#babysitter vlad au

[lilianade-comics]

Babysitter Vlad AU! (Jack and Maddie went through the babysitting services of every eligible mom and teenage girl in town. Ironically, their house is extremely haunted whenever they're not there, so literally everyone is too scared to babysit. This means there's only one person in the entire world who they would trust to watch their kids who also wouldn't be bothered by the rampant paranormal activity. And they're sure he'll be DELIGHTED to receive a random desperate phone call from his old college friends!)

[Also, COMMISSIONS are OPEN!]

[lilianade-comics]

This was so lovely!!!! A real treat to read, and you really captured Vlad's issues well. It's so wild to read a fanfic based off my comic, and this is so nicely done! Thank you! <3

Unexpected Consequences (Danny Phantom One Shot)

Also on AO3

Inspired by and referencing the events of this comic by @lilianade-comics

By the time Danny Fenton was four, his parents have gone through all of the available babysitters in the entirety of Amity Park and Elmerton. Well, technically not all of them, but apparently, there is a critical percentage of babysitters scared half to death, at best, which makes all other babysitters turn you down no matter how high the pay.

Of course, in this case, the problem was with the house, not the kids, but the Fentons would not be convinced that their house is anything but the safest place for their children to be. What if a ghost came to the babysitter’s house? How would they defend themselves? Do ignore the fact that their own house was a magnet for ghosts, because that’s exactly what they did.

And it brought them to him.

The last thing Vlad Masters expected to hear during his Thursday dinner was his phone ringing.

Well, that was not entirely the case. He was running a rather large company by then, and he was known to take after-hours calls. Not happily, but it wasn’t as if he had any sort of life outside of work – not one that he could be open about, anyway – and with the global expansion of his enterprises in the last few years, sometimes people simply forgot about the existence of time zones.

He didn’t expect to find his personal phone ringing. A small thing that he modified himself and was fairly certain only his mother and a certain annoying definitely licensed and absolutely not shady or paranormal in any way psychologist had the number for. This was neither of them.

He was sure Spectra would give the number to someone just to piss him off, but no living being (and very few dead ones) even knew of their connection. Which left his mother, whom he did instruct to not give the number to anyone, under any circumstances. Of course, telling a Masters to not do something was entirely pointless if said family member did actually want to do the thing.

He hoped to all Ancients his mother wasn’t trying to set him up with some pretty single girl or a recently divorced single mother from her church again.

And while that prayer had been answered, it was much like making a wish to Desiree – somehow worse than the thing he wanted to avoid.

On the other end of the line was Jack fucking Fenton.

It took considerable willpower to not immediately crush the phone and burn the remains to nothing. He did, however, transform before Jack even finished the first sentence.

What ghost wouldn’t get defensive, hearing the voice of their ghostmaker, for the first time after a decade of silence, talking cheerfully and excitedly? Like he hadn’t killed him with his impatience. Like he hadn’t left him to rot. Like he didn’t turn him into an abomination. Like no time had passed. Like nothing had changed.

How dare he talk like that? How dare he ask for favors?

His ghost half may have been the more emotional one, but there was also a level of confidence and power that it brought. Things that he was going to need if he was to talk to Jack Fenton and not let the oaf know anything was wrong. He was fairly certain the man wouldn’t notice either way, but there was no way to know when Madeline could be listening in.

Jack – no, both of them – were asking for a favor. They needed someone to babysit their kids.

Vlad was vaguely aware the two of them had produced two children – the thought of Jack’s clumsy hands anywhere near Madeline made him see red every time – focus, Vlad.

It seemed the couple had bought a haunted broadcast tower to work in and had transformed it into a livable house (or so they claimed). Unfortunately, it seemed that while the ghosts haunting the tower steered clear of the Fentons, babysitters had no such luck, and neither did their kids – though they taught the kids basics of ghost defense (Vlad didn’t know much about kids, but he was fairly certain ghost fighting skills of any sort were not standard curriculum for four and six-year-olds).

It took Vlad a considerable effort to not send Jack to hell and tell him that it’s their own fault. He thought of Madeline. They were her children too.

Of all the plans he had come up with, of all the ways he considered wooing her, this was not one that had come to him before. Things have changed. They weren’t in college anymore. His Madeline was a mother, now.

Perhaps all he needed was to show Madeline that he was a better parent than Jack Fenton. It couldn’t be that hard, right?

***

If you told Vlad Masters the day he (run from) left the hospital that there would come a day when the love he felt for Madeline was going to be but a distant echo or that he would love children sired by Jack Fenton as if they were his own, he would probably laugh at you.

If you said to him the day he received the notice of the birth of their first child, that he would one day destroy any creature that would even dare to look at her meanly, that he would endure any pain, put himself between any weapon and this child, he might have blasted you to pieces. He would endure. But she was so human. So fragile.

If you told him the day he found out about their second child that one day, that the child would be the first human to find out his secret, he might have just flown over and throttled the baby in its cradle, just to be safe, and felt exactly zero remorse about the action. Nobody would ever know. Babies die all the time. Especially with parents like his.

If you told him the day he received that fateful phone call that one day, he would be the first to hold Danny Fenton after his death, the only way he would imagine such a scenario happening would be he was the one to kill the boy. Why else would he hold Jack Fenton’s son?

If you told him, any time in those 18 years between his transformation and today, that the Fentons would make their own child a halfa with their negligence, he would have nodded along. Perhaps he would have even been excited about finally having someone be like him, someone he could teach, someone who would share the hate every ghost feels for their ghostmaker for Jack Fenton. It didn’t surprise him – they never changed in that way. And if there was some excitement, when he found out, he could never imagine how much it would hurt.

If you had told him how much the second fateful call would hurt, what emotions it would ignite with him, how irreversibly it would alter him, he would have never picked up the first one.

But he picked up both and there was no going back.

***

Danny’s hands were shaking as he carefully put in the numbers into the phone.

He felt so stupid. He knew it was stupid. He knew it, and he did it anyway.

And for what?

He had been so proud when his parents left him alone at home for the whole weekend for the first time, when Jazz convinced them to take a campus tour at one of her top choices for a university.

She was sixteen for god’s sake, she had so much time for that stuff.

So, of course he invited his friends over. Of course his techno geek and goth best friends wanted to see the stupid ghost lab his parents had in the basement.

Of course they dared him to go into the ghost portal. It wasn’t working. Danny knew that. He also knew it was dangerous. If he could avoid touching any of his parents’ stupid invention for the rest of his life, he would. Which was kinda hard when half of the house counted as one of those inventions.

They called him a coward.

Tucker was one to talk. He was afraid of hospitals for no good reason. Danny could name about a hundred reasons why messing with his parents’ tech or ghosts was a bad idea. It didn’t bother him that Tucker called him a coward. They were losers and cowards and that was one of the reasons they were friends in the first place. Okay, maybe it bothered him a little, but he would never admit that.

Sam, though, it hurt from her. The girl seemed to not be afraid of anything and she was fascinated by all things strange and dark. All the things that pissed off her parents. And as much as Danny told himself she was a friend and he didn’t want to make it weird, anyone with eyes could see the giant crush he had on her.

Sam wasn’t afraid of anything. And even though he could name all those reasons for why he shouldn’t do it, why they shouldn’t be in the lab at all, why he just wanted to spend the weekend playing videogames and raiding his dad’s snack hideouts and why that’s exactly what they should do, none of those words came to mind as Sam goaded him.

He never asked to have a weird family. He just wanted to be normal and deal with just the normal kid problems. He just wanted his friends to understand that unlike them, he wasn’t a weirdo by choice.

Maybe he snapped at them a little. Maybe he raised his voice a little. Maybe he called them just as shallow and image-obsessed as the A-listers. Maybe he called them boring and attention seeking. Maybe he cursed them out a little.

Maybe a lot more than little.

And they left.

He sat in the living room, watching the clock, alone.

Of course he was alone. He yelled at his only friends.

And for what?

Maybe they were right. Maybe he was just a coward. The portal wasn’t working. How dangerous could it be?

As the minutes ticked by and he felt worse and worse about what he did, he got up and headed back into the lab.

He put on one of the small hazmat suits his parents had for him. He had meticulously torn off and threw out all of the stupid patches with his dad’s face that the self-obsessed mad scientist put on them, months ago, in the off chance he was forced to wear one outside or near a camera. He knew that Sam would mock him for it. But with his parents inventions, he’d rather be safe than sorry. Or dead. Or worse – a ghost.

The thought terrified him. If his parents were to be believed, ghosts were nothing more than echoes of human minds, twisted, either entirely animalistic or evil. Monsters, wearing the face of the dead.

He didn’t even believe in ghosts. He had memories of them from when he was a kid, but they could have just been dreams. With how much their parents talked about the stuff, of course his mind would haunt him (ha!) with them in his sleep.

He realized Sam had left her new camera on the table. She had shown him and Tucker how to operate it a few weeks earlier when she bought it.

Danny turned it on, started recording and left it on one of the tables, pointed at the portal.

“Hey, Sam, Tucker… here’s to show you I’m not a coward. I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier.”

He waved at the camera, took a deep breath and stepped into the portal.

It didn’t work. How dangerous could it be?

How dangerous could it be?

He couldn’t get that thought out of his head as he stumbled out of the portal. It hurt. It hurt so much. And he wasn’t himself. Not anymore.

Twisted monster wearing his own face. A monster his parents would probably hunt and tear apart for stealing his face, for stealing their child away from them.

He sat on the couch and cried. He wished so much to just be himself again.

He couldn’t be dead, right? Everything hurt. He couldn’t be dead. Ghosts didn’t feel pain.

He looked at his arm, at the formerly black glove, now snow white.

He just wanted to be himself again…

He watched as white light appeared, first around his waist and then travelling along the rest of his body, turning him back into himself.

But his parents said ghosts could sometimes pose as living humans.

He felt his heart beating in his chest, now.

He couldn’t be dead if his heart was beating, right?

It didn’t just moments ago.

The rings.

A memory came up. A memory he dismissed as another dream.

He must have been really small, one of the first times uncle Vlad was watching him and Jazz. He was making smoothies in the middle of the night.

Danny wanted to see what was going on and he saw uncle Vlad, with those same rings around him. His normally silver hair seemed pitch black, before the black rings swept across him and turned him into his normal self. He was too young to have gray hair even now, and more so then. His parents explained that it was because of an accident back when they were in college. And accident with a portal prototype…

Vlad gave him candy to promise to never tell anyone what he saw that night. Danny did very distinctly remember eating it all at once, because he was a four-year-old given an irresponsible amount of candy, and how sick he wound up being after.

He thought the whole thing was just a dream. And maybe it was.

When he looked at his hand, he couldn’t see it. He still felt it there, it still made a dent in the couch pillow, but it was invisible.

Something was very, very wrong and he needed to solve it before his parents got home.

And there was only one person that might have the answers.

He called uncle Vlad.

***

Vlad told him to not panic.

That was easier said than done.

He tried to. He tried to keep himself occupied. He took off the stupid hazmat suit.

He other him was still wearing his.

He wanted to watch the TV, but after the remote phased through his hand and fell beneath the couch, he gave up on that.

He could just go to bed. Vlad lived a few states over. It would take him a few hours to arrive.

Maybe he would wake up in the morning and find out it was just a bad dream.

It couldn’t be. Bad dreams don’t hurt.

Most of the pain had faded by now, though he still felt sore, especially in his own body. The other him didn’t hurt that much – but Danny was scared if he fell asleep in that body, he would never wake up. Not as himself anyway.

He was staring at the living room ceiling as the sun set outside. His whole body felt numb. He was tired, but in a different way than needing to sleep. He didn’t have the energy to get up and turn on the lights.

As the darkness crept up more and more, he realized that he could see in the dark a lot better than he did before.

He felt cold, he realized. Not horribly so, just barely colder than would be comfortable.

Cold like the dead.

A horrible thought crossed his mind.

His parents said ghosts could possess human bodies. Maybe he was already dead, his body growing cold slowly, but he just refused to leave it.

Maybe if he closed his eyes, he would never wake up. He could just let go.

Uncle Vlad would arrive in the morning and find his dead body, laying here on the couch.

A shiver run down his spine, and he would swear a cloud of mist escaped his lips.

Maybe it was just cold in the house, and he was freaking out over nothing.

Then, the light turned on.

He jumped up to see who did it.

Uncle Vlad stood by the door leading from the kitchen, looking him up and down.

It took Danny a moment to realize he was floating and that he didn’t have legs.

Instead, there was a wisp-like tail, moving with a mind of its own.

He may or may not have screamed in shock and moments later, he was back to his old self and hit the couch.

He poked his leg. Solid. Normal.

He gulped and looked up at uncle Vlad.

“Danny…” the man whispered. Danny knew his uncle. His voice was always comforting. It was now, too. But there was something else, that he couldn’t put a finger on. Vlad breathed in as if he wanted to say something, but he didn’t.

He sat down next to Danny and pulled him into a hug.

Uncle Vlad was always warm. Too warm. And he was always super weird about it. But right now, Danny felt the chill that had plagued him since he stepped out of that stupid portal melt away. For the first time since that scream left his throat, he still felt it hurt, he felt like he could breathe properly.

For a moment, it didn’t matter what happened, or if he was some kind of monster now. He felt safe.

He began to cry. He cried into Vlad’s stupid fancy suit, because the man apparently didn’t own any other clothes.

He felt his body tingle the same way it did when he dropped the remote and he feared he would slip from Vlad’s grasp. But he didn’t.

“If you don’t want to hug, you can just say that.” Vlad muttered.

Danny sniffled and looked up at him. “What… what do you mean?”

“Intangibility. But I think you didn’t do it on purpose, did you?”

“I… I don’t know.” Danny admitted. He didn’t want to let go, but he felt like a baby sobbing into his uncle’s chest like that. Vlad run his fingers through Danny’s hair.

“It’s okay. It takes time to learn to control it.” Vlad said. “And I’ll help you in any way I can, little badger.”

“Do you… do you know what…” Danny paused, looking for words, unsure of which question to ask first. “What happened to me?”

Vlad seemed to have just as hard of a time finding words.

“Am I dead?” Danny whispered after a moment.

Vlad sighed. “Yes. But you’re also alive.” Vlad run his hand along Danny’s left arm, where he still felt echoes of the electricity that went through it not so long ago. The electricity that killed him. Vlad let go of him and moved away. Danny didn’t want to let go. He didn’t want to go back to the cold. “I want to show you something.”

“Oh… okay.” Danny muttered, letting.

Vlad took Danny’s hand and placed it over his own heart. Then, he laid his own over the center of Danny’s chest, where the cold was coming from.

“Like this, we’re still alive. Our hearts are beating. We need to breathe. We need to eat and sleep like any other human.” Vlad paused for a moment. “Can you transform?”

“I think so.” Danny nodded. He had tried turning back and forth a few times while waiting for Vlad. All it took was a thought.

Vlad turned, too.

If he looked closely, he could still recognize his uncle. The shape of the nose and face, the stupid goatee. But if he didn’t look for his uncle, he probably wouldn’t see it. The ghost had blue skin, red eyes with no whites or pupils, pointed ears and when Vlad spoke, Danny could see sharp fangs glint inside of his mouth. Even the shape of the body was different – mom said uncle Vlad had never fully recovered from his accident and the resulting hospital stay. It seemed that the ghost half of him had no such problem, and probably much more resembled the shape the man had been back then. And if his human body had been a little too warm, this one was basically a walking space-heater.

“Like this, no heartbeat.” Vlad whispered. “No need to breathe and no need to eat human food, either.”

“What about sleep?”

“Unless you’re in the ghost zone, yes.” Vlad nodded. “But you can’t stay in one form for too long. If you stay human for too long and don’t use any of your powers, they will simply happen on their own, whether you want it or not. And if you stay as a ghost for too long, your human body will weaken.”

“Will it go away?”

“No. This is you, now.” Vlad sighed. “But you’re not alone in this. I’ll teach you. I’ll help you.”

Vlad turned back to his human form again and Danny followed suit. He could now name the feeling that happened when he did. The suddenly loud thump of his heart, the need to breathe.

“What was that… tail thing?” Danny asked. It had been bothering him the whole time.

“Sometimes, ghosts do that, when we’re flying. Not all and not always, but it does make flying a little more effective.”

“Am I a monster, now? Mom and dad said all ghosts are monsters.”

“Your mom and dad are too obsessed with being right that they get a lot of things wrong about ghosts. Ghost are much like people. Some good, some bad, and most just kind of in-between.” Vlad said. “They are… different, though. Their society, their rules and traditions, it’s very different from human ones.”

“Why do I need to know that? I’m not planning on hanging out with any ghosts… except you, I mean.”

“Some of those customs and values are inherent to being a ghost. It will not be right away, but your view on those things will likely change to a more… ghost-like one.” Vlad explained. “But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

“Vlad… do mom and dad know about you? What you are?”

Danny saw Vlad’s eyes flash red. He had seen it before, though he was sure he was imagining things. Often whenever his accident was brought up. Or when dad said something stupid and insensitive – so most of the time dad talked.

“No.” Vlad said after a moment. “No, they don’t know what I am. And they must never find out about either of us. Nobody living can.”

“Why? I mean… yeah, they are ghost hunters, but I’m still their son and you’re still their friend.”

“Are we? Or are we monsters wearing stealing their faces?” Vlad shook his head. “Your parents have very hard time accepting they were wrong about something. What you are… what we are… goes against all of that, all that they think they know. You might be right. Maybe their love for you is stronger than their stubbornness. And maybe it is not. It’s better we never find out.” Vlad sighed, pulling Danny closer to himself again, seeing the boy shivering again. “And they are not the only ghost hunters out there. Even if they do accept us, the others would not be so forgiving. We must be careful to not leave any evidence of what we are.”

“The camera.” Danny exclaimed suddenly.

“What camera?”

“I… I was recording myself when I went into the portal. I wanted to show my friends I was not a coward.” God, he felt even dumber saying that out-loud.

“Is it still in the lab?”

“I think so.” Danny nodded. Vlad stood up and headed there immediately. Danny followed him.

He always knew Vlad seemed to make no sound while he moved. For the first time, Danny understood how.

“High ectoplasm can mess with electronics. If we’re lucky, the recording doesn’t show anything.” Vlad muttered, seemingly talking more to himself than Danny. The camera was still recording while he picked it up. That was not a good sign.

Vlad began to watch the playback of the video. Danny cringed at the awkward intro he did. And then, moments later, a piercing scream echoed through the lab. Danny felt a sharp stab in his chest at the sound. Even through the recording, it was awful.

Vlad’s features seemed to be made out of stone, but somehow, Danny was certain the man was furious. As the figure of ghost Danny emerged from the portal, Vlad closed the camera and his palm erupted in magenta flames.

Danny stepped back.

“You could have just deleted the video.”

“There are ways to recover deleted videos. This is more certain.” Vlad said, the poured the charred dust from his hand into the hazardous waste disposal. When some of it refused to come off, Danny watched Vlad’s hand change – it seemed almost like static on a TV, but in real life. Vlad’s hand was now perfectly clean. “I’ll buy you a new camera.”

“It was Sam’s actually.”

“I’ll buy her a new camera.” Vlad corrected himself.

“Can you teach me how to do that?” Danny asked.

“It will not be possible right away, but once your core settles a bit, it should come naturally.” Vlad nodded. “I promise, I’ll teach you everything I know. But first, dinner. I’m sure you have a million more questions. You can ask them while I cook.”

***

Vlad Masters was not a father. Not that he knew of, anyway.

And Vlad Plasmius wouldn’t even consider exposing himself to such a weakness.

But cores are as fickle as they are stubborn.

Vlad wasn’t Danny’s father, and perhaps in a different lifetime, that would have mattered to him.

It didn’t in this one.

It mattered that the boy he had watched grow up was dead, because of his parents’ negligence.

It mattered that he was alive, stuffing his face full of pasta, badgering him with questions about a subject he had no interest in until that day.

By human law, he was the boy’s godfather and the assigned guardian, should something happen to his parents, just as he was for his sister. Some days, he was tempted to make something happen. Today was one of those days. But he looked at Danny, remembered the conviction with which he claimed his parents would accept him, both of them, even as the abominations they both were now. The boy would mourn. The boy would break. The boy loved his parents, because he was a child and that’s what they do. It was for that look, that conviction, that Vlad held back the inferno rising through his body. The Fentons were lucky their son Remained – had that scream in the portal truly been the boy’s final breath, Vlad knew there would be no holding back.

By ghost rules, however, the boy was his child. Nobody, living or dead, had a greater claim to Danny than he did. Danny couldn’t understand it yet, but the trust he had put in Vlad, the love he held for him, and whatever it was that Vlad felt for the boy in return, had bonded their cores. Perhaps the boy would never realize – his core was so soft and new when the bond formed and would be such a natural part of it by the time Danny would start to understand his core that he wouldn’t even notice it.

Vlad wasn’t sure what he felt for Danny could be called love in the human sense, but after ten years of fighting it, he knew it would be recognized as such by ghosts. Ghost love was like that. Possessive, obsessive, a powerful and unbreakable bond, built on strength and devotion.

Danny was his.

He had let go of his old obsession long ago, perhaps on that fateful night, but he knew the parts of him that still clung to the rage of death would rest easier from now on. In the battle between himself and his ghostmaker, he had won.

[wanologic]

vlad met him there via helicopter

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

Writing in tags got a ball rolling and I'm thinking more and more about full ghost/bitter babysitter Vlad

Thinking about how Jazz and Danny grew up with ghost hunters as parents and a ghost as an uncle, the types of wrenches it throws into the family's relationships with each other...

Starting with the parents' perspective,

It's easy in the beginning to dismiss the paradoxical nature of ghost hunters having a ghost live with them, The Ghostbusters had Slimer, Fentonworks has V-Man. At the start, their tiny children can see and understand the difference between their friendly uncle Vlad (who at the start, looked like a pathetic wet kitten) and a 'real' dangerous ghost.

It's less easy when you and your old friend wind up in an arms race driven and perpetuated by both rational and irrational fear.

At the start when he looked human and his grudge was apparent but it was shown when he was passive-aggressively doing chores around the house and getting the kids ready for school, it was funny, guilt-trippy, sure, but also helpful. Now that the kids are teenagers and can do their own share of the chores and get themselves ready for school that grudge needs other ways to manifest and he can't break inventions and loom ominously on their bedroom ceiling forever.

"We're not *just* ghost hunters, there's more to our studies than dissection and having Vladdie around makes those other studies easier."

With time, turns into...

"Well, how would we know if our anti ghost forcefields and other ghost proofing gadgets work or not if we didn't have a ghost to test them on?"

With more time, turns into...

"This is the Fenton Ecto-Vaporizer, it turns every ghost caught in its rays into nothing but steam! Well, every ghost except the pesky patient because it grew immune to Blood Blossoms and effect amplifying serums 🙄"

And for the most part 'the ghost haunting our home for decades is immune to our shock collar and we need to make something stronger or he'll rip our spines out of our bodies and wear our skins like coats' is said in jest,

at the end of the day,

during those nights that SHOULD be silent but their guilty consciences make the whispers at the end of the bed recounting the day they not only killed, but dumped their best friend like garbage and fled the state that much louder as the bright red eyes of the vengeful spirit become their unwelcome night light...

They have to ask themselves will he kill them before or after the kids go to college?

From the kids' perspective... where do I even start?

Okay, good news is that they had a good tradeoff with a better childhood, I mean for starters their Christmases were a lot less nasty with Uncle Vlad and I strongly suspect that Little Danny's favorite Christmas story of all time was 'A Christmas Carol' as he'd love the christmas ghosts thanks to knowing his own 'christmas ghosts'.

And both kids grow up knowing that ghosts CAN be good people, they see their uncle lose his outer humanity over the years while they grow up and come to understand that just because a ghost can *look* mean and scary doesn't mean that they *are* mean.

Danny would likely have more 'tools' in his belt other than fighting. Sure, fighting's on the table if need be, but when it comes to different ghosts and their different issues, he'd likely stop and ask himself "Is this ghost who's screaming about a dance in need of a butt-kicking, or is she in need of some help?"

but as teenagers who can see that their family situation is NOT normal...

Jazz knows that there's more to Vlad's tragic story than 'I was really sick and your parents didn't visit me in the hospital :C'. She also knows he's not telling her.

Granted, nobody's really comfortable telling the girl one raised to adulthood that their parents murdered and abandoned them without a second thought,

But the whimsy and charm of 'oh look my uncle's a ghost' is lost when 1. you're not a kid anymore. and 2. getting him to be emotionally honest and upfront with you about his past is like pulling teeth.

Does Danny go to any of the adults when the accident happens? CAN he go to any of the adults when the accident happens?

It's established how he hates the idea of his parents getting a divorce, of losing his family, and at this point in time despite their attempts to hide it in front of him and Jazz, he can pick up that Vlad is not happy with or around his parents who in turn appear more and more uncomfortable with their old friend.

He knows that his mom and dad can put up with ghosts if they absolutely need to, but how will they take knowing that HE'S a ghost?

And how will Uncle Vlad himself take it?

He can trust him to teach him everything he knows about being a ghost, but at the same time, he's grown up watching Vlad destroy any and all inventions his parents make that seem too dangerous to them, so what would he do to his parents if he knew that 'their negligence killed him'?

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Danny was annoyed. Who were these people? Vlad hadn't even been dead for a week before these people with cameras began stalking him. He could understand paparazzi in any other city. But this was Amity Park. Nothing ever happened here...except the ghosts but that wasn't too unusual compared to other places like Metropolis and Gotham.

Speaking of Gotham, most of these reporters seemed to be form there. What were people from New Jersey doing all the way in Illinois? And why were they crowded around his house? Why were they asking about Bruce Wayne? Did Vlad do something before his death that put him at odds with the Gotham Billionaire playboy?

Danny heard the security system shoot another one of the reporters and sighed before activating the Baba Yaga protocol. It was hilarious to see the looks on thier faces when the house grew legs and walked away.

Dannys parents had long since chased off any potential babysitters, so they just made an AI to babysit him when they were away. Said AI was taking care of him for the two weeks his parents were away and his older sister was at summer camp. Danny actually preferred this because the AI could cook way better than his mom and better at driving than his dad.

With everyone gone and the AI hacked by him and his elementary school on summer break, this seemed like the perfect time to go to this Bruce guy and ask him whats going on.

Aka one of the bats has a kid out there and the press learns about it before the bats do. Danny is an overconfident little kid who feels untouchable in his parents mad science house.

Is Danny still Phantom in this au? Who's son is he? Was vlad still obsessed with him and maddie and made him his heir? So many questions. You decide.

[multi-fandomprompts]

Mom!Danny, Dad!Vlad, Kids!Dani and Dan, Batfam and Misunderstandings

Dp x Dc Prompt:

So a bit of a twist on the usual dp x dc trope; Vlad is the one who has come to live in the DC universe for a fresh start after he’s done his redemption thing and is getting therapy and he’s traveling around DC basically starting his company and wealth from scratch but without overshadowing people(still sketchy but what business man isn’t). Vlad happens to be in Gotham when Danny(18 y/o) comes to visit with Dani(Ellie)(5 y/o) and Dan(3 y/o) for a long weekend. Dick, Jason and Damian are the first ones to see the little family in a Batburger Danny dragged Vlad into. The little family is concerning for a number of reasons not because they are obviously(to a trained eye) not human(no nonhuman racism here) but the fact that Vlad and Danny are their usual antagonistic selves(Vlad is in a better place and a better parent then any one including Vlad thought he could be but him and Danny will eternally have beef) Vlad is very familiar with Danny and the obvious age difference between Danny and Vlad(with the kids and their ages added in the picture isn’t looking good). Encounters like this happen with all of the Batfam and Danny, Vlad and the kids behavior and conversation snippets the Batfam hear do nothing to clear up the Batfam’s misunderstandings. It all ends at gala; Danny(looking gorgeous in a ice blue dress with actual ghost ice crystals on it and coming in dramatically in a white fur coat from the Far Frozen) is Vlad’s date(the kids are left at the hotel with their ghost babysitter) and the bats manage to get Danny alone and corner him after the gala and while Batfam has the best of intentions this is quite literally none of their business(and Danny and Vlad were not blind to someone following them all this time) and though Danny was quite capable of taking care of himself he calls for Vlad with his aura and to say Vlad was pissed at what he finds when he answers Danny’s call is an understatement. Danny and Vlad don’t explain anything about the kids or what they are but they do take the Batfam to task for stalking, invasion of privacy, illegal interrogation and overall being nosy assholes who don’t know how to mind their own business. Vlad and Danny then leave and the Batfam are left with a lot to think about(hopefully), when Vlad moves on from Gotham at the end of the weekend Danny takes the kids home until the next vacation to visit Vlad and Vlad stays out of Gotham from then on.

(PS. This is good Fenton parents AU they are trying their best to make up to Danny and Jazz for what their inattention has cost their kids but their friendship with Vlad is firmly over(the only reason they haven’t Ended him is because of their grandkids).)

[lolottes]

Imagine a Danny from a "no one knows" AU who ends up being taken care of by an AU where the whole eternal trio has become halfa, a Danny just before becoming role reversed in the same situation which occurs between adopts, a very young Danny who wonders about the gender who can speak to older him who also questioned himself, whether they have transitioned or not, in one direction or the other. AUs where Danny was old enough to adopt Dani as his daughter, maybe even was able to save the other clones and adopted them as well. Danny angel and Danny demon who chat just to realize that neither of them likes his "culture" and decide to exchange their roles and finally blossom.

I like the idea that Danny would be the elder of space, which is absolutely infinite, everyone protects their dimension with the possibility of asking advice or help from their other selves, there will always be at least one who has the information sought or available

…Then there are the Dannys who will intrude into your world without asking or warning

Okay but... Many True King AU?

Think SpiderVerse. Think literally INFINITE Zone. Consider that Danny is probably not the ONLY Danny. But one of many. Consider... They Are King.

Yes, all of them.

They defeated Pariah. Yes, all of them. Did it happen all at the same Time? Yes. Somehow, by Clockwork's will most likely, it did. Were they working together? Aware if each other? Not in the slightest. They are just as shocked as you are.

But Danny is Danny.

Different lives, different species, different parents. All the same soul. Somehow found its way here. A great and terrible moment of Awe. A fixed moment in Creation. Like the Beginning and the End, he was simply? Unavoidable. Inevitable.

Danny.

Some of him are old men. Worn and weary, ground down by life. Some are far too young, confused but brave in a world too big for such small shoulders. There are scars amongst them. Terrible events and stories. But also hopeful ones. Heros. Good men, ready to take the burden.

Doesn't make the confusion any less, of course. When Danny meets... Danny? Who is not a clone. Who came through a portal in his parents basement. Who's exactly the same... except his house's street number is two off. Or is Danny's? Danny 1?

Wait! Why do YOU get to be 1?

Yeah, fair point. Pick a star name and get out your map. Time to figure out how many Danny's there are. And if any need help. But first! Where is YOUR portal? Mine is...*scribbling noises*

@hdgnj @the-witchhunter @mutable-manifestation @hypewinter

[hithisiszooz]

this was inspired by "They Live" 1988 poster, i really like and thought i should redraw it using the babysitter au cast

originally the ghost squad werent supposed to make silly faces but it kinda suit the whole suitation, i mean thats sorta how vlad found them.

except for skulker tho, the way he found him he was just a blob ghost, some of his remainings were in the ghost squads' jar. the college trio along with Nikki (technus) helped build him a mech suit so yeah

[sparkletastic-cookiedough]

Link Library

Literally just a link collection of all my tumblr writing.

Favorite Posts

DPxDC: Danny Phantom fan Damian, best friends with Dash. (they hang out at an arcade, also BATNIPPLES)

DPxDC: John Constantine is Danny's comfort human

DPxDC Dick Grayson is investigating a travelling circus (my favorite prompt, but it's just a prompt)

DPxDC: Vlad masters is a lion? Completely centered around Zeke Morris, an OC.

DPxDC: Danny does his taxes.

DPxDC: Cardboard Danny AU

Danny Phantom: Jazz Fenton Gaslighting People (Short)

DPxDC: The Tangerine Pimpernel (Long)

DPxDC: Danny is applying for a grant with Wayne Enterprieses (The best dramatic irony)

DPXDC: Constantine taking care of baby Danny

DPxDC

Danny in a Maid Dress (RECENTLY UPDATED)

The Phantom Cafe (Short)

In Love With The Speed Force : Barry Allen is obsessed with a god. Also the Justice League gets high in this one.

Bartender Dan has a no bats policy.

The Justice League investigates Danny's box selling business. (Featuring the Bodacious Vibes detector)

The Titans discover Danny and Dani are different people

Danny has access to dead knowledge

The Fentons make arrows for Green Arrow (Short)

Trans Danny, mourned by Bio-sibling Damian

The one where Team Phantom destroys all conflict in the Batman universe

Dani is in Hally's Circus, Dick thought she died and now she's back

John Constantine "rescues" Danny from the ghost zone

Steph plans to prank Batman

Bodyguard Danny

Danny vs Plastic Man vs Nightwing: Who would win at Twister? (short)

Wes Weston gets ghost powers, Flash is concerned

Riddler kidnaps Danny, Batman has to answer a riddle to save him

Team Phantom produces a fictional movie on Amity Park

Danny is traumatized, the Batfam is traumatized, everyone is sad and traumatized. (short-ish, hurt/ comfort)

Danny can predict the future, thus Flash yells at god (again, more of a prompt than a full story, cause sometimes I only write the beginnings.)

Dani pranks the justice league

The DC universe is about to collapse, Danny has to herd them out. (Prompt, as I am addicted to beginning stories and never finishing them)

Danny's family reincarnates (yet another prompt.)

Tim has infinite spleens

Jason can see through the fourth wall, and is not down for this Phantom of the Opera nonsense.

The Bats investigate Jazz

Wes is investigated by Superman, Magical shenanigans occur.

Catwoman steals an artifact that has a ghost in it.

Danny putting on his own Brucie Wayne act as Bruce's secretary

Jazz as Damian's Babysitter

Zatanna interacting with a Liminal Gotham

Danny is Batman's Clone (Dramatic Irony, my beloved)

John Constantine accidentally adopts Danny

Jason is dating Jazz, gets Tim and Danny to meet (mostly just Jason and Tim fluff)

Dash Baxter, Metropolis Cop (short)

Queer Platonic Relationship Fluff with Tim and Danny (features a prompty cliffhanger that goes absolutely nowhere)

Danny runs over Kori with a car (featuring yet another cliffhanger prompt ending that goes nowhere)

Clone Adoption Agency

Tim gets his spleen back from Cujo

Danny runs a daycare in Gotham

Maddie is Jim Gordon's Sister (short as heck and not great, but it's the first one I wrote, so it's special to me)

Batman Crossovers (No Danny Phantom edition)

Batman and the Muppets

Miraculous Ladybug: Marinette in Gotham (Fic itself is short, use of ai by another user in the beginning, more of a prompt than a post)

Batman x Game Changer: Robins do Robin trivia

Batman x BNHA: Batgirl gets isekaied into BNHA universe (Like the first chapter of a hypothetically longer fic)

Just Batman (and other DC characters)

Superbat Ship: featuring Batfam Fluff.

Jason can see through the fourth wall (short, more of a prompt than a post, and a continuation of the AU from an above DPxDC post.

Batfam tries to steal the watchtower (based on art!!!)

Matchmaker Tim Drake (again, more of a prompt)

Neurodivergent Batfam Moments

Hero Swap (Based on ART!!!)

Bruce Wayne time travels (short)

Bruce wearing his kids merch (short)

Clark Kent covering Bruce Wayne's drama

Superbat ship stuff (Short)

Percy Jackson

Percy Jackson & Harry Potter Crossover: Percy Jackson Vs Potions Class

Percy Jackson Gods react to Hadestown (Short)

Percy Jackson and Danny Phantom Crossover: Nico wants the Ghost King as his twitch username, but it's taken.

Other Fandoms

Gravity Falls: Levity Rises - the portal incident.

Just Danny Phantom: Jazz dealing with trauma (a bit of a character study, based on art)

Danny Phantom x BNHA crossover: Jazz and Nedzu meet.

BNHA: All Might and All for One completing to be the best dad. (Plot outline.)

BNHA: Izuku becomes a cult leader. (Plot outline)

[broadwaytheanimatedseries]

Dude, My Babysitter Is A Ghost AU

AKA the Gravity Falls Danny Phantom crossover, and why it should have more content because IMAGINE the HIJINKS:

First, the sheer fucking Horror of Vlad and Gideon meeting, can you EVEN imagine?!?

But then also imagine the stupidest triangle in the world with; Stan trying to scam Vlad out of his money, Vlad trying to scam Ford out of his ideas, and Ford helping Mable matchmake his brother the con with the other scammer.

Why? well - "They'll kill each other or they'll kiss, maybe both." "Sounds romantic!" "Sounds disgusting, actually. But at least they'll leave me alone so, let's do it." "That's the spirit, sorta! Great to have you on board Grunkle Ford!"

Then you have Sam interacting with the teen squad and she fucking hates Robbie for being such a poser and a jerk, she barely gets along with any of them tbh except obviously Wendy and, perhaps less obviously, Thompson.

It's nor like Danny and Tucker don't hang out with the teen squad, but they've got their own things going on.

Danny has his hands full with the twins and their friends, not to mention the mystery shack as a whole.

Tucker took an apprenticeship with McGucket and now they are so ahead of the curve it's wild.

Jazz bonds with Wendy over being older sisters and with Dipper and Ford over science, but real goal is to help the town.

After the "never mind all that" act was repelled, people have been able to talk about their weirdmageddon experiences.

However, talking about it brought back unpleasant memories, and with the blind eye society gone those memories were there to stay.

That meant having to deal with supernatural trauma, for the first time in the case of many people in gravity falls, and luckily as a resident of Amity Park and a student of psychology, she wants to offer her support in any way she can.

Her help is not professional but it's very useful and she's about the only expert on the subject, able to help both the human townies who have dealt with the supernatural, and the supernatural residents witn their own complex issues.

Pacifica takes ass kicking lessons from Valerie and learns how to go from rich bitch who bosses people around to do her dirty work for her, to bad bitch who takes charge of her own life, can handle situations and gets 👏🏻 shit 👏🏻 done👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻.

She also recognizes Sam as Fellow old money with mommy and daddy issues and a crush on a nerdy loser dork who's too cute and smart and sassy for their soft hearts, despite their rough exterior, so they have an ✨️understanding✨️

There's so much more I can say, but I'll leave it here for now.

[lilianade-comics]

-I picture Vlad piggybacking on Jack's shoulders and essentially functioning like the machine gun mounted on a tank at least twice a day.

-It is truly tragic that Vlad is incapable of interacting with Maddie without hitting on her, because they would CRUSH a Mission Impossible type platonic partnership (with Jack of course) and look great while doing it

-Babysitter Vlad AUs have my heart

[picturejasper20]

Based on these tags from @hello-im-not-a-possum , AU where Vlad turns into a full ghost driven by vengeance and extreme loneliness some time after the proto-portal accident, so he decides one day to show up at the Fentons house to attack Jack and Maddie (he hates them both in this AU for abandoning him after the accident)

However, he accidentally meets a 5-6 year old Danny who asks him to play with him and Vlad goes along, over time Vlad becomes somewhat an uncle-babysitter that just roams around the house and takes cares of Danny and Jazz when Jack and Maddie are busy but he still hates both Jack and Maddie.

So now Jack and Maddie have to deal with their collegue pal making breakfast in the morning for the kids while giving them the middle finger when Jacks asks him ¨how's going V-man¨ and their questionable potential dangerous gadgets and inventions going missing every once a while.

[corkinavoid]

*deep breath in*

Hi, I'm Cork, and today I got an eye injury, so I am now, officially, a pirate. Albeit temporarily. Got the eyepatch and all that crap. More on that later.

Info post

about all my writing progress for anyone wondering and for myself to keep track of stuff. Also, some rambling.

Fiance to a Star - ⅘ done with translating second chapter, also doing moodboards and soundtracks for all of the chapters currently because visuals. Gotta find the right library music. Fuck, translating is hard, why did I write it in Russian, I'm so stupid.

Married to Winter - 8.5 chapters written, editing for the second chapter will be done on Thursday, and I'm posting it on Friday. Need to rewrite chapter 9 probably, it's not working the way I want it to. Currently inspired, so maybe will write more chapters for it. Do I want to add soundtracks? I mean, I do, but do I have the brain capacity and mental strength to do so?

Multiverse Police - on hold, out of ideas, nothing is working. Will come back to it later.

Changeling AU - also on hold, but it's mostly done in my opinion, so any additions will be sporadic.

You Should Ask Danny - editing chapters 6 and 7, chapter 8 is written, but I really don't like it. Might put this on hold after posting chapter 7, but I have a whole list of ideas for it. Maybe I should just delete chapter 8 completely and write something else? I mean, why not, but then I feel like the idea is good, I just can't write it the way I want it.

Mercenary Danny - ugh, I want to write the Christmas date so bad, but it requires writing a scene with so many characters! Fenton family is big, and I want Vlad to be there, which is another can of worms because I suck at writing middle-aged men. Can I just write him as a pretentious vampire wannabe and be done with it? But no, that will ruin his characterization.

Haunted Family - done, fuck it, I lost all the motivation for it.

Demon Babysitter - still on hold, but probably also done.

Now, to the unposted wips that are sitting in my googledocs:

One Night Stand Gone Wrong - 10 fucking chapters written and I- fuck I just wanted some simple short DarkHumor (Dick/Dan) one-shot, how did it come to this, honestly. But guess what, I'm writing chapter 11 even if it kills me, I have an idea for Tim/Danny in there. I'll be posting that, um, later. One day. I still need to reread it and maybe rewrite some stuff, it's just a bunch of word vomiting right now.

Road Trip - 4.5 chapters written, and it's going literally nowhere. Is this a pun? Maybe. Should I just post 4 chapters of it and be done with it? The story is done, more or less. Or, I could just fit all 4 chapters into one, make it a one-shot, and call it a day, what a good idea!

Bad GIW - ugh, I can't. 3.5 chapters written and I stopped liking the idea completely. It will never be finished. Should I post works that I don't plan on finishing ever?

Living Weapon Danny - same thing as Bad GIW, I wrote 2 chapters and abandoned it. Fuck I'm bad at writing angst, I just- can't. I want to. But I can't.

Masters Gala - I still love the idea, but damn, writing Vlad is hard. Also, writing galas is hard. Also, writing kids is hard! Maybe I should rethink it and make them not kids but teens? But I still need plot for it, holy fuck, how do you write plot for a gala? Should I just, I dunno, put a heist in there? A haunted mansion horror story? A murder mystery? I'm still debating on whether to put Al Ghul Twins or Dead Serious in there because I can't do both for ethical reasons. I mean, I can, but I bet a lot of people will find it messed up. It's not even incest if they are not related neither biologically nor legally nor by their upbringing. Is it? Fuck, I don't know.

Lastly, about being a pirate. TW: eye injury, a lot of cursing included because I'm m a d

So a fucking mad girl hit me in the eye with one of those wooden stir sticks. Because her coffee was too hot. Bitch you ordered a hot fucking drink what did you expect? Mind you it was not burning hot, I held the cup before she did, it was alright, and okay, I get that people can have different perceptions of temperature and heat tolerance, maybe it was too hot for her but who in their right mind stabs people in the face for their drink being too hot, what the fuck

Anyway, I've got the eye checked out - and it's not covered by insurance which is another reason I'm mad as fuck - and it's okay. Mostly. I can't open my eye because it hurts like hell, and i have to do eyedrops and wear an eyepatch for a while, but it's gonna be alright in a few days, so I'm fine.

Is the fact I can only see with one eye gonna stop me from writing? Fat chance.

[whereonceiwasfire]

Landing Zone

Figured it was about time I finally did one of these, so hey, hi, hello, I'm Rees (a.k.a. WhereOnceIWasFire). You can find some general info about me, and a masterlist of fics in this post!

GENERAL

Any pronouns

I write fic (masterlist below the cut)

My brain has been chemically altered by: Danny Phantom and DBZ (though I typically keep Dragonball posts to my sideblog)

My DMs/inbox are open! Send me things, I'm friendly, I swear!

I'm always open to prompt requests (though I don't do crossovers). Feel free to leave me something in my ask box, and I'll get to it when I have a chance/if it sparks an idea!

FICS

(tags can be found on ao3)

Finished Fics:

Overshadowed - Long ass (140K) College AU, No One Knows, heavy angst, mystery w/ horror elements, mostly happy ending, but I also left it a bit open/ambiguous. I MIGHT write a sequel one day. Everything's Fine (And the Boss is Totally Not a Cryptid) - Outsider POV, intern gets hired at Vlad Co., shenanigans ensue. Oh so many Dracula references. H(a)unted - Weird, angsty little Ghost Hunter Danny AU. Separate Danny and Phantom. ALT ending. I have some ideas percolating to continue off the alternate ending. The Hazards of Being Hot High AF - Shippy Popular Psychology (Jazz/Dash) oneshot I found in my fics folder. Jazz visits Dash in the hospital after a football injury. Elementary, My Dear Fenton - Ecto-Implosion fic. A goofy comedy-mystery where Danny and the trio try to track down who left an anonymous gift in his locker. They get WAY too into it.

WIPs:

Not So Bitter Reunions - AU, canon divergence, badger cereal. The college reunion goes decidedly less off the rails than in canon, leading to some nefarious consequences. I'm just kind of vibing with this one. High School's a Beach - **AGIT SPOILERS** Dan's in high school. This one is so very unserious, but I think I've got a few more chapters left in me. Needs Must (When the Devil Drives) - Canon divergence. AU. Vlad and Harriet reconnect at the college reunion, but since Vlad's technically an evil spirit, he's adversely impacted by things like salt, windchimes, running water, etc. Bad News (Vlad/Harriet) shipfic. I just...I think they're neat. Bearer of Bad News - Post Phantom Planet (not AGIT compliant). Bad News fic because I have an illness and these two live in my head rent free. The GIW enlist Harriet's help in preventing Ghost King Danny from destroying the earth.

Drabbles/Ficlets:

DannyMay 2022 - I don't remember any of these being particularly good, but they do exist. I very much did not last the entire month. Drabble Dump from Tumblr asks - this is just what it sounds like. Though, in general, I'll probably start trying to post oneshots and/or collect the separate, individual Tumblr ask ficlets on this post now instead of just clumping them in a drabble dump on ao3. Monsters Don't Exist - horror vibes. AU. Vlad didn't peace out after the accident and he's keeping his enemies (Maddie and Jack) close. Jazz suspects their babysitter, Uncle Vlad, is more dangerous than everyone else in the family seems to think. Cheese Melt ficlet - Outsider POV. Dani has a parent-teacher interview. Cheese Melt ficlet #2 - Dani doesn't like the toy she got at Nasty Burger. Vlad gets her a new one. Badger cereal ficlet - No one knows AU. Danny works as a cashier and Vlad accidentally outs his supervillain indetity by infodumping to him when Danny makes idle customer-servicey smalltalk.

Unwritten/Unposted:

I'm not going to list out all my filenames and ideas, don't worry lol. But I do have a couple (*cough* couple hundred *cough*) ideas percolating or half written in my fics folder, so that is a thing. I want to jump on WIP Wednesday and such, but like. IDK. Feel free to ask/harass me about my unposted WIPs too, I am motivated by peer pressure.

[starlightshore]

1stswagmastere said: Do u have any different lore or backstory for Vlad in your AU?

I'm going to have fun here and cover his FULL backstory lmao. As for canon -we only know what happened from the Accident in college and that's it. Nothin about his family life.

[has alt id]

Vladimir Masters moved to America with his family when he was 9. They moved because his parents divorced and his father had visited the country often for work. He felt it'd be good to get a fresh start.

Vlad himself knew English but hadn't needed it for daily use, and thus struggled in practice. Plus, I'd imagine the cultural differences were a lot to get used to -suddenly living in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas must of been a shock. Even if he's visited the states before, this was a life altering experience.

Vlad always felt like a misfit, even before the move. His older brother was too old to hang out with his Cringe Fail lil bro and his father couldn't relate to him. Something about the kid was just... different, as his father put it. The two never saw eye to eye, having few things in common. None of this was malicious, his father still supported him and did his best to keep food on the table and the family happy.

I like the idea while the family wasn't perfect -the father had a drinking problem but was never abusive. Nothing super dramatic happened in Vlad's home life -notably so he doesn't have any tragic backstory or "justification" for how much of a manipulative bastard he is modern day. (not that there's anything wrong with tragic backstories. go ham if that's your jam!)

Growing up, Alicia and Maddie were Vlad's best friends. Back then, Maddie was more of a "wild child" and did whatever she wanted on impulse. Alicia was a Baby Butch, a tom boy who wasn't aware of her sexuality but knew she was not like other girls. Being in a small church town in the US South, the trio were the regular misfits. (Notably Alicia is a tad older and acted as the groups babysitter just as often as an instigator to adventure)

Jack lived in the small town but wasn't friends with them until high-school. Jack was a Cool Kid Jock, well liked for his jokey personality and his mid-to-bad football playing. Which, while not great, wasn't terrible and that's an improvement to the small town's crappy team.

However, one day Jack came into the school raving about seeing a ghost. It was funny for a few days -but Jack became obsessed and upset over the whole thing. No one believed him and mocked him, Jack took it very personal.

Maddie approached Jack and gave his story a shot. There's a ghost at the lake, he says. While neither Vlad nor Maddie believe him, they give it a shot cause Maddie thought it'd be fun.

Yeah. Ghosts are real. The trio are terrified but become enthralled. That summer they spend it trying to investigate the ghost -try to find her murderer and appease her vengeful spirit. The three cry and piss themselves scared but it's a major life-long bonding experience.

Turns out the ghost isn't a murder victim -she's just a woman who drowned when drunk while fishing. Her unfinished business was to escape the waters, scaring any locals who neared the water under moonlight. Sadly, without a strong tether to the ghost zone, her ghostly form fizzled out. The teens never really learn these truths.

The whole town is sick of their ghost hunting and are happy to see them leave for college lmao. The three have become Besties For Life, set out to become scientists and find an explanation to the supernatural. Vlad focused on mythology/technology, Maddie quantum physics, Jack with biology/medicine.

The accident happens but it's a direct result of BOTH Fentons. I feel it's thematically important if it's both of their faults, to mirror Danny's accident. Vlad's portal is kept on the whole time, after his death he sneaks into the lab and steals it for himself to keep. It speaks to him. Whispering to him of the Hell he's opened up. This is his portal, yet unnamed and characterized cause i spent all my creative energy on Danny's Portal, Liminal Gates. I don't wanna derail the post to those OCs, but essentially think of them as sentient portal ghosts. they're... not exactly that, but that's the gist.

// OK BELOW i get into depth over both Danny and Vlad's cause of deaths, not like, SUPER gorey detail but its implied of some very awful stuff. skip 4 paragraphs if you don't wanna read that

Tangent: Danny's accident is a result of exposed wire within the portal. In my AU, he doesn't touch an "on" button but rather grabs an exposed switch, yanking on a wire that burnt through his rubber glove and shocked him from hand to foot (which then bounced up to the brain). I got the sense from the theme song that the parent's just... forgot they had that switch in the blueprints, so it makes sense to me that it'd be unfinished and left unattended like that.

anyway now for Vlad's accident. I've mentioned before that in my AU that ectoplasm is in itself the opposite of life, and when in high concentration it'll become acidic and burn through organic matter.

That uh, happened directly to Vlad's face. After the initial blast, the ectoplasm congealed with his blood creating a thick barrier between his face and the air. So even after removing the blast's plasm, it was stuck.

Vlad was rushed to the hospital and bled out, the plasm seeping through into his lungs. It wasn't a fast death like Danny's. Miraculously, he "survived" and had his face bandaged and had to have surgeries to fix the damage. Sadly, even with what little skin was left, because the ectoplasm rooted itself into the skin layer it continued to blister with ecto-acny like in the show. It left him in the hospital for years.

Anyway while Vlad is also a Halfa-Paradox like Danny, he needs to consume Actual Literal Blood. (Not necessarily human blood, nor a living host's blood. usually he drinks animal blood in secret. He's a monster, but he's not THAT much of a monster!)

His body is more unstable and requires more blood to repatch itself. Danny's death was instantaneous and a 1 hour time range surrounding it to connect his timelines. For Vlad, it took 1-2 hours to die, so his timelines and time frame are more scrambled and full of various states of decay and gore. He needs to steel that life essence as well replenish his blood loss. Someone who is a Halfa-Paradox is the living embodiment of of those hour (or for Vlad, hours) they died and didn't die. They're a center point of those timeline selves, fused into one person while shifting between different bodies those timeline selves inhabit. Vlad's is incredibly unstable.

Anyway that aside, Vlad's power is blood based. He really is a vampire ghost. I know my AU mainly has been comedy but I do enjoy the darker side of the fandom (not to... the point some of ya'll go lmao) and Vlad focuses a lot more of this side of things. I've been uncertain on how to take his blood power -do I do blood bending? bleed on you until you're uncomfortable power?

Nah i think I'm going to go with a simple "those he's drunk blood from temporarily are mind controlled" or something. Vampires are a drain on society, a metaphor for their hoarding of wealth and feasting on the life force of the common man. Now as an adult, I see how some people can fall into a warped mindset that loves Capitalism even when it's the root of all evil in society. Uh. That's the best I got chief, Vlad's power is propaganda essentially.

He already uses his over-shadow power for a similar effect in canon, it's a very Vlad thing to do. It's just more.. gross and evil this time around.

Back to the Backstory: after the transition, Vlad fell onto desperate times as the hospital bills were enormous. After trying to handle it morally, he ended up resorting to petty theft using his new powers. Same as canon, this escalated to bigger robbery and then political power. Vlad is more subtle about than in canon, never showing his ghost form and learns to explain his wealth through business rather than staged luck.

Once he had some power and influence, he went back to his old friends hoping to prove to them that they did not ruin him but rather gifted him a wonderful life of wealth and success. He wanted to make them jealous and regret ghosting him and hurting him.

Except, they moved on and were forced to take on jobs outside of their ghost hunting interests. Vlad realized he hadn't actually won out here, he missed out on human connection and turned himself into a monster in the process. Now he's motivated in envying their humanity and family, rather than just a sick obsession to get with Maddie.

Vlad is a master 4D chess player, using his power to influence under his thumb. The Fentons actually were just stuck using their degrees for (gasp) more mundane use like medical research and engineering. Vlad masked his anger and played up the hero, becoming Uncle Vladdie and their boss. He funds their paranormal research, they see him as their good ol' college chum who's got everything.

But the Fentons and him don't connect well on a personal connection. Vlad is too distant and far-too-gone in his own world and self-obsession, Maddie and Jack are pleasant but never have free-time so end up blabbing about research or their kids. Not a great fit for reconnection. It's important to note these old friends have the potential to become buddies again, but Vlad feels compelled to plot and play a more distant role to get what he thinks will worm his way into their lives. Instead of, you know, being normal and just Talking Things Through.

So basically: Vlad is a lonely misunderstood kid who is befriended by some country girls and then later become a group of 3 ghost obsessed weirdos in town. Jack and Maddie are his only friends he's ever had since his hospitalization (isolated again) and later becoming obscenely rich that you stop seeing people normally. He's got rich fuckboi disease essentailly.

iirc Alicia doesn't like Jack because she blames him for getting her sister into ghost hunting (OR MAYBE that's fanon idr) but I also like to think she hates Vlad for becoming so slimey and doubling down on enabling their ghost interests. Like in my timeline of events, the Fentons were able to become normal respected scientists. (albeit, obscure) it's HIS fault they're able to do whatever they want now. she fucking HATES him

[cityofdownwardspirals]

As of now, I have the following prompts to write about(which all came to me within the span of a single month):

1. Finish I'll Marry You With Paper Rings (We're getting there)

2. Write that sequel to The Lightwood-Banes Discover the (Alternate) Universe where TV show!malec and book!malec meet

3. The Antigone inspired fic where Alec is Antigone

4. The single parent!Alec and babysitter!Magnus AU

5. The AU inspired on those fanarts of Alec in those very specific outfits I kept seeing all day

6. The AU of Malec in Romania hunting down Vlad the Impaler

and my brain keeps coming up with more and more like omg when will I have time to write all these?