#ectoberweek24

[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:

[ghostlyglimmer]

Ectoberweek Day 29: Last Rites

Jazz is not taking her little brother’s accident well.

Here’s my process of this piece. I use procreate and posemyart (for the pose reference, super duper helpful!)

[thebiggestfuckgiven]

Ectoberweek 25: Graveyard Shift

Rating: T

Warnings: Descriptions of gore, mentions of experimentation (implied narratively and in the gore as well), mentions of loss (it still counts if its yourself/a version of you), horror, and dissociation-ish

A/N: okay I accidentally used the prompt of the same day I used last year, but maybe i’ll do it on purpose next time and invent a new tradition for myself. Danny, as usual, suffers ✨ I’m very happy I got to do a little something for Ectober this year. I was afraid I wouldn’t get the chance to. Please enjoy <3

-💜-

The night sky was startlingly clear. There were no stars, only that faint indistinguishable hue of air pollution, but it was still an amazing view. Then again, when you’ve been kept captive indoors for months on end, any view of the outside world is beautiful. Even if that view is a polluted star-less sky in a grimy, smelly city.

The cemetery he was in was no less of a spectacle, grim as it was. It had no wrought iron fence or any kind of enclosure, instead having been left open on all sides for all to come and go.

Truth be told, Danny had no idea where he was. They never told him where they were taking him when it was time to ship him to a new facility. He thought that was pointless. Who was he going to tell, really? They probably liked keeping him in the dark. Better to control that way. Whatever. The joke, now, was on both of them.

About ten or fifteen blocks away, sirens blared faintly from a scarce street. Firefighters, ambulances, police— the whole bunch of them gathered around an unmarked containment truck flipped on its side. The drivers could still be alive, if the group who had attacked them wasn’t cruel enough to change that.

Danny assumed they thought they’d find expensive tech and cutting edge resources, and they did. Sort of. What they hadn’t expected was to find Danny. The crash had made his container malfunction, and those doors opened… well, he wasn’t about to let that opportunity pass him by.

All he took with him was himself, and he left the daring group alive. They wouldn’t have known what to do with him, anyways.

He flew as fast as he could until he found this cemetery. They would start looking for him in a few hours, and if he wanted to get away, he’d have to find a hiding spot first. One of these, he figured, must be empty. Graves weren’t just for bodies, after all. Sometimes, they were for the idea of one. A body never recovered, or completely destroyed. Graves were for people, too.

He hovered over one in particular. It gave the impression that it was empty. How he knew was a mystery to him, but he was grateful for it.

The headstone read,

Stephanie Brown

Beloved Daughter, Sister, and Friend.

Your smile will always live in our hearts.

xxx xx, xxxx - xxx xx, xxx

The stone wasn’t worn or aged. She’d been “buried” recently. Hand resting gently on the headstone, he wondered what could have happened to her that she had to be buried without herself.

Far away, the sirens died down.

Maybe the answer will reveal itself to him eventually. He knelt on the soft grass and sunk a hand through the ground.

“Uh, can I help you?”

Danny froze up. That was one thing he forgot about cemeteries. Like graves, they weren’t just for the dead, either. He yanked his hand out of the ground and slowly glanced over his shoulder.

Behind him stood a young woman. The first thing he noticed were the clothes. She wore a purple beanie and a thick black jacket with a purple shirt underneath. The second thing was her hair, blonde and wavy, because it was curled around her neck like a makeshift scarf.

Glancing upwards, he saw no clouds. No snow… it was autumn already, then. But that… that meant he was gone for more than a few months. It meant he missed the whole school year. He was supposed to graduate high school in the summer.

“Are you okay? You don’t exactly look… all there.”

He faced the young woman again. The way she said it made it sound like it had a hidden meaning, which he quickly caught on to.

“I— sorry, I’ll get out of your way,” he muttered, pushing himself up to his feet, though unnecessarily so when he could’ve floated away.

“It’s all good,” she replied, watching him carefully. “Did you know her?”

“Hm? Oh, you mean Stephanie? Um, not really. I was just… paying my respects.” The lie felt misshapen in his mouth. She looked at him confused. He kept talking to steer her away from any questions. “Did you? Know her, I mean.”

“I used to,” was all she said to that. He didn’t like the way she was looking at him. He wanted to leave. “Do you live here?”

“No? What kind of person lives in a graveyard?”

Her hand still in her jacket pocket, she gestured towards all of Danny with a tilt of her head.

“Your kind of person, I’m pretty sure. Shit, unless you aren’t self-aware and I just ruined that.” Her eyes widened with genuine concern, making the reminder click in Danny’s head that he looked decidedly not-human under the night sky. That, and surrounded by well-meaning headstones, anyone would’ve walked the other way at the sight of him.

Almost anyone.

“Ah,” he said simply, looking down at his glowing, translucent self. “That. And you’re not, I dunno, shocked? Horrified?”

She shrugged. “It’s October in Gotham. I’ve seen worse.”

The statement sent a shiver like lightning right through him. A whole year… and Gotham was far but not it was still the Eastern area of the States. He could easily fly back home.

Maybe not.

How can he go back like this?

“Listen,” the blonde woman said, interrupting his thoughts. “You look a little out of it for a ghost. What brings you to this cemetery and m- Stephanie’s grave?”

“Um…” Danny glanced behind the wide headstone, where he saw himself. Danny Fenton lay lifeless and disfigured, his left leg missing and the skin of his right arm cut and held open by two tiny metal clamps attached to a single, wrap-around wire. There was muscle tissue and veins missing. The other arm was charred into an indistinguishable stump, melted skin folded over itself horrifically in too many layers, melded by heat-raised bubbles that were long solidified.

Where his left eye once was, there was now a vacant void. A window into his true self: a perfectly preserved brain thrumming with unnatural green light. Dead, and impossibly present. His other eye was still there, but just as vacant. Black hair glistened with remnants of the ectoplasmic waste they used to keep Danny Fenton fresh.

It was a quick glance. He fought not to throw up, ghostly body functioning now on memory alone.

“I thought…” that no one would see me “I’d check the place out. I paid my respects to some of the other graves.” He hesitated. He shouldn’t ask. He doesn’t want to know about Stephanie Brown, about the resting place he’ll be desecrating with the thing he became. “Hers is… empty. Can I ask what happened to her?”

The blonde woman’s reaction was small. A brief raise of the eyebrows, eyes widening for a second before going back to their watchful gaze.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you know it’s empty,” she said with a hint of a smile. “I can’t really go into any details, but let’s just say that the girl they buried there doesn’t exist anymore.”

He had no idea what that meant.

“Why do you… still visit her?”

She seemed to think this over, looking out onto the street far away from where they were.

“That girl, she was so,” the blonde woman sighed, “naive and hotheaded. She would try so hard to be something without caring to think of what it would take and in the end, it’s what did her in. But I still cared about her, and I guess I still miss her sometimes.”

The sincerity caught Danny off guard. He couldn’t help the way he stared at her, wondering if anyone talked about him like that. Did they make him a grave, or did they just… discard his memory? Would he ever get to stand over his own headstone and think of all the things he used to be, loving and missing that person?

He frowned a little, and watched the blonde woman.

She smiled fondly, a sort of bittersweetness in her expression, at the headstone. Then she took a breath, blinked a few times, and redirected her smile to Danny.

“Your turn. What are you really doing here? Looking for real estate opportunities,” she joked, eyes twinkling. Danny refrained from stepping away and turning tail. He looked at her closely.

She didn’t seem familiar, but the GIW were growing larger and there were plenty of operatives that Danny has never met. Her jacket was big enough to hide a blaster… but they couldn’t have found him so quickly. No, besides, no self-respecting operative would wear such expressive colors.

“Something like that,” he blurted out before he could even think. “I mean, not like that. I don’t… I don’t know anymore.” His voice was a soft whisper and he stared at himself where he lay crumpled. “I don’t think I can go back home anymore. I don’t… I don’t know who I am. What I am. People aren’t supposed to… live through things like these, aren’t they? Die through, or whatever.”

“What things?��� The question was tentative. “Are you— what are you looking at?”

“Nothing,” he said with bitter conviction. “Absolutely nothing. I was going to hide it in your coffin.”

“How did you—? wait, hide what?” Her voice changed from its friendly, wistful tone to a razor-sharp serious one. She stepped closer to him, trying to meet his gaze.

“Got a feeling. Like I might do the same one day, if I had one.”

Danny didn’t stop her when she got too close to her own headstone. When she followed the direction of his gaze to the twisted, hollow thing that ate up the surrounding shadows like this blacker than black void that was trying to grow into a walking, lifeless monster made up of clinical pain and suffering.

Stephanie did not scream or gasp. She held the headstone in a brutal grip, short nails painfully scraping against it. Her mouth gaped wordlessly, jaw trembling with shaky and uneven breaths. The lines of her face contorted into themselves in their attempt to make sense of the thing they were seeing. Eyes glistened even in the shadows, their pupils a disappearing pinprick.

Stephanie’s horror was a silent one.

“What— wh-who is that? Is that—?”

“Me,” he said flatly. “I thought I’d be able to escape. That I would last longer than their curiosity and hate.” He clenched his fists. “I saw a glimpse of snow the day it happened. I” —his voice cracked— “I didn’t even make it three months.”

Stephanie stared at him, transfixed. At the Danny Fenton that would never again be.

“Wh-what happened to you?” Her voice trembled, barely a breeze-like whisper.

“Don’t ask me that,” he said, strained and holding back suffocating memories. “P-please don’t— just, don’t.” He took a gasping breath, eyes snapping wildly towards the sound of screeching tires in the distance. A big car headed their way. “Hey, listen. Hey— Stephanie.”

A creaking slingshot, her wide stare shot back towards him. Her mouth had been snapped shut, and loud, shallow breaths tried to push themselves in and out of her nose.

“Take care of him, please,” he begged, bright, opalescent tears falling freely down his face. “They can’t find him again. The pain will never end again. Just— I, I don’t know, get him a coffin or anything, but don’t bury him yet. I’ll find him again, but I can’t stay. I can’t, they can’t find us again. Promise me, please?”

This was a complete stranger in front of him. But she had her own grave, and she stood over it alive and well. He had to trust her with the only thing he had left. She would understand that. She had to.

“Stephanie, please,” he pleaded once more when she said nothing. The loud engine of that big car became louder. The downward rush of a thick, heavy axe.

She nodded, shakily.

“I-I promise, yeah.” She cleared her throat, pulling herself from the edge and regaining clarity. “Yes. I will. Go, I’ll- I’ll take care of it. Whatever it is.”

Danny cried. An urgency was overtaking him, thrusting him into that day they hunted him down.

“Thank you,” he managed to whisper before shooting off into the clear night sky, leaving behind a faint comet-green streak. He disappeared in seconds, leaving Stephanie Brown alone with the horrifyingly disfigured corpse of a teenager and her clattering thoughts.

She pulled out her phone in a shaky flash, going straight to the Favorites in her Contacts.

The call connected after the third ring.

“I need your help hiding a body.”

[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.

[papiliomame]

Ectoberweek Day 27 - Ghost Peeler

Jazz in her Ghost Peeler costume, as it appeared in the series, modelled in 3D.

I already made a transformation animation inspired by the AGiT graphic novel, but I noticed that her suit in the show and in the graphic novel are different. I remodelled her suit, which I created for the animation, to make it look closer to the original design.

[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!

[papiliomame]

Ectoberweek Day 28 - Skeleton Key

"Holding the key I’ve been searching for. Oh, Jack Fenton, even in success, you fail! " - Vlad Plasmius in "The Million Dollar Ghost"

[papiliomame]

Ectoberweek Day 30 - Tarot

I wanted to focus on shapes and colors this time, so no sketch, no lineart, no blending and an excessive use of the lasso tool.

[ghostlyglimmer]

Ectoberweek Day 27: He tried to stay in control of his ghost half. He really tried.

[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.

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Sacrifice

ectoberweek24 day 5- two sentence tw- neglect summary- The Fentons are scientists

masterlist ao3 part 6 of AHINWTG

The Fentons were brilliant scientists. Or so they claimed. There was still no proof to all their theories, but they were persistent. They would have their proof. They’d show the world they had been right all along. Ghosts were real. Ghosts were evil.

And once they finally had a specimen, they would be able to discover how ghosts form and how to prevent ghosts from forming. Because who wanted to turn into an evil amalgamation of negative emotions?

So, they built weapons for creatures they hadn’t found yet, and published papers on topics hardly anyone believed. And they worked and worked and worked.

They had a little girl, but she was strong and independent. She could take care of herself. They needed to focus on their work. Afterall, someone had to be able to protect them from the evil ghosts. How better to care for their daughter than to work to defend her against threats?

Then they had a son, and that was okay too. They had always wanted two children, and this way Jazz could take care of little Danny so that they could focus on their work.

Once they’d proven their theories, once they’d defended the world against the threat ghosts posed, they’d spend more time with their children.

The years went by, and still they had no proof. At least both their children were independent now. 

They loved their kids. They did. But they needed to protect the world. And aren’t the many more important than the few? Sacrifices had to be made for the greater good.

And they were almost finished. They would be able to prove the existence of ghosts soon. And then they’d destroy the ghostly dimension and make sure no more ghosts were formed. No one would have to suffer from ghosts again. And the Fentons would finally receive the renown they were due.

They built their portal. But it didn’t work. They researched and they researched and they researched. They delved into the mystic texts that they’d previously tried to ignore. They were scientists. They didn’t believe in nonsense like magic and witchcraft. 

But the more they looked into it, the more they saw that all the texts said the same thing. They all required the same thing in order to breach the veil between the living and the dead.

They looked at each other then. They had to decide what was more important.

But wasn’t it obvious? They were doing this for the greater good. They needed to be willing to do whatever it took, to sacrifice whatever it took, to see their research through.

They asked him to come downstairs after school. They told him they needed his help. He had helped in the lab before, though usually it was just to clean. He was just happy to spend time with them.

They had him slip on a hazmat suit and asked him to check some of the wiring inside the portal. 

He stepped in, and they flipped the switch.

Green light filled the portal, and a scream echoed through the lab. 

It was working. The portal was opening. They couldn’t help but feel excited.

But then the light died as the scream did.

When the light had faded, all they could see was a lump near the edge of the portal.

They cursed. They had been so close. This was supposed to have worked. They had done everything right. They had double checked their blueprints and the portal itself. They had even given in and followed the ancient texts.

They frowned. There was only one factor that they hadn’t been in complete control of. The boy. He must have done something wrong for it not to have worked. And as they looked at the portal, their frustration mounted. The inside was singed, metal corroded and wires frayed. It would take them months to fix it.

At least they still had the girl.

They turned to leave the lab. They’d clean the mess up later. But then there was a groan, and they turned back to see the boy raise his head.

They told him it was an accident. His heartbeat was slow, but he seemed fine.

That’s why it hadn’t worked, they thought to themselves. The boy hadn’t really died. They’d have to try a slightly different approach next time. Maybe it would work if the sacrifice was already dead? But first they’d up the portal’s voltage. More electricity should do it.

Because a portal to the afterlife needed the sacrifice of something loved in order to open.

But they would never succeed. 

They didn’t love him enough for it to work.

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Tick Tock

ectoberweek24 day 4- two sentence prompt tw- character death, blood summary- Danny hears a ticking coming from his chest

masterlist ao3

Ever since Danny’s encounter with Dan, who had shoved the medallion in his chest, Danny has felt different.

He rubs at his aching chest. He swears that sometimes it feels like it’s still there. Vlad had removed it. But it doesn’t feel like it.

It probably doesn’t help that his ghostly appearance has started to change. Frostbite says that it’s normal. That his core is still developing, and that Danny’s form will naturally change as he goes through what amounts to ghost puberty.

But that doesn’t mean Danny has to like it.

It had started simple at first, fangs and pointed ears developing. Then his skin tone had started to change. He refuses to look in a mirror when in ghost form. He looks too much like Dan.

Then his hair started to float. And that was okay. It made it look like he was floating in space. Then it looked more like fire than hair.

His friends try to reassure him, telling him that it doesn’t matter what he looks like. He isn’t Dan, and he wouldn’t turn into him because he had avoided the Nasty Burger Incident.

He doesn’t like going to Nasty Burger anymore either.

But they only say those things because he’s not being honest with them. He doesn’t tell them how it feels like the medallion is still in his chest. He doesn’t tell them that sometimes when he’s floating above the clouds by himself in the stillness of the night, he can hear a ticking. He had looked around at first before realizing that the ticking came from his chest. 

From his core.

And he has started having strange dreams.

Dreams of things he doesn’t remember but feels like he should.

They feel like memories, but they can’t be.

They were filled with destruction and grief and loneliness and regret.

Danny avoids sleeping as much as he can. His grades start to get worse. His friends are concerned, Mr. Lancer is frustrated, his parents… his parents don’t even realize. They’re too busy hunting down Phantom.

He doesn’t care. He just doesn’t want to dream anymore.

Danny comes home from school one day to see his parents sitting on the couch. They’re scowling at him.

“Danny, Mr. Lancer called us. He said you’re failing several classes.” his mom says, crossing her arms.

Danny’s only failing two, but he doesn’t think that will help his case.

“We’re very disappointed in you, Danny. You should be doing better.” His dad frowns at him.

“And if you’re struggling, you know you can come to your dad or me for help.”

Danny bites his cheek to keep from throwing angry words at them. When would he go to them for help? They’re always busy. He hardly even sees them anymore except for when they’re chasing him as Phantom. 

“Do you have anything to say for yourself, young man?” his dad asks.

“Sorry.” Danny grits out. “I’ll do better.”

“You will. From now until you get your grades up, you're grounded.” his mom says.

Danny wants to laugh. As if they’d notice if he left the house. They’ve never noticed before. They never notice when he comes back bruised and bleeding; they don't notice when he doesn’t come home at all.

“We’re also going to be meeting with your teacher.” she says, standing up. “We’ll be meeting with Mr. Lancer tomorrow after school.”

“Where?” Danny manages to ask through the fear gripping his heart. The ticking in his chest grows louder. 

“He’ll be coming here.” his dad says.

Danny relaxes a bit. At least it isn’t at the Nasty Burger.

The next day, Danny is waiting anxiously in their living room. His parents are still downstairs.

The doorbell rings and he lets Mr. Lancer in exchanging half hearted greetings. They wait in awkward silence for a few minutes before Danny stands up.

“I’ll go get them.”

He makes his way downstairs. He can hear his parents moving around, probably building some new weapon to hurt Phantom with, Danny thinks grimly.

“Mom, dad, Mr. Lancer’s here.” he calls out from halfway down the stairs. They don’t answer and Danny rolls his eyes as he continues down into the basement. The first thing he sees is something glowing red on one of the lab tables. He immediately doesn’t like it. 

“Mom, dad, Mr. Lancer’s here.” he says again, and this time they hear and start heading up the stairs, passing Danny and talking to each other about their latest invention.

Danny’s phone buzzes in his pocket. He sees a series of text from Tucker.

sup man sam got us inthrough your window jazz hearrd but worry not sam talked her into not snitchin when the adults are done we can go to sams

Danny smiles. With the promise of hanging out later, the meeting he’s going to now doesn’t feel that bad.

They’ve only just started talking, Danny distracted by the ticking in his core growing louder and faster though no one else seems to hear it, when Danny feels a pulse of energy. He frowns. The pulse of energy came from the basement. Is a ghost coming through? But his breath doesn’t fog, so what—

In a single moment reality tips from order into chaos. The ticking in Danny’s chest builds to a whine.

Then Danny is opening his eyes, coughing hard enough that he fears he’ll cough up his lungs. He squints, trying to peer through the smoke. There is rubble everywhere. Close by he sees—

Danny gags, retching. There are bodies. There is blood. There are limbs not attached to bodies.

Danny retches again, but nothing comes up.

Smoke and dust hang heavy in the air, and Danny wonders how he could possibly have survived whatever just happened. Why did he survive when—

There is a ringing in his ears that masks the near whine coming from the rapid ticking in his chest.

It is too much. He cannot handle this. He feels unconsciousness tugging at him, and he doesn’t resist.

It’s later that he finds out that there was an explosion in the basement. An explosion that then started a chain reaction with all the other dangerous things in the lab, ending with the portal erupting with the fury of untamable energy finally unleashed.

It decimated not only the Fentons' house, but the surrounding ones as well. There is death and injuries, and everyone is wondering how Danny survived.

Meanwhile, he wonders if he can even die again.

He feels empty, blank, he doesn’t resist the social workers guiding him into a car. He doesn’t process the fact that they’ve dropped him off at Vlad’s mansion. He doesn’t even remember why that’s a bad idea. At least not until it’s too late, and Vlad has placed a power canceling cuff around his wrist and a shield around the house that is logged onto Danny’s ectosignature so that he cannot even escape in human form.

He is trapped.

He spirals.

Vlad grows frustrated and then angry at Danny’s lack of accepting Vlad as his new father figure.

It is not even Danny’s idea this time.

It is Vlad who grows tired of Danny’s mopping. It is Vlad who chains Danny down onto a lab table, ignoring Danny’s pleas that sound like madness to Vlad.

Vlad who stands over him, ghosts gauntlets raised, before he plunges them into Danny’s chest. He pulls out Phantom. Phantom who without his human half does not know how to handle the grief that tears at his core. Who does not know how to handle the destruction of one of his obsessions. There is still space. But he can hardly think of that amidst the grief. 

Phantom flies into Vlad, tearing out Plasmius. Plasmius who is also suffering from a partially broken obsession.

Ghost cores are not meant to merge. They repel each other like magnets. But when two cores with such similar obsessions, that are both cracked and mourning come so close together, it is like the irresistible pull of magnets. But ghost cores are not meant to merge. And so two cores come together, but at the same time two cores both try to flee in different directions.

Madness is the only logical outcome.

Madness that seeks to consume everything in an effort to end its suffering. It will destroy everything. For maybe, when there are no more reminders, it will finally feel peace.

But the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Dreams

ectoberweek24 day 3- two sentence tw- none summary- Sam dreams

masterlist ao3 part 5 of AHINWTG

Sam dreams. She dreams of a black haired boy, but in her dreams she is the black haired boy. 

She dreams of school hallways filled with the blurry afterimages of people. She The boy is always alone. Friends are hard to make when your parents are crazy.

She dreams of a town, of a restaurant with a blurred out name. 

She thinks it might be the empty shell of a building that people say exploded killing several people.

The dream is washed out colors and sepia tones. It is a strange dream, but it is not a nightmare.

She approaches a building. Her house. An average townhouse. The house was a streak of gray in the midst of the washed out colors of the rest of the dream. She was inside the house now and it was hard to see, like she was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses inside.

Inside was a large orange figure and a slim teal one. They were blurred to the point where you could barely recognize them as people. Their color stood out starkly in the gray toned house. There was fear and longing and love and heartache and confusion and despair and a whirlwind of feelings when she looked at them.

But there was also another figure. One with red fire for hair and they were gentle and kind and love and loss and betrayal.

Then Sam was in a dark room with shadows flickering along the walls and eyes watching from the darkest corners. The room was cold and she was frozen in front of a hole in the wall. There were eyes there, watching her. Shadows flickering, waiting to grab her and pull her in. Then there was a shove and she was in the tunnel-like hole and there was lightning and pain and screaming and betrayal and pain and pain and pain and pain and pain and pain and pain and pain and so much pain and—

Sam gasped as she shot up in bed. She was gasping for breath, her eyes wide and unseeing. Her gaze flickered frantically around the room, not taking anything in except for the fact that she wasn’t in that dark room anymore. She wasn’t in that strange tunnel. She wasn’t in pain. Was she? No. She wasn’t. It was a dream. 

It was a dream.

She was shaking and her sheets were drenched in sweat.

She turned on her bedside lamp. She didn’t want to be in the dark right now. She hugged her knees to her chest. She kept looking around her room, gaze flickering to the corners expecting to see shadows curling out towards her.

It was a dream. She closed her eyes then quickly opened them again.

Already the dream was slipping away. She tried to hold on to it, but it was like dust floating away on the breeze. And did she really want to remember? It was important. She was sure of it. But was it? It was just a dream, afterall. A nightmare, but still just a dream.

She rested her head on her knees, letting herself take a moment to just breathe. Then she slid her legs over the side of the bed and stood. She needed a drink of water.

She walked over to her dresser and then stopped. 

There, where her glass of water should be, was the planchet.

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Cornered

ectoberweek24 day 2- cornered tw- mentioned blood but nothing graphic summary- Danny tries to protect his friends

masterlist ao3 part 6 of GD

Danny ran after his friends. He was panting even though he was pretty sure he didn’t need to breathe anymore. But old habits were hard to kill. At least they didn’t need to worry about tripping over anything, but that also meant that the monster wouldn’t trip over anything either. He risked a glance over his shoulder and gulped. 

The beast was only a few yards behind them. They had already seen it tear a Spirit to shreds. Danny wouldn’t let that happen to his friends. He couldn’t.

He veered off in a different direction.

“Hey, lizard face! Over here!”

The beast snarled and started chasing Danny instead of his friends. Danny gritted his teeth, trying to quell his panic, and ran harder.

The creature was only about the size of a large dog, but that still meant that it came up to Danny’s chest. Not to mention, that it reminded Danny of the monsters from A Quiet Place but with a crocodile like head and two extra sets of limbs. It was more terrifying than any movie monster Danny had ever seen. But that might also be because it was chasing him.

Danny could hear his friends calling to him, but he ignored them. He sensed movement behind him, and he swerved to the side barely avoiding one of the creature’s clawed hands. 

Danny could see more light up ahead. He was approaching the edge of the Forest. Soon he wouldn’t be able to run any farther. 

He reached the edge of the trees and spun around, feeling the barrier at his back. He wished, how he wished, that he could run past the trees, but the barrier at the edge of the Forest kept them all in. It didn’t keep the creatures in though. Did the barrier keep them from coming back in? So far, none of the creatures who had left the Forest had come back. 

The creature had stopped running, simply observing Danny and emitting a low growl.

“Come on!” Danny yelled. “Come at me!” 

The monster snarled, standing up on its hind legs, and if Danny still had a heart it would have stopped in fright.

Then the creature leapt at him and Danny dove out of the way. One of its claws sliced through Danny’s arm and he cried out. Danny climbed to his feet quickly, clutching at his arm as it started to bleed green. He stared out at the creature who had paused. It scented the air. It glanced back at Danny, and he froze, getting ready to run again. But it scented the air again, turning its snout towards the direction of Amity. Then it settled down onto all its limbs and started running towards town.

Danny collapsed onto the ground. He closed his eyes. His arm hurt, and he couldn’t help but feel guilty. He had saved himself and his friends, but he had sent the creature towards town where it might hurt someone else.

But what was he supposed to do? He couldn’t fight back. He didn’t have any weapons. He didn’t have any way to fight back, to protect himself and his friends.

“Danny!” Sam and Tucker rushed to him.

“Why did you do that?” Sam said, barely holding herself back from punching his shoulder.

“I had to get it away.” Danny said.

“We could have gotten away together. Then you wouldn’t have gotten hurt!” Sam said, her voice verging on the point of yelling.

“Yeah, man. Don’t sacrifice yourself like that. We don’t want you to get hurt.” Tucker said.

Danny sighed. “Sorry.” he said, but he knew that he’d do it again. He’d do anything to protect his friends.

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Search

ectoberweek24 day 7- ectology tw- none summary- Sam and Tucker keep searching for more information

masterlist ao3 part 7 of AHINWTG

Sam dragged Tucker to the library. She was exhausted. She had hardly been sleeping. It seemed that every night was another nightmare, but she couldn’t remember what they were about when she woke up. She couldn’t count how many times she had thrown the planchet out the window, burned it to ash, buried it, tossed it in the pond at the park, or otherwise tried to destroy it. But each morning, it was back on her desk.

She still hadn’t been able to make herself open the file they’d stolen from the school.

She dragged Tucker to the library’s basement where they kept all the old records no one really cared about, but the library still kept for some reason. At least, it was helpful to them now.

“Sam, what are we doing here?” Tucker asked. “On a Saturday. We’re supposed to be relaxing, playing video games and eating junk food.”

“You mean doing homework, which you’re going to procrastinate anyway. So stop complaining and start looking through the newspapers and other files for any mention of the Fentons.

Tucker grumbled, but started going through boxes filled with what looked like random papers.

An hour went by and still they had found nothing.

“Saaaammm!” Tucker said, collapsing dramatically on the floor where he had been sitting going through a file box. “This is boooring.”

Sam said nothing. Her movements were just as quick and focused as they had been when they had first started searching. She needed to figure things out, she needed to know what was going on, otherwise she’d go mad with the lack of sleep.

“Keep looking. I’ll buy you Nasty Burger for lunch.” she said, already grimacing at having to spend money on meat.

Tucker perked up and kept searching.

Another hour went by, and Tucker had started to fidget. He was going through files much slower than Sam. He was about to complain or ask for a break or anything really to break up the monotony when Sam stood up suddenly.

“I found something.” she said, walking over a desk in the basement corner and shoving some dusty files to the floor. Tucker winced but leaned over to see the article that Sam was pointing to.

It was just a small article talking about an accident that had happened in the park. It stated that the Fentons claimed they had been testing one of their inventions which had apparently decided to explode. The article treated this like a common occurrence going on to note that no one had been hurt this time.

They returned to their search with more vigor, finding three more articles. One had to do with the Fentons wanting to construct some strange addition to their house, but that the housing committee had stopped them. Another was an article about how their daughter, Jazz, had won an academic award. 

The third paper looked like someone had spilled ink on it. They could only make out part of the article which said something about the youngest Fenton making a discovery about a gorilla that was being temporarily kept at the zoo a few towns over. The picture and his name were blotted out with ink.

They searched for a bit longer but found nothing more.

As they sat eating at Nasty Burger Sam’s expression stayed puzzled.

“What’s wrong?” Tucker asked.

“I couldn’t find any mention about the Fenton parents deaths, or anything else about them. I checked all the obituaries. But I couldn't find any mention of them. And there was also a whole year’s worth of newspapers missing.”

“You’re looking too much into it Sam. The library probably just lost the box, and the newspaper might have forgotten to publish the obituaries.”

“Maybe.” Sam muttered. But she didn’t look convinced. Something was strange, and she would just have to keep looking.

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Dannymay23 masterlist Ectoberhaunt23 masterlist whumptober23 masterlist ai-less whumptober23 masterlist Ectoberweek23 masterlist

Dannymay24 masterlist Ectoberhaunt24 masterlist Whumptober24 masterlist Ectoberweek24 masterlist

In the Red masterlist complete dp x dc au where a cultist manages to mind control Danny

Dead Like Me masterlist dp x dc au where Jason comes across an injured Danny

The Sands of Time masterlist dp x dc au where Clockwork meddles to get the results he wants

What Doesn't Kill You. masterlist complete DC story where Jason's plans to return to Gotham triumphant don't work out how he wanted, and now he'd not sure what to do

Deathly Aftereffects masterlist complete DP au where powers weren't the only thing Danny walked out of the portal with

Sacrifice is a Noble Thing masterlist DP au where Danny gives himself up to the GIW to save Ellie

Gathering Darkness masterlist DP fantasy au where the Forest is the only thing keeping the Other from invading. And it needs souls to give it strength.

Mirror, Mirror masterlist DP x DC crossover where Danny encounters the bats and they all find out some interesting information

To Catch a Break masterlist Danny explores the DCU

Apprentice masterlist Slide finally has the apprentice he's always wanted.

To Find Rest masterlist The Fentons abandon their children at the Gotham Public Library

A Home is Nothing Without the ghosts masterlist Danny Phantom au in which Danny died a long time before Tucker and Sam became friends.

Amity Park vs Gotham masterlist The Amity Park senior class visits Gotham. Shenanigans ensue.

brōþor masterlist what do you do when you love your brother but your family is cursed?

A Spider's Web masterlist complete Peter's always hated Green Goblin the most

Casper vs Hogwarts masterlist Harry, Ron and Hermione visit the American wizarding school Casper High