#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.

[the-scarecrow-of-aus]

(Don't you love it when tumblr posts something that's meant to be saved)

"Sure I know her, we hung out at a few winter solstice festivals a while back, we even tried dating, of course that was before her dad and his cultists tried to gatecrash it and sell her to me as a bride. ...it really killed the mood for the rest of that last festival though".

Batmans eyes snapped to dannys face looking concerned "you met trigon? What exactly did he want from you to offer his daughter?" Danny shrugged before counting off on his fingers "Everything I could have given him basically. the ghost kings army, a physical body capable of anchoring him in reality and containing his power, access to the infinite realms... I didn't actually help him in the end if that's your concern?"

"What's the ghost kings army?" Whispered spoiler to nightwing who shrugged in reply "uh, the army of a ghostly king?" The fairies had settled on nightwings head and shoulders and were examining his costume. "Nightwing! Please be careful, those fairies are related to the cobbler elves from the fable. Unless you want to be unable to stop dancing in your old disco-wing outfit, politely decline any costume designs they suggest out of hand".

Nightwing startled stared closer at the fairies, one of them had pulled out a small measuring tape and was measuring his bodies dimensions while muttering to another one. "Huh, cool! Wait, you remember the disco-wing suit? Nobody remembers that!" "We try not to" giggled spoiler.

"My sister does, she's been secretly fangirling over you since Haley's circus. I visited her at gotham U a while back and spotted the disco-wing body pillow in her wardrobe- uh, spoiler please don't tickle Val too much, she might bite you out of sheer vindictiveness". Danny's attention switched to spoiler as nightwing and batman froze from his words.

Spoiler jumped and stopped petting the salamander "Sorry! Didn't mean to upset her". Danny smiled "oh its not that, she's just unhappy she's stuck in that form. My ex got infected with an extra dimensional parasite and to stop it from harming her and others I had to turn her into a cold blooded reptile to starve it out!"

Danny picked the salamander up and petted her gently "Valerie can't see very well and your costume is similar to the person who infected her so she might think you were vlad coming to mock her"

Constantine was grinning as he spoke up "so you turned your ex into an animal, huh, I didn't think you would have as much misfortune in your relationships as me!" Danny stared at constantine annoyed "I don't, unlike you and anyone around you. the fenton luck only affects me, i get on well with all my ex's 'and' I make sure to shield them from harm. Also my choice was turn her into a 'reptile'" danny stressed the word "or she turns into a flesh eating ghoul loose on the world. Besides, it's only one more week before her checkup then she's human again and back to bounty hunting!"

Danny turned to batman still watching him "now, since we've moved past the whole 'whose the better occultist' you mind telling me what the situation is that requires the bats on my doorstep and knowing about me?"

Batman didn't blink as he stated slowly "you know nightwings identity?" Danny cocked an eyebrow and gave his best legally blonde impersonation "what, like it's hard? If it helps nobody else will figure it out the same way. Jazz thought he had a cute butt when she saw him perform then proceeded to play 'match the butts' when he was robin. I personally put a seal on the dead so nobody would speak your identities without permission of their king. Now, again. what did you need help with?"

Constantine coughed and shuffled before speaking "uh, I um discovered recently that the demons I had contracts with sold them to someone unknown, I have to go find out who has them before something bad might happen".

"Uh huh, is that all or can you get out of my office?" Danny turned to a glowing filing cabinet and started rooting around in it. "What? No, oh no not constantine, life is cruel' or are you a 'ha, suffer hellblazer, actions have consequences!'"

"Neither, I learnt my lessons when I was younger, I'm a 'deal with this now before it's a problem later' kind of person, here. Get out of my office" danny dumped a pile of contracts on the desk "93% total contracts on a one John 'hellblzer' Constantine. 5% belongs to the ghost king and is untradable, any further attempts to sell your soul or first-born will summon a skeleton who will observe the situation then smack you in the back of the head. You're welcome"

Constantine looked stumped at the pile of contracts, you bought them from the demons? Why?"

"Bought? Those idiots can't play poker without cheating and I'm better at it. They also got sloppy when I put the crown up as prize, told them the crowns not worth fractions of a mortals soul" danny winked at spoiler "I got three magic swords, two powerful grimoires and atrocitus's stolen red power battery which I'm using to power the sun in my living room!"

"Now if you'll excuse me I have a client coming in soon who wants to talk to her departed husband, Nestor really want to tell Minnie about his time in the afterlife"

Danny shuffled them out of his office and towards the front door, nightwing put up a hand and asked as danny got them outside his door "uh what happened with trigon, he didn't just accept a no did he?"

"No, but when he threatened to blow up the festival I willingly took him to the sarcophagus of eternal sleep and gave him the key... then I pushed him into it and locked it again, now pariahs got a room mate"

"Ta ta!" Was the last thing said as danny closed the door

-

(Danny's definitely investing in a peep-hole for the front door and taking a page from madame xanadu)

Bonus: how danny treats pariah (and now also trigon) in the sarcophagus of eternal sleep.

"Oh, fuck no." The door is slammed, unfortunately for him, the guy stuck his foot in the jamb and pushed it open again.

"C'mon luv!" Constantine smiles charmingly, not waiting for Danny and entering the apartment.

At least Batman, Nightwing and Spoiler had the patience to wait for him to invite them in. Sagging against the door, he beckoned them inside.

Despite the caution, Spoiler gleefully stepped in, looking around like a child in an amusement park— which might not be too far off.

His apartment is, with all its wards and enchantments, very magical inside than it is outside.

The planetary system of another world, used as light for the living room and for practice.

(Nightwing is careful with what he touches. He still remembers the hours they spent in Mumbo Jumbo's hat.)

Batman on the other hand is following Constantine and Danny to what he assumes to be the office, if the amount of magical stuff carelessly laying around means anything.

"Alright fucker, what are you doing here? And how did you even know I live in gotham?"

John had the audacity to look abashed, scratching the back of his head with a nervous chuckle.

"Something came up and you know Gotham doesn't like me. She is much more used to you and I wanted to introduce bats to you, in case of emergency."

The young adolence stares owlishly.

(How did Constantine expect him to act at the fact that he's trusting a magical situation into the hands of a stranger?

Batman isn't sure how good the boy even is!)

"That's incredible thoughtful of you Connie." Danny hums. "What did you lose for your sorry ass to come here?"

Spoiler snorts, petting a red salamander. "He didn't lose anything." She reassures with a wave, giving an exaggerated smile and raising her brows to show that she's finding it very amusing.

Constantine sputters.

"Ancient knows how Zatanna and Raven deal with him."

Nighteing perks up from the side where he'd looked over the books, some pixie fairies(?) fawning over him? "Raven? You know her?"

Danny suppresses another sigh.

[dannyphantom-justiceleauge]

This may be a minor gripe but something that has kind of bothered me about discussions and depictions of Dan is how often people seem to forget that Dan isn't just an older evil Danny, he's a combination of Danny and Vlad's ghost sides. Like people always talk about him like Danny threw away his humanity and turned evil but that's not even true. Sure, we can say that Dan is the result of Danny's action but that's a little unfair. (1/2)

(2/2) Him cheating on a test, coincidentally putting his loved one's in a position where they could be killed, is absolutely not his fault. Letting Vlad take away his ghost powers with a strange contraption might not have been the smartest move, but we are talking about a grieving CHILD here, of course he isn't going to make the best decisions. If anything Vlad's the one to blame here, and even then, it's not like he could predict what happened

---

you aren't wrong, my friend. it really isn't entirely danny's fault and the whole 'if you cheat on a test, you'll loose everything you love' moral is confused at best. i think as fandom we find it more interesting to look at danny's potential evil and moral struggle with himself. so simplifying it to be dan is a worse case scenario of danny makes the conflict less abstract.

particularly because when it comes to self blame danny isn't going to go easy on himself just because it was excusable mistakes.

i think another talking point should be how danny is the target of the time assassination more than vlad is, even though vlad is part of the evil whole. you could argue that danny is the catalyst of his friends death and vlad inventing the claw things. but vlad invented the claw things. maybe because his human side survived and acted relatively harmless from then on? or maybe it's because the observants based on the available evidence recognized danny as more of a threat. i think that fits actually, for all vlad tried to be an evil mastermind, his achievements outside of terrorizing a teenager and theft isn't particularly impressive. danny was the one who got shit done. all his fights he finished one way or another and i could see how that would bleed into dan defeating everyone.

the real question is how to we fix this. ideally we could shape this idea so it's less confused, though i do honestly find the dynamic of half danny, half vlad interesting. if for not other reason. than two half ghosts make a whole. actually that's something else to be said about dan. his self-loathing is what led him to killing his human half, another negative aspect coming from danny.

i wonder if we could frame it like fusion, from su. obviously dan isn't stable or healthy, or based on love. he's most comparable to malichite. but with less internal debate. dan took the best and worst of both of them. danny's determination, danny's fighting ability, danny's anger, danny's sarcasm, vlad's anger, vlads lack of morals, vlads schemes, vlad's control. heck, vlads desire to rule the world. i don't think we ever got that from danny.

maybe if vlad was more involved in the fight with dan it could have been used as an opportunity to compare and contrast their characters. to go we're not so different you and i. danny gets to recognize that he has that dark potential. vlad gets to be humbled by the fact that what he wants isn't good for anyone, especially himself. and to be fair, we do see some of that humbling with future vlad, but none of that character growth is given to present vlad, so, really it's just another vehicle for danny angst. it also depends on what you want to do with vlad though. he's a fascinating character and could be given redemption under the right circumstances or be a character who has the opportunity for redemption but chooses not to be redeemed every time.

that fits him and makes him both a more pathetic and despicable villain. it's hard to pity someone who ignores the opportunities to heal and grow.

as for danny, he becomes far more aware of the consequences his actions, especially his selfish and cruel ones can have. because that potential was always there. he has a history of abusing his powers. perhaps for this specific incident him abusing his powers can be something less understandable than almost cheating on a test that he couldn't study for through no fault of his own. (maybe i just have flexible morals?). maybe it could be something more character relevant, like he did something particularly vlad like, maybe he set up a prank at the nasty burger to get dash but it set off the explosion that killed his family. or maybe he did something particularly cruel and manipulative. there are better catalysts than a test. either way he recognized that he should never go that far again and strive to avoid being actively cruel.

he also has the opportunity to recognize that vlad does have a human half, even the one he's fighting everyday. he can face some conflict in it's not entirely clear what trait belongs to vlad and what trait belongs to him. he can empathize with vlad and he can recognize that situations aren't always in black in white. those who fly the highest, fall the hardest, after all.

it can be a growing experience. and while making it solely a danny goes bad and learns not to do evil kind of story. maybe we could cut vlad from the equation and just have danny face himself, full evil refection. i think exploring both vlad and danny through this fusion is far more interesting. especially because we can build on what's revealed about vlad in these episodes, in later ones. danny sees a future where vlad chills and that maybe his vlad could get their. later he see vlads past and what he lost to become who he is.

and then there's vlads turning point episodes. i don't know when motherly instinct took place but maddie fully recognizing he's a bastard and rejection him, was a turning point for his sanity, and danny helped it along. then we have danny rejecting him repeatedly, then we the clone episode, which we can all agree was a desperate move on his part, that danny once again thwarted. and we can all agree that this was the cannon turning point for his character where he stopped fighting for a family and started trying to be danny's villain. in that episode, i think danny could potentially pity vlad enough to try and reach out. he's not going to justify what vlad did and he's not going to apologize for stopping him. he went too far. he hurt danny and dani, he crossed a moral line that can't be justified even with his desperation. but if he changes...

he lost this time but if he changes, maybe they'll reach the point where they're ready to accept him.

i think the same thing could be said about his relationship with jack and maddie. if he changes, if he reaches out. if acts like less of a crazy fruitloop, his friends would be there for him. jack is still trying to be there for him, even if he's being oblivious about vlad's faults. vlads the one driving wedges into his relationships and pushing everyone away.

and that's so freaking human and understandable.it would be such a cool thing to explore with his character.

i could also see a potential arc where after valerie finds out vlad and masters are the same person she tries to get close to him, both to sus out how evil he is and to understand him as a halfa. afterall danny got her to acknowledge dani as human enough, the same would apply to vlad/plasmius, right? only he's a bad person and the more she uncovers about vlad masters the man, the more she realizes it's not the ghost half that's evil. but this is a double edged sword because, vlad is getting attached to her and encouraging her to be more evil. he's encouraging her to go darker and darker in her fight against ghosts and her fight specifically against phantom. to the point where she finally draws the line and says, i'm not doing that! boom exploring the moral ambiguity of her character and getting her to take a hard stance on her morals, because there's a line too far for her.

and boom a further breakdown of vlads character because he finally had someone outside the fentons to redeem him. she could have helped pull him out of the hole he'd been digging himself into. she wanted to help him. he got attached to her, but he and his bad decisions decided to dig himself deeper instead. so once again he's 'abandoned and betrayed'.

from that point, i think it'd be time for him to finally face jack head on. not through manipulative schemes. not through veiled threats and insults. but the full confrontation of 'i always hated you. you ruined my life. you're the reason i lost everything'. which is really just his own self loathing speaking. and jack... empathetic jack can see that vlad desperately wants help. and jack would offer it to him. jack would try to hug it out and apologize and give vlad the love and friendship vlad's been fighting to steal this whole time.

and vlad would reject it.

he'd probably lash out a jack and go into a full breakdown/world destroying attack. could finally put the stolen crown to use and try declaring himself king and embracing his megalomaniac thing and actually be a threat this time. and THAT would be our series finally. everyone teaming up to fight 'king vlad'. danny probably finding out that he's technically king because he beat pariah dark but the matter being a bit confused because he had help. val and danny trying to find the ring of rage or at least find someone who can make one. secrets are out. i imagine vlad, upon revealing himself to jack would out danny to make danny as sad and alone as him. except nope, his family still loves him and val has had the character development to come around to him. (she's still gonna punch danny for lying for so long.) the ghosts will come and help because no one wants another tyrannical kind and vlads obviously off his rocker.

ah, the could have beens

anyway, i didn't mean for this to become a full vlad character analysis and rewrite when we were supposed to be talking about dan, but hey, i'm a simple creature. i like good writing, and i have to rewrite things myself, so be it. - Hestia

[ghostgothgeek]

Chaos.

Another for the Phic Phight! This one kinda combines two prompts and I had so much fun writing it! In this, Danny and Tucker don’t know Sam plays video games yet. 5,063 words.

"What do you mean you don’t feel the same way? We´ve had a mutual crush on each other for years." Sam says angrily after finally confessing her love to him. But Danny´s heart was beating hard for someone else entirely. Prompt by phantomfana. 

Danny wants to ask his crush to the upcoming school dance. Prompt by Rikaleeta.

-----

It was another long night of ghost hunting for Danny. Technus took up the first part of the night, trying to take over the park’s new security system. Tucker was fortunately still awake to help him out with that. Then Johnny and Kitty rolled in, but they weren’t looking for trouble, they just wanted a date night and swore they wouldn’t be a problem. Apparently Fridays were their days off for “everything but each other”. Danny was a romantic, but he didn’t know if this was sweet or nauseating. Ember had put up a good fight, though. He was proud he only had one injury to tend to. He had dodged most of her attacks, but she was still a pretty advanced ghost. And, of course, Danny had caught the Box Ghost six, count them, SIX times. How did he always manage to get out?! He wasn’t difficult to take down, he was just a pest. 

Danny sighed as he sat down at his computer chair. It was only 12:30 am, and it was a Friday. He could sleep in tomorrow and he deserved at least a couple hours of fun. He logged into his online gaming account and saw Tucker was online. Figures. He pulled up the chat anyway. 

Astrohaunt: Hey Tuck. Still up?

Technopedia: You know it. Chaos signed on about a half hour ago and I’m not passing up the opportunity.

Astrohaunt: Dude is so good it’s unreal!

Technopedia: He goes to our school, I tracked one of his IP addresses and he logged in at school a few times.

Astrohaunt: Tucker wtf. That’s creepy!

Technopedia: I just want to make sure Chaos is actually a kid and not Lancer again!

Astrohaunt: I still can’t wrap my mind around Lancer playing Doomed…

Technopedia: Same. But Chaos IP is different from Lancer, so we good. Unless more teachers play Doomed.

Astrohaunt: I hate you for putting that image into my brain.

Technopedia: Sorry dude. But quick come join before someone else gets Chaos.

Danny, Tucker, and Chaos had made a great team. Whenever Chaos was around, they were actually able to progress through the game. They played several rounds until Tucker was caught by his mom and was forced to sign off, but Danny and Chaos kept playing. 

TeamChaos: Hey, what’s up?

Astrohaunt: Omg dude you’re so awesome. 

TeamChaos: Ha, thanks. Gotta blow off steam somehow. 

Astrohaunt: Tell me about it! Between Lancer’s three projects and midterms and...other stuff...this is my only time to actually chill. I’ve been so stressed!

TeamChaos: Same. I did finish one of the projects though. I’m always here if you need to talk, you know. 

Astrohaunt: Wow, I may just take you up on that offer. I’ve had a rough night.

TeamChaos: Lay it on me.

And so Danny, sparing the ghost hunting details, stayed up chatting with Chaos until 5 am. He got along really well with the guy, they had a lot of similar interests. This was just the first of many up-all-night conversations they shared. After a few months, Danny felt a special connection with Chaos, and yet, he didn’t even know his name! 

Astrohaunt: We’ve been talking all these months and I still don’t know your name. I’m Danny. 

TeamChaos: Oh, thought you knew. It’s Sam!

Astrohaunt: Hey! One of my best friends is named Sam! 

TeamChaos: You don’t say!!!

The next day at school, Danny pulled Tucker over to him, whispering, “Dude, help. I think I might be gay....” 

“What?!” Tucker shouted.

“Quiet, Tuck!” 

“Okay, well uh...why?” Tucker sent him a weird look and took a step back. 

“No, not you. Chaos. I think I have a crush on Chaos.” Danny ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know what to do! I never thought I’d be...you know. Chaos and I just have good conversations and he’s always there to listen to me when I need to vent. I thought maybe I found another best friend but...this is different. Chaos is so cool and I’m crushing and I don’t even know who he is or what he looks like! Or if he feels the same way! Maybe I’m just stupid and-”

“Dude, chill. You’re jumping too far ahead of yourself. Whichever way you, you know, swing...I’m still your best friend.” Tucker pulled out his PDA. “Let me see what I can find out. I know Chaos goes to our school.”

“Thanks, Tuck. As if being half ghost wasn’t hard enough! Oh, and he’s in our class, because he’s talked me through assignments and knows what they are and stuff. He’s almost as good as explaining things as Sam. Crap...Sam. Don’t tell her about this!” Danny started fidgeting. 

“Well,” Tucker raised his eyebrows in surprise, “I can tell you with absolute certainty that Chaos is definitely a girl.” 

“You found out who Chaos is?!” 

“What, like it’s hard?” Tucker chuckled. “I traced the IP addresses she uses. I know who she is. So do you,” Tucker smirked, “It shocked me at first, but it makes total sense! And I can totally see why you like her.” 

“Really?” Danny let out a breath in relief. “Okay that makes me feel a lot better...hey, maybe I can ask Chaos to the dance next Saturday!” 

Tucker rested a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “Go for it. Ask Sam. I’m almost positive she’ll say yes.”

“Okay, I will...wait, not Sam! Chaos!” Danny clarified. “Well, actually, I think Chaos told me her name was Sam. Ha, small world. I can’t wait to introduce Sam to Sam. I think they would really get along.” 

Tucker busted out laughing, “Oh, dude. You go ahead and do that.” He left Danny standing there in the hallway, still laughing all the way to his next class.

Danny, a bit confused by Tucker’s laughter, shook his head and smiled to himself. Okay, good. He’d had enough identity crises to fill a lifetime. Chaos was definitely a girl. Now if he just knew Chaos returned his feelings, things might actually work out for him this time and he could actually have a girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Sam was having an internal debate of her own. Sitting in a class where the teacher couldn’t give two shits about what the students were doing, she had always used this class as her thinking time. Usually her thinking-about-Danny time. She nervously clicked her pen as she thought about recent events. 

She and Danny spent so much time chatting online when they weren’t hanging out in person. Danny was a little bit more bold online, probably because he didn’t have to interact face-to-face or risk his pants falling down in public again. Online, they talked about everything. No topic was off limits. Plus, Sam felt like their friendship had only grown even stronger when they could chat online and not have to worry about blushing or getting teased by Tucker. Chatting online took away all the pressure and made it much easier to connect with Danny. 

Danny hadn’t said anything yet, of course. He was probably scared. Hell, she was scared. She was already so in love with him, and getting closer online only further solidified that fact. She had never been in love before, and even though she hunts ghosts, this was more terrifying! She was fairly certain he returned her feelings, but both were too chicken to actually make that final step. They’ve been best friends forever. She didn’t want to mess up their already great dynamic or force Tucker to be the third wheel, though he did insist he was more than okay with that and encouraged them to finally get together. 

Sam stopped clicking her pen as she suddenly remembered it was senior year. They hadn’t picked colleges yet, but whether they ended up going to the same school or not, things were going to change. Danny was very attractive, and going off to college meant girls may actually approach him when they didn’t know his parents were ghost fighters. The fact had never bothered Sam, but she did kind of like how it kept most girls at school from asking him out or giving him attention. Valerie had been a challenge, especially because she was a ghost hunter herself and probably wanted to get tips from his parents. Sam was glad that relationship ended relatively early. It was too hard on her. Joyous or not, though, she was still mad at Valerie for how she broke his heart. 

But that was 2 years ago. They had all moved on and friendships were more or less mended across the board. This made Sam glance at her favorite picture of her and Danny. Tucker had taken the candid picture and it was now her phone’s background. In it, Danny was giving Sam a piggyback ride. Her arms were lightly strung around his neck, legs looped around his waist. Danny had kept going in the opposite direction Sam told him to go, which frustrated her but also made her laugh. She had rested her chin on his shoulder, her face pressed right up against his. Danny was looking at her and Tucker had captured that rare moment when Sam had a huge grin on her face, still laughing. She smiled at the picture. They would be okay no matter what. Their friendship would survive.

Anyway, Sam also realized she had already come close to losing Danny, in more ways than one. Whether it was to other girls or a ghost, there was always that anxiety stirring in her head that she could lose him entirely some day. Life was too short. She needed to take the plunge for both of them and just get them both over this hurdle, and they could finally, finally, actually get together. 

Sam made her decision. It was now or never. She was going to tell him. Today. The trio was meeting up at Danny’s house later anyway, and if she got there early enough, she could talk to him before Tucker showed up and teased them about it. Sam firmly nodded her head to herself, a confirmation of her decision. It was finally time.

After school, Danny was pacing in his room, trying to figure out how he wanted to do this. Asking a girl to the dance wasn’t a huge deal, and yet at the same time, it was. He would rather ask in person, but he still didn’t know what Chaos looked like, so asking in person seemed to be off the table. He could look in the yearbook for all the girls named Sam at their school. He could already omit one Sam Manson from that list. How many Sams could possibly attend their school? It would be easier to ask Tucker, though. Tucker already knew who she was. Sam and Tucker were on their way over right now. When Sam wasn’t paying attention, he could ask Tucker for Sam’s full name. 

Chaos Sam, not best friend Sam. God, this was so confusing. Why were girls so hard for him? Freshman year, Paulina only liked his ghost half and wouldn’t give his human half the time of day. Sophomore year, Valerie hated his ghost half and that hatred was more important to her than her feelings for his human half. Junior year, he had been denying that he was in love with his best friend. And now that he had finally accepted that he did like his best friend as much more than a friend, a new girl entered the picture and he now found himself trying to choose between two Sams. Because it apparently wasn’t hard enough for him already to make the biggest and most important change he could possibly make in a friendship, let’s add another crush to the mix and give them the same name.

Sam. Best friend Sam - that’s who he was planning on asking originally, even if he chickened out and had to ask her as a friend instead. Plus, he and Sam had somehow gotten closer recently, and he was pretty sure she liked him. Sure, it was only because Tucker told him so, but it was a possibility. The thing was, he didn’t want to ruin things. Especially because he truly didn’t know how Sam, best friend Sam, felt about him. She was a tough and courageous girl, surely she would have said something by now if it were true. So Tucker must be pulling his leg.

But he did have another option - Chaos Sam, who may actually return his feelings. Sure, the feelings weren’t nearly as strong as what he felt for his best friend, but the feelings were still there. Plus, if he got rejected by Chaos, it would be less heartbreaking than being rejected by Sam, someone he had known for years rather than months. He could deal with losing a newer friend, but not one of his best friends. Sam was too important and he knew he needed her in his life.

Danny sighed. This was really hard, but he made a decision. It was easier to go with Chaos than risk ruining things with Sam. Danny had enough drama going on in his life already, he needed an easy win. 

He broke from his thoughts when the doorbell rang. He ran downstairs and opened it, only slightly surprised to see Sam there. She was usually early for things. He and Tuck were more prone to being late. 

“Hey, Sam. Come on in!” Danny moved so Sam could enter his house. He shut the door and followed her upstairs and back to his room as she returned his greeting. She was pacing the same path he just had, muttering quietly to herself. She looked nervous. “Something on your mind?” 

Sam was startled out of her thoughts. “Huh? Oh yeah.” She noticed his disheveled appearance, also noting he was fidgety. Was he going to do what she was about to do? “What about you, you look like you’ve been thinking a little too hard about something.” She smiled softly. 

Danny chuckled, “Yeah, but it’ll resolve itself soon. I’ll worry about it after the movies. Tuck should be here any second. Oh, but I’m glad you’re early. Can you help me with something quick?” 

“Of course.” Sam followed him to his desk, smiling and rolling her eyes when he pointed to a homework problem. “I should have known.” 

Danny gave her a lopsided smile and watched as she showed him how to do the problem in her perfect handwriting. It took no more than a couple of minutes. Now, they were just waiting for Tucker to arrive. 

Sam looked at the time. He would be here soon. She needed to do this now. She needed to tell Danny. She couldn’t wait until after the movies for him to tell her. She had already waited long enough and couldn’t bear another second.

“Danny, can I talk to you for a second?” She sat down on his bed and gestured for him to do the same. 

Danny could sense the seriousness in her voice, and nodded anxiously. He was scared when Sam was serious about things. It was usually something bad.

“Danny…” She decided to get straight to the point. “I like you. As in like-like you. More than like, and more than a friend. And we’ve been doing this dancing around for at least 4 years now and I’m sick of it. I just want to be with you already. What do you say?” Sam held her breath as she waited for Danny to answer. 

He stared at her with wide eyes before nervously rubbing the back of his neck and turning his attention to his shoes, avoiding eye contact with the goth. God, why him?! He had stupidly thought, for once, things would be easier for him this time. He had already sent an offline message to Chaos that he wanted to ask her something, and then Sam had to come along and tell him what he had wanted to hear for some time now. But he couldn’t blow Chaos off when he had already somewhat asked. Of course, his life just had to be complicated every step of the way. He really liked both girls and didn’t want to hurt his best friend. Regardless, he had to be honest. He owed Sam that much. “Well, I mean, yeah, but…” 

“But what?” Sam whispered, clearly already upset. Fuck. Fuck fuck FUCK. This was exactly what he didn’t want to happen. He decided to try going with Chaos so he could avoid heartbreak from his best friend. The very thing he had been so afraid of, he was doing to her right now. 

Danny sighed again. “But I can’t. I’m so sorry, Sam.” It was hard to choke out, but he said it, and he felt terrible. He pressed his lips together and kept staring at his shoes until Sam lifted his chin up, forcing him to look at her. 

“What do you mean you don’t feel the same way? We’ve had mutual crushes on each other for years!” Sam said angrily, feeling her heart break as her best friend and love of her life rejected her confession of love. She was so sure he returned her feelings! Especially after all the great conversations they had shared online these last few months. “Or, at least, I thought we did.” Tears swelled in her eyes. Did he lead her on? “I-I need an explanation, Danny,” she quietly stated after he didn’t continue. 

Danny frowned and his heart ached. He didn’t want to hurt his best friend like this. Hell, he really liked her! Of course their crushes were mutual! And if this had happened 6 months ago instead of now, he would have jumped at the chance. But now...now he had Chaos and already forced himself to stick with his decision. It was easy with Chaos; there was no friendship to risk, no denying of being lovebirds or brushing off kisses as fakeout makeouts. Plus, he couldn’t lie to his best friend. She would know if he was lying. And he already told himself she deserved the truth. “There’s...someone else…” 

“What?” Sam whispered before turning angry again, “Paulina? Valerie? Star?” she spat out. 

Danny shook his head, “Ew, no...it’s someone I met online...I’m so sorry, Sam. I like you a lot, I really do, but I think I’ve already come to the conclusion that I like this girl I met online, Chaos, and I have to try to see that through.” 

Many emotions crossed Sam’s face as she pieced together what he just said. At first she was upset, but as he explained himself, she felt disbelief, confusion, anger, and finally, hope. He couldn’t really be that clueless, right? “Show me.” 

“Huh? I mean, I don’t actually know what she looks like, but we message every night and she really understands me! I know it sounds ridiculous, but-” 

“Show me,” Sam repeated. “Show me her profile.” 

“You’re not going to hurt her, are you?” Danny questioned cautiously.

“No, of course not. Just shut up and show me the profile.” Sam was more calm now, and that was kind of scary. Even though Sam said she wouldn’t hurt Chaos, he didn’t want to give her the chance. But he knew how stubborn his friend was, and eventually in whatever way, she would force the information out of him. 

Danny sighed and pulled up the profile to show Sam. “I’m sorry, Sam. I’m still your best frien-” 

“Shut up.” Sam scrolled through what Danny pulled up for her and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. Closing her eyes slowly, she took a deep breath. “Didn’t Chaos tell you her name?” 

“Uh,” Danny thought, “oh yeah! She said her name was Sam, because I thought she was a boy at first and I had an existential crisis, but then Tucker told me-” 

“Danny. I’m Sam.” 

“No I know, and sure it’ll be a little weird cause you’re Sam and she’s Sam, it’s confusing, but I-” 

Sam interrupted him once again. She could hear Tucker’s footsteps approaching. She was running out of time to not make this a spectacle. “No, Danny. Chaos. Sam. Me. I’m Sam. I am Sam,” 

Tucker only heard the tail end of the conversation as he entered the room. Never able to pass up a comedic opportunity, he smirked and added “I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like green eggs and ham!” 

It was suddenly silent in the room as his friends seized conversation and glared at him. Oops. 

“Oh, am I interrupting something?” Tucker could see the fire in Sam’s eyes. “Uh, oh wait I forgot my...sock. I’ll be downstairs!” He raced out of the room.

Sam turned her attention back to Danny. “No, you stupid fucking MORON. I am Chaos. You’ve been talking to me the whole time. I thought you knew that!” Danny stared at her blankly until she pulled out her phone and he watched her log into her account, proving it to him. Sure enough, it was Chaos’s profile. He could see all the direct messages between them, including his offline message about wanting to ask her something.

“Wait, you? You’re Sam? I mean, Chaos? I mean Sam?” Danny looked back and forth between the profile and his best friend. 

“UGH!” Sam shouted as she threw her hands in the air. “Yes, Danny. That’s me! Did you really not notice that Chaos was the same age as me and a girl who goes to our school? We have the same name and interests! Didn’t you wonder why it was so easy to talk right off the bat? I thought you put that all together and us just pretending to not know each other was a little bit you were trying to do or something!” 

Danny stared at her as he continued to piece it all together. He was definitely embarrassed. He felt so stupid. How could he not tell that Chaos was Sam, his best friend since 7th grade? Talk about being totally clueless. 

Wait. Clueless? Well, fuck! He got the nickname now! 

His eyes flickered back and forth as he thought everything through. Eventually, he started to crack a smile. “Wait, so I’ve had a crush on you and also you? You’re the same person! This is great! Do you know what this means?!” 

Sam slapped her forehead and began walking downstairs. “I don’t even know if this is worth it anymore…” 

“Wait, how come Tuck and I never knew you played video games! We can enter team tournaments! You’re so good!” Danny chased after her. 

Tucker watched as Sam grumbled about Danny caring more about video games than her. An excited Danny was right on her tail. 

“Tucker! Sam is Chaos! I’ve been in love with Sam this whole time!” Danny explained. 

“Tucker, I need you to refrain me from slapping his stupid clueless face,” Sam started. 

“Wait, you didn’t know Sam was Chaos? Dude! I thought I was obvious about that!” Tucker began laughing at Danny. 

“I know, so did I.” Sam crossed her arms over her chest. 

“Danny, you can calculate levels of rocket fuel and figure out how to get us to Mercury or something,” Tucker started. 

“Mars, actually,” Danny corrected. 

“But you can’t figure out that your best friend and your crush are the same person? You’re more than Captain Clueless, you’re like….Lieutenant Clueless? That’s like, bigger right?” Tucker continued. 

“I don’t think that’s how it works, Tuck,” Sam chimed in. 

“Shut up Sam, this isn’t about you,” Tucker immediately stopped his train of thought when he felt Sam glaring daggers at him. “Heh, uh. Except it does. It actually has nothing to do with me. I’m sorry I told you to shut up, please don’t hurt me!” He threw his hands up in front of himself in defense. 

“Relax, Tucker. I’m more angry with this fucking dingus,” she pointed her thumb in Danny’s direction. 

The halfa was about to protest, then closed his mouth. “That’s fair, I deserve that.” 

“I can’t even look at you right now. You scared me! I poured out my emotions to you. I thought you were rejecting me and that I would have to change my name and move to a different country! Wait, are you still rejecting me?” Sam stopped her pacing to look at him. 

“Of course not, Sammy!” 

“Oh don’t you ‘Sammy’ me! I told you I love you, you stupid fucking idiot!” Sam began throwing pillows at Danny, who expertly dodged them (though as a result, Tucker got hit in the face by one). 

“Technically, you didn’t say ‘love’ you said ‘like’”, Danny offered as Tucker shook his head and slashed finger across his neck, signaling Danny to stop talking. 

“Oh, I’m sorry! This is all my fault! I’m going to go jump off a cliff now!” Sam growled and Danny let out a small “oomph” as one of the pillows finally got him. 

“I’m out. Good luck, bro!” Tucker quickly slipped out the door, leaving Danny and Sam alone. 

Sam was about to follow Tucker out when Danny stopped her, “please don’t leave!” She still had angry tears in her eyes. He frowned. This was not how he expected things to go. She watched him for a few seconds before sitting down on the couch, refusing to look at him. “Sam I’m so sorry, this is just a huge misunderstanding.”

“No, Danny. It’s not. You were going to turn me down to go out with someone else.”

“But that someone was still you!”

“Yeah, but you didn’t know that! We’ve been friends for years, and you were more interested in someone you just met a few months ago! I don’t want to be anyone’s second choice, Danny! I’ve been standing by for years as you continuously chose other girls over me. I thought we were done with that, and that you were finally choosing me first, but you won’t and you never will and I’m so stupid.” Sam put her head in her hands as she tried her hardest not to let tears fall. 

And that was when he finally figured it out. It wasn’t just the moment of rejection, it was years of rejection, and at her biggest confession, she still thought he was choosing someone over her. Not to mention, Tucker witnessed most of the conversation. Sam rarely showed her emotions. She always had her heart guarded, and he knew this. Tucker knew this. Hell, she didn’t even tell them she was rich until after a few years of friendship. It took them a while to get her to open up to them. She was a pretty private person. She was probably already hurt like this before. And now, she was probably embarrassed.

“You’re definitely not stupid. I’m stupid. I should have known it was you. That was actually what I really liked about Chaos, she reminded me of you.” 

Sam forced a small sarcastic laugh, “Yeah, right.” 

“No really,” Danny sat on the couch next to her and grabbed her hand, placing it in both of his. “Sam, you’re absolutely incredible. How dumb would I have to be to not notice?” Sam gave him a pointed look. “Okay yeah but it’s not the way you think it is. I liked Chaos because she was a lot like you. She reminded me of you. And it just seemed easier to go with her because she was basically you, but she and I didn’t have a really great friendship that could have gotten ruined if we broke up or something. I could live without her, but I can’t live without you. You’re always my number one. Always have been, always will be. Even if I did just fuck everything up. I’m so sorry, Sam. I’m ready to be with you, if you’ll still have me.” 

Sam stayed silent and stared at her lap, processing this new information. Of course she would forgive him; she always did. She just needed a little time. 

Danny was getting nervous that he really did fuck this up for good. This was so fucking important! He couldn’t risk fucking this up! Sensing her hesitation, Danny tried one more thing to get her back. One thing he hasn’t done before. One thing he just learned how to perfect.  

“Sammy, I’m sorry,” a duplicate popped up next to her on the other side of the couch, startling her. 

“Please forgive me?” Another duplicate was floating in front of her, hanging upside down, hair flopping all over the place. 

“I know I’m a dummy but,” Sam snapped her head towards a third duplicate. 

“I’m only a dummy because I’m in love. With you,” the real Danny finished. Sam looked back and forth between all the Dannys.  

“We’re sorry, Sammy,” all the duplicates said at once. 

Sam was trying really hard to hold back a smile. “You learned how to duplicate,” she stated simply. 

Original Danny grabbed her hands. “Sam. I will make this up to you. I promise.” 

She could hear the determination in his voice and sighed. “You better.” 

Danny smiled and hugged her. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!! I love you so much!”

Sam pushed him off of her. “I love you too, you fucking idiot.” 

“But I get to be your idiot!” Sam couldn’t hold her laughter back anymore. “Oh!” Danny shouted, “Will you go to the dance with me? Please?” 

Sam pretended to ponder the answer before saying “alright”. 

“Yay!” All 4 Dannys cheered. The duplicates on either side of her kissed her cheeks as the real Danny kissed her forehead tenderly. The final duplicate, feeling left out, squeezed his way in to give her a hug. 

Sam was now roaring with laughter before kissing the real Danny sweetly. “You know, duplicates won’t always get you out of trouble,” she warned. 

“Yeah, but they could come in handy for other things,” he wagged his eyebrows up and down suggestively before passionately kissing her, the duplicates kissing her neck and touching her in near-dangerous places. 

Sam bit back a moan, eyes lustful before smirking, “I think you just found a way to make it up to me.” She began dragging the real Danny and one of his duplicates back to his room. Fuck the movies.

[threewaysdivided]

How do you feel about Pink Astronaut. Personally I feel like Paulina deserved a little better than the writers gave her.

I'm 99% sure that's the ship name for Danny x Paulina, right?

(Which probably says a lot about my engagement with the shipping side of the Phandom 😅.)

TBH I don't have any strong thoughts or feelings about it either way.

In all cases I'm a very gen-focussed fan - my interests tend run more in the direction of character psychology, non-romantic platonic/ familial relationships, lore, mystery and theme. It's a personal thing but I just don't read romantic/sexual intent/attraction into character interactions unless they're explicitly framed/intended as such and the way much of the shipping community seems to do so goes completely over my head.

Which isn't to say that I avoid all ship-fics, or that there aren't a number of noncanon ships that I enjoy across different fandoms, but for the most part I favour genfic and when I do read shipfic they tend to be the stories that focus on personality, emotional chemistry and personal/emotional compatibility. And when it comes to thinking about "ships" myself I tend to lean more towards times when characters have canonically expressed that kind of interest, the reasons why they would be compatible/ find each other attractive, how they feel about it and what it says about them.

But back to Paulina:

I think you're right - as a character she (along with basically every human character outside of the main trio, the Fenton family and sometimes Valerie) suffers massively from underdevelopment because of the show's nature as for the most part an episodic kid's superhero-comedy with an ooky-spooky gimmick. Danny Phantom the show is a place where The Status Quo is God and the Rule of Funny/Cool/Drama supersedes everything, up to and including the characters and their consistency.

(You can even see this and the obviously conflicting visions of different parts of the creative team effect the main characters too. Danny suddenly carrying the Jerk Ball in service of a generic "don't be superficial/ materialism is bad" story in Livin' Large, how Tucker is basically learning the same lesson twice across What You Want and King Tuck, the multiple times where Sam's more abrasive negative traits are used as a source of plot/conflict but are never meaningfully addressed or developed because the writers want to keep using those traits for drama and eventually to use her character as the Morally Righteous Generic Love Interest Behind Danny's Heroism... et cetera et certera et cetera.)

Literally every character in DP is done a disservice by the show's writing and Paulina runs into the same problem. She's chained to the post of a very specific narrative function/ character archetype and never intentionally developed beyond what's needed to serve the Plot/ the Joke.

She's clearly written to be the Rich Plastic Mean Girl à la Regina George, and while there is a potentially very interesting character beneath that surface appearance - which we can see in places like Parental Bonding where she shows emotional intelligence by immediately clocking that Sam is actually jealous of Danny's attraction to her, and in her "if my skin is perfect, I'll be perfect" line from My Sister's Keeper which hints at some potentially significant appearance-based self-worth issues - the show itself basically only ever uses her "Pretty Girl" and "Popular A-Lister" status as a source of surface-level character drama for the trio and as a rare plot-convenient situational ally in dire circumstances. Her actions show a consistent characterisation but it's so rudimentary that it barely clears that archetype to become its own thing.

I think if Danny Phantom had taken more structural and tonal influence from Spiderman (or even something like Disney's Kim Possible) rather than Fairly Odd Parents - still keeping things mostly light-hearted but with some extra focus on character consistency and layering some ongoing character arcs over each season - there could have been a lot of potential to develop and flesh out Paulina as a narrative foil/ ongoing rival to Sam and her own character arc. It also could have added some more meaningful non-stereotypical female character dynamics, which are disappointingly but perhaps not surprisingly lacking from a "for boys" Nicktoon headed by a man who named himself "Butch". But as it is she unfortunately falls into that No Man's Land for me, where she isn't developed enough to have much deeper canon worth investigating and isn't really thematically/narratively significant enough that I'd want to develop her myself for story purposes.

As for the Pink Astronaut ship itself, all I can say is that, at least for me, canonically it... isn't really one. At least in terms of what I personally characterise as a 'relationship'. It's stuck at a very shallow level; Danny has a superficial surface-level infatuation with Paulina because she's pretty and popular, and Paulina looks down on "geeky dork loser" Danny Fenton while having a superficial surface-level infatuation with Danny Phantom as "the cute ghost-boy who rescued her". There's no real sense of actual personal chemistry based on them knowing, appreciating or even seemingly caring to know who the other is as a character. None of their "romantic" hijinks really involve them learning anything meaningful about each other or even having a proper conversation. Paulina "dates" Fenton purely to piss off Sam, then "Paulina" shows personal interest in Danny but it turns out to actually be Kitten trying to piss off Johnny, and when she does show interest in him after the reveal in Reality Trip it's kind of obvious that it's because she's interested in dating Phantom and his secret identity wouldn't have mattered either way. And meanwhile Danny spends most of his time either too busy with ghost stuff to properly pay attention to her as a person, or he never really shows any interest or understanding beyond his fantasies about how she's very conventionally pretty (which he finds attractive/desirable) and popular (which he wants to be).

So while there's a lot of potential for people to write that ship in terms of them being two very different characters from different backgrounds who come to learn about each other as people, come to appreciate each other on a personality level and develop an actual romantic/emotional connection based on that... within the show itself that surface level is sort of where it starts and ends.

And like I said, I'm not a shipper. Even with the bigger, more canonically-substantiated ships I look for the personalities moreso than the romance.

So I don't really have any strong thoughts or feelings about it either way.

Sorry if that's not a satisfying answer.

But I do agree: like most DP characters, Paulina Sanchez has a lot more character potential than the writing allowed her.

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom 14-20 thoughts!! I finished up s1 :D these last few eps were actually really really good!!!

-did. did tucker really just say esperanto was a dead language only spoken as a secret code between geeks. google says around 100,000 people actively speak it. oh my god...it being an auxiliary language doesn't mean its 'just for geeks to speak in code' ...it helps bridge gaps between people who don't have a language in common...

-danny really isn't pulling punches when it comes to fighting the ghost-cop possessed people huh. like he SLAMMED KWAN INTO THE CONCRETE SO HARD. HE THREW PAULINA INTO A BILLBOARD. will that...I mean it WOULD carry over to their bodies non-possessed, right? like if the ghost piloting their bodies gets hurt?? itd be so upsetting to be possessed, lose time, then wake up covered in bruises (and possibly, broken bones??) real horror movie stuff im sure wont be addressed in any way

-tuckers parents seem nice! I like them :)

-WULF IS CUTE AND I FEEL BAD. im so glad the gang realized he was only causing trouble bc of the shock collar walker put on him and helped. also, him wearing that big hoodie with the hood on, and thinking its subtle. we can tell youre still a giant wolfie :) THEN GETTING SUCKED INTO THE PORTAL AAAAH :( anxiously waiting to see Him Again....

-DANNY BLASTING HIS PARENTS THINKING THEY WERE OVERSHADOWED LMFAO GET THEIR ASSES. maddie marking how many ghosts she gets with lipstick tallies on the side of her portal gun? kindaaa iconic tho. (ALSO, SHE WAS LIKE, 2 FT AWAY FROM HIM RIGHT AFTER SHE TRIED TO SHOOT HIM. HOW DO YOU NOT RECONINZE YOUR OWN SON??? like sure, he might have diff hair/eye colors. but like, if one of my family members dyed their hair, and was wearing contacts, its not like id be like 'wHO IS THIS STRANGER!!!' ...he still has all his facial features!! same everything!!! I hate it here)

-paulina being #1 girl realizing danny's a friendly ghost immediately. smart queen. lancer and kwan ran away right after he made this sweet baby face at them:

which is hilarious.

-ok. im not saying his bullying is JUSTIFIED, but. dash looked so pleased with the (cute!) poster he just painted, and danny comes thru the wall and spills paint on his nice letterman jacket. his anger is justified maybe 65% of the time so far...(not the way he handles it, but STILL.) at least lancer is stepping in!! and them making a silly little bet was...cute?? until dash pulled out his GROSS UNDERWEAR AND SAID DANNY WOULD HAVE TO EAT THEM???? WHAT THE FUCK MAN. TUCKER WAS SO RIGHT ITS FUCKING WEIRD TO CARRY THOSE AROUND EWWW. THIS KID IS UNWELL. lancer was right, his animatronic setup was SUPER IMPRESSIVE?? hes actually pretty creative. danny meanwhile is stealing the fright knight's design...I hope dash is taking art classes or smth with his sports

-fright knight is the most bestest ghost so far i LOVE THAT DESIGN. I am biased towards knights, and characters with swords, but he fucks so severely. and should sue danny for copyright infringement for stealing his design for his haunted house. if some 14 yr old broke into MY house and stole MY sword, id also be pissed. his evil winged unicorn rules too with its FANGS. and he just CAN SHOVE THE PORTAL OPEN WITH HIS HANDS??? is he the strongest ghost weve seen so far? idk but hes my fav. SOUL SHREDDER IS SUCH A COOL SWORD NAME TOO. ANY NAMED SWORD ALSO FUCKS. 'flaming bedsheets of DEATH' funny king. ALSO he was polite to dash and tucker when just asking for directions and telling tucker 'oh maybe, just a suggestion, maybe be nicer to me and be more respectful :)' I LOOOVE HIM.

-I noticed this in the Ember ep, but jazz has an electric guitar in her room!! talent musical queen!! its cool to see hobbies just in the bg.

-fright knight's murder castle reminds me of the booby trapped murder castle in zexal!! another supposedly 'for kids' show with murder/trap castles! we love that. if you are a dp fan reading this, give yugioh zexal a try. its also got 13-14 year old protags and involves (alien) ghosts. the cardgame is just a vessel for the plot, which is really good. (I just want more people to watch my fav yugioh, man)

-danny. with a SWORD.

-danny doesnt NEED TO WIN this contest, dash didnt STEAL HIS DESIGNS AND STEAL A SWORD. he also got excited to hear lancer got sent to a dimension with his worst fears too just so he could win the contest? DANNY WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!!! BRO MAYBE YOURE 14 AND HAVENT FULLY DEVOLPED YOUR WHOLE BRAIN YET, BUT...THATS FUCKED. this kid casually says the most deranged things, I do worry for my spooky son. once again, therapy needed. that judo toss was great tho. I wonder if he actually did pick up some martial arts stuff from his mom?

-danny can fly 112 mph!!! thats so fast! I love the lil montage of him and his friends testing his abilities and stuff, very cute and a good way to showcase what he can do by now and how much more proficient he's gotten from ep 1!!! I'm sure he's going to get more abilities :)

-im glad...maddie's at least TRYING this ep. I do feel for her because her husband is a man baby. but the fact it took 16 episodes to get a kinda semblance of any kind of real concern or attempts at bonding. hmm. jack's 'BACK OFF SHES A MINOR' @ the ghost trying to attack jazz. also was very funny. and him wanting to make an action figure of her? are the parents redeeming themselves to me? slightly. they gotta Work Harder

-THE GHOST. IS FLYING. THE PLANE.

-fenton machete. but she doesnt carry a PHONE??? ???

-I mean I expected vlad when you namedrop him earlier in the ep, and also the title card picture, and dalv corp being fucking vlad backwards. but seeing him just pull up on a golf cart made me bust out laughing. WITH the gift baskets prepared. why wouldnt you at least be suspicious. also, if he wants danny to be his lil sonboy, why is he so fucking malicious?? dude you are going about this in such a bad way. stop it. get some help.

-maddie not even hesitating to drag danny out. fucking good. danny is so right, go on the internet to date. get a cat. how do you spend...how many years?? has it been since college?? at least 20, right, since the parents/vlad are in their 40s? hung up on ONE girl. my god, man. incel drama queen. her kung fu IS impressive, but dude. 'we both know hes a creep' SO right. it sucks but they do need a phone and shit being in the middle of NOWHERE. also, just stealing his helicopter was great. <3

-'you must be exhausted carrying the weight of that mistake you made years ago' 'well we all make mistakes. maybe I'll make one now!' WHY DID THIS EXHCHANGE SEND ME. AND VLAD WITH THE BREATH SPRAY EWWW BITCH. 'OLD BAIT BREATH' SOO RIGHT. both danny and his mom playing him HAHAH hes so dumb. or rather, I think he thinks with his emotions too too much and is...actually pretty gullible? lmao he believed danny was ready to give in SO fast. (which is sad hes that hopeful, like you have SO MUCH MONEY YOU COULD EASILY GET ANOTHER GIRL WHO HAS A KID. AND WOULD WANT TO BE WITH YOU AND BE SUPPORTED. GET OVER THIS (1) WOMAN ALREADY IM GETTING SECONDHAND EMBARRASSMENT AAAAH)

-GHOST BEAR GHOST BEAR GHOST BEAR. it was also in the title card, but I still got very excited. we love bears here

-SAM'S BAT SWIMSUIT COVERUP!!! her outfits are simply iconic.

-'i'd tell you to go to the mens room, but I don't think you qualify' top paulina transphobic moments. :( and him wearing a tanktop to the swim park? hmmm! (actually I think she was overshadowed by then, so, KITTY top 10 transphobic moments??)

-kitty just piloting paulina around makes me feel SO bad tho, paulina's gonna wake up and be like 'wtf do you mean I was dating this rando' like youre leading danny on to make johnny jealous, and also just POSSESSING POOR PAULINA. dude take your relationship problems ELSEWHERE. last time we saw them, they seemed like such a cute couple!! wtf johnny!! I mean, she sucks for trying to make him jealous, he sucks for looking at other girls...maybe they need a break, but Not Like This. or, you know, just. better communication...

-and the A-listers having a full packet and a stamp system. who organizes this. kwan fucking owning being the new danny though, this is hysterical. THE TUCKER/KWAN FLOWER FIELD TWIRL. UNIRONICALLY ADORABLE. and him giving it his all for the poetry slam. bless his HEARTTTT.

-Star owns. actually, all of the extra characters are shining this ep and I love it.

-INVISO-BILL??? NOOOO THEY DID HIM SOO DIRTY. DANNY SWEETIE IM SO SORRY.

-johnny and danny bein friends and staging a fake fight (which danny takes too seriously, once again this child has aggression he NEEDS TO WORK OUT) I hope these three stay friends, I said it before but danny needs more friendly ghosts to hang with.

-at this point, Danny's ghost enemies are a lot like, I dunno, batman's rouge gallery is the first thing that comes to mind. they all have their own gimmick and unique designs, but most of them are easy to beat after learning the Moral Lesson. I still get excited when any of them show up again, though. 18 is another valerie episode!!!! :D skulker really said you two will get along if I have to handcuff you together <3 and the gym teacher really said, youre married now, have a flour baby! ngl, I'm not really watching this show for the shipping stuff (which I am very scared to look at the fandom for after I finish this watch through- I feel like there's probably discourse/arguing about ships...) but. I'm gonna put my opinion out there. valerie/danny > sam/danny. maybe I just really love the enemies to lovers trope. And the secret identity stuff adds Extra Flavor.

-SKULKER JUST HAVING THE BOX GHOST AND DANGLING HIM BY A STRING. HILARIOUS. and him watching them with binoculars and making his silly little commentary. AND MAKING THE SACK BABY CRY. LMAO. THIS DUDE IS A BABY KIDNAPPER. skulker is super fun

-danny, you just...collapsed the water tower. and then attacked the nasty burger machine...mascot thingy...out of anger..I KEEP SAYING HE'S GOT ANGER ISSUES BUT. HE REALLY NEEDS A LESSON IN MANAGING COLLATERAL DAMAGE!!! So does valerie!! They're both pretty focused on each other. I mean it's good of Danny to say he's trying to make sure PEOPLE don't get hurt, but... (I mean I guess it's not something 14 year olds WOULD worry about, but as an adult im like, who's going to fix that? how much money will that take??)

-TUCKER MAKING BANK. and sam and tucker being super emotionally attached to their flour baby and being pretty good parents. that's cute...also him just straight kissing her and being like. WAIT. O_O JDSKAFHD. his mom baking them into cookies was the funniest possible result. tbh I dont feel like this is on tucker, if anything the other kid's shouldve been more responsible! He was just taking an opportunity to get that $$ which I respect

-Danny being more understanding of Valerie's situation in the end (helping her at her job, too, and trying to keep that a secret for her!!!) And seeing them work together this ep, and also her letting phantom get her out of the ghost zone...was very sweet. LOVE that. more valerie eps pls

-me when I realize vlad's big stupid house exploded because of his own carelessness with changing the ghost portal ectofiltrator or whatever: *pointing and laughing*

-me when I realize it means he's gonna go make danny's life hell for it somehow: >:(

-SCOOBY PARODY!!! I feel like there's gotta be some scooby doo/danny phantom crossover stuff, right? also, 'guys in white' men in black wishes

-'oh, that's right! dad married the love of your life! you're bitter and alone!' DANNNNNYY GET HIS ASS ONCE AGAIN WE ARE POINTING AND LAUGHING AT VLAD

-'jack, you captured the ghost boy!!' UMM. he did nothing <3 'we have a weapon's vault??' YOU HAVE A WEAPONS VAULT??? and jack didnt put a handle on the inside. of fucking course he didnt! why would you leave that to your son!! or expect him to clean YOUR LAB when its where you work with probably dangerous chemicals and weapons and hes 14!! give him normal chores, like, I dunno, vacuuming, laundry, dishes...CMON. I hate it here. But I'm glad Jack is more chill about danny while he's a ghost, and willing to work with him for this ep. AND. I DID ENJOY JACK PUNCHING VLAD IN THE FACE. AND GENERALLY JUST OWNING HIM. the ghost punchy fists are actually amazing. like yeah, just punch a ghost in the face. that rules.

-ep 20 opens with the coolest fucking ghost lady design. her tattoos can come off and fight. MA'AM. I like ur nose ring and your cape maam hello 👉👈😳

-sam's grandma is hilarious and the most valid member of her family and I love her. thats my grandma now. and tucker covering for sam by dressing as her. thats true friendship <3 also skipping school to go to a goth circus. just bestie things! sam's parents are haters but for all the wrong reasons.

-'my family has controlled ghosts with this for generations!' WAIT. WAIT FREAKSHOW /ISNT/ A GHOST? I didn't expect that...he's just a fucked up guy controlling ghosts? anyway watching danny shoot at police cars and rob banks while mind controlled. its like, the most stereotypical 'bad' things lmao. (tbh an evil ghost circus troupe is a sick concept)

this gives off big deviantart emo edit vibes

(I'm going to assume evil circus reaper danny has a lot of fan content. people love an edgy au, except this one is canon (even tho its via mind control...having the protag go evil otherwise might be hard, I guess?) but au where he stays with the troupe...that has to exist, right?)

ANYWAY. excited to start s2!! lowkey surprised by how many notes some of these posts have gotten. I've gone back and tagged them all with 'dp thoughts' so they're easier to find on my blog! ^^ and I will probably possibly do (more) fanart on my art blog after I finish the watch of the whole show, so like. @sanchoyodraws follow my art blog :)

[mischiefandspirits]

Doppelgänger (10/?)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Life Lessons, Part 2}

“Regretting your life choices yet?” Sam asked as Danny scowled down at the still crying sack of flour.

“I've been a parent all of one day and I’m probably already down to a C-.”

“Life could be worse. You could be that guy,” Sam said, pointing to where the Nasty Burger’s mascot was being terrorized by a bunch of kids.

“Oooh! Nasty Nat! Let's get a family photo with him.”

“You're taking this way too seriously,” Sam said as Tucker pushed her and Danny towards the mascot.

Sam glared off the kids while Tucker asked for a photo, which Danny took for them.

“You want me to take one of you? Family photos help boost your grade.”

“Not without Val here,” Danny said, passing Sam the camera and rocking his still crying sack. “I don’t want to give Tetslaff the wrong idea.”

“The wrong idea being the fact Valerie stuck you with all the work?” Sam asked.

“We talked about it. She has a job, Sam.”

“So she says.” When Danny shot her a look, she said, “Right, sorry. Giving her a chance.”

Danny sighed and looked down at the sack. “I don’t think I’m cut out to be a dad.”

“Try supporting its top more.” Danny looked up at the muffled voice to see Nasty Nat standing near him. He gestured awkwardly at Danny’s arms.

Danny shifted his arms so its head was held up by his elbow and it started to quiet down. “Wow, uh, thanks, dude.”

The mascot nodded and waddled off.

Just in time as the trio’s ghost senses went off.

“Beware!”

As one, they groaned and shouted, “Not it!”

“We should really learn that that’s not going to work anymore,” Tucker chuckled.

“I’ll go,” Sam sighed and headed towards the back of the restaurant. “You two can manage the sacks.”

“You sure you’re not sticking Tucker with all the work?”

She turned around to walk backward and pointed at Tucker. “That’d be a good burn if it wasn’t for the fact he actually likes this stupid assignment.”

Danny chuckled and rocked the baby, smiling as she finally quieted down.

Then the explosions started. They looked up to see Sam fighting Valerie.

“Oh no,” Danny said. “Tuck, can you watch the kid for me?”

“Only because I don’t want Sam to get killed. Go stop your baby mama.”

“Sam’s right, you are taking this too seriously,” Danny said, handing over his sack.

He started to run off, but an explosion in front of him threw him back.

“Danny!”

He looked up with wide eyes to see the Nasty Burger sign falling.

Valerie grabbed him and pulled him out of the way just as Sam swooped down to hide Tucker’s intangibility.

“You okay?” the ghost hunter asked.

“Yeah, maybe be a little more careful with the missiles next time,” he said, shifting so he could kneel on her board.

“Sorry. The ghost kid was in one of their slow moods so I wanted to try and take them out before they could pick up speed. Besides, I’m only on a five-minute break.” Val set down behind the Nasty Burger and Danny hopped down so she could fold up her board. She pulled down her mask and looked him over. “Where’s the baby?”

“Tucker has her. I was, uh, about to go to the bathroom so I asked him to watch her.”

“Alright. You sure you’re okay?”

He smiled and set his hand on her shoulder. “I’m fine, really.”

She smiled back.

“Valerie?”

“Oh crud, that’s my boss,” she whispered and retracted her suit.

He glanced at her uniform. “You work at the Nasty Burger?”

“Tell anyone and I end you,” she hissed as she stuffed her guns into her backpack.

“I won’t. But why the secrecy? What do you do?”

“None of your business,” she said, elbowing him playfully. She looked down at him as she stood up straight and there was mischief in her eyes. She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “Have fun with the kid, honey. I’m headed off to work.”

He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth.

“Well now, this is unexpected.”

The two spun around to see Skulker floating behind them, a gun charging. Neither could react before it fired.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny groaned and sat up. “What hit me?”

“That would be me.”

The half-ghost scowled and turned to see Skulker standing over him. His breath caught as he noticed the cage bars between him and Skulker. He looked around to see he was in a steel cage that was glowing dark blue. And he wasn’t alone.

“What’s with the cage? I thought you wanted our pelts. And why’s Valerie here?” Danny growled, getting to his feet and marching towards him.

“There’s been a change of plans. You should be grateful. I had planned to have one of you fight to the death with the huntress, but knowing she is your mate makes you far more appealing for my collection. The pelts of your other sides will have to do.”

Danny gaped at the hunter ghost. “Okay, first of all, no one is ever going to be grateful to be in a cage, you creep. Second, Val is my friend, none of us would have killed her. Third, please tell me you mean mate in the British sense, because if Johnny and Kitty have been telling people I’m dating Val I’m going to kick their butts. Forth, gross dude.”

Skulker just smirked at him. “You cannot hide your relationship from me, ghost child. I heard you speaking about your child with your mate.”

Danny hit his head on the bars. “We’re fifteen. We don’t have a kid. Our school just makes sophomores partner up to take care of a flour sack. Teach us responsibility and stuff. We were joking about the assignment because we got paired up. Val and I are just friends.”

Skulker eyed him for a moment, then frowned. “Really?”

“Yes!”

“Teenagers,” Skulker growled, running a hand over his face.

“Sorry to inconvenience you. Now if you could just let us go.”

Skulker snorted and turned to leave. “Welcome to your new home.”

Danny glared at his back and tried to push his hands through the bars.

“And before you get any ideas, that cage was made with you halfas in mind. No phasing through it for humans or ghosts.”

“You know Sam and Tucker are going to come to get us!” Danny yelled as the ghost moved out of sight.

Skulker didn’t respond.

“Stupid frog.” Danny turned to the bars and tried to summon the energy for an ectoblast, to no avail.

After trying and failing to use the rest of his powers, he sat down next to Valerie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m going to tear that stupid ghost apart, then put him back together so I can take him apart a second time!”

Danny stared at the ceiling, not bothering to respond as it was the one hundred and thirty-seventh time Valerie had said those words, or at least that’s how many times she’d said it since he’d decided that counting would at least give him something to do.

And Sam thought zoos were bad. At least they gave the animals something to do.

They also gave them food.

“Hey Frogger, you do realize humans need food and stuff to survive right?” Danny yelled, cutting over Valerie’s one hundred and thirty-eighth rendition of her threats. “Also, do the words animal enrichment mean anything to you?”

“Don’t call us animals,” she huffed.

“Technically humans are still a type of animal. And I’ll call us whatever I have to to get something to eat. I know you feel the same.” If Danny -- who could partially sustain himself on the zone’s ambient ectoplasm even while in human form and had just eaten when he’d been grabbed -- was hungry, then Valerie -- who was fully human and likely didn’t have a chance to grab something after school with her job -- had to be starving.

“I won’t give in to a ghost.”

“Meh, I prefer to show rebellion through stupid nicknames and punny taunts rather than by denying myself the basic necessities.”

“You’re being far too calm about this,” she huffed, moving to stand over him.

He shrugged. “Panicking never helps and I already did the anger thing before you woke up so I’m mostly just bored now.”

“So you’re content to spend the rest of your life here?”

“You say that like it will be a long time, which it won’t because Skulker doesn’t seem inclined to feed or water us.” When she met his joke with a glare, he sat up. “We’ve already established neither of us has the skills or equipment to pick the lock or bend the bars, so escape’s not happening. Skulker wants to keep us, which is very creepy, but at least means we aren’t going to die. So all we can do is wait out our rescue.”

“You think someone will rescue us?” Valerie asked, sitting next to him.

Danny pulled out his phone. “It’s been fifteen hours since we were grabbed. Skulker can be sneaky, but someone still might have seen him bringing us to the portal. And even if no one human saw us, invisibility doesn’t work in the zone. We were definitely seen and gossip is crazy in the zone. Doppelgänger will hear about this soon enough.”

“So?” she snorted. “We’re Red Huntress and a Fenton. Why would they help us?”

“The ghosts might not know that,” Danny said, thinking quickly. “All Doppelgänger would probably hear is that two humans from their territory got taken.”

“I guess that makes sense.” She laid down and Danny followed suit.

He stared up at the ceiling, then his lips twitched up. “Want to know what I’m really worried about?”

She hummed.

“Is getting kidnapped by a ghost a good enough excuse in Tetslaff’s book for not taking care of the baby?”

There was a beat of silence then she laughed. “Oh my god! She’ll probably make us redo it from the very start!”

“I mean, I left her with a responsible sitter. That should count for something.”

“Tucker, responsible?”

“I mean, he’s working with Sam. She’ll kick his butt if he goes off the rails.”

“That makes more sense.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Valerie eyed the food the ghost had thrown into their cage suspiciously. Her stomach felt like it was eating itself, but…

“How do you even know it's safe?” she asked, looking over at Danny, who was halfway through his own Mighty Meaty Cheesy Melt.

“Like I said, he doesn’t want us dead, so it’s not poisoned. And there’s no ectoplasm in it. Even if there was, that whole eat of the dead, become of the dead thing only applies to specific ghost fruits, which aren’t on here because he clearly stole it from the Nasty Burger and, again, no ectoplasm.”

“How do you know there’s no ectoplasm?”

“Ectoplasm has this strong citrusy taste that can’t be covered up with anything but mounds of relish, and there’s no relish on the burger.”

“Ho-How do you know that?”

“My parents aren’t as careful with pure ectoplasm as they probably should be.”

“That’s…”

“I know. Sam and Tucker refuse to eat over anymore unless it’s takeout and we bring it straight to my room. Really though, the food’s fine. Nothing weird in it, promise.”

“I don’t know if I can trust you to know what’s weird anymore,” Valerie said, but grabbed her burger anyways.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Val closed her eyes as she sunk further into the water. “I don’t know if I should be impressed or concerned that you literally annoyed a ghost into giving us a bathroom.”

“Grateful?” Danny suggested from the other side of the curtain that hid the toilet and bath from the rest of the cage. “It’s a gift, really.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny snickered at Valerie’s glare.

“If I had my weapons…”

“Calm down, Val. They’re not doing any harm.”

“They won’t GET OFF!”

“They like you,” he chuckled and plucked off one of the blob ghosts.

He wasn’t sure how, but his usual swarm had found them and were now drifting about the cage. Some had attached themselves to the top like bats. Others had burrowed into their blanket nest. A few had made a home inside his jacket or atop his hair. A lot had decided Valerie was a very nice spot to sleep and had latched onto her.

The ghost in his hand vibrated, almost like it was purring except it sounded more musical.

“I’m going to smash them!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“How does your phone even still have power?” Valerie asked as they watched Thor cut Thanos’s head off.

They were cuddled close in their nest of blankets with Valerie’s head on his shoulder so they could both see the small screen.

“Tucker upgraded it so it would run on ectoplasm for convenience’s sake.”

“Ectoplasm is convenient?” she chuckled, idly scratching one of the blobs curled up in her lap.

“It is in my house.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Valerie gave the beast sitting on the other side of the cage a death glare.

“Yap!”

“You are so lucky I don’t have any weapons.”

Cujo rolled over onto his back and wagged his tail.

“Danny, make him leave with your annoying powers!”

The boy just reached over and rubbed the dog’s belly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Valerie was tossing the rubber ball Skulker had given Danny -- and by given, she meant the ghost had thrown it at his head after four hours of constant complaining of being bored -- for Blobert to fetch when a soft sound reached her, almost like someone was shushing someone else.

“Hello?”

There was quiet for a moment, then a blue-purple flash came from around the corner. A second later Doppelgänger poked their two heads out, smiling. “Valerie!”

“Yep. You here for the show or are you actually going to help us?”

They scowled and looked at each other. “Can’t we just leave her here? We’d never hear the end of it if we did. She’s the ghost hunter, let her figure her own way out.”

“I can hear you, you know.”

“We know,” they chirped.

Valerie sat up. “Listen here, you little -”

She cut off as she was reminded that Danny had been laying with his head on her stomach by a soft whine. She looked down to see him blinking up at her, his head now in her lap.

“Wha’s goin’ on?” he yawned.

“Ghost kid’s here. They’re arguing with themself about if they’re going to help us or not.”

Danny stared at her, processing, then sat up and glared at the ghost kid, who raised their hands with guilty smiles.

“We were only kidding.” They flew over to the cage and looked it over.

“It’s ghost and human-proof,” Danny told them.

“How’re we supposed to open it then? It’s got a manual lock. We need to stop living in the digital age for once. Shut up.”

“They’re always like this,” Valerie whispered to Danny as he chuckled at their antics. “I don’t know if it's a ghost thing or if they’re just messed up in the head.”

“We think aloud, jerk,” they snapped as one came forward and pulled a pair of bobby pins out.

Danny moved closer as they knelt next to the cage’s door. “You know how to pick a lock?”

They smiled at him and pushed up their goggles to give him a wink before they squinted down at the lock and started fiddling with it.

Valerie was surprised their eyes were yellow. She’d assumed they’d be green like their goggles.

“That’s a lot of blobs,” they said, the one not picking the lock looking over the cage.

“Just over three dozen and they all have names,” Danny said cheerfully.

“They’re just random pun names based around the word blob,” Valerie chuckled.

“Blobbington. Blobby. Blobin. Blo-”

“We get it,” the ghosts snorted, cutting Danny off.

It took a few moments, but then the ghost kid was floating back and the door swung open.

“Freedom!” Danny cheered as they left the cage. He turned to the blobs and made shooing motions. “Alright, you lot, back home with you.”

The swarm made sad ringing sounds, but flew off in various directions.

Meanwhile, the ghost kid that had picked the lock fixed their goggles back into place and put away the pins as the other passed Valerie her backpack and pointed at the wall across from them. “Go straight that way. We’ll meet you on the other side.”

“You want us to go through the wall.”

“Humans can be intangible in the ghost zone. Just try, you’ll see,” they said before heading back the way they came.

Danny walked up to the wall and stuck his arm through. “They’re right.”

“I guess that’s what Skulker meant by human proof,” she said as she followed him over and tried it for herself. “He must have done something to the cage so we wouldn’t slip right through.”

“Guess so. Ladies first?”

She rolled her eyes and stuck her head through to make sure no one was on the other side. They continued like that until they reached a wall that only had a void on the other side. She put on her suit and they jumped through. She summoned her board before they could fall too far, then looked around.

“We should leave now while we have the chance.”

“Great idea. Which way do you think the portal is?” Doppelgänger asked with a snort as they flew up.

She sent them a glare.

“Thanks for the help,” Danny said, setting his hand on her shoulder. “Can you show us the way out?”

They turned to her, crossing their arms.

She crossed her own arms and stared back.

“Can we please save this for after we’re far away from the ghost who locked us in a cage for eight days?”

“We’re not the ones who got locked up,” Doppelgänger reminded them.

“Maybe so, but you are the ones who are going to be stuck in a thermos for an hour if you don’t knock it off,” he said. “Can we just agree to a truce until we get out of here? Please?”

“Fine,” they said and one held out their hand.

Valerie shook it. “For now. Get us out of this ghost zone, and we'll see how long it lasts.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm sorry this has been a while. Hyperfixations are a B. I'm going to post what I have and hopefully, that will rekindle enough for me to finish this.

[al-n-cartoons]

Character Notes for "The Multiverse in a Blender"

Some of these characters are fairly similar in personality and how they speak, so I've been trying to figure out each way their personalities divulge. Please add onto this if you come up with anything (it would be helpful!).

Ben Tennyson: Easy go lucky, cheery, a person-pleaser, has a bit of a vanity streak, is sporty, is dorky, is very overworked, gets bored easily (I'm writing him as having ADHD and OCD), is a fantastic actor/schemer/opertunist. Puts his work above his health. Has an eidetic memory. Is an Aroflux omnisexual. His fashion tastes are a blend of punk and sporty, but the former isn't very socially acceptable in most settings so he tends to keep it to himself.

Rex Salazar: Is sporty, funny, and a bit temperamental. Has a definit rebellious streak and is impulsive, but has a rock-solid understanding of right and wrong. Basically, he'd be the one to punch someone in the face if he felt they deserved it. Is a heterosexual.

Bubbles: Overly excitable, naive, loves life and everything in it. Isn't very book smart, but is a force on the battle field (brute force, like Rex and Buttercup). Is a follower. Loves animals and violence (gets along well with Rex). She's a bit fascinated with the darker aspects of life, but is so cheery that most people view her aggression on the battle field as being ditzy. Is family and friend oriented. Is an aromantic asexual.

Buttercup: Has clearer morals than Bubbles and, although she is a definite punk, is overall less violent than Bubbles. Is competitive (hello, Ben and Rex) and wants to be sporty ("Ben, HOW DO YOU PLAY SOCCER!?). Is a bit rebellious and rude, but does wind up doing as Blossom instructs. Admires Ben's prowess in battle, and is learning from him how to tone down her destructiveness (which is a trait nearly all of her siblings naturally possess per the nature of their powers). Has never thought of her sexuality, and doesn't care to label herself. If she likes a guy, gal, etcetera, she likes 'em.

Blossom: the Sadsap charged with keeping her haywire siblings in check. Loves books, romance novels, and baking. Tries to be nice, but is also a realist (That painting is very colorful, Bubbles, but maybe we should keep the red inside of the people, okay?). Is very interested in healthy eating and loves trying to incorporate healthy stuff into her experimental baked goods (she doesn't use sugar or lipids very much, so her cooking tends to flop per taste and failure to hold in moisture). Is quizzical, sharp, and an opportunist. Isn't afraid to pummel someone if she felt there was need enough ("either you give me the code to disarm the bomb, or I turn your face into pulp.") She is a complete gay-panic.

Bliss: The oldest and second to least emotionally mature sister of the bunch. She tries to lead, but doesn't really know what she's doing. Loves to fight and can access her powers easily, but can't keep them from blowing up on people. Is prone to emotional outbursts and, per the nature of her powers, this is to her detriment. Isn't sociable and hates crowded places. Loves her siblings to bits and loves to bring Bubbles pieces of her foes (rocks, scales, strips of metal that had impaled them) to commemorate her victories. Thinks Danny's the sweetest little thing ("You like space? We can go there, like, right this second. 1-2-3 *zooms away, leaving a confused Danny behind*"). Ace and aro.

Dexter: The adopted brother of Bliss, Buttercupe, Blossom, and Bubbles. Is short-tempered and tends to sulk. Is inventive and technical; a fantastic creator of weaponry and anything of the like. Has a one-sided crush on Ben, but denies so much as liking the guy. Loves coffee but doesn't like to eat much, going so far as creating nutrition pills so as to bypass the affair ("The activity which you are suggesting, Blossom, is a waste of time.") Is a homosexual.

Danny Phantom: Is snarky and has a sardonic personality. Is more serious than some of his cohorts (looking at you, Rex and Bubbles) but loves to wisecrack and is VERY sassy. Is also extremely platonic, loving and trusting his two best friends (Sam and Tucker) with his life. Has a dorky flair for astronomy, and can recognize essentially every constellation in the sky (as well as quite a few of their stories). Has a crush in a character from his hometown, Valerie. Would punch someone in the face as payback, then forgive them for whatever they'd done to upset him or someone else. Is a trans heterosexual (bicurious, perhaps biromantic, but is not bisexual). Has claustrophobia.

Zak Saturday: Exceedingly compassionate and family-oriented, as well as highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat and strategizing. Is very ingenious. Enjoys teasing and joking around, but will also nag someone if he thinks they're being idiotic (this makes it so that he and Rex are a bit at odds with one another). Is also great at finding common ground/compromising. Basically, he'd be the one fixing someone's broken nose and explaining to them where they went wrong, then give them a lollipop. Is dating Ben (they started at age 12) and gets along great with Blossom. Is pansexual.

Connie Maheswaran: Is both people smart and book smart, but lacks quite a bit of street knowledge. Is a considerable combatant, and has a quick wit, but would rather focus on the task at hand than joke around (she calls Danny and Ben out over this). Is kind and understanding, but not a pushover. Has a good head in her shoulders, and is good with details. After their universes fuse, she may take her various skills (hand-to-hand combat, acute intellect, interest in outer space) and apply them to the Plumbers as a long-term career.

Dipper Pines: Family-oriented, not very sociable with people of his age group. Is insecure around the others listed here (baring Mabel, for obvious reasons); sees himself as inferior since he's an intellectual and is incapable on the actual battle field (his words, not mine). Is incredibly smart, a technical thinker, and has a fantastic memory. Is a bi disaster half the time. LOVES to strategize and plot out the how and why for any problem. Loves gaming. Bites off more than he can chew. Keeps Mabel from hurting herself more often than either of them are willing to admit ("Mabel, that's a garbage disposal, not a slide. Mabe-MABEL!!!?") is a panromantic heterosexual. Has a long-distance relationship with Pacifica, but both of them are equally supportive so it's worked out thus far.

Mabel Pines: Family and friend oriented, is a bi disaster. Is an obscene romantic, which tends to leave her with her heart crushed, but she bounces back after a day or two. Is considerably strong, considering the fact that she's entirely human with no combat training, and is learning how to use hand-held weapons. Isn't very intuitive, but is very interpersonally smart. Is an animal lover, owning a pet pig and cat ("Dipper, look, my babies are cuddling!") (I didn't add the cat in, guys; episode one).

Steven Universe: Is the human teddy bear. He is a pacifist, meaning that he refuses to start fights or violence but isn't afraid to save someone from another or themselves. Tries to fix every problem but his own. Is a compulsive overexplainer and apologizer. His best friend is a lion, so people tend not to mess with him. Also, Lion likes to just lie atop Steven's van when they go places. He is compassionate, caring, loving, trusting, and has mommy issues (and also slight daddy issues, but barely). Trauma baby who only wants his girlfriend to succeed and for her to be happy (preferably with him nearby, but he tries to give her a respectful distance). He is a panromantic asexual.

Is that everyone? I think that's everyone.

Edit: I forgot Steven, guys. Had to edit him in.

[phantomphangphucker]

Ectober Day 11: Villain - Sinners Are We Chap. 1: I’m Kinda Glad That You’re Evil Too

When Danny goes down, so does everyone else. Including one Valerie Gray. And Dan couldn’t be happier.

Danny Fenton’s life had gone to shit and it didn’t take long after for Valerie Gray’s to follow right behind. Like Danny, she had lost her entire genuine social circle. All the other kids at school certainly weren’t friends of hers that’s for sure. And when Danny went with Vlad? Both of them seemed to just disappear in the wind.

Honestly? She was furious he hadn’t taken her with them. Wasn’t she practically family? Didn’t both of them value her? Vlad said time and time again how proud he was of her and how important she was to him. Danny had loved her once, and had stayed a strong friend after. Yet they both left her behind to rot. Danny, she could forgive, he had lost everything and nearly died; but Vlad? No. Sure she had her dad, but their relationship was strained at best, toxic at worst. He hated what she did and was meek. While she had a violent streak a mile long and loved to fight ghosts. Combine that with all three of her only friends and the one man who supported her vanishing in the aftermath of a fiery explosion, and she became a walking bomb of anger and resentment.

School didn’t help either, none of them gave a damn about the trio after the initial shock and gave even less of a damn about her. If anything, she became the new target for the torment all three had faced. Difference was? She hadn’t been about to tolerate that. Which eventually lead to a quick and unpleasant expulsion due to repeated and violent fights. Her shattering Dash’s knee had been the breaking point for the sports-obsessed school, and she couldn’t have been happier.

Screw the lot of them.

And what was she going to need schooling for anyway? She was a hunter. Now she was free to do that without the distraction of school. Which only led to her feeding her aggressive side. To her fighting more and more. Which her dad was having none of. Because then she had been around him more too, and that led to more fights. Which, her father put his foot down on after she threw a lamp through their stupid thin walls. So that left her out on the streets, with the only family she had left telling her to stay the Hell away. It was at that point she started to resent people more than ghosts.

Because what had ghosts really taken from her? Nothing at this point. Sure that damn dog had got her dad fired and ruined her clothing. But it was humans who abandoned her as a ‘friend’ and ‘family’. It was humans who had harassed her at school and sneered at her on the streets. It was humans who were the mean ones.

The treatment of her as the huntress didn’t help things either. Jack and Maddie, though strange and even dangerous, were likeable and friendly. Red was not. Especially since her grieving tactics seemed to involve taking things a little too far more often than not. She had been stupid proud the first time she managed to actually destroy a ghost, but the first time she did that publicly? The town reacted with nothing but abject horror. Crucified her as a murderer and danger to society. They didn’t reject her though. Of course those pricks didn’t, they needed her. She was the only line of defence against the ghost onslaught.

And eventually she decided: you know what? Screw this whole fucking town. You can all burn for all I care. And stopped giving even an ounce of a damn about bystanders or damages. She was just here to fight, that was it. End of story. If someone died in the crossfires then that wasn’t her problem. These people didn’t deserve for it to be her problem. Fuck every last one of them.

Then her ‘father’ really screwed her over, revealed who she was. The girl behind the mask. And all Hell had broken loose. People would cross the street to avoid her, which only pissed her off. The motel was suddenly perpetually full and any place that could get away with refusing her service did. Eventually, she had to resort to petty theft and death threats just to get a decent meal.

She was absolutely done. Done with this damn town. Done with the stupid people in it. Done with humans. At least a ghost she could pound the crap out of. And they, the ghosts, respected and feared her for it. Good. And she’ll let those ghosts destroy that stupid town, it was retribution as far as she was concerned.

And that’s when she met him again, as she was walking down a deserted road away from the only home she’d ever known and one that had scorned her. And he had looked different. In a way much similar to her. Less friendly. Less kind. Less helpful. Actually...

He had looked like a monster.

All sharp fangs and claws, forked tongue and flaming hair. Red eyes. He couldn't fool a blind man into thinking he was ‘good’ with the way he looked then. Add in the deeper voice as if puberty was a thing ghosts experienced. And the really stupid thing? The first thought that had popped up in her mind was that he was kind of... hot. Which was ridiculous. And she remembers the conversation they had then. Him floating down to stand on the ground with arms crossed and a mean smirk across his face.

“Well if it isn’t the Red Huntress”, quirked a mocking eyebrow, “come looking to hunt me down?”.

She had rolled eyes, “hardly. Unlike the others you aren’t pathetically easy to beat the shit out of”.

That had gotten him to more genuinely raise his eyebrows in slight surprise, “oh? And what if I just so happened to be on my way to Amity? What would you do then, little hunter?”.

She had known that was a threat instantly, she hadn’t known just how serious of a threat it had been though. “Ha, like I care. Raise that miserable place to the ground for all I care”.

He had actually laughed at that, loudly, and uncrossed his arms to shrug exaggeratedly, “well I’ll be. Wasn’t it your ‘sworn duty’ to protect them? That town and it’s people? Whatever could they have done to change your mind”, he had actually looked slightly impressed then, “you are impressively stubborn after all”.

“Hmmm, let me make a list. Oh wait! I don’t care. Those people are dead to me”.

“Oh? And what of ghosts?”.

She had stared at him for a bit then, though had never been able to figure out what the fuck his angle was. “Punching bags that talk back. Might have destroyed a few. What’s it to you”, she had scoffed, “not like you like ghosts either”.

He had laughed again, almost sounding like a cackle, “fair enough, Huntress. Can’t say I haven’t destroyed a few myself”, then smirked and leaned forward menacingly, “what if I said I killed Vlad? Or your dear sweet little Danny”.

She had scoffed, not believing him for a second, “that’s bullshit and both of us know that”.

He shrugged and leaned back, “hardly. Though fine, I just blew up the guys mansion. Didn’t bother confirming any corpses”.

She had squinted at him, the nonchalance had made it clear that he was being honest that time, “yeah well, that man can rot too. He turned his back on me, so fuck him. Fuck people honestly. And what? Did ghosts finally tick you off enough to want them obliterated. Join the fucking party”.

He had smirked and laughed, the smile had been honestly charming; not that she admitted that at the time. “No. I just want to see everything burn, roast marshmallows in the flames, and dance in the aftermath”.

“Well that’s ghostly of you, Phantom”.

He had rolled his eyes very exaggeratedly, “it seems you’re no different”, he had walked close and gotten his face in hers, “so who’s the ghostly one here? Seems you’ve turned your back on your kind. And here you’re supposed to be the ‘good human’”, she swore he purred then, “you know, that almost makes me disappointed. You were always my favourite. Not like any of those other idiots stood a chance”.

She had huffed and refused to back up from him, “agreed. And I don’t think I even have to point out you were my favourite target”.

“And now?”.

She glared at him, “those people have done worse to me than you ever have. I told you, screw them”, and smirked a little, “what? You gone deaf over the years?”.

He had tilted his head back and laughed loudly again, she hadn’t remembered him ever laughing that much or smiling that much. “Damn!”, and looked to her with that stupid cocky smile, “in that case, want to watch it burn together?”.

She had squinted at him more, “what are you playing at”.

Phantom had just rolled his eyes and walked past her, “as I told you, you were always my favourite, Red”. And wasn’t that a mindfuck?

She had turned her head back to watch him walk, looked back to the direction she had been going, and then made a decision that would change everything.

Screw them. Fuck them. This was just. This was what they deserved. They were going to burn and she was going to enjoy the flames.

She had turned on her heel and stalked after him, determined anger in her eyes and a small mean smile on her face. He had looked back to her, at the sound of her footsteps, and full-on cackled before grinning wild and malicious.

In another time, Amity Park would have been the last town standing. Heralded by a hero standing against her long time enemy. But this time, the charred twisted mess of debris, blood, and guts was the spark that started the fire that would set the whole world ablaze. Brought about at the whims of a duo with stained hands twined together doing the waltz across the remains; grinning and laughing all the while.

[saturn-in-autumn]

BRO your art and writing are both so good ajsbsjjs can I request a danny reveal to valerie? I would assume this would be a small drabble prompt but I'll let you choose how to do it and if you even want to do it in the first place whoops

ASDFGJHJK Thank you so much! 

Omg, first off I am SO SO Sorry this took me so long to get back to you! It’s actually so bad... But I finally finished your request!! It took me a while to figure out how to phrase everything and get my head around it but I ended up getting a little carried away in the end, I’m sorry... 

So here it is I suppose! I’ve also posted it to Ao3 here if you’d like to have a look, but it’s also under the cut if you want to read it on here! 

Thank you so much for your patience, I only hope it was kind of worth it? Idk. I ended up writing a short story/one shot rather than a drabble haha, I just didn’t expect it to get so long!  And thanks for the request idea! 

- Fire and Water -

Valerie sometimes thought Danny was like water.

He was so perfectly clear somehow, an undisturbed lake shining in the moonlight. His iridescent blue eyes sometimes felt like they could see right through her, somehow sense exactly how she was feeling, understand her deepest secrets.

That eerie calmness rippled and cascaded through him, so clear and tranquil, yet so incredibly dangerous.

He had a depth that terrified her to no end, a feeling that if she dove down too deep he would overflow, drown her with his power. As if his little lake held all the fierce might of the sea.

(In which Danny has a secret to tell Valerie, but doesn't quite know how to go about it)

“Ugh, what am I supposed to do Tuck?” Danny groaned, resting his head on his elbows in the grimy corner booth.

Tucker shrugged, patting his back awkwardly in what he hoped was a comforting manner. “I don’t know man, I don’t have a murderous ghost-hunter for a girlfriend.”

Danny sighed, looking forlornly across the crowded restaurant of the Nasty Burger. Valerie was still standing by the till, laughing with some customer as she took their order. She was gorgeous even in the grease-stained yellow of the fast food uniform. Silently Danny watched as she tucked a stray strand of dark hair out of her eyes and looked away. He was such a loser.

“Hey… but then again, it’s not really our decision to make.” Sam’s voice cut through Danny’s musings and he looked up at her dolefully. “Whether or not you want to share it with her is up to you.” She took another slurp of her slushie and frowned. “I thought you had sworn not to. Why the sudden change?”

Danny looked away, straightening to peer out the window at the passers-by on the street. “I don’t know… I just feel… like it’s wrong to keep lying to her is all…” Danny could feel Sam and Tucker’s eyes on him as he sighed again, “Look, we’ve been going out for almost a year… That’s, like more than I’ve ever been in a relationship my whole life! Plus, even if she doesn’t know it, I know her secret, but she doesn’t know mine, I can’t help feeling like I’m cheating on her or something weird like that…”

“Danny…” Sam started but he continued.

“But at the same time, I’m terrified that if she finds out she’ll hate me y’know? Like… I don’t want to lose her in the process…”

“Look Danny, as the current female representative at the table.” Sam said, placing her drink firmly on the table to look at him in the eyes, “I can safely say that telling the truth is probably your best option. If she finds out and it’s not from you, it’ll probably hurt her a lot more than just coming clean.”  

Tucker nodded, “You know, Sam’s right, if you really care about her what’s the worst that could happen?”

“The worst is that she’ll shoot an ecto-blast through my chest faster than I can say ‘Sorry’.” Danny moaned. “Or she’ll tell my parents or something… Then I’d really be dead meat.”

“And the best-case scenario is that she doesn’t mind.” Sam said with an eyebrow raised. “I’m sorry Danny, but if you guys really care about each other then keeping secrets probably shouldn’t be on the table. Valerie has a right to know if you’re hiding things from her, chances are she’ll figure it out sooner or later. Her aim’s getting better by the day.”

Danny winced, rubbing his upper forearm where the burn mark still stung.

Sam’s eyes softened and she reached over, taking his hand gently, “Danny I honestly think that anyone who knows you, the real you, won’t hate you no matter what you are. The real test is whether or not you think you can trust her enough to tell her and get away with it. She’s still the Red Huntress after all. I wouldn’t take this decision lightly.”

Danny nodded but smiled. “Would you guys mind though?”

Tucker blinked, “Dude, we’re your friends. If you want to date the most dangerous ghost-hunter in Amity Park we have your back. As Sam said, it’s you’re secret to share with whoever you want.”

Danny closed his eyes and stared at the ceiling, “Thanks guys…” he mumbled, glancing over to where Valerie was once again. It looks like she was packing up. “I think I’ll try and tell her tonight…”

At that Tucker’s eyes widened, “Wait, really? Like you don’t want to think about this a little more before you run in guns blazing?”

Danny blinked at him, “Well, I know it’s a little brash sure, but the sooner I do it the sooner I can sleep easy right? Whether she hates me or not I’ll at least know.”

Sam sat back, “You heard the man Tuck, if he’s stubborn enough he’ll do it.”

“Hey!” Danny said, sounding offended, “Okay maybe I’m not 100% on it, but I’ll feel better if I’m not lying to her. Besides…” He smiled slightly, “We’d kinda already had a date planned for tonight. I might as well make use of it…”

As if on cue Valerie walked over, she’d thrown a dark green jacket over the orange of her uniform that perfectly complimented her eyes. “Hey!” she said, arm raised and smiling, “You ready to go?”

“You bet!” Danny laughed, sliding past Tucker and leaving his money on the tray, “I’ll… talk to you guys later then?” He offered and Sam winked.

“Go get em’ tiger.”

Danny grinned, giving Valerie a quick peck on the cheek and the thumbs up to Tucker before the two of them walked out of the restaurant.

***

When they were gone Sam’s lips quirked into a smile, “He’s gonna die.” She chuckled, taking another slurp of her drink as she sat back in the booth.

“Wait what?” Tucker asked swinging his saucepan-sized eyes to her in disbelief, “What was all that about ‘accepting who you are’ then?”

Sam eyed him across the table, “You kidding? Valerie’s gonna stomp his heart into pieces with five-inch high stilettos, but even then, I doubt she’ll hate him for it.”

Tucker sighed and took another bite of his burger, “I don’t know. It’s just odd he has this sudden conviction to tell her everything. It’s a pretty big deal is all.”

Sam shrugged, “Yeah, but then again I guess it’s just a sign of how much she means to him. After all, he told us pretty soon after it y’know… happened…”

“Yeah but that’s different, we’re his best friends and you’re one of the main reasons he got his ghost powers in the first place. Plus, Valerie hated his guts on principle back then because she was still with the A-Listers… now she just hates him for different reasons…”

She scowled at him, but nodded, “Well then fine. Maybe he just wants to take their relationship up a notch. I don’t know why you’re having such a hard time with this Tucker, if Danny wants to go blabbering about his powers to people, he has his reasons for it. Despite appearances he’s not that much of an idiot to get caught by his parents or the GIW.”

“I know it’s just…”

“Ohhh,” Sam grinned, cutting Tucker off with a shit-eating grin. “Oh, I see, you’re jealous.”

“What!” Tucker shrieked, “Am not!”

“You’re jealous that Danny is opting to bring someone else in on the team, this was the same thing with Jazz! You’re too proud to admit that you like being a sidekick.”

“What!? Never. I’m Danny’s guy-in-the-chair! His wingman! His Q to his 007! It’s not like Valerie could—”

“Oh yeah totally, the Red Huntress with an arsenal of weapons and ghost-hunting experience would never take Tucker Foley’s precious slot as the guy-in-the-chair.”

“Fuck’s sake Sam.” Tucker spat, “I’m not jealous, and fine then, I don’t care who the hell Danny goes and talks to. Are you happy?”

“Ecstatically.”

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck me yourself coward.”

“I hate you so much…”

“I know. So… you down for Doomed later?”

He shrugged, standing up and throwing a few notes on the table, “Sure. I’ll catch you around 9.”

***

Danny hadn’t planned for this at all.

He mentally slapped himself as he and Valerie walked to the movie theatre, absentmindedly chatting as best he could about her day. The street was almost deserted at this time in the afternoon, couples walking to and from places, laughing as they held hands. Danny smiled. They were all so… alive.

Valerie said something and Danny watched her out of the corner of his eye. Her breath clouding in front of her face before hugging her jacket closer to her body and cupping frozen hands around a fresh cup of coffee to keep warm.

Amity Park in autumn was both beautiful and freezing with the golden brown and red of leaves staining the paths and parks like wounded soldiers on the fields of battle.

He would have shivered if he could.

As it was Danny looked away, the cold didn’t really seem to affect him in the same way anymore. A pang of guilt struck his chest as Valerie laughed at something, she sounded so happy. If only she knew who she was walking with…

After the movie, he vowed, after the movie I’ll tell her. She deserves to know.

“Hey! Are you even paying attention?” She asked and he blinked, startled out of his musings.

“Uh yeah, sure… what did you say again?”

She sighed throwing her hands up in exasperation, “Honestly, you can be so… distant sometimes. What the heck goes through your head anyways? Stuck in the stars again NASA boy?”

Danny laughed, “I guess you could say that…” Was he really that obvious?

“Well, I asked, what do you want to see?”

“Oh right!” Gazing up at the selection he paused, “I…” he bit his lip, his mind going blank, it didn’t feel right to choose… “I don’t mind, how about you pick?”

She looked at him sideways, “Man you’re acting jumpy today.” A gleam caught in her eye and Danny gulped, “How about a horror?”

“Uh well… if that’s…” Danny stumbled over his words.

“Great! Glad that’s decided. I want to get really scared tonight, two tickets to your most horrifying film my good sir!” She chimed to the guy behind the counter.

The guy looked them up and down but shrugged, “Cinema 5, have fun.”

***

Danny wasn’t really paying attention through the film.

Guilt was eating away at him, gnawing at the edges of his subconscious as Valerie laughed and jumped at the loud noises and crappy special effects that Hollywood perceived ghosts to be. Danny smiled absently, they really had no clue how wrong they were compared to the real thing.

She held his hand in the gentle darkness of the cinema, and Danny couldn’t help but look at her in the faint light from the screen. Her green eyes glistened with excitement and curiosity, taking in all she saw with such conviction.

He smiled, she was light, warm and comforting. Even as she gripped his ice-cold skin Danny couldn’t help but admire her. She laughed when she felt like it, got angry when she felt like it, smiled and danced in her own brilliant warmth. Danny’s eyes softened as he leaned into her touch, savouring this moment. Feeling her heartbeat through her skin.

She was dazzling.

Danny pulled away slightly, his eyes narrowing, but she was like fire to his ice. She melted him in ways she could never understand, but he was sure, he was frighteningly sure he was going to burn her irreversibly in the end.

But if that’s the way it had to be, then so be it.

“Hey Val?” He mumbled, leaning further into her shoulder in the gloom of the theatre, feeling her warmth against his cheek. She stopped gazing at the screen and turned to him, her eyes still dancing in that dull luminosity. Danny sighed, letting his dark hair fall into his eyes so she couldn’t see that he was on the verge of tears. “I’ve been… keeping something from you. For a long time now… I just… don’t know how to say it…”

He felt her shift under his weight, and he pulled away, looking in the opposite direction. She was looking at him, he could feel her green eyes taking him in and he felt his heart panged with annoyance. Annoyance at himself, at how weak he was.

“Danny…” Valerie started, and he looked at her, she was smiling softly in the light, “It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me anythi—”

“No, you deserve to know. But… maybe in a bit if that’s alright?” He grit his teeth and looked back up at the screen as the final scene began, he smiled sadly locking eyes with her. “I just… want this moment to last a little longer is all…”

***

Valerie sometimes thought Danny was like water.

He was so perfectly clear somehow, like an undisturbed lake shining in the moonlight. His iridescent blue eyes sometimes felt like they could see right through her, somehow sense exactly how she was feeling, understand her deepest secrets.

It was awe inspiring. Like Danny knew exactly where she went when she snuck out of class, knew her connection to ghosts and the other shadows of Amity Park. Knew who she really was.

But he never seemed to care. It was why, she supposed, she was so drawn to him in the first place. The eerie calmness that rippled and cascaded through him, so clear and tranquil, yet dangerously so. Pooling with something else.

A darkness. A depth that terrified her to no end, a feeling that if she dove too deep he would overflow, drown her with his power. As if his little lake held all the fierce might of the sea.

Why did that feeling surface now? That dread that crashed against the shoreline of her heart. Breaking the tension as Danny lead her out of the theatre and into the cool night air. What was this in her chest that felt like the pressure of being unable to breathe?

He laughed at something and Valerie felt a shift in the atmosphere as she looked at him in the light of the street, his blue eyes reflecting something she couldn’t see. Something beyond where they stood outside a bustling theatre.

“I want to show you something,” Danny said, there was a kind of relief to his words, like he’d been daring himself to say them. “But not here.”

He glanced at her and she felt that terrible drowning sense in her chest again as his clear-blue eyes softened in the moonlight. He looked… so sad, like this was somehow the last time she’d ever see him.

Danny stayed silent as they walked, weaving in and around the humdrum of pedestrians and life that flittered around them like moths to a flame.

She let him pull her along, feeling the familiar chill that buzzed between her fingertips of his skin brushing hers. He was so cold, so frozen in time. It gripped at her.

It was only now that she started to watch him in comparison to the people on the street. In his dark, navy jacket and worn jeans he stood out and blended in at the same time. Like he wasn’t meant to be there and was there all at once. It seemed unnatural somehow…

She shook her head, following him across the street to the park, letting the dull glow of the stars guide them along the cracked paths.

What was it he wanted to show her? And why did it feel like an ending and a beginning all at once? Her curiosity ate at her but if Danny was willing to show her, she would be patient.

The park seemed twisted at night time. The trees warped somehow in the dark, green grass glowing blue in the silver light of the moon.

Danny looked around and hurried on, pulling her up the hill to where a small crop of trees nestled between the undergrowth. There was no one around for miles but Danny seemed extra cautious, double and triple checking their surroundings to make sure they weren’t being followed.

“Danny, you’re scaring me you know that.” Valerie finally said, breaking the silence that had hung over them for so long.

He chuckled softly and came to sit next to her, looking out at the twinkling lights of the city spread out below them like a map. A perfect mirror for the stars above.

The throb of life buzzed about them, the shrieking of tyres, the chink of glasses and the laughter of people. The metropolis was a beating heart but here in this secluded tower, they watched it all in silence.

“I’m so sorry Val…” Danny finally said, and she looked at him as he laid back, staring upwards towards the sky. “I feel like I’ve been lying to you, from the very beginning.”

She wanted to interrupt, wanted to tell him what a mysterious jerk he was being and just to cut to the chase, but she said nothing, too entranced by the wandering lights that reflected in his irises.

“The truth is, that I…” Danny’s expression changed slightly, and his teeth gritted together. Whatever it was that he was trying to say to her, Valerie knew that it was probably something major.

“Danny… you don’t—”

“No, I do.” He said, pulling an arm across his eyes so that she couldn’t see him. “I have to tell you; cause otherwise you’re just going to find out from someone else and then I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”

He sat up and turned to her, his dark hair framing his face as he gripped her shoulders. Her heart fluttered slightly in her chest; he was crying.

She watched as that perfectly clear water fell from his eyes, carving rivers in his pale skin. She felt something press against her lungs, that fear of drowning, and she opened her mouth to speak.

“I—”

“I love you…” Danny said, cutting her off, his head bowing as she blinked at his words, numbly they settled on her like falling snow as she felt her heart lighten. “I love you so much… That’s why it’s not fair to keep hiding myself, the real me, from you any longer.”

“Danny I—”

“No, Val, please, let me finish.” Danny looked at her and she felt a pang of guilt cross her chest. He smiled, such a sad smile, as he continued. “Val, I love you. I didn’t think I would fall for someone so hard as I do for you… you’re incredible you know that? You’re so strong and dazzling to look at it hurts my eyes.”

She felt her eyes widen but he continued, “Ever since I met you, you’ve shown me time and time again how great you really are. And quite frankly, I don’t think I deserve you. But I wanted to tell you that I love you. Let you know how much you truly mean to me so that you don’t lose sight of who I am.”

Danny looked at her, “I’m an idiot you know that? I’m such a complete and utter loser that I take so much of what I have for granted. Sam and Tucker have always told me so and that’s why I want to stop hiding from you Valerie. Because I care too much for you to continue acting, continue pretending that I’m alright.”

Danny began to shake as he spoke and she shifted closer to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him in close to her as a smile lifted her face. “Hey. Look at me,” he lifted his eyes to hers and Valerie smiled, “You know, if you’re scared to tell me you don’t have to Danny. Cause…” She felt light, “Because I love you too.”

He blinked at her and smiled, “I was afraid of that…”

She laughed, “Oh yeah and why’s that wisecrack?”

He smiled but didn’t laugh. “Because of who… no that’s not right… because of what I am Val.”

She stopped laughing, he was dead serious, she gripped her chest, that tightness was suffocating now. The fun-loving idiot she had fallen for seemed to melt off him as his eyes narrowed, turning to her fully to look at her dead in the eyes. “Val, I don’t want you to think any less of me, I really and truly want us to continue being close, I want to hold your hand and laugh, go see movies and continue living like this with you for the rest of my life…”

Wait. What was he saying? What did he mean by…

“But, Valerie Grey. I can’t keep hiding forever. I brought you here tonight to tell you something about myself that I can’t share lightly with anyone. But you have to promise to trust me, promise me Val. Please promise me that you won’t think any less of me for it and that you won’t tell anyone else... please this is important.”

She felt the pressure in her lungs choking her now, but she nodded, why was she so scared? So utterly terrified that she might lose him? “I promise. I promise, whatever you want to tell me it’s okay Danny. It’s okay, you can tell me…”

Danny smiled and nodded, his shoulder’s sagging as he did so as if all the tension released from him in one motion. Like he had been waiting his whole life to hear those words. “Val… I…maybe it’s easier if I show you instead?”

She blinked but nodded, allowing him to let go of her as she sat back.

Danny looked at her, she was so perfect, sitting there patiently waiting for him to show her what he meant. He closed his eyes and looked to the stars, here goes nothing…

“Val, I’m so sorry…” he whispered, and triggered his transformation.

Valerie watched in mild horror as the light sparked around his mid-section, twin-rings expanding at his waist.

Wait what?

They broke and spilt, traveling over his body slowly as he stood there, changing him.

What’s happening?

Danny sighed at the feeling of relief, the cool sensation of weightlessness taking hold as the rings reached the base of his neck with a rush of adrenaline.

Valerie felt her hands fly to mouth to cover the shriek of shock as Phantom touched down lightly in front of her. His skin glowing in the eclipse of the moon, the black jumpsuit replacing the familiar jeans and jacket Valerie knew so well…

She stumbled, her mind racing a marathon as her heart banged so hard against her chest, she swore it was audible. No. No this couldn’t be right… Danny was… Danny was?

He looked at her with that same sad smile and she allowed herself to gasp. The clear blue of his eyes now glimmering green like emeralds against the sky.

He sunk to his knees and looked away; he’d ruined it hadn’t he? The curling white of his hair intermingling with the evening breeze. Looking down almost resentfully at the snow-white gloves that adorned his hands. “I’m so sorry…” His voice echoed across the space between them and Valerie inadvertently shivered. “I’m so sorry Val…”

Valerie just sat there, staring blankly at the scene in front of her as Phantom… no Danny, hung his head in his hands. She reached out, but paused, no this couldn’t be right… This was all a big misunderstanding, right? A joke?

She pulled her hand back, cupping it against her chest. But it felt so real, so obvious that she mentally cursed herself for being so stupid.

Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom, he’d barely even changed his name. She blinked, observing the shape of his face, the style of his hair, it was all the same, all exactly the same… But even then… Danny couldn’t be a ghost! Surely not… surely… and of all ghosts Phantom? The town hero? Her ultimate enemy? It couldn’t possibly be real; this couldn’t possibly be happening right now…

“You’re probably wondering what happened right?” Valerie snapped her attention towards him as he laughed dryly, the sound was grating, so completely alien to her, ���That’s usually the first question I get asked…”

She nodded, she felt so numb.

“It was the Fenton Portal.” He smiled, the white of his hair playing on the breeze like snow, “Mum and Dad couldn’t get it working so I thought it was safe enough to look inside… I… it turned on while I was in there…”

Valerie shuddered, phantom screams of Danny being electrocuted rattling her skull as if she’d been there herself. That was how he’d died? Screaming and alone?

“I’m so sorry Val…” He said again, looking at her, she jolted at the green of his eyes, but he continued, “I’m so sorry you had to find out, but I couldn’t lie to you forever. I just couldn’t keep pretending it was all fine considering our… history…”

A sharp pain rippled through her heart as she realised that he did know. Of course he did. Phantom had known she was the Red Huntress from the beginning, and yet even after every fight they’d had, every insult and curse she’d flung his way… Danny still continued loving her, being around her even then. Even then…

She felt cheated slightly, like he’d known her deepest secret for so long that it wasn’t fair she didn’t know his in return. But she stopped, hadn’t that been the point though? What would she have done if she’d known earlier? What good would it have done to know?

She reached for him cautiously and he flinched as she touched his shoulder. He was so cold, so incredibly cold but she gripped him, feeling the static of ectoplasm under her fingertips as she turned him to her.

His eyes were wide, but she smiled slightly, pulling him down into her, drawing him into a hug.

He was like ice against her, buzzing with electricity and energy that was the only way he could survive. “You’re so stupid you know that?” She felt him twitch slightly against her but she smiled, “I can’t imagine what it was like… what you must go through every day Danny… knowing that there is this side to you that you can’t share with anyone…”

“You’re not scared? Or angry? You don’t hate me, do you?” He sounded so timid, like a frightened child.

She thought about it, sure, she was certainly angry. But not as much as she’d expected, she laughed slightly, she hadn’t planned on this when she finally had Phantom in her grasp.

“Danny… I… don’t think I do… You never told me the truth because I never gave you a reason for it. I was so completely bent on destroying you that I don’t know… I lost sight on what I was fighting… but I’m glad you waited until now to tell me…”

He pulled back from her slightly so she could see his face, “You mean that?”

She nodded, “If I had found out earlier, I might have blasted you to bits. But as it stands… I’m…” she grinned, “I’m really glad I got to know you, Danny Fenton.”

He blinked at her reaction, pulling back further so that they were at eye level. “I…” he started but she pushed a finger to his lips.

“Let me finish loverboy. I believed ghosts were… well monsters. Bent on destroying this world and everyone in it, senseless and unstoppable monsters and nothing more… I never let my guard down, never let anyone see me weak. Until you Danny. I let you in and now, you’ve let me in. And that means so much more than I think you realise. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty shocked, and it’s gonna take me a week to digest all of this… but I love you Danny. You, no matter what you are.”

His eyes widened and he laughed, the familiar sound tinkling against her making her smile.

Valerie didn’t exactly know how she found himself in the position she was in next, but all she felt was the soft press of lips against hers and she wrapped her arms tightly around Danny, feeling light as air. She slipped her hands from his waist to over his shoulders, pushing in for the kiss. Danny felt like his world had exploded into stars, she tasted like strawberries and sunlight mixed together in utter happiness. And Valerie smiled against him, he tasted like static but she didn’t care. Danny could’ve stayed like that forever, and he probably would’ve if Valerie didn’t slip her hands off of him and gently push away.

She smiled, the heavy fear had lifted from her chest and she sighed as it dispersed. The clear water moving in it’s wake.

“So what do we do now?” She asked and Danny blinked, smiling softly as he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.

He looked to the stars, feeling lighter than ever, “I don’t know.”

“Well, Phantom, how about a truce to begin with.” She winked and Danny laughed, getting to his feet he took her hand and pulled her up with him.

“My my, the Red Huntress herself is offering a ceasefire? I never thought I’d see the day!”

“Oh hush, I can still shoot you.”

He gulped but nodded, a bright smile lighting up his face as he began to float slightly off the ground.

“Not for nothing,” she murmured, eying the space between his feet and the ground warily, “But how about you… uh… what’s the word you use? Switch back? Cause if you walk me home in that state, I think my dad’s gonna have to bring out a little heavier an artillery than a shotgun.”

Danny nodded, touching down without a word, feeling the rings of light split around his waist again as the world held weight once more.

Valerie gasped as Phantom fell away but regained her composure, “Somehow I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that…” she muttered, and he laughed, his blue eyes sparkling.

“Val… I’m… I’m really happy with how tonight went…” Danny grinned as they walked back towards the path, “But you’re sure that you’re okay with this whole… me being Phantom thing?”

She hummed in thought but nodded, “Yeah, but you’re going to have to answer a bunch of questions I have about yourself and the other ghosts. Plus,” she winked at him, “I still expect to be able to fight. Treat me as an equal ghost boy, I refuse to be your sidekick.”

Danny laughed but waved a hand, “Oh don’t worry, I think Tucker wouldn’t talk to me again if I let you have that role.”

“Then that’s settled then… shall we—”

Danny’s breath misted in front of his face and Valerie stiffened as a wave of static swept the park. “Oh no,” she mumbled, a sensor beeping quietly on her watch as she reached for her backpack, flicking the switch on the underside.

He speeder hit the ground and Valerie’s eyes narrowed as she pulled down her hood, snapping the butt of her ecto-gun against her palm as she whirled to Danny.

He was already in fighting mode, the human boy she’d fallen for melting away as the half-ghost hero Phantom stood by her side. Just as a massive, bloated figure rounded the corner ahead of them.

She looked at him a smile playing on her lips, “You ready ghost boy?”

He grinned, “You bet, partner.”

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Danny Phantom Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson, Danny Fenton & Jack Fenton & Jazz Fenton & Maddie Fenton, Danny Fenton & Sidney Poindexter, Danny Fenton & Lunch Lady, Penelope Spectra & Bertrand, Jack Fenton/Maddie Fenton Characters: Tucker Foley, Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, Jazz Fenton, Valerie Gray, Jack Fenton, Maddie Fenton, Angela Foley, Maurice Foley, Ida Manson, Jeremy Manson, Pamela Manson, Skulker (Danny Phantom), Desiree (Danny Phantom), Paulina Sanchez, Bertrand (Danny Phantom), Penelope Spectra, Wesley Weston, Walter Weston, Spike (Danny Phantom), Edward Lancer Additional Tags: I'm back baby, The Fentons are a family of Geniuses, Mulltilingual Danny Fenton, Multilingual Tucker Foley, Multilingual Sam Manson, The Ghosts have backstories, Bisexual Male Character, Transgender Danny Fenton, Space Core! Danny, round 2 friends, reseting the world to fix your mistakes Series: Part 2 of Monstrous Mundane Magick Summary:

Ghosts are a part of life that none of them can get rid of, apparently, so now they just have to figure out how to manage them. Join the ghostly Trio as they deal with bad wishes, fight a demon (because of course ghosts aren't all there is) and even deal with a dragon or two! Will they catch any semblance of a break, or will the horrors of the supernatural break them?

Green mist, the crackle of the Specter Deflector mk1 resisting the energy in that mist, and then darkness.  That was about what Tucker could remember of the fight if you could even call it that.  After what felt like forever, he opened his eyes to find he was in his room.  Sitting up with a groan, Tucker rubbed his head and took stock of the situation, just like a badass in a movie.  “Still in all my clothes from the fight, Sydney isn’t here, Danny and Sam also aren’t here, room’s a mess as usual…”  Grabbing his phone, Tucker checked for any panicked texts and saw none.  It was just Friday again, Friday morning even.  “Alright, so maybe cotton candy wasn’t her power.  Ugh, whatever she did it clearly had no effect on me, so that means the Fentons at least know how to make a good protective belt.”  Swinging his feet over the edge of the bed Tucker tapped the Specter Deflectorand paused.  “Oh, wait, will whatever she did affect me if I take off the belt?”

Deciding he didn’t want to find out, Tucker climbed out of bed, brushed his teeth, changed most of his clothes, and checked more of his room.  To his dismay, he found that Hunter’s mech was not, in fact, here in his room anymore.  “Where the heck could that’ve gone?  Mom and Dad didn’t move it last time it was this morning.”  He paused, scratching his head.  “Did they?  Ugh, ok, that’s something to worry about later.  If I ask they’ll just get upset that I lost track of it ‘because it’s dangerous’ or whatever.”

Heading downstairs to find his parents in the living room, Dad watching football and Mom knitting something, Tucker called out his usual good mornings and headed into the kitchen for some much-needed bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns.  Headphones in, the latest Dumpty Humpty songs on, and the smell of food filling the kitchen, Tucker almost didn’t notice the oddness of getting practically no messages from Danny or Sam the whole morning.  By now Sam should’ve been complaining about being sick, at the very least.

When he finished up his food, Tucker headed out the door, calling out to his parents, “Gonna go visit Danny, see ya later!”  And before they could respond, he was out the door and putting on his helmet.  The AI he’d rigged together pointed him toward his board, which he was more than grateful to still have even if Hunter’s suit would be useful, and soon he was in the air.  Still, even with no air traffic since the boards weren’t exactly for sale - yet, he needed to talk with Danny about that - he stopped before texting Danny.  He couldn’t just phase through a building instead of crashing because he wasn’t looking where he was going after all.

Hey Danny, where should we meet up?  I’m omw to tell you something wild.

He guessed, of course, that Danny was at home, so he took off for FentonWorks.  Music blaring in his ears, the wind tugging at his body as he did a loop, Tucker considered whether or not he should see if a random girl at the park would find his board cooler than the girls at school.  His phone buzzed in his pocket and he blinked a few times, lifting up his helmet to make sure he was reading this right.

Astroboy: I’m at my uncle’s place, u know that.

“Alright, the ghost did more than just chuck me back to this morning, apparently.  Why would she put Danny at Wes’ place?”  Tucker readjusted his helmet and sped off, going a bit faster than before.  He took a moment to take in everything below him, seeing no signs of the fight with Hunter that took place outside the library as he passed it.  “There should be something there though… the plasma and the lasers melted holes into the walls and street.”

When Tucker reached the Weston home, he was almost certain of what had happened.  The ghost had been some sort of wish granter, like a genie, and she’d heard him wish that Danny hadn’t gone into the portal.  That explained the lack of Hunter’s marks on the town, without Danny being half-ghost the poacher had no reason to go after him.  Maybe Danny just grew closer to Wes without the ghost stuff in the way?  Regardless, Tucker went through the awkwardness of greeting Mr. Weston when he answered the door, “Hi there, I’m Tucker Foley.  I’m not sure if you remember me but I’m Danny’s friend and he said he was here.”

“Ah yes, Tucker,” the ginger said, taking him in and clearly searching for a memory.  “The one he made the hoverboards and the rockets with, right?”

“Yup!  That’s me.  May I come in?”

“Of course, sure.  Shoes at the door and all that.”  Tucker kicked off his shoes and Mr. Weston pointed him upstairs.

When Tucker finally found Danny, his good mood at the fact that his best friend didn’t have to worry about fighting ghosts or questioning who and what he was anymore dropped like a lead ball.  It looked like a half-assed recreation of Danny’s actual room, desk and posters, and even his Horrorstation all together in one room.  It didn’t have the murals of the stars on the ceiling or the walls like in Danny’s real room, but it looked too personalized to be a guest room.  Danny looked up from his handheld and waved at him, looking for all the world like something was crushing him.  “Hey, Tuck. What’s up?”

“More than I wanted to be, it looks like,” he muttered.  Taking a seat on the bed next to Danny - and it was his bed, the exact same mattress - Tucker took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “How do I ask this?”  His eyes swept over the room, marking where things should be but weren’t, until he landed on Danny again, looking concerned and tense and just as thin as he was before.  He wasn’t as pale as he’d been growing but he was still paler than Tucker thought was healthy.  “Right, ok.  Rip off the bandaid I guess.  Say a ghost has, for whatever reason, messed with my memories so that I remember things a whole lot different than they are now.”  Danny scowled at the mention of ghosts, the same way Dr. Fenton did.  He wasn’t sure how to feel about that.  “What’s happened since August?”

Danny sighed, leaning back on his hands and glaring at the ceiling.  “Ghosts.  Ghosts have fucking happened since August.  Of course, they had to mess with you too, they already messed up everything else.”  Danny looked at him again, trying to judge how much of Tucker was the Tucker he knew probably, and Tuck was doing the same.  He’d never heard Danny refer to ghosts as a whole with such venom and ice in his voice.  It wasn’t right.  “After you convinced me how stupid it would be to actually go inside the Ghost Portal, Mom and Dad figured out what was wrong with it - an extra switch inside that would’ve had to be pressed to activate it - and after they fixed it, it worked.  Jazz had a fucking fit when she realized she was wrong about Mom and Dad being delusional for believing in ghosts.”  Danny looked down, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.  “I wish she was right.

“At first it seemed like the portal was working the same way all the other portals worked: a window into another world for Mom and Dad to look through and examine what was happening on the other side.  But then something actually came out of the thing.”  Danny shuddered and Tucker threw an arm around him.  “I remember seeing the ectopus thing for the first time.  It was so... wrong.  Like a messed up hologram that made my eyes hurt to look at it.  We all had weapons, thank the stars, but it took a while to get that thing back into the portal.”

“Ok, so it was a door and they didn’t want one of those yet, so they tried unplugging it,” Tucker said when Danny went quiet.  He remembered this conversation when Hunter came up.  “But it didn’t work that way.  Self-sustaining or something, right?”

“A self-sustaining interdimensional intersection that was apparently powered on the other side as much as it was on ours.  Stars, Tuck, the freakin Lunch Lady from the 50s came through - or rose up in the cafeteria kitchen, I guess.  Either way, when Sam had her menu change thing done and we started a food fight with Dash over it, the ghost lady set the kitchen and cafeteria on fire because we were making a mess of her cafeteria.”  Danny scoffed and Tucker winced.  “Mom and Dad to the rescue with the Fenton Foamers, since regular extinguishers and stuff wasn’t working.  That one got them attention,” he muttered.  “The whole town suddenly had their eyes on us, so Mom and Dad did a press conference and then the whole world was paying attention.  And then things went wrong.”

“Went wrong, how?”  He almost didn’t want to know the answer but at the same time, he knew that he should know what happened because of his wish.  This was his fault, and he needed to know what.

Danny curled up in a ball under his arm, and his breaths grew a bit shallower.  Tucker was certain he wasn’t going to say anything but a moment later, Danny opened his mouth and forced out the words like they stung his mouth to say.  “This giant fucking ghost hornet killed Jazz while I was in the counselor’s office and talking with Ms. Spectra about how the media circus was affecting my home life.”  He leaned against Tucker, face streaked with tears and chest heaving.  “Jazz fucking died of a giant hornet sting and I was talking to a counselor.  One who fucking ratted my parents out called them neglectful and said they were endangering us at home and CPS shoved me into uncle Walter’s house.”

Tucker knew what being punched in the face felt like, Dash had made sure of it.  Now, however, it felt a thousand times worse.  Like someone had taken a hot poker right out of a fireplace and shoved it into his chest.  “Oh my god.”

Tucker stayed with Danny as long as Mr. Weston would tolerate, getting the fact that the Mansons were moving out because of the danger in Amity out of him before they played some videogames to get all of this off of their minds.  It didn’t, of course, because nothing could get this off of Tucker’s mind, but he had to at least try to get some normalcy out of this for Danny.  He got curb stomped by a HellKnight and Danny took on being the Doom Slayer while Tuck stewed.

How the hell am I gonna fix this?  That one thought bounced around in his head, the only thing besides static, and for what felt like forever, it didn’t go anywhere.  Then he checked the news app on his phone for once in his life and saw that cotton candy had flooded the swap meet.  I’ll fix it how I messed it up.  I just need to find that ghost.

When Wes knocked on the door and told Danny it was time for dinner and heavily implied that Tucker should probably leave, he got up and squeezed Danny in a hug.  He got squeezed right back, and it was weird how quickly he’d gotten used to the hum of energy under Danny’s skin that he couldn’t feel anymore.  How odd it was to think this should hurt a bit more just because your friend was hugging you as hard as he could, but without superstrength.

On the flyby heading home, Tucker made a detour to the swap meet and started looking, though he wasn’t entirely certain what he was looking for.  “Something Alladin-esque, I guess,” he muttered under his breath.  Reaching into his jacket pocket thankfully produced the ecto signature tracker he was hoping for, and he followed it to several shards in front of a stand near the center of the cotton candy flood.  That was good, at least.  The woman putting things away gave Tucker a swell of hope, even if he felt she was probably wearing too much pink.  Hopping off the board and removing his helmet he cleared his throat.

“Are you Madam Babazita?”

She stood, turning around to raise a brow at him.  Pointing above at the sign that said Madam Babazita's Mystical Oddities.  “Who else would I be, kid.  Are you here to help with the cotton candy clean up?”

“Actually, I was here to ask about the uh genie that got released around here.”  The Babazita turned her full attention to him, and Tucker flinched.  There was a sharpness in her eyes and something… off.  He didn’t want to make her mad.

“Oh really?  You’re here about the djinni?”  She looked him up and down and spread her arms out.  “I didn’t see you here when her lamp broke.”

“Well, not this version of this morning, no.”  He chuckled and cleared his throat again.  “I jumped the gun and made a wish without realizing that she could grant them.  The only reason I remember all of this, apparently, is because of this.”  He raised his shirt to show off the Specter Deflector™.  “It blocks out ghostly energy.  Is there anything you can tell me about this genie ghost thing that would help me to fix the mess I made?”

Madam Babazita stared at Tucker for several long moments, her beakish nose raised high and her eyes sharp as a hawk’s.  After another beat of silence, he opened his mouth to plead a better case than ‘I made a mess and need your help to fix it’ when she held up a hand.  “Alright, kid.  You look like whatever you did, you regret enough to keep bothering me about it.  I’ll tell you about that djinni, but if you get hurt fighting her that’s your fault, not mine.”

“Got it.”  She frowned at him and Tucker winced.  “I understand, madam.”

Learning of Desiree’s life was a sad story to hear, but finding out that she was compelled to grant any wish she heard was a lifesaver.  Sure, it sounded rough having to fulfill everyone else’s desires and not your own, but Tucker needed that kind of guarantee that he could get what he needed so long as he asked for it correctly.   Unfortunately, that would have to wait. The sun was going down, and his parents probably didn’t want him out late with ghosts on the loose.

There were things Tucker could get away with, such as staying out particularly later than he should, ignoring all the vegetables on his plate and generally being less engaged in dinner discussion because his parents weren’t the parents he knew.  Not exactly, anyway.  A few months could really change someone.  One thing he could not get away with, however, was taking a shower in Angela Foley’s household.  So, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and took off the Specter Deflector™.  Nothing happened.  Opening his eyes, Tucker found nothing had changed. He could remember everything from how it was supposed to be and he didn’t get any new memories aligning with what Danny had told him.  “That’s one mystery solved,” he muttered. That done he got rid of the rest and cleaned, trying to devise a plan.

When he woke up the next morning he had a plan.  It was a relatively simple one.  “Find Desiree, unwish my wish, and the world is fixed.”  He put the belt back on with his new outfit of leather pants, a green sweater and a leather jacket he’d found sitting in his closet.  “If she can change reality this much then who knows what else she can do?  She probably remembers me shooting at her.”

Even with the wildness of a ghost messing around with people’s desires and a huge, overly public case regarding the town crazies who discovered the afterlife - a thing that Tucker was going to file under ‘think about in more depth later’ - life still went on.  There were movies to attend, and people still went to them. This was not the place where Tucker expected to be dealing with a ghost of any sort.  And yet, here the tracker pointed him, leading to Paulina… chibified. “I know chibis are supposed to be cute, and on-screen they are, but this?  This is horrifying, and I don’t like it.  I dunno how anyone else thinks this is cute.”  Everyone in the theater was going nuts over Paulina, who steadily grew into a seven-foot-tall chibi version of herself.  “Oh wow, the weebs are feeding her power or whatever.  That’s just great.”

Riffling through his jacket pocket, Tucker felt the handles for familiar weapons - an ecto-pistol, a tube of lipstick that also shot lasers, the wrist ray he should have on and was now putting on- but none of those guaranteed he’d be able to get the ghost energy out of Paulina.  Was this a good idea to act on?  “Only one way to find out…”  Aim, charge, fire.  A beam of green struck chibilina in the forehead, dead on, and her supernatural form rippled with a green light.  Everyone turned to Tucker, who sucked in a sharp breath, ran for his board, and flew away.

“Ok, I don’t have a weapon on me that can push the ghostly energy out of someone,” he muttered, hoping and praying that Paulina couldn’t also fly.  “Good to know. Ugh, where would I find a wish obsessed djinni?”  He looked down below him, and up above him even, hoping he’d spot any kind of clue as toa car flew within an inch of Tucker’s face and it’s tailwind dragged him into a spin.

Once he corrected himself in the air and almost caught all of his breath back, Tucker focused on the car zooming around through the air with green energy pulsing through it.  “I know we were talking about making flying cars happen, but not like this.”  He flew off and after the car, having to push the engine of his board to keep up, and knocked on the driver’s side window.  “Uh, hello, this is technically speeding, I do believe.”

“DUUUUDE WHAT THE HELL!?”  The blond surfer stereotype screamed, bringing Tucker to question his style and location.  There were no beaches in Minnesota.

“Roll down the window!”  Tucker pointed at the button, which the guy thankfully hit, and Tucker reached in to grab the wheel and steer the man away from the city.  “Alright, so I don’t know how to drive exactly but I’m pretty sure there should be some brakes down there.”  No sooner did he say that than the car stopped.  It stopped dead in the air, and gravity took hold - a thing it did at inconvenient times. Thankfully, Tuck didn’t have to scream for the man to hit the gas again since this sudden a drop kept him from being able to catch the air needed for screaming.  When they started moving forward and up again, Tucker clung to the car door and wheezed in his helmet, shaking his head.  “Find. Empty.  Parking spot.  Think about going down.  Slowly.”

“Oh what, just fuckin think about it going down smoothly and it’ll go down?”  Tucker, who was on his hoverboard of all things, was being glared at.  By some surfing wanna be.  He had no time for this kind of bullshit.

“DID YOU WISH FOR IT TO START FLYING AND IT FLEW?!”  the guy flinched and nodded, face screwing up with concentration as he steered the car.  Tucker felt free to let go as the vehicle descended toward an empty-ish parking lot and began to slow down.  When the car landed and Tucker hovered only a foot off the ground, the man practically kicked his door open and wrapped Tucker in a hug.  “Whoa!  Ok, ok this is happening.”

“Thank you!  Fuck, man, thank you so much!  I almost died, flying around in a car!”

“Yeah, I’m looking to find the person who did this so I can stop her.”  Tucker gently pushed the man away and started floating up higher, his visor flashing with a status update on his board.  It might need maintenance after pulling speeds like that.  “You just do your thing, probably avoid using this car for a while.  Buh bye.” That said, he sped off into the sky.

“You’re serious?”

“Would I be telling you this if I wasn’t 100% serious, Sam?”  Tucker groaned, sitting on his board on the roof of the school.  It was the only place he could think of that’d be abandoned on a Saturday.  “I know how to be serious, you know!”

“I dunno,” Sam drawled, “you can be pretty insensitive.”

“Enough to joke about messing up everyone’s lives with a wish?”  Tucker glared at his phone.  “Sam, Jazz is dead in this timeline!  I wouldn’t joke about being the cause of that!”

The line was silent for a long moment, and he checked to make sure he hadn’t been hung up on.  Finally, Sam sighed the crackle of it in the receiver matching the static in his head when he learned about that little tidbit.  “Fine. Ok, let’s pretend I believe you. Why do you want my help instead of Danny’s?”

“Pardon?”

“Danny’s the one with access codes to all the weapons his folks have for fighting ghosts, not me.  Why are you telling me this instead of Danny?”

“First of all, I have the weapons I need to fight her if it comes to that, which gods I hope it doesn’t.”  With all the chaos she was causing, Tucker didn’t want to get into an actual fight with Desiree.  He had a feeling Danny wouldn’t have won that fight with his powers either.  “Second of all: gee Sam, I wonder why I didn’t tell Danny that I essentially got his sister killed with a hasty wish?”  The line was silent, and Tucker took a few deep breaths.  “I’m sorry, if I sound harsh or anything I just.  You’re the one who comes up with most of our winning ideas, and I don’t wanna hurt Danny any more than I already have.  All I need to do is find Desiree and make a wish.  Any ideas on where she might be?”

“Well, she might be at a place where people typically go to make wishes.  Everyone has a desire to ask for pretty much all day but a wishing well or fountain or something would probably do the trick.”  There was a loud clacking of keys and Tucker winced.

“You need to ease up on that poor keyboard.”

“It’ll be fine.  There’s a wishing fountain around the middle of Magnus park.  Heck, toss a coin in and make a wish of your own, that might get her attention.”

Why hadn’t he thought of that?  “Thanks, Sam, you’re the best.”

“You know I am.  And Tucker?  Be safe, or as safe as you can be.”

“Safe as anyone can be going after a djinni, yeah.  I will be.”  Tucker nodded and hung up, slipping on his helmet.  Putting in the directions for the Magnus park fountain through his PDA, Tucker took off into the sky and hoped that things went even a bit ok.

Finding Walter Weston as he wished for a million bucks and peridot green mist swirled around him like a caress as a familiar voice spoke was not what Tucker would call ok.  Still, he took the opportunity to stop another stupid wish from getting twisted - a million bucks could be quite a few deer or even just that much money crushing him under its weight.  Slowing down enough to not break anything, Tucker swerved, yanking Mr. Weston up out of the smoke, and dropped him off a few meters away.  Looking up, Tucker saw an infuriated Desiree glaring down at him and shouting in a language he didn’t understand.

That was fine though.  He didn’t need to understand her just yet.  She understood wishes in English just fine, clearly.  “I wish that I hadn’t interrupted your conversation with Danny!”  The djinni stared at him, eyes bright red with obvious fury, but her hands glimmer pink and green, and the mist wrapped around him again.

“So you have wished it, so shall it be!”

[darks-ink]

What a Nice Surprise CH.7

I never know what the state of links and linebreaks on Tumblr is. Do posts with links appear in tags again? Who knows. Still haven’t got any linebreaks though so I’m making do with ---, but I would still recommend following the mirror links to AO3 or Fanfiction.net instead tbh.

First Chapter - Previous Chapter - Next Chapter AO3 - FFnet

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Danny knew, logically, that this wasn’t the best moment to go visit his parents as Phantom. It was the middle of the week, after all, just after school. He should be working on his homework, or patrolling the city, or something. Not this. Definitely not this.

He rang the doorbell anyway.

The door swung open, his dad’s head poking out. “Phantom?” he asked, uncertainly.

“Hey Jack.” Danny twitched his spectral tail, even if the man couldn’t see it – he was invisible, after all. “I promised I would drop by, didn’t I?”

“You did.” Jack stepped back and opened the door further, a clear sign for Danny to enter. “Not as busy anymore?”

“Nope.” He let the invisibility leech away now that the door was closed. “But I also used this time to prepare something neat for today.”

“Really now?” His dad looked intrigued, wandering further into the house and towards the kitchen. “Well, I assume you won’t tell me unless Mads is around to hear it as well.” Danny nodded, and he continued. “Down to the lab we go, then.”

“Hold on one moment,” Maddie said as they entered the lab. Something in her hands clicked – a part in the machine finding its place – and she nodded appreciatively. Then she turned around to face Danny and Jack. “Phantom, I hope you’ve been well?”

“Uh.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck, unsure. “I mean, yeah? No worse than usual, I guess. But, um. I arranged some things for today, if you’re interested.”

“Oh?” She pulled her goggles up, a spark of interest in her eyes. “Are we meeting more of your allies, then? I thought none of them left the Ghost Zone?”

Danny nodded. “Yeah, I, uh. If you’re okay with going in the Zone, I arranged that you could go meet some of my more established allies. Frostbite and his yetis in the Far Frozen, and Queen Dorathea in the Kingdom of Aragon, although we probably won’t get around to that today.”

“I don’t know, Phantom. We’ve never been in the Ghost Zone before.” Maddie frowned. “The Specter Speeder should be ready, but…”

“But won’t this be one of your best shots?” Danny continued after she’d trailed off. “It won’t get much safer than if I’m by your side protecting you, right? Plus I know how to navigate the Zone, so there’s no risk of you getting lost.”

“He’s got a point, Mads.” Jack looked rather excited at the prospect. Danny wouldn’t be surprised if the man had been eager to explore the Zone even before now. “Plus, isn’t this why we built the Portal in the first place? To explore the world of the ghosts, and the ones that live there?”

Maddie hummed, thoughtfully. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. Both of you.” She shook her head, then folded her hands together, looking much more determined. “We’ll check the Specter Speeder over once more just to be sure, and then we’ll grab some supplies. Phantom, do you need to warn your allies beforehand?”

“Nah.” He flapped a hand in her direction. “Frostbite knows I’m coming, plus he and his people are open to me visiting whenever.”

“Those were the guys that worship you, right? Does Frostbite do so as well?” Jack had lumbered over to the Specter Speeder, opening the machine to look at the internal mechanisms. Sometimes Danny admired his parents’ ability to multitask – it seemed pretty useful.

“Kinda, yeah.” Danny shrugged, floating over to peek into the Specter Speeder. None of the machinery made sense to him, however, so he wasn’t sure if he could offer to help. “He’s gotten a lot easier about it, thankfully. Still insists on calling me ‘Great One’, though.”

Maddie sidled up next to Jack, also eyeing up the Specter Speeder’s… engine, maybe? “And that was because you defeated Pariah Dark, right? Does that affect your relationship with him in any way, you think?”

“Maybe at first, but that wore off quick, I think.” Danny swung himself upside down to attempt to decipher the complicated mess of electronics and machinery. “Working on my ice powers with him made him see me more like, well, me. My status just made sure I had a good enough first impression to get that far, I guess.”

She nodded. Then both of the adults stepped back, closing the panel on the Specter Speeder. “Well, looks like it should be fine. I’ll grab some supplies from the Vault. Jack, Phantom, can you collect the things here in the lab?”

“Of course honey,” Jack said, and Danny stuck up his thumb in her direction. Maddie nodded, seemingly pleased, and left for the Vault.

Once she was gone, Danny turned to his dad. “So, uh. I’m guessing you know what we need to take along to the Zone?”

Jack blinked. Then again. “Oh. Oh, right. Sorry, Phantom. I guess you’ve become such a normal sight around here that I forgot how recent that change was.”

“It’s fine.” Danny shrugged, then looped around so he hung in front of his dad. “So… supplies?”

He nodded. “Most of it is in the Vault, so we’ll just need some of the basic stuff. Fenton Phones, medical supplies, snacks…”

“I’ve got a pair of Fenton Phones myself, so we just need two more pairs for you two.” Danny let his eyes wander through the lab, but the gadgets were too small to pick out in the mess. “If you can point me in the right direction I can get those, and you can focus on the food.”

“Good man,” Jack complimented with a grin. He gestured to a large table close to the Portal – loaded with half-finished inventions, of course. “They should be on that table, since that’s where we store everything we’re not actively working on. Well, besides the stuff in the Vault, of course. Are you sure you’ll be fine? Most of it is anti-ghost, you know?”

“I’ll be fine.” Danny shot his dad a comforting smile. It wasn’t like this would be much more dangerous than cleaning the lab, and he did that on regular basis. Not as often as his parents would’ve liked, but still. “If I can handle it while it’s being wielded by ghost hunters, I’m sure I can deal with the inactive ones lying on a table.”

His dad barked out a surprised laugh, then nodded. “Alright, fair enough. I’ll go grab the food then. If you run into trouble, shout.”

“I will,” Danny assured him, floating over to the table in question.

Thankfully, the Fenton Phones ended up being easy to find. While carefully pushing aside a deactivated Ghost Catcher (you could never be too careful with those) Danny accidentally knocked over a stack of other inventions. And underneath those were the Fenton Phones! And none of the inventions had really fallen, either – Danny had managed to catch them all using his telekinesis.

After somewhat carefully putting everything else back into place, Danny floated back to the Specter Speeder. The four Fenton Phones – two pairs of them – were held carefully in his hand. With his other, he unzipped the pocket he carried his own pair in, not that he’d ever used them.

When he took them, he had hoped to maybe link them to Valerie’s suit. If they ever made a permanent alliance, it would be good to be able to communicate on the field. Or if another invasion happened, of course.

This, however. This was better, actually.

His parents might be a strange choice for allies, but dang if they didn’t make good ones.

“Did you find them alright?” Jack asked when he wandered back over. His arms were loaded full of snacks – mostly unhealthy foods, of course. It was a good thing that they didn’t plan on staying long – worst came to worst, Danny could ask Frostbite for human-safe food.

Danny opened his hand to show his dad the earpieces. The shiny metal shone against his white glove, the ecto-green accents matching his eyes. It was a funny coincidence, he thought, that the accident turned his eyes the exact color of ectoplasm.

“Good, good.” Jack stepped forward to open the Specter Speeder’s door, but seemed to be struggling. Danny floated past him and reached to open it instead. “Oh, thanks, kid.”

“No prob.” Danny floated in after his dad, glancing around the cabin. He’d been in the Speeder before, of course – his dad had accidentally pushed him in when he first met Walker. It was how he knew that the Speeder worked and would be safe in the first place – it wasn’t like he had ever brought anyone else to Zone before, after all. “What else do we need? Medical supplies, right?”

Jack nodded, opening a kit that was mounted to the wall. “Yeah, but this one is stocked well enough. We should be fine with just this.”

“And if anything happens, Frostbite has medical facilities as well.” And a good thing too. Danny didn’t like to think about what could’ve happened if he had truly overloaded his ghost form with his newly emerging ice powers, back during Undergrowth’s invasion.

“Really?” His dad looked intrigued, eyes bright and wide. “I suppose it makes sense – we’ve seen that you can get injured beyond what your enhanced healing can take care of. I just figured that it was because you were more human in structure.” Then he refocused, growing a little more serious. “Still, though, just because they have medics of their own doesn’t mean we can sit back. Ghost medicine won’t work on humans, most likely.”

“Nah, any ghost can get injured if you try hard enough.” Danny shrugged. “That aside, if my anatomy is so similar to that of a human, why wouldn’t Frostbite’s people know how to treat the living as well?”

“I suppose you have a point,” Jack acknowledged with a tilt of his head. “And they might’ve preserved information from when they were among the living as well, I guess. Or otherwise had an interest and studied it.”

An interest which definitely didn’t come from the fact that their great savior was half human, no sirree!

Before he could say anything, however, his mom appeared in the door of the Specter Speeder.

“There you two are,” she said, looking over the pile of food with a mild grimace. “Did you get everything?”

“Yeah we did!” Jack grinned, clearly not noticing Maddie’s less-than-stellar opinion of his food choices. “You got everything from the Vault as well, Mads?”

She nodded, handing him several ecto-guns, complete with holsters. Then she turned to Danny and, to his surprise, handed him another Thermos.

Seeing his surprise, she explained. “I’m not sure how well it’ll work in the Ghost Zone, but I felt uncomfortable not bringing any weaponry for you as well.”

“Oh, well, um. Thanks.” Danny clipped it to his belt, in the spot where he normally carried his replacement Thermos. He had, admittedly, left it behind for this trip – he didn’t like to use the Thermos in the Zone because that’s where he dumped the ghosts anyway.

“We’re all ready to go, then?” Jack asked, glancing between Danny and Maddie. “We have everything we need?”

“Well, we definitely have everything we need. Phantom?” His mom looked over to him as well.

Danny smirked. “Well, I kinda don’t need anything to go into the Ghost Zone? So yeah, I’m good as well.”

She blinked, once, and then nodded with sudden understanding. “Oh, right. Yes, of course. Lead the way, Phantom.”

“First, these.” He floated closer, handing both of his parents the Fenton Phones. “I don’t know how much sound the walls of the Speeder block, and I don’t want to have to phase through to talk.”

They took the earphones and put them in, while Danny did the same. “You raise a good point, kid,” Jack said once they all lowered their hands again. “Wouldn’t want to have to travel in silence the whole way. Unless it’s not far from our Portal?”

“Eh.” Danny wiggled his hand. “Distance in the Zone is weird. Obviously I’m not a good judge since I don’t know how quickly I fly at any given moment, but I know that some places I can fly to within minutes and other times they’re like an hours flight away.”

He flew through the still-open door and closed it behind him. Hovering between the Speeder and the Portal itself, he continued speaking. “That having been said, the Far Frozen is very true to both parts of its name. You don’t have to worry about the cold much, since we can meet Frostbite inside where it’s warmer, but, well. It’s still pretty far.”

“Well, at least we’ll have plenty of time to enjoy the scenery?” Jack suggested, voice a mingling of excitement and uncertainty. “Hang on, Phantom, we’ll open the Portal doors from inside the Speeder.”

Danny nodded, hovering in front of the enormous yellow-and-black doors. Moments later they groaned open, thick metal sliding into the arch around it.

He remembered being afraid of the Portal, at first. The accident had changed him, he’d been hurt and alone and terrified. And it was all the fault of the Portal. His own too, of course, for messing with the machine in the first place. But most of all it was the Portal’s.

It had taken him forever to get over it, really. Every time he had gone in the lab, it just lurked there. It was so big, and his parents refused to distance themselves from it, so Danny kept having to come close. And then one day his dad accidentally pushed him through it-

The Ghost Zone was enormous and green and simultaneously everything Danny had been expecting and nothing like it. And knowing what laid behind the frame, that entering the Zone was nothing like his accident, that helped. Approaching the Portal was still scary, at first, but it got easier over time.

Visiting the Zone with friends, or to visit friends, that helped too. Promising to meet Sidney and sight-see. Going to help other ghosts in the Zone. That kinda thing.

Flying through the Portal felt refreshing. Its surface was cool to the touch, barely tangible regardless of form and tangibility. But the Ghost Zone behind it, and its enormous amount of free-floating ectoplasm, was like a pick-me-up for his ghost form. A booster shot of energy.

The Specter Speeder glid through the Portal as well, closely behind Danny. For a moment he stopped to watch it, in awe of his parents’ skill at engineering despite himself. Seeing it from the outside was way different than the one time he had rode it.

“Phantom, are we okay to go?” his mom asked him via the Fenton Phones, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Uh, yeah, sorry.” He cleared his throat and looked away, hiding the blush that crept onto his face. “I’ll, uh, start flying in the right direction.”

He angled himself in the right direction, merged his legs into a spectral tail, and flew off. He tempered his speed at first, unsure of how fast the Speeder could go. That, and he could keep a closer eye on his environment at lower speeds. Danny knew he could fly to the Far Frozen blind – it was the other ghosts he was worried about.

They flew on in silence for a while. Danny raised his speed, little by little, until the Speeder could no longer match it. His parents, he assumed, were busy watching the Zone. It was their first time visiting it, at least. And, as far as they knew, it was the first time a living human had visited the Ghost Zone.

Danny wouldn’t tell them that Valerie been here. Multiple times, even. It would only ruin their fun.

“Say, Phantom, don’t you ever get cold?” Jack asked out of the blue after more than 30 minutes of silence. Danny, startled, jerked off course and only barely dodged a floating rock.

“What?” he replied as he tried to calm down from his start. “No, I mean, not really. Why?”

“Well,” a scuffing sound, like Jack was scraping his foot over the floor of the Speeder, “You mentioned how cold the Far Frozen was earlier. And while most ghosts seem immune to temperatures, we know that you’re warmer than most.”

“Oh.” Well, he supposed his dad had a point. “Um, not really? Sometimes in the past it could get a little nippy if it was very cold, but now that I have ice powers I’m basically immune to extreme temperatures.” Danny shrugged, looking over his shoulder at the Speeder. “Plus my suit does a pretty adequate job of keeping me warm.”

“It is a pretty neat suit.” Danny could see his dad shift inside the cabin of the Speeder. “You’re a man of taste, Phantom, wearing jumpsuits just like we do!”

“I mean, um.” Danny glanced away, blush crawling onto his cheeks again. “I, uh. I didn’t make the conscious decision to wear it, per se.”

“Oh?” It was his mom, now. “Don’t all ghosts pick their clothing on their own? How else did you come to wear a jumpsuit?”

“Well, you see.” Danny floated closer to the Speeder, still leading it in the right direction. “I kind of, um. Died wearing it?”

A moment of silence. A long moment of silence. Then–

“Oh.” Jack cleared his throat. “I see. That’s um. Unfortunate.”

Danny shrugged. “Yeah, I wasn’t a big fan of it at first either. I, uh. Used to say I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing them.”

“Phantom,” his mom chastised, her tone tired. “Are you really making jokes about your death?”

“Well, what else am I supposed to do?” He locked eyes with her through the window, offering a shrug. “Mope about it? It’s not like it’ll get better. Might as well live with it, for as far as you can call it ‘living’, you know? ‘s better than being sad about it.”

She sighed, weary. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. It’s just…”

“Death is a difficult topic,” Danny finished for her. “I know. Believe me, I do. But you can’t get hung up on it forever, you know? It’s a thing that happens for everyone, eventually.”

“But you’re just a kid,” Jack said, voice also heavy with sadness. “You’re our son’s age, Phantom, and you died wearing a hazmat suit. I know you don’t like talking about your death, but…”

“It wasn’t natural, no.” Danny phased through the windscreen of the Speeder, startling both of his parents. “Sorry, this was easier for the conversation. Just, uh, keep heading in the direction we were going.”

His parents shared a glance. A few quick ones, actually, making Danny think it was an entire silent conversation. Then, finally, his mom spoke up again.

“But you still didn’t tell anybody?”

He huffed out a breath. “No. It was nobody’s fault but my own, and no one else was hurt. No more than they’ll be if they know the entire truth, anyway.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Jack’s voice was quieter than usual, but in the silence of the cabin it still carried. “But we can’t force you to do anything, Phantom. Just… think about it? About telling your parents?”

“Yeah.” He smiled, humorlessly. “I think about it pretty often, to be honest. It’s just…” He combed his fingers through his hair, pushing his bangs out of his face. “It would hurt them more than help them. At least for now. Maybe… Maybe later. When things are better.”

“But what if things never get better?” His mom’s hand wrapped around his upper arm, warm and comforting. “What is better, anyway? What amount of improvement would be enough?”

“I don’t– I don’t know,” Danny admitted, shoulders slumping down. “I can’t tell them, though. Not yet.”

“As long as you really do plan on telling them, kid.” Jack’s massive hand wrapped around his shoulders, pulling Danny against his side. “Your parents deserve to know the truth.”

“I know,” Danny said before his dad had really stopped talking. The man smiled, but continued anyway.

“They deserve to know how wonderful their son really is. How much good he does, even now.”

Danny nodded, ducking his head to hide the smile that had crept onto his face. “I… I’ll think about it, okay? But, um.” He looked up, out of the window, straight at a giant rock in front of the Specter Speeder.

“Shit,” he swore, automatically lifting higher in the air even though there was nothing he could do anymore. They were going too fast, couldn’t dodge or turn intangible–

The Speeder careened through the rock like it didn’t even exist. Danny barely missed it, but his dad went straight through it.

In front of them empty green sky hung. Danny looked back to see the last of the rock phase through the Specter Speeder, stunned. His dad, next to him, look at his hands with wide-eyed amazement.

“Phantom, no swearing,” his mom scolded belatedly, like she had only just realized what he’d said. Then, “What on Earth was that?”

“Well, not Earth,” Danny said before he could really think about it. “I think… that humans can turn themselves intangible in the Ghost Zone, to ectoplasm-based materials at least. But I’m not sure how the Speeder did it, here.”

“Do you think we could’ve turned it intangible?” Jack offered, brow creased in thought. “Like how you could turn us intangible in the human world?”

“Maybe.” Danny glanced out the window to make sure they weren’t about to hit anything else. “But you should hold off on testing that theory until we get to the Far Frozen, at least, just in case it doesn’t work.”

Jack barked out a laugh. “Yeah, probably.”

“Maybe it would be for the best if you went ahead again, Phantom.” Maddie’s hands were still clawed around the controls. Danny was sure that her hands were white-knuckled beneath her gloves. “Just to avoid a repeat performance.”

Danny nodded, phasing through the front of the Speeder. “At least we can still keep up the conversation. Your Fenton Phones work really well.”

“We should test them more while we’re here,” Jack suggested. “Maybe the tech behind them could be used for those phones the other ghosts were talking about a while back.”

Caught off-guard, Danny glanced over his shoulder back at his dad. “Huh?”

“Well, our Fenton Phones work in the Zone, right?” his dad started explaining. “So if they work over longer distances, or even while one is here and the other is in our world, then that technology could be used to help with that phone network the biker ghosts were talking about before, yeah?”

“I– Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.” If they really did work, then Danny might even be able to improve his relationship with Technus a little. Helping with this would be a sure-fire way of winning the ghost’s favor – or at least keeping him out of Amity for a little longer. “If you’re okay with me sharing the tech like that, that would be really helpful, yeah.”

“Wouldn’t offer if it wasn’t okay,” Jack said, an amused tone to his voice. “Seriously, Phantom, we really do want to help in whatever way possible.”

“I know, I know. I’m just…” Danny twitched his spectral tail, uncertain. “Just not used to it, I guess. Even my allies who want to help just can’t. There’s not much they can do for me, besides offer me their company.”

He looked ahead, spotting the enormous mountains of the Far Frozen. “And speaking of which, we’re nearly there. You probably can’t see it yet, but soon you should be able to see the tunnel we’ll use to enter.”

“Why a tunnel?” his mom asked, a hint of worry in her voice. “Isn’t it an island like everything else seems to be?”

“Well, most lairs are actually sub-dimensions that you can only access via doors.” Danny slowed a little as they approached the tunnel, which should now be visible to his parents as well. “But yeah, the Far Frozen is an island as well. The correct way to approach is via the tunnel – it’s so they can protect their realm more easily.”

“Like a bottleneck in case they’re attacked?” The Speeder slowed down as well, Maddie clearly eyeing up the tunnel. “That might be a narrow fit, Phantom.”

“We might have to try the intangibility thing.” He stopped to float over the opening, glancing between it and the Speeder. “Worst come to worst we can leave it here and I’ll carry you to the palace. Frostbite can set guards on it to make sure no ghost messes with it.”

The Specter Speeder lowered closer to the tunnel entrance. Danny could see his parents sitting behind the window, worried expressions on their faces. Maddie, especially, had a crease in her brow that suggested extreme focus.

“I’ll go just ahead,” Danny offered, dipping into the tunnel. “To make sure the guards won’t worry.”

“Copy that, Phantom,” his dad replied, seeing that Maddie wouldn’t. “We’ll follow at our own pace.”

The crawl through the tunnels was slow, but steady. As it turned out, they’d gotten lucky; the tunnel was just big enough to fit the Specter Speeder.

One of the guards stationed at the end of the tunnel glanced between Danny and the Speeder, warily. He waved a greeting at her, however, offering an understanding smile. “It’s fine, Frostbite knew they were coming.”

“Great One,” she replied with a short bow. “Very well, although I wish he had informed us as well.”

“We didn’t exactly pick a specific moment.” He shrugged, still smiling somewhat sheepishly. “Sorry. I’ll try to give more of a warning next time.”

“It’s much appreciated.” She stepped aside, nodding towards the Fentons in the Specter Speeder. “Carry on, you three. Enjoy your stay in the Far Frozen.”

“Thanks.” Danny waved at her before flying off. He moderated his speed even though most ghosts in the Far Frozen didn’t fly – it just seemed more polite. Knowing that his parents were probably still listening, he said, “I’ll bring us right to the front steps of Frostbite’s palace. The Speeder will be fine there, unless it can’t handle the cold for extended periods of time?” Hmm, he should’ve considered that possibility before. There was probably a better place to park it if that was the case.

“It should be fine with the cold,” his dad assured him before he could worry too much. “But will it be fine parked out in the open like that?”

“None of the ghosts will mess with it, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Danny slowed as he approached the palace, coming to a stop in front of the massive sprawling structure – made entirely out of ice, of course. “You’re with me, and I’m the ‘Great One’, remember? So they’ll leave it alone.”

“If you’re sure.” His dad more or less mumbled the reply, clearly worried about the machine. For all that he tried to change, the man clearly still struggled to trust ghosts, especially ones he didn’t know. That, and he was just very protective of things he considered his own.

Danny would’ve been annoyed, except that his dad clearly trusted him, trusted his judgment enough to leave it be.

The Specter Speeder came to a halt as well, lowering until it gently landed in the snow. It then promptly sunk another 3 inches before actually settling down.

Danny was already floating over to the door when it opened, his mom standing in the opening. “It certainly does honor to its name.” She looked around, at the town made entirely out of ice and the ghosts that were peeking outside, just as curious of them as they were of the ghosts. “And it’s so different from the rest of the Zone.”

“Everything else was just green and purple, but this place is almost entirely white and blue.” His dad was looking around as well, wide-eyed but grinning. “It’s incredible.”

“I thank you very much.” Both Fentons whirled around, startled, at the unexpected voice. Danny just grinned at the yeti who had just exited the palace.

“Frostbite! These are Jack and Maddie Fenton, the ghost hunters I told you I would bring by.” He turned to face his parents again. “Jack, Maddie, this is Frostbite, leader of the Far Frozen.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Maddie stepped forward first, uncertainly offering her hand. She was clearly eyeing up Frostbite – and Danny couldn’t blame them. He cut an imposing figure, large and muscular with an enormous amount of fur that made him look even bigger. The icy horns on his head and toothy muzzle didn’t help. Neither did the false left arm, composed only of bone with ice surrounding it.

Frostbite took her hand – with his right hand, thankfully – and shook it. “A pleasure to meet you as well, Huntress. And you too, Hunter,” he added as he shook Jack’s hand as well. “The Great One has spoken well of your skills, even before your current alliance.”

“Frostbite,” Danny whined, leaning on the ghost’s shoulder. “Can’t you just call me by my name for once?”

“No, I cannot.” He grinned, frustratingly, knowing exactly how much Danny disliked the title. Then he turned back to the Fentons. “Come, let us go inside. I’m sure you two are cold out here.”

“Yeah, kinda.” Jack eagerly followed the ghost, and Maddie trailed behind them. Danny matched her pace, floating alongside.

“You okay?” he asked, a little worried. Jack had enough flesh to weather the cold a little while. His mom, however, had far less protection. And Danny didn’t know how well the jumpsuit would protect her – how cold it really was in the Far Frozen.

“I’m fine Phantom, no worries.” She smiled at him, then turned to look at the palace they were entering. “It’s just a little… overwhelming. No, not overwhelming. Humbling is a better word.”

“How so?” He flipped onto his side so he could watch her more easily.

“All this time, we’ve insisted that ghosts were dumb, unintelligent, inhuman.” She looked away, shoulders tense. “That they were incapable of the depth that humans have. Yet the proof was right here, all this time. If we had just gone through the Portal, we could’ve seen how wrong we were. But we had to wait until you almost died at our feet before we noticed.”

“Well, everyone makes mistakes.” Danny shrugged when she looked back at him, slightly incredulous. “It’s part of being… uh. I was gonna say human but that doesn’t entirely work. Existing? It’s part of existing. You make mistakes, you learn from them, and then you do better.”

He threw out a hand, demonstratively. “And that’s this. You’re here, both of you, following a ghost to meet another ghost you had never even heard of.”

She huffed out a short breath. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. But I can’t help but think…”

“Don’t,” he insisted, laying a hand on her shoulder. “Mo– Maddie, there’s no changing the past. Thinking about how things could have gone won’t make things better. Focus on the here and the now, and stop worrying, alright?”

“Yeah, alright.” She smiled at him, still a little shaky but clearly real. “Thanks, Phantom. I think I needed to hear that.”

“It’s no problem.” He looked forward to where the huge shapes of Frostbite and his dad had stopped. “Come on, I think they’re waiting for us.”

She nodded, and they both sped up to meet up with the other two again.

---

They didn’t end up staying all that long, in the end. The flight had taken longer than they had really expected (apparently Danny really did fly significantly faster than the Speeder) and his parents were unsure about staying too long in the Ghost Zone. After all, little was known about the Ghost Zone or its effects on humans.

Danny had tried to reassure them, that it would do no harm, but their minds had been made. They had thanked Frostbite for his hospitality – and for teaching them more about ghosts – and left.

But despite the shorter-than-expected stay, the visit had gone well. Despite Frostbite’s uncertainty beforehand, when Danny had suggested the visit, he showed no fear towards the Fentons. Not that Danny had expected him to – Frostbite was a leader, and could very easily put on a brave face. Even if he was worried that he would accidentally spill the Great One’s secret.

He had been cajoled into teaching the Fentons more about ghostly anatomy, however. When he had mentioned their medical facilities the Fentons had shown clear interest and asked more. And while Frostbite had been initially unsure, they told him that they mostly wanted to know so they could help ‘the Great One’ if he got hurt, and, well… That was all they needed to say, apparently.

Still, Danny couldn’t really be mad. His parents did intend to use it to help him. He didn’t hope it would be necessary, but even so. The gesture was very nice.

The three of them agreed that he would return another time for the next visit to the Ghost Zone. After all, he had promised to introduce them to Queen Dorathea as well, and they hadn’t gotten around to that quite yet.

---

The Specter Speeder hovered just above the floor of the lab. Its metal walls shone under the bright artificial light, its green lights blinking energetically. The door hung open, Maddie standing in its opening to peer inside the vehicle.

“I think we have everything,” she said, not turning around to face Danny and Jack. “Phantom, the Kingdom wasn’t as uninhabitable as the Far Frozen, right?”

“Uh, yeah. Less unified and still kind of medieval, but it’s not freezing cold or anything, at least.”

“Good, good.” She turned around. “In that case we should be…” she trailed off, clearly hearing the same footsteps as Danny.

Jazz walked into the lab, starting when she locked eyes with Danny. “Oh, Phantom! Sorry, I didn’t know you were here.”

“We were just leaving,” Danny said with a shrug, looking over at the Speeder. Jazz followed his gaze with a slight frown.

“With the Specter Speeder?” She turned to their parents. “I thought you guys only wanted to use that in the Ghost Zone?”

“Which is where we’re going!” Jack grinned, bright and wide. “Earlier this week Phantom took us to meet one of his allies in the Zone, and today we’re meeting another one! Dora, right?”

“Queen Dorathea of Aragon, yeah.” Danny ran a hand through his hair. “She doesn’t stand on titles much, but not using it when you’re first meeting her might annoy her. And uh, I can recommend avoiding that.”

“How so?” Jazz asked, looking intrigued. “And is she really a queen, or is that just a general title?”

“Well, Dora has this necklace which turns her into a dragon when she gets angry,” Danny started explaining, smiling slightly at the incredulous expressions of his family. “A really big fire-breathing dragon, yeah. Her brother had one as well, so that’s why she didn’t use it to overthrow him. But the Red Huntress and I convinced her that she was a better ruler and didn’t have to live in Aragon’s shadow, and she fought him. In the end, Red and I barely had to do anything – Dora was strong enough to deal with Aragon herself.”

“So this Dora… What’s the story between her and her brother, exactly?” Jazz looked surprising thoughtful. Oh, duh, of course. She had spotted another target to psycho-analyze, probably.

Which, actually… might be kind of good for Dora. At the very least she could meet another girl without having to worry about the whole rank thing getting in the way.

“Well, her brother used to be the king of their kingdom. Only he wasn’t a very good ruler – he insisted that things stay the way they had always been, was opposed to all change and such. He forcibly kept the entire kingdom in the Middle Ages, with all the things that came with it. Bad living situations, inequality for the women, and all that. Dora, especially, was more his servant than his sister. She had to listen to his every command, wasn’t allowed to stand for herself or do things she enjoyed. She wasn’t even allowed to have an opinion of her own.”

He shifted, pausing for a moment to let the story sink in. “It lasted for several centuries. Then Aragon decided that to really be a king, he needed a queen. But he didn’t just want any queen, he wanted the best queen. He wanted one no other ghost had – a living queen. So he instructed Dora to kidnap one from the human realm, with the specific instruction that it had to be one that I seemed to favor, since I was a strong powerful ghost and all that.”

Danny shrugged, scratching his cheek for a moment. “Of course, I don’t spend a whole lot of time around human girls, so. She ended up grabbing the Red Huntress. By the time I heard what had happened and made my way over, Red had already almost convinced Dora to stand up for herself. I helped convince her as well, and then Dora overthrew her brother, took his dragon-necklace, and locked him up in prison. She’s been ruling the Kingdom ever since.”

Jazz nodded, a determined expression settling on her face. “Sounds like she could use someone to talk to. Mind if I join you three?”

“Fine with me.” He looked at Maddie and Jack. “But she’s your kid, so it’s your call.”

The two of them shared a few glances. They were clearly caught between enthusiasm that their kid was showing an interest in ghosts, and worrying that the Ghost Zone wouldn’t be safe for her. Finally Maddie nodded, first at him and then at Jazz.

“You said that it’ll be safe, Phantom, and I trust you. Yes, Jazz, you can come along if you want.”

Grinning, Jazz strode towards the Speeder. Then she paused. Turned around. “So, uh. Do I need to bring anything to stay safe, or…?”

Danny snorted, accidentally drawing everyone’s attention back to him. He flapped a dismissive hand towards Jazz. “No, no, the Zone is perfectly safe. Your parents spent several hours in the Far Frozen earlier this week and the only thing that threatened them was the cold. Dora’s castle, unlike Frostbite’s, isn’t made out of ice, so you’ll be fine.”

“Take these though,” Maddie said, handing Jazz two Fenton Phones. Where she got them from, Danny didn’t know. But then, to be fair, his mom had a lot of stuff in her belt. “We’re all wearing them so we can talk more easily. Phantom will fly outside the Speeder to guide us, and this way we won’t have to shout.”

“And we won’t hit a rock because we were too busy talking to watch the road,” Danny joked, grinning. “Go and hop on before Dora gets impatient.”

“Actually, Phantom, why don’t you go ahead?” Jack stopped in the door of the Speeder to look at him. “We forgot to test the inter-dimensional range of the Fenton Phones last time, but we can try them now.”

“Oh, that’s actually… a pretty good idea.” Danny floated over to the Portal, then turned back to his family. “Can you, uh, open the Portal doors, then?”

“Right, right.” His dad ducked into the Speeder, and with a groan the Portal doors slid open. “We’ll be right behind you even if the Phones don’t work, okay kid?”

Danny nodded, then realized none of them could see him. “Uh, yeah, alright. See you guys in a minute.”

He dove through the Portal, replacing the artificial white of the lab for strangely-comforting green. Turning around to face the open Portal, he hesitantly spoke up. “So, uh. Are you guys hearing this?”

“Loud and clear,” his dad’s voice replied. The sound carried just as well as it had before, when they had all been in the Ghost Zone. “Try flying a little further from the Portal.”

Doing as asked, Danny flew about a hundred feet away and landed on a rock. “How about now?”

“Still good,” his mom confirmed, her voice ringing clear as well. “We’ll come through now. How far did you go?”

Seeing the Specter Speeder enter the Zone, Danny lifted up from the rock to catch their eye. “A hundred feet or so. We’re heading this way, anyway.”

The Speeder made its way over to where Danny floated, although he sped away before they reached him. “It’s not as far as the Far Frozen, but still 30 minutes flying or so, I think. Like I said last time, distances are weird in the Zone.”

“You’re also just bad at judging them,” Maddie said, her tone light and joking. “Since you base everything off of how fast you fly, despite not knowing how fast that is.”

Danny gasped, offended, and clasped a hand to his chest. “How dare you! I, the Great One, Sir Phantom, am obviously the best at everything I ever do.”

Jazz snorted, and both of his parents chuckled.

“That’s a lot of titles, kid,” his dad commented in-between chuckles.

“Yeah, I keep getting them for some reason.” Danny looked in front of him to make sure he didn’t hit any floating rocks. “Maybe it’s because I keep befriending powerful ghosts in leadership roles.”

“You think?” Jazz asked with that perfect ‘sarcastic sister’ voice he was so familiar with.

He hummed, pretending to think about it. “Nah, probably not. Must be something else.”

After that the conversation more or less petered off. When Danny glanced over his shoulder he could see Jazz peering into the depths of the Ghost Zone, apparently captivated by her first visit. His parents, admittedly, weren’t much better.

But then again, neither had he. Maybe he shouldn’t have blamed his interest in the Zone on being part ghost. Maybe it was just part of being a Fenton. Who would’ve thought?

Eventually they reached the Kingdom of Aragon. Dora’s castle had been visible for a while, the rest of the island more mundane.

“So the good news is that we can just fly to the island this time,” he said, breaking the silence.

“What’s the bad news?” his mom asked, wary.

“There is no bad news.” Danny turned around mid-air to shoot her a grin. “We can just fly straight to the castle since I’m with you guys.”

“You’re a dork,” Jazz muttered under her breath. Through the window Danny could see her clamp her hands over her mouth as she realized he could hear her through the Fenton Phones.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” He spun back around, slowly guiding the Specter Speeder to a safe place to land. “My jokes are the best kind of dorky, after all.”

“Don’t let the jocks hear you, they would be heartbroken.”

He looked over his shoulder to see both of his parents focusing on landing the Speeder. “Maybe that would finally get Paulina to stop obsessing over me.”

“Oh god, yeah, maybe.” She hummed. “That girl has a problem, and I say that as a professional.”

“Jazz, sweetie, you’re not actually a professional yet,” their mom commented as the Speeder touched down.

“You don’t have to be to know that Paulina’s crush on Phantom is unhealthy.” She stood up from her seat, stretching her arms over her head. “Man, these seats aren’t great for longer travels.”

“No, we definitely didn’t anticipate the Ghost Zone being this big.” Maddie opened the door to let Jack step out first, clearing room in the cabin for her and Jazz to move around more easily. “But I suppose that that was a silly mistake.”

“Kinda, yeah.” Danny flew over to the Speeder, hovering by the open door. “A lot of the ghosts call it the Infinite Realms, even. It’s just as never-ending as regular space, or so they say.”

Jack whistled, impressed.

Maddie and Jazz clambered out of the Speeder, joining him outside. Maddie had joined Jack in looking around wildly, but Jazz had focused her attention on the castle itself.

“We should go inside,” Danny suggested, seeing that none of them seemed inclined to move. “Unlike Frostbite, Dora probably won’t come looking for us.”

The three of them nodded, looking at him to lead the way. And with an internal shrug, Danny did.

A couple of guards stood by the castle, but they nodded at him in greeting and said nothing. His family remained silent, simply following him over the bridge and into the castle.

“Not as chatty as those yetis in the Far Frozen, huh?” Jack asked once they were inside.

“Not really, no.” Danny shrugged. “The Far Frozen are a very sociable people, and they’ve been led by Frostbite who encourages that kinda stuff. The people of Aragon are still recovering from their old ruler, so they’re stuck in their old ways still.”

They walked into the throne room, an enormous empty hall with a single raised throne set at the far wall. Sitting on it was Dora, who (literally) brightened up when she saw him. “Sir Phantom! How nice to see you again!”

She raised out of the chair, floating closer to them. Danny gave her a short bow, which his family quickly copied. “Queen Dora, it’s nice to see you as well. These are Jack, Maddie, and Jazz Fenton; the parents are the ghost hunters I mentioned, and Jazz is their daughter who asked to come along. I hope that that was okay?”

Dora smiled, her aura still steadily increasing in brightness – a clear sign of happiness. “Yes of course it is! And a pleasure to meet you three as well. Come, come, we can sit down in another room.”

The group followed Dora to another room, the parents right behind her and Jazz trailing a little further behind. Danny floated up next to her, giving her a short nudge. “Dora is pretty shy with initiating contact,” he told her with a conspiring tone. “Try introducing yourself more directly, and then I’ll offer to show your parents around the Kingdom so you two can talk in private.”

She glanced over at him. “Would that work? You know her better than I do, Phantom.”

“Definitely. Just, uh. If her eyes change color and her pupils narrow, try to calm her down.” He looked over at Dora, who was steadfastly looking straight-forward despite her obvious interest in her guests. “That’s a clear sign that she’s edging on a transformation.”

“Gotcha,” Jazz said with a nod. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”

“I know you will.” He looked back at her with a smile. “You’re good at this stuff, Jazz. That’s why I’m trusting you with this. I know it’ll be good for Dora.”

They entered the next room before Jazz could answer, Dora swirling around. “And here we are. Please, everyone, take a seat.”

Jazz looked over at him, and he gave her a short encouraging nod. Then she turned back to Dora, straightened her shoulders, and said, “Actually, um, Your Highness. I was wondering if we could… sit down and talk. Just the two of us, I mean.”

Dora frowned, looking between Jazz and Danny. Then she glanced over to the adult Fentons, uncertainly. “Ah, well…”

“I can take Maddie and Jack outside,” Danny offered with a smile. “I’ll show them around, since they haven’t seen much ghost society yet. It’ll be interesting, right guys?”

Maddie clearly caught on to the emphasized words. “Oh, certainly. That would be very nice actually, right Jack?” She jabbed him with her elbow.

“What? Oh, uh, yeah.” He nodded vigorously. “Yeah, that would be really interesting.”

The ghost still frowned, glancing between her various guests. Then she slumped in a little, nodding towards Danny. “Very well then. Sir Phantom, please show our guests around. Miss… Jazz? Come and have a seat.”

Danny started leading his parents away, but paused to shoot Jazz an encouraging smile. She smiled back, grasping her confidence again now that she entered more familiar territory.

Yes, this would definitely be good for both of them. Danny would definitely have to look into those phones – connecting Dora and Jazz in a more manageable way would be good for them. Maybe he could even get Sidney mixed in. The three of them all desperately needed friends.

[sevi007]

I’m twenty episodes into Danny Phantom now (one episode per day) and I gotta ramble about this show, because guys, why did I never have the chance to watch it before, it’s so freaking awesome.

I mean, the whole boy-getting-turned-half-ghost is already interesting and unique and got my interest, but I want to really ramble about are the characters. I love all of them so much.

There’s Danny, who not just starts abusing the power he was given, but actually learns about it and uses it for good (most of the time, come on, he is a kid, let him do stupid things sometimes), and it gives his personality such a growth spurt – he was the bullied loser before, but his powers and the responsibility that come with it give him that boost in self-confidence he really needs, paired with some dry sarcasm (which I adore). He becomes so strong during all of that, it just makes me proud watching him! And the fact that he’s sometimes so done with all of it, with the stress and the fear and with being haunted is so well-done and believable… I love it.

And while it’s obvious that the main character would get much love and work put into, the side characters are so great, too –

Sam, who is this goth-girl who is “supposed” to have a pessimistic outlook on things but actually doesn’t because she is the one to cheer her friends back up and bring them back on track most of the time. Then she’s also rich and skilled in things the boys didn’t even give her credit for, but she isn’t arrogant about it, isn’t like the popular kids at their school but stays level-headed, and her humor is on point.

Tucker, who is a bit of a nerd but still empathic and who actually is helpful instead of the show just making fun of him. He’s also a great friend who only ever got jealous once up until now and that was mostly because of the influence of a ghost. Most of the time, he supports his friends in everything (okay, sometimes he takes money for it, but common, most of the time he doesn’t).

Jazz who is the more intellectual of the siblings, but also isn’t arrogant about it, who keeps Danny’s secret safe even though she didn’t even believe in ghosts before, even though their parents are ghost-hunters – she trusts Danny and believes firmly that he can handle this, and I think it’s great to see such a healthy sibling relationship in a show. And that she starts hunting ghosts, too? Kickass!

Danny’s Dad Jack, who is a dork and not the best ghost-hunter, but who is actually a genius – he may not know it, but all of his devices for ghost hunting actually work, to the point where they saved Danny a few times now because he could use them. I mean, what a genius do you have to be to build ghost portals and anti-ghost weapons that can actually capture something that most people can not see nor believe in? And he has such a big heart and is so protective over his family without being too suffocating – great, just great! In today’s episode, he even beat Vlad, a half-ghost who has the experience of twenty years, indicating that Jack is quite a fighter himself when his family’s safety is at stake.

There’s Mama Maddie, who is actually a kickass ghost-hunter whom even Danny fears for her accuracy and fighting abilities, and she loves and adores her family, just rolling with whatever craziness coming into their lives and easily handling her husband’s escapades all the while. That one episode where she and Danny get lured into a forest by Vlad and she beats all those ghosts? That was amazing. I love her.

There is Valerie, who gets thrown into the “ghost”-world through a series of accidents and by Vlad’s meddling and who works so hard to earn money to support her Dad, go to school and find the ghost she thinks responsible for all of this all at the same time. Sure, she’s Danny’s enemy at this point, but it’s impressing that a girl with no powers besides her equipment and with little to no time next to school and work actually works-out and trains enough to be in a shape where she can fight literal ghosts, and that in such a short time. That shows some willpower and determination!

And last but not least, there is Vlad. Now that is a great villain! He’s liked a twisted version of Danny, a what-if of what could have become of Danny if he didn’t have people to confine in, if he didn’t have friends and loved ones. Vlad is pulling most strings of all the greater events, and that in such a subtle way that it’s not even clear (if it’s not being explicitly shown) and he is powerful in abilities, knowledge and with his money and connections. That makes him an honestly dangerous villain and thus interesting. But he’s also this big dork – getting all riled up when Danny suggests he should get a cat instead of the woman he loves, getting eaten by a monster in the ghost zone, or pretending to be beaten by Jack in the very first episode he shows up because he didn’t want to be outed as the villain in front of Maddie, or actually almost crying in the episode “Maternal Instincts” when Danny really makes him believe he wants him to be his new Dad. He is this mixture of somewhat dorky and funny, and really dangerous and evil, and it’s impressing that there is this great balance between all of it.  

I’m not really far into it yet, and it will probably take quite some time until I watched it all, but up until now, I absolutely love this series, it’s so unique and fun! =D

Okay, enough rambling for today, excuse me, I just had to. XD

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

Homo Ecto Sapiens

Chapter 2 Fandom: Danny Phantom Rating: General Audiences Relationships: Jack Fenton/Maddie Fenton, Danny Fenton & Jack Fenton & Maddie Fenton, Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton, Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson Characters: Danny Fenton, Jack Fenton, Maddie Fenton, Jazz Fenton, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Mr. Lancer (Danny Phantom), Dash Baxter, Lunch Lady (Danny Phantom), Dorathea "Dora" (Danny Phantom), Paulina Sanchez, Valerie Gray, Princess Dorothea, Princess Dora, Skulker (Danny Phantom) Additional Tags: Fix-It, Danny Fenton has ADHD, Multilingual Tucker, Trans Male Character, Multilingual Danny, Bisexual Danny Fenton, Bisexual Tucker Foley Summary:

Danny Fenton stood inside the dark tunnel of the only portal his parents couldn't get to work because he couldn't say no to a dare. He tripped on his way out. Now he has to deal with figuring out how to come out to his parents as being half ghost, while dealing with all the ghosts that come out of the portal.

Tucker and Sam stare at each other.  For a handful of moments, neither is entirely sure what they should do.  Sam is full of shock and anger and regret and terror.  She could've died.  Her best friends could have died.  How is a teenager even meant to process that?  She wants to curl up on the ground and hide from everything in that moment, will all the nasty reality that is Ghosts away.  But Tucker is bent over Danny, and Danny is out cold.  So she packs away the emotions, cools her shit, and bends down.  "You get his legs, I'll take his shoulders.  FentonWorks?"

They get him there.  Danny's parents are downstairs, working on something.  They get Danny on his bed, and Sam slumps against the door.  Tucker and Danny skipped over a detention essentially and all three have skipped school.  So Tucker goes down to erase the Fenton's voice mailbox and sends out a bug to his own.  Sam has no clue why he has that ready but asks if he can do it with her folks' line.  He asks for a few minutes. The silence passes, Tucker gets on Danny's laptop.  He always fled to the tech when he needed somewhere safe.  Eventually, he asks.  "You ok?  Today went to shit."

"No, I don't think I am.  Like, the worst I've got is some bruising that my make up can handle.  I need a shower, I guess."  They both know why she isn't actually ok.  Neither wants to bring it up.  So instead, Sam checks Danny's closet and finds something she'd left there a couple months back.  "I'm gonna do that actually.  Keep an eye on him?" Tucker grunted in acknowledgment.  That was the best she'd get so Sam grabbed a spare towel from the dresser and headed to the shower.

When Sam got back she looked over Tucker's shoulder.  Images of old ladies in familiar looking uniforms were all over the screen.  "Looking her up?"

"If we know more about her then we can talk it out with her right?"  Tucker's fingers paused over the keyboard.  He stretched, looking over at her.  "Right?"

"Probably.  Looking to work that Foley Charm on her?"  Sam elbowed him lightly in the ribs.  Tucker clutched his chest as though he'd been broken.  Thank gods for that smile on his face.  "Tell me you aren't planning to flirt with her.  Danny might get jealous."  Tucker snorted.

"I don't think Danny is into old ladies who occasionally burst into flames." Tucker went back to typing and clicking, screen light glaring off his lenses.  "So, my theory is that ghosts draw on ambient energy to sustain themselves.  When we went into that fight my phone was on like… 50 percent.  When we got here it was at 17.  So maybe we should carry batteries on us?"

"And our wrist rays."  Sam was never letting herself be helpless like that again.  "what've you got on her so far?"

"She said the menu hasn't changed in 50 years and she wasn't kidding.  So I'm looking back at people employed by Casper back when she was alive, and hoping I can recognize her facial structure."

"Impressive."  Sam sighed and looked over at Danny.

He zipped up his suit.  Sam made a face at him and pulled off the logo of his dad's face.  "You can't go around with this on your chest."  He agreed. If Danny ever met aliens of the extradimensional kind, he didn't want them to see his dad's face plastered on him.  Danny walked into the tunnel that was his parents' ghost portal, looking all around it.  The whispers of those other worlds called out in his head again.  As he walked deeper into the portal, Danny saw nothing wrong.  Not a nut or bolt out of place.  He got to the end. It was dark.  Too dark to see anything.  Turning back, he kept a hand on the wall to steady himself.  His foot hit a raised panel, and Danny leaned to the left for support. There was a click.

Danny opened his eyes and saw Sam looking down at him.  Not unusual.  The soreness in his muscles, however, was.  Danny stopped mid-stretch and winced.  "Oh. Right.  20-foot meat monster."  Tucker was at his desk, turned around in the chair and giving him that frown he had when Dash had slammed Danny into a locker.  "How long was I out for?"

"Four days."  Tucker reached under Danny's bed and lifted up a bag of Nasty Burger.

"Four Days?!"

"Nah, like, 2 hours dude."  Tuck chuckled and handed him a wrapped burger.  "You need this dude, that fight took a shit ton outta you."

“Don’t I know it.”  Danny unwrapped the burger and sank his teeth in.  He'd been hungrier than he thought.  It felt like a blink before the burger was gone.  "Thanks, dude, I really needed that.  We basically skipped lunch, didn't we?"  That thought had a horrible domino effect and Danny tore the burger wrapping in half.  "Fuck, my parents are gonna kill me!"

"I erased the voicemail from your box, mine, and Sam's.  Don't worry about that."

"Speaking of, how ya doin Sam?"  Danny turned, looking his friend over and wincing at the bruises on her arms.  “Fuck, the meat pile did that?”

“Yeah, turns out being grabbed up by a bunch of proceeded corpses can do some damage.”  Sam shrugged.  “It’s nothing I can’t fix with some concealer and sleeves.”

“It’s still warm though,” Danny said.  “You good baking yourself?”

“The heaters in the school barely work, and it’s nearly October, Danny.  Things have cooled down plenty.”  Sam frowned and looked over to Tucker.  “Do head injuries affect the perception of temperature?”

“I’m sure they can.  If only someone hadn’t summoned up a meat-obsessed lunch lady with a menu change.”  Tucker paused and raised a brow.  “Actually, how in the hell did you even get them to change it?  Nevermind the why.”

“The why, Tucker, is that schools need to promote healthier changes in the food we consume.”  Sam had that fire in her eyes.  Again.  Danny let out a long sigh, which went ignored by his bickering friends.

“And removing an entire food group from the menu was your solution?”

“It’s one we don’t even need Tucker!  Do you know how inefficient the transfer of calories from meat into our bodies is?”

“We need protein, Sam!  If there’s anything that the Lunch Lady said truthfully it’s that!  Look at Danny!  He barely gets any protein, you can see how that’s turned out for him.”

“My dude, I’m not the only skinny person here.”

“And whether or not we have meat and protein isn’t your decision to make for us all, Sam!”  Tucker glared balefully at the vegan and stood up from Danny’s chair.  “You had to be an individual and have all your individual needs met over what anyone else wanted, didn’t you?  No one but you even wanted this menu change and I’m going to fix it!”  Tucker stormed out of the room, leaving the door open.

“Oh like Hell you’re gonna undo all my hard work!”  Sam barged out as well, completely forgetting Danny as she slammed his door shut.  And Danny stared at that door for a moment before groaning into his pillow.

“This is going to be a whole thing, isn’t it?”  For several moments, Danny laid there and stared up at the constellations he’d put up on his ceiling in glow in the dark stickers.  His stomach reminded him of its existence, and Danny groaned again.  He still had some allowance left, so he went out and headed to the Nasty Burger.  Considering Tucker’s words and how much he’d done that day, Danny ordered a full meal.

After he’d eaten and walked it off on the way home, Danny let what had happened that day go through his mind.  Even as he fought off a small angry blob with his wrist ray, growling at it.  “Ghosts aren’t mindlessly violent beings. I know that.”  He needed to believe that.  “So, that means that she can be calmed, somehow.  She kept going on and on about the benefits of meat, and she died years ago…”  An email notification popped up on Danny’s computer, and he sighed.  “Right, homework assigned by Lancer.  What would I do without Tuck?”

The next day, Danny pulled on one of his darker shirts - a gift from Sam with some constellation’s accurately displayed - and some jeans.  His parents didn’t come up to join him and Jazz that morning, which was likely for the best.  Danny didn’t need their ghost radar pointing at him before he could figure out how to break their biases.  The second his cereal was finished, though, Danny pulled out his journal and attached pencil.  “No,” Danny snapped when he heard Jazz take a familiar breath.  “It’s not a diary, no you may not read it.  For the 11th time, Spazz.”  One weird benefit of super hearing - I can tell when she’s about to speak.  Everyone had different rhythms for when they spoke and when they were thinking etcetera.  Danny knew his sister’s patterns almost as well as Tucker and Sam’s.

Danny wrote into his journal a goal of recording his encounters with apparently sapient ghosts and how quickly he managed to pacify them.  If only he could think of how to pacify this one.

Once the hybrid got to school - later than he would’ve been had those damned blobs not been so interested in fucking with him - Danny groaned as he was dragged to the Vice Principal’s office.  There he found Tucker, who was glaring down at the desk in just the right angle to look like he was glaring directly ahead.  A trick he’d developed for gathering valuable passwords while tricking Lancer and other authorities into thinking he was just a semi-rebellious teen.  Danny couldn’t tell what Tucker could possibly be trying to gather from the desk now, but he may have just been scowling.  Tucker was complicated that way.

“Take a seat, Mr. Fenton.”  Danny obeyed and took his seat, looking steadfastly at the space just behind Lancer’s head.  “Tell me, gentlemen, how and why did you leave my office when both of you were already being punished for starting a food fight in the cafeteria?”  Before either could come up with an answer, Lancer slammed his hand down hard on the desk, and Danny flinched.  “What could possibly have possessed you two to skip school for the rest of the day?”

Danny squirmed a bit, while Tucker took even, obviously measured breaths.  He then looked up at Lancer directly.  “We were worried about Sam, sir.  She hadn’t answered any of her texts, and she always answers even when we’re fighting to make sure we know she’s safe.”  Not untrue, Sam wouldn’t have been able to answer a text if they tried that.  Danny nodded along to Tucker’s story.

“We left out the window to find her, which took forever since she had gone to find a way to help organize something for the school.”  Danny put on his most apologetic face.  “We’re truly sorry about ditching you, Mr. Lancer, but we had to make sure our friend was safe, you see.  We wanted to make sure none of the jocks or anyone had gone and done something horrible to her as revenge for getting the menu changed for a week.”

Lancer glared between the two of them for several seconds more, and Danny fought to keep himself still.  “Fine,” Lancer finally allowed.  “I will be following up with Ms. Manson to confirm all of this, but you won’t be receiving too harsh a punishment for looking out for your friend.  For endangering yourselves by leaving through the window, however, and for leaving without simply telling me, you will be serving both lunch detention and after-school detention.  Do you understand, boys?”

“Of course, Mr. Lancer.”  It amazed Danny, at times, that he and Tucker could speak in unison.  They were like twins.

“Dismissed.  You two best not be late to my class.”

On the way to class, Danny brought up his thoughts on trying to appease the Lunch Lady.  “Her name is Agatha,” Tuck said.  “Agatha Reece.  And maybe you could, I dunno, teach her about the health crisis in America?  Help me organize the school to reform the menu the right way?”

“You want it changed too now?  I thought you were gonna get it changed back early, or something?”

“Oh no, the food around here sucks either way.”  Tucker rolled his eyes.  “I just wish we had like, a better storage of better food in general.  I could recommend my uncle and aunt’s farm for fresh, nearby food products.”

“If only we knew how Sam had convinced the school to do this whole ‘vegie week’ thing.”  Danny shook his head.  “That’s what really doesn’t make sense to me.  We’ve only been in school for like, a month or so.  How the hell did Sam ‘wear them down’ so quickly?”

“No clue,” Tucker growled.  For a moment the hair on Danny’s nape stood on end at the sound.  “But, I’m going to make a petition, and head around the school getting signatures for a better permanent change decided on by the students.”

Danny patted Tucker’s shoulder and nodded somberly.  “Leave some printer paper for the rest of us at least?”

Tucker raised his nose, Danny now straining to hold in the laughter in front of the door.  “Sorry Danny, but a man on a mission has to go to all lengths to complete his quest.”

Danny bowed at the waist.  “Of course, Friar Tuck, how could I possibly forget?”

“You are forgiven, peasant Daniel.”  Tucker laughed and pulled Danny into the classroom.  Things would be alright.  Danny just needed to weather the storm and make sure both of his friends were still friends by the end of it.

It proved far more difficult a task done than said.  The three had most classes together, but Tucker was busily writing something down every few seconds in a second journal in his desk while he worked.  Tuck had the most fascinating form of ambidextrousness.  He barely paid any attention to Danny’s attempts to start a conversation and crumpled up any notes about Sam he slid over.

Similarly, Sam was ignoring him almost entirely.  She took her notes, but every time she caught him whispering to Tucker, she glared and went cold on Danny himself.  Am I not allowed to talk to both of my friends?

Lunch came around, Lancer had them eating in his room, and Danny had never been more grateful to Tucker’s mom than he had been when Tuck handed him an extra bagged lunch.  “Tuck, you are the best.”

“I know it, dude.”

“Gentlemen!  This is meant to be a time of quiet reflection upon your misdeeds.”  Lancer glared at them until the teens went to silently eating, and Lancer went back to whatever he was doing on his computer.  If Danny focused on the man’s headphones hard enough he could pick up the faint sound of… blasters?  Weird.

At the end of the day, however, while the two were meant to be heading to detention, Tucker was going around and asking groups of friends who were lingering about something and holding up a clipboard that Danny was almost certain he stole from his dad’s office.  Along with that pen.  Never was Danny ever earlier than Tucker to something, but apparently, detention was one of those things.  Sam, surprisingly, was also there.

“Lancer got you too?”  Danny asked as he swept a bit nearer to the goth

“I was gone all day.”  Sam shrugged, pushing the few remains of grass and mud into a pile and then grabbing a dustpan.  “Plus I wanted to help clean it up anyway.  We need this place to eat in after all.”

“Actually, I heard Jerry and Katelyn at least were eating on the theater stage.”  The two scooped everything up into a trash bag with the dustpan.  “They were inviting some other people to bring sandwiches and chips and stuff.”

“Oh wow,” Tucker called out from where Danny was very sure he shouldn’t have been able to hear them.  “No one wanted to eat garbage right from the ground?  I’m surprised, shocked even.”

“Had you actually been there to see, Tucker, there were plenty of people eating peacefully in the cafeteria today!”  Sam looked downright murderous and stomped off to clean away from Tucker.  Danny sighed a heavy sigh and shook his head.

The detention had gone on for an hour, but it’d felt like forever.  Danny watched both his friends march off in different directions and groaned.  Another friendless night for him.  After a trip to the Nasty Burger, Danny did a little walk around the city.  A few ghosts that he could see when the world lost focus skittered away from him, or ignored him entirely.  Some attacked, but his wrist ray had yet to run out of juice even though he forgot to charge it last night.  “Maybe something to do with my other self.  Gonna have to ask mom and dad about that.”  A shiver ran down Danny’s spine, a puff of mist coming out of his mouth and he looked around, letting his senses shift into that surreal state of his ghostly self.  He saw nothing out of the ordinary.  Relaxing, Danny sighed and headed home.

"Danny!"  His dad, Jack Fenton, only seemed to speak in exclamation marks. Danny wondered if he'd ever had an inside voice.  "C'mon, dinner's ready son!"

Danny raised a brow.  "Who cooked?" He'd eaten his Nasty Burger meal and was pretty sure he got all he needed.

"I did!"  On the other hand, more food that wasn't infected with ectoplasmic residue sounded nice.  Danny set down his bag and headed into the kitchen, where his dad had set out chicken, mashed potatoes, garlic bread, and spinach.  His mom and sister were already sitting and eating, and Danny gave them both a wave.

"Hi, Danny!  Juice is in the fridge.  Jazz reminded your father and I we need to refresh our minds with some air every now and then.  I thought, why not a family dinner?"  Mom shrugged as she picked up a chicken leg.  "Jack insisted on cooking."

"Mom," Jazz said in her best calming voice, "Dad never mutates the food."

While Mom and Jazz debated who had the bigger mishaps with ectoplasm - Danny felt the Christmas turkey and Dad dragging them into a world of blinding perpetual light ranked as the biggest mishaps period - Danny grabbed himself a plate and fruit punch.  Jazz clearly grabbed some groceries before telling their parents to surface.

Halfway through his meal, a thought struck Danny.  "Hey Dad, Mom?  How does ectoplasm interact with electricity in its rawest most natural form?  The ectoplasm not the electricity."

Jazz stared at him in betrayal, Why written in her expression.  His parents, however, jumped on the thought of their son having an interest in their work.  Danny had never seen his dad swallow food that fast.

"Ya see Danno, ectoplasm as it is when we retrieve it is naturally an energy thief.  In relation to electromagnetic radiation, it soaks in any and all of it from the area with the exclusion of green visible light.  That's why it feels so cold."

"If we can refine our engines properly we can utilize the flip side of  that natural state," his mom added, "We could revolutionize energy efficiency in technology around the world!"

"It can store up a lot of power, but once it hits it's maximum?"  Dad held his hands together then spread them out so fast he almost smacked Jazz and Danny.  "It all comes out in an intense burn!  Ectoplasm is either plasma hot or cold as space.  When it's cold, it'd drain the power out of everything around it."

Danny nodded, letting the info process for a couple of moments while he ate.  "So if, say, a ghost was to eat human food…?"

"Well," his mom twirled her fork around.  "It likely wouldn't, but if it did the ghost would soak up all the energy that could be gotten out of the material in the food, leaving nothing but ashes."

Danny nodded, curiosity satisfied, and steered the conversation elsewhere.  Once he was done clearing off his plate, Danny was struck with a realization.  It was the sort of thing that happened all the time, when a thought lingered in his head, waiting to present itself.  Usually, that was artistic inspiration.  Now he knew exactly how to calm down Agatha.  Up the stairs, he ran to his computer.

AO3