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duskyashe · 1 year ago

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CAMP NANO DAY 8/9

(please see tags for trigger warnings)

[first three chapters] [AO3]

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It had been a long time since Bruce had been this unbalanced by the thought of a conversation. He was unafraid to admit, if only to himself, that he was terrified about the kinds of things he'd hear from the young woman now sitting across from him. On the way to his office, he'd asked her if she felt safe and comfortable talking to him by herself, or if she'd prefer having his youngest adopted son sit in with them, and while she was understandably hesitant to let an unknown fifteen year old sit in on their discussion, he'd also seen the way she'd unconsciously relaxed when she saw Tim walk in.

"Before we start, my name is Timothy Drake-Wayne, please call me Tim, and you have permission to hug me, cling to me, cry on me, or even squeeze my hand tight enough to break it. Whatever you need to do to get through this discussion. I'll even leave for snacks if you need to say something intensely personal or that you feel I shouldn't hear," his son said with a small, supportive smile. Bruce was so proud of Tim, he'd come so very far since first coming to them. "I'm very well used to standing in as an emotional support person when a foster kid gets comfortable enough with Bruce to want to tell him exactly what happened wherever they'd been before coming here, and I'm perfectly content to keep doing so for as long as I live here."

Bruce watched as Jazz processed everything Tim said and caught the question in her gaze before she'd even opened her mouth to speak it. "Tim has decided he wants to work with CPS when he gets older, take his own experiences with the system and use them to help improve it. I do whatever I can to help him, to help any of the children who find themselves in my care, achieve his dreams," he explained softly, pride warming his heart and voice. "I'm not sure how well you remember him, but my first adopted son, Dick, recently decided to open his own gymnastics studio here in Gotham. His experience with you and Danny when you lived with us really left an impression."

Jazz nodded in understanding before glancing at Tim, reached for his hand, and took a fortifying breath. "My—the Fentons are… scientists, inventors, innovators, they—they discovered, independently, an entire species of interdimensional beings with incredible powers and such a rich mixture of cultures, and… and they decided those beings were unnatural, that they were evil and needed to be experimented on and exterminated. They created a portal to these beings' home dimension in our basement without following any sort of safety regulations or protocols." Jazz took another breath, swallowing as she looked down at hold on Tim's hand. "Th-the green on me and Danny when we first got here, it's called ectoplasm. It's basically the lifeblood of these beings, it makes up almost their entire bodies. Their dimension is full of it, as any excess they produce gets shed off into the environment around them.

"When the Fentons created their portal into the Infinite Realms, they didn't realize they'd installed a secondary switch that also needed to be flicked for the thing to work. A switch that was on the inside of the portal shaft and could only be reached by physically going inside it." She shuddered as she tried to bite back tears. "I wasn't home at the time. I was tutoring a fellow student in English at the local fast food joint. Danny was at home with his two best friends. Mom and dad had left the day before to track down the supposed "ghost" that had caused their magnum opus to fail to work. He should have been safe.

"I got a frantic phone call from Danny's friend, Tucker, telling me I needed to get home ASAP, that Danny'd had an accident and wasn't waking up. The student I was tutoring asked me what I was waiting for, to get going, and so I did. I—by the time I got back to the house, Sam and Tucker had managed to drag Danny away from the portal, but i-it was pretty obvious what the accident was, I mean… the portal hadn't been on before I left…"

Bruce had a bad feeling about where this story was going. He'd seen the product of lab accidents too often to be able to con himself into thinking it could be going in any other direction. He almost stopped her from continuing, but while she was very obviously distressed, the process of telling him, of telling them, seemed to actually be doing her some good, so he kept his silence and watched as she clenched Tim's hand even harder for a brief second before relaxing her grip almost entirely.

"Sam was fussing over Danny's prone form, trying to make him more comfortable on the steel flooring without moving him too much, while Tucker was pacing between the two of them and the swirling mass of green that was the portal when I got there. As soon as they saw me, Tucker was on me with tears in his eyes. "We thought he'd died," he said. "The screaming—we thought he was dead. We're so sorry, he could have died—we're so unbelievably sorry,"" Jazz quoted with a strained voice. "Sam's makeup was running from how much she was crying. Sam never cries, and there she was, kneeling over my barely breathing baby brother, nearly sobbing in terror and guilt. They—Sam had apparently dared Danny to go inside so they could get a picture, and while in there, Danny tripped, and he hit the secondary switch. The Fentons had apparently not turned the other switch off after the thing didn't work the first time, and Danny ended up paying the price of their stupidity. He was alive, he'd survived, but now he's rightfully terrified of anything to do with electricity above what comes out of your stranded wall outlet. Only, come to find out, Danny hadn't survived. Not entirely… not unchanged."

Knew it, Bruce thought wearily as he leaned back in his chair. He resisted the urge to rub his hand across his face or run it through his hair and instead just continued to listen to Jazz's tale.

"The combination of all that electricity running through him, killing him, as a portal made pretty much entirely of ectoplasm opened up literally right on top of him changed Danny on a molecular level. He's no longer fully human. He's now something called a halfa, half human and half… half ghost."

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FINALLY got that finished! I sincerely apologize for not getting this out yesterday, I had to take a general health day due to both my lactose intolerance realizing, three days after the fact, that I'd eaten dairy and decided it didn't like that at all, and my sleep schedule being crap the past two days (⁠-⁠_⁠-⁠;⁠) that's why today's post says "day 8/9", I'm counting it for both days since I *did* start writing it yesterday (⁠^⁠～⁠^⁠;⁠)⁠ゞ

For anyone reading this directly after day 6 but hasn't read any of the reblogs of day 6, this is actually chapter 4 of this fic, not chapter 2. I have two amazing co-writers who have each written an amazing chapter for this fic, which can be more easily read on AO3 by hitting the link up at the top!

Also, due to this fic having two co-writers for it, from now on, when I post a new chapter for it here on Tumblr, I won't be linking back to my previous chapter, since there will be two chapters between each of my own. Instead, I'll be linking back to the first post back on day 6 and to the AO3 version, where the entire fic will be readily available for reading.

Also also, because this is being co-written, any and all updates for this fic will be highly sporadic at best. Please don't harass me or my co-writers for quicker updates, we're all very busy people working together to write this purely for fun.

Have a wonderful morning/day/night everyone!

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carionto · 1 year ago

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Humans and Boredom VI

Music is everywhere in the Galaxy.

All it takes is the simplest sense of rhythm, and a feeling. What that feeling is can be anything, from a total lack of feeling - true idleness, to the most profound and personal emotional states that no other will ever truly understand;

the rush from being on the prowl, amping yourself and your compatriots up by the sheer act of marching forward, to a mother's quiet tapping of a finger on the table, waiting for an answer, hoping it doesn't come, knowing what it will be when it inevitably does.

Repetition brings comfort, at least in the sense you what will come next. Whether it is something of a reassurance during troubling times, or excitement for joining along with everyone else during celebration, having some certainty of what comes next is incredibly powerful and essential for life.

What we could not predict is what we saw when we arrived at one of our moons Humanity offered to clean up after a small skirmish between some locals and pirates. An OCC ship had been tagging along this military escort. We know of the Orbital Cleaner Crews, their reputation, while only recent in Galactic circles, is unparalleled, so we gladly accepted their offer.

Now, this moon has an atmosphere. It's highly toxic and the surface is almost nothing but dust, so it has been deemed uninhabitable. It's only function, really, is the light tidal effect it produces for it's host planet, which is more or less just a farm and resort and retirement hotspot (with some secret military bases, but don't tell anyone).

Not long after leaving the OCC to do it's thing, we got a call from planetside about strange lights appearing on the moon at night. What the OCC were doing, or more specifically, the active cleaner currently on their 8 hour shift, flinging bits of space pirate ship debris at the moon. What the hell?

"It's fine, you said nothing lives down there, right? And we don't get a lot of atmosphere jobs, so I'm making the most of it. The air isn't bad enough to melt the drones I sent down there, and I've been, let's say, working on my magnum opus. Here, have a listen to yesterdays sample."

What she played was music. I think Humans call it jazz, with a mixture of symphony, and... heavy metal? A fascinating combination, and some of the notes were intense and booming. It did not sound like any instrument we had heard Humans use before, though it did remind us of a few Groh'rani bands, but that's just how their mouths learn to work in the upper lowland dialect.

"You're looking at it."

What?

"The moon and debris! Most people wouldn't think it, but based on the material composition, speed, angle and point of contact, orbital debris makes a lot of different sounds.

That sample specifically used: a triple impact of cockpit chairs; two laser batteries colliding a few meters above the surface; a hallway hitting the ground with its flat bottom first; another hallway whistling by as it shoots down open hatch first, the drone inside picked up some wicked air noises, didn't survive the direct crash though, would've loved to get the inside boom; and a barrage of twenty four diced up hull plates striking at quarter second intervals."

Hmm, well, that's certainly... creative use of available resources. And not breaking any laws or regulations either, huh.

"If you don't mind, I've still got some work to do. I'm in no rush with the piece though, the release is years away. I still need more low notes from carrier and larger ship impacts, plus it takes a lot of time to get authorization to get a planetcracker for a private job. I have to know what sound matter of all kind makes when those massive gravity hooks slowly squeeze and expand them. Man, I can't even imagine. So excited for when that paperwork goes through!"

Right, we'll leave you to it then.

Bye.

#humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #humans are space oddities #humans are deathworlders #humanity fuck yeah #carionto

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cryingpariah · 4 days ago

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The Seraphim making Snow Angels except they don't have to do anything but fall backwards into the snow. 🤣

Nemo doesn't quite understand what's going on so he's just wiggling around on the ground like a worm on a string until he looks like a powdered jelly donut.

Buggy comes out to check on them (and also tell them that there’s hot coco waiting and ready!) just to be grabbed on by a little living ball of snow with big old eyes. He screamed a little until he felt the familiar cold sensation of a honking nose being pressed against his leg.

“Wha- Nemo?! What are you doing out here in the cold?” He scooped up the little clown while his older sons came barreling towards him.

“Daddy! Daddy! Come look at what we did!”

“It’s easily the coolest AND flashiest snow angel!”

“Coolest and flashiest huh? Well now I’ve gotta see it! You’ve been following Daddy's snow rules I hope?”

They both nod. “Don’t throw snowballs with ice, stone or sticks in them, don’t jump on any frozen lakes or rivers, don’t eat any yellow snow!”

“Well done! Now where is this..snow…angel?!”

It laid there undisturbed and perfect, the scene made extra cute with Gryphon and Gabe's smiles and jazz hands of introduction. There in the snow lay what the star clown could only describe as a biblically accurate snow angel. Arms at the hips, torso and head. Legs impossibly and inhumanly long. Three sets of wings stretched out for maximum horror factor. It’s not to say he didn’t like what he saw per se, it’s just that he’s sure he’d continue to see king after today.

“ What do you think? Papa said it was a haunting experience unlike anything he’s ever seen! We're gonna take a picture to show Baba later too!”

“It’s…an undeniably flashy collaborative piece! I’m so (terrified) proud of you boys!”

The boys cheer in triumph and immediately begin flying around their Magnum Opus to best capture its brilliance to film.

#Mr 3 is the proudest of his little students! look at the heights of their art! (he’s also scared)#one piece #cross guild #cross guild dads #buggy d clown #S bug #nemo d clown #S hawk #dracule gryphon #s crocodile #sir gabriel

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jackdaw-and-hattrick · 7 months ago

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Danny’s parents don’t vivisect him when he tells them he’s Phantom

They don’t even reject him. They pull him into a tight hug and cry, whispering broken-voiced apologies as he talks about what he’s been through. But that doesn’t mean everything is fine. He doesn’t see the way they tense, the wild-eyed looks they share as they come to terms with their new reality. Their baby is dead. He’s dead and it’s their fault. Every shot. Every new weapon they were sure would be the one to take that dreaded menace down. Fuck, every hours-long rant about just what they’d like to do with that dastardly Phantom if they ever got their hands on him. Danny paling as he learned to fear them. Jack and Maddie had always worked so hard to protect their children. Sure, they hadn’t always been perfect, but why else would they throw themselves into ghost hunting the way they had if not for their children? It had been for their children, right? Every sleepless night over blue prints and days hammering away in their labs or off chasing whatever spirit they had found, it had been to keep their babies safe, hadn’t it? Hadn’t it? Even the ghost portal, their magnum opus which let all these ghosties through in the first place had been so they could better understand their enemy. But it had been it which did their boy in. Had they missed out on so much of Danny’s childhood just to build the guillotine that came down on his neck? Their poor boy. He’d been through so much. What kind of parents were they if they couldn’t even keep their children safe in death? Didn’t their boy deserve to rest in peace? Why was the world so cruel? Was there anything they could do? Anything at all?

They didn’t deserve to live.

Their babies weren’t safe. Never had been. Never WOULD be, not so long as they existed.

There had to be a way. A way to keep them safe from the cruelty of this life and the next.

The Fenton parents knew well by now how to destroy a core. What if they… Was there a way to destroy one before it got the chance to form? If there was enough destructive ecto like they used in their guns (oh god, why did they have so many god damned guns?), any core would theoretically be wiped out before it got the chance to form properly. If they took everything down to the lab, rewired the portal a bit, just enough to make it unstable… it would be easy enough to get Danny and Jazz down there, all they’d have to is ask (they had such good kids). They could just… lock the lab doors. Tell the kids to count to three. It would be so easy.

Could they do this?

They had to

They were parents, they needed to make sure their babies were safe

No matter the cost

#danny phantom #tw light swearing #tw murder suicide #tw suicidal ideations #tw murder of a child by a parent #reveal gone right #reveal gone wrong #it’s kinda both #Im sorry this was just an idea I had #I think Maddie would be more bought in when compared to Jack #but there’s no way Jack would leave Maddie to die alone #besides if she thought of it it has to be a good idea

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a-milestone · 3 months ago

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Music is very important to me. It's always been an escape, something to share, something to process strong feelings, to study to, to workout, to rock out when I played bass. And what's really nice to see is that when I first got into music, I was a heavy metal enthusiast. As I've gotten, my tastes have changed but I still get huge enjoyment from the music I love. So I thought I'd put 10 albums that I'll never stop listening to.

1) Metallica Black Album - first CD I ever bought, Enter Sandman was first song I learnt on bass and Nothing Else Matters is my favourite song of all time.

2) Killswitch Engage - As Daylight Dies. Howard as vocalist was a game changer and this album is really his own. Still Beats Your Name is a quintessential metalcore track.

3) Misery Signals - Of Malice and the Magnum Heart. Raw, energetic, rich with melody and powerful screams. My go to album if I need to focus.

4) Teenage Wrist - Earth is a Black Hole. I got quite into Shoegaze bands and Teenage Wrist are very chill. Yellowbelly regularly features in my yearly Spotify summaries.

5) Alexisonfire - Old Crows/Young Cardinals. This is a great album, really feel their sound matured in this album and great tracks feature. Personally recommend The Northern.

6) The Ills - To Wish Impossible Things. I love instrumental music. The Ills are a Slovak band and this is my favourite album. A Milestone (my Tumblr name) is my favourite trick, alongside Ventriloquists.

7) Gunship - Dark all Day. Synth music! With an excellent cover of Time after Time. Vocals are great, very sci fi and dystopian. It's a great album

8) Emarosa - Peach Club. This album features some great post rock and jazz fused together which creates great melodies. Funky and catchy lyrics, it's a great summer album

9) Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks. This band holds a special place in my heart, being a shared album between me and my first love. All albums are good and I had a hard time choosing but this stands out for me.

10) Brand New - The Devil and the God are Raging Inside Me. 2000s post rock/ early hardcore was a great scene and Brand new was incredible. You Won't Know and Jesus Christ are two of my fave tracks of all time

#music #misery signals #metallica #frightened rabbit #teenage wrist #brand new #the ills #killswitch engage #gunship #alexisonfire #congratulations if you read it all

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camisoledadparis · 1 month ago

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … November 24

1632 – Baruch Spinoza, the Dutch philosopher was born on this date (d. 1677). One of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy, he laid the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism. By virtue of his magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, Spinoza is also considered one of Western philosophy's definitive ethicists. He was raised and educated in the Orthodox Jewish fashion, also studying Latin and was thoroughly familiar with European humanism.

What exactly is it that caused him to be excommunicated from the synagogue when he was only 24 years old? Many scholars have speculated that the horror Spinoza inspired in the Jewish community may have come not only from his espousal of advanced economic theories, but from his espousal, as well, of Greek love among impressionable students in the liberal circle where he taught. A Dutch physician, J. Roderpoort, wrote at The Hague in 1897: "Spinoza excites the youth to respect women not at all and to give themselves to debauchery." Was Spinoza merely teaching the Greek and Roman classics, with their inevitable passages on pederasty? What were Roderpoort's motives for discrediting the Jewish philosopher? Was Spinoza, in fact a pederast? It's all open to speculation.

1933 – A law was passed in Germany to allow surgical castrations as a crime prevention measure and a therapeutic treatment for homosexuality.

1930 – Albert Wolsky is an American costume designer. He has worked both on stage shows as well as for film, and has received two Academy Awards, for his work on the films All That Jazz and Bugsy.

Wolsky was born in Paris, France, but during World War II, he and the rest of his family fled to the United States to escape the German occupation. After graduating from the City College of New York, he served in the army from 1953–56, spending most of his enlistment in Japan. Once he returned to the United States, he began working in his father's travel agency. However, he decided to change careers and took an assistant's job with notable costume maker Helene Pons.

Wolsky became a well-regarded costume designer, working both on Broadway and in the motion picture industry.

His longtime partner was actor James Mitchell.

1933 – René Enriquez remembered for his role as the perpetually worried Lieutenant Ray Calletano on Hill Street Blues.

Born in San Francisco, California, he attended San Francisco College and San Francisco State University. He served with the U.S.Air Force during the Korean War. He was a member of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York from 1958. He was also the nephew of General Emiliano Chamorro, one-time president of Nicaragua.

As a film actor, René was known for Bananas (1971), Harry and Tonto (1974), Under Fire (1983) and The Evil That Men Do (1988).

He also appeared in episodes of Charlie's Angles, Benson, WKRP in Cincinnati and Quincy.

In biographies and intervies, Enriquez told of a wife who had tragically died. It was a lie. He was a homosexual bachelor who contracted AIDS in 1987. As he became more and more ill, he told his friends and fans he was suffering from cancer. He died in March 1990.

His publicist and long-time friend Henry Bollinger revealed, "René told me he was dying of pancreatic cancer. He never told me anything about a gay lifestyle."

The true cause of his death only became known when his death certificate was published. Cause of death was given as "cytomegalovirus enteritis due to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)"

The only people privy to René's terrible secret were his two sisters and his 25-year-old Hispanic lover.

1940 – Arthur Tress, American photographer, born. The uncompromising, poetic imagery of American photographer Arthur Tress is the stuff of dreams, called forth from the artist's reckoning with the world and his place in it.

A New Yorker, he began his photographic career at age twelve, making snapshots of dilapidated mansions and Coney Island decay. An introverted child of divorce, Tress moved between two worlds--his lower-class mother's neighborhoods and his nouveau riche, remarried father's more prosperous one, observing and eventually photographing both milieus.

As he recalls, from a very young age he was already aware that his sexuality was different from most of his classmates and he was drawn to subject matter that was similarly marginalized and different.

During his studies at Bard College, Tress explored painting and filmmaking but was ultimately committed to still photography. Although he worked in a documentary style, from the beginning his imagery was characterized by a surrealist sensibility.

After graduation Tress traveled the world, in part financed by his father and also supporting himself by making ethnographic and documentary images. During his travels he became increasingly influenced by his experience of other cultures, particularly in matters of spirituality and consciousness.

Tress's first book, The Dream Collector (1972), was an attempt to visualize children's dreams, often featuring children whom Tress had interviewed as models. His second book, Shadow: A Novel in Photographs (1975), showed "portraits" of the photographer's shadow and explored the idea that the shadow literally and metaphorically represented one's dark side.

Theater of the Mind (1976), which included an essay by his friend and mentor, gay photographer Duane Michals, explored adult fantasies and marked the introduction in Tress's work of overtly erotic imagery. As Tress explained, he sought to make "photographs [that] attempt to make explicit . . . sexual passions and ironies."

"Superman Fantasy"

Around 1972 Tress consciously began to include what he called "the more intimate spheres of a gay sexuality and homoerotic fantasy life." Facing Up (1977-1980), alternately titled Phallic Phantasy, was Tress's first explicitly conscious exploration of his sexuality in which he exclusively photographed male nudes.

"Groom with White Arabian"

Many of these images were included in Tress's homoerotic homage, Male of the Species: Four Decades of Photography of Arthur Tress (1999), which culls imagery from Tress's forty-year career of exploring the male body and sexuality. The sensual photographs, sequenced in a loose narrative of experience from youth to death, matter-of-factly infuse male sexuality with humor and irony.

In contrast, Tress's obsessive constructions made and photographed for the Hospital series (1984-1987) are a garish, nightmarish reckoning with health-related issues and death in the era of AIDS.

1954 – James Lecesne is an American actor, author, screenwriter, and LGBT rights activist best known for his screenplay of the Academy-award winning short film Trevor. He has written several books including Absolute Brightness and Virgin Territory, and is also active in the entertainment industry as an actor and producer.

Lecesne wrote the 1995 short film Trevor, which won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. He based the screenplay for Trevor on a character from his one-man show Word of Mouth. Also in 1995, Word of Mouth won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show. Word of Mouth was directed by Eve Ensler.

In 1998, on the night Ellen DeGeneres hosted the television debut of Trevor on HBO, Lecesne co-founded and launched The Trevor Project as the first nationwide 24-hour crisis intervention lifeline for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth, including phone, in-person and online life-affirming resources such as Trevor Lifeline, TrevorChat, TrevorSpace, Ask Trevor and Trevor Education Workshops. The Trevor Project has been supported by a wide variety of celebrities, including Daniel Radcliffe, Neil Patrick Harris, James Marsden, Kim Kardashian, George Takei, and Anderson Cooper.

1984 – Wolf Hudson is a Dominican American film director, street dancer and pornographic actor of heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual films.

Hudson started his adult film career in 2006 at age 22 in New York when he was cast by Michael Lucas in the Lucas Entertainment project Michael Lucas' Auditions Vol. 22. He moved to San Francisco in early 2007 to focus on his career in the pornographic film industry full-time and to work for gay pornographic film studio Factory Videos.

In August 2008, he co-starred in the GayVN Award-winning bisexual film Shifting Gears , directed by Chi Chi LaRue. The film stirred up controversy when the term "Straight-for-pay" (a play on word for Gay-for-pay) was coined to reference performer Blake Riley's first encounter with a woman (Shy Love) and liking it. Riley received most of the criticism, but so did Hudson and LaRue.

Hudson appeared in the third season of the Canadian TV show Webdreams , which followed Jet Set Men directors Chris Steele and Chad Donovan.

Hudson turned down an offer to appear on a January 22, 2009, episode of The Tyra Banks Show concerning Gay-for-pay performers. He expressed his reservations about appearing because of how the show could twist things around to make the guys look bad.

Hudson identifies himself as heterosexual, even going as far as to call himself a "sexualist" instead of gay-for-pay. He is quoted as saying, "I am not conventional. I am not fully straight because I do gay porn, but I'm not bi because I don't date men in my personal life. I define myself as a 'sexualist'. I think Chi Chi LaRue came up with that term and it works for me."

1991 – Freddie Mercury, lead singer for Queen, died of complications from AIDS. It was only the day before that he acknowledged that he had the disease. He left most of his estate to a former girlfriend, Mary Austen, who cared for him during his final months.

2015 – The Vietnamese National Assembly passes a law that allows those who have undergone sex reassignment surgery to register under their preferred sex. However, sex reassignment surgery is illegal in Vietnam. The law comes into effect in 2017.

On Gay Rights, Vietnam is Now More Progressive Than America

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kiwiplur · 1 year ago

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I make more Nighthaze Characters than i will ever be able to play so now i'm going to start making it everyone else's problem.

The who's who of it all is under the break

Black Trenchcoat: Zony (Zebra/Unicorn) Hacker. one of 4 characters I made based on the different campaign tones as stated in the operator's manual. He's based off the "black trenchcoat" tone which is all about gritty realism of cyberpunk reality, your Blade Runners and such. so I made him a paranoid wreck who will stop at nothing to wipe any system from knowing he ever existed.

Cranberry: Reindeer (Deer/Kirin) Support Gunner. Originally Sprite Cranberry™, made as a joke for a one-shot. She suddenly spun off into her own full on character with depth and an arc like said one off spun off into a campaign about figuring out who's doing all the shady shit in town. I made a second sheet for her so I can use her in vanilla campaigns just in case other Operators don't wanna use someone else's homebrew. Personality-wise, both Sprite Cranberry™ and Cranberry are virtually identical, however Cranberry I write to be a lot more relaxed since she's a baretender who only sometimes has to use the shotgun when things get hairy on the club. Her homebrew counterpart is instead a federal agent who frequently has to confront the fact that she was unemployed until a month ago. More often than not, she has to do so violently and with a shotgun.

Jazz Magnum: Abyssian Gunner. The streetrat with a badge, and originally the character I was going to go with for the oneshot I now play Cranberry in. However, the dedication to the bit overpowered me. He's very mechanically similar to cranberry, but instead of having two guns and a handful of utility spells, he uses just a pistol and is augmented with implants that compliment a run and gun playstyle. I'm playing him soon in another campaign i recently got to join so here's hoping!

Lucky Break: Dwarf Lagulus Pilot (homebrew). She exists because of a comic I was drafting before ultimately going forward with Sundown Trotten' instead. She was going to be one of two protagonists who are both gold hearted idiots who both lift each other up to be their best while simultaneously enabling the other's worst most chaotic behaviors. she and her friend are now in debt to the mob and compete in the Thunderdrome to pay it off. Her heritage is a homebrew one I made specifically because I wanted a herengon adjacent heritage in the game. blame D&D i wanna play as a character with bunny ears in your TTRPG is that so much to ask ;0;

Pink Mowhawk: Diamond Dog Augmented Brawler. The Second of 4 characters I based/named after the Operator manual's campaign tones. Pink Mowhawk is defined as your action oriented rule-of-cool type cyberpunk world, like the Cyberpunk TTRPGs, Cyberpunk 2077 or like Hi-fi Rush if it was a little grittier. Pink Mowhawk's a loud abrasive lad who's got a punch first ask questions later mentality. he's also a huge suntech dork because imo that's the rule-of-coolest part of most Cyberpunk settings for me so I wanted to lean into suntech enthusiasm for his personality. He's also asexual because nobody fucks with Pink Mowhawk. Nobody. I'm very funny please laugh.

Quartz Tick: Zony (Zebra/Pegasus) Augmented Brawler. Like Cranberry, he started out as a joke, but now he's his own character with lore because I really like Kamen Rider and I wanted to see how well I could adapt your standard rider-tropes into the Sundown Equestria setting most campaigns/oneshots use. He's got a bike that I hope I one day get to jump off of and dive kick some poor sap in a game one day because that would be sick as fuck

Rainbow Lattice: Crystal Pony. Somebody in the Nighthaze server said Rainbow Lattice would be a good pony name, and then I drew them. Because of their sporadic in the moment conception, they don't have a sheet lol. but they are a sunstone miner so if they did have one they'd prolly also an aug'd brawler? they're like the one dude in the sunstone mines who's there willingly because while prison labor's cheaper they're just that big on rocks. info-dumping about the other minerals they finds to whoever will listen

Shroud Whisper: Breezie Healer/utility spellcaster. Once again, another Joke turned full ass character that my brain made in response to finding out about DJ smokey's iconic producer tags. The main inspiration being Shadow Wizard Money Gang and We Love Casting Spells. She's a medicart medic who's ultra dedicated to her shadow wizard larp when not on the clock, who studies all magic she can hoping to find cool spells to cast. That's it. That's the character. She loves casting spells. Shadow Nuclear Breezies pledge your souls to the Shadow Princess.

Turn Tables: Changeling Infiltrator/Negotiator. My Cringebug Failhorse daughter who was my very first Nighthaze character sheet, and protagonist of a sunjackers fancomic I make called Sundown Trotten'. She's based off Leno, a pokemon OC i first used in PK-Rocker's Poke-Survivor. First as a contestant in season 4, and then as an assistant host in season 6. She's pretty much Leno except she struggles more with self worth and addiction rather than social interaction and gender identity. However, she's still grappling with the original concept of being a shapeshifter who's mask has become closer to the real her than her base look ever was.

0u0 Thank you for coming to my mcfucking odyssean ted talk on my cyberpunk children's show OCs. See you next week for even fucking more of them

#art #mlp #Nighthaze #in order of left to right top to bottom #Black Trenchcoat #Cranberry #Jazz Magnum #Lucky Break #Pink Mowhawk #Quartz Tick #Rainbow Lattice #Shroud Whisper #Turn Tables

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redactedgoose · 1 year ago

Text

I cannot believe that I forgot to post this yesterday. This was the day that I was most excited for!! Since, uh, this may have spiraled away and now I'm still working on it as a multichap fic. Here is the link to Ao3 where I'll be updating it in the future, if anybody is interested.

Anyway! Phantasy Phest day 5- "The Doctors Fenton should have planned for all eventualities." @phantasycentral

---

"Alright, kids!" Madeline Fenton beams at her children, fists on her hips and chest puffed out, nearly bouncing on her toes with just how excited she is. "Remember—stay back behind the line of tape and keep your goggles on at all times! If it gets too bright even with the goggles, look away! Don't just cover your eyes."

"Yes, mom," Jazz says, looking up from her book for a second before turning back to it, posture perfect as she sits at one of their workbenches.

"Danny?" Maddie asks, turning her gaze on her youngest.

"Yeah, mom. Stay back, keep my goggles on. I got it," he says. He, at least, looks more attentive. It makes her smile grow to see him interested in her's and Jack's work.

"Great! Jack, how are we doing?" She turns on her heel to call her question to her husband, back straight and smile wide.

"A-OK!" He booms out, sending her a thumbs up from where he's checking over the wiring and electronics and everything one last time before they start their first attempt to power on their magnum opus. "I'm almost done! Just need to double check the soldering on this..."

Everything's going perfectly.

Jack comes to stand next to her where she stands next to the generator. It's job is to get the spark going for the initial power before the ectoplasmic battery kicks in to handle power generation and supply, making the portal self-sustaining. A genius move, in her opinion, and a really neat piece of engineering due to Jack's prowess.

"Alright!" She glances over to double check that her children are standing back behind the line they'd taped onto the ground. Satisfied that they are, in fact, in the safe zone and do, in fact, have their goggles on, she nods. Even if Jazz wasn't really paying attention, that wasn't too much of an issue. The main show was still to come.

"Let's get that countdown going!" Jack yells out, a wide grin on his face.

Maddie nods at her husband, the movement sharp and decisive. It's time. It's time, after all these years and all that work.

She clears her throat.

"Five."

Jack picks up the plug connected to the portal.

"Four."

Maddie hovers her hand over the generator's switch.

"Three."

She clicks it on, the rocker switch flicking over to the on position.

"Two."

The generator hums to life, rattling under her hand.

"One."

Jack plugs the power cord into the generator. A spark races through the portal and—nothing.

"...what?" Maddie's jaw is slack.

How... how could it not work? After years of research? Of—of blood, sweat, and tears, missed grants, of years of widespread ridicule from the rest of the scientific community...

Jack unplugs the portal from the generator before dropping both cords and smacking himself on the forehead so loudly the sound of his glove hitting flesh rings throughout the room.

"Whoops! Forgot to turn the darn thing on!" He laughs, jogging over to the side of the portal. "Silly me!"

Maddie takes another breath, heart beating harshly in her chest.

There, sitting proudly on the wall next to the frame, sits an on and off switch. The 'off' button is depressed. Jack clicks the on button and jogs back over to Maddie.

Please... please let it work this time...

"Let's give that another go!"

Maddie nods, clearing her throat again and starting up another countdown. Her hand shakes slightly where it rests on the warm plastic of the generator. "Five... four... three... two... one..."

Jack plugs the portal into the generator again and another spark skips through the portal. Then another spark, and then, in a bright flash, everything changes.

Green floods the portal, swirling out from the center point. It audibly roars to life, sounding like a great waterfall.

Maddie watches, enraptured, as it stretches out to the anchors in the portal's frame.

And stays.

Maddie watches the portal with wide eyes for a second, two seconds, ten seconds. Time ticks on as the portal continues to swirl in its housing, not showing any signs of degradation or mishap.

"Jack!" Maddie gasps his name out, hand coming up to clasp over her mouth. Tears spring to life in her eyes as she watches the greatest creation of her life sit there and swirl away.

"We did it!" Jack roars, scooping her up in a backbreaking hug.

Her hand comes away from her mouth in that instant and she pulls herself up him, wrapping her arms around his neck and returning the hug.

"We did it!" She echoes, almost screaming it, cheeks aching from how widely she's smiling. "We did it!" She repeats, hugging her husband back and laughing into his chest, her own light with pure joy. "The portal works!"

"Oh, Mads..."

One of their children makes a faint noise of disgust behind them as Jack presses a kiss to her lips.

"After all these years," she murmurs, still grinning like a fool. "After all these years, we did it."

"We'll have to send Vladdie a letter!" Jack grins, finally setting her down. "Maybe he'll want to get the band back together," he says, waggling his eyebrows. "His chem focus would be wonderful right now!"

She hums, moving to the camera they set up to record the portal's opening. "We should. I'm not too sure what he's up to these days..."

Even if Vlad didn't want to join their research team, there was still so much to do. The portal was open, which meant so many possibilities for experiments!

---

"So, man," Tucker starts, shoving spoonfuls of meatloaf into his mouth, "I saw the news. Your parents did something, right?"

"Yeah," Danny replies, pushing his own meatloaf around his tray. "They opened a portal to the Ghost Zone. Afterlife? Whatever they called it. Got it open a couple days before school started, on the first. I'm surprised that the news only picked it up just now, though. Must've been because the city came by to check it out after they finally finished disconnecting entirely from the power grid."

"So you have a portal to hell in your basement? That's cool. Can we check it out?" Sam asks, forking a pile of lettuce out of her packed lunch.

Danny shrugs, pushing his sad mashed potatoes around his lunch tray. None of it was really appetizing, but he knows he should eat. "Maybe. Mom and Dad have been down there a lot recently, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't let anyone go in."

Finally, he scoops up a combined bite of meatloaf and mashed potato and shoves it into his mouth.

Blegh.

"You should totally ask them!" Tucker says, wagging his spork at Danny. "It's your birthday, after all, D. They might feel more inclined to do things for you."

Danny hums noncommittally. He doubts he could pry them out of the basement for much more than two minutes, and there's no way that he would subject his friends to the inevitable lecture about the evilness of ghosts and the importance of telling them if they saw anything.

Like, sure, ghosts were real at this point. They had, as Sam said, a portal to hell in their basement. Danny's seen a couple little blobby things floating around, mostly near the wooded area on the east side of town. They look cute and not at all evil, though, so Danny's not really sure about any of it.

"Oh, yeah. Speaking of my birthday and people doing things for me, are we still on for Nasty Burger today after school?" Danny asks. "I wanna do something with you guys, but I'm pretty sure Jazz is planning a surprise party. She's been harping on about family time recently, since they've been working so much."

"Yeah," Sam nods. "Sorry for being busy tonight, again," she scowls. "My parents are total... downers."

The way she says it very clearly implies she'd rather be saying something else.

"It's all good," Danny says, waving his own spork. "Tuck, you too."

"Sorry, man."

Danny just shakes his head. Them going to Nasty Burger for a meal after school was enough, really. "If you want, you guys could always make it up to me by coming to see the meteor shower with me in a couple weeks. It'll be cool!"

"I'll ask my parents," Sam says, scowling again.

"Pretty sure Mom and Dad will be fine with it, so yeah, I'll come do your nerd stuff with you!"

Danny snorts. "Tuck, you're also a nerd."

"Says Mr. 'I need all the straight A's and extra credit, I'm going to be an astronaut,'" Tucker teases back. "You rank higher in nerd-dom than I do."

"Dude, you made your PDA run Doom."

Tucker sighs dramatically. "It was my test run for DOOMED. Besides, somebody got a high end pregnancy test to run Doom, I'm not that special. I will be, though, if I get it to play DOOMED. I'll get it one day, mark my words," he says, banging his fist against the table. "But you, dude, nerd about science. On the other hand, I nerd about practical things—computers."

"Your PDA doesn't have a mouse, Tuck. How are you even going to play?"

"Heresy!" Tucker gasps out. "There's always a way when you're passionate enough! My baby can do anything!"

"What'd you name your PDA this time?" Sam asks him, smirking and sounding deeply, deeply amused.

Tucker narrows his eyes at her.

"It's Delilah," Danny pipes up, hiding his shit eating grin behind another bite of the gross lunch food, this time with the sad little green beans in there as well.

"Danny!"

Sam cackles.

The rest of the day flies by quickly. Danny's had more than enough time to do his homework, even reading ahead when he gets bored on weeknights and his stupid curfew's too close to actually go out and do anything and none of his books sound interesting to read for the fifth-sixth-seventh-etc time. Today's not a P.E. day either, so he gets to walk out of the school not sweaty and gross.

Tucker's arm catches him around the neck as they walk out of school, Tucker animatedly recounting his Home Ec. period and how Josh from sophomore year lit his omelet on fire.

"Like, who even does that?" Tucker laughs. "How do you light eggs on fire? They're, like, wet. They're literally liquid when they go into the pan."

"I dunno, man. Sounds like my dad."

"Remind me to never eat at your house," Sam says, walking on his other side.

Danny snorts. "You—neither of you would want to anyway," Danny says. "You know how annoying it is to re-kill a turkey after you've already cooked and served it?"

"Danny dude, what the hell, man," Tucker deadpans. "The more you mention stuff about your house, the more I get concerned."

"What, you didn't realize that in elementary when your mom would never let you come over to my house?" Danny asks. "You didn't think it was weird that I only went over to your house and you never came over to mine?"

"Nah, man. I think I was just happy that it was my house."

"Ooh, look at his ego, already so big, so young," Danny coos mockingly, squawking in indignation seconds later as Tucker pulls his head down to attempt to noogie him. "Dude! You have to be nice to me, it's my birthday!"

The three of them get a booth at Nasty Burger.

"Happy birthday," Sam says, shoving a twenty at him as he goes for his wallet, standing there at the counter. "I can use my allowance for something good."

"Thanks, Sam," Danny grins.

She makes him keep the change, too, all six dollars and forty three cents of it. Tucker whines about having to buy his own triple patty Nasty Stacker, but Sam just flips him the bird.

"I have a present for you as well, Danny!" Tucker says as they slide into their chosen booth. "It's just, uh, not done yet."

"You're making me something?" Danny asks, curiosity rising. As much as he ribbed Tuck earlier, the dude was a genius with computers.

"Yup," Tuck nods, taking a sip from his milkshake and refusing to answer any of Danny's wheedling follow up questions. "Ooh, the mystery flavor is chocolate cherry!"

Soon enough, their number is called. Sam waves him down when he attempts to get up to get their orders, going herself.

Conversation stills for the first couple minutes as they all rip into their respective burgers and fries.

Danny's the one to get it started again after he's gone through about half of his burger. "Tuck, how's the robotics club stuff going?"

"Robotics and A/V," Tucker corrects through a mouthful of burger. He swallows before continuing, thankfully for the integrity of his shins. "Really good, actually! Falluca's talking about getting us into a state competition, probably a maze-solver. I'm teaching a couple upperclassmen how to code, actually, since most people are just in it for the hardware side of things."

Danny nods.

"All the shop kids, yeah?" Sam asks, taking a sip of her own blueberry milkshake. "They talk about the club during class. Any luck in getting the astronomy club off the ground, Danny?"

He groans, clutching his own milkshake glass. "No, none at all. We've only got like, three people and no sponsor. And don't say ask Lancer. We've tried. He's club sponsor for like seven clubs or something and has no time."

"I'm surprised that he does all that and teaches like three different subjects," Tucker says.

"Jazz says he only teaches one, but he's the school's default substitute teacher," Danny says. At their looks, he goes on to say, "One of the clubs he runs is the peer mentoring thing that she does."

"Ah."

Eventually, they work their way through their food.

Sam's phone trills, loud and harsh. She yanks it out of her backpack only to scowl at it. "The shrew's demanding I come home. Sorry, guys."

"No problem," Danny says. "See you tomorrow? Or Monday?"

"Tomorrow, hopefully," she grumbles, gathering up her tray and glass. "I'll get bubbe to help me sneak out if I need to."

"Don't get in trouble!" Tucker yells after her as she leaves.

Outside, the sun is just barely setting, the horizon turning a bright yellow-orange. The stars will be out in a little while.

Danny and Tucker finish the last of their fries and milkshakes in peaceful silence.

"Sorry, man. I gotta go before it gets dark," Tucker says after a while. His tray is clean, save for a mostly demolished squirt of ketchup. "See you... Monday, probably, depending on how the thing with Grandma goes."

"See you, dude," Danny waves him off. "It's all good."

"Night! And happy birthday, man!"

"Night!" Danny replies.

Eventually, he gets up and goes to dump his own tray off at the trash, sliding the paper and wrapper into the bin and stacking the tray on the others, his glass going with the other two.

Time to go home, then.

It's warmer than normal for this time of September, with only the slightest chill in the air. It's the twenty second, after all. Not only is it his birthday, it's the start of fall. The fall equinox, when night and day are the same length. After today, the days will get shorter and shorter until the winter solstice when the light is the shortest and the night is the longest. And then it'll start to grow again until the spring equinox, when the day and night will be balanced again and the amount of daylight will start to increase again afterwards.

It's interesting to see such an obvious sign of the earth's tilted axis, Danny thinks. When he was first learning about the earth and how it functioned in space, he was over the moon (heh) to know that his birthday fell on one of those special days.

By the time he reaches his neighborhood, the Ops center having been visible from a couple blocks away, the sun is fully below the horizon, stars blanketing the sky. He can't really see them all very well, but Amity isn't that big of a city.

The house is dark when he gets back.

His heart starts to pound in his chest. Is Jazz really throwing him a surprise party? Maybe Sam and Tuck having to take off early was a cover.

Danny slips his key in the lock, their security system chirping at him. He steps into the house and shuts the door behind him, cautiously walking forward to the light switch. As he flicks it on, his phone buzzes in his pocket. At the same time, the door to the basement is thrown open with a loud crash and Danny just about jumps out of his skin.

"Sweetie!" Mom says. "You're home!"

Danny straightens up slightly, a smile on his face. It's... not exactly jumping out of the dark and screaming happy birthday like they did that one time, but it's close enough. Right?

"Don't stay up too late," she continues. "Your dad and I got a ping on the ghost radar!" Dad bustles out from behind her, arms laden with all sorts of stuff that he's pretty sure look like weapons. "Stay inside and remember to lock the door!" She says, rushing after Dad straight out the door without a glance back or another word to him.

Danny's left there, standing in the entryway, key still in hand and his heart in his stomach.

That's the first time he's seen them all week and...

They didn't even say happy birthday.

Numbly, he takes his phone out of his pocket. One new message from Jazz.

[Hey Danny. Something came up; I have to go do something for one of the kids I'm peer mentoring, a middle schooler. I... might be able to tell you about it later? It's kind of really bad.]

[Sorry, little brother. Don't wait up for me. I'll make it up to you later.]

[Good night! <3]

That's... gosh, that's just so Jazz. Danny blinks hard and sniffles, laughing a little.

It's understandable as well. Jazz wouldn't just not help whatever middle schooler it was. Just like he understood that Sam's parents were overbearing, and Tucker had to go visit his grandma with his parents.

[no prob, jazz]

[i think im just going to go to bed]

[night]

He sniffles again, phone loosely clutched in his hand as he trudges up the stairs. It doesn't ding again. Jazz must be really busy.

Danny tosses his backpack into the corner, the overburdened thing hitting the carpet with a dull thud. His phone goes on his bedside table next before tosses himself this time, straight down onto his bed.

He presses his face against his pillows.

Really, he shouldn't have expected anything different. Not from his friends or Jazz, god no! Sam's parents are notorious douches. The few times that he's met them, they've been cold to him every time; plus, they refuse to let him and Tucker come over to their house to hang out. Tucker's grandma is really old and not in the best health, so much so that she's up at Amity General. Jazz is a bleeding heart at the best of times and it's some kid that's got a problem, so of course she's going to go help them.

His parents, though...

You'd think that physically pushing a little human being out of you would make you remember the date that it happened on. Dad's usually the more forgetful one. Mom looking him in the face, talking to him, and then blowing him off... that hurt.

It was nice to see them so excited the other day, opening the portal. It was their end goal for so long... well. Danny forgot that there was a goal after it, he guesses. The ghosts.

They actually had something new to work towards. And it's not like he's a little kid anymore. He can look after himself! It's...

Mom would at least attempt to make a cake, usually. Dad would be the one to present him with his gift, almost more excited than Danny himself sometimes. Jazz would be taking pictures, the shutter going off throughout them all singing happy birthday and Danny blowing out the candles.

Even if it was usually just the four of them after Danny's disastrous fifth birthday party, they usually had one. Heck, if they didn't because of some accident or mishap or whatever (like when they all had to go down to Spitoon because Aunt Alicia broke her leg and her neighbor was on a trip, leaving her to take care of herself) they would at least still say happy birthday to him.

He grits his teeth, releasing a shuddering sigh.

Danny doesn't want to be mad or sad on his fifteenth birthday.

"Screw it," he mutters, flipping around and pushing himself up. He'll have a good time on his own. It's his birthday, he can do whatever he wants to.

Just in case Jazz comes back before he does, he stuffs his bag and half of the contents of his dirty clothes hamper underneath his blanket, wrapping a black shirt around more clothing to be a stand in for his head. The only thing that he takes with him when he slips out of the house is a flashlight, phone left on his nightstand.

The night air is nice and cool, brushing over his bare arms and cheeks.

Danny meanders to the east, heading towards the woods. His hands are tucked into his pockets, fingers of his right hand toying with the butt of the flashlight. There's a clearing there where he's gone to stargaze before, so it's not like he's just going to go get lost in the woods. He has some sense.

It's far enough out that the lights from the town fade a lot, but not far enough away that it would take him forever and a half to get there and back. It might be Friday, but he'd still like to get to sleep sometime before midnight, thanks.

The temperature drops the deeper he goes into the woods. Maybe he should've brought a jacket.

He just had to get out of his house. His empty house.

A branch snaps under his foot as he walks deeper, intent on the clearing—or any clearing at this point, really. He keeps half an eye on the sky, trying to figure out just how deep he should go to get the best view.

Danny had only ever gone to the clearing with his mom before, after all. She was the one who led the way.

He sighs rather forcefully.

The entire point of doing this was to get away from his thoughts of his parents, not make more of them. All he should be doing is walking to the clearing—a clearing—and watching the stars as his birthday gift to himself. Maybe he'll do a little recreational planning for the yet-to-be made astronomy club. There's got to be more than two other people at Casper High that like astronomy. Maybe tempting people with watch parties would be the way?

He perks up as he spots a light spot up ahead. A clearing!

Danny speeds up, but still takes care not to trip over anything. Breaking his leg out in the woods with no cellphone would really put a cherry on top of this already crummy day.

As he steps into the clearing, he notices a little trail of mushrooms a few steps ahead. It seems to circle much of the empty space, sealing the area in a ring. He steps closer and crouches down, studying them.

His first thought is that Sam would absolutely love them.

In the pale light of the moon, the mushrooms are almost violently purple. With the way that the tops of them—the caps, he's pretty sure they're called—are speckled with tiny white dots, it almost looks like it's glowing. They aren't though.

He almost touches one before one of Sam's screeds on, quote, 'idiot wannabe foragers getting themselves killed by being idiots' rings out in his head. If he couldn't tell what it was, touching it was a bad idea. He's... not sure they're not poisonous, but sitting in the clearing should be fine, right? It's not like mushrooms released any sort of toxic gas or whatever.

Danny straightens back up and steps into the ring, intent on the mossy log nearer to the center of the clearing. It'd be nice to sit and lean against it while looking up at the stars.

The grass is soft and lush under his hands as he lowers himself down, the bark and moss on the log scratching lightly against his back through his t-shirt. He tilts his head back with a sigh, thunking lightly against the log.

There's not much of a moon in the sky tonight, though that'll change soon. It's waxing, just almost a crescent currently. If he remembers right, the next full moon will be in... just a little over a week? It makes seeing the stars even easier.

As he traces the constellations he knows like the back of his hand with his eyes, though, his mind wanders.

Going off to be on his own and look at the stars won't do much for the uncomfortable, squirming feeling that sits at the base of his rib cage. At most, it'll just be another band-aid over a bullet wound, as it were.

He huffs, scrubbing a hand over his face.

Danny loves his parents. He knows, he knows, his parents love him as well. His parents just... also really love their work, too. And it hasn't even been long since they finished their biggest and best invention ever. It's the portal, the one that they've been working on for years and years now. He can't really blame them, can he? They've put so much of their life, of their time and effort, into building it. And now that it's done, they can continue their lives' work.

The squirming at the base of his rib cage twists, heat building behind his eyes.

He just... he just wishes that their lives' work didn't mean ignoring him and Jazz.

Danny tilts his head back again, tears pooling in his eyes. His head rests against the bark, staring sightlessly up at the stars.

God, he wishes he could be up there with them. He wishes he could just... get away from here, go somewhere else. If he could snap his fingers and fill in the rest of high school and college and be standing on NASA's front steps, about to go up there, he would.

Finally, the tears fall from his eyes, tracking down his cheeks. They catch the chill in the air and cool against his skin quickly, even as more keeps coming.

He cries. He's not exactly sure when he stops, but eventually no more run down his cheeks and his sight is clear once again.

Danny stares up at the North Star. Polaris. Part of the constellation Ursa Minor. The way the little bear's tail is shaped, connecting up to the body, is reminiscent of a small ladle, the Little Dipper to the Ursa Major's Big Dipper. Polaris isn't actually just one star—it's three stars all bundled together in the same star system.

He racks his brain.

Polaris Aa, Polaris B, and Polaris Ab, or P. Right. Polaris Aa was a... yellow supergiant. The other two were main sequence stars, or dwarf stars. Polaris Aa is a cepheid, making it an important standard candle.

He yawns, the resulting tears making him squeeze his eyes shut for a second.

Standard candles... used the brightness of stars to gauge distances. Since Polaris is so close to the Earth, it's... studied a lot.

His eyes start to drift closed as he continues to mentally rattle off the facts he knows about Polaris, just as he used to instead of counting sheep when he was younger.

It takes no time at all before he's out like a light, sitting right there against the mossy log in the forest.

---

The Doctors Fenton pierced a hole through the veil to the Infinite Realms.

However... the thing about the Veil, and veils in general, is that they are not, by definition, flat. They are not rigid objects such that can be punctured easily. Veils and the Veil... twist. Layer.

True enough, on the other side of the Veil lies the land of the dead, the underworld, the Infinite Realms—but in the folds in between lies the Others. The In Between layers.

The Doctors Fenton should have taken care to plan for every eventuality of things Other than ghosts coming to their little town.

That night, in the forest outside of Amity Park, the Doctors' son Daniel sleeps in a clearing in the woods ringed by mushrooms.

Faerie rings, faerie circles... humans know them and are wary of them from their various mythologies and legends. By and large, a circle of mushrooms in the woods or the plains means nothing at all. It is simply a biological quirk of the formation and life cycle of mycelium.

But in areas where the Veil is thin, that changes.

And in Amity Park? The site of the largest, most stable, most permanent hole in the Veil in human history?

Danny goes missing that day.

In one moment, he sleeps. In the next, there is nothing in the clearing beside the flashlight that slipped from insensate fingers.

It's hardly noticeable that the boy went missing—he's in his bed in the morning, after all. Staying out for a single night can hardly be called missing, especially when his parents were none the wiser to his location being anywhere else than his bed.

Sure, there may be twigs and leaves in his hair and his eyes are slightly too sharp, too keen, too bright, his teeth much the same and his ears coming to a point, but no one notices.

Except his friends. His friends know.

They get the story the next day, squirreled away in the town park, Danny's back pressed up against a tree, about how he went out into the woods and stepped into a ring of mushrooms and fell asleep sitting against a mossy log, looking wistfully up at the stars and begging, pleading with them to be taken away. How he woke up under sheets that were much too soft to be his own, in a room that looked more like the inside of a living tree than a wooden house. How the person that greeted him upon his waking wasn't human.

And—he looks to the left, to the right, and lowers his voice—how he wasn't human anymore.

#danny phantom #fantasy au #fae and creature au #danny needs a hug #place your bets now. how long will it take before whatever fae on the other side adopts our boy?#phantasy phest 2023

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impactofthegenshin · 2 years ago

Text

meeting at the masquerade

characters: Kaveh reader: fem!reader warnings: !spoilers for the interdarshan championship event! word count: 1059 words a/n: honestly so excited to be writing for kaveh just *chefs kiss* i didn’t think this would become like, a constant prompt for other characters? i plan to continue the original diluc one but if anyone wants me to write this with another characters, feel free to drop a request. the Diluc fic is here!

Kaveh

The Akademiya was packed with students, professors and matras alike. It was unusual seeing the place so filled, especially when the yearly assessments were less than 2 months away.

Of course, it was no ordinary party that was taking place either. It was the celebration for Kaveh, the representative for Kshahrewar, who won the Interdarshan Championship that’s held every 10 years. The Akademiya was decked in flowers and flying mechanical butterflies, which had no business being there but still were fluttering around. The usual curtains had been switched out for luxurious satin ones, the rich sheen reflecting off the light from the dim chandeliers. Soft jazz music played, the origin nowhere in sight.

You fixed the mask on your face again, it was a loose fit but you were working with it since it had been the only one left at the store. All the stone-studded masks had been sold out as soon as the Akademiya had released the invites for the masquerade, leaving you with one that didn’t sit quite well on your face. Nonetheless, the amethyst studded mask was a perfect match for your violet gown, the beaded bodice tight around your waist before it cascaded elegantly to the floor. The layers of tulle swayed and swished as you walked, your eyes scanning the hall for any familiar faces.

Being a student of Amurta, you didn’t really mingle with students outside your darshan. This hadn’t really caused any problems for you, until now that is. Not being able to spot anyone you knew, you wandered around aimlessly till you neared the stage. A sage droned about the importance of the championship and other stuff you didn’t care enough about to listen to. The victor, Kaveh, was nowhere to be seen. You’d only seen him in passing. All you knew about Kaveh was that he was from Kshahrewar and designed the Palace of Alcarzarzaray, his magnum opus.

Your eyes were fixated on the reflection of the chandelier on your wine glass, lost in your thoughts, when you saw the light sway. Puzzled, you look up to see what looked like a dusk bird had gotten stuck in the intricate framework of the crystals. It was flapping desperately to get out, its squawks drowned by the buzzing of the people and the playing melodies. It was straining towards the open doors of the balcony, through which you assumed it had originally flown into the Akademiya from. Keeping your glass on a nearby table, you looked around the hall for a way to get the poor bird out of its predicament. Your attention was so preoccupied by the bird as you walked towards the balcony that you didn’t see a young man rush towards you, hands outstretched. You bumped into each other, the jolt sending your loose mask flying over the railing of the balcony.

Disoriented, you steadied yourself as the young man profusely apologized, peering down the balcony to grimace.

“I’m sorry for that, I didn’t see you there. Wait. Where were you even looking?”

You didn’t want to be rude by pointing out that he hadn’t been looking either but you raised your hand towards the chandelier to show him the trapped dusk bird.

“Oh. Oh yeah that. I was rushing for it too. Wait. Wait a minute. It’s not there. Did it fall?”

Before you could reply, he rushed into the throng of people to look for it. You took the time to see if you could spot your fallen mask but it wouldn’t have survived the fall anyways.

A minute later, the man emerged back, the dusk bird squawking weakly in his arms.

“I..don’t know what to do with this. Are you an Amurta student?”

“Yes but I specialize in human physiology, not animals.” You replied, grimacing at your incompetence.

Engrossed in his thoughts, the man didn't notice as you took a good look at him, his shirt and emerald coat rumpled. His red eyes were unlike anything you've seen before, the green feather in his hair a striking contrast. His green stone embellished mask sat perfectly, matching effortlessly with the rest of his outfit. The realization dawned on you suddenly.

"Wait. You're Kaveh? The victor of the Interdarshan Championship?"

Kaveh's ears went red as you realized his identity. Stuttering, he explained that he was indeed Kaveh but did not want to be the center of attention.

"But this whole celebration is for you?" You asked, intrigued by his behavior.

"Yeah I uh. I don't really like this display of splendor. I'd have preferred if they donated all the money used to poor people or to help students with their research."

You agreed with him silently, taking a good look at all the riches you could see inside the hall. You saw a man with long fox-like ears drifting through the crowd with General Mahamatra Cyno at his side. That’s when you came up with an idea.

Calling out to Kaveh, you pointed at the pair in the crowd.

“Don’t you know Tighnari from Amurta? He took part in the Championship too, didn't he? Why don’t you go ask him? I’m sure he can help the bird.”

Kaveh’s scarlet eyes lit up at that and your heart took on a weird rhythm. Thanking you profusely, he disappeared, making his way amongst the swarm of people and you could see his blond head making a beeline for Tighnari at the opposite end of the room.

You couldn’t help but feel disappointed that you didn’t even get to tell him your name, much less converse more about other things. His views aligned with yours and Kaveh felt like someone you’d enjoy being with. You left the Akademiya just a few minutes later, not wanting to spend time in the stifling halls.

A few days later, you see a note slipped under your dormitory door. It was written in neat and elegant handwriting, addressed to you.

“Hello y/n

I thank you for saving the dusk bird at the Akademiya last week. Without you, I wouldn’t have thought of anything. The bird is well and Tighnari has asked me to come take a look. Would you like to join me? If you’re not busy of course. I’m leaving this evening for Avidya Forest. It would be nice to have some company.

I’ll be waiting in the Grand Bazaar.”

#Genshin MiHoYo #genshin impact #genshin fanfic #genshin x you #genshin x reader #genshin x y/n #genshin kaveh #kaveh #kaveh x reader #kaveh x y/n

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scarletsaphire · 1 year ago

Text

Danny doesn't understand why his parents like the tiny portal they made so much. It just sits there and doesn't do anything. He decides to study it to figure it out.

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For Phantasy Phest Studio Ghibli. It's ponyo themed pitch pearl (platonic but idk the name for platonic asjdssg) @phantasycentral

The portal the Fenton's built was a small one, built in the interior of a paint can. It was a marvel of modern science, of course, even at its small scale, and it could be used for a slew of different tests. It just wasn't the grand spectacle Danny had expected. Danny had been hearing about this portal, about his parent's magnum opus, their redemption from the failure they had in college, for his whole seven years of life. They'd been so thrilled when they finished it, had called him and Jazz down to look at its grand unveiling. It had been cool, he supposed, but he didn't think it deserved the hype.

Still, his parents were so very happy with it, and his parents happy meant lots and lots of celebratory fudge. It also meant that they spent more and more time in the lab, which was fine. Danny was used to it. He just didn't understand why the portal was what they were excited about, when they had so many other, cooler projects they could be working on. Of course, Danny was a Fenton, and if he'd learned anything from his parents, it was that Fentons figured things out, and didn't give up.

Which led to now, with Danny sitting on the lab floor, unsupervised, his little notebook in hand, staring at the portal. He'd been down there for about ten minutes, and was already getting bored. Who could blame him? It wasn't like the portal was doing anything. It's swirling green glow had kept Danny entertained for a few minutes, but after he realized it was pretty much identical to the star projector he had in his bedroom, it stopped holding his attention.

Danny stood up from the metal floor; it was starting to dig into his legs, and it was too cold anyway. He made his way to the table the portal was sitting on, and squinted his eyes, studying it. Despite his look, nothing interesting happened. Slowly, Danny raised his pencil so that it hovered just above the top of the portal. He gently lowered it, letting it hit the metal with a soft clang, and yanked his hand back quickly. Nothing happened.

This was getting ridiculous. Most things in the lab did at least something when he poked it; it's why there were so many scorch marks on the walls. The portal didn't do anything. With a huff, Danny raised the pencil back to the roof of the portal and banged on it a little harder. Still nothing.

"Why won't you do anything?" he whined. He hit his pencil against the roof of the portal repeatedly, creating a steady rhythm. Still, nothing.

Danny took his pencil back with a sigh. He'd tried everything he could think of, but it still didn't do anything besides look kinda cool. He turned around to head back upstairs; he wasn't supposed to be down here by himself, and his parents would be home from Jazz's orchestra concert soon. He'd barely taken three steps when he heard it. A thumping sound, in the same pattern as his pencil tapping had been, coming from the portal. Danny whirled around and rushed back to the table the portal was on, staring at it. The only movement was the twisting, swirling green.

But Danny knew what he heard. Much more carefully this time, he lifted his pencil to the top of the portal and hit it three times. He held his breath. After only a second, the same thumping sound answered with three, nearly identical beats. "Woah..." Danny said, staring into the green. If he looked closely, he thought he could almost make out some kind of shadow, moving around in the light, just barely visible. It looked like it was going to the top of the portal. Just as it would have hit the roof, Danny heard another soft thump.

His eyes widened, and he leaned in closer to get a better look. He wasn't just seeing things - there was something in there, floating around. It's movement were almost frantic, moving around wildly. Was it lost? How had it ended up in here? What if it was hurt? Danny took a deep breath. He needed to help whatever it was, but he had to be smart about it. If he did something wrong, he might end up stuck in the portal too, and that wouldn't help anything.

Danny hurried over to the wall where his jumpsuit hung, pulling it on quickly. It was a bit too tight; he'd had another growth spurt recently, and they needed to make a new one, but this was an emergency. He could deal with a too small suit for now. He rushed back to the portal, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the whatever it was still bouncing around inside. Danny braced himself, squaring his shoulders against whatever it was he was feeling, before shoving his hand in the portal.

It was cold and tingly, but it didn't hurt. Danny let his shoulders drop, reaching his gloved hand further into the portal, trying to reach the bouncing blob. It was difficult to see where, exactly, in the portal the thing was when all Danny could really see was light and shadow, but it didn't stop him. After a few seconds he'd already ended up reaching his arm in up to his elbow, and he still hadn't felt anything besides the cold. Finally, his fingers brushed against something...more solid than the rest of the portal had been. Danny wouldn't quite define it as solid. It felt almost like that goop he had made with his mom when he was younger out of corn starch; sticky and squishy and soft, but firm when he pressed to hard.

Danny felt around the goop, finding its edges with his hand. That was easier said than done, especially since it had started to wiggle as soon as Danny had touched it the first time. He got a good grip on it, firm enough to not lose it, but gentle enough to not hurt it, and started to gently pull it out. In the portal, he could see that the blob had stopped moving, it's form almost entirely eclipsed by the shape of Danny's own hand.

Slowly, Danny drew his hand out of the portal. A green residue was left on his arm, the same soft glowing green as the portal itself. Danny waited, barely breathing as he got closer and closer to pulling the blob out of the portal. He withdrew his wrist, and got his first sight of the creature.

Blob was a much better descriptor than expected; it didn't have legs or arms, most of it's body one connected piece that tapered out to a tail. It did have something Danny was tempted to call a face; at the very least, he could make out where eyes and a nose would be, even if they weren't clearly defined. It remained perfectly motionless in his hand.

Danny drew his thumb across where its stomach would be. It didn't react. He lifted it closer to his face. "Please, please be ok," he whispered.

"Danny, sweetie? Are you down here?" It was his mom's voice coming from the top of the stairs to the lab. Danny jumped, fumbling the blob into a pile of green goop that had dripped off of Danny's sleeve and onto the tabletop. The second that it left Danny's hand, the creature started flailing.

"Fudge," Danny said, frantically blocking the creature in with his arms, trying to make sure that it did not fall off of the table.

"Danny, I can hear you down here," Maddie said. He could hear her footsteps as she made her way down the stairs and into the lab. "You know you shouldn't be down here without supervision, it can be dangerous!" She appeared at the bottom of the staircase and froze.

"Um," Danny said. "I'm sorry?"

Maddie was at his side in a second. "Oh my god, Danny! What did you do, are you ok?" She reached out to touch his arm, which was still dripping the bright green goop, but she froze as soon as she saw what Danny was holding. "Did you find this?"

Danny nodded sheepishly. "I was trying to figure out why you liked the portal so much, and I started tapping on it, and this guy started tapping back, but I think he got lost which is weird cause its just a paint can but I couldn't just leave him in there, so I tried to save him. I think he might be hurt or scared though."

Maddie's face slowly went from one of shock to undeterred glee. "You just hold that thing right there, I'll be right back!" She said. She hurried to the stairs, calling out for Jack, before running to the other side of the lab. She opened one of the refrigerated cupboards that they held their samples in and drew out a number of vials, each holding the same green goo, and dumped them into a bucket.

She ran back over, slightly slower this time as to avoid spilling any. "Ok, go ahead and grab a hold of it carefully, and put it in here."

Danny did so, guiding the creature into his hand and lifting him into the bucket. As soon as it was submerged, it calmed down, swimming around in the bucket. "Oh, it's like a fish!" Danny said, smiling down at it.

"Fascinating..." Maddie said. "Jack, honey, please hurry! This is important!"

"Sorry, Mads! Having a bit of a situation up here!" Jack called from the main floor.

"Oh, for the love of-" Maddie sighed. "Keep an eye on it while I go help your father, ok sweetie? And be careful, we don't know what it can do." At Danny's nod, she made her way out of the lab.

The creature stopped its swimming to surface, its eyes staring directly at Danny. "Hello," he said, lowering his head to look at it closer over the lip of the bucket.

Danny didn't expect it to answer, but it did, letting out a series of blurbles that sent ripples through the goop. "Oh, you can talk! Kind of, anyway." It blurbled again. "Can you understand what I'm saying, or do you just like the noise?" More blurbles.

"Well, that's not very helpful," Danny said with a laugh. "Do you know how to nod? If the answer is yes, move your head like this." Danny nodded in demonstration. "Can you do that?" The creature didn't have the neck required for nodding, but it moved up and down in the goo in something that was close enough to a nod. "You do understand me! My name's Danny, do you have a name?"

The little creature didn't nod, letting out a series of blurbles yet again. "Is that your name?" Danny asked. "Cause if it is, I don't think I'll be able to say it." More blurbles. "Oh, duh!" Danny said, slapping his non-gooped hand against his head. "I taught you how to say yes, but I didn't teach you how to say no! You can shake your head like this for no." Danny demonstrated again.

This time, it swum back and forth in an approximation of shaking its head. "Just like that!" Danny said excitedly. "So, do you have a name?" It swum back and forth. "Do you want a name? I can give you one, if you'd like." It swum up and down.

"Hm..." Danny thought for a moment. "I'm gonna call you Phantom," he said. "It's another name for ghosts, which is what the portal is supposed to find. Do you like it?" It swum up and down yet again, this time adding a little flip out of the goo that Danny decided to interpret as excitement. "I'm glad!"

#danny phantom #danny phantom fanfiction #danny fenton #child Danny #pitch pearl #but its platonic cause . children.#phantasy phest 2023

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