#Mr. Falluca

[deadsetobsessions]

REVERSE TROPE WRITING PROMPT BY @out-of-jams

TOO MANY BEDS

DCXDP, GEN

——

The Wayne foundation was a giant in the corporate world. What made it impressive was that their company was based in Gotham where, despite or perhaps in spite of the frequent rogue attacks and general hostile environment, the Waynes managed to run a tight and efficient ship. Their operations run extremely smoothly.

However, that was not to say there were no mistakes. There were. Wayne Enterprises usually had enough-more than enough- budget to cover such mistakes.

The employees, after all, were humans (though their new CEO, Timothy Drake, might have been a vampire considering how pale he was) and were prone to make mistakes.

Thus, due to the nature of human mistakes, the visiting senior class of Amity Park’s Casper High found themselves in a rather baffling situation.

“Well, we can’t say there’s not enough beds.” Their chaperone-teacher, Mr. Lancer rubbed the back of his bald head.

Before them laid not ten, not twenty, but fifty five twin beds arranged in neat rows in Gotham Academy’s auditorium.

“What is this, the military?” Their other chaperone-teacher, Mr. Falluca, grumbled.

“It’s not like we haven’t slept in worse places.” Sam grimaced. The class collective shuddered as they remembered the junior camping trip from hell.

“Ugh, my hair is going to get frizzy if we sleep here.” Paulina muttered.

“I thought we were getting called here for cheer or something.” Star frowned. Her boyfriend of four years, Kwan, slung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to comfort her.

The doors open as a harried Wayne Industries employee ran in.

“I am so, so sorry! This isn’t where we were supposed to have you stay but WE mistook the donation request and sent in beds instead of paying for hotel rooms!” They blurted out, looking panicked. “Your hosting class - we’ll have you meet them outside, maybe?”

“It’s fine, right guys?” Danny spoke up, arms crossed. Tucker hummed at his side, tapping quickly at his

“Yeah, whatever Fentina says,” Dash grumbled. After the reveal of Danny’s identity as Phantom, his hostility and bullying died a quick death. Though, Dash kept the nicknames as they were a hard habit to kick and there weren’t any malicious intent behind it. In fact, Dash quickly became one of Danny’s biggest supporters, hidden behind scowls and general posturing.

“We could just meet in here. Get rid of the bedframes and just have a giant sleepover while you guys get everything sorted out.” Valerie volunteered.

“That’s a great idea!”

The class, coordinated from years of ghost attacks, quickly assembled the giant floor mattress. Gotham Academy’s senior class filed in ten minutes later, gaping at the giant floor mattress(es) before whooping and joining Casper High’s seniors in tumbling around.

——

Danny threw an empty plastic water bottle at Kwan’s head.

“Hey! No PDA on the giant mattress!”

“Yeah, get that love shit out of here!” Someone else hollered.

“There might technically be only one bed, now, but it’s still multiple mattresses!” Stephanie Brown, one of Gotham Academy’s seniors heckled.

“Hey, Danny, it’s your turn for truth or dare!” Tim said.

“Truth.” Danny returned.

“Lameeee.”

“C’mon Fenturd, too chicken to do dare?”

“Danny, that’s so boring,” Sam smirked.

Danny scowled. “Hey, whose side are you on?”

Sam and Tucker grinned and said in unison, “The winning side, duh.”

Tim cut in. “So, what’s the worst thing that’s happened to you?”

Danny groaned. “Camping trip, no contest.”

“Camping trip?”

——

[feline-gal]

Casper High Faculty

Lancer | Tetslaff | Falluca | Ishiyama

[lexosaurus]

The Fog Around Us: Chapter 1

Hello all here's my second fic for the @ecto-implosion! This one with @nightwanderers12081 who did AN INCREDIBLE PIECE OF ART LOOK AT IT!

Please enjoy my accompanying fic!

read on: [ao3]

[see all chapters]

Characters: Danny Fenton, Valerie Gray Tags: Amnesiac Danny Fenton, Enemies to Friends WC: 4476 Summary: Two weeks had passed since Danny Fenton went missing. Two weeks had passed since Phantom had disappeared as well. It couldn't be coincidence.

****

“He can't have gotten far.”

Those were the words Valerie had heard the first day the missing child report had been filed. The first day Danny didn't show up to school.

“You kidding, Fenton?” Dash said, emphasizing Danny's name with the sort of disbelief one would say about a toddler training for the Olympics. “No—no way! He's so annoying, I bet whoever nabbed him will get so pissed at his loser squeaky voice that they'll toss him right out of their truck. They probably didn't even get him out of the city!”

“No way he's gotten far,” Kwan agreed.

The next day in homeroom, it had come from Sam. She hadn't been in school the previous day. Well, she had at first, but after the whispers started going around and the police showed up at the school, she and Tucker had been pulled to the main office all too quickly.

“He can't have gone far,” she whispered to Tucker, who was wringing his red cap around in his fingers. “It's Danny we're talking about. He's probably—you know. He's fine.”

Tucker was silent for a moment. To an outsider, it would look like he simply had nothing to say. But Valerie knew better. She could see how his jaw twitched, just barely suppressing whatever words were swimming around in his mind. It was only after his muscles relaxed that he finally spoke, his voice so quiet that Valerie almost didn't pick up what he said. “I know you want to think that, but Danny wouldn't...do this. He wouldn't slip away without telling us first.”

Whatever temper Tucker swallowed, Sam had no problem spitting out. “You don't know that. You know how he gets!”

“I do know, Sam. There's no way—”

“This is the same guy who—” Sam stuttered, then lowered her voice, hissing something too softly for Valerie to hear.

Tucker's reaction was telling, though. He sighed, not sharply, but still showcasing his frustrations all the same. “This is different. Come on, you know that.”

“I don't want to hear it,” Sam snapped. “He's fine, Tuck.”

And that was that.

Valerie could almost believe them. And god, she yearned to believe them with a fortitude that nearly crushed her heart, but on the third day, she made the mistake of passing by the teacher's lounge.

In an instant, she was plunged back into this new ice-cold reality.

“His parents suspect ghosts,” came the gruff voice of Ms. Tetslaff. “And you know, as wacko as they are, this time? Yeah, I might believe them.”

“It's not too far-fetched. You know that the CPS investigation came up clean. Especially after speaking to Ms. Jasmine Fenton directly, nothing came up that was particularly worrisome from their house. They seem like a good family, albeit a bit to the left. It feels unlikely that any of this could have stemmed from within the home,” Mr. Lancer said.

CPS investigated their house? Valerie thought back, but she didn't remember Danny ever mentioning it. So, why? Why had CPS gone?

“And you know how Mr. Fenton gets whenever a ghost gets near,” Mr. Lancer continued. 

“Oh yeah, he's a jumpy one,” Ms. Tetslaff agreed. “Always the first one out of the class.”

“And the last one back, sporting some sort of bruise,” came the voice of the old history teacher. What was her name, Mrs. Sawyer?

No, her name didn’t matter right now. What, with this information piercing every wall around Valerie's mind.

Danny was...getting hurt? And she hadn't noticed?

But she didn't have long to process this before Mr. Falluca took his chance to interject. “Didn't I tell you? After that whole CPS debacle? I told you all it was ghost related. I told you that the parents are weird, but Danny was always getting hurt around a ghost attack or on his way to school.”

He was what?

Why hadn't Valerie seen anything? Or heard anything?

“And I agreed if you'll recall,” Mr. Lancer said.

“I wouldn't be surprised if a ghost kidnapped him this time,” Mr. Falluca said.

“To get to his parents, most likely. The weekly harassment wasn't getting anywhere, so they had to escalate,” Mr. Lancer concluded.

“Poor kid,” Ms. Tetslaff murmured.

“Indeed. And if that's truly the case, then who knows how far they've gone. They're ghosts, after all.”

But Valerie was through listening to the teacher's gossip. She backed from the door, stumbled over her feet, and bolted around the corner, nearly slamming into some upperclassmen as she did.

No...no way....Danny? Her Danny?

She'd broken up with him so he wouldn't get hurt, hadn't she? She'd predicted this. Ghosts were ruthless and vengeful and ugh, she had let him go to prevent this from happening!

And yet!

And yet...

She skidded to a stop, her heart thundering in her ears. Around her, the hallway bled Casper High red, posters about kindness and unity hung haphazardly over the walls, and the ever-long fractals of lockers wove spiderwebs around her vision.

And yet, he'd been hurt anyway. No, it was worse than that. He'd been hurting the whole time, and she hadn't known. He'd...never told her.

But why would he? It wasn't like he knew that she was the Red Huntress. Maybe if she'd revealed this to him, he would have told her about the ghosts harassing him. Maybe she could have done something. Maybe, maybe it wouldn't have come to this.

Now, it was too late. Danny was gone.

And she had to bear the weight of the blame.

Her breath shortened, and hot tears sprang to her eyes too quickly for her to will away. They spilled down her cheeks and splashed onto the disgusting red and white tile below her.

She should wipe them off, stop crying, suck it up. She couldn't break down now, not while Danny was out there with god only knew which rogue now.

But shit, it was her fault.

Her weakness got to her, and she found herself standing before the row of lockers with her forehead pressed against the cool metal. Her curly hair fell around her, shielding her from the view of any potential onlookers. But thankfully, the science hallway—tucked in its own small corner of the school—was always nearly deserted while classes were in session.

She should have saved Danny. She should have noticed something, anything. What was even the point of having all this gear if she couldn't protect the people she cared about most?

She wanted to crumble, to disintegrate into a pile of dust on the floor. She held her hand against her mouth, choking back sobs that tried to rip from the core of her diaphragm, but she knew that the lunch period was nearly over and it would only be a matter of minutes before the hall was populated once again.

So she breathed. In, then out. First, nothing but a shaky jolt, and then steadier. In and out until the thick tears had reduced to rubble, and her sobs were nothing but hiccups. 

And then she made a promise to herself. One to bring Danny back home.

She may have failed to protect him before, but she wouldn't fail to save him this time.

She wouldn't.

****

The air was still tonight—unusual for this particularly windy fall—and it was as if Valerie could hear every secret Amity Park whispered into the stars. Every owl hoot in the surrounding air, every soft click of someone’s heels on the pavement below. 

There was a certain serenity to these kinds of nights, ones that were bathed in countless stars glittering in the air above. Not that Valerie had really cared about silly things like the stars before. But after she began donning flight in her red suit alone, they became a source of comfort to her. A constant that she could count on—if the clouds allowed so. 

And it was all thanks to one particular boy that she had even looked up in the first place, hadn’t it?

The past two weeks, she found herself leaning on their comfort more as she spent the nights searching, and searching, and searching some more.

But where should she look? She didn’t know. It had been so long that he could be anywhere. There was a chance—a very likely chance—he wasn’t in Amity Park at all.

Especially if what she’d heard about him was true.

It was Johnny 13 who had let it slip. After a week of no leads, of no sleep, Valerie had the rather unfortunate pleasure of running into the biker ghost himself.

Or, maybe the fortunate pleasure. Because after cornering him and pressing her gun to his temple, his silver tongue was all too eager to spill.

“The kid?” Johnny had asked.

“Fenton. Son of the ghost hunters? Maybe you’ve heard of him.” Valerie wedged her gun into his skin just a little more.

“Jeez, cool it. Yeah, I’ve heard of him. Kid’s damn annoying enough on his own without his parents getting involved.”

Confusion sliced through her, but she had only just begun to react when Johnny slid out from her hold, reappearing on her other side.

“What are you talking about?” Valerie whirled around, nearly forgetting to keep her gun out in front of her. “Danny? The son? He doesn’t have anything to do with ghosts!”

Johnny barked a vicious laugh. “Oh, is that what he tells you? Man, you humans are so blind. Well, kid’s a good actor, I’ll give him that.”

Then, black cloaked her vision, and she could hardly escape the swirling shadows before she looked up and realized that Johnny 13 was gone. And then, so was his shadow.

That had happened almost a week ago, and since then she had questioned any ghost that crossed her path, but either no one knew or no one would tell her.

As the days stretched on, her suspicion about who could be behind Danny’s disappearance only grew, molted, and then solidified until there was only one ghost it could be.

The one ghost that had—not-so-coincidentally, Valerie was sure—disappeared as well.

In fact, Valerie was sure she hadn’t seen Phantom since before Danny’s disappearance. She tried to remember and…yeah, he hadn’t made any appearance grande nor small over the past two weeks.

That was unusual for him, the ghost that almost seemed to live in Amity Park for how much time he spent here.

So Phantom had to be involved somehow. He just had to. Perhaps he was the one who took Danny, or he could be just an accomplice. Either way, the timing was too exact for him not to be involved at all.

But he was just. Gone. 

Valerie had searched high and low, but there didn’t seem to be any sign of him anywhere. And if he was the one who took Danny, then where had they gone? The Ghost Zone?

Valerie tried not to think about that possibility too much.

So when a frighteningly familiar ecto-signature reading popped up on her wristband, Valerie didn’t hesitate to jet over to the source of it. He was just around the block—so close—and soon, she would have answers.

That little asshole thought he could just appear after two weeks of Danny’s disappearance as if everyone was going to welcome him back with open arms? As if nothing ever happened?

Yeah, fuck that. 

Drawing her weapons was a subconscious action at this point. Valerie didn’t have to think before her gun of choice had formed in her hand—black, with red on the side. Sleek and deadly, just like her.

She whipped around the corner of a building, looked out into the street, and there he was, hovering thirty feet above the sidewalk. Bathed in white with wild hair floating around him as if underwater and his black and white suit unmistakable against the Amity Park skyline, there was Phantom.

He was slow to face her, but that only worked to her advantage. Because as soon as it clicked in his head what was happening, Valerie was already on him, her gun trained at his forehead, her eyes fiery with weeks of untapped fury as she shouted, “What the hell did you do to him?”

Phantom blinked once, his eyes flickering to the gun, then Valerie, then to the gun again. He blinked again, this time slow, and perhaps so obtuse and obnoxious that Valerie couldn’t help but press her ectoweapon into his aura as she yelled, “I’ll fucking kill you again, Phantom! I’m not playing. Tell me what happened to him! What did you do to Fenton?”

Knitted eyebrows shot up along with his hands, and he jolted back as if seeing the gun for the first time. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hang on, what are you talking about?”

But that only enraged Valerie even more. “Don’t play dumb with me!”

“Seriously, I don’t know what’s going on! I don’t even know who that is!”

“You disappear for two weeks the same time as Fenton does, and now you’re claiming to not know anything?” Valerie’s glare narrowed as red tinged the edges of her vision. “Seriously, how much of a dumbass do you think I am? Spill! What the fuck happened to him? What did you do?”

He inched back more, his hands clasping, unclasping, then dropping once again. There was a nervous energy around him, and Valerie noticed—odd—that his chest seemed to be rising and falling almost as if he were hyperventilating.

But no, that wasn’t possible. “Answer me!” she snapped.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! Do I even know you?”

Valerie could have laughed at the sheer audacity of Phantom, but then she looked at him—really looked at him. His wide eyes quivering in anxiety, his ears which seemed to be pointed lower than usual, his panicked stance, and his fast…breathing…and suddenly, Valerie wasn’t sure anymore. Because the Phantom she knew would have made a stupid quip, shot her gun, and darted away.

But this? This Phantom? The one having anxiety before her?

This Phantom was almost pitiful.

She felt her grip on her gun weaken, and her arm lowered ever so slightly. “You don’t…remember me?” she asked.

“I’m sorry, but I think you have me confused for someone else!” he said, drawing his palms up once again in surrender. “I’ve never met you.”

…How?

She tried again, gritting her teeth and drawing her gun back to full force. “Oh no, you don’t get to do that game with me, ghost! Tell me what you did to Danny. Now.”

“I don’t know who that is!” he pleaded. “I’m serious! You have to believe me.”

Why did she believe him?

No, he was a ghost. Ghosts were conniving and evil. They were made to trick humans into getting their way. Valerie knew this. It was as ingrained into her as any self-defense move was.

So then, why? Why could she look into his acid-green eyes and instinctively know that he was telling the truth?

“What do you mean by that?” she pressed further. “I saw you just a few weeks ago. Hell, you live here. I know you do, even if you refuse to admit it.”

“I don’t—I don’t know. Really, I don’t know what you want from me. I’ve never been here, I promise! I was in the Infinite Realms and—”

“What? Where were you?” 

The glow in his eyes flickered, and his nervous energy was suddenly so palpable that Valerie could almost taste it. “The Infinite Realms! You know, where all the ghosts live!”

But…Phantom had only ever called that the Ghost Zone. Like all the other humans did. 

Infinite Realms? Was that…what the ghosts called it?

“I’ve only ever been there, I promise! I just…just woke up there one day, and I’ve been there ever since. I only got here—the Human World—a few minutes ago. There was a portal. Green, swirling light? You know? And I flew through it. I swear that’s the truth,” he insisted. “I promise I’ve never been here before. I didn’t know it was forbidden to come to your territory. I’m sorry! Once another portal comes, I can leave—uh, what’s your name?”

What. The. Fuck.

Valerie hovered in the air, stunned, staring into the eyes of a ghost she knew like the back of her hand, but one who didn’t seem to know…anything about her, about Amity, about anything. 

“You are Phantom, right?” Valerie asked.

“That—that’s what the other ghosts call me,” he said.

So…this was Phantom. It wasn’t some strange clone or anything. So then, what the fuck was going on?

“But you don’t know who I am?”

“No,” he said, then his eyes widened once more. “Am I supposed to?”

A fit of hilarious anger surged through Valerie, and she wanted to snap at him that of course he should know! What was he, stupid? But almost as that spiked her, it dissolved away. 

It wouldn’t have been fair to be angry at this Phantom. This one had no idea who she was, he didn’t know their history, and he apparently knew nothing about Amity Park, which Valerie had more than assumed had become his haunt.

Deep breaths, then. She needed to figure out what the hell was going on, then she could give Phantom a ginormous piece of her mind.

“You’ve been here before,” she explained. “A lot, actually.”

“I haven’t, I swear,” he insisted again in a panic, eyeing the gun that Valerie had forgotten was still between both of them.

She dropped her arm, though she didn’t retract the gun into her suit. One could never know, with ghosts as duplicative as they were.

“You have,” she retorted, now without the gun backing up her words. “I’ve seen you here more times than I can count. I’m The Red Huntress. That ring a bell at all?” 

He shook his head, though his brow was furrowed. “I was born in the Realms like other ghosts, and I’ve only ever been there. I’ve never left!”

This game of ping-pong wasn’t going to work. At least, it could only work so long as Valerie was willing to sacrifice her entire night’s sleep for the cause of Phantom’s mental rehabilitation, which as it stood, she wasn’t. 

Okay then. Time for plan B.

She pulled her cell phone out of the pocket in her suit’s thigh and opened TikTok, typing Phantom into the search bar.

“What are you doing?” a panicked voice asked.

She shushed him, eyeing past all the debate and theory videos until she found what she was looking for. Then, without so much as looking past her thumb clicking on the thumbnail, she shoved her phone in Phantom’s face.

He watched what sounded like some sort of compilation video with eyes expanding to comical proportions. Whatever weird fast “breathing” he’d been doing before was picking up again, and if it weren’t for Valerie’s adept reflexes, he probably would have swiped her phone out of her hands when he made to lunge for it.

“Nuh-uh!” Valerie said, holding her phone back.

“That can’t be right!” Phantom said, turning on her. “I swear, it’s not me!”

“It’s from a month ago, glow-boy!” she said. “There’s literally thousands of videos of you on here from the past year!”

He halted, his body growing rigid. “The past…how long?”

“Year,” Valerie repeated. She clicked another video and turned up her volume in time for the video Phantom to say a truly god-awful pun.

“Year?” Phantom’s voice was breathy. He wasn’t looking at the phone anymore, but Valerie could see him flinch at hearing his voice. “But that…no, that can’t be right.”

“I think your brain is having a hardware issue,” video Phantom said. “Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on?”

“You just don’t understand my BRILLIANCE!” a nasal voice screeched.

“Technus, your brain is slower than an Internet Explorer loading screen. I wouldn’t exactly call that brilliant.”

The Phantom in front of her shook his head incessantly. “That’s not me. It can’t be.” However, his voice sounded anything but convincing.

“It obviously is. What, you think I just made up a bunch of videos to confuse you?” Valerie snorted. “Give me a break.”

“But…I’ve only been a ghost for a few weeks! See? That can’t be me.”

A few weeks?

But that’s…

Valerie swiped down to the next video, this one a close-up of Phantom’s face grinning down at the camera below. He brought his gloved hands up behind his pointed ears like moose antlers, sticking his tongue out as he did. His white fangs poked out of the corners of his lips, his smile stretching until he broke into laughter.

The Phantom before her was sheet white.

“I’m only a few weeks old,” he begged quietly, hiding his eyes behind his hands as if Valerie’s phone screen was displaying imagery too horrific to look at. “This is impossible. I’ve been in the Infinite Realms. It’s…this is…no…”

“Phantom, I’ve known you for months.” Valerie leaned in, but as if sensing her, he reeled back, curling into himself.

“Is that how everyone knew who I was?” Phantom peered up from his hands. 

“Who?”

“The other ghosts. They…they acted like they knew me. Like I should know them. But I’d never met them before.”

Valerie didn’t know what ghosts he was talking about specifically, but she had a general idea. “You have. You do know them.”

Phantom reached for her phone again, and this time Valerie let him have it. But, to her amusement, when he jabbed his finger at her screen, nothing happened.

“You have to take your gloves off.”

Phantom’s brows furrowed, and he surveyed his hands as if seeing the gloves for the first time.

“Do they come off?” he asked himself mildly.

“They do,” Valerie answered, even though she was sure he didn’t expect her to. And sure enough, at his look, she explained, “I’ve seen you do it before.”

“Oh.” 

He handed her phone back to gently peel the white hazmat gloves from his suit. To his shock, but not Valerie’s, as soon as they left the vicinity of his aura, they simply dissolved into a green goo that began falling like rain before evaporating into the air.

“So that’s how that works,” he mused.

On one of his hands was the faint green glow of lightning that spindled up his wrists and disappeared into his suit. It was something that Valerie had seen before but never had the balls to ask about. Considering how much Phantom didn’t seem to know about, well, anything, she was sure as shit not getting that answer tonight either.

But on his other wrist was something interesting. And it was a small, skin-tight metal wristband.

“What’s that?” Valerie nodded toward the wristband.

“Huh?” Phantom asked, following her eyes to the bracelet. “Oh, I don’t know. I woke up with it, so I must have died in it. It’s how our outfits work, I think. Well, until you get powerful enough to change your appearance.”

Valerie filed away that bit of ghost lore for later. Her Phantom was never so forthcoming about the inner workings of ghosts as this. 

“No, you didn’t. I’ve never seen that before, and I’ve seen you with your gloves off.”

“Well, I don’t remember. Maybe I was starting to figure out how to change my appearance before I got like this?” He reached for the phone, clearly uninterested in talking about a silly bracelet when his entire world seemed to be imploding.

Valerie relented, handing it over. But, to his growing agitation and her further amusement again, his fingers had little impact on the screen.

“How the hell do you work one of these?” he growled.

“You might be too cold. What are you trying to do?”

“I’m trying to see if I knew that ghost! The metal one that was attacking me in the Realms yesterday!”

Valerie plucked her phone out of his fingers. “Okay, chill. Did he tell you his name?”

“Yeah. Said it about a million times.” He rolled his eyes. “Skulker, greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone. That’s what he said, anyway.”

“Oh, you definitely know him,” Valerie said, while still typing Ghost Skulker into the TikTok search bar. Sure enough, hundreds of videos appeared before her displaying the same annoying face in various poses on her screen. She clicked on one and handed her phone over to him.

His reaction made Valerie wonder if a ghost could jump out of its own skin. “What?! How? How is this possible?”

“I told you, we all know you! You’ve been around for a little while longer than a few weeks, Phantom!” 

She took the phone from his fingers. Just in time too, because he looked about ready to kneel over.

Could ghosts faint? As soon as the question popped into her mind, she realized that she didn’t want to test that theory. She barely knew what to do when a human fainted, let alone a ghost. And Valerie wasn’t one to start coddling ghosts.

She sighed, then glanced around. “Hey, wanna sit and talk for a minute?” She gestured over to the tall office building nearby. “If you like heights and privacy, I know a good rooftop.”

He squinted as if trying to figure out if he knew that roof. And then Valerie remembered all the nights on patrol, ambushing Phantom on that same building.

She thought back. What had he been doing those nights? 

“Sure,” he said, breaking her out of her thoughts.

Right. She didn’t have time to waste on Phantom’s silly actions. She was here for Danny. And somehow, this amnesiac was connected—she was absolutely certain of it.

They flew over and touched down on the roof, Valerie’s hoverboard retracting into her boots. She looked over to see Phantom’s flight tail morph into legs before he cautiously hit the roof as if he were afraid of breaking it. He looked down curiously at the ply and gravel roof before crouching down and…touching it? With his ungloved fingers?

What the hell?

As if noticing her staring, he answered, “Everything here feels weird. It’s missing that charge.”

“Charge?”

He glanced back at Valerie. “Yeah, the charge from the ectoplasm.”

“You can feel that?”

“You can’t?” 

Okay…yet another weird thing to file about ghosts. Apparently, they had some sort of sixth sense for ectoplasm.

It was like every single word out of this idiot’s mouth left Valerie with more questions. For a moment, she wondered if that was on purpose. If he was using his classic ghostly manipulation to try to distract her from asking about Danny.

But then, she looked back down at him rubbing the grains of rock and pebble between his fingers, and yeah…no freaking way this was an act. Her Phantom was an idiot, but not this stupid.

So what the hell was going on?

****

next chapter

[read all my works here]

[imekitty]

Star Error XVI

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15

Star investigates Danny’s glowing freckles.

-----

At lunchtime, Star sat with the A-Listers but could not stop herself from stealing glances at Fenton as he chatted with his friends at their own lunch table.

"Star, you down?" asked Kwan.

Star jolted and turned her face to him. "Hmm? What?"

"We're making plans for this weekend." Dash stuffed the rest of his burger into his mouth, not bothering to swallow it all before he spoke again. "And we are not going to invite Fentnerd, so if all you want to do is keep staring at him, you're gonna have to do that on your own."

"I'm not staring at him!" said Star, her eyes involuntarily darting in Fenton's direction.

Dash batted his eyes. "You're totally hypnotized by his pretty freckles."

"They're not pretty, they just glow!" whined Star.

Dash snorted. "Whatever."

"I can still get all the cheerleaders together to get back at him for humiliating you, you know," said Paulina. "Just say the word."

"He didn't humiliate me!" bleated Star.

"But he must've broken your heart," said Paulina. "Why else would you keep looking at him?"

Star shook her head and tried to think fast. "I'm only looking at him because—um—" She glanced at Fenton again, hoping to get an idea. "Because—Falluca asked me to tell Fenton that he needs to sign up for more tutoring."

"Then go." Dash used one hand to shoo her away. "Go have a nice chat with your lover boy about tutoring."

Star stuck out her bottom lip and tilted up her chin. "I will! I mean, he's not my—but I will talk to him. About tutoring. That's all. Because it'll look good on my college application."

"Yeah, that's the reason," laughed Dash.

Star glowered at him, but she could feel the heat in her cheeks. "It is!"

She jumped up from the table and left in a huff, stomping over to Fenton, who stopped talking the moment he saw her approach. Manson and Foley were also watching her.

"Hi?" said Fenton, one eyebrow quirked.

Star was at a sudden loss for words as she looked back at him. His puzzled expression was just so cute and she had not been prepared for it.

Shut up, how could she possibly think he was cute!

She shook her head and regained her composure, putting on a wily smile as she took a very deliberate seat to Fenton's right. "Heya, Fenton."

"Hey, Star!" said Foley brightly from across the table. Beside him, Manson narrowed beady eyes at her.

"Hey," said Star flatly, waving a hand in Foley's direction more to dismiss him than to greet him. She then sweetened her tone and propped her elbows on the table, clasping her hands under her chin. "So, Fenton, what are you up to?"

Fenton eyed her warily before gesturing to the lunch tray in front of him. "Eating?"

Star wrinkled her nose at the mashed potatoes and crispy chicken covered with gravy on his tray. "Ah, yes. I can see that."

"Do you need something, Star?" asked Fenton.

Star glanced at the A-List table. The A-Listers were all turned in their seats, watching her.

"As a matter of fact, yes." Star cleared her throat. "Mr. Falluca asked me to ask you why you haven't signed up for tutoring lately."

Fenton squinted one eye. "Why doesn't he just ask me himself? He's my math teacher, I see him literally every day."

"Uh, well—" Star shrugged. "He thinks I'd be better at persuading you to sign up again."

"Because we used to date?"

"Yea—no!" Star growled. "We weren't dating!"

"Then why do you care if I sign up for tutoring again?"

"I don't!" snapped Star. "I'm just asking for Falluca. It's part of my responsibilities as a math tutor."

"So do you want me to sign up for tutoring with you?" asked Fenton.

Star blushed and flicked a dismissive hand. "It doesn't have to be me. It can be any of the math tutors."

"But do you want it to be you?" cut in Foley.

Star shot Foley a nasty glare, but then she tried to relax and laugh it off. "Look, all I'm saying is, we all know that this guy—" Star elbowed Fenton just below his ribs, the same area as Phantom's injury. "—needs all the help he can get when it comes to math."

Fenton grunted and stiffened, seemingly trying to pretend that it didn't hurt at all. Star hid a smirk by scrunching her mouth into an innocent pout.

"Oh, do I now?" said Fenton through clenched teeth, his lips curved into a strained smile.

"Well, sure!" said Star. "I mean, you don't want to fail math, do you?"

"Wait, are you failing math, Danny?" asked Manson with a frown.

"Not last time I checked," said Fenton.

"Well, maybe not now," said Star, "but a lot can happen before the end of the year!"

"A lot like what?" Fenton's eyes lidded.

"You know." Star shrugged with her palms raised. "Things just come up, right? Things that distract you. Family, hobbies…" She paused, turning her head just enough to give him a side-eye. "Ghost fighting."

Fenton stayed completely still, but his eyes widened just enough that Star noticed. Foley and Manson exchanged glances that appeared quite nervous.

"Ghost fighting?" echoed Fenton.

"Yeah," said Star. "Ghost fighting's pretty big in your family, isn't it?"

"Uh…yeah," said Fenton. "My parents are into it."

"But aren't you too?" asked Star, twirling a lock of her hair. "I remember that whole thing with the pirate ghosts that took all our parents."

She also remembered just how good Fenton looked in that tight orange jumpsuit that perfectly accentuated his—

"I mean, you seemed to know what you were doing," squeaked Star, trying her best to banish the image from her head.

"But it's not a hobby for Danny or anything," said Foley.

"Yeah, he just naturally picks up on ghost-hunting tricks from his parents," said Manson.

"Is that so?" Star simpered. "Well, considering his grades, it's good to hear he's a natural at something. Right, Fenton?"

She elbowed him in the side again, this time a tad harder. Fenton's body bent with the force, a strangled sound coming from his throat held in only by his tightly pressed lips.

"I wouldn't say I'm a natural," breathed out Fenton, his voice crackly and tight.

"You're so modest," purred Star, lightly smacking his shoulder.

Manson made a face, poking her tongue out just a little through her teeth. "Okay, so are you done here now? All you wanted was to tell Danny he should sign up for tutoring again?"

"Will you?" asked Star, looking at Fenton.

"Do you want me to?" asked Fenton, sincerity in his sky blue eyes. His tousled hair seemed to float around his ears and over his forehead, looking so tuggable and soft.

Star felt warmth blooming in her cheeks as her eyes roamed his face, the thick shape of each eyebrow, the sharp jut of his nose, the sweet color of his lips—

Star forced herself to laugh, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Hey, I don't really care. It's your math grade on the line, not mine."

Star elbowed him again, even harder than before. Fenton yelped and jumped up from the table, cradling his side with one hand as he backed away from her. He froze, then laughed, dropping his hand.

"Okay, well, maybe I'll see what's open," said Fenton, his lips twitching into a tense smile.

He stared at her, and she stared back. The image of Fenton in that tight orange jumpsuit popped up in her head again. He and Phantom had such similar physiques, but it just couldn't be, could it?

"You, uh—" Star cleared her throat. "I still get to ask you one last question, right?"

Fenton's expression turned serious. "Yes," he said softly. "Did you want to ask it now?"

Star breathed in, her lungs shaking with a feeling she didn't quite understand.

And then she heard snickering from the A-List table behind her. Her face and neck burned as she shook her head.

"Uh—no, I gotta go," said Star. "Later, geeks."

She stood and headed for the cafeteria exit, too embarrassed to return to her friends.

Part 17

[ladylynse]

Thinking about Danny with Lancer’s wallet again. Imagine Danny trying to eat his lunch, or explain to Sam and Tucker about Lancer’s wallet while it’s in his back pocket. Imagine him getting all the way home from school and trying to avoid explaining to his parents about Lancer’s wallet still in his back pocket. Just him trying to do anything while having the equivalent of a hornet’s nest in his back pocket that should very much not be poked.

(re: this, built from this)

If Danny makes it through the day without getting caught and winds up forced by circumstance to take it home rather than return it, I could see him passing it off to Jazz at the earliest opportunity. (She'd be scandalized by the whole situation, but she also would also be believed if she claimed to have found it. Which she had. In Danny's hand. But she doesn't have to tell anyone that part.) He probably wouldn't have much trouble getting it by his parents; I don't think they'd notice. They might think he got a new wallet, or wonder why he's carrying it in his pocket when he usually keeps it in his backpack, but honestly it could have a monogrammed L on it and Danny could just claim be bought it second hand and they would probably not question that without reason. And Danny has lied to them a lot without their noticing, so.... I don't think they're the biggest concern unless a ghost is actively there causing trouble.

Other teachers while he's at school, on the other hand? Definitely harder. Especially once Lancer realizes his wallet is gone and alerts the rest of the staff. Mr. Falluca might wear glasses but he's hardly blind (while wearing them). Ms. Tetslaff is more than willing to use her whistle if she suspects anything funny is going on. Every teacher is going to be on high alert if they know a wallet has been lost/stolen.

[q-gorgeous]

Broken Dashed Ladybug Chapter 2

ao3

fanfiction

And heres some art that @spacebagel54 made for this chapter :D

hehehehe

Danny yawned as he walked into the school that morning. The Purple Empress had been relentless the night before. Danny had had hardly any time to do his homework before she sent out back to back akumas that lasted long into the night. 

He yawned again as he turned around another corner. When he opened his eyes he saw Sam standing across the hall by her locker, looking just as tired as he felt. 

He walked up to her and gave her a small smile. “Hey, Sam.”

She yawned and slammed her locker closed and turned to face him. “Hi, Danny.” 

“Long night?”

“Yeah.” She rubbed her eyes and they started walking to their first hour. “Couldn’t sleep.” 

“Me either.” Danny yawned again and he covered his mouth with his hand. “I kept getting woken up just as I was falling asleep.”

“That’s the worst.” They turned around the corner in the hallway. “Did you catch even a wink of sleep?”

“Barely. I was able to get a few hours of sleep before-”

Danny suddenly ran into somebody from behind. They turned around and it was Dash Baxter staring down at him. 

“Watch where you’re going Fen-geek!” Dash ground out at him. Danny rolled his eyes. 

“You’re losing your touch, Dash. Fen-geek? Really? What happened to the good old days of Fentonio and Fentertainment tonight? Where’s the originality?”

“Dead, like your loser friend!” 

The hall hushed around them. Even Kwan sent a shocked look at Dash. Danny took a step away from him. Dash’s chest heaved up and down in anger. 

“Why would you-”

The sound of skin cracking against skin interrupted Danny as Sam drove a fist into Dash’s face. Danny took another step back to get out of the way of her elbow as she reared back for another punch.

“To kill a mockingbird people!” Lancer’s cry rang through the hall as Sam landed another punch on Dash’s face. “What is going on here?” 

Danny reached forward and grabbed Sam by her arm and tugged her back and Kwan planted himself in front of Dash. Lancer looked between the four of them and let out a sigh.

“Manson, Baxter. In my office now.”

Danny let go of her arm and watched her stomp her way to Mr. Lancer. Her chest was heaving and Danny could see her fists shaking at her sides. His eyes traveled to Dash and he too was breathing heavily. He wiped a bead of blood that had dripped out of his nose off of his face and followed quietly after the two of them. 

Hushed whispers filled the hallway as the students started talking amongst themselves about the scene that just unfolded. Danny locked eyes with Kwan. He shrugged. 

“Sorry, man. I’m sorry he said that.” Kwan said quietly. 

Danny lifted a shoulder in subdued, fake nonchalance. “It’s Dash. I wouldn’t expect anything different, right?” 

Danny turned right as Kwan opened his mouth to say something else but he didn’t stop to listen. 

What was Dash’s problem? When was he going to grow up? 

Danny shifted his backpack on his shoulder. Dash would never change. He was always going to take it out on other people. There was no use dwelling on it. It was expected really. 

He walked in through the door of his math classroom and dropped his bag on the floor, sitting down heavily in his seat. He pulled out his notebook and opened it to an empty page. 

He was going to learn some math. He wasn’t going to let his anger overtake him. 

Well. He wouldn’t let his anger overtake him. 

His eyes were threatening to flutter closed. He really didn’t get enough sleep last night. He could hear Mr. Falluca droning on in the background but it just sounded like white noise. What would another nap in math class hurt? He could always… Catch up later…

He was startled awake at the sound of a door being roughly pulled open. 

Danny looked up as the door to the classroom shut but it was just Dash. Danny expected Sam to be following close behind him but she didn’t walk in. Did Lancer suspend her? 

Dash took his spot at his desk next to Danny. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. When he let it out, his features smoothed over and he stared blankly at the board after he opened his eyes. 

Danny frowned and turned back to his open notebook. Why did Dash always get to be let off scot free? Dash was always picking on them. He never let up. Not even after Tucker-

Danny closed his eyes and took his own deep breath. He couldn’t let Dash get to him. He couldn’t let himself get akumatized. If he got akumatized, there’d be no one to help Chat Noir. Chat Noir was good, but Danny wasn’t sure he’d be good enough to take down Ladybug. 

Danny opened his eyes and looked back up towards the front of the classroom. He hadn’t been focusing on whatever Mr. Falluca had been explaining to them since he’d been startled awake. He was too distracted and tired. Why did morning math classes even exist? 

He was about to give up, admit defeat, and lay his head down on his desk when the whole building shook. A sound echoed throughout the hallways and it chilled Danny to his bones. It sounded like a ghostly wail.

Something flew past the window in their classroom door and his eyes widened. 

Danny stood up as he raised his hand.

“I have to go to the bathroom!” Him and Dash shouted in tandem. 

They turned to look at each other for a moment, confused expressions on their faces, but then the building shook again. 

“Forget the bathroom!” Mr. Falluca shouted. “Evacuate to our fire drill locations!” 

The building shook again and students started trying to file out the door. They were pushing and shoving each other out of the way. They were moving too slow. Danny had to get out and find out where the akuma was. 

Suddenly, someone was knocking into Danny and he started falling backwards towards the floor. There were still too many people behind him, he’d get trampled. He had to try and-

Before Danny could think through any maneuvers to get him out of the way of his classmates feet, somebody's arms reached out and hooked underneath his armpits before he could hit the ground. Danny tilted his head up and his eyes widened when he saw that it was Dash who caught him. 

“Get a grip, Fen-two left feet.” Dash yanked him back up. “We gotta get out of here.” 

They followed behind their classmates. They were almost out of the building when what looked like a… Bedsheet ghost? Flew in between the two of them. It shot some blasts at Dash who was able to dodge it. Danny watched it chase him down the hallway and Danny took this as his opportunity to transform. 

He ran into an empty classroom and shut the door behind him. Tikki flew out from the pocket on his hoodie.

“Your dad is going to have a field day with this akuma, Danny!” She smiled at him.

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, tell me about it. He’s gonna be talking about it for weeks. Too bad they’re not even real ghosts though.”

Tikki shrugged and Danny called on his transformation.

“Tikki, spots on!” 

His transformation washed over him and he peeked out the door again. There were no other bedsheet ghosts wandering the hall but the building shook. It must be coming from outside. 

He ran down the hallway towards the nearest exit. He passed another hallway when suddenly Chat Noir flew around the corner.

“Bug!” He changed directions and started running alongside Danny. 

“Hey, Cat. Did you find the akuma?”

Chat Noir shook his head. “I’ve been getting chased by bedsheet ghost minions. I haven’t been able to find the akuma victim.”

The building rumbled and some debris fell from the ceiling above them. Danny looked up. “I think they’re on the roof.”

Chat Noir nodded. 

They burst through a set of doors and ran outside. Looking up, they could hear the ghostly wail that had reverberated through the school before. A green glow shone over the edge of the roof. 

“Elevator trip on me, Bug.” 

Danny looked down at Chat Noir right as he grabbed his waist and pulled out his staff. Chat Noir raised them up and Danny wrapped his arms around Chat Noir's shoulders, startled. 

Chat Noir hefted Danny onto the roof ahead of him and Danny got a good glimpse at the akuma.

They were a ghost. A literal ghost. With a purple bed sheet and everything. 

“He’s gone!” The ghost wailed.

“You look like you’re the one in need of saving from where we’re standing.” Danny shouted.

The akuma’s head whipped to look at them. They stood up from their knees and slowly turned to face them. 

“We need to save him.” The akuma ground out.

Danny’s eyebrows furrowed. “What?” 

The akuma lunged at them. Chat Noir and Danny separated, jumping in opposite directions as they dodged the attack. 

“I know there’s a wish. I need to save him.”

Danny’s eyes widened. “The Purple Empress is telling people that there’s a wish? Why would she do that?” 

Chat Noir landed into a role across the rooftop. “She’d do anything to manipulate someone into getting what she wants. She has no qualms for it. Maybe she’s finally getting desperate.” 

“Help me save him!” 

The akuma lunged at Danny again and he jumped into the air, throwing his yoyo and looping it around the antenna that sat on top of the rood. As he swung through the air, he could see Chat Noir fighting off a group of bed sheet ghosts. Danny adjusted his grip on his yoyo and jumped. 

“I’ve got this one!” 

Danny swung down through the air and kicked a bedsheet ghost away from his partner. 

“How many of these things are gonna keep popping up?” Chat Noir shouted as he hit another ghost away from them. “There’s too many of them.” 

“Let me-“ Danny threw his yoyo up into the air. “Lucky charm!” 

A red and black thermos fell into his hands and they both stared at it.

“You’re making soup?” Chat Noir asked. 

“I don’t know what it means.” Danny turned it over as he studied it. “It looks kinda like one of the thermoses the Fentons carry around.” 

He pressed a button on the thermos right as a bedsheet ghost ran up to them. It emitted a red beam and sucked the ghost in. Danny and Chat Noir stared at the thermos. 

“Huh. It works. Who knew.” Danny said as he sucked up another bedsheet ghost. He didn’t know if Tikki did this because she couldn’t think up another lucky charm or if she just thought it was funny, but he had a slew of questions for her later. 

“This thing sucks up ghosts?” Cat Noir asked as he threw his baton at another ghost's head, sending it bouncing back towards them. “Does that mean we can use it to trap the akuma too?”

“We have to get the akumatized object away from them first. I think it’s probably the bedsheet.” Danny said. He spun his yoyo in front of them as the ghosts started shooting green ecto blasts at them. “It might just suck it into the thermos with them. Then we’d have a whole other problem.” 

“What if it doesn’t suck the akumatized object up with it?” Chat Noir asked. “Just because they have it on them doesn’t mean it would also suck up the akuma.”

“If the object is currently made out of ectoplasm, it would suck it up just like it would a ghost.” Danny explained. “The thermos doesn’t know the difference. We can’t take the chance.”

Chat Noir nudged him and Danny could pretty feel the grin plastered on his face.

“Do you really believe in ghosts?” Chat Noir teased him from over his shoulder. Danny blushed. 

“I don’t know.” He held up the thermos. “Tikki must. Why else would she have given me a Fenton Thermos?” He sucked up another bedsheet minion as it rushed towards them. 

Chat Noir shrugged. “If Plagg could conjure up hilariously applicable items he would. Tikki might be the same.” 

“Yeah, well-” Danny was interrupted as the akuma rushed them again. He jumped and flipped backwards out of the akuma’s reach while Chat Noir jumped in the opposite direction. 

“We can save him.” The akuma walked up to Danny, hands outstretched. “You can help me save him.”

“It’s- it’s not that easy.” Danny stammered out. “A wish is more complicated than that.” 

The akuma growled. “Why won’t you-” 

Chat Noir snuck up on the akuma villain from behind and yanked off the purple bed sheet. Their eyes widened simultaneously and Danny could hear Chat Noir inhale sharply. 

“Kwan?” Chat Noir breathed. 

“He’s gone!” Danny’s stomach fell and he knew who Kwan was talking about. “He ran through meadows with me when I had no one! And now he’s gone.” 

All Danny could do was stare at Kwan with wide eyes until he raised his hands up, preparing to shoot another blast.

In just a moment, Danny had raised his own hands and pointed the thermos at Kwan, pressing the button. Kwan got sucked up in a swirl of light and his voice faded as he disappeared.

They stood in silence for a few seconds when the bedsheet minions started swarming them again. Danny started sucking them into the thermos. When he glanced at Chat Noir, he was just standing there, staring blankly at where Kwan had just been standing.

“Chat Noir! Destroy the akuma!” 

Chat Noir jumped, startled out of his stupor. 

“Cataclysm!” 

The bedsheet in his hands turned to ash and a butterfly gently flew into the air. 

Danny threw his yoyo out as he caught another bedsheet minion. The yoyo flew back to him and he pressed the top of it, letting the purified butterfly fly away. 

“Bye bye little butterfly.” He whispered quietly. 

He sucked up one last bedsheet ghost before he capped the thermos. 

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

Danny threw the lucky charm up into the air and watched as the magical ladybugs fixed all the destruction that the akuma had caused. He was glad to see that the ladybugs must have put Kwan back in class instead of on the roof with them when he didn’t reappear. 

Once the Ladybugs were gone, Danny closed his eyes and sighed. 

“What’s up?”

Danny opened his eyes at Chat Noir’s shaky voice and turned to see that he had walked up beside him. Danny shook his head.

“I’ve just been having a bad day today. I’m just glad this akuma battle was an easy one, especially after last night.” Easy to fight? Sure. Easy to deal with emotionally? That was another story. 

“A bad day?” Chat Noir gently elbowed Danny’s arm. “We’re hardly through first period.”

Danny sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “It’s just been rough. Especially on top of the long night we had last night. I didn’t get enough sleep.”

Chat Noir yawned. “Me either. I hope I can get a nap in today.” 

Danny nodded. “Me too.” 

There was a big pause. Danny didn’t want to go back to class yet. He’d rather stay here with Chat Noir. But his earrings let out their warning beep. He sighed.

“I gotta go back to class.” Danny pulled out his yoyo and was about to throw it but Chat Noir threw his hands up.

“Wait! Don’t go yet!” 

Chat Noir stared at him with wide eyes and Danny lowered his hand that held his yoyo. Chat Noir took a deep breath and pulled out his baton. 

“I’ve been meaning to give this to you and I’ve been forgetting or putting it off, but maybe it’ll at least help brighten the rest of your day.”

Danny watched as Chat Noir pulled something out of the compartment in his baton. He held it up and a necklace with a black cat and a golden bell dangled from his hand. Danny’s eyes widened and his gaze traveled from the necklace to Chat Noir’s beaming face. 

Danny chuckled nervously as butterflies erupted in his stomach. “What’s that for?” 

“Just a little something to remind you of me when I’m not around. I know you miss me when I’m gone, admit it.” 

Danny rolled his eyes and smiled. “You’re so full of yourself.”

Chat Noir shrugged and walked around behind Danny, unclasping the necklace as he went. “Gotta pull your whiskers somehow, bug.” 

Shivers ran down Danny’s spine as Chat Noir laid the necklace chain down on the back of his neck. “I don’t have any whiskers. I think you’re thinking of yourself with that big ego of yours.” 

Danny turned to face him and saw him shrug. “I’ll figure it out. I think you just play hard to get.”

Danny shrugged back at him. “It makes for a good game of cat and mouse.”

Chat Noir smiled at him. “Touche. But I gotta go. See you later.” He jumped away. 

Danny smiled softly at where Chat Noir had jumped off the school. 

He ran and jumped in the opposite direction, swinging down a block away to detransform in an alleyway. Once his transformation washed over him, Tikki flew up into his waiting palm. He silently handed her a cookie. 

After a few bites she spoke up. “It’s sweet that Kwan seems to miss Tucker. Maybe you could talk to each other?”

There was a pause and Danny shook his head, pushing thoughts of Kwan and Tucker out of his mind. 

“What I wanna talk about is that lucky charm. A Fenton Thermos? Really?” 

“What?” Tikki exclaimed with a smile. “It was an item you were familiar with. It fit the situation.”

“Do you believe in ghosts, Tikki?” Danny said, using the same teasing tone that Chat Noir used with him.

“As a matter of fact I do. There’s a lot that you don’t know about our universe or those beyond.” 

“Even more than my parents?” Danny smirked.

“Yes, even more than your parents.”

Danny shook his head. “Okay, well we gotta get back to school before I get another detention. Hide Tikki.” 

He ran around the corner of the building and saw classmates and teacher filing back into the building. He still didn’t see Sam. She must’ve gotten sent home after Lancer was done talking to her and Dash. 

Danny walked into the school through the front doors and stopped short when his eyes landed on a pair of people ahead of him. 

Dash had his arms wrapped around Kwan’s shoulders, gently rubbing circles with one of his hands. 

He couldn’t hear what Dash was saying, just saw that he was whispering something to Kwan. Danny kept his head down and made his way past them.

“I’m sorry.”

Danny flinched at Dash’s words but he didn’t look up. They weren’t meant for him. Or for Tucker. They were meant for Kwan and that was it. 

He kept walking, making his way back to his math class. 

[scarletsaphire]

Tucker enters an inventing competition with his newly finished Ghost Suppressor. Unfortunately, the non-Amity Park judges don't recognize its value until they see first hand just how helpful it is.

---

Ectoberhaunt day 9: robot

"A three out of ten?" Tucker said in shock, looking down at the paper the judge had handed to him. "Why is it a three out of ten?" Tucker looked up at the judge, whose face was stone cold. "You all said it yourself, it's the best feat of underage engineering this contest had ever seen!"

"While it may look technically impressive," the judge snuffed. "...it is completely impossible to verify your claims. Furthermore, it does not fill the brief."

"It totally fills the brief!" Tucker protested. "I use this thing, like, every day back home!"

"I'm sorry, but I fail to see how you could possibly use a 'ghost suppressor' every day," the judge replied. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have other entries to score. Ones that actually meet the qualifications."

Tucker gripped the paper with his score on it almost hard enough to tear it. "Dumb non-Amity Parkers. Don't understand just how useful this thing is." He turned back around to the "Ghost Suppressor" he'd entered into the contest. Tucker had first built it from one of the Fenton's Specter Deflector's; it was a useful device, but its electric shocks and limited range made it much less user friendly. Especially when that user happened to be a physically inactive best friend of a half ghost. His new and improved Ghost Suppressor was able to detect ghosts in a radius, and dissuade ghosts from using their abilities through a much more humane means: obnoxious, remixed, Box Ghost declarations of fear. (It did not work against the Box Ghost himself, but that was ok. No one needed help dealing with good ol' Boxy.)

He'd brought the Ghost Suppressor (her name was Rebecca) with him to school to show off to Danny and Sam, but Tucker's long term friendship with Danny had infected him with the terrible Fenton luck. Skulker had decided that that was a wonderful time to bust through the wall during lunch, activating the Ghost Suppressor in front of the entire student body. And the lunch lady. And half of the teachers. 

Luckily, it had been highly effective! (Danny transforming to lead Skulker away may have been an additional deterrent, but there were definitely a number of statements about that "infernal cardboard cretin sticking his nose where it didn't belong" so Tucker counted it as a win.) His invention had been effective enough, in fact, that Mr. Falluca had immediately started bombarding him with questions, the main one being "Would you be interested in joining a highly competitive statewide robotics competition?"

Tucker's answer had originally been a resounding "No." After he heard that there was one hundred dollars of prize money on the line, along with an all expense paid vacation during the school week? Tucker simply had his priorities in check. 

Which led him here, to the Illinois's capital, Springfield, at the Junior Inventors Competition, getting his incredibly helpful invention absolutely ribbed on by uneducated judges who didn't have to deal with ghost attacks at least twice a day. Tucker picked up the Ghost Suppressor, which looked a little bit like a radio, and turned it around in his hands. "I'm sorry that they don't see your talent, Rebecca. You deserved more than this." He sniffed and wiped away a tear. "We both did."

Rebecca flickered to life, and the beginning beats of Tucker's own remixed track "Fear Me!" started to play. Tucker looked down at it in shock for a moment, before looking around the large building frantically. Rebecca wouldn't act up on him for no reason. Somewhere, there was a ghost. 

The wall only a few feet away from Tucker's booth was blown away in a shower of splinters and debris. Luckily for him, it wasn't one of the more subtle ghosts. That would've been a pain to deal with. 

"Behold! The master of all things wired, Technus, is here!" In fact, it was one of the least subtle ghosts Tucker had ever had the misfortune of meeting. Most of the crowd began  to panic, running wildly towards exits and under tables. It had been a long time since Tucker had seen such a complete failure of ghost attack evacuation techniques. Most people in Amity Park had it down to a science, when they evacuated at all. It wasn't uncommon for the more common, less harmful ghosts to be dealt with by anyone. (Boxy, for example.)

Over the sound of the panicking crowds, Technus continued his monologue in normal Technus fashion. "The Great Technus heard through his extensive network that there was to be a gathering of all of the greatest technology created by the youngest geniuses of your time! When I heard that such a technological treasure trove was gathered here, I knew what I had to do! I, Technus, must become master of it all and integrate it into my already expansive collection! Now, cower before the might of-"

Technus's already loud and obnoxious voice was drowned out by the familiar sound of an even louder, more obnoxious voice, this time with some mediocre dubstep behind it. Rebecca had finally made it to the beat drop of "Fear Me."

Technus turned from his place in the air to meet Tucker's eyes. Tucker waved. Technus sighed. "I see that I was not the only technology wizard who heard of this place. And I see you brought that... thing with you." 

Tucker didn't bother trying to yell over the sound of Rebecca. Technus might have the special ghost gene of "yell really loud" that they all seemed to have, but Tucker didn't. Instead he just nodded.

"I fail to see why you would want to bring a reminder of that crazy cardboard caretaker with you everywhere, but I get enough of him in the Zone. I'm certain that there will be another chance for I, Technus, to amass this technology when I am not haunted at every step by that ." Technus shuddered, then turned invisible, presumably flying out of the hole in the wall he had made and back to Amity Park.

The remaining panicked people began to calm down, with many of them turning to stare at Tucker in various states of awe, confusion, and fear. One of these individuals was the judge, who had taken refuge from the attack (Tucker was hesitant to call it that, honestly) underneath the neighboring booth. 

"So, now that you've had a live demonstration, would you care to reevaluate my point total?" Tucker asked, holding Rebecca out in front of him with a smile. He couldn't wait to show his parents the first place ribbon he was about to win. 

[monotype-on-phantom]

Hi. I just rewatched the show's first episode, and it turns out there are more teachers than Mr Lancer! At the secret steak buffet in the teachers lounge there are 7 other teachers. A couple you only see the backs of their heads, and only 3 get to gasp when it's discovered the entire buffet is missing (stolen by Lunch Lady to make her first Meat Monster Suite). But any one of them could be used to inspire an OC teacher if you need one.

Well yeah, Ms Tetslaff was around pretty much the whole time as the Health and Gym teacher, and Mr. Falluca is in a few episodes as the Math teacher.

Of course, those two aren't anywhere among the bunch of teachers you're talking about in Mystery Meat. As always, though, the background characters can have some very interesting designs, and you're absolutely right! People can absolutely use these guys as the basis for an OC teacher.

[brokeitwiththepowerofmathamatics]

Fanfic - Desynced: Chapter 3

(Ao3 Here) (FF.net here)

Come Monday, Danny was uttering the one phrase that he never thought he’d ever say. Granted, he never thought he’d ever bein this situation to begin with, but life was full of surprises. Before today, he had never had to stay after school. While this wasn’t actually called a detention in his school record, everyone had basically said it was.

Despite his sudden loss of freedom though, he was thankful he was being held after school in the science lab. He’d rather tell his parents he had detention instead of dealing with the mess between Tucker and Sam.

Tucker finding out that the school was turning the lunches vegan, on the day the school was gonna serve beef stroganoff, was in a word explosive. In two words, legendarily explosive.

Tucker had been very accommodating to Sam’s new dietary requirements, but he flipped out the moment that her dietary requirements had gotten applied to him. Danny could admit, he personally thought Tucker was taking it too far. Tucker had been shouting at Sam, which Danny had never seen him do before. It wasn’t made better by the fact that people started egging him on.

Of course that got people to defend Sam, and from there it just started getting worse and worse. Danny had entertained the idea of starting a food fight just to get out of the situation. But that would have been a short term solution to a long term problem, as the three of them were going to hang out after school today, but then Danny dropped the glassware in the chemistry lab. Again.

Leading to this current detention.

Danny was snapped out of his musings as the chemistry teacher, Mr. Falluca, snapped his fingers in front of Danny. When Danny looked at him, Mr. Falluca folded his arms, and gave Danny his most disappointed stare. “Danny, please pay attention.” Mr. Falluca sighed. “I don’t want to be here any more than you do. I’d much rather be going golfing today, but you need to do these labs.”

“Sorry, Mr. Falluca… I really appreciate this.” He said turning back to the project. He didn’t need Mr. Falluca to explain the science behind it, he already knew, he just had to do this project. It wasn’t hard at all, just mixing some chemicals. He should be able to do this so easily.

But it required fine motor control, and he seemed to be quite lacking in that department for a while now.

Mr. Falluca ran a hand over his head. It’d be through his hair if he had any left. “If you really do, then please don’t make us go through this again. I don’t know what was going through your head. Danny, you’ve dropped so many glass beakers…” Mr. Falluca glanced at Danny and then frowned. “What’s wrong?”

It took Danny a moment to realize what was happening. There was something strange, it felt like water was trickling down his throat, but when he focused on it, he realized that his face had shifted forward, or what felt like his face had. His real face was crying.

Danny swallowed, and reached up to wipe his eyes. An icy chill, like someone dragging shards of ice rubbed against his face. He opened his eyes and felt his mouth go dry. His hand was off by about a foot, and he cursed. He couldn’t help it, it just slipped out. Thankfully, Mr. Falluca didn’t call him out on it, only instead moving around the chemistry set. “I’m sorry, I’m fine…” Danny said quickly. After Mr. Falluca stopped, Danny continued, “it’s just…” He shook his hand, trying to remember which one of the two was real. “I had that accident a couple months ago? I still don’t feel right sometimes. It’s like my hand is further away, or closer than it should be.”

Mr. Falluca’s eyes widened. “Oh! Daniel, you should have said something earlier. I’m sorry! Is it a medical thing?” Danny nodded and Mr. Falluca ran his hand down his face. “Oh, no, okay, that changes everything. How about this, instead of you handling the glassware, I’ll do it? That way we can still do the experiments, and you won’t be at risk of dropping things?”

Danny straightened. “Oh! That'd be great! Thank you so much!” he said practically jumping. He put a hand on his chest and breathed. “I’ve been so worried about it, I can’t be an astronaut if I can’t do science…” Danny let out another sigh, and his shoulders relaxed. “It’s worse when I’m worried… it’s like I can’t focus on my body.”

Mr. Falluca waved his hands in a calming motion. “Hey, now, it’s okay. Now that I know what the problem is, we can now implement the solution. Step one, we get this experiment taken care of!” Before they could implement step one, there was a loud crash.

It didn’t sound like books falling, or one of the shelves falling off the wall. What crashed into the ground sounded heavy, and solid. It was somewhat like what Danny thought a landslide would sound like. Mr. Falluca frowned and turned toward the door. “One moment… I’m going to go check on that.”

Danny waited a second, before he gasped. A cold chill passed through his body, like a pit of ice had just struck him in his chest, burying itself in his lungs. As that chill slowly left his body, his eyes widened at the rising mist coming from his throat.

Danny looked up at Mr. Falluca, and before he knew it he had started following him. Mr. Falluca turned, but before he could tell Danny to go back to the classroom. Danny interjected. “I got a bad feeling…”

Mr. Falluca frowned and opened his mouth to tell him something, but then there was another crashing sound. The two of them turned and walked over to the railing that looked down into the cafeteria/auditorium that was in the center of the school building.

There was something down there, though neither Mr. Falluca or Danny would have been able to tell you what it was. Now that they were closer, they could hear it, and they could see it blocking out the lights in the hallway between the cafeteria and the lunch room. A limb, made out of some reddish material, marbled with something yellowed and shiny, struck at a cinder block. The block skittered across the entire floor of the cafeteria, impacting against chairs and sending them flying off.

Then it shuffled into the room. It was somewhat humanoid, though it appeared to be lacking a neck. Two arms like limbs attached to a bulbous belly, a squat head, looking like someone had taken a sphere and attempted to smash it flat. Hundreds of protrusions stuck out from its flesh pointing outward like spikes.

In the light of the cafeteria it looked like a creature made out of ground up meat, grease, congealing fat, and bones.

Mr. Falluca was the one to recover first. “What the-?” he began.

The thing shifted, turning its full attention toward Danny and Mr. Falluca, and now the two of them could see its eyes. Two black as pitch sclera with glowing pupils glared up at them before narrowing.

And a mouth that stretched from just under its eyes all the way to the bottom of its belly.

The mouth opened wide. It didn’t go up and down like a human’s but instead spread wider side to side. Flashbacks to an injury one of the football players had after running into someone’s cleats overlayed Danny’s eyes. A red viscous liquid dripped out of the mouth, like blood. Then it roared.

Danny knew, without a doubt, that the sounds coming out of the thing were indeed from it. But he wouldn’t have been able to tell you how he knew that. They echoed in his head, despite the fact that Danny was covering his ears. Danny felt like it didn’t just make noise, but was screaming directly into his soul.

They weren’t even the sounds a creature would make; it was a cacophony of children screaming, the crashing of pots and pans, and sirens. They were all blended together in a mess of chaos that made Danny’s heart begin to race.

This time Danny was able to recover first. He got up off the floor, having fallen in pain as the thing had screeched at them. He pulled himself up by the railing and looked down, in time to see the thing rushing toward them. Its feet slapped against the tile, making a wet splatting sound with each step. It crossed the final few feet before it slammed into the wall underneath Danny.

It flattened against the wall, and the smell of rotting and fetid meat assailed Danny. Now that it was closer, Danny had every right to believe his suspicion about the creature being made out of food stuffs was on the mark.

But before he could think much further a limb reached up and dug into the wall above it, and slowly began pulling its massive bulk upwards.

“We need to go,” Danny said. He turned and grabbed Mr. Falluca’s arm, yanking him off the floor. “We need to go, now!”

“Danny, what was-” Mr. Falluca began, before the creature started pulling itself up over the railing. “Right, running now!”

Danny used to make fun of people in the horror movies he watched with Sam. Whenever they ran from a monster, they’d always inevitably run into an obvious dead end, going upstairs or into a basement, and they’d always look behind them while running.

‘You idiots!’ Danny would whisper, taking care to make sure his parents wouldn’t hear them watching these gorefests. ‘Just focus on running!’ he’d tell them, while Sam would giggle and try to keep him from throwing popcorn at the tv.

Danny took it all back, as the creature got closer to them. He could feel the weight of the thing slamming down on the ground with each step. He couldn’t help but look back as he began to feel the thing looming over them.

It gave him a chance to see Mr. Falluca grab a fire extinguisher off the wall and try to swing it at the creature.

The extinguisher seemed to just phase right on through it. The creature didn’t even seem to notice. It snapped out with a massive arm and smashed into Mr. Falluca. The teacher was thrown back several feet. He went flying past Danny before his head cracked against the floor. The sharp sound echoed in the halls, and Danny couldn’t help but wince.

He stopped by his teacher despite himself. He knew he should keep running, but he had to help. Though he didn’t even have enough time to check if he was still breathing before a shadow loomed over them.

Danny’s eyes widened as the monster shifted, moving to backhand him with a limb that might as well have been a boney mace. Danny screamed as the fist came flying at him, and he threw his hands up to cover him.

But instead of a bone crushing blow, Danny felt his face get splattered with uncooked rotting meat and grease. Danny opened his eyes to see the blow stopped a foot away from his hands. A long thin spindly shape was pressed into the meat, making a clear outline.

It wasn’t just Danny that seemed shocked by the development, but the creature did as well. Danny risked a glance over to the creature’s face to see its eyes seemed narrowed in confusion, before glancing back at the stopping force himself.

As his arm shifted so did the imprint.

And Danny realized he could feel the fat and grease dripping down his arm.

Thinking quickly, Danny reached up and used two fingers to jab at the creature’s eyes. The creature screeched again, letting out the familiar caterwauling of sirens going off. Danny then followed up the poke with an actual fist into the creature’s face.

His human fist never made contact with it. It was just out of reach, but he saw the imprint of a fist smash into the monster’s face.

The general mass of meat didn’t turn, but the eyes slid around in the meat before focusing on Danny.

Good news, the thing didn’t seem to care about Mr. Falluca anymore. Bad news, it now had all its focus on Danny.

“I didn’t think this through.”

As far as last words, it was a lot better than ‘I cut myself on that’.

The thing screamed and brought its arm back around to try and crush Danny. He quickly jabbed the thing in the face before throwing a hook into its side. As the thing gasped, letting out a vile stench, Danny took off and started running the other direction. He only hesitated a second to make sure it would chase him.

He didn’t need to wait long. In fact he had to take a moment to try and kick it away as it barreled down on him.

Danny was able to make it to the stairs and out the emergency exit before the creature caught up with him. He slammed the door against its face, before the door was blown off its hinges. Danny had to duck his head as the door flew over him.

Danny looked back at the monster as it squeezed itself through the door frame. “Right, still running.” Danny said to himself before booking it.

Being outside didn’t give Danny any new magic powers unfortunately, so it wasn’t long before the thing caught up to him. Danny turned to try and block another blow, when suddenly the creature disappeared in a puff of smoke.

And then the only thing Danny could hear was his own ragged breathing, and the sound of the school’s alarm system.

It disappeared like a ghost.

“Wha…” Danny said looking around, “What the fuck?”

A few hours later found Danny at the hospital. Mr. Falluca had needed a trip to the hospital, and Danny had called an ambulance. Danny hadn’t realized it at the time, but he had been cut on the side of his head, which made it slick with blood. The EMTs had wasted no time in dragging him to the hospital as well.

They needed to shave the side of his head to look at it, and Danny had to give the nurse credit for not freaking the hell out because a large flap of skin was dangling off his skull. If it weren’t for the shock, Danny would have been screaming.

The nurse told him that it wasn’t that bad.

She was either an amazing liar or Danny did not want to know what she considered bad.

By the time they had stitched his head up, his parents burst into the room. “Danny!” his mom shouted as she ran toward him, before stopping and withdrawing and turning toward the nurse.

“He’s alright,” the nurse said, taking off her gloves. “It was just a flesh wound. He’ll make a full recovery in time. Just needed some stitches. I take it you’re Jack and Maddie Fenton?”

“Yes, yes, that’s us…” Maddie said, pressing a hand to her chest and breathing slowly. “Sorry, it’s just we got a call that Danny was in the hospital and needed stitches. I assumed the worst… it… Danny, it was just a chemistry lab! What happened, sweetie?”

The door opened just a little wider and Danny looked up to see Mr. Lancer leaning in. “That’s something I’d like to know as well.”

The nurse stood up and put herself between the Fenton family and Mr. Lancer. “I’m sorry, family only…” She trailed off as Mr. Lancer opened the door and a cop was standing behind him.

“It’s okay,” the cop said, holding up his hands in surrender. He put his hands back down and tucked his thumbs into his belt loops. “We just want to ask some questions about what happened here.”

Maddie and Jack glanced at each other before turning toward Danny. “Danny, are you feeling up to it?”

Danny thought for a moment. “Well… I mean…” he hemmed. He reached up to run his hand through his hair, but the nurse stopped him. He sighed and shook his head. “You guys aren’t going to believe me.”

Mr. Lancer gave what was probably meant to be a charming smile, but really it just came off as kinda lame. “Try us, you might be surprised.”

Danny looked at Mr. Lancer and tried to give him his most unimpressed glare. “A giant meat monster came and attacked me and Mr. Falluca.”

Jack chuckled and rubbed Danny’s shoulder. “Alright, okay, so maybe they wouldn’t believe that…” He trailed off as he turned to look at the cop and the English teacher, who both weren’t laughing. “Uhh… everything okay?”

“We checked the security cameras before coming here. We saw Mr. Fenton here and Mr. Falluca walking out of the chemistry lab, and at the same time the kitchen security cameras started glitching. There was a brief moment when the cafeteria cameras glitched, before all of them started acting up. When they finally all came back, Mr. Falluca was on the ground bleeding, and Danny was outside off the school property.”

Jack straightened up. “Hold on now, are you insinuating my son is a suspect?”

The cop held up his hands again. “Oh, no, I know that all sounds bad but… well, when the cameras came back on? The kitchen looked like it had a car drive through the inside wall of the building.”

Mr. Lancer grimaced and folded his arms. “Parts of the kitchen also look like a bomb went off in it. It’s so damaged, we’re gonna have to cancel school for a while. Those stoves are gas powered. There’s an exposed line.”

The cop sighed and pulled out a pad of paper with a pen. “I can’t believe I’m actually asking this, but… can you describe the meat monster?”

[noteworthyao3]

What is the teacher's point of view on both Messer and the trio? At least the ones we saw in the show, that is. And i know that Clockwork probably wouldn't teach her to fight as a child, but I can't get the image of her using a staff and him teaching her out of my head.

Lemme just… puts on glasses and opens Danny Phantom wiki Principal Ishiyama: She thinks Messer is a sweetheart that was dealt a bad hand in life, given that their only interaction has been Messer being in poverty with no school supplies. She likely checked in with Lancer a few weeks after their enrollment to see how they're doing in class, very pleased with the results. As for the trio, please stop pulling stunts that end up with those three coming to her office. Tucker doesn't get in trouble often enough to be frequent, but between Sam's activism and Danny…just being Danny, she's sick of dealing with them and their parents every other week. Mr. Lancer (English): He considers Messer to be the best student he's had since Jazz, partly because Messer actually pays attention in class, partly because of Messer's maturity and interest in literature. His opinion of Danny, academically speaking, has improved since the study buddy program was put into place. In general, he has high hopes for all of them, and is really tired of dealing out punishments and having to give them detention. It's hard being the bad guy all the time with the kids because he does genuinely care about his students. Ms. Tetslaff (Gym): Messer does average in gym, not much to say. Danny and Tucker's strength and endurance are laughable, and trust me, she makes it known. Sam is an athletic dream, Tetslaff hopes that she plans on joining the track team at some point. Mr. Falluca (Science): Messer makes an effort to pay attention, so that's something at least… Tucker would be a good student if he wasn't so busy fiddling on his PDA all the time, but at least Danny's grades in science are passable. Sam's grades in science are excellent, she's very into the environmental sciences especially. Though, he really doesn't like the look she gets in her eyes when he discusses his plans for the class to have a frog dissection assignment in the future... Bonus! Ms. Spectra (PhD in Wackjobbery): She didn't interact with Sam or Tucker, but Danny and Messer are trauma-Caprisuns to this chick. Slurp slurp! As for Clockwork, he did teach Messer how to use his staff in case of emergencies! However unlikely one may be, Messer is aware of how to use it.

[skarlettskwrl]

Chibi Mr. Falluca

[trinoxtrinox]

A bigger staff is needed

Ectoberhaunt 2022, Chaos side. Prompt: Staff

Summary: The staff of Casper High are having a conversation in the teachers lounge regarding the budget and the lack of personnel, after all it shouldn’t be possible for a single teacher to teach 5 different courses to the same class, however that’s what is happening and everyone is becoming slowly but surely tired and burned.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

28 students per classroom, 5 classrooms per year, 4 years. There are a total of 560 students currently being educated under the roof of Casper High School. One would think that with that amount of students, there would be a proportionate number of teachers as well, however that’s not the reality of the school, and that’s what brings every single teacher to the teacher’s cafeteria; the whole 20 of them.

“Ok everyone-” Principal Ishiyama, the only asian american person in the room, clapped her hands calling everyone's attention to herself “-I called you here in order to talk about the lack of staff our school currently has.”

“You can say that again, I’m a Math teacher, and I know I love biology and chemistry, but I’m certainly not qualified to teach Physics” talked Mr. Falluca, the short and somewhat chubby man with gray balding hair, who then pointed to a taller man next to him, one who only ever wears light blue shirts and black ties with gray pants, “Edward here teaches as much as 4 different classes, and he’s the detention supervisor AND he’s the Vice-Principal.”

“Thanks for that [insert first name], but that’s exactly why we’re here. Ishiyama came up with a pair of ideas to help us solve the problem.” He said, taking a step back further into the crowd to let the woman take a lead in the conversation.

“Indeed, I mainly have 2 ideas that we could work in order to increase the number of teachers in the staff and integrate them correctly, however I’m going to need everyone’s opinion in the matter since I’ll need everyone’s help for them to work.” Lifting her hand, she raised a finger, “The first idea is to put up the Job Offer at the beginning of next year so as to give everyone who we’ll hire more than enough time to familiarize themselves with our curriculum and thus letting them be independent teachers on the go…”

Here she stopped talking, letting everyone ruminate on the idea she just proposed to increase the staff in charge of teaching every student in the school. This would make everyone have one extra year working alone with basically one class each, however it would also allow them to have an immediate decrease in their workload once that year passes.

“...The second option is-” Ishiyama continued the proposals by lifting another finger, “-to let out the job offers at the last month of the school year as normal, and when the next year rolls in, have them become everyone’s assistant, to give them all some experience before letting them out in the wild of the school. What is everyone’s opinion on the matter?”

Chatter immediately began going around the various teachers present, discussing between themselves the advantages and disadvantages that come with each of these ideas.

“If we hire this year that would mean we would have less work with an assistant beside us in the classes, we’d be able to work on the curriculum without having to correct the tests and quizzes.”

“However if we do that then we’d be forced to supervise their work and keep up with whatever questions they have, not to mention that we’d still have many of us having to teach more than one course we aren’t qualified to teach still.”

“The other option forces us all to work for a whole nother year as the same as this one, though with all that time available to hire more people, we’d be able to hire enough teachers that we won’t have to teach more than one course at a time.”

“I personally prefer the first option, I’d like to have real holidays once the time comes for once. It’s been many years since I’ve had enough free time during the holidays to actually relax instead of planning the whole curriculum for the different years.”

“Amen to that, I also would like to have some holidays to vary, though considering the holiday time would be used to hire people, I doubt we’d have much time to relax even then.”

“Tch, then we can have that relaxation for the winter holidays, there’s a whole 3 weeks there we can relax in and have time for ourselves without worrying on how the students are doing and how that affects the future of the curriculum nor having to adjust it for the classes involved.”

“I personally prefer having the teachers be hired for the year after the next one, that would give them all enough time to know the ghost attack drills as well, not to mention that would give them better expectations on the school and crazy amounts of attacks we suffer. We ARE the school with the highest concentration of ghost attacks after all.”

“Yeah, we can’t dismiss that. How will we deal with that by the way? I can’t imagine that they’ll be forced to learn on the fly like we had to 3 years ago.”

“Having an assistant is very tempting, I am very close to a burnout and I’d like to lighten my load a little at the very least.”

“I understand how you're feeling dear, I’d also like to share my personal load with someone else, this is causing so many wrinkles on my skin that I’ll look like a grandma before I reach 60 at this rate.”

“Don’t fret over that honey, you look perfectly fine as you are. Though I’d like an assistant as well, I can’t deny how tempting that sounds like.”

“I can see the appeal of assistants, however that wouldn’t decrease our workload by much, it would only exchange the workloads from one to another.”

“Perfectly understandable, and I actually side with you on that, not to mention that I’m not the most sociable person, I’m only like this because I know everyone here well enough.”

“I personally want to go back to being a gym teacher, you have NO IDEA how much some of the students need some extra help but can’t get any because I have no free time to help them.”

“Would we even manage to get enough people to work as assistants for everyone here or would some of us be left with no assistants throughout the next year?”

“That’s actually a great point, maybe those people can be exchanged between the different years as long as they remain with the same classes, thus we’d be able to share some assistants. That would give us room to breathe, but also complicate things for them.”

“It seems like we’d be choosing the assistants options then, only 6 of us seem to want to hire them starting the next year. Any objections?”

“From the looks of it not, or at least not any that bring big problems to the table.”

“Sorry about this Matthew, it seems like you won’t be comfortable for the first half of next year.” A woman with a big nose, light brown hair and pearls put her hand on the shoulder of a frowning man with a big mustache, cowboy boots and suspenders.

“It seems like we’ve reached a consensus on how the increase of staff will work for the next year. Now all that’s left to do is to put up the job offers and see how many people will want to be hired by us.” Commented Edward Lancer as he walked to the front, standing beside Principal Ishiyama “Won’t everyone be discouraged to work here with the constant ghost attacks?” he whispered.

“Don’t worry Edward, we do have a hefty safety fee brought by any ghost attacks thanks to the help of our dear mayor.” She assuaged him, after which she clapped her hands once again, “Now that we have decided, we’ll put up the job offers during the following weeks, I’ll have Edward here help me setting up everything so that the pay is proportional to the work expected of them, and once everything is set and done and we have an idea of how many teachers we’ll hire, we’ll also hire more members to help the rest of the staff such as the lunch ladies and janitors. With more teachers on board their workload is bound to increase as well.”

“That’s all for today, we can go back to eating some of the food here now and continue whatever conversations we were having before now. Let’s dig in.” And with that, Lancer let everyone disperse through the room, himself going to the table set up beforehand and grabbing a plate with some meat on it, getting set up for a fulfilling meal.

[talzane]

Ever had a family member suddenly decide that they're vegan/vegetarian/whatever, and then another family member is overcome with the sudden urge to tell everybody at every restaurant y'all go to because, "well what if they need to know?" It's all supportive but also...judgmental or creepy. I honestly think it is a way to feel in control of the situation.

That seems like Jack and Maddie Fenton about Danny being a ghost.

Danny told his parents he was a ghost, and after far too many questions, a lab analysis--whether he agreed to it or not--and several weeks of grieving, during which Danny was grounded for, "going into the lab when we told you not to," his parents had been so supportive!

"Of course Principal Ishiyama needs to know, sweetie, somebody has to excuse all your tardies when you're fighting ghosts!"

"Mr. Lancer and Falluca, too, Mads. They've been worried about our Danny!"

"I'll have you know my son is the greatest ghost hunter in the whole wide world! Right, Danny-boy?"

"Nobody understands ghosts like us, *we* know about hybrids, Vladdie, and that's why you should officially hire us as Amity Park's ghost hunting task force!"

"Don't talk about D-E-A-T-H around him, he's D-E-A-D, remember, Jack? We have to be sensitive, that's what Jazz said."

"Back away from my son, you ectoplasmic manifestation of post-human consciousness! Not you, Sweetie!"

"Don't you touch one hair on my half dead son's head, Wisconsin Ghost!"

"Danny, I'm glad to see you alive again! You're spending too much time as a ghost, we hardly ever see you!"

"Danny, maybe you should spend more time as a human with your friends, you know your dad and I can take care of those pesky ghosts."

"Danny, you should really only be human in the lab. We've talked about this! It could be dangerous."

"Young man, when we said you were grounded, we meant no floating above the couch, either! Don't you turn your ears intangible to avoid listening to me either!"

"Look at this, Danny! We just finished installing a ghost monitoring system in the house so Maddie and I can know whenever you're home! Isn't it great?"

"Danny, you need to stop eating so much junk food! How are you going to stay in fighting shape if this is all you eat?"

"I know you're a ghost, Danny, but you need to stop eating all of our ectoplasm samples. Those are for research, why don't you eat *your* ectoplasm?"

"Make sure you don't put blood blossoms in his food, he can't eat those!" (Thanks for telling everyone.)

"How dare you prank my poor, baby boy with a shock pen! He was electrocuted!"

"We're not interested in hypnotherapy, Danny was mind controlled once and we don't want to bring that back up."

*Sigh*, "We'll take the stairs, I guess, Danny has a fear of cramped, metal spaces. One accident with the portal and now he's afraid of everything."

"You don't need Frostbite, sweetie, we can treat you downstairs, in the lab! You are a ghost after all, and they are our specialty!"

Of course they're being supportive, everything they've said has been, "positive," and, "encouraging," towards Danny; no way in the Zone is it at all making him feel discriminated against.

[max-the-hecker]

Idea where Vlad fully dies, stays a teen and kinda haunts the fenton residence

He haunts them for years but there's not enough ectoplasm for other people to see him

and when Danny comes into contact with the portal (whether he half dies or just gets really affected by the portal) he can see Vlad

And basically it becomes a Dude that's my ghost au BWJDDBDIB cuz I imagine before Vlad was a rich asshole he was just like every other dude

Him forcing Danny to turn on Packers games WBEIDJ

Danny's excuse is like "...it helps me study?"

Like

Sam: So you're saying that the ghost of your parents dead college friend won't stop following you around?

Danny: Something about the way you said that makes me think you don't believe me.

Tucker: Danny, with all due respect, why would a ghost want to follow you of all people?

Danny: I dunno, maybe cuz I'm the only one that can see him???

Vlad, swatting through Tucker's head, making him sneeze: Danny! Look what I learned how to do!

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

*Danny, listening to Vlad rant on about how easy this math test is and how he could easily do it in half the time Mr. Falluca gave them*

Danny, whisper yelling: If it's so easy, why don't you solve these problems!

Vlad: Maybe I will!

Danny, now realizing he can cheat on his math tests this way: Wait fr?

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

*Jazz sorting through old things in the house, finding the original portal that Vlad's spirit is attached to and picking it up*

*Vlad, shoving his hands through Danny's face to annoy him*

Jazz:

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

Jazz taking a piece of the portal so she can move Danny away from the ghost, unaware that he can see him

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

Idk yeah I thought it was funny BAEHEBDUDBD

[wastefulreverie]

penciled lines

Vlad dies. He isn't gone written for day 26 of ectober month 2021: autopsy / pumpkin more parts of this series: 2 | 3 | 4 | 5  (links fixed)

"Daniel. Daniel, listen to me."

Plasmius floated behind him, reaching out to grab Danny's shoulder. Danny kept walking, accelerating his pace so that he was just out of Vlad's reach.

He had to get to class. Vlad's nonsense could wait until after he failed his physics exam.

"You can't let them do this to me! You of all people should understand what will happen."

Danny scoffed, not bothering to look behind him. "Maybe you should've thought of that before you got yourself killed. I mean, really. One of your little projects was bound to blow up in your face sooner or later. Don't expect me to feel sorry for you." Especially since said project had been human experimentation, vivisection. It hurt enough that the subjects had been Danny's clones, but all things considered, at least Vlad had paid the price.

Jazz didn't quite see it that way, and it was hell to see his parents so devastated over their dear friend's untimely death. But Valerie knew. She'd been the one to tell him the details of what happened, of how she'd found Vlad elbows-deep in a boy that resembled Danny Fenton. Of how she'd panicked and shot an ectoblast that just grazed Vlad's shoulder, which hit one of the cloning tanks and detonated a chain explosion. How the poor clone on the table had reacted with a final ghostly wail, decimating everything in a ten-foot radius and slamming an unsuspecting Vlad against the ceiling. Which then caved in.

Valerie's suit was the only thing that saved her from being buried alive in the lab.

Vlad, on the other hand, was dead even before the mansion collapsed.

"This isn't about your fondness for me, Daniel! If they do this, we're all in danger!"

"I don't know, sounds like a you-problem."

Danny ducked into his classroom, slamming the door in Plasmius's face. Of course, the bastard phased right through and followed him to his desk.

Ugh, what would it take to get him to leave?

He'd already tried the thermos, but Plasmius knew too well how to evade it. He wouldn't budge without a fight first, a fight that Danny didn't have the time for.

This exam was one-third of his grade, after all.

"Daniel," Plasmius hissed again. "Daniel, we don't have time for this."

Mr. Falluca was beginning to hand out the exams. Besides the soft rustling of paper and scratching of graphite, the room was silent. Dammit. Was Vlad going to torment him during the entire exam?

"You have to fly to the morgue, now. The autopsy is this afternoon. They're going to scan my body for ecto-contamination and it'll all be over. They'll know about half-ghosts."

… what.

Why should Vlad care about half-ghosts? It wasn't like he was one anymore. Hell, he'd died experimenting on their kind! If anything, all Vlad cared about was protecting his reputation and estate!

Fuck him.

Once he was out of this room, Vlad was getting the pummeling of his afterlife. He'd see to it.

"Everything alright, Mr. Fenton?" Mr. Falluca asked.

Danny's pencil was broken. He wasn't sure when it had snapped—when he'd snapped it. Mr. Falluca looked concerned though, concerned enough to ask about it.

Danny brushed it off.

"Nerves."

He expected Dash, who was only a couple seats away, to laugh as always. Instead, Dash rolled his eyes and kept to himself. There'd been talk around school about Vlad's death and it wasn't a secret he was a Fenton family friend. Huh. Guess Dash did have a heart, albeit a small one.

"You've got this, Mr. Fenton," Mr. Falluca assured.

Maybe if there wasn't a self-centered ghost leaning over his shoulder. He felt like that added a lot of unnecessary pressure.

"You're wasting your time!" Plasmius snapped. "There will be other exams, Daniel."

The first question was simple. On a stationary object, there are two forces. Draw these forces.

"Once they know about half-ghosts, they know! That can't be taken back!"

Free body diagrams are child's play.

"Why aren't you listening to me?"

He drew a box on a line, two arrows jutting out of the top and bottom of the box.

Just… keep working.

"I shouldn't have to explain the severity of this!"

Normal force and gravitational force. Mr. Falluca would count off points if they weren't labeled right.

Plasmius flew forward, his torso now in Danny's desk. He couldn't see his paper now.

"This is in your best interest, Daniel!"

Goddammit. His best interest?

Forgetting himself, Danny grabbed a fistful of Plamius's cape and pulled him to the side. "And since when did you care about me!"

The scratching of pencils stopped.

Chairs creaked as people turned back to stare at Danny. Who was clutching onto nothing but dead air.

Fuck Vlad.

He would kill Vlad twice, no, thrice?

Again. He'd kill Vlad again.

Mr. Falluca groaned. "What now, Mr. Fenton?"

Danny released Plasmius and cleared his throat. "Uh, I'm good. Just… was confused?"

"Solid excuse," Plasmius informed him.

"... shut up," he muttered.

Mr. Falluca raised a brow. "Excuse me?"

"Nothing! Nothing, I swear. I'll be quiet now."

No one looked convinced. Danny felt his cheeks rush with cold, and not-so-subtly covered them with both hands. The rush of cold meant ectoplasm, ectoplasm meant green blush. That wasn't right. He couldn't let them see.

"You're a mess," Plasmius retorted. "If you let them find out that I was a half-ghost, it will only be a matter of time before they connect the dots. Once they know it's possible, both of your identities will be on the line. Only a matter of time until they try to replicate what happened to us. You have to stop the autopsy."

He didn't want to admit that Vlad sort of had a point.

People finding out that Vlad was a half-ghost wouldn't bode well for Danny at all. Chances were his parents would be among some of the first few consulted about it… and if the GIW got wind of it then who knows what twisted experiments they'd dream up.

But why did it need to be him? If Vlad felt so strongly about it, he could do it himself.

He could sabotage his own damn autopsy.

Danny turned over his exam packet to the back. There was a blank page.

do it yourself? he wrote.

Plasmius scoffed. "If I could, I would! Your mother and father caught me last time I was in the morgue and set up a ghost shield."

… of course they did.

and you want me to go thru? then what?

"Well, my entire body is imbued with ectoplasm. It's not like there's a way to undo that. Ideally, just steal my body and phase it deep into the ground somewhere."

Oh, Mom and Dad would be pissed about that. They'd taken on the funeral preparations. If they found out that Phantom stole their best friend's body…

Well, actually, them thinking that Phantom was a body snatcher was better than them finding out about half-ghosts.

He'd take it.

after the exam. just this one class.

Plasmius groaned. "We don't have much time, Daniel."

buy some time. haunt the doctor until I'm done. I'll be there.

Before Plasmius could protest, Danny flipped his exam back over and resumed with question two.

"If you don't show up, I will make your life miserable," he threatened.

Danny rolled his eyes. Like he wasn't doing that now.

Plasmius, with one last flourish of his cape, flew through Danny and out through the nearest wall. That bastard—!

At least he was gone. That's all that mattered.

Now, he was able to focus on his exam.

"I AM THE BOX GHOST, MASTER OF ALL THING CUBICAL AND—!"

Danny slammed his pencil down on his desk once again. "For fuck's sake!"

[five-rivers]

Cozy/Slasher 3

It took more arguing than it should have, but they finally put together something of a timeline.  At least, a timeline of when everyone had gotten to the party and what they said they had been doing.  Not, unfortunately, of what had happened.  

But since none of them were mind readers… 

Okay, actually, Danny needed to ask Ghost Writer - Andrew - if that was part of his powerset.  It certainly wasn’t part of Danny’s.  As occasionally useful (and creepy) as overshadowing was, knowing what the person he was overshadowing was thinking was beyond him.  

As far as Danny knew, none of them were mind readers.  So, they had to work with what they were given.  And what they were given was a headache and a half.  

Mr. Lancer had been there alone for most of the morning.  

(If any of them knew how to tell how long a body had been dead (or if they had internet access) that might have been an important data point.)

He’d asked Technus (Nicholas Tea, aka ghosts were horrible at aliases apparently, and, no, Danny wasn’t considering himself an exception) to come early to help him set up the game system and some other electronics that weren’t working quite right.  Danny made a note to go over everything Technus had worked on.  Not because he thought Technus had killed anyone, but because he didn’t trust the ghost not to have added something ectoplasmic that would animate all the wires in the house.  

After that, Irving Burns (Nasty Burger guy), was the first to arrive.  He’d come with desserts from the Nasty Burger and spent the time Technus was fixing things talking to Mr. Lancer about…  

“My drag hobby,” said Mr. Lancer.  He sounded nervous.  

“Like, drag racing?” asked Kwan.  

“No,” said Mr. Lancer, “as in, performance.”

Irving was staring at him with something like shock and…  From Mr. Falluca, was that disgust?  Whatever was on Lance Thunder’s face was just weird.  Like he couldn’t decide how to feel.  

Everyone else, well…

Yeah.  Danny was surprised, too.  But, in the long run, what Mr. Lancer did in his spare time wasn’t all that important.  

Ghost Writer had come in next, and had gotten into a ‘debate’ with Mr. Lancer and Technus about video game novelizations, novels made into video games, and video games with novels in them.  Danny was surprised the house was still standing after that.  Ghost Writer and Technus must really like Mr. Lancer.  

…  Was it possible that they had killed Mr. Lancer so they had a new ghost buddy?  Danny didn’t feel like that was super likely, but he decided to keep the thought in mind, anyway.  

During that time, Irving had just sort of… hung out, but since everyone else in the house had been otherwise involved, Danny didn’t see what he could have gotten up to.  

Then, Mrs. Ishiyama and Kwan had arrived, followed seconds later by Tetslaff.  They’d gone to put food items and presents in the kitchen.  

The Fallucas came next, and while Mikey and Kwan had disappeared into the game room together (weird), no one was entirely sure what Mr. Falluca was doing.  Hanging around the edges of the three way video game book debate.  

Combine that with his statement that he and Mikey had been on the first floor the whole time…

Yeah, that was suspicious.  

Then again, Tetslaff and Mrs. Ishiyama were also suspicious, because they had stayed in the kitchen.  Neither of them gave off the impression of being particularly enamored of kitchens.  

Irving had gone to talk to them at some point, but he hadn’t stayed long.  Suspicious again!

“What else were you doing?” asked the Beholder, raising an eyebrow.  “There’s not a lot to do in this house.”

“I’ll have you know,” said Irving, “that I was listening to their discussion.”  He nodded in the direction of Lancer, Technus, and Ghost Writer.  

Mr. Falluca sniffed.  “I highly doubt that, with your grades.  You might as well tell everyone what you were really doing.”

“Oh, come on, you kept pointing fingers at me about that all through school!  Will you never give it a break?”

“Yes,” said Mr. Lancer, “I don’t think that this is the place for that at all, James, and Irving has done quite well for himself these past few years.”

Mikey leaned around his father’s (admittedly small) figure and mouthed ‘sorry’ at Irving.  

The Beholder and the Thunder family had come after the Fallucas, but no one could remember the order.  

Star had immediately gone upstairs, and her father had followed her, although he’d come back down shortly after.  He said that he’d then had several one-on-one conversations on the ground floor.  

The Beholder had…  Beheld, Danny guessed.  Anyway, he’d camped out in the center of the living room and read poetry.  Loudly.  The whole time.  He’d gotten into a not-quite fight with Ghost Writer about it.  A rhyming fight.  

Danny was equal parts glad and sorry he’d missed it.  It sounded dreadful.  

Nothing really screamed ‘this guy had the opportunity to dismember an adult (probably) human with various power tools.’  The only people who were, by that accounting, alone together for a long time (other than ghosts who Danny was tentatively ruling out) were Tetslaff and Ishiyama, and Mikey and Kwan.  

Neither of those possibilities were ones he wanted to think about.  

On the other hand, everyone was very obviously thinking about them.  Especially Mr. Falluca, who was openly glaring at Kwan, Tetslaff, and Ishiyama.  Mostly at Kwan, however.  

“I’m not dead,” said Mikey. 

“We weren’t–” started Mr. Lancer.  

“You were.  But Kwan and I are friends.  I help him with his homework all the time!”

Wow, Mikey was really giving the homework slave thing a positive spin, there.  On the other hand, yeah.  Danny couldn’t see Kwan killing anyone, except maybe by accident.  

Mr. Lancer put his head in his hands as everyone started arguing with each other, with lots of finger pointing.  

“How do we know those three didn’t have something to do with it?” asked the Beholder.  Danny looked up just in time to see a finger jabbed first at him, then Sam, then Tucker.  

“Because we were here for, like, a minute before Danny found the body?” suggested Tucker.  “That’s a bit fast for a murder.”

“But he knew there was a body there.  You can’t just know when there’s a body.  At minimum, someone had to tell him.”

“Uncle Bobby,” said Star, “trust me when I say Fenton is just weird like that.  He finds so many bodies.”

“Excuse me?” said the Beholder.  “Bodies, as in, plural?  Am I the only one hearing this?”

“Putting all that aside,” said Mr. Lancer, removing his face from where it had been buried in his hands for the past several minutes.  

No one liked that.  

“PUTTING ALL THAT ASIDE,” he repeated, much louder, “I think we need to challenge some of our assumptions.  Collect clues.  Investigate.”

“Did you learn that in one of your novels?” grumbled Thunder.  

“Considering that you are in a novel,” said Ghost Writer, “there are worse places to look for inspiration.”

Mrs. Ishiyama sighed.  “What do you want to look at first, William?”

“Feasibility.  We’re all convinced that the power tools were the murder weapon, or at least what the killer used to…”  He trailed off, looking green.  “Well.  I did pay for good soundproofing, and I know you kids were playing the game, but is that enough to drown out power tools?”

“Great,” said Irving, pushing himself up out of the armchair.  “We can check these guys’ game scores or whatever at the same time.”

They went to the stairs, Danny, Sam, and Tucker hanging in the back as everyone else filed up the stairs.  

“Shouldn’t we be in the front?”

“We haven’t magically become detectives just because we’re in this situation,” said Danny.  

“Still, you are the most experienced with dead things.”

“Forget that,” said Sam, leaning close, “don’t you think this is all a bit strange?  This house, I mean.”

“Yeah, that it’s still under construction is weird,” said Tucker.  

Danny scrunched his nose.  “Is it?”

“Danny, your parents are outliers in everything.”

“Actually, how is Lancer affording this place?” mused Tucker.  “I didn’t think teachers made all that much.”

“We don’t,” said Mrs. Tetslaff, who had better ears than Danny had thought.  “He got some kind of inheritance thing.”

“Really?” asked Danny.  “Like, a big inheritance?”

“I don’t know,” said Tetslaff, shrugging aggressively.  “Before you get any ideas, it didn’t sound like something a guy would kill over.”  She turned to climb the stairs.

People killed over so very many stupid things, so Danny rather doubted that.  

“Oh, wow,” said Tucker, when they finally got into the gaming room.  “This is a sweet setup.”

“Yes, well,” said Mr. Lancer, “the idea was to have an enjoyable space for myself and my guests.”  He walked over to where a controller was sitting abandoned on the ground and clicked a button, which in turn woke the screen.  

Golden words spelled Apple of Eris on a red and black background.  

“Oh, man,” said Tucker.  “I’ve been wanting to try that game.”

“Mhm,” said Mr. Lancer, “I haven’t had a chance to play it yet myself.”

“Why?” asked Tucker.  “I’d’ve played it as soon as I got it!”

“Perhaps that explains the state of your recent essay.  You really have to stop spilling food on them.  It makes them very difficult to grade.”  

Mr. Lancer navigated to the ‘load game’ screen, and, sure enough, there were a variety of save files for two and three person games, all staggered across the last two hours.  They weren’t all even time jumps.  There were a couple big skips after Star joined in.  But, again, Danny couldn’t really imagine his classmates being murderers.  Victims, maybe, but not murderers.  

“There we are.  Now, let’s check the sound.”

“Actually,” said Danny, interrupting and turning to look at Technus.  “Can you show us the part you had to fix?”

Technus tapped his fingers together, somewhere between nervous and annoyed.  “I don’t know why you–”

“Just to see it.  I don’t think it was you, but it’s still good to be able to see what you were doing.”  Plus, he wanted Technus and Ghost Writer to be ruled out in other people’s minds, too.  

Technus, grudgingly, popped the side off the console and pointed.  

“Huh,” said Tucker, slipping around Danny, “I’m not super familiar with this type of console…  But is that standard?  What did it connect to, do you know?”

Technus shrugged.  “That’s part of what created the problem: A small short!  One I repaired rapidly!”

At least everyone here had been telling the truth.  

“Now,” said Lancer, “we will need some people here, to play the game, some on the first floor, to listen, and someone upstairs to run the power tools.”

Silence.  

Kwan raised his hand, hesitantly.  

“Yes, Kwan?”

“Uh, Mr. Lancer,” said Kwan, “I haven’t read many mysteries, but isn’t splitting up usually a bad thing?”

A question like that could only be followed by one thing: an argument.