#danny and Valerie's relationship actually means everything to me........

[quadrantadvisor]

The Last Time Valerie and Phantom Called a Truce, mostly notes with some prose, 2,302 words

Not many people visited the GIW building at the outskirts of town. Residents of Amity Park were vaguely unsettled, that a government facility could appear in their little corner of Illinois seemingly overnight, but it was out of the way, unobtrusive to the town, and arguably, mostly, hopefully, harmless. So it was unlikely that, on that particular night, anyone would have been outside the building, watching the goings on that occurred. If anyone had been, however, they would have seen something exceedingly strange. The building lit up, red and green alarms blaring, but its automatic ghost shield never activating. Behind the tinted windows (what kind of building has tinted windows?) the vague forms of agents could be seen scurrying from place to place, not with their usual posture and air of dignity, but crouched low, panic clear in the motions. Suddenly, one of the windows would shatter, glass bursting outwards in the wake of several shots of pink plasma, followed by a familiar figure. One of Amity's local ghost hunters, clad in red, would shoot out of the window, hoverboard whistling at the speed. The absolute strangest thing, the thing that no passerby would be quite able to reconcile with what they thought they knew of Amity's ghost and hunter populations, and their relations to each other, would be the figure in her arms. Black and white and green, green smearing the sky, trailing her hoverboard, staining the front of her suit with its toxic, glowing aura. The Red Huntress, seemingly rescuing Phantom from the GIW's facility? Valerie herself was having trouble believing it.

More under the cut:

Sure, for the last few months she was more likely to fight with Phantom than against him. They had an understanding, of sorts, that outside threats needed to be dealt with first. Valerie couldn't claim to understand Phantom and his motivations more than she did any other ghost, but she could acknowledge, now, that, whatever his reasons, he really did want to keep violent ghosts out of Amity. Only a stupid hunter would be willing to give up an asset during a fight, and Valerie wasn't stupid (unlike, say, the Fentons). More often than not, Phantom would end up trapping the rampaging spirit in his stolen Fenton tech. Sometimes Valerie would tell herself that it would be stupid to end up releasing the ghost after all of that work, so she'd let him fly off to- to do whatever it was that he did with the ghosts that he caught. Sometimes, he would make some dumb quip at her, and she'd blast at him, and he'd laugh before hightailing away (seemingly at higher speeds all the time,) and she'd track him on her scanner until he mysteriously disappeared. Recently, her shots tended to go wide. It seemed somehow uncool to shoot a guy directly after trusting him to watch her back, even if he was already dead. Though, she couldn't afford to let him think she was going soft, either.

-valerie breaks phantom out from giw

-phantom: hi

-valerie: hi

-Phantom is just trying to figure out if being dissected is still on the schedule for the day and Valerie is feeling vaguely sick at the insinuation that she'd be involved in that

-He is loosing so much ectoplasm and she's like hey are you gonna be like, okay? Do you need anything????? And he's like "you got a first aid kit?"

-she does in fact have a first aid kit and fuck it it's not like phantom doesn't know who she is so she takes him to her house

-they fly in through the window

-they get the top half of his suit off (Valerie probably had to do it, and she hadn't even thought that the suit could separate from his body, let alone that it would have a zipper) and anyways he has an extremely human like torso with extremely human like musculature which is all basically on display because of the very corpse like y-cut he's sporting)

-danny's like well that doesn't look great, you've got sterile thread right? I definitely have to stitch this. And she's arguing with him because obviously he can't do it, he can barely move his arms!

-and then her dad calls out, phantom fucking FREEZES, she's never really seen him scared like this, he's always more of a fight or flight guy but she realizes that this time he can't, he hadn't looked at all scared when he'd been asking her if she was taking him somewhere to be cut open in a lab but she tells him "don't worry it's just my dad" and he looks at her like that's /worse/

-(Danny has parental trauma is all I'm getting at like the idea of someone his parents have worked with before bringing him to them is fucking horrifying in a way that being dissected by the government isn't)

-Meanwhile Val is like "hi Daddy good thing you're here you're better at stitches than I am"

-Damon has to just. Take this in for a second.

-(how does Valerie's dad talk) "good lord kid! Valerie, get the antiseptic"

-they get to work on him, mostly Damon with val as assistant, handing him things etc. Danny is in a lot of pain and he's trying not to freak out but he finally asks "you're not going to tell the Fentons about this, are you?"

-Damon (sharply): did the Fentons do this to you?

-Danny just flinches

-Val: it was the GIW

-damon: so what do the Fentons have to do with this?

-danny: you've, uh, you've worked with them before, is all?

-val: you've never seemed scared of the Fentons before?

-danny: yeah, when I was flying under my own power. I'm pretty difficult to catch, but they have made some... /creative/ threats about what they'll do if they ever get me in their lab.

-val: *gestures to all of him*

-danny: the GIW are a depersonalized government agency. They don't care that much about what goes on in this town, most of them are just collecting a paycheck. The Fentons /hate/ me.

-this is a sobering thought and an upsetting reaction for him to have had directly after being cut open. He's thinking about what would be /worse/.

-Damon: you'll be safe here. You just rest up.

-he has not directly addressed the question.

-phantom just nods and closes his eyes.

-outside of the room Damon is like: Valerie did you break into a government compound

-val (winces): maybe?

-damon: *sighs* I'm so glad your identity is still mostly secret. I've got half a mind to make you stop going out at all! What if those government wack jobs try to arrest you! Or /attack/ you! You said your new suit has an ectosignature, didn't you? They could claim you're a ghost!

-this has never occurred to Valerie before. Sudden flash of Phantom, strapped to an operating table, all but gutted, but this time the blood is red, it's hers.

-Damon: *hands on her shoulders* I don't mean to scare you, honey, you've been through a lot today. And I know that this was a big step for you.

-val: what do you mean?

-damon: ...clearly you and phantom haven't really been... enemies for a while now. I've seen you two on the news, you fight really well together. But I know that letting him help you fight other ghosts and actually doing something incredibly ill-advised and dangerous to save him are two very different things. Do you know what changed?

-val: *shakes he head* I've been kind of trying not to think about it. You're right, today has been... a lot. I... can we talk about this later? I'm so tired.

-damon: *kisses her forehead* of course, sweetie.

-val might hug him here, just to like, hold him for a moment. He's a pretty good dad.

-Danny is in her room. Do they just like leave him on the floor? I think they must I can't imagine either of them moving him onto the bed, Valerie because she's not there yet and Damon mostly because the kid seems intimidated by him.

-damon goes back into Val's room to get her bed dressings to set up the couch. He takes the blanket, sheet, and a pillow to val, but he gives the second pillow to Danny. (Hopefully I don't do Damon perspective so I don't have to decide how that goes down ajdmfkdlsbdj)

-(god I think Val's room is carpeted Danny is just laying in sticky ectoplasm carpet fibres gross)

-val has trouble at first because her head is just spinning but once she gets there she sleeps like the dead (lol)

-Val is upset that she could've hurt him this badly before and now she feels like a hypocrite because she still hasn't forgiven him and maybe her from before was right and he's just a ghost and she shouldn't be feeling sorry for him at all but even thinking that makes her feel like a monster etc etc etc

-dream sequence?

-Okay in the morning we have

-damon: how are you doing phantom? Or do you prefer Danny?

-danny: uh, either is fine. I guess I usually go with Phantom. Keeps things less confusing, since I'm not the only Danny in town.

-he's sitting up and he rubs the back of his neck, and when he chuckles he winces and curls in on himself, but he's obviously much better than last night

-val: can you use your powers now? Didn't seem like they were working yesterday.

-he holds up a hand and his face screws up and after a moment the hand disappears. He's near panting with the effort and pain

-danny: yeah, they injected my core with something but it seems like it's wearing off

-"Core?"

-"oh, uh, it's like- there isn't really a clear equivalent in the human body. I guess you could say it's the only organ that ghosts really /have/. It's what determines our form and self and, well, everything. Without it we're just so much ectoplasm. I don't know what they put in mine, but it didn't try to destabilize me or anything, so that's good. It was more like it stabilized me /more/, or put my body in some kind of stasis. It kept me pretty still, and docile, and probably most importantly, tangible. Can't exactly examine something you can't touch. Though, I think that the Fentons just use phase proof tools, which seems simpler to me, but what do I know."

-Haha anyways

-Damon: do painkillers work on you? We've got ibuprofen.

-Danny:... Yeesssssssss?

-Damon: *raises an eyebrow* I'm not giving it to you if you don't know what it does to you.

-danny: no, I mean yes, I can take painkillers and they help. I just- I thought it might be a trick question?

-damon: well we already used disinfectant and stitches and bandages on you, and that all worked like normal. I don't think it's that strange.

-danny: aw man, I should've told you not to bother with the disinfectant. Sorry about that, I hope it wasn't too much, I was really out of it last night. Ectoplasm naturally burns out bacteria, I can't really get human infections.

-(I've been writing Danny as too articulate for this scene, gotta remember to make him have a rough time.)

-val: so if your body is ectoplasm and your organs are fake then how do painkillers help you?

-danny: uh. I dunno?

-damon makes breakfast, and that's probably when val stays behind to call truce

"I'm done shooting at you," she said. "...Huh?" was all the reply she got. He seemed worn out now, vacant, hardly conscious. She wanted to look at him, to see how he was taking it, but she couldn't bring herself to. "It wouldn't make sense, after this. Unless you start menacing the town again, or whatever, I'm done." She stared down at her hands, gripping each other. "Oh. Huh." His voice was lighter, and even though it was clearly an effort for him just to talk she could somehow hear the smile in his tone. "So, truce?" She scoffed, and it broke some tension within her, but she didn't feel better for it. Her shoulders curled in towards each other. "I'm informing you that I'm not gonna hunt you anymore. It's not a truce if you never started the fights."

-val: you ruined my life

-danny: I know.

-val: you won't even apologize?

-danny: do you actually want me to? would it help? I could tell you what happened and why, but you don't want to hear me excuse it. you got hurt, and it sucks. for what it's worth, i really am sorry. does that help?

-val: no.

-except that after all this, maybe it does, just a little

-damon insists that they move phantom and they bring him out to the living room and sit him between the couch and the coffee table. Damon sets up breakfast there and they all eat together. It is exceedingly weird. I think Damon also starts calling him Danny. Val hates that.

-at some point maybe Damon helps Danny clean himself up (my poor boy)

-(i think that Danny's body can slowly absorb excess ectoplasm but if it dries it's a lost cause)

-also getting dried ectoplasm out of anything fucking sucks, Danny feels so bad about Val's carpet

-eventually Danny is like crap what time is it what /day/ is it I legitimately have to leave

-kid you can barely use your powers right now you sure about this?

-he's sure

-danny and Valerie say bye

-danny: well this has been...

-val: really, really weird?

-danny: yeah. But kind of nice, too. Um. Thank you. Thank you for /everything/.

-Val: get out of my house.