#danny wrote a letter to the past

[flamingpudding]

Message to the past

Was one nice family dinner in the Wayne Family really possible? Jason was starting to think it wasn't. The evening started out so well, for once he did not have any sort of beef with Bruce for the moment. He got to spend time with Alfred preparing the dinner. Neither Demon Brat nor Pretender were at each other's throats because of a case yet and there was no argument about to happen with Dickie either and he didn't feel like avoiding Bruce. Did he mention he didn't feel like leaving the Manor at the first sight of his old man?

Everything felt like it was gearing up to be a nice and well deserved family dinner with all his siblings being in one space for once.

That was until a Lazarus Green portal opened and a fucking silver green tin can smack dab hit him square in the face. Causing him to fall backwards in his chair and hitting his head painfully on the floor. Why didn't they have carpet in the dinner room again? Oh right, someone -one of his siblings- got mud all over it after patrol and Alfred decided the dinner room didn't need it anymore.

Once the first shock of what had just happened passed. They got to inspect the tin can and found a letter inside it.

Dear future Dad,

Gramps Clockwork spoilered that there is a mess up in the timeline because of the speedsters and I can fix it like this, which is why I am writing this. Please pick me up in the attached location marked on the map. My current self is in need of saving and I honestly would like to spare myself at least a little of the trauma that's about to happen.

Also please bring some explosives. You always regretted not blowing up a corupted govermental facility, so here is your chance of doing so! Be proud, though. I blew up a bunch of them in the future, with supervision, of course, from my uncles and aunts, so great grandpa wouldn't worry.

Please pick me up? Thanks if you do!

Your future adopted son.

PS: please ignore any complains my current self might have. I was in server need of a real parental figure and as you like to say as stubborn as grandpa.

PSS: also please stop antagonizing grandpa about my adoption. It's bad enough that you had to fight him over it in the first place.

PSSS: please bring great grandpa's cookies, I beg you please! I swear I will do all my schoolwork and be a straight A student if you do!

The girls of the family started to pout while the boys exchanged glances. Jason narrowed his eyes at his brothers. There was a silent argument happening and Bruce was watching them all also.

But if there was one thing Jason was sure about. It was that the tin can smacked him in the face. Which meant the letter was his and the time shenanigans arson kid with sass was going to be his kid. His brothers AND Bruce can fight him over that.

Like the kid has said in his letter.

[stardustbarbarians]

Go to Sea No More

A Daniel Wagner / Sam Kiszka fic

Summary: You can take the sailor off the ocean, but you can’t take the sailor out of the man.

Tags: humor, fluff, hijinx, very very light angst at the start, ofthecaravel's Brandy au

Words: 3.6 k

A/N: Hi I missed the Brandy world a normal amount so I wrote this. This all began when I started to hyperfixate on shipwrecks and fell down a rabbit hole. All of the superstitions I use here are REAL I did not make a single one up. Huge shoutout to the youtube channel Maritime Horrors for posting about all of these hilarious beliefs. Dedicated to @ofthecaravel because yeah this is her universe. Title taken from Go to Sea No More by Sean Dagher. Enjoy everybody! <3

+++

Old expressions float around and are used almost daily. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. When it rains, it pours. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. But one old phrase in particular haunts Sam near daily: You can take the sailor off the ocean, but you can’t take the sailor out of the man. Sam was very aware of that when Jake had chosen the sea over his own family for two years. Even more so when the man he loved had abandoned him in the middle of the night for that briny, fickle mistress. 

However, both men had returned to port and promised to stay forever. Sam had never been more elated, finally feeling complete with their constant presence. All of them knew that while Josh was able to hold his own with his twin out at sea, Sam was worse off. Each time Jake would visit or send letters and gifts, it would make Sam more temperamental and anti-social. 

But, that was the past. With Jake and now Danny remaining in his life for the rest of the time they were able to spend on this earthly coil together, Sam was practically unrecognizable to his bitter counterpart. Instead of clipped conversation with shopkeepers and vendors, he was pleasant and amiable. While this could be blamed on the return of those he loved, Sam was also just tired of being a curmudgeon. He never wanted to be that venomous firecracker of a man, it was just his defense mechanism. But just like the change of the current is controlled by the sun, when Danny stepped into his life with the promise of forever, Sam had slowly shifted and made himself a better man. 

That wasn’t to say that their relationship didn’t have its quirks. 

Sam, having been born and raised in a port town, knew firsthand how superstitious sailors could be. He’d always signed off all those ridiculous fears as nothing but the salt water rotting away those seadog’s brains. While he paid them no credence, he found it was mighty easier to simply follow along with these fallacies. He’d long since tired of hearing “you’re trying to summon pirates, boy!!” roared at him after accidentally letting the dinner knives cross as he served men their dinners. 

And then he started living with a sailor. Suddenly, all those old seadog tales that Sam had scoffed at had to be heeded with the utmost respect. It was always extremely strange for Sam to watch the very level-headed and reasonable Daniel to act superstitious and fearful on a dime. It seemed logic and rational thought were all thrown out the window when it concerned the volatile nature of the seas. 

It all started one day when Sam was doing chores around the cantina. He had opened the windows to let in the cool ocean breeze to combat the scorching hot summer day, hearing the calming crash of waves against the shoreline. As he was apt to do, Sam was whistling while he worked hard to maintain his family’s bar. It was an old shanty that had been rattling around his skull for a few days now, hoping that whistling it would finally relieve him of the cursed tune. That was when Daniel had made a mad dash towards Sam, clamping his large and calloused hand over Sam’s mouth. To say the least, Sam had been startled and slightly afraid of Danny’s now erratic behavior. Sam had started to fear that perhaps some of Danny’s enemies from his old job had been spotted - Danny silencing Sam to avoid being noticed. 

It wasn’t until Danny had hissed a reprimand at him that Sam understood Daniel’s reaction. 

“Are you mad?? Are you trying to summon a gale?!” Daniel had this almost crazed look in his eye as he spat out his scolding. He kept his hand firmly pressed against Sam’s mouth as he leaned out of the window Sam had been mopping next to, screaming: “Apologies, Neptune!! He doesn’t know what he’s doing!!” 

Bewildered and more than a little annoyed, Sam managed to wrestle Danny’s hand off of his lips. “What are you doing??” 

“It’s bad luck to whistle! You’re challenging Neptune! Next thing you know there’ll be a hurricane battering us!” 

Sam looked out the window to see nothing but a clear blue sky and calm waves lapping the harbor. 

“You’re joking, right? Please tell me you’re joking.” Of course Sam knew Danny was a sailor, it was hard to forget. However, he had, apparently wrongly, assumed that Daniel was better than all those superstitions. 

Danny only blinked at Sam, sparing one last nervous glance out at the cloudless sky before slithering behind the bar to grab a bottle of wine. Sam watched on incredulously as Daniel walked towards the door with a bottle of the bar’s good wine in hand as if he were a soldier given direct orders. 

“What on earth are you doing now?” Sam cried, trailing after his sailor as he tore through the Caravel Cantina and out the door. 

“Making an offering to the sea god,” he solemnly answered, not even glancing at Sam as he spoke, his eyes dead set on the shoreline a few hundred feet from them. Sam could only watch on in dismay as the man he loved more than anything kneeled down onto the rocks of the shore, raised the wine bottle as Cain had raised the club on Able, and smashed the dark green bottle onto a rock, the crimson alcohol splashing everything in the vicinity. The former seaman watched as the briny water drank up his offering, picking out shards of glass from the rocks. Kids toddled this beach very frequently or else he would’ve left the glass shards as an additional appeasement to Neptune. 

Later that night when Sam would talk to Jake about it, he far from expected the man to take Danny’s side on the matter. 

“You should never whistle where the ocean can hear you, Sammy,” Jake had told him very solemnly. He had even taken on a somber look as he lowered his eyes to lock them with Sam’s. It had unsettled Sam to no end. That was when he knew there was credence to his belief that spending too much time out on sea rots your brain just like the driftwood she spat out from the shipwrecks she claimed. 

Making sure neither seafarers he kept company with were in sight, Sam stood on the pier and whistled a tune into the still waves of the night. When nothing happened for the few minutes he stood there, Sam walked away with a self-assured smile, proving to himself all those pointless worries by the sailors were just that. 

The near gale force winds the next day were just a coincidence. 

+++

Despite knowing how ridiculous it was, Sam kept his whistling to himself when Jake or Danny were near. However, that was far from the only superstition they subscribed to. Sam would learn all of these the more time he spent living with Danny. 

For instance, Danny just about had a heart attack when Sam handed him a salt shaker rather than set it in front of Danny for him to grab. He went pale as a sheet and refused to take the shaker out of Sam’s hand. 

“You don’t want to give me bad luck, now, do you?” Daniel nervously bargained with his boyfriend, an anxious smile tugging weakly at the corners of Danny’s lips. 

So, now Sam had to make a conscious effort to place the salt shaker in Daniel’s reach and not hand it straight to him. 

Another fear, the most ridiculous in Sam’s opinion, was that of bananas. It was agreed that Danny and Sam would trade off weeks getting groceries, writing down items that were needed on a list in the kitchen. So, when Sam had brought home the groceries one Tuesday and set down a bunch of bananas, he hardly expected to see Daniel gazing at them as if they had killed his sister. 

“What? Don’t you like bananas?” Sam innocently asked, glancing between the yellow fruit and Danny. It was eerie the way Danny refused to take his eyes off the fruit. 

“You don’t know? You’ve lived around sailors your whole life and you don’t know?” Daniel finally looked Sam in the eyes, that haunted yet slightly afraid look in them Sammy had come to associate with another superstition. 

The land-lover sighed heavily. He felt himself deflate as he forewent unpacking his groceries to lay his hands on the table to ground himself. You love him you love him you love him- 

“If you tell me they’re bad luck-”

“THEY ARE!! They’re nasty little buggers that rot all your rations and harbor poisonous snakes and spiders!!!” Daniel raved, his arms flailing as his eyes went wild. Sammy loved Daniel. He really did. Daniel was the only one who had wanted him for him and not just his pretty face. However, he was making it very hard to remember that at present. 

“Daniel,” Sam started, gently taking his lover’s face in his hands, making sure those picturesque hazel eyes were trained onto Sam’s, “you mean so much to me. I have been abiding by all your superstitions and asinine fears. However, I am not giving up bananas for you. So for the love of the sea you regard so highly, please let me have this one little thing.” 

After Sam’s speech, Danny took a deep breath. He leaned himself into Sam’s touch, sliding his rope-hardened hands to cover Sammy’s. “Alright,” he breathed. 

Laced into his single worded reply was an apology. Sam had heard it, Danny didn’t need to say it. As a sign that he accepted his mea culpa, Sammy left a tender kiss on Danny’s tanned forehead. 

“I’ll put them in the cupboard so you don’t have to look at them. How about that?” Sam offered, keeping his hands in their place at Danny’s cheeks. 

“You’ve got yourself an accord, matey.” Daniel’s smile was wide and dazzling, reaching his eyes and making them crinkle at the corners. 

Sam couldn’t help himself, he started to pepper Danny with hundreds of kisses all along his face. 

+++

The next few superstitions all came in a batch of a few weeks. And there was a good reason for that. Jake and Danny had finally saved up enough money to buy a two sail, forty-two foot cutter. It was an older girl, perhaps a few decades spent traversing the blue brine, but it was nothing that two experienced sailors who were former pirates couldn’t handle. Sam helped where he could with the maintenance, but there was only so much he could do. It was as if you asked him to speak Latin. But, he lent a hand and some elbow grease when the occasion called for it. 

Within a few months, the old battered cutter was more than seaworthy. Sam had wanted to get out on the water right away, eager to see the mighty and vast ocean he’d only glimpsed at from his port city his whole life. However, as usual, there was a superstition preventing that from happening. 

“It’s bad luck for a ship not to have a proper name, Sammy,” Danny gently explained, tucking a piece of Sam’s hair behind his ear. 

“It’s amazing she hasn’t sunk yet,” Jake strained, his torso hanging over the port-side bow of the ship, taking in the chipped paint where the name was meant to be. 

“But, it’s such a beautiful day out,” Sam lamented, looking longingly out at the sparkling, cerulean waves that seemed to beckon him with every undulating swell. 

Danny, glancing over at Jake to make sure he wasn’t looking, snuck a quick kiss to Sam’s temple. They weren’t a secret, but Danny had always wanted to save his former captain the grief of seeing his little brother getting kissed - Danny knew he’d appreciate it if Josie’s boyfriend did the same. 

“Tell you what,” Danny started, lacing his finger’s with Sam’s, “you can christen the ship. How does that sound?” 

“Why does he get to do it?” Josh whined, no longer distracted by the fish swimming along the harbor. 

“Well, it is traditionally done by a woman,” Jake mused, unable to hide his teasing smirk. The mirth in his eyes was all too telling that he knew he’d gotten right under Sam’s skin. 

“Oh, fuck you,” Sam spat, not really meaning it. Jake knew this, shoving Sam on the arm with a chuckle. Sam reciprocated the gesture, giving a begrudging smile to his older brother. 

“Josh, why don’t you pick the name?” Danny suggested. 

Josh pondered for a second, kicking his dangling feet off the railing of the ship. “What about The Clarice?” 

“Josh, all due respect to you and your daughter, but I’d rather walk around with a pegleg, an eyepatch, and a parrot on my shoulder before I name any ship I sail after a chicken.” From the look on his face, Jake was not kidding either. He picked off a piece of flecking paint from the railing Josh was sitting on, casting it into the water below. The paint job was the last thing on their to-do list, wanting to pick out a name for her before finishing up the maintenance. 

Josh grumbled, a knit in his brow as he said something under his breath that sounded like “you’re a terrible uncle”. 

“What about Calypso? It’s pretty close to Clarice,” Sam suggested, his thumb absently rubbing Danny’s knuckles. 

“I love it,” Danny added, instantly backing Sam’s idea. 

“God, you guys disgust me,” Jake groaned, rubbing at his eyes, “but, it’s a really good name. Nicely done, Sammy, you actually had a good idea for once.” 

Sam flipped Jake the bird, causing Danny to purse his lips to keep himself from laughing. 

Josh sighed, conceding to the fact that he was outnumbered. “I still think The Clarice is better.” 

When the time came to finally set sail on their fully refurbished boat, it was hardly recognizable from the near derelict ship it was months prior. Calypso had been carefully painted in neat print in a beautiful dark green on both the port and starboard-side bow, Sam watching Danny dutifully sketch each letter as he sat on the pier. 

Now, Sam was standing on that same stretch of pier, bottle in hand the same color as the paint Daniel used, his heart pounding in his ribcage hard enough to bruise. Just like everything else in his life after Daniel became a permanent fixture in his life, this moment was colored by superstition. A bad christening for a ship is the same as a death sentence, Sammy, Danny had told him one night, the two of them lying in bed after spending their day fixing up the new ship. 

“Swing it as hard as you can, Sam!” Jake cried, sending his little brother two thumbs up and a reassuring smile. As cheesy as it sounds, the fact that Jake trusted him helped ease Sam’s nerves. 

With a steadying breath, Sam clenched his jaw before swinging the bottle of liquor above his head and bringing it down against the side of the bow as hard as he could. 

To his absolute relief, the sound of shattering glass filled his ears. 

In an instant, he snapped open his eyes to see amber liquor pouring down the wood of the ship, the smell of saltwater mixing with that of a fruity aroma. 

“I thought you were supposed to use champaign,” Sam breathlessly inquired, his head turning to take in Danny standing at his side. He was the one to hand Sam the bottle used in this ceremony. 

With a blinding smile that made Sam’s heart flutter in his chest, Danny shrugged his shoulders. “Figured brandy would be more fitting. And this way I know this ship will be lucky if you distilled her christening liquid.” 

He pulled Sam into him by his waist, planting a kiss onto the top of his head. Sam all but melted into Danny like butter against a hot knife. 

“Blegh! Get a room, you two!” Jake pushed himself between the two lovers forcefully, the pair of them giggling at his discomfort. 

Josh smiled at them, always the more romantic of the twins. “Don’t listen to him. I thought it was delightful.” 

With the christening done, they were finally able to sail out on the ocean. As soon as Sammy stepped onto the deck of that cutter, he knew in his heart he was going to run into numerous more superstitions. However, he was far from expecting to run into one as soon as they finished shoving off of their port. 

“Right,” Jake started, glancing over at Danny standing to his left, hands on the helm he was manning, “you know what we have to do.” 

Before Josh or Sam could even ask a single question as to what that vague and slightly ominous statement meant, they watched helplessly as both sailors produced a herring. Their confusion only mounted into abject horror as, almost in slow motion, the former pirates bit off the heads of the fish and began to chew. 

It wasn’t clear who screamed first, but soon both land-farers were shrieking in terror. They were both frozen in place as the sailors not only continued to chew the heads of those poor fish, but swallowed them whole. 

“Oh, stop your whining! We did this for you, you know!” Jake yelled, tossing the rest of the half-eaten fish off the side of the ship and into the water below. Danny followed suit, his face scrunched up in distaste. 

“How was ANY of that for us??” Josh shrieked, his arms thrown out in dismay at the horror show he just witnessed. 

“It’s frightful bad luck to shove off on a Friday,” Danny explained, going about checking the various knots and lines along the deck. 

“So that means you’ve gotta eat the head of a raw fish?!” Sam cried, feeling like he was on the brink of tears. 

“We had to make an offering to Neptune! This way he may forgive our transgression and keep the seas calm for us,” Jake defensively shouted, his eyebrows knitting together. 

Sam and Josh looked at each other. They didn’t have to speak a word to understand what the other was thinking: they’re insane. 

“God, it never gets easy, though,” Danny lamented, picking a scale off of his tongue before tossing it overboard as well. Sam had to hold back his gag, a hand flying to his mouth to keep the bile threatening to purge itself at bay.

“I’m never kissing you ever again.” There was a firmness in Sam’s tone that lent severity and weight to his words. 

That solemn promise only lasted a few hours. Daniel had brushed his teeth under Sam’s watchful eye. Three times. 

+++

While Calypso was meant to be crewed by at least three people, you could get by with only two if you were only going out for a few hours. And after a few weeks of Sammy asking Danny and Jake to teach him the ropes (quite literally), he was deemed trained enough to go out with just Danny on the water. 

It was going to be a fun day out on the water, Sam helping Danny pack enough food for lunch and dinner. There were also a few bottles of liquor carried aboard as well, the day well prepared for. 

After they had shoved off without a hitch (and not on a Friday, thank you very much), Daniel had stepped away from the helm and sauntered up to Sam. The inexperienced sailor was tying off a knot as he felt a rough hand cover his own, ceasing his movements. 

“You know,” Danny started, his voice low and rumbling like a roll of thunder, “it’s bad luck for a lady to be on board.” 

Sam was, understandably, shocked. In a dramatic move, he swiveled his head around to look for whatever lady the man was referring to. “Daniel, it’s just us two.” 

“Unless she’s naked. Now, unless you want to piss off good ol’ King Neptune,” Danny continued as if Sam hadn’t spoken, “you might wanna lose all your clothes.” 

For a moment, all Sam could do was look at his boyfriend in shock. The man in question held his gaze with Sam, a wolfish smirk growing on his lips. 

“I’m not a lady, Daniel,” Sam spat, throwing down his rope and crossing his arms over his chest. 

This only seemed to amuse Daniel more, teeth poking out of his crooked grin as his raven curls haloed around his head at the behest of the wind. 

“Don’t you want to be my Brandy girl?” His voice had dropped to a lower register, sounding as smooth as the very liquor Danny was invoking. It had worked unfairly well to Danny’s favor, the other man weak in his knees. Sam had to grab hold of the wooden railing on the ship to steady himself, his cheeks getting hot. 

“You’re pretty enough to be a lady,” Danny continued, reaching a hand out to caress Sam’s jaw and beckon his eyes to meet the sailor’s, “I don’t think the king of the sea would be able to tell. Better safe than sorry.” 

Sammy couldn’t suppress the shiver that wracked his body, feeling the warm breath of Danny’s honeyed words ghost across his skin. He knew he’d lost the battle, but he was far from upset at having to concede. 

“Yeah,” Sam swallowed thickly after his voice cracked inside his throat, “better safe than sorry.” 

That evening, under a burning red sunset and with their blood humming with brandy, the Calypso was christened once more. 

+++

tags:

@doodle417 @sammykiszkasunusedshoes @jmks-housewife @ageoferin @alwayssotiredbutneverofyou @etoilesnoor @ascendingtostardust @godlygreta @s0livagant @gretavanflowerpower @morganic-goods @dannythedog @baguettejuliette @fan-girl-97 @gaby-gvf @age-of-nyahh @mzbrightside @myownparadise96 @xserenax-13 @sammysvanfeet @loofypoofy @chalametpwk @seventieswhore @razorbladekiszka @capturethechaos @unfortunatelykristin @welightthefire @gretavanfleas @sammiejane22 @satanplayshisfluteforhim @starsasone @mintysammykiszka @writingcold @tearsofbri @gretasmokerising @streamofstardust @lunaindigoraven @jakeydoesit @tripthelightfandomtastic @sunfl0wer-power @wingedgardener2000 @gretavanbitches @teddiie @gardensGateDaisy @sparrowofthedawnsworld @angelbabyyy99 @sammysprincess @whollyfreeamongststars @gretaswhore28 @l0rdoffli3s @kay-jordan @lightmyloverry @kenzie18 @gotavansleep @roosterbbradley @freckled-wonder @flower-power-anthem @Gabyvanfleet @Sarakay-gvf @Mamalikes-gvf @josh-iamyour-mama @st4rdust-ch0rds @pr41sethemoon @fallonfatality @earthlysorrows @jessicafg03 @rossy1080 @hippievanfleet @spark-my-nature @hayley1623 @schleeble @gretavanflipflop

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

Rewrite for Masters Of All Time.

What's worse than a bad episode? A bad episode that had the POTENTIAL to be truly amazing. The concept of Danny time-traveling to the past and messing with Vlad's portal incident only to make the timeline even worse than it currently is so he *needs* to fix it back to normal.

[Certain changes and explanations why I made those changes will be put in brackets like these.]

Borrowing @schnuffel-danny's Jack wrote letters to Vlad hc for this loose plot rewrite. Finally got spurred into writing this when I saw @picturejasper20's post about it.

Starting at the beginning, let's cut out Vlad going to the Fentons for help and make the trigger for Danny relying on time travel being that he is fading in and out of the time-space-continuum and he goes to Clockwork to figure out why. Clockwork in turn, gives him a medallion to stabilize him and informs him that someone stole stuff from him and is changing the past, thus effecting the present. Danny jumps to the conclusion that it's Vlad and volunteers to go after him, Clockwork can't read minds so he doesn't know that Danny thinks Vlad did it and okays it, sending him to the year he saw the 'dubious creature' flee to.

[This change both lets us dive right into the time-travel shenanigans thus giving us slightly more time to see more timelines. It also makes Danny look less stupid because in this case, jumping to the conclusion that time-travel is the answer makes much more sense. There's multiple solutions to trying to cure a virus that don't involve time travel, but you can't fix 'somebody's messing with the past' *without* time travel.]

After he lands in Wisconsin University, 198X, Danny's even more sure that it's Vlad messing with the past, but despite that, he doesn't find him anywhere while he zooms around the university hunting him down. He *does* find or rather, crashes into College!Vlad. Who is surprisingly chill with the existence of ghosts being real and doesn't seem phased by Danny phasing through him. Danny apologizes, C!Vlad accepts it, telling Danny not to worry, it's not like anything happened. Both move on their way without thinking about the interaction while C!Vlad mutters something about 'Undead Fenton Family reunion'. [Scene is there for foreshadowing.]

Danny spends all day looking for Present!Vlad up until he finds a flyer for the 'Ghost club' where they plan to show off the proto-portal. Figuring that P!Vlad is going to sabotage it somehow, he stakes out the area the portal's being built waiting for P!Vlad to show up and he doesn't.

Instead, College!Jack insists C!Vlad handle the remote while he inspects the portal's structural integrity. C!Vlad agrees, but has doubts that the portal will really work which he expresses to C!Jack, who waves it off and sticks his head inches away from the portal frame as he's 'inspecting' and Danny's waiting until C!Jack's done so Vlad can peer into it so things can happen as they're supposed to.

But he doesn't.

College!Maddie inspects the calculations and tells the two that they are wrong, C!Vlad sneezed and turned the remote on by accident, cursing as the portal turns on. Thus, the proto-portal incident occurs with Vlad and Jack's positions swapped. And Danny learns his dad left out that the accident was far more horrific than he described.

[The horrors occur off-screen, but we're shown shadows, see Danny's reactions, hear C!Jack's agonized screams along with C!Vlad and C!Maddie's horrified screams, and see Danny run out of the room to throw up in the nearest trash can. I made this change for three reasons. 1. Reveal that Jack's retelling of the 'good ol' days' has a few lies ingrained in the sugar coating, the biggest of which being the severity of the accident 2. Reveal to the audience that Vlad actually has a really high Fenton-nonsense tolerance level and that while he holds grudges like a cup holds water, he doesn't hold unwarranted grudges. 3. I just want to add a little body horror concepts in the show about a half-dead kid who fights ghosts, sue me.]

From there, Danny follows the three and sees how things must've played out from the original timeline, but with Jack and Vlad swapped; Maddie and Vlad keep trying to visit Jack, but hospital security keep turning him away, they also attempt to send him letters and gifts but those are also rejected, but neither are giving up... [Scene added to show the audience Jack and Vlad were friends back then and that Jack didn't just drop Vlad like a bad habit after he was hospitalized]

Feeling defeated as he didn't prevent the timeline from changing but not sure what to do, Danny kinda waits on the hospital roof until Clockwork pushes a button on his staff that brings the kid back to the present.

Clockwork is confused, Danny's also confused, but surprisingly, the timeline is as things should be on the surface... Just to double check, Danny heads in hoping for the best, like maybe things were pretty rough for his dad at first, but *surely* his face healed up and he and mom got together soon afterwards right? Maybe this change is a good thing and he can learn how to be a halfa from his own dad, right?

Wrong. Instead, Jack Fenton lives alone in Amity Park with a robotic version of Jasmine and a cat named Jack Junior. There's a lot less Fenton inventions in Fentonworks and a lot more ghosts strapped to dissection tables, many, if not all of them, are not moving.

[Robot added and cat's name changed because as silly as he is, Jack *is* an inventor in his own right and making a robot daughter does seem like something he'd do if he was REALLY lonely, as well as would parallel Vlad's future creation of Danielle. Ghosts on dissection tables added to add some tension as whether or not Danny is in danger, this Jack is definitely dangerous.]

Instead of the bootleg Vlad Plasmius costume, Jack's ghost form does have the pointy ears, red eyes, bluish skin, and fangs that Vlad's strain of halfa-ism has, but he wears the same orange jumpsuit (as only his face was caught in the portal, not his entire body) and an added purple cloak/hood combo.

Danny is at first intimidated by this large hooded figure surrounded by dead ghosts and they have a short fight, then in battle, the latter notices the medallion on the former and flips the hood off, excitedly asking Danny about it, being just as chipper and ramble-y as he remembers his dad, even as a very scary ghost. Relieved, Danny explains what he knows the best he can and asks 'Jack Frighton' [ghostly surname being a poor mesh of 'Fright' and 'Fenton'] about what happened in the past.

Jack's own recollection of how things played out is a bittersweet story about how back then, someone warned him that his best friend would go through something terrible if he looked through that proto-ghost portal and he took the fall for him, only for said best friend to never visit him in the hospital and Jack, heartbroken by his supposed friends' lack of care for his life (which Danny knows isn't true), moves away to Amity Park for a fresh start.

"..Did you forgive them?"

"I did, the distance and time made it easier to and now I've got the best job in the world, the coolest powers to do it with, and an assistant who's like a daughter to me. Although given that apparently in your timeline I have a REAL daughter and a son I guess that might be where the feeling comes from..."

"Do you ever want to see them again? Vlad and Maddie, I mean."

"*laughs* not when I'm half-ghost and they're professional ghost hunters! I'm happy for them, but I can be happy for them at a safe distance, we send each other letters, cards, and research materials all the time now!"

"...Aren't you a ghost-hunter too?"

"Nope."

"But what about all the-?"

"Oh? These guys? I work as a ghost-mortician. I also ghost-fish, but that's just a hobby. I've tried, but I'm not cut out to be an actual hunter, 'got a really lousy aim, but you don't need an accurate aim with a fishing rod to catch something!"

"Ghost-fishing? So you do have a ghost portal? Can I use it to get back to Clockwork?"

"Well Danny, I'd say 'yes', but I sent it over to Mads and V-man for reference on their own portal a month ago... ...I'll show the way to their address."

One Specter Speeder flight to Vlad and Maddie's Wisconsin house later, Jack and Danny switch to human forms and Jack knocks on the door, getting no response.

Jack knocks again and calls out for them, still no response.

Danny just phases through the front door and Jack follows, both of them notice that the house is in a state of disrepair; broken furniture everywhere, puddles of ectoplasm on the ground, and strange claw marks on the walls.

As the two quietly make their way through the house, (well, Danny quietly goes through the house, Jack calls out for his old friends every two minutes), Danny notices framed pictures, inventions, and other odd items symbolizing Vlad and Maddie's relationship through the years on the walls and left broken on the ground. Through these items he sees their wedding, their honeymoon, their anniversary dates, the devices they built together, their ghost-hunting trips, their... the pictures of the "children" they apparently made together with mad science. [Clone kids foreshadowing Kindred Spirits, but they look closer to the skeleton and Frankenstein clones as opposed to anything like Dani.]

While Danny's holding up one of the letters, he hears ectobeams going off and Jack flies into the room, panicking as he's yelling at Danny to run for his life, saying that they messed with something they never should have messed with. That they bit off more than they could chew. Danny is just about to question Jack before he hears the inhuman groan and sees the ectoplasm-oozing figure of what is supposed to be Vlad Masters.

[We will not see a dairy king!Vlad future in this rewrite for multiple reasons, but one of the biggest ones is that despite being a different timeline, DK!Vlad is a copy-paste of Main Timeline!Vlad despite it making literally no sense and just downgrading Vlad's character by saying 'he's just an asshole, don't pity him'. However I understand as a writer that Danny needs to not have moral dilemmas about undoing the Vlad X Maddie timeline especially since I gave them kids even if they are weird-clone kids that might not even be sapient, so enjoy ecto-zombies and the looming implication that said kids are also zombies.]

The ecto-Zombie Maddie shrieks as her husband's pinned down and lunges at Jack, who puts up a shield blocking her barrage but also giving Zombie!Vlad time to get up...

As he's holding them off despite being distraught, Danny finds the portal and looks back at Jack just as he can't hold them off any longer, promising him that he will fix the timeline, Jack wishes him luck while Danny jumps through the portal to head back to Clockwork.

Once there, Danny explains that he learned from Jack what happened and what he needs to do to prevent this timeline that's on the brink of a zombie apocalypse from happening: He needs to stop Vlad from convincing College!Jack from sticking his head in the portal.

Clockwork attempts to clarify that Vlad isn't the one who changed the past, but Danny's already going through the Time-thing and while Clockwork *could* just bring him back to the present, he decides to stay and watch what he does to let Danny's rash decision not to listen be its own punishment.

This time when he's in the past, he shows up in C!Vlad and C!Jack's bedroom in the morning and basically sticks to the two of them like glue, claiming that he's one of their relatives and being really vague about it so Vlad thinks he's Jack's distant cousin and Jack thinks he's Vlad's distant cousin.

He drags himself along on two different classes with C!Jack and C!Vlad, a really boring study session with them accompanied with C!Maddie, a lunch at a diner where Danny has to remind himself that yes, this is really Vlad because the one and only time he's seen this laid-back, (stoner but its hinted at with the munchies, not shown), actually kinda cool guy get Present!Vlad levels of mad, the only time he sees him get into a full on fight with someone, is when another student from the college tries to steal C!Jack's lunch.

C!Vlad gets his ass absolutely handed to him because he's a twig in an oversized jacket, but he still gets C!Jack's lunch back because he bit the other guy at least five times.

While Danny's playing bodyguard, he uses ectobeams to successfully scare off what he thinks was Skulker in a bedsheet as the figure was far too large to be Vlad, even in his Plasmius form.

Aside from his presence being known, things in the college go on as Danny assumes they're supposed to, and at the point he sees C!Vlad looking into the rim of the proto-portal, Danny thinks that he's fixed the timeline and heads out of the room before the accident happens as he does NOT want to see it again.

Clockwork sends him to the new present and Danny walks home sweet home only to be greeted by the realization that no, he didn't fix the timeline as the sign on the building reads "Walkerworks".

Today he learns that his mom's maiden name is "Walker".

Danny lets out an exasperated sigh and flies out to Wisconsin to figure out how Vlad messed up the timeline from the man himself before borrowing mom's portal for a bit.

As he gets there, he finds the the beefy Packers' Quarterback: Vlad Masters, who lives with his best friend, the ghost-studying scientist Jack Fenton.

Danny pulls Vlad aside and says that while he understands the Packers thing, why the heck would he'd change the timeline to this when he was obsessed with marrying his mom is he just trying to spite him or just erase him from existance? And Quarterback!Vlad has no idea what he's talking about.

While he buys that Danny's from a different timeline when Danny shows Vlad that he's a halfa, the two are having trouble getting on the same page due to the fact that Vlad has no idea about the timeline Danny's talking about and Danny's getting frustrated up until Vlad brings up the incident and he finally understands what changed in the timeline when Vlad tells him about the aftermath of the portal accident.

"The ghost powers themselves are great, I don't think I'd accomplish any of this if I didn't have them, but the process of mastering them was absolutely terrible, if my best friend Jack didn't visit me in the hospital all the time and encourage me as much as he did, I don't know what I would've done."

"Visited you?"

"Yes! Practically every single day, he also brought gifts and letters, apparently, he wanted to send them, but thought they'd get lost in the mail, so instead he brought them in person..."

Now that he knows what's changed, Danny goes back in time once again to the first day Vlad's at the hospital and waits for either Present Vlad or the past Version of his dad to show up, feeling guilty about ruining Jack and Vlad's happy life together, but also really wanting to, you know, exist.

As night falls and he sees someone his dad's size squeeze through one of the windows, Danny tackles him, throws off the figure's sheet, and takes off his hood/goggles for good measure, revealing that it's not Skulker, not Present!Vlad, not College!Jack, but Present!Jack.

Danny's shocked and demands an explanation from him, also warning him that he ruined the timeline twice and that he's not going to let him do it a third time.

Jack explains that this all started when he added some extra line on his Fenton Ghost-Fisher and while testing it out, he caught a time travel-remote. After figuring out what it was and what it did, he thoughtlessly used it to attempt to fix his broken relationship with his former best friend.

"But it seemed like every time I finally fixed something, I'd turn around for something else to break. I lost him and Mads in one timeline, at first I tried not to mind, but then they even lost themselves, in another, I had him, but lost her, Jazz and Danny..."

Jack hands Danny the remote back with a sigh.

"I'm sorry Phantom. I never wanted to mess anything up or hurt anyone. I really love my family and don't want to lose them. I do want my kids to exist and I swear I'm not trying to run away from them or anything like that. But if I can't save Vlad, if I can't be there for him, how can he ever forgive me for what I've done to him?"

"When you were put in the same situation he was in, you forgave him. You were trying to reconnect with him and Maddie when they were a thing... So why can't he forgive you?"

"It's not as simple as that, kiddo. I saw what could've happened and chose to sacrifice myself, he didn't even get to see the choices."

Danny rolled his eyes.

Sure, he himself 'didn't see the choices' when he was caught in his own portal incident, but he never held a grudge against Sam over it. In Danny's point of view in this moment, the difference between Jack and Vlad is that in the exact same situation, Jack would choose to be a hero where Vlad would choose to be a villain. And to him, that was the reason why his parents worked as a couple while when Vlad was with his mom, things ended terribly.

But he said nothing to his father who had been through enough today. He just sat by him in the hospital hallway waiting for Clockwork to zap them back.

___

And that's the end of the rewrite, comments, opinions, questions, criticisms, and suggestions on how to change this to make it better welcome. I know that it's not a *perfect* piece of work but I hope that it was one less infuriating than the actual Masters Of All Time episode.

[looby1302]

Part five of guilty conscience.

Thank you all for the support , I do enjoy writing these. If you would like more parts or more stories please let me know.

ROMANTIC CHAPTER.

As Danny stood there with a horrifying look on his face. Jackie felt embarrassed, her cheeks turned red, never before has she been caught like that. Never before had she even got to that point with anyone. She quickly removed herself from Cole. almost jumping on the chair opposite. Cole looked like he could care less, smirking towards her. Danny then proceeded from the living room into his temporary bedroom, without saying a word.

“ I can’t believe that just happened” Jackie said as she looked at a dishevelled Cole. “ it’s fine Jackie, Danny won’t say anything” he said with a throaty giggle. “ okay we need to talk, without any distractions”. She said with a straight face. “ so you mean no kissing then? Do you think you can go that long New York?” Still his eyes beaming at her. “ of course, I’m competitive don’t you remember?”. They both giggled.

“ why are you in New York? why did you follow me here?”. She said in all seriousness. “ you left, without even a word. All that happened that night after the wedding, I couldn’t just let you go”. He said gulping. “ I didn’t know what to do, obviously me and Alex were still together, will had just got married, then I found the teapot… and it just confused everything”. She said looking into those beautiful green eyes.

He moved forward and sat up almost closing the space between them. “ what do you mean by confused everything? You and Alex were together? Are you not?”. He said almost soft and sympathetically. “ me and Alex broke up, I broke up with him. As for the teapot. The letter that you wrote to me, why didn’t you give it to me?”. She said starting to tear up, the thought of that night bringing back so many emotions.

“ I wanted to, I saw the way you acted when it broke, So I held onto it. I didn’t know just how much it meant to you at that time. But the night the power went out, and you explained it. I knew I had to try and salvage it. I had planned to give it to you at Thanksgiving but then I saw you and Alex kissing and I thought it would only complicate things”. Cole shivers at the thought and Jackie makes a sigh. She has never seen Cole this vulnerable before.

“ you really did that for me? Why? you could have any girl in the high school that you want. What Could you possibly want with me?”. She said tears dripping from her eyes. “ when I met you, I wasn’t in a good place. I had forgotten who I was. And then you strolled up. And you blew up my entire world. you call me out on things. You challenge me. You make me see things through different peoples perspectives. you make me better. I know that I have a past, I’ve not treated girls correctly and there is no excuse for that but I’ve never felt this way before”.

She leans in and kisses him gently on the lips. “I know I haven’t either, do you know just how much I’ve tried to stop that feeling, to bury it, kill it, and every time I do, you do something that surprises me and it resurfaces”.

They talk for hours, opening up to one another explaining things and finally decide to call it a night. Especially when she’s got work tomorrow and he’s exhausted from all the travelling. Jackie shows him to his bedroom it’s opposite her bedroom door. They both fall asleep peacefully in hope that tomorrow they may come to a solution.

I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY THIS LITTLE ROMANTIC CHAPTER AND GET RRADY FOR WHATS COMING NEXT 👀

🚨🚨 warning the next chapter will contain smut!

[einsteinsugly]

PSA, for the casual viewers of That 90s Show.

Since Hollywood journalism has failed spectacularly in this regard, other than a brief backlash shortly thereafter, here is why Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith should be blacklisted. And have no roles in That 90s Show, currently and in the future.

They both wrote letters asking for leniency for Danny Masterson, a convicted rapist serving thirty years in prison. In a court of law. Debra Jo Rupp, along with Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, also posited that Masterson was a good guy for being anti-drugs. Which is absolutely ridiculous. To pick loyalty to their despicable friend rather than picking basic moral decency is absolutely unacceptable, and they should not be rewarded in Hollywood. In any way, shape, and form.

Here are some quotes from the letters (I am linking them here):

"So thank you for allowing me to tell you about the Danny Masterson that I love." -Debra Jo Rupp

Debra also called him "respectful and kind." Maybe to her, but not to his victims.

"I consider myself to be fortunate to have had Danny Masterson in my life." -Kurtwood Smith

Kurtwood did not use the drug argument like the others, but still. He also said, "I found that Danny treated women on the show with respect, not only the women in the cast, but women on the crew as well." Wasn't one of Danny's victims one of the girls on the episode, "Hyde Gets The Girl (season 4)?" That's the opposite of treating women, both on and off the stage, with respect.

*****

So, spread this as far and wide as possible. Neither of them, along with Kutcher and Kunis, should work in Hollywood. Never again.

*****

Notes:

1. I am no fan of That 90s Show. Yet, even if this was my favorite show, I'd feel the exact same way.

2. Some argue that people are aware of their terrible actions, and/or are simply defending a friend, but have moved on and are okay with it. There is a minority that feel this way, but I firmly believe that most of the casual audience is wholly unaware, because many would agree with the inclination that they (along with Kutcher and Kunis) should never act again. Akin to Roseanne Barr.

3. Watching their past shows is fine, as is watching season 2 for the kids and such. But to actively support them is a whole other can of worms.

[bluerosefox]

Stories/Prompts List:

[In General Prompts]: |Moving On (Character moving on and away from the toxic people/places)

[Encanto]: |Everybody (in Town) Loves Mirabel

[Genshin Impact/Encanto prompt]: |Anemo Mirabel idea (Quick idea)

[DP]: |Rather Not |Middle Name |Entrance and Exists |New Title Idea

[DPxDC]: 2023 Prompt Lists 1 2023 Prompt Lists 2 2023 Prompt Lists 3 |Our Well Deserved Break (Danny decides he and a bunch of stressed out hero teens need a weekend break from...well everything.) |Supersons vs Ghost Gal (It started with Grandma’s Kent Cookies) (Jon is punished for stealing cookies and ropes in Damian to prove he’s innocent by catching the thief... Only there is a certain traveling ghost whose the thief who may or may not wanna troll them now) (read notes) |Uncle Damian Mode ACTIVATE (Twins!Damian and Danny, baby!Danielle, hints of good mom Talia. READ NOTES) (Damian is having a normal patrol... Until Danny shows up with a baby and going to hunt down a fruitloop for trying to clone him... Damian is going to be the best uncle) |Possessed Pearl’s (Danny finds a ghost needing help. Martha has a chance to get herself home to Gotham) |Ghosties and Black Bats (Hinted CassxDanny) (Danny gets a call from Dani and goes to help only to see a rather kick butt lady doing the job, and oh boy Fenton genes are in high gear) |Mystery Spouse (Dannyx???) (Danny and [Any Bat of choosing] get into a whirlwind romance and marry... they just forgot to tell their families though) |Presence Pressure (Twins!Danny and Damian) (Danny figures out how to hid himself from his adopted parents and the GIW radar, only he didnt take into account that they might pick up his twin’s corrupted ectopalsm) |Our Strengths (Danny and his family are taken by the GIW. Sam and Tucker hack and blackmail their way to save their best friend and his family) |Drake Siblings (Tim gets a call from a little Jasmine Fenton and finds out he has a half brother named Danny.) (Danny and Jazz are adopted Fenton. Danny is the son of Jack Drake and Dana Winter-Drake btw) |In Luminous Green Glow (TaliaxDanny) (Danny, CW’s apprentice, is inspecting a Pits, only to meet a blade to his neck) |Bittersweet and Sweetheart Exes (Past TaliaxBrucexDanny) (Talia and Bruce are bittersweet exes to each other but towards Danny he’s their sweetheart ex) |Family Resemblance (Daniel Wayne was kidnapped the night his and Bruce’s parents were killed. Years later Bruce gets a call from Damian about two possible poorly made clones or hidden blood children. Meanwhile Dan and Elle Fenton are calling their dad about a possible Vlad clone surviving) |The Amazing Adventures of Tim Drake and Little Baby Man Danny. AKA two feral raccoons loose on Gotham (Little Tim Drake makes a friend when stalking the Bats... and feral vibes with the baby man Danny) |One in the Same (Tim is tossed in the Pit during his RR run, and wakes his memories of being Danny Fenton/Phantom... and ponders what to do next to mess with the fruitloop Ra’s) |Fenton Coded (Tim discovers he’s not a Drake by blood... and he’s not a Wayne (like he and others suspected) but is a Fenton) (past DannyxJanet) |Ghost With Heartbeats (maybe Dead on Main?) (hinted Deaged Dani) (Jason used to have a penpal, a kid named Danny Fenton. Then he dead, came back and the thought of writing to his friend was forgotten... until he finds all the letter’s Alfred saved. Even letters Danny wrote to Jason after his death) |Invites (Hinted Dani(Ellie)xDamianxJon) (Wrath aka Ellie comes to the Watchtower to complain about a Ball being hosted in the Infinite Realms) |Kidnapped Persephone Style (JasonxDanny. Dead on Main) (Tim witness Jason being taken by a ghostly knight and tells the rest of the Batfam) |Gray and Graysons (Siblings Danny and Dick)(Dick remembers his baby brother before he had been given to the childcare system, so he isn’t ready to see him years later at the Watchtower as one of the new engineer hires) |Siblings Behavior (Ghost King Danny/Dad Danny)(the Ghost King summons the two factions of the DC verse, to talk about his two kids Wrath and Wisp) |Feral Gremlins VS Fruitloops (Deaged Danny and Tim) (Danny and Tim are deaged by their dumb Fruitloops, the two feral things meet and decide to team up and escape) |Mama Bat (Deaged Danny and Mama Cass)(Cass finds a baby in Hong Kong before being yeeted back to Gotham with baby stuff and a glowing sticky note) |The Flow of Time (Deaged Tim) (CW takes matters into his own hands when he spots a deaged Tim timeline where his family fails to save him from Ra’s plans) |Once Upon A Time... (Hinted JasonxDanny. Dead on Main) (Ghost Robin!Jason finds a sleeping Ghost Prince Danny when in the Realms. and a sticky note is hinting something) |That Good Ol' Fenton Charm (SelinaxDanny) (Deaged Danielle and Dan!) (Danny meets his neighbor Selina when one of her cats gets into his apartment one night!) |Little Danny's Big Adventure (Mentioned Regent Jazz) (Deaged/King Danny) (Little Danny gets yeeted into the DCverse when he was deaged, stops a villain and goes to a safe house for naptime!) |Always Favors You (Half-Brothers Danny and Jason) (Ghost Prince/King Danny) (Jason is invited to the crowning of the future Ghost King Phantom. Thing is the Ghost Prince is his half-brother he gave away years ago when he was a baby) |Masks and Moonlit Night (Anger Management) (Jason and Jazz meet at a masquerade ball and its a bit of a fairy-tale moment) |“Daddy! Mommy’s is having Ellie!” (Anger Management/Deaged Danny and Dan/Reborn Ellie) (Jason has a lot of secrets, one of them comes to light when one of his son’s call him while he’s Red Hood in a panic about their mom having their sister a bit early.) |Saying Sorry Will Never Be Enough (Dannny/Any of the Bats/Birds) (Danny is happily packing his apartment, about to move in with his partner, when he gets a knock on his door. Its his parents.) |Phantomish Rouges (When Team Phantom gets put into the DCverse, Danny is hurt and needs to be in a cryo sleep to recover. Team Phantom doesn’t have much of a choice and have to turn to some criminal activity to survive) |Dinner? (Spirit Halloween) (College age Danny is surprised when he opens his door and finds a recently dropped out of med school Bruce freaking Wayne at his doorstep and been asked out by the young man) |Striking of the Clock (Future Braindead/Deadtired) (Tim finds a way to get Bruce out of the Time stream, he has to summon the Ancient of Time. However it seems like he can’t so he summons the next best thing, the Ghost King. But... Why is the King flirting with him and why is the Ancient of Time calling him his new apprentice?!) |Disney Style Romance (Death Defying or NightBirds) (Dick is the family member that would have a Disney style romance when his dog Haley plays with a green puppy named Cujo) |Genie Gave Me a Brother AU (Reborn!Danny and Tiny Tim) (Tim figures out a artifact his parents sent home from one of their digs. He makes a wish for someone to be with him at the same time Danny is going on a reincarnation vaycay) |BREAKING NEWS! Youngest Wayne’s Secret Lovechild?! (Maybe Serious Chaos?)(Deaged Danny!) (Due to Vlad, Danny is deaged and a older teenage Ellie runs to Gotham to hide and take care of her template. However she is mistaken for Damian Wayne’s lover/baby mama and Danny is their son by the media due to being saved by the teen outside of costume.) |Her Astrophel and Sterling (Al Ghul Danny/Deaged Dani(Ellie)/ good Mom Talia!) (Instead of the Bats finding Danny (Danyal al Ghul) is alive, Talia discovers her son is alive first, and that she is a grandmother)

My Art Tag! (Random things I’ve drawn)

[toast-tales]

Cursed Cravings, Chapter 17: The Man, The Myth

In which we return to the present, where Danny and Cyrus debate the existence of a certain man. Contains: 2.3k words | Chapter 1 | Read this story on A03!

Christopher Penn is a man who’s been missing for almost ten years now.

Danny’s eyes widened, but she tried to hide the reaction on her face as best she could. Christopher was a giant—how the fuck could he go missing? “What do you mean missing?” 

Cyrus’s rather unkind smile only widened. “Oh, Danny, I was hoping you could enlighten me on that matter. Perhaps you can start with telling us exactly where you’ve been for the past month.”

She narrowed her eyes, glancing between the faces of the men Cyrus had brought with him. As much as she hated to admit it, they were outnumbered here. Cyrus knew exactly what he was doing. 

She couldn’t figure out what Cyrus’s angle was. Why did he care so much about Christopher? She seriously doubted it was for any sort of benevolent reason. He was acting so smug about it—like he felt he was catching Danny in some sort of scandal. Which would have been hilarious, given she didn’t have any romantic attachment whatsoever to either Nathan or Christopher, but she could sense something slightly more sinister under the surface of this whole interaction.

She decided it would be best to avoid giving Cyrus what he wanted.

“I’ve been with Christopher, you deaf motherfucker,” Danny spat.

Cyrus narrowed his eyes back at her, and she could see his patient facade wear away slowly. It was almost satisfying. “And where does Christopher live, dear?” 

Danny’s lip curled. “I don’t see why it matters, bastard.”

“Christopher Penn has been missing for nearly a decade now,” Cyrus said slowly, like Danny was the idiot, “so I think that knowing his current whereabouts would be rather important, don’t you?” 

Danny rolled her eyes. “You know, maybe you’re thinking of a different Christopher Penn. Because I seriously doubt we’re talking about the same guy here. I bet there’s plenty of people with that name.” 

“Oh?” Cyrus raised an eyebrow. “And how do you figure that?”

Because he’s a fucking GIANT. “Because, clearly, he’s not missing. I was just visiting him.”

Cyrus scratched his scraggly beard and took a seat at their table, leaning back in the chair like he owned the place. “Here’s the deal, Danny.” He maintained eye contact with Danny as he held up the note from earlier, pointing towards the seal on the bottom. “The seal is unmistakably that of the same man who’s missing.”

He slid the note across the table, and Danny snatched it up. The seal was made in red ink, an elaborate design with a bird Danny now recognized at its center. A peacock.

“Ten years ago, this man vanished from the public eye—no one who looked for him could find him, or his old residence. He made no contact with anyone, except for these mysterious payments to people who should have no connection to him. People like…you both,” he said derisively, an obvious insinuation twisted in his words. People of a lower class.

Danny snarled, but Nathan pressed down on her shoulder again. 

“And here’s the strange part, Danny. None of those benefactors seemed to know Penn—not even Mr. Hayes here could tell me what the payment was even for.” Cyrus’s eyes bore into Danny, taunting and hungry. “Until you. You’re the first person in ten years who remembers a man that everyone else seems to have conveniently forgotten about.” 

Danny’s head was swimming. How could Christopher have gone missing in the first place, if he was confined to his mansion? He mentioned he wrote letters—but surely no one actually knew the giant that lived there, right? 

“He’s a friend. I don’t really know why you care so much, Cyrus, but I really don’t think there’s anything here to discuss.” 

“Oh, but there is.” Cyrus leaned forward. “Penn and I have some unfinished business to take care of. And you are going to tell me where your little friend is hiding.” 

Danny laughed, only partially by the use of the word little. “You have business with him?”

There was no way Cyrus actually knew Christopher—surely, he would have mentioned the fact that Christopher was a giant by now. Maybe the seal just looked similar to another one. Maybe, if she just showed Cyrus what Christopher looked like, he’d leave them alone. It couldn’t be the same person. It wasn’t possible.

“I seriously think you’ve got the wrong guy,” she snarled, “and I can prove it.” 

Cyrus raised an eyebrow as she picked up the mirror that laid on the table in front of her. 

She stared into the reflective surface for a few seconds before she took a deep breath and spoke clearly. “Show me Christopher Penn.” 

The mirror almost seemed to hesitate before its surface swirled to reveal the face of the giant she’d spent a month with. She saw the hint of his horns growing back already—just barely poking out from beneath his hair, which hung over his shoulders limply. He looked exhausted, like he was draped in a melancholy veil that weighed down all his features. Her face fell slightly as she looked at him, though she wondered what it was he was sad about. She’d said she would be back, hadn’t she? Did he not believe her? 

Slowly, she turned the mirror around to show Cyrus and the men that stood on either side of him, scowling at them all. “This is my friend. He’s not the same guy, is he?” 

Cyrus’s eyes widened, and he leaned forward even further in his seat as he stared at the mirror, completely entranced. “What kind of witchcraft is this?” 

Behind him, a man that bore an extraordinary resemblance to a soggy weasel in a coat went as white as a sheet, his eyes fixed on the mirror as though he’d seen a ghost. “I-I-I’ve s-seen that guy before,” he muttered quietly.

Shit.

Cyrus turned slowly around in his chair, scowling deeply at the man. “And you’re telling me this now, Max?” 

Max all but curled in on himself as he began trembling. “I-I forgot!” he squeaked. “He did—he did something to my mind to make me forget.” He pointed an accusing, shaking finger at the mirror. “H-he looks like a regular man, but he’s…he has to be at least a hundred feet tall, everything in his house is his size—”

The lines in Cyrus's brow furrowed deeply, as if he was trying very hard to comprehend everything that was happening and sort it into something that made sense. “A giant?” he mumbled in disbelief. “Interesting��” He idly ran his fingers over the stubbly beard along his chin, lost in thought. And then suddenly, his face went rather placid—eerily so—as he met Danny's eyes again, almost in a challenge. He looked much more smug than before. “You didn't mention that your friend there was a giant.” 

Danny glared hatefully at Cyrus, but she could feel her stomach twist with unease. Should she tell the truth? Max regaining memories about Christopher was…less than ideal, but surely he'd just sound crazy. 

She put the mirror, which had gone blank, into her lap and crossed her arms. “Is he the same guy, or not?” 

Cyrus's eyes lingered on the mirror for a while longer, a thoughtful expression reappearing on his face. Something in his eyes had changed—something that made her skin crawl—but she couldn't figure out what.

“No,” he finally said. “I suppose you're right. It must be a different man.

“But Max,” he began, still staring right at Danny as he spoke. Knowing. Calculating. “I would like to hear more about this so-called giant.”

Danny laughed out loud, effectively still hiding all of her anxiety around this situation. “You really believe that? He's clearly lying. Giants don't exist, dumb fuck. You saw him. He's just a normal man.”

“I'm not lying!” Max squeaked out indignantly, cowering slightly under the stares of everyone else in the room as his outburst was followed by a vacuum of silence. “He…he trapped me in his house, kept me in a cage, and then he…he…”

He quivered uncontrollably. Danny felt her mouth go dry. No. Don't—

“Spit it out, Max,” Cyrus growled.

Like a boiling kettle, Max's words came out at once in a high-pitched squeal. “He ate me!”

Absolutely no one spoke or moved at first. Danny could hear her heart pound in the deathly silence, fighting not to show a hint of recognition or fear on her face. 

Cyrus's face went whiter than the snow outside. The men behind him, who had been whispering to themselves, all stared between Max and Danny with looks of absolute horror.

“How…” Cyrus began, his eyebrows pushing deep, deep lines into his forehead, “...did you survive?”

Max did not seem to enjoy the attention on him, nor did he seem to enjoy what little he could recall of the memory. “I-I don't know! I…it was so long ago, and he…my memories, he must have messed with them. Like…like magic or something. Th-th-that weird fucking mirror thing proves it.” His head retreated further into his coat, like a turtle trying to hide away. “But I do remember…being eaten,” he whimpered, swallowing nervously. “Clearly.”

Out of everyone, Cyrus probably looked the least horrified at Max's revelation. In fact, he seemed to sit up a little straighter, his chest almost puffed out a bit proudly. “If what I'm hearing is to be believed, it sounds as though there's a magical monster nearby who poses quite a threat to the people of this city.” He gave Danny a look of barely feigned sympathy. “Did he lock you up in a cage too, darling?” 

Danny wanted nothing more than to leap across the table at Cyrus. Instead she grit her teeth together. “I was there of my own free will,” she seethed. 

Nathan gave her a slightly confused look, but he nodded along. “She was.”

“And he's not a threat, or a monster. He's nice, and kind, and…gentle. He lives out in the woods and minds his own fucking business. Unlike you.” 

She'd never heard a laugh so unkind as the sound Cyrus made. “Oh, Danny. You can't expect me to believe you'd stay with a monster like that willingly.” He stood up, prompting Danny to do the same, her hands slamming against the table as she did so. 

He sneered at her. “A prisoner falling for her captor. There's a tale as old as time.”

“I didn't fall for him, fuckface. We're just friends. Though I'd still pick your hypothetical giant monster over you.”

Cyrus clicked his tongue a few times, staring Danny down. “You know, I really don't like your tone.” 

He snapped his fingers, and the men behind him came around the table to grab Danny and Nathan. She'd been ready to give the one coming towards her a right hook square across the jaw, but there were just too many. Max came up behind her and held her arms behind her back, snarling in her ear. 

“Danny!” Nathan cried out as he was dragged away from her by three men even larger and burlier than he was. She scowled and thrashed in Max's grip, trying to hook her foot around the man's ankles to trip him up. Unfortunately she wasn't quite quick enough—Max jammed his knee into the back of her own, making her stumble in place. 

Frustrated and filled with rage—and for once, rage directed towards someone her own size—she stepped on Max's foot with the heel of her boot, slamming it down as hard as she could. 

“Motherfuck—”

She hadn't noticed Cyrus's swaggering approach until she felt the man's hand grip her chin and tilt it up towards him. He was close enough for her to smell the residual tang of a cigar on his breath. 

She scrunched up her nose in disgust, before she spat at him. He twitched as Danny's saliva splattered onto his cheek, and he wiped it off with the back of his other hand.

He leaned in even closer, glaring at her. 

“The thing is, Danny dear, I believe this makes you either a mind-controlled victim, or a friend to a rather dangerous monster, doesn't it?”

She glared back at him, imagining Cyrus's face exploding into flames. “Go fuck yourself, Cyrus.”

He let her go, took a step back, and folded his hands beneath his chin as if he held even an ounce of piety anywhere in his body. “Frankly, I'm not one to believe such far-fetched rumors about things like magic and giants. But rumors…you see, they spread. People talk. And people don't want to trade with a city when the roads could be in danger from a nearby giant.”

He shrugged much more nonchalantly than he should have, holding far too much confidence in his posture. “Maybe this is all a big misunderstanding. But, on the off chance that there really is a giant out there…” He gave Danny a cruel, sinister smile. “Maybe I can put the worries of the townsfolk to rest by slaying it.”

She couldn't hide the fear that rose in her face at that. No. No, he couldn't. He can't. He'd kill Christopher? Does he really think he could kill a giant?

She swallowed the lump in her throat as she felt her mouth run dry again. “Yeah, good luck. Bring your pointiest fucking sword, too. He needs a new toothpick.”

Could Sam warn him in time? Even if they could, Christopher can't leave…

Danny gave Cyrus a vicious scowl. “You don't even know the fucking way. You're gonna get lost, or freeze to death, or—and this would really make my day—get eaten by wolves. I'm not fucking showing you how to get to him.”

Cyrus seemed wholly unimpressed by her display, rolling his eyes and gesturing toward the men holding Nathan. “We'll bring them both. Give our little princess some motivation.”

It felt as though Danny's lungs collapsed in on themselves. Her eyes widened as she took in the sight of Nathan—fearful and shaking. “You…you can't bring him! He's sick! He can't—”

Cyrus closed the distance between himself and Danny in a single stride, grabbing her chin again and leaning in close. “Then you'd better get us there quickly, sweetheart.”

* * * * * * * * * *

How will they get out of this one? Does Sam have a plan? Is Cyrus as competent as he thinks he is? Find out soon...

Thanks for bearing with me and having patience for the longer than usual update. I might have to keep updates biweekly for a little longer, but we'll see. Thank you, as always, for reading and for your support! It means a lot to me.

[t3acupz]

Any thoughts on the Jonathan Tucker letter for Danny Masterson? I was so disappointed to find out about it and read it, and I still don’t know how to feel.

When I first heard about this last year of course I was taken aback. It happened around the same time I did my Hannibal rewatch and got obsessed with brownham so I had to get to the bottom of it. I firmly believe that Danny Masterson is totally guilty, and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. I read Tucker’s letter, and nowhere in it does he say that Masterson is innocent or that he doesn’t believe the victims. It was just a character letter, and it doesn’t even seem like they were that close. Was it the best decision? No, definitely not but he obviously had no ill intent in writing it.

This past year I’ve listened to every podcast, read every interview, and watched every video I can get my hands on (thanks hyperfixation), and I can honestly say that Jonathan is a genuinely good person. I think actions speak louder than words, and just this summer he helped save a family during a home invasion. Luckily no one was hurt but he didn’t know what he was running into, and that takes a lot of selflessness especially when he has his own family to think about.

He’s also spearheaded his own charity for underprivileged kids, has been a big supporter of of gay rights and the Trevor Project way before gay marriage was even legal in the US, is a complete sweetheart to fans (responds to people/ replies with video messages/ sends gifts, etc…), ruptured his Achilles tendon on the first day of filming Debris and worked his ass off to walk again so the crew wouldn’t lose their jobs (this was during the height of the pandemic) and then gave away his car to a crew member before leaving Canada. Anyway, I can go on but that’s the gist of it.

So yes, I completely understand the initial reaction to the letter he wrote, especially when that might be the only thing you know about him but I think it was just a misjudgment in an otherwise long history of personal integrity.

[nessa007]

Mila looked so annoyed in their apology video. What did they think was going to happen?

the whole thing is so 😬 they have done a lot of work to help sex trafficking victims yet they agreed to write letters asking the judge for a lighter sentence because danny’s family asked them to and the way ashton said “the man that we knew for 25 years” is classic “well they’ve always been nice to me” 🙄 they’re always gonna be remembered for trying to defend a convicted r*pist now and idk how anyone can take their work for sex trafficking victims seriously now and they are very stupid to have thought agreeing to write those letters was a good idea. they probably thought it was never gonna be made public that they wrote those letters 🙃

also just because someone may have grown and changed as a person and may be genuinely sorry for what they did, they still deserve to be punished for what they did in the past. the pain and trauma that the victims suffered will not just go away. it’s something they will deal with for the rest of their lives.

[aikoiya]

DP Christmas Fic Prompt

I NEED a DP fic where Vlad plays as Scrooge.

Like, I don't want the main character to be Danny. He should only be a secondary character at most. Hell, you could feasibly make him the Tiny Tim of the fic, but instead of him being crippled with illness, the problem is much more nuanced. Ranging from the stress of protecting the town day in & day out, his parents being so utterly detrimental to his Christmas experience, or even the possible looming threat of his own parents discovering his identity & possibly not reacting in the best way.

The 3 ghosts shouldn't be anyone familiar as far as Danny Phantom goes. That would just cheapen the story.

Just the ghosts from the story.

Now, I think that the Ghosts of Christmas Time get a pass as far as the Christmas Truce goes because they don't do anything to detriment people. Rather the opposite. What they do is largely for people's benefits.

But even more interesting would be if Christmas Carol was a true story that everyone in the fic just thinks was made up by Dickens. But really, he just wrote what he was told by the real Scrooge.

Now, this is Vlad in the modern era, who knows the story, but thinks it's all rubbish.

What if the ghosts were able to turn off his powers? I imagine that they are powerful zeitgeists, but less powerful than Clockwork.

I'm really liking the Scrooge: A Christmas Carol movie so far, so maybe it can be a mix of that & the other animated Scrooge movie?

No Cheerlings or Fearlings, though please.

---

Now, I hc that Vlad grew up rich, bit still had not the best life.

I write him as having a terrible, narcissistic, abusive, neglectful father who cared little for him beyond what Vlad could do for him & a sweet, kind, demure & doting mother who loved him. All-in-all, his early Christmases were good ones as it was the only time of year when his father would soften & his mother got to enjoy herself.

Until one Christmas, when his mother miscarriages & she begins to get depressed.

Skip forward to Christmas after his father's death & his mother's struggles to keep Christmas a happy time for them. Then subsequent lonely Christmases after he'd been admitted to boarding school by his relatives upon his mother spiraling into mental instability & hospitalization.

Next would come Christmas in college & the fun of having real friends that didn't care about his riches or status.

Followed by Christmases in isolation in the hospital.

But much like in Scrooge, it'd show another side to the story.

Past would show him a different perspective of his accident. One where it was a mistake on both Maddie & Jack's part. Then, their worry for him as they waited for him, then were shuffled out by doctors worried for radiation.

How they'd tried to stay connected over the years, but were always turned away & their letter burned by who Vlad recognizes as Spectra, who had be feeding off of his misery that whole time.

Followed by his many years of loneliness even after having been let out of the hospital. Christmases working overtime to impress corrupt businessmen that darkened his heart. Then, later schmoozing with competitors, only to overshadow or kill them & take all their money.

Once Present is involved. He gets greater incite into Danny's life & how awful his parents make it for him during that time of year as well as his general paranoia that someone will break the Christmas Truce.

He is also briefly shown just how difficult his life is as the protector of Amity. Just how little sleep he gets & even his regrets over not having someone he can really relate to. How, he almost had Vlad, but the old man ruined it by be a megalomaniacal idiot.

Vlad learns that, even now, Jack wishes for his good health, while Maddie just does not like him ever since he tried to come on to her in Colorado.

In the Future, he sees... Essentially, the fallout of Phantom Planet.

Yes, initially, Danny's life is better, but it slowly goes downhill. The stress of having to protect an entire town while making up for his parent's overenthusiastic mistakes.

Their overreaching as they ask to study him.

How he can't leave town because, if he did, the town would collapse.

He even gets a brief view of Dan's timeline & how it lead to Dan, the destruction of Earth & Vlad's part in it.

Before finally seeing what happened to himself in Phantom Planet. Space dust...

[dirtyriver]

Chilling Adventures Presents... Strange Science, cover by Butch Mapa

Just this once, I'll copy Archie's full press release:

With a string of top-selling comics establishing Jinx Holliday as the latest star of the Archie Horror imprint from Archie Comics, supporting character Danni Malloy will be next to take center stage. The duo embarks on a new terrifying adventure in CHILLING ADVENTURES PRESENTS... STRANGE SCIENCE, a one-shot comic book releasing in August.

Writer Magdalene Visaggio (Eternity Girl)—whose run on a modern update of the classic character Li'l Jinx began with the instant sell-out anthology JINX: GRIM FAIRY TALES last fall—teams with artist Butch Mapa (Star Wars) for this latest entry, a turn towards dark sci-fi. In a story about being true to yourself and what matters most to you, STRANGE SCIENCE will also reveal that Danni is transgender.

"I've been wanting to make this happen for a long time, and it's really cool to see it finally come to fruition," Visaggio said. "I never wanted Danni's trans identity to be gimmicky, or for her to feel like she was only created to be trans. So, I'd like to apologize for sneaking her over the line like this! I wanted you to have a chance to fall in love with her for who she is, not what she is. I'm honored I got to make it happen, and I'm grateful to Archie for never, not even once, pushing back on my insistence on making their books a little bit more queer. I hope Danni finds a good home at Archie with supportive writers and artists helping to keep her alive for years to come."

The new one-shot takes its title from the 1989 comic book series DILTON'S STRANGE SCIENCE, which introduced Danni, a science genius who rivaled tech expert Dilton Doiley's prodigious talent. In Visaggio's story, Danni has left that life behind to become an artist and musician, exposing her to criticism from Dilton as the teens try to save themselves from a bizarre time travel accident.

"STRANGE SCIENCE is one of, if not the, most important one-shots we've released to date. It also showcases how versatile horror can be, as it deftly blends sci-fi with horror and tells a beautiful, poignant tale about confronting the past," said Archie Comics Senior Director of Editorial Jamie L. Rotante. "That’s all thanks to writer Magdalene Visaggio, who had the idea to have Danni Malloy tell her own story about her transition. We just needed to figure out the best way to make it fit, and a callback to her character's classic origins mixed with the new horror surroundings she's been re-introduced in just made the most sense."

Mapa added, "Magdalene wrote a story that is vital and poignant and brilliant at the same time, while also being a fantastic piece of horror/sci-fi. Expect lots of weirdness, emotion, action, and character."

Danni's first appearance in the modern Archie Horror universe was THE CURSED LIBRARY, a one-shot released on Free Comic Book Day earlier this month, and she reappears alongside Jinx in their first full-length solo adventure this week in JINX: A CURSED LIFE, both with art by Craig Cermak (Red Team). The sequence subtly establishes linked continuity in Archie Horror for the first time with references to events in other titles, and serves as a starting point for all horror fans looking for a new storytelling universe to explore.

"I think it's clear to anyone reading this that there is a ton of passion and heart in this story, which was demonstrated on every script page," Rotante said. "I'm so proud of this book, but moreover, it's an honor to help bring this beautiful story to life, and I'm consistently awed by the amazing talent I have the opportunity to work with."

STRANGE SCIENCE, with an open-to-order variant cover by Skylar Patridge, colors by Ellie Wright, and lettering by Jack Morelli, releases August 16 in comic shops nationwide and will be available for pre-order in comics shops this Friday.

[haloburns]

I posted 23,071 times in 2022

204 posts created (1%)

22,867 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@who-is-page

@ruffboijuliaburnsides

@tukoism

@dp-marvel94

@roundaboutnow

I tagged 1,885 of my posts in 2022

#danny phantom - 115 posts

#the world is having more fun than me tonight series - 94 posts

#ecto writes - 91 posts

#ecto fics - 88 posts

#my fics - 72 posts

#my au - 35 posts

#ml spoilers - 31 posts

#the batman 2022 - 26 posts

#strike back spoilers - 26 posts

#my writing - 23 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#nor did the fact that i could already read do me any favors bc i was like immediately singled out and elevated to the 1st grade reading cla

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

You can usually tell a lot about a person by the type of music they listen to. put your favorite playlist on shuffle and list the first ten songs then tag others. No skipping!

thanks for tagging me @roundaboutnow !!

i'm gonna use my invisobang playlist that i can't share the title of yet. it's my fav right now.

1. same direction - hoobastank (honestly hoobastank fucks)

2. getting away with murder - papa roach (a classic)

3. be my escape - relient k (my beloved)

4. make it stop (september's end) - rise against (this song makes me cry)

5. until the day i die - story of the year (a perfect ghost light song, ive had it on all my songs)

6. for you, and your denial - yellowcard (oh this song fucks too. the violin man. the violin.)

7. last night on earth - green day

8. saying sorry - hawthorne heights

9. devil in the mirror - black veil brides (this song is so good for this fic...)

10. give it all - rise against

@redead-red @jadenoryuu @omnicrafts (share those crossover playlists babe!!) @floralflowerpower @bibliophilea and anyone else that wants to join in!

31 notes - Posted June 10, 2022

#4

with every sin, i still wanna be holy

Dan wants to be better. But that means dealing with his past (future?) actions and starting to make amends and acknowledging how he's hurt these people in his life. It's hard than he'd like to admit. Part of the the world is having more fun than me (tonight) series.

Lancer,

I dunno why I’m writing this. It’s stupid. I’m not even gonna send it. You don’t even know who I am! Clockwork did his meddling with time bullshit so you don’t remember me.

No one remembers me

You were my favorite teacher, yknow. You were the only one who actually gave even a little fuck about me. All my other teachers wrote me off as just another dumb lazy kid. No one knew of course.

Oh I guess I should tell you. I’m… Danny Phantom. Sort of. It’s a big mess of things, but Fenton is Phantom. That little punk Weston kid was right. That's why I missed so many assignments and always fell asleep in class. I promise I wasn’t a bad kid, Mr Lancer.

I guess I just needed to tell you who I was. So you would be understanding or some shit. Maybe so I wouldn’t feel like I failed every adult in my life.

Whatever. It’s not like I’m sending this anyway.

Dan

Read more letters on AO3!

40 notes - Posted October 6, 2022

#3

hey look at that! another redraw!

i wanted to work on style and some other things, so i redrew my avatar (again). the first one is literally just the screenshot, and then the second one is Pissed Off Ghost King™ Danny. that one was more to fuck around with ectoblasts and some other stuff. also i designed a crown!

some more stuff below the cut!

here's a version without the blasts bc im vvv proud of how these hands turned out, considering the weird ass proportions of the cartoon. big thanks to @friendly-neighborhood-imbecille for those hand ref sheets 👉🏼👉🏼 u the realest

See the full post

44 notes - Posted January 18, 2022

#2

GUYS

GUYS LOOK

my friend @i-think-in-metaphors did this amazing commission for me!!! i redid the phantom planet statue for my au, and wrote a scene for one of my upcoming works where mateo gets to see it in person. i finally got tired of imagining it and wanted to see it.

and the product. is. GORGEOUS. it's so perfect. i'm in love. i'm gonna cry about this for the next 30 years. LOOK AT HIM.

(click for quality.)

check out her commissions!!

the scene it's based on is below the cut!

Excerpt from quit telling everyone i'm (permanently) dead! (wip)

The black zirconium statue was larger than life. It towered above them on two separate, stepped obsidian pedestals, each about five-feet high. As Mateo moved closer, he could see something glittering in the bases. Danny mumbled something about ectoplasmic ice mixed into it, stronger than diamonds, but Mateo thought they looked like stars. He figured that was the intention. It was gorgeous.

He tilted his head back to take in the actual sculpture. That Danny was twice as large as the one standing next to Mateo. He felt his heart lurch a little at how serious Danny looked, the tight furrow over his brow, the determined set to his jaw. It all made him look so much older than even now, even though Mateo knew he was only sixteen when the statue was made.

The statue’s zirconium white accents were blinding in the late afternoon sunlight, and Mateo found himself shading his eyes as he looked up even higher. The hair on the statue was shorter than Mateo had seen Danny wear his, probably closer to the length it had been when he was in high school. It was swept back heroically, as if moved by an unseen wind, and the sun glinted off its sharp edges. It made the whole statue look as if it were glowing.

Crystalized ectoplasm made Phantom’s eerie green eyes, and they glowed too, though Mateo figured they probably glowed under their own power rather than a trick of the light. The statue’s eyes were trained on the thin, steel-wire Earth he cupped protectively close to his chest; it was a promise as well as a remembrance. The world remembered what Phantom did for them, and he promised them he would do it all over again if necessary.

65 notes - Posted May 5, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

this is the road to ruin (and we started at the end)

IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!!

(click for way better quality)

Sam did this amazing cover for me and I literally can't stop staring at it. I'm making it my phone background like immediately. Here's their post, go give it a reblog!

prologue: without you, there's no reason for my story and chapter one: fading in the afterglow are live right now!

i'll be posting every SATURDAY starting this saturday 9/3! we got seven more chapters to go, lads, so buckle up!

71 notes - Posted August 29, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[samgirl98]

Forgotten Demon Twin

Next

Do I have three other WIPs? Yes. Am I starting a fourth one? Also yes.

Takes place after Batman vs. Robin and the whole thing on Lazarus Island and Alpha wars

Enjoy

Tim Drake, aka Red Robin, re-read the letter Prue had intercepted years ago.

No major discoveries aside from public record patents (attached). No assistance is required. –Spare

The patents that had been attached were the work of the doctors Fentons. From what little he could find on them, they were ‘ectobiologists’ who made inventions to capture and eliminate ghosts. He couldn’t get past the firewalls around their small city of Amity Park to find out more, though.

Neither he nor Prue had ever figured out who this ‘Spare’ was while they were in the League. It wasn’t something he had given much thought to after he saved Bruce from the timestream. However, after Ra’s Al Ghul’s death and the whole mess with Deathstroke… After Talia’s disappearance with her zealots, well…It may be time for Tim to ask the demon brat. He would bring it up during dinner.

____

The family was up in arms.

Damian would like to point out it was Drake’s fault. (And maybe his, but he would never admit it out loud.)

It started at the monthly family dinner. Father had suggested that the family get together at least once a month. Even Todd had shown up.

After dessert, Drake had brought up that he couldn’t figure out who had written two letters he had intercepted years ago and asked for Damian’s help.

Damian smirked at his brother Drake’s need for his help. He took the letters and frowned as soon as he figured out who had written them.

“Aw,” Damian said calmly as he reread the letter, “I suppose I should be the one to bereave my twin of his assignment. His reports will certainly go unread.”

He had forgotten he had a twin; he supposed it was time to tell him about the League’s fall and his, their, grandfather’s death. He obviously didn’t know about grandfather’s untimely demise if he was still sending reports.

Damian knew he was fucked when the table went silent for a moment. Then all hell broke loose.

“Damian, what do you mean ‘twin brother,’” his father barked asked.

Damian sighed; like he said, it was all Drake’s fault.

Thousands of miles away, Daniel Jack Fenton, nee Danyal Al Ghul, sneezed. Huh, that was weird.

Danny wrote his yearly report to the League. (It was always the same two sentences.) He hadn’t heard from them in years, but on the off chance they were still reading the reports from the Al Ghul’s failure, well, he wanted to keep them out of Amity Park.

It wasn’t a long report; some of his parent’s tamer invention blueprints were attached. He still hadn’t told them about his parents’ invention of the portal to the afterlife. He shuddered to think what his grandfather would do with that knowledge.

Now, all he had to do was send them out and hope he could keep the League of Assassins and Ra’s Al Ghul away from Amity Park for another year.

____

Bruce wished he knew where Talia was hiding so he could wring her neck.

She hadn’t hidden one son from him, but two.

“Damian, why didn’t you tell me about your brother,” Bruce demanded angrily. If Talia hadn’t told him about his second son, he would’ve thought Damian would’ve had the decency to do so.

Damian crossed his arms, “I forgot.”

“You forgot you had a twin brother,” Jason asked incredulously.

“Danyal was exiled when we were seven. He was ‘given’ the assignment of finding out how scientists outside the League interacted with Lazarus' water. Last I heard, he was placed in a small city with two scientists named Madeline and Jack Fenton.”

“He wasn’t mentioned often except to remind me not to be a failure like he was. I didn’t want to be exiled or worse. Neither grandfather nor mother mentioned him after I turned nine. Then I came to live with you, and he slipped my mind.”

“What the fuck, Damian? So, if I had never brought up these letters, we wouldn’t even know we have another brother?”

Damian threw his hands up, agitated, “I’m sure I would’ve remembered him eventually. Besides, we weren’t close. We weren’t raised that way.”

“It doesn’t sound like Danyal was raised at all,” Tim murmured.

“That is so fucked up,” Jason said.

The rest of his children and Barbara had stayed silent.

Dick was staring at Bruce, analyzing his expressions.

Bruce wished Alfred was still with them. He would’ve known how to handle this situation, and if not, he could’ve at least helped Bruce figure out his emotions.

“Tim, what can you tell on what you’ve found?”

Tim frowned, “Not much. I know Dr. Madeline and Jack Fenton live in Amity Park, but I can’t find much about the small city. The whole city is behind a thick firewall I can’t get past. I can’t find any news or social media from the residents beyond two years ago. The town’s website hasn’t been updated in three years and claims to be the most haunted city in America.”

“I didn’t even know the Fentons had a kid, let alone the brat’s twin. I was hoping Barbara could help me get past the firewalls to find out what’s happening in the city. My guts tell me there’s something more going on in Amity Park.”

“Of course I’ll help, Tim, that’s why I’m here,” Barbara immediately offered.

“Damian, what else can you tell me about your brother’s…assignment?”

Damian shook his head, “I told you everything I know.”

“Stephanie, Barbara, you can choose whether you want to come or stay. The rest of you pack your bags. I’ll ask the remaining Birds of Prey to care for Gotham while we’re gone. We are going to Amity Park to collect my son.”

“I think I’ll stay,” Stephanie answered, “I don’t want to get in the middle of whatever this is.”

Bruce nodded and left to pack. He had a son to pick up.

____

Father had decided that the private jet would be faster than booking flights. He had asked Damian more questions, but they had yet to be answered.

With a twinge of guilt, Damian realized he knew so little about his younger brother and what had happened to him. Like he told his family, he had forgotten about Danyal. The younger twin hadn’t been important to him.

He wondered how Danyal was doing. He doubted he had forgotten about Damian. How could he? He had been exiled from Nanda Parbat. He probably thought of nothing but his family while the rest of the Al Ghuls had erased Danyal from their minds.

Not even mother mentioned him.

Damian felt his guilt deepen when he thought of Respawn. He had been so excited to find out he had a brother, not remembering he had a twin brother. How could he have forgotten Danyal?

Father’s phone rang.

“It’s Barbara,” he said and put it on speaker. The rest of his siblings crowded around father while Damian stayed where he was.

“Talk,” father said.

“Geez, hi to you, too, Bruce.”

“What have you found?”

“Not much, but what I have is interesting. I found out more about Danyal, also known as Daniel Jack Fenton. He’s the Fenton’s adopted son. They fostered him when he was eight and officially adopted him two years later. They have a bio-daughter named Jasmine Fenton. She’s older than Daniel. He’s a junior in high school. I’ll send you his picture.”

There was a ding. This time, Damian got up to see his brother for the first time in eight years. Everyone always mentioned how much Damian resembled his father. Danial was the spitting image of Bruce Wayne. While one could tell that he and Damian were related, Daniel was lighter-skinned than Damian. His eyes father’s eyes stared back at him on Daniel’s face. His blue-black hair was longer and shaggier than Damian’s. His smile was mischievous, almost as if he was keeping a secret, and was amused by said secret.

“He doesn’t have much of a social media footprint. He has an old Twitter account with pictures of stars, galaxies, and other space-related things. Danny also has a Doom account—an online video game. There’s an article from two years ago when he found that one of the last two purple-back gorillas was a female, effectively helping save the species.”

Damian continued studying his twin’s photo.

“Either than that, I can’t find anything else on him.”

“How about Amity Park,” Tim asked.

“There’s not much I can find. It’s frustrating. I’m running a program to hack the firewalls around the city. They’re under a media blackout, from what I can gather. I’ll let you know when I find out more.”

“Thank you, Barbara,” father said, “keep me updated on anything you can find.”

“Will do,” and then she hung up.

Damian sat back down. This time, Richard followed him.

“How are you feeling, Damian?”

Damian gritted his teeth, not wanting to talk. But this was Richard, Damian’s Batman.

“I can’t believe I forgot about him. I haven’t even had an errant thought about Danyal. Neither mother nor grandfather mentioned him in years.”

Damian was also a little fearful of how this would affect his and his father’s relationship. After everything in Lazarus Island with Nezha, Damian thought he and his father had a fresh start. This secret had the potential to destroy the relationship they had started rebuilding.

“I’m sorry, father; I truly forgot about him.”

His father grunted, staring at the picture of Danyal. It was times like these that Damian wished Pennyworth was still alive. His grandfather would know how to deal with this.

The plane was silent after that. Soon, they would land in Amity Park. For the first time in eight years, Damian would see his twin.

I don't know when my next update will be. Please be patient with me. Thank you for reading!

Dpxdc AU: Damian decides that it’s time to go collect his brother from his assignment. Danny is starting to sniff out some non-ghostly bullshit for once.

Damian knew his twin had been exiled from the age of seven, banished to travel and observe how scientists around the world engaged with Lazarus water. The only word that Damian received that his spare was still alive were the letters of lab reports and findings that were sent back to base. As the Heir, he’s pushed to be better lest he himself be exiled or simply executed. Danny becomes a fleeting thought and then once Damian arrived in Gotham, a none existent thought.

They weren’t raised to be friends or even friendly. The were not taught codependency or allotted time to bond. The could have been perfect strangers if not for their appearance and the stories of Danny’s shortcomings becoming Damian’s praise.

It’s only once Tim informs him of an intercepted letter, one sent and saved from years prior, that Damian recalls Danny enough to care. Tim prompts him to share more, especially given the coup recently committed by Deathstroke (Slade) and Talia gone into hiding with her zealots.

At family dinner that night Damian supplies: “I suppose I should be the one to bereave my twin of his assignment. His reports will certainly go unread.”

Chaos in the Batfam ensues- meanwhile across the country- Danny sneezes and finishes writing his yearly report: “No major discoveries aside from public record patents (attached), No assistance required. -Spare”. He doesn’t know why he bothers, he hasn’t received any contact from his mother or grandfather since he was 10ish and certainly hasnt thought about his twin. But, if there’s a chance (even an itty bitty one) that his reports are being read and are holding off his reassignment, he’d rather keep assassins out of Amity Park.

Little does he know that this letter is about to be intercepted by Pru, former assassin and friend of Tim Drake. He hadn’t expected his twin to suddenly arrive and tell him that his job was done. And certainly, seeing a plane filled with an uncomfortable looking ‘family’ that requested he join them and get to know Gotham and his birth father, was not on his bingo list.

Danny does his best to let them down gently- and they seem to be accepting that he’s acclimated to this weird little town and will leave him be- when Danny suddenly has to transform into Phantom in front of them to handle a rocket sent by Skulker.

They are less willing to accept his appeal to be left alone after that… Damian is trying to “bond” with him and all the others are trying to “help” in their own way.

Sam and Tucker howl with laughter at Danny’s suddenly very large family- all while secretly working with the Wayne’s to get Danny the fuck away from the Fentons before the scientists do something they can’t undo.

[saltirebookreviews]

Book: Irish Eyes

Author: Hope C. Tarr

Series:The American Songbook Series, # 1

Release Date: December 7, 2023

Book Length: 441 pages

Publisher: Lume Books

Overall Rating: Five Stars

Blog Rating: Five Saltire Flags

1898 Aran Islands, Republic of Ireland and New York City, USA

This novel is action packed right from the start where Rose O’Neill, the seventeen-year-old heroine of this phenomenal story gets the most heartbreaking news that her favorite beloved brother Donal (Danny) was killed in the Spanish American war. Then a month later in Ireland at her family’s Pub, she meets American former soldier Adam Blakely. This was Danny’s American best friend and comrade, that he soldiered with and was with when he was fatally killed. A loyal friend and soldier who wanted to return all the letters Rose wrote to her brother. Letters Adam read repetitively over a hundred times at least and was already a little in love with his Irish Rose! They became very close and they both fell madly in love where he proposed to Rose on her Aran Islands. This is where Danny and Adam’s story ended, but Rose and Adam’s story only just began and just touched the surface as they had a long road ahead of them.

After Adam’s two week holiday turns into a two month life changing romantic journey, he gets urgent news from home and has to return home. He promised to write every day as did Rose. Furthermore, she finds out she is pregnant after he left so she decides to go to America and tell him the happy news that they were expecting a child together. Unfortunately there were many forces against them due to their class differences. As neither of them got their letters though both looked for them. He comes from a very wealthy socialite family who wants to dictate his life, this includes who he should marry and what he should do for a career. They were less than thrilled that he wanted to marry a poor Irish girl whose family ran a pub in Ireland.

Rose decided to come to New York, surprise her man and follow the American dream. Unfortunately things don’t always work out the way you want due to other people's manipulations, cruelty and class differences. So she finds herself frightened, homeless, pregnant, and alone in a strange country and in a big city that was not very welcoming to a single, eighteen-year-old immigrant that could not rub two pennies together. She realizes she had to forget the past and move to a different future, right when the world was moving into the twentieth century with so many changes in the world both economically and socially. Along with this were many tragedies and obstacles and Rose was in the middle of it living in a poor and dangerous area being terrified. Will Rose and Adam ever be able to find each other both living in such different worlds as she was in the poor area and he was in the very wealthy area.

Ms.Tarr who does such magnificent research in this excellent written novel-showing the history of New York City both good and bad. Plus revealing how difficult it was for immigrants and how they were mistreated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This novel goes from 1898 to 1922, but shows many true historical facts about New York that I didn't even know. Of course it also shows class differences too and some tragedies as well. Are Rose and Adam ever able to find the happiness they both deserve or will their broken hearts remain shattered for the duration of their lives? A very surprising ending but no spoilers readers will have to read to find out!

I absolutely highly recommend this spectacular and captivating book! Readers definitely don’t want to miss this one and I can’t wait to read the next book in “The American Songbook” series.

Disclaimer: I received this advance review copy for free from Lume Books and Netgalley for a fair and honest review. I am leaving this review voluntarily. All words, thoughts and ideas are my own.

[celticbarb]

#BookReview #SaltireBookReviews #historicalreads #gildedage #gildedagenyc #historicalfiction #historicalbooks #historicalnovel #HistoricalFiction #RoaringTwenties #netgalley #tumblrblogger #Ireland #AranIslands #ProhibitioninUSA

Book: Irish Eyes

Author: Hope C. Tarr

Series:The American Songbook Series, # 1

Release Date: December 7, 2023

Book Length: 441 pages

Publisher: Lume Books

Overall Rating: 5 Stars (deserves bazillion stars)

Blog Rating: 5 Saltire Flags

1898 Aran Islands, Republic of Ireland and New York City, USA

This novel is action packed right from the start where Rose O’Neill, the seventeen-year-old heroine of this phenomenal story gets the most heartbreaking news that her favorite beloved brother Donal (Danny) was killed in the Spanish American war. Then a month later in Ireland at her family’s Pub, she meets American former soldier Adam Blakely. This was Danny’s American best friend and comrade, that he soldiered with and was with when he was fatally killed. A loyal friend and soldier who wanted to return all the letters Rose wrote to her brother. Letters Adam read repetitively over a hundred times at least and was already a little in love with his Irish Rose! They became very close and they both fell madly in love where he proposed to Rose on her Aran Islands. This is where Danny and Adam’s story ended, but Rose and Adam’s story only just began and just touched the surface as they had a long road ahead of them.

After Adam’s two week holiday turns into a two month life changing romantic journey, he gets urgent news from home and has to return home. He promised to write every day as did Rose. Furthermore, she finds out she is pregnant after he left so she decides to go to America and tell him the happy news that they were expecting a child together. Unfortunately there were many forces against them due to their class differences. As neither of them got their letters though both looked for them. He comes from a very wealthy socialite family who wants to dictate his life, this includes who he should marry and what he should do for a career. They were less than thrilled that he wanted to marry a poor Irish girl whose family ran a pub in Ireland.

Rose decided to come to New York and get her man and follow the American dream. Unfortunately things don’t always work out the way you want due to other people's manipulations, cruelty and class differences. So she finds herself frightened, homeless, pregnant, and alone in a strange country and in a big city that was not very welcoming to a single, eighteen-year-old immigrant that could not rub two pennies together. She realizes she had to forget the past and move to a different future, right when the world was moving into the twentieth century with so many changes in the world both economically and socially. Along with this were many tragedies and obstacles and Rose was in the middle of it living in a poor and dangerous area being terrified. Will Rose and Adam ever be able to find each other both living in such different worlds as she was in the poor area and he was in the very wealthy area.

Ms.Tarr who does such magnificent research in this excellent written novel-showing the history of New York City both good and bad. Plus revealing how difficult it was for immigrants and how they were mistreated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This novel goes from 1898 to 1922, but shows many true historical facts about New York that I did not even know. Of course it also shows class differences too and some tragedies as well. Are Rose and Adam ever able to find the happiness they both deserve or will their broken hearts remain shattered for the duration of their lives? The ending just blew my mind but no spoilers as you will have to read this dazzling story to find out!

Seriously I must say this is one of the best books I have ever read in my entire life! I was so swept away and impressed it was beyond brilliant. There are no words to say or describe eloquently just how brilliant this book really truly is. Yes I went through a box of tissues, yet if I get that emotional it means the storyteller is extremely talented and I have really connected with all the characters and plot lines. I love when true facts and real people in history show up in fictional books too! This novel definitely checked all the boxes for me. I also love historical fiction and this is definitely one of the most brilliant and in-depth books I have ever read!

I absolutely highly recommend this spectacular and captivating book! Readers definitely don’t want to miss this one as it is pure brilliance and I can’t wait to read the next book in “The American Songbook” series. Well done Hope Tarr you should definitely be so proud of this phenomenal masterpiece!

Disclaimer: I received this advance review copy for free from Lume Books and Netgalley for a fair and honest review. I am leaving this review voluntarily. All words, thoughts and ideas are my own.

Buy: Links:

Kindle: https://tinyurl.com/order-IRISH-EYES

Amazon Trade Paperback: https://tinyurl.com/Irish-Eyes-Paperback

Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/3hfkehad

Waterstones: https://tinyurl.com

[xtruss]

The Importance of Handwriting is Becoming Better Understood! Research on Pens and Paper Highlights Their Benefits

— September 14th, 2023

A Person's Hand, Writing with a Pen that has a Lightbulb on the End. Image: Nick Lowndes

Two and a Half Millennia Ago, Socrates complained that writing would harm students. With a way to store ideas permanently and externally, they would no longer need to memorise. It is tempting to dismiss him as an old man complaining about change. Socrates did not have a stack of peer-reviewed science to make his case about the usefulness of learning concepts by heart.

Today a different debate is raging about the dangers of another technology—computers—and the typing people do on them. As primary-school pupils and Ph.D hopefuls return for a new school year in the northern hemisphere, many will do so with a greater-than-ever reliance on computers to take notes and write papers. Some parents of younger students are dismayed that their children are not just encouraged but required to tote laptops to class. University professors complain of rampant distraction in classrooms, with students reading and messaging instead of listening to lectures.

A line of research shows the benefits of an “innovation” that predates computers: handwriting. Studies have found that writing on paper can improve everything from recalling a random series of words to imparting a better conceptual grasp of complicated ideas.

For learning material by rote, from the shapes of letters to the quirks of English spelling, the benefits of using a pen or pencil lie in how the motor and sensory memory of putting words on paper reinforces that material. The arrangement of squiggles on a page feeds into visual memory: people might remember a word they wrote down in French class as being at the bottom-left on a page, par exemple.

One of the best-demonstrated advantages of writing by hand seems to be in superior note-taking. In a study from 2014 by Pam Mueller and Danny Oppenheimer, students typing wrote down almost twice as many words and more passages verbatim from lectures, suggesting they were not understanding so much as rapidly copying the material.

Handwriting—which takes longer for nearly all university-level students—forces note-takers to synthesise ideas into their own words. This aids conceptual understanding at the moment of writing. But those taking notes by hand also perform better on tests when students are later able to study from their notes. The effect even persisted when the students who typed were explicitly instructed to rephrase the material in their own words. The instruction was “completely ineffective” at reducing verbatim note-taking, the researchers note: they did not understand the material so much as parrot it.

Many studies have confirmed handwriting’s benefits, and policymakers have taken note. Though America’s “Common Core” curriculum from 2010 does not require handwriting instruction past first grade (roughly age six), about half the states since then have mandated more teaching of it, thanks to campaigning by researchers and handwriting supporters. In Sweden there is a push for more handwriting and printed books and fewer devices. England’s national curriculum already prescribes teaching the rudiments of cursive by age seven.

However, several school systems in America have gone so far as to ban most laptops. This is too extreme. Some students have disabilities that make handwriting especially hard. Nearly all will eventually need typing skills. And typing can improve the quality of writing: being able to get ideas down quickly, before they are forgotten, can obviously be beneficial. So can slowing down the speed of typing, says Dr. Oppenheimer.

Virginia Berninger, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington, is a longtime advocate of handwriting. But she is not a purist; she says there are research-tested benefits for “manuscript” print-style writing, for cursive (which allows greater speed) but also for typing (which is good practice for composing passages). Since students spend more time on devices as they age, she argues for occasional “tuning up” of handwriting in later school years.

And perhaps even into adulthood. Johnson had not handwritten anything longer than a letter in decades before putting actual pen to paper to write this column’s first draft. Whether it made any difference to the outcome is a question that readers must decide.

Socrates may or may not have had a point about the downsides of writing. But no one would remember, much less care, if his student Plato had not noted it down for the benefit of posterity.■

— This Article Appeared in the Culture Section of the Print Edition Under the Headline "Hand-wringing Over Handwriting"