#come up with your own conclusions about why Danny needs to move

[dclovesdanny]

DcxDp prompt

4/5

Teen titans have been attempting to get Phantom to join their team for ages, but he’s always refused, citing other obligations. He has fought side-by-side with the team several times, and gets along with all of them pretty well. Phantom even has Robin’s number. (Everyone on the team knows about Robin’s crush on Phantom, and tease him endlessly about it.)

Robin wasn’t expecting Phantom to call over a burner phone in the middle of the night, after a worrying three monthes of silence, to accept the offer, as long as he can bring his two children to stay in the tower too.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Deck the Halls (2006)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

Deck the Halls is knit from the same wool as the disastrous Christmas with the Kranks. Ridiculous, pointless, unfunny and filled with lame developments that’ll have you asking countless questions, it takes 93 minutes of your time while offering nothing in return.

In Cloverdale, Massachusetts, self-proclaimed Christmas expert Steve Finch (Matthew Broderick) is preparing for his favourite season when new neighbors move in across the street. Soon, a rivalry forms between Buddy Hall (Danny DeVito) and Steve when the newcomer decides to go all-out with his Christmas lights and build a display you can see from space.

While technically, the film is about Buddy’s attempt to put together the Christmas display to end all Christmas displays while Steve sabotages his efforts, that storyline doesn’t come in for a long, long time. It's the like the film doesn't know what it wants to be about and who should be in the wrong. Buddy and his too-hot-for-him wife Tia (Kristin Chenoweth) immediately make a strange impression upon Steve and his wife, Kelly (Kristin Davis). This makes you think that the Halls are the problem. A few scenes later, it's made clear anyone who calls themselves an expert on Christmas is a bit of a jerk. From there, characters change depending on the scene.

Director John Whitesell's non-comitment to a villain vs. hero story means the film is filled with inconsistencies. We see that Buddy doesn’t have the money needed for a package of Christmas lights that would make Clark Griswald blush. His solution? Steal electricity from across the street. Later on, we see that Buddy is a car salesman superstar that could sell ice at the North Pole. Does he have money, or doesn't he? You think we're building up to something when it’s established that Buddy is the kind of person that doesn’t understand jokes or sarcasm (so much that his ability to sell anything would be questionable), that his twin daughters (played by Sabrina and Kelly Aldridge) are dumb as rocks, that his wife doesn’t know the meaning of “inappropriate”, that Kelly (Kristin Davis) feels like a failure because all she writes are cookbooks composed of pre-existing recipes given slight twists (as opposed to brand new recipes that come out of nowhere?) but then… nothing.

It’s like writers Matt Corman, Chris Ord and Don Rhymer came up with the title and then didn’t know what to do next so they just scribbled a bunch of holiday pratfalls onto a piece of paper. From there, the studio asked the director (responsible for such “gems” as Big Momma’s House 2 & 3, and Holidate) to squeeze this lump of coal until it turned into a diamond. The foreshadowing is as elegant as a fat man sliding down a chimney and the logical holes keep piling up. Buddy’s light show keeps getting bigger and bigger. Obnoxious lights and music are on full blast until 4 in the morning but the only people to have any problems with it are Steve and his wife. Maybe his son for one scene. His daughter played by Alia Shawkat is gone for such long stretches of the picture you practically forget she exists. Later, Buddy's boss scolds him because “his numbers are down”. He’s been there for less than three weeks and on his first day, he sold a car to the boss at sticker price. Which one is it? Is he a selling machine, or incompetent at his job? When it comes time for Steve to complain to the police, he realizes the Sheriff (Gary Chalk) is wearing women’s underwear so he runs away in terror. Why doesn’t just come back to fill in the proper paperwork later? Or is he so triggered, he has no choice but to take the law into his own hands? As we near the mandatory forced sentimentality of the conclusion, displays that would take an entire team a week to put up are done in the blink of an eye. Even if it were possible, what are they being powered by? Magic?

More frustrating than all of these unanswerable questions is knowing you’re wasting your time thinking about them. The people who made Deck the Halls didn’t care. They just looked at their calendar and realized that if they started filming a movie at that time, they’d be done and ready to release it in theaters come November 2006. (December 19, 2021)

[five-rivers]

*breaks down the door* May i offer you the prompt of Sam finally establishing Danny's Eldritch cult/Clockwork's cult rolling into town looking for 'the son of their lord'

This is pulling double duty as Loved 9 and Dannymay 2021 Day 24: Power.

.

Sam sat by Danny’s bedside at the hospital. He had, despite everyone’s best efforts, failed to wake up the last two days. The doctors said he was just sleeping, like the other recent coma patients, but… Well. They didn’t know what Sam knew.

She was worried.

(Danny’s teeth were flat. No sign of his venom. She would have liked to see a silver lining on the cloud.)

Tucker had come by earlier, but then he’d left. His family didn’t understand the importance of Danny, not like hers did. Now. After Sam had opened them to what the world could be.

(And what a world it could be. Danny could lead them into an era of peace and tolerance, where everyone loved their neighbors. If only he were here.)

(One apple tree only went so far.)

Sam jumped at a small, polite knock on the door. An older man in a suit stood in the doorway. He held a briefcase in one hand and wore a fedora.

“Hello, miss. Are you Sam Manson?”

“Yeah,” said Sam. “Are you with the hospital?”

“No,” said the man, moving into the room and taking the other free chair. “But I do think we have something in common.”

“Oh?” said Sam. Without taking her eyes off the man, she sought out the nurse call button on Danny’s bed. “Do we?”

“Yes. You see, I represent a certain entity.”

“An entity.”

“Indeed. He is known to us, his followers, by a number of names, but the one we know to be most true is Clockwork.”

“Alright,” said Sam, “you have my attention. Who are you, and what do you want?”

The man smiled. “My name is Hortatio Gayne, and I only wish to share my knowledge regarding the… natures of our respective patrons. And perhaps offer some advice and support for a young leader only now gathering her flock.”

“You make it sound so creepy,” said Sam. She hadn’t relinquished her grip on the call button.

Horatio shrugged. “It is what it is. We do, on occasion, have to protect ourselves from unfriendly listeners.”

“Unfriendly listeners.”

“Unfortunately, not everyone is ready to embrace what we know to be the truth.”

“And what is that truth.”

Horatio leaned forward. “That what we call reality is the merest shadow of a far greater existence, filled with glorious and perfect beings of the spirit we can barely comprehend.” He sighed, as if longing, yearning for that world. “A world in which we may earn our place. A world we can someday hope to see realized, here. If, if, we work carefully.”

“And that means… what? I let you run things for me?”

“Of course not! One cannot serve two masters well, after all. Your patron must have followers dedicated solely to him, of course. Given the closeness of your patron and mine, however, does it not behoove us to cooperate, to better serve them both?”

Sam leaned forward. “Okay, first off, I’m not serving anyone. Danny is my friend. We’re friends. Secondly, before I agree to anything, I want to know exactly what it is you’re trying to work towards or whatever.”

“That will be a lengthy discussion.”

“I’ve got time.”

Horatio pulled back his sleeve, revealing not one or two but three watches on his arm. “Very well.” He looked back at Sam. “Then I shall speak frankly. Through the powers of our patrons and their kin, who are also called the Others, it is possible to create a world without suffering. But only if everyoneopens themselves to them and their power. Not an easy proposition.”

This had been Sam’s conclusion as well, except…

“Other than Danny, the rest of them don’t seem all that friendly.”

Horatio grimaced. “That is true, I’m afraid. But they do not act from malice, but a desire to understand us. We are so very different from them. Which is why it’s important to handle them carefully.”

“Meaning what?”

“’For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.’ You’ve heard this before, yes?”

“Sure.”

“It is the same with the Others. Only, compared to them, we are so incredibly small.”

“Please don’t do the ant comparison. It’s so cliched.”

“I am speaking more of physics than biology.” He closed his eyes. “Compared to them, we are tiny. Even so, as much as they influence us, we influence them. The effect is difficult to see. A single human would have trouble pushing a train car. But several working in concert…” He trailed off, suggestively. “But it is important to work together. Hence the existence of ritual and rite.” He put his briefcase on his lap and opened it, revealing a number of labeled manilla folders. “I have some items you may wish to build upon or take inspiration from. I have found them efficacious.”

“You’re talking about, what, mind control?”

“They enjoy it, by all accounts,” said Horatio, shrugging. “Their range of emotions are much greater than ours. Their ability to love is…” His eyes glossed over. “Exquisite. Far beyond our own. And they express it with things like this.”

That did seem to line up with what Danny had told her.

“What’s the catch?”

“Catch?”

“What do you want out of this?”

“You mean, beyond the swifter realization of my dearest dream? I will likely be long dead by the time everyone reaches the enlightenment we have been so generously given, my soul commended to the eternal service of my patron, in whatever manner he wills it. But I intend to do everything I can to speed the arrival of that happy day and reduce the suffering of my fellow human beings.” He held Sam’s gaze, steadily.

She didn’t believe it. Danny was one thing, but few people were genuinely altruistic. That’s why they needed Danny so much.

“And, perhaps, I hope to gain the favor of my patron by aiding the one he considers a son.”

There it was.

“Okay,” said Sam. “And are rituals all you’ve got in there?”

“Oh, goodness, no. I have some recruiting ideas that might appeal to a young lady of your particular and peculiar means as well.”

Sam sighed. This was still all kinds of sketchy, but the opportunity to build Danny’s support network before he woke up was too tempting.

“Let’s see them, then.”

[ave-aria]

Rewind

Ectober Week 2020 Day 3: Rewind Summary: Maddie can't believe what she's seeing on the security tape. In shock, she hits rewind. Tags: Reveal fic, Blood, Angst, Implications of character death, Tragedy, Trauma, Oneshot

-

Rewind.

Maddie keeps her eyes on the tv screen as the figures wind their way backwards to the start of the video. She won't look away. Can't. Doesn't dare.

If she looks away, she'll have to focus on something else. The quiet, dusty lab around her. The uncleaned ecto-weapons by the door. The green blood smattered on the blade.

The hollow, empty house looming over her head…

The video hiccups a bit as she hits the start of the feed. Old VHS tapes are odd like that, buzzing out with static where the film wore thin from too many pauses and restarts. It's a sign she's hit the beginning. Maddie presses play.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

It was an old security tape, filched from the lab. Onscreen, three teenagers, her son at the lead, slip into the camera's field of view. Maddie leans closer, enraptured by the movement, even though she's seen this moment enough times to have it seared into her brain.

Maybe, if she focuses hard enough, she can learn the secret - how to rewind her own mistakes, go back to a time when none of it has happened, just like in the video.

"Whoa, check it out! This thing's huge! I can't believe your parents built this!" A pause, while the kid adjusts his glasses. "Bummer that it doesn't work though, dude."

"Damn. Was it really supposed to open a portal to the underworld?"

"It's 'The Ghost Zone,' Sam. And yeah. My parents were pretty heartbroken when it didn't work. It kinda just… fizzled out. I hope they're not too upset."

The detached, clinical angle of the shot doesn't do the moment justice. Danny'd always been such a kind boy, thoughtful and empathetic to a fault. Maddie's throat closes up a little, leaving her struggling to breathe. They had been upset. Unbearably so. Their life's work - as Danny put it - fizzled out before their very eyes. It'd been a hard loss to take, one that she and Jack might never have recovered from, had the Portal not miraculously started working on its own, days later.

God. Now she almost wishes it hadn't.

A bright flash draws her from her reverie. Maddie blinks at the screen. A camera flash. In her distraction, she's missed part of the video; Tucker's casual "Lighten up, dude,", Sam's request for a photo op, Danny grabbing a hazmat suit to pose with while she dug the device from her backpack.

"—Got it," Sam waves the printed Polaroid to air out the negative.

"Okay. I showed you the portal. Can we get out of here now? My parents could be back here any minute."

Where had they been that day, anyway? Maddie wonders. Grocery shopping? Visiting the park? Moping, as they tried anything to get their minds off of their most recent failure? If they'd been there —

If they'd been there—

"Come on, Danny," comes Sam's voice, treacherous in its fascination. "A Ghost Zone? Aren't you curious?"

Danny looks into the Portal, clutching the custom white suit made specially for him. Sam smirks, knowing. "You gotta check it out."

Maddie hits pause.

Rewind.

"You gotta check it out."

Pause. Rewind.

"You gotta check it out."

Rewind.

"—gotta check it out."

The remote feels cold and heavy, like ice in her hand. In that moment, a selfishness grips her. She could blame Sam. For all if it. Everything that happened, it all started here, and it started because—

—But she can't blame Sam, because the next moment, Danny turns back, his eyes sparkling with an adventurous spirit. It's a spark of curiosity, brimming at the thought of the unknown; a look she's all too familiar with, one she's seen often on her daughter's face, her husband's - even her own, in the mirror.

"You know what? You're right. Who knows what kind of awesome, super cool things exist on the other side of that Portal?"

That curiosity, it's a Fenton trait, not one that needs to be stoked like a fire. That spark's been burning within him, since the cradle.

"Don't go in," she whispers, as if her advice could change the course of history. Even if he could hear her, though, it would be no use. He can no more resist the call than he can resist breathing.

He pulls on the hazmat suit. Skintight, white with black edging. It's like staring at a photo-negative. Watching her son, Maddie's stomach twists.

How couldn't she see it before?

"Alright. I'm going in." He says. His first footsteps echo, loud, in the hollow of the blacked out Portal…

Maddie's breath shudders in. She grips the remote and, before she can stop herself, hits the button.

Rewind.

She watches as her son walks backwards, double-time, out of the entrance to the Portal. The panic that gripped her fades.

"Mads?" From somewhere up above, echoing down the staircase, comes her husband's voice. Maddie is glued to the video screen, and almost doesn't hear him. Regardless, she definitely can't answer. What would she even say?

"Maddie?" His heavy footsteps echo in the stairwell, trudging closer. "Are you down there?"

A hitch in the tape. Maddie presses play.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

Drawn by the sound, Jack trudges the rest of the way down the narrow staircase. She feels a slight reverberation in the floor when he reaches the landing behind her. She doesn't turn around.

"The police called back. Officer McNally said he'd file a missing persons report, and they promised to keep their eyes open. But—" she hears the way uncertainty causes his voice to die in his throat when she doesn't turn to greet him. After a long moment of silence, he draws up to her side. "What are you watching?" he asks at last.

"It kinda just… fizzled out. I hope they're not too upset."

Question. He'd asked a question. Maddie swallows and struggles to answer. "Security tapes," she chokes out.

Understanding, an incomplete kind, dawns on Jack, and vigor jumps back into his bones. "Mads, that's brilliant!" he booms. "Why didn't I think of it? He comes into the lab all the time! We can use the security tapes to see when he last—"

"I found this tape in Danny's room," she interrupts.

Again, his voice falters in confusion.

"Under the bed," she elaborates, as if that will help. And continues watching, detached.

"Can we get out of here now? My parents could be back any minute."

The flickering light of the tv fills the lab, ominous in its glow. Jack hesitates. Maybe he's picked up on the subtext by now. Maddie can picture his eyes drifting from the staticy screen to the items in front of it, scattered across the table. He reaches out fro the shoebox sitting beside the tv. Taped to its front, written in the cursive, unmistakable scrawl of their son's handwriting, is a note that reads:

'If I Never Come Home'

"Maddie, what is this." Jack's voice is uncharacteristically heavy. Looking to her for guidance. For answers.

For once, she has none to give.

"Watch," Maddie whispers, still trapped by the screen. Automatic, her fingers hit the button.

Rewind.

With no other options to grasp at, he does.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

Watches as the kids approach the Portal.

"Aren't you curious?"

Watches as their son zips up the hazmat suit.

"Alright, I'm going in."

Watches as he disappears into the empty cavity of their greatest invention.

Click.

Watches as it thrums to life, with a scream.

"Da—Danny no!" Jack yells in tandem with the two remaining teens. He lurches forward, hand outstretched, to stop the agony onscreen. "He's not - when did he -"

"It's old, Jack," Maddie whispers. "From when the Portal started working."

Jack spins to stare at her. "You mean - Danny's the one who—" he's visibly struggling with the information, the same way she did, on her first viewing. "But—he never said—"

Right, Madie thinks. He never said anything. Jack's confusion is laughable, though. Why Danny never told them—that much is painfully clear.

"Guys?" Over the yelling and the panicking and the electric cackle from the Portal, their son's terrified voice cuts through the din. "G-guys help, what's happening?!"

Tucker and Sam are black silhouettes stumbling backwards from a swirling green glow, but they freeze and scramble to right themselves, lurching forward to catch someone as he stumbles through the gate.

Phantom - Danny - emerges from the portal, falling to his knees.

"…No," Jack says. Disbelief is thick in his voice. "That can't be… no."

Maddie lifts the remote.

Rewind.

A flash of light. A curdling scream. A shock of confusion, panic, scramble.

Danny Phantom stumbles from the portal.

Jack stares for a long time. Then he reaches out, snatching the lid of the shoebox for a second look at the evidence. The note, accusatory, stares back at them.

"This is how he tells us." Jack doesn't often whisper, but it seems like he can't do anything else. Her husband looks at the empty shoebox, the screen, the VCR. "Our son is Danny Phantom, and this is how he tells us. I…" he trails off.

Maddie almost can't believe it, how easily Jack arrives at the conclusion. It took her twelve viewings for her to wrap her mind around it, and it still hasn't really sunk in. But then, that's always been Jack's strong poing - those intuitive leaps of logic. Ones every scientist both loathed and envied.

"Did it kill him?" he moves seamlessly onto the next question that tripped her. Somehow, Jack's voice is even quieter this time.

Maddie shakes her head no. If they watch the video long enough, about ten minutes in, Danny manages to change his way back to human. If their invention did kill him, it wasn't permanent. Not that time, at least.

She's too close to thinking about it.

Rewind.

"But—" she can't stop Jack from thinking, though. He barrels on, heedless of breaking the fragile grasp Maddie has on her sanity. "But if all this time — Phantom—"

A hitch in the tape.

"We've been—"

Press play.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

"—Don't tell me we've been trying to waste our own kid—"

If Maddie weren't so detached, she might laugh. Waste. God, he can't even say it.

"Trying?" she asks instead. Bitter, the word sticks to her tongue.

She's not looking at the tape now. She's looking at him. And Jack, oh, Jack, he just stares down at her, a dark horror growing in his eyes.

He whips around to look at the bloodied weapons sitting at the base of the stairs.

Exactly where they left them two days ago, after that nasty ghost fight. When they came home to find a broken house, their daughter crying at the kitchen table, and their son just - gone.

"No." Jack backs up a step. "No no no no no no no—"

A flash of light. A curdling scream—

In an instant, Jack is moving. He snatches up weapons, whatever he can find, and bolts for the staircase, vaulting his way up to ground floor. Distantly, Maddie hears the doors slam. The RV thrumming to life. The screech of tires as Jack peels out of the driveway.

In the cold wake of his departure, Maddie turns back to the tv. She should go after him, she knows. But she's not quite done watching. Jack's always been a man of action, after all, but she's the analytical one, who studies, who marvels, who gathers the facts she sees.

Phantom, onscreen, slumps against his friends while he drips ectoplasm to the floor. He stares down at his white-gloved hands, his glowing green eyes wide in shock. Maddie wonders if he knew, then, what would become of him. What his parents, who raised him, who swore to protect him, would do.

She can't face those questions. Not yet. Not yet. Instead, she lifts the remote.

And rewinds.

A good scientist, a rational scientist, never draws conclusions while she's still gathering evidence. So as long as she's still watching—

A hitch in the tape. She's at the beginning. Maddie presses play.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

As long as she keeps watching, she doesn't have to do anything with this information. All she has to do is watch.

So she watches. She rewinds. And she plays. She can't look away—

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here—"

She doesn't dare.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down h—"

All she can do is rewind—

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let y—"

And rewind—and rewind—

"Mom and Dad would kill me if—"

Until she finds evidence contrary to her theory…

"Mom and Dad would kill me—"

Or she finds Its inevitable End.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

Rewind.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they—"

Rewind.

"Mom—"

Rewind.

"Mom—"

Rewind.

"Mom—"

-

[AO3] [FFN]

[ladylynse]

What if the westons were weasleys? Relevance to the twin au beig at your discretion

I’m still going to throw this in the twin AU because I find it highly amusing to think that Ron’s cousin twice removed (whose grandparents had moved to America; Ron can’t remember why, since his own grandpa doesn’t talk about his sister much) just starts writing them letters out of nowhere because this kid he’s been watching for months (or years depending on when you want to set it) has suddenly up and moved to England for a while because apparently he’s adopted and is getting to know his birth family or whatever, Wes never bothered to find out the details, but he has Suspicions and he needs them confirmed. Which is why he’s writing to his old pen pal. 

Wes is convinced there is something up with this kid. He is not convinced that it’s magic. He goes into vivid detail about how it can’t all just be accidental magic. In multiple places, it’s more rant than letter, and Fred and George have ample fun acting out Wes’s tirade. 

Now, even before Ron ever would’ve met Danny, he would’ve heard of him through the grape vine. People gossip. This stuff gets around. Even if it doesn’t reach Ron’s ears as ‘Malfoy has a twin brother’, the fact that the Malfoy family has a guest in their house for an extended period of time very well might. Because Danny? They would’ve needed to get him some proper clothes; the muggle ones he was wearing are unsightly. He doesn’t quite fit Draco’s clothes, and they’re not about to have anyone whisper that they can’t afford to properly clothe their children without resorting to hand-me-downs, so even if they didn’t take Danny out to Diagon Alley in an attempt to keep him under wraps, they would’ve brought someone in. It wouldn’t get out immediately--they pay well, and this business is all about discretion--but it would get out eventually, and then it would get around.

Between whispers about the Malfoy family and everything Wes writes in his letters, Ron would form his own conclusions about Danny’s character. He’d be sorely wrong, of course, but he wouldn’t find that out until later. But he would write back that, yes, he’s pretty sure he does know the boy Wes is talking about, because there is someone from out-of-country staying with the Malfoy family. Rumour has it that he’s a squib, but Ron has no idea if the rumour is true; from what Wes is saying, it’s probably not. 

Wes would reply with a letter full of more warnings about this Danny Fenton than Ron thinks is particularly warranted, since even if he’s not a squib, he’s obviously untrained if he was raised by muggles, but whatever. Wes never struck him as having the best judge of character. So, it’s mostly played off as a laugh by the youngest Weasleys, since not even admonishments from Molly about not judging people before meeting them can get them to stop.

But then more rumours start coming around.

That the squib might not be a squib.

That he knows things he shouldn’t know.

That magic is...funny around him.

None of it makes sense, but it’s enough to prompt Ron to write Wes back and ask for more details about what he’d previously assumed was some crazy theory. Wes sends back a thick packet that includes multiple clippings from muggle newspapers--it’s so weird that the pictures don’t move--and a good twenty sheets of typed notes that he calls ‘the short version’. It also comes with two handwritten notes that Ron is certain Wes didn’t know were slipped in there. Kyle wrote that Wes has been on this from day one and not to put too much stock in it. Easton slipped in a plea that they stop encouraging Wes. Their father, as far as Ron can tell, is just happy that the boys are communicating with the rest of the family again and doesn’t care what it’s about as long as their owl comes back in one piece.

(And, this is unrelated, but speaking of having an owl? Now Danny can get Spooky.)

(more musings)

[the-clari-net]

A Mother’s Intuition

AO3

Maddie Fenton prides herself on being a woman of science. A woman full of reasoning and logic who has spent her entire career working on showing her credibility by proving that ghosts exist; not only that, but to show the dangers that they hold to the living. After so many years of being mocked and belittled she finally got her big break with that ghost portal. Once ghosts started coming into Amity Park, she knew she had something tangible that would shake the foundations of the scientific community that have been perceived as Law. Everyone would know that there exists a space that these laws don’t apply (in more ways than one). She and Jack would finally get their brilliance recognized, and her children could finally look at their parents with pride knowing that they’re the first to discover and pioneer this new branch of science never before studied by mankind.

  With that being said, Maddie was the one who always brought a more realistic approach to the ideas Jack came up with. They made a good team like that, covering each other’s blind spots to the best of their abilities. Maddie was seen as the rational one, less emotionally swayed compared to her jovial and at times overly enthusiastic husband. That’s not a bad thing really, since it keeps Maddie grounded in not becoming too absorbed in observing at a microscopic level and he forces her to step back and relook at her project with new eyes with a wider perspective. This is all to say that Maddie is an observant person. Her profession relies on her ability to analyze and being able to report and reflect on those observations.

All this needs to be mentioned because Maddie has been feeling strange lately. Well, perhaps lately isn’t the right word. This is a feeling that has existed within her for awhile, it’s just become impossible to ignore the longer it stays. This is a blind spot that has grown too large to push aside.

Dread is one way to describe this feeling. Anxiety is another. At its worst peak, paranoia might be more applicable.

Right now Maddie is sitting at her dinner table with her family. It’s a Sunday night, she had ordered pizza earlier in the evening because the radioactive hot dogs are holding yesterday’s leftovers hostage. It’s a normal evening for the Fentons all things considered.

Except for the slightly shaky hands, which is strange for a woman who has skilled precision with a scalpel. Except for the pounding in Maddie’s chest, her pulse has been quickening the longer they’re having dinner, and she’s starting to hear that same pulse pounding behind her ears. Except for the slight chill that never leaves her despite sitting next to her husband who runs so warm he might as well be a personal heater.

There’s the tightening of her chest that leaves her struggling to breathe properly. It feels as if at any moment she may have to start gasping for breath like her sister Alicia used to as a kid before she got an inhaler to treat her asthma.

Ultimately, these are all the signs Maddie feels when she’s scared. It’s been a while since she’s felt true fear that wasn’t outweighed by adrenaline and excitement. She usually can hold her own against any human and she’s smart to never fight a ghost at close range. She can’t remember the last time she had felt helpless enough to fear like this.

As a woman who is a master at martial arts, she’s had a lot of past experience in her training going up against powerful opponents. There were certain opponents (especially in her early years of training) that made her feel like she was prey, that if she lost her focus for a moment, she would be pulverized. This is the same feeling only a thousand times worse.

Maddie has been trying to deny the connections she’s been weaving since the first prick of nervousness first reached her. She was a woman of science, she needed evidence to support her conclusion; correlation does not equal causation. However, her martial arts background has told her to trust your instincts; it’s a survival trait warning of a potential danger. The conflict of these two perspectives have been arguing in her head about the odd common thread with these spikes of anxiety.

These feelings only seem to appear whenever Danny was around.

It was such a silly observation at first, more of an offhand thought. But as time went on, and her nerves were worsening, the thought stayed with her in the back of her mind.

Maddie’s mind tries to be rational about the ordeal, trying to convince herself that these feelings of anxiety could be due to stress, or some effect of the ghost portal. The fact that something primal is screaming at her that her son –the boy who currently has a piece of pepperoni stuck to the side of his lip and is pouting at Jazz—is a threat to her livelihood is what worries her.

Could he be possessed by a ghost? No, that’s ridiculous; his eyes are blue, he can’t be possessed. They look a little brighter than normal. That’s the kitchen lighting, Danny is NOT involved in this.

It feels like it has to be ghost related. This feeling of dread is common with several of the ghosts that have appeared in Amity Park before. She’s noticed that the more powerful ones are more likely to cause this instinctual feeling compared to the little ghost blobs who only cause a shiver to your spine once physical contact is made.

“—right Mom?”, Maddie jumps a bit and looks up to realize that Jazz was looking directly at her. She notices that the pizza box is empty, and the table’s been cleared, except for her own plate. Was she out of it for that long?

“Sorry honey, I didn’t hear what you said. Could you repeat the question?”. She tried to offer a smile, but she could tell looked more like a grimace. Jack was looking at her worriedly, but he knew better than to push her to talk in front of the kids. Jazz looked back with a soft smile, but her brows were furrowed.

Maddie didn’t look in Danny’s direction.

“I was just saying I should have the leftover slice of pizza for tomorrow instead of Danny because I have seniority rights, right?”

Maddie blinked at Jazz for a moment before recollecting herself and standing up from her seat and moving to the sink to wash the dishes, forcefully ignoring the back of her mind screaming at her to run as far away as she can from here and never look back.

“Now you two, there’s no need to fight like that. Why don’t I just give you both some lunch money for tomorrow and we’ll call it even?” She smiled at Jazz, subtly angling herself so her back wasn’t facing towards Danny and kept him in her peripheral vision.

She doesn’t want to think of why she did that.

--

Later that night, Maddie couldn’t sleep. She managed to convince Jack that she was feeling better after dinner, and now she’s wide awake trying to remember why that fear felt so familiar. She recognized the unease that only comes from being in close contact with a ghost. It’s the same feeling that lingered in her system after having a ghost possess her; there’s a specific rolling in her stomach that comes from it. The feelings she got during dinner tonight felt like a specific ghost, something about it felt familiar but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

When she finally went to sleep, she was restless with dreams of sharp bright blue eyes, looming shadows that suffocated her, and sweet awkward smiles that slowly turned into menacing and haunting grins.

--

The rest of the week had been a pretty regular one. Jack and Maddie had spent most of the week building some new weapons that could help capture Phantom once and for all. Because of this, they had been eating in their lab. If Maddie felt relief at using her work as a shield to avoid family dinner, that’s her secret to keep.

The week had been quiet with no battles or major ghost sightings until a massive ghost battle broke out between Phantom and another one of the reoccurring ghosts on Friday. Skulker was the name of the ghost if what she had overheard from her sonar dish on the family RV was correct. It was all the way across town. Jack was behind the wheel, and Maddie was checking over the new prototype they had been working on all week that would hopefully weaken a ghost’s powers. They were hoping that Phantom could be their first test subject.

As they were about halfway to the battle, Maddie suddenly got a prickly feeling in her neck. She was well acquainted with that feeling when nearing ghosts, so she dismissed it as usual. But it got worse the closer they reached their destination. Her body slowly began to tense up, more, her breaths were becoming shallower, and her mouth had suddenly run very dry.

No… it can’t be…

There they were in front of Skulker and Phantom and all Maddie could do was tense up in terror and barely stop herself from letting out a whimper. This feels too familiar, he feels like…

Phantom suddenly crashes on top of their windshield, he groans and begins to lift himself off the hood of the RV when for a brief moment, his eyes meet Maddie’s. He sends a sheepish smile and begins to fly up towards Skulker, immediately striking him down with an ectoblast.

Meanwhile, Maddie feels all the blood drain from her face and she feels her eyes begin to fill up with tears. Jack is yelling about that darn ghost damaging his RV, but she can barely focus. She recognized the feeling now. The interaction between the two of them didn’t even last a minute, yet it is staying with her all the same.

The smile Phantom gave reminded her of a black-haired boy who would get caught staying up late looking at his telescope. A boy who would give her that same smile whenever he was confronted about skipping class and missing his assignments. She sees that smile every day in her own home.

It looked so odd, having that smile come from a boy with bright white hair, and eyes that glowed toxic green. The smile was sharper, with incisors that were just short of becoming fangs. But it was still recognizable.

She can no longer deny it, Phantom and Danny are connected. Danny even leaves her with the same sense of terror and fear that only a ghost as powerful as Phantom could do. It feels more potent with Phantom; looking him in the eye for that moment almost made her scream bloody murder.

Jack was never as attuned to the emotional effects that ghosts brought on due to his natural bravery and confidence (she has a theory about his family bloodline having adopted some traits that could block out these senses of fear which leads them to being better ghost hunters). However, even Jack had once mentioned that he felt unnerved by Phantom, which says a lot about the power that child ghost must hold. But to think that powerful monster is somehow connected to her son was a situation she never would have considered. Was he possessed?

When did it happen? Was it around the time that Maddie first began feeling unnerved?

How didn’t you notice? The back of her mind whispered to her. You’re his mother, aren’t you?

The weight of her realization begins to set it. The burden of fearing her son with no tangible reason for doing so. Her own neglect and obliviousness about missing this massive part of her son’s life fills her with guilt. Suddenly the weapon in her hand, ready to be used against Phantom (Danny?) makes her nauseous.

She feels her body beginning to shut down and go into autopilot. Maddie dazedly notices that she and her husband are parked in the middle of a street, in easy range to get blasted or crushed, or incinerated or possessed by these ghosts. She is in no condition to fight.

She feels a little hysterical thinking about her own safety when her son (or some possessed version of him) is out there fighting a ghost after literally crashing into an RV with military grade protection.

“Jack, we should go home”, Maddie hoarsely interrupts her husband’s tangent.

He looks like he was about to protest until he saw his wife’s bloodshot eyes, holding back tears and white as a sheet. Without further prompting, he turned the car around and as soon as the stiffening fear had melted away from Maddie’s shoulders did she finally allow the tears to fall.

[kinglazrus]

Expectations

Prompt from @danphanwritingprompts: Maddie had suspected her youngest child of having some kind of ghostly influence for a while. So she was expecting for them to reveal that. Not admit that he’s trans.

Word count: 1145

Maddie may spend a lot of time down in the lab, maybe too much time, but she can still tell when something is up with one of her children. Especially when it involves ghosts. She's noticed the bruises, and the late nights, and the slipping grades. All troubling signs that have her worried about her youngest. But the tipping point is how her and Jack's gadgets react to Danny.

Every invention that leaves the lab is carefully calibrated to react to ghosts and only ghosts. If Maddie and Jack didn't take the time to perfect this setting their lab would be a minefield of gadgets ready to go off at a moment's notice. Every ectoplasmic sample, every ecto-powered gun, would trigger alarms.

But the Ghost Gabber, the Booo-merang, the Fenton Finder and more all go off around Danny, no matter how much calibrating Maddie does. As much as she hates to admit it, that leaves her with few explanations. But Maddie doesn't want to jump to conclusion, and she doesn't want to frighten her youngest with her assumptions, so she sits back and waits for Danny to come to her.

It takes months before Danny finally approaches her.

"Hey, Mom?"

Maddie, busy stirring the batter for a new cookie recipe, pauses. Something in Danny's tone catches her attention, tells her this isn't the simple, casual hello of a child to their mother, but a nervous call for attention. Maddie places her mixing bowl down on the counter and turns.

Danny doesn't meet her eyes, head ducked, fingers running through unruly hair, not quite short, but the shortest it's ever been. A smart move, if Maddie's suspicions are right. Long hair only gets in your eyes when you're that active. It's the reason she keeps her own hair so short. She takes in Danny's baggy hoodie and long basketball shorts. Her heart aches wondering what bruises they hide.

"Yes, sweetie?" Maddie keeps her voice calm, not wanting to spook Danny.

"There's something... something I want to talk to you about."

"You know you can always tell me anything."

"I know. I think I know. I hope I can. This is kind of really important. Like, really, really important." Danny shakes with nerves, rubbing at eyes that aren't quite watery, but aren't quite clear.

Hoping to make things easier, Maddie kneels and pulls Danny into a hug. "I think I already know what this is about."

Danny stiffens, shoulders going rigid, and mumbles, "You do?"

"I've suspected for a while, after noticing the signs. You must have been so scared, and I'm so sorry if we made you feel like you couldn't tell us," she says, hugging tighter. Danny hiccups and hugs back. "I don't think your father knows, but we can tell him together. We love you no matter what, Danny. You'll always be our little girl."

Danny's breath hitches, and suddenly she's out of Maddie's arms and standing halfway across the kitchen. "What?"

Maddie blinks, stunned, thrown off by the sudden rejection. Confusion clouds her youngest daughter's eyes, and Maddie can't fathom where it came from. "Danny?"

"What do you think I'm trying to tell you?" Danny asks. She stands guarded, arms loosely crossed in front of her, body turned away from Maddie.

Maddie feels nothing short of baffled. What did she get wrong? What did she say wrong? Other than outright confessing, she can't think of a way to breach the sudden gap between them. So that's exactly what she does. "I know you're a ghost."

Danny goes pale as, well, a ghost. The blood drains from her face, shock and fear filling her eyes. Maddie thinks she's going cry. Instead, she grabs her hair and shouts, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Rosaline Danielle Fenton!" Maddie admonishes on instinct. "Language!"

Danny ignores her, instead staring at her hands. "You notice that, but you don't notice this? What the hell! I wasn't even­– how did you–" She breaks off with bitter, incredulous laughter. "Why did you notice that?"

"It wasn't hard once I had all the pieces. You look just like you did before cutting your hair. Although I don't approve of how you've modelled yourself after the ghost boy." Judging by Danny's broken expression, that isn't what she wanted to hear, but it's the only thing Maddie had to say. The only thing she can give Danny is the truth.

"Modelled? What do you..." Danny stills and trails off. Her eyes widen, then narrow. "No, Mom. That's Danielle."

"Yes," Maddie nods, "Danielle Phantom. Using your middle name isn't as sneaky when you already go by it."

"No, Mom. You're not listening. That's not me, that's Danielle. I'm–"

"Honey, it's okay." Maddie doesn't understand why Danny is resisting so much. This should have been easy, but now she feels like she's fighting Danny on something they both know. "You don't have to lie. I'm not mad that you're the ghost girl–"

"I'm not the ghost girl; I'm the ghost boy!" Danny bellow rings out through the kitchen, her voice carrying the trace of an echo as it expands to fill every corner, leaving a ringing silence in its wake. She continues softly, "I'm Danny Phantom. I'm... I'm trans, Mom."

"Oh." Maddie takes a moment to properly process that. "Oh." She can't believe how wrong she got it—sort of. Apparently, she's right after all, and Danny is a ghost. Not the ghost she thought, but the one Maddie and Jack talk about hunting all the time. Guilt washes through her, a thick sludge that clings to her bones and leaves her feeling sick. She said those things in front of Danny. She said them about Danny to Danny.

And she's saying nothing now. She feels the horrified expression on her face, sees the growing despair on Danny's, and realizes he thinks this expression is for him. It is, but not that way. Never that way.

"Do you need a binder?" Maddie asks in a rush. That isn't what she meant to say. She meant to say I love you and I accept you, but the moment she processed those words—I am trans—a hundred thoughts flew through her head about what that meant for Danny, and what he might need from her. "Or hormones? Unless you don't want them. But it's okay if you do, or if you don't."

"Mom."

"Oh, and clothes. You have a lot of Jazz's hand-me-downs. I'm sure that's not what you want to keep wearing."

"Mom."

"I'm sorry, Danny, I– do you still want us to call you Danny? Or is that why you started going by your middle name in the first place? If you want to change it, we can. Anything you need, you father and I can–"

"Maddie!" Danny's tone makes her freeze. She recognizes that tone. Lower than Danny's speaking voice, sounding closer to a pre-pubescent boy, it's the voice Phantom uses with citizens. The voice he uses with Maddie and Jack.

Danny's right in front of Maddie again, posture no longer defensive, although he still looks to be on the brink of tears. But this time there's a tentative smile on his face.

Maddie stops. Finally, she says, "I love you, sweetie. And I accept you. But we still need to talk about your ghost hunting, young la– uh, mister."

Danny throws himself forward and wraps his arms around Maddie's waist, tears of joy spilling from his eyes. "I love you too, Mom."

Running a hand through Danny's hair, Maddie smiles. The ghost hunting talk can wait for now.

[burning-clutch]

Totalitarian Transgressions

Cross Posted on A03: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30377121 Warnings: none Phic phight bay~bee! -.-.-.-.-.-.-

Danny hums as he flew about Clockwork's lair. Ever since the events of his evil future coming back to haunt him Clockwork had seemed to have taken a rather unique interest in him, to say the least. Danny had come to see the ancient ghost as something of a mentor and Clockwork himself seemed to grin just the tiniest bit when Danny had come to that conclusion.

 Today the ancient ghost of time was going through some of his history lesson with him, but of course with him being in the ghost zone having a little add in about the people and nations that did populate Mexico in the age of the Mayan empire, and where they ended up after their downfall was an interesting addon to be sure. Though Danny couldn’t help but think it wouldn’t do him any favours from his teachers to add that in his report.

“And given their ties and warship to the moon and sun, circles were something of a sacred item that soon only could be used when giving praise to their perceived gods and goddesses.” Clockwork explained as Danny examined a small image before him as the temples were shown to him in their former glory through Clockwork’s power.

The ancient ghost was happy to help and found it amusing with how Danny always tried to move about his lair hoping to catch a glimpse of some such things he wasn’t supposed to and turning it into a game of sorts in a way. 

Danny would move from screen to screen hoping to see some going ons and Clockwork would swiftly flick his hand and change the images on the screens to show whatever topic he was going on about. It was a funny thought to think that the boy could really do something or find something that Clockwork did not foresee. 

But, alas. The boy was rather oblivious if he were, to be honest. And it made what he was about to find all the funnier to the ancient ghost. 

As Danny flew through the lair, and over to a nearby table with a book on Parah Dark. It had a black and green cover with a flame and the symbol he had used in the front. The symbols he had used when he led his armies. Danny looked over his shoulder to Clockwork and grinned when he saw the ancient��s back was turned. 

With a little pause, he made a face as if he were trying to look away from the book all the while side eyeing it. He flicked the book open and eyed the contents. It seemed a chronological order of what led to Pariah's crowning, his feats while the king and his eventual downfall.

 It was near the bottom of the list of events there written in a more modern looking script and a newer ink if the deeper and richer colour were anything to go by, that Danny saw something of interest. The entry seemed to tell about when the dark king was released and Danny himself had helped to lock him back up. 

“Ah, I see your eyes have wandered yet again.” Clockwork drawled out in amusement appearing in an instant next to his charge with a bright and amused smile on his lips. “Though I do doubt that bit of history will do you any good in your hopes to get an A” 

“Well you can’t blame me for being curious,” Danny argued, crossing his arms and giving the elder ghost a pout. 

“No, I suppose not.” Clockwork agreed. 

“I thought it was the Ghost Writer’s job to keep track of this stuff, not yours.” Danny wondered as he turned his attention back to the book, flipping through its pages and half skimming its contents. 

“Ah, yes, you are correct in that. This however is for my personal records.” The ancient says, flicking his wrist and turning to a bit of passage about Pariah's ‘upcoming’ period. He lets out a small hum of his own matching Danny’s own in tone and pitch, earning a small annoyed glare from the halfa. 

Danny sighs and eyes the page the book was stopped on curiously. He skims through a bit and blinks as he reads, re-reads and reads again the same paragraph. The book was told from Clockwork’s point of view if the first person narration is anything to go by. 

It was of course my duty to act as an advisor and mentor to the king. Narcissistic though he may be, he had usurped Vassel the dreadful in hopes to quell the niche that have been gathered together. Though while Vessel had hoped to bring all under a solid rule with an iron fist, The Drake king hopes to allow autonomy through similar methods. 

Though breaking apart these lands will only lead to destruction and desolation he seems determined to brush aside my council in favour of his own morality. Though the lands of the realms are tied to the king and in effect he will drive himself mad and become a pariah king if he refuses to listen. I shall notify the court of ancients to begin work on a suppressant.

At least Vassel had the common sense to at least listen to his mentor even if he ignored me after. 

Danny blinked and turned to face the ancient ghost curious about the words he'd read. "Wait, you tried to mentor Pariah Dark?" Danny practically yelled out. 

"Indeed, it was through my wisdom that he, Drake at the time, was able to take the place of Vassel the terrible, or as he was called upon taking the throne Vassel the iron king." Clockwork drawled out dully, though his eyes shined in amusement.

"Wait… you mentored both those guys then? And now you're mentoring me. Huh, guess I should feel honoured then. Looks like you've only taken past kings as students. You really like me then huh?" Danny asked with a lopsided grin filled with teasing.

"Well of course I like you. Your company annoys the eyeballs, it makes things so much more interesting don't you agree?" Clockwork chided back before imitating the eye roll that was shot his way from the teen. 

"Really? Isn't that childish?" Danny chastised with a raised brow and a huff. 

Clockwork changed to his toddler form, a grin on his face as he took the teasing of his charge in stride. "Not at all," he says simply. 

"Really?" Danny asked incredulously.

"But of course. A sign of maturity is knowing that something is childish and not caring about doing it anyway." The ancient said smirking.

"Ugh, and you trained two of the previous Zone's kings." The teen sighed out in mock exasperation.

"Yes, and why do you think that is that makes you special then?" Clockwork prompted. 

"Cuz ya interfered with my future?" Danny half guessed half stated.

Clockwork shook his head as Danny turned back to the screens seemingly losing interest in the discussion at hand. "That is partly… but I have only taken up mentoring kings of the realms before you. There have been but fourteen kings before you." 

"Huh, guess that makes this extra special for you to take me then. Is the other part cuz' I'm a halfa?" Danny wondered frowning as the screen he was trying to catch a glimpse at changed back to show him only a Mayan temple. 

Well, it seems. The boy didn't want to accept his responsibilities just yet. That was fine, he merely needed to plant the seeds of the idea in his head. 

It was sometime later when Danny was laying in bed that a thought occurred to him. "It's funny… only kings. Heh, well jazz does say I'm a royal pain in the ass…." Danny blinked and his eyes widened suddenly.

"Damn it clockwork! That's such a roundabout way of insulting me!" He complained to the glowing stars on the ceiling knowing full well he would be heard by the ghost of time. "Jerk!"

Back in the zone Clockwork sighs deeply and resists the urge to facepalm. Daniels obliviousness seemed to defy even the timestream….

-.-.-.-.-

Total word count 1357

Complete

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

“What was the thought process?!”

“I don’t know any more than you do, Shaw!  The Quiet Council put this mission together!”  Somehow, even when they should have been commiserating, Sebastian managed to make his complaints sound like accusations. Well, absolutely no damn part of this was Pyro’s fault.

“Of course, that pack of simpletons can’t be bothered to do things properly.  It wouldn’t matter if it was just you, but I will not be treated like a cheap lackey.”  

“Will you kindly shut the fuck up for five minutes, Shaw?”  Pyro demanded, looking at the map.  Sebastian, for all his complaints, had not deigned to take charge of it since they’d come through the gate 30 minutes ago.  “There’s the mountain.  Our contact should be somewhere around here.”

The mountain loomed dark and ominous over the grassland, with an actual black cloud obscuring its peak, like something out of a cartoon.  There was obviously something nasty up there that needed to be dealt with.  Strange dark tendrils curled down the rocky cliffs, and there were reports of eerie wailing at night.  It wouldn’t be Krakoa’s problem, except there was a mutant living nearby who refused to relocate to the safety of the island.  So they either had to deal with the problem, or convince the mutant to move out of harm’s way.

Except the mutant in question was nowhere to be found.  Just peaceful grassland as far as the eye could see, with the mountain swelling up from the landscape like an ugly blackhead.  Off in the distance, Pyro could see a group of horses grazing contentedly.  

“Our contact couldn’t be bothered to meet us at the gate.  We should have just turned around and gone home.  I don’t know why Krakoa should lift a finger for a mutant that refuses to come to us.  He chooses to remain on the outside, he should accept the responsibilities of – “

“Hey, fellas!”  A shout interrupted Shaw’s rant.

Striding up to them was the most heart-breakingly beautiful young man that Pyro had ever seen. White-blond hair, perfectly formed features, and obvious muscles bulging under his flannel shirt, he looked like he’d strode right off the cover of one of Pyro’s own novels.  Usually Pyro preferred his men a little more rugged-looking, like Dominic’s wonderfully rough features, but he was suddenly fantasizing about this young man emerging from a lake in a see-through white shirt.

Oh shit, what if he was a telepath?  What if he was yet another Frost sibling?  Pyro shoved the image out of his mind, and thought very hard about a Youtube video he’d seen earlier of a penguin falling over.

“I suppose you’re the contact?”  Sebastian demanded.  He was walking right up to Eros-given-mortal-form while Pyro stood transfixed, and it was like watching an ogre charge an elf.  Pyro had to fight the urge to leap between them and drive the beast back with a flaming sword.  He ran a hand through his hair, trying to inconspicuously smooth it down.

Fucking hell, Allerdyce, get ahold of yourself.  Shaw will never let you live it down.

“That’s right,” said the cup-bearer Ganymede, who would surely be carried off by Zeus soon.  Even his voice was beautiful, his Southern accent giving his words a musical lilt.  “Sorry I wasn’t right there at that big funny-lookin’ gate, I got worried about the herd.  Whatever’s up there is bad news.  I’d check it out myself, but I don’t want to leave the horses.  Who’d take care of them if something happened to me?”

“Yes, yes, of course you have a noble reason for cowardice,” Sebastian said, waving a hand dismissively.

“And anyway, it’s our job, that’s why we’re here,” said Pyro, stepping forward.  He realized that he had put himself just slightly between Shaw and Paris of Troy.  “We’ll get it all sorted out for ya,” he added, giving the young man a friendly smack on the shoulder.

“Well, that’s a doozy of an accent, isn’t it?  Where you from, England?”  Thankfully Prince Charming had missed, or chosen to ignore Sebastian’s completely unecessary dig.

“Australia, actually,” Sebastian interjected before Pyro could speak.  “And I imagine you’ve greatly offended Allerdyce’s national pride by mixing the two up.”

“Shucks, I’m sorry – “

“Oh, no!” Pyro exclaimed. “Not at all.  Very similar accents, easy to mistake.”  

“You’re the ones who say g’day, right?  Like Crocodile Dundee!”

“Yes, exactly!” Pyro beamed. He’d started bar fights over being called Crocodile Dundee.  Or being called British.  Sebastian raised an eyebrow at him.  

“I’m Pyro, by the way, and Oscar the Grouch over there is Sebastian Shaw.  You don’t have to be nice to him.”  He shook the young man’s hand.    

“Anyway, I’m your ride,” the Adonis said,with a shy smile.  “I can get you up to the top of that mountain, lickety-split.”

“Oh, teleporter, are ya? That’s right handy,” Pyro said.

“Or he could be a speedster, let’s not jump to conclusions, Allerdyce,” Sebastian put in.

“No, it’s something a bit different than that,” said the divine creature carved from marble and bathed in Apollo’s fire.  He shifted suddenly, his torso stretching and changing in a way that reminded Pyro of Mystique.  And then there was a winged centaur standing in front of them, and Pyro wondered if he’d fallen into Narnia.  Or maybe that one book, with the kids and the Tesseract.    

“My mutant name is Eques, but you can call me Danny if you like.”  Pyro tried not to gape.  Somehow, the winged horse form had made the other mutant even more attractive, and Pyro wasn’t even into horses…but he was starting to understand the teenage girl obsession with them.  “Danny’s” clothing had disappeared as he shifted (one of the X-Men’s unstable molecule suits, no doubt), and now he was….basically naked.  Horse form meant all the important bits were hidden, but still.  Pyro pinched the inside of his wrist very hard and tried to think about cricket.

“Oh, shape-shifting,” Sebastian said, sounding mildly bored.  “I suppose that’ll do.  But surely there are more practical…and larger things that you can change into.”

“I’m afraid not,” said Danny, biting his lip and pawing with one hoof on  the ground in a way that was positively adorable.  “It’s a very specific mutation.  I can turn into this and only this.  But don’t worry, I’m strong enough to carry you both.  We can fly up.”  He flapped his wings for emphasis.  

Sebastian rolled his eyes.

“Really?  Have we crossed over into some children’s cartoon?”  

“C’mon Shaw, he’s here to help us.  Of course, you can walk up the mountain if you prefer,” Pyro said.  

“Oh no, I wouldn’t dare leave you alone with him,” Sebastian said, smirking at Pyro, who scowled back.  “Who knows what you two would get up to?  Besides, it’s better than the hike.  Marginally.  Let’s get this over with.”  

Before Pyro could protest, Sebastian had lifted him up by the shoulders and plopped him unceremoniously on Danny’s back, then climbed on behind him.  

“Sure we aren’t too heavy for ya?  I know Shaw here must weigh a ton.”  Pyro leaned in to speak in Danny’s ear, and tried not to notice how centaur’s thick, shimmering hair, radiant in the sunlight and making Pyro’s own golden locks seem like tarnished brass, smelled faintly of eucalyptus.

Should I compliment his hair?  Maybe ask what shampoo he uses, pretend like I want advice?  God damn it, St. John, snap out of it and act normal!

“Not all, fellas!”  Danny exclaimed, with a bright, guilless smile.  “I’m strong as a horse, too, this is nothing.  But you’d better hold on as I take off, wouldn’t want you to fall.”  

“Where should we, uh….” Pyro faltered.  Much as he wanted to slip his hands over Danny’s muscular chest (for safety!) he didn’t want to be a creep.  Also, if he wasn’t careful, his….interest…would start to become noticeable in the most humiliating way possible.

“Oh, anywhere’s fine, just hang onto me as best you can,” Danny drawled.  Before Pyro could lift his hands, Sebastian reached forward, wrapping his arms around the centaur’s waist and squishing Pyro between them.  

“Get off me, Shaw!”  Pyro squirmed, pressed against Danny’s back, with Shaw’s massive, unyielding bulk behind him.  God damn it, he was now dangerously close to being caught between a rock and a….hard place.

“Stop whining, Allerdyce, this is the best way to ensure we both stay on.  I certainly don’t trust you to hang on with those weak arms of yours.  We are secure, Eques.  Proceed.”

“Why’d you even take the back, then?”  Pyro demanded, but his question was answered as Danny leaped into the air, flapping violently.  The wings beat hardest around Pyro’s head, powerful back muscles twitching uncomfortably against him.  Well, at least having Sebastian Shaw’s gross, sweaty body pressed up against him, smelling faintly of fuck-you Rich People Cologne, was enough to kill his would-be boner quite dead.  Especially with Sebastian’s no-doubt obscenely hairy crotch up against his rear, with –

Wait a minute.  What was that?!

“Shaw, what the hell?” Pyro turned slightly, but Sebastian gripped Danny tighter, pushing him back forward.  The hard object pressing against his ass shifted.

“It’s my cell phone, Allerdyce, for God’s sake.  No need to jump to conclusions just because you’re all hot and bothered.”  

Pyro wondered whether it was possible to set Sebastian on fire without hurting Danny.  Just a little bit on fire.  And then if he fell, it wouldn’t be Pyro’s fault, right?

“Gosh, this is kinda fun, fellas!”  Danny yelled above the roar of the wind.  “I’m always out here with the horses, and that’s just how I like it, but it does get kinda lonely.  I don’t get to see other mutants very often.”

“Well, I’m sure you’d get a warm welcome if you ever came to join us on Krakoa,” Sebastian said.  Pyro slammed an elbow back against him, but Sebastian just gripped tighter.

“Don’t even think about it, Allerdyce,” he said in Pyro’s ear.  “I’ll take you down with me, make no mistake of that.”  

“Say, Eques,” Sebastian called up in a louder voice.  “Have you ever met Emma Frost?  Let me tell you all about her, I’m sure you’d have a great deal to…discuss.”

Pyro fumed quietly, and fantasized about Sebastian smashing into the jagged rocks below for the rest of the trip.  

(OOC: I don’t know what Eques should sound like, but I saw he was from Texas and wound up writing him like Cannonball.  Since he’s always so isolated with his horses, I could imagine him being very naïve, but also very friendly.  

Pyro is intensely thirsty, and failing to play it cool, but can you really blame him?

I have no idea what’s on top of that mountain. Let’s just assume that Pyro, Sebastian and Danny are going up to Midnight Castle to fight Tirac with the Rainbow of Light, and if you understand that reference you win a million 80’s nostalgia points.)          

[datawyrms]

The thrilling conclusion. (may not actually be thrilling/a conclusion) Part 1 and 2 respectively. Why was she actually doing this? Standing outside of FentonWorks and it’s eye searing sign in full ghost fighting gear, preparing to knock on the door. It had to be a trap, the ghost kid must have done something to the ghost hunters to make them want to help it. ‘Wanting to talk’, as if. Yet here she was, blundering right into the obvious bear trap anyway. Danny still hadn’t returned to school, even though Sam and Tucker had been acting like they knew where he was, so they had to be in on it too. If Phantom thought he could use her friend against her, he’d have another thing coming. Several very painful things, even. She clenched her fist hard to stop the slight tremor before knocking on the door.

Jack always struck her as more of a brick wall than a man, towering and orange as the door swung open. He looked puzzled for half a second before beaming. “HA! I was right, you did show up! See Mads, she totally did!” He seemed more like an excited puppy than anything, neck craning back to talk to his wife.

“Yes Jack, I see her.” Maddie still had the hood of her suit up, adjusting the goggles as she peered out to their doorstep at the teenage ghost hunter. “You did come to talk, right?”

“Course she did! He’s gotta trust his friends more, like I do!”

Even with her face obscured, Maddie clearly wasn’t a fan of the ‘trusting friends’ line, lips pursed before patting the boisterous man on the back. “How about you go let him know sweetie, while I let her in?”

“Great idea! I’ll even get some discussion fudge!” He zipped away faster than Valerie thought he could manage, the oppressive positivity swept away with him as the blue jumpsuited hunter crossed her arms.

“You don’t have any weapons? We have more than enough ourselves if you’re worried about your safety.”

“I won’t do anything if that ghost doesn’t.” It was hard to keep the disgust out of her voice, watching them act like this. Maddie had always struck her as the more reasonable Fenton, yet she seemed far more worried about some ghost than Jack did, for all his positivity.

“That isn’t what I asked. So I’ll repeat it. Do you have any weapons on you? If you do, just hand them over and then we can talk.”

She was talking like she was more of a threat than that monster in the basement! Whatever that ghost did, it must have been powerful. Maddie Fenton, worried for a ghost she’d gladly spoken about cutting open in the name of science only a month ago. It felt like she’d walked into bizarro world. Maybe if she waited long enough a white rabbit would run by screaming about the time.

“I didn’t bring any weapons. Even though I should have.”

Maddie watched her for a long moment, as if trying to see past the mask and figure out if the red suited ghost hunter was trying to lie. With the smallest sigh, she stepped aside to allow her into the home that doubled as a laboratory. “Follow me. You’ll be perfectly safe.”

She doubted anyone could be perfectly safe in a lab with a portal to another dimension filled with ectoplasmic fiends in it, adding the most dangerous ghost that liked to play ‘innocent’ just made it worse. She wouldn’t be alone down there, judging by the snippets of conversation that were floating up the stairs.

“-not gonna eat that, just take it.”

“Aww, but it’s the good stuff!”

“You need to try-” Jazz stopped speaking at the sound of footsteps on the stairs, turning to glare at the ghost hunter.

Phantom barely even reacted, only the eerie green eyes flicking towards the entrance. Apparently he was too busy sitting comfortably in what looked like a recliner they’d brought down for the ghost to bother with more than that. It just seemed off, having a ghost looking so grounded. “Left it to the last day, huh?” The confident grin didn’t reach his eyes, and even that vanished after a few seconds, like it had been more of a habit than wanting to act like that.

“Only because I know you’re up to something.”

“Yup. That’s me, plotting evil deeds. Maybe next time I won’t get punched through a wall!” He had the energy to roll his eyes, but didn’t cross his arms like she expected him to. “You can go guys, it’s just a chat. Probably.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea-” Maddie’s concern was sickening, watching someone she could respect sometimes just fawning over a playacting ghost.

“I’ll be fine. This is between us.”

“Sure thing! Oh, if you have any symptoms just yell and I’ll be right there kiddo.” The huge man mussed the ghost’s hair, grin wide despite how wrong it looked. “I totally thought of a new approach, so just sit tight!” He was halfway up the stairs by the time he finished talking, not that the distance made him any less audible. Maddie hesitated a moment longer, but followed the loud love of her life.

The only unjumpsuited Fenton seemed to disagree. “I’m not leaving.”

“Yes you are Jazz!”

“I don’t care if she stays, ghost. You can quit stalling.” Valerie interrupted before the two of them could make her wait for ages with some pointless bickering.

Instead the redhead rounded on her. “He has a name. Use it.”

“Jazz, I really don’t care. Just go already.” He looked almost as irritated as she felt . “I just want to get this over with.”

“I don’t trust her not to do something.”

Didn’t trust her? Over the destructive white haired menace? That was just insulting. “You said you’d talk, so start explaining” she did her best to ignore Danny’s sister, it was probably just whatever the ghost was holding over their heads making her act like this.

“Won’t help if you don’t actually listen for a change.” His eyes narrowed, but more at Jazz than Valerie. “You don’t need to hear this Jazz. Okay?”

“If you think I don’t, I definitely do.” She scowled right back, acting as if they were a bratty younger kid than a ghost that could rip her face off. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Fine! Whatever, be stubborn. Can’t do anything about it.” His eyes seemed to glow more strongly before the ghost slumped back more in the chair. “So what do you think I did then? Since you keep trying to bother my friends.”

“There’s no way you got the Fentons and those two on your side without leverage. Sure, some kids actually buy that hero crap, but the Fentons don’t.” Only having a finger to point at the ghost made her feel unprepared.

The glowing teenager looked bored. “So you think I’m a kidnapper.”

“I know you did something to Danny. The timing matches up too well. So out with it.”

“Or what, you’ll kill me faster?” He seemed to freeze up after the words were out, smacking himself in the face. “Habit. I didn’t do anything, but it’s going to be hard to explain.”

This was such a waste of time. “Because it’s all made up nonsense?”

“It’ll sound like it! But it’s not. I can prove it.” the ghost stopped as if he needed to catch his breath. “At least I think I can. You left this really, really late.”

“You’re getting off track.” Jazz spoke up before Valerie could say something similar but with far less charitable phrasing.

“Right. Just trying to figure out how to say it.” A gloved hand rubbed at his forehead, brow furrowed as the ghost muttered. “You know what ghosts are made of, right?”

“Ectoplasm and bad attitudes. Duh, anyone in Amity could tell you that.” What was this, quiz time? Some sort of ‘How long can I annoy the ghost hunter before she shoots and makes me look good’ plan?

His shoulders barely move, a negative effort shrug. “Close enough.”

“It really isn’t! Ectoplasm might be what a ghost builds their body out of but-”

Phantom cut her off, leaning forward with the air of absolute exhaustion. “Jazz I do not have time to explain the specific inner workings of ghosts to someone who hates me right now!”

“It’ll help with the next bit, but fine. Go ahead and get all confused.” The redhead sat back, arms crossed.

“Thank you.” Green eyes shifted to find Valerie again before the ghost continued. “Thing is, I’m not all ectoplasm.”

“Is that why you’re extra obnoxious? Have some dirt mixed in there?”

The ghost actually laughed. “Probably!” He did hold up a hand while the laugh subsided, apparently having something more to add. “Not all dirt. But you got the important bit. I’m not a proper ghost, exactly.”

“I don’t run some endangered petting zoo, ghost. So why should I care?” Though it did explain the hunter ghost that was always after the obnoxious white haired creep.

“You should care because right now, I’m doing the whole ‘post human consciousness’ thing completely wrong.” He was watching her closely, a strange look on that dead face. Dread, anxiety? It didn’t look right on his face. “In that I’m not post human. Yet.”

Maybe the ghost was just trying to see if he could get a funny reaction. “Sorry Phantom, you look really dead to me.”

“Oh I feel real dead! But nope. Ah- I said I can prove it, don’t start yelling.” he muttered the last bit quickly, eyes flicking away from her obvious disbelieving glare. “Probably. Hurts. Gimme a sec-”

“I just wanted an answer to what you were doing, not this inane story.”

“Inane story very important answering that.” the ghost didn’t seem to even notice he was just dropping words from his sentence, more focused at staring at his own hand.

Jazz got up, hovering over the ghost as if deeply concerned for the absurdity spouting spirit. “I can back you up, you don’t need to prove it.”

“She’ll never believe it without seeing it. Which is why we’re doing this at all. Before I can’t.”

“Mom and Dad are still working on it, they’ll figure out a way to fix it.”

“No they won’t Jazz! I want them to, but they won’t! Not with how they explained it.”

“You’re just letting the worst outcome seem like the most likely one.”

“No, I’m actually understanding what they mean and being realistic!”

Honestly, this entire little exchange felt like something private she’d barged in on. She gave a loud cough, which seemed to startle both of them, heads jerking to look in her direction. They almost looked related, being that in sync.

The psychology lover recovered first. “Urgh. Just say it out loud, you’re obviously struggling.”

Which snapped the ghost boy out of it. “And you’re obviously not helping!”

“So what, you threatened the Fentons with a really bad comedy act?” The ghost winced at the angry rebuke, but she wasn’t done. “I get you being obnoxious, but dragging Jazz into it? You’re pretty sick.”

“He’s Danny.” There was no amusement in her voice, no hint of the concerned smile she kept giving the ectoplasmic pest.

“Jazz!” There was a genuine note of anger, and the temperature seemed to dip as the ghost glared at the one that didn’t want him blasted out of existence.

“I don’t really care what you call him, that doesn’t answer-”

Jazz cut her off, ignoring the cold glare being thrown at her. “It does. Danny isn’t missing, he’s right here.”

“You managed to trick the Fentons into thinking you’re their kid? What did you do to Danny?” Valarie rounded on the ghost, hand reaching for a weapon that wasn’t there.

“Nothing!” His hands were up even as his eyes stayed fixed on the elder Fenton child. “I told you she won’t believe it!”

“Nothing’s happened to Danny. This is him. Only grumpier.”

“You can’t honestly think that thing is your brother!”

“Wow Jazz, you managed to get me called a thing. Great assist, keep it up.” Phantom was muttering, settling back as if he planned to just take a nap. “If you keep this up, maybe she’ll shoot me!”

“You could try standing up for yourself, Danny.”

“Oh no, you dug this hole. You lie in it. I’d say your grave, but I have dibs in that department. Twiceover!”

She was going to punch this ghost. Even if the creature could just phase through it. She wanted to clobber it for whatever THIS was. “So you killed Danny, and took his place. That’s what you’re saying?” At least she had the satisfaction of the ghost looking like it wanted to vanish as she stepped forward.

“Hey, I didn’t say anything. That was Jazz.”

“No! Danny’s always been both. I’ve known for a while, but he had to tell Mom and Dad. That’s why they’re suddenly fine with Phantom.” Jazz insisted, trying to look Valerie in the eye. “He isn’t missing, and hasn’t done anything to us.”

“Danny is not a life ruining monster. I don’t care how convincing that thing seems to you, that ghost is NOT my friend.” Danny was sweet, big hearted and a bit of a shy little dork. Phantom was nothing but a snide, cocky creep that insisted you should just forget anything that made him look like the scummy ghost he was. They were nothing alike.

“And this is why I just wanted to make things quick.” The ghost seemed to fold in on himself, not looking at either of the humans in the room. “You can hate me all you want, just let me explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain! You aren’t Danny.”

“He is. It explains everything. Think about it logically. Danny goes ‘missing’. He tries to fix the problem himself, but he can’t. We convince him he has to tell our parents. He finally does, and even though Danny is still ‘missing’ they stop saying things like a ghost kidnapped him. Because we know where he is.”

“Or he’s still missing and you’ve bought some nonsense story to feel better about it when this ghost probably just tortured him for information.” Jazz didn’t back down from her snappy response, but did seem to be at a loss.

“Hey! I do not do torture. That’s literally everyone who isn’t me.” the ghost sounded offended, shaking his hand as if trying to get it to do something. “Anyway, this is going to suck. I blame you Jazz.”

“Excuse me for thinking friends of yours can be logical with the truth in their faces!”

“Nah. I get to say I told you so for a change.”

Valrie planned to make the two quit their pointless bickering, but words died in her throat as a set of rings appeared near the ghost’s wrist. It wasn’t an attack she’d seen the menace use before and she was already settling into a fighting stance to combat it. Yet it stayed around the ghost, slowly down his arm. It seemed a bit much as a way to take off a ghostly jumpsuit, but she preferred that first thought to how the ghost changed as it swept over his face.

Black hair, blue eyes. Her friend’s face, Danny’s face set in a grimace of pain as the rings snuffed out, a boy that looked pale and sickly while struggling to breathe where the blight of a ghost had been.

“Yup. Sucks. Ow.” Danny wheezed, eyes unfocused even though he knew the two of them were still there.

Jazz was there in seconds. “You need to switch back. Mom said-”

“S-she’s gotta know it isn’t a trick first.” the boy insisted, and his voice was right. It was Danny’s, without the horrid echo or slimy snaps the ghost made.

Yet it had to be a trick. There was no way her friend had been a lie. Just some rotten ghost who’d gotten close to her as some sort of joke. A ghost that had tricked her after making sure she knew he was nothing but a monster in one disguise. “Who are you.” The question was weak.

“Just Danny. Been this way since the accident.” He looked like he was going to say more but was cut off by a coughing fit, flecks of ectoplasm making his pale skin look even closer to dead as it splattered on his hastily raised hand. “That’s new.” His laugh set her teeth on edge.

Her brain wouldn’t work. It was impossible, it couldn’t be true. She didn’t want it to be true. She’d liked him well enough before. This-she wasn’t sure how else she could take this. “So why are you telling me now.”

“I wanted you to know while I could still prove it.”

“Why? Did you think this would help you? Think I might pity you if you look sick?”

“No.” Blue eyes looked away as the rings returned the ghost to the chair. “I told you so you’d leave my friends alone. Since I don’t think I’m going to stop being missing.”

He’d revealed his nasty trick, but wasn’t mocking her about it, or lording over her with it. It didn’t fit. They couldn’t be the same person. You couldn’t be alive and dead at the same time! She wanted to choke him, but also wanted to help. She hated this, she hated him for making this complicated. “Stay missing?” The sickness had to be an act, right? Like how he pretended he was a friend.

“Yeah. I got lucky in the accident. I wasn’t quite a ghost, and not exactly a human.” Phantom wasn’t looking at her as he spoke, apparently preferring to stare at the wall. “It was a balance thing, I guess. I didn’t really notice at first. Like the obvious I did, the whole having ghost powers thing, being able to switch back and forth.” The rambling didn’t stop even as he started scratching at the back of his neck. “I didn’t notice even as a human I needed ectoplasm to keep my heart going, or as a ghost I could use more than just ectoplasm to keep my energy up. I need both halves, I can’t survive without both.” He hesitated again, getting a reassuring hand on the shoulder from Jazz. “Problem is I managed to get that balance screwed up. Ran myself ragged fighting ghosts, didn’t get enough sleep, basically coasted on my ghost half to keep functioning. And I’m a strong ghost now, I guess. Too strong for my weak human body to manage anymore. So I’m basically eating myself alive and falling apart. It’s great. This is when I have a quip about work life balance or something, but I’m too tired to think of one.”

“He wasn’t hiding this out of maliciousness you know. He was afraid.” Jazz was frowning as she watched how the ghost hunter hadn’t really relaxed, still stiff and angry looking. “He couldn’t even make himself tell Mom and Dad until we basically forced him to.”

“She doesn’t care, Jazz.” he grunted, still not looking, “But you know now. So you don’t need to go after anyone to find out what happened. It’s self inflicted.”

It was too much. The whole thing was absurd. What could she even say to something like this? To have the world invert to show ugly stains you didn’t see before? They would need to talk again. About this. About what he actually was, or wasn’t. Now though?

She could only leave without a word.

[sovio-studio]

To understand a ghost kid

[Maddie decides to interrogate Phantom in a final effort to discover his ghost obsession. The conversation ends up taking a more emotional turn than she expected]

~~~

"You won't be getting out anytime soon. That's a new anti ghost-power design."

Danny struggled in the luminous green net for a few seconds more before ultimately resigning with a sigh.

"I thought things were going well! You haven't tried to capture me for months."

His mother seemed surprised at his remark. She probably hadn't thought he'd paid much attention to their truce, thanks to her prejudices about ghosts not having emotions all together. However, she composed herself quickly as usual.

"A deal is a deal, I don't plan to harm you this time."

"This time?"

She ignored him. "I need to ask you some questions?"

"Then just ask me! No need for the stupid net." He retorted, pushing against the net once more.

"The net is a precaution. I can't have you running away before you can answer."

"Geez what kinda question is this?"

"It's about your origins. How you died to be more precise"

"Oh… oh! My er-" He settled uncomfortably onto the ground in a cross legged position, despite the net. This would be interesting. "Why do you need to know about that anyway?"

"We've recently been trying to make connections between ghosts, their obsessions, and their deaths. Majority we have solid hypotheses, and a couple we've even confirmed." Now that, Danny was curious about. They actually managed to track down who some of his enemies were before death?

"Go on." She seemed surprised but excited by his will to listen.

"Ghosts come from a range of eras which comes across in their mannerisms, and their passion at time of death is their obsession, which becomes more warped overtime. Whether it be passion as in love or their career, or as in revenge or desperate wants."

Maddie paused her pacing and glanced over to see if he was still listening. He was. She continued, now stood resolutely still.

"You are one of the very few anomalies we found"

"How so?"

He could guess.

"You have no indicators of how you died. Not only do you use modern speech and even slang, you wear a modern hazmat suit, that looks strikingly like ours at that."

That's cause it is.

"So I have two questions. When did you die, and what's your obsession?"

Danny wasn't sure if she was pausing for an answer or not. It was likely her way of testing his cooperativeness, but he had a question of his own.

"I appreciate your curiosity but this doesn't seem like the kind of thing you'd go through the trouble of trapping me for. Why do you really want to know this?"

Maddie walked closer to the net, her calm pace and lack of a weapon showing the gain of trust the two had gotten over the months, even if it wasn't perfect.

"That's pretty simple: I'm a scientist. I do research. And while I can't do physical tests on you as I originally wanted, I can at least do as much research as I can into how ghosts work without that. And your obsessions are extremely important to this." She leaned down towards him as he was still on the floor and pointed a finger upwards, like a teacher telling off a preschooler. Danny bit back an amused smirk. "You seem to break the clear rules that have worked just fine so far, so what I need to know is why."

"You didn't say anything about me breaking any rules."

Maddie stood back up straight and crossed her arms, Danny carefully stood up to join her as she talked.

"You've broken a few. The main being that you seem to have no obsession. My first assumption was that your heroics where just that. It would explain your desperate need to help people and likely meant your last moments involved saving someone, or wishing to be saved yourself."

That made Danny think. Had he wished someone could save him back during the accident? It was a pretty likely reaction considering how much that amount of energy had hurt, but he'd never considered it actually altering his perception or feelings.

"But," his mother's continuation snapped him back to the present, "I ruled that out. In most cases ghosts will stop at nothing to stick to their obsessions, including contradicting other aspects of themselves, or making unlikely alliances, excetera. But while I've observed carefully, every time I've encountered you over the last three weeks, you will often go on unusual tangents."

Tangents...?

~~~

Based on the look in the ghosts eyes he didn't know what she meant. He likely just hadn't recognised that his own behaviour was unusual. Not surprising, but she couldn't make any judgements until this mystery was resolved.

"In short, you aim to help people, but will go off elsewhere to finish a fight, or alternate between fights. You've also paused battles altogether to chat or tease your opponent. And how frequently you are late and disappear after or during fights or helping people. Whatever the reasons for that are, a ghost typically should follow their obsession no matter what, and at all times. In other words, you can get distracted which isn't right."

Not right for ghosts at least. It was definitely more of a human trait, but she left that out.

"So what's your next theory? Or do you have some explanation in mind for why I'm different?" Maddie looked intently back at Phantom to see an incredibly focused expression that was rare on the young spirit. He was strongly invested in this topic, but she couldn't tell why. Did he know something she didn't that had an impact on her theories?

"I had a couple other hypotheses for your obsession that fell through for basically the same reasons." She crouched down to unpin the net, carefully slinging it off of him. She was confident he wouldn't leave at this point. He watched it fall and smiled gratefully, but didn't try to move. "That's why I decided to ask you personally. Though I wasn't sure it'd be something you were willing to talk about."

"Why, because it supposedly involved my death?" He promotes. She hadn't expected him to be so blunt about it but,

"Yes, mostly. Do you actually have any memory of it? If you don't mind me asking?" Honestly that was the question she had wanted to start with. Phantom merely looked away in thought. Not as if he was avoiding it or recalling something, more like he was contemplating. Perhaps he was deciding how to explain.

"I… I remember having a family. And friends." He finally responded. She didn't fill the silence between his sentences hoping he'd add more detail. "I was just, erm, 14, and there was… an accident. It involved an explosion. Of sorts."

"An explosion?" That was awfully dramatic for just a child's death. He looked a little older than 14, but that part was sure believable.

"It was um, not a big one. A device in our home malfunctioned and I just happened to be around it at the time. It was a mistake." If it was an accident how could it also be a mistake? He was definitely leaving out some details but she couldn't bring herself to pry. This was clearly a touchy subject, for obvious reasons.

"So you do remember." He seemed to be startled back into reality and he looked back up at her, the energetic green glow she hadn't noticed had been gone until just now quickly coming back into his eyes.

"Yeah- sort of. It's a little fuzzy."

"Does anything about what you remember give us any clues to what your obsession is?" In other words, what he thought about right before death. That part of the question didn't need saying for him to seemingly pick up on it.

"I don't know exactly, no, sorry. I'm as curious as you are to be honest."

"What about? Your obsession or your death?"

"Both?" Phantom answered vaguely with a shrug.

Maddie had also secretly been digging for any strange circumstances around his death. If they couldn't find a plausible obsession, maybe they could find the reason he didn't have one instead. But his description sounded pretty normal. A household accident. An electrical glitch most likely. While it wasn't a common cause of death it wasn't as erratic as getting mauled while illegally hunting a rare species or burning your house down with you inside it over a guy. There was nothing to go off there, except…

Maybe she'd have to pry a little after all.

~~~

"You said it was a mistake?" Danny pouted at the tricky question.

He'd carefully spun his freak portal accident into a more believable and unrelated tale. She'd managed to catch his little slip up after he had dazed off into the memory, but at this point he'd stick to his half-truth story. He wasn't a very good liar after all.

"It was my fault really. I wanted to show my friends something cool but we shouldn't have been there at all. At least it wasn't either of them that got hurt because of me."

He could tell she was a little frustrated at how vague he was being, but any further would be too much. He stopped there.

"Maybe regret has something to do with it?" After a long moment of awkward silence Maddie eventually resigned back to her theories. "Regret that you went somewhere you shouldn't, or more likely, regret that you died young."

Danny was a little startled by her conclusion. She'd said that last couple words so clearly; she was sure of this.

~~~

Phantom's reaction only made her feel more strongly that this was the one. It actually explained so much. He acted like a teenager: he was up to date on what kids are into and how they talk, plus he acts just like a kid often. Getting distracted all the time actually complimented this obsession instead of contradicting it. His whole heroics act wasn't really that much of an act, because that was just his innocent moral compass, that he miraculously maintained in death thanks to desperately wanting to continue living out his teenage years like his friends could. It's why he seemed so human. He practically still was one because his obsession was to remain human or 'alive', and making the most of his second chance at existing. It wasn't an exact answer but it was too clear now to argue with.

Maddie turned to the ghostly teenager. She could see him in a slightly different light now that she knew his drive really wasn't secretly malicious after all. Not that she'd truly believed that recently anyway.

"You seem pretty human sometimes, Phantom" she commented, smiling.

Phantom looked up at her suddenly and his eyes widened a little. He stared at her for a long moment, seeming nervous. After a moment, he blinked and wiped the expression off his face, but his shoulders still looked tense.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I think that has something to do with your obsession. It's the only good explanation for your more unexplainable behaviour ironically." Maddie admitted.

“Ah.” Phantom’s tension eased and he looked down at the floor. His eyes seemed tired... He didn't look relieved, more… disheartened? Had he been expecting something else? And had he wanted to hear that or not, as neither reaction had been positive. She resorted to asking a question she never thought she'd be asking a ghost. Let alone one she spent half a year trying to catch and examine.

~~~

"Are you okay?" Danny heard Maddie ask, her strongest motherly tone coming through clearly now. He didn't look up at her yet, afraid he'd see her concerned expression and just break character completely.

"I'm alright, thanks. It's just been a slightly different conversation than I expected."

"Alright. I suppose this topic is hard on you. I know you might not think you can trust me but I'm here to talk if you need it okay?"

Danny smiled. She'd said this to him a million times before. "I know mom. Thanks."

~~~

[thecreedsgambit]

Two of Hearts | Ethan x MC (Jane)

Chapter 2: Mediation 

Summary: A fluff piece because, Heaven knows, Jane needs it.

Author’s Note: Honestly, I debated including this as its own chapter, but I loved this idea too much not to share it with you all. I wanted to divvy up the romance in this series with a little bit of fluff (mainly because I wanted to include Sienna and Aurora in this series because why not). I’m posting a chapter three tonight, as well. I also wrote Ethan fluff, and I need to share it ASAP too. Enjoy both!

Song Inspiration: Meant to Be by Bebe Rexha x Florida Georgia Line

Tags: @mvalentine @ethanramseysgirl @openheart12 @junggoku @tefigranger @noboundariesplease @colossalpainintheass @lifeof-liv @ethxnrxmsey @kaavyaethanramsey @paulfwesley @ethandaddyramsey @adrex04

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Pixelberry.

Chapter 1: The Other Woman

The sun’s rays snuck through Jane’s ivory, french curtains, casting a warm glow onto her face. It only took moments for her eyes to flutter open, and, seconds later, her phone rang. She hadn’t even noticed she fell asleep; it took her a long time to clear her head last night. She had told herself that it was going to be a long night, but she was glad her exhaustion proved her wrong.

She rolled onto her back and didn’t make any attempt to reach for her phone. She knew who it was; he had tried calling her sometime last night, too.

Ethan.

A part of her wanted to answer, of course, but she wasn’t sure how willing she was to talk to him. She had hoped he would show up at her door last night, but he didn’t. She should have been eager to answer his call; to hear his voice; to hear whatever he had to say. No matter how eager she might have felt deep down, though, she just couldn’t reach for her phone.

“Jane.” A voice came from the other side of her bedroom door followed by a soft knock. The door opened slowly before Sienna’s head popped in. When she saw that Jane was awake, she stepped into her room. “Good morning, sleepy-head.”

Jane managed a smile. “Good morning.”

Sienna bit her cheek before offering her a sheepish smile, hope practically shimmering in her eyes. “Aurora came home this morning … and we’re making breakfast. Do you want to come help with the pancakes?”

Jane’s eyes darted away momentarily, nervously toying with her fingers. She suddenly remembered her fight with Aurora at the softball game - how angry she had gotten after Dr. Tobias Carrick revealed to her exactly how he’d found out about Edenbrook’s intention to study their coma patient. Admittedly, she did feel slightly embarrassed that she let her temper get the best of her.

Jane cared strongly for Edenbrook, for helping herself and her friends keep their jobs. But she also cared for Aurora, and, quite frankly, she was tired of arguing with the people she cared about.

Her attention returned to Sienna as she sat up with a nod. “Sure, I’ll be out there in a minute.”

Sienna grinned, bouncing excitedly, as she hurried out of her room and closed the door behind her.

Jane took a moment before getting up, her eyes wandering toward her phone that rested on her pillow. She stayed like that until she heard soft laughter emanate from the kitchen. Taking a deep breath, she rolled out of bed and pulled on a pair of stray black shorts she found near her closet.

As she exited her room and walked toward the kitchen, throwing her hair into a ponytail, she attempted to brace herself for seeing Aurora again. When she rounded the corner, she locked eyes with Aurora and instantly knew she hadn’t been the only one bracing for what was to come next.

“Hey,” Jane said softly.

Aurora eyed her nervously. “... hey.”

Sienna’s smile died on her lips as she turned to see Jane standing at the edge of the counter, hesitating to step forward. She quickly slid a glass bowl toward her with a quirked eyebrow. “You’re on pancake duty, Jane.”

Jane’s eyes momentarily flickered down to the bowl. “Are we making pancakes from scratch?”

Sienna looked offended, eyes widening. “Of course.”

Jane walked closer, grabbing the bowl and proceeding to add ingredients as Sienna directed. They all moved around the kitchen; the tense air quickly waned as Sienna made the effort to strike up a conversation about a few patients she’d met in the clinic.

As Sienna turned to start a pot of coffee, Jane let her eyes glance over at Aurora, who was casting her eyes down at a small bowl in front of her. Sienna asked her to make the blueberry sauce for their pancakes, and Aurora looked as if she would rather be on coffee duty.

Jane’s lips curled slightly. “Have you added the lemon juice yet?”

Aurora’s face gave way to a moment of shock before she furrowed her eyebrows, giving the blueberries an annoyed stir. “I’m horrible at this,” she grumbled.

Jane couldn’t help a snort that escaped her lips, and Aurora’s eyes cut towards her in shared amusement. A moment passed before Aurora sat her spoon down and looked at her.

“Are you still mad at me?” She asked Jane. “I guess I would understand. I thought about what you said, and I really should have known.” Her shoulders seemed to slump. “I just wanted to show Tobias the good we could do, too. I’m tired of the back and forth competition, you know?”

“I’m not mad at you,” Jane said shortly, without missing a beat.

Aurora reeled from surprise. “Wait - you’re not?”

Jane shook her head in response. “I was angry at the game, sure. Tobias stole the one real chance I thought I had at saving Edenbrook - at saving our jobs.” Jane paused, looking into Aurora’s wide brown eyes. “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions, though. You are my friend, Aurora, even if you chose to wear Mass Kenmore on your coat.”

Even though she tried to hide it by looking down, Jane could tell Aurora was fighting back a grin.

“Besides,” Jane started, smirking, “we did beat you at softball.”

Aurora scoffed, though nothing but good-natured humor glistened in her eyes. “You got lucky.”

“Yeah? Well, we’ll see next year,” Jane teased.

They shared a smile before her eyes were drawn toward the sound of her pager, ringing from her jacket that was strewn across the couch.

Aurora sighed, allowing an apologetic smile to creep onto her lips, “I’m sorry, guys.”

Sienna walked over to her, taking the spoon and the bowl of half-made blueberry sauce. “Don’t worry about it. Duty calls.”

Aurora threw one last look at Jane, a shy smile playing on her lips, before jogging out of the kitchen.

Jane looked at Sienna with a smile. “I’m sure Jackie and Elijah will be here soon. Where’d they go, anyway?”

“I think they both went to the hospital.”

“Of course they did,” Jane replied. She cracked an egg before noting, “We haven’t spent time alone together in awhile.”

They were the only two in the kitchen now. With the smell of coffee in the air and the warmth of the sun on her back, Jane felt content just for a moment. Just for a moment, she didn’t think of Ethan, or of the clinic, or of Edenbrook. Just for a moment, she was happy, mixing her pancake batter and watching Sienna remove bacon from the fridge.

“I suppose we haven’t,” Sienna replied.

The two finished making breakfast with light and hearty conversation, eventually carrying their plates and cups of coffee to the table. They sat across from each other; Jane digging in nearly immediately to sate her growling stomach.

Sienna reached for the blueberry sauce, giving Jane a cautious look. “So, how are you after …?”

Jane didn’t respond for a moment. “How about we start with you?” She threw Sienna a suggestive smirk. “How’re you and Danny?”

“You’re deflecting.” Sienna laughed, drizzling the blueberries over her pancakes.

“Oh, good. It’s working, then?”

Sienna rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t wipe her smile from her face. “Danny and I are good,” she began. Though, her smile quickly gave way to a frown. “I haven’t been able to talk to him much, though.”

“Why?”

“I’ve just been really caught up … with work,” Sienna admitted. She busied herself with her food, ignoring Jane’s gaze, “It’s been hard to do much of anything these days.”

Jane nodded in agreement. “But … does this have anything to do with Mitch?” When she didn’t get a response, Jane warned, “Sienna.”

Sighing, Sienna finally confessed, “Okay. Maybe Mitch isn’t necessarily helping.”

“Is he still making you do his work for him?”

“No,” Sienna countered. Jane gave her a look, and she sighed once more. “It’s just, he keeps asking me to handle patients for him, especially if it’s a harder case.”

Jane frowned. “Sienna, you can’t keep doing things for him.”

“I know,” she replied. She looked as if she wanted to talk about literally anything else, so she asked, “How are things with Esme?”

At the sound of her intern's name, Jane looked down. After a moment’s hesitation, she answered. “Sometimes I feel like I should be there more. It’s just - between the clinic and the team, I feel like I’m not being there for her.”

Jane didn’t have to say it, but Sienna knew what she was thinking. Maybe Victoria was right.

Sienna frowned. “Jane, I know you’re a good teacher. I saw you the other day - talking to Esme in the cafeteria. You are there for her.” Jane tried to believe her, but she still felt the weight of guilt on her shoulders. Sienna must have noticed because her gaze turned serious. “Don’t let Dr. Robbins make you question yourself, Jane. Don’t let her make you question anything.”

When Jane returned her gaze, she knew Sienna was talking about something else entirely. She was talking about Ethan.

“What happened anyway?” Sienna asked.

Jane exhaled deeply before deciding it best to let it out. So, she did. She told Sienna exactly what happened between her and Ethan in the hallway the day before. Jane had gone over the argument in her head for a good portion of the night, so it was fairly fresh in her mind. It didn’t, however, stop the wave of pain she felt when she finished,

“Wow,” Sienna commented. Jane nodded, poking at her pancakes in silence. “Has he tried to call you?”

“Yeah.”

“And you don’t answer?”

“No.”

“Why not?” Sienna studied her for a moment. “Do you miss him?”

Jane thought of him for longer than she dared to since their conversation in the hallway. For a moment, her guarded expressions and practiced smiles gave way to her true emotions. She thought of his eyes, his hair, and his scent. Him. Ethan. If she were being honest, everything about him was almost too intoxicating; yet, she loved him anyway.

“I do,” she finally admitted. “I just don’t know what to say. I know I’ll see him at hospital tomorrow, and I know I should answer. It’s just … how do you not have that kind of conversation face-to-face?”

“You don’t,” Sienna answered easily. Jane didn’t try to hide her disappointment, and Sienna added, “You know, Wayne and I never argued, not like that. We never really talked long enough to argue.” Jane looked at her, and Sienna gave her a meaningful look. “Only two people who really care about each other argue like that.”

Jane furrowed her eyebrows thoughtfully; she hadn’t thought about it in that way. She swallowed hard before looking at Sienna gratefully. “Thank you.”

“I’ll always be here, Jane,” She reassured. “You’re allowed to have time to think about your own feelings. Besides, what is meant to happen, will happen.”

Jane looked at her for a moment before a teasing smile crept onto her face. “When did you get so good at talking about relationships?”

“I’m always good at talking about everything,” Sienna countered.

A laugh escaped both of their lips as they returned to their breakfast, exchanging teasing remarks and light jokes until Jackie and Elijah came through the front door.

~

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” Sienna asked.

Jane stood a few feet from their front door, watching as her roommates hesitated in the threshold. “I’m positive. You guys go. Have fun before it gets too late.”

Despite their protests, Jane eventually shooed them out of their apartment and on their way to Donahue’s. She told them, and herself, she wasn’t going because she wanted to study up for the team’s newest patient, but, admittedly, she wanted to be on the other side of the door in case Ethan ever decided to knock on it.

She padded over to the couch and flopped down, turning on a movie as the sudden patter of rain began to sound outside. Ethan had called again, only thirty minutes before. Her eyes peered down at his name, and her thumb hovered over, and darted away from, his contact several times.

Her desire to return his call slowly began burning in the pit of her stomach as she thought of the sound of his voice. Thunder rumbled overhead, and the rain intensified. For a moment, her eyes flickered toward the windows as a streak of lightning pierced the sky and drenched the living room in a brief, but bright, shade of blue.

The sound of the harsh rain lulled her desire, and she slowly reached forward to place her phone on the table in front of her. She almost settled in to watch her movie when a knock sounded, sending her heart plummeting into her stomach. Frozen, she sat there until another knock sounded - more insistent this time.

Before she lost her nerve, she stood and hurried over to the door. But, when she opened it, her face fell.

“Farley,” she said.

He raised an eyebrow. “Were you expecting someone else?”

Swallowing hard, she crossed her arms and looked up at her landlord. “What is it now? Did another check bounce?”

“No.” He mirrored her, crossing his own arms. “Mrs. Edelstein complained again about too much … activity going on in your apartment late at night.”

Jane’s eyebrows furrowed in disbelief, and she scoffed. “She does realize that there are five interns that live here, right?”

Farley rolled his eyes. “Look, I don’t know. Just … try to keep it down. I don’t need Mrs. Edelstein calling my phone again.”

He didn’t bother to wait for her reply. Instead, he sulked off down the hallway, and Jane huffed before closing the door. She hadn’t yet stepped any more than two steps away before another knock sounded. Out of annoyance, she turned to fling the door open. But, every inch of her froze and her lips parted slightly as she looked up at the man in front of her.

“Ethan?” She breathed. “What are you doing here?”

He stood there – hair dripping wet and clinging to his forehead – with a look on his face that resembled a painful mix of longing and sorrow. Jane stared up at him as if he were a dream, like Sienna would pinch her awake at any moment.

But this wasn’t a dream, and Ethan was really here. He was here, standing with a green, rain-slicked jacket and fresh rain drops slipping down the sides of his face. The subtle shiver that raked his body was enough to make her snap out of her trance and quickly step aside, opening the door a bit wider.

He huddled inside, running a hand through his wet hair in an attempt to slick it back and out of his face. Jane slowly shut the door as if too much noise might ruin the moment – as if making any sudden movements might wreck the delicate tension between the two of them. 

So, she closed the door, as quietly as she could, and waited a beat to turn around. She knew that facing him right now, in this moment, would be enough to make every word die on her lips.

And she was right.

The moment she turned around, her eyes met his, and every angry thought, hurt feeling, and painful disbelief made her choke on any word that dared escape her lips.

[five-rivers]

Maybe a Secret Saturday and DP crossover with the Fenton's being approached to join the Secret Scientists. The parents are quickly deemed too biased against ghosts to join until further notice. Their kids, on the other hand. The son's not quite a scientist, but he has potential. And their daughter would be perfect.

“Remind me why I’m doing this again?”

Doc gave Zak a look.  “Because the Secret Scientists need new members.  Potential members need to be screened by existing members.  And the Fentons have kids your age.”

Zak raised a skeptical eyebrow.  “I don’t exactly get along with ‘kids my age.’”  It was true.  Ulraj and Wadi were exceptions to the rule, and even interactions with them had been rough at first.  It had been four years since he met them, and they were still just about his only friends.  

Zak just didn’t do ‘normal’ very well.  Sure, he could integrate himself into a group for the sake of information gathering, but that usually didn’t last very long.  Thirty minutes, tops.  

“I know,” said Doc.  “But sometimes people will say things to and around kids that they wouldn’t otherwise, and we want to be thorough.  Make sure we’re inviting ethical people.  No more Abbies.”

“I guess that makes sense,” said Zak.  He sighed.  He knew Fisk wouldn’t be able to come.  Most of the time, they were able to get away with people assuming he was a guy in a suit, or just ignoring him in favor of much more obvious, more immediately dangerous cryptids, but that wouldn’t be something they could get away with when it came to prolonged contact.  

It never seemed fair to Fisk.  

(Cryptids always seemed to get the short end of the stick.  Even the ones who were as intelligent as any human.)

“You don’t have to be friends with them,” said Doc, putting a hand on Zak’s shoulder.  “Just like we don’t have to accept the Fentons into the Secret Scientists...  But give it a chance?”

“Okay,” said Zak, shrugging.  “A chance.”

.

Danny loved his parents.  They loved him.  He knew that they were brilliant scientists who had made incredible breakthroughs in a difficult and poorly regarded field.  They deserved recognition and funding.  They had no colleagues with whom to correspond or test ideas with.  They had no real friends.  They deserved that, too.  

All in all, Danny thought they deserved the position in the think tank that was about it interview them.  

But Danny felt sick at the idea of them spreading their biased and hateful theories about ghosts to yet another group.  He hated the very thought of even more people, more scientists, more people who were trying to do good in the world, calling him and the other ghosts evil just because of the way they existed.  

But he didn’t know how to stop it.  Not without revealing himself, and he was too much of a coward to do that.  

... Maybe he could convince their kid he was a jerk?

Ugh, no.  As inconsiderate as he could be unintentionally, he was incapable of being a jerk on purpose.  Unless the person deserved it.  

(Jazz had once theorized that it had to do with his ghostly Obsession of helping others.  Danny theorized that not all aspects of his personality had to do with him being a ghost.  Jazz had dropped the theory shortly thereafter.)

He was worried.  

Could pull a Harry Potter and drop a cake on someone’s head.  Would that work?

Unlikely.  

There was one option, but it was a bit of a longshot.  He could tell the interviewers that he had doubts about his parents’ work and conclusions.  But would they believe him?  He was just a teenager.  Easy to dismiss.  

What if he approached them as Phantom?

(What if they were just as gun-happy as his parents?)

This was hard.  

He sighed, and swung himself off his bed.  Regardless of what he actually did, he needed to make himself ‘presentable,’ otherwise he’d never hear the end of it.  

Although, concerning his appearance and his secrets...  He tugged lightly on the lock of gray hair he’d sprouted lately.  It had become a nervous habit.  One he really needed to stop, because drawing attention to white hair on his head was not something he wanted to do.  

Maybe be should start dying his hair?

“Danny?” called Maddie from downstairs.  “The Saturday’s are here!  Come on down!”

Danny clattered down the stairs, being loud on purpose (the better to be undetected when he wanted to be quiet).  

The Saturdays...  Huh.  Danny had not expected to ever see another family wearing jumpsuits.  Much less orange jumpsuits.  Jack looked overjoyed.  

The Saturdays’ jumpsuits looked just slightly more combat ready, however.  Danny’s stomach, which had already been sitting rather low in his chest, plummeted. 

He did not foresee this going well in any way, shape, or form.  

He forced himself to turn his attention towards the son.  Who was color coordinated with his parents, but not, thankfully, wearing a jumpsuit.  

(Interestingly, he did, however, appear to be armed.)

“Hi,” said Danny, waving slightly in greeting.  

“This is our son, Danny,” said Maddie.  “Our daughter, Jazz, is at a study group right now, but she should be home before too long.  Danny, this is Doctor Solomon Saturday, his wife, Drew, and their son, Zak.”

Zak smiled at Danny in a slightly strained, awkward way.  His teeth were just a little sharper than human average.  There were flecks of orange and gold in his eyes.  

This was a person who wasn’t quite human.  

Maybe this would be easier than Danny thought.  He tugged on his lock of white hair.  “Prematurely grey buddies, huh?” he said.  

“Oh,” said Zak, touching his own, much larger, tuft of white hair.  “Yeah.  I guess so.”

“Um,” said Danny, acutely aware of all the parental eyes on him.  “Video games?”

“Sure,” said Zak.  

“Great,” said Danny.  “Let’s go.”

.

Zak followed Danny upstairs.  

He was 99% certain the other boy wasn’t entirely human.  He wasn’t sure if it was simply intuition, or some remnant of his Kur powers, but he would put money on it.  If, well, he had anyone who’d bet with him.  

(Doyle, maybe, but Doyle wasn’t here.)

(Where had this intuition been with Argost?  That’s what he wanted to know.)

“So,” said Danny, rocking slightly.  “Do you play Doom?”

“Now and then,” said Zak.  “Kinda prefer older games.”

“How old?”

“Uh...  I kind of like the pokemon games on the 64?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve got a couple of those,” said Danny.  “Um.”  He flopped down in a beanbag chair.  “Just... make yourself at home, I guess?”

“Thanks,” said Zak, managing to catch the controller Danny tossed at him and sitting in the desk chair.  

“So...” said Danny, not making a move to turn on the system.  “This is going to be weird to ask, but, um.  Do your parents know you’re not totally human?”

Zak stared.  He... hadn’t expected Danny to be able to tell that he had been Kur, much less come right out and ask him about it.

“Or...  you know what, forget I said anything.  It’s just a joke, haha, so, games-”

“Do yours know?”

Danny frowned.  “That you’re not human?” 

“No, that you aren’t human.”

Danny looked away.  “No,” he said, fiddling with the controller.  “They’re not... very good about that kind of stuff.  If your parents are, that’s good.  It’s just...”  He rubbed the cord of the controller between his fingers.  “Mom and Dad are great at the technical side of things, but they don’t like being wrong.  And they think ghosts are unfeeling and mindless, so...”

“Oh,” said Zak.  “Um.  Are you,” he stopped, realizing that asking someone if they were dead was probably not a great idea.  He slumped down in his seat.  “I’ll tell my parents.”

“Yeah, if you could not tell them about me and just, like, the other bit, that’d be great.”

“I can do that,” said Zak.  

.

Jazz carefully placed an envelope under the windshield wiper of the Saturdays’ car.  Knowing her brother, he was probably going to try something dramatic, but if these people were serious about being scientists, she was sure they would take evidence and data regarding the intelligence of ghosts much better.  

And Danny had thought he was just humoring her when he helped her interview those ghosts!  Thought she had no other motives other than curiosity!

Well.  Honestly, he was right.  Back then, she didn’t know there was a think tank considering inviting her parents to join.  

But, hey, it came in handy, didn’t it?

.

“It’s such a shame,” said Drew, writing her recommendation against the Fentons joining the Secret Scientists.  “They seemed like such nice people.”

“Yeah, but if both their kids are telling us they shouldn’t be let in,” said Zak, “and they don’t even know about the Secret Scientists, they think you’re just part of a think tank, how nice can they really be?”

Drew made a face, and reached over to give Zak a quick hug, which he just as quickly escaped.  

“The daughter, though,” said Doc.  “She has a good foundation, here, with her research.”

“Maybe once she graduates high school,” said Drew.  “We have scholarships, don’t we?  Or maybe an internship...  Cryptid psychology might interest her...”

“What about Danny?” asked Zak, yelping as Fisk snuck up behind him and poked him.  

“Hrrade hhr hrend?” said Fisk, slyly.

Zak narrowed his eyes.  “Maybe,” he said.  

“We’ll keep an eye on them,” promised Doc.  “All the Fentons.  Just in case.”

[artificialqueens]

REUNITED 🖤 (Biadore) - Lemonade

Summary: Based on the recent Biadore reunion.

Roy looked for Danny in the sea of people bustling around the airport. They hadn’t agreed to meet, but it was an unspoken occurrence in their relationship. Whenever someone was coming home from a long tour, the other would be waiting for them to get off their flight with open arms.

Roy braced himself to be charged at with full speed at any moment. Since he couldn’t see Danny, he wouldn’t know exactly when to plant his feet firmly on the ground, and steady his balance to accommodate the koala hug he always came home to.

5 minutes… 10 minutes… 20 minutes…

Roy still stood in the same place waiting for Danny. He didn’t wanna move, or sit; Which would make it harder for Danny to find him.

Another ten minutes passed. Roy huffed, his patience wearing thin. He just wanted to see Danny and be back in his own apartment.

Roy pulled out his phone, shaking his head. “If this kid’s still asleep,” he mumbled under his breath, more with the fond annoyance he always had towards Danny rather than the actual aggravation he would feel towards anybody else.

Willow 🥰💕👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨💍

Are you at the airport?

Willow 🥰💕👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨💍

I don’t see you.

Dan ❤️💋

Nah

The one worded text from Danny let all the air out of Roy’s body. Danny always picked him up from the airport. He always had flowers, or a cute little gift for Roy. He always welcomed him back with a hug that recharged the life in Roy.

Roy couldn’t remember the last time he came home from tour without Danny’s one man welcoming committee. His mind had a hard time wrapping around the fact that Danny wasn’t gonna come running at him and—Fuck. Roy couldn’t believe he was crying over this.

Roy quickly wiped his eyes dry with the back of his hand. He ordered an Uber home, texting Danny a simple “K.” in response.

——

With help from someone who worked in the apartment complex Roy lived in, he got all of his luggage up to his apartment in one trip. He fumbled with the keys, missing the lock a few times. It was hard for Roy to do small tasks when he was upset, a disconnect happened between his brain and body.

The keys fell out of Roy’s grip once he pushed the door open. The small inconvenience almost made all of Roy’s pent up emotions blow until his fingers grazed a soft rose petal. He looked up, dozens of the rich red petal’s created a pathway to his bedroom. Roy let out a sigh of relief. He quickly drug the heavy suitcases into his apartment, tossing the keys on his kitchen counter.

The pathway into his bedroom lead to the bathroom. His face momentarily twisted in confusion until his need for Danny outweighed his want for convention.

Roy felt all the tension leave his muscles when he saw Danny standing in his bathroom, a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a welcoming smile on his face. Roy grabbed Danny’s waist, pulling him in for a tight hug. Roy buried his face in Danny’s neck, finding comfort in the familiarity. Roy squeezed Danny impossibly closer, holding him like that for a while while their hug breathed new life into the both of them.

When Roy finally felt like he wouldn’t crumble if Danny let go he pulled away, pressing a kiss to Danny’s cheek. His fingers ran through Danny’s newly dark hair, their eyes focused on each other. “You dyed your hair?”

“Yeah, you like it?”

Roy smiled warmly, “You look like you again.”

Danny bit his lip, looking down as he blushed. Nobody made him feel the way Roy did.

“I’m happy to see you,” Roy brought Danny’s attention back to him. “I thought you were ditching me when you said you weren’t at the airport,” Roy chuckled the way he did when something actually hurt his feelings but he didn’t want to say it did.

Danny’s expression fell. “Oh, no, of course not! I missed you so much, Willow!” He chastely kissed Roy’s lips. “I just thought you’d be really exhausted when you came home so I wanted to have this ready for you,” Danny pulled back Roy’s shower curtain to reveal a bubble bath. “It’s warm and I put relaxing bath salts in it!” Danny beamed at him.

Roy smiled, laughing at himself now that he realized why Danny hadn’t picked him up. He really had to work on jumping to heartbreaking conclusions when it came to Danny—An unhealthy habit of Danny’s that Roy had managed to acquire overtime.

Danny handed Roy his flowers. The bouquet sparkled with accent gems & glitter that the florist must have sprayed on them. “They’re beautiful,” Roy said. Danny half expected Roy to make a comment about it being the gayest bouquet of flowers he had ever seen because—well they were. To his surprise, Roy didn’t bite. “I’m gonna put them in the bedroom,” Roy happily said as he still admired the pink flowers.

The last bouquet Danny had bought him withered while he was away. Before throwing them out he plucked one from the vase, putting it in the back of a heavy book. Roy always kept a flower from every bouquet he received. The ones from Danny were kept separate from the ones he got from friends and fans.

“C’mon baby, the water’s gonna get cold.” Danny called from the bathroom as Roy placed the vase on his nightstand.

“I like cold baths,” Roy said as he joined Danny.

“Ew,” Danny giggled, Roy pecked the tip of Danny’s nose, turning Danny into the embodiment of the 🥺 emoji.

“You’re cute,” Roy teased.

“You’re cute,” Danny returned, running his hands through Roy’s hair and giving the long locks a slight tug. God, he hoped Roy kept his hair that length.

Danny’s hands smoothed over Roy’s shoulders and arms, then down his sides until his fingertips were at the hem of Roy’s shirt. “I missed touching you,” Danny whispered in Roy’s ear, causing a shiver and a trail of goosebumps up his spine. Roy groaned. He knew this bath wouldn’t stay innocent for long.

Danny gently pulled Roy’s shirt over his head. He licked his lips as his eyes drank in the sight of Roy shirtless in front of him, his hands resting on Roy’s hips. “I promise to let you relax first,” Danny said more to remind himself than to ease Roy, who very clearly didn’t have a problem with either option.

Roy kicked off his shoes and socks before letting Danny unzip his pants. With one motion both jeans and boxers were on the floor. Danny didn’t look. If he looked, he’d have to taste. Danny really, really wanted Roy to enjoy his bath first.

With a helping hand from his love, Roy stepped into the tub, wasting no time sinking down into the warm water. Danny felt a sense of accomplishment when Roy’s eyes fell shut and he leaned his head back. “Good?”

“Good,” Roy hummed. He offered his hand to Danny, peaking at him through one eye. “C’mon, don’t make me take this bath alone.”

“It’s funny you thought I would.” Danny quickly stripped and put his hair in a messy bun so he could join Roy.

“Careful,” Roy advised as he guided Danny onto the slippery surface.

Danny sat facing Roy, moving closer to him until he could wrap his legs around Roy’s waist and his arms around his neck. Danny laid his head down on Roy’s shoulder, content with the position they found themselves in. “Comfy?” Danny asked, not wanting to put his own need for physical affection before Roy’s comfort.

“Mhm,” Roy hummed, his fingertips tracing patterns into Danny’s back. Danny snuck a look at Roy. His eyes were closed again, his face losing the lines of expression. Danny smiled to himself, kissed Roy’s chest, and laid his head back down on Roy’s shoulder.

“I love you,” Danny said quietly, weakly—as if he was scared Roy wouldn’t say it back for some reason.

Roy kissed the top of Danny’s head, “I love you, too.”

When the water had lost it’s soothing warmth, Danny decided it was time to end their bath. His lips ghosted over Roy’s collarbone, latching onto the skin of his neck. Danny coaxed a low moan out of Roy as he sucked on the sensitive area. His tongue ran over the budding bruise.

Danny licked from the base of Roy’s neck to the shell of his ear. Roy’s eyes rolled back when Danny dipped his tongue inside, his nipples stiffening. Danny kissed down Roy’s neck, to his shoulder, lavishing his bicep with attention. Roy’s hand pressing into Danny’s back was a comforting pressure, encouraging him to continue.

Plump lips kissed a pathway across Roy’s tan chest. The short hairs grazing his lips ignited an animalistic hunger in Danny. His hands splayed over Roy’s pecs, teasing his hardened nipples. Danny roughly pinched then tugged on them, Roy’s gasp melted into a moan as Danny rolled them between his fingers.

“Gorgeous,” Danny said as he continued to toy with Roy’s nipples. Roy fought the urge to deny the compliment. Roy didn’t think much of himself physically. Didn’t think he was so beautiful that he deserved to have someone like Danny calling him gorgeous with a handful of his tits, but here they were anyway.

The only way Roy could keep his mouth shut was to keep it busy. His hands caressed up Danny’s sides, moving into his hair to let it down from the bun Danny had put it in. Roy’s fingers combed through the dark locks so they wouldn’t tangle on Danny when they made love. His fingers fanned out in soft hair, teasing Danny’s sensitive scalp.

The gentle hand massaging his scalp quickly transformed into a fist full of hair pulling Danny to Roy’s lips. Their kiss was anything but tamed. Time wasn’t wasted as they happily welcomed each other’s tongues into their mouths. Roy nipped Danny’s bottom lip as Danny panted into the kiss.

Roaming hands and needy kisses could only hold them over for so long. Roy squeezed Danny’s asscheeks possessively before breaking up their make out. “Bed?”

To his surprise, Danny shook his head no. Roy thought that’s where the night was heading, but he was always just as happy to hold Danny as he was to have him.

“Take me now, here. I need you,” Danny plead.

Oh.

Roy wasn’t a fan of the thought if he was being honest. “I can’t do everything I wanna do to you in here,” Roy’s voice was particularly gravely, Danny’s thighs quivered at the sound. “And I want you to be comfortable. And safe.”

Danny smiled, affectionately rolling his eyes at Roy. Some days it was harder than others to get his lover to break out of his shell. Today, bath sex wasn’t a hill Danny was ready to die on. He nuzzled his nose with Roy’s, scratching through Roy’s stubble before kissing him. “Mkay,” Danny said against Roy’s lips.

Danny got up first, offering to help Roy step out onto the bathmat. Grabbing a towel, Roy quickly dried Danny off. The lush fabric teased his inner thighs as Roy ran the towel down them.

“Gimme,” Danny snatched the towel away, returning the favor of drying Roy off. “You’re fucking sexy,” Danny purred, throwing the wet towel onto the floor. Before Roy could make a comment about the mess Danny pulled him into a sweltering kiss.

Tattooed fingers pressed harshly into Roy’s jawline. Danny nearly kissed his lips raw. “Take me,” Danny desperately breathed into Roy’s mouth. “Need to feel you,” he panted. “Want you inside me…Please, Daddy.”

A rush of adrenaline took over Roy’s body as Danny begged for him. “I’m gonna be so good to you, babygirl. Gonna give you everything you want.” Roy pressed a firm kiss to Danny’s lips before pulling away. With all the strength in his body Roy lifted Danny into his arms, carrying him a few steps into the bedroom before tossing Danny onto the bed.

Danny moaned when he hit the mattress, left completely breathless by the move. Danny loved being manhandled by Roy. The sight of his lover crawling over him with dark hunger in his eyes dried Danny’s throat out. He wrapped his whole body around Roy, needing the secure feeling of skin on skin. The weight of Roy’s cock against him made Danny twitch. His own already fully hard and leaking.

Roy leaned down. His lips ghosted over Danny’s cheek and jaw. He teased Danny’s pulse point, making his lover whine and squirm beneath him just by breathing on the sensitive area. Roy smirked, pressing a small kiss where he teased. “You’re incredible,” Roy praised. One of his hands came to a rest on Danny’s stomach, knowing the simple touch would make Danny’s muscles jump.

“How do you want me to fuck you?” Roy growled into Danny’s ear, his hot breath had Danny’s eyes rolling back. Danny whimpered at the question, the promise of being fucked going straight to his balls.

“Love on me,” Danny said softly.

“You want me to love you, angel?”

Danny nodded his head, shyly smiling up at Roy.

Roy traced Danny’s lips with his thumb. “Okay.”

——

“You’re perfect. So amazing, princess. Did you like that? I fucking know you did,” Roy cooed to Danny as he nuzzled behind his ear. “I love you so much, angel. Daddy’s girl.”

Danny whined, leaning into Roy. He turned around in Roy’s arms to face him. Slender fingers traced the outline of a red-ish purple bruise on the side of Roy’s neck. Danny pressed his finger into it. “Mine.”

“Ow! Brat!” Roy chuckled, smacking Danny’s hand away.

Danny giggled at Roy’s response. Deciding to test his luck, Danny repeated the process on a hickey placed directly in the middle of Roy’s throat. “Mine.”

“Fuck! Stop doing that!” Roy‘s tone a little more serious than before.

“Sorry. ‘M love you,” Danny pecked Roy’s lips. Roy couldn’t help but to melt into Danny.

“I have a surprise for you.”

“You do?” Danny punctuated his sentence with a nip to Roy’s bottom lip.

“I do.” Reluctantly, Roy had to break away from Danny’s kiss. He hide his surprise in the one place he knew Danny wouldn’t find it; no matter how many times he snuck into Roy’s apartment when Roy wasn’t home.

Roy’s hand slid under his mattress (Danny never made the bed). He pulled out a few papers that Danny didn’t have to read as Roy immediately started to explain himself. “Since we’re going to Palm Springs to look at that house we liked, I thought we could stay at hotel for a day or two—a dog friendly one so we can bring the babies. I booked us an entire day at a spa. It’ll be nice to spend some time with you, Dan.”

Danny pouted, tears beginning to glisten in his eyes.

“Aw, angel,” Roy held Danny’s face. “Don’t—“

Danny shook his head. “They’re happy. I’m really happy. I’ve missed you— a lot.”

“I’ve missed you, too.”

“It was really long.”

“I know,” Roy swiped away some of Danny’s tears. “That’s why I think we can use this.” He kissed the back of Danny’s hand. “I know all of this time away from each other has been hurting us. I know it’s hurting you, and our relationship. Things have been weird, and different. I know—“ he reassured Danny. “I know. I wanna try to make it a little better, though. As much as we can before you gotta leave.”

Danny crawled into Roy’s arms for a hug. Roy was always the talker of their relationship, and Danny was the toucher. While long talks and explanations of feelings helped Roy through a situation, being loved or loving helped Danny.

Danny nuzzled Roy’s cheek, kissing the indentation of his dimple. “I still want you.” Danny’s small voice took Roy off guard. “Even though it’s been weird and some things are kinda different,” Danny looked into Roy’s eyes. “I still want you—and this. I love this,” Danny giggled.

Roy couldn’t help but to smile. Danny’s not-so-serious attitude cut a lot of the tension in these situations—made Roy feel better most times. Roy cupped Danny’s face, meeting him half way for a kiss.

“I have another surprise for you,” Roy said against Danny’s lips.

“Is it your dick?” Danny teased, kissing Roy a bit rougher than before.

“Would my dick really be a surprise?”

Danny shrugged. Roy laughed into his mouth.

“I don’t think you’re gonna be as happy about this one.”

——

Danny grimaced, “Are you sure?” His fingers ran through Roy’s hair as Roy sat in front of him.

“A hundred percent.”

“I love your long hair,” Danny whined, twirling his fingers in the curly strands.

Roy chuckled, “I could do it on my own, you know. I wasn’t going for the full Britney fantasy, but—“

“No! I’ll do it!”

Roy smirked. He knew Danny would cave instantly.

The buzzing from the trimmer rung in Roy’s ears. Danny reluctantly brought the razor to the start of Roy’s hairline, gently guiding it to the nape of his neck in a smooth motion.

Roy didn’t have much hair to begin with. Danny brushed the itchy pieces off of Roy’s shoulders once he was done. “You’re still fucking sexy.”

“Yeah? You’re gonna love me even when I’m bald?”

Danny laughed, nodding his head. He mounted Roy. Roy’s hands always finding their way to Danny’s ass. “It looks good,” Danny reassured. “I love your short hair, too.”

——

Danny gasped. “Look at the windows!” The house they had come to look at had a beautiful view into a private backyard. Danny squeezed Roy’s hand in excitement.

“I’ll give you two some time to look around on your own,” the woman selling the house allowed Danny and Roy their privacy.

“Do you like it?” Roy asked, examining the well decorated sitting room.

“It’s bougie as hell.” A house like this was something Danny thought he’d only ever see on TV. Living here would be a complete dream.

Roy sat in one of the chairs in front of the wall length windows. Danny smiled at him, making his way across the room to sit in Roy’s lap. “You look like you’re at home.”

The place was nice. Private too. Roy could see himself and Danny living a pretty happy life here. The home was definitely big enough to start a family in. “I feel like I am.” Roy’s grip on Danny’s thigh tightened. “What do you think, really? Do you like this place?”

Danny happily nodded. “It’s beautiful. That backyard is sick.” Danny leaned down to catch Roy’s lips in a kiss. “And I want you to fuck me against those windows,” he growled into Roy’s mouth.

“Then we better put an offer in,” Roy smirked before rekindling their kiss.

——

Their mini vacation was everything they needed. Two days of alone time together, a possible new house, and an amazing spa day left the two refreshed and recharged.

Back at home Roy and Danny got ready for a night out at Mickey’s. Roy always looked so handsome. He was sleek in all black, the added touches of earrings and a necklace was a choice that made Danny’s mouth water.

Danny took just a bit longer to get ready, focusing more on his hair and makeup. They always ended up in the same position: Danny putting the finishing touches on in the bathroom mirror while Roy sat on the side of the tub holding Danny’s free hand until he was finished.

Warmth spread throughout Roy’s chest as he watched Danny crimp the last few pieces of his hair. He couldn’t help but to pull out his phone for a photo. Roy had an entire album of candid pictures of Danny that he loved looking back on in time’s of missing him. When he was cooped up all alone in a hotel room, remembering the moments behind each photo lightened up his day.

“All done?” Roy asked.

Danny re-crimped a piece of hair. “All done!”

“You’re beautiful, my angel,” Roy stood with Danny’s hand still in his, pecking Danny on the cheek.

Danny kissed Roy’s lips before tugging him out of the bathroom. “I’m so excited!” He pulled Roy through his apartment. “We haven’t been to Mickey’s together in forever!” The front door slammed behind them as they left for the night.

[ghostsray]

Ch7: Second Chance

(this is a day late oops. but hey, it’s also longer than the previous chapters, so that ought to make up for that, right?)

(first - prev - next)

Niel coughed and waved the last wisps of green smoke away from his face. When his vision cleared, he looked around and saw himself standing in...exactly the same spot he had been in, inside the Fentons' laboratory. Something was off, though. Danny and Ellie were gone. There didn't seem to be any trace that Ellie had melted anywhere in the lab. The table they had landed on was placed against a different wall, and instead of work-in-progress weapons, it was covered with blueprints.

Niel frowned as he tried to recall what last happened. He had made a wish, and then a ghost...a wish-granting ghost? Niel had wished something about change, but that wasn't definite enough to inform him of what that ghost might have done. Then he turned around and saw the portal--or rather, where the portal should have been.

The frame was still there, but in place of the glowing green swirls was a gaping hole. Tangles of cables slithered along the base. Niel didn't even know the portal could be closed.

He wiped away the last tears from his face and furrowed his brows. So he made a wish about changing things...a ghost granted it...and now the portal was closed. That had to be related, right?

He heard footsteps descend the stairs, and he turned around and saw Danny frozen at the bottom, staring at him with wide eyes. Before Niel could say anything, Danny rushed to the nearest shelf and grabbed an ectogun, aiming it at Niel shakily.

"You--you're a g-ghost," Danny stammered.

Niel raised an eyebrow. "Um, yeah? It's me."

Danny looked confused. He didn't lower his weapon. "Ghosts--" he began, "ghosts are real?"

It was then that Niel finally noticed that something seemed different about Danny. He had less scars, less bags under his eyes, and...he was shorter? Vlad had designed his clones to be fourteen after the age he got Danny's DNA from, but by the time Niel was created, Danny was sixteen. He had always been a few inches taller than Niel due to the two extra years, but the Danny that stood before him now was the exact same height.

Blueprints, a closed portal, a younger Danny who didn't believe in ghosts...wait. Niel's stomach sank as he asked, "What year is it?"

Danny frowned, but then he said, "Oh, right. Ghosts come from different periods of time, right?"

He told him the date. It was two years ago.

Niel muttered a curse word under his breath. (It was harsher than Vlad's fake swears. The situation seemed appropriate.) He looked at Danny, who was still aiming that gun at him.

"Put that away," Niel said. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Danny hesitated, but he didn't lower the gun. "My parents--"

"They told you that all ghosts are bad, right?" Danny looked surprised, but Niel rolled his eyes and continued, "You're probably thinking that I'm trying to trick you into trusting me or something."

"And you're not?"

"No! I just want to find a way back to the Ghost Zone." Maybe then, he could find that wish ghost and make her undo whatever she had done to bring him here.

"How did you even get here? The portal isn't finished yet," Danny pointed out.

"Natural portal," Niel lied. "It shut as soon as I came through. Are you sure this portal here can't work?"

Danny shook his head, then said, "My parents made it. Maybe they can find a way to--"

"No!" Niel interrupted. He did not want to deal with the famous ghost-hating Fenton couple. His exclamation startled Danny so much, the boy's finger squeezed around the trigger of his gun. A blast came out and shoved Niel onto the ground.

Danny dropped the gun in shock and covered his mouth. "I'm sorry," he said, then scrunched his face, as if wondering why he was apologizing to a ghost. Niel groaned. As he tried to push himself up, his hand screamed in pain, and he felt his ghost core pull away. Oh shit.

Danny recoiled as the rings of light spread across Niel. When Niel stood up again, fully human, Danny's jaw dropped.

"You look just like me," Danny said. "How...?"

Niel shrugged, then winced when his hand ached. Right. He'd forgotten that he broke a finger. Not to mention his burn from earlier...

"It's a long story," Niel said.

Danny must have noticed him wince, because his eyes travelled to Niel's hand. "Your fingers--"

Niel covered his injured hand. "They'll heal."

"You were just a ghost," Danny said dumbly. "And now..."

Niel shrugged again with one shoulder. "It's...a long story?"

Danny's face scrunched up, then stretched in surprise. "You asked me what date it was. And you look like me...Are you...me from the future?"

That was...a valid conclusion to jump to. "It's complicated," he answered. "Look, I just want to get to the Ghost Zone."

Danny's mouth moved wordlessly for a minute, and then he slowly slid down into a sitting position on the floor. "I think I need a moment to process this."

Niel tapped his foot impatiently. "Seriously?"

"Hey, I just found out that not only are ghosts real, but possibly time travel, too."

"You think that's bad? I'm the one who's stuck in the past, right after--" Niel clenched his jaw and swallowed. He couldn't just say 'right after I discovered that the guy who cloned me from you doesn't actually care about his kids' without delving into an explanation about the whole clone thing and why Vlad even wanted to clone Danny.

Danny looked up at Niel again and asked, "How did I become part ghost?"

"You part died, obviously."

"That doesn't make any sense. You can't be part dead."

"Yeah, well, you were. Or will be. You get what I mean." Niel shook his head and walked to where the empty portal frame stood. Something must have activated it in the future. He knew it had something to do with Danny gaining his powers, but he wasn't familiar with the details...

Danny stood up behind him. "Why don't you want Mom and Dad to help?"

"They're ghost hunters. I'm part ghost. Figure it out." His eyes traced the lines on the portal's sides. A few panels were sticking out, wires poking from beneath...

"But if you just explained things--"

For some reason, Niel felt a flare of anger in his chest, and he turned on Danny and snapped, "I'm sorry, who here is the half-ghost version of you from the future?"

He didn't know why he felt so angry at Danny, or why he was still pretending to be Danny from the future. Maybe he wanted him to hate his parents just like Niel hated Vlad. He knew that was despicable of him to wish for, but then again, he was raised by a supervillain.

Danny took a step back, watching Niel with crestfallen eyes. A heavy footstep descended on the stairs, grabbing both boys' attention. "Dann-o? Is that you?" a voice called out. It was Jack.

Danny looked back at Niel, but the other boy was gone. Truth was, Niel just turned himself invisible, but Danny didn't know that. He turned in place, trying fruitlessly to spot where Niel had went, when Jack's large form peeked into the lab. "There you are. What are you doing in the lab?"

Danny stammered and said, "Um--"

But Jack just grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. "It's okay, son. If you were curious about ghosts, all you had to do was ask! Just don't be alone in the lab next time, all right?"

"Duly noted," Danny replied.

Niel silently moved toward the lab's exit. He glared at the back of Jack's head as he went. A part of him hoped the man would feel his stare and grow unsettled, but Jack seemed unperturbed.

He swerved past Maddie on the stairs to avoid passing through her as she went to join her husband. Then he picked up speed once he reached the top and phased through the Fenton household's front door.

He wanted to run, as far away from Fentonworks as possible, except moving his arm sent jolts of pain through his hand and he wasn't in the mood for Naruto running, so instead he sat down on the sidewalk and sighed. Welp, he was in the past, before Danny ever gained his ghost powers. That was certainly one way to allow him to "change everything".

The Fenton portal didn't work. Niel hadn't learned how to summon his own portals yet, and he doubted a natural portal would conveniently open up. He wondered if maybe the wish ghost could still be in the human world--she granted this wish, so she must have allowed herself some leverage, right? Maybe he could summon her if he said her name three times, like that musical about a ghost he pirated online once. The problem was that he didn't know what the wish ghost's name was. He was pretty sure he heard about her before, but...ugh, why did his memory have to suck?

Niel's stomach sank as he realized there was only one portal left he could use, and to get to it, he had to go to Vlad's house. At this point of time, Vlad hadn't even met Danny yet. He hadn't begun working on creating a perfect clone. How would Niel feel if he saw him? The image of Vlad's bloodred eyes and glinting fangs snarling at him as he tried to protect Ellie's melting form was still fresh in his brain.

Niel trembled, but he knew he had no choice. He stood up and began walking toward the mayor's mansion. He went a few steps before he paused as a realization hit him.

Was Vlad even mayor yet? It was two years ago. Vlad, from Niel's time, had been mayor for one year. That means he wouldn't move to Amity Park yet until next year.

Great! Not even Vlad's portal was in Amity Park. Niel wasn't sure if that dissapointed or relieved him. He would have to travel all the way to Wisconsin if he wanted to reach the Ghost Zone.

So, his options were either to travel to another state, or go back into Fentonworks and try to open the portal while no one was looking. If Danny turned half ghost from opening the portal, what would happen to Niel, since he was already half ghost? Would he become full ghost, or would the action somehow reverse his genes and make him full human? No, wait, that second option makes no sense. He'd probably just die and go full ghost.

"Danny?" someone said. He looked up and saw Danny's sister, Jazz. She was holding a book from the library and staring at him with furrowed brows. Oh, crackers, was he visible? He glanced down at himself, and sure enough, he was there. Niel mentally berated himself. Losing his invisibility just because he lost concentration? He should have trained his powers better than that.

"What did you do to your hair?" Jazz asked.

Niel unconsciously touched the shaven part of his hair and said with a shrug, "Impulse?"

Jazz frowned. "Carrying out drastic impulses isn't always healthy. It could be a sign of poor psychological health."

Niel was about to wonder why she suddenly started speaking like an encyclopedia, then he read the cover of the book she was holding. A psychology book. So she's into mental health.

"It's fine," Niel mumbled and tried to walk past her, but Jazz grabbed his hand. Unfortunately, it was his injured one, and he hissed as she closed her palm around his fingers. Jazz widened her eyes when she noticed his injuries.

"How did you--nevermind, that's not important. Why did you not heal your hand after you burnt and broke it? We do have a first aid kit."

"It'll heal."

"On its own?"

Right. Humans didn't heal as well as half-ghosts. Jazz shifted her grip onto his wrist and started pulling him inside.

"Jazz, it's fine," he insisted, but she didn't listen. She opened the front door to Danny's house and grabbed him through. His anxiety spiked, and he turned his wrist intangible to slip through her grip. Jazz turned back in surprise when her hands became empty, but at that point, it was too late--they were standing inside the Fentons' living room, and staring at them with wide eyes were the Fentons themselves, Danny included.

"Jazz, sweetie, who is that?" Maddie asked, craning her neck to get a good look at Niel.

Jazz turned around to answer, but her words died in her throat when she spotted the real Danny. "What? How--"

Maddie and Jack saw Niel, and they pulled out their guns. "It's a ghost impersonator," Jack exclaimed.

"That's ridiculous," Jazz quickly argued, but she was scowling at Niel in confusion, trying to figure out how and why he looked so similar to her brother. "Who are you?"

The Fenton couple's weapons began to whir as they powered up, but Danny jumped in front of them and shouted, "Stop! He's me from a different time!"

Maddie frowned. "Are you saying he's a time traveller?"

Jack lowered his weapon and scratched his chin. "If ghosts are real, then why not time travel?"

"Well--" Maddie hesitated. "It's possible in theory, but..."

"None of this makes any sense!" Jazz interrupted, throwing her arms up. "Ghosts? Time travel? Look-alikes? What is going on?"

Niel stepped forward, and everyone quieted down to watch him with anticipation. "Maddie and Jack are right, actually," he said, then made his eyes flash red. "I am a ghost."

Maddie gripped her gun again, but Jazz protested, "You can't be a ghost, you're alive! I felt your pulse."

"He's part ghost," Danny murmured. Everyone but Niel turned to look at him.

"Part ghost? That's impossible," Maddie scoffed, though there was a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

"Of course you would say that." Niel glared at them with his red eyes and said, "You don't care about scientific discoveries. You only care about fitting the world into your narrow theories."

Maddie frowned, obviously not liking what he was saying. Niel didn't care. He tugged on his core, and the others in the room stepped back in shock as he transformed with a flash of light.

He waited for them to raise their weapons again, or shout out ghost insults. Instead, Jack broke the silence by saying, "That was incredible!"

Niel faltered. "It...was?"

"You were just human--and then you weren't. How did you do that?"

There was no malicious tone in Jack's voice. In fact, he sounded genuinely curious. Maddie nodded in agreement, her eyes wide with wonder.

Niel glanced between them, his brows drawn together. "You're not going to shoot me? Because I'm a ghost?"

"You said we don't care about scientific discoveries," Maddie said. "I don't know where you got that idea from. Of course we're intrigued by new discoveries. Danny said you were only part ghost, and Jazz confirmed this by saying you have a pulse, which ghosts cannot have. That must mean you really are a human-ghost hybrid--something we thought was impossible, but we were wrong."

"We want to know everything," Jack said excitedly, then quickly added, "without hurting you, of course."

"Of course not," Maddie agreed. "We're not that amoral. We would never hurt a person, even if they were only part person."

Niel felt like a rug was being pulled from underneath him...until he held onto that last sentence, and his expression returned to a scowl. "So you wouldn't have cared about what happened me if I was a full ghost?"

Maddie hesitated. She and Jack exchanged a glance.

"To be fair, we've only ever heard stories about ghosts," Jack admitted, "and those stories always portrayed them as evil, so that was what we assumed them to be..."

"But if we gain proof against that, then of course we'll change our minds," Maddie completed.

"Really?" Niel said skeptically. "You won't assume the ghost is only pretending to be nice to trick humans into trusting him?" That was what he had always heard the Fentons say about Phantom on the news. The couple shifted guiltily.

Jazz watched the exchange in quiet calculation. "Hold up, so," she said to Niel, "are you or are you not from the future?"

"I am," he answered, which wasn't a lie.

"Then, something must have happened in your time to make you so bitter toward our parents. Am I right?"

Maddie and Jack were watching him apprehensively. Niel frowned. "You thought your son's ghost form is evil."

"We would never think that about Danny!" Jack exclaimed.

"Yeah, well, Danny didn't tell you about his ghost half."

"Why not?" Maddie wondered.

Niel met Danny's eyes. He knew the same thought was going through their heads. Danny glanced away and fidgeted. "Because...you hate ghosts," Danny said.

Immediately, the couple's expressions morphed into guilt. "Oh, sweetie," Maddie said. "We would never hate you if you became a ghost."

"Of course not!" Jack agreed. "Ectoplasmic or not, you'll always be our son."

Danny looked up at them hopefully. "Really?"

"Really," Maddie promised. She smiled, and Danny smiled back. Both of them were suddenly swept up by Jack's burly arms into a hug, causing Danny to laugh.

"We'll always care for our family," Jack said, then gestured for Jazz and Niel to join in.

"And we're sorry," Maddie told Niel. "Really. For anything we might have done--er, will have done in the future."

Jazz's lips quirked upward, and she joined in her family group hug. Niel did not.

He stayed rooted in his spot, watching them, while something akin to panic rose inside him.

"No!" he exclaimed, surprising the family. "No, you're supposed to hate ghosts! You're supposed to hate me!"

"Scientists can be wrong," Maddie said, startled from his outburst. "Whatever we said, we can make it up to you."

Niel trembled. This was wrong. This was all wrong--the Fentons weren't supposed to be such great parents! And yet he couldn't deny the heartwarming scene in front of him. Maddie and Jack cared for their children...

...Vlad did not.

How ironic was that? Niel had spent so much time thinking that Danny would be better off under Vlad's care than under his parents'. Now, everything was flipped. Vlad was horrible, and the Fentons--

The Fentons were gazing at him warmly, Jack's arms still outstretched in an invitation for Niel to join them in their group hug.

"Danny," Jazz said softly. "It's okay. I think they can change."

Niel didn't meet her eyes. Danny, she had called him. They all still thought he was a future version of Danny. And Niel...didn't want that to change.

Danny's family was amazing, he now realized. And they thought he was their son. They thought he was a part of them. Maybe, if he kept lying, he could be a part of their family, and then he'll never have to return to Vlad ever again.

That thought grew in his head until it was all he could think of. He was brought here on a wish, and that wish was being granted. He could be a part of a real family, and as an added bonus, Danny wouldn't have to go through his accident or fight any ghosts if they never completed the portal. Everyone would be happy. He, Danny, and--

Oh. Guilt swam in his stomach as he realized he had forgotten all about his sister--his real sister, not Jazz. If he stayed, Ellie would never had been made.

"What's the matter, dear?" Maddie asked. Niel swallowed.

"I'm..." he sighed and said, "I'm not your son."

He looked at Maddie nervously to see her reaction...and was confused to see that her expression hadn't changed from its warm smile. Then he looked at everyone else and realized she wasn't the only one--none of them had moved one millimeter.

"Um...hello?" he asked and waved in front of their faces. None of them even blinked. What the f--

"Hi," a new voice said, and Niel screamed and jumped in surprise.

He whipped around and found a smiling ghost. The ghost was blue-skinned and wore a purple cloak along with what must have been a dozen watches. As if those weren't enough to tell him the time, he also held a scepter with one more little clock on top.

As Niel watched, the ghost shifted from a young adult, to an old adult, a child, then back again. A light flicked on inside his brain.

"You're that time ghost," he said. "I've heard about you. Your name had to do with clocks or watches...um...Watchman?"

The ghost chuckled. "Close enough. It's Clockwork."

"You're supposed to be a myth."

Clockwork spread his arms and asked, "Do I seem like a myth to you?"

"I guess not," Niel admitted. "Assuming the myths are true, you either control time, or you have a deep obsession with collecting watches."

"Har har, very funny," Clockwork said. His monotone voice somehow made his words sound funnier. "You know, you're just as witty as he is," he said and pointed his clock-staff at Danny.

"I like to think im wittier," Niel said casually. Internally, he may have been freaking out. Clockwork might not be a myth, but he sure as hell was a legend. One who was talking to him.

Clockwork hummed and floated over to the Fentons, who stood still as statues--frozen in time, Niel now realized.

"They're a nice family, aren't they?" Clockwork commented. Despite how legendary the time ghost was, Niel suddenly found himself biting his tongue to stop himself from retorting. If the myths were true, then Clockwork knew all about Niel's (half)life. He knew how much emotional turmoil this revelation caused him.

"Maybe," was what Niel ended up saying.

Clockwork shifted into a child. Maybe he did it to spite Niel. "You were very hateful to the parents."

"They hate ghosts."

"But not their son."

Niel pursed his lips. He looked at the frozen Danny, being held in frozen Maddie's arms as she smiled. "I guess...maybe they deserve a second chance."

"Indeed," Clockwork hummed and returned to the Fentons. Niel found himself wishing the time ghost didn't act so aloof. He was observing the Fentons like they were an art exhibit, and Niel was a fellow tourist. "You know, you were never meant to be transported to this time," he mentioned to Niel. "Desiree--that's the name of the wish ghost, by the way--she grants wishes, but usually they're supposed to stay small. Nothing as big as changing the timeline."

Desiree. So that was her name. "What happened to her?" Niel found himself asking.

"I'm afraid she's being trialled."

"What?"

Clockwork turned away from the Fentons to look at him. His form jumped from child to old man, so his face looked more serious as he spoke. "Like I said, changing the timeline is a big deal. The Observants aren't happy with her. If this were a one-time thing, they might have let her go, but this wasn't the first time she went too far with her wishes. Time was never supposed to be a part of her arsenal."

"What...punishment do they have for her?" Niel asked. Even though he never interacted with her much, he found himself sympathizing with her.

Clockwork shrugged. "The Observants no doubt have some severe punishment in mind, but I might convince them to go soft on her. Get them to sentence her for a hundred years in jail, maybe."

"That's supposed to be soft?"

"Desiree herself is several hundreds of years old. One century isn't long when you're immortal."

"That's fair, I guess..."

Clockwork observed him with his pupil-less eyes. His form shifted again into a young adult. "I don't believe you feel sorry for her because she granted your wish, do you?" He waved at the Fentons and added, "Surely you know you can't stay here forever."

Niel knew. As soon as Clockwork appeared, he figured the time ghost was here to transport him back to his own time. Still, hearing that from him felt disappointing.

"I don't want to go back to Vlad," Niel murmured.

"You don't have to," Clockwork pointed out. "After all, your sister seems to be doing just fine on her own."

Niel wrinkled his nose. "I'm not living on the streets."

"I don't know. It might do you some good humility." Niel wondered if Clockwork was joking, and then he saw the ghost's grin. Niel frowned.

Clockwork chuckled. Then he turned serious again. "But really. You don't belong in this timeline."

"I know," Niel said dejectedly. That didn't make him feel any better.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Clockwork by his side. "You will be part of a family someday," the time ghost told him. Niel didn't believe that. But Clockwork can see the future, so maybe, just maybe, that was true.

Niel looked at the frozen family once more. "What will happen to them?"

"Their memories of their encounter with you will be erased, obviously. Their fate will progress as it has been written. Things will return to normal--as normal as it is considered for Amity Park."

"And what will happen to me?"

Clockwork gave him a knowing smile. "Telling you would be a spoiler, wouldn't it?"

Niel was quiet for a moment. Then he opened his mouth to say something, but when he blinked, Clockwork wasn't there. A few more blinks, and he realized he was no longer standing in the Fentons' living room. The smells of stale ectoplasm, batteries, and sterilizer filled the air. He was in the Fentonworks laboratory, and judging from the light seeping through the crack between the portal's closed blast doors, he was back in his own time.

"--uck!" Danny said, then stopped. "Oh. Nothing happened. Huh."

Niel turned around and saw Danny rubbing his neck in embarrassment. "I thought, since you said the word 'wish'--but nothing happened..."

Niel's vision moved away from Danny and landed on Ellie. Ellie, who was little more than a puddle. Ellie, who had been attacked by her and Niel's own father, if Vlad can even be called that.

Danny followed his eyes to Ellie. "Oh, right. Don't worry, I've got the Ecto-Dejecto right..." He turned back to Niel, but he was gone. The portal doors were open. "...here."

Niel floated aimlessly through the Ghost Zone. He couldn't stand another second inside that lab, seeing Ellie like that. But he couldn't stand the thought of returning to Vlad, either. So here he was, drifting through the Infinite Realms.

Now that he wasn't currently being pursued by Skulker, he had the time to take in the scenery. Blobs of ectoplasm floated here and there, making the world seem like an oversized lava lamp. Islands, rocks, and doors floated here and there. Occasionally, a ghost flew by in the distance.

Niel didn't feel any wonder from seeing the view. He felt empty. He felt...lost.

[mattbrothersscriptwriter]

My Top 20 Films of 2019 - Part Two

I don’t think I’ve had a year where my top ten jostled and shifted as much as this one did - these really are the best of the best and my personal favourites of 2019.

10. Toy Story 4

I think we can all agree that Toy Story 3 was a pretty much perfect conclusion to a perfect trilogy right? About as close as is likely to get, I’m sure. I shared the same trepidation when part four was announced, especially after some underwhelming sequels like Finding Dory and Cars 3 (though I do have a lot of time for Monsters University and Incredibles 2). So maybe it’s because the odds were so stacked against this being good but I thought it was wonderful. A truly existential nightmare of an epilogue that does away with Andy (and mostly kids altogether) to focus on the dreams and desires of the toys themselves - separate from their ‘duties’ as playthings to biological Gods. What is their purpose in life without an owner? Can they be their own person and carve their own path? In the case of breakout new character Forky (Tony Hale), what IS life? Big big questions for a cash grab kids films huh?

The animation is somehow yet another huge leap forward (that opening rainstorm!), Bo Peep’s return is excellently pitched and the series tradition of being unnervingly horrifying is back as well thanks to those creepy ventriloquist dolls! Keanu Reeves continues his ‘Keanuassaince‘ as the hilarious Duke Caboom and this time, hopefully, the ending at least feels finite. This series means so much to me: I think the first movie is possibly the tightest, most perfect script ever written, the third is one of my favourites of the decade and growing up with the franchise (I was 9 when the first came out, 13 for part two, 24 for part three and now 32 for this one), these characters are like old friends so of course it was great to see them again. All this film had to do was be good enough to justify its existence and while there are certainly those out there that don’t believe this one managed it, I think the fact that it went as far as it did showed that Pixar are still capable of pushing boundaries and exploring infinity and beyond when they really put their minds to it.

9. The Nightingale

Hoo boy. Already controversial with talk of mass walkouts (I witnessed a few when this screened at Sundance London), it’s not hard to see why but easy to understand. Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) is a truly fearless filmmaker following up her acclaimed suburban horror movie come grief allegory with a period revenge tale set in the Tasmanian wilderness during British colonial rule in the early 1800s. It’s rare to see the British depicted with the monstrous brutality for which they were known in the distant colonies and this unflinching drama sorely needed an Australian voice behind the camera to do it justice.

The film is front loaded with some genuinely upsetting, nasty scenes of cruel violence but its uncensored brutality and the almost casual nature of its depiction is entirely the point - this was normalised behaviour over there and by treating it so matter of factly, it doesn’t slip into gratuitous ‘movie violence’. It is what it is. And what it is is hard to watch. If anything, as Kent has often stated, it’s still toned down from the actual atrocities that occurred so it’s a delicate balance that I think Kent more than understands. Quoting from an excellent Vanity Fair interview she did about how she directs, Kent said “I think audiences have become very anaesthetised to violence on screen and it’s something I find disturbing... People say ‘these scenes are so shocking and disturbing’. Of course they are. We need to feel that. When we become so removed from violence on screen, this is a very irresponsible thing. So I wanted to put us right within the frame with that person experiencing the loss of everything they hold dear”. 

Aisling Franciosi is next level here as a woman who has her whole life torn from her, leaving her as nothing but a raging husk out for vengeance. It would be so easy to fall into odd couple tropes once she teams up with reluctant native tracker Billy (an equally impressive newcomer, Baykali Ganambarr) but the film continues to stay true to the harsh racism of the era, unafraid to depict our heroine - our point of sympathy - as horrendously racist towards her own ally. Their partnership is not easily solidified but that makes it all the stronger when they star to trust each other. Sam Claflin is also career best here, weaponizing his usual charm into dangerous menace and even after cementing himself as the year’s most evil villain, he can still draw out the humanity in such a broken and corrupt man.

Gorgeously shot in the Academy ratio, the forest landscape here is oppressive and claustrophobic. Kent also steps back into her horror roots with some mesmerising, skin crawling dream scenes that amplify the woozy nightmarish tone and overbearing sense of dread. Once seen, never forgotten, this is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea (and that’s fine) but when cinema can affect you on such a visceral level and be this powerful, reflective and honest about our own past, it’s hard to ignore. Stunning.

8. The Irishman

Aka Martin Scorsese’s magnum opus, I did manage to see this one in a cinema before the Netflix drop and absolutely loved it. I’ve watched 85 minute long movies that felt longer than this - Marty’s mastery of pace, energy and knowing when to let things play out in agonising detail is second to none. This epic tale of  the life of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) really is the cinematic equivalent of having your cake and eating it too, allowing Scorsese to run through a greatest hits victory lap of mobster set pieces, alpha male arguments, a decades spanning life story and one (last?) truly great Joe Pesci performance before simply letting the story... continue... to a natural, depressing and tragic ending, reflecting the emptiness of a life built on violence and crime.

For a film this long, it’s impressive how much the smallest details make the biggest impacts. A stammering phone call from a man emotionally incapable of offering any sort of condolence. The cold refusal of forgiveness from a once loving daughter. A simple mirroring of a bowl of cereal or a door left slightly ajar. These are the parts of life that haunt us all and it’s what we notice the most in a deliberately lengthy biopic that shows how much these things matter when everything else is said and done. The violence explodes in sudden, sharp bursts, often capping off unbearably tense sequences filled with the everyday (a car ride, a conversation about fish, ice cream...) and this contrast between the whizz bang of classic Scorsese and the contemplative nature of Silence era Scorsese is what makes this film feel like such an accomplishment. De Niro is FINALLY back but it’s the memorably against type role for Pesci and an invigorated Al Pacino who steals this one, along with a roll call of fantastic cameos, with perhaps the most screentime given to the wonderfully petty Stephen Graham as Tony Pro, not to mention Anna Paquin’s near silent performance which says more than possibly anyone else. 

Yes, the CG de-aging is misguided at best, distracting at worst (I never really knew how old anyone was meant to be at any given time... which is kinda a problem) but like how you get used to it really quickly when it’s used well, here I kinda got past it being bad in an equally fast amount of time and just went with it. Would it have been a different beast had they cast younger actors to play them in the past? Undoubtedly. But if this gives us over three hours of Hollywood’s finest giving it their all for the last real time together, then that’s a compromise I can live with.

7. The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Wow. I was in love with this film from the moving first trailer but then the film itself surpassed all expectations. This is a true indie film success story, with lead actor Jimmie Fails developing the idea with director Joe Talbot for years before Kickstarting a proof of concept and eventually getting into Sundance with short film American Paradise, which led to the backing of this debut feature through Plan B and A24. The deeply personal and poetic drama follows a fictionalised version of Jimmie, trying to buy back an old Victorian town house he claims was built by his grandfather, in an act of rebellion against the increasingly gentrified San Francisco that both he and director Talbot call home.

The film is many things - a story of male friendship, of solidarity within our community, of how our cities can change right from underneath us - it moves to the beat of it’s own drum, with painterly cinematography full of gorgeous autumnal colours and my favourite score of the year from Emile Mosseri. The performances, mostly by newcomers or locals outside of brilliant turns from Jonathan Majors, Danny Glover and Thora Birch, are wonderful and the whole thing is such a beautiful love letter to the city that it makes you ache for a strong sense of place in your own home, even if your relationship with it is fractured or strained. As Jimmie says, “you’re not allowed to hate it unless you love it”.

For me, last year’s Blindspotting (my favourite film of the year) tackled gentrification within California more succinctly but this much more lyrical piece of work ebbs and flows through a number of themes like identity, family, memory and time. It’s a big film living inside a small, personal one and it is not to be overlooked.

6. Little Women

I had neither read the book nor seen any prior adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel so to me, this is by default the definitive telling of this story. If from what I hear, the non linear structure is Greta Gerwig’s addition, then it’s a total slam dunk. It works so well in breaking up the narrative and by jumping from past to present, her screenplay highlights certain moments and decisions with a palpable sense of irony, emotional weight or knowing wink. Getting to see a statement made with sincere conviction and then paid off within seconds, can be both a joy and a surefire recipe for tears. Whether it’s the devastating contrast between scenes centred around Beth’s illness or the juxtaposition of character’s attitudes to one another, it’s a massive triumph. Watching Amy angrily tell Laurie how she’s been in love with him all her life and then cutting back to her childishly making a plaster cast of her foot for him (’to remind him how small her feet are’) is so funny. 

Gerwig and her impeccable cast bring an electric energy to the period setting, capturing the big, messy realities of family life with a mix of overwhelming cross-chatter and the smallest of intimate gestures. It’s a testament to the film that every sister feels fully serviced and represented, from Beth’s quiet strength to Amy’s unforgivable sibling rivalry. Chris Cooper’s turn as a stoic man suffering almost imperceptible grief is a personal heartbreaking favourite. 

The book’s (I’m assuming) most sweeping romantic statements are wonderfully delivered, full of urgent passion and relatable heartache, from Marmie’s (Laura Dern) “I’m angry nearly every day of my life” moment to Jo’s (Saoirse Ronan) painful defiance of feminine attributes not being enough to cure her loneliness. The sheer amount of heart and warmth in this is just remarkable and I can easily see it being a film I return to again and again.

5. Booksmart

2019 has been a banner year for female directors, making their exclusion from some of the early awards conversations all the more damning. From this list alone, we have Lulu Wang, Jennifer Kent and Greta Gerwig. Not to mention Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers), Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Jocelyn DeBoer & Dawn Luebbe (Greener Grass), Sophie Hyde (Animals) and Rose Glass (Saint Maud - watch out for THIS one in 2020, it’s brilliant). Perhaps the most natural transition from in front of to behind the camera has been made by Olivia Wilde, who has created a borderline perfect teen comedy that can make you laugh till you cry, cry till you laugh and everything in-between.

Subverting the (usually male focused) ‘one last party before college’ tropes that fuel the likes of Superbad and it’s many inferior imitators, Booksmart follows two overachievers who, rather than go on a coming of age journey to get some booze or get laid, simply want to indulge in an insane night of teenage freedom after realising that all of the ‘cool kids’ who they assumed were dropouts, also managed to get a place in all of the big universities. It’s a subtly clever remix of an old favourite from the get go but the committed performances from Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein put you firmly in their shoes for the whole ride. 

It’s a genuine blast, with big laughs and a bigger heart, portraying a supportive female friendship that doesn’t rely on hokey contrivances to tear them apart, meaning that when certain repressed feelings do come to the surface, the fallout is heartbreaking. As I stated in a twitter rave after first seeing it back in May, every single character, no matter how much they might appear to be simply representing a stock role or genre trope, gets their moment to be humanised. This is an impeccably cast ensemble of young unknowns who constantly surprise and the script is a marvel - a watertight structure without a beat out of place, callbacks and payoffs to throwaway gags circle back to be hugely important and most of all, the approach taken to sexuality and representation feels so natural. I really think it is destined to be looked back on and represent 2019 the way Heathers does ‘88, Clueless ‘95 or Easy A 2010. A new high benchmark for crowd pleasing, indie comedy - teen or otherwise.

4. Ad Astra

Brad Pitt is one of my favourite actors and one who, despite still being a huge A-lister even after 30 years in the game, never seems to get enough credit for the choices he makes, the movies he stars in and also the range of stories he helps produce through his company, Plan B. 2019 was something of a comeback year for Pitt as an actor with the insanely measured and controlled lead performance seen here in Ad Astra and the more charismatic and chaotic supporting role in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.

I love space movies, especially those that are more about broken people blasting themselves into the unknown to search for answers within themselves... which manages to sum up a lot of recent output in this weirdly specific sub-genre. First Man was a devastating look at grief characterised by a man who would rather go to a desolate rock than have to confront what he lost, all while being packaged as a heroic biopic with a stunning score. Gravity and The Martian both find their protagonists forced to rely on their own cunning and ingenuity to survive and Interstellar looked at the lengths we go to for those we love left behind. Smaller, arty character studies like High Life or Moon are also astounding. All of this is to say that Ad Astra takes these concepts and runs with them, challenging Pitt to cross the solar system to talk some sense into his long thought dead father (Tommy Lee Jones). But within all the ‘sad dad’ stuff, there’s another film in here just daring you to try and second guess it - one that kicks things off with a terrifying free fall from space, gives us a Mad Max style buggy chase on the moon and sidesteps into horror for one particular set-piece involving a rabid baboon in zero G! It manages to feel so completely nuts, so episodic in structure, that I understand why a lot of people were turned off - feeling that the overall film was too scattershot to land the drama or too pondering to have any fun with. I get the criticisms but for me, both elements worked in tandem, propelling Pitt on this (assumed) one way journey at a crazy pace whilst sitting back and languishing in the ‘bigger themes’ more associated with a Malik or Kubrick film. Something that Pitt can sell me on in his sleep by this point.

I loved the visuals from cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar), loved the imagination and flair of the script from director James Gray and Ethan Gross and loved the score by Max Richter (with Lorne Balfe and Nils Frahm) but most of all, loved Pitt, proving that sometimes a lot less, is a lot more. The sting of hearing the one thing he surely knew (but hoped he wouldn’t) be destined to hear from his absent father, acted almost entirely in his eyes during a third act confrontation, summed up the movie’s brilliance for me - so much so that I can forgive some of the more outlandish ‘Mr Hyde’ moments of this thing’s alter ego... like, say, riding a piece of damaged hull like a surfboard through a meteor debris field! 

3. Avengers: Endgame

It’s no secret that I think Marvel, the MCU in particular, have been going from strength to strength in recent years, slowly but surely taking bigger risks with filmmakers (the bonkers Taika Waititi, the indie darlings of Ryan Coogler, Cate Shortland and Chloe Zhao) whilst also carefully crafting an entertaining, interconnected universe of characters and stories. But what is the point of building up any movie ‘universe’ if you’re not going to pay it off and Endgame is perhaps the strongest conclusion to eleven years of movie sequels that fans could have possibly hoped for.

Going into this thing, the hype was off the charts (and for good reason, with it now being the highest grossing film of all time) but I remember souring on the first entry of this two-parter, Infinity War, during the time between initial release and Endgame’s premiere. That film had a game-changing climax, killing off half the heroes (and indeed the universe’s population) and letting the credits role on the villain having achieved his ultimate goal. It was daring, especially for a mammoth summer blockbuster but obviously, we all knew the deaths would never be permanent, especially with so many already-announced sequels for now ‘dusted’ characters. However, it wasn’t just the feeling that everything would inevitably be alright in the end. For me, the characters themselves felt hugely under-serviced, with arguably the franchise’s main goody two shoes Captain America being little more than a beardy bloke who showed up to fight a little bit. Basically what I’m getting at is that I felt Endgame, perhaps emboldened by the giant runtime, managed to not only address these character slights but ALSO managed to deliver the most action packed, comic booky, ‘bashing your toys together’ final fight as well.

It’s a film of three parts, each pretty much broken up into one hour sections. There’s the genuinely new and interesting initial section following our heroes dealing with the fact that they lost... and it stuck. Thor angrily kills Thanos within the first fifteen minutes but it’s a meaningless action by this point - empty revenge. Cutting to five years later, we get to see how defeat has affected them, for better or worse, trying to come to terms with grief and acceptance. Cap tries to help the everyman, Black Widow is out leading an intergalactic mop up squad and Thor is wallowing in a depressive black hole. It’s a shocking and vibrantly compelling deconstruction of the whole superhero thing and it gives the actors some real meat to chew on, especially Robert Downy Jr here who goes from being utterly broken to fighting within himself to do the right thing despite now having a daughter he doesn’t want to lose too. Part two is the trip down memory lane, fan service-y time heist which is possibly the most fun section of any of these movies, paying tribute to the franchise’s past whilst teetering on a knife’s edge trying to pull off a genuine ‘mission impossible’. And then it explodes into the extended finale which pays everyone off, demonstrates some brilliantly imaginative action and sticks the landing better than it had any right to. In a year which saw the ending of a handful of massive geek properties, from Game of Thrones to Star Wars, it’s a miracle even one of them got it right at all. That Endgame managed to get it SO right is an extraordinary accomplishment and if anything, I think Marvel may have shot themselves in the foot as it’s hard to imagine anything they can give us in the future having the intense emotional weight and momentum of this huge finale.

2. Knives Out

Rian Johnson has been having a ball leaping into genre sandpits and stirring shit up, from his teen spin on noir in Brick to his quirky con man caper with The Brothers Bloom, his time travel thriller Looper and even his approach to the Star Wars mythos in The Last Jedi. Turning his attention to the relatively dead ‘whodunnit’ genre, Knives Out is a perfect example of how to celebrate everything that excites you about a genre whilst weaponizing it’s tropes against your audience’s baggage and preconceptions.

An impeccable cast have the time of their lives here, revelling in playing self obsessed narcissists who scramble to punt the blame around when the family’s patriarch, a successful crime novelist (Christopher Plummer), winds up dead. Of course there’s something fishy going on so Daniel Craig’s brilliantly dry southern detective Benoit Blanc is called in to investigate.There are plenty of standouts here, from Don Johnson’s ignorant alpha wannabe Richard to Michael Shannon’s ferocious eldest son Walt to Chris Evan’s sweater wearing jock Ransom, full of unchecked, white privilege swagger. But the surprise was the wholly sympathetic, meek, vomit prone Marta, played brilliantly by Ana de Armas, cast against her usual type of sultry bombshell (Knock Knock, Blade Runner 2049), to spearhead the biggest shake up of the genre conventions. To go into more detail would begin to tread into spoiler territory but by flipping the audience’s engagement with the detective, we’re suddenly on the receiving end of the scrutiny and the tension derived from this switcheroo is genius and opens up the second act of the story immensely.

The whole thing is so lovingly crafted and the script is one of the tightest I’ve seen in years. The amount of setup and payoff here is staggering and never not hugely satisfying, especially as it heads into it’s final stretch. It really gives you some hope that you could have such a dense, plotty, character driven idea for a story and that it could survive the transition from page to screen intact and for the finished product to work as well as it does. I really hope Johnson returns to tell another Benoit Blanc mystery and judging by the roaring box office success (currently over $200 million worldwide for a non IP original), I certainly believe he will.

1. Eighth Grade

My film of the year is another example of the power of cinema to put us in other people’s shoes and to discover the traits, fears, joys and insecurities that we all share irregardless. It may shock you to learn this but I have never been a 13 year old teenage girl trying to get by in the modern world of social media peer pressure and ‘influencer’ culture whilst crippled with personal anxiety. My school days almost literally could not have looked more different than this (less Instagram, more POGs) and yet, this is a film about struggling with oneself, with loneliness, with wanting more but not knowing how to get it without changing yourself and the careless way we treat those with our best interests at heart in our selfish attempt to impress peers and fit in. That is understandable. That is universal. And as I’m sure I’ve said a bunch of times in this list, movies that present the most specific worldview whilst tapping into universal themes are the ones that inevitably resonate the most.

Youtuber and comedian Bo Burnham has crafted an impeccable debut feature, somehow portraying a generation of teens at least a couple of generations below his own, with such laser focused insight and intimate detail. It’s no accident that this film has often been called a sort of social-horror, with cringe levels off the charts and recognisable trappings of anxiety and depression in every frame. The film’s style services this feeling at every turn, from it’s long takes and nauseous handheld camerawork to the sensory overload in it’s score (take a bow Anna Meredith) and the naturalistic performances from all involved. Burnham struck gold when he found Elsie Fisher, delivering the most painful and effortlessly real portrayal of a tweenager in crisis as Kayla. The way she glances around skittishly, the way she is completely lost in her phone, the way she talks, even the way she breathes all feeds into the illusion - the film is oftentimes less a studio style teen comedy and more a fly on the wall documentary. 

This is a film that could have coasted on being a distant, social media based cousin to more standard fare like Sex Drive or Superbad or even Easy A but it goes much deeper, unafraid to let you lower your guard and suddenly hit you with the most terrifying scene of casually attempted sexual aggression or let you watch this pure, kindhearted girl falter and question herself in ways she shouldn’t even have to worry about. And at it’s core, there is another beautiful father/daughter relationship, with Josh Hamilton stuck on the outside looking in, desperate to help Kayla with every fibre of his being but knowing there are certain things she has to figure out for herself. It absolutely had me and their scene around a backyard campfire is one of the year’s most touching.

This is a truly remarkable film that I think everyone should seek out but I’m especially excited for all the actual teenage girls who will get to watch this and feel seen. This isn’t about the popular kid, it isn’t about the dork who hangs out with his or her own band of misfits. This is about the true loner, that person trying everything to get noticed and still ending up invisible, that person trying to connect through the most disconnected means there is - the internet - and everything that comes with it. Learning that the version of yourself you ‘portray’ on a Youtube channel may act like they have all the answers but if you’re kidding yourself then how do you grow? 

When I saw this in the cinema, I watched a mother take her seat with her two daughters, aged probably at around nine and twelve. Possibly a touch young for this, I thought, and I admit I cringed a bit on their behalf during some very adult trailers but in the end, I’m glad their mum decided they were mature enough to see this because a) they had a total blast and b) life simply IS R rated for the most part, especially during our school years, and those girls being able to see someone like Kayla have her story told on the big screen felt like a huge win. I honestly can’t wait to see what Burnham or Fisher decide to do next. 2019 has absolutely been their year... and it’s been a hell of a year.