#until you realize danny is not going to work for nasa

[spiderbeam]

and okay feel free to ignore this one because ive sent a bunch already buttt 🎧+max+7

🎧 — bugambilia by nasa histoires

Max is nervous. He hadn’t realized it until the bell dinged with his entrance, until you spoke your usual greeting, until your eyes met his and a smile spread over your lips. He’s a three time world champion, an icon of the world of motorsport, a celebrity—and yet he finds himself growing jittery at the sight of you.

Of course you’d be the type to fall for the one person in Europe who doesn’t know your name, Danny had teased.

He’d denied it. He didn’t have feelings for you. He had simply developed a fondness for flowers—and he just happened to like yours most.

“Didn’t think I’d be seeing you this soon.” You dust your hands on your overalls as you stand up to greet him. You look pretty in overalls, he finds. Prettier even with your hair held up by a bow—alongside that lovely smile that always makes his heart skip a beat in his chest. “Thought you said you were leaving the country for work.”

Max realizes then he’s stayed quiet for too long. “Um, yeah,” he starts awkwardly, hands tucked in his pockets before he takes them out soon after. What do people usually do with their hands? “I did. It was just for the weekend, though.”

“Did you have fun?” you ask, before meeting his gaze with a playful roll of your eyes. “I know, work is work, but…”

“It was fine,” Max clicks his tongue, hoping he doesn’t sound too dismissive. “Not great.”

“Sorry to hear that.” You purse your lips, thinking for a moment. “Maybe you can rant a little while I trim these?” You gesture at the newly arrived flowers.

Max chuckles a little. He’s done plenty of ranting. Mostly in front of a camera. “Actually, I was hoping to get to hear you talk about your flowers—maybe give me a hand?”

You straighten as you stand up, nodding. “What’s today’s purchase gonna be?”

“Another gift,” he says, even though he’s ran out of friends to gift bouquets to. Twice is two times too many before they start looking at him weird.

You nod your head, ponytail bobbing. “Alright.” You clasp your hands together, smiling up at him. “Wanna look around for something that catches your eye, or are you in search for anything in particular?”

Max tilts his head at you. “Which are your favorites this week?” He asked you the same question last time, and the time before that. But, as you told him before, you can’t make up your mind—not permanently, anyway. Each time he comes around, you have a different answer prepared for him.

This time, you’re grinning. “C’mon, I’ll show you.” And then your hand is in his as you steer him towards the very back of the shop—and Max can feel his breath stuttering. He blinks in rapid succession, hoping to get himself to snap out of it. Jesus Christ, you’re just holding her hand. Pull yourself together.

Finally, you stop beside a shelf with purple and fuchsia flowers with papery petals and tiny light yellow blossoms inside them. Max feels as you let go of him, prompting him to step closer to the flowers. He leans forward, hoping to catch some floral scent like the lilies and jasmines you gave him a few weeks back. He doesn’t smell anything.

“They don’t have a scent,” you tell him. “It’s bugambilia. Bougainvillea. It’s not usually used for bouquets, though, so people rarely buy any. Except for this one woman, Marisol—she says it reminds her of home. But she only takes a few branches, doesn’t really want them as a bouquet.” You’re smiling when he turns back to you. “They don’t grow around here—not naturally, anyway. It’s why I like them.”

“Bougainvillea,” Max repeats, committing the syllables to memory. “So you’ve never had to sell a bouquet of these?”

“Not yet.” You shrug. “It’s under appreciated, in my opinion. I mean—most people just buy roses. Maybe sunflowers.”

He remembers you ranting about that last week. How impersonal is it to give red roses to someone on a date? It’s like giving a gift card. No sentiment whatsoever.

And Max, surprisingly enough, agreed. He believes in personal gestures. Gifts that proof you’ve been listening, that you’ve been paying attention. And as he side-glances at you, he can see your stare still lingering on the purple and pink flowers. He doesn’t need to think it over before he’s saying: “I’ll take it.”

You nod in approval, reaching up to take a few flowers. “I knew you would,” you say proudly, nudging his shoulder playfully. “You’ve got good taste, Max.”

Max chuckles. “Not really,” he says, shaking his head. “I just happen to know someone who does.” He’s looking at you as he says it, scratching his cheek, but he can see your lovely smile falter slightly. His brows pinch together.

You haul your selected bougainvillea onto the counter, with Max trailing close behind. “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who buys as many flowers as you do—not that I’m complaining.” You try to sneak a glance at him as you’re tying off his bouquet. Max relishes in the heat that crawls up your cheeks when he catches you.

This is his chance, he realizes. But then he’s running circles again because what if you think he’s creepy? That he’s been buying flowers from you in hopes of finally building up the courage to ask you out? It’s not only creepy, it’s pathetic. It’s been nearly a month since he first met you. It’s taken him a whole month to get to this. Stupid. And since when does he get nervous like this around girls? He’s Max Verstappen.

But you’re you.

“You okay?” you ask, peering at him. “You’ve been a little quiet today.”

“Yeah, sorry. Um, I just—” He means to ask you, he really does, but this one tiny detail doesn’t escape his attention as you leave the flowers on the counter, wrapped in pretty ribbons, ready for him to take home. He stares at you, dumbfounded. “I—I haven’t paid yet.”

Your expression sends butterflies fluttering around his stomach. “Consider it a gift. For keeping me company on a slow day.”

But Max is already pulling out his wallet out of his back pocket. “No, no, I can pay.”

“Max,” you say, voice caught somewhere between soft and stern. “It’s a gift. You don’t pay for gifts.”

He scratches his cheek again, a quirk of his you’ve come to find endearing. “Doesn’t this get taken out of your paycheck?”

You shrug nonchalantly. “No one buys bougainvillea. One of my coworkers would’ve probably ended up throwing them away.”

You’re dodging his question, and Max doesn’t know how to tell you that he can afford it without making it seem like he doesn’t appreciate the gesture.

You seem to decide for him when you grab the bouquet and hand it to him. Your fingertips graze his knuckles, shooting sparks beneath his skin. He should ask you now. You’re smiling like you don’t even know the effect you have on him.

“Your—”

“Would you—” Max clears his throat, pink on his cheeks. “Sorry. What were you saying?”

You smile again, but it doesn’t reach your eyes. You laugh lightly, but it doesn’t sound as genuine. “Nothing—just that your girlfriend’s really lucky. I’d kill to have someone buy me as many flowers every week.”

“My—what?” Max blinks once. Twice. Three times before the words finally dislodge from his throat. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Oh, your boyfriend?” you amend, playing with your fingers.

“I’m not seeing anyone,” Max says bluntly. He’s still cradling his bougainvilleas as he watches realization wash over your face.

“Oh.” Heat is climbing up your cheeks, and for the first time all afternoon, you’re the one stumbling over your words. “O-Oh. I just thought that—I mean, since you’ve been coming around so much, and you’re like, handsome, and sweet, so I just assumed—”

“Do you wanna go out some time?” Max interrupts, ears tinted red. There’s a pretty blush spreading his face. A giddy nervousness building up in his gut. “With me, I mean. Do you want to go out with me?”

Your lips curl upward, heat radiating from your face. Max feels flowers growing in his chest. Hydrangeas, carnations, tulips, wisteria. Purple bougainvillea flowers.

“Yeah. I’d like that.”

eve’s 1k celebration 🎧

this one was very loosely based on the song more on the vibes than the actual lyrics so i might revisit this song and make another more angstier drabble in the future….. for now i just recommend giving the song a listen <3 also i’m not used to writing for max AT ALL so hopefully it didn’t feel too ooc

[wolfjackle-creates]

Hi!! I haven't been on Tumblr for a while but I used to read a fic you made out of a prompt (?) Someone else made about Danny who freaked out when he realized the Waynes are the Bats and accidentally shot Bruce(?) And if I'm not mistaken you made a part 2 of it (idr remember if it was a wip or finished) but do you have a masterlist so I can re-read it :D? So sorry if I sound weird (´⌒｀;)

It is absolutely never weird to ask an author about their works!!!! Thanks so much for sending this in.

It's been ages since I've worked on this one, but it's definitely on my short list to get back to. Especially since I'm pretty close to having it finished?

Here's chapter 1 on AO3. And the Subscription Post.

Chapter 2 is limited to Tumblr right now, only two parts currently. Part 1 can be found here.

Currently it's called Want to Hold on and Feel I Belong. However, when I do start updating on AO3 again, I plan to change the name. (I'm just waiting so people who have subscribed are more likely to remember what they're getting an email about.) Mostly I refer to it as my Bad Reveal AU. Though I get that's not a great working name as that's usually reserved for the Fenton parents reacting badly rather than Danny reacting badly.

Also, as a thanks for reminding me that it's been a while since I've posted anything about this fic (or, well, in general), have the next bit!

Here's a random 1.5k.

Previous

-----

Having a potential lead so close meant the hours until J’onn’s arrival were spent in prep mode.

Every uniform had to be checked for the slightest damage and upgrades done where possible. Supplies and go-bags were organized so they could leave the moment they had a lead. Fuel levels in every vehicle were checked and topped off where necessary.

And finally, the zeta tube activated and J’onn stepped out. “Good day to all of you. I heard my assistance was needed?”

Bruce went to greet him. “J’onn. Danny’s room is upstairs. Did Clark explain the situation?”

“Yes. He said that your newest ward has density shifting powers and left things behind in his walls and floor before running away a few days ago.”

Bruce nodded sharply. “Follow me. Clark will show you where the items are hidden so you can retrieve them.”

Dick happily zipped up what felt like the hundredth bag he’d had to pack and joined them. “Hey, J’onn. Welcome. How have you been?”

“Greetings, Dick. It has been a long time since our last meeting. I have been well. I want to wish you luck in finding your brother swiftly and easily.”

Dick nodded his thanks. “Same. We’re really hoping he left behind something to help because we haven’t had much luck so far.” Dick pulled out his phone and notified the family of J’onn’s arrival and requested they meet in Danny’s room.

On the way, Bruce and Dick filled J’onn in on the situation. At the implication of government experimentation, he face went hard and he vowed he would help them however he could.

Clark, Jason, and Alfred were already there when the group arrived and the rest weren’t far behind. With everyone present, the room felt crowded.

“Where should I start?” J’onn asked Clark.

“Behind the NASA poster. I think that’s where he keeps the weapons. One of them is an object that looks like it might be the same as, or at least similar to, the weapon that shot Bruce.”

Under Clark’s direction, J’onn removed not just two more energy guns, but also a glowing-green net, a boomerang, a tube of lipstick, what looked like a weird, high-tech thermos, and a wooden baseball bat with a sticker that said “Fenton” on it.

Dick couldn’t help but whistle at the pile. “Damn, he was packing all this?”

“Apparently,” said Damian. But Dick could tell his youngest brother was impressed and mentally reassessing his beliefs of Danny. “Perhaps he is not as helpless as I previously believed.”

“Why’s he got lipstick?” asked Steph as she picked up the tube.

“Don’t!” ordered Bruce even as she opened it and released a laser beam that left a small scorch mark on the ceiling.

She stared in shock before laughing. “Oh, damn! When he comes back, I’m so asking if he could get me one of these. That’s so cool!”

“Can I see that?” asked Barbara.

“Wait until we’re in the cave,” said Bruce with a sigh. Both women grinned at him.

Dick reached down and grabbed the net. Despite the color, it seemed normal enough, maybe a little smoother than most rope he’d handled. He pulled out a pocket knife and was able to slice through one of the ropes easily enough. Jason came over to look at it with him.

“Anything weird about it?” he asked as he reached out to touch it. “Huh, that’s odd.”

“What’s odd about it? Seems pretty normal to me.”

“It just… It feels weird. It almost hurts to touch.” When Dick looked at him sharply, Jason quickly added, “It doesn’t hurt, but it feels like it should. If that makes sense.”

“Feels normal to me.” Dick showed him the break he’d made.

Jason shrugged. “Dunno, then. I just get a weird feeling from it.”

Damian picked up the energy gun, Tim the thermos, and Duke the boomerang when Alfred cleared his throat.

“Before we get distracted, might I remind you that there is more to find? We can bring everything down to the cave to examine them with no more damage to Master Danny’s room.”

Everyone sheepishly put down the things they were holding. Dick bit back a laugh when he noticed Clark push the baseball bat away from himself with his foot.

“So, J’onn,” Clark said. “I think the next area of interest is behind this poster.” He gestured at a poster of the horsehead nebula. Dick had helped Danny find it and hang it up and the kid had talked about nebulae for over an hour as they did. The memory caused his eyes to burn.

From this stash, J’onn pulled some notebooks and two external hard drives, which Barbara took. Dick and Bruce both grabbed a notebook. Dick opened his to the first page.

Journaling is such a stupid idea. I don’t have any time for it but Jazz says I need to get my feelings out. Pointless. So what if I can’t sleep and Skulker attacked me again today during English getting me another detention. Its not my fault! Shit, haven’t done that essay for Lancer. If I miss any more assignments he’s gonna fail me for real.

Everyone knew Danny had been failing before he’d been brought to them, but he’d refused to discuss why. Once he was in school in Gotham, he’d gotten straight A’s. Even if he did ask for the occasional help in English from Jason.

But this raised so many questions. Who was Skulker and why were they attacking Dick’s little brother during English class. He flipped through the pages. Interspersed between journal entries were drawings of schematics. Dick thought he recognized some of the designs as the weapons they’d uncovered.

His eyes caught on an entry that started with a string of curses.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. My parents saw Dani today. In ghost form. They actually managed to hit her. Only her second visit and I couldn’t keep her safe. Some big brother dad cousin whatever I am. I did get her to the Far Frozen. Frostbite fixed her up. Taught me what to do if it happens again, too. And gave me the medicines and supplies to do it. I’m so glad I have friends in the Zone now. It makes it so much easier. I can’t get the image of Dani’s blood staining my hands out of my mind. Going to Tuck’s tonight. I can’t be around my parents right now.

Stomach dropping, he flipped a few more pages until he found one with a photo. It was a grinning Danny with white hair and wearing a jumpsuit standing on a curved balcony. Behind him, spire buildings rose into the air, many rounded in a way not often found on Earth.

Clockwork took me to Mars today! Holy shit it is so cool. Just, everything. We went back to when they were thriving and I had to stop an invasion. But that’s not important. Everyone here can go intangible despite being alive. Some of their buildings don’t even have doors because they’d be pointless! And the plants and animals are all so different, too. Clockwork helped me find some books on Martian history and biology and evolution. He’s also gonna show me where the Martians exist in the Zone so I can learn their language. Maybe one day I can go to Krypton or Tamaran as well?

Dick stared back at the picture. It did have that distinctive feel of wrong that extraterrestrial landscapes always had. He swallowed. “Uh, J’onn?”

“Yes, Dick?”

“Um, Danny. This is his journal. He said he went to Mars. Before… Just, before. He’s got a picture. Is this real?” He handed the photo to J’onn who hesitated a moment before taking it.

J’onn froze as he stared at the simple image. “I… Yes. This is my home. How…?”

Dick shrugged and wished he had an answer for the last of the Martians. “Someone called Clockwork brought him there apparently. To stop some sort of invasion? He didn’t discuss that much. He was too interested in the planet and people to talk about what he did. He was hoping to visit Krypton and Tamaran, too. Also said something about Martians existing somewhere he called the Zone. He wanted to meet them to learn the language.”

The look on J’onn’s face at the mention of other Martians existing somewhere was heartbreaking. Maybe Dick shouldn’t have said anything? When Danny came home, would he maybe want to talk to J’onn about Mars?

With clear reluctance, J’onn handed the picture back. “This is your brother in the photo?”

“Yeah. I mean, Danny usually has black hair and blue eyes, but that’s him. Do you recognize him?”

J’onn nodded. “Of course. He is the Omen. His coming foretells death and destruction which he will then try to avert. I know what invasion he is speaking of, it is, was, taught in our history books. He saved all of Mars that day. We thought him a god.”

Dick’s mouth fell open. His little brother? A god?

-----

Did you enjoy your little surprise update tonight? Let me know what you think!

[runningmiller]

Time and Space

Summary:

Space may be haunted by many different things, things beyond what humans could know about. But some of them we do. In the history of human's experimenting with space travel, many thing have been left behind. Sometimes, they get a chance to come home.

A rover strolls along a gray, pocked surface. The whirring of mechanics lost to the vacuum of space.

Danny's face is lit by a table of controls and screens, none of which he has any experience with. But despite the many switches, lights, levers, buttons, and several different statistics being displayed, all constantly updating, he only needs the three most basic controls necessary for movement. He may also happen to have a space themed throw blanket draped over himself, but that’s between him and the moon.

Was he supposed to be messing around with a moon rover designed to see ghosts, after his parents got chatted up by conspiracy theorists that totally didn’t con their way into a legitimate NASA funded travelling educational tour for automated space exploration and manual space travel? No, but was he supposed to be a halfa, regularly sneak out with his friends, or be on good terms with even a small number of ghosts?

“This is so cool! I can’t believe they did this. They can make a rover and send it in space, why would they hunt ghosts?”

A howling, the sound so chilling in a way Danny can feel through his bones. He wonders if he’d feel it the same if he was really there, even with the absence of heat.

“What the?”

Maybe a meteor passed by? Still, a scan pops up, showing which way the sound came from.

Danny leans closer to the screen, looking for anything that might not be a rock or meteor. What if he discovers something? Would they name it after him?

Eventually, a small discolouration becomes visible, a familiar dull blue that Danny can’t believe he’s seeing.

“No way." It’s not actually a ghost, is it?

A ghost of what, an alien? Was he going to find an alien ghost, ghost alien, ghost of an alien, Alien That Is A Ghost—

As the rover approaches the figure, a head pops up cocked to the side, triangle ears perked.

It jumps up, lips pulled back growling, barking up a storm.

A dog. A dog with mostly blue fur, the face and spots visible on its body a shade darker, wearing a green vest.

Reflexively Danny tells it, “Whoa there boy, it’s okay, no one’s gonna hurt you.” It doesn’t occur or even matter in the moment that it can’t possibly hear him, the rover having no speakers.

Danny stops the rover, hoping that if he doesn’t move any closer the dog will realize it’s not a threat, and relax. A few minutes of barking later, the sound of sniffing, the dog investigating the intruder. Every few minutes, Danny carefully moves the rover until it seems to agitate the dog a bit too much, then lets it rest and get familiar with it, before doing the same thing over again.

As this carries on, Danny digs through his sleep deprived mind for why a dog would be in space.

A statue, a sacrifice to science, a time before animal well being was something people prioritized.

Laika. A mixed stray, found in the streets before being suited up and sent to space, before they ever knew how to bring anything back from the void. As Laika accepts the rover as a non threat, Danny wonders if they treated her well before they sent her up.

Moving the rover more freely, Laika continues to bark, but much less threateningly. She jumps around the rover playfully as it moves, and when it stops, she rolls on her back exposing her stomach, tail wagging enough it kicks up a dust storm. Danny is tempted to try petting her with the mechanical claws, but how could he ever tell if he was being careful enough, was petting her for the first time in decades worth the risk of hurting her?

As he debates with himself he sees her jump, but this time she doesn't come back down. Switching cameras to get a vertical angle, Laika is twirling through space, jumping and running as if it came as natural to her as walking on the moon's become.

“Well, guess you did get a lot of practice.”

An idea.

If she can fly, or float, could she come home? But then why hadn’t she before? Maybe she just didn’t know the way.

“Okay, let’s see, I got this. I mean, how hard can it be? Like three buttons?”

Danny flips switches and clicks buttons that look like they might do what he wants, hoping that they would do anything.

For the most part they did not, anything they would do, needing specific patterns to activate. It doesn’t help that Laika is howling, calling the rover to join her off the moons surface.

After what felt like hours, eventually the rover was floating into space, Laika posing playfully, head close to the ground with her paws in front of her, hind legs ready to pounce.

He hopes her attempts to play can lead her to game of chase and that it’s enough to convince her to follow.

A few more clicks, easier to find after sending the rover crashing into a crater more than once, and engines are on.

In Amity Park, a boy sits in his basement, only the sound of the occasional bark from behind a screen, and his own voice, heard only to himself, uttering reassurances.

In space, a rover drifts steady through space, a blue figure running with nothing beneath it’s paws.

Danny knows in ghost form, he’ll be fast enough to reach the park after it lands before authorities get involved, though he doesn’t know if ghost doggy treats will be enough to gain her trust.

But even so, as long as she’s on Earth, he’ll be able to find her and after that, well, he can figure that out later.

[datawyrms]

A Passion

Dannymay 2020 Day 17: Childhood (Shoutout to @lordlyhour for pointing out to me that the Fentons have SATELLITES for their Fenton Finder lolwut. canon is wild sometimes)

Inventing was a long and difficult process, and the length of that process had nearly doubled after they had two pairs of little feet underfoot. Not that he’d have it any other way. Their energy and excitement for anything new was always a delight, which is why he preferred to work on blueprints upstairs. Jazz usually wanted to know what something was meant to do before wandering off to amuse herself, but Danny would lock on like a burr the second anything related to flight came up. The wide eyed seven year old would happily perch on the couch or clamber on the table to get a better look, tracing the drawn lines and struggling through any word that looked ‘important’ to him.

“It gonna go to space? Really?” His son looked about a second away from asking if he could go to space too, and Jack couldn’t help chuckling a little as he ruffled the boy’s hair.

“You betcha Danny. This little guy is gonna get all the way up there and drop off a satellite for us!”

“Is it gonna look at the stars? Can I see?” Of course the only thing Danny found more exciting than flight was space and the constellations above. Something about how far away they were but still visible seemed to completely capture his attention.

“Ah kiddo, this one is going to be looking down at us! It’s going to support the Fenton Tracker, so we can keep an eye on all those pesky ghosts!”

Danny frowned a little, pressing into his father’s side as if a ghost was going to pop out right that moment. “Don’t like the spookies,” he mumbled.

Jack pulled his son into a hug “That’s why me and your mom are gonna protect ya from em Danno. No spook is laying a finger on you guys.”

“Mmmkay.” he didn’t seem too sure, blue eyes still glancing around the room.

“You want me to explain how that little rocket is going to get up there?”

Danny’s fear vanished, nodding so hard it almost looked like it could fall off. “Yeah! Does it need to know where the stars are? I can point out lots now!”

“Well the rocket won’t need to know where the stars are, but you can show me some after dinner, how about that?”

“Rocket first?”

Jack laughed again, there was that good ol Fenton tenacity. “Rocket first, comeere kiddo,” he helped the eager child up onto his lap before leaning over the plans to better show what he meant. Most of it was going to go right over Danny’s head, but it might help him learn it in the future.

-

“Mom?” 

Maddie put her pencil down, looking down to see her son clutching some sort of envelope.”What do you have there sweetie?”

The boy gave a little hum as if unsure he wanted to answer that. “Jazz thought I’d like it. I thought grown ups couldn’t have paper with ships on em.” He pulled part of a sheet of paper out, thumbing the red and blue logo.

She’d thought Jack had that letter, but Jazz filching it to pass on to her little brother wasn’t too big of a surprise. “That’s a logo Danny, you know like ours?”

“The green F?” he tilted his head. “Can our logo have a spaceship? It’s cooler.”

“We don’t usually deal with space sweetie, so it wouldn’t make sense.”

“Oh,” he looked a little disappointed, but brightened quickly “So these guys do stuff with space all the time?”

“That’s right. We’ve been collaborating on a few projects, like the rocket you keep begging Dad to see,” she smiled, proud he’d managed to get to that conclusion so quickly.

Danny crossed his arms with a huff “Isnot begging! Is just cool and I wanna see it.”

“You’ll get to see it when it’s safe, okay?” The childish pout remained, and it was a struggle not to laugh at how eager her son was. “Jazz might be able to help you look up what NASA is, if you ask her nicely.”

He rocked on his heels for a little bit. “Space stuff is cooler than ghost stuff. They’re scary.”

“Well if you study hard, you might be able to work with NASA one day, and help make rockets yourself.” She did laugh this time, as the boy seemed blown away that ‘making space stuff’ could be a job at all, sprinting off and calling for his sister to tell her this very important knowledge. It was a bit of a shame he had no interest in ghosts, but it was good to see he already had a passion he wanted to follow.

She did need to get that letter back once he was distracted though. She was pretty sure that was the strongly worded letter asking them to kindly stop throwing things into orbit without telling anyone. The kids could learn about the perils of being the forerunners of a field of science later.

[kinglazrus]

Never Too Late

Phic Phight | AO3 | FFN

Prompts used are listed at the end of the fic.

Summary: "Hey, sorry, I know this sounds crazy, but I need help. Can you kiss me? My ex is here and I really don't want to talk to him right now." In a universe where the portal didn't work and Danny had a different accident his freshman year, he meets Sam Manson at a bar one year after graduating high school.

Or: the world where Danny Phantom doesn't exist. Yet.

Word count: 5846

—

This is not where Danny imagined finding himself after high school. He had a plan: graduate with decent grades, good enough for a solid STEM program; get his masters in something, maybe engineering; get a job in said field and get work experience; apply to NASA and become an astronaut; and, most importantly, go to space. Simple. Solid. Easy enough to follow. That was the plan. Instead, here he is, a year after graduating, twenty minutes after saying goodbye to his little sister while she goes off to college, sitting at a bar alone. He doesn't even like to drink, hasn't had enough experience with it to like it. The only person he could imagine himself going out for a drink with is halfway across the country being a computer whiz at MIT.

There's also the small matter of neither Danny nor Tucker being twenty-one yet, but that's what fake IDs are for. The long-distance is a much greater concern.

Danny takes his straw and pokes the ice in his drink. He doesn't even know what he ordered. Something fruity. A margarita, maybe a cocktail? All he asked the bartender for was something that tastes like strawberries, and she delivered.

He takes a sip and scans the room. The place is fairly crowded for the middle of the week, which must mean he either chose a good bar, or there's some important event going on that he doesn't know about. Could be either, honestly. Despite how busy it is, the stools on either side of Danny remain empty. At least until a girl with purple hair drops into the seat next to him.

"Hey, sorry, I know this sounds crazy, but I need help. Can you kiss me? My ex is here and I don't want to talk to him right now."

Danny gapes at her.

"Come on." The girl picks at her nail polish. "I need a nod or something. I'm not just gonna assault you, but I think he's coming over and I really need a reason not to talk to him."

Danny leans to the side, peering over her shoulder. It's hard to tell through the crowd, but there does seem to be someone headed towards them. A tall guy with spiked white hair.

"Please?"

"I- uh, sure!"

The girl grabs Danny's shirt and yanks him forward, their lips smashing together. It's not a pleasant kiss, at first. Their teeth clink together. There's too much pressure. Danny isn't sure if he's supposed to open his mouth and make it a proper fakeout-makeout or stay chaste. She decides for him.

Her hand moves from his shirt to the back of his neck, lips parting as she does until they're melting into one another. After a few stunned seconds, Danny realizes he kiss her back, to sell it. His hands flounder about her waist, unsure if it's okay to touch her. Again, she takes the lead, pressing his hand down and oh god that's bare skin. She's wearing a crop top. Her skin is smooth. And soft.

Her lips are soft, too, and taste like grape. So is her hair. Minus the grape and tasting thing. Danny tugs the girl closer, surer of himself. His hands roam, not anywhere inappropriate, but he holds her close, curving an arm around her waist until they're flush against each other.

Somewhere across the bar, someone whoops.

The girl pulls away a second later. Danny follows after her and nearly slips off his stool. A hand against his mouth stops him and he finally opens his eyes. The girl is turned away, looking over her shoulder. Danny follows her gaze and catches the patch of white hair ducking through the door.

"Thank God." The girl relaxes and pulls away completely, putting a modest amount of space between them as she settles properly on her stool. She reaches for his drink and takes a sip, pausing a moment to frown, then swirls it around her mouth and swallows.

"What is this?" she asks, setting the drink back down.

"Margarita?" Danny suggests.

"It's definitely not. But thanks."

"You're welcome."

Something about the girl feels familiar. She looks about his age but must be at least a couple of years older since she's in a bar. Dark makeup, dark clothes. The only colour Danny can find on her is the purple of her nails, hair, and eyes.

"You have purple eyes," Danny says.

"You know your colours, that's very good. You must have done well in kindergarten." She leans forward and flags down the bartender.

Danny keeps staring while she orders her drink. Not a lot of people have purple eyes. In fact, Danny has only ever met two people with purple eyes. His mother and— "Samantha?"

"Sam," she corrects automatically. "You know my name."

"Was that..." Danny thinks of the white-haired guy. "Elliot Gregor? You're actually Samantha Manson?"

Danny just kissed Samantha Manson. Too bad that couldn't happen a few years ago; he would have shot up the Casper High food chain if it did.

"No, I'm just borrowing her name and face for tonight."

"You're not twenty-one."

"So? Neither are you. But at least my fake ID works."

Danny wrinkles his nose. "You know who I am? Wait... what about my ID? "

Sam nods to his drink. "What does that taste like to you?"

"Strawberries."

"Exactly."

Sam watches Danny with a smirk while he grabs his glass and takes a generous sip. It tastes exactly as he said it did, like strawberries. Only strawberries. It reminds him of the smoothies his sister used to make, the ones with a handful of ice, fruit, and some kind of juice. It tastes like juice.

"Oh my God."

Sam tips her head back and laughs. Danny tries not to stare, but it's really hard when her hair slips over her shoulder, exposing a tattoo of a bat on her collar bone. His gaze dips down and he sees more. A coffin on her forearm. A spider on her hip, almost exactly where his hands had been moments ago. Danny shivers.

Sam smiles at him. "I can't believe they clocked you that easy. Wait, no, I can't believe you didn't notice they clocked you."

"It could be a mistake."

"Sure it is."

"Hey, excuse me," Danny asks the bartender when she sets down Sam's drink. "I think there's been a mix-up. There's no alcohol in this."

The bartender leans forward, giving Danny a quick once over. He sits ups straighter and squares his shoulders. Making himself bigger should make him look older.

"Listen, I won't kick you out since your girlfriend is here, and you don't seem like you're trying to cause trouble. But I only give virgin drinks to virgins." The bartender taps his glass before moving to someone else across the bar.

"I am not a–" Danny cuts himself off because he most definitely is a virgin, but he doesn't want Sam Manson to know that.

"Cute."

"She didn't even give me my ID back."

Sam chokes on her drink. Pressing a hand to her mouth, she turns to Danny with mirth-filled eyes. "She took your ID?"

"I thought it was a normal thing they do!

Sam's head drops to the bar. Her shoulders shake. Danny thinks she might honestly be crying with laughter.

"Glad you're having fun," he mutters. He goes to take another sip of this drink then stops, scowling at it. He came here to get drunk. What a waste of time. "I'm Danny Fenton, by the way"

Sam finally pulls herself back together, carefully wiping the tears from her eyes. She takes a long sip of her drink smiling all the while. "So you are."

"We went to high school together."

"Yes, we did."

"Wait... you know?"

Sam glances at him out of the corner of her eye. "Of course, I know. I knew your age, idiot. Why did you think I wouldn't? You think I'm just going to come up to some random buy I've never met and ask him to kiss me?"

"Well, uh..." Danny fumbles for a reason that doesn't sound insulting. "It's just... you're rich? You were one of the A-listers? I'm pretty sure you only spoke to me, like, twice the whole time we were there."

Sam's eyes narrow. She takes another long sip, but her smile has disappeared. It makes Danny nervous. What he said couldn't have sounded that bad.

"Wow." Danny didn't know a word like 'wow' could be spit out like that, full of scorn, but Sam makes it work. "That's what you thought—think—of me?"

"It's not– I just meant–"

"Let's get some facts straight. Yeah, I'm rich, so what? And it shouldn't matter who my friends were. Maybe you were the one who only spoke to me twice. I didn't exactly see any olive branches of friendship coming from your direction. I think it's pretty damn shallow of you to make assumptions like that."

Danny can't help but snap back. "This, coming from an A-lister."

Sam slams her glass down on the bar top. "I was not–!" She takes a deep breath and slowly releases her glass, flexing her fingers. "I was not an A-lister. I just hung out with them."

"Is there a difference?"

"You know what?" Sam slams her drink back with impressive speed. In a few gulps, the glass is empty and back on the counter. "I thought I might have a nice conversation with an old classmate, but if you're going to be an ass I'm just gonna leave. Maybe I should have kissed a random stranger."

As Sam turns, Danny reaches out and grabs her wrist. "No, wait, please. I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. Well, I did mean that, but I don't see what the difference is. Hanging out with the A-listers makes you an A-lister. I was a loser in high school, okay? And... I had stuff going on. I didn’t pay attention to people but that's not the point. Don't leave." Danny squeezes her hand. "Please?"

Sam stands still, her back to him. Danny loosens his grip, willing to accept when he's lost, even if he doesn't want to. Before he can let go completely, Sam's arm twists and she grabs his hand, turning back toward him.

"That was a shitty apology. But I like it when guys are pathetic and whiny, so, I guess I'll stay." Sam reclaims her seat.

They don't say anything for a few minutes. Danny nurses his drink, only sulking a little bit that there's no alcohol in it, while Sam orders something called a hurricane. He opens his mouth a few times, trying to restart the conversation, but has no idea what to say.

Sam wasn't wrong. Thinking back on his years in high school, he can't remember any time he tried to reach out and make new friends. He thought he didn't need any. Tucker was already his best friend in the world, practically his brother. And with the stigma of the Fenton name following him around... it seemed like a lost cause from the start. It probably was.

He had too much going on, anyway.

"Did you never go to any high school parties?"

Danny jumps, nearly flinging his glass across the bar, at the sound of Sam's voice. "What?"

"Your drink. You didn't notice there wasn't any alcohol. I'm assuming this was your first time using your ID since you didn't know it was a dud. But come on. What teenager hasn't had a few drinks?"

"Never got invited to any."

"Freshman year. I threw a party when my parents were out of town; open invitation to anyone who wanted to come. Your friend was there. Weren't you?"

Danny sips at his now disappointing drink "When was that?"

"After the first semester exams."

His head bobs. "I wasn't there."

"Yeah, that's why I'm asking."

"No. I wasn't at school then. You know."

Sam blinks at him. Her eyes widen. "Oh, shit." She actually sounds sorry. "Right. I forgot. The accident."

What a neat little description. The accident. Two words to summarize the worst day of his life, followed by the worst year of his life, full of hospital visits, headaches, and a rotation of doctors so numerous Danny couldn't even name half of them now. And only part of that is because of the traumatic brain injury.

Okay, so most of it probably is, but his memory is a lot better now.

"Did your dad ever..." Sam trails off. "It's just, you hear things, but you don't hear everything, so..."

"He's alive if that's what you're asking. He's come a long way."

"Good. I would have felt bad."

"Now who's being the ass?"

Sam's face turns red. "You know what I mean. I still feel bad, but it's not like me feeling bad helps you any."

"No, it doesn't. Thanks for that."

Sam raises an eyebrow.

"No one ever thinks of that. Some people are okay with all the 'I'm sorry's and heartfelt wishes. But none of that got me back to school faster. It didn't get my dad back on his feet. It's nice knowing people care, but there's a big difference between someone who cares and someone in your biology class whose mother told them your sob story and now they feel bad for you. So, thanks. For knowing it doesn't do anything."

They fall silent again when Sam's new drink comes. It looks like a cherry slushie, although a little too pink. The glass is rimmed with salt and has a lime wedge stuck on it.

"This is a margarita," Sam says before taking a sip. "Mm. Strawberry."

"You're an ass."

"Takes one to know one. So, why are you here trying to get drunk on a Wednesday night?"

"Jazz—my little sister—starts college next week. She's flying out there a few days early to get settled in. Her plane took off about twenty minutes ago."

"So, is this a sad drink? A celebratory drink? A 'my bratty sister is out of the house hooray' drink? Ooh, or is it 'my genius sister is going off to do genius things while I'm stuck here.' Please be that last one. It sounds fun."

"And pathetic and you like pathetic?" Danny grins.

"Got it in one."

"My genius sister is off to do genius things while I'm stuck here. But I'm happy for her. At least one of us got to escape the family business."

Sam wrinkles her nose. It's cute when she does that. "What your parents do is a family business?"

"Believe it or not, yeah. On my dad's side. I've got ghost hunter blood dating back to the witching eras." Danny grins into his drink, but it's a harsh smile. "I was doomed from the start, wasn't I?"

"Totally."

"What are you here for?"

Sam takes her time answering. Danny doesn't mind it. He has all the time in the world. No one is expecting it at home. His only friend is gone. So is his sister. The only things waiting for him there are his pain meds and his puzzles. Brain function tests, his parents call them. To help him keep improving his memory, coordination, et cetera. As if they aren't just there to keep him busy.

"I am very rich," Sam says after some time.

"Congratulations."

"No, that's not– my parents are rich. Have been all my life. My dad inherited his family business, and my mom helps him run it. In high school, I wasn't rich, my parents were. But now I am rich. Because my grandma was also rich, but she and my mom didn't get along. So, she changed her will and made me the sole inheritor of everything she owns. And she died yesterday."

Sam ducks her head, letting her bangs fall in front of her face. Danny tries to be respectful and look away, but he can't stand it when girls cry. It reminds him too much of his sister.

"Can I?" he asks, lightly touching her shoulder.

Sam falls against his side, accepting his hug instantly. Danny runs his hands through Sam's hair, the same way he knows Jazz likes.

"You're not going to say sorry?" Sam's voice cracks.

"It wouldn't help anything."

"Yeah, it wouldn't." Danny holds Sam until she's ready to let go. He gives her as much privacy as he can while she dabs at her tears with a napkin. It should be awkward, he thinks. They barely know each other and here they are prattling on about their woes. It's nice, though. Danny hasn't had someone to confide in like this since Tucker left. Oh, he always had his sister, but he couldn't lean on her like that. All his life Danny has tried to be the barrier between her and anything unpleasant. Including, more than once, the results of their parent's escapades.

He thinks he's done a good job at it. The fact that Jazz loves Christmas is proof enough for him. And that's the thing. Danny hates Christmas, and always has, because of their parents and their stupid argument. So he made Christmas good for his sister. He learned to cook for her. Learned how to help her with her homework, even when he's the one who usually needed help. Learned how to braid her hair. Hell, he even learned how to do makeup because he caught her playing in their mother's makeup once when they were little. Danny has done everything for Jazz, and because of that, he could never let her do something for him. He knows so well how that wears on a person, especially someone so young.

If that means he has to grin and bear it when his life is falling apart around him, then so be it.

"This is no fun when I'm the only one getting drunk." Sam pushes Danny's glass toward him. "Finish that."

She stands up before he can say anything, heading toward their bartender. Danny shrugs and obeys, finishing his drink in a few large gulps. Sam comes back a minute later with a new drink in hand. It's the same kind of glass Danny's was in, and the colour isn't too far off, either. Sam glances between her new drink and Danny's empty one. She dips her fingers into hers and flicks a few drops onto her shirt, going the extra mile of drying her fingers on her low collar. Her very low collar.

Wow, that's a pretty necklace. Black cord, a silver pendant. He is staring at her necklace. He could draw that necklace in his sleep. He is definitely not looking at the curve of skin the necklace rests against as Sam smears more drink onto her shirt.

"Take this." She shoves her full drink into Danny's hands and pushes it under the table.

"Hey!" Danny flinches when the cold drink spills onto his jeans. Great. Now they'll be sticky and smell like whatever a hurricane smells like.

"Shush. Now go find a table. There's one in the back corner." Sam takes the empty glass and slides out of her seat. Rather than moving to do as asked, Danny stays rooted in place, eyes trailing after Sam as she walks to the other side of the bar. A different bartender is working there, a guy they haven't spoken to yet tonight. Sam leans over the counter, showing off her... necklace, and says something to the guy while holding out the empty glass. Less than a minute later, Sam has another hurricane in her hands.

It's only when she turns and starts scanning the bar that Danny remembers he was supposed to move. He quickly gets up and shoves his way through the crowd toward her.

"Couldn't get a table?" Sam asks.

"Sure." It's not like he could tell her he was watching her the whole time. Girls just love it when you tell them you couldn't stop staring at the fishnet leggings they are wearing under their shorts.

"There's one right there. Come on." Sam grabs Danny's wrist and drags him through the crowd. He tries not to smile like an idiot, but it's hard. When they reach the table, Sam takes the glass from Danny's hand and gives him the drink she hasn't dipped her fingers in.

"There. To make up for missing my party freshman year. Your very first alcoholic drink on me." Sam grimaces and tugs at her top.

Danny's gaze shoots up to the ceiling. Those sure are some sparkling clean tiles.

"Literally, on me. I told the guy I spilled it. It had better not make it back to Paulina Sanchez that I used my breasts to get a free drink, got it?"

"Yeah, uh-huh. You know, there are twenty-four tiles on this side of the bar."

Sam follows Danny's gaze upwards. "You're weird. We should have been friends in high school. Now drink your hurricane. You should get to enjoy something tonight that's not a virgin."

Danny counts the seconds—eleven—before Sam realizes what she said and how it sounded. Her face turns scarlet, nearly the same shade as their drinks, and she busies herself with a long sip. Danny follows her lead and nearly spits it right back out.

"Oh, relax. It's a cocktail. It's one of the weakest-tasting things you could get. You should try whiskey or bourbon. A whole finger of it."

"No, thank you." Danny tries again. Prepared for the taste this time, it's not as bad. The alcohol cuts through the fruity taste but doesn't overwhelm it. He could get used to this. "I like cocktails," he announces.

"Way to out yourself as a first-time drinker."

Danny sticks his tongue out at Sam before recapturing his straw and taking another, longer sip. He came here tonight to be sad, drunk, and alone, but this is much better.

—

"And– and– and then–" When Sam waves her hand, her drink sloshes, some of it spilling out over her fingers. "Oh, shit." She ducks her head forward and licks it off before continuing. "And then when Dash opened his locker, and... teddy bears!"

She bursts out laughing, spilling even more of her drink, but she doesn't care. Danny snickers along beside her.

"You're not laughing!" Sam protests.

"I am, I swear! Haha! See? That was a laugh."

"I just told a great story about your– your greatest enemy. And you're not laughing. You are so rude."

"No, listen." Danny beckons Sam closer. She leans across the table, turning her ear toward him. With a hand cupped around his mouth, he loudly whispers, "I put the bears in there."

There's a pause. Then Sam shrieks with laughter, slamming her hand on the table. "I knew it! I fucking knew it! Oh my god, Star didn't believe me when I said it had to be you, but I saw it. You kept one of his bears, didn't you?"

"It was my trophy for a prank well pulled," Danny says.

"You earned it."

They both go back to their drinks, giggling. Danny lost track of how many they had. It couldn't be that much, although Sam has had a great deal more than him. High tolerance and all that. It also helps that if she so much as smiles at the guy bartender he gives her a free shot. Sam is Danny's new drinking buddy. They should make this a weekly thing.

"No one thought it could be you because of the brain thing. You know, the"—Sam thumps a fist against her head—"thing."

"Oh, yeah." Danny stares into his glass. Something niggles at the back of his brain. Something he's forgetting. "I don't think I'm supposed to drink."

"You quitting on me, Fenton?"

"No, no. The... the thing. With the head..." Danny's face scrunches as he thinks hard, but it keeps slipping away from him. "I can't remember."

Sam catches Danny's eye. "You can't remember.

"I can't remember."

They break, falling to the table shaking with laughter.

"Hey," someone interrupts them. "We've had some complaints about your noise level."

It takes Danny and Sam a minute to compose themselves. Every time they make eye contact, they start giggling again. Danny can't help it. He can't remember. There's something important about his past head injury, which damaged his memory, and he can't remember what the important thing is. Drink lots of water. Hydrate. Hydration is important.

"This counts as hydration," Danny tells his drink as he takes another sip.

"Wait, didn't you leave?"

Finally, Danny looks up and sees the bartender, the lady that wouldn't serve him.

"You stole my ID," Danny says.

"I confiscated a fake. Who gave you that?"

Instead of answering, Danny keeps sucking his drink down. Beside him, Sam does the same. Neither of them meets the bartender's gaze.

"Nope, not happening." The bartender reaches out to take the glass, missing by an inch when Danny leans back. Air gurgles through his straw as he finishes the last drops. The bartender glares at Sam. "You giving him drinks? That's it, you're both out."

"What about my tab?" Sam asks.

The bartender's eyes narrow. She stomps off toward the machine. The second her back is turned, Sam shoves her half-full drink at Danny and grabs her wallet. She pulls out a handful of bills and slaps them down, then turns to Danny.

He holds out her now finished drink.

"Rude." Sam grabs the glass and sets it down over the bills, then snags Danny's hand and drags him outside. They run down the sidewalk even though no one is chasing them. Sam has to lean on him for a moment, hopping on one foot, then the other as she takes off her heels. In three quick strides, she is far ahead of him.

"No fair!" Danny shouts. "I've never been drunk before!"

"That's because you were a loser in high school!"

They run for three blocks before eventually slowing down. Danny grabs a stitch in his side and bends over. "Oh my god. I haven't ran that much since... ever."

"Gym class," Sam suggests.

"I got a pass on account of being brain damaged and at risk for injury."

Sam, already recovered from their sprint, looks up and down the street. "I have no idea where we are."

Danny squints at the nearest street sign but can't make out what it says. He recognizes the buildings, though. "My house is nearby. Need a place to crash?"

"Ugh, yes, please. My mom keeps bitching about Grandma's will. I think she's just distracting herself from the sadness, but it's pissing me off. Your parents won't mind?"

Danny shakes his head. "They're out of town. Meeting Jazz at college with all her stuff. They had some kind of convention to go to and decided to turn it into a road trip."

It's a twenty-minute walk back to Fenton Works. The brisk night air helps clear Danny's head somewhat, but he still feels tipsy. He stumbles over nothing and struggles to put one foot in front of the other. How Sam does this in heels he doesn't know.

"Drink lots of water," Sam tells him. "And eat some bread. Take an Advil. It'll help when the morning comes."

They both wince when they turn onto the last street. The Fenton Works sign is a nuisance on an average night, but now, while he's drunk, it's blinding. They keep their heads down as they make for the front door. Danny fumbles with his keys too long. Sam has to take them from him and unlock the door himself, letting them both inside. The first thing Danny does when he makes it through the door is head for the light switch panel on the other side of the room. He flicks a switch and the Fenton Works sign turns off.

"You mean to tell me, all these years, that thing can be turned off?" Sam glares out the window. "How much electricity does that waste?"

"Oh, that's nothing." Danny beckons Sam forward and leads her to the basement door. He pushes it open. The main lights are off, but there is still a soft glow at the bottom of the stairs. "Nothing down here ever gets turned off."

"Disgusting. I want to see it." Sam squeezes past Danny and heads downstairs.

Danny considers stopping her. The lab is supposed to be off-limits to strangers, but Sam isn’t a stranger. She's his new drinking buddy. His former classmate. Maybe, now, his friend. He shrugs and follows her.

Growing up with a lab for a basement loses its lustre quickly. Danny can't remember ever being fascinated by its existed. He didn't even realize lab basements weren't normal until fourth grade. Sam, however, stands in the middle of the room, turning in circles and taking it in with wide eyes.

"Does all of this work?" she asks.

Danny shrugs. "It's supposed to. Can't exactly test it since ghosts aren't real. Nothing to try it on."

Sam stumbles for the nearest countertop. Her hands drift over a gun laying out on the table, its insides gutted, wires spewing from the barrel. "This is the coolest thing I've ever seen." She glances up at the blinking monitors hanging from the wall. "So bad for the environment, but cool."

It doesn’t take long for her to set her eyes on the Fenton's prize invention, and their biggest failure. The Fenton Portal.

"Does that work?" Sam asks.

Danny shrugs again. "They plugged it in five years ago and nothing has happened with it since."

Sam drops to the floor, sitting cross-legged in front of the portal. She pats the space beside her. Seeing no reason not to, Danny joins her.

"The family business, huh," she says.

"Yep."

"My family business isn't half as cool as this."

"Bummer." Danny remembers the day his parents plugged the portal in. It's the last day he remembers clearly before the accident. It was a Saturday. Danny's dad woke him up early in the morning, even though Danny wanted to sleep in. Weekends were the only days Danny didn't get up early to make Jazz something good for breakfast.

He remembers complaining the whole time as his father dragged him downstairs to the kitchen where, to Danny's surprise, Mom had made breakfast. Waffles, homemade, with all kinds of syrups, eggs, and bacon. She used one of Danny's recipes, from the binder he kept next to the cookie trays.

They were celebrating, Mom said. Celebrating the unveiling of their greatest invention. Everyone was all bright smiles and happy faces, stomachs full of sweet syrup and fluffy waffles. Everyone but Danny. He picked at his breakfast with a frown. It just didn't make sense to him. His parents made breakfast. They made a good breakfast. They were capable of it, always had been, and yet...

Danny remembers frozen waffles. He remembers eating cereal by the handful at an empty kitchen table. He remembers picking through apples to find one that was the least bruised, that didn't have some kind of questionable stain on it. After breakfast, their parents ushered Danny and Jazz downstairs, showing off the great hole in the wall they had been hiding all summer. With great aplomb, Dad slammed a pair of extension cords together. The portal sparked. That was it.

At the time, Danny felt vindicated. All their hard work, their late nights, the days and days that would go by where Danny and Jazz barely caught a glimpse of their parents. All of that for nothing but a spark. He was happy when it didn't work back then.

"Do you ever wish things had gone differently?" Danny asks.

Sam hums. "What kind of things?"

"Anything. Like high school. You said we should have been friends. Do you think we could have been?"

"I don't know."

Danny picks at his jeans. "You were surprised I knew your name."

"So were you."

"Yeah, but I didn't realize you knew who I was. You knew who I was, though."

"I wasn't an A-lister. I hung out with them because our parents knew each other. We grew up in close proximity, but we weren't friends. I wasn't one of them." Sam reaches up and traces the bat tattoo on her neck. "I was just there. Existing in the background. I didn't think anyone paid attention to me."

"I had a crush on you," Danny blurts out. He cups a hand over his face so he doesn't have to see Sam's shocked expression. "I thought you were cool. You look better in black, by the way. I remember you wearing a lot more pink back then."

"You're not going to believe this." Sam snorts and shakes her head. "You really aren't going to believe it. I had a crush on you, too."

Danny gapes at her. "You're lying."

"I'm serious! You had a weird family, and you didn't care what people thought. I liked that. And you were always really good with your sister. It was sweet."

"I always cared what people thought." They stare into the gaping hole. It hasn't changed at all in the last five years. His parents spent so long putting it together; they didn't want to take it apart again.

"What would you do differently?" Sam asks.

Danny pretends to mull the question over, even though he already knows the answer. "I would make the portal work."

"How?"

"I don't know, but I would do it. I almost tried to. After I got home from the hospital and was recovering, the summer before sophomore year. I tried to convince Tucker to go inside with me and take a look. He chickened out, though. He was worried I would get hurt again. Bad history with labs and all that."

"Do you still want to?"

Now Danny has to pause and think. He's not foolish enough to believe he could make the portal work now. It wouldn't change anything, anyway. But after the accident, he wondered. If the portal had worked, would they have gone on that road trip? Would his parents have thought about their old friend, or would he have stayed out of their minds? Somewhere, in some universe, there must be a Danny Fenton who didn't go through what he did. He can't decide if it's comforting or not.

"It's a good night for firsts." Sam stands up and stretches her arms above her head. Her gaze scans the lab, eyes lighting up when she finds what she's looking for. Danny stays seated while she strides to a cabinet on the far wall labelled "PPE." She throws open the door, revealing a row of hazmat suits. Grabbing one, she holds it out to Danny.

"You missed out on a lot of stuff, but it's never too late to fix that. So, what do you say? Want to take a look inside? I bet it's cool."

Danny glances between the hazmat suit and the portal. He grins. "Why not? It can't hurt to check it out."

As Sam said, it's never too late.

—

Submitted by @xsailorsakurax: Danny sits at the bar alone, when Sam whispers in his ear. ‘I’m so sorry but can you kiss me, my Ex is here and I really don’t want to talk to him right now.’ (PR185)

Submitted by @frootysparkycakes: Ageswap au :) (PR094)

[bubblegumbeech]

Homemade

Day 2 Dannymay: Home

Clockwork made cookies, they were a special blend he’d invented through countless trial and error to get just right. For a ghost, they'd have enough concentrated ectoplasm to provide energy and enough positive emotion to make them enjoyable, and for a human child, he focused on getting the right flavors and physical ingredients to make them actually edible.

 He set the plate down in front of Danny. The young half-ghost had been working really hard at his homework lately and Clockwork wanted to do something small to reward him for it.

 “Are- did you make cookies?” Danny asked, looking up at him in confusion.

 Clockwork smiled and gently ruffled his hair. “Will you tell me how they taste?”

 Most ghosts lost the ability to taste early on, along with their sense of smell. Clockwork never had either though, only had glimpses into different futures with different recipes and Danny’s own reactions to them.

 “Please tell me this isn’t the first time you’ve made cookies…” Danny made a face, uncertain.

 Clockwork rolled his eyes and grabbed the plate again, “you don’t have to eat them-“

 “I’ll eat them!” Danny grabbed the plate from Clockwork’s hands, a splash of green decorating his cheeks and forming a stark contrast against his starlit freckles.

 Braced as if for impact, Danny quickly shoved one of the still warm cookies into his mouth and began to chew. Slowly his features softened into enjoyment and Clockwork got to watch as he grabbed another and then another until the entire plate was clean.

 He was glowing slightly, the oven-baked ectoplasm doing wonders for his energy levels. Existing so long on ambient ectoplasm alone wouldn’t have been nearly enough for a young ghost like Danny, so it was nice to see him properly fed for once.

 “Clockwork, these are amazing! How did you make them?” Danny asked, his eyes shining slightly.

 “That’s a secret,” Clockwork lied. He didn’t want to admit it took him over a thousand tries to actually make something edible to a human pallet, and he had enough of a mysterious air about him that he’d get away with it.

 Danny didn’t seem to mind though, he just grabbed the plate and flew over to the kitchen so he could wash it. “Okay, what do I have to bribe you with to get those again?”

 Clockwork’s core hummed in satisfaction, it was almost a primal instinct to care for one’s child and it was always nice to be appreciated. “Finished homework would be a nice start.”

 Danny scoffed, a small smile on his face. “I think you need to lower your standards. I mean, I’m passing history now right?” The single dish was cleaned, dried, and put away in less than a moment.

 “Thank you Daniel,” Clockwork said. Danny didn’t get nearly enough appreciation from those around him, it never hurt to give him a little when he could.

 A light green blush built on Danny’s cheeks and he looked away in an attempt to hide his reaction. “Yeah well, you make cookies like that again and I’ll clean your whole clock tower.”

 Clockwork smirked, lifting an eyebrow. “The infinite spirals of my clock tower and the unending trails of time that exist ever moving inside of it would certainly appreciate a touch up.”

 Danny balked, “uh… maybe I can do a room at a time?”

 “You don’t have to clean anything for cookies Daniel. I’d rather you eat than not.”

 Relieved, Danny rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled. “Thanks Clockwork.” He sighed and dropped his hand, looking over at the window to the realms outside. “Ugh, I don’t wanna go to school tomorrow.”

 There wasn’t much to say, so Clockwork didn’t. He didn’t particularly care about Danny’s academics or whether or not he succeeded in school, but he knew intimately how much it mattered to Danny. It was tied to his two obsessions after all.

   He had to go to school so he could both make his family happy and be there to protect the other students, he had to succeed if he ever wanted to fulfill his dreams of working at NASA, the human space program. At the thought of absolute failure he would stress, shut down, and grow apart from those close to him. It would put strain on his obsessions and could lead to internal core damage. It was better for now, that Clockwork simply gave him time and the chance to try and keep up.

 “You’re always welcome to visit if you need more time,” he offered.

 “I know. I’ve uh, still got homework to finish…”

 “By all means.” Clockwork followed Danny out of the kitchen and watched as he sat back down to finish his homework, content with the healthy glow the cookies gave Danny.

 He turned back to his own work and watched for anything that didn’t fit or was causing trouble, but his mind was on the next recipe he wanted to try.

       The next recipe ended up being a casserole.

 Cliche to be sure, but decidedly more filling and sufficient than just a plate of cookies, and this time when Clockwork set it down in front of his young ward he was met with more enthusiasm than suspicion. Despite the bright pink color and the more… mobile parts of the dish. It was difficult to make something that met all the necessary requirements to properly nourish a halfa      and     have it look appealing so Clockwork had hardly tried.

 Danny dug in.

 “This is the most amazing casserole I’ve ever had in my life and that includes any and all ecto-contaminated food I’ve ever snuck out of the fridge without my parents noticing how did you do that?” Danny asked, shoveling another forkful into his mouth.

 Clockwork purred at the praise, and was glad to see Danny’s glow get even brighter. It was so pale before, barely even there in a way it never should have been with Danny’s obsession and power. “I suppose the difference would be that I was doing it intentionally.”

 Danny nodded. “Makes sense.” He took a moment to pause from devouring his food to look up over at Clockwork sitting across the table from him. “Are you going to eat anything?”

 How thoughtful. He should have probably prepared for that but, well. “I’m afraid trying to eat something with that much physical matter from the human world would go poorly for me. If you’re uncomfortable I can make some tea?”

 “Oh,” Danny looked at his half finished meal, realizing something and unable to react properly to it. “Yeah, tea sounds nice, can I have some too?”

 “Of course,” Clockwork agreed easily. He would be using a delicate mixture of herbs and spices from different parts of the infinite realms that Sojourn liked to gift him whenever he bothered to visit. None of them should have any adverse effects on the boy, and if he chose the right mixture, it might actually help him to calm down slightly.

 By the time the tea was finished and cooled enough to drink, Danny had finished his meal and cleaned up so that the two could sit and enjoy their tea together.

 Danny spent a moment too long staring into his cup, the swirling neon blue of the forgoent leaves—a small blue plant native to some of the darker forest realms, similar to the mortal realm’s forget-me-nots. Clockwork didn’t know what he was thinking, couldn’t see a timeline where he actually spoke his thoughts out loud. He sighed and took a drink of his own cup, the tea’s soothing blend serving to take off the slight edge of his anxiety. It was difficult caring for a child, even with his power.

 “Thanks for the tea Clockwork,” Danny said, “and uh, the casserole too.”

 His voice was quiet, but sincere and Clockwork accepted his thanks with a small nod of his head. The rest of the evening went on like that, mostly silent but not unpleasant in each other's company. When Danny left to go back to the mortal realm he paused at the clock tower’s door and quickly turned back to Clockwork, pulling him into a quick, tight hug that had him almost freezing time instinctually before Danny pulled away and quickly flew off.

 Clockwork stayed there, floating in the entryway to his lair and felt his core practically screaming at him in delight.

 He needed a way to distract himself, maybe he could start working on another recipe?

     Pie was unnecessarily difficult, Clockwork decided, despite its place as the most popular fairy-tale dish ever mentioned. He’d made no less than three thousand six hundred and four different variations of the damned recipe and not a single one had even stayed together, much less been even remotely edible.

 He sighed. At this rate, even freezing time wouldn’t help him accomplish this before Danny arrived. He was admittedly impatient for an immortal entity with all of time under his control, and he wanted to actually be able to spend time with his ward rather than an eternity trying, and failing, to bake something.

 Which is exactly how Danny had caught him taking a failed experiment out of the oven, having arrived while Clockwork was distracted.

 “Is that a pie?” he asked, excitedly reaching for it.

 Clockwork quickly held it out of the young halfa’s reach, unwilling to allow him near his utter failure.

 Danny blinked, his face drooping into an exaggerated pout, “I can’t have some?” Clockwork felt his core ache a little. Maybe he should have stopped time until he got it right?

 “It’s not fit for consumption at the moment,” he said, carefully floating it out of reach and towards the end of the counter. He didn’t have anything resembling a human trash can, it was uncomfortable to keep waste in one’s lair afterall, so he’d have to leave it on the counter for now. He could dispose of it properly later, maybe as fertilizer for his garden.

 “Oh don’t be like that,” Danny said, floating around Clockwork and completely ignoring his very valid warning. “I’m sure it’s fine, everything else you’ve made has been delicious.”

 Well yes, everything else he’d made had been very much intended to be delicious. This one was a failure. However, Clockwork wasn’t going to admit to the amount of effort that had gone into each and every piece of food he’d made for his young ward. It would be uncomfortable at best for Danny and horridly embarrassing for Clockwork.

 “I’ll make another one for next time, please-” Clockwork didn’t even finish his sentence before Danny was grabbing a piece of the crust and shoving it into his mouth. “Daniel!”

 Danny smiled. “Yeah okay not your best work, but it’s edible for sure.” He grabbed another piece and ate that as well and Clockwork didn’t really know what to do. On one hand, he was right: it was certainly edible, there would be no adverse effects caused by Danny eating the food, and it would be just as nourishing as the other meals Clockwork provided. But on the other hand, it could not have tasted pleasant. All of the futures where he tried serving this to Danny as normal were met with disappointment at best.

 So why was he content to eat it like this?

 “I knew you couldn’t be perfect,” Danny snickered. He grabbed a fork and a plate from their places in the kitchen and then floated over to the table, pie-adjacent pastry in hand. “Are you gonna make tea again?”

 “Yes,” Clockwork answered, glaring at the pie. The horrid pie that Danny was eating because not every single meal needed to be perfect and Clockwork, as always, had been over-complicating everything.

 The atmosphere at the table was soft and comfortable. It was certainly something Clockwork was unused to, enjoying company for company’s sake. And to think they wouldn’t be here as they were, had Clockwork succeeded fully with his task. It brings up a question, actually thousands of different, related, questions, about failure and success and the weight of either.

 Danny smiled at him from over the half eaten pie. Clockwork smiled back.

 An alarm went off and Danny shoved one last bite into his mouth before flying off towards the main room of the clocktower. “Shoot, I forgot I promised Jazz to let her help with my english homework.”

 There was a flurry of papers while Danny tried to gather all of his things. Pencils shoved precariously into his bag and folders of half finished homework assignments quickly followed. The half finished pie on the kitchen table was completely ignored, as it should have been to start with.

 “You seem to be in a rush,” Clockwork said, watching amusedly. Either Danny had forgotten Clockwork’s particular powerset in his haste, or he hadn’t thought to ask for a medallion. Either way Clockwork found it too amusing to offer his aide unless Danny thought to ask.

 “Yeah, yeah,” Danny tried to say over the strap of the backpack he held in his mouth in lieu of his busy hands. “I’ll be back home s-”

 Danny blushed and stuttered out something awkward and intended to drag attention away from the slip of his tongue. But Clockwork just smiled, watching the boy finally gather his things and quickly make his exit promising to come back tomorrow for dinner.

 Wasn’t there a human saying about home and food?

[omegasmileyface]

Not in the Job Description

heres a silly lil Danny Phantom concept based entirely off a half-awake sleep-vision that made me laugh :) my subconscious brain is a genius at coming up with things that make just enough sense to be worth writing

summary: Danny's job at a local restaurant is surprisingly fulfilling, even after being crowned Ghost King. Speaking of that job, however, there are some intricacies to it that are hard to keep in mind during everyday life.

warnings: descriptions of nausea and mild sickness

words: 2180

AO3 link

===

Honestly, life was going pretty well at the moment for Danny Fenton. He wasn't even worried that it was a false security or a calm before a storm, because this kind of semi-serenity had been going on for more than a year. It was a long-term stability brought about by adaptation and putting in effort to get help and accommodation. Jazz would be proud!

Sometime at the beginning of Junior year, the Observants had chased him down and crowned him High Ghost King (much to the chagrin of both involved parties). It certainly added responsibility to Danny's plate, along with some new sensations and a series of crises (what didn't these days?), but a little political discussion with some of the more powerful ghosts ended with Danny deciding that, at least at the moment, the position didn't require him to do much more than he normally did. More ghosts would seek him out for help and he would do his best, and some "paperwork" (though there was very little paper involved and it was a lot of talking and oaths and rituals and such) happened about monthly. Otherwise, though, the Zone didn't need much more help than that, having survived off an absent King for centuries. Well, and the ambient purpose of the King as a sort of core for the Zone, but Danny didn't have to put in time or conscious effort for that.

Eventually that settled into normalcy, and Danny was back to worrying about the balance of schoolwork, self-care, and fighting. He still hadn't given up on the prospect of someday becoming an astronaut, and he was determined to have the grades for it. Don't get him wrong, he'd gotten way better about that! He'd formed a practiced, if not entirely stable, system that kept his grades at a solid B- / C+, while getting a solid 5-ish hours of sleep most nights and not bottling things up too much. It was about halfway through Junior year that he realized, with some help from his friends, that his ghosts fights were honestly pretty civil, at least against the regulars. Civil enough that he knew they had some respect for him, and was willing to risk asking for help. So a few weeks and awkward but not bad conversations later, and he had agreements with almost all his regular "foes" not to cause trouble within Amity from 11pm to 7am, 3pm on weekdays. It was more than half the day off-limits on school days, and plenty of ghosts made up for it to a degree by making themselves more common during the "permitted" hours, but it greatly increased Danny's well-being and school performance anyway. "Rivals" like Skulker and Technus had enough respect for Danny and his Lair to abide, and plenty even cared that he was taking care of himself, even between frequent sparring. Maybe a few were really just in fear of his new crown, but he chose to cautiously pretend that wasn't a possibility.

After graduation — he made Senior year with all As and Bs! — Danny's parents had encouraged him to get a part-time job over the summer. He had been interning at FentonWorks (paid! His parents might not be the most attentive but they certainly weren't unfair) since he had accidentally revealed himself a few years back, and they had been thrilled to hear that he still intended to go into NASA if possible, and had done whatever they could to help. They recommended the job because, as good as a paid scientific internship was on a resume, it would help to have a variety of activity and the opportunity to get recommendations from employers who weren't liable to nepotism. After searching local businesses, Danny found a small sandwich shop founded by a middle-aged couple who had moved in and set up shop just before the ghost attacks began. Being close to the school but not far from the commercial sector and offering small portable food (no one wants to sit down for a meal when a spirit could come crashing through the window at any moment), the place got good enough business to pay the employees a proper living wage. Better yet, they were allowed to take home unsold food! Not to mention the owners were both very kind women who held smiling conversation with employees and customers alike. Danny was more than lucky to land such a nice job, even if it meant he had to get up at 7 five days a week.

All this is to say that it wasn't as surprising as it could have been that he was having a slow and pleasant day at work.

Both the owners were out for the day on some sort of vacation, so today it was just Danny and a short teenager named Casey manning the place. Most of their orders recently had been online due to an explosion causing road work near the restaurant and it was mid-morning, leaving work slow enough that they could afford to just have the two until lunch shift started. Danny was on cashier duty today, but unless the door bell sounded, he was helping Casey in the kitchen.

"Aw, man, we're almost out of tomatoes."

"Really?" Casey looked up to the shelf Danny was inspecting and indeed saw only 3 tomatoes. "Huh, guess they didn't restock yesterday. Well, we probably shouldn't risk needing more before the day's out, do you want me to go get more?"

Danny shook his head. "Nah, I can go. I think I could use the fresh air." He said that a lot, especially as an excuse when his ghost sense went off, but that didn't mean it wasn't true. He never had liked being confined.

Casey checked the monitor to see if they'd gotten any new online orders. Since there was a grocery store just a block away, any time someone needed a quick restock they tended to just walk.

They looked up to see Danny already had his jacket on and was looking them in the eye. "Would you take over my position until I come back?"

"Of course. Ten minutes?"

With a nod and a smile, Danny was out the back door.

===

After a moment of habitually wiping down the counters, Casey went up to the register in case a customer appeared.

It was even quieter than before for a few minutes, so they busied themself with mini restocks and organization. They were in the middle of stacking some paper coffee cups when they started to feel dizzy. There had been this subtle pressure on their chest since Danny left, which they figured was anxiety for working the restaurant alone for the first time, and now it had solidified into a warm nausea that flared whenever they exhaled.

With the disinterested panic that came from having strange things happen for years, they wondered if they had missed their medication this morning. A quick glance at their phone, however, showed the notification for it checked off.

Putting the phone back away, Casey noticed the tips of their fingers were somewhat translucent. Alright then, it was definitely something to do with ghosts. Great! Just excellent. The panic was less disinterested this time.

They weren't familiar with any sort of ghost illness that made humans translucent, so they definitely needed to call someone to make sure nothing bad happened. It would be best to call the Fentons' public number so they could go over and get looked over by then. In the meantime, they should call Danny and ask him to hurry back. He shouldn't be much longer anyway.

Casey didn't even get the chance to act on their plan, however, before a short humanoid ghost appeared in the dining area. They didn't look to be up to anything, but Casey reached for the emergency ectoblaster beneath the register anyway. The nausea was getting worse, along with a new chill, and they couldn't be sure this new ghost wasn't somehow causing whatever they were going through.

The ghost looked at them with an expression that was almost desperate. "Ah! Kind human, thank you for your time." The ghost... bowed? "I am Eurusid, from the Spoken Channels. There has been a dispute which damaged public meeting grounds in the center of the Channels, and both groups refuse to allow the damage to be repaired except by the other group."

Casey's eyes narrowed. It was becoming difficult to stand with the dizziness, and if not the ghost himself, then whatever he was saying was probably a hallucination. They didn't even think about responding beyond a detached "what".

It was then that Danny re-entered the back door with the new tomatoes. Good thing, too. At least with another person there, Casey could confirm whether they were hallucinating.

===

Placing down the grocery bag and shrugging off his jacket in one motion, a skill only gained by years of laziness efficiency, Danny called toward the register. "Back!"

Once he caught sight of the teen, however, all casualness shed itself from his body and he rushed over to hold them. "Man, Casey, you feeling alright? You look really pale." The realization that their form was slightly translucent, despite the firm human heartbeat beneath, was drowned out by him finally noticing the ghost standing a few feet away. The reaction of his ghost sense had been so minor that he had ignored it.

He was surprised to see that he recognized the specter's face, marred as it may have been from worry and confusion aimed directly at Casey. "Eurusid? What's going on?"

As the ghost, still confused but unwilling to act impolitely, gathered his bearings and began to bow toward him, Danny's coworker shuddered under his hands, regaining his full attention. He thought back through the day's events for hints as to the situation, before swearing, cutting off whatever Eurusid was about to say.

Danny backed up and said, voice as clear as he could, "I recall my position."

Casey's reaction was immediate, a gasp of air like they had been kept from breathing and a return of their skin's human opacity. Danny rushed back over and put his hand on their back to steady them as their eyes narrowed and went slightly unfocused.

Figures, doesn't it? One of the many intricacies that had come up at his coronation Junior year that just hadn't come up enough to keep at the front of his mind. One of the defenses of the High Ghost Crown was the ability of the King to temporarily give their duty to someone else. As long as that person accepts, during a specified time they substitute for the King in dealing with political matters, as well as taking over as much as their ability allowed of the King's function to process the energy of the Realms.

Danny had no idea that this ability could be activated with words as vague as "take over my position", let alone that it could be used with a human. That potential had never come up during the ceremony, so for all he knew, a full ghost in his position couldn't substitute with a human. A human certainly shouldn't be able to take over any part of the energy processing, though maybe in Amity Park the average person processed enough environmental ectoplasmic energy to make it possible. Regardless of residence, though, it could not be good for Casey's body, which had no Core to properly process energy and had no human equivalent except perhaps a small emotional center in the brain, to even attempt to filter and manage some of the inherent energy of a dimension.

Their skin was still clammy and their coordination was shot. Ancients, if this is what an accidental substitution did to a human, Danny would have to word things very carefully when asking for help in the future.

"King Phantom?" Danny looked up to see that Eurusid was still floating there awkwardly. Right. He had two people here to help.

"Sorry, Eurusid. One moment, I'll be right with you." He turned back to his coworker, who looked confused and less lucid than ideal, but probably still lucid enough to realize this ghost had just called him "King Phantom". Well, he'd deal with that once it came to it. "Here, Casey, let's get you some water." He helped them walk back into the kitchen and sat them down on a bench by the back door. There was a chair in the register area, but they probably didn't want to feel exposed to the dining area like that, even with nobody but the ghost there.

Once handed the water, Casey sighed and eagerly drank from it, eyes closed. Danny rubbed his hand on their back a bit and promised to be back shortly before walking back out to meet Eurusid. Whatever he was here about was probably worth immediate attention but Danny was sure there'd be at least a solid minute of apologies on both sides before the matter was addressed. Hopefully both the Spoken Channels and Casey would be alright before the next shift came in.

[idontknowijuststartedsomething]

Gravity, Ghosts, and Gems

Part 3/???

The New Kids

Part 3

Steven could see his answer did little to reassure or calm his trembling roommate. “Hey, I’m still me. A-And I’m not going to hurt you! I just..... Let’s just talk.”

“So, how did you get white hair and a cool jumpsuit?” Steven tried to talk to Danny more casually, as he could see his panic from their shared dream had not gone away.

“Well, to understand you would first have to know my parents are ghost hunters. Or ghost scientists they never really make it clear.”

“Wait, like spooky horror movie dead people ghosts?”

“Yeah.”

“Wait ghosts are real?!”

“Yes” Danny’s voice was growing more annoyed.

“I’ve gotta tell Sadie” Steven whispered to himself, stars in his eyes.

“What?”

“Uhhhh nothing. Continue.”

“So yeah my parents study ghosts. And for years they’d been working on a portal to the ghost world. They wanted to prove to everyone that they weren’t crazy, and they also just wanted to learn everything about ghosts.” Danny became less tense as he told his story. He’s had to keep it a secret for so long that now telling anyone felt like a major relief. “So after like years they finally got it into working order. Except it didn’t turn on. No matter what they tried it just wouldn’t go. They were really bummed and got discouraged for a while, but me and my friends still wanted to check it out.”

Steven listened intently as Danny told him about the accident. Sam, Tucker, the jumpsuit, the flash. Everything just sounded so painful. Part of Steven just wanted to reach out and hug Danny, but Steven restrained himself because he knew they weren’t there yet. After all Danny probably still though Steven was a big scary pink lady. So Steven just kept listening as Danny told him everything. About Vlad. About his parents hunting him. About Danielle. About his older self. By the time Danny had gotten to him revealing himself to his folks, Steven was ready to cry. Steven could never imagine how much pain Danny had gone through. And yet he could see it vividly. He could see it in his own life story, stretched out over years and galaxies, and only now being properly dealt with between him and his therapist.

“So yeah, I’m half ghost and I protect the world. Well mostly my town but you get the point. And nobody knows but my family and friends. And I guess you, now. So what’s your story. Did your parents make a portal that fused you with some pink lady?” Danny had said that jokingly, but Steven’s emotions were still weird, both from hearing Danny’s story and now having to tell his own.

“Well, I’m half gem, so I’m kinda like you, but my gem powers didn’t come from an accident. You see, my mom was a gem who...”

“Wait, wait, wait. What are gems? I know you have that thing on your stomach but like, what does it do?”

“Ok so now I have to go way back. Gems are an alien species whose physical forms are just projections from their gemstone. All gems have one, and they can all do different things. Some gems also come together to make...”

“Wait back up. You’re saying you’re..... an alien?”

“Well technically half alien on my mom’s side. But I’ve spent my whole life here on earth.”

“So aliens actually exist?” Danny could barley process what he was hearing. Every NASA scientist he had looked up to was wrong. All of their data and calculations were disproven by the mere existence of this kid standing infront of him. Could he be the first junior astronaut to make contact with alien life?

Danny could tell that Steven was waiting for him to stop being confused. His look said it all. So Danny put back on the chill persona he had had before and let Steven continue. He was gripped by the rich tapestry Steven had woven with his words. A rebellious princess(that’s who the big pink lady was), a secret taken to the grave, a war for the fate of the planet, a tale of love found and love lost. All to produce the spunky little kid who was Steven Universe. He told Danny about his similar face offs with villians of his own kind. About the new family he found along the way and how he saved two planets with love. Steven told Danny a bit about his breakdown following Homeworld’s reconstruction, but left it very vague. He mentioned that he hurt Jasper and that he reached his breaking point and blew up in front of his family. But he just left it at that. At least for now, Danny didn’t need to know about the monster that terrorized Beach City. At least for now, Danny could see him as kind of normal.

“So that’s basically it. And then I wanted to experience life outside of gem stuff. So I got in my car and started exploring and being more human. And then I found this job offer online and though it would be a good experience for me, and so here we are.”

“That’s wild.” Danny said, reacting to Steven’s life story. “And that’s kinda what happened to me to. I wanted to get away from ghosts and stuff for a bit. I found this job offer and my parents assured me that they could take care of any ghost business in town, so I packed some stuff and flew here last night.”

“That explains why you were so tired today!”

“Yeah. Even at 112 mph, Illinois to Oregon is a long trip. And I was carrying a bunch of my stuff and had to avoid any major city areas.”

They both laughed, their defenses completely down, as they recognized a trust between them that hadn’t been there before. Neither of them had got entirely comfortable when Steven remembered another thing he had noticed earlier.

“Did you see the room of that Dipper kid who lives here? His walls were covered with conspiracy and supernatural related stuff.”

“Yeah. I was able to recognize part of my parents in that kid.” At that thought Danny came to a realization. “Which means we probably shouldn’t tell him about any of this.”

“Yeah.” Steven agreed. “He’s either gonna want to ask us a million questions...”

“Or strap us down to a table and rip us apart molecule by molecule.” The tone of the room got considerably darker, as Danny realized what ‘being like his parents’ actually meant. They both sat silently for a few moments, neither knowing how to respond. Finally, Steven spoke.

“So no one finds about about us? At least until we know we can trust them. Like be 100% certain that they’re gonna be cool with us” Steven was trying to stear the conversation into a more hopeful direction, and it kinda worked.

“Yeah” Danny answered, lifting is head, a slightl smile now returning to his face. “Besides, is not like there’s evil ghost or aliens running around here. In Gravity Falls. So we should have no problem keeping our powers on the down low.”

“Yeah” Steven laughed. “Everything seems normal here. What do we have to worry about?” With that, both decided to finally go to sleep, secure in the knowledge that nothing weird happens in Gravity Falls.

Right?

[ayamari-no-goshi]

Verboten 13 | (T)

ff.net | AO3

Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)

Summary:   AU. When Danny was five years old, he went missing for 2 weeks. In the years that follow, his family tried to make sense of what happened, only for the truth to be discovered years later.

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, language. Be prepared for some very weird things

Parings: Danny/Sam

Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr. This fic is very heavily inspired by folklore surrounding mysterious wilderness disappearances

Chapter 13

After his mother made sure he ate something light, Danny escaped to his bedroom and set up a video chat with his friends. Once all of them were certain they would not be overheard, Danny told them about the strange green wall that saved him from whatever tried to attack him.

His friends were convinced it had something to do with his ghostly side. However, he wasn't as certain. Up until that point, the only ghostly abilities he'd seen were the random bouts of invisibility and intangibility of his arms and legs. Not only that, he hadn't been able to switch to his ghostly appearance since he returned from the other side.

Although it took a while, he eventually opened up to his friends about the little information he had about his abilities. Instead of being freaked out, they seemed fascinated. After a quick argument, Danny eventually gave in and agreed to let them attempt to help him figure things out.

It wasn't exactly the result he wanted. While he knew he was alive, he couldn't ignore the fact part of him wasn't exactly human. Up until he was released from the hospital, he thought he might be able to ignore what happened to him. However, between the events at school and whatever the thing that tried attacking him was, he knew it was impossible. Clockwork and Frostbite even warned him he might be in danger in the world of the living.

Speaking of Clockwork, how would the ghost contact him? Or better yet, how would Danny contact him? Did the ghost know what that thing was? Or how it could be stopped? If anything, that was the sort of very important information he needed.

Danny sighed and prepared for bed. He hoped everything would start making more sense in the morning.

….

When he finally wandered down to the kitchen the next morning for breakfast, Danny was surprised to find Vlad Masters talking with his parents. His unofficial uncle stood and swept him into a hug once he realized he was there.

"Daniel, I'm so happy to see you're alright." Vlad made a show of being concerned once he released him. "I'm deeply sorry I was unable to visit you when you were hospitalized. Between the police investigation from both my employee's and your class' disappearances and the resulting paperwork, it was impossible to make the trip."

As much as Danny usually didn't mind the visits from Vlad, today, the man sent shivers down his spine. It didn't make any sense. As unnerved as he was, he figured he was just being paranoid and tried to shrug it off. "It's fine. I mean, I know how busy you are. I did get your 'get well' gift though. I can't believe you were able to get the blue prints for that shuttle! It usually takes at least a few years for NASA to release information like that."

"It was no trouble at all, my boy. But, your parents told me something troubling. You were attacked yesterday?"

Danny just shrugged as he grabbed some of the pancakes waiting on the counter. "Yeah, the police are looking for the guy," he eventually answered after he sat down and took a bite.

"Honey, Vlad's here at our request." After raising a questioning eyebrow at his mother, she explained, "Your father and I did some digging on the thing you saw yesterday. On accident, we discovered other similar reports, not just from here, but from other places where there have been a lot of strange deaths. To be blunt, Danny we're not exactly sure what you saw, but we're becoming worried something dangerous has started crossing over into our world."

"So why…?"

His dad startled everyone by pulling Vlad into a side hug. "Your mom contacted Vladdy here to see if he had some contacts for our research, and he decided he wanted to directly get involved. Isn't that great?"

His mom fondly shook her head as Vlad tried to pull himself out of his dad's grasp. "What your father means is that Vlad has offered to both fund and assist with the research this time around," his mother clarified.

"I felt it was prudent I was more directly involved," Vlad explained as he straightened out his suit. "If I understood what your parents told me correctly, you didn't see a person?" With that question, the normal businessman seemed to vanish, and a stranger suddenly appeared in his place as his expression turned predatory.

The expression reminded Danny of Plasmius, and it made the uneasy feeling worse. "Uh… I told my parents everything I saw." He quickly finished his pancakes and ignored the desire to get a second helping. His parents even got the real maple syrup this time. It was so tempting, but he needed to get away from Vlad. Once his plate was rinsed and put in the sink, he headed towards the doorway. "Well, I need to get going. I promised Sam and Tucker I would meet up with them."

"Young man, you're not seriously thinking about going out today after everything that happened?"

He just rolled his eyes at his mother. "I think as long as I stick to the main streets and don't try to dodge behind buildings again I'll be fine." Before he left the room, he glanced at Vlad. "Hey… this might sound weird, but… uh, has anyone else gone missing from your company?"

The man's eyes narrowed at the question. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean, Daniel."

"It's nothing. Forget I said anything." Not wanting to be questioned any further, Danny ran out of the room to get ready. After getting ready in record time, he sped from the house and towards the park.

….

Well, he could have done a better job at forming an escape plan. Sure, he managed to get to the park without being attacked or having his parents decide they needed to follow him, but he wasn't supposed to meet up with Sam and Tucker for another hour. Groaning, he plopped himself down on an empty bench and reviewed his options.

He could continue to sit where he was, but being a teenager, boredom would quickly get to him. Checking his phone, he realized he probably didn't have enough of a charge to keep him entertained while he waited. Now that he thought about it, ever since his misadventure to the land of the dead, it had trouble keeping a charge. Something about that place probably fried it.

Not wanting to risk it going dead, he thought about his other options. Fast food was out. Tucker would kill him if he took a trip to the Nasty Burger without him. He could walk around town, but after what happened yesterday, he really didn't want to risk running into whatever that thing was again. Actually, what was he doing in the middle of the park, alone, when that thing was running around town?

Paranoid, he glanced around. Other than a couple nearby trees, his current position put him in a rather open area of the park. No one or thing would easily be able to sneak up on him, and now that he thought about it, the weird feeling he got before it appeared wasn't present. While he wasn't completely relieved, it was better than nothing, and it still left him with nothing to do.

He checked the area again. The park was strangely empty for the time of day, though with all the strange things happening around town, he figured people were just staying away. So, maybe he could try to work on control his abilities a little. Having some sort of handle on the invisibility and intangibility would be nice.

After setting an alarm on his phone so he wouldn't forget to meet up with his friends, he started focusing on his hands. When his abilities activated, it often felt as if the affected limb went numb, so he focused on that. However, attempting to will his own arm to go numb was just as hard as it seemed, and he quickly grew frustrated. Though, he did notice a cold child run up his spine.

"How quaint. Didn't your allies give you any information when they helped you escape?"

Startled at the voice, Danny jump up only to find Plasmius floating behind him. As he backed away, he realized the scenery changed. The purple and green swirls of the sky immediately alerted him to the fact he was back in the land of the dead. How in the world did Plasmius do that?

"It's a nice trick, isn't it? But it's really not that hard. Creatures like us who have ties to this world can easily slip into it. It's only difficult when we try to bring the living with us."

"I'll remember that," Danny replied dryly. "What… what do you want?"

"There are many things that I want," the creature admitted, "but right now, I'm only interested in your progress and possibly to trade some information."

"Well, I'm still living, if that's what you want."

"Yes, but not quite. While I loathe to say I'm not as skilled in being able to detect other ghosts and spirits as some of the others I've encountered, I can still detect the faint thrum of a ghostly core within you. Why don't you change into your more fitting form?"

"More fitting?" Danny repeated faintly. This thing thought him looking like a ghost was more fitting? "Sorry to disappoint you, but I haven't been able to chance since I came home."

"Really? With how much ambient energy is available in your home, I would have thought it would have occurred fairly regularly as you adjusted. No matter. It seems your body is naturally responding to this world."

"Huh?" His attention turned to the flash of light around his midsection. Knowing what that meant, he hugged his stomach as he tried to stop the process. His core was active. He could feel its power trying to surge through him. "Come on. Stop it." He didn't want to give Plasmius what he wanted, but his feeble attempts meant nothing and the power overcame him. As he fell to his knees as his body recovered from the recoil of trying to stop it, he sensed Plasmius float closer to him.

"It's remarkable how human you still look in that form. I would have thought there would have been a more drastic change as your core settled."

"You mean you were expecting me to look something more like you?"

"No, not necessarily like me, but it is unusual to find a ghost who could easily pass as a human without attempting to hide anything."

Standing, Danny glared at the specter. "Are you just here to marvel at how weird I am? Or can I go now?" It was one thing for him to be unsettled by the changes, but he didn't need some creepy ghost, who happened to be partially responsible for what happened to him, commenting on how he was different than other ghosts. Of course he was different! He was still human.

The ghost pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I am getting somewhat sidetracked. Now, Daniel, like I said, I approached you for information and nothing more. Firstly, what do you know of what is stalking this city? You encountered it recently, did you not?"

"How did you…?" A chill ran down Danny's spine as he backed away. Was this thing spying on him?

"I believe I mentioned that I do try to keep taps on you. I still have not given up on wanting you to become my eventual heir after all, but rumors of it and others like it have been circling for a while. Ghosts older than I despise them, but it has been difficult to procure information regarding them."

"You probably know more than I do then," Danny replied. Plasmius did seem like he only wanted to talk, but that didn't mean he could change his mind. If he did decide he wanted to attack, there was little Danny could do to stop him. If he was able to get out of this, he was definitely going to focus on working on his powers just so he could defend himself against Plasmius. "It looked like a deformed person. It… it…" The memory of it holding something red and the sound of dripping blood made his stomach turn. "It took… part of that person. When it left, it turned into an old lady."

Plasmius frowned as he mulled over the information. "Daniel, what exactly did it take?"

The image flashed across his mind again, and his shook his head to try to get rid of it. "Look, I don't know. There was blood down the front of the guy's chest. It was part of his body. I don't want to think about it anymore."

"Hmm… I wonder if that was the intention or an afterthought. I will investigate that. If it was intentional, then the rumors I've heard may in fact be true," the ghost muttered to himself before glancing at Danny again. "Now, I have one final bit of information I need from you. What exactly do you know of my involvement with the companies of Vlad Masters?" His almost friendly attitude turned icy.

"Involvement?" Danny replied nervously. He could feel Plasmius' energy building, and he knew the specter wouldn't hesitate to attack if he wasn't careful enough with his words. "All I know if that you took one of Vlad's employees for experiments." After debating for a moment, he slowly added, "The person who helped me escape said you've done a lot of experiments like that. Wait, are you spying on Vlad so you can get new people for whatever you're doing?"

Nothing he said was technically a lie. However, he was definitely wasn't going to say anything about how Tucker managed to copy some of the ghost's files and discovered he was spying on what seemed like all aspects of Vlad's companies. Yeah, that was going to remain a secret.

Plasmius narrowed his eyes which prompted Danny to back away. "Butter biscuits! I seem to have unintentionally given away too much. I believe our meeting has come to an end, but mark my words, boy, it would do you well to stay out of my business. What I'm doing is to benefit both of us." With that warning, he faded from view.

Danny spun around to attempt to figure out where he went only to find himself back in the park. There didn't seem to be any sign of Plasmius, and he didn't seem to have any of the weird chills he tended to get before something strange happened.

He should be happy he hadn't been injured by the other ghost, but the interaction left him unsettled. How did Plasmius know where he was? Was he stalking him? Actually, seeing as the ghost orchestrated an entire scheme to get to him when his school was on a camping trip that was probably the case. To make matters worse, now that he was something in between a human and a ghost, Plasmius could pull another stunt like that any time he wanted.

Not wanting to stay out in the open any longer, he grabbed his phone and ran. According to the clock, he still had some time before he needed to meet up with his friends, but that was not going to deter him from going to Sam's house. As silly as it was, her parents' anti-paranormal stance almost acted as an unofficial ward. If anything tried creating chaos in that house, he was positive Mrs. Manson would somehow throw it out of the house by sheer force of will.

Once he was out of the park, he took a moment to text Sam to let her know he was on the way. While he knew she wouldn't exactly mind if he showed up early, it was still better to let her know so she could keep her parents at bay. The only tolerated him after all.

When he was done, he noticed something off about his reflection. His hair was still white. Panicked, he checked himself, and sure enough, it seemed as if he was still in his ghost form. He tried to trigger the change, but he had no idea what to do to reverse it. When he was with Frostbite, his body just seemed to do it automatically. Not wanting to say out in the open any longer than he had to, he ran.

As he approached Sam's house, he called her to give her a heads up on his problem. Her response was to have him climb up the rope ladder she had for her regular escapes so he could get to her room without risking her parents seeing him before the problem was fixed.

Ten minutes and one harrowing rope ladder climb later (seriously, that thing was a safety hazard), Danny found himself sitting on Sam's bed while she examined him. Her pokes and prods made him self-conscious to the point where he actually pulled away from her.

"I get it. I look weird, but will you seriously stop?"

She shook her head as she sat down beside him. "In all honesty, you don't look that weird at all. Compared to the last time I saw you like this, you actually look healthy." When he gave her an incredulous look, she grabbed his hands. "What? I'm being serious. Aside from the glow, you look fine. The first time, you had this weird green tinge to your skin which was really creepy."

"Thanks? I think?"

Realizing she was still holding his hands, she let go and stood up. "Ignoring that, my parents are actually still home for once. Let's see if we can get you back to normal, well, your version of it, that is." At his indignant 'hey', she just laughed.

==================================

So, the little jab about real maple syrup... To be honest, I don't care for the stuff, but so many people I know make a clear distinction between normal store bought maple syrup and the "real" stuff (apparently you just have to double check what you grab?). And because I'm thinking about it, Karo isn't fake maple syrup; it's corn syrup.

Did you know it's fun to write Plasmius? His speech is a bit odd as he tends to attempt to sound as educated as possible while still throwing in some causal aspects. I find it that balance fun to write.

[ghostly-cabbage]

Frigid (Chapter 1)

Danny Phantom fanfic

Genre: Horror, Angst, Enemies to Friends

Fic Rating: M (Language, Underage Drug Use, Violence and Gore)

Summary: Wes and his brother Kyle have just moved to Amity Park. Wes is only worried about fitting in, but all the ghost nonsense is making that harder and harder. Something weird is going on in this place, and his chemistry lab partner is no different. Seriously, what the hell was up with the Fenton kid and why did everyone ignore it?

Danny is a junior in high school, and pressure is squeezing in on all sides. Keeping good enough grades to graduate, and dealing with the snoopy new kid wasn't bad enough, but he's starting to feel like his parents are getting closer to figuring out his secret. Jazz is off at college and he didn't realize just how helpful it was when she was home to cover for him.

Danny's been able to keep his secret at school for one reason, and that's that no one cares to watch him close enough to connect the dots. Wes is different.

AO3   FFN

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"The air is different here," Wes said, looking up at the swath of stars across the sky. Kyle exhaled a plume of smoke that clouded the view. 

"Shit. Don't get all poetic on me now." Kyle coughed his way into a laugh and Wes kicked his shin just hard enough to hurt. 

"Ow!" 

"Shut up dude, I mean it's colder here. More humid or something too." 

"Yeah, definitely nothing like home." Kyle swung his legs back and forth off the brow of the roof. "How was your first day of school btdubs?" He offered Wes the joint pinched between his fingers. Wes waved him off. 

"Thrilling, nothin' like being the new kid," he said.  

Kyle shrugged and took another hit.

“‘S not so bad, my day was chill,” he croaked out while trying to keep his breath held in. 

Wes scrunched his nose at the smell. “Jesus dude, that stuff smells worse than normal.” 

“Yeah—” he puffed out the cloud of smoke “—the shit here isn’t as good. Missin’ that green triangle right about now.” Kyle let out a wistful sigh. Wes almost wanted to ask how he’d found a dealer already, but it was Kyle. He always found someone. It was like his supernatural ability to sniff out someone who’d sell to minors.

 “Anyway, basketball tryouts are at the end of the week, right? Cheer up my man, you’ll get mad chicks once you make the team.” Wes shot him a glare. Getting chicks was the last thing on his mind. He was more preoccupied with the fact their dad uprooted their entire lives to move to fucking Illinois. Illinois!

“Whatever dude.” There was a brief silence, before Kyle bumped his shoulder into him. He took another deep drag off his joint, the static burn filling the air like white noise. The stars continued to glimmer coldly in the sky, and it sent a pang of homesickness through him. It was bullshit. 

“Any classes you like?” 

“Psh. Hardly… Well. There’s a photography class—” 

“Didn’t you mention something about chem at lunch?” 

“Oh. That.” Wes started to get angry just thinking about it. “Yeah. Chemistry two. Apparently we have to have a lab partner for the whole semester. Which wouldn't be a big deal but I got stuck paired with a dude that’s ‘banned for life’ from using the chem equipment.” He used his fingers for the air quotes. “So I’m probably gonna have to do everything.”

Kyle took a breath like he was about to say something, but Wes pressed on. “What the hell do you even have to do to get banned for life from using the chemistry stuff?” 

“Dude! Maybe your partner got busted for making drugs! That Breaking Bad kinda shit! That’d get him banned fer sure fer sure.” His words slurred around the edges.

Wes almost laughed. “You’re high Kyle. If you saw him you’d understand. This guy isn’t a drug lord, trust me, he’s a twig. No way he’d be involved in anything dangerous. If that guy does anything more exciting than video games I’d eat your hat.” 

Kyle gasped. “Brooo!” 

“What?”

“Somthin’ to eat sounds wicked. Wanna swing by that... Nasty place, what’zit called? We saw it on the way in.” 

Wes rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh. 

“Nasty Burger?”

“Nasty Burger!”

“As a majority of you are aware, it’s a new school year, which means as per new school district regulation it’s time to report to the gym for the annual ghost safety course, and later today at an unspecified time there will be a ghost drill.” Mr. Lancer droned at the front of the class. The other students around Wes all groaned like they’d been assigned a pop quiz, rather than that being the most batshit crazy thing they’d ever heard. Uh, what the hell? He raised his hand. 

“Yes, Mr. Weston.” 

“Did... you just say ghost safety course?” Kids around him chuckled and shared knowing looks. It was like he was on the other side of an inside joke.   

“Regrettably so, Mr. Weston. Everyone single file to the gym please. Leave your bags here, you’ll be back before the third period,” Lancer said as he gestured to the door. Wes stayed sitting for a few seconds longer than the class, trying to make sense of what he’d just heard. Ghosts? Like actual ghosts? 

“Hey, Fenturd, can’t wait to see how your parents fuck it up this year!” Wes turned towards the back of the classroom to see a tall broad shouldered guy, Dash if he remembered right, shoving past Danny Fenton, AKA his chem lab partner. Danny lurched to the side, stumbling into a desk. There were two other kids that Wes hadn’t seen before standing behind Danny, a goth girl and a dweeby kid in a beret.

“Bro, I still have the picture on my phone from when they couldn’t get Mr. Fenton out of that ghost netting,” said an equally massive asian guy. The small knot of kids around them all laughed and filed past Danny and his presumed friends. Danny was glaring daggers at the back of Dash’s head. 

So… Danny’s parents were the guest speakers, and they were giving a talk on... ghost safety… Seriously, did anything here make sense? Wes followed after the crowd, trying to wrap his head around it. The odd trio started following a few paces back.

“Great. Just what I need to kick off the year again,” Wes heard Danny grumble. 

“Oh come on Danny, It wasn’t that bad,” the goth girl said. 

“Nah, it was pretty bad.” 

“Tucker!” 

“What?!”  

Wes tried to continue listening to their conversation but the person in front of him turned around to look at him. 

“You’re the new kid right?” She asked. She had long blonde hair and perfect makeup. 

“Uh, yeah. Wes.” 

“I hear you’re trying out for the basketball team, right?” A few of the popular kids walking in front of her glanced over their shoulders to look at Wes.

“Y-yeah. I was point guard on my last team back home.” 

“I don’t know what that means.” She tossed a lock of hair behind her shoulder. Her eyes were burning into him like she was personally judging where he fit into the social caste system of the school.  “But good luck. I’m Star, by the way. My boyfriend’s on the football team so don’t get any ideas.”  

“Oh please Star, you’re like, totally out of his league, basketball team or not,” a new voice cut in from just in front of Star. Another girl with dark wavy hair turned to look at him. She had dark olive skin, almond eyes and thick eyelashes. “I’m Paulina, but I’m sure you’ve heard all about me already. People are kind of obsessed with me, they can’t help it.” She said it with a smile and a cute giggle to punctuate her sentences. He’d seen her in homeroom yesterday, and he knew right off the bat she was top of the hierarchy, her and Dash both seemed to have a pretty solid hold on their popularity. If he was going to survive here he needed to make sure they liked him, or at the very least had nothing bad to say about him. 

“I can see why, it’s nice to meet you,” he said. The two girls shared a look, shrugged and turned their attention away from him. 

He let go of the breath he’d been holding, feeling like he’d just passed some sort of test.  He’d never exactly been a popular kid. In elementary school he was small and easy to pick on. Unless Kyle was around, who had a nonchalant courage about him, even as a kid. It’d taken a lot of work for Wes to figure out how to fit in just under the radar of the big fish. 

He stepped into the bustling gym along with the rest of the Junior homeroom class. The bleachers were pulled out, and the class dispersed to find their place to sit. Wes bobbed his head over the shoulders of other students looking for Kyle. It took some work but eventually his eyes landed on his brother. He was lounging, taking up two seats worth of space on the far left side of the bleachers. He made a beeline for him, and took the stairs two at a time. The clamor of the student body filled the room, and when he sat down he had to speak over it. 

“Dude, can you believe this? A ghost assembly?” His brother had never been the most believing of the supernatural. But this place, openly acknowledging the presence of ghosts? He’d like to see Kyle try and refuse to believe now. 

“Yeah man! This school must really love Halloween.” 

And there it was. 

“Kyle. It’s September.” 

“And? Bro they got the Halloween decorations up at wally-world already, why not have a fun Halloween thing?” Wes frowned, and clicked his tongue. He propped his chin against his hand and watched as the school started to settle. His eyes wandered the rows until he found the goth girl. Danny and the kid she’d called Tucker were with her. They were sitting in the section over a row down. Danny had his hands stuffed into the pockets of his black NASA hoodie, and a pinched look on his face. He couldn’t exactly say he blamed the kid, the thought of his own dad showing up to give a presentation made him shiver in horror. 

They’d set up a stage in the center of the gym. Principal Ishiyama stepped up to the podium, and tapped the mic. 

“Hello students of Casper High! For incoming freshmen, allow me to officially extend a warm welcome, and to all returning students, welcome back!” She was way too chipper for the time of morning. “As many of you know we have to review some safety precautions. Now, this may not be new information but I expect you all to pay attention and be respectful regardless. With that, allow me to introduce local ghost experts: Jack and Maddie Fenton.” Ishiyama moved back, clapping for the guests. The crowd gave mixed reactions. Most people looked like they were only applauding out of awkwardness. Wes was definitely included in that category. 

A man and woman with brightly colored… jumpsuits? Hazmat suits? Whatever they were, came forward. The man was intimidating from the pure size of him alone. Jesus christ, he looked like a NFL linebacker. Next to him, was a slight and fit woman. She spoke first, standing at the podium. 

“Good morning everyone! My husband and I are honored to be welcomed back to run through the safety course with you kids!” Mrs. Fenton was peppy and direct with the way she spoke and the way she moved. “As of last year the manual ghost alarms were installed around the school.” Maddie motioned to the projector screen behind her that had been lowered from the ceiling. “As you can see here.” The picture on the projector showed huge red buttons ringed by yellow and black caution trim. Wes had seen them around before, but he’d figured they were for... tornados or something, they had those here right?

“If you see a ghost you are encouraged to press this button so that the school can evacuate and the correct professionals may be notified.” 

“By that she means us!” Mr. Fenton shouted, popping up in front of the projector. She moved on as if the interruption hadn’t even happened. 

“Whatever you do, do not engage with a ghost. Ghosts are highly dangerous. Even a low level ecto-entity can be a threat to your life and well-being!” Her voice was grave, and practically oozed with conviction. Wes looked over at Kyle, gesturing towards the stage, incredulous. 

“Really? Nothing to say about this?”

“What can I say, they’re pretty dedicated. Dude, Wes, it might be an ARPG, like remember the Halo 2 ‘I love bees' thing?”

“I hate you. This isn’t even anything close to—” 

“Shh!” Someone who sounded like a teacher hissed at them. He turned his attention back to the presentation, annoyed. 

“Now, let’s go over what to do if you think you’ve been possessed or otherwise overshadowed by a ghost! First thing to look for are gaps in memory or consciousness. Changes in mood or violent tendencies can also occur. Keep an eye on your friends and loved ones. Remember that no one is immune to being overshadowed by a ghost, unless you purchase a Fenton Specter Deflector available on our website!” Almost out of nowhere, the woman pulled out what looked like a metal belt. There was silence in response, and she cleared her throat. 

“If you or someone you know has been or is currently possessed please seek help immediately, go to your teachers or parents.” Wes watched as she moved on to the next subject, talking with the fervor and simplicity of an expert. Screw whatever Kyle said, this wasn’t just for shits and giggles or some halloween event. Something was different here. The other students, despite seeming bored, looked like they fully believed her. Maybe people here would actually believe him about what happened when he was a kid. 

The hazy memories crept along his skin, making the hair on his arms stand on end. His dad told him he had an active imagination. He knew it wasn’t that.

“Finally, let’s go over what to do if a ghost fight breaks out!” 

“A ghost fight?” he echoed, brows furrowing. 

“As we’ve said, do not engage or interact with ghosts for any reason—”

“Hey, what about Phantom?” Someone from the crowd shouted. A murmur of agreement rippled through the students. 

“Who’s Phantom?” He wondered out loud, and a guy sitting in front of him turned to give him an affronted look. 

“We strongly discourage interacting with Phantom especially! When it comes to ghosts, it’s simple. There are no good ghosts! Ghosts are ectoplasmic post-human impressions driven only by their obsession! They are not human and don’t care about the havoc they wreak.”  

The crowd murmured again, the disapproval evident. A few kids shouted unintelligible things, but they sounded defensive. Wes didn’t get it, the Fenton lady seemed to know her shit, why argue? 

“Quiet! Quiet please!” Ishiyama called over the voices. Eventually the students settled, and the Fentons wrapped up their presentation. Everyone seemed disappointed that nothing embarrassing happened, until Mr. Fenton underestimated the height of the stage, and face planted onto the gym floor. The students broke into an uproar of laughter, and Ishiyama rushed to the mic to dismiss everyone back to homeroom. Wes couldn’t hold back a laugh, and glanced over to see Danny hunching up his shoulders. If Wes had to describe someone that looked like they wanted to disappear, it would be Danny in that moment. 

The walk back to the classroom was uneventful, though he was pretty sure he heard Mrs. Fenton repeatedly calling out “Danny sweetie!” Wes was really glad he wasn’t that poor bastard, talk about humiliating. He tried to ignore the pang that twisted inside his stomach. Still, it must be nice to have a mom around. 

Fifth period started in four minutes, and Wes was stuck fiddling with the lock on his locker. The damn thing looked like it’d been fished off the titanic. The wheel made an awful squealing noise when he twisted it, and even when the lock popped, he had to yank on it to get it to unlatch all the way. He put in his combo for the third time and pulled. It came undone and if it weren’t for holes on the handle he’d have gone stumbling backwards. He opened the locker and was just about to grab his History textbook, when an ear splitting alarm blasted from the overhead speakers. He jumped and spun around, hands coming up to cover his ears. 

It wasn’t like a fire alarm, instead of the shrill school bell ringing, it was a long whooping siren that echoed up and down the halls like a nuclear strike was incoming. Wes had to hand it to them, it sounded creepy as fuck. The emergency lights flashed in the hallways, and the kids around him started to make for the exits.  

“Your attention please,” an automated female voice came over the speaker, offering  a brief respite from the siren. “A ghost has been sighted in the building. Please evacuate or get to safety as soon as possible.” Holy shit, was this really happening? The siren began its wailing again. His heart thundered in his chest, and he looked both ways up and down the hall. He didn’t see anything, except for Lancer standing at the end of the hall, directing students to an emergency exit. Wes remembered then that Lancer had said something about a “ghost drill”. Of course that’s what this was. Just a drill. Wes let out a shaky breath, and went to close up his locker before he headed out. 

Which in retrospect wasn’t the greatest idea. In less than a second, something changed. The hall felt darker, and the air grew cold. Not cold like someone left the window open, cold like he’d just walked into a meat freezer. It prickled against his skin, and he felt a deep sense of dread sink to the bottom of his stomach. 

“Little lamb…” Murmured a soft voice. It echoed up the hall, and Wes forced himself to turn and look. He shouldn’t have, he really shouldn’t have. It was the shape of a woman, but she was floating a foot off the ground. She had stringy hair, and bangs that partially covered her empty eyes. In her hand looked like a shepherd's crook. Wes slammed his back against his locker, his knees locking up. He felt his hands start to tremble. Not again, he didn’t want the nightmares again.

The hall was empty, the last few terrified kids were gone. 

“Little lamb... separated from the herd… Don’t you know there’s predators?” Her voice echoed unnaturally, it’s clarity sending chills across his skin. She was hardly speaking above a whisper, but it was rough and cracked, like something had happened to her voice. But the thing that was worse was even at barely a whisper, he could somehow hear her over the sirens. Like she was right next to him breathing the words into his ears. 

The alarm cut out and the automated message looped. The woman—ghost lifted her crook to point at him. “Little lambs have to come back home,” she said. The sound of panting and low growling filled the hall. A green shape, low and lean flew out from behind her. It closed the gap between them in three strides flat. It’s eyes glowed red, and white teeth slavered toxic green. Wes’ voice stuck in his throat and he couldn’t scream, he squeezed his eyes shut and hoped he’d wake up.

Wes felt the air stir in front of him, and he heard a meaty crunch followed by a deafening caterwaul. His eyes flashed open to see the mountain lion-like creature picking itself up off the ground on the other side of the hall. And directly in front of him, it was another human shape, another ghost. They had white hair and a black jumpsuit on. 

“Bad kitty! What, did someone forget the catnip?” It was a guy’s voice that echoed around the hall. The shape cast a glance over his shoulder at Wes. He gulped down a breath, it was a boy about his age. His eyes glowed the same neon toxic green that painted the hall in its supernatural light. He looked like he was about to say something, when the big cat hurled itself at his flank. Its massive front paws slammed into his midsection and they disappeared into the wall. 

The shepherd moved towards him, and Wes felt like he was going to pass out or throw up. Maybe both, both sounded okay. She was focused entirely on him as she drifted over the floor. She was four feet away, and the expression etched onto her dead face made his stomach twist. This was worse, this was way worse than even the nightmares. Her empty eyes leaked tears. 

“It’s dangerous. There’s predators.” She lifted a hand like she was trying to reach for him. A blast of green light suddenly filled his vision, and the girl let out a scream. She was slammed backwards into a set of lockers and she slipped down to the ground. Wes’ gaze snapped to where the blast of energy had come from and saw the ghost boy. He was floating six feet off the ground, and his right hand was glowing green. He had a long deep slash across his side that was oozing and dripping globby green ectoplasm. 

“I’ve never seen you before,” he said. “What do you want?” his tone of voice was firm and sharp, it felt like ice. The girl looked up at the boy. She opened her mouth and screamed. It was a raw terrible thing that petered off into an agonized gurgle. The ghost boy arched a brow, but before he could say anything else the Shepherd melted into the wall. 

“Shit,” the ghost puffed. He turned his eyes to Wes and he stiffened again. Right, he wasn’t exactly out of the woods yet. “You must be new here. Piece of advice, run away next time, okay dude?” The ghost boy looked up at the ceiling that still had the alarms blaring and rolled his eyes. In the next instant he shot through the wall where the shepherd ghost had disappeared. 

Wes let out a breath and sunk to the floor, shivering from head to toe. What the hell was that?    

[scientifically-strange]

Not by Blood

There were a lot of things that Clint thought was weird about the new kid they picked up in Amity Park. Why on earth would a fifteen year old kid, with friends and a family, and school, and normal teenager things want to join the fucking circus of all things? Then again, Clint didn't exactly come from a happy home either.

The kid was running from something, that much was obvious. But Clint knew that it was something he didn't need to pry into.

The kid came in saying he knew how to do the trapeze, and from his first run it was pretty obvious he didn't, but the ringleader wasn't one to turn away a kid in need, so he let Danny in anyway. But until he learned something for the performances, he was stuck helping with the moving and setup. He didn't seem to mind.

He's been with them a week and he's already shown that his scrawny demeanor packed a punch. He was small but he could lift literally twice Clint's weight without even breaking a sweat, and he was like a human air conditioner. When they were travelling through Arizona, half the train car they were in seemed to gravitate towards the kid. Just being around him dropped the temperature by a few degrees. Clint wasn't gonna say he wasn't grateful for it, but the kid definitely wasn't normal.

He hadn't spoken to him yet. Clint preferred to watch from a distance for a while, and it looked like Danny didn't really want to talk about anything anyway. Now, of course he got pulled into conversations about performances, and old friends, and old heartbreaks. But he never gave any details to his life. It was always vague.

But one night, when they had stopped for the night, Clint had found Danny sitting on top of one of the train cars looking at the stars.

"They're beautiful," he told Clint. Clint didn't ask how Danny knew he was behind him. Just from watching him he knew the kid was more perceptive than he let on. He doubted anybody, even Clint, could sneak up on him.

"Sure are," he replied, taking a seat next to Danny. He laid on his back, against the cold metal that he could feel through his jacket, and sighed. Danny was right. The stars were pretty tonight. But Clint wasn't looking at them long. He looked at Danny, who had gained a little bit of visible muscle from all of the lifting and moving. He still needed a sandwich, though.

Danny wasn't wearing a jacket despite how cold it was outside. But he didn't seem bothered by it, either. He seemed content, just starring up at the stars.

"I wanted to be an astronaut," Danny said after a few minutes of just sitting and enjoying the night sky.

"Yeah?" Clint asked. "What changed?"

"Life I guess," Danny said with a shrug.

"I get it," Clint said with a sigh. "The whole running from home thing, I mean."

"How could you tell?"

"Fifteen years old, your whole life ahead of you, and instead of finishing high school you join the fucking circus? Not to mention this is the calmest you've been since you joined us."

Danny let out a small chuckle. "You've been watching me," he told Clint. It wasn't a question.

"Maybe."

Danny sighed, and looked down at him. Even though Clint had been watching him for weeks now, he never noticed how startling his eyes were. They were a bright, icy blue that pierced him in a way Clint had never known before. Even with only the light from the stars, they almost seemed to glow.

Danny stared at him for a long time. So long that Clint started to get a little tired, but he didn't break eye contact with him. He felt that if he did, he'd miss a chance of not only finding out what the kid's deal was, but also missing a chance to genuinely connect with him. This kid was a part of his circus family now. Might as well become his friend or something.

"Why did you join the circus? He asked after what seemed like forever, turning back to the stars.

"Dad was a drunk, and mom didn't have the power to do anything about it," Clint answered. Yeah, it was shitty, and he wished things had been different, but he had made peace a long time ago with it. "My brother and I figured that the best thing to do for us was leave.

"Where's your brother now?

"Dead."

"Oh." Danny was quiet for a moment. "I've got a sister back in Amity. She's really smart. Like, Ivy League smart. Sh wants to be a psychiatrist and help people.

"I hope everything works out for her," Clint said. And he meant it. She was probably running in her own way, too.

"I'll keep you updated."

They sat for a little longer, marveling at the stars some more, before Clint silently got up. He clapped Danny on the shoulder, squeezing it for a moment, before climbing down, and going to bed.

--------

They had a lot of talks like that. For a few years, they would sit at the top of a train car, looking at the stars, and talking about their past lives, before the circus. Danny, Clint noticed, didn't really open up to anybody but him. And Clint felt like he had a brother again. Sure, a younger one this time, but a brother nonetheless. And if anybody messed around with him, they would have Clint to answer to.

Danny was a star now, in the circus as well. He did trapeze and aerial dancing, with the big silks. He seemed weightless, and at peace when he was high in the air. That's probably why he always sat on the train car when he wanted to be alone, or with Clint. Danny didn't just enjoy being high, he found peace in it. It was closer to the stars.

Danny was nineteen now, and he talked Clint's ear off constantly about his sister, Jazz, acing all of her tests at Harvard, and how his two best friends had left Amity. Clint met them once. Sam and Tucker were good, incredibly smart and perceptive kids. Clint couldn't tell if they got it from Danny, or if Danny got it from them, but they've maintained contact ever since Danny joined the circus.

Since he had joined, and started performing more, he had gained visible muscle. He was very lean, and still didn't look very strong, but Clint knew that he could probably bench press the strongman if he really wanted to. And he was still comfortable with the extreme cold, and his favorite place to eat was Nasty Burger. His favorite music was Dumpty Humpty, and he cried for three hours when NASA said Pluto wasn't a planet. Because somewhere deep inside of Danny, he still wanted to be an astronaut.

Clint loved his little brother with his whole being, and would fight anybody who even looked at Danny wrong.

---

One night, while they were parked in the middle of Nowhere, Oklahoma, Danny and Clint went on a hike. And Danny told him something Clint could never forget.

They had stopped by a small bluff overlooking hundreds of trees. It was the dead of night. Danny said he wanted only Clint to know.

"So, five years ago you asked me why I left everything and joined the circus," Danny started, looking at Clint. There was nothing but determination in his face. Clint nodded, a motion for Danny to continue. "My parents are ghost hunters, and they like to invent ghost hunting weapons. Well, one thing they made was a portal. And I got into an accident with it, and...

Danny held out his arms and let the white rings wash over him. It was blinding, so much so that Clint had to cover his eyes. No wonder Danny made him hike all the way out here for something like privacy.

When Clint looked at him again, Danny was standing there, literally glowing. His eyes were a toxic green, and his hair was white. And everything made sense. His fondness for the cold, and heights, and why he's so incredibly strong despite being a string bean. Clint couldn't find any words to say. He just starred at him.

"I told them, he said, his voice echoing slightly, about the accident, and about what it did to me. It turned me half ghost, and they..."

Danny's voice cracked. Clint had only ever see him cry once, about Pluto, but the rest of what Danny was trying to say was obvious. Clint rushed forward and pulled Danny into a bone-crushing hug.

And Danny broke down. He stood there for a long time on the bluff, crying into Clint's shoulder, wondering why his parents didn't love him enough to realize that he was still their son, despite the accident their lab equipment caused. It broke Clint's heart, because he could relate to not having parents who decided that one day they didn't love you. Who decided that one day they were going to take their anger and confusion out on you. Who, in Danny's case, woke up one day deciding to hunt down their own son for something that was out of his control.

They were there for a really long time. But once Danny was done, he turned back to his normal, black haired self and smiled at Clint, who hugged him tight. And Clint felt a familiar feeling, looking into those eyes.

It was like the first time Clint had sat on the train car with Danny all those years ago, and Danny had looked at him with those icy blue eyes. And Clint finally knew the feeling that came with it.

It was kinship.

---------

Three years later, when Danny was twenty-three and Clint twenty-eight, Fury approached them with a job offer. Clint for his marksman skills, and Danny for his ghost powers. Shortly after, they left the circus and joined S.H.I.E.L.D. on a path to help people in need. And they would do it together, just like they did everything together. Because they were brothers, not by blood, and nothing could ever break a bond like that.

As they walked through the halls, Clint with his bow and Danny with white hair, they smiled at each other, and opened the doors to the observation deck together. Fury turned around to look at them.

"Agents Phantom and Hawkeye reporting for duty, sir."

-

Might fuck around and make this a full length fic lmao

[srl541]

Week 3: Stars

Two months late, but I finally got this done! I started this back in mid-May but got a little overwhelmed (making music like this in a week was a bit much I guess orz). I gave up on the musical references to DP because they felt forced and instead wrote a short one-shot:

----------

The beginning (drabble)

"3, 2, 1, . . ."

With each count voiced over the comms, Danny felt his heart pound harder. His core was a tangled mess of excitement and worry, amplified by the agitated state he could sense in his crewmates.

"Blastoff!"

The shuttle quivered. He felt as if a weight pressed his whole self toward the floor, even as his anticipation soared through the ceiling.

His dream, at last. Humanity was another step further in space exploration, and he would directly contribute.

When the weight disappeared and congratulations were passed, he let himself relax. He was glad they hadn't required his unique "skills."

--

1 month later (one-shot)

"Danny, when you have the chance, can you come check this out? The ecto-scanner is giving some odd readings."

"Sure, give me a minute." Danny carefully secured the glowing-green flask he had been inspecting and jotted a few notes in his lab notebook. In seconds, he was heading toward the cockpit.

Scott waved him over. "We're approaching an area with higher ecto-readings, but it doesn't look dense enough to be a formed entity. What do you think?"

Danny rubbed his neck as he scrolled through the readings. "Yeah, the ecto-energy looks a little weak. But I'd say the pattern is a little strange. See how it's clustered in a path and not spread out evenly? I'll prep and be on the lookout in case."

"Good point. We still have an hour, so you have some time." Scott gave him a friendly shoulder pat and turned back to the navigation instruments. He conferred with Commander Kay and announced a warning over the comms.

Danny checked the Fenton thermos clipped to his suit and headed back to crew quarters to change, as well as to hand out backup ecto-blasters.

When he returned, he stared at the view out the front. Even weeks into the journey, the stars looked too clear to be real.

He almost hadn't made it to space. Not because of what he'd initially feared. When NASA had found out about his ghost half, they had instead been ecstatic about the new scientific possibilities his powers introduced. No, his struggle came from his crewmates. NASA wouldn’t let a contentious crew on a mission.

"You feeling alright?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, I'm good."

The emotions picked up by his core confirmed Scott's calmness. He had come a long way from his fears.

"You know, I'm really glad you're here to deal with this ghost stuff. I don’t think I’ve said it enough.”

“Well, that’s my gig. Semi-professional ghost hunter here,” Danny quipped. “Of course, my real job is jar-opening. Can’t forget that.”

Scott chuckled. “Right, you helped Jenny with her stuck jar this morning. Intangibility really seems handy.”

Danny grinned. NASA particularly didn’t mind having someone who could make things intangible on hand. Flight was also an invaluable tool.

He was beyond fortunate; his crew had mostly been understanding about his secrets. Mostly.

It took a long time, but patience and a lot of conversation helped mitigate fears about the supernatural and repave trust. All that work led to a closer friendship. Scott was one of the easiest for him to approach now.

Danny felt a rush of cold air come up through his throat. He squinted at the view, now glowing a slight green, and pressed the button for the comms. “Actually, I think there is something. Kay, do I have permission to leave the ship?”

An affirmative was returned. He re-checked his gear, gave a jaunty salute to his friend, and phased out of the cockpit.

The wide expanse never failed to amaze him, but he had a job to do. He zoomed ahead of the ship and reached his senses out, following paths that looked slightly greener than others.

There. Danny floated closer. A bare wisp of a ghost, a faint echo of what must have been a powerful being to get so far from Earth.

Or at least, that was what he assumed. Theoretically, the ghost world was a reflection of the human world.

He spoke into his comms. “There actually is a ghost here. They’re too weak to do anything, though. Must have wandered too far away from Earth and ran out of energy to figure out a way back.”

“Alright, so there’s no danger. What is your recommendation?” Kay asked.

Danny unclipped his Fenton thermos. “I’m taking them back home. The ectoplasm they left behind is really cool, too. Some of it is stable enough for testing. Might give some great data for the energy source experiments.”

“That sounds great. Be careful.”

Sucking the ghost into the Fenton thermos was as easy as breathing. With oxygen, at least. He gathered some samples by the time the ship caught up, and then he phased back in.

Scott gave him a thumbs up. Danny smiled back, content with how helpful his skills were for the mission.

It was as if his space journey was written in the stars.

-- 

Extra

An invisible shape loomed, observing the earthlings. The ectoranium asteroids would shield it from detection until it was too late for the small crew. It was true that the ghost wisp had once been powerful, but its fall hadn’t been straying too far from Earth.  

----------

More notes: I tried to add more instruments to make the sound fuller, but maybe it was too much? Or maybe the reverb blurred things together excessively? I had liked the echo-y sound, but it might have been the wrong choice. I still have a lot to learn about mixing/mastering, haha (and I’m not even recording stuff yet I’m just using VSTs). 

Inspiration for this piece was mainly from the Space theme from Overcooked!. The hyper-space travel background of the video was from #AAfvx (https://www.youtube.com/dvdangor2011).

On the short fic, I don’t really sci-fi and I still feel super rusty with writing, but hopefully it tells a story that can go along with the musical piece. The extra didn’t fit with the music but I think would fit more with DP fanfics, maybe? XD

I’m really glad this event was held since it really motivated me to create things again! There was a ton of talent in the fanart and fanfic I saw. But, I’ve realized that though I still enjoy the fanworks I’ve mostly moved on from the Phandom. I might go back to leaving anonymous reviews here and there. <3

[god-shops-at-thot-topic]

Okay so I had a real wack idea and that is: Jekyll and Hyde but in Danny Phantom AU. Basically it would be like an episode where Dr. Henry Jekyll becomes a new teacher at Casper High and right after he arrives a new ghostly menace (Hyde) shows up to terrorize Amity Park. I’ll put more info under this if you’re interested in my ramblings. 

Okay so basically, when Henry Jekyll was in college he got in an accident that  involved a homemade/really shitty ghost portal that he and (Hastie? Robert? Maybe something else?) Lanyon built. Lanyon and him had a fight over it and after Lanyon leaves the room to calm down Jekyll says “fuck it yolo” and decides to start up the machine himself. It blows up in his face giving him a scar on his right cheek and turns him into a half ghost. His halfa form appears younger than Henry and seems to have a bit of a mind of its own (due to the shoddy construction of the ghost portal). He calls himself Hyde because his first instinct was “HIDE” when security, medical personnel, and other assorted people on campus run to the wrecked lab. The name Edward comes later mostly as a personal “Ooo I like that name” kinda thing (if anyone has a better idea for this please share because im a dummy and can’t think of anything). Jekyll comes back and since he has the scar on his face Lanyon thinks he caused the explosion on purpose and whoop there goes their friendship. They end up both getting the blame but it’s less of a “you tried to blow up the school” thing and more of a “you really fucked up on your experiment and must have really miscalculated” thing. The school has their families pay for most of the damages (which is a-okay because they both come from wealthy families) and it just ends up becoming sort of an on campus joke. 

Years go by and Hyde ends up getting more and more of his own personality. At first he was almost completely influenced by Jekyll but now it’s become more like Hyde is a separate ghost possessing Jekyll. This becomes a problem when, as Jekyll is working in his lab, Hyde decides he’s bored and takes over. Jekyll ends up developing a chemical to control the transformations (HJ7) and put him back in charge of the situation. It works for a while but then Henry starts seeming black out for times, and what he hears about his actions as he’s blacked out makes him realize that Hyde is taking control/possessing his human form (basically green eyed Jekyll type scenario). This freaks Henry out, so he decides he’s going to find professional help. Low and behold, Amity Park, the town where some of the most famous ghost hunters live in, has a job opening for a new chemistry teacher at the local high school. Jekyll easily gets the job and starts working immediately. 

Henry soon becomes the teacher everyone either totally loves or totally hates. He’s very passionate about chemistry but knows a lot about other scientific fields and will talk to students about their favorite studies. Because of his passion for chemistry though, he grades very harshly and does not tolerate disruptions such as talking during lectures and arriving tardy (without a good excuse). This is what causes the great divide on the students opinions of him. Everyone stands on one side or the other. Everyone except Danny Fenton. Danny is the child of scientists, the local ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, and is very passionate about astronomy and wants to work for NASA when he grows up. The problem is he’s always either missing, tardy to, or sleeping in class. He also doesn’t really seem to grasp the material. Dr. Jekyll is torn because he can tell that Danny loves science and he has had really great conversations with him about astronomy but he’s just upset at how Danny is in his class. He ends up deciding that he will take the boy under his wing and tutor him to help him pass. This will also get him closer to Danny’s parents who he thinks can help him with his Hyde problem. 

Danny goes after school for tutoring (surprisingly there were no rogue ghosts attacking today) and waits for Dr. Jekyll to show up. And waits. And waits. Then his ghost sense goes off and he just can’t wait anymore. Danny grabs his bag and runs into down the hall to the boys room where, with a quick “I’m going ghost!” he’s off to fight the ghostly menace of the day. When he spots the spirit, he sees this is one that he’s never fought before. He’s tall and quite lean with bluish skin, venomous green eyes, green hair pulled into a flaming ponytail, and a nasty scar across the right side of his face. The ghost takes notice that Danny’s there and a fight ensues. And then it ends when Danny gets yeeted through a wall and the ghost disappears. At least Danny was able to pick up that the new ghost’s name is Edward Hyde during the fight. He goes home to work on his homework go to sleep. He just crashes right into bed and sleeps till the next day. 

When he gets to school, Dr. Jekyll comes up to him and apologizes that he couldn’t make it to the tutoring session and that an emergency had come up that he had to attend to. Danny was like no biggie and continued on with the day. He talked with Sam and Tucker about this new ghost. They go over where he may have come from, if he’s working for Vlad, and all the other possibilities including that it could be that Dr. Jekyll may be a halfa like Danny and Vlad, but that got brushed off as wrong (”That ghost did not seem like the kind of guy who’d have a PHD. He’s a MR. Hyde at best, not a Dr. like Jekyll”). The school day ends and Danny’s off to learn the ways of chemistry. This time Dr. Jekyll is there and the lesson goes according to plan. At least right up until Danny’s lesson is about over. When the topic of talking to Danny’s parents about his tutoring (and the possibility of them helping out with Jekyll’s halfa problem) is brought up, all of a sudden a change comes over the good doctor. He starts saying nasty things and acting like real bitch. That’s when Danny notices that Dr. Jekyll’s eyes are a vibrant shade of green. Seeing this as a sign that Jekyll has been possessed (hopefully by that Edward Hyde ghost from yesterday, Danny wants a round two with him) Danny goes ghost (because it’s not like Dr. Jekyll will remember anyway he’s possessed. 

This freaks the shit out of Hyde because a. he thought he was the only halfa there was b. holy shit this little scrawny kid is that ghost that nearly kicked his ass yesterday c. he thinks he’s been found out and d. holy shit this little scrawny kid is that ghost that nearly kicked his ass yesterday. Since he’s so freaked out, he slips a little and Jekyll comes to for just long enough to be punched in the face by the kid he thought would be his favorite student. This “little” punch shakes up Jekyll but acts as a snap back to reality for Hyde who makes them go ghost. When Danny sees the rings go around Dr. Jekyll turning him into Edward Hyde, he realizes he fucked up. A fight ensues which ends with an agreement between the two (three???). Basically Danny will leave them alone and not tell his parents as long as a. Hyde doesn’t forcibly take over Jekyll and when he’s out he doesn’t cause problems and b. Jekyll doesn’t try to destroy Hyde.

(when Danny tells Sam and Tucker about all this Tucker yells “HAH! I told you!”)

I think Hyde still gets up to mischief but he’s not a real villain just more of a pest. The real villain is Jekyll who goes to Vlad Masters for a side job (cause teaching don’t pay nearly enough as it should) where he ends up helping to develop ghost weapons. I’d actually see him being able to get close enough to Vlad that he learns a lot of his little secrets, just not the one about Vlad being a halfa. (I think Jekyll might be brought in to help with cloning Danny.)

And that’s pretty much all I got. I might make a fic if anyone wants it but there’s no real guarantee on the quality since I haven’t taken a creative writing class in over 4 years.

[duckapus]

My Danny Phantom Reboot (as was owed for the Phight)

Okay, so first off I should mention that this is going to be less “what if someone made a reboot of Danny Phantom now” and more “what if Danny Phantom was done right to start with.” This means there’ll be more emphasis on storytelling and characters, none of H*rtm*n’s usual shenanigans, but the storyline as it was is going to be more-or-less intact, depending on what I think I can salvage.

So, let’s talk powers.

Danny is going to have all the powers he did in the show, given gradually and with clear foreshadowing. His ghost sense is currently just a bit too conspicuous, so I’ll be changing it from a wisp of cold breath to a chill up his spine, though for the sake of the audience there will be a visual and audio indicator of it, much like Spider-Man’s spider sense. Starting out, he just has that and the three basic ghost powers, though they won’t work properly for a while, and I’ll make it clear that this is because his half-ghost status prevented him from gaining the instinctual knowledge to control them outright. While there are some abilities that he gains during times of stress (like ectoblasts and the ghostly wail) he’ll have to actually practice in order for them to work with any level of consistency.

Like I mentioned, there will be some foreshadowing, specifically when it comes to his ice powers. There’s going to be multiple points where someone mentions that he has cold hands, with many of those people being ghosts to imply that it isn’t a ghost thing. There’ll be more emphasis on Ghost Cores and Core Types. Danny isn’t going to be as affected by warmer or colder temperatures as other people, usually being the last one to need to put on a jacket. He’s going to be somewhat weak to fire-based attacks. And there’s going to be a multi-episode buildup to his powers freezing him.

I’m also going all-in on the space motif. His bedroom is covered in star stickers and NASA posters. He tends to look up at the stars whenever he needs time to think. He isn’t afraid of heights at all because up is good, up is safe, up is home, and flight is the only power he never has trouble with as a result.

And now, for Danny’s parents. First off, for this, they do not want to destroy ghosts. They want to study them, understand them, and keep people safe from the ones that cause trouble. They know full well how little they actually know and how small their sample size is- that’s why they’re working on equipment to actually explore the Ghost Zone in the first place! Yes they’ll screw up, and jump to conclusions, and be a bit too enthusiastic. Yes, they’re working off of some pretty big assumptions, because that’s all they’ve got. But at the end of the day, they’re the first to admit they’re not perfect. And as far as priorities are concerned, they’re parents first, scientists second, and hunters third(if even that).

Jazz and Tucker are already good as-is, as are most of the ghosts, so let’s move on to Sam and the “A-listers.”

So starting off, because I’m not Fartman, I will not be vilifying the popular kids just because they’re popular. For Qwan, we’ve already got the fanon of him being a sweet cinnamon roll who’d be a great friend to everybody if he were just able to say no, specifically to Dash. And with Star I’ll be going with a strong-willed girl who’s fully willing to call the others out when they’re bullshit goes to far, though she’s admittedly got a looser definition of “too far” than she should.

And now the big three. So my interpretation of Sam, Dash and Paulina is that a big chunk of their issues come from them not quite growing out of their jackass middle schooler phase(you all know what I mean). That’s not all of it, or even most of it, but it’s a big enough part that them acknowledging it will be a huge step in the right direction.

In Sam’s case, a lot of it also stems from her need to control as much of her life as she can, which developed in response to how little control her parents let her have. This ranges from harmless (her love of gardening and “ultra-recyclo-vegetarianism”) to really not okay (her tendency to manipulate or strong-arm people into doing what she wants) with her harsh judgement of people and trust issues landing somewhere in the upper middle. All of this to say that she’s a lot more like her parents (and Paulina, to a lesser extent) than she realizes.

With Paulina, while she does still have a lot of problems, being a crazy, obsessive fangirl isn’t one of them. She knows full well that her feelings for Phantom are just a celebrity crush and they aren’t about to get together any time soon (the boy’s dead as far as she knows, for god’s sake!). She’s also very observant, not to the point of finding out the truth about Danny but enough to realize quite a few other important details…

With Dash, all I’m really going to be changing is that his Football Star status absolutely does not give him free reign to do whatever he wants, because I respect Mr. Lancer more than that.

Admittedly I haven’t quite figured out their other classmates yet. And Valerie’s arc is already good as-is, though I won’t be including her getting shunned by the “A-listers” because this version of Star ain’t gonna let that fly. I’m also including Wes, because his antics are glorious and I think I can do some cool stuff with him.

Now, along with giving the characters better characterization in general, I’ll also be giving them their own time in the limelight to show what Danny’s situation looks like from an outsider’s perspective. Valerie in particular ends up as something of a secondary protagonist.

And now we come to Vlad. Oh, Vlad.

Okay, so in this version, Vlad inviting the Fentons to the reunion was a genuine attempt to reconnect. Unfortunately ghostly obsessions are powerful things, and he sort of relapsed into hating Jack and wanting Maddie for himself. Things more-or-less continue as normal, though with his desire to take on Danny as an apprentice coming off as him actually, genuinely wanting to teach Danny how being a halfa works, which makes it a little comically awkward when he tries to turn their battles into a teaching moment. He still becomes the mayor, though this time around it’s because he genuinely thought it was a good idea, and he got voted in legitimately.

Unfortunately it all sort of goes downhill after a while. Due to his current mentality of “tired old uncle just wants to get over his issues and help out” clashing with his obsession with Jack and Maddie, he’s sort of cracking, and the fact that Danny adds an extra layer to both isn’t really a good thing.

And then we get the clones. In this version, they all last a lot longer, and sort of act as Vlad’s minions for a while. The Frankenstein’s Monster-esque one sort of acts as a big brother to the others. He’s also very smart, even if he can’t really say much, and as time goes on he starts to realize that something is very wrong with Vlad. It all comes to a head when Dani is created, because Vlad realizes that even with a human half she still isn’t stable and something inside him just snaps. At this moment, there’s now two Vlads in there; Masters, who’s honestly just tired of all the fighting and pushing people away, and Plasmius, who’s essentially season three Vlad in all of his megalomaniacle obsession-fueled glory. Frankendanny’s destabilization is a big moment in this, as are the other clones holding back Vlad as they’re melting so Danny and Dani can escape at the end of the episode.

Dani still ends up traveling after that, though she’s not just ignored as she’ll be sending Danny postcards of places she’s been and there’ll be a few episodes dedicated to her adventures (with some hints to her instability getting worse.)

D-stabilized is where thing get really crazy. This is because while I’ve been distracting you with my Danny Phantom remake, there’s been a secret, second remake of Fairly Oddparents hidden in the background! I won’t go into too much detail, since that’s not what this is about, but It follows the same structure of apply overarching story, focus on characters, trim off what doesn’t work. Because of this, Timmy happens to be in the same city where Valerie finds Dani (I don’t think they were in Amity Park yet, but I’m not sure) and meets Dani before Valerie does. The episode plays out more-or-less the same (Val uses Dani as bait to catch Danny, gives Dani to Vlad, Danny appeals to her better nature, she finds out that Vlad is an evil half-ghost and that not all ghosts are evil thus shattering her world view) but with the addition of Timmy tracking her down to her weird holding cell/torture room place (seriously, what was up with that?) and then tagging along and somehow holding his own against Fright Knight with nothing but a blaster he managed to swipe from her (since not only does he have to deal with having human allies, but also the fact that magic doesn’t work that well on ghosts, which means no fairy help).

After that, there’s a few breather episodes to the end of the third season, mainly to do with Valerie processing everything she’s just learned.

And then Freakshow gets the reality gauntlet, because I’ve been holding that off until now. Danny gets his identity revealed on live television, the Guys in White are after him, and Freakshow is holding Amity Park hostage until Danny can find the three stones he scattered.

There’s just a few small changes I’ve made:

The stones got scattered across the planet, instead of just the country

There’s no easy way to track the stones unless one gets activated, unlike in the original where they had ecto-signatures

Wes and the “A-Listers” get dragged along for the ride

Because Freakshow isn’t a complete idiot and realizes that it will take a significant amount of time to find the stones, the team has until the end of summer.

Instead of everybody being in cages (since that won’t really work with this time frame) Amity Park is surrounded by an impenetrable dome, and both ghost portals are clogged up. Nobody gets in or out unless the ringmaster says so.

The second and third parts of Wishology and an adaptation of Nicktoons Unite are happening alongside all of this, so along with GIW and ghosts the team is going to be dealing with the Eliminators and The Syndicate.

Carl, Sheen and Libby have somehow tagged along.

We’ll be calling this arc the Road-trip from Hell, and it, along with the other two story arcs, will be taking up the entirety of the fourth season. The other two arcs will experience changes as well, such as Dani going with Timmy, Mark Chang and the Villains to find the Wind Wand due to being in Dimmsdale when it happens, Catman, Chip Skylark, Elmer and Sanjay getting captured along with the rest of Timmy’s friends, Valerie and Tootie getting recruited by Jimmy to fight the Syndicate since Timmy and Danny are busy and they’re honestly the only two options, and Anti-Cosmo being the Fairly Oddparents representative for the Syndicate since Crocker is also busy.

For the sake of storytelling, I should mention that GIW is a fanatical splinter group of MERF in this continuity, and have already been established as major antagonists. Also throughout the season Fairy World is basically going to be a warzone locked in a three-way battle between the Fairies, the Anti-Fairies and Syndicate, and the Eliminators, which all three groups see at one point or another.

The final battle is really going to be four going on simultaneously- Danny and Team Phantom(which by this point will also include the reformed agents O and K, because I like them) vs Ghost Freakshow, the robot army just outside of town, and Lydia; the Nicktoons vs the Syndicate’s doomsday device; Cosmo in his Godzilla form vs everything the Syndicate and the Eliminators can throw at him, and Timmy vs The Destructinator (which will actually be a full-on fight, with the outsmarting thing just being Timmy’s trump card). It’s going to be really cool with a bunch of well-timed jump-cuts and everything.

Then in the aftermath I’m going to basically spit in the face of the status quo. Danny still erases peoples memories of his reveal, but leaves out the new members of Team Phantom (because if he has to remember the road-trip from hell, so does everybody else), and it also doesn’t work on Valerie (or Tootie) since they were in Jimmy’s universe at the time, which is going to be Fun for Danny to deal with when she gets back. Timmy, Chester and AJ are also immune, due to AJ secretly making the three of them immune to memory wipes in general so Timmy wouldn’t have to forget his fairies or go through what happened in the first Wishology again. He would’ve done the same with Elmer and Sanjay, but he didn’t get the chance.

After all that, season five is a return to the norm, other than dealing with the new character dynamics, the Vlad situation, and all the Fairly Oddparents stuff leaking in. I haven’t really worked out all the specifics, since I sort of got caught up in the season four stuff.

Note: For obvious reasons, I cannot actually reboot Danny Phantom and/or Fairly Oddparents. Unless I come up with ideas later on down the line, or other people decide to add their own ideas, this is what you get.

(@phandomphightclub, I did it!)

[artificialqueens]

New Kid on the Block (pearl x adore) chapter 13 - Thehotinpsychotic

When the group all gathers again at lunch, Brian immediately tells Matt, “You are such a hungry dick pig. Don’t think I didn’t notice what happened in history.”

Matt shrugs. “I don’t know what you’re talking about; I just got my book from my locker.”

“You must think I’m really stupid,” Brian replies.

“He doesn’t think you’re stupid, babe,” Bryan cuts in. “He knows you’re stupid.”

Brian screeches.“I hate everyone!”

“Did you hear about the house party this weekend?” Danny asks, desperate for a subject change.

Brian nods, prompting Matt to question, “Are you going?”

Scoffing, Brian replies, “No. Our school doesn’t like fags.”

Matt rolls his eyes, stating, “When everyone’s trying to get fucked up, they don’t care. Cliques die when kids get drunk.”

“That’s what they want you to think,” Brian insists. “If I go, they might dump pig’s blood on me or something. They’re all gonna laugh at me!”

“Well, Danny and I are going,” Matt says.

“Let me know how that goes,” Brian replies. “Do you want to hang out after school and smoke?”

“Uh, always,” Matt replies. “Boy, I’m turning you into a regular stoner. Pretty soon you’ll be buying your own weed… I will be your weed parent.”

“What’s a weed parent?” Bryan asks.

“Ooh! Lesson time!��� Matt announces. “So, a weed parent shows you the ropes and gives you tips, sets you up with a dealer, and shit like that. As much of an asshole as he is, Jared is my weed dad, so I have that to thank him for.”

“And nothing else,” Danny adds.

“You are absolutely correct,” Matt agrees.

After congregating in Matt’s bedroom, the group passes three blunts between the four of them, closing the door to get as close as they can to boxing it out. Sure enough, the room does get hazy in good time, the boys’ eyes all reddening as they finish off the blunts. After their smoke session, they all sit dumbly for a second, each slowly realizing how stoned they are. Finally, Matt asks, “Wanna watch TV?” When the trio bob their heads in unison, Matt grabs his remote, opening Hulu. “Is Broad City okay? Speak now or forever hold your lease.”

Brian squints. “Hold your lease?”

Matt nods slowly. “Speak now or forever hold your lease; they say it at weddings.”

“Peace!” Bryan corrects, the word hardly recognizable behind his wheezing cackling.

The other two burst into laughter as Matt looks confused. “Hold your peace? Are you sure?”

Brian screams and Danny is wiping tears from his eyes as Bryan squeaks, “Yes, I’m sure!”

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” Danny teases, kissing Matt.

Matt rolls his eyes, a slight blush rising in his cheeks. “Whatever.”

They watch the show for some time, rolling another blunt in the process and smoking it (because it’s obligatory to smoke while watching Broad City). They’ve reached the end of the episode when Brian groans dramatically, “I need food.”

Matt’s eyes drift over to him lazily as he replies, “We can go raid the kitchen.” He stands, grabbing Brian’s arm and pulling the sluggish teen to his feet. Brian drags behind as the two travel to the kitchen. Matt swings the freezer door open, offering, “We can make a pizza.”

“That would be excellent,” Brian replies.

“Preheat the oven to 425,” Matt orders, withdrawing the cheese pizza and setting it on the counter.

“Your oven is like a fucking NASA control panel,” Brian groans. “Can’t figure out how this shit works.”

Matt pushes him out of the way lightly, murmuring, “Move, dumb whore.”

Brian pouts. “You can call me a whore, but don’t call me dumb.”

“You are.”

“Hold your lease,” Brian retorts, his eyes bugged and crossed.

Holding the pizza cutter threateningly, Matt warns, “You better stop.”

“Let’s go back until it preheats,” Brian says.

Matt sets the pizza on the middle rack, setting the timer. When he turns to see Brian’s jaw all but grazing the floor, he chuckles, demanding, “What?”

“You don’t wait for it to preheat,” Brian says. Shaking his head as they walk, he sighs. “I thought I knew you. I never picked up on the fact that you’re a primitive fucking savage… using crude tools… and fire.”

“News flash: people still use fire,” Matt replies as the two settle back into the room.

“Shit, you’re right,” Brian admits.

Eventually, Brian and Bryan depart, both still baked. As they leave, Brian calls, “You still didn’t fool me in history class, you dick pig whores!”

Matt laughs. “I need a new best friend.”

“Can I apply?” Danny asks. He kisses Matt, his arms draping over his shoulders.

“No,” Matt answers. When Danny pouts and bats his lashes, he adds, “Well, you’re my boyfriend! So like… you’re already my best friend.”

“Aww,” Danny gushes. “And here I was ready to fight you.”

The two start to make out, Mart shifting to palm the front of Danny’s pants. Danny’s head falls back as he whines, grinding himself down into Matt’s hand to get more. Matt retaliates by sliding Danny’s pants off, followed by his briefs. He sucks on Danny’s neck before sliding down to tease the head of his cock with the tip of his tongue, tracing neat circles around the head before lapping the underside of his head. He hums, coaxing further down the shaft as his hand floats up to grip Danny’s hip. He feels Danny’s fingers lace through his hair and smiles, deepthroating Danny twice while humming. Danny’s moans grow louder and louder, which Matt has to admit gets him hard. He starts to palm himself as he continues his work, striving to get Danny to finish soon. This is an achievement that he makes, Danny whining under his breath as he comes. After swallowing, Matt drifts upwards to kiss Danny, his hand cupping Danny’s jaw as his tongue traces his plump lower lip.

The two break the kiss, smiling at each other warmly, their faces still close together. Matt’s blue eyes flick up and down Danny’s frame. “I love you.”

Danny lies down, wrapping Matt’s arms around him as he responds, “I love you too.”

[fundeadasylum]

Phanniemay 2018 Day 13: Swap

Being rich is easy.

It’s fun, it’s powerful, and it’s amazing.

And it’s very, very lonely when you have no one except ghosts to share it with.

Danny’s been alone since The Accident and it’s done little to temper the burning indignation in his chest. He’s done his best to move past it, distracting himself with making donations to schools and charities and spending his riches on his hobbies (NASA still won’t let him charter a flight to the moon by himself and it’s infuriating).

But then he needs some help with the Ghost Portal he’s been building and there’s only one person he can think of that could give him what he needs.

So he calls up an old classmate he hasn’t seen since high school. Tucker Foley has done well for himself (not as well as Danny, but then, he has certain advantages) and is enthusiastic to help with the Portal.

It doesn’t work.

Danny’s dejected and moping and miserable until Tucker suggests an experiment. And Danny’s thrilled because he’s got access to all kinds of technology and ghostly bits and he shows Tucker what he can do and then they get all sorts of ideas.

It’s some time later that they realize Tucker has essentially moved into the mansion and Danny thinks now is a good time to tell him about The Accident in college. He explains the faulty Portal that opened temporarily but in an explosive wave that killed his two lab partners and landed him in the hospital for years. He explains that since that time he’s been half ghost, shows Tucker his ghostly form, and expects his old friend to run away screaming.

Tucker thinks it’s the coolest shit he’s ever seen.

Nothing really changes.

Then there’s a high school reunion. Danny, tired of being a recluse, opens up his mansion in Wisconsin as the venue, going so far as to offering rooms to those who can’t afford or don’t want a hotel. And it’s in doing this that he runs into his old high school crush, Samantha Manson. She has a kid with her—adopted, they find out later, but still something they didn’t expect dear old Sam to do. She laughs at their gawking faces.

“Danny, Tucker,” She pushes her son forward and he grumbles at her, even though he can’t keep a smile off his face, “I’d like you to meet Vladimir.”

“Call me Vlad.” Says the boy with his dark hair pulled into a loose ponytail.

Later that night, during the party, the Ghost Portal activates. With Vlad inside.

And Danny finds he is no longer the only half ghost in the world.

-------

I really have nothing to say about this except that I probably could have executed it better.