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cordria · 4 years ago

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Fixing Mistakes - DP

Danny groaned and curled up in a ball, very suddenly awake. His head hurt, his leg sparkled sharp and painful, and he felt oddly sticky. “Ow, ow, ow, ow,” he hissed, a few swear words working their way through his teeth as he kicked his brain into trying to think through what was going on.

His eyes crept open, studying his surroundings. Dark. Quiet. Bars.

Bars?

His eyes opened just a touch more, turning his head. Bars on all sides. He was in a cage.

Memory flooded back into his brain - of the school bell ringing, of walking through the park with Sam, of cold rushing down his back, of an unfortunately successful ambush by the ghost world’s most annoying hunter. “Damn it, Skulker,” he whispered.

Having determined himself to be alone in the room full of cages, Danny sat up and slowly pushed fingers through his hair, searching for the source of the pain. It was from right over his left ear, a dull throbbing that was definitely sore, but no blood. Head trauma. Something that would heal with time, nothing to be done about it for now.

He turned his attention to his leg, noting with a frown all the glowing blood smeared across the bottom of the cage. He poked and prodded at his leg, locating the worst of the damage: a huge slash down the side of his right leg. Almost as long as his fingers could spread, it was already mostly sealed over - thank Clockwork for not being knocked out until he was in ghost form. In human form, the blood loss would have killed him.

The fact that a slash that big was almost sealed over made him wrinkle his nose. That had to have taken hours and hours. Perhaps overnight. He’d been out a long time.

He sighed. “I was having such a good day, too.”

Although the cage wasn’t big enough to stand up in, he tried putting his foot on the ground and putting weight on his leg. Would he be able to stand once he’d gotten out of the cage? The pain sharpened, making him gasp and collapse. “Nope, nope, nope,” he whispered. “Ow, ow, ow, ow, don’t do that again.”

Blood started to ooze from the gash again. He’d broken open the scab.

With a scowl, he pushed and pulled himself, maneuvering until he was leaning up against the door. From the fizzy feeling against his skin, knew they wouldn’t be something he could phase through. He’d have to find a different way out. He reached a hand out through the bars to pull at the padlock, studying it. It was the same type of padlock Skulker always used for locking his cages closed. The tiniest of smiles curled the corner of Danny’s lips.

It wasn’t quite true that ghosts couldn’t learn. Skulker had learned new hunting techniques over the last eighteen months. Skulker had learned to keep Danny in human-proof cages. But ghosts learned so very slowly, and struggled with putting together facts they couldn’t see. Skulker knew Danny could get out of his cages - but, never having witnessed Danny perform the feat, couldn’t figure out how. And so he kept doing the same thing over and over.

Danny squirmed and moved around, digging a little box out of one of his pockets. Sam had gotten it for him for Christmas last year, along with lessons as to how to use it. Lock-picking was a skill Danny had assumed would be difficult, but it turned out to be hilariously easy, if a bit time consuming. Danny made sure he kept the kit with him.

It took longer than he’d hoped to open the lock. The pain from his leg kept distracting him and the hit he’d taken to his head was making it hard to focus. But he eventually placed all four of the tumblers, gave them a twist, and the lock fell open.

He grinned, short and sharp, and worked the lock back through the rings on the cage, catching it before it could hit the ground. “Screw you, Skulker,” he whispered, pushing open the cage door and floating himself out, putting the lock into his pocket. He was careful to keep his leg from hitting the ground - even the smallest movements sent sharp shards into his mind. “I’m keeping this as a souvenir.”

Just before he was going to leave, Danny heard a sound from the corner. He tensed, instantly assuming Skulker had been hiding. The glow around Danny kicked up a notch with his anxiety, and he twisted around.

Nothing?

His hands came back down, letting the tenseness fade away. He floated forwards a few steps, noticing a cage far into the darkest corner of the room. There was the faintest glow coming from inside - it was almost like the afterglow of looking at a bright light for a moment too long. Too faint to be a ghost in any reasonable shape. “Hello?” he whispered.

“Mind if I borrow your lock pick set? I lost mine.”

Danny hesitated. The voice was very… human? And didn’t sound at all in pain or sick. The scratchy voice was also not bothering to whisper. “Who are you?” Danny asked, floating closer.

“I’m me, obviously.”

“Helpful,” Danny muttered, drawing up just close enough that if something were to lunge and reach through the cage, it wouldn’t be able to grab him. An odd scent tinged the air, making Danny’s nose wrinkle. He held up a hand, palm towards the thing in the cage, and upped the power flowing through his hand. The glow kicked up and, like a flashlight, illuminated the contents of the cage.

It was a human male, raising a hand to block his eyes from the glow. Red-orange hair raggedly pulled back into a ponytail and a beard that looked hacked short with a knife. Perhaps in his twenties, skinny and tall, and dressed in layers of rags. He had a cloak-looking blanket wrapped around him, and calloused feet wrapped in cloth that left his toes hanging out. Dried, reddish-colored flowers dangled everywhere from his clothes. Danny blinked at the man, startled. “You’re human.”

Teeth glittered as the man smiled - an easy, pleasant smile. At least two of the teeth were missing. “Mostly, anyways.” The scar-covered hand lowered. Eyes that were too bright and green to belong to a human peered at him, blinking against the light. “Lock picks? I’d like to get out of here before the hunter comes back.”

“Skulker’s annoying with his cages,” Danny agreed, lowering his hand and the light. His brain wasn’t working quite right. This… human?... was something like him? ...How? “What happened?”

“I was just a tad too slow. Lock?”

Danny glanced over his shoulder, noted the still-quiet room, and settled his body gently back down at the ground. It took a moment for the world to stop spinning from the pain. Then he opened up the little box of picks and started to work on the lock. It was easier from this side, where he could see what he was doing.

“How did it come to be that a ghost knows how to pick a lock?” the human asked.

“This ghost gets hunted a lot. Not the first time I’ve seen the inside of Skulker’s cages,” Danny muttered. “Friend got me the lock pick set.”

“A human lock pit set.”

Danny hummed. “And how did it come to be a human in the ghost zone?” There was a soft click. He twisted and yanked the lock off.Danny floated back up in the air, fighting a wince of pain, and nodded.

“Very long story. Too long for telling inside this lair.” The human pulled himself out of the cage, unwinding his long limbs and stretching upright. From this close, Danny could see the young man was incredibly lean and tall. Too thin. Too tall. Even though Danny was floating, the man’s head was on level with his. Something was off with this human, and it made the hairs on the back of Danny’s neck raise.

This close, Danny could see the dried flowers hanging around his neck were blood blossoms. Before Danny could float backwards and out of the way, the man reached out and clapped Danny on the shoulder, still with that same easy grin. “Thank you for the rescue.”

“Do you…” Danny hesitated, thinking about the fact that the man was a human and they were on a floating island haunted by a hunting ghost, “need a lift? Like, to get somewhere?”

“Away from here would be nice.” The human’s smile faded just a bit. He was studying Danny. “I’m not a flyer. I’d appreciate a lift to… anywhere, really, that’s not right here.”

Danny held out his hand. “You got a name, human?”

The man grabbed his wrist, his fingers burning hot against Danny’s cold skin. “Flynn.”

The feel of the blood blossoms tingled down his arm, an interesting counterpoint to the drums beating against his brain and the stabbing pain in his leg. Danny lifted the human off the ground and took the shortcut through the window, back out into the glowing green of the ghost zone. “Nice to meet you, Flynn. I’m Danny.”

#Danny Phantom #fixing mistakes #I woke up this morning wanting to write #for once #I've had an incredibly sucky fall.#Very much sucks.#Quick writing.

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goliath-de-senfina-sango · 5 years ago

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New People

Danny personally felt that he was well within his rights to be a bit weirded out by what was going on. He was on his way to school, getting interrupted by some half-formed spider ghost with threads all over the place that he had to dodge out of the way of before he could even get close to shooting it, Tucker was freaking out and Sam was doing her best to shoot away the webs that Danny actually got caught in. It took quite a bit of time to squish much of the bug and then get it in the thermos. During this time, Danny got hit by its pincers and bitten, and the wound was exposed and dripping ectoplasm and some thick purple goop that he assumed was venom. Things were the standard amount of bad.

The unusual thing was when a ghost with blue skin, pink eyes, and rippling hair that shifted colors between red, yellow and orange flew up to him and gently grabbed his arm. And then he pulled out a cotton ball from his pocket and started dabbing Danny’s wound. “Yikes, this is a nasty bite. You’re Danny Phantom, right? The bridge spirit?”

“Uh,” Danny looked down at his friends, who shrugged, weapons trained on the newcomer. “Yeah, I’m the halfa Danny Phantom.” The guy snorted and Danny scowled. “What’s so funny?”

“Halfa sounds like something my son would’ve called it when he was 7.” Once the cotton ball was soaked through it was put in a ziplock that vanished off to somewhere and a water bottle was poured over it instead, followed by a cloth. “I’m Dr. Jason Pace. Nice to meet you.”

Danny stared at the man while he cleaned his cut with wide eyes. “There are ghost doctors?” It felt like a dumb question, doctors died as much as anyone else, but with all the violent ghosts that came through it was weird to see someone who specialized in helping people.

“Death is hardly enough to keep a medic from helping people who need attention,” Jason said with a chuckle. “When I woke up in the Infinite Realms I met this big burly werewolf in a hoodie who said he was here to take me where I’m supposed to go but he got to me late, and I thought ‘wow, psychopomps are real and they can be behind schedule.’”

“Did. Did this werewolf happen to speak Esperanto?”

“Yeah, said his name is Wulf. I told him that wasn’t very original and he agreed. Then I told him that I needed to see my husband and he cut open a hole back to the living realm about two weeks after my death, and after a very passionate and emotional night, I headed back into work and just sorta. Kept doing what I do.” He hummed, holding up the cloth and setting it on fire before tossing it behind him, where Danny watched it turn to ashes before it made it five feet above the ground. He swiped the purple goop with a q-tip, and then a bunch of vials of glowing liquid appeared from thin air, spinning around him in a lazy orbit. “Poisonous and venomous ghost animals are horrors and ecto entomologists can kiss my ass if they wanna preach about preserving species.”

“What… are you doing?��

“Ah that’s what it is- you’re going to feel numb in a couple of seconds, which is perfectly normal, but then your core will start to go … well let’s just say I’m glad I got to you in time.” One of the vials stopped, the swab burned up like the cloth, and a syringe was put into play. “This is an antivenom. Please don’t squirm, or this will hurt more.” Jason pressed the needle over where a vein should’ve been, and Danny hissed at the sharp prick of pain. Then a lollipop of all things was presented to him. “Hope you like blueberry.”

“So, what I’m gathering is that you just wanna treat people and you came up to me cause I got bit by a spider. I don’t remember my folks ranting about a doctor ghost tricking the people at the hospital into dastardly plans so I’m gonna guess you’re not from around here.”

“Oh, this isn’t why I came to your town of course, but yeah this is the thing I’m gonna be doing.” The syringe needle, once removed, was disintegrated like the rest, and a bandage was stuck on Danny’s arm before his suit could reform around it. “You should be good… and don’t worry, I don’t mess with people’s heads. I just help people. And yes, I know how to help bridge spirits like yourself.” He held out a business card and gave a two-fingered salute. “Give that a little charge if you need me. Bye!”

They watched Jason fade from sight and Danny stared at where he’d been with wide eyes, blinking rapidly. “What the f-”

“We need to get to school!” Sam shouted, drawing his attention down to his best friends. Danny dove down and scooped them both up, turning invisible and flying toward the school. “Oh, wow, ok.”

“So that was weird, right?”

“That was really fuckin weird, yeah,” Tucker said. “I guess it makes sense that there’d be ghost doctors, hospitals are the evilest places.”

“I’m glad he’s here,” Sam said. “Maybe he’ll be able to help you keep up with your habit of crashing into things.”

“I don’t have a habit thank you. My enemies have a habit of yeeting me into things. There’s a difference.”

“You can turn intangible and go through things instead of slamming into them so.” After that fun and lovely argument, Danny almost forgot the weirdness of Dr. Pace.

That is until Lancer introduced the class to a very tall boy with brown hair, tan, freckled skin, and pink eyes. Pink eyes that were glowing ever so softly. “Hello class, this is Kyle Pace. He’s an exchange student from Pittsburg.”

“Hey there,” Kyle said with a wave, smiling wide enough that everyone could see his canines were much longer and too pointy to be human. “My last school was Three Rivers so uh I’m kinda not used to this kinda school, so if I’m weird I’m sorry about that.”

“Not a problem, Kyle.” Lancer patted the large boy on the back. “Your classmates will be doing their best to help you adjust, I’m sure.” No one missed the look Lancer gave them, and no one even really considered caring. Danny, Sam and Tucker were all staring at Kyle with varying degrees of subtly. “There’s a seat between Danny Fenton and Dash Baxter over there, Mr. Pace. I’ll make sure you get a study guide to catch you up on where we are.”

Kyle nodded and plopped down in his seat, bookbag set down next to him, and the class moved on as though this were normal. Well, Wes was fuming at the back of the class but no one paid him any attention. He looked like he was paying attention, and after a while, Danny decided he should do the same, but the glow in Kyle’s eyes and the way Danny’s ghost sense was stuck in his throat, almost alerting him to a ghost but not, messed up his focus even worse than a regular old attack.

When Lunch rolled around, they had a chance to actually talk about it. “So uh, when Dr. Pace said he had a kid,” Tucker said, “Do you think he meant like after he died?”

“My ghost sense says yes, which is gross to think about, but also kind of an existential crisis going on.” Danny pushed his food around on his platter, staring at it and through it. “How the fuck does that even work?”

“Well if Box Lunch,” Sam said with a shudder, “Can exist then maybe… what did he call it? Bridge Spirits? Maybe they can happen, ya know, naturally?”

“This validates everyone who wants to fuck Phantom,” Tucker said with a mouth full of meatloaf from home. Danny punched his arm without looking and took satisfaction in his yelp. “I’m just sayin.”

“Swallow first, and then - novel idea - don’t say it.”

“I saw him leave algebra with Dash and Dash’s hair isn’t looking so perfectly combed right now,” Tucker said anyway, earning a kick in the shins from Sam.

Danny groaned. “Can we talk about something else?”

The universe did not agree with their subject of discussion moving away from Kyle, however, as he strode over to their table and plopped down next to Danny. He had a lunch box filled with clearly homemade food that looked like it was cooked by a chef compared to the lunch meat on Danny’s platter. He tossed an arm around Danny’s shoulders and gave them all a cheerful, “Hey there! How’re you guys doing? I saw your spider backpack and I know appearances aren’t everything but,” he pointed at Sam with a lazy grin, “do you like snakes?”

“Uh, yes?” Sam looked between Danny and Kyle, likely assessing how dangerous he might be. “Just not your kind of snake.”

“Pardon?”

“People who hang out with Dash Baxter tend to be just like him.” Sam folded her arms and scowled, and Tucker rolled his eyes. Kyle just frowned and looked over at the A lister table, making eye contact with Dash for a moment.

“Only impression I got outta Dash was attractive when he’s not talking, what kinda guy is he?” Sam was all too eager to share that and so was Tucker. Danny watched as Kyle’s expression grew darker while staring at Dash, eyes beginning to glow brighter until he turned back to the table and covered Tucker’s mouth. “Aight, an asshole. Got it. Y’all know that’s all like, illegal, right? Someone can record him doing this shit and either call the police or threaten it.”

“I mean, we could but then the other A listers would be out for us,” Danny said.

“I dunno what the A list is supposed to be, but I’m betting it’s something really stupid, and I have ta say: can we talk about snakes now?” Kyle stuffed food in his mouth, and then the conversation about which snakes were cuter, cooler and more dangerous began. Danny zoned out, stretching his senses to confirm the current of ecto energy under Kyle’s skin and wondered how to bring that up.

Before Danny could ask Kyle if he was possessed or just Like That, Dash Baxter’s voice caught his ear. “Hey, Kyle, why’re you hangin out with these losers? You should-” that was as far as Dash got before a pink bubble appeared around him and Kyle turned around to shove the bubble. It rolled along the floor until it bumped into the A lister table and then popped, leaving Dash to fumble into his seat. Then Kyle turned back to the table.

“I really want a pet snake, or like even some fish, but Dad doesn’t trust me and Pop thinks that I should learn to be responsible first before I go asking for a pet. Like, aren’t parents supposed to use pets as a test of responsibility?”

“Some parents think that,” Sam said, her salad finished and her protein shake almost done, “but it’s unfair to put all that on a kid.”

“So,” Tucker said slowly, “everyone is staring at us and I’m kinda wondering if we’re gonna talk about you putting Dash in gay baby jail.”

“Is that weird?” Kyle raised a brow, and Danny snorted. “I just really didn’t wanna talk to him if he’s an asshole like y’all said and the bubble popped pretty quick.” Kyle looked around at the dead silent cafeteria, and his skin began to glow. “Why are people starin?”

“Because you just blew your cover, ghost!” Valerie snarled across the cafeteria, and it exploded into chatter. Kyle flinched at the noise and a bubble appeared around the table that blocked out the noise.

“What the fuck? What’s going on?”

“Uh, dude, they don’t know about half ghosts.”

“But you’re a bridge spirit too!”

“They don’t know that! I’ve got a secret identity to keep!”

“I- wow, ok spider-man. Alright.” Kyle took a breath and dropped his shield, floating up above the crowd of teens. “HEY!” The crowd when slowly quiet as Kyle waved a glowing hand around to get everyone’s attention. “MY DUDES! Thanks. So uh, yeah, I’m not sure what y’all think I am, but I can explain pretty easy.”

“Oh I’m certain you can, ghost, but we’re not interested in your lies!”

“Excuse you, I don’t lie anymore than you do. Anyway, when a living human and a ghost love each other very much-”

“Are you saying your mom or dad banged a ghost?!” Dale was always so eloquent, it had Danny wondering how he had such bad grades.

“Yeah,” Kyle shrugged, hands stuffed in his pockets. “I don’t have a Mom though, Dad and Pop just figured out that ghostly physiology is malleable and they wanted a kid. I’m done talking about my conception now, cause that’s gross, but like, this is a basic thing to understand.” Kyle floated back down to his seat and crossed his legs. “I swear I heard at least five girls around here want to start a family with Phantom, and I just gotta wonder: y’all did know that’s possible right?”

Silence eerie as a horror movie washed over the cafeteria. People processed what they’d been told and some of their minds tripped over themselves trying to do so. Kyle turned back to Sam and started complaining about pets while chatter erupted around them all, and Danny slammed his head against the table.

#Danny Phantom #Danny Fenton #Tucker Foley #Sam Manson #Jason Pace #Kyle Pace #OCs #fanfiction #phanfiction #fanphiction #phanfic #fanfic #phanphic #fanphic #Rexy Writes

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ayamari-no-goshi · 4 years ago

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Verboten 5 | (T)

ff.net | AO3

Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)

Summary: AU. When Danny was five years old, he went missing for 2 weeks. In the years that follow, his family tried to make sense of what happened, only for the truth to be discovered years later.

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, language. Be prepared for some very weird things.

Chapter warning: there be death and blood. Tread at your own risk

Parings: Danny/Sam

Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr. This fic is very heavily inspired by folklore surrounding mysterious wilderness disappearances

Chapter 5

"Yo, Fenturd, funny seeing you here."

"Last time I checked, our entire class is supposed to be on this trail. I don't know why you're so surprised," Danny quipped before he could stop himself.

Dash grabbed him by the front of his shirt. "What was that?"

"Could you deal with your beef with this loser later? I'm all sweaty and getting covered in dirt. My designer clothes will get ruined at this point," the one girl, Paulina whined. The other girls in the group, her satellites, quickly tried to comfort her.

Danny caught sight of the scowl on Sam's face as she took a step forward. His friend held distain for the popular girls on the best of days, but it was situations like this which really upset her. They didn't care about anyone outside of their group, and often stood by and laughed as the jocks bullied others.

Paulina, who was the unspoken queen of their grade, was often outspoken about girls who she thought was beneath her, but she had also begun her own form of bullying in their sophomore year. She used her beauty to make guys fall for her and give her items. Once she was finished using them, she often publically embarrassed them or had Dash and his cronies throw a few punches. She had tried to go after Danny once, but after encountering his parents and their eccentricities once, she wanted nothing more to do with him.

"Can't I at least get one punch in?" Dash requested as he sized up Danny. "I mean, this is my last year to wail on him."

"You can't argue with that," Zack added as he crossed his arms and leaned against a nearby tree. "Why deny a man a simple pleasure?"

"Fine, but hurry it up," Paulina finally agreed as she and her friends moved to the side.

"You hear her. Grab him," Dash instructed has he pushed Danny backwards. He barely had time to catch himself before his arms were grabbed by two of the jocks.

Before he had a chance to throw his punch, Kwan grabbed his shoulder. "Hey, is this really the best place to do this? That one Ranger wasn't that far behind us."

"So?"

"Your buddy has a point," Sam spat as Tucker tried to hold her back. It was clear she was itching to hit someone in the shin with her combat boot. "If a Ranger catches you assaulting someone, not only could you lose your spot on the football team, you could get jail time."

Before Dash could make his decision, a scream rang out through the area. Everyone glanced around, but it didn't seem as if anyone found anything unusual. "Didn't that sound like Mikey?" Tucker asked after a moment.

"Drop him. That will definitely draw attention we don't want," Dash told his friends. "Mikey was up ahead of us, wasn't he?"

"I think so. Why?" Kwan questioned.

"We should go check on our other punching bag. Make sure he's not too hurt. Besides, maybe we'll learn something we can use to scare him with later. Come on." He beckoned them forward as he began following the trail again. The girls quickly followed him. The jocks holding Danny shared a look before letting him go.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Danny looked up to see Kwan watching him. "Yeah. I know you were trying to help out there. Thanks."

The football player nodded before he ran after his friends. Although Danny didn't exactly trust Kwan, he knew that he was a much kinder person than most of Dash's friends. Kwan really didn't want to be involved with the bullying, but was forced to go along with it for reasons Danny didn't quite understand.

"Do you think we should follow them?" Danny turned to see his friend's responses.

"Absolutely not!" Tucker shouted before Sam could respond. "Dude, didn't you notice that Dash is in one of his moods?"

"You're such a coward, Tucker." Sam grabbed his arm and began pulling him along the path. "He could need our help."

"Or we could get beaten to a pulp too."

"I'm with Sam on this one." When Tucker sent him a look a betrayal, Danny amended, "I mean, we don't have to get close if nothing is wrong, but if they need help, we can go get a Ranger. Didn't Kwan mention there should be one not too far away?"

"Fine, but don't expect me to get killed along with you."

…..

After a few minutes of walking, Danny and his friends first caught sight of Dash and his friends. They seemed to just be staring at something in the woods. The girls were nowhere nearby. Mikey was sitting on the ground at their feet and was crying inconsolably.

"What… what should we do?" Tucker whispered as they hid behind a nearby tree and monitored the situation.

The hair on the back of Danny's neck felt as if it was standing on end. As soon as they got to this area, something felt extremely wrong. "Although this goes against my desire for self-preservation, something's not right."

"You noticed it too?" Sam asked as she stepped out from around the tree and approached the group. "Hey! What's wrong?" Danny and Tucker shared a look before they followed her.

Mikey noticed them first. His glasses were somewhat foggy because of his tears. "Lester…" he choked out.

"What about Lester? Mikey, talk to us." Danny kneeled down so his distraught classmate wouldn't have to look up at him.

"He… he… we lost sight of him for just a moment," Mikey whispered as he grabbed Danny by the arms. His wide eyes almost made him look insane. "He didn't answer when we called him, and we didn't see any signs of him. After… after searching and not seeing him… Jimmy and Clark went off to tell Mr. Lancer. I stayed put just in case… Then… then something fell over there… and… and…" The sob that escaped the boy was somewhere in between a scream and absolute despair.

"What are you talking about? What happened?"

"Danny… I think you need to see something," Sam whispered as she shook his shoulder.

After gently prying Mikey's hands off of him, he stood up and looked at his friends. Both were incredibly pale, which was quite the feat for Tucker due to his naturally dark skin. Sam glanced at him before she pointed at something off the trail. At first, he had no idea what he was supposed to see, but after a moment, a soft dripping sound caught his attention. As he focused on that, he felt his blood run cold.

The dripping was coming from blood falling from a figure in a tree that was about thirty yards off. After a moment, he realized the figure was Lester. It almost looked as if someone had thrown him onto the branches, but with how limp his figure was and the strange pallor of his skin, Danny was convinced he was dead.

The sound of retching caught his attention. He turned to see Tucker wiping his mouth as he weakly straightened his posture. "That's… that's so messed up."

"We… we need to get help," Danny stammered as he glanced at the jocks. They all seemed to be in a trance. He snapped his fingers in front of Kwan's face. "Hey, hey! Come on! Snap out of it." The jock shook his head for a moment and glanced around before stumbling backwards into Dash. That seemed to break the rest of them out of their trance.

After a moment of confusion, Dash spotted Danny and once again grabbed him by the shirt. "Alright, Fenturd, you better have a good explanation of what happened!"

"Get off of me!" he snapped as he wrestled out of Dash's grip. "I don't know what happened either. You got here first, remember? I do know we need to alert the Rangers."

"Dash, what happened to the girls?" Lucas asked as he glanced around before he glared at Danny and his friends. "If you losers did anything to them…!"

"We haven't seen them since we got here," Sam replied as tried to help Mikey stand. He wasn't complying and had opted to stare at the ground. "Tucker, what are you doing? Don't tell me you're taking pictures."

"I am," he shakily told her as he tapped his phone. "I… I still can't get a signal. This way… we have a record of where we are… and, what the?!" As he spoke, another scream broke the silence of the forest.

"That sounded like Star!" Kwan yelled as he took off to investigate.

"Hey, wait up!" The rest of the football players quickly ran after him leaving Danny, Sam, and Tucker alone with Mikey, who still seemed dazed.

"I vote we try to get back to camp." Tucker had put his phone away and was glancing around nervously.

Danny nodded as he and Sam picked up Mikey. His frame was small and lanky, so he thankfully didn't weigh too much. Although he wasn't exactly responding to them, they were able to get him to walk by tugging on his wrist.

The group headed down the path as quickly as possible, but it wasn't fast enough for Danny's liking. The uneasy feeling he had when they first reached the area where they found Lester hadn't left. It felt like they were being watched and followed, and it made him want to run. As uncool as it was, he wanted to run away as fast as possible, but he couldn't leave his friends alone with whatever was lurking out there. He also couldn't just leave Mikey.

A glance at the shocked boy told Danny that he was having a hard time processing exactly what happened to his friend. Although Danny really couldn't say that he and Mikey were friends, he knew the boy enough to know that he and Lester were almost like brothers. It was understandable he couldn't function after witnessing that, but he really did wish the boy would move faster. They needed to get to a safer location, preferably sooner than later.

"Are we going to talk about it?" Sam hesitantly asked as they moved.

"Nah uh. No way. We're still out in the woods with something without any adults around. You saw what happened!" Tucker sounded frantic as he looked around the area.

"It can wait until we get back to camp," Danny agreed as he kept his eyes on the trail. A strange noise caught his attention, and after a moment, he stopped to listen.

"Dude, what are you doing? You can't stop now."

Danny shushed him as he listened. A strange sound, almost like a bird call but almost metallic, was coming from somewhere behind them. He turned to see if he could catch sight of whatever the source was, but he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. After a few moments, the bird call was joined by the sound of rustling wings, but that also sounded almost metallic as there was a strange buzz to it.

"It's back!" Mikey suddenly shouted, causing the rest of them to jump. He then wrestled out of Sam and Danny's grips before he took off down the trail.

"Mikey! Come back! What's back?" Before Danny had a chance to go after him, Sam grabbed his arm and pointed to something in the trees.

A silvery flash caught his attention. As he watched it, he realized it looked like a skeletal bird made from some sort of metal. It finally came to a stop on a tree branch a few yards down the trail from them. Its eyes were an eerie red. After it appraised them, it let out a horrifying screech.

"I see you found the target!" an excited voice rang out from the woods.

Danny and his friends formed a tight circle with their backs on the inside as they scanned the area. No one seemed to be nearby. Other than the sound of the strange bird and their breathing, there were no other sounds. After a moment, a figure emerged from shadows of the forest.

The figure was the size of a young child and was carrying something over its shoulders. As it came closer, they could tell that it looked like a young boy, expect his skin was abnormally white, seemed to have green hair, and it almost seemed like he was glowing.

"Is that Mikey?" Tucker whispered as he pointed to what the strange glowing figure had over its shoulder.

"Get away from him!" Danny shouted, uncertain if it was even able to understand him.

"And what are you going to do about it?" The boy laughed as he watched them. "I was told I could take a playmate if I helped Plasmius get his target, so I'm not giving him back!"

"What should we do?" Tucker whispered as he took a few steps backwards. "I don't know what that thing is, but I don't think that's a person."

"I think you're right, but we need to help Mikey," Danny told him. "But I have no idea how to safely do that." Before he had a chance to make a decision, Sam threw a few rocks at the strange boy. However, they passed through him without any damage.

He stuck his tongue out at the group. "That was mean, but luckily for me, stuff like that can't do any damage." A devilish grin crossed his face as his hand began to glow a sickly green. "Although I'm not allowed to touch Plasmius' target, I'm allowed to have some fun with anyone else who gets trapped."

"Run?"

"Run!" Danny and Sam yelled in response to Tucker's question. The three of them quickly ran off down the trail.

As they moved, the forest around them seemed to grow darker and more menacing as the trail became harder to follow. After what felt like hours, the three of them finally came to a stop in a decently sized clearing as Tucker and Danny had reached their limit.

"Guys, I don't think this is normal." At Sam's strange statement, the boys looked at their surroundings. The trees appeared dead and were a strange and unnatural gray color. The sky above them was a radioactive green mixed in with swirls of a neon purple.

Someone behind them began clapping. They turned to see a figure wearing white approach them from the trees. Instead of being a child like the previous one, this one was clearly an adult male. Its skin was a sickly blue, and its dark hair almost looked like horns.

"You've led me on a merry chase," it told them. Its voice was cultured and confident. Danny caught a glimpse of fangs as it spoke "However, I was only supposed to take one of you. What exactly should I do with the extras?"

"You could let us go. Pretty please?" When Danny and Sam shot Tucker an incredulous look, he quickly defended himself. "What? It doesn't hurt to ask."

"I appreciate your attempt at civility," the creature told him. "However, it that is not something I can easily do. You see, it's fairly difficult to bring over more than one human at once with normal techniques. That bird of Youngblood's is something to behold. Its magic is just subtle enough to distract someone just long enough for one of us to take him or her. I must find out if I can get one of my own."

"Where are we? What are you?" Danny demanded, sounding a lot braver than he felt. This things was terrifying.

"It's rather rude to ask that, but you're clearly frightened, so allow me to explain. "I am called Plasmius, and this is the realm of the dead."

===========================

Note: shout out to anyone who caught my unintentional Superman reference.

For the international readers, 1 yard is about 91 centimeters, and 1 foot is approximately 30.5 centimeters.

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kinglazrus · 5 years ago

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i saw that post and thought of this yesterday but my brain was unreasonably shy but here it is now usdygbhjn: “It’s three in the morning.” danny @ dash

Milky Way

Sometimes Danny hates living in the city. Actually, most of the time he hates it. Not because of the noise, or all the people, or even the ghosts, but the stars. Or the lack of them, at least.

Danny was ten years old when he realized the sky he saw every night was a lie. He had seen plenty of pictures of the night sky taken from different parts of the world. At that age, he just assumed that’s how the sky worked. Some places had less stars than others, he was unfortunately born in a place with very few stars overhead.

Until his sister got him a big astronomy textbook for his tenth birthday and he learned the city was to blame. All the city lights polluted the sky and kept him from seeing the sky for what it truly was. For weeks, he tried to convince his parents to move, to pack up all their things in the RV and drive out far away into the middle of nowhere, where there was no people and no light pollution, and he could see the stars in all their glory every night.

He never got that wish, but nowadays Danny doesn’t mind it so much. Now, if he wants to see the night sky as it should be seen, all he has to do is fly up, up, up beyond the clouds, just past the edge of the mesosphere.

There, he floats along the Kármán line, the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space, and he can see everything. It’s beautiful. He can’t help but think of every childhood drawing he made of the stars and how wrong he was.

The sky isn’t an endless expanse of black peppered with bright white spots. It’s a gorgeous mix of blues and purples, and even some pink in the Milky Way itself. Every inch of the sky is covered in stars. There are so many he has trouble picking out the constellations he knows better than his hometown, but he manages.

The familiar cup of Ursa Minor, Draco’s lithe body winding past, Hercules’ crooked form by the dragon’s head.

Danny traces the familiar lines with his softly glowing eyes and feels as empty as the space between the stars. Even though that distance looks so small from here, he knows how vast it really is.

Tipping back his head, he stares back down toward Earth. Cities make their own constellations across the dark surface. The sixty-two miles between him and the ground right now is not enough. He wants to fly higher, way out into space, and get lost in its cold comfort. But he can’t, because he has a city to protect, friends who depend on him, and a family who loves him.

At least he thinks they love him.

Danny reaches for his phone and goes to check the time, but the screen doesn’t turn on. He frowns, tapping the screen, and even shakes the device a few times. And then he remembers how cold it’s supposed to be up here, something he can’t really feel anymore, and it probably killed the battery.

He’s just lucky it isn’t iced over. At this height, it should be, but he probably has the radiation from his ectoplasm to thank for that.

Grudgingly, Danny tells himself he should probably head home. He flips over, head to the ground, and starts flying.

He takes his time, it’s still barely more than hour before he’s back in Amity. Just before diving through Fenton Work’s roof, he looks back up at the sky. It’s empty and sad.

The first thing Danny does when he’s back in his room is plug in his phone. He considers transforming; it’s dangerous to stay in ghost form while his parents are home. But after staring at his blank phone for a few long seconds he decides against it. He doesn’t really want to be human right now.

Curled up on his bed, head against his pillow, knees pulled up to his chest, he waits for his phone to charge enough to turn on. Those five minutes feel infinitely longer than his flight back from space.

“Screw you, Clockwork,” Danny mutters. It’s not really Clockwork’s fault, but it feels good to have someone to blame, and the ghost of time is a ripe target.

The moment his screen lights up, Danny reaches out and snags it off his bedside table. He notes the time, quarter to three, then goes through his notifications. Some spam emails, a couple game notifications, but no texts or calls. Which makes sense, it’s the middle of the night, who the hell would be up right now besides him?

As soon as Danny thinks that, his phone buzzes and a message appears at the top of his screen.

From Dash: [image]

Another quickly follows.

From Dash: was that u?

Eyes heavy, Danny stares at the texts for a long moment before clicking them. The messaging app is bright and glaring compared to his dark home screen and he squints when it lights up his room. He clicks the image Dash send, feeling instant relief when his screen gets significantly darker.

It’s a shot of the sky from Dash’s bedroom window, the corner of the next building over cutting through the image. Just above that is a bright white speck. If Danny didn’t know better, he might have mistaken it for a star or a planet.

Closing out the image, Danny types back: yeah, it’s me.

He hits send, turns onto his back, and sets his phone down on his chest. He’s not expecting a reply, although he has no reason not to, so it startles him when his phone buzzes not even a second later.

From Dash: thought so. What were…

From Dash: Patrol?

Danny pulls himself up, opening his phone once again, and reads the full messages.

Dash: thought so. What were you doing so high up?

Dash: Patrol?

Hunched over his phone, Danny doesn’t so much stare at the screen as he does zone out in its general direction. He knows what he wants to type in response, but he can’t seem to get his fingers to move.

The phone sits cradled in his hand, his thumbs thick silhouettes against the white screen. The longer he looks, the more he thinks they aren’t his thumbs but just thumbs. Anyone’s thumbs. They didn’t belong to him. He was a hundred miles away, out in space.

Before he can decide if this is a good or bad idea, he hits the call button.

It gets through half a ring before Dash picks up.

“Hey, Danny.”

Dash’s is voice is rough and dry, but it isn’t thick with sleep, reassuring Danny he hasn’t dragged Dash out of partial slumber.

“Danny?”

The call time says it’s been going for over a minute.

Danny swallows. “Hey.”

“You okay?”

“Dash…” Danny trails off. He rolls his neck. It pops in a way that probably isn’t healthy, but is also so familiar he doesn’t think twice about it anymore. He licks his lips. “Why are we friends?”

That isn’t what he meant to say. He doesn’t know what he really wanted to say, but he knows that wasn’t it.

The call is at five minutes.

“Because Paulina and Sam are dating.” Dash chuckles.

Danny thinks he should be chuckling too, but the sound doesn’t come. It’s a joke they’ve made a hundred times, as familiar as the crick in Danny’s neck, but it’s not the answer he wants right now.

“I’m friends with Tucker because… because we’ve always been friends. I can’t imagine not being friends with him,” Danny says. He takes one the hands—his hands, he has to remind himself—away from the phone and turns it over. Is it really him doing that?

“Sam kind of made herself friends with us. But we always thought she was cool anyway, so, we wanted her.” Danny rubs his hand on his thigh, stopping to grip his knee. He can feel the pressure, but he can’t really feel it. “We hate each other.”

Ten minutes.

“We used to, I guess. I don’t know. I don’t think I ever really hated you. Just, stupid high school stuff.”

“Stupid high school stuff,” Danny repeats. He glances at the time at the top of his screen. “It’s three in the morning.”

“Yeah.”

“Why are you up at three in the morning?”

“Why are you?”

Danny sucks in a sharp breath. “Just. Couldn’t sleep. Yeah.”

“Yeah? Same.”

This time, Danny chuckles. He can’t figure out why it’s funny, but it is. Dash? Having trouble sleeping? People like him aren’t supposed to have Danny’s problems. They’re supposed to date the head cheerleader, and have tons of friends, and get some big football scholarship that carries them through college, and be famous. Or something.

But the head cheerleader is dating Sam. Dash only has a handful of people he talks to regularly. He told Danny last month that he doesn’t want to play football in college. He wants to be a social worker, like his mom, and not be famous.

Danny laughs again.

“What’s so funny?”

“S-Sam,” Danny says between giggles. “Sam stole your girlfriend.”

“She really didn’t.” Dash sounds amused, a humorous lilt in his voice.

Danny can’t figure out what he finds so funny. It’s Dash’s life that isn’t going how it’s supposed to. Sucks to be him, thrust into a set role the moment he became quarterback in freshman year, stuck with a path he doesn’t want, that he doesn’t quite seem to fit. What kind of high school king is he?

The next time Danny laughs, it sounds closer to a sob. He sniffs and rubs his nose on his sleeve, the thick, rubbery material of his jumpsuit irritating his nose. The suit smells vaguely of burnt flesh and sulfur. No matter what Danny does, he can’t seem to wash it out.

Twenty minutes.

“Danny, I think you should go to sleep now.”

“’M fine,” Danny insists.

“You’re really not.”

“That’s kind of rude.” Danny drags his hand through his hair. It never feels like normal hair in his ghost form. Too wispy and light, like a silk veil.

“I can call you in the morning if you want. Or I can get Paulina to text Sam, or Tucker. I think I still have Jazz’s number somewhere.”

“Don’t hang up,” Danny says softly. He fells forward, curling onto his side around the phone, sticking his feet under his pillow.

They’ve been on the phone for well over half an hour now. Danny’s pretty sure they haven’t talked enough to fill out all that time. He wonders how much of it Dash has spent just sitting there, waiting for Danny to answer. It makes him feel like a bit of a prick.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

Danny can tell Dash doesn’t know what the apology’s for, but he appreciates the acceptance nonetheless.

“You won’t hang up?” Danny asks.

“I won’t hang up.”

Danny nods, even though Dash can’t see it. He wishes he could. He wants someone here right now, but not Sam, or Tucker, or his sister, or his parents who maybe hate him, but he can never be too sure because they don’t know they hate him and he’s too afraid to tell them. Without all those other options, he supposes Dash will do.

He falls asleep, eventually, and wakes up human and cold, his phone still on beside him.

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doof-doofblog · 4 years ago

Text

"Anyone'd Think You Ain't Pleased To See Me!"

Monday 21st September 2020

Hello again folks! I've decided, seeing as I've had a lot of catching up to do, I'll do last night's episode tonight and tonight's episode tomorrow. That way I should be all updated for Thursday and Friday! The previous episode was such a hard hitting one, very powerful and the performances from all the cast were phenomenal!

Of course, this episode is going to focus on the aftermath of the events of Chantelle's death. I am once again feeling excited yet nervous to see what's in store. So let's get straight to it! The episode opens up with soft music being played, the imagery is all blurry as we can flashing blue lights. As the image becomes clear, the camera approaches the Atkins household which appears to have blue police tape all around it. The camera moves to left as Kheerat exits his house and sees all the commotion on the Square. He clearly has no idea what has happened the night before, as he sees a body bag being wheeled out of the Atkins home, he is clearly shaken and visibly devastated by what he has seen. He knows deep down that is Chantelle's body they're moving from the crime scene.

Meanwhile Gray at the police station, has he been arrested? We can see him changing his clothes as his personal belongings have been bagged by the police. While he's there, his home being photographed, the crime scene is being investigated. The investigators are taking pictures the glass of water on the counter, the dishwasher door, the children's toys (which we know were placed by Gray!) The children are being looked after by Whitney, of course to keep them from seeing the scary police men investigating their home, she has taken them to the cafe! Mia can be seen drawing, Whitney asks what it is, the little girl holds her drawing up "Just Curly Queen!" - are the children aware of what's happened to their Mum? They must be, obviously they wont know the full details, everyone will do everything they can to keep them from finding out that Daddy killed Mummy.

In Ruby's club, Ruby is still having problems with her money. Someone or something is clearly taking money from her account, she insists that it's not her who is doing these big transactions. She's shouting down the phone when Martin enters the room, he asks if there's a problem and if there's anything he can do to help. Ruby once again lies to him, keeping him from the fact that she is slowly going skint! She instead tells him the issue has to do with one of her suppliers. Martin falls for the story, and suggests that he and Ruby take Arthur out for the day. Ruby at first is unsure, of course due to her money worries, but Martin insists that it'll be his treat.

Meanwhile, in the Mitchell house hold, Callum receives a message from his boss, asking whether he had made his mind up about bringing in Phil Mitchell to him or not. Of course, Callum doesn't want to turn his boyfriend's Dad in. Suddenly Phil can be heard entering the house from the back, he and Ritchie enter the kitchen, you can make out that instantly Phil is worried about his boy. He's worried whether he'll be charged for his involvement in the robbery. Ritchie explains that clearly Ben was thinking that it was either Danny Hardcastle or him, Phil is distraught to hear that Ben didn't follow his advice. But the next thing that Ritchie says really does surprise me, "How much do you trust the boyfriend?!" - Instantly I am thinking that that is the most ridiculous statement to make, Callum has said over and over again how much he loves Ben, of course he doesn't want to see his boyfriend banged up. But in all seriousness, has Phil even gotten to know Callum properly? Not really, so of course because Callum has now joined the police, he's going to put two and two together and think it was all a plan, perhaps Callum pretended to love Ben just so he could get him arrested? Us as viewers know of course that that's not the situation at all, but who knows what's going through Phil's mind right now?!

Back at the police station, Gray is being questioned by the police. As far as I can tell he's only told the police that he and his wife have come back from a family holiday in Southend. Suddenly as he's explaining to the police, it dawns on him that none of the Taylor family have been told. The next thing we see is Karen and Mitch arriving back to the Square, Karen exits the car holding a huge big bunny teddy bear. The first thing she claps her eyes on is the police tape round the Atkins house and all the flowers and tributes left for Chantelle outside the house. She knows instantly that something has happened, she drops the teddy and suddenly every noise around her goes all muffled. Gray can be heard giving his events of the night, explaining he went out to get milk for her hot chocolate. While Karen is slowly making her way towards the house, you can see the figure of Billy approaching her in the background, he's clearly calling out to her but she doesn't seem to hear a word he says.

As Karen gets closer and closer to the scene of the crime, her bottom lip begins to quiver, she shakes her head in disbelief as we hear Gray lie to Police and say that when he got back to the house, she was already dead. Karen makes her way under the police tape and notices a drawing of Chantelle from one of her children on the railings, it becomes clear to her what has happened and she whimpers as she slowly sobs. Gray also sobs to the Detective, "My beautiful girl - dead!"

Back at the club, Ruby is joined by Martin, Kat is working away, cleaning in the background. Ruby has been struggling with money the past few weeks and it's only now Martin has clocked on that something isn't right. He asks her straight out whether she is having a problem with money, it's then she comes clean to her boyfriend that someone is stealing her money. Someone somewhere has made an account in Ruby's name and is stealing money from her, and the only way they can steal big amounts of money from her is knowing her personal details. While Ruby is explaining this to Martin, Kat's ears prick up and she listens in to their conversation. Does she know who could potentially be taking Ruby's money? As Martin as hearing the news his girlfriend is revealing to him, he clearly thinks that she is blaming him, she admits that the thought had crossed her mind, leaving Martin hurt.

OH MY GOD!!!!!!! SHE'S BACK!!!!!! The next scene we see Stacey, the Queen herself - she's holding up a piece of jewellery and she claims she thinks ruby's are tacky, but she'll take the necklace anyway, she hands over the card and assistant says "Thank you Miss. Allen!" - It's Stacey who's nicking Ruby's money! First thing I'm wondering is how and why?! Of course they're friends, but clearly news must have gotten back to her that Ruby has moved in on her ex-husband Martin. I am so delighted to see Stacey back, it's been a long time coming!!!

In the cafe, Callum is talking with Jack about Chantelle, he asks how Denise has taken the news. Jack reveals that Denise is in bits, she's devastated for the children also. Callum can't even begin to get his head round it, it looks as if no one can, Jack is visibly devastated as he mentions Denise. Callum asks Jack one of the most important questions next to Jack, "How do cope though, with someone you love that much, just dropping out of your life like that?" - Jack takes a sigh and responds "You learn to live with it!" - as viewers will know, he lost the love of his life, Ronnie, on their wedding day. Ronnie sadly drowned trying to save her sister, Roxy, from drowning in a hotel spa swimming pool. Ronnie jumped in the pool in her wedding dress, but the dress and veil was so big and heavy she got dragged down and drowned along side her sister. As far as I'm aware, Callum never knew Ronnie, so Jack can fully understand how the Taylor's are feeling, perhaps in his mind, Gray also. The conversation then changes to Jack asking whether he had spoken to Ben, Callum reveals he hasn't. Jack then advises him to keep it that way, he explains to him the less that he's involved the better, otherwise it could jeopardize his whole career. Callum tries his best to explain that he can't just turn his back on his boyfriend, Jack seems to come to the conclusion that Callum is free to do whatever he chooses to do, but he does warn him to be prepared.

Oooo a place we've no seen for a while, in the Slater's household Kat is seen on the phone to Stacey. Kat knows it was Stacey who was nicking Ruby's money. She's shouting at her down the phone, trying to persuade her not to carry on, because it looks as if Ruby might get the police involved, but Stacey doesn't care. Stacey hangs up the phone. While Kat and Stacey have been having this conversation, Kush has been overheard some slight bit of information. He asks Kat straight out why Ruby would have the police after Stacey. Kat can no longer hide, she needs to come clean. She reveals to him that Stacey just borrowed a little bit to begin with, but then Kat informed her about Ruby and Martin and suggested she'd take revenge. So Stacey started nicking larger amounts from Ruby's account. While Kat is giving Kush this information, little Arthur can be seen making his way down the stairs, as all little children do, they hear things they shouldn't really hear. Kat also drops the bombshell on Kush that the money used for pay the rent on his stall was also money used from Ruby's account. Kush instantly instructs Kat to phone Stacey back and tell her to come back to Walford, because the situation needs to be resolved now before it gets any worse!

In the Square, Callum finally bumps into Phil. This is the moment I think Callum respects Phil, he explains that Callum should've stopped him from going ahead with his plan, but Callum is ready to defend himself and reveals to Phil that he suggested to Ben he'd speak to him first. I think Phil realises that Callum does have Ben's interests at heart, he's trying to be the decent boyfriend and stand by him. Callum throws the blame on Phil, if Ben hadn't have wanted to prove himself the big man to his Dad then he wouldn't be caught up in all this mess. Phil sighs and admits to Callum that he has made some mistakes with Ben in the past. He explains that Ben was very young the first time he was sent to prison, he feels sad for his son that he might've missed out on some of the best years of his life, but there's nothing he can do that can change the past but all he will do is hope that he doesn't make the same mistakes.

Back at the Taylors, all the family members are absolutely devastated to learn about the passing of Chantelle. Bernie is seeing tearfully cradling the big teddy bear. Karen is on the phone to police wondering why the Police have kept Gray in for questioning, wanting to know whether he's going to be charged. Keegan is in his room down the hall from his Mum, Mitch enters his room to check if he's okay, he explains he's going to go and see Bailey so he can tell her face to face, and then he'll pick up Chantelle's children so they can all be together as they grieve. Keegan's voice breaks as he explains to his Dad that because they all left so quickly, he never got a chance to say goodbye to his sister. That moment, I found really heart-breaking. Chantelle was always caring for her younger brother, looking out for him and making sure he was okay. Keegan would obviously be absolutely broken by the lost of his big sister.

While the Taylors are grieving on one side of the Square, Kheerat is also struck with grief as he repeats the voice message from Chantelle on his phone, over and over again. Suki walks in on him listening to the voice message, she tries her best to console her son, explaining that he needs to stop listening to the message and try and move on. Kheerat knows he can't back away from this, he knows something isn't right - he can tell be the stress in her voice, he knows that Gray made her make that call. Suki is in shock and she seems to realise that her son is suggesting that Gray might've killed her. Kheerat is sobbing as he explains to his Mum that he had fallen in love with Chantelle, that their plan was to run away together. I love how Kheerat is explains it all, he's right - it can't be a coincidence that the night he sneaks into the Atkins house to grab a memory box for her, for then to be sent a voice message from her and then for her to pass away so suddenly, for all those events to have happened in the same night, something just doesn't make sense. I really do hope that Kheerat will be the one to expose Gray, he will find out what's happened and he will do everything in his power to get justice for Chantelle.

Back at the club, Martin is spending some time with little Arthur, Ruby walks in and gives him daggers as she makes her way behind the bar. Martin pretty much demands an apology from Ruby. He explains to her that the only money he gets from her is his wages he'd paid at the end of the month and that's it! But Ruby instantly mentions the day out he has planned, she questions him on how he'll be able to afford it. To prove he's being honest with her, he pulls out a load of vouchers from his back pocket and plonks them on the counter in front of her, she instantly feels guilty for even thinking it could be him. She apologises and Martin explains that if someone was stealing her money she should go straight to the police. It's only then little Arthur speaks and reveals what he has overheard "Mummy does! Mummy stole your money!" ..... Okay, as cute as that was, part of me kind of thinks, a child of Arthur's age, how would he know? If you were in that situation, wouldn't you sit them down quietly and try and get them to explain what they mean? It's a big accusation to make, but of course, Arthur doesn't understand what he's just said, he's just repeating words that he's heard. Martin and Ruby look in shock as they realise there could be some truth in what the little boy is saying.

On the Square, a police car is pulling up with Gray in the backseat. Have the police let him go, for now? Mitch watches from a distance as Gray leaves the car and looks at the scenery around the house. On the other side of the Square, Kheerat turns the corner and watches as Gray turns around and they both stare at each other. Mitch watches on and looks in the direction of where Gray is looking and clocks Kheerat, again both men share a look from across the Square as they watch as Karen falls into Gray's arms and they both sob.

Next, Callum is seen leaving the police station, his boss calls after him as he walks away from the building. At first the conversation focuses on the death of Chantelle, Callum informs the Detective that he didn't know Gray or Chantelle that well but knows that they are both very likeable people. His boss then turns the conversation to his offer. Callum admits to his boss that he can't do what he's asking, it would tear Ben apart if he was to grass his Dad up to the police. His boss then warns Callum, "Have you got any idea what they do to grasses in prison? I'll charge him tomorrow morning, you've got until then!" Callum really doesn't know what to do for the best, part of me hopes he doesn't grass up Phil! It's going to be the worse thing he could do for all involved if he does!

The last scene of the episode, we're back in the middle of the Square, Ruby is making her way through the street as Kat is watching her, Ruby approaches her and Kat mocks that she's not walking up to give her bonus. Ruby then reveals to her that she knows, she knows exactly who's been stealing from her. She wants to know exactly where she is, of course Kat plays dumb and asks "Who?" As this conversation goes on, in the background we see a call pull up, a ladies foot is exposed as someone leaves the car. Ruby is determined to get information out of Kat, suddenly, Stacey makes herself known - walking up to them both like a model on a cat walk! All glammed and looking absolutely fabulous! Ruby watches in shock as her ex-friend makes herself know, Kat watches with the most tiniest little grin on her face. Stacey is back with an almighty bang!!

I'm really excited to see what's going to go down between Ruby and Stacey, they were once the best of friends and now they look like they can't seem the bare the sight of each other. As I've explained, I will follow up tonight's episode tomorrow, and I will do Thursday's episode on Friday as unfortunately, I am back in work. I will do my absolute best and keep up to date for the rest of the week. Enjoy folks and I'll be back very soon! xXx

#eastenders #grayatkins #chantelleatkins #karentaylor #mitchbaker #kheerat panesar #martinfowler #rubyallen #kushkazemi #katslater #staceyslater #suki panesar #callumhighway #philmitchell #benmitchell #ballum #keeganbaker #bernadettetaylor #jackbranning

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bewareofchris · 5 years ago

Text

Public Relations 5/??

PG-13 atm | Alec Hardy/Dr. Bill Masters | Broadchurch, Masters of Sex | Strong language, eventual sexual situations

“The fact that Alec Hardy was not currently, had not ever, and did not want to date the American sex research did not seem very important at all to the town of Broadchurch. They did what they had always done with a little bit of juicy gossip: they made a spectacle of it.”

<< prev

Bill had taken the precaution of preparing himself to be stared at. It was always easier to handle being the center of attention when you had stood in front of the mirror that morning reminding yourself it was only curiosity. There was nothing wrong with a bit of healthy interest. (An excess in interest, though, that left a man feeling every so slightly slimy. There was just something about the slide of long stares across his body that left him with a film of disgust on his skin. He certainly wished he’d never learned the difference but there was no going back now.) He had attempted to look casual, like anyone might try to look when they were out on vacation. Contrary to popular belief at his office, he did own T-shirts. He just didn’t have any here. Betty could only pack what she had access to and the only clothes he’d rescued from Libby had been the ones she hadn’t already thrown out or burned.

Casual was the effect he was hoping for, but the best he’d managed was rolled up sleeves and the top few buttons of his shirt left undone. Even his shoes were shiny, like a beacon to draw in attention. He might as well taken to introducing himself as Dr. Bill Masters, I cheated on my wife and got kicked out of the country, I professional observe couples having sex.

Might have been easier to just say ‘cheating pervert’.

The young woman who owned the hotel did not stop him on his way out. She had been distracted by an oversized crowd in her sitting room. (Or bar? Or dining room. He wasn’t clear on what it was other than it had tables and served beer, maybe.) It allowed him to escape without too much fuss. The air was still crisp, and fresh.

Bill walked without any sense of direction and he found himself along a path that took him closer and closer to the edge of the cliff he’d seen from the beach below. It was breath taking, like a fist in his chest that robbed his body of oxygen. It was amazing how small it left him feeling, and how beautiful it was to feel so small.

And he might have stood there, enraptured in an unfamiliar feeling of smallness and beauty if not for the crude, unwanted interjection of, “for fucks sake,” that sounded a little bit like the skinny stupid man that was fine with dying alone. Bill turned toward the sound of the voice and there was the bastard himself. There was a faint blush of color in his face, a shivering restoration of strength to his limbs. His voice was scraped out of his throat, and his face was twisted up in disbelieving disapproval. (No it was harder than that, it wasn’t disapproval, it was something like distaste that was bridging into disgust.) He didn’t say another word but turned immediately and walked away.

“No wait a minute!” Bill shouted after him. He stumbled after him. (That came from wearing dress shoes and damp grass.) It was easy to catch a man with a heart like Alec Hardy’s. It wasn’t like he was even capable of moving fast enough to avoid a turtle much less a full grown man. His arm was thin as bones when Bill’s hand caught it and the man whipped around so fast it was unthinkable it was followed with some kind of blow. A punch, a kick, an open handed slap.

They were staring at one another, Hardy glaring with contempt and Bill catching his breath (and trying to reason out why he was so vile to the man). “Just stay well away from me,” Hardy said.

“I have no interest in being near you,” Bill snapped back. And then, more importantly, “you live here?”

Hardy looked lie he would rather answer any question in the world but that one. (Or maybe he just didn’t want to admit that he, too, had been sent here by forces beyond his control.) “Unfortunately. I mean it, stay away from me. I don’t have time for you.” He half turned, stopped, and glanced back at him, as if he were judging if Bill would try to grab him again. Then he turned full and stalked away.

No amount of imagination, or scientific hypothesizing could have prepared him from this moment. He had stood in his mirror to prepare himself for nosy baristas, but how could he have known that ill-tempered dying detectives would sneer at him with something that felt almost like hatred. And what did it even mean I don’t have time for you?

Bill hadn’t even been asking for time.

He hadn’t been asking for anything but an explanation. (Maybe. Maybe just someone that looked almost familiar to him.) Betty would have loved it, seeing him struck dumb and offended, lost on a cliff side. She would have died laughing, with a little wink because he’d left so many people feeling the way he felt right now it was about time he got a taste of it.

The morning had only started and now it felt hopelessly ruined. (And since there was no hope of improvement, there was nothing stopping him from going back to the coffee shop to be gawked at.)

There were far worse things to be than gay. Being routinely referred to as shitface behind his back came to mind. And if the whole of his coworkers and the town around them was going to call him such a charming nickname, they could have at least done so with secrecy. The longer he stayed the less they seemed to care about the pretense of respect. The last stronghold against the brewing dislike for him was Miller and her amusement at his foulness was almost as annoying. Hardy didn’t mind being disliked as long as the investigation proceeded properly.

He didn’t mind being thought of as gay either.

But he didn’t have time to fuel any rumors about the sex life that he wasn’t even capable of having. He wasn’t capable of having anything but a matter of months that was quickly narrowing down to weeks. His body could feel the failing of his heart and it left him with a sense of dread that couldn’t be ignored.

He’d read somewhere, that’s how it felt when you knew you were going to die. He remembered seeing it in an article, lost somewhere in late-night wandering through the internet. He couldn’t remember now if it were true or not, but the idea had stuck with him. It had been at the back of his mind so long that it had become a fact. (After all, anything could be true if you believed it long enough.) The body knew when it was wrong and there was no mistaking that regardless of the spryness of his mind, and the bitterness of his soul, his body was wrong.

Hardy was dying.

He couldn’t have been fucking an American Doctor even if he’d wanted to. He couldn’t fuck anyone. He could hardly stand a brisk walk. He couldn’t even manage an intense emotion without his chest crushing itself. He could feel the fist of pain starting, and his head was spinning before he’d even made it back to the hotel. He had intended to go straight to work, but there was no hope in making it there now.

He got through the door without collapsing, let it slam behind him with no sense of decorum or shame. Becca leaned out of the doorway of her gathered assembling of snoops to squint at him with concern. She said, “are you alright,” as he walked past. “Hey,” she called after him. Her feet were shuffling after him, because she knew enough about him to know that he was not. “Do you need an ambulance?”

“No,” Hardy snapped back, “I forgot,” what could have possibly forgotten, “a file. I’m fine.” His voice was even enough that he could almost believe himself. He lost her in the hallway, she didn’t follow him the whole way to his room. That was a small miracle.

Hardy wasn’t interested in thanking God for anything lately, but he spared the idea of a prayer to be thankful that he made it all the way to his room before his legs turned rubbery. He lurched for the bottle of pills he’d left on the bedside table. He landed on his knees against the bed, collapsing sideways so he could sit. His hands were shaking as he opened the bottle and pushed the pill into his mouth.

The pain was intense as the anger. The anger was useless, it wouldn’t keep him alive. The anger was a reminder of everything he was losing, or had lost, or still had just enough time to lose. He’d lost his wife, and he’d lost his reputation, and he’d lost his daughter. He’d let a child murderer go free and he couldn’t sleep without remembering it, remembering the exact second that he’d found out.

There were two dead little girls out there that couldn’t have justice for what was done to them. There was a murderer free, toasting Alec Hardy as the fuck up who let him go.

And Hardy was here, pressing a fist against his own chest, feeling a well of fury and unfairness that could have drown any man. Hardy was here, right now, taking his time about dying.

Not just yet. Not until he found the man who killed Danny Latimer.

next>>

@marvelmisha, if you’d like to be tagged on future updates just let me know.

#illogical husbands #alec hardy #bill masters #broadchurch #masters of sex #i love both you grouchy bastards #just I love hardy more #public relations: the fic

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burning-clutch · 5 years ago

Text

Crashing Like A Tidal Wave With Cardiac Arrest: Part 1

Read on Ao3: here (Chapter 1 of 2) Pairings: Jack/Maddie Trigger Warnings: Blood and gore, Major character death Author: @burning-clutch (Team Ghost) Total words: 4711 prompt by: Anthropwashere / Anthrop AO3 and FFN: Anthrop

-.-.-.- **Important** There is a bit of excessive gore in here I wanted to try my hand at writing but I marked it between xXxX lines. it's not a lot just an over detailed depiction of the scene, but if you need to skip it, it will not change how the story is perceived, and you can continue on with out worry. -.-.-.-.-

The day was routine, or at least it started out that way…

Danny had woken up late for school having spent the night prior fighting endless rounds of Ectopuss, giant rats, a pack of wolves, a bear ghost, the Box Ghost, Skulker, some weird rabbit gorilla cross…. All in all nothing too terrible… Just relentlessly endless and annoying, eating into his sleep and making him generally miserable the next day.

Danny had gotten to the school in record time, not that it mattered really, he was already late and the added five minutes it took didn’t make any difference in Lancer’s eyes. He was sorely tempted to skip his first period altogether but didn’t really want to risk the phone call home to his parents.

He was a big enough disappointment to them as it was right now, and the last thing he needed or wanted to be the hollow sight from his parents as they looked on to him hopelessly.

“I really wish you would take this more seriously hun,” his mother would say

“I know these are your best years son, but the school’s important! Fenton’s are smart and you got a legacy to uphold!” his father would continue.

It was the same thing almost every time he screwed up, followed by his sensitive ears picking up his parents' hushed conversations mainly consisting of. “I don’t know what we’re going to do for him… nothing helps…”

He sighed as he landed in the janitor’s closet and transformed back to human. He shouldn’t worry about this now. Jazz and him were making preparations to be able to tell his parents the truth, and hopefully, that will allow him to smooth over most of the issues with his parents. He was concerned that he may have some loss of freedom though.

Or at least Jazz had warned him that may be the case. At the very least he could expect enforced ghost fighting curfews with a ghost shield around the house that a halfa can’t get out of.

He shook his head to clear the thoughts and moved to exit the closet swiftly making his way to class. “Ah, how nice of you to join us, Mr. Fenton,” Lancer said, hardly even sparing the teen a glance as he continued to write on the board.

Danny offered the teacher a sheepish smile that seemed to go unnoticed by the middle aged man, and hurried to his seat, throwing himself into his chair as silently as he could. It only occurred to him once he was in his seat that Lancer hadn’t bothered to issue him a detention.

Strangely that thought twisted in his gut painfully. Was he so bad off that even Lancer deemed him a lost cause now? He sighed deeply and just tried to push those self depreciative thoughts out of his mind, and decided instead that he should count his blessings that he could head home directly after school for a change.

Regardless he still opted to tune out the rest of the lecture as the day dragged on, Mr. Lancer did not make The Grapes of Wrath sound interesting at all and his opinion.

His friends beside him took in his tired visage and offered him a pitying look. The bags under his eyes made it clear that he was in need of sleep.

“What kept you up last night dude?” Tucker asked him with a quiet whisper.

“Box ghost and a whole bunch of animal ghosts all teaming up to make my night an endless hell…” Danny responded equally as quiet with an exasperated sigh.

“You should have called us man we would have been able to help you” Tucker whispered back eyeing his friend with a critical glance.

“You know we're always ready and willing to share the burden, you don't have to do this all yourself, as much as you think it's your ‘duty’ to,” Sam added from his other side.

“I know but it's not right for me to drag you guys into this. What if you guys get hurt? I'd never forgive myself!” Danny whispered back, with a slight huff, though a slight glow overtook his eyes. betraying his truest feelings.

Sam and Tucker exchanged a glance around him knowingly, it was pointless to try and argue with him when he gets like this. Even Jazz with all of her endless patience for psychoanalyzing him eventually gave up trying to understand the motivations behind his weird compulsions and all the faults and quirks that came along with having a Ghostly obsession to boot.

Danny lets out a long yawn. Man, was he tired. Maybe he could just rest his head on the desk for a moment, Lancer probably wouldn't notice right? No sooner was his head down were his eyes sliding closed from his exhaustion, unconsciousness taking him quickly.

From Danny’s perspective, he blinked and then was suddenly being poked by Tucker. Danny raised his head and took in his friend’s deep frown. “Bell rang, dude.”

Right good… “Yeah,” he yawned widely. Earning a sympathetic look from his friends and a flat exasperated sigh from the teacher.

Danny did his best to ignore the look as he stood and gathered his things to leave. He was just passing the classroom’s threshold when his ghost scene went off, fogging up around his vision and dissipating off into the air. He groaned.

“If it’s Boxy, I’m just going to lock him in the thermos and keep him there until the Christmas truce,” Danny growled.

“You want one of us to take care of him then?” Sam asked as Danny handed off his backpack to her.

“No, I should do it... “ He sighed. “I’m the one that everyone expects to be late anyway.”

“Still dude, you don’t-” Tucker started only to snap his jaws shut when Danny waved a flippant hand at him.

“No, it’s fine just tell the teacher I had a bowel problem or something. I’ll be back.” Danny said, already turning to leave and head for a closet or the bathroom to transform in. This was so second nature for him now, he had to wonder what he would ever be able to actually accomplish in school if he had the time to dedicate to actually sitting still for more than an hour and actually having time to learn things.

One flash of light later and Phantom was in the air following his ghost sense to the roof of the school. No sooner did he fully emerge above the building did he get blasted from behind. Danny rounded on the enemy expecting Skulker again but was surprised when he saw one of Vlad’s vultures panting from the exertion of its attack.

Instantly on high alert now, and looking for the elder half ghost himself, Danny fired an icy blast at the annoying bird's wings taking advantage of it’s needed recovery time.

The attack struck true and the bird fell to the ground with a squawk. Vulnerable now, he unhooked his thermos and sucked up the ghost easily. Capping it, and reattaching it to his belt, Danny flew around the school, trying to find the other two vultures or Vlad.

Using his ghost sense to guide him, he makes his way off the school property and into the woods that were just behind, Danny soon found the second vulture. It was odd though the bird was flying quickly away from the school instead of trying to attack him it kept on its trajectory.

It didn’t take Danny long to put two and two together and realize that the vulture was luring him somewhere. So he threw up a shield in front of the bird, which it flew into with a wet sounding thump before that minion too was sucked away.

“Ha, even dead birds fly into stuff” Danny quipped.

He flew upwards to get his bearings and realized he was halfway to Elmerton almost now. He cursed under his breath before doubling back towards the school, ignoring his ghost sense that was trying to draw him further away.

If Vlad was involved in this… whatever it was, he at least wanted to try and make it hard for him to execute whatever plan that frootloop had set up. Heading back towards the school he caught sight of a flash of green of a pair of Ectopuss in the football field.

“How did I miss you?” He muttered as he flew down towards them.

He hardly entered the school grounds when a pink blast shot towards him whizzing right by his ear. Only the sound of the static as it fizzed through the air alerted him to the attack, giving him barely enough time to dodge.

“Ah Daniel, I must admit I was anticipating you being gone for a little longer.” Vlad mused seemingly unimpressed by the teenager’s appearance.

“Did you really expect me to go that far once I realized your cronies leading me off?” Danny spat hands aglow with green sparking energy.

“Well of course I did. Your infernal hero complex is all too predictable after all.” Vlad chuckled dryly. “By the way little badger, how did you sleep last night? I had an unfortunate ghostly animal jailbreak.”

“Of course that was you.” Danny snarled before launching an attack at the man.

Vlad simply floated out of the way casually, smirking in that overly pompous manner of his. “As I said, predictable.” he chuckled darkly before a clone came up from behind and kicked Danny down to the ground.

The teen yelled and tried to slow his fall, but he still managed to leave a decently sized crater in the ground when all was said and done. Danny pulled himself free in launch skyward invisibly hoping to catch Vlad off guard.

Again, the elder half ghost dodged, before rounding on the teen and trapping him with a bear hug

"Now, now, Daniel. I can't have you messing up my plans my dear boy. Today is the day I Triumph and finally end that fool Jack Fenton and take Maddie for my wife," he purred

Danny's eyes go wide at the man's words. “What did you do,” He growled out. “Where are my parents Vlad! I swear-”

“Oh don’t worry it’s nothing dear Maddoline can’t handle. Tell me did you happen to get all three of my minions or did you simply come back here to confront me?” The man smiled in an overly sickeningly way that made Danny want to vomit.

“Wait, you - UGH!” Danny sees red, or rather green, as his eyes shine bright the need to protect overwhelming him as he stretches his body out and escapes the man’s hold. Snapping himself back to proper shape he lets loose a powerful mix of ecto plasma and ice.

It launched out of his palms so large and wide that Vlad had no choice but to try to shield, unable to dodge. The pink shield strained and shook, cracking with spiderwebs lacing the ecto construct.

Danny’s fury helped fuel his power and the added power backing him enabled him to break through the shield, hitting Vlad square in the chest... and destroying the clone in a hiss of melting pink sludge.

The teen whirled about in the air looking for the next attack, any possible sign of his enemy. How dare he! This was his town, his lair and he would protect the people in it. In a way, they were his too. It only fueled his rage knowing it was his father who was at risk.

Danny snarled in rage before shaking himself into a more coherent state. He fumbled about on his person managing to find whatever weird interstate his phone had gone into, and pulled it free to check it over.

He pushed it open and brought up the ‘Fenton Finder’ app that showed where the GAV was at any given moment, something that the citizens of the city enjoyed so they could avoid the areas whenever possible, usually meaning that there was a ghost attack wherever the Fenton’s were heading.

For Danny, it helped him avoid, or find his parents quickly. Finding his parent’s location was easy and after sticking his phone from what area it had come from, he’d shot off like a rocket. Thankfully they weren’t far, practically down the street from the school near the mall actually, which made sense otherwise Vlad wouldn’t have been able to maintain his clone.

Danny arrived on the scene just in time to see Vlad telekinetically tossing things towards the GAV. He had managed to split up the elder Fentons and lifted a few cars getting ready to toss them at Jack with a howl.

Danny slammed into Vlad tackling him to the ground, hands burning as bright as his eyes as he blasted the ghost.

The damage was already done though. As soon as Danny had tackled Vlad, the cars had become encased in pink energy causing it to still follow the trajectory that Vlad had wanted.

Both halfas slammed into the ground but were still high enough, the crater created not too deep in the pavement, to see what was happening.

Vlad smirked and took Danny’s distraction as a chance to escape phasing into the ground leaving a bewildered teen halfa unable to move, only stare at the scene before him.

The car sailed towards Jack who tried to bound out of the way. The large man was not as fast as he liked to believe and of course, was a large target, to hit. The car slammed into his leg knocking the tall man over and causing him to roll back from the force of the strike.

“Fu-e- Ouch! That’s broken…” Jack hissed out changing his swear last minute. The orange clad man struggled to get to his feet, his right leg bending awkwardly below the knee, but putting all his weight on his left allowed him to clamber to his feet… er, foot.

Danny heaved a sigh of relief seeing his father still standing, a little worse for wear granted but overall alive…. Or at least he was until he saw the man he always knew to be cheerful and boisterous, went quiet and pale, letting out a barely audible “N-No...”

Danny realizing Vlad had taken off, stood and followed his father’s gaze, heart and core both pounding anxiously, before burning away into a mix of sorrow and furry. There, just a little bit away, he could just barely make it out to what it should look like… but it was indeed a leg... in a very familiar, painfully familiar, teal colour, sticking out from under a car.

Danny gulped wishing silently that the red that was splashed about the concrete was just paint… A grunt and a crunch pulled Danny’s attention back to his father, who was trying desperately to meet his wife.

Carefully he flew to the large man before landing silently beside him, only to look away a second later ashamed. “I…. I couldn’t stop him in time…” He managed out, voice as broken as he currently was and glow dimming to an almost nonexistent state. “H-Here…”

Jack wrenched his eyes away from the blood and gore before him to stare listlessly at Phantom. Normally his scientific mind would be undoubtedly fascinated by the things currently being exhibited by Phantom, but right now…

Jack hardly said anything, not even so much as a protest as Danny looped his arm around the large man’s back allowing him to use the ghost as a crutch. That normally would have worried Danny but his everything was just stricken. He just…

He forced himself to move forward, urged on more by Jack’s listless hobbling rather than his own will to do so. He heard sirens, and couldn’t care less whether they were police, ambulance, fire or even the GIW coming for him… he just…

He had to know that the stillness of that form ahead really was due to...

He shook his head chastising himself for thinking such a thing before he had any proof. Though the closer he got, the colder the air around him felt.

Even Jack was shivering but his mind was numb to the biting temperature that Phantom was giving off… Nothing mattered just… “Madds… Oh, Maddie…” Jack whimpered, as they rounded the car.

Phantom turned green and fell away from Jack’s eyes widened. His stomach turned at the bloody scene before him. His mother… she was… “She’s... She’s dead!” Phantom cried out large luminescent tears falling from his eyes as he quivered in sorrow and grief.

It was a grizzly sight

XxXxXxX

Maddie was not in one whole piece for starters, her lower half had been cleaved off by the car leaving her legs to lay underneath while her upper body had rolled on, landing sideways against the curb, Her eyes, still opened, were glassy like that of a dead fish, and were quickly clouding.

Her skin now looked a sickly grey as opposed to the healthy pink and peach Danny had come to associate with his mother. Her face had been scraped deeply from when she had slid across the pavement, reminding the teen sickeningly of ground beef with how bad the scrapes were.

Entrails hung out from below her ribcage spilling their foul greenish yellow bile across the pavement, while chunks of… something Danny didn’t even want to identify was strewn about in various shades of whiteish, grey, pink, bright red and reddish black…

Bones... That was bones… or rather bits of bone that had been crushed and scattered from the impact…. Danny had seen bones before of course, there were skeleton ghosts after all but never like this… not something like this...

And all the red! Red was everywhere. No matter where he looked there was red. Large globbing splatters all the way down to the tiniest of pinpricks, it was there, and it was her. His mother… her essence...The iron scent was so strong now he could taste it.

XxXxXxX

It quickly became too much for the teen, and he had to turn away from the scene onto the nearest boulevard to vomit. A thick green sludge that awfully enough reminded him of a slightly glowing lime Jell-o tumbled out from his stomach, burning his throat and nose.

After having emptied his stomach of whatever was in there and turning away from the mess he’d made, he carefully returned to his father who was weeping openly having fallen to his knees as he did so. The broken man was unable to turn away.

Danny swallowed thickly doing his best to keep his eyes on the ground, thankfully his own tears made everything blurry so he didn’t have to focus in on the mess that his mother had become…

“D- Jack? ...Come on… There are paramedics…” The teen managed out weakly. Jack looked up at him as if finally realizing just who was here beside him. Danny forced himself not to look away from the lost broken look on his father’s face. When he tried to say more it was as if his mouth was suddenly filled with cotton, and he opened it and closed it a few times unsure what to say.

“What do you want, Phantom?” The man asked after a moment of silence passed, both openly letting their tears fall, but neither mentioning it. The accusation was there but it was so much weaker than he had ever heard before… “If you’ve come to gloat I-”

“What!? No! Never! I… I actually wanted to say I’m sorry… I wasn’t fast enough I… This is my fault…” He sniffed out.

“What?! You’re sorry? You’re sorry!?” Jack boomed anger getting the better of him. Danny had heard enough of Jazz’s lectures to know what this was. He was so distraught and hurt, that he was going to take out his anger on anything he could…

Danny couldn’t blame him for turning on him though… everything is his fault.

“Sorry is not going to bring her back! Sorry isn’t going to fix this! Sorry isn’t going to- '' The man's voice cracked, breaking as he screamed becoming silent a second before he broke down again. “She’s gone… Sh-She’s gone!”

“I’m so sorry... This is my fault! If I was faster! I-I should have figured out Plasmius’s plan sooner I-I’m such an idiot I… oh Mom…” Danny hiccupped and tugged at his hair, nails digging into his scalp. “Mom! It’s all my fault! I should have saved you!”

“Wh- What did you?” Jack sniffed head snapping up in an instant watching as Phantom seemed to be having a mental breakdown. “Mom…” he managed out between sobs. Jack stole a glance at his broken wife, before staring back at Phantom.

The ghost looked young. Maybe somewhere in his mid teens at most, and with his glow now as weak as it was, he could clearly see the ghost that was usually hidden within the usual ethereal fog. He was a boy really, he looked so small, not at all like the muscled form they usually see. His glow was pretty much gone, leaving his usually brilliant white hair a dull steel grey. His white gloves and even the sharp crisp black… all of it just looked so dull…

Even the usual bright radioactive ectoplasmic green of his eyes had faded to a more human looking colour. If one were to take away the slight green tint in his skin he could easily pass for a kid who just dyed his hair, so long as someone wasn’t looking too hard at him... It was so surreal and uncanny in how the ghost moved, like an old movie that was missing an occasional frame.

And he was clearly having some sort of… episode… Perhaps he had died in a car crash with his mother? Was that why this was affecting him so strongly? The soft sobs of the usually strong and cocky ghost, and watching the boy cry about his mother… It felt so wrong.

“What kind of hero am I if I can’t even save my own mother? I can’t help anyone!” he sniffed, wiping his nose on his sleeve leaving an iridescent slime trail along his sleeve.

“Phantom…” Jack tried softly. Instantly the ghost’s head popped up to look at him, though it didn't last long as a moment later he squeezed his eyes shut tightly.

“Just… Just get it over with… hurry up and tear me apart… just… It’ll make us both feel better right?” the ghost pleaded brokenly to Jack's dull green eyes staring blankly ahead. “At least then I… I can be useful… not a disappointment… I’m just a screwup… I- “

“Phantom…” Jack said softly.

“I- I’m sorry” He sniffed.

Jack blinked slowly. “I need you to help me get to the paramedics.”

“I’m- You want me to help?” He sniffled again. He really was a broken child at this moment and not just a ghost… besides, Jack didn’t have the fight in him right now to even bother trying to attack the ghost. “Really?” Phantom asked again, hope filling his green eyes.

“Yeah… I mean since I can’t walk,” came the simple response. “I…I need your help Phantom.”

The ghostly teen nodded and moved forward to help the large man. Storm clouds barely being contained behind his eyes, while Jack on the other hand, just felt numb.

As Phantom helped Jack over to the emergency responders neither one noticed the other ghost that was on a nearby roof, staring down at the scene in silent horror.

Vlad masters or Plasmius in his current form had undoubtedly, unequivocally, and unquestionably screwed up… big time. Not only had his plan failed in the most spectacular way possible, but he had also killed the love of his life. By his own power, his own hand, she had stopped breathing, her heart stopped beating… her life drained.

In trying to end Jack, the man who ruined his life, he had unintentionally ended another's. The one most precious to him… Second only to the kinship that he had felt with Danny…

That feeling had been the most notable change here…

As it stood now, Vlad was unsure if he still felt the same about the younger half ghost. It was Daniel’s fault his plan had gone awry… If it wasn’t for him that would be Jack’s corpse smeared across the pavement from the car. The hunks of metal crushing the fat oaf of a man, not his dear sweet innocent Madeline.

But at the same time… they still shared a curse. A curse that bound them together whether they liked it or not. It was something that bound them to walk a tightrope of life and death and experience a sensation of isolation like no other.

Though as Vlad watched Jack interacting with Phantom, how the ghost tenderly had started embracing the man, and Jack in turn squeezed and held the boy so tight it looked like he would pop, the man couldn’t stop the bit of jealous rage that fermented in his core.

And yet, the more human side of his brain was breaking. Maddie was gone and he had destroyed Daniel’s family in all the wrong ways… It was his fault here as much as it was Daniel’s, and now... Now he just needed some time to himself to reflect…

Danny wasn’t sure how long he’d hugged his father for, and in ghost form no less, but they both needed this and it seemed like it didn’t matter who was there to offer the much needed comfort. “I-I…” He swallowed thickly again when he looked up into the deep blue eyes of his father globs of tears rimming his lashes and streaking freely down his face.

“It… It’s okay… I… You just… you look so much like my son like this” Jack admits. “I… I couldn’t... I…Oh, Danny....”

“Dad… I wanted to tell you sooner, and … and Mom too but…” He sniffed, trying to clear his nose and opened his mouth to continue only to hiccup, his voice betraying him. As the paramedics, cops and of course the GIW start to encircle them Danny whispered simply. “We-We’ll talk at home I…”

“Ecto-entity Phantom, by the order of CR-2003-02 you are under arrest!” The agent called out earning several glares from the emergency responders that had shown up.

“Like hell he is!” Jack boomed, surprising everyone there, but none more than the ghost himself. “You leave right now or I swear...” The large man said in a rather flattened tone. Jack loud was one thing, that was normal… Jack talking calmly or quiet well… that meant hell was about to break loose.

The agents looked about the area awkwardly, before one brave one with dark skin piped up. “But the law states-”

“And the law can get you a warrant to take him,” Jack said simply eyes hardened. He was not about to deal with them after… after… he shakes his head to clear his thoughts before putting an arm around Phantom… Danny… Danny Phantom, and pulling him to himself. “Ghost’s mine and I’m a licenced hunter so I have possession. Now leave.” he barked

Danny watched his father in awe. He’d seen his father upset before of course, and even protective of him and Jazz before too, but never like this…

The agents shared a glance before backing off with glares all the way back to their van.

The paramedics were next to approach while the Cops started roping off the area. Everything was a blur after that. And Danny hardly remembers anything once the paramedics took Jack.

He knows at some point he flew home, not bothering to head back to school, as he sort of ‘blinked back into reality’ to realize he was staring at his ceiling. He really didn’t care about school right now…

He wasn’t sure what time it was when Jazz came home. Her eyes were red and she sighed in relief upon seeing him, before practically collapsing on top of him crushing him in a hug their father would be proud of. It only took a second before they both began to sob again… -.-.-.-.-.-.-.- Incomplete Total words: 4711

#Danny Phantom #Phic Phight 2020 #prompt fill #Danny #Maddie #Vlad #Jazz #Jack

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peggysousfan · 5 years ago

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Conman AU

Hi guys! I saw a post about a fic they wouldn’t write, several post actually, so I decided to pick them up and write them out. I give credit to that person who came up with these and the photo collages. All I did was write the story. The story is: Peggy and Daniel are con artists trying to get back on the straight and narrow. Then their old boss, Joe Manfredi, pulls them in for one more job. The target: billionaire Hugh Jones. Hope you all enjoy! :)

As the night begins to turn into day, the birds sing their morning serande, waking the two lovers in bed. The woman stirs first, snuggling closer to her man as he wraps his arms around her tighter. She rests her head above his heart and her arm to his chest; grazing a hand within his hair. He chuckles and tenderly kisses her head.

"Morning, Peg." He smiles.

"Good morning, my darling." She says in return, placing fervent and slow kisses over his torso. He chuckles again and brings her body flush with his.

"So what's on the agenda today..." Peggy reaches up and brings her face to his, catching his lips in hers. They kiss until they are out of breath, leaving Daniel to embrace her closer.

"I'm not sure...I thought we agreed to take it easy for a while. No more rough jobs."

"That we did," He caresses her back, making her moan softly and arch into him, "But we're running low on cash. And neither of us has found an actual...normal job yet." As he says this, she laughs lightly.

"Normal? Honestly Daniel." She rolls onto her back an turns to face him. "We're so use to this life, its much more difficult to go back." He turns on his side and kisses her neck.

"I know. But we gotta find something soon. We can't keep living in these run down motels." Peggy closes her eyes and sighs, asking him why not. "Because, Peg, you deserve better." And this brings another laugh from her. Daniel hovers above her as he speaks, both hands on either side of her face. "It's true, amor. You deserve the world. And I can't give it to you if we're living like this, struggling to make ends meet. I know we said we should leave our old life, start over together... but I think we need the money."

"Daniel...we agreed. I cant see you get hurt again. It nearly killed me seeing you like that." He lays his own head on her chest and places his hand over her waist. Bringing her some comfort before she indulges in that horrific memory.

"I know." He kisses her softly as he sets up on his elbows, looking down to her again. His hand playing with the necklace he stole for her. A small, golden, circle with an engraving. It reminded her of her old home in London so he took it while they were on an old assignment. Now he can't do that anymore. "No more thieving, manipulating, or conning. Just us and the real world."

"Together." She says, lacing their hands together, placing one more kiss on her lovers lips. When he pulls away, she chases after his lips, bringing a laugh out of him. They get out of bed and dress for the day. Daniel wears a plain, beige office shirt with a blazer, and some khakis. Peggy wears her lower cut pink blouse and her navy skirt. As the two walk about the town, getting ready to enter a diner, they're stopped by an old college... Joe Manfredi.

"Well this can't be good." Daniel mutters as they follow him to his covert cover of an italian restaurant. As they enter the building, they walk to the back and sit down at the table.

"I see you two have gotten...close." Peggy and Daniel share a smirk, but don't indulge in his observation. "Oh I see how it is. No kissing and telling. Alright, I'll respect that." And the two lovers chuckle. "So. Let's get down to business."

"And what business would that be, Manfredi? We told you we were out."

"I know. I remember." He looks at Peggy. "But I got one more job for the two of ya. And then that's it. I won't bother you again after this."

"Why us?" Daniel speaks. "You have dozens of guys who work for you. Why bring us back?"

"Well Danny boy...that's because you two are the best at what you do. And none of my guys would be able to pull this job off half as cleanly as I need it to be done."

"And what job is that?" She asks, leaning back in her chair, arm against the back.

"How does a billion dollar job sound?" Daniel and Peggy straighten up and share a glance. "Now of course, me and my guys get most of it. But you two can walk away with a million each. At the least." They perk up at their strike of luck and listen to the plan. "The billion dollar man himself, Hugh Jones. He's got an estate that we need to get into. Heavy security and of course...its locked up nice and tight. The only way in is with his special access key."

"Can't we duplicate it?"Peggy asks, brow raised as if its the most logical option.

"Unfortunately no. It's impossible to remake something as unique as this one. You'll never get a good enough replica to pull it off." At this they both curse under their breaths. "But, I was thinking you two can do your thing and sneak into his main office, steal the key, and be on your way."

"Sounds easy enough." Daniel exclaims. "We've dealt with a lot more than breaking and entering into a billionaire's front door." And Peggy hums in agreement. "So when do we start?"

"How's about today." And then they get to work.

Joe Manfredi draws out the plans for the estate and where the load of cash is; along with the main office Jones works at. They go over his day-to-day schedule and talk about when it's best to break in to find the access key. For hours they go over this, learning the ins and the outs of the plan; preparing to finish it all tomorrow. They all are offered plates of spaghetti, all except Peggy. She looks offended by Manfredi's Nona; so Nona says something that isn't in English, points at Peg, and spits on the ground.

"She thinks you're the devil." Manfredi laughs, and she simply rolls her eyes and focuses on the plan. When night begins to set in, Peggy and Daniel leave the restaurant; hand in hand.

"You wanna go out somewhere to eat?" Daniel asks. She turns to him with a smirk on her face.

"What? Are you not stuffed from eating Nona's spaghetti?" He laughs at her and shakes his head.

"You know I hardly ate any of it." She nudges him playfully as the continue to walk down the street.

"Besides, we have no money right now to go out." He looks at her with a sly smile as he stops walking, and reaches into his coat pocket. "No! Daniel!" She squeals. "Where did you-"

"Shh." He laughs, giving her the cash. "I took it off of that lady you bumped into this morning. Before went into the diner." As he says this, Peggy looks at him in wonder, frozen in place. "What?" She laughs and snogs him silly.

"Have I told you how much I love you today?" She chuckles.

"No, not today." He wolfishly grins. "But you can show me when after dinner."

"Why wait?" Peggy grins in return, dragging him back to their hotel room.

As they next day rolls in, the two con artist roll out and into their car. They use the money lent to them by Manfredi to purchase everything they needed for disguises. Daniel wears a plain office suit as an undercover man wanting an interview and Peggy wears a skirt and blouse with a wig, disguised as a secretary. The plan is to have Daniel distract Jones during the interview while Peggy sneaks in his office to find the access key. Everything is going smoothly in the beginning, until Jones appears as she looks through the filing cabinet.

"What's your name, darling?" She startles and turns to him, quickly going into actress mode.

"Good morning, Mr. Hugh- I mean Mr. Jones." Peggy says in her perfected american accent. "I was sent to grad a file for accounting. Something about the bank records being unorthodox and needing this file for a new personnel." "Oh don't I know it. I was just getting ready to do an interview now, but once I get back, I think I can help give you some special attention when I get back. Maybe a more...attentive job than fetching files for those dull slugs." She chuckles and watches him leave.

"Arrogant plonker." She mumbles as she gets down form the ladder and continues to search. For several minutes she looks, but finds nothing. And as if her luck hasn't been tossed already, Jones appears in his office.

"Oh, well hello again." He flirts. "Can I help you with something?" He walks over to her as she smiles. She stares blankly for an excuse, but comes up blank.

"Well I was, uhm..." But then an idea surfaces in her mind, and she half leans against his desk. "I was just waiting...for the special help you said you would provide." She smiles, flirtatiously, as he walks closer. She's trapped and has no idea what to do next; that is, until she reads the sign on his wall. It read 'the key to success is on you'. Peggy then realizes exactly where the key is located; Jones has it on him. He stands in front of her, and raising to her waist.

"I see. Well how about we go look over those...files and get started." He winks. And while he is distracted she shoves him, causing him to loose balance. He looks up from the floor, surprised. "Well if you wanted to get straight to the point then-" But she cuts him off with a solid right hook; knocking him unconscious.

"Disgusting pig," She mumbles as she stands over him looking for the key. She finds it hidden in his belt and takes it. When she leaves, she finds Daniel waiting in the car. "Ready to go?"

"Damn right." Daniel exclaims. "I hate this dull ass office." She laughs at him before placing a kiss on his cheek.

"Our new salary awaits," She smirks. And with that, they drive off to meet Manfredi.

When they get to the cover restaurant, they all go over the plan on the estate they'll be breaking into. It's a large building with tight security, an electrical fence, and vaults with their own lock. They needed the spacial key to get into the front door, then they're on their own.

"Sound like a plan?" Joe says. The lovers exchange a glance, but shrug nonetheless and agree to the plan.

When the arrive at the building, the disarm the electrical fence with a device stolen from the SSR. Daniel ushers Peggy to go through the back way while he takes the front, and then they will meet up inside. Everything seemed to be going as planned, but Daniel still hasn't showed. She starts to get worried and leave her post, when he suddenly appears.

"Daniel?" She rushes over to him and examines the cut above his eye.

"Come on, we'll deal with my injuries later. We have a job to do," He smirks before kissing her, then unlocking the door with the access key. "Ready?"

"As ever." She says, still worried about him. He drags her along and they work their way through the maze of a building, before they finally reach the vault the need. It's the biggest of them all, which means its loaded with all the cash. "Alright...lets get our paycheck." She smirks. Peggy pulls out her lock pick and breaks in without any problems. She looks to her love and they both smile before taking the loot.

"Jackpot." Daniel exclaims. They grab everything they can and make a hasty exit. As they leave, Manfredi and his crew are waiting on the other side.

"Well look what we have here." He laughs. "I knew you two could pull it off." He looks at all the cash and then back at them. "Of course you got nicked." Manfredi shakes his head at Daniel and they all laugh; including Daniel himself.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Its one cut." They all laugh again and are handed their share of the money, along with a bandage for Daniel. The gang leaves with their hare, leaving the lovers alone.

"Your're hurt," Peggy says, rubbing the bandage above his eye.

"It's okay, amor. I'll live," He chuckles. But he can still see the worry in her eyes. "Hey...we got the job done and walked away with 2 million dollars. 2 million, Peg!. We are set for life. No more run down motels, no more struggles, no more dangerous cons; just us." She looks at him, hesitant, but smiles under his gaze.

"Promise?"

"Promise." And the two meet in the middle for a tender kiss; which only grows hungrier by the second. "Lets go home." She laughs and they get in their car, driving away to start their new lives.

#peggysous #peggy carter #daniel sousa #Peggy x Daniel #au fanfic #not my au #someone elses idea #just my story #peggysous > steggy #fanfic

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redqueenmiku · 5 years ago

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A DECADE’S RETROSPECTIVE, REDQUEENMIKU STYLE

Here we are, facing down the start of a brand new decade. This decade has had its ups and downs for everyone. For me, this has been an extremely eventful decade. So much has happened that it’s actually ridiculous.

So, I got to thinking: as we enter 2020, I want to take a look back at my past ten years of existence and really give you guys a peek into my mind. You’re going to learn where I came from and how I got to where I am now. This decade contained my first experiences with the great wide world of posting to the internet and everything that came with it.

Are you ready? Let’s travel back in time to the start of this decade…

2010

2010 started with the final half of my eighth-grade year. I was an awkward child with a million original characters and no friends.

It was pretty sad.

Eighth grade came and went and summer came around. Wow! Look! What’s that?! Toward the end of the summer that year, a certain character named Jake Speed was born and Diametrics, then known as Lightning Speed, officially commenced. If you don’t know about my precious brainchild, Diametrics, don’t worry. I have something big planned for this summer to coincide with the series’ tenth anniversary that’ll answer everyone’s burning questions.

Then, toward the end of the year, after entering ninth grade, something amazing happened. I officially began my long and storied internet posting career.

Where did I start, you ask?...if you have to ask at all, I mean I’ve mentioned this probably a million times by this point but YES. I got my start as Shinymew76 on Nickelodeon’s official Invader Zim message boards. I was just getting my bearings at this time, so I didn’t do all that much of note, but I was getting ready to make my very first power move…

2011

Now, if you don’t know anything about what the Invader Zim message boards were like, we were kind of a hot mess. We were a tight-knit hot mess, though, and dang if we weren’t proud of it. The main activities of the message boards were making OCs and writing fanfiction. You know how sometimes on fanfiction.net you’ll find those really weird stories that are written entirely in script format? That was our bread and butter on the IZ boards. Just about everyone wrote that way. We had to be pretty kid-friendly too. I mean, what you could get away with depended on what our mod, NickZa, was feeling like that day, we were generally pretty restricted.

It’s important to remember that we were also little baby teenagers in a community revolving around Invader Zim.

In 2011, I began to really try to make a name for myself on the message boards. I started a short-lived gameshow series where people could submit their OCs to compete. It was a Total Drama kind of deal but it never really took off all that well. Then, though, I started a fanfiction titled “200 Years From Now”, which told the story of Dib accidentally transporting himself and Gaz to the future, where Zim has been exiled and a new Irken has been assigned to conquer the earth: Miki. Then, Zim returns to earth and something something rebellion to take down the Tallests. I don’t remember most of the story considering a good chunk of it was lost to time, but it definitely existed. The story also featured Zaz and Zelena, other people’s OCs that they submitted to be part of the story.

I don’t know how big that story made it. I really don’t know the scope, so I couldn’t say with certainty how many people read or enjoyed that story. Younger me, however, thought it was THE BEST. Immediately after it ended, I was already planning for a sequel with the same characters, adding villains from the still-thriving Lightning Speed. The story never actually got written and there was no real plan for anything about it aside from what I just told you, but there you go.

I also branched out further, spreading myself to other Nick.com boards with a variety of usernames because I was a coward. One account was 2darcara2, which was meant for the Danny Phantom and TUFF Puppy boards. I never did anything on the latter, the only remnant being an OC for the series known as Agent Darcara Fox. The former, though, came with two OCs, Annette and Aria Spectrelle, and a fanfiction: Eternal Darkness. The story revolved around Danny Phantom meeting Annette, who was being bullied by her older sister, Aria, and something about Aria being ultra-powerful and wanting Danny dead. Again, much of the story is lost to the ages. 2darcara2 also had an Invader Zim OC to coincide with it: Invader Erin, who had dark powers a la Raven from Teen Titans.

In case you couldn’t tell, 2darcara2 was the edgy one.

Then there was the other account: xxpetalxx. This account was meant for the iCarly and Victorious boards and also had her own Invader Zim OC, a human named Miriam. xxpetalxx published two stories, actually. The first was a crossover for Victorious and Invader Zim, where Zim and Dib end up at Hollywood Arts and Dib tries to get Tori to team up with him against Zim. It never finished, but it was something. More importantly, though, there was iMeet a Hero in Hollywood. I can’t even remember which board this went up on, but it was a three-way crossover between iCarly, Victorious, and Lightning Speed. Yeah. I was getting rather crazy here. I’ll talk more about the unfortunates of iMeet a Hero in Hollywood during that big surprise project I teased earlier, but it was a huge mess. Besides the fact that no one cared and I was way out of my element, it just sort of...dropped off the face of the earth.

Back to the main account, though. I lost the Shinymew76 account somewhere along the way, so I had to take up a new handle for my main account, JS712, named after Jake Speed. After getting bored of trying to maintain two secondary accounts, I cut the whole thing off save for iMeet a Hero in Hollywood and decided to just do things with my main account. That was when I decided to check out the miscellaneous boards. One was a board dedicated to original writing. Of course, I dabbled with posting the first story of Lightning Speed there only to have it rejected the first time around, likely because one of the characters was holding a gun. Yeah. This is how strict things were around there. I got it up the second time, but only by getting rid of the gun. The story never garnered any attention either, so that was a waste of time.

Then there was the video game board. This was a place for discussion about anything and everything video games. I remember everyone there making a big fuss about Chuggaconroy and how he was the best lets-player out there. Simpler times, those were.

On those boards, I attempted to launch a Sonic-themed series known as “Adventures in the Z-7 Station”. The series starred a character named Krystal the Hedgehog, who owned a boarding house called the Z-7 Station, where Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cream, Rouge, Shadow, Omega, Vector, Espio, Charmy, and Eggman lived. I also invited people to submit their own OCs to be included in the story.

No one gave a crap.

Even so, I endured, writing a good number of stories for the series. None of them actually went up, though. Sad, isn’t it?

Finally, I extended myself to the Penguins of Madagascar boards, writing a story known as “Penguins of Madagascar Humanized: Unleashed”. The story revolved around the adventures of the penguins, the lemurs, and Marlene, but as humans. There were also humanized versions of Dr. Blowhole and the android version of Skipper that showed up in, like, one episode of the show. They were the villains of the series alongside an OC named Violet. The story actually garnered a fair bit of recognition...until the whole thing randomly disappeared one day. Considering I didn’t archive it at all, that meant the whole thing was completely lost to time.

Of course, the message boards weren’t the only thing I was doing at this time. I was writing other fanfiction on the side too. One of these things was Shadow’s Story, a mega-crossover where Shadow the Hedgehog journeys across a crud-ton of different worlds to find the Chaos Emeralds to defeat an evil force that has made Sonic into its slave. It was one of the dumbest things in the history of ever, but I wouldn’t be mentioning it if it didn’t become important later.

Then, there came the end of the year, namely the date of November 4th. This was the day that I created a DeviantArt account under the handle KristoonzArtist76, and my life changed forever.

Immediately in the next two months I posted artwork for Lightning Speed, Penguins of Madagascar Humanized, 200 Years From Now, Shadow’s Story, and Adventures in the Z-7 Station. There was also the version of Lightning Speed’s first story that went up on the message boards as well as an attempt to recreate Penguins of Madagascar Humanized in comic form...and it was complete garbage.

I also met back up with people from the message boards during this time, seeing as they also had DeviantArt accounts. The most notable of these were Heidi and Mollie, both of which had been a constant presence on the Invader Zim boards and had actually made pretty significant names for themselves there. Mollie, though, had also been significant on the Penguins boards. I believe she even read the Humanized story before it was deleted.

Anyway, that brings us to the end of 2011. Now we move right into…

2012

2012 was when I started to get really frustrated with the boards...and I pretty much just left. You’re not really going to hear anything about the boards from here on out.

The first significant thing about 2012 happened in February: I bought a thirty-five dollar digital drawing tablet off Amazon. It was a cheap, floppy, plastic thing, but, to a younger me, it was the greatest thing ever. It was with that that I started my grand excursion into the world of digital art, starting with Microsoft Paint.

At the end of February, I decided that I was going to do something special to commemorate the leap year. This took the form of a new original story called The ExPERiMENT, which was about two experimental humans with the absolute worst names in existence, Haretaieto and Aidamizumi, nicknamed Hareta and Mizu for short. The two of them were labelled as defective and scheduled for execution, but are saved and brought to a secret compound for...well...undecided reasons. The story was meant to be told in the form of diary entries dated to the actual days each of them were to be released, but this quickly fell apart and ended up spelling the story’s doom. It stopped after the rescue on April 2nd and was never updated again, despite one or two unreleased efforts on my end to revive it.

In another turn of events, I published what I had for Adventures in the Z-7 Station on DeviantArt. The series went on to introduce Sonia and Manic from Sonic Underground, as well as several new OCs: Spright the Raccoon, Leigh the Hedgehog, and Raven the Echidna. A friend’s OC, Silverdust the Husky, was also included.

Then there was the day I logged on to find children staring me in the face. Heidi, one of the friends I had mentioned earlier, had written a story about her Invader Zim OCs that had also involved characters from Lightning Speed. In particular, the main character, also named Heidi, was involved in a romantic relationship with Dnias Speed, as agreed upon and supported by both of us. Then, one day, Heidi posted drawings of a theoretical set of children for the couple.

Those two children were Dante and Jupiter Speed. They will become extremely important later.

Lightning Speed continued to flourish in this time and I was still keeping up with trying to start getting good at digital art. At the end of May, I opened up five request slots, which ended up getting decent reception...from a bunch of bronies.

Did I forget to mention I was in the My Little Pony fandom at this time?

Things continued on from there. I went to prom, I made more Invader Zim OCs, I reached 100 posts on DeviantArt, I quit the message boards, I started learning how to drive, I pared down my ridiculous number of OCs, I read the Warriors series and actually started writing Warriors fanfiction with a whole four clans full of OCs, I made a group on DeviantArt for Lightning Speed, and many things continued as they already had.

Then, September rolled around and everything changed again.

It began with a class trip and the friend I sat next to on the bus. That friend introduced me to many things that day. One of those things was Law of Talos. Law of Talos is a phase in my life that I referenced for two seconds and then continued to haunt me for the rest of eternity.

The more important thing, though, is my first introduction to Vocaloid. On that day in September of 2012, I became a Vocaloid fanatic for the rest of my natural-born life. This would quickly become both a blessing and a curse.

Then, October rolled around and blessed me with Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. I immediately ditched MS Paint and embraced the new art program whole-heartedly. It was a whole new world. Suddenly I had layers and a color wheel and drawings that didn’t look pixellated.

Then, when Christmas came along, it also gave me a shot at a brand new tablet: a real Wacom Bamboo tablet.

I got fed up trying to get used to it and went back to my old tablet, handing the Bamboo off to my sister. I can’t tell if that was a terrible mistake or not, but here we are.

2013

In January of 2013, I discovered MikuMikuDance. MikuMikuDance is a free program that lets one pose and animate 3D models, primarily for use with Vocaloid models but with models for just about everything under the sun existing in one place or another.

This program was the worst thing that ever happened to me period.

Slowly but surely my art started to get completely drowned out by constant MMD images. I had MMD OCs, being crappy recolors of Miku and Rin. I had bizarre lore for different models. I put together those stupid Jewel Hearts that people keep downloading to this very day and I get messages of people favoriting them on DeviantArt constantly and it makes me want to scream because all I did was take a half of a heart someone else had made and just slap the two sides together and recolor it a few times yet it’s literally the most popular thing I’ve ever made someone please end meeeeee.

*ahem*

The MMD stuff wasn’t so bad in 2013, but this is where it started, so I’m obligated to mention it.

As for things that weren’t MMD that happened in 2013, we first have Lightning Speed. In 2013, the final material for the first run of the series was posted on DeviantArt. It wasn’t planned to be the last, but that’s how things worked out. The series still continued outside of DeviantArt, but there’s nothing on the internet to show for it.

There was also the X-Factor OC tournament, a tournament run by Heidi where various Invader Zim characters would be put up against each other in a literary battle of the ages. The character I entered was one I had adopted off the message boards before my departure: Quinn. Three of the tournament’s four rounds took place this year, all of which were wins for Quinn and my admittedly lackluster writing.

2013 also happened to be the time of a monumental shift in fandom for me. I voluntarily left behind the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom. To fill the void, though, I turned to...Koopalings. This, again, was both a blessing and a curse.

And, on top of that, 2013 was the year I attended my very first convention and wore my very first cosplay. I was a hastily-put-together Kagamine Rin. The costume was crap and the convention was just a tiny local event, but I still had fun nonetheless.

Then, at the end of 2013, something incredible happened. Heidi had created a shipping meme some months prior. As her friend, I filled out the meme and, in the process, I jokingly decided to pair Miku up with a cloud. Eventually, the joke devolved, said cloud eventually turning into one certain character of mine that had once had a cloud-like form. Then, that Christmas, I produced my very first annual Christmas shipping picture with said couple: Miku and the character known as Red King.

Yes, dear friends. This is where Red Queen Miku was born.

Oh, I also got a laptop for Christmas. That happened too.

2014

The first thing I did in 2014 was start up a challenge that would quickly become the bane of my existence: the MMD 100 Themes Challenge. This absolutely massive undertaking was the death blow for anything non-MMD related on my DeviantArt account. By that point, I was rarely posting actual art. 80 of 100 themes were posted this year alongside many more MMD images, dwarfing all other posts from this year.

Even through the MMD, though, I found the time and energy to start up my very own OC tournament: the Nightmare Manor OCT. Character submissions for the tournament began in February and, after the final audition phase from April to August, 14 characters had been entered and matched up for round one. After that, round 2 began in December, now down to only 6 participants after eliminations.

2014 was also the year that the first run of Lightning Speed finally came to an official close after over fifty quote-unquote “seasons”, ending officially on September 13th. In its wake, though, emerged Cannonfire, the story of Dante and Jupiter and their quest to escape nonexistence after being removed from their world. At the end of the story, Dante and Jupiter return from the city of those that don’t exist, Cannonfire, now existing in a parallel reality to the Lightning Speed series. The story was written early in 2014 and posted that summer.

Besides that, there were also my first full-fledged fanfictions for the Mario fandom. There was The Show Must Go On, a story about Lemmy Koopa getting kidnapped by a gang of thugs and Iggy and Larry venturing out to try to save him, and Cold Wind, a series of short stories about the Koopalings living in a normal neighborhood, going to a normal school, and doing normal things, based off of events from my own past. A few tertiary stories left over from the original run of Lightning Speed were also posted

Also this year, the final round of the X-Factor OCT began. Quinn ended up winning once again, securing victory over the entire OCT with a piece of writing that, honestly, was rushed and kind of lazy. I’m convinced I only got by because my opponent did literally nothing.

August 2014 would also mark the last time I’d open up requests on DeviantArt, this time only being single-character sketch commissions. I believe it was sometime after this that I abandoned the My Little Pony fandom for good, although not necessarily because of it.

And then tragedy struck. 2014 marked the release of my first Youtube videos featuring terrible voice acting that I tried to pass off as being good. People still watch these things to this day. I hate these videos and everything they stand for.

Most importantly, however, 2014 was the year I graduated from high school and the year I started attending college, going for an Associate’s in Simulation and Game Development at the local community college. I spent my first semester learning the basics and getting adjusted, eventually making my first college friend.

2015

2015 is the year that absolutely everything started changing for the better.

...well, almost everything. First, let’s get the bad news out of the way.

Checking back in on the Nightmare Manor OCT, the tournament’s second round of six contestants garnered a grand total of half an entry. After two separate calls to action, the tournament was abandoned in May without an official statement; a mistake on my part, but I was pretty depressed about the whole thing, so can you really blame me?

The MMD 100 Theme Challenge was also abandoned this year, stopping at theme 97 out of 100. Fun fact: the last three images actually exist. I just never posted them.

Then there was Curtain Call, the sequel to The Show Must Go On. Curtain Call was a disaster and it’s probably the worst fanfiction I’ve ever written besides, well, Shadow’s Story. Please don’t ever read it.

Now for the good news.

Firstly, 2015 was the year that I finally stopped using MMD. Even in the beginning part of the year, I was already posting far less of it. This meant I was focusing more on my art and, when I say that, that’s no exaggeration. 2015 was a huge year of improvement for me, from learning new techniques to adopting a vastly different art style that was more fun for me to use to ditching Autodesk in favor of Krita, allowing me to finally move past my inhibitions and actually use things like pen pressure, which I was too afraid to do in Autodesk, where I’d kept my settings the exact same since 2012. I also obtained a new drawing tablet: a Wacom Intuos 3 given to me by my uncle as a hand-me-down.

The things I wrote this year weren’t anything particularly special, for the most part. Cold Wind continued and Surveyor’s Wings, a crossover involving Larry, Wendy, and Roy Koopa getting transported to the world of Attack on Titan, started up, going into indefinite hiatus a short time later. There was also This is Me, a short one about Larry Koopa accidentally switching bodies with Luigi. Above all of them, though, was In Memoriam Vos, a twisted story where the Koopalings are suddenly thrust into a world that wants Lemmy Koopa dead. This was also the year I created an account on Fanfiction.net, named RedQueenMiku, where I posted “This is Me” and “In Memoriam Vos”.

This year was also the year of the Mushroom Timeline, my first attempt at a Mario timeline that also came with its own map. With that also came my first time arguing a Game Theory video, being that I couldn’t just ignore the fact that their timeline came out the day before I posted my own.

This year was also the year I entered another OC tournament: Origins OCT. I entered Dnias from the Lightning Speed series, partnered with his mental companion of cynical disposition, Yang. The tournament was a blast and I had a lot of fun with it, even with all the mistakes I made in the process. The first three rounds took place this year, all of which I won.

Lightning Speed also received a hard reboot this year, transitioning into the short-lived “Lightning Speed 2”. The first story of this run released this year.

This was also the year that I discovered and subsequently adopted a group of bootleg Koopalings I began affectionately referring to as the Bootleglings. Nonexist was created to coexist beside them later that year. The Sesonia AU was also launched, being an AU that shuffles around Koopalings from both the games and the cartoons and Bootleglings, placing them in a fantasy world heavily themed around the four seasons where magic is a prominent feature. Also, there was KoopaDoopa4321, a joke account I made on DeviantArt. I never did all that much with it, but it existed and I posted some art produced in MS Paint there.

This was also the year I created my Tumblr account, RedQueenMiku, this being the second account of mine to bear this name after the Youtube account the year before (because the Fanfiction account came afterward). Because of this, 2015 was my first year participating in the yearly Tumblr event known as Koopalings Week (as well as the year I created my human designs for the Koopalings). Later in the year, I created a second blog, justkristoonzartist76things, for posting small blurbs and generally ranting out of the way of the main blog. It took me a while to find my footing on Tumblr and get comfortable enough to start posting art, but, eventually, my main blog transitioned from reblog city to a mainly art-focused blog. Two more blogs also popped up toward the end of the year: little-red-dolls, which was dedicated to a dress-up game kick I’d had at the time as a big guilty pleasure that didn’t last that long, and frame-by-frame-mario, a blog devoted to weird inbetweens and animations errors in the Mario cartoons.

Finally, this year had one more significant occurrence: I witnessed my future anime husband, Sakaki Yuya, for the first time over my friend’s shoulder in class. Due to this, I asked my friend to teach me how to play Yugioh. Now you know why I started playing Yugioh. It was all Yuya’s fault for being so handsome.

2016

2016 built a lot upon what 2015 started. In fact, in a lot of ways, I regard it as a continuation of 2015.

2016 was also the year I snagged myself a Core Membership on DeviantArt and finally renamed my account from KristoonzArtist76 to the iconic RedQueenMiku you see today. I also changed the name of my second blog to correspond with this, it becoming justredqueenmiku things. From here on, RedQueenMiku would become a constant handle for me on absolutely everything.

The biggest thing that happened at the start of 2016, though, was me finally playing a certain indie game that had come out the previous year: Undertale. I immediately became obsessed. I drew art for the series, I made a blog specifically for it, rqmundertaleparty, to keep spoilers away from those that didn’t want it, and I undertook the challenge of drawing every single major character from the game, which I ultimately succeeded with, coming out with sixty-two drawings for the challenge.

Then, there were the AUs. Many of my AUs for Undertale at that time were simple derivatives of things I already had, like Sesoniatale, Yangtale (which was planned to have a story, but was scrapped), and Nostritale (based off of the Memoriam series, which had recently gained a new entry in the form of a very basic version of In Memoriam Nostri, which would be expanded upon later). There was also Underfire, an Undertale derivative of Cannonfire that had its own short series of comic strips, and Mariotale, which was my attempt to cast Mario characters in the roles of Undertale characters.

Lastly but most importantly, for April Fools that year, I decided to, as a joke, revive Adventures in the Z-7 Station as an Undertale AU titled Krystaltale. The revival, though, ended up having twisted meta elements that eventually warranted its continuation from the three parts posted on DeviantArt for April Fools. In the AU, Krystal was changed to a skeleton named Lucida, but still retained her memories from her previous incarnation and wished to recreate what she had in this new world she suddenly finds herself in using the powers of resetting and scripting to make events exactly the way she wants them. Sans catches on to them and starts to oppose Lucida, creating the back and forth that would persist for the rest of the series.

Also for April Fools that year, I attempted to start an ask blog on Tumblr for the Bootleglings, titled ask-the-real-koopalings. The blog never took off, however, mostly due to my own lack of motivation.

Also in 2016, Cannonfire received a sequel, Cannonfire 2, in which Dante and Jupiter are brought back to Cannonfire, where this time they would remain alongside another Lightning Speed child, Thicket, and a character that had been scrapped during the transition from Lightning Speed to Lightning Speed 2: Nightmare.

In January of 2016, the final round of the Origins OCT came and went, with myself taking the runner-up spot. Later that year, a second season of Origins would begin, this time with myself entering Dante. After the first round, however, the tournament abruptly ended.

2016 was also the year I finally started watching Yugioh Arc V. I made it through nearly forty episodes this year. I also updated my human Koopaling designs and started doing DeviantArt memes for fun, notably posting the very first version of the first crack lovechild meme I did. My first palette challenge was this year as well and, slowly but surely, I was moving myself away from DeviantArt and toward Tumblr as my primary platform. There was also the first death of KoopaDoopa4321, meant to be on April Fools, but accidentally delayed to April 2nd. This was also the year I changed the anniversary of Lightning Speed from July 12th to July 29th and posted the second and final story of Lightning Speed 2.

Speaking of, there wasn’t a lot of writing that came out from me this year. Besides Krystaltale and Lightning Speed 2, there was a one-shot based on my old headcanons about Bowser’s past titled “Her Name Was Annabel” and a story revolving around Ludwig von Koopa after the birth of Bowser Jr and the subsequent revoking of Ludwig’s birthright that also included elements of Superstar Saga, this one titled “Decomposure”. These went up exclusively on Fanfiction.net along with a cross-post of The Show Must Go On. There was also one more part of Cold Wind that went up on DeviantArt before the series went into indefinite hiatus. Behind the scenes, though, I was already starting up stories for the Sesonia AU, the Bootleglings, the Memoriam series, and multiple things for Undertale including two crossovers and two one-shots. I also received a dare from a friend this year to finally write a sequel to Shadow’s Story in the worst possible way as a great big joke, so that happened too, resulting in Shadow’s Sequel.

On top of all this, I finished the Simulation and Game Development program I was in, our capstone project being producing an RPG titled “Life’s Memory”. It was an extreme prototype of a game, but I believe we accomplished what we set out to do.

Then, at the end of the year, I posted the final awful voice acting video I ever made. It was meant to make fun of the previous ones, but it ended up being cringy in its own right, so I still regret it immensely.

2017

2017 for me started with news of an upcoming move that summer, which immediately sent me into a depression over having to leave behind the place I’d been living for nearly ten years by that point. As a result, I feel into a rather extreme slump. I took on an expression challenge to try to cure my art block, not posting a single finished piece outside of that until the end of February. I started several sketches for images that I never completed and subsequently threw out. I abandoned the frame-by-frame Mario blog after trying to hand it off to someone else with no reception. I didn’t return to DeviantArt until April due to anxiety about the amount of messages piling up from a posting flood at the end of the previous year. Generally, I was just feeling like a piece of garbage.

There wasn’t much that happened in the first part of the year. I was certainly writing more than I was drawing, though. I started two more Cannonfires and a project named “I Can Fix You” that was supposed to go up at the end of that year, but ended up being shoved back. There was also the next story in the Krystaltale saga, “The Mispersonification Ray” which actually did go up on DeviantArt. I did also create the Barian Koopalings AU at the start of this year as well.

Over the course of the year and especially during the move, I started watching more Yugioh Arc V, eventually finishing the series by September. I also watched Yuri on Ice this year. I also got back into the crack love-child meme and, after finishing my second one shortly after the move, I came up with the premise for “The Great S.T.O.R.K. Machine” and created worlds for all the children to live their lives, quickly revamping the first meme shortly after.

Then, on July 29th, I officially revealed Lightning Speed’s final reboot to Diametrics. I’ll talk more about Diametrics in that thing I keep teasing, though, so keep an eye out for that later this year.

Then Koopalings Week 2017 came around, I set unrealistic standards for myself, and it crushed my soul again.

This year also just so happened to be the year that I looked back on my rant on the Game Theory Mario Timeline and said “Yeah, I could have done better”. This led me to start writing theory rebuttals that would eventually turn into full-fledged videos. I created the first version of a video on Game Theory’s Rosalina Unmasked video this year, as well as wrote the first draft of a script on Game Theory’s Mario Timeline and a couple other theories.

Things proceeded as normal into the end of the year. I drew more Arc V art, I started writing my first Arc V fanfictions, I posted the somewhat-sequel to In Memoriam Vos, In Memoriam Eius, I made a Wattpad account that I posted Cannonfire 1 and 2 on and then swiftly abandoned, I drew a piece for Hatsune Miku’s tenth anniversary, I posted a Christmas special for Krystaltale, I made an account for the Yuri on Ice Amino, and…

...oh...right...

that drama started this year…

So, in December of this year, I was approached by a user I’ll keep anonymous for her own sake. This user, who I’ll call “T”, directed my eye toward her DeviantArt account, which contained uncredited drawings of her characters wearing some of the outfits of my Bootlegling designs and Nonexist. I asked for these to be credited and they weren’t. This doesn’t escalate, though, until…

2018

In 2018, the T drama escalated from an argument to an all-out war. I did some things I’m not proud of, but I tried to come at the situation with as much grace and dignity as I could muster. I’m not going into detail because, in the end, it doesn’t matter to the present day—the whole thing is over and no one needs to bring it back up like that—but the only thing worth knowing is that I unintentionally stoked a fire I was ill-prepared to deal with and, somehow, I gained a crud-ton of followers on DeviantArt because of it.

Finally, in April, after T had been ignoring large majorities of my messages and the situation moved far beyond needing my input, I dropped out of the whole thing, making my final statement and leaving it be.

Now I can talk about everything else that happened in 2018. Gracious.

The beginning of 2018 was slow because of the drama debacle, but I started a palette challenge on Tumblr and I drew pieces for Yuri Plisetsky’s fictional birthday and Mar10 Day, along with a third crack love-child meme for The Great S.T.O.R.K. Machine, finally revealing the whole thing on DeviantArt toward the end of the year and even starting on a fourth entry, and I entered a contest on the Yuri on Ice Amino with a picture of Otabek that didn’t end up placing.

April Fools then rolled around and, for 2018, I decided to re-release Shadow’s Story alongside the sequel I’d written two years prior on my newly-acquired AO3 account. The whole thing was massively ridiculous and even included pictures every few paragraphs, just like the original had so many years ago. I don’t know if anyone even caught chapter 19, though...

Summer came, I moved Diametrics’ anniversary to July 31st, I started up a challenge called the RedQueenMiku Redraw Bonanza where I redraw, like, a bajillion old pieces from my past, and I drew pieces and wrote a whole slew of bios for Koopalings Week 2018. Fall came, I went off on Nintendo’s announcement of New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe and the existence of Peachette, I started on a brand-new Mario timeline, I finally posted Roy, I started and subsequently failed my first attempt at a Goretober after only three days, I played Deltarune, I posted a redraw of an image involving Karl from Castle of Nations and Law of Talos that was actually a huge mistake to post, I started a Twitter account, and I created and started taking requests for a brand new challenge called the Yuri Expression Challenge, where I draw characters with expressions from various screencaps of Yuri from Arc V. Brilliant, I know. Praise me for my intelligent brain.

2019

And we finally come to the year we’re leaving behind us tonight: 2019. 2019 has been a heck of a year on its own.

2019, in itself, was a lot like 2017. I started off massively depressed, then, in the summer, we moved again.

In January, we lost our dog and I spiraled into depression again. Between that and computer issues, I didn’t actually do a lot in January. I did, however, join an art group on the Yuri on Ice amino in this time: Artevivo. I posted one more piece for the Yuri Challenge before my desktop failed on me and I was forced to either do art on my quickly-dying laptop or go traditional. The latter is what I did for the first Artevivo prompt post, though I took the former route to make a doodle post announcing my sort-of official return to the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom.

Next up was February. I did a few more traditional doodles, one set of them revealing an Arc V AU known as the Dragonia AU, before I finally got my desktop back online. I drew a couple more pieces after that, including an Artevivo prompt for Valentine’s Day involving Otabek and Mila.

March came with Mar10 day once again and an Artevivo prompt about boy bands in which I made a stupid joke by drawing Yuuri, Victor, and Yurio as Dreamboat Express a la Sonic Boom. I also entered a contest on the Amino for St. Patrick’s Day and, while I ended up just shy of winning the whole shebang, I did place first in my category, earning the title of Emerald Princess. Most importantly, though, I dropped a bunch of titles for future writing projects. Some of them, like “I Can Fix You”, “Yu-Gi-Oh: Arc INFINITE”, “Sesonia: The Dark of Spring”, “In Memoriam Nostri”, and Cannonfires 3 and 4 had already been previously announced, but others like “Tales from a Dark and Stormy Night”, “49”, “Jump Up, Superstar!”, “Memory to Hunt her Down”, and, most notably, “In Memoriam ihr Zerbrechliches Ego”, were brand new announcements.

April came around with a half-hearted failed attempt at an April Fools event that we don’t need to talk about and not much else. There was an Artevivo prompt about Cherry Blossoms, another entry in the Redraw Challenge, and I drew some bears. That was really about it.

In May, I traveled for Animazement 2019, which ended up being a heck of a lot of fun. There was also an Artevivo prompt about sea creatures AND the release of the first real story in “The Great S.T.O.R.K. Machine”’s series on AO3. At the end of the month, though, I had a real scare. I backed up everything on my laptop onto an external hard drive then, about a week after that, my laptop sang its final hurrah, dying to a critical hard drive failure.

June was a much slower month. I drew a few pieces at the beginning of the month, but, by the end, we had already begun our next big move. I managed to squeeze in a Sonic birthday sketch dump before we left and I even got the Artevivo prompt for that month done ahead of time. The rest of the month, though, was pretty much completely dead, as I had to pack up my only remaining computer for the move. At the very end of the month, though, I bought a brand-new laptop, meaning I was officially back in business and better than ever, at that.

July started with me taking on a style challenge on the Amino and just generally drawing a whole heck of a lot. This continued all the way through July.

Then, August came. I kept up with Koopalings Week like I never had before, ending it out with the least fatigue I’d ever felt coming out of a Koopalings week. I also finally finished an enormous piece for Diametrics that I had planned to finish for the anniversary, but that took much longer than expected due to the sheer scale of the piece. There was also an Artevivo prompt about fruit somewhere in there too.

September was a month that I vowed to be productive for considering the previous year’s September I did absolute bupkis. What a productive September it was too. I drew some Sonic characters in Vocaloid outfits, released an Undertale two-shot called “Vodka en Rouge”, added another three entries to the Redraw Bonanza, completed an Artevivo prompt for Fall, and started preparing for another crack at the Goretober I’d failed the previous year by drawing six different practice pictures. We also finally got into our new house this month, so that was great too.

Then, Goretober finally came. Did I succeed this time? Well, no. I managed to get most all of them done, but 27, 28, 29, and 30 were never completed. Even so, I produced a grand total of 25 images this month, which is still absolutely insane. I also made a rule for myself that I couldn’t draw for the same fandom twice, meaning the variety of pieces was vast and I even drew characters that I had never previously drawn like Twelve from Zankyou no Terror, Katara from Avatar the Last Airbender, Sakura from Zombieland Saga, Luluco from Space Patrol Luluco, and Kaoru from Ouran High School Host Club.

When November rolled around, I swore to myself I wouldn’t let myself slump into inactivity like I had after previous challenges like Koopalings Week 2018. With that resolve, I kept drawing. I drew a piece celebrating the new Sonic movie trailer drop. I did a short livestream only one person came to. I drew a piece of steampunk art for the Artevivo prompt. Finally, though, I started the Youtube channel I’d been preparing for for two entire years, RedQueenMiku2, and I started with newly-revamped videos on Rosalina Unmasked and the Game Theory Mario Timeline, just like I’d planned to do years ago.

Finally, we come to the present. December came with three more videos, a Silvaze Christmas piece, a Christmas Aretevivo prompt, and the retrospective you’re reading right now. Really, looking at 2019 as a whole, it’s like what 2017 could have been if I’d done things right. In 2017, I let depression get the best of me and let my work suffer because of it. In 2019, though, I pushed through and vowed not to quit, bettering myself because of it.

That’s the big thing here, really. 2010-2014 was all about me trying to find myself as a young, impressionable teenager, 2015 and 2016 were me discovering where I wanted to be and how I wanted to present myself, and 2017-2019 were me coming to terms with myself and pushing through my own mental roadblocks. Looking at where I started and where I’ve ended up, the difference is staggering. Of course, it has been ten years, after all. Now, as we look ahead to 2020 and the start of a brand new decade, I can only hope things will just keep getting better from here.

Happy 2020, everyone. Cheers.

#sorry for the long #this is just something i wanted to do for posterity's sake #it's fun to look back and see where you came from #also i'm highly sentimental #to a ridiculous degree #so yeah #that's where all this nonsense came from #*jazz hands*#happy new year everyone!!!

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thesportssoundoff · 6 years ago

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“A welterweight main event pitting a big 170-er against a 155er that actually makes sense” UFC Fight Night In London Preview

Joey

March 13th

WHEW! The UFC often is very hit or miss when it runs a show in England as evidenced by some real clunkers (the Corey Anderson vs Jimi Manuwa card) and some really damn good shows (Bisping vs Akiyama, Bisping vs Anderson) and mostly a ton of soft stuff in the middle. This journey to London is actually really deep if somewhat light on name value. Granted the idea of seeing a guy who headlined a PPV (Darren Till) vs a 10+ year veteran of the sport who happens to also be popular (Masvidal) is a solid headliner but the rest of the show is really just a bunch of damn good well put together fights. Volkan Oezdemir tries to snap a two fight losing skid vs LHW's most well rounded prospect in Dominick Reyes, Gunnar Nelson vs Leon Edwards is a FANTASTIC fight with a slight snoozer potential behind it, Nate Wood vs Teco Quinones is a fantastic bantamweight tilt and the prelims are loaded with good fights like Tom Breese vs Ian Heinisch, Dan Ige vs Danny Henry, the debut of well known prospect Mike Grundy and the return of Arnold Allen. An early start time + a lack of superstars means you'll probably forget about this one before the weekend is through BUT I can think of worse ways to kill a Saturday morning.

Fights: 13

Debuts: Nicolae Negumereanu, Mike Grundy

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 3 (Alessio Di Chirico OUT, Cezar Ferreira IN vs Tom Breese/Carlos Diego Ferreira OUT, Ian Heinisch IN vs Tom Breese/Gokhan Saki OUT, Nicolae Negumereanu IN vs Saparbek Safarov)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 6 (Darren Till, Jorge Masvidal, Gunnar Nelson, Leon Edwards, Volkan Oezdemir, Priscila Cachoeira)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 6 (Jorge Masvidal, John Phillips, Jack Marshmann, Volkan Oezdemir, Marc Diakiese, Saparbek Sarafov)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 9 (Dan Ige, Danny Henry, Leon Edwards, Dominick Reyes, Jose Teco Quniones, Nathaniel Wood, Danny Roberts, Claudio Silva, Arnold Allen)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 27-12

Darren Till- 4-1 Jorge Masvidal- 1-2 Gunnar Nelson- 2-1 Leon Edwards- 4-0 Volkan Oezdemir- 3-2 Dominick Reyes- 4-0 Nathaniel Wood- 2-0 Jose Quinonez- 2-0 Claudio Silva- 1-0 Danny Roberts- 3-1 Jack Marshman- 1-3 John Phillips- 0-2

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Welterweight- 3 (18) Featherweight- 3 (11) Middleweight- 2 (7) Light Heavyweight- 2 (10) Lightweight- 1 (15) Bantamweight- 1 (13) Women’s Flyweight- 1 (8)

Heavyweight- (7) Women’s Bantamweight- (2) Women’s Strawweight- (6) Flyweight- (4)

2019’s Records We Keepin Track Of:

Debuting Fighters (6-13): Nicolae Negumereanu, Mike Grundy

Short Notice Fighters (6-5): Nicolae Negumereanu, Ian Heinisch

Second Fight (18-5): Ian Heinisch

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (5-8): Priscila Cachoeira, Jorge Masvidal, Saparbek Sarafov, Joseph Duffy, Jose Quinones

Undefeated Fighters (7-8): Nick Negumereanu, Dominick Reyes

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (4-4): Jack Marshman, Joe Duffy

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (7-5):

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- This main event is tricky and I'm wondering if the UFC are maybe expecting a bit too much from Darren Till. Till's 2018 was complicated; he struggled with a weight cut in a spotlight show designed to make him into a big star, beat Wonderboy in a very close fight and then made a quick-ish turnaround to fight Woodley in September, getting smelted in the process. Till has said all of the right things, he did wind up jumping back in at welterweight (after talking about middleweight) and he's fighting a guy who you have to be REALLY special to make look bad. Masvidal is the king of the close decisions and while he's taking yet another road game fight, he's fighting a guy who is prone to lapses in activity who also is coming off his first career loss and in dominating fashion. Stylistically Till should be able to do whatever he wishes against a bloated 155er coming off a 15 month layoff but I think Masvidal is a more than live dog here. There's also a damn good chance this doesn't happen because Till whiffs on weight and comes in at like 174 and Masvidal passes.

2- So we're 100% sure that Askren vs Till is next if Darren wins, right?

3- Often times I'm reminded of an important quote in sports twitter when it comes to prospects. It has many variations but the most common prospect joke is "Learn 'em on Friday, fall in love by Saturday and ready to divorce them by Monday." MMA prospecthood is often a journey of learning, falling in love, violently falling out of love at the first sign of trouble then getting to say "I was in all along!" if it ends positively. It feels like Dom Reyes is currently somewhere between Saturday and Monday. Dominick Reyes has had rarely any trouble in his stroll through the undercurrent of 205 lbs, walking through the likes of Jared Cannonier and Jeremy Kimball before getting a big test in OSP. He pretty much dominated the fight although he couldn't leave with the finish (essentially robbed from a magnificent buzzer beater). Fans aren't judging Reyes by whether or not he can be a sizable contributor to the middle of the division, they're judging by him by whether or not he can beat Jon Jones. As such, there are some folks who think he's going to be amazing and some off the bandwagon entirely. The journey is dependent on what you seek. He gets Volkan Oezdemir in what is the next major test.

4- Why is Jack Marshman vs John Phillips on this main card? I mean I know all of these fights are on the same network and nothing matters but come on now.

5- If I told you that Claudio Silva was undefeated in the UFC spanning nearly five years now, would you even believe me?

6- Leon Edwards is one of those dudes who seems sort of stuck in no man's land at 170 lbs. He isn't a violent finisher, he's not a big talker and he's not a guy who is going to draw a ton of attention in any sort of a fixed market. As such, he's just running through a lot of guys and not getting anywhere a la Santiago Ponzinibbio minus the Ponz finishes. As such, this Nelson fight is BIG for him. Gunnar still has plenty of clout at 170 lbs and while Edwards SHOULD in theory be bigger by virtue of beating Cowboy Cerrone, that fight took place at 6 AM on Fight Pass which is pretty much like running your show on incognito mode. Gunnar is also a really odd stylistic match up for Nelson; the kind of guy he hasn't struggled with in the past but the sort of athlete he hasn't had to face in a run with dudes like Peter Sobotta and Bryan Barberena. It's a risky venture either way for two very good fighters.

7- Even though she lost in her debut, I'm not giving up on Molly McCann. She missed weight and was in her debut which are normally two tough factors to overcome. Keep an eye on her on the prelims.

8- Jose Quinones vs Nate Wood is going to be a ton of fun as Quinones is activity and accuracy over power and pacing while Wood is all pacing, incredibly active with his hands and developing even more of a ground game. This one has some spoiler-ish tendencies to it with Quinones a more than live dog in my estimation.

9- This show feels so naked without a HW fight. Like why even have a show?

10- If Saparbek Safarov can not beat a Romanian can crusher on like two weeks notice then I honestly don't know what you do with the dude.

11- Ian Heinisch vs Tom Breese is a great fight that has some snoozer potential. Heinisch cut his teeth in LFA (and the DWCTS) before upsetting Cezar Mutante in his debut and Tom Breese was a good WW prospect who has all the potential in the world at 185 lbs. Keep a real close eye on this one.

12- Are we going to FINALLY find out the elusive 5th main card fight for UFC 236?

#MMA #Till #Masvidal #UFC #London #Fights #Edwards #Nelson

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chrismerle · 6 years ago

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i asked @nicxan how down dan would be to make out with shai and she said he’d be stupendously down. so here we are. see, dan is married to alex, and while they’re emotionally committed, the relationship is physically open. shai’s polyamorous, and also has a crush on their best friend. (it’s not subtle at all, but largely because dan’s fucking oblivious so they aren’t bothering to hide it.)

anyway, this was right after the cave of the nadir. in their shared canon, dan did the shit with the missionary and the firebrand, so shai’s reasoning for going into the cave was to forget about the hints they tripped over to mr. eaten’s name.

also more second person practice

(casual reminder that i have a ko-fi)

It’s a good dream. There is wine. And food. The company is bland in that way that most not-quite-real people are, but they know your name and your work and they fawn over you like you’re important. You’re pleasantly tipsy and sort of high off the attention when you run out of honey; the dream fractures and fades and you find yourself on your study’s daybed again.

Danny is waiting for you, sitting on the couch, looking sort of concerned and unimpressed. You’re pretty sure you cause that a lot. You’re only occasionally sorry. Right now, you’re mostly still tired. You get to your feet regardless, arms stretching over your head before you set to pacing.

“Intruding,” you point out blandly. There’s no heat to it.

“Marjorie let me in. And I have a blanket invitation,” he argues. “You went there alone.” He sounds a bit accusatory. Honestly, you might be a little offended. You weren’t completely alone. You had Turritopsis and Beryl with you. And it’s not like you didn’t take his advice, but you aren’t exactly going to let him crack open your journal and read it as proof. Really, shameless you may be, but you do draw the line somewhere, and no one is interested in your ramblings anyway.

“I feel fine.” God, but that is a stupid argument. You know if as soon as it leaves your mouth, and you guess the thought shows on your face, since Danny doesn’t call you on it.

‘I feel fine.’ Really? Oh, yes, truly, you can definitely keep track of whether or not you’ve forgotten anything. That isn’t how forgetting things works. ‘I feel fine.’ Fuckssake.

But still, you’re positive you’ve at least held onto everything important. You know you unfortunately held onto that niggling kernel at the back of your brain that sent you on your expedition. It’s less bothersome now, though. Less like you’re constantly tonguing at a loose tooth. Whether the Cave and its colors rounded its edges, or whether you’re just too frayed at the seams to care, you aren’t sure. You suppose you’ll find out later.

You tip your head back to stare at the ceiling as you admit, “There was something I was chasing off, before my curiosity could get the better of me. Don’t give me that look.” You don’t actually need to look at him to know he’s giving you That Look regardless. Still, it gets something of a laugh out of him. You suppose that’s a success.

But still, he is indeed giving you That Look when you look at him. Like he’s concerned. There are so many other things he could spend the energy on, and you’ll never understand how you wind up on that list as often as you do. You’ve learned not to mention those sorts of things to him. He tends to just give you That Look even harder.

“I’m fine, Danny,” you insist, because it seems like the thing to say. “I think someone would have noticed if I’d forgotten something important.”

He’s still giving you That Look, though, and he mutters what sounds like, “You always do that.” He doesn’t offer to elaborate, though, and you’re not entirely sure you want him to, so you don’t ask. You let the comment pass unexamined.

He catches you by the back of your vest as you pass, and you jerk to a halt.

“What?” It comes out a bit more frazzled than you mean it to as you turn to face him. “What do you want me to say? I’m fine, Danny. I’m always fine.”

He rolls his eyes, and you feel…oddly stung, for just a split second.

“Can you just tell me what was such a big deal that you had to go there, of all places? And on your own?” He pauses and shakes his head briefly. “Just—you could have talked to me about it.”

“I did.” You shrug, keeping the motion bland. “And it helped. But it didn’t make the nagging question go away. And I…reacted on instinct.” You grin, sharp and impish. “We know what my instincts usually lead to.”

He’s smiling finally, twisty and reluctant but you’ll take it.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” he asks, and he sounds like he’s finally willing to kinda-sorta leave the topic alone.

“Should I swear on my honor?” You shake your head. “Wait, no, that wouldn’t mean much.” You don’t give him time to protest. “You are such a worrywart. Do you know that?”

“I might worry less if you ever relaxed for more than a few seconds at a time,” he argues, and he sounds amused as he says it.

You hum thoughtfully, tapping one knuckle against your chin as you do. “Maybe I should find a way to relax, then.” You have a terrible idea. “To put your mind at ease.” You already know it’s a terrible idea. “It’s only fair, after all.” Most of your ideas are terrible, after all.

You’re still sort of tipsy. And you’ve sort of wanted to do it for a while. And really, he sort of goaded you. You blame that delightful combination for the decision to catch him by the ponytail and tug his head back—carefully.

You have to stoop to kiss him, and he makes a noise that would be hysterical in any other circumstances. It lasts for only a moment, and when you straighten back up, he’s gaping at you. You can almost find it in yourself to be embarrassed, before you decide that’s really not worth the effort. You settle, instead, for watching him expectantly, the hand in his ponytail instead settling on his shoulder.

He needs a moment to gawk, like some sort of zee-monster. You can wait.

Finally, he comes to his senses, shaking his head and reaching up to grab your wrist. “You—I’m married. You’re—attractive, yeah. You know th—everyone knows that. But it—this—“ He’s gesturing between the two of you now. “This can only be…physical.”

You’re tired. And a little tipsy. And you suppose you’ve left your tact in your other trousers, because you roll your eyes so emphatically you can feel it in your shoulders, and you tug your wrist from his grasp, to instead plant your hands on your hips.

“Really? You don’t say. I completely forgot about your husband. See, the two of you have just been too subtle for me. That aspect of your relationship just never even occurred to me, I’m sad to say.”

And just like that, he’s stammering at you in fits and his face is bright red. It’s a bit endearing, except—ah, yes, there it is. Now you feel like an asshole.

“…Sorry.” You withdraw, turning partially away and pinching your nose between two knuckles. “I’m not having a very good day.” You can practically feel how hard he’s staring at you. Irrational though you know it is, you can’t really look at him just yet, out of some lingering idea that it’s pity on his face.

He takes a few steps, and finally you look, only to nearly jump out of your skin when you find he’s right there. He catches you by the elbows before you can retreat.

“Maybe I can make it better…? Your bad day, I mean.”

You’re pretty sure he means it to sound…suggestive? Probably? But really, he mostly sounds sort of unsure. Regardless, you’re charmed—he’s better at that than you’ll ever let him know—and you find yourself grinning slowly.

“Something in mind?” you ask, because you can never resist teasing him at least a little. He scowls up at you, and with the air of someone trying to make a point, he pushes you back to sit on the bed. Standing between your knees, he gets to be taller than you for a change. He hesitates for a second longer, but you don’t get a chance to take matters into your own hands before he decides to beat you to the punch. Once he tips his chin down, you scarcely even need to lean up to meet him.

It’s…softer than you expected. You are softer than you expected. But there are fingertips sliding along the edge of your jaw and a hand in your hair, and for once you can’t bring yourself to be impatient.

You need to open your eyes when he leans back, though you don’t remember closing them. All things considered, he looks a bit too serious, still.

“We’re not done with…that conversation,” he points out, and he bumps your noses together. “We’re still finishing it later.”

Those sorts of conversations are always so serious, and you’re not really a fan. “…Yeah.” But you’re smiling with exasperated fondness, and for the moment it’s easy enough to simply agree. “Yeah, alright. A conversation for later.”

#fallen london #fallen london fanfic

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trylkstopocket · 4 years ago

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Brain Food: Saying Yes, Maps, and Getting People on Your Side

FS | BRAIN FOOD

Welcome to Sunday Brain Food: a weekly newsletter full of timeless ideas and insights for life and business.

Describing something with accuracy forces you to learn more about it. It can be difficult to stick with describing something completely and accurately. It’s hard to overcome the tendency to draw conclusions based on partial information or to leave assumptions unexplored.

— How Description Leads to Understanding

"In business, I think that the first people who need to receive hospitality are the people who work in an organization. Because if when you come to work, you feel like your colleagues are on your side, your boss is on your side, that people genuinely want to see you succeed, that’s probably going to bring out the best in you. And then you’re probably going to do even better things for your customers."

— Danny Meyer (Founder of Shake Shack)

Explore Your Curiosity

★ "In a Western-style sport, the aim is gaining victory at all costs,” says Thompson. “In Japan, even when you’re sparring, karate is not just about gaining a point—it’s about how you do it.” ... "True karate is about competing with yourself, not with other people.”

— Karate at the Olympics

★ A fascinating study on how we perceive ourselves as victims, build identities on top of that perception, and the unlikely consequences.

— Why People Feel Like Victims

Timeless Insight

“[M]ost people implicitly assume that their “map” of reality is supposed to be already correct. If they have to make any changes to it, that’s a sign that they messed up somewhere along the way. Scouts have the opposite assumption. We all start out with wildly incorrect maps, and over time, as we get more information, we make them somewhat more accurate. Revising your map is a sign you’re doing things right."

— Julia Galef in The Scout Mindset

(Pair with The Map is Not the Territory and this podcast episode).

Tiny Thought

Two simple rules that make saying yes harder and saying no easier:

1. Don't say yes on the spot.

2. When you do say yes to something, schedule when you're going to do it in your calendar right away. Book twice as much time as you think it will take to do it right.

Both rules are helpful but the second rule is perhaps more important. Scheduling the work helps you realize that saying yes has a very real cost. By schedule double the time, you'll avoid over-committing and have the flexibility to take advantage of opportunities that arise.