#so Danny Carry’s on refusing to be king

[dcxdpdabbles]

May I please ask for more Royal Consort?? 🥺🥺🥺

Danny stares at the piles of paperwork sitting on the desk. They are in perfect stacks, each glowing in different neon lights- representing the territories they come from- and the boxes of scrolls waiting for his review.

There were also piles and piles of parchment. Stacks upon stacks of scrolls. And he thinks some crystals that contain oral recordings of reports. All glowing. All various colors.

It was as if a rave barfed all over an office and left an unholy mess.

He can tell by just looking that this will take him days, if not weeks, to go through. Let's not even think about about getting it processed.

Pointdexter is floating about the room, muttering and periodically checking a clipboard. Danny had figured that he should stop hiding in his room after the third concubine was sent, since he had woken up. The three were outraged that Consort Danny refused them entry to the castle, claiming they were gifts for the King and not the human toy he picked up.

They left after Pointdexter restrained Danny from reaching for his ghost-hunting gear. He made it clear that King Phantom had no need for concubines, being the Manager of the Hunt, the Third in command, and more respected by the ghost nobility due to being a ghost himself, his words carried more power.

They could not force their way into the castle, but they could still demand an audience with the King to make the offer of being his concubine.

The King was not present to formally dismiss them, which meant that the many men sent to Phantom as gifts could not remain in the castle. They would have to return when Phantom returned from the human world to evaluate the situation.

Sir John the Pure had been only one overjoyed to be dismissed like this. It seemed he was the youngest of the Cosmos tribe but suffered from a rare core condition. Sir John could not use any ghost powers without his core threatening to shatter in his chest.

He was a human with blue skin and stardust-dusted hair but without the added benefit of phasing through walls, shooting rays of ectoplasm, or turning invisible in the Infinite Realms. Sir John was one of a ghost born in the Zone, making his condition more shameful.

He wasn't treated the best among his people because of this, which Danny could gather by the way his servants acted. Sir John's butlers and maids seemed to have had a lot of courage in mistreating a potential "gift" to the King. Even if they didn't respect a human like Danny, he was still technically the Consort, thus higher ranked than all of them, and they still took pleasure in making faces at Sir John.

Besides his pretty face, there wasn't much Sir John had to offer the Realms, and thus, the family was eager to marry him off, if only to get some political power through him. Danny had ordered Pointdexter to create a nearby hotel for Sir John so he wouldn't have to go home to his less-than-ideal family.

He even dismissed the servants who accompanied the young ghost, as they were the same age, and instead had his aide find better servants to treat the ghost more kindly. They came from some of the local villages Danny had started developing over the past four years, offering shelter to weaker ghosts, so he knew their loyalty was never in doubt.

Danny ignored the adoring gaze the Comos tribe member threw at him when he was offered the hotel, especially with Timothy Drake watching everything. He finally understood what Pointdexer meant about the human ambassador.

He may pretend to be clueless, but a fierce intelligence burns brightly in his eyes. Drake was watching everything far too carefully to not be aware of what was happening; his absent-minded behavior before this was all a facade. Danny's question was how Drake had managed to convince him before that he was just another airhead.

Had he just been overwhelmed with the whole Consort thing, or was Danny more aware now that he was inside the Hunt that served as an extension of himself?

"Danno!" Poindexter screams in joy upon seeing him. "You're up! Excellent! The purchase orders on the desk must be paid by nine today."

The ghost flies behind him, pushing him towards the desk even with Danny digging his feet into the carpet. "Why do all these have to be paid by nine pm?"

"Oh no, no, no." Pointdexter hums, throwing him into the chair and pressing a fountain pen in his hand in one clean motion. His smile is dead, and his eyes are soulless as the fifties ghost says, "They need to be paid by nine am."

"But, it eight thirty am right now!?" Danny gasps. The grip on his shoulder goes unbearably tight as his Haunt manager looms over him.

"You better start signing." The teen says in a way that is not quite a threat but not entirely friendly. "The second you put your signature on these forms, payments are sent out. We. Need. To. Pay."

Danny reaches for the closest pile, shaking a little in fear as paper after paper is slid under his hand and pen. Every time he finished the last loop in his name, Poindexter quickly switched it out with another while speaking in a fast-paced tone to explain what he was signing.

"Payments for a festival hosted in the FarFrozen. Payment for the food we consume. Payment for the clothes. Payment for the wood. Payment for the anti-slavery act. Payment for soldiers harmed in the war. Payment for castle repairs. Payment for the ice sculptures. Payment to fund the apology gift baskets for the rejected concubines. Payment for my payroll, which is behind schedule. Payment for the bath salts King Phantom ordered. Payment for medical treatment in FarFrozen."

Danny's hand was starting to cramp up, and he wasn't even near the middle half of the pile. Pointdexer didn't seem keen on letting him stop anytime soon, though, so he pushed through. He lost himself in the paperwork, entering a near-meditational state. Hours later, someone knocks on the wood of his door, dragging Danny from the mental pits he has fallen into.

It takes him a moment to get his eyes to focus on the figure in the doorway. The paperwork glows in various colors. His eyes hurt, okay?. It's Sir John carrying a tray of food and beaming at him. "Hello, Dearest Consort. I brought you some food."

"Um, why?" Danny asks after a moment. He meant why was he ghost here wearing a butler uniform when he should be at the hotel he set up for him.

"Sir John is an excellent chief," Pointdexer mutters, looking through some scrolls while flouting seven papers around him. His eyes flicker between each one in practiced ease —apparently, he was a seasoned dungeon master in life. "I offered him a job when keeping maintenance of the Haunt grew too difficult for me on my lonesome. Our last staff members walked out after their payroll was delayed for so long. Not that I couldn't blame them."

Sir John scurries inside, placing the tray by Danny. Seeing someone so regal do servant work was a bit jarring, but somehow, he made the action of serving tea look like an art form. "I don't mind how long it takes for my payment to come through, Dearest Consort. To be by your side is more than enough for me."

Pointdexer shoots Danny a look before he turns his papers around and, on them, spells out the words, "He has a crush on you. Want me to fire him?"

Flabergasted by the reveal, Danny opens his mouth to speak, but once again, someone knocks on his door, interrupting him. It's Timothy Drake, dressed to the nines in a stylish old-timey suit. Something that was before Pointdexter's time. "Hello, Consort Fenton. I was wondering if you needed help in the admissions department."

Danny stares, ignoring the way Sir John's stardust turns an angry bright red. "Why do you ask?"

"Pass the time mostly," Drake laughs, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Not much to do around the castle now that I'm a human sacrifice."

Pointdexer clears his throat pointedly. "If you require entertainment, I can arrange that easily, Mr. Drake. Your offer is gracious but unnecessary."

A paper floats over to Danny from Pointdexer. On it, the word SPY glows brightly. Right, Mr. Drake was still operating under the impression Danny and Phantom were married and that the king was madly in love with him.

If there was a chance to see if the King was gearing up for war and undermining him, befriending the Consort way over his head would be the perfect way to do so.

"Yeah, I'm good. Thank you, though." Danny seconds, making sure to keep his suspicions off his face. Drake smiles, and suddenly, Danny realizes something.

Drake's smile is the same one those elites at the Wayne Gala wore. The same kind of look was on the faces of the three potential concubines before they realized they would not be allowed entry. It was the smile of someone from high society. Not someone like Danny, who was raised firmly in the middle class. He doesn't think he would be able to fake it, no matter how many years he studied to be considered upper-class

A chill runs down his spine.

How was Phantom so quickly able to blend in with them? Especially if he was only two years in the future of a world that had fallen apart?

Was King Phantom.....lying to him?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

An entire plane of existence away, King Phantom sits before the tense and somewhat nervous members of the Justice League, the United Nations representatives, and the Lord of Time himself, Clockwork.

He laces his fingers under his chin, keeping his cold stare a few inches away from a glare but not quite there. His formal attire showcases his status and his position, but it's the spear, the flaming crown, and the bright gleam of his ring that really make everyone tense.

They are a reminder, a threat, and a promise all rolled into a few artifacts.

"Ladies and Gentlemen." He starts. His voice echoed the clacking of ice, making a few humans flinch, "I want to put to rest that I will be starting a war with this planet for the attack on Consort Danny."

There was a mutter of relieved sighs through the room, only for the temperature to drop so quickly and rapidly that puffs of smoke were visible whenever someone breathed.

King Phantom's eyes were alight with rage as he spoke in a deadly calm voice, "It will not be a war, for that implies you have a fighting chance. Instead, I will reduce your numbers. I will instead begin the invasion of all nearby planets. Earth will keep its freedom only because my Consort has a small, insignificant attachment to this world. But make no mistake, you are all pets at most, and everyone outgrows their pets eventually. Or outlives them. It's the only way to keep my Consort's honor intact within the Afterlife Court. I will give you one week to say goodbye, and then I will kill fifty percent of all life on this planet."

The entire room felt like they were placed in a guillotine. No one moved. No one spoke. Everyone- including the people watching at home, huddled around screens- was too frightened to move.

Clockworks bows his head, ashamed of what he's about to allow to happen to keep the timeline flowing correctly.

He raises his staff.

"My King, may I suggest another way to keep Consort Danny's honor?" Clockwork shifts into his elder form as the King glances at him.

"What is your suggestion?"

"Why not...."Clockwork's words fade a little, aware that Phantom was growing impatient of his hesitation. It wouldn't do to ruin the king's plan, no matter how terrible dumb Clockwork thought it was. "Why not instead divorce? The Consort honor will not be a failed reflection of your inability to keep him safe as a protection spirit if he is no longer your reflection?"

The room gawked at Clockwork, but no more than the King, who leaped to his feet in outrage. "You dare suggest I lose the love of my life-"

"You can simply remarry him after a week." Clockwork interrupts, his tone low in embarrassment. His speech speeds up as he desperately wants to get through this hare-brained idea that Phantom had approached him with in the future. "Earth could make up for the disrespect they showed the royal family by hosting the ceremony."

King Phantom sits back down, rubbing at his chin."That would be better than the alternative. Plus, it ensures Danny wouldn't be angry with me for killing anyone."

"Yes, as Consort Danny wisely said: Have you tried turning it off and back on again?" It took everything in Clockwork to say that sentence as seriously as possible. "This way, no blood is spilled. Consort Danny can finally have that human version of the ceremony with his parents present, which he always wanted. You would no longer be anchored to him with the new vows, allowing you to be on Earth without straining Consort Danny's body. The list of benefits is long, Sir."

Phantom looks increasingly gleeful with every word out of his high advisor's mouth. "I can also release that homewrecker, Drake, back to the human realm!"

Clockwork bites his tongue. "Yes, my King. Though again, I do not see a future, past, or present, where Timothy Drake is infatuated with the Consort. He just wants to protect the human race."

"Lies! Did you not see the way he was dancing at the gala?" Phantom hissed, curling his hands into tight fists, but his eyes were alight with glee. " He was practically undressing!"

"Okay." Clockwork shifts into his middle-aged form, trying very hard to keep the annoyance off his face. He doesn't think he is successful but it at least adds more to their whole facade. "The wedding, sir?"

"Oh yes! I shall divorce my husband and then marry him again. People of Earth, you have one month to prepare our wedding, and I shall put...you in charge of it!" Phantom points to a silent as the grave, glaring man in a bat costume. "Just for some motivation, I will now remove gravity across Earth."

He snaps his fingers, and the world panics as everyone starts flouting. Everywhere at the same time, the entire planet had lost gravity at the mere snap of the Ghost King's fingers. It lasts only for a few seconds, but it's enough to be reminded of how mighty the Ghost King was.

Phantom gives Batman one finally mad smile. "Do not disappoint me:"

The two ghosts vanish in a swirl of the green light portals.

[tales-of-the-ghost-zone]

DP X DC crossover prompt

Sam and Tucker, thanks to living in Amity Park and being overshadowed and controlled by ghosts so many time, had become very liminal. Until an accident while trying to stop the newest ghost enemy led to the two of them becoming halfa’s. Sam’s ghost form looks like what she looked like during the whole Undergrowth thing. And Tucker’s ghost form looks like his King Tuck design.

After a reveal gone wrong, Danny, Sam, and Tucker flee Amity Park. The trio run away to Gotham, and using money Sam managed to snag from her account before they left, they buy a nice sized building right in the middle of Crime Alley. They decide to turn it into a bookshop and cafe. There’s a garden/greenhouse attached to the back end of the building where Sam grows all her plants and herbs. Tucker has his own tech room in the basement alongside Danny’s tiny lab space. They live together in the apartment above the bookshop/cafe.

One day while out on a walk, Danny stumbles across two tiny twin half formed baby ghost cores. They���re nothing more than tiny little balls of glowing light at the moment. Baby ghosts that are just starting to form but are nothing more than cores at the moment. But they seem to be slowly fading. Danny refuses to let them fade away into nothing. He scoops them up, infuses them with some of his ectoplasm to get them going, and then shoved them into his chest for safe keeping and so that they can be close to his own core which starts slowly feeding them energy.

Danny rushes back to the shop and drags Sam and Tucker to the upstairs apartment and shows him the baby ghost cores he’s found. The three all agree that they’re going to help these cores develop into actual ghosts. They switch off on who carry’s the ghost cores around. Some days it’s Danny. Some days it’s Tucker. And some days it’s Sam. Each of them feeding the cores a little bit of their ectoplasm to help them grow.

One of the cores feels distinctly female and has a purplish blue glow to it. The three start jokingly calling her violet. The other core has a distinctly male feel to it. It’s an orangish red and has a small crack along one side of it. Danny jokingly said one time how he (the baby core) kind of looked like Nemo’s egg at the beginning of Finding Nemo and ever since they’ve been calling him Nemo.

The two cores have been developing very slowly, both seemingly unable to absorb the needed ectoplasm, to form into full ghosts, quickly. The trio is fine with this, they can be patient, and wait to meet their twins.

Then one day there’s some kind of massive ghost attack. Maybe a cult or something attempted to summon the ghost king but messed up the summoning and accidentally summoned something else. The Justice League try and fight the thing, but they’re no match for this ghost monstrosity. And the JLD aren’t available to help for whatever reason. The trio decides to step in and help. They kick the crap out of the ghost pretty easily and send it back to the ghost zone. Then Danny, in his King Phantom garb (crown of fire, whispy white fire like hair, a regal looking version of his hazmat suit, the ring of rage on one finger, and a cape around his shoulders, the outside being pure white but the inside looking like the vastness of space) approaches the cult and rebukes them, telling them how even if they had managed to summon him he never would have helped them take over the world.

After that the trio become members of the Justice League. Thanks to some of Danny’s previous time travel shenanigans, and Danny being the ghost king, and Sam and Tucker his consorts/mates(?) the Justice League all think that the trio are ancient eldritch ghost gods.

And then one day when the trio are in the Watch Tower with the rest of the League their twin baby ghost cores come up. Maybe it was time to switch out who was carrying them, and mid meeting or lunch or whatever, Danny just reaches into his chest, pulls out two small glowing orbs. He cradles them close to his chest for a moment, looking at them lovingly, and whispering something soft to them in ghost speak. Then hands them over to Sam, who does the whole cradle them close and whisper softly in ghost speak before shoving them right into her chest.

They look up from this to see the whole League staring at them wide eyed and confused. Danny just casually explains that those are their children but they’re still forming so the trio needs to keep them close to their cores to help them grow, but they like to switch up everyday who carry’s them. Every member of the Justice League becomes super protective of the trio after this. They see it as the three essentially being pregnant (sort of), and they don’t always know which one of them is carrying the baby ghost. So best to just be protective of all three. The trio finds this kind of amusing and a touch bit sweet.

When the twin baby cores finally develop into actual baby ghosts, the two kind of look like a mixture between Danny, Sam, and Tucker’s ghost forms. Though Violet has dark purple hair and eyes and Nemo has bright orangish red hair and eyes.

[oldfangirl81]

Sam was a little odd by Metropolis standards. At least once a day people asked when she was moving to Gotham. And yeah, it was a city she felt more at home in however Metropolis University offered a full ride.

Her parents hadn't taken her coming out as pansexual too well so Sam refused their money. They were getting better slowly. Still to make rent money she worked at a coffee shop close to campus. But didn't get along with most of her coworkers.

One manager in particular had been giving her problems. Tucker offered to wreck the guy's credit score. Danny offered to send Cujo to haunt him. Jazz offered to help her find an employment lawyer. Elle offered to punch him.

Sam had turned down all offers of help before. Until he really started spreading ugly rumors about her. One had even got her questioned by Metropolis PD.

Then she spotted a joke about how going super Goth can involve sentient hand butlers. That's when she asked a favor from her Ghost King friend.

On the next shift with Chip things were going okay. It had been a pretty quiet day so far. The only customers were to college guys, one kept sneaking sips of energy drinks between coffee sips. He also kept getting caught each time by his friend.

Just then in the door came a glowing green hand carrying a Wonder Woman lunch box.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?!" Yelled Chip.

Over in the corner Tim whispered to Connor. "You see the glowing green hand without a body attached or do I need more sleep?"

"Both things are true." He whispered back to the tired man.

"Oh thanks, Noun. I can't believe I forgot my lunch." Sam took the lunch box and gave the glowing hand a pat.

"That's yours!?! Of course it is. What is it doing here?"

"Obviously bringing me the lunch I forgot."

"And why do you have it?"

"Because I'm just that Goth."

[quendlyn]

*sigh* here we go again

this is inspired by Lost Boys by Ruth B's amazing song, and it carried me through middle school.

This takes place while Bruce is lost in the time stream and Tim is looking for him. Tim doing everything in his power to not have to work with Ra's decides so summon a demon but well the spell book is shit so he ends up summoning you guessed it Danny. Danny can be the ghost king in this but what is important is that he is a protector spirt, especially of children with shitty lives because of his childhood(you see were I'm going with this). He is also fully dead. Tim has been completely ignoring all of his bodily needs looks and feels like absolute shit, so Danny being the Danny decides to help him. Danny is essentially Peter Pan, so he offers to take Tim to his lair/Neverland. Tim refuses because he needs to find Bruce, so Danny decides to help him, and if Tim agrees, when Bruce is back, he'll come to Neverland. During their adventure of looking for clues while dodging Ra's and the Justice League, Tim starts trusting Danny. They get Bruce back and call Superman so he'll bring him to Gotham. Tim's done it; he got Gotham's protector back, he's got Dick and Jason's father back. Dick can go back to being Nightwing and Tim can go back to being Batman's Robi- wait no he can't. Damian is Robin. Bruce doesn't need him anymore; he was always just a placeholder anyway. Now Bruce's actual son is Robin. Now Damian isn't the Robin Tim would have picked, but he hasn't killed anyone in a while, and Bruce will keep helping him. Tim isn't needed. So, this time when Danny asks him to come to Neverland, he says yes.

[opal-songbird]

The night before Zant led the insurrection of Hyrule:

Context: This excerpt follows some citizens of Castle Town as they live peacefully for one more night before Zant's takeover of Hyrule in the events of Twilight Princess. The aftermath is devastating. TW of gore and violence. Rated M.

Sally's POV

Back then, my family and I lived in Castle Town. The night prior was peaceful; everyone at the Hyrule House of the Arts was preparing for one of our vocal recitals. The stakes this time were higher; for the King of Hyrule and Princess Zelda were actually slated to be in attendance! I was one of four female vocalists chosen to perform the final piece at the end of the recital, and I was so nervous. I was an extremely shy 17-year-old who always sought the comfort of the large choir for all my singing and acting endeavors. In my dreams, I found the courage to perform solos, but I was convinced that would never be reality.

The chosen song was “Oh Danny Boy”, an Irish tune of a woman’s lover going to battle. It was one of Mr. Cathbird’s favorite pieces from his music library, arranged in four-part harmony. Tilanya, Martha, me, and a dearly departed friend of mine named Lilliyana tirelessly prepared this song for a couple of months, feeling cautiously honored and scared shitless at the same time. I had tried convincing Mr. Cathbird (the choir director) that I was inadequate for such a significant performance, but he insisted that I was one of the best higher-range sopranos in the choir and that he simply would not accept no for an answer. I felt stuck in my role, but deep down I was also excited for my first opportunity to branch out.

Lilliyana and Tilanya sang the two lower parts while Martha sang the second soprano part. I was given the high soprano part as Mr. Cathbird felt my less operatic and airy tone would translate better for blending our four voices. What petrified me the most about this was that I had to carry the melody towards the end of the song, sticking out from the other girls like a sore thumb as I had to hit a note significantly higher than any of theirs. I wasn’t sure I was capable, but in the end, he was right; we performed the piece and when we finished, the crowd erupted into uproarious applause, like thunder pounding in the eardrums. I even saw the King and Princess Zelda give us a standing ovation. I was so proud of what the four of us accomplished that I nearly cried on stage. They didn’t stay long, as they were escorted by royal guards out of the theatre before anyone else had gotten the opportunity to leave. 

I awoke the next morning to my stepmother, Eleanor, and my father yelling at the top of their lungs, begging me to wake up. I shot up out of bed and could smell smoke, beginning to register the screams coming from outside our house. Anxiety rushed over me. “I’m up! I’m going to get clothes on quickly!” I yelled out to them as I jumped out of bed and got dressed.  

My father knocked on my door a minute later and I told him that I was dressed and that he could come in. “Quick, Pumpkin! Pack only the essentials!” My pet husky Ginnie barged into the room from behind him and barked loudly.  

“What do you mean, Papa?” I searched his eyes for an answer.  

He reached up to the top shelf of my closet and slammed down a suitcase on my bed. “Something terrible is happening to the royal family; I’m afraid someone may be leading an insurrection!” 

“What?!” My hand flew to my mouth as I quickly opened my drawers and grabbed various articles of clothing.  

He continued talking as he helped me stuff clothing into the suitcase. “Multiple fires have been set, and monsters are roaming the streets. It isn’t safe here! Some are hiding in their homes, but I refuse to do that! I will not allow this family to be that close to danger!” Ginnie whined in response to his growing panic.  

My thoughts went to my dearest friends Lilliyana, Tilanya, and Marcus. “Where’s Lilliyana? And Tilanya and Marcus? Are they okay?”  Deep down, I worried about Martha, too, even though we weren't amicable with one another.

“I unfortunately haven’t heard about Lilliyana, but Tilanya’s family is staying in Castle Town, much to my chagrin...” He grunted. “They believe they’ll be safer in hiding...maybe so, but I don’t want to run that risk.” He sighed. “Marcus is outside warding off monsters with his sword and helping your mother and Eleanor load belongings into a wagon that Biscuit and Molly (father’s horse) are attached to.” 

I gasped loudly, concerned for Marcus’ safety. “He’s alright, Pumpkin. Don’t fret.” My father patted me on the shoulder, latching my suitcase shut and running out with it. I gathered some songbooks, my childhood dolls and teddy bear, and my music journal into my satchel and ran out with Ginnie by my side, regretfully having to leave behind my mother’s piano among many other unnecessary but sentimental belongings. Father had already packed some of mama’s dishes and her wedding dress and favorite recital dress, refusing to leave them behind. Outside my father and Marcus were fighting a large monster (one I later came to learn was a Shadow Beast), the monster knocking him and father to the ground. It looked at me and came in my direction as I screamed, but Ginnie growled and leapt up at it, biting its arm. It shook off Ginnie and she yelped in pain as she hit the ground. My eyes widened as father managed to stab the beast, unholy black blood coming from the wound created from his sword. I froze in place as I saw Lilliyana running down the street, a monster with a halberd in hot pursuit.  

“Lilliyana!” I cried out in vain. She was decapitated by the pig-like monster right in front of me. I was in shock, unable to screech or shout; absolutely horrified at what I was witnessing. Marcus yelled out my name, lifting me into his arms and running to the wagon. “Get inside, now!” He set me down on the step at the end of the wagon’s opening and I jumped in, but Ginnie was still on the ground.  

“Marcus!” I begged. “Please! Get Ginnie!”  

“Yes!” He called back to me. A minute later he and Ginnie came over to the wagon. She was limping and he was ushering her along. He lifted her into the wagon and stood guard of my stepsister, stepmother, and me as my father continued to fight the shadow beast. Eleanor was just as petrified as me as she blubbered while holding onto my stepmother, but she was strangely silent. I sat at the front of the wagon and tears welled into my eyes as I saw people running in terror; a man being struck down by another monster wielding a sword in the chaos. Marcus looked me in the eyes and reached for my hand. “Don’t look, Sally.” he said somberly as he let go of my hand and closed the curtain to the wagon. I hugged Ginnie closely and sobbed into her fur and soon I heard father sit in the driver’s box and whip the reins. I could hear Marcus riding close by on his horse Sonny and slashing monsters with his sword as we made our way out of Castle Town. I didn’t know until we were safely in the forests far from there, but shortly before we left, Marcus and a few other men had run back into the house and lifted my mama’s piano and put it into another wagon at the behest of Marcus; he didn’t want me to go without it.  

Our caravan of 4 wagons carrying 15 people and belongings made it safely to the forest thanks to the brave efforts of Marcus, my father, and a couple of other Hylians that chose to flee with us. We set up camp and began to emotionally process all that transpired, camping in the perpetual twilight the land was cursed under. We stayed within our campground most of the following weeks, not daring to explore the forest in fear of monsters lurking nearby. We slowly began to build our village and one day the sun blessed us with daylight once again, but the monsters continued to wreak havoc for that whole turbulent year.  

News of the savior that rescued us all soon reached our village as well, known only as "The Hero of Twilight".

Interested in reading more? Read "The Legend of Zelda: Fate's Design" on Ao3!

"Link" to the song "Danny Boy" by Celtic Woman

[raaorqtpbpdy]

Haunting With Dinosaurs (1)

Danny is summoned by a powerful occult practitioner named Victor Veloci, who wants him to bring dinosaurs back to life. It sounds absurd, but Danny is bound to him and cannot refuse, even though he can't actually bring dinosaurs back to life. Instead, he merges the ghosts of five dinosaurs with the bodies of the five human sacrifices Veloci used to summon him, restoring them to life as dinosaur halfas. And that's only the beginning.

Written for @crossoverdanuary Week, Day 4: Any Fandom Dino Squad | Element

Read it on AO3 also, Watch Dino Squad on YouTube it sucks (affectionate)

Danny is slightly aged up to be 18 and a recent high school graduate, also this is a ghost king Danny AU, and obviously Phantom Planet didn't happen, but other than that, no major changes have been made to DP lore in this fic.

As for Dino Squad, I've made some pretty significant changes, but they pretty much boil down to: This is a supernatural AU, so it won't have canon-typical Dino Squad made-up science. All other changes are explained in the actual fic as they come up.

I'm lowkey assuming that the majority of people who read this will not have seen Dino Squad, so I've made sure to describe all the DS elements a little more thoroughly than the DP elements so those of you who haven't seen Dino Squad can understand what's going on.

"Italicized dialogue" indicates speech that can only be heard in the POV character's head. (Caruso in this chapter)

Chapter 1: So, You're Finally Awake

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[Warning for descriptions of several different types of ritualistic deaths with varying degrees of detail, some of them being more graphic than others]

Caruso woke up slowly. That was normal.

He liked to stretch out in the warm comfort of his lush bed, breathe in the flowery sent of his air freshener, and adjust to the sunlight streaming through his window before he got up, did his morning exercises and started his skincare routine. 

Unfortunately for him, he did not appear to be in his lush bed. The air, still and stale, carried the sharp metallic scent of blood, mixed with mold and must. Definitely not honey-suckle and jasmine. And the dim, yellowish light cast by the single caged bulb above him was hardly comparable to the morning sun.

For some reason, as he tested the ropes that tied him to a wooden chair, he was guessing his skincare routine would have to wait. 

Still, it was a bit of an improvement from how he expected he was going to wake up last night, which was: not at all. Suffering a death by a thousand cuts was not typically conducive to waking up in the morning without a scratch on you. Too bad he couldn't say the same thing for his clothes, which were completely shredded and covered in blood. 

This was a silk shirt, too. There wasn't even enough undamaged fabric left to make a pocket square out of. Maybe he could use it for silk fringe on something. If he could get the blood stains out, of course.

When he finally looked around properly, he saw that he was one of five people, sitting in a circle of chairs with their backs to each other. He had to crane his neck to see the other four, but still, he recognized them. They were the same four people he'd been tied up with last night. The four people he'd watched die before he himself was killed.

Caruso jumped as much as his bonds would allow and whipped his head around as he heard a scream to his left. The girl sitting there was shrieking at the top of her lungs. 

She had thick, red hair, with blunt-cut bangs. He remembered seeing her last night. Watching her get disemboweled, her entrails spilling out over a black pentagram. He wished he could forget. 

They went to the same school... she was in his AP bio class, he thought. What was her name?

"Fi... Fiona," he said, hoping that was right. "Are you hurt?"

"I... I... no," she said. She was panting, frantically looking down at herself, shaking her head like she couldn't believe what she saw. "I was... I died. Her clothes looked undamaged, but the blood on the hem of her once-white T-shirt still looked damp.

"Yeah, I remember," Caruso said. It had been especially grizzly, but at least it had been fairly quick, comparatively. As the last to be sacrificed, Caruso had had the horror of watching the rest of them die before him. They weren't all lucky enough to bleed out in seconds. "I did too. Seems like we're fine now, though... somehow."

"How are you so calm?" Fiona demanded, sounding on the verge of hyperventilating.

"I don't know," he said. Caruso had never really been the type to freak out when something bad happened, but even for him, this seemed way too calm for what had happened.

"Death is inevitable," said a voice in his head. "It comes and it goes. It's gone now, so why bother about it?"

"Uh... what?" Caruso muttered.

"Caruso?" Fiona asked, and he turned back to her. "It's Caruso, right?"

He nodded.

"How are we alive?"

"I don't know," he answered. He nodded his head toward the three other people tied to chairs behind them. They hadn't woken up when Fiona screamed, but their injuries from last night were gone. "Are they alive?"

"I don't know," she said, craning her neck to look at them. "Are you also hearing a weird voice in your head?"

Caruso swallowed and bit his lip before answering. What he wouldn't do for some lip balm right about now. 

"Yeah."

A groan attracted their attention next. One of the others had woken up. This one Caruso recognized immediately. Max Maxwell, real name Rolf, poor guy. Varsity quarterback, big man on campus, and Caruso's sophomore crush—but he was totally over it now. 

Max had been stabbed last night, Caruso hadn't counted how many times. Not shallow cuts like Caruso, but deep enough that they could hear the bones crack. First his feet, then hands, then wrists and ankles, knees, elbows, hips, shoulders, abdomen, chest, and finally his eyes. He probably hadn't died until the killer reached his torso. 

It was no wonder he seemed so frantic and disoriented. That was a nasty way to go. To his credit though, he'd gritted his teeth though it and didn't give their murderer the satisfaction of hearing him scream.

"You linger too much. Focus on the present time. It is the only thing that matters."

"What... how... where?" Max said. Incoherent, but who could blame him.

"We're not dead," Caruso explained. "We're still in that freak's basement though, it looks like. He hasn't even cleaned up the blood."

"I'm not bleeding," Max said. "Nothing even hurts, how—what was that?!"

"Voice in your head?" Caruso guessed. "We've got 'em too."

"We don't know how we're alive and unharmed..." Fiona shuddered, "physically anyway—God knows I'm gonna have nightmares about last night for the rest of my life. I'd bet those voices are related, but mine just keeps talking about how much she craves fish."

"I think big guy's gonna wake up next," Caruso said, nodding toward him. It seemed like they were waking up in the opposite order that they'd died. He wasn't sure if that was significant or just the way the cookie crumbled. 

"Rodger," Max said. "He's the smartest kid in school, how'd he end up in this."

"Are you saying the rest of us are here because we're idiots?" Fiona shot back.

"No, it's just... I mean, if anyone could have avoided something like this, I would have bet on him," Max attempted to clarify. "I guess nobody could have."

Just as Caruso had guessed, Rodger woke up next and immediately started taking deep, gasping breaths. Nothing'll make a man savor oxygen like having his throat slit and drowning in his own blood, Caruso supposed.

"I'm alive," Rodger panted out. "This isn't a hospital. How am I alive? How am I talking already? Who said that?"

Almost the instant after the three of them had gotten Rodger up to speed on what they knew about the situation, their fifth and final companion woke up, screaming like he was still on fire. Neil Buzzmati, AKA Buzz. Him, Caruso recognized from school. He made himself pretty hard to miss. 

Whatever product he put in that hideous green mohawk of his seemed to have protected it from everything but the ashes. His clothes had been completely burned away, but whoever had tied him up had also had the decency to lay a blanket over him to protect his modesty.

"Stop screaming!" Caruso shouted. "You're fine!"

The screams gave way to panicked pants, and half formed questions and expletives. "I was on fire!" Buzz finally shouted.

"Well... you're fine now," Caruso amended.

They all fell silent as heavy footsteps started coming down the stairs.

"Is that finally all of you?" came a deep voice with a transatlantic accent they would not soon forget. "I didn't want to gag you, but your screams are disturbing my customers. If you can't stay quiet—"

"Why should we?" Fiona demanded, cutting him off. "We should keep screaming as loud as we can until someone calls the cops! You literally killed us last night!"

"And I can do it again," the man threatened. "So I strongly suggest you keep it down. Or do I have to gag you after all?"

No one responded. They just glared at him as viciously as they could.

"He brought us here. We trusted him. He would kill us?"

Caruso tried not to visibly react to the voice in his head. Did that mean the voice truly was connected to what had happened last night? It made sense, but there hadn't been any proof until now.

Their captor sighed. "You were supposed to be possessed, but you still seem to be quite in control of yourselves. We'll have to have a word about that."

Up the stairs, they heard a distant bell ring, and their captor sighed again.

"But I suppose that will have to wait," he said reluctantly. "Please excuse me, and keep your voices down... or else."

With that he retreated back up the stairs.

"That was the asshole who set me on fire," Buzz hissed out in a hoarse whisper.

"We know, we were there," Rodger told him. "When he was done with you, he moved onto the rest of us."

"Although, we didn't all get burned to death," Caruso said. "He used different methods for each of us."

"Why?" Buzz asked.

"He didn't exactly stop to explain."

"My guess is he was summoning a demon," Fiona said. "I mean, pentagram, black candles, human sacrifices? Classic demon summoning ritual, right? At least, that's how it looks in movies. Not that I'm much of a horror buff, to be honest."

"You're close," said a disembodied voice.

At first, Caruso thought it was another voice coming from his head, but then he saw everyone else reacting to it, too, and realized that couldn't be the case.

"It was a summoning ritual, but not for a demon," the voice continued. "He was summoning me."

Instantaneously, a person appeared just on the other side of Fiona. 

It hurt his neck a little trying to get a good look, but Caruso guessed the stranger was seventeen or eighteen, about the same age as the rest of them, and not bad-looking. He was on the short side of average height, sharp jawline, square shoulders, with wispy white hair and eyes that glowed an unearthly green. He wore a black jumpsuit with a white belt, white gloves and boots, and a signet ring. A crown floated above his head, flickering with green flames.

"Hi, Danny Phantom, ghost king, at your service," he introduced. "I'm the one who brought you crazy kids back from the dead, and I'm the one whose gonna bust you out of here. Keep it hush-hush, though, yeah? If the boss man hears you, he'll come down and tell me to stop, and he has me bound to obey him. It's a whole thing."

He stepped over to Fiona, who was closest, and all he had to do was touch the ropes that tied her down to make them instantly fall to the floor, freeing her. He went to Max next, and did the same.

"If you're bound to obey him, why are you letting us go?" Max asked.

"I'm only bound to obey direct orders, and only ones I'm actually capable of carrying out," the ghost king explained. "Aside from that, I can do whatever I want. He never explicitly told me not to free you guys, so here I am."

He went to Buzz next. "Wow, you look a lot different with a face," he commented.

"That is an absolutely horrifying thing to tell someone, thanks," Buzz replied.

"Sorry." The king moved onto Rodger, and finally Caruso. Their eyes met for a moment, and Caruso could swear his cheeks looked greener from this angle. "You look different too," he said.

"Yeah, well, that happens when someone isn't covered in a thousand cuts and a corresponding swimming pool of blood," Caruso replied.

"Jesus Christ," Fiona said, barely managing not to raise her voice. "Is that what he did to you? How long did that take?"

"Hours," Caruso said with a shudder. 

Their captor had counted out every cut, and he'd made sure that Caruso didn't actually die, or even pass out, until the very last one. There was no reason to tell them that, though. They were traumatized enough from their own deaths. 

"But I'm fine now, see? Too bad about my clothes, though."

"How do we get out of here?" Rodger asked. "There's only one exit, and it leads to where that psycho is."

"Exits?" the ghost king scoffed. "Where we're going, we don't need, exits."

"Did you just reference Back to the Future?" Rodger asked.

"Yup!" He grabbed Rodger by the shoulders and picked him up like he weighed nothing at all, then flew straight through the wall and out of the basement. He then returned four more times to collect the rest of them.

"Your majesty?" Fiona asked once they were safely standing in a back alley, where the greatest potential danger was tetanus and muggers, and not a monster trying to summon the ghost king.

"You guys can call me Danny," he said. "But go on."

"If you brought us back to life," she continued, "then can you tell us how you did it? Or why we all have these voices in our heads?"

"Voices in your heads?" the king, Danny, repeated. Based on his expression, that was not a good thing. "Hmm... that... was not intentional. But we should go somewhere else, somewhere more than half a block away from old Victor and his creepy magic shop. Luckily, I know just the place."

"Uh, any chance we can pick up some clothes first?" asked Buzz, who was still wearing only the blanket their captor had left him, wrapped tightly around his lanky body. 

It was only a few weeks away from winter, and his shoes were gone, too. He must have been freezing.

"Yeah," Caruso agreed. "And maybe a shower too?" He was basically decent, but he was pretty sure his clothes could completely fall apart on him any second, and he was still thoroughly covered in blood.

"I second the shower," said Max, who was similarly blood-soaked.

"Thirded," Fiona and Buzz piped up at the same time.

"Motion carried," Rodger tacked on.

"Motion passed," Danny agreed. "Seeing you all in the daylight... you obviously need a little TLC. You weren't taken from your homes, were you?"

"No, we got grabbed as we were leaving a house party, at least, I think we all did," Max said. "I didn't see Rodger there, though."

"I wasn't there, but I passed it when I was walking home from my DnD sesh, and got grabbed then," Rodger said.

"Great!" Danny said.

"That we got kidnapped by a witch?" Fiona asked.

"Well, no, but if he took you from someone else's house party, that means he doesn't know where you live, and that's good news," he said. "Let's see... can't exactly call you guys a cab when you look like that... hm... wait here a sec."

Danny vanished, and the five of them were left standing in the alley waiting for something to happen. A minute or so later, a while panel van stopped at the mouth of the alley, and the driver's side window opened.

"You kids need a lift?" Asked a bearded man in dark sunglasses. 

"Uh, no thanks, sir, we're waiting for a friend," Fiona said.

The man pulled down his sunglasses revealing glowing green eyes. 

"I'm just messing with you guys, it's me, Danny," he said, the man's deep gruff voice turning into Danny's own, much lighter one. "Hop in and I'll drive you guys home. You just need to give me directions."

"How are you doing this?" Rodger asked once they'd all piled into the back of the van.

"Overshadowing," Danny explained. "I just found a car that could carry all of you without drawing too much attention, no matter how much I wanted to take the one with flames painted on the side, and I took control of the driver. I'll top off the gas and take him back where I found him once we're done, and he won't remember a thing."

"That seems unethical," Buzz said.

"A) It's harmless, he'll be completely fine, and the only thing he'll lose is an hour, tops. And B) Would you rather walk home?"

"Fair enough," Buzz relented, adjusting his blanket over his lap.

Caruso got dropped off last, since his house was the farthest away. They'd all agreed to meet up at their school once they'd showered and changed, and Caruso lamented the fact that there was no way he'd have time to properly moisturize.

"I'll uh... see you later," Danny said as he dropped Caruso off behind his house so he could sneak in the back door and hopefully avoid his parents seeing him like this.

"Huh?" Caruso said.

The way Danny said it felt like he meant something more by it, but Caruso was too distracted by the thought of the shower in his tantalizingly near future to know or care what it was.

"Yeah, see ya," he said, and headed gratefully into his home.

[bobbole]

Hi! I was that corinthiel anon from before and i since i got your permission here are some headcanons i have for them:

Theirs is a long slow burn/office romance/psychological horror/fantasy epic that takes many mini get togethers/break ups and self discoveries until they an official couple

Early on in Danny’s reign, he isn’t quite accustomed to his powers and thus many hijinks/misadventures ensue. Also he pushes himself too hard and can fall into this ‘torpor-like’ state where he passes out and becomes mostly unresponsive to regain energy. The first time it happens Cori panics and refuses to let anyone else carry him back to the castle to recover, growling at anyone who comes close. The Dreaming as a whole still works, but everything ‘slows’ down and dreamkin feel kinda tired themselves.

Tons of roleplay in their more sensual scenarios, letting them both play out narratives that suit their respective fantasies and kinks.

I have tons others but I’ve clogged your asks enough right now, ahah. Of course I’d love to hear if you have anything else to add or your own headcanons!

@pickurpoisons-blog These hc are so good I want to devour them!!!

I especially adore this one

He pushes himself too hard and can fall into this ‘torpor-like’ state where he passes out and becomes mostly unresponsive to regain energy. The first time it happens Cori panics and refuses to let anyone else carry him back to the castle to recover, growling at anyone who comes close. The Dreaming as a whole still works, but everything ‘slows’ down and dreamkin feel kinda tired themselves.

It's so beautiful and has something almost fairytale-like to imagine the Corinthian watching over Daniel's body as he recovers his strength. The Dreaming is covered in snow, and it's cold, but not a cruel cold: it's a gentle winter that happens whenever this torpor descends on the King of Dreams. Yes, everything is slower and sleepy: Mervyn naps in a corner of the throne room instead of putting up the curtains, Lucien has to resort to his special supply of black tea to stay awake, Cain is too sleepy to inflict the punishment that Abel deserves, and Matthew plays with other ravens with snowflakes. Only the Corinthian remains alert and awake, in the farthest and most inaccessible room of the palace, and to make his Lord's rest even safer he creates a complicated tangle of corridors and rooms, and access to Dream's private chambers becomes a labyrinth of which the Nightmare alone knows the right way. No one can approach Daniel, unless the Corinthian wants to. Every time he awaits his King's awakening and does not let even light disturb his rest: silently, he gently brush Daniel's cheek with his fingers, in a caress more delicate and discreet than a whisper. In the absolute darkness of the room, the body of his beloved appears to the Corinthian as white and precious as a pearl....

....but I also imagine a more funny situation, where Daniel suddenly falls asleep in the most inaccessible and dangerous places of the kingdom, and the Corinthian punctually has to go and retrieve him amidst a thousand difficulties :D

* Cori in the middle of a nightmare, gutting a poor dreamer *

Matthew: Boss is asleep again! The Corinthian: the fu…where this time?! Matthew: in the Box of Nightmares

* unspeakable curses and swearing as he runs off to retrieve his Dream *

The first time it happens Cori panics and refuses to let anyone else carry him back to the castle to recover, growling at anyone who comes close.

Cori bringing Daniel in bridal style to the palace? You made my Monday radiant <3 One of my most cherished fantasies is to imagine:

the Corinthian carrying Daniel in bridal style, both handsome and elegant as in a Pre-Raphaelite painting or Daniel carrying the Corinthian in bridal style, both in their gigerian nightmare form (still beautiful and elegant....in their own way :D)

Tons of roleplay in their more sensual scenarios, letting them both play out narratives that suit their respective fantasies and kinks.

Ohohoh, we're on the same page! One of my favorite hc's is that often in their intimacy they both like to 'pretend' to be human and that playing 'being human' is one of the things that they enjoy the most: Daniel specially creates eyes for the Corinthian for the sensual and perverse pleasure of extracting and devouring them, just as his lover taught him (which excites the Corinthian terribly, by the way). I am working on a story about this, I hope to finish soon ^^

Another thing that excites both is when between the two of them it's only Daniel who pretends to be human, almost as if they both take pleasure in a sort of reversal of roles in which it's the Corinthian, as a Nightmare, who has more power and therefore Daniel, as a 'human', finds himself at the absolute mercy of his lover. The Corinthian savors the pleasure of having total control, Daniel the pleasure of having none.

Theirs is a long slow burn/office romance/psychological horror/fantasy epic that takes many mini get togethers/break ups and self discoveries until they an official couple

Ahhh!!! but now I'm curious: how do you think it all started? :)

[spidori]

How close to death was Loki when he went through that portal? Like exactly?

Because if he was in a bad enough way that Danny immediately rushed him off to see a healer? Alongside an absolute refusal to die? This seems like a perfect opportunity for a new halfa.

Seems awfully coincidental that everything lined up so cleanly for that... Clockwork? Did you have a hand in this? Why are you smirking?

In the end, I think it could work really well because of Loki's core obsession, at least if it carried over from life. Loki wants to prove himself, to earn his Father's regard, to show himself a match for his more traditionally perfect brother. All of those are symbolized by one objective, Loki is obsessed with being king, mainly of Asgard but another greater kingship could work if he was given help shifting his obsession in a healthy way.

And that's the key here, healthy. This is not Loki betraying his new family for power. If you want angst, this is Loki doing his damndest to set aside his obsession with reaching for the crown because he refuses to do that to someone who has been so good to him, but struggling hard. He truly wants to not want to take the title, but it's literally his obsession, it's baked into his core.

The thing is, I don't think Danny would want to be king. He's still a kid, one who never wanted the responsibility of a hero, but bore it because he was the only one who could, and ended up with the even heavier burden of a crown thrust upon him because of it. Now though, here's his new family member who actually wants the crown and would have their obsession fulfilled by having it? Who has proven he would be a phenomenal Ghost King going by the quality of his advice? Who has been actively fighting his own obsession because it would be wrong?

I feel like the moment Jazz figures this out she would sit the two down and lay out the obvious solution they'd been missing because Danny is oblivious and Loki has issues.

Once they both see it though?

Done.

Transfer of title. As soon as they possibly can.

Danny can still be a Prince in case Loki spirals and he needs to take a break (or be made to) for a bit. But Danny finally gets to enjoy what's left of his life a little, and Loki finally gets to be a good king.

You know what I think would be neat?

Loki, the Sky Walker himself, when he fell beyond the trees branches but before that Purple fucker could get him... felt A path, much like the hidden ones he'd wandered for YEARS, and franticly tries to catch himself.

After all, he let go in a moment of incredible emotional distress. But that moment passes. The fear kicks in. The natural, strategist's, "survival at all costs" primal drive starts SCREAMING. You grab for the ledge. Try to STOP your fall.

But~!

What if? What he was FEELING?

Was a Natural Fuckin Portal.

And Loki is no slouch! He manages to change his trajectory. His mind is still in shambles, he's an emotional wreck, mascara probably running, just? Having THE WORST month or so of his life. He's too pretty for this bullshit, he would insist, if he wasn't FALLING THROUGH THE VOID.

He's made some choices.

They may have been ill advised.

Possibly even terrible ideas, actually.

But he's come too far to die NOW. And if his brother's insane adventures and hare brained schemes haven't killed him, then THIS sure as shit won't be putting him in an graves. He refuses to allow it.

He expects to slam face first into alien dirt. At speed. It? Is going to HURT, he knows.

But that is not what happens.

He passes through a yawning portal, into Veridian skys, and slams face first into the back of passing youth. Knock BOTH of them from the sky and through several nearby floating islands.

He nearly gets punched for it.

The boy only stopping, fist merely moments from his faces, when he seems to finally register the state Loki is in. The next thing Loki knows? He's being rushed off Yeti healers. A FUSS is being made.

The youth is strong arming him into being a guest in his... frankly ALARMING home.

Loki likes the Gothic one. She seems like she bites. But the boy's parents BAFFLE him. The boy, "Danny" just? Showed up with him? And declared he was a "visiting Fenton Cousin"? SURELY that can not WORK! Boy, they are your PARENTS, they know better then YOU who is and is not rela-.....

How did that work.

No, HOW DID THAT WORK? Child answer me. And explain the violent cold meats.

Just? Loki, intellectually stimulated, like a cat in a fresh new environment. Removed from stressors. Not the strongest being around by far, but enjoying the challenge none the less. Fulfilling his life long trained role of "king's advisory" in an almost relaxed Highly Sarcastic Uncle On Vacation Who Is Also A Semi-Feral Cat sorta way to this new Child King he found.

Loved and respected for Being Loki. Just Loki. No preconceived notions to fulfill, no roles he must play, just... Be Loki.

Best part? Asgard and Thor and such? Irrelevant! Their own closed system far, far away. He's finally FREE of the shadow Asgard casts. He's taken "starting over in a new country to escape a toxic home life" to a whole new weight class unique just to him. The dude is THRIVING.

And? I bet he REALLY enjoys tormenting Vlad.

@ailithnight @hdgnj @hypewinter @lolottes @nerdpoe

[unadulteratedsoulsweets]

A DC X DP IDEA #4 You’re worth is more than a penny.

Imagine dis…

We all read and saw fanfictions about either Jason, Constantine, Bruce, or even Jazz raising Danny when he became younger due to Clockwork’s interference, but what if we reverse the roles?

Alfred Pennyworth was raised by Phantom.

It was early 1900 in England where it is common for children were being sold like cattle for a penny. Among the rows of yelling parents who are willing to sell a few of their children for a few pounds to help themselves or the younger ones at home, one parent was loudly exclaiming that his child is merely worth more than a penny. A nameless child with skin and bones as a body, at the tender age of 6 years old he already knew the horrors of child slavery. Some were never seen again like the ones he saw outside playing tag and others return to their parents in a body bag. He also knew that no one would want a skinny child like him so he waited for the inevitable beating at this man’s house, He refuse to call that man his father nor that dingy four-by-four wall home.

Suddenly a distinguished gentleman walked past him and he was just in awe at what he had sawed. A young man that seemed like in his early 20s has a face of youth yet has an air of maturity around them. Wearing the cleanest pair of white waistcoats and black trousers, shaggy black hair, and striking blue eyes.

It was obvious that he was an errand boy looking around for new workers, his mind supplied.

The man looked at him with raised eyebrows and couldn’t help but think that this person may buy him out of this man’s clutches and put him to work that may or may not end his life.

The older man who saw the interested look of the errand boy tried to advertise him as his worth is merely a penny.

…

Danny was merely taking a break from his kingly duties after months, years, and centuries have passed since his adventures as Danny Phantom. Visiting a newly made dimension in the eyes of the king of Infinite Realms, he made his way through the early 1900s for some sight-seeing, with the insurance from his advisers, court, family members, and consorts (Tucker & Sam) he went and enjoyed the view and contemplating that why does Clockwork give him his farewell in a form of a cryptic message such as a father of a bat needs saving from his unexpected fate,  as well this universe felt like something interesting is bound to happen.

Being the High King of the Infinite Realms the realms itself chose him as their champion and king through countless rights of ascensions throughout the years.

Seeing that child slavery is still a thing at this point in time made him want to turn around and go to another realm less depressing than this time and come back later when they abolished slavery.

Though he caught an eye on this thin scrawny little boy who is nothing but skin and bones that the tiniest gust of wind will push him on the brick pavement, the boy’s parents however saw him taking interest and tried to get rid of the boy seeing that he was nothing but an extra mouth to feed due to his “responsibility” as a parent and tried to sell him for a penny.

Danny weighed the pros and cons in this situation, raising a mortal child may be both rewarding and satisfactory but the fact that he cannot break the ancient rules to make him immortal that was placed by the Realms themselves to uphold the balance between the living and the ancient realm, but he can bend it to an extent, so that if he can extend longevity in his lifespan to at least reach a century or so.

Added to the fact that Clockwork gave a message to protect him.

Bought the boy for a penny and carried the child towards the disguised horse carriage.

Now, how to explain to his family that he acquired a mortal child?

…

The nameless boy widened his eyes in surprise as the “errand” boy actually bought and carried him gently towards a clean carriage that looked like is owned by a king.

After making him sit beside his employer, his employer began asking him questions.

Such as his age, and name. likes, dislikes, and many other confusing questions.

At the mention of not having a name his employer began to frown, looks like he has made his new employer furious and he hasn’t even begun to earn his keep.

After a tense silence, his employer declared that HIS new name would be Alfred Pennyworth, as the word Alfred means counsel as he stated that he can see his future and that he would counsel different men who wish his advice, and Pennyworth, as his father is a fool for selling him for a penny as he is worth more than that.

At the time the nameless no…, At the time Alfred didn’t know what is the warm feeling on his chest that made him long for this man’s approval. He may be naïve or far too trusting for putting his trust in a man he met for a few minutes but at the time his only thought was he had his own name that he owns.

When the carriage stopped his employer carried him out of the carriage, and what greeted him is something he would never forget.

An endless green sky stretches along the horizon, A large black castle that reaches the sky that has growing vines all over its walls, at the front an entire estate dedicated to different and extinct plant life to flourish, and rows and rows of servants lined up and dressed in the fanciest clothing for maids and for all genders bowing ever slightly greeting and welcoming back their master in unison.

He looked behind him and around him for the master of the house but when he couldn’t see one, he turned his attention to the one who bought him as he is quite sacred for upsetting for not greeting the master in his own house.

But as he turn to the man for a plea for help he caught the small smile that his employer gave him and nodded towards the directions of the servants.

That was the time he learned that the man who bought him and gave him a name is his supposed master.

…

The next few days were confusing to the young Alfred Pennyworth, as he expected to be working on the animal shed or any menial tasks yet he was treated like a prince.

Free to learn what he desired, learning skills that he would never think of learning, free to eat anything his heart and stomach desired, free to have a soft bed to sleep on as well as having toys to ensure that he was not bored, given a wide variety of possible hobbies to take his mind off things. Gained and learned philosophies around the realms as well as had great teachers in teaching him essential things in morals, science, and more. Most importantly gained a family that he never thought he would even have.

He learned how to walk silently as a ghost, be swift in terms of movements waster no action, be present like a shadow, and use any weapon at hand, one’s body is a weapon itself. Discipline thy self in any temptation known to man, to integrate oneself to be unknown, eyes and emotions betray your mind be mindful of your facial and body movement as a single doubt will get someone you love to perish, but most importantly learned his new family’s motto.

Family is family.

Simple yet a powerful motto. No matter how cruel the man who brought and gave him a new life and purpose, the man who he saw as father, maybe in making decisions to ensure that the Infinite Realms stay balanced throughout the entire realms. How ruthless are his aunts and uncle to make sure that everything in between stays in the center of the balance as too much of the brings chaos

When Alfred was merely a teen he was given a blessing by his father, to be able to live a long life while maintaining his morality. One day he may die which is true, but it will be a long time before the reaper takes him to his next adventure.

Spending time with each member of the Nightingale family are memories that will be kept deep inside his heart. His mother Sam, taught him the wonders and secrets of flora, his other father Tucker, taught him how technology is used both in hope and destruction, His uncle Dan taught him about being an impenetrable wall in both mind and body, His older aunt Jazz taught him how to read his opponents in combat as well learning the beauty of human brain, His aunt Ellie who taught and showed him the wonders of the world in terms of the scenery, delicacy and culture, His grandfather Clockwork, taught him to be a cryptic as well moving on and forward as bad things are as natural as breathing and to move on is to let the time run its course.

Last but not least his father Danny, the High King of the Infinite Realms the man who he owes his entire being and life. The man whom he respects and wishes to turn out like him, the man who is proud to call his father. Taught him a multitude of things that one would not expect from a king, Be a Gentleman. A firm handshake combined with looking the other person in the eye carries with it respect, dignity, and strength, Honor Your Father and Mother, Respect Women, Be a Man of Integrity, Take Responsibility, and Work Hard, among the advice he gave and taught to him that they put into his life through action and words.

When WW2 came to his dimension he asked his father to be able to go back as it is still integrated into his blood to fight for the country that he was born into. As well as making a name for himself, to prove to the world his worth is more than a penny, to prove that all of their learning is not to be put to waste.

With the approval of his family, he set out to make his name.

S.A.S. Armed Services, fighting in 15 different operations between ages 18 and 20. A skilled medical and front liner soldier who was decorated. He later joined MI5, as well the secret forces of the Queen and later being knighted by her majesty

…

In this present time, we all know the current Alfred Pennyworth, the kickass ninja butler who is a mystery to the Batfam and has a lot of skillsets that are both surprising and expected to the Batfam. The butler who dared to out Batman the Batman. The butler is willing and dared to ground Batman for not taking care of himself. The butler carries a shotgun out of defense and we are pretty sure he is hiding a hidden bazooka somewhere in the manor. The butler who cooked delicious food and the one who raised Bruce Wayne

…

Working for the Wayne is not set to be permanent but the moment his ward Bruce Wayne becomes a hero just like his father and brings in his own version of a makeshift family he cannot help but stay for the sake of his ward that he saw as a son.

His family was there every step of the way.

Looking at the long dinner table that is filled with food with his ward/ son and his children he can't help but look fondly at the scene in front of him.

This is why he would not eat with the rest of the Batfam, the ambitious dinner or just being complete brings him back just when he was just a little boy looking at his father for guidance.

…

The Bat family are known to be good sometimes great detectives as they were taught by the greatest detective in the world, despite their wit and intelligence they still could not figure out their grandfather/ butler.

Having no presence before WW2 is common, as many orphans joined the war to bring acknowledgment to their names and presences. So when a glowing green letter made its way towards the kitchen counter, just as Alfred took a moment to look when he immediately snatched the said letter and ripped it open to see the contents.

Now mind you this was a never occurrence as Alfred Pennyworth is the epitome of calmness and neutrality so when he tore a letter like a kid who was given his first Christmas present all noise seemed to stop to look at the wide-eyed butler.

Alfred kept reading the said letter with wide eyes ignoring the shocked look of the people around him. Immediately telling Bruce that he will be going on an immediate 2-week vacation without even concealing his own joy in his voice and quickly turned around to pack a suitcase worth.

The entire Wayne’s both adopted and not are now invested what could the letter possibly contain that Alfred Pennyworth himself becomes a kid just by reading it?

Tailing the said butler was hard, following his quick steps which indicate impatience from the patient butler as well as a small smile that indicates fondness immediately became their new case.

Stopping at a large mansion surrounded by plant life that has a gothic aesthetic to it. As Alfred entered the gate he was tackled by a small black-haired blue-eyed child immediately followed by three teens and one large buff young adult.

All of them are hugging and exclaiming joy as Alfred reciprocated each hug with enthusiasm for his age.

Who are they and how does Alfred know all of these people?

 …

PS: If someone out there wanting to continue or make a fic about this you are free to do so don’t forget to tag me though.

[bluerosefox]

Why Ra’s Would Summon the Ghost King (Also Twins AU in this cause I love that AU)

.....so.....

I've been binge reading some DPxDC (mainly Batman stuff) for a bit and I've fallen deep in love with it. I adore so many AU or ideas of it and my mind refuses to let me go until I give my 2 cents on an idea so here goes. (I’m still new to some DC/Batman stuff so its not the best just an FYI)

One of my fav AUs to read is the Twins AU with Damian and Danny (Danyal) AND a cult summoning the Ghost King stories. But hear me out...

We need Ra's summoning the Ghost King fics/stories.

Why would he summon the Ghost King?

The Lazarus Pits are drying up and he discovered after a years worth of research the main reason they appeared was because the Ghost King ripping open portals and dragging pieces of mortal realm into the Ghost realm, thus leaving 'wounds' on the earth and creating the Pits that are leaking over (and they get corrupt due to overuse, like someone not changing the filter or maintenance in a pool, it gets nasty.)

However, the old King was defeated in battle a few years ago. A new King raises in his place. And a year ago the new King was finally crowned and had begun fixing the broken Infinite Realm (Ghost Zone) into what it once was before Pariah Dark took its throne.

(Small personal head-canon, the Ghost Zone reflects the King of the Realm. Pariah Dark was tyrant who carried for nothing but his own power, thus the Zone began to fall apart and thus began his power trip to rip open the realms to gain land again, also even in his sealed slumber he was still King and thus the Realm kept falling apart. However since the day Danny beat him the Realm went into a pause, not healing but no longer breaking apart until the day he could take the crown)

Since the day a New King was crowned, Danny has been healing the Zone, fixing the broken cracks of the Realm, and thus fixing the still oozing scars of the Lazarus Pits on his side of the Realms... Meaning pretty soon the Pits will dry up and be no more.

However for Ra's this is bad news, hence why he's looking into a way to keep the Pits going. And he found out about the old Ghost King, researched and discovered only the Ghost King can make the Pits, and after summoning a ghost he discovered a New King had been crowned around the same time the Pits began to heal (whom was summoned? Aragon cause he hates Danny and just spits out how he hates the new King but never told Ra's his actual name, only calling him "a welp of a boy! Unworthy fool of the crown he bares!" And other names)

Ra's (with the little info he has on Ghosts in general) believes the "New King" might be easy to manipulate to his side if he words things right, believing that all ghosts to hate the living and such. (Stereotyping much Ra's) and could maybe strike up a deal with the New King of the Infinite Realm.

Ra's decides to summon the Ghost King and plans to offer a sacrifice as a gift. (After all what better gift to the dead than a new subject) in exchange for him to rip open new Lazarus Pits.

Who he picks. (Twins AU part)

Either Damian (after finally giving up on the 'fool of a boy for following his father footsteps') whom might as well finally be useful since his defection.

Or his not so dead failure of an heir Danyal, whose going by Danny Fenton in America, he only found out the weak heir is alive after his research into ghosts and finding the Fenton's name on the forefront and saw a photo of the family.

He has no idea how his failed heir is alive though, he knows Damian dealt a mortal blow during their fight for heir-ship (Danyal foolishly letting it happen, not even trying to lift his blade up to block it, thus cementing the belief that Danyal was too much like his father in terms of his heart) and he knows he ordered Talia, who tried to hide her heartbreak behind a uncaring face, to leave the boy’s rapidly cooling body and tend to a almost shell shocked Damian instead so he knows it couldn’t had been her before ordering his men to toss the failure out, not caring what animals eats the remains. He kept his eyes on Talia for a few weeks after, just to make sure she didn’t do anything foolish like go and revive that failure with the Pits.

(None of them knew of the moment the guards left the dying five year old outside that time stopped with a command of “Time Out.” with only the ticking of a clock echoing in Danyal’s fading hearing, the image of a ever changing being staring down at him. Child, Adult, Old Man. Child, Adult, Old Man.-Danyal’s vision faded into darkness as the being gently lifted him up and whispered “So much to do in such little time. Don’t worry, your time is not up just yet young Danyal...”)     

Judging from the reports he gained from his men, ‘Daniel’ was found halfway to death outside a hospital in America (somehow reaching it mere seconds after he had been tossed out of the compound according to the record dates, how? He had no idea), it was touch and go but ‘Daniel’ manged to live (police and hospital staff strongly suspecting family abuse from the wounds/scars, heavy abuse thus put the boy in protective custody (aka keeping his sudden appearance at the hospital on the down low until they could find out what happen and who he is). Upon finally waking up after a few weeks it was discovered he had no memory of who he was, who his parents where, or what happened to him. He only got the name ‘Daniel’ after a mysterious gift appeared on his bed in the middle of the night with that name written on it, the gift was of a star pillow/plush. (Danny is a space nerd, will always be a space nerd, let him BE A SPACE NERD WITH MORE SPACE STUFF, even the cute stuff)

Afterwords ‘Daniel’ was bounced around from foster home to foster home after he was healed up until he meet Jazz, Jasmine Fenton, one day at a park. Her parents and her were in town for a Ghost Convention, the two meet and they clicked as siblings in little to no time. ‘Daniel’ later meets Jack and Maddie Fenton and then before any of them knew it ‘Daniel’ wormed his way into their hearts and family, he would later be adopted and become ‘Daniel’ Danny Fenton since then.    

Ra’s decides to choose Danyal as the sacrifice, and because he’s Ra’s he plans on tormenting Bruce and Damian with this.

Meaning he plans on kidnapping Damian (and secretly Danyal), which gets Batman to follow, and kill Danyel in front of the both (to hurt Batman for corrupting his heir with his ‘No Kill’ method and to show Damian how much of a failure his fathers methods of 'protecting' are compared to the power of the League) in order to summon the Ghost King.

......

SO anyone wanna a part 2? I got ideas for the summoning itself. I have this urge to actually write it as a story format but who knows.

Part 2 -

[starkandthewaynes]

Ghosts from the past Chapter 4

Jazz blushes as Danny's harsh language. "Jason?" Bruce asks as Jazz fiddles with her hair for a moment. "Danny is Jason's biological little brother." Jazz starts as she takes a deep breath. "Danny got adopted by my parents, the Fenton's, at age four, when Danny was 14, my parents built a portal into another dimension called the ghost zone, cause they're ghost hunters. However it, it didn't work. So Danny, being the brilliant idiot he is, walked into it. The portal turned him half ghost. A year later he decided to tell the Fentons." Jazz says as everything falls out of her mouth. "They, god, they nearly killed him all the way. Even told the GIW, the government's secret ghost ward, that under the echo acts can do whatever they need to do to Ecto-Entities. When I was on a weekend visit I figured it out and got Danny out of there, and then the god of time de-aged Danny to protect him and we moved to Gotham." Jazz says, tears falling down her cheeks. "But why is this legal?" Tim asks as jazz wipes her face. "The anti-Ecto Acts, they say ghosts aren't sentient beings, that they're just leftover human emotion mixed with ectoplasm, but that's simply not true. They have their own dimension, their own laws, and ruler, and they are sentient beings." Jazz says as the bats and birds seem to get angry on the two new friends' behalf. "Jazz, in order to take this to the justice league, I need to meet this ruler and have a sit down with them, so we can begin diplomatic proceedings," Bruce says as Jazz lets out a gargled laugh. "I just sent him away with your kid." Jazz says as Bruce nods. "I see, so, let me get this right, the government believes these ghosts aren't sentient and have thusly experimented on the ruler of another dimension." Bruce says as jazz nods "Yes, sir, that is correct." Jazz says as she hears Danny giggle. "And said ruler is a child." Bruce says as Jazz sucks in a breath. "That's where it gets complicated. While Danny may look like a four-year-old, in reality he is 16, ad sometimes he'll remember that, and other times he truly is a little child." Jazz says, as Bruce nods. "How old was he when they did their experimentations?" Bruce asks. "15, he had just turned 15." Jazz whispers, as someone hands her a tissue. "This is going to be a long process, Jasmine, but I promise, we will get you and Danny justice," Bruce says as Jazz starts full on crying now.

"Billy he's a kid!" Jon says as the four teenagers gather around the four-year-old. "I'm a King!" Danny says proudly as he yawns. "Yeah, yeah, king of the ghosts." Collin says, as they play video games. Danny was beating them at every game they played, how, no one knew, and Danny refused to tell them. "I'm bored." Danny whines after the 13 round of Mario kart. "I think it may be your bed time, Danny." Jason says in the doorway. "JJ!" The little one screams, as he runs towards his brother. "JJ, I not tiwed." Danny says as Jason picks him up. "Thank you guys for watching him for a bit." Jason says as the boys nods

"JJ, I 'on't want to go to bed!" Danny whines as Jason carries downstairs to Jazz. "Jazz!" Danny says, as Jazz smiles. "Danny, you should be asleep." Jazz says, making Danny frown. "Noooo!" He whines, wiggling until Jason lets him go. "Gotta catch me first." Danny says, going invisible as Jazz groans. "Danny, no powers!" Jazz chastises as Tim looks down at his legs. "Danny?" He asks, as his shoes get tied together and he gets pushed into Jazz. "Sorry, Tim." Jazz says, righting the boy as she tries to follow Danny. "Mister danny, I have cookies." Alfred says,as the tired little boy shows himself besides Alfred. "Cookies?" Danny asks, as Jazz sighs. "Thank god for Alfred." Jazz whispers, making Jason laugh.

———————————————————————-

Hi everyone! Sorry for the wait! My grandfather passed right before Christmas and I got suspended from college, so I wasn’t really wanting to do anything. But I’m doing better now and so I’m trying to write some more! Sorry this one’s short

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@ashenfairytale @blacksea21090

[aikoiya]

@alls-well-that-ends-weird said something very interesting that I'm kinda into.

"Ngl, I'm a sucker for ghost king aus where danny takes to the role like a fish to water bc he finds that he actually *likes* the etiquette and the formalities and the ritual of carrying out his royal duties. Once he's got teachers and advisors to teach him things hands-on he learns it fast and enjoys being able to actively and immediately put his new skillsets to frequent practical use. Am i kinetic learner who's projecting? You betcha. But i think the idea's fun."

The idea that Danny might genuinely enjoy that sort of thing & be a kinetic learner never occurred to me & I think that this idea should be seen more often.

Like, maybe he's initially reluctant for one reason or another. (EX: Doesn't think he'd be a good king, just wants to be a normal kid, doesn't want the responsibility, ect.)

Like, I could see him fighting against it tooth & nail only to then, once he yields even a little (maybe he learns that if he abdicates the throne, then the crown will default to Vlad because of his role in Pariah's defeat, this comes from the idea that because of the way he helped in the end, Vlad sorta registers as something similar to brother of the crown prince, so he'd only be considered for the role if either Danny legit died/passed on/faded or he abdicated), he learns that he's super good at it & actually really enjoys it.

Like, I've seen a number of aus where he's extremely obstinate about the whole thing & absolutely refuses to even entertain the idea of being the king. Even abdicating to a ghost bear. And I'll be honest, I don't much care for his attitude in them.

I dunno, like it's one thing if he doesn't think he'd be a good king, just wants to be a normal kid, or doesn't want the responsibility, but the way it's been portrayed in these just makes him look obstinate, childish, & selfish.

Maybe I have an idealized idea of what it means to be a ruler?

I have a post where I sort of go into why here if you're interested in looking. The Duty of Nobility

For more, go to my DP Character Masterlist.

[raaorqtpbpdy]

Her Knight in Shining Armor

Written for the Phic Phight Prompt: Fright Knight asks to court Princess Dorathea. (from @pennerjones)

AO3 Link

[No applicable warnings]

There were a lot of things Danny was unprepared for when he was crowned king of the Infinite Realms, but this had to be way at the top of the list. Fright Knight, the Ghost King's strongest and scariest general was knelt before him, head bowed, sword on the floor between them asking for a date.

"Your majesty," Fright Knight had said. "I humbly request your blessing to court Princess Dorathea of your royal court."

Not a date with Danny, thank the Ancients, but he had absolutely no idea why he had to get involved in the first place. He balked, his mouth opening and closing like a fish as he tried to think of an answer, any answer, but even 'no' was eluding him.

"Uh—I—um—you want—why—" Danny spluttered, while Fright Knight waited patiently for him to compose himself. "I mean... That's between you and Dora," he said finally, figuring that to be the most respectful answer.

Dora had spent 1600 years with someone else making all of her decisions for her, so she deserved the chance to decide for herself if she wanted to be courted or not. Danny nodded, satisfied with that conclusion.

"Yeah," he reaffirmed. "You and Dora are grown adults... I think... and you can make your own decisions. It's none of my business who you date, honestly, royal court or not. So, if you want to court Dora, ask her permission, not mine."

"Yes, my king."

"But if she says 'no', you'll respect her decision, right?"

"Of course, my king."

"Good, now... I don't know, go do whatever it is you do when we're not at war," Danny commanded, waving a hand for Fright Knight to leave the room. They were never at war, since Danny refused to let things come to that, so Fright Knight had little to do most of the time, and ended up helping with diplomatic endeavors more often than not. Perhaps that was how the knight had gotten close to Dora in the first place, since that was more her area.

Soul Shredder was slipped into its sheath with a soft shink, and the knight stood, bowed, and left. As soon as the knight was gone, Danny breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad that awkward encounter was finally over. When he'd finally relented to take the crown, he hadn't realized he was signing up to determined the personal affairs of his whole court.

He'd pretty much just appointed ghosts to his court at random. Any ghost he was on friendly terms with was a member. If he'd known he would be fielding proposals from Fright Knight, he would've appointed fewer ghosts. Even though the Spirit of Halloween worked for him now, he was still pretty scared of the ghost. And who wouldn't be? That was Fright Knight's whole deal, striking fear into the hearts of all, or whatever.

Dora would be okay, right? Yeah. She could take care of herself. Even Fright Knight would have trouble taking on a dragon if she got pissed by the courting proposal. She'd be fine. That knowledge wouldn't stop Danny from being a little nervous for her anyway.

—

Fright Knight mounted Nightmare and rode the steed toward the Medieval Realm, the realm presided over by the lovely Princess Dorathea who had the knight utterly smitten with her charm and her grace. Nightmare's wings beat steadily as she carried her master through the vast ectoplasmic skies of the Ghost Zone. When they arrived, her hooves clopped a rhythm on the cobblestone streets of the castle town.

Quite against nature, Fright Knight's chest buzzed with nerves, as if a swarm of hornets had made a home right by the core within and been agitated by the aura of menace it produced. Nightmare came to a stop before the castle gates. Fright Knight hailed the guards, head held high, and asked to see the princess. 

The guards stepped aside, allowing passage without argument. They weren't about to tell the head general of the Ghost King's army that the princess was busy. Fright Knight dismounted and allowed them to call someone to escort Nightmare to the stable for the duration of the visit. She didn't seem to like the stable boy much, but he knew she was the Fright Knight's horse, so he would surely be on his best behavior. A lowly stable boy could mistreat Nightmare at his peril. 

"The princess is in the Great Hall, making preparations for her deathday party," a guard said.

"The princess' deathday approaches?" asked Fright Knight, surprised, having no idea that it was so soon. "When?"

"A fortnight of tomorrow," responded the guard. "It promises to be quite the merry celebration. She desires to one-up her brother's old deathday banquets every year hence, since she's been able to throw so few in her afterlife. Last year she threw a rave."

"I see. Thank you, good fellow." Fright Knight walked past the gate into the inner courtyard and then the castle proper. Princess Dorathea's castle had become familiar as the knight spent time with her, working together to solve disputes and dissatisfaction in the realms as members of the Ghost King's inner circle. It was pleasant to think that the two had grown close, but facing the doors of the Great Hall with the princess just on the other side brought back the agitated hornets two-fold.

Surely the princess valued Fright Knight's company as the knight did hers. What was there to be nervous about? How could Fright Knight, Harbinger of Fear, Spirit of Halloween, and high general of the Ghost King's army, be afraid of a girl?

The knock echoed all the way down the halls, ringing around in the knight's black helmet as the heavy doors swung open on their own, the way doors only did in the Ghost Zone. The human realm was rife with inconveniences, like manual doors that utterly hobbled dramatic entrances.

"Hail and well met, Princess Dorathea," Fright Knight greeted.

"Frighty!" the princess squealed, flitting over excitedly. "I am so glad you're here! Help me pick out flavors for the punch! I simply cannot decide whether I like pomegranite or lime better." She handed over two paper cups and urged the knight to taste-test.

"I believe the pomegranite is more to my taste," Fright Knight obliged her. "Although I see no reason why you should not be able to serve both."

"Oh! You are absolutely right!" she said. "I can't believe I didn't think of that."

"I am honored to be of assistance."

"You are invited to the party of course," Princess Dorathea assured. "You will come, won't you?"

"If you desire me to be there, I could not possibly refuse."

She happily clapped her hands together. "Excellent! It will be ever so much fun!" Fright Knight could have spent an eon basking in her smile but it morphed into a mildly alarmed and apologetic expression far too quickly to oblige that desire. "Oh, but I haven't yet asked why you're here! Surely you did not come to advise me on which punch to serve. Did you have something you wished to speak to me about?"

"Indeed I did." Fright Knight drew the Soul Shredder and knelt before the princess who could take the knight's very soul if she so desired, and would be asked for nothing in return. Sword laid at her feet, and head bowed to ask her blessing, Fright Knight made the request. "You see I have grown very fond of you in our time spent together under King Phantom, the Great Protector. And so, my most radiant Princess Dorathea, I have come to ask your permission to court you, if you will have me?"

The princess gasped and Fright Knight had to resist the urge to look up at her, knowing that would be rude. Those moments, however brief, of not knowing whether it was a good gasp or a bad gasp were agonizing, nerve-wracking. If there had been breath in Fright Knight's body it would not have escaped through the tight knot of anxiety.

"Oh Frighty!" Her tone was fond, promising. Still, the knight's head did not lift. "I... I would be pleased beyond words, but... should you not ask his majesty?"

"Of course, my sweet princess," Fright Knight assured her. "His majesty made it clear that he believed it should be your decision whether you allow me to court you, and not his. Will you allow me?"

"Rise, Fright Knight." The knight followed her command, sheathing sword and standing. Even were she not a princess, her words would have as much power. Finally, the two of them were eye to eye, and relief flooded the knight upon seeing her beaming smile, brimming with soft-hearted affection. "I would be most honored and appreciative if you would see fit to court me. If my permission is all you require, I freely give it."

"My gratitude is boundless as the love I have for you. I'll put my best foot forward in endeavoring to woo. I hope you'll find, that e'en in death, one heart cannot compare to two. And someday soon, I'll prove to you that I am your love true."

"Oh, Frighty!" Princess Dorathea trembled, attempting to hold herself back, but in the end, she gave in to her temptations and threw her arms around Fright Knight's middle, heedless of the armor's hard edges. Though shocked by the flagrant physical affection, the knight's hands hesitantly found their way to her back, accepting the embrace. "You always speak the most beautiful poetry."

[wardlowsbabydoll]

United We Stand, Divided We Fall- Blackpool Combat Club

Oh look, a headcanon Game of Thrones AU that I swore I would never do… but here we are

I blame @josiewrites for this lol

And Jamie and Danny are here because I said so

House Rhaegalis was one of the great houses of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros

Lord William was the leader of his noble house, he was beloved by the people of the East but he also ruled with a firm grip that made them know to fear him

Everyone knew his weakness was his children

His five sons and his only daughter

The Winter Fever took his wife, the late Lady Madisyn when their youngest son Daniel was barely seven

A lot of people questioned young Wheeler's legitimacy when it was noticed that he had an olive complexion compared to the pale skin of his parents

The truth was that he was a legitimized bastard

His mother died in childbirth, and Lady Madisyn being gracious of the heart (and having just had a child pass shortly after giving birth) took him into their home and allowed him to carry his father's name, fully legitimized

Anyone who dared question young Wheeler's parentage was met with death, plain and simple

Lord William wanted his children to be happy, something rarely seen in fathers of Westeros

Usually, his sons would have been married off to highborn ladies and create heirs, furthering the Rhaegalis dynasty

And his daughter would've most likely been awarded to a high-ranking man and create heirs for him (after all his daughter had one of the largest dowries in the seven kingdoms next to Cersei Lannister and Catelyn Tully)

When Robert's Rebellion ended, Robert asked to be married to Lady Jamie instead of her cousin Cersei

Lord William said no

For one, he knew how Robert treated women

And two, because he knew his daughter would not be happy

Many suitors tried to win Lady Jamie's hand but most were scared off

if not by her, definitely by her brothers

She had once had a mutual attraction with a Dornish prince but her brothers quickly put an end to that

The one who faced the most pressure was definitely the eldest, Claudio

He was expected to marry and carry on the family line, especially as their father's heir

Bryan had always hoped to join the Kingsguard and serve the Mad King

He refused to serve the drunken fool known as Robert Baratheon

House Rhaegalis are Targaryen loyalists but out of fear of having their house destroyed by the Lannister forces, they joined the opposition

Jonathan wanted to drink Dornish wine and whore as much as he pleased, he wasn’t the heir or the spare he could do as he pleased

Wheeler and Daniel were usually following their brothers around or learning from their father

Jamie eventually snuck off the Essos to help guide the young Targaryen Khaleesi

The sudden disappearance of Jamie led many rumors to be spread that eloped with the Dornish Prince she fell in love with

If only they knew

Jamie became one of the young Khaleesi’s closest advisors and friends

Her father and brothers were always sending Ravens about the latest things happening in Westeros

Daniel and Wheeler no sooner were they of age did they begin to fight in battle

Lord William was very hesitant when any of his children wanted to fight in a battle, he knew there was a chance they wouldn’t come back

Bryan and Jonathan soon joined their younger brothers in the War and the siblings became feared for their mighty conquests

Claudio as much as he wanted to join them as his father's heir couldn't

but that didn't mean that he didn't help in every other way he could

Before Daenerys was fully prepared to sail back over the Narrow Sea, Lady Jamie caught Winter Fever, a condition that was supposedly long gone

It took her so long to pass until finally, her body was at peace

Daenerys personally wrote the Raven to Lord William about his only daughter

Jamie's death began what would become Daenerys' slip into the Targaryen Madness

When Daenerys arrived in Westeros she found refuge at her family's ancestral seat of Dragonstone, where she was met by Lord William and his sons (including Claudio) four of whom had returned from battle

Jonathan had lost an eye, and Daniel, a leg

After many battles, Daenerys finally claimed the iron throne but her mind was too far gone

She began to believe everyone around her was her enemy and in her paranoia had Lord William and his sons killed; wiping out House Rhaegalis

Many songs were made about House Rhaegalis and they were a part of Westerosi history but that was it

There were no heirs and no living members left

So House Rhaegalis became part of the Reyne Legacy

Gone but not forgotten

[fairy-lights-and-blobs]

And Danny would be so upset that so much of the fate of this world seems to hinge on This One Kid.

Before, it was weird that whatever entities govern the place would let it get THIS bad.

But now? After having to pluck Link out of the path of a charging Silver Lynel when the random civilian asking for help swore it was a red one instead?

Now it's personal.

He's not going to let his the kid go at it alone.

Fortunately, Danny had the bright idea to refuse to wear the Crown. But in return, His Fuzzy Majesty has taken a liking to him, and no one's going to tell a Ghost Bear he can't name a Halfa as a Knight.

Well...no one is also stupid enough to tangle with a bear, so Danny's job as a Knight has been fairly stress-free.

Still, the power boost (and the neat plate armor) is handy, while he's still not yet strong enough to Ascend to the ranks of the Ancients.

Now, if only the kid could stop throwing himself off various cliffs and towers, maybe his heart could catch a break.

And now they're...up in the sky.

Ok, then. There's sky islands in the place. Neato.

Danny's just gonna...just gonna grab Link and carry him everywhere so he can't throw himself off the sky islands SEVERAL KILOMETERS UP IN THE AIR!

No, he doesn't care that you have a paraglider, or a gliding suit. Link, you have noodle arms compared to your new friend dad, let Danny do the commuting from up here to the ground.

Great black wings, speckled with starlight, spread wide as they prepare to return to the Surface.

One great perk of being made of Sentient Goo capable of rewriting itself as needed? Danny gets wings and a tail to fly with, and it's far more easy to turn and bank as necessary than having to constantly focus on his direction when flying as a ghost.

Down below, Farosh glides lazily through the air as a blur starts falling, it's wings tucked in like a diving kestrel, wingtips extending past the figure's feet as they trail stardust through the night sky (imagine Flight Rising Imperial dragon wings, but the finned tail from Cludjumper from How to Train Your Dragon) like a falling star.

The light thump of an arrow greets the serpentine dragon as they love to investigate, the itch of a loose scale vanishing as the clever little Champion dislodges it from their hide in a masterful shot.

Hmm, the little Hylian has a new parent since last any of the dragons has seen him, and this one comes equipped to aid the little ball of energy in his galivanting across the sky. The older one carries on him the scent of Death, and a seedling of something Greater steadily growing in his chest.

Perhaps...things are not quite as bleak as they have seemed until now.

Perhaps Naydra might be happy to know their little Chosen, Princess Zelda, has some unexpected reinforcements on the way.

Certainly, with the way the older man flew unencumbered even by heavy armor, and didn't even flinch at having to dive suddenly to dodge the uncontrollable thunder that Farosh has been constantly plagued with since their own Ascension, it's looking more and more likely that this time, things just might be resolved for good.

(I'm happy you enjoyed my ideas. Your Dragon AUs do terrible terrible things to my maladaptive daydreaming, and I had to put dragon wings on the Danno. Too bad he's considered a baby in all ghostly regards. His wings are just a little too big for his human body, like how baby animals have paws too big for the rest of their bodies too. Also, trying to steer away from Ghost King Danny, and instead he ended up a kinda-Paladin Knight. Hope this is good? Or at least coherent?)

Prompt 220

Danny has made a delightful discovery. Blob ghosts can in fact change their shape! Sure it’s simple shapes, but still! He has a school of flying blob fish and blob cats following him around and they’re adorable. And it’s not like most people can see them outside of Amity anyway, so they’re fine to follow him around as they like. 

Though maybe he should have remembered that the most doesn’t mean no one can see them. Um, hello? Feral stabby child?? No you can not steal some of his friends??? Where are your parents???? 

[geekgirles]

Your Heart

Chapter 4 -- Stalemate Word Count: 8284

READ ON AO3

Waking up to the sound of her parents’ latest invention going awry was something she was sure she was never going to get used to. Never mind that she’d have an entire life to get accustomed to it or her newfound respect for what her family did for a living. 

As disciplined as Jasmine Fenton was, being awakened by an explosion was never going to be anything but annoying. 

Sighing resignedly, Jazz yanked her covers aside and got up, ready to start a new day. After showering and getting dressed with a long-sleeved, white dress shirt, a black ribbon tied tightly around its collar; a matching black, a-line skirt over thin grey tights; a teal blazer over her shirt, and brown ankle boots (which went well with her brown leather shoulder bag); she first made her way down the stairs to her parents’ lab. 

Absent-mindedly combing her pixie cut with her fingersーa decision she made after 18 years of rushed haircuts due to having been covered in some sort of unknown ectoplasmic goo after an invention explodedー, Jazz cut straight to the chase. “Let me guess, your latest invention just ‘malfunctioned’”, she air-quoted. 

As she expected, Jack and Maddie were hunched over a metallic device that had definitely seen better days, if the smoke coming off of it was any indication...What she wasn’t expecting though, although she should have, was her dad’s answer. “Actually, that was just the Fenton Toaster. We were about to start the day with a healthy, ghost-kicking breakfast, when she failed on us.” Had she been sixteen again or literally any other person in the world, Jazz might’ve actually been taken aback by the fact that her dad was tearing up over a toaster. Then again, she was Jazz Fenton and this sort of thing from her dad was as common as him yelling obscenities about ghosts. “Oh, dear friend. We hardly knew ye!” 

Rolling her eyes at his dad’s antics while her mum patted his shoulder in an effort to comfort him, Jazz muttered, “Dad, that toaster’s almost as old as Danny…” Who, by the way, was going to be ecstatic to learn the dreaded toast-drying machine from Hell had finally been vanquished. 

Speaking of her little brother, “Where’s Danny, anyway?”

Again, to any other family in the USA but the Fentons, that question would have seemed stupid. Danny was a college student who lived at his university’s dorms with his best friend, so the chances of him being around his childhood home during the school year were pretty slim. And, again, they were the Fentons, and her little brother had been going back and forth from his dorm, to Fenton Works, to the Ghost Zone (not like their parents knew, or even needed to know, about that one…) since he first got into APU. 

Maddie left her weeping husband’s side to pick a wrench up and start working on the toaster again ーpoor Danny; it seemed the evil, toast-drying machine from Hell was harder to get rid of than Vlad. “Sorry, sweetie. You missed him while you were doing your research. Your brother was here yesterday; he said he came Sunday night because he couldn’t find his dorms’ keys. But he’s back at college now.”

She suddenly stopped tinkering with the busted toaster’s inner workings, taking off her goggles from her face, a pensive expression plastered on her face. “Hm...I know Danny’s always been a little distracted, but he keeps losing his keys. At this rate he’s going to end up sleeping on the street just because he can’t get inside his own home!”

Recovering from his temporary loss of composure over the Fenton Toaster ー“I love you, guys, but it’s a miracle this family hasn’t been studied by professional psychiatrics already. Not like I didn’t give it my best shot…”, Jazz thought to herselfー, Jack was soon standing right beside his wife, towering over the pile of scrap metal with a matching pensive expression of his own. 

That couldn’t be good.

“Now that you mention it, sweetcakes,” he said, “you’re right. Danny’s always losing stuff!”

“Right?” Maddie insisted. “Don’t you remember, back in his first year of high school, when his English teacher, Mr. Lancer, called you over because Danny’s pants kept falling several times just that week?”

“Uh...the memory’s a bit blurry, Hon, but I know what you mean.” In truth, Jack didn’t remember any of that. All he knew was that he suddenly found himself chaperoning a homecoming dance. If only there was a way to get your memories back like those keychains that you attached to your clothes… And then it hit him. “I know, Maddie! Why don’t we make one of those keychains that you attach to your clothes so you won’t lose them for Danny?”

His wife beamed at that. For all his scatterbrained-ness, Jack truly was a talented inventor with a creative mind. Just a fuzzy head. “Oh, that sounds marvelous, honey! I’m sure Danny will love that!” She exclaimed before quickly pecking him on the lips.

Unbeknownst to her parents, Jazz grimaced in worry at the idea. Back when she was sixteen, or any other day, really; she’d have been overjoyed at the idea of her ghost-hunting parents creating something that was absolutely non-ghost-related, but since said idea would make it more difficult for Danny to keep his secret from them...She was just glad she was in town to look over him. Trying to appear supportive rather than dismayed, Jazz chirped, “Yeah, great idea, Dad...What are you going to call it? The Fenton Keychain?”

“‘The Fenton Keychain?’” Jack parroted before scoffing. “Of course not, Jazzy-pants! I was thinking something more along the lines of, ‘The Fenton Fermoir’!” He announced, striking a dramatic pose. 

The blue-eyed young woman started at that, taken aback. “Wait, ‘fermoir’? Isn’t that French?”

“Yes, it’s an adjective that means ‘that which closes.’” 

Gaping at her dad, Jazz blinked. And blinked again. And blinked a third time for good luck. “...you know French?”

This time, it was her mother who answered her, laughing her question off. “Oh, yes. There’s more to us than just ghost-hunting, you know?” Then she and her husband laughed together at her own joke. 

“Could’ve fooled me…” Jazz mumbled. 

“What was that?”

“Nothing! Um...oh, right. So Danny’s not here today, huh?” Her parents shook their heads. “That’s a shame, I wanted to ask him how things were going with...um...with, you know, school and all that. Oh, well! I’m sure he’ll tell me some other time.”

Jack and Maddie exchanged a glance. Ever since Danny started going to high school, their kids often acted weird. At first, they blamed it on adolescence, making them want to make an identity for themselves outside of their parents’ influence but not knowing exactly who they truly were, either. But the fact that their eldest child was 23, their youngest 21, and they still acted like that sometimes was a bit concerning. 

The wrench in her hand long forgotten, Maddie made her way to her daughter’s side. She draped an arm around her shoulders, not noticing that said arm was the one holding the aforementioned wrench and that she was unconsciously pointing at Jazz’s face with it. “Honey, is there something about Danny we should know about?”

Jazz panicked.

Yes.

Yes, there were so many things about Danny they should know about.

They should know their kid had gone through a terrible accident that changed his life forever at the tender age of fourteen. They should know he got ghost powers he spent agonising months trying to get control over. They should know he only ever wanted to protect innocents from ghosts and yet, he was labeled as a menace by the very same people he was trying to look after. They should know he’d not only been carrying the burden of being Amity Park’s unofficial protector since he was fourteen, but also became the king of an entire dimension and could count the people he could rely on with his hands. They should know he went through his very first serious heartbreak because the girl he liked hated his ghost half more than she liked him. They should know their college best friend was a fruitloop who wanted to kill Dad, take Mum from him, and either kill or adopt Danny; because, really, it all depended on the side of the bed Vlad woke up on.

They should know their only son was risking his life even more now because he’d made a deal with the Queen of the Witches of Amity Park who, judging by what Danny had told her, was the embodiment of a death sentence.

And he’d been carrying all those burdens and responsibilities, facing constant danger, making decisions not even full-fledged adults would find easy to make, and had been aimed at with ecto-blasters by his own parents since he was fourteen. Being Danny Phantom had stolen some of the best years of his life away from  Danny Fenton. 

And they had no idea of any of that. 

But how could they, when Danny refused to tell them the truth?

Every time Danny faced a bigger threat than dealing with ghosts of the same caliber as the Box Ghost, Jazz tried convincing him to come clean to their parents. Because, what if they never saw him again after that battle? What would she tell them, then? 

But Danny would not budge. And, Jazz remembered, she couldn’t blame him. With the entire town, barring a dedicated fan club, and a good chunk of the Ghost Zone against him, how could he risk losing one of the very few places he could call home? Just like she told him when he asked her why she never said anything about his secret, it was his secret. Only he could talk about it with Mum and Dad. 

“Jazz, honey? Is everything alright?”

Her mother’s voice broke her out of her stupor. She must’ve spaced out for a while, for her parents were looking at her worriedly. Flushing sheepishly, she cleared her throat. “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry. And don’t worry about Danny either. He just…” What was that excuse he told her he’d use if anyone started asking questions again? Oh, right. “He’s just busy working on a paper to help me with my own thesis, that’s all.”

Okay. So not only was it a lie, but it wasn’t exactly what Danny told her to say, either. Her little brother decided to respond saying he was suddenly very interested in the occult because he was writing a paper on a seminar he’d signed himself up for, but since she went back to Amity Park to study the witches there, it was still a good excuse. 

Said excuse seemed to calm her parents down, before they fully registered her words and they seemed worried again. But, she knew, this time they were worried for her.

“Uh, Princess? Are you sure you want to focus that thesis of yours on...witches?” Jack asked warily, looking up from the remainers of the Fenton Toaster.

The redhead rolled her eyes in annoyance; there they went again. “Your father’s right, sweetie. While not necessarily a bad topic...erm...it’s not exactly the easiest one to research.” Her mother tried to discourage her gently. “For starters, most of the  records we have are nothing but speculations and hearsay… I mean, the Salem witch trials were mostly based on unfounded accusations!”

How two of the world leading experts in ectology, who defended the existence of ghosts long before their theories were proven correct, could be so convinced there was no such thing as witches was beyond her. Arbitrary scepticism, much?

Jazz had to admit, she understood her family’s surprise when she opted to focus her thesis for her Cryptology class on the legendary women. A psychology undergraduate, a woman convinced of the infallible nature of the scientific method since birth, and an aspiring psychologist since she was sixteen, it was understandable that her decision to minor in Cryptology would come as a surprise to...well, everyone. 

But protecting your half-ghost little brother from the shadows for the last seven years had a way of making you question everything you once thought you knew. 

After all, if such a thing as ghosts weren’t only real but had an entire dimension for themselves, then who was to say such a thing as magic-wielding women couldn’t exist?

The moment Danny told her and Tucker he planned on asking them for help at the beginning of Fall only cemented her decision. It was a real pity Danny refused to disclose the supposed location of the Amity Park clan for her safety. 

“Mum, Dad, I’ve told you already. It’s precisely because of all those myths that I want to study them. For all we know, all those potions that are always mentioned in folklore could just be really advanced medicine. Are we really going to turn our backs on the scientific community like that?”

“And that’s a great idea sweetie! But…” Maddie tried reasoning with her, but nothing came to mind. Awkwardly, she turned to her husband and whispered harshly, “Help me out here, will you?”

Jack didn’t need to be told twice. “What your mother’s trying to say, Jazz, is that, if there was evidence on the existence of witches, we’d already know. Don’t forget, your ancestor, John Fentonightingale, was a celebrated witch hunter during the time of the Salem trials. He was an admired and respected member of his village, but the only thing he ever did was send innocent people to be burned alive.

“When he eventually realised what he’d done, he spent the rest of his life lamenting his shortsightedness; rejecting the fame and glory his witch-hunting days had brought him. And even if he ultimately turned to ghost-huntingー”

“Goodbye, fame and respect.” Jazz mumbled.

“ーthe hole in his heart caused by his actions would never be filled again.” Jack finished his tale with a morose expression, hoping Jazz would understand what he was trying to say. 

She didn’t. “Okay, that was a very moving story with a valuable lesson on the dangers of letting fear and paranoia overtake us. But what does it have to do with me?”

Still standing by her daughter’s side, Maddie tried comfortingly rubbing her arms with the hand that wasn’t holding the wrench. “We’re just trying to warn you not to jump to conclusions, because you might regret it.”

Okay, that was it. Her parents were in no position to warn her against jumping to conclusions; they lost that right the day she finally understood they’d been unknowingly talking about ripping their own son apart ‘molecule by molecule’ ーright in front of him. Jerking away from her mother’s touch, she put her hands on her hips as she sent them her most meaningful look.

“For the last time! I’m not going to try and, I don’t know, rally up the entire town against the witches! I just want to study them. You know, learn about their culture, about the origins of their abilities, about the differences between fact and fiction...” she shot them a pointed look as she stressed that last part. “I just want to understand them!”

“But you don’t even know if they exist!” Jack protested as she made it to the stairs.

Hearing her dad’s comment, she turned to face them once more. Oh, she knew they existed alright, that much Danny had been able to clue her in. What she didn’t know was where to find them. But she couldn’t tell them that. “Well, that certainly didn’t stop you from building a ghost portal to another dimension you weren’t even sure existed! And it sure as Heck won’t stop me!” 

That last comment should be enough to get her parents off her back for at least a couple of days. But the conversation had put her in a bad mood, something that didn’t happen since she learned to appreciate her parents’ ghost-hunting abilities, or, when it was Danny who was being pursued by them, their lack thereof. Stomping out of the house and slamming the door closed behind her, Jazz angrily made her way to the usual starting point of her quest. 

The Amity Park Public Library. 

The large granite building was supposed to be completely white, but the decades since it was built had washed out the stones, making them look grey-ish instead. The several steps leading up to the entrance were flanked by two lead lion statues resting atop a block of stone each. The front of the building, on the other hand, was both decorated and supported by numerous columns, with two of them at either side of the wooden door. 

Despite the impressive sight, what truly mattered lay behind its doors. Walking inside, Jazz let herself be washed over by the smell of ink and paper so characteristic of the library. Wherever she looked, hundreds of books stood proudly on their shelves, some of them so high up that the only way to reach them was with the help of stairs. 

Scattered around the library were several tables and plastic chairs where the visitors could sit to read their latest acquisition or work on the projects that brought them to the library in the first place. 

Breathing the scent in, Jazz walked over to the little counter located right at the entrance of the library, where the librarian would usually be working on her computer. Whenever she wasn’t out and about organising books, that is. 

Jazz waved at her with a smile. After coming to the library to study for years, she was basically a regular by now. “Good morning, Wilhelmina!” Wincing at her unintentional high-pitched tone, she lowered her voice to barely a whisper. “How’s everything around here?”

Looking up from her computer, the pudgy woman smiled knowingly at Jazz before willing her chair to get closer to her. “Good morning, Jasmine. It’s been so long since I last saw you; when was it again, two days ago?” Wilhelmina joked as she leaned in closer to the redhead, intertwining her fingers as her elbows rested on her desk.

Jazz flushed slightly at the harmless jab. “What can I say? You won’t get rid of me so easily!”

“Don’t I know it…” There was something odd about the way the librarian said those words, but the redhead decided to let it go. It was probably nothing, either way. 

“I wanted to ask you if you could recommend a book onー?”

“On witches?” The auburn-haired lady finished for her. Seeing the young woman’s embarrassed hint of red on her cheeks, she chuckled. “Oh, don’t be so surprised, my dear. You’ve been asking for the same thing for almost a month now! It’s just nice seeing someone retain some sort of interest for this old place and its books. Nowadays, most people just come here to surf the net for free.”

“Well, you won’t have to worry about me for a while, then! So, the books?”

Leaning back on her chair, Wilhelmina pointed to a faraway aisle. “Try the History section. I’m sure there’ll be a journal or something to help you with your paper.”

Jazz flashed her a charming grin, “Thanks, Wilhelmina. You’re the best!” As she turned her back on the librarian, Jazz failed to notice the dark grin that made its way to her face. 

Once Jazz was out of earshot, Wilhelmina said, “Oh, you have no idea,” the twisted expression never leaving her face.

As she walked around the library’s endless halls, Jazz couldn’t help but be grateful for having Wilhelmina as the librarian. Any other person would have looked at her like she was crazy or a Satanist murderer in the making for researching the occult so much, but never Wilhelmina. The woman just smiled at her and tried helping her to the best of her abilities. If Jazz had been looking for information entirely on her own, she’d have stuck to a particular section of the library, but Wilhelmina was always recommending a broader search. And, Jazz couldn’t help but think, it was a smart choice. One never knew what they could find or learn if they listened to different experiences other than their own. 

Standing in front of the shelf where the history books were, the aqua-eyed woman began scanning for something that might help her clear up the fog surrounding the group of witches Danny might be facing from now on. If she could just find out where their hideout was supposed to be… Not only would she be able to study them, but she might even convince them to ally themselves with her brother for good!

Ever since she was a teenager and found out about her brother’s secret, Jazz was determined to focus her thesis on the effects such circumstances could have on him. But as time went by, she came to understand that would be impossible. Writing a thesis on Danny’s very unique circumstances would be akin to exposing him, and she couldn’t do that to him. 

Because he trusted her. 

Danny’s number of enemies increased tenfold by the day, while his allies followed a much more stagnant rhythm. Goodness, he couldn’t even get his girlfriend to give up ghost hunting for him! She and Tucker were the only two people in all of Amity Park he could rely on. 

And there was no way she’d ever betray that trust. 

Which, sure, was a very meaningful proof of the love and bond between them, but still left Jazz without a topic for her thesis. So when Danny revealed his discoveries on the existence of witches, of all things, she was ecstatic. 

The possibility of a magical species living in Amity Park was perfect on many levels. On the one hand, it would expand their knowledge of the paranormal, with the added bonus of finding potential alternatives for everyday problems. And on the other, it gave her the perfect excuse to stay close to Danny and make sure he was safe. With her in town, he wouldn’t have to make up excuses as to why he slept in Fenton Works when he already had a perfectly nice place to stay at APU. All he had to do was phase through her room to get to his. 

And, most importantly, that way he had somebody else he could talk to about his double life. He was going to need it if he’d indeed managed to establish a truce between the spellbinding women and ghosts. From what he’d told them, those sorceresses were vile. 

As she walked over a nearby table carrying a pile of books with both hands, Jazz couldn’t help but wonder how her little brother would handle the situation. 

.............

Danny was not handling the situation well.

Although, it wasn’t necessarily his fault. Lady Arcana’s own unwillingness to cooperate was a key factor in their stalemate. 

Even if they addressed each other formally and obvious jabs directed at their respective species were, thankfully, non-existent, the coldness between them that reigned during their first face-to-face interaction was now stronger than ever. 

Just like the last time, he’d sent Skulker to escort the queen and her entourageーwhich still consisted of the same two witches; talk about confidence…ー through the Ghost Zone up until they arrived at his lair’s throne room. They still pretended they were both honoured to be in each other’s presence even though Danny was sure the Witch Queen wished she could just spit at him as much as he did. 

And knowing Desiree, if she were near to grant her wish, a cascade of spit would rain down on him.

This time, however, Danny had ventured deeper inside his lair, with the witches close behind him. Figuring discussing over inter-dimensional safety in the middle of his throne room would be unwise, since one never knew who could be watching, he led his guests to the Council Room; where the Observants, Clockwork, and heーand occasionally Frostbite or any other ghost with a modicum of authorityーgathered to discuss political affairs regarding the Infinite Realms. 

Admittedly, he wanted to slap himself for not thinking about it sooner. 

Another thing that was different and he had failed to point out earlier was that, technically, the witches weren’t alone. No, there was nobody else besides the queen and her two...guards? ーcould he even call them guards?ー but they weren’t alone per se, either. 

The bespectacled, strawberry blonde one had a pet owl perched on her shoulder. The bird, Danny had to admit, was beautiful. Its plumage was predominantly white and cream. The white feathers were more noticeable in its belly and heart-shaped face, with most of its body and the top of its head looking rather creamy. The owl’s black orbs seemed not only capable of seeing in the dark, but also deep inside your soul. 

In other words, the girl’s pet was pretty, but creepy. And he had a feeling that would be a stable of these women. 

The Asian teenager seemed to prefer reptiles, and, yes, he based his hypothesis entirely on the fact that the girl had a bearded dragon around her neck as if she was wearing a scarf. Danny couldn’t tell what was creepier; the lizard’s naturally spiky, scale-covered body and its little tongue licking its eyeball, or the way the witch scratched her pet’s chin and cooed at it when she thought nobody was paying attention to her. 

“Well, it could be worse. She could buy herself a cat and name it after a married woman who will never love her back.” Danny had to physically restrain himself from shuddering at the thought. 

But the weirdest thing, of course, had to be Lady Arcana’s own companion. Which, again, he was sure was going to be a stable between them. At first he didn't even see her carrying anything, her form obscured by her cloak, but the moment they entered the Council Room ーalone; Lady Arcana had stationed her witches to guard the doors, just as he did the same with two of Walker’s goonsーand she made herself comfortable (or as comfortable as she’d ever be in enemy territory), he spotted it.

Had she really brought a potted plant with her all the way from the portal to his lair? And, now that he took a closer look, was that a carnivorous plant?

Scratch whatever he said about the teenager and her lizard. The way the plant nuzzled her face or wrapped itself around her forearm as she gently stroked its stem was ten times creepier. Although, a part of him couldn’t help but think she and Undergrowth would get along swimmingly. 

Two plant-loving psychos bonding with each other. Talk about a meet cute. 

But never mind their questionable taste for pets. They’d been discussing for over an hour and they were still at the starting point. Time was money and this woman was going to make him go bankrupt if they kept going like this. 

“Your Majesty, I understand the situation is quite...extraordinary, but I’m afraid we are still in need of a solution.” He tried for the umpteenth time that hour. 

The woman before him just sniffed in displeasure. It was a good thing they were separated by a rather large, rectangular table, otherwise, he might have leaned forward and wrung her little neck out of sheer exasperation. “I am perfectly aware of the situation, King Phantom. But, as I have informed you already, there is not much I can do if I do not know the cause of the portals opening.”

But that was precisely why he needed her help! Getting frustrated, Danny let out through gritted teeth, “Which I believe is precisely the reason why I need you here in the first place, my Lady. You are supposed to be able to discover the reason behind it.”

“Well, supposedly, these portals are a natural occurrence of the Ghost Zone. How is it possible that you do not know how to take care of the problem on your own?” She countered, matter-of-factly, and Danny would have given about anything to get her to shut up and do something useful instead. 

“Supposedly,” he echoed, “your people have the natural ability to surpass the laws that separate the Infinite Realms and Earth from each other, and hence, youーshouldーknowーhowーtoーcounterーit!” His voice raising in volume as he spoke, he made sure to punctuate that last part for emphasis. 

Narrowing her violet eyes at him in disdainーhow could he have ever thought they were beautiful?!ー, Lady Arcana spat. “Supposedly, that bond was tattered after your kind’s betrayal.”

If it weren’t for the audacity of her statement, he would’ve recoiled at the gravity and resentment etched into her words. Narrowing his own eyes at her, he leaned forward. “Trust me, your Majesty, you would be wise to keep your mouth shut; you are in no position to talk about betrayals.”

As her scowl deepened, teeth borne at him in anger, a low growl could be heard emanating from her throat. But Danny was not going to be intimidated that easily. Returning the intensity of her gaze, the two kept eye contact, initiating a staring contest born from frustration and distrust. 

Eventually, the Witch Queen averted her eyes, crossing her eyes in a huff as she leaned back on her chair. Her little plant reacted to her turmoil, for it hopped over to her ーwait, it hopped?!ーto get her attention. Noticing her weird-ass pet near her, the witch began to absent-mindedly caress its little, purple...head?

He was never eating a salad again in his life; he ought to let Tucker know he’d decided to join him in his carnivorous ways.

Leaning back against his own chair, Danny pinched the bridge of his nose, exhausted. They’d been at it for more than an hour and, rather than discuss a possible solution, all they’d done was argue. Sighing through his nose, he called out to her, an idea forming in his mind, “Hey.”

Taken aback by his sudden drop of formality, Sam looked over at him with a guarded expression. What was he up to? Rather than answering, she raised an interested eyebrow as a sign to go on. 

Danny took that raised eyebrow and her silence as permission to continue. “How about we drop the honorifics and formality for a while, huh? I don’t know about you, but I’m a rather laid-back person and having to address someone as if I was meeting the Queen of England tends to stress me out. And that by extension makes me much more prone to get defensive.”

Sam bit back her reply that she was, in fact, as much of a queen as the Queen of England, and that he should treat her as such.

“And let’s be real; getting defensive with each other is going to get us nowhere, don’t you agree? Besides, I’m already stressed out as it is due to a matter regarding a black hole forming, so I bet I’m not the most agreeable guy to be around right now.”

“No, you aren’t”, Sam was actually surprised Phantom shared her beliefs about formality and social distance. But that didn’t mean she was going to lower her guard around him. And his last words took her completely by surprise. “...did you just say ‘black hole’?”

“That’s not something you should concern yourself with.” He dismissed the question immediately.

Squinting her lavender eyes at him, her suspicions of any ulterior motives never quite going away, Sam gave in. “What are you getting at?”

At least she was listening to him. He was willing to count that as progress. Danny raised his palms up in mock surrender. “I’m just saying, we don’t know for how long we’re gonna have to work together. So how about we’re at least casual with each other? Because, I don’t know about you, but all this higher register of speech is giving me a headache.”

As if to prove his point, Danny rose up in the air until he was comfortably floating about three feet high. As he leaned back, his arms crossed behind his head and one leg over the other, nothing would’ve wiped the smug look on his face as he looked down on the Queen of the Witches of Amity Park, her own jaw hanging low in awe. 

Noticing the smugness radiating off of him in waves, the raven-haired girl forced her jaw shut. No way in Hell was she going to give him the satisfaction of amazing her. Even if she wasn’t going to say it aloud, Sam concurred with his point. Straightening her back, head held up high, she made sure to bruise his ego the same way he almost bruised hers. “Fine. Let’s drop the honorifics, I was tired of pretending I have any respect for you, anyway.”

Danny frowned at that. “Hey!”

“What? Do you seriously expect me to believe I’m not in immediate danger of being attacked by a ghost just for the mere fact of invading their turf? That you and your people actually respect mine?” Her voice was laced with cynicism as she scoffed. “Yeah, right.”

As much as Danny would’ve loved to contradict her, he knew he couldn’t. After all, he hadn’t just sent Skulker to escort them in fear they might get lost, the possibility of them being ambushed by vengeful ghosts was very real.

The raven-haired girl smiled triumphantly, knowing she had him right where she wanted him. “If it’s any consolation, if any of you so much as tried stepping foot, or ghostly tail, or whatever, into our territory, not a single one of us would hesitate to exorcise the Hell outta you.” Motioning to the door with her head, she added. “Susan in particular would have a blast.”

“Susan?”

“The teenager with the bearded dragon; Count Scalynton”

“‘Count Scalynton’?” Danny echoed in disbelief, before having to stifle a laugh with his gloved hand. Seeing the Witch Queen’s unamused stare, however, he sobered up. “And...uh...what about...the owl?”

“That’s Spooky.” Lady Arcana replied with a shrug of her shoulders. 

“And your little friend?” He asked hesitantly, pointing at the potted plant comfortably perched on its owner’s lap, but making sure his finger didn’t get too close; in fear of getting it bitten off. 

“Oh, this little guy?” Sam looked down at DeMilo with a fond smile. “His name’s DeMilo.”

“...are you serious?”

“You got a problem with that?”

“No! No, no. Of course not! DeMilo is...uh, a great name.” He quickly assured her, sheepishly. The last thing he needed was to invoke her wrath, again. Clearing his throat, Danny decided it’d be best to change topics. “So...No honorifics?”

“No honorifics.” Lady  Arcana nodded from her chair. 

“Right. So, instead of ‘your Majesty’, ‘my Lord’, or ‘King Phantom’, you can just call me ‘Phantom’ and Iー”

“You can just call me ‘Lady Arcana.’” The Witch Queen cut him off with a tone that left no room for discussion. 

The white-haired young man slouched slightly at that. Just when he thought they were making progress, she closed herself off completely all over again. But he couldn’t afford displeasing her further, so he’d have to play by her rules...For now. “Right. Got it. So...about those portals?”

As he asked that, Phantom leaned forward to her, changing his position mid-air so his torso was facing now upside down but his head remained straight. As the Ghost King lowered his body so his forearms were atop the wooden table, an intrigued gaze directed at her, Sam deposited DeMilo on the table, her own hands resting on it. Locking eyes, they had each other’s undivided attention. 

Understanding they were back to business, Sam sighed tiredly. “I wasn’t lying when I said I need to know the cause behind the portals’ strange behaviour. If this is something that can be solved through magic, then it is imperative that we know what’s causing it to figure out the best course of action to take. The wrong spell could lead to disastrous consequences.”

“Like?” Phantom raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

“Like sending the world to another dimension instead of closing a portal between dimensions.”

“I guess that makes sense. So how do we figure out the cause?”

“I can start by looking through this.” Sam offered as she, seemingly, got a book out of nowhere, Phantom’s eyes widening at the sight. The reddish-brown leathered book was the same one she used to open the portals to the Ghost Zone, which made it their safest bet for finding a solution. After all, if the book guarded almost forgotten knowledge on how to open inter-dimensional drifts, then it should have the answers to more mysteries, right?

...............

Outside the Council Room, on each side of the door, Stephanie and Susan were patiently waiting for their queen. Well, “patiently waiting” might have been an exaggeration. Stephanie was stiff as a board, while Susan looked like a furious guard dog, the murder in her eyes only cemented the picture. 

Both witches’ emotional state could only be attributed to one thing.

Ghosts. 

Or, to be more precise, the two police-dressed, green spirits they were forced to stand guard alongside because the Ghost King wasn’t about to be caught dead (pun not-intended) with three witches and no back-up.

As much as she hated it, Susan had to give the spook credit: he wasn’t nearly as stupid as she thought. 

The teenager kept stroking the length of Count Scalynton’s body, currently sprawled alongside her arm, as she pondered different ways to escape the Ghost King’s lair and his ectoplasmic, door-floating, bloodcurdling realm in case things went awry. 

Beside her, Stephanie was lovingly scratching Spooky’s beak in an attempt to calm  herself down. Looking over at the ghost-guard assigned to her, she squeaked and promptly looked away when the spectre, having felt her gaze on him, landed his blood-red, pupiless eyes on her. Gulping loudly, she whispered to Susan. “Do you think her Majesty will be frequently meeting Phantom from now on?”

Susan whispered back with a sneer. “I hope not! Miss Wilhelmina was right when she warned me against these putrid, soulless drones. We can’t lower our guards, especially not now that the queen needs us.”

Discreetly pointing with her head, the Asian girl guided her partner’s gaze to her hips. Lifting her red hoodie almost unnoticeably, the strawberry blonde’s eyes widened at the sight; two crossed, leather bandoliers were filled to the brims with an assemblage of jars containing colourful liquids. Stephanie’s jaw almost fell open in shock; the 17-year-old girl was armed to the teeth with potions!

Realising they weren’t alone and the dangers in their secret stash being found out, Stephanie tried to appear nonchalant. Pretending to be talking in general, she added. “I just hope her Majesty is safe.”

Susan gave her a wry smile. “Oh, trust me. Her Majesty will be fine even without our help.”

...............

As she skimmed the pages of the spellbook in search of more information on the portals, Sam kept looking over at Phantom, praying he hadn’t noticed anything unusual. 

As satisfying as it’d been seeing his bewildered face when she suddenly pulled the book off seemingly out of nowhere, the truth was she’d been carrying it with her under her skirt. But what she worried about was not him finding out about the book, but the other items her dress hid from plain sight. 

Strapped around her thigh was a black holster filled with potions. Unlike the arsenal Sam knew Susan had brought with her, which consisted of several offensive and highly corrosive concoctions, the queen’s own collection consisted mostly of Blinding Bombs. As the name indicated, it was a type of potion whose main purpose was to distract the opponent long enough to retreat or come up with a plan. If things went south, all Sam had to do was smash the jar against the ground and cover her eyes, for a small explosion of light would ensue and temporarily blind the spirits, giving her and her girls enough time to escape. 

As she leafed through the spellbook’s pages, she suddenly shivered, noticing a cold presence by her side sending shivers down her spine. What was even odder was the sudden smell of something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Dumbfounded, she turned her face to the side and growled at the sight. Snapping the book closed and bringing it close to her chest, she snarled at Phantom. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Taken aback by her sudden movements, Danny blinked. “Um, trying to help you?”

He had to be kidding her. “Come again?”

“I...uh...I just thought I could help you look for answers.” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “So I was trying to see if I could find anything useful in that book of yours.”

Oh, he definitely had to be kidding her. “No, thank you.” She turned him down, only thanking him out of politeness. She turned back to the book. “You’ll only drag us down, anyway.”

Danny was starting to get really frustrated with that all-knowing, condescending attitude of hers. Even his sister wasn’t as annoying despite her know-it-all tendencies. Hell, Skulker was easier to work with! Standing up in mid-air, using his leverage to stare her downーliterallyーhe folded his arms in front of his chest. “And how, pray tell, am I going to drag us down?”

He was surprised by the witch’s next action. Huffing loudly, she got up from her chair and shoved the book in his face quicker than he could blink. At first he had trouble registering what just happened (mostly because he was levitating a good three feet above her and she was still safely on the ground) until he took notice of the sparkly, purple mist surrounding theーfloatingーspellbook. He blinked in awe; so that’s how her magic looked like. Once the initial surprise had worn off, however, Danny had to admit, he was a little disappointed; he’d expected more than a floating book. 

Looking over the tome, he saw Lady Arcana staring intently at him. Instead of anger as he expected, however, an amused, knowing expression adorned her features. He might’ve thought she looked pretty hadn’t it been for the wickedness of her smile. 

“Read.” She instructed him. 

Danny did as he was told...only to furrow his brow in confusion. What the…? Reading over the pages he couldn’t make sense of anything written on them. The inked markings splattered all over couldn’t even be considered hieroglyphics! Squinting at the offending piece of paper, he tried reading aloud. “Spiral...lightning bolt...spork?...What kind of sick mind came up with this?!” 

Sam let out a hollow laugh. “You really think that if you were really able to read this book in the first place all by yourself, you’d even need to call for me?” She rolled her eyes at him, not knowing what to think; either this guy was messing with her head or he was an idiot. She motioned with her hand for the book to return to her “Limit yourself to keeping your subjects in line and let me handle this. Although, on second thought, I might actually be asking way too much of you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” The green-eyed ghost didn’t like where this was going. 

Still reading, Lady Arcana raised her palms up in mock surrender. “I’m just saying, for a ghost that’s supposed to be the undisputable ruler of an entire race after having defeated a tyrant, you sure have a lot of detractors defying your authority.”

“Oh, please! Like you know anything about my subjects or any possible detractors.” Was it true he was often fending off ghosts who didn’t care for his laws to stay clear of Amity Park? Saying he didn’t occasionally get his ass handed to him would be like saying his parents took kindly to people who disrespect their jumpsuits, but he didn’t have to tell her that.

“I know more than enough.” Sam countered.

“Oh, yeah? Name one ghost who doesn’t respect my rule and still causes trouble.” The halfa challenged. What was he trying to get out of this? At least ¾ of his enemies screamed their names and evil plots whenever they were freed from the Ghost Zone! In Ember’s case, she literally depended on people knowing and chanting her name. 

“That poacher ghost of yours...what’s his name?”

A poacher ghost? Who the fuck was she talking aboー? “You mean Skulker?”

Sam perked up at that. “Yes, that one! He so obviously doesn’t respect your authority. I mean, he literally hunts you, the Ghost King, for sport almost every two weeks!”

An undignified sound escaped the halfa’s throat, but that was the last of his concerns at the moment. “Okay, first of all,” he started, raising one gloved finger, “he so totally respects my authority. Whenever I need help, he’s always willing to put the whole hunting-the-most-unique-specimen-ever aside for the greater good. And second,” he sent her a pointed look, floating closer to her. He revelled in the way she uncomfortably shrunk away from him; served her right, “Skulker’s not a poacher, he’s a hunter!”

“Does he have a permit or a hunting license?” Lady Arcana asked, not missing a beat.

That actually gave him pause. “Well...no, butー!”

“If a hunter hunts with no permit, then he’s a poacher!” Seriously, how dense could this dude be?

“You seem to be forgetting that Skulker is a resident of the Ghost Zone; my domain. Whatever laws are followed on Earth or among your kind, do not necessarily apply to us.”

“That outta shut her up,” he thought triumphantly.

“So you’re saying you’re okay with innocent creatures dying solely for the purpose of flattering one ghost’s ego?”

Well, apparently not. Danny spluttered at that. Who was this woman anyway, Jane Goodall?! “Whaー? No, of course not!” He vehemently denied before changing topics. This woman was about to get a taste of her own medicine. “But what’s with all these pointing fingers anyway?! I bet some of your ‘loyal’ witches also commit their own atrocities right under your nose.”

Oh, she was going to blast him into next Thursday for that! Standing up from her chair, Sam slammed her hands against the table (careful not to hurt or startle DeMilo, though). “For your information,” she snarled at the ghost before her, “the only huntress in my clan is Diana. And not only is she formidable, sheーalsoーhasーaーpermit!”

Fed up with the ridiculous conversation and the even more ridiculous woman, Danny slammed his own hands down on the table, even if he was floating. “Again with the permit! What’s with you and permits?! What are you, a cop?!”

“I’m a queen!” Sam all but roared. “So, yes, it is my job to ensure certain jobs are only trusted to people with permits!”

Danny was about to continue ranting, but he stopped himself. All this pointless fighting was only making them waste time, and they couldn’t afford that. He didn’t understand how she wasn’t already exhausted from all the arguing. Rubbing his face with his hands, he let himself fall back on his chair. “Let’s...let’s just keep on investigating. Forget I said anything.”

Sam was about to retort when she took notice of the white-haired ghost’s tired eyes, her own fatigue finally kicking in. Slumping her shoulders as she, too, fell back on her chair once again, she continued reading. “Yeah, sure. That’ll be for the best.”

They stayed in silence for a while after that. Lady Arcana reading intently, and Danny praying to all things above him that he’d be able to survive the day. Eventually, the Witch Queen broke the silence, slamming her book shut. His head snapping up at the sound, Danny dared to hope. “Any luck?”

The queen sighed. “I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?”

His heart sank. “The bad news,” he moaned pitifully. 

“Bad news is, there’s nothing in this book about what could possibly be causing the Ghost Zone to create more portals than usual. The most it has is the spell I use to get here, but that’s about it.”

Danny was convinced his heart was now lost somewhere along his knees. “And the good news?”

“This isn’t the only book that might have information on the Ghost Zone. When our people parted ways for good after you-know-what,” the look of resentment was back on her face and Danny didn’t know what to do; he should be the one feeling offended! “most of our knowledge was forgotten, but not lost.”

“Meaning?” He prompted her to finish her statement. 

“Meaning, there’s still probably many more books on the topic.” She finished. 

“Which means…” Danny began, only for the two of them to groan in dismay. As nice as it was that not everything was lost just because that particular book didn’t have the answers, having to look for another spellbook or grimoire meant they would have to keep meeting with each other. For Lady Arcana would never leave a precious heirloom belonging to her people out of her sight and in the Ghost Zone, and Danny couldn’t afford to take his eyes off of her in case she and her kind double-crossed them.

In other words, they were stuck with each other until further notice...He was starting to regret not being fully killed by the accident the day he got his powers.