#ectoberweek2024

[danis-artss]

So so soooo the ectober WEEK has started~~

For "graveyard shift" i decided to draw valerie for once ~~~ poor girl didnt even notice it was dawn already

[papiliomame]

Ectoberweek Day 25 - Graveyard Shift

Click on the image!

" Don't worry Danny, your big sister will protect you." As young kids the Fenton siblings weren't allowed to go to the basement lab, especially not after midnight, the time when " the ghost activity is at its best", as the Fenton parents put it. The main reason why the ectoscientists love to work during the graveyard shift in their lab. One night, the children were woken up by terrible noises coming from downstairs. Unable to stop worrying about what could have happened they mustered all their courage and ventured into the basement...

Do you remember how as a kid you were afraid to go to the basement? You know there was nothing there ( probably...) but you couldn't help to see stuff in the dark. I wanted to capture this feeling.

Light and dark version:

[wastefulreverie]

“So, the course tackles theories about the afterlife from a chronological perspective. We’ll be doing readings on religious and occult beliefs before we start moving into more contemporary beliefs. Is anyone familiar with the work of the Fentons?”

Danny raised his hand on instinct but immediately wished he hadn’t.

“Well, that’s one more than I expected! Your name is—?”

Danny put his hand down like it burned. “... Danny.”

Or: Danny enrolls in an ectology course his senior year of college.

ECTOBER WEEK 2024 DAY 7: ECTOLOGY

[ectoberweekofficial]

Ectober Week 2024

🪄 ✨ Welcome to the Ectober Academy where you will spend a week casting spells, making potions, and sharing your conjured enchantments for all to see! ✨🪄

Each day you have a choice between a short charm, or a longer incantation from your spellbook (or perhaps, for the most daring witches, you can combine them both).

Note: The one-word prompts are not limited to artists, and the two sentence prompts are not limited to writers. Both prompts are available to anyone who wants to try them.

The result of your spell can be in the form of a piece of art, a written story, a musical jingle, a tenacious craft, a silly meme, or whatever your heart desires. All content directly related to the Danny Phantom cartoon is acceptable for this magical challenge. Ships, non-ships, crossovers, angst, fluff—so long as it relates to the show, how you choose to represent these prompts is entirely up to you.

When you are satisfied with your creation, you may post it on Tumblr under the tag #ectoberweek2024 so that we may find it and reblog it here!

Happy Ectober! 👻🎃

[art credit goes to @faerynova - check out her blog and look through her cool art!]

Prompts:

October 25

👻 Graveyard Shift

👻 They found the corpse on a Sunday. So why was Danny Fenton still alive?

October 26

👻 Cornered

👻 Desiree makes all your dreams come true. And Nocturne handles the nightmares.

October 27

👻 Ghost Peeler

👻 He tried to stay in control of his ghost half. He really tried.

October 28

👻 Skeleton Key

👻 Tick, tick, tick. The sound was coming from his core.

October 29

👻 Last Rites

👻 They knew it would kill him. They did it on purpose.

October 30

👻 Tarot

👻 Danny had wondered when he would see his clone again. He never wanted it to be like this.

October 31

👻 Ectology

👻 He thought he'd been prepared to take off the mask on the hazmat suit and see what he looked like underneath. He couldn't have been more wrong.

Check out our Post Guidelines for posting your work, and if you have any questions, feel free to shoot us a DM!

[aprocessionofthoughts]

In the Graveyard

ectoberweek24 day 1- graveyard shift fandom- dp x dc tw- none summary- Danny sees something unusual

masterlist ao3

Danny hums quietly to himself as he walks between the graves, picking up trash and wilted flowers. The moon is full tonight, and the sky isn’t too clouded which is nice, especially considering this is Gotham. He takes a bucket and rag and starts cleaning off the gravestones.

Of the two jobs he has, this was probably his favorite even though it hardly paid. But it’s peaceful, and they let him work at night. It’s also a way for Danny to spend his time since he doesn't need to sleep. He can. It was just… nightmares. He’d rather be here, earning a little bit of money then trying to sleep through memories of his time in the lab.

He’s almost done, ready to go back to his apartment and enjoy a cup of coffee and some late night t.v., but as he stands and starts heading towards the last row of gravestones he feels a shiver crawl up his spine. His breath clogs in his throat, and he feels his eyes flash.

There is something tugging at him, pulling him toward one of the graves he’s already passed. 

He follows the pull. It doesn't feel like a ghost, but there’s something there, something he can’t ignore. 

As he gets closer the pull gets stronger, and with rising fear he can see the dirt shifting on one of the graves. And like in a horror movie, a hand presses up out of the dirt.

Danny freezes for a moment, before jolting forward. He grasps the hand in his and pulls, using his intangibility to pull the person through the dirt. The boy, because the person can’t possibly be older than sixteen, collapses on the ground. Danny crouches by him, turning the boy over onto his back. The kid’s dressed in a fancy suit although it’s streaked with dirt, and Danny winces when he sees the kids fingers are bloody, fingernails torn.

He dug himself out.

Who would bury a child. Danny glances at the gravestone. According to the inscription the kid died six months ago. Danny feels the barest touches of ectoplasm, it shouldn’t be enough to turn someone liminal let alone raise someone from the dead. 

But none of that matters right now. He has to get the kid to his apartment. Danny doesn’t think he should take the kid to a hospital. They’ll ask too many questions that Danny won’t be able to answer. No. he’ll take the kid with him, treat his wounds and try to find out what happened. If the kid is liminal he might need Danny’s help with the side effects.

“Hey there, kid. I’m going to take you back to my apartment, okay? I’m not going to hurt you, okay? I promise. I’m going to help.” Danny glances at the gravestone again. He hopes that the kid can go back to his family, that they’ll accept him. But Danny won’t force it. He knows that sometimes families can’t accept when you’re different from what they want. 

But Danny can’t help but hope this kid’s, Jason according to the gravestone, family will be different. That they’ll be loving and accepting, all the things that Danny’s family wasn’t.

He picks the kid up, his eyes stare blankly up at Danny.

He’ll need some help coming back to himself. Danny will feed him some ectoplasm.

He’ll take care of him. 

Danny will make sure he’s safe, and that no one can hurt him.

[ominousvibez]

ectoberweek2024 day 2 | cornered

whooooaaa i have no idea where the inspo to draw came from but this is the result? i'm quite proud of this piece. i haven't been able to get something like this out for a long time

"how does this deal with corner, vibez?" uhhh next question

while drawing i kinda had the thought that "what if danny and wes used to be friends but wes wasn't there for the portal accident and they drifted apart but wes is suspecting something and planning to corner danny with the evidence" and thought huh that'd be a cool idea

rip the quality to thanks tumblr

close-ups and the bg below

[five-rivers]

Hi, everyone! If you only follow me here, you might have wondered where I was during Ectoberhaunt. Well, I was here, it's just that there were some life things going on that made it hard for me to find the time (and willpower) to post on multiple sites. So, I'm putting together a list now! Here are the fics I wrote or updated during October!

Blue Butterfly (2 chapters, day 1 and 11)

Robot Dinosaur (1 chapter, day 2)

Pilgrimage aka Mortified-verse (added chapter 3, day 3)

Flipside (added chapter 2, day 4)

Cult Division (added chapter 5 and 6, day 7 and 14)

But... spaceship (1 chapter, day 8)

Take Me Higher (1 chapter, day 9)

Sea Silk, Siren Song, and Pearls (1 chapter, day 10)

Claws (1 chapter, day 12)

Winter in Wizard World collab with @jackdaw-sprite (1 chapter, day 13)

Projection (1 chapter, day 15)

For the Sake of a Single Bloom (1 chapter, day 16)

Hall of Mirrors (3 chapter, days 18, 21, and 28)

The Caterpillar Does Not Know (1 chapter, day 22)

Heat Death (1 chapter, day 23)

Time Loop (1 chapter, day 24)

Spelling (1 chapter, day 25)

Ancestral (added 4 chapters, days 26, 27, 29, and 31)

A Little Tarot (1 chapter, day 30)

Thank you for your patience! Happy reading!

[jhdanes]

ILLUSTRATION UPDATE! || Friday , 1. November || 2024 Ectober week 2024!

Happy Halloween! Ectober week day 7. @ectoberweekofficial The the dulier marjetice, a rare species of flora, sadly the only way they can grow, is by feasting on dead human tissue. Poor Danny didn’t know what he was getting himself into. #ectoberweek #ectober

[ghostlyglimmer]

Ectoberweek Day 24: Graveyard Shift

[tanglepelt]

Just Danielle being a security guard at a graveyard.

[aggie-postemon]

Jazz Takes Aim

Ectoberweek Day 3 - October 27th - "Ghost Peeler"

In which Jazz fires the Ghost Peeler at the Red Huntress, and she actually hits.

AO3 | FFN

Jazz sprinted pell mell down Amity Park's main street, aiming for the Nasty Burger. She didn't know what the hell she was thinking. She also didn't know what the hell had happened. All she knew was that Danny and Valerie were at each other's throats again, completely disregarding every temporary alliance they had ever made.

Danny was on the defensive, though. He was always on the defensive. Jazz understood not wanting to hurt your friends or family, but sometimes she wished her baby brother was willing to properly fight back against people who were earnestly trying to kill him.

Light glowed from the windows of the Nasty Burger, so Jazz could see exactly what she was doing as she decided to forgo running around the building to the front door. She launched herself at an exposed gutter instead, scuttling up the side of the building.

Her arms burned, but Danny and Valerie were in the sky, and Danny was losing.

Jazz climbed, then gave a massive heave with her arms, hoisting herself up and over the lip of the roof. Gooseflesh rose on the back of her neck as she entered the larger field of Danny and Valerie's fight. She didn't have ghost sense, Jazz knew that. But she sensed ghosts a little too reliably for her own comfort.

The moment her feet gained purchase on the flat tar roofing, Jazz ran for the far side, beyond which Danny and Valerie were trading increasingly frantic blows.

"Valerie Gray," Jazz shouted, knowing that the Red Huntress flinched sometimes, when her identity was brought into things, despite it being a fairly open secret. It paid off - Valerie looked her way. Unfortunately, Danny also looked at her. He was so busy gawping, he completely missed the opportunity to push advantage while Valerie was distracted.

"Valerie Gray," Jazz tried again. "I swear to god, if you hurt Phantom, I'm going to end you."

But Valerie's focus was back on Danny; she was laser sharp when she wanted to be, and whatever had triggered this resurgence of violence must have been serious.

Jazz really did not know what the hell she was thinking when she reached for the ghost peeler in her purse. "Valerie, I'll shoot."

"With Jack's aim?" Valerie threw back at her, taking aim herself again at Danny, shooting him successfully in the shoulder.

Jazz pressed the activation button, feeling the suit of the Peeler travel up her arm and over her body. Distantly, she remembered the Peeler successfully stripping Mr. Lancer down to his underwear.

Jazz fired.

In the split second that Jazz's shot hung in the air, she had the faint hope that it might do the same thing to Valerie, taking off her iconic black-and-red suit, removing her from the fight.

The shot hit home.

"Even the worst shot strikes occasionally," Jazz said, with no small amount of satisfaction.

Then Valerie screamed. Ancients, it almost seemed like she was blurring at the edges.

"Oh shit," Jazz said, wrenching her arm out and down and taking her finger off the trigger. "Valerie!"

Valerie fell. Danny reacted, dove down to get her. His legs merged into a tail as he pressed for speed. Danny, Jazz noticed, only had one good arm to catch her with.

While Danny dove and Jazz stood uselessly on the roof of the Nasty Burger, holding a literal smoking gun, Valerie did not stop screaming.

Jazz deactivated the Peeler entirely, shoving it back into her purse as the armor slid from her body. Then she moved.

By the time she was off the roof, Danny and Valerie had hit the ground together.

"Danny!" Jazz shouted. "Valerie!"

Valerie was prone on the asphalt. Danny bent over her, one arm pinned to his side, face an obvious grimace.

Jazz slid to her knees at Valerie's side. "Valerie. Valerie. Can you hear me?" she said, then looked at Danny. "Is she responsive at all?"

Danny shrugged with one shoulder, wide eyed.

Jazz rolled Valerie onto her back, and placed a fist on her sternum. She rubbed firmly, watching carefully for any signs of breathing. She hoped beyond reason that she would not need to pull out CPR. Statistics ran through Jazz's head - CPR was not nearly as effective as people liked to pretend.

Jazz bent over, putting her ear to Valerie's lips. She did not cease her sternum rub.

Yes!

A faint puff. Valerie's breathing was slower than it should be, but Jazz was fairly certain it was there.

"She's breathing," Jazz said. "I'm sure of it."

Danny slumped in visible relief. "Jazz?" he asked, voice small. "Why did the Peeler work?"

Valerie chose that moment to open her eyes. They glowed orange.

[papiliomame]

Ectoberweek Day 31

He thought he'd been prepared to take off the mask on the hazmat suit and see what he looked like underneath. He couldn't have been more wrong.

Danny in the artystyle and in one of the iconic scenes from the manga "Uzumaki - Spiral into horror" by Junji Ito.

Anyone watched the new Uzumaki anime? Sad to see what happened with the animation after episode 1, but I think we can conclude Junji Ito's masterpieces cannot be animated properly with the circumstances of today's anime industry. At least the first episode was nice...

Anyway, this gave me the idea for this prompt.

Happy Halloween!

[rice-n-honey]

ALRIGHT YALL IM ALIVE AND HERE IS DAY 6: TAROT

Shading this was hell and a half, but I'm pretty happy with it! I had a super grand time messing around and making this, though I won't downplay the week of work it took me. I am so happy to have made my first art piece for ectoberweek and I'm hoping it's one of many!

[ectoberweekofficial]

Happy Ectober, everyone! And welcome back for the ELEVENTH annual Ectober Week!

As usual, we are releasing our poll for the prompts that will be chosen for this year's calendar!

For this year, we will once again be polling for GENERAL prompts as well as TWO SENTENCE HORROR STORY prompts. Examples of each can be found in the poll!

This poll will only be up until this Friday (October 4th). So get your responses in by then!

You can follow the ectoberweek happenings through this blog as well as our tag #ectoberweek2024

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Meet My Clone Sister

ectoberweek24 day 6- two sentence tw- none summary- the Hogwarts trio meets Ellie

masterlist ao3 part 2 of CvH

They had been in Amity a week and everything still seemed extremely weird. And it wasn’t just the classes. It was also the fact that they used electricity and other muggle tech. And all around the town there were signs of magic. It was so strange to see signs of magic in what looked like a muggle environment. 

Harry kept waiting for aurors to show up to obliviate everyone.

And the classes taught at Casper made him and Ron uncomfortable, and Hermione was always bordering on arguing about the content. Harry didn’t struggle as much. He hadn’t grown up believing blood magic and necromancy were evil like Ron, and he hadn’t delved into studying all things about British magical history like Hermione.

But of course, Harry’s life was never simple.

“Is that your sister?” Harry asked, pointing to a girl who looked about two years younger than Danny, although they looked like they could be twins. They were at lunch and Harry was trying not to think too hard about what was in the food. He definitely preferred Hogwarts meals. He had seen the girl before and been curious. 

“Ellie? No. She’s my clone sister.”

“What?” Hermione asked, dropping her spoon.

“Oh yeah. There’s this creep that wants to kill my dad, marry my mom, and take me as his son. Since we kept refusing he tried to clone me.” Danny smiled at his…sister. She waved at them, coming over.

“Hey, I’m Ellie. You guys are the visitors from the weird magic school, right?” she plopped down on the seat next to Danny, reaching over to steal one of his fries.

“And you’re a clone?” Hermione said, her eyes flickering between Danny and Ellie.

“Yup.” she said, stealing another fry from Danny. 

“What’s a clone?” Ron asked, his brow furrowing in confusion.

Hermione stared at him. 

“Well, you see,” Ellie started, and Danny snorted, “when a Fruitloop is so obsessed with having another woman’s son as his own, he takes some of his DNA, and makes a baby, that he then grows with magic till they’re about the right age, then he tells them that they’re meant to replace the original, but they’re too smart and decide they’d rather be the original’s sister, and they both beat up the Fruitloop.”

Harry stared at her incredulously. Beside him he could see Ron gaping, and Hermione opening and closing his mouth.

Across from them Danny rolled his eyes while Tucker and Sam laughed.

“That’s not quite how it happened.” Danny said. “But basically yeah.”

“You have a Dark Lord?” Hermione finally managed to say.

“He wishes he was a Dark Lord.” Danny said, chuckling.

“What even is a Dark Lord anywary.” Sam said, rolling her eyes. “Is it just someone who does magic you don’t agree with? What is it that makes someone a Dark Lord, and who gets to decide?”

“Sam,” Tucker interrupted, “let’s not get philosophical again.”

She huffed and crossed her arms but fell quiet.

“Besides, Vlad’s a Fruitloop, not a Dark Lord.” Danny said, rolling his eyes.

Hermione looked like she wanted to argue about the Dark Lord thing, but Ron elbowed her in the side. She glared at him, but picked up her spoon and angrily started eating again.

Harry decided to redirect the conversation. “So, why don’t you have Defense Against the Dark Arts?”

“What’s really considered dark?” Sam started, but Tucker spoke up quickly.

“I think we cover the same basic concepts when it comes to spellcrafting. And there’s classes on the different magical races–”

“The people you classify as creatures.” Sam interrupted, glaring.

Tucker continued as if she hadn’t spoken, which was probably for the best. “and their history and traditions. But that’s more of a social class. It’s still a required gen ed so we can be more aware of each other.”

“Really?” Hermione asked, sounding interested. “I wish they taught that at Hogwarts.”

Sam opened her mouth, probably to make another controversial comment, But Danny spoke over her.

“You can probably buy the textbooks to take back with you when you leave at the end of the semester.”

Harry relaxed, glad that it didn’t look like they’d be getting into another debate.

This was a strange place. But he was eager to learn more about magic, even if it was different than Hogwarts.

[ominousvibez]

ectoberweek 2024, day 1 | graveyard shift

AO3

Victor is a janitor working a late-night shift at Axiom Labs. One night, he encounters Phantom.

A/N: Decided to try an outsider POV for this. Idk, the thought of a janitor working a late night shift kinda just stuck with me. Okay hope you like it xoxo vibez

Victor Hathorne is usually pretty content with his job.

It’s not exactly a fun job, or a particularly exciting job; but it pays the bills, and it pays pretty well. The hours are shit— 10 at night to 6 in the morning—but Axiom Labs makes up for it in generous benefits, including dental!

Victor hadn’t been to the dentist in seven years before snagging this position at Axiom Labs, and it’s a miracle he only had three cavities since.

The work is simple, janitorial duties. With most of the Axiom Lab staff leaving before Victor even arrives for his shift, it leaves most of the building to himself to clean. Four stories, technically, but he doesn’t have access to most of it. There are some higher-ups in the janitorial team that deal with the restricted areas. And they’re a team, of janitors—not something Victor ever imagined being a thing before starting at Axiom—so he’s not technically the only one working late hours, but he’s still usually alone.

Which is fine with him. He brings headphones and an old, busted MP3 player with him to work at night and he listens to music. Occasionally he’s able to find an audiobook to (not-so-legally) download to the MP3, so he isn’t just blaring loud rock/techno music for his entire eight hour shift, and he’s been actually reading books, surprisingly.

It’s a simple, easy job. Something that has helped him get a slightly less shitty apartment and a marginally better life. Not the best job, but it does what it needs to be done.

One night changes that for Victor.

The Head Custodian (what stupidly official name for just their manager) is in their break room already when Victor arrives one night. He’s not late. It’s about nine-forty, the usual time he clocks in, but the appearance of Ravenna Jones is only slightly alarming. Slightly intimidating. He doesn’t interact with her often. She’s usually in her office and doesn’t work the graveyard shift, only staying to eleven or midnight at most.  

She’s sat at the table in the breakroom, looking over a clipboard. There’s a lot of numbers and things listed on the papers, but it isn’t something Victor can easily read. Not just with his dyslexia, mind you, but it’s also upside-down to him. Not to mention—not really any of his business.

“Mr. Hathorne?”

His head snaps up as he sets his bag in the locker. He stiffens. “…Yes?”

A million thoughts go through his mind. Is she going to fire me? Am I going to be fired? Did I forget to clean something last night? Sure, he occasionally came in a little buzzed, not like any of the other janitors are much better than Victor. He’s usually the only sober one of the normal staff.

“Alexa James is not going to be in today.” Ravenna starts. “Well, for a while, actually.”

“Is-- is she alright?”

“Yes, she is fine. Maternity leave.”

Oh. Oh! He remembers, faintly, Alexa saying something in passing to him the other night. They’d been successful with IVF treatments a while ago, and her wife was due soon. The baby must have come. “Oh, that’s… Great. Good for them, I mean.”

Ravenna looks up at him from her clipboard, nodding quietly. “Yes. She will be gone for a while, and we will need someone to take over her position temporarily. You’re the only other staff member in our department who can fill in for her while she’s gone.”

“M-Me?” He hadn’t even been there for a whole year yet. The entire situation is very surprising. “I mean, Bill’s been here for years, can’t he…?”

Ravenna shakes her head, pushing her chair back to stand up. As Head Custodian, Ravenna never has to dress in clothes that are meant to get dirty (like Victor), so her pencil skirt and blouse are clean, tidy, and professional, and she brushes off the dust on her skirt. “Bill has a criminal record. I know that Jefferson comes in too high every night for his shift. And Kallie, well…” She shakes her head, trailing off. “Your background check came up the cleanest.”

That’s not surprising. For such a refutable company, Axiom Labs does tend to… take their chances on some people with sketchier backgrounds, mostly for the grunt work like graveyard shift custodian.

Still. It’s a lot more responsibility to be suddenly thrust into.

“Um, I’m, uh, not sure—”

Ravenna pays him no mind, continuing. “George usually arrives about eleven-thirty, according to his time-clocks. He’ll be the one to show you around tonight on B-1. I’ve got a new ID badge for you so you can access the floors you need to. Pay attention with what you do tonight, because George won’t show you anything tomorrow.” She explains, pulling a new ID badge and lanyard out from under the pile of papers on her clipboard. How that worked, Victor really had no idea. “Alexa is on maternity leave for the next eight weeks. If you do well during this time, there may be a permanent position open for you in the meanwhile.” Ravenna finally looks at Victor for the first time, her brown eyes staring directly into his. “That is, if you’re up for it, Mr. Hathorne.”

Up for it. Well—to be honest, it doesn’t feel like Victor’s being given a choice in whether he wants to do this or not. He takes the new ID badge—it’s the same as his current one, but less faded, at least he didn’t have to re-take the picture—and tries to force out a smile. It feels like he bares too many teeth with it. He nods, too. It feels weird and awkward. “Uh, I guess, I guess so.”

“Perfect. And like I said, George usually arrives around eleven-thirty, so in the meanwhile, work on your usual areas.”

Of course. Unfortunate that he doesn’t even get a break for this.

Ravenna makes her way to the door out of the break room, but she stops, her hand resting on the door knob. “Have a great night, Mr. Hathorne. And, oh—I suppose this goes without saying, but that NDA you signed when you first worked with us applies especially so on the basement levels.”

Right, right. It’d made sense that he had to sign an NDA, especially given the fact that Axiom Labs tends to work with experimental technology, but Victor had thought he wouldn’t be dealing with those floors, like, ever. But, somehow, it ends up finding a way to being his problem. Just his luck.

~~~

It’s night three of his new “job”, and it doesn’t feel any less unsettling to swipe his ID in the elevator to get access to the basement floors. Floors. The building was bigger than he was ever told—three different basement floors, specifically for research and development with secret projects and technologies up the wazoo.

Most of it dealing with ghosts.

Victor isn’t a religious man. He’s probably closest to some sort of pantheistic agnostic at this point, after all the ghost nonsense had started the same year he’d dropped out of college and moved back to what was supposed to be just a small city in the middle of nowhere, Ohio. It’d changed a lot, not just with Victor’s own personal beliefs, but the entire city had been literally uprooted and thrown into hell? At some point? He’s not even quite sure what happened, he’d been a little too high that day and also slept through half of it, but apparently the ghost boy, Phantom, had beaten some guy and saved the day.

But it’s safe to say he’s pretty indifferent to ghosts, at this point. They tended to leave most of his life alone, attacking through the city at night while Victor is scrubbing away at floor tiles and bathroom mirrors and chilling (mostly) during the day when he’s sound asleep in his apartment. They tended to stick to the downtown areas more; they’d attacked Axiom Labs before, too, but that had only ever been during the day.

He sighs, listening to the rock music crescendo on his MP3 player as the elevator finally dings for B2. George had gotten off at B1 already, and B2 was Kallie’s area. Now it’s Victor’s area.

It’s a lot more than he’d expected. He still doesn’t have access to all the rooms in the building. A few are locked off with “Authorized Personnel Only” signs in big letters on the door. He’d tried swiping his card through them once, just out of curiosity, but it didn’t work. Whatever. Victor doesn’t want to know what’s going on behind those doors. Possibly clandestine deals with the U.S. Government, those weird people always running around in white suits. Ghost Investigation Ward, or whatever?

Victor wished he didn’t have to care about those idiots but they’re worse than the Fentons. They keep sending people—living, breathing, human people—to the hospital from either their reckless driving or their horrible aims. At least with the Fentons, their inventions didn’t do more than stain clothes or leave nothing worse than a carpet burn, but those government pricks have more powerful weaponry that hurts. Victor remembers when Bill had to call off after he’d been caught in the crossfire of a GIW agent and Phantom on his way home. He was stuck in the hospital for a week, and the government wouldn’t pay him anything.

Taking out his ID again, Victor swipes it at the main janitorial closet on B2. Thanks to the government funding, at least, there’s a cleaning supply closet on every single floor. He doesn’t have to lug his usual mop and bucket setup from his usual floor all the way down to B2. Supplies are neatly color-coded and organized in this closet, and Victor tries to keep up with it as best as he can. Kallie’s incredibly neat and detail-oriented. He doesn’t want to mess with whatever system she’s got going here, especially since Kallie will be back from maternity leave, of all things, and will be a little more stressed than normal as schedules shift and fix themselves.

His MP3 player plays a Humpty Dumpty song next as he grabs a mop and a bucket, looking for the right concoction of chemicals to make the sudsy potion that leaves the floors sparkling clean. He knows what to mix and what not to mix—no accidental mustard gas creation here, folks— but Axiom Labs gets high quality stuff and they want it all used, all the time. Floor polish, soap, sanitation—everything. He grabs the soap first, pouring a bottlecap worth of the fluid before mixing it into the bucket until it starts to sud up. Once it does, it’s pretty easy. He hooks the mop handle under the bucket and rolls it out into the hallway, ready to start his shift.

Halfway through mopping, though, a crash echoes through the hallway, and Victor jumps.

His MP3 player stops working. There’s a fog in the air as he breathes. The temperature plummets, and the light fixtures flicker.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Of course there’s a ghost on his floor. Actually, wait, no, it’s not even his floor, it’s Kallie’s floor, and with how Axiom Labs and the government are working together, why should he even be surprised that a ghost is down here, at this point? Victor groans as he pushes the bucket out from the center of the floor, digging into his pocket for his phone.

Protocol, protocol, protocol…! He remembers the training. B.O.O., or whatever they’d called it. Something cheesy. Back out, organize, and what was that last thing…?

His phone turns on, but there’s no signal. Or Wi-Fi.

Of course.

He’s barely able to pocket his phone before he hears another bang behind him, and a loud curse from around the corner.

Victor freezes. He knows he should get out of there. Ghosts never really meant anything good, in his experience. Especially in a building like this, which was armed with anti-ghost technology developed by Axiom Labs, some by FentonTech, and all paid for with government funds. The building had been incredibly tricked out since the first ghost attack, so Victor didn’t think he really had to worry.

But. But. Curiosity killed the cat, and Victor nervously pokes his head around the corner to see who’s there.

Is that… Phantom?

The ghost is floating a few inches off the ground, one gloved hand sizzling from something. He’s not dressed in his usual garb. His white boot are gone, replaced with steel-toed combat boots, and it looks like a black hoodie was thrown over him to try to hide some of his glow. But with his floating, it’s still obvious he’s a ghost.

“No, Tuck, that didn’t work either.” Phantom says, holding one hand up to his ear. Probably to a phone, or communicator. Hopefully not to a ghost that Victor can’t see. He laughs at something. “Oh, yeah, sure, like an ID card is just going to appear out of the blue for me.”  

What is he even doing here?

“I can try to go under, but I bet they’ve made sure to ghost-proof the floors and ceilings of that room, too.” Phantom adds, sighing. He pauses for a beat. “No, you guys wait outside, I don’t want you getting too involved with this. Yeah, I know, but I don’t want your faces plastered on wanted posters all across the city! It’s bad enough with me—" It devolves into an argument.

Phantom is here. That’s not normal. Phantom tends to avoid the Axiom Lab building like the plague. Most ghosts do. Maybe they can sense something that humans can’t. Maybe they just don’t want to deal with the ghost-hunters that are often in the place during the daytime, and they don’t have a use for it. But Phantom is here. Why is that?

Victor does believe Phantom is a good guy. Er, ghost. He died young, too young—even though photos can’t show ghosts that well, this isn’t the first time Victor has seen Phantom in the non-corporeal flesh. The way that baby fat still clings to his cheeks is obvious. Phantom died young. Everyone in Amity Park knows that. Most think he’s trying to do good, at the very least; be the hero for everybody else that he never had. It’s noble.

But Axiom Labs isn’t the bad guy.

… Right?

“Yeah, yeah, Tuck. I get it. Give me some time to think. I might be able to—” Phantom glances around, before he locks eyes with Victor, and stops. “—Um. Lemme get back to you.”

Shit, shit shit. Victor jumps back from the corner. Maybe he didn’t actually see him?

But a cold tap on the shoulder from behind gives it away. Victor tries to hide the shock as best as he can, but he still jumps a bit at Phantom’s sudden appearance behind him. How did you even…?

“Hi! You’re not gonna kill me, right?”

“U-uh, no, I’m just a janitor.” Plus, you’re a ghost, aren’t you already dead? Victor wants to add, but death always seems like an inappropriate topic to discuss with a ghost.

“Great! Good. You’re not going to call any back-up, either, are you?”

“I—um—” If he could, he probably would. But also, it’s just Phantom. And also, he can’t, probably because of Phantom. He does feel himself pale a bit, though, and he nervously pockets his phone again.  “N-No.”

Phantom nods, floating back a bit. Victor’s a little jealous of that. He’d love to float whenever he wanted. But he’s quite content with the beat of his heart and his feet on the ground right now.

“Awesome. Cool. Do you have an ID that could get me into the central room, there?”

“I don’t think I have the clearance for it.”

“Hm. One sec.” Phantom taps at his ear again. “Tuck, you still there?”

A beat of silence. Victor can almost hear a response, but it’s too quiet and muffled to make any specific words out.

“Yeah, I got an ID, but it doesn’t have clearance. Can you…? Okay, yeah.” Suddenly, Phantom is holding Victor’s ID. He doesn’t even remember giving it to Victor. “Good now? Cool! Thanks.” Phantom starts floating back into the direction, with Victor’s ID in hand. “Just need to borrow this quickly, concerned citizen!”

“I—I will, uh, need that back—" Victor starts to follow him. There’s an odd, calming aura around Phantom. Or maybe he’s been hypnotized. He doesn’t know. The older folk of Amity Park always say Phantom is manipulating and hypnotizing the younger people. Are they right? Probably not. They can’t even figure out how to print a document properly. But they might have a grain of truth to it.

“Sure, right after—” Phantom swipes Victor’s ID on the card reader. The card reader immediately explodes into flames, which Phantom quickly freezes over. The door does, somehow, slide open. He sheepishly passes Victor’s ID back. “Uh. Sorry. You might need a new one.”

It’s singed. The printed picture of Victor’s face is completely covered in ash and soot, and one corner of it is melted, now.

Victor shakes his head, pocketing it. He watches Phantom enter the center room. It is the one room he’d been the most curious about. No windows to try to peer through, a steel door, state-of-the-art security clearance… What could be hiding there? He opens his mouth, not hesitating to ask his questions. “Phantom, what are you—what are you even doing here?”

Silence. Victor hesitates, before stepping through the doorframe.

There’s a lot of anti-ghost technology scattered about. It definitely looks like a laboratory in there, but more like a mad scientist lab than what Victor had been cleaning on the higher levels. Vials of glowing green liquids lined the walls. Ectoplasm, by the look and smell of it. It’s radioactive, am I even safe to be in here?

With Phantom’s nonchalant attitude in the room, Victor assumes he’ll be okay for now. The ghost has some wild protective instincts over anyone living in Amity Park, which does rarely come in handy sometimes (like the time the town had been taken to hell. Yeah, that thing Victor somehow slept through most of).

“Ah. There you are!” Phantom grabs something from one of the tables gently, pulling the thermos off of his belt loop. It’s a small orb, about the size of his palm, and it’s pulsating with a faint turquoise glow. He uncaps the thermos, and doesn’t even press the button on the side, just sliding the orb into the tube and closing it tightly. “Sorry I took a bit, Ember, I’ll get you back to the zone pronto.”

Ember? Like, the singer?

“Phantom, what…?” Victor trails off, before getting another look at the room. There are vials of ectoplasm, but there’s also a faint trace of it on the walls. Like something had been fought in the room. It had been violent. Eventually subdued, but the glow on the walls, barely visible under the glow of the left-on computer and the ghost in front of him, looked like blood splatters. It’d been violent. Too violent.

And that orb—it’d been the only thing to survive.

Phantom doesn’t respond.

“Phantom?”

“I should go, before you get fired.”

“But wait—what—who was that? What… what happened in here?” Victor might be dyslexic, he might’ve dropped out of college, but he had a deep, sinking feeling in his gut that something was wrong. Very, very wrong. The air felt like it’d been sucked out of the room, and replaced with imprints of what had happened. It was almost… painful.

Eventually, Phantom speaks. “Under the Federal Anti-Ecto Control Acts, any creature found to have traces of ectoplasm in their blood is legally seen as a non-sentient entity that needs to be captured, studied, and destroyed. The Guys in White don’t have any lab set up in Amity, so they take advantage of Axiom during the day.”

Captured.

Studied.

Destroyed.

“Look, uh, mister.” Phantom breaks the silence again. His voice cracks a bit. “I should get going. Um, if anyone asks, I possessed you for this, okay? Then, at least, you won’t get fired for this.” He laughs, nervously. “Thanks for the help, though.”

I didn’t really help much, Victor thought. He hadn’t even really handed Phantom his ID card. But, then again, Victor didn’t really stop him, either.

“S-Sure.” Victor eventually stutters out.

And, just like he’d appeared without warning, Phantom disappeared, leaving Victor alone in the lab with his thoughts.

~~~

His resignation papers were on Ravenna’s desk by the morning.