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shima-draws · 5 years ago

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Hiro is here!! We've all been waiting for him!!

You know the drill by now, all the yummy details about his background are under the cut ;) Also be warned it is VERY long I went a little feral writing his backstory lmao

Hiro

Age: 17

Hair color: Orange

Eye color: Pink

Element: Psychic & Forest

Okay so a lot of this is gonna be stuff I'm pulling from posts I've already written to make it easier on myself and so I don't have to repeat anything.

Before he was born, the Novune Forces approached Hiro's parents because they knew that he would be born as a dual elemental. Part of their goal was to raise several dual type children to become human weapons--they targeted dual type babies specifically because they're said to be more powerful since they can use more than one elemental type.

It was the perfect opportunity for Hiro's parents because at the time they were not ready for a child despite agreeing that they were going to have it. Ofc the Forces did not reveal their plans so to them it turned into a nice surrogate parent situation where Hiro's mother would give birth to him and he'd immediately be given up for adoption afterwards. It was definitely hard for them to part with him but they trusted he'd be in good care. Well. That turned out great, as you can probably tell :')

Hiro, along with Kaz and Mallary, became the Forces' iconic trio, with Hiro considered to be the golden child and the most dangerous between the three of them because of his high intellect and skill in combat. He grew up under a very strict regimen and would spend hours each day dedicated to training both his mind and his elemental powers. He's an extremely gifted psychic elemental and took to his abilities almost immediately--he’s able to read his opponents movements and set up traps before they can even get to him. He’s usually airborne for most battles he’s in; he finds it easier to strategize from a higher vantage point, and he also just likes to float around and dodge enemy attacks and act like an ass lmao. He’s a pro at immobilizing his enemies so they can no longer move, ending his battles swiftly and cleanly. Physically he’s not very powerful so he uses a magic staff to fight. His intelligence more than makes up for his lack of super strength!

He has a special power like Kaz’s extra dragon typing (and, like Kaz, he has a streak in his hair from the experimentation)—Hiro gets visions of death, basically predictions of the future, and his visions are never wrong. He’s able to see who dies in battle and the Forces use this to their advantage so that they can prepare around any casualties. Hiro hates getting these visions because he doesn’t like seeing people die, he witnesses their last moments and it’s certainly traumatizing for him;; and like Kaz, this power was something he only unlocked through lots of experimentation on him, so he usually passes out for hours after getting a vision since it’s not a “natural” ability he was born with.

As for his second typing, it was something he never really clicked with. Forest elementals have to be very attuned to nature and are generally more kindhearted and gentle people, but since Hiro grew up in a base with only limited access to the outside (and because he’s forced into acting as an antagonist), his forest elemental powers were repressed over the years. He’s already powerful enough as a psychic elemental so he doesn’t feel the need to resort to a second power, especially since his superiors viewed his second typing as useless and he never received proper training on how to use it. He's already a huge threat as he is so they said good enough. The Forces believe that if something is useless, throw it away, so they eventually abandoned any hope of him succeeding in bettering his forest powers, and focused solely on enhancing his psychic abilities and making his death visions clearer.

Before Hiro became the cold-hearted and snarky colonel that the Forces know him as, he was actually a very kind child with an aversion to violence, and cried often. That got forced out of him pretty quickly though--he learned right away that disobedience means punishment and the only way to pay for his mistakes is by verbal and physical abuse. Poor baby :'( He and Kaz and Mallary go through a LOT of unfair shit as kids. The event that really drove home his intense determination and flawless record was the first mission he was ever sent out on.

This happened when he was around 13. Usually members of the Forces don't get to go out on solo missions unless they have a high position or are old enough to, but he was the exception because of his talent and because it was an experiment to see if he could handle it. His mission was to infiltrate a small, family run guild and basically gather intel and find out what their agenda was, as there were rumors they knew of some of the Forces’ plans. Upon Hiro’s arrival to the town where the guild was situated, he ends up rescuing the Guildmaster’s daughter, Lorelai, who is around his age. Unknowingly, he triggered his forest elemental powers, which caused them to land in a field of flowers he’d bloomed. Because of this, Lorelai starts to call him Flower, since he couldn’t come up with a codename in time and he doesn’t have a real name anyway lol

A couple weeks pass and Hiro spends more and more time with the guild, growing closer to Lorelai and being lulled into a false sense of security. He becomes extremely jealous of how the guild lives, and is very emotional at how much of a family they are, and how sweetly they treat him. Hiro starts to ponder over whether or not he should be sneaking around behind their back, when one day the guild is attacked while he’s out. When he returns, the village is set ablaze, and when Hiro demands what’s going on, his superior informs him that he was merely a decoy to get their defenses down, since apparently the Forces had definitive proof that they knew of their plans. His superior orders Hiro to search the village and kill anybody who was left.

Hiro, panicked, searches for Lorelai, and finds her hiding in the forest nearby. He apologizes to her and has a mental breakdown, blaming himself for all of her misfortune. Lorelai realizes that he’s being kept in the Forces against his will and begs him to run away with her. Hiro knows that he’ll be hunted down if he does, and Lorelai could get hurt, so he tells her he has to stay with them. In the midst of this, they are confronted with the current colonel of the Forces, who encourages Hiro to kill Lorelai. Hiro refuses, and the colonel calls him out for insubordination. The colonel then decides to kill both of them in order to get a promotion. Hiro leaps to defend both Lorelai and himself, and in the scuffle, receives the scar on his head, and accidentally kills the colonel. Traumatized, bloodied, and terrified, Lorelai is the one to apologize to him as he cries his eyes out. Hiro numbly reassures her and tells her to run while she can. Lorelai admits that she loves him and bids him farewell, hoping that they can meet again, and that she’s sorry she can’t do more for him.

This is when Hiro decides to become the perfect agent��dangerous, cruel, and flawless, so that something like this never happens again, and so that he can have enough power to make the decisions rather than just following orders to mindlessly kill people. From then on out he does what he’s told without any complaints and has a record for never failing a single mission the Forces have given to him. Any enemy considers him to be absolutely ruthless because he does not hesitate in battles and will neutralize with no questions asked. He’s a cocky little bastard around enemies lmao he loves to snark them and tease them. He’s strictly against killing after what happened to the colonel, so instead, if it’s a high risk operation, he erases the memories of his targets to reduce the threat. Because he’s so uncomfortable with the thought of death in general he reasons that losing your memories is better than dying, and that makes it easier on the Forces as well since they’ll leave less of a trail rather than just killing people left and right.

Growing up, Hiro didn’t interact with Kaz very much, and they usually just saw each other in passing. However they both respect each other a great amount, and they sympathize with each other, being in the same sort of situation. Both the Hiro and Kaz hate their upbringing and hold a grudge against their superiors for their treatment and experimentation on them;; As for Mallary, Hiro became enamored with her because she reminds him a lot of Lorelai (who he later admits to being his first love). He finds her strength captivating and the way she doesn’t give a shit about other people’s opinions admirable. Hiro eventually falls prey to her manipulation and falls over himself to please her, which bothers Kaz because he knows Mallary’s just toying with him.

After the Forces’ plan to kidnap Ginni and use her as a hostage blows up in their face, Hiro finds out that Kaz had escaped with her, and commends him on the extremely smart decision to do so lol. He wonders if he should start considering leaving the Forces as well, seeing as he’s mature and responsible (and smart) enough to make it on his own. He’s ordered to retrieve Kaz which was a HUGE mistake on the Forces’ part because they didn’t realize Hiro’s loyalties lied more with people on the outside. Hiro meets up with Kaz and Kaz eventually convinces him to desert the Forces and work with him to stop their plans. Hiro agrees to work as a double agent for a while, leaking all of the Forces’ information to Kaz, Ginni, and the guild. In the midst of all this, Hiro meets Olivia, who pretty much calls dibs on him and she’s like “Listen Ginni got to give Kaz his name so can I give the colonel a name?? Please???” So she starts calling him Hiro! And finally baby boy smarts up and starts crushing on a girl that actually gives a damn about him and god dammit it’s the cutest fucking case of puppy love since Dusk/Nozomi. Hiro absolutely adores her, but he’s too nervous to actually do anything about it because he’s got huge abandonment issues (thanks again bad parenting! And Mallary!) and doesn’t want to ruin one of the only genuine friendships he’s ever had. But he is head over HEELS for Olivia and it’s so……softe.

Mallary finds out that Hiro’s acting as a spy, and retaliates. Hiro realizes just how awfully she’s treated him and defeats her, allowing him to escape and officially join up with the guild.

After that it’s a whole bunch of crazy action stuff as plans come together and they get to take down the Forces. Hiro falls harder and deeper for Olivia while she remains oblivious (at least, for a little while, until she finally starts noticing). He grows closer to Kaz and Ginni as well, and begins connecting with Kaz on a deep level because of their shared history. (They’re kind of like brothers, and Hiro considers him to be his best friend :’) )

Once the Forces are defeated, Hiro and Kaz both decide to go on a journey of self discovery in order to better themselves and learn more about the world they haven’t seen due to being locked up for so many years. Kaz and Ginni are already on the verge of forming a relationship, but with Olivia and Hiro it’s still tentative since she’s unsure and he still feels inadequate as a romantic partner. Olivia admits that she likes him and Hiro is so happy he’s ready to burst, but then he realizes it’s not the right time for them to be together so he gently rejects her. (Olivia takes this as an actual rejection tho not a “I’m not ready to be in a relationship with you yet tho I WANT to” and Ginni’s like YA’LL ARE SO DUMB I S2G).

Hiro and Kaz go their separate ways, and Hiro travels around for a while! He eventually settles in a lovely little village where he learns about his forest elemental powers and how to use them better. He’s finally able to connect with other people and essentially becomes way softer around the edges, revealing the true personality he had when he was a kid. A year or so passes and suddenly Kaz, Ginni and Olivia show up to reunite with him, and not long after that Hiro and Olivia FINALLY get together and start dating 😔👌 (Ginni: TOOK you look enough, god)

At some point the four of them go on a journey together and Hiro runs into his biological parents again…!! And he finds out he has a younger sister and they all reconnect and it’s SO EMOTIONAL

Other than that I think that’s all I have 🤔 Thanks for reading though this epic rollercoaster ride of a story plot lol!

Extra personality traits

-Hiro’s sarcasm and snarkiness is a defense mechanism to prevent anybody from seeing his vulnerable side, and also a way to trick the fear inside of him. Kaz is the one to point this out actually lol

-Despite that he does enjoy teasing people lightheartedly and being sassy, once he gets comfortable enough with them! There is a difference between his snarkiness towards enemies compared to that towards friends

-Is EXTREMELY loyal to the people he cares about. At first he tends to act prickly and kind of standoffish towards people he doesn’t know well. Over time he becomes more open to trusting others. Once you earn his trust and he deems you worthy of his friendship he instantly becomes softer and kinder haha, it’s like a switch

-Often dismisses people that he thinks aren’t worth his time or aren’t smart enough to hold an intelligent conversation with him

-Spends a lot of time reading and gathering knowledge. He is very book smart—but not very people smart :’D He and Kaz will spend hours in the guild’s library, since they’re both very thirsty for information outside of what they studied during their time in the Forces

-Touch starved as FUCK. He flips his shit every time somebody touches him in a friendly way, and will melt into a puddle if he gets hugged

-He can be very nosy and insensitive sometimes, prying into other people’s personal affairs if he thinks he can solve the issue

-Absolutely a tactics expert. He calculates all of his moves very carefully, and uses prediction tactics to leave no room for error. He enjoys coming up with mock battle situations to challenge himself.

-Very self-sacrificial;; he views the lives of those he cares about to be far more important than his own. He’ll lay his life on the line for his friends in an instant

-Is the person in the group who is the least fond of violence. If he can find a way around injuring someone, he’ll do it. He prefers to restrict his enemy’s movements or slow them down so they can’t fight back. He is VERY good at neutralizing opponents before they can even register it

-SUPER speedy. Due to his small size he’s very quick, most people don’t see him coming

-He’s really sensitive about his height fjmaksldmas he snaps at people who make fun of him for it

-Tends to levitate when he’s in deep thought. Olivia finds this very cute

-Blooms flowers when he’s happy/embarrassed

-He’s actually. A very talented dancer :0 During his year away from the guild he learned a lot of folk dances at the village he was living in, and when the others witness it they get really starstruck because it’s super mesmerizing!! He blooms flowers as he dances

-At his core he’s a very compassionate character!!

-After escaping from the Forces, he’s able to express his emotions more openly, and goes back to the way he was as a child. He’s a crybaby :’) He cries whenever someone he cares about gets hurt

-The only person in the group with the fucking brain cell, and the most rational one. Unless Olivia gets involved, then he gets stupid and flustered lmao

#This got SO long oh my god. I am so sorry. Except I'm not #My character bios keep getting longer and longer!! WHICH IS GOOD BC THEY ALL NEED GOOD DEVELOPMENT #OC #Original character #Character art #Character design #Character sheet #Character ref #Character reference #Art #Digital art #Long post #Shima arts #Shima's OCs #Among the Stars #ATS #Hiro #shima-draws

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minor-solemnity · 4 years ago

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What's your favorite character from the golden trio era?

Oooh idk possibly this is an unpopular opinion - at least it was when I was like, properly in the fandom rather than where I am now which is firmly on the sidelines with my hands over my ears and ignoring everything that I don't like - but Cho Chang. This is probably in part because she got so much undeserved hatred (thank u fandom and author racism) and I am predisposed to like characters that people don't like.

I find her character so heartbreakingly real in a way that I think is entirely accidental on JKR's part. I don't think JK can write women. (Plz don't hate me for that, but like, it's true.) Everything interesting about the characters we are meant to like gets sanded down and ignored in the later books - Hermione's whole thing is like, book smart but not emotionally intelligent, she wants to be right and have people know she's right more than she cares about their feelings. She thinks rules are important until they apply to her. She is ruthless and vindictive and petty. These are interesting character traits that just get completely dropped in the later books. By the time book 6 ends and book 7 starts Hermione is 'wife' and 'mother' and it's kinda sad.

I digress.

Cho's boyfriend is murdered. Cho is understandably upset and heartbroken and sad af. She tries to find comfort in Harry because Harry was there, Harry must understand. Harry can help her process. Their ways of dealing with trauma are completely opposite to each other. Cho seeks emotional vulnerability and closeness from the boy who, of all people, will understand. Harry's way of processing trauma is to ignore it. It happened, it sucks, I will never speak of it again (until all my unprocessed emotions come spilling out and I end up lashing out and getting angry). Those two ways of dealing with trauma are not going to work well together. Harry is honestly a dick towards her - she's his fantasy. She's not a real person to him. When that fantasy comes crashing down he behaves pretty awfully towards her. And if you're reading critically, you come away thinking yeah, Cho's a whiny crybaby who doesn't get Harry at all. What a bitch. When in reality, it's more like - Cho is seriously fucked up and is trying to come to terms with her grief and seek comfort in someone who she thought would get it.

Imagine being like, 16 and being isolated and sad and so fundamentally misunderstood. Imagine being 18 and your friends are dead and the boy you liked is still dead and the other boy you thought you might like is a hero and the only thing you're really known for is the mess that is your grief. Imagine that the popular consensus is that your grief is something to be ridiculed.

I tend to pick and chose which parts of the extended canon I believe in, but I believe in Cho moving to America and getting hitched to an American muggle dude. (Moving to America is probably my own headcanon actually). What would motivate her to move across the world? Grief? Wonderlust? Anger? I imagine it's all three. Idk if this is a relatable feeling to a lot of people, but I get it. I have a constant itch under my skin that tells me to move on whenever a place starts to feel too much like home. To leave. To escape. Nowhere feels like home because home is a collection of broken things. It's a hall of funhouse mirrors - the wires in your brain get mixed up. Comfort and safety become synonymous with 'i will fuck this up' and 'i don't deserve this' and 'everyone will leave'.

I want so many things for Cho. I want her name to make sense. I want her to be seen as something other than 'pretty' and 'sad'. I want her in Boston slamming Sam Adams by Sam Adams grave because she finds it funny. I want her in Boston, learning to drive a car (stick-shift because the driving instructor had made a comment about how automatics are easier to learn and she is tired of people seeing her as something weak and unable). I want her road-raging and I want her to drive across the country because why the fuck not. I want her in New York and the city is so frantic and no one looks at her and she feels so small and the lights are so bright and she thinks maybe she could disappear here and no one would ever know. I want her to find a group of women rollerskating and maybe they invite her to their roller derby group. It isn't flying, but it's fast and aggressive and she's never allowed herself to be aggressive like this before. She's not allowed herself to be angry like this before. No one else has allowed her to be angry like this before.

I want her to go to California and to go to Angel Island and I want her to understand that there have been people like her before. That she is not alone in this feeling. I want her to meet a dude who's studying for an MBA - he doesn't know who she is. Doesn't know what she is. She's just this cute girl who drinks Sam Adams even tho that's a Boston thing and they're in San Diego. He's probably a frat boy. I want him to be a frat boy who takes his degree too seriously and wakes up at like 5 because he's also a gym rat. He takes her to his boxing class. She probably cries during and hey that's okay - she has a lot of shit to work through, he can tell. He doesn't ask about it. Just says her accent is cute. Maybe she starts taking night classes, maybe she doesn't. She's weirdly technologically illiterate - she sends him postcards even though they live in the same city. She says its because her school didn't let them have phones. She's never seen a Tarintino film and that's just like... not cool. They watch True Romance on his shitty box TV in his room in his frat house and she laughs (she laughs like the violence is cathartic) when Alabama completely destroys Virgil. He looks at her and she shrugs and says 'I get it.'

She says that's she's leaving soon - doesn't know where. Probably isn't coming back and again that's... not cool. She's weird about some stuff. Won't talk about home - won't say where she's from. He should be fine with it because like, it's not as if this is anything serious and his life is pretty clearly planned out. Get an MBA, work in some start-up tech company - the internet is a thing now and god, there's money to be made. He thinks maybe that she should like, stay but she also seems like the kind of person who doesn't know how to stop running. And look, he's doing an MBA. He rushed his frat. He goes to boxing every morning without fail. He's determined. He's not good at letting the things he wants go. But he lets her go because she doesn't want to stay. One night afterwards, his frat bro says, philosophical because they're crossfaded, that maybe she can't stay. Maybe she won't let herself stay. And that... That sounds about right.

So he waits. He waits and he gets postcards with no return address - in Seattle, she tries ice hockey. In Miami, she tries surfing. He almost gets on a plane to Cincinnati because she got into a fight with some dude who made his girlfriend cry in public. Apparently, she knocked him out with a punch just the way he showed her to. It feels weirdly romantic.

I want her to write a postcard to him when she's sitting in a bar in Las Vegas and I want her to include a return address. I want him on the first flight out, because fuck his classes? She included a return address. He asks her if she's ever going to go home and she looks at him and says, 'What? To San Diego?'

#cho chang #meta #oh god i wrote meta #this isn't even meta tbh - this is basically a fic #this very much got away from me #can u tell i have feelings about women being angry?#grief and anger taste the same #harry potter #asks #anon #she speaks

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oneboxofmatches · 4 years ago

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Hi!!! May I request a HP romantic and friendship matchup on both eras? (Preferably male), thanks in advance! 💞

𝗕𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗖𝗦 + 𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗘

19, Libra, Neutral Good, enneagram is 4w5, Ravenclaw, and my patronus spirit is swan. Bi Pan Genderfluid girl using pronouns of She/Her or He/Him. A friend of mine told me that I (kinda) look like Marinette from 𝗠𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗟𝗮𝗱𝘆𝗯𝘂𝗴, Musa from 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘅 𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗯, and Alexandra Trese from 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲 (a Netflix animated series), but the exception is I'm short (5'1.2") plus sized Southeast Asian woman with Spanish descent that has messy/wavy brunette medium hair, chocolate brown eyes, oriental skin and a small beauty mark on the forehead. My sense of fashion is in between emo and boyish plus korean glam.

𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗬

Distant and shy at first cause' I dunno how to initiate a conversation, but a total opposite if I open up---friendly, ambivert, witty, laughing loudly on a daily basis, talkative, awkward, daydreamer (I got embarrassed from knocking at the door even I'm inside the classroom 😂), EXTREMELY clumsy, secretly likes affection, easily overwhelmed, prone to melt over any wholesomeness, flusters on compliments, lightly blushes on cheesy banters, sarcastic person with a lowkey crackhead energy citing meme references, and talented girl who can be your no. 1 supporter and unashamed to be true to myself. In terms of leadership, I only educate and guide than being a prefect (I might take the role seriously), and will lift my group when there's lacking/incompleteness. About doing projects in school, I become too extra and prepared for efforts, but I'll forget the process in the end.

People thought I'm a demure self-effacing woman that looks "idealistic" or "one of a kind," (due to my protective parents, a reason why I've never been in a relationship) but the truth is, I'm eloquent, warm-hearted, willig to help, kind, intelligent, supportive, nice, creative, enthusiastic, determined, tough, competitive, and feisty outside, but a real softie that can be childish and dramatic crybaby filled with doubts, frustrations, and insecurities with fear of failure that pushes off the limits to to please everyone, yet I still managed to be stronger than ever, even it's a slow burn process. I can be intimidating, sassy, and a douchebag if I receive ends. Immature, headstrong, perfectionist, demanding, hesitant, jumpy, very indecisive, overthinker, quick-tempered, sensitive, and anxious (no joke, my nervousness makes me think worse scenario will arrive or I might break a belonging due to my carelessness). Though can be procrastinator and arrogant, I raised as a religious 𝖺𝗇𝖽 diplomatic person, willing to fight what I believe (including my dreams) 𝖺𝗇𝖽 what is right. In addition, I have a habit of staying up late and doing sign of the cross to ease nervousness.

Blunt but the loudest idiotic feeling-brokenhearted and bitter friend in the group who fangirl a lot, swears like sailor, will act like a silent backstabber on people that we loathe, will crack up over your stupid antics before helping, and bring gossips, but a hopeless romantic who tends to banter with sarcasms or pick up lines as an endearment (but gets grumpy if I received sappy or offensive one), still generous and concerned in a subtle way.

𝗛𝗢𝗕𝗕𝗜𝗘𝗦

My hobbies are singing, drawing, roleplaying, listening to music, chatting/browsing on social media, conceptualizing, writing, and reading some stuffs. 𝖨'𝗅𝗅 𝗂𝗇𝖼𝗅𝗎𝖽𝖾 making corniest jokes/puns, 𝗌𝗅𝖾𝖾𝗉𝗂𝗇𝗀, and dancing when nobody's around or walking like a model if I feel so bold (even I'm terrible at both xD).

𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘𝗦

Loves kittens, eating a lot, cartoons, watching YouTube videos (mostly pageants, ASMR, edit audios, and mukbangs), also enjoys playing games on my sister's PSP. Sucker for arts, choir, night sky, makeup, fun/deep/dumb conversations, Christianity, documentaries (about saints, real crime stories, and inspirational people), reading interesting stuffs, talking about social issues, and writings, chilling both indoors and outdoors. Beside that, my music taste are like late 90s-2000s songs (mostly rock, pop, and country) sometimes kpop and ppop, chocoholic, and a sweetooth as well.

𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘𝗦

Things that I hate are stereotyping, HUGE creepy crawlies (spiders, toads, snakes, and cockroaches), firecracker sounds, being left out, loneliness, heart break, blackout, and judgemental people. One random fact about me is, I 𝗐𝗂𝗅𝗅 vent out EVERYTHING I despise in my entire existence---from bad soap operas to toxicity and worse scenarios in real life, because it's a big deal for me, and I consider forcing me to do what I'm not into and manipulating me as my major pet peeves.

𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗦

In terms of triggers...I only have two which are ta𝖨king about divorce/annullment/separation because I came from a generational broken family and religion/beliefs discrimination, cause' there are reasonings that doesn't makes sense because some are too hypocritical.

𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗩𝗜𝗔

My best assets are smile, eyes, personality, singing voice, artistic skills, writings, intelligence, and oratorical skills...so I can consider myself as a singer, artist, orator, and a top student who's a former active campus ministry member with three roles (choir leader, psalm singer, and reader). Currently an incoming college freshman, learning how to cook and have so many interests, to the point I don't know what I'm into because of my dreams to become a popular Filipino YouTuber, a novelist, and being part of a successful chorale competing internationally...I also consider joining pageants at school too once the pandemic ends, but maybe.

Thank you so, so much for requesting! I had a lot of fun with this one (as you can tell by some of the really long answers lol) and I hope you enjoy!!

In the Golden Trio era, I romantically pair you with…

CEDRIC DIGGORY

One of the most beautiful things about Cedric is that although he may show some introverted tendencies, he still manages to have a natural gift for connecting to others and allowing them to feel comfortable enough to open up. Really, your initial distance and shyness don't last nearly as long towards Cedric as they would with most other people.

Hearing your laughter brings the widest, cheesiest grin to Cedric’s face. Not only does he adore seeing you happy, but he also recognizes that your anxiety, insecurities, and strong emotions can sometimes cloud up your demeanor. Therefore, it brings him comfort knowing that (for the moment) you’re finding joy. He thrives when you thrive!

However, as much as he loves seeing your more energetic and happier self, it goes without saying that he’s the best comfort for when you’re not having the best day.

Cedric is an excellent listener, so he’ll most likely let you talk without interruption for as long as you need before even saying a word. He wants to make sure he truly understands your current state before acting. He may take a few seconds to process everything after you finish speaking, but then he’ll help you tackle whatever problems you’re facing. He’s especially talented at giving words of affirmation.

Cedric’s listening also comes in handy whenever you talk about your interests! He genuinely loves hearing about the things you’re interested in solely for the fact that you’re interested in them. Side note: you can count on him to be at any music performances, pageants, etc. you may have -- this guy is truly your #1 supporter.

Cedric’s a very good student (though I suspect he’s somewhat of a procrastinator himself), so I can also see you two supporting each other through schoolwork and celebrating each other’s successes.

Like you, Cedric has a strong urge to do the right thing. Talking to him about social issues stirs up a need to help, and I could see you two doing volunteer work together in your spare time.

I like to believe one of Cedric’s biggest love languages is quality time. Don’t get me wrong, this guy loves staying involved and busy. But taking a couple hours to be with you in small ways (even if that means just being in the same room while you scroll through social media) gives him a nice balance.

Overall, this kind boy will be there unwaveringly through the bad times and will laugh just as loud as you through the good!

As a friend, I think you’d best be matched with…

LUNA LOVEGOOD

You wanna talk about the best conversations, relentless support, and overall the most wholesome friendship you could ask for? Luna’s your girl.

Being unashamed to be true to yourself is one of the biggest reasons why Luna is so drawn to you. While she’s very friendly and insightful towards everyone she meets, it can get a bit repetitive for her to constantly interact with people who try to shelter their unique characteristics from the world. In her mind, these unique characteristics are what make people so fascinating! Why should anyone hide who they are?

Luna’s creativity is endless, and I can see it blending well with yours. Collaborating on a personal project outside of school (ex: novel, blog, etc.) together is definitely something I could see you two doing.

Speaking of creativity, finding creative solutions to everyday problems (both in school and in life) is your specialty as friends.

Admittedly, Luna isn’t usually drawn to louder individuals. However, the complexity behind your personality makes it easier for her to know you are much more than what meets the eye.

Speaking of, Luna has a difficult time standing up for herself -- whether it’s because she doesn’t feel a need to or she just doesn’t recognize the meaning behind certain phrases. She NEEDS a friend like you to stand up for her sometimes, and I know you wouldn’t hesitate!

Ranting to Luna is therapeutic to say the least. While her aloofness at times may make it seem as if she isn’t fully paying attention, that couldn’t be further from the truth. She’s actually catching every word, and once you’re done she’ll leave you with a philosophical solution that may seem borderline insane/irrelevant when you first hear it, but it strangely makes sense.

Overall, the lack of judgment from either of you is what draws you together. As a result, you build a unique bond that couldn’t be broken even if either of you wanted it to.

In the Marauders era, I romantically pair you with…

REMUS LUPIN

Let’s be honest, it would take you two so long to ask each other out. You were probably already really close friends, but the insecurities and “what if?” questions from both of you delayed an actual relationship.

When you finally started dating, you were both so relieved. You still share a laugh at how almost nothing changed in the way you interacted with each other.

While with mutual friends, Remus sometimes likes to sit back and just watch you, especially when you get really talkative because this is when you become the most expressive. He has the softest smile when you’re actively cracking jokes, discussing something you’re passionate about, or even calling someone out. Sometimes you may be too distracted to notice, but other times you’ll catch him.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing.” (While that same soft smile never leaves his face.)

You both hold really high standards for yourself in terms of school, so expect late-night study/work sessions to be your best bet for quality time.

Though the occasional instance of walking through/lying on the grounds becomes a favorite for both of you.

Remus listens when you’re particularly struggling through anxiety or strong emotions, but he has to consciously stop himself from interrupting because he can’t stand how he feels knowing you’re going through a tough time.

All he wants to do is soothe you during these moments. If you’re comfortable, he’ll hold you while speaking to you in a soft voice. Remus, the intellectual that he is, is also your best chance at finding a reasonable solution. So if you're not in the mood for calming words, he's also a great person to turn to for answers.

As for your ambitions, no matter what you choose to pursue, you already know Remus is going to be your biggest source of support every step of the way. He’s more than happy to help in any way he can!

Overall, Remus appreciates you, and he’s always going to make sure you know it.

As a friend, I think you’d best be matched with…

LILY EVANS

Lily especially connects to you because you manage to be determined, competitive, and intelligent without sacrificing your kindness, which is something she can relate to.

You and Lily are the C.E.O.s of doing the right thing. Neither of you hesitates to back the other up when it comes to confronting someone because you know it’s justified.

As perceptive as Lily is, you never need to tell her when something is bothering you. All it takes is a quick glance before she puts whatever she’s doing on hold to check in with you.

The reverse works as well. Typically, Lily really doesn’t internally struggle too much, and when she does she tries to hide it. You’re one of the only people who can see right through whatever she tries to pull.

The constant banter between you two is unmatched, but you both know it's because you really care about each other.

Overall, you and Lily have each other’s backs through anything, even when the other isn’t actively asking for help.

#matchups #fandom matchups #harry potter matchup #harry potter #cedric diggory #luna lovegood #remus lupin #lily evans #lily potter

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actualbird · 5 years ago

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what i love, about the cyberpunk red trio, is that for all that each of them are incredibly funky and silly on their own, together, theyre balanced. one example of this is how each of them corresponds to Aristotle’s Modes of Persuasion

the Modes of Persuasion are basically strategies of appealing to audiences via rhetoric, and given that our trio is constantly investigating, they need to appeal to quite a lot of people. how do they do it?

dasha is ethos, being the appeal to authority. looking damn well credible and like somebody to be trusted. somebody in charge. we all joke about how dasha nearly 24/7 has custody of the braincell among the trio, but it is undeniable that most of the time, she moves investigations forward, gets the most information from witnesses and clients, and generally just has a sense of responsibility and tact that the other two hilariously dont have. she has a mastery over what she does, and that makes her somebody people want to listen to.

burger is pathos, being the appeal to emotion. of all the trio, what he lacks in intelligence he genuinely makes up for with his heart and kindness. sure, he’s a huge dude who can snap you in half and has the IQ of a microwaved spoon, but when investigating, he is gentle, he connects emotionally with people, and hes always trying to make friends (even if the situation would rather that he not). burger’s golden heart is what makes him so loveable, and what also makes him good at what he does.

vang0 is logos, being the appeal to logic. vang0 is smart, as he loves to tell everybody right before he leaves a conversation he deems he’s too intelligent for. he wields his intellect like a weapon, using facts and logic to figure things out but also to make people listen to him. or make people think hes a rude piece of shit, but he doesnt care about that. what he cares about are the intricacies of information; how the information got there, how to get more, and how to utilize that information for his own purposes (streaming)

together, they make up a slightly dysfunctional but still effective investigation. and i love that about them.

#polygon #polygon cyberpunk red #hc #vang0 bang0 #burger chainz #dapper dasha

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likesomekindofcheese · 4 years ago

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Hii! Can I request a male marvel and harry potter (golden trio or marauders era please) ship/matchup if you’re still doing them?

I am 5’7”, cancer, Slytherin, ENTP, enneagram type 8, very thin body type (i got nothing😭) hecking pale, brown hair and red highlights, and hazel eyes that change color. My main traits are chaotic, sassy, sarcastic, dramatic, and according to people I know, mean af. I’m a straight female and a raging feminist. I am secretly touch-starved and a hopeless romantic. I am pretty social but love being alone to have time to myself for reading, writing, drawing, playing video games, and listening to music. Some of my worst traits are selfishness, stubbornness, and jealousy. Some of my good traits are my intelligence, logical thinking, creativity, and humor I guess. My strongest emotions are rage and excitement. I am Pagan/Wiccan and have an unhealthy obsession with collecting rocks and shells (and reading fanfics but let’s not worry about that🥴) I’m Moldovan and Romanian is my first language. I get like either no sleep or sleep until noon and I’m a big over-thinker and have anxiety. Believe me or not, but I can in fact see auras (if I concentrate but also sorta unfocus my eyes kinda; it’s weird) I’m a pretty chill person but if you anger or provoke me the only advice I have is to run🙂

Well that was a mess. I hope it was good enough, no rush!

Some sparkle for you✨✨✨

Oh lord!!! Let me send sparkles back!✨✨✨🥺

For Harry Potter, I can see you with Sirius Black!!

First of all, when he initially notices that you are in Slytherin and he is in Gryffindor, he is hesitant. You might be super attractive to him with your eyes with a magic of their own, your thing body that looked amazing in the robes and clothes you chose, and especially with your skin and hair, but he tried to resist it.

It was when he found you in the library listening to music somehow on a muggle device that curiosity got him.

But your chaos and sass as you got over the House rivalry deal made him fall. In one of your later years (this is a slow burn, I know), you sassed off a jerk doing something awful in the hallway. And that was the moment he decided he wanted to kiss you.

So one evening, he asked you out. And you had your first kiss as a couple on a winter’s evening, as the snow trickled down. You turned red and your breathing almost stopped. You were so unused to physical touch and you explained that to him. He understood.

Sirius would cuddle you all the time, holding your hand-just to make you smile. When you have trouble falling asleep, he will plop you on the couch and you will write and draw and cuddle until you snooze away.

When he finds out about the auras thing, he asks you about his. He then has you look at the auras for everyone else and he stands amazed. He brags about you to the Marauders and even they are shook (tm).

Plus even beyond school, both of you are the Chaotic, cute couple. You dress in silly costumes and laugh a lot. Even if you stay up late goofing off, he will still dance you around the room and kiss you like that love struck Gryffindor boy from years ago.

For Marvel, I thought of a couple guys, but my gut is telling who it should be and I trust it, for Marvel, I ship you with...

Loki Laufreyson!!! (however you spell that last name!)

hahahahha after that season finale he needs someone really nice to get with after he gets some therapy after those events hahhahahah hahahahha *distant crying*

Anyways, but both of you sound very similar. Plenty of chaos and sass in your personalities. When he comes up with a prank, you just...roll around with it. Then you go to him (if you are a Midguardian, let’s say you hang around the Avengers somehow and get to meet him through Thor) and go “hey...can you do this?” So you wind up becoming a prank duo.

But the thing that is different is that you don’t put up with his bullshit. He got an asshole idea, and the second you found out you pulled him out of it with a tug on the ear (you’re tall for a woman, but he is still pretty big next to you) and he goes “OW, what was that for?”

“Don’t you realize what this is doing?! Stop it, now!” you insist, and he does. Because he respects your anger and your strength.

And it struck him that he was moved. Moved by a mere mortal...and in fact, he keeps trying to be a better man, er, Frost giant/demi-god...because you make him want to be better. Cut to Thor finding a pile of self-help books on Asguard and his brother walking around with one in his nose.

But he is surprisingly sweet with your anxiety. When you have an attack when he’s around, he takes your hand and shushes you. He even uses a bit of magic to conjure something relaxing, like rain or the odd mug of tea.

Thor ships it too. So finally he sets you up by tossing his hands in the air when you are together and says “Loki, you love her, and she’s crazy about you-court already before I shove you both together, dammit!” (he was never one for subtlety) while pushing you two close as if to kiss or dance while you both blush. Publicly admitting your feelings with the god of thunder watching.

Although being a mortal dating a god had its odd challenges. Like, having him turn into a fly so your friends or family wouldn’t catch him in your room. Or dealing with Odin and Frigga at the dinner table. Both of you learned so much about the other’s lives that you could respect each other.

Plus, being a god and having access to knowledge around the world, he would be able to talk with you in Romanian. Calling you all sorts of sweet pet names like iubi or sufletel.

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milf-lover42 · 5 years ago

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Bellatrix and Azula are the same character, change my mind

As most people can tell, Bellatrix Lestrange is my all time favorite character. I might get new favorites every time I watch a new show, and they all share a general similarity (let’s face it… I have a type, and if you’re reading this here on tumblr dot com… you do too, don’t lie). However, no character has ever come close to beating Bellatrix for top spot. And then I watched A:TLA for the first time a few weeks ago. I didn’t watch it as a kid, I was just young enough (2003 babeyy) that I wasn’t watching tv when it was on. Azula is obviously my favorite from this show, and is also the only character to ever come close to Bellatrix’ spot in my heart. But thinking about this and all the headcanons that people have made for the Black family dynamic… it seems like a pretty straightforward connection. Azula is essentially just a young Bellatrix.

Almost all of these Black family headcanons have been taken from fanfictions I have read over the years, and so the credit goes to their respective authors. Many overlap so I cannot pinpoint each author to each one, and it has been a while since reading some of them. Most notable of these would be Glass Silence by Zarrene Moss. There are many more fantastic stories I have drawn from but I couldn’t remember every fanfiction I’ve read to pick out each detail. For all the Azula stuff, I am drawing from Hello Future Me’s video on Youtube “The Psychology of Azula | Avatar: The Last Airbender”. If you want to spend an hour watching that I highly recommend it. Basically none of this is mine, I’m just using the headcanons and research of others to tie Bellatrix to Azula.

Let’s start with their family dynamics. Bellatrix is the oldest of the Black sisters, and has no brother. Although not stated in canon, (because apparently she’s too minor a character to deserve a backstory) it is presumed that all the duties of a male heir fell to her in a way. Marry young and marry a rich pureblood, carry on the family name and power, and secure a high social standing. Pureblood society is extremely archaic, if the treatment of muggle-borns is anything to go by, so we can safely assume that they are a very patriarchal society. Cygnus and Druella Black almost certainly wanted a son to carry on their name, especially given Walburga and Orion had both Sirius and Regulus. We can also assume that they weren’t exactly the kindest parents. At best, Druella was a silent wife subjected to abuse from her husband and ultimately was unable to keep her children safe; at worst she actively joined Cygnus in abusing their children. Each of the sisters have a unique way of dealing with this.

Andromeda handled it by running away, completely rebelling. She fell in love with Ted Tonks, a muggle-born. I doubt this in itself was an act of rebellion, I think she simply realized how stupid blood supremacy was after speaking to him. Once she fell in love it’s clear she wanted to break away from her family so that she could marry him. Clearly her parents knew, and it’s likely she told them herself. Given Ted was a muggleborn I can’t imagine her parents reacting with a simple, “No he is beneath you, we forbid it.” They probably acted harshly in an attempt to make it stick in her head that the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black would not associate with m*dbloods. Either she ran away or was kicked out, but either way she stayed with Ted and didn’t listen to her parents.

Narcissa shut off and blocked all her emotions. Obviously as an adult she actively practices the same beliefs her parents did, but as a teenager I don’t see this as being who she was. As an adult she is very cold and unemotional. The only person she truly cares about is her son, Draco. She cares about Bella still, she just doesn’t show it because she wasn’t allowed to as a child. As for her feelings toward Lucius... it is unclear. Depending on where you stand, she either could have been forced into a marriage with him, or they were in love as teenagers and got lucky enough that their parents arranged for them to marry each other. My personal opinion is they were forced. I think Lucius was supposed to be married to Andy but when she ran away, the Blacks had to hold up their end of the deal with the Malfoy’s and so Narcissa was married off to him. She embodies the whole “Ice Queen” personality. In order to cope with the trauma and her unwanted marriage, she just blocked all emotion to keep herself sane, only showing it for Draco.

And then we come to Bellatrix. Bellatrix, who had too many expectations to live up to, so many roles to fill, and no positive reinforcement from parents who just abused her if she messed up. She felt everything. She was the oldest and cared greatly for her younger sisters, and probably did her best to take any of the abuse that was going to be given to Narcissa or Andromeda. She used herself as their shield because they were the most important thing to her. Even after joining Voldemort and going insane she makes it very clear how she feels about Narcissa. Bellatrix would follow Voldemort's orders to the ends of the Earth, but the second she is asked to trust Snape, she says that Voldemort has made an error in judgement. Cissa wants to go to him and ask him to keep Draco safe, but Bellatrix advises against this. Only when her sister is in potential danger does Bellatrix doubt her master. Even at the height of her insanity her sister is the most important thing to her. We can assume as a child she felt the same for Andy. In fact in my opinion she never really stopped caring about her until Azkaban, I think she pretended to hate her when she came out about Ted Tonks, but only did so so that Andy would run away and live her life with the man she loved. She was safer away from their parents anyway. It didn’t matter if Bellatrix thought negatively about muggle-borns; she just wanted her sister to be safe. After going insane however, she truly seems to hate Ted for being a muggle-born, and she kills their half-blood daughter Nymphadora.

In order to cope with the trauma of her childhood Bellatrix used all of those emotions as fuel for her magic. She is an incredibly powerful witch and is massively intelligent (although why she didn’t just use Legilimens on the Golden Trio will baffle me forever… it would have been so simple…). However because of this coping mechanism, she is driven insane. It’s not instant, in fact it probably took years (probably that stint in Azkaban, lads) for the insanity to fully develop and take hold. All of that exposure to Dementors would have forced her to relive the trauma of her childhood over and over, while taking away the happy memories of her sisters.

Bellatrix was given a support system to break away from her family. Now it’s not a good or healthy one, but it is one nonetheless. After being treated so poorly by her parents, and forced into a marriage with Rodolphus, she needed freedom. When Tom Riddle comes along and praises her skill and offers her a spot as his best lieutenant? Of course she’s going to take that. Finally some recognition, and a good amount of safety. Not to mention missions and tasks given to her and others to her husband that mean she doesn’t have to be around him. Bellatrix was mistreated by her father and mother, but probably always wanted her father’s recognition. Her mother probably preferred Narcissa because she could be groomed into the perfect pureblood wife. Bellatrix latched onto Voldemort to gain recognition, praise, and power. But I can imagine as a teenager, having a complete breakdown at least once, especially after being told she’d be married off to Rodolphus. Demolishing her room with magic, windows breaking, personal items being thrown either by hand or by magic, and screaming and crying at the end. Very similar to Azula’s breakdown in her final scene.

Now we come to Princess Azula. She has an older brother, Zuko, but is always given the limelight. She receives a ceremonial headpiece that she is always seen wearing, but Zuko does not. He might be the boy, but he isn’t expected to take the crown. Azula is even named after her grandfather Azulon, who was Firelord. She was always expected to be the next Firelord over Zuko. Her future was never her own. She is a firebending prodigy, always showing off her skills, whereas Zuko falls behind. She is favored by her father Ozai for sure, but she is never truly praised. She is simply a means to an end to him. She was always expected to be the best. Although it isn’t shown in the TV series, in the A:TLA comics Ursa and Ozia’s relationship is depicted as abusive. He cuts her off from her family saying that he is all she will need.

There are theories as to whether or not Azula has a Machievellian personality type, or ASPD or NPD that could have been a root cause of her diminishing sanity, and after looking into those they seem very plausible. She lacks empathy, she emotionally manipulates everyone, and she has a messed up sense of right and wrong. Altruism just doesn’t make sense to her, and emotions are not genuine, simply stories made to get your way. Ursa rewards empathy, love and trust, which is why she clearly favors Zuko. But Ozai rewards power, cunning, and loyalty. They are complete opposites so it is not possible to please both of them. If she has any of these mental disorders it would be impossible to please her mother, so she focused on making her father proud. But Ozai never really shows any level of praise towards her, so she constantly tries to better herself. If she isn’t perfect, she’s failed.

At the end of A:TLA, Ozai forces her to stay behind in the Fire Nation. He says it’s because they need a Firelord because he will be leaving. Azula is disappointed to not partake in the final battle, but it’s what her father wants, so she obeys. However, he only leaves her so that he can become the supreme leader of everyone, or “Phoenix King”. Azula doesn’t really get a promotion, just a fancy name. In the finale, she is shown as her mental state quickly deteriorates. Her perfect image is gone, her hair is not up, her makeup undone, and she is paranoid that everyone is out to get her. This is the beginning of her breakdown. When she is unable to put her hair up by herself, she cuts her bangs. Her hair is all of a sudden asymmetrical, which is unheard of. She then starts to hallucinate. By the time she fights Zuko and Katara she is extremely unstable, and the fact that she can actually still bend is incredible, because it requires control of your emotions. She instead manages to use her emotions to fuel her bending. At the end when she is defeated, she finally breaks. Her bending is out of control, and she is left screaming and crying.

Azula never had anyone take her under their wing and give her the recognition she craved. Zuko had Iroh. Bellatrix had Voldemort. If Azula had been introduced to someone like Voldemort she would have gone down the same path as Bellatrix. Likewise, if Bellatrix hadn’t been introduced to Voldemort she would have ended up broken just like Azula. Their stories aren’t identical obviously, but there are some strong parallels that place them together, so I can see them as the same person with different outcomes to their story.

Does this stupidly long character analysis have any significant purpose? Nah, not at all. But like… I’m clearly right so… yeah.

#bellatrix black #bellatrix lestrange #azula #princess azula #azula deserved better #A:TLA #A:TLA azula #bellatrix black lestrange #druella black #cygnus black #narcissa malfoy #andromeda tonks #guys im not crazy i swear #i just feel passionately about these characters #bellamione

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darks-ink · 5 years ago

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Third Time (’s a Charm)

Is the title a reference to the fact that we’re dealing with a trio of half-ghosts, or is it a reference to the fact that this is the third time I’ve written about the Accident for this event? Who knows!

Prompt: An AU where Sam and/or Tucker also gain ghost powers Prompt by: @dalv-co-official Word count: 9,036

[AO3] [FFN] [more Phic Phight fics]

---

“Nothing is going to happen,” Danny said, trying for bravado to hide the worry that niggled in his chest. “I’m gonna go in, check it out, and then come out. It will all be perfectly fine.”

“Yeah!” Tucker agreed, nudging Sam playfully. “Chill, dude. Nothing’s going to happen.”

Sam made a face at the two of them. “I don’t know, Danny. I have a bad feeling about this…”

“It’ll be fine,” he assured her, softer now. His chest felt like a roaring void, a whirlpool of worry. “Come on, give me that jumpsuit if it’ll make you feel better.”

“You’re gonna look like an idiot.” She smiled a little as she passed it to him, though. “Your parents are a bad influence.”

“Well, it’s gotta do something, right?” Tucker cocked an eyebrow at the suit in Danny’s hands. “I mean, I don’t know about Mr. Fenton, but Mrs. Fenton has to have a reason to wear those things every day.”

“I think my dad is just very convincing.” Danny pressed the jumpsuit against his chest, guessing at the size. It looked about right. A recent creation, then. Lucky him. “I mean, look at me. I’m gonna be wearing the same thing and I don’t even know why.”

Tucker huffed, a smile on his face. “You know why.”

“Don’t give me that,” Danny bit back, unzipping the jumpsuit. “Now look away so I can put this on.”

“Doesn’t it go over your clothes?” Sam asked, before obligingly turning away. “I mean, I’m not an expert, but…”

“Maybe if they’re sized properly, but I grow too quickly for my parents to keep up.” Danny quickly took off his pants, then pulled up his jumpsuit until it rested at his hips. “So it’s tight, and that makes it a pain to wear over regular clothes.”

He stripped off his shirt as well, sticking his arms through the sleeves of his jumpsuit and pulling it up entirely. “Almost ready.”

“Just tell us when you are ready, man.” Tucker shook his head, not turning around. “I don’t want to see your pasty bare chest.”

“Uh, rude.” Danny zipped up the jumpsuit, then ducked down to grab the shoes and gloves. “You can look now. Just gotta put on the last bits.”

Sam turned around, then snorted. “Nice socks.”

“Your support is appreciated as always,” Danny retorted, pulling a black rubbery boot over his space-print socks. “Don’t know what I would do without you.”

“Yeah, speaking of support…” She reached over to his, then tugged on something on his chest. A sticker peeled off, which she helpfully flipped around to show him. “Bet you don’t want to go walking around with this on your chest.”

‘This’ was, in this case, a logo of Jack Fenton’s face.

Danny made a face. “I definitely do not. Sam, you’re a lifesaver.”

“Alright, alright, enough banter already.” Tucker batted at Sam until the logo stuck to his fingers. “Ugh, now it’s on me. I’m getting rid of this thing.”

“Please do!” Danny called after his retreating back. “Knowing Dad, he’s got another three dozen of those things lying around.”

“Don’t speak such horrors into being.” Sam swatted him in the shoulder, and Danny ducked down to pull on his other boot. “You should know better than that, Fenton.”

“You’re overestimating his intelligence,” Tucker replied, before Danny could. “I’ve thrown the sticker into a trashcan. It’s up to whoever is cleaning the lab from here.”

“Hey!” He stuck out his tongue at his two best friends. “Rude. Also, you’ve just made it my problem again by doing that.”

“Well, I’m not gonna burn it for you, man.” Tucker handed him one of the two gloves. “You can do that yourself if you survive this.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to die, Tucker. I’m just checking out the Portal from up close, and letting Sam take a few photos. Perfectly safe.”

“Nothing in this house is safe,” Sam pointed out, quirking an eyebrow. “Our lives are in peril every moment we spent here.”

“Alright, well.” He shrugged. No arguing with that. “In that case, we’re all gonna die sooner rather than later, and checking out the Portal isn’t gonna expedite that.”

“’Expedite’?” Tucker repeated. “Wow, big word. You learn that from Jazz?”

“You’re all bullying me, and I’m leaving.” Danny tugged on the second glove for effect, then pushed himself off of the table he was perched on. “Gonna walk right into the Portal, and this will be the last thing you’ve said to me before I die.”

“Thought you weren’t going to die?” Sam asked, picking up her camera again, slinging the loop around her neck. “You seemed very confident in that.”

He very much was not. Something about the Portal made his skin crawl, made him feel like he’d swallowed ice.

“Right,” he said, mustering a grin. “Well. It’s the point of it that matters.”

“Like you’re going to die without us anyway, dude.” Tucker huffed, the corners of his lips tugging up into a smile. “Let’s be real, we’re all in this together. Either that Portal explodes and takes all of us out, or nothing happens and we’re all fine.”

Sam shot him an icy look. “Just so we’re all clear, if something does happen, we’re blaming it on Tucker. Right?”

“Right,” Danny echoed. “You’ve brought this upon us, Tuck.”

“Nothing’s going to happen.” Tucker rolled his eyes, then shoved Danny towards the empty arch of the Portal. “You’ve said it a dozen times yourself. It doesn’t work. As long as you don’t electrocute yourself on a power cable, you’re safe as can be.”

“Yeah, no, double down.” Danny nodded, pausing in the mouth of the Portal. “That’s exactly what’s gonna fix this, Tucker. Double down on the promise of death.”

“You’ll be fine,” Tucker said, flapping a hand. “Sam and I will be right here, yeah?”

Sam nodded, lifting up her camera. “For real, Danny. If you’re dying, you’re taking both of us with you.”

“We have so many issues,” Danny declared, laughing. “Alright, well. I’m going.”

“Don’t die!” Tucker shouted after him. The Portal’s insides lit up with the flash of Sam’s camera.

A click sounded. Danny hadn’t even noticed the button before he pressed it.

“Uh,” was all he managed before everything turned green, then white, then black.

---

“We are so screwed,” Sam murmured in Danny’s ear, and he jerked awake. Huh. When had he passed out?

“I’m saying we blame Tuck,” Danny mumbled back, rubbing his eyes with his white-gloved hand.

Wait.

“Look who’s catching on!” Sam clapped him on the shoulder, and Danny scowled at her.

Uh.

“Are all colors weird for you guys too, or is that just me?” he asked Sam’s bright blue eyes and white hair. “Because I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sam wearing this much white.”

“It’s criminal,” she agreed breezily. “But don’t worry, your hair has also gone very white.”

“Aw, you didn’t even mention his ectoplasm green eyes.” Tucker crouched down next to Sam and, hey, his colors were all weird too. His golden yellow eyes crunched. “It matches the Portal behind you. Very nice.”

Danny paused, then turned to look over his shoulder. The Portal’s arch was still the same shiny metal as before, but its entire inside was concealed behind a wall of swirling green ectoplasm.

“So turns out that it just needed some human sacrifice,” Tucker added on, swatting Danny in the leg. “You can tell your parents that, in case they ever want to build another one.”

“Uh, no?” Danny turned to glare at Tucker. “You can tell my parents that, Tuck. You’re the one who tempted fate by saying we would all die together if it turned on.”

“I said it was gonna explode,” Tucker corrected, rolling his eyes. “And clearly it didn’t.”

“Ah, so I just imagined the bright blast of light that spilled out of the Portal?” Sam shoved him lightly. “Just admit it, Tucker, you’ve brought this upon us.”

“Me?” Tucker dramatically clasped a hand to his chest. “You are the one who talked Danny into going into that Portal. Equal blame.”

Danny sighed, pressing his forehead against his hand. “Alright, how about this. We’re all equally screwed. Can we please put some thought into the fact that we all appear to be ghosts?”

“Friends forever?” Tucker tried cheerfully. Sam kicked him in the shin for this suggestion. “Ow, jeez, I thought ghosts couldn’t feel?”

“Let me try.” Sam pinched Danny’s arm.

“Ow, Sam, why?” He swatted her away. “I already died, I don’t need this.”

“Looks like your parents were wrong about the unfeeling part of ghosts,” she decided, nodding to herself. “In both the physical and emotional way.”

“Great, brilliant, fantastic.” Danny clapped his hands together, drawing the attention of both of his friends back to him. “Can we please focus? We’re all ghosts. Now what?”

Sam and Tucker shared a look, then both shrugged.

“Depends,” Tucker decided. “Can we leave this house? Do we have to haunt somewhere specific? What are the rules to ghostly existence?”

“Why are you asking me?” Danny swept a hand around, gesturing at the lab. “Clearly my parents don’t know what they’re about, either!”

“I mean, they made the Portal,” Sam pointed out. “It killed us, yes, but it seems to work just fine now that it’s on.”

“Great.” He rolled his eyes. “Just needed a little blood sacrifice. I’m so glad.”

“Alright, smartass, so what do you suggest?” Sam crossed her arms, the glow around her body brightening in sync with her glare. “Your parents are the most dangerous to us, here!”

“You think I don’t know that?!” Danny growled back, flailing his arms. “What I really want is for us to go back to being human, but—”

Something in his chest, in the very core of his being, stirred. His glow brightened into a flash of light, and Danny was forced to shut his eyes to avoid being blinded.

When the light faded away again, and Danny opened his eyes, he saw…

“Wow,” Tucker breathed, tugging on Danny’s white jumpsuit. “Dude, that’s crazy. Us next!”

“I don’t know how I did that!” Danny swatted Tucker’s cold hand away, feeling his heart thump up a storm. “I just felt something weird in my chest! Like I stirred something.”

“Something cold?” Sam asked, eyes wide. “Like…”

“Cold-hot-cold, constantly whirring?” Tucker finished for her, turning to stare at her. “Oh my god.”

“Yeah, that was it.” Something buzzed underneath his heartbeat, and Danny paused for a moment to dissect the feeling. “Oh my god, I still feel it. It’s just… quieter.”

“Quieter,” Sam and Tucker chorused, looking at each other again.

Light flashed again.

“I can’t believe that that worked,” Tucker grumbled, straightening his now-red barrette. “I mean, seriously. What on Earth is going on?”

Danny made a face, turning to look behind him. The Portal’s surface still swirled, stirred by an unseen force. “I don’t think it’s anything from Earth, Tuck.”

“So we’re, what, in-betweeners?” He scoffed, and Danny turned back to look at him again. “A little human, a little ghost?”

“I don’t know, but you know what I do know?” Sam pushed herself up onto her feet. “I’m gonna go figure that out somewhere that isn’t here. We can tell Danny’s parents that we’ve been up in his room the whole time, or something.”

“Yeah, that… that sounds like a plan.” Danny scrambled up onto his feet as well, then offered a hand to Tucker to help him up too. “We need to figure out what this is. If it’s just temporary or what, and what the effects of it are.”

“You sound like a scientist,” Tucker complained, stumbling when he stood. “But I guess you’re right.”

“Up we go, then.” Danny grabbed his regular clothes, then paused. Nah. He could redress in his room. “Anyone else feeling like their skin is crawling just from being near the Portal?”

“Yeah,” both of his friends answered. They all stopped to look at each other.

“We are so messed up,” Tucker decided.

“Do you think they have ghost therapists?” Sam ducked to pick up her backpack, and Tucker did the same. “They have to be traumatized as all hell, right?”

“I thought we were, like, part ghosts?” Danny passed by them to head to the stairs first. “Wasn’t that what we just decided?”

“Half-ghost therapists, then,” Sam corrected. “Same difference.”

“I hate every part of this conversation.” Tucker started on the staircase behind Danny, then stopped. Looked at Sam over his shoulder. “Are you coming too, Sam?”

A click and a flash of light. Sam appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “Yeah, sorry. Wanted to grab a quick picture.”

“Why, in case we ever need proof of how we got so messed up?” Tucker rolled his eyes before making an impatient gesture at Danny to continue up the stairs. “Seriously, someone’s gonna find that and it’ll disprove all our lies.”

“Chill, I know how to hide photos.” Sam’s heavy boots started clunking up the stairs as well. “It might come in handy later. Who knows?”

“I’m not listening to you two fight again,” Danny told them, stepping into the kitchen and turning around. “Seriously, guys, can we please focus on what’s happening?”

Tucker and Sam also stepped into the kitchen, sharing a look.

“Yeah, alright.” Tucker nodded. “Sam?”

“Uh huh.” She nodded back. “Sorry, Danny.”

“It’s… not fine, but, y’know. I get it.” He shook his head, turning back towards the living room, to the stairs up. “But we’ve got more important things to deal with.”

“You make it sound so ominous,” Tucker griped, his tone light and joking. “I mean, we only sort of died, you know?”

“You’re horrible,” Danny told him. “I’m making the executive decision that we’re gonna be silent until we reach my room. All in favor?”

“Aye,” Sam piped up, slapping a hand in Tucker’s face so he couldn’t reply. “Let’s do it.”

Danny laughed, leading the rest of the way up without another word. Even Tucker remained silent after Sam removed her hand.

Finally, the door to his room clicked shut. He hesitated for a brief moment, then turned the lock as well.

“Okay, so we’re in private. Now what?” Tucker asked, turning to look between Danny and Sam.

“Just so we’re all on one line,” Sam’s purple eyes darted between Danny and Tucker, “All three of us are now, like, half-ghost or something. Right?”

“Is that even possible?” Danny frowned. “Like, I know my parents don’t think ghost and human can be combined, but they obviously don’t know everything.”

“You think either of us have a better source of knowledge?” Tucker scoffed, shaking his head. “I mean, unless Sam just happens to have some kind of goth-guide about this stuff?”

She shook her head as well. “Nope, sorry. Guess we’ll have to figure this out ourselves.”

“Ugh,” Danny groaned, throwing himself backwards onto his bed. “Alright. First things first… What’s first?”

Tucker snorted. “How does this affect our health? How ghostly are we, and how human?”

“Those are two separate things,” Sam pointed out. “But, yeah, those sound like a good start. What are things we need to look out for?”

“We need to start a list,” Danny decided out-loud. He didn’t move to do so.

“Digital or on paper?” Sam asked, grabbing a leaf of paper off of Danny’s desk.

“Digital, duh.” Tucker raised a PDA in the air. “I mean, anyone might come across a sheet of paper with this kinda secret stuff on it.”

“And ghosts typically don’t combine well with electronics,” Danny pointed out, pushing himself up until he was sitting on his bed. “Sorry, Tuck, but I think it might be smarter to stick with paper for now.”

“We can always burn it for safety,” Sam pointed out, stealing a pen from Danny as well. “Okay, so to summarize: figure out health, figure out ghost-human balance, and things we need to look out for. Yeah?”

“Can we start sub lists?” Tucker dragged over a chair to their circle, plopping himself down. “Because I think we should look into those ghostly forms and possible ghost powers as well, but that falls under the ghost-human balance, I think.”

Danny nodded. “Yeah, sounds good. Maybe split ‘things we need to look out for’ into two categories? ‘Things that might be dangerous to us’ and ‘things we need to keep an eye on’?”

“Couldn’t you have suggested that before I wrote it down?” Sam scribbled on the paper, then nodded. “Alright, got it. Anything else?”

“How did we all become half-ghost, or whatever? I mean, I know I was in the Portal when it turned on, but what about you two?” Danny looked between Sam and Tucker.

“Well, I can answer that.” Tucker gestured at Sam and himself. “We were in front of the Portal, remember? When it turned on it pretty much exploded. Blasted all that energy and light outwards. Not sure after that, I think it knocked me out.”

“Same.” Sam frowned at the paper she held. “We definitely got hit in the splashback of the activation. Like, that surface? It kind of… spilled outwards, I guess? Before settling into the frame properly.”

“Hm.” Danny scratched his cheek, thinking. “Do you think that that makes a difference? That I was inside the Portal, and you two outside it?”

“What, like a difference in exposure?” Tucker shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe you’re a little more ghost, and we a little less?”

“I’ll add that to the list.”

Danny leaned back a little, prodding the ball of cold energy in his chest. “We need to do more research on ghosts in general, I think. You two still feeling that power thing?”

“In my chest? Yeah.” Sam tapped her pen on the paper. “It’s kind of quiet, now, but it picked up when I got angry at Tucker earlier.”

“Mine too,” Tucker supplied, kicking his foot against the leg of his chair. “Don’t ghosts have some sort of power center? What did your parents call it again?”

Danny hummed, running through his parents info-dumps about ghosts. “A… something with a C. Core? Yeah, I think that that was it. A ghost core.”

“This is exhausting,” Tucker decided, leaning back in his chair. “Like, both literally and metaphorically.”

“Amen,” Sam and Danny chorused.

They hung out in comfortable silence for a moment, before Danny broke it again. “Okay but like, what was up with that stuff earlier? When we looked like ghosts? Can we do that again? Should we do that again?”

“What do you mean, ‘should’?” Sam looked up from the paper to meet his eyes. “You think it might hurt us if we spend too much time as a human instead of a ghost?”

“I don’t know!” He flailed out his hands. “I don’t know any more about this stuff than you guys! But if we’re, like, half-and-half, that could be a thing, right? Or maybe regular shifting helps with the ghost core, or something.”

“Shouldn’t we figure out if we can keep shifting, first?” Tucker pointed out. “If we can’t shift, there’s no point in discussing its importance, right?”

“Okay, but I don’t think we should all go a the same time.” Sam tapped the pen on the edge of Danny’s desk. “We should use this opportunity to take a good look at each other’s ghost forms.”

“Why?” Danny frowned at her. “What’s the point?”

“There might be some kind of clue hidden in our ghost forms.” She shrugged. “And, even if there’s not, it would be nice to know what, exactly, we look like. Right?”

“Mirrors exist, Sam.”

“Ghosts are very perception-based, Tucker,” she countered. “Maybe there are details that you can’t see yourself.”

“So what if those details only show up to full humans, or full ghosts?”

“Guys,” Danny interrupted them. “Can we please chill on the squabbling? Who’s trying the shift first?”

“You,” they both replied, almost in sync, before sharing a startled look.

“You shifted back to human first,” Sam added, like it was an explanation. “And you were in the Portal, rather than outside it like us.”

“If any of us is more ghostly, or more powerful or whatever, it’s you,” Tucker tacked on.

Danny groaned, but, well. He couldn’t argue with that kind of reasoning.

“Don’t do it while lying down. Stand up,” Sam commanded, kicking him lightly in the shin. “You’ll have to get up when you turn ghostly anyway.”

“I want it to be acknowledged that I hate every part of this.” Danny jiggled his leg. “I’m changing clothes, first. That way we can see if our clothes are the same but inverted or if they were set when we got hit.”

“We’ll turn away.” Sam grabbed Tucker’s arm and turned him around.

“Thanks,” Danny told them dryly, chucking the black gloves onto his bed. He undressed and redressed quickly, then cleared his throat. “Alright, I’m gonna try the ghost thing.”

He prodded the ghost core in his chest. Mentally, of course. It stirred, kicked its whirring up a notch, but nothing else happened.

“Maybe you need to coax it?” Tucker suggested, brow creasing. “You said what you wanted from it last time, right?”

Danny scoffed. “What, so I gotta tell it that I want to go ghost?”

Light flashed. Danny stared down at his white boots.

“I hate this,” he declared. “Just so everyone knows.”

“Duly noted,” Sam told him, before twirling the pen in her hand. “Go turn, ghost-boy. Show us your spooky ghost form.”

“Hate this,” Danny reiterated, before slowly turning in a circle. He thought he could figure most of his appearance out already, since he’d only worn white and black when he went into the Portal. It wasn’t that hard to extrapolate from there, especially since both Sam and Tucker had white hair, and his black gloves and boots had clearly gone white as well. “Oooh, my colors flipped, I get it. What color are my eyes?”

“Green.” Tucker paused, like he was deliberating it. “Pretty much the color of ectoplasm, I guess. Very bright. They glow.”

“They glow?” Danny repeated. He glanced down at the glow around the rest of his body. “What, unlike the rest?”

“Oh, stop being an idiot.” Tucker swatted at him, and Danny caught the warm hand. “Rude. I thought ghosts were intangible?”

Well, that sounded like a challenge. Danny prayed this would work, felt the cold energy pour from his core, and smirked at Tucker.

And then promptly stuck his arm through Tucker’s shoulder.

“Dude,” Tucker swore, jerking away from Danny. “Warn a guy!”

“How’d you do that?” Sam asked, perking up even as Danny’s arm returned to its full opacity. “Can we all do that?”

“Spite, I guess.” He shrugged, prodding Tucker with his now tangible finger. “I just kind of willed it into being, and I felt the energy from my core run through me.”

“So, transparent is intangible…” Sam noted it down, then paused. “What are also basic ghost powers? Flight, right? Or floating, at least?”

“And invisibility, yeah.” Danny stared down at his hands. Invisibility and intangibility he didn’t really care about, but flight? That would be pretty cool.

He felt himself grow lighter, and grinned. His feet lifted off of the ground, and he leaned back. “That’s a yes on flight.”

“Dude, you can keep flight. I want to turn invisible!” Tucker declared, before promptly disappearing from sight. “Hey, why’d I go white?”

“Because you went invisible, moron.” Sam kicked the leg of Tucker’s chair for lack of actual leg, and he startled so badly he became visible again. She kicked him, too, for good measure. “Okay, so powers work in human form as well. What did you say you looked like?”

“Kinda white and transparent, I guess?” Tucker paused just in time for Danny’s flight to falter. He crashed down, thudding into the ground, and light flashed.

“Ugh,” he complained as his core churned loudly in his chest. “I think I ran out of ghost juice.”

“Alright, so we’ve got a limited amount of energy to run through, and if that runs out, we shift back to human.” Sam nodded, her pen scribbling quickly. “So we default back to human, it seems. Tucker, you next? Or did that little invisibility run you out entirely?”

“Uh, I dunno.” Tucker got up, then pulled Danny off of the floor as well. “Maybe if I don’t use any powers after shifting? We just want to look, right?”

Sam nodded, looking up from her paper. “Yeah. Let’s see how far you get. Go for it, Tuck.”

“Alright. Uh.” Tucker looked down at his chest, like he could prod his core better if he looked at it. Not that he could see it, but, y’know. “Going ghost?”

Light flashed once more, then withdrew until just a glow around Tucker remained.

“Please tell me my skin didn’t change color, too,” Tucker begged them, his eyes raising up to meet Danny’s. They were startlingly warm, a golden yellow. “That would kill me.”

“You’re already pretty dead,” Sam pointed out, ignoring the way Tucker’s eyes flared brighter when he glared at her. “And Danny’s skin didn’t change, did it? You’re fine.”

“Very warm, actually,” Danny commented, gesturing at Tucker’s outfit. “It’s all warm purple and orange. Well. Your hat is a little more cool-purple, but your pants are pretty orange.”

Tucker glanced down, as if to confirm, then made a face. “My pants? What about my sweater? What color is this even, magenta?”

He tugged on it, then twirled his hand. “Huh, it does look a little different from up close. Cooler?”

“Might be the ectoplasm underneath your skin.” Danny hummed, considering it. “Since you’ve got green underneath it instead of red?”

“Might be.” Tucker let of his sweater, then paused. Patted down his trousers until he found what he was looking for, pulling out… his PDA. Of course. “I can’t believe my PDA got ghost-ified, too. Look at it, all green and stuff.”

“Does it work?” Sam asked, quirking an eyebrow. “Or has it literally died?”

Tucker blinked his luminous eyes at her, then turned them back to the PDA. He pressed a button, and the screen lit up. “Works,” he stated, somewhat unnecessarily. “But I felt that in my core. I think it might be connected?”

“Good to know.” She scribbled it down on the paper. Must’ve been using shorthand, because Danny was fairly sure she would’ve run out of paper by now. “I was wearing my camera, so that must be the case for me, too.”

“It it helps, I feel no desire to guard it with my very being,” Tucker explained, before pausing again. “Well, no more than usual, I guess.”

“Very comforting.” Sam noted this down, too. “You can shift back, if you want.”

“Going… human?” Tucker tried, and light washed over him. Left him standing in his regular clothes, still holding his PDA. “Hey, that worked!”

“Voice activated ghost-core.” Danny grinned at his friends. “That’s convenient, right? Better than random activation.”

“Might still activate randomly. You can just also force it.” Sam shook her head, then stood up as well. “Alright, here I go. Going ghost!”

Once again light flashed, and once again one of their trio had turned into a ghost. “Well?”

“What do you think? A ton of white.” Tucker dodged Sam’s flailing hands. “What, it’s the truth!”

“I think your colors are pretty easy to figure out too, Sam,” Danny pointed out to distract her. “You were already wearing purple, so you can guess your lipstick and eye color from there. It’s blue, by the way. Cyan-ish.”

“And your hair tie and skirt stripes are nice and red.” Tucker nudged her, playfully. “At least the soles of your boots are darker gray?”

“At least my shirt isn’t eye-searingly pink,” she countered, lifting the camera that hung off of her neck. Its strap had gone white, too, but the camera itself had barely gone any darker. “Say cheese!”

“Cheese,” Danny said. The light flashed, and he tried to blink the spots out of his sight again. “Ugh, I think that that thing is even more blinding than it was before all of this.”

“It might be. I definitely felt it in my core, so it might be running off of my ghost powers.” She sighed, reaching up to tug on her ponytail. “Hey, guys, is my hair doing anything weird?”

Danny looked. Huh. “Yeah, it kind of is? Looks like a flame. Kinda flickering in a non-existent wind, I guess?”

“Yeah, what Danny said.” Tucker reached up past Sam, swatted a hand through her hair. “Feels like hair, though. Might be a ghost thing? Danny’s hair looked kind of wind-swept, too.”

“Hair no longer obeys the laws of gravity, got it.” Sam nodded, and light swept over her, returning her to her human appearance. “I’ll add that to the list.”

“What good will that knowledge do us?” Tucker questioned, before shaking his head. “You know what? Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

Sam sat down again, starting to quickly write down everything. “So. Ghost powers, which can be used in both forms, but it might be more exhausting in human form?”

“Definitely more exhausting in human form,” Danny decided, experimentally prodding his core. “My core feels way weaker like this, and ectoplasm is more conductive to those kinda powers, too.”

“That’s good to know. Hunger might be either increased or decreased. I’m feeling kinda hungry myself.”

“Starving,” Tucker declared, tone grim.

“Same. I think we both used a lot of energy by using our powers.” Danny sighed. “At least we have the excuse of being teenagers. I wonder if that’ll decrease over time, the hunger? Maybe we need to settle in.”

“Ghosts usually need time to get to their full power levels, I think.” Sam tapped the back of the pen against her cheek, then noted it down. “Maybe it’s got to do with our cores? They were easily exhausted, and I can’t imagine that all of that comes from the fact that we’re somewhere halfway, instead of full ghosts.”

“Might be linked to ectoplasm exposure as well.” Danny waved a hand around in a vague gesture. “There’s ambient ectoplasm in the air around my house, with my parents being, y’know, my parents. But there’s gotta be way more of that stuff in the Ghost Zone.”

Tucker hummed. “Do you think that eating contaminated food would help?”

“That’s disgusting.” Sam made a face at him. “I hate that you raised that possibility.”

“We can try it out. I’m used to eating that stuff, anyway.” Danny shrugged under their incredulous looks. “Hey, come on, sometimes you’re hungry enough that you can eat anything, yeah? It’s been a long fourteen years. Ask Jazz, it’s not that unreasonable.”

“I hate every part of this,” Tucker declared heartily. “We might want to stay over more, just in case. If ectoplasm is a big deal to developing ghost cores, we’ll pretty much starve them whenever we go home.”

“My parents won’t notice anyway. The moment they see that the Portal is on, they’ll move into the lab and barely leave it.” He leaned back against his bed. “And that way we can keep a close eye on our developing powers, too.”

Tucker groaned, then pushed himself to his feet once more. “I’ll call my parents and ask if I can stay over another day. We’ll see how school goes tomorrow.”

“Yeah, same.” Sam dug a cellphone from her pocket. “Maybe it won’t take that long to settle a core.”

“Or maybe tomorrow will be the worst day of school ever.” Danny laughed at the concept. “Although I guess high school already sucks anyway.”

---

Danny lowered his forehead against his desk. Carefully, so that he didn’t make a sound. Didn’t want to draw Lancer’s attention, after all.

“Same,” Tucker whispered, his voice quiet but clearly audible to Danny. “God, this lesson is so boring.”

“No kidding,” Danny whispered back. Next to him, Valerie Gray jerked.

“Who are you talking to?” she hissed at him. When he opened his mouth, she shushed him. “No, quiet. Don’t draw Lancer’s attention.”

Danny lifted his head to frown at her.

“That was weird,” Sam said, far too loudly to miss in the quiet of the classroom. Valerie didn’t respond.

“Oh my god,” Danny thought, as loud as he could make the thought. “Can we read each other’s minds?”

“What? Oh.” Tucker somehow conveyed the feeling of an awkward shuffle. “That can’t be a normal power for ghosts, right?”

“Maybe it’s because we all got hit by the same thing at the same time?” Sam suggested. She was frowning at her book, not looking at Danny or Tucker. “Or it’s because we’re all so close?”

“Emotionally or physically?” Tucker joked, his lip quivering as he repressed his smile. “I don’t care about the other ghost powers, but this is basically a superpower, right?”

“You don’t count flight as a superpower?” Danny prodded, staring blankly at Lancer. He was explaining… something. Danny didn’t care, the conversation with Sam and Tucker was far more interesting.

“You’re so loud,” Sam complained. “We’re all bored out of our minds, Danny, thank you. Lancer is talking about metaphors in English classics.”

“Oops. Sorry.” He tried beaming the feeling of a sheepish smile at them. “Okay but wait. Is this distance bound, or can we telepathically talk over long distances too?”

“I’ll add that to the list.” Sam shifted her notebook, moving a separate sheet of paper out of it. “So, we’re all basically superpowered half-ghosts now, or something?”

“It makes sense, though.” Tucker flicked his eyes at the windows, then moved them back to Lancer to pretend he was paying attention to the lessons. “We’re basically balanced between human and ghost, yeah? So maybe we’re supposed to protect that balance for the world, too?”

“The Portal acts as a gateway for ghosts to access Earth, and for humans to reach the Ghost Zone.” Danny felt understanding pour in from Tucker and Sam. “But the Portal can’t control that, so we have to do that for it.”

“We’ll need to work on our powers, then,” Sam decided, her pen scribbling more onto the very cluttered paper. “And maybe some kind of costumes. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want anyone finding out about this.”

Tucker scoffed over their link, remaining still and quiet at the same time. “We kind of come with those built in? We just use our ghost forms. Duh. What we really need are names.”

“Well, if we’re using our ghost forms, maybe we should have matching ghostly names?” Danny suggested.

“I don’t know. We’ll need names kind of similar to our actual names.” Sam hummed over their link. “That way we’ll be more inclined to listen to it.”

“What about something based on our last names, then?” Tucker gave an inquisitive prod. “It’ll be familiar enough for us to respond to it, but people won’t be quite as inclined to listen for it. They’ll think of Danny, and Sam, and Tucker, not Fenton, Manson, and Foley.”

Danny pushed some laughter over their link, undoubtedly pouring along some joy with it. “I like Phantom for myself, then. It sounds enough like Fenton that I’ll answer to it automatically, but not similar enough for people to link it immediately.”

“And it’s a ghost joke?” Danny could feel Tucker rolling his eyes. “In that case I want to be Ghouley. Get it? Ghoul-ey?”

“You’re both the worst, and I’m never gonna know a moment of peace ever again,” Sam declared, before immediately following it up with, “I’m gonna be Manes, then.”

“Manes?” Tucker repeated, doubt and hesitation pouring through their link. “You’re not that hairy, Sam.”

“Ha ha,” she replied, humorless and dry. “Manes are a mythology thing, Tucker. They’re benevolent spirits, basically.”

“That lines up pretty well with what we’re gonna be doing, I guess.” Danny hummed, forcing himself to make the sound across their link only. In front of him, Lancer continued to chatter nonsense. “More experimentation with our powers would be a good idea, for sure.”

“Your place after school?” Tucker paused, and Danny caught snippets of thoughts grazing past the link. “No, wait, that’s probably not a good idea with your parents. Uh, my house is probably too small to go unnoticed, too.”

“We can go to my place?” Sam conveyed a shrug. “My parents are rich, so we’ve got a huge mansion. We can hide in my room.”

“You’re rich?” Tucker spilled amazement through their link, but it was promptly washed away by Sam’s disgruntlement. “Oh, sore point, sorry. Yeah, no, that sounds good.”

Danny watched Lancer talk for a moment, not really listening to what he said. “Actually, I might try dropping past my house first. I can ask my parents for some more information about ghosts. Even if it’s not all correct, it’ll give us something to work off of, at least?”

“And we might be able to listen along with the link,” Sam realized. A vicious kind of joy came from her side of the link. “Hell yeah. Be sure to ask them about ghosts and their appearances. Maybe Tucker and I can tweak ours to match you. The jumpsuit isn’t great, but it’s better than a white crop top or a magenta sweater.”

“It’ll make us look more superhero-y, too,” Tucker pointed out. “We can all go for black jumpsuits, but accessorize it our own ways. Plus our eyes kind of match, too, don’t they? And we all have white hair.”

“Our eyes match?” Danny asked, before realizing. “Oh my god, they do. I’ve got green, you have yellow, and Sam has blue.”

“It’ll be a good way to test range, too. Tucker and I can go to my place, and you go to yours. Check in regularly to make sure the link is still working.”

“Sounds good.” Danny made a face when he realized that Lancer had stopped talking. “Oh, we’re supposed to work on an assignment, I think. Did anyone pay attention to what Lancer was talking about?”

“No, but I know enough about metaphors anyway.” Exasperation leaked from Sam. “We can do the work together via the link, I guess. Might be good practice.”

“Hell yeah, teamwork!” Elation from Tucker, so strong that Danny had to work to keep the smile off of his face. “You’re the best, Sam!”

---

“Testing,” Danny cast out over the link, standing in his kitchen. “Link still good?”

“We hear you loud and clear,” Sam replied. Tucker supplied a feeling of agreement. “Try to get the information into the link with as little paraphrasing as possible.”

“You are so demanding,” Danny told her, with absolutely no heat. “Fine. Going down.”

He hopped down the stairs, into the basement lab. It looked… Pretty normal, actually. The Portal had acquired doors since yesterday, when he had last seen it. They were striped yellow and black.

“Mom, Dad?” he asked, raising his voice. They were on the other end of the lab, working with all kinds of metal parts. “Are you busy?”

“Danny-boy!” his dad boomed, dropping everything in his hands with an enormous clatter. “We always have time for you, kiddo!”

“Can I ask you about…” He hesitated for a moment. Support poured in through the link, immediately. “Can I ask you about ghosts?”

“Ghosts?” Maddie looked up from the pile of parts as well, pulling her goggles off of her eyes to shoot him an incredulous look. “Why… Yes, of course, always.”

“It’s just…” Danny gestured at the Portal. “I know I’ve grown kind of skeptical about all that ghost stuff with age, but that’s… that Portal is pretty convincing. Can you… tell me about what ghosts look like? So I’ll know if I ever run into one?”

His parents shared a look, and Maddie hummed thoughtfully. Danny focused on her when she opened her mouth, trying to commit the words he heard straight to the link. “Well, ghosts are very varying in appearance. Even if they were living beings, before, they don’t retain those memories, so they can interpret themselves however they want.”

“So it’s based on their own will?” Sam asked over their link, and Danny repeated it to his parents.

“More or less,” his dad agreed, nodding. “They won’t mess with it much, though, because that’s a waste of their energy. Most of the time, a ghost will stick to the same appearance unless they go through a major change of power.”

“But they could?” Danny prodded. “If they wanted to?”

“I suppose, yes.” Maddie cocked her head, her eyes narrowing. “But ghosts don’t particularly care about such things. They are very basal beings, Danny. It’s all about energy, and changing their appearance usually won’t be worth it. You’ll know a ghost when you see it.”

He guessed so, yeah. The three of them had figured it out pretty quickly. “Yeah, alright. Um. Thanks.”

“Always, Danny!” His dad reached over to clap him on the shoulder. “We love to see our kids pick up an interest in ghosts! Is there anything else you wanted to know, kiddo?”

“More basic stuff, maybe?” Tucker suggested over the link. “Anything more about ghosts. Do they have a ‘ghosts for dummies’ guide?”

“I do, at least,” Sam added with a laugh. “We could try comparing it with the Fenton’s research.”

“Uh, actually.” Danny set a smile on his face. “Do you have some kind of… beginner’s guide, or something? So I can read up on the basics?”

“We’ve told you about the basics a dozen times, Danny,” Maddie chastised. She clucked her tongue, then frowned. “But, yes, I think we have something like that. Jack, honey?”

“Yes, we needed something to lead investors into the whole ghost story.” Jack nodded. “Apparently ghosts weren’t as commonly known as we thought.”

Danny grinned wider. “That would be great! I know you’ve told me all that stuff already, but I would feel better if I can read it, too. Just as a refresher, you know?”

Amusement over the link, from both Sam and Tucker. Danny sent them the feeling of flailing his hands at them in return. The amusement increased, now combined with laughter. Ugh. Jerks.

“Here you go, sweetie.” Maddie held out a stack of stapled paper. “This is the last copy we had left. Is that good enough?”

“Uh…” Danny flipped through the sheets real quick, sharing the basics through the link. “Powers, abilities in general, anatomy, how and why they function?”

“Sounds like a good start,” Sam replied.

“Yeah,” Danny said to Maddie, smiling up at her. “Thanks, Mom, Dad. This is great.”

“If you have any more questions, you know where to find us.” She leaned over to ruffle his hair, and he huffed at her. “Your dad and I would love to talk ghosts with you.”

“I honestly can’t tell whether they love ghosts or hate them,” Tucker stated through the link. It felt like he was frowning. “Like, they constantly talk about how despicable they are, but it’s like their lives are centered around ghosts and only ghosts.”

“I think they love the science behind them, but hate the actual ghosts,” Danny explained, glancing at the stapled paper. “Either way, I don’t want them finding out that we’re defying what they think they know of ghosts. Are we sleeping at your place, Sam?”

“Might as well.” She shrugged across the link. “We can order food, too. My parents won’t care.”

“Mom, Dad?” Danny shot them a hopeful look. “Can I, uh, sleep over at Sam’s tonight? We’re gonna work on homework together.”

They shared a look. Jack shrugged, and Maddie rolled her eyes in response.

“Yes, honey, that’s fine.” She ruffled his hair again. “But we want you back home tomorrow after school, okay?”

He nodded, rolling the paper in his hands. “Of course. See you tomorrow! And good luck with your ghost stuff!”

Danny sped back up the stairs, closing the link back to just his thoughts. “We good?”

“Yeah, that was great.” Approval from Sam. “Bring the paper, we’ll make some copies of it here so we can mark it and stuff.”

“Coming right over.” He picked up his backpack, closing the front door behind him. “Uh. Your address?”

A wave of embarrassment. “…Right. Here you go, it’s—”

---

“Going ghost!” Danny said, and light haloed around him until he was left in his ghost form.

Sam and Tucker hummed, circling around him. Judgment poured from their sides of the link.

“Well?” Danny asked, cocking an eyebrow at them—both in real life and via the link. “Thoughts?”

“So many,” Sam sneered. Disgust and distaste, the link said. “But it’ll do. Better than white. What’d you say at school, Tucker?”

“What? Oh, that. The jumpsuits are kind of superhero-y, right?” A mental shrug. “If we’re gonna be some kind of superhero-protector people, we might as well commit to the look.”

“So black and white jumpsuits, with details in our eye colors? We’re gonna need a mirror, I think.”

A mental eye roll from Sam. “Danny. Trust me, I have full-body mirrors. What we really need is for you to shift back and make a design first, before you’re committing.”

“Hm. Fair point.” He mentally commanded his core to shift him back to human, and surprisingly, it did. “Are we gonna start by scribbling up some designs and then comparing them, or are we all doing our own takes?”

“Tucker can put together some designs,” Sam decided, ignoring any signs of protest they might scour up. “Danny and I are gonna compare those ghost guides.”

Ugh, reading.

“Don’t give me that, Fenton,” Sam bit at him, and, hm. He was definitely gonna work on having thoughts to himself. “It’s your parents’ work, and your parents’ Portal that caused this.”

“Which you convinced us to mess with,” Tucker pointed out, smugly. “But, yeah, sure, I’ll whip up some neat costumes based on the jumpsuits. We want them just different enough that people won’t immediately think of the Fentons, right? What about logos?”

Sam and Danny shared a look.

“No logo, got it,” Tucker decided based on that, and possibly the disgust they were flooding their telepathic link with. “I’ll get on it. Have fun with reading.”

“I won’t,” Danny assured him, waving the stack of papers at Sam. “I’m gonna do this entire thing via the link just to make you suffer along, Tuck.”

“We’ve been talking via the link the whole time.” A flicker of annoyance from Tucker. “Seriously, we haven’t said a word to each other since we discover we could do this, I think. Certainly not since you’ve come here.”

Danny… had not realized that. Whoops.

“Keeping this a secret is gonna be hell,” Sam decided and, yeah. Yeah, it was gonna be.

She thumped him on the head with a book before he could say anything about it. “Read,” she commanded, and Danny wasn’t stupid enough to keep fighting her on this.

The two of them laid down on the floor, the stack on simplified ghost research in front of him, and the book in front of Sam. A clipboard with a pen laid in between them, with a rough list of things to look out for written down already.

“So are we going down the list, or are we reading through these things and noting down anything relevant?”

Sam paused for a moment. “Yes.”

“That was very enlightening, thank you.”

“Just read through the list, then a chapter of your thing,” Tucker interrupted. “Rinse and repeat.”

“Sounds like a plan. Thanks for your support, Tuck.”

A pleased rumble. “Always, dude.”

“Can we please just read?” Sam grumbled into the link.

Danny reached for the clipboard so he could read through the list. Hm. Just more of the same. Powers, workings of both the anatomical and psychological kind. Strengths and weaknesses.

He reached for the stapled stack of paper, flipping the first page. “Well, here I go. Someone bury me if I die.”

“Too late.”

“Touche.”

They spent the next eternity reading. Or designing suits, in Tucker’s case.

“So we’ve got basically nothing,” Sam concluded, looking at the clipboard. They had divided it up in two sections per point: the scientific Fenton take, and the spiritual goth take. For almost all points, they were completely different.

“Yeah. The few things we know about ourselves directly defy the things the books say.” Danny shrugged. “Besides, we’re hybrids, aren’t we? We probably don’t follow the known stuff anyway.”

“We’ll just have to figure it out ourselves,” Tucker said, a wave of comforting warm coming from him. “It’ll be fine. We’ll manage.”

A brief moment of silence as they all contemplated that.

“Anyway, I’ve put together some potential designs for our suits. Who wants to see?”

“If by see you mean ‘tear into them’ then yes,” Sam decided, already pushing herself off of the floor to go look.

Ah. There was the much needed normalcy.

---

Danny stared at his dad as the man walked to one end of the Portal, then turned around and walked to its other side. Left, right, left, right.

“He’s not even remotely talking about ghosts,” Tucker complained.

“Have you ever met my dad?” Danny asked with a mental eye roll. “He always talks about whatever you’re least interested in hearing about.”

His core stirred up, suddenly, a feeling of anxiety pouring from every side of the link.

“Uh,” was all Sam managed, then the Portal’s surface burst apart. Two ghosts entered the lab through it, violently green octopuses with bright red eyes.

Jack didn’t even turn around. Didn’t seem to notice in the slightest.

“Now what?” Tucker asked, doubtful. “Are we supposed to keep ghosts and humans separate, or…”

The ghostly octopuses flung their ragged tentacles at Sam and Tucker. Both half-ghosts dodged, falling off of their chairs.

“I suggest that we fight these, at least.” Danny shot a look at his dad, but the man had wandered off, and was now talking into a cabinet. “And quick, before Dad notices.”

He tugged on his core, shifting into his ghost form with practiced ease. On the floor, Sam and Tucker did the same.

The ghosts paused. Shared a hesitant look, now that they were faced with three matching ghosts, rather than an assortment of humans.

Sam’s electric blue eyes brightened as she grinned at them. The color returned in the swirling lines of her suit, creeping over her like vines.

Danny lifted up next to her, cracking his fingers. Flared his own green eyes dangerously. He finally knew the exact color of it, having replicated it in the minimalistic linework of his suit.

Tucker took up the last slot in the line, the golden yellow of his eyes reflected in the circuit-like lines of his suit.

“Boo,” they all said, perfectly in sync.

The ghosts warbled and dove back through the Portal.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Sam scoffed. Her side of the link conveyed a mixture of disappointment and challenge. “I’m almost disappointed.”

“Look at it from the positive side,” Danny comforted. “Now you’ve got even more time to teach us how to fight as a human before we gotta put it in practice.”

“Nah, man, I’m going crazy if I go through another round of training without actually hitting anyone.” Tucker settled back onto the floor, soundlessly, and shifted back to human.

Danny and Sam followed suit. “Here’s a solution for all of us,” Sam said as they did so. “We can just fight each other.”

“Hooray,” Danny and Tucker both cheered. Sam’s glare was heated, stabbing them right in the link. The flares of vivid cyan didn’t help.

---

“I can’t believe this,” Sam hissed over the link. Agitation, and a lot of it.

“Sam, we still can’t see what you’re looking at,” Danny reported, spacing out of his breakfast. “What’s up?”

“The newspaper finally acknowledged our existence!”

“Uh oh,” Tucker said, groggily. “That’s not excitement.”

“They’re calling us menaces! And dangers to society!” She practically flooded their link with anger.

Danny, in return, shot her some comforting warmth. “It’s fine, Sam. Whatever. When have you ever cared about what people thought of you?”

“But after all the work we’ve put into it!” She was practically shouting, now. Danny was certain that her eyes were, by now, so bright that her entire room was cast in blue light. “They can’t just— ignore every good thing we’ve done!”

“Sure can,” Tucker pointed out. “Look, Sam, chill. People know who—and what—we are. What we do.”

She grumbled wordlessly.

“We’re the protectors of Amity Park, Sam,” Danny soothed. “We are the people who keep this city safe, both the humans and the ghosts. We don’t need the newspaper to know that we’re doing a good job.”

“Ugh. How can you be so optimistic about this with your parents being,” a vague mental gesture, “y’know?”

“Oh, trust me, I know.” He looked up to where his parents were tinkering with some kind of invention. At the kitchen table, no less. He would have to sic Jazz on them again. “It’s just… the right thing to do, you know? Even if we’re the ones with these abilities because we were the only ones stupid enough to mess with the Portal, we can still do something.”

“We’re the protectors of Amity Park,” Tucker agreed. “Whether the people of Amity appreciate it or not.”

“How are you all so sappy this early in the morning?” She scoffed. “I am not awake enough to deal with this. Yeah, sure, fine, whatever. We’re all the great heroes of Amity Park, and the Ghost Zone and whatnot. Forget I ever complained.”

“Sure,” Danny said, throwing sparks of joy into the link. “So, I think my parents are working on some kind of ghost translation device…”

Both of his best friends groaned across the link, and Danny smiled into his breakfast. It had only been a little over a month, but he couldn’t imagine life as a regular human anymore. His core chirped happily in his chest, and his best friends chattered in his head, unheeded by distance.

Life was good.

#phic phight #phic phight 2020 #phic phight 20 #danny phantom #dp fanfic #phanfic #fanfic #dp fanfiction #phanfiction #danny fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #dark writes

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valentino-red · 5 years ago

Text

sinnerman

Chapter 2

take me to the hamptons, bugatti veyron

Ralph looked over at the backseat, where Nicky was looking at Soledad like she was a mountain he needed to move. It wasn’t a pretty sight, and the kid seemed to know that she was in a pickle. It wouldn’t do to have a government agent so close to Nicky; Ralph knew this, which is why he had brought out the gun he hid in the Royce.

Little Miss Diaz-- Captain Diaz, who would have thought-- sighed; and suddenly, Ralph could see it. There were the tear-troughs, the eye bags, the stress lines; Soledad suddenly looked older than him.

“I have to admit,” she began, “that I have worked as an… intelligence officer after I was promoted to captain.”

“You mean a spy.”

Nicky’s voice cut through the tension and he was suddenly the head of the Valentino Family, not the love stricken puppy of ten minutes ago. This was the Nicky that Ralph dealt with everyday, and it was the Nicky that he saw the most of right until last night. But now that Ralph knew how his boss could be (a little bit soft, yeah, but so much happier) he sort of wished that he never saw Nicky Valentino, mafia boss extraordinaire, ever again.

“Not exactly,” Soledad said, “but that’s close enough. I would go to the indigenous tribes and make deals with them on behalf of the government, try to make sure that they wouldn’t side with the communists in the region, or ask if they knew the whereabouts of the New People’s Army. So it wasn’t really spying, it was… negotiating. Investigation, if you will. Intelligence gathering.”

The kid was eerily calm, with no trace of emotion on her face or voice. Ralph supposed that maybe this was the Soledad that existed before Nicky.

Her gaze flickered to the gun as Ralph’s side. Her eyes didn’t widen, and she didn’t panic. No; she seemed to relax at the sight of it.

“Threats and guns,” she sighed. “Brings me back to my glory days.”

Nicky shared a look with Ralph that said ‘she’s crazier than I thought.’

“Marone,” he muttered. “Look, Sol. I don’t wanna hurt ya, ‘cos I know that I’d regret it. So give your story to me straight.”

“Fair enough,” she said, settling into the plush leather seats. Sol was the most relaxed of the trio even with her hands cuffed behind her back. Ralph had to respect how composed she was, seeing to the fact that she was unarmed with two men that she barely knew, and was in possession of firearms.

“I guess I should start from the top. My grandfather was a general, so when I was a child I wanted to be just like him. This, of course, led me to the army; except I was twenty-one with an inferiority complex, so I decided to join the Marines.”

Nicky watched her smile, as though she was recalling fond memories.

“We were the elite; the best, the brightest, the few. I saw the frontline three times in my career, where the army had skirmishes with rebel groups. These are the NPA, the New People’s Army-- communists that tell poor farmers and idealistic college kids that the system is corrupt and the only way out is a makeover. All good and well, except their leader isn’t even living in the Philippines, and their higher-ups are just as corrupt as government officials. So they’re a bunch of rapists and thugs that profit from their hypocrisy.”

Ralph glanced at Nicky, who had his complete focus on Soledad. The Rolls Royce had been at a standstill for five minutes now.

“Then,” Sol said, “the rebels attacked a city in the south of the country, Marawi. I served there, got promoted to captain. My grandfather died shortly after, and that’s when I was offered a slot in the intelligence division. I agreed, got new assignments. Usually, the army uses ‘retired’ officers to gather data and intelligence. Like James Bond-- he was a commander.”

“James who?”

“Oh,” Soledad said. “He’s, uh, a fictional character. Hasn’t been created yet.”

Nicky gave a slow nod; it was surprisingly easy to believe everything that Sol told him, so easy that it felt almost like cheating. But everything she told him was too bizarre to be anything but true.

And he knew what she looked like when she told the truth; people lie in many ways, but tell the truth in one. Nicky noticed that she spoke slowly when she was talking about herself, as if she wanted to be clear and concise-- as if she didn’t want to be misunderstood.

‘I’ve got a wide skill set.’

Well, Nicky thought to himself. I guess I know what her skill set is now.

And to wrap his head around the fact that she had seen war-- it felt like having a secret that they both shared, a sudden kinship. Because Nicky himself had been at war, and had led it, had scars from it.

He didn’t know if this was what drew him to her-- but then, there were many things about Soledad that he adored. Nicky loved the way she made him laugh; he loved how her hair curled under her chin; he loved how she said the plain truth, how she didn’t mince her words. Nicky didn’t know everything about her, but he could spend his lifetime doing that.

So did he mind that she didn’t tell him about her past? No, not at all. There were things that he did that he didn’t tell her yet, and somehow, Nicky knew that Sol would understand his silence on a few spots in his life.

“Hey, toots,” Nicky said. “Ya need a pin? ‘Cause those handcuffs don’t look like they’re gonna unlock themselves.”

“Oh,” she looked surprised. “I forgot about that.”

Nicky snorted, “how could you forget being handcuffed?”

“I don’t know, maybe I was worried about the fact that a certain someone was maybe mad at me?”

Nicky got a pin that he had in his jacket, and Sol turned her back to him. He was touched at how ready she was to trust him with unlocking her handcuffs, even after his open hostility.

“I already told ya, sweet thing.” There was a metallic pop, and the handcuffs were out. “There’s no need to worry. I got you.”

She turned to face him, and the afternoon sunlight that came in through the car’s window somehow made her look more golden, made her brown skin look deeper. For the first time since he met her, Sol looked like she didn’t know what to say. Nicky placed his hand on top of her’s, both sticky from sweat; suddenly, he couldn’t see anything but her dark eyes and the curl of her hair. All at once, he realised that she had been what he was waiting for, body and soul.

“Looks like we need ‘ta get outta here,” he said, voice lower than he intended. “What do you say, toots? Wanna go to my place at the Hamptons?”

***

If Sol was going to ask if she could drive the car one more time, Ralph would explode. He had a little vein in his forehead that didn’t exist until last night. It was crazy, how bullheaded someone could be; crazier still that Nicky was looking at her like she hung the stars and the moon.

It was dark already outside, and the air was getting colder, whipping at cheeks and turning exhales into wisps of smoke. Outside the world of the Rolls Royce trees were shedding their leaves into dark green heaps that could barely be seen in the lack of light. Inside the Rolls Royce, at the backseat, Nicky had his arm over Sol, and she was resting her head on his chest.

Ralph rolled up to the driveway, noticing, somewhat smugly, that Sol barely batted an eyelash at Nicky’s mansion. He had been waiting for some girl that wasn’t impressed with Nicky’s spending habits.

Said man nudged Sol at the ribs, smiling. “Do I know how to spend money, or what?”

Said girl chuckled. “I’d go for the ‘or what’, but I don’t wanna hurt your feelings.”

Nicky put a hand on his chest, acting as if someone stabbed him. “Too late,” he rasped, collapsing into her. “I may never recover.”

Sol pecked his cheek. “There,” she smiled widely. “A kiss to make it better.”

Ralph gagged, parking at the entrance as quickly as possible.

“Get out,” he said. “I got a date with a pair of dancers tonight, and I don’t wanna have to explain why I got a toothache.”

Nicky raised an eyebrow, but Soledad slid out of the car laughing. Ralph wanted to snort-- at least someone knew how to take a joke. Nicky could be a bit sore sometimes.

“Have fun, Ralph,” Sol said. “Don’t stay out too late, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“That’s not much,” Ralph rolled his eyes, walking to his car and leaving the two love birds behind. Nicky gave a small wave, his eyes warm and smiling. Sometimes the man showed his affection in small ways.

Sol paused to look at the house, with its cream colored bricks and French design. Somehow, it reminded her of her family, and a way of life that was lost to her. Homesickness settled at the bottom of her gut; that’s how she knew it was shit.

“Honey,” she said, “it ain’t that bad, but I gotta tell you. It's pretty obvious that a young man with new money owns this place. But not to worry, when the ivy grows it will look distinguished. Ivy gives everything an air of gravitas.”

Nicky peered down at her. “And how exactly are you an expert on gravitas, toots?”

“Well, I’m with you aren’t I?” Sol said it like it wasn’t flirting, but a fact. “Besides, my family is so old money that we have no money. I saw it, but it never reached me.”

“Well, honey,” he grinned, “you can reach for all the money you want. My treat.”

She punched his arm playfully, and Nicky winced at the force of it. Sol was an army captain alright.

“Hey,” he said. “I’ve got a swell place that’s perfect for stargazing. You can see entire galaxies up there. Wanna check it out?”

Sol shook her head, and Nicky tried his best to not feel disappointed.

“It’s a cold night,” she replied, “and I am physically, psychologically, socially, culturally, genetically and spiritually unable to stand the cold. I’m from the Philippines, and that’s at the middle of the equator.”

Nicky chuckled. “Well, I have some mink that I could lend you for New York in the winter.”

Soledad groaned. “Just throw me to the sun, please. I hate winter.”

Nicky didn’t mean to grin at her despair, but he couldn’t help it. “Too bad, toots, ‘cause I love snow.”

“Hay, susmariosep,” she muttered to herself. Nicky blinked at her, and she sighed, stepping into the house-- she was cold already, standing in the evening air.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” she clarified. “But we Filipinos take revenge on our colonizers by bastardising their language, hence: susmariosep.”

Nicky led her into the mansion, and Sol was struck with how immaculate everything was. The marbled floors were shinier than a brand new Ferrari, the decor was a tasteful creme color, and the chandeliers gave a welcoming golden light to everyone under it, with Nicky’s brown eyes looking like a setting sun over still waters.

“Care for a quick drink?”

Soledad nodded, and her favorite mob boss led her to a study furnished with heavy mahogany shelves and plush velvet seats. She carefully mapped the layout of the house in her head, a habit of her’s that was born from paranoia and grew into a faint buzz at the back of her mind, like how some people ran their hands through shelves in the grocery.

Nicky mixed her an Old Fashioned as she sunk into an armchair, tucking her legs under her. It was difficult for her to be on her guard with Nicky for too long; there was something about him that made her feel at ease, like how one feels after a good massage.

Soledad nursed her drink in its perfect crystal tumbler as Nicky told her of his place, his position, before she stumbled into the Twenties. His eyes were a hard amber as he talked about being the head of one of New York’s Five Families, of being on the cover of every paper in town, of being young and dangerous and flaunting cash. Soledad could see it happening; she could see how the very same man that made her drink and called her cute pet names was also the kind of man that dipped more than his toe in bootlegging and crime. Maybe it was in how he carried himself, or the way he talked-- whatever it was, Sol knew power when she saw it, and Nicky Valentino oozed it.

“Look, Sol.” His brows were set and stern. “I got a lot of regrets about the things I done. There’s a lot of wrongs I can never right, and that’s why I got out. The big house never scared me more than the big sleep.”

His face softened a bit, as if he was sharing a fond memory. “But becoming a man; seeing the consequences of my actions…”

Nicky Valentino’s wandering eyes settled on Sol’s, and she could see forests of unexplored secrets in their depths.

“That’s why I left. Easier said than done, though.”

Sol watched his face get flustered, ears heating up, as she took a final sip of her drink, tilting it back.

“Trouble just seems to find you, huh?”

“I have myself to thank for that. But worst comes to worst, I still got my secret headquarters.”

Sol smiled, cradling the crystal glass in her hands. “You’ll have to show me, someday. Just in case.”

Nicky returned her smile. “Of course,” he said, almost whispering. “I got one last place to show you, if you’d let me.”

Their footsteps were quick in the quiet night, as if they were teenagers slipping from shadow to shadow, scared of being found out. Nicky held her hand like it was glass, idly taking note of how light it was, and where her hands were calloused and where it was smooth.

The night breeze was fierce, blowing white curtains into the house like spectres, half-alive and half in love, reaching for something. Soledad walked beside him, and under the moon she looked like she was dreaming, in another place that didn’t exist. He brought her to a swimming pool, smiling under the stars.

“I’m going to dip my feet in for a hot second,” he said. Soledad followed him, and they sat at the edge of the pool’s deep end together.

“Trust me, Nicky,” she muttered. “Every second with you is a hot second.”

“Yeah,” he blushed. “But you’re cold aren’t ya? Here, take my coat.”

He took his black coat off, wrapping it around her; Sol was grateful for the sudden warmth that it gave her. She breathed in deeply; it smelled like smoke and cognac.

They spent a few minutes in silence. Sol knew that there wasn’t a need to say anything. It had been a long day, and she was grateful for quiet moments like these. The oceans in her stomach settled when Nicky held her this way, when they both looked at the deep blue pool together.

“My ma used to tell me, ‘Your soulmate is somewhere out there looking at that same moon.”

Sol smiled. “Oh? And did you listen to her?”

“I was more concerned about finding out how I could sneak into the Polo Grounds and catch a ball game.”

They shared a smile.

“But now,” Sol said, “you’re a romantic.”

“Yeah, now I am.” They were both quiet for a heartbeat. “What about you? Is you a romantic?”

Sol looked away from Nicky and the moon, her smile getting sadder. “I never let myself think about romance,” she said. “Like I said, you don’t get to be twenty-nine years old with no boyfriend, ever, without a bit of paranoia.”

“How about me?” Nicky’s gaze was heated, focused on her.

“What about you?”

“What happened? You met me and figured out the power of true love?”

Soledad snorted, rolling her eyes. “Not everyone goes out and buys jewelry for their future lovers, Don Juan.”

“When it comes to love, everyone’s got a chip and a chair,” he chuckled. “So long as you got a single chip and a seat at the table, you still got a shot.”

“You really are a romantic,” Sol huffed, grinning.

Nicky wrapped his arm around her; there was something behind her eyes that was still closed off to him, but he could see that she was keeping something close to her chest. He had seen that look before in the mirror, and he knew that whatever she was keeping close to her, she didn’t want to let go of yet. Nicky didn’t want to take it from her hands.

“It’s been a long day,” he said, not noticing how his voice dropped to a lower octave. “We should both hit the sack.”

Sol nodded, and the new goosebumps on her arm were not from the cold. “Where’s my room?”

“Take a hard left down the hall,” he replied. “You can’t miss it.”

***

Soledad had changed into an oversized polo shirt and baggy shorts that she had found in the dresser, and had already settled on a makeshift bed on the floor. There was something about fluffy mattresses that made her feel like she was drowning, so she took the heavy comforter from the bed and a pillow, fashioning a spot that vaguely resembled a sleeping bag.

There was a gentle knock on her door, and Nicky’s face peeped in. Surprise colored his face, and Sol smiled back sheepishly. She didn’t know why she felt embarrassed at being seen trying to sleep on the floor-- she did it many times back home, never caring about other people’s perception of her. But the way that Nicky looked a little bit concerned had her face flushing.

It’s because it’s his house, she thought to herself.

“Force of habit,” she explained, sitting up from the floor. “I, uh, don’t really like soft beds.”

Nicky nodded, pretending as though he understood. “Army training, huh?”

“Army training.”

He hummed lightly, rolling on his heels. “Would you like a quick nightcap?”

Nicky showed her the two mugs he was holding.

“What’s that? Coffee?”

“Coffee? At this hour? Do I look like a barbarian to you?”

“Sorry if I have a caffeine addiction,” Sol muttered. “It takes three cups to wake me up. Besides, coffee can be had any time.”

“Not if you’re Italian.” Nicky looked mildly embarrassed. “No coffee after breakfast. That’s how it’s done in the old country. So what will you have? Tea or hot chocolate?”

“The hot chocolate, please. I may be a coffee addict, but my true love is hot chocolate. I should really make you a cup some time. My recipe predates the Americans.”

Nicky smiled at her rambling as he walked over to her and gave her the cup. “Something sweet for my something sweet,” he said.

Soledad took a sip. “It’s good, but trust me when I say that mine is better.”

“Oh? And what’s it like?”

“Thicker.” Soledad blushed, hoping that he didn’t notice the double entendre. “Less sweet, more bitter. But the cacao from Davao? The best, the absolute best, I tell you.”

“My ma used to make hot coco, too.” Nicky sat on top of the bed, which was stripped of its blankets. “And I remember that she did make it thick. But my pa didn’t like it, because apparently anything that brings any kind of joy didn’t make you a man in his eyes. The irony, coming from a man whose soul was crushed by the factory.”

Nicky’s eyes were still tender, and Sol was jealous that he was able to talk about his father that easily.

“Well,” Nicky said, standing up. “We best get to bed already. It’s going to be busy tomorrow.”

Sol remembered some things that Ralph had mentioned on the trip to the Hamptons. “Long day at your lawyers’ office?”

Nicky shrugged. “Can’t always be getaway cars and police men on your tail.”

They shared a look with each other before Nicky headed to the door. He opened it, and Sol memorised the way he looked like, before pausing. Nicky held her gaze one more time.

“I’ve chased it before; that danger. You can get hurt. Go after it long enough and you will get hurt.”

“I know,” Soledad said. She said it so quietly, she wasn’t sure if Nicky heard her.

“I just wanna be honest with you, as someone who’s been there, done that. I just don’t want to put you in harm’s way.”

Soledad sighed, sitting up straighter. She wondered what he thought of her, sitting on the floor wearing what might be his shirt.

“I’m here for you,” she told him, and it was as simple as that. “I’m not here looking for a thrill, or for money. I’ve had enough of that in my old life, and I’m used to it and the demons that come along with it. So I’m here for you, Nicky, and I’m ready to stay with you.”

“You’re one of a kind, you know that?”

They smiled at each other, and Sol forgot how to breathe.

“Takes one to know one.”

Nicky turned off the light, closing the door behind him as gently as he could.

***

That night, Soledad dreamt of the midday sun on the top of her head. There were gunshots, but she couldn’t hear them. She only knew how they felt, because with every beat of her heart a new one was fired. There was a familiar weight in her hand, and her trigger finger squeezed. Bullets flew and people died like leaves falling from acacia trees.

***

She woke up to orange stains in the sky. The sun greeted her, as though they were lifelong friends. Her hands folded blankets and fluffed pillows with no thinking on her part. This was routine, and Soledad knew the rhythm of it. The only thing that was missing, she thought to herself, were small lizards and the occasional cockroach. Sol smiled; she didn’t miss those things.

She changed back into her yellow dress, for propriety’s sake, before setting off to the direction that she deduced the kitchen was. As luck would have had it, she was right, and before she set foot in the place she could already smell breakfast.

“Good morning,” she said softly. “Can I help you in any way?”

A stout woman with wild curly hair came up to her, wiping uncooked batter on her white apron. “And who might you be, missy?”

“Soledad Diaz, ma’am.”

The older woman shook her head, muttering something about a new hire, before ordering her to chop onions. Soledad smiled, not wanting to correct the chef, and got to work.

There was something about holding a knife that she enjoyed, and she did her part in making breakfast. There were four of them working; the stout woman, a younger black man, an old hispanic lady that spoke in broken English, and Soledad. She had traded a few words with the woman (“de donde eres?” Sol asked. “Cuba,” the old lady replied, smiling through the steam that rose from a nearby pot. “Cuba.”).

Bridget, Joshua, and Mamita. Soledad enjoyed working alongside them, but soon excused herself, saying that she needed to go to the bathroom. Bridget had let her go with a wave of her hand, not taking her eyes off the sausages that she was frying.

Sol went back to her room, humming a song from her youth. She idly wondered if Mamita knew any Spanish songs that she knew, and suddenly Sol missed the guitar that she left back home in the Philippines.

Her thoughts came to a stop as she spotted a familiar face holding a basket full of petals, back facing her.

“Nicky?”

He turned to look at her, blushing harder than he ever had since she met him. It was adorable, and she laughed, only a little bit sorry that it was at his expense. He scratched the back of his head, and Sol idly looked him up and down. He was only wearing dark blue slacks and a white button down, but he looked good. Better, even.

“I didn’t know you were already up, toots. Army training?”

Soledad nodded. “Army training. Anyway, what are you doing? That’s going to be a pain to clean up.”

Nicky crossed his arms, and she could see his muscles underneath. “I wanted to surprise you when you woke up, but I guess you’re the one that surprised me. Breakfast’ll be in an hour yet, so maybe we can move to the veranda? It’s got a view of the pool.”

“Trust me,” she smiled. “I know that breakfast is coming in an hour.”

...

A/N: no beta we die like men. literally just finished this five minutes ago. i have no idea where this story is going, so i’m just sprinkling seeds for future angst that may or may not sprout. uh, in this chapter i tried to go for a more prose-y style, and i wanted to sort of start a bit the nationalistic streaks of sol here, since i figured that she’d have to be somewhat in love with her country, since she was a soldier.

i’m a little concerned that the romance part between sol and nicky is fast, but since it’s fast in canon, i suppose it’s alright for now. especially since they both have skeletons in their closet, that again, may or may not pop up later.

if yall have any suggestions, or anything that u wanna see, please tell me!!! do yall want scenes that are mainly canon compliant, or divergent? should i include more of the canon dialogue? i love feedback, mainly because i don’t have a lot of people to brainstorm with, so pls dont hesitate to drop me a dm!!!

Prologue | Chapter One

#nicky valentino #nicky valentino x oc #nicky valentino/oc #nix hydra #fanfiction #nicky valentino fanfiction #tatw #two against the world #hay salamat thank the lord this is done #for now

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