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lynrasa · 4 months ago

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To Dust You Shall Return: Phantom/Secret

Why is there not more of this? She's basically canonically a halfa.

(I know the answer is because Young Justice is vastly underappreciated. Shh.)

Some notes on Greta Hayes | Secret as a halfa.

Based on her described power set, she is absolutely a halfa and would fit right in to Danny Phantom without any real adjustment.

Given the specific variety and format of her powers, she is a halfa almost exactly as OP as Danny.

The only part of her story that doesn't fit the 'halfa' thing is the simplicity of her death. There doesn't seem to be a portal involved in her death, and Danny doesn't appear to be a psychopomp. That's fairly easy to fix: the tape deck that Billy | Harm used to kill her was chanting a summoning spell / portal opening spell. It's clear that she and / or Billy had some magical ability before their respective deaths, so that might have affected things as well.

Alternatively, Greta was mostly just an extremely powerful ghost until Darkseid (Side note: the fact that Greta called Darkseid Doug Side [and he let her] is not played up nearly enough) returned her to life, at which point she becomes a halfa or maybe some other flavor of undead since she doesn't seem to have access to her powers anymore.

If she is a full halfa and possibly just as a ghost- Greta has a Smoke Core. Also, I like the idea that, like Danny, she has Ancient potential from the beginning. She can literally be the Ancient of Secrets, which would neatly explain both her Core (Smoke and Mirrors) and The Abyss. On the other hand, The Abyss can just be the jacked up version of Danny storing shit in his chest.

Her Obsession would be her greatest weakness because Greta is basically obsessed with Normality / Life. I like the idea that Obsession loss- Secret starting to give up on the idea of Normality helped lead to her insane jealousy over Robin. She briefly fixated on him from an Obsession point of view- the secondary obsession (which could also fit into the larger obsession- CompAllo) helped shore her up. Also, I generally see Tim as a late-bloomer in the whole Romance thing. He does stuff more because it's expected of him not because he actually feels things. I am also heaadcanoning him as on the younger end of the Young Justice group. I don't know if I'll put Secret on the higher end, but even so, girl puberty generally starts before boy puberty.

Also, Tim is very much a product of CompHet 90s masculinity, honestly as bad as Kon. So he did not grow up reading romances, he did not watch romcoms, etc. Greta did. So she takes it as a love declaration, but Tim was thinking more of emotional support / backup. He meant it; he was sincere, but he doesn't really understand overpromising (he never will). It's part of his problem with Spoiler, too and Jack Drake. Tim's emotional priority is Batman Gotham. In the words of Eliot Spencer "You can't make that promise to more than one person."

I really like the idea that Greta is a halfa and the one Secret eluding her is transforming on her own. First, she can't find the secret to being human, then she can't find the secret to being a ghost. Given Doug Side's involvement, I expect her transformation is paradoxical, something like the moment she stops wanting to be alive she can be returned to life or the moment she stops wanting powers she can be a ghost again? No, that doesn't seem to fit.

Something about the Anti-Life equation though. And she is a psychopomp, she is a portal? The anti-life equation incites a death wish in people right? Or a wish to cause death? Harm may have been an early devotee of the Anti-Life equation, which means it could have been involved in Secret's death. Why did Secret make a good sacrifice for Buzz / for the Anti-Life equation? Was she already a paradox? Someone filled to the brim with vitality, but with a dark / death-seeking place inside them? Or was it about potential? The most life converted to death? Something like that.

Regardlesss, I really really want to write something with Greta and Danny. Do I want to write them together? I mean, that feels cutesy and too perfect and Mary Sue-ish, but honestly it would be reasonably true to both their characters. Maybe this could be college shenanigans.

Actually, I really like the idea that Greta's 'secret' nature means that her ectoplasm is completely undetectable if she's not in Ghost form. So Danny has no clue that she was ever Secret, was ever a ghost, and they're dating.

At some point Danny comes clean about he was to Greta and she blows up, something on the order of "NO! NO! NO! I GOT AWAY FROM DEATH. IT CAN'T HOLD ME ANYMORE. I WAS FREE!" I think the key word there is 'was'. Her emotional distress forces her back into her ghost form. At which point, she, somewhat understandably, blames Danny and attacks him, "YOU DID THIS TO ME! TURN ME BACK! LET ME GOOOOOO!"

Danny had absolutely no idea that Greta was a halfa before she transformed, and is confused by her apparently out of nowhere halfa transformation, especially the bit where he couldn't sense her until she transformed. He can sense Dan, Ellie, and Vlad. And even Val and Jazz and Sam and Tucker (high level liminals). Also, she's really strong. Like really strong. Like, if she actually knew how to fight other ghosts at all, she'd probably be the most dangerous person he'd faced since [either Pariah Dark or one of the Ancients]. She's only used to fighting the living though and she's busy having a mental breakdown, oh, and there's the bit where Danny is King. So, he's able to soup her and take her to Frostbite, since he's really worried about her. [Also, ship name is now Dry Ice]. Absolutely going for Ghost Emote Communication, so the entire time, Danny is apologizing to her in Ghost.

Shit. I was thinking about playing this for laughs, but now I've accidentally had Danny repeat one of her major traumas. Fuck. Okay, There will be lots of Greta learning about her biology- not her powers, she knows how to use those, she just needs to figure out how to transform. She will not figure it out immediately, but Danny is able to help her transform back by transforming with her. (Very shoujo, I know, whatever, she's a 90's character and by making her a halfa I gave her a magical girl transformation. Also, ectoplasm follows Green lantern rules, so when she first masters transforming on her own, Greta absolutely has a Sailor Moon style transformation sequence, though she gets to skip the pose at the end, and her halfa outfit is always her Young Justice character design.)

Actually, I really like the idea that- while this is a forced to remain in contact scenario- Danny leaves everything for Greta to choose. Also, while he didn't tell the specifics until the start of this story, she did know he wasn't standard human. He was open about that, just not that he was dead instead of meta. When she first transforms out of anger she goes straight to Secret's outfit. The first time she means to transform from human to ghost, she appears "in the outfit she died in". Greta died in the bath, so she's naked. Danny immediately closes his eyes (despite having seen her naked while they were dating- I don't know that they actually had sex- that might have been skinny dipping or an "almost" or just a changing situation [Anita has no body modesty; I suspect this rubbed off on the rest of YJ after they knew Tim's identity].) and talks her through how to change her outfit as a ghost.

At first, her transformations happen due to extreme emotional distress. She's always furious when she finds Danny to help her transform back. She manages to stay out of sight- she's good at stealth, but she hasn't figured out invisibility. Danny earns back a little bit of goodwill by teaching her to go invisible immediately. Especially because Danny does not treat her as stupid for not knowing. He keeps up a running commentary about all the trouble he had when he first encountered his powers and how shit a teacher he is. (This is actually true.) It also helps that he treats invisibility as a basic safety precaution rather than a 'cool power'. So, for future transforms, if she transforms, she immediately goes invisible.

She also appreciates (once she notices) that Danny stopped assuming she was his girlfriend as soon as the fight happened, but did not stop being available for emotional support. She also appreciates that he's never asked about her death. [She didn't get the cultural stuff any more than he did. She doesn't know that asking is severely taboo in ghost culture.] Danny, for his part, desperately wants to give her the culture stuff he didn't get, particularly the stuff that caused him so much trouble, but has noticed Secret's particular aversion to discussing her powers or ghostliness. Jazz or maybe someone else warns him to let Greta set the pace, and he takes the advice.

Things start to turn around when a Young Justice fight- ooh, no, better. Cissie is taken hostage / kidnapped by a particularly crazed fan. This has happened before. I think her identity is public (need to check), so normally this is solved by Cissie shouting for Kon. Or better, she shouts for Cassie whose identity is also public, but usually Kon shows up. They set this up specifically- lots of people think to shout for Superboy; no one shouts for the Wonders; they're not known to have superhearing.

Except this time: the core four are in space. All of Young Justice is still in a group chat, so Cissie knows shouting won't do her any good and Greta knows that Kon and the rest can't help Cissie when she sees the breaking news alert. She has contact info for the Justice League, but her justified experience as a member of Young Justice is that the Justice League will not listen to them and can not be counted on. She makes a mental note to bug [Red] Robin into giving her the information for the Titans and the Outlaws. Then she hunts Danny down in their human forms so he can switch them to ghost and she can go save Cissie.

She isn't the only Young Justice reservist who shows up. Anita can teleport. Also, Danny follows her, but when he sees Secret and Empress flawlessly fall into fighting together, he wisely decides to stay well out of it, except at one point he turns Cissie intangible to prevent the crazed fan hurting her. Cissie and Anita assume Secret did it (No they don't, but they aren't going to press Greta about it. Headcanon: Young Justice rules of order state that the person gets three strikes or until it reaches WTF level before there's an intervention to demand an explanation. There are levels to acting on a Young Justice league WTF by the way. Level 1) Bart is told. Level 2) Tim is told Level 3) Cassie is told Nuclear option: Tell Kon and ask him to keep it from Tim and Cassie.)

Once Cissie is free, Anita and Cissie's main concern is figuring out if Secret is dead again. They're really upset about that idea which makes her happy. She assures them it's only sorta and tells them she can change back. She ducks out of sight. Danny helps her change back without a word- he can manage invisibility in human form, but mostly just stays hidden. Cissie and Anita are desperately happy Greta's not dead, but also concerned. They know Greta wasn't really interested in her powers. All she wanted was to be normal.

Greta assures Cissie that Cissie's safety is worth more than Greta's normality. Anita's a little tactless about it, but that's Anita. Greta and Cissie get it; Anita loves heroing and wants to get back to it full time. Anita heads home. Greta ducks back into hiding so Danny can help her transform back, then carries Cissie to the police station. Cissie lies and says she was saved by Superboy and Empress, but they had to rush off to some other disaster. Greta and Danny fly back to campus and Greta quietly and more than a little grudgingly- she doesn't want to forgive him yet- thanks him for helping her save Cissie. She also thanks him for staying out of the way. Danny admits a little about his own vigilante past and they fly back in silence.

Sometime after Greta has started to figure out transforming on her own, someone on the campus dies. Greta feels the pull towards her duties as psychopomp. When she gets there, Danny is also there, pulled by something he doesn't know to the spot. Greta starts to do the psychopomp thing, but something about her appearance specifically sets the soul off. She sighs and tells Danny to try. Danny does not know what she's talking about.

Uno Reverse Card. Greta hadn't known they were halfas; Danny hadn't known they were psychopomps. He freaks out- less violently- but otherwise a lot like hers. Danny is surprised he's never had to do it before. Much later, they find out he actually has. Greta is a psychopomp for those who will move on, Danny for those who will remain. She is Mercy and Judgement and the End. He is Compassion and Memory and the Beginning. Some souls, like the one on the campus, are undecided, so they both get pulled to them. They don't meet everybody who dies, just those who need a little help.

Also, like with Kathy, sometimes they can lead the person back to Life instead of to Death and the Afterlife. When Greta does this, the result is no more than a little liminal. When Danny does it, it makes undead of some sort or another, or at the very least, high level liminals. This is due to the excess of ectoplasm in Danny and the difference in their roles as Psychopomps- she's Death / The Abyss, he's Afterlife / The Infinite Realms. Or, in their role as dualities, She's Life or else Death he's Life and Death.

I may end up altering their uniforms so she has a ⊻ and he has a ∧ as part of their costumes (Logic symbols: Either Or for her, And for him). Possibly on capes. Maybe capes which only appear when they're being formal. This amuses me immensely, because I'm a dork. Also, I'm adding notes: On his cape, the shape is basically made out of galaxy- matching the representation of the milky way. On hers, it's curls of smoke and / or whitewater. (Because I will absolutely reference Abhorsen whenever I can. Always. Continuously.)

#phandom #danny phantom #secret dc #greta hayes #young just us #danny fenton #College age #not!fic #ficdump

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demonrubberduck · 6 months ago

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Saw you were looking for dracula fic prompts? I <3 all of your suitor squad jack/arthur/quincey fics so much, so something with them? Anything but angst-no-comfort.

The final one! Finally! Sorry it took so long, anon.

Boys Will Be

(Summary: Back in their college years, Arthur recruits his two best friends to help him steal a rival team's mascot. Jack cares nothing about sports, but still finds himself along for the ride.)

Jack knelt in the darkened doorway of the back entrance of a clubhouse, picking the lock by the light of Arthur’s torch, which the other man held over Jack’s shoulder. From around the corner, they could hear Quincey’s voice rise and fall, punctuated by the laughter and gasps of disbelief of the underclassmen the Alpha club had left guarding the place.

This was all Arthur’s fault, of course. Such adventures of theirs were always Arthur’s fault. He had romantic notions, a bottomless pocketbook, and soulful blue eyes that could whittle a young man’s resistance down until he agreed to go along with his latest scheme.

So here Jack found himself, trespassing on a rival college’s campus far after curfew, illegally breaking into a building to steal the rowing team’s grotesque mascot due to some bizarre sporting tradition.

Whoever held the otter would supposedly win the… race, or meet, or whatever it was they called their blasted rowing competitions. So far in Jack’s time in school, no one had managed to lift the thing from Alpha club, and the Alphas had taken the trophy year after year.

But this year, Arthur was determined. He was captain of the team, and more importantly, when his father had been captain, he’d managed to steal the taxidermied monstrosity. So Arthur had to as well. He adored his father, practically idolized the man. If his father had done it, he had to as well. It was legacy, he insisted.

Jack thought it was a load of bollocks, but Arthur had asked him to help, with those shining blue eyes trained on Jack, and suddenly Jack had found his nonexistent school spirit aroused.

His tool caught on the final pin in the tumbler, and when he gave it a twist, it opened. A warm hand came down on his shoulder, giving it a quick squeeze.

“Well done, old chap! I knew you were the right man for the job,” Arthur whispered. He offered Jack a hand up, which Jack took. He tried to look suitably stoic– he really cared nothing about sports, and he didn’t want Arthur getting ideas that they should pull this sort of stunt before every match he had for his inexhaustible list of clubs and sports teams– but a little of his excitement must have shone through, because Arthur just grinned at him and opened the door with a bow.

—------------------

Arthur had cut off the torch once they got inside. There was only faint light from the windows, but Arthur’s reconnaissance had given them a general idea of where the mascot was being displayed.

Along the way, Jack counted the windows, and when they reached the one they’d settled on in advance, he unlocked and opened it. They waited, and after a tense moment, there was a rustling of bushes and the soft thump of shoes hitting the tiled floor, and then there Quincey was, caught up to them.

“They bought it?” Jack asked. Quincey nodded.

“‘Course they did. I told you, the foreign exchange student sent on a wild goose chase to prove his affection for the local beauty is a classic. They bought it, hook, line, and sinker. Even offered to buy me a pint in commiseration.”

Arthur chuckled. “Well done, mate. You were the perfect distraction.”

In the shadowy darkness, Quincey made an over exaggerated gesture of tipping his hat. Then he shut and locked the window. None of them wanted the janitorial staff to be blamed for the theft. If everything went to plan, the Alphas would awaken tomorrow and have no indication of how their precious stuffed animal had been spirited away.

Arthur had planned every detail meticulously. Every other attempt, this year and for the past 3 years at least, had failed, but none of them had been led by Arthur Holmwood.

They’d chosen tonight, the night before the race, because Arthur had known all the upperclassmen would be resting, leaving the more naive and easily distracted freshmen to serve as night watchmen. He’d bribed one of the janitors for a sketched map of the clubhouse layout, and a detailed description of the display case in which the otter was held.

Arthur had kept his crew small. Other boys’ attempts had failed because they'd brought too many people along and had been detected. Quincey and Jack were not on the team, but they were the friends Arthur trusted the most with this all-important mission.

Jack had been recruited first, and he’d walked on clouds the whole day, knowing that Arthur Holmwood was relying on him. He was the Lockbreaker, and Quincey the Face, and Arthur the Mastermind. They were clever, efficient, and they trusted one another, and this, Arthur had insisted, would see them to victory where so many others had failed.

Arthur led the way down the hall, through a doorway and up a set of stairs. Another turn found them in the Alpha’s trophy room. Case after case of trophies, medals, and photographs of posh, smiling boys littered the walls, a shrine to their illustrious history. And of course, high up on the back wall was the case that held their prized mascot.

It was a horrific looking thing. Perhaps it has once been a display of taxidermied skill, but time, repeated thefts, and the ritual of the team members rubbing the fur for luck had left the animal looking ragged and worn. Jack sighed. They were risking bodily harm or even expulsion for this?

And then he hazarded a look back at Arthur and Quincey, who were grinning up at the creature with twin expressions of delight, and he revised his thoughts. Jack was risking it for them, and that, he could accept.

Arthur drew the curtains on the window and hazarded the torch once more. Jack drew his tools out of his pocket, and Quincey knelt down and wrapped his arms around Jack’s knees.

“Keep straight, and try not to drop your picks on my head,” he warned as he hoisted Jack up so he could reach the keyhole on the display case.

“That was one time,” Jack groused.

This lock was simpler than the one on the door, and Jack made quick work of it. These were the types of simple locks he’d practiced on as a boy, when first his mind had fixated on gears and locks. His father, relieved at having something that distracted his son from his endless questions or rambling recitations of the latest book he’d devoured, had encouraged the hobby and even bought him a set of locksmith’s tools in exchange for some quiet evenings in which Jack was entirely absorbed in figuring his way into a lockbox or through a padlock.

Jack and Quincey had been delighted to discover Jack’s little hobby, and had exploited it on several adventures already. So long as they didn’t do any lasting damage or steal anything they didn’t intend to return, Jack figured it was probably fine.

The case opened with a slight creak, and Jack wrinkled his nose as he reached in and took hold of the stand that the otter was affixed to. He hadn’t considered that this part of the plan involved him touching the thing.

It wasn’t that Jack was squeamish; he touched cadavers and all manner of bodily fluids in his medical classes. It was just so…raggedy a creature. Someone really ought to take it outside and burn the thing to put it out of its misery.

Quincey lowered him back down, and Arthur took the otter with a reverence that bordered on worship. Quincey produced a folded up sack from one pocket, and the two of them carefully placed the creature inside to conceal it from view. Thank God.

The three looked at each other then. Everything had gone perfectly thus far, but it would all be for naught if they got caught on the way out. They needed to make a clean escape, return to campus, and present the otter to Arthur’s team before the race began.

Arthur took a look at his pocket watch, nodded, and once again switched off the light. As they waited for their eyes to adjust to the darkness, he confirmed.

“Right on time, boys. The campus security should be by in three minutes, which will clear the Alphas out. In eight minutes, they’ll be called away to the other side of campus, and we’ll be able to make our way out at our leisure.”

Doubtless, his preparations had involved at least a small bribe to the guards to be where he needed them and to whatever inside man he had redirecting them shortly after. The way Arthur and Quincey spent money made Jack feel a bit depressed about his own modest finances, so he preferred not to think about it too long or too hard. As far as he was concerned, the important part was that Arthur could generally rely on people being where he’d asked them to be at the times which he specified.

That gave them eight minutes to get back to the door they’d entered through so they could be ready to run the moment the guards cleared out.

Quincey slung an arm over Arthur and Jack’s shoulders, drawing them into a sort of half-hug. Neither Arthur nor Jack knew how to be particularly demonstrative with their affections, other than the occasional pat on the shoulder or a hand shake, but that never deterred Quincey. He simply swept them up when he took the mood, and they followed his lead.

“We did it, fellows. Art, you’re gonna be a legend. Your pa coudn’t’ve done it any better.”

Arthur smiled, and he reached over to grip Jack’s elbow with his free hand.

“It’s thanks to the two of you. I’d never have managed it on my own.”

The darkness covered Jack’s blush, thank goodness. He gave the others a quick squeeze, then slipped out from under Quincey’s arm. One of them had to be practical.

“Save that for when we’re back in our dorms, both of you. You can be as sappy as you’d like once we’re home.”

Quincey snorted and caught Jack once more in his arms. He gave his hair a quick ruffle. “It’ll only take us a minute to get back down to the door, so by Art’s calculations, we got seven minutes to be sappy right now.” And with that proclamation delivered, he leaned in and gave Jack’s cheek a kiss with an exaggerated smack.

“And Jack,” Art purred, stepping in as well to crowd Jack’s personal space. “We will be holding you to what you just said. ‘As sappy as we like once we get home.’ ” He kissed Jack’s other cheek, with less dramatic flourish but still radiating mischief. “The Holmwoods pride themselves on generously rewarding exemplary service.”

Jack considered lifting one of the medals from the trophy cases to award himself as, after a couple more minutes of only-half-teasing cuddling, he extracted himself from the other boys’ grasps and herded them all to the back door of the clubhouse before they missed their window for escape.

‘All of this for some damned rowing-team tradition’, he grumbled to himself, because if it let himself think of the real reason he was doing this, for two handsome young men who inexplicably cared for him, they wouldn’t make it back to campus with the damned otter before sunrise.

(AN: There's a non-zero chance I'll write a follow-up with porn. IDK, that's how I tend to roll with this ship.)

#dracula daily #dracula #drabbles #jack seward #quincey morris #arthur holmwood #college age fic #suitor squad #i just want them to kiss

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