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constellaj · 4 years ago

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just ran into your art today and. would you like to elaborate on your gay lucky in love rewrite 👀

boy would i

as always shoutouts to @crystalfloe for pitching + workshopping w me on this, ESPECIALLY on this one since it was mostly her idea!

we open up with a shot of shadow circling through amity park, looking in the windows of various citizens. danny is face-down, fast asleep; valerie is repairing some gear; tucker is being a gamer; sam is watching a horror movie; paulina is also watching a horror movie. shadow passes by all these houses and gets more and more annoyed, until he peeks the window of a large, elaborate house:

dash has drawn the curtains, turned the lights off, turned a fan up. this is his deep dark secret. he’s sitting on his bed, face lit by the dim rose glow of his laptop. the volume is turned down so low but the viewer still sees and hears him whisper along to the movie: “but we could never be together, jessica...” “but... I love you...” he’s watching a HORRIBLY cheesy hallmark romcom.

but of course nobody can KNOW he’s into chickflicks and romcoms! he’s a tough football man and it would trash his rep if anyone knew he secretly craved those deep but silly romantic stories... the tenderness, the love...

shadow has specifically been looking for a romantic.

shadow slips in and ‘possesses’ dash. possesses in quotes, because, well, even though dash is dumb and therefore easy to possess, shadow is ultimately a glorified dog, and not a fully sentient ghost; he doesn’t have any total agency in dash, and the most he can do is mess around with his emotional and hormonal balance. shadow is DISMAYED, upon entering, that dash’s deep romanticism is so repressed, and so immediately gets to work digging it out of the recesses of his brain, putting it in the forefront.

(see, what danny and the audience will learn later is, shadow is a ghost that subsists off of love. romantic love especially. he first found a ‘host’ in johnny (before he died!) because johnny and kitty were madly, ridiculously in love, and johnny especially admired kitty beyond words. they still do love each other, of course! but like all healthy relationships, they’ve learned to take breaks, and they have a ‘break week’ once every few months.)

(this, naturally, drives shadow up a WALL; after a certain level, displays of romance become like dog treats, and shadow has been downright spoiled by the overabundance of love between the two. when they take a BREAK WEEK and aren’t constantly showering each other (and therefore him!) with affection, he needs to go find another host, because clearly they do not love him and have forsaken him. they kick miette.)

since shadow’s prime host for so long has been johnny, his understanding of a few... norms... are bleeding over. dash shows up to school with a leather jacket and a motorcycle (his family’s rich, of course he’s had one). his hair is slicked back and the cologne is overpowering. while danny and others think it’s just another asshole stage of dash, kwan (as well as the popular kids, but kwan especially) notices something’s wrong. it’s not quite... dash.

yeah, he’s happy-- well, he’s also strangely flirty with everyone (shadow is testing the waters, trying to find out who is the best match). and kwan LOVES that he’s happy. but he’s a little too daydreamy, he laughs a little too long. he is having horrible luck all day, but he just keeps taking it in stride. dash is concerned with appearances, but this is the first time he’s put in effort like it was for other people to see. he’s a little too suave. his eyes reflect just a little too much light.

and then-- luck of luck-- shadow finds the big name repressed crush.

fenton! of course!

danny did NOT want to deal with dash towering over him and slamming him into the wall, but he didn’t KNOW how to deal with dash leaning over him and telling him he looked cute. danny’s flustered! of course he is! well, yeah, dash is an asshole, he knows that, yeah he’s a stuck up rich kid, YES SAM, he knows this (sam is not fooled by a little hair gel and some high heeled leather boots), but you can’t deny he’s, well, built. and he’s weirdly suave? and nice. he’s actually being really nice. what no of course DANNY hasn’t had a crush on DASH this whole time or anything. shut up.

the fact that dash asks him to meet him in the woods at lunch (because sam, jazz, and even tucker are increasingly concerned with dash just making moves on danny, afraid it’s some new form of abuse; and lancer keeps perceiving it as bullying since that’s their dynamic and breaking it up) and he GOES is just. well. that’s unrelated isn’t it.

they kiss and danny is starting to maybe think dash just had a homophobic middle school experience like everyone else when- his GHOST SENSE GOES OFF. RIGHT HERE? RIGHT NOW??? (gee what could be causing it?) dash cracks a joke about him using too many breath mints and danny panics, bullshits an excuse, and runs off to transform and find the ghost.

dash thinks he’s been rejected and almost shakes out shadow’s possession from the sheer dismay, but shadow doubles down. no, no, we can find another crush. somewhere.

...oh hey! the ghost boy!

time to double down on the ghost aesthetics.

danny’s just finished fighting kitty (”where’s your boyfriend” “that’s none of your BUSINESS!”) when there’s a motorcycle rev underneath him. there’s... dash, again, but.... something feels very, very wrong.

danny lands, cautious. “hey phantom... you into biker dudes?” “don’t you have... a boyfriend...” “heee sorta dumped me in the woods”. and then danny gets close enough for his ghost sense to go off. and it clicks.

“dash, you’re possessed”

this is the ONE THING that shadow can’t have. this could be the perfect romance, and THIS GHOSTCHILD thinks he knows more about ROMANCE than SHADOW??? PSH. cue fight scene! dash of course is grappling with both not wanting to hurt phantom, but wanting this ghost out of his system, because of COURSE he’s possessed geez why else would he want to kiss FENTON of all people-- but shadow REFUSES to leave, slowly building more and more monstrous elements onto dash, darker eyes and claws, erasing his legs until it’s not dash as much as it is a large shadow monstrosity with dash at the center.

danny eventually realizes he needs a new strategy and runs for it. after a decent amount of bickering with sam/tuck, they realize that the only ones who would know how to tame shadow are.... kitty and johnny.

turns out, when shadow went missing, kitty NOTICED. (johnny didn’t! he was having a fun alone time working on his bike with loud music.) this is bad. why? well, johnny is NOT a very powerful ghost. in fact, he’s sort of the opposite. he and shadow have a symbiotic relationship of sorts; it’s shadow’s residence in him that gives him any powers at all, like the basic healing factor a ghost has, or phasing, or flying. without shadow he’s essentially a zombie, who can still be hurt in the ghost zone. NATURALLY, kitty decided to run off and retrieve shadow (because this isn’t the first time he’s run away on break week, always throwing a tantrum) before anything horrible could happen to Johnny; this is what she was doing in Amity in the first place

this is the part of the story where i reveal that the ending isnt fully fleshed out yet. in the rough conversation right it ended up with kitty and johnny trying to FORCE shadow back into johnny, and they’re getting annoyed by it, and kitty goes “well this wouldn’t be a problem if YOU weren’t so LOVING AND SENSITIVE” and johnny goes “well i wouldn’t LOVE YOU so much if you weren’t BRILLIANT and BEAUTIFUL” and they have a whole argument like that. its very funny. and shadow ends up still running away and possessing dash again.

ah, in typing this out, i have figured out an ending!

the above fight and run away happens, and there’s two endings: one where shadow possesses dash, and one where shadow possesses danny. in both, of course, the other party realizes the only way to get shadow out is through making shadow feel safe enough to leave, aka... flooding the room with romance. if dash is possessed, danny and co. realize that danny’s the prime candidate to... be the suave lil boy. if DANNY is possessed, sam and tucker begrudgingly explain that, uh, yeah, phantom might have a crush on you, he’s just really controlling of his emotions. (also kwan! kwan definitely plays a part if dash is possessed, maybe even in saying “uh... he has a bigger crush on Fenton. can you guys get him instead?” and danny. explodes)

blahlbahblah luring shadow out by being gay happens and shadow gets scooped back up by the 13s. as much as the previous argument is funny it might also be very funny if johnny literally noticed none of this, and kitty shows up like ‘you lost this’ and johnny is like. ‘...shadow? when did you leave’. anywho.

that’s the concept! the MAIN difference is that johnny and kitty actually have a very healthy and sweet relationship, and the conflict, ironically, comes from the fact that they love each other TOO much. i do love ‘dash finds out’ reveals but as far as an episodic romp goes, this might not be the best ep for him to discover the secret in. however in a oneshot or something of course you could slot that in there excellently i believe.

#danny phantom #dash baxter #fic #ish... sort of. not really i guess LMAO #ask #dashposting #lucky in love #johnny 13 #kitty 13 #Anonymous #adpRewrite

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a-closet-emo · 5 years ago

Text

Phic Phight 2k20

Team Ghost

Title: Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

Prompt: what was Valerie doing during ‘Reality Trip’?

Prompt by: @halfaqueen

Word Count: 4866

A/N: @seeminglynoticeable was so nice as to beta this for me! and what do you know, longest fic I’ve written. Enjoy!

----

Valerie picked up her phone and rolled her eyes at the unread messages.

Star: Valllllll

Star: Vaaaallllllllll

Star: why arent u heeerrreeeeee

Star: come onnn ur gonna miss the best parts it’s starting soooooon

Val: i told u, i’ll be there once my shift is over

Star: but Vallll we were supposed to hang and watch the concert why are you still working

We are not going to hang. I’m going to watch the concert from the nosebleeds while she’s in the front boxes with Paulina, occasionally texting me, she thought.

Typing her message, Valerie shook her head. Now was not the time for this.

Val: dude i have like 20 minutes left on my shift chill

Val: and u already know that i have a shift today, i can’t just back out of that

The unspoken (or untyped) ‘I need the money’ hung between them for a few awful seconds while the girl on the other end started typing then stopped. Finally, she sent a message.

Star: ughhh fine. But you better not get caught up in a ghost fight and miss the concert entirely, i heard the band’s gonna come out of a giant egg on stage

“Excuse me? Lady?”

Valerie glanced up from her screen to see a customer waiting for her in front of the cash register. She sent a quick ‘gtg’ to Star before stuffing her phone in her apron, plastering a grin onto her face, and greeting the woman.

As the lady debated between six kinds of drinks, the phone in her apron pocket started vibrating like crazy. Was that Star? Ugh, she better not be calling Valerie to tell her about the concert, she already knew she was missing out. She pointedly ignored her phone (and the customer still eyeing the menu) as her eyes drifted idly to the Nasty Burger’s TV, which was currently turned onto a local news channel. She narrowed her eyes, putting more focus onto the screen.

Are those two on the stage… Sam and Tucker? She hadn’t decided what to do with this information when Phantom crashed onto the stage, literally, and narrowly missed hitting the teens. Her fists clenched. She was seconds away from vaulting over the counter and running out of the store to transform.

That Phantom... always stirring up trouble and ruining everyone’s day—

Valerie froze. So did everyone else in the restaurant, but that and her phone vibrating even more than earlier felt a million miles away. Her attention was focused solely on the screen on the wall.

The screen that was showing the Dumpty Humpty concert.

And Phantom… and Danny.

Danny, the ghost. Danny, the human. Danny, her ex.

Danny, who was now being chased by the GiW because he was clearly not human. (Like Dani and Vlad some part of her mind whispered)

Danny, her friend.

She backed away from the counter, the sound of her beating heart filling her ears. She backed up into a table, nearly toppling everything on it. It almost didn’t register, nothing was getting through to her.

One thought, however, made her shake herself out of her daze.

Valerie had to get to that concert.

She ran out of the restaurant and into the nearest alley, the suit already half on. She flew toward the school and the concert, at a speed she’d never reached before.

Some corner of her mind asked her what she planned to do when she got there. She shut it up.

——

Despite her state, Valerie had enough sense to fly high enough above the concert grounds that the GiW’s sensors wouldn’t pick up on her suit. She knew it had some sort of an ectosignature, she didn’t need getting kidnapped added onto today. Not that she thought they would keep her, but today had certainly thrown her world into chaos, so she kept an open mind.

She scanned the ground below for the trio (Sam and Tucker were never far; in fact, they were probably helping him right now) and Phantom’s ectosignature, unsure if she wanted to find either. She wasn’t thinking about the implications of Danny being like Vlad and Dani, nor of the implications of Phantom and Fenton being one and the same. And she was most definitely not thinking about the implications of all she had done to him in her revenge-fueled hunts. No, she was not going to think about any of that. She shoved those thoughts away and concluded that Danny and Co. were not on the concert grounds anymore, which were swarming with GiW agents and a few scattered groups of loitering teenagers. Her eye caught some movement a few hundred yards away, however, at the nearby forest.

Flying over to investigate, she retracted her board into the sole of her boots and stood at the edge of the woods. Her eyes caught sight of something shining deep within the trees. Squinting, she realized it was the glint of a PDA screen in the darkness.

And there he was.

Granted, he was turned away from her and wearing a football helmet, but her suit gave her the ecto signature she had dismissed so many times before as a glitch in the system.

Her eyes followed the back of his head as far as her sight would allow her. She wanted to call out, wanted him to see her, notice her, fight her but at the same time she wanted to remain hidden. To be acknowledged was to acknowledge everything that’s happening and everything that has happened. So she stood stock-still, watching silently as he and Sam and Tucker ran off into the woods and the night.

A branch snapped and Valerie let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She noticed the A-listers speaking in hushed tones as they made their way out of the forest. Her suit let her listen in to their conversation.

“I can’t get over how Fenturd - ah uh - Fenton has been Phantom all this time! He’s like, a full-blown superhero with the secret identities and shit!”

“He’s the most messed up superhero, though,” Valerie heard Kwan counter. She couldn’t get an angle on his face with the thickness of the trees and the dim lighting, but he sounded quiet, almost thoughtful.“How dark is that? He’s alive and dead? At the same time?”

“I don’t care if he’s dead, alive, or both. I’m still gonna marry him someday.”

“Even now that it turns out he’s nerdy loser Fenton?” Star teased.

“Especially now that he’s nerdy loser Fenton. Because I know for a fact that he has a crush on me.”

Then Star spotted Valerie and came to a halt, eyes widening. The blonde glanced behind her, after where Danny had gone, before turning back to the Huntress, turquoise eyes questioning.

The other A-listers stopped, having noticed Star’s sudden silence, and followed her line of sight back to Valerie.

“Not you,” Paulina spat out. “If you think you can hunt down my ghost boy and hurt him, then you’ve got another thing coming—“

“Would you hurt him now, knowing what you know about him?” Star’s voice rang out clearly. Paulina stopped, not even angry at being interrupted. Dash and Kwan stood still, waiting for an answer, but they tensed, willing to take the ghost hunter on for Danny’s sake.

The huntress swallowed hard and made no response, before taking off, no destination in mind.

——

Valerie huffed, her breath visible in the cold hours of the night, as she paced back and forth on her board. Having shortly gotten over her initial disbelief, she’d flown to Fentonworks not too long after watching Danny run away, hoping to find him home and demand an explanation from him, maybe at gunpoint. Instead, she had almost walked up to a house swarming with GiW agents. Then she had noticed the spidery metallic structure that usually stood atop the building was missing.

So up here, hours later and a good one hundred feet above Fentonworks, she continued to pace, her steps fast and forceful. That goddamned boy was going to hear it from her… as soon as she could find him, at least. She had no clue where he’d gone, and she’d already checked all his usual haunts.

She pulled up her phone from inside her suit, debating on whether she should even try to contact him. Her lock screen showed her a lot of messages and missed calls from a few people, mostly Star and her dad. She put her phone away, not willing to talk to anyone.

Thoughts swirled around in a hopeless mess of a whirlpool in her head. Questions she didn’t want answered and realizations she didn’t want to face. Memories surfaced of countless fights, endless days of hunting, hours spent in seething rage at the ghost boy.

Hah.

Ghost-boy. The name was more fitting than anyone had thought.

All this time… he was Phantom. He had been the one in Axion Labs that day. He had been the one who ruined her life.

But he was also Danny, the sweet, caring, kind, geeky, normal guy she’d dated once.

Had he been lying to her? Which one was the act? Phantom or Fenton? Did she know him at all? Where would she even begin to… to what? Look for differences, look for similarities? Comparing the two got her nowhere, her mind supplying her with enough for it to make sense (especially with Dani and Vlad in the picture; she may not know how but she knows it’s possible). But her mind also couldn’t reconcile the two boys.

Valerie groaned and sat down, her hands twitching in agitation. She wanted to scream, she wanted to fight, she wanted to do something other than sitting up here and letting her mind run itself in circles, but she found that that was all she could do, given that she was pretty sure the trio wasn’t even in Amity anymore. She was not a fan of this rollercoaster of emotions she’d been experiencing since the reveal. They were all being translated into a shaky rush of angry energy that made her want to throttle the first ghost she saw.

Right on cue, the familiar inner alert of her suit told her there were a couple of them lurking nearby. Her helmet quickly formed over her head. She got up quickly and smirked, flying over to their location.

Finally, something she could do.

Her smirk fell when she spotted one of the spooks, not a block away from Fentonworks. Staring down at all nine feet of the growling ghost mutt that had had a hand (paw?) in turning her life upside down not a year ago, Valerie grit her teeth, charged up her weapons, and took aim.

——

“Get back here you mangy mutt!”

Valerie chased after it through the streets, her enraged state doing her no favors as she continued to completely miss the ghost with her haphazard sprays of ectogunfire. Each time the damn thing managed to slip away only got her more frustrated, screaming insults at the top of her lungs. She was sure she had woken up the entire neighborhood, but she couldn’t find it in her to care. What mattered was catching her prey and making it pay.

Following the spook to an alleyway it had just ducked into, she stepped off her board and marched right around the corner, not bothering with a sneaky approach.

Why couldn’t she just catch the stupid hellhound? She couldn’t believe she’d let this chase go on so long. She couldn’t believe this day she’d been having. She couldn’t believe anything anymore.

There it was, gigantic and foaming at the mouth. She summoned several missile launchers from within her suit, ready to unleash hell. The mutt crouched, and she could see its muscles tensing, ready to pounce. She was going to end this.

“Valerie!”

The Huntress’s head turned at the sound of a familiar voice. She suddenly choked; that couldn’t be Danny…?

In the split second that she spent looking around frantically for the owner of the voice, the ghost dog pounced, and she was forced down onto the pavement. Valerie went breathless as her body came into contact with the hard ground. Despite the pain, her first reaction was still anger, and she retracted her helmet so she could look the dog in the eye, her hair fanning out around her head on the pavement.

“Get off of me, you fucking mutt! Fuck you!” She shouted, beating her fists against the ghost’s chest as it simply stared at her, head cocked to the side like it was actually concerned. Angry tears rolled down her cheeks and onto the pavement.

Agh! Was she so distracted by Danny that she was imagining his voice now?

She continued to hit the dog and it continued to ignore her, though after a while her screams of rage became strangled sobs, and the punches themselves became nothing more than pathetic grabs at the dog’s fur.

This was all so stupid and dumb. How could she have not noticed anything? Was she that blinded by wrath? Was she that willing to ignore Phantom and his insistence of innocence just so she could have someone to blame for a bad situation?

She hated this. She hated this whole fucking day. She hated stupid Phantom. She hated stupid Danny. She hated them for being the same person, which was now making her break down in front of the stupid ghost dog that was definitely his.

She hated what had been happening between her and the ghost boy ever since the day he got her dad fired. She hated everything she’d done to him since then.

She hated herself.

She let her arms fall to the ground, tears falling freely now.

“Valerie,” the same voice as earlier repeated her name, concern overflowing from the single word.

She gasped, straining her neck to find the speaker. Dani stood a few feet away, staring with her eyebrows knit in concern. Then the dog started licking Valerie. And if she had been more open to the idea of it actually caring about her, she would’ve thought it was trying to comfort her. She wondered for a brief moment when it had changed into its smaller form. But before she could protest to the equal amounts of slobber and ectoplasm being slathered onto her face and hair, Dani intervened for her.

“Cujo, no! Stop!”

The dog (it had a name?) obeyed the order, though begrudgingly.

“Good. Now, get off Valerie, please.” After following the command of the halfa and stepping off of Valerie, Dani came over and held out a hand to help her up.

A beat, and she took it. Coming up to stand on shaky legs, a ray of sunlight hit her directly in the eyes. She winced and held a hand in front of her face. When had the sun come up? The first lights of day were pouring through the gaps between buildings, illuminating the sorry little alley they were standing in.

“So, I’m guessing you know.”

Her eyes were puffy and her vision blurry, but there was no mistaking how much the girl standing before Valerie looked like Danny. From the blue eyes and the black hair down to the way she was rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly, waiting for Valerie to respond, the halfa was every bit Danny’s clone as she was Phantom’s. Wonderful. Another glaring clue she had so willingly ignored.

She rubbed tiredly at her eyes, not really trying to deal with the tears or the swelling, before shooting her as much of an annoyed stare as she could muster. She hoped she looked more angry than tired, but she had a feeling that wasn’t what was coming across.

“God, Dani. That was at a fucking Dumpty Humpty concert. With that many teenagers and cameras in one place, I‘d be surprised if the whole country didn’t know.”

She plopped down onto the grimy floor, head in hands.

“You’re here to look for him, aren’t you?”

There was a moment of silence. Clearly the other girl was trying to gauge how much to tell Valerie. Her spirits sank even lower. How many times had Danny or Phantom hesitated like this and she’d just written off as him being spacey and the other plotting something?

“Yeah. Cujo and I’ve been trying to sneak around, trying to catch his scent. But it’s been pretty hard, especially with all the Guys in White.”

Something occurred to Valerie.

“Wait, what if Vlad finds you?”

Dani’s bitter laugh made her look up. The halfa was absentmindedly scratching Cujo’s head, but she was looking away from Valerie, up at the pink sky.

“That old fruitloop? He’s probably trying to find a way to keep his sorry hide out of this, backup plans for backup plans and all. He’s not even going to think about… But he doesn’t matt— that doesn’t matter.”

Dani waved her hand dismissively.

“Look, Cujo and I better get going, we still need to find a way to follow that crazy cousin of mine. It was good to see you again.”

The two ghosts began walking out of the alley, when Valerie came to stand on her feet with a sudden decision.

“Dani, wait. Let me go with you.”

The girl and her dog shared a look. Valerie had a faraway feeling of annoyance at their distrust and doubt, but then she realized they had plenty of reason to. It hadn’t even been an hour since she had tried to destroy one of them. Besides, she was too tired to be angry.

“Please. I-I need to see Danny,” she paused. “I want to help him.” She was glad to find that she meant that. “I know that you don’t trust me, hell, you probably don’t even like me after all I’ve done, but—“

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. Of course I trust you, Val. You’re my friend. It’s just… Are you sure you’re ok? You were sobbing not thirty minutes ago.” Dani cringed. “And, well, you’re covered in ghost dog slobber, among other things.”

Valerie looked down at herself. Her suit was coated in goo and grime. Her hair was everywhere and was drying in clumps of slobber. She didn’t even want to think about her face.

“Cujo and I will keep sniffing around, you go home and shower, and then we’ll meet up—“

The sudden growing noise that erupted from Dani’s stomach had been too loud to ignore. The girl rubbed her neck sheepishly, starting to back away.

“We’ll just get going now—“

Valerie grabbed Dani’s hand and made the preteen face her. The huntress frowned. The other girl was too thin, too pale; she wondered when the last time Dani had gotten a good meal was.

——

Dani had eaten while Valerie had showered and packed a couple of bags for them, and now the older girl was sitting across from her father and bouncing her leg impatiently waiting for the halfa to emerge. She had been looking for some updates via social media on where the trio had gone, but it seemed they hadn’t turned up yet. She’d sent a couple of messages to Star reassuring her she was fine but she’d be out of town. The girl had yet to respond, but it was still early.

She looked at her father. He was an early riser, but it was early enough that he was still in his pajamas, having rushed out of his room when she and Dani had entered the apartment.

“... Dani,” she had introduced her, with the halfa cutting in to add “with an ‘I’”.

She hadn’t offered any explanation, but then again she rarely explained any of her ‘extracurricular activities’ to her father.

She winced inwardly at how tired he looked. She bit her lip guiltily at the thought of all the missed calls and messages she had seen on her phone last night… or earlier this morning.

“Val,” he started, but she cut in.

“I get it, dad,” she said, trying and failing to meet his gaze. “I messed up. I messed up big time, doing all the things I did, lying to you, disobeying you, hurting people. But I’ve gotta make it up somehow. I need to go. I need to find him.”

Her hands were curled into fists under the table as she glared at the wood. He wasn’t going to stop her.

He reached a hand out to her. “Baby, I was going to ask if you were alright.”

She looked up; there was so much concern in his eyes. She opened her mouth to respond, when Dani emerged from her room, freshly showered and wearing some of Valerie’s old clothes.

“So, are we ready to go, Val?” she asked, skipping up to them.

Valerie stood up and blinked hard. She handed Dani a backpack full of supplies and pushed the girl out the door.

“Thanks for having me, Mr. Gray,” the halfa called over her shoulder.

“We’ll talk when you get back.”

She turned and gave him a small, but sincere nod, then walked out the door.

——

They’d given the trio too much of a headstart.

Cujo had been able to pick up his scent not long after they had left her apartment, but by the time they’d gotten to the Cape Canaveral Space Center, Danny and his friends were long gone. Similarly, at Gothapalooza, news of the one halfa and two kids being in Hollywood was spreading like a wildfire.

Sightings of an unfamiliar jet zooming through the air near those locations had them pushing their limits in terms of speed and stamina. After the second sleepless night of flying, she had shaken her head.

Way too much of a headstart.

Knowing how the trio got around so quickly didn’t help in answering other questions. What were they doing? Why did they have to follow such a seemingly random path across the country to do it? From what videos they could find online, whenever Danny was spotted, he had gone after a small, shiny object. A cursed object? A gadget? An ancient artifact? Neither Valerie nor Dani had the answers, despite having conversation after conversation as they followed in the trio’s wake.

She had no idea what to think, but every hour spent chasing them only added to her worries and frustrations. She wanted to help already, she had been ready to help a couple days ago, but they still couldn’t catch up.

Valerie had been watching a no-longer-live-stream of the trio at a convention (that ended as Danny flew through the roof and out of the camera’s sight) as she, Dani, and Cujo arrived in the Place Where Dreams Are Made, according to a few signs she’d seen. They touched down on a rooftop near the convention.

Dani had changed back into her human form so she wouldn’t attract any unwanted attention in case they were spotted, given all the buzz about Phantom. She and Cujo were walking around, trying to find Danny’s scent again.

Another day, another occasion, and maybe she would’ve been enjoying herself, just hanging out with Dani. She still was, but the undercurrent of worry shared by the three of them kept things more professional.

She looked out across Hollywood's rooftops, then to the night sky, the light pollution completely obscuring her view of the stars.

She withdrew her suit and board and kicked the cement of the roof with a frustrated sigh. At this rate, catching up seemed almost impossible.

But they had to. She had to. She had to see Danny. She had to help him with all of this.

She had to say sorry.

Cujo whimpered, bringing her back to the present.

“What is it, Cujo?” Dani asked. Valerie took a step back when she saw what the dog was looking at.

A giant wave of red, unnatural and impossible, was washing over and enveloping all of the city. Any object it passed over (be it building, car, or bush) became a part of some dark carnival.

She took another step back in fear. The red swiftly engulfed their rooftop, turning it into an enormous elevated platform, like the ones circus acrobats would jump from, but this one was covered in dark colors and disturbing designs. No one on the streets seemed to be turning into creepy clowns or crazy circus acts, but that didn’t reassure her in the least. Her heart was beating right out of her chest. What kind of ghost was powerful enough to do all this? There was more to come, she was sure.

Then she caught sight of Dani, who was frozen in place, eyes wide. She stamped down the instinct to cower away from all this.

She grabbed Dani by the arm, and the girl jumped slightly.

“Forget about subtlety. We need to get to Danny now. I’m sure this has to have something to do with him. We’ll split up. I’ll fly around with my ectoscanners and you with Cujo. We’ll give the other a call if we find something.”

Valerie watched as the halfa’s expression shifted from shocked to determined. She shielded her eyes from the bright light that accompanied the halfa’s transformation. Danny’s had looked exactly the same, except in reverse.

She wondered if she would ever get used to it.

Dani called her dog over to her side and they took off, leaving Valerie to thank whoever that the girl was as brave as her ‘cousin’. She summoned her suit and took off in the opposite direction, parallel to the red line, her head whipping around as she used her ectoscanner to find the signature she knew so well.

She flew around and around for a few minutes, swallowing hard at the strange landscape. Giant circus tents and carnival rides stood in the place of the city’s high rises and other structures. People ran out onto the streets, their panicked screams filling the air.

Maybe if they’d been faster they could’ve helped Danny stop this.

She spotted a clown chasing a couple of kids into an alley and flew down to their defense.

Its face seemed to be fixed in a permanent smile; the only response to her arrival was a honk of its nose and a shift of its eyes.

From above, she summoned an ectogun, turning up the power and hoping that it worked on creepy clowns. It took a step forward, but she hesitated. What if it wasn’t evil? What if it was being controlled? What if it was a person? If anything, the past few days have opened her eyes to a world where not all ghosts were evil.

Another step closer to the two.

The gun hummed in her hands, ready to fire.

“Stop! I don’t want to—“

It ignored her and charged at the kids, a mad gleam in its eyes.

She hoped trusting her instincts wouldn’t lead her back to her bad habits.

Her finger was on the trigger, but another red light appeared on the horizon, turning everything back to normal.

Despite wanting to flinch as the red reached her, she took a shot at the clown that was still advancing on the kids.

As the light washed over them, the clown turned to a mannequin that clattered to the ground when her ectoblast hit it.

She took off without a word, too distracted by the knowledge that Danny had somehow found a way to reverse whatever had happened. It had to have been him, she was sure of it.

She flew around again, still reeling from the abrupt changes.

She spotted Dani sitting on the edge of a roof with Cujo by her side.

“Why do I get the feeling we’re not going to find him?”

Dani shrugged. “Cujo found the rooftop he was last on, it was near the convention, but it seems like he just vanished after that.”

Valerie sighed and sat down next to her friends.

“I’m tired.”

Dani leaned back on her palms and looked up at the sky.

After some silence, she whispered, “Me, too.”

Valerie worried her lower lip. She wondered what she was going to say to Danny when she saw him next. What could she even say except ‘sorry’? But that didn’t even begin to cut it.

She looked up at the stars, too, and wondered if Danny could see them.

——

Star: which outfit do you think i should wear to the concert? A or B

Star: *sent two photos*

Val: B for sure

Val: but why ask me? wouldn’t you rather ask a certain Latina

Star: Val, i might sit with Paulina during the concert, but it’s you who im gonna hang out with after

Star: besides you said you’d be late to the whole thing anyway

Valerie sighed and stuffed her phone back in her pocket.

Something suddenly stirred within her. She looked around and, sure enough, the ghost boy was flying overhead. He whooped and made loop-de-loops in the air as he went, screaming something about summer that she didn’t really pay any mind to.

Valerie cracked her knuckles and summoned her suit.

A/N: I’m disregarding the order of the episodes so D-Stabilized happens before Reality Trip. I really liked this prompt and I loved writing this. Thanks for having me, Phic Phight.

#my writing #team ghost #reality trip #halfaqueen #seeminglynoticeable #valerie gray #dani phantom #danny phantom #my stuff #phic phight #phic phight 2020 #cujo

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pitch-pearl-void · 7 years ago

Note

There's a lot of possessive and/or protective Phantom stories, so how about a possessive and/or protective Danny? Say, Paulina gets a little bit too clingy for her own good? And, You've probably been hearing this exact same sentence all the time, but I do love your writing. :)

I don’t hear it sooften that I’m tired of hearing it ;)

Danny was nearing his breaking point. Phantom could feel thefrayed edges at night when Danny held him a little tighter, see it wheneverblue eyes glared at their old crush, and hear it every time Danny greeted himafter school. There was only so much their human half could take, and asPaulina threw her arms around Phantom’sneck after a ghost attack at a football game, as she kissed his cheek in frontof a cheering crowd, Phantom watched the last straw snap the remainder of Danny’srestraint.

Phantom tensed, bracing himself.He grabbed Paulina’s shoulders and gently pushed her away. As many times asthey had done this same dance before, Paulina backed away with only minimalprotest, meeting Phantom’s apologetic smile with a bright-eyed grin of her own.It reminded him why they had crushed on her in the first place, but the beautyin her eyes didn’t stop his own from finding their way back to Danny’s.

He’d beenanticipating this, awaiting the inevitable outcome the moment Dannysuggested they keep their relationship secret. He knew Danny couldn’t handlePaulina and the other fans trying to win Phantom over any more than Phantomcould have handled the situation if it had been reversed.

The only thing he didn’tknow was how Danny was going to react.

Before he could determine more than that the intense look inDanny’s eyes was more resolute than aggressive,Dash hauled Phantom into a fierce hug that would have choked the air out of hislungs if there had been any to begin with. Kwan did the same, throwing his armsaround Dash and Phantom. Their pads thumped and creaked against each other andmade the hug even more awkward than it would usually be, the edges diggingpainfully into Phantom’s skin.

They cried and babbled their thanks and said Phantom was thecoolest for saving their butts, and to Phantom’shorror, he saw the rest of the football team closing in on them. Quickly, heevaporated out of Dash’s and Kwan’s arms and re-materialized several feet away,hands held up to ward them off.

With his attention on the football players, a second cheerleader tackled him from behind. He didn’t know who it was, didn’t recognize thevoice squealing his name in his ear, but the arms wrapped around his shoulderssqueezed him uncomfortably against her chest. He phased through her arms as easilyas he had through Dash and Kwan before frowning in disapproval at thegirl—Ashley. She grinned back at him, wide-eyed and grinning and completelyunrepentant.

Phantom looked around for Danny, but with the cheerleaders andthe football players beginning to crowd him, spotting one human teenager ina crowd of many wasn’t easy.There were students climbing down from the stands and rival football playersinching closer in curiosity, only enlarging the crowd. He could leave, andusually he would after defeating a ghost for just this reason, but he couldn’tleave without the Fenton Thermos Danny had used to capture Desiree.

He turned intangible and floated out of the circle they wereclosing around him, but the humans followed. Scowling, Phantom turned invisibletoo, but the moment his feet touched the turf and he regained visibility,someone shouted, and he was surrounded again. He yelled at them to give him alittle space, what the hell guys, but they were too busy cheering his name tolisten.

Hands squeezed his shoulder, patted his back, shouts of good joband you’re amazingechoing in his ears. A few hands missed entirely and ran themselves through hishair. Paulina appeared at his side again and looped her arm around Phantom’s,grinning up at him and then at the crowd around them. He tried to pull his armfree, but Paulina held on tighter, hugging his arm to her chest.

That was Phantom’s ownbreaking point.

He phased his arm free, knelt on one knee, crossed his arms overhis chest, and summoned a dome of ecto-energy around him. The closest teenagersbent forward and touched the glowing shield, but the dome stopped their hands from reaching him as well as any glass. Phantom sighedin relief. He stood slowly and moved his arms outward, allowing the shield tospread and push against the humans surrounding him. It shoved them away, causingPaulina and several others to cry out in surprise or protest as they wereforced to stumble backwards, but Phantom didn’t stop until he could stand tallwith his arms outstretched.

Once done, he scowled at the stunned faces of his one-time peersand folded his arms over his chest. The stunned silence didn’t last for longer than a second beforethey cheered louder than before. As if Phantom had just performed a neat trick.He rolled his eyes. He was about to say something when another hush fell overthe crowd. He felt a ripple, a disturbance in his shield, and he spun around.The familiar blue eyes of his human half stared back at him, and Phantom felthimself relaxing before he noticed Danny’s hands and one leg pushing throughhis shield.

Danny stepped the rest of the way inside, and Phantom raised aneyebrow, his arms falling to his sides. Perhaps he should have seen thatcoming. They were once the same person, so the energy from his core likely didn’t see Danny as—

Danny surged forward, hands reaching, cupping the back ofPhantom’s head.Danny tilted his own to the side right before his lips sealed over Phantom’s.Phantom froze, his eyes wide. Gasps and shocked cries echoed around them,reminding Phantom that they weren’t alone, everyone could see them, Danny waskissing him whereeveryone could see them. He had hoped Danny would do something inthe end, but he hadn’t quiteexpected this, not in front of everyone, not—oh gees, they were probably on thejumbotron.

It wasn’t untilPhantom felt the pressure on his lips easing, the shift in Danny’s weight thatmeant he was about to pull away from Phantom because he wasn’t responding, that he snapped out of it.

He looped his arms around Danny’swaist and pulled Danny to him, pressing them together from chest to hip. Heclosed his eyes, softened his lips against Danny’s, and lifted his chin intothe kiss so that Danny’s head moved backwards, his neck to arching. Dannyfollowed the motion and then surged forward in return. He pushed into Phantomwith his body and parted his lips, touching the crease of Phantom’s with histongue. It was a hint, and Phantom gladly opened his mouth to Danny, turningthe kiss into a messy exchange as they moved against each other.

The outraged whispers that had started up when Danny firstkissed him were silenced by Phantom’s response.If Phantom hadn’t been so consumed with the taste of Danny on his tongue, ofblinking his eyes open every now and then just to catch a blurry image of blueeyes fluttering open in turn, he might have peaked at the crowd to see theirreactions. He was sure Danny would, was hoping to catch him at it, in fact. Hecould just imagine Danny half-opening his eyes as his head moved back from theforce of Phantom’s kiss, imagine him glancing at the crowd, maybe meetingPaulina’s horrified gaze, and the mental image alone pulled a moan fromPhantom.

He felt Danny’s laughteragainst his chest and in the puffs of air breathed into his mouth, and it madehis own want to bubble out. But the sexual appeal of Danny acting possessive ofPhantom in front of all his fans, of Danny showing that he was the only one Phantom allowedthrough the shield, that he and notPaulina or anyone else could touch Phantom without the ghost phasing through them, couldn’t be denied.He melted against his other half, arching into his touch as Danny’s hands slidfrom his hair down his chest.

Unfortunately, there was only so long the stunned silence wouldlet him and Danny get away with so much PDA on school grounds, and as thewhispers started back up, Phantom realized their time was almost up. He startedto withdraw from the kiss, and Danny did the same. Their eyes opened at thesame time. Loud voices joined the whispers, and Phantom didn’t know who started it, but soon they wereboth grinning at each other, Phantom’s identical feelings of mischief anddelight shinning in Danny’s eyes.

There was only one thing left to do, and they couldn’t do it here, but they could imply it.

Phantom leaned his forehead against Danny’s. “You’re going to be in so much trouble come Monday,” he whispered.

Danny’s eyescrinkled as his grin grew. “Worth it.”

Phantom laughed. Paulina pounded on the glass-like dome andshouted at Danny to get away from the Ghost Boy. Feeling puckish, Danny insteadstood on his tip toes and kissed Phantom’snose. Phantom laughed again as Paulina cried out in outrage and the studentsaround them buzzed.

“So much trouble,” Phantom chuckled.

“Just get usout of here.” Danny settled back on his heels and nuzzled his way beneathPhantom’s jaw, lips moving over his throat. Phantom released a quiet sound andlifted his chin. “I’m not done with you yet…”

Phantom grinned. In the next second, him, Danny, and the shielddisappeared, leaving the fans to gasp and begin a panicked search for theirmissing hero. They wouldn’t find him or even see him,not for a while, and when he reappeared the next day, there would be suspiciousyellow-green bruises just above his collar. Some might notice he made aconscious effort to float rather than put weight on his legs, but they would bepointedly ignored.

If Danny Phantom had to take a loser for a boyfriend, he would at least top him, and to hell with that self-satisfied grin on Fenton’s face whenever someone asked him about it.

(Rewrite of Half-Time)

#Danny Phantom #Danny Fenton #Pitch Pearl #I wrote THREE drabbles for this one prompt #that's how much I struggled to make him possessive without making myself uncomfortable #I prefer possessive behavior to be a bedroom turn on but I didn't want to write Danny grumbling about Paulina #while getting it on #he's still not that possessive but screw it #I succeeded! I'm Pleased!#fanfiction #writing trance #NOW I'M OFF TO WATCH THE ECLIPSE BYE

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monotype-on-phantom · 7 years ago

Text

Have Some Star and Kwan Headcanons

Since they’re two of my favorite background/side characters, I do actually have quite a few headcanons for them. Since I just posted both of their analyses, I figured this was a good chance to share them.

Star:

Star is basically the queen of gossip in Casper High. She knows everything that circulates about everyone, and she knows the entire student body by name and social status. While she does participate in gossip, she’s also capable of crushing it. If she likes you, she can silence any rumors about you. If she has a grudge against you, though...

Her best subject is math, though she’s good with English, too. Out of all the popular kids, she has the best grades. She often helps Paulina with subjects she struggles in.

She’s one of those people who have several best friends. Two of them are Valerie and Paulina.

This one’s not an original headcanon, but I can totally see her running the school newspaper. With how much she knows about the students and how smart she is, it’s a great fit for her. She’s also on the student council and the debate team.

She’s actively working towards a scholarship and is interested in journalism. Her backup plan is meteorology, which she partly enjoys because she believes the world needs a meteorologist named Star.

She also enjoys photography, though that’s more of a side interest, and she and Sam were both in the photography club together in middle school.

She wasn’t always very high on the food chain. She was never considered a nerd or anything, but she was more of an average kid in her earlier school years. She put a lot of work into getting where she is because she knows the street cred will make her school career easy for her, but she doesn’t really care all that much what others think of her.

Initially, she thinks Paulina’s crush on the ghost boy is insane and is worried for her friend, but she’s supportive of her and helps her out with her research because it’s much easier to watch out for her when they’re together.

Star is actually very knowledgeable about social issues and politics, as she believes it’s important for a future reporter to stay up to date on these things. She knows how to keep her articles unbiased, but she’s actually got very strong opinions on these subjects. As an example, she’s actually very pro-LGBT+ and puts a lot of effort into making sure her school is educated about subjects like that. It’s partially thanks to her that there isn’t really any bullying issues specifically related to being LGBT+. She’d make sure those responsible were never heard from again if there were.

Kwan:

His and Dash’s fathers went to college together, and now they live next door to one another. As a result, the two of them grew up together.

While Kwan does enjoy playing football, he’s not as passionate about sports as Dash. He’s mostly involved because Dash is and because their fathers were.

He loves trying new things and has been involved in various clubs and sports since he was little. One of his favorites was learning to play clarinet, but he couldn’t join band in high school because that was deemed “uncool.” He’s actually pretty sad about it, but he tries to stay optimistic and enjoy playing football with his friends instead.

There is not a single person that Kwan knows that he could honestly say he dislikes. He really thinks everyone’s pretty cool and loves getting to know people and finding out what their interests are.

Unlike Star, he is completely oblivious to school gossip. He’s just not especially interested in talking about other people. He prefers to talk to people. After they start dating, Star does her best to keep him out of her gossip circles, because he deserves to stay pure.

Though he was born in the States, both of his parents were born in Hong Kong. He and his parents go to Hong Kong every summer vacation to visit family. While they usually all speak English, he can speak fluent Cantonese.

He likes bringing back souvenirs from Hong Kong for people he’s enjoyed interacting with, even if they’re not really friends. Sam and Tucker were both surprised when he brought them each something at the start of sophomore year, and even more surprised when they turned out to be things they actually liked. (He also bonded a bit with Sam over their shared Asian heritage.)

When he gets older, he stays in contact with Dash since they’re childhood friends, but he decides to keep some distance between them because when he has a family, he doesn’t want his kids ending up in the same position as him, where they do things just because it’s what everyone around them did.

Kwan’s the type of person who would absolutely say yes to any person who asked him out, even if he wasn’t actually interested in dating them. He thinks dates are a great way to get to know people, so as long as there are no strings attached, he’ll gladly spend time with anyone.

He refuses to eat burned food, including meat that he feels is too charred. He’s convinced it’s unhealthy.

I absolutely believe he does charity work. He likes trying new things and helping people, and it gives him a sense of accomplishment. Once he started, he couldn’t stop.

He doesn’t know what he wants to do when he’s an adult career-wise, but he really wants to be a father.

He’s actually great with kids and sometimes babysits for family and family friends for some extra cash (though he’s cool with doing it for free, too.)

#star andersson #kwan #danny phantom #cast #background characters

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