#Ecto Mist | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

carelisswriting · 7 months ago

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Dealing With Dreams

Hey! Here's my second fic for ecto implosion, my partner for this is @ventisettestars ! It was great working with her, and her art is amazing!!! She also beta read this :)

Hope y'all like this fic!

***

“So there’s Andromeda, and Pegasus, and…”

Tucker leaned over, wrapping his arms around Danny as he listed all of the constellations they could see. He hooked his chin over Danny’s shoulder, looking up at the sky that his boyfriend was enamored with.

Danny’s breath misted in the air as he talked, a result of how cold it was out in the forest at night, and not due to a ghost. If there was a ghost out here, it definitely would’ve already started harassing them.

Tucker focused back on Danny as he let out an excited gasp.

“Tuck, Tuck look! It’s the ISS!” He said, pointing up at a small bright spot traveling across the sky.

Tucker smiled, squeezing Danny tighter for a moment “It’s super cool, Danny.”

Danny didn’t reply, too focused on watching the space station travel across the sky.

He didn’t mind. It wasn’t often that they got a day like this, one where there weren’t any ghost attacks or anything else that would stop Danny from having a nice evening.

Tucker was still bitter about the date attempt from last month. They’d almost made it into the movie theater before the Box Ghost had shown up to steal all the popcorn buckets, which were unfortunately square. It had been the most personally annoying attack he’d had to deal with, which was saying something considering his PDA had gotten destroyed in a few attacks. He always rebuilt her, though.

Anyway, the point is, Tucker was glad that Danny got to have a day where he didn’t have to worry about anything. Well, anything more than usual.

He shifted, pressing closer to his boyfriend.

It sucked so bad that Danny had to be all alone in fights. Tucker and Sam did all the support they could, but. It wasn’t enough. Danny didn’t have anyone to watch his back, just people to clean him up after the fight.

Danny had only gotten bruises and small cuts so far. Tucker worried every time a ghost showed up that this would be the time something worse happened, that something he couldn’t fix happened. A ghost would get the better of Danny, and he would be too broken, too hurt, for Tucker to help him. A broken bone, a wound overflowing with blood, a hit he didn’t get back up from.

If only Tucker could fight with him-

“You okay? Usually you’ve used at least one really bad pick-up line by now.” Danny asked, startling Tucker out of his thoughts.

He lifted his head up, grinning as his depressing train of thought was pushed to the back of his mind.

“Oh yeah? So you admit you like the Foley Charm?” Tucker said flirtatiously.

Danny rolled his eyes, a fond smile on his face “Not what I said, but at least you’re trying. Seriously though, you good?”

“I’m fine, Danny. In fact, let me prove it by giving you exactly what you want, one of my amazing pick-up lines!” He said, wiggling his eyebrows even though he knew Danny probably couldn’t see it.

“No, that’s not what I said, and your pick-up lines are not amazing-“ Danny protested, giggles filtering into his voice.

Tucker grinned wider, before clearing his throat dramatically.

“Did it hurt when you fell from heaven? Cause from where I’m standing, you’re the only angel I’ve ever believed in.”

Danny groaned, a blush visible on his cheeks.

“That’s not even the right line-!”

“Had to put a little bit of that Tucker ‘Too Fine’ Foley spin on it, which made it at least twenty percent better!” Tucker said, before breaking out into laughter.

It really was one of his better lines, but it still wasn’t that good and he knew it.

Danny shook his head, before joining in on the laughter.

It took them a few moments to calm down, Danny taking a deep breath to regain his composure. Tucker couldn’t help but let out one last laugh at that, considering Danny choked on air as he did.

Danny smacked Tucker’s arm “Don’t laugh at me, I could’ve died all the way!”

Tucker smiled, leaning a bit more of his weight against Danny.

“You don’t strictly need to breathe, Danny. Choking isn’t gonna kill you for real.”

“Still! It’s the principle of the thing, boyfriends shouldn’t laugh at their boyfriend choking!” Danny asserted, his voice slightly higher pitched like it always was when he was teasing Tucker.

“Okay, I won’t laugh at you next time you choke on air.”

“Thank you- wait why are you assuming there’s gonna be a next time? I’m not gonna do it again-“

Tucker laughed again, cutting him off, “Danny, I love you, but I’ve seen you inhale too fast and choke on air at least once a month since you were five. It’s gonna happen again.”

Danny pouted, “Yeah, I know. And have you seriously been tracking that? Who am I kidding, of course you have.”

Tucker managed to avoid laughing again, though the effort required was frankly insane. The situation wasn’t even all that funny, he was just so happy to be here with Danny.

This may actually claim the spot of his favorite date they’ve been on, even topping their first date. He usually counted that as his favorite because it had been the first time he’d gotten to kiss Danny.

Stargazing and seeing his boyfriend so happy and relaxed? It might just be one of the best sights Tucker had ever seen.

A flash of light caught his eye, and he looked up, Danny doing the same. A streak of light blazed across the night sky, while galaxies and stars shimmered behind it.

“A shooting star! We should make a wi- uh, we should ask it for something!” Danny said, his voice full of joy.

Tucker chuckled at the almost-slip, before saying “I’m gonna ask it for more nights like this.”

Danny smiled.

“Yeah, me too.”

Tucker watched as the star traced a path across the sky, held his boyfriend, and knew that this was as close to a perfect night as he was ever going to get.

The only thing that could make it better would be if there wasn’t a lingering worry at the back of his mind that this could be the last time Danny was this relaxed. If there was some way that Tucker could fight alongside him.

But the only way he knew how to do that was painful, and it would destroy Danny if Tucker tried.

He’d just have to settle for nights like this, almost-perfect.

***

Nocturn watched the halfa and his human from the shadows as they sat on the forest floor, gazing up at the sky.

He could understand the halfa’s, Danny’s, fascination with it. It was a lovely view, similar to the dreams he himself called home.

The two boys in front of him had some very interesting dreams, dreams that appealed to Nocturn.

As well as some very interesting nightmares.

The human, Tucker, had nightmares that Danny would not come back from a fight, that he would not be able to protect him.

He worried that Danny was lonely, as the only halfa they knew. He dreamed of alleviating that loneliness.

And Danny was lonely, his dreams reflecting a desire for others like him.

But he could not wish that pain upon anyone, the idea of Tucker being the one in the portal featuring prominently in his nightmares, as well as Tucker getting injured due to a lack of ghostly abilities.

An intriguing dilemma, and one that caused Danny a great deal of stress.

One that Nocturn knew how to resolve, as well.

It was not all that hard to create liminality in a liminal world, after all.

***

Tucker blinked, rubbing at his eyes when blinking didn't work.

He…wasn’t awake, he didn’t think. But he didn’t feel like he was asleep, either. Maybe he was lucid dreaming? Sam had talked about that a while back. He’d never had it happen before, but it wasn’t too weird, right?

The landscape around him was strange, stars and swirling colors of galaxies seeming both close enough to touch and far enough away that he could barely see them. Static sparked in the corners of his vision, and it almost looked like the sky was glitching. Also, he wasn’t actually standing on anything.

Which, was a really weird feeling. There was something solid under his feet, he wasn’t floating. But when he looked down, there was just a deep purple void beneath him.

He took a step, feeling his foot leave the solidness, before stepping back down on it. He still couldn’t see it though, and it also- moved?- in the moments between him picking up his foot and setting it down. He’d shifted a bit to the right, the stars moving for a moment.

It was enough to make him feel dizzy, but weirdly, he didn’t.

This place was wack, Tucker did not like it here.

The stars and galaxies were pretty and all, but they were more Danny’s thing than his. He loved to listen to his boyfriend talk about them, though.

Tucker looked down and grimaced. He was not a fan of not being able to see the ground. This entire place was strange as heck.

He glanced around again, seeing abstract shapes wobbling in the distance, shifting in color and size as he watched. Again, really weird.

Okay, if he was lucid dreaming, he should be able to like, move stuff right? Or make stuff? He was wearing his signature sweater and beanie, but he didn’t have his PDA, so.

He concentrated for a moment, but his beloved PDA did not appear in his hand.

Not lucid dreaming then. Or he was just bad at it. But Tucker was pretty sure it was the first one.

So, if he wasn’t lucid dreaming, what was this?

He turned, blinking again. That…had not been there before.

There was some sort of green glow off in the distance, or maybe only a few dozen feet away, it really was hard to tell, but there was definitely something there.

The fact that it was green pointed to this being a ghost, which would be weird. Most of them just went straight to attacking Danny, and Tucker couldn't think of a reason why one of them would go after him, or bring him to wherever this was, instead of just, y’know, fighting him.

Still, there wasn’t exactly anything else in this place, besides whatever those shapes were. Also, if it was a ghost, and it had brought him here, it probably knew how to get him out.

He was going to be very annoyed if it did not know how to get him out.

Tucker started to walk towards the glow, before-

Something slammed into his side, knocking him over.

He bounced slightly against whatever was making up the ground, letting out a sharp exhale as the wind was knocked out of him.

“Crap, sorry, I didn’t realize how hard I was gonna hit you, you okay?”

Tucker opened his eyes, looking up at Danny’s face.

“Dude, that hurt.”

Danny winced “I know, sorry. I was just really relieved to see you and I didn’t think about the fact that you were walking and definitely did not have time to brace yourself.”

Tucker sat up, Danny kneeling next to him.

“I’m okay, but- Hey wait. How are you here, isn’t this supposed to be my dream, or something like that? Are you just like, a figment of my imagination? Cause it’s kind of pathetic that my brain decided to have my boyfriend bowl me over-“

Danny cut him off with a frantic wave of his hands “Nope, I’m real! Definitely not your imagination, though I’m pretty sure this is my dream? Or our dream I guess, since we’re both here.”

“Our dream? How would that even work?” Tucker said, before he realized something. “Is this a new power? Cause if this is a new power that’s cool as heck-“

Danny shook his head, cutting off Tucker’s sentence “Not a new power, I don’t think. I’m pretty sure I’m not in control.”

“That doesn’t sound good.” Tucker pointed out.

“Yeah. I know.”

They sat there for a moment, before Tucker pushed himself to his feet. He looked over, seeing that the green glow was still there.

“Hey, before you showed up, I was heading towards that.” He said, pointing towards the glow.

Danny glanced over, the corners of his mouth turned down.

“This is some new ghost trying to mess with me, isn’t it?”

Tucker shrugged.

Danny sighed as he stood up.

“Let’s go see what they want. And kick their ass for interrupting our sleep.”

He grabbed Tucker’s hand, before pulling him towards the green glow. He went along with his boyfriend easily, of course. He knew Danny would make sure neither of them got hurt.

Well, hopefully Danny would make sure to keep himself safe, and not just Tucker. Tucker worried, sometimes, that Danny didn’t value himself enough. That he considered his pain not to matter.

Tucker hoped he was wrong about it.

It took a few minutes for the two of them to get close enough to the glow to see what it was.

It was a ghost, like Tucker had guessed. Their body was covered in some sort of starry fabric, covering every inch except for their head. The horns curled on top of their head added to their intimidating look, while the tranquil expression seemed to be at odds with the rest of their features.

All in all, definitely a ‘weird’ ghost, as far as Tucker was concerned. Most of the ghosts that had come to bother Danny or fight him had at least a mildly human appearance, instead of bordering it like this new one did.

Danny drew himself up, before calling out, “Hey! What’re you doing?”

Tucker resisted the urge to pull Danny behind him. Or to hide behind Danny. Neither would be particularly helpful.

The ghost focused on them, their face curling into a smile.

“I am simply waiting, Danny.” The ghost said, their voice melodic and deep.

“For what?”

“Why, for the two of you to arrive, of course.”

Before Danny or Tucker could react, the world shifted, and suddenly they were directly in front of the ghost. They hadn’t moved, exactly, the world around them had.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Nocturn, and I believe that I can be of help to you.”

Tucker looked at him warily, cautious and unwilling to let this ghost out of his sight. Could not say he was a fan of a random ghost offering to ‘help’ them. That sounded a lot like what Spectra said, before she started trying to drain people’s emotions.

Danny stiffened at his side, squeezing Tucker’s hand, and he knew that his boyfriend was thinking the same thing.

“Yeah, no. The last ghost that said that tried to kill me.” Danny said, a scowl visible on his face in Tucker’s peripheral vision.

He wasn’t taking his eyes off Nocturn until they were out of here.

Nocturn made a sound, one that could almost be called a laugh if it wasn’t for the slightly off way that it caught and stuttered on the way out.

“My goal is not to kill you, Danny. The opposite, in fact.”

Tucker scowled. There weren’t exactly a lot of things ghosts wanted from Danny that didn’t end in a fight. If Nocturn wanted Danny to do something stupid or dangerous, he was going to have to go through Tucker.

“Yeah? What do you want him to do, then?” He asked, anger in his voice. He wasn’t going to let this ghost try to manipulate Danny.

Nocturn laughed, a real one this time. It was vaguely unsettling.

“The more relevant question, ‘What does he want me to do?’”

Tucker blinked at the cryptic answer, his expression dropping into confusion for a moment. Danny had gone still next to him, studying Nocturn.

“Are you saying that your ‘help’ wouldn’t need anything from me?” Danny asked, suspicion in his voice.

Nocturn tilted his head “Of course not.. My help would be in service of something you yourself wish for,,”

Tucker and Danny both tensed. When nothing happened, they both let out a breath of relief. Desiree had not been a fun fight to deal with.

Nocturn continued, ignoring or oblivious to their momentary tension.

“After all, your very dreams give away what you desire.”

Danny flinched, shifting Tucker's focus to him in alarm.

“Danny, are you-“

“Just because I dream about it doesn’t mean it should happen.” He said, cutting Tucker off with a hard voice, a glare directed at Nocturn.

Nocturn shook his head, a smile on his face “I do not mean your nightmares, Danny. I refer to the others, the pleasant ones.”

Tucker watched as his boyfriend blinked, before looking at Nocturn with an expression altogether opposite what it had been a moment before.

He looked…hopeful.

“There are others?” He asked, something fragile about his voice.

It hit Tucker, then, that this was about how lonely Danny was. He’d noticed it, of course he had, but there was nothing they could do about it, short of trying to recreate the portal accident. And believe him, neither of them wanted that.

But if Nocturn knew about other halfas, maybe. Maybe they could get him to bring them here, or to tell Danny where they were.

“I did not say that.” Nocturn said, making Tucker want to punch him.

Danny’s face fell, and Tucker’s desire to punch the tall ghost increased by at least double. He squeezed Danny’s hand, trying to offer some comfort.

Danny took a breath, seemingly gaining some confidence “Why even say that, then? Why even offer to- to make my dreams come true?”

Nocturn didn’t answer Danny’s question. Instead, he looked to Tucker.

“And what of your dreams? So perfect, so well-suited.”

Tucker felt his skin crawl at the way the ghost was looking at him. Like a pawn, like a specimen.

This was definitely one of those ghosts who considered humans below their notice. He wasn’t even sure why the guy was talking to him in the first place.

“Yeah, I’m just gonna go ahead and pass up anything you’d give me, thanks.” He said, a bit of bitterness in his voice.

Plenty of his dreams were just to have power. Power which he probably should not have.

There were also the ones that centered around Danny, and caring for him, but Tucker doubted Nocturn was talking about those.

Nocturn tilted his head, the exact same way he had a few minutes earlier.

“Even if the dream align with Danny’s own?”

Something like fear, with surprise mixed in, bolted through Tucker’s mind.

What-

That wasn’t possible. That Danny could have the same dreams as him, or that-

Or that Nocturn could make any of those dreams come true.

Danny squeezed Tucker’s hand, and he looked over to see his boyfriend with a slight smile on his face.

Tucker took a deep breath. It was fine, they’d dealt with ghosts like this before. Well, not like this, exactly, but they’d dealt with ghosts before. It would be okay.

Nocturn looked at them with an expression Tucker couldn’t even hope to understand, before continuing “You both dream of Tucker becoming a halfa.”

Tucker’s mouth dropped open, and he looked over to see the same expression of surprise on Danny’s face. They- that wasn’t-

Tucker closed his mouth, swallowing. He looked back to Nocturn.

“That isn’t possible, even if- even if we both- yeah. It’s not happening.”

He glanced over at Danny, worried about his reaction. But all there was on Danny’s face was a sort of resigned acceptance, and agreement.

Somehow, that made Tucker feel worse. He’d only stated a fact, but it wasn’t a fact that either of them liked.

“If you will remember, I have already stated that it is possible. And I will help you achieve it.” Nocturn said, looking at them with an almost bored expression. Almost. His eyes were too focused on Danny for it to be real.

Danny squeezed Tucker’s hand again, before letting go. He stepped in front of Tucker, putting himself between Nocturn and him.

“I’m not going to let you hurt him.” Danny said, his voice flat yet full of anger.

Tucker startled. He was so focused on the impossibility of him becoming a halfa, even if he wanted to, that he hadn’t considered the part where it could be taken as a threat against his life.

Nocturn laughed.

“I will not hurt either of you, Danny. The process would not leave lasting harm on him.”

“That doesn’t exactly sound great, dude.” Tucker chimed in, pushing past Danny so they were once again standing shoulder to shoulder.

He grabbed Danny’s hand again, ignoring the slightly annoyed look his boyfriend gave him.

He’d just have to deal, Tucker wasn’t leaving him to chat with the insane ghost by himself.

Nocturn shrugged, the causal motion extremely weird to see on the ghost. He didn’t have shoulders, exactly, so it was more like his entire torso tilted up for a moment, before settling back down.

“It is not harm that would last longer than a day. It would not affect you in death, or half-death.”

“But it would hurt him?” Danny asked, his voice conveying just how much that was not allowed.

Nocturn looked at him for a moment “It would not hurt, Danny. Merely harm. Becoming a halfa is not an easy process.”

He looked a moment longer, before softening slightly, his eyes gaining a spark of empathy that had been absent so far.

“It would not be like your own transformation.”

Danny inhaled sharply, causing Tucker to squeeze his hand.

“And this would work?” Tucker asked, pushing down the hope that wanted to spill out in his voice.

He couldn’t believe they were considering this. When had they started considering this?

Nocturn nodded “Yes, it would. This realm,” He swept a hand around himself, gesturing to the landscape around them, “is one where the normal rules do not apply. It is a realm governed by myself and the logic of dreams.”

“So this is a dream.” Tucker said.

“Yes, of a sort. Though it is not a ‘normal’ dream, as you would say. Nor are you dreaming.” Nocturn explained.

Tucker looked at him for a moment “That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Yeah, how can we be here if we aren’t dreaming?” Danny added, finally recovered from the mention of the portal accident.

Nocturn waved a hand in front of himself. “This realm is a dream, my dream. I have just pulled the two of you into it for the purposes of this deal.”

At the mention of the deal, Tucker realized something.

“Wait. What do you want in return? You never said.” He asked, narrowing his eyes.

Even if this ghost could actually turn him into a halfa, Tucker wasn’t stupid enough to fall for another trick like Desiree’s, where everything you gained was twisted around into a bad thing.

If Nocturn asked for something unreasonable, he’d refuse.

Even if there was a pang in his heart at the idea of doing so, of leaving Danny alone.

Nocturn smiled. “It’s simple. All I ask is for Danny to become my apprentice.”

Tucker blinked, before looking over at Danny. He looked just as confused as Tucker felt.

“So, you don’t want me to like, destroy something or kill someone? Or let you do it?” Danny asked, confusion clear in his voice.

“Of course not, Danny. All I ask is for you to learn, and help me in small tasks associated with my duties. Nothing so violent.”

Danny turned to Tucker, looking at him intensely for a moment, before turning to Nocturn.

“Can we- have a minute? To talk about it.”

Nocturn inclined his head, before disappearing.

Tucker immediately turned to Danny.

“You can’t seriously be considering this. There’s no way the apprentice thing isn’t a trap-“

“I know, but- Tuck, if he’s telling the truth-“ Danny looked at him pleadingly, before continuing “If he’s telling the truth, you could be a halfa.”

Tucker sighed. “Yeah. I could.”

They looked at each for a moment, their hands clutching each other.

“You could always kick his ass, if he’s lying.” Tucker said, slight hesitance in his voice.

Danny grinned. “Yeah, and I don’t think he’d try to get me to officially ‘become his apprentice’ or whatever until his end of the deal was complete. I wouldn’t do it before then.”

Tucker smiled back. “Yeah, so if he turns out to be full of it, you won’t owe him anything. And- and we could try.”

“We could try.” Danny repeated, looking down at their joined hands with something like wonder.

Tucker took a deep breath. “I could be a halfa. I’m going to be a halfa.”

There was a chance Nocturn was lying, but he seemed pretty confident he could do it. Tucker couldn’t help but think that it was going to work.

Danny looked back at him, “You are.”

He leaned in, kissing Tucker, who smiled into the short kiss.

Danny pulled back, an expression full of love on his face.

“Let’s do this.” Tucker said.

Danny nodded, grinning, before turning slightly away from Tucker, though not letting go of his hand.

“I can probably just yell for him, right? He said this was his realm or whatever.” Danny asked.

Tucker shrugged “Probably? That or he’ll show up eventually, it’s not like he’s gonna leave us running around in here.”

Danny nodded, before yelling, “Nocturn! We’re done talking!”

There was a shift in the air, and then Nocturn was standing in front of them.

“So? What is your decision?” Nocturn asked, his red eyes slightly narrowed.

“We’re doing it.” Tucker said.

“I’ll become your apprentice, after Tucker’s a halfa.” Danny added.

Nocturn smiled, before holding out a hand. Green flames filled it, those same green flames racing down to the ground and circling Danny and Tucker.

“Would you like to make a Deal?” Nocturn asked, power heavy in his voice.

Tucker squeezed Danny’s hand, feeling a squeeze back, then reaching his free hand to Nocturn’s, Danny doing the same.

The two of them grasped it at the same moment, and the green flames swirled onto their arms. They were cold, almost freezing, as they settled into Tucker’s skin.

He looked at his arm, the green tinge left there by the flames fading as he watched.

Tucker let go, Danny doing the same.

“So, what happens now-?” Tucker asked, before being interrupted by a portal opening under his feet.

His hand was torn away from Danny’s as he fell.

“Tucker-!”

The last thing he saw was Danny’s panicked face, before the portal closed above him.

***

Tucker landed on the ground with a thud, and groaned. A little warning would’ve been nice. Especially for Danny, he hoped his boyfriend wasn’t killing Nocturn right now-

He blinked, seeing trees above him.

He was in a forest, trees stretching up towards a night sky, one unnaturally bright with stars. There was also solid ground, that he could see, covered in softly glowing leaves.

Huh. When Nocturn had said becoming a halfa was gonna ‘harm’ him, he had been expecting the portal to drop into a vat of fire or something.

Or, like, the void of space. One of those.

Either seemed like they fit with Nocturn’s whole deal.

Tucker stood up, looking around at the small clearing he was in again. There was a path leading deeper, or at least he assumed it was deeper, into the forest. The path was wavering slightly as he looked at it, almost like pavement when it was hot out.

He grimaced. Then again, a shifting, dream-like forest also fit with Nocturn’s whole deal.

Hopefully it wouldn’t be too hard to navigate.

Hopefully.

He sighed, before starting down the path.

At least there didn’t seem to be anything else here, other than the plants.

Tucker wasn’t sure what he’d do if there were any ghosts here, considering he didn’t have any of his tech, and wasn’t a halfa. Yet.

This still seemed too good to be true, a dream. But that was exactly what it was.

And it was still real, still happening.

He was going to be a halfa.

Danny wasn’t going to be alone.

Tucker couldn’t help but smile to himself, before flinching as he walked directly into a branch.

A branch that had not been there a moment earlier.

He took a step back, watching as the branch swung back up into the canopy, the bright glow of the leaves disappearing into the shadows.

“Okay, not normal plants then.” He muttered aloud. He’d known that, obviously, but he hadn’t realized they were going to try to mess with him.

And he was pretty sure the branch had just been messing with him, considering all it’d done was smack him in the face.

Tucker groaned as he started to walk again.

Great, mildly sentient ghost plants that wanted to prank him. Just what he needed.

At least it wasn’t actual ghosts.

And at least the ‘trial’ so far had just been walking.

Tucker blinked, before frowning.

Wait, actually, how long had he been walking for? It can’t have been more than a few minutes-

He glanced behind himself, seeing nothing but forest. The path he had been following had been disappearing behind him, apparently.

He turned, but-

The path in front of him was gone too. There were only trees, the ground covered in glowing leaves that had fallen from the canopy above.

Tucker squinted, seeing what looked like another clearing. He could see a bit of uncovered ground, at least.

He started to pick his way through the fallen leaves, stepping carefully. He was determined not to trip on something hidden under the leaves and fall flat on his face. That would be really embarrassing, even if no one was here to see him.

Thankfully, he managed to avoid any tree roots or hidden vines as he walked to the clearing, stepping into it.

It wasn’t exactly a clearing, more an area where the leaves had been cleared away by something.

If Tucker had to guess, that something was the small bushes that encircled the area. They were softly pulsing as he watched, the purple leaves shaped like cones that expanded and deflated.

The plants also had small berries on them, star-shaped and bright, ectoplasmic green.

Tucker stepped cautiously into the center of the ring of bushes, but nothing happened. Guess they either didn’t care, or could only mess with leaves. He wasn’t actually sure how they would’ve moved the leaves, figuring out plants was really more Sam’s thing.

He glanced at the berries again. His stomach growled. He was starting to get hungry, for whatever reason. Wasn’t this supposed to be a dream?

Tucker’s eyebrows drew together. Well, actually, Nocturn hadn’t said whether where he was sending Tucker was a dream, had he?

So, this could just be a weird bit of the Ghost Zone. Or something different that Nocturn had created.

Whatever, either way Tucker was getting hungry. And in the absence of a Nasty Burger, or any kind of meat, he wasn’t picky, the only thing he could eat was the strange berries.

In any other situation, he wouldn’t do it. Eating food contaminated with ectoplasm was a very bad idea, if you weren’t Danny. But that was exactly the point. The whole reason he was wandering this forest was to become a halfa, to become like Danny. It really couldn’t hurt him to eat them at this point, right?

Tucker reached out, plucking a few berries off the bush. They didn’t glow, exactly, instead being such a bright shade of green that it seemed like they should.

Tucker looked at them for a moment, before shrugging and eating the entire handful at once.

Which was probably a bad idea, actually.

Considering the cold burning that was running down his throat now, tingling and scratching at his flesh.

The berries didn’t even taste good, metal and something sharp on his tongue.

Tucker coughed, trying to- do something, about the pain in his throat. It did not work.

It wasn’t unbearable, or anything, just uncomfortable.

He coughed again, a reflex this time. It almost felt like there was something stuck in his throat, even though he was pretty sure there wasn’t.

At least he wasn’t hungry anymore. Though, that was weird too. He’d only eaten a handful of berries.

Tucker sighed, before turning to walk away from the bushes. Whatever, it was weird ghost food anyway. Why should he expect it to be normal?

He did regret eating it, though. At least a little bit. The burning in his throat did not appear to be going away.

The forest around him was still thick, with no hint of an end. Tucker still couldn’t tell how long he’d been walking for. The sky didn’t change at all in the past few- minutes? Hours? However long it had been. It probably wasn’t going to change, and he didn’t have a watch either, so he had no clue how to figure out the time.

He’d never been the best at time, honestly. There had been more than one time that he had gotten completely wrapped up in a project or game and lost all sense of time until his parents came to drag him out of his room for dinner. There was also the sheer number of times he’d been late for things before he’d started setting alarms on his PDA to make sure he made it on time-

Tucker shivered suddenly. It wasn’t cold, the forest had been the same temperature this entire time, a bit warm.

He felt like something was watching him. He hadn’t seen anything, but the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up, and he could almost-

A small puff of steam left his mouth, and Tucker froze. What the-

That- That was just like what happened with Danny’s ghost sense.

It was working. It was actually working.

Tucker couldn’t help but laugh aloud, a smile overtaking his face. It was working, he had a ghost sense-

Wait.

That meant that the thing watching him was a ghost-

And he didn’t have any other ghost powers yet.

Tucker looked around, seeing nothing, but-

Better to be safe.

He broke into a run, hoping that the forest would prove just as confusing for whatever ghost as it had for him.

Assuming it wasn’t Nocturn.

Oh.

Tucker stopped running, suddenly feeling very stupid. He wasn’t in the Ghost Zone, not really. Which meant it was almost definitely Nocturn keeping an eye on him.

Tucker sighed, before starting to walk again.

***

This place was horrible and Tucker hated it.

He was sure that it was looping back around on him at this point. He’d seen the berry bushes at least eight more times.

He didn’t exactly want more pain piled on top of his burning throat, so he hadn’t eaten any more berries.

Despite the fact that he was definitely hungry again. And the part where they were probably the reason he had a ghost sense.

He still had no clue how long he’d been here.

It could’ve been ten minutes, or three days. There was no way of telling, not when all that ever seemed to happen was him getting hungry, and the forest looping around.

Tucker sighed as he walked past the berry bushes again. Still exactly the same-

He yelped as a vine grabbed his ankles, pulling him off his feet. Okay, not the same-!

Tucker flailed, trying to get the vine to drop him. When that didn’t work, he resorted to attempting to pull himself up enough to tear them off.

The reason this was a last resort was due to his very bad core strength, since he didn’t actually want to do sit-ups in gym and avoided it like the plague.

He grabbed at the vine, just barely managing to get a hold of the tendril furthest up his leg before gravity brought his torso back down. Luckily, the vine came with him, and he dropped to the ground with a thud.

Tucker groaned. That had hurt. That had hurt a lot. He’d managed to hit his head, as well as get the wind knocked out of him.

Just add it to the pain in his throat, whatever. At least he wasn’t still being held captive by the vine.

He sat up, flinching as he did so. His back was not happy with him. A sharp, stinging pain in his legs caught his attention next. There were long cuts down his legs, in swirling patterns like the vine had burnt them into him. Ectoplasm was oozing around, and into, the cuts.

Tucker frowned. On one hand, that was probably bad. On the other hand, it was also probably good.

He had to assume this was part of whatever plan Nocturn had, so it would turn out fine. Right?

He stood up, wincing as he put weight on his legs. The cuts bled more, and he mourned the loss of these pants. He liked them a lot before they got cut up and covered in blood.

Wait, if this was a dream, or something, maybe his actual pants were fine?

Tucker shook his head, before starting to walk again. Yeah, the chances these weren’t actually destroyed was low. He sorta doubted Nocturn had gone through the effort of copying their clothes, and had actually just put the real ones on them somehow. Which, weird, but ultimately Tucker didn’t care, considering it barely even ranked in terms of ghost weirdness they’d had to deal with since the portal opened.

He passed by the berry bushes again and frowned.

That was quicker than it had been looping before.

It was speeding up.

And his legs were really starting to hurt now-

Tucker froze as he looked down at his legs.

There was a green color spreading out from the cuts on his legs. Not the color of ectoplasm, it wasn’t the ectoplasm mixing with his blood-

He reached down, trying frantically to wipe it off. It did not come off.

The green was- in his skin, it was his skin.

His skin was turning green.

What the actual-

Tucker took a breath, before blowing it out all at once.

This had better be more weirdness from this place and not something permanent, because it was not going to be a fun time trying to hide this from his parents.

Also, he would seriously hate it if his legs were permanently green-

He looked down at his legs again, and realized something.

The green spreading from the cuts was the exact same shade as his now-ruined pants. This was definitely weird ghost stuff.

Tucker blinked, his eyebrows drawing together. Huh.

Now that he thought about it, and this was happening, he was going to be wearing this outfit for, well, functionally forever, yeah? Danny was stuck in the jumpsuit he’d been wearing when he- when the accident happened.

It was a good thing Tucker liked this outfit, then. He remembered how annoyed Danny had been in the beginning, that he didn’t get to choose.

It also meant that the pants weren’t actually ruined, so that was super cool.

Tucker shook his head, before walking forward again. His legs still hurt, but honestly? He just wanted to get this over with, at this point.

A puff of steam left his mouth again, and Tucker sighed.

Was Nocturn seriously just going to watch him this whole time? That had to be what was going on, why else would his new ghost sense keep going off?

Whatever, he didn’t actually care.

He just wanted to finish this ‘trial’, so he could be a halfa, and get back to Danny.

He just had to keep moving forward.

It had been either a few hours, or a few days.

But he just had to keep moving.

***

Tucker had already thought about it a lot over the past few- however long it’s been, but seriously. This place sucked.

His legs were pretty much completely green now, and he was starting to wonder if they were going to turn into a ghost tail at some point, it would make sense-

The other thing was that his throat had stopped hurting, finally.

He was seriously starting to regret not making Nocturn tell them what the trial would be.

Tucker sighed. Even if they had insisted, he kinda doubted Nocturn would’ve caved.

He just hoped that it hadn’t actually been a few days. He was pretty sure wherever this was had weird time, so he wasn’t worried about his parents or anything-

But Danny was also here, or somewhere close to it. And he was waiting on Tucker.

He really hoped he hadn’t freaked out his boyfriend too much.

Though, if he had, it was definitely Nocturn’s fault, considering he’d opened the portal without even saying anything, and also hadn’t told them about how long this would take.

Tucker didn’t even know for sure how long it would take, or was taking, but he would bet Nocturn did.

Unless Tucker was doing something wrong-

Tucker grimaced, before shaking his head.

He really hoped he wasn’t doing anything wrong. It would absolutely kill him if he was.

He chuckled at the pun he’d just accidentally made. That was the point of this-

He blinked. That…had not been there a moment earlier.

In front of him was a small tree, one that only came up to about his waist. It was bending to the side, the weight of the large piece of fruit hanging off its branches too much for such a tiny thing to support.

The fruit itself was strange. It was glowing, and the colors on it swirled together as Tucker watched, yellow bleeding into orange into yellow. It was about the size of a pomegranate, though Tucker doubted the inside was the same, judging by the fact that the texture looked to be more like an apple than anything.

He glanced around, seeing that the berry bushes had disappeared from sight for the first time in a while. The forest had started looping fast enough that as soon as they disappeared from behind him, they were in front of him.

His ghost sense went off again, and Tucker shook his head. Yeah, yeah, he’d hurry up.

He had to assume that’s why Nocturn kept showing up, to check on how long it was going to take.

Tucker looked back to the fruit.

He was still hungry.

And something about this felt final, like he'd be done after this.

And he really wanted to be done.

He wanted to be a halfa, and to see his boyfriend. He wanted Danny to know, for sure, that he wasn’t the only one, that he'd have help from now on, that he wasn’t alone.

Tucker reached out, plucking the fruit off of the tree. It sprung up, the weight of the fruit gone.

He ran his fingers over the skin of the fruit. He’d been right, it felt like an apple.

Which meant he was probably supposed to eat it like one.

Tucker shrugged slightly, before biting into the fruit.

Oh, that was a weird taste.

It was good, though?

Mostly.

He continued eating the fruit.

It didn’t actually taste much like fruit, actually, of any kind, except for if he was counting the overpowering sweetness that had come out of the first bite. What really made it weird was the tangy, metal, spicy aftertaste that became the main flavor the more he ate. Which, based on how Danny described it, Tucker would have to guess was ectoplasm.

It probably said something about how much Tucker had already been changed by his time in the forest that he actually thought it tasted good. The berries had tasted the same, kinda, and he hadn’t liked those-

Tucker doubled over as pain exploded in his chest. It felt like his ribcage was collapsing.

He groaned as his chest tightened, before loosening by degrees as-

As something settled in his chest.

That-

Tucker straightened up, the pain leaving as fast as it came.

He could feel something in his chest, pulsing. A ghost core?

He was pretty sure that was not how that was supposed to work.

But hey, he’d done it.

He looked around, seeing that nothing had changed.

He sighed.

Guess he had to keep walking.

Yay.

Tucker took a step forward, before-

He pitched forward, the ground disappearing under his feet.

He tumbled down into the sky, purple void and silver stars glittering around him as he fell.

Below him, there was nothing, just more empty space and galaxies in the distance. It was an eternity of nothingness.

He really hoped this hadn’t been a trick by Nocturn. He was pretty sure it wasn’t, but still.

Tucker closed his eyes, the constant spinning making him dizzy.

He could feel the- core, apparently, in his chest humming as he did, something spreading out from it, a heat and light flashing in front of his face, visible even through his closed eyelids.

Tucker felt it as he passed out, still falling through the void of space.

***

“Tucker? Tuck, c’mon-“

Tucker blinked open his eyes, seeing Danny’s face hovering above him. Literally, considering his boyfriend was in ghost form and was floating.

Danny grinned “Tuck, it worked-!”

Tucker frowned, what had-

White hair fell into the corner of his eyes, and Tucker froze.

Before grinning just as wide as Danny had been.

He sat up, feeling cold rock beneath him, and reached out to pull Danny into a hug.

“It worked, I’m a halfa!”

Danny laughed, hugging Tucker back just as hard “You are, you are-“

They stayed like that for a moment, before Tucker pulled back slightly. He glanced around, seeing that they were in the Ghost Zone, not Nocturn’s weird realm. Score.

“We should probably stand up-“

Danny grinned “Are you sure you mean that?”

Tucker glared lightly at him “Of course I do, what-“

He tried to move his legs under him, before realizing-

Oh. He had a ghost tail. He was in ghost form right now.

He knew from watching Danny that he could have legs, too, but he didn’t actually know how to do that right now.

So instead, he pushed himself up so he was hovering in the air. It was surprisingly easy to get the hang of, though he was betting that was cause they were in the Ghost Zone.

“Okay, I get what you meant now. Now c’mon, I want to-“ Tucker started to say, before Danny flew up to meet him, grabbing him in another hug.

The force of Danny’s hug pushed them off the tiny island, leaving the two floating in the endless space of the Ghost Zone, which Tucker really didn’t mind. His boyfriend was curled around him, their tails twining together. It was perfect, honestly.

“I was so worried, especially with the vines, but you did it! You’re okay!” Danny said, his tail squeezing Tucker.

“I am, I- Wait. You were the ghost watching me? I thought it was Nocturn!” Tucker exclaimed, a smile on his face.

Of course it had been Danny. He would’ve wanted to make sure everything would be okay, and that Tucker wouldn’t get hurt.

Danny nodded. “I made Nocturn let me watch. He said I couldn’t do anything, or let you know I was there, but I was.”

Tucker felt his grin get bigger as he wrapped his arms around Danny, pulling him into his side.

“Thanks, Danny.”

Danny was smiling up at Tucker as he said, “I can’t believe you did this, I love you.”

Tucker reached up to hold Danny’s cheek. “I love you too.”

They stayed like that, relishing in each other and the fact that neither of them were alone.

“My end of the deal is completed.” Nocturn said, pulling Tucker out of the moment a bit. Not that much though, considering this was amazing.

Danny pulled back slightly from Tucker, turning his face towards Nocturn and waving him off.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll be your apprentice or whatever. Later though, right now I wanna hang out with my halfa boyfriend.”

Tucker laughed, feeling his chest warm at the reminder that he was a halfa now. He could help Danny, and he wouldn’t be alone-

Neither of them would be alone.

Nocturn sighed “Very well. I will return at a later time.”

Danny gave him a thumbs up, already turning back to Tucker.

Tucker barely noticed as Nocturn left, too focused on Danny’s face in front of him, a large grin across it.

“So, wanna see who can fly faster?”

Tucker grinned back, already uncoiling his tail from Danny’s.

“I bet it’s me!” He said, before taking off.

“No fair, that’s a head start-!” Danny called, already giving chase.

Tucker laughed, feeling free, feeling happy, feeling full of love.

Feeling like he would never be lonely again.

And neither would Danny.

#danny phantom #savant par #tucker foley #fanfiction #my writing #ectoimplosion2024

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haleswallows · 9 months ago

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Mourning ‘til Dawn Fandom: DCxDP Teen (minor descriptions of injuries, vivisection, off-screen deaths) For the @dpxdcbigbang Inspired by a prompt by tourettesdog where Agent O is a GIW whistleblower.

Arc 2: Healing now live!

Teaser:

Diana holds Danny’s hand between her palms. He lets out a shuddering breath and she bows her head until their hands are pressed to her forehead. From the outside, it looks as if they are posed in prayer.

It isn’t too far from the truth. Diana begs favor from her patron gods. Begs for relief, begs for rest. “Would you like some more ice, brave one?”

“I feel like I’m going to throw up. Why does this suck so much? Ecto-Dejecto never made me sick like this before.”

Diana hums, taps a slow rhythm against the back of Danny’s hand. To give him something to concentrate on. “How about a few crackers?” Danny makes a retching sound and smiles when Diana huffs. “If not crackers, maybe a story? I have many League adventures that are amusing. Or stories of the gods.”

Another shiver wracks through Danny. He huffs out a small cloud of mist. “Ugh. Um, silly League stories. They’re much better than mine.”

“Then shall we trade, little warrior? A League story for a ghost story, it is a fair exchange.” And her eyes gleam a little bit when Danny manages a laugh. Diana finds it admirable and endearing that Danny’s sense of humor has been as durable as the teen.

“You first,” Danny declares. “Hang on, I think I’m going to sneeze and it’s going to be disgusting.”

“The color is amusing at least,” Diana offers as she grabs a tissue. “You’re already better than this morning. The fever has definitely lessened.”

The tissue is wadded up and tossed away, but not until Diana confirms the snot is indeed day-glo green. “Ghost biology is weird. Yeah, my headache is better too.”

“Yeah?” She pushes his bangs back. “A good sign. How do your wounds feel?”

He flaps his free hand in a circle. “Not as painful, mostly itchy. Weirdly slimy. Did you know human bodies make mucus to heal most things? Human biology is weird too!” A beat. “Wait! You promised a story.”

“I believe I negotiated for a trade, little warrior.” Diana lets herself sound smug. “Hm, there’s a lot. I don’t know where to start. I’ve been a hero a long time.”

Somehow, Danny weedles hours of stories from her. A number of Leaguers’ ears are probably burning, particularly Batman and Flash. Reluctantly Danny shares a few of his own heroic tales. She especially loves the story with Jazz and Youngblood.

He holds things back. Diana can tell. Whether he fears her reaction or wants to obfuscate the real danger he was in, Diana does not know. His stories come with the realization how alone Danny has been. She can’t stop herself from praising him.

“Without a mentor! Impressive. Utilizing the inventions available and optimizing them for your own use is incredible. We can teach how to be a good hero, but we cannot teach how to be clever or how to adapt. You should be proud, I hope you are.”

At Danny’s silence, Diana realizes she has been rambling. She smiles ruefully at him. Shocked, she leans closer to his bed. Her cheeks hurt from how hard she’s smiling.

Danny squints at her. His eyes are barely cracked open. She can just begin to see how blue they are.

“There you are.”

He closes his eyes, squints them back open. Diana’s heart clenches.

“Hello, brave one. Please call me Diana.” He clings to her, one hand in hers and the other on her bicep. She slots their joined hands underneath her chin.

“Would you like to see space?”

#dc x dp #dpxdc #my writing #danny phantom #The Ghouls and Gangs Big Bang #it was IMPOSSIBLE to pick a teaser #I love so much of this Arc

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noctilucid · 26 days ago

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Dannymay Poetry - Day 31 Free Day

No actual poetry in this one, just finishing off the framing device. The whole collection is now posted to AO3.

"...And it appears Ms. Sanchez is our final presenter today." Mr. Lancer checked the clock. "And with just five minutes left! Perfect timing. Ms. Sanchez, if you would?"

Paulina smiled, grabbed a brown paper bag from under her desk, and sauntered up to the front of the room. She set the bag on Avery's desk, forcing them to pull their notebook into their lap.

"I saved the best for last so none of you would have to try to follow me," she said, beaming. "My poem is written for mi amor, Phantom, of course." Sam sighed in the back, but Paulina ignored her, reaching into her bag and pulling out a photo box printed with flowers. "I brought along some presentation aids in this box." She brushed the empty bag onto the floor and set the box on the desk, and then, with a coy look and deliberate slowness, pulled off the lid.

Then she put a hand to her cheek in faux surprise. "Oh! It's another box." A ripple of attention spread through the room telegraphed by the murmur of students sitting up, or starting to hurridly pack up their things.

"Oh great," Danny moaned.

"Pauli..." Star said, both a warning and a question.

"Ms. Sanchez, I will remind you—"

"I wonder what could be inside~"

"—that if you summon a ghost to avoid an assignment, that is an instant fail—" Danny let out a cold gasp of mist.

"A third box!"

"BEWARE!"

Danny slid further down in his seat. "Eeyup. Here we go."

Val pulled something lime green and chrome out of her backpack and strode up to the front of the room with it wrapped around her hand, and before anyone could process the scene, she pulled back an arm and decked the Box Ghost. He smacked into the whiteboard with a spurt of green dripping from his nose.

While he was busy investigating his rearranged face, Val flipped up Paulina's nested box lure and crushed it to the desk with another knuckle-duster punch, the brief flash of red ectoskeleton up her arm barely noticable. She gave it a few more hits for good measure to crush what corners survived. When the boxes were pancakes, she tossed the flattened carnage on the floor in front of Boxy and barked, "No boxes. Get. Out."

He turned invisible and dribbled green across the room before phasing through the windows and (presumably) flying away.

Val turned back to the class, non-plussed. She held up the anti-ecto knuckle dusters with a casual gesture. "A GIW guy dropped them. ...What? It's the Box Ghost."

On the right side of the room, Mikey started chanting, "Red. Hawk! Red. Hawk!" Half of the room took it up, with the A-Listers (minus Kwan) sitting in awkward silence in the middle of it all. Paulina slowly thawed out of her shock.

"NO!" she yelled over the chant. "Phantom was supposed to come to save me! And then I was going to read him my poem, and he'd fall for me, and we'd start dating and get married—!"

The bell rung. Danny stuffed his notebook into his bag and hustled out of the room, his friends right behind him.

"Dude, I can't beleive you wrote that whole thing in class."

"I can't beleive that you were able to stall that long. You guys saved my ass."

"It was nice to see everyone actively participating," Sam said with a soft smile. Tucker cut a glare at her.

"Blood blossoms?"

"Look, I blocked most of it out afterwards! I'm still working through it. I gotta go check some places to make sure they're really—"

Danny stuffed his bag through the door of his locker. "Hey, I'm going to go check on Boxy while you fight about that, ok?" He gave them a little salute and ran for the bathroom.

Tucker sighed. "Well. He's lived to fight another marking period."

"What would he do without us?"

"Fail."

She laughed. "Yeah."

#dannymay2025 #danny phantom #my writing

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not-my-final-account · 1 year ago

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I sighed and leaned back onto the chair provided as the family argued in front of me, Nightwing seemed very untrusting of me which was sad but to be expected, Jason however was valiantly defending my honour saying that it calmed down the pit rage. I really need to look into these pits, both because they’re clearly ectoplasm of some sort and also yum.

I watched them argue back and forth but when Jason didn’t try to kill any of them or storm away (poor guy really needs to get his system cleaned) they seemed to accept that what I had done had worked, they also did a few blood tests and with some assurance that I knew how to take non dangerous levels of blood they left it alone.

Jason turned around to talk to me but I was already in mist form to watch his reaction, he gave a smal sigh and muttered something about asking him to do that more often, ooh, good. I flew through the layers of stone and walked to Arkham Asylum to see Jazz, she’d moved there as a psychologist and apparently had the longest streak of staying alive or sane as one, weird.

A guy with a face full of clown makeup skipped happily down the street and everyone turned their gazes away and not say anything, Gotham truely does reminds me of home but with more crime and more normal stuff, like nice normal clowns instead of freakshow or ghost clowns.

I walked into the asylum “Hi! I’m here to see Jazz!” I said, he glanced at me and then my teeth and claws

“Poor Jasmine, if you kidnap her can you set it up to look like Joker? I’ve got money riding on him.” the guy asked, I gave him a look and went to where Jazz was, waiting until some guy with an impressive nose walked out of the room

“Danny!” she cried as the ran over and hugged me

“Jazz!” I said back “Have you heard about the Bats?” I asked

“I’m Jokers therapist, I know about them.” Jazz said and I laughed

“Okay so here’s the story

I walked down the street sipping my ecto, it’s blood red was kind of disorientating but whatever, better than having to pay for food. Suddenly two guys jumped me! I sighed and kept drinking, I punched the first guy into a wall a bit harder than I intended to but he’d be fine, the second guy I knocked out easily, and the third guy tripped me but I caught myself by flying and tripped him up then gave him a purposely harder punch which winded him, no need to knock my lunch out of my hands.

I turned around to pick up my thermos and saw Batman, BATMAM. Look, maybe hissing then turning into mist and flying at him to get it might not have been the smartest choice, but I don’t have fully human instincts anymore so there was no fear stopping me and no one in the world needs any more sources of ecto, and I had spent hours tinkering around with that so it filtered ecto from the atmosphere just right no way was I doing that again!

Anyways, he thought I was a vampire so I decided, giw are after me so I decided to be a vampire, I got jumped about a week later. I’m living in the Bat cave.” I said

“Are they treating you right?” Jazz asked, I nodded “I have a story too. I’m liminal, we all know this, anyways, I saw this lady whos on greyscale and could be from the victorian era. So I met Lady Gotham!” Jazz said “She’s cool.”

“Oh awesome, I left some gifts for her when I moved in. She said I could live here but I only met her that once.” I admitted

“Good.” Jazz said with a nod “Listen to what Frostbite and Clockwork teach you about Ghost etiquette.”

“There’s this guy who has really good tasting ectoplasm too, it’s fermented and in his blood.” I mentioned, Jazz blinked

“Huh. What do you think of him?” she asked

“He’s strong, keeps mentioning ‘pit rage’ I think these pits are old ectoplasm, good ectoplasm, it’s delicious.” I said

“Is this guy Red Hood? Lady Gotham mentioned him, he died and got revived by a pit of ectoplasm, but he didn’t come back as a ghost, just the same human as before, so the ectoplasm is keeping him alive but he’s probably makes way too much for a human to filter.” Jazz suggested “He was probably frustrated about something, and then it amplified that frustration which led to more frustration and anger which got amplified, creating a positive feed back loop. He probably has no control over the anger now though.” Jazz said, I knew enough about coding from listening to Tucker to know what a positive feedback loop was.

“Huh, poor guy.” I said, Jazz nodded solemnly when there was a knock on the door and the gruff voice of someone who’s seen some stuff

“Your next patient Ms Fenton.” he said

“Bye Jazz!” I said and I walked out.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

#jason x danny #lets do it #notmyfinalaccount writes

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poke-me-with-a-stick · 1 month ago

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Chapter 33 of 'Artificial Wingman!'

For the full story on Ao3, click Here!

Enjoy!

---

Jazz looked up from her book as the two boys walked through the apartment door. Smiling, she nodded to them, noting the way their hands stayed laced together as they took off their shoes, only letting go of each other when they had to reach for their wigs. "Hey you two, did you have fun?" She asked, flipping to the next page in her book.

Robin nodded, heading for the bathroom as he pulled his hoodie over his head. Danny hung back, fiddling with his own hoodie sleeve. "Yeah, we had a good time. But, uh, there's something important that we talked about, and... I need to tell you something." The teen took a breath and walked over to her, sitting down on the other side of the couch.

"Oh?" She questioned softly,picking up a bookmark to save her place before setting the novel on the table and facing her brother. "You sound serious. Is everything okay?" He looked nervous, but not in a scared way. More like, this was news he had already told people, and he didn't like that she was the last one to know. And yes, that was a look that happened often enough that it had a name.

"Huh? Oh, everything is fine. It's just..." He trailed off with a sigh before stuffing his hands under a pillow at the arm of the couch, pulling out the portal gun and presenting it to her. Jazz couldn't help it blink blankly at first, her mind running circles as she tried to figure out what her brother was trying to tell her. It only clicked when he ran his fingers over the ecto-chamber on the back, glowing green mist appearing and chasing his path like an eager pet.

The finished gun looked slightly more sleek than the original design, her brother having obviously moved things around to make it a bit more compact. She could tell what parts were from repurposed blasters and what was from more obscure weapons her parents had made and discarded, personally impressed with Danny's ingenuity. Her mind could never wrap around how he was able to just look at something and decide if it was useful or not.

While she was taking in her brother's hard work, the teen in question fidgeted in silence, growing more and more nervous as he waited for his sister's verdict."It looks good." She said eventually, sincerity coating her tone as she gently twisted the gun back and forth. "Better than the original one. I'd suggest hiding it in the speeder when we get back home." Her baby brother did not need their parents either gushing over his improvements or critiquing them. It always made him uncomfortable when they claimed that he would definitely take over their life's work once he hit his adult years, no matter how many times he said he was more interested in space than ghosts.

And no matter how hard he denied it, he always felt worse after they pointed out how their designs worked better for the functionality of something, even if they were wrong. (No, dad. It wasn't better to 'feel the kick in your spine' when firing a bazooka. Danny's idea for a shock absorbent shoulder holster was amazing and very much needed.)

"...you're not mad that I didn't tell you right away?" He asked in a low voice, shame making his neck bend like it was a physical presence on his mind. "I mean, we still can't leave yet, but I should have told you first out of everyone."Jazz stared at her brother for a moment, before making a loud tsk noise and gently pulling his chin up until he faced her.

"Danny, I'm not mad. I know you, have known you since the day you were born. You would have told me when you were ready to, and not a second sooner. If it were more pressing of an issue, you would have told me sooner. But you wanted to wait until it was closer to being full, didn't you?" She gestured at the small storage cylinders as she spoke, getting a small nod from the teen. She smiled at him again, leaning forwards to kiss his forehead. He squawked in surprise, wiping at his forehead like her kiss was a particularly stubborn streak of dirt.

The redhead honestly couldn't have stopped her laughter if she tried, reveling in the outraged glare only a sibling could manage that her baby brother directed at her. Scowling with a pout that he would definitely deny later, he held up the gun again. "We could probably make it back to the ghost zone tonight, but portal-ling directly home would have to wait until tomorrow evening at the earliest." He told her, obviously trying to get their conversation back on topic before she tried any more disgusting displays of sisterly love.

"So we have about a day before we leave?" Danny nods in confirmation. "Okay then. That's a whole day to get our things together and say our goodbyes." She noted the way her brother grimaced, filing it away to discuss later. "And Robin knows all of this? Do we need to tell Jason?"

Danny shakes his head, putting the gun on the table. "Jason was actually the one who made me promise to tell Robin before it was ready." The teen admits. "I didn't know how to bring it up, but Jason noticed I was being weird and kinda guessed from there." The teen chuckled, and part of Jazz was sure there was more to the story than that. But that, too, could wait. Instead, she affectionately ruffles his hair, still somewhat compressed from its time in a hair net.

He grunts, but doesn't fight her, glaring at her playfully before shooting up off the couch. Turning to watch him, she nods at Robin as he and Danny pass each other, Danny locking himself in the bathroom to change. Also, probably, to break down slightly from the stress his nerves were under all day. Something hits her, as she lets her gaze drift back to Robin, a faint recollection of Clockwork's conditions for helping her get here.

"Hey, Robin!" She calls for the other teen, who was heading towards the hall. "Can I borrow some of your time?"The teen looks her over, his shoulders tensing with an emotion she couldn't completely identify. She kept her expression open and friendly, which seemed to ease him slightly. Grunting, he settled down on the couch beside her, keeping his back straight and his gaze firmly on her.

"What might I help you with?" he asked, his tone neutral. She stopped herself at snorting from how proper he was being, part of her not really recognizing him from the boy who followed Danny around in a love struck haze. Instead, she reached into her pocket and pulled something free.

"I won't bore you with the details, but I didn't get here the same way Danny did. I got help from an... Ally of ours, back in the Infinant Realms. In exchange for my safe passage here, he made me promise to give something to 'The Robin that follows my brother'. At the time, I had no idea why a bird would want a piece of paper, but I have a better idea of what this is now." She handed her brother's summoning sigil to the teen.

He looked down at it, his confusion turning to astonishment. "Is this..?" The teen trailed off meaningfully as he unfurled the small scroll, showing off the circles, star placements, and ancient symbols of a long lost language.

"Yeah. It is." She nodded, watching as he carefully and reverently rolled it up, hiding it away for safe keeping. Taking a breath, she met the teens' eyes through the dark lenses of his glasses. "Look, I know my brother, and I love him. I really do. But he's a dense, anxious over-thinker. When we leave, he's probably not going to come back on his own." Robin's face scrunched up, somewhere between denial and anger. But she pressed on, ignoring any attempt to interrupt her. "He's going to think that, as long as you two left on good terms, he can live with not knowing if you actually love him or not. If you leave the choice up to him, he won't come back." Robin looked as though her words left a bitter taste in his mouth.

She hurried on to finish. "Which is why I'm giving you this. I have one too, so I can summon him back home from here, but that one is for you. And it's multi-use, as far as I'm aware. Just leave a sacrifice on it, and he'll be summoned to you. I'm trusting you to only use it after you take the cure,but this way we can reach a more savory conclusion to this whole adventure, yeah?" She smiled at the teen, knowing that even through the haze of magic, he could clearly see the logic in her reasoning.

Patting the teen's shoulder, Jazz pushed herself to her feet. "Well, I'll leave you and Danny to it." Serious moment over, she headed down the hall, determined to give the two teens some space to enjoy themselves. Stepping into the bedroom, she jumped slightly as she came face to face with Jason.

He was leaning against the wall just beside the door, obviously having been eavesdropping on her and the boys. He raised an eyebrow at her, not even trying to pretend he wasn't listening. "So..." the man crossed his arms as he straightened up. "Summoning rituals, eh?"

The attempt at a conversation starter was so ridiculous that Jazz couldn't help but snort, the sound being ugly to her own ears. But Jason didn't seem to mind, his lips tilting up at the corners as she laughed. "There are so many different ways you could have phrased that." She shook her head at him.

"And how many would have made you laugh?" He asked, the question obviously rhetorical. That didn't stop her from pinching her chin in a faux show of deep through.

Giving him a playful side eye, she shrugged. "I'm sure you would have found one or two. Given your extensive library." She waggled her borrowed book at him.

The man rolled his eyes at her, but nodded. "You're probably right." He agreed. "But I still wanna know. A summoning sigil? How did he get that?" His playful demeanor dropped away slightly, revealing his genuine intrigue.

Jazz sighed. "I've been trying to figure stuff like that out since he turned fourteen." Her wryly grin got her a sympathetic nod. "If I had to guess though, I'd say it's one of the things that came from him beating the king of Ghosts in a duel."

"I'm sorry, what?" Jason blinked incredulous at her, looking as if he was waiting for her to say sike or something. When she remained carefully neutral, he groaned and dropped his head into his hands. "Of course, the demon brat couldn't be interested in a normal person."

Jazz snorted again. "Your brother is currently under a love spell, one made by my brother from an ancient spell book that comes from another dimension. Was there any hope that Danny would be normal in any way?"

"...you've got a point." Jason rubbed his face before looking back at her. "But back to this summoning thing. Does this mean we might be seeing more of each other?"

'Danny was never going to let her live this down.' Pushing a strand of hair behind her ear, Jazz took the chance presented to her and winked at the man. "Are you saying you want to see more of me?" She asked, lowering her voice the way her old high school friend suggested. Oh, if Spike could see her now.

Jazz delighted in the way red dusted Jason's face, the only tell his face gave to what he was feeling. "I mean, I wouldn't object." He practically purred at her, his deep voice rumbling.

She opened her mouth to shoot the man another flirty response, but both of them were startled by a throat clearing. They both turned to look at the two boys standing in the hall behind them. Danny was starting at the two of them with a look of horror and embarrassment, while Robin just glared at the two in disgust.

"if you two are finished with your vulgar display, Danny and I would like to ask the two of you to join us in playing some classic board games." Robin sniffed at them, turning his nose up as he pulled Danny back to the living room. Jason and Jazz watched them go, both frozen until the two teens were out of sight.

They turned to look at each other, promptly bursting into laughter at the ridiculousness of the situation. "We should probably go. Before Robin comes back with a stick to separate the two of us or something." Jason nodded, making to follow her I to the hall. Before they passed the thresh hold. "You know, if you want to hang out with just me, all you have to do is ask. I might not know the layout as well as Danny does, but I know a few fun places we could explore in the 'Realms."

Jason smiled at her, his expression softening. "Yeah," he chuckles. "I'd like that." Something occurred to him, and he laughed to himself. "I'd like to see my family try to crash in on us in a different plain of reality." Jazz couldn't help but chuckle too, already planning on taking him to visit Ghost Writer the first chance she got.

___---___---___

Danny waits until after a few board games, most of which ended with some form of table flipping from either Jason or Robin, to dig through his bag. With the portal gun being fixed, and knowing he had less than a day before he and his sister left, there was only one last thing to do.

He rummaged through the bag for a while, slowly growing more panicked as the most important thing in his bag continued to evade him. All of his treasures from the arcade were there, along with his grimoire and all the other odds and ends he had brought with him. But the cure, that mason jar full of glowing golden liquid, was gone.

The teen was thankful that he didn't necessarily need to breath, because at this point, his lungs would be screaming at him. Horror sank its fangs deep in him, making his stomach churn as he cast about in his mind for where he possibly could have left the jar. Last he remembered, e had tucked it carefully into his bag, determined to keep it safe.

Thoughts and scenarios filled his head, making Danny's skin break out in sweat even as chills ran up and down his spine. Had it fallen out somewhere? Broken when he hadn't been looking? Did someone manage to sneak in and steal it, mistaking it for something of monetary value?

As the panic in him reached a climax, Robin walked into the room, holding two glasses of water. Upon seeing Danny, crouched on the flood with his bag practically dumped across the floor in a scattered mess, the teen put the glasses down and ran over, sliding to a stop and grabbing one of Danny's hands in his own, cradling it like it didn't suck the warmth from his skin.

"Beloved, what's the matter?" He asked, his voice uncharacteristically soft for anyone else. He rubbed a pattern on the back of Danny's hand, grounding him the only way he knew how to at this moment. Glancing around at the mess of game prizes and other things, he looked closely for anything amiss. "Was there something in your bag? Something none of us would have put there?" Perhaps it was his old League instincts that had him checking over every item for a second time, then a third. When nothing immediately jumped out at him, he turned his attention back to calming the ghostly teen.

"Danny," Robin called the boy's name, resisting the urge to just shake the teen.

Finally, Danny turned his eyes to the teen beside him. "I-it's gone." His voice wavered with his emotions, his face turning back to the mess to move around frantically, as though the missing object would just appear. "The cure. It was in my bag, I remember putting it in my bag, but it's gone."

Robin froze, blinking behind his sunglasses. An odd blush lit his cheeks as he coughed, turning his head slightly away. "Oh."

"Oh?" Danny couldn't help the look he shot at the teen beside him, a little bewildered by his tone. It wasn't like Danny had lost something small, like one of his prizes. Yet Robin didn't seem worried like Danny was. Instead, he seemed almost... embarrassed? "What does 'Oh' mean?"

Robin was silent for a minute, his hand going to the pocket of his hoodie. Clearing his throat, he kept his eyes averted from Danny's gaze as he spoke. "I assure you, Danny, that there is nothing to worry about. You didn't lose the cure." Pulling something free from his pocket, he held up the missing jar for Danny to see. "I may have had a momentary lapse in my judgment, and procured this while you were occupied with my brother a few nights ago," he admitted, studying the carpet like it held the secrets of the universe.

Danny practically deflated in relief. "Oh, thank the Ancients." Taking a moment, he just breathed as the jittery feeling of adrenaline slowly left his system. He let his weight fall on Robin, who didn't even grunt as he readjusted to support him. "I was so worried that it had fallen out somewhere. There was no way I'd want to make it again." Robin frowned at that, setting down the jar to wrap his arm around Danny's shoulder. Only then did Danny realize how that sounded. "Not that I wouldn't want to stay longer! It's just, getting all the ingredients was annoying, with how much we ran around the city, and mixing them right was super tedious. Having a reason to hang around for a few more days would be nice, but I don't want to make a second one of these." He pointed to the jar, falling silent as he resisted the urge to ramble until someone slapped their hand over his mouth.

With the way his side was pressed against him, Danny felt a bit of Robin's tension ease out of him. The teen grunted, and they sat in comfortable quiet for a few long minutes. Eventually, Robin broke the silence. "Are you not mad?" He asked, his voice low.

Danny considered it for a moment. "Honestly? No, I'm not mad. In a weird way, I think I get why you took it. I mean, I would have liked to know it was gone from my bag before I went looking for it. I could have definitely gone without that scare. But I'm not mad that you had it."

Robin let out a huff, his breath brushing over Danny's ear. "You are more understanding than most of the people I know. Anyone from my family would have lectured me about dangers and such for taking something so important without informing anyone else." He paused. "Though, many of them would have done the exact thing if they were in my position, despite what the others might say. So I suppose it does not matter what they would have thought."

Danny laughed lightly, shifting until he sat up by himself again, but stayed pressed against the other teen. "Why did you take it?" He asked, his mind turning it over again and again in his head. "I mean, there are lots of good reasons, I know that I haven't been the best with fragile things in the past, but what's there a specific reason you wanted to hang on to it instead?"

Beside him, Robin stiffened again. It was only for a moment,so quick that Danny thought he had imagined it, but he knew it wasn't just in his head. "I simply wished to be certain that nothing happened to it. In the past few days, you seem to have stumbled into many unsavory situations." A white lie, but one Danny didn't quite catch. He knew that Robin was holding back, not revealing his real reason, but the teen couldn't deny his words outright.

Deciding to let it slide, Danny chuckles again. "You might be on to something there. Honestly, I'm surprised that it didn't break already." Leaning his head against the teen, he sighs, relaxing entirely. "I'm glad you had it. You seem much more responsible than I am."

Above his head, he heard Robin snort. A sound that seemed so much like him, yet very much out of character at the same time. "You have done many things in the past few days. I would say that you seem to be plenty responsible."

A smirk settled on Danny's face, one that his friends had taken to calling his trademark 'little shit' grin. "Well, I've been on my best behavior since you've met me. Trust me when I say, I'm usually much worse."

Neither of them could keep a straight face after that, breaking down into a mess of giggling teens. For a moment, they almost seemed normal. From the other room, Jazz and Jason both stared at each other, small smiles on their faces as they listened to the two boys.

___---___---___

"Thank you again, Cass. You're a life saver." Dick gave her a quick hug before hurrying over to the vehicles, snagging his bike as he raced out of the cave. From the lounge couch, Steph pouted at her, her arms crossed as she sat decked out in her own purple and black gear.

"Why did we have to hide all his suits if you were just going to give them back?" She asked, standing up and wandering over to where Cass stood, prepping the last of her gear for the night.

Cass shot her a look, one Steph couldn't see through the full cowl she wore. Zipping her pocket shut, Cass turned to face the blond. 'We couldn't just leave a Gotham unprotected for more than a day or two. With Bruce busy, and Damian occupied,' Steph snickered at the vagueness of her statement: 'Gotham needs all her available vigilantes.'

"I thought we were supposed to keep Timmy and Dick busy, so that Damian could woo his bae in peace." Steph waggled her eyebrows, making Cass laugh.

'Don't worry,' Cass signed. 'I think Dick will stay busy enough with crime that he won't have the time he needs to search for Damian. And if he doesn't stay busy, then we'll just have to call in reinforcements.' With that, she turned and made her way to the vehicles, settling herself on her own sleek, black bike.

"Reinforcements? Who would you..." Steph trailed off as the answer struck her like a bolt of lightning. A manic grin spread over her face. "Oh, now I really hope that crime is quiet tonight." She cackled as she hurried to follow the raven haired girl, mounting her awesome purple bike and following the rev of the bike's engine. The chance that Gotham would be quiet enough for reinforcements to be necessary were low, but Steph would pay good money to sit and watch whatever Cass had set up as a backup plan.

---

(No beta, so don't mind the mistakes!)

To all the lovely people who follow along, as well as the awesome person who made the prompt for this story:

@halfblackwolfdemon @manapeer @xxwintrynightzxx @im-totally-not-an-alien-2 @blu-lilac @academicpurposes @secretdestinywerewolf @passivedecept @naluforever3 @postit-nope @spiteismymiddlename @2t-productions @plague-daisy @feet-achy @bubblecookies16 @thesapphiredragon13 @justwannabecat @magicalcollecter @adeniumdream @amuseofminds @lupagrim @readerkayden @dr-syko-pharm-4 @ladythugs @angelheartgamer @markthespot68 @kyrianclawraith @michikoy-yuki @servasvictoria02 @your-emo-nightmare @vala-dreams @scarlett-green-rose @t1dwarrior-of-earth @charlie-the-frogie @akikoyuii @mysticalcomputerdetective @roseuniverse999 @im-totally-not-an-alien @thefearfullone @weird-droplet-309 @jaytriesstuff @raventao @jacquelynwinchester @dragongoblet @tlise21 @longlivethefallen @the-archer-goddess @temple-of-jalebi @adepresseddwightsblogofjunk @plainly-colorful @the-legalHe-shipper @49saltpeppershakers @igotafewbadideas @tumbling-darkling @sparklygardenbouquet @sarcastic-yami @blueneko9314 @starscreamlover @liedboutmurder @do3y @roze-realm @some-mildly-happy-human @yinari-uchiha @azuera @chaoticmistake @altairsarts @kawaiikenna @heartsong18 @thetoyboxs @tricksovertreats @mnemovoid @lim4b3ans @horribly-lost-and-gay @keimiwolf @dryeraseslime @joey394

#dc x dp #danny phantom x dc #batman x danny phantom #danny phantom x batfam #dcxdp #dpxdc #dp x dc #long post #artifical wingman #story on ao3

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voiceofdragons · 1 year ago

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Danny With the Street

150,000 people die every day on average. On average, 385,000 people are born on that same day. Thats 535,000 souls made and unmade every day. Some peacefully at the end of a life lived, either fulfilled or not, and some tragically and early. Some even die the same day they are born. 535,000 people. 385,000 births, 150,000 deaths. These, however, are simply the averages. No one living can get the exact numbers, and they’d change daily regardless, so that data would be of no real use.

That’s only humans though. Those numbers are dwarfed in comparison to the averages for animal life, and the less said about plant life the better for our collective migraine. Still, that is no small amount of people. For the number of deaths, you’d get a population somewhere between the size of Kiribati and Guam. For the births it would be between Iceland and Guadalupe. The combined number puts you at Malta.

You have probably never even seen that many people in person before. And that is not even a percentage of a percentage of the worlds population. 535,000 is not barely a drop in the bucket. This number is important to Danny, for the simple fact that you can figure out a lot of interesting things regarding ghosts with it. He’d pestered a few of the Observants, when they weren’t trying to literally get him out of their picture, with a bunch of questions a curious 14 year old would want answers to.

Some were not answered, in typical Observant fashion, but they’d given him an interesting answer to the question “how many people even become ghosts”.

“The rate changes day to day, but we’ve figured out that its normally 1 ghost out of however many are born and day in a day added together.” This particular Observant then proceed to ramble on about how smart they were for figuring it out, how much better off the universe was for having them watching over things, blah blah blah.

Even if the rate changes, it doesn’t change drastically enough to ruin the precise and exacting science of guestimating things. If its one in 535,000, but only 150,000 die a day, then that means its somewhere between 3 and 4 days to get a new ghost. Their reasons for lingering were there own, and were often normal. And then there were the fruitloops that he dealt with so often that it was kind of starting to get old. The ghosts were getting easier to handle most days though, especially after he helped lock up Pariah Dark again. Who knew making their dimension safer would make them hate him a bit less?

And these days his biggest headache was that government agency that had temporarily bought Fentonworks to try and nuke the ghost zone. They’d failed, but still tried their hardest to make his life miserable.

Case in point; they were in the living room with his parents. Talking about Phantom. Specifically about some ‘concerning’ footage of him they’d been able to record of the ‘ectolasmic scum’. He was hiding invisible on the stairs, his mom and dad on the couch with two familiar white suited dingbats standing across from them. They had placed a tablet on the coffee table, a video taking its sweet time loading.

“As interesting as i’m sure this video is, would either of you gentlemen like to see some of our latest projects?” his mom said, clearly growing bored as the video took yet another minute to load. Thank goodness ghosts effected technology the way they did, clearly whatever film they’d taken was hard on their systems. Mom picked back up with “we’ve been experimenting with some new ‘ecto-electrolysis metal plating’ its a lengthy process, but the results are-” suddenly the video started to play, cutting her off. Danny leaned forward to get a better look, and froze. It wasn’t Phantom.

It was normal, human looking Danny Fenton. Walking down the street. The same one that Johnny and Kitty had gone racing down last thursday. Suddenly a familiar looking mist pooled out of his lips, and the screen started to glitch and lag a bit, but he remembered what happened next. He’d look around the empty street, not see anyone, and then-.

“Going Ghost!” his familiar catchphrase came from the tablet, and the glitching stopped. And Danny Fenton was no longer on the screen. All the glitching had coalesced on a single point on the screen, exactly where he’d been standing, making it clear there was a ghost in the footage. Then another blob of corrupted screen appeared streaking down the street, and the first one sped off after it.

The video stopped, and his parents were frozen. His dad reached for the tablet, and restarted the video. The catchphrase, the mist, the glitching, and his disappearance. His parents replayed the video about five more times before his mom shakily flipped the tablet face down. His dad hugged gripped her shoulders as she brought her still shaking hands up to her face.

“We understand that this must be difficult for you both, but it is imperative for state security and research that you assist us with the capture and containment of the entity.” the agent on the left spoke softly, clearly trying to be gentle, but it brought no comfort to anyone in the room, least of all Danny.

“This is not simply difficult!” his dad said forcefully. “This is our son, and you’ve just told us-” his dad stood up and started pacing, clearly distraught. After a minute of pacing he slumped back onto the couch. Mom sniffed and rubbed her face down before bringing her hands to her lap. Her next words were enough to make Danny freeze in shock and terror.

“He’s upstairs in his room.” dad turned to look at her, shocked was an understated descriptor for his face. Danny stood up still invisible and made his way up to his room. He had to leave before anyone came for him. He just barely heard her continue. “I’m going to lock down the house so he can’t get out, but just to be safe you should go outside in case he somehow gets out.” he didn’t hear the agents respond, or his dad.

Once in his room he grabbed one of his notebooks and wrote a quick message to leave for Jazz. ‘GIW told mom and dad i’m phantom, had to leave the house, i’ll be with a friend, i’ll call.’ he then slipped it under her door and then phased through the ceiling just in time to see the familiar ghost shields surround the building. The agents were by their van, arms crossed, and Danny flew off in the direction of tuckers house, tears building up in the corner of his eyes.

Landing at the corner of Tucker’s street he rubbed his eyes to clear them before walking toward his best friends house. The wave of relief he felt when the house came in view was quickly squashed by the sight of a familiar white van, and two white suits talking to Tucker's parents on the porch. Staying invisible he flew off again for Sam’s house. When he didn’t see a white van outside he was relieved.

He was less relieved to see none of the lights were on and their car was gone, meaning the whole family was out at the moment. Still floating he decided to fly to the Nasty Burger, deciding to wait there until one of his friends or for Jazz to go there looking for him.It was when he was flying past Caspar High when he saw something that gave him reason to pause.

There was a new street there that hadn’t been there yesterday. The buildings were brightly colored, and there were people mulling about wearing clothes he’d never seen anyone in Amity Park wearing. Getting closer, he expected the usual white mist that meant a ghost was nearby, knowing that in a town like Amity, anything weird was probably ghost related. There was nothing. He landed, still invisible and walked quietly down the street, deciding to see where things went.

The multi-colored buildings turned out to be a hardware store, a military surplus hut, and a bunch of other places you wouldn’t expect to be in pastel pinks and purples. Reaching the middle of the street was a building dubbed ‘Peeping Tom’s Perpetual Cabaret’ all done up in bright flashing lights, music leaking out onto the street from inside.

In short, this place seemed awesome, and as soon as he was able to reach Sam or Tucker he was bringing them here. He passed more fun looking stores, and some more adult stores that he knew he was too young for on his way to the end of the street closest to the Nasty Burger, and he stopped when he saw the street sign.

‘Danny St’.

“Well that’s weird” he said, still invisible.

A cloud of steam popped up from a nearby sewer grate with a sound almost like a gasp, and strangely enough it turned into a series of exclamation points and question marks.

“Also weird,” a fluttering sound behind him made him turn to see a pile of leaves spell out ‘says the invisible boy’. Danny took a step away from the pile, waiting for the mist that meant a ghost was nearby. It didn’t come. Whatever this was, it wasn’t a ghost.

Deciding that questions would be an alright distraction from the nightmare his day became he asked, “Who are you?” and another noise from behind him, this time a metallic squeaking. When he looked it was the street sign rotating around. He laughed, and turned back to the pile of leaves, only it was the sign on the window that responded this time, changing its arrangement to ask ‘what’s so funny feele?’.

“My name is also Danny.” deciding to trust the talking street, he stopped being invisible. The steam from before came again, just exclamation points this time though. A rustling sound had him turning right where a banner unfurled to declare ‘Neat Trick Twinsie!’ making Danny laugh. Deciding to ask a few more questions, he walked over to a conveniently placed bench across from a pawn shop.

“You’re not a ghost are you?” he asked, and the pawn shop window grew a question mark. “Oh, right, you’re new in town, considering I didn't see you here yesterday.” waving his hand around Danny continued. “Welcome to Amity Park, the most haunted city in America. My first thought when weird things happen here is it’s a ghost doing something, and I've seen a lot of weird.” The window proclaimed ‘ooooooh’ before another sound had him turning his head left. This time a cafe menu board said ‘Not a ghost, but are you?’

Danny clapped his hands as he said, “Half points Danny, thank you for playing!” the question mark came back so he elaborated. “I’m only half ghost, all the abilities of ghostliness, still alive and kicking.” he then smirked as some word play popped into his head. “Kicking all the other ghosts butts for messing with the town.” he then remembered his current problem, and slumped backwards, his view of his new… friend? Acquaintance? Friend, suddenly flipped.

“Or I did at least.” he sighed. “No idea what i’m supposed to do now, got some fruitloop government ghostbusters after me, and they just told my parents! Who are also ghost hunters!” from his upside down view he saw more letters rearrange across the street, but he didn’t want to parse out what Danny had said. “I was going to go wait for some friends before I spotted you, try to figure things out.” he sat up and turned around, not wanting to ignore a message. ‘Thats rough buddy.’ his face split into a grin. “Its just my luck that the same day all these bad things happen, I also meet a new friend with impeccable taste in memes!” he stood up and stretched, feeling a bit less panicked. “I’m going to go meet with them, but can i bring them back to see you? They’d love your… everything!” the banner from before flipped over ‘that would be dolly Danny! Bona to Vada!’ this was starting to remind him of when he first met Wulf, and learned of the wonders of Esperanto. A fun new dialect was just the distraction he needed.

Waving at the street, a few of the people walking around waved back, even though he hadn’t spoken to any of them. A flag flapped aggressively in a nonexistent wind, and his smile stayed on his face as he turned invisible again and flying off to the Nasty Burger.

It had only been thirty minutes since his parents found out, but his anxiety made it all feel like seconds ago as he sat there waiting. Five o'clock approached and a familiar face walked in, though not one of the ones he’d been waiting for. Valerie was starting her closing shift in ten minutes, and Danny was sitting at a booth waiting for Tucker, Sam, or Jazz. she put her bag behind the counter and slit to the opposite side of his booth.

“Why so antsy ghost face?” Valerie asked with her arms crossed. Their situationship had been weird for a while since she’d found out he was half ghost, but things had been improving lately since her dad got a new job. Guess most of her aggression had been stress induced.

“So… My parents found out i’m a ghost. The Guys in White told them, I had to leave the house, and when I went to Tucker’s house they were there too, Sam wasn’t home, and now I’m waiting for either one of them, or Jazz to come find me so i can figure out the shipwreck my life has become!” the floodgates had opened and he’d word vomited everything to his frenemy, and then promptly face planted into the table.

She visibly blue screened for about ten seconds before she reached over and patted his head. “That’s rough buddy.” he glared up at her for all of two second before snorting a despondent laugh. She joined in and after a few seconds of laughing together he leaned back, smiling a bit more easily since the anxiety had claimed him five seconds into waiting.

“You are not the first person who’s said those exact words to me tonight! I should start collecting nickels, I probably won’t get more than two but it's weird that it’s happened twice!” she didn’t laugh at that, tilting her head in an unspoken question. “You are not going to believe this, but on my way here I found a new street by Caspar High. Just there, new buildings, decorations, the whole shebang!” he flared his fingers out to emphasize the point. “I was invisible, but when I saw the street was called ‘Danny St’ I had to say something. And it started talking back, kinda.”

“That’s a load of bull-” she started before he waved his hands to cut her off.

“Val, after half the stuff we’ve dealt with since my parents opened the portal, is this really too much for you to believe?” she raised a finger and took a breath before closing her mouth and lowering her hand. They’d dealt with a lot of wacky nonsense.

“Valid, but I won’t believe it until I see it. What kind of ghost looks like a whole street?” she asked, but he shook his head.

“That’s the thing! They weren’t a ghost, I would know! When I asked, they didn’t know what I meant. Had to explain kinda about Amity Park being the most haunted town in America.” This time he crossed his arms, leaning back to look out the window, hoping for a familiar red hat, or someone dressed in all black and purple.

Valerie stood up suddenly, and gave him a hug. “I’m sorry this happened to you Danny. My shift is starting, so I’ll make you some fries while you wait. If you’re here till closing, mind showing me this magic street you found?" It was nice having her be this friendly with him again, and he grinned and gave a thumbs up.

“Sure thing!” he said, before the doors burst open and four men in white suits rushed in, guns aimed at him. He shoved Valerie out of the way and went intangible through the wall to the outside. He then went invisible and rushed as fast as he could over the buildings.

He was passing the new, and brightly colored Danny St when he felt a sharp pain in his side, and smelled burning flesh and ectoplasm. Losing control of his abilities amidst the pain, he crashed into the side of a building before flopping onto the street. Looking up he heard loud music and saw the word ‘Tom’s’ visible on the part of the sign he could see. A crowd started to form, but he was too dazed to understand what most of them were saying. A pretty face popped out of the crowd and bent down to check on him. She was tall, dark skinned, in a glittery outfit with big hair.

“Kid, are you ok? How did you fall?” she was checking him over for any open wounds, but he was to dazed to do much. He heard tires squealing in the distance, and knew that the people chasing him were going to be here soon. He didn’t want anyone hurting his new friend, the talking street, or the people that were just now worrying for his wellbeing.

“I need to go, the Guys in White are after me!” he tried to stand but the woman placed her forearm across his chest to keep him from doing more than sitting up. She turned her head, listening to the squealing as well, before she focused back on him.

“Who are the ‘Guys in White’?” she asked, very seriously.

Danny tried to phase through her arm to stand but the pain in his side made it hard to focus, so he gritted his teeth and kept trying as he responded. “Government sponsored ghostbusting fruitloops, now please let me go they don’t care about collateral damage!”

The woman sighed and closed her eyes for half a second before she turned to look at a few people in the crowd. “You heard the kid, we got government on our tale! Danny, we need to leave.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do lady!” Danny said, while at the same time one of the store signs changed from advertising fatigue leotards, to saying ‘Time to scarper!’

“Was talking to Danny, kid.” she said distractedly.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.” he retorted, his head starting to hurt and the burn on his side starting to throb dully.

She laughed, a short, loud burst of amusement before she told him pointedly, “Oh you’ll fit right in kiddo!” and that’s the last he heard before a wave of vertigo took over his senses, the buildings and sky around him twisting and folding impossibly, and he leaned over to dry heave and then pass out.

“Jack, we need to hurry before those agents find him!” Madeline Fenton said from the passenger seat as they approached Caspar High. As soon as they realized that Danny had left the house they’d begun their search, especially vigorous due to the agents also on the prowl. They’d seen some agents leaving Nasty Burger and firing wildly into the air, and they’d seen one of the shots land on something invisible.

And then they’d seen their son materialize and plummet thirty feet to land a few streets over near his high school. Jack was driving them there, and that alone was enough to get the agents to pause on their way to their vans. Small blessings. When they neared the high school though they saw something odd.

“Honey, am I crazy or was that street not there last week?” Jack said as they approached.

“I don’t think that matters right now dear.” she rescinded, though it was bugging her as well. She knew they tended to get a bit focused on their work, but that work often took them out on the town. She would have seen something of a new street before now, especially with such charming looking stores.

“Theres people milling about, maybe one of them saw him!” Jack pointed out, her wonderful optimist.

“Lets hope! We need to get him back to the lab to check him for injuries, after that we need to game plan keeping him safe.” she looked down at her lap, her jumpsuit a comforting familiarity. “He’s Phantom. He’s been Phantom this whole time! Oh he must have been so frightened.” Jack parked the GAV and reached over to squeeze her shoulder, a reassuring smile on his face.

“Our kid is a tough one, and just as brave as his mother. Lets get him safe and we’ll figure it all out.” he unbuckled himself, then reached over to undo hers for her. They both stepped outside and as they turned to look down this new street they saw something that made them take a breath of equal parts relief and terror. They saw Danny lying prone with a crowd of people clearly trying to help him. He would be fine.

And then, just before they could step foot on the pavement of the street, everything sort of shifted and folded, the other streets stretching to fill in the space being left behind as the street they were now desperately reaching for vanished. The last thing they saw was their sun jerk to the side, several people trying to help him, and then both he, and the mysterious new street vanished.

#dc x dp #danny the street #danny fenton #fanfic #good parents jack and maddie #miscommunication #guys in white #on the run #hurt/comfort

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namelessthirst · 3 months ago

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Pillow Talk

Sans/reader, breast worship, mommy kink if u squint, creampie, subtle dom/sub, fem reader, sans with boobies, cuddly sex/foreplay, bara sans for purpose of posing, fat pussy reader gang, breeding kink if you squint, squirting. -------------------------------------

You loved your naps with Sans.

He was up for it any time, any where. He always knew the best places to hide for a quick forty winks- it was almost uncanny. There was always at least one pillow and blanket in his inventory- he even started stashing a plushie of yours or two in with them; though you rarely ended up needing anything besides him to squeeze.

Instead of insisting who should get the pillow, you settled into using his belly. It shut him up real quick and never again did he argue. Besides, it was always there, even if you couldn't see it. Warm and supple.

While his belly always seemed to be there, he'd also taken to padding out himself elsewhere, depending on where your head happen to lay during impromptu sleep. He'd most likely get self-conscious about it if you mentioned it, so you didn't. You didn't really need to anyway. He knew you knew.

Sometimes you'd pet over the rest of him in gratitude while settling into his cushioned bits. While exploring, you noticed half summoned ecto, feeling it before seeing it. It tingled your fingertips, reminded you of that sensory game from childhood- rubbing your hands together fast and then holding them apart as if holding a ball. A ghost-like sensation.

Today, you were particularly clingy and lethargic. You blessed the existence of monster furniture as you lay spread out atop Sans on the couch, having plenty of room to get cozy with how deep the seat cushions were. The TV played dully in the background, occasionally being flipped between documentaries and random clip shows. You head was snugly under Sans's chin, his hand stroking idly up and down your back while yours ran along his ribs down to his faux tummy.

His phalanges tickled into the rim of your panties when you nestled into his neck and sighed happily, your head filled with his scent. It seemed like that was enough to pique interest in him, since his idle patterns became more focused on following the swell of your ass under the thin fabric. He stopped channel flipping.

A shimmering blue mist carried the remote to the coffee table nary a foot or so away, and Sans's freed hand came to rest on your head, hard-tipped fingers scratching along your scalp lightly.

"feel good?"

You whined out a happy agreement and wiggled to lean into his touch. You could feel him hum low through his chest where you hid your face. It always got to you when he got all rumble-y, but today really seemed to hit it. Jeez, you really were in a state, huh?

Maybe he was too, the way his hand faltered before sliding out, gripping a cheek to pull open just a bit along the way. He forged a new path to stroke back and forward over your vulva, just the slightest grip on either side while his middle fingers pressed into the slit through the cotton.

"Oooh..."

He knew just how to work you. You were sure you felt the first dribble of arousal leaking as you tried leaning into his hand with each pass.

This went on for a bit. Lazy and slow, with you practically cooing into his chest, pussy twitching as it squeezed on nothing.

Apparently something about this combination did something interesting for Sans. Because as you nuzzled and squirmed, you felt something new besides the expected prodding from his pelvis.

Under your cheek a fresh warmth spread, gently lifting and plush.

Curiosity won out over stimulation, and you raised your head to peer at him.

Holy tits. You almost had a little bit of boob envy.

Heavy and almost straining his worn tee.

Sans's hand paused when you moved and caught you staring. He shifted, and when you met his eyes you could tell he was over-thinking this.

Nuh uh. Hell no. No way you were missing out on this delicious discovery.

It usually took way more than this for you to relax into this kind of role, but by god you pulled it off. Maybe even better because he knew.

You roll your hips, pushing your pussy into his stilled hand, pressing your cheek against his breast to gaze up at him past your lashes, and give the softest voice you could manage without flustering yourself, "I can play?" You palmed his other breast for good measure, the weight of it alone making you giddy.

You swore you could feel the pulse of magic it sent to his dick. His words slur just a little.

"'f ya be good f'r me."

You don't even wait for his hand to resume it's path before you're bunching his shirt up to his neck to ogle him. Fuck. You might drool if you open your mouth. Might as well put it to use, right?

You dive in, lips sealing over a nipple, face pressing his breast into place where you can suck without gravity stealing him away. His ecto feels like butter under your tongue, all the blessings of never needing to moisturize what only temporarily exists.

His breath is sharp and he quickly sets back to your pussy, pressing down with each pass over the peak where your clit lays hidden.

When your fingers dance around his untouched nipple, pinching and tugging, Sans's moan is deep and betraying just how surprised he is at how good this feels.

"f-fuuuck... good... good girl," you gasp around him when he grips the back of your panties and pulls, pulling the thin strip tight against your puffy lips, "s'cha good fuckin' girl..."

You hum and coo your delight into him, mouth full and refusing to be otherwise. Mumbling praise when you do draw away to swirl around his perked bud. When you add the tiniest bit of tooth pressure and suck like there's anything for him to give, he shoves your panties aside to stuff his fingers in.

Two, right quick with a third and the sounds mingle well with the wet pops and slurps of your mouth. He circles your clit with slick every few pumps and presses your head in further with his dry hand.

His dick is wet against you and you wonder if he's going to cum like this; you just might yourself. Your clit is throbbing.

But when you go to wet his other breast, his hand slips free and you're on your back before you can catch your breath. You think he just dumped your soaked panties into his inventory because you didn't feel him take them off and he's pressing inside.

Your knees are pushed so far up in his grip and your eager hole gobbles him up without hesitation. He's grunting as he bottoms out in you and there's something delectable about feeling his tip kiss your cervix while you lap at his dangling tits.

Its hard to keep hold of them as he flicks his hips into you, you're drooling all over him and yourself but its just as well at this point. Your moans are stunted every time he fills you, his nipple catching your teeth as it passes in a swing and you're not sure what's louder- your cunt swallowing him or your sloppy mouth trying to hold onto his breasts. You pant and just let pebbled tips pass your tongue.

Your lungs feel punched when he forces your orgasm. His thrusts shallow and he groans with your squirting hole. He's gonna cum and you know it, your thighs sliding up out of his grip to his elbows and tensing for the hips they can't reach to hold him to you as he curls over you and stuffs his load. You cum dry as he uses you to milk his orgasm.

Warm and full with his spunk, you twitch around him. It takes him a minute for his ecto to vanish, and you whine with the leak that follows.

You don't think you'll be able to nap on the couch for a while.

ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63080008

#sans x reader #x reader #undertail #smut

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lexiepiper · 5 months ago

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Remix Event Time!

As the person running the @infiniterealms event, I couldn't resist writing one of the initial fics for remixing. So please enjoy, and I hope some of you are inspired!

On the Line

ao3 link

Summary: Vlad was so going to hear about this later. Danny wondered how best to rub it in that he’d been caught by the Fenton Fishing Line of all things. How embarrassing.

Fic under the cut

Danny woke to the sound of cheering.

It took him a moment to figure out the source of the noise, but when he did, he groaned and rolled over, pulling his blanket over his head dramatically. Curled up in the soft darkness, he listened for more telltale shouting from the bowels beneath their house.

Sure enough, the jubilant sounds continued, and he sighed. Staying where he was until morning was certainly tempting, but his ghost sense buzzed with the slightest awareness that something was nearby. The ectosignature was too weak to actually trigger a breath of mist, but still. A small ghost was still a ghost. His parents must have caught something.

He forced himself out of bed, stretching with a yawn before sliding into invisibility.

As much as he wanted to stay sleepy and comfortable during what had been a blissful ghost-free night up until this point, he should at least rescue the unfortunate blob from imminent dissection.

Danny shifted into intangibility, dropping down to the first floor. He tried to keep going into the basement, but his feet hit a solid layer of cold energy.

He sighed, flitting to the lab door and frowning at the green sheen that glimmered across its surface. It glowed in the darkness, bright enough that even a regular person would have no trouble seeing by its light alone.

The basement ghost shield would be a problem. With his parents down there, he wouldn’t be able to get in undetected.

He turned visible again and rubbed his eyes, clearing away the crustiness in the corners of his eyelids. The clock on the microwave was just visible through the dark kitchen doorway, its glowing green numbers proudly declaring that it was far too late for this.

Despairing at the hour, Danny opened the door and walked through the shield.

In contrast to the rest of the house, every light was on in the lab. Danny squinted in the brightness, grabbing the railing to steady himself.

“Danno!” his dad boomed, the acoustics of the metal-lined room making his voice loud enough that Danny winced. “Come see what we caught!”

Danny sighed, using his free hand to rub his eyes again and giving an exaggerated yawn. “‘S like 3am,” he grumbled, putting as much exhaustion into the statement as possible. “You woke me up.”

“Suffering Spooks, is that really the time?!”

He gave an affirmative grunt, blinking through the light to figure out what he’d be trying to rescue tonight.

The examination table was empty.

Danny squinted over at his parents, realising they were clustered around a containment unit. There was a shape curled up in there, and his heart leapt at the sight. The glow of the containment cube made it difficult to identify much detail from the top of the stairs, but it was far too big to be a blob ghost. The cube’s anti-ecto coating must be blocking the majority of the ectosignature.

“So what’d you catch?” Danny trudged down the steps, trying to look tired but longsufferingly interested by slouching as he walked. The metal was cool beneath his bare feet, the sharp scent of ectoplasm and who knows what other chemicals acrid in his nostrils. “You’re not experimenting until the morning, right?”

His mum hummed, leaning closer to the cube and twisting the rim of her goggles. Danny wasn’t sure what features she’d built into them with the most recent upgrade, but they were probably collecting all kinds of interesting data. “We might be down here for the rest of the night,” she admitted, before straightening up and turning to him. The fluorescent light strips glinted off her goggles, lending her the aura of a bug-eyed evil scientist, as though she had stepped straight out of a children’s cartoon. “Sorry for waking you.”

“Can I look before you cut it up, at least?” he asked. “See what all the cheering’s for?”

His dad moved to the side, clapping Danny on the back as he walked closer. “We got him, Danno! That pesky Wisconsin Ghost!”

Danny’s breath caught, mouth dry and heartbeat fluttering as he finally drew close enough to peer through the glowing glass. “You sure did,” he breathed.

Vlad was curled up, the confines of the cube tight enough that he wouldn’t be able to change his position much. He looked up as Danny approached, pink ectoplasm and a hint of deeper red splattered across one side of his face. His shoulder seemed like it had been cut pretty badly, and his typically-perfect hair was singed and smoking.

“Wow,” Danny said, leaning closer to the cube as though admiring his parents’ catch. “Are you sure this’ll hold him?”

“It, Sweetie,” his mum said, her tone absent and automatic as she headed for the computer.

Danny’s dad laughed, patting his back with one large hand. “Of course it’ll hold it! The new and improved Fenton Ghost Cube is inescapable! Just look at the locks!”

Danny was certainly looking. The cube itself seemed fairly thick, maybe reinforced glass or perspex created with anti-ecto properties. With how large Vlad was, he had no hope of exerting enough pressure from inside to break that. The top had a clasp on each seam, reinforced with far more screws than necessary. Each side was secured with a thick padlock.

“Daniel,” Plasmius groaned in the language of the dead, “let me out.”

“Listen to it wail,” Danny’s dad whooped. “It knows to despair at the sight of Jack Fenton!”

Danny tried to laugh, but the sound was closer to a wheeze. “So how’d you catch him anyway?” he asked, trying to shrug off his dad’s hand under the guise of circling the cube. Vlad’s red gaze met his, and the panic was abundantly clear.

“It,” his mum reminded him again, pushing her goggles onto the top of her head and giving Danny a stern look over the computer screen. “Remember, ghosts aren’t people.”

“Sorry,” Danny said, continuing to circle the cube until he was on the side across from his dad.

“Well.” His dad puffed out his chest in pride. “I caught it, all by myself, just fishing for ghosts!”

Danny raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

His dad’s head bobbed and he bounded over to the open portal, where a stool and the Fenton Fishing Rod were still stationed. “Caught it with this beauty,” he crowed.

Danny snorted, and was rewarded by the sight of Vlad’s shoulders tensing. If Vlad could have turned to look at him right now, Danny was sure the glare would be strong enough to start a fire.

He leaned closer still, running his hands over the cube. The anti-ecto surface sparkled like the fuzz on an old tv screen at his touch, tingling against his skin.

He phased off the first padlock, unclasping the tab before continuing his circle around the cube. His dad was still by the portal, reenacting the swing to cast his fishing line, and Danny glanced guiltily at his mum.

She was still at the computer, frowning at something on the screen.

Danny removed the second lock and unclasped the mechanism. Vlad stirred within, pushing up against the lid, and Danny hissed lowly. “Not yet,” he murmured, pressing his hand against the top to counteract Vlad’s pressure. “One more.”

Vlad relented, and Danny continued to the third side, phasing off the lock and undoing the tab. He slid the padlocks into his long pyjama sleeves, meeting Vlad’s eyes with a small nod.

His mum jolted at the edge of his vision. “Daniel Fenton!” she shrieked, tinny with a terror that lapped at Danny’s core.

He stepped back, holding up his hands. “What?”

She jumped to her feet, hand flying to the blaster on her hip. Danny’s dad gave a startled shout at her cry, spinning around as well and tripping over the fishing stool in the process.

He went down in a heap of flailing limbs and tangling fishing line, and Danny’s mum glanced at the commotion for a split second.

Vlad surged against the lid. It burst free, swinging where the final padlock was still attached with such force that it folded over and slammed against the perpendicular side of the cube.

The dark figure of the Wisconsin Ghost hung in the air, and Danny breathed a sigh of relief. “Close the portal!” he shouted to his dad, making a show of gesturing. “Don’t let him escape!”

Surely Vlad would take the hint and dive for the portal before Danny’s dad was able to get up and close it.

Danny’s wave probably would have done the trick of deflecting attention away from his proximity to Vlad, but as he flourished his hand in the direction of the portal, a padlock flung free from the end of his sleeve and clattered across the floor.

Every single person froze.

The padlock lay in the middle of the open area, shiny and new, and very clearly locked.

Danny stopped breathing.

His mum’s eyes were wide, her hand frozen halfway through unholstering her blaster, and she turned her gaze slowly from the padlock to her son. “Danny?” she breathed.

He winced at the incredulity in her tone. “Uh, how’d that come off?” He began to raise his hands in a gesture of peace, but his pyjama top was loose enough that another lock was dislodged by the movement. It fell before he could stop it, landing loudly in the quiet room.

He sucked in a breath, sheepishly meeting his mum’s horrified gaze, when Vlad grabbed him and dragged them both into invisibility.

There was no point struggling, and as Danny allowed himself to be carried out through the portal like a sack of dead weight, the final lock slipped free and fell directly onto his Dad’s head.

The sounds of the lab fell away into muffled shouting, and the Ghost Zone enveloped the two of them in its wash of ectoplasmic-rich atmosphere.

“Stupid,” Vlad chided once they were clear of the portal. “You poor, stupid, foolish boy.”

“At least I got you out of the box,” Danny countered.

Vlad dropped him.

Danny snarled, calling on his ghost form, but once the light had faded Vlad was nowhere to be seen.

“You could at least say thank you!” he shouted, posturing with his hands on his hips and the tip of his ghostly tail flicking in irritation. “I risk my neck for you, for what? Stupid messed-up Fruitloop.”

His parents’ shouting drifted through the portal, distorted by its swirling energy. They were only a few feet away from him, and Danny sighed, sweeping his gaze and ghost sense over the immediate area one more time to make sure that Vlad really was gone.

He really didn’t want to go inside.

Maybe he’d just hang out here for a bit. They’d have to go to bed sooner or later, and then he could sneak back through, turn off the ghost shield, and try to sleep at least a bit more before school. Danny would be able to convince them he was possessed, and they’d fuss over him before going on a fruitless hunt until the next drama pushed this one into the annals of memory.

Still, this was an inconvenience. He’d have to rub it in that Vlad had been in such a predicament in the first place. It’d make him steaming mad, probably to the point where the air would literally shimmer around him from the amount of heat he’d be giving off, but it was only fair that Danny take it out on him somehow.

He snorted. Vlad was so going to hear about this later. Danny wondered how best to rub it in that he’d been caught by the Fenton Fishing Line of all things. How embarrassing.

“Ow!”

Something sharp dug into his back and Danny whirled, trying to gauge what had poked him. Before he could make sense of the invisible threat the pain in his back tugged, and he yelped as a glowing silvery-green line pulled taut and dragged him back through the portal before he could even try to pull free.

He landed on the floor at his parents’ feet with a groan, still trying to dislodge what must be a hook digging into his back. “Seriously?” he grumbled.

The portal doors slammed shut, and a shadow fell over him as his mum crouched down, her eyes gleaming. There was a padlock in one hand, and a blaster in the other. “Phantom,” she said, the words clipped in that tight way that meant she was either incredibly concerned or unfathomably angry. “Are you going to explain what just happened, or do you need to spend the night in our new containment cube first?”

His dad crouched on his other side, pulling on the line so that it tugged at the hook in his back and made Danny wince.

He groaned. There was no way he’d be getting more sleep now.

Vlad was so going to pay for this.

#danny phantom #infinite realms #dp events #phandom event #lexiepiper

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maskedemerald · 10 months ago

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Weaving Webs CH7

Here is chapter seven of my Invisobang fic and the last one of the week! We are now half way through the fic but I need a little time to tidy up the other chapters because of IRL chaos so after this I'll be only posting one next week while catch up.

The wonderful @pricklenettle did some fantastic art that you'll see embedded through out the fic! If I had to pick I would say that this chapter has my favourite art but that is mostly because I was just so excited to see a certain gremlin Danny that shows up at the chapter's end!

You can check out the fic here or on AO3!

If you like this consider dropping us both a follow!

Warnings: Body horror, manipulation, Spectra is her own content warning, Burns, Spider - for like 2 chapters then it goes away.

The Fenton parents were there when the accident happened, they saw Danny die in an act of sabotage. Now they’re just trying to go on with the strange ghost that is all that's left of Danny. While their old college friend is wondering where the subjects of his revenge are.

[First] [Previous] [Next]

Chapter Seven

Maddie leant against Jack on the sofa, the week had left her drained from all the stress on top of the grief. She watched him stitch, the needle going in and out. His hoop had been returned, after some convincing. The hoarding behaviour hadn’t been an expected trait. The ghost was currently sitting on the floor cuddling Jazz’s Bearbert while Jazz was reading in the armchair.

Danny’s ghost made a strange popping noise, like pressure bubbling up against the glass face plate. It spasmed a shiver and then shook its head. A pale white mist hissing out of the cracks in the face plate. Maddie watched cautiously as it happened another two times. Was this it? Was this the ghost becoming more like what they expected? Or was it some other anomaly they hadn’t known ghosts did.

Jack beside her laughed, “hiccups? Were those hiccups? Can ghosts even have those?”

Maddie frowned, “that requires breathing Jack,” she stated.

There was little point considering the hypothesis. It might be something like a hiccup but an actual hiccup required breathing. Depressurization of the suit was more likely but that still required it to act more like the real physical version of the material and by this point the suit should have been long since depressurized with the torn open arm. It made the noise again, this time the spasm and noise harsher and longer lasting.

“A sneeze?” Jack questioned beside her.

Once again that required breathing. Also irritants and she couldn’t think what might have triggered that. Before she had much time to further ponder the strange action that seemed to be confusing the ghost as much as it was her. It tilted its head. Then there was a rush of green. Ecto green shapes bursting up from the floor. A swirl of limbs. Danny’s ghost carried off with them. Jazz scrambled back, knocking over the armchair.

Maddie leapt to her feet grabbing her ecto gun. One she wished she had reached for the moment the, for lack of a better word, hiccuping had started. Jack was not far behind her. Flashes of teeth and claws slashed at the ghost’s hazmat body, splattering green as they pulled it up through the ceiling followed by a couple of just too late shots from her blaster.

She rushed for the stairs, Jack behind her and Jazz clinging to him to avoid getting carried off as well. She hated that she was hoping that they were intentionally just targeting Danny’s ghost. At least the ghost would fare better than Jazz.

There was a crashing sound from their bedroom and she burst through the door. The ghost of a ragged looking wolf had been somehow thrown from the mass of ghosts attacking and into their mirrored closet door. It shook off and bounded back to the mass, she took it out with a strong blast that appeared to knock it out. She didn’t trust it but there wasn’t time for much more. The ghosts had to be dealt with before they ended up putting the ghost proofing of the roof to the test.

Jack had found the bazooka, she noted as he barreled into the room behind her as she shot into the mass trying to break up the ghosts. She didn’t get the chance to warn him to watch his aim. The blast fired, a large mass of charged ecto green. It slammed into the ghosts, repelling them till they impacted the walls. Danny’s ghost was not an exception and was the exception she had wanted to warn Jack to watch out for. She winced as it was thrown against the wall. A nasty thud and the sound of something impacting the glass of its visor.

No ghosts moved.

Maddie held her pistol ready, eyeing the other ghosts as she approached Danny’s. Jack rushed past her.

“Danno! Sorry… sorry! Arg… idiot,” he called himself.

The lights flickered overhead and the alarm clock whined. The ghost looked up, its eyes wide but dazed, green spots failing to actually meet his. A green splatter marked the inside of the visor glass where its forehead would have been. The suit scattered with scratches and cuts. There were clear bites glowing green as they leaked ecto.

She crouched down, “just a bump, the others took most of the blast. It will probably be fine Jack.”

“But… I shouldn’t have even… I just didn’t think about it affecting him.”

The ghost pushed itself up and slumped against Jack. Another whine.

“What a strange ghost,” Maddie commented, her grip tightened on her weapon for a moment, “it clearly doesn’t blame you.”

Jack gave a sad smile, “he still got hurt.”

“Pass it here, I’ll take it to the lab and do what I can to patch it up, while you check on Jazz,” she offered.

She was the one more experienced in first aid though how much use that would be to a ghost was another matter. Then there was the matter of Jazz, dealing with the defeated ghosts and making sure there wouldn’t be anymore.

Jack let her take the ghost from him, “any ideas what to do with the ghosts? The other ones?” she asked, they didn’t really have any tried and tested containment.

“There’s still some leftover anti-ecto insulation. I’ll grab it!”

She scooped up the ghost, finding it not quite what she had expected. She hadn’t really touched it before. It was cold yes and sent shivers down her spine from the cold but she hadn’t expected the feel of the hazmat to be so realistic. She avoided the burnt arm, not wanting to feel the cracked, charred skin.

Jazz lingered in the corridor, “is he going to be alright?... I mean… you know…” she asked looking worriedly up at the ghost in her arms.

“It will be fine, just going to get it patched up,” she comforted again. Probably best not to let Jazz know that Jack accidentally shot him. Jack didn’t need the worried big sister attitude right now. He already felt bad enough.

As they approached the lab stairs the lights above sparked and there was an electrical whine. The ghost started to squirm and phase awkwardly through her. It really was like it was concussed in the fact that it failed. Was there some sort of cognitive center like a brain that had hit some sort of outer shell during the impact.

She cringed as she found herself hushing the ghost like it was Danny. It was but it also wasn’t. Though would it really hurt that much to treat it like it right now. It was clear there was no malicious intent and it did seem to feel something.

She comforted it on the way down into the lab, mentally throwing out the ‘ghosts don’t have feelings research’ that she should have dealt with days ago. It became more and more aware as she did. More on edge. It’s grip tight but not struggling. Lights flickered and whined. The only light that didn’t change was the dreaded portal that green eyes latched onto. It… he stared at it as she set him down on a workbench as far from the portal as she could get.

Danny’s ghost sat on the bench, his legs swinging back and forth. They twisted between legs and half formed tail. Eyes darting around the room as the dazed state lowered. Still its eyes would always drift back to the portal. She would say the adrenaline of being taken back to a traumatic place had shook off the majority of the dazed state but ghosts didn’t have adrenaline.

Maddie paused as she hunted for the first aid kit, would it even be any use. She shook her head and pulled it out anyway before returning to Danny’s ghost.

She gently brushed the antiseptic over the fresh cuts in his exposed arm, it was hard to differentiate with the already mangled and burnt state of his arm. It also probably didn’t matter, he was a ghost and their previous studies indicated that any flesh was just a mimic of it. That as far as ghosts went even Danny’s hazmat was a mimic. That hazmat might well be his body now. Ectoplasm leaked from scratches in it just like it had from his exposed arm. As if it was his skin.

She eyed the extra glow beyond his visor, a splatter of ecto green. She hadn’t expected a ghost to be able to bruise. Not that ghosts had been anything like she had expected. Cuts in the skin made sense but the equivalent of a bruise didn’t. His body shouldn’t have had any real structure under the skin layer that was the Hazmat. Aside from maybe something like a brain. Bruises required sub-surface vessels. Vessels he shouldn’t have. There was little she could do about the bruise. It was probably as superficial as the cuts had been once she had gotten a closer look. The glass itself was intact aside from the crack he had gotten when he’d… died.

Even as she checked him over one more time she could see the plastic start to knit itself back together on the slightest of cuts. The exposed arm was slower but still healing. Ghosts were far more elastic than humans. It was fortunate it was him who was carried off and not Jazz. He’d be healed up before long.

The clasps on his collar caught her eye, shiny and silver against the burnt black. He still had the clasps. It was a perfect mimic of the hazmat that he had been wearing. Would it move like it? Could the clasps come undone? What would that mean for the helmet? Could it come off? She reached for them and there was an audible click as she flicked it open. Danny’s head tilted wondering what she was doing. What did it mean that it opened? She clicked open each one. It hadn’t fallen right off. She wondered if despite the clasps it would be sealed to the neck. Just a surface imitation or maybe…

Maddie’s hands shook as she settled them either side of the hazmat helmet. If this worked would there be something to see? She almost wanted to see nothing. Nothing rather than the burnt and broken dead face. Blackened and charred down to the bone. There was another part that wanted so much to see his face, his face the way it should have been.

She cringed as Danny’s rough burnt hand touched hers. His hands joined hers and then they were lifting together. There was a light hiss, almost like it had been under a vacuum even though with the burnt away arm that was impossible. At the flash of singed skin of his neck she froze. Her mind realled, at war with herself. A deep breath was taken and she steeled herself. She had to know.

She lifted the helmet the rest of the way. Translucent almost pearl-like white hair fell round his face. A face that was marked with a sharp series of lichtenberg scarring that arched up his neck and across his cheek. It lanced across his eye where the crack in his visor had been. The skin around the scar was burnt but it faded out into smooth skin. Unnaturally so. His freckles were so familiar but even they glowed like little specks of starlight. Bright green eyes blinked at her, squinting in the bright lights of the examination table. His hands lowered from hers to shield them.

That was him, more him than she’d ever thought the ghost would or could look. There wasn’t supposed to be an underneath. The imprint should have been surface level only. Seeing his face hurt. Maddie choked back a sob that caught his attention. The helmet dropped to the floor, Danny caused the lights to crackle and flicker out leaving his glow the only source. He shuffled back, back and off the table into the air. Hands now covering his face in a way that was no longer about the light.

The black of the collar oozed and warped. It twisted up and wrapped around his head once again hiding his face behind the visor. The lights made an almost tentative popping noise as they flickered back on and Danny lowered his hands hesitantly as he hovered closer.

He thought he had upset her, did he think she didn’t want to see. She didn’t but at the same time she did. She hated seeing his face like that, dead but that face, there was something comforting about it too. That despite the expected. Despite the theory. Despite everything that should say otherwize there was enough of him there to create a face when it should have just been the hazmat and nothing else. A face she was worried he might not remember enough to recreate.

She grabbed him and pulled him close into a hug. “Its okay, I’m okay… just a little surprised. All fixed up right? We should head back up.”

Danny nodded and seemed to brighten, the edges of his eyes crinkling. Maddie let him go and led him back up to the kitchen.

“Mads, how’s he?” Jack asked, her blaster and the bazooka on the table in front of him.

Jack unscrewed the bazooka’s casing and removed the barely spent battery. That was a bad sign.

She paused, “just a few scratches. He’s healing fast so none of it was as bad as it looked by the time we got down there.”

She dropped into a seat, “the ghosts?”

Jack shook his head, “gone, fled before I’d gotten the insulation. Guess that means we need to figure out something that actually works.”

She sighed, she had guessed that was the case. Jack being this prepared to change batteries after only one shot meant he expected to need it again. Her own pistol was probably already changed. As he spoke the battery was waved along with his arms.

Danny watched him like a cat. Perched on the back of a chair that he had floated to. Then at the widest wave of Jack going on about how they might contain the ghosts next time he lunged. Snapped at the waving vial, his visor opening up like a mouth. Pointed broken glass like teeth in the black empty void. Said teeth clamped round the battery as Jack froze. Pulling it from his hand before retreating to the floor. Maddie stared, she couldn’t help but think about how that void should have shown his face.

Maddie pulled herself quickly out of her shock. Scratches were one thing but the ecto battery exploding in his face was going to be more damaging if he broke it open wrong. She wrestled the battery away from him to a crackling whine of the electronics in the room.

“Danny! Don’t eat that!” she tried to get him to let go of the battery.

The fridge growled for him, as he chewed on the battery.

“Its not safe Danno,” Jack approached, hands raised placatingly.

Another whine but they were able to pull the battery from his… mouth?

Maddie sighed, “I think we might have some less volatile samples in the lab,” she slipped downstairs to lock up the pistol batteries and returned with a sample flask.

Danny guzzled it down, still without a face.

“So ghosts eat then?” Jack laughed a little watching Danny

Maddie groaned. “You saw that too right? He didn’t have a face…”

Loook at this creature! The art is so cool! As I am writing this I am realizing that I now have three fics with Danny having some sort of broken glass/porcelain imagery. I swear I don't have a problem, I can stop reusing the imagery whenever I want... I just don't want to.

For this fic it was basically a case of I wanted to have ghost hunger but not loose the hazmat aspects for other future parts of the fic and then this idea happened.

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#writing #danny phantom #fan fiction #eldritch danny #full ghost danny #invisobang 2024 #good parents fentons #hazmat au #invisobang #weaving webs fic #caught in the spiders web series

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