#kwan ishiyama

[icos-3]

Chapter 6 - The Kidnapping of Danny Fenton - Tumblr Edition

Since AO3 was down, I might as well post the chapters of my fic here. This is not a rewrite of the story. It will contain fixes/edits for problems that initially went unnoticed by me. These edits are being added to AO3.

5 - 6 - 7 Index

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

After Danny went missing 6 months ago, Dash's perspective began to change.

Since his disappearance, Amity Park just got... strange. Stranger than it had always been. But, also much worse than any other time in Dash's recollective memory.

The Fentons began focusing less of their time and attention on ghost hunting, and more time on trying to find their son. That meant that they spent less time protecting Amity Park, and more time shutting themselves in that large, chaotic tower of theirs, or driving recklessly along the outskirts of the town.

This would have been fine, if the town's protector, the Phantom of Amity Park (shortened to Phantom), hadn't gone missing around the same time.

Without anyone keeping the aggressive ghosts in check, Amity Park devolved into chaos. 

Until the Guys In White decided to show up with new fancy weapons and tech, at which point, the chaos grew exponentially.

To say they were aggressive would be an understatement.

They implemented strict curfews that, if you accidentally or purposely broke, either because you were busy and forgot, or had to go do something for an emergency, would lead to you spend the night in sealed decontamination rooms to be questioned and observed.

They began confiscating and removing pro-ecto materials from around Amity, whether it was in support of Phantom, or just the peaceful ghost population in general, and replacing it with their own flashy imagery, which showed that their egos and thirst for power and control was near limitless.

And to top it all off, they began removing friendly, non hostile ghosts from the streets and abandoned buildings of Amity Park. 

Unbeknownst to Amity, these ghosts had been making sure that obscure and difficult to maintain infrastructure was kept operational. Infrastructure that, were the city to begin upkeep, would have bankrupted the local municipality.

Without the local spectral plumbers, electricians,  architects and sanitation workers, life in Amity soon began to quickly devolve into a much worse state than it had been in decades. Or, that's what Dash had heard when listening in on some of the adults occasionally.

This was no longer a safe place where people his age could go to the mall alone with friends, or go out at night. Everyone could be a victim.

Everyone was a suspect. 

Everyday, normal people began to turn on each other, throwing accusations around, playing hot potato with each other's claims. Some of the rich began hiring body guards to walk their kids to school and look after them, while the others opted to walk or drive their kids instead, being unable or unwilling to trust a stranger to look after their children. 

It seemed fun at first, having a personal guardian, but soon, he had discovered how cumbersome and limiting it really was. 

He could no longer play football with his friends till sundown in the school field unsupervised.

He could no longer watch his beloved romcoms without feeling judged in his own home.

He could no longer sneak out at 9 to expand his teddy bear collection.

He couldn't slack on his school work anymore.

It was all getting too much to handle.

.

|

.

After all the time they spent around each other in school, Dash didn't really know Danny that well.

Most of their high-school dynamic was centered around Dash being the top jock, and Danny being the weirdo that's weirdly good at getting stuffed into lockers.

Out of the all the nerds and unpopular kids, Fenton was the only one that made Dash truly feel in control. 

Sure, the other nerds were just as fun to stuff into lockers, but Danny was the only one that gave him a challenge. The way he squirmed as Dash pushed him into lockers, the way he yelped when he gave him wedgies, the way he scurried off when his pants got pulled down, it all gave him a deep satisfaction. Knowing he had power over him.

But it wasn't because he disliked Danny, or actively had a grudge against him or anything. At least, that was mostly the case. He couldn’t recall that he’d been wronged by him in some way, but whether it was because he let him do those things because he was scared of him, or because he simply didn't care enough to stand up to him, it always made Dash feel more secure with himself. That HE was in control.

That he wasn't powerless.

It had only recently become apparent to him how much he relied on those quick bursts of adrenaline, those quick bursts of admiration and adoration of his classmates, to keep himself together. To distract him from his own problematic life. The one he hid behind facades of power and money.

The one he couldn’t escape from when he was at home.

.

Pretty much everyone in school had noticed his gradual descent.

At first, he’d try and pick on the band geeks, but after the 4th time of stuffing them as tightly together into a locker with no gratification or praise from his peers, he simply started lashing out at anyone who opposed him. And eventually, even that died out. He could only yell at math nerds so many times before it also got too tedious to continue, rather than fulfilling.

It wasn't immediately obvious that he had been on a downward spiral, but Dale had definitely noticed, and began picking the slack for him. Unlike Dash, he reveled in making others lives horrible. He didn’t want to feel powerful or strong, he wanted to make others miserable for the sake of it. For the most part, Dash remained in Dale’s group of torment. But after the 7th spat between the two, he didn't even bother to do that anymore, simply choosing to diffuse any conflict he was a part of, simply to spite Dale.

He was so lucky to have such a good friend like Kwan who would stand by him and defend him, but even he had begun to change in ways Dash didn't think possible at first. They weren't drifting apart, but he had noticed that Kwan had picked up a few new strange interests over the weeks that passed. The painting wasn’t that weird of a hobby all things considered, but even Dash had to admit that the gothic poetry was a bit much, even for him.

Over time, he regularly amazed himself with how much he himself had changed in such a short time.

But he could never truly shake the memory of what had brought up these sudden changes.

.

During lunch, he'd regularly glance towards where the three of them would usually sit, only to see two of them making missing posters and drawing on maps for spots they hadn't looked yet.

He saw how worried the corner bench freaks were that the third wheel of their tricycle vanished. He saw how they rushed out of class to go search around Amity after school, risking getting captured to look for their friend, only to come back to school more dejected the next day.

One time while going to his locker to look for a change of clothing after PE, he saw Tucker crying over Sam’s shoulders just outside the bathrooms when they thought nobody was around.

He never got close to the two of them, but everytime he saw them, he couldn’t help but think of how they used to be when compared to now. When Danny was with them, they always seemed to be happy, no matter what situation they were in.

No matter what situation HE put them in.

gosh... I am such a jerk…

.

Over time, it lead to him to really think about his situation. About what he had done to them. And to Danny.

was everything I did to him really... worth it..?

Thoughts like these usually kept him up at night. Right after he just got comfy under his sheets, ready to drift off to sleep.

No matter how hard he tried, they always seemed to pop up again. When it happened, he tried distracting himself by rewatching his favorite romance drama, he tried rearranging his teddy collection, he even began trying to do his own homework, all to try and distract himself from thinking about it. But no matter what he did, his mind always tended to wonder whether or not it was worth doing to others what he had done to Danny.

did I really depend on Fenton so much to keep myself together?

Sure, it made him feel in control, but how much was that worth ruining someone's life over?

was it really worth it?

ruining his social life… making his life miserable...

only for him to go missing...

and possibly lose said life...

.

.

.

One day, while in conversation with Kwan about his new hobby, photography, he noticed that Sam and Tucker were a lot more high energy than they usually were on days like these.

"Hey, Kwan"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know what they ate to give them that sort of energy?"

Kwan turned to share Dash’s gaze at Sam and Tucker, both of which were staring at one of those high tech geeky gadgets. He thought he'd heard them call it a PDA but in actuality, he didn’t know whether it was a glorified cell phone or something else.

"I dunno dude. You think we should go look?"

Dash hesitated, but something at the back of his mind told him it could be important.

"Maybe they found something. About... Fenton..."

Both of them stood up and walked towards where the two across from them sat in silence. Kwan, being seen as the friendlier of the two jocks, was the first to speak when they reached the table.

"Hey guys, what're you looking at?"

The two on the bench jumped, and hurriedly fumbled to try and hide the device.

Both of them had a look of horror hidden behind the looks they usually wore when talking to Dash and his friends. Sam’s was a mixture of disdain, and Tucker’s was the brave face he usually put on when not trying to be intimidated.

"It's none of your business, Baxter!"

Manson had always had a kind of fire in her words, but today, she seemed shook. But Dash wasn't going to back off so easily today.

"If... if it's about Fen..."

Her stare went straight through Dash. Was it always so hard to speak to them?

" uh... Danny... I'd... like to help…" he said after correcting himself.

He didn't usually stumble like this, but he had to admit, he wasn't usually the one to offer help.

The two on the bench shared quick glances at each other, which then turned into full on stares. He had to wonder if these two were psychic or just very good at charades because it felt like they were having entire conversations with only their faces.

Eventually, Tucker sent Sam a wide eyed head bob, to which, she tilted her head backwards and let out a deep sigh. Tucker was the first one to speak this time.

"So... we think we may know what happened to D- Phantom..."

.

Somehow, Tucker, found a way to get into the Guys in White's security camera archives. "It was almost as if it had been left open just so that someone could find this," Dash heard him say at one point.

As the video played, he saw a small figure being brought towards a long cylindrical machine.

After realising who it was in the video, he let out an audible gasp.

That is Phantom... What were they...

Almost as if to answer him, Tucker fast forwarded to something that happened later. To something horrible.

From the low volume on the PDA, he could hear multiple layered screams, before something began oozing out of the machine.

A sickly yellow and black slime. mixed with... body parts... human... body parts... growing... twisting in unnatural ways...

Dash had no choice but to empty his stomach onto the grass next to the bench.

When he looked up, he saw he was not the only one. Not only did he and Kwan have the same reaction, but so did one of the people in the video.

Then, he saw him...

Phantom...

The hero of Amity Park...

His hero, covered in a bubbling, boiling mess, with a dismembered limb clinging by a thread of goo to where it had been severed, slowly reassembling itself till the wound got closed.

He saw the people in hazmat suits removing him, before being ordered to take him away.

"We need to do something!"

The words bubbled over. He didn't even have a chance to think about what he was saying.

Everyone was surprised when something not even Tucker expected, happened. The PDA beeped.

Tucker wondered whether or not he'd been hacked, but then, a box with a message appeared over the video. It read: "If you want to help him, meet me at behind the Nasty Burger at 9 AM on Saturday"

Dash looked at Kwan, then to the other two. They didn’t need to say it, but he was sure everyone at that table knew what they had to do.

He knew what HE had to do.

[northernbluetongue]

👻👻👻

Bring Your Ghost To School Day

AO3

For @phantomphangphucker

Valerie felt pleased with herself.  Sure she would have preferred to catch the ghost dog, or Phantom (take him down a few pegs), but if she was being honest with herself, showing up to the Paranormal Self Defense class practicum with Phantom in tow would have raised way too many questions.  Most of her classmates would probably come in with blob ghosts.  

Although she has heard a few scheming to get the Box Ghost…

Whatever.  Finally catching that slimy, scaly, slippery giant ghost worm nicely straddled the line between what was feasible for her from an outside perspective and what she, personally, considered an accomplishment.  

She walked into the classroom with her head held high and set her Fenton Thermos mk. 10 (the only containment device approved for the class) squarely in the center of her desk.  

Star twisted in her seat to face her.  "Hey, Val, what didya get?"

"Giant ghost worm."

"Nice.  That'll be pretty unique.  Pauli and I tried to tag-team some ectopuses over the weekend but we were only able to get one.  Good thing I had a backup blob ghost, right?"  She sighed.  "They're so fat and cute.  I wonder if they can be domesticated."

Valerie doubted it, but she shrugged noncommittally.  The rest of the class dribbled in over the next fifteen minutes, with Danny sliding through the door just before the bell rang, as usual.

"Alright class," said Mr. Lancer, wheeling forward the class's Fentonworks™ Ghost Glass™ Containment Cube™.  "As you all should know, today, your practicum is due.  You will be coming up one by one and releasing your ghost into the-" he sighed, then inhaled deeply, "-Fentonworks™ Ghost Glass™ Containment Cube™, whereupon you will explain to the class how you located and captured the ghost in question.  When you are finished, you will recapture the ghost and place your thermoses on that shelf, to be picked up by the Fentons for, yes, Miss Manson, ethical release into the Ghost Zone.  Any questions?"

Dash raised his hand.  "Can I get an extension?"

Mr. Lancer turned his gaze briefly towards the ceiling.  "See me after class, Mr. Baxter.  Any other questions?  No?  Then, do we have any volunteers?"

All hands stayed down.  Hey, Valerie was proud, but not volunteering to present first proud.  That was crazy.

"That's fine, I'll just pick randomly, then.  Mr. Gregor, you're first."

Elliot stood up and made his way to the front of the classroom like a man made to walk the plank.  He stuck his thermos into the socket on top of the Fentonworks™ Ghost Glass™ Containment Cube™ and hit the release button.  Blue-white light briefly filled the space.  When it cleared there was…

Nothing.

"Hey!" shouted Dash.  "It's empty!"

"No, it's not!  It's Youngblood!"

"I must confess," said Mr. Lancer, "it does look empty."

"You just can't see him because all of you are adults already, and I don't turn eighteen until July!"

Danny raised his hand.  "Neither do I."

Elliot looked like he wanted to argue for a moment, but then his shoulders slumped forward.  "Aw, man.  You couldn't let me have this?"

Mr. Lancer tapped a dial on the front of the Fentonworks™ Ghost Glass™ Containment Cube™ with his pen.  "The ecto-detector would have outed you–" 

There were a number of snickers from the jocks' side of the room.  

"--in any case, Mr. Gregor.  You can return to your seat, now."  He made a note on his clip board.  "My homework is invisible to adults is a new excuse for the books, though.  Mr. Fenton, you're next."

"'Kay," said Danny, passing Elliot on his way up.  "Prepare yourselves to be amazed!"  He slotted his thermos into place and hit the release button.  

Valerie shielded her eyes from the light and suppressed a laugh.  She was glad Danny had actually gotten something, considering how skittish he was about ghosts, but that intro was–

"Daniel!  Release me this instant!"

Wait, what the heck?

Valerie looked up to see Vlad Plasmius glaring at Danny through the walls of the Fentonworks™ Ghost Glass™ Containment Cube™.  Vlad Plasmius.  Better known as Vlad Masters.  Mayor of Amity Park.  Richest man in the world.  Scarily powerful ghost with a great disguise.

She felt her jaw drop.

"May I introduce to you, the Wisconsin Ghost!"

"It's Plasmius, you insufferable brat!"

Mr. Lancer cleared his throat.  "Mr. Fenton, did your parents help you catch this… Plasmius?"

"I borrowed some equipment from them, but that's within the rules, right?"

"Let me out!"

"Hey, you heard Mr. Lancer.  You'll be released into the Ghost Zone after school with everyone else."

"Speaking of which, you should start your presentation."

"Oh, right.  So, what happened was that I snuck up on him while he was monologuing in his evil lair and hit him over the head with–"

"You did not!  And I don't have an evil lair!"

"That's debatable, but you know what?  Fine," groaned Danny.  "Spoilsport.  Anyway, I started by baiting my trap with cheese–"

"Daniel!"

"I pretended to be the mayor of Green Bay and called–"

Plasmius hissed at him.  

"Okay, okay, what I really did was tell Mr. Lonely Cat Guy that I'd tell him my mom's number if he helped me with a school project."

"Mr. Fenton," started Mr. Lancer, obviously concerned.

"It was a lie, of course!  Guys and girls, the only ghost you should give digits to is Phantom."

"That is not what happened!"

"My man, I'm trying to make this less embarrassing for you.  Work with me here."

"Mr. Fenton, must I remind you that this practicum is a graduation requirement?"

"No, no, I've got it.  But it is, like, super embarrassing for him."

Honestly, Valerie didn't know why she was surprised at this point.  Danny never had normal presentations.  Not since the gorilla thing.  

“What are you talking about?” snarled Vlad.  

“Aw, it sounds like it was so traumatizing he doesn’t even remember it…”

“Mr. Fenton, please.”

Danny shrugged.  “I told him I’d be more likely to consider letting him adopt me if he could win a fight with Fright Knight, because, like, that’s something I could do in Freshman year, and he’s never beaten him, and when he showed up afterward to gloat I snuck up behind him and souped him.”

“Backstabber!”

“The worst part is that I didn’t even think he’d do it.  Like, I’ve made exactly zero attempt to hide the utter disdain I feel for this man.  It was a joke.  I said I didn’t expect him to do it, but apparently he took that as a taunt or challenge or whatever.  I was just going to bring Wade, but then he showed up this morning, so I was like, why not?”

“Wade?” asked Mr. Lancer.  

Danny reached into his hoodie’s front pocket and pulled out the teeniest tiniest blue-green blob ghost.  “This is Wade.  I call him that because I found him in a pool.”

Wade squirmed out of Danny’s grip and flew up to chew on his hair.  

“You know you aren’t supposed to bring uncaptured ghosts into the school,” said Mr. Lancer tiredly.  

“That’s what your focus on?” ranted Vlad.  “And you call yourself a teacher–” 

“And that’s enough.”  Mr. Lancer reached over to hit the capture button and disengaged the thermos.  “You can go back to your seat now, Mr. Fenton.  Mr. Ishiyama?”

Kwan bounded up to the Fentonworks™ Ghost Glass™ Containment Cube™ and gleefully slammed his thermos down into the socket.  “I caught the Box Ghost!”

“Oh, no,” muttered Danny.  

“BEWARE!  I AM THE BOX GHOST AND– Oh, my, this is a lovely box.  Is it for me?  I ACCEPT THIS TRIBUTE!  FEAR ME!”

The Fentonworks™ Ghost Glass™ Containment Cube™ began to levitate.  Valerie pulled her class-approved ecto-pistol from her bag.  Honestly, in retrospect, something like this was bound to happen.  At least, she noted, seeing all of her classmates pull out their approved ecto-pistols, she wouldn’t be the only one stuck fixing it this time.

[daily-dose-of-danno]

Could I mayhaps request some Bullets? He's such a silly goober and it's incredibly hard to find pictures of him anywhere

The poor feller is only in three eps.. no wonder there aren’t many caps of him. Most of his screen time is in public enemies, but he can be spotted in reign storm and phantom planet lol

(The teeny Dannos in these two shots r so cute!)

Season 1, Episode 15 - Public Enemies

[nastyburger]

Please say more about the awful Asian designs in Danny Phantom. I'm not Asian but I'd love to have a rundown on the elements that make them offensive so I can avoid and critique those elements in other works. And also you deserve to speak your mind about it

im gonna mostly talk about southeast asian designs since thats what i am and the most familiar with and also what i feel are the show's worst transgression with their casual depictions. tw for racist imagery im gonna link pictures.

there's not much to say about the designs aside from, you know, everything but things to note are the unnatural yellow tone for the skin and closed slanted eyes. veggie burger (fan name for the bg character in the middle) also suffers from the huge nose that sometimes shows up in racist depictions. the straight edge/cut hair as well is somewhat stereotypical. this one isn't as bad but in conjunction with everything else its not ideal. i will give the smallest molecule of credit that at the very least dp never gave any of these bg characters buck teeth.

some depictions are better than others, but theres still missteps happening in one aspect or another. kwan's eyes in a lot of shots/episodes can be too skinny and even too slanted, the girl in the middle is almost perfect but her skin is too yellow (she looks kinda okay on my computer screen but i remember when watching dp on my tv she looked real brightly yellow), and principle ishiyama (who was weirdly forgotten about pretty early on in the show and was replaced by lancer doing most of the school stuff despite not being principle?? which is a whole other issue with how dp treats its poc characters) the same usual notes about the slanted eyes but also the upturned nose is pretty reminiscent of racist japanese art during ww2. again it is not the worst way to draw a nose but combined with everything else in this show's depiction of asian characters its not great, they are on thin ice man.

not to mention, principle ishiyama is the only character here with brown eyes. this is a problem that extends to all poc characters in dp and to my knowledge i think ishiyama might be the only one with them tbh. this is, again, a whole other issue though.

i think the thing that bothers me most about these designs though is that dp is very clearly aware that these depictions are bad. the only difference between the first set of characters and the second is one singular thing: they have a clear speaking role.

suddenly when theyre not stock background characters, dp knows how to act when drawing them. i cannot for the life of me find the image of it, but the last jock guy in the first set gets a speaking role in reign storm (he's cosplaying phantom) and he is drawn with proper open eyes! (theyre also blue but whatever) it just makes me sad that this was a clear choice they made.

the show also went in a different direction in the final product, but early development stuff was really drawing from a lot of japanese/asian influences like danny was originally gonna have a motorcycle (pulling from ghost in the shell) and was even referenced in the show via the akira motorcycle reference (which i once again, for the life of me, cannot find. danny took johnny 13's motorcycle and did the classic akira slide i think it was in million dollar ghost?? idk whichever one where the giw are trying to blow up the ghost zone). danny's name was originally gonna be jackie, named after jackie chan, this i assume was given to jack fenton afterwards. and i think the show having a more martial arts direction with the action was also gonna be a thing? that one could be wrong dont quote me on that, there was an episode where danny and vlad have like a weird ninja fight though im pretty sure.

either way my point here is that they wanted to pull from all these influences and it was prominent enough during development that they sprinkle references to it throughout the show and yet their portrayal and treatment of asian characters in the show is so abysmal it just feels Bad™, you know? i cant really put it more eloquently than that, like its very take and no give with it.

it overall just puts a bad taste in my mouth, and its sad that it still affects people years later. like i mentioned in the tags of the post that started this discussion with that whole old trend of putting yourself into the bg of dp screenshots, i felt alienated by that. and its not the people who participated's fault obviously but most of the people i saw participating were white fans (going off of how they drew themselves) and it made me a bit mad that they were able to enjoy the style of the show in a more carefree manner than i ever could. i didnt want to ruin anyone's fun obviously, but a small part of me wanted to bring to light how i wasnt on equal ground with them in that situation.

[ravensuperr]

Homeroom Chaos: The Breakup Songs Debacle part 3

Casper High: Teacher Soundtrack Roast Session

Danny groaned as the class erupted with excitement.

Dash smirked. “C’mon, Fenton. You’ve already matched all of us—now do the teachers!”

Paulina grinned. “Yeah! I need to know what song Lancer gets.”

Danny sighed, rubbing his temples. “You do realize I’m probably gonna get detention for this, right?”

Tucker snickered. “We all will, dude. But it’ll be worth it.”

The class cheered.

Danny sighed in defeat. “Fine, fine—let’s do this.”

Mr. Lancer

Danny leaned forward. “Alright, for Lancer, I’m going with Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey.”

The class burst out laughing.

Star clapped her hands. “That’s so him!”

Danny smirked. “He’s constantly trying to motivate us with these dramatic speeches, acting like we’re in some inspirational movie montage.”

Tucker grinned. “Bro, that man quotes books instead of cussing.”

Danny nodded. “Exactly. So yeah—Don’t Stop Believin’.”

Ms. Tetslaff (Gym Teacher)

Valerie crossed her arms. “Okay, what about Tetslaff?”

Danny snorted. “Easy—Eye of the Tiger by Survivor.”

The class howled.

Dash nodded. “Yep. That’s perfect.”

Tucker did a mock impression of her: “Keep running, maggots! Champions don’t quit! FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!”

Danny shook his head. “She definitely listens to that song on repeat in the morning while bench-pressing actual car tires.”

Kwan laughed. “No doubt.”

Principal Ishiyama

Paulina tapped her chin. “Ooooh, what about Principal Ishiyama?”

Danny thought for a second. “I’m gonna go with Respect by Aretha Franklin.”

The class nodded in approval.

Sam smirked. “Oh yeah. She commands respect. I swear, she doesn’t even yell. She just stares at you, and you immediately feel guilty.”

Kwan shivered. “Dude, I once saw a kid try to argue with her. She just folded her arms and raised one eyebrow.”

Danny nodded. “Yeah. That was the day he transferred schools.”

Ms. Ishiyama (Music Teacher, Principal’s Sister)

Tucker grinned. “What about her sister? The cool Ishiyama?”

Danny smirked. “Oh, that’s obviously Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars.”

The class cheered.

Dash pointed at him. “YEAH, THAT FITS.”

Paulina nodded. “She’s the only teacher who actually vibes with the students.”

Tucker grinned. “And she lets us play our own music in class.”

Danny chuckled. “Yeah. She definitely has an Uptown Funk vibe.”

Mr. Falluca (Science Teacher)

Star giggled. “Okay, what about Falluca?”

Danny grinned. “Weird Science by Oingo Boingo.”

The class LOST IT.

Tucker wheezed. “OH MY GOSH, YES.”

Sam laughed. “That man is one explosion away from becoming a mad scientist.”

Danny nodded. “Honestly, I’m surprised he hasn’t accidentally opened a wormhole in class yet.”

Ms. Mann (Lunch Lady)

Dash smirked. “Okay, what about the lunch lady?”

Danny immediately answered. “Toxic by Britney Spears.”

The class screamed.

Tucker collapsed on his desk, wheezing.

Sam facepalmed but was laughing. “Oh, come on, Danny.”

Danny shrugged. “I mean... am I wrong?”

Paulina gagged. “No. You are not wrong.”

Dash wiped a tear. “Dude. That was savage.”

Chaos Ensues

At this point, everyone was dying of laughter, but then the door swung open—

And standing there was Mr. Lancer himself.

The class froze.

Lancer adjusted his glasses. “Mr. Fenton.”

Danny gulped. “...Yes, sir?”

Lancer crossed his arms. “A detention slip is already half-written in my hand.”

Danny braced for impact.

Lancer smirked. “...But that was an excellent song choice.”

The class exploded with laughter again.

Tucker clutched his chest. “WORTH. IT.”

The class was still cracking up from the teacher playlist when Dash suddenly smirked and leaned forward.

"Alright, Fenton," he drawled. "I got a real question for you."

Danny groaned. "Oh no. What now?"

Dash’s grin widened. "What about Phantom? If you were dating Phantom, what would be your love song and your breakup song?"

The class erupted.

Paulina’s eyes lit up. "Ooooh, YES! What would be your love song with The Ghost Boy?!"

Danny froze.

His brain short-circuited.

His soul left his body.

He was currently in an out-of-body experience.

Tucker snorted beside him. Oh, this is gonna be good.

The entire class stared at him, waiting.

Danny blinked. “...Do you guys really want to know?”

"YES!" the class shouted in unison.

Danny sighed and rubbed his face. "Okay, fine. If me and Phantom were ever in a relationship..."

The entire room leaned in.

Danny took a deep breath. "The love song would be...Closer by Ne-Yo.”

The class freaked out.

Paulina gasped dramatically. “AHHH! THAT'S SO PERFECT!”

Star swooned. "Ugh, imagine Phantom with that song playing. So romantic."

Dash cackled. “FENTON, THAT’S A FULL-ON R&B TRACK—YOU GOT A WHOLE ROMANCE ARC PLANNED OR WHAT?!”

Danny glared at him. “I regret everything.”

Tucker wiped a tear. “No, no. You did this to yourself, dude.”

Valerie smirked. “Okay, and what’s the breakup song, Fenton?”

Danny sighed again, sinking into his chair. "Gotta Go My Own Way from High School Musical 2.”*

The class EXPLODED.

Tucker fell out of his chair.

Dash wheezed. “BRO. BRO.”

Paulina pretended to cry. “You’re telling me Phantom would be singing, ‘I GOTTA MOVE OOOOON AND BE WHO I AM—’”

Star clutched her heart. “That’s so tragic. I love it.”

Kwan whistled. “Man, Fenton, you really thought this through.”

Danny slammed his head on the desk. “Can we be done now?”

Dash grinned. “Nah, bro, I need to know—are we gonna do breakup songs for the ghosts that fight Phantom, too?”

Danny lifted his head just enough to give him a deadpan stare. "...Do you actually want me to do that?"

The class cheered.

Danny groaned. "Fine. But after this, I’m never doing this again."

[reallydumbdannyphantomaus]

⭐️? for the fanfic directors cut ask game

!!! thank you! I've always wanted to talk a little more about this scene from switch part 2 ch 3:

Danny hadn’t thought it was possible for Paulina’s face to get redder right then, but it did. And it was definitely anger this time, her lips curling in a sneer as the rest of the class let out a chorus of oooo’s at her expense.

Then she wrenched her eyes closed, screwing up her face with effort, and blinked out some tears. She started sobbing, her hand over her mouth. If he didn’t know any better, Danny would never guess she was acting.

“Coach Tetslaff,” she said, hiccupping, “did you hear what—what Kwan just called me?”

Tetslaff sighed. “Unfortunately. Mr. Huang, while I appreciate you standing up for my coworker, I can’t accept that kind of language, especially used against your own classmates. Go see Principal Ishiyama.” Paulina smiled in victory. “Both of you.”

Paulina’s mouth dropped open and her sobs suddenly cut off. “Me too? But—”

“No buts!” Tetslaff slammed her hand on her desk. Paulina flinched. “Maybe this will teach you kids to think before you speak.”

Kwan said nothing as he gathered his bag and headed for the door, but he shot Danny a grin and a wink as he left.

Tetslaff cleared her throat. “Ms. Sanchez, I suggest you get a move on.”

Face still wet with tears, she strode for the door with her head held high even as her classmates snickered around her. He’d never seen her be the object of derision before. In fact, now that he thought about it, this was the first time he’d seen Paulina face a consequence.

because this was one of those scenes where i really wanted to demonstrate just how manipulative paulina could be, how she knew just how to pull the strings for just about any situation. but, it also shows that when people don't just take her shit, there's very little she can do about it. she so dependent on people buying whatever she's selling that when people (like kwan and tetslaff) see through it, she's got nothing left to stand on. it's a pretty empty life that she's built for herself, but she has no idea how else she could live.

idk, i just always really liked this scene because it shows that paulina isn't this invincible force of the school like she'd seemed up to that point, where everyone scuttles about at her command, but still just a teenage girl depending on everyone to see her as invincible so no one looks any deeper. or, at least, that was my intent.

send me a specific scene from a fic (or a ⭐️ for a scene of my choice) to get the director's commentary

[underforeversgrace]

Just Another Day

Words: 2733

Warnings: Major Character Death (referenced deaths to canonical TUE timeline deaths), Graphic Depictions of Violence (one near the end).

Prompt used: Jackdaw Sprite -A day in the life of Valerie Gray, whether in the main timeline, the TUE timeline, or another. (TUE timeline used)

AO3 Link!

Valerie cursed as the next stitch was applied.

“Careful!” She snapped.

“Uh-uh, you don’t get to say that, Val.” Kwan said, peering at her momentarily over the rim of his glasses.

“You know what I mean…” she grumbled, eyeing the jagged gash on her arm, irritation evident in her eyes. This, of all the dumb reasons she’s gotten hurt, has got to be the dumbest of the dumb.

Valerie Gray, the Red Huntress of Amity Park, the last bastion of humanity’s hope, had run into a tree on her hoverboard. Not even running away from anything! She’d just been having fun!

Mercifully, no one had seen her fall nor her entrance into Kwan’s office. She did have a reputation to keep up after all!

“Are you sure you don’t want any local anesthetic?” Kwan asked when Valerie again hissed at the next stitch.

Determinedly, she shook her head, short brown curls bouncing around her face. “Axion’s ability to synthesize materials we need out of materials we have is still lagging behind. I can handle it, doc.”

Kwan sighed but did not push. He knew she was right. Years under this dome with naught but a wasteland surrounding them was catching up on their resources. They’d been lucky when the plans Jack and Maddie Fenton had never gotten around to publishing was found when the house had been cleared. It gave them the ability to alter the genetic make up of materials and chemicals - break them down to their bases and reform them into things that were currently needed. But Amity’s population had continued to grow, the resource strain had increased. No one was hurting for anything, of course not, and likely wouldn’t ever be, but there was still doubt. There was still fear that eventually the labs would fail and their only options would be to starve in safety or be slaughtered beyond the wall.

Val’s eyes roamed around the room she was in, pulling her mind off the repetitive pain of the stitches. Her eyes settled on the plaque behind Kwan. If you’d told her, before all this happened, when ghosts were just a nuisance, that Kwan Ishiyama would become a doctor, she’d have laughed. Not that being a doctor meant much anymore, but still. Only twenty two and already a doctor, with a half-assed education brought forth by fear, the knowledge that whatever was not taught to this next generation would be lost to time.

But Kwan was one of very few medical personnel left. Medicine wasn’t easy, even when it was only a fraction of what it should be. She shook her head slightly and continued to look around. Beyond that, there wasn’t much in the room. This was his private office, not a part of the clinic patients usually saw, but the two of them had an understanding.

Valerie would be a ghost hunting bad ass, Kwan would tend to whatever wounds she got while being said ghost hunting bad ass.

A chair and a desk sat along one wall, bookshelves along another. Blood blossoms rested in a flower pot nearby. She idly noted that the desk was positioned in a way that would have his back to the window. Not that she could blame him - the only view afforded to this room was the apocalypse through a green tint.

“Alright, that should do it, but it is going to scar pretty badly, Red.” Kwan said, pulling latex gloves from his hands and discarding all of the tainted material into a nearby recycler, to be sent to Axion for repurposing.

“Oh no. A scar. Whatever shall I do?” Valerie said monotonously, rolling her eyes.

“Maybe not crash into a tree going 125 miles per hour and then fall down the equivalent of three floors?” Kwan shot back, a smirk pulling at his lips.

The familiar look pulled at Valerie’s heart strings. Eight years. How could so much change in eight years? How could Kwan have the same laid back, goofy look stitching half her arm back together as he’d had whenever someone told a stupid joke?

“I make no promises,” Valerie said, heading over to his window and popping it open.

“You really shouldn’t fly with your arm like that.”

“Do you really think I won’t?”

“Not a chance - it’s just a waste of breath.” Kwan admitted, watching as she latched the window so it was all the way open. Valerie just laughed as she fell from the window, free falling for several stories before summoning her sled to her feet. She wasn’t sure when she’d become an adrenaline junky, but when your life is constantly at risk from the devil himself, dying just held an aura of an approaching inevitability. Might as well have fun with whatever life she had left, right?

Valerie rose high into the sky, as high as she could get without going outside the shields. She sat down on her sled, legs to either side, studying the sprawl beneath her, the cars flitting around as if they too were ghosts immune to gravity’s tether. But they were slower today, the volume of vehicles half what it was. They all knew what day it was. It was the anniversary of the ending and he would come soon, as he had the past seven years. The Huntress eyed the sun in the sky, estimating how much longer was left until he arrived. He always came at sundown - a few hours off yet.

Nodding to herself, she pulled the communications module up from her suit. Static filled the screen for a moment before her father appeared. He smiled at her, but he was weary. They’d all aged too quickly. They’d all given too much - her father giving more than most but not as much as some. An eyepatch covered his right eye, the left sleeve of his shirt too limp, as there was no arm beneath it.

Sometimes, Valerie blamed herself for what her father had suffered, how he’d been targeted. After all, Valerie herself had been the one to tell him all about her father’s genius ability, when she’d been unknowingly dating the world’s executioner. Maybe if she hadn’t said all of that, she would’ve been the target of the attack and not her father.

The day had been a miracle and a travesty. They’d finally gotten the shield big enough and stable enough to enclose the entire city, but it had required work on the exterior portions of the poles - outside safety. Nine workers had left to do the job, Valerie and her father included. Five never returned home. Three critically injured. Valerie the only one who hadn’t required some sort of surgery or amputation.

The Grays spoke briefly, Damon instructing her which poles to check today. Only five of them. He reminded her to return home before the sun got too low. She reminded him she would do no such thing. The banter was familiar - she knew he’d always try to protect her before anyone, he knew she’d fight everything thrown at them to keep their home, their people safe.

She flew to each of the poles, checking their structural integrity and the energy levels as she did. It was a delicate balance - make sure they were only taking in so much energy, putting out less, making sure the shield was evenly solid, no weak points, no chinks in their armor.

After sending a quick message to her father letting him know everything was okay, Valerie turned and made her way to where he would be within the hour. As always, her heart tightened painfully in her chest as she approached this part of the city, sat off to the side and feeling far more haunted than Amity had ever felt when the ghosts came. The grass was dull and brown, trees had lost all leaves and their branches twisted painfully into each other. Silence permeated in a way that simply didn’t feel natural.

Valerie touched down to the ground, summoning the sled back into her suit. She pressed a hand against the nearby rock, running fingers along the grooves.

When everything had first gone wrong, when reality had slapped all of them as hard as it could, there’d been panic in the beginning when the shield went up. How would they survive being cut off from the world? How long would there even be a world to be cut from?

So they’d rationed resources. But the dead still lingered, their bodies lacking a place to rest. At least none of them had came back. It felt wrong, though, to do a mass grave, to bury loved ones and members of their community in unmarked graves. So, somehow, some bureaucrat had decided to simply use the rubble from the fallen buildings. They’d had plenty, after all. Plenty of corpses and plenty of destroyed buildings.

Quietly, cautious to not disturb the dead’s silence, she brushed away some fallen leaves, revealing the name inscribed.

Dash Baxter

August 27, 1993 to August 26, 2008

Valerie bit harshly into her lip as the memory surfaced. That date of death was etched into more than half of these headstones.

It was just a normal day. No one had remembered what had happened on August 26th the year before. The Foleys and Mansons had left Amity Park, after all. There wasn’t really anyone to truly mourn the lives lost that day, to bother to remember.

And then Phantom had shown up, the first sighting of him in over a year. She first saw him at the school, but rumors held that he had been seen near the Fentons home. Valerie would never forget the icy tingle of fear that assaulted her spine, seeing Phantom. An odd reaction, one she’d never had before around the ghost. They’d fought against each other for their own lives - or so she thought at the time - but she’d never feared him, never felt this dread coil in her stomach.

He had simply…appeared, in the English classroom, sitting in an empty seat. And he looked wrong. His tanned skin had morphed into a sickly blue, white hair that had always moved with the wind looked more like fire than hair. But the biggest thing had been his face. Not a major change or anything of the sort - well, except the whole blue thin - but simply the look on his face. At the time, Valerie hadn’t had words to describe it, the small smile on Phantom’s face. But now she knew what that look had been. Sadism. The look of a mind broken and bent too far. Of a person ready to raze the world to the ground simply because he could.

It had been evil. Pure, unaltered, unfiltered evil.

“What are we studying?” He’d asked, head tilting to the side like a confused puppy may, but the madness didn’t leave his face, didn’t stop burning in his eyes.

Ms. Jordans, the new teacher, had merely gaped at him. She’d been new to Amity Park upon taking the job, but she’d adapted to the ghosts fairly well. But Phantom was legend, was presumed dead. Double dead. Whatever dead was for a ghost. His kindness and desire to protect was lauded in the city, much to Valerie’s anger. Ms. Jordans must’ve been quiet for too long, though, because Phantom spoke again. “Oh, did I miss roll call? The name’s Fenton. Danny Fenton.”

“Excuse me?” Valerie had nearly shrieked.

Phantom turned his gaze to her and she felt naked as he bored his eyes into hers. “C’mon, Valerie. The rest of class may be full of idiots who can’t tell an ecto gun from a dishwasher, but you’re bright. Danny Fenton? Danny Phantom? I barely even tried to hide it.”

Valerie’s stomach had turned, the lunch from earlier trying to force its way out as the revelation settled. Phantom cocked his head to the other side, lips still pulled in a cruel grin. Valerie was briefly reminded of a predator. “Danny?” She had asked. Her mouth had gone so try, then. She felt she was trying to choke out sand instead of words.

“Well, I was Danny Fenton. He’s dead now. Just like everyone who ever loved him.” Phantom’s voice was calm and light.

“Fenton is… dead?” Dash had asked.

The smile had fallen from Phantom’s face as he’d turned to the jock. “Dash Baxter. I’d forgotten you existed,” he had said, standing up from the seat and leisurely walking towards Dash’s desk. “Yes, Fenton is dead. He went quickly, at least, along with my pesky remnants of humanity. You, however, won’t be so lucky.” He’d said, baring sharp teeth in a snarling grin, throwing his hand out towards Valerie and catching her in a web of ectoplasm that had taken far too long to escape from. Whatever had happened, Phantom had been made stronger for it. 

The class had fled, leaving Valerie the only witness to Dash’s brutal death. She’d never seen so much blood, never considered how many pieces the human body could be ripped into. Never realized how long it could take a human to die, especially when his wounds had been protected from bleeding by ectoplasm coating him. His screams had haunted her for a long time, after. She’d ended up picking pieces of him out of her hair.

Phantom had gone on a rampage after that. Buildings had been devastated. He’d killed people with his bare hands, murdered them by making the buildings collapse with victims still inside. Valerie had eventually escaped and bested Phantom, though not without suffering a lot of injuries. He’d been holding back, before. He’d always been holding back. But he never would again, never pull his punches.

“Happy anniversary,” he’d cooed at her. “See you next year.”

He’d flown off after that. It wouldn’t be for several more days what anniversary he meant. The anniversary of the explosion.

The world had slowly ended after that. No one believed in ghosts, after all. No one had any way to stop Phantom. And he’d burned the world down. Maybe there were villages or small towns left, somewhere. But Amity didn’t know. There was no communication from other places anymore. Not for a long time.

“Valerie?” She heard in front of her. She lifted her head and removed her hand from Dash’s grave. Her heart skipped a few beats at what she saw. Black haired, blue-eyed Danny Fenton, all grown up now, looking all the part of someone concerned for another.

“I’m not that dumb, Phantom.” She hissed, narrowing her eyes. As soon as the words were out, ‘Danny’s’ face morphed into a too large smile, too many sharp teeth.

“Ah, well, worth a try.” He said, two lights moving across him and leaving the Phantom she now knew in his place. Tall and broad shouldered, hair made of white flames, the insignia still upon his chest in a mockery of what he had once been. “I thought I’d get at least a second or two out of you! Do you like my new trick?” He laughed, a sound that set every human instinct of ‘you’re prey now, run’ she had.

“Get out of here.” She stated, pulling an ecto gun from her hip and blasting it. The shot went through the shield and struck the ghost in the chest, though he didn’t even move.

“As you wish.” He said, dipping his head towards her, a smile on his face like this was a joke only he knew the punch line to. “But, know this,” he stepped closer to the shield, holding his hand out so it hovered centimeters above the shield’s surface. “My power only continues to grow. I will get in there, eventually. This world is mine now, and Amity has been a dark blemish upon my world for too long.”

“You killed the half of you that could get through this, remember? No matter what, you’ll always be a ghost and you can’t get through.”

The grin again, the one she was so sick of seeing. “I will. And I will destroy everything with you at my side. And when nothing remains, when I have torn every human apart molecule by molecule, I’ll make it so much worse for you. It is inevitable.”

[artemismoorea03]

Jason had never been a huge fan of school, sure it was required and it wasn't half bad but there were some aspects of High School that annoyed him to no end, something that continued even after he'd 'died'. Sure, he eventually got his GED and no nobody actually knew about it except for Alfred and Barbara (who now that he thought about it undoubtedly told the others, dammit), but the 'High School experience' continued now as a 'teacher. He honestly wasn't much older than these kids and they seemed to pick up on that the moment that his first Homeroom class started.

He started it out like how he'd seen countless shows do it. By writing his name up on the board.

Mr. Jason Harper.

Harper.

He'd chosen Roy's last name, simply for the sake of ease when it came to remembering it. No other reason.

Then he waited as the class came in one at a time, sitting down and looking rather confused by him, but there were two students he very quickly recognized. PDA kid and Goth Girl. Though he was also quick to realize that one of the seats was empty near the front of the class.

As the bell rang Jason got ready to start, just as adoption bait burst through the door, panting heavily. Jason looked at him, surprised but also concerned. He had light bruising around his neck that looked a few hours old and was partially hidden by his clothes but what was more concerning was the fact that the bottom of his shirt was slightly ripped.

"Sorry I'm late Mr. Lan-" He stopped as he looked at Jason who gave him a smile.

"Don't worry about it, as far as I'm concerned my ears are still ringing from the damn bell, so you're just on time. Take a seat."

The kid eyed him, suspiciously but went and sat in the empty seat between the goth girl and PDA kid.

"Alright, now that class has officially started let me introduce myself. My name is Mr. Harper and I'm your substitute teacher while Mr. Lancer recovers from an accident he was apart of during the Christmas break. Depending on how all of this goes I might become a permanent teacher here at Casper High. Now, since this is Homeroom and my first day I figure we'd cover some bases and let you ask some questions. First though, I have to actually do my job and take attendance."

One by one he went through the list, making sure to remember a few names for a verity of reasons. It seemed like the school had a hierarchy that even the teachers fed into - gross - and there were notes taken by another teacher about who was and wasn't allowed to be punished.

Anybody on the Football team and Cheer Team were on said list. Dash, Kwan, Star and Paulina specifically had multiple stars. Others that also caught his attention were Valerie who's 'no punishment' marker was crossed out, Tucker who was the PDA kid, Sam the goth girl, and Danny the one who'd been late to class.

"Alright, looks like everybody is here. Now, who has questions?"

Paulina raised her hand first, "Are you single?"

"Nope. I have a partner." He lied, but the last thing he wanted was this kid flirting with him. Not only was she a minor but she wasn't his type.

"Aren't you a little young to be a teacher?" Sam asked.

"I mean, maybe by normal standards. I graduated High School early." Another lie, he got his GED late because of the whole dead-then-ramping-as-a-rogue thing. But officially Barbara had managed to make it look like the truth.

"How old are you?" Star asked, seemingly just as star-struck (no pun intended) as Paulina did.

"19."

"Do you wanna be an English teacher or did you get stuck as one?" Asked Tucker.

"I'd like to be an English teacher. I like to read and stuff."

"You're a reader?" Sam commented, seemingly surprised. "Seriously?"

"Looks can be deceiving. My favorite book is Pride and Prejudice."

"Isn't that a chick-book?" Dash commented as Jason raised a brow.

"Not as much as you might think. Now, I have a question about this thing that Principal Ishiyama gave me. 'Ghost Evacuations and procedures'?"

Danny, who had been keeping quiet for a while finally raised his hand slowly. "That's for in case of a Ghost Attack. They happen sometimes and the Evacuations are to get all students and teachers into a safe area until the Ghost Hunters or Phantom get here to take care of the ghost."

"Ghosts?" Jason raised a brow, "What's a ghost? Like, invisible dead people?"

"You'd think so." Danny sighed, "Some ghosts are technically the dead from our world who exist in another dimension called the Ghost Zone but sometimes they were created in the Ghost Zone. Either way they show up and sometimes cause chaos. They're mostly harmless though."

"Yeah." Sam sighed, "The Ghost Hunters are more dangerous than the Ghosts."

The class agreed quietly.

Good to know. So this town occasionally comes under attack from cross-dimensional creatures, probably something the JL should know about.

"Alright, so then if they're not dangerous then why does 'Phantom' get involved?" Jason asked.

"Because of the Ghost Hunters." Valerie said, "Other than like one Ghost Hunter every other hunter is more dangerous to the living than they are the Ghosts. More of us have ended up in the hospital because of hunters like the Guys In White and - no offense Danny - the Fentons."

"A little taken, but you're not wrong." Danny mumbled.

"So Phantom protects the living from the Ghosts and the Ghosts from the living?"

The class all nodded in agreement as Jason smiled.

"Great deal, thanks for explaining that. Alright, now I'm assuming you guys have some homework from over the winter break, so since we've got a bit I'll let you work on it in groups or whatever. If you need help let me know." Jason said, sitting at the desk as he kicked up his feet onto the desk as some of the students began to chat while others actually pulled out their books to get to work.

While they worked Jason pulled out his phone and sent a message to his 'girlfriend'.

Jaybird:

Hey, hon. Checking in from Amity Park. Lemme just say the 'Ghost Thing' I read about in the paper that I told you about don't seem nearly as dangerous as the Ghost Hunters they have here. But so far so good.

The students haven't eaten me alive at least.

Babs:

Oh, nice to know, love <;3

All you gotta do is avoid Ghost Hunters and you'll be fine. But if you see any ghosts, send pics! You know how I love the supernatural. :D

Jaybird:

No problem :)

Also, do me a favor and tell B that the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is out dated and if he's going to buy the company to at least make sure he does his research.

Babs:

LMAO.

Sure, babe. Get back to teaching the younger generation how to not be a criminal.

Jaybird:

Psh. No promises but yeah. Talk to you later.

Jason could only hope that Barbara was able to translate all that he'd told her, but on the off chance she couldn't he would hopefully be reminded by the texts later and remember it enough to translate his own half-assed code.

After a moment he looked up as Danny walked over to his desk.

"Uh... can you help me with this?"

Glancing at the class it was clear that some of the students had all but sacrificed him to test the waters a bit. That or he felt like some kind of sacrifice. Regardless he wasn't about to ignore the fact that he could get on this kids good side.

"Sure, lemme see whatcha got." Jason put his phone down before sitting up and gesturing for Danny to come behind the desk which the kid did without hesitating. He then showed Jason his book, which was surprisingly empty. This kid would need more than a little help to catch up on his assignment.

"The assignment was to figure out what was wrong with each sentence and the way it's formatted. From the phrasing and grammar and stuff."

Jason smiled softly, "Okay. I struggled with it when I was younger too but the trick I learned is that reading a sentence out loud helps. You can't really do this during tests but it's good practice. Take question 9 for example. 'His brother has visited London last year?' Does that sound right to you?"

Danny frowned, then shook his head. "No, it doesn't."

"What's wrong with it?"

Danny thought for a moment, then grabbed a pencil off the desk and began to fix it while explaining it to Jason at the same time. "'has visited' sounds awkward in the sentence and it sounds like it was meant to be a comment but it ended like a question."

"Exactly. So how would you change it?"

"Take away the question mark and replace it with a period. Then maybe change 'has visited' to just 'visited'?"

"Perfect." Jason praised, watching Danny fix it as some other students quickly did the same thing. "Now, next question. 'When I did visit tony at home yesterday he was sick.'"

Danny hummed, "Tony is supposed to be capitalized because it's a name."

"Yep. What else?"

"'When I did' sounds wrong again. It should probably be 'visited'..." He fixed the sentence then read it out loud again. "'When I visited Tony at home yesterday he was sick.' It still doesn't sound right..."

"Can you tell what?"

Danny shook his head. "No..."

"The pacing is wrong which is fixed by using a comma, specifically here after yesterday. 'When I visited Tony at home yesterday, he was sick.'"

Danny smiled, "That does sound better. I think I get it now, thanks Mr. Roy."

"Any time, and just call me Jason."

"Thanks, Jason." Danny said, walking back over to his desk as he sat down and began to go through the assignment.

'This is actually... kinda fun.' Jason thought with a smile, 'At least so far.'

---

After Homeroom was English, but considering how much the students seemed to be struggling with the assignment before class started he went the simple route and had them 'go over it together'. This way they could all do the assignment and have it done and hopefully actually learn something from him at the same time.

He then had to start another assignment which was a group reading of 'The Outsiders', which was a rough story to start with. It was one of his favorites, but it was heavy and he knew that not everybody would like the story as much as he did.

Still, they had a good start and each of them took turns reading a paragraph which helped him learn a few things. For example, Danny got nervous talking in front of groups, Tucker often lost where they were on the pages because he'd get distracted by seemingly nothing, and Sam was one of the best read students in the class having no problem understanding the flow of sentences and stuff. Most of the other students tended to stutter or struggle with pronunciation of some words.

Specifically the 'A-Listers'.

Then it was math, which even more of the class was struggling with. A theme he was starting to quickly pick up on. These students were in 9th Grade yet they were struggling with a lot of the subjects. Was it all because of the frequent Ghost Attacks? It would make sense, dangerous situations made focusing on assignments harder for most people.

'Maybe I'll need to approach this another way.' He thought as the bell rang excusing everybody for lunch.

"Alright, class dismissed. According to the fancy paper I got when I came in today I'm on 'Lunch Duty' so I guess I'm following you all."

"You could walk with us, Mr. Jason~" Paulina said as she approached and leaned over the desk.

"I appreciate it, Paulina. But I think I'll just follow the masses today, thank you." Jason smiled, slipping his phone into his pocket as he opened the door and watched the class leave the room, before finally following behind them, walking with the crowd towards the lunch room.

The smell of lunch was deja vu inducing to put it gently, making memories of his High School days taunt him in the back of his mind. It was odd, but considering that he had a job to do he was doing his best not to react to anything that was happening in his mind. At least until lunch was done being served. After that he would be allowed to go eat his own lunch and relax.

"You must be the new substitute." A nasally voice said, pulling Jason's attention to a shorter teacher with balding grey hair.

"Yeah, I am. The names Jason. Jason Harper."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Harper. I'm Mr. Falluca. Math and Science teacher."

'Oh, so this is the other Math Teacher that Babs mentioned. Good to know.'

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Falluca." Jason said, shaking the teachers hand.

"How did your first classes go? Any trouble?"

"Other than some of the students keep flirting with me? None what-so-ever."

Mr. Falluca raised a brow, "Really? Even Fenton is behaving properly?"

"Fenton? You mean Danny?"

Mr. Falluca nodded. "One and the same. That kid... he's a good kid, but he sleeps through more lessons than he actually bothers to attend. If he's not ditching class, he's sleeping or not paying any attention. Mr. Lancer is quite patient with him, but the rest of us are at our wits end with him and his parents."

Jason frowned, concerned. "His parents?"

"They're Ghost Hunters. They help keep the students safe but also put them and us in more danger most of the time."

"Right. So... maybe your missing a piece of the puzzle?" Jason suggested.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, a kid sleeping during class or ditching? Parents like you just described? Maybe Danny isn't causing trouble but is in a bit of trouble at home. Maybe not abuse exactly, but if he's not able to sleep at home-"

"-then he would likely sleep in class." Mr. Falluca realized, his eyes going wide.

"Now you get it. I understand that this school has some kind of hierarchy when it comes to the students - which is absolute bullshit by the way, I don't care how much their parents make or how important a student is they shouldn't be above punishment - but instead of blaming the students who aren't at the top maybe the teachers should try helping them."

"Mr. Harper, our school is based off of funding from parents who make sure that their children records stay clean to allow them into good colleges."

"Oh! So Casper High takes bribes from rich parents to make their children look like angels despite how they actually act, putting them above the other students in line for careers and inevitably putting them into situations where they can't handle themselves or their emotions because they haven't had to actually deal with any real consequence? Good to know."

Mr. Falluca paled, "Mr. Harper... you don't know how things work here."

"No, but I can smell a pile of bullshit when I'm standing in a building built from the stuff." He said, looking at the students again. "I get it, the school needs to stay afloat but those parents aren't helping their kids become successful adults and you're not helping them either by letting the students get away with everything that they do. If they don't understand their actions have consequences they could end up hurting somebody - badly. Is that something you or any other teacher wants on their concious?"

Mr. Falluca tensed up, looking at his feet. "I suppose... no. I would not."

"Then maybe it's time for a change, huh?"

Jason and Mr. Falluca watched the students for a while, and it seemed peaceful at first until Danny suddenly tensed, then patted Tucker and Sam on the shoulders and rushed out of the room. Jason frowned, then looked at the line.

Empty.

"How long do we stay here?" He asked Mr. Falluca.

"Huh? Oh, I like to leave exactly five minutes after the line empties, however you could leave now if you wanted."

Jason nodded, "Alright, then I'll do that. I'll see you in the teachers lounge." He said, walking out of the cafeteria as he glanced up and down the hall, just managing to catch a glimps of red tennis shoes turning a corner.

Something made the teachers think that Danny was a trouble maker, and how he wanted to know why.

So, in a spurr of the moment choice he followed after Danny, turning down another hall to find it completely empty. But that didn't make sense, the classrooms were all supposed to be locked and there were no bathrooms or windows down the hall. So where had Danny gone?

He frowned, then jumped when all of a sudden somebody flew through the lockers in front of him, crashing into the wall on the other side as they dented the locker. It was a teen with white hair and green eyes. Scrawny, tired looking with bruises peeking up just from under the jumpsuit collar.

Jason had learned years ago that some apperances could be changed or that 'rose colored glasses' blinded some to the secret identities of others. But as somebody who knew the Oliver Queen was Green Arrow, Clark Kent was Superman and Bruce Wayne was Batman it became painfully obvious who he was looking at.

Danny Phantom.

Or as Jason knew him.

Danny Fenton.

Phantom looked at Jason as alarmed as Jason looked at Phantom but before either of them could do or say anything a new figure came through the wall. This one some kind of suit of armor with flaming blue hair and weapons covering the majority of his body.

"Mr. Ha - I mean - teacher I don't know! Get out of here!"

"Oh? A new human? No matter, no human will pose a threat to me nor will the protect you, Ghost Child. Today is the day-"

"That you hang my pelt on the wall, yeah yeah, I've heard it a million times!" Snapped Phantom, cutting off the other person (or Ghosts) commentary. "Get some new material, Skulker!" Phantom's hands glowed as he fired a shot of something at the attacker, causing him to fly through the wall, leaving a hole in it's place. "Seriously, teacher guy you need to go. I have it covered but you have a class to protect."

Jason hesitated, biting the inside of his cheek. This was undoubtedly Danny, meaning he had a job to protect him too, but he didn't know enough about Ghosts to assume he could help. Thankfully, Danny was in his class, so maybe... just maybe he could learn more about it before properly confronting him with it.

"Alright. But if you see a kid named Danny send him back to class or I'll come back out here and find him myself. I'm just as responsible for him as I am any other student." Jason said, as Phantom looked at him surprised.

"R-right. No problem, now go!"

Jason jogged off back towards the cafeteria as he slid in and ran towards Mr. Falluca. "Flying robot thing attacking a white haired teen in the hall?"

Mr. Falluca gasped, running over to the wall that had a button and a sign.

In Case Of Ghosts

The second he hit the button alarms rang out and things dissolved into chaos after that.

Thankfully, Danny returned to the classroom ten minutes later than all the others immediately getting teased by some his classmates for 'hiding like a coward'. Nobody seemed to realize that Danny was not only exhausted but seemed to be moving slower than before, like he was hurt.

'So maybe it's not his parents that i need to be worried about.' Jason thought as the students waited for the all-clear buzzer to ring, telling them that the Ghosts had left the premises. 'The bruises, the exhaustion, and being late could all be chopped up to working as a Vigilante. But how the hell is this possible? Is he a Ghost disguised as a human? A human with Ghost Powers? A meta that has powers that mimic a ghost? I can't exactly go up and ask him, he'll take off... I have to approach this carefully... I need Danny to trust me so I can help keep him safe and hopefully get the Justice League to help him out... so until then I can't risk showing my hand.'

The buzzer went off as a voice came over the intercom.

"Attention students and staff, due to damages caused by Phantom and the other Ghost School is excused for the day. Everybody please leave in an orderly fashion and return home safely." The voice stopped talking as the school bell rang.

'That explains some things too. If the school is too damaged and it's not safe for students then they'll be allowed to leave, cutting the amount of education they're actually getting in a day. This town needs help or these students are going to be so under the bar that they're not going to qualify for anything in their lives outside of High School.' Jason frowned, then looked at his class.

"Alright, you guys are excused, get home safe."

The students stood up and walked out of the room but Danny lingered for a moment behind the rest, even to the confusion of his friends. Once they were alone he walked over to the desk.

"Phantom um... Phantom said you were worried about me? Is that true?"

'Is it that surprising?' He thought, then nodded, "Of course I was. I saw you run out of the lunch room and thought you weren't feeling well. That's when I ran into Phantom and he told me to hide. But are you okay?"

Danny hesitated, then nodded. "Yeah, I uh... I wasn't feeling great but then I heard a noise and went to check it out. Then I saw Phantom and Skulker hiding so I ducked into a locker and hid there until Phantom pulled me out."

Jason smiled, "I'm just glad you're safe and that Phantom passed on the message. He seems like a good kid."

"Y-you think so?"

"Yeah. I mean, he was hurt and fighting off somebody bigger than him but he was still more worried about the innocents around him. As far as I'm concerned that makes him just as much of a hero as say Batman or Nightwing."

Danny grinned, "Nice to have an outsider say that at least. Phantom does a lot to keep us safe but a lot of people don't think of him as anything more than a problem. I mean Phantom has helped my parents a couple of times - namely my dad - and they still try to shoot him out of the sky and threaten him just for existing all while claiming to be the worlds greatest ectobiologists."

Okay, so Danny's parents were a threat to him.

Dammit.

"Well until I see anything otherwise he's a hero to me. Say, do you know anything about technology? My phone is acting all weird."

"Lemme see?" Danny looked over as Jason held up his spare phone and he frowned. "Yikes, yeah um... Amity Park is covered in a thick layer of ectoplasm that messes with most newer technology. You've probably seen the older phones and stuff, right? They're more resilient to Ghosts and ecto so they work better but are a bit more... outdated? If you want I can see if Tucker will take a look or I can look at it for you. I know more about the ghost and ecto stuff but Tucker is more of the tech person."

"Well, I've kinda bought this as a backup since I moved here simply because of how my other phone was working so how about you guys take this one and mess with it, see if you can get it to work. If not then it's no harm done."

"Are you sure?" Danny asked, letting Jason hand him the phone.

"Yeah, other than a few gaming apps there's nothing on there yet." he laughed, "So if it breaks or something it's no big deal."

Danny smiled, ""Um... okay, then I'll give it a look over."

"Great. I wrote down the hotel I'm staying at in there too so if you finish with it before tomorrow or something happens feel free to swing by and drop it off."

"Sounds great. You're gonna be here tomorrow though... right?"

"yep. I'm here for at least a few weeks as a sub and then depending on how it goes I might be here longer."

"Awesome. Then I'll see you tomorrow." Danny smiled, putting the phone into his pocket before he jogged off.

So there was a bit more to it. The phone had a 'gaming app' that served as a recording device practically untraceable and easy for Jason to blame on 'not reading the disclosure' or whatever on the off chance somebody found it. It would give him a chance to learn more about Danny and Phantom and hopefully collect information that he needed to help this kid. For now though, he had to get home.

---

"So how'd it go?" Dick asked over the phone as Jason got to work on making dinner. Normally Jason wouldn't have answered but there was something about Danny that reminded him a lot of Dick, so he was humoring him.

"Well, I saw my first Ghost, met Phantom, figured out his secret identity, realized that the school takes bribes to make their students look like angels by punishing their victims and keeping their records clean, oh and I had two 14 year old students flirt with me today which was incredibly uncomfortable."

"Yikes, I'd say. How are you feeling with all of that, you okay?"

Jason frowned, thinking for a moment as he sighed. "Honestly, Dickie Bird? I'm not sure. The pits are the calmest they've been in years which is great but the situation here isn't good for anybody, let alone the people who live here."

"Well, you said you figured out Phantom's secret identity, right? Why not approach him?"

"Because... he's a kid, Dick. A kid who is trying to do the right thing in a city that has it out for him." He dragged his hands down his face, "I don't do well with high-emotion cases."

"Maybe not, but you're good with kids, Jason. More than you seem to realize a lot of the time. You found out Phantom is a kid, maybe a kid in over his head so help him like you would any other kid in over his had. Follow your instincts and if things happen we're only a poor-quality call away. Go with your gut, Jay-bird."

Jason smiled at his phone then sighed again. "Fine. Hey, did you ever read Outsiders in High School?"

"Fuck, my heart. I still quote 'Stay Gold, Ponyboy, Stay Gold' like nine times a week."

"Oh good, glad we share that trauma and that I now get to traumatize the next generation."

Dick laughed and Jason went back to cutting his veggies for dinner. "Speaking of which, how did your first lessons go?"

As Jason began to go over the details of his day with his older brother he relaxed more and more, doing his best to relax as he prepared for the next day of teaching.

This mission already was nothing like what he expected it to be, but he'd already figured out who Phantom was, so surely it couldn't get any more complicated.

Right?

DP x DC Prompt: The New Teacher

(So, I've seen a lot of prompts that have Danny go to Gotham and be a teacher but I don't remember seeing any with it in this direction, so on the chance that this is an original idea here we go!)

Jason was given a choice, or multiple choices. Babysit the Replacement on a mission that could last a week, go to Bludhaven and have some 'brother bonding time' with Dick who needed backup on a big case, or take a temp solo-gig in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere called Amity Park.

Well, considering he was still a bit hurt about the fact that B replaced him all those years ago and the pit loved to grab hold of that bit of frustrations towards his younger brother, that didn't seem like a smart idea. Dick wasn't an option either because he knew that would lead to 'talking about feelings' and other shit that he didn't want to do.

So he took the solo-gig.

It was supposed to be easy, at least that's what had been implied by the others he'd spoken to about the case. It seemed like most of the Justice League thought this situation was being 'exaggerated' because most of the time when somebody checked out what was going on there was nothing happening. No big take over, or kidnapping, or 'end of the world' situation, but there had been too many calls to put Bruce's mind at ease. The frequent calls mixed with the fact that the Government apparently had the area under a 'black out' made Bruce even more nervous.

Hell, if it hadn't been for the fact that Bruce was famous and that Scarecrow, Penguin and Riddler had all escaped from Arkham he would have been doing the case himself.

Which is how Jason ended up in a restraunt named 'Nasty Burger' looking at the news papers he had managed to get from a stand down the street while taking notes of things he had already seen. It wasn't just that the Government had cut them off, all of the tech in the city was easily 20 years outdated compared to the rest of the world.

Nokia phones, chunky computers, hell he'd even seen a kid with a PDA of all things. Thankfully, it looked like his tech still worked other than running slower than it should have, but thanks to modifications made by Barbara and Tim things were running better than he expected. But, they did struggle to have access to anything, specifically the news.

Hence the paper.

Ghost Boy: Friend or Fiend. A new vote cast by the city has found that the Ghost Boy - Danny Phantom - has had an astounding rise in support after the events over the Christmas Holiday. The new polls suggest that 43% of Citizens support Danny Phantom, with the majority of his support coming from the students at Casper High who insist that Phantom is a hero who has saved them countless times over the past few months. 49% of people still agree, however, that Phantom appears to be at the center of the majority of the attacks with many still claiming that he is the sole cause of the attacks. However, 8% of the population remain undecided, including many teachers, police and hospital staff. Upon seeing the new results of the pole Mayor Montez had this to say; "While I will admit that Phantom appears to favor the younger generation and frequently seems to come to their aid, we cannot forget what it has done in the past. Taken hostages, injured innocents, and caused millions in property damage. Phantom may not be a 'villain' in the typical sense of the word, but we shouldn't blindly trust him just because of a few good deeds."

So there was a... hero? Half hero - potentially villain - in Amity Park? That might have explained some of the calls they'd gotten from Amity park over the past few months. Still, he was concerned by some parts of the report.

Students at a high school were frequently coming under attack? So much that this potential-villain kept saving them? Just what was the cause? What could cause so many issues?

Jason looked up as he saw that same PDA kid talking with a girl with short black hair in a half-ponytail who was wearing a black crop-top. The girl seemed annoyed while the boy seemed worried about something.

"But it's Vlad, Sam... what if he does something?" He heard the boy whisper, "We should go back him up..."

"He doesn't need our help, besides Jazz ran away from home, remember? She got herself into this mess it's her problem to get out of it. Something that Danny should have learned a long time ago."

Jason frowned, pretending not to hear them as he hesitated then got up and walked over to the two younger teens. "Hey, excuse me."

The girl looked annoyed and suspicious while the boy looked confused.

"Uh, yeah?" Tucker asked.

"Hey, sorry to bug you both. But could you guys tell me about this... 'Danny Phantom' person?" He asked, holding the newspaper out.

The girl looked even more suspicious, "And... who are you?"

"And how haven't you heard of Phantom?" Asked the boy.

"I just moved to town." Jason admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "So, I'm just trying to catch up on all the town drama."

"You moved to Amity Park... willingly? Psh, what do you have, a deathwish?" The girl grumbled.

"Come on, I just moved from Gotham, which is worse?"

The girl blinked as the boy laughed.

"Furries vs Ghosts, who will win~" He said as the girl elbowed him. "Ow! What?!"

"Danny Phantom is a hero." The girl explained, "He showed up in April and has been protecting the town since."

"A hero, huh? Could always use more of those in the world, but the mayor seems to have it out for him."

Tucker sighed, "No kidding, man. Somebody framed Phantom for something really bad and no matter what he does to try to fix it the city just see's that incident as the only thing he's ever done. It was the first big 'public thing' outside of the high school so it was huge but it wasn't his fault."

The girl reached for her phone suddenly, looking at it before she answered. "Hey, Danny. What's up?" She was quiet for a moment, "Yeah, we're at Nasty Burger, wanna join us? Lunch on me?"

A quiet mumble came through the speaker before she smirked.

"I'll order for you then. Double or triple?"

More mumbles.

"Triple it is. See you soon." She said, then hung up. "Come on, Tuck, Danny is on his way for lunch."

"Hell yeah, see you later, dude." The boy said, then jogged off with the girl.

"A teacher? Yeah, it looks like there's some openings but why would you want to have your cover as a teacher?" Oracle asked as Jason sat in his hotel room, looking through the paper again.

"Most of the incidents seem to surround the High School, I want to see what's going on."

Oracle hummed, typing for a moment. "Alright, well as luck will have it, it looks like teachers are sparse at Amity High, at least from what I'm able to get using your connection... which is infuriatingly slow, by the way, are you sure you did it right?"

"I've done it a million times, of course I did it right."

Oracle grumbled, "Stupid Amity black-out. Okay, so you have options. Most of the teachers have fucked off so all of the teachers in Freshmen year switch around to cover lessons or do mixed lessons. For example the English teacher also teaches Math and the normal Math teacher also teaches Science. So it looks like you could have any position you want and the school would just shuffle around the teachers."

"You said English is taken, right?"

"Yep, the teacher is named William Lancer and he- oh... wait, he's on a leave of absence due to injuries he suffered over Christmas Break. Concussion, broken arm, and bruised ribs, he'll be out for a few weeks."

Jason smirked, "Perfect. Sign me up."

". . . Jason, the English and Math teacher... never thought I'd see the day. Alright, I'll type up your application, send it in and casually push it to the front of the line. You'll be official by the time Winter Break ends in a few days. So get studying."

"Sounds like a plan, but I'll be fine, I mean our family is crazy and i deal with criminals on a nightly basis. How hard could this assignment really be?"

He would regret asking that question by the end of his first day as an Amity High School teacher.

[inthememetime]

🦂 with Danny as character A and Tucker or Sam as character B (or both, you decide)

Excellent choice! Danny is hurt. Sam and Tucker feel karma is going a little too slowly. TWs: bullying, pranks (against the bullies), a little foul language. Read on AO3 here!

Karma might be a bad bitch, but she was moving a little too slow in Sam's opinion. "Danny," Tucker tried- Sam wasn't getting through to him-, "bro, just kick Dash's ass."

Sam tuned out the now-familiar excuses. If he unexpectedly gained super strength overnight, people might start to believe Wes. With his luck, the teachers would assume Danny started it. The worst was, in her opinion, "if I stop taking hits, who'll he go for next?"

It was awful because it was so unselfish. He wasn't fishing for attention, he just had a protection obsession that went off for everyone but himself. She couldn't be mad at him for it, and yet she was furious. At Danny, at herself and Tucker for not convincing him, and above all, Dash motherfucking Baxter.

Did Vlad ever do human experimentation? Would he appreciate one of Danny's bullies, gift-wrapped?

Nah. He'd probably try to use it somehow to get a favor from Danny.

"Danny, did you do the Chem homework yet?"

Danny turned to her, relief plain on his face. "Yeah, except for the last question. I can't figure out to balance it."

"I'll show you. Tuck?"

Tucker spluttered. "Sam, I was making progress!"

"No, you weren't. That's ok, we'll handle the problem."

Danny's relief turned to apprehension. "What do you mean by that?"

Sam smiled. It was not a nice one. "Let's look at the Chem homework. Don't worry about a thing."

"Wait, I-"

Tucker grinned. "No worries, Danny, we got you, man."

"But- it's not fair for you two to have to fight my battles for me."

She laughed. "Hey Tucker, remind me how many times Danny's fought our battles for us?"

"In general, or this week?"

"Hey!"

-

It started with an itch. Sam ducked her head to hide her smile when Dash went from the occasional light scratch to viciously scratching at his arms and neck.

"Mr. Baxter, see the nurse please, or stop disrupting class," Mr. Lancer drawled.

She studiously ignored Danny's look of suspicion.

Dash, Kwan, and Dale all missed school the next day due to an 'unexplained illness'- itching powder.

-

Mr. Henderson, the Social Studies teacher, scowled furiously at Dale. "I'm serious, Mr. H! I don't know how that got there!"

"You conveniently forget to turn in your assignment a week ago and after at Coach Tetslaff's request, I give you an extension, you show up with a presentation on 'Why Mr. Henderson Sucks'," he said in disbelief.

"But-"

"Office," he repeated.

"Yes sir," he said in defeat. Sam and Tucker shared a conspiratorial look at the back of the class. The message, a note saying 'bullying is paid back in spades', had been delivered the same day as the itching powder. Either the main four would change their ways or she and Tucker would be using every trick and prank they could think of.

The worse the bullying, the worse the payback. Dash and Kwan had just yelled and shoved some people around- itching powder. Dale had broken Danny's nose with no consequences, then written 'loser' on Mikey's forehead- again with no consequences- Tucker had slipped an extra USB, nearly identical, into Dale's pocket.

It was time for the school to learn actions had consequences.

-

Within two more weeks, Kwan had completely stopped hanging out with Dale, and was vocally encouraging Dash to stop. After he'd pantsed Danny in the hall, and received no punishment from the teachers, the entire football team had discovered their uniform pants bedazzled with 'spank me, Daddy'- and a picture of Dash, Dale, and Kwan.

The hours of picking off all the rhinestones had apparently cured Kwan of his interest in bullying. When he physically pulled Dale away from a freshman, he mysteriously 'found' his missing badge- a $5 replacement fee was nothing to joke about when he didn't have a job and didn't want to be grounded.

-

Sidney was happy to help with their next prank- fart spray in Dash and Dale's locker. Curiously, there seemed to be a split in the football team. Coach Tetslaff was no longer protecting Dash and Dale after the rhinestone incident, so now both boys were receiving regular lunch, after-school, and Saturday detentions.

Early September, Dale was pulled from the team. Now that no one was doing his homework for him, his grades were too low to play. Shortly after, he was transferred to Elmerton High.

Tucker remotely changed Dash's ringtone to Queen's 'Another One Bites the Dust'.

-

Nature hated a vacuum, but no one was particularly interested in the 'Curse of Casper High'. Dash's own offenses rapidly decreased as pressure from the other players and coach mounted exponentially.

-

"Job well done," Sam said to Tucker and the ghost of Sidney Poindexter.

"Thanks, guys," Danny managed- grateful and upset all at once. She didn't take it personally, and Sidney looked almost pathetically understanding. After all, they were both helping him and tap-dancing on his obsession.

"Anytime."

Tucker snorted. "Karma's a bitch, but we move faster."

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

Cause of Death

Ectoberhaunt 2022, Day 12, Chaos, ao3

Star was getting sick and tired of the same bull coming from her fellow school news club member, and decided to shut down his raving lunacy with her favorite weapon: questions.

“Alright, Wesley, if Fenton is Phantom then what was the cause of death?”

The ginger giraffe paused in his gesticulating with a spork and stared at her like a deer in headlights. He furrowed his brow and set his hands on the table - unsanitary, note made not to touch him.

“What?”

“It’s a simple question, Wes. You’re saying that Danny Fenton is the ghost Danny Phantom, which requires that he died - recently at that. So, how’d he die? What happened that his spirit lingers on this plane or whatever?”

“That’s a good question, Star. If Fenton had died, wouldn’t we know? Wouldn’t his parents tell everyone?”

“Hell, dude, wouldn’t your Dad have told you if your cousin, Fentonail, died? And why would a ghost even go to school, let alone Fenton’s ghost.”

“You can’t honestly tell me you’ve been saying you’re cous is a ghost and not thought about how that would mean hw’s dead, have you? That’s a real important step in the process, dude.”

Wes was pale, staring down at his lunch, and had finally shut up. Star considered that a success.

Dash, of course, had to ruin it.

“How do we think Phantom died? Wasn’t he in like, ancient Rome?”

[jadenoryuu]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Danny Phantom Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Danny Fenton & Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood) Characters: Dash Baxter, Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood), Baby Tooth (Rise of the Guardians), Baby Fang - Fairy OC, Danny Fenton, Wes Weston, Mr. Lancer (Danny Phantom), Ishiyama (Danny Phantom), Kwan (Danny Phantom) Additional Tags: Unreliable Narrator, Angst, Ableist Language, Like. A lot, Dash doesn't pull his punches in his PoV, Bullying, Bully Dash Baxter, Swearing, one (1) insult that could be interpreted as suicide baiting/death threat, Wes Weston gets his chance to be the Hero, It's out boi time to shine, Ectober 2021 (Danny Phantom), Ectober Month 2021, Ectoberhaunt 2021, Ectoberhaunt Trick, Attempt at Humor, it's Danny after all Series: Part 12 of Eenie mini Tiny moe, Part 11 of Ectoberhaunt's Domestic Phantoms Summary:

"Dash Baxter was furious! Angry! Peeved! InCeNsEd! How did Mr. Falluca dare to give him a D?! Him, who was the nascent star of the school football team, the quarterback?! Dash needed a target for all his misplaced aggression. Where was that turd of a Fenton?" Or: When a case of mistaken identity was the downfall of the biggest bully of Casper High.

@ectoberhaunt this goes certainly to the Trick category given how many insults are thrown in (Dash's) narrative toward Danny and Jack.

But fear not! The consequences are deeply satisfying...

꒰(@｀꒳´)꒱

[home-of-renn]

I love the hc that Danny can't help but trigger this innate, subconscious fight or flight response in everyone he meets. I love it even more when it's the reason why he still gets bullied by Dash.

Truth be told, Dash grew up years ago. His mean streak had been a short-lived phase that left a bad taste in his mouth. The sudden influx of hormones brought on by the onset of puberty had apparently muddled his brain and left him emotionally stunted for the duration of his freshman year. He'd shoved nerds into lockers and stolen their lunch money. He sorely wishes he hadn't been so excruciatingly cliche.

But he'd somehow managed to unstick his head from his ass pretty quick and he hasn't laid a finger on anyone since - well, except for Fenton.

Fenton had always been the exception. Small and slouched, with a messy fringe that fell into his eyes. Danny Fenton always made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end whenever he walked past.

His arm would brush too close or his shoulder would bump into his in a crowded hallway and Dash's arm would lash out before he could even comprehend the accidental touch. Fenton would be pinned against a locker with Dash's forearm against his neck in the blink of an eye.

The funny thing is though, no one stops him. The other kids don't call him out and the teachers are always coincidentally absent.

Dash isn't a bully - at least not anymore. He helped Lester get his locker door open after a ghost attack left the damn thing jammed shut. He stays late after practice so the girls on the cheer team don't have to walk home when the sun starts dipping low. He holds doors open for the people walking behind him and even offers a polite smile. The other day he stopped to help some little kid struggling to tie their shoelaces.

He's trying to be better. His mom cried about how proud she was on his birthday last month and principal Ishiyama made a passing comment on how nice it was not seeing him in her office every week. He enjoys being nice to people. It's gratifying, and some kids have started coming up to him when they need help.

Once upon a time, Dash had been a chubby self-conscious kid who'd hit the gym as soon as his dad had gotten sick of his begging. Puberty had hit him like a truck and he'd started shaving a year before anyone else. Since then he'd bulked up and was far larger than the average high schooler. He'd been honing his reflexes for years and never drops the ball. He's the shield that everyone hides behind during ghost fights. He's big and strong and has damn good aim - which is better than nothing when going up against a ghost.

But there's something wrong with Fenton.

Danny makes sweat gather beneath his collar and Dash has to grind his teeth any time he walks past.

At least he's not the only one.

Kwan's hands are always clenched into fists when they walk past Fenton's locker, even if he's not there. It feels wrong to have your back to Fenton in the changing rooms and Lancer's the only teacher still handing Danny a detention slip - Dash suspects it's cause none of the other staff can stand to be alone with him for that long.

No one steps in when someone lashes out at the Fenton kid. No one says a word or runs towards the teacher's lounge when Dale has Danny by the arm, eyes wide and gripped so tight his knuckles turn white.

The hallway goes silent and the world steps back as Dash's team flank his sides while the front of Danny's shirt is bunched in his fist. His heart thuds against his ribs and pounds in his ears as Danny opens his mouth to make a sarcastic quip. Danny's always been a sarcastic, mouthy little shit, but Dash can't find it in himself to laugh, not while his body forms a physical barrier between Fenton and everyone else - not when Dash has him by the throat but he's the one feeling cornered and exposed. He has to dig his toes into the soles of his sneakers to resist running.

It's not normal.

Dash plays along, keeping his cool as he goes through the familiar routine. He spits out a pathetic insult that misses its mark and thumps Danny against his locker before dropping him to the ground.

It feels rehearsed, like he's stuck in a cycle he can't seem to break. It's one big act that Dash walks away from with adrenaline churning the contents of his stomach and sweat gathering in the palms of his hands. The hallway parts as Dash walks away. He spares a glance at Kwan, whose dark eyes are trained on the floor in front of him, his fists clenching at his sides, shaking under the fluorescent lights. Dash hides his own hands in his pockets. The one he had bunched in Danny's shirt trembles, his nerves vibrating with the sensation of pins and needles. It feels like static under his skin. He tries wiping it off on the inside of his jacket.

The entire student body of Casper high follows behind him.

[five-rivers]

Cozy/Slasher 3

It took more arguing than it should have, but they finally put together something of a timeline.  At least, a timeline of when everyone had gotten to the party and what they said they had been doing.  Not, unfortunately, of what had happened.  

But since none of them were mind readers… 

Okay, actually, Danny needed to ask Ghost Writer - Andrew - if that was part of his powerset.  It certainly wasn’t part of Danny’s.  As occasionally useful (and creepy) as overshadowing was, knowing what the person he was overshadowing was thinking was beyond him.  

As far as Danny knew, none of them were mind readers.  So, they had to work with what they were given.  And what they were given was a headache and a half.  

Mr. Lancer had been there alone for most of the morning.  

(If any of them knew how to tell how long a body had been dead (or if they had internet access) that might have been an important data point.)

He’d asked Technus (Nicholas Tea, aka ghosts were horrible at aliases apparently, and, no, Danny wasn’t considering himself an exception) to come early to help him set up the game system and some other electronics that weren’t working quite right.  Danny made a note to go over everything Technus had worked on.  Not because he thought Technus had killed anyone, but because he didn’t trust the ghost not to have added something ectoplasmic that would animate all the wires in the house.  

After that, Irving Burns (Nasty Burger guy), was the first to arrive.  He’d come with desserts from the Nasty Burger and spent the time Technus was fixing things talking to Mr. Lancer about…  

“My drag hobby,” said Mr. Lancer.  He sounded nervous.  

“Like, drag racing?” asked Kwan.  

“No,” said Mr. Lancer, “as in, performance.”

Irving was staring at him with something like shock and…  From Mr. Falluca, was that disgust?  Whatever was on Lance Thunder’s face was just weird.  Like he couldn’t decide how to feel.  

Everyone else, well…

Yeah.  Danny was surprised, too.  But, in the long run, what Mr. Lancer did in his spare time wasn’t all that important.  

Ghost Writer had come in next, and had gotten into a ‘debate’ with Mr. Lancer and Technus about video game novelizations, novels made into video games, and video games with novels in them.  Danny was surprised the house was still standing after that.  Ghost Writer and Technus must really like Mr. Lancer.  

…  Was it possible that they had killed Mr. Lancer so they had a new ghost buddy?  Danny didn’t feel like that was super likely, but he decided to keep the thought in mind, anyway.  

During that time, Irving had just sort of… hung out, but since everyone else in the house had been otherwise involved, Danny didn’t see what he could have gotten up to.  

Then, Mrs. Ishiyama and Kwan had arrived, followed seconds later by Tetslaff.  They’d gone to put food items and presents in the kitchen.  

The Fallucas came next, and while Mikey and Kwan had disappeared into the game room together (weird), no one was entirely sure what Mr. Falluca was doing.  Hanging around the edges of the three way video game book debate.  

Combine that with his statement that he and Mikey had been on the first floor the whole time…

Yeah, that was suspicious.  

Then again, Tetslaff and Mrs. Ishiyama were also suspicious, because they had stayed in the kitchen.  Neither of them gave off the impression of being particularly enamored of kitchens.  

Irving had gone to talk to them at some point, but he hadn’t stayed long.  Suspicious again!

“What else were you doing?” asked the Beholder, raising an eyebrow.  “There’s not a lot to do in this house.”

“I’ll have you know,” said Irving, “that I was listening to their discussion.”  He nodded in the direction of Lancer, Technus, and Ghost Writer.  

Mr. Falluca sniffed.  “I highly doubt that, with your grades.  You might as well tell everyone what you were really doing.”

“Oh, come on, you kept pointing fingers at me about that all through school!  Will you never give it a break?”

“Yes,” said Mr. Lancer, “I don’t think that this is the place for that at all, James, and Irving has done quite well for himself these past few years.”

Mikey leaned around his father’s (admittedly small) figure and mouthed ‘sorry’ at Irving.  

The Beholder and the Thunder family had come after the Fallucas, but no one could remember the order.  

Star had immediately gone upstairs, and her father had followed her, although he’d come back down shortly after.  He said that he’d then had several one-on-one conversations on the ground floor.  

The Beholder had…  Beheld, Danny guessed.  Anyway, he’d camped out in the center of the living room and read poetry.  Loudly.  The whole time.  He’d gotten into a not-quite fight with Ghost Writer about it.  A rhyming fight.  

Danny was equal parts glad and sorry he’d missed it.  It sounded dreadful.  

Nothing really screamed ‘this guy had the opportunity to dismember an adult (probably) human with various power tools.’  The only people who were, by that accounting, alone together for a long time (other than ghosts who Danny was tentatively ruling out) were Tetslaff and Ishiyama, and Mikey and Kwan.  

Neither of those possibilities were ones he wanted to think about.  

On the other hand, everyone was very obviously thinking about them.  Especially Mr. Falluca, who was openly glaring at Kwan, Tetslaff, and Ishiyama.  Mostly at Kwan, however.  

“I’m not dead,” said Mikey. 

“We weren’t–” started Mr. Lancer.  

“You were.  But Kwan and I are friends.  I help him with his homework all the time!”

Wow, Mikey was really giving the homework slave thing a positive spin, there.  On the other hand, yeah.  Danny couldn’t see Kwan killing anyone, except maybe by accident.  

Mr. Lancer put his head in his hands as everyone started arguing with each other, with lots of finger pointing.  

“How do we know those three didn’t have something to do with it?” asked the Beholder.  Danny looked up just in time to see a finger jabbed first at him, then Sam, then Tucker.  

“Because we were here for, like, a minute before Danny found the body?” suggested Tucker.  “That’s a bit fast for a murder.”

“But he knew there was a body there.  You can’t just know when there’s a body.  At minimum, someone had to tell him.”

“Uncle Bobby,” said Star, “trust me when I say Fenton is just weird like that.  He finds so many bodies.”

“Excuse me?” said the Beholder.  “Bodies, as in, plural?  Am I the only one hearing this?”

“Putting all that aside,” said Mr. Lancer, removing his face from where it had been buried in his hands for the past several minutes.  

No one liked that.  

“PUTTING ALL THAT ASIDE,” he repeated, much louder, “I think we need to challenge some of our assumptions.  Collect clues.  Investigate.”

“Did you learn that in one of your novels?” grumbled Thunder.  

“Considering that you are in a novel,” said Ghost Writer, “there are worse places to look for inspiration.”

Mrs. Ishiyama sighed.  “What do you want to look at first, William?”

“Feasibility.  We’re all convinced that the power tools were the murder weapon, or at least what the killer used to…”  He trailed off, looking green.  “Well.  I did pay for good soundproofing, and I know you kids were playing the game, but is that enough to drown out power tools?”

“Great,” said Irving, pushing himself up out of the armchair.  “We can check these guys’ game scores or whatever at the same time.”

They went to the stairs, Danny, Sam, and Tucker hanging in the back as everyone else filed up the stairs.  

“Shouldn’t we be in the front?”

“We haven’t magically become detectives just because we’re in this situation,” said Danny.  

“Still, you are the most experienced with dead things.”

“Forget that,” said Sam, leaning close, “don’t you think this is all a bit strange?  This house, I mean.”

“Yeah, that it’s still under construction is weird,” said Tucker.  

Danny scrunched his nose.  “Is it?”

“Danny, your parents are outliers in everything.”

“Actually, how is Lancer affording this place?” mused Tucker.  “I didn’t think teachers made all that much.”

“We don’t,” said Mrs. Tetslaff, who had better ears than Danny had thought.  “He got some kind of inheritance thing.”

“Really?” asked Danny.  “Like, a big inheritance?”

“I don’t know,” said Tetslaff, shrugging aggressively.  “Before you get any ideas, it didn’t sound like something a guy would kill over.”  She turned to climb the stairs.

People killed over so very many stupid things, so Danny rather doubted that.  

“Oh, wow,” said Tucker, when they finally got into the gaming room.  “This is a sweet setup.”

“Yes, well,” said Mr. Lancer, “the idea was to have an enjoyable space for myself and my guests.”  He walked over to where a controller was sitting abandoned on the ground and clicked a button, which in turn woke the screen.  

Golden words spelled Apple of Eris on a red and black background.  

“Oh, man,” said Tucker.  “I’ve been wanting to try that game.”

“Mhm,” said Mr. Lancer, “I haven’t had a chance to play it yet myself.”

“Why?” asked Tucker.  “I’d’ve played it as soon as I got it!”

“Perhaps that explains the state of your recent essay.  You really have to stop spilling food on them.  It makes them very difficult to grade.”  

Mr. Lancer navigated to the ‘load game’ screen, and, sure enough, there were a variety of save files for two and three person games, all staggered across the last two hours.  They weren’t all even time jumps.  There were a couple big skips after Star joined in.  But, again, Danny couldn’t really imagine his classmates being murderers.  Victims, maybe, but not murderers.  

“There we are.  Now, let’s check the sound.”

“Actually,” said Danny, interrupting and turning to look at Technus.  “Can you show us the part you had to fix?”

Technus tapped his fingers together, somewhere between nervous and annoyed.  “I don’t know why you–”

“Just to see it.  I don’t think it was you, but it’s still good to be able to see what you were doing.”  Plus, he wanted Technus and Ghost Writer to be ruled out in other people’s minds, too.  

Technus, grudgingly, popped the side off the console and pointed.  

“Huh,” said Tucker, slipping around Danny, “I’m not super familiar with this type of console…  But is that standard?  What did it connect to, do you know?”

Technus shrugged.  “That’s part of what created the problem: A small short!  One I repaired rapidly!”

At least everyone here had been telling the truth.  

“Now,” said Lancer, “we will need some people here, to play the game, some on the first floor, to listen, and someone upstairs to run the power tools.”

Silence.  

Kwan raised his hand, hesitantly.  

“Yes, Kwan?”

“Uh, Mr. Lancer,” said Kwan, “I haven’t read many mysteries, but isn’t splitting up usually a bad thing?”

A question like that could only be followed by one thing: an argument.  

[danphanwritingprompts]

I've seen people headcanon Harriet as Kwan's mom so I raise you: Vlad is dating Harriet and Danny is dating Kwan.

I’ve NEVER seen that headcanon but it sounds so cute!! I personally headcanon Kwan’s mom as being Principal Ishiyama purely bc Kwan gives HUGE overly-nice-to-everybody-and-super-understanding principal kid’s energy, but the halfa-attracting vibes Harriet and Kwan would give off in this is irresistible.

Edit: know what? Harriet and Principal Ishiyama are Kwan’s moms. They divorced and share custody now, my new headcanon.

[lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks]

fuck I still haven't done the rewrite of the Mutant Town AU that I specifically came off hiatus to write, like the Plant Witch Sam and Pharaoh Tucker posts were written to prep this au and I just got wildly distracted so uhhhh

yeah the concept is in the link but the gist is that the people and town becoming mutated by constant ectoplasmic contamination, we all know and love this concept right but I'm gonna expand on it

this is a direct result of the portal being opened, but they aren't getting infected from the portal, the issue is that creating a permanent opening into the ghost zone has weakened the veil between their worlds and Amity Park and the Ghost Zone sort of slip in and out of each other constantly

and because ectoplasm responds strongly to emotions (poltergeists being made from atmospheric emotions for example) it all tends to converge very heavily at the school full of hormonal teenagers

so Casper High becomes its own god damn cryptid, the teachers get so jaded about opening the door to a classroom and finding just a whole ass ghost zone on the other side that they just put a sign on the door telling kids to go to a different room, lockers swap contents with other lockers so kids have started putting their names on the inside so they know who's stuff they've just found

this also means the kids get super affected, like super affected, literally, they all get ghost powers, some are just physical mutations, some are just super abilities, or a general increase in natural ability, like a member of the track team getting super speed

it takes a while for Danny and co. to figure this out, Sam and Tucker should have been warning signs as they've spent the most time around ghosts and the ghost zone, but that's why the Witch Sam and Pharaoh Tucker posts are important

they have powers, but they thought they came exclusively from outside sources, they had no idea that their abilities were also strengthened and influenced by being highly contaminated by ectoplasm, which is why when one day Mikey sneezes and green acid shoots out of his nose and melts his desk, everyone is a little bit startled

the teachers have long since started using ghost detectors after the time Paulina spent a whole week overshadowed by Kitty, so Mikey gets a check over and other than the usual atmospheric reading Lancer gets nothing especially strong from him

there have been concerns about the gradually increasing ectoplasmic content in the air messing with ghost detector results, the devices have to be recalibrated constantly, so Lancer asks the one and only son of the local ghost hunters in the room if he has some other way to check

Danny's parents make him keep a few protective items in his schoolbag, so he tries some gear on him to see if anything comes flying out, but nothing does, Danny isn't too surprised seeing as he couldn't sense a ghost in the room anyway, but it definitely makes things a little concerning

even if it were a repeat of the Spectra incident and he wasn't being overshadowed, the Fenton's tech would have still gotten rid of whatever was causing this if it were an external influence

Mikey is sent home for the day and his parents are told to keep an eye on him

and then the next week, Star drops a pen off her desk and a strand of her hair whips out to grab it, she's also checked for ghost influence and sent home

a few weeks after that it happens again, a kid on the basketball team makes a leap to the net and stays in the air, they have to call in the cheerleaders to climb on top of each other to reach him and pull him down

Danny has been trying to figure out what's happening from the first moment with Mikey, and his parents have also been getting calls from worried parents who want to know if they can fix whatever's happening to their kids

over the next couple of months, every kid in the school has some kind of ability or mutation, Dash heals whoever he touches, which he discovers after punching Nathan in the face and curing his acne, Paulina turns invisible, which freaks her out at first until she realises it's great for eavesdropping, Wes can conjure fire (because I desperately needed him to have a polarising ability to Danny), Kwan becomes empathic and can feel and influence people's emotions

Valerie also had an early mutation that she didn't know about, when Technus gave her a new suit, her body pretty much just absorbed it as a part of her, Technus had not intended this to happen, and was pretty peeved about it, Valerie found out that she had stolen control over the suit when Technus had a big rant about it during a fight, and she put the pieces together once other kids started developing abilities

this whole thing causes a ton of chaos as kids are struggling to control what they can do, so Danny has to step in and help them out, he often has to run off to change into Phantom in order to protect everyone from an ability that's gone haywire, he ends up pretty much running ghost power training courses after school to help them control themselves

he's also gotten stuck in situations where he's had to step in and help someone without having the time to change forms, meaning he has to make up a cover story about having developed his own powers way before everyone else since he's been living on top of a portal for years, he only tells people about his ice powers

Jazz has always had a tendency to be able to reign in her emotions and keep a cool head, (the only ones who can really push her buttons are Danny and sometimes her parents, at school around other kids who look up to her she's often very in control) meaning she doesn't draw ectoplasm to herself all that much, and though Danny uses the excuse of having lived on top of a ghost portal to explain why he's already so familiar with using his power, it's actually not even remotely true, because the Fentons use specialised air purifiers to keep the atmospheric ectoplasm at a manageable level, the Fenton house ironically has the least atmospheric contamination compared to the rest of the town, that's how Maddie and Jack have had limited mutation to themselves (though they aren't wholly free, they've mostly just gotten physically stronger and tougher)

so even though Jazz develops her power a little earlier than everyone else's, it's not that far ahead, and she actually doesn't even realise she already has one until half the school has developed theirs

Jazz has the power to slow time in a little bubble around herself, she'd been using it without realising while studying, having gotten through hours of work in half that time, she always thought it was just her losing track of time or she was just getting faster at reading, she also spends a lot of time counselling other students and trying to help them sort out their problems, and they'd often comment that they felt like they'd been talking for so much longer than they had, again she just chalked it up to losing track of time

a lot of students had wondered why Danny developed a power early and Jazz hadn't, until someone walked in on Jazz helping a girl through a panic attack in the bathroom, and found them both talking extremely fast, a lot of her friends realised in hindsight that she'd been doing that unwittingly for quite a while, nobody had noticed because she always talked to people privately, so nobody outside her little time bubble had seen it happen

Sam and Tucker come clean about their abilities too, but they also don't give the full rundown, still keeping some things close to the chest to avoid standing out from everyone else

then there's the teachers

adults typically have a better time regulating emotions than teenagers, meaning much like Jazz they aren't drawing as much ectoplasm toward themselves, but this doesn't exempt them from developing something after a while, especially with the heightened stress of managing a school full of volatile super kids

Mr Lancer discovers that he can create shields, after an incident where he jumps in front of some students to protect them from another power gone awry

Tetslaff ends up with a sonic ability, able to project her voice like a megaphone (yes this is a Coach Boomer from Sky High reference don't @ me), Principal Ishiyama develops a physical mutation, growing to twice her size, she likes that she can tower over the students while delivering speeches, but she doesn't like having to stoop through doors all the time, she has the one to her office resized, along with her chair and desk

so as you can imagine, the town ends up erupting into chaos, a lot of kids very much misuse their abilities, Danny does his best as Phantom to teach people to be responsible, but sometimes he has to resort to literally kicking their asses to get them to straighten up

but for the most part, a ton of kids were already looking up to him, and are generally pretty happy to follow his example, especially the more popular kids, it's generally considered not very cool to get your ass kicked by Phantom, so weirdly enough a lot of kids get peer pressured into not causing any real damage or injury with their powers

this doesn't mean they don't absolutely misuse them, they're just more subtle about it

until a ghost shows up, a lot of the kids are more than happy to let loose to protect themselves and their friends, and Phantom for the most part is happy to let them, with some supervision of course, he still has to make sure nobody gets too hurt (including the ghosts)

the entire debacle makes Danny's life simultaneously a whole lot easier AND so much more fucking stressful

[reallydumbdannyphantomaus]

Switch

Spectra sucks. Dunno what else to tell you. (ao3) (masterpost)

Part 3: Chapter 1

“So,” Danny said as they approached Casper High, “today's the first day with the shrink?”

Kwan groaned, then clutched at his side as his rib ached. He’d been cleared to return to school, but was supposed to limit his activity. No gym, or stairs, and Danny was carrying his backpack for now. It was more annoying than regular school. “Don't remind me,” he said. “Let's talk about your creepy half-ghost uncle again instead.”

“Low blow, dude. Also, definitely not my uncle.”

“That's right, he's your future stepdad!”

Danny shoved lightly at him, careful to avoid his bad side. “How did you manage to go even lower?”

“It's a talent,” he said. “Besides, there is at least some good news from the whole Vlad-thing.”

“Oh yeah? What?”

“You probably aren't going to destabilize and dissolve any time soon!”

“Well, gee, thanks for reminding me of that possibility.”

“Always happy to help.”

They lapsed into silence as they crested the hill. Kwan's appointment was scheduled for immediately after school; his detentions with Lancer had been postponed on account of both the other teacher's continued hospital stay and Tyson dying. Thus, Principal Ishiyama had said he could use that time instead for his therapy.

Ugh. Therapy.

“So how long are you gonna see her for?”

“Who?”

“The shrink.”

“Right,” Kwan said. “I convinced my mom to let me have just a thirty minute appointment to start.”

“Cool,” Danny said. “I'll be waiting? At the big oak?”

Something warm bloomed in Kwan's chest. Dash would never have waited for him, even if he'd asked. Danny always waited, after detention and now with this stupid counseling. Maybe it was because they were both each other's only friends, but still. It was... nice. “Yeah,” he said, voice breaking in a way that he could only hope Danny hadn't noticed. “I'll find you after.”

Walking into first period gym with a doctor’s note, Kwan still couldn’t help but smile.

-----

“You're in a good mood,” Valerie said at their lab table, measuring out the baking soda.

Kwan startled, twinging his still-healing rib, then looked around to see who she was talking to.

“I'm talking to you, dumbass.”

“Since when?”

“I can always stop.”

Kwan raised an eyebrow. “Then why start at all?”

“Well, with... recent events—I don't know.” Valerie stared at her hands and dropped her voice. “Paulina lost it on Dash. For crying at Tyson's thing.”

“Yeah,” Kwan said with a wince. “I kinda figured.”

“Yeah, me too. But then, I started thinking... what the fuck kind of relationship do we have where that was expected?” Valerie sniffed. “She wouldn't even let me talk, y'know? I had a lot to say.”

“Val...” Kwan reached for her hand.

She jerked it back. “I'm not saying you're right or anything. Just—you knew him. And her. And you're not dating her. So.”

“So I was your best option to complain to?”

“I guess. I'm not gonna abandon her. Them.” The like you did was blessedly unspoken. “But, I don't know. Maybe—maybe I don't really blame you anymore.”

“Okay,” Kwan said. “But you can't talk to me if you want to stay her friend. You know that, right?”

“Obviously.” Valerie rolled her eyes. “But we're lab partners. We have to talk sometimes. For class.”

Kwan hid a grin. “Of course.”

“Of course.”

Valerie finished measuring out the materials and passed them to Kwan. “So,” she said, “what’s got you in a good mood?”

“Nothing!” Kwan squeaked. He could feel the heat rising to his face.

“Oh?” Valerie leaned toward him, a teasing smile dancing around her lips. “Did you finally boink Fenton?”

“Boink?”

“So you did.”

“No!” Kwan waved his hands around desperately. “We’re just friends.”

Valerie gave him a calculating stare. “Hm,” she said. “Too bad.”

“You want us to—”

“Me? I don’t care. You, however, clearly do.”

Somehow, his face got even hotter. “I don’t!”

“Kwan,” Valerie said, “you are somehow even more obvious about this than you were about your crush on Dash, and I watched you give him a massage once just because he mentioned his shoulders were a little stiff.”

“What—I didn’t—”

“Kwan. Kwan, look at me.” Valerie leaned down and made sure that she was looking Kwan in the eyes. “Did you… not know you had a crush on Dash?”

“I—” Kwan stopped himself and thought back to the way his eyes had always sought out Dash first and foremost whenever he entered a room. The way he reached for Dash’s hands and his arms whenever he could get away with it. The beating of his heart when Dash smiled.

“Fuck,” he said. “I liked Dash?”

Valerie bent over with laughter. “Congratulations!” she said, gasping for breath. “You’re officially the last to know. Well, aside from Dash.”

Kwan buried his head in his hands. “Oh my god. I had a crush on Dash.”

He felt an awkward patting on his back. “Yeah. You sure did.”

“And… you think I have one on Danny?”

“Dude. You should see your face when you look at him. Or think about him. It’s disgusting.” She fished out her phone and turned on the front facing camera, shoving it in his face. “You’re literally making it right now, look.”

The Kwan on the camera mostly looked confused at having a camera shoved in his face.

“Okay, so you look constipated now,” Valerie said. “Whatever. Just trust me. You looked soft as hell like two seconds ago.”

Kwan thought about it. He thought about long nights, staying up and trying to finish homework except they kept getting distracted by trying to one-up each other’s jokes. He thought about how Danny watched football with him even though he didn’t understand it, how he tried to play Doomed even though he sucked because it made Danny happy. He thought about Danny, saving his life from the ectopus, from the Lunch Lady, from the shapeshifting gorilla ghost.

He thought about Danny smiling. He thought about Danny laughing. He thought about the warmth in his chest whenever he saw Danny.

Well. Shit.

“There it is again!” Valerie pulled back out her phone just as Kwan buried his face back in his hands. “Dammit, are you conspiring against me getting a picture of your smitten face?”

“Valerie,” Kwan said through his hands, “I’ve got a crush on Danny.”

“Once again,” Valerie said, “congrats on being the last to know.”

“As glad as I am to see you two talking again,” Ms. Okorafor said, startling Kwan and Valerie, who had both missed her approach, “I do need you to do the lab today.”

“Right,” Kwan said.

“Yeah, sure,” Valerie said.

Like a spell had been broken, they went back to doing their lab in silence. Still, Kwan caught Valerie’s eye from across the table and she smiled, just a little.

It felt like progress.

-----

Kwan hadn’t expected to wait to see Dr. Spectra, but the student before him had still been inside when he arrived in her office. So he was stuck in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs right outside, with an odd little man with gray hair and green eyes staring him down.

Kwan shifted in his seat, then groaned as his rib ached again. Right. Keep his torso steady.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the door opened and out stepped… Dash.

Dash spotted Kwan, then turned his nose up. Dash wasn’t having doubts like Valerie, then.

Still, with Dash pointedly ignoring him, Kwan had the opportunity to study his face. He’d had most of the day to come to terms with his old crush on Dash, but now he wanted to see if those feelings were still there or not. He didn’t think they were, but he hadn’t known about them to begin with, so his judgment was clearly not the best.

But instead of renewed feelings, he found tear tracks on Dash’s cheek.

Right. Of course. Dash was here to talk about Tyson. That made sense, because the two were still friends. Unlike Kwan and Tyson, who hadn’t spoken in over a month.

Kwan bit back a sigh of frustration. Why had Mom insisted he be here, instead of letting someone else who actually needed it take this time slot? He didn’t really understand why she was so insistent that something had to be wrong.

Whatever. He was here, and he’d promised, so he’d do it. He just didn’t have to be happy about it, was all.

He stood up as Dash walked out, waved on by the odd secretary. He knocked on the door twice and a voice called out, “Come in, please!”

The room itself looked like any other office. He’d half-expected to see one of those long couches designed for lying down like he’d seen in movies, but this was a public school. They would never be able to afford that. Instead, there were two more of those uncomfortable plastic chairs right in front of Dr. Spectra’s desk, which was scrupulously clean. The walls were covered in generic motivational posters. The one right behind Dr. Spectra’s head had a picture of a young oak tree with BELEAF IN YOURSELF written on the bottom.

And, of course, Dr. Spectra herself sat at the desk in a high-backed office chair. Her hair was bright red and her eyes the same shade of green as her assistant. Maybe they were related somehow?

“Hi there,” Dr. Spectra said, gesturing for Kwan to sit down. “You’re Kwan, right?”

Kwan dropped in the chair in front of her desk, barely restraining from rolling his eyes. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s my name.”

“Lovely to meet you, honey.” Dr. Spectra looked at him from over her glasses. “Now, why are you here today?”

“Because my mom thinks I have problems.”

“Do you?”

Kwan shrugged. “Doesn’t everyone? Mine aren’t any worse than anyone else’s though, so I don’t get the point of this.”

Dr. Spectra hummed. “Well, therapy doesn’t have to be just about feeling better. It can be about being better, too.”

“What do you—”

“I mean, I’ve heard from your classmates who’ve come to see me that you recently lost all your friends? Had a fight with them?”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“Including the poor student that passed recently?”

Kwan flinched. “I guess you could say that.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Dr. Spectra cooed. “I don’t mean anything by it. Just mentioning it because I thought you might have some… regrets.”

Regrets? Sure, he had plenty. Mostly about being a dick since the start of middle school. But he didn’t regret dumping his old friends. They deserved it, and he needed to be better.

“My friends sucked,” he said after a long moment. “I wanted to be better. They were the ones who chose not to change. That’s on them, not me.”

“Of course, of course,” Dr. Spectra said. “You’re on a journey of self-discovery! Very commendable.” Her smile stretched across her teeth.

Kwan bit his lip to keep from sighing. So far, this grief counselor wasn’t impressing him much.

“I just thought that maybe,” she said, “you felt like you could have done something to stop this tragedy from happening.”

Kwan stiffened. “Why—what makes you say that?”

“Oh, it’s very common. Survivor’s guilt. I thought you might feel like since you stopped being friends with poor Tyson, you weren’t there with him the day he died. Maybe you could’ve saved him if you were.”

“Why would I think that?!” Kwan’s fingers dug into his arms. If possible, Dr. Spectra’s smile stretched even wider.

“Oh dear, of course it isn’t true. I just thought it would be a reasonable response to a horrible situation. That’s all.”

Could Kwan have done more? He was at the mall that day, after all. He had advance warning. He’d gone along with his mom, and let her take Danny away, instead of letting Danny help. He hadn’t just not saved Tyson, he’d helped prevent the only person who could have saved Tyson. Mom hadn’t seen for herself how useless the Fentons were, but Kwan had. Kwan knew that Danny was their best chance, and Kwan had packed him away in the car anyway.

Acid burbled from his stomach into his throat. He lurched forward and vomited into the trash can at the side of Dr. Spectra’s desk. His rib burned.

A hand rubbed at his back. “That’s it, dear,” Dr. Spectra said. “You’re okay.”

Kwan coughed and spat out the remnants of bile. The taste was almost bad enough to make him barf again, so he poured some water in his mouth and swished it around before spitting it into the trash along with his vomit.

“Oh,” Dr. Spectra said. “I wish you hadn't—I mean, I feel bad for the janitor who has to clean that up.” She laughed and waved her hand as though waving that idea off. “Of course, not your fault, dearie.”

Mom was so stressed now, because he'd brought this whole thing upon them. Him, not Danny. He'd dared Danny to go into the portal and all of this had happened. Danny kept getting hurt. Mom was about to collapse under the pressure of keeping them both safe. Even now, he was making Danny wait on him while he worked on his own problems.

How selfish could he be?

No, no, he'd done nice things for Danny, too. Comforted him. Helped keep his secret. Destroyed his only other friendships.

Fuck.

“Am I—am I ruining people's lives?”

“Of course not, sweetie. What on earth makes you think that?”

“I just—I was a jerk before, and I'm trying to be better, but maybe I'm not as good as I think I am. Maybe I'm only being better because it gets me what I want.”

He did have a crush on Danny, after all. Being nice to Danny was a way to get him to like Kwan more. This whole time, he'd probably been trying to get Danny's attention. He was taking up his time because he craved it, just like he'd craved whatever Dash had been willing to give him. If he really wanted what was best for Danny, he'd try to fix his actual friendships, with Manson and Foley, not hoard him all to himself.

Dr. Spectra hummed. “Well, I suppose that's possible, but it's nothing we can't fix!”

“Really?” If this was all his fault... well, of course it was. How stupid of him to think that just dumping his friends was enough to make up for anything. Instead, here he was focusing on his own happiness and making everything worse.

“Of course. I'm here to help.”

“You said, at the beginning...”

“Yes?”

“You said this didn't have to be about feeling better.” Maybe he didn't deserve to feel better. Not yet. He thought he'd gotten better, but here he was making everything worse for everyone around him. “You said it could be about being better.”

“Of course!” Dr. Spectra's smile stretched impossibly wider. “Is that something you'd like? A self-improvement focus?”

“I—yeah. Yeah, I'd like that.” He couldn't be a problem for his mom or for Danny anymore. He needed to start being a solution. If Dr. Spectra could help...

“Excellent!” She tied off the garbage bag, but Kwan could still smell the sour stench of his vomit. “Let's get started, then, shall we?”