#Now I'm tuckered out from the art piece. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

yallmakemyassitch · 7 months ago

Text

Scratch Task

Summary: Tabi had gotten sick of Agoti slick and slimy ways of sneakily tickling him, so it was about time he retained some comeuppance and taught the poor boy a lesson~! ^⁠_⁠^

Word count: 5133

Character count: 29277

Tobi talks: Well hello again to all you lovely fellas, I'm here with something special for you lot! As you know, I'm on hiatus due to school and personal life stuff and that won't change for the foreseeable future. I had this cute idea to redraw one of Sensey's art pieces as I think the position they're in and how Tabi is pinning Agoti is downright hilarious and downright devious! But I wouldn't be doing it any justice without writing something about it, after all, you just gotta appreciate her creativity (⁠●⁠♡⁠∀⁠♡⁠)

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55564837

Enjoy the story, gooday you lovely people and have a great day y’all! 🩷(⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠♡

✿

“T-Tabi! C-c’mon man, I’m serious!” Agoti shrieked, his feet propelling him as fast as they could away from his pursuing friend, who was quickly gaining on him. Tabi lunged at him again, but the digidevil managed to dodge just in the nick of time. He stumbled and fell hard onto the ground, giving his friend an extra jumpstart in the chase.

“Agoti! Get back here!” The goat-man yelled after him, quickly getting up and running after him, a fresh dose of adrenaline pumping in his veins. The digidevil’s heart raced and his thundering footsteps quickened.

Fear was an understatement to what he was feeling, with his teeth gritted and eyebrows knitted into a panicked visage, one would think he had encountered death himself.

He might as well have anyway. Agoti had pushed Tabi too far and as a consequence, turned the Russian man into an unstoppable force of nature. No matter how much or how far he ran, Tabi was always right around the corner.

In this moment of reflection, the digidevil realized he couldn’t hear Tabi’s footsteps anymore and slowed down before eventually stopping. His labored lungs were on fire and burned with every breath he tried to reclaim.

Agoti grasped his knees and hunched over, feeling his forehead drip with sweat onto the pavement. Agoti swallowed a spitball. “Oh god…” He gasped. How long had he been running? 10, maybe 15 minutes of just sprinting? He signed and stood up straight, stretching his back and his arms.

He didn’t feel safe in the area they were in, Tabi was known to be an excellent ambusher, so it would be best if he moved somewhere he couldn’t find him.

Just as he was going to head off, he heard a strange sound. The digidevil turned back around, now even more nervous, and just as he was about to whip around to run away, he heard Tabi’s dreaded voice coming from right behind him.

“Found you,” Tabi whispered in his ear.

Then his world flipped upside down, feeling a swift and strong force sweep his ankles from underneath him. Agoti couldn’t even comprehend what had happened until he landed hard on his chest. Panic soon set in when he felt someone heavy sit on his back and grab his wrist.

“Tabi! Please no!” The demon shrieked with terror, realizing the extent of his situation. “Too late for excuses, Agoti.” The Russian man hummed calmly above him.

Agoti was fast and agile, but Tabi was stronger and heavier than him, so pinning the digidevil was an easy feat. Tabi twisted his dominant arm behind his back and pinned it on the center of his back with the firm grip of his hand and pushed all his weight into the grip.

As expected, Agoti began to thrash and squirm, attempting to forcefully dismount the man off his back. A horrifying revelation came when he realized Tabi was sitting rather close to his rear, which made the prospect of slithering his tail out to defend himself impossible.

The Russian man watched as the digidevil fruitlessly kicked his legs and waved around his other arm, hell, his kicks would land on his back sometimes, but Tabi was stocky enough to handle it.

The digidevil tuckered out, realizing that his method of escape wasn’t working, and relaxed his muscles.

“Are you done?” The invisible man asked with an arch of his eyebrow.

“Y-yeah…” Agoti grumbled begrudgingly.

“Good, now then…” Tabi, with his free hand, pinched his friend’s right side. “Let's talk.”

The demon flinched and quietly squeaked. Oh god. Oh god no.

Tabi couldn’t see his face at his angle but could tell the digidevil was very nervous. He couldn’t help but grin and chuckle to himself. “Oh Agoti, Agoti…” He shook his head.

Agoti tensed when he felt his bony finger slowly trace up and down his side. “I have to ask you something,” Tabi exclaimed, his voice now much more casual and amused than before.

“Y-yeah?” God damn, he almost giggled a bit.

Tabi leaned over to where his bony snout would be right next to his ear. “Are you ticklish?” This time, his tone was dripping with mischief. His index finger began to quickly wiggle into his side, traveling up and down the sensitive area.

Tabi watched Agoti’s reaction carefully, his lower jaw appearing to complete his already menacing expression.

“N-noho…” Agoti hissed through clenched teeth, contradicted by a wild, silly smile beginning to spread across his lips.

The Russian huffed. “Well that’s good, otherwise what I’m about to do would really suck.”

“Huh- wait, ta-TAHahaHAhABI!” Agoti squealed. He resumed his squirming, his side’s nerves stimulated and sending all kinds of ticklish shocks up his torso. The hand that was previously tweaking his side was energetically digging into the tender flesh.

“Hmph. Liar.” Tabi quietly huffed, beginning to knead into the flesh with his fingertips, causing Agoti to attempt to twist his free arm around to grab his wrist, but the awkward angle he was pinned at made it difficult.

Tabi easily brushed him off and continued with the torture. “PLEHEHEASE, I- I caHAHAN’T!”

“Oh, yes you can. We haven’t even made it to your worst spot yet.” The entire sentence he just uttered not only sent chills down his spine but he managed to switch his tone from casual and dismissive to downright despicable.

The digidevil screamed when he felt Tabi’s hand begin to jump around his torso. The goat-man knew the digidevil was ticklish as hell, so putting him in stitches wasn’t difficult. Agoti thrashed from left to right, feeling his hand grab his hip, digging his four fingers into the front while the thumb made devious circles in the back, leaving him cackling like a madman.

This only increased when the Russian’s fingers burrowed into the sweet spot between his side and tummy, which got a hearty wheeze out of Agoti.

“Heh.” He heard Tabi chuckle, his golden eyes sparkling with amusement. He quickly crawled up his side and drilled his bony fingers into the very crevice of his underarm.

“N-NOHO!” Agoti cried, his arm shooting down to cover the sensitive spot. He foolishly trapped his hand but was glad to feel the hand leave once Tabi realized tickling wasn’t possible with his arm that tight against his side.

“Hm. Suit yourself then, I’ll just have to go to the other one.” Tabi exclaimed, oddly calm.

Tabi then began to pull up Agoti’s pinned arm, keeping it in its bent position, but steadily exposing his other armpit. “DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE!” Agoti yelled, nervous giggles tumbling out of him at record speed. He resisted, pulling down as much he could as a counter to Tabi’s tugging.

He just grinned and in one swift motion, pulled the arm at the desired 45-degree angle. Agoti’s stomach dropped, seems the Russian man was holding out on the poor boy. Man, he really had to hit the weights after this.

The digidevil’s train of thought was interrupted when a single finger began to circle slowly around his pit. Agoti hid his face in the floor again, there was a large, stupid grin on his face that he couldn’t bear to expose to the rest of the world.

“Tickle, tickle, Agoti…” Tabi’s voice cooed lowly above him, making sure to purr out each syllable in the most taunting tone he could muster. This wasn’t difficult, his Russian accent left a lot of room for letters to roll off his tongue with delicious deviousness.

He still couldn’t see his face but could see Agoti was red, the blush even managing to spill onto the side of his head.

“N-noHohoHo Tahahabi, that’s sohOho meheheAn…” The demon whined, his tendrils curling with embarassment.

“Oh trust me, I can get a lot meaner~” The invisible man laughed. Then the tracing began to ascend, keeping its gentle touch until his fingers were dancing along his bicep. Agoti groaned, giggles flowing freely out of him, he knew what Tabi was getting at.

“This familiar, Agoti?” Tabi asked with an amused snort, digging into his bicep with fervor. The demon squealed, and now his giggles were much louder, mixed in with hiccups and snorts, he sounded ridiculous. The sensation was annoying, a touch he couldn’t get away from, and Tabi made sure he felt the same pain Agoti put him through.

That being instead of his underarms, the rapper had trapped his friend underneath him and tormented his knees until he screamed uncle. Tabi looked back on it with a grimace, but with the same man at his mercy, he felt a sense of relief taking out his pent-up frustration on the bastard.

“Fuhuhuck, okay! I’m s-SOohoHhorRy!” He cried, his free arm lightly slamming the floor several times. He never knew his arms were so sensitive but he guessed Tabi learned a thing or two before finally initiating his revenge.

“No excuses~” Tabi purred, lightly digging just right above where his armpit would be. Agoti cried out and knocked his forehead on the floor a few times, the sensations were going to make him go mad. “UHuHaAHAHA!” He kept this up for a while, giving his friend much-needed treatment after all the bullshit he put him through.

Well, it reached the finale and it was about time he’d given him what he was anticipating.

“Oh Agoti, I’m going to get your little armpit~” The Russian cooed, his index finger starting to slowly travel down his elbow, then his bicep, and then the little spot that would make his friend sing to the rooftops. Agoti about screamed when he announced himself and began to struggle again. “Tahahahabi seheheriously, I’m sorry! I- AHA!” Agoti whined again, squawking when he felt fingers tweak his neck.

“I don’t believe you.” The Russian man posed his hand into a claw shape right above his right underarm and kept it there. The digidevil was laughing and squirming wildly, the laughter bubbling out of him like a faucet was akin to a hyena. Tabi snorted, as much as a punishment this was, he had to admit, his digidevil friend had a cute laugh.

He snapped himself out of his trance when he realized Agoti had lied still, in wait for his friend to put him in stitches.

And that he did. Tabi touched down and scribbled furiously into the underarm. His reaction was an understatement when described as “explosive”, the man immediately burst out into raucous cackles and squeals that would be the previously mentioned hyena to shame.

Agoti had ticklish armpits, but the spot wasn’t too bad on its own. His friend’s teasing had turned into a giddy ball of nerves, which may or may not have been purposeful. He was losing it, his chest shaking with unrelenting howls of laughter.

“PLEHEHEASE, STOHOHAHAP! MEHEHERCY!” Agoti’s legs were limp on the ground, slightly twitching in contrast to his seizing torso. Tabi made sure to dig deep and as ferociously as possible into the very center, smug as a bug witnessing his friend cry for mercy.

“And why should I? You didn’t give me any mercy when you were tickling me?” His friend couldn’t answer. This continued for a while, sometimes randomly scribbling up his arm to tease the bicep until Tabi heard a wheezy cough come out of Agoti, that’s when he stopped and removed his hand.

Tabi pinned his arm back down to back and it moreover collapsed, as the digidevil was too tired to fight back at this point. Agoti panted, teary-eyed and blushing hard. The invisible man let Agoti rest his throat, after all, the true finale wouldn’t be complete if his victim wasn’t rejuvenated.

“O-oh gahad…” Agoti panted, the ghost of the tickles still lingered on his body. His shoulders rose and fell with each passing second as he gradually regained his breath.

“How was that?” Tabi asked, playfully punching his friend’s shoulder blade.

“Awful,” The rapper said with a roll of his eyes. “Now, can you get off of me? You got your revenge.” Agoti craned his neck to meet Tabi’s gaze but was confused, then horrified to be met with initial nonchalance to the spread of his grin and the speechless shake of his skull.

“Tabi, you’ve got to be shitting me!” Agoti hissed quickly, his tendrils springing into action in a series of coiling and terrified phalanges. “Nope, sorry, Agoti.” Tabi hissed right back, sarcasm oozing from his tone. Agoti was scared but realized something, he had energy! He could finally fight back.

The digidevil swung his other arm around to hopefully grab the man’s wrist and pull it off of him. He rejoiced when he felt the Russian’s grip come loose, which freed his slightly numb, right hand.

Agoi placed both hands on the floor and was going to flip himself over, taking Tabi with him. He gravely miscalculated his move, his repositioned arms exposed his most sensitive spot; his ribcage.

The goat-man acted quickly and with both hands, grabbed the sides of his ribcage and squeezed. Agoti screamed and collapsed, and Tabi took this as an opportunity to put the demon back in position. The demon moaned sadly on the floor he stuffed his face into.

“Sorry but, I’m not done here,” Tabi said, making sure his arm was firmly stuck in place with no place to move. The digidevil didn’t even say anything, seeming to have accepted his fate. That would make the job easier for Tabi, but that didn’t necessarily mean he was done asking questions. The first question was just a coverup for what he was really wondering.

Tabi gently grasped the right side of Agoti’s ribcage, not even grabbing it, just wrapping his hand around the spot, mimicking the curve of his ribs. Since Agoti’s right arm was out of commission, it was the perfect place to begin the real torture.

“This will be my second and final question, so you better listen up!” The Russian declared angrily.

The digidevil said nothing and the man pining him down took it as a sign he was listening.

Tabi sighed deeply. “Agoti, why do you keep tickling me?” All the irritation in his tone vanished, he sounded solemn and quiet. Agoti craned his neck to look at him and their gazes met instantly, as Tabi was already staring deeply into him. His eyebrows were furrowed and his golden eyes were brimming with patience. He wasn’t mad in the slightest.

Agoti’s face fell, now looking quite solemn himself. “Vell?” Tabi said, leaning a bit closer and sounded amused when his accent slipped a bit but still patiently awaiting his response.

His chest fluttered, he knew the answer to his question. Could he tell him? Could he tell Tabi that he thought he wasn’t tickling him out of mischief but because he thought his laughter was not only really cute but handsome? That being this close to him at the moment made his heart beat a mile a minute?

Tickling was his method of ‘flirting’ with Tabi. It was too embarrassing and too early, knowing him, Tabi wasn’t too interested in love after what he’s been through. Agoti could be a selfish asshole at times, but he wanted to savor his feelings when the timing was right. Tabi had taken his heart by storm the moment he had met him and the Russian man was none the wiser.

Oh who was he kidding, Agoti was just too pussy to admit he had fallen for him.

He conjured up the most bullshit answer his panicking mind could formulate. Agoti sighed and began to speak in his ‘sincerest tone’...

“It’s cuz you’re sad all the time.”

“What?” Tabi said quietly.

“Dude you’re seriously a Debbie downer, you’re constantly frowning and my jokes hardly even get to you. I wanna see you have fun, not just mopey and sad.” Agoti mumbled, avoiding the gaze now staring over his head onto him, casting a shadow. Tabi blinked at him and sighed.

“Agoti, Agoti…” Tabi started.

He stiffened when he felt something pinch his ribs. “You’ve always been a terrible liar.” He huffed, half-amused half-dissapointed.

Then the kneading began, Tabi had his hand shaped into a pincer and was thoroughly pinching and kneading in between each rib bone, along with the bone itself, and descended one rib when he figured that one had enough.

Agoti loudly snorted and bit the hell out of his lower lip, scratching at the floor with his sharp claws. He was doing a lot better than he imagined, despite his mind screaming for the sensations to stop.

Tabi realized what he was doing and coughed out a dry laugh, the mischief still left over from earlier allowed him to make such a sound.

Tabi took his hand and kneaded into the entire side of the ribcage instead, making sure his fingertips were vibrating in between the tender gaps of the bones. The Russian could feel the dam collapse immediately as Agoti breathed in…

And nothing came out. He could feel his chest shaking and saw his hand dig and curl deeply into the ground before a loud shriek could be heard. It was louder than what he heard today. Tabi winced, the sound long, shrill, and painful, before quickly descending into a cacophony of hysteria.

The kicking started back up and Agoti was back to his usual ways of thrashing and squirming. His laughter, now much more girlish, almost made Tabi smile a bit, but he kept his lips pursed and serious. “NoHOHOhOHOAHAH- hic NOTHAHOT THAHAT!”

“That’s strike one, Agoti. Do it again or I’ll go to the other side.” Tabi replied calmly, slowing his pace to gentle jabs all over his right side. Agoti was hysterical, twitching and spasming every time Tabi hit a sweet spot, much to his chagrin.

“FUhUhUCK TAHAahABi! Thihihis ihihis sohohoho BAHAHAD!” He squealed at the end when he felt pinching around his upper ribcage, dancing fingertips poking at the sensitive bone.

“I know, that’s why I asked your dad about it,” Tabi replied casually.

Wait what? “H-HuHuhuh?” Agoti giggled profusely before the former musician stopped tormenting his side.

“Yup, I asked your dad if you were ticklish. He spilled, surprisingly.” His face was knitted into a reminiscing expression, which quickly turned into unapologetic mirth as he laughed for a while, seeing from the corner of Agoti’s face that he had turned white before shifting into a deep crimson.

“D-dad told you?!” Agoti asked, exasperated.

“Yep.” Tabi repeated, popping the ‘p’, “I was expecting him to start interrogating me, to be honest, but I guess he likes me now cuz he was pretty upfront with me. A pretty standup guy if I’m being honest.” He shrugged.

“His ribs are his worst spot, especially the ones on the bottom, they get him the worst.” Solazar hummed, readjusting his glasses.

“Ah, I see,” Tabi said, rubbing his bony chin.

“May I ask what for?” The Solarisapien questioned, eyes gentle but burning with skepticism. An improvement from his initial scowling and shooting glares when he first met the young man.

His shoulders shook as he laughed. “Nothing important, Mr. Solazar,”

Solazar could tell he had no nefarious intentions based on his eyes, which brightened with unmistakable playfulness and mischief. He could tell where this was going, he saw that gaze all too often in his boys in their youth.

“Oh alright,” The former warrior sighed, straightening his back.

The digidevil was mortified beyond belief, his father sold him out?! Agoti had no time to react when he felt his pincers move again to latch onto his bony figure and wiggle in every groove possible, but Tabi made sure to avoid the bottom ones, to save the best for last, of course.

“N-nonono- T-TAHAHBI! AHaaAH NOhaHAHAHA!” He resumed his previous moments, this time, much more flustered at the bombshell that just dropped on him and squirmier than before. Even Tabi was a little disheveled at how much he was squirming.

Surely, it couldn’t feel that bad? Then he thought of that one time Agoti blasted his neck with raspberries and mentally kicked himself.

“Now then, let’s try that again. I’ll know when you’re lying, so don’t even try it.” Tabi slowed down his tickling to simply drumming across his ribs, keeping the demon back on his toes, in between cloud 9 and hysteria.

Agoti was back to senseless laughter, what would have normally been hearty giggles were hiccupy cackles. His already ablaze nerves made it hard to calm down after the vicious ribbing he was going through. Tears were nearly about to fall out of his eyes and his face hurt from smiling so much.

“Again, Agoti, why do you keep tickling me?” His serious tone when he asked initially was gone and was swapped for a more, demanding but playful tone. This time, he was scribbling his fingertips not only across his ribs but all over his side. He momentarily danced them across his back, which got some funny squeaks out of him.

The digidevil buried his face in his arm and unleashed a flurry of uncontrollable mirth, stuck in-between giggling when he felt fingers wiggle against his shoulderblades to cackles when Tabi dug his rough fingers into the divots of his ribs and hips.

The Russian man was much more impatient than before as Tabi quickened his kneading into downright drilling. He made sure it didn’t hurt, but he made damn sure Agoti knew this wasn’t as bad as it was going to get. And he couldn’t handle that.

“Well?!” Tabi yelled angrily, causing the digidevil to flinch when he heard his bark above his hysterical cackling.

“OKaHAhAHAY- AHAHA! I’LL TEHEHLL YOU! I’LL TELL!”

“Vell, go on then, I’m getting impatient.” At least he had the grace to tell him. A few seconds later Agoti managed to regain his bearings, still a bit fatigued but not completely losing it anymore.

“It’s because I- EEK!” Agoti squealed when he felt a pinch on his lower ribs. A warning for what was to come.

“Hm?”

“Because I wanted to mess with you, damn!”

His lip twitched.

“Tabi, you know that I like to mess with my friends. You’re one of them, you see how I treat people close to me, man! It’s just my way of affection and if you didn’t like it, well that’s not my fucking proBLEM-! FUCK! GAHAHAHAHAH!”

“No, you’re lying to me again,” Tabi said calmly, his face as cool and collected as he could be.

“NAHAHOHO I’M NOHOHOHOT!” The digidevil retorted, contorting his body in never before positions as his friend dug into his lower ribcage.

“Yes, you are~” He singsonged, chuckling as his fingertips kneaded into his lower rib bones. Agoti screeched when Tabi began to dig and pinch into the very last bones of his ribcage, methodical in his method to keep his friend in a state of hysterical paralysis.

Agoti went limp under him, but his chest still gyrated with cackles and hiccups. His laughter went silent when Tabi focused on the very bottom rib, teasingly circling his thumb in the tender spot until he stopped.

Agoti squeaked when he felt something touch his left side. As promised, Tabi would get him if he caught him slacking. “AH! WAIT! NOHOHO! FUCK FUCK FUHUHUCK!” That side of his body had been entirely vulnerable for the entirety he had been kept stuck under Tabi. His choosing to exploit it now was a despicable decision.

He acted quickly and shot his arm down to protect it. Tabi hadn’t exited this time, rather, it gave him a much better opportunity to knead into the crevices of his ribs. Tabi wiggled to and fro, feeling Agoti absolutely spaz and lose it as he squirm and thrash uncontrollably, his legs now reignited in a fit of kicks.

“Told you what would happen.”

The former musician began to crawl up over the entirety of his left side, up his ribs, and even managed to graze his underarm a little. He smirked as Agoti squeaked, squirmed, and howled without fail. His ribs were just that ticklish and he was going to take advantage of that fact.

This went on for eternity, at least to the digidevil. Even Aldryx was more merciful than him and he was his brother! Agoti hadn’t even realized Tabi had stopped, he was just about to tap out.

“Last chance.” Tabi hummed, looking over to his friend’s face. He looked fucked up, his face was beyond red, now in a maroonish color, eyes teary and wet from the onslaught of tickling. He panted and panted, barely processing his friend's words.

Tabi stayed silent, quietly waiting for Agoti to speak up. He waited much longer than he had before, allowing the digidevil to regain his breath and recover. But when Agoti finally did, he said nothing, nothing at all. Tabi waited another minute longer and shook his head at the revelation that he wouldn’t be getting an answer.

“Awww, well that’s too bad~” The Russian cooed, beginning to slowly tweak his sides again. “What, did you want to be tickled that bad, Goti?” He chuckled when he heard Agoti groan, he hated being called that.

“S-shuhut uhuhup…” He said, exhaustion clearly in his voice.

“Naahh, you deserve it after wasting my time like this.”

“Go fuck yourself.” Agoti bluntly mumbled.

Tabi just chuckled, releasing his arm from his hold, allowing it to flop uselessly on the floor. He didn’t get off his back however, only readjusting his position to side sideways, no longer straddling him and allowing him to plop his feet on the ground.

The seconds ticked by, the two quietly enjoying one another’s presence. It was like this for a while, with Agoti being oddly complicate with being sat on and the Russian not saying a word, however, the silence was broken when he spoke up.

“So am I ever gonna get an answer?”

Agoti said nothing.

Tabi just sighed and went back to staring off into space.

“It’s cuz I like you.” He heard him mumble.

“Mhm…” His nodded his head and went back- wait, what?! What was melancholy turned into alarm, his eyes widened, and he turned his head to look at Agoti. His entire face was hidden by his tendrils, making it impossible to tell what expression he was making.

“Agoti…” Tabi whispered.

“Hehe yeah, it’s dumb. I get it if you don’t feel the same.” Agoti chuckled dryly, void of any amusement. Hell, he sounded a bit nervous. So much for ‘too early’...

The goatman was quiet and the digidevil expected him to get up before spitting out a blunt rejection. What he didn’t expect was the graze of bone grazing his head before brushing away some of his limp tendrils, allowing him to see the side of his face. His cheeks were bright and lips pulled into a tight frown.

“What, that’s it? You only just liked me?”

“Yeah…”

The former musician's chest shook as those deep, rich chuckles rang out of him. Agoti’s heart did a flip when he heard them but didn’t make it known. Tabi cupped the side of his face and turned it, forcing the digidevil to look at him.

His white scleras widened, his golden eyes were soft, and the fondness that glimmered from them was overwhelmingly tender.

“I like you too, Agoti.” He purred softly, maintaining eye contact with the young man, who by this point had completely melted, he could feel the blood pump to his cheeks as the man above him smirked. Damn, he was hot at this angle.

Tabi dismounted Agoti and sat beside his lying body. The digidevil, now able to sit up, did the same. He avoided eye contact like a bitch, he could tell he was staring right at him.

The silence was loud, with the man of his dreams staring at him like he was a million bucks. It gave him the ego boost, but he didn’t expect it so soon and certainly wasn’t ready.

“You want a kiss, big baby?” Tabi teased.

The question made the digidevil freeze and blush even more. He managed to turn to Tabi, who was much closer than he remembered. Agoti didn’t remember him looking this handsome, especially since his snout was a whisper away from his face.

His breath hitched when the goatman grasped his shoulders and pulled him in. It didn’t take long for their lips to touch, although his snout made it a little awkward, Tabi turned his way at such an angle that Agoti was surprised to feel thin yet firm lips touch his own.

Soon they melted into each other’s arms, with Tabi delicately kissing him and the digidevil being unable to think, his stomach exploding into butterflies.

When Tabi pulled away, Agoti collapsed into his chest. Tabi laughed in surprise but kept the man in his arms, playing with his hair as his other arm wrapped around his back.

His fingertips gently scrubbed through his scalp, sending chills down his spine. His tendrils were also ticklish, but of course, he couldn’t tell him that, otherwise, he’d never live it down.

“Oh, Agoti~” He cooed, taking full advantage of his accent. Hearing his name belted out in such a way made Agoti puddy in his bony palms. His chin was tugged upwards by Tabi’s hand and placed his chin directly in the center of his torso, allowing the two to make direct eye contact.

The Russian admired him for a second longer before pressing a small kiss to his forehead. “So cute~ Can I kiss you again?”

As if he could refuse. Agoti lightly nodded and thus the process repeated, the two gently kissing one another, with Tabi blurting out the occasional praise and compliment, somehow always catching the digidevil offguard. In the midst of their makeup session, Tabi had gotten a little mischievous and squeezed the side of Agoti’s ribcage, which made him shriek.

He chuckled evilly, as Agoti began to squirm, collapsing his back into his torso, only allowing Tabi to wrap his arms around his torso and attack his sides that way. He was hysterical, his cheeks now red with how much he was laughing.

“Aw, look at you~” Tabi cooed, pressing a quick kiss to his boyfriend’s cheek. Boyfriend? Yes, boyfriend! He slowed down the tickles to soft wiggling, leaving the man softly tittering.

“B-bahahahbe c-cmohohohon!”

“Nope, that’s what you get for not being honest with me, Goti’!”

“God I fuhuhucking hahahate yohohou!” The digidevil spat, leaning his head against his boyfriend’s chest, uselessly grasping the wrists currently tickling the sides of his ribcage. Tabi just rolled his eyes, knowing that it was far from the truth, and focused on peppering his neck and cheeks with quick kisses, while tweaking his ribs.

What a day to be alive, I suppose.

✿

Fin~

Thanks for reading btw and being so patient with my inactive ass :333 💀

#fnf tickling #ler tabi #lee agoti #solazar #my art #tabi mod #entity mod #tickle fic #my fic #friday night funkin #still on hiatus but ill never forget yall XD #this took way longer than it should have but then again life happens so i’m happy to show y’all this!#anyways gonna leave again XD see y’all in june #edit for 5/23: yeah i formatted it wrong (forgor the before and after flowers i usually put) so the fic will look slightly different

148 notes · View notes

occasionally-intelligent · 1 year ago

Text

If We Never Met- Part 1

hiya!! this is my first @invisobang piece ever!! it's around 25k words in total, but i plan to post in parts, this part being around 1.2k. i'm so glad i got to work with @this-is-z-art-blog and @thickerthanectoplasm to get the wonderful art that's coming with it (plus quite a bit of beta reading)!

Summary: In the episode "Memory Blank", Danny loses his memory and powers to Desiree, the wishing ghost. What if, instead of forcing Danny to go through the portal again, Sam became the new half-ghost protector of Amity Park? She thinks she's the only one who remembers how it used to be, but as she adjusts to her new reality and discovers her new powers, Sam soon finds she's not alone.

“Do I know you?”

“Oh, very cute. I said I wish we’d never met and now you’re pretending we didn’t meet. You’re hilarious.” Sam rolled her eyes, hand on her hip as she waited for Danny to cut the crap.

“No, seriously, do I know you?” He responded in earnest confusion.

Before Sam could respond, Tucker spritzed something minty into his mouth and practically pushed the other boy away. “And more importantly, would you like to know me?”

He held out his hand for Sam to shake, “Hi, I’m Tucker. Tucker Foley. That’s T.F. as in ‘too fine’.”

“Oh, gross!” Sam’s entire body shuddered as she slapped his hand away, “Are you hitting on me?”

As this was happening, one of Casper High’s various nerds was being cruelly shoved into a locker down the hall. Even if it was a regular occurance, this particular nerd had had enough. “I wish someone would give you a taste of your own medicine!” He screamed.

And as if she could hear the calls of Murphy's law, Desiree materialized from the void to make everything worse, announcing– “So you have wished it, and so it shall be!”

Desiree smiled as she zapped the kid, ignorant enough to make a wish around her, turning him into a ghoulish, green monster. He leapt out of the locker excitedly and (deservedly) beat the snot out of Dash and Kwan.

She smiled, proud to display her power and ready to move on to the next victim. But before Desiree took her leave, something peculiar caught her eye. She began moving cautiously towards the moody girl she knew as the ghost boy’s friend, but quickly changed trajectory and headed in Danny’s direction instead.

Once she was close enough to tower over Danny, she smirked as she said, ”Boo.”

“G-g-GHOST!!” he screamed, throwing his scrawny arms over his head.

Desiree was pleased with herself, and before any of the trio could stand up to her, she flew away, cackling and mumbling to herself.

Sam was less than impressed at Danny’s shenanigans today. “That’s Desiree, the wishing ghost!” Sam grabbed Danny by the shoulders, and avoided the temptation to shake him a little. “Danny, you’ve gotta do something. Why aren’t you going ghost?”

Unfortunately there was zero recognition from her friend. Danny shrugged her off and backed away, “Look, kid. I don’t know who you are or what you’re talking about. All I know is I am out of here!”

---

All Sam could think as she watched Danny run off like a coward was how someone like that could have ever ended up a “fearless superhero”.

Sam was at a complete loss for words. Only two things in her mind were possible; either the boys were playing an asinine prank on her, or they really didn’t remember who she was.

She hoped it was the former, but the fact Tucker flirted with her (weird) pointed, hopefully, to the latter. He’d always flirted with every girl that moved– but was adamant he’d never flirt with Sam. And if he’s gone back on his word, it better be because he doesn’t remember her. No matter how stupid it sounds. Otherwise she’d have to strangle him. Probably.

But that train of thought would have to stay in the back of her mind– she had classes to prepare for, and a locker to visit. Her day, apart from this, should be completely normal.

Or not.

As soon as Sam opened her locker, she was smacked in the face with undeniable evidence that her friends (if she could even call them that anymore) truly didn’t remember her. Her favorite polaroid, one of the three of them on the first day of school, one she had only taken a few months ago didn’t have a single trace of her in it. Only Danny and Tucker standing with an awkward blank space between the two of them, as though she was erased.

This… this isn’t right– There’s gotta be some way to prove I was in the picture– I’m the one who took it!

Sam shook her head and pocketed the photo for later. The halls were emptying and she couldn’t risk being late, or worse– detention.

As she hastily grabbed all the books she needed for the first few periods, Sam’s hand brushed against the spine of something that was definitely not a textbook. Is this where this damn thing had been misplaced for months? She yanked out her old photo album.

Well, it’s not that old, but old enough she gave up on finding it again. Hell, she was close to making a new one the last few weeks, seeing as she hadn’t seen it in months. It isn’t anything special, really. It started out with a few of her birthdays from before middle school Danny or Tucker were occasionally in the background, but once she gets to the pages from middle school onwards, the two become more prominent. The most recent pages were fresh after Danny’s accident and stopped around the time she misplaced the damn thing.

How convenient– this might actually work if she shows it to the bo–

Suddenly, the bell rings shrilly, making her want to cover her ears.

‘Dang– are you kidding me?? My parents will kill me if they find out I’m late again.’

Sam simply sighs, rustling around in her bag and producing a stack of hall passes, quickly forging a signature without a thought.

What? She’s a responsible student. Usually.

---

The fake pass barely works, but Sam manages to slide home to her first period seat unaccosted. Tetslaff has a nigh unreadable signature, even to hawk-eyed Lancer.. She slumps down in her usual spot in the room. It takes her a moment but she notices Tucker and Danny are nowhere to be found.

Didn’t we always have first hour together?

The three are inseparable, both at home and in the classroom– specifically by parental ‘suggestion’.

When the three finally made it to freshman year, Sam offhandedly mentioned her worry of being alone in her classes, very loudly, within her mother’s range of hearing. Not even a week later, her parents made a call to the school to ensure the trio would have all their classes together. all day. Even when they drove each other up the wall.

She smiles fondly as she prepares for Lancer’s blabbing for the hour. She looks at her friend’s empty seats and feels the emptiness in her heart when she realizes there would be no passing notes or sharing whispers.

‘Now is not the time. I need to help Danny get his powers back. Or maybe even convince him to do it on his own. I wonder if the portal has even been opened yet…’

As Lancer drolls on about the book of the week, she finds her mind wandering to earlier that day. Specifically to what Danny said. More specifically, the thing about her being the reason he had ghost powers in the first place.

‘Wait, if I gave him his ghost powers in the first place– that means… all the stress and responsibility,’

Sam frowns at the realization before her train of thought continues. ‘If I did that to him, to my best friend, doesn’t that mean I can do the same for… or to someone else?’

With that heavy train of thought, she starts to make a plan.

---

Stay tuned for part 2!

#invisobang #if we never met #dp #danny phantom #phandom #phanfic #sam manson #memory blank #dp season 2 #au #dp au

169 notes · View notes

fangirlwriting-stories · 3 months ago

Text

Afterlife Lessons

Summary: Sam’s awareness of ghosts extended to exactly two pieces of knowledge: Danny’s parents are ghost hunters, and ghosts are dangerous and she should stay away from them.

Unfortunately, neither of these things becomes something in her favor when she and Tucker are kidnapped by a ghost and turned into ghosts themselves— or half ghosts, apparently, something clarified to them by Amity Park’s resident hero Phantom, who also promises to stick around and help them figure out their new forms and powers.

But while Sam is certainly grateful for the help, now that she’s regularly spending time with their local ghost protector, she’s noticing things about him that seem a little more familiar than they should. And also that Phantom’s strong confident hero persona might be a bit more of a facade than anyone‘s realized.

Author's Note: I did an invisobang this year! It was a ton of fun to write, and (once the art is posted), I'll post the art in each chapter it matches with! I'm gonna be posting all fifteen chapters in rapid succession, so get ready for a lot of posts from this blog! I'm going to make a masterlist in just a minute, and I'll also tag every post with the title.

Art For This Chapter: @torchturtle link

...

Sam’s awareness of ghosts extended to exactly two pieces of knowledge, and both of those things came from Danny. The first, that Danny’s parents hunted them, which he’d told them in embarrassment shortly after they met. The second she’d learned shortly before it had been revealed to everyone that ghosts did, in fact, exist— when Danny had told her ghosts are dangerous, stay away from them.

Sam had admittedly been more than a little surprised when Danny told her this. Like she’d said, he tended to be more embarrassed by his parents’ work than anything else. Granted, he’d never said outright that he didn’t believe in them, and there were a couple of times Sam had seen him taking precautions that she knew his parents had recommended. But she knew he’d just be uncomfortable if she brought it up, so she didn’t.

And then, suddenly, he was very serious in his telling of her that ghosts were dangerous, and she should avoid them at all costs. Sam hadn’t had the first clue where the shift had come from, but he’d timed it pretty well, because it was around that time that Amity Park started getting regular visits from ghosts. Luckily for them, one of those ghosts included Phantom. And while the town in general was split on him and Danny was still just as insistent in telling her and Tucker to stay away from him, Sam saw the things he did. The ghosts he fought. The people he saved. There had never been a doubt in her mind that Phantom was an ally.

She hadn’t ever really expected to count on that fact directly.

But then, she’d also never been directly targeted by a ghost before. She couldn’t think of much else this one in particular could be doing, though. The vampire-looking ghost knew her and Tucker’s names, it singled them out specifically on the way to school, and it had grabbed them and tied them up on seats in the back of a plane, of all things. That was a little difficult to misinterpret.

Tucker was still breathing very quickly across from her in his window seat, and Sam was trying to make sure that he didn’t have a panic attack, while also looking around the plane for anything they could possibly use to help themselves. She didn’t even know ghosts had planes, much less ones this… fancy. This thing looked fancier than her parents’ private jet, which made her hate it for two reasons.

“Tucker,” Sam said quietly, drawing his gaze. “You see that compartment up there labeled with a parachute?”

“No,” Tucker said immediately, looking very intently down at the floor. “No, I absolutely do not see it.”

“Tucker.”

“Sam, you are insane if you think I’m risking jumping out of a plane!”

“You’d rather get to whatever secondary location this guy is dragging us to?” Sam snapped, still keeping her voice down.

“Right, because obviously the guy who kidnapped us and is dragging us somewhere is going to leave us with perfectly made parachutes that won’t break halfway down to the ground,” Tucker snapped back, which… was actually a decent point, though Sam loathed to admit it.

“Look, do you have a better idea?” she asked instead.

“Try to escape while we’re not several miles in the air?”

“When we’ve made it wherever we’re going so this guy has a home field advantage?”

“I don’t know Sam! We don’t have a ton of options!” Tucker snapped. “I still think I’d rather be kidnapped than dead!”

“Are you sure?” Sam asked seriously, giving Tucker a look, and then jerking her head backwards toward the cockpit. “We don’t know what he wants.”

“I don’t want to die, Sam,” Tucker said desperately. “I think we have a better chance of not dying if we stay on the plane until we get wherever we’re going. Plus, you can’t even stand up to reach that compartment anyway. Let’s just… stay put.”

Sam gave a huff of irritation and a little bit of fear, but gave in to Tucker’s fairly decent points and leaned back in the plush chair.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s try and work this out, then. We’ve been flying for what, an hour now? Where do you think we’re going?”

“We’re heading north,” Tucker said, with a nod towards the window. “Based on the way the sun was rising earlier.”

“Great, so that narrows it down to a little less than half the continent,” Sam groaned. “Do you think he’s staying in the U.S.?”

“Do I think a ghost cares about a country’s borders? I have no clue if we’re going to Canada. Maybe he’ll just keep flying north and drop us in the middle of the ocean.” The second after Tucker said it, he seemed to realize what he’d said, and his face turned a little queasy. “I hope not.”

“Me too,” Sam muttered, looking out what little of the window she could see from her position, given that she couldn’t shift in the chair at all. She couldn’t see the sun anymore. She was glad Tucker had spotted it earlier, even if it didn’t give them a ton of clues as to where they were going.

They didn’t have to wonder for that much longer, however, because it wasn’t more than five minutes later before a disgustingly pleasant voice announced that they’d be beginning their descent, and that they hoped the landing was just as horrible as the takeoff had been.

Sam glared up at the ceiling as if that was where the voice was and tried to come up with a map in her head. They really hadn’t been flying for more than an hour. That wasn’t enough time to get them to Canada, was it? They couldn’t be much further than Wisconsin.

Once they got off the plane itself, they were taken towards some sort of castle that looked like something her parents could afford to build. Which might not be that far off in terms of expenses, given there was an actual runway in the back. Maybe this ghost happened to be a friend of theirs, and this was Sam’s parents’ newest way of threatening her into wearing floral print.

The ghost that had kidnapped and brought them here, however, didn’t seem super keen on answering any questions. Its only comment before it grabbed them both by the arms and dragged them towards a back door was “I hope you two had a terrible experience,” paired with a supervillain smirk so dramatic it was almost ridiculous.

He clearly was not super worried about being gentle about dragging them, if the ache forming in Sam’s wrist was any indication. But she didn’t have much time to focus on that. Instead, as soon as her feet were on the ground, she started looking around for escape strategies, but the ghost was holding their arms way too tightly for running to be an option, and she didn’t feel confident in her ability to get both her and Tucker into the forest surrounding the castle. Especially considering how far away it was. The grounds for this place weren’t small.

The castle itself was white brick, with gold roofs and absolutely covered in green flags. The door they were being dragged to looked like an entrance to a basement of some kind. Sam glanced over at Tucker to find him looking around too, but after a second he glanced at her with a helpless look on his face, meaning he hadn’t noticed anything she hadn’t.

Sam took a deep breath, and mouthed to Tucker, “On three.”

Tucker bit his lip, clearly scared, but nodded.

Sam brushed past her own fear and looked back on the door. Their smartest option would probably be to try and break for it when he had to shift his grip in order to hold on to them and go for the handle at the same time. He’d be doing that any second now, she just had to wait for—

A cold feeling swept over Sam just before she reached the door, and before she could question what that meant the ghost dragged her and Tucker right through the solid door and into the castle.

Sam blinked. Well. So much for the shifting his grip plan.

“Uh,” Sam said, looking at Tucker. “Three!”

Tucker started pulling backwards on the ghost’s arm as Sam did the same, but it didn’t even seem to phase the ghost. In fact, he looked down at them and laughed in obvious amusement.

“Oh yes, that’s sure to work. He really hasn’t ever let you near ghosts before, has he?”

Before Sam could figure out what the hell that meant, the ghost floated upwards just far enough to lift Sam and Tucker off the ground, robbing them of any force they could have attempted to use to get away.

Sam, in a last desperate attempt, leaned up to try and bite the ghost’s hand, but the ghost did the same thing to just their hands that he’d done to get them all through the door, and Sam’s teeth went right through it.

She turned to Tucker. “Okay, you have any other ideas?”

Tucker’s only response was a scared look.

They went through a couple more doors the same way as before, and then the ghost pulled them down through the floor, into some kind of lab. It looked eerily similar to the one in Danny’s basement, right down to the portal over on the wall.

“Well, I think we’ve made excellent time,” the ghost said, flying them straight over to that very portal. “Let’s set you both up.”

“Or, we could not do that?” Tucker said nervously.

“Who are you?” Sam snapped, glaring at the weird vampire ghost. If they weren’t going to escape, she might as well get as much information as possible from him.

“Oh, don’t worry about it child, I’m sure you’ll get a much better explanation from Daniel.”

Sam blinked. “Danny knows you?”

The vampire ghost didn’t reply, and instead flew over closer to the portal. Sam leaned back away from the swirling green she had no desire to go through, but before he could toss them inside, she heard a whirring sound, and the portal powered down to leave an empty mechanical tunnel. Sam glanced over to see… the same vampire ghost? There were two of them? The second one, however he was there, was pressing buttons on a box next to the portal.

A box that probably wasn’t supposed to be blinking like that.

“Uh,” Sam said, as the vampire ghost holding on to them carried them into the tunnel. “You wanna fix your box thingy?”

“No thank you, it’ll be more useful like this for now,” the second vampire ghost said, though Sam couldn’t see him anymore. “Though it’ll be quite a bit of work to fix the portal after using it for something like this.” He sighed, like their kidnapping was an inconvenience for him. “Oh well, can’t be helped.”

The second vampire ghost flew in and took Sam from the first, then carried her over to the side of the tunnel, seeming barely even to notice Sam’s struggles.

He and the other one then strapped her and Tucker to the sides of the portal, and flew off unconcerned. Sam saw the reason why a moment later, the restraints didn’t budge no matter how much she tugged on them, and she could see Tucker doing the same thing across from her.

“Regret not trying for the parachutes yet?” Sam snapped.

Tucker opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, there was a yell of “VLAD!” and a loud crash from the room outside of the portal.

Both of them turned, and in the part of the room that the portal wasn’t blocking, Sam saw Phantom shooting blasts across the room, presumably towards one of the vampire ghosts.

Tucker let out a relieved sigh. “Nope, I think we have a better shot now,” he said.

Sam couldn’t blame him. They may not have ever interacted with Phantom personally, but that didn’t mean they didn’t know what he was capable of. If Phantom was here to rescue them, they were safe.

Phantom, however, didn’t seem to realize that, because the second he turned and spotted them inside the portal, his eyes widened in surprise and what looked like fear.

…Okay, maybe they should be a little nervous?

Tucker seemed to realize the same thing, as a second later they both went back to struggling.

Phantom started right for them, but one of the vampire ghosts— Vlad, he’d said?— instead slammed into him from the side and out of their view.

Sam couldn’t see what was happening anymore, but she could easily hear them.

“Let them go, Plasmius,” Phantom snapped.

“Or you’ll what? I’m looking for specifics here, my boy.”

“Specifics? I’ll smash your teeth in, now let them go!”

There’s a loud sigh. “No, you see, that’s the kind of thing that makes me think this is necessary in the first place.”

Sam glanced across the portal at Tucker, who shrugged, looking just as lost as her.

There was the sound of an ecto blast, and then Plasmius flew across the room. Phantom started immediately for the portal again, but before he could reach it, the other vampire ghost shot a blast at him that sent him back out of view again. The second one then flew after him and reappeared a second later, holding Phantom in a tight restraint that seemed much more difficult to hold than Sam and Tucker’s had been.

Sam tugged hard on the restraints, then stopped when she felt her wrist start to strain in a way that couldn’t be good.

“For the record,” she said to Tucker. “We totally should have tried for the parachutes.”

Tucker gave her a desperate look.

“Sorry it had to be this way, child,” came Vlad’s voice from out of view, “but you really should get better at solving your problems yourself.”

Phantom looked towards Vlad, apparently long enough to not like what he saw, because then he looked wide-eyed back towards Sam and Tucker— and that was the moment Sam knew they were fucked.

Something behind them in the portal lit up, and Sam turned her head towards it in time to see a bright green light.

Phantom screamed “NO!” loud and desperate, and then Sam’s world erupted.

#danny phantom #sam manson #tucker foley #danny fenton #vlad plasmius #halfa trio au #no one knows au #invisobang #afterlife lessons #my fic

52 notes · View notes

brokeitwiththepowerofmathamatics · 1 year ago

Text

Fanfic - Ghost of the Cards

This was written for a "back to school" fic challenge on a DP server I'm in. It was beta read by HeroineofTime!

For the challenge, we had to write a fic that was around going back to school, and had to include in some way homework, detention, backpack, friends, and bells.

(ao3 here) (ff.net here)

Danny knew that Dash and the A-Listers would probably try to find some way to make his life miserable, but he had to admit this was actually kind of funny.

Danny huffed as he ran up to the school doors. Yes, he could have just flown in using his ghost powers while invisible, then pop out of one of the bathroom stalls or something, but after the summer vacation, and the multitude of close calls of almost being caught by… well… everyone… (no Jazz, he was not being careless because he wanted to be caught and freed from the burden of secrecy) he decided not to risk using his powers at school today.

In retrospect, that didn't help anything.

Danny walked through the school doors, he was greeted by the sight of one of the lunchroom tables laid out in the school entryway. Star and Paulina were sitting at the table, greeting all the students as they came in, and handing out little boxes.

Danny resolved himself to ignore it, but he didn't get a chance to.

"Hey! Fenton!" Star called out. Danny sighed and walked over. Star glanced over at Paulina and the two of them started giggling.

Danny already had a bad feeling but now it was worse. "Hey, Star," he greeted.

"Hello!" Star said, sitting up straight. Her posture was perfect, not leaning in any friendly manner, but she wasn’t leaning away like she normally would. (At least, while people could see her) "Here! Take this!" she said, handing him one of the boxes. Her voice was oddly chipper for a typical interaction with him. "The art club kept meeting over the summer, and we came up with something fun! The teachers are all helping out with this!"

"Uh… thanks? What is it?" Danny asked, tilting the box over in his hands. It was a cardboard box that was printed to look like the outside of Casper High, with a large ‘TCG’ floating over the school's name. There was also a piece of masking tape on the back, that Danny noticed wasn't on the others.

This box had been marked for him.

"It's a card game! You should know all about those!"

Danny sighed. "Not really? Look, I know I'm a nerd, but I like video games and space." Danny shook the box around. "Card games haven't been my thing."

Star rolled her eyes. "Whatever, look, I gotta keep handing these out." She looked past him and raised her hand. "Kwan! Over here!"

Where Kwan was, Dash soon followed, so Danny dashed away.

Danny checked where his locker was supposed to be, before running up the stairs to the top floor. Fighting the urge to pump a fist as he did so. Not only was it the top floor, but it was close to a janitor closet, and in a dead end part of the school. Not many people would be coming by here unless it was specifically to drop stuff at their locker, or go to the history teacher's room that was on the other side of the wall.

And more importantly, Sam and Tucker were apparently next to him as well.

Thank Clockwork for small mercies.

"You're welcome," Tucker said as he took a stack of cards from Sam.

"Don't mention it, I don't want to see it, I don't want to hear about them, and the moment I’m allowed to get my hands around Paulina’s little neck I’ll-"

Danny jogged up and interrupted their conversation. "Whoa, what's going on?" he asked. He couldn’t help but be proud of himself, this was about as far as you could get from the school entrance, and despite jogging the whole way, he wasn’t out of breath at all. Apparently, the early morning jogs with Sam were actually helping.

Sam whirled toward Danny, and then zero'd in on the box in his hands. "It's that stupid card game that Star and Paulina started.” she spat, pointing at it with about as much hate as she had for the pink dresses her mother kept buying her. “They started with- hey wait, Danny, don't-"

But, Danny kept opening the box. "I just want to see what the big deal is." He opened the box as Sam stammered. She opened and closed her mouth multiple times before giving up and biting down on a knuckle.

The box contained several booster packs of cards, each wrapped up in foil, and a booklet that was probably the game rules. In all honesty, Danny was impressed. He wasn't a connoisseur of playing cards or anything, but this seemed very much like the cards he'd see at the big box stores.

Danny tore up the first pack and looked at the cards. He frowned when he saw the first card that greeted him was a picture of Dash. It was a picture of his bully at what was probably last year's homecoming football game, with two golden stars above it. Underneath the picture were two boxes, one with a red sword along with a 5, and another with a blue shield with an 8. At the bottom of the card was a big box saying, "Teamplayer, for every other card on the field with the text teamplayer on, this card gains 1 power and 1 toughness."

Danny rolled his eyes and flipped through the cards. Obviously the reason why this box was marked wasn't because he was supposed to see Dash's ugly mug. Sam continued to stare nervously as Danny went through the cards.

Danny paused on another card, this one wasn’t a photo, but a drawn art piece of Ember. Instead of the stars, there was a green letter ‘G’ above the picture. Ember had a 10 for the sword, and the shield had a 10 as well.

At the bottom of her card was a similar box as Dash’s card. “Leader, when this card is played, take a card from your hand and put it in one of the lanes next to this card. It must follow normal summoning rules.”

Danny huffed. “Ember would hate this card, she doesn’t do duets.” The comment got a laugh out of Tucker but Sam continued to look nervous. She wouldn’t be worried if it was a ghost (other than him) being upset, that meant this wasn’t what had gotten under her skin. So, Danny continued flipping through the cards.

Then he found it.

It was a picture of him, looking panicked. Danny recognized it as around one of the times Skulker really had it out for him from last year during prom. His card was lacking any of the stars, but it also had a big fat 0 next to the power and toughness stats.

The only saving grace to his card was the bottom text, which Danny read aloud. "Moving on, when this card dies, play another card."

The hall was silent for a moment as Danny processed what he was seeing. Sam reached out carefully towards Danny, almost like she was afraid he'd break down in front of him.

Danny couldn't take it anymore.

He started laughing. Full blown laughs, the ugly ones that made you wheeze cause you weren't able to breath properly.

"Danny?" Sam asked, bewildered.

"Oh my gosh, this is perfect!" Danny got out before gasping for air. "I can't believe- oh my god- they did- I can't- I can't breathe, oh my god I can't breathe! I'm laughing too hard!"

"Okay, Danny, seriously…" Sam said, folding her arms and tapping her foot against the ground. "This isn't funny."

Danny took several big gulps full of air. "Sam, it's really funny." Sam continued to glare and Danny leaned forward and whispered. "Sam, my card's power is going ghost." He frowned. "Wait, do you think-"

"That the A-Lister's know?" Tucker interrupted, shuffling his cards around, "Nah, if they did, Dash would be worshiping the ground you walk on, not talking about how he can't wait to see your face when you see your card."

"I think he's gonna be pretty disappointed."

Sam huffed and leaned against the lockers. "You're both taking this pretty well considering the school is basically systematically bullying Danny." She turned toward Danny and her eyebrows rose slightly. "I'm gonna be honest. I'm not okay with this. I'm not. I know you're saying it's funny, but Danny… the school made a card that said your only purpose is to die… That's really messed up."

Danny shrugged and checked that no one was coming down the hall before shoving his hand through his locker door and hanging up his backpack. "I mean, they're not wrong."

"Danny!"

Danny turned to face Sam. "Sam, I'm a straight D student… I'm also the-" Danny checked the hall again and still didn't see anyone coming around the corner, "-the local super hero. Literally, my superpower is to die on command. It's really exactly wrong... Also, where is everyone else? School starts in like… thirty minutes doesn't it?"

Sam's eyes narrowed and she turned toward Tucker, Tucker however was laughing. "Jazz moved your clocks ahead so you'd make it on time. We got like an hour and half."

"What! I can't believe she'd do that!" Danny paused then shrugged. "Well, actually I can and I think that's worse."

Sam reached over and pulled on Danny's arm. "I'm not letting this drop," she said, holding eye contact with Danny and holding onto his wrist. Her grip was surprisingly tight, and her arm was shaking slightly. "It's not okay that the school did this, you know? You're allowed to be mad about it."

"I'm not though! Sam, I really don't care."

"Well, fine, but I do… I'm not okay with them doing this. I'm gonna tear the school a new one," she said, grabbing Danny's arm with her other hand. "When I get home, I'm talking to my grandma and I'm finding the best lawyer I can and then Mr. Lancer can kiss every bonus he'd ever get goodb-"

Danny sighed and put a hand on Sam's shoulder, interrupting her litigious rant. "Sam, aren't you the one always telling me not to worry about what other people think?" His hand slid from the top of her shoulder as he ran his hand up and down her arm, trying to get her to calm down.

Sam shook her head, though she leaned into his touch. "This is very different, and you know it,” she whispered.

"Hey, guys?" Tucker interrupted from his spot on the floor. "I hate to end this tender moment, but it gets better." Tucker waved the booklet around in front of Danny and Danny snatched it out of his hands.

Danny read for a few moments before his eyes went wide. "Oh… oh!"

Tucker smiled and started nodding. "You're seeing it too, aren't you?"

"Dude, there's no way-"

"I read the whole thing back to back, yeah, no, it's EXACTLY what you're thinking it is!"

Sam frowned. "What on earth are you guys-"

"Danny!" The trio turned around to see Jazz marching up to them. "Danny, did you-" She froze as she saw the rule book in Danny's hands. "Oh, you opened the pack, didn't you?"

Danny waved the cards around. "Yeah, I did. Why?"

Jazz frowned and straightened her back. "Cause I did too, and I got one of your cards."

Danny perked up. "Really? Can I have it?"

Jazz took a step back, and folded her arms across her chest. "Uhh…" She glanced up at Sam who walked over to Jazz's side. "No?" it shouldn't have sounded like a question, but it definitely did.

"He's already seen it," Sam groaned. "I'm telling him he can be mad about it-"

"Guys, guys, listen, my card's power is dying. It's objectively hilarious."

Jazz glared at Danny. "No, the card is… I mean… it's…" Jazz's righteous anger slowly fizzled out as she stammered, unsure of exactly what she was saying. Obviously she knew the implications of what the card was saying, but she didn't want to say it herself.

"Wait, wait…" Danny interrupted, shaking his hands about in the air. Before he pointed at Jazz and raised his voice. "You moved my clocks forward! I could have been sleeping!"

Jazz rolled her eyes. "You'll be thankful since you can actually get your textbooks because you got here on time." She huffed and ran a hand through her hair. "Danny, I really don't think you're getting how serious this is."

This time it was Danny's turn to roll his eyes. "The A-Listers made a stupid card game, tried to make a joke about me being useless, accidentally made a joke that is so accurate that probably every single one of us has wondered if the secret is out." At that, everyone else suddenly refused to make eye contact.

"I mean…" Tucker began scratching under his beret.

Sam coughed. "Paulina for all her faults is pretty observant."

Jazz huffed. "It's better than what this actually is."

Danny just raised an eyebrow at them and folded his arms. The silence stretched for a moment before Sam walked up to Danny. "Danny, you're my best friend. Sorry Tuck, no offense."

"Some taken," Tucker responded cheerfully.

"And because you're my best friend, I don't care if you are or aren't bothered by the stupid card. 'Cause I am. The school told my best friend he was worthless, and I'm not okay with that. Maybe they didn't mean that, maybe it just slipped through. But that's what this looks like to me, and probably looks like to all the kids in the school."

"Except for all the card nerds," Tucker chimed in.

"What?" Jazz asked, turning towards Tucker. "Why?"

Instead of an answer, the four of them jumped as screams came from down the stairs. The four exchanged glances before running down the stairs. They followed the screams and fleeing students back towards the school entrance, where almost everyone was fleeing from a terrifying ghost.

"I AM THE BOX GHOST!"

Terrifying if you hadn't been paying attention the entirety of last year, that is.

Five students groaned, Tucker, Sam, and Jazz all turned to see that Valerie had appeared. The four of them froze as one, realizing they were not as alone as they thought they were, and they started to think about how to get the others to leave so that one of the two ghost hunters here could fight the ghost in peace.

Except Danny was not having it.

"For the love of fudge and Clockwork!" Danny shouted, marching towards the Box Ghost. He snatched up one of the card boxes as he marched toward the floating annoyance. "You, Box Ghost. I have a box here, a shiny cardboard box. I give you this, you leave. Okay?"

The Box Ghost floated closer to Danny. "That is indeed a splendid box most shiny…" The Box Ghost mused as he rubbed his chin. Inspecting the box for blemishes and appropriate squareness.

Danny reached up and grabbed the Box Ghost by his shirt, pulling him down to eye level. He then whispered to him, "If you don't take the box and make like a ghost and disappear, then the next time Phantom sees you, he's gonna shove his fist so far down your throat you'll be tasting rubber for the rest of your afterlife.” The Box Ghost’s eyes widened, perhaps sensing that Danny was very much serious. He snatched the box out of Danny’s hands before floating back out of reach. “HA HA, the BOX GHOST accepts your tribute! He shall now go far away and uncover the secrets of your mysterious cardboard-!”

“We get it,” Danny growled.

The Box Ghost jumped back about three feet, before shouting, “BEWARE!” as a final farewell, and then flying through the walls.

Danny huffed and wiped his hands on his jeans before turning back towards his friends. He took two steps before he heard someone say, “Fenton?”

Danny turned to see Star peeking at him from behind an overturned table, apparently that was the source of the spilled boxes that Danny had picked from. Good to see that the training from the last year or so had stuck when dealing with ghosts. Danny reached down and picked up a couple of the boxes. Of the three he grabbed, one had masking tape on the back of it, like the one that had been given to him.

Danny juggled the boxes around to get a free hand to lift the table back upright. “I don’t know why you two are freaking out, it’s just the Box Ghost…” At their incredulous looks and Jazz clearing her throat behind him, Danny coughed and quickly added, “I mean… even I’ve stopped running from the Box Ghost over the summer.”

Star and Paulina looked at each other as Danny put the boxes down, though the marked box he kept. He ran his fingers over the masking tape and then gave a pointed look at each of them. Paulina looked at the box then at Danny, before recognition lit up in her eye. It was replaced a moment later as she realized that he knew what that meant. Her eyes widened and she glanced at Danny’s friends. Tucker and Valerie were picking up boxes, but Sam and Jazz were steadfastly not.

If looks could shoot ectoblasts, Paulina and Star would have gone ghost right there.

Paulina took a step back as Star held out a hand for the box, giving him her nicest, warmest, and fakest smile. “Well, thanks, Fenton!”

Danny pulled back and said, “I’m keeping this one.”

Star’s smile dropped just slightly. “Oh? But you already got one?”

Danny tapped on the masking tape with his index finger. “It’s got my card in it, doesn’t it?” At that Star’s smile dropped and her eyes went wide. Danny turned around and started walking away. He walked over to where Valerie, Jazz, Tucker, and Sam were all talking. “Hey, Valerie!” Danny greeted.

Valerie shifted uncomfortably. Glancing between him and the others.“Hey, Danny,” she greeted back hesitantly. Before he could ask what was bothering her, she barreled on. “What’s that about your card?”

Jazz turned toward Danny as he started tearing into the box. “The school made that card game, and everyone has a card.” She explained. “The A-Listers used the opportunity to try and bully Danny.”

“What?” Valerie gasped.

“Sweet!” Danny exclaimed after tearing open the packs. “I got two of mine!” He held them up in victory, but Valerie snatched them out of his hand. “Hey! Give me those! I fought a ghost for them!”

Valerie scoffed. “Yeah, right. Anyone with a brain can deal with the Box Ghost.”

“Which explains why the A-Listers were hiding from him.”

Valerie did not continue the quippy back and forth, instead her jaw dropped as she read the card. “Please tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”

“I don’t make a habit of lying,” Sam lied. Lying was second nature to all of them at this point, though Danny would admit he still wasn’t good at thinking on his feet. “The card’s only purpose is to get on the field and die.”

Danny snatched the cards back. “Guys, you’re making it out to be so much worse than it is.”

Valerie whirled on Danny. “Danny! This is awful! Look, I’ve looked past a lot of Star and Paulina’s stuff, but this is bad…”

Danny shuffled through the cards. “Guys, seriously drop it. I’m sure the A-Lister’s weren’t thinking, cause if they were they wouldn’t have made my card so strong.”

Everyone except for Tucker, who had actually read the rule book, looked at each other confused and managed to ask, “What?”

Then the doors of the building got thrown open. Some people screamed and dove for cover, others started running without thinking, while a few others turned to look at the new threat.

Maddie Fenton walked into the school building with fire and fury behind her. Her eyes sweeped the entrance hallway before falling on Jazz and Danny. She marched over to them, and Danny immediately went ramrod straight as he recognized just how pissed she was. He hadn’ seen her this mad since he had broken the vase she had bought.

(In his defense, it was haunted.)

“Jazz, sweetie,” she began, her voice icy cold. “May I see what you were calling about?”

Jazz produced one of the cards and handed it over to her mother. “Yeah, I got one right here.”

Danny opened his mouth to say something, but then thought better of it as he saw the look on his mother’s face. She growled and turned. “Come along kids, I’m going to have a talk with the school principal, right now.”

No longer in his mom’s sight, Danny found his voice, though his feet followed after her like a duckling. “Mom, please, listen to me. This is not that big of a deal!”

“I think I’ll be the judge of that, sweetie.”

“No, seriously!” Danny turned to Jazz as his mom marched through the school halls. “Jazz, please back me up!”

Jazz sighed and gave him a look like he should know better. “Danny, I’m the one who called her over this.”

Danny tried to argue his case with both of them, but made no progress. It wasn’t much longer before Danny was running a hand down his face as his Mom towered over Principal Ishiyama. “I would like to speak to whoever was in charge of the school’s card game.”

The principal looked behind her at Danny (who was mouthing an apology) and Jazz (who was trying to develop ghost powers to immolate someone with her brain) before meeting her gaze. “Uh… is there a problem?”

“Yes,” Maddie stated. “The teacher?”

“Well, the card game was made by the school’s art club so-”

“The art club has a supervisor. Who. Is. It.” There was no inflection in her words, Danny had heard her speak kinder to the ghosts she had captured.

The principal wavered for a moment before reaching over to her phone. She pressed a few buttons before the school’s P.A system turned on. “Would Mr. Lancer please come to the principal’s office immediately?”

“Sit, children.” Maddie ordered, and Danny and Jazz jumped into the chairs that were set across from the desk.

Once they were sitting, Danny frowned and noticed something. “Uh… should we leave a chair for Mr. Lancer?”

Maddie didn’t break eye contact with the principal. “No.”

They sat in an awkward quiet with Maddie glaring at Principal Ishiyama the entire time before Mr. Lancer stepped into the office. “You wanted to see me?” He asked, “I’m still setting up for class, so-”

Maddie turned toward him. Slowly and insidiously, Danny wouldn’t have been surprised if he heard the sounds of hinges creaking as her head carefully and measuredly turned toward his teacher. “You were in charge of the school’s card game?”

“Uhh, in a manner of speaking? I was just supervising, ensuring the students weren’t misusing school property, or fielding questions.” Lancer answered as he walked over toward the principal’s side. By the looks on their faces, neither knew what this was about.

“Hm,” Maddie vocalized, and Danny winced. That was not a sound of acknowledgement, but the sound of you-have-done-exactly-as-I-expected-you-would-and-now-I’m-disappointed-in-you which was a lot of information given in a single syllable but he was quite familiar with it. “And just how were the card’s strength and health determined?”

“Well, the rules are using power and toughness, but a card’s power was how many clubs and after school activities a student was in, while toughness was a base of 5, with an additional 1 for every grade of B or 2 for A, and a loss of 1 for every detention that a student had.”

The principal leaned forward and cut in. “Ms. Fenton-”

“Doctor,” Maddie corrected, and both Danny and Jazz winced. Their mother usually didn’t care about her title, stating she was a mother and wife first and foremost. She only insisted on being called doctor when she wanted to make a point.

It obviously threw Ishiyama for a loop. She cleared her throat and continued. “Dr. Fenton, perhaps you should explain what exactly-”

“Ms. Ishiyama, were you aware that Mr. Lancer here allowed the school to produce a card that implied my son had no benefit? That all he could do was die?”

Mr. Lancer’s eyes widened. “Excuse me! That is-”

Maddie refused to look in his direction. Instead holding up a hand to cut him off. “And that my son’s special ability is called moving on.”

At this point, Danny jumped up. “Hold on, can I get a say in this?” Danny waved his hands and stood next to the principal, who was beginning to turn pale. “Mom, that’s an inside joke of the school. You know I’ve had to go to the bathroom a lot ever since the accident, so when I have to interrupt class to, Mr. Lancer will give me permission and then say, ‘Moving on’. I know it looks bad, but it’s just an inside joke of the school.”

Mr. Lancer raised an eyebrow. “Thank you, Mr. Fenton, I-”

Maddie whirled on him. “Shall I also point out that you are also exposing students’ grades to everyone as well? You must have shared them if the cards are a reflection of their grades.”

Mr. Lancer folded his arms. “I did not, the students asked for a formula for making the numbers, and I ran it myself. The students don’t know anyone’s grades.”

“Yet, you have my son having a zero for his health?” Maddie snapped.

“Even if he had turned in all his homework with 100% grades, which everyone in this room knows he has not, with the number of detentions he has received the last year, he’d still be at a zero.” Mr. Lancer said, shooting Danny a look.

Maddie slammed her hands on principal Ishiyama’s desk. “Do not blame my son for this!”

The principal raised her hands. “Dr. Fenton, I acknowledge that we have done you and your family a major disservice. Even if it was an inside joke, the context is important,” she said, shooting Mr. Lancer a withering glare. “Dare I say, our English teacher should be more than aware of something like that.”

Jazz cleared her throat. “May I ask a question?”

Maddie leaned back and answered for everyone. “Go ahead, sweetie…” even as Danny was shaking his head no.

“Mr. Lancer, did you have any inkling of what was going on?”

“Excuse me?” He said brow furrowing.

“Were you or were not aware that it was very likely that the A-Listers, Star, Paulina, Dash, and Kwan were using this as an opportunity to bully my little brother?”

Mr. Lancer opened his mouth to respond before taking a moment to clear his throat and respond. “I did not know that they were intending to do this, no.”

Maddie frowned and Ishiyama let out a sigh of relief. But Jazz continued, “But did you suspect it? Did you have reason to believe that they were going to do this?”

Lancer was quiet and didn’t answer, instead he chewed on his lip for a moment.

It was a moment too long, and Maddie turned to the principal. “I want him fired.”

“I’m sure we can come to an agreement that doesn’t-”

“He’s either fired, or Fentonworks stops funding the school repairs and anti-ghost tech.”

Danny put his fingers to his lips and blew a shrill whistle. “Okay! Okay! No! Mom!” Danny clapped his hands in front of his chest before pointing at her with them. “They can’t fire Mr. Lancer, the school already is having enough trouble finding new teachers because they’re quitting the moment they hear about ghost attacks. Not only that, but if you stop helping the school, the school is gonna have to shut down!”

“Daniel,” Maddie started, her voice deceptively calm and collected. “If this school is not a safe space for my children, then it can burn for all I care.”

“OOooookay!” Danny shouted, holding up his hands. “I understand you’re upset, but-”

“Daniel. I get upset when your father eats more than his share of the mashed potatoes. I get upset when my experiments get ruined by ghost attacks. I get upset when you kids forget to do your chores.

“I am not upset. I am furious.”

“But I’m not,” Danny groaned, pointing at himself. “Look, I know what the card looks like, seriously, I do. Everyone is telling me to be mad about it, but…” He trailed off as he looked out the door and he ran to the door. “Hey! Hey! Mikey! Yeah, come over here real quick.”

He led the quiet nerd into the office and then closed the door behind him. “Okay, this is gonna be quick. You got the school game, right?”

Mikey adjusted his glasses. “Uh, yes, Star gave me a box this morning when I walked in.”

“Right, okay. You read the rule book right?”

“Of course! Front to back three times! I wouldn’t be a proud member of the game club if I didn’t!”

“How many Danny Fenton cards do you have?”

“I’ve gotten my hands on ten so far.”

“How much would I need to pay you in order to get you to give me those cards?”

“If Paulina came in here and asked for a date in exchange, I still wouldn’t give them up. You can pry them from my cold dead and nerdy hands.”

“No, seriously. I think I got like forty bucks in my pocket-”

“No.”

“Thank you, that is all.”

The principal frowned and watched as Danny pushed Mikey out the door and closed it again. “What was the point of that?”

Danny took a deep breath. “Mr. Lancer… do you have a deck?” At his teacher’s nod, Danny then asked a question. “You have several of my cards in your deck, don’t you?”

Mr. Lancer threw his hands up in the air. “I don’t. The art club wouldn’t let us cheat and build our decks with the cards we wanted. We had to draft them.”

“The point?” Maddie said huffing.

Danny sighed. “Yes, Dash, Star, Paulina and Kwan… I’m not sold on Kwan here, all tried to bully me by making a bad card. They failed so so hard.” Danny blinked. “In all honesty? The card is very accurate. The card game is about fighting ghosts. So, obviously I’m the most intelligent person in the deck, the moment ghosts show up, I’m outta there.”

“Into the graveyard,” Jazz snipped.

Danny rolled his eyes. “Fine, how about this? They can release a new rule book, one where the graveyard is called the discard pile instead?”

Maddie pursed her lips. “Danny, you’re really insistent this doesn’t change. Why?”

“Because I’m not gonna be happy if I don’t get to beat my bully at literally his own game.” The school bell rang and Danny started inching his way to the door. “Okay, Mom? You can hash it out with the principal, but no asking for Mr. Lancer to be fired, no threatening the school, and definitely no changing my card's effects? Okay? Please?” Danny thought for a moment and then tacked on, “I love you?” The fact that sounded like a question probably didn’t help his chances in getting her to calm down.

Maddie sighed and looked toward the ceiling. “Alright, alright.” She stood up. “I will let Principal Ishiyama here discuss with Mr. Lancer what they should do, but tomorrow I will be back. This time, with my husband as well. And I assure you, he won’t be as calm as me.”

The threat definitely worked, as both of them paled as they thought about what a rampaging Jack Fenton would be like.

The Fentons left the room together, and Maddie handed Jazz back the card. “I really don’t like this.” She said, though she didn’t seem surprised when Danny snatched the card from Jazz and put it in his pocket. “But you… seem to know what you’re doing?”

“The only request I have is that Jazz records it when Dash realizes how dumb he is.” Danny turned and then started running back down the hall. “Gotta get to class! I’ll see you guys later!”

Danny ran back to his locker, put the cards in his pocket away, and then ran to class. He turned the corner before a hand grabbed his shirt and slammed him into a locker. “Heard you went crying to mommy, Fenturd.”

“Dash, we have got to stop meeting like this.” Danny said, rolling his eyes. “And for the record, I didn’t. You pissed off Jazz, who then called my mom. I tried to tell her it was not a big deal.”

Dash hesitated, trying to slot the square peg into the round hole. Danny could practically see the thoughts slip out of his head before he got mad again. “Well, I guess I gotta crush ya before your mom ruins the fun. Lunch time, bring a deck.”

“See you then!” Danny saluted. His hand fell back to his side and he looked down. “Dash… aren’t you gonna put me down?”

“I’m thinking about it.”

“Well, I know this is gonna be hard, but can you think faster? I want to be on time to class for a change.”

A few moments later, Danny phased his way out of the locker he had been stuffed into. He sighed and brushed off shirt. “Man, I really hope I start taking more after my dad soon. I would love to not fit in lockers anymore.”

***

Lunch time came around, and Danny walked in with his head held high. Mikey might not have traded his cards for a date with Paulina, but Phantom signing the Phantom card (which was a 10/10 by the way, with both Teamplayer and Leader keywords) was worth the trade.

It seemed like the entire school was there waiting for this fight. Danny walked down an aisle flanked by students on either side of him that closed around him as he approached Dash sitting at a lunch table.

Danny stopped at the tablet. “Seriously, did you really pick the table furthest from the door? Are you sure you’re not one of the drama kids?” He turned toward Star, who was actually looking pretty uncomfortable. “Star, you’ve been in the school plays right? You should totally try to get Dash to join in this year, looks like he’d have fun with it.”

Star didn’t answer; instead she stepped behind Kwan, who looked a little sick, and Paulina, who was shifting around as the entire school stared at them.

“It’s time to duel, Fenton.” Dash said, slamming his palm against the table.

Danny rolled his eyes. “Alright alright, if you’re that ready to lose” he said, sitting down at the table. Danny took his deck out and started shuffling it. It wasn’t much to shuffle; the deck size was only twenty cards after all.

Dash frowned, but then drew his starting hand. “Good, I’m ready. As the cool one, I’m going first.” He smiled at Danny. “Okay, for my first card, I’m playing Danny Fenton!” He threw the card on the table, “Oh, whoops! He died.” He laughed and Danny looked over at the other A-Listers who were taking a slight step back.

“Well, moving on,” Dash chuckled. “I get to play another card. So I play Mikey! A 3/10 with supporter!”

“Ooh, look at you, already talking like a card gamer!” Danny crowed.

“Shut it, Fenton! I’m not a nerd like you!” He folded his arms. “It’s your turn now. I can’t attack on the first turn.”

Danny nodded and raised an eyebrow. “Did you remember to draw at the end of your turn?” Dash quietly reached over and refilled his hand before Danny made a show of thinking. “Hmm… which card, which card…” He tapped his chin and then shouted. “Ah! I know!” He put a card down in front of Dash’s card. “I play Danny Fenton!” He paused. “Oh shit! I died! Oh well. Anyways.”

Dash blinked. “You really used your stupid card?”

“Hey, it’s my turn still! Jeez, I can still do something awesome!” Danny thought for a moment longer. “Oh, okay, let’s try this! I play Danny Fenton!” Dash’s brow furrowed as Danny continued. “Oh shit, I died again! I hope it was a quick one! Like maybe my neck snapped. I’d hate for it to be a slow one.” The rest of the A Listers took another step back and tried to blend into the crowd as Danny made a big deal of his card dying. “It’s okay, thanks to moving on, I get another shot! Umm… Okay, okay, I got it. I play Danny Fenton!”

Dash scoffed. “You really put three of your cards in your stupid deck?”

Danny laughed. “Three? No. Dash, my deck uses fifteen of them!”

Dash looked around, seeing confusion on most of the nearby students. “Wait, wait, you really used half your deck for your dumb worthless card?”

Danny stared at Dash for a moment. “Okay, Dash, you wanna repeat that in your head and see where you went wrong?” Dash froze like a deer in headlights before Danny sighed. “Okay, I’m pretty sure your card is bunk because wow are you bad at math. That’s not half my deck, that’s three quarters.”

“Why?”

“Tucker, please explain to the man.”

Tucker stepped out of the crowd holding up the rule book. “Cards are broken down into four categories, zero star cards, one star cards, two star cards, and ghost cards. In order to play a one star card in a lane, that lane must already have a zero star card in it. In order to play a two star card, there must already be a one star card in that lane already. Ghost cards require a total of three stars worth of cards in the lane. For every card in the graveyard, the number of stars needed for a ghost card to be summoned is reduced by one by removing those cards from play.”

Danny pointed at the three Danny Fenton cards in his graveyard. “I needed fifteen to ensure my draw chances are good enough. Which they obviously are. Oh, and by the way… moving on. You know her, you love her, let us hear you scream her name-”

“Please don’t.” Sam called out from the sidelines.

“It’s Ember McLain!” Danny shouted as he put down an Ember card slightly to the right of the Mikey card. “Ember has the Leader keyword, which lets me put down another card. So let’s hear it for her backup singer, Danny Fenton!” he said, putting down his card again. “Oh, shit, she killed him! That bastard! Oh well… moving on.” Danny held up his hand. “Now, I only got one card left, so I have to play it, it’s Danny Fenton!”

Danny paused as he put down his card. “Okay, so I’m hoping you’re seeing where this is going.”

Dash stood up. “Hold on, you’re out of cards!”

“Tucker?”

“In a situation where you are asked to play a card but don’t have any in hand, then you draw another card.”

“So, I draw and let’s see, am I feeling lucky? Dash, can you do math? What are the chances of me drawing a Danny Fenton card? Come on, I know you can do it.”

“Fuck you!” Dash shouted, beginning to move around the table.

“What’s the matter, Dash?” Valerie called out. “Can’t win a card game?”

“A card game you helped make?” Sam jeered.

Dash froze, and Danny took the opportunity to draw. “Yes! I indeed drew a Danny Fenton card! So, let’s continue…” Danny flipped through his deck, drawing his card multiple times, before finally he drew a different card.

“Sorry Mikey!” Danny shouted, “You’re about to get stepped on by Ember!”

“Awesome!”

Danny pinched the brow of his nose. “I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that. Alright, Ember’s card doesn’t actually play a card, it’s using special wording so I guess that’s it.” He snapped his finger. “Oh, wait! It isn’t! I attack! Ember steps on Mikey, removing him, and then Ember swings and hits you in the face.” Danny smiled and leaned back. “Now it’s your turn.”

Dash stared down at the table, which hadn’t had his Mikey card removed yet. But it didn’t matter, because he couldn’t beat Danny. Danny had, on his first turn, effectively defeated Dash. The game wasn’t over, and it wouldn’t be for a while. It’d take multiple turns for Danny to win the game. But anything Dash could play would be immediately doomed to be crushed under Danny’s ghost team.

The rest of this game would be Dash getting wailed on as Danny chunked his health over the course of several turns, with the entire school watching.

Dash scoffed. “It’s a stupid game anyways,” he said, turning around and pushing his way through the crowd.

Danny stood up and grabbed Dash’s deck and waved it up in the air. “Wait, wait, Dash! Don’t you want your deck?” Dash predictably didn’t respond. Danny scoffed as Sam and Tucker approached him. “Yeah, that tracks,” he said, grabbing the hand Dash had left on the table.

“So, did Dash fill his deck with A Listers?” Tucker asked.

“Well, let’s see…” Danny said, flipping through Dash’s deck. He continued until he came across one card. “Oh come on!”

“What’s wrong?” Sam asked, looking over his shoulder.

Danny held out the card that was bothering him. “There’s an Inviso-Bill card!”

Sam gave Danny an unamused glance. “Really? You’re bothered by that, more than the fact that Dash set up a card that you instantly die?”

“Well, yeah!” Danny said, “My name’s not Inviso-Bill!”

“What do you mean your name?”

Danny turned toward the speaker. And as Star stared at him confused, he realized that he had completely forgotten people were watching. “What? I didn’t say that. I said his name isn’t Inviso-Bill.”

“Wait…” Valerie said, stepping forward, pushing a finger into his chest. “Is that what you meant by your superpower is to die on command?”

Danny turned toward Sam, who was the best liar out of them. “I don’t know what she’s talking about, do you?”

Valerie folded her arms. “My locker is just around the corner of the hallway where your locker is. I heard you say that.”

“And my cards! Phantom was asking for them earlier!”

Star gasped. “Wait wait wait, is THAT why you’re not scared of the Box Ghost?”

“...Uh oh…”

#danny phantom #dp fic #fanfic #Hazafic

83 notes · View notes

lexosaurus · 11 hours ago

Text

From Goth to Ghost (part 2)

Here's part 2 to my @ecto-implosion fic for @blonchie's incredible art! Check out both of their pieces HERE!

Characters: Sam, Danny, Tucker Tags/warnings: No Warnings, Halfa!Sam (temporarily) Summary: The last thing Sam expected to wake up to was her body frozen on her bed. But unfortunately, thanks to a certain jock's midnight ponderings and the interference of one wish-granting ghost, that was exactly how she started off her morning.

[read on ao3]

[part 1]

****

Somehow, through sheer force of luck, and—well, actually, no, it was all luck—she managed to survive the school day with little more than a bruised knee.

But at least no one saw her fall!

Is what she would have thought if that were true. Unfortunately, everyone in her history class had seen her spectacular tumble to the floor. And yes, most of them had also laughed.

Which was the icing on the cake.

But, she supposed it could have been worse. She could have been like Danny who'd infamously dropped forty-two beakers and cost the school so much in damaged equipment that he was banned from ever handling fragile objects again.

Unlike Danny, however, she actually had a brain. And some impulse control. So perhaps that was why, unlike him, she managed to stay mostly on her feet.

She had to be nice to him, she reminded herself. He was the one who was going to teach her how to use these powers. She wasn't allowed to make fun of him for being a butterfingers—she wasn't going to say a word.

Of course, that promise lasted all of a minute after the final bell rang.

Actually, she wasn't sure she'd even made it off the property before she was smugly rubbing it in Danny's scrawny face that unlike him, she actually managed to keep her shit (mostly) together during school. That it was obvious that in this competition of who could be the better halfa she'd only just invented, she was winning by a mile.

And no, his protesting and whining didn't change a thing.

"Face it, Danny, I'm just better at being dead. What can I say? It's the goth in me."

"No way! I'm so much better at being dead. Skulker even wants to skin me and turn me into his rug because of how good I am at being dead!"

"Please! Skulker will turn anything that moves into a rug. You're not that special."

"You both are fantastic at being dead. Happy?" Tucker asked.

"Only after I get all this energy out!" Sam looked around, confirming that they were alone in the treeline of the park. Her heart pounded slightly, but her excitement won out. She barely contained her grin as she turned to Danny and asked, "Here?"

"Sure," Danny said.

"How often do you come here again?" Tucker asked. Beside him was a tree with marks running along the bark that suspiciously resembled ecto-burns.

"Now? Almost never. But especially when I first got my ice powers, I was here a lot. The sudden shift in my core energy was pretty intense at first. You guys remember."

Tucker snorted and leaned back against the trunk, folding his arms. "Oh yeah. You nearly froze half the city over!"

"It wasn't pretty," Sam agreed, then faced a tree. "So what, I'm just supposed to blast it? I don't wanna hurt the plant!"

"Yeah, Danny, plants have feelings too!" Tucker agreed with a shit-eating grin.

One that Sam definitely knew wasn't sincere. "Oh, shut up, Tucker."

Danny face-palmed. "You won't hurt the tree. I've done this plenty of times." Then, he paused, adopting that aloof expression that so-often had Sam throwing her combat boot at his head. It was an agonizing pause before he finally opened his mouth and forced Sam and Tucker to listen to him say, "Or, I guess you could say I've done it plant-y of times."

Sam had never felt so disappointed in him in her life. But he didn't seem to notice, instead facing them with a proud chuckle as he continued the torture, saying, "Hah, get it? Plant-y? Get it? Like plenty but with plants?"

He bent over, clutching his knees with his hands as weak chuckles forced their way up his throat and desecrated the natural air around them.

"My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined," Tucker responded.

"I agree," Sam said.

"Well I could leaf you two right here!"

It took two full, long, painful minutes before Danny could stand upright without bursting into another fit of giggles. By the end of it, Sam was pretty sure that if he laughed over his awful puns one more time, she was going to use him for target practice instead of the tree.

"Okay, okay. I'm good now, I promise," Danny said. "I'm not going to branch out into a new—"

It was with Sam's deepest regrets that the last of her restraint failed her and she ended up blasting the ground at Danny's feet, causing him to leap into the air with a yelp and reflexively throw his hands out as if to defend himself. Except, what he'd forgotten, was that he didn't have a ghost core anymore, and thus couldn't do things like fly or blast Sam back, and he ended up with his ass on the ground.

Of course, Sam apologized from the bottom of her heart. It was incredibly convincing, which she knew because Danny totally didn't roll his eyes and "yeah yeah" her when she was done.

Once everyone got back on their feet, the real work could begin. Except...

Sam crossed her arms. "I'm still not blasting a tree. We need trees for the environment, Danny."

"I told you! They're fine. They like being blasted!"

Sam glared.

"I don't know, you're the tree whisperer! Do any of these trees look like they're dying?" Danny asked.

Other than the minor, surface-level burn marks she saw on a few trees, she couldn't see any significant damage.

"Fine, but only because there's literally nowhere else for us to practice in Amity Park," Sam conceded. "So, how exactly do I do this?"

Danny’s face lit up. "So you feel that cold spot in your chest?"

Sam touched her chest. She could feel it, and with the growing anticipation of being used, it had began silently humming like a songbird. It was gentle, but excited all the same. "Yeah, I do feel it."

"Grab it. That should trigger your transformation. From there, it's just a matter of taking the energy and directing it. The more electric feeling ones are the blasts, and ice is colder."

Sam mentally poked at the core, and it almost jumped back at her, desperate to be brought to the forefront. She took a deep breath, steeled herself, and this time when she mentally poked it, she didn't back away.

The transformation felt like being dunked in the Arctic Sea. Cold energy zapped through her spine as bright light overtook her vision. The rings split and traveled apart, and she shivered as she felt the energy course through her body like a charged magnet. It was spiky and tangy, and yet strangely smooth and right.

She closed her eyes as the rings washed over her face and sizzled into her aura. Her body lightened, and her feet left the ground. She threw her arms out to the side and took a moment, feeling every sense heighten—her ears, her nose. It was as if she could hear every rustling leaf and smell each blade of grass. When her eyes opened, the world had sharpened, and she could see tiny details in the distance with more clarity than she thought possible.

"Whoa," was all she could think to say.

"I know, right?" Danny smiled.

"Wow. I had no idea this is what your vision was like." Sam glanced down at him. "It's like putting on glasses or something. That's insane."

Tucker whistled. "You pull off the goth-ghost look pretty well! A little too much Danny, though. Too bad!"

Sam had nearly forgotten that her appearance had changed. She swiveled around—a little clumsily, she wasn't used to this whole flying thing—to face Tucker who had his phone already prepped and raised on camera mode. Leaning forward, she saw herself. Her previously black hair, like Danny's, had turned white, and her hair elastic holding up her half-ponytail glowed ectoplasmic green. Her eyes too had taken on that acid green color from their previous violet. Her suit was very much the classic Phantom suit with its black body, white gloves and boots, and the white DP logo on her chest. The only minor difference was unlike Danny's straight-lined white loop at the waist, hers was shaped like a V.

She backed away from the phone camera slightly, twirling so she could see more of herself. Sam had never particularly been one for appearances, and she certainly always scoffed at the way the A-Listers like Paulina liked to make their appearance the center of the Universe, but even she had to admit that yeah, she really did pull off the ghost look well.

Well, if that wasn't an extremely goth thing to think, Sam didn't know what was.

"I'm stealing your look, Danny," she joked.

He returned her grin. "Careful, and I might have to steal yours right back."

Tucker laughed. "Yeah, I'd love to see you in a skater skirt."

Sam rolled her eyes. Boys.

"So, what, I just direct the energy into my hands and then that's how I blast things?" she asked.

"Yup! Try it out."

"Just don't hit me!" Tucker called, retreating back to his tree trunk where he settled down on the grass and leaned back to return his attention to his phone.

"Just for that, I'll hit you twice!"

"Go for it!" Danny encouraged.

"Shut up!"

Sam steeled herself, facing off against the tree. Even if logically the ectoplasmic blast wasn't going to hurt it, the thought of blasting a tree was a little much for her. So, gathering her energy, she decided to get a little creative.

The chill covered her body like a blizzard, and she'd seen Danny do this enough times to know that her eyes were glowing blue. It surged forth, propelling down her arms and through the tips of her fingers until there was nowhere for it to go but out.

Ice billowed into the open air with more force than she was expecting. Like a blizzard, it wanted to commandeer the woods and fill every inch of the ground with spikes. She strained her fingers, forcing them to flex toward her palm. The ice followed her direction, collecting in one singular mound rather than fanning out. It wasn't smooth or delicate like she'd envisioned, but it worked.

Eons later, but it was likely only a few seconds, she finally let go and the last of the power dwindled from her fingertips. She'd been pushed back slightly, and she drifted back toward Danny and Tucker.

"Not bad!" Danny said, bringing his hands down from their position shielding his face. "A little rough around the edges, but overall that's pretty damn good!"

Sam looked to her creation, the mound of ice that didn't really have much of a shape, but it existed and she'd made it. Pride surged through her, and she raised her fists in the air with a triumphant cry. "Fuck yeah!"

"An ice show? Now she's really stealing your style, dude," Tucker said.

Invigorated by her small win, Sam whirled around and tried again, this time picturing a shape. Something simple, she thought, like a box.

Actually making her vision come to life was more difficult than she'd anticipated, and she wasn't exactly perfect. It resembled more of a rectangular shape than the cube she'd been picturing, and one of the corners was definitely jutting out—not to mention that big ice spike sticking out right in the center—but once again, she'd done it!

And then, now with a target that wasn't a living plant, she switched her core over, tapping into the icy hot, tingly acid that dominated her senses. Like the ice, it was more than happy to respond, lighting her body with what she could only describe as pure and unfiltered energy. Her hair stood on its ends, and she could see her aura’s glow intensify as she raised her green palms and let out a singular blast.

The whiplash was intense, and she flew back, her spine hitting a branch behind her. The blast hit its target—not perfectly, of course, but with all her practicing with the ecto-gun, she had been at least confident that she wouldn't miss.

The semi-cube splintered, and the jutting corner that she'd hit fell into the ground and shattered to pieces.

Sam pushed herself off the tree, a giggle of adrenaline crawling up her throat. "Holy shit!"

Danny stared at her, mouth agape.

"Guys!" She lowered herself, her feet touching down on the now-frosted ground. "Did you see that? How cool was that?"

"That was fucking awesome!" Danny said, nearly jumping over to Sam with bright eyes.

"Right? It was so insane! How do you control the power level? It all came out in a giant flood, I could barely see! And you can make low-powered ones? How the hell do you do that?"

"Ah, yeah." Danny rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepish. "I'm not sure? I just kind of dial the power level down. Like, in my core, I mean."

"Wow, Danny, you're so helpful!" Despite her excitement, she managed to get the sarcasm across.

"Hey, don't look at me! I haven't had these powers for that long, you know."

"Like over a year! And you haven't even sat down to study them at all?"

"Has it really been a year?" Danny asked.

"Yes, space-case!"

"Superpowers, ice blasting, blah, blah! You know what else is cool?" Tucker cut into their bantering, tapping away at his phone. He paused to wave it in the air. "Yo, lovebirds! Ember was spotted downtown!"

Sam and Danny froze, eyes glancing between each other and Tucker's phone.

Sam was the one to first break the silence. "Alright, let's go!"

Danny reeled back. "What do you mean, let's go?"

"I mean exactly what it sounds like. Let's go! Ember's downtown and is probably hypnotizing a bunch of people right now, so we have to go save them! Let's go!"

"Wait, wait, back up," Tucker said, holding his hand out. "You're gonna fight her? Ember?"

Sam huffed. "Well, duh! Who else? Danny? The one without ghost powers right now?"

"Well, I do have more experience—"

"Fighting with ghost powers, you do!" Sam retorted.

"Hey, I have some experience fighting in human form too, you know! Vlad's shorted out my powers plenty of times..." He broke off, grumbling.

"Okay, well, I'm the one with the firepower right now, unless you forgot. So let's go! Seriously, I'm not gonna wait around for you two if you want to stay here thinking about it. The sooner we get there, the easier it'll be to take Ember down."

Danny stood here, brow furrowed and hand rubbing the back of his neck for another beat until he finally relented with a sigh. "Fine," he said, holding out his arm for flight. "Go on!"

Actually figuring out how to get the three of them into the air invisibly was harder than Danny had been making it look. In her defense, he didn't start flying the three of them together until over a month after he'd first acquired his ghost powers, and Sam was out here trying to do it on day one.

Especially since she found that unless she was constantly paying attention to the invisibility, it had a bad habit of shortening out.

Which it did. Twice.

And that was where the phone call came from.

It was her mom, of course, who'd been watching the news and had seen flickers of Danny and Tucker being "kidnapped"—as she'd so elegantly called it—by Phantom. Now, her mom was entirely convinced that the three of them had been kidnapped or brainwashed or both by Phantom, and would not let Sam explain that she was safe and sound.

Especially since Ember was currently downtown. Where Phantom had been spotted with his equally captive audience.

"Shit," Sam swore, hanging up her phone and stuffing it into her backpack that Danny was now holding. "I don't know what to do! My mom is on her way down here to come rescue me!"

"Then turn back into yourself?" Tucker said.

Sam heard a scuffle, and she peeked around the dumpster to glance down the alley they were hiding in, but fortunately, the source of the sound was only a squirrel.

She turned back to her friends. "I can't! I have to go stop Ember. You saw the crowd she'd already amassed! That busking performance is going to turn into a mob before we know it."

"Sam's right," Danny conceded, surprising Sam. He held her gaze, and his eyes were steel. It was an expression she'd only seen come out when Phantom was involved. "She can't go home. As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think I can stop Ember in human form. Sam has to be the one to fight her."

"Okay, then who's fighting Mrs. Manson?" Tucker asked. "Because that woman can be a freaking force when she wants to be."

"Easy!" Danny snapped his fingers. "We’ll just do the old switcheroo!"

Sam and Tucker looked at him blankly.

"The what?" Tucker blurted.

"You know! Like you guys did for me!" Danny opened the small front pocket of Sam’s backpack, and before she could protest, he brought out a little black hairband like it was some sort of prize. To her utter confusion, he began pulling the longer strands of his hair back and forming something of a messy half-ponytail. "Ta da! How do I look?"

"Danny, what the hell?" Sam asked deadpan.

"I told you, didn't I? You steal my Phantom style, and I'm going to steal yours."

Tucker guffawed. "Oh man, I was joking before, but are you really about to put on a skater skirt?"

"Not unless you want to. But something tells me Mrs. Manson won't be convinced if you try to be Sam."

"It's my eyes, I know," Tucker bantered. “They’re just too beautiful to be Sam’s.”

"Definitely your eyes," Sam agreed, then turned back to Danny. "You're being for real right now? You're cool with pretending to be me and letting my mom chase you around town while I deal with Ember?"

"Listen, my stamina's gotten pretty good fighting ghosts."

"My mom does crossfit."

"I thought she did pilates?" Tucker asked.

"She does that too."

Tucker tsked his tongue. "Oh shit, Danny, you're screwed. You can still back out, you know."

Danny rolled his eyes. "I'll be fine! Being chased by ghosts all the time has built me some endurance, you know."

“Some?” Tucker asked.

“More than you have, anyway.”

"Alright, let's do this," Sam agreed.

Her boldness only lasted so long, unfortunately. The clothing swap was just as awkward to do as it sounded. Tucker, laughing maniacally, was forced to stand guard facing away from them as Sam transformed back into human form, they swapped outfits, and uncomfortably redressed behind the smelly dumpster. Only when they'd both given the verbal consent that they were decent again did they turn around and survey each other.

Sam felt as ridiculous in her new attire as she was sure Danny did in his. While she was normally used to her tighter, dark clothing, she felt like she was swimming in his baggy, bright white T-shirt and blue jeans.

"You guys are good?" Tucker yelled.

"Yup!" Danny called back.

"Hang on!" Tucker said, rushing over to them with a speed he hadn’t even reserved for gym class. As soon as he caught sight of them, he burst into laughter. "Oh, man! Oh my god, I gotta get a picture of this!"

"Tucker!" Sam stomped her floppy red feet. "Danny's doing me a solid right now!"

Tucker ignored her, pulling out his phone and not being subtle about the way he'd begun pointing it directly at the two of them. "I know I said I wanted to see you in a skater skirt, dude, but I never thought it'd actually come true!"

Danny took it in stride, putting one hand on the back of his hair and the other on his hip to strike a model pose. "As I said: Sam steals my style, I'm taking hers!"

That sent Tucker into another fit of giggles.

"You're sure about this?" Sam asked, watching as Danny bent down to lace his combat boots.

"Totally!" He gave her a cheesy smile from his crouched position. "I got this! You go get Ember!"

"Right!" Sam touched her core, and this time the transformation washed over her with easy familiarity. At once, her body felt light as gravity became optional, and she levitated into the air, inhaling a deep breath despite being keenly aware that she didn't really need to anymore.

Her aura settled around her skin as her veins became rich with ectoplasmic power, and when she opened her eyes to give one last look to her friends, she did so with determination in her eyes.

"Okay, I'm ready."

"Hell yeah, you are," Tucker agreed.

"You got this!" Danny said.

She nodded to them both once more and then took off, shooting down the alley and swooping up into the sky. She climbed the air high until she spotted Ember's rapidly growing crowd, and then with acrobatic ease, dived down in the direction of Ember's glowing figure.

As she approached, the crowd that hadn't seemed too large from the sky suddenly looked much more intimidating up close. She stopped above them, surveying the sea of chanting faces.

"Ember! Ember!"

No one had noticed Sam yet, too entranced by Ember’s spell. And there was Ember herself at the center of the crowd, twirling to wave to the crowds all around her.

"Thank you, everyone! Thank you!"

"Ember! Ember!"

This wasn't good. If they fought here, Ember would have a never-ending energy supply from the crowd's chanting. Like most ghosts, fighting Ember was a battle of endurance, and here, Ember could endure for hours. Meanwhile, Sam...had no idea what her limits were.

She probably couldn't last that long, based on Danny's early fights.

So, Sam needed to get Ember away from her adoring fans. But how?

The first time Danny had to fight Ember, they used Tucker's ear-bleeding singing voice to snap the crowd out of their hypnosis. And...she'd left Tucker in the alley.

Shit!

Okay, so she couldn't use Tucker. Turning invisible, she flew lower, scanning the crowd to see if there was anyone else she recognized who probably had an equally terrible singing voice.

And...there! Perfect.

Ember's back was still to Sam, and she was still too distracted by her narcissism to notice Sam creeping forward, at first slowly, closer and closer until she was just fifteen feet away from Ember.

And that's when Sam saw it—Ember's shoulders stiffened. She'd noticed the chill of Sam's aura, and so before Sam could think, she shot forward, ripping the microphone from its stand at the same time as Ember whirled around.

Sam regained visibility and darted back triumphantly, a whoop at her lips.

"You—" Ember stopped, her fierce brows melting into an expression of pure confusion. "Wait, you're not the dipstick!"

Sam didn't respond, instead flying down to greet her future savior: Kwan.

"Do you love Ember?" she yelled into the mic and then held it to Kwan's face.

"Yeah I do!" Kwan answered.

Behind him, the crowd roared in approval.

Ember's face pinched in confusion.

"So why don't you show us how much you love her by singing one of her songs?"

Kwan snatched the microphone from Sam's fingers, his eagerness overtaking all sense of reason. At the same time, still in the center of the crowd was Ember, who—based on her shifting facial expression—was just now catching up to Sam's master plan.

But she was too late. Because as soon as Kwan opened his mouth, Sam had already won.

"Ember! You will remember!"

If Sam Googled the definition of tone-deaf, she was pretty sure Kwan's name would appear as the first entry. For as athletically inclined and blessed with powerlifting genetics as the teenager was, his musical skills were....well, not even lacking, they were nonexistent. It was as if Kwan had never tried to sing before in his life. But, either through Ember's spell, his general affinity to being a total airhead, or a combination of both, he was so invested in belting out every approximation to a note that he could muster that he didn't notice the instantly dulled crowd around him as people began snapping out of their hypnosis.

"What happened?" a girl muttered nearby.

"Why does my head hurt?" a boy said.

"Ugh, what's that awful sound?"

"Ember! One thing remains!"

“I think that boy is dying.”

“Should someone call an ambulance?”

"No!" Ember screeched, her legs disappearing into a ghost tail as she abandoned all pretense of acting human and clawed at Kwan.

Sam raised a hand and blasted her away.

Ember recovered swiftly, pulling up midair and grabbing her guitar off her back. "You!" she bellowed, and then strummed a note, sending shockwaves crashing into the crowd that Sam couldn't dodge.

"Ah!" Sam was forced to kneel under the pressure of the soundwaves. Around her, people screamed.

She activated her ice and used it to push her body upright. Gripping onto one ice tower for support, she raised her other hand and sent a blast of ice Ember's way.

Ember dodged smoothly, but the movement had taken her hand off her guitar, and thus interrupted her torturous playing.

Sam steadied herself with the reprieve. Beside her, Kwan groaned, now waking up too after Ember’s attack.

"Ugh…where am I?"

"Don't worry about it," Sam hissed. Then she spun around, grabbing the microphone from Kwan's hand to address the crowd. "Attention everyone! The ghost Ember is targeting this area! Go home or run to a safe zone!"

"You little twerp!" Ember screeched from above.

Meanwhile, the crowd was looking at her blankly.

"Wait...since when is Phantom a girl?" Kwan asked.

Ah. That would be why.

Sighing, she raised the microphone back to her lips. "Yes, everyone, I'm Phantom's...sister. Yup, I'm his sister! He's, uh, on vacation right now and asked me to cover for him! Hello, nice to meet you all. Now please RUN!"

And with that, the crowd took off, running in every which direction. It was chaos, but the people were leaving and that's what Sam wanted.

She dropped the microphone and turned around to face her foe. "Hey, Ember!" she called, her voice catty.

"You're not Phantom's sister. Who the hell are you?"

Sam floated into the air until she was at eye-level with the rocker ghost. "I'm Sam! Remember me? I'm Danny's best friend."

"I thought the geeky weirdo nerd was his best friend."

"I'm the other best friend!"

It took a moment before recognition dawned on her features. Her green eyes widened, and the blue flames on her hair somehow sharpened as she leaned forward, eyes narrowing and lips curving into a smile as she said, "Ooh, I remember you. You were the one who ruined my debut!"

Sensing the challenge, Sam flared her aura in kind. "That's right! Now I've returned."

“Since when were you a ghost?”

“Don’t worry about it!”

"I’m not. I'm gonna make you pay, dipstick number two!"

Ember raised her purple pick to strum just as Sam hoisted her glowing hand up. The two released their powers simultaneously and their energies clashed in midair, sending ectoplasm and sonic booms crashing all around.

Below them, people screamed and ducked down, cowering as the blasts showered over them.

Sam blanched, but barely had time to take in the damage before she saw Ember's hand raised again, her guitar poised for another attack.

"Shit!" Sam raised both hands this time, pushing more energy into the countering blast. But she missed, and Ember's wave hit her like a semi truck.

She was catapulted down, slamming onto the pavement which cracked under her. Pain blossomed on her head, and she thought her vision may have flickered for a second.

But while this kind of injury would have certainly sent her to the emergency room as a human, as a ghost, all she could feel was the adrenaline pumping through her veins. She rolled over and shot out to the side, narrowly dodging Ember's next attack. The edges of the sonic blast still hit her, but she was able to push through the pressure and climb back into the air.

She couldn't fight Ember here. Not so close to all these people.

When Ember raised her hand again, grinning wickedly, Sam shot a blast of ice over to her. Though this time, aiming for the strings of her guitar.

It was a risk, but it paid off. The ice met its mark milliseconds before Ember's pick landed, and at once, the guitar strings were covered in a layer of ice.

Sam laughed. "It's my first day as a ghost, did I forget to mention that? How does it feel to be beaten by a newbie?"

Ember's face darkened, cheeks flushing with green. "Why you little asshole!"

"Oh yeah?" Sam goaded. "Why don't you say that to my face?"

Without waiting for a reply, Sam took off in the other direction. She had the thermos, but Ember wasn't weak enough yet for it to trap her inside. Sam had to wear her down first.

"Get back here!" Ember shouted, but Sam paid no heed, racing down the street and twisting between buildings.

The wind whipped across her body, stinging her exposed cheeks. Cold tears welled at the corners of her eyes, but she made no move to wipe them away. Ember was gaining on her. She needed to fly faster, fly faster.

She pushed her core more until it was at its limits. Street signs, LED lights, and the shapes of people blurred into one. She'd never moved this fast in her life, and like driving down an icy road, she could feel her control slowly slipping away. Panicked, she called forth her intangibility.

Fatigue was beginning to bubble in her chest, but she batted it away. It was too early. She couldn't give up yet.

Ember screamed behind her, hurling fire from her hair. It licked Sam's spectral tail, and she yelped, rolling sideways and narrowly avoiding the brunt of the attack.

She shot down an alley and out the other side into a residential neighborhood. Looking around, she didn't see anyone out and about nearby.

Perfect.

She stopped in the air and whipped around just in time to see Ember throw another fire blast her way.

Sam raised her hands, forming an ice shield. The fire melted it instantly, and she tried to form another, but she wasn't quick enough.

"Shit!" Sam yelled, ducking down as the fire sailed over her head. She could feel the heat singe the tip of her ponytail. Too close.

"That's right! Cower, dipstick! Just lie down and give up!"

Sam straightened, firing another ectoblast back at Ember, who dodged it by a hair's breadth. "The only person cowering here is you, hiding behind all those fake fans!"

Ember glared, her eyes burning with rage. "They're my fans and you took them from me!"

"You hypnotized them! They were never your fans to begin with!" Then she paused. "Well, Tucker might have been your fan anyway, but still!"

That didn't seem to quell Ember's rage, who sent a gust of fire that Sam only barely had time to counter with a blast of ice.

"Just admit it! You've lost!" Sam said. "So why don't you pack up and go home?"

"I can still get them back!"

Sam had to refrain from rolling her eyes hard enough to send them flying off her skull. "No, you can't. I won't let you!"

"Like you're the boss of me!" Ember geared up to shoot more fire at Sam, but then out of seemingly nowhere, a blast of green nailed her shoulder.

Sam spun around, the question dying from her lips the moment she saw who was behind her.

Tucker stumbled out from between two houses. He coughed, half hunched over from panting so hard, half cheering with a single-raised fist. "Booya!" he gasped, sucking in air in between each word. "And that's...what I...like...to call...a sneak attack."

And with that, he collapsed on the ground in a sweating heap of gaudy orange and yellow clothing.

"Tucker!" Sam shouted, reaching out as if to save him.

"Who?" Ember asked.

"Sam!" came another voice from Tucker's hiding place, this one filling her with relief.

Well, until he stepped out into view and she remembered how entirely ridiculous he looked in her black skater skirt, purple leggings, and black crop top.

She grinned. "Danny!"

"I'm all good!" Tucker craned his head up from the sidewalk. "Don't...don't worry about me! I'm gucci here!"

"I'm so glad my mom didn't kidnap and murder you!" Sam said.

Danny smiled mischievously. "Your mom spotted me as planned, and then I ran in the other direction. Managed to shake her off somewhere between Elmer's Park and the Nasty Burger. As far as she's aware, we got out of downtown safely! Though, she might ground you later for ignoring her when she was following you."

"She was....so fast..."

"And persistent," Danny added.

"That...too..."

Sam face-palmed. "Oh man, I'm so grounded later."

"Yup! You are." Danny said, seeming far too cheery for the torturous news he'd just delivered to Sam.

"Okay, okay. Pause." Ember held up her hands in the universal time-out gesture. "What the fuck is going on here, exactly?"

"Oh, hey, Ember!" Danny said as if noticing her for the first time. "How's it hanging?"

"How's it hanging?" Ember guffawed. She pointed to Sam. "Well, your sister just ruined my evening, so pretty shit, actually."

Danny didn't look at all remorseful as he responded, "Oh, bummer! Well, I'll just have to let this supposed-sister handle the rest of it. As you can tell, I'm really not dressed for the ghost-fighting occasion!"

He turned to Sam, offering her a thumbs-up as he said, "You got this!"

Sam smirked, folded her arms, and turned back to Ember. "Yeah, I do got this."

"For sure!" Tucker added, though he still sounded far too on the verge of passing out to offer any sort of confidence.

"So, Ember, you wanna go for round two?" Sam asked.

Ember blinked, gaze swiveling between Sam and Danny, and then again, before she threw her hands up and cried, "No, seriously, what the fuck?"

"I ask myself that same question every day," Tucker said.

"It's called an outfit swap!" Danny said, sweeping his hands over his outfit. "It's all the rage with us teens nowadays."

"You look fucking insane, you know," Ember said.

"You mean I look gorgeous."

"I didn't."

"I think Sam pulls off the ghost look pretty well, though. Don't you think?" Danny asked.

"It's totally goth," Sam agreed, flipping her hair over her shoulder. Then, summoning some ectoplasmic energy to her palms, she added, "I think the green really suits me, too."

"It does!" Danny said.

"I'm so confused."

"Aren't we all?" Tucker said.

"You know what? No." Ember threw her hands up. "Nope! Fuck this shit. Listen, I don't know what the hell is going on, but I refused to be sucked into your weirdo shenanigans tonight. I'm out of here!"

Sam's brows raised in shock. Was confusing Ember really all it took to get her to go back to the Ghost Zone? "You're being for real?" she asked.

"Yup!" Ember pivoted around until her back was to the trio. "I'm going back to the Zone. I'm tired. See ya!"

And with that, she disappeared.

The three of them waited a heartbeat, and then another. But then, Sam felt it: the telltale coolness of her chest receding as her ghost sense ceased detecting Ember around her.

Tucker struggled to his feet. "Are we sure she's actually going to the Ghost Zone?"

"Yeah, she will," Danny said, unconcerned. "When she gives you that look, you know she's over it."

"Wow, congrats then, Sam. You beat Ember!"

Celebratory giddiness washed over her, and she didn't try to fight the smile that overtook her lips. "Wow. Yeah, guys, I did it! I beat Ember!"

Above them, a window slid open. Then, a voice boomed out into the open air, filling the street with a cry so insane, that Sam could have sworn her head exploded right then and there.

"WHOA! PHANTOM! IS THAT YOU?"

Danny cringed, ducking down into his hands while Sam plastered a smile on her face and turned around to meet who could easily turn into her greatest foe of the evening: Dash Baxter.

"Uh, hi," Sam said.

He gasped and leaned so far, he nearly fell out his window. "IT IS YOU! MY WISH CAME TRUE!"

"Your...wish?" Sam asked.

"YEAH! I WISHED PHANTOM WAS A HOT CHICK INSTEAD OF BEING A DUDE, AND THEN BA-BAM! YOU TURNED INTO A HOT CHICK!"

Below them, Tucker guffawed. Thankfully, Dash seemed too preoccupied in his fanboying to notice.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE MY WISH CAME TRUE! THANK GOD! IT WAS TOO WEIRD CRUSHING ON A DUDE, YOU KNOW?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Danny slowly make his way back between the houses and, thankfully, out of Dash's eyeline.

For as exhausted as Tucker was, he quickly followed suit.

"Well...um...thanks? I guess?" Sam looked around as if to plan her escape. But unfortunately, she couldn't see one. It would have been so much easier if Ember had lied and instead of returning to the Ghost Zone, tried to attack her right here and now. That might have been preferable to whatever the hell was happening in front of her.

When the silence turned from awkward to entirely painful, Sam jabbed her thumb over her shoulder and said, "Uh, I'm gonna go now."

"WAIT!"

"What?" Sam asked, internally admonishing herself for responding.

"WILL YOU BE MY GHOST GIRLFRIEND?"

She heard a choke of laughter sound from behind the house, and she shot a glare to the two idiots in hiding.

"Thanks for asking, but...sorry, I have to say no. I'm very busy fighting ghosts, you know."

Dash nodded with more empathy in his eyes than Sam had ever seen him display in his life. "I UNDERSTAND. THANKS ANYWAY AND ENJOY THE TITS!"

Sam would have loved to say that she maintained Phantom's pristine people-pleasing image by giving grace to every single citizen no matter what.

But, of course, Dash was a fucking moron. And as far as Sam was concerned, morons like him deserved to have their face punched in every once in a while.

So, shaking the bruise from her knuckles, she rejoined her friends. Danny's face was beet red, while Tucker, on the other hand, was wheezing laughing so hard, his airy gasps of, "I'm going to piss myself" took about five tries to sound intelligible.

"No funny, Tucker!" Sam glared.

"Are you kidding?" His eyes were wet with tears. "That was hilarious! Dash has a crush on both of you! Oh my god, that was the single greatest thing to ever happen in my life!"

Danny fell to his knees and raked his fingers over his face. "I'm never living this down, am I?"

"Never!" Tucker howled.

"I want to go back to a time where I never had to hear Dash speak," Sam mourned, then she flexed her fists, brightening slightly. "Though, punching him felt pretty cathartic!"

"Wish that were me," Danny bemoaned.

"He'll probably blame you for it anyway, so consider it done."

Tucker doubled over, rasping in uncontrollable laughter all over again. "Oh man, and you punched him! You actually punched him!"

"Hell yeah I did." Her eyes glinted over to Danny, who was still growing redder by the second. "Call that payback for getting me grounded."

"Fair," he said.

"I can't fucking believe you punched him, and that he has the hots for y'all—this is the greatest day of my LIFE"

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up!"

"You know," Sam said, cutting the boys off, "at least we learned something."

"Yeah, we did," Tucker giggled, clearly not thinking along the same lines as her.

Sam zapped him with her finger and ignored his subsequent yelp, continuing, "We learned that he wished for you to change! I bet you anything Desiree was the cause of this."

Danny perked up. "Wait, you're right! If Dash wished this, that definitely means Desiree was involved."

"So, what? We just find her and wish ourselves back to normal again?" Tucker asked.

That was, in fact, exactly what it meant.

The trio searched high and low for any unusual wishes that had come to light, but unfortunately for them, it seemed that Desiree had practiced laying on the down-low since her last escapade into the Human Realm. That also meant she was incredibly difficult to find.

So difficult, in fact, that despite searching for her for another two hours and Sam receiving a text from her mom stating that if Sam didn't get her ass home right now, missy, then the cops were going to be called, they didn't actually find a single wisp of Desiree at all.

Well, not until in a moment of complete and utter exasperation, did Tucker throw in the metaphorical towel and shout into the air, "Ugh! Where is she? I wish Desiree would just show herself already so we could finally go home!"

The wind picked up, and a transcendental feminine voice graced the air, saying, "And so you have wished it, and so it shall be...."

Danny—now back in his normal attire—stared dumbstruck at Tucker. "I can't believe none of us thought of that earlier."

"Oh my god, guys, we're idiots," he agreed.

Sam could do little more than nod numbly as stray leaves and twigs gathered gently in the air, spiraling until the graceful form of Desiree, dressed in her blue and purple Persian attire, appeared before them. Her thick, black hair flowed down her back, fading at the ends midway down her spectral tail. She raised a silver-bangled hand, her glowing green skin standing out in the night air, and said, "Hello, you three. I had a feeling I would be seeing you soon."

"Yeah, you think?" Danny asked. "What gives?"

"I was merely granting a wish." Her red eyes trailed over to Sam, hovering at the ready just in case. "Though, it seems that you've already caught on."

"You could say that," Sam answered.

Desiree clasped her hands together, looking almost like a ballerina as she did so. "I'm assuming you would like me to set you right again?"

"Yes," Danny said readily.

"Please. I'm so tired," Tucker agreed.

Sam tilted her head. Despite the rocky start to her day, she'd done pretty damn well as a halfa if she did say so herself. And now that she was starting to get the hang of these ghost powers, they were very fun.

But in fairness, they weren't really her ghost powers to begin with. As fun as they were to borrow for the day, she knew she had to return them to their rightful owner. Even if it pained her to do so.

"Alright," she relented. "You can take them back. It's not like I'm going to be able to use them with how grounded I'm about to be, anyway."

"I'd be surprised if your mom didn't put surveillance in your room after this," Tucker said.

Yeah, she'd be surprised too.

Danny stepped forward, head held high as he commanded, "I wish my ghost core was back in my body!"

"So you have wished it, so it shall be!"

The air picked up around them, and Sam felt her body rise as an invisible blanket gently wrapped itself around her and hoisted her into the air. Her aura glowed like a thousand lightning bugs illuminating at once, and she shut her eyes, letting it take over. The core in her chest stirred, and her body was plunged into a snowstorm as it seemed to expand, growing stronger, stronger, until Sam was sure it would burst. But just before it became unbearable, like a marionette on a string, it was gently guided from her chest.

She gasped, her breath freezing in her lungs as the glowing orb of pure ectoplasmic energy exited her body. Her eyes flew open, and she watched as it slowly drifted to Danny who was floating across the way.

As soon as it entered his body, she felt the liquid ice that had been a constant in her veins since she'd woken up begin to recede as her enshrouding aura began to pull toward Danny. As the last strands of it left her fingertips, she was tenderly lowered to the ground.

Heat rushed into Sam’s body, filling in the gaps where the chill had abandoned her. A shiver crawled up her spine, and then her body settled, the heat dispersing around her torso, spreading out to the tips of her fingers and toes. It felt…strangely right, somehow, even as her chest was missing that persistent core.

There was a moment of silence where the world seemed to hold its breath, and then Danny raised a timid hand to his chest, and a grin spread across his lips. “I’m back.”

“Thank fuck!” Tucker cheered. “Now I can finally go home and sleep!”

“Congrats, Danny.” Sam offered a small smile, flexing her now-human fingers. Without the cold, all her bruises were beginning to hurt. At least the one on her knuckles was for a good cause.

“Thanks for keeping this safe for me,” Danny said.

“No problem.”

Desiree brushed the invisible dirt off her clothing. “Well, now that my work is done, I assume I’ll be off.”

“To the Ghost Zone, right?” Danny flashed his eyes at her.

It was a challenge, of course, that she picked up on instantly, giving a wry smile in return. “But of course.”

Danny insisted on accompanying her to the portal, which while he claimed was only because he wanted to be polite, Sam knew fully well was because he didn't trust her as far as he could throw her, even if their relationship had improved since their first few encounters. But true to her word, Desiree took the directive with grace, going through the portal to the Ghost Zone with little more than the tilt of her head Sam's way.

They watched the swirling green fizzle out from where Desiree had left them, and with a final sigh, Danny closed the portal doors behind her.

Tucker nearly slumped over his chair. "Oh, thank god. I thought this day was never going to end."

"Right?" Sam yawned, fatigue washing over her. "I'm beat."

"Well, at least you don't have to worry about not having the ghost powers anymore. 'Cause after this, your mom is definitely going to kill you."

Her stomach dropped. "Oh, fuck. I'd forgotten about that."

"At least you won't have to feel Dash's disappointment at being punched by his hero tomorrow." Danny slumped over.

"You could punch him too, you know. There's nothing stopping you," Sam pointed out.

Where she thought he would argue with her, he just tilted his head, as if weighing the options. "You know," he started, speaking slow. "I guess...yeah, I mean, I could punch him. It's not like I haven't already gotten enough detentions. One more wouldn't hurt. Or, do you think they'd suspend me?"

"Are you kidding?" Tucker snorted. "Dale and Austin were swinging at each other last week and they were sent back to class an hour later."

"Fair point."

"Alright, I better go home before my mom calls SWAT. Danny?"

"On it!" Danny sauntered over to them both, transforming. "Let’s get you guys back home."

"I've never heard such sweet words come out of your mouth before," Tucker said.

"Oh, shut up."

Sam wrapped her arm around his cold body, and instead of the ominous chill she normally felt around ghosts—even Danny, though she'd never tell him—this time, it felt oddly familiar. Comforting, even.

"I did pretty good today, admit it." She smirked at him.

"Don't get cocky now." He returned the grin and took off into the air. This time when he turned invisible and intangible to shoot through the basement, it was almost nostalgic to her skin. And when the air rushed over her face, she felt herself preen like a peacock in its gusts.

"But yes," Danny said, leaning into her once they leveled out over the air. "You did awesome."

She already knew she had, but the validation still made her feel warm all the same.

Well, until she had to step through her front door, at which point the click of a high heel and a screeching "SAMANTHA EMILY MANSON" pierced her ears.

And thus, her second death of the day commenced.

#ectoimplosion2024 #danny phantom #my writing #fanfiction #dp fic #i was genuinely laughing while writing Dash's bit here #well also in the first chapter #but his dialogue with Sam here is probably my fave part

17 notes · View notes

sirfrogsworth · 2 months ago

Note

Are you familiar with Jared Polin, aka 'Fro Knows Photo'? I'm not a pro like him, nor do I aspire to be, but I can put his tips into practice, such as putting my money into 'glass glass glass glass glass' with the D600. Thanks to a miserable season, baseball tickets today are dirt cheap. Thanks to KEH, heavy artillery glass was a bargain. Plan on getting action shots with the 80-200mm at f/2.8, 1/2000 sec and letting the camera deal with the ISO. Beauty shots around the park 'f/8 and be there.' Hope you're well today. Let's Go Bucs!

I have mixed feelings about Jared. He can be crass and some of his photography opinions are old school and outdated. Though he has gotten better over the years and I actually enjoy his videos more now than in the past.

My main gripe is that he doesn't believe in cropping photos, which bothers me to no end. The beauty of having high megapixel cameras is the ability to crop in and almost get a "second lens" without having to actually buy one. As a disabled photographer who cannot always "zoom with my feet" sometimes I have to take photos knowing I will be cropping them later on.

The main reason for "not cropping" goes back to film and prints. Your photos would always end up the same size and aspect ratio. Also, 35mm film did not enlarge very well, especially with the low sharpness lenses from the past. That is not a constraint with presenting photos in a digital medium.

I also think he cranks the contrast up on his photos to a ridiculous degree. I want to re-edit all of his photos because anything in shadow gets lost. But that is more of a subjective complaint.

He is a great natural light, documentary style photographer. And I do think his real world testing of gear is a good perspective over some of the other camera reviewers that do nothing but lab tests. (Both have their place.)

In the end, he has a lot of experience and has some pretty stunning photos in his portfolio. And I do like that he isn't afraid of high ISO photography like some others can be. So as long as you ignore his advice about cropping, I do think he has a lot to teach.

If I could recommend one photographer to folks who are in the beginning of their photography journey, I think it would be French-Canadian wildlife photographer, Simon d'Entremont. (pronounced see-mon) Even if you aren't into wildlife shooting, his photography education/communication skills are fantastic. He breaks everything down into very easy-to-understand chunks and makes very few (if any) factual errors. He is a good balance of artistic and technical and gives very practical advice for getting better shots. And his work is absolutely stunning.

I also think you might enjoy Sean Tucker. He tends to be less about gear and more about the art and philosophy of photography.

And you are correct, lenses are far more important than any other piece of gear. They are the main thing that sets big cameras apart from smartphones. You can't break the laws of physics and certain things require more than a tiny plastic lens can do.

Also, I miss baseball. I really enjoyed watching games with my dad when he was sick and had trouble concentrating on shows with a narrative. But it has been hard for me to watch a game since he passed. So I just follow some baseball YouTube channels to dip my toe back into that world every once in a while. I think I just need more time and I will get back into baseball again. Also, the Cardinals seem to be struggling so this was probably a good time to step away.

Though I do feel like I am missing out on seeing Shohei Ohtani's career develop.

17 notes · View notes

tklyhcs · 1 year ago

Text

alright uhhh i saw some people requesting this on other blogs so i'm stealing those actually, taking those thanks (using this an excuse)!! this isn't the fandom i necessarily wanted to start with but the other ones i wanna write have insane amounts of characters so boy band men first i guess

(IF YOU SAW ME ACCIDENTALLY PUBLISH THIS TOO SOON, NO YOU DIDN'T)

heartsteel hcs here we gooo

kayn 💜

ok fr he's so fun to write for, didn't expect this one to be so cute. easy ler and lee! he likes to be a little bully and use his dirty little grabbers, mostly at ez let's be real. he isn't confident he's gonna win any other matchup so ez is easy picking. and thanks to the blooper reel k'sante is another target because kayn is a scrapper and crawls all over him like a monkey. mostly spiders his fingers all over and laughs evilly like he's won a hard fought battle. he's slinky and quick so he mostly has his target begging for someone else's help, and when they do get said assistance he cries and whines that it's not fair. don't be fooled he enjoys the extra attention!

he just plays to win all the time so when someone else tags in he's sure make everyone know that HE WOULD HAVE WON!!!! HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR EVERYONE ELSE CHEATING!!!! and man that stupid leash why does he even wear it if someones gonna tie his wrists in a knot. and like a true lee he wears that crop top so when he's all tangled go for the abs! he laughs so much it becomes obvious how he got so cut, by laughing his lungs out apparently. when he laughs his fangs show too it's cute.

he's also painfully obvious about not minding since he neeeever calls mercy, never surrenders. he just deals with it! not something someone who DOESN'T enjoy it would do. he could easily call mercy and call it quits but hmmmm he doesn't seem to want to, odd.

for spots i wanna say the waist is really really bad. top of the ribs under the armpits, his abs, his sides, all have him kicking his legs with a shout. he also scream laughs, explodes into laughter at first touch. but his voice also cracks at the first yelp, sounds like a cute lil boy shriek. partial to being "attacked", as he calls it, on the couch. he likes getting to be able to flop down and pass out after, sorta like a little kid it's so fucking cute bro he tuckers himself out laughing and wriggling on his back. dude is exhausted n happy (he swears he is NOT happy abt this) he's just tired for no reason okay. now it's his post giggle episode nap!

k'sante 💛

hear me out ok when i saw his shirt being a turtleneck i was IMMEDIATELY LIKE 🫵 his spot is the neck. it's so the neck. suddenly for him there's more than a few perks of being like.. 6'7" and it's not just being able to get things from high shelves. kayn and ez are menaces to this man it's gotta be 2 on 1. and in the official art pieces, ez getting carried on his back? oof k'sante y'all shouldn't have done that. cause now there's legs locked around his chest and ez is like SURRENDER OR DIEEE and getting all up into that shirt collar. he SCREECHES and spins around trying to shake him off he's stuck on him now. hopping around doing a lil giggly dance with ez on his back. kayn jokes and teases about how instead of focusing on singing, he should work on his dancing instead!

thanks to the blooper reel i can die on the hill that k'sante is a whiny boy and calls yone for help all the time. yoneee helpppp they're bullying me m gonna tell yoneee aaaa. kayn saying OH YOU BIG BABY stop complaining!! no one to help you now! ez is this guy's worst nightmare his cold little fingers are like knives on his neck. k'sante tends to run hot so they're just so nicely sticking a cold can of soda to his nape to help obviously. yone will help sometimes but mainly just because he's trying to keep the team on track (he will also torture k'sante with cold soda cans).

necks are a good tickle bite's worst enemy. chomp. and when someone is up in there biting, he just has to laugh and wait til it's over ☺ and with both of his elbows bent up so he can use his hands to cover his neck. gasp.. who's to protect his armpits! 🤭 noooo one! his neck is his worst spot so he'll make sure to keep it covered! but that does mean he'll get some armpit tickles instead! pick your poison k'sante. they team up on him like this often and ngl he likes it when they're close on em! sweethearts. but he doesn't wanna LOSE so he brings his puppy eyes to yone he's like 👉👈 yone.. help.. what a cop out! but it's not that great of a cute beg it's more like k'sante scream laughing and attempting puppy eyes but yelling HELP AAAA YONE HELP awkwardly waggling his arms. i love making big men be tickly and look foolish. sorry i love embarrassing them uwu

ezreal 💚

wow what a lee he's textbook lee i bet he has a secret tumblr account for all his private tk blogging activities. there's a lot to say about him: MOST IMPORTANTLY though his cute smile alright look at his teeth they're so fucking cute i'm obsessed. probably his only weapon as a ler are his sharp teeth. pointed and dull at the very bottom makes for very ticklish bites, so beware if you're too confident in winning! he will wiggle his head between your head and shoulder and bite! exaggerated fake growls and all. he'll be a little too proud of winning, so don't let him.

he has a reaaaally cute snort laugh too. i think his fans would document it thoroughly and embarrass him by posting clips of it nonstop. he has a more controlled laugh for outings because he's serious about his fandom image, but sometimes he laughs at something and chokes on his breath a bit there. i think it would be a shame of someone (kayn) decided to squeeze his side and make him giggle and snort while he's doing some filmed social media trend. that would soooo bad amiright 🫶 lol he would scream, cover his mouth, and tell his followers that he's BUSY and MUST LEAVE immediately. he basically RUNS to his room to scream into his pillow. like how dare u embarrass him in front of his online friends.

the clip hits all platforms in record time and he maaaay read a few comments because it's people saying it's cute of him and he secretly fawns over those. like "omg you think i'm cute heehee" he's ridiculous. but phel and kain playfully tease him sending pig emojis 🐖🐖🐖 ez is like "DON'T SEND THOSE TO ME DON'T- HEY DON'T POST THAT ON SOCIAL NOOO DON'T COMMENT MY FANS WILL SEE" and they all affectionately change his name in their phones to 🐖 just to tease him.

for spots, he'd be ticklish up sides to his ribs, spidering fingers have him slumped into the couch, laughing hard and snorting, of course. his feet and knees are quite ticklish! only known because he tends to put his feet up and yone continuously tells him to knock it off. but he found that suddenly tickling his socked foot does the trick.

aphelios 💙

he's a difficult one, since he's not much of a talker! but not like he's spared from anyone's wrath. his laugh is what you'd expect and it's fantastic; breathy, wheezy, and full of obvious mirth.

he's prone to pranking the others and while he can be nonchalant and aloof, sometimes the sight of one of the others falling or making utter fools of themselves has him in stitches (and being forced to laugh via tickling is no different). and when he wears his mask it's especially endearing to see his eyes screwed shut as well as him holding his stomach and hunching over, shoulders shaking.

he can't help acting like a little troublemaker and they always pounce on him after he gets someone good with those pranks he pulls. seems like he's more playful than he looks. if anyone stretches, he's the first to poke. if someone gets stuck doing something, phel is there making sure he doesn't waste the opportunity, what a jerk! so do everyone a favor and give him a taste of his own medicine. he's his own worst enemy though, because once he starts wheezing in laughter you pounce on him with tickles and it's downhill from there. he's already laughing so he has no chance of fending off an attack.

and a secret: he's very weak to teasing too! he doesn't talk back he just hides his face in shyness. they fall for a trap he's so deviously placed and now he's under them, mumbling out giggles when they poke him all over saying "what's so funny huh??" he waves his hands at them and pushes em by the shoulders trying to curl up the best he can. pokes drive him nuts and then when you speed up it's even worse, him trying to catch the offending hands. "no timeouts allowed because you started it!"

but it seems like he just doesn't stop pranking the others, so he must like it more than he lets on. he's surprisingly a goofy lil boy. he laughs himself silly, voice hitching and gasping all the way. he laughs himself DIZZY it's cute. he's like kayn he needs a break after. and usually even after whoever is done bullying him, he spends his time giggling quietly his skin still feels electric. he sure is brave for someone who takes so much time to recover.

yone ❤

he's a fun one, the stoic characters always are. most likely to screw his mouth shut and try to deal with pesky fingers at his ribs until he can't any longer. prone to overworking so breaking his concentration is absolutely a necessary activity. and also breaking his concentration playing video games is also crucial, because according to sett he plays too well so he must suffer and be prodded at during playtime too. -i mean what sett would never stoop so low he says.

anyways- yone's usually the mediator but he can get caught up in the mess when someone points out that he's been getting off the hook when it comes to roughhousing. he typically prefers 1 on 1, so he won't lose kayn says. and maybe that's true no one knows. he's really REALLY good at pretending he isn't at all sensitive and keeps it together for, i dunno, 5 seconds. it doesn't seem like a lot BUT it deters most. not these motherfuckers they're in it to win it.

yone will hold back then the giggles bubble up in his throat and you can hear him hum a moment, then they spill out from his lips. he mumbles and whispers out giggles for a moment then it becomes very apparent he won't win this fight and he covers his mouth. that's when it's over. he really starts to laugh and realizes the sensations just won't stop and he's lost. he's most likely to swear actually lol he's like i can handle this. i can handle this..... Fuck.

once he's attempted to cover his mouth he has already lost. he has a very nice, boisterous laugh and his smile is also a 10/10. it's nice to not see his eyebrows furrowed so much. he's lucky he's good at catching people's offending wiggly fingers or else he'd fall apart way more often. so when they trail fingers up his back where he can't reach them or fend them off? it drives him nuts. index finger from the nape and down the spine has him arching and twisting away with a loud yelp.

and that leaves the stomach vulnerable and that's next. tickling at his stomach and he jumps back and grabs whoever's wrist and says to CUT THAT OUT. okay mr. grumpy, jeez. it works as a good attitude adjustment because if he's mad at one of em for fooling around, this can easily divert his attention. k'sante usually has the job of doing so but when he does, he doesn't get yone's support the next time he's on defense. in fact, yone might lead the charge.

sett 🧡

hahaaaa oh man last but not least. most ticklish easily what a mess. being 6 foot 10 is not gonna help him here. sure he can rough somebody up but this is way more difficult for him. the one to be on the floor first begging "pleeheheaasee-" and kicking his leg like a puppy.

he's OBVIOUSLY most sensitive in the midsection he's a tummy boy okay just trust me. and this man may lift, box, it doesn't matter because if you knead his midsection his strength goes right out the window. you can feel him paw at your prodding hands with the weakest grip you've ever seen. his worst enemy is when you do the claw hand on his belly he's in hysterics i'm telling you. wiggling on his back saying "i give! i give!" and flopping onto his side when he's released from their tickly clutches. now, make that two pairs of hands, or ten, he doesn't have a chaaaaance.

he's definitely a good tickle monster to the others but once they elect k'sante to hold him down (he can bench sett apparently so he's gotta be the bad guy on this one) he's like "NOO DON'T DO IT GUYS I'M SORRYEHHEEHE" he preemptivey starts laughing when he sees wiggling fingers creeping closer and closer to him, begging wildly for mercy before anything happens. he calls out to each one of them, praying that they'll help! he's not the one to take what he dishes out.

and also the ears! don't forget about those! they are oh so ticklish and they twitch when you touch them. roll the delicate ear between two of your fingers and it has him in a fit of giggles. any fighting techniques he might know mean nothing in the face of a laughing fit.

first to help someone relieve stress via giving attention and being a stress toy himself. though, he's prone to going after someone first even if he always loses. we appreciate his effort. he'll probably have someone fighting on his side simply because he's a lost cause. has a good relationship with physical affection! his favorite to give: ticklish kisses n raspberries, in combo with a hug of course. try not to get caught in his clutches. if those are his tactics.. maybe he does deserve to get got. he's not as embarrassed as his track record would suggest! takes his inevitable loss in stride.

haaa this long as fuck 👍 i don't think i've written anything at all since 2018 or smth really i tried to keep these diverse so lmk how i did! also like always i do not reread and check anything so. this is it

#heartsteel #my post #i wanted to originally do mortal kombat 1 hcs but they got too many characters so heartsteel goes first

12 notes · View notes

cinnademon · 2 years ago

Note

Hey! I was wondering if you have any tips/ would be willing to share your process for drawing character faces and expressions? It's something I'm trying to improve in my own art, and I adore how specific and clearly readable yours are across all your different pieces.

Absolutely! To start, I wouldn't say I have a "process", it kind of varies depending on the style of the piece I'm doing. That being said, since most of my art here is mostly all comic book/animesque style, I'll give some info on how I tackle expressions and how to build a good foundation for any expressions you want to draw.

The Basics: The Skull

Everything starts with the skull 💀 I've spent a lot of time learning the underlying structure of the human head, namely the skull and facial muscles. The skull is divided into many zones and regions (of which I do not remember all the scientific names), so to simplify things, I divide the skull into the four main parts below:

(I simplify the maxilla and teeth into a circle, since it's approximately curved when closed.)

I usually spend at least 5 min a day just doodling skulls so that way I don't lose the visual inventory I have in my mind. It makes it easier when I want to sketch characters and expressions on the fly.

That's the structure, but now you need to learn how the motion of the skull actually works. Do studies of how the jaw moves compared to the cranium and maxilla. This is important because if you want to draw your characters screaming/crying/arguing etc., you need to understand how the face stretches to accommodate the open jaw.

It's also important to learn how to draw the skull in 3D space. Yep, I'm talking about head angles. For my Tucker Neon post, since we’re staring down at him from a high angle I drew a rough skull to figure out how his facial features would work in this perspective:

Having a good understanding of the skull will provide you with a solid blueprint for drawing any expressions you want, which brings us to...

Facial Muscles

If the skull is the foundation, I would say that the facial muscles are loosely the “architecture” of a person’s face. It’s always moving, always changing, and learning how they behave across the human face is a must for nailing expressions. To get a better idea of how the muscles contract/stretch across your face, I would recommend two things: scrunch your face, and use a mirror!

Here you can feel all the areas that crease, which areas are tighter, and which areas “lift” more when you work those muscles! 💪 These creases can add more emotion and intensity to whatever expression you’re drawing; how much creasing depends on the intensity, which is up to you.

This is something that manga & anime make excellent use of; they’re not shy when it comes to conveying what their characters are feeling:

Which brings us to our last topic...

Stylization

Are these guidelines I said so far hard rules? No, they are not. Part of drawing expressions is stylizing and exaggerating realistic human proportions and behaviors. This is why I love collecting anime expression studies. Look at these awesome faces and acting:

And here’s some western animation examples added for good measure:

Do real-life mouths stretch like that? Or do eyebrows move on top of the eyes when you glare? No, but it’s all in the service of exaggerating the expressions and emotions that the characters are feeling and really communicating that intent with your audience. You learn the structure of the skull and facial muscles to get a good understanding of how they work, and then you use what you know to stretch and exaggerate the physical limitations of the human face.

Essentially: Learn the rules so that you can break them.

And now that I have subjected you to my long-winded TED talk, let me get to answering your actual question and showing you my process! 😂

When I’m drawing expressions, I act them out in front of a mirror; this is the best way to learn expressions, by drawing them from real life. As you can see, sometimes I do a quick sketch of a skull to get an angle accurate, but if a character is stylized or facing the viewer at eye level, I just skip ahead to the final sketch.

I hope this was helpful! I’m going to include a post full of good resources and tutorials on drawing expressions later today!

#tutorial #my art #expressions #facial expressions #faces #asks #threewaysdivided

33 notes · View notes

rubykgrant · 1 day ago

Text

(I mean to answer this forever ago, but got distracted, then forgot, I'm sorry~)

Church; (when has a body and can do people things) Gets into cooking, he's genuinely really good at it (and he likes to just inhale onions). He's gotta be all contrary about it and act snippy the whole time, but he really does want to be the one who helps take care of other people. He's really into mystery/detective movies (and that's where a lot of his corny quotes like "It's quiet... TOO quiet" comes from). Finally gets a dog for Theta (a little pitbull/Australian shepherd mix, Theta names him d'Artagnan or "Dart" for short~)

Tex; (also able to do people things) She digs motorcycles, and likes going to races (for dirt and ice tracks). She'll find random people to challenge for arm-wrestling (they have no idea who she is), make a big bet that she'll win, and then collect all their money. She actually kinda sucks at video games, or at least isn't as good as some of the others, and it drives her nuts. She likes to go BIG on Halloween decorations (she has a 20 ft skeleton guy). Gets into gardening (eventually wants space to do lots of vegetables and corn)

Tucker; One of those people who looks younger than he is (even past 50). With less time worrying about life and death situations, and also being less insecure now that he's older, he has more fun with fashion and jewelry (he's had his ears pierced since his teens, but he's finally started to get more pretty ones; he really likes his pair of little golden hearts, and a pair of silver moons that have opalescent stones in the center). Starts collected media from his own childhood to share with Junior. While they didn't "go big" with the band, Tucker finds he has a genuine talent with music, starts thinking about maybe helping at a creative arts school/working with other artists

Caboose; The rare person who can make the idea of "friends with benefits" actually work, because he legit cares about being friends (he's a lot more experienced with relationships than people expect, and understands different ways to share affection). Watches vet/animal care shows so he can learn how to care for any creature he might meet. REALLY dislikes the feeling of having dust/dirt on his hands (the downside of not wearing armor with gloves all the time). Is a total pack-rat, keeping all kinds of things, and collecting more

Wash; He had a little punk-phase as a kid, and was also a skater boy (so he looked like an edgey Bart Simpson). He's fully embraced being a cat guy, he takes in kittens and feral cats that need help being socialized before finding them homes. He's had the tendency in the past to try and ignore parts of his life that were painful (which isn't actually very good), so he finally starts looking back on who he used to be and things he used to enjoy (in particular, watching his old favorite cartoons, and bringing his friends along for the ride)

Carolina; She was a whole anime kid. While she's got nerves of steel for serious real-life situations, certain kids of horror movies/books really get to her (not so much gore/jump-scares, but stuff with slow building unease). When she has gum, she just keeps adding another piece and another piece, until she's chewing all of it in her mouth. She spent so much time focusing on surviving, she kinda forgot what kind of candies and treats she likes (don't worry, Grif encourages her to rediscover the joy of sweet goodies). She gets bored with games that are just shooters, but loves side-scrolling button-mashing 9she can zone-out and play Smash Bros forever)

Kai; While she doesn't always know which colors are which, she still enjoys fashion, and likes styles that are unique/asymmetrical. She legit knows real wrestling moves (but also enjoys the theatrics of 'rasslin!). Once, when she and her bro got sent to different foster homes as kids, and she wasn't allowed to visit him for a week... Kai very carefully took EVERYTHING apart in the entire house (emptied every food and soap container on the floor, disassembled the TVs/computer, pulled stuffing out of couch cushions/pillows, etc. she got sent to a new foster family, and could see her bro again). She really likes play with other people's hair, doing braids/clips

Sarge; There are small little bits of truth in all the outlandish lies he's told (for example; he didn't work as a livestock judge, but he helped out at a county fair as a kid, and admired the guy who WAS the judge there). Keeps his hair buzzed short forever, but does eventually let his facial hair grow out to a beard. Likes to take hiking trips out to the wilderness (sometimes bringing back sticks for whittling). Secretly loves romantic-drama movies (everybody knows, but they don't let him know they know). Will insist on feeding his Red Boys more veggies at BBQs, and loads Grif up on stir-fry carrots because "They're ORANGE. Go on, eat 'em"

Simmons; Used to keep his hair very neat and short (because his parents insisted when he was younger, and later because it was regulation for the military), but during Chorus it started to get away from him... one day he pulls it back to see how much he needs to trip, and decides he likes having a ponytail (makes him feel like a cool hacker guy!). Has Dyscalculia, so it is difficult for him to keep numbers organized in his head without something to help visualize representations (he's still good at math, but if he's on the spot trying to come up with an answer, he needs to tap his fingers or see something so it makes sense). Out of armor, other people mistake him and Carolina for siblings

Grif; When they were little and didn't have much food in the house, little Dex would give the last of the cereal or soup to Kai (then go steal a pack of cookies from the grocery store to eat before school). When their lives all settle down, Grif decides to go back to college and prove everybody who ever called him stupid wrong (he gets degrees in philosophy, history, sociology, and civics. so there!). Even when he was super stressed out and not taking very good care of himself, his hair was just magically beautiful and never tangled (this used to make Kai SO jealous). He does indeed know how to swim, but like with many skills he has, keeping this a secret is a tactical way to avoid extra work

Donut; Will go smell every single fancy soap and candle in a store, collect them, and give specially selected ones to his friends. When he was young, a lot of disasters hit his home town, and the kids had to leave for safety (both of his moms had different jobs transporting other people/rebuilding areas. he had to stay with a few foster families, until he joined the Red Army). Starts gaining some healthy weight back as he grows up. Naturally strawberry-blonde, but has started dying it a lighter shade, and styling it so it is short on the side with the "spider explosion" scar

Doc (and O'Malley~); While the Omega AI helped give more of a voice to part of Doc, the voice itself that O'Malley later used really did come from Doc (like Wash, he revisits things from his childhood, and finds a show he used to watch with his brother, with a villain who sounds VERY familiar... it connects a few dots). Doc also goes back to med school, and becomes a legit doctor! They go to local farmer's markets, and get into arguments with people think "making honey kills bees". Doc does indeed have everybody's birth chart memorized, but less for horoscopes, more for things like birth stones/flowers/etc. O'Malley likes collecting ornamental skeleton figurines (it works out fine; they have a skeleton incense burner for all of Doc's aroma therapy incense)

drop ur blues and reds thoughts or hcs please im desperate

#red vs blue #long post

21 notes · View notes

omegasmileyface · 2 years ago

Text

Of All the People - Ch. 10

hehe. i love a-lister dialogue <3 written, shockingly, by @ectolemonades and @attackradish and myself for invisobang, with chapter 1 art by @/toasty-ghosti :3

whole fic summary: After a stupid dare puts Dash Baxter in the lab at Fentonworks during the middle of a ghost fight, he finds himself a little more spectral than usual. Apparently Danny Fenton’s gone through the same thing (someone has got to call OSHA on these guys eventually), and who could better help Dash than his hero? His lame, stubborn hero?

warnings: Nothing for this chapter! In others, existential crises, and Spectra.

words: 1846

AO3 link

first chapter

previous chapter

next chapter

===

"GUYS."

Dash's arrival to the hallway table where the A-listers sat before school was frantic.

"I need to tell you something." His voice was hushed, posture hunched, eyes darting conspiratorially.

Paulina matched his tone but kept to more subtle body language. Looking like you were hiding something was basically an open invitation for other students to listen in. It was the agreed-upon social signal that something was gossip and not just information. And this was looking like something that could not become gossip. "Is this about ghosts?"

"No. Well, I guess. Kinda. It's…"

He bit his lip for a few seconds. His friends were patient.

"I think I have a crush on Fenton."

While Dash's face wrinkled up, Paulina's stretched into a grin. She let herself lean forward. While this wasn't gossip she wanted going public, it was gossip, and she was going to respect that.

"Fenton?" asked Star. "Are you— I mean, not that that's bad or anything! But are you sure? He was pretty cool when he was showing us those Yetis and everything but being cool doesn't keep him from being a dweeb. A cool dweeb is still a dweeb."

"Give him some credit!" piped up Paulina. "A cool dweeb is still cool. I would say Fenton's coolness is enough to override his dweebiness. Because of the ghost fighting."

"I mean yeah but the emotional shift after years of—"

"Is this really news?"

Everyone looked at Kwan.

"I mean, now that we know he's… y'know. I thought we had accepted that Dash's whole thing with Phantom was some kind of a crush. So shouldn't that be a given?"

"That—! Was that a crush?" Dash was beet red by now.

"You know what?" Star shifted in her seat to look at Dash like a lawyer might look at a potential client or a wolf might look at a piece of meat. "Suddenness or un-suddenness aside, we're talking about your current feelings. Tell us what's got you flustered around Danny."

"What? Do you just want blackmail material or something? I didn't come here for an interview!"

"No no," said Paulina, "this is important information in our journey of understanding ghosts."

Kwan nodded seriously.

"So is it the patient understanding he shows when you train?"

"Or the way, when he needs to, he picks you up like you weigh nothing?" added Star, helpfully.

"Or how he always looks like he's defying gravity when he laughs?" added Kwan, doubly so.

"Or—"

"As a matter of fact it would be all of those things." Dash's hissing wasn't entirely human, but his friends didn't seem to care as they broke out into a chorus of combined "aww"s and laughter. His glare was just as ineffective.

"Well, I'll bet he feels the same way about you."

"Yeah! Any ghost boy would be lucky to have a catch like you."

Dash hoped that was true.

===

"Guyyys…"

Danny's moan was muffled from his spot laying on a branch of the tree where he and his friends spent their mornings.

"Aww, I know that tone. Is this about ghosts?" asked Sam teasingly.

"Kinda." He slid off the branch and landed, clumsy but silent, on the grass. "I think Dash has a crush on me."

Tucker finally looked up from his PDA. "As in, Dash Baxter? The very Dash Baxter who, on our Zone trip the other day, asked Frostbite if the Ghost Zone had, quote, 'barcades but for dead people'? That Dash?"

"Yes!"

"Can I politely ask where you got the idea that Dash, a literal high school quarterback who I'm pretty sure was yanked out of his home universe of a shitty 80s coming-of-age movie and stuck in ours, has a crush on 'freaky-geeky-Fenton'?"

Danny frowned at Sam. "Well, you didn't have to say it like that."

"Sorry. Dashing, charming Fenton? Who I will remind you is a boy?"

"That's better."

Tucker patted his shoulder.

"And just because he's a living cliché doesn't mean he's straight. Look at Tucker 'The Womanizer' Foley over here. Just because he's never landed a date doesn't mean he's ever wanted one."

"Hey, man, there's a difference between trying to get a date to see what the hype's all about and being a literal bully. If Dash has an ounce of queer in him, he's not just burying it, he's giving it cement shoes and sending it swimming with the fishes off a Brooklyn pier."

"Look, however he feels about his sexuality, I'm pretty sure he has a crush on me and I have no idea how to feel about that!"

"Once again. Source?"

Danny huffed and pulled at some grass by his legs. "I can sorta taste it. I think."

"Oh shit!" Tucker perked up. "Is this that emotional feeding thing we've been talking about? — I know," he cut in before Danny could interrupt, "I know. Not feeding."

"Not on purpose at least." Sam received another frown.

"Yeah… it's kinda been there for a while. Sometimes he'll look at me when I'm doing something and then there'll just be… warm. And shocked, and bright like sour candy, and hesitant. And sometimes his heartbeat picks up when that happens. It tastes kinda like admiration and excitement, so I figured… it couldn't really be much else. I don't know."

"Mm." Tucker thought for a moment. "Well, do you like him back?"

Danny sputtered. His friends looked at him with anticipation.

"I— huh? Not that I know! Fuck, the guy's been bullying me for years and now I have to keep him out of trouble while he's looking at me like I have all the answers when I barely have my own ghost stuff figured out! Why would I have a crush on him?"

"Because he's determined enough to keep trying to help," said Sam.

"And he's kept your secret with the utmost devotion."

"And he rocks that varsity jacket-skinny jeans combo."

"And he keeps a closet full of teddy bears because he loves them so much."

"And—"

"Shut up! Oh my God. This is gonna be just like when I told you guys about my crush on Spike in middle school. I'm not just gonna, what, develop feelings for my origin story high school bully because we're training together now or whatever."

Tucker turned to Sam with a wholly serious face. "And they were half-ghosts."

"Oh my God they were half-ghosts."

"Fuck you guys. I'm gonna go fail a pre-calc quiz."

Danny's friends laughed as they got to their feet and walked with him.

…Dash did make that varsity jacket look good.

===

Paulina spent class patiently waiting for free study time. With the test coming up, she knew today’s lecture would be short before they were granted an opportunity to study quietly in small groups.

It was as if the stars had aligned for her. Statistics was the only class her respective friend group had without Dash, and the only class she had with Sam and Tucker that didn’t have Danny. She had been itching to talk to Sam – something she never thought she’d experience, but their groups had grown close recently, given the circumstances. Finally, finally, after a brief review of the formulae they’d be applying on the test, they were given study guides for the rest of the period.

Paulina wrote a note to Sam, waiting until their teacher was distracted to casually adjust her hair and drop the folded slip of paper on the desk behind her.

‘Dash has a crush on Danny.’ The note was straightforward. They knew they had to keep their communications as brief and private as possible for the time being; if the A-Listers were suddenly best friends with the people they’d relentlessly bullied, someone might stick their nose where it didn’t belong. It would be a gradual process.

She absently scribbled on her worksheet, waiting for some type of cue that Sam acknowledged this information. She felt Sam tap her shoulder, and smoothly reached up to take the paper she was passed.

‘We know.’

Paulina couldn’t contain her eyeroll when she read it. She felt Kwan’s gaze on her, expecting an update, and shook her head at him. This told her nothing. How did they know? Did Danny even remotely feel the same?

How was she supposed to plan the most epic love story of their generation if they gave her nothing to work with?

Paulina sighed and turned around, putting on her best act of reluctance in case anyone was paying attention. “Sam, as much as it pains me to ask this, do you and Tucker want to work in a group? We could use some extra help on the study guide.”

“What’s in it for us?” Sam quirked an eyebrow at her. Kwan and Star had tuned in now, looking between the pair expectantly, and Tucker leaned forward in his seat to join in.

“I’ll… invite you to my next party?” Paulina tried.

“Sam, let’s do it. I never get to go to Paulina’s parties.” Tucker had picked up on the act.

“Fine,” Sam feigned irritation. They shifted their desks closer to each other.

“So?” Star whispered.

“Yeah, I’m really not sure what’s actually going on here yet. Is something wrong?” Tucker asked.

“Dash has a crush on Danny,” Paulina repeated the contents of her note in a low voice. “I want to do something about it.”

“More specifically, she wants to set them up,” Kwan added.

“How do we play into this? They’re their own people, can’t they figure it out on their own?”

“Don’t you see, Sam?" Tucker was grinning like he had awaited this day his whole life. "We always hang out in a group. Pretty much the only time they’re alone together is sometimes when they’re training. We have to get them to spend time together outside of that.”

Sam seemed at a loss. “I get what you’re saying here, but how can we make them hang out? It’s not exactly subtle to just tell them to meet up somewhere together.”

“With all due respect, Sam, I did not expect you to be so dense about this,” Star said.

“We have to make plans with them and then ditch them.” Paulina explained the process just like it was one of their Stats principles.

“Back out last minute so they’re obligated to go through with the plans, but it would only be them,” supplied Kwan.

“We could force them to pair up in class, too. Partner up with each other instead, when we get the chance,” Tucker suggested.

Sam finally gave a slow nod. “Okay. In case it wasn’t obvious, we’re pretty sure Danny’s reciprocating his feelings, so… I’m in.”

Paulina clapped a hand over her grinning mouth to contain the excited squeal that wanted to escape. Tucker looked equally as excited, and Kwan and Star seemed pretty satisfied with their plan.

The bell signaling the end of class rang, and students began hurriedly gathering their belongings to move onto their next class. Paulina stuck her hand out at Sam, who looked at it for a moment before shaking it, officially solidifying the agreement.

#danny phantom #invisobang 2022 #my writing #swagger bishie #halfa!dash #halfa dash au #dash baxter #teddy ghost #check ao3 for more tags!

19 notes · View notes