#let's see if i can keep up with ectober

[little-pondhead]

IT'S OCTOBER BITCH

Do you think these are costumes or reality?

[cjsmalley]

Valerie sees the portal first, it opens in the park while Jason's playing under her watchful eye while Danny and Sam do homework.

"Portal!" she shouts and everyone's on alert.

Paulina, who had been speed-walking for gym class nearby, grabs up Jason and flees with him like everyone else with children.

Valerie, Danny, and Sam are ready when the first figure tumbles through; a figure they recognize from Jason's drawings.

The Bad Man.

The Bad Man stands up, sees them, and calls, "Wait! We're--" because there are more suited people coming through the portal, "here in peace! I'm looking for my son! Please! His name is Jason Todd."

The three teens stiffen and Danny takes the lead, "My name's Danny Phantom. You're in my town...is Jason Todd a little boy about yea high--" he motioned with a hand.

"He is not supposed to be a child," says the smallest and most colorful of the bunch stiffly, "Todd rather foolishly angered a witch and was reverted to a younger age as punishment."

"Prove that," Sam demands, hackles up.

Another man, in a blue-black body suit, said, grimacing, "He might have mentioned Gotham, Batman, and The Joker?"

Danny and Sam looked at each other before Danny questions, "Is this Joker person an evil clown with a big red smile?"

"Yes!" blue-black nods.

Sam stows her weapon, "He mentioned...well, Got Ham, the Bad Man, and the Clown who hurt him. He's only five years old right now."

"Christ," blue-black swears before introducing, "This's the Batman, he's Jason's adopted dad. I'm Nightwing, he's--" he pointed out a teen in red and black, "Red Robin, she's Batgirl, and the small one is Robin. We're all from a city named Gotham. The Joker's one of our Rogues. Jason was Robin when the Joker--the Joker killed him...Something brought him back."

"That explains the ecto-energy," Danny lands.

"The what?" Red Robin demands.

"Ecto-energy? You know, like ectoplasm? You--didn't know?"

"No." Nightwing looks sick, as does everyone else, "what--? The Lazarus Pits must have--He got dumped into a pit of primordial healing water--" Nightwing explains, "some time after he came back. Is he--?"

"He's okay," Danny assures, "my family's experts on ecto-energy, ectoplasm, and ectobeings. You know, ghosts? He's stable. Sam, can you--"

"I'll do it," Valerie volunteers, pulling off her mask and pulling out a phone. She flips it open and hits a dial.

"When the portal appeared," Sam explains, motioning to the portal, "one of our classmates took him and ran like we practiced."

"Smart," Nightwing nods, smiling softly.

A young Latina arrives shortly after Valerie's done talking on her phone; on her hip is--

"Jason!" Batman calls and the boy perks up.

"Bad Man! Down! Down! Ina! Down!" Jason starts squirming and the girl sets him on his feet.

"Thanks, Paulina!" Danny calls as Jason sprints past them all and into Batman's arms.

Paulina waves and takes her leave.

"Jaylad," Batman rumbles and Jason giggles.

"Bad Man. You came. Dan! Am! Bad Man came!"

"We see that, champ," Sam replies with a smile.

"Me big again?" Jason asks.

"We'll work on it, chum," Batman says as Red Robin reaches through the portal to pull out another person.

"Alright, alright," the newcomer mutters, rolling up his sleeves as he squats down near Batman and Jason, "let's see what we're workin' with here."

"John Constantine," Nightwing introduces, sidling to the teens, "warlock. He's the one that helped us track down what dimension had Jaybird."

The teens nod in understanding.

"Thank you for taking care of him," Nightwing continues softly, "I hope he wasn't much trouble."

Then John makes the dreaded pronouncement, "I don't--the spell's permanent, Bats. He'll have ta grow up again all normal like.

Everyone's hearts sink.

Things happen fast after that; everyone moves back to FentonWorks and hammer out a plan.

Jason would stay with Danny and Sam in Amity for three reasons:

Because they had access to ecto-experts.

It would be hard to explain Jason's age loss.

To keep him safe from his own enemies and those of the Bats.

However, he would have visits with the Waynes (the Bats gave their secret identities as a gesture of good will after Danny gave up his).

Both in Amity and, when he is a little older, in Gotham.

Batman would gather all his medical files and school files and have Constantine send them over via portal. In return, they would get progress reports and updates.

Jason would never become a Bird or Bat again.

Clockwork shows up and makes things easier, creating a permanent portal between the two dimensions in a storage closet in both FentonWorks and Wayne Manor.

This allows Jason to actually grow up a normal, well, somewhat, kid, loved and without any death beyond being around two halfas.

He grows up and graduates university with a PhD in Literature; he has two more little siblings and then eventually adopts his own child.

When he's old enough, he's told of his previous life.

Part of him is angry, bitter that that life was stolen from him. It may have been a shitty life but it was his and his memories and him.

Most of him is grateful for a third chance.

He never takes life for granted.

End for Now

my guys at this point just de-age have one of the bat kids (my vote is on Jason or Dick) get de-aged by one of their rogues or something, have them get lost by said rogue near/by amity park, and has Danny pick them up.

i want no proper communication between anyone. i want amity park to be so closed off from the outside world that they have no idea who the justice league is so Danny thinks batman is a new villain/ghost trying to steal his new adopted kid. i want batman to think that phantom is the one who kidnapped his kid and did this to him. i want said batkid to be pissed off because no one is listening to him because he's a kid and maybe they believe he's been brainwashed or something.

i just want a hot mess fic that's a reverse of baby Danny in gotham

[the-stove-is-on-fire]

I have been experimenting with transparency art (thank you so much for your tutorial!), but my biggest question is: how on earth do you get it to overlay on other colors? Its absolutely mind bending

With much patience and frustration 😫 (>>>The previous tutorial<<)

The key to making transparency work with colours, is getting the colour saturation and opacity levels to visually match. 

Let’s lay down the basics. I've got these two coloured boxes and I want one of them to be transparent. But I also want them to stay the same colour until someone clicks on them, right?

Of course, the problem is that as soon as we drop the opacity, the colour saturation also drops and we get this:

So what you have to do is hyper-saturate the colour of the low opacity area until it matches the full saturation one.

Or as close as you can get. If you can't get it exact, colour-pick from the 50% opacity area and recolour the 100% area so they match. This works best with colours that are already muted or pastel.

That's the basic principle. It gets 10x more complex when you start adding multiple colours and backgrounds... Full tutorial continued under the cut (this is going to be a LONG post) vvv

I'm going to use my Hill King ectober piece because it's a good example of how this transparency trick works on complex pieces.

The first step is to plot out approximately what colours/mood I wanted to end up with in the final piece.

Next I push my saturation ALL the way up.

And then drop the whole background opacity to 40% (Keeping all your background layers in a single folder is the easiest way to do this) I fiddled around with the individual colours, pushing their saturation and hues until I was satisfied with this sort of pastel look.

And here we are with the lineart added in. A few things needed to be retouched to accommodate the lines and that’s normal. If you have to change a few things make sure to pull your colours from the 100% version and not colour-pick from the low opacity.

Now to make the transparent section. This part may vary depending on your drawing program. I'm using Krita but I'll try my best to make the process applicable to other programs.

This is where it gets complicated:

Save two versions of your image. 

One with lineart and colours at 100% full saturation.

One with the low opacity colours and NO lineart.

Make sure you have a white background under everything so that they are NOT transparent yet. Saving the two versions as flat images is VERY IMPORTANT. Do Not merge all your layers. Just save as a PNG.

Your two versions should look like this:

On a new layer draw your cut-away shape. This is the area that you want to be transparent at the end. I used an eraser for the stars and crown so they show up as the colours underneath. If you can, make the edges of your shape just a little bit blurry. Hard edges will show up and reveal your trick.

Duplicate this layer so that you have at least two copies.

You are now going to cut your shape out of the low opacity flat image. In Krita that means setting the cut-away shape layer to ‘Erase’ and merging it down with the low opacity layer. With other programs it might mean selecting your cut-away shape and manually ctrl+x cutting the shape out or using some kind of clipping mask.

If you’ve done it right, you should be able to see your high saturation layer with the lineart underneath.

By dropping the opacity of your high saturation layer it should blend in seamlessly with your background. In this case, I drop it down to 40% to match. You’re going to get this funky little ghost effect with the lineart from underneath.

If I had kept my lineart as part of the original low opacity image when I saved it, it would have ended up looking like this:

Now, remember how I said to make a duplicate of the cut-away shape? That comes back here. The cut-away section of lineart is stuck at 40% opacity. If we simply plop our lineart back on top of everything at it’s current opacity, it stands out too much. (In my opinion, this might be perfect for your piece!)

But I want it to blend in a bit, more like this:

So I take my lineart and my cut-away shape and do the exact same thing as before. Except this time I keep my shape at 50%. In Krita, with the Erase layer, this means it only erased 50% of my line’s opacity. I have zero idea how this would work with a clipping mask, sorry :(

Which gives us this:

(Use a black background under the see-through area to show it off)

And that’s it! We now have transparent colours that blend seamlessly with the full opacity sections and lineart that is clear but doesn’t distract from either version!

Turn off all your background layers and save as a .png image (this won’t work with a .jpg!). Upload your pic to tumblr and see if it works. If the transparency doesn’t show up correctly you may have to scale your image down to a smaller size! Tumblr is very picky like that.

This process isn’t perfect and it sure takes a lot of time but the effects can be super cool and totally worth the effort! If you’ve made it all the way to the end of this LOOOONG tutorial you are a BAMF! Put a little ‘yeehaw!’ in the notes for yourself and Happy Arting!

[jackdaw-sprite]

06 - Twilight

Late naval twilight still counts as twilight, right?

A Void!Danny design.

A self-indulgent blurb, a bit of an explanation, and some sketches are under the cut.

Warning for body horror and mind control, because Void!Danny.

When the wind lows against houses and rattles windows, when the trees cast away their leaves and the electric expectation of change saturates the air, they know the night is close. After so many years, it's become tradition.

The first sign of his presence: a shifting, eerie song hovering just on the edge of hearing. It whispers long moments before bursting forth, sliding up and down the scale in a way halfway between a whoop and a rasp.

It's the same song the lake sings in the dead of winter: the song of heaving ice.

It hadn't been there, the first year.

But then, the first year many things had been different. Phantom had vanished only a few days before, and there was still hope he might return.

The second year had borne with it the second sign of his presence too: as the night drew closer the song shifted higher, more insistent. It filled the mind in a slow crescendo, and like fishing-line caught you. Drew you in like a fish and hung your mind out to dry until morning.

After the second year, everyone in Amity knew: don't drive if you don't have to, once the singing starts. It's not worth the risk of falling asleep somewhere you don't want to.

The fourth year Tucker figured out how to keep their little group awake.

And ever since then, they've tried to hold the ghost, to save him. They've pleaded with him and cajoled him. Bribed and fought and a hundred other tactics.

Because while the ghost always leaves at dawn, they don't want him to. They want him back. To strip away the years and have Danny again.

Each year, Nocturne lets Danny return to Amity for a single night. They don't know why. As a reminder, perhaps. A kindness, a taunt? There's no way of knowing. The Ancient hasn't bothered with their little town since that fateful night. Hasn't explained any of the times they've caught him elsewhere, instead slipping through their fingers like an oil slick.

They do know this: every year in the depths of autumn, they have a chance to save their friend from Nocturne's control.

And every year, it wanes.

---

So! I mentioned in my day 04 post for ectober 2021 that the idea of a Void!Danny with a mask ate my brain a little bit.

Well, it was true.

Even if we take Nocturne at his word on his motivations, it doesn’t seem like Nocturne’s scheme for putting everyone to sleep could last all that long, or would at least need to move around. Humans need to be alive to dream, and they won’t stay alive long if they and everyone around them are asleep. Infrastructure needs maintenance. People need maintenance, in the form of food and drink and all the other necessities of life. So I don’t imagine a world where Nocturne ‘wins’ being one where humans are all asleep, all the time. 

In Urban Jungle, we see Sam's outfit change as she spends more time under Undergrowth's control. It becomes more sinister and seems to indicate she's farther under Undergrowth's control -- farther from herself.

And then, I read the phrase "moon-like mask" and, well.

What if it became more moon-like as the possession progressed, pulling Danny farther and farther from his humanity the longer he spent under Nocturne's control? How would he look after weeks? Months? Years?

What if it stopped being a mask and started being his head?

The idea here is that after enough time, Void!Danny is almost completely inhuman, and seems as alien as Nocturne actually is.

Danny might still be in there somewhere, but it's not in a form any of his friends would recognize. Nocturne deals with the mind, after all. Why puppet with strings when he can be so much more...delicate?

The jellyfish tentacle thing was a later addition, when I asked myself what the most disconcerting possible way would be for his moon head to slowly reintegrate itself with his body over time. My answer: jellyfish tentacle spine :)

[ladylynse]

Ectober 2021, Day 22: Favour [FFN | AO3]

Contains canon-typical bullying. Technically follows this ficlet for Day 17 (Found Footage) but can be read as a standalone.

-|-

Valerie thought she had enough on her plate, but then Kwan asks her for a favour—and things start to make a sickening sort of sense.

-|-

“Hey, uh, Valerie? I need a favour.”

Valerie turned from her locker to raise an eyebrow at Kwan, who was hovering awkwardly just out of the main flow of students in the hallway. Star and the other A-listers were nowhere in sight, most likely already heading to cheer and football practice—somewhere Kwan should also be. “You need a favour,” Valerie repeated flatly, not sure she liked where this was going. Kwan had been happy enough to drop her like the rest of them after her fall from popularity, so even if he pretended this was an opportunity for her to get back into Paulina’s good graces and back on the A-list, Valerie wasn’t convinced she’d jump.

She didn’t need them anymore.

“I mean….” Kwan glanced around at the ever-changing crowd, but it was thinning now as people cleared out for the end of the day. “Would you do me a favour?”

“Why don’t you ask Star if it’s not something you can ask Dash?”

He flinched and looked down at his hands, which were playing with the fraying cuff of his football jacket. “This isn’t something I can ask them.”

“If you’re planning something for Star, just ask Paulina. You know she can keep a secret when it’s important.” As long as it was worth her while, anyway.

“I’m not. I—” He looked around again and stepped into her personal space before saying in a low voice that was barely audible over the buzz of the crowd, “I don’t know who I can trust with this.”

Well, she wasn’t going to shoot him down right after he said that, but she was hardly someone she thought would be one of the people he’d trust. He definitely wasn’t someone she trusted anymore. Of course, considering she hadn’t (willingly) told anyone about one of her major extracurricular activities…. “And you want to trust me with this because—?”

“You took photography and media studies last year.”

Valerie blinked. “So?”

“I need you to take a look at something for me.”

Right. Taking a look at a picture or video clip would hardly be the last of it. “And then?”

“Give me your opinion on it. Like…if it’s been edited or if you think it’s real.”

“Look, if you suspect it’s been edited and you got it from one of your friends, it’s probably been edited.” Valerie turned back to her locker to finish zipping up her backpack. “The fact that you’re questioning it at all should be your red flag. I don’t need to look at anything to tell you that.”

She yanked the backpack free as Kwan said, “No, it’s just…. I don’t know if someone could’ve edited it. Or edited it this well. On the original film, not the computer.”

Valerie sighed and glanced at her watch. She didn’t have a shift today, but she’d been hoping to get through her math homework before Phantom or another ghost showed up. As much as she wanted to see Phantom—and as grateful as she could be to any other ghost drawing him out at this point—her dad would not be impressed if her grades tanked again. “Fine, but you owe me. What is it?”

Kwan pulled one of those MiniDV tapes from his pocket and showed it to her, and Valerie rolled her eyes. “What are you expecting me to play that on?”

“I can send you a copy of what I pulled off of it,” he said, “but I didn’t know if looking at the original tape would help.”

“Not when I can’t play it on anything.”

“Sorry,” he muttered as he tucked away the tape. “I forgot.”

Right. He forgot. Whatever. She could let him get away with it this time. “Just get me a copy of the video and I’ll let you know what I think tomorrow.”

He shifted his weight and actually reached for his back pocket, where he usually kept his wallet after school hours. “Do you have time to look at it now? I can pay you if it means missing your shift.”

He was pushing his luck, wasn’t he? It wasn’t like he’d get to know her immediate response. “Paying me for my missed hours wouldn’t mean I’d still have a job tomorrow, but don’t bother.” Tempting as it was to get some extra cash, she’d be better off if he repaid her in kind. Having a future favour to call in was far better for her. “I don’t work today, but you still have football practice.” Even if she texted him with her verdict, he wouldn’t have a chance to look at his phone for a couple of hours.

“I told Coach I couldn’t make it. Family thing.”

That gave Valerie pause. Football wasn’t something Kwan took lightly, and he’d never skipped a practice when she’d been in the A-list. The fact that Dash wasn’t dragging him to practice told her Kwan had told Dash the same thing, even though it obviously wasn’t true or Kwan wouldn’t still be here talking to her.

Valerie chewed her lip, taking in Kwan’s dry skin and dark circles with a practiced eye. He’d been daydreaming in class, too. Lancer had had to call on him twice in English before he’d realized, and Star had had to hiss the answer at him because he’d been too befuddled to ask Lancer to repeat the question. Even more worryingly, he’d been one of the first players off the court in dodgeball today as opposed to one of the last ones standing. Even Tucker had outlasted him, and Valerie couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. Usually, Tucker was the one following Mikey to the bench.

Whatever this was, it was keeping Kwan up at night.

“If you want to see the original and not just the computer copy, you can come over to my house. My parents won’t be home till six.”

She was going to regret this, wasn’t she? “Fine,” Valerie said. She turned to close her locker before sweeping her arm in an exaggerated arc. “Lead on.”

-|-

Valerie opened Kwan’s window the minute he left her alone in his room, hoping the fresh air would help counteract the smell of sweat clinging to the dirty laundry he’d pushed into a pile at the foot of his bed. She was still wrinkling her nose and breathing through her mouth as she smoothed down the blankets on his bed and propped a pillow against the wall before leaning against it and settling down. She had no idea how long this would take, so she might as well be comfortable.

He returned a few minutes later with the camcorder in one hand and a glass of lemonade in the other. He handed her the lemonade before climbing onto the bed beside her and turning the camcorder on. She nodded her thanks and took a sip of the drink, almost wincing at the unexpected sourness. If this had started off as store-bought lemonade, he must’ve added a lot of extra lemon juice.

Fortunately, Kwan hadn’t seen her face, and he didn’t say anything when she reached over to put the glass on his bedside table. Instead, he waited until she’d finished before passing the camcorder to her. “I should warn you,” he said as the video started to play, “that this looks bad for us, but, um, you know how it is.”

Yeah, she knew exactly how it was. She still turned more of a blind eye to it than she should. She’d never gotten the treatment Danny or Mikey regularly did, but she’d still gotten a taste of her own medicine after getting kicked off the A-list. She’d started taking her anger out on ghosts instead—Phantom especially—and that had her stomach in knots now, considering what she’d seen….

Valerie had spent three days trying not to think about it too much, uncomfortably aware that any change in her behaviour might tip off the last person in the world she wanted to know about what she’d discovered.

She had also spent those three days keeping her eyes peeled for Phantom, but things had been quiet on the ghost front for once, and he hadn’t shown his face—meaning she was left with all her questions and no answers.

It was probably a good thing she wasn’t on the A-list anymore, as Valerie was pretty sure Paulina would’ve noticed something was off with her and called her on it on day one. Kwan was oblivious, too caught up in whatever this was to notice how distracted she herself was, and while Valerie had thought about talking to Danny about it in case he had any ideas on how to deal with this, she hadn’t.

Danny might not like Vlad Masters, but his parents were undeniably close to him, and she wasn’t really sure how to bring up the idea that not all ghosts are actually ghosts to anyone.

Anyone except another ghost, that is.

Specifically, anyone except Phantom, who might even be avoiding her if he thought she had questions about Danielle. Which she did, and which he could probably answer, given how much he’d seemed to know about her, but which definitely did not eclipse the multitude of questions she had about Plasmius, which Phantom must also know about given how he talked.

The truth was, Kwan was not the only person who hadn’t gotten enough sleep last night.

Valerie hadn’t slept at all the first night and had spent the next two tossing and turning.

She needed answers. She couldn’t get them from her usual source because her usual source wasn’t someone she could ever trust again, and she couldn’t get them from the Fentons, who wouldn’t understand because she couldn’t exactly accuse their old friend of being a ghost of all things without any proof, and—

“Cujo’s not here, is he?”

Danny’s voice sounded almost resigned as he and Dash walked into the shot, and he turned with deliberate slowness to meet Dash’s smirking face. Valerie wasn’t surprised Danny knew the ghost dog’s name—chances were good that the Fentons had also dealt with him—but she was surprised that Danny had apparently been willing to face him without any weapons. The fact that the ghost dog could turn from cute to monstrous on a dime was not exactly a little-known fact about him.

If Dash was surprised Danny knew the dog’s name, he didn’t show it. He just sneered, “I dunno. He might be looking for his chew toy.” Danny darted to Dash’s left, but Dash cut off his escape by snagging his shirt and dragging him back before hefting him up by his collar and what Valerie could only assume was the waistband of his underpants. She winced in sympathy. “Why don’t you help him look by checking out the dumpster?”

Danny’s fingers went to the front of his shirt collar, trying to pry open a space between it and his throat in what was likely a vain attempt to get some more room to breathe. “We don’t have to do this—”

Dash dropped his grip on Danny’s shirt only long enough to throw open the lid of the dumpster. “That’s where you’re wrong, Fenturd.”

Valerie grimaced as Dash heaved Danny face-first into the dumpster before slamming the lid down on him. Luckily that part wouldn’t hurt, but she could gag simply remembering the smell. It was bad even when you only breathed through your mouth—something about the decomposing Nasty Sauce, she figured; that stuff inevitably ate through the plastic garbage bags—so she didn’t want to imagine what it was like to get shoved into an enclosed space with all of that.

“I’m gonna go out on a limb here and assume none of that is what you think is edited,” Valerie started, but Kwan shushed her and pointed to the screen.

The audio didn’t pick up anything except the usual sounds she could hear whenever she took out the garbage at work—namely traffic and distant chatter almost drowned out by their industrial fans—but she obligingly watched as Danny cracked the lid of the dumpster. Dash had walked off camera already, and since he didn’t suddenly reappear to slam the lid closed again, she assumed he’d gone inside. That meant it was safe for Danny to crawl out and head home for a shower.

Except he didn’t crawl out.

She’d blinked, and he was just suddenly out.

“Wait, what?”

Kwan reached over to pause and rewind the video. “I know,” he said as he pressed play so she could see it again.

Valerie was incredibly familiar with the ways ghosts could move, passing through with their unnatural ease solid objects she had to avoid, and she couldn’t suppress a shudder as she saw Danny move that way, too.

“When was this?” she asked, rewinding the video herself this time.

“Yesterday.”

She’d been working yesterday. “What time?”

Kwan pointed to the time stamp in the corner, and a pit settled in Valerie’s stomach, churning up entirely too many feelings of dread.

She’d been working in the back at that point. She’d been on the fryer. She’d been wearing her watch, the watch that was supposed to alert her whenever a ghost came in range, and ten feet away—albeit through the wall—was certainly within range.

Maybe it hadn’t been working? That could be why things had seemed quiet recently. Maybe she’d broken it somehow and hadn’t noticed. Maybe—and while this was a much less pleasant possibility, she still had to consider it—Mr. Masters was onto her and had purposely disabled it. A ghost could have helped Danny pull off that feat, pulling him out of the dumpster and leaving behind all its muck.

Except a ghost, if they would even stop to help the son of the town’s most infamous ghost hunters, could have just grabbed Danny and dragged him out. At best, he should’ve stumbled as his feet hit the pavement and he regained tangibility. Instead, he’d rolled out, something that would’ve made it substantially more difficult for a ghost to keep a hand on him, which would’ve been necessary for a ghost to share their intangibility.

Still.

There was another possibility.

Valerie swallowed. “This might not be edited, or at least not filmed over whatever you had before. Look at how far the lid falls here. Unless someone got some fishing line and rigged something up, I think Danny was the one to move it. No one else would’ve been able to clear the shot.”

Kwan sucked in a breath, and the blanket between them bunched up as he grabbed a fistful of it. “You think it’s real? I thought maybe Foley….”

“Danny might be overshadowed,” she said, but she didn’t believe her own words. Three days ago, she would’ve been convinced that was it, and she’d have gone straight to the Fentons with her suspicions.

But that was three days ago, not now.

Kwan let out a shaky laugh. “Oh, yeah, that would explain it. Why didn’t I think of that?”

Valerie doubted that Kwan, like most of the student body at Casper High, knew how often Danny’s parents’ inventions and prototypes misfired or straight up exploded. She doubted he knew how often Danny and Jazz had to painstakingly soap the sticky ecto-goo off themselves. She doubted he knew they had a built-in alarm system specifically designed to detect and attack ghosts. Frankly, she doubted he could name very many of their weapons—thermos, ecto-guns, and ghost shield aside.

Still, Kwan wasn’t likely to know how difficult it would be for a ghost to overshadow Danny. An overshadowing ghost would fool some ecto-tech but certainly not all of it. For a random ghost to prey upon Danny like that, they’d have to have some knowledge of the FentonWorks weaponry to know what they needed to avoid, and they’d have to have considerable knowledge of Danny himself to fool his friends and his family.

Kwan also didn’t know what she had only recently learned: that some ghosts were human, too, at least in all the ways that mattered.

It made her stomach twist to even consider the possibility, but she had to—especially since she knew Mr. Masters was an old friend of the Fentons. She might not know the details, but she knew that Mr. Masters was distinctly less keen on Danny’s dad than his mom, and, well, she’d met the Fentons. She’d been in their house and their lab. For all their talk of safety, they could be rather lax in that department even when they weren’t excited about something.

“I’d lay off Danny till you know for sure,” she said as she rewound the video again. It wasn’t much, but it might buy him a bit of peace, at least until everything went sideways.

“Yeah, I’ll talk to Dash.”

Valerie nodded absently, her eyes still on the tiny screen.

This was real.

She wished it weren’t real.

“If you give me a copy of this, I’ll check it out in more detail later.” She watched as Danny walked out of the shot before hitting the stop button and passing the camcorder back to Kwan. His relief was written in his face and the way his shoulders had finally relaxed, but she felt none of that relief herself.

She didn’t know if the answer was as simple as she was pretending. In fact, she highly doubted it, and she wasn’t keen on what she suspected was the truth.

“For sure,” Kwan said, smiling widely at her. “Thanks. I really owe you for this. You didn’t have to help me.”

No, she hadn’t needed to, but if she hadn’t done him this favour, she wouldn’t have discovered what very well might be a missing piece to her own conundrum.

Valerie might not know Danielle’s story, and maybe she was wrong about Mr. Masters’ past, but hadn’t she overheard Danny, Sam, and Tucker talking about an accident? More than once? And then there were all the weird things that had happened back at the start of grade nine. Danny was still banned from handling glassware in chemistry, even though she hadn’t seen him drop something less breakable in ages.

It might be a mere coincidence.

It might simply be correlation, not causation.

It might also be context, and that worried her the most.

“No problem,” Valerie whispered, already wondering who she should try to talk to first, Danny or Phantom—and if it would even matter.

She suspected it wouldn’t.

Danny would be the easiest one to find, but if she could talk to Phantom first and try to catch him in a verbal trap before she confronted Danny—

That was still the safest option, wasn’t it?

In case she was wrong.

In case Danny Fenton wasn’t Danny Phantom like Vlad Masters was Vlad Plasmius.

Valerie swallowed, fixed a smile on her face, and crawled off the bed as she said, “I’ll look at it after I’m done Falluca’s assignment, okay?”

Kwan didn’t seem to notice her trepidation. “You’ll text me?”

She had no plans to tell him anything concrete until after she talked to Phantom—she didn’t even know what she’d say to Kwan if it turned out she was right—but she nodded and tried to convince herself this was for the best.

(see more fics | next)

[archaeopter-ace]

Ectober Day 2 - Laugh

After recent revelations, Maddie did not think there was much left in the world that could surprise her. In fact, she found herself devoting considerable effort into being as unflappable as possible. It was the only way she knew how to be supportive of Danny’s… differences. Act like everything he was doing was a common, everyday occurrence, not worth drawing attention to. Or remarking on. She wasn’t ignoring his… ghostliness, exactly. And she certainly wasn’t ignoring him - she went out of her way to express her love for him at least twice a day, often more.

She just made sure to never be alarmed shocked surprised by anything he did.

But this, this was really pressing her commitment to stoicism.

He’d tripped over his own feet – there didn’t seem to be any ghost powers involved, just his usual clumsiness that had been present even before his accident – and faceplanted into the couch. He’d then proceeded to phase into the couch, until he was just two scrawny legs sticking straight up from the couch. And stayed there.

“Ah, Danny?” Was he stuck?

“Mom!” He immediately flipped right-side up, dust bunnies so thoroughly coating his hair it was gray, halfway to being Phantom.

She lost her fight to hold back her laughter, and let out loud snort. Immediately feeling awful  – how dare she  – she hastened to apologize, but Danny waved her off.

“Hey hey, it’s okay, you can laugh; it was funny.” He rolled something between his fingers. “You, uh… I haven’t heard you laugh since, you know.”

“Oh.” She hadn’t realized.

“Yeah, well. Not a big deal – you’ve got a lot on your mind, a lot to process. And. Yeah.”

“I’m sorry. I guess I’ve been distant, though that wasn’t my intention.” Perhaps she shouldn’t be keeping such a tight grip on her emotions.

“It has been a little nerve-racking, trying to guess what you’re feeling,” he admitted, avoiding eye contact.

“Oh, Danny.” She pulled him in for a hug, and he went willingly. “I promise I will do better from now on. You’ll see. I love you, you know that, right?”

“Yeah, I know.” He smiled, and this time he could meet her eyes.

Stepping back, she gestured to the couch. “What were you doing in there, anyway?”

He brightened. “There is so much more stuff lost in there than I ever would have thought. Check it out!” He held out the object he’d been fiddling with, and Maddie saw it was a Crash Nebula collectible spoon, the sort that had been given away in cereal boxes years and years ago.

“Ah. I’ll leave you to it?”

“To boldly go!” So saying, he dove back into the couch, and Maddie left him to it, utterly bemused.

[datawyrms]

Ectober day 1, Trick

“Sam, I had the weirdest dream. I’ve been watching too many of your gothic horror movies.”

“No such thing Tuck. That just means you need more literature.”

Tucker smirked while leaning against the wall of lockers. “Seriously though. If I never get a freaky demon dream again, it’ll be too soon.”

Instead of laughing, the goth’s brow furrowed as her eyes darted along the hall. “Let’s not talk about that here, okay?”

“Why not? It’s not like-” he stopped speaking when Sam’s shadow waved at him. While Sam was standing perfectly still. Wiping at his glasses made it go back to normal, at least, but an awful hollow throbbing in his chest decided to take its place. “Sam please, please tell me that was a nightmare.”

“If I say anything, that little shit will make it worse. Later.”

He leaned closer, not caring how the popular kids would be claiming the pair was an ‘item’ now for being so forward. “How can it be worse than a demonic shadow?” Tucker hissed, keeping an eye on it.

Sam let out a small groan, only relenting when it was clear Tucker wasn’t going to let it rest until after school or something. “By being a chatty demonic shadow. It thinks it’s funny.”

It didn’t prepare Tucker for the sound, how it felt like a serpent had slid against his ear, scales catching against his skin as it spit a stinging poison to scorch his eardrums. “I’m hilarious, thanks.”

Slapping at his ear didn’t make the sensation stop, but Tucker could swear his shadow was smirking at him now. Without a mouth or eyes to do so with.

“See what I mean?”

“More like felt it.” Even adjusting his glasses couldn’t dispel the feeling entirely. Having a demon just apparently hanging around you was bad enough without it making you want to jump out of your skin when it talked.

“It wouldn’t hurt as much if I had your whole soul...if you wanted to hand it over.”

“Can it, sulfur face.”

“You’re no fun.”

“I thought it left after complaining that technology was weird and I went home!”

“Unfortunately not. We’re stuck with it.”

“I did! I’m just back now. You should call me back properly, being stuck in your shadows is boring.”

“We are so not summoning a demon a second time, right?”

“It’s not a summoning when I’m already your demon, duh. The door’s already open, you’re just holding it for a sec so I can find it.”

“I told you to can it.” Sam muttered, knuckles resting against her locker door.

“Does that ever actually work?”

Her shoulders slumped, grin strained. “About half the time. So don’t give ‘em an excuse to answer you again.”

“So the ‘half the time’ thing wasn’t just a trick, it actually listens sometimes?” The entire ‘having a demon on call thing’ could be useful, if it didn’t stop being completely terrifying that the creature existed in the first place.

“Got my full loyalty, half of the time just like I said. You went halfsies, it’s only fair.”

“As if you aren’t getting something else out of this arrangement.” Sam slammed her locker with enough force to make it pop back open. She scowled at it before shoving it shut with another loud clang that almost dwarfed the clarion call of the late bell. “Seriously Tucker, just ignore it. We need to find out what it might be up to before we get tricked into something else.”

“Oh come on. What’s the point of having a loyal demonic servant if you aren’t going to do anything?”

Well, that was incredibly blatant. Not even a suggestion, just ‘hey totally do a dumb thing for no reason’. Maybe the worst of their troubles might be over if that was the best the strange little entity could come up with. He had more than enough ‘demon trouble’ for one lifetime, thanks.  “Y’know, he’s pretty bad at the whole tempting thing for a demon.”

The discomfort shifted ever so slightly, the hissing sounding more like a petulant kitten mewl than a serpent. “Am not.”

“Tucker I will throw your PDA in the dumpster if you keep egging it on.”

“I was just saying…”

[iamaghost-fearme]

Ectober Day 30: The Summoned

Read on AO3

It was rare that Dani got to spend all day with her cousin Danny anymore. He was always so busy with school and ghosts, especially with the new responsibilities Clockwork kept insisting he take on. She had the whole day planned out, hanging around in Amity Park, lunch at the Nasty Burger, and spending the afternoon in the Ghost Zone hanging out with some of their friends and allies.

They’d made it all the way to the afternoon before things went wrong. It started with a strange tingling in her fingers and toes, almost like getting feeling back after being cold, and progressed quickly to a twisting sensation in her chest almost like someone was pulling her by her very core. She called out to Danny in fear before her vision was whited out with a blinding light.

She opened her eyes to find herself no longer in the Ghost Zone, but instead surrounded by hooded and cloaked figures arranged in a circle. They were all staring at her with looks of excitement and anticipation that were quickly fading into confusion. Whatever was going on, it seemed they hadn’t been expecting her. One of the figures stepped forward.

“Who are you?” They questioned with clearly feigned authority. Their hand was wrapped in a bloodstained cloth and Dani looked closer at the feet of the assembled figures to find a circle inscribed with ruins and complete with blood. A blood magic summoning ritual. One that actually seemed to work, at least somewhat. She was likely bound to this circle until she fulfilled their wishes or they released her. What she couldn’t figure out was who they were and why they had gotten her.

“I’m Phantom. I think the more important question is who are you?” She restrained herself from getting in their faces like she usually would, although she couldn’t keep the bite out of her voice.

“We are the Devotees of the High Ghost King,” the head figure intoned in what was clearly an attempt to be intimidating. “We are bound to carry out his will on Earth so he may rule us as he does the Infinite Realms.” Ah, nut jobs then. There were cults like this all over the place. Danny had made sure to prevent summonings from working on him after the first couple had taken him by surprise. It’s likely why they’d gotten her as a close enough approximation of the king they were looking for. She’d have to go see Clockwork about getting those same protections set up for her.

“Well you must have messed something up. I’m not the High Ghost King.” She drifted toward the cloaked figure who’d been speaking to make sure the threat came across. “But if you don’t let me go, I can guarantee you’ll get to feel the power of the ghost king. He’s pretty protective of me.”

One of the other cult members spoke up from somewhere in the circle. “So you know the ghost king?”

They sounded so excited, a smirk spread over Dani’s face. “Of course I do, we’re cousins,” she bragged. “And I’m sure he’ll be here any minute. You should let me go.” This seemed to stump them and the entire circle fell silent. Finally, the leader yanked their hood off and spun away from the circle.

“Release her,” they growled. A foot immediately darted out from under a cloak to kick an opening in the runes for her to escape through. Dani didn’t waste any time and sped out of the ring, sticking her tongue out childishly at the “devotees” on her way out through the nearest wall. Now to find her way back to the ghost zone. Danny would be worried sick.

[cleanlenins]

Ectober Day 4: Glitter

Bottled Beauty: Reasonable Rates

A new shop opens in the mall. It sells amazing products that make you more beautiful. The prices are fair, as Paulina finds out.

AO3

Warnings: None

A new store opened in the Amity Park Mall, and no one knew how it got there.

One day, there was nothing there but a wide expanse of plaster wall, adorned with a few flyers taped and torn. The mall closed down at half past eight. The guards and workers closed down by nine. Doors locked and no one entered.

When security opened the doors again the next morning, they stood in awe of the new addition. Wide glass windows displayed a varied assortment of unusual goods. Shiny bottles of makeup and perfume. Glittering combs and brushes. Sparkling collections of hair pins and clips. Face masks and nail polish and hair oil and scented powders.  Jewelry of every type sparkled in the bright led lights that flooded the store. Beautifully embroidered scarves and accessories were hung with meticulous care along the walls.

Security was flabbergasted. They had heard nothing about this store. Nothing reported to them. They called it in, asking CBL if it was legit. The radio replied that yes, all paperwork was in order.

Bottled Beauty was open for business.

Paulina was frequently at the mall. What better place was there for her to be? There were so many stores for her to peruse, so many things to buy. People could marvel at her perfection. And the Ghost Boy tended to appear there all too often. A bonus. As familiar as she was with the mall's set-up, she immediately noticed the new store. She smiled in delight when she saw the products through the window and eagerly walked in.

It was even better than what she had imagined. Paulina was awestruck. She merely stood there, eyes drifting from item to item.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” A voice asked. Paulina turned at the sound. A person stood there. Paulina could not tell if they were a man or a woman, but she marveled. They were beautiful, dark hair framing their face with a waterfall of curls. Lovely green eyes sparkled with glitter eyeshadow, smiling wide with perfectly full lips. They stood there, dressed in a glittering button down shirt, a small box in their hand.

“Oh, I was just looking. I’ve never been here before. It’s amazing,” Paulina whispered reverently. The glittering person nodded.

“Thank you. We here at Bottled Beauty pride ourselves in spreading beauty at a reasonable rate. What is worse than looking at an ugly world?” The employee grinned as they sat the box on the counter. Paulina nodded in agreement. “Was there anything you were looking for in particular?”

Paulina shook her head.

The employee hummed, tapping their finger against their chin as they examined her. Paulina fidgeted under the stare, but was once more mesmerized by the brilliant green eyes. They walked closer to her, merely inches away. Paulina stood straighter as they got closer. The employee’s eyes gleamed as they stared down.

“My dear, do you know you are very nearly perfect?” They purred. Paulina blushed.

“Really? I mean, of course I am,” She preened. The employee grinned again, green eyes bright. They reached up and gently grasped a strand of hair.

“Only nearly, my dear. But we can fix that,” The employee clarified. Paulina could not bring herself to be offended. “You have such thick hair. So dark, like the night. Many people would be jealous to have such hair. But it must be so difficult to manage. The frizz alone would be a full time job. Am I wrong?”

Paulina thought back to the hours she had spent on taming her hair. How difficult it was every morning to get the perfect style. How she had to pay for so many conditioning treatments to keep it from puffing up in an unmanageable mess.

“You’re right,” Paulina said. The glittering person dropped the strand of hair and stepped away.

“I have just the thing,” They called over their shoulder, walking into the store. Paulina hurried to follow. They stopped at a display of different combs. The employee plucked one, showing it to Paulina.

“Comb your hair with this and you will be able to style it any way you wish,” They said. Paulina’s eyes widened in wonder. “Whether you choose to wear it curly, or straight. Up or down. It will go exactly as you want it.”

“That sounds too good to be true.”

“But true nonetheless. If you are unsatisfied, you can always return it.”

Paulina wrinkled her brow.

“How much?” She asked. The employee tilted their head.

“For you, I would take a laugh,” They said. Paulina blinked in confusion.

“A laugh? You just want me to laugh? That’s all?” Paulina repeated in disbelief.

“At Bottled Beauty, we believe in reasonable rates. A fair price for fair folk,” The employee put their hand over their heart. “And we so crave perfection, something you are so close to already.”

Paulina laughed in delight at the compliment, given from someone so pretty. The store owner handed her the comb and bid her farewell.

Paulina combed her hair with the comb, and wondered at the results. Her hair was perfectly shiny after only one stroke. She preened as her classmates gawked, tossing her hair over her shoulder for emphasis. Dale was so starstruck that he walked into the school’s front door, tripping all the way down the stairs. All of the A-list laughed at his expense. Except Paulina.

She returned again to Bottle Beauty, quickly looking for the employee.

“We thought you would be back,” A voice whispered right next to her ear. She turned eagerly.

“The comb was perfect, so I had to come back,” Paulina said. The employee laughed.

“We are glad you are satisfied,” The employee chuckled. They examined her again. “Your skin is nearly flawless, my dear. But I am sure you already knew of the flaw there?”

Paulina touched the mole on her cheek, the one her Papa never let her get rid of. That makeup could not hide. She had played it off over the years, but still it grated on her nerves to see it in the mirror. The employee led her to another aisle, this one filled with different creams. They grabbed a selection.

“Cover your face in this cream, and all blemishes will be removed, no matter how big or small,” They held the cream out with a flourish.

“I didn’t know anything like that existed,” Paulina said happily, looking over the cream. “How much?”

“For you, my dear, how about some cheer. You seem the type to be a cheerleader, yes?” The employee said. “Does that seem a fair price to you?”

“It’s a bit weird, but sure,” Paulina said. She gave the employee her best Casper High cheer, to which they applauded with enthusiasm.

Paulina hurried from the shop to try out her new cream. It worked like magic, her complexion even more perfect than she had ever dreamed. The mole was erased away as if it were never there. The few pimple scars she had concealed were gone as well. It even erased a small scar she had on her finger, just from where she had applied it. She wanted to dance around her room with joy, to cheer this new development in her life. But she didn’t.

Paulina returned again. The employee was leaning against the counter when she entered.

“It is so good to see you again,” The employee cheered her entrance. Paulina grinned back at them, showing off where her mole used to be. The employee eyed it with approval. “How can I help you today?”

“How do you think you can help me?” Paulina teased. The employee laughed brightly, smiling back at Paulina with fondness.

“I wonder if any have come as close to perfect as you, my dear. Let’s see how I can help,” The employee gently held Paulina’s hand and spun her in a slow circle. “My dear, there is only one thing that mars your perfection. Follow me.”

The employee led Paulina once more into the store, hand still clasped in hand. They came to a display of different makeup. The employee picked up a small container of eyeshadow. It glittered. The employee held it next to their own eye. It matched the shade they wore.

“As you can see, I definitely recommend it,” The employee said. “Wear this, and you will show no signs of aging. You could be sixty, and you will look as you are now. It may be one of our pricier products, but you will not be disappointed.”

Paulina looked at the small palette with greed.

“How much?”

“For you, my dear, I want only your name,” The employee said.

“That’s fair. My name is [        ]” [       ] said, an uncomfortable feeling rippling over her skin as she took the small palette.

“I am glad you are satisfied,” Paulina responded with a laugh, green eyes glittering with joy and something more.

Bottled Beauty: Reasonable Rates

Fair Price for Fair Folk.

[okkennymay]

I am happy to let yah’ll know the next page is coming along swimmingly, in fact the next four are coming together at such speed and quality I'm a little stunned at myself! All that work to set things up was so so SO worth it! Needless to say, health permitting, page 3 gonna be up REAL soon 👀 Don’t think it’s gonna be too hard for me to actually keep up with my schedule at this rate! 

Not only that, all your tags and comments, Oh my gOODNESS- I juST-

It’s made me the happiest I’ve ever been in years.

To see such excitement, such anticipation and appreciation! Oh it’s almost more than lil heart can handle, but it’s oh so addictive~ 💖 I can’t help but work on Ectober Night each moment my health and life permits!~ Thank you, my sweet ghosts and ghouls 💖 

[ectoentity]

One Way or Another

Ectober Haunt 27/ Ectober Week 3: Cobweb vs Burial

Rating: G

Words: 978

Characters: Clockwork, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley

Other tags: Ghost lore, Clockwork can’t just explain things, coming to terms with death, restless spirit

Clockwork needs to explain to Sam and Tucker how they can help Danny, but he has to find a way around the rules that the Observants have made for him.

Read on AO3 here.

The signs were all there from the very beginning. The wild power swings, the shifting moods. The fear and denial and paranoia. The inability to stop moving, stop pursuing a goal. If anyone had treated Phantom like a regular ghost, they would have realized that something was wrong with him immediately. Perhaps his half-human nature had kept him together when any other ghost would have reached the breaking point.

Unfortunately, the symptoms of suddenly becoming half-ghost were strikingly similar to the traits of a restless spirit.

Clockwork had known the whole time, of course. He had hoped that the timeline would work out in a more fortuitous manner, so that he wouldn’t have to interfere. It had been a possibility, though a slim one. Now the boy’s friends were at his door, looking for answers.

He opened the door as Sam put her hand up to knock. She glared at him. Her makeup was sloppy, smudged, put on more to keep up appearances than because she wanted to wear it.

“What’s wrong with him?” she demanded. Tucker held back, glancing around as if expecting that Danny would swoop down upon them at any moment.

Clockwork appreciated that Sam was trying to get to the point, but if she tried to fix things without understanding what was going on, the outcomes could be unpleasant. “Please, come in. He cannot enter here so long as I do not wish it.” Clockwork moved aside and ushered the humans into the tower.

Every second he could see possible timelines rising and falling. Each hesitation or lack thereof led to another possibility. Most differences weren’t actually important, but they were differences worth acknowledging. Whether Tucker took the blue seat or stood up did not actually matter - there were good outcomes and poor ones from each branch. Much more concerning was Sam’s impatience. If she took him for being too pompous, she would try to find her own answers. Incorrect answers, which would probably end with her dead and Danny unable to be saved.

Tucker took the green seat, as it happened.

“I cannot tell you what you need to do,” Clockwork said. This would have been much easier if he could have just told the poor children what they had to do, but the damnable Observants prevented him from outright explaining “ghostly secrets” to humans. Clockwork’s form shifted smoothly from elderly to middle-aged as he spoke. Normally he didn’t bother controlling his form, letting it go from one age to another randomly. Humans and younger ghosts were more unnerved by it, so he made more of an effort around them. “I can only explain the situation so you understand.”

“I’m listening,” Sam said, arms crossed. She did not take a seat.

“Have you ever read Antigone?” Clockwork asked. This got a scowl from Sam. He knew she had, and she knew he knew she had. “What was the reason that Antigone betrays her father’s wishes?”

“To bury her brothers. What does that have to do with… with Danny?” There was a hint of understanding in the way her eyes widened, but she needed something a little more concrete.

“Are you saying we need to bury Danny?” Tucker interjected. “But he’s not dead! Well, not entirely.”

Clockwork shook his head. “Listen before you jump to any conclusions, please.” He tapped his staff on the ground. “The ancient Greeks believed that most ghosts were the result of bodies left unburied. This is not true, but it also was not entirely wrong.”  That was as close as he could get to truly explaining a restless spirit with the Observants' bindings on him.

The human children reacted in different, but equally interesting ways. Sam sighed to herself and crossed her arms tighter, so that she appeared to be hugging herself briefly. Tucker was more expressive. He leapt up and stomped in front of Clockwork.

“Danny isn’t deceased, though! Sure, he died in the portal, but he came back! Is everyone who came back to life some ticking timebomb?”

“Tucker, that’s not true.” Sam said softly. “You know it. He didn’t just die and come back to life. He’s not alive. He’s not dead, but he’s not really alive, either.”

“But that-” Tucker turned to her with hands raised like he meant to gesture, but he dropped them when he saw her face. She was uncharacteristically reserved. Downcast eyes were the only real sign of what Sam was feeling. Clockwork wasn’t the best at judging emotions, but if he had to guess he would say it was a bitter acceptance.

“You’re right,” Tucker admitted to her. “I didn’t want to think about it, but… he really did die, didn’t he?” The fight went out of him, and he gently put a hand on Sam’s arm. She pulled him into a hug. Clockwork did not listen while they whispered about their sorrow. It wasn’t his place. Instead he watched the timelines around them rise and fall while he waited for them to come to a decision.

Sam’s eyes were red when she turned back to him. “What do we need to do? Some kind of funeral?”

“Perhaps,” Clockwork answered. He tapped a clock, turning its face into a screen. Danny’s bedroom showed on it, with all his many rockets. “In many cases, when a body cannot be found, someone will use a proxy.”

“But we have to bury something?” Tucker asked.

Clockwork shook his head. “There are cultures that don’t utilize burials like yours. Fire and water work as well as earth.”

Sam reached up and tapped the screen, her finger lingering on a Saturn V rocket booster. “I think I understand. It’s about the ritual, not the body. Something to tell the soul that it’s not really alive anymore.”

“It’s possible,” Clockwork said noncommittally. She was so close to the truth. Hopefully, close enough to make it work.

[theleslistuff]

Ectober day 19 cosmic horror

Warning; body horror, Danny being comfortable with it, new power, shape shift, an OC involved as Danny's twin brother.

Danny was bored in his room with a bunch of homework he left accumulate every time there was a ghost attack, he really doesn't want to deal with this in a beautiful day like this one, so he gets up and stretches his arms, internally praying for a ghost to come here.

He walks around the room, goes to the bathroom, watches some videos and the homework is still not done, after a couple of hours he tries again to do it, not really doing much than writing his name and some letters, finally giving up.

-ugh... -

Fooling around a little more he passes his tongue around his teeth until a sharp thing almost cuts his tongue... Discovering he got fangs..., he rushes towards the bathroom to see it..., but he doesn't find anything strange with his teeth, this kinda annoyed him and relieved him.

-I must be sleepy... Why would I sprout fangs?! -

He was about to go when a sharpened teeth hurt his tongue, he finally saw it, 2 fangs and the other teeth getting pointed

-ah!! -

He flinched but as if they were feeling his distress, his teeth returned to it's normal form.

-what?!..., I did that?! -

Now he looks more amazed than scared, he tried to make his teeth sharp again and it instantly happened...

-I can shape shift!-

Now with a new found power he decided to try how far it can go, he turned into Phantom, with a slightly tugging sensation he looks himself in the mirror as his teeth got sharp and grew until it was uncomfortable to close his mouth, at the awkward size his mouth adapted to fit those teeth feeling his lips slipping into nothingness, that involuntary change made him scared so his mouth went back to normal.

-...?! -

He keeps looking at the mirror, for now he doesn't want to touch his face anymore, he looks at his hands thinking about trying to see if it's not his face the only thing he can change, he remembered a ghost lizard with webbed paws he fought not long ago, his left hand seemed to respond to that thought as he reached for that hand with the right one feeling how the glove got tight to finally be ripped by grey claws and some tingling sensation as a membrane grew between his fingers, his arm even felt slightly longer than normal too.

-ok..., no more something that can rip my clothes... -

He made the changes fade away leaving him with a fingerless glove and noticing it was more easy to go back to normal than make a change willingly, he retired the glove from his right hand to try again without ruining his clothes.

He focuses thinking about how he usually can make his legs fuse in a ghostly tail, maybe he can do...

He didn't need to think about it for too much as his fingers were cramping together slightly painfully, with the room in complete silence the only things that can be heard are his grunts of pain and his bones cracking as his arm resembles more a more a tentacle than an arm, gaining flexibility as it slowly looses bones, until he can wiggle it around as easy as moving an arm, he makes it go back to normal.

-sweet... -

He murmured, now... Coming up with a idea...

(Can I... Make several changes at once?...)

He thought with a smile on his face.

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

Andy was grabbing a soda from the fridge after coming back from buying a video game since he had all from his homework made in time and his mother let him go out, he gave Danny his homework so he could just copy knowing his duty of protecting the town is not easy, he heard some grunts...

At first he thought he just heard things, but after a couple of minutes hearing them, he follows the sound up to his shared room...

-what is he doing?! -

He opens the door and finds a thing with big and totally green eyes, no eyebrows, a pearl white skin, razor sharp big fangs with no lips, a tentacle for a right hand and a webbed claw for a left hand, it has a snake's black tail, a claw and another tentacle growing from his back, a bird wing growing from a rib and a bat like wing growing from his wrists, he could recognize this amorphous thing for it's hair and the rest of the suit he didn't took off.

-I... Imf goff stuck... -

The creature said in distress, almost impossible to understand thanks to his fangs and the total lack of lips, Andy sighs.

-at least you did the homework?... -

The other one looks away in shame.

-no... -

[ave-aria]

Rewind

Ectober Week 2020 Day 3: Rewind Summary: Maddie can't believe what she's seeing on the security tape. In shock, she hits rewind. Tags: Reveal fic, Blood, Angst, Implications of character death, Tragedy, Trauma, Oneshot

-

Rewind.

Maddie keeps her eyes on the tv screen as the figures wind their way backwards to the start of the video. She won't look away. Can't. Doesn't dare.

If she looks away, she'll have to focus on something else. The quiet, dusty lab around her. The uncleaned ecto-weapons by the door. The green blood smattered on the blade.

The hollow, empty house looming over her head…

The video hiccups a bit as she hits the start of the feed. Old VHS tapes are odd like that, buzzing out with static where the film wore thin from too many pauses and restarts. It's a sign she's hit the beginning. Maddie presses play.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

It was an old security tape, filched from the lab. Onscreen, three teenagers, her son at the lead, slip into the camera's field of view. Maddie leans closer, enraptured by the movement, even though she's seen this moment enough times to have it seared into her brain.

Maybe, if she focuses hard enough, she can learn the secret - how to rewind her own mistakes, go back to a time when none of it has happened, just like in the video.

"Whoa, check it out! This thing's huge! I can't believe your parents built this!" A pause, while the kid adjusts his glasses. "Bummer that it doesn't work though, dude."

"Damn. Was it really supposed to open a portal to the underworld?"

"It's 'The Ghost Zone,' Sam. And yeah. My parents were pretty heartbroken when it didn't work. It kinda just… fizzled out. I hope they're not too upset."

The detached, clinical angle of the shot doesn't do the moment justice. Danny'd always been such a kind boy, thoughtful and empathetic to a fault. Maddie's throat closes up a little, leaving her struggling to breathe. They had been upset. Unbearably so. Their life's work - as Danny put it - fizzled out before their very eyes. It'd been a hard loss to take, one that she and Jack might never have recovered from, had the Portal not miraculously started working on its own, days later.

God. Now she almost wishes it hadn't.

A bright flash draws her from her reverie. Maddie blinks at the screen. A camera flash. In her distraction, she's missed part of the video; Tucker's casual "Lighten up, dude,", Sam's request for a photo op, Danny grabbing a hazmat suit to pose with while she dug the device from her backpack.

"—Got it," Sam waves the printed Polaroid to air out the negative.

"Okay. I showed you the portal. Can we get out of here now? My parents could be back here any minute."

Where had they been that day, anyway? Maddie wonders. Grocery shopping? Visiting the park? Moping, as they tried anything to get their minds off of their most recent failure? If they'd been there —

If they'd been there—

"Come on, Danny," comes Sam's voice, treacherous in its fascination. "A Ghost Zone? Aren't you curious?"

Danny looks into the Portal, clutching the custom white suit made specially for him. Sam smirks, knowing. "You gotta check it out."

Maddie hits pause.

Rewind.

"You gotta check it out."

Pause. Rewind.

"You gotta check it out."

Rewind.

"—gotta check it out."

The remote feels cold and heavy, like ice in her hand. In that moment, a selfishness grips her. She could blame Sam. For all if it. Everything that happened, it all started here, and it started because—

—But she can't blame Sam, because the next moment, Danny turns back, his eyes sparkling with an adventurous spirit. It's a spark of curiosity, brimming at the thought of the unknown; a look she's all too familiar with, one she's seen often on her daughter's face, her husband's - even her own, in the mirror.

"You know what? You're right. Who knows what kind of awesome, super cool things exist on the other side of that Portal?"

That curiosity, it's a Fenton trait, not one that needs to be stoked like a fire. That spark's been burning within him, since the cradle.

"Don't go in," she whispers, as if her advice could change the course of history. Even if he could hear her, though, it would be no use. He can no more resist the call than he can resist breathing.

He pulls on the hazmat suit. Skintight, white with black edging. It's like staring at a photo-negative. Watching her son, Maddie's stomach twists.

How couldn't she see it before?

"Alright. I'm going in." He says. His first footsteps echo, loud, in the hollow of the blacked out Portal…

Maddie's breath shudders in. She grips the remote and, before she can stop herself, hits the button.

Rewind.

She watches as her son walks backwards, double-time, out of the entrance to the Portal. The panic that gripped her fades.

"Mads?" From somewhere up above, echoing down the staircase, comes her husband's voice. Maddie is glued to the video screen, and almost doesn't hear him. Regardless, she definitely can't answer. What would she even say?

"Maddie?" His heavy footsteps echo in the stairwell, trudging closer. "Are you down there?"

A hitch in the tape. Maddie presses play.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

Drawn by the sound, Jack trudges the rest of the way down the narrow staircase. She feels a slight reverberation in the floor when he reaches the landing behind her. She doesn't turn around.

"The police called back. Officer McNally said he'd file a missing persons report, and they promised to keep their eyes open. But—" she hears the way uncertainty causes his voice to die in his throat when she doesn't turn to greet him. After a long moment of silence, he draws up to her side. "What are you watching?" he asks at last.

"It kinda just… fizzled out. I hope they're not too upset."

Question. He'd asked a question. Maddie swallows and struggles to answer. "Security tapes," she chokes out.

Understanding, an incomplete kind, dawns on Jack, and vigor jumps back into his bones. "Mads, that's brilliant!" he booms. "Why didn't I think of it? He comes into the lab all the time! We can use the security tapes to see when he last—"

"I found this tape in Danny's room," she interrupts.

Again, his voice falters in confusion.

"Under the bed," she elaborates, as if that will help. And continues watching, detached.

"Can we get out of here now? My parents could be back any minute."

The flickering light of the tv fills the lab, ominous in its glow. Jack hesitates. Maybe he's picked up on the subtext by now. Maddie can picture his eyes drifting from the staticy screen to the items in front of it, scattered across the table. He reaches out fro the shoebox sitting beside the tv. Taped to its front, written in the cursive, unmistakable scrawl of their son's handwriting, is a note that reads:

'If I Never Come Home'

"Maddie, what is this." Jack's voice is uncharacteristically heavy. Looking to her for guidance. For answers.

For once, she has none to give.

"Watch," Maddie whispers, still trapped by the screen. Automatic, her fingers hit the button.

Rewind.

With no other options to grasp at, he does.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

Watches as the kids approach the Portal.

"Aren't you curious?"

Watches as their son zips up the hazmat suit.

"Alright, I'm going in."

Watches as he disappears into the empty cavity of their greatest invention.

Click.

Watches as it thrums to life, with a scream.

"Da—Danny no!" Jack yells in tandem with the two remaining teens. He lurches forward, hand outstretched, to stop the agony onscreen. "He's not - when did he -"

"It's old, Jack," Maddie whispers. "From when the Portal started working."

Jack spins to stare at her. "You mean - Danny's the one who—" he's visibly struggling with the information, the same way she did, on her first viewing. "But—he never said—"

Right, Madie thinks. He never said anything. Jack's confusion is laughable, though. Why Danny never told them—that much is painfully clear.

"Guys?" Over the yelling and the panicking and the electric cackle from the Portal, their son's terrified voice cuts through the din. "G-guys help, what's happening?!"

Tucker and Sam are black silhouettes stumbling backwards from a swirling green glow, but they freeze and scramble to right themselves, lurching forward to catch someone as he stumbles through the gate.

Phantom - Danny - emerges from the portal, falling to his knees.

"…No," Jack says. Disbelief is thick in his voice. "That can't be… no."

Maddie lifts the remote.

Rewind.

A flash of light. A curdling scream. A shock of confusion, panic, scramble.

Danny Phantom stumbles from the portal.

Jack stares for a long time. Then he reaches out, snatching the lid of the shoebox for a second look at the evidence. The note, accusatory, stares back at them.

"This is how he tells us." Jack doesn't often whisper, but it seems like he can't do anything else. Her husband looks at the empty shoebox, the screen, the VCR. "Our son is Danny Phantom, and this is how he tells us. I…" he trails off.

Maddie almost can't believe it, how easily Jack arrives at the conclusion. It took her twelve viewings for her to wrap her mind around it, and it still hasn't really sunk in. But then, that's always been Jack's strong poing - those intuitive leaps of logic. Ones every scientist both loathed and envied.

"Did it kill him?" he moves seamlessly onto the next question that tripped her. Somehow, Jack's voice is even quieter this time.

Maddie shakes her head no. If they watch the video long enough, about ten minutes in, Danny manages to change his way back to human. If their invention did kill him, it wasn't permanent. Not that time, at least.

She's too close to thinking about it.

Rewind.

"But—" she can't stop Jack from thinking, though. He barrels on, heedless of breaking the fragile grasp Maddie has on her sanity. "But if all this time — Phantom—"

A hitch in the tape.

"We've been—"

Press play.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

"—Don't tell me we've been trying to waste our own kid—"

If Maddie weren't so detached, she might laugh. Waste. God, he can't even say it.

"Trying?" she asks instead. Bitter, the word sticks to her tongue.

She's not looking at the tape now. She's looking at him. And Jack, oh, Jack, he just stares down at her, a dark horror growing in his eyes.

He whips around to look at the bloodied weapons sitting at the base of the stairs.

Exactly where they left them two days ago, after that nasty ghost fight. When they came home to find a broken house, their daughter crying at the kitchen table, and their son just - gone.

"No." Jack backs up a step. "No no no no no no no—"

A flash of light. A curdling scream—

In an instant, Jack is moving. He snatches up weapons, whatever he can find, and bolts for the staircase, vaulting his way up to ground floor. Distantly, Maddie hears the doors slam. The RV thrumming to life. The screech of tires as Jack peels out of the driveway.

In the cold wake of his departure, Maddie turns back to the tv. She should go after him, she knows. But she's not quite done watching. Jack's always been a man of action, after all, but she's the analytical one, who studies, who marvels, who gathers the facts she sees.

Phantom, onscreen, slumps against his friends while he drips ectoplasm to the floor. He stares down at his white-gloved hands, his glowing green eyes wide in shock. Maddie wonders if he knew, then, what would become of him. What his parents, who raised him, who swore to protect him, would do.

She can't face those questions. Not yet. Not yet. Instead, she lifts the remote.

And rewinds.

A good scientist, a rational scientist, never draws conclusions while she's still gathering evidence. So as long as she's still watching—

A hitch in the tape. She's at the beginning. Maddie presses play.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

As long as she keeps watching, she doesn't have to do anything with this information. All she has to do is watch.

So she watches. She rewinds. And she plays. She can't look away—

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here—"

She doesn't dare.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down h—"

All she can do is rewind—

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let y—"

And rewind—and rewind—

"Mom and Dad would kill me if—"

Until she finds evidence contrary to her theory…

"Mom and Dad would kill me—"

Or she finds Its inevitable End.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

Rewind.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they—"

Rewind.

"Mom—"

Rewind.

"Mom—"

Rewind.

"Mom—"

-

[AO3] [FFN]

[five-rivers]

Interview With a Ghost

This is a sequel to Unearthed and Scarecrow/Grave Robber from my Ectober series.

A summary of those: When Danny became half ghost, he half died and left half a corpse. He, Sam, and Tucker went and buried it in a infrequently-traveled public park. The police found it during their annual picnic. A couple of detectives, Collins and Patterson, were assigned to the case, and they're trying to figure out what's going on. Danny keeps trying to convince them to stop. His corpse-related anxiety is making him do things of questionable wisdom. Ghosts do not like their remains disturbed.

.

.

.

Danny slipped into the police station invisibly, trailing after the two detectives. They seemed like nice people. Good people. Dedicated people. That last was a problem. He didn't want them to be dedicated. Not about this.

What he wanted was for his body to be put back in the ground and forgotten about. He wanted his mystery to go unsolved.

The problem was, how to convince these two, and the rest of the Amity Park Police Department while he was at it, that it was better for everyone if the mystery went unsolved?

It really would be. Between Vlad and the GIW... Danny's secret getting out would have nasty consequences. But he couldn't tell them about Vlad, and the consequences concerning the GIW weren't immediately obvious without knowing the solution to the mystery.

Maybe Sam was right. He should forgo this whole 'interview' nonsense, come back when he actually had a plan. As it was, he would just give them more clues he didn't want them to have.

But if he left them alone...

He listened to them making plans to interview his human self and other students at Casper High. They were going to interview him, anyway. He bit his lip. At least, he could distract them from that. Perhaps he could make out that he was older? Too old for the students at Casper now to have known him? No, that wouldn't work. They had his body. They'd be able to tell how long it was buried. Even he knew that.

"Does it feel cold in here to you?" asked the younger detective, Patterson.

The other tilted his head, frowning. "Maybe," he said. "Phantom?"

Well, he wasn't going to just appear out of thin air in the middle of this giant room full of desks. Over half the police in town had to be there.

Some of them must have noticed Detective Collins question, because there was a wave of whispering, and the room began to fall quiet.

Despite being invisible, Danny felt very exposed.

"If you're here," said Patterson, raising her hands, "we just want to talk. Will you talk with us?"

"It doesn't have to be here," said Collins. "We've got private rooms. We can talk there."

After a few tense seconds, Collins began to walk away.

They're right over here. Interview rooms. They're actually pretty nice, not what you usually see on TV."

With some reluctance, Danny followed. He could just leave.

But that wouldn't accomplish anything, except, perhaps, to make them more suspicious of him.

The room was indeed nicer than Danny had expected. The floor was carpeted. The walls and furniture were wood. There was a mirror, a one-way window, on one side of the room. Danny wondered if the purpose of the room was to lure interviewees into a false sense of comfort.

He blinked at the one-way glass a few times, adjusting his vision so he could see what lay beyond. As expected, it was rather crowded. It looked like a good number of the other detectives had squeezed into the booth.

"You realize," said Collins, out of the side of his mouth as he situated himself in a chair, "that if he isn't here we'll look like idiots, right?"

Danny sighed, heavily, and the detectives stiffened. He faded into invisibility. "You aren't idiots," he said. Then he remembered what he had come here for. "About this particular thing."

"Ah," said Patterson. "Well, thank you for coming and doing this interview."

"Yeah," said Danny, crossing his arms, "about that. I could do without the peanut gallery." He nodded towards the mirror.

"The-" Collins glared at the mirror. "Oh, for the love of god. Patterson, can you clear them out and get Captain Jones? He's the only one who should be here for this."

Patterson rolled her eyes but left the room.

"Well," said Collins. "While we're waiting for her to get back, let's make ourselves comfortable. You can sit down if you want."

"I'm fine," said Danny. He watched as Patterson started shooing people out of the room behind the glass and the captain walked in.

"Alright, that's okay. I'm not sure we've been formally introduced. I'm Detective Collins. My partner is Detective Patterson."

"I know," said Danny. "You're the homicide team. Well, this, me, it wasn't a homicide. Okay? So you don't need to do this."

Collins spread out his hands. "I'm not going to pressure you to talk about it," he said. "I gather that ghosts don't like that particular subject. But we have to investigate any suspicious death we come across. And yours? It's pretty suspicious."

"I'm telling you, it isn't. It's just dumb," said Danny.

Patterson came back into the room. "Hi," she said. "I'm Detective Patterson."

"Yeah," said Danny. "I know."

She leaned up against the wall next behind Collins. "So, what should we call you?"

Danny shrugged. "Phantom, I guess," he said. Was that an unsubtle attempt at finding out his real name? "Look, I know that you want to know who I am, and how I died and all that, but I'm not here to talk about that."

"Then what are you here to talk about?" asked Collins.

Danny closed his eyes briefly. "It would be dangerous if you knew those things. I want to talk you out of it. I'm sorry I left my body in a public placel. If you want me to do community service to make up for it, I will. But I'm not planning on pressing charges, and there's not anything else that would come of looking into it. Like I said, it was an accident, and not one that's going to happen again."

"Because you'll make sure of it?" asked Patterson.

"No," said Danny, annoyed, "because it was freak chance. One in a million, or even less. Most ghosts aren't sticking around to avenge their deaths." Revenge was a boring Obsession, Vlad's notwithstanding.

Okay, so maybe the portal accident wasn't quite as 'one and done' as Danny was claiming, but that was why he didn't want anyone to know about it.

"So, why is it dangerous to know about?" asked Collins.

Danny puffed his cheeks out. Why, indeed. "It's dangerous to me," he said, finally. "If you haven't noticed, I have more than a few enemies, and there is a reason ghosts don't like to talk about their deaths."

"So why don't you tell us?" asked Patterson. "We're not going to tell anybody."

"No, but you'd have to confirm it, and people would know," said Danny. In retrospect, this was a pretty good cover for why he didn't want his manner of death to be investigated, and he'd come up with it on the spot! Well, he always did do better under pressure.

But just as Danny started to pat himself on the back, Collins sighed. "Phantom. What happened to you wasn't 'just' an accident. Half of your body was missing."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "It looked pretty whole to me," he said. "All three times."

"According to our ME, it only weighed about half what it should have," said Collins, leaning forward.

Static filled Danny's brain. Half. Half the mass gone. Stop. He already knew- It was not time to panic.

"So?" asked Danny.

"There was also a lot of ectoplasm in the body," added Patterson.

"Well, this is Amity Park, and I am a ghost."

"More than it should have gotten just from you handling it."

"What, and you're suddenly an expert in ectology?" scoffed Danny. It was a good thing he didn't sweat in ghost form.

Patterson leaned forward, stepping away from the wall. "Were you killed by a ghost?"

Danny blinked. "No," he said. "That's stupid. Ghosts know better than anyone that someone dying doesn't necessarily mean they're gone." He rubbed his eyes. "This was a bad idea. You're not going to listen to me." He turned to go.

"Wait, Phantom," said Collins. "Just one more question, please."

Danny glowered from his position near the ceiling. He'd been just about to go through. "What?" he ground out.

"Is the reason you don't want anyone to know that you're dead because..." he paused, apparently searching for words, "because no one even knows you're missing? Because you're still trying to live your life? Because you're pretending to be alive?"

Danny's very alive heart hammered in his chest. "That's more than one question," he said.

He vanished.

[jackdaw-sprite]

27_voidfic ?????? :3ccc

As you probably guessed, one of the fics I wanted to finish from ectober. It's set a bit before the Void!Danny thing I posted for the New Moon prompt, and actually covers a few different ones: (sort of) Nightmare, Cobwebs, Burial, and Echo. This one is actually all words. It's still a WIP because I need to fact check some stuff and potentially rewrite a bit. Putting the actual exerpts below a readmore because Danny gets melty.

bit 1: With a final heave, the mask tears from Danny's face and clatters to the concrete.

He falls like a puppet with strings cut and puddles beside it, a mess of limbs and starry goo. His legs…there's something wrong with his legs, like an ice cream bar left melting in the summer sun.

"Danny?" Tucker asks. In the corner of his vision, Sam palms the mask.

Danny emits something that could be a scream, if it weren't scraping at the upper edge of human hearing. It knifes into Tucker's head, and he claps his hands over his ears.

"Danny!"

The noise stops, restarts, and stops again. Beneath the goo, Tucker can see Danny's chest heaving with effort as he struggles to put weight on his hands. The fluid pooling around his melted legs crawls back to them and begins to reconstitute itself, flowing like taffy from the floor. ... bit 2:

If he keeps thinking, he won't remember the impossible weight of sleep as Nocturne pulled him under and held him there as the last traces of conscious thought escaped in the struggle--

He pulls in on himself and breathes. Counts sights, scents, sounds.

Sensations.

There is something on his face.

It is not his mask, so distant now. He reaches up, and winces.

Touching his cheek hurts like too much pressure on new skin.

But there's nothing there.

But there is something cool on his face, lightly pressuring. Damp.

Let me in, whispers the mask in his head. Aren't you lonely, divided from yourself like this?

Danny can't tell if it sounds like himself or like Nocturne.

[reading-wanderer]

Ectober Day 20: Full Moon

The full moon always stresses Vlad out, good thing he has Jack looking out for him.

Ectober Masterlist

“I’m back,” Jack called as he entered the dorm room with food from the cafeteria.

“What’s the password,” Vlad growled from his bed, frame stiff and hands paused from carving one of his candles he’s not suppose to have, but the RA can never find.

It’s not the nicest greeting, but that’s okay. Vlad always gets testy on the night of the full moon. The scars on his throat always stand out just a little starker and he refuses to leave the dorm room after dark. Some of the other guys in the hall tried joking about Vlad’s ‘time of the month’, but Jack set them straight. (And got yelled at by Vlad, Maddie, and the RA when he refused to say why)

It takes a moment for Jack to remember, but he answered back, “Death goo bleaches blacks.” Vlad visibly relaxed and Jack could feel his own shoulders lowering in response.

“Caf have anything good today?” Vlad asked, setting his candle on the bedside table and brushing the wax bits onto the floor. They are also, technically, not suppose to bring food from the cafeteria back to the dorms, but the RA hasn’t said anything, so Jack keeps doing it.

“Pot pies and pumpkin bars,” Jack announced, presenting Vlad his food with a flourish.

“Thanks Jack,” Vlad flashes him a fond smile and Jack has to resist the urge to do…something. Instead he settles himself on the packers themed bed next to Vlad.

“So what do you think of Hangram’s assignment?”

“Ugh,” Vlad complained between bites, “if I have to do one more derivative, my brain’s going to turn into mush.” Jack laughed.

“Dang, there goes my plan to ask you for help on 9.” Vlad rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically, but it didn’t hide the smile pulling at his lips.

“Bring it here, let’s see where you’re stuck.” Jack watched carefully as Vlad looked over the problem, still taking a bite of his pot pie every so often. “Here,” he said after a bit, tapping next to the issue for emphasis, “you switched the sign.”

“Thanks,” Jack grinned, pulling his homework back and making the correction, “where would I be without you?”

“Redoing Calc 2,” Vlad offered with a smirk. Jack wrinkled his nose.

“Telkman had it out for me,” Jack complained with a mischievous smile, “wouldn’t let me sleep through his class.” Vlad snorted. Jack’s smile widened into a grin and he kept going, “Not even a little bit. It was at 8 in the morning, Vlad. 8. I don’t know how I survived.”

“Maybe if you went to sleep earlier…” Vlad offered, his lips twitching. Jack gasped.

“That’s blasphemy! Blasphemy I say,” he flopped over, his hands over his heart, “how could my best friend in the world say such terrible things! I’m dying of a broken heart, Vlad, how could you? Oh no! Farewell cruel world!” Vlad laughed loudly, one hand trying to ineffectually smother the sound while the other just barely kept ahold of his tray. Jack grinned up at him, enjoying the way Vlad’s eyes went bright and crinkled at the corners.

“Okay okay,” Vlad said, still grinning, “go to sleep as late as you want. I am going to bed at nine. Now, did you need help with any other homework?” he asked, setting the rest of his food aside.

“Yes! Stickman’s essay is killing me. Let me get my stuff!” Jack cheered, diving for his backpack.

It was, he thought, a very good night.