#like think about it. no one expects Phantom to have a secret identity because he’s dead.

[stealingyourbones]

A story based on the parallels between Superman and Phantom’s secret identity and why it works so well: no one assumes they have a secret identity in the first place.

[diamond-rozie]

Tim stepped cleanly inside the room, and carefully shut the door behind him after checking if anyone was in the hallway. “What are you-” Danny started confused. Tim was acting very unusually right now. 

“I’m Red Robin.” He said.

Danny stared at him for a few seconds. Tim had expected him to be more shocked, Danny wasn’t like Damian and Bruce in the aspect of holding back his reactions. He watched Danny carefully and noticed that he wasn’t even surprised at all. 

His shoulder shifted a little, and a look passed in his eyes. He was relieved. That didn’t make any sense unless, “You knew.”

It made an irrevocable amount of sense. The stupid excuses he didn’t question, the easy slide bys on things that didn’t add up. Tim had wondered why Danny never brought it up with any of them. He was always quick to call bullshit on things but conveniently never on their mission cover ups. 

“Yeah.” He admitted quietly, findling with the small screwdriver in his hand.

“Why didn’t you say something before?” Tim asked. He felt a little ridiculous about it all now, “How long have you known?” Tim’s mind went back to the dining room argument from last night and he rolled through it in his head. “Wait, Jason knows you know, doesn’t he?” Tim blurted, “That why he- why didn’t I realize this sooner?” 

“I mean I know you guys can’t just tell whoever you want. It’s a secret identity for a reason. You guys didn’t want me to know. So I acted like I didn’t.” Danny shrugged. “I figured it out when Dick and Bruce were in Amity, and yeah, Jason knows. He also knows I’m Phantom. Cass knows too- not the Phantom thing. Or maybe she does, I don't know.”

“You knew the whole time?” Tim balked. All the effort they put in to hide the proof before he came, and he knew the whole time. Wait, did he say- “You’re Phantom?” Tim practically yelled. 

Danny blinked at him, “I thought you knew that.” He pointed the end of the screw driver at him, “Why were you guys so okay with him being in the cave then?” 

“We thought he was Thomas Jr.” Tim threw his hands up, rethinking his entire career choice. “I mean, yeah he was in Amity with you, but we figured it was like a guardian ghost thing since the time Dick met him that one time when you got lost or something he was the one- holy shit, you were following them the whole time weren’t you.” 

“You thought Thomas was Phantom?” Danny laughed, finding this ridiculous. 

“Isn’t that how supernatural stuff works or something. Like, you guys are linked because you were switched with each other and because you were with the family he was supposed to be with so he turned into a protective spirit to, like, watch over you or something.” 

Danny's look of appalment only deepened as Tim continued explaining. “Who told you that?” 

“I mean we just kinda figured it out ourselves based on past experiences.” 

“Past experience?” 

“With supernatural stuff the right conclusion is always the most unexpected and slightly irrational one.”

Danny snorted at that. “That is a really bad rule of thumb.” 

“Right, then explain how you’re the ghost Phantom when you’re also human and alive Danny.” Tim crossed his arms. He was trying really hard not to over analyze that right. Did that mean Danny was dead or that Phantom was alive? How could he be both? Well according to Schrödinger's theory- not now Tim. He should make a new file for this later and then he’d think about it. Alone. In his room where he could properly freak out over this. 

“Touche.” Danny clearly thought this was funny so no need to put a damper on the mood. Especially after everything that already happened. 

This information changed a lot of things. Tim would have to refer this back to the Fenton-Masters case. What about Damian? Did he know Danny was Phantom? Probably not, considering none of them had, apparently aside from Jason. It would be almost impossible for Tim to not tell him that since they were supposed to be working it together. Tim wasn’t sure how he would take the information. Not only that, but gave a new scope to the vultures that had attacked and the monster that had showed up from the pits. 

Later. File. Many lists. 

“Do you want to come to Mt. Justice?” Tim asked him. 

“Like the museum?”

“Yes and no. It’s also the Young Justice base. It’s top secret and no ones supposed to know about it.” 

“What! Then why are you telling me?” 

“Do you wanna go or not?” 

“Is that even allowed?”

“Definitely not.”

Danny raised a brow. “Then we can’t go?”

“It’s far but we can just take the jet. It’s like 30 minutes tops. We could take the zeta-tubes but then Bruce would find out you took the zeta-tubes and then we’d be fucked. Well, mostly me. But still.” 

“Wouldn’t he find out we took the jet then?”

“He wouldn’t know you were on the jet. It’s not weird for me to be going there since it is my team.”

“What if we get in trouble?”

“We’ll only get in trouble if we get found out.” Tim shrugged, “Do you want to go or not?”

Danny considered it for a moment before a grin tipped his face. “Yeah.”

“Sweet.” Tim reached for his phone only not realizing he didn’t have it. “I’ll let them know we’ll be coming around. They’re all already there. Tell Alfred you’ll be going out with some friends and then come meet me at Drake Manor.”

Danny seemed to embrace the situation now, forgoing his earlier hesitance. “I’ll wrap up some stuff. I should do breakfast too so Alfred doesn’t think anything is up. I’ll give you a heads up before I’m out the door. I’ll take my bike.” 

“Take the long way round since the Manor’s in the opposite direction of the city.” 

Danny nodded. “What about you?” he asked. 

“No one’s gonna ask if I go in costume.” Tim shrugged, “Speaking of costume…” Tim turned to where he knew the wardrobe to be, “Let me see your clothes.” He opened the double doors in the bathroom where the closest would be and blinked at the largely empty room. “Where are the rest of your clothes?” He asked. Danny looked confused by that, “Oh,” Tim realized, “You used a second closet. Smart. Is it in the lab?” 

 “No, Tim.” He said, pacing his words, “These are all my clothes.” 

“Oh. Why?”

“This is a normal amount of clothes to own.” 

“But it’s like barely covering a fourth of your closet. And that’s only because everything is so spread apart.” 

“That's because the closest is the size of a literal barn. Why on Earth would I need that many clothes?”

“I thought Bruce gave you an allowance?” 

“He did.” 

“Is it not enough?” 

Danny balked at him. “Did you ask to see my closet just to make fun of me?” He huffed. 

“I’m not making fun, I’m concerned.” Tim said genuinely. Did Danny not feel comfortable asking for things? It must be because they were keeping so many secrets and he thought they didn’t trust him. This clearly ran deeper than Tim originally thought. 

Danny shoved his hand in Tim’s face, pushing him back. “Can we get back to the point?”

“Right.”

--- later ---

“Give it back!” 

“No, I had it first!

“Nu-uh. I just put it down for like two seconds when you grabbed it.” 

“You were gone for the whole round.” 

“Where’s the controller you had before?” 

“It died.” 

“There's a bunch of other ones in the drawer.” 

“You can have one from there, then.” 

“No! I want the one I had back.” Tim insisted. 

“No.” Danny moved so he couldn’t reach it. 

“That controller is player 1, so give it back.” 

“Exactly why I’m not giving it back.” 

“Why would you be player 1?”

Danny looked so smug at that, “If you recall, I’m actually older than you which gives me sovereign right over player 1.” He said pushing Tim away. 

“That doesn’t even mean anything!” 

“Ah, to be young and naive.” 

“Fuck you.” Tim said, tackling him off the sofa. 

“What on God’s green Earth is going on here?” Cass asked, returning from their small intermission for snacks. 

Bart rushed up to join her. “Is Danny winning?” 

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No you're not! Give it back.” 

“Get off me.”

Kon was the last to come onto the site. “Guys.” He said seriously, “Superman’s coming. And there’s someone with him.”

Tim stopped trying to strangle Danny, sharing a look of panic with his team. 

“So?” Danny asked, confused.

“Danny, you're not supposed to be here.” Tim hissed at him. “Shit. How do we hide you from Superman?” 

“It was nice knowing you.” Kon said with a sarcastic smile. 

“How far is he?” Cassie asked. 

“He’ll be here in like two minutes.” 

“I’ll hide under the couch, he probably won’t look under there.” Danny offered. 

“He can hear your heartbeat.” 

Danny smiled widely. “I got it covered.” He said, pulling himself into the small space.

Bart giggled in excitement. 

“How-”

Kon gave a silent sign that Superman was here, sending a confused look towards the couch Danny had slid under. Tim’s phone buzzed with a notification. 

Just then, “Konner?” Clark called from the Mission Room. 

The team shared a silent look. They’d just have to trust Danny had this covered. 

“We’re in here.” Bart called even though Clark would already know that.

Tim put up two fingers to silently ask Kon if there was someone else with him. He received an affirmative. This was a horrible day for prospective teammate introductions. 

“Hey guys.” Clark smiled, then confused “Why are you sitting on the floor Red Robin?” He asked.

“I was checking something.” Tim said, picking up the controller Danny had been forced to abandon. 

“Oh, okay.” He nodded, not questioning it further. “I’m glad all of you are already here.”

“Are we getting a mission?” Cassie asked. 

“Sort of.” Clark said, excited. Then in Kryptonian, “ Come .” He said to someone behind him they couldn’t see. Tim couldn’t hear any footsteps. And he found out it was because the person Clark was introducing them to could fly. And Tim also found out that Clark had spoken in kryptonian because this new person was a kryptonian. One that Tim had never met before. “This is Kara. She’s my cousin. The entire situation isn’t all clear yet but as it stands we understand that her pod, while launched at the same time as mine, was caught in an asteroid belt and was only left free recently, when it landed near the Fortress of Solitude.” Clark turned to Kara and introduced them to her in Kryptonian and then added, “ Tim and Kon-el speak Kryptonian which is why I thought you would be more comfortable here instead of the Watch Tower. Though, Kon’s could use some work. ” He teased. 

“Hey, my Kryptonian is fine.” 

“Why don’t you try saying that in Kryptonian?” 

“ My fine is Kryptonian .” Kon said confidently. 

Clark laughed and Kara looked at Kon like he grew a second head. 

“I don’t even speak Kryptonian and I could tell that didn’t sound right.” Cassie laughed. 

Tim took his turn to introduce himself to the nervous and quite blonde. “ I’m Red Robin. ” He pointed to the symbol on his chest. “ It’s nice to meet you. ” He put out a hand for her to shake but Kara just stared at it. Maybe they don’t have hand shakes on Krypton. Since Clark had grown up on Earth he didn’t really know much about the customs of his home planet for them to have learned it beforehand. 

“ Nice to meet you. I am Kara Zor-el, daughter of Captain Zor-El and the Lady Alura. ” Then she stuck out her hand like Tim had. When Tim took it to shake Kara seemed surprised by it. 

“ You’ll be in good hands here, Kara. I’ll be back to check on you later but if you need anything Kon or any of the others can get a hold of me for you, okay ?” Clark said softly trying to gauge if she’d actually be okay here without him. 

Kara started at Clark for a moment like she was processing what he’d said, “ Why will anyone need to hold you? ” 

“Oh.” Clark pondered it, “ It’s an Earth phrase. It just means that they’ll send me a message or contact me if you feel like you want me to come back. ” 

Kara took another pause to process and then, “ I see. ” And does a hand gesture that Tim didn’t understand. And neither did Clark. No one commented on it. 

After Clark left the atmosphere of the room went stale. Danny was still under the couch and they weren’t sure how willing Kara would be to not tell Clark about it. But they couldn’t leave Kara. And Tim’s phone was buzzing with notifications that he did not want to check because he recognized the haptics of the health app he had. The one that had everyone, including Danny’s, vitals. Danny, who Tim was pretty sure had just stopped his heart for the entire duration of Clark being here. Which had been a very long duration.

Kara looked between them, confused. “ Is there something meant to be done? ” 

“ How’s your english, Kara?” Tim asked.

“ Only a little . Kal-El said it will take time .” 

“ Langage harding learn. ” Kon nodded. Kara lipped his words back to herself trying to make sense of it. 

“What do we do about our stowaway?” Cass whispered to Tim. She didn’t speak Kryptnoian, but she understood enough to know what Tim had asked. 

“I could dash him out. Maybe we could spend the day together at the mall and then we’ll be best friends and then he won’t want to hang with Tim anymore because he’d rather hang out with me because I’m so much more fun.” Bart said all in one breath, his words afterwards speeding up too fast for Tim to make any sense of. 

“She’ll know something’s up. We need to test her loyalty.” Tim strategized while Kon attempted to keep Kara in conversation. 

“How? And why haven't any of the supes been able to hear him yet?” Cassie asked. 

Bart took a pause on his earlier ramblings to make Tim’s life more difficult. “Oh it’s because he’s not breathing. Isn’t that so cool.” 

Cassie shot Tim an alarmed look. “He’s a meta.” Tim said off handedly, “Can we focus?” 

“Are you aware that your brother might be suffocating to death? In fact, we may need to hide a corpse and I sure as hell would love to hear how you're going to explain that away at family dinner.” 

“Oh, don’t worry Danny’s fine.” Bart said flippantly. “Danny, if you can hear us, make the room one degree colder.” 

Tim couldn’t feel anything but Kon and Kara did. Kara eyed the room confused about the change but fortunately she didn’t comment on it. 

“So cool.” Bart whistled, lapping the room. 

“Convinced yet?” Tim asked Cassie.

“He’s an ice meta how- you know what, I don’t want to know. So how are we going to test our warden?” 

The lounge room was decorated to look like a regular living room, including hanging “family pictures” on the wall. Everyone on the wall was in costume, for security reasons, but they were actual nice pictures of the team and their mentors. Tim pulled out a batarang from his pocket, and played around with it for a while, talking aloud about random things. It only needed to sound like a real sentence since Kara couldn’t understand what he was saying anyway. Then the batarang “slipped” out of his hand landing right in one of the larger framed pictures. The impact was loud and the glass of the frame shattered and spilled on the floor. 

Cassie didn’t have to fake her flinch in surprise at that, turning to Tim alarmed. Tim adding to the performance acted shocked. Kara and Kon obviously hadn’t missed the commotion and their conversation stopped. Kara looked at the destruction of the frame, analyzing Tim and Cassie’s reaction.  

“Dude.” Bart turned to him wide-eyed, stopping in his tracks, “We’re so dead.” Kara didn’t speak english, sure, but the dread in Bart’s voice was obvious enough. 

“Why did you do that?” Cassie scolded, “That was Red Tornado's favorite.” 

Tim held his head in his hands dramatically, then he let realization dawn on his features. Slowly he turned to face Kara. “ I’ll get in really big trouble if Kal-El or anyone finds out. I can hide it, but you won’t tell will you? ” He made himself sound really worried. 

“ Won’t it be noticed? The image is large .” Kara asked. She was beginning to share their concern on her face, but that didn’t necessarily mean that she would keep her mouth shut about it.

“ Clean up can. ” Kon said in a reassuring tone. Kara looked at him sideways, clearly confused. 

“ They don’t really come in here often so we can pass it off. But you can’t tell. ” Tim told her. 

Kara looked like she was having a hard time understanding him as well. An easier time than with Kon for obvious reasons but still not an easy time. Tim couldn’t understand why since he had made sure their Kryptonian was in perfect condition. “ Pass it off? ” She echoed, confused. 

Kara must not have understood the phrase.“ Pretend like it didn’t happen .” Tim explained. 

She thought about it and nodded. “ An Earth phrase? ” 

“ Yes. ” 

Kara didn’t answer right away and Tim wasn’t sure if it was because she was still deciphering what he’d said or if she was thinking about telling. “ I will not tell Kal-El or his associates since no one was hurt and it was only a minor incident .” Cassie and Bart had already cleaned up most of the mess why Tim talked to Kara. Tim had made sure to hit the frame so only the glass would be shattered and the actual picture was mostly unharmed except for the small tear in the corner. That would be easy enough to cover up. 

Kara's body language was stiff and she was watching everything very carefully. It wasn’t strange since she had been left with a group of strangers in a new environment and she didn’t speak the local language. She seemed around Tim’s age or maybe a little older. Kara was meant to land on Earth with a mission to watch and protect Clark. This implied that she was of a status and position to receive missions. This meant she would work by a set of rules and report to a supervisor. The supervisor was likely Clark who was most likely to take responsibility for her for a variety of reasons. 

Cassie gave Tim a raised eyebrow to ask how it was going as she walked away to dispose of the glass shards. 

It would be a gamble. A deadly one. But if Tim made it look like Danny being here wasn’t that big of a breach of the rules he could convince her to keep it to herself. He shared a look with Kon. 

“ I’m really thankful, Kara. ” Tim says, smiling. He pulls out his phone and texts Cassie and Bart their half of the plan. “ We can show you around the rest of the base. Would you like to do that? ”

“ Okay .” 

“ Room fun lounge after work. Play TV on games .” Kon said. 

Kara stared at him.

“How about I do the talking?” Tim put a hand on Kon’s shoulder. 

“Why? I’m doing so good.” Kon said genuinely. Tim doesn’t respond to that. 

The tour lasted minutes and Tim made sure to bide their time well so Cassie, Bart and Danny could be fully settled in before they returned. It would take a while for Danny’s heart rate to return to normal, and it would be better that he was all there before they tried to pull this off. 

Tim checked his phone when they were nearing the end of the tour. Cassie had texted him they were good on their end. 

“ Let’s go back to meet the others. They don’t speak Kryptonian but we can translate for you so don’t worry. ” Tim said. Kara seemed nice, it was the circumstances that were a bit stressful. But that didn’t mean they should let her feel left out.

“ This is your team ?” Kara asked, following Tim back to the lounge room.

“ Yes we do missions together sometimes. When we’re not working we spend time at the base because we’re friends. ” 

“ It is nice to have friends. ” Kara nodded. 

“ Did you do missions with your friends on Krypton? ” Tim asked. Maybe he could gauge what her position had been to see how she would react. 

“ Only practice. We did not graduate from training yet. ” 

“ Going what’s there ?” Kon asked. Tim had no idea what he was saying. 

“ What dialect does he speak? ” Kara asked Tim. “ I cannot understand it. ” 

 “ We learned the same Kryptonian, Kon just doesn’t practice. ” Tim laughed. Kon understood enough that he elbowed him. “ Are there dialects in Kryptonian? ” 

“ Many. You and Kal-El speak very… proper. ” She said sheepishly. “ No one speaks that way where I am from. Only in important meetings with outsiders .” Then she paused sadly, “ Mother always said it was important to learn but I did not listen. ” Tim had figured Kara spoke so rigidly because she was nervous or shy. This explained why she was having such a hard time understanding them. 

They reached the lounge to Cassie and Danny locked deeply in a game of rock, paper, scissors. Danny had pulled his hood back up and was wearing his cowl from earlier. He had picked one of the older models that covered most of his face until the end of his nose and past his cheekbones. Danny shot scissors at Cassie, beating her paper. Bart cheered loudly, throwing his hands in the air and Cassie groaned in defeat. Danny cackled as he took the last cookie. 

“Hey, D. When’d you get here?” Tim asked for the sole purpose of silently telling the others to not call Danny by his real name.

With a mouth full of cookie, “A while ago. Who’s this?” He asked, gesturing his head to Kara. 

Tim made wide gestures and spoke clearly in english so Kara could pick up what he was saying. It would be important for her to learn. “This is Kara, she’s Superboy’s cousin.”

“I thought she was his aunt?” Cassie asked. 

Danny didn’t look nervous, fortunately, and smiled easily at Kara. Then to Tim’s surprise, “ Nice to meet you. ” he said in perfect kryptonian. 

“ He speaks as well. ” Kara commented. 

“You can speak Kryptonian, too?” Kon asked. 

“Duh.” Bart answered. 

“Dead languages are my speciality.” Danny said pointedly. Bart giggled at that. 

“ Should we build a hole by playing a game? ” Danny asked, moving on the couch to give everyone else more room. 

“ Build a hole? ” Tim laughed, “What?”

Kara looked at Danny surprised, “ You know of that? ” She asked excitedly, her eyes lighting up. 

“It’s a phrase, basically like “break the ice’.” Danny answered, then for Bart and Cassie, “Do you guys know any games we can play?” 

“ You speak very well .” Kara complimented excitedly, leaving Tim’s side to talk to Danny. “ Did you also learn? ” Meaning is he a native speaker. 

“ Kind of? ” He laughed, “ You can speak more comfortably if you’d like. ” He gestures for her to sit.

Kara seems hesitant at first, but then she says something. It sounded Kryptonian but the accent was different to what Tim was used to and he could only make out some of it. To Kara’s delight and Tim’s further surprise Danny not only understood exactly what she’d said but even responded in the same way. 

It takes a while for them to settle on a game to play given all the language barriers. Kara spoke in what Tim learned was Standard Kryptonian but would often switch to her local dialect when she didn’t know how to say things. Kon and Tim could only understand Standard, and in all honesty, between them Tim was the only one who could speak it. Bart and Cassie couldn’t speak at all. 

They decided to play charades. It was awkward and hard at first, but they all got really into it by the third round. They kept the categories simple since Kara wouldn’t know any movies. Fortunately, she seemed to feel a lot more comfortable and talked a lot more, even if it was mostly just to Danny. There were times she would make an effort to say things in english. It was really broken but they all made sure to appreciate it and tried her best to understand. 

“I’m hungry guys.” Cassie said after her turn to act out her word, plopping herself in her spot between Bart and Kon. 

“Me too.” Bart agreed mournfully. 

“You’re always hungry.” 

“Should we order Pizza?” Tim asked, pulling out his phone. 

“I want pineapples on mine!” Bart said.

“Ew. No.” Cass kicked him. “I’ll have my usual.” She told Tim.

“Like mushrooms and olives are any better.” Kon snickered. 

“It’s better than pineapples.” 

Kara looked between them curiously. 

“Danny, ask Kara what she wants.” Tim instructed. 

After hearing them talk for the last hour Tim had finally been able to pick on some of the words but the grammar of it still eluded him. 

“ Everyone, something, something, food. ” Danny said.

Kara looked intrigued, “ What, something, eating, something. ” 

“ Something, something, like, something. ” He paused thoughtfully, making a circle in the air presumably to explain what a pizza was. “Something… ” Then, he pulled Tim’s phone to face them and pointed to the picture of a pizza on the website. “ This .”

Kara looked hesitant, “ ...Some…thing? ” 

Danny nodded encouragingly, “Something. Something, good.” He said. 

Glancing back at the picture, Tim could see on her face that she’d made a decision but she didn’t say anything. “Okay.” She said in english with a nod. “Have.”

“Great!” Finishing it up, “Kon, Bart.” Tim signaled. 

“Ugh. Why do we have to get it every time?” Kon complained, throwing a pillow at Tim. 

“I’m not going because I was the one that paid for it.” 

“I’m not going ‘casue I don’t want to.” Cassie said, kicking her foot onto the coffee table. 

“But you were the one who said you wanted food.” Kon complained, already standing up. 

“I could go.” Danny offered.

“You're funny. Absolutely not.” Tim shut down. 

Kara looked at Danny curious, “ Saying, something, what? ” 

“ Something, food, something, go. ” 

In english, “...Kitch...en?” She pointed in the direction of it and spoke in Standard Kryptonian, “ Is it not there? ” 

“ No. ” Tim shook his head, “ The store cooks it and we just have to give them money and take it from them .” He was careful not to throw in phrases she didn’t know.

Kara looked confused by the concept but accepted it. 

“Wait until she finds out about Drive-Thrus.” Danny joked to Tim. 

“I’m going to go check on the left-overs.” Cassie said heading to the kitchen.

Tim checked everyone's location on his phone. Danny’s was offline for obvious reasons, fortunately no one had freaked out about it yet. But he couldn’t be too sure. “I’m going to check on our smoke screen in the mission room.” Tim told Danny, “You’ll be okay here with her?” 

“What if we get abducted by non-friendly aliens in the five minutes you’ll be gone?” Danny’s tone was serious but his face was mischief. 

“I hope you do.” Tim scoffed, walking out.

---

“It’s just one slice, Red.” Danny tried to reach over his shoulder 

“No.” Tim blocked his food with his body, “You have your own.” 

“I just want to try!” 

“No! Eat yours.” 

“You let Kara have some!”

“That’s because I like Kara and I don’t like you.” 

“But yours looks so much more better than mine.” Danny whined, still reaching. 

“Lesson for next time then.” 

“C’mon, you’re not even going to finish it.”

Everyone watched them like a sitcom while they got to enjoy their food without meddling siblings. “I will. Just so you can’t have any.” Tim shoved as much of the slice in his mouth as he physically could. He was actually already full. 

“You're the worst.” Danny said, shoving Tim. 

“And you're worse.” Tim countered, pushing him back. 

Tim hadn’t pushed Danny very hard. Danny probably took harder hits during hockey practice. Tim had pushed him just hard enough that it forced Danny to take a step back to balance himself. Which was when he’d stepped on a wrapper Bart had left on the floor. Danny lost his balance and fell. But not before hitting his head hard on the metal fridge door behind him. 

Cassie gasped in shock. Kon and Bart rushed over to check on him. Kara watched wide-eyed, not sure what to do. 

Tim quickly stepped forward, “Hey, are you-” Next thing he knows there's a whole tube of ranch being squirted on his costume. His freshly washed costume. 

Danny watches Tim’s face morph from concern to absolute disgust with a deep satisfaction and cackles like the villain he is.

“You are such an asshole.” 

“Takes one to know one.” Danny’s on his feet and Tim chased him with a packet of garlic sauce that came with the pizza. 

Apparently feeling left out, Bart decided to dump his glass of juice all over Kon’s head. 

“Dude.” Kon shouts, but he’s quick to retaliate.

“Missed me.” Bart teases using the speed force to dodge. 

Cassie and Kara, the only civilized people here, sit and eat their pizzas at the island watching them. 

“They’re so dumb.” Cassie says to Kara, exasperated. 

Kara smiles following the action with her eyes. “ How fun .” She replies and they share a laugh even without understanding each other. 

snipbit from this fic

[oblivious-aro]

What did you mean by Wes Weston not being a real character on the show?? (I think you may have mentioned this before but I forgor 💀

So in the background of one episode, there's this one filler character in the crowd who people say looks like Danny:

(This is literally Wes Weston's only appearance)

His name comes from a funny joke where Sam holds a ring she doesn't know was meant for her upside-down:

I don't see the resemblance between him and Danny much, but whatever. I guess they have the same body model? Anyway, people decided to give him a backstory based on this fact. Wes is the only person in town who notices that Danny Phantom and Danny Fenton look very similar, but no one listens to him, so he goes full obsessive conspiracy nutter/stalker.

There's a couple of other optional tropes and trappings that can come with him. In some fics people start accusing Wes himself of being Phantom (with varying degrees of seriousness). He's often given a brother named Kyle who foils Wes by being super chill and straight up thinks that ghosts don't exist and are an elaborate hoax, never mind Wes's Danny nonsense. Some fics work with the fanon that Danny gave up trying to keep his secret identity from the obnoxiously persistent Wes, and just straight up transformed in front of him one day, but continues to torture/gaslight him by denying everything.

No matter which bits of fanon are being used, the basic running joke is that Wes is constantly having a bad day trying to prove something very obvious that he just can never quite acquire definitive proof for. A bit like Candace from Phineas and Ferb.

Despite all that extra lore, it's a very basic joke, and the fandom’s been telling that same joke for years. Wes is fine, I guess, but calling him stale would be an understatement.

He's weirdly prominent. There's a lot of fics still being made about him to this day (they're all the same. I funny get the appeal), and even in ones that aren't, he'll often pop up as a side character with varying degrees of prominence. You know exactly what to expect when he does show up, because it's the same shtick everytime. Years later (I don't know exactly when he was created, but I found a Wes fic from 2016, so I mean it when I say the joke is old), fandom still writes the exact same concept over and over again, and everyone loves it.

Danny Phantom really is more about the fandom than the show. No one likes Wes because he's interesting, it's just fandom-original-creation pride.

So yeah, Wes Weston is a fake Danny Phantom character who gets more attention than some of the real ones.

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

Neteyam and Spider secret relationship idea that I literally cannot stop thinking about

Idea that 5he night before neteyams gaming of his ikran ceremony, he and Spider have sex in hells gate(this is important to the plot) - the idea that once neteyam is properly a Man then he will have to start courting, and they would rather have one night together than none at all. As they know they cannot be together.

Flash forward to the next day moat looks at him weirdly and is like?!!!!!?? You're mated??!! Neteyam is flatly like: no I'm not. They eventually weedle out of him that he had sex but because they didn't perform tshelu, he thought that it wouldn't mate them. Neytiri is besides herself because why would you have sex without the intention of mating but jake tentatively is like maybe this is a human sort of sex drive?

But the idea that neteyam and Spider keep this secret for maybe years or months. The idea that eywa saw their love for each other and blessed the union even though there was no tshelu. Neteyam just keeps the official stance of the girl I slept with doesn't want to be my wife and lead the clan in the future, I will partner with the best tshik there is no need for us to be mates. Everyone kind of begrudgingly has to accept this over time, as it becomes increasingly obvious that he will be a fantastic chief.

Flash forward, they still don't know who neteyam accidently mated to, as he doesn't spend any one on one time with young women. I just love the idea of neteyam, once he has tamed his ikran, volunteers to take spider back to bells gate every evening (he says it's because the flight back clears his head, but it's obviously the only time they can speak plainly and be themselves around each other.) jake going to ask neteyam something, and seeing from a distance the familiarity which the two have for eacb other and how wide their smilea are and everything just falls into place. Because obviously! No tshelu, he's never seen with any women, the other mate didn't want to reveal their identity. Idea that Jake has to realise that neteyam could never confide in him, because jake would tell neytiri, who would tell moat, and all of these people act NG weirdly would defo make things obviously to kiri and Lo'ak and the rest of the clan.

I like the idea of Jake following spider and neteyam (from a distance) and walking into Spider's bedroom, not really knowing what he aS going to expect. But when neteyam stands slightly in front of spider, shielding him with his body, jake realises this is fucking serious.

I LURVE secret relationships and relationship reveals, I feel like neteyam and Spider's could be an epic one.

Ooh, what an ask, anon, what an ask. Before his iknimaya?!?!? They're so YOUNG, they're BABIES. 14 and 15! Maybe before Neteyam's uniltaron, give them like generously a baby extra year. Maybe. For my sanity.

But the storyline? I'm invested. The tragedy of hiding a relationship so deep as mates when they must see each other every day regardless. I imagine it's like a phantom limb pain. The scientists HAVE to know, if Neteyam is going into Spider's room every night even just to say goodbye. Our loyal Norm warrior, secret keeping king. You also can't convince me Kiri and Lo'ak aren't on at least Spider's ass every single day trying to find out what's wrong with him, why he's being weird, what he's hiding. Neteyam is weird too but it's easier to write off on him being gone, busy being a man now.

Also, how did they get to this super sad decision to just have one night and then just never being together again? That's almost more fucked up then never having been together at all. They just have to watch each other and KNOW for the rest of their lives?

Also two bizarrely funny things you've included here with Mo'at just looking once at Neteyam and being like "Oh, you've had sex, with whom??" and absolute fool Jake Sully BUSTING into the room of the kid he suspects is mated to his son without knocking??? Hilarious. Unintentional comedy. Anyways I'm begging you to write this anon give us this gift I'm crying tears.

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Newbie Frustrations

Summary: No One Knows AU Part 10, Valerie meets Vlad for the first time when he asks her for a favor.

...

Valerie Gray does not need sidekicks, thank you very much.

She hasn’t had any kind of contact with the Vlad who sent her the suit before now, but if this is going to be what their meetings are like, she’s pretty sure she could do without.

But no, for the first time the person who gifted her ghost hunting equipment actually makes himself known, and Valerie is finding herself nothing but irritated by the interaction.

It’s more than a little disappointing.  She’d thought before about potentially learning about and meeting who sent her equipment, and how she’d thank him.  But when Vlad approached her, introduced himself, and took her to a training area he’d apparently had made for someone else, she found herself feeling a tad offended.

“You said they just started learning how to use the suits a couple weeks ago?” Valerie asks, putting her hands on her hips in an outward display of her irritation.

“Yes, but Miss Gray, please understand—”

“I don’t have time to babysit a couple of newbies!”

“Miss Gray, please,” Vlad says, holding up his hands.  “Allow me to explain.”

Valerie crosses her arms, but doesn’t say anything else.

“These are two individuals who have been hurt by Danny Phantom just like you have,” Vlad says, which is… not what Valerie expected him to say.

“Really?” Valerie asks despite herself.  She can relate to that, at least.  “Who are they?”

“They ah, wish to remain anonymous,” Vlad says.  “Surely you can understand that.”

Valerie gives a huff, but nods.  She can’t imagine anyone learning about her identity as a ghost hunter.  If these two want to keep their secrets, that’s fine.

“Fine,” she says.  “But that doesn’t mean I have time to show them the ropes.  I’ve got my own problems.”

“I understand, Miss Gray, but please,” Vlad says.  He gestures towards the two small chairs sitting on the other side of the room.  Valerie sighs and follows him over, then takes a seat across from him.

“I’m working with these two after a difficult time,” Vlad says.  “Surely you remember what it was like to lose everything in your life to Phantom and his ghost dog.”

Valerie nods.  It’s not a time she likes to think back on.  She’d spent the week watching her life fall apart around her, with nothing she could do about it until Vlad sent her the ghost hunting gear.  She’s adjusted better to it now, but there are still nights she goes to bed hungry and cursing Phantom’s name.

“These two are going through something very similar,” Vlad says.  “I understand that it’s a lot to ask, but could you please be there to help them work through it?”

Valerie sighs.  That’s a lot harder to say no to.  If Phantom is ruining other people’s lives, and she really wants to stop him and the harm he’s doing, how can she not be there to support other victims of his?

Finally, Valerie nods, looking back at Vlad.  “Alright,” she says.  “When am I supposed to meet these two?”

“If you can come back here tomorrow, about an hour after school, you can meet them then,” Vlad says.  “They’re eager to not put it off too long, I’m sure you can imagine.”

She can, though she doesn’t like it.  She does, however, agree to it, even if she heads home trying not to think about it too much.

Vlad made a training ground for these two, and not for her.  He met them first, and not her.

She supposes it was a bit much to assume Vlad would help her because he thought she was special.  He’s just trying to take out Phantom like she is.  She should just be grateful to have an ally who helped her become capable of joining the fight herself.  Of course he reached out to others, especially if they’ve been victims of Phantom too.  If he’d told her about them and then asked her opinion, she probably would have recommended they do the same thing.

…But he hadn’t asked her about it.

He’d met them first.

…

Today is a better one than most, because Dad’s work schedule lines up with Valerie’s, and he can pick her up and take her home instead of her adding an extra hour and a half by having to walk or take the bus.  Valerie’s pretty exhausted from her own shift, and more than a little sweaty from staying in the Nasty Burger mascot the whole time.  At least it’s getting colder, and she doesn’t have to wear the thing with the summer sun beating down on her.

Still, she stays awake on the drive home and listens to Dad talk about his day in favor of napping.  It’s a lot of boring science talk she doesn’t really understand, but she listens anyway.  If there’s one thing she can say the money troubles have done for her, she does like feeling closer with Dad.

Then, however, he finishes talking about his day and follows it up with “And how was your day, sweetheart?”

And obviously Valerie can’t tell him about the meeting with the Vlad or the coming meeting with Phantom’s latest victims tomorrow, so instead she talks about the math test that’s coming up that she’s not excited for, and how that’s definitely the biggest stressor in her life right now and it’s what she’s spending all her time thinking about.

…Okay, so maybe she doesn’t say all of that.

And maybe she doesn’t feel that much closer with Dad.

“I can help you study if it’s worrying you,” Dad says as they pull into their apartment complex.  “You have tomorrow off from work, don’t you?  You want to come by the lab after school and we can work on studying there?”

“Oh, uh, sorry Dad,” Valerie says with a wince.  “I have to meet with Mr. Lancer tomorrow to ask for an extension on my English essay.  I’ve been pulling too many shifts to have time to get it done.”

Which is… also true, actually.  She’s going to have to head there right after in order to kill just enough time to match up with Vlad’s schedule.

Dad pulls them into a parking space, then puts the car in park and turns to face her.  “Valerie, you know that your schoolwork needs to come before your job.  If you need more time to get things done I can pull some extra hours—”

“No,” Valerie says instantly, maybe a little too quickly.  But her Dad is too tired already, he can’t start pulling extra hours.  “Really Dad, I’m okay.  This is just a flukey thing, I normally have plenty of time.”

Though she’ll probably have plenty less of it if she has to start teaching two newbies how to ghost hunt—

“Alright,” Dad says, shutting off the car.  “Just let me know if I can help in any way.  And let me know when you want to study for that math test.”

“I will Dad,” Valerie says, thinking in her head about when in the world she’s going to find time for it.

She shakes the thought off as they both climb out of the car.  She grabs her backpack that has her schoolwork and hidden ghost hunting equipment in it, and Dad grabs his briefcase and the projects he has from work.  Dad locks the car behind them as they head up towards the building, and turns to Valerie as he uses his key to open the door.

“What are you thinking for dinner, sweetheart?” he asks, holding the door open behind him for Valerie as he walks inside.

“Do we have any ravioli?” Valerie asks.  “The kind with the meat inside?”  She needs filling food after an emotionally intense first meeting with Vlad followed by a long shift.

“I think we have a bit left,” Dad says with a smile as they both head for the stairs.  The complex’s elevator is still under repairs for another week (read: month), but thankfully they’re only on the second floor, and it’s not long before they’re inside the apartment and heading towards the kitchen.

“I’ll make some lemonade while you start on the ravioli?” Valerie offers.

“Sounds perfect,” Dad says with a nod, so Valerie pulls the lemonade packets out of the cabinet and the pitcher off the top of the fridge.

She dumps the lemonade packet in the pitcher first, then fills it with water, and starts stirring it with a wooden spoon as Dad sits down at the table, done setting the water to boil on the stove.  Valerie stirs for a little while longer, then sets the pitcher down on the table and goes back to the cabinet for cups.

She pours some lemonade in the two cups, then gets ice like Dad likes, and takes them both back to the table, handing the one with ice to Dad and sitting in the chair across from him.

“So hey,” Dad says as Valerie takes a sip.  “Do you wanna watch the next episode of Scalpels and Secrets while we eat tonight?”

“Oh hell yes!”

“Valerie.”

“Heck yes!”

Scalpels and Secrets is a medical drama her and Dad have gotten hooked on.  They decided pretty early on that they needed something to look forward to, since their life was likely about to get much harder than they were used to, and so they picked a cheesy medical drama to watch and get way too invested in.  It’s sort of a joke, but also Valerie isn’t sure what she’s going to do if Kelly actually forgives Kevin for cheating on her again.

But after the day she’s had, an escape with her Dad to the world of overdramatic doctors dealing with stupid problems sounds like exactly what she needs.

So while her Dad boils the ravioli, Valerie takes their cups into the living room and turns on the TV.  They knew they wouldn’t make the episode yesterday— Dad had a late shift and Valerie had ghosts to fight— so they recorded it, and by the time Dad walks in with two plates of ravioli for each of them, it’s cued up and ready to watch.

“Thanks Dad,” Valerie says with a smile at him as he hands over her plate.  He sits on the recliner, since they only have one and, like he always argues, his back definitely hurts worse at 45 than whatever Valerie’s done to hers.  (There are definitely some days after a long hard ghost fight when Valerie wants to disagree with him.)

But tonight she lets him with no argument and sits down on the ground next to the chair.  And with that, Dad starts the show, and Valerie feels her long day drain out of her shoulders as she leans back against the chair.

But seriously, if Kelly takes Kevin back again, she’s going to scream.

…

Valerie goes through the next day slightly dreading the meeting with Vlad and whoever Phantom’s latest victims are.  She’s not going to let any of them down, but she honestly wishes more than anything that there was someone else who could do this.  She has enough going on in her life without adding on taking care of two ghost-fighting newbies.

She’s going to do it anyway, though.  It would be a betrayal of everything she stood for otherwise.

So, after school, and after hanging around a little longer and successfully getting her extension from Lancer, she walks towards the building she met Vlad in yesterday.

She hears voices as she approaches, and stops outside before going in.  She looks around for a second, confirming no one else is there, before activating her suit and walking quickly through the door.

Vlad is talking with two people, who are also wearing suits, one that’s red like hers, and one that’s purple.

Great, she doesn’t even have an originally colored suit—

Valerie shakes the thought off and clears her throat.

All three of them turn to face her, a little too quickly for them to have known she’s there beforehand.

“I’m told there’s some people who want to meet with me?” Valerie asks, looking back and forth between the two people in suits like hers.

The one in the red suit almost seems to shrink back slightly, and the one in the purple suit immediately stands up taller.

“Yeah,” they say, and Valerie is pretty sure she picks out a girl’s voice from under the suit, though there’s clearly some kind of voice modulator going on there.  “You’re Valerie then?”

Valerie jerks backwards, then turns a glare at Vlad, even though he can’t see it from under the suit.  For a minute she wishes he could.  “So I can’t know who they are, but you told them who I am?”

“I’m sorry my dear,” Vlad says, looking genuinely remorseful.  “I figured they would have guessed eventually.  It’s not exactly private knowledge, what happened to you.”

Valerie feels her cheeks warm in anger and a little bit in shame underneath her suit, and is once again glad he can’t see her expression.  She keeps her hood on, the fact that they know who she is be damned.

“Fine,” she groans, turning back to purple suit.  “Yeah, that’s me.  Vlad said you two are the newbies I’m supposed to help?”

“I’m not a newbie,” purple suit snaps.  “We’ve been training for like a month and a half.”

Valerie raises an eyebrow, though still no one can see it, and looks around.  “In here?” she asks.

“Yeah, so?” purple suit asks.

Valerie doesn’t say anything, just turns her gaze back to them.

“I thought you might appreciate having some allies,” purple suit says.  “Since, you know, you’ve been doing this all alone?”

Valerie laughs a little, unable to stop herself.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” purple suit snaps.

Valerie doesn’t say anything, and glances back at red suit, who still hasn’t said anything and is now looking at the ground.

Oh, the ghosts are going to eat that one alive.

“Alright,” Valerie says, glancing back at purple suit, who she dubs “Thing 1” in her head.  “Yeah, I’ll help you.  But come with me, we’re not training here today.”

“You want to just fly out there in the open?” Thing 1 asks.

“Well, you’re gonna have to get used to that anyway,” Valerie says, crossing her arms.  “We’re going a bit outside of town.  Come on.”

She turns and walks back out the door, pulling her board up so she can fly as she does.  She doesn’t look back, but eventually hears the sound of two other boards following her.

“Hey,” snaps Thing 1, flying up next to her.  Thing 2 stays thoroughly behind her, and Valerie doesn’t pay them much mind.  “You want to explain why you’re dragging us out to the middle of nowhere?”

Valerie glances over at her.  “You’ve spent all your time training in there, have you?” she asks.

“Yeah, so?  What, are you just jealous you never had someplace like that?”

Valerie laughs to cover the spark of anger at Thing 1 having guessed a little bit right.  “As if,” she says.  “That place is calm and stationary.  Practically peaceful.  Good for learning basic controls, but not much else.  Ghost fights aren’t like that.  They’re fast-paced, and they regularly change with no warning.  You can’t be prepared for them if you spend your whole time practicing indoors.”

“Vlad never mentioned that,” says a new voice, and Valerie turns in slight surprise at the first time Thing 2 has spoken.  Sounds like a boy, still with voice modulation.

She narrows her eyes a second later, turns in midair and crosses her arms.  “Well it’s not his job to teach you everything,” she says.

Thing 2 doesn’t say anything in response, and after a second Valerie turns back to Thing 1.  “We’re going out to the woods so you can weave in and out of trees.  You need unfamiliar terrain to practice in.”

“Fine,” Thing 1 says, though she doesn’t sound happy about it.  Valerie smirks a little under her hood.

She leads them all towards the outside of town, going on until they meet the woods, which takes them about half an hour.  Valerie slows to a stop in midair and turns to Thing 1 and Thing 2, who have stopped behind her.

“So we’re just flying around the trees?” Thing 1 asks, glancing around.

Valerie smirks again.  “Sure.  But oh, one more thing.”

“What’s that?”

Valerie raises her blaster and fires it at the same moment, aiming for the space right in between Thing 1 and Thing 2.  Both of them cry out in surprise and dart to the side.

“Hey, what the hell?” Thing 1 snaps.  “A little warning would be nice!”

Valerie laughs.  “You think ghosts are particularly inclined to give you a heads up?  If you’re so qualified after your indoor training, prove it!”

This time she aims and fires right at Thing 1, who dives out of the way with an angry growl, then behind a tree for cover.  Valerie aims for Thing 2, who hasn’t moved, like an idiot.  But the second she fires at him, Thing 1 dives out from behind the tree and shoves Thing 2 to the side, putting herself right in the line of fire with just enough time to dive out of the way again herself.

Valerie laughs again.  “Aww, that’s adorable, you like each other,” she says.  “That’ll get you killed, you know.”

“You know, you could stand to be a little nicer,” Thing 1 snaps, whirling to face Valerie and firing her own blaster at her.

“There you go!  You’re finally getting it,” Valerie says with a grin that Thing 1 can’t see.  She dives easily to the side and fires again, once at Thing 1 and twice at Thing 2, who clearly needs a little more practice.  Thankfully Thing 2 finally starts to get his head in the game, and dodges the blasts instead of waiting for Thing 1 to shove him out of the way again.

Thing 1 fires at her, and Valerie flies over in between the leaves of two trees, staying just low enough that she can dodge larger branches while still being able to use the leaves of cover.  She weaves back and forth, as well as doubles back around a couple times, and while the leaves do make it a little harder to see Thing 1 and Thing 2, she still gets four shots in, which is four more shots than Thing 1 and Thing 2 get at her.  In fact, most of the time after she fires a shot at them they whirl around from having been facing the complete opposite direction from her, meaning they clearly hadn’t had a clue where she was.

After a couple more minutes of this, Valerie takes pity on them both and flies up above the trees entirely.  “Alright, truce!” she calls.

With a frustrated huff, Thing 1 flies up after her.  Thing 2 follows a moment later, panting, and rests with his hands on his knees.

“Do you see my point yet?” Valerie asks, crossing her arms.

“Yeah, alright,” Thing 1 snaps.  “You don’t have to be a bitch about it.”

“Excuse me?” Valerie raises her arm and fires another blast at Thing 1, this time not at all trying to miss her.  She’s not aiming to hurt her, though, so Thing 1 just gets blasted back a few feet.

That doesn’t stop Thing 2 from leaping in front of her to prevent further blasts, though.  So they’re both idiots.

“Hey!” Thing 2 snaps.  “We’re on the same side here!”

“I am finding time in my life, which is always incredibly busy, to help you two not die,” Valerie snaps.  “I don’t really have the time or desire to babysit, but I’m doing it anyway.  And now you’re yelling at me because I don’t have the right attitude?  Who’s the bitch exactly?”

“We don’t need babysitting—” Thing 1 starts.

“You’re right,” Thing 2 says, shoving his arm in front of Thing 1’s face.  “I’m sorry.  We clearly do need your help, we should be nicer about you offering it.  Thank you.”

Thing 1 huffs and crosses her arms, but doesn’t say anything else.

Valerie looks at them both for a minute, then sighs.  “It’s alright,” she says.  “Look, Phantom messed up my life too, so I get it.  That doesn’t mean I’m gonna go easy on you, but… I know what you’re going through.”

“Doubt it,” Thing 1 mutters, and Thing 2 elbows her in the side.

Valerie narrows her eyes at Thing 1.  “Just don’t expect me to have time to help you every day,” she says, glaring at Thing 1, then Thing 2, even though they can’t see it.  “I do have my own problems.”

“I understand,” Thing 2 says with a nod.  “We wouldn’t ask you to anyway.”

“Good,” Valerie says.  She looks around them with a sigh.  “For now, I’d say you two should get outside more and practice in less familiar environments.  And be prepared for things in an actual fight to change very quickly.  I can’t always be there to watch your back.”

Thing 2 nods again.  “Thanks.”

“I have to go now,” Valerie says with a nod back.  “I have things to do.  I’m guessing I’ll see you at the next ghost fight.”

She flies off before she can get an answer, heading for the Nasty Burger.  She’s going to have to find some way to get enough energy to work as a customer service mascot for the next six hours.

…She’s doomed.

[raaorqtpbpdy]

Dangerous People

Written for the Phic Phight Prompt: Identity reveal. Dash finds out Danny is Phantom. What happens? Could be swagger bishie or not, either or is okay. (from @q-gorgeous)

AO3 Link

[Warnings for internalized homophobia, implied homophobia, implied child abuse, and mentions of bullying]

Danny had been a lot of dangerous places, many of them in the Ghost Zone. But of all the dangerous places Danny had been, high school was at the top of the list. At least in the Ghost Zone, he could fight back. In some places, there were even rules that Danny could exploit to keep from getting the shit kicked out of him, or at least give as good as he got.

At school, the rules didn't protect him. At school, he couldn't fight back, because he had to keep his powers secret. Danny had a literal portal to hell in his basement, and he could confidently say that high school was dramatically more hellish. 

"Hey! Fentoe-nail!" Danny sighed as Dash came storming up to him. This was a prime example. Dash slammed him against the lockers and put his face real close to Danny's, menacing him. "I saw you at the beginning of sixth period yesterday," he said, voice very quiet and surprisingly less threatening than Danny was expecting, but still, Danny paled with fear. "Meet me under the bleachers after school."

Dropping him roughly, Dash stalked off.

Danny was almost shaking, his palms sweating. He'd been busy fighting Technus all through sixth period and after school. If Dash had seen him at the beginning of sixth period, then that meant... He swallowed hard and rushed to his next class, which he shared with Sam and Tucker. Dash had seen him transform into Phantom. That was very bad news.

"It's not that bad," Sam tried to tell him while they whispered to each other in the back of English class. It might've been more convincing if she'd looked like she believed it herself.

"Not that bad?" Danny echoed, his tone low but panicked. "Dash knows my secret. Dash Baxter. The guy who's been bullying me since the fifth grade. Oh, I am so screwed."

"Calm down," Tucker said, though he hardly sounded calm himself. "Dash loves Phantom, remember? Like probably loves loves Phantom, if you ask me. Maybe he's just gonna ask you for an autograph?"

"Yeah, but he hates hates me," Danny pointed out. He ran a hand through his hair. "Oh man, what if he thinks I like, ruined his hero for him or something and kicks the shit out of me? I'm already half dead, i don't wanna die the rest of the way from being wailed on by my bully."

"If he knows you're Phantom, then you can use your powers to protect yourself," Sam said. "And besides, we don't know for sure that that's even what he wants to talk to you about."

"He said he saw me at the beginning of sixth period yesterday. There's literally nothing else he could want to talk to me about."

"Your parents have tons of weird ghost tech. Maybe they have something that can alter memories," suggested Tucker. "You can fly by during lunch and check."

"No, if they were working on something that erased memories, they definitely would've told me about it in one of their rants," Danny denied despondently.

"Unless they did tell you about it, and you just don't remember..." Danny's eyes widened and he looked at Tucker with a grin while Sam face-palmed beside them.

"Fenton! Manson! Foley!" their teacher called them out. "Something you want to share with the class?"

"Uh..." Danny glanced to Sam and Tucker, who offered no help. "I forgot?" Tucker snickered at his answer, and Sam flicked him on the arm.

"Well maybe you'd do better to remember the lesson if you actually payed attention? Don't you think?"

"Right, sorry, Mr. Lancer," Danny said, and Sam and Tucker mumbled their apologies too. It wasn't worth detention to continue their conversation, but Danny mentally resolved to cut lunch to search his parents lab for memory-altering devices.

That plan went out the window almost as soon as lunch started when Skulker crashed through the wall, shouting for Danny. "WHELP!"

Danny ducked under a table to transform while the students evacuated the cafeteria, running and screaming. He flew up through the table top, ready for a fight.

"That's my name! Don't wear it out!" The fight with Skulker took all of lunch and part way into fifth period, but luckily his math teacher was willing to accept, "Sorry I'm late. There was a ghost attack in the cafeteria and I got trapped under a table," as a suitable excuse, and didn't mark him tardy.

"I guess you didn't get the chance to get over to your parents lab, right?" Tucker said to him in a hushed voice.

"No," Danny sighed. "It was a long shot anyway. I'll talk to my parents about the ghost hunting applications of a memory eraser later. For now... I guess I've just gotta bite the bullet and talk to Dash. Try to convince him not to tell anyone."

Tucker scoffed. "Yeah, good luck." Then he looked at the despair on Danny's face and quickly backtracked, switching to a much more positive, if less genuine, tone, and shooting Danny a thumbs-up. "I mean, good luck!" 

"Gee, thanks."

—

The bell rang to mark the end of the school day and Dash jumped out of his seat, carefully giving Kwan the slip. He made a beeline for the bleachers by the football field and waited underneath for Fenton to show up, fidgeting nervously with the sleeves of his Letterman jacket. He hoped the kid wouldn't just ghost him. Dash snickered at the pun. It was the kind of joke Danny would make.

Danny. Dash wrung his hands and swallowed the lump in his throat. There was no way in hell he could've said anything to anyone about it, but he'd been crushing on Danny Fenton since the fifth grade. Not once during that whole time had he known what to do about it. If he'd had a crush on Paulina or Star, he would've given them a flower or something, but flowers were for girls, not boys, so instead, Dash shoved him in the hallway.

Dash's dad was very strict in ensuring that Dash grew up to be as strong and manly as he could be. Men didn't hug, or hold hands, so if Dash wanted to touch Danny, which he longed to do, it had to be in a fight, or during a sport. Danny didn't play sports. That left only one option. Dash felt bad about it the more time passed, but he also felt angry—at himself, and at Fenton for making him feel the way he did. He regretted it when he saw the hatred in Danny's eyes, but he couldn't hold himself back, either.

Phantom had been a relief. He was the first person besides Fenton that Dash had ever liked that way. He reminded Dash of Fenton, a little bit. Their sense of humor was the same, and Dash liked that. Of course, Dash had had a minor breakdown when his second crush had also been a guy, but Phantom was a ghost, so he'd decided that it didn't count. The biggest difference was that practically everyone in the whole school was crushing on Phantom, girls and guys alike, so it wasn't weird that Dash liked him so much. His dad would beg to differ, but his dad didn't have to know.

Then, yesterday, Dash had been cowering—strategically concealing himself under a desk in the computer lab after all the monitors came to life and flew out the window. Everyone else had already run out of the room, but Dash had bravely stayed behind to get the drop on the ghost, and not because he'd accidentally gotten his foot tangled up in wires under the desk. It was then that he'd heard it.

"I'm goin' ghost!" Fenton's voice cried.

And then he saw it, glowing white rings, so bright they almost forced Dash to look away, but he couldn't stop staring. They split up and down Fenton's body, and when they faded, Phantom was standing there instead. He took off, phasing through the wall to fight the ghost. Dash had been left dumbstruck. A sinking feeling spread into his stomach. So much for thinking he'd moved on from Fenton, not that he ever had, really.

Dash looked through the gaps in the bleachers and felt his heart flutter in his chest when he saw Fenton crossing the football field and he pushed it down immediately. Man, he had it bad. What a moron. Danny looked around for any spectators before slipping under the bleachers to meet Dash.

"Look, I don't know what you think you saw, but you probably didn't see it!" Danny burst out immediately.

"I'm sorry," Dash said, and Danny stilled, blinking in confusion.

"What?"

"I'm sorry for bullying you all this time," Dash elaborated, "even before you were Phantom. I shouldn't have done that, and I'm sorry." Danny stared some more.

"What?" he asked again, his voice raising in pitch.

"I said I'm sorry for bullying you, even before you were Phantom."

"No, I heard you I just... what?!" Danny's mouth hung open, and his brows furrowed, clearly not able to process the situation at all.

"Look, I've been a major asshole to you, and you still save my life and everyone else's from ghosts all the time," Dash said. "That one time we got shrunk real tiny, and you had to fight that ghost while all your powers were wearing off, you remember? You kicked that robot-ghost's ass and saved my life, like a dozen times, and got us both unshrunk, even though I shoved you in a locker, like, just a few hours before that. You're a better person than I am, and it makes me want to be better."

"So you're apologizing because I'm not the kind of dick who would just let you die because you're an asshole to me and you're worried I'll stop saving you if you don't?"

"No, I'm apologizing because you deserve an apology," Dash said. "I should've apologized a long time ago. Actually, I shouldn't have bullied you in the first place, but I got a lot of repressed rage and shit I gotta work through, if I'm bein' honest."

"Repressed rage you need to work through?" Danny echoed, his mouth gaping in astonishment. "Did you start seeing a therapist?"

"After Ms. Spectra? Hell no!" Dash denied, even the thought made him anxious. That particular ghost had done a number on the entire Casper High student body, and they were all completely ruined for therapy now. "Your sister tutors me in math and science every Tuesday, and she's starting to rub off." 

"Oh, yeah, that tracks." For the first time since Dash first opened his mouth under those bleachers, Danny actually seemed to comprehend what he was saying. He nodded thoughtfully. "I hope you don't think this makes us even," he said. "I accept your apology, but I still don't like you. If you really want to prove your sorry, you'll stop picking on me and my friends—actually, you'll stop picking on people altogether, got it?"

"Yeah," Dash agreed. "I was going to, anyway."

"Good." Danny put on a very serious expression then. "Now, we need to talk about me being Phantom. You can't tell anyone, ever, do you understand. No one can know."

"Believe me, I wasn't planning to," Dash assured him. "I was at that ghost-safety assembly with your parents. I heard what they said. I wouldn't risk putting you in danger like that. The town needs you—er, needs Phantom."

"You can't tell your friends, either," Danny said. "You'd better keep it completely secret, or I'll put you in permafrost."

"I swear on my life, I won't tell anyone." Dash didn't want to tell anyone. This was something only he knew, a secret between him and the guy he'd been pining after since he was ten years old. Obviously he wanted to keep it between just them. Wait, was it between just them? "Does anyone else already know?"

"Sam and Tucker do," Danny said, and Dash fought the urge to scowl. "They were there when I first changed. And Jazz knows, but she found out later."

"I see." He tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice. "By the way, if you ever need any help with anything, I'm happy to lend a hand," he offered, perking up a bit. "We made a pretty good team fighting ghosts on that pirate ship, and, well, I noticed you haven't been doing so well in school since freshman year started. I'm no straight-A student, and I won't be much help in math, but if you need a hand with, like, vocab or history, I'm your man."

Danny looked him up and down suspiciously. "You'd really do that?"

"Don't sound so surprised," Dash chuckled awkwardly. "Phantom's—you're my hero. Anything I can do to help, I'll do. Besides, I'm trying to be a better person, remember? Helping you study for a history test is like the fifty yard line toward that goal, right?"

"I don't understand football metaphors," Danny said.

"That was actually a simile."

"I have a D plus in English."

"Wow, you really do need my help," Dash ribbed, but it was lighter and far less mean-spirited than the insults he tossed around before.

"Well..." Danny rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, but he was smiling. "Maybe a little help wouldn't hurt."

"Cool." Dash checked his watch and cringed when he saw the time. "Sorry, I am way late for basketball practice, but I knew I had to catch you before you left. Anyway, your sister has my number. Call me any time after five and we can set up a time for me to help with your schoolwork."

"Sure thing," Danny said, stepping to the side so Dash could squeeze past him and out from under the bleachers.

"I'll see you around, Fenton!"

"Yeah, bye... Dash...." He waved awkwardly, still looking taken aback by the conversation he'd just had with Dash, who looked over his shoulder for only a brief moment to look at his face before sprinting full tilt to the locker room to change for practice.

Coach yelled at him for being late and made him run suicides for half-an-hour, but even so, Dash was giddy all the way through practice. Afterwards, he showered, went home, and continued to be giddy while he did his homework. Halfway through his math worksheet, which he was pretty sure he was only getting every third problem right on, and only thanks to Jazz's excellent tutoring, his phone phone rang.

Dash picked it up without looking at the number. "Hello?"

"Hey, Dash?" Fenton's voice came through the line and he grinned. "I was just working on my history homework, and I don't recognize a thing. I was wondering if it wasn't too soon to take you up on your offer?"

"Nope, I got time now," Dash said cheerfully. "I'm just working on my own homework."

"So should I head to your place or—"

"No!" Dash said quickly. His dad was bound to get suspicious about a guy who wasn't on any of Dash's sports teams coming over to his house, even if it was for tutoring—especially if it was for tutoring. "I'll grab my stuff and head over to yours. I'll be there in ten."

"Okay, cool," Danny said. "I'll see you in ten." Dash hung up and gathered all his homework and textbooks into his backpack.

"You look happy," his mother observed when he walked past the living room on his way to the door. She was doing some embroidery while his dad watched golf on the TV. She was really good at embroidery, actually. The colorful flower near the hem of the black dress she was working on was probably a commission. "You off to a study date or something?"

"Uh... something like that," he said cautiously. "It's not really a date, but..."

"But you like this girl, I see," his mother smiled knowingly, and he tried to keep the hurt out of his own smile at her assumption. "Well, good luck, son! Maybe next time it will be!"

"Thanks," he said, but he doubted it. Then he walked out the door and jogged over to the Fentons' place. It wasn't too far from his own house, and he'd been there plenty of times before to study with Jazz. He made it in exactly the estimated time and rang the doorbell.

Danny answered the door, and Dash grinned at him. "Your knight in a Letterman jacket has arrived." Danny snorted and let him inside.

When they got into the kitchen, Dash started to take his backpack off, since that's where he and Jazz always worked when she was tutoring him, but Danny kept walking, so Dash followed. Once they got to the stairs, he realized where they were going and his heart raced. Danny expected them to study up in his room.

Dash tried to calm himself down. They were just studying. Nothing was going to happen. His heart refused to listen. Then the door opened to reveal Danny's room, and Sam and Tucker were already inside, and suddenly his heart caught up to his head, and he had to fight not to whine in complaint.

"Dash!" Tucker cheered. "Danny told us what happened earlier. Are you actually good at history? Because I completely suck at it, Danny ends up missing class all the time, and Sam only knows about, like, witch trials and junk like that."

"Much as I'm loath to admit it," Sam sighed. "We are in desperate need of help."

Dash let his disappointment roll right off his back, reminding himself that even with the other two there, he was still getting to spend time with Danny that didn't involve hurting him, or an attacking ghost, and that was a win. "Lucky for you guys, history is my best subject. You've got Ms. Horace, right?" 

"Yeah," Danny confirmed. "We've got Ms. Horrid." Dash chuckled.

"So you're up to the French revolution, then, yeah?" They got right into it, with Dash helping them figure out how to answer each of the document based questions and advising them on the kinds of answers that would appease Ms. Horace. "She's really big on women's lib and stuff like that, so if you can manage to bring up a woman who was important, or call out mistreatment of women in history, that'll boost your score every time."

"Maybe Ms. Horrid isn't so bad after all," Sam remarked.

"She's strict, but she's not, like, evil or anything," Dash said with a light chuckle. "I honestly don't know how she got that nickname." Unexpectedly, Danny put a hand on Dash's shoulder, causing him to startle, but it didn't deter Danny from fixing him with a thousand yard stare.

"That's because you're actually good at history," he said solemnly, oblivious to the rapid beating of Dash's heart. This was the first time in a very long time that there'd been physical contact between the two of them that wasn't caused by Dash's fists, and he almost couldn't take it. It took every ounce of self-control not to lean into the touch. "To us morons, she's the devil."

Dash laughed awkwardly as Danny withdrew his hand and tried to get his heart back under control, hoping to high heaven that his face wasn't as red as it felt.

"Right... anyway, where were we? Marie Antoinette, right?"

"Actually, I think we need snacks," Sam said, standing up from the floor where all their books were spread out. "Dash, come help me carry them."

"Uh, okay," Dash agreed, getting up as well.

"Get some chips and salsa!" Danny requested, and Sam nodded as they stepped out the door.

He followed her down to the kitchen in silence, and waited while she pulled down a bowl and a bag of tortilla chips from the cupboards. She handed him a knife and instructed him to cut up some of the pears that were in a bowl on the countertop. Somehow, he doubted that she'd asked him to come with her just so he could slice pears. She put a plate next to him for the pears and ripped open the bag of chips.

"You have a crush on Danny," she said darkly.

"What? Of course I don't, what are you talking about?" he asked nervously. She hadn't actually found him out that quickly, had she? Was he really that obvious.

She rolled her eyes, as she poured the chips out into the bowl. "Please, you were red as a tomato when he put his hand on your shoulder. I thought your head was gonna pop from all the blood rushing to your face."

"I wasn't..." He started cutting pears more quickly. His fear making his hands move faster and faster. "Oh god, no I wasn't! Was I?"

"Okay, that's a mild exaggeration," she said, and he sighed with relief. "I've been keeping a close eye on you all night to make sure you actually intend to change, and it might not be noticeable to Danny and Tucker, because they have the emotional intelligence of a pair of wet socks, but I've been picking up signs since you first walked in."

"Please don't tell anyone," Dash asked softly. He'd spent one personable afternoon around Sam, and now she could ruin him if she wanted to. If his dad found out he was gay... well.... This must've been how Danny felt when Dash discovered he was Phantom. It didn't feel good.

"Of course I'm not gonna tell anyone," Sam scoffed. "Just so you know, though, Danny's bi." Dash's head shot up and he whipped around to look at her with wide eyes.

"He is?" he asked hopefully. Then he frowned. "Should you be telling me that?"

"Danny doesn't care who knows about that," she assured him. "I'm only telling you because it seems like you actually to intend to become a better person, though. I would advise against asking him out right away, but since you're trying to get in his good graces anyway—and provided that you actually follow through on becoming a better human being, and you're not just gonna give up when it gets annoying—maybe someday you'll actually have a shot with him."

"You think?"

"I said maybe," she reminded him. She closed up the bag of chips with a clip and stowed it. "You've gotta actually get in his good graces first. He still seriously resents you, and for good reason. In retrospect, I can see that you were just pulling his pigtails, but you were still a complete and total dick to him for years, and that's no way to treat someone you like."

"I know," Dash said, his shoulders slumping.

"Good." She opened the fridge and pulled out a bowl a salsa. "Oh, one more thing. If you ever hurt Danny again, in any way, I will take you in the Specter Speeder to the farthest reaches of the Ghost Zone and I will leave you there to slowly deteriorate into ectoplasm as you gradually lose your mind, forgetting yourself and everything you once knew and loved. Do I make myself crystal clear?" Dash nodded, eyes wide, and she smiled a deceptively sweet smile. "Great! Now finish cutting those pears, and let's get back up there."

"Right!" He did as she said, and they went back up to the room to finish studying.

Dash launched into telling them all about Marie Antoinette, and what kind of ruler she was, and how she never said 'let them eat cake', but her last words were apologizing for accidentally stepping on her executioner's toes. All the while, Dash thought about Danny, about how to get on his good side, about how to get to a place where Danny might actually say 'yes' if Dash asked him out.

When their study session was over, Dash went home. He laid down in his bed, and he knew that he was probably never going to ask Danny out anyway. He would be too afraid—of his parents, of Danny, of what people would think at school and in town. The truth was, he wasn't brave like Danny was. Still, it was nice to imagine what could happen if he was. Sam had said 'maybe', after all. Maybe, someday, he would be.

[frustrationinexcelsis]

My thoughts keep coming back to a Clone Wars army swap au. This is partly because I've started reading through the old Legends books, and the pre-Phantom Menace ones pretty obviously assumed that the Clone Wars were fought against clones.

Setup is simple enough. The Geonosians and Kaminoans are basically the same kind of shady weapons merchants, so here they just close their deals with different sides. Lama Su ends up on the Separatist Council while Poggle buys himself a seat in the Senate. They're flying different flags but are the same sketchy sorts as always.

On the Republic side, the views towards droids are the same as in canon -- nobody really thinks of them as, you know, people. There’s a clear trend in canon of most people treating droids as disposable, replaceable objects when they're pretty obviously self-aware and emotionally complex beings, and this is magnified for the battle models meant to be sent into battle to die in droves.

Anakin is one of the very few people who doesn’t share this attitude and treats droids like sapient beings. This leads to a lot of butting heads with both Republic leadership and other Jedi -- think of his arguments with Obi-Wan over R2 in the arc where R2 goes missing and everyone is like "oh, just get another one", but as a semi-constant dynamic.

The droids respond very positively to him and his assigned division tends to display a lot more intelligence and tactical acumen than normal, and also a bunch more personality quirks. This is in large part because he absolutely refuses to ever reset their memories, which is another major source of arguments.

("Anakin, when was the last you reset the droids' memory banks?" "Why the hell would I want to do that? I might as well just order in a fresh batch of rookies every month." "Anakin, without memory wipes droids develop idiosyncrasies and behavioral glitches, which leads to unreliable performance. You know that." "Oh, sure, because there’s no such thing as Jedi with weird quirks or hangups, huh?")

Occasionally other Jedi have taken temporary command of Anakin's droids, and they do tend to perform a lot better than normal. Although they also tend to do this with a background of sullen muttering of things like "General Skywalker would have asked me how my day was going..."

On the Separatist side, the clones get treated just as badly as the droids do in canon, except that this is absolutely not played for laughs. Their nicknames need to be kept secret, and their leaders all treat them as casually disposable. They’re also fed a steady stream of propaganda about the terrible things that Jedi and Republic forces will do to captured clones, basically painting their alternatives as so bad that even their terrible treatment under the Confederacy is preferable.

As a result, clone forces fight to the death and refuse to surrender out of fear of what will happen if they do. Of course, this also ends up painting an image of them as mindless war machines on the Republic side, which is entirely what the Confederacy was hoping would happen. 

Anyway, some way or another some clones end up captured anyway, probably a good way into the conflict. They're expecting torture or immediate execution by the terrible Jedi that they've heard horror stories about, so imagine their surprise when they're... treated civilly. Oh, they're prisoners of war, in cells, and with their weapons confiscated -- but the cells are clean and roomy, the food is decent and if it's bland it's no blander than what the Jedi's eating.

This is about where clear ideas start to peter out except that eventually this would lead to a clone uprising or defection of some sort. They would still be subject to a very negative perception in the Republic that would only worsen under the Empire, which in this case would likely to continue to use battle droids over drafted soldiers, and most likely would need to go to ground under fake identities or try to find a remote planet to live on. It would be interesting to have some of them side with the Rebellion anyway -- I always felt that the canon could've used a more explicit presence of Confenderacy holdouts and survivors among the Rebels, perhaps even seeing themselves as still fighting on basically the same side as always.

[maz-koshia]

just. man. ive been playing more totk lately and while its fun to fuck around in a sandbox (and ascend is so so useful and nice for getting around) im just always sitting there wishing it was more like botw. part of me thinks i hyped myself up for totk for so long that it was never going to reach (let alone exceed) my expectations. but then i see other people talk about the same issues i have with the game. and it sucks even more that its just a problem with *the game*, yknow?

i think its mostly because totk has some moments that are just so, *so* good. the build up to the wind temple and the colgera boss fight. chasing zelda sightings down that culminates with a battle against phantom ganon where he makes the throne room look pristine again and taunts link and asks if he remembers. the cutscene where zelda becomes the light dragon gives me honest to god chills every time i watch it. i almost cried the first time!

but thats just three examples out of the whole game. four identical cutscenes after every temple. secret stone? demon king? imprisoning war? so that was the imprisoning war. at that moment the future of the (insert race) was clear. they just blur together.

and mineru. i was convinced *she* was going to become a dragon. shes the one who knows about the act of draconification. her collar is a mouth with the stone on the tongue. you find her in the mouth of dragonhead isle. like am i nuts for thinking that? it felt like it pointed towards *her* doing that. i dont know

tldr; :(

[agreyshirt]

So, I don't normally post for Danny Phantom very often, but I got this idea for a story for it that I'm probably never going to write, so I figured I'd dump all my thoughts about it here just so that they'd, y'know, be somewhere. Maybe someone will pick it up and actually do something with it, or maybe it'll start floating about torturing other people's minds as it is my own, who knows!

So, this idea is based off of a fanfic for another story I read for bnha called Nevermore (which is apparently heavily by persona 4, but I don't know anything about persona so I'm taking all my info from this fic lol). Due to another character's power, everyone in this story has to go into a manifestation of their subconscious and face their Shadows. In the fic, Shadows are described as a manifestation of the darkest parts of someone's personality, or "the parts of yourself that you pretend doesn't exist". So basically, I was thinking of taking this idea and thinking about what it would do for certain DP characters.

Another quirk haha about Shadows in this story is that they tend to have abilities that are the inverse of someone's actual powers, or a corrupted form of it, and if it's not it's because whatever said person is repressing is tied to their powers. For a bnha fic of course, this is very important considering every character involved has superpowers of some sort. For Danny Phantom however, this could probably only be applied to certain characters, but it might be fun to come up with something else to reverse about each character.

I have a couple ideas for characters already. For Valerie, assuming this takes place after Destabilized, I could see her Shadow representing her conflicted feelings about hunting ghosts now, what with now knowing that Danielle and Vlad are both human and ghost, but I'm not entirely settled on that. For Jazz, I imagine her Shadow representing how she constantly has to be the adult, how it can get frustrating being relied on for everything and how she wants some freedom for herself. (Maybe there could even be a scene near the beginning foreshadowing this, where Jazz mentions waiting to go to college so she can be around the house more and Danny knows it's because she feels like she needs to watch over him.) I could see Sam and Tucker's Shadows actually being found together and working together (a reverse of all their differing opinions and how this causes them to get into fights often), but they begin to argue and get into a huge fight when talking about Danny's accident, both of them blaming themselves for what happened. Maybe other students could be involved too, but idk exactly what would work for all of them, especially since most of them are literally background characters with no speaking lines.

But the one I've thought the most about is (as you might expect) Danny himself. Now, Danny would probably go into this situation thinking that his Shadow is going to expose him being Phantom to everyone there (which wouldn't be a problem if it were just Jazz Sam and Tucker, but that's where all the secondary and background characters come in to play). So while everyone else is dealing with their Shadows, he's trying to figure out how to get out of this with his secret identity still intact. (Maybe he and his friends split off from the group to find his on their own? Maybe they find his, but the Shadow tells him no and that he'll only show himself once all the others have been dealt with? Maybe one or two more people follow behind them and ask them what the hell they were talking about?) Eventually tho, Danny comes to the conclusion that there's no way out of it at this point, and that he should just get it over with asap so nobody gets hurt. They all finally meet Danny's Shadow, who tries to speak. Before he can say anything tho, Danny stops him and outs his secret himself, getting everything off his chest. With everyone there knowing he's Danny Phantom, he no longer has any secrets to keep, and his Shadow will go away and they'll be free, right?

But then his Shadow calls him stupid for thinking it'd be that easy. The thing he represses the most isn't the fact that he's Phantom. It isn't even his evil future self or anything relating to his secret identity. Danny's biggest secret is something he's kept hidden even from himself. The thing he represses the most is how much he blames himself for the ghosts attacks. After all, he's the one who got the portal to open, and without the portal there'd be no way for the ghosts to even get to Amity Park. In a way, Danny's subconscious equates this to him bringing the ghosts to town.

And here, I'm actually taking some inspiration from the Portal au too, because to represent Danny's guilt about the ghosts coming through the portal, Danny's Shadow is the portal.

(I even got some amazing art done by @darling-has-a-smol-heart for Danny's Shadow, but it's got some gore and body horror elements going on, so I'm putting it under the cut)

But anyway, that's basically the gist of it lol

(Left picture has slight afterimage effects, right picture has no effects)

[fantasyinvader]

I think I know what part of the problem is when it comes to Edelgard.

Remember how in the Nintendo Dream interview the devs talked about not wanting to do a golden route where everyone lives, saying it would take away from players of other routes and make a bigger push for it to be the canonical ending. We saw this happen with Fates, with people upset at how Revelations undermined both Birthright and Conquest by being that (almost) everybody lives ending. I've put down Digimon Survive myself because it locks it's golden ending behind NG+. By making one route appear to be better than the others, it makes players more inclined to support that route which is a problem when they only expected most to finish one.

Sure, Flower might have a lot of subtext and implications that it's the villain route and is noticably shorter than the other routes, but it's meant to appear as though it's just as heroic as the other three routes. Edelgard being the villainous Flame Emperor was the twist of the game, but players elected to side with her anyway therefore it was made to look no worse than the other routes. It's also why they want to focus on the Academy stage of the game. It's before the big reveal, and this is the problem.

Years later, the franchise is still treating Edelgard being a baddie as a big shocking secret.

Look at what we saw in Engage. We have Edelgard saying that the three Lords protected their respective worlds, except that's not the case at all. Claude and Dimitri joined with the Church, fought the Empire, tried to save Rhea and took out TWSITD. Edelgard, alternatively, killed Dimitri, killed or exiled Claude, killed Rhea, continued to work with TWSITD helping them accomplish their goals, let Hubert and Byleth take out TWSITD after they were no longer useful to her, conquered Fodlan with Japanese text implying her armies are marching on other countries afterwards. To say that these stories all protect the same world is absurd. Likewise, Byleth's trial takes place in the chapter where the reveal happens. Byleth takes the Flame Emperor's place while summoning phantoms reflecting each one of the lords to help him fight, keeping the true identity of the Flame Emperor a secret.

Granted, with Engage it keeps the spoilers for all the games a secret in an attempt to bait new players. Like Sigurd dying in the middle of his game, or Lyn and Hector being friends with Roy's father (with Lyn being a candidate for his mom). But with Byleth, we get clues that point to Byleth being from Silver Snow. Their trial theme is contains the song of the Nabateans (associated with them and Rhea), Edge of Dawn (the main theme of the game which full text reveals Byleth and Edelgard became enemies) and Our Paths Shall Never Cross (I think that's the name, showing Byleth and Edelgard going their separate ways). We also receive the Byleth Emblem when Hortensia defects from her country, resolving to fight it and those pulling it and her father's strings, much like how the Black Eagles side with the Church in Silver Snow against their country which is being manipulated from the shadows by TWSITD with Ionius implied to be their puppet.

Cipher also opted to depict post-timeskip designs, using Silver Snow as the base for it's Black Eagles-themed expansion, but then we get Heroes and it's commitment to have characters...prevent War-era characters from warning their academy era counterparts about what's going to happen to try and stop the war. Then there's Hopes, which focuses more on the war but also tries to say this is what the characters would be like without Byleth. Hopes tries to make all routes worse than their Houses counterparts to not undermine that game, degrading itself int he process while at the same time to not deal with the big twist of that game, trying to say all three of the Lords are pretty bad on their own in different ways.

This commitment to not having a golden route is where the problems all stem. If you want to do a game where you have contrasts like the path towards enlightenment and the path of the beast, oudou vs hadou, or seeking the truth or embracing comforting lies and ignorance, then by trying to put them on equal footing you're not really saying anything. Or are you really going to treat giving a political voice to the commoners as just as good as consolidating power upon the throne so it's leader can shape Fodlan towards her social Darwinist vision?

Edelgard being the villain is a twist, with IS still acting like the cat isn't out of the bag because if they do, then Flower is going to be less appealing and therefore have less people viewing it as the canonical end. Yet at the same time, it's an offshoot of the Black Eagles route, the one where players must fight against their lord character while the other two lords (and unrecruited students/staff) die off-screen. We must fight against two of our former students while not having the opportunity to reach out to other classes. That's the way the story should go, since the game is framed as Byleth's story and the options that unlock Flower are framed as changing it. It's why the Eagles get the biggest character pushes, why the games use Eagle-themed picks for it's loading menus, why the devs said that Byleth's flag is the games Fire Emblem to them... In many ways, Silver Snow best encapsulates what they wanted to do with the game. It's silver, not a golden route. You can save who you can but not everyone, and you'll still have to end Edelgard.

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Ok, so @xmarksthespotonthemilkyway made ficlets and they gave me so many ideas and I'm about to make that everyone else's problem.

1. Braindead soulmate au where they're separated by dimensions and Danny is searching through the Infinite Realms looking for the man who's name is on his body.

Danny pops out of this weird pool of ectoplasm, scaring the daylights out of some ninja guards who send one away to notify some "demon" of his appearance. Danny tries to talk to them but has to beat them up. When Ras appeared Danny commented that he needed to teach his guys some manners.

Ras asks who he is and how he got here.

Danny sasses him and tells him he's Phantom and he came from the pool.

Ras is interested until Danny casually asks Ras if he knows a "Timothy Drake" when asked why Danny casually mentions Tim's name is on his back (meaning they're soulmates) Ras is super invested at this point.

It goes as well as you'd expect.

2. Tim musing about his soulmate by @xmarksthespotonthemilkyway :

"What could he be, with them? What could they be, with him?

Unstoppable, he always like to believe"

Hnnn makes me think of an au where Tim and a op Danny are from separate dimensions and the Observants and other Powers That Be are doing everything they can to make sure these two never meet.

They fail. Cue the Observants screaming in terror and curling up in balls to cry about how doomed they are all while Tim and Danny are being cute and blushy with eachother in the little crystal ball they were using to spy on them.

Let's be honest. If either of them became evil everyone would be screwed. If both became evil....you better practice bowing down I guess.

3. Tim never understood why he could never find his soulmate. His full name was written in small slightly messy handwriting on his left shoulder blade for all to see (including him if he had a mirror or two) so why didn't his name exist in any database?

Tim never would have thought it was because his soulmate was from another dimension. Or that he was going by his adopted name, Daniel James Fenton.

No one knows Dannys real name given to him at birth. No one but him, his birth mom and Jazz, who helped him burn the documents his parents have never more than glanced at before adopting him.

4. Au of the au where Danny is the lovechild of BatCat and when he learns the (civilian) identities of his parents he contacts Selena to get to know her and they meet up literally anywhere except Gotham to avoid being discovered by Batman or Bruce Wayne.

Selena tells him about her being Catwoman but not anyone else's identities. They weren't her secrets to share after all. Word gets out that she's "taken an apprentice" and the bats and birds try to befriend him whenever they can. Danny has taken to stopping in Bloodhaven every chance he gets to chat with Nightwing and Co.

Danny gets wounded and his soulmark (Tim's full name) gets revealed and the bat has a "oh snap!" moment. Its even better if its Tim himself who's there as Red Robin for the drama.

[wolfjackle-creates]

He doesn't say a damn thing.

Until he sees a news report about Red Robin being out a day after he was in Danny's office with a broken arm.

-----

When Alfred told him his presence was requested at Tim's school, Bruce didn't know what to think. Especially since there'd been no information in the summons besides that it was important.

He absolutely wasn't expecting to be brought to the nurse's office where a young black haired man stared at him through narrowed eyes while Tim sat on one of the examination tables with his arm in a sling.

The nurse dismissed his guide and continued to glare at Bruce.

"I take it you know why I've asked you to come here?" asked the man with ice in his voice.

Bruce blinked in surprise, but fixed his Brucie persona on and smiled broadly. "I haven't the foggiest! Did Tim get into some trouble? Is he sick? Usually if that's what happens, the school is fine telling me over the phone. But they were quite reticent with the details and merely insisted I come as soon as I could."

"Hmmm. You're good. I'll give you that."

Tim chuckled. "Mr. Fenton, I told you, my living situation is fine. There's no need to interrogate Bruce."

Bruce didn't have to feign the surprise he felt at that statement from Tim and let every ounce of it show. "You, you don't think I'd hurt Tim, do you? I love him! I love all my kids!"

"Love doesn't mean you won't hurt him. But no, I know you aren't abusive, Mr. Wayne. However, I needed to talk to you both. Tim has a broken arm. Gotham has, like, a dozen heroes. There was no reason for Red Robin to be out last night."

Bruce didn't let his expression waver, but Tim couldn't quite hold his surprise or protests back. "I- what are you talking about? I was home in bed last night, high on pain pills."

Brucie let out a laugh. "You can't seriously believe I'd let my boy fight crime! Do you have any idea how dangerous that would be? Gotham is scary at night!"

But Danny just rolled his eyes. He'd be asking Barbara to look into him as soon as he was off campus. And he assumed Tim would be doing the same.

"Look, from a former vigilante to current ones, the injuries and excuses are ridiculously obvious. I might've been able to get out of the game by the time I graduated high school, but I remember the injuries and sleepless nights and constant lying. I had to keep working through it because I was the only hero back home who was at all competent and not genocidal. You, Mr. Drake, have a supportive family and friends who are in the know and can take over for you. And you don't have super healing. So. I will not see Red Robin in the field for at least three months or I will have to intervene."

Bruce let the Brucie mask fall away as he narrowed his eyes and stood that much taller. "Are you threatening me?"

Danny laughed, completely unphased. "Trust me, Mr. Wayne, there's nothing you could do to stop me. And your government has spent ten years trying. But no, I won't hurt you, your kids, or your friends. I will make Tim rest, though. By force if I have to."

"Who, who were you?" asked Tim hesitantly. "When you were a hero."

Danny waved a hand in the air. "You wouldn't have heard of me. The US government made sure of that. But I went by the name of Danny Phantom."

Bruce couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that and the nurse noticed, laughing again.

"Yeah, I wasn't the most creative fourteen year old out there. But, well, my hero persona was dead. No one expected me to have a secret identity. Toss in neglectful parents and overworked teachers..." He shrugged. "Go ahead and research me. I was based out of a town called Amity Park."

"You can be sure we will," Bruce said, infusing as much threat as he could into the simple statement. "And if we find that you told anyone about what you've learned..."

"I haven't. And I won't. I know how important secret identities can be. Even if I had to keep mine for the opposite reason as you Justice Leaguers do."

"What does that mean?" asked Tim.

"My rogues, as you'd call them, all knew who I was. There's no secrets among the dead, after all. Had to keep it a secret from the humans, though. Because they were the ones trying to hurt me. The very people I was protecting."

"What do you mean, 'among the dead'?" growled Bruce.

"Oh, that's how I became a hero. I died and came back. Just not all the way. The ghosts consider me one of them. My teen years were spent keeping the ghosts from hurting the humans and humans from hurting the ghosts. As soon as I was able to do that without spending all my time fighting them and made friends with all my 'rogues'"—Danny actually made air quotes—"I retired. Now, we're getting off track. Tim, I'm going to take an x-ray of your arm and sign you out of class for the rest of the week. On Monday, I want you to report back here so I can take a second x-ray and confirm you've actually rested that arm. What do you do for fun?"

"But isn't this a school nurse's office?"

Danny's eyes widened and he looked around frantically. "Is it? Oh Ancients! I had no idea! How'd we get here?" Settling back in his chair he raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you Bats supposed to be detectives or something?"

Tim was blushing now. "I just mean... school nurse's offices don't have x-ray machines."

"Ah, yes. I see where you're coming from now. School nurse's offices don't have x-ray machines." He stood and walked to a closet. The door opened in a way that the contents were not visible to Bruce even as he shifted position to try and see inside. Danny pulled out a large machine and turned to grin at them. "But I do."

Bruce let Tim ask the question of how he got a machine like that and both were surprised by the matter-of-fact, "Oh, I built it," he tossed out as he powered it on. It did not seem to need to be plugged into a power source. What sort of battery did it use?

"If you can build x-rays, why are you working as a nurse?"

"Because, if I went to school for engineering, my parents would expect me to go into the family business. And I'm not interested in genocide." He flicked a few more switches as Bruce was trying to figure out a response to that. Before he could, Danny was positioning Tim's arm. "This puts out way less radiation than standard x-rays. But I've got a protective vest if you'd like one."

"Uh, yeah. Definitely," insisted Tim to Bruce's relief.

Danny grabbed the vest and helped Tim put it on. "Now, you never answered my question. What do you do for fun?"

"I- what? Why do you care?"

"Because, I'm giving you the week off. You are under strict orders to sleep and catch up on at least one hobby. I like playing video games with my partners. When I was your age, Doomed was our favorite. My wife likes to garden and my husband is into programming. I like building things."

"I, um, I guess I like video games. I used to play them more when I was little. I skateboard, too, but I don't think you'd agree to let me do that."

"No, you are quite right. So, Mr. Wayne, on your way home with Tim, you will stop by a game store and buy him a new video game. Tim, on Monday when you come back for your next x-ray, you will show me your game progress as proof that you're not working yourself too hard." By the time he was done talking, he had taken the x-rays and was powering down the machine.

"You don't have the right to order me around." Bruce's voice was hard.

"No. But I do believe you love your son. And he needs to rest. I'm just doing what I can to make sure a patient under my care does what is necessary to heal. I thought that might be a goal we share. If I'm wrong, you can tell me so."

Bruce glared harder, but didn't have a response. "We will get that game."

Danny grinned and clapped his hands. "Great! Now, I assume you or one or more of your brood will be visiting me tonight after you do some research into my background. The windows to the living room of my apartment don't open, so you'll have to go through the bedroom. I look forward to your visit."

"How long have you known?" asked Tim.

"Known about what?"

"Who I was."

"Oh, I knew you were a vigilante since your third visit to my office. Took a bit longer to sort through all the heroes of Gotham to figure out which one. But that's only because I pay less than zero attention to heroes. Once you live the life and get out... Well, I didn't want to get sucked back in."

"Hn," hummed Bruce. "I will be seeing you again."

"I don't doubt it. Feel free to come to Tim's Monday checkup, too, if you'd like."

Bruce nodded once and grabbed Tim's backpack. Gesturing to his son, he indicated he should follow. As soon as they were out the door, he put the Brucie mask back in place, but was already making plans.

Short DPXDC Prompts #651

Danny is the Cool School Nurse™ You just want to lay down for a few minutes? Absolutely fine. Need some ice? Yeah sure! Need to get stitches but going to the ER is too expensive? Danny can sew up your injury with frightening speed. Need to set a bone? Shhh don’t tell the principal but Danny gotchu. Just hold still.

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

I wanna talk about Agent F

nabbed some pics from this post because @monotype-on-phantom has a great collection of background characters (go check their 'background characters' tag for more excellent screenshots!)

but yeah guess what, School Kid 6 Agent F looks just as Definitely An Adult in the show as she does in the game gdksksbj

seems like she's good friends with Star

unfortunately she's also been at the school from the very beginning of the shows which makes the undercover GIW agent story a bit tricky since it pre-dates Phantom's presence

unless her purpose to begin with was to keep an eye on the Fenton kids because the GIW are super interested in the Fenton's work, and maybe they're interested to see if growing up around constant exposure to ectoplasm did anything weird to them

which would actually be super interesting because would she notice when Danny starts developing his powers if that's the kind of thing she's looking for? what if the GIW know that Danny suffers from some mild form of ecto-contamination and is a little Less Than Normal? what would make this super funny tho is if they still don't make the connection that he's Phantom

Wes figures out immediately that Agent F is clearly An Adult and at first suspects that she's an undercover cop (absolutely nobody believes him of course, like the fuck Wes that's Star's friend Felicia she can't be a cop)

but once the ghost shit starts happening and 'Felicia' starts casually pushing anti-ghost propaganda and she seems to know just a little Too Much about ghosts Wes is like 'hang on a minute you aren't a cop YOU'RE A GIW AGENT AREN'T YOU' and then he proceeds to spend the rest of his existence trying to convince her that Danny is Phantom

but she's just not having it, one she won't admit to him that she's GIW and she wants nothing more than to distance herself from this weirdo before he blows her cover, two she doesn't believe a ghost can also be a human, she thinks Danny might have some ghostly attributes but he doesn't set off her ghost radar (he only blips it from time to time which would be expected from someone who's ecto-contaminated), and also she's been watching this awkward geek all year and there's no way this kid could be Phantom

like he gets beaten up by Dash all the time, and he desperately wants to join the popular kids and be a part of that crowd, and keeping his identity a secret would be in opposition to that

also he doesn't flex his new superpowers for attention, he doesn't use them for anything (other than the occasional prank on Dash but he's smart enough to do that when nobody else is around), he doesn't use them to impress Paulina, he doesn't use them to get onto a sports team, he just doesn't use them to increase his popularity at all

an adult looking at this from the outside, an adult with preconceived notions on how dumb and impulsive teenagers are, could not believe that a teenage boy would be able to control that temptation

he's not Phantom, he's just mildly ecto-contaminated, possibly has some minor abilities he either can't control or doesn't realise he has, and that's about it, Phantom is just an ordinary unrelated ghost with no secret identity who just happens to look similar

besides, there have been depictions of Phantom throughout history, long before Danny was born, there were sightings of him at a university in the 80s, in ancient Rome, at the Salem witch trials, he was even found in a drawing from a boy's diary in the 1940s, the more they look the more they find artwork and stories of a being with his appearance or power, too many and too similar to be coincidence

unless Danny Fenton is somehow capable of time travel he couldn't possibly be Phantom

[five-rivers]

@lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks came up with this op!Danny/Marvel AU!

BTW I need help naming this newest proof that I can't keep anything to a short little one-shot.

.

Loki was not, and never had been, a good man. For that matter, whether or not he’d ever been a good boy was debatable. His mother would argue that he had, but she would very likely be the only one. Well, except for Thor, perhaps, but that was because he was an idiot who could drown in three inches of nostalgia. Like he didn’t remember every time Loki had humiliated him. Maybe he didn’t, for all that he kept falling for the same trick over and over again.

It made Loki’s late nights studying the arts of illusion, misdirection, and lying seem redundant. Almost. Not everyone was as dense as his big brother.

No. Loki had never been a good man. He had, however, been a free man.

Free to run or hide. Free to explore the nooks and crannies of Asgard, to uncover her secrets in ways few cared to do. Free to walk hidden paths between the Nine Realms and even farther flung territories, where his people did not and had never ruled, to play games, make deals, have adventures, take risks. To be. To exist as his own creature.

He had been free. He had.

But on one of those little secret excursions, he had discovered something that had made even his flippant, slippery heart clench with fear. A ravening plague, spreading across the stars. The death of half of everything on the horizon.

Loki was not a good man. What cause did he have to care for all the sundry others in the universe? There were too many. It was too much to ask.

But Asgard—His home, even though the had long ago realized the blood in his veins originated on very different soil. That was different.

Asgard, he could help. Asgard could survive.

But it had to be strong. It had to have strong allies. None of this barely-held peace, this enemy eternally at their gates. It needed strong leadership. Not his brother’s simplistic view and longing for the glory of war.

Loki was not a good man. But he was one who could get things done.

Before he knew it, he had burned all his bridges behind him. In one case, a literal bridge that was literally broken.

And he fell.

And he fell.

And he fell right into the hands of the one he had feared enough to do this. Broken enough for poison to drip into the cracks. No one knew where he was, no one could know where he was, except, perhaps, Heimdal, and Loki sincerely doubted Heimdal cared. No one was coming for him. No one was looking for him. No rescue was forthcoming.

He was alone.

Asgardians were considered gods for a reason. Their bodies and minds were much more resilient than the average mortal’s. But Thanos’s people had been titans, and there was a reason for that, too.

Thanos enjoyed breaking him.

And Loki turned his lies on himself. A skilled master of games always had one gifted opponent, even alone. Hadn’t he wanted to rule? To command? To see a world, any world, prostrate at his feet? To be given the recognition and praise of which he was so worth?

To pull something, anything, out of the fire?

(If he had spent less time learning how to spin lies and more on how to see the truth, he might not have believed it. A better, wiser, man would have. But Loki was not a good man. And he was very skilled in his craft.)

So, his new master put a weapon in his hands, and he went off to conquer a world.

.

Danny was used to rude awakenings. He was used to those rude awakenings being full body chills and ghosts, not someone knocking on his door.

Blearily, he pulled himself out from under the blankets. Quasi-military government facility or not, the beds were comfortable. Maybe Mom or Dad had gotten themselves locked out of their room? Or Jazz—No, not Jazz, she hadn’t come with them. She was at college, not being flown places by Mom and Dad’s suspiciously generous new consulting job.

At least it wasn’t the GIW.

He stood on tiptoe (curse his perpetually short body) to peer out the peephole. His parents’ buff, one-eyed, and incredibly imposing new boss stood in front of the door, hands on his hips, slightly sweeping back his long dark coat. If Danny listened carefully, he could hear two other people near the door, and… was that an alarm? Yes. Faint, but present, was a warning klaxon.

Okay. Danny would bet his right arm that something had gone horribly wrong with whatever his parents were consulting on. Didn’t explain why the boss was in front of his door.

Unless they’d gotten the rooms mixed up, somehow?

Ugh. Danny wasn’t paid enough to deal with this.

He opened the door. “What-?”

“Phantom,” intoned eyepatch guy with great solemnity.

Danny immediately tried to close the door. The guy stuck his foot in the jamb, and, sure, Danny could have crushed it, but that would be a jerk move. He didn’t think this guy was going for a pirate look, after all.

“We need your help.”

.

“I’m not sure what you think I can help you with,” yelled Danny over the beating of the helicopter blades. He’d remained stubbornly in human form. “My parents are the scientists. This sounds like a science thing. Not a punching-people thing.”

“We spoke to them earlier,” said Fury, “and we have plenty of scientists working on the theories they brought up. You’re the one with practical experience.”

“Practical experience in what?”

“Interdimensional portals,” said the woman, who had yet to introduce herself.

As if this whole thing wasn’t already giving him a bad feeling. “My parents built an interdimensional portal. Again, you should be talking to them. They’re the ones you’re paying.”

“We could pay you, too,” said Fury, “but we assumed you would want to avoid letting your parents know about this, as you’re still a minor and they have control of your bank accounts.”

Danny stared flatly. “This is blackmail.”

“We aren’t threatening you,” pointed out the woman.

“Emotional blackmail,” said Danny, glaring, daring her to challenge him on whether or not he actually knew what blackmail was.

In the meantime, the helicopter landed. Danny unbuckled and hopped out, trailing slightly awkwardly behind Fury and the woman. He didn’t want to stand out, but he suspected that, being the only kid here and being in the general vicinity of Fury, who radiated authority, that was a lost cause.

“This is Agent Coulson. Coulson, this is Phantom.”

Danny’s mouth went dry(er) at how casual the introduction was. His eyes went nervously to all the other people running around the field. With all the noise, it was unlikely anyone had heard, but still…

“Can you not? Secret identity and all? Unless you’ve told everyone herealready, which, rude.”

Fury sighed. “How bad is it?” he asked Coulson.

“We’re not sure,” said Coulson. “That’s the problem. Big fan of your work, by the way,” he added as an aside to Danny. He glanced at the woman. “Agent Hill.”

“Background?” asked Fury as he led the way into the building.

“The first energy surge was four hours ago. Dr. Selvig’s equipment picked it up – He’s the head scientist on this project.”

“Dr. Selvig isn’t authorized to test,” said Fury. “We wanted to run his plans by the Fentons.”

“He wasn’t testing. He wasn’t even in the room. He called it ‘spontaneous advancement.’”

“It turned itself on?”

“What are the energy levels?” asked Fury before Hill’s question could be answered.

“Climbing,” said Coulson.

“Mr. Fenton,” said Fury, “any comments?”

“Look, I don’t even know what this thing that you built looks like or what it’s a door to.” Danny frowned as a thought occurred to him. “You’re not expecting me to fight whatever comes out of it, are you? Because, unless you’ve got a ghost portal down there, I can’t make guarantees.”

“It’s called the Tesseract,” said Coulson. “It’s supposed to be a connection to the other side of space. A source of unlimited energy. At least,” there was a note of humor in his voice despite the evacuation taking place around them, “that’s what the scientists say.”

“A door to space?” asked Danny, firmly shoving down his excitement at the prospect. “Like, a Stargate?” It was no good, he could practically feel himself sparkling. He took a firm grip of his core and reminded himself he might need to fight before the end of the day.

“Well, no,” said Coulson. “It’s this little… cube… thing.” He made a shape with his hands.

“Oh,” said Danny, mind still whirring. “You know, if it’s really a tesseract, it isn’t a cube in just three dimensions, so bigger things could come out of it than you’d think.” He’d seen some weird portals in the Ghost Zone.

“Well, right now, we’re just getting energy.” They entered a large room with an extremely sci-fi setup. It looked like they were planning to shoot some kind of laser across the room onto a platform surrounded by strange-looking panels. There were men with guns scattered around in what was probably a well thought out formation Danny couldn’t see. There was also a dude with a bow sitting up in the rafters. He frowned down at Danny as he noticed Danny noticing him.

“Dr. Selvig!”

“Director!”

“What do we know?”

Danny allowed himself to be distracted by the centerpiece of the room, a piece of machinery built around what was indeed a little cube thing. He tilted his head and approached, trying to get a better view of it around the people in lab coats and protective gear currently swarming it. He caught mention of radiation a grimaced.

It was unlikely to kill him, but, really, everyone here should probably be wearing more PPE. You never knew what was going to come out of an interdimensional portal, after all. Except trouble. Trouble was a pretty safe bet.

It was pretty. Blue. Reminded him a little of a blue raspberry ice pop. Part of him wanted to lick it. Which was stupid. He didn’t want to wind up half what-ever-lived-on-the-other-side on top of his regular ghost nonsense.

“Mr. Fenton?”

Danny jumped and turned, refocusing on the adults, who had multiplied while he’d been daydreaming. The guy with the bow had joined them.

“Mr. Fenton? Like the Doctors Fenton I spoke to earlier?” asked Selvig.

“Yeah, it’s—”

This, of course, was when everything decided to explode. Sort of.

The blue cube shot out a beam of energy that had more than a little in common with the Fenton Bazooka’s portal setting. The beam terminated on the platform, a portal rapidly forming.

Danny slid into a fighting stance, and barely even noticed as blue energy washed over the room, throwing many less-prepared people back.

Something shaped like a man stepped through the portal.

Danny did not break his stance. Still. “An alien,” he whispered, eyes wide. If they were friendly, maybe they’d answer his questions about space. If they weren’t friendly, maybe they’d answer his questions about space after Danny beat them up.

(Danny did not go ghost. Did not even think about going ghost. There were too many people here, and the space was too open.)

Fury attempted to negotiate. Danny approved. Not everything that came through an interdimensional portal was necessarily evil.

Except this guy apparently was. Go figure. He could also deflect bullets and was very good with throwing knives, which led to Danny having to pull several of the gun guys out of their own line of fire as well as the alien’s line of knife. Who would have thought an alien’s weapon of choice would be throwing knives? The energy-blasting spear was much more in line with his expectations.

The bow guy proved to be more competent than the gun guys. This didn’t really surprise Danny. Bow guy sort of had to be competent. Otherwise, no way would they let him go around with a bow. Like, seriously. A bow.

Even so, bow guy was fighting an alien and—

“You have heart,” said the alien, raising the spear.

Danny pushed bow guy out of the way, and his mind fuzzed out.

(The human part of it, anyway.)

.

Loki didn’t know what a child was doing here, and he didn’t particularly care. The boy would do for a hostage, at least. He had a mission he had to fulfil, or else…

Or else.

“Please don’t,” he said turning with a shadow of his usual lazy affect, vaguely insulted that the human thought he could be sneaker that him, “I still need that.”

The human went on and on, apparently burdened with the delusion that he was on the same level as Loki.

Loki was burdened with other things. A glorious purpose. Glad tidings. Freedom. What could be better than freedom?

“A world free from what?” asked the human.

“From freedom,” said Loki, and wasn’t that what he believed, now? Wasn’t that what he’d been shown? “Freedom is life’s great lie.” He would know. He was an excellent liar. “Once you accept that, in your heart—” He batted away an arrow and tsked. “Shield me, boy,” he demanded. Had Thanos misrepresented the scepter’s powers? Or was the boy merely—

A dome of green surrounded him and the boy, thrumming with magic the likes of which he had only seen once, in a tome thrice forbidden.

“Oh,” said Loki, almost purring. “You are interesting. What are you?”

“Half human, half ghost,” replied the boy, tersely.

Loki had never heard of such a creature. No matter. He’d be sure to make good use of him.

“Grab the scientist,” he said, nodding at the balding man who had been with his brother when he’d fought the Destroyer in the desert.

Loki wanted the archer. He seemed interesting. Useful.

.

Fenton was under thrall. Phantom knew what that felt like. A hundred feet under red water, trying not to drown, whispers everywhere. Pulling. Pushing. Prodding.

This was different, but the principle was the same.

Neither half of him could truly ‘fight’ the other. Fenton and Phantom were a single entity. Not two in lockstep. Even so.

Fenton grabbed onto Dr. Selvig, as ordered. Phantom made sure that was all they did.

“What are you doing, boy?” snapped Loki. “Follow me! Bring the scientist.”

And so, they followed.

.

Loki breathed. Acquiring Barton had been the right choice. The boy was powerful, but, perhaps because of his unique biology, did not have Barton’s presence of mind, and couldn’t have led him to such wonderful allies.

Allies.

These weren’t truly his allies. Nor were they subjects. They were…

Loki forced himself to breathe. He just had to follow the mission. Follow the mission, let Thanos’s army through. He’d been promised this world. He would have this world.

And then he could be… His mind stuttered over the next word, and he shook his head, trying to drive out the painful buzz of Thanos’s herald and mouthpiece trying to contact him.

He looked up at the drones bustling around, all according to his will. Except the boy, who stared at him, somehow managing to be both utterly blank and challenging at the same time.

He was alone, here.

He was alone.

But what did it matter? Bad men always wound up alone, and Loki… Loki could never be a good man.

[sayahs-corner]

Rocky Road

Rated: M

Pairing: Stony, Steve/Tony

Summary: Tony Stark has been kidnapped... again. This time is different that the others, though, because his kidnappers are not interested in a ransom. They mean to kill him. His only hope rests upon the smashed smartwatch on his wrist that doesn't seem to want to work. When a call finally goes through, it's to the last person in the world he wants to talk to. His ex-boyfriend, Grant Stevens, who he put in his phone as FuckHead.

Warnings/Tags: Lots of cussing, AU, Identity Porn, Secret Identities, Steve Rogers goes Feral, Protective Steve, Kidnapping, Torture, Violence, Nazi Punching, The Nazis got spanked in this one, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, HEA

Tony Stark was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Which was an understatement of the highest order. The thought caused a laugh to bubble up in his throat, immediately followed by a pained wheeze as his bruised ribs pulsed sharply in protest. He clenched his fingers into fists, trying to work  the blood back into the numb and bloodless digits. They were cold, numb, and slick with what he strongly suspected was his own blood. The chains holding his arms aloft rattled, a sickening slide of metal against metal in a tinkling high note,  interrupted only by the haggard sound of  his choppy and erratic breaths.

He had been kidnapped. Again.

Which in and of itself wasn’t a big deal. At twenty two, and growing up as the son and heir of  the late and lauded Howard Stark, Tony had been kidnapped at least half a dozen times at this point in his life. He knew what to expect from his captors at this stage in the game, just as he knew how these things typically played out. There was a very basic formula to kidnappings that Tony had learned around the tender age of nine years old. They had a pattern, a common thread.

The problem was, this wasn't like all of the other times. 

Tony had been abducted from his campus apartment (where he had been halfway through a pint of Rocky Road ice cream thank-you-very-much), beaten into unconsciousness, had a burlap sack pulled over his head, and was thrown in the back of a trunk and trussed up like a Christmas Turkey. 

Or, at least, how he would have imagined a Christmas Turkey would be trussed up. 

He really  wouldn't know, his parents had rarely been around for Christmas, let alone Christmas dinner. There was always some sort of charity event, or meeting, or party to which Tony was never invited. And that was all a part of a very sad and very tragic childhood, blah, blah, blah. He likely needed therapy. Maybe. Anyway, it didn't matter as he had other, very pressing, concerns at the moment.

Because the kidnapping had taken a very sharp, very unexpected, turn. Usually he was blindfolded, smacked around a little bit, and bound. Sometimes it was to a bed, sometimes to a chair, or even a couple of times to a radiator. He had been bound with rope, handcuffs, duct tape and on one notable occasion a biker’s sweaty leather thong. That thing had been bedazzled, and had smelt exactly like one would imagine a three hundred pound man’s used leather thong would smell like.

Ass. 

It smelt like swamp ass. Tony sometimes still gagged, years later, just thinking about it. Now if a therapist could erase that image from his past, and the phantom smell that came with it, Tony would pay an arm and a leg for the privilege. 

Over time, while waiting for the ransom or the authorities, he usually developed a rapport with his kidnappers. Because he was Tony Stark. Charming, funny, and flirtatious. The last couple of  times he had been able to convince his kidnappers to let him go. Because despite his faults, when he wanted to be, Tony was very likable.

 But not so much this time.

Never had his kidnappers been so brutal in their violence right from the get go. The scent of brine and iron was heavy in the air even through the thick burlap sack covering his face. He could smell the sharp astringent scent of bleach, but even through that he could smell that earthy iron tang. They dragged him, kicking and thrashing, across rough cement floors before they frog marched him through a doorway. 

Cold air had slapped at the skin of his bare arms, raising immediate goosebumps, as his feet slipped over a wet and smooth surface. He was turned around, handcuffed with his arms in front of him, and then his arms were being lifted above him. The cuffs attached to a hook and chain that brought him all the way up to his tip toes.

When they jerked the sack off of his head his heart stopped beating in his chest. He was in a meat processing plant. In the cold locker. Row upon row of dead cow and pig carcass hung around him. The ribs a bright white contrast against the deep red of their gaping raw  flesh. 

“Frightened? You should be, little Starkling.” The rough voice had him jerking his head to the right where a handful of men stood. Dressed in head to toe in all black, with black ski masks pulled over their faces that did nothing to hide the hard and soulless glint in their eyes, they stood loosely in a triangle formation.

“The boss is going to be here very soon. He wants to see to you personally. Settle an old score, he said.” Tony watched as his kidnapper’s lips quirked up into a mean smile, a gnashing of teeth.

“Before he gets here though, he said we could tenderize you a bit.”

What happened from there on out was probably the worst twenty minutes of Tony’s life. Twenty minutes of fists cracking into his unprotected flesh. His stomach was a solid and perfect ache. His mouth was drooling blood and he could no longer see out of his left eye.

Tony knew how to take a beating. He was a scrappy fighter, used to taking his hits and dealing his own. But this went beyond any experience the young Stark had ever had. Instead of focusing on the pain of his beating, the name calling and taunts, he had let his overactive, too engaged mind float above the haze of pain. He practiced writing code in his mind for the new robot that he was building in his lab. The drum of fists on his flesh a distant background noise. 

When they finally left him, battered and bleeding, he had nearly sobbed with relief. It didnt matter that he was in a fucking refrigerator. Surrounded on all sides by dead carcasses. A foreshadowing of events to come. One didn't need to be a genius or a whiz kid to know what was going to happen next. Likely his Dear Old Dad had pissed off the wrong people. And since Howard Stark had kicked the bucket last year, he wasn't around to take vengeance upon. So they had settled for the next best thing. 

Him.

There was no universe in which he was walking out of this meat locker alive. He swallowed sharply, blood gurgling on the hard breath he exhaled. He raised his head just enough to look around the room with his good eye. He let the seconds tick by into minutes, with only the sound of the cold air vents rattling above him, and his own labored breathing filling the room. 

Swallowing down the blood that coated the back of his throat from what was likely a broken nose, Tony took a risk. 

When they had broken his door down and stormed into his living room with weapons blazing, his captors had wasted no time in stripping him of his phone, crunching it beneath a hard booted heel. To be honest, at the time, he had been more upset about the carton of ice cream being ripped out of his hands, the spoon clenched stubbornly in one fist. The least they could have done was let him eat that spoonful. That too had been thrown to the wayside. What those irritating, violent, thugs had forgotten to do was to take his smart watch.

He tilted his head up to stare at his bruised wrist, his thundering heart beating a cacophony in his ears. When his gaze fell upon the shattered screen, his heart stopped. 

No. No, no, no, no, no. It was literally his one saving grace. His one last hope. And it was broken.

His tongue darted out nervously to wet his swollen lower lip, wincing as even that small movement sent sharp pains shooting through his body. He knew his teeth were loose. He could feel them shifting beneath the gentle prod of his tongue. 

“S-Siri.” Tony whispered, his voice cracking. Hope flared briefly when half the screen lit up. 

“Siri - call 9-1-1.” 

Nothing.

“Siri, call emergency services.”

Nothing. He wasn't going to cry. He was not going to cry.

“Siri…call Rhodey-Bear.” His voice cracked at the mention of his best friend’s name. The screen remained half lit. 

“Siri you piece of - I should have upgraded you when I had the chance. Siri, please, please call Rhodey-Bear.” The affectionate nickname for his long time friend and military brat had been loaded into his phone years ago. Rhodes hated it, would often roll his eyes and give Tony a droll stare before slinging an arm around his neck and tucking him down so that he could deliver a noogie. 

Radio silence.

“Siri - Call Uncle Obie-wan.” His adoptive Uncle Obidiah was, at this point, quite used to the star wars quotes and puns Tony threw his way. Tony was a bit of a Star Wars nerd, and loved making puns. 

“Please work. Please work.” Tony was panting, desperation stealing the air from his lungs more effectively than those blows to his chest and stomach ever could. Frustration knitted his brow as blood trailed down the side of his face from a head wound. He was pretty sure one of those bastards was wearing rings. The screen remained blank. His shoulders slumped in defeat.

“Jesus. Siri - Fuck”

“Dialing Fuckhead.” Siri’s melodic monotone announced softly. Tony felt his one good eye go wide with shock. A mixture of elation and dread rocked him in the chest. 

Because yes, while he had finally gotten the damn fucking watching to work, it had called the last person on this earth that he wanted to speak to right now. The reason he had been home on a saturday night, in his ratty old captain america pajamas, watching re-runs of the golden girls and determinedly making his way through a carton of ice cream. He had reached that point in the carton where most of it was gone - and he had mentally committed to polishing off the whole thing. A promise was a promise, even if that promise was made by himself to himself. Still counted. 

Fuckhead was none other than Grant Stevens, his ex-boyfriend. Or ex almost-boyfriend. They had been taking things slow at the time, despite Tony’s impatience in wanting to climb that beautiful piece of man meat like a hyper squirrel climbs a tree, because Grant wanted to get to know him first. Wanted to be a gentleman, or traditionalist. It had seemed so old fashioned, a little out of touch, but unbearably sweet. He held Tony’s hand, as if he were delighted at the privilege to do so. They ate picnic lunches in the park and fed the ducks slivered grapes, and they talked about everything and nothing for hours at a time. They went to the movies a soda and a tub of popcorn. And also, afterwards at his doorway, some buttery kisses that left him breathless and aching. They went to Art exhibits, and Tony delighted in watching the way Grant’s eyes would light up as he pointed out his favorites and explained why and what the artist was trying to capture or say in their piece. They went to museums together, and Grant didn't once tell him to shut up or roll his eyes at the things Tony found fascinating. He merely tucked him under his arm and let Tony go on about the space trivia. Like the massive cloud of alcohol in a far, far, away galaxy that was 1000 times larger than the diameter of their solar system. It had enough ethyl alcohol to fill 400 trillion pints of beer. Grant always listened to him, when others would groan and roll their eyes. He had asked questions that let Tony know he was engaged. The warmth that the simple act filled within him was astounding. But they hadn’t done more than kiss and some over the clothes petting that had made Tony so hot and shivery and aching for his gentle artist. 

Which would have been fine. Tony had been head over heels for the hot, buff, artist he had literally run into at the park. He would have likely done whatever Grant had asked him, with those earnest clear blue eyes and that broad perfect smile. Now all Tony wanted to do was punch him in his perfect teeth. 

Because Grant wasn't a struggling artist. Far from it. 

Struggling artists couldn't afford two mortgages.

Grant was married. To a woman. With kids. Somewhere out there in the world was a Mrs. Stevens that did not know her husband led a double life where he picked up young, dumb, twinks and made them fall madly in love with them.

Whatever. 

In any case, Grant didn't know he had this number. His cell phone number. His actual cell phone number, the one that Tony had used one fateful afternoon and accidentally called Grant’s wife. 

Tony closed his one good eye, torn between desperately hoping that Grant would pick up the phone (when he never had in the past), and fervently praying he would not. Because his broken, angry, heart still hadn’t healed from the betrayal. Hence the Rocky Road.

The phone rang once. 

Twice.

Three times. 

Oh Goodie. He was going to die a highly violent and painful death, and all because his fuckhead of a sort-of-ex-boyfriend who his dumb stupid heart was still in love with wouldnt pick up the phone. He didn't know what he was expecting. Grant had never picked up the phone even when they had been seeing each other. He was hard to get in touch with at the best of times, would leave and be gone at all hours of the night, and sometimes disappear for what ranged from a couple of days to a week. And there were always excuses about overnight Art Shows.

Sure. 

He would be kicked to voicemail soon, Tony knew. That’s usually how it worked when-

“Rogers speaking.” The hard, unfriendly, voice sounded vaguely threatening. Tony wheezed in a breath. Because it was definitely Grant's voice, sounding so unlike the man that he had known. And despite his best intentions, his heart gave another painful squeeze in his chest. He wasn't sure what hurt more right now - his body or his heart.

“God, Grant, is anything about you actually real?” Tony hissed through clenched teeth. He hadn't even known the man’s real fucking name. Because of course not. He wouldn't want the fact that he was sleeping with a nerdy little twink from MIT to get back to his wife. 

“...Tony? How…how did you get this number? It’s unlisted. It should be impossible for you to fin-” 

“Not when you leave it on your living room table while you’re taking a shower. The passcode was 1234, which is like…seriously? I mean I swear sometimes it’s like you’re someone’s 70 year old grandpa, which is so -It doesn't matter, Grant. Or Rogers. Or whatever the hell your n-name is.” Tony’s breath hitched, the chains above his head rattling as his toes strained to bear the weight of his body. 

“Tony, are you okay? Where are you?”

Tony swallowed tasting blood as his eyes burned with tears. Because Grant- or Rogers, rather - sounded so fucking concerned. Like he cared. And for just the briefest of moments he was pulled back in time. Back to the studio apartment in Boston, laying on the couch with his head pillowed in Grant’s lap and those calloused, thick, fingers running idly through his hair. For a moment he could feel the warmth of the late afternoon sun kissing his skin as it filtered in through the floor to ceiling window of Steve’s apartment. He could still smell the sweet hint of his cologne mixed with the clean scent of the ivory soap he used in the shower. He remembered the taste of his lips, the texture of Grant’s stubble rasping against the sensitive skin of his neck. The salty, clean, taste of his skin. The barrel chested laugh that filled the room and echoed back into Tony’s chest until he felt surrounded by the warmth of Grant’s affection. Mostly he remembered how safe he had felt in Grant’s arms. Like nothing could hurt him. Like he could be himself, for once, without fear.

He’d been so stupid. So fucking stupid. To think that anyone could love just Tony.

“I’m not…I’m not okay. No. I need you to call the police. My watch is broken and this is the only number that worked-”

“Slow down Tony, what’s going on? Why do you need me to-”

“I’ve been kidnapped. They grabbed me out of my apartment. Uh, I think I’m by the water somewhere. Like a dock maybe? I could smell the ocean when they pulled me out of the trunk.  It’s a meat processing plant. It…It’s not like the other times. I think they’re going to kill me.”

“What do you mean the other times? Who’s going to kill you? Why would anyone want to kill you?” The bewilderment in Roger’s voice was genuine. Guess he wasn't the only one keeping important secrets about his identity.

“I - my last name isn't Jarvis.” He felt the flush creeping up his neck at the admission. “It’s Stark.”

A shocked silence came from the other line.

“Tony…Stark, as in Howard Stark’s son?” Roger’s voice sounded choked, strangled. There was a burst of laughter in the distance, and then a rush of hissed whispers Tony couldn't make out. 

“The one and only.” Tony sighed, his voice soft and slipping steadily into defeat as Steve cursed softly in the background. “Listen. I - I don’t think I have much time left. They said they were waiting for the boss to get here. You need to call the cops. I can’t -” His head was spinning, his mouth was cottony, his heart was a pounding tattoo in his head. 

“Hey, listen to me. It’s okay. We’re tracking your location right now. We’re on our way, okay, Tony? Just breathe for me. That’s it. You’re doing good sweetheart. We’re about ten minutes away from your location, okay? Help is on the way.  Did they hurt you?”

Tracking his location? On the way? What was an artist going to do against these trained killers? Who was this we?

Tony cleared his throat. “Yes. They did. I need you to hang up and call the police. Don’t come here. These guys are the real deal, they’ll kill you too.” He paused. “But before … before you hang up I just wanted to, uh, So…look. I don’t know…I don’t know if they're going to get here in time. If something happens to me…can you tell Rhodey I love him? And…” here it was. His opportunity. 

The only one that he had left, really, to gain closure.

 “You tore my fucking heart out Gra- Rogers. And I fucking hate you so much for it.” His eyes burned with tears, trickling painfully from the corners despite his best intentions to stop them from falling.

“So fucking much.” His whisper was a wet sound, threaded through with the broken notes of heartache.

“But I want to…to thank you. Because despite how messed up everything got between us…Some of my happiest memories are in that studio apartment. When we were together you made me f-feel special.” he swallowed thickly again. “Like I was worth something, you know?”

“Tony- don’t do this. You’re not going to die -” 

“But I am. Or I might. And I just…just wanted to let you know that I know. I know you’re married-”

“Married? Wait a second, no Tony, I’m not-”

“I fucking talked to her Grant! It doesn't matter. The you being married with kids thing. It's not- it’s not important right now. I just wanted to thank you. For the good times. For taking me on those dates, for holding my hand and putting up with my shit. For listening to me when I talked science or Star Wars and how hot Ewan Mcgregor is, or talking about my day and my dad or how swoon worthy Captain America is.” There was a strangled sound that came through the other end of the line. 

“I just…just want to thank you for caring. Or at least for making it feel like you did. Even if you’re a closeted fuckhead.”

“Tony- I’m not- I don’t - none of that is true. I can explain everything, I think?, when I see you. Just hang in there.”

Tony let out a hysterical laugh. It bubbled up out of his chest and bounced off the steel walls and floors of the meat locker. He looked upward, at the chain above him, his toes cramping and shoulders aching at the strain his body weight was putting on them.

“I am literally doing just that, Rogers. Hanging in a meat locker from a chain in the ceiling. Call the cops. This is too-”

Tony never got the chance to finish that sentence. The door to the room swung open with a sucking hiss, a cloud of fog forming and obscuring his vision for a moment. A tall, broad, figure stepped through the fog. Tony couldn't help the way his guts cramped and twisted, the air in his lungs seizing, as an older man in a bespoke suit cut his way across the meat locker floor. He stiffened his jaw, exhaling slowly through his mouth. He could do this. He could totally do this. 

“Ah, it’s about time you got here.” Tony said, his voice bored and tone droll. “The accommodations here are the pits. Terrible service, really. Are you the manager? I’d like to speak to the manager.”

The man that stood before him looked to be in his late forties with hard blue eyes and white blonde hair. His skin held a pale, reddish, hue, bleached of color save for the large black mole that bobbed right above his lip. 

“Ahh, the infamous Tony Stark. Such a joker. I’ve heard that about you. It is, indeed, a pleasure to have you here. Finally. I’ve been trying to reach you-”

“-about my extended warranty? Yeah, heard that one before. Got the t-shirt and the ten thousand in credit fraud.”

“-for quite some time now. You’re a hard young man to get a hold of. So smart, so stubborn. It is too bad that your father left you in this position, no?” The man’s voice had a thick German accent. What was his father doing putzing around with guys like these? Though, to be honest, Tony wasn’t surprised. Howard Stark had been up to his elbows in some shady shit. Sure he had tried to turn it around in his later years, get on the path of the slightly straight and narrow, but by that time it was too late. People didnt like to be fucked over. They didn't like having their weapons dealer close up shop to sell exclusively to the US government. 

“Yeah, my Dad sucks. Sucked. Whatever.” Tony shifted slightly, a cramp tearing across his thigh as the muscle began to tremble and spasm in protest.  

“I hear you’re to take over SI in a few months.” The mob boss smiled, all teeth, that reminded Tony vaguely of some sort of shark.  “Perhaps we can arrange a mutually beneficial partnership.” 

“Wow…is this a negotiation? Where did you go to business school - The Institute of The Third Reich?”

“Enough!” a hard palm crashed into Tony’s already bruised cheek, blood exploded in a wash across his tongue. 

“Ah, fuck.” he whispered, spitting a glob of blood out of his mouth. He raised his head slowly to meet the eyes of his captor, defiance and anger burning hot in his gaze and the stubborn line of his jaw.

“You will either work with me, young Stark, or you work against me. And I am a man who does not have very many enemies…left alive.”

Tony couldn't help the way his lip curled upward into a semblance to a snarl. “Yeah, as fun as this has been, that’s a hard pass from me. I’m not my father and assholes like you will never get your filthy hands on my tech.”

Stark men are made of Iron.

He watched the ugly sneer twist across his captor’s face. “If you will not serve me in life, Anthony Stark, then you will serve me in death. I think leaving your lifeless corpse on your acting CEO’s doorstep will be message enough, no? Somehow I doubt he will have the same moral  compunctions you do.”

Tony took a sharp breath and clenched his teeth.

“Bring me my tools.” He barked sharply, over his shoulder, before turning back to Tony with a malicious smile on his pale, cold, face.  “It is fitting we are here. Surrounded by livestock. Do you know what they do to the bulls to improve their marbling? Make their meat more tender?”

Tony felt the blood drain from his face. The chains above him began to rattle ominously as he entire body started to shake.

His captor smiled that shark tooth smile as a surgical table was wheeled in front of him. A cloth wrapped bundle lay on the table. With a deliberate slowness he unwrapped that bundle, flicking it open with a barely disguised disdain. Sharp surgical knives and blades gleamed in the suddenly too-bright fluorescent lights. Tony could feel his vision start to narrow as his captor held up a large hand held tool that looked like a clamp. It was an emasculator. 

“Yes, I see that you do know. They castrate them, Anthony. It helps with behavioral problems too, I hear.” The man smiled thinly before nodding once toward him. Two goons peeled off the walls where they had been standing sentinel and approached him.

“Don’t touch me! Get your fucking hands off of me!” Ignoring the added strain it put on his wrists, Tony lifted his bare feet up off the floor and kicked. He caught one guard in the groin and the other in the solar plexus. But he was only one man against many, and his hands were tied. An enraged cry left him as his thrashing legs were captured, his Captain America pajama bottoms torn down his legs until they hung around his ankles.

Tony grunted, panicked, as the boss approached him. He was naked from the waist down, his legs captured and his arms chained above him. He was literally defenseless and couldn't stop what was about to happen even if he wanted to. 

“When we are done here, I am going to take your testicles, Tony. As a memento of our time together.”

“Look if you wanted to touch my balls so bad, you could have just asked. Honestly, a bottle of wine and some frozen pizza would have done the trick. This has been the weirdest Grindr date I’ve ever-”

Tony’s breath wheezed out of him as a fist buried itself into his bruised stomach.

“Enough, Stark. Hold him.”

And then there was a strange man’s hand on his dick, lifting it up and away, and another one on his sack, tugging his nuts that were trying their hardest to climb back up into his body down and pulling taut. 

“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Tony was shaking, his vision whiting out and narrowing at the cold press of metal against his skin. His most tender bits. His baby makers. Unbridled terror stole his breath.

This was it. This was the start of the end.

And then the world around him was shaking, the building trembling as an explosion ripped through it. His legs were dropped, the emasculator fell to the ground with a clatter that echoed in Tony’s oxygen starved brain. The sweetest sound he had ever heard. He was finally able to suck in a breath of air as the sound of bullets and screams of pain and agony tore through the building. 

“What is that!” The boss sounded furious, his back to Tony.

Thank. Fuck. Tony had the one, clear thought, before he vomited all over the floor.

_______________________________

Steven Grant Rogers was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. 

Read the rest on AO3

[raaorqtpbpdy]

Death by Exposure

Written for the Phic Phight Prompts: At first Danny had been worried sick that Wes had figured out that he was Phantom, but when no one believed him it had sort of become funny. Still, after the anti-ecto act, and the GIW, and his own parents very public very violently vitriolic screeds against ghosts, Danny had to wonder what he'd ever done to Wes that the guy would risk exposing Danny to all that. (from @hpwotters-blog, or at least I think that's you're tumblr.), and Wes Weston wakes up to find an injured Phantom on the fire escape. (from @half-deadmagicperson)

With how much time he spends on basketball and his delusional conspiracy theories, no one would ever suspect that Wes Weston has another secret hobby… (from @kadziduo)

Another prompt that will be included in later chapters but isn't as of this one:

And Wes has been spending more and more time around Fenton and Co. lately - hey! he’s only trying to get some much-needed evidence against them, not trying to get all buddy-buddy with them. And anyway, they’re an entirely annoying bunch, so he wholeheartedly blames them for the fact that he’s currently being monologued at by the ghost holding him hostage. (from @a-closet-emo)

Chapter 4: Expositor

AO3 Link

[Warning for mentions of blood and violence]

Danny used a damp washcloth the clean off what was left of the blood and ectoplasm from his skin before changing, first from ghost to human, and then, once he was back in his own clean clothes, into the pajamas. When he returned to the bedroom, Wes was gone.

Danny didn't really wonder where Wes had gone because he didn't really care. He was completely wiped from everything that had happened that night, and he just wanted to get some sleep. Crossing the room, he flopped face down onto the bare bed. Without any kind of sheet or comforter, the mattress was lumpy and not very comfortable. Danny hardly noticed.

He adjusted himself so he was laying near the edge to make it easier to breathe and was just about to drift off when his arm slipped off the mattress and brushed against something hard. Not wanting to open his eyes, Danny felt around blindly until his fingers closed around something flat and solid wedged between the mattress and the bed frame. It was a close race, but his curiosity one out over his exhaustion and he pushed himself into a sitting position to see what it was.

In his hands, Danny held some kind of journal. At first, he thought it was Wes' diary, and that he should put it back because even if it was Wes, Danny wasn't enough of a jerk to read someone's diary; then he considered the far more likely possibility that it was filled with Wes' evidence of Danny's dual identity, and he should check it out, for his safety. What Danny actually found when he opened the journal was the last thing he would have ever expected.

Birds.

Each page had a photograph of a bird, along with some writing, in Wes' own hand, about what the bird was, and where and when he had seen it. Danny stared at the pages in absolute shock as he flipped through them. Danny almost laughed out loud when he read a clearly very excited entry about a bird called the Red Knot which was apparently endangered in Illinois, but that Wes had spotted out at Lake Eerie over the summer.

"Sorry, it took longer than I thought to wash all that shit off my hands. They still smell like rubbing alcohol," Wes said as he came in. "Make yourself comf—why do you have that?" he interrupted himself when he saw what Danny was holding. He stomped over and snatched the journal out of Danny's hands, snapping it shut.

"You have a bird watching journal?" Danny asked incredulously.

Wes opened his desk drawer, tossed the journal haphazardly inside, and slammed it shut again. "I like bird watching. Is that a crime?"

"No it's just," Danny laughed at the absurdity of it all, "Between basketball and obsessively stalking me and trying to expose me as Phantom, I didn't think you had time for–" he snorted, and brought a hand up to his mouth to cover the amused smile there–"bird watching." He couldn't hold it in anymore, Danny burst out laughing, interspersed with winces as the action irritated his injuries.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Wes said, crossing his arms with a scowl. "I have a life outside of you, you know. You think I got binoculars with adjustable magnification just to watch you? Don't flatter yourself."

"Ouch! But, seriously, bird watching?"

"It's peaceful and relaxing!"

"You're such a nerd!"

"Well what do you do when you have free time?" Wes demanded indignantly. "Let me guess, you spend your time playing video games, right?"

"You mean a normal hobby that most teenagers engage in?" Danny pointed out. "Yeah, I do."

"You'll rot your brain."

"Whatever, nerd!"

"Shut up." Wes pouted. "You just got shot four times. Shouldn't you be resting or something? Go to fucking sleep." He crouched down to lay out his bedding on the floor.

"When do you even find time do go bird watching?" Danny asked laughingly.

"I thought I told you to go to sleep!"

"Alright, alright!" Danny laid down again and Wes got up to switch the light off before climbing into his makeshift bed on the floor. For a while, Danny stayed quiet, but he just couldn't help himself. "What's the rarest bird you've ever seen?"

"Shut up!" Wes groaned and whacked Danny with a pillow.

"Fine!" That lasted all of seven seconds. "But what is it?"

Wes sighed, but Danny could hear the smile in his voice when he finally answered. "I saw an island scrub Jay once, when my family took a vacation to Santa Cruz a couple summers ago. They're so pretty, and they're like, one of the rarest birds in the states; it was pretty awesome. They literally only live on Santa Cruz Island and nowhere else, because they're non-migratory. I spent the whole trip looking for one. Kyle and Easton spent the whole trip making fun of me for it."

Danny laughed again. "Nerd."

"If you don't wanna know, don't fucking ask!" Wes whacked him with a pillow again and he sputtered momentarily. "Go to sleep already."

"How did you even get into bird watching?" Danny asked. "That's not a normal hobby for a kid to have." Wes sighed again.

"If you're just gonna call me a nerd again, I'm not gonna tell you."

"I promise I won't call you a nerd." 

Wes didn't answer right away, probably not trusting the promise, but just when Danny thought he'd decided to just go to sleep he answered.

"My mom's a flight attendant, so when I was little I used to watch the sky all the time and keep an eye out for planes, try to guess which one she was on, you know?" he explained. "Turns out, when you watch the sky all day, you end up seeing a some cool-looking birds, so when I was seven or eight, I asked for a camera for my birthday so I could take pictures of them, and it sort of spiraled from there."

"That's... kinda sweet, actually," Danny said.

"Whatever."

"You know, I do like video games, but actually, I'm also really into astronomy," Danny said.

"And you called me a nerd."

"Hey, bird watching is way nerdier than stargazing," Danny defended. "I mean ask literally anyone. Stargazing is, like, romantic and crap, bird watching is full-on nerdy."

"Sure, space geek," Wes said. "What's your favorite dwarf planet?"

"Haumea," Danny answered immediately, without even having to think about it.

"Knowing any dwarf planet besides Pluto is well into full-on nerd territory."

"Haumea spins so fast that gravity makes it oblong instead of round; tell me that's not cool!"

"Okay, it's a little cool, but you're still a nerd. Go to sleep."

They ended up staying a little later, swapping fun facts about birds and space, eventually falling asleep at almost five in the morning. Thankfully, spring break afforded them the opportunity to sleep in as long as they wanted. When they eventually woke up, Danny didn't leave Wes' place right away.

Wes brought him a sandwich for breakfast/lunch, and helped him change his bandages. Although, it unsettled Wes to see the difference in blood composition between Danny's two forms. It would be a couple more days before the wounds fully closed, but the bleeding had stopped. As long as Danny was still healing, his ecto-signature would be stronger, even in his human form, which meant going home was a no-go.

"What do you mean your house will attack you?" Wes asked, horrified.

"My parents have a very sophisticated anti-ghost security system," Danny explained. "I can pass through in my human form well enough as long as I don't use any of my powers, but if I so much as have my ghost sense go off, it activates and I have a dozen anti-ghost weapons in my face. It'll definitely target me with my enhanced healing working, but I can't exactly turn that off."

"Alright, fair enough," Wes said. "But you can't stay here. My dad's not that observant, but Kyle will definitely notice if you stay any longer, and neither of us wants that, trust me."

"That's fine," Danny said. "Tucker's house is empty right now, and I know where they keep the spare key. I'll camp out there for a few days. And, uh, once I can get into my house again, I'll bring you some of my parents' Fenton Detergent that'll work on ectoplasm stains so you don't have to buy new towels."

"Good, because I couldn't really afford to anyway," Wes said, his shoulders slumping in relief. "I'll come check on you at Tucker's, just in case."

"You will?" Danny asked, surprised.

"Of course," Wes said. "I won't be able to sleep if I don't know you're okay, not after, you know, everything." Ah, so he felt guilty. Alright, that made sense.

"Okay, well... thanks," Danny said, face splitting into a smile, "for, you know, everything." He started to climb out onto the fire escape, ready to leave.

"Yeah, no problem."

"And good luck with the bird watching," Danny tacked on as he transformed into Phantom and jumped off the fire escape.

"Oh, fuck off!" Wes shouted, running to the window to flip the ghost off while he laughed, turning invisible to keep the patrols off is tail as he made a beeline for Tucker's place to lay low.

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