#everyone knows AU

[raaorqtpbpdy]

God Only Knows

Everyone knows AU, but Wes doesn't know that everyone knows, and neither does Danny, because even though everyone knows, everyone also knows better than to acknowledge it.

For the prompts:

Everyone knows the connection between Danny Fenton and Phantom. To keep their town's hero safe, everyone pretends to be oblivious. Only this one kid doesn't seem to have gotten the memo. [From @vigilant-insomniac], and It's like Santa, the students of Casper High think. You know he's fake, just your parents playing pretend, and if Danny wants to play human, well. Who are they to ruin the fantasy? [From @uniasus]

This is a take on Wes I've never written before, despite having written quite a few Wes fics, and it was a lot of fun, I hope you like it : )

Read also on AO3

[Warnings for mentioned injuries, threats, and implied bullying]

Danny Fenton was dead. Everyone knew that.

After an accident in his parents' lab, he'd been rushed to the hospital and declared dead on arrival. He had an obituary in the paper, a grave. His death had even been announced over Casper High's PA system, and there had been a moment of silence, and all the science classes had done lessons on lab safety so that what had happened to him might not happen to anyone else.

Then, a couple weeks later, Danny Fenton was back at school like nothing had happened. Hanging out with his loser friends, going to classes, eating at Nasty Burger. Like he was still a regular kid. Except that beakers slipped through his fingers, and he kept walking through vending machines, and falling through the floor. Sometimes all or part of him would turn invisible, or he'd start floating a few inches off the floor and his friends had to pull him back down to earth.

Every time, he would look around in a panic, like he was hoping no one saw, and every time, those who had seen pretended they hadn't. It was Santa Claus, the Casper students reasoned. You knew he was fake, just your parents playing pretend, but it made them happy when you pretended with them. If Danny wanted to play human, well... who were they to ruin the fantasy.

Besides, no one wanted to be the one to remind him that he'd died.

Then the school was attacked by a ghost, and another ghost appeared to stop her. It was the ghost of a 14-year-old boy, wearing a Fenton Works jumpsuit. There was no mistaking that Danny Fenton, the dead kid attending their school, was also the dead kid protecting it.

But after a couple of days, it was clear that Danny himself still thought it was a secret, so everyone else silently agreed to let him keep thinking that. He'd been through a lot, and they didn't need to make it harder on him. Even Dash never brought it up—and he kept bullying Danny, for being week and unpopular, just to keep up the illusion that nothing had changed.

When out-of-towners started poking around, asking questions, everyone kept the secret. The strangers were clearly ill-intentioned, wanting to capture Danny for some reward. Even if he was deluding himself about still being alive, Danny was a good kid who protected the town. The least the locals could do as thanks was act oblivious to keep him safe. They were used to pretending, anyway.

Except this one kid didn't seem to have gotten the memo.

"Uh, yeah, I have some information on the ghost!" Wes called out to the Guys in White nosing around their school.

Kwan grabbed him, covering his mouth and dragging him around the corner before the Guys in White could see who'd called out to them. He felt something slimy on the palm of his hand and let go of Wes with a noise of disgust.

"What the hell!" Wes demanded.

"Did you just lick me?" Kwan asked, wiping his hand off on his jeans. "Gross!"

"Dude, you dragged me down the hallway! What gives."

"You were gonna spill to the Guys in White. You can't do that!"

"Just 'cause no one around here believes me, I'm just supposed to give up?" Wes frowned, crossing his skinny, freckled arms over his chest. "Somebody has to know that Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom, I mean come on, it's obvious!"

"But if you tell the Guys in White, even if they don't believe you, they'll investigate him, and who knows what they'll do," Kwan pointed out. "Hasn't Danny been through enough? I mean," Kwan glanced around and lowered his voice before adding, "he died. Do you really want to make things harder on him after that? Don't you think he deserves a break?"

"Exactly," Wes hissed. "He died. He's a ghost. Ghosts are bad—and why are we whispering?" he added at a normal volume.

"You know that's not true," Kwan argued, keeping his voice low, despite Wes' complaint. "Phantom protects us."

"From ghosts that come through a portal he opened!"

Kwan flinched. Saying Danny had opened the portal was kind of misrepresenting the reality of the situation. Sam and Tucker had reluctantly told the story of Danny's death in the weeks he was gone, and it had been spread around pretty thoroughly before he came back. Everyone at school knew that he'd stepped into that portal and been completely fried. The portal turning on wasn't the part most people focused on when it was always immediately followed by 'while Danny was inside it'.

"I don't think you can blame him for that," Kwan said. "It was an accident."

"One that has yet to be corrected," Wes replied, his anger not fading. "Him fighting the ghosts doesn't stop them from attacking. If he really wanted to protect the town, he'd destroy the portal and stay in the Ghost Zone."

"What about the Fentons?"

"Who cares if the Fentons lose their precious portal when it's endangering thousands of lives!?"

"And you don't care if they lose their son, either?" Kwan demanded.

"So you do believe me!"

"You're a dick, Weston." He'd never called anyone a dick before in his life, but it seemed to apply here. "I don't care what you think, but if you try to hawk your theories on any of the ghost hunters around town, I'll make you regret it, and I'll bring friends, too. I've got a lot of them."

To drive home his point, Kwan shoved Wes against the lockers and glared before walking away. Gosh, that was so aggressive. Kwan hoped it had been okay. He didn't like doing it—he didn't even know if his face could hold that expression long enough to intimidate anyone—but if it kept Danny safe, that was what mattered.

At least Dash would probably be proud of him for it. Dash was always saying he needed to be more assertive to people couldn't push him around. Metaphorically, of course. Literally, Kwan was six feet tall and 190 pounds, even as a freshman, so there weren't many people who could physically push him around as it was. He didn't join the football team for no reason.

Thankfully, it did seem to work. Kwan had his friends—and he did indeed have a lot of friends, since he was a very friendly and likable guy—keep an eye on Wes until the outside ghost hunters declared the hunt a bust and skipped town. He didn't know whether Wes had noticed or not, but either way, he hadn't tried to expose Danny to them again.

Too bad that didn't last. A few weeks later, Wes went directly to the Fentons.

"No one else will believe me, but your son is a ghost!" Wes told them. "He's Danny Phantom!"

Jack and Maddie both froze. They knew.

They knew, and they had both agreed to pretend they didn't. They shot at Phantom, always aiming a mile wide, and shouted threats, and loudly declared their hatred for ghosts. They knew how it made Danny feel, but they also knew he still loved them. They were willing to do whatever it took to keep their son around, and they feared that if he were ever to tell them he was a ghost, it would be because he was moving on and they'd never see him again.

"Why... that's ridiculous, my boy!" Jack declared, a slight waver in his booming voice. "Our son can't be a ghost!"

"But it's true!" Wes insisted.

"Don't be silly!" Maddie cut him off before he could start listing evidence. She knew all the evidence. "I think we'd know if there was a ghost living under our own roof."

"But—"

"You should keep your utterly ridiculous theories to yourself, because you sound absurd," Maddie said. "Now, if you don't mind, my husband and I have very important ghost hunting to get to. Don't you have homework to do or something?"

Wes growled and clenched his fists in frustration but left them alone nonetheless. Clearly, he wasn't getting anywhere with him. And he wasn't getting anywhere at school, to the point where Danny had stopped getting anxious and had started openly antagonizing him about it. Didn't anyone else in Amity Park have eyes, he wondered.

But in truth, he was the one not seeing, because he didn't see that everyone else was on the same page about Danny being a ghost, and he was the one being left behind.

"Hey, Wes-toenail!"

Wes rolled his eyes as Dash stormed up to him with a disappointed-looking Kwan in tow.

"Jazz Fenton told Sam Manson, who told Kwan, who told me, that you tried to tell Fenton's parents about your stupid conspiracy theory!" Dash sneered at him.

"It's not a conspiracy theory," Wes said. "There would have to be more than just one person involved for it to be a conspiracy theory. A conspiracy theory would be like if I claimed everyone in town was working together to hide the fact that Fenton is Phantom," he was too busy rolling his eyes again to notice the look Kwan and Dash gave each other, "but you're not, you're all just a bunch of sheep."

"And you're a... a..." Dash struggled, grasping around his thick head for a comeback.

"A blackberry bramble!" Kwan finished for him.

"A blackberry bramble!" Dash repeated firmly, then turned to Kwan with a confused look. "A blackberry bramble?" he repeated again, this time questioningly.

"Prickly, invasive, and impossible to get rid of," Kwan explained. "Sam and I also talked about her garden."

"Oh, that's nice," Dash then turned back to Wes, hardened his expression and said. "You're like a blackberry bramble, and no one wants you around."

Wes raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "Why do you even care? I thought you hated Fenton."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I want him dead again," Dash pointed out. "His parents are ghost hunters, and they're always shooting at Phantom. What do you think they might do to Danny if they actually believed your bullshit theory?"

"Get rid of him! Because he's a ghost! You know, the creatures constantly attacking our town and putting us all in danger?"

"The fact that you actually seem to believe that is why nobody at school likes you," Dash told him plainly. "That, and your general annoyingness."

"Why do you all care so much about protecting a loser like Danny Fenton?!" Wes shouted, loudly enough that it attracted the attention of everyone else in the hallway not already listening, and he threw his hands in the air in exasperation. "So he died, so what? It's the fact that he's still around that's the problem. Everyone seems to agree that they want ghosts gone until I bring up Phantom. A ghost is a ghost is a ghost, and all ghosts are dangerous, even the quote-unquote 'good ones.'"

He was breathing heavily when he finished his outburst, and suddenly aware of at least a dozen sets of eyes on him.

"That's enough, Wes," Kwan said after a beat. "Danny hasn't done anything to you, or anyone, and it's not fair for you to keep doing this, trying to expose him or... or whatever it is you're trying to do. You'd better cut it out. If this is a joke, no one's laughing, and if you're serious, then you're trying to take a real person away from his friends and family because of your own biases, and that's messed up, dude."

"Yeah!" someone down the hallway piped up. Micah, Wes thought her name was. She'd spit on his shoes when he tried to convince her of his theory.

"Enough is enough!" her friend agreed.

"You lay off Danny, he's already been through it this year already!"

Soon enough, every student in the hallway was chiming in their agreement, and Wes scanned the crowd, mouth agape, offended and outraged. When he turned back to Dash and Kwan, they both wore hard expressions. It looked weird on Kwan's usually jovial face, but it was clear they meant business.

"Whatever," Wes grumbled. He grabbed his math book out of his locker and slammed the door shut with a metallic bang. "You've made your point. I'll stop."

"Will you actually?" Dash insisted, raising a skeptical brow. "Or are you just saying that to get us off your back?"

"I will," Wes confirmed. "I don't need the entire football team and then some making my life a living hell. As long as Fenton keeps his distance from me, I'll do the same for him."

The warning was passed from Kwan, to Sam, to Danny, and in short order, Danny and Wes started avoiding each other. They barely so much as crossed paths anymore. Wes, begrudgingly, stopped trying to expose Danny, and Danny stopped teasing him for his failures, and it finally seemed like Amity Park's ghostly hero could go on protecting the town in peace.

But things weren't always what they seemed, and one day, there was a fight. At first, it seemed like a standard ghost fight, Danny Phantom versus some vampire-looking asshole.

Based on the banter, it sounded like this wasn't their first encounter with each other, so the civilians of Amity Park tried their best to stay out of the way and let Danny do his thing. Parents calling their kids inside, the group of teens passing by ducked into the alley, the one riding the opposite way on his skateboard crossed the street to hide with them, safety in numbers and all that.

Then the tide of battle turned, and all of the sudden, Danny was losing, badly. The enemy ghost had started coming at him with powerful blasts that broke through his defenses and left him reeling. Danny howled as he hit the street, hard, and in a flash of white light, his appearance changed from hero to dweeb, and regular old Danny Fenton laid unconscious in the road.

"You can never truly best me, Daniel," the enemy ghost said, but he didn't have time to monologue.

The teens in the alleyway had a plan, and they were coming to the rescue.

Sam Manson somersaulted into the street, Fenton Wrist Ray™ already armed and at the ready, and she laid down cover fire at the enemy ghost while Dash and Kwan ran out to grab Danny and drag him to the alleyway where they'd been taking cover.

"Guess you can't tell me I'm crazy now," Wes said, smirking triumphantly as the two jocks put Danny down gently on the ground, propping his head up on Paulina's folded up jacket. "We all saw him turn into Fenton, that's proof."

"Will you shut up, Wes?" Paulina snapped while Star checked Danny over, trying to assess his injuries. "We knew that already."

"What do you mean you knew?"

"Everyone knew, the whole time," Paulina reiterated with a derogatory scowl. "It's like, super obvious."

"Then why did you all treat me like I was crazy?" Wes demanded.

"Because you are," Star said. "Not 'cause you think he's a ghost—because, like, duh—but 'cause you kept trying to tell everyone. Some things should stay secret you moron."

"Why you even wanted to constantly remind the dead kid that he's dead, I'll never know," Paulina added.

"Plus, you constantly trying to expose him was putting him in danger," Kwan said. "Phantom is a hero, and you were trying to get him killed."

"He's already dead!"

"Yeah, we know," Sam jeered at him as she returned to their cover. "Everyone knows. But you're the only person in the whole town who's being a dick about it!"

"Hey, that's the same thing I told him a couple months ago!" Kwan told her, delighted. "I never called someone a dick before, but I did, 'cause he was being one."

"Good job calling him out, Kwan," Sam said, sounding genuinely satisfied. "It's good to hear that you're being more assertive and standing up for yourself and others."

"That's what I said, too!" Dash noted. "God, it's so weird that I actually agree with you on stuff now."

"Can we get back to the fact that you guys all knew the whole time that Fenton was a ghost and nobody thought to clue me in?" Wes said, looking around at the rest of them incredulously.

"Clue you in the Danny was a ghost?" Sam asked sardonically. "I thought you knew."

"No, that it was apparently common knowledge and you all just felt like making a fool out of me!"

"You wouldn't have looked like a fool if you'd just kept your fool mouth shut," Paulina pointed out.

"You—"

Wes was cut off when Danny groaned into wakefulness and everyone's attention instantly snapped to the ghost boy.

"Mn... ugh," Danny took a shaky breath and blinked his eyes open, quickly widening in shock when he realized how many people were leaning over him. "Uh... hello, citizens," he said, putting on a voice in the hopes they wouldn't recognize them. "Please, step back and stay away from the—"

"Danny," Sam said, "You changed."

"Huh?" He looked down at his hand and gasped. "I mean, I have an explanation for this. I was uh... being overshadowed?"

"It's okay, dude," Kwan told him. "We're not going to tell anyone. This'll be our little secret. Right, Wes?"

They all looked pointedly at the redhead, who opened his mouth to protest, and closed it again, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

"Yeah, okay," he relented, though his left eyebrow was nevertheless twitching in irritation. "Our secret."

"We just wanted to get you out of the line of fire before Plasmius took things too far," Sam told him. "You know I've always got your back."

"Thanks," Danny said. "All of you."

They gave him their smiles and their 'you're welcome's while Wes griped and grumbled and left the alleyway with his bike to finish riding home. Plasmius had flown off shortly after Sam started shooting at him. He was content in his victory over Phantom, and didn't feel the need to fight a powerless child like her, so the coast was clear for the rest of them to leave as well.

Sam said goodbye to Kwan so she could walk Danny home while the rest of them resumed their walk to the mall. Sam had been planning to split off before they got their anyway, she was just taking the opportunity to chat with them—mostly Kwan, whom she'd accidentally befriended during Danny's brief stint of popularity earlier in the year (his 'goth' poetry was awful, but they'd bonded over gardening and a love of animals)—since her house was on the way.

"You gonna be okay, Danny?" she asked, as they walked arm in arm so she could catch him if he stumbled. "You don't have a concussion, do you?"

"Maybe?" Danny said, squinting uncertainly. He shrugged. "I'll be fine. I always am. I'm still just amazed how lucky it was that the A-listers and Wes, of all people, were willing to keep my secret. It's gonna be all over the school, tomorrow, isn't it?"

"Oh, I don't know," Sam said vaguely. "Kwan's a decent guy, at least. I'm pretty sure they'll keep their word."

Danny scoffed in disbelief, but didn't voice an argument. The rest of the way to Fenton Works, the chattered about whatever topics came to mind, just to keep Danny from falling asleep in case he did have a concussion, and when Sam dropped him off at home, she held off her mournful expression until she had turned away so Danny didn't have to see it.

[secretly-an-automaton]

Day 5-7 of Angstfest: Everyone Knows AU!

Dunno how I feel about this art style but I can live with it. The two photos are exactly the same, just flipped for legibility

[phantomtwitch]

Sooo I wrote a Part 2 for the Everyone Knows AU part of angstfest. (Anything to avoid editing my IB fic right now, apparently)

Part One of this fic is here if you missed it!

Danny sits in the passenger seat of Jazz’s car, leaning his head against the window as his Mom drives them in silence, her hands tightly gripping the steering wheel. His Dad and sister are back at FentonWorks, since his parents insisted it would be best if Danny and his Mom went alone, and it’s been hours since he’s seen any real signs of civilization. The further they travel from home the worse he feels, some nagging sense of discomfort and uneasiness that won’t relent, even as he knows this is to help him. 

For over a year and a half, he’s been experiencing fainting spells and blackouts every time there’s a ghost attack. He’s lucky his friends have managed to keep it hidden from his peers at school, since he knows Dash’s bullying would only increase if he knew Danny was so terrified of the ghosts that he fainted every time one appeared. They tried to keep it from his parents, too, with his sister Jazz’s help, even as Danny couldn’t understand why. But every time he thought about telling them in the past, his jaw would lock up and the words would die before he could utter even a single syllable. 

Yet now they know. He remembers waking up in the lab, not sure how he made it there, his parents sobbing as Jazz hovered in the corner, arms crossed over her chest as she watched the three of them warily. They said something to him, explained something even as they lectured Jazz, too, about keeping this a secret, but the words slipped from his fingers within minutes, and whatever confession they made was lost to him. But he can remember the fear in their eyes, the way they trembled and shook, and the odd sense that they were afraid of him rather than for him. He can remember asking if he should go to a doctor and the way they paled, adamantly refusing to bring him to anyone for weeks. It’s only now that they’ve finally agreed to bring him to see some specialist way out in Wisconsin. 

It used to be that whenever this happened, something would push back in his own subconscious eventually, reassuring him that it was fine, that he was fine, that there was nothing to worry about. It would smother him like a comforter in the middle of a snowstorm, warm and inviting and soft even as it felt entirely too heavy and like he really ought to be outside helping to dig out from the blizzard instead of hiding inside beneath his covers, but he still let it, the embrace too kind and safe for him to push back against. But this time he could not forget, not when his parents flinched every time he entered a room, not when they seemed so afraid even after so many weeks. Danny wishes he knew what he did wrong, what they fear about him, why they seem to almost hate him at times. It hurts, the ache so intense that there are moments when he swears something within him is fracturing and slowly crumbling to pieces, and he hopes this specialist can help repair whatever’s been broken. 

When they finally arrive, though, it’s not at a doctor’s office but a massive mansion. “Are you sure we’re in the right place?” he asks, cocking an eyebrow. 

“I’m sure,” she insists as she unbuckles her seatbelt while Danny steps out of the car. Despite the bright colors and decor, something in him uncurls in his gut like a snake, rearing back and ready to strike, and Danny shivers as he fights back against the odd sensation. 

The man who greets them is tall with silver hair pulled back into an elegant ponytail tied with a red silk ribbon that probably costs more than Danny’s entire wardrobe. He’s wearing a dark black suit and red tie, and the way he smiles reminds Danny of a crocodile or a shark. It’s as if he’s slime given form and Danny shudders.

“Hello, Vlad,” says Mom. 

“My dearest Maddie,” he says, kissing his mother on both cheeks. “How lovely to see you after so long. And what a pleasure to meet you, young Daniel. I’ve heard quite a bit about you.” He offers him his hand and Danny shakes it, barely resisting the urge to pull away immediately since the man’s grip is too hot, like fire burns beneath his fingertips. A small, absurd part of him wonders if he’s the devil, if his parents are planning to make some terrible deal (or admit to having done so long ago given his issues), but he pushes his fears down. 

“Thanks, I guess, but I don’t know anything about you,” replies Danny, and the man flinches briefly before recovering. “My Mom said you could help me with my fainting spells and blackouts, though.”

“Ah, yes. Your ‘fainting spells,’” he says bemusedly, as if in quotes, and that defensive, roiling in his gut returns, more pronounced than before. 

“Vlad,” says Mom sternly. “Please. Can you help him?”

“That depends entirely on what you mean by help, but I’ll see what I can do,” he says with a small smirk, and Danny bristles even as his Mom seems satisfied with the response. “Follow me.” 

The two of them walk through the massive mansion. It’s decked out in Packers paraphernalia, which seems completely at odds with the perfectly poised man in front of him. “You’re a cheesehead?” says Danny. 

“Indeed. I’ve tried to buy the Packers several times, too, but to no avail,” he says, teeth gritted, and Danny suspects the man isn’t told ‘no’ very often. He worries what that means for him and his potential treatment. 

“What kind of specialist are you?” he asks. 

“I am technically a business owner, but I’ve done extensive research into unique types of ecto entities,” he says, watching Danny out of the corner of his eye. “Entities like yourself.”

“I’m not–I’m human,” he objects, and he can feel that buzzing, that comfortable embrace pulling on him, and he tries to resist it but finds himself unwilling to do so for long, and by the time he’s aware once more he’s standing on the stairs to a basement lab, unable to remember what Vlad’s specialty is, what else they talked about or how they even made it here. 

“What did you say you specialized in?” he asks, and Vlad pauses on the stairs in front of them, turning to him with a frown. 

“See?” says Mom. “I told you already, Vlad, he can’t remember for more than a minute or two.”

“Remember what?” asks Danny irritably. 

“That I’m a specialist who can help you with your blackouts and medical issues,” says Vlad, and Danny frowns. That’s frustratingly non-specific, even as it’s almost certainly, technically true. 

“So like a neurologist?” he presses. 

“Something like that,” he says, and Danny scowls as he follows him the rest of the way into the lab, not sure why they won’t tell him the truth, not sure why he can’t remember if they already did. 

The lab itself is incredibly high-tech. There’s no repurposed household items like there are in his parents’ lab, and everything is carefully organized, labeled, and tucked away. In one corner sits a massive portal, and Danny’s eyes widen as he takes in the green swirling within it, recognizing it for what it is. “You’re an ecto scientist?” he says, turning to the man as he puts on a lab coat. 

“Indeed, though I specialize in many other areas, too,” he says. “Maddie, dear, why don’t you have a seat over there while I examine young Daniel?” 

His Mom pauses, eyeing Vlad warily for a moment before finally relenting and taking a seat at one of the empty lab benches. “And you, child, come here,” he insists, beckoning to him like Danny’s an obedient puppy, and Danny glares as he takes a seat on the bed, crossing his arms over his chest. “I need to do a quick scan. Please lay back.”

“What kind of scan?” He won’t simply do what this man asks, not without knowing more first. Not when even his Mom looks nervous. 

“Think of it like an MRI or x-ray. I promise, it’s harmless,” he says, flashing his teeth in a way that’s meant to be reassuring but is far too predatory, and Danny shivers as he looks at his Mom. She gives a small smile that’s not half as reassuring as he hoped even as she nods for him to do as Vlad says, and Danny sighs as he lays down on the bed, letting his hands rest on his stomach, his fingers twisting around in his shirt as he ignores the pounding of his heart and the sweat on his palms. 

‘I’ll be fine,’ he thinks stubbornly to himself, and he feels that odd sense of warmth, of a hug from something within his chest and relaxes as Vlad wheels over some strange scanner. It moves slowly over him, hovering for a long time near where his heart and lungs are before progressing, and then Vlad sits down at a computer for a few minutes as he reviews the results, humming thoughtfully as Danny’s Mom walks over and peers over his shoulder. 

“Is that . . .?” she asks, pointing to something on the screen. 

“Yes. But see this? There’s disconnection here,” he says, pointing to it and moving his finger, and Danny angles his head to try and see what they’re looking at but he can’t, the screen angled away from him too much. He starts to sit up when his Mom looks at him and shakes her head, and with a sigh he lays back down, drumming his fingers on his stomach impatiently. Clearly they’ve found something, and he feels like he has a right to know what. “The pathways didn’t form properly, and if they aren’t repaired, he’s not going to survive for much longer. You can already see the damage to his internal organs.” 

Danny swallows, his blood running cold. He’s going to die? He didn’t–he can’t be–

“Can you fix it?” she asks, interrupting his thoughts. 

“I think so, but it may be a bit traumatic,” Vlad says, “and with the disconnection having lasted so long, I’m not certain how cooperative he’ll be when it comes to the required treatment. Still, the memory issues are more severe than they ought to be even in this case. I have my suspicions about the cause, but I’ll need to provoke him to confirm it.”

“What?” Danny’s heart is beating rapidly and he’s sitting up now, staring at them with wide eyes, unable to hold back his terror even as he can begin to feel that tug at him, that warmth, but he won’t give into it this time. He can’t. He needs to know. 

“I would explain it, child, but you won’t remember,” sighs Vlad as he stands up. “Do you trust your mother?”

“I–what?” he sputters. Aside from it sounding like he’s probably dying, Danny’s still not sure what’s happening here, even as Vlad and his mom do seem to understand, and he desperately wants them to explain it to him, to tell him the truth, for someone to be honest with him just once.

“I would prefer your consent, of course, but you literally cannot give it due to your condition,” he explains, which makes absolutely no sense to Danny. “I’m asking if you trust your mother so she can at least grant it on your behalf.”

His mouth opens automatically to say that of course he trusts her, but then he pauses, the words dying on his tongue. Does he trust her? She’s brought him here with little to no explanation, and like with his sister and his friends, Danny knows nothing about why or what’s happening to him besides the blackouts. They all claim they’ve told him about it before–even this Vlad guy seems to suggest as much–but he hates that he can’t remember, hates that he has nothing to fall back on to confirm that they all have his best interest at heart beyond his own gut feeling. And his instincts right now are diametrically opposed, screaming at each other to reassure Vlad that he trusts her even as another part insists that he can’t, that he shouldn’t, that she’ll hurt him and he needs to be kept safe and he can feel that part forcibly pushing down on his ability to say yes, to let them know they can do the treatment, that they need to move forward and–

Danny blinks, struggling to remember what he was thinking about, what question he was supposed to answer. “I–sorry–can you . . . what did you say?” he whispers, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment, and Vlad tilts his head to the side. 

“Interesting,” he hums. “But it does provide more proof for what I suspect is occurring. Maddie, dear, do I have your permission?”

“But he–”

“I’m not sure he can,” interrupts Vlad as Danny stares at them cluelessly, not sure what they’re talking about again. He’s lost some more time, he’s sure, but he doesn’t know why. He doesn’t think he fainted or fully blacked out, yet the last thing he can remember is laying down on the table before Vlad prepared to start the scan, and he shivers, rubbing his arms. 

She turns to look at him, and then walks over, putting a hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be okay, hon,” she says and then she gives him a hug, squeezing him tightly, but he can feel her trembling even as she tries to reassure him. “I promise, okay?”

“I–okay,” he manages, the word choking its way past, and then she walks back to Vlad. 

“Maddie, my dear, you’ll need to stay here, please,” he insists, and Mom nods as Vlad comes over with something Danny recognizes. It’s a portable ghost shield, although the design is different from the one his parents use, and Vlad presses a finger against a sensor, activating around them as Danny’s heart beats faster now and the thing in his gut rears back, ready to strike as Vlad’s eyes flash impossibly red and a set of black rings appear around his waist, and–

Danny’s body drops to the table as Phantom emerges, hissing and shrieking at the intruder and ghost before him, tackling him with his claws as his brain screams at him to protect, protect, protect! The ghost puts up a shield, eyeing him lazily as he speaks, his words full of fire and ash even as they sound human, too, smothered beneath the surface of the water. “Enough, child,” he insists, using human words, but he can see the ripples in his aura, the subtle shifts that indicate his intentions, and he pauses with his claws outstretched, ectoblast building between the black tips. “So you are sentient enough, at least, to understand. Can you speak?” 

He hisses, echoes and static and chirps as his aura flares in response, letting him know that he sees the threat but that he’s unafraid, that he will protect Danny and his mother from the ghost in front of him. There are no real words, not in the way there is with human speech simply because there doesn’t need to be, his intentions and meaning clear enough for any ghost to understand. 

“Ah. I thought not, based on what we saw in the scans,” he muses. Black rings appear around his waist and he shifts, the dark haired ghost with bluish skin and fire in his hands and eyes vanishing beneath a human facade. “I promise I intend no harm.”

The words mean less to Phantom now than they would’ve if Vlad spoke them before transforming. Vlad’s aura is muted this way, his intentions less clear even as Phantom can taste the ash on his tongue as the man speaks, the echo of Vlad’s otherness apparent to him, and Phantom floats forward, tilting his head around as he puts a clawed hand on Vlad’s chest to better feel the pulsing of his core beneath his flesh. 

“Vlad, are you–” begins Mom, her words sounding distant and submerged beneath waves. It’s always so hard for him to hear and understand the humans that speak to him, even as he tries since he doesn’t want to hurt them. He needs to protect them. He needs to keep them safe. 

“I’m quite fine,” he insists, even as Phantom hisses a warning at him. “Are you done posturing? I’m here to help you, Daniel. Or do you prefer Phantom?”  Phantom’s aura flares, spiking and sending a mixture of signals. “You are not helping him.” His claws extend, pushing intangibly through his skin, grasping his core, but Vlad remains calm despite the clear threat. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. You are disconnected from yourself this way. You leave behind your body each time, and eventually, no matter how much your friends and family intervene, you will not be able to return to it.”

He turns his head more, floating upside down, his tail spiraling behind him as he considers the words. Vlad’s core is too tightly grasped between his fingers for him to hide his intentions, and there’s truth there, at least as far as Vlad sees it, and Phantom sends a questioning chirp. “You are meant to be a single entity,” he says. “But your core is not fully connected to your biological systems. It’s created a barrier between you and Daniel, an artificial wall that should not exist, and it’s harming both of you.”

Phantom hisses reflexively, showing his sharp teeth as he lets one of his claws dig into Vlad’s core, and the man winces but otherwise hides his distress at the intrusion. “You can’t keep denying it and hiding the truth from your human half. I know you’re trying to protect him. I know you’re trying to help. But it’s hurting him. He’s confused and upset and scared. You’re leaving his body behind whenever you respond to the intruders in your haunt, as you’ve done here. You risk him being discovered, being captured by the GIW or other ghost hunters who, unlike your parents, would not be willing to try to help you. They would experiment on him, dissect him, and ultimately destroy both of you.” 

“And it’s hurting him physically, too,” says Vlad. “My scans are showing damage to his internal organs and structures. If this continues for much longer, your human half will not survive. It cannot.”

He relaxes his hand, the words coming out in a whisper of echoes and static, of uneasiness and fear. 

Vlad responds quietly in kind, sending an oddly comforting response from a man whose core burns with impossible anger and resentment at the world. “I know you’re worried about how he’ll manage knowing the truth of who he is. But you cannot hide it from him forever, not without destroying him and yourself. Please, child. Allow me to help you be whole again,” he says. 

He withdraws his hand, sending out a questioning burst of noise, of inquiry. Because he doesn’t want Danny to die. He doesn’t want to die. 

“The integration was prevented due to the interference of your family and friends,” he explains, and his Mom flinches. “Our transformation is not meant to have artificial triggers. The use of the AED to resuscitate you, to fill your core with electricity so it can artificially force the ectoplasm within your body to bring you back, has prevented it from fully bonding to your own systems and sending the spark from within itself to revive your human half upon your transformation. You must re-enter Daniel and trigger the change yourself. You must use the energy from your own core, your own essence.”

A soft, pleading whine. 

“You can,” insists Vlad. “More than that, you must.”

He moves from the man, floating over to himself, to his other half, to the part that he misses and aches for every time he leaves to take care of the ghostly threats that intrude on his haunt. Reaching out, Phantom places his hand on Danny’s chest, feeling the absence of breath, the missing life that should be there, and the gentle hum of a fragment of his own core pulsing within, that keeps him whole and alive despite the loss of his spirit even if humans can’t sense it. 

And with a terrified shiver, he pushes himself inside, letting him flow into the body, to not merely overshadow and reattach but become one again as he tries to seek the spark from within his core, tries to connect his spirit and body in full. He’s not sure he can, not without the external boost, and he can feel himself holding back, his worry over how Danny will handle the truth about knowing what he is, knowing that his parents almost certainly hate him and fear him, that his friends will never accept him–

“--focus,” says Vlad, and then he feels someone gripping Danny’s hand and he opens Danny’s eyes, expecting the half-ghost, but it’s not Vlad. 

It’s his Mom.

“Please, son,” she whispers, tears burning in her eyes. “Please.” 

And he mumbles something in response, his aura flickering as he speaks in a language she can’t understand, and he feels her grip Danny’s hand–their hand, his hand–more tightly, trying to reassure him, to let him know he’s okay, he’s safe, that they love him and care about him as he–

–Danny blinks, gasping as he sits up, clutching at his chest. It hurts, like ice and lightning and fire pouring through his veins and he wants to scream even as it feels right, as a bright light passes over him and he shifts, feeling oddly weightless and absent for a moment before they pass over him again and he shifts once more, back to being heavy and human and present. It’s painful and terrifying yet oh so right, and somehow, that makes it worse. 

And he sits for a moment, hand still clutching his chest even as his mother hasn’t let go of his other hand, as his world crashes around him, as he remembers who they are, who he is, what he is. As his memories he’s kept from himself in an effort to protect his human half crash back, slamming into him impossibly hard, moments spent in ghost fights and then burrowing himself inside his own helpless corpse as his friends were forced to endure the burden of caring for him and protecting him, and Danny lets out a keening wail that’s neither human nor ghostly in its sound but some odd blend of the two. 

“I’m a monster,” he whispers, sobbing as his shoulders shake, and his Mom shifts, moving to hold him tightly to herself. 

“Oh, hon,” she says, but no words follow, no gentle affirmations that she loves him, no denials about him being the horrifying creature he knows they’ve seen him as, that they’ve hunted and shot at and threatened to experiment on and–

“It’ll be okay,” she says, interrupting his spiraling thoughts as she strokes his hair. “We’ll figure it out, Danny. I promise.”

Maybe someday he’ll believe her.

[papiliomame]

Social Media

This should have been posted 2 days ago, but Baldur's Gate 3 had me full in its grip and I have forgotten to post it.

Anyway, this was inspired while I was re-reading Everthing Was White by @lexosaurus to get some angsty inspiration. (Just a disclaimer, this is NOT a fanfiction fanart) The scene where Danny is reading the social media comments gave me the idea.(The fic is still an awesome read!)

So in this scenario people know really everything about Danny, not only his true identity but also how his ghostform was created and that he opened the portal. They are positive reactions but also some super nasty reactions. Here Danny went into the rabbithole of reading all the hate comments and other dubious things his moderators for social media usually sort out.

[nordictwin]

A list of my IWATEX AUs and fanfics.

Since a lot of people have found me through IWATEX, I figured I should probably make an actual list of my AUs and fanfiction, just to have them all in one place.

Fragmented Futures - aka. the Everyone Knows AU

Probably the one most of you are here for, since it's the one I've posted about the most, but written the least for in terms of actual fic. An AU in which all of the Stratos-Helios kids suddenly become aware, that they're stuck in a timeloop... all except Sol. Or so the others think.

A story full of kids being friends, learning new stuff about themselves, and a generous dash of eldritch shenanigans.

Currently in the works for this AU: an as of yet "non-canon" vent-fic, in which I subject Sol to something a little more realistic than my usual treatment of them. Not sure if it'll be incorporated into the fic proper, but as of this point in writing, it's just meant to be a little side-thing set in the same universe.

The Tragedy of the Exocolony on Vertumna IV

The AU/fanfiction that has me in a chokehold at the moment, TOTEOV is an eldritch horror story that takes all my love for Sym and the Overseer, flips it upside-down, and turns it into a toxic mess of good intentions gone horrifically wrong. Oh, and Rex and Vace are forced to work together.

A story that draws heavily on the tropes of children stolen away by the supernatural, such as The Pied Piper of Hamelin and other fae tales.

Heed the tags. Seriously.

The Solution AU

An AU I've never really mentioned here except once, nor written a single word for. Ironically, this is actually the origin AU of TOTEOV.

The basic premise is that Sol, after many trips around the loop, decides to look for a permanent solution. They eventually decide that the best way to do so, is for them to become a Gardener from the very beginning and create an entirely new timeline from scratch. In collaboration with the Overseer, they turn the clock back to just before the Verma's departure and get implanted in the system as a seed to sprout in the future.

The issue is that this means Solanaceae won't ever have existed amongst the humans. And they're fine with paying this price, if it means a more harmonious future overall.

So aboard the Stratospheric, when that time comes, there is no child born to Flulu and Geranium, no cheerful Sol amongst the kids. Instead, when Besk dies, the twins are adopted by the cultivators and grow up... not quite the same as in the original timeline, but also not too different from how we know them.

And on Vertumna, Sol welcomes humanity to guide their gradual integration into the ecosystem. Looking from afar, forgotten by everyone they love except the Gardeners.

......except this is one of my AUs, so of course nothing is as it seems, and Sol will re-learn just how strong the power of love is.

The Person You'll Grow to Be - completed, canon-compliant fanfic.

My first fanfic for this fandom. Aka the Flulu Loves Her Kid So Much fic.

A story going from Flulu learning of her pregnancy all the way to her death during the famine. An tale of her love for Sol and how she felt about a lot of things.

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Late Night Waiting

Summary: No One Knows AU Part 5, After everyone has been waiting for a couple of nerve-wracking hours, Sam and Tucker finally show up at the police station.

...

Danny wishes he could feel better about having a night off from grounding.  But at this point he’s been stuck in the police station for hours and Jazz hasn’t even managed to distract anyone for long enough that he can slip out and figure out what’s going on as Phantom, which would be much more efficient and more likely to solve the actual problem.

Instead, he’s answered the police’s questions about where he saw Sam and Tucker last (at school, like almost every other day since he’s gotten back), and spent the past three hours pacing back and forth in the room they’ve been given to wait in.  Sam’s parents are talking quietly together in one corner, Tucker’s parents are sitting silently in the other, and his family is sitting in the middle, talking about which ghost most likely did this and how best to go after them.

The one time Danny had gone to the bathroom to try and slip away, his dad had insisted on coming with him and waiting outside the door.  Something about waiting to make sure he’s safe while they don’t know what’s going on.

Give this much longer and Danny’s secret identity might slip down the ranks in priorities.

His brain can’t stop coming up with ways he could have prevented this.  Sam and Tucker’s parents called at dinnertime, he should have done some kind of patrol before then.  He should have insisted on spending the night with Sam and Tucker, grounding be damned.  He should have run out to look for Sam and Tucker the second they called, who cared how worried his parents would be when they saw he was missing again too?

It doesn’t matter, because Sam and Tucker could be hurt.  A ghost could have captured them, and he could be contacted any second with some kind of ransom, or threat, or worse.  Fuck, worse.  If Sam and Tucker don’t make it back he’ll never forgive himself—

“Danny,” Jazz says, cutting into his thoughts.  “Come sit down.”

“No thanks I’m good,” Danny says in one breath, spinning around to walk to the other way.

“Danny.”  Jazz reaches out and grabs his hand, then pulls him down onto the chair next to her.  “Stop catastrophizing.  It’s not your fault.”

“But— I could have—”

“Jazz is right, honey,” Mom says, reaching around Jazz to squeeze his hand with a smile.  “There isn’t anything you could have done.”

“As much as I loathe to admit it,” Sam’s mother says with an irritated sigh, before her face surprisingly softens.  “Your mother’s right.  You don’t need to beat yourself up over this, Danny.  You couldn’t have helped by doing anything differently.”

She wouldn’t be saying that if she knew, hisses the voice in Danny’s head.

Jazz catches his gaze and gives him a knowing look.  

Danny shakes the voice away.

He leans heavily against Jazz’s side and pushes his hands over his face, and Jazz wraps her arms around him.  “It’s gonna be okay,” she murmurs.  She lowers her voice further.  “Worst case scenario, you slip away when all the adults fall asleep and I cover for you.”

Danny nods weakly, then sits back and tries to breathe.

Thankfully, it doesn’t come to that.  Because after about four hours of sitting there, when his dad has just fallen asleep across several chairs and Danny is debating trying the bathroom again, the door opens and a police officer pokes appears in the entrance.

“They’re here,” he says, and Danny is rushing for the door before he can get any other words out.

Sam and Tucker are both talking to an officer across the main room of the precinct, and both of them have barely turned and spotted him when Danny reaches them and throws his arms around their shoulders.

“Oh my god holy fuck are you okay,” he says, squeezing them tightly before pulling back and looking them over for injuries.  He doesn’t see anything life threatening or anything that looks too badly injured thank god, but he pats them down anyway, gently but firmly, checking for any strange lumps or obvious breaks.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there, I— are you okay are you hurt where does it hurt I don’t know why I’m asking that I can’t actually do anything I’m not a doctor, I— are you okay?  Please tell me you’re okay,” he says, looking desperately back up at their faces.  He finds them both staring at him, at an obvious loss of what to say.

“Young man,” a police officer says before any of them can say anything else.  He reaches out and pulls Danny back, away from Sam and Tucker.  “Please step back.  I understand this is difficult for everyone but we all need to remain calm.”

“Samantha!” comes her mother’s voice, and all of them turn just in time to see her mother rush past the officer to Sam and start doing the exact same injury pat-down that Danny did.

Sam groans in obvious irritation and takes a step back.

“We’re fine,” she says, glaring at her mom.  “Honestly.  We’re not hurt.”

“Oh thank heavens,” her mother says, pulling Sam back in for a hug, and causing another annoyed groan from Sam.

Danny lets out a sigh, looking down in relief.  Now that it’s clear that Sam and Tucker are at least mostly okay, most of the nerves that have been building up around his shoulders relax, and suddenly he just feels exhausted.

He feels a hand on his shoulder, and turns to see Jazz giving him a reassuring smile, which he returns, albeit shakily.

The police finally managed to get everyone to stand back from Sam and Tucker, at least enough that they could continue asking them what happened.

Unfortunately, they’re still close enough to hear everything, meaning Danny’s close enough to hear Sam say, “We got captured by a ghost,” and all of his nerves leap back into his shoulders.

“He didn’t hurt us,” Sam says, waving off the officer’s next question.  “Seemed like he just wanted to scare us.  He actually got distracted pretty easily, and that’s how we managed to slip away.”

Okay, so probably someone harmless like The Box Ghost if they got away that easily.  They probably weren’t in any real danger in a way that Danny was actually 100% necessary to be there for.

…That does not help.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” Danny asks, drawing both of their gazes.  They look wary, probably because everyone here is still more than a little on edge.  “Ghosts are no joke.”

“You got that right,” Dad says from over his shoulder.  “You both are going to have to come back with us tonight to get a full check over from the professionals.”

“No,” Sam says quickly, at the same time her mom says “Absolutely not.”

Probably a smart move, honestly.  His parents tended to look for the wrong things, and a lot of their tests tended to be painful in some way.  Danny can keep an eye on Sam and Tucker for the next couple days, while trying to not let the guilt eat him alive.

“I’m in agreement there,” Tucker’s mom says, stepping forward.  “You two both sound like you’ve had a very long night, you need to go home and get some rest.”

“Absolutely a good idea,” Jazz says, trying to send a knowing look at their parents (of which only time would tell how successful it was).  “Sleep is important after an upsetting experience, especially if it’s past midnight.”

“Jazz has a point, honey,” Mom says, putting a reassuring hand on Dad’s shoulder.  “Just come by in the next couple days, you two.  We’ll make sure nothing’s wrong.”

Danny sighs, dropping his head into his hands.  That’s still not going to be helpful, but that’s probably the best they’re going to get from his parents that night.

“Uh, we’ll see,” Sam says, in a tone that means ‘I doubt it,’ and Danny can’t blame her.  She turns to her parents.  “Can we just go home now?”

“We still have questions,” one of the nearby officers says.

“We already told you everything, and I want to go home and sleep,” Sam says.  “It’s been a very long day.”

The officer sighs.  “Alright, but we might come find you with follow up questions in the next couple of days.”

“Fine,” Sam snaps, and she grabs her mom’s arm and starts tugging her towards the door.  Sam’s dad follows shortly after.

Danny can’t help but laugh a little bit.  Sam being just as annoyed with authority as usual is probably a good sign.

“Yeah, I want to go home too,” Tucker says quietly, and starts for the door without any fanfare.  Before he leaves, however, he stops in front of Danny.  He doesn’t look at him though, instead watching Sam.

Danny turns to watch her too, wondering what Tucker sees.  But as soon as Sam walks out the front door and steps out of sight, Tucker turns and wraps his arms around Danny.

Danny gives a sound of surprise, muffled by Tucker’s cheek smushing against his face.

Tucker pulls back a second later.  “Sorry,” he mumbles, looking down.  “I just… I had to do that.”

Danny just gives him a warm smile in return.  “Hey, if you want to talk about it, you can tell me anything,” he says quietly, with what’s hopefully the right level of a joking tone.

Tucker smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.  It barely reaches his mouth.

Danny doesn’t push, since that’s a bad idea especially now, and a couple seconds later, Tucker turns back to his parents and nods to the door, and all three of them walk out.

“Alright,” Jazz says, drawing Danny and his parents’ attention.  “We should go home too.”

“I agree,” Mom says, as the four of them all start moving towards the door.  “It’s been a very long night, and you both still have school in the morning.”

“What?” Danny asks.  “Don’t we get to stay home?  These are extenuating circumstances and all that!”

“Sam and Tucker are the ones who got captured by ghosts, not you two,” Mom says, raising an eyebrow.  “And you can’t afford to miss any more class, Danny.”

Danny grumbles something incomprehensible under his breath, though he’s thinking about how he didn’t get time off when he was kidnapped.  It doesn’t matter that it’s entirely his fault for using running away as a cover story, the universe is still being unfair.  Especially considering he’s exhausted enough that he feels himself falling asleep on the car ride back.

When he gets home, however, he shakes himself awake, and after telling his parents goodnight, he heads up to his room and transforms.

He opens the window and is about to fly out when the door opens behind him, and he spins around, heart leaping into his throat.

Thankfully, Jazz is the one who stands in the doorway.

“And what exactly makes you think that’s a good idea?” she asks, shutting the door behind her.

Danny lets out a breath of relief and slumps back against the wall.  “Don’t do that, Jazz, you’re gonna give me a heart attack.”

“Danny,” Jazz says, crossing her arms.  “Patrolling isn’t a good idea right now.”

“Why not?  Clearly I should have been patrolling earlier.”

“Well, because you need to sleep for one, and for two, I don’t want you going out there stewing in your own head and making yourself feel even worse.”

Danny looks away, trying to disguise it as a glare.  “Sam and Tucker—”

“Are fine.  They’re not even a little hurt, and got away themselves without any needed help.  You, on the other hand, need rest.  Mom already said you’re still going to school tomorrow.”

Danny forces himself to look back at Jazz.  “I’m not gonna be able to sleep until I know everyone is safe, Jazz.”

“Everyone is safe, Danny.  Your ghost sense would go off or there’d be some kind of news alert if there was something you needed to take care of.  And if the news alert was happening Mom and Dad would wake up the whole house rushing off to help with it.”

Danny looks down.  She has a point.  And he can practically feel himself falling asleep standing here.

“Go to sleep, Danny.  There’s nothing else you can do tonight.  If tomorrow Sam and Tucker are at school you can talk to them and see if there’s ways you can help, and I’ll help you out there too.  But tonight the most helpful thing you can do is get some sleep.”

Danny sighs, and glares more lightheartedly up at Jazz.  “I hate it when you’re right,” he says, prefaced with sticking out his tongue.

“You’re gonna hate most of the things I say, then,” Jazz says with a smug smile.

Danny rolls his eyes and shuts the window.  He turns back into Danny Fenton and moves over to his dresser to pull some pajamas out, then casts a glance back at Jazz.  “Alright, now get out.  Neither of us want you here for this part.”

It’s Jazz’s turn to roll her eyes.  “Yeah, yeah,” she says, turning to leave.  “But hey, I’m really proud of you, you know.”

Danny scoffs despite himself.  “I didn’t even do anything tonight.”

“I’m proud of how much you care, you dork,” Jazz says, crossing her arms with a fond smile.  “It’s obvious how much Sam and Tucker mean to you, that’s all.  And I���m proud of how much you do for them, and everyone.”

“Uh, whatever,” Danny says, looking away and crossing his arms.  “You don’t have to get all sappy about it.”

“You can’t stop me from getting all sappy about it,” Jazz says, sounding smug again, and she leaves and shuts the door before Danny can say anything else.

Danny sighs, but he has a slight smile on his face as he changes into pajamas and climbs into bed.

And it’s honestly annoying the level of right that Jazz is, because he falls asleep almost immediately.

[theashemarie]

I have two oneshot ideas duking it out in my head rn, so help me out. (See below the poll/cut for more information.)

Everyone Knows AU:

Things changed slowly at first. Donnie’s scrubber caught every photo posted online, every smudge of green, every flash of yellow that could even remotely be April, every small, Splinter-sized gray blob, but it couldn’t reach the ones that were never posted. Donnie tried, but it was a Polaroid that did them in. Blurry, but still distinct enough, digitized on a computer that wasn’t connected to the internet, cleaned up, and clear as smog. Four green mutants, one huge, one small, two somewhere in the middle. Red, orange, purple, blue spots of color. Two rounded backs, one spiky, one blocky, all solid. Inhuman. “Seems like someone is trying really hard to cover this up,” the quote that accompanied the photo said, blared across the Channel 6 news, then the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Times, then every publication, every YouTube channel worth mentioning, every social media site, translated over and over again until everyone with internet access had seen the green frogs, turtles, deepfaked, ninjas, mutants, freaks, samurai, wizards, aliens, government coverup, heroes—

Post-movie. A world where everyone knows, and the first step to testing the waters is a midnight showing at a run-down movie theater.

Quadruplets:

“You ever think about how we’re basically quadruplets?” Leo asked, nonchalant. “Of course I have,” Donnie answered without looking up from his phone. “Don’t ever mention it to Raph though. You’ll give him a complex.”

Or:

Draxum had to begrudgingly admit that Splinter had done a good job raising them. If raising his four genetically-engineered killing machines to be kind, golden-hearted, and good was a good job.

Post-Season 2. Confronting the occasion and process of your creation head-on.

[theghostkingisdead]

I like to imagine this as an Everybody Knows AU, or something similar. I imagine they catch on pretty quick when other schools stop competing with them. And even if only some people are aware of the fact that Danny is Phantom, the whole town knows that the Fenton boy is the one that did the deed.

Nobody panics, they all think it’s a good idea, that it’ll lead to less interference from the GIW, and they don’t like outsiders round these here parts anyway. At first Danny &co. don’t think much of this response, but I think over time theyd slowly realize that this nonchalance is just another aspect of Danny’s reality wish. That overwhelming aura of don’t think about it too much, everything is fine also affects the people within Amity Park.

Why doesn't the justice league know about Amity Park?

Okay so it's been a bit sonce I watched the show but one of the things in DpxDC is the anti-ecto acts, which I love, but correct me if I'm wrong, I THINK ??? they only show up in reality trip? SO: What if Danny, when using the gauntlet to undo everything, also got rid of the Anti-Ecto acts? but this is babys first time editing reality so he uh Fucks Up A Lil'. As a result when Danny used the reality gauntlet to wipe the AEA from existence he accidentally wiped Amity Park from perception. A big 'nothing matters over here' jedi mind trick, and now no ones looking at Amity. So, the Justice League actually WERE looking into and monitoring the situation in Amity, but when the perception filter closed them off, all of that suddenly went ignored.

This is noticed when someone (Alfred, Dick, Tim, literally anyone) realises theres just. A BIG dusty pile of case files semi abandoned somewhere in the cave when going through a (time period)ly cave cleaning.

They put it down because it's Not Important.

They come back to finish the cleaning the next day and do the exact same thing, but there's nothing to actually distract them this time and it pings as weird. Because why would case files be not important? They are by definition important, because only things flagged as important go into case files.

They try to get someone else to read it, because as long as they don't read the information in the file, they don't put it down.

That person goes to read it, gets a line in and then says something like 'that isn't important' and goes to leave. Person A pushes it and person B ALSO catches on.

Que the Batfam trying to figure out hey, what the fuck actually?

Meanwhile, how is Amity fairing? Canon compliant everything's going alright? Or have knock on effects to No One Look Here started to show?

[mynnthia]

was talking with a friend about how some of dunmeshi fаndom misunderstands kabru's initial feelings towards laios.

to sum up kabru's situation via a self-contained modernized metaphor:

kabru is like a guy who lost his entire family in a highly traumatic car accident. years later he joins a discord server and takes note of laios, another server member who seems interesting, so they start chatting. then laios reveals his special interest and favorite movie of all time is David Cronenberg's Crash (1996), and invites kabru to go watch a demolition derby with him

[demaparbat-hp]

He truly did.

[joshuamj]

Okay, but what if EoW!Zelda had to impersonate Link

[4of7jkids]

And this how Danny became the most loved and hated being across the galaxy.

Wing Danny AU + DCAU

It happened after the Portal had shocked him that Danny started to grow wings on his back. His family, like the rest of Amity Park, was not sure what to say and just accepted that Danny had awakened his metagene.

His family seemed to be happy; Jazz started to read books about birds and, with Ms. Teslaff's help, tried to teach him how to fly. Only a few in the city thought he had died and become an angel, with his halo of white hair and white wings, but that was only a small group.

Danny's life was going pretty well, he would say. The town accepted him even with his change, and his parents did not think he was a ghost.

Everything was going pretty well, but then the Gordanians came, mistaking him for a Thanagarian child and attacking him, wanting to kidnap him for ransom or something similar. Thanagarians are pretty protective of their hatchlings, unlike the strong Gordanians who allow their young to join them in war.

Danny let himself be kidnapped as he could see space! His parents did not know about it, but his friends did. He returned after one week to Amity Park.

They never learned about all the chaos and destruction Danny had caused the Gordanian race and army, and how the Thanagarians and their allies finally defeated them.

Danny is now a hero for the galaxy against the Gordanian Wars, and they want him back with them.

[akanemnon]

It could get worse and it DID get worse

FIRST - PREVIOUS - NEXT

MASTERPOST (for the full series / FAQ / reference sheets)

[phantomtwitch]

I finally got around to posting this to AO3!

It was originally posted here on Tumblr and written for AngstFest 2023 last August (?) with the prompts No One Knows AU and Everyone Knows AU. So if you feel like you’ve read it before, that might be why.

Summary: His friends aren't sure how much longer they can keep this a secret. Every time a ghost appears, Danny dies again. And every time Danny dies, they bring him back.

It doesn't help that no matter how much they try to explain to Danny what's happening, the truth never sticks.

[shepscapades]

[Part 1] [Part 2] [PART 3]

Xbralis as the first canon dbhc pairing with the steel chair!

[nordictwin]

You know in the "Everyone Knows AU" the kind of Sol they end up with could make things really funny or really angsty.

Like LifeonEarth!Sol, who never really knew anyone in the colony except their parents. They lived a life fighting and killing before getting killed themselves at as just a child. Now they're alive, under the care of two people who look just like their parents, but different, perhaps happier.

And they'er surrounded by all these weird kids who instantly take a liking to them. It's nice, but also feels off. They often here them talking about themselves but... different. As though each of them had been friends with Sol for years but had a completely different idea of who they were, assuming they'd do things those Sols would normally do. They want it to feel like home, but how can they do it when it's so different from the home they were trained to defend?

What would they feel about essentially being expect to be another "them" that they never were nor could comprehend being.

Oooor a Rebellious/Misanthrope Sol, from the endings they'd betray humanity.

Just, imagine you're Noctilucent, very begrudgingly befriending the Colony Kids. Everyday you catch them talking about Sol this, Sol that, how Sol was such a great friend and person to them. Intriguing, as much as they'd want the colony gone, that a human could inspire so much loyalty between their peers.

And then one day Sol just walks up to them and offers to blow up the colony completely unprompted.

Yes, exactly! That's why Fragmented Futures/The Everyone Knows AU is so fun to me - because there's a million different ways it could go, depending on anyone's preferences. Just because I want to use it as a comedy outlet of "everyone trying to protect Sol, but Sol already knows and is just vibing", doesn't mean there's not a massive potential for angst as well.

Like you're already getting into, it really depends on the experiences that shaped a given Sol. A recent LifeonEarth!Sol would absolutely be so confused and out of place on Vertumna, just like a misanthropic Sol would be 100% down to set the entire colony on fire, while all the others expect Sunshine Sol.

Sol in Fragmented Futures is a... well, they'd be a little odd to everyone else. Mostly they're just vibing and enjoying a vacation, but there's also something more to them. They're almost a little too down to go with the flow.

Point is, there's a million different ways the Everyone Knows AU can go, and just because my version of it is different from someone else's, doesn't mean either version is less valid than the other. I just love seeing people play around with the idea and having fun with it 😊