#he doesn't want maddie or vengeance

[peppermintquartz]

I know someone on here was talking about Slayer Buck but.

Slayer Maddie.

Buck feeling like he gotta protect Maddie and so follows her on patrol, almost gets bitten. Maddie running away from home and her Watcher Bobby when her secret was almost found out and the pressure gets too much. Buck learning how to stake vamps and kill demons from Bobby and runs after Maddie.

He knows she's not dead because there's no new slayer. He makes friends along the way: Eddie, a witch who's looking for his son's mother (another witch) - and protecting his magically gifted son from witch-hunters; Chimney, a werewolf (got bit by his best friend who comes from a werewolf family, but his best friend was killed by a werewolf trophy hunter and Chimney swears vengeance; Hen, a completely normal doctor and her wife Karen, who's a psychic and rocket scientist.

And then Buck encounters a nest run by Gerrard. He's nearly killed but is rescued by Tommy.

"Aren't you a vampire? You should be on their side."

"Well, I would, but they really hate me and would love to kill me."

This is around the time they locate Maddie, who's currently under the control of Doug (who has gained a lot of power through a demon), and it takes the combo of Buck, Eddie and Tommy to take down both Doug and his demon sponsor. It works. Buck finally sees his sis.

And approx three days from that, Buck and Tommy sleep together.

And Tommy loses his soul (not a curse, a poorly thought out plan from Gerrard)

Tommy without a soul massacres Gerrard and his cronies and takes over as the Big Bad. Maddie and Chimney and Bobby and Eddie know they have to kill Tommy. Buck outright refuses to cooperate with that. He delays Maddie and Tommy makes use of that, comes by to see Buck as if he's recovered his soul, and Buck very nearly falls for the act.

Until Eddie casts the spell that rejects vampires from a home and Tommy issues his threat: sacrifice Maddie or he murders a hospital of babies. (He's actually going to open the hell portal to swallow all of humanity)

Buck is devastated. With Chimney's and Karen's help, Hen manages to sneak the babies from the hospital home with Denny and Mara.

Maddie and Buck have a falling out again, Buck accusing Maddie of never liking Tommy and that's why she wants him dead. Buck impulsively runs away. Maddie goes after him, but she doesn't know where he's gone. Bobby keeps Eddie behind - he thinks he and Eddie can craft an ensouling spell.

Buck actually isn't angry at Maddie, he wants Maddie to be so angry she keeps out of the way. Maddie instead finds Chimney to sniff Buck out.

Buck locates Tommy and they fight, Tommy attacking all of Buck's insecurities, even making fun of their love, and finally Buck loses. Tommy bites him and drinks from him, but right then Buck cuts Tommy and drinks from him as well. Tommy just laughs and lets him.

Maddie and Chimney arrive but it's too late, Tommy has drunk deeply from Buck and given him enough of his own blood to make a vampire. And the reason why Tommy wants Maddie as a sacrifice? He wants Buckley blood. And Buck has basically given it to him. He opens the portal.

Maddie and Chimney are fighting Tommy when Eddie's spell crashes into both Tommy and Buck. The Hell portal is almost completely open. Maddie and Chimney take the opportunity of Tommy being disoriented to kick him into the hell portal. Before the portal can close, Buck finds the last ounce of strength he has to drag himself through, following Tommy into hell. With a full Buckley blood sacrifice, the portal closes.

Maddie is devastated; Chimney holds her.

[aikoiya]

Danny Phantom Ancient Vlad AU, where Vlad is a Halfa created in the 1600s (the time of burning ‘witches’), through magical means instead of sci-fi… He’s immortal and has lost faith in humanity (after watching his family get burned alive, for believing in science)… He never knew Jack + Maddie… But he’s still obsessed with turning Danny into his son, after learning Danny’s a halfa… He wants to destroy humanity, for how they treat ghosts + other monsters (similar to Demona)!👻

Those are some definite possibilities for an interesting au.

It'd also give Vlad less of a Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe & more of that Demona feel you mentioned.

Maybe he was sacrificed by actual, legit witches/warlocks to open a permanent doorway to the Infinite Realms? But something went wrong & he was only killed halfway. (As not all of the accusations could've been false. Obviously, most of them were & lead to the deaths of innocents, but there'd need to be at least a couple that were legit. Maybe the head of his town's church, the pastor, was one & was using his position to sacrifice more lives. Because, in many ways, witches can be considered cultists.)

Or, maybe he was fully killed & his own desire to live & protect his family brought him back to life as a half-Lugat, half-ghost? This would make him even less human than in canon as Lugats are a type of vampire.

If we go with my idea that the pastor of Vlad's hometown was a warlock & head of the local coven, then we could make the first few years of Vlad's afterlife into a chessmatch between him & the pastor. (Obviously, the pastor isn't a real pastor, as the ones I've always met were all wonderful people. But in this, he'd be acting the part of one.)

In this way, his afterlife beginning would reflect Danny's, though here, he was protecting his family from witches & warlocks. And perhaps he actually killed these people? But, despite all he does, maybe he was still rejected by the town?

It was likely him that had Vlad's family burned in retribution for all the trouble that Vlad was giving him. After which, his ghost began to change from Tutelary to Remnant? Tultelaries being protector spirits like Danny, while Remnants are ghoul-like entities that seek vengeance for their deaths, in this case, also vengeance for the deaths of his family.

Though, wouldn't it be interesting if this warlock was also using the rest of his coven to gain power for himself? Perhaps, he believes in whatever entity the coven worships, but is much like Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat?

It could also prove to be a good character moment for Vlad if, over the years, he slowly becomes more like that pastor & he doesn't even realize it or tries to rationalize it. You know, a lying, manipulative snake?

Hmm... This has possibilities...

DP Ask AU Masterlist

[criticallyacclaimedstranger]

Fic: Dream Job

Read on Ao3

Fandom: Triple Frontier

Ship: Frankie Morales x Jay ‘Lady’ Ray (OFC) **Series masterlist**

Warnings: Angst, family cuteness, assholes being rude to Holly, some light violence as a result of that, PiV sex, impregnation kink and dirty talk.

Words: 5,686

Summary: Frankie and Jay are both out of the military. Jay has earned her degree and is working as a physical therapist, Frankie works at the base, Alma is three and a wonderful handful. Life should be perfect, but Frankie's not happy. Something's missing.

A/N: This was supposed to be a fic about Frankie's midlife crisis and set up his reasons for turning to drugs, but that sonuvabitch hijacked this piece and now it's about his goddamn impregnation kink. So. There you have it, I guess.

Taglist: @amneris21 @apascalrascal @harriedandharassed @kikis-writing-world @lovesbiggerthanpride @miraclesabound @mswarriorbabe80 @pazizz @paulalikestuff @rambling-in-purple @trinkets01

The rain is pouring down with a vengeance and Frankie's shoulders rise to his ears as he tries to keep the wet away from his neck. He's not wearing a proper jacket, though, so it's useless. The rain is unseasonably cold and just yesterday the weather was warm and sunny, so the twists and turns are a little abrupt for him to have thought about taking a weather appropriate jacket this morning.

Where the fuck is she?

Just as he thinks about texting her and letting her know she can pick him up from the nearest corner store, the family friendly SUV that Jay hates with a vengeance comes around the corner and pulls to the side, stopping in front of him. Frankie gets in on the passenger side. He cranks up the heating immediately. "Sorry I'm late," she glances at him. "Client."

"That's okay." He presses a smile for her and gets one in return. "How was your day?"

She shrugs. "It was okay. Busy. You?"

"Same." Jay checks the time, and grimaces.

"Can you get Alma from mom's while I get groceries? Or d'you wanna do the shopping? We're out of a lot of things."

"I thought you said you were going on your lunch break?" He can't help it; his voice is accusatory. "That's why you had to take the car."

"I didn't have time! Maddie is away, I had to take all her clients, I haven't even had time for lunch today!"

He can hear she's close to snapping, so he reigns it in. "We'll go together," he rules. He knows Jay, knows that in this state she's unable to make any sensible decisions in the store. He also doesn't want to wait with Alma at Jay's mom's place. The woman spent the entirety of Jay's childhood letting the girl know she was wrong for not wanting to wear dresses and play with dolls. Dorothy has made amends, is respectful towards the family, a wonderful grandmother to Alma, but as it turns out, this is the one grudge Frankie will carry for the rest of his life. Coming from a loving and supportive family himself and having a child of his own, he can't fathom how a parent would treat their child like Jay has been treated.

He turns his face away and stares out the window. Being a parent is the best mission he has ever undertaken, but some days are tougher than others. And it's surprisingly difficult to get by with just one car: his truck is in the shop with an unidentified brake problem. It annoys him tremendously that he couldn't figure it out himself. He fixes most things on both their cars, is good at it, but this was beyond him and it's crippling his manly pride more than he wants to admit, especially to himself.

There's also the question of his job. He's torn about still being employed by the military but not being in active duty. On the one hand, he loves that he can still fly. He enjoys training new pilots. Still going to the base every day is familiar, and he gets to fly out to other bases as well from time to time. On the other hand, he's done with missions. He's getting to be done with the military. Sometimes feels like he's in limbo. Half in, half out. Sitting behind a desk whenever he's not handling the controls of an aircraft is strange. Regular hours at the base, comfortable and practical though they may be, is strange. Jay is so enthusiastic about her job. She graduated as a physical therapist when Alma was barely a year old, and immediately got a job at the local VA center where she had done clinical duty. She started part time but quickly moved up to full time, and Alma was put in daycare with Frankie often picking her up in the afternoons. She often works overtime, taking extra clients, feeling strongly about the work she does helping combat veterans recover from various injuries and amputations. Frankie and her usually make the day-to-day work, but sometimes it gets tricky and since his car broke down, it's been hell to puzzle together their hours. And no matter what conflicted feelings Frankie harbors against Jay's mother Dorothy, it's a blessing that she lives close by and can pick Alma up when her parents are unable to. Frankie wouldn't mind being a stay-at-home dad, but the family needs two incomes. That's something else that seems to bother him right now: how the days just float by with work, daycare, dinner, barely a couple of hours of play with Alma before her bedtime... He wants more time with her, wants to be more present. The idea of maybe trying for another baby has been brought up a couple of times between him and Jay, but the thought of having two children dumped at daycare and never seeing them is... depressing, somehow. They arrive at Dorothy's, where Alma is fussy after a long day. Dorothy has given her a snack, but the girl is tired and feeling abandoned, and now very upset about having to leave granny. When they leave, Frankie sits in the backseat with Alma, who's wailing about everything and nothing, while Jay maneuvers the car to the supermarket.

"You staying here with her?" she asks when they're parked. Frankie hears the hint of tiredness in her voice, even if she tries her best to not sound stressed. Alma gives up a great wail.

"Alma wanna gooooo!"

"We'll come with," Frankie suggests. "Alma, corazon, remember when we talked about behavior in the supermarket? How we gotta be calm and let other people do their shopping in peace? That still flies, okay?"

Alma takes a deep, shaky breath and nods, her big brown eyes filled with tears. Jay smiles at her in the rear-view mirror, knowing that even if they're crocodile tears, Frankie will melt at the sight of them. He's a sucker for his special little girl.

"Can you help mommy and me with the shopping?" Frankie asks, fishing up a napkin from his pocket and wiping up the tears and snot from Alma's face.

"Alma can help," the girl reassures him, receiving a quick kiss on her forehead.

They get a cart and Frankie lifts Alma into the child seat.

"You wanna hold the list?" Jay offers, handing her the paper. Alma accepts it with a very serious face and starts to turn the list around in her hand, pretending to understand the words written on it.

"What's first?" Jay asks, bending down to trace the first word on the list with her finger.

"Shock-lat!" Alma states, drawing forth a grin from both her parents.

"I think it says milk, mijita," Frankie chuckles. Alma seems to want to start to protest, so he quickly brings her attention to the next item on the list, while Jay gets the milk. When Jay returns, Frankie relinquishes Alma and the cart to her to go get the juice.

He stops by the magazine racks, a car on a magazine cover capturing his attention, and stops to browse for a second. Barely two pages into the magazine, he hears a greeting behind him:

"Yo, Morales!"

He suppresses a sigh when he hears the voice of one of the most obnoxious dickheads ever to walk in fatigues, Captain Ryan Hall. The man's a strutting chick magnet and knows it; moreover, he's a douche who fucked up everything in life except his military career – and even in that area he's going for some kind of Razzie Award. He was reprimanded for leaving his last posting in Afghanistan with an unreported case of the clap, which he then proceeded to transmit to a variety of women at home. One of them reportedly got meningitis as a complication. Hall, of course, doesn’t give a shit.

Hall,” Frankie replies curtly and watches the guy pick out two titty magazines and toss them carelessly into the cart, joining a six-pack of beer and two big jars of that whey powder.

”Partying tonight?” He can't help himself: the cart's contents look like they belong to a nineteen-year-old, not a man of Frankie's age.

"Not gettin' one for yourself?" Hall questions, nodding at his reading for tonight. Frankie shakes his head and puts down his magazine.

"Lady keeping you on a tight leash, is she?" the guy leers and Frankie, whose primary mode is mellow, just wants to punch him in the face.

Jay shows up around the corner with the cart, and Alma gives a delighted little shriek when she sees her daddy.

"Speaking of the devil," Hall winks before eyeing Jay. "Ray. You're lookin' well."

"Same," she nods, more interested in the tightness of Frankie's jaw than some asshole she no longer has to work with. "Frankie? We're almost ready."

"Yeah, I'm done."

Hall, however, is not done.

"Civilian life looks good on you," he comments, eyeing Jay in a way that makes both her and Frankie bristle. "You don't miss the action?"

"Nope," Jay quips while trying to prevent Alma, now bored, from tearing the list into little pieces. "Alma, don't litter. We're done real soon and can go home for dinner."

Hall shakes his head. "Hate to see a good soldier go so wrong. But that's what you get when you let women in. They quit as soon as the bullets begin to whistle by. Makes more sense for them to just have babies."

Jay freezes, her blood thumping in her ears. She stares at Hall, this absolutely fuck knuckle of a man, not sure she heard right. Did he really say that?

Meanwhile, Frankie has stepped up to him and is speaking in a dangerously low voice.

"Say that again."

"Calm down, Fish, you know what it's like..."

"I don't. Say it again, and we'll find out."

Hall is looking more uncomfortable by the minute, and Jay can see from the way the muscles of Frankie's long neck are protruding that he will start swinging soon. She puts her hand on his shoulder, eyes on him, not Hall.

"Frankie."

"I'm good."

He relaxes immediately and steps back, even manages to smile at her. Hand on her back, he guides her away and can't stop from laughing when Alma points at Hall and yells Stupidface. Jay immediately admonishes her daughter about pointing and saying bad words, but Frankie can hear that she doesn't really mean it this time.

They finish up their shopping and go home, Jay unusually quiet during the entire car ride. Alma is fussy again, and Frankie does his best to keep her from making a scene in the back seat. The girl is going through some "daddy is stupid and so is mommy, but a little less so" phase, so as soon as the family gets home, Jay entertains Alma while Frankie cooks dinner.

After dinner they try to switch but Alma isn't having it, so Jay ends up giving her a bath, and reading her a bedtime story. By the time she appears in the living-room and collapses on the couch, she looks beat. Frankie immediately makes room for her in the best corner and holds out his arm so that she can curl up with it around her shoulders.

"I'm so fucking tired," she sighs. Frankie pulls her against him and kisses the side of her head.

"I know. Sorry I can't help, but neither one of us want her to have a total meltdown."

"You are helping," Jay points out. "You cooked dinner, you cleaned the kitchen, you did laundry."

"That's just normal teamwork," Frankie shrugs. "We both do that every day. I wish I could figure out how to work with her so that you'd get some relief."

"It's a phase," Jay yawns as she reaches across Frankie for the remote on a cushion next to him. "She'll snap out of it."

"Hopefully soon," Frankie mutters, relinquishing the remote to Jay. She flicks through the channels, finding a show where competitors are baking one crazy cake after another. After a few minutes of watching, Frankie clears his throat.

"Amor?"

Jay's hum lets him know that she's listening.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Hall said some pretty messed up shit."

She tenses up momentarily; a bundle of annoyed muscles flexing against him, before softening again.

"He's such an asshole. I can't let him get to me."

"You know it's not true what he said," Frankie tells her hotly, feeling a strong physical need to say it out loud. "Not one word of it. You're better than all of them put together."

Jay smiles as she turns her face towards him and kisses him lightly on the lips.

"You're always looking out for me. Thank you."

“Always.”

Five minutes later, she's asleep against Frankie's shoulder.

A couple of hours later, just when he's about to join Jay in bed, Alma wakes up crying from a bad dream. He goes in to comfort her, but Alma keeps screaming for mommy, so Jay has to come to the rescue. Feeling a little rejected, Frankie returns to bed, wondering what it would be like to have two kids screaming for Jay, not wanting him. Ashamed for these feelings of jealousy, he reminds himself that Alma is a toddler, and that all he can do is make her feel safe, comfortable, and nurtured.

When Jay stumbles into bed a little later, she barely has time to throw her arm around his waist before she's out cold. Frankie remains wide awake for an hour or two, staring into the dark, a strong assurance growing in him. He wants more children, wants another baby with this amazing woman who's sleeping tucked into his side. He has no idea how he'll support two children, but he wants to try, he needs to try.

When he finally succumbs to sleep, his final thought is about how he'll break it to Jay, especially after today, with that unfortunate encounter in the supermarket.

*** Jay has to drive Frankie to the base the following day as well and pick him up after work. Throughout the day he tries to call the shop, but nobody is picking up, and he's beginning to fume.

When he’s finally walking out of the base, he sees Jay waiting for him on the parking lot. She’s standing outside the car, talking to a couple of former teammates, swapping news. He joins them, gets a quick kiss on the cheek from Jay who quickly wraps it up. They say their good-byes and get in the car, but just as Jay’s about to turn the key in the ignition, she freezes, her eyes narrowing. Frankie follows her gaze across the parking lot and sees Hall, striding towards his truck.

“Let it be,” he says in a low voice, knowing what she’s thinking. “Jay.”

“I’m good.” But she’s still following Hall with her eyes, her lips pressed together in a tight line. Before Frankie can stop her, she’s opened the door, slipped out, and is on her way towards Hall.

“Shit,” Frankie sighs and gets out of the car, following her. She’s quick on her feet, reaching Hall just as he’s about to get into his car.

“Hey!”

Hall looks around just as Jay’s knuckle connects with his jaw. His head snaps back and he crashes into the side of his car. Frankie’s heart skips a beat and he’s there just in time to pull her away. She’s calm and collected, following him willingly.

“Should have done that a long time ago,” she lets Hall know. “You are human trash, and if you ever open your ugly fucking face at me again, I’ll make sure you’ll be taking all of your meals through a straw for the rest of your life.”

With that, she turns around and returns briskly to the car. Frankie throws Hall a look of warning, catching the man’s confusion and humiliation, then follows her. They get into the car and Jay drives away. When the parking lot has disappeared from the rear-view mirror, she sighs deeply.

“That felt fucking good.”

“You shouldn’t have done it,” Frankie shakes his head. “He’ll report you.”

“He won’t confess to having been beat up by a woman,” Jay scoffs. She has a point: Hall would rather just forget about it than have the whole base know that Jay Ray clocked him.

She keeps her eyes on the road and seems calm enough, but now she’s rubbing her right knuckles with her left hand.

“You hurt?” Frankie questions, still not sure what he thinks of the whole situation. He knows Jay can fend for herself, but this was unnecessary and dangerous.

“Nah, just a little sore. Haven’t punched anyone without gloves in years.”

“You think it was such a good idea?”

“Probably not,” she shrugs and hits the turn signal, coming out on the highway. “But I wanted to.”

Frankie glances at her, still trying to sort out his feelings. Jay has always been a fighter, ready to stand her ground, and he always admired that about her. She never takes any shit from anyone, and Frankie was always the first one to cheer her on. So why is he feeling so conflicted about it now? Is it really because she's no longer in the service, and - Lord forbid - because she is a mother? The mother of his child?

Does he think so little of her?

"You're not happy about it, are you?" Jay interrupts his musings, her voice matter-of-factly. Frankie has to smile. There it is again: her fearless ability to put him right on the spot.

"I'm not unhappy about it," he says carefully.

"That's unusually vague, even for you."

“It’s hard to know what to say. It was fucking hot but so very dangerous.”

Jay laughs, and the mood in the car lightens up immediately.

“Doesn’t hot and dangerous go hand in hand?” she retorts, and Frankie chuckles. They drive for a mile or so in silence. Frankie chews on his lower lip, scratches his mustache, fidgets until Jay sighs.

"Look," she tells him quietly, her eyes on the road. "I can see something's up. And it’s not just me being hot and dangerous."

"Nothing's wrong."

He can sense the tension in her. He and Jay have always shared a strong belief in communication, ever since they got together. It is a cornerstone of their relationship.

"I mean it," he now tries to verbalize his turmoil. "Nothing's wrong, I just... I don't really know where I fit in."

He can see from her that she has questions, but she's letting him speak.

"I mean," he makes another attempt, "you have your job. You're good at it, you love it. I have mine, but... I'm not sure I want it?"

"Oh?" The question mark is encouraging him to go on.

"I don't know, it just feels like it's not really me anymore, I guess. I love flying, but..." He shrugs. "I just don't know."

"You know it's just a job, right?" Jay points out. "You're not there forever. You can quit."

"And do what?" he scoffs, as they're closing in on the whole point. "We have a kid, we need two incomes, and I don't have a degree."

"You can always get one."

"Ain't got that in me."

"If you're going to bitch and moan like Tom..." Jay warns him, but with a hint of softness in her voice. He chuckles.

"Not to you, I wouldn't."

Jay checks the rear-view mirror, hits the turn signal, and gets off the highway. As she slows down and comes to an intersection, she turns her head to Frankie.

"Look, I'm not going to tell you what you should do. But you know I'll give you my opinion if you ask for it, right?"

"Yeah."

"And I'll support you, whatever you decide."

"I know. I just need to figure this out."

"Of course. We can talk more about it tonight."

Alma is over the moon to see her parents when they pick her up at Dorothy's. It’s a funny age: for no apparent reason, one day is all sunshine and sunflowers, the other is thunderstorms and hail. She clings to Frankie, who carries her to the car, listening patiently to her prattling on about her day. When she's strapped into her seat, Frankie's phone rings: it's the repair shop, and his truck is fixed. He feels lighter than he has in days when Jay drops him off and he gets to drive himself home.

Alma spends the rest of the evening being her most charming yet high energy self, dragging Frankie around the house as a part of her games. When it's time for bed, Frankie helps her brush her teeth but finds that there is not much assistance needed, only supervision. When did his little baby get this big? Proudly and with a little lump in his throat, he watches her rinse and spit, then brush her hair, before helping her use the toilet. When she's tucked into bed, he folds himself next to her with a picture book and starts to read it in Spanish. Alma traces the English words, sometimes stopping at one, asking what the letters mean, and Frankie tells her in both languages. They always speak Spanish during these moments together at bedtime, and Frankie cherishes them tremendously. His parents raised three children but always found time for all three of them at bedtime, talking and cuddling and just making sure they were comfortable and safe. He remembers those moments fondly and wants his child to have them as well.

"Time to sleep, Almalita," he whispers when the book is read, and his daughter is blinking sleepily.

"Will you braid my hair tomorrow?" she yawns, rubbing her eyes.

"Of course." He brushes the hair out of her face and kisses her forehead. “Can I have kisses?”

Alma carefully puts her tiny hands on either side of his face and places wet little kisses on the patches in his beard, first on one side, then the other. She always kisses the those spots, and Frankie will always remember why: at barely two years of age, Alma once spent an entire bedtime story tracing them with her fingers and eventually asking What is this? Frankie had explained to her that the bald patches were there for kissing, so that little girls’ soft lips wouldn’t be scratched by the beard. Since then, Alma always kisses him there.

"Thank you, mijita. Sweet dreams.” He gives her another kiss, inhales the sweet scent of his amazing little girl, before gently scraping his mustache against her cheek, making her giggle.

He gets out of bed and tucks her in properly, handing her the favorite stuffed toy du jour, and kisses her again with a Good night before retreating to the door. Turning around for a last look, he feels his heart swell two sizes.

God. She went from newborn to a tough, almost independent three-year-old in the blink of an eye. When did this happen? While he was working and someone else was raising her?

He finds Jay in their bedroom, getting undressed.

"She go down okay?" she asks as he shows up in the doorway. Nodding, he leans against the doorframe and watches her take off her bra. A spark of desire flies off deep in his groin, but Jay puts on a sports bra almost immediately.

"You going out?" he asks, a little disappointed. She nods as she pulls on a hoodie.

"I gotta go for a run, clear my head a little. Long day."

He nods, meeting her smile as she comes around the bed and up to him. Putting her hands on his shoulders, she leans in for a quick kiss.

"I won't be long. Don't fall asleep."

"Oh...?" He raises one brow, and Jay grins.

"Yeah, that's right, daddy's getting lucky tonight."

"Is that so?"

"But mommy needs to let off some steam first."

She slaps her hands to his ass cheeks before brushing past him. A few moments later he hears the front door open and close.

Frankie needs to talk to her, must tell her that he's ready to have another kid. He has no idea about what he wants to do for a job, but he knows with absolute certainty that he wants to have a baby with her. He has so much more love to give, his heart pours over with it whenever he looks at her, at Alma, and he wants to share it with a fourth family member.

He busies himself with chores until he hears the front door open again. Hurrying to the entry, he finds Jay untying her shoes. When she straightens, he wants to tell her immediately, but there is something about her flushed, panting appearance that leaves words for later. Instead, he grabs her by the shoulders and presses his lips to hers. Jay kicks off her shoes and Frankie wants to get her upstairs, but she drags him to the living-room instead. Before he knows it, he’s on the couch and he has no clothes on and she’s standing in front of him and she is naked as well, and so fucking sexy. Frankie grabs her by the wrist and pulls her to him, almost making her topple over, but Jay regains her balance and is about to straddle him when he moves his hands to her waist and pulls her down on her back on the couch. She presses her nails into his triceps when he slams into her. She’s so fucking wet and tight, like only she can be, and she smells of sweat from her run, and it drives him wild. He doesn’t give her time to adjust to his size, not this time, and her toothy kisses tells him she’s more than okay with it.

Jay mewls, grabs his upper arms, and one of her legs goes around him and twists, and then she pushes him up and over, and he capsizes over the edge of the couch. She follows, holding onto him tightly, and hisses when her knee hits the floor. Frankie grunts when his back takes most of the fall, but Jay is now on top of him and she grabs his dick, all slick from having been in her pussy. She pumps it a couple of times before leading it into her again, and he thrusts upwards despite knowing she doesn’t like it when she’s on top and wants to do all the work, but he must get inside her again. “Fuck!” she gasps and her back curves out when she leans down, her fingers pressing between his ribs as she kisses him. His hands run down the length of her, reclaiming every known inch of her that he can reach. Her teeth close around his lower lip and draw it out when she straightens her back and starts to ride him frantically. Frankie covers her tits with his hands and pinches, kneads, rolls her nipples between his fingers until she throws her head back and sounds a throaty, loud moan while rubbing against him, her whole body shaking with the orgasm tearing through her.

Frankie clenches his teeth and allows himself to enjoy the sight before him before he, too, succumbs to the climax that shuts his eyes close and makes him grunt in helpless surrender.

Jay collapses over him, her face fitting so well where his neck curves into his shoulder. Her breaths are short and shallow, her body heavy on his. He wraps his arms around her and keeps her close, so close he can feel her heart drumming to the same quick beat as his own.

Gratitude washes over him, complete and overwhelming, along with the feeling that he doesn’t deserve her, yet knowing that he’s done everything to deserve her. The two of them belong together, and Alma with them. The best thing he ever did was to make a baby with Jay.

It seems so clear and simple now. What has he been waiting for, really?

"Jay," he murmurs, caressing her side, "let's make a baby."

"Huh?"

"Let's have another baby. We've talked about it often enough. Why not just go for it? I want to have another baby with you."

"What about your job and all that?" Jay gets up on one forearm and caresses his cheek, her fingers lingering on the bald spots in his beard.

"I'll figure it out. We will figure it out." He turns his face so that he can kiss her palm. "Jay, I don't know for sure what I want to work with, but I'm absolutely certain that I want another baby with you. Being a dad is the best job I ever had."

He waits for her answer, hoping she has one for him now and not later, worrying about being too pushy but knowing that he needed to make it known what he really wanted. When she starts to smile widely, he feels calm.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay." She laughs a little. "Yes. Let's have another baby."

"You sure?" Frankie has to ask. This went so much easier than expected. Jay slaps him lightly on the chest.

"You want to put a baby in me or not?"

He laughs at that, then rolls both of them over so that he's on top and dips his face down to kiss her neck.

"Gonna fill you with my cum," he murmurs, already hardening at the thought. Their sex life was amazing when Jay was pregnant with Alma, and he's already looking forward to a reprise. Jay slides her hand down between them and teases him with soft fingers.

"Gotta get you big and hard first, daddy," she breathes, "and then you can fuck me, and cum inside me, all the way inside, and if it doesn't take, you'll have to do it again and again and again..."

There's nothing original about her words, but they make him feral. He kisses her hotly, plunges his tongue inside her mouth, barely gives her the time to reciprocate before he drags his lips along her jawline, nibbles on her earlobe, kisses his way down her neck and chest, suckles one nipple, then the other, while growing stiff and ready to finally slide into her again.

She grunts when he pushes into her, and he feels his knees complain.

"Not the most comfortable place to fuck, huh?" he chuckles breathlessly, taking a moment to pepper her face with kisses. Jay combs her fingers through his hair, tugging a little at the neck.

"Bedroom?"

He lets out a little growl at the idea of pulling out, but her suggestion makes sense. They scramble to their feet, and only fifteen seconds later he pushes into her again, this time on soft bedding.

"I love you," he murmurs when her hungry pussy takes him balls deep. "I love you so much."

"And I love you," she assures him before pulling him in for a kiss. She moans into his mouth when he starts to move, breaks the kiss to instead trace her warm lips along his neck. Frankie leans his head back, exhaling in a low moan at her ministrations, lets her pour her love over his neck and shoulder before chasing and capturing her lips with his once again. He fucks her without hurry, indulges himself in the way her strong pussy clutches his cock in a slow drag in and out, her sounds, the surrender of her limbs underneath him. His brain is soaked in pleasure and fixed on his purpose: to fuck a baby into her, let his love grow in her womb, become a tiny person for them to take care of.

Jay's breaths are coming in short and shallow now. She whines and throws her head back, her hips rising to meet his in a wordless plea for him to go faster. Frankie obliges her, wrapping one arm around her head, keeping his eyes trained on her face. He smiles a little at the faces she makes when she gives herself up to pleasure, finds it amazing that he can know these funny, intimate details about her.

"Almost," she gasps, reaching between them to rub her clit. A moan tells him she found just the right spot.

"God, Frankie, so good, fuck, don't stop...!"

His balls are tight, he's going to blow within seconds, he growls as he tries to hold it together for just one more thrust, and another, and another, holy fucking God, now Jay is cumming underneath him, her mouth wide open as if she's about to scream, but not a word comes out, and the second after, he empties his balls inside her, presses himself to her as tightly as he can, paints her womb with his cum.

He must have dozed off because he startles when Jay's carefully nudging him off of her. He rolls heavily onto his side next to her and opens his eyes to her sleepy smile. He smiles back and raises his hand to caress her cheek, admiring the way her eyes close at his touch, like she's a cat basking in his adoration.

"You sure about this?" he whispers. Her eyes open again, calm and unfathomably blue. He wishes his daughter could have had those pretty blue eyes.

"I am. Don't tell me you're having second thoughts."

"No," he hurries to assure her, "but with everything else going on, your job, my job, Alma being a handful..."

"I'm still on the pill," Jay reminds him softly. "It might take a while."

He didn't even think about that, and the realization makes him equally jittery and relieved.

“We’ll have time to figure stuff out, then,” he summarizes, hoping it won’t take too long. Jay nods.

"We will."

Slowly, she turns onto her back, and stretches.

"I'm gonna take a shower. You comin', too?"

He's too tired really, but when Jay gets up and he sees that ass walk out the room, he's suddenly in a hurry to follow her.

[katatonicimpression]

Hammering Out Some Thoughts About Maddie

(a.k.a. I have feelings)

What happened in Dark Web?

So, Ben Reilly (a clone of Peter Parker) comes to Madelyne Pryor with a mind to make trouble. He's frustrated about his identity and his feelings about Peter and wants closure and vengeance and whatnot. She seems into the plan and then does all the work. Magic shennanigans, demons in New York, the works.

Maddie's branch of the evil scheme involves kidnapping Jean, and trying to forcibly extract memories of Cable's early childhood from Jean's mind.

This doesn't work. Jean wakes up, and slaps Maddie. They fight a bunch, Jean appears to win said fight, then she turns around and just psychically hands over the memories in question.

Hmm.. Ok.

But why though?

This is the fundamental problem with this story. Why? Why is Maddie acting like this?

The first Inferno, where Maddie goes evil and brings hell to Earth etc, is noteworthy for being... well, for being a really ooc thing for her to do. In universe, it's a combination of an emotionally and psychologically vulnerable state and literal demonic forces that cause her to do all this. In reality, it's the writers wanting to get rid of her so they throw the Medea trope at her (i.e. woman is scorned, woman goes evil and mad, evily.)

Since then, Maddie has cropped up as a villain occasionally, with varying degrees of sympathy and nuance. Most recently, she appears in Hellions, and then the New Mutants. In the latter, she gets a lot of sympathy from the writing. She's still characterised as someone who plausibly has done a bunch of supervillain things, but ultimately just wants to get away from the people responsible for her trauma - i.e. Mr Sinister.

Maddie's actions at the start of Dark Web are a massive, stupid departure from this. This is a character who, the last time we saw her, had exactly zero plans to hurt anyone, and certainly wasn't on the brink of waging demonic war on New York. There was a lingering sense that maybe Ilyana's trust in Maddie might be misguided, but nothing like this. It doesn't make sense in universe at all.

Once again, this is a lazy decision from a writer, that has lead to Maddie acting ooc. And it's so underwhelming here because the only reason she's having this backslide and doing the evil villain schtick again, is so that she can have a change of heart and a redemption moment which she was already doing. It's stupid. It's so forced.

Autonomy

Both as a character being forced into weird tropey boxes by writers, and as a woman in universe, Maddie's main theme is a loss of autonomy.

Her memories were fake, decisions she thought were her own were decided for her. Her marriage and her child, all part of someone else's plan. Beyond this existential horror, she's also robbed of choices in a more straightforward way. Scott demolishes their relationship, Jean displaces her (from her perspective) and her son is literally taken from her. Then there's the freaking demons.

When she's brought back, both as a ghost-ish entity, and then physically later on, it's all unwillingly. Arguably, New Mutants is the first time in a long time that we see her make any big decisions from a position that isn't a) entirely devoid of meaningful choices or b) a magically influenced mental breakdown.

So, a lack of autonomy is the big theme in Madelyne's character. Gerry Duggan (who wrote the bits of Dark Web that concern this) seems to be aware of this on some level, but takes a different approach.

We get a bit of Maddie's inner monologue where she speaks about how her life is a sham. How she was brought into this world to be a replacement for Jean - or rather, for Jean's uterus. It's honestly pretty moving.

Now, you might expect, if you know your writing techniques, for this story that is openly presenting itself as a sympathetic take on a morally dubious character, that is clearly going to denoument with a resolution between her and Jean, to contain a character arc. i.e. for what this character believes and wants at the beginning of the story to change over the course of the narrative. For her to realise that what she wants is not necessarily what she needs.

But, my friends, this is Gerry Duggan. A rebel. A maverick. A girl boss. He doesn't believe in character arcs. He spits on your so-called writing techniques. He sees your theories of narrative structure and steps on them... in heeled boots... because he thinks it's hot.

Motherhood

Instead of doing a normal writing thing, what happens is Maddie gets the exact thing she was after (the memories of Cable) and yes, actually it turns out that is what she needed. That overarching theme of a loss of autonomy? Nah, fuck it. Her existential angst about existing only as an incubator for this baby and the entire rest of her life being fake? Whatever, let's just make the whole story about the baby anyway.

One of the difficulties with Cable and Maddie is that Cable has been a massive hulking Liefeld monster of a dude for most of the time he's existed in comics. His entire existence as an adult feels very detached from his origins. The contrast is deliberate, of course, but it does make it hard to reconcile the two eras of the character. More importantly, in universe, Nathan himself has lived a whole other massive life since he ever saw his parents. She's not actually that high up on the list of influences on him because, you know, time travel, space ships, Apocalypse oh my.

When teenage!Cable was around, it was hilarious to me personally and also was an opportunity to bridge this gap between the adult Nathan and Scott and Jean. But since teenage!Cable is gone now, that option isn't available for his birth mother. And with all this in mind, I do think it makes sense that Nathan himself wasn't part of the confrontation.

Now, obviously you can be someone's parent without being the one who gave birth to them. So, Jean and Cable feeling the way they do in canon about each other is not wrong, although it's not how I personally would've written the dynamic. But anyway, as it stands, Nathan has two mums, and one has spent more time with him than the other, but both have still lost him.

That's what this sharing of memories between Jean and Madelyne is, really. It's grief. It's mourning. They've both lost this kid and he's fine, he's okay so it really shouldn't hurt so much but also, it is tragic.

So, yes I really do like some of this.

The Other Woman

What I hated was Jean slapping Maddie.

When Jean stops the fight and offers up the memories, it's clear that she was willing to do this the entire time. She even says that she pushed for Maddie's resurrection. She's wanted to do right by her for a while. This is good, this is a really in character attitude for Jean to have.

So, then, why the fight? Why the beat down? I know, I know, It's a comic book. It needs action scenes. But I hated it. I don't want to see Jean slap Maddie. I don't want to see her defeat her in battle. Moreover, it doesn't make sense on a literal level (Jean is actually super down to help) and it's not like it's a thematically relevent beat either.

Jean being supportive of Maddie is a widely popular fan opinion, that is nice to see validated here. One reason it's so popular, is that it flies in the face of the writing between them back in the day, which felt sexist and like they were working on the maxim that "women all hate each other, am I right?". Ironically, the slap panel and the fight have some of that flavour to them. But overall, yes this is a better direction to go in for these characters.

In general, I'm a supporter of "let these characters hate each other" in a lot of contexts. For example, I think that neither Monet nor Bobby should be written as liking Emma Frost all that much. I don't think it makes sense for them to feel that way. A really big example would be Kwannon and Betsy Braddock. I think that whatever closure looks like for Kwannon, it shouldn't directly involve Betsy. She can resolve her feelings about her, without needing a big confrontation with her. I don't think endless apologising from Betsy would help, especially given how she didn't choose most of this either. I think it's something they need to deal with seperately. And, crucially, I don't think resolution here looks like friendship. I don't think Kwannon should ever have to like Betsy.

Now, you could compare Maddie and Jean to Kwannon and Betsy. Both cases are two women who traded lives. Both cases involve one woman being the centre of devastating pain and trauma for the other, mostly unwillingly but nevertheless something that you can't really get over. So, maybe you could say that Maddie shouldn't have to forgive Jean and shouldn't have to like her.

But I think it's different. Mainly because I think there's more symmetry between Jean and Maddie, and maybe because Jean's hurt towards Maddie is less visceral, more existential. I think it's very believable that they could reconcile.

That said, I am glad we haven't had a "maddie forgives scott" storyline. Let me tell you I do not care. You're allowed to hate your shitty ex lol.

Audience Reception

I would sort the reactions I've seen to Dark Web into three categories: positive, negative and whinging. Naturally, I'm in the third category.

A lot of the positive reception is simply because, finally, we got a positive portrayal of Maddie. Ultimately, Dark Web reinforces three widely held fan beliefs

What happened to Maddie sucked

Jean and Maddie shouldn't hate each other, and Jean wouldn't hold any ill will towards her.

Maddie shouldn't remain a villain.

And, well, yeah I agree. This is all on the right track. Fundamentally she should never have been written as two dimensionally evil, and the fact that this era of her character appears to be officially over is a good thing.

The negative reception tends to come from people saying "well, look at all this awful shit Madelyne has done. Why should she be redeemed, she's clearly evil." And, hmm, okay right. It's not like there are no "heel turn retcons" that I don't take seriously, but it's worth being more skeptical of writing decisions than that. These choices weren't made by a human-turned-mutant woman named Madelyne Pryor. They were made by a series of writers.

You could argue that what's canon is canon, and there's a case to be made for just coping with what's happened and moving on. I do think that argument works better when the thing itself wasn't so ooc and retcon-esque.

In Captain America 2015 (or 2017?), the writer finally revisits the "snap wilson" retcon - a change to Sam Wilson's backstory from the mid/late 1970s inspired partly by a fascination with exploitation movies and partly by a growing concern in American culture at the time about "urban crime". It's racist and awful and thank fuck they finally said "nah, that's not canon anymore."

Comics revisit past canon all the time. And I'd argue that grappling with bad, often bigoted, writing decisions of the past is a worthwhile thing for Marvel to do. It certainly seems like a more appropriate way to treat past canon than some of Duggan's other work.

And anyway, this isn't even a retcon. It's a reframing, a different perspective, and a valid one.

The Whinging

I've seen a few people land closer to where I'm at with this. i.e. that Dark Web is not good writing but still overall it's good that they seem to have changed direction with this character.

Complaints include:

The contrived heel turn that Maddie does just to facilitate the plot to a series that is all about redeeming her

The fact that this story should be about autonomy but is in fact about Jean and Cable

The way that focusing on the baby feels like a weird step if her angst is about literally only existing to grow a baby

The emphasis on motherhood as a redeeming feature of a woman

The fact that they make a big deal about Maddie working with the x-men as if she wasn't literally in the x-men before

Some of this rant was inspired by other comments I've read, some of it not. In general, a lot of people are on a similar page with this.

Duggan is not a brilliant writer, but there are things he put in this that I did genuinely like. (You can't say I never say nice things). But overall, it felt like it ticked the basic boxes for what people wanted for this character, but didn't manage to do much more than that due to some weird and frustrating choices.

[tomboy014]

How Maddie (the cat) Makes Vlad Masters a Better Person

a.k.a. This Man Will Have Character Growth Even if it Kills Me

I feel like Maddie, the cat, is the first thing that Vlad has ever genuinely (rather than obsessively) cared about.  He watches TV with her, talks to her, praises her, and every time we see that cat on screen, she’s a happy cat.  So, it seems that Vlad is a responsible pet owner at the very least.  It’s the first thing besides himself that he’s ever had to take care of, and more importantly, wants to take care of.  And a lot of couples invest in a pet before they commit to having kids together, so here’s how I think Maddie, the cat, can cause Vlad to become a better person overall.

It’s a typical day in Amity Park except Dani is back in town.  The reason why isn’t especially important, but Vlad finds out and fights Danny who just wants to keep his “cousin” safe and away from Vlad.  Maybe they’re close to Vlad’s house, maybe she’d gotten outside, but during the fight, Maddie (the cat) comes into view.  Danny is busting a gut to find out that Vlad caved and got a lonely guy cat, while Vlad is simultaneously embarrassed and concerned.  Ghost fights are dangerous; he doesn’t want her getting hit by a stray blast.  But Dani?  Despite her apparent age, she’s technically only months old, and there is a cute, fluffy kitty right there.  Like any small child, Dani rushed forward to pet the kitty, and Maddie, like any cat being rushed by a small grabby, child, runs to Vlad who scoops her up in his arms.

“Is that your cat?”

“Why... yes.  Yes, it is.  Would you like to pet the nice kitty?”

Vlad is fully aware that he’s giving off creepy-man-in-a-van vibes but doesn’t care and uses Maddie to lure Dani back to his Manor.  There’s nothing Danny can do about it; Danielle’s a willing participant, and just to make sure Danny can’t stop him, Vlad activates the house’s ghost shield once he and Dani are inside.  Danny is stuck outside, helpless to do anything.  As soon as Danny flies off, Vlad drops the shield.  Danielle would have bolted as soon as she noticed she was trapped if she wasn’t so distracted by the cat.  Vlad needs to play his cards very carefully to convince her to stay.

Meanwhile, Danny is freaking the fuck out!  Vlad has Dani!  Who knows what kind of sick, twisted experiments he has planned for her this time?!  No one besides himself, Sam, Tucker and Val even know she exists, so if she’s killed or disappears, no one will ever know.  He needs to do something, anything, and he needs to do it fast.  Something that’ll keep her safe the same way he and Vlad hold each other’s secret identities over their heads.  It’s a hell of a gamble, and it could end up even more dangerous for Dani if things go wrong, but he’s panicking, and it’s the fastest way to make sure she’s known, and it’s the only idea his panic-stricken brain can come up with right now.

 He tells his parents.  After all, it’s crazy that Vlad’s a dad now, right?

As fast as Jack can drive them over, and Jack and Maddie are kicking down Vlad’s door (with Danny in tow), boxes of baby clothes in hand, to congratulate Vlad.  They didn’t even know he had a girlfriend, let alone that they were expecting!  But instead of a newborn, they see a tweenage Dani trying to grab the cat that just dove under the couch.  Vlad, thankfully, is a much better liar than Danny and cobbles together a story about an ex-girlfriend, a hidden pregnancy, and the lawyer who found Vlad after her death to take custody of their daughter.  Meet Danielle Masters. 

Suddenly, the GAV full of baby clothes and gear they pulled from storage is no longer appropriate, but Maddie and Jack are still excited to meet her.  They just can’t believe that his ex never told him he had a daughter, but they can’t fault Vlad for not being involved in her life.  Until a few months ago, it was like she never existed.

They try to get to know her, but it’s like talking to a brick wall.  They ask to see her room, but it doesn’t say much either.  Vlad had stripped it after Dani left the first time, so all that’s really left is a twin-size bed in green and gold like the rest of the house.  But she’s not a Packer’s fan, she’s not a space fan like Vlad wanted, there’s nothing to indicate that a little girl ever lived here at all.

So, Maddie kneels down and asks, “What sort of things do you like?”

“Maddie!  That’s our cat!”

The name gets a lot of side eye from human Maddie, but thankfully, he’s had that “sister’s cat” excuse in his back pocket for a while now. 

“Just... haven’t gotten around to changing the name.”

Danny glibly suggests, “How about Fruit Loop?”

“Nah.”  Dani says, “I like Corn Flakes better.”

The Fenton’s and Dani run through different cereals for name ideas, because why not?  It’s not like they could give his cat a normal name.  The closest one to normal, Marshmallow, was suggested by Jack, so Vlad immediately shuts it down. 

Finally, Vlad shouts, “Cheerio!  If it must be a cereal, then Cheerio.”

“That’s a cute name for a cat!” Maddie says.  If Maddie likes it, then it’s the cat’s new name. 

The next day, the Fenton’s return with boxes of Jazz and Danny’s old clothes for Danielle along with some new bedding and the biggest, fluffiest comforter ever covered in kitty-cats and yarn balls.  It’s the first thing Dani’s ever been given based on what she likes and not what she’s supposed to like.  She loves it!

Somewhere between the store and Masters’ manor, Jack has let the entire town know that Mayor Masters has a daughter.  Reporters beat down his door all day long trying to get the scoop.  Now that the public is aware of Dani, Vlad can’t do anything to her without causing a stir, and if she goes missing, there’ll be a massive manhunt for the mayor’s daughter.  Dani’s untouchable.  Still, it wasn’t a perfect plan.  After all, Vlad still has Dani in his custody, and the public bought his sob story about his made-up ex, but it’s a decent measure of protection.  And if she needs to, she can always run to Aunt Maddie and Uncle Jack.  Not Danny’s best plan, but it works.

It’s not a total loss on Vlad’s end, either.  Sure, he can’t do anything untoward to Dani without the risk of it making it to the press, but he has her.  Now that he’s a “dad,” his approval ratings as mayor have shot up.  If he can show Maddie he’s a better caretaker than Jack, she’ll be all the more inclined to bring Jazz and Danny to him once he gets Jack out of the picture.  He can still use this situation to his advantage.

But within a day, he discovered the one major flaw in his plan: he has no idea how to be a parent.

For the next few weeks, it’s just madness at the Masters’ residence.  Dani won’t eat any of the foods Vlad enjoys; it tastes like feet.  She won’t eat anything he cooks, so it’s a lot of take out and fast food, which he knows isn’t good for either of them.  She’s always controlled her own poor (in every sense of the word) diet and fights Vlad every change he’s trying to make to it.  She won’t eat a single vegetable, refuses to eat anything he cooks, and he knows she’s doing it just to be difficult since she has no problem eating anything the Fenton’s put in front of her.

She has no problem saying whatever she wants to the press just shy of giving away their halfa status.  Where did she live before?  The streets.  Who’s her mother?  Doesn’t have one.  Where does she go to school?  Doesn’t go.  It’s a constant PR nightmare. 

Some hastily forged paperwork and a few overshadowed officials later, and Vlad manages to get her enrolled in the top private school in the area.  She immediately starts acting out.  Guidance counselors and the principal are calling him at least once a week to discuss her behavior, missing assignments, and how far behind she is compared to her classmates.  At the very least, Danny managed to convince her that going to school was an important part of maintaining her human disguise.

Dani is miserable.  She’s always relied on her anonymity for protection, but now, she’s been thrown in the spotlight, a place she wants to be in a little as Vlad does.  She has to sit in school for hours listening to adults talk at her about things she has no clue about.  People with stupid cameras are always in her face.  She hates it!  And at home, Vlad still tries to bait her into the lab using Cheerio, but she figured out she can shake the treat bag, and Cheerio will bolt back upstairs.  She is NOT on speaking terms with Danny.  Vlad won’t let Val near the mansion.  And her new aunt and uncle just keep spewing things like “it’ll get better” and “give him a chance.”  At least they come with cookies, but if she has to be miserable then Vlad does too. 

Vlad, far from proving what a capable parent he is, has called the Fenton’s every day for advice.  He’s at his wit’s end and wondered more than once if getting rid of her would be worth the scandal.  He’s starting to think it would if it gets him his old life back.

Until the Guys in White show up.

They bumble their way through Amity Park, as usual, still unable to even capture the Box Ghost.  But while the GIW are incompetent, Dani is overconfident and inexperienced.  She’s captured by Agents O and K, so excited to finally have a test subject for their questionable and painful experiments.  She’s terrified, begging to be let go.  She’s just a little girl, but they ignore her and throw her in the back of one of their vans.

Vlad.  Goes.  APE SHIT.

Vlad’s full fury descends upon the GIW, and he cuts a bloody swath through them, nearly taking out a city block, the idea of collateral damage gone out the window.  Finally, he stomps through the wreckage, tears the back off the van, pulls a terrified Dani into his arms, and they vanish.

The entire flight home, Dani still in his arms, they’re silent.  Without a word, he deposits her into her bedroom and retreats into the lab as they both try to process what just happened. 

There was no reason for him to do what he did.  She was disposable.  Expendable.  A flawed creation he’d had no problem writing off before.  He gained nothing by saving her.  He’d just been contemplating getting rid of her.  Now, he’d just made himself a greater target for the GIW.  So why had he done it?  Why?  Why?  Why?  Why?  Why?

Why?

Things are still quiet at breakfast, but Dani put her dishes in the sink and went to school without a fuss.  She ate dinner without a fight.  For the next few days, it’s tense, but it’s calm.  Until one night, Dani started talking at the dinner table, timidly at first, but she shared some fact or tidbit that had caught her interest at school that day.  It was nothing that Daniel had ever been interested in; honestly, it wasn’t even something he hadn’t known before, and didn’t elicit much more than an “Oh, really?”  What was he supposed to say?  But she did the same thing again the next night, and the next, so he decides to reciprocate and tell her about some of the more innocuous things that happened at the office.  A meeting with the department heads.  Quarterly sales results.  It’s met with little more than a shrug and an “okay” or “cool,” but he supposes it’s something. 

Things carry on like this until the night Dani shares a fact so bizarre it can’t possibly be true, but Becky from science class swears that it is.  Balderdash!  They’re going to his personal library right now to look it up.  And, of course, Vlad is right.  After all, what did Becky from science class know?  But it leads them down a rabbit hole of tangents and different subjects until they get too close to one that would require an explanation of the birds of the bees and Vlad is certainly not ready for that conversation, so stop bothering him and do your homework or something.  And she does.

It's not much, but it’s the first time they’ve connected, really connected, and shared something, even if it was just a shared disdain of that know-it-all Becky.  It was a start, and from there, it was easier to talk to her.  She’d share something she’d learned at school; they’d pour through books in his library learning more about it.  Meals started to become not just tolerable but pleasant and graduated up to nutritious, if still simple, foods.  The two of them start becoming a regular fixture at the local library to expand into new subjects.  There was a disappointing lack of books on dinosaurs in Vlad’s personal collection.  It could almost be said that they’re starting to enjoy each other’s company.  Almost.  As they spend more and more time with each other, Vlad is starting to see Dani for who she is rather than Danny’s shadow.  

She’s loves to learn and soaks up knowledge like a sponge with a mind for chemistry and science like few he’s ever seen.  However, she is no longer allowed to do experiments without adult supervision, and no, the vultures do not count!  After they put the kitchen fire out, he got Danielle her own lab coat, goggles, and a step stool down in the lab.  She also got a very long lecture on proper lab safety.

She has a sharp wit and is a master of sarcasm.  He didn’t yet trust Ms. Gray to babysit without knowing just how much she knew, so he’d been forced to drag Danielle to a company function.  But he’d rather enjoyed watching her tear into Mrs. Henderson, especially after all the unsolicited parenting advice she’d been bombarding him with.  He should bring her to more company functions. 

As for Dani, she’s got three new grandpas who’ll ramble on all day if you let them.  Just never take them at their word.  She learned that the hard way the vultures are not reliable sources after she got an F on her history paper.  And she’s got “Uncle” Skulker teaching her how to hunt.  She’s caught Vlad more than once in one of their traps.  After all, his only rule was no trapping the cat.  Like she’d do that to Cheerio, but Vlad is fair game.  From there, Vlad and Skulker start training her to fight.  Vlad teaches her to dance to prepare for future company functions.  He said it’s “good publicity.”

Vlad eventually relaxes a bit and even lets Valerie come over and babysit her on occasion.  She doesn’t really need it, but it lets Val come over and hang out.  Last time, they made a pillow fort and watched Jurassic Park.  She could totally make her own Jurassic Park.  Vlad said it was a bad idea and even got Skulker to come over to try and talk sense to her, but instead it turned into a lesson on zoo design, enclosure sizing and animal enrichment.  So yeah, she’s gonna make her own Jurassic Park.  She even got Vlad to let the pillow fort stay up for three days after she used the puppy-dog eyes Val taught her.

And before Vlad knows it, two years have passed.  She’s doing well in school, has friends, and has started going by “Ellie,” though he’s not sure how he feels about that.  And sure, maybe there’s occasionally some small, infinitesimal bit of pride he feels whenever he catches Ellie copying his mannerisms.  They still have the occasional spat, but nothing as bad their first month.

Ellie’s room has since been fully decorated and is covered with posters, books, plushies and whatever else has caught her interest.  She’s made it hers.  Though the condition she keeps it in is a constant point of contention.  How a child that small makes a mess that large is a mystery he’ll never figure out, let alone how it seems to follow her throughout the house.

It’s been ages since he’s tried to coerce Danny into being his son and even longer since he’s tried to destroy Jack.  Parenting is exhausting, and while he is by no means a great parent, he’s gotten better.  He begrudgingly accepted Jack’s “Daddy-Daughter Bonding for Dummies,” but he’s read it.  He definitely took Maddie up on her offer to have “the talk” with Ellie once she hit puberty.  They still both tore into Vlad about curfews and sleep schedules when they saw Ellie out past midnight.  He’s still not going to give her a curfew; it’s asinine.  He just told her to phase in invisibly if he’s got late night company again.

He’s even been dating Harriet Chin.  She’d been reduced to writing fluff pieces for a small paper after losing her job with the Milwaukee Journal, but she’s determined to claw her way back up to the top.  And for her, that meant getting an interview with Vlad about his daughter.  He couldn’t help but admire her drive and ambition, and she kept him on his toes during their interview.  It wasn’t long until he offered her a position at Dalv and not long after that they started dating.  He’s not sure how far the relationship will go.  After all, he’s not trusting enough to tell her any of his secrets just yet (but she figured out he was Plasmius a while ago).  It’s been nice.

Plus, she hates Jack and that’s always a plus in his book. 

It’s far from the perfect family he’d envisioned for himself all those years ago, but it’s his, and he’d be remiss if he didn’t admit that for all is strangeness and imperfections, he loves it.  This is the happiest he’s been in years.  And all because he finally caved and got a lonely guy cat.

[inthememetime]

Scenario Idea; Vlad takes Jack and Madeline Fenton to court for Custody of Danny and Jazz Fenton. Danny thinks it's all some big plot by Vlad except investigations begin unearthing horrors and with the aid of a video link they get to see their parents' true selves without their loving family filter.

Tws: fanon-typical dissection mention

*Hacker Voice* I'm in

Check under the cut for more details

Vlad has a reason for staying away for 20 years. See, he knew the Fentons. Was even friends with them- until they started wondering about how ectoplasm would effect the human body. He highly doubts his accident happening one week later was really an accident.

Somebody let these two reproduce? And keep the kids??

He made a bad first impression, he knows. Maybe surprise adoption wasn't the best reaction when he found Jack and Maddie made their own son into a halfa, but he panicked, ok? And he didn't want to involve the cops because hello- either he'd be called a psycho and locked up or experimented on.

Jazz is more open to the idea than Danny at first, I think. Danny has that territorial ghost behavior working against him. But it doesn't take long, after they see the Lunch Lady dissected, followed by the Box Ghost, then blob ghosts. And the Fentons are enjoying it. While the ghosts are screaming, they're making jokes, dinner plans, throwing out vacation ideas.

Maybe they find the list of planned experiments about Vlad. Maybe there's a reason so much of their food was ectocontaminated, and why Maddie and Jack wore hazmat suits all the time while Danny and Jazz didn't. Maybe the human experimentation started with Vlad- but didn't end there.

Vlad is played as an enemy- but by who? By Danny and Jazz, who were on their parents sides. Vlad's not perfect, but he's better than that. Isn't he?

Turns out his obsession isn't really with Maddie & family, it's with vengeance and family.

I think we all know Vlad wins this. But how deep does it go? How much of the loving family was an act? Were Danny and Jazz ever just normal kids, or did their parents always see them as science projects?

I think I'd tell this largely epostilary, through texts, emails, news articles, and journal entries. With the occasional chapter situated in the courtroom, interrogation rooms, or in a private area with Vlad and the kids.

I think I'd also have a few chapters from Vlad's POV from college. Jazz and Danny have to decide who to trust, if they can trust anyone but each other, and have to deal with the face Danny and Vlad are halfas getting out, because if you don't think our boi had to watch his traumatic death, you're wrong.

I think I'd also like to see a few chapters from Alicia. Maybe there's a reason she hates Jack, maybe she blames him for her sister going crazy. Is she willing to work with Vlad, or is she another competitor, one they're even less sure of than Vlad?

Bonus: Vlad decides to look into this because of intel leaked by Jazz. He may be a fruitloop, but she and her brother would be safer with him, and she's afraid her parents might figure it out soon.

[queerlx]

Part 2

I want the whole non-ghost Phanfam to be either at least liminal, have powers or have specialties(like Tucker being technopath, Sam being able to control plants like Poison Ivy, Jazz having a power where she can influence other people with persuasion easily, Maddie is a super skilled martial artist with many expertise and Jack is just like super strong). They would be at first be underestimated by the Bats, but as the time passes by, they became one of the top Gotham Rogues

I think the Waynes will be on edge because of the new influx of villains and with Danny being suicidal. Bruce wouldn't listen to Tim as to why they need to let Danny go back to his family. The title of being the most difficult child of Bruce is no longer Damian/Jason. Dick? Well, he's at his breaking point and will probably be much more vicious whenever he's in the mask, demonizing the Bats even much further. He's probably secretly resenting Bruce and Danny. Cass probably won't return to the Manor due to the stress and tension when she visited the Manor for like 3 days. Damian will probably be neglected or feel neglected as Bruce spent most of his time with being Batman, or "trying to fix" Danny, Damian will also spend his time being Robin as he feels like he needs to prove to his father to not replace him. Duke, as time passes, became guilty and would try to be accommodating to Danny and he would be the first one to discover that Danny is dying because of what they've done. He almost fess up to the Phanfam on where Danny is, but the boy is loyal to Bruce... for the time being. Steph and Barbara is always targeted by Danny whenever they visit the house or the cave, so their visits in the manor became less. Alfred, in this au, is complicated. He tries real hard to make sure that Danny is well-fed and cared for and on one hand, he's really tired with how every time Bruce fucks up, he is always called to persuade Danny, who is much MORE stubborn than Bruce. With Bruce's top priority is Danny, Alfred is left to deal with the rest of the family. Alfred doesn't have the chance to get to know Danny more because 1) Danny doesn't give him a chance and 2) Alfred is bombarded with other things to have time. At one point, Alfred snaps and shouts at either Bruce or Danny and he nearly quits (or whichever in the family you may prefer), prompting Bruce to probably take action to fix the problem that he's done. Cause if Alfred's already having a breakdown, then that means the problem probably already festering faster than he thought.

Jason, oh Jason, in my mind he would be a full blown asshole, taunting and insulting Danny when he's visiting the Manor or when he captures Danny unsuccessfully trying to escape. Jason dislikes Danny at first sight and thought that he was just being an attention seeker with his suicidal tendencies. Reasoning: he thought that Danny didn't look like someone who gave up at life. Danny looked like who would harm himself just to torment his oppressors and make them squirm, Danny looked like someone who wanted to live. And that the reason why Danny is locked into the house and wanted to escape every chance he gets is to return to his family(to the Fentons, not Talia, Jason). He thought that Danny was raised by Talia, making him a much more sadistic and suicidal version of Damian(except that Danny doesn't attack Tim). He wasn't really told the true reason why Danny is here, cause he would probably go PTSD, go ballistic at them and his relationship to the family will be strained again. Which he did, don't worry, when Tim and/or Duke clues him in on what's really going on. And he would never be able to shake the guilt of what he's done to Danny, of how Danny almost died in there, even after Danny returned to the Fentons. He would sometimes look at Bruce, Dick and probably even Alfred with the betrayal and/or heartbreak when he remembers the emotional damage they've done to all of the others, just because they thought that they know what's right.

The only person who I think is at truly at fault here is probably Bruce, he's like the parent who thinks they know what's best to their child and would probably listen to their complaints but won't give it a second thought.

I will do a continuation much, much later because my creative thoughts are exhausted.

Hey, who wants a really dark and morbid prompt filled with angst? Well buckle up or scroll away cause I'm about to hit yall with a hammer. You have been warned.

----------------

Danny had slowly come to hate his human side. Well, humanity in general usually left a poor taste in his mouth, so as the weeks passed and the end of his sophomore year inched closer he made a decision. He was going to live his afterlife in the ghost zone. Probably go so far as to fake his death.

Things go south when his bio-dad showed up and he would have been stoked to learn his bio-dad was Batman if it wasn't for his insistence on "fixing" him. He wanted to be less human not more. Geez.

Turns out his bio-mom was that one lady with the long dark hair and green eyes that would smile at him from the shadows while he was patrolling as Phantom. He liked her. Sometimes she waved at him. He liked her a little less for siccing Batman on him. She had called him in out of worry for thier "son"

As it turns out, the reason she did that was because the source of his power (he pointed out it was called a core) was absorbing too much power too quickly and was at risk of overheating and having a meltdown, something akin to a nuclear reactor. He didn't like where this was going. Frostbite had said everything was fine at his last check-up, but no one was listening to him (another thing he hated about being human. As a ghost he was respected, or at least listened to) "So, what? I'm going on vacation?"

The "adults" looked at eachother. "Something like that." Nightwing gave a reassuring smile that only seemed to unnerve Danny more. They were hiding something and Danny had a bad feeling that it was going to end up making him miserable in some way.

He made sure that his friends and sister (meeting his bio parents changed nothing. She would always be the best big sister he would ever have. The only big sister!) knew where he was going and for how long and to raise holy hell if he wasn't back on time. After that we went willingly with Batman onto the batjet.

This turned out to be a mistake as he woke up nearly two months later completely human. Well, ok. Not quite. His eyes still glowed green whenever he was angry or distressed, like now. But his core and all his powers were gone.

Batman had stolen his powers from him. He had stolen Phantom from him. Everything he ever worked for. All the treaties he had made and signed in preparation for his coronation to the Ghost Zones throne, all the grueling training Pandora and the others gave him to controlling his powers, every flunked class and detention from having to run out and deal with a ghost, his shattered dreams of being an astronaut, everything he had done and sacrificed since the accident now meant nothing.

All because of some rich megalomaniac billionaire wanting to control him. Figures. He had the audacity to act suprised when he blew up at him. His powers where such a huge part of him. It was one of the few parts of himself that he actually liked. And Bruce had the nerve to give him the "superpowers aren't everything" speech. How condescending could someone be?!

The insinuation that he could be one of his flightless birds (oh God he would never fly through the nights sky again would he?!) and should be greatful about it was frankly insulting.

So he did what he did best. Escape. Except they caught him. Every. Single. Time. Was this a mansion or a prison? Honestly he wasn't sure anymore. Where was Jazz and his friends?

He cursed aloud when he realized they didn't have any way of tracking him without him being a ghost. He really was on his own with his kidnappers huh. And they were trying really hard to inflict some Stockholm syndrome, but didn't like it when he made the insinuation out loud.

They tried everything in thier power to keep him there "until you're better" and he couldn't tell you how many times they've busted down the door to reach him before it was "too late". Many locks throughout mansion were removed because of this. Too bad for them there was a lot of ways a normal human could "Go Ghost". It was a reoccurring joke that was slowly driving Bruce insane. Good. Suffer.

He really wished Nightwing would stop coming into his room at night to hug him though. The hugs were long and uncomfortable and he kept trying to talk to him. Weird. He acted like death was something to fear.

Too bad he wasn't going to make it easy for them. He had managed to slip away from the purple girl long enough to set two of the libraries on fire (a fact the estranged Wayne child was later furious about when he found out) and make a run for it. He actually managed to steal the batmobile and get a few miles out of the city before he was caught and recaptured. Danny never gave up though. He always found a new way to raise hell and escape.

He was going to become a ghost again.

One way or another.

[sebastianshaw]

What if Madelyne didn't leave? What if he "corrupted" her worldview?

OH MAN I think she would be a "villain" again but a different sort than she's been in anything else. As the Goblyn Queen, and just when she did bad stuff in this period as herself like killing Threnody, it's always been from a place of pain and lashing out, wanting vengeance. There's never any material gain for her. Whereas Shaw is almost exclusively about material gain. Likewise, Madelyne cares about other people; she's kinda funny in that, all the people she knows best, she wants to hurt now (Scott, the X-Men, etc) but she does absolutely care about innocent civilians she's never met. She cared about them pre-Inferno and, as we know, this period (hence why she left Shaw); the only time she's ok with hurting people who haven't hurt her was in Inferno, when, as we know, she wasn't in her right mind + was under demonic influence, so I don't think it's a normal part of her at all. Whereas Shaw is utterly indifferent to the suffering of other people, and was totally happy to make mutant-murdering machines for his own profit. They're pretty opposite brands of baddie. So, ergo, if Shaw is corrupting her, I think she'd start being more like him, versus just "Goblyn Queen all over again". I think she'd start prioritizing her own comfort and living well over the well-being of people she doesn't know, becoming more callous and complacent, etc. It'd really be very easy to do; it's very psychologically easy not to give a shit about something not in front of you. In fact, most people are like that to begin with, including many good kind people; Maddie was just exceptional. So I think it would be less a traumatic spiral like becoming the Goblyn Queen, and more, to paraphrase Neil Gaiman, a saunter vaguely downward. Probably a mirror of what happened to Shaw himself as a younger man, in fact. And eventually, she reaches the point where she's not only complacent with just ignoring harm done to others if it means she gets some gain via Shaw, she starts being actively complicit. Probably even takes over herself, she's an assertive go-getter and she was never content to stay in the background with the X-Men, I doubt she would be here either. I think she'd go from helping Shaw with his schemes, to downright committing her own. It'd be kinda interesting to see HOW she did it too, since her methods of attack are so different from Shaw's own. Shaw's typically a dude who does longterm hands-off schemes, subtle until caught and confronted, and only then does he fight physically. Whereas Maddie historically has just lashed out pretty openly with full force. Which fits since, again, her motives have always been emotional ones. But that approach doesn't really work well with how the Hellfire Club does things. . . but I don't think Maddie really cares about how anyone else conventionally does things, Claremontian ladies are always very frank about making their own rules and she's no exception. . . but I think she also is smart enough to know that attracting the attention of heroes or regular humanity isn't wise either. So I think she'd take a middle-ground approach. Probably stumble the first few times but once she finds her zone, she's deadly. Also, Shaw gets to be her sexy sidekick in a skimpy outfit.

[inthememetime]

Why do I like making Vlad a main character so much?

He's interesting. Make him good, evil, entirely self-serving, he has the power to push characters into plot.

He's reactionary- then takes a step further. He'll give the loyalty or betrayal, cruelty or kindness back- and then some.

He's consistent. Every action he does or doesn't take is to further his goals or to stop an enemy from reaching theirs. Everything he does can be boiled down to four reasons: get Maddie with him, get Danny on his side, kill Jack, increase his power/wealth to make it easier to meet those main 3 goals.

He doesn't make excuses for himself. He is the villain. He knows he's the villain. There are no 'but really, I'm much better than X' moments. No, he's very self aware.

Depending on how he's written, he's one of Danny's greatest enemies or best allies because he is very much a narrative foil. Even a 'good' Vlad is willing to do awful things, even murder, to get what he wants. Danny wants to be human/humane but feels he is sometimes a monster. Vlad is very much a monster pretending to be human.

He doesn't do things randomly. They are always for a reason, and always planned out (ignoring Phantom Planet, of course). This makes him especially dangerous or useful for 'just wing it' Danny Phantom.

This means that even in an au where he's human, Vlad would very much be a threat, likely on the same scale as Freakshow.

He forces the action. Good or evil, acting altruistically or selfishly, he is a good way to get a plot that's staying still to move. Even the threat of him is enough to get characters moving- even if he never appears, he's done something.

He's an omen of what could come if Danny doesn't stay on the side of good, a cautionary tale of what following even benevolent obsessions (love of a woman and family) can lead to if they aren't tempered with morality. We see that as well in TUE- Dan is very much running off of vengeance and obsession.

He doesn't fail often. With other enemies, every time Danny beats them almost. With Vlad, Danny has to have help, something distracting Vlad, trick him, or persuade Vlad that it's in his best interests to stop fighting. From the first episode to the last, he is always a danger. It is never guaranteed Danny will win.

In short, I like writing him because he's interesting to write. What about you?

[pokelolmc]

There were some things you missed, so I decided to vent too. Hope you don't mind.

First of all; in his video on the Reverse Trio AU (or at least just Sam Phantom) he stated that he was getting comments asking him to take a look at it, so the fans are probably requesting these AU's and he's drawing them. He certainly doesn't use the AUs' names. So I doubt he's actually in-the-know of the fandom enough to find the AUs himself. [I would insert a screencap or GIF of Mr. Lancer attempting to sound hip and failing miserably, but such a GIF is currently unvailable.] So, my speculation on the origin of these videos aside, I'll nitpick some of the other nonsense in this video:

We have to remember that Vlad started out an okay person; the fact that he simply got ghost powers didn't change him a whole lot morally...Well, the ability to get away with crime could have inflated his selfishness and tempted him to steal, but it certainly wouldn't make him a bitter supervillain. It was the specifics of the accident that gave him his powers that made Vlad bitter and hateful of Jack. Vlad was hit by an impure prototype portal, which gave him ecto-acne. The acne left him in hospital quarantine (and further recovery) for a long period of time, which made him quite socially isolated (according to Masters of All Time). The fact that Jack got together with Maddie during this time (and the ecto-acne got in the way of Vlad intervening to save his chances) probably didn't help either. So, the only major way that Vlad could turn out good, in my opinion, is if either the ecto-acne didn't happen at all (which was caused by Jack tipping cola into the prototype), or when Maddie split up with Jack due to her concern for Vlad's injuries she stayed with him almost constantly during the recovery from the ecto-acne. Vlad wouldn't have his love stolen away by illness (but instead brought his love closer), so he probably wouldn't be as mad at Jack; and Maddie's constant attention probably could act as a better moral influence on Vlad.

Also, there's the issue of Jack trying to get powers like Vlad's: Butch never mentioned that Jack knew about Vlad's powers, but then says that Jack tries to get powers himself with the implication that Jack DOES know the Portal can give ggost powers. So if Jack DOESN'T know, as per the Vlad-keeping-powers-to-himself element that Butch mentioned at the start, he can't be experimenting with the powers because he doesnt know Vlad has them. However, if Butch just simply forgot to mention that Jack DOES know until he mentioned Jack trying to get powers too, then this discrepancy is cleared up.

However, it would still be out-of-character for Jack, even a bitter Jack who wants vengeance, to experiment on himself or his son and succeed. Like you mentioned, Jack in Masters of All Time follows the same bitter jealous route, but his sillier/ignorant character traits means he doesn't have the drive to do anything extremely brilliant on his own; after he became miserable he had no drive and just lazed around in his ghost form pining after Maddie. His original character certainly wouldn't do something as dark as experiment on his own son in response to a similar situation to Masters of All Time (though the divorce and complicated custody of the children might exacerbate the emotional problem, but I still doubt he'd try to experiment on his own son). My best guess for his character would be that Jack would take the schematics of the prototype Portal and try to make a better Portal to outdo Vlad and Maddie (if the divorce does make him bitter he might have the drive to do it, and he's working off of existing schematics Maddie and Vlad already helped with so he's not doing all the work himself). Then, Danny accidentally turns the Portal on (albeit without Tucker ir Sam there) and becomes half-ghost a la canon.

However, I'm not sure how he'd turn bad. Maybe Danny tells Jack, and Jack's bitterness starts turning further south when he finds out his son has the means to take down Vlad and Maddie? Danny assures Jack that the powers are useful for getting away with things (trying to show Jack the bright side to his son being a ghost), so then Jack starts to descend into more villainous territory by training Danny to be more powerful (not abusively; I imagine they'd probably have a close ally-like relationship, and although the training would get hard, Danny would start wanting it to push him harder so he can get stronger, faster). Jack's tough and miserable life negatively impacted Danny's emotional growth before the Portal accident (he grows up with a miserable, poor single dad who is fully obsessed with ghosts and the Portal, and still raises Danny as a son but doesn't give Danny enough attention because of the obsession with his work. He uses what money he gets from a few research grants for the resources for the Portal so they end up financially troubled for everyday life.) So, Dany could also turn more immoral. They might both turn to crime to gather finances with Danny's powers, becoming used to selfish illegal activities, and when Jack rubs his bitterness off on Danny by telling him how (he thinks) it's Vlad's fault they were living in such shitty circumstances, Danny gets a grudge against Vlad too.

Next, I'm not sure if Butch implied Sam and Tucker to be 14, but if not then they could be born the same year as Danny. If we want them to go to high school, though, then they need to be teenagers, not twenty-something's, so I see two options: move the time setting of the show back to the nineties, so the trio ARE fourteen even though they were born before Vlad's accident in the early 80's; or we move the accident forward, so Vlad hasn't had his powers for twenty years (if he's the hero he has to show some growth, not just have had his powers for 20 years when we meet him) and the trio are children around 5 instead of toddlers/newborns when the Fentons divorce (which might not solve all of the child custody nonsense, but at least it isn't as outrageous as Maddie not getting custody of a newborn). Jack, Maddie and Vlad stay the same age as canon, though, for the sake of keeping them old enough to have children Danny and Jazz's ages. The prototype portal could be something they create when they come back to the university for postgraduate research after Jack and Maddie had the kids and received some sort of grant or scholarship to cover the costs (the first thing they decided to do was use it to pay for postgrad costs because they wanted to study further but the kids cost to raise).

However, then there's also the issue of Sam and Tucker; how would they stray from their good-guy (or at least average-joe) morals to side with an immoral person like Danny - especially Sam? It's out of character and makes no sense since changing the prototype Portal accident doesn't affect them. Not to mention that Jack and Danny have to move to Amity Park after the accident with Vlad, so he couldn't have known either of them before the accident (and pulled a "they were best friends when he was innocent but they notice his turn for the worse" trope.)

Either Danny is an outright delinquent at Casper, so he wouldn't make good friends with either of them (especially not Sam, who's rebellious but has high moral standards), or he learns to act and hides his darker side behind the facade of either a nice charmer or a shy nerd to lure them in. However, it would still be difficult to turn them from there. He could get his ghost form "busted" by them (while not doing something "evil") after building up their trust, then justify any morally questionable actions with the "poor, miserable household" sympathy card, but Sam might notice that Jack could stop spending so much on the Portal and ghost tech to ease their financial "problems" (which are, unbeknownst to Sam and Tucker, already easing up by this point because Danny has stolen quite a bit). So, I'm not sure how Danny would get them in on anything. Since them going bad willingly is something extremely unlikely, I could only see them being manipulated like Vlad did to Valerie, but I still can't see how Jack and Danny would accomplish that.

Clearly both Jack and Maddie would have to move to Amity Park separately for Vlad to protect it, but the only away the not-getting-Jack-arrested issue for the whole "son is half-dead" thing is going to work is if Vlad and Maddie don't know Danny is the evil halfa, or if they know his identity but Danny pretends to work alone to throw suspicion off Jack. However, if they both parents live in the same town they would be more likely to bump into each other more often, and seeing Danny enough could help Vlad and Maddie connect the dots to Danny's ghost/human identity (if we go with the route where they don't know). So that is also a shaky patched-up plot-hole.

tl;dr:

Butch doesn't know shit about his characters and the plots of his own show (probably because he didn't write much of it, after all), and his version of this AU is so plot-hole-riddled and nonsensical it looks like swiss cheese.

How I would fix it: the accident with Vlad happens when Danny is 5 (in the early '90s) when Jack, Maddie and Vlad go back to college and create the prototype portal for postgrad research. There is either no ecto-acne (no accidental cola poured into the Portal), or Maddie's concern for Vlad (enough to make her divorce Jack) makes her constantly accompany Vlad during his recovery (after the quarantine stage ends) so Vlad gets closer to Maddie and has a better moral influence. Jack and Maddie divorce and (in some weird, questionable, rule-bending custody battle tomfuckery for the '90s) Jack takes Danny while Maddie takes Jazz.

Jack moves into Fenton Works in Amity and, bitter about Maddie divorcing him for Vlad over the proto-portal (and Vlad's powers if he knows about them), he pours almost all of his finances into a new Ghost Portal made from the stolen blueprints to one-up them. Danny gets morally and emotionally impacted negatively as a child because his only parent cares about him but is bitter, miserable and still too obsessed with ghosts to raise Danny properly. Danny accidentally falls into Jack's improved portal at age 11 or 12 and becomes a halfa. He tells Jack and points out how ghost powers could be useful to improve their situation, so Jack is on board. Danny delves into crime for money and Jack trains him intensely with the intent that Danny can get back at Vlad. Danny puts on an innocent facade at school to lure in Sam and Tucker, but after Vlad comes Danny manipulates them into fighting for him by pulling a Vlad-to-Valerie...somehow.

When Danny is 14, Vlad, Maddie and Jazz move to Amity and Vlad uses his powers to become a local hero, but Danny intervenes under his ghost identity. He figures out Vlad's human identity (as well as the involvement of Maddie, who he hardly remembers from his childhood) and tells Jack. Vlad and Maddie now have to hunt down the villainous ghost opposing Vlad and his two assistants, not knowing that the bastards are hiding in the local high school as Maddie's estranged son and his two puppet friends. They certainly don't know that Jack is involved.

Also, Danny most certainly will NOT have a goatee.

I fucking hate this man

(long post, but I gotta vent)

#1 Is he straight up stealing AU’s from the phandom by this point and claiming them as his own???

#2 WHY IN THE HOLY MOTHER OF FUCK DID YOU MAKE JACK PURPOSELY KILL HIS OWN CHILD?!?!

JUST…????????????????????

#3 If he’s the same age of Sam and Tucker, and they’re most likely in freshmen year of high school, why does Danny have a goatee at 14???

#4 Danny’s ghostly tail is blue like his skin, is he also not wearing pants?

#5 Jack being like canon Vlad and getting revenge on him for “stealing the love of his life”??????? Is Jack in Master of All Time not valid??????

#6 DAN PLASMIUS???????

The rest of these are from discord

#7 Why would Vlad even be in Amity Park? He lives in Wisconsin and also the college they went to was University of Wisconsin.

#8 If Danny and Jazz were born 20 years earlier, Sam and Tucker wouldn’t be born that early either.

#9 Why wouldn’t Maddie take both of her kids after the divorce? Especially since Danny is A NEWBORN?

#11 If Vlad and Maddie knew what Jack did to Danny, why not get him arrested for child endangerment???

#10 Why does Danny have a completely different outfit (hate the red), but Vlad’s is literally just Dannys’ jumpsuit, but with a V?

The only thing I’ll give him credit for is that I genuinely like how this is drawn. Idk why, but it looks better than the rest of the shit he’s drawn in his current art style. Background is lazily done though.