#i will now go back to not posting for 6 days bcuz im so busy <///3 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

omegasmileyface · 1 year

Text

The Forest, the Trees, the Fire I: CATALYST

Chapter 7

chapter 6 was also posted earlier, so go check that one out if you missed it! Authors: @attackradish, @ectolemonades, me. Artist: @/crunchysart

For the full characters list, word count, content warning, and a directory to all the currently available chapters and related content, see the Table of Contents!

full summary: The world outside of Amity Park has learned about the existence of ghosts, and the time for first impressions has arrived. The delicate public consciousness could be disrupted by the slightest ripple. Danny Fenton is being ripped apart from all sides, and when he finally breaks, the ripples will be very big indeed.

warnings: references to racism and classism

words: 2467

AO3 link

first chapter

previous chapter

next chapter

===

January 16, 2007

Jazz was trying very hard to focus on her dinner and not the growing anxiety around her new syllabi when her phone chimed. She had tried to set a boundary that she would never check her phone during meals and take that important rest period away from herself, but it was the first time it had gone off since Christmas. She couldn't resist!

Tucker Foley: (17:20) dannys missing. havent heard frm him since th 5th

Well. That certainly ruined the mood.

You: (17:20) Crap. R we sure that he's not just busy? 11 days is a lot but he's weird like that from time 2 time

Tucker Foley: (17:22) c thats the thing. hes been MIA a lot recently. several days at a time. but im more worried this time bcuz the portals gone

Oh. Oh, shit, that was new.

You: (17:22) The portal is GONE? How do u kno? What happened?

Tucker Foley: (17:23) whole ectomap is diff. not sure. phone call? i can get us some better communication

Jazz was shaking in her dining hall seat. Danny was gone, with no reliable way of getting between realms? Mom and Dad were alone, in the middle of an anti-ghost government incursion, and with their life's work inactive for whatever reason?

Maybe everything added together in the ways she feared, maybe it didn't. Either way, something terrible was either happening or about to happen. She could already feel the guilt weighing on her for not thinking to go back home before now.

You: (17:25) Maybe. I'm coming over tho.

Jazz managed to clean up her dinner and start heading back to her dorm before Tucker called.

"You're coming, for real?"

"Yeah. Clearly stuff's going on in Amity, and I need to be there for it."

"Yeah, but, like, don't you have classes that you can't miss?"

Jazz double-checked that her roommate wasn't in before continuing. "Tucker, my baby brother is missing, while my parents are working with the group that's getting his existence criminalized across the whole country. Why would that not be worth pushing my degree back a bit?"

"Just feels like a waste of loan money, is all."

Jazz shrugged. "I'll just loot Vlad's house and sell all his Packers merch."

"I imagine the feds already beat you to that. Good luck, though."

At least five outfits and two pairs of pajamas, check. Toiletries, check. "What'd they do with all his money, anyway? Maybe it's still out there and you could wire me some of it."

"Why do you think I can do that? I'm not a comic book character, Jazz, I'm a teen with a piracy hobby."

Jazz hesitated for a moment before packing Bearbert Einstein. "Worth a shot. So, what's been up with you?"

"What's been up with me? Oh, you're chatting. We're chatting. You really must not have any friends of your own."

"Tucker!"

"Sorry, just an observation. I'm sorry. Well. I made a little system people in town can use to plan pro-ghost protests and stuff, but otherwise I've been trying to stay out of it, even though it's been a little lonely."

Jazz hummed. She'd better pack a towel. For all she knew, the extras back home had been sewn into some kind of ectophobic parachute.

"Lola got in trouble at school for defending Phantom in front of the vice principal. Like, she had to stay after school while he checked with the GIW to make sure they didn't have to write her up or anything. Fuck that guy, honestly. So my parents have been on edge, and they don't want me drawing any attention. Lola's eight years old, and pretty fuckin' cute too! If she gets in that kinda trouble, imagine what'll happen if they think me or my parents are pro-ghost."

Jazz cringed. "That really sucks."

"Yeah. I know."

She gave the room another quick once-over to be sure she didn’t miss anything she'd need for the next month or two. "How's Sam?"

"Couldn't tell ya. Her parents were pissed when they found out she was leading all those protests, and they moved away."

"Oh. Haven't you been talking?"

"Not really. What would we talk about, anyway? She's still mad because I wouldn't join her on the front lines. She doesn't get it. If she gets arrested protesting, she gets an embarrassing picture in the newspaper and her parents pay a fine and life goes on. If the same thing happened to me, my future would be ruined, forget that I'm not eighteen yet. Nobody employs a Black kid who has a criminal record before graduating."

"I'm really sorry that's something you have to worry about."

"Whatever. It's Sam! I'm sure she'll figure it out in a couple months and immediately pivot to doing the exact opposite. She never turns down self-sacrifice when it makes her look good."

Jazz gathered up her backpack and duffel by the door. "Wow, sounds like you really haven't been getting along at all lately."

Tucker sighed on the other end of the phone. "Honestly, we never would have been friends if Danny wasn't there. He made it make sense somehow. Not that I don't like hanging out with Sam! She manages to keep up with our humor and stuff. But it's hard when there's nobody there to buffer her. …Or me. Probably shocking to hear this from Too Fine himself, but I know I can be kind of a hassle when I lose my impulse control."

"That's a really intelligent thought, Tucker. Maybe it'll help you build new friendships, if you want."

He scoffed. "You really therapy-talking me at seven PM? You must miss Danny bad."

"Could you give me a sec? I need to write something."

"She's deflecting now!" The line went quiet.

Jazz gathered up her roommate's sticky notes and pen. Sorry, Lin. I'm gonna be gone for a while, at least a week. Family emergency. Not sure when I'll be back, but if you see a ghost who looks like me and she asks for my stuff, let her take it. Thanks!

"'Kay. Anything else to say?"

"Not really. I honestly wasn't expecting a conversation. I guess, um… how have you been?"

"Eh. College. Hey, I'll be back in Amity by… midnight. Make sure it's not up in flames by the time I get there?"

"You're driving now? I knew you got your dad's bad road habits! Please don't fall asleep at the wheel, okay? I'll do my best to keep everything un-up-flamed until you get here."

Jazz clipped the seatbelts over her bags, just to be extra sure they wouldn't fly around. "Of course! I've got my soundtrack. Later, Tucker." She shut off her phone and stuck in her favorite hip-hop CD she kept hidden under the passenger seat. Time for a very reasonable amount of speeding.

===

"Huntress!"

Valerie looked down from her latest capture to see the Doctors Fenton, waving their hands like little kids to get her attention. She went down to meet them.

"Yes?"

"We've always been really impressed with your efficiency at dealing with ghosts," said Maddie.

Val thought back to all the times the Fentons had shown up to a ghost sighting already yelling, plotting their every move out loud. Sure, she had better tech nowadays, but she was pretty sure her greatest weapon against ghosts was common sense. "Thank you." Still, not bad to kiss up when it came to making connections. "That means a lot, from professional hunters such as yourselves."

"You may know that we've been working with the Garrison Irving Walker Commission recently," said Jack.

She didn't, but it didn't particularly surprise her.

"Well, we've been wanting to have you come in so we can talk business!"

"And by we," chimed in Maddie, "he means the Commission."

Mentally, Valerie prepped a fake signal to go off on her suit so she had an excuse to leave if she needed. She knew the GIW weren't after her, but she had been sort of avoiding them recently. Just in case. "Business?"

"We're all wondering how you make it look so easy!"

"And how you made that flashy suit!"

"It's not an interrogation or anything, we just want you to share some tricks of the trade if you've got time."

Valerie wasn't sold, so she used a technique she'd picked up when applying for jobs. "I'll have to make some time. Could I contact you later with a schedule?"

"Sure! The FentonWorks phone number—"

"Maybe a GIW number would work better? Since it's set up with them."

"For sure!" Maddie grabbed a business card from her utility belt. "If you just press 0 a bunch, you'll get to the receptionist eventually."

"We look forward to hearing from you!"

===

"What would they do if you said no?" Damon Gray asked. He handed Valerie another soapy plate.

She let the water finish running over the plate before she spoke. "I almost don't want to think about it. I mean, I want to think that they'll just respect my privacy as a fellow ghost fighter, but they didn't really have a lot of reason to look into Mr. Masters, did they? If they're that paranoid, won't they look into me too?"

"Well, let's think about it this way." Damon hung the dishcloth back on the faucet. Nice, sub-ten-minutes dishes! "What's the worst outcome if they do look into you?"

"Well, they find my secret identity."

"And then?"

"And then… they get mad at me for doing vigilante stuff. They arrest me for the property damage I've done in fights, and take my suit away because I'm a kid."

"Is that it? Could be worse. I'm sure the people will be on your side because of how much you've helped the cities before. Will they look into your suit at all?"

"Ooh, yeah, if they can. It's sort of bonded to me right now."

Damon frowned but didn't interrupt.

"They might find out that I'm using tech that came from ghosts. I bet they wouldn't like that."

"They all use ecto-technology stuff too, right? I'm sure they wouldn't mind too much, since you're human."

Valerie didn't respond.

"…Well," said Damon, "I'm gonna go get the mail. Let me kn—"

"What if I wasn't?"

"Sorry?"

"I mean— not that I'm not human! And I'm definitely not a ghost. But what if there were some ghostly things about me?"

"Sweetie, what aren't you telling me?"

Valerie turned away. "…Weird ghostly stuff has been happening to me for a few months and I think it's because of my suit."

"Valerie Gloria Gray!"

"It's not that bad! Like, y'know, sometimes when I'm embarrassed I'll get kinda see-through for a sec. O-or when I want my suit to do something, it does it before I tell it to."

"No, as a matter of fact, I do not know!" Damon sighed. "But I'm glad you're okay."

Valerie nodded.

"I'm going to want to talk about this later, but right now I'm getting the mail. I'll just say this before I go; the GIW is supposed to be protecting humans, right? If they're any good at their job, they won't do anything drastic because you're so human."

"Okay. Yeah."

"Love you."

"Thanks, Dad."

Still… better safe than sorry. Valerie was going to find a phone booth tomorrow and schedule the meeting for Saturday.

===

Danny hated the basement of the Keep. He hated it, even more than he hated the rest of the place. Even when it was updated with shiny black and white stone and glass like the rest of the building, it still felt old and foreboding.

When people called the building a "keep", they usually meant it more metaphorically, or they just didn't know that keeps were short-term military hideouts. Most of the structure was more like a palace, enduring and luxe. The basement, though, was the site of a permanent last stand. It had morphed out of the old throne room and kept all the miasma from before, without most of the deathtraps. It was the heart of the palace, in the way that a fear response starts in the heart and radiates outward.

And here Danny was, trying to open up old wounds.

The Fright Knight's resting place was exactly where it had been before, dutifully beside his old king, even if they were both cursed to sleep forever. It was sort of romantic, almost. Like poetry. If you squinted.

But when Danny took the sword out of the pumpkin, the Fright Knight only had to look around for a few seconds before he kneeled, seemingly having figured out the whole… situation. Not that he had expected any serious loyalty out of the knight after his previous escapades, but that was sort of sad.

It didn't seem like the knight was going to stand up unless Danny said something.

"Um… hey. Hi. You can stand."

He stood.

"You have a lot of military leadership experience, right?"

"Yes, my King."

"Alright. Have you ever dealt with passive defense? Like, not going out and fighting so much as preparing to only defend if necessary?"

"Of course. While it is not a responsibility I've had particularly often, it is something I've studied and practiced."

"Okay. I think the entirety of the Infinite Realms are going to be attacked soon."

The Fright Knight valiantly concealed a look of skepticism.

"Honestly! There are humans with a lot of technology, a lot of brainpower, and an unthinkable amount of hatred. I'm going to be doing all I can to prevent things from getting that bad on the diplomatic side, but... I don't want to ignore any possibilities."

"That's very intelligent, my King. Would you like me to suggest strategies on defense?"

"Yeah! I'd like to talk through any thoughts you have on defense and anything else, if that's okay. You have way more experience than me."

"Understood. Would it be possible to bring me something on which to write? I believe it would make the explanation easier."

"Of course. We can do whatever makes you most comfortable. I'm not planning on putting you back in there any time soon— I mean, unless you do something terrible— so you may as well get cozy."

The pair moved into the library and before too long, talk of a general ghost defense movement turned into full lectures on the possible ways to handle the humans' anti-ghost shift. Tactic after tactic came back to one thing.

"We will only have negotiating power if you tell the humans that you are prepared to destroy them and mean it."

Danny weighed that thought in his mind for a bit. He turned the idea around, considering its taste. He didn't like it.

"And will you mean it, Phantom?"

"Mm… I think I will."

#my writing #danny phantom #invisobang 2023 #ftf catalyst #the forest the trees the fire

6 notes · View notes