#are danny's parents dead in the second universe? no idea. maybe
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ekat-fandom-blog · 5 months ago
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Unstable
In one universe, Danny's life is good. He's gotten better at balancing his hero duties with school/work. He's made tons of friends in the hero community. Vlad only bothered him when things got really boring. Some of his former enemies even started helping him keep an eye out for other Ghost Zone denizens causing havoc in the living realm! Getting kidnapped wasn't part of his "normal", but it wasn't unheard of. It was - however - concerning when he couldn't phase through whatever material was used and when he felt the prick of a needle at the side of his neck.
In a different universe, Danny joined the Batfamily before the ghost portal was even a thought in Danny's mind and never got powers. It was nice. He got along really well with his new family. He felt safe and protected in a way he wasn't sure he'd ever felt with his parents. Sadly, Danny died a permanent death in this universe. Unfortunately, Vlad had been experimenting with ways to make the Waynes unstable and unfit to house Danny. And unstable Bats only become more unstable after a death in their family. So, they steal a Danny from another dimension.
*This is a prompt, so anyone can use this however they want. Adding this because I've noticed an influx of people unsure if they're allowed to use prompts.
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runfromthemedic · 2 years ago
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Danny Phantom adopts more kids than Bruce Wayne
I’ve seen a lot of fics going around about how Danny will get summoned as the Ghost King via cultist and dpxdc fics going around and I had an idea.
So Danny (ages 14-16 ish depending) gets summoned a lot, and in those summoning's there is usually a sacrifice. Normally, if the sacrifices are kidnapped adults and the like Danny beats up the cultist and just lets the sacrifices go.
But what happens when the sacrifices are younger?
A literal child gets offered up, a soul contract binding them to Danny (probably as a slave or food or whatever, I just think like John Constantine’s contracts but without the con). Danny still beats up the cultist but now he has a kid with a soul contract that he can’t break without severe backlash happening to the kid and there already pretty hurt form the cultist.
Panicking and worried about the kid, Danny seals the contract but with some adjustments, so now for all intent and purposes he now has a kid. 
Danny takes the kid back to the Far Frozen for Frostbite to heal, constantly sending calming emotions to his new kid while panic texting Sam and Tucker they had a kid now and spamming Jazz with questions on how to parent.
Many freak-outs and logistic family meetings later and they’ve worked out a relatively (more like half-way) decent plan for parenting. The kid is very happy with the new and loving parents and auntie and things calm down as much as things can with three liminal teenagers, a half-dead one, and a elementary schooler can between parenting, going to school, ghost king duties, and hiding all of this from Jack and Maddie. 
Danny cries the first time the tot called him Dad. Sam and Tucker record this for blackmail. Danny gets even when Sam and Tucker breakout the waterworks when they get called Mom and Pops.
And then a few months later another summoning happens, this time with a 17 year old. They get adopted.
Five months after that, another summoning, this time with two 12 year old's. They get adopted.
Thirteen months after that, another summoning. The kids 15. Adopted.
Two months after that, summoning and there’s three of them. All adopted.
By the time Danny, Sam, and Tucker are about to hit college age they have thirteen kids give or take.  All of them call the Trio Dad, Mom, and Pops. Doesn’t matter if some of the kids are older. Team Phantom are the best parents most of them have ever had. Age is blatantly ignored in most situations. Dani is considered the oldest. The first adopted kid is considered the second oldest, etc.
Danny’s castle in the Infinite Realms has a room for all of this kids and portals going out into different dimensions depending on where the summoning happened. The Trio didn’t want to completely uproot any of their kids lives so they make sure all of the kids have the right records, access to schooling, etc. 
Cue two of the kids (maybe three if you want John Constantine drunkenly auctioning off his at the time non-existent first born, accidents happen, the whole hodgepodge family has a understanding to punch Constantine on sight if they ever see him on their siblings/sons behalf) being from the DC universe.
Older of the two goes to Gotham U (I think studying communications, politics, philosophy etc to be able to help Danny with his Ghost Kind Duties) and the younger getting a scholarship to the fancy rich kid school Damian attends. 
Danny’s kids are about as liminal as they can get between the adoption contract, all of the ectoplasm exposure, and the kids all living in the Infinite Realms the majority of the time. Damian and the younger get along like a house on fire be cause they have similar interest based on life. I think the older sibling somehow befriends Tim Drake, Tim possible develops a crush.
Batman is very paranoid about the two possibly metas around his kids
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regonold · 10 months ago
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Ok hmm so idea
So danny he has a bad reveal, and instead of escaping or retreating into his core or any of tge numerous numerous other ways he has or could escape he dies on the vivisection table
Now halfa's they due to being paradoxes of living and dead have a wierd death if they are human while they die they would turn ghost and need to basically regrow their human boddy so staying spirit for a couple years (depending on age the younger the body the less time ot takes)
However when their ghostly half dies it is much different for starters if it was just a random out in the wild something somehow kills them they'd transform back to human die due to not having half a soul and immediately reform their ghost half
They way pantom is dieing tho makes a difference so danny is dieing on a vivisection table from both blood loss ectoplasm loss organ loss and numerous other things at a certin point it no lomger becomes worth it to revive a body
So phantom instead or repossimg his body and re awakening his other hlaf of a soul searches for a different anchor to safeguard hi. Whilst he regrows his body
Their a few checklists he needs to do first of course to make sure that it is most suitable and to be clear it is not phantom or danny doing it it is the base part that made him a ghost the part screaming i want to live
Theres only really two boxes that need to be checked one really by the second is an added clause due to how danny died
Does it have access to ectoplasm
Does it have defences
Now you know what has abundant assess to ectoplasm and defences the fenton works building so Danny's spirit anchors to that instead of his body
Now it you were a spirit that has just been killed over and over and over and over agian by your parents and you just took over the house literally you'd absolutely force them out right? And adf the fact that due to having a portal to the realms means the house is very much not as connected to this universe in a meaningful way anymore well I'd fucking run as well
So danny now a house with a mad scientist basement filled with his own corpse his organs detached form his own universe and bound to this house till he can find out how to regrow his body whats he to do but move around the multiverse and change shape to blend in more
Maybe he becomes known Maybe he gets bet in a card game Maybe he becomes the house of mysteries and maybe just maybe one john Constantine can actually help him finally finally get his body back
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lazerswordweilder · 8 months ago
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This definitely isn’t the best, but I sat down to watch a Ranboo stream and suddenly realised I was two hours in and had this. Not my best art, but I still liked it :)
This was going to be in the tags but it exceeded 30:
I do not have an already existing au for this btw but from what I gathered pretty much Danny's at a high school/college at Gotham, he woke up on the street with his last memory being some dramatic fight ending with something about clockwork. these aren't blanks in his memory, those are blanks in my memory. but yeah. he's depressed, and can't contact his family or even know if they're alive. he tried drinking but his core burning even the strongest alcohol in seconds. he's aiming to become an astronaut in this universe, because doctors here aren't aware about his 'accident' aka the first few minutes after the portal where his heart stopped, that permanently scarred his record because they didn't have a clue what caused it, so he couldn't go to space because of safety risks. he is destroyed emotionally though, and is only really giving it a half assed attempt, which still puts him on the Waynes and/or Bats radar because he has: otherworldly (ghost zone) and insanely advanced (have you seen tuker? or the learning machines Lancer used) tech. he also has experience and idea from geniuses like tuker, his parents, himself, technus, also a load of dead geniuses. Yeah but, he’s the smartest kid in school by miles, but a complete and total loner because of how much he’s hurting. Everyone thinks he’s weird.
^^^that’s pretty much all I thought about while drawing it. But I’d imagine he contemplates killing himself but can never bring himself to because his ghost half has respect for the dead instincts and he can’t bring himself to get taken out like that, he wants to go out fighting, struggling, fighting tooth and claw, in a blaze of glory. I’d also imagine he tries not to know the bats, also ghostly respect, at least one of them is a ghost of some sort, and a lot of them are liminal or ecto contaminated, he doesn’t want to mess with them. He just shows up to class with coffee fit for Tim, and survives.
Then I’d imagine he ends up in a relationship, either strong platonic, or family/brother(maybe even father???), or strong sexual/romantic, with one of the bats (probably one of the siblings cause age differences y’know, but let him stew around in his emotions for years, then throw him at the older bats if you want) and then they help him get back home. He gives them all unmelt ice necklaces that can be used to summon him in return (thousands of years into the future most are still family heirlooms and they become incredibly powerful magic artefacts that summon the king of the dead himself), both for emergencies and just catching up.
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jadenoryuu · 2 years ago
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Ho postato 2.629 volte nel 2022
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#danielle meanwhile has never actually experienced the holidays before so shes having a blast making her excitement everyone elses problem
I miei post migliori nel 2022:
#5
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Today with Grafaiai. (◉ w ◉)
(I still need to check the tag, but since Devil works fast but fanartists work faster, I'm confident that there already are. (≧∇≦) )
67 note - Postate 2 settembre 2022
#4
Asking for a friend:
If Danny was bitten by a radioactive spider (and so didn't get any ghost powers), what would his hero name be?
Because I can't vision him using "Spiderman". 🤔🤔
86 note - Postate 18 gennaio 2022
#3
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Danny Phantom, Batman - All Media Types, DCU Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Danny Fenton & Bruce Wayne Characters: Danny Fenton, Bruce Wayne, Hal Jordan (Green Lantern), Clark Kent, Guardians of the Universe (DCU), Arthur Curry (DCU), Alfred Pennyworth Additional Tags: Mention of Freakshow, Batfamily (DCU), Batcave (DCU), Biological Parent Bruce Wayne, Fertility Clinic, Family Fluff, father-son bonding, ghost prince Danny, Green Lantern Rings (DCU), Episode: s02e19-20 Reality Trip, (mentioned) - Freeform, Attempt at Humor, Hurt/Comfort Series: Part 6 of The Dragon's Danuary Xover 2022 Summary:
When Danny popped up unannounced at the Wayne Manor, Bruce knew that trouble was brewing at the horizon. What he couldn't have imagined was that his second youngest child would bring along something that would put the boy on the radar of an immortal alien race. Bruce Wayne was still learning "how to dad" a little more each day, but if they called him, he would always answer.
@amorpho I was almost late! Pokémon Legends: Arceus came out and along with my job, they made me lose the sense of time... (╥﹏╥)
(This is also why Danuary Seventh Day will be also delayed, I'm still a bit behind with that...)
Anyway, this one-shot heavily leaned on the prompt of this post (shout out to @five-rivers for reblogging it, making me remember the original idea and also salvage this crossover with their addition), but I definitely had fun with this story!
Maybe one day, after I read the Batfam webcomic, I could continue this, what do you think?
Wish me good luck for tomorrow, my Muse needs some prodding!
(๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧
97 note - Postate 28 gennaio 2022
#2
So here I am, bored out of my mind at work, and my brain travels across the ether of zoning out...
And a Crossover idea stuck!
So, do you Phans remember that animated movie that came out in 2009 called "Astroboy"?
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[I mean this one.]
It was my first contact with the Astro Boy series and while I never explored the latter further, the movie amazed me and made me care (read: fear, empathize and ache) for the protagonist in ways that any other movie couldn't along with the first "How to Train your Dragon". (That's an accomplishment since after reading/watching many things I unfortunately became somewhat desensitized to plots in general. (╥﹏╥))
That being said, let's get back to the topic:
You all know how the movie premise is that Astro is the robotic replica of Toby, the professor's dead son?
What if we spin a bit of Phandom in it? <(꒪꒳꒪)>
There could be three ways to do this:
The first two have more or less the same trope = (post-movie) Natural Portal Shenanigans make either Danny or Astro cross dimension and Astro has Toby's ghost following him along for fun and only Danny can see him because he's an halfa.
The third take is the Fusion AU =
Danny as Toby dies in the same canonical accident, but the two cores instead of blue and red are green and pink/magenta ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).
Phantom as Astro. In this Danny and Phantom are two different persons, but instead of "normal" superpowers/weapons, he's half-robot/half-ectoplasm entity (it's different than being a ghost, I still stan that ghosts are the post-mortem manifestation of the deceased's soul and you can pry this from my specter's cold hands) (Meaning: Phantom is not Danny's ghost in this).
Jack and Maddie as Dr. Tenma. They form an amazing team and something so trivial as an absentee single parent in Astro Boy canon won't stop me.
Frostbite as Dr. Elefun. I contemplated briefly Clockwork for this part, but the "supportive wise mentor" fit better with our favorite Yeti than with our cryptid stopwatch, not counting that he has already medical and technological knowledge in DP.
Jazz as Orrin (the robot housekeeper)? This one doesn't fit as well as the rest of the cast, so maybe there's no Jazz or she's in another city as studying-abroad-big-sister.
Sam as Cora. Rebellious girl with wealthy parents, who fights for her rights? Sign her in. (Not counting the teased romance between her and Astro/Phantom, that's only a plus.)
Tucker as "himself" (AKA not any particular role, just one of the orphans of the Surface). Techno-Geek that repairs robots for the Robot Fights and bonds spectacularly with Phantom.
Dani as ZOG. I know it's strange, but hear me out: ZOG was revived by Astro's core and it still keeps part of that energy, making it virtually both Astro's sibling and child! Ring a bell? Plus ZOG is a little shit when it's able to, so it's only a natural decision, really! (≧∇≦)
Cujo as Trashcan. Yep, the trashcan dog deserves the puppy counterpart.
Now that should be everyone! ...Or should it? Oh! Right! The Villains:
Freakshow as Hamegg. Who would be a better showman/ringleader than the insane circus owner who controls robots ghosts?
Vlad Masters as President Stone. Of course it was going to be him. Old friend of the protagonist's father? Check. Power hungry? Check. Wants the protagonist for one of his machinations? Triple check.
Plasmius as Peacekeeper. Pink/Magenta core explained! Who would have thought about that? (≧∇≦)
Skulker as General Heckler. Vlad's second in command and enforcer of his commands, it feels only natural.
There are so many other characters to assign, though at the moment I can't come up with what to do with the robot trio of the Robot Revolutionary Front or Valerie Gray, but this discourse made me want to re-watch the movie, so I'll probably add something tomorrow.
What do you Phans think? Is this worth considering for Danuary? (≧∇≦)
109 note - Postate 13 gennaio 2022
Il mio post numero 1 del 2022
You know what?
Here it's half-past midnight of April 3rd.
I'll cross-stitch your Danno.
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473 note - Postate 3 aprile 2022
Guarda ora l'Analisi del tuo anno 2022 di Tumblr →
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datawyrms · 4 years ago
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Irresistible
For PhicPhight! On Ao3
“Earth to clueless one, walking through walls isn’t something you should be doing right now!” Sam’s hiss made him notice the fact something had grabbed his wrist.
“Right, sorry!” He said it without thinking, eyes flicking to Tucker. His other friend looked just as concerned, great. “I don’t think I got enough sleep.”
“When do you ever, dude? You didn’t even sneak out last night.” Still, his more technically inclined friend released his wrist. “Something your parents working on keeping you up?”
“You know we’re fine if you crash in our rooms.” Sam was a little less gentle. “So do that instead of whatever sleepwalking this is.”
“No! Like, I don’t remember not being able to sleep or anything?” Not that it helped, he felt like he’d been awake all night thanks to the weird dreams. “I swear I’m not being a tough guy or whatever.” He rubbed at his forehead, privately wishing his fingers could just push away the fog of exhaustion instead of just making him more aware of how sluggish he felt.
“Maybe you should crash with one of us anyway? You don’t look good.” Tucker’s frown only made the half ghost grumble. “‘Course you never look as good as me, but lately? You’re pulling the two thirds ghost look.”
“Harhar.” He shrugged the suggestion off, even if he was pretty tempted. There wasn’t anything weird in the house that he noticed, and his parents weren’t being any more anti-ghost then usual. He probably slept in a weird position or something. “I don’t think weird underwater dreams are a Fentonworks exclusive.”
“Underwater?” Sam just looked puzzled. “From what? I can’t even remember the last time any of us went swimming.”
“How should I know?” He couldn’t even say it was like flying, because it wasn’t like one of those dreams at all. Too sluggish, none of the freedom he normally felt. “I’ll just nap in math class…”
It had been a joke, really. He didn’t actually mean to sleep in math class, but his desk was cool and his head felt so heavy that he couldn’t resist nodding off. He just wished it had helped more, the bell ringing just made him want to sink into the floor and stay there. Which would probably freak everyone out. Not a good idea. At least the stern talking to he earned for ‘being disrespectful’ went right over his head with it so hazy.
“Dude. Just skip if you’re gonna sleep all day.” Tucker was poking him in the face with a fork. Rude.
“I’m not gonna sleep all day. Relax.” The tines were annoying, but doing more than blindly pushing it away from him was beyond him for the moment.
“Spacing out all day isn’t any better.” Sam’s voice wasn’t a surprise, but the fact she wasn't telling Tucker to stop poking him in the face was.
“I’m not.”
“Tucker’s been poking you for five minutes.”
“Oh.” Really? Hadn’t felt like that. Maybe he had like a ghost cold?
“Just go hide out in the attic, you obviously need it.” The poking stopped, Tucker’s voice low as if he’d leaned closer.
“Can’t miss even more stuff guys…you know that.” Even if he really, really wanted to take that offer right now.
“Well here you’ll just get the teachers angry by snoozing through class. We’ll try and see what’s messing with you after school.”
“Nothing’s messing with me! I think.” His objection wasn’t great, but Sam didn’t seem up to argue with him about it anyway.
Tucker adjusted his hat, avoiding his eyes. “Kinda hope something is, you’re kinda freaking us out.”
Well, that didn’t feel good. He scratched at the back of his head, trying to ignore how his friends kept looking at him like some kind of wounded kitten. He was fine, really! “Well uh. See you after school?” He didn’t give them time to answer before stumbling away from the table to find somewhere quiet to vanish from. He sort of hoped being in his ghost form would have shaken some of his muddled need for sleep, but being colder just made the throbbing behind his eyes feel worse. Not enough to keep him from keeping invisible and slipping into Tucker’s attic, but enough that becoming human again actually made him feel a little less ragged.
It shouldn’t be this easy to huddle in the musty old chair and drop off in the middle of the day. The guilt for doing so alone should make him twist and struggle to get comfortable, but sleep welcomed him eagerly. A part of him worried Nocturn was afoot, but it wasn’t enough to keep him awake.
“You think his parents made something that makes ghosts go dormant or something?”
“Or drain all their energy?
He kind of wanted to ignore the voices and keep sleeping, but shook himself awake. He didn’t need this much sleep, he was fine. If they were here he’d been sleeping for hours already!
“Sleeping beauty awakes.”
Danny rolled his eyes at Tucker’s attempt to pretend they hadn’t been talking about him. “You better not have kissed me.”
“If you kept sleeping for another hour he totally would have.” Sam smirk only grew when Tucker let out an offended squawk.
“Under duress!”
“The meat stench on your breath could wake the dead, so it had to be you.”
“Not dead yet, thanks…” Even if he’d been feeling tired enough to be a corpse today. “Anyone notice?”
“Told Lancer you were sick. He bought it.” Tucker shrugged, tossing a thermos between his hands. “You were really out of it huh?”
“Wait, was there an attack?”
“Nothing we couldn’t handle.” Sam snatched the thermos away, glaring at Tucker as she did so. “You stay here, we’ll check out your house.”
He’d just slept through a ghost attacking? Really? “No way, how would you explain why I’m not with you?”
“Easy. We’ll just say you are, they won’t notice.” The goth scoffed, already halfway to getting the attic door open. “If you can hide being a ghost, we can hide you not being there for an afternoon.”
She sort of had a point there. “Fine. You aren’t gonna find anything. If it was some new gadget I’d say so.”
He kind of hoped they’d prove him wrong, but the concerned and frustrated looks on their faces betrayed that there were no new plans or even an idea to what had gotten him ‘out of sorts’. It was probably just a one off thing anyway, he’d be fine. It wasn’t like his parents were bragging about a new discovery or anything. He probably wouldn’t be able to sleep since he spent so much of the day doing so, though he was still tired...he actually looked forward to dinner being over so he could snuggle under his blankets and look at the little glowing stick on stars of his ceiling before drifting off again.
Only the dream came back. A small, pitiful ghost underwater while something kept calling at him. It wasn’t warm or inviting, more like the command from someone respected. The wisp of a creature couldn’t really ignore it either, it was like a pulse that burrowed inside and thrummed until he responded. They weren’t asking for much. Just wanted him to go hunt ghosts. He always did that anyway, that part was easy.
He didn’t like how the commanding one grabbed him under the chin at his return, but couldn’t find it in him to struggle. They were stronger than he was, he was a subordinate not strong enough to challenge them. A pair, stronger and unknowable with how they’d speak in a language he didn’t understand. He could only watch, green eyes wide for any hint of anger, wanting to make himself smaller, but the creature was little more than a shadow to begin with. Hunt, bring them the prey they wanted, and they’d allow him to exist. A fair trade, really. His core trembled at the idea the clawed hands at his face could easily sink into his chest, he couldn’t risk angering them. Their red eyes saw everything, knew everything. He didn’t want to be around them, but that call was too strong. Those eyes lurked on every surface, a burning red that cut through the weight of the water that was everything as if it wasn’t even there. Their commands became a sort of second skin, but didn’t protect him from the beings deciding to come uncomfortably close, or clutch his thin limbs and take something before letting him slip back into undefined chaos again.
He preferred being told to hunt. Leaving other ghosts, the smaller ones, lesser than even the inkblot he was in the universe to be looked over and examined while he remained mostly untouched. Still wispy, mostly undefined outside of his eyes, unlike the remains of those who ‘earned’ the greater ones full attention. No time to rest, just going and going until they claimed he’d done enough.
Being dismissed wasn’t a free pass to do as he pleased though. It was still a command, something he had to obey lest they show him why they were in charge. To go in hiding, be unseen, do nothing until they wanted him to hunt again. That should be easy, simple, but it made his tail ache and his heart lurch. He didn’t only want to hunt, he wanted to do not-ghost things.
Yet the figures didn’t care what a weaker ghost wanted to do. They’d find out. He had to hide.
Danny just felt exhausted. As if the dream had made him as tired as the ghost he was in that nightmare. Which couldn’t be true, he didn’t care about stronger ghosts and what they wanted. He’d fought the king of ghosts! He had a track record of flipping off authority when it suited him better. It didn’t push away the heavy weight in his head that only begged him to go back to sleep. Maybe he really was just sick.
Sick enough to get sent right back to bed by his mom when he slumped down for breakfast, her concern nice, but also discomforting. She held her hand at his forehead for a touch too long, seemed to stare into his eyes enough to make him want to avert them. Her gentle nudging to get some more sleep nearly had him bolting up the stairs. Like he had to go that moment. Rubbing at his temples didn’t dissuade the feeling, but the pressure lifted somewhat when he was back in bed and covered in blankets. Some stupid leftover feeling from that dream or something. He wasn’t hiding.
“Danny? You okay under there?” Jazz’s question just felt like a nail to his skull, and he hoped she could see the displeasure in his eyes as he poked out from under the blankets to glare at her.
“I might be if someone didn’t wake me up.” The sunlight peeking in from the windows only soured his mood, he should have closed the blinds.
“Well, someone’s grumpy.” Either she didn’t see his annoyance, or she was deliberately ignoring it. “Mom said you don’t have a fever, but you run pretty cold...do you want something for it?”
“It’s just a headache.”
“Sure, mister ‘I ignored a bone fracture’ is crippled by a headache. Not buying it.”
“That was meant to be a secret, who snitched?” His frustration just made him feel uncomfortably warm, they knew he hated it when Jazz fussed over that stuff. Maybe he should ignore their calls for a bit.
“No one did, I actually pay attention when you start favouring your left hand.” Her frown just made him want to duck back out of sight. “You sure you don’t need anything? Anything mom and dad wouldn’t think you need?”
For a smart person, Jazz could be incredibly unsubtle. “No. I’m just worn out, or something.” He didn’t feel like coughing or sneezing, or even the gurgling discomfort of an upset stomach. It couldn’t be that serious. “You’ll be late if you keep standing there.”
“Let us know if you think of anything!” She was already halfway down the hall while saying that, not getting to see how her brother rolled his eyes and ducked back under the blankets. Her biggest weakness, other obligations. Not that it would help after school. He’d be fine by then, probably. Just some peace and quiet and he’d be back to normal. Just like he said yesterday. Only for real this time. Positive thinking, or whatever.
He did feel a bit better now that it was quiet. Still tired, but his head wasn’t pounding as much as it was whenever someone insisted on talking to him.
He figured he’d just sleep, maybe play Doomed once he was more awake. Step one, sleeping had been going well, but Mom and Dad had other plans jeopardizing that. Since when did they listen to music while they worked? With enough base that he could feel it rattling his bones no less. Covering his ears couldn’t do much about that. Trying to ignore it, or hope they were just messing with something for a minute and it would stop wasn’t getting anywhere either. So why was he just hesitating up here? They probably didn’t even notice it was so loud, or forgot he was home sick. He shook his legs to try and wake them up after he wobbled with his first steps to the door. Maybe he could- no, there wasn’t any reason to just wait.
When had they gotten so many stairs anyway? Danny found himself gripping the railing as if he was seven again, worried about slipping as if he didn’t run down them two at a time normally. He hesitated at the bottom, eyes scanning the ground floor for a sign of the scientists. The awful noise didn’t seem much louder, but he felt every beat of it as his heart seemed to slip into sync. He didn’t want to risk more stairs, he was imagining things. He opened his mouth to speak, coughing instead over how dry it felt. Sleeping with his mouth open, duh. His second attempt went better, but was not as much of a shout as he planned it to be. “Mom? Dad? Can you turn it down?”
He waited. Nothing. It must be too loud for them to hear him over the din of that deafening pulse. Keeping one ear covered the boy edged to the lab’s staircase, staring down them as if he was looking from a mountaintop, a deadly drop. He so didn’t want to go down there, to go closer to whatever the heck it was. “Dad? Mom?” He called again, trying to ignore how his voice cracked at the question. He wasn’t scared of a staircase! His heart kept pounding in his ears, knuckles going white as he kept his hands in anxious fists. Everything told him to get back, to stay away, but couldn’t stand the noise. Besides, what if it was hurting them? Maybe that’s why they didn’t answer? Worry for them helped push back the seaping cold, heading down to the lab faster than he’d managed to get down from his room.
It was brightly lit, normal but cold. He could see them, hunched over a work desk and unharmed. The glare made his eyes hurt, pausing to rub at them. They seemed blurry, even though he wasn’t that far away. “Uh, Mom, Dad? Can you turn down whatever you’re working on? I can’t sleep.” He asked, unable to convince his legs to step a bit closer, feeling too tired to make any extra effort.
“Turn down what sweetie?” She turned to face him, making his blood try to turn to ice in his veins. She sounded right, said the right thing-but he was already trying to back up the stairs. Was she taller? “Sweetie? You look pale.”
“T-The noise.” The answer sputtered from him unbidden as he tried desperately to figure out what was wrong with-with-his mom? The echoed pounding told him no, it wasn’t, but who else could it be. “I can hear it upstairs.”
She approached with a too long stride, his own legs slipping in his blind step upwards. Pain from his elbow slamming into the edge of the staircase managed to rip through him even while everything else felt slow. She only quickened towards him as he cursed, trying to crabwalk backwards from the mother-that-was-not.
“Danny! Are you okay? Let me help you.” She grabbed him around the shoulders and he froze, a rabbit being watched by a hawk. She was too real, too solid, she could easily rip through him. “Maybe we should get you to the doctor honey, there’s isn’t anything on down here.”
Should he squirm away? She was lying about the sound, it kept pounding against him like a tide and he had no way to ride the wave clutched as he was. “There is, the thing over there-” He didn’t know what it was, but he could feel it, that it was over with the other figure, the one who hadn’t come to snag an intruder.
The hand on his forehead burned, but he couldn’t flinch away. “Sweetie, I think I’d know if your Dad was playing it.” The eyes bore into him, scanning him for any slight movement. “Jack, can you start the RV? I think we should take Danny to emergency.”
The other figure moved, massive, larger than he could imagine. It might hurt him, it might hurt his mom! “S-Stay back!” He yelled, a spark of energy finding its way to him. He couldn’t let his mom get attacked by whatever this was- no wonder she seemed strange, this thing was doing it.
“Well I gotta get up the stairs Danno! You don’t look good, you just wait there.” It was speaking as it came closer, but all it did was make the bile rise in his throat as it pretended to be his father. He squirmed free to stumble forward and block this thing from his mom, eyes burning green as he tried to shove past the exhaustion and fight.
“I said STAY BACK!”
The figure paused at his shriek and wild eyed fury, face unreadable. “Danny?” His voice was low, booming in a way that started to drain all his prior hope to fight the thing off. “Madds? I don’t think emergency can fix what he’s got.”
Claws sunk into his back, his neck aching at the speed used to look back at his mother, too long fingers tight on his shoulders and keeping hims still as he stared up and felt even smaller. “You don’t think he’s possessed?” She wasn’t talking to him, and that was a relief even as his heart tried to run off without him with how fast it wanted to go.
“Y-You did something to my mom.” The accusation made it easier to keep on his feet, but didn’t lessen her grip or stop the giant from approaching. “Take your noisemaker and get out!” If it was gone, it’d be fine, they’d be safe, he was sure of it.
“Danny, that’s your dad sweetie. Not a monster.” The voice was gentle, but he could feel how the arms shook, how she  increased the strength of her grip so he couldn’t pull away again. “You keep doing your best to fight that ghost off Danny, dad will help you.”
The larger figure grabbed the horrible silver device, the red gems adorning the horn’s buttons making him feel empty and helpless. “S-Stop it, you can’t let it use that mom!” He pleaded, but she didn’t release him, just pulled him closer to the smothering warmth. “Please, listen to me!” Of course she didn’t, controlled by that thing, twisted into thinking it was Dad, that it was quiet. Becoming intangible let him slip free, but he only managed two steps before the behemoth blew a long sustained note that made his skin vibrate and eyes swim. He crumpled to the cool floor, staring up at the monster in a silent horror. He couldn’t fight this thing- he’d been a fool to try and the red eyes promised retribution for his behaviour.
“Get out of my son right now, ghost.” It snarled, pointing directly at his crumpled form so he could not pretend to misunderstand. Yet he’d given an order he couldn’t follow. His core screeched in terror as his heart pounded, he couldn’t get out. Yet he had to, or this thing would devour him, shred him to nothing with nothing but sound. He could only try the closest he could get to ‘out’ of his own skin, shuddering as flesh melted to ectoplasm, trying not to scream as suit replaced skin. Not his normal transformation, this one was too slow- too confused by the order he couldn’t follow to make it an instantaneous change. He had to show he wasn’t wearing his human skin, show how completely he changed. Dying slowly, bit by bit  to be someone else. Not ‘his son’. His enemy. Green eyes stared back at the red ones as he panted, unsure if the monster was pleased.
It was furious, stepping forward as he shrank back and pulled his ghostly tail around himself. “I told you to get out.”
“I can’t.” He whimpered, wanting to look away but unable to.
Another voice behind him, the mom that wasn’t spoke. Yet he didn’t understand a word of it, too terrified by the being in front of him to even process it as language.
“Don’t lie to me Phantom. Get out of my son before we tear you out.”
His name made him flinch, gloved hands clutching at his head as the impossibility of that tore at his mind. “I’m not, I swear, I can’t get out of myself!” How could he not be in his son when he was his son? He had to find a way, his slowed but still pounding heart offering some idea.
“Don’t you dare pretend to be my son, ghost.”
He wanted to explain he wasn’t pretending, that he wasn’t disobeying on purpose but the massive thing had him by the collar of his jumpsuit, leaving him busy trying to breathe enough to speak. If he wasn’t a hybrid, then maybe the monster would be satisfied? He didn’t get much time to wonder before getting tossed in a containment cell. “I’m not pretending- the accident…” he mumbled, trying to make himself look smaller as if he could hide from the hateful eyes that way. They stared at him, spoke gibberish to one another as the previous exhaustion came back with a vengeance. Keeping still felt like the best idea. When the bigger one locked eyes with him and ordered that he sleep, he did.
Dreaming and waking became one and the same. He stayed in his cage unless ordered out. They kept asking him the impossible, until he tried to rip out his heart to ‘separate’ through death. They didn’t want their son harmed- didn’t see how separating was harm, but did not destroy him for that blunder. He hunted, brought them what they wanted. They kept watching as if expecting him to disobey, to slip his leash even as he practically groveled when they approached. He hoped Mom was okay, wherever she was. Maybe Jazz could rescue her from the monster with the cornet on spring break. A ghost couldn’t. A ghost simply obeyed.
Prompt: Danny hasn't been feeling himself, blacking out and having strange dreams. Unbeknownst to him, Freakshow's staff was not the only artifact that could control ghosts. Even worse, Jack and Maddie are the ones who get their hands on that object.
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lovelahela · 4 years ago
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𝐢𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤  ↠  𝖎𝖙 𝖑𝖎𝖛𝖊𝖘 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓  [day six, @it-lives-week​]
❛ the power is back, and it’s more powerful than ever. you must band together and defeat it once and for all... or die trying. ❜
n.b. i’m basing this off my ilitw mc taking jane’s place and everyone survived in both ilitw and ilb, so some plot points are interchangeable. plus, ilitw and ilb mcs’ characteristics are obviously interchangeable depending on how you played in your own playthroughs/how you have written them.
significant characters.
         ↠ (DETERMINANT) mc: it lives within main character [LI: determinant]. possible faces to choose from: caucasian, south asian, middle eastern, latina,  african. sexuality is determinant. nerve subject to change.
         ↠ (F) marisol reyes: it lives in the woods main character [LI: noah marshall]. filipina. bisexual. nerve subject to change.
         ↠ (F) harper vance: it lives beneath main character [LI: tom sato] african-american. pansexual. nerve is not subject to change if your mc survived ilb.
         ↠ (NB) jamie mcleod: it lives within side character [LI: mc or andy kang]. singaporean, irish. pansexual, demisexual. nerve subject to change.
         ↠ (F) sun-hee ‘sunny’ pong: it lives within side character [LI: mc or dan pierce]. south korean. bisexual. nerve subject to change.
         ↠ (M) okeyo ‘oak’ liao: it lives within side character [LI: mc or jocelyn wu]. kenyan, chinese. bisexual. nerve subject to change.
         ↠ (F) jocelyn wu. it lives in the woods + it lives within side character [LI: mc or okeyo liao]. pansexual. nerve is not subject to change.
romance.
         ↠ so i don’t know if this is gonna make sense but like in the game harvest moon, you can choose to/accidentally activate “heart events” that set your LI up with a different character, so i thought it would be a cool change for you to see an LI option end up with someone else if you don’t romance them. would probably be paywalled though, kind of like grace/aleister in endless summer.
         ↠ jaimie would not have intimate scenes until the second half of the book if mc has established a strong relationship with them.
plot points.
the plot isn’t complete, these are just some ideas i had in mind. i may change some or even all of them when i write my it lives 3 au.
          ↠ [this piece of information is not revealed until late into the story] noah ends up finding a ritual that allows him to bring marisol back, on the condition that he would have to give his soul up to the power after six months and take her place. 
         ↠ in the midst of arguing with his former westchester friend group after revealing his face to them to propose an alliance in order to put a stop to the power, they are interrupted by marisol entering the room, looking and wearing exactly the same as she had on homecoming night, dazed and confused.
         ↠ noah, having thought the ritual hadn’t worked, is just as shocked beyond belief as the rest of them. it is then concluded that marisol does not remember a single thing during her three years as jane’s replacement (though memories come back to her in bits and pieces through nightmares and flashbacks throughout the story), and believes it is still homecoming night and the last thing she remembers is speaking to jane. they do their best to ease her into the fact that 3 years have passed.
         ↠ the main character’s parents were members of the society prior to their death, but they were away for college during the events of it lives beneath. upon hearing of their deaths, they move temporarily to pine springs, and notice that something was off with the quaint town.
         ↠ they take it upon themselves to investigate further into this and later discover the society by following one of its few remaining members into a forest. they are kidnapped, then immediately recognized as the child of their highly esteemed comrades, so they then decide to go easier on them and explain everything about the cult and their parents’ place in it.
         ↠ they are interrupted when a group of strangers [it lives beneath main group] bust their operation and the chief of police ends up hauling off what they then believed to be the last remaining members of the society into jail. meanwhile, tom, imogen, danni, and harper reveal what they had left out about josephine vance and the power that once lived in the lake.
         ↠ the main character, harboring bitter anger towards their parents’ greed for the power and how it got them killed, is immediately motivated to put a stop to it, so they are introduced to connor green, whom tom knew was organizing a group to fight against the supernatural force. together, they move to a town they suspected contained it: northbury, oregon - which was equidistant from westchester and pine springs, both of which were an hour away. 
         ↠ the main character is introduced to the westchester group, including marisol and jocelyn; however, only connor, noah, jocelyn, dan, noah, and andy had decided to move to northbury. the rest decided to remain in their respective towns since they weren’t far away anyway. 
         ↠ in an attempt to blend in with the locals and gain information about the recent disappearances simultaneously, MC makes it their mission to get to know the most significant current residents of northbury that ava cunningham and parker shaw had pulled up information about: jamie mcleod (the younger sibling of one of the missing victims), lawrence khan (northbury’s chief of police), jiao-long liao (occult studies professor at northbury university), and sun-hee pong (a college student who had been caught trespassing on properties including the homes of the missing victims multiple times, and the daughter of one of the missing).
         ↠ upon their arrival, more people start to go missing, and the gang discover that northbury has had a much darker past than westchester and pine springs combined. disappearances date back decades, and the rates are alarmingly high for a town that appeared to be bustling with residents. a local conspiracy blog/forum exposes numerous reports of dead animals cut in a ritualistic/sacrificial manner, sightings of a dark humanoid figure wandering in the trees at night, and rumors of a secret underground cave full of occult symbols drawn with blood on the walls, dust-coated skeletons, and a myth surrounding an ancient monster that was offered sacrifices by its people unknowingly. 
         ↠ honestly this is all i have planned so far lmao but a few more things i had in mind were: (A) there could be a bad ending where they don’t defeat the power, meaning noah’s soul is claimed and he becomes the new redfield (B) if the power is defeated noah gets to stay alive and ends up with marisol, goes to culinary school, all that good stuff (C) i was thinking that even some characters without nerve could have multiple fates depending on how the story goes and who lives, like connor and jocelyn, and maybe it could be dependent on the nerve of others that way the stakes are higher and you’re more motivated to keep the nerve high. e.g. if MC’s nerve is low and they can’t complete a certain task that could save others, jocelyn ends up doing it instead and dies in the process.
so yeah this is mainly what i have in mind for an it lives 3 book! i hope PB change their mind one day and revisit it because it’s truly their best series.
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phantomphangphucker · 4 years ago
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Legless On Maim Chap. 9: Gifts Of Time, Science, And Space
ClockWork is surprisingly helpful. Danny’s surprisingly not. Jack and Maddie are surprisingly good at ethical(ish) human(ish) medicine(ish). Lewis is surprisingly not and accidentally makes a ghost. And the duo that is Venom are surprisingly... surprising.
ClockWork smiles fondly, leans over, and pats Danny’s head, “I’m perfectly sound of mind and Core, child”. Danny only groans loudly in response.
But this is enough to get Maddie and Jack to their feet and drawing weapons, though not pointing them because something’s going on here. Jazz practically bolting into the kitchen and looking like she’s ten seconds away from blocking their line of fire and screaming ‘NO!’, only encourages them to hold off more. They knew Danny was close to her, trusted her, maybe told her things they didn’t know?
The ghost turns to the pair of hunters, them floating over the table, and actually bows exaggeratedly with a cheeky smirk, “greetings, Madeline and Jackson”. Jack blinks, having not been called that since he was basically born and they had to tell the nurse what to put on his birth certificate. While the ghost looks to Lewis, “as for the who, Lewis-”, making Lewis quirk an eyebrow over them following Danny in using his last name, “-you’d be right in assuming I’m ClockWork”, looking back to the hunters, “the ghost of time, or spirit, as you’ve chosen to dub the created dead”, grinning, “we prefer neverborn ghost of course. Born ghosts prefer unlived ghost”.
Danny lifts his head off the table to the sight of his parents' open mouth gaping at ClockWork, groans and bangs his head on the table again. ClockWork patting his head with their tail before Danny lifts his head up, returns his chin to his palm and sighs, “ClockWork, there are days I really wonder if you just like making me suffer”, sighing again while his parents give him really weird looks. Danny glances from his folks worriedly to ClockWork, looking mildly unimpressed and exasperated, “you’re gonna make me explain all this, aren’t you?”.
Jack raises an eyebrow at Danny, “Danny-boy? Do you... know them?”.
Danny slips his head off his palm and lets his face bang into the table yet again, “ugh. Yes”, lifting a hand limply and gesturing at ClockWork, his face still on the table, “Clocky. Timepants. Pocket-watch. Timedaddy. Kronos, when they’re being a real old-timer stickler”, sighing, “they’re kinda my-”, he’s probably going to regret deciding that lying wasn’t worth the effort here, “-ghost parent?”.
ClockWork shifts to their elderly form, “you say that as if it is a question”.
Danny lifts up his head purely to scowl at them, “oh my Ancients”.
“Yes?”.
Danny’s scowl deepens but he doesn’t get to say anything as Maddie cuts in, managing to sound only slightly accusing, “what does he mean, ghost”, glancing at Danny and softening her expression a little, clearly silently asking him the same question but nicer.
Jack nodding stiffly, “uh, yeah”.
ClockWork says precisely nothing, instead shifting to a child and sitting on Danny’s shoulder. Danny turns his head to gape at them, “seriously?”.
Lewis chuckles, “well I certainly see where Danny gets his mischievous side now”. ClockWork was absolutely a trouble maker and prankster. And fine, if prankster god wasn’t slightly horrifying.
Resulting in Danny screwing up his face and giving Lewis the most overacted ‘you did not just say that’ face ever, that effectively conveyed ‘what the fuck is wrong with you’ in about sixty-nine different languages. ClockWork just pats Danny’s head.
Danny looks back to his folks at his mom clearing her throat. Him chuckling awkwardly, “uh”, deciding screw it, it’s way too bloody late for this to not be awkwarder than a snow bunny trying to relax in someone's venti cup filled with espresso shots. Gesturing with both hands from ClockWork to his parents, “ClockWork, my parents; not that you didn’t already know that”, gesturing from his parents back to ClockWork, “mom and dad, ClockWork; my ghostly guardian because I am a child and ghostly enough to qualify for this shit and my life is bullshit and the universe has a horrible sense of humour and yeah okay I’m exactly the kind of mess to have a technical god watching over me more literally and this probably makes, like, zero sense and I’d rather you not shoot them and I have no idea why they’re here now and I'm just going to shut up now”, clacking his teeth shut and leaning back against his chair with his arms crossed. ClockWork, now an adult, repositioning to appear to be sitting on the top of the chair back (obviously they are actually floating though).
Jack and Maddie blink, exchange a Look, and go back to eyeing ClockWork -who’s suddenly a child again- warily; though they look less like they’re trying to restrain hostility and more simply cautious. Maddie sitting down slowly and stiffly, effectively pulling Jack to sit down as well, “explain”, her then glaring/squinting at the ghost, “why are you here”. Both of those were technically supposed to be questions but that didn’t sound even slightly like questions.
Danny seriously resists saying ‘I kinda just did’ both because that wouldn’t do him any good here and because she’s asking to explain the explanation. Jazz gives him an encouraging nudge as she relaxes and sits down herself; now sure her parents aren’t going to attempt to attack.
Danny swallows, “um, like I said. Ghostly parent. Guardian. Mentor. Teacher. Guide”, oh he is so never going to hear the end of this. Of him having a Guardian and being taught ghost things, and not telling his ghost crazed ectologist/hunter parents. Never. But his parents, or his mom at least, seemed to understand him not being super open with his ghostly shit. With him hiding it. So maybe. Just maybe. They’ll get him hiding this too. Maybe. Hopefully. Probably not. Big difference between ‘my body does weird ghost shit’ and ‘I hang out with literal ghosts’. Massive fucking difference. Huge. And ClockWork’s over here being their typical calm collected self. Jerk. Though that was probably a way of saying ‘this is fine and will be fine’; not gonna stop Danny from being a paranoid little bitch. Danny breaks the silence by reopening his mouth, looking to his mom, “um. They’re who I meant by that wise ‘friend’ I mentioned”.
Maddie squints at him a little before nodding and glancing back to the ghost. So this ghost -spirit or ‘neverborn’?- loved the living? That was... arguably good... okay. But she’s still not sure what’s even going on here. How can he ‘have a ghost parent’? That makes no sense. And pointing that out just effectively made Danny repeat himself, so obviously this didn’t cross his mind as ‘not normal’. She’s pretty damn certain a ghost wasn’t present when she gave birth to him, and carried him, and literally everything else. And he wasn’t born like this, born with a Core and ectoplasm. She would have noticed something like that. So what really is this ClockWork to him? Or how do they have the familial relationship Danny’s saying they do. Again Danny didn’t find this odd, so do ghosts just... get assigned a mentor ghost? That makes zero sense. Ghosts knew how to be ghosts from the get-go... right? But also, what the heck was some ghost -maybe ‘needed’ or not- teaching her son?
Jack tilts his head, watching the currently child-like ghost give Danny a little head pat. His son glancing up with the typical scowl he gave to the two of them for doing that or ruffling his hair, even looking a bit fond? And that wasn’t something that could really be faked. So close for sure. His boy was close with a ghost! What does he even do with this? Is it good? Bad? Kinda cool? If ghostie really was friendly -huh, friendly ghost, who would have thought? Danny apparently- then it was cool. The things he could learn! But how? “How are you related?”, Jack shakes his head, “wait no, they said created so no relatives at all”. Then squinting and becoming just a little giddy. Wait! They confirmed a theory! Or more so Dan’s theory. Blurting out, “you’re needed!”, pausing, right no assumptions anymore, “or are you?”.
ClockWork grins, “ghost of time. The time stream would quite effectively collapse without me”. A truly unfortunate truth. ClockWork lets them sit on that for a beat before adding, “of course I am an unfade so that hardly matters”.
Jack and Maddie blink, “an ’unfade’”, attempting to take this in stride.
“Indestructible. Immortal. I am an endless thing. I have always been and will always be”.
Jazz decides now would be a good point to interject, before her parents start building a questionnaire, “alright, I’m sure you didn’t show up to answer questions. So why are you here and could it have waited till after everyone had slept?”, Danny especially needed all the sleep he could muster.
ClockWork grins, “they asked to meet a good ghost, so I decided to let them. Though I can be more of a neutral when it comes to the universe or existence itself”. Ultimately, seeking to extend the existence of the universe and maintain the stability of time, were ‘good’ goals and jobs.
Lewis can’t help but chuckle, that was so painfully mundane but with complete chaos as a result. Which gets Maddie’s attention on him, “you are... very calm”. Maddie officially feels like Dan might have a better disposition for her job than she does.
Danny grumbles, “tell me about it”, because seriously, come on! Looking to ClockWork, “for the love of everything, tell me you had more reason than that?”.
Jazz butting in again, “no. No more questions. You all need to go to bed. And I need to go back to it”. Earning some neck rubbing from Danny. Maddie and Jack just gesture -with both hands- at ClockWork like that is reason enough for them not to. Jazz stands up, hands on her hips, “no. Bed. Now”.
ClockWork smirks and closes their eyes slightly, “I’ll make sure to tuck Daniel in then”. Making both parents immediately exclaim, “no! You’re a stranger to us! And a ghost!”. Which Danny glares at them over a little.
Jazz throws up her hands, “why do I try”, and attempts to smack ClockWork over the head, “you’re as bad as Danny”, blinking at her hand, which of course had just phased through ClockWork.
Danny snorts, “why did you think that would work? They see the future”.
Jazz points at him, “proof we need sleep”.
Jack lifts up a finger and opens his mouth, though closing his mouth at getting a harsh glare from his daughter. ClockWork answer his question anyway, no clue how the ghost knew what it was though, “the time stream flows trough my Core, to be without me would be rather similar to brewing coffee without the filter and picking your beans blindly”.
Lewis mutters, “the horror”, sarcastically. While ClockWork continues, “the universe would get nothing short of a mess and would likely throw out the end result with haste. And Madeline? I have in fact been watching over him since before you had been born yourself”, looking with an almost mean smirk to Jazz, “preventing your parents from speaking will not alter the fact that they did speak in another time”.
Jack is almost smiling over the new info and Maddie just looks incredibly confused. While Jazz sighs and rubs her temples, “at the very least Danny should sleep. If you’re a ‘parent’ then shouldn’t you be focused on his heath?”.
ClockWork smirks more, “and I am. After all, there are some timely issues. What better to empower timing mechanisms than-”, shifting to an elder, “-old man time, the being that empowers time itself”. Danny puts a hand over his mouth and chuckles; not even attempting to figure out what ClockWork means.
Lewis quirks an eyebrow, “you’re referring to the timer I’m guessing? I find it interesting that a ghost would be offering to help ghost hunters with their tech. Which is usually used for ghost hunting”. This gets literally everyone else to raise their eyebrows.
ClockWork shrugs very subtly, “they could hardly do me harm, and ghost hunting is far from the purpose here”, grinning and side-eyeing Danny, “put that tail to good use, people do tend to keep around that which is useful”.
Danny’s pretty sure he’s the only one who got that. ClockWork absolutely was enjoying his effectively full-time tail. Cheeky bastard. Rolling his eyes a little bit with a small smile at ClockWork poking his tail with theirs; letting his tail uncoil from the chair and effectively wind around and fiddle with ClockWork’s a little. Then scowling at Jazz for giggling at him.
Jack is struggling not to grin, only even trying not to due to this being a ghosts that deserves suspicion. Maddie furrows her eyebrows, “‘help with the timer’?”, then sounding very suspicious, “how?”, then glancing at Danny’s tail basically wrapped around the base of ClockWork’s, whose tail tip is patting his. The ghost seemed to imply It-they wanted him to keep the tail; not that there was another option. But why? Though come to think of it, she hadn’t seen them with legs at all, “is your tail constant?”.
Danny honestly feels quite pleased with himself and proud of his mom over her being kinda freindlyish. Danny deciding to be forthcoming to at least attempt to make up for never telling his folks about his Guardian; leaning forward, “yup”. ClockWork adding, “it is a common theme for Neverborn’s, yes”. Which Danny nods over. Nocturne, UnderGrowth, Vortex, the Observants, Remi, Silver; none of them had legs. Pandora and FrightKnight were two exceptions he knew of though.
ClockWork nods to themselves when Maddie hums acceptingly and thoughtfully, rightfully coming to the conclusion that they liked Daniel being similar to them; though she blames at least some of Daniel’s tolerance of his tail on them, which wasn't wholly wrong. “And Lewis’s guess is once again, correct. As is your guess that creating a stronger timer is simply beyond your capabilities”.
Maddie can’t help scowling at that while Jack pipes up, “I’m sure we could with enough resources”, managing to keep his tone down.
Jazz leans her head on the table and sighs. She’s staying awake at this point to keep an eye on her parents.
ClockWork chuckles faintly, “for what you seek to achieve, you would need-”, digging in their pocket, “-one of these”, and holds up the time medallion. ClockWork wastes no time in explaining away the twos confusion, “this is a time medallion. Only I can create them. They can allow the wearer exclusion from time or the manipulation of it. To travel to points in time or alter the flow of time, if settings are right. Only I can alter their settings. Though I can also grant another the ability to. If fused to a being they could even give a slight awareness of the future”, grinning almost meanly, “something that can entirely stop the flow of time around a being can certainly keep up with your creation”. ClockWork pockets the medallion while the three adults all gape slightly, ClockWork pulling out their own little timer device -that effectively looked like a silver time medallion with clock hands for adjustment nobs in the centre, all inside a dark gray circle- and holds it out to Jack; the more likely one take it. Unsurprised at Maddie instantly snatching it right out of Jack's hands, curious and mistrustful.
Maddie flips it over, noting that it was already completely compatible and based on the alignments was designed for waist placement; slightly to the right though. Glancing back at the ghost and noting their cloak clasp was a fair bit on the right, they were setting up the CyberSteps to copy them; and she’s gonna bet her and Jack can’t modify this. But no way in Hell were they sticking something that was a near unknown on their boy, especially if it was designed by a ghost; trying out Danny’s ghost-friendly approach or not. But if this was genuine and this ghost right, then they effectively gave Danny back functioning ‘legs’. She should probably thank them, giving a very very very awkward, “thank...you?”.
Danny blinks, goes slack-jawed, and leans back against his chair, mumbling, “my folks just thanked a ghost". Sure it was ClockWork but still. He’s made way more headway than he thought or his folks were trying really hard to chill the ghost hate. Sharing a surprised look with Jazz, also gives him a little wide-eyed encouraging smile.
ClockWork smirks and leans towards Danny’s ear, “I also have something of a job for you”.
Danny muttering while side-eyeing them, “uh, does it involve shooting you”, because seriously ClockWork. Thanks but, fuck.
“You’re welcome to try, Daniel”. Making Danny rolls his eyes, while ClockWork gives him another head pat before simply disappearing; leaving slightly awkward silence in their wake.
Jazz, surprisingly, is the one to break it. Pushing herself to stand up and asking in a way that sounds more like a command, “so can we go to bed now?”.
Lewis chuckles into his hand, “do you really think they will with that”, and points at the CW timer. The parents looking to it, Maddie biting her lip while Jack just looks excited; clearly tired though.
Jazz puts her hands on her hips and levels them with a glare, “that is a complete unknown to you. Do you seriously think you should be messing with that without sleeping?”, them inventing/working on sleep deprivation lead to either really weird inventions or a lot of destruction. And that was a gift (technically) from ClockWork, in two years she only knows of one thing ClockWork’s gifted Danny; a necklace with a stylised ‘CW’ in silver. Danny absolutely will be possessive and territorial -he’d honestly probably try snatching it from them if he wasn’t sleep-deprived himself- of it. So no way he’d sleep if they stayed up tinkering with it.
Jazz decides to take the initiative when her parents nod. Her pulling Lewis to stand up and pointing at his face, “you, make sure Danny sleeps. Then sleep yourself”. Danny throws a pouty look at her so she glares are him before making shooing motions at Lewis.
Lewis shakes his head with a chuckle and waves for Danny to follow, “I guess the sister hath spoken”, earning a round of weak laughs. Danny does actually float after him though, glancing over his shoulder at his folks and eyeballing the CW timer.
Lewis speaking up again at Danny’s door, “working legs, no revealing your legs, ghost bonding; guess your life’s glass is looking pretty half full”.
Danny pauses and blinks at him, before smirking weakly, “I’m pretty sure the entire bloody glass got ground into my fucking eyeballs when I fucking died”. Lewis doesn’t really have a response for that other than a chuckle, because yeah Danny’s luck was pretty bad.
Jazz nods curtly at the stairs before rounding on her parents, pointing at the CW timer, “no taking that apart, I don’t even want to know what might happen”, sighing, “and that’s a gift from ClockWork. I think it’s obvious Danny’s close with them, so think how hurt he would probably be if you wrecked it”. She decides she made the right call at both grimacing a little.
Maddie gets up, cradling the contraption cautiously, and nods, “right, thanks Jazz honey. I’m... going to put it in containment though”. Jack scurrying after her as she heads down to the lab. Jazz standing in the lab doorway, arms crossed, and making it very clear she will try to physically drag them to bed.
Maddie, unsurprisingly, doesn’t sleep very long; waking around nine. She spends about half an hour making coffee and sipping it at the table, getting a little surprised when Lewis comes down the stairs and pours himself a cup.
Lewis answers her question before she even asks it, “I’m used to working late shifts and morning shifts back to back. The occasional emergency call”. One needed to be bendable with their sleep schedule to be in the medical field. Another reason Danny was well suited. Sitting, “I take it you don’t sleep well on an active mind?”.
Maddie sighs and shakes her head, “no. Especially with a ghost being able to get into the house without any warnings or defences going off. Things put in place purely to prevent that”.
Lewis chuckles, yeah he could understand why she might have a few issues with that. “That ghost seemed more akin to a god. So I doubt defences really matter”.
Maddie sighs again, that in itself was an issue. She had managed to scan the ecto-signature ClockWork left behind, twenty-eight. Twenty-eight. Pariah had been a twenty-five. This ghost was the strongest they’d ever encountered, almost the strongest possible. And had some kind of positive relation with her son. “ClockWork scans at twenty-eight, so you’re not wrong”.
Lewis quirks an inquisitive eyebrow, “Danny might have mentioned the ecto-scale but I can’t say I know what each level means”. Twenty-eight was obviously incredibly strong though.
Maddie nods, “it doesn't mean much, but it tells us how a ghost compares to others. It goes up in increments. Basically, a two is as strong as a one and a half. A three is as strong as two twos. A four is as strong as two threes and a half. And so on. So the higher the numbers the bigger the gap. So a twenty-eight would be fourteen and a half times as strong as a twenty-seven”, sighing, “a thirty though doesn’t follow the algorithm, a thirty is twenty times as strong as a twenty-nine. I’m not sure why Danny changed it for that level, but he’s got a good sense about more tech or biological ghost things”. Which just makes her wonder why the Hell they never listened to him before on the things that didn’t line up with their theories. But then again, Danny’s theory on power levels had been proven in the field. They hadn’t believed him at first because the algorithm he made was frankly terrifying. Sure the fact that Danny’s scale accounted for things like general ectoplasm (one), ghost plants (two), and whisps (three); helped but still. Technus was a seven and he could be tricky to beat when he didn’t sabotage himself. (Trying to use ‘proper pronouns’ for ghosts, which Danny always seemed to preach, was... strange). And this ClockWork was effectively six-hundred-and-twenty-two-thousand times stronger. Course ectoplasmic power only meant so much, Technus was generally easy to defeat; very easy.
Maddie speaks back up at Lewis’s impressed whistle, “what really matters is the class of a ghost. Class takes into account powers, enhancements, and restrictions. One through six. A six could effectively end the world easily”, furrowing her eyebrows, “ClockWork’s a five, which seems strange”, that kind of power, time control and omniscience, seemed practically like ultimate power. What was holding them back? Or maybe they lacked powers other ghosts had?
Lewis chuckles, nods, and sips at his cup. That kind of power was pretty nuts, and man was he glad Eddie just dealt with regular ol’ humans. No gods, no alternate dimensions, no royalty, no symbiote hunters. Danny was in a whole nother league. But at least Danny’s enemies kinda respected him or straight up seemingly liked him. And he had powerful allies. Anne was right though, Eddie will be so severely out of his depth, Danny very much being a teen will help with that though.
Maddie speaks up again, breaking the slightly comfortable silence, “I wonder if Danny knows any other ghosts personally”, it would seem logical that he did. Wouldn’t make sense to just be friends, family?, with one powerful one. People don’t start out befriending the top dogs, they start at the bottom. And she’ll admit to being suspicious that Danny might have befriended some of the local ghosts. Had worried his ‘too friendly’ attitude about ghosts had extended to actually being friendly. That worry was apparently founded, but... it really was seeming like Danny was right which meant that this wasn’t exactly bad. Just... concerning. And Danny hiding his friend(s), family?, from her, from Jack, was honestly more upsetting at this point. Even if she understands his reasoning. She had hid her relationship with Jack from her parents for somewhat similar reasons after all.
Lewis pointedly looks around and covers his mouth with the cup, he’s not saying shit. Though there’s really no point in saying ‘no’.
Maddie glances at him a couple of times and squints, catching him clearly trying to restrain a small smile, “he does, doesn’t he”, that was definitely not a question.
Lewis makes eye contact and smirks in genuine, “well, at least one other has checked up on him to my knowledge. And that Skulker one has approached me about his legs; Danny did say he makes good pie too”. Sure, it was for ‘his pelt’ but he’d bet money that ghost was really fond of Danny.
The first thing that goes through Maddie’s head is that one is a known threat, a ‘villain’ ghost, why and how had Danny made ‘friends’ with It- him? The second thing is... wait he bakes? And it’s edible? But ghosts don’t eat, right?
Lewis keeps going, “Skulker also seems to like the idea of Danny having my job, though that might have encouraged him to teach Danny knife skills or something. And the other ghost, Johnny I’m pretty sure, threatened me because he thought I might be hurting him”, might as well hammer home that ghosts at least kinda cared about Danny. Would help with the whole ‘getting them to not hate ghosts or think they’re evil post-human manifestations’ thing.
Maddie blinks and stares at Lewis a bit, what? “That... doesn’t make sense”. The biker was another ‘villain’ ghost. Less ‘villain’ more ‘delinquent’, but tried to use her little girl so he was pure evil to Maddie. And didn’t Danny punch It-him? They’re not friends, that wouldn’t make sense. So why would he be attempting to protect Danny? And she still couldn’t picture that metal ghost baking anything. Unless... going a little wide-eyed, “teaching. Feeding. Protecting”, shaking her head a little and sounding almost awed, “they view him as one of them... but weak... and small”, blinking and muttering down at the table, “like a cat taking in a baby squirrel”. Or like Tarzan or a human raised by wolves. Her awe getting an edge of horror because just what were these ghosts teaching her baby boy?
Lewis decides against saying anything, because Danny got the shit kicked out of him by these ghosts. He can’t point that out without being seriously suspicious. And it would be pretty pointless.
Danny sticks his head in the kitchen at that very moment, likely having heard Maddie’s entire comment. Okay, Lewis is sure he did based off of looking like he’s trying to force his smile to not look completely and utterly nervous; the little ‘shut the fuck up, what were you thinking’ look he throws Lewis’s way really emphasises that. Maddie looking to him still wide-eyed probably doesn’t help the kids nerves.
Danny gives a little stiff wave, which he’s hoping is blamed on the restrictive braces, as he goes to start up (much stronger)coffee for himself. Part of him is glad she gets up to try and help after a beat -trying to pick up cups with finger braces was not easy okay?- but also, he can do it himself thank you very much. “I’m fine”.
Maddie pulls her hands back, holding them to her chest, “right right”, that ghostly pride thing. Instead awkwardly watching him fiddle with the machine. Danny almost wants to beg her to stop hovering.
Danny clutches his cup like it’ll give him life as he sits down, tail curling up and tip flicking in the air, “so... dad still sleeping?”.
Maddie nodding and giving an awkward, “yup”. As silence descends, only broken up by the occasional sipping sound from Danny.
Danny practically launches himself out of his seat when Tucker effectively kicks in the door, “dude, weekend time so you know I ain’t leaving your as... butt alone”, and waves innocently at Maddie; while Danny reacquaints himself with his chair.
Danny chuckles faintly, “no Sam?”, he knew Valerie was working this weekend.
Tucker quirks an eyebrow at him as he plants himself at the table, totally obvious to Mrs. Fenton’s tension, “I’m surprised you don’t know? Her mom dragged her off to a gala”. Danny pulls out his phone and cringes at the wall of ranting all caps in the chat.
Maddie sighs and shakes her head, using this a conversational life raft, “I’ll make her cookies”, why baking never came to life but cooking usually did, she’s not sure she’ll ever know. Well there was that one time with muffins, but that was intentional.
Danny goes wide-eyed and pokes Lewis with his tail, “you. You owe Tuck food. Bake shit”. Lewis raises disbelieving eyebrows at him so Danny explains, “well technically I owe him your baking. Tomato potato”.
Lewis chuckles with a head shake and gets up, “I guess I’ll see what there is to work with here”. Maddie getting up to show him were everything was; still feeling stiff and a little freaked.
Tucker grins, free food! “Sweet!”, turning to Danny, “so hurry up and get leggy again. Vampire Dad two is coming out, like, now”.
Danny rolls his eyes and rubs at his neck, “eh, that might happen sooner rather than later”, glancing at his moms back as she stiffens a little and pulls out a square pan rather jerkily, “CW showed up and lent a hand”.
Tucker’s eyebrows shoot up, he glances at Maddie quickly, “shit seriously?”. Danny nods and nods again when Tucker side-eyes his mom, clearly asking if she saw them. Tucker shakes his head, “they’re as nuts and reckless as you. If that even applies to them”. Danny can’t help chuckling at that ’cause it wasn't really either when you knew the outcome beforehand.
Lewis mutters, “yeah sure fine, I got this”, as he looks over ingredients while Maddie turns to face the boys.
“About that... how do you know them? And the... family thing?”.
Just as Danny’s opening his mouth to answer Jack barges in, looking drastically more awake than everyone else, “without me, Mads?”. Making her blush.
Tucker pats Danny on the shoulder supportively, that just gets Mrs. Fenton’s attention on him though, “you know don’t you?”.
Tucker shrugs with very intentional nonchalance, “I doubt there’s anything me and Sam don’t know about Danny-dude”.
Maddie nods, resisting sighing. She’s not exactly surprised. A little bothered? Yes. But not surprised. Those three were close, closer than she thought friends could be. She hadn’t noticed until Danny seemingly knew Sam’s bra size like it wasn’t odd for him to know that. And she’s sure she’s overheard that Sam pays for Tucker’s replacement glances; she’s not sure how they get broken so much. Shaking her head, not important right now, “well I guess I’m glad you’re close then”, looking to Danny, “so?”. While Jack sits down looking a little over-eager.
Danny gives Tucker a nearly pleading ‘help?’ look, so he gives him another pat, “all you man, your parents”, shrugging, “and it’s not like anyone other than you knows much about them. In fact-”, getting up, “-I think I’ll go help Lewis”. Danny whips Tucker’s ankle with his tail for that, nearly making the boy face-plant. Tucker mumbling sarcastically, “you'll regret that one day when I’m mayor”.
Danny whispers in ghosts with a smirk, “p͘͡ri͝n̡̛c̢͘e͜͝”, knowing Tucker knows exactly what he said; regardless of not knowing the language. Then clearing his throat and looking to his folks, “heh”, shaking his head, “uh, anyways. I, uh, meet them when they kinda savedallourlives”, chuckling awkwardly and shaking off the unpleasant memories, he is not getting into that with his folks, “But they, well, broke the law? in the way they helped, so that pretty much made me their responsibility. And they’re, uh, how I knew the impurity in Vlad’s ecto-acne. So kinda saved him too”.
Maddie cuts in before he can continue, “so this ‘ghost parent’ thing wasn’t really intentional or... willing?”. Making Jack frown.
Danny grimaces, “not really? ClockWork knew what would happen, explicitly. So willing and wanted there. They could have helped in a different way. So, uh, also technically intentional. And for me?”, shrugging, “I didn’t know Guardians were a thing so really couldn’t be intentional. I guess technically not willing either but-”, smiling sheepishly, “-who the Hell gets to pick their family?”, shrugging, “and I like them”.
Jack can’t help but chuckle at that. Danny-boy did have a point there. He’s fairly sure almost no one would willingly chose them as parents. And wow, he effectively had ghost family! How weird was that?! ‘Cause Danny’s family meant Jack’s family. Period. And any ghost who saved his boy -and apparently his entire family and Vladdie!- certainly couldn’t be evil and deserved some trust. Though he can’t help worrying that this ghost wanted to be Danny’s ‘guardian’ intentionally for bad reasons. He’s sure Mads is worried about that too. “But son, there’s something I don’t get? Why? Why would they want this? Want you? Heck! Why and how is ghost adoption even a thing?”.
Maddie nods at Jack before looking to Danny and frowning a little, “you’re human; even if slightly ghostly. The child of ghost hunters; even if you’re probably not going to be one yourself. And they’re, well, ridiculously strong; wouldn’t it make more sense to want a, how do I put this? strong kid?”, furrowing her brows and knowing Danny’s probably not going to take this well, “it’s not because of us being hunters is it? Because sweetie, I very well could see a ghost trying to get to us through you and Jazz”.
Tucker, next to Lewis, having just nodded that ‘yes, adding fudge is a good idea’, very heavily cringes. Even him and Sam knew better than to question ClockWork’s motives especially regarding their fondness for Danny. That was a good way to get a pissed off Danny. Or in Tucker’s case, shot in the face -or the crotch, that one notable time- with an ecto-beam. He does not recommend.
Danny, surprising no one, scowls and actually snaps with a bit of a snarl and power behind it, “no”, making everyone jerk a little. Maddie and Jack going a little wide-eyed, and Tucker cringing more. While Danny continues, tail actively lashing at the air aggressively and occasionally constricting around the chair legs hard enough to make creaking sounds, “you have nothing to do with it. Nothing. So don’t go there”, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose and grumbling angrily in ghost, “sh̶͡ơ̶u̸̢͡l̴d̡͝ h҉͞av͢͠e ̷f̨įgu̢r̷͜͝ęd.̴͜ ̴̶O͠f̶͢ ̸͢fuc͘k̨̧i͞n̷̛͢g̸̕͠ c͏o̸u͢r҉se͞.̧̡ ̨G̶̢hos̷t̨s̸͞ ͟͡s̕t͢ill ̢̢c͘͟͝a̢͘n’̷͡t ͘͟b͡e ̛tru̷̧̧st̴ed̶̕ ̢͝hų̧h̴.̨ ̴F̕͜u͜҉c͝ķ͟i͡n̷̕g̴ ͘͞͞A͟͠n͝c̕͝i̸̵e҉͞n̨͜҉t͘s̕”.
ClockWork picks that very moment to appear out of thin air, smacking Danny (somewhat gently)on the head with their staff, “they mean nothing by it. One can hardly expect the uninformed to understand. So explain”, and promptly disappears... again; leaving everyone (but Danny) gaping.
Danny makes some kind of whiney noise, puts both his hands over his head, and turns to exaggeratedly pout at the air where ClockWork had been.
Tucker wheezes and slowly crumples to the floor, “you’ve been told! Ha!”.
Danny turns to scowl at him, hands still on his head, “shut it, Tuck”. Dropping his hands and looking to his still gaping parents, “so... that just happened”.
Lewis chuckles faintly at that, “kid, that was worse than the time a friend of mine literally got shot, just took a sip of some fruity drink and asked the guy how the weather was”.
“Well if there was a tornado, that would be logical”.
Lewis actually turns around and points the batter spoon at him, “no. No it was not. Now stop being a little shit and talk to your parents before they blow a gasket”.
Danny rubs his neck awkwardly and looks to his folks, “um... sorry for going a bit... ballistic there. But, uh, I don’t take well to that. So just don't, okay? Their intentions are good, let’s just leave it at that”.
Jack and Maddie make a few unusual faces before nodding a bit. Jack clearing his throat, “alright, son. Does... that happen a lot?”, and nocks on his head for emphasis.
Tucker lays on the ground laughing, making Danny roll his eyes but losing a fair bit of tension. Danny grumbling petulantly, “only when I’m being stupid...”, smirking slightly, “or trying to use them for a prank”.
Lewis smirks himself and speaks while spreading batter, “so all the time?”. Danny turns his head and gives the back of Lewis’s head an overacted scowl. Lewis only smirks more over that.
Maddie clears her throat, recapturing Danny’s attention. Danny chuckles awkwardly, “right, explaining”, furrowing his eyebrows and sounding sheepish, “what were the questions again?”.
Jack chuckles a little at that while Maddie smiles and answers, “just why would a ghost adopt, adopt you specifically. Would want to”.
Danny nods, “right. I guess that might be confusing”, seeing as they didn’t know he was a ghost. And huh, the whole concept of Guardians was probably foreign to them. Probably should have realised that sooner.
Lewis snorts, “‘might’?”.
Danny turns to him, “you’re Mr. Snark today, huh?”.
Lewis shrugs, “eh, friends didn’t react to the fact that I’m making brownies”, turning and pointing at Danny, “that’s concerning”, before turning back around to slide the pan into the oven.
Danny blinks, right Vee was chocolate crazy. Really chocolate crazy. “Fair”, Far be it for him to harp on someone for being paranoid and worried over someone’s safety. Then smirking a little, “though if they’re hungry they can just get a bowl of Symbi-oats”, he can read a tired sigh/groan in Lewis’s body language.
“They’re not huge fans of cereal. They eat a lot of Chinese though”.
Danny snorts, “everyone already knows they love rawmen, Lewis”, successfully getting the guy to choke.
Danny promptly looks back to his folks and rubs his neck, “it would be easier to just, well, explain Guardianship in general?”, continuing when they both nod acceptingly, “cool, um okay. Well, so like, when ghosts form they form all their ectoplasm and Core yeah? But, like, there are adult ghosts and child ghosts. Dead ghosts always start out as child ghosts whether they died a child or not. Ditto for born ghosts”, shrugging awkwardly, “created’s are a toss-up”, shaking his head, “anyway. Child ghosts have... immature I guess? Cores. They’re weaker, less powers, less stable, more unruly and reckless; lots of things. Usually kinda sucky at being a ghost and look more like when they were alive. Adult ghosts are just instinctively or naturally a bit protective or teachery towards child ghosts”, shrugging, “kinda like humans and babies really“.
Jack and Maddie blink, Maddie opens and closes her mouth a few times so Danny pauses to let her think. Her eventually speaking up, “so ghosts.... collectively care for younger ones”, and blinks in shock a bit more because that is so far out of alignment with what they thought of ghosts.
Danny wiggles his hand in the air, “ehhhhhh, I wouldn’t go that far. Child ghosts are the most likely to get, well, murdered”.
“Oh”.
Danny nods, “yeah”, clearing his throat, “most child ghosts will get taken in or under the wing of or whatever; by an adult they impress or that likes them or is just similar to them or maybe related in life”, shrugging, “eh, it varies”.
Jack butts in at that, “what one’s ClockWork?”.
Danny shrugs and rubs his neck, “the, uh, situation with us is a little, different”, straightening up, “they literally broke time and temporal laws for me. That’s kinda super serious. Though they did that because they like me and I impressed them. Some other things”.
Maddie and Jack decide against pressing him, since he didn’t exactly react well to Maddie questioning ClockWork’s motives before. Instead Maddie asks, “okay, but generally, why would a ghost do this? It just- I guess it just doesn’t make sense to us, sweetie”.
Danny bites back muttering about how that’s because of their bigoted opinions on ghosts, thinking they’re unfeeling uncaring evil chaos-loving monsters. Though the chaos-loving part was true. Monster was debatable. “Because they want an apprentice, or heir, or are lonely, or just genuinely care. Though I guess it does benefit the adult ghost some”, shrugging, “makes both adult and child stronger. If the child accomplishes lots, it makes them look good, y’ know like it does with human parents”.
Maddie nods, “for power I can understand”, making Danny roll his eyes a little. Which really just confirms that he still thought they were overly anti-ghost.
“Yeah well, it’s not much so it would be stupid to become someone’s Guardian purely for power. Stupid”.
Jack scratches his head, ignoring the banging of Lewis and Tucker cleaning up, “couldn't they just drop the... child ghost?”.
Maddie nods at him before looking back to Danny, “like with human adoption?”.
Danny shakes his head immediately, “nope. A bond thing kinda forms that lasts as long as they both exist; whether the child ‘grows up’ or not”.
Both parents blink, Jack mouthing ‘wow’. Maddie bites her lip, “so you are... bound to ClockWork?”, she’s not sure what to do with this information.
Danny gives an awkward nod, he gets that there’s really no way for that not to bother them, “yeah”, tapping his chest brace over his Core, “my Core recognises them as Guardian and reacts, um, accordingly”.
Jack and Maddie share a Look, and Lewis glances over pointedly curious. Maddie’s the one to speak though, “and what’s ‘accordingly’?”.
Tucker snickers and speaks almost meanly, leaning over at Danny, “like a little kid”, snickering more, “Sam has a few embarrassing photos”.
Lewis looks to him, “I’m curious”.
Danny turns to point at him, “no, bad doctor”, and subtly flicks snow from his tail at the guy’s legs.
Lewis rolls his eyes, “can’t be any worse than Vee covered in marshmallows eating chicken with a coffee mug on their head. Or literally any photo of a heavily drunk Eddie; the most recent featuring him trying to eat a tv and covered in party hats”. Tucker wheezes, Danny and Jack joining in after a beat.
Jack glances at the oven and back to Maddie, “cookies?”. Making her sigh and nod. Lewis shrugging and literally undoes all his cleaning to get ingredients and supplies.
Jack grins at the cookie sheets before looking back to Danny, “so you act like a child around ClockWork, eh?”. Danny just blushes and looks around anywhere but his dad at that; which just makes him laugh heartily.
Jack grins widely to himself, he’d kinda like to see that. Danny-boy had been a darn cute, goofy, and dramatic kid. That did explain all the banging his head on the table dramatics yesterday, or this morning technically. And the tail coiling was kinda like a kid grabbing at their parents' hands. Well shit, that’s adorable and makes him grin like an idiot a little. Little Danny did used to get mesmerised by Jack’s hands, mostly ‘cause of size difference though! And there was that pouting act he did! Maybe more genuine childish pout? Less mischievous drama? Jack’s attention getting grabbed by Lewis pulling out the brownies, “wait, is there fudge in those!”, and practically going to pounce on them.
Maddie shoos Jack off, “wait a little, dear. How about you and Danny wait in the living room till the cookies are at least in the oven?”. Jack groans but nods. Maddie speaking to Danny before Jack has a chance to drag him off, “one thing I still don’t get though? Core and everything else or not, you’re still human”.
Danny shrugs, “it’s like you said before I came in -yes I heard that- I’m ghost enough to ghosts. ‘One of them’”. Maddie nods acceptingly, though she doubts someone who would defy time would care about something like species.
Jack immediately drags Danny off to the living room as soon as his wife looks satisfied, because he knows she won’t put in the cookies until he leaves. Gotta love a tricky lady. Though a third the joy in baked cookies was how damn good she looked in her frilly apron.
Danny elects to just float around lazily a bit, it was still kinda surreal floating around his parents. His dad chuckling, “it’s like you were born with It”.
Danny stilling and shrugging, “well, uh, thinking of it, ClockWork might have something to do with that. All they’ve got is tail”.
Jack chuckles and nods a little, made sense. What with the bond influence thing. Which, yeah, still not that cool with but Danny seem cool with it; so he’s kinda cool with it too. ClockWork did seem nice! For a ghost at least. Mads would take a bit more, but Danny-boy’s not a little kid so surely he understands! Though thinking of her and that, this whole ClockWork situation wasn’t all she was fretting over... “so Danny?”.
Danny pauses in the air, “why do I feel like this is more heavy stuff?”.
Jack gives an apologetic shrug, “sorry?”, Danny just waves him off so he asks away, “so Maddie had been wondering to me about more than ClockWork”.
Danny makes a point to not seem nervous, “oh?”.
Jack nods, “yeah. She was thinking that maybe you had an Obsession. You know, like a ghostly one. She wasn't sure ‘bout asking, if you’d be cool with that. Since we’ve always talked about those being unpleasant”, chuckling and rubbing his neck, “not that there’s anything wrong with that!”, moving to sit down on the couch, “though they don’t exactly seem positive. But! I’m sure you could make things work for you! Right?”, rubbing his neck again, “Dan thinks they’re like a hobby! So maybe you like it- or would like it! If you had or have one that is”, giving another weak chuckle, “though we’ve always thought of them as controlling and inclined towards bad behaviours. Violent”, waving his hands pacifyingly, “not that you’re ever violent or bad!”, muttering to the side, “other than ditching class and shirking chores anyway”, looking back to Danny, “so if you do or did, then it totally can’t be violent, so we must be at least somewhat wrong about that! We’re definitely learning a lot from you”, waving his hands again, “not that that’s why we ask or want to know!”.
Danny interrupts, floating to sit down himself. It was weird when his dad was the one needing comforting, he didn’t like it, “dad, you’re rambling, I know”, shrugging, “sure you’re curious for curiosities sake, and it being ghost-related of course. But I know it’s more because you want to know me, that I'm your son. Family”. Jack just nods and rubs his neck awkwardly, so Danny continues after adjusting a little; trying to not be weird about this, and running his hands over part of his tail, “as for the, er, Obsession, thing-”.
Jack pats him on the back gently and cuts in, “you don’t have to tell me, tell us, if you’d rather not”. He hopes his boy doesn’t take the out though, he’s curious! And they didn’t fully understand Obsessions beyond them being called ‘Obsession’ for a reason, was related to their death, and largely what kept them around; blocked them from moving on. What ghosts Obsessed about was important them, so if Danny had one then it’s got to be important to him! And he definitely wants to know the things important to his boy! But Danny was clearly a bit defensive of all these things he’s been hiding, the ghostly things and definitely ClockWork; boy could be scary if he wanted to be! And also the Core, he has a feeling Danny didn’t just recently find out about that. And Obsessions could, and have been, used to a hunters' advantage. To trap or discourage or harm. he’s never even heard of a ghost being open about their Obsession! Even if it was obvious! Like with that Box Ghost. And ClockWork’s was probably time-related; or just was time as a whole! So it would totally make sense for him to what to hide his, if he has one.
Danny blinks, well honesty has worked for him with all this so far. But he never would have willing outed his Core to them. Parents or not, they were still ghost hunters. And even if they weren't, well Lewis only knew because he saw It. And Lewis had caught him off guard when he told him about his Obsession and was being kinda like him. Asking what he had to for someone else’s health and safety. Oh, and the drugs; that was definitely a factor. Now his folks? The only reason they had was curiosity and maybe some misplaced worry/fear over the idea of him having one. And his Obsession was absolutely one that could be taken advantage of. Lewis and his ‘it would be helpful’ shit made that painfully obvious. And him giving him an Obsessive Crisis, while an accident, had still been partly caused by Lewis knowing. So no, not happening. And his dad would just ask questions on top of questions, likely becoming completely oblivious to sensitivity. That was kinda his dad’s thing. And his mom, well she would wonder how he satisfied it; and that would lead to the big Phantom secret.
Danny rubs his neck, glancing at his tail swishing around and vibrating a bit, “I mean? Don’t worry about it?”.
Jack nods a little, that was as good as a ‘yes’. To both an Obsession and to not wanting to talk about it. He has no idea if this is cool or not. He should probably confirm though? No assuming. “So... yes?”, and making a point to give him a sheepish look over the tail giving a little snapping thrash; he had noticed Danny’s tail seemed to give away his emotions a little. Which actually did support the possibility that ghosts were actually more emotionally sensitive.
Danny looks around awkwardly and nods a little, “um, yeah. Do you, like, need to know the, er, ‘what’ though?”, and staring at his dad a bit challengingly. As if daring him to make up some bullshit reason. If his dad, the much more curious and knowledge-hungry one, can let this go then he guesses he can trust them a bit more. Can much more genuinely believe they care more about family, about him, than ghost hunting. He already knew they loved him more than they hated ghosts, them accepting his ghostly crap was proof enough of that. And they hadn’t, like, banned him from seeing ClockWork. Not that that would be possible.
Jack’s pretty sure some might find his sons staring a bit ‘creepy’ but he’s seen it a few times, usually aimed at his friends though... and Vladdie. Who, come to think of it, was pretty good at the unnerving stare himself! As for his boy's question? He definitely wants to know! but no way he needed to. Mads would probably worry it would make him misbehave or something, but Danny-boy said not to worry and he’s gonna trust his boy! “Naw. If you don’t want to then you don’t want to. I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with that!”, chuckling and smiling, Danny exhaling and smiling back after a bit. While Jack continues, “so long as it’s not making you sick or unhappy, anyway. And I’d be totally down with helping you with it! or maybe you need help figuring something out with it! Or even just wanna talk about it! I’m sure your mom would be cool with that too!”.
Danny cringes a little, “uh, sorry but no. I’d really rather not. It’s, uh, personal. Private I guess”, shrugging a little stiffly, “kinda like how I, uh, don’t want my Core being poked at”, clearing his throat, “but it’s fine. I’m fine. I keep it satisfied and in check. And it’s not something bad or anything”, shrugging and tacking on, “most generally aren’t”, partly to get away from his Obsession specifically.
Jack blinks and mutters to himself, “so Dan was right...”, making Danny cringe again as Jack shakes his head and speaks up again but at Danny, “good then. Well my offer still stands, always will!”.
Danny nods, “um, thanks”, and gives his tail a little, hopefully subtle, pat to encourage It to chill out. He’s gonna have to ask ClockWork for tail tips.
Meanwhile in the kitchen, Tucker nudges Maddie, “when it comes to CW, take Danny’s warning and just don’t question their motives towards him. You know better now so he’ll be less... nice next time”.
Maddie blinks, stilling her mixing, “should I be worried?”.
(Lewis is firmly staying out of this)
Tucker chuckles and rolls his eyes, “nope, it’s a bond thing”, shaking his head, “and ClockWork saved all of us, so questioning their motive is like questioning whether all of us deserve to live to him”.
Maddie whispers, “oh”, okay that was pretty serious. She knows how protective Danny can be, especially of friends and family, so Danny’s extreme reaction made much more sense now.
Tucker nods, washing out a bowl while Lewis spoons the cookies. Maddie sits against the table as Tucker continues, “yup. And ClockWork is just as defensive of Danny”, snickering, “did you know the government of the Zone put out a hit on him once”.
Maddie chokes, whisper yelling, “what???”. Lewis just steps to the side slightly, Danny’s friends are as addicted to chaos as Danny is; he’d like to not be in the splash zone currently, the peanut gallery’s pretty appealing though.
Tucker nods, “yup. ClockWork pretty much told them to get lost. And nobody says no to ClockWork”, tilting his head, “except Danny”.
Maddie shakes her head in utter disbelief, “they're that respected or powerful?”.
Tucker shakes his head and purses his lips a little, nodding at Lewis, “it’s not just simple little humans that look at them and think ‘god’, ClockWork’s the stuff of myths and legends to the spookies”, adding purely to cover his own ass, “according to Danny anyway”.
Maddie nods, that was a bit out there. Ghosts had their own myths? That also meant culture. Were ghosts actually... highly complex and sophisticated? shaking her head a little, she would have brushed this off days ago, and puts the cookies in the oven. Frowning slightly at overhearing Jack, was he asking Danny about Obsessions? She advised him against that! Apparently, Tucker thought the same. Him sounding slightly worried, “oh, uh, wonder if I should jump in? Obsession’s kinda touchy”.
Maddie blinks, looking to Tucker, wait what? “So he... he has that”.
Tucker makes a cringe showing all his teeth and even scrunching up his neck, “I’m guessing you didn’t know that”. Making Maddie sigh.
Lewis shakes his head and chuckles, again amazed Danny has held on to any of his secrets when none of them could even keep track of what they were lying about and what they weren’t; combined with talking about shit out loud.
Maddie checks the cookies, “well I’m glad you’re close and protective of each other. Though I wish we had been told about all of this”. Tucker elects not to respond to that.
A bit later Jack and Danny turn their heads at Maddie calling that the cookies are ready. Jack promptly jumping up and dashing to the doorway; eager for brownie and cookie alike. Looking back to Danny from the entryway, “you coming?”.
Danny smiles, “yeah. Yeah I am dad”, and flicking his tail before floating over.
Tucker effectively shovels food in his mouth, looks excited and excitedly smacks Lewis arms, “fugh mun”. Then finger-gunning at Danny, “weh, I shoe gwe giong”. Making Danny laugh and finger-gun back, “you just wanted me for my food. What? Do I only have half enough physical appeal for you?”.
“Yo oh ur zezz”. Danny just wheezes at Tucker’s wink.
Lewis walks up behind him, another coffee in hand, “did he just call you sexy?”.
Danny rolls his eyes and takes the second cup from him, “Lewis, doc man, Tucker thinks everyone’s sexy. All the time. Dead. Alive. Furry. Don't matter. Everybody’s sexy af”.
Lewis quirks an eyebrow, “furry?”.
“His sona’s an otter”.
“Well alright then, all the power to him”, and lifts his cup in a little salute.
Danny scowls slightly and points at him, “no matter how chill you are, I will always remember breaking your mind via duplication”. Lewis shakes his head with a little smile.
Jack walks up and ruffles his hair, “so Danny-boy? What should we call the ClockWork fellow? ‘Cause no offence, but ‘parent’ is taken”.
Danny chuckles slightly, “uh, dad? Guardian is the actual proper term”.
Lewis points up at him, seeing as he was floating slightly above their heads, “but ‘guardian’ is synonymous with ‘parent’ for us human beings”.
Jack chuckles, “so something else for the ghost guardian of our kid's ghostliness”. Making Danny tilt his head, “uh, I’m not even sure there is a word for that. But maybe... godparent? Sure you didn’t choose them, but?”.
Lewis snorts, “of course that’s the term you’d go with for a technical god who’s also technically a parent”.
Jack laughs, “true!”, patting Danny, “and they -like Vladdie!- aren’t actually related to you! so it would make sense!”.
Danny rubs his neck and floats slightly lower down, “uh”, and looking around awkwardly.
Lewis raises his eyebrows, a bit genuinely surprised because how???? “Oh really?”.
This gets Maddie over, “did I hear that right? Are you saying you are related? To a ghost that was never alive?”.
Danny gives an awkward shrug, “bond thing. I’ve got a little bit of them. They've got a little bit of me”.
Maddie and Jack exchange a major Look over that before looking back at him. Jack grins wide and smacking a fist into his hand, “well that settles it, that ghosts a Fenton”, tilting his head, “which is not something I thought I’d ever say”.
Danny’s grin is practically beaming, “well I’m happy to hear it”.
Maddie just grins and passes around the cookies.
It doesn’t take long before the parents' minds are firmly back on the ‘make Danny legs goddamnit’ train. Maddie eyeballs his swishing tail as Lewis has him doing (unnecessary)laps and what can really only be described as tricks. Maddie walks over, following her son with he eyes; it was almost weird how normal him floating around felt now, “so, up for installing the clock timer?”.
Danny pauses and shrugs, still a little too awkward about this to just float upside down and chat or something, “I mean? Sure?”. All three of them watching Jack practically launch himself at the lab door.
Maddie and Lewis watching Danny’s eyes widen a little, before he zips towards the door; absolutely beating Jack down.
The three adults getting down to the sight of Danny flipping over and inspecting the little device; Maddie’s not even going to bother wondering how he got that out of containment.
Danny absolutely knows there were little sparkles of green flecks in his eyes as he checks the trinket over, running over the curves and edges. Eventually lifting up his head and pursing his entire face as he hits a tiny trigger and the devices shoots out confetti everywhere.
Jack almost immediately begins laughing, “oh wow! They’re a jokester!”. Like Danny!
Maddie walks up and shakes her head at the mess, “well that was rather funny though messy”.
Danny chuckles, “well if you had tried to install this before I accidentally set off the little prank then the confetti would have probably fried things. So joke, but also test slash failsafe”.
Jack tilts his head, “but they see the future right? They already know our actions before we take them”.
Danny shakes his head, “no. They just see all the possible futures. Sure they can tell what’s most likely but that doesn’t mean much”, smirking, “and even they say I’m notorious for taking the less likely paths. They, uh, actually make bets on that”.
Lewis blinks, “you mean people bet against the guy that sees all the future?”, shaking his head, “how stupid do you have to be”.
Danny shrugs, “more like egotistical, they usually bet against other future seers, ClockWork’s got a better view than them though. So...”. Lewis shakes his head more.
Jack runs over snatching up the fully repaired CyberSteps, while Maddie holds her hand out to Danny. Danny glances from the (apparently dubbed)clock timer to Maddie, “okay. Just... careful”.
Maddie nods and takes it from him gingerly, “we will be, don’t worry”. Lewis walks over to look over her shoulder at the device before she takes it over to one of the tables to examine; leaving Lewis standing next to Danny.
Lewis watches the parents for a bit before looking to Danny, who of course is practically staring at them. Lewis knows they’re far enough away from the hunter couple to go unheard; even with sound travelling a lot down here. “So obviously I know ClockWork is immortal, but I remember you implying you were practically immortal yourself. Neigh indestructible, I believe”.
Danny glances to the guy, giving him ‘seriously?’ eyebrows, before looking back to his parents. Speaking quietly, “geez doc”, shaking his head a little, “ghosts are super hard to destroy in general. Halfas are just even harder”.
Lewis nods, “so Vlad too then".
Danny snorts, "he's weaker than me”.
“Yeah I think that’s obvious”, Danny was obviously stupid strong. This gets Danny to curl up a bit and laugh. While Lewis continues, “speaking of that one, just how dangerous is he?”, considering he might just have pissed him off. Lewis could do without more ghostly drop-ins.
Danny digs out his phone from his brace and flips through his photos while speaking, “he’s a nine. Lots of reasons for the lower level. Made by weaker and less ecto; contaminated ecto too. My age is a factor too and being exposed to ecto for, like, my whole life”. Glancing at him, “his real danger is he’s stupid smart and has enough cash to go nuts with”, chuckling, “like the cloning thing. That’s one way to get a kid at fourteen though”.
Lewis raises his eyebrows at that, again this kid’s life was ridiculous, “not sure that counts as ‘kid’”.
Danny smirks, “Vlad fucked up. We’re not identical, just closely genetically related”, chuckling, “she’s a little three-foot-tall twelve-year-old travelling nomad. In London right now I think”, tilts his head and shrugs.
Lewis shakes his head with a sigh, “congrats, just like Eddie you have a kid without getting anyone pregnant”., shrugging, “though Eddie’s is technically in the works”.
Danny laughs, “least Elle’s not natural”, holding his phone out to the guy, “here’s a pic of her kicking Vlad in the face”.
Lewis leans over, huh, someone would have to be blind to not notice the family resemblance. White hair, green eyes, black and white jumpsuit, DP symbol, stupid cheeky grin; a Phantom through and through. The other guy though, looks like a knockoff bramstrocker; the vampire jokes officially make sense. “Well alright, cute kid; I can practically smell trouble maker on her”, tapping his nail on the screen, “why’s Vlad look so different though?”.
Danny shrugs, “adult thing or something. Spookies change their appearance sometimes”.
Jack actually comments on that, “we’re honestly not sure at this point if they do that for aesthetic or it just happens because they got stronger!”. Maddie coming over as well, clock timer in hand. Danny’s more than a little pleased that it doesn’t look like they took it apart at all. Good.
Maddie holds it up, “I think I’m willing to trust this and it’s definitely compatible”, looking to Danny, “it’ll only work around the waist though and won’t function as a conductor”.
Jack nods and gestures with his hands a little wildly, “so we’ll just rip out the timer stuff from our conductor! And leave the conductor where it is!”, nodding curtly with a grin before pausing, “if that’s cool with you, of course”.
Danny smiles, “that’s fine, apparently I’m flexible enough to reach”, stretching to make a point, “even with the braces”.
Lewis grumbles, “just don’t break them”. Danny has cost the hospital a lot of money at this point. Sure medicine wise and room wise he saved them money, but all the braces, having to recast his arm, the extremely expensive wheelchair that he can’t believe Mrs. Levi actually signed off on (sure all he had to do was show the insanely high and unusual injures Amity Parker’s tended to get -especially minors- and she gave her approval immediately), the patient file bug Tucker made that the tech guy said he’d have nightmares over, and the fact that they got investigated by a very shady section of the government (that not-rain stuff almost forced the entire hospital into quarantine).
Jack beams and rushes off to the CyberSteps, dragging Maddie along with. Danny’s pretty sure the legs look more defined, more finished, than when he last saw them; or this was just a finished version since basically everything but the timer conductor was likely as perfect as it could be.
Danny makes damn sure his folks are preoccupied with the legs before looking back to Lewis, snatching his phone away since the guy started flipping through his photos, “seriously doc? Rude”.
Lewis just shrugs, “you’re the one who gave me your phone. Besides, you’re interesting and I’m curious. Nice castle. Doesn’t seem your style though”.
Danny huffs and rolls his eyes, “excuse me for thinking you, a doctor married to a lawyer, had some manners”, crossing his arms and muttering down at them, “sure I would’ve done the same but still”, looking back to Lewis, “and I didn't design that, Pariah did. I’ll change it when I take the throne”, shrugging, “it’s an automatic thing. Lairs are weird like that. Ecto-construct and all that”.
Lewis nods, yeah lairs bent to the need, personality, and somewhat the will of its ghost; if he’s remembering that correctly. Smirking a little, “let me guess, it’ll reholposter itself black n’ white?”.
Danny smirks right back, “what can I say? I know my colours and I wear them proud. The white of life and the black of death”.
Lewis shakes his head and leans against the wall, “speaking of castles and thrones, still can’t say I understand how a crown and ring could make someone able to absorb and feed an entire dimension. And if you’re the sorta will of Zone then could you modify it like a lair? And what about the Zone needing a king eventually? Is that a sooner or later kind of thing?”, tilting his head, “and with that, if you got destroyed would the universe eventually just die?”.
Danny gives him a truly pained look, “you wrote this shit down, didn't you”, scowling at the doctor's small nod. Danny side-eyes his parents to make sure they’re still absorbed in their work, before answering, “alright, it works like this: the ring has a negative glow so it can pass as a regular ring, because it -unlike other ecto things- strictly absorbs ectoplasm instead of shedding ectoplasm. While the crown is the opposite, it only sheds and doesn’t absorb; hence why it practically blazes off ectoplasm. The ring absorbs the Zone’s ectoplasm, the Crown sheds off the wears ectoplasm plus whatever they absorbed in from the Zone. Kinda like the wearers a heart and the ring and crown are valves”.
Lewis smirks approvingly, “that’s a very doctorly comparison of you”.
Danny snorts, “it works and you’re a doctor. Anyway. Yeah having that much energy following through a little tiny body’s a lot but-”, shrugging, “-like I’ve said, I’m used to dealing with things that are a lot. And my consciousness, sorta, would be carried though all that ecto. So I’d pretty much have an awareness of the whole Zone and every ghost. Which yes, means I could modify it like a lair. Not quite the same though. The Zone would be part of me yeah, part of my ectoplasm and what my folks seemed to have called my ecto-circulatory system; but the Zone wouldn’t be my lair, just an extension of my being. And I can’t just modify my body willy nilly”, tilting his head, “well it’s base state anyway”. Danny forms an eye on his hair to wink at the guy just for emphasis.
Lewis quirks an eyebrow, at least he was pretty immune to body horror shit, “so you’re effectively a battery, heart, and food for the Zone, but also are -will be- literally the Zone. You’re gonna be a dimension”.
Danny actually laughs a little into his hand at that, giving Lewis a little shoulder pat with his tail, “that’s a great way to put it!”, shaking his head with a smile, “yeah I’ve got a crazy future existence. And for that one question, it’s a long time in the future. The Zone’s probably good to run off the stockpile of Pariah for a few hundred more years. Well, unless something happens anyway”. Which, with his luck, was probable. Heck, he’s pretty sure Sam and Tucker have a bet going on whether or not it’ll happen before or after they graduate, before or after his parents eventually... pass away, or before or after they do. Shaking his head and firmly pushing away thoughts of anyone dying, “and no man, currently my destruction won’t end the universe. The Zone will latch on to someone else... eventually. Now if I was king, that would be an issue since the Zone would decay right”, chuckling, “though in that case the throne would just be passed down to Elle”.
Lewis blinks, “oh, so it’s tied to your lineage? Instead of exclusive to you”.
“Yup, the typical royalty shtick”, tapping his chin, “though I think Sam and Tuck are classed as my brethren so they might kinda have a level of claim too. Dora, FrostBite, and Pandora are sorta family too. But they’re all complicated. And course, if I married then whoever would have their own claim”, and shrugs, “I wouldn’t put it past Vlad to try and wiggle his way in too”.
Lewis sighs, “nothing is ever simple with you is it? And you have more ghost family? Really?”.
Danny shrugs awkwardly at that, “kinda? It’s weird man and not to the level of Clocky. Not even close”, grinning a little, “Dora sees me as the good protective older brother she never got to have. Pandora sees me as like a nephew or sorta godchild, ever since I got her box back. FrostBite’s kinda a mentor in all things icy, kinda worships me as some kind of chosen one, and they’re my doctor too sometimes”.
Lewis blinks at that, “wait, you have a specialised doctor? Then why the Hell don’t you use them”.
Danny rolls his eyes, “of course that’s the part you care about mr. Doctor man. I can handle my own shit and I do go to him for serious shit I can’t just handle myself”. Making Lewis sigh and shake his head, completely unimpressed. The boy had access to medical care and just... didn’t use it. Thinking of the whole setting Danny’s arm after he literally crashed though the car. Or at least he didn’t take advantage of medical care unless it was literally within arms reach.
Maddie picks that moment to bolt over with a grin on her face, grabbing at Danny’s hand; Jack in the background looks to be throwing his fist up in a cheer.
Danny rolls his eyes with a smile and lets her drag him off; Lewis studiously following after. Lewis seriously hoping this time doesn’t result in yet another negative reaction.
Danny looks over the CyberSteps, floating around them quickly. Putting his hands on the waist and peering down, tapping the off-centre clock timer with his tail tip, “looks good”. The very tip coiling around one of the clock hands a little, he likes it; it kinda felt like ClockWork. Pointedly ignoring Lewis’s slight chuckle. Jerk.
Maddie and Jack both watch tensely but ridiculously excited all the while, as Danny grips the waist and slips his tail in, hopefully having to test out the ‘legs’ for the last time.
Danny glances over his shoulder brace as he activates the neuroreceptor strip, watching it all snap on over the back brace; which Lewis is probably still unimpressed about. Then tilting his head, the draining felt practically the same as before; and it didn’t seem to be making his ecto freak. So that’s a check on the conductor. Looking down at the legs and quirking an eyebrow at the little clock timers clock hands spinning around. His mom obviously noticing, “I’m pretty sure that’s what it does when it’s calibrating, sweetie”. Which Danny nods at and decides to wait, going to try moving the legs once the clock hands chill out. And the toes/boot tips successfully bend upwards.
And with that, one Danny Fenton was no longer legless on main
FIN.
JK JK JK
Lewis watches as Danny wiggles the toes and bounces up on said toes some, before actually taking a few steps around. The movements were definitely a little jerky and he wasn’t moving them quite right, it was very much like he was trying out limbs he hadn’t had before. If Lewis were to guess, he’d say that’s likely because these robotic leg prosthetics didn’t work exactly the same as natural legs; so logically he’d have to learn how to pilot them properly. Watching Jack and Maddie stand in-front of him and all three pretty well beaming at each other; Jack even doing a little jig or something (whatever it is, Danny clearly finds it embarrassing). It was obvious Danny was proud of what his folks made, even if he didn’t honestly need it. Frankly he’s pretty sure Danny’s proud of the things his parents make in general, he just hadn’t liked the anti-ghost foundation they were built upon. Sure seemed they had gotten better about that though. Which is good, since the universe -somewhat technically- depended on that.
Lewis nods once and walks closer -having given the family their little moment- and pats Danny’s arm brace, “well looks like you can walk upon this earth again. Though maybe practice”, pausing for a beat before adding, “no kicking people”.
Danny blinks at Lewis, “no kidding doc. Literal steel toes here”.
Lewis chuckles and gives his two (adult)friends pats, “congrats, you just made a breakthrough in probably a lot of fields, but most relevant to me, medical science. You’re officially scary smart. But-”, turning to Danny because the kid’s supposed to be injured and recovering. Gesturing at the neuroreceptor strip, “you. While this is great and all, you had back surgery. So I’m restricting use till your braces are good to come off and I check your spine out”. Honestly, he should outright ban it.
Danny sticks his hands to the side and pouts a little, “oh come on doc”.
Lewis crosses his arms, “most doctors wouldn’t have even let you test them or wear them at all”. Danny rubs his neck at that.
Maddie gives Lewis a sweet smile, “well thanks for letting us do this and I think we all understand”, looking to Danny, “right Danny?”. Danny grumbles incoherently but nods.
Jack taps at his chin, watching Danny walk around a bit more, “what I don’t get, is how you moved the ones that didn’t work at all smoothly but these ones are being a bit jerky or over-exaggerated? Even if you originally weren’t working them even close to smooth with the tail”.
Danny shrugs, “uh, well I’ve never had brain to mechanics connections like this before. My brain and ecto might just, like I don’t know, learn how these interpret stuff?”.
Lewis nods immediately because that was actually true really for learning how to work any prosthetic, “there’s a learning curve with any prosthetic, they never move the exact same as the originals”, tilting his head, “and if what you’re thinking of Danny’s ghost being somewhat active is right, then the tail wouldn’t be truly new; simply normally inaccessible. Which you’ve effectively already implied to be the case to explain his ease of adapting. So his fine motor skills with his tail should be quite good, which would allow for it to take very little time for him to figure out how to grasp or say, move things, with said tail”, and nods curtly to himself. Pretty content with his explanation.
Danny decidedly says nothing though Lewis just gave him a pretty damn good out. His parents' nods and smiles make that obvious.
Jack goes wide-eyed, coming upon an idea and blurting out, “ClockWork!”, then looking at his slightly confused looking son, “you said that ClockWork only has a tail! And that you’re basically related! Ghostly related!”. Everyone gives him slightly confused eyebrow quirks, so he explains himself, “so maybe your ghost took after them and just has a tail too!”.
Maddie blinks and grins, “that does make sense”, ruffling Danny’s hair, “so that explains that“. Danny just shrugs, ‘cause in their mind, there’s no way he should know what his ghost looks like. But also, yeah, him being so comfortable and good with this was totally ClockWork’s fault. And he totally loves them for it. Intentionally swishing his tail around in the legs, kinda weird that he could move his tail without moving his legs. How in the heck is his brain -or ectoplasm maybe, Core?- differentiating between tail and legs? He’s totally going to fidget with his tail during class. No one will ever know! “Well still too bad my walking skills have gotten a bit rusty”.
Lewis glances at his watch, pretty late; it would probably be the ‘responsible’ thing to encourage a normal -or as normal as possible for a teenage superhero whose enemies seem to prefer the night- sleep schedule.  “Alright, I know you probably want to celebrate all this but at the very least Danny should reestablish a proper sleep schedule. Sleep is vital for healing and health after all”.
Danny rolls his eyes, “all doctor, all the time, huh?”.
“Says mr. Helpful”. Danny scowls at that, because not the same. Not the fucking same. Though if the doc became a ghost his Obsession would probably be the same but maybe more curious ‘I wonder what will happen if’.
Danny looks around, “well first, can’t we at least have supper?”. Jack’s stomach growls as if being summoned, making everyone laugh.
While Maddie gets to work making food, Jack and Lewis basically talk each other’s ears off with how the legs even worked at all; ‘cause Lewis is just stunned but intrigued and Jack is utterly excited. Danny sneaks up the stairs, totally unused to how damn loud these feet were; he’s gonna have to work on that because he loves how easily he can even accidentally sneak up silently on people.
Danny stops in front of Jazz’s door and promptly kicks it in; the door simply opening loudly instead of being blown off its hinges purely because all the doors in the house were built to handle getting rammed and blasted.
“Zone! Danny! Why in the Zone are you kicking in doors!”. Jazz pauses, “wait, you kicked it in”, looking to his legs and leaping up, “holy shit Danny! You’ve got legs!”, rushing over and pinching the CyberSteps, “can you actually feel this?!?!”.
Danny grins stupidly, puts his hands on his hips, and poses ridiculously, “yup, totally can”, tilting his head, “not quite the same though”.
Jazz practically jumps on him and hugs him around the neck, “oh who cares! This is great Danny!”, letting go and brushing off his braces, “I bet mom and dad were just stoked”.
Danny nods almost sheepishly, “oh definitely”, cringing a little, “dad did a jig”, making her cringe as he continues, “Lewis also crushed their spirits a little by limiting my leg time. Though we are still baking eggies to celebrate my leggies”, and grins.
Jazz sighs with a head shake, “I was wondering if they forgot about supper again”.
“Oh they did”.
Jazz blinks, “of course they did”.
Lewis walks in, arms crossed and judgmental eyebrow raised, “there you are. You do realise I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on the kid who broke basically everything, should have died, is in braces and bandages, and is now trying out brand new experimental prosthetics that interact with his brain and the spine he broke”.
Danny rolls his eyes, “geez tell me what you really mean”.
Jazz pokes Danny, “he does have a point you know. You are supposed to be injured”. Danny scowls at her but rounds on Lewis, sticking his arms out to the side, “so when can I obliterate these things”.
“Never. They’re hospital property. Casts can’t be reused, braces can”.
Jazz immediately cringes at that, Danny’s the one to speak though, “you don’t want to do that. I bet you ten bucks these are all ecto-contaminated. And I doubt you want them coming to life, or death really, and trying to eat someone’s arm or something”.
Lewis blinks, “alright, you can destroy them”, that would be a lawsuit waiting to happen. A very strange lawsuit. ‘My arm brace came to life and ate my firstborn’, would certainly be a new one.
Danny grins wickedly and promptly bursts into blue flames, actually managing to make Lewis jump back and Jazz yelp.
Lewis watches the ashes of the braces flutter to the ground, before giving (the no longer on fire)Danny an exasperated look, “I didn’t mean now”, squinting, “and how did you not burn the CyberSteps?”.
Danny creates a flame over his fingers, “ecto-fire”, pointing the other hand at the CyberSteps, “anti-ecto”, then adding, “only a little though, otherwise it would be anti-me”.
Lewis shakes his head, “can’t have that now can we?”. Danny grins and points out the door, promptly walking off at Lewis saying, “so long as an adult who knows your ecto or tech is around you”.
Lewis looks to Jazz, “he certainly seems better for his ghostliness, doesn’t he”.
Jazz smiles soft and sweet, “I used to worry about him, even got the vice principal to force him to see a therapist. But once I found out, it made sense and I knew he was okay. That not only was he good mentally, or as good as he could be, but also just good as a person”, giggling a little, “now of course I still worry, that’s what sisters do after all. But he’s a day at a time mentally, there isn’t exactly a standard for a halfa, for being mentally two species that are really opposites; and Vlad’s not exactly a good example. He needs a therapist more than Danny does”.
Lewis chuckles at that and nods, “can’t say I disagree. Though I wouldn't say Danny particularly comes off as someone who needs therapy, he hides his traumas well. Which, well, hiding things from a therapist equals not getting effective therapy”.
Jazz gives him a smile that practically reads ‘you misunderstand’, “that’s because he’s at the stage of acceptance now”, Lewis quirks an eyebrow so she explains, “people grieve when someone dies, and I believe the dead grieve their death just as much if not more”, nodding a little to herself, “at first he tried to convince himself nothing had changed, the abilities would just wear off; he even went through an ‘I’m not dead!’ phase, that came later though”.
Lewis tips his head, “well to be fair, most people don’t expect to be dead but still walking around, and half-dead just sounds impossible. So thinking he’s not dead seems more like being logical than being in denial”.
Jass gives him an almost pitying look, “yeah but he was apparently pretty desperate and freaked about it. Less simple logic and having an issue with the impossible, more desperation to deny what they know is true”.
Lewis nods, ah okay Danny definitely had a harder time than he had thought. He’s kinda glad he didn’t meet Danny back then because again, he’s not good at dealing with freaking out breaking down emotional types.
Jazz nods and keeps going, “Sam and Tucker said they effectively had to convince him not to just tell his parents and beg them to fix him once he realised things weren’t going away. He hated the powers, the changes; that’s the point when I noticed something was up, that he seemed depressed. I pushed for the therapy when he started being just angry, all the time”.
Lewis nods, “ah, I guess that does sound like grieving. In that case, I’m glad he’s in the acceptance stage”.
Jazz grins, she certainly was, “same. His Obsession, his friends -especially the ghost ones-, the weird love/hate thing the town has for him; I think all that helped. Which is how I imagine it is typically for most ghosts; minus the last one”, pointing at him, “though I think you've helped with acceptance, he seems less affected by your name, and those blue flames he used there?”, grinning wider, “many times he’s refused to ever use that, so somethings happened there”.
Lewis blinks, ah the pyrokinesis was probably a power ‘Dan’ had and used liberally. “I may have effectively reasoned with his Obsession why he shouldn’t fear certain futures and that it would make him a shittier king. Used ClockWork too, or more so a quote Danny made of them”.
Jazz raises her eyebrows, “you must think pretty differently for that to have worked out”, frowning slightly, “I’d watch it, taking advantage of his Obsession too often will start coming off as malicious to the Obsession”.
Lewis shrugs, yeah he kinda figured that one. Like tempting Vee with chocolate. Eventually you’ll lose a few fingers. Literally. “I’m not one for social queues, living or dead ones. And he’d make a good surgeon, very helpful. And telling me things is helpful. And sure, I may have given him an Obsessive Crisis but my reasoning was sound”.
Jazz blinks, walks over, and smacks him over the head, “how has Danny not assaulted you yet?!?”.
Lewis takes it in stride, he had been smacked a great many times for insensitivity, and smirks, “might be that my whole career is helpful, I’m a helper all the same. Protecting people from the outcomes of their stupidity like shoving a cheese grater up their ass or eating nails”.
Jazz goes a little wide-eyed, “that actually makes sense. Obsession similarity is a major comradery thing for ghosts”, pausing, “also, is that really a common thing people do? Though the nails probably had something to do with pica”.
“We keep a white board of all the things people have shoved up their asses, one guy’s made it on the board multiple times; I admire the tenacity”, Lewis smirks as she gives him a strange look and just moves to head downstairs.
They come down to a slightly concerned-looking Danny sitting backwards on the couch but resting his chin over the back of the couch, watching his parents. Looking to Lewis when he notices them and making ‘psst’ noises at him; which makes Lewis wonder if he’s being hissed at for a bit, which considering the upstairs conversation would make some sense.
Jazz heads into the kitchen while Lewis walks over to Danny.
Danny scuttles over and hiss whispers, “so I wasn’t sure if me actually being braceless was, like, a good thing? ‘Cause, like, maybe you know otherwise and I, like an idiot, didn’t confirm things-”.
Lewis chooses to cut off what’s definitely going to be a ramble, “it’s fine, Danny. Honesty, I was considering removing them entirely pretty soon here. You’re fine”.
Danny grins and gives a little relieved sigh, before looking slightly freaked again and gesturing to his chest, his bare heavily scared toned chest, “also totally forgot about the bandaging. I mean what am I, a wire stripper?”.
Lewis is pretty sure most people would find how he goes from flesh straight to metal more eye-catching than the scarring; even if it was pretty major. Danny’s likely more worried about Jack and Maddie seeing though. And well, Danny being completely healed was very obvious this way. Which might be pushing it, “yeah, you look too healthy like this”.
Danny blinks, “I wasn’t actually thinking of that but point”. Lewis gestures up the stairs, so they head up to Danny’s (still uncleaned)room to redo bandaging.
Lewis shakes his head while unrolling bandaging, “you’d think you’d be encouraged to clean after your encounter”. Danny rolls his eyes and holds out his arms after disconnecting the CyberSteps. Lewis pauses and taps his chin, thinking of it, “actually, let’s just bandage where you had the most serious damage”.
So Lewis gets to work on the waist wrapping, again noting how strange Danny coming to a totally smooth flat end is. He’s going to have to pin the blame on Danny’s tail if his friends ask, because this is not only not medical standard but medically impossible. Not to mention physically impossible, so many half cut off organs and where the heck are his intestines? His poor digestive system; and that’s ignoring his lower excretory system being basically non-existent. He’d lose his license if he took credit here. Muttering mostly to himself, “how the Hell do you shit”.
Danny blinks before bursting out laughing, “did you seriously just ask that?!?!?”, shaking his head, “doc? Anyone ever tell you you’re weird?”.
Lewis smirks, “all the time”.
Danny smirks himself, “ghosts ‘excrete’ everything via shedding off ectoplasm, so what do you think”, and points at his tail, which is currently waving intangibly through Lewis. Danny, for kicks, makes It shed more noticeably; just to fuck with the guy a little.
Lewis pauses and side-eyes the tail, “is that... sanitary?”. Making Danny fall backwards on the bed cackling. Lewis has so many questions. Does his ectoplasm just burn it up? and it comes off kinda like smoke? Or does his ectoplasm digest it for fuel? Danny did imply he could get by on just ectoplasm (which a human can’t do) or just food (which a ghost can’t do).
Danny puts an arm over his eyes and wheezes, “nothing can survive the ecto, oh man. Haha. Does a better job than bleach”, and wheezes some more.
Lewis nods, moving to Danny’s chest -because honestly, what in there hadn’t been obliterated. Other than the Core and even that was hurt- and unrolling more, “well that’s good then”. Making quick work of the chest and grabbing Danny’s left hand up.
Danny chuckles, “yeah, I crushed, like, everything in that one”.
Lewis starts wrapping very quickly at the sound of an explosion outside and icy mist leaving Danny’s mouth. Ghosts and their timing. Managing to finish before Danny transforms and zips off through his window; leaving Lewis to stand up, put his hands on his hips, and shake his head.
Danny glances around, pretty sure he can smell something really strange that he’s never smelled before but ignores that at promptly spotting Red shooting at Boxy, Danny floats over, “I’m guessing you don’t really need or want my help here?”.
Red opens her visor purely to scowl at him and shoots the Box Ghost without even looking, “fuck off, Phantom”.
“YOUR DISTRACTION WILL BE YOUR DOOM!!!! AND MY BOXY REVENG-”. Getting cut off via a rocket to the mouth and both teens telling him to shut up. Red promptly capturing him and rounding on Danny.
Danny quirks an eyebrow because her just cutting off a Boxy beat down was weird. Red snaps at him, “obviously you've noticed shit’s up with the Fenton’s, so you better be leaving them alone, spook”.
Danny nods a little, “kinda easy to notice when those two are or aren’t out hunting”, continuing at it feeling like she’s squinting at him, “I ain’t pestering them, Red”. It’s true. Phantom wasn’t technically pestering his parents. Fenton was.
Red studies him for a bit before nodding and appears to sigh, “well the sons got a ghost tail now, like you guys”, Danny changes his legs to a tail for example, which she points at, “yeah, that. And you’re not too terribly evil and he slammed his face into a wall trying to use the thing”.
Danny gives a mock very offended, “hey”. Before blinking and going slightly wide-eyed at a realisation, “wait, are you asking me to teach him?”, how does he get himself into this kind of shit?
Red huffs, “you're supposed to be this town’s ‘protector’ and dealer with ghost shit, it’s supposedly your job”, then adding with bite and meaning, “unless you don’t actually care about people and just like fighting”, shrugging, “and even you wouldn’t be stupid or reckless enough to mess with the youngest child of ghost hunters”. Any ghost that did mess with Jazz or Danny probably saw Hell from the Fenton’s. And Phantom might be literally the only ghost Danny wouldn’t run away from. Maybe. And wasn’t there that time the house came to life or something and Danny and Phantom both helped with that?
Danny blinks, “yeah, I’m not stupid. Still remember Jack punching -yeah, punching, not shooting- Plasmius to a pulp for screwing with the Fenton family”. That was one of Danny’s favourite memories.
Red blinks, opening her visor again and just leaving it that way, “that really happened? Damn”, she’s never felt genuinely impressed by Jack before.
Danny nods, “yup, and Red? Our bodies, the floating, that shit comes naturally. It’s not taught”.
Red snaps, “but he’s not a ghost, Phantom”.
Danny rolls his eyes, “ghost body part. Same thing. And our bodies ain’t all the same you know”.
Red points at his tail, “well his and yours move similar, so there”.
Danny pointedly doesn’t look sheepish or anything at that, he should just agree -fuck his luck- before she starts pointing out other similarities, “geez fine”, pausing and floating a bit closer, “wait, you haven’t been just asking every ghost you see to play teacher, have you?”, for the love of the Ancients say no.
Red scowls at him and refuses to back up, “I’m not a moron either, Phantom. Just you”, squinting, “why?”.
Danny backs off a little and shrugs, “ghost social thing. It’s a few phrases shy of asking a ghost to adopt someone. Which would be kinda mean”, tilting his head, “if you asked Skulker that, you probably would never see Danny again”, if Danny Fenton was a regular human (with a ghost tail somehow) and couldn’t beat Skulker’s face in, anyways.
Red blinks, “what? You’re not ‘adopting’ him“.
Danny rolls his eyes, “well obviously. What you asked could just be taken that way. But I’m still a child so it don’t matter”.
Red shakes her head, “you ghosts are strange. Don’t adopt Danny, just give him tail tips or something”.
Danny snorts and chuckles, “just the tip?”, and pokes her board with his tail tip quickly before zipping away cackling. Red growls and shoots at him while shouting, “you disgust me!”.
Lewis had eventually wandered down into the kitchen, everyone raising the eyebrows at him, probably over Danny’s absence, “decided to take the chance to check up on Danny’s healing and wrapping. He’s stretching out his new bandaging and taking a break from the prosthetics”, nodding curtly, “the braces aren’t really needed anymore”. Jazz giggles quietly.
Maddie and Jack beam, Jack practically cheering, “awesome!”. Both of them super glad to hear that he genuinely as okay as he keeps insisting he is. His ecto likely being to blame, which is okay.
Just then Danny comes back, sticking his head through the kitchen doorway before pausing, “shit! Forgot my shirt”, and ducks his head before zipping back upstairs. Shouting down at everyone laughing or giggling or snorting, “its been a while since I’ve worn clothes alright! I’ve got hardware and software, but no underwear!”.
Lewis actually laughs at that, “pretty sure that’s one thing you don’t need!”, and speaks up again as Danny renters, “you know, a stripper that crushed both her knees said that to me once”. Making pretty much everyone choke.
Maddie steamrolls right over the adult implications of that and plates the eggs. Lewis raising an eyebrow, “eggs for supper? That’s weird”.
Danny coughs and gives Lewis an ‘I can’t believe you just said that’ look and promptly takes the opening, “that's not weird, your pants are weird”.
Lewis looks down, “they’re just sweat pants”, then pauses, wait that sounded familiar. Looking back up and shaking his head, “you really just quoted a commercial for eggs at me”.
Danny grins like he’s the cat that caught the canary, “you started it, doc”.
Maddie grins, digging into her food. Danny seemed more confident. She’s not sure if Lewis just had that effect on him or if it was because of him not utterly hiding his ghostliness around them anymore and them giving the good ghosts thing a real chance. Which made her think it’s all worth it. Trusting a ghost or too, being more neutral about ghosts, rethinking the science; and getting her son back more genuinely, knowing him better, was a great deal. Even if that meant her and Jack had practically been villains to Phantom and other maybe good ghosts; which was an uncomfortable thought. Because really? if ghosts could be good then Phantom being a hero was practically undeniable. And who shoots at a hero? Villains.
Seeing Danny in a loose long sleeve makes her unable to really feel bad though, he looked genuinely like himself again. His hand being bandaged up was a reminder of his injuries however; and she can see a bit peaking out of his collar. Glancing at his other hand, when had he gotten scars there? Though more importantly, how had she never noticed??? Or did his recent injuries scar over that fast. Both were a little concerning. Though she knows he’ll have scarring, Dan said as much.
Lewis’s phones goes off with a big fat ‘fuck you’ from Eddie for not saving any brownies and a pic of stew which was probably meant to be some kind of ‘well look what I made and you can’t have’. Lewis just sends back ‘who did the cooking? ‘Cause if it’s you Eddie, I think I’m good’ predictably getting swears in return. Lewis decides to take a photo of what he’s eating, answering Danny’s raised eyebrow, “Eddie made stew and is attempting to brag about that”.
“I hope there wasn’t any potatoes or baked beings”.
Jazz smacks him over the head while Lewis scrunches up his eyebrows, because that... that was actually something they would do. Getting a response from Vee reading ‘FRIED BABY BIRD NICE' didn’t help. Lewis shakes his head at Danny, muttering, “don’t give them ideas”.
Danny rolls his eyes, “well then I hope you don’t let Vee near your feet”, Lewis gives him some confused eyebrows so Danny smirks and continues very smugly, “they might want some men toes for their breath afterwards”. Lewis sighs. Jack and Maddie just look confused though.
While Danny finally wakes up the next morning, Maddie watches Lewis start breakfast. Jack is attempting to wake up himself with a cold shower. And Jazz has been up for a while sipping tea and reading in her room.
Danny stretches out a little, telekinetically dragging over the CyberSteps and slipping in; this was basically what he was going to be doing for however long in place of underwear. And fuck it, he’s not gonna bother with pants. Kinda pointless and he’s owning his metal. Might as well. Nabbing up his comfortable sweater, the one that never catches on bandaging. Twisting his upper body back and forth, didn’t seem like it would catch on the neuroreceptors either. Nice.
It was honestly still kinda strange walking again, using metal to do that was just a little bit weirder. Cool as shit too though.
Danny turns to the door at hearing a shout of: “IT’S NOT JUST US! YES!”. So he heads downstairs and thus walks into the sight of Lewis staring in confused curiosity at a pan he’s holding with three screaming grill-cheese sandwiches in it. One sprouts a little hand and tries to grab a fork, Lewis just bats it away like a misbehaving cat’s paw; a dirty look on his face all the while.
Danny walks in and looks down, “uh, congrats doc it’s a girl... I think”.
Lewis quirks an eyebrow, “you can tell?”.
Danny scowls, "no, I was making a fucking joke, doc".
Maddie puts her hands on her hips, "language Danny”. Catching Danny slightly off guard and making him blush, “oh um uh, sorry?”. Maddie just shakes her head.
Sam and Tucker barge in while Lewis lifts up the pan, “obviously this is inedible for us, but you?”. Danny gives him a serious ‘are you fucking me’ look.
Maddie immediately butts in, “why would-”, and cuts herself off, going wide-eyed. Looking to Danny, “actually, could you? Do you... want to try?”.
Jack practically bolts over, having just caught that, “oh that would be so cool! We wouldn’t have to scrap food so often!”.
Sam and Tucker come over grinning meanly at him. Tucker speaking up, “do it coward. Be a man”, Sam kicks him. Sam looks over the pan, unphased by the screaming and weird bubbling, but scowls at the cheese; or what once was cheese, “you already stole the poor cows milk, don’t insults them more by trashing it”.
Danny mutters at the floor, “I feel like I’m being ganged up on here”, though obviously not actually bothered. His mom makes him laugh though when she hands him a glass of ‘help you swallow it down’ milk. Danny takes it and looks to Sam with a smirk, “now I know you reject milk, but hopefully you’re not lack-toes-intolerant”.
The two teens look down at his feet, about to comment that he had those again, Tucker giving a little nod, “huh, no toes”.
Danny just chuckles, wiggles his ‘toes’, “hope you like roboots”, everyone sighs and the grill-cheeses scream a little more, which absolutely grabs Danny’s attention. Turning to the pan, “okay, now you are getting eaten. Feed my cyborgans”.
Sam mutters, “Ancients damnit, Danny”. While Danny grabs one of the sandwiches, smacks one of the other ones that tried to bite him, and cuts off the one he grabbed’s screaming by biting It with fake aggression.
Sam and Tucker both start laughing, while the adults all just kinda watch with bated breaths. Maddie’s pretty sure she can actually see him absorbing ectoplasm through his skin off the -what should they call It?- ecto-sandwich. Was certainly interesting that this was even technically safe for him. His Core would just eat all the ectoplasm before it could even possibly cause issues. And that ecto-immunity Jack considered him to have should mean all his human stuff can handle the ectoplasm; possibly even good for him. Feed his ghostly stuff, which probably only got anything from how contaminated the town and house were. Or maybe his Core could convert human food to ectoplasm, just like how food in general here could become ectoplasmic.
Jack sounds more than a little excited, “so! How’s it taste!?!”.
Danny rolls his eyes, slightly embarrassed, “spicy cream cheese”. Jack looking excitedly giddy just makes Danny genuinely blush, though a bit happy that he made him happy. And he was actually hungry so fuck it, he’s eating his sandwich; that much ecto making his eyes green be damned.
Maddie makes a point to not react to his eyes going green -like they had when his ectoplasm was overcharged she notes- as Danny finishes off the ecto-wich. Lewis laughs and just shoves the pan at him.
Danny grumbles, “anyone else would get burned you know”. Lewis just shrugs with a grin as he moves to make something else, but vegan suitable; which hopefully won’t come to life. Everyone else -except Sam who chooses to lean against the wall- sit around the table. Jack and Maddie making a point to ignore the oddness of Danny woofing down the other two plasumwiches -much better name- straight out of the pan; the cold of his skin contacting the pan making a little bit of steam. Lewis attempts to take a subtle photo but of course Danny notices, giving the most suspicious sounding, “what's up doc?”, Lewis thinks is even possible.
“Eddie will get a kick out of this. Thing’s cropped, curb your paranoia”. Danny’s only response is a huff. The response Lewis gets back from Eddie nearly makes him choke though: Vee’s face sandwiched between bread and Eddie biting it/them; Lewis isn’t going to ask why he’s not wearing a shirt, but is wearing a tacky necklace (and of course his brackets, but he never takes those off). Lewis decides screw it, Danny’s friends knew, were just as weird, and that chat thing Tucker set up was almost disturbingly secure -yet they still used codes like paranoid little fuckers, and they were at least kinda cool with aliens; so he tosses the photo into the group chat, with a password to view though ‘cause why not be paranoid too; though it’s an obvious one.
Tucker, not surprising the doctor in the least, is the first to check and chokes on his food.
PDAXpda: @everyone
PDAxpda: what
PDAxpda: pray tell
PDAxpda: the fuck is that
Tiethief: space monster
Tiethief: and reporter mouth
NightShade: you suck at names
NightShade: @DPain do yer job
Just a little later Danny checks his phone and wigs out. His hair fluffing up a little like some anime bullshit, the legs swinging around probably ‘cause his tail is wiggling or something a bunch, the ecto in his eyes making tiny little sparks; Jack and Maddie watching the reaction more so with awe and curiosity than unnerved worry.
DPain: hdieksnhrjsHHUDJjhhudikwdhjHhdnsjdkoajbdhuejzk
DPain: zhHhudjnshakbusfjkabjhUSJJNhdkakbsjbuijdh
DPain: TINY MURDER COBOOB IS BLOB
DPain: TINY MURDERY ALIEN BLOB
DPain: FUCK ME DADSY
DPain: anyway
DPain: cjsinsbdhaihujsmkfhdkajhdnfcjai
DPain: space mon fine
DPain: othera meat puppet
DPain: djiafdwih
DPain: best blob be nommed
PDAxpda: first look at murder goo
Lewis looks up at the ceiling as he pockets his phone before spooning out the stir fry. Less breakfasty, but more edible. Giving Sam Tucker’s veggies and throwing some real bacon bits into Tucker’s. Danny takes a small plate even though he ate three bloody sandwiches -maybe the ectoplasm went somewhere else and thus didn’t fill him up?- and munches still looking overly excited.
Sam points her fork at Danny’s feet kinda bouncing around. He shrugs and snickers, “looks like I've got a few new roboticks”.
Which makes Jazz groan as she comes in, “ignoring that, what smells so good?”, looking Danny over slightly and quirking any eyebrow over his green sparky eyes.
Sam rolls her eyes, biting a pepper, “your parents’ made ghost food again”.
Maddie immediately sits up straight, “Dan did actually”. Jack practically cheering, “so it’s not just us!”.
Jazz mutters, “that’s not actually comforting”, because that means it’s either the house's fault or the utensils/cookware.
Sam huffs, “more reason not to have animal products”.
Tucker laughs, “more like reason to!”, and jabs a thumb at Danny. Who throws a quiet, “prick”, Tucker’s way.  
Maddie shakes her head a little as the teens poke fun at each other. Yeah they knew and were used to it. Which was... probably good for Danny. Hurt a little to confirm though. She understands though; her and Jack will just have to continue to be better then.
Not too long later, Lewis is putting away leftovers, Jazz and Maddie are on clean-up duty, Danny’s eyes are back to fucking normal, and Jack’s giving the CyberSteps steps a once over.
Tucker nudges Danny, ignoring Jack doing the typical ‘can you feel this?’ thing, “so theatre’s open. Feel like taking your limbs for a test drive?”.
Maddie immediately pauses with her washcloth, making a point to sound stern, “only if Dan okay’s it, sweetie”.
All the teens look to Lewis, who smirks and fakes being unsure, “oh I don’t know”, relenting at the scowls, “so long as he’s not left alone I don’t see a problem with it”. Tucker immediately high fives Danny, before Jack steps back with a smile; letting Danny run only kinda coordinatedly up the stairs to grab pants.
Danny decides fuck it and opts out of shoes; the CyberSteps toes/boots look like, well, boots. Heading back down and the three friends walk to the door. Jack and Maddie smiling to themselves over the fact that Danny can actually walk around town with his friends.
Just as Danny’s reaching for the handle there’s a knock and Danny’s pretty sure he smells smoke... and that weird new smell from yesterday? Shrugging and opening the door to the sight of a guy who looked like hot garbage yet healthyish. His hair looked like a comb would get stuck in it yet smooth. One bloodshot eye, yet they were also totally clear. Clearly unbrushed teeth, though white. In a leather jacket with burn marks, off-white t-shirt, and torn-up jeans. And a cigarette in one had, dirt under literally every fingernail and in the nail-beds.
“Wow someone’s speed lightning”, the dude looks around, “your yard’s kinda not shit so I’mma just put this out in my pocket”, and shoves the cigarette into his pants. Danny watches the pocket smoke and slowly gain a new hole as the guy speaks, “so if it ain’t obvious, name’s Eddie. Eddie Brock”.
Danny blinks, gapes a little -which the guy smirks over, and laughs. Because yeah, this is exactly his luck.
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twoidiotwriters1 · 4 years ago
Text
Written In The Stars XCI (Harry Potter xF!Oc)
A/N: I'd missed this silly goose! tho the actors in hp for some reason look way older so he looks like a baby but pls imagine Erick like this older-looking student bc he should look that way jdhfd -Danny
Words: 2,195
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Chapter Twenty-Six: Talk it out.
"Hagrid!" Hermione shouted. "Hagrid, that's enough! We know you're in there! Nobody cares if your mum was a giantess, Hagrid! You can't let that foul Skeeter woman do this to you! Hagrid, get out here, you're just being —" The door opened. "About t — !" Hermione froze when she found Dumbledore there instead of their friend.
"Good afternoon," he said.
"We — er — we wanted to see Hagrid."
"Yes, I surmised as much," He said in amusement. "Why don't you come in?"
"Oh... um... okay."
Hagrid was sitting at the table, there were two mugs of tea. For the looks of it, he'd been crying.
"Hi, Hagrid," said Harry.
" 'Lo," he said lowly.
"More tea, I think," said Dumbledore, and with the flick of his wand, a tea tray appeared. "Did you by any chance hear what Miss Granger was shouting, Hagrid? Hermione, Mel, Harry, and Ron still seem to want to know you, judging by the way they were attempting to break down the door."
"Of course we still want to know you!" Harry said. "You don't think anything that Skeeter cow — sorry, Professor..."
"I have gone temporarily deaf and haven't any idea what you said, Harry," said Dumbledore, looking up to the ceiling with interest.
"Er — right... I just meant — Hagrid, how could you think we'd care what that — woman — wrote about you?" Hagrid cried silently, two huge tears falling down his beard.
"Oh, Hagrid, don't cry!" Mel's hand went to rest above his, looking almost comically small.
"Living proof of what I've been telling you, Hagrid," said Dumbledore. "I have shown you the letters from the countless parents who remember you from their own days here, telling me in no uncertain terms that if I sacked you, they would have something to say about it —"
"Not all of 'em," said Hagrid. "Not all of 'em wan' me ter stay."
"Really, Hagrid, if you are holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time. Not a week has passed since I became headmaster of this school when I haven't had at least one owl complaining about the way I run it. But what should I do? Barricade myself in my study and refuse to talk to anybody?"
"Yeh — yeh're not half-giant!"
"Hagrid, look what I've got for relatives!" Harry said in disbelief. "Look at the Dursleys!"
"An excellent point," said Dumbledore. "My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practising inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers, but did Aberforth hide? No, he did not! He held his head high and went about his business as usual! Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been bravery..."
Mel looked at her uncle knowing that there was certainly more he could say about their family, but she remained quiet.
"Come back and teach, Hagrid," said Hermione, "please come back, we really miss you."
"I refuse to accept your resignation, Hagrid, and I expect you back at work on Monday," said Dumbledore, standing up to leave. "You will join me for breakfast at eight-thirty in the Great Hall. No excuses. Good afternoon to you all."
When the Headmaster left the cabin, Hagrid sobbed for real, hiding his face behind both hands.
"Great man, Dumbledore... great man..."
"Yeah, he is," said Ron. "Can I have one of these cakes, Hagrid?"
"Help yerself," said Hagrid. "Ar, he's righ', o' course — yeh're all righ'... I bin stupid... my ol' dad woulda bin ashamed o' the way I've bin behavin'... Never shown you a picture of my old dad, have I? Here..."
Hagrid got up, went over to his dresser, opened a drawer, and pulled out a picture of a short wizard with Hagrid's crinkled black eyes, beaming as he sat on top of Hagrid's shoulder. Hagrid was a good seven or eight feet tall, judging by the apple tree beside him, but his face was beardless, young, round, and smooth — he looked hardly older than eleven.
"Tha' was taken jus' after I got inter Hogwarts," Hagrid croaked. "Dad was dead chuffed... thought I migh' not be a wizard, see, 'cos me mum... well, anyway. 'Course, I never was great shakes at magic, really... but at least he never saw me expelled. Died, see, in me second year...
"Dumbledore was the one who stuck up for me after Dad went. Got me the gamekeeper job... trusts people, he does. Gives 'em second chances... tha's what sets him apar' from other heads, see. He'll accept anyone at Hogwarts, s'long as they've got the talent. Knows people can turn out okay even if their families weren'... well... all tha' respectable. But some don' understand that. There's some who'd always hold it against yeh... there's some who'd even pretend they just had big bones rather than stand up an' say — I am what I am, an' I'm not ashamed. 'Never be ashamed,' my ol' dad used ter say, 'there's some who'll hold it against you, but they're not worth botherin' with.' An' he was right. I've bin an idiot. I'm not botherin' with her no more, I promise yeh that. Big bones... I'll give her big bones."
The kids shared nervous glances, but Hagrid kept talking without waiting for a reply.
"Yeh know wha', Harry? When I firs' met you, you reminded me o' me a bit. Mum an' Dad gone, an' you was feelin' like yeh wouldn' fit in at Hogwarts, remember? Not sure yeh were really up to it... an' now look at yeh, Harry! School champion! Yeh know what I'd love, Harry? I'd love yeh ter win, I really would. It'd show 'em all... yeh don' have ter be pureblood ter do it. Yeh don' have ter be ashamed of what yeh are. It'd show 'em Dumbledore's the one who's got it righ', lettin' anyone in as long as they can do magic. How you doin' with that egg, Harry?"
"Great," said Harry shakily. "Really great."
"Tha's my boy... you show 'em, Harry, you show 'em. Beat'em all..."
"But if it doesn't turn out as expected," Mel was quick to add. "Know that we are all proud of you as well, Hagrid. We love you very much."
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"I'll follow Cedric's advice," Harry told her quietly before going to bed that night.
"Blimey, all it took was a crying Hagrid..." Mel raised her eyebrows. "Want help?"
"No," He replied. "Dunno... I'll let you know."
"All right," She sighed. "Good luck."
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She had an important matter to attend that day in private and it could only be between her and Erick. She used the pocket watch he'd given her and informed him that she wanted to talk. On Monday, both students met at the far end of the library, Mel had no idea where to start.
"I won't apologize for what I said the other day, I know you hate it when I do that," She began, "but you're hiding something and I would like to know what it is, maybe I can help you?"
She was expecting many reactions, all except the one she got. Erick let out a long sigh and picked out of his bag one of the books she'd lent him.
"Persuasion?" Mel raised a brow.
"I take that you've read it?" He asked.
"I love it," She smiled at it. "The main character's name is Anne, right?"
"Yes," Erick shook his head. "The story... It made me think– What if I'm making a mistake?"
"What d'you mean?"
"What if I don't like Anne the way I think I do?" He elaborated. "I wrote and she wrote back every week, we never ran out of things to say, but the last week before going to my grandad's house she said something that... What if I just like her because she's the complete opposite of what my parents want?"
"I feel like those are unrelated, I'm not sure I follow," Mel frowned. "Since when you've been having doubts?"
"Since Anne and I started to talk more this summer. It's not exactly that I have doubts, I mean, I know I feel something, I just don't know what."
"I don't think there's a reasoning behind the people we like," She retorted. "...Right?"
"If there's no reasoning, then I guess it's all right, but if I'm supposed to have one... I don't have it. I can't tell why I like her."
"Well, you think she's pretty?"
"Yeah," Erick moved on his place awkwardly. "Although I think other girls are pretty too, and I could even get along with them as I do with Anne. If you were to ask me why I'm interested in her, I wouldn't know."
"But that's normal," Mel tried to calm him. "Love has no logic, that doesn't mean is bad?"
"Listen," He put a finger on the book and pointed harshly. "If I just like her because she's pretty and fun then it wouldn't be bad... Yet I think I'm around her because I know it'd make my parents mad, when I'm here, at school, I don't worry about her... I do wonder, but is not constant."
"So? I don't think about Harry all day."
"Aren't I supposed to be dying of solitude when I'm away from her? Maybe this is just a lie I tell myself so I feel like a normal guy, maybe I'm incapable of falling in love and Anne is just my excuse to be a bad son..."
There was a piece of paper coming out of the book, she took it without thinking. Erick kept rambling without looking at what she was doing and her eyes skimmed through the letter. The seams were so worn out that she could tell the boy had read it several times.
"Anne likes someone else..." She said quietly.
Erick's eyes landed on the piece of paper his face turned pale. "Give me that."
"His name's Stuart and he's nice...'" Mel read out loud. "Her boyfriend?"
"No," He said, seizing the letter. "He could be... but she's waiting."
"Waiting?"
"For me."
"And you don't want to say anything," Mel said slowly, "because you're not sure?"
"I can't be with her," Erick said with difficulty. "Not yet... I have two more years of school, even then I don't know when I'll be able to leave my parents' house..."
"But you like her."
"My parents won't approve."
"You don't have to tell them."
"I can't do that!" He said. "Imagine that Harry's parents were alive and they hated everything about you. That every time they see you they'd throw nasty remarks your way, and then Harry'd be out in the street with no money and without being able to give you a good life, imagine you're from two different worlds and nothing you have to offer can get him out trouble..."
"I think... I think we'd both be in pain all the time," Mel said quietly, "...Is that how you feel?"
"That's what will happen if I do the wrong thing," Erick ran a hand through his hair, ruining his neat curls. "I'd love to send a letter telling her everything... but we're young, I wasn't expecting things to move as fast as they did... she's great, she really is, but she doesn't even know I'm a wizard. There are too many secrets and I just think Anne deserves better. Maybe Stuart can do better."
"I think that in a way, you're right," Mel pushed the book towards him. "But I've seen you read and learn, get rid of so many prejudices just to meet her, not even knowing if she'd like you back... that has to mean something."
Erick supported his head in one hand, rubbing his forehead. "All I know is that if I pull her away from this boy without telling her everything... I'll end up ruining one of the best things that have ever happened to me."
"Then?" She frowned. "You're going to... you're just going to leave her?"
Erick swallowed the lump in his throat. "I want her to choose him... I'm not around anyway, I could even mention the ball and Daphne just to... to make her think..."
"You're gonna hurt her," She told him, not in a reproachful tone, but one that had to be said. "I guess this is the gentlest way you can do it... and it's not forever, right? I mean, if everything goes as planned, eventually you'll be able to try. It's meant to be."
"Meant to be?" He chuckled bitterly. "You sound too sure."
"I am," She responded sincerely. "You and Anne will end up together... just like Harry and me, if I'm lucky enough."
Erick gave her a look, a tiny smile on his lips. "Warming up to the idea then?"
"I've been too hard on myself and Harry," She shrugged. "I think life can be a fairytale if we do what we're meant to do."
"How are we supposed to know what that is?"
"Fate will find a way," Mel got up and patted his shoulder. "Just don't lose hope..."
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Next Chapter —>
Taglist.
@dee123ksha​ @vampiregirl1797 @siriuslysirius1107 @stardusthigh @mikariell95 @vernon-dursley @thesuitelifeofafangirl @tomshollandz @kylosleftbuttcheek @reverse-hxlland @bloodorangemoonlight @omiwashere​ @t-rexs-world
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asterekmess · 4 years ago
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S3A - E7
So, I’m starting this episode right after finishing the last one, and I’m still kinda riled up from that bullshit. Let’s get to pissing me off and breaking my heart then. Blood/gore mention warnings for this episode.
Exercise your eyes! Read More!
Let’s just jump right in:
Starting right off with forcing myself into putting the tag in. Scott literally just listened to his mother say that giving this woman something to lessen the pain of her injuries could complicate things and make it harder to treat her. This is like an important medical thing. While yes, it’s really upsetting that she would need to keep being in pain, she needs to be able to identify and explain what exactly she’s feeling to the doctor who is going to be arrive really soon (though I have no idea why the nurses aren’t able to get these people set up. That’s what they did with me? I didn’t see a doctor for like an hour, but they didn’t make me sit in the fucking waiting room before dealing with the blood.) Her pain level will have a direct effect on how quickly she’s seen. This moment is meant to show Scott being soft-hearted, but with the doctor only ten minutes away, he could literally be making this woman’s life a whole lot worse by taking away her pain right now. There is a reason why after I was given pain killers for my surgery I wasn’t allowed to be near any heavy objects. Her pain is keeping her from irritating her wound. She could fuck herself up if she stops responding to the signals her body is trying to send her. This is not the right way to make Scott look kind. He looks like an idiot who doesn’t even listen to his nurse mom.
WHo the FUCK would keep driving with a bunch of bugs in the car? She’s not even on the interstate! PULL OVER IDIOT.
I’m actually agreeing with Scott on this one. I have no idea how medically accurate what melissa just did was, but it look pretty damn cool.
WHat the hell is this conversation? First off, Ethan, you made VERY clear in the last episode that you want to bite Danny even after he said no. Even if that was the possession talking, it was based on what YOU wanted. Danny’s not safe with you. Second, what is this bullshit about knowing Lydia is the important one? Important to Stiles and ALlison maybe. Scott literally never talks to Lydia. THIRD how exactly did you guys come up with that idea when you went after them on the FIRST DAY? You sniff him on them? cus’ if so your noses are damaged.
what...what is with this ghost car shit? She was in the middle of the city, more than ten minutes away from the hospital and behind the traffic caused by the ten car pileup. How did the car drive itself ALL THE WAY here?
Ethan. you’re an alpha. you have night vision. You shouldn’t need to ask what the fucking MOTH in the middle of the driver’s seat is.
HI NOAH! I’ll be honest. I missed you. You’re a really good actor and you just make me feel all safe. WHich is weird bc I hate father figures and I hate cops. Linden Ashby is just too good, I guess.
It’s so frustrating watching Deucalion walk around with humans pretending to be blind. Because he is. He is Pretending to be blind. He’s already proved like a dozen times that he can see just fine when he turns on the Alpha eyes. Which doesn’t make SENSE because Deaton said his iris’ were permanently damaged. He doesn’t have two different sets of eyes! And it sucks, bc they put in these little things that it would’ve been awesome to see if they included an actual blind person properly. The casual use of the cane, taking someone’s elbow and the trust that implies, and even this. Having (that looks like ethan’s coat) Ethan explain what’s in front of Deucalion, describing the scene to him.
DEREK YOUR SECURITY SYSTEM SUCKS. HOW DID THEY DO THAT WITHOUT YOU WAKING UP? WITHOUT CORA NOTICING?
Also, Cora, you look amazing, can you please be my friend and can I hug you? I love your shirt.
I HATE THIS BITCH. Fuck you Julia.
uhh....why is an English teacher filling in for a chemistry/geometry teacher? That’s not how substitutes work. Making a joke out of it doesn’t make it make any more sense. SHe shouldn’t be doing that, especially if Harris has been missing for a while.
So your office can keep werewolves out, but not darach? Okay, let me go full conspiracy theorist here. we only know Deaton saw the moths because we see it. He just tells Scott that he’s going to be taken. This is a story that Scott is telling, so he couldn’t know that deaton saw the moths unless deaton told him. Julia is currently teaching a class. Are you seriously saying she doesn’t need to be involved at all in order to do these kidnappings? She can just put them on a timer and let the autmoatic spellwork do the job for her? OR Is deaton lying about being taken, and this is just a test he came up with to force Scott’s “True Alpha”ness to the surface? JUlia clearly had other plans for her sacrifice. I don’t think Deaton was a ‘distraction’ to keep Scott from finding the actual sacrifice. I think it was Deaton using the situation to his advantage.
why does deaton have a canine acupressure chart on his wall? I’ve never seen a vet’s office have that. Does he do alternative medicine for dogs??
BOYD. ISAAC. MY BOYS. I can’t tell you how much I love this. It’s so sneaky and annoying and so pack-ish I just love it so much.
BOYD YOU ARE A GENIUS BOY AND I LOVE YOU.
I swear, like ninety percent of what the ‘adults’ in this show say is ‘go back to school.’ ‘shouldn’t you be in school’ yadda yadda. Like, they want so badly to write the teens as though they never have to go to class, so they just make them constantly skip and ignore that these are fucking teenagers who would never be able to get out of school that easily, and they handwave it with someone occasionally going ‘hmm, weird that they aren’t in school’ and then just ignoring it? Truancy is like a THING that you can get in major trouble for. At least Boyd and Isaac called in sick. You know how you could have avoided all this class bullshit? PUT THE FUCKING SEASON DURING THE SUMMERTIME DUMBASSES.
It just hurts seeing Stiles beg for Scott not to make him tell his dad, and then turn right around and admit that it’s not okay for him to let other people suffer just because it scares him that he might lose his only parent. Like, he walks into that sacrifice with eyes wide fucking open and it hurts.
I’m not talking about these dumb sex scenes anymore. I’m so tired of them.
OKay, can we talk about the fire alarm thing though? It sounds like a jokey kind of thing with Aiden teasing Lydia about wanting to leave during the fire alarm but... Remember how Lydia was haunted by Peter’s burnt corpse? How she can hear the cries of the dead, and how she went wandering into the crumbling remains of the Hale house? There’s every chance that Lydia remembers the fire through Peter’s eyes. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was forever freaked by fire alarms.
Man, Cora and Lydia, together? The sass involved? If I didn’t ship Allydia so hard, I’d totally ship Cora and Lydia.
ONce again, I wanna point out that AIDEN IS A MURDERER. Literally all it would take is someone Explaining to Lydia that he is serial killer and she’d never touch him again.
Cora and Stiles together? I’m loving it. I just, wanna point out that when Scott showed up Cora couldn’t have given less of a shit. But here....Cora doesn’t remotely question Stiles’ authority here. She immediately goes along with it and when he tells her to let go of Cora she does. Even though she has no real reason to. When she asks about the spirit board, it’s a legit question and she doesn’t argue or make fun.
PLus there’s the whole ‘Well do you know any spirits” which straight up just confirms for me that ghosts and shit are real in this universe. I trust the Hales as lore sources and Cora’s matter-of-fact tone is good enough for me.
jesus christ i wanna get deucalion and Peter in a room together and watch them just...monologue random facts and trivia at each other endlessly. “Lacrosse was originally played by Native Americans.” “Do you know what a metronome is?” Guys. come on.
Exasperated Stiles is literally my favorite Stiles. “We’re trying to save lives here for the love of god” “YOU”RE SOMETHING, OKay? JUST put out your Hand” It’s so fucking good.
Someone EXPLAIN TO ME how Scott learned to do fucking gymnastics. WHEN DID HE LEARN THIS? I hate this bullshit “I’m a werewolf, so I can do anything” shit. Especially since it’s LITERALLY just Scott they let do it. Everyone else has to actually do the work to learn it.
So...how exactly does Deucalion know where Deaton is? This literally just supports my theory that Deaton set the whole thing up.
ALSO, since I already have the tag I feel no shame in pointing out that Scott didn’t even HESITATE when he learned Derek was going to die. He immediately asked about Deaton. Yeah yeah, Deaton is a father figure to him, but if that’s an acceptable excuse for Scott to use now, then it should count as an acceptable one when it’s STILES” FATHER BEING THREATENED (but I digress, we’re not there yet.)
How did I never notice that Lydia’s Left handed?
andd.....how did Lydia know that? How did Scott know that? What did Deucalion say that even remotely hints at Danny? Scott doesn’t know about Danny’s paper...what?
Fuck yeah, vengeful Boyd. I dig it.
uh....why couldn’t allison just stand next to Scott in the closet. you know, like she did while he was getting in? Also, why was Allison hiding with him anyway? It’s HER HOUSE and HER BEDROOM.
um....okay, i know that we all like the sterek fics where they have to hide in the closet and one of them pops a boner...but I’mma be real, it’s a lot more uncomfortable when I know she broke up with Scott and they’ve been in there for like ten seconds. Plus there’s the whole knowing that she DEFINITELY has enough room to move away and so does he. *shrug*
Side note: Allison where the fuck do you get these clothes? THey’re both awesome and...kinda weird? Did you buy that dress in france?
okay, i’ll admit it, i do actually kinda like the camera angle through the map, with the blacklight lighting up the symbols (though the symbols flash on and off a little too fast). It’s kinda cool.
uh, how would taking the picture help? You don’t have the blacklight over it? None of the markings are visible anymore
why does Chris keep walking in and out? AND WHY DIDN”T ALLISON DO THAT THE FIRST TIME?
Stiles in plaid and Converse? Yes. Yes. please. That’s so my aesthetic I’m so fucking jealous. He looks COMFY.
This whole interaction is just so fucking weird XD
But like, why would Stiles know to go through Danny’s stuff instead of just asking him why he might’ve been targeted??
HOW WOULD THEY KNOW TO CUT THE POWER? THIS DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. Why does the ALpha pack keep showing up with way more information than they should have? It’s so annoying! It’s one thing if Morrell is feeding them information, but she wouldn’t have KNOWN about this! This was a good plan and there’s NO REASON the Alphas should’ve known what Boyd, Isaac, and Derek were doing! What the fuck?
....god i love Derek’s red eyes.
....god i hate that I know where this is going.
....god i wish he’d just let them tear her apart.
I know that it’s meant to be setting up the cora/stiles thing, but I love that she doesn’t hesitate to touch him, and that when she stops him it’s with a very quiet “stop.” She’s really gentle with him, which is just fucking nice. Werewolves taking care to be gentle with Stiles is like...nice.
Since when did Scott know about the plan with Boyd and Isaac? Since when did Stiles know? Is Boyd seriously texting Cora while Derek and Kali are fighting, or did he text her as soon as the power was cut?
is this the first time we see a werewolf bounce off the mountain ash? I mean, I think so, but we also see Peter in S1 try to get past some. There’s no glowing when he comes into contact with the shield. It’s the same with Isaac and Erica in s2. I mean...I guess they’re just trying to upgrade the ash stuff? I gotta say though, I kinda prefered when there were no special effects. It seemed cooler when literally the only thing making it work was belief and having this totally invisible barrier that Peter couldn’t cross. It was cool.
....i think i’m procrastinating seeing the end of this fight. I’m gonna fucking cry.
Why...why does Isaac turn and yell ‘wait’ to Boyd when he was the one running forward to Julia? I am confusion.
Dude, if Alphas could break through mountain ash barriers then Talia Hale WOULDN”T HAVE DIED. THE HALE PACK WOULDn’T HAVE DIED.
I wanna point out here, that this fight between Derek and Kali makes sense for once. Him losing makes sense. We know that the Alphas are much older than they look, or at least Kali, Deucalion and Ennis were. Aiden and Ethan don’t show up in that flashback. ANyway, Kali’s probably in her thirties or forties. SHe’s much older than Derek and she’s been fighting for a lot longer, not to mention fighting to kill.
Seriously, someone get my boy a quarterstaff to knock her feet away.
I really really don’t understand this stuff. Why is it whenever people (I mean Derek, because it’s literally always Derek) get forced to use their werewolf claws/teeth (because again I cannot believe this is happening more than once) he for some reason can’t just...shift back? Retract his claws and fangs? Derek has amazing control, he should totally have been able to do it. With the venom it made sense, he was paralyzed. But now??
What exactly was the fucking point of having Scott break the mountain ash barrier, just to have the sheriff show up and shoot Deaton down? That was literally useless.
also, Noah is an amazing shot. Hot damn.
ALSO. LIterally all this info about true alphas is being whispered to Scott when he’s all alone? How the fuck am i supposed to trust that deaton even ever said that shit to Scott? He could totally be lying about it.
WHAT KIND OF TOTAL BULLSHIT BACKWARDS ASS PLOTLINE IS THIS? After half the season being about Deucalion attacking Derek and trying to get him into the pack, suddenly “Deucalion isn’t after Derek, he’s after you” WHAT? THat’s the STUPIDEST LAZIEST SHIT I’VE EVER SEEN.
and to end my rant BOYD SHOULD NOT HAVE DIED. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? PETER STUCK HIS ENTIRE HAND THROUGH DEREK”S CHEST IN SEASON 1 WHIL IN HIS ALPHA FORM AND THREW HIM INTO A WALL AND DEREK SURVIVED JUST FINE. WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE???
Final Thoughts: No. No, no, no no, no, and no. The ‘plotline’ of this episode is literally like fifteen things that have nothing to do with each other.
Admittedly, there were a few nice moments. Cora, Lydia, and Stiles was an awesome trio. Boyd, Isaac, and Derek was an awesome trio. The sheriff? Amazing. Melissa? A fucking hero. Danny, a genius saint.
All in all, I’m going to tear this episode to shreds in order to rewrite it. Get fucked, Davis.
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sylph-feather · 5 years ago
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delta echo alpha delta
Summary: 
He is here, for some reason, in this place and with these people he vaguely recognizes. He wants help. Please, please, please. 
(All they see is a haunting and a monster.)
Prompt by @ectopal
“Jack and Maddie, at the end of their rope,  beg Vlad to come to Amity to help stop the ghost that's haunting their family. Vlad realizes that it isn't a ghost that's terrorizing them, but their son, who recently became a half ghost and is having just about the worst time in the world dealing with it. Bonus points if in his human form Danny is extremely unsettling. ”
Notes:  (yes the title is from lemon demon’s lifetime achievement award). this... i spent. way longer setting it up so sorry about minimal vlad but. uhh im really proud of this. i went. i went a little nuts, admittedly. with imagery. i hope its not incomprehensible? 
Wordcount: 2825
Being dead… is new.
The Phantom isn’t sure just how it is new, it contemplates as it stares at two children who scream and scrabble at a smoking portal. Blank in their terror, they ignore him.
His eyes flicker towards a mirror on the other side of the room, and it only shows the two of them.
The phantom ignores them— who is he to interrupt? Dead men tell no tales. He gets the distinct feeling that everything is wrong, and a piece of that puzzle is the pair’s odd familiarity— but hey, he just died, he’s really not feeling up to much of anything.
Green eyes stare in the mirror, but that’s all he is— two green wisps, apparently ignored in the panic of two teens.
He supposes he should feel weirder having, presumably, died. No, he innately knows he died.
But mostly he just feels… confusion. Displacement.
And cold, not unpleasantly so, just a buried, almost peaceful chill.
In between blinks— perhaps he is tired, so tired, dead tired (he laughs to himself), the two teens flicker away, basement restored, before he can even think about questioning them. Why are you so familiar? Why am I here? It pokes sharply at his heart.
For the phantom knows he is dead, but he never considered that means alive once, too tired and dead-brained (hah) to question implication.
The ghost of Danny Fenton closes its wispy eyes, not strong enough to maintain form, let alone to pervade that shock scrabble at memories that may lead him to living again.
xXx
Three days pass. The ghost, in moments of waking, had decided Phantom. There is something so familiar about that name, the way it rolls off his (hypothetical) tongue.
In between blinks, he sees the Family in the basement, that place of awakening.
They speak of someone missing, lost. They gesture to the green, swirling abyss, upset as they work on something that looks like a rocket. Rocket. Stars pervade his mind as he lazily blinks, and he falls back asleep to dreams of space before he can even think again of questioning the Family, of asking can I help?
He knows what it is to be lost, but he is too tired and unfocussed.
xXx
The one with the firey, long hair notices him first. He has taken to floating about the abode. Nothing physical keeps him here, but there is some tug in his heart that makes him want to stay.
He likes the red haired one. She reads a lot. Talks about bad coping to the Parents, though he’s not sure what those words mean (he’s unsure also why he gets the feeling of vague annoyance, oddly familiar, and the stinging in his chest becomes so painful when he thinks like that, like a scorpion’s deadly barbed stinger).
One day, one higher energy day, a week after the awakening, Phantom lazily swishes after her, into her room. Sometimes he blinks and he hears the swishes of pages and a drip of water, and he has enough energy now to be curious.
The doors, the walls, the floor— they’re all nothing. Or maybe, rather, he’s nothing, he observes as he notes the girl crying on her psych book.
He frowns, distantly. She’ll ruin the pages like that. Maybe there’s something more he should be concerned about, but he is so young and lost, and so tired.
He runs a finger along a page, rolling away a tear, in an effort to dry it. The pages flutter in a wind, and the girl startles, glancing at the closed window.
For just a moment, Phantom sees not two piercing green wisps, but something blue and glinting, and a fragment of a foggy body in his place. He glances down— there is no second person here.
He’s distracted by the fact the girl is crying again, harder, scrubbing her eyes.
Distressed, he thumbs at her face, and a cool, wintery wind blows over her hair.
He’s too tired to do much more, and his chill becomes like a blanket to him.
xXx
It’s small, but maybe Phantom can help the family. His waking moments get more frequent and longer, and he starts to fidget with objects; the daughter cries, and he rustles her hair. The mother sleeps on her research of the great swirling door, and he drapes a foggy arm over her. The father squints into darkness at his foggy form as he goes down for a midnight snack— then blinks and rubs his eyes. He flickers the computers off when they should be sleeping, touches at their shoulders in comfort, because he wants to help them and he wants to be with them so bad. The flailing stinger pierces again and again.
“We’ll find him,” the Parents insists, and the Phantom tries to support them as best he can. The Daughter has given up, but he tries to help her, too.
Bluntly, the Phantom notes perhaps he is not exactly selfless— one of the few concrete truths he knows of himself (the other being an enjoyment of word play; he’s twisted dead and ghost every which way). There is some innate desire within him to be with them; seen, known, interacted with.
At the moment, he’s not more than a blustering wind and a foggy reflection.
He sinks to the floor, ghostly sigh escaping his ever invisible lungs. He’s wondered if ghosts are supposed to breathe as he does, but it’s not like anyone’s around to ask. His crackled voice is never heard by the Family, responded to by nothing but icy silence.
He brushes a hand against the cold lab table from his floating position. His hands feel solid to him, but again, do not reach the Family.
The Phantom takes a look around at the toxic green beakers and sleek white tech. He is slipping away again, not that he wants to— but not that he has a choice.
In what feel like his last moments for the day (week? Month? Time is undefinable) he grasps at a beaker, curious.
Green oozes onto the floor as it blows over. Frantically, the Phantom tries to correct his mistake— but touching it… touching it feels good. A jolt of electricity and energy. The tiredness… is gone.
Something flickers beneath him, and the Phantom jumps into the air. White feet follow black legs. Him.
The mirror that showed green wisps and two teens now show a white haired boy, with two green eyes. Something seems… underneath that reflection, though. Approaching the mirror, Phantom tilts his head, and the picture glints into something blue eyes and black haired for a fraction of a second, as though it is iridescent.
And then he blinks out altogether again.
xXx
Phantom’s first appearance is in the night. The girl has put away her book she was crying over while reading in the kitchen, and the Parents are upstairs; they eat, softly, quiet. It’s like walking in snow. The cold is not tranquil, the flakes not soft, they are just sharp things that land quietly in flesh.
The Phantom decides to break it with an icy crunch.
From the shadows, from the floors, he claws at that energy.
The Family stare in shock at the white haired, green eyed form that flickers in the shadows.
Their ears ring as his form, like static snowflakes, glints into something familiar, as they sit frozen.
xXx
He sleeps again, after that stunt— but the Phantom wakes, hopeful. The Family is searching for the lost person— perhaps they will also be sympathetic to his cause. Maybe they don’t even need to find the lost one, Phantom considers; this feels so much like home, maybe… maybe. No, no, you can both get help, he scolds in gentle reminder to himself, reminding those thoughts are the scoprion’s poison. It’s not malevolent— it just, in some way, he just knows he’ll slot in like a missing puzzle piece. He doesn’t know how he knows, and thoughts like that make the urge of please see me, the love, the need, grow so strong.
His voice reaches them in a static scream; he gives that approach up quickly when the Parents shoot into the nothing. He doesn’t want to scare, he wants to be helped, and to help. He’s finally a little less braindead (his chuckle is tinny static) and can contemplate a little more emotionally complicated situations— in other words, he can tell continuing to screech is perhaps not the best idea, and perhaps more subtlety that is available to him with his increased thoughts is required.
The TV channels, the word magnets, the radio. Static and the message lost lost lost please help lost lost forgot forgot see me see see see seeseeseeseesee me.
The Phantom feels his message is going well until the Family destroys those things in a green fire.
I need your help, though, he grimaces. Perhaps they just aren’t getting it. The dead cannot speak, are not supposed to; he knows this when he writes messages, something grating in his mind that keeps him from communicating all but his basic thoughts and wants.
Determined still, he starts flickering into existence again, clawing out of shadows. Lights flicker at his arrival.
It’s hard to do much like that, though; his brain dies (more?) and it’s all his concentration of see me see me.
The Family shoots at him, and more sleek machinery invades the household— defenses.
It doesn’t hurt him.
But… if he gets frustrated, slams at the fixtures a little harder than needed, rakes the words into place to try to say something, who can blame him? The Phantom, for some reason he cannot explain, feels the Family is his family. The Phantom wants to be seen. The universe tries to keep the dead in line, restrain the dead from disrupting that natural order of their old life and their afterlife. It’s a lot of factors, the Phantom dismisses, very much like a sassy teenager, and slams a door a little harder to get someone to notice.
The real problem is that they notice, then react in all the wrong ways. But the Phantom cannot swallow that, that his efforts are squandered, because then where would he be?
xXx
By the time the Fentons are valiant enough to get Vlad to get the “gang” back together, the creature is a constant. The ghost scrapes its filthy claws over the lights, resides in mirrors, screams over anything electronic— and their tech puts no stop to it. It’s like it has a foot in each world, caught between the ghost zone’s intangibility that would let it not be hurt but make it challenging to interact and the human realm’s solidity that would allow it to be wounded.
It is too powerful.
xXx
The Phantom can feel that the irritated old man is powerful. Something about his eyes glints red, in that same iridescent way that something inside Phantom’s green eyes glint blue like a glacier, if you just tilt your head and squint just right.
The Parents, who the Phantom has grown wary of— and yet he’s still here— why? It feels so much like home. He wants it to be home, because it’s always felt his place. Maybe that missing person doesn’t need to be found— maybe he can—no, no, remember!— the Parents, they are ranting about ghosts loudly. The man is impassive, and the Phantom plays with tilting his head just right to get the man’s skin to flood blue.
“I think it’s Danny,” Daughter says softly. That name stings him, but Phantom doesn’t think Daughter means to hurt him. She, Phantom still likes. She looks at him when he shows, looks at him like someone is concerned, even if she cries harder than ever nowadays (maybe Phantom is just awake to see it more, but he notes the constant redness of eyes and face is new, so maybe not). She doesn’t destroy his messages, just stares. Not helpful in the least, he notes sarcastically, plucking at the invisible yet black (—how can it be both? How can he be two things that are so opposite and parallel?) jumpsuit of his (how can it exist when he never can exist, so many hows).
“That isn’t Danny,” the Parents cement, and Phantom frowns. The name stings again, the scorpion sitting perched upon a rib and taking personal offence to that person. Who is Danny?
xXx
Watching the old man is tiring and boring. Phantom doesn’t have enough energy to reach him, to say help me (because the old man has the glint and that has to mean something) so he decides to change that.
When he sleeps, he dreams of so many glinting things. Flickering figures of the Family and the Teens that visit sometimes. But they are just ghosts of memories.
xXx
It is in the night when he wakes up, green eyes staring at the silver pool moon, pleased as he ever is staring at those stars.
A breath passes his lips, and his nonexistent form shudders. Someone—!
“You must change back,” the ghost he saw in glints of the old man says. Belatedly, he introduces— “I am Plasmius, and I am… like you.”
“You see me,” Phantom murmurs, breath foggy. No, that isn’t right. The ghost is squinting in general directions, as though Phantom is a glimmer in his eye. Phantom is a glimmer in his own eye in the mirror, so he understands.
“You are... foggy,” the blue ghost amends, confirming Phantom’s thoughts. “Something about you is wrong.”
“Thanks,” Phantom says sarcastically (a new ability, a new joke that he loves), “tell me something I don’t know.”
“What happened to you?” the ghost asks.
“I woke up,” Phantom says bluntly. “I’m here now. They won’t help me.”
“Their son— they ignored their son?”
“They have a Son?” Phantom’s eyes flutter— “is he the lost one?”
xXx
The ghost went back to flickering inside the old man, because the Mother charged in.
“Oh,” she sighed, “it’s just you.”
“Yes,” he says, and he glimmers and shows fangs and horns, “just me.”
Phantom does not like the way he is looking at the Mother, but he’s not that good at judging subtleties in people still, so he lets that feeling pass.
xXx
The next… Phantom isn’t sure if it’s the day, he fell asleep, but his naps are less and less, so he feels safe in calling it the next day… the next day, the ghost flickers out of the old man to float with him again.
“How do you do that?” Phantom wonders. Is it the key to not being seen, to guise oneself as one of them, as not dead?
“You should be able to do it, too,” the ghost mutters, “I see it in you.”
“The blue eyes and the black hair,” Phantom breathes. Like a bird feather that shows green at an angle, so too does his other, and this ghost is the same.
“But you are unstable,” Plasmius informs in a frown. “You never settled into one world, so you are stuck unable to traverse between them.”
Phantom blinks, confused, and Plasmius heaves a sigh of thin patience.
“You flicker a lot more than I do,” he informs bluntly, in a tone that suggests perhaps Phantom is an idiot. “And,” he tacks on, more contemplatively, “you seem to not remember anything, as though you’ve separated yourself from that essential connection.”
“Connection,” Phantom echoes, and he yearns for that connection. His entire soul keens for it, to fill that hole.
“Yes Danny,” Plasmius grunts, and that scorpion strikes again, “a connection.”
“I’m Phantom,” he defends, tapping at his ribs like he can knock the stinging creature off, away from his vulnerable chest.
“You’re both,” Plasmius says.
“Danny is the other?” Phantom asks.
“The blue eyes and the black hair? Yes. He is your glint, and he is the lost one, and he is just you.”
“Oh,” Phantom breathes, and the scorpion is writhing and striking his heart and itself and his ribs and— and—
He passes out, green eyes going out like a light.
—But the flickers, the flickers finger around him, crawling over his form like electricity for a moment, and his form is a patchwork of two, and his mind is a flood of memory.
xXx
“I defeated the ghost, last night, and he gave me your son,” Plasmius’ old-man voice rings.
And Phantom is Danny and Danny is Phantom— and as usual he sleeps. Memories came in dreams, an eruption after so long of being dammed, brought forth at simple acceptance. Despite the dreaming, or rather because of it, he is achingly tired, with zero energy.
This time, his family (the Family, the same) surrounds him in warmth, in that thread of connection, and inside, in more normal and soft dreams, he feels something become filled.
The scorpion crawls away into the soft, soft snow.
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ashintheairlikesnow · 5 years ago
Text
Daniel Michaelson: He Belongs to Himself
(for @whumptober2019, prompt: Recovery, I wrote a piece set during the trial/post-captivity - this is our second Ryan POV. Thanks to @orchidscript for a couple of lines I borrowed from our convo on the fandom version of this universe and to @pinkcupboardwitch for helping me pick my scenario)
TW: Brief reference to suicidal ideation, violence/torture/abuse (none depicted, but referenced)
Ryan Michaelson falls asleep on the couch with the impact statement he’s been working on a flutter of loose papers on the floor, scratched-out starting sentences and half-written paragraphs, occasional little nonsense doodles in the margins where he tried to think his way through this.
They want him to give some kind of speech, before sentencing. His parents provided a couple of videos and photos of Danny before it all happened, but they haven’t come to the trial since the first week and they’re not interested in speaking on Danny’s behalf.
No, just like the rest of his life, their parents will do the bare minimum for Danny and Ryan will step in to try and fill the gaps, to be brother and parents both. It’s so much harder with so little of Danny left.
How do you even explain what it means to have your brother disappear and then return, only it’s not your brother any longer?
He’s been working on figuring out where to even start with the impact statement since before the trial began, since the initial preparation with the lawyers. He writes a draft and discards it - writes another one and tears that one up, too. Cries for a couple of hours whenever he’s alone in his room, then starts again.
They want him to explain what it was like to lose Danny, and Ryan’s got no fucking clue where to begin.
Does he open with the night Danny didn’t come back to the apartment they shared, wasn’t answering his phone? Does he start with the increasingly frantic calls to all of his friends, to the single thread that ran through them - he said he was going to see that guy he’s been talking to - to the realization that no one could get ahold of Nathaniel Vandrum either?
Does he begin with what it felt like when the cops called to tell Mom they’d found Danny’s car with his cell phone in a puddle of blood on the backseat, abandoned in a ditch in Oregon next to the dead body of the owner of the next car the abductor had stolen? Or when the cops explained to Ryan that the phone had been charged and on for nearly a full day - meaning that whoever had taken him had watched Danny’s phone light up with call after call after call, had kept the phone charged just to see it?
Maybe he could explain, in stomach-churning detail, what happened in his mind when a police officer had sat across the table from him and told him that local law enforcement and the FBI had begun thinking in terms of recovery rather than rescue.
He has no idea. All he knows is that there isn’t any way, not really, to explain what it felt like to be told his brother was missing - presumed abducted - presumed the target of foul play - presumed dead - never coming home.
The weird insanity he’d gone through, thinking his brother was dead. Going from a college sophomore with a 4.0 to a junior who nearly had to drop out when his grades tanked and he spent a year trying to drink himself to death, thinking if he did at least he’d see his brother again.
He couldn’t begin to explain his parents strong-arming him into therapy, telling the therapist all his awful thoughts, sharing emotions with someone when he came from a family where you never did any such thing, and the revelation of the therapist just… giving him permission to grieve, when his parents never did, when he felt like a burden, when he didn’t know how to keep going without the older brother that had always been the surest, most concrete foundation of his world.
Maybe he should start with how it felt to get the call that Danny was alive, that Nathaniel Vandrum had simply driven a truck out of the woods in Western Canada like a goddamn soot-smeared pissed-off Wendigo with his frightened brother, a bag of his favorite books, and one hell of a fucked-up story about the last four years.
Did Wendigos even come from Western Canada? Ryan can’t really remember, his Native North American Folklore & Mythology class was during the drinking-to-death time and he doesn’t remember most of it.
It doesn’t matter.
He could start with the way he’d been elated and scared, the way his stomach had dropped when they’d told him that before he could see Danny, he’d have to talk to some kind of expert about what to expect, so he wouldn’t cause extra anxiety during a stressful reintegration.
He could start with the way the trauma expert had held his hand and told him Danny was severely dissociated - a word he’d never heard before that day - and might not even know who he was right away. The expert had tried to make him understand that Danny had been held in captivity by someone who insisted he was a pet and not a person, had undergone something called extreme dehumanization, more words Ryan hadn’t known before that day and knew all too much about, now.
He could tell them what it was like to see Danny sitting at the table, hunched over and looking at everyone from behind wavy red hair grown out a little longer than when he’d left, blue eyes wide and scared that he’d be in trouble for using a chair and not sitting on the floor, begging someone to tell him where Nate was, to bring him back into the room, could someone find Nate?
He could talk about the way Danny flinched away from his touch but ran to Nathaniel Vandrum.
Maybe he could just talk about how fucking weird it was to have your brother’s sort-of-possibly-a-boyfriend be the fellow captive who freed him, who tried to kill a man to save Danny, and who sleeps in Danny’s bed but as far as Ryan can tell does nothing more than kiss his forehead or his face now and then and hold him through his nightmares.
Maybe he could talk about wanting to shout in Nate Vandrum’s empty fucking face that he should have done something sooner, that he should have saved Danny when more of Danny was left to save, just wanting to grab Nate by the shoulders and shake him and scream why couldn’t you have been stronger for him?
He could talk about how it feels to find yourself snapping at a traumatized man because he has the audacity to be very slightly less traumatized than your brother, and because he’s something to take all of his grief and hurt out on.
Because no matter how hard Nate Vandrum’s jawline gets, no matter how cold and flinty his green eyes go, he never, ever fights back against Ryan’s deep well of unresolved anger.
He just stands there, taking all of Ryan’s yelling, like he’s earned it. And maybe he fucking has. Ryan could tell them all about how looking at Danny’s frightened shattered life makes him want to cut Nathaniel Vandrum’s composure apart, because… because how dare he be so calm and collected, when Danny hides in a closet after breaking a glass, begs to be punished, to be fixed?
He’d been up all night trying to figure it out, and he just can’t think any longer. He’s written line after line after line trying to start and the day they wanted him to give the statement was just a few days away now. What would he say? Anything he said, that asshole Denner would be sitting right there listening to it, probably getting off on how he’d wrecked Ryan’s life by stealing his brother, enjoying getting to learn about Ryan’s halting, grudging work alongside Nate to teach Danny how to be human again.
He’ll probably sit there and laugh through the speech, no matter what Ryan says. He doesn’t want to bare his broken heart to that sadistic psychopath.
He doesn’t want to admit that Danny is so supremely, thoroughly broken.
He doesn’t want to admit that sometimes he wonders if recovery is even possible, or if he would spend the rest of his life managing a man two years older than him who can’t remember his own age or that bills are due or the names of the people who used to be his best friends - but who can explain in exacting, excruciating detail the way Abraham fucking Denner made him step in a trap and nearly break his own leg, just to see him do it?
Ryan’s eyes blur, with tears or exhaustion - he’s not sure which - and finally he falls asleep on the couch with Netflix still playing, lets the papers drop to the floor, allows his eyes to close and force him out of his fears and all-consuming rage on behalf of a brother who seems no longer able to access the feelings that boil Ryan alive.
Ryan wakes up sometime later to the gentle sensation of a soft fuzzy blanket being placed carefully over him. 
He shifts around, mumbling thanks and starting to drift back away, and for a second it’s like nothing had ever happened, really - like maybe he’s just fallen asleep studying, and Danny will be right there to laugh at him in the morning for not even making it back to bed.
The sound of the papers being shuffled back together wakes him the rest of the way and he groans, feeling the muscles of his back shifting around as he pushes himself up, rubbing at one eye. ��Fuck, what time is it?”
If Nate Vandrum just put a blanket on him - if that passive asshole is reading Ryan’s halting attempts to explain the pain and grief he’s spent four years buried in - he might just punch him in the face. We’re not friends, motherfucker - you’re just the only person he’ll willingly touch, and I can’t bear to take anything away from him ever again, he’s already lost so much.
“2:45 in the morning, you fell asleep with Netflix still going,” Danny’s voice says calmly, and Ryan nearly jolts totally upright on the couch in shock.
Danny doesn’t look up, kneeling on the floor by the coffee table with his red hair falling over his face looking nearly auburn in the dark, carefully setting the pile of papers on the table before flicking at a miniscule, invisible speck of dust there. He’s shirtless, just wearing the warm, heavy flannel pajama pants that he’d asked Ryan to buy him, shyly, like Ryan could ever deny him anything he actually expressed a want for.
You were dead for four years, Ryan had said, wanting so badly to hug him, knowing at the same time that Danny would only go stiff in his arms and then suddenly go boneless and relaxed all at once in the awful way he’d been trained to accept any and every touch without complaint. You were dead and came back to life, Danny, I’ll give you anything you want for forever, man, just ask for it and it’s yours.
My name is Red. I-I just want some pajama pants that are really, um, warm and maybe with, uh, fleece on the, the inside-
Of course, of course I’ll get those, I’ll buy you a pair for every fucking day of the week.
Th-thank you for that. I get, um, I get cold a lot  now. Thank you for listening to my request, Ryan. Thank you for being kind enough to give me-
Hey, this is just doing something nice. Don’t thank me, Danny.
Red, my name is Red, please, um, don’t call me the other name. When someone does something nice for you, you say thank you. Be grateful for every gift you are given, Danny had recited, he’s tilted, eyes distant. And every breath is a gift Abraham chooses to give.
Even in the darkness, Ryan can see the lines of scarring that run down his brother’s back and wrap up his arms, the oddly muscled shoulders (chopping firewood for hours is a good shoulder workout but I skipped a lot of leg days, Danny had joked one day, and Ryan had been so shocked by his brother showing a hint of a sense of humor that he hadn’t even remembered how to laugh), the ribs that stand out too much and the sharp hipbones showing above the waistband of his pants.
When Danny turns to look at him, the blue eyes are quiet for once, warm and focused right on him instead of fogged-over and frightened. The ring of scarring across his face is less obvious, with only the moon for light.
In those unexpectedly clear eyes he can see Danny, his big brother, and Ryan can’t do anything but stare. Are you still in there somewhere after all?
“What are you, uh, doing up, man?” Ryan rubs at his eyes again, but hesitantly, like Danny might disappear if he does. On the TV screen, Netflix is asking if he’s still watching and Ryan feels immensely, supremely judged by it.
Of course the fuck not, I wasn’t even watching -before- I fell asleep at midnight.
“Dreaming,” Danny says casually, off-handedly, as if ‘dream’ isn’t just a code word for ‘nightmare’ now, because it’s not like Danny has any other kind of dream. “Came out for water and found you on the couch. You look, um, you look cold, Ryan. Is… is it okay? To put the blanket on?”
“Yeah… yeah, of course it was. Thanks for that. I don’t even have the energy to get up and go to bed, I feel totally wiped.”
Danny nods, watching him carefully still. Then he drops his eyes back to the sheaf of papers on the coffee table. “Is that what you’re, um, you’re going to read about me?”
Ryan swallows hard against the lump in his throat and a deep instinctive urge to pull the papers away. Please don’t look at how hurt and scared I was, things were so much worse for you. I don’t want you to feel guilty for this. “Yeah. I suck at this, though, I barely have anything written.“
“You’ll, um, you’ll do good, I know you will.” Danny shifts around on his knees, looking up at Ryan, and it’s just such a welcome change to see him with clear eyes. “You’re not going to do a recording? You’re going to, um, to stand up in the, in the court?”
“Yeah.” Ryan drops his head back, staring up at the ceiling in thought. “I have my suit picked out already - the red one? Looks good with my skin. Funny that I know what suit I’m going to read in but no fucking clue what to actually say.”
“You’ll know when you stand up, you’re always good at speaking to people. Or you used to be.” Danny hesitates, and Ryan thinks again how young he looks, something about the uncertainty in his posture, the wide blue eyes, the mop of wavy red hair that hangs over one eye. “I think you probably still are - I guess I don’t, um, I don’t know any longer.”
If you met Danny and Ryan on the street, you’d never guess Danny was two years older… but you might guess, just by looking, that Danny is profoundly, deeply fucked up - and that Ryan is profoundly exhausted.
“I don’t know. I guess I’m probably the same. I don’t want to do it, but I do at the same time, you know?” Ryan flings an arm over his eyes, wondering why he’s so awake when he’s only even been asleep for a couple of hours, really. “It doesn’t matter what I say, does it? He doesn’t even want to be found Not Guilty. He doesn’t care.”
“Maybe not. But you should do it anyway, for you.” Danny hesitates, and then Ryan blinks and lowers his arm to stare as he feels the barest, nervous brush of Danny’s hand against his shoulder.
He turns to look down into wide blue eyes and a tense half-smile, Danny’s shoulders hunched a little, up near his chin, the curve of the scar along his cheekbone traveling down the side of his face and cutting into his jaw, lit by dim moonlight and nothing else until the red seems paler, more faded.
Danny is more than six feet tall but ever since he came back, he seems so, so much smaller. Something about the way he folds into himself, makes himself less visible and less of a presence in the world.
“… Hey, you, you haven’t, um-” Ryan cuts himself off, afraid speaking it out loud will break the spell. 
You haven’t touched me since the night before you disappeared.
“I want you to speak. You’ll do really well,” Danny says with pure certainty in his voice - and it’s his voice, the voice Ryan remembers as the basic building block of his entire life. Danny had been a kid when he was adopted, but Ryan was still a toddler - and he had no memories Danny wasn’t a part of.
Not until four and a half years ago.
There’s a moment where Ryan doesn’t move, just feels the soft weight of the hand on his shoulder - Danny’s hands are sort of ruined, scarred and numb to temperature changes, but the weight of his touch is the same.
The same and so much more, all at once.
“Okay. I will, I promise. I’ll figure it out. You should head back to bed. If Nate wakes up, he’ll freak out if you’re not there.”
“He’ll come out and see I’m right here.” Danny shrugs, looking at him for a moment longer with those calm, thoughtful eyes - the opposite of how he’d looked since they brought back what was left of Daniel Michaelson for Ryan to try and put back together - but it wasn’t really an expression he’d ever worn before, either. “I don’t mind being awake. I don’t need much sleep now. I’ll nap while you’re in court, anyway.”
I know, Ryan thinks with a dip of despair. You sleep in the closet when we’re gone and you think we don’t know.
He fights it back and smiles, a little, reaching up carefully to lay his hand over Danny’s, sure he’ll pull away - but he doesn’t.
It feels like a goddamn miracle, but his brother doesn’t pull away from his touch.
Danny’s hand is cold, under his, and Ryan can feel the bumpy silk-soft ridges of scarring where that fucking bastard had sliced along over the tops of his veins, over and over again, creating a raised roadmap of the torture he’d put Danny through for his own sick entertainment.
“You should tell them about when we got super drunk at the company Christmas party and Mom and Dad caught us playing literal music videos off YouTube in the conference room and laughing at the Meatloaf one.“ Danny’s voice is a little dreamy, wistful.
"Y-you remember that?” Ryan’s voice goes soft. There were rules, Danny has explained again and again. One rule was to never think about Danny’s life before - to forget there had ever been anything else.
Danny’s memory is shot to hell from all the blows to the head and four years of nonstop panic and fear and being trained like an animal, kept like a pet. He barely remembers his own birthday.
But… but he remembers this.
“That was a couple months before I… um, left. I used to think about it all the time.” Danny looked away from him, briefly, and the line of his face, the profile, strikes Ryan all over again.
He took it for granted for so, so long before the morning Danny hadn’t come home and didn’t answer the phone.
Ryan was never going to take it for granted again.
“You never talk this much anymore,” Ryan says softly, marveling at the simple sound of his brother’s voice devoid of pleading or begging or reciting the parade of awful rules Abraham Denner forced him to memorize and live by. “I miss your voice.”
Danny just looks at him, and it’s silent in the middle of the night, the darkest hours. No birds outside, the apartment complex is quiet.
“That’s what you can do.” Danny’s voice is caught, thin and oddly strained.
“What?”
“Tell them you missed my voice.” He is still, so still, and then he seems to propel himself up off the floor to wrap his arms around Ryan, burying his head against his shoulder.
It has been four and a half years since Danny hugged him.
Ryan’s arms are up and around him too, feeling his brother’s chill skin, Danny’s hair brushing his forearm where his arms go around his neck. He can feel the raised bumps of scarring at the top of his back above his shoulder blades, the spots around his neck where Denner made him wear a barbed wire collar for days at a time, the way Danny’s shoulders are heavy muscle with skin stretched over it, without even an ounce of excess.
Danny starts to shake, and it’s only when Ryan hears the softest hissed intake of breath and feels dampness along the neckline of his T-shirt that Ryan realizes his big brother is crying.
“I’m so sorry,” Danny whispers in a broken, cracking voice, and Ryan feels Danny twisting his fingers into the fabric of his shirt just over his spine. The soft blanket slides down and away until it puddles around his waist where he still sits on the couch, holding onto the tall, lanky older brother who once used to hold him like this after his nightmares.
But God, Danny’s nightmare had lasted so much longer.
“I’m sorry,” Danny repeats, his voice shaking and thick with the tears that fall despite his best efforts to hold them back. “I’m so sorry, Ryan, I’m so sorry, I missed you so much… I, I’m sorry that I’m not the same person, that I came back the puppy, I’m so sorry that this is all that’s left, I know it’s not enough-… I’m s-s-so fucking sorry-”
“Sssshhhh,” Ryan says with his arms as tight as he can make them, as though Danny might disappear again if he doesn’t keep him firmly attached to the earth. “Ssshhh, don’t be sorry, it’s not your fault, it’s never been your fault, I love you. You’re my big brother, still, okay?” He pulls back, gently extricating himself from Danny, putting a hand on either side of his face to look right into the blue eyes, still bright with more tears unshed, tear tracks following the line of his scars down his face.
Ryan’s own eyes start to glitter in the darkness, and he tries to blink back the tears but when he speaks, his voice has all his emotion laid bare in it, too. “I never stopped looking for you, not ever. I looked every day. I’d still look every day. I would never have stopped looking for you, for the rest of my life.”
“I never stopped thinking about you,” Danny says tremulously, putting his hands up over Ryan’s. "He, he made me stop thinking about anything but him but he couldn’t hurt me enough to make me stop thinking about you-”
Then they’re hugging again and it’s so quiet in the apartment, so quiet except for the sound of two grown men crying on each other’s shoulders.
“This is enough,” Ryan whispers against the top of Danny’s hair. “It’s enough that any of you came back to me, okay? We c-c-can find the rest, I can help you remember, I can help. This is enough. You’re enough, Danny-” He catches himself and winces. “Sorry. I mean Red.”
There’s a pause, and Ryan can feel his brother’s heart pounding. When Danny pulls back Ryan’s heart drops, but his brother just looks into his eyes and smiles, the barest little hint of one, and says softly, “Danny is, is okay, for now.”
Ryan’s breath is caught somewhere in his throat, and he pulls his older brother back into his arms. “Danny, then,” Ryan says with half-sobbed laughter. “Danny. Danny Danny Danny Danny.”
“Daniel,” Danny says with a shaking voice, as though Denner might simply appear out of thin air to punish him. Then, when nothing happens, Danny repeats it. “Danny. Daniel. My name is Danny. My name is Daniel M-Michaelson and I, I d-don't…be, belong to…”
“You got this, Danny, come on,” Ryan urges. “You can do this. Come on, Dan, we can do this together.”
“M-My name is Daniel Michaelson and I don’t belong to him, I don’t-… I don’t belong to anyone b-b-b-but myself,” Danny says softly, and then he starts to cry again.
Ryan holds him but it’s different this time - his shoulders are back and his back is straight and every sob sounds not like fear or sadness but like pure, unbridled relief.
It probably won’t last - the trauma expert and the therapist both said to expect every two forward steps to come with a step back. He might wake up and want to be Red again tomorrow. He’ll probably go back to not wanting to be touched by anyone but Nate.
But right here and now, in this moment in the middle of the night in the safest place there is for him, Danny remembers who he used to be, and it’s eough.
Suddenly, Ryan Michaelson knows exactly how he wants to start the statement he’s going to read while staring right at Abraham Denner.
A few days ago, my brother hugged me for the first time since 2015. My brother, who was subjected to every kind of twisted violence until he believed that it was too dangerous to even think of himself as human, answered to his own name.
I want to tell you how it feels to be told someone you love has been abducted. I want to tell you how it feels to look and look every single day for four years and find nothing - and be told that you should prepare for him to return in a body bag.
I want to tell you how it felt to learn that, due to the violence, abuse, brainwashing, and trauma he was subjected to, my own brother might not recognize me.
I want to tell you how it felt when they told me Daniel Michaelson was gone.
Then, I want to tell you how it felt when, despite all the odds and every statistic and the efforts of Abraham Denner to destroy my brother down to his very core, I was given the gift of looking him right in the eyes as he came back.
My brother’s name is Daniel Michaelson, and he belongs only to himself.
That might not seem like much of a revelation to many of the people here in this courtroom today - but for my brother, it takes immense bravery simply to believe he is his own.
I have been asked to speak about the impact the last four years has had on my family, and I will. I will speak about every day I combed missing persons’ reports throughout the Northwest Coast for similarities to Danny. I will tell you what it was like to lose him.
First I want to tell you what it meant to me to get him back.
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yutaya · 4 years ago
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Iron Fist Rewatch: 1x01: Snow Gives Way
-Someone barging into Ward's office acting like they own the place and also know Harold is alive must have sent such a jolt of fear through Ward for a second
-Ward puts himself between Danny and Joy when it seems like Danny might get physical
-Ward tells Joy not to have Danny arrested - Harold concerns?
-Danny PTSD set off by the elevator turbulence?? But he was fine going up. Just stress induced? He's shaking.
-FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT BREAK INTO THAT HOUSE
-Joy's dog just disappears after this episode?
-Danny just meditates or something to get that dog to calm down. Calms his mind so as to seem not a threat / not present? Is Danny some sort of animal whisperer? I'm now positive that at some point during Danny and Ward's Adventures Across Asia, they were stranded somewhere for some reason, Ward is complaining about being stuck in some muddy backwater hick town or whatever, Danny just sort of strolls up to some large animals (attached to a cart? Wait, that would be stealing. Hm...) goes all zen state, then says to Ward "they'll take us to the next town" like that's a normal series of events and not COMPLETELY INSANE, DANNY, WHAT THE F---.
-Pictures on Joy's shelf: Harold with his arm around young Joy, all six of them on some vacation. Rands + Meachums kind of separated in this photo, though. Don't people normally stand closer together in group photos? Also, young Joy much shorter than young Danny. Note: Wendall's hands on both Heather and Danny's shoulders. Harold's hand on Joy's shoulder. Ward and Danny both have hands in pockets.
-"Dad says rules are for pussies" ;___; (Young Ward refusing to pay monopoly rent because he just doesn't want to. Starting the corrupt financial elite training off early, huh?)
-"Oh, here comes Mommy and Daddy to protect you and give you lots of hugs and kisses and tell you what a sweet little boy you are. It's disgusting. *sweeps all the game pieces off the table even though they've clearly been playing for awhile and it's not like Danny just won he was only asking for like $200*" Ward, you dramatic bitch. Also, they were literally only saying they were home, not necessarily rushing in to protect Danny from the Big Bad Ward refusing to pay $200 monopoly money. Metaphorically, I suppose this is still Ward being a sore loser, though. It's not monopoly Danny beat him at, it's having parents who love him. T_T AND THEN HE LIES ABOUT IT, PLAYING THE BELEAGUERED BABYSITTER, ASDFGHJKL - WARD. (Note: neither Danny nor Joy speak up against this blatant unfairness. Previous failure? YOU'RE SUCH A BULLY, WARD.)
-Big Al is first person to be friendly to Danny and I'm sure Danny doesn't forget it. Headcanon Danny is def actively caring towards 'lower class', including homeless and drug addicts, and actually sees + treats them as equals. Classism definitely a theme in these shows with the people who struggle financially like Colleen being the kindest and most charitable and the rich being assholes.
-But also why is he informing Danny that the internet can be used as a search engine with no prior indication in their conversation that Danny doesn't know this? I mean, Danny does not, in fact, know this, but.
-In the news article, the photo of the Rands is the same one in Joy's apartment, but the Meachums are not there. However, they are not merely cropped out: the background extends into the spot they should occupy. Did some poor news article graphic designer have to go find a photo of that tourist spot background at the exact right angle and photoshop them together to get rid of the Meachums, or was Joy's photo a photoshopped family vacation image, which could have explained the awkward distance between the two families, even though it wouldn't have been that hard in editing to set them all closer together? Maybe they all still went on the same vacation together, but instead of asking a passerby to take a photo for them, both families took photos of each other and then someone combined them at a later date? Practically speaking, that still means the angle would be likely to be off for the background, and it's also suspicious that there are zero other tourists around. These rich families rented out the entire space?? Would lend to lack of external parties to take a group pic for them. Obviously, IRL explanation is they're all photoshopped onto a static background, but fun to think of the in-universe reasons. ...Actually, most likely explanation is that they took multiple photos - Rand only, Meachum only, maybe also kids only, Wendall+Harold only, etc, as well as group. So this entire train of thought is inconsequential. Oops.
-Harold had a big event funeral, "mayor and everything"? That must have been fun for both Harold and Ward, with significantly different usages of the word 'fun'.
-Hello Joy, not only did I follow you home to accost you at your front door the morning after I attacked the security at your workplace to enter your probably restricted top floor executives offices, I also did extensive research into your childhood history down to the position you and your friend played on your childhood soccer team, oh and also I broke into your house yesterday where I interacted with your dog. Now watch while I prove my physical prowess by flipping over a taxi.
-Bird flying into city while Danny meditates?? Symbolically, follows the idea of the bird flying through the pass that was Danny's sign to leave K'un Lun and return to NYC. Spiritually - what? AU where the bird is Danny's spirit animal and he's connected to it / seeing through its eyes right now. For the HDM AU fans: bird could be Danny's separated dæmon? (Would a HDM AU Danny's dæmon be a dragon? Honestly, idk how much dragon stereotypes match Danny's personality. Would have to think about that. Would be funny if someone else had the dragon dæmon, not any of the Fist holders.)
-Danny. Danny. Colleen JUST HUNG THAT FLYER UP. Take one of the little tabbies, if you must, that's what they're for, but don't take the entire flyer down! Those cost money, you know. And it takes time to cut all those little tabbies out and then go around hanging the flyers up.
-Colleen be like "dear god, this is why you shouldn't be nice to people, they start trying to hit on you, @ random park dude, please stop talking at me and following me while I continually shift out of your line of vision"
-Danny: "Hey you speak Chinese? I speak Chinese." Colleen: "I'm Japanese you dick. :)"
-Ward: I'm gonna make sure our personal security team is guarding you against this clear and present threat, but also we're still not calling the police??
-Ward turns this from either a crazy homeless guy or a scam artist into a potential organized corporate sabotage - the kind of threat that Joy is more easily able to compartmentalize her emotions on and crush under her heel?
-Ward just gets into a moving vehicle with someone he has verbally acknowledged as an active threat to his family. Did you have ANY stranger danger safety lessons growing up, Ward?
-Danny now appears to be actively threatening Ward, while using the reasoning that Ward and everyone else have been seriously trying his patience and he's in danger of losing his temper, but he's still giving Ward one last chance to back down. Note: this is a technique commonly employed by abusers, and probably more triggering to Ward than Danny knows, even though Danny probably actually does think he's being sincere as opposed to manipulative.
-->Aaaand Ward responds by ratcheting up instead, because of course he does, IMMEDIATELY leading to the gun to head scene. oh, geez.
-Danny provides personal details - probably this is the moment Ward starts to believe it might actually be Danny somehow, against all logic and reason. He looks shaken, then immediately starts trying to gaslight Danny. asdfghjkl WARD.
-->Ward lying to Danny's face and putting himself in the position of the righteous with Danny as the person in the wrong when they both know it's a lie is very reminiscent of the monopoly scene from when they were kids and the implied constant behavior from when they were kids. But this time, Danny doesn't accept it the way he did as a kid. He stares at Ward, remembering this pattern, actively teetering on PTSD flashback mode, and fights back. Makes Ward think he might be about to kill them both - while having flashbacks that hinder his ability to stop so Danny in hindsight gets freaked out about what he almost did too. (Note: looking freaked out and claiming he didn't mean to almost kill them both just now was probably more concerning to Ward rather than less.) And then he promises he'll be back because this isn't over. gdi, Danny, no wonder Ward wants you gone asap.
-Colleen, trying to tell Danny to go away because he's being a creeper: TAKE A HINT TAKE A HINT
-Danny, casually: Oh yeah Master Lei Gun "The Thunderer" used to smack me hard in the face with the practice swords
-Colleen bringing a sword to a gun fight
-Danny grabs enemy's gun, but not to use as weapon/defense - only to disarm it and run off - which Colleen sees.
-What festival is this that's happening in Chinatown? Has anyone figured out an IF timeline? Could compare dates to real world events, see if there's any potential cross over.
-None of these bystanders so much as bother to look at the fistfights happening 2 feet away from them
-Ward sitting in his office eating his food (it has decorative greens so you know it's ~fancy~) and answers his phone smiling because he's expecting the good news that Danny-probably-an-impersonator-but-also-potentially-maybe-not-but-we're-not-thinking-about-that-Ward-get-a-hold-of-yourself is dead. Way to be a villain stereotype, Ward. I know you try real hard at it so good job uwu
-Harold intro. Ward clearly at his beck and call and just as clearly resentful of it. "I think...” *resigned* “-of course, right away." is such immediate shorthand for someone abusing the power imbalance. (Note: Ward puts off approaching Harold with the "Danny problem" until night 2, tries to handle it quietly until he has implicated himself (Danny now knows Ward tried to have him killed) and Danny is still present and now an even bigger threat)
-So many elevators. All express to specific floors/areas? This lobby is so unsettling. Elevator leads to another hall full of elevators, then stairs, then handprint access to hall with second elevator into penthouse. (Note: Ward is one of those people who press the close door button multiple times with a frustrated facial expression)
-Ward to Harold: "How do you even know about that? ...Shit. Are you behind this? Is this another one of your stupid tests?"
-Harold to Ward: "I wish you would take things like this more seriously, so I don't see my company destroyed."
-Photos on Harold's shelf: young Joy, posed photo of Meachums in formal-ish clothing, Harold's hands on both kids shoulders, indistinguishable group of people on a bridge(?) somewhere. Group photo atop a fancy box, Joy photo in front of the Meachum family photo. On Harold's desk: another photo of young Joy, this one looks like one of those posed school photos where they have the kid stand against a "tree" backdrop.
-Ward says out loud that he could ignore Harold and Harold wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Harold casually observes that Ward is now and has always been childish. Ward remarks that Harold has been telling Ward he's disappointed in him his whole life. Harold is still disappointed in Ward right now.
-Harold: this is how you make your employees loyal to you. *proceeds to display his complete dominance over Kyle, who looks nervous and threatened by the direct attention* Ward: "Jesus, Dad, what the hell is wrong with you?" (Still doesn't do anything to remove Kyle from this situation though)
-Harold lectures at Ward as if everything Ward has ever done is wrong, always, including snapping his fingers at him when he starts to speak himself, like a bad dog, and listing off things that Ward has already brought up to Joy as if Ward is an incompetent who would never consider those angles himself
-Ward makes a snide comment, Harold snaps at him, Ward smiles a little bit because he has succeeded in getting under Harold's skin for a moment
-Harold: Leave this to me. I'll tell you exactly what to do. Ward: Like always. Harold: Like always.
-Awww, Danny was rushing back to tell his new friend Al all about Ward sending people to kill him, possibly looking for advice? ;_; (Also, why is there a foreboding music significance to Al having a bird tattoo? Does this ever come back??? I don't remember this mystery going anywhere.)
-Danny is lurking in Joy's office. He doesn't say anything even slightly reassuring, like that he has an appointment, just heavily implies that he snuck in. sigh.
-"I'm not gonna hurt you," Danny laughs, after displaying a whole lot of extremely threatening behavior. Joy smiles, drugs him, and buys time until it kicks in.
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sporesgalaxy · 6 years ago
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You know what? Fuck it. Here's the whole ass WIP script for the Danny Phantom/Ben 10/Deadpool crossover nightmare, which is called #follow ur crossover dreams, by the way. I think copy-pasting on my phone is gonna delete some italics but whatever.
Reminder that it's still a really early draft with a lot I plan on changing (wade Motormouth wilson doesnt say nearly enough bullshit, for starters), but hopefully u will enjoy it. happy birthday to me, my gift is letting myself share ideas without maximum effort
[BEN is running through a crowd of high school students, excitedly. He is on his phone] BEN: C'mon, Gwen, just tell me where to go! I wanna fight some bad guys today! It's been weeks! [GWEN is on a computer] GWEN: Ben, for the last time, you are NOT going into this alone! We aren't even sure what's causing this yet! Seismic activity at this scale is totally unheard of around here, and whatever's causing it-- BEN: Is gonna get it's butt whooped by the one and only Benn Tennyson! BEN: Don't worry, I can totally handle this! GWEN: Yeah, cause things always work out perfectly  when you say that. BEN: Just give me the location, and you can catch up with me there! GWEN: No, Ben. I'll fill you in when we know more, but.until then, don't run off. [BEN is dejectedy watching TV at home, when suddenly, there is another earthquake. Soon after, a newswoman reveals the epicenter just outside of town, and Ben gets an idea] [BEN gets off a public bus at a bus stop far outside of town. He looks out into a dry hilly wilderness, and down to his phone gps to confirm he is going in the right direction.] BEN: all right...I didn't wanna risk timing out before I got there, but I think I'm close enough now... [BEN places his phone gps at his feet, closes his eyes, and slaps the Omnitrix] [BEN transforms into Stinkfly] BEN: Well, I was hoping for XLR8, but I guess I can work with this? [BEN picks up his phonr and flies off] [when he reaches the epicenter BEN finds, embedded into a large hill, an abandoned lab of some sort.] BEN: ooOh [BEN enters the lab, and shortly times out, becoming human again. He sort of tries to sneak, but is clearly too excited/curious to be very effective] [The lab is full of rusting, inscruitable equiptment. Finally, Ben enters a natural cave turned testing area deep inside the lab, a cavernous room machinery littering the floor. There seems to be a fixation on machinery that we would recognize as Danny's parents' portal, but not embedded into a wall, so like a door attatched to a tube. Spare parts and dissasembled prototypes rest along the edges of the room, and a few assembled peices rest towards one end.] [Ben stands on the far south end of the cave, looking around at all of the strange wiring and such.] BEN: I wonder if this is Plumber tech... [BEN kicks a bundle of cords on the floor, and the sound echoes through the room.] [Then, a stranger sound eminates from somewhere just outside of the cavern. And another, similar, closer sound is accompanied by a visible flash. And then-- in a green streak, DANNY bursts into the air in the cavernous space, and then hits the floor and skids. When he stops, he turns human as he falls unconscious] [BEN has no fucking idea what is going on] BEN: uh...h...HEY. ARE YOU...OKAY? DANNY: ... BEN: HELLO? HELO-O? DP: ya think he's dead? BEN: AUGH!!!! [BEN jumps violently, very surprised by Deadpool's presence, and takes a step back] BEN: Who the heck are you?! DP: Call me Deadpool! [BEN gives him a look of utter disbelief. That is the stupidest superhero name he's ever heard. He's about to say that, but then,] DANNY: [groans] DP: [hops down. Puts a hand out, signalling for Ben to stay] Stay here, kid. [Ben is offended to be belittled even if it's reasonable. He stands with an angry look on his face for a moment before following just a few steps behind deadpool, hand at the ready above his watch.] [DP veeery cautiosly walks over to Danny and then....abruptly switches gears, standing up straight and gently bumping the boy's shoulder with his foot] DP: hey. hey. get up. DANNY: five more minutess.... DP: ...7Your mom made pancakes? [DANNY's eyebrows furrow. He groans again. He props himself up, and rubs his head. He's covered in dirt and some blood. He opens his eyes and his expression is full of exhaustion and dread as he processes his unfamiliar surroundings. He looks up at Deadpool] DANNY: ...........I don't smell any pancakes. [DEADPOOL and DANNY stare at eachother for a moment. DANNY seems to be waiting for something. He suddenly looks at BEN, incredulous] DANNY: So are either of you going to attack me, or are we having a staring contest? BEN: I dunno, are YOU going to attack? [DANNY is so tired. He's had a long day] DANNY: I'd prefer not to, but it tends to happen a lot. DP: Well that's depressing! BEN: Well if none of us are fighting, I have a question. BEN: Where'd you two come from? DANNY: Ghost portal. DP: Time travel. BEN: ... BEN: You're not giving me much to work with, here. [BEN points to DANNY] BEN: Especially you. I get time travel, I can live with that-- DP: Thank god. BEN: --But, "ghost portal?" Like a portal for ghosts? Are you dead?? [DP slowly prods Danny with his foot again. Danny is too busy suddenly realizing that he's in human form to be concerned with that] DANNY: I--uh-- BEN: Was that what was up with the green energy? DANNY: Maybe I just went through the ghost portal, ok? I--where are we? BEN: Somewhere on the outskirts of Bellwood, Nevada. DANNY: Nevada? BEN: Nevada DANNY: Huh. DANNY: And why are you here? BEN: [excited to sound smart] There was some unnatural seismic activity around here, and I came to check it out, see if it was anything nefarious. BEN: [cocky] You know, usual superhero stuff. [Danny is a little shocked. He's never really met another superhero before, who wasn't a clone, or accusing Danny of being evil or something] DANNY: oh. BEN: What? DANNY: You're...you're really a superhero? DP: You're like 12 is that safe? [What is the deal with all these young superheroes but say it funnier] BEN: I'm 16!!! DP: Children trying to be superheroes never works out well, trust me kid. BEN: I'm not a child!! Why do you care, huh? DP: Cause I hang out with a lot of superheroes and the heroism business has never done anyone's mental health ANY favors. [DANNY puts his hed in his hands] DANNY: Ugh, tell me about it. BEN: Ha! You AREN'T a normal kid! DANNY: oops. BEN: What can you do?? Do you have GHOST POWERS? [DANNY bites his lip] DANNY: What about you? Do you have powers? BEN: I can turn into any of hundreds of aliens! DANNY: ...care to show me? [BEN looks at the Omnitrix. It's still timed out] BEN: ...in theory... [Danny raises an eyebrow] [meanwhile, Deadpool loses interest. He starts climbing on stuff, looking at the scattered tech.] BEN: Uhhh...can it wait a minute? I just flew here. DANNY: What?? BEN: [gestures to watch, grinning sheepishly] Alien tech! BEN: I swear I'll show you later. What about you! Show me yours! [Deadpool arches an eyebrow at them in the distance] DANNY: ...I guess, since you already guessed it... BEN: What are you so worried about? Ha, haven't you ever met another superhero before? [Ben was sort of kidding, but...] DANNY: BEN: DANNY: Uh, no. Not really. BEN: ...So do you fight bad guys all on your own? DANNY: Uh, yeah? I'm kinda the only person who can. [Reconsiders, and adds with bitterness] Well, the only one who can and will. [Ben thinks about that for a second. He knows how it feels to think you're the only person who can save the world, but Ben is usually wrong when he assumes that's the case. He doesn't like imagining how he'd feel without all the support he's gotten in his hero-ing career. He's genuinely concerned for Danny.] [Danny notices the concern in Ben's expression. Ben seems to be about to say something, but Danny suddenly feels insecure about being pitied. He finally stands up, brushing himself off] DANNY: But like, I have friends, and plenty of tech they can use to help me out. I'm just the only...I guess I'm the only superpowered person willing to deal with fighting ghosts all the time, okay? Whatever! I've been at it for 2 years, I'm used to it. [Ben then adds something together in his head] BEN: Wait, have you never heard of me? Ben 10? DP: Wow! Humble! BEN: No, seriously! Never? Have you ever seen any aliens? DANNY: Uh, no? BEN: Where are you from? DANNY: Colorado. BEN: I've saved the world, like, several times. [DANNY and DP raise an eyebrow each] BEN: Publicly!! People know about me! I'm a big deal!! This is--You guys aren't from here. I need to take you to the Plumbers, so we can-- [A portal powers up again. DANNY seems to suddenly remember something. He goes stiff] DANNY: Oh no. BEN: What? Is that the Ghost Portal? DANNY: Yeah. And you're about to meet the guy who punched me through it. [DP rejoins them to look at the threat] DP: Oh, now that you two have your shit figured out, I should mention I'm from another universe. BEN: WHAT! You said time travel! DP: Yeah, time travel gone horribly, horribly wrong. BEN: How??? I've time travelled a few times and never seen anyine mess it up that bad. DANNY: Yeah since when does time travel take you to other universes? DP: OH SO WE'RE ALL TIME TRAVEL EXPERTS HERE ARE WE??? I'm not telling you two how to live YOUR lives! DP: How about I start bragging about being a superhero expert! Neither of you even know what an X-man *IS!* BEN: Like from the comics? [DP looks at Ben. He won't say it out loud but his expression says "WHAT THE FUCK DUDE"] [BEN shrugs]
[time to get DISJOINTED!!! Here's 2 comic transcripts]
...[some fighting I havent written yet]...
DP: DANNY WHY IS YOUR GHOST DAD SO HOT?? DANNY: HE'S NOT MY DAD. PLEASE DON'T CALL HIM THAT, IT'S A WHOLE *THING* WITH HIM-- [VLAD beams] VLAD: Now, Daniel, is that any way to speak to your father?? DANNY: SEE?! Now he'll never shut up about it! VLAD: I've had enough of your sass, young man! You're GROUNDED. [VLAD spikes Danny into the ground HARD.] [DP is pissed off now. He reaches for his katanas.] DP: Ok I get the picture.
...[more unwritten fighting]...
VLAD: Well, now that I have your undivided attention-- [DANNY has just been punched into the ground. He's sitting up, now] DANNY: --You can start the evil monologue. Joy. VLAD: Evil is such a reductive word. Don't you ever get tired of being beaten half to death to protect people that couldn't care less if you lived or died? [DANNY stands up, with some difficulty] DANNY: You *would* think having a conscience is exhausting. [VLAD is taking a lazy step towards Danny every few moments] VLAD: ...Have you noticed where we are, Daniel? VLAD: Because it isn't Amity Park. It's not even in the same universe as Amity Park. VLAD: And it's not anywhere your idiot father will ever bother finding, seeing as it has nothing whatsoever to do with ghosts. [VLAD is standing over Danny, now] VLAD: Do you know what that means, my boy? VLAD: Nothing I do here can spoil my reputation. VLAD: And none of your little friends are coming to save you. [VLAD places a hand on Danny's shoulder, gripping too tight] VLAD: So VLAD: I'm going to make you the same offer I made you the night of the reunion VLAD: One. Last. Time. VLAD: Either abandon Jack and let me teach you how to really use your powers, [VLAD summons some ghostly energy between his hand and Danny's shoulder] VLAD: Or force me to make poor, dear Maddie file a missing person's report that will never be resolved.
[wow direct segue into comic!]
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..[just a tad more unwritten fighting]...
[Vlad has Ben by the neck very far up in the air, and Ben is frantically pressing his Omnitrix] VLAD: [cackles] Goodness, I think your powers might be even more tempermental than Daniel's! It's a little sad, honestly. I was looking forward to a real challenge for once. DP: [on the ground, a distance away] Superpowers shmuperpowers [cocks gun, and fires a couple of shots at Vlad] [Vlad was watching DP talk, unimpressed. He becomes intangible, clearly no longer interested in Ben, allowing him to plummet to his death] [After becoming tangible again, and without breaking eye contact, in a flash of pink energy, Vlad is right in front of Deadpool, and violently pins him to a wall] DP: AWH, you can teleport?! That's not even fair!! VLAD: [close to Deadpools face, crushing his neck harder] No. It isn't. And that's just how I like it. DP: [choking] [thinking] don't say harder daddy don't say harder daddy don't say harder daddy [cut to Ben falling through the air, desperately, repeatedly smacking the Omnitrix] BEN: PLEASE WORK PLEASE WORK PL-- [Danny swoops in and catches him] BEN: [clinging to Danny, obviously spooked but trying to be cool] Thanks! DANNY: [amused] Don't mention it. [Danny puts Ben down on the ground] BEN: Um..where are your legs? DANNY: Oh, they uh...they just do that sometimes. DANNY: Is something wrong with your watch? BEN: [glares at the Omnitrix] It just does this, sometimes. [Danny sees something coming] DANNY: Well you'd better fix it fast! [Ben looks up just as Danny turns them both intangible, seconds before Deadpool is sent hurtling through them and into the ground] [BEN is grinning, watching his hands as they turn re-tangible] BEN: That is SO COOL! I've only ever gotten to do that to myself! Y'know, as an alien! [DANNY was looking at DP's crater, but turns to BEN, surprised at the genuine enthusiasm] DANNY: [maybe blushing a little?] Uh, thanks! [BEN grins at him, and Danny smiles back. They're cute.] [Deadpool's hand pops out of the crater, waving (flailing)...reassuringly?] DP: Don't worry about me, all he did was break [groans] most of my bones. [Danny grabs Ben and pulls him out of the way before Vlad fires an energy blast at Deadpool] VLAD: Still think you can manage without superpowers? [DP sits up painfully and slowly, and coughs] DP: Ac-- [Vlad hits him with a copious amount of energy blasts for an unnecessarily long time as he slowly lowers to the ground] [When Vlad lands and stops firing, he turns around to face Danny and Ben] VLAD: Where were we, Daniel? [Danny is horrified. He's gripping a fistful of Ben's shirt like his life depends on it, expecting to have to save him a third time. Ben is a bit shaken but still determined, and holds his hand at the ready over the Omnitrix] VLAD: ...That was rhetorical, my boy. I had just asked you a very simple question. VLAD: [turning his gaze to Ben] And I don't want to repeat myself. [Ben is not quite picking up on Vlad's thinly veiled threat. Danny, bug-eyed, follows Vlad's gaze to Ben, and is clearly absolutely terrified to be responsible for the deaths of two people he just met. Danny tightens his grip on Ben's shirt.] DANNY: ...I-- [a gunshot hits Vlad from behind. Vlad is completely shocked] [behind him, DEADPOOL is sitting up in the crater, charred to all hell but somehow still alive. He appears to only have one (barely) functioning arm left, which is holding the smoking gun] DP: I never said I didn't have any superpowers, jackass. [DP narrows his eyes] DP: I just like guns. [DP tries to shoot VLAD a few more times, but VLAD has turned intangible, and flies to a safer distance] Vlads gonna say some shit and run off Im not done yet but hoo boy. Oh man.
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Items In A Shoebox
This is day one of the 500 Followers JGCU Write Fest!!!! Thank you all again so much for 500 followers - this is a piece that I’ve been planning for a while and talking about for even longer, Detective Loki’s backstory within the JGCU!!! 
Just to warn you that this piece talks about a lot of hella sensitive topics and so because of that your discretion when reading it is advised, please don’t read if it’s going to trigger you in any way. I’ve attempted to be delicate about the topic but please don’t read if it will upset you more than it ought to
Other than that, though, I hope you guys enjoy reading this!! I’m genuinely quite proud of how this turned out but again I have to state: don’t read this if you feel it will be too much/too intense and will trigger you (murder, domestic abuse and more are mentioned in this piece) and as well as that, please remember that this isn’t Detective Loki’s official background in Prisoners. I worked with what was given in the film and created my own idea of his background from what was given so PLEASE don’t attack me if I maybe don’t go with the canon/what you had in mind as I will cry
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Loki’s hands traced over the top of the shoebox. The corners were tattered and worn with age, pieces of the brown cardboard showing in places. A thin layer of dust covered the top as Loki held it in his hands, sat cross legged on the floor of his room.
He hesitated before opening it. To him the shoebox was Pandora’s box. The only thing holding him back from a barrage of painful memories was a thin layer of green cardboard.
His fingers played with the lid of the box before he let out a long sigh and opened it.
///
David turned the purple dinosaur over in his hands. 
His dad brought him back a dinosaur whenever he went away. When he’d come back he’d bring a dinosaur for him. Some flowers for him mum.
The flowers had stopped recently. But the dinosaurs always came.
David ran his little fingers over the top of the dinosaur’s body. He was sat on the sofa, his parents arguing in the room behind him. But he stared down at the dinosaur.
He liked dinosaurs.
Ever since he had learnt about them in school he had been interested in them. His teacher had lent him a book on them and David had first learnt the world ‘palaeontologist’, deciding swiftly that that was what he wanted to be when he grew up.
His father usually tried to find ‘unrealistic’ dinosaurs for him. 
Multicoloured dinosaurs that would line up on his desk, looking at the child with cartoonish faces that David loved.
His dad thought that his love of dinosaurs was too grown up for a child of five. The way that he could recite every fact from that book his teacher had leant him worried his dad. 
Sure, David was smart. But no kid should be that smart.
No kid should be as mature as David had had to be. 
Five year old David stood from the sofa as he heard another crash from the room next door. He peaked his head around the corner as he always did when it got to this point in his parents fights.
His father was red faced as he stood above David’s mother.
His wonderful, friendly, loving, supportive father. 
David almost couldn’t recognise him. 
To David his father had two sides - the side that he saw and the side that his mother brought out.
He couldn’t understand why his father reacted as he did towards his mother. David’s mother was sweet and caring and so, so concerned with his father. She would do anything to make sure that his father kept happy.
David rushed back to the sofa when he heard his mother begin to scream, he hid himself under the couch cushions willing himself away.
By the time the screaming and smashing had stopped the dinosaur had left deep marks in David’s hands.
///
The purple dinosaur was the only one Loki had left from his childhood collection. It was the last one he ever got from his dad. The last time things were ‘normal’ for his family.
Loki lent over and placed it gently on his bedside table, stood up on the nightstand. It was chipped and dirty with age but still filled Loki’s heart with some sort of longing when he looked at it.
He refused to acknowledge the watery in his eyes and he pulled the next item from the box.
///
“I’m not doing this because I don’t love you - I’m doing this because I have to love myself,” five year old David struggled to make sense of his mothers words.
She took his little hands in hers as he lay under his bed, his mind fogged in confusion from sleep, having been shaken awake by his mum at three in the morning.
“Mummy?” He mumbled, allowing her to pull him back out from under his bed, into the room. His mum picked him up and set him so he was sat on top of the mattress. 
She crouched in front of him and David rubbed his eyes tiredly.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart, but I have to do this,” she told him, her eyes filled with worry and apology. 
“Are you going on an adventure?” David wondered if the bruises on his mothers face hurt when she smiled at him then. 
“Yeah, sweetheart, I’m going on an adventure,” she agreed, squeezing his hands.
“Can I come with you? I’m really good on adventures - Danny always lets me be his second in command,” David’s mothers lips pressed to his forehead.
“You’re always going to be my first in command,” his mum whispered. “But this is an adventure I have to go on alone. I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
“Are you coming back?”  
“Probably not,” her voice was no more than a croak and David felt tears fill his eyes.
“Don’t be sad, Mummy!” He begged when he saw her cry.
“I’m just going to miss my little man,” she whispered, bringing her son in for a tight hug. “But it’ll be better with me gone - Daddy will be less mad all the time,” she promised him.
“What if I go?” David offered. “Maybe Daddy will want you around more if I go?” 
“You sweet boy,” his mum sniffled into his shoulder. “You sweet, lovely boy,” she repeated, shaking her head. “Your daddy and me both love you and neither of us want you to go anywhere, okay?”
“I don’t want you to go,” he pleaded.
“I have to,” his mum released him and her right hand went to her ring finger on her left hand.
She twisted on her engagement ring, prising it off of her hand and pressing it into his small one.
“I have to do something for me.”
///
That was the last time that Loki had seen his mother. 
Now the engagement ring hung from a chain. It was a little rusted but out of all the items in his shoebox of memories it was in the best condition. 
After he had been taken to the boys home, Loki had put the ring on a chain to hang around his neck for fear of it being stolen otherwise. It was the one thing that he couldn’t imaging loosing. The one thing he had never even considered trading whilst her was there.
He hadn’t worn it since coming to university, so desperate to leave his whole past behind but now, in the safety of his home, in the knowledge that he had two people who wouldn’t leave him, he slipped the chain back around his neck.
The ring came to rest next to the thudding of his heart.
///
David waited at least an extra hour before coming out of hiding.
He waited for so long after the commotion and the gun shot before he even considered leaving his safe cave that his legs were beyond numb. He toppled straight back down to the ground when he tried to stand up.
He hadn’t realised he was shaking until he reached his hands out in front of him to try and support himself.
David closed his eyes and breathed deeply.
He crawled towards the door to his bedroom and pushed it open.
He hadn’t known what was going on when his dad had burst into his room, his eyes wide with fear as he pushed David into his wardrobe, piling shirts and jumpers on top of him in an effort to hide him. He had never heard his father so scared as when he implored his son to stay quiet and not come out unless he was sure it was safe.
It was the first time in a while that David had been told that he was loved.
It was also the first time ever that David saw his father cry.
That was how he knew that it was serious, whatever was going on. David’s seven year old mind was so fixed on his fathers tears that he couldn’t even think of making a noise. 
His father was in the living room. 
Him and David were still there fifteen minutes later when the emergency services came, answering David’s phone call faster than normal when they realised how young the child was on the other end.
David was sat cross legged by his fathers dead body, sobbing.
///
The police had allowed Loki to keep the shirt. 
They caught the men who had broken in only a few days after Loki had called the police and, after they had been properly identified and the legal process had been seen through, they had given Loki his fathers shirt.
Loki wasn’t sure why he had wanted to keep it. Perhaps because he had something to remember his mother by and he wanted something to remind him of his father - and of the sacrifice his father had made to keep Loki safe.
If he hadn’t gone and shut Loki into his wardrobe then he could have escaped with his life.
Now, Loki unfolded the shirt out of the shoebox and held it up. Blood stained it and it was almost completely shredded from the bullet wounds that had riddled his fathers body. 
That had been the day he became set on becoming a detective.
///
David hated his grandparents house. 
He hated the smell of cabbage that permeated the air around him.
He wanted his mum.
When the police had told him that they were going to track down a guardian for him that was who he had assumed they meant. He thought the long two years of separation from his mother would be over and that they would be reunited again.
David couldn’t hide his disappointment when it was his grandparents that turned up at the station to pick him up.
He wondered if, perhaps, his mum would be at their house. His grandparents were on his mums side so when she had disappeared that night he had assumed that was where she had gone to.
But his grandparents refused to tell him anything about his mother.
If they knew where she was, they weren’t giving any hints.
His granny ran a bath for him when they got to his grandparents house. 
“Home sweet home,” his granny had declared.
There was nothing sweet or homely about it. He wanted his real home.
David sat in the bath water, thinking of the events of the day.
Was this going to be his life now? Living with his grandparents? Surrounded by the scent of cabbage and bad memories?
He had cried when he first got to his grandparents house and found that his mother was nowhere in sight. His Granddad had told him that it was better than living in a boys home.
David climbed out of the bath and wrapped himself in the towel he had left out for himself and left the bathroom to the room that he had been told would be his for the foreseeable future. 
His tears began again when he saw the soft teddy bear that had been left on his bed for him by his grandparents.
Didn’t they know that nothing could be fixed anymore with a teddy?
///
The bears fur was matted and one of its eyes had fallen out at some point during his time at the boys home in Conyers but Loki didn’t care.
His grandparents had been good guardians and eventually he had gotten used to the smell of cabbage and even now, six years after he had left that place behind, it comforted him in a strange way.
But he still fucking hated cabbage.
His Granny had died first. She had a heart attack when Loki was ten and it had broken his Granddad. Loki had had to start looking after himself much more - he did the cooking and the cleaning and made sure that his Granddad got to his doctors appointments.
Loki wasn’t ashamed to admit that most of the care he took of his Granddad was for purely selfish reasons. He knew that if his Granddad was to die then he would be put in the local boys home. 
Everyone had heard horror stories about what it was like there and there was no way that Loki would be taken there without a fight.
But after his Granddad was diagnosed with terminal cancer when Loki was eleven he became resigned to his fate. About a month before his Granddad died, he was told the truth about his mother.
She had returned briefly to live with his grandparents, as Loki had suspected had happened but had swiftly disappeared again only to be found a few months later dead in a hotel room.
Loki was twelve when his Granddad lost his battle.
///
“You want the book?” The boy’s face was morphed into confusion. His eyes glanced down at the tattered classic in his hands before raising back up to meet Loki’s eyes.
“Yeah.” 
Loki’s jaw was clenched and his eyes were cold and unwavering as he looked at the new kid who had entered into the boys home only a few weeks ago.
“You want the book?” The kid repeated incredulously.
“Need me to fucking write it down for you?”
“No - no, sorry I just...” the younger boy collected himself, trying to hide his fear and Loki almost felt bad for a moment until he remembered what his first few weeks had been like at the boys home. “What’ll you give me?” 
Loki was almost proud of the kid and he allowed a slight smirk to grace his face and he nodded at the boy.
“What’dya want?” 
“Your leather jacket,” he declared and Loki scoffed.
“Piss off,” he rolled his eyes. “You know it’s not worth that,” the boy visibly deflated and Loki sighed, taking pity on him. “You get my desert tonight - and I’ll tell Anthony to lay off,” he offered, knowing that Anthony had been giving the new boy shit ever since he had arrived.
He looked up hopefully and held out the book. Loki took it from him, nodding.
“If he bothers you again, let me know,” Loki told him before turning away and stalking out of the room.
He knew that most of the other boys in the home were scared of him and the ones who weren’t were those who had been around for as long as he had. 
He had been at the boys home for four years. And what was devastating was the knowledge that he would be there for the remaining two years until he turned eighteen and could leave for university and then, hopefully, the police force.
When he had saw the new boy with his book Loki had known he would have traded almost anything to have it. Few people in the home owned anything other than a couple of changes of clothes and their school books. Anything they did own would be traded for something else - extra desert or a particular clothing item usually.
Loki had lost all of his dinosaur collection within the first week of his arrival at the boys home for a pair of shoes after his had been stolen. Well, all of his collection other than the final addition: the purple dinosaur.
Great Expectations was his parents favourite book. When he was much younger, before everything went pear shaped in their relationship, his parents would tell him how it was that classic which brought them together - they had both wanted a copy of it and had gone into a bookstore at the same time and reached for it.
They had ended up reading it together after his father had asked his mother out on a date and that was the start of their relationship.
Loki himself had never actually read it but had always wanted to - but he had no money with which to buy himself a copy after he had been taken into the boys home and had never had the chance to read it.
To have a copy of it in his hands now, nine years after he had last seen either of his parents, it felt so much that, in holding Pip’s story, he was also holding that of his parents.
///
Loki didn’t realise he was crying until his tears began to drop onto the well-loved book.
He wiped it away hastily, worried about it harming the pages that he too had grown to love but he didn’t stop himself from crying.
For what felt like the first time the full weight of what he had been through hit him. It was talking to his roommates about how he had wound up in the boys home that had sparked his need to dive into his little shoebox of memories.
Loki wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to go into details about his past. What his father had been like towards his mother and what his mother could sometimes be like towards him. The details of his fathers death. The facts he had dug up on his mothers suicide when he turned eighteen and was able to find such information out. 
The full truth of his life at the boys home weighed heavy on his mind and he knew it would scar him forever.
“Hey, David,” Loki looked up towards the doorframe. David and Jake were looking at him with eyes filled with concern. “Are you okay?” Jake asked.
Loki dropped his eyes down at the book, the teddy, the shirt, he felt the ring lying on his chest, and finally he looked at the little purple dinosaur.
Loki looked back to his roommates, a watery smile on his face and he nodded, the weight lifting from him.
“Yeah... yeah, I am.”
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darks-ink · 5 years ago
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Stalker - Ectoberweek 2019
Second AU idea that I’ve had forever that I could conveniently use for these prompts. Here’s day 2, Stalker!
Rating: Teen (swearing) Warnings: Stalking (I mean, duh), feelings of helplessness (caused by people not listening), and general life-ruining shenanigans. Also angsty in general. Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort Words:  6,035 Additional Tags: Alternate universe, One shot, Angst with a Happy Ending
[AO3] [FFN]
---
A hand landed on Danny’s shoulder, and he whirled around, muscles tensing. When he saw it was just Tucker, he relaxed again.
Until Tucker said, frowning, “Dude, how could you do that to me? You know how much I paid for that PDA!”
He spent a moment processing that, then swept Tucker’s hand off of his shoulder and turned around again. “I didn’t do it, man. How often do I have to tell you guys that I’m not responsible for his actions?”
“Oh, come on! Stop giving us that crappy excuse!” Tucker hurried after him, his footsteps loud in the emptying hallway. “Just tell me why you wrecked my PDA, man!”
Danny stopped. Turned around to face Tucker, leaning in close. Then he growled, “I didn’t destroy your PDA, Tuck. Tell me, was it me? Or was it that damn ghost that keeps pretending to be me?”
Tucker scoffed, pushing Danny away. “Whatever, dude. I’m done with your mood swings and all of this bullshit. You can come talk to me again when you’re sorted out your shit, alright?”
And before Danny got a chance to reply, Tucker left.
Well.
Shit.
There went another lifelong friendship, huh?
---
Danny felt cold crawl over his spine, and immediately stopped walking. A glowing being faded into visibility in front of him. A ghost.
It met his eyes, glowing green ones blinking back at him.
“Hi,” he said, hesitantly. After the activation of the ghost portal in the basement, his parents had doubled down on ghostly education. Their recommended course of action when encountering a ghost was to fight it, but, well. Danny wasn’t carrying any equipment, and he really wasn’t looking to anger this ghost, anyway.
The ghost blinked again, and didn’t reply.
“Uh.” Danny licked his lips, resisting the temptation to glance around. He didn’t want to look away. “Cool. Can I, uh, go?”
It blinked again. Then it tilted its head slightly, like a confused dog.
Danny shifted to the side slightly, like he was about to turn around, when the ghost opened its mouth.
“No,” it said, voice ethereal and echoing. It didn’t move to stop Danny.
“Oh.” He shifted back to where he had been when the ghost had appeared. “Alright, sure, okay.”
They stared at each other for a while longer, Danny growing increasingly restless. Why was it just looking at him? It insisted that he stay, but why? What was going on?
He had just reached the point where he was seriously deliberating the option to just sprint past the ghost when it spoke up again.
“You are Danny Fenton,” it said, simply. Its tone was hard to read with the echo.
“Uh… yes?” He shrugged at it, uncertain why it mattered. Wait. Had his parents pissed off this ghost, and was it now back to take revenge by attacking him? “I, uh. Am afraid that I don’t know who you are.” Belatedly he realized that he should probably try to be polite to avoid pissing it off, and tacked on, “Sorry.”
The ghost hummed, tilting its head the other way. Its hair, snow white and messy and somehow stirring in a non-existent wind, flopped along.
Then, suddenly, it smirked at him. Darted towards him, wrapping its tail around his waist and settling its hands on his shoulder. In his ear, it whispered,
“I’m Danny Phantom.”
Danny shivered, and he wasn’t afraid to admit that it wasn’t just the cold of its breath that had caused it.
The ghost leaned over his shoulder, grinning manically, and met his eyes again. The vivid green had made its face hard to recognize from a distance, the light throwing off his features, but from this close it was undeniable.
It looked exactly like him.
“What?” Danny blurted at it, frozen in place. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
It barked out a single laugh, colder than his own would ever be. “What do you think it means?” It grinned viciously, its cold fingers digging into Danny’s shoulders.
“I, uh.” He swallowed, throat dry. He didn’t know what it meant, and honestly? He didn’t want to think about it. “Think that you searched me out because… we have the same first name?”
“Oh?” It hummed, sounding like it was considering this, and unwrapped its spectral tail from around Danny. “Well, I suppose you’re not entirely mistaken.”
“Um. Good.” He was caught between wanting to look away, and not wanting to lose sight of the ghost. It was acting strange, and he couldn’t get a read on its intentions. “I mean, that’s good, right?”
The ghost finally let go of him, moving away to float in front of him. It hummed again. “Well, you’re not quite what I was expecting, but that’s alright. I think I can make this work.”
“Uh.” Danny blinked at it, trying to gauge its expression. “Make what work?”
It grinned again, wide and undeniably evil. Its fingers, clad in white gloves, twitched.
“You’ll see,” it said.
And then Danny’s world went black.
---
“Danny,” Jazz chided, clearly moments away from a worried rant about his safety and how couldn’t keep doing this, Danny!
Oh, like he had any god damn choice in the matter.
“Jazz,” he whined back at her, expression flat. “Look, whatever you think you know, you don’t, okay? It’s not real.”
She huffed, clearly annoyed. “I get it, alright, you want to keep it a secret. And I don’t blame you, with your parents being, well, our parents. But you can trust me, Danny. I know we bicker sometimes, but I’m your sister, and I care about you.”
“I know,” he said, ignoring the ache in his chest. She cared, but she wouldn’t listen. “Jazz, I know. But it’s not what you think. I’ve told you, and if you want I’ll tell you again. I’m not Danny Phantom.”
“Yeah, right.” She rolled her eyes, crossed her arms. “Danny, little brother, it’s not exactly subtle. You look almost the same, bar the white hair and the green eyes, and you even wear a color-inverted version of the jumpsuit Mom and Dad made for you. Your name is a pun on your actual name!”
“It’s. Not. Me!” he yelled at her, hands coming up to dig into his scalp. “Jazz, it’s not me! It has never been me! That god damn ghost just keeps pretending to be me! Why don’t you believe me?!”
“Because you’re a terrible liar, Danny!” She scowled at him, eyes narrowed. “And because Sam and Tucker told me, when I confronted them. And guess who told them? You did. So stop being such an ass, little brother, and let me help!”
He groaned as his fingers dug in deeper, fingernails carving into his skin. “I do want you to help, Jazz! I want you to help me get rid of this ghost that is ruining my damn life!”
She jerked back, eyes softening a little. “Danny. I didn’t-- Are you unhappy, being half ghost? Do you want to… get rid of it?”
“I-- Yes, fuck!” It wasn’t the right conclusion, but dammit, he would take anything to get rid of Phantom. “Yes, I want it to be gone! I want to just live my life again!”
“Oh. Well.” She cleared her throat, suddenly looking uncertain. “I, um. I’ll see what I can get out of our parents, and then we can… The four of us can sit down, discuss it?”
“I… I don’t know.” He shrugged, letting his arms slump down with his shoulders. “Jazz, I… Sam and Tucker don’t want to talk to me anymore.”
Jazz wilted a little at that, her eyes narrowing. “I… see. How come?”
“Because… Because Phantom was causing trouble for them,” he finally admitted, trying to sort through his words. To explain in a way that she would accept without having to lie. “And I can’t… control it. Him. And I don’t want him to hurt anyone anymore.”
“Oh, Danny.” She softened entirely, pulling him against her. “We’ll figure this out, okay? We’ll take care of it.”
---
When Danny woke up, it was to the nagging feeling that his life had just irreversibly gone off the tracks.
Then he remembered what had happened before he had passed out. Groaning, he pushed himself into a sitting position, warily glancing around him.
Huh. He was in his room, lying on top of his bed. Not under the covers, and fully clothed, but still. That wasn’t where he had been at all when he’d met the ghost.
“Um,” he said, uncertainly. Moved his legs off of the side of his bed, and experimentally flexed his hand. Something felt… off. Not much, but just enough to be noticeable.
And, above all, he worried. Phantom hadn’t seemed friendly, by any meaning of the word, and the fact that he’d passed out while the ghost was there… Well, it didn’t spell good things, did it?
He noticed his phone on his nightstand and flipped it open. No unread messages, no missed phone calls. So no one was missing him, at least.
According to the time he’d been unconscious for hours, though. That was… even more worrying. What had that ghost done to him?
He scampered over to the bathroom, swayed briefly, and came to a halt in front of the mirror. Swept his hands through his hair, leaned in close, pulled open his eyes to peer into them deeply. Nothing. No signs of any difference. No damage caused by the ghost.
Nothing to explain what had happened, or how he had gotten home.
Danny slumped in on himself. God, his parents were right. Ghosts existed, and they were malevolent, and he could’ve prevented all this if he had just carried one of those stupid weapons. Ugh!
Honestly, not knowing what the ghost had done to him might be worse than what it had actually done. Because if he wasn’t dead, and he wasn’t injured, well… It couldn’t have done anything too bad, right?
Yeah. Yeah, that sounded about right.
Phantom couldn’t have done anything to him that he wouldn’t have noticed already.
Hell, maybe Phantom had just knocked him out, and his parents or Jazz brought him home! Or maybe Sam and Tucker found him!
Yeah, that definitely made more sense. His parents—and Jazz, because she was basically another parent—would’ve hovered over him the whole time. But Sam and Tucker would’ve been sent home by now.
A yawn crept up on him, and suddenly he realized how tired he was. Man, did unconsciousness not count as sleeping? That’s dumb.
Well, it wasn’t like he was finding out anything more about what had happened with Phantom by staying up. Might as well catch up on some sleep.
It wasn’t like the ghost had done something dramatic to him. Something that he would have to deal with at school tomorrow morning.
Right?
---
“Alright. You said that Phantom likes to search you out when you’re alone?”
“Uh, yeah.” He shrugged under Jazz’ watchful eye. “He likes to taunt me, y’know? Really rub it in, how he-- it-- whatever has ruined my life.”
She nodded, her expression remaining thoughtful. It hadn’t quite lost that skeptical edge either, but for now she seemed willing to play along, so it was good enough for him.
Honestly, just having a single person willing to listen to him—to the actual him—was enough. It was more than he usually got, these days.
And wasn’t that a depressing thought?
“We can work with that,” Jazz said, suddenly, startling him out of his thoughts. “We can use that to prove that he really is a distinct ghost. At least for now.”
“To prove it to you, you mean?” He snorted, humorlessly. “Jazz, please, you’re a terrible liar.”
Jazz huffed, but it was lighthearted. “And so are you, little brother. But, fine, yes, this will prove that Phantom is not only a distinct ghost, rather than part of you, but will also prove that he is malevolent.”
“Alright, so… How do you plan on doing that?”
“I am not going to do anything.” She ran a hand through her hair, fingers pulling on a strand but not quite tugging on it—a lead-up to her standard nervous tick. “If I go anywhere nearby, Phantom might spot me, and, well. No telling what will happen then.”
He made a face. “Yeah, fair enough. I’m pretty sure he isn’t above overshadowing you guys, and if that doesn’t work, well… He’s hurt people before, I think.”
“Which is why we’re not going to give him the opportunity.” She fixed her expression into something determined. “So, you’re going out on a walk today. Tonight. Alone.”
“Uh. Okay?” He frowned at her. “So Phantom will come to me, but you won’t be anywhere close by. What’s the point of that?”
Jazz rolled her eyes, clearly exasperated. “You’re going to call me, Danny, so I can hear Phantom.” When he opened his mouth to reply, she shushed him and continued. “Instead of talking into it or hanging up, you’re going to put it in your pocket, preferably somewhere higher up. Maybe a jacket pocket? That way I should be able to hear the conversation between you and Phantom, especially if you switch to speakerphone beforehand.”
“Ah. Um.” He blinked at her, surprised by how thought-through it was, especially considering that he didn’t think she actually believed him. “That, uh, sounds good. I’ll… do that.”
Rather than take offense, like he had feared, Jazz laughed at his stammering. “Come on, Danny, I’m smart, remember? Just because I usually apply it to school doesn’t mean I can’t scheme.”
“Don’t call it scheming,” he corrected, immediately, somewhat abruptly. Definitely not because he wanted to dodge the topic of ‘Jazz being smarter than him, better than him in every aspect-- No! No, stupid brain, that was god damn Phantom speaking!
He jerked his head, forcibly shaking off the thoughts, and continued the initial thought. “Scheming is, uh. Y’know. Evil. We’re just… planning. Making plans! To fight back malevolent ghosts. Or-- a single, specific, malevolent ghost.”
Jazz cracked up even harder, swatting her hand at him with unknown intentions. Or, well. Unknown until she managed to catch his shoulder, because she patted it a few times, comfortingly. “Alright, alright, I get it. We’re making entirely couth plans to take down a malevolent ghost. No scheming.”
“Yes, exactly.” He nodded, forcibly, puffing himself up a little in mock offense. “We’re beacons of the light, Jazz! Represent the good of humanity.” Then he faltered a little, letting himself fall back into his usual slumped position. “And all that.”
“Right, right.” She was laughing, still, but seemed to be sobering up a little, at least. “When do you want to go out for this?”
“Eh.” He shrugged, patting down his pocket for his phone. “There is no specific time when it’s more likely for him to come out, so we might as well go for it now. Unless you had plans?”
Jazz rolled her eyes, but her lips quirked up into a fond smile. “You come first, Danny, you know that. You have your phone on you?”
“Got it right here,” he said, pulling it out of his pocket and flipping it open. “So, just to be sure. I’m calling you, and then when you answer, I just put it in my pocket and ignore it?”
She nodded, pulling out her own phone. “See if you can put it in your jacket pocket, if that’s not too obvious, and put it on speakerphone.”
“Yeah, got it.” He scrolled through his contacts, then called Jazz. “I’ll go and get a jacket, then. Uh. Am I supposed to hang up after he leaves, or something?”
“We’ll… see.” She made an uncertain face. “I guess it kind of depends on what he’ll say. If you’re sure that he left, you can answer the phone. But if he might still be around, you should just say something… not so obvious, like “there he goes”, and not acknowledge the phone. Or he might catch on.”
“Ah. That makes sense.” The call connected, and he clicked over to switch to speakerphone. “Well… Let’s hope that this isn’t the night that he just straight-up murders me.”
“Danny!” she gasped, startled.
“Joking, joking!”
“You’re the worst.” She scoffed, but couldn’t quite get the fond look out of her eyes. “Get going, or you might miss the ghost entirely.”
“Oh, please.” Danny rolled his eyes exasperatedly. “Like he would miss the opportunity.”
---
Danny hurried into the school, his sneakers squealing as he slid to a halt in front of his locker. Still panting a little, he quickly twirled the lock open. As he started shoveling his books into his backpack, he became dimly aware of a human presence behind him, and he prayed to god that it wasn’t Dash for once.
He turned out to be lucky, because Sam and Tucker leaned in around him, one on either side.
The feeling didn’t last when he took in their expressions, complicated and muddled. And not in a good way.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, feeling dread claw its way up his stomach. Had… Was this related to Phantom? Was it something it had done to him, when he had passed out? Were they really the ones who found him?
“You know what’s wrong,” Sam snarled at him, and he sincerely wondered if he did. “I can’t believe you would keep that a secret for so long, Danny! Why wouldn’t you have let us help sooner?”
Uh, that was a hard no. He definitely didn’t know what this was about.
He looked away from his locker to meet her eyes, trying to convey how much he didn’t know what she was talking about. “Sam, I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, come on, are you really going to act like nothing happened last night?” Tucker scoffed from his other side. “After everything you told us? You showed us, dude, there’s no taking that back.”
“Showed you what?” he asked, emphasizing the last word. “I really don’t know what you two are talking about!”
“We’re talking about you being half-ghost,” Sam finally snapped at him, fury burning in her eyes. “That’s what we’re fucking talking about! Now will you stop pretending last night didn’t happen and talk to us?”
“I, uh. What?” He blinked, caught off-guard by the revelation. What-- Oh, god, Phantom. What had it done? “I’m not-- I’m not half-ghost, or-- or anything besides an ordinary human! Who told you that? Was it that damn ghost? Because I swear, there’s something wrong with--”
“You told us!” Tucker bit at him, now also angry. “Don’t-- Don’t pretend that you aren’t! You came over, last night, and you fucking showed us, man! Regular you, and your ghost form, and how your powers carry over and shit!”
“I did what?” How had--
Oh, god. He hadn’t just passed out. Phantom had-- had possessed him, had played around with him in his body.
“Oh,” he said, quietly, pressing his head against the lockers. “Oh man. That fucking ghost, I swear.”
“We won’t tell Jazz, alright? Or your parents.” Tucker nudged him, a worried crease to his brow. “We can figure this out, just the three of us. Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he repeated, blankly. “Yeah. We’ll… deal with it.”
“And any ghost that threatens this down will deal with us,” Sam added, anger settling into fierce determination. “Team Phantom will protect this town!”
---
“Daniel,” the ghost purred, tone playful, as it faded into visibility.
“Phantom,” he greeted back, fists clenched. He was powerless against it, still. He might’ve learned to defend against its overshadowing, but he couldn’t fight it. All of his parents’ inventions, no matter how successful, somehow never affected Phantom.
He was pretty sure the ghost had something to do with that, too.
“Nice evening for a stroll, hmm?” Phantom swirled around him, long spectral tail crawling over Danny’s spine and flicking his hair. “Pretty lonely, though. Friends weren’t interested in coming along?”
He snorted dismissively. “Yeah, wonder why that is?” He was about to add more, but realized that it might be too taunting for Jazz, and bit it back instead.
“Oh, hmm, yes, I do wonder.” The ghost flipped onto its side, one finger tapped its chin as it faked thinking. “You three were always so close… a friendship made to last a lifetime, no?”
This time Danny couldn’t stop himself from blurting at the ghost, “You gonna tell me what you did and why, or are you just gonna taunt me with it the whole time?”
The ghost clicked its tongue, chastising. “Danny, Danny. So impatient. See, that’s what you living don’t get. There’s no need to rush through life! After all, it’ll end soon enough!”
“Is that a threat, or just a general statement?” Danny narrowed his eyes at the ghost, for once glad that it was staying somewhat close. Hopefully Jazz could hear the whole conversation. “Because I really thought you were above threatening bodily injuries, Phantom.”
“Oh, please, like I would need to resort to such things.” The ghost rolled its eyes, flicking the tip of its tail in Danny’s face. “I would much rather ruin your life and force you to suffer living through it.”
“Great,” he said, flatly. “That’s really nice to know. Now, are you going to tell me what you did, or are you just here to waste my time? Like you said, I only have a limited amount of it, y’know.”
Phantom scoffed, then flapped a dismissive hand. “Well, I know when I am not wanted. Better leave you to your sad, lonely life, Fenton.”
“Yeah, that would be nice, thanks,” he answered it, dryly. “In fact, if you could fuck off entirely, that would be wonderful. I can take it from here.”
The ghost hummed, its vivid eyes narrowed at him. “I don’t think I will, Danny-Boy. Bye bye.”
Rather than go invisible, it flew off, and Danny watched it go. Then, convinced that it was really gone, he pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket.
“Please tell me you heard all of that.”
“I did,” Jazz’ voice answered over the phone, the sound slightly tinny. “And god, Danny, I can’t believe that this has been going on all this time, unnoticed.”
“Yeah, well.” He scoffed, bitterly, still looking in the direction Phantom had gone. “Apparently people are more inclined to believe him, rather than me.”
---
Danny swore as Dash knocked into him, sending a heated glare at the bully. Dash scowled back, then paled, suddenly.
“Oh, Danny!” he stammered out, raising his hands defensively. “Sorry, man, I didn’t see it was you.”
“Uh. Okay?” Danny rubbed his arm, frowning at Dash. “That hasn’t exactly stopped you before, has it?”
“Well, no, but…” Dash flapped his hands about, like he was somehow trying to convey his intentions without words.
It wasn’t very successful.
“You’re you, you know?” the finally settled on, like that was any better.
“Uh huh,” Danny said, nodding slowly. “Not sure if you’ve noticed, Dash, but I’ve been me my while life.”
Dash scoffed. “You know what I’m talking about, Fe-- Danny. But if this is your revenge for the bullying, I get it.”
“It’s not, but okay, whatever.” He was growing increasingly sure what this was about, but… “Didn’t know you were the hero-worship type, Dash.”
Inexplicably, the boy flushed, looking away. “Whatever, Fenton. Don’t push your luck.”
He stormed off, leaving Danny alone with his confusion. Man, what had Phantom done now?
Before he could spend too much time wondering about it, cold crawled up his spine, and he shivered with both cold and anticipation.
A ghost was here. Phantom, probably, because for all that the ghost liked to play with him, it refused to share with other ghosts. Must consider him its toy, which was a pretty fucked up thought, really.
Suddenly he was pressed against the lockers in the empty hallway, a hulking ghost pinning him with a single massive gloved hand. Its skin gleamed like metal, empty green eyes narrowed, and skull-like face grinning wide. Green flames licked out of the top of its head, a ghostly mockery of a mohawk.
Then Danny’s eyes caught on the hand that wasn’t pinning him. A huge knife, slightly curved and ecto-green, slid from the ghosts arm, and it didn’t hesitate with pressing it against Danny’s neck.
“I have you now, whelp,” it grunted at him, a tone of elation to the echoing voice. “I will-- Wait.”
“Gladly,” he muttered back, head tilted back as far as it could go. He was afraid to swallow away the lump caught in his throat, afraid that the motion would press the knife in too deep.
The ghost took its eyes off of him, and then, blessedly, slid the knife back into its arm. Turning the limb slightly, it peered at what appeared to be a screen, although Danny wasn’t sure what it was supposed to show.
He waited for a long moment as the ghost peered at the screen, then glanced at him, then back at the screen. Finally it declared, disdainfully, “You are not the prey I was promised.”
“Uh. Okay?” Danny said, feeling a deja-vu of the worst kind. Had he really swapped his regular human bully for ghosts like this one. “Um. I’m sorry to hear that?”
It peered at him, entirely green eyes narrowed. Then it made a humming noise, stepping back and releasing Danny entirely. “Yes, a shame for sure. There is no sport in hunting ordinary human beings. Run along, child.”
“Sure.” Danny pulled his shirt straight, then started walking away, glancing backwards a few times to make sure the ghost didn’t chase him. But it didn’t seem to change its mind, tapping on the screen on its arm and muttering to itself.
And all Danny could think, as he fled away, was how close he had just been to death.
Just because one damn ghost had turned Danny into its personal play-thing! Because it was so set on pretending it and Danny were one and the same, that everyone believed it.
A few hallways away from the ghost, Danny stopped. Stopped, and let it all sink in. Drowned in the rush of adrenaline and terror.
And, by god. He might not be able to fight Phantom, to stop it, but he was going to find a way to stop it from overshadowing him. Even if it was the last thing he would do.
Because… Because sooner or later, that damned ghost was going to kill him anyway.
And Danny wasn’t going to go down without a fight. That, he was sure of.
---
“You need to tell them,” Jazz said, voice simultaneously stern and patient. “They’re the ghost experts for a reason, Danny.”
“I know.” He wiped a hand through his eyes, tired. Exhausted, really, from months and months of this… this. “I know, Jazz. It’s just… hard. No one ever believes me.”
“I do,” she assured him, even though he wasn’t quite sure that she did. “And they will too, Danny. Haven’t you heard them talk about ghosts before? Insist that Phantom must be bad, because all ghosts are malevolent? They’ll believe you.”
Yeah. Yeah, they would have to, wouldn’t they? After all, they were the ones who constantly insisted that all ghosts were evil. That Phantom was just tricking the town.
The only reason he hadn’t gone to them before was because he was afraid that the ghost would interfere, somehow. That the moment he distracted his parents, it would attack them, hurt them.
Overshadow them, and make them believe that same lie. Make them hurt him, because they think that he is Phantom, too.
He swallowed, heavily, and nodded at Jazz. “Alright. Let’s… Let’s get it over with.”
They shuffled into the room, his parents sitting at the dinner table, quietly talking. Both quietened as he and Jazz came in, looking up.
“Mom, Dad?” he asked, voice loud in the sudden silence. “Can I, uh… talk to you?”
“Of course!” His dad grinned wide, encouraging, and gestured over to the empty seats. “What about, kiddo?”
Danny licked his lips, then glanced over at Jazz. “About… About Phantom?”
He could swear that he felt the mood drop at that. His parents both looked at each other, expressions complicated but not… not happy, not like they should have been. Didn’t they want their kids to talk about ghosts?
“Ah… Of course,” his dad finally managed, gesturing at the chairs again. “Come, sit down.”
Nodding, he did as asked, taking the seat furthest away from his parents. Jazz followed right behind him, taking the last seat.
He opened his mouth to explain, but didn’t get a chance to.
“We’re so sorry, Danny-boy!” his dad blurted, eyes big and pained. “We-- We suspected for a while, but we were just… We didn’t want to believe, and we hurt you for it, and we’re so so sorry, Danny!”
Danny snapped his jaw shut again. Blinked, caught off-guard.
“Uh. Suspected… what, exactly?”
“That you are Danny Phantom.” His mom folded her hands together so tightly he was sure her knuckled were turning white. Her hood was pulled away for once, her eyes visible, full of hurt. “It was… It should’ve been obvious. It was obvious. But we let you get hurt just because we didn’t want to accept that. And we’re sorry, Danny. We messed up.”
“I-- That’s not…” He swallowed, feeling like his throat was closing up. His parents were so emotional, so focused on apologizing, and he was sure that he would be dying of acceptance if he was, you know, actually half-ghost. “I’m not Danny Phantom. That’s what I wanted to talk about. I want you to help me stop him. Stop it.”
His parents shared another glance, and he saw that they were gearing up for another soothing speech about love and acceptance and he couldn’t-- he couldn’t bear to hear it, so he continued before they could speak up.
“I’m not alright? Phantom has been haunting me for months, pretending to be me. At the start he would overshadow me for hours on end, cementing in the lie. And by the time I could throw him off, it was too late. Because… Because people believe him, and not me. And… And if you don’t believe me, just ask Jazz! Because she heard him, now, taunting me when he’s sure no one else is around to overhear!”
He turned to shoot a begging look at Jazz, and she smiled back, soothingly. To their parents, she said, “He’s right. I heard him talk to Danny earlier today, and… and it was awful. Phantom is out to make Danny’s life a living hell, and he isn’t afraid of playing dirty to achieve that.”
“He’s getting worse and worse,” Danny agreed, drawing the attention back to him. “At first he was a pain, yes, making people believe I was half-ghost and all that, but it wasn’t… It was mostly just limited to me. Now he’s causing more and more trouble, and blaming it all on me, because everyone thinks he is me. Tucker and Sam are both so mad at me that they won’t even talk to me anymore, and I don’t even know what he did to them! And-- And before we know it, he’s going to seriously hurt someone, and we can’t wait for that to happen.”
“Well… dang,” his dad said, finally, voice far more quiet than Jack Fenton’s voice had any right to be. “That’s… quite the story, Danny. Of course we’ll help you, kiddo.”
“And I think I know just the way to do it.” His mom grinned, wide. “We’ll stop Phantom, and we’ll clear your reputation, in one fell swoop.”
Danny leaned forward, a smile creeping onto his face as excitement sparked in his chest, and said,
“Deal.”
---
The lab was empty, the noise of his boots scraping over the floor loud and echoing ominously. In front of him loomed the giant arch of metal that his parents had worked on for so, so long. The tunnel behind it was dark, the cables that through it barely visible even at the very start of it.
Danny swallowed, thickly, and pulled at the edge of one of his gloves. The material of the jumpsuit was uncomfortable, unfamiliar. But it was designed to protect. He couldn’t afford not wearing it.
He stretched a little, attempting to get the thick white material to settle better. Tugged on his black collar to stop it from cutting into his throat quite as badly.
Confident that he had stalled as much as he could afford to, Danny wandered over to the Portal’s computer console. He checked all its data, all its settings, assuring himself that everything was as it should be.
Cold ran over his spine, and Danny braced himself for what he knew was coming.
“What do you think you’re doing?!” the ghost snapped at him, visible the moment it passed through the walls of the lab. Agitated, it continued to fly laps, rather than pause in front of Danny like usual.
“What do you think I’m doing?” he taunted back, crossing his arms and leaning back against the Portal console. One of the panels was partly unscrewed, and he was counting on the ghost being too upset to notice—or just straight-up not care. Hidden behind it was a gun, in case Phantom lashed out.
The ghost snarled, suddenly coming to a halt in front of Danny. The green of its irises burned like flames, the glow around its body flickering wildly. “Who do you think you are, huh? Little smartass, turning my own tactics against me! I won’t let you! This is my game! I am the one in control, not you!”
“I don’t know,” Danny said, cocking his head at Phantom. The ghost still had its spectral tail, the limb twitching in agitation. “Doesn’t really look like it, does it?”
It growled, suddenly shooting forwards and grabbing him. White fake-hazmat digging into white real hazmat. “Think you’re smart, do you? Ha!”
Phantom released him again, flying a circle, then landing on the floor. Its tail split back into legs, and it stood in front of Danny. Looked exactly like him but color-inverted, now, both dressed in hazmat.
“This is my game! I am the one who gets to make these choices! You are my plaything, my little human whose life I can ruin all I want! And now you’ve gone and cut off the ghosts! All of those delicious, trouble-making ghosts, whose presence I could blame on you! After all, if you had just been a little better at being a hero, you would’ve stopped them! Right, Danny Phantom?”
Danny rolled his eyes, playing unimpressed. Not that it was all that hard—he’d grown used to doing it whenever he had to deal with Phantom. “Yes, I’m sure your upset has nothing to do with the fact that I cut off your supply of ectoplasmic energy. Not like you need that to exist in the human realm, right?”
And then he leaned forward, pressing into Phantom’s personal space, like the ghost had so often done to him, and grinned. “Now who’s making do, huh?”
“Wha--” was all the ghost managed before a blue vortex burst into life behind it, quickly drawing him backwards and away from Danny.
Jazz capped the Fenton Thermos, a vicious grin on her face. She was flanked by their parents on either side, weapons drawn and aimed right where Phantom had been. Hidden in a secret nook of the lab, unknown to everyone. Everyone, including Phantom.
“Got it,” she said, flipping a switch on the Thermos to lock it. “And it’s not getting out again.”
Danny laughed, relief washing over him with a force he hadn’t known it could possess. He laughed, carefree for the first time in months. His eyes searched out the camera, the light on it blinking, proof that it had recorded the whole thing.
He smiled up at it, feeling lighter than ever before in his life, and said,
“And finally, finally, I am free! Phantom will never bother us ever again!”
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