye.

Leo blames her human upbringing and her current lack of sleep on the fact that she should know he can’t come back come morning, hurriedly blurting, “I met this girl-”

April springs awake in a second, grabbing him by the shoulders.

“Tell me everything.”

He had every intention of doing so, but he’s glad that she’s no longer an unwilling audience. She stares at him, fists up, eyes wide, and Leo suddenly realizes that he doesn’t… Actually know that much about Karai. He looks to the sky, embarrassed. “Well, she’s really cool.”

He peeks at her. April nods, quick.

“She’s also- a martial artist.”

April nods harder, bangs moving as she does. He grins.

“And- uh-” Oh! “She’s in the Foot Clan!”

Leo is looking right at her and somehow still does not see the rolled-up magazine coming until it’s smacking him in the face.

Maybe he should of.

“Are you crazy?!”

He probably should of.

Okay, bad topic. “April, she’s different. She’s-”

April has pulled away, leaning on the windowsill. “In The Footclan.”

“Yeah, b-but she’s-”

She gets louder. “In the Footclan.”

This is not going how he pictured it. “Look, I know I shouldn’t be hanging out with her-”

April crosses her arms and rises to her full height. “You got that right! You know why? ‘CAUSE SHE’S IN THE FOOTCLAN!”

Leo winces. Geez, no wonder Donnie wants to be friends with this girl. They’re more alike than he thought.

“April!” He grips the windowsill, fingers digging into the wood. He needs her to understand. Why can’t someone understand? “She’s fun! And I’m tired of being the responsible one! Why can’t I be stupid or selfish? When do I get to have fun?”

April sighs, arms falling to her side, “What does she want from you?”

Leo looks away. “I don’t know. I’m meeting her later at the Birley Building. She’s got something planned.”

April blinks, “So like a date, or-?”

Leo rears back. “No! Just- I don’t know. Maybe she wants to hang-out. Or talk. That’s stuff friends do? Right?”

“Sure, that, or-” Leo looks at her curiously and she snaps, “Maybe she wants push you OFF the Birley Building? It’s a trap, Leo!”

“I don’t think so.” He frowns, voice firm. “There’s good in her. I know there is. I can feel it.”

April stares at him for a moment. Her voice is tainted in disbelief. “I hope you’re right.”

The window slams shut. Leo flinches, turning away.

Well. That did… Not go the way he thought it would.

Karai is waiting for him when he gets there.

He does a loop around the building, scanning for any signs of hidden warriors. She has no Foot legions with her, so it’s not an ambush. If she intends to kill him, she wants to do it herself. But she’s already had the chance to kill him many times. And she hadn’t.

Was it just to get his guard down? Why waste the time and effort?

He groans. He’s going to regret this, isn’t he?

…He’ll probably regret it more if he never solves the mystery.

He lands on the parapet.

“About time.” There’s a smirk in her voice. “I was beginning to think you were a no-show.” She turns, a hand on her hip. “But you don’t disappoint.”

He studies her, walking closer. “So… What’s this about?”

He catches the tossed binoculars. “That.”

He turns, brows furrowed, before raising them up to his face. His eyes widen, breathless. “That’s the sword of Miyamoto Usagi.”

She kneels, so he does too, looking between her and the weapon as she speaks. “The greatest swordsman in the history of Japan. It’s ancient. It’s priceless. And it’s yours.”

He blinks at her, startled. She grins. “If. You help me.”

Leo doesn’t like the look in her eyes. He’s seen it in Raph’s before he asks him to do something that they both know Sensei would never allow. “…Do what?”

“You know what.” Leo really hopes he doesn’t. He really, really, really hopes- “We’re going to steal it.”

That is just his luck, isn’t it? He frowns. “No, we’re not.”

Her mood drops. “Come on, that sword is just sitting there collecting dust!” He glances back to it. “You know you deserve that katana.” Adrenaline races at the thought on what it might be like to merely hold it. Must less wield it. “Certainly more than some lazy rich guy.”

Karai stands and Leo stiffens. He keeps his eyes on the blade because that’s safer than revealing how tempting the thought is.

“Stop being responsible, Leo.”

She gets down on a knee, closer, looking to him expectantly. She’s eager for him to follow through. Impatient for him to join her. She wants him to come with her. He doesn’t want to let her down.

He’s always the downer. Always the killjoy. Or the spoilsport.

But… But this isn’t turning down a R-rated movie or tattling when Raph tries to talk Donnie and Mikey into doing some dumb, harmless prank that’ll backlash on all of them. This is stealing. Thievery.

“Stop waiting for people to give you the life you want.”

Leo’s heart races as she inches closer.

“Go out and take it.”

“No.”

Leo closes his eyes and looks away. He can’t. He can’t. It doesn’t matter how much he wants to listen to her or how easy it would be to sneak in and retrieve. How simple it would be to let her lead.

It doesn’t matter that she might be mad at him, and he might lose his only shot at an awesome sparring partner and maybe-friend.

She stands. “I’m getting that sword, Leo. With or without you.”

His heart sinks. He surprised to find himself hesitate.

Okay. So, maybe it does matter. It all matters.

“Choose.”

But at the end of the day, it’s not who he is.

He stands, holding his ground.

“I can’t.”

At the end of the day, he still has to look in the mirror and think about the kind of example that he’s setting for his siblings. Who will they become if he starts opening these doors? Actually crosses this line?

Even if he’s not leader, they’ll follow him.

“It’s wrong.”

And he’s not a villain. It’s not who he is.

“You’re starting to bore me...”

It doesn’t have to be who she is either.

She reaches for her blade. He grabs her hand.

He searches her face. “Karai, you don’t have to do this.”

“I know.” Her grin returns. “That’s what makes it- fun!”

Karai moves, abruptly, kicking and flipping him before he has a chance to process the intent or action. He ends up on his face, shell in air as she plans a foot on his carapace, arm in a really uncomfortable position behind him.

How many times is a human girl going to catch him off guard tonight? Good things his brothers aren’t around to…

“Leo!”

Oh, come on. The universe could have at least set him Mikey!

Or Donnie! He’d even deal with her. Anyone but…

“What- what are you doing?!”

Couldn’t she have at least knocked him out?

“Who’s she?!”

Karai doesn’t say anything. Great. Just great.

“Uhm… Uh…” Leo’s fingers tap the concrete before he awkwardly raises his hand to gesture between them. “Raph, Karai. Karai, Raph.”

Raph gawks, “What are you, friends with her?!”

Yeah, that’s the question, isn’t it?

Leo thinks he’ll take April’s advice next time.

[didiwaffles]

Having ADHD is getting migraines because you didn't do your hyperfixation

[thatonebjp]

Sometimes I let my demons win

[quinloki]

I think the wildest thing about the TikTok Ban is that TikTok decided to adhere to it beyond the letter of the law.

They bent their knee willingly and gave up space and a platform they did not have to. They consciously decided to fuck over their user base when there was no valid reason for them to do so.

I've seen people talking about how you absolutely do not want to obey ahead of authority, and to see TikTok do it is... weird. It's unsettling. It feels like a dangerous stunt.

Specifically, it feels performative. It's got the marks of a Great Drama™, and given Trump's first 4 years and his absolutely bonkers love for theatrics over anything else, this just feels hollow. Like TikTok is trying to turn it's - generally younger - user base into "fans" of the republicans.

They can't really scoop up youths any other way, honestly. But using a big impactful story and putting Trump as the "hero" who saves their beloved platform.

It's not even the 20th and I just don't like how this new administration is starting. I do not like a private company complying beyond the letter of the law in advance of that law either. Because the only thing the law laid down was that they couldn't update the app on Apple and Google.

There wouldn't have been any fines or legal ramifications.

[inkskinned]

you said you were stuck in a time loop, which was fine. i feel like late-stage capitalism has us all in a time loop, ammiright? you came barging in at 5:33. in the morning. i hadn't even processed the idea of coffee.

but you had this look of utter panic in your eyes. terror like the ocean. you grabbed my cheeks. im in a time loop.

i don't know why in movies the first reaction is to deny it. when someone is panicking like that, it's not appropriate to ask them to calm down. it didn't matter if i believed it, what mattered was that you believed it so much that it was consuming you.

so here we are. i pour you some of the dark roast. "you look like utter and entire hell," i say.

you push your fingers into your eyes. "you always say that."

i try to think of something funny to say that i wouldn't have said on previous time loops, but jokes don't land without the proper timing (lol). "remind me to think -"

"-yeah, of a joke that only works in the future. and before you say anything, i know you're pissed i just stole your punchline." you bolt the coffee, which is wild. it's very hot. you don't seem to notice.

i blow on mine to cool it down. i both am very pissed at you and also i can't see you in this amount of panic without wanting to help. but i'm also not really sure what we are, not since i saw you kiss her like that, no offense. it just was like, kind of rude when you knew i liked you.

and besides. i'm just like, barely a person. i write omegaverse fanfiction. i love the concept of a time loop, but what the fuck am i gonna do? send an alpha in there? i open my mouth.

you point at me. "you're about to ask why me. and then say some disparaging shit about yourself. i'm just a nerd who plays dnd or something. that self-own is slightly different each time." you sigh. "i know you think you can't really help me. i don't know who can help me. i only came to you because you fucking believe me." you check your watch, sigh, and throw your head back. you cover your eyes with one hand. "i've come here on 26 separate revolutions," you say. "you have believed me every time. and yeah, i have no idea how you fit into this but i just -" you sigh again. "i just like fucking talking to someone about it."

"do you need more cof-" i start, but you're already holding the empty cup out. i frown at it. "you're not getting any more until you promise not to bolt this one like an animal."

you laugh a little and sit up, pushing your hair out of your face. "okay, that's new dialogue. but to be fair to you, i'm not usually this rude. i'm still pretty new at all of this." you check your watch again. another sigh. i guess you're cruising for a personal best in the Sigh Olympics.

i almost tell you im not an NPC but i've played enough video games to know i'm very much an NPC. i pour you another cup. "so what happens in the loop?"

"really bad explosion." you mutter into the mug. you put your elbows on the table (rude) and bury your face in your arms like an angsty teenager. one hand floats up while you talk, because evidently you literally can't talk without your hands. "i have to save the day and there's this bomb and i have no bomb training and it keeps moving, you know."

"do i die?"

you peek up from your arms. "yeah. bigtime. you keep trying to run or stay or do anything and you always super die."

"oh."

"to be fair, like, everyone dies in it though.... so you're in good company."

i hate that you make me laugh. i hate that being around you always feels tingly and strange, this electric tension between us. something that is evidently (given how you stuck your tongue down a stranger's throat literally 3 days ago) (well. 3 for me) super one-sided. i take a sip of my coffee and close my eyes.

i die today, i guess. a little spark of panic starts at the top of my hands and starts whipping up my wrists.

"shit," you say. you look at your watch and jump to your feet. "i have to go. if i can come back, i will. i am still trying to figure out when is best to do everything, you know? the order of stuff. maybe morning isn't good for us."

i look up at you and think about how you keep kissing me in the back of my car and in alleyways and in the dark. and i can never fucking get a read on you. and i also think about how incredibly panicked you look. how broken. how long have you been doing this? "i don't want to die," i say.

you glance downwards. "well, you're not really dead, you'll come back in the loop."

"but i will have died." my hands are shaking. i am trying really hard to stay calm.

you push your hands through your hair again. "i really have to go. i will have this discussion with the next version of you, though. it is like, something i am thinking about."

"but i don't get a next version," i say. i don't really have the language for this, because i haven't had 26 tries with you. i only have my memories: you, a week ago. drunk and telling me you loved me in my ear. you, kissing her anyway. you, months ago, throwing up on my birthday, whispering to me i ruin everything i touch, always, over and over. please don't ask. i can't ever fucking have that be you.

i run my finger along the rim of the mug. "i don't want to die in this one."

you seem baffled by this. "i get that but - time will reset, you'll be fine, you won't even remember we talked about this."

"but i know now." i stand up too. "i have to live the rest of this day knowing i could die. knowing i probably am going to."

"you could always die, to be fair."

i feel my hands get out of control. "earlier, you said i always say a different insult about myself. what if you're just going through different parallel universes and those are all just different - but real - versions of myself? what if you're not in a time loop, you're in a fucking universe loop?"

"if it helps, i've wondered this too. also, you're hot in all of them. if that helps."

i point at you. "no flirting. i'm trying to figure out if i die today."

"who's flirting?" you catch my wild hands and give me that long, perfect smile. like we're in this together. "i won't let ya die." you check your watch and sigh again. "well. maybe not this time."

i grit my teeth. you are so not making quips at me while i try to explain the existential dread i'm having. "does the time loop reset if i fucking kill you?"

"honestly i don't know how long it continues after i die, because i just wake up. it could be that the loop goes until the explosion for everyone, and we're all in the loop, or it could be that when i die, the loop restarts. when i die i wake up, is all."

i pull away from you and stalk into the kitchen and start doing all 3 of my dishes. "okay, first, you know i was joking. and secondly, this is exactly my point. you don't know if this is just a parallel universe. maybe in the ones where you died, the explosion happened and nobody reset and it's just you travelling." i have to stop and push the heel of my palm into my eyeball. "... how often have you died?"

i look at you. you look at me. you give me this very sad, halfway smile and a little what can ya do shrug. something in that action seems so old and weary that i want to burst into tears.

"i have to go," you say. "really. for real. there's this family of five i save from getting into a car crash. and i know it's like oh but we're all gonna die in the explosion anyway, what's the point. and..." you shrug again. "it matters to me, is all. at least i saved them for now. at least i saved anything."

you pad over to me and wrap me in a tight hug. you always seem so tall against me. i feel your cheek rest against the top of my head for a moment. for a second, it's just us, and the space is warm, and my heart is a little broken hare.

you leave me there, and i stand in my stupid badly lit kitchen with my stupid mugs. i think about you. i start texting my mom that she needs to get out of the city, but it feels pointless.

i don't know what to do. tomorrow is the same day for you. but i have to prepare to die in my today.

[gio-utti]

YALLSTARION

I've seen too much edits of yallstarion... yes.

[buttdumplin]

yeah simon is the one to scare people away when they get too close you, using his size and movement to intimidate, simultaneously shielding you behind him

yeah soap is the one barking loud, creating a spectacle and calling people out, and warning them away

yeah kyle is the one humiliating people, mocking offenders until either their own actions dawn on them or they finally recognize the venom in his eyes

but price is the one that launches into swinging. there is no warning, no hesitation. taking a step, even a single word against you, warrants immediate action in his mind. it's no laughing fucking matter. you are a top fucking prize, his prize, the best the world has to offer. john is rabid in his protection, bearing tooth and boot and claw and fist. there’s no point in talking to him or trying to negotiate, an offense is an offense and he won’t meet it halfway. someone looks at you the wrong way? they won't be able to see out of swollen eyes after headbutts them, crushing their nose. someone whispers something nasty about you? good luck even eating with that jaw wired shut. god forbid someone touches you, the other three boys can barely hold him back. john will break countless bones in every way he knows and beat his knuckles bloody if your smile starts to drop. 

[genericpuff]

Tbh at this point you should just make your own webcomic app/website because it would probably be 100 times better than whatever going on with webtoon right now.

hahaha it wouldn't tho, sorry 💀

Here's the fundamental issue with webcomic platforms that a lot of people just don't realize (and why they're so difficult to run successfully):

Storage costs are incredibly expensive, it's why so many sites have limitations on file sizes / page sizes / etc. because all of those images and site info have to be stored somewhere, which costs $$$.

Maintenance costs are expensive and get more so as you grow, you need people who are capable of fixing bugs ASAP and managing the servers and site itself

Financially speaking, webcomics are in a state of high supply, low demand. Loads of artists are willing to create their passion projects, but getting people to read them and pay for them is a whole other issue. Demand is high in the general sense that once people get attached to a webtoon they'll demand more, but many people aren't actually willing to go looking for new stuff to read and depend more on what sites feed them (and what they already like). There are a lot of comics to go around and thus a lot of competition with a limited audience of people willing to actually pay for them.

Trying to build a new platform from the ground up is incredibly difficult and a majority of sites fail within their first year. Not only do you have to convince artists to take a chance on your platform, you have to convince readers to come. Readers won't come if there isn't work on the platform to read, but artists won't come if they don't think the site will be worth it due to low traffic numbers. This is why the artists with large followings who are willing to take chances on the smaller sites are crucial, but that's only if you can convince them to use the site in favor of (or alongside) whatever platform they're using already where the majority of their audience lies. For many creators it's just not worth the time, energy, or risk.

Even if you find short-term success, in the long-term there are always going to be profit margins to maintain. The more users you pull in, the more storage is used by incoming artists, the more you have to spend on storage and server maintenance costs, and that means either taking the risk at crowdfunding (ex. ComicFury) or having to resort to outsider investments (ex. Tapas). Look at SmackJeeves, it used to be a titan in the independent webcomic hosting community, until it folded over to a buyout by NHN and then was pretty much immediately shuttered due to NHN basically turning it into a manwha scanlation site and driving away its entire userbase. And if you don't get bought out and try your hand at crowdfunding, you may just wind up living on a lifeline that could cut out at any moment, like what happened to Inkblazers (fun fact, the death of Inkblazers was what kicked off the cultural shift in Tapas around 2015-16 when all of IB's users migrated over and brought their work with them which was more aimed towards the BL and romancee drama community, rather than the comedy / gag-a-day culture that Tapas had made itself known for... now you deadass can't tell Tapas apart from a lot of scanlation sites because it got bought out by Kakao and kept putting all of its eggs into the isekai/romance drama basket.)

Right now the mindset in which artists and readers are operating is that they're trying way, way too hard to find a "one size fits all" site. Readers want a place where they can find all their favorite webtoons without much effort, artists wants a place where they can post to an audience of thousands, and both sides want a community that will feel tight-knit. But the reality is that you can't really have all three of those things, not on one site. Something always winds up having to be sacrificed - if a site grows big enough, it'll have to start seeking more funding while also cutting costs which will result in features becoming paywall'd, intrusive ads, creators losing their freedom, and/or outsider support which often results in the platform losing its core identity and alienating its tight-knit community.

If I had to describe what I'm talking about in a "pick one" graphic, it would look something like this:

(*note: this is mostly based on my own observations from using all of these sites at some point or another, they're not necessarily entirely accurate to the statistical performance of each site, I can only glean so much from experience and traffic trackers LMAO that said I did ask some comic pals for input and they were very helpful in helping me adjust it with their own takes <3).

The homogenization of the Internet has really whipped people into submission for the "big sites" that offer "everything", but that's never been the Internet, it relies on being multi-faceted and offering different spaces for different purposes. And we're seeing that ideology falter through the enshittification of sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. where users are at odds with the platforms because the platforms are gutting features in an attempt to satisfy shareholders whom without the platforms would not exist. Like, most of us aren't paying money to use social media sites / comic platform sites, so where else are they gonna make the necessary funds to keep these sites running? Selling ad space and locking features behind paywalls.

And this is especially true for a lot of budding sites that don't have the audience to support them via crowdfunding but also don't have the leverage to ask for investments - so unless they get really REALLY lucky in EITHER of those departments, they're gonna be operating at a loss, and even once they do achieve either of those things there are gonna be issues in the site's longevity, whether it be dying from lack of growing crowdfunding support or dying from shareholder meddling.

So what can we do?

We can learn how to take our independence back. We don't have to stop using these big platforms altogether as they do have things to offer in their own way, particularly their large audience sizes and dipping into other demographics that might not be reachable from certain sites - but we gotta learn that no single site is going to satisfy every wish we have and we have to be willing to learn the skills necessary to running our own spaces again. Pick up HTML/CSS, get to know other people who know HTML/CSS if you can't grasp it (it's me, I can't grasp it LOL), be willing to take a chance on those "smaller sites" and don't write them off entirely as spaces that can be beneficial to you just because they don't have large numbers or because they don't offer rewards programs. And if you have a really polished piece of work in your hands, look into agencies and publishing houses that specialize in indie comics / graphic novels, don't settle for the first Originals contract that gets sent your way.

For the last decade corporations have been convincing us that our worth is tied to the eyes we can bring to them. Instead of serving ourselves, we've begun serving the big guys, insisting that it has to be worth something eventually and that it'll "payoff" simply by the virtue of gambler's fallacy. Ask yourself what site is right for you and your work rather than asking yourself if your work is good enough for them. Most of us are broke trying to make it work on these sites anyways, may as well be broke and fulfilled by posting in places that actually suit us and our work if we can. Don't define your success by what sites like Webtoons are enforcing - that definition only benefits them, not you.

[deep-space-lines]

IT'S FINALLY FUCKING DONE. I'M FINALLY FREE

UNTIL FRAUD COMES OUT

Tumblr shrinks it down pretty bad so please. please. I am begging you. look at the full sized image and zoom in. This art piece made my friends worried for my mental health I need someone to witness the amount of detail and effort I put into this

also the original sketch under the cut bc I think comparing them is really funny

[mumblesplash]

i know it’s like years old at this point but i love that one collab mumbo and grian did with tommyinnit bc it’s like the single most concentrated example i’ve seen of mumbo’s Chaos Nullification Powers

you get to see a bit of it on hermitcraft, mostly via his interactions with grian, but until seeing that collab it didn’t really hit me just how completely mumbo can no-sell other people’s attempts to control a situation. tommyinnit is possibly the single shoutiest, most chaotic minecraft youtuber out there, and in most videos i’ve seen he pretty much overwhelms everyone else and sets the tone for interactions because of this. but mumbo just. doesn’t let him. no matter how much tommy escalates in intensity, mumbo reacts with *exactly* the same energy he always does. grian largely comes across in the whole video as annoyed and reluctant to engage with the whole thing, but mumbo’s not even affected. he just rolls with anything he finds funny and basically ignores anything he disapproves of, only seeming more and more unflappable the harder anyone tries to get a rise out of him.

AND imo, this is the key to my favorite interpretation of him as a character

see, when the people around him are being more reasonable/calm, i think mumbo often comes across as anxious and a bit easily overwhelmed. the thing is, his nervous wet cat vibes do not scale. he has one setting. his responses to the last life ‘ah-ha!’ jokes and to hermitcraft 8 starting to crumble to pieces under a falling moon are almost identical.

mumbo jumbo is inexorably and eternally Just Some Guy, but that gets stranger and stranger the weirder his surroundings become. the giggly incredulousness that makes him an easy target for goofy puns looks Very different when it’s also his reaction to the impending end of the world.

[mithrandirl]

Then suddenly he beheld his sister Éowyn as she lay, and he knew her. He stood a moment as a man who is pierced in the midst of a cry by an arrow through the heart; and then his face went deathly white, and a cold fury rose in him, so that all speech failed him for a while. A fey mood took him.

[ririinies]

cool hat, dude

[humbuns]

pieced together till they're no longer broken apart

[bet-on-me-13]

Danny commits to the Bit a bit too hard...

So! For the first few weeks after his accident, whenever Danny would try to help the people of Amity Park, he would be treated as a Villain.

No matter if he had just defeated the Big Bad of the Week or saved a Cat from a tree, everybody in town only saw him as a Monster or Villain to he feared and hunted down. Danny was really getting sick of trying to get them on his side, until Sam made a suggestion.

"Why not just...play into it?" She said, barely looking up from painting her nails.

It was just an offhand suggestion, but it stuck with Danny. Why shouldn't he lean into it? The people of Amity Park already saw Ghosts as Evil, and they already assumed he was in cahoots with the Ghosts attacking the town. Why shouldn't he just...play into it?

So he does just that.

From that day on, whenever Phantom was spotted he would dramatically monologue about his Evil Plans, or claim that another Rogues attack on the City was his own act of terror.

Box Ghost destroys the towns Warehouses? It was on his orders.

Ember mind controls masses of Teenagers? All part of his Plans somehow.

Every Adult in Town is kidnapped by Young Blood? Danny gave them over to a friend as a Gift.

He crafts an identity for himself as the most Vile and Horrible Ghost that has ever attacked the City, using his own infamy to cement his legend even more firmly. The town only sees a Monsterous Villain, who has eveded capture near effortlessly for months on end, who constantly attacks their City and gets away with it.

Of course he still needs an excuse for how his plans keep getting stopped, and he gets it when his girlfriend Valerie becomes the Red Huntress. Before that, he just claimed infighting or the Fentons getting lucky, but Valerie becoming the Town's Hero meant he had a plausible excuse for how he kept getting "Foiled".

Val was suspicious, because she was not as involved as Phantom painted her to be, but in the end she had no proof of him faking his defeats. And she couldn't come up with any explanations for why he would do that in the first place. I mean, who would fake being a Supervillain? It had to he something else.

This did come back to bite him a while later, when the Justice League decided that enough was enough, and dispatched Justice League Dark to recruit Red Huntress and help Deal with him.

Coincidentally, that was the same day Pariah Dark attacked the Mortal Realm and sucked Amity Park into the Ghost Zone.

And honestly? Danny had spent over a Year proclaiming himself as a Villain who commanded Ghosts to attack the Human Realm, and he had heard about the Right of Conquest being Absolute in the Ghost Zone, so why not make it official? Why not overthrow the Ghost King, become the Ghost King, and cement his identity as a Villain while also forbidding Ghosts from entering the Human Realm without his permission?

He may have gotten a bit carried away and forgotten that the Villain thing was a disguise...but hey! He was still preventing Ghost Attacks! ...mostly. That's got to count for something right?

He may have let the Bit run a bit too far...

...

Check the tags for more context!

[thimblings]

"i am alive, i am awake i am aware of what light tastes like."