#Danny got mad engineer skills | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

goliath-de-senfina-sango · 3 years ago

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Stories, Questions, and Power

A Phantom Adopted, chapter 3, ao3

An impressive 8 hours later saw Danny pulling himself slowly to the conscious part of his mind, letting everything settle in because Summer break meant his only alarm was however loud his parents were being. He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and let it out slowly. Phasing through his sheets, Danny ignored the sound of keys clacking and filled the room instead with the sound of his joints popping as he stretched.

“That’s disgusting.”

“You stay in my room long enough for me to wake up, you suffer my wake up actions. Besides, it’s hardly the grossest sound you’ve ever encountered. Have you heard yourself with soup?”

Danny laughed, grabbing up a blue and purple galaxy shirt with stars sprinkled over it, a cat’s face printed right over the heart, and some shorts. He leaned over Tucker’s shoulder to look at his monitor.

“Lookin up Doomed cheats?”

“I should do that later. I’m actually looking into some D&D sourcebooks to find out what all we might sorta know about Toby. I was right, by the way, Aasimar are from this game.”

“Begs the question: which came first, the game or the world?”

Danny grabbed his underclothes and saluted Tucker as he landed.

“Be back when I’m clean.”

“I might be too old to hear you for conversation by then.”

Tucker laughed and Danny focused on his pillow, spreading his energy around it. With a flick of his wrist, the pillow went flying and Tucker caught it with his face, flopping over.

“Oof! Hey, how’d you do that?”

“A guess, observation, and mad skill.”

Danny gave Tucker finger guns and backed out of his room, heading to the bathroom. After a quick shower and brushing his teeth, Danny kicked his door open, making Tucker jump in his seat, whipping out his lipstick laser, and Danny cackled.

“Nice reflexes, Tuck. Maybe you should work on your situational awareness.”

“I could say the same for you, Danny.”

Jazz neatly dodged the backhand Danny sprang on her without thought, grinning down at him with a smugness that only siblings could achieve.

“Here I thought you had supernatural senses.”

“I guess paying attention is important no matter how sensitive you are,” Tucker said with a snort.

Danny rolled his eyes and let them glow, the green light enveloping his bedding as he telekinetically made his bed.

“So, do you wanna try a game tournament over at Sam’s, get beaten at skateboarding at one of the skate parks, or look into the roots of your super hero style? I know we’re gonna do something cool today, but Sam picked yesterday and it’s your turn now.”

“Well, right now I wanna eat some food that isn’t contaminated by ectoplasm.”

Danny turned to Jazz who offered a thumbs up.

“I finally convinced Mom to get a fridge for samples only put down in the lab, and finally convinced dad to use the right fridge for the right thing. Our food should be ecto-free.”

Jazz stumbled a bit when Danny all but tackled her in a hug but she smiled and returned it all the same.

“I know, I’m amazing.”

“What amazes me is the fact that your parents needed to be told to keep their dangerous chemicals in their dangerous laboratory. Aren’t they like, bleeding edge engineers and stuff?”

“Yeah, but everyone’s got their blind spot, Tuck. Our folks lack common sense, to make room for all the inventive genius.”

Danny let go of Jazz to escape the ruffling of his hair and grabbed his bag from beside his desk.

“I think I’ll go with asking Toby and Cole stuff, Tuck. It’d be a waste to not learn whatever I can from them while they’re here.”

Jazz once again ruffled Danny’s hair, which he whined about as he flew out of reach. She laughed and smiled like the sun, literally lighting the room up from where Danny could see.

“Good thinking, little brother, putting that brain of yours to good use and actively learning. I’m proud of you.”

The light in the room grew brighter and the heat lessened significantly as Danny beamed at the praise. He shrugged, reclining on the ceiling.

“Well, unlike most of the things in school, this is actually important to my life.”

“Don’t pretend he’s wrong, Jazz, we go to a public school.”

Jazz held up a finger, mouth open with a rebuttal on the tip of her tongue, held that pose for a breath, and crossed her arms. Danny laughed, taking the pillow thrown at his face with grace.

“I suggest we put together a list of things to ask them, then.” Jazz pulled a notebook out from behind her back and Danny shook his head. “Oh, don’t give me that, you have a thermos clipped to your belt loop.”

“Yeah, cause I need that wherever I go, Jazz. But fine, let’s make a list, we can do that while we cook. C’mon Tuck.” Danny pulled Tucker up by his arm, ignoring his friend’s protests about research into the Forgotten Realms.

Danny would deny that his love of space guided him to his decision about where they should meet up for this discussion, regardless of the teasing Jazz, Tucker, and Sam threw his way. Jazz drove them to the abandoned, somewhat demolished by missiles Observatory, since Danny couldn’t carry them without stretching his arms out in a way that had Tucker comparing him to Mister Fantastic. “Dude, I’m way better than Mr. Fantastic. I actually care about people, for one.”

“Ok, so you’re Monkey D Luffy, then?”

“Sam, please, I don’t eat that much.”

“Maybe you should, little brother, you’re rather undernourished. Have you considered actually trying Mom’s food?”

“The ecto-contaminated food?” Danny stared at her, eyes wide with horror. “The shit Dad puts in the prototype microwave ‘improvement’ that reanimates?”

“You are ecto-contaminated, Danny, and I’m wondering if you need to ingest ectoplasm along with regular food.”

Danny instinctively looked around them, worried about being overheard even inside of the car while they drove out to effectively the middle of nowhere by now.

“With all the activity in your day-to-day life, you shouldn’t be so skinny.”

“Even my own sister is calling me scrawny now, I simply cannot escape Tetslaff’s judgement.”

Danny let invisibility slowly roll over him from head to toe and Sam and Tucker laughed their heads off while Jazz smiled and shook her head.

“Jazz, almost all of the exercise I get is in ghost form, and I don’t think I have cells in that form, let alone muscles that can be built up and shit.”

“Can’t you just make your skin invisible and then we could test that hypothesis?”

Tucker gagged at the suggestion and pointed his PDA’s stylus at Sam.

“That’s absolutely disgusting, why would you even say that? Did you get high before this happened or are we simply being cursed with vile visions by a temperamental witch?”

“I’m not a witch, Tucker,” Sam said, rolling her eyes. “If Danny’s right then we won’t see anything gross, and if he’s wrong then you can look away and I’ll confirm or deny. How’s that you big baby?”

“Nosocomephobia doesn’t make Tucker anymore of a baby than your love of anime makes you some basement dwelling weeaboo, Sam.”

Sam narrowed her eyes and Jazz’s smile grew just a bit.

“I have friends, you have friends, people talk. Really, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, anime is growing more popular in mainstream western media these days.”

“Please don’t remind me, it’s less cool if it’s mainstream.”

“Why Sam,” Danny gasped, a hand on his chest. “Doesn’t that mean you’re letting the crowd tell you what is or isn’t cool, based on what they do or don’t like? That doesn’t sounds very independent of other people’s opinions to me.”

“That’s true,” Tucker said, arm up and ready to block the swat from Sam. “You did only seem to hate Ember’s music because she was popular, Sam. Her music is pretty amazing with or without the hypnotism planted in.”

“I’m pretty sure Remember by Ember was made a flop in my mind because I had to listen to you screeching it to the tune of three cats fighting to the death. Oh wait, that was your attempt at singing.”

“Move over, Spectra, we’ve got someone with a sword in her mouth already,” Danny said, whistling at the sick burn.

Tucker clutched his chest and slumped against the car door. “What a blow struck by a dear friend. How ever shall I survive?”

“Maybe you’ll reincarnate again and this time you’ll be responsible with the scepter. It’s a good thing you put it away in the museum.”

“Right, totally, I put it back in the museum.”

The car was quiet for a moment while Tucker tapped away at his PDA, suddenly very interested in something on his screen.

“So what happened with this scepter that Tucker put back?”

Sam stared hard at Tucker for a long moment before turning her attention to Jazz.

“Ah, well, it turns out that Tucker is the reincarnation of the Pharoah Duul Amon, who was also a sorcerer. The scepter allowed Tucker to do some absolutely bonkers shit, like drag the entire class into a pocket dimension modeled off of ancient Egypt, as well as wipe all of their memories of the event.”

“But not the emotions that came with the memories – Tucker, you did put that thing back in the museum, right?”

“It’s mine, so I don’t see why a museum should have it. Neither does it, apparently, cause it just reappeared in my room one day surrounded by sand that was a pain in the ass to clean up. It can’t exactly do all that stuff that it did before, like animating pictures and stuff. I think making and undoing a pocket dimension drained the charge on it.”

Danny, returning to visibility, sighed and twisted his head around to look at Tucker in the seat behind Jazz without moving his torso an inch.

“Leave it to you to drain the battery on a magical scepter within a day of getting it.”

“I’m gonna need you to put your head right the fuck back where it was just now or I’m gonna have to kick it in place.”

Danny stuck his tongue out and turned the rest of himself to fit with his head.

“Close enough. And excuse you, I’ve been amazing with the batteries on all my girls. I’ve simply never built a whole dimension with my thoughts before.”

“Ok, this all has fascinating implications that I’d love to get into later if you’ll let me,” Jazz said, slowing down the car. “We are, however, here, and I think we should focus up a bit.”

“Of fucking course Tucker has something cool like a magical pre-incarnation who he inherits a magical scepter from because fuck me and my goth aesthetic, the normal techie gets the magic he probably doesn’t even want.” Sam’s grumbling was, to the average person, practically unintelligible. To Danny, who had preternatural hearing, it was practically in his ear even as he phased out of the car and went ghost above it.

“Maybe these guys can show you how to make your own magic thing, Sam. After all, Duul Amon put together his scepter and even Freakshow probably made his.”

“I’d much rather Freakshow wasn’t the one who made that staff, actually, cause if he did then can’t he do it again?” They all shuddered, and Tucker put away his PDA while Danny phased into the building. “Yeah, sorry for bringing that up.”

“No, that’s actually an important thing to consider, Tucker. We’ll come back to that.” Jazz pulled out her phone, typing away rapidly while the doors to the Observatory slid open. “Ok, now to get down to business with this angel of yours.”

The team walked inside, heading into the room with the actual telescope itself, and Sam pulled out the ring once more, tapping the gem and calling out to Toby. The air buzzed with energy and mist poured from Danny’s mouth like a fountain was turned on. A flash filled the room with an explosive BOOM and no less than 10 feet away stood Toby, with a blue skinned man floating by his side, an arm twice the size of Dash’s wrapped around the druid’s shoulders with a small tornado for a tail. Echoing across the entire observatory was the man’s deep voice, kaleidoscopic eyes locked on all three of them at once somehow, “Boo.”

Danny’s fear was a tangible thing that coiled around his every limb and held him frozen in place for all of 3 seconds, power racing to his hands to unleash the biggest blast he could manage in order to get the threat before it could get him.

A sigh joined the echoes and Toby slapped the man beside him upside the head, much to the ghost’s visible – and soon audible – amusement.

“Stop scaring the kids.”

“Ok but their faces!”

The blue ghost man, who Danny assumed was Cole now that he could think some semblance of straight, bent over with laughter, his body wreathed now in a rainbow. His laughter was joined by Sam’s, as everyone else slowly relaxed.

“Oh my gosh, you guys didn’t actually get scared by that, did you? All he said was boo.”

Sam shook her head, and Cole clapped his hands loudly.

“Oh, I like you. Not many people can handle when I’m trying to spook em, specially not kids like y’all.”

Cole flew closer, holding a hand out to Sam and another to Danny.

“Cole Lumano, Toby’s husband and, according to someone whose name I’m forgetting at the moment, ‘The Raging Storm’.”

Valdan sighed from beside two and ran a hand through his hair. He was wearing a bright red shirt and grey pants. In one hand, he had a basket that Danny could see a soft glow from, though it was different and far gentler than the light shimmering around Valdan’s body, almost like the air was dancing through colors.

“As the person who gave you that nickname, I’m touched that you’d put in the effort to forget me. Truly, family is all you can count on to disregard you.”

Cole rolled his eyes and wrapped Valdan in his arm, giving him a noogie.

“Aw, don’t be like that, you know I could never forget you. You cook about as well as your brother does, after all!”

“Toby you best look for a new husband, I’m killing this one.”

“Babe, please. We are trying to make a good impression on the children, aren’t we? Also, didn’t Valdan give you that title, for the songs?”

“Maybe it shouldn’t’ve been so catchy, cause a lot of people started calling me that, and while it was funny sometimes it was also kind of annoying.”

“Hi,” Jazz said, holding out her hand to Cole, which he also shook. “I’m just wondering why you thought scaring us was an appropriate first greeting? You might’ve scared off your potential student, after all.”

“Oh, that was a test, to see how easy y’all are to scare, what your immediate fear response is, and how fast you snap out of fear and into action. Also, it was, again, really funny.”

Cole crossed his arms, the rainbow lining his being dimming a bit as he circled the group like a shark.

“Plus, if a little prank was enough to scare you off then either I’m not the teacher for you and ya need to find someone else, or I’ve been away from people long enough to forget how to talk with em. People fear so easily, after all.”

“I see someone’s been either paying attention to the monologues from the evil people we fight, or to my performances. You sound so dramatic, we’ll work on improving that. Hello, my name is Valdan Lumano, this windbag is, for some reason, my cousin.”

“Didn’t they teach you how that works in your little school? Well, you see-”

Valdan pulled from the basket a small bread bun which he threw with startling accuracy and speed at Cole’s mouth. Cole caught it with his teeth and started chewing, while Toby simply laughed.

Danny twisted his head around and around to keep an eye on Cole, who grinned and ruffled Danny’s hair.

“Hey, I put a whole two seconds’ worth of effort into that hairdo today.”

“Monumental, I’m sure,” Cole drawled. “So, you want me to teach you how to get the weather to do what you want it to, right?”

“I was actually planning to learn how to make ice cream with my ghost powers from you, but weather control will do, I guess.”

Cole barked out booming laughter and wrapped an arm around Danny.

“Oh, we’ve got a funny one, you know how to find ‘em babe.”

“An important part of being able to do any cool thing with magic or muscles is how much fuel you’ve got in your stomach and what kind. My family tells me that you’re alarmingly thin for someone so powerful and with a whole year’s worth of experience in combat. I was hoping they were exaggerating.”

Danny groaned, rolling his eyes and tipping back until half of his head was phased through the floor.

“Why must everyone call me skinny?”

“I’m calling you malnourished, actually. I’ve brought you something to eat so that you can work on that, and you’re gonna start every training session we might end up doing by eating, deal?”

Danny did a loop through the ground and then the air, tail curling under him like a snake’s before he shook the hand that Valdan had extended.

“Sure, I guess. If it’s good then that doesn’t sound all that bad. Oh, you just, you already had something.”

Danny was handed a bun, hot enough to feel through his glove and clearly filled with something. Valdan grinned and gave him a thumbs up, while Toby shook his head in the back.

“I also have something I want to discuss before we go about training, and that has to do with that list of ghosts you’ve given us.”

Toby pulled out the list and Danny sucked on his teeth while Tucker and Sam grinned.

“Based on our experiences in life, it’s not smart to go into an area and just start killing people.”

“Right, uh Cole, can you promise that you’re not gonna kill anyone on that list?”

Danny had his doubts but he had to at least try.

“Firstly: no. Secondly: a bit late for that.”

“You can keep some of them safe by telling us what exactly they even did. Some of these people could just use a stern talking to, while others might need more drastic measures taken.”

Jazz cleared her throat and stepped forward, holding up her notebook.

“On that note, we have a few more questions for the three of you, which we have collectively agreed to ask you. Does an answer per story sound like a fair trade?”

Toby grinned ear to ear and held out his hand, which Jazz shook firmly.

“It certainly does. Are we training in here?”

“No.”

Danny coughed into his fist and swallowed a mouthful of delicious meat and vegetables before he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Uh, no, I don’t wanna risk breaking something in here. Outside though, we can definitely do.”

Danny flew backwards until he phased through the roof and Sam and Tucker both sighed before heading out through the doors. Cole followed Danny through the roof, and Jazz, Valdan, and Toby shook their heads, walking to the doors like civilized people.

“Fair enough. Fire away your questions, Jazz.”

“There’s something on here that I personally want to know that I’m sure Danny will be interested in as well. Our parents are considered the world’s greatest experts on all things ghost, which isn’t very hard to achieve in a field of study that is effectively only 1.2 years old that you yourself create, but they have an irrational bias against ghosts.”

“Yeah, don’t your folks think that ghosts can’t feel pain?”

“Oh, Tucker, if only.” Danny scowled. “’ If we hear screaming, we know it’s working!’”

Jazz sighed, gripping her notebook hard enough to bend it.

“That was a disturbingly accurate imitation of our father’s voice, Danny, I didn’t know you could reach that low. Have you been keeping up on your vocal training?”

Danny beamed and gave a thumbs up, floating a little higher while Cole circled him, lightning arcing across the genasi’s body in tiny flashes.

“Your parents sound shitty.”

“Absolutely awful and in for a rather unrestful eternity thinking like that.”

“They are… excellent mechanical and chemical engineers, but neither of them has actually captured a ghost for study before, even during the invasion, and they’ve never exactly stopped to ask questions when they see a ghost just minding their own business. So, I wanted to clarify on one of their theories.”

Toby shrugged and nodded, rolling his shoulders before pointing at Valdan. Valdan offered a thumbs up and rolled his hand at Jazz.

“My parents believe that ghosts are all supernaturally driven by an obsession that keeps them stabilized, and that if one were to prevent a ghost from fulfilling or at least temporarily satisfying that obsession, they would destabilize and dissolve into a puddle of inert ectoplasm.”

Toby steepled his hands in front of his face and grass began to grow up between the cracks of the sidewalk path leading up to the observatory.

“Mm, that is certainly something based on the whole ‘unfinished business’ thing, isn’t it? Well, gosh, how do I put this?”

“While the priest and demigod decide how to explain passions and shit, I think I know where to start with this training thing. I’m told your mortal face looks much the opposite of this?”

Danny’s head snapped up at the sound of Cole and he shrugged.

“I was wearing this during the portal accident but it was white with black gloves and boots before. I think I have a backup one back at the house, actually.”

“First of all your choice in fashion is atrocious,” Cole said.

“How would you know, you’re naked!”

“No, he has a point, Danny,” Sam said. “Just because it’s all black doesn’t mean it looks good.”

“Some friend you are,” Danny grumbled.

He conjured up a ball of ectoplasm to flick Cole’s way. Cole responded by flicking his wrist and kicking up a gust of wind that pushed Danny back a good 5 feet.

“Dude, you gotta show me how you did that.”

“First I gotta see what you can do. So, what can you do, kid? I’ve only ‘fought’ one ghost round here and he was in a big metal contraption so that honestly doesn’t feel like it counts.”

“Oh, David’ll get you for sayin that,” Toby mumbled.

“So, I don’t know what y’all round here can do with your magic. C’mon kid hit me up.”

Danny shrugged before putting on a smirk and taking a swing at Cole, which wasn’t even dodged. Instead, Cole turned into a cloud that Danny sailed through and solidified with his arms around Danny in a chokehold.

“Nice try, but no. I mean the kinda shit like what I just pulled, kid, I know there’s no way in hell you’re gonna hurt me with a punch.”

“Oh yeah, then why’d ya dodge?”

“Cause I don’t want you breakin yer fist on my chest. I’ve seen some wimp hear that I’m an air genasi and they think that they can just hit the cloud man and nothin bad’ll happen, so they came at me full force. There’s a lotta blood in your hand once it’s split open, ya know.”

“Right so, the way your parents describe it, and even the way they named it, is… inaccurate.”

Toby pitched his voice to try and carry over the description that Cole was, no doubt, about to go into.

“The core that I described earlier? In a ghost that is the brain, through which one controls and even rebuilds their body. Still, even if one can destroy a ghost’s core, it would take a very very powerful god to destroy a soul.”

“Isn’t that what the core is, though? Wouldn’t the soul be the brain of a ghost?”

“Not really, Sam, no.”

Valdan set down his basket as he began to gesture with his explanation.

“See, souls are always on the move to somewhere when you die, your flesh and blood – or wires and steel, etcetera – is simply a vessel for your soul to inhabit, and a ghost is no different from any other body. The core allows for a soul to interact with the ectoplasm surrounding it, or if there’s not a lot of that then whatever they can get themselves into. This is why shoving a soul directly into a construct is a terrible idea, because there’s no brain to do all the important things that brains do.”

Tucker tilted his head to the side.

“I’ll be honest, I’m surprised you know about brains.”

“I’m a healer back home, and while I could have let the magic do all the work, that felt lazy. So, I did some learning and, admittedly, let the magic help me with that learning. Now I know lots of things.”

“He’s learned a great deal from fucking around and finding out, you see. Ow, what, you did.”

“Some of us prefer to do more than just pray for the answers to complicated questions.”

“Some of us have religious reasons not to go digging around through a corpse, too.”

Cole whistled when Danny turned himself into a cloud of green mist to get out of his light chokehold.

“Very good! That’s the kinda stuff I’m tryna find out about you kid.”

“Ok, what does the function of a ghostly core have to do with obsessions and unfinished business?”

Jazz had a pencil out and was taking notes down at a speed normal people would find alarming. Nobody at the gathering was normal, however, so no one commented on it.

Valdan and Toby looked at each other, having a whole conversation with their eyes, before turning back to the group.

“Right, well, ghostly bodies are hard as hell to damage, even if you’ve got the magic needed to make contact with them. Cores are practically made of diamond for how hard it is to crack one, let alone destroy it. Ghosts are, effectively, immortal outside of the absolute worst possible conditions.”

“Sometimes a ghost is wrapping up unfinished business on the mortal plane where they last lived but most of the time they pick a hobby to keep from going insane from boredom. That’s if they don’t get picked up by some god to be put to rest or punished or whatever the particular god plans to do with wayward souls they come across.”

Cole shrugged and gave Danny a beckoning gesture, fists raised with a grin on his face.

“Ya can’t do nothin for eternity without losing your mind, so you pick something and do that for however long it entertains you.”

“Exactly!”

Toby didn’t bat an eye when Danny fired off several ectoblasts at Cole, who took them to the arms and chest with a laugh.

“Some people can get a tad obsessive, but that’s a tendency of everyone I think.”

“Of course, I will say there’s usually a bit of compulsion apparent when a ghost does reach the mortal world and is able to get down to that unfinished business.”

“What’s more engaging than crossing out your bucket list even after you kick the bucket?”

Danny ducked a tackle from Cole and threw up a shield when he spun around to try again.

“What am I even supposed to be showing you?”

“Didn’t you shock that one ghost cop or whatever he was with his own whip?”

Tucker scrolled through his PDA and nodded to himself.

“You told us you’d done that when I asked. Think you can do it again?”

Danny shuddered and shook his head.

“I don’t think I’ll be zapping anyone anytime soon, no. I’m pretty sure I just took the energy that he was pushing through the thing and sent it back with my own charge. Any ideas, wispy?”

“Well, Toby was right when he said I’m the guy to go to about this. You’re certainly blessed and loved by the sky, but I don’t know if you’re a Weather kinda guy.”

“How do ya mean?”

Cole gestured at the observatory and arched a brow.

“Would you say that you’re passionate about the stars, kiddo?”

Danny nodded, grinning as he floated in the direction of the building.

“Absolutely! I love outer space and the stars and it’s my dream to be an astronaut and explore the cosmos. There’s so much about our own universe that we don’t know, so many mysteries that we may never get an answer to! We’ll never know if we don’t go out and look and I want to explore and learn!”

“Oh, his freckles are glowing! That’s cute.”

“His eyes are crescent moons, too, that’s real cool. Ok kid, I think you’re more a stars and space kinda Sky Spirit than the weather kind that I am. Bet you can absolutely pull of some of my tricks though. Babe, wasn’t there a circle of star druids?”

Toby furrowed his brow and crossed his legs, and Danny let himself slide into the warmth of invisibility as mild embarrassment washed over him. It was cool that they knew something about stars and his powers being tied to his love thereof but still. Who just gushed about nerd shit in front of cool explorers from a whole other universe? Valdan clearly wasn’t even dead!

“The Circle of Stars is a thing, yeah. They keep records of star movements and stuff and draw power from the physical heavens. Congrats, Danny, you’ve got a blessing almost nobody does! It’s rare that anyone can just tap into the power of the stars.”

“Well, I dunno if I can just tap into the power of the stars, actually. What would space powers even be?”

Cole shrugged and ruffled Danny’s hair with a snort.

“Magic came pretty naturally for me, but I was also a whole ass teenager when I started shootin out lightning, not a baby.”

“Alright, how long until I’m considered an adult by ghost standards? Being called a toddler is getting old.”

Danny folded his arms over his chest, legs turning into a tail while Cole held up his hands in faux surrender.

“That we don’t know yet,” Valdan said with a shrug. “We’ll have to ask around. But hey, that was 2 questions from y’all so it’s time for some stories about these ghosts.”

Toby waved a hand and the concrete around them rose up as if it were liquid, settling into seats for the five of them on the ground.

“Any of them that you wanna tell us about first or shall we pick?”

“Shall? When’d you get so fancy, antler boy?”

Cole dropped down to drape himself over Toby’s back regardless, and the blond scratched his chin.

Jazz, meanwhile, considered her options carefully and decided that starting off with the absolute worst ghosts they had collectively had to deal with would put a sour taste in everyone’s mouth.

“If I remember correctly from what I’ve been told, the first sapient ghost that you all fought was the Lunch Lady, right?”

Danny and Tucker nodded while Sam groaned loudly.

“She was so aggravating.”

“Is it because you were forced to consider that maybe being a vegan isn’t for everyone and you shouldn’t force your ‘healthy food choices’ down everyone’s throat whether they want it or not?”

Tucker offered a sunny grin to Sam’s dark glower.

“I’ll admit, the food at the cafeteria sucks ass, but that isn’t because there’s meat on the menu.”

Cole, Toby, and Valdan stared unblinkingly at the four of them, and Danny let out a long suffering sigh that lasted much longer than humanly possible. It went on for a good minute before Tucker threw an eraser at him.

“Why do you- no, I don’t need to know. Right, her. Ok, so this might sound ridiculous if you haven’t done any research on like, modern America yet.”

“Not yet, but that’s going onto the list of things to look into.”

“The longer we talk with y’all the more I worry we’re going to end up moving here almost whole sale.”

“Oh what, can’t handle saving another world, big guy?”

“Can I do that with violence?”

“I would prefer if you didn’t.”

“Noted, Danny. Anyway, this Lunch Lady person?”

“Right.”

Danny floated in an orbit around the seats with his legs crossed.

“So, Sam convinced the schoolboard through what I assume to be an amazing combination of pestering and bribery to change the menu at our school’s cafeteria for a week to her strange diet, including grass that was growing out a bun, and quite literally nobody but people who – like Sam – refuse to eat things that come from animals liked that.”

“That doesn’t sound like an all that healthy diet,” Toby said, frowning. “I’m no chef but I’m pretty sure a lot of nutrients come from meat.”

“I am a chef, and yeah there’s plenty of nutrients that come from meat - depending on the animal, practically every nutrient most humanoids need are in the meat of other animals.”

“I prefer not to benefit from the suffering of defenseless living beings.”

“You mean like plants?”

“Wha- plants don’t suffer from being eaten.”

“Do you believe, Sam, that plants don’t have thoughts and experience tactile feelings? Cause I promise you they do. Hell, I can tune you in to their voices if you want.”

“Toby, put back on the guise of a wise old druid with things like self restraint and wisdom.”

“He asked permission before doin it, I’d call that restraint songboy.”

“That felt like a threat, so I’m gonna also have to ask that you chill the fuck out and not threaten my friends.”

Toby rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair.

“It wasn’t a threat, it was an offer to commune with nature the same you would any other being. My mother is literally the goddess of the forest I was born in. As in, the combined consciousness of all the living things in the forest, plants, fungi, animals, all of it.”

“That’s great, and we can save that for another time, but right now Danny is telling us a story.”

Danny high fived Valdan, who grinned and high fived him back.

“Apparently one of the lunch ladies who serves the food to us students but like, 50 years ago, sensed that the menu had been changed, and came to the school to investigate. She blew her lid when she found out that there was no meat, cheddared our ears off about how essential meat is in someone’s diet, and kidnapped Sam to try and make her eat it.”

“If she’s only 50 years dead, that’s actually pretty understandable. Her ghost would’ve only just formed and I guess she took a great deal of pride in making that menu.”

Valdan pulled from the bag strapped to his waist a leather bound notebook and pen, and started writing.

“Anything else of note with this one?”

“She called Danny scrawny, then pulled all the meat in the basement of the school into a giant monstrosity made entirely out of processed corpses.”

Sam shuddered and rubbed her arms.

“It was so incredibly gross to be trapped in a pile of meat.”

“That’s both disgusting and wasteful.”

Cole’s face scrunched up and the air around them cooling drastically.

“That’s so much food!”

“Oh, and one time when I was in prison I saw her make a giant turkey leg to beat people up with,” Danny added, a mildly exciting afterthought.

Toby, skilled at schooling his facial expressions, waited until Valdan had written that all down to look up and stared directly into Danny’s shining green eyes.

“What?”

“Why were you in prison?”

“I would like to know why too, actually, I don’t think you told me about that.”

Jazz rubbed her temples, and Valdan gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

“Oh, yeah, remember when you were having a melt down about being wrong about dad?”

Jazz cringed a bit and Danny chuckled.

“Like it was the first time you’d ever been wrong in your life.”

“What about your dad was she wrong about exactly?”

Danny turned his attention back to Cole and let out a deep breath.

“Ok, so, dad was showing me the Specter Speeder™ and Mom came down to ask if he’d remembered their anniversary around the same time that he shoved me into the driver’s seat to show off the controls.”

“Of course he did, why wouldn’t he?”

Jazz sighed, rubbing her temples.

“Mom banged on the Speeder while yelling at him for literally always forgetting their anniversary, and that somehow activated the propulsion system. I dunno why.”

“Percussive Maintenance works on prototypes, sometimes,” Tucker said, snorting. “Especially with Fenton Tech.”

“Or Technus.”

Tucker laughed and Sam groaned.

“I was uh sent jettisoning into the Ghost Zone for the first time ever and I was absolutely terrified. Saw this colossal giant skeleton in a white suit and he gave me a warning about how ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it’ and that the Speeder was an unauthorized vehicle or whatever and I gotta say: terrifying experience, 0/10, would not recommend. Backed right back into the lab.”

“Did either of your parents notice that you were gone?” Toby asked with a raised brow and Danny shook his head.

“Nah, they were too focused on Mom yelling at Dad.”

Valdan wrote something down in his notebook but Danny couldn’t imagine what.

“So a few days later Mom went to go visit our aunt Alicia in another state and brought up a divorce – which turned out to just be the anniversary of our Aunt’s divorce but I was freaking out thinking that our parents were gonna break up and Tucker was no help.”

“Hey, I was right, they weren’t gonna divorce and you didn’t need to worry,” Tucker said, crossing his arms.

“You were still pretty bad about it. It’s ok, with how you flirt with women, I don’t think anyone expects you to be tactful.”

Sam patted his shoulder.

“Excuse me?”

“Anyway, Dad went after Mom, I cleaned up the house while Jazz had a nervous breakdown about being wrong for once about Dad, and when I got to the lab I uh. Started using my ghost rays to organize the place.”

Cole barked out a laugh and Toby snorted, laughing himself into a little ball on the chair while Valdan covered his eyes with a hand.

“You- you shot the trash into the can?”

Danny coughed into his fist, face warm.

“I shot a lot of things into a lot of places.”

“You can’t tell me you aren’t like your folks ever again,” Sam said, “cause shooting the lab clean is something your dad would do and you know it.”

“That suggests Dad would clean the lab without Mom telling him to do it, but yeah, that’s what he’d do.”

“You’ve given Cole an idea. It’s safest when he doesn’t have those.”

“Well, now I’m a little embarrassed to say what happened next.”

Danny crossed his arms and scowled at his traitorous friends and sister, all laughing just a bit harder.

“Since y’all think this is so funny maybe I should turn it into a stand up routine instead, I’ll be the next John Mulaney.”

“No, please,” Toby said, clearing his throat but still grinning wide. “Please, continue. What happened while you were shooting the trash around in the lab?”

“Well… Dad had left the portal open.”

Cole’s hair froze once more into spikes, the rainbow he’d been flaring out with his laughter gone in an instant.

“So, I accidentally shot the present he’d gotten to apologize to Mom with into the open portal, and after like a day of freaking out about it I decided to go in and get it back. I had a camera and mic on me so that Sam and Tucker could see where I was going and talk to me the whole way, but there were some uh complications.”

“Complications arose from flying into the afterlife, alone,” Jazz deadpanned. “I would never have guessed such a thing might happen, Danny, truly this was completely unforeseen.”

Danny opened his mouth to defend himself, a finger raised high.

Sam beat him to the punch, grinning like a cat.

“When Danny met up with the Box Ghost, he asked ‘what are you doing here?’ and Boxy asked where he thought the ghosts went when he emptied the thermos into the portal. Which, an incredible point. Where else would the boxed up present go but to the box ghost?”

“Alright, that’s fair, I guess. But before I could just grab the thing and go, ghost cops raided the place and arrested me and Boxy,” Danny grumbled. “We got taken to jail and put in prisoner jumpsuits – black and white stripes and all like some old movie. Walker – the giant skeleton who was now only like, 7 feet tall instead of 700 – told me he was, ‘Judge, executioner, jury, executioner, and if needed your Executioner’. He apparently really likes that part.”

Toby hummed and the clouds overhead grew thick and dark. He rolled his hand, and Danny’s legs turned into a tail while he started flying in a circle around the group.

“So, I get into a little fight in the cafeteria cause a bunch of ghosts I’d dealt with were in there – Technus had his weird mech on, Skulker was there, so was Desiree, the Lunch Lady, and Boxy. I reminded them that I just tossed ‘em back in the Zone, not in the prison, and we came together and planned a riot.”

“You know, if you tried diplomacy a bit more you’d probably have less recurring fights with ghosts.”

“During the fight?”

“After. We’ll talk about that later, please go on about Walker.”

“I can even help with the lessons, actually.”

Danny stuck his tongue out at Jazz and tossed a ball of goop at her shoes. Tucker piped up while he did, raising his PDA in lieu of the actual Speeder control panel.

“This is around the time when we went in after him. We used what the Fentons called their ‘real world item locator’ to find the present and presumably Danny, though I was also following the signal of the headset. Signals just got… kinda funky.”

“We got lost and I tried to ask Princess Dora for directions but she flipped out and went dragon on us, so we flew away fast as we could. The chase ended when we flew through a rock and found out that Earthly objects can just go through anything in the Zone.”

“That makes a little sense,” Toby said, “you were in a world built on belief and expectation, and regardless of how they’re able to manifest here in this world, you’ve undoubtedly got the deep seeded belief that ghosts are intangible, right?”

“Well, yes, before the portal opened everyone just sorta knew that ghosts can’t touch things,” Sam said, “what’s that have to do with it?”

Valdan grinned and started gesturing again, his notepad flying all about but never losing his spot. Danny couldn’t read whatever it was he’d written down anyway.

“Well, if you went in believing that ghosts can’t be touched, however in the back of your mind it was, then you went in believing that you couldn’t touch the ghost world either. Perception is reality in a world made entirely of ectoplasm, since it’s the basis of reality in the first place. Entire worlds can be, and often are, dreamed into existence there. A strong belief can be powerful in the Infinite Realms.”

“When Tucker and Sam got to me in the prison, I realized that I should just transform back to human and I changed, grabbed the present, and left. I got the present back to Dad, but the Box Ghost was in it for some reason.”

Tucker raised his stylus this time, realization painted over his face.

“I think the Box Ghost uses boxes on Earth as portals.”

All of team Phantom groaned as loudly as they collectively could.

“How else would he get here so often?”

“He was probably just hiding in it,” Cole said with a laugh. “If he’s getting his ass beat by a child on a regular basis, he can’t be strong enough to go opening portals like that.”

“Well, reality is pretty thin around here.”

Toby ran his hand through the air. With a snap of his fingers the air went completely still, making it harder for the present humans to breathe it in and out.

“I can almost feel it tangibly, so it stands to reason that someone of relatively low power could weave a corridor through it if they had the right tool for their personal use.”

“Hon, the air is my thing.”

With a wave of Cole’s hand the air flowed again, a strong breeze sweeping over everyone, and Toby cleared his throat.

“Sorry ‘bout that, he gets dramatic sometimes.”

“Says the man who teleported us here with thunderous gravitas.”

“At least he didn’t go suffocating everyone to demonstrate the thinness of reality. Now, Danny, eat some more, you’re terribly skinny.”

Danny caught a food bun tossed at him and was caught between the urge to retaliate against being called skinny and appreciation for the food. Hunger won out and Danny dug into the bun, feeling all of the sudden like he’d never eaten anything in his life.

“What’s even in those, and can I try some?”

“That depends, Tucker, how much ectoplasm is in your system? I made this on our ship in the Infinite Realms, so it’s saturated with energy that I’m not sure non-magical humans can safely have in their system.”

Tucker tilted his head to the side and looked between himself, Jazz, and Sam. He shrugged and shifted around in his seat before counting off on his fingers.

“Sam and I’ve been in the Ghost Zone for extended periods of time without any kind of protection from the ambient ectoplasmic radiation; Danny has possessed me a few times, which I hate; Desiree the wishing ghost transformed me into some approximation of a half ghost but I got it all expunged with the ghost catcher, and I can do this.”

Tucker put his stuff down in his lap and held out his hand, furrowing his brow in concentration. Danny arched a brow at his best friend as sand swirled into the shape of Duul Amon’s scepter, and then fell away to reveal just that in Tucker’s hand.

“I’d say I’m probably magic enough to eat the thing, though I still wanna know what’s in it first.”

“Daniel James Phantom, you get this goop off my shoes this instant.”

“Yes, mooom.”

Danny waved a hand in Jazz’s direction and the goop flew off of her, splattering on the ground.

“It’s mostly just some vegetables that Toby grows in our garden-”

“Oh, it’s our garden, now? When’s the last time you went in and took care of anything besides harvesting ingredients?”

“-with some chicken and pork. I dunno how Duncan and David made those doors work but they sure as hell do.”

“So it’s basically a stew in a bun?”

“Yeah, want one? Danny seems to think we don’t see him levitating more to himself while we talk, but there’s not gonna be much left soon I imagine.”

“Damn, I can’t tell if he likes the flavor of it’s he’s just been starved of magic for so long he’ll take anything. Then again, it’s your cooking so probably the second thing.”

While Valdan punched Cole, Tucker set down the scepter and reached up to snatch one of the buns from Danny’s telekinetic grip.

It was a lot easier than he expected.

With how quickly the bun disappeared down Tucker’s gullet, taking it from Danny was much easier than it should’ve been.

“Dude, this is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten! You gotta give me the recipe.”

“Mmmm, no I don’t actually.”

“If you’re done stuffing your face, I’ve got an idea on how to do some basic fuckin training. First, you’re gonna figure out that connection to the sky, and then you’re gonna drop the ghost form and we’re gonna do some actual exercise.”

“I can help with that too, you need to do a lot of stretching.”

“Actually, speaking of training, I had a question for you, Toby.”

“Fire away, Sam.”

“Is your magic something that you’d say can be learned by anyone, or is it something exclusive to you? And if it can be learned, are you a qualified teacher?”

Toby’s lips flattened into a line and his eyes darkened rapidly, growing wide and focused entirely on Sam.

“My magic is the magic of nature, drawn from the world around me, and in order to use it, you have to be willing to open yourself up to the natural world. Nature is violent and gross, storms and disasters and all manner of sharpened bones to kill with. Things have to die for other things to live, and alien as it may be to you, even plants and fungi have a consciousness that can feel pain, especially when ripped out to be eaten. I knew all of this all my life because I was born to a forest goddess and raised in her woods; can you face that reality without buckling under the weight of its atrocities?”

“Harsh,” Tucker muttered, and Toby would admit, he was a bit harsh on anyone that wanted to learn the ways of druidic magic. Most that asked were only thinking of the ways that they could use it to dominate their foes in battle or gain more social power, not how they could use it in service to their world.

Those people would usually back out of things as soon as he started teaching them how to use components harvested from animals and plants to cast spells, even when those components were cleaned up for practice in a sanitized and safe environment. Stars knew they wouldn’t be able to handle the big guns.

Adults of all kinds were unprepared, how could he expect more from a human child?

Sam stared right back at Toby, rising to her feet with her fists at her sides.

“There’s nothing you can show me that I’m not ready to see. I fight reminders of death and tragedy every single day just to keep myself and everyone around me alive. Can your magic help me keep people safe or not?”

“Natural magic affects ghosts as much as it does anything else, so yes.”

“I can handle it then. Teach me, and I’ll learn. Hell, I might even show you a new thing or two.”

Toby smiled and held out his hand, the pressure in the air gone.

“Teaching and learning are often more the same than one thinks. I can’t promise to be the perfect teacher, of course, but I promise to do my best, and in return I expect you to respect the teachings of my mothers.”

Sam shook his hand with a grin, relaxing visibly.

“I can do that, promise. When do we start lessons?”

“I’ll tell you when I’ve got a lesson plan all set up,” Toby said with a laugh. “Now, does anyone have anymore uh questions?”

Tucker half raised his hand and groaned.

“Why do Danny and Sam get cool mentors from another dimension and I don’t?”

“Well, I don’t have some extra-dimensional mentor, you’re not alone.”

“You’d just psycho-analyze anyone who tried and teach them something instead, and you hardly want one.”

Tucker crossed his arms and pouted, slouching in his chair. Toby snorted and arched his brow.

“Sounds like Valdan could teach you how to do some enchantments?”

“Maybe, maybe not. I’m not sure how I feel about Jazz having magic, frankly, let alone bardic magic. We’ll see.”

“Fair enough, though I’m not sure I’m interested in learning magic anyway. I prefer things that make sense.”

“That’s subjective, but fair. Going back to Tucker: what do you do? Got any magic tricks to share that you need help with developing?”

“Well, last time I used this I’m pretty sure I got partially possessed, so maybe some help with figuring out how the scepter works and how to keep being me while I use it? Cause I did some wild shit with it last time.”

“Didn’t you say it had run out of magic on the ride here? How’d you summon it?”

“...ghost magic? Maybe it charged up a bit off the ambient ectoplasm in all of Amity Park.”

“We do have a couple of artificers on the ship, I’m sure they’d love to help you figure out your scepter. They specialize in magical artifacts, and building mechanical and magical wonders. Actually, didn’t David say he wanted to learn about this world’s technology?”

“He did, so maybe we can get him out of his little workshop and hear to meet you. After all, it’s best to see things on the plane they were built to function in, isn’t it?”

“Alright, that’s enough of that. Twig, you’ve cleaned out the basket, time to work on that sky magic.”

Cole slapped Danny on the back and he coughed a bit before swallowing around the last of his food. He scowled and shot a ghost ray into Cole’s chest, earning a hearty laugh.

“Good! I kinda felt that one. Now, you said you zapped a guy before, yeah? Do you remember what it felt like to do that, or should I try something weird?”

“How weird are we talkin’, here?”

“Well, I’d be connecting with your core to try and stimulate the parts of it that feel similar to mine. I dunno if you noticed, but I’m pretty blessed by the sky myself. The solid body is convenient to hang out in smaller spaces and with solid people with, but it’s hardly all that I am.”

Thunder rolled across the sky, rain, hail, snow and sleet flew from Cole’s body out in all directions and danced in the wind all around them. With a CRACKOOOM Danny’s vision was filled with pure iridescence and his body tingled from proximity.

“So, I should be able to help with that.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to see again. Holy shit, man, give a guy some warning next time!”

Danny muttered, blinking spots out of his eyes. He shook his head and squinted at Cole.

“This wouldn’t let you like, read my mind or anything, would it?”

“I don’t know how to do that, but if I did then yes. I don’t though, and if I could read your mind I’d’ve probably done it by now.”

“He would, he doesn’t like wasting time at all.”

“That’s… honest of you, at least. Ok, I guess. Sure.”

Danny held out his hand to Cole, who grasped it firmly and closed his eyes. A feeling not unlike being overshadowed passed over Danny, something Else slipping into his very being and following the flow of energy back to its source at the center of his chest.

“That’s weird.”

Cole simply grunted, rifling about in the culmination of Danny’s entire being. He could tell near immediately that the soul before him had the potential to stretch on and on, infinite and ever changing, a blessed Chosen child of the great Sky. He also knew that the baby was far too young to shine as a star, he needed first to be a nebula and experience all that such existence had to offer. His passion - Explore protect learn stars moons galaxies voids - was adorably intense.

Arcs of plasma from shrieking, singing stars was locked away, too reminiscent of lightning for the kid. That was fine, he very soon found a far more suitable connection to make, and pulled as gently as he could.

“Have you considered, Nebula, that space and quite a few things in it happen to be colder than a blizzard?”

Beneath them, the temperature dropped 20 degrees in 2 seconds, sending shivers through the assorted humans. Toby, meanwhile, snapped his fingers and a bonfire appeared between the Lumanos and Team Phantom.

“Whoa… Danny looks downright majestic right now.”

“Gotta say, that’s the most haunting he’s ever gonna look. Could do without the cold snap in summer, but that’s probably going to be useful later.”

“Please at least ask before you use my brother as an air conditioner. He’ll feel pretty bad if he gives you frostbite because you leaned on him too heavily.”

When Cole pulled back, Danny looked down at himself and saw frost spider-webbed all over his suit in swirling patterns that looked to be shifting as he bent and turned. Snow was beginning to manifest around him and the air cooled more and more in his immediate presence.

“This is… awesome !”

Holding up his hand, Danny grasped the grave chill pulsing through him like waves crashing onto a shore, and blue light rose to his fingertips. A flick of his wrist and snow swirled into the air, curling up and away from him before another gesture threw a shard of ice a dozen feet away before it dropped.

“Holy shit, is this how you feel all the time?”

Cole grinned, ruffling Danny’s hair.

“I’m stronger than you, so yeah but more. Oh, what’s with that look kid? Think you can prove me wrong?”

Cole darted back, arms spread, and smirked.

“Go on, show me!”

“Don’t think I won’t, old man!”

Power built up in Danny’s chest and ran down his arms to his hand, pointed at Cole. The wind howled as a flurry of snow and ice flew from his glove and struck the cloud man in the chest, splashing out like a wave that left ice in its wake.

“Ha!”

Cole laughed right back, sunlight peeking through the clouds above them, and Danny charged his hands up.

“Don’t think that’s all I got!”

“Is Cole really the person to go teaching the kid how to use this? He doesn’t really default to ice much in a fight unless he needs a new weapon.”

Toby hemmed and hawed a bit before shrugging and wiggling his hand a bit. Danny shone with icy-blue light a moment more before that light snapped into rings that swept over him, and he fell, barely caught by grass that rose at Toby’s command.

“Probably not. We should probably look into the Far Frozen about teaching Danny how to use this particular power, but I trust Cole with putting the kid through his paces physically. Speaking of the Far Frozen, though… you guys wanna tell us where you think Elle is?”

8 notes · View notes

kinglazrus · 5 years ago

Text

The Haunting of Danny Fenton

Chapter Two: Unusual Clients

Word count: 2403 | [ffn] [ao3] | [previous] [next]

Tucker guides Valerie to a viewing gallery that overlooks the floor two storeys below. The door clunks and hisses as it closes behind them, sealed tight. Glass encases the gallery. The windows are angled outward so you can peer down without sticking your cheek to the glass. There's a slight distortion to it. Not much, but enough that Valerie knows the windows are thick and strong, built to take damage.

Tucker beckons her over to a door in the gallery's short wall, holding it open for her. It leads out onto an open balcony with a bulky safety rail along the edge, curving along the wall, only to dip into a set of stairs that winds all the way down to the bottom floor.

A loud bang startles Valerie. Instinctively, she lashes out, the dark bracer on her wrist expanding into an armoured glove. A compact gun pops out of the top, a bright red light building inside the barrel as it whines.

Tucker holds up his hands. "Whoa. A little jumpy, aren't you?"

Valerie huffs, masking her embarrassment with annoyance, and lowers her arm. The glove retracts, slithering over her arm, condensing back into a bracer. "I need to have good reaction times in my line of work."

"You and everyone else in Amity Park." Tucker leans over the balcony rail and calls out, "You all good down there?"

"Just dandy, kiddo! Thanks for asking!" Valerie immediately recognizes Jack Fenton's booming voice. He is, by far, the most vocal of all the Fentons.

"Let's go. I want to see what blew up."

As they walk down the stairs, Valerie scans the bottom floor. Two figures occupy the middle of the room: Jack Fenton, wearing a bright orange jumpsuit as neon as the sign outside, and Maddie Fenton, who boasts a much subtler, more pleasing blue. Along with their jumpsuits, they wear protective goggles, gloves, and boots. A smoking crater stretches between them.

Maddie pushes her goggles up and sighs in dismay. "Looks like another no good batch, honey."

"Damn. I'll pack it away with the others." Jack bends down to an open metal case at his feet. Nine glowing green vials rest inside, embedded in protective foam padding. The tenth slot is empty. Jack closes the case and tromps over to a rack against the wall, sliding it into an empty space next to dozens of identical cases.

When Tucker and Valerie reach the ground floor, the first thing she notices is a wide metal door tucked underneath the stairs, lurking in the corner of her eye. "Why did we take an elevator up and stairs down when there's a door right there?" Valerie glares at Tucker.

"Safety procedures. If the Boom Room is occupied, you have to enter through the top door," Tucker explains.

"Boom Room?" Valerie asks. The receptionist, Octavia, called the room the same thing.

"It's where we test our more volatile inventions." Maddie drags down her hood, shaking out her short auburn hair, and smiles at Valerie. "You must be the Red Huntress. I'm Maddie Fenton, but Maddie is fine." She holds out her hand.

Valerie takes it, giving it a firm squeeze and a shake. "You can just call me Valerie. Why do you test in here?"

"Well, it's not called the Boom Room for nothing!" Jack bounds over. Without even shaking Valerie's hand, or introducing himself first, he grabs her shoulder and turns her bodily toward the heavy doors. "All doors into the room are blast resistant. We only have these babies down here for hauling in the big buns, or when we're testing out ecto-powered engines. Can't exactly fit those through that tiny thing up there." Jack jerks his thumb over his shoulder, pointing back up the stairs. "But that's not the only thing! You see, when we built this place, we–"

"Jack, dear. Could you start the unlocking procedure? I think we've done enough testing for today," Maddie interrupts, gently touching Jack's shoulder.

"You got it, Mads!" He scampers toward the doors without a second thought. Valerie watched him go, her eyebrows knitting together as she puzzled over the sudden dismissal.

"Good call, Mrs. F," Tucker, hovering at Valerie's shoulder, says. "I don't want to miss dinner again. It's pot roast tonight." That only makes Valerie more confused.

"Sorry about that, dear. If you let Jack get going, he won't stop lecturing for anything." Maddie smiles softly. "As much as I love hearing my husband talk, I know not all people do."

"Oh, uh. No, it's fine. I actually am curious about the room." Valerie gives the metal panels stretching twenty feet up the wall a pointed look.

Valerie's statement ignites and eager glean in Maddie's gaze. "Oh! Isn't that just fantastic? In that case," she points over Valerie's shoulder, "do you see those vents on the wall behind you?"

Valerie turns and looks up. The first three vents rest inches above the metal panels. From there to the ceiling, a new row of vents digs into the wall at five-foot intervals, all the way to the top.

"Everything below those first vents is blast-proof, even the stairs. It keeps the rest of the building safe. To prevent the other walls from blowing out, those vents lead directly outside, into a courtyard in the middle of the facility. Up there," Maddie points to the ceiling, which is a wide skylight, "the windows can be opened using a control pad by the door. If a big enough explosion goes off, it gets directed up and out rather than through the rest of the building."

Valerie is impressed. Very impressed. She also thinks the Fentons are insane. "What are you making that could cause that big of an explosion?"

"Nothing, usually." Maddie's charming smile feels very out of place in this situation. "But right now we're working on an ectoplasm based strength enhancer."

Valerie wrinkles her nose. "You want to make ghosts stronger?"

Maddie laughs. "Don't be silly! This is for humans. We're just having trouble making a batch that won't explode when agitated." She gestures to the rack of briefcases. "There's no way to safely dispose of them, yet, so we keep it all here for now."

Thinking about it all, Valerie feels lightheaded. They're in the middle of the city. If all those cases explode at once, it will blow up half the block. Suddenly, she isn't so eager to explore Fenton Works anymore. In fact, she would like very much to leave the building now, thank you. But Jack's not finished with the doors. With few other options, Valerie pushes on

"You want to make... some kind of super-soldier serum?" she asks.

"Oh, dear, no. It's not for anything like that." Valerie waits for Maddie to elaborate, but all she gets is that same pleasant smile. It's sweet. Too sweet for how much pain she sees in Maddie's eyes. Valerie wants to ask more about the project, but that severe smile beats her curiosity back.

A loud siren rips through the room, one long shriek, accompanied by a flash of red light. Startled, Valerie whirls around, although she manages to keep her weapons at bay this time. At the doors, Jack has his hand on a biometric scanner. Something within the door clunks, the sound followed by a low hiss.

Valerie shuffles her feet as the door swings wide, edging away from Maddie and closer to Tucker. Nudging him, she grabs his attention and subtly tilts her head toward Maddie.

"It's a sore spot," Tucker whispers under his breath.

Valerie nods.

"I think it's about time we head home. Danny should be waiting for us, and I'm sure you want to know the details of the job," Maddie says.

Valerie nods again, too nervous to say anything. The Fentons aren't like any client she's had before. She's used to her richer clients being stuffy snobs, spoiled kids who heard something go bump in the night and got spooked. Sometimes there are genuine concerns. Malevolent ghosts that won't leave them alone. Lost souls lingering in places they shouldn’t be. It's always a humbling experience for her clients. Ghosts don't care how much money you have; they do whatever they want. And if Valerie wasn't there to save their asses, well... they're lucky she's there.

But the most glaring difference between the Fentons and any past jobs is skill. The Fentons are ghost hunters by trade. They dedicate themselves to outfitting people with personal ghost protection, be it basic defences or actual weaponry. They make guns and vehicles. They teach classes about ghosts. They're at the forefront of Ghost Zone exploration. Anything Valerie can do, the Fentons already do better.

Which is why she doesn't understand what they need her for. Surely whatever is going on with their son, they can protect him far better than she can.

—

Sitting in the living room of the original Fenton Works building, Valerie marvels at how homey it is. For fifteen years, this place housed what is now a world-famous company. Not even the whole building, but the basement. The rest of it looks like any other house—which makes sense because it is their house. But knowing that scientific history was made in the room below her feet makes Valerie giddy.

She bounces her knee and resists the urge to get up and pace. Right now, more than anything, she wants to go downstairs and see the original lab. Science had never been her forte in high school, and she barely understands that side of ghost hunting, but it fascinates her to no end.

A loud creak down the hall has her head snapping up. She starts to rise, then sits back down, driving her fist into her knee to keep her leg still. She wants to look professional and courteous, although by this point that image is already ruined. Tucker shattered all formal pretenses when he picked her up. Still, Valerie wants to try. So she sits up straight, setting her shoulders and raising her chin, and watches the corner expectantly.

Maddie and Jack step into view, but only them.

"Danny will be along in a moment. Things have been rough for him, recently," Maddie explains. She and Jack move to the opposite side of the room, stopping on either side of a comfortable looking armchair.

"While we're waiting for him, can I ask what exactly the job is? Your request was vague." Not just vague, it had been devoid of all useful information. Two days ago, Valerie got a call inquiring about her services, how much she charges, and how long she would be available. The voice on the other end hadn't been Maddie's or Jack's. Now that she thinks about it, it was probably Octavia calling on their behalf.

"For a few months now, Danny has been experiencing a minor haunting," Maddie states bluntly.

Valerie's blood runs cold. "A haunting?"

Jack nods, his expression grave.

"For months?" Valerie continues. "But that's..." Completely unprecedented. The longest haunting on record is thirty-four days. In Valerie's two years of official work, and her four years of unofficial experience before that, she only witnessed two hauntings. The first victim lasted a week before they were possessed. The second barely lasted a day.

"We've got good defences here, but they're designed for more tangible ghosts," Maddie says, an ironic twist in her grim smile. "Haunting Shades are much harder to keep out."

"And you can't drive it off?" Valerie asks. "You of all people should be able to. If you can just find the Shade the next time it visits–"

Jack silences her with a cold look. "You think we haven't tried that?"

Right. World famous-ghost hunters. Anything she can do, they have already done better. She's confident in her skills, worked hard to get where she is today, and, from time to time, deserves a little of the arrogance she feels. Sometimes, however, that means she forgets some people have worked much harder and gone much farther than her.

Maddie and Jack Fenton are two of those people

"Sorry," Valerie says quietly. Who is she, who has never been able to fight off a Shade before, to shame the Fentons for the same fault?

"No need to apologize. We've all got our moments." Jack beams. Valerie almost has whiplash from the complete three-sixty in personality. "This Shade's a slippery one. Even when it's here, we can't find it."

Maddie takes over for her husband. "We've got people working on that. Before Danny's haunting started, we were already working on a new ghost deterrent aimed at Shades. A business partner of ours has been heading the project. That's why we need you."

"For what, exactly?" Valerie asks.

"There's a week-long conference Jack and I need to attend. If all goes well, we could make a breakthrough in the anti-Shade project. But we can't bring Danny with us. Long trips aggravate his condition."

Valerie barely resists the urge to ask about said condition. She will see his condition for herself in a few minutes, but she can't help it. Danny doesn't photograph well, and the few pictures of him post-accident reveal very little about his person. The same morbid curiosity that grabs hold of you when you see the aftermath of disaster takes her now. She's not proud of it, but she feels it, nonetheless.

"We want you here as insurance. We don't think anything will happen, but we'd rather not leave Danny alone with everything that's going on," Maddie finishes.

Distantly, the stairs creak.

Valerie nods slowly. "Okay. I understand. I'll take the job."

"It'll be like a vacation for you! Our Danny's a lot stronger than some ghost. He's putting up a hell of a fight." Jack punches the air. There's a familiar glint in his eye, the same look Valerie gets from her father whenever he talks about how far she's come. Seeing it makes her smile.

"What does Danny–" Someone clears their throat, interrupting Valerie. Her head snaps toward the noise, her eyes finding the newcomer immediately. Pallid skin, sunken eyes, slouched against Tucker, Danny Fenton stares back at her.

"Hey. Valerie, right?" His voice is faint and hoarse.

Doubt pools in Valerie's gut. The smile vanishes from her face. Whatever confidence Jack has in his son, she doesn't share it. Forget surviving the week, she doesn't think he'll live through the night.

#thdf #danny phantom #phicc #danny phantom fanfiction #phanfic #valerie gray #bodyguard au #should I still tag it phic phight?#ehhhhh the first chapter is tagged #I guess that's good enough

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thetradeway · 4 years ago

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Session 41 17 Apr 2021: Wait, a TRAP door? Ahleqs casts Mage Armour.

Duncan is walking back from the opticians, so we start a little bit late. Ed is also going to be late, but he says to go ahead without him and he’ll catch up.

Mr. Pickles has a gift for Ahleqs (which Joe forgot until this week…)

Should be fun riding through the streets of Waterdeep - until he gets done by animal rights activists.

Matthew reminds us of what Brother Charity and Gideon did at the end of the last session - the buddy cop movie, during which they got some names of some people. (He explains in a very sketched out way until Sophie asks him to clarify a bit further, ‘like I was asleep or something’.) (For those who weren't there at the time, she *was* asleep.)

Mirt, Harper’s quest, Maxeene, talking horse, ride around the city, inn with a glory hole in it, disguised selves, names of a sun elf fellow and a half orc lady. Timothy P. Fuckapple and Thunderbuns, ah yes. (apparently Matthew was going for Danny Dyer, but he’ll take Ross Kemp.)

“That was exhilarating!” Charity says to Gideon as they flee down side alleys.

(Joe shows us an image of Undermountain, the dungeon under the Yawning Portal.)

(holy shit.)

We pick back up at the Dagger. Kessler wanted to ask Shanks about procuring us a book to offer the monks at Candlekeep. (Joe shows Melaina her new weasel…)

Kessler and Ahleqs arrive back at the Dagger, shortly followed by Charity, Carl and Gideon. Kessler points and laughs at Gideon’s disguise.

Tarragon has gone to find Renah and challenge her to an arm wrestle, loser buys drinks. Matthew worries that it might turn into a bar fight. Ahleqs: “It’s all fun and games until someone throws a dwarf.” Tarragon wins 18-21, and asks for a half an ale. “I’m very small and I’m not used to drinking.”

The others are deciding how to contact Shanks about the book. Ahleqs asks at the bar what would be the best way to get in touch. Ria and Jirr are tending bar tonight. Ria isn’t sure who Ahleqs means when he asks for Shanks. She offers to ask the other staff, and has a chat with Jirr.

Jirr can get a message to Shanks for us. Or - do we want to meet her? That might be better. Jirr will organise a meeting in the cellar. This might take a day or so to arrange.

Do we need preparations or supplies for the journey to Candlekeep? (Shopping episode! Somewhere, Travis Willingham sighs.)

We probably need rations. We also need to get passage on a boat - we could ask Surge (Gunna's water genasi friend in the Docks Ward), or Larissa. Either way, to the Docks Ward!

(Charity Prestidigitations Gideon before we leave.)

Kessler debates buying a shield and goes to speak to Filiare before we go, as well. (Scribe’s note: Her AC is already 18.) He will sell her one for 7gp; she accepts, choosing a metal one with a plain front so she can add her own design. She sells her crossbow bolts as well.

Ed joins us and Charity remembers about the mad druid that Tarragon needs to speak to, but that’s not for a few days. We decide to speak to Surge first as he’s slightly less dodgy, and if he’s unavailable or can’t help, then we’ll try Larissa. We’re trying to get passage but also get paid for it, like going to a festival and pretending to be cleaners.

(Duncan gets lost on his way to the kitchen to make coffee, and finds himself in the off license buying beer.)

As we go through the streets toward the docks, a bird lands on Tarragon’s shoulder and gives her a scroll from Amithrel, giving her the name of the druid whose tome may be of use in curing Tansy’s illness. She asks the bird to thank Amithrel for her and it flies off.

Kessler: “I wonder if I could snatch that bird out of the air…”

Duncan OOC: “This whole time I’ve just been imagining you grabbing birds out of the air and eating them.”

There follows a discussion about the diets of goblins, and how much evidence there is to suggest that they really do eat babies.

Melaina makes a Perception check to get us to the Docks ward (I almost wrote Dicks ward by accident lol). We find the temple, and Surge is in the middle of it, feeding sick sailors. He sees us and recognises us, and asks straight away if we’ve seen Gunna.

Melaina, suddenly and excitedly: “Have you seen him? Not that we care about… where… he… is…”

Surge says that he saw him briefly before he left, and that he said something about visiting his father. It could take a few months for him to return.

Melaina asks about passage on a boat. Do we want to pay, or work, Surge asks us? Well, we’ve acquired some skills in recent times. He asks about what sort of skills we have. Fire magic?, Ahleqs suggests. Tends not to be popular on wooden boats.

Kessler can make stuff…? Melaina is an elf, she could make a good lookout? Tarragon is a herbalist, she can make poultices. How many are there of us? Six? Yeah, six. Seven, if you count Brother Charity. (We’ve accepted Carl as one of us.) (Charity looks wounded.)

Ahleqs makes a Persuasion check with Guidance - 25 total.

To Candlekeep, you say? Maybe the return journey as well? Space for seven, we’re looking at a cargo ship. Is there any way Surge can contact us? We’re staying at the Dagger. Surge will ask around and send word.

Brother Charity has some shopping he wants to do. Where would he find adventuring supplies? Market in the Trades Ward. He wants Healer’s kits and scroll scribing kits, that sort of thing. We like to travel in a lump; our lump arrives in the Market.

Between a lucky roll and help from Charismatic Ahleqs, Charity can have 20gp off the asking price of 70, to the shopkeeper’s chagrin.

Tarragon buys some more herbs, as she’s offered her services as a herbalist on whatever ship Surge can get us passage on. Kessler buys some healing potions.

Anyone else want to do some panic buying? Chain mail! A gun! Some big bombs! The Death Star! Nope, that’s it. We head back to the Dagger.

So - rations, and a meeting with Shanks to maybe procure a book. Gideon has a heavy supper and falls asleep in front of the fire. (Tarragon: Five bean chilli from the new vegetarian menu, and a peach liqueur.) As we sit down to eat, Jirr motions to us. We’ve got a guest.

Shanks meets us in the cellar. Can she procure rare and curious books? Ahleqs explains what it is we need - a book that the monks of Candlekeep don’t already have in their collection. What about something unique, like a journal? Are we familiar with Xanathar’s thieves’ guild?

No-one is really sure what it’s real name is. The higher ups in that guild are known as The Hand. Their master of magic is a woman called Emerine (I think?). She’s a powerful wizard, not to be crossed. But she is undertaking research in the sewers, Shanks knows where. She has a something called the Tome of Bindings. Shanks could take us there to get it? She can time it for when the wizard isn’t in.

Would this wizard part with the book, or will we have to nick it? If we time it right, she won’t be there to defend it. But she’ll likely have traps and stuff. Ahleqs asks what do we think the chances are that she has an actual Beholder there? Low, says Shanks, as the guild leader is one and Beholders are notoriously territorial and won’t put up with another close by.

It would be doing Shanks a favour, if we got that book away from her. Can we be ready first thing?

Charity: “All those in favour say Aye.”

All of us except Kessler: “Aye!”

Kessler: “I don’t see why not, I mean I’ve got no objections…”

Shanks tells us it’ll be another trip to the sewer, so get ready.

Tarragon, thoughtfully: “Do you know anyone who sells nose plugs…”

Shanks returns the following morning and leads us into the sewer. We make CON saves against the smell. Only Tarragon fails and is polite enough to lean away rather than puking on Brother Charity, which she feels is very magnanimous of her.

Shanks leads us to a new (to us) part of the sewer, where we haven’t been before. It looks in poor state of repair. She points to a locked trap door. The wizard has been seen going in and out of there. Do we need help picking the lock…?

Melaina: “I think we’ve got this.”

(Wait, a TRAP door? Ahleqs casts Mage Armour.)

Melaina checks for traps and unlocks the door with ease, and after some wrangling, Joe gets a marching order out of us. (A police car goes by in horrible Nottingham.) There’s a small delay while Joe fights his way through all the gubbins I’ve filled roll20 with (SO MANY RED DRAGONS!), and puts our tokens on the board.

Back in the charming sewers again! It’s a nice part, and doesn’t smell. It’s part of the old elven sewer.

Ahead of her Kessler sees a metal door, with a slot into which something presumably fits. She checks for traps - it is not trapped. She goes for a pick, but rolls a 12 so nothing happens. She could try impact engineering… (Is that a fancy-lady way of saying she’s going to twat it?) Melaina elbows her way to the front and does it properly.

(Gideon has had too many meads and has probably fallen asleep - or gone to the kitchen to get sausages, so the DM moves him gently out of the way.)

We are just exploring when Joe tells us to stay where we are - uh oh!

We all make STR saves except Tarragon, who is now glad she was stuck at the back.

They roll so badly that they couldn’t pass if they added all their scores together. They are hit by lightning from the pillars in the room, as well as being blown around by wind.

Kessler shoots at one of the pillars to try and discharge the magic, but is at Disadvantage because of the wind and rolls a 9. It zaps her, and she takes 13 lightning damage.

Melaina has a go but also fails and takes some lightning damage. Joe rolls 4 1s for her damage though, noice.

Ahleqs makes an arcana check to see if he can figure out this magic, but rolls a nat 1. He uses a Sorcery point to re-roll for a 17. It seems to be retaliating when attacked, and there are glyphs on the floor that zap you if you stand on them.

Kessler and Tarragon see that the winds inside the sphere seem to be physically blowing the ammunition off course. Perhaps magic might work better…?

Ahleqs tries an Eldritch Blast, and it hits. Yay! He assumes the foetal position; just as well because he gets hit with lightning.

Tarragon does a Thorn Whip, which also hits. The pillar is starting to look damaged, and she takes 17 lightning damage. Oof! Kessler fires off a Firebolt, as Ahleqs downs a potion. She hits for 3 damage and takes 15 lightning damage. Yikes.

Melaina does a magic arrow at it - or, a spell? Or Charity can do a spell, so Melaina isn’t using up a spell slot?

He does a Divine Eldritch Blast. (A what? He is a Cleric, right? Sophie, OOC: ‘He’s a sneaky bastard is what he is.’) It does 1 damage, which is just enough - the pillar breaks. He does a Cure Wounds for Kessler, and offers the same to Ahleqs.

Melaina tries the door. It is a large, metal double door. She checks it for traps - once she’s found her character sheet again. She sees the telltale signs of trappage! She sleight of hand disarms it with a 27 - “Bazinga.” She then unlocks the door. It swings open to reveal a monster - “Lock it again! Lock it again!”

We roll initiative. DM asks if one of us want to take the Grease Wizard “because I think you’ll need him”. Oh shit. Matthew and Sophie both take him so they can squabble over him.

(Sophie OOC: “What is that thing? Oh, it’s massive and it’s got a big old sword.”)

It moves forward and breathes poison on Kessler, Melaina and Tarragon. Only Melaina makes her save. If only our front-line fighter wasn’t on a boat going to see his mum!

Tarragon rages and does Cure Wounds on herself (but the other way around); Melaina casts Woundbind on Kessler, who went down after the poison breath. (How’s that shield working out?) Melaina bonus-action-disengages and backs up.

Kessler gets to her feet and goes for a Thunder Gauntlet, which misses. She stands her ground.

Ahleqs: "I stand my ground too!" (We all laugh.) He screams (part of his spellcasting ritual), and casts Fireball. It doesn’t bother trying to make the save - ah shit.

Kessler, Tarragon, Ahleqs and Gideon (and Melaina) make perception checks - we all notice that the creature absorbs the fire, and any little dents in the armour repair themselves. Matthew-as-Gideon - “Fire appears to mend it!”

Ahleqs runs away.

Grease wizard doesn’t have Enlarge-Reduce prepared, sadly. He has a go at Enfeebling it instead. He rolls an 18 and it misses.

Oh fuck…

Kessler, right up in melee range: “Run, save yourselves!”

Ahleqs, already halfway out of the room: “Way ahead of you!”

Charity casts ‘a buffing spell’ on himself to get more HP, and then shilleweghilghosllhsoaslkhhah. Carl holds an action, as there’s not much he can do.

It’s the golem’s turn. It tries to squish Kessler, who is standing right in front of it, by bringing its sword down on her noggin. It misses! But dents her new shield. Then it swings an arm, trying to slam her into the wall. That time it hits for 14 damage.

Tarragon goes for an Indiana Jones slide between its legs but fails her Dex check and hits it in the legs. (If Duncan was DM she’d have hit something else.) She tries to batter it with her quarterstaff, but misses.

Melaina hides and shoots, and hits the thing! She rolls badly on her damage, however. (Joe assures us that this fight is winnable; we all make dubious noises.)

Kessler goes for the Thunder Gauntlets and hits it for 11 Thunder damage. She uses Fury of the Small on top for an extra 7 damage. She would like to disengage for a bonus action and split her attack; after a short discussion it’s decided that she can. She wants to move behind it so she makes a DEX check - and passes! Like a greased seal she slides between its legs. She goes for her second attack, with Advantage as she and Tarragon are now flanking it. She hits again for 8 more Thunder damage.

"Are we still in the shit? We kind of are, aren’t we." Ahleqs uses all his remaining Sorcery Points to create a 4th level spell slot before screaming “GO AWAY!” at it and casting Banishment. It fails the save and disappears!

We still need the gem around its neck, which is very much phase 2 of the plan, and Ahleqs will leave that to us.

Kessler: “I would say next time make that your opening gambit?”

Ahleqs, Concentrating: “Look, let’s not waste this minute bickering.”

(DM decides that was inspired so he won’t enforce it now, but next time Ahleqs casts Banishment he will actually have to produce the spell component - something distasteful to the target. Duncan, OOC: "I may go full monkey and fling my poo at it.")

We prepare - moving to flanking positions and rerolling initiative. Tarragon goes bear and waits to re-Rage.

Bear Tarragon and Kessler both hit with their attacks of opportunity as the thing pops back. Brother Charity goes for a whack with Sheldflhjdasdlaflfghhh, and natty 20s it for triple damage - 36 total!

It’s Kessler’s turn. She punches it upside the back of the head for a 19 which misses, then natty 20s for her second hit. Max damage, then she rolls the damage dice again, yeah!

Tarragon does a multi attack and crits with her claws - bloodied nose. Max damage and roll again - she gets max damage on that roll too! She’s so pleased it’s hard to maintain her rage.

Melaina goes for a shot but misses.

Ed has woken up! He is pleased to know that Matthew, about to take Gideon’s turn, was about to Grease something. He asks how this thing feels about fire, and is warned that it loves it. He’s very disappointed until he realises that he can use his new toy.

Wait is this the main big bad, or is this on the way to the big bad?

Sophie, OOC: “We just got into this dungeon, we’re in the foyer.”

He does Phantasmal Killer! The thing makes a WIS save - at Advantage - and fails. Ed, delighted: "It’s timid and scared and frightened." It makes another WIS save on each of its turns, or takes more psychic damage; for now it takes 16.

But…

It’s immune to psychic damage - and being frightened.

That is a poor show, Joe.

Brother Charity is up, and he’s the last one before the golem. Gideon: “We’ll have to do this the old fashioned way Charity, go and stab it with a spear!”

It’s still flanked, so Brother Charity rolls with Advantage and hits it with a 26 for 12 bludgeoning damage with Shillgslahkfksjddkghglhlhllbblhh. It’s looking tatty now, yeah!

It doesn’t get its breath weapon back, phew. It attacks the bear, at Disadvantage (because it is not attacking Kessler). It hits, but she takes half damage.

It’s Coward Time! He doesn’t need to move closer so he casts Shenanigans at level 2. He expends a spell slot to regain a sorcery point. Now he casts Shatter at level 3, using the sorcery point to use Careful Spell and steer it around his friends.

It does a CON save (“I imagine it’s okay at those”) which it has Advantage on, but it’s a construct so it has Disadvantage as per the spell. They cancel each other out so it makes a straight roll, and gets a 16 which succeeds. It takes half damage though. Having covered his eyes as he cast the spell Ahleqs shouts, “Did I get it?”

We all want Carl to get the how-de-do-dis. He does Gauntlets of Helm but misses even with Advantage.

Kessler goes for the Thunder Gauntlets and hits with her second attack, for 7 thunder damage. It’s at Disadvantage to attack anyone but her again.

Tarragon does a multi attack and hits with both - and gets the how-de-do-dis! She rips it apart with her bear claws, with a horrible screeching noise of claws on metal.

We get the crystal key!

(After the dust settles, Joe reminds us of when we fought the Flesh Ripper and Melaina very cleverly hid herself on the other side of a doorway through which the Flesh Ripper was too big to fit. We look again at the map we’re on now to see that we came through a corridor that would be too big for the golem… We are so stupid.)

The crystal fits in the slot in the door, which leads us down another corridor into a study. Melaina rolls to pick the lock with a 27. We get the book, yeah!

(Next week we pick up with our old campaign, for which I DM. I will try to add an entry here, but it won’t have the same level of detail!)

#dnd #thetradeway #campaign diary

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zeestarfishalien · 2 years ago

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“Danny…” Batman began once more.

“Save the lecture. I’ve got work to do,” Danny waved them off, moving away from their whole little meeting table.

He transformed before anyone else could say anything. Dick reached out as though to stop him.

“Do you want some company?”

Danny snorted, he knew exactly what the man was planning and he wanted nothing to do with it.

“No. Shove off.” He flew through the ceiling of the cave, not wanting to deal with any of them following him for now.

Gotham shadowed him in the alleys below, the predator stalking him just beyond sight. He’s still not convinced they won’t just up and decide to eat him one day.

He’s not sure he could stop them if they tried.

He’s just one little halfa fish in a great big ocean.

He’s careful not to interfere with the realm of the living when he’s out like this. Gotham’s crime is not his jurisdiction and taking it on would only spur Damian’s family to try harder to get him to join them.

Ghost problems are simpler. There’s not nearly as much reason to lie when you’re dead or play mind games with your foes. It’s easier to give into the instincts and fight it out, just declare your intentions and WHAM.

Or talk.

Talking is nice too. Some ghosts are just sad or lonely. Some are just repeating the same few moments before their death.

Those ones were harder to deal with, more heartbreaking.

Gotham’s ghosts tend to have little power in the physical plane. There’s not enough ectoplasm to sustain heavy use of specialized abilities and the disturbance usually called Gotham to their location.

Gotham doesn’t like ghosts who mess with the living. And said ghosts tend to disappear under mysterious circumstances he’s pretty sure Gotham eats them.

He stopped to breathe in the branches of a tree by the Gotham City Cemetery. Gotham didn’t follow him here. They’d scare off all the restless dead and even they had some respect (as long as the dead don’t mess with the living).

Okay, yeah. He was trying to avoid thinking about how the one time he and Damian have been in sync since reconnecting was over insulting himself. It stings a little even though he saw the shock on Damian’s face after realizing Danny said the same exact thing.

It’s taken a long time to come to terms but Danny knows that fighting humans and detective work? That’s Damian’s skill set. Danny’s lies elsewhere. And like he said, he’s not dumb. He doesn’t believe that little of himself. What he can do fight-wise is hit hard and take hard hits by virtue of his half dead status. That’s not all he wants to be. They already have the big blue boy scout and both the younger ones for most of that. He’s not needed there.

The trouble with being raised for the first part of your life to be an assassin is that it’s all you know of even if you aren’t that great at it. The trouble with being raised (Really it was Jazz not them) for the rest of your formative years by mad scientists is that you spend that time trying so hard not to be them that you don’t know what to do with yourself when you’re out.

That’s not even beginning to unpack all of the baggage that comes with being a teenaged vigilante. He’s not touching that one today, no thanks.

He’s still not sure what he wants to be. Not a scientist or engineer, not an assassin. He doesn’t want to work with children, or join the medical profession. He definitely does not have a good head for business and he could never be happy at a job where he’s stuck behind a desk all day.

(He’d like to be a normal kid) It’s too late for that.

But he can have a new sense of normal. He just has to find it (that makes it sounds so easy).

If only it were all that easy.

“I’m obviously the better twin.”

“He’s obviously the better twin.”

Their combined words echoed across the cave far longer in the silence that followed their words than it felt like it should have. It was difficult to tell if any of the other bats and birds were even breathing.

A frown marred Damian’s face, despite having said the same harsh words as his twin. Danny saying the very same words left a sort of bitter taste in his mouth. It wasn’t even the words themselves but more the resignation and dismissal of his own worth that ate at Damian’s gut. Someone stabbing him would have hurt less than Danny’s next words.

“You don’t need someone like me. I’m not motivated enough and all that to be like you guys. I’d just get in the way.”

Dick, ever the one to try to find compromise, spoke up. “There’s more ways to help than just fighting…”

“Listen,” Danny interrupted, “it’s not like I’m dumb but I’m not a genius like you all. I suck at strategy and sitting around on my hands, the only thing I’m really good at is being cannon fodder or a distraction. I’m not competitive or ambitious and I’m certainly not about to start trying to be any of that. That ship has sailed and sunk.”

“Danny, I-“

“It’s fine Damian.” His bitter smile contradicted the words. “It’s important to know one’s own strengths and weaknesses, right?”

#demon twins #dpxdc #dcxdp #idk where this came from #but here we are #I’m feeling frustrated because of aching thumbs so apparently I write?#cuz that makes sense #I’m being careful so don’t lecture me #not doing nanowrimo anymore so it’s fine

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monotype-on-phantom · 8 years ago

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Something that makes Technus hard for me to talk about is how simple he is compared to some of the other characters. Not that he’s flat or uninteresting, but his goals, desires, and plans aren’t that complicated (even his plan of taking over the world is something he decided on a whim after Danny suggested it). He shouts about things he’s going to do just about as much as the Box Ghost, and he doesn’t seem to have any insecurities or inner conflicts (aside from wanting to be as “hip” as the modern kids.)

On top of that, we really don’t know anything certain about his history. We can guess that he was into technology, and maybe fancied himself a mad scientist with that crazy hairstyle and lab coat, but the show never really talks about his past much. Technus himself never talks about it. He seems to be more focused on the present and future, so all we can really do is speculate. I do have a few theories, though.

To begin with, I think Technus probably died around the 1950s/1960s. He tries to fit in with the young “whipper snappers” by using slang like “hip” and “far out,” which are slang terms that a lot of people trace back to the 1960s (the latter especially being used by hippies.)

Also, when we look at the screenshots above (which were forms Technus turned Danny into), we’ve got some blonde movie star and Spock.

The original Star Trek television show aired in the 1960s, and the “movie star” has some similarities to popular actresses in the 50s/60s: 1 2 3 4

Another point for this is that according to the wiki, Tecnus’s name (Nicolai Technus) is a reference the the inventor Nikola Tesla. Tesla was an inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist (basically, he worked a ton with technology) who died in the 1940s. Given the way Technus talks, he was probably on the older side when he died, so he was most certainly alive when Tesla was. And he could’ve been a fan of his work.

I plan on talking about this at some point in the future, but I feel like in most cases, ghosts probably choose a ghostly name for themselves. I can believe that Nicolai was his real first name, but Technus seems a bit too...convenient? However, if he learned about an amazing scientist with a similar first name to his, and he ended up being a fan of that scientist, I could definitely see him picking the name Nicolai Technus as a reference to him (and because technology pun!!!)

In conclusion, I think Technus was some dramatic mad scientist from the mid-1900s who probably died in a lab accident or something in the 1960s. Why do I say mad scientist instead of just a mad scientist wannabe? Well, mostly because Technus clearly does actually know a lot about technology. He might not have a lot of street smarts or come up with the most ingenious plans, but he’s able to work with technology extremely well (despite not always knowing what all this modern technology is.)

Technus’s skill is enough that he’s able to be a legitimate threat from his introduction in episode 4 all the way into late season 2, and he appears as the primary antagonist more often than anyone aside from Vlad. If he didn’t know what he was doing, he wouldn’t be nearly as threatening.

This may raise the question of why I put him at a level 4 in an earlier post, though.

I did address this in one post, but Technus can only thrive if there’s technology for him to work with. Without it, he’d be completely powerless and unable to stand up to even the Box Ghost. Not only that, but as I mentioned, he’s pretty simple. His obsession just seems to be continuing to play with technology like a mad scientist, and he only thought of taking over the world after Danny suggested it.

That said, because his obsession is one that gives him a lot of power, he’s able to be threatening in spite of not being the most cunning or complex ghost.

His power is actually strong enough that he’s the only ghost we see who “upgrades” his ghostly form (outside of TUE), and it’s apparently because he was able to absorb enough power from the technology in Amity Park.

I’d like to go into what an entertaining and funny villain he is, too, but a lot of that becomes less fun when you analyze it. So, I’ll just end this here and talk more about him when I get to his season 2 episodes. (Especially since Flirting With Disaster is the episode where we finally get to see Technus acting dastardly.)

#danny phantom #nicolai technus #cast #i feel like this was bad compared to some of my past ones #but hopefully you guys will enjoy it anyway

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thefancyspin · 8 years ago

Text

a little give, steve&danny.

(for @samanthahirr who requested mcdanno, and a car chase, but mostly ended up being a quiet moment between friends. possible pre-relationship, I guess? thanks for the prompt! )

Danny’s day started fine - which, in hindsight, should have been a clue. There were no early morning calls from work, the radio was having a Springsteen Hour to celebrate an upcoming birthday and the woman at Liliha’s threw an extra malasada in his bag free of charge.

If pushed, he might even say it was a good morning.

Then Steve stole the Bugatti.

“I swear to God,” Danny yells, clutching at whatever part of the passenger door he can reach. “If you put your foot down any harder I’m going to ram the pedal so far down your throat you won’t be able to sit for a week!”

“Relax, Danny.”

“Yeah, and keep telling me to relax. See what happens then!”

“I’m just luring them out, alright?”

“Luring them out?” Danny repeats with squinting rage. “You couldn’t have done that with a joke about someone’s Mom? You had to steal a million dollar car and - ”

“It’s probably worth closer to two million actually, “ Steve starts, before pulling that face he does so often when he realises he’s prolonged the argument. An argument he didn’t want to have in the first place.

Danny feels his knuckles flex. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realise that was somehow better!”

“I was just saying,” Steve says with a sigh, but makes his first wise decision of the day and keeps quiet.

It’s not that - after so many years of the same old story - Danny doesn’t trust Steve’s skills behind the wheel. It’s not that he would prefer doing this in Nahele’s rusted out Toyota that sounds like a toilet flushing every time you turn the key. It’s not the value of it, it’s the principle.

And if Danny has anything, it’s principles.

“If you so much as scratch this car my Grandpa Vince is going to roll in his grave, Steven,” Danny tells him with gritted teeth, Steve taking another corner so fast he feels his intestines twist. “I don’t even want to know what the Governor will do.”

“Since when have you cared so much about the property of a criminal?”

“Since it’s probably going to cost me a lot more than just hours of overtime trying to figure out how to fill in the little box on the form that says, Please explain why your partner thinks he’s Vin Diesel and he’s on the set of a goddamn Fast and the Furious movie.”

With a sudden, screeching jolt Steve stops the car, apparently oblivious to the honking and shouting of nearby drivers. Danny’s too surprised to say anything else, listening to Steve rev the engine.

“Here they come,” he says, and Danny throws a look at the rear view, seeing the far off but familiar sight of Bad Guys Approaching. “And for the record, I love those movies.”

Steve puts his foot down.

An upturned ice-cream truck, a hundred angry phone calls to the Governor’s office and half a dozen arrests later, they finally make it back to headquarters. Danny’s been spitting mad for most of the afternoon, so by the time he sits at his desk with a coffee the size of his head and a wide berth from the others, he’s simmering down to just plain angry.

Which is his default setting, most days, so he can work with it.

“Before you say anything,” Steve says, coming into Danny’s office with a paper bag and his hands in the air like Danny’s armed. “I’ve spoken to the Governor, and straightened things out, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

Danny gives him one of his patented glares, but doesn’t talk.

“Also, I have all the necessary paperwork to get through, so I’ll do that too.”

“What’s in the bag?”

Steve puts it down on the desk tentatively, Danny catching a waft of something warm and sweet and bad for him. He snatches it up. “Uh, I was at the bakery. Wasn’t sure what you’d like.”

“Are you on some 12-step program?” Danny asks, peering into the bag that’s got donuts or cronuts or something that could probably make him steal an expensive car and go joyriding across half the island.

“Huh?”

“Are you taking a How To Get Along With Your Partner class that I don’t know about?”

“Jesus, Danny.”

“Well!” Danny takes a bite out of something fluffy, but keeps talking, words muffled and spitting. “Usually these arguments end with you saying, too bad, Danny, it is what it is.”

“Well it is what it is,” Steve agrees, flopping into a chair and kicking his feet up onto the desk. Danny thinks he can still see sprinkles on the soles from when Steve had been talking the ice-cream man down from his tirade. It almost makes him want to laugh. “I’m not going to stop making decisions that you’re gonna hate. I get that now. But.”

“But?”

“But I’m gonna try to make it a little easier on you. If I can.”

Danny swallows his mouthful, honestly feeling more floored than he had doing three times the speed limit along major highways. More floored then all the times Steve had told Danny he loved him. “Well,” he says, and coughs. “Thanks.”

Steve just gives him a little nod. It feels like a victory Danny’s a little too smug to be admitting to. But in a place like this he takes them where he can get them.

“It was a nice car though, right?” Steve says a moment later, grinning like a teenager who just went on his first ride along. “We could hire one this weekend, take the kids somewhere for the day.”

Danny throws the bag at him, hitting him in the face.

“I hate you.”

#mcdanno #ugh they're just not behaving themselves today #or maybe its me its probably me #my writing

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goliath-de-senfina-sango · 3 years ago

Text

Fathering a Phantom

Tucker looks into the Forgotten Realms, the Lumanos make a startling discovery on Earth, and everyone meets up for once

Danny was impressed with his ability to get a full 8 hours of sleep, but that really was only because he didn’t have school of any kind to go to during the summer. He woke up at 11, Tucker already in his room and doing stars knew what on the tablet that Sam had gotten him as a gift, with the caveat that he not name this one. Needless to say, it was a hard fought battle for Tucker not to address the tablet by the name he had undoubtedly given it regardless, but he was managing so far. What he was doing on it in Danny’s chair, however, was a mystery almost as great as why the Observants went after Danny instead of Vlad.

Danny phased through his top blanket and floated into the air, stretching until the joints in his spine popped loudly, putting a cringe on Tucker’s face. “Dude, that noise is disgusting.”

“You stay in my room long enough for me to wake up, you suffer my wake up actions. Besides, its hardy the grossest sound you’ve ever encountered. Have you heard yourself with soup?” Danny laughed, grabbing up a blue and purple galaxy shirt with stars sprinkled over it and a cat’s face printed right over the heart and some shorts. “Lookin up Doomed cheats?”

“I should do that later,” Tucker said, nodding to himself while Danny floated upside down to look over his shoulder. “I’m actually looking into some D&D sourcebooks to find out what all we might sorta know about Toby. I was right, by the way, Aasimar are from this game.”

“Begs the question: which came first, the game or the world?” Danny grabbed his underclothes and saluted Tucker as he landed. “Be back when I’m clean.”

“I might be too old to hear you for conversation by then.” Tucker laughed and Danny focused on his pillow, spreading his energy around it. With a flick of his wrist, the pillow went flying and Tucker caught it with his face, flopping over with an “Oof! Hey, how’d you do that?”

“A guess, observation, and mad skill.” Danny gave Tucker finger guns and backed out of his room, heading to the bathroom. After a quick shower and brushing his teeth, Danny kicked his door open, making Tucker jump in his seat, whipping out his lipstick laser, and Danny cackled. “Nice reflexes, Tuck. Maybe you should work on your situational awareness.”

“I could say the same for you, Danny.” Jazz neatly dodged the backhand Danny sprang on her without thought, grinning down at him with a smugness that only siblings could achieve. “Here I thought you had supernatural senses.”

“I guess paying attention is important no matter how sensitive you are,” Tucker said with a snort. Danny rolled his eyes and let them glow, the green light enveloping his bedding as he telekinetically made his bed. “So, do you wanna try a game tournament over at Sam’s, get beaten at skateboarding at one of the skate parks, or look into the roots of your super hero style? I know we’re gonna do something cool today, but Sam picked yesterday and it’s your turn now.”

“Well, right now I wanna eat some food that isn’t contaminated by ectoplasm,” Danny said, turning to Jazz who offered a thumbs up.

“I finally convinced Mom to get a fridge for samples only put down in the lab, and finally convinced dad to use the right fridge for the right thing. Our food should be ecto-free.” Jazz stumbled a bit when Danny all but tackled her in a hug but she smiled and returned it all the same. “I know, I’m amazing.”

“What amazes me is the fact that your parents needed to be told to keep their dangerous chemicals in their dangerous laboratory. Aren’t they like, bleeding edge engineers and stuff?”

“Yeah, but everyone’s got their blind spot, Tuck. Our folks lack common sense, to make room for all the inventive genius.” Danny let go of Jazz to escape the ruffling of his hair and grabbed his bag from beside his desk. “I think I’ll go with asking Toby and Cole stuff, Tuck. It’d be a waste to not learn whatever I can from them while they’re here.”

While they perfectly recognized that they needed to make connections and do some research into who could do what in order to help them manage providing Danny some mentorship, as well as his friends, the Lumanos also knew that they could get more information on the people on their little hit list by asking Danny, Tucker, and Sam. So, they decided that rather than making nuisances of themselves before they made any friends in the Infinite Realms, they should explore what the attached material realm was like. Toby planeshifted back to the park where he’d met the kids and Cole opened a Gate next to him. When Toby touched down upon the grass, though, he realized that he should’ve come in mortal form. His mortal flesh required that he cast Commune with Nature purposely, voluntarily. Ectoplasm, so attuned to channeling the spirit, did not.

Through the grass, Toby could feel not just the plants rooted together in the park but the trees on the other side of the planet, the heartbeats of every beast that crawled and swam and flew across the world. Toby was, in an instant, connected to the Earth’s biosphere, to its consciousness, and he could hear it screaming, could feel the pain that it felt. In a flash he was flesh and blood again, held up only by his husband’s arms, and vision blurred beyond comprehension with tears. He fell apart for a moment in Cole’s arms, trying to shake himself of the overwhelming presence of an entire planet’s ecosystem.

“Hey there little bird, we can go. We don’t have to stay here if you don’t want,” Cole was saying to him, rubbing his back and trying to pull him out of it. It warmed his heart to have Cole comforting him, but Toby cringed at the thought of just leaving this world behind.

“No. Thank you, love, gods I’m so lucky to have you.” Toby gave Cole a kiss and they stood up together, the druid shaking himself off all over and wiping the tears from his cheeks. “We can’t… I can’t leave this place, though. Not how it is now. Cole, the whole planet is crying.”

“I guess we’re saving this world too, huh? You’ve got a thing for being the hero, doncha?” Cole poked Toby’s cheek and he laughed, shaking his head.

“Yeah, I guess we do. Think we can convince Queen Persephone to let us bring the guys here? I know Valdan at least would jump at the chance to help upheave an entire global order.” Toby huffed a laugh and stood up properly, shaking himself off.

“Regardless, I’m certain we can get Valdan over here. If we want the others, we’ll have to have any semblance of manners though, and actually ask the Queen.” Cole shuddered, rubbing his shoulders. “I don’t like visiting her, she makes me feel like it’s a disappointment that I haven’t died and fallen under her domain yet. Not even in a malicious way, like she has a sweet home all prepared for me and it’s a shame I haven’t come to rest.”

Toby patted Cole on the shoulder and leaned up to kiss his forehead. “Don’t you worry about that, love. I’ll talk with her when we get to that. You can focus on other things.”

“Like teaching that kid you found how to change the weather?” Toby chuckled and shrugged.

“That, hunting down child fighting assholes, making cloud art, there’s so many options.”

“Ok, so you’re Monkey D Luffy, then?”

“Sam, please, I don’t eat that much.”

“Maybe you should, little brother, you’re rather undernourished. Have you considered actually trying Mom’s food?”

“The ecto-contaminated food?” Danny stared at her, eyes wide with horror. “The shit Dad puts in the prototype microwave ‘improvement’ that reanimates?”

“You are ecto-contaminated, Danny, and I’m wondering if you need to ingest ectoplasm along with regular food.” Danny instinctively looked around them, worried about being overheard even inside of the car while they drove out to effectively the middle of nowhere by now. “With all the activity in your day to day life, you shouldn’t be so skinny.”

“Even my own sister is calling me scrawny now, I simply cannot escape Tetslaff’s judgement.” Danny let invisibility slowly roll over him from head to toe and Sam and Tucker laughed their heads off while Jazz smiled and shook her head. “Jazz, almost all of the exercise I get is in ghost form, and I don’t think I have cells in that form, let alone muscles that can be built up and shit.”

“Can’t you just make your skin invisible and then we could test that hypothesis?”

Tucker gagged at the suggestion and pointed his PDA’s stylus at Sam. “That’s absolutely disgusting, why would you even say that? Did you get high before this happened or are we simply being cursed with vile visions by a temperamental witch?”

“Nosocomephobia doesn’t make Tucker anymore of a baby than your love of anime makes you some basement dwelling weeaboo, Sam.” Sam narrowed her eyes and Jazz’s smile grew just a bit. “I have friends, you have friends, people talk. Really, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, anime is growing more popular in mainstream western media these days.”

“Please don’t remind me, it’s less cool if it’s mainstream.”

“Move over, Spectra, we’ve got someone with a sword in her mouth already,” Danny said, whistling at the sick burn.

Tucker clutched his chest and slumped against the car door. “What a blow struck by a dear friend. How ever shall I survive?”

“Maybe you’ll reincarnate again and this time you’ll be responsible with the scepter. It’s a good thing you put it away in the museum.”

“Right, totally, I put it back in the museum.” The car was quiet for a moment while Tucker tapped away at his PDA, suddenly very interested in something on his screen.

“So what happened with this scepter that Tucker put back?”

Sam stared hard at Tucker for a long moment before turning her attention to Jazz. “Ah, well, it turns out that Tucker is the reincarnation of the Pharoah Duul Amon, who was also a sorcerer. The scepter allowed Tucker to do some absolutely bonkers shit, like drag the entire class into a pocket dimension modelled off of ancient Egypt, as well as wipe all of their memories of the event.”

“But not the emotions that came with the memories – Tucker, you did put that thing back in the museum, right?”

Danny, returning to visibility, sighed and twisted his head around to look at Tucker in the seat behind Jazz without moving his torso an inch. “Leave it to you to drain the battery on a magical scepter within a day of getting it.”

“I’m gonna need you to put your head right the fuck back where it was just now or I’m gonna have to kick it in place.” Danny stuck his tongue out and turned the rest of himself to fit with his head. “Close enough. And excuse you, I’ve been amazing with the batteries on all my girls. I’ve simply never built a whole dimension with my thoughts before.”

“Of fucking course Tucker has something cool like a magical pre-incarnation who he inherits a magical scepter from, because fuck me and my goth aesthetic, the normal techie gets the magic he probably doesn’t even want.” Sam’s grumbling was, to the average person, practically unintelligible. To Danny, who had preternatural hearing, it was practically in his ear even as he phased out of the car and went ghost above it.

“Maybe these guys can show you how to make your own magic thing, Sam. After all, Duul Amon put together his scepter and even Freakshow probably made his.”

The team walked inside, heading into the room with the actual telescope itself, and Tucker pulled out the feather he’d been gifted, snapping it in two. The air buzzed with energy and mist poured from Danny’s mouth like a fountain was turned on. A flash filled the room with an explosive BOOM and no less than 10 feet away stood Toby, with a blue skinned man floating by his side, an arm twice the size of Dash’s wrapped around the druid’s shoulders with a small tornado for a tail. Echoing across the entire observatory was the man’s deep voice, kaleidoscopic eyes locked on all three of them at once somehow, “Boo.”

#Danny Phantom #Danny Fenton #Tucker Foley #Jazz Fenton #Toby Lumano #Cole Lumano #Sam Manson #Fathering a Phantom #OCs #fanfiction #fanfic #fic #fanphiction #fanphic #phanfiction #phanfic #phanphiction #phanphic #Rexy Writes

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