#my fills pp19

[gottacatchghosts]

Frame by Frame

This is for Phic Phight 2019! I’m on Team Human, with team leader @currently-lurking!

Prompt: As a result of having a time medallion phased into him, Danny begins to exhibit time powers.

Word count: 3360

Prompt by: @five-rivers​

Characters: Danny, Jazz, Clockwork (Sam and Tucker, briefly)

Warnings: none that come to mind, unless you don’t like pseudosciencey stuff lol

Extra notes: this was a fun prompt omg

[writing tag] | [Phic Phight 2019 tag] | [My fills] | [fic index]

FFN/AO3 links to come following the end of the event.

There’s something wrong with Danny.

Well, wrong isn’t the best word to use. Weird is more appropriate, but really, what about Danny isn’t weird these days? But still, something is wrong and Danny has no idea what it is.

Ever since that incident with that alternate future, Danny’s felt off, off balance, off kilter, fundamentally changed in a way that has nothing to do with the trauma of seeing almost everyone he’s ever cared for caught in a fiery explosion. (That part doesn’t bother him at all, no really, honest.)

It didn’t even have to do with seeing that abomination with his name and his face claiming to be him. Ten years from now is so obscure to his fourteen-year-old mind that even the thought of being twenty-four is enough to separate him from the “could-be”s.

No, it’s something else entirely. Something Danny can’t put his finger on.

It was little things at first. Things that didn’t stand out as wrong at the time, but in hindsight it feels obvious that something happened. Little things like the shower never running cold despite standing under the spray for longer than usual, like finishing his homework before dinner even though he was sure that he’d be working on it the rest of the night, like how he’s been on time getting to class every day this week even when there’s a ghost encounter on the way to school.

Danny tries to tell Sam and Tucker. Tries to tell them that he thinks something’s wrong, that something is up, but they just brush it off.

“Maybe you got lucky with the shower?” Tucker suggests.

“You’re smarter than you think you are!” Sam assures.

“You’ve gotten so kickass with your powers dude!” Tucker crows, pumping his fists with a grin.

“Have you been leaving earlier? That might explain it,” Sam points out, shrugging it off.

Danny doesn’t believe he’s just gotten lucky or smarter or stronger, but he smiles and nods along with them, saying, “Yeah. That must be it. Sorry for being so weird about this.”

“It’s not a problem, Danny! You’re probably still a little out of it from having to kick your jerky older self’s butt.” Tucker puts a hand on Danny’s shoulder, nodding sagely.

Sam hip checks him and smiles back. “Don’t be afraid to tell us if something’s happening!”

Danny laughs. “I won’t!”

He keeps the oddities to himself after that.

For the next few months, nothing really changes. Life goes on, ghosts still attack, Danny’s grades slowly but surely pull up into the low A high B range they’d been the first couple weeks of high school, and still Sam and Tucker find nothing wrong with this strange new turn of events.

Jazz, however, once she finally joins the team and she and Danny go back to getting along, is more willing to listen to him when he says he thinks something is happening.

She pulls him into her room one day after driving him home from school and shoves him into her desk chair. She then pulls out a notebook and sits on her bed, giving him her full attention. “What do you think is happening?” she asks, cutting straight to the point.

Danny shrugs and rubs his arms. “I don’t know, really. It’s not like it’s been just one thing. It’s like a bunch of little things that all add up and point to the same thing, except I don’t even know if they do. I wanna just accept whatever it is, but the problem is that I don’t know what it is.”

Jazz nods and jots down some notes. “And how long as this been going on?”

Danny hesitates and looks away. “Since the, uh, since the CATs.”

Jazz pauses her note taking and glances at him over the top of the notebook. “The CATs?” She bites her lip and looks back down. “Does this have anything to do with… you-know-who?”

Danny sighs and leans back in the chair, throwing his head back. “I don’t know. Maybe?”

The room is quiet for a few minutes before Jazz shifts to the side and pats the bed beside her. After a moment’s hesitation, Danny joins her and together the two flop backwards on the bed to look at the ceiling.

“What exactly happened?” Jazz asks, voice soft. “I know you somehow swapped places with that older future guy and got stuck in his time, but how did that happen?”

Danny groans and shoves his hands into his eyes. “After Sam, Tuck, and I jumped through this portal in Clockwork’s lair into that timeline, we ran into Future Valerie, and then he showed up and started attacking everyone. Sam and Tuck got out of there by taking off their time medallion things—they ended up back here in Amity like nothing happened. But.” Danny’s voice dies and he moves his hands to lay them at his side.

“But?” Jazz prompts, nudging him with her elbow.

“He phased the time medallion into my chest,” Danny says. He puts a hand over his breast bone and stares at the ceiling, eyes far away. “Just stuck it right in there. I don’t remember much right after that, just that I somehow ended up in the Ghost Zone, tied up and floating aimlessly.”

“How’d you get it out?” Jazz asks, voice little more than a whisper. She rolls over to face him and links an arm with one of his, a steady, calming anchor.

Danny tenses up, slight enough that she wouldn’t have noticed without physical contact. She squeezes his arm in an attempt to be reassuring and the hand resting on his chest slides over to sit over hers. “Vlad.” Danny looks at her from the corners of his eyes. He still has that thousand yard stare but a little bit of life creeps back into his eyes as he takes in the surprise on her face. “I found where he was hiding and got him to help pull it out.”

Jazz takes note of the finality in his voice and gracefully sweeps past the subject. She can ask him about it later. “And you came back here after that?”

“Yeah. And then I really only had enough time to grab some of Mom and Dad’s ghost gear before I had to fight him off.” Danny sighs. “I didn’t really win. Sure, I got him in a Thermos, but you guys all still…” His voice dies and her clears his throat. Jazz won’t make him say what happened. She knows he still has nightmares about it and she has a pretty good idea of what happened. “Clockwork stopped it. Reversed time, saved everyone, took the Thermos, gave me a second chance.”

“And how soon after did this Something start happening?”

“Pretty much right after.” Danny runs a hand through his bangs and closes his eyes, thinking back. “After I gave Lancer the test answers back, I went home and crashed in bed for a while. It felt like forever but it was only a couple hours.” Jazz nods and sits up to grab her notebook. She makes a few quick notes and Danny waits until her frantic scribbling slows to a stop. She gestures for him to continue and he tells her what he told Sam and Tucker.

He tells her about the shower and the homework and the suddenly improved grades and attendance and she listens, more so than Tucker and Sam ever did. It doesn’t surprise him at all, really. Jazz has always been the type to stop and listen, even if she does have her moments of single mindedness. Even if this really does turn out to be nothing, he’s glad he’s got Jazz on his side to figure it out.

When he’s done explaining his concerns, she pauses and reads over her notes again. She purses her lips and lowers the notebook, giving Danny an expectant look. “Have you talked to Clockwork about this?”

That gives Danny pause. “About what?”

Jazz levels him with a look of absolute certainty. “It sounds to me like you’re gaining time.”

“Wait, what?” Danny throws himself upright so he can be at eye level with Jazz. “Explain.”

“That, or you’re slowing it down.” Jazz nods once herself and waves a hand up and down, from his head to his feet and back. “From what you told me, it sounds like you could be slowing down time.”

“That’s crazy,” Danny mumbles, crossing his arms. “Clockwork controls time. I can’t do anything like that.”

“Not before, you couldn’t.” Jazz raises a brow. “Think about it. You were fused to one of those time medallions for who knows how long and you couldn’t just take it out on your own. Who’s to say that you didn’t pick up some kind of temporal power?”

Danny squints at her for her use of the word “temporal,” but considers her words. “Maybe,” he says slowly, thinking aloud. “The time medallions allowed us to move outside of time. Whenever Clockwork froze time, if we had one of them on, we could still move around and stuff. And then when we were in the future, and when those future ghosts attacked this time, the medallions allowed us to stay there. Taking them off sent us, and them, home.” He presses his lips together. “Maybe you’re right.”

“You should talk to Clockwork,” Jazz says in between her notetaking. “I don’t think I can help you with this anymore.”

Danny reaches and puts his hand on hers, stilling her writing. Jazz looks up and he smiles at her. “You’ve already helped a lot. Thanks, Jazz.”

Jazz smiles back. “Anytime.”

Clockwork’s citadel is hard to find and Danny suspects the only reason he can is because Clockwork allows it. Danny’s never seen the outside of it before, but the giant floating cogs and gears make it pretty obvious he’s found the right place. The place looks like a cross between a grandfather clock and a castle and Danny has a nice chuckle at the tasteful scythes adorning some of the roofs.

The double doors at the base of the tower creak open and Danny pauses for a moment. He half expects Clockwork to greet him outside, but he’s equally unsurprised when nothing happens. He floats through the doors and ignores the way they close behind him in favor of seeking out Clockwork himself. Clockwork has to know that Danny was coming, being the all-seeing and all-knowing Master of Time, so Danny doesn't feel too bad about just barging in.

After all, the doors were open.

Danny comes to a stop in front of Clockwork’s viewing screens, too nosy for his own good and not completely looking forward to the conversation he knows the two of them are going to have. They show ordinary, mundane scenes of many different people—and ghosts—going about their lives, oblivious to any unseen watchers.

“Everything is as it should be,” Clockwork says from behind Danny, startling the boy several feet higher than he’d previously been floating.

“Clockwork!” Danny says, spinning around and lowering himself to be closer to eye level.

“Hello, Danny.” Clockwork cracks the barest hint of a smile and Danny rolls his eyes. “Come,” Clockwork says, waving Danny over as he turns and floats off. “We have much to discuss.”

Danny follows quickly, turning his head to catch a glimpse of the row of Time Medallions hanging on a rack near the portal screens. He shudders once and looks away.

Clockwork leads him through several archways to a library full of different types of texts; scrolls, stone tablets, and the oldest books Danny’s ever seen all line the walls and crowd the towering shelves. Clockwork gestures to a small nook with several cozy looking couches and nods, encouraging him to sit.

Danny hovers over to the nearest overstuffed arm chair and allows himself to fall into it, giving it to the artificial gravity of the Zone. It’s a comfy chair, just like he’d hoped it would be and he can feel the tension leaving his shoulders. Clockwork sits on the chair opposite his and waits, giving Danny a chance to mentally prepare himself for their talk.

Eventually, Clockwork clears his throat to catch Danny’s full attention. “I know you’re nervous, but do try to relax.” Danny huffs, somewhere between amusement and exasperation, then Clockwork continues. “I’m sure by now you’ve noticed the temporal abnormalities you’ve been experiencing.”

“So…” Danny’s brow furrows. “It is a time thing?”

“Correct.” Clockwork smiles at the boy. “I’m afraid your experiences with the timestream have had… an unforeseen outcome.”

“‘Unforeseen?’” Danny echoes, bolting upright. “I thought you saw everything!”

Clockwork gives a slight grimace. “As the Master of Time, I have the unique privilege of experiencing time like an outsider. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always extend to myself, or anything existing outside of time.” Clockwork reaches into his cloak and produces a Time Medallion. “Wearing these allows someone to temporarily displace themself anywhere in the timestream and instantly return as soon is it is removed.

“They’re not made to become a part of one’s person.” Clockwork outright frowns. “When this Medallion was fused to you, it lost some of its potency.” He passes it over to Danny and the boy frowns as he inspects it. “The medallions make the wearer immune to my ability to totally stop time by placing them, technically, outside of time.”

“So what does that mean for me?” Danny asks, looking back up at Clockwork.

“It means, Danny, that your sister was correct. You’ve developed an immunity of sorts to the normal flow of time, becoming something of a human Time Medallion. I’m unaware as of yet how far this power will extend, but if I’m correct, the ability will only be limited to yourself and whatever is on your person, including anyone you may be in direct contact with.”

Danny blinks several times, processing the words. “That’s actually kinda cool.”

Clockwork allows himself a small chuckle. “Because of this slight immunity to time, you also appear to be exhibiting some temporal displacement abilities, the ‘gaining time’ that Jazz mentioned. What this means is that time moves much more slowly around you while allowing you move freely and as normal. From an outside perspective, one might say that you look to be moving at high speeds.”

Danny nods as he turns the words over in his head. “When you say that you can’t always see things that exist outside of time, does that mean you can’t, like, watch over me? Since I have the immunity?”

“I can see you just fine the majority of the time, don’t worry,” Clockwork says, waving off the concern written on Danny’s face. “When you use your powers, it’s like looking through a fog. The image becomes distorted and blurred, but then it clears up again.”

“I didn’t even know I was using them.”

Clockwork nods and smirks. “Control will come with time.” Danny snorts, and relaxes a little. “Have you noticed anything in common with the incidents?”

Danny thinks, pushing a fist against his chin. “Uh… They all seemed to times when I wanted… more… time…” He trails off, eyes wide. “Wow. I wanted more time in the shower, I wanted my homework done faster, I wanted to be on time for school… and then it all happened.” Danny cracks a grin. “That’s pretty useful.”

“Indeed.” Clockwork looks Danny in the eyes. “I just want to impart with you the importance of not abusing an ability like this. Time is a powerful thing.” Danny nods, completely serious. “That said,” Clockwork grins again, “I cannot stop you from using it to your leisure.”

Danny laughs. “So, what, exactly, can I do with… whatever I’m supposed to call this?”

“What you call it is up to you. What I can tell you is that a power like yours has limits, and you can rest easy with the knowledge that your temporal powers are no where as powerful as mine. You cannot stop the flow of time completely, nor can you reverse it or speed it up. Your power is limited to only slightly and temporarily slowing down time for yourself. That’s it.”

“That’s still pretty awesome,” Danny says, gazing at the Medallion in his hands again. “Hey, wait. You said I’m kinda like one of these things, right? Does that mean you can’t freeze me in time anymore?”

Clockwork blinks, expression flat. With no warning, he raises his staff and says, “Time Out!”

Danny suddenly feels like he’s underwater or submerged in something thick and viscous. He blinks, ever so slowly and moves his head up, inch by inch to look at Clockwork. Before he can say anything, Clockwork moves—and he’s fast, so fast, like he’s dropping frames to snap into new positions without any movement between them—and then Danny is free from the heavy feeling. “That was weird,” is all he says.

Clockwork nods. “It appears I can no longer stop you completely, and you can move under your own power ever so slightly. From my perspective, it was as if you were moving in slow motion.”

Danny throws his head back and laughs, the idea that the crazy powerful Master of Time being unable to control him completely being too hilarious to pass up. Clockwork rolls his eyes—though it’s hard to tell without a pupil—but allows Danny to ride out his amusement.

“I feel you have another question for me,” Clockwork prods, drawing Danny back to the present.

Danny nods, rubbing a tear from his eye. “Yeah, just one.” He holds up the Medallion and asks, “How did this give me time powers?”

“Danny, how much do you know about how ghosts work?”

Danny shrugs. “Not a whole lot. I know ghosts are made of ectoplasm and that ectoplasm is kinda everywhere, but I don’t really know how much of what I heard Mom and Dad talking about growing up is true.”

Clockwork nods. “Ghosts are, indeed, made of ectoplasm, and ectoplasm can exist in many different types and forms, including raw energy. At the center of every ghost exists what is known as a Core. A Core is the purest essence of a ghost and where the most powerful abilities and attacks originate. I won’t get into the types of Cores for now, but I will tell you that there are seven elemental types, two incorporeal types, and then an additional, unspecialized type.”

Danny nods, eyes wide. “Do I have a Core?”

“Yes, you do.” Clockwork points at the center of Danny’s chest, just right of his heart. “And it because you possess a Core that the Medallion had such an effect on you.”

“Wha—really? How?” Danny presses a hand against his chest, along his breast bone, and he can almost imagine his feels a thrumming pulse he never noticed before.

“When the Medallion interacted with your Core, some of the energy that infused with the Medallion was absorbed by your Core. Whether it was self-preservation to protect you from the foreign object, a subconscious absorption of power, or a result of your Core still developing, some of the Medallion’s powers were leeched off and into you. Over time, this new energy and ability has settled in your Core and it has become a part of you.”

“When it was still stuck in here, I learned how to use my Wail. And even though I felt tired afterward, I could still keep going. Would that have made a difference?” Danny tilts his head in question. “Or was it just because I was in the Zone?”

“It could have been both.” Clockwork thinks it over for a second. “That’s likely when the strongest transfer of power happened. The Medallion fed you some of its energy to recover what you used in your attack.”

“Weird.” Danny stretches in his seat, considering everything that he’s learned. It takes him several minutes to sort through his thoughts, but then he looks up at Clockwork, eyes glowing brightly in determination. “Teach me how to control it.”

Clockwork smiles and takes to the air again. “It would be my pleasure.”

[gottacatchghosts]

You Drive Me Insane

This is for Phic Phight 2019! I’m on Team Human, with team leader @currently-lurking​!

Prompt: Vlad buys Danny a car for his 16th birthday

Word count: 1246

Prompt by: @ecto-american​

Characters: Danny and Vlad

Warnings: cursing? excessive wealth? lol that's it really

Extra notes: please google this car. it’s so extra holy shit

[writing tag] | [Phic Phight 2019 tag] | [My fills] | [fic index]

FFN/AO3 links to come following the end of the event.

“What is this?”

Vlad sighs and rolls his eyes. “It’s a car, Daniel. People drive them,” he says, voice dropping condescension.

Danny scoffs and crosses his arms, glaring at Vlad and then the vehicle parked at the curb in front of his house. “Yeah, no shit. But why is it here?”

Vlad gestures like it’s obvious and he thinks Danny is an idiot. “A certain someone has a sixteenth birthday tomorrow, and I couldn’t resist bringing my present around a little early.”

Danny purses his lips, squinting at Vlad. “Excuse me?”

Vlad groans and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Must I spell it out for you?” He points at the car and then Danny, saying, “That is for you.”

There’s a brief pause before Danny bursts out laughing. “Yeah, right! Like you’d get me anything and mean it.”

Vlad’s eyes flash red and he growls. “Let me put this in a way your pitiful teenaged mind can comprehend.” He snatches the back of Danny’s t-shirt and hauls him upright, then digs around in his pocket for the keys. He takes Danny’s wrist and places the keys in his hand. “This. Is. Your. Birthday present.”

Danny takes a deep breath and wraps his fingers around the keys, pulling away from Vlad with a little intangibility. “Okay, okay, I get it. You got me a car.” He looks it over, taking in its boxy front, the tall hood ornament, and the fact that it seems to only have one handle despite looking like it has two doors on each side, and hums. “What breed of car is it?”

“What bree—” Vlad chokes and sputters for a moment and Danny does his best to not smirk. He thinks he failed when Vlad gives him a nasty look. “This is a Rolls-Royce, Daniel. What breed.”

As Vlad continues to grumble under his breath, Danny hums again, mildly impressed. He knows nothing about cars, but he does know that this type is exceedingly expensive. “Cars have, like. Types, right? Like. Special names?” Danny shrugs when Vlad squints at him. “I’m bad this. This one has a type, right?”

Vlad looks like he just sucked on a lemon and clams up, turning to look at the car instead of Danny.

Danny pokes him in the side. “C’mon old man. What’s the fancy schmancy car name for it?”

Vlad mumbles too lowly for Danny to make out so he pokes him again. It takes a few more jabs before Vlad finally spits out, “It’s a Rolls-Royce Phantom, are you happy?”

“It’s…” Danny trails off and inspects the car again. It’s got a slimming black and white paint job that he doesn’t actually hate. A huge grin splits his face. “It’s a Phantom?” His voice squeaks and breaks a little bit—thanks, puberty—but he doesn’t care. “That’s amazing.”

Vlad grumbles again. “I put a lot of thought into this,” he mumbles a little self-consciously. “I.” He coughs and crosses his arms, turning to face mostly at the car. “I wanted it to be nice.”

Danny stares at Vlad in awe, then narrows his eyes. “Okay, what’s the catch?”

“Catch?” Vlad asks, turning back to Danny. He raises a single brow.

“Yes, fruitloop, the catch. There’s gotta be a catch. This, if it’s serious, is the nicest thing you’ve ever done for me.” Danny crosses his own arms and resists the temptation to flash his eyes. “You’ve got to be up to something.”

Vlad sighs and slumps a little. “Your mother called me and told me of plans your parents had for getting you a car themselves.”

“My mom called you?” Danny’s voice raises in disbelief. “But she hates you!”

Vlad grits his teeth. “Yes, well. She told me about how they got Jasmine a car for her sixteenth birthday, and they didn’t want you to feel like she was receiving special treatment. She also confided with me that they wouldn’t be able to afford one for you and asked if I would be willing to step in for them.” He shrugs. “They wanted to get you a used car, but what���s the point of wealth if you can’t flaunt it?”

“You bought me a rich person car just to flex on my parents?” Danny asks, staring with wide eyes.

“If by ‘flex,’” Vlad says, voice mocking when he repeats the slang term, “you mean ‘rub it in their faces,’ then yes. I did.”

Danny can’t help the new wave of laughter. “God that’s so petty. Rich people are wild.” He looks at the car again and tilts his head. “So you just. Got me this fancy ass car, no shit?”

“Luxury cars are not a joke.” Vlad gestures at the vehicle. “Especially these cars. Each Rolls-Royce is personalized. They are not sold, they are commissioned.”

“So, let me get this straight.” Danny raises a hand and counts off on his fingers. “You got me a custom-made car, a Rolls-Royce Phantom,” he pauses to grin at the name again, “for my birthday because my mom called and asked you to, and you wanted to show off how rich you are to them? And there’s no catch? No secret spy camera or bug in the car that reports back to you whenever the car is being used? Nothing at all?”

Vlad nods. “Of course.”

Danny drops his hand. “Wow.”

“What do you take me for? A cartoon villain?”

Danny raises a brow. “You don’t want me to answer that.”

The two stand there staring at the car to avoid looking at each other for a few more seconds. Then Vlad says, “The roof interior lights up.” Vlad shifts uncomfortably. “Like stars.”

Danny blinks at Vlad, mouth dropping open a little. “For real?” At Vlad’s nod, Danny looks at the car with a bit of a warmer attitude. “That’s pretty cool.”

“One of the reasons I eventually decided on this one.”

“Not just the name?” Danny gives Vlad a cheeky smirk.

“The name was the first thing that drew me to it.” Vlad grimaces. “Impudent child.”

Danny laughs loudly again, honestly delighted. It’s weird, laughing this much with Vlad instead of at Vlad, but he finds that he kinda likes it. It sure beats having to kick old man ass. “You know what? Fine.”

“‘Fine’ what?”

“I’ll take it.” Danny steps up to the car and lays a hand on its roof. This car is more expensive that literally anything else he owns and probably every electronic and video game he owns, all put together.

“You’ll—of course you’ll take it!” Vlad bursts, throwing his hands up. “I bought it for you! It’s a birthday present! It’s custom made!”

“Wait.” Danny removes his hand and look at Vlad. “You aren’t trying to bribe me, are you?” He doesn’t know if he’s asking seriously or not.

Vlad’s eyes flash red again and Danny holds his hands up in surrender. “I’m tempted to say yes, but that won’t shut you up.”

Danny grins. “You’re not wrong.” He cups his hands on the windows and tries to look instead, but the glass is tinted almost black. “Man. I can’t wait to drive this baby to school. The look on Dash’s face will be absolutely worth it.” Vlad’s raised eyebrow catches his eye as it’s reflected off the glass and he looks over his shoulder. “Yes, I realize that makes me a hypocrite.” He shrugs. “Guess we’re both petty bitches.”

Vlad’s outraged cry drowns out Danny’s newest giggles.

[gottacatchghosts]

Boy King

This is for Phic Phight 2019! I’m on Team Human, with team leader @currently-lurking!

Prompt: Danny is heir to the throne of the Ghost King, much to the displeasure of the Observants. He's just trying to survive his senior year.

Word count: 2605

Prompt by: @cheshire-kas​

Characters: Danny, Head Observant (and other Observants), Frostbite, minor mentions of Sam, Tucker, and Dora

Warnings: slight language

Extra notes: didn’t get as much into the annoying the observants or senior year parts, but they’ve been touched on and i think that counts lol

[writing tag] | [Phic Phight 2019 tag] | [My fills] | [fic index]

FFN/AO3 links to come following the end of the event.

Honestly, if Danny had known, way back in the day, what defeating the Ghost King in single man combat meant, he would have insisted that someone help him, even if it meant someone like Plasmius. As it were, he didn’t know, and didn’t ask for help, and now here he is, three and half years later, barely seventeen, starting his last year of high school tomorrow, and the Head Observant, whom Danny has never met and doesn’t know the real name of, is sitting in his living room drinking tea with a frazzled Jazz and discussing mundane topics without a care in either world.

Danny considers going back to bed before deciding it wouldn’t be worth it.

“Um,” he begins, eloquent as usual, “can I help you?”

The Head Observant swivels to face him with his single eye and Danny sees Jazz slump in relief behind the ghost’s back. “Danny Phantom.” The ghost rises to stand—float—and approaches him. “We have much to discuss.”

Danny leans away, nose scrunching at the disgust in the Head Observant’s voice. (Danny really either needs to learn this guy’s name or come up with a nickname, fast, because even in the comfort of his own mind, “Head Observant” is getting old and annoying quick.) “Can we not?”

“Impudent child!” HO—Danny mentally snorts and decides to keep the shortening—snaps, his monobrow narrowing in displeasure. “Ancients help us, for we are all doomed.”

Danny rolls his eyes. Danny’s heard enough stories from Clockwork to know how dramatic the Observants are, HO especially. “Yeah yeah, double death and all that. Did you just come here to call me names or did you want something?” Danny calls forth just enough energy to light up his eyes, a subtle sign of just how much he doesn’t want HO to be here.

HO huffs and Danny hides a triumphant smirk, pleased with how easy it is to get under the ghost’s skin. “If you are quite finished,” he begins, ignoring the scoff that Danny gives, “you will accompany me to the Infinite Realms at once. The High Council demands your presence.”

“Yeah, not happening,” Danny says, crossing his arms. “See, I got school tomorrow, last first day and all, and I’m not letting any ghost problems get in the way of that. I might not know a lot about Ghost Zone politics, but I do know that these Council meetings or whatever can take days to be done with, so whatever this is, it can wait until Friday afternoon.”

HO starts sputtering and Danny hopes Clockwork is watching. Jazz is wide eyed and anxious, glancing between Danny and HO, and Danny flashes he a thumb’s up at the hip. She squints at him and Danny bites his lip to keep from laughing.

“Now. If you’ll excuse me,” Danny says, stepping pointedly around HO and towards the front door, “I have stuff to do today.” He opens the door and glances over his shoulder. “Feel free to see yourself out.”

The last thing Danny hears as he leaves is a particularly nasty ghost swear. It leaves him laughing for hours.

Friday afternoon, at exactly three-thirty, HO shows up directly in front of Danny, Sam, and Tucker, two lesser observants at his sides.

Danny sighs and palms his face. “I can’t even be mad,” he mumbles. “I did tell you to wait.”

The lesser observants already look pissed and Danny takes pride in the fact that it’s because of him. HO looks mildly annoyed and Danny wonders, spontaneously, if it’s because of Clockwork. (It would explain how the three ghosts were able to appear in the middle of Amity Park without alerting his Ghost Sense, but then again, Danny isn’t quite sure of the extent of the Observant’s powers. Maybe they can teleport or create portals like Wulf. Danny’s never asked because he’s never cared.)

“Danny Phantom,” HO booms, pointedly ignoring Danny’s wince and his attempts to get him to lower his voice, “your presence is requested by the High Council of the Infinite Realms to discuss matter of great importance. If you would follow me—”

“Yeah that’s great, and I’d love to go,” Not, “but I gotta stop by my house first. My parents will wonder where I’m at and I gotta get some stuff.”

HO’s singular eye twitches and the less Observants look incensed behind HO’s back, frantically whispering amongst themselves. Danny thinks he picked up the word “blasphemy” and bites down on a smirk. “You have one hour,” HO practically hisses, and then the three are gone, as if they were never there.

Sam and Tucker blink at Danny and then each other. “Did that really happen?” Tucker asks, nudging Danny’s arm as they continue making their way to FentonWorks. “What do they want?”

“Is this what you were laughing about all day Tuesday?” Sam adds, raising a brow. “The supposedly hilarious thing you couldn’t tell us about?”

Danny shrugs at Tucker while nodding at Sam. “Yeah. The Head Observant showed up at my house Tuesday morning and wanted me to go with him then, but I told him to wait. Didn’t think he’d listen. They must really want me to be there.”

“Yeah, but for what?” Tucker asks again, giving Danny the puppy eyes. “C’mon dude, spill!”

“I don’t actually know,” Danny says, shoving Tucker away by the face, heedless of the other boy’s squawk of outrage. “What you guys heard is pretty much all I know, too.”

“Need us to come with you?” Sam offers.

“Nah. I need you guys ready to cover for me in case the meeting or whatever runs long.” Danny shakes his head. “Clockwork and Frostbite have both told me that the Zone doesn’t really have much of a concept of time compared to here, so the meetings can last until they eventually work out whatever they were trying to figure out or they get tired of arguing about it.”

Tucker whistles, already over his manhandling. “Sucks for you, dude.”

Danny waves his off. “It’s fine, I have an overnight bag ready just in case. Loaded it full of snacks and some stuff to do in case I get bored—which I will. But yeah, that’s why I need you guys here. My parents have lightened up a lot, but if I’m gone all weekend they might start to worry.”

“No problem, Danny, we got your back!” Tucker swings and arm around Danny’s shoulders and ruffles his hair, startling Danny into a screech of his own. “This is revenge, short stack! Take it like a champ!”

Sam rolls her eyes. Idiots.

An hour and a half later, Danny is following HO and a couple lesser observants through the Ghost Zone at a pace Danny would considering a casual stroll. After saying goodbye to his friends, Danny had gone straight to Jazz to fill her in before he left for the Zone. It didn’t take long, but the problem came twenty minutes later when he realized he had no idea where he was going.

He wandered kind of aimlessly for a while, asking passing ghosts for directions to a place none of them knew how to get to, before he decided to do the smart thing and ask Clockwork. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, HO and his posse found Danny on his way there.

Needless to say, HO was not happy.

Finally, the four of them arrive at what Danny can only describe as a clusterfuck of observatories. It would be pretty cool, he thinks, if not for the giant eye at its center that seems to follow their movements as they approach. HO and the lesser Observants ignore it, so Danny does his best to not look at it, lest he make a fool of himself in front of who knows how many ghosts.

Danny follows HO to the interior of the place, and he grimaces at the sheer number of eyeballs all over the place. HO eventually leads them to a room that looks kind of like a stadium with seats arranged in a bowl shape, leaving the middle empty and giving the entire audience a clear view of the center. Hanging from the ceiling are what look like actual eyes, optical nerves and all. Looking directly at one, Danny can see that where the iris and pupil should be, there’s either a window or some type of screen, allowing for more viewers.

Danny is half expecting to see the seats filled with more of the one-eyed wonders, but instead, there’s a huge assortment of all kinds of different ghosts from all over the Zone. Amongst them, Danny spots Dora and her advisor, Pandora, Frostbite and his second in command, and Clockwork. Danny gives each of them a smile and a wave, and the HO is ushering him to the center of the room, chiding him to be quiet.

HO and his lackies take up a position behind a podium where at least a dozen other Observants wait for their leader to return. The crowd of ghosts looks impatient and Danny almost feels bad for making them wait on him.

Oh well. Too late now.

“Order! Order!” HO shouts, raising his voice to be heard above the idle chatter of the gathered ghosts. “The High Council of the Infinite Realms tribunal is now in session!”

“Wait,” Danny says, eyes blowing wide. “Am I on trial? For what?”

“Be at ease, Great One,” Frostbite calls down to him, his voice a balm on Danny’s suddenly electrified nerves. “You have done nothing wrong.”

“Nothing wrong!” a ghost that Danny doesn’t know snaps, amidst a smattering of agreeing grumbles. “He’s just a boy!”

“Silence!” HO demands, raising his hands. The noise dies down and Danny frowns, wishing he could be anywhere else. “We are here today to discuss the fate of the Infinite Realms and what this means in regard to Danny Phantom.”

Danny’s brow furrows. He has no idea what he has to do with the Ghost Zone as a whole but he has a feeling he’s not going to like it.

“Perhaps it would be best to be forward with Sir Phantom,” Dora suggests from across the room, raising a pointed eyebrow at HO as he gestures with one hand to Danny.

HO grumbles to himself briefly, then straightens to his full height. “Danny Phantom’s defeat of the former Ghost King Pariah Dark nearly three years ago means that he, by the Right of Conquest, is to be crowned the new King of All Ghosts.”

The room immediately bursts into cacophonous noise, but Danny hears none of it. His vision tunnels and he hears his heart pounding in his ears and the next thing he knows, he’s sitting outside and Frostbite is rubbing soothing circles on his back with his ice hand.

“Are you alright, Great One?” Frostbite asks once Danny finally looks at him, expression clearing up.

“I—” Danny chokes on his own voice and searches for his duffle bag, digging out a bottle of water. He chugs half of it before he has to stop and catch his breath. “I don’t know?” he asks more than says, clutching the half empty bottle like a lifeline.

“It would be okay if you were not,” Frostbite assures him. “It is not every day that one is named Crown Prince.”

Danny’s breath hitches and he chokes again, curling into a ball. “Oh god.”

Frostbite watches sympathetically for a moment, then shifts to tuck Danny against his side. “Do not fret, Great One. No one expects you to claim the throne right away. That would be asking entirely too much of you. You are young, especially in terms of your ghost half, so you must first be prepared before you are to assume any position of power.”

“Oh god,” Danny says again, voice strained, as he presses closer to the yeti ghost.

Frostbite frowns. “Are you alright, Great One?” he asks again, concern heavy in his voice.

“I can’t do this, Frostbite. I can’t be the king. I don’t know the first thing about it! I don’t know politics or the, the culture, none of it! I barely know how I work as a ghost, and I spend like half my time fighting people!” Danny clutches his hair and stares up at Frostbite, eyes wide and glowing a brighter green than usual in his panic. “I can’t do this!”

Frostbite shushes him gently and hugs him close, carding a hand through Danny’s soft white hair. “You will be a fantastic ruler one day. There is much you need to learn, but you have plenty of time. The Infinite Realms has been without a uniting monarch for centuries. It will last a number more years without you at its head.”

“No one’s gonna be happy about this,” Danny argues, allowing his shoulders to relax as he leans against his friend and mentor.

“You cannot please everyone, Great One,” Frostbite says with a chuckle. “But despite the dissenters, you have earned your title as Crown Prince, and the Ancient Law is to be respected and upheld by all. There will always be those who will oppose your rule, but over time, even the hottest of tempers will cool.”

Danny shakes his head, tense and jittery. “But there’s so much I don’t know! I’m gonna offend someone or something and start a war and then everyone’s gonna hate me even more than they already do because I’m always fighting them and I’m half human and I’m not a real ghost and I do nothing be get into trouble and start shit with my big mouth and I haven’t even finished high school yet and—!”

“Danny,” Frostbite says, startling him to silence as a large, clawed hand delicately captures his chin, “you are going to be amazing.”

Danny blinks once, twice, and on the third, he feels his eyes burn with unshed tears. He takes a deep, shaky breath, and then another. “You really think so?” he asks, voice weak.

Frostbite smiles, the expression warm. “I know so.”

Danny smiles back and shoves the heels of his hands into his eyes, giving a shaky laugh as he watches the stars behind his closed lids. “Okay.” He swallows hard. “Okay. I believe you.”

“Good!” Frostbite says, pulling Danny to his feet with a booming laugh. Danny laughs with him, more a single huff than true laughter, but it’s something. “Now! The High Council is waiting for us to return!”

Danny sighs. “Yeah.” He slouches for a moment before straightening up, a slow smirk drifting across his face. “Hey, what if I don’t go back in there?” Frostbite tilts his head and allows Danny to explain. “It’s not just because I don’t want to, even though that’s also true, but also… I really don’t like the Head Observant.”

Frostbite laughs again. “Clockwork has mentioned that you have taken on his habit of doing your best to annoy them.” A mischievous glint enters his yellow eyes and he grins. “Who am I to deny you this simple pleasure?”

Danny grins and hugs his mentor. “Thanks Frostbite! You’re the best!”

Frostbite hugs him back and then gives him a nudge. “Such high praise!” He gives a dramatic sigh. “It is such a shame that you were feeling unwell and had to return home immediately. Goodbye, Great One. We will see each other again soon.”

Danny laughs and waves as he flies off, duffle bag strung over his shoulder. He can’t wait to hear the story from Clockwork later. It’s a good distraction from the whole King thing.

Eh. He’ll deal with that later.

[gottacatchghosts]

And the Lost

This is for Phic Phight 2019! I’m on Team Human, with team leader @currently-lurking!

Prompt: Jazz is crying again. Phantom turns from his window and leaves.

Word count: 810

Prompt by: @bibliophileap​

Characters: Danny and Jazz

Warnings: tw death mention, angst

Extra notes: here’s version two!! i liked this one a lot better and it’s closer to my original plan for this prompt than the first one was. idr exactly where it was going but i’m happy with it lol

[version 1]

[writing tag] | [Phic Phight 2019 tag] | [My fills] | [fic index]

FFN/AO3 links to come following the end of the event.

“Jazz, I have to go. For real this time.”

She sniffs, hard, and Phantom’s heart squeezes. “No, you don’t,” she says in that special way people do when they’re trying to speak through heavy sobs. Phantom can’t look at her but he knows her eyes are red rimmed and there’s wet streaks down her face.

“I do,” he tells her, again, gazing out at the starry sky. His core sings at the sight and the urge to fly is almost a physical ache. “You… You can’t stop me.”

Jazz heaves another sob, the chest quaking kind, and Phantom closes his eyes against the sound, clenching his fists. “Please don’t go, Danny. Please.”

“I’m sorry Jazz.” Phantom hates making her cry. He feels like it’s all he does these days, but he just keeps doing it. Everything about this situation sucks but what can he do? He’s dead but she’s still alive, still has a life to live and colleges to apply for and be accepted into. What could he do, anyway? Ghosts can’t go to school or college or get jobs or, or pay a mortgage.

Besides. Better he leaves now than get caught by their ghost hunting parents.

“Danny, we can work this out!” Jazz jolts forward a few steps and reaches for his hand. She shivers at the touch because he’s absolutely freezing, but she squeezes tight, silently begging him to squeeze back. “We can get through this!”

“No, we can’t!” Phantom wants to rip his hand back, but this is Jazz, so he settles for sliding out of her grip intangibly. “Mom and Dad won’t accept this. They’ll never get past their prejudice, and the first thing they’ll do when they see me is blast me with whatever weapon they have.” His eyes close as he slumps forward, barely resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. “It won’t just… We can’t get past this Jazz.”

“We can! We just have to make them—!”

“Jazz, I’m dead! I died! That lab accident killed me! Just because you’re okay with my whole situation,” and here he paused just long enough to gesture at himself, “doesn’t mean they will be! Just because we've never seen ghosts before I turned the portal on doesn’t mean that Mom and Dad don’t hunt them. Even before the accident they always went on and on about how they wanted to rip ghosts apart ‘molecule by molecule.’” Phantom takes a breath he doesn't need any more and pushes his bangs out of his face. Jazz can see his hands trembling and feels a fresh wave of tears.

“I can’t do this, Jazz. I can’t tell them I’m—that I used to be their son. I can’t tell them I'm a ghost. They. Can’t. Know.” Phantom straightens his shoulders and his eyes flash to a brighter, more threatening green for a second.

If Jazz hadn’t known Phantom—as the ghost he is now—for the last couple months, she would’ve been scared. As it is, she can recognize the intimidation tactic for what it is. “You’re just scared,” she says, scrubbing her cheeks with the heels of her hands. “Scared of what they’ll think, what they’ll do.”

“Of course, I’m scared!” Phantom bursts, raising his voice. It echoes strangely around the room and Jazz feels her ears pop and her skin buzz. Phantom’s glow flares a little and Jazz can’t help but wonder if this is some latent ability he’s unconsciously unlocking. “I’m fucking terrified!” He slams a hand over his mouth and sinks to the floor, collapsing into a pile of limbs under the window. The night breeze wafts in, unperturbed.

“Danny—”

“I have to go, Jazz.” Phantom’s voice is small and Jazz is reminded of how Danny used to sneak into her room some nights when they were kids because he’d had a nightmare and their parents were still toiling away in the lab. He’d come to her for comfort and attention and Jazz was always happy to give it to him. She aches to do the same now, but everything’s so different, she doesn’t think she can. “I have to go before they find out.” When, Jazz's mind supplies. Not if.

She knows he’s right and she hates it.

“Okay,” she says, whispers, finally. “Okay, fine. You win.” She sniffs, hard, and tucks her arms close to her chest. “You’re leaving.”

“Yeah,” he breathes out, hunching his shoulders as he climbs to his feet. Despite being a ghost fully capable of flight, his insistence on staying grounded says more to Jazz than anything. Phantom has made it no secret that he loves flying with his whole being. “Yeah,” he says again, head bowed as if defeated. Once he’s standing, his feet leave the ground without a sound.

Jazz is crying again. Phantom turns from his window and leaves.

[gottacatchghosts]

The Lonely

This is for Phic Phight 2019! I’m on Team Human, with team leader @currently-lurking​!

Prompt: Jazz is crying again. Phantom turns from his window and leaves.

Word count: 358

Prompt by: @bibliophileap

Characters: Danny and Jazz

Warnings: tw death mention, angst

Extra notes: i wrote two versions of this prompt bc i wasn’t happy with this first one so much. this one’s been done a while but i wanted to post them together so here’s the first take on this prompt!!

[version 2]

[writing tag] | [Phic Phight 2019 tag] | [My fills] | [fic index]

FFN/AO3 links to come following the end of the event.

Jazz is crying again. She does it a lot these days. She sits in her room, wrapped up in her blankets like a human burrito, and cries. Sometimes it’s those jolting, full body sobs that look like that rip at her throat on their way out, but other times, more often than not, they’re soft cries. Soft and gentle and morbidly beautiful in the way that only tears can be.

Phantom worries about her, even though he doesn’t know who she is.

Phantom woke up alone in the basement of this house a little over a month ago with no memory of who he was or how he got here, only that he was a ghost and that he was dead. He floated aimlessly around the house until Jack and Maddie came home and scared him so badly that he learned about his new invisibility and intangibility powers.

The two chased him around for several hours until he finally outpaced them enough that he lost them. He eventually wandered back to this house, the place that he knew he must’ve died in, to find the three of them, this family, huddled together crying. There were cars with flashy lights sitting outside and people in uniforms were milling about.

Listening to conversations, he learned that they’d found what had to be him when he was alive.

Phantom had then retreated through the glowing portal in the basement for a bit. The swirling green called to him in a way nothing else ever had and he stayed there for about a week before coming back out, anxious to see this little family of three again.

That was the first time he saw Jazz crying, though he didn’t know her name yet. He was temped to try and comfort her, for some reason, but her mom came in and Phantom made himself scarce.

The Fenton parents scare him. Their enthusiasm to chase him strikes him with fear that they’ll hurt him if they so much as catch a glimpse of him. So, he stays hidden. And Jazz cries.

Phantom turns from the window and leaves. There’s nothing left for him here.