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redrobin-detective · 4 years ago

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To light a candle is to cast a shadow

Dannymay Day 9: Candlelight

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TW: Major Character Death

Danny had never been to a funeral before. Never in a million years would he have imagined this one would be his first. He was surrounded by his classmates and teachers and friends. His parents were sniffling quietly off to the while Jazz was a little more open with her grief. He felt so much, like he was a balloon ready to burst that he’d circled back to numbness. All he could do was stare at the gentle flickers of the candles people were holding. And like a candle, Danny was acutely aware of how quickly a life could be snuffed out.

“Danny, pay attention, it’s rude to space out at a place like this,” Tucker whispered in his ear. Danny squeezed his eyes shut at the sound of his best friend’s voice.

“Sorry, I,” he whispered back, “this is harder than I thought it’d be.” Sam looked over her shoulder at them. She looked worse than he’d ever her, greasy hair pulled back in a low tail, eyes sallow and not a trace of gothic makeup. It would have smudged with the tears anyway. She was wearing black as always but this time out of grim necessity. If it was hard for him he can only imagine how she was feeling right now.

“Poor Sam,” Tucker huffed. “We should go stand by her, let her know she’s not alone.”

“Yeah just, let’s give it a minute,” Danny said quietly back. “This has been a lot, how are you feeling, Tuck?”

“Oh you know,” Tucker chuckled, moving around to Danny’s other side. “Larger than life.” Danny bit his lip and looked down at the candle held in his shaking hands. He could see ice creeping up the sides, it would go out entirely if he didn’t keep it under control. He’d already let one light go out due to his negligence.

“Not now,” was all Danny could say. He kept his eyes low so he didn’t have to confront his friend’s green skin and glowing red eyes.

“Oh so only the half ghost can make dead jokes?” Tucker said with an audible eyeroll. He floated back around to Danny’s front but he could still see through the ghost to Mr. Lancer giving a weeping statement. “Come on, lighten up. It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.”

“Tuck please,” Danny pleaded, a sad keening sound that sounded pathetic to his ears. He saw Star turn to look at him and offer a sad, sympathetic smile before turning back to the speech. “Please, just, can this wait until after the vigil?”

“You don’t have to be sad, dude, it’s not like I’m really gone,” Tucker chuckled. “It doesn’t even hurt. I mean it did, alot, for a second there but then it was over with. Easy. Just think of it as Team Phantom upgraded one of its members!”

“It’s not the same,” Danny frowned, “it’s not, things aren’t going to be the same.”

“And why not?” Tuck said with an eerie edge to his voice. “Danny is the same as Phantom, why can’t it be the same for me?” He grinned and his teeth had sharp edges. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous of me again? Afraid I’ll have better, cooler powers as a full ghost?”

“Tuck, you’re dead,” Danny stressed quietly, almost choking on the words he never wanted to say. “You were so brave and so stupid and tried to hack into the school’s PA system while Technus was inside and it... electrocuted you to death.”

“Haha yeah, we really are bros in everything, we even died the same way.” Tucker laughed, watching as Sam was discreetly wiping at her eyes. “Whatever happened to Techy? Things got kinda fuzzy there for a while.”

“Technus is gone,” Danny deadpanned. “When I found you, when I smelled that mix of ozone and cooked flesh I sort of lost it.” He’ll never get that god awful smell out of his mind. He remembered it from his own accident and smelling it again, paired with his best friend’s corpse and Technus’s idiotic ranting in his head. The next thing he remembered was Sam screaming over Tucker’s body and his hands covered in ectoplasm. Technus’ ectosignature had been entirely obliterated.

“Oh hardcore, shoulda done the scary eyes when you said it. It would’ve had more of an impact.” Tucker turned to him with his beaming red eyes, so close yet slightly off from his normal looks. “Hey that means there’s an opening for a technology ghost around these parts. I gotta think of a name, someway to combine Tech and Tuck. I’ll think of it, I mean I have the rest of eternity.”

“Are you sure you want to stay?” Danny asked seriously, finally looking his dead friend in the eye. He was a new ghost, barely had an ectosignature and wouldn’t for at least another few months. Danny was the only one here who could see the ghost haunting his own candlelight vigil. A boy, a friend, gone far too soon. “You could move on, find your peace. Haunting Amity Park forever hardly sounds like a dream come true, I’ve only done it a year and I’m sick of it.”

“Peace? I’m 15, Danny. Peace was never an option.” Tucker lounged until his was floating on his back. He passed through Mikey and Kwan both of whom shivered at the contact. He playfully batted at Sam’s ponytail and she stiffened, like she was doing everything to hold back tears. Sam might not be able to see him but she knew Tuck almost as well as Danny did, knew what a prankster he was. Or at least they had known him. Now Danny doesn’t know quite who or what he’s looking at.

“I’ll hang around with you guys until my core’s stronger then I can pick up some of the ghost butt kicking slack. Amity will have two awesome ghostly superheroes. Or at least until you get bored or old or whatever. Then it’ll just be me, Techer.” He made a face, “oh god that’s awful, forget that one.”

Danny almost smiled, despite everything because with Tuck in front of him chatting as usual, he’d almost forgotten. For a second, the smell and the charred, contracted limbs and Mr and Mrs. Foley’s wailing when they heard the news almost seemed like a far away nightmare. Then Tuck floated forward and clapped his hand around the flame on Danny’s candle, snuffing it out.

“The wax was about to drip onto your hand, you’re welcome, dude,” Tuck preened with his sharpened teeth and glowing aura. “I already got this hero thing down pat.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Danny said wanly. Mrs. Foley got up now and was talking about what a good, considerate son she had. How she was going to miss him every day. Tucker watched her speak with a polite, distant face like she was talking about some character in a story written long ago. He was here, he remembered but there was a palpable disconnect between the Tuck of old and his ghost. Danny wondered how long it would be before his friend was gone entirely, consumed by amnesia and obsession.

“Ugh Danny,” Tuck huffed, crossing his arms petulantly. “Can you cut it out with the waterworks? I’m right here after all.” But he wasn’t, not really. What was in front of him was an echo. Tuck was here but not all of him came along for the ride. The rest, the part that Danny had cherished and relied on for most of his life, was at the morgue ready to be buried in the morning. Closed casket obviously.

Yeah, his friend was still here but death had changed him, like it had changed Danny. And he was going to see a constant reminder of his friend’s death in his face every day until one of them decided to move on. Moments would pass and feel like normal only for him to realize that something vital had been lost. Like a candle casting a shadow, lacking all the warmth and life of the real thing.

#dannymay2021 #major character death #I'm so sorry fam #I wasnt gonna do a prompt today but it came to me in the bath #the first line just grabbed me by the throat #fastest Ive ever dried off and started typing I swear #anyway hiiiiii happy dannymay #tucker foley

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db-kt · 7 years ago

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Shocker pt. 2

Because I still don’t have a better title lol. Also, since I’ve forgot to mention before, this takes place when Danny and the gang are 16. There’s no Phantom Planet but the Fenton parents and Valerie know his secret. Why? Well, even I don’t know yet. XD

When the bell rang, announcing the end of classes for the day, Danny was absolutely relieved. Packing his backpack with his math homework, he waved good bye to Mr. Falluca. The teacher returned the tender wave, still frowning at all of the dead calculators that Danny had tried to use earlier in the class. It was hard for Danny to keep himself from apologizing to the teacher, instead he silently vowed to learn how to control this power sooner rather than later.

He automatically made his way to Tucker’s locker. Being the closest to his math class, the two boys would meet up before going to Sam or Valerie, who’s lockers were halfway on the other side of the school. Danny just hoped that during the afternoon classes that Tucker had forgiven him for accidentally breaking his beloved tablet.

Soon enough, Danny spotted Tucker opening his locker. Swerving through the crowd, Danny quickly stood by his best friend. There was a pregnant pause as he watched Tucker put a book back into his locker.

“Tucker?” Danny called out. No reply other than a quick zip from his backpack. Sighing, Danny began, “I’m so sorry. I swear I didn’t mean to break your tablet, I mean, Stella.” Tucker slammed his locker door shut. Danny flinched at the action and watched as his best friend looked at him with unreadable eyes. “It was an accident.”

“I know,” Tucker answered, his voice oddly quiet. Danny perked up either way, walking in step with his best friend as they made their way towards the front of the school.

“Then why are you giving me the cold shoulder?”

“Because I’m upset?” Tucker replied back starkly. “Dude you know I customized this to handle more processing power.”

“I know and I said-“

“Dude.” Tucker waved him off. He sighed, shaking his head. “I forgive you man.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but-“

“Oh thank you Tucker!” Danny gave his friend a quick one arm hug. Even through the clothes, Tucker could feel the buzzing feeling that Danny was giving off. He quickly pushed off, raising a finger at Danny’s questioning look.

“But.”

“But?”

“But,” Tucker began again, walking, “you have to at least help me repair her.” He glanced to the dead tablet in his other hand. “I’m pretty sure you just fried the Motherboard.”

“Right. Okay. Easy fix right?”

“Should be.” The two entered the main hallway on the ground floor, the front doors in sight. They stopped at the TV monitors that would flash through a powerpoint of the academic photos and sports coverage of the school. Dash was – not surprisingly – in most of the sport pictures. “How are we going to fix your problem?”

“Visit CW?” Danny shrugged. “I don’t know much about…electrical powers.” He suddenly frowned. “Other than every electronic thing I touch goes dead on me.”

“What do you-“ Tucker trailed off once he got Danny’s meaning. “Wait. You’re telling me that you shorted out all of the school’s calculators during math?”

“Not all of them,” Danny whined. “Falluca stopped after the third one.”

“Third one’s the charm,” Tucker sang. He too suddenly frowned. “What about your phone?”

“Dead.” Danny pulled out the said device, pressing the button to no avail. “Mom and Dad will probably be pissed at me later.”

“You really are the enemy in today’s modern society,” Tucker said as he shook his head. Danny rose an eyebrow at his statement as he pocketed his dead phone.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Oh my Prince!” Tucker began dramatically. “Look upon the masses of your subjects.” He gestured to their fellow prisoners of the educational system, all looking stressed with homework waiting for them at their respective homes. “Are they not busying themselves over their phones? The social media? The texts, snaps, and calling to others?” He then shook his head. “As Prince, you should know what your subjects’ lives are like in order to rule over them justly.”

“…I’m not going to rule over the high school, Tucker.”

“Still. You can’t be oblivious all the time.” Danny scoffed and lightly touched Tucker’s shoulder, hoping that he’ll force a mild static shock onto the teen. “Ouch!!” Tucker yelped, jumping away from his best friend. “You did that on purpose!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m the oblivious one, remember?” Danny told him with a smirk.

“Very oblivious indeed,” Valerie agreed as she stepped beside them.

“Funny,” Danny said, deflating a bit before he questioned, “don’t you and Sam have the last class together?”

“She’s talking to the teacher about setting up a school wide debate on the ethics of school lunch again.” Tucker froze stiff at the answer. “Particularly calling for more vegan options.”

“She can’t!” he cried out. He grabbed Danny, forgetting the buzzing current in his friend’s body. “Doesn’t she remember the last time?!”

“I’m sure she does,” Danny said, trying to calm him down. “Besides, weren’t you listening? It sounds like she wants options, not changing the entire lunch menu…again.”

“Ohhhhh okay, that’s reasonable,” Tucker said, letting out a sigh of relief. He let go of Danny. “Your buzzing is still there.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Danny deadpanned.

“What are you gonna do about it?” Valerie asked, curious.

“Probably go ask CW about it,” Sam answered, appearing out of nowhere. “Which if you are, we better get going. It takes 6 hours to get there.”

“I know,” Danny murmured as he led their group out of the school’s front doors. Luckily, most of the teenagers had left, leaving behind few who are chatting with their friends or their ride had not shown up yet. “But all CW could do is hopefully tell me who can teach me on controlling this other than Vortex.”

“Nah Vortex’s power is more focused on weather in general, not electricity,” Sam reasoned. “I would say Technus but…”

“His is more technological based,” Tucker continued, “if anything he could help you not zap batteries dead.”

“I said I was sorry!” Danny whined. Tucker chuckled, nudging his best friend.

“Sorry, you make it too easy dude.” The four stopped at a busy intersection, waiting for the walking signal. “Besides,” Tucker began once the signal turned, “I said I’ll buy you a pair of those sunglass thingies for the solar eclipse this Friday.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot that’s happening,” Valerie commented as they crossed.

“You forgot?” Danny asked, astounded as they reach the other side. “Valerie how could you forget something as rare as a solar eclipse?”

“Don’t they happen fairly often?” Sam asked, noticing how Danny seemed to get jittery. Tucker also noticed the symptoms of his friend getting overly excited.

“Fairly, but no in this area,” Danny answered, a big smile on his face. “Don’t you guys know that the next one that’ll happen where we can see it from Amity Park will be in 500 years? This is basically a once-in-a-lifetime thing!”

“Yeah that’s what the news has been saying,” Valerie commented.

“Because it’s true for once,” Danny stated bluntly. He paused, remembering all the times the news called him a menace and needed to be eradicated. Granted, his own parents said the same thing, but he knew it was for his and his sister’s survival. Shaking his head, he continued, “either way, I’m so pumped up for this! We may not be in the center of the path of totality, but we’ll still have a solid 45 seconds of the total eclipse.”

“And that means?” Tucker asked, trying to remember what the term meant. He recalled when Danny has first found out about Amity being in the path and Danny nerding out about it, but that was over a year ago and haven’t been brought up until last week.

“When the moon is completely covering the sun’s light,” Danny explained bluntly. He paused. “Well, not completely.” He skipped ahead of them, twisting around so that he walked backwards. “There’ll be a ring around the moon, but the point is the total eclipse is when you can have your glasses off and you can actually view it. Before then, the sun would get so bright, much brighter than usual so looking at it directly is damaging to your eyes.”

“But you’re already supposed to not look into the sun directly, you goof,” Valerie told him. “Unless, you’ve been doing it so much that you’re used to being blinded.”

“There is a reason why he keeps on getting pummeled while fighting ghosts,” Sam teased. That earned a laugh from Valerie. Danny huffed, crossing his arms as he pouted at the two girls.

“Very funny,” Danny deadpanned. “But what I meant to say is that the sun will be especially bright during this time; hence why the special solar glasses.”

“So you better wear them all the time then,” Valerie added, giggling a bit. She paused, lightly biting into her bottom lip. “I wonder if my visor would adapt to the change in solar light.”

“We can test it!” Tucker immediately volunteered. “I’m sure the Fentons have some kind of device that can stimulate and change the intensity the sun’s light.”

“Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Danny said, twisting around as they approached another busy intersection. “With how crazy inventing Dad gets when he comes up with a new idea, there might be something along the lines of ‘Can invisible ghosts been seen if the sun’s radiation intensifies?’ or some other hypothesis.”

He pressed the walk button and instantly regretted doing that. He yelped as his hand shot away from the pole, sparks twisting between his fingers as the traffic lights themselves went out. The air was full of car tires screeching to a halt, a couple of horns blaring when one car almost plowed itself into another.

“Whoops,” Danny commented, the sparks still flickering in his palm.

“Whoops?” Sam echoed quietly. Tucker and Valerie were standing still, frozen into silence. “Whoops!? Danny you nearly caused a major accident!”

“It’s not like I mean to, Sam!” Danny yelled back, whipping around to turn on his friends. “I just pressed the stupid button!”

“Well you should know better!” Sam retorted back. “You’ve been killing batteries all day!”

“Okay stop it,” Tucker commanded, hands out between the two. Danny looked like he wasn’t about to listen, but Tucker gave him a concerning as he continued, “and Danny you need to chill.”

“Chill?” Danny echoed rather affronted. He pointed to Sam, “she needs to chill first!”

“No dude. You need to chill.” He paused, wary eyes glancing around them. “Like, you gotta blink.”

“Blink?” Danny repeated. Then he noticed a slight green tint on Tucker, who was the closest to him and how Valerie seemed like she was seconds from pulling out a gun. “Oh. Oh! Sorry.” He clenched his eyes shut and counted to twenty, breathing slowly.

“You better?” Tucker asked. Danny nodded, opening his eyes again. However, Tucker continued to frown. “I think you need to blink again dude.”

“They’re still green?” Danny asked, confused. His eyes don’t feel like they’re using ghostly energy. He suddenly jolted, feeling the buzzing stronger than before. He glanced down at his palm. The sparks were smaller now than when he had first touched the button, but still sparking out of his own palm. “I’m over energized,” he muttered in realization.

“Then let’s hurry,” Sam ushered, grabbing Danny’s backpack to tug him into the street. “Hopefully your parents can figure out what’s happening with you.”

“I hope so too,” he agreed, making sure to keep his head downcast and sparks hidden in his fist as the four crossed the street. Two more blocks and a turn would have them arrive at FentonWorks in a few minutes. He’ll be okay till then, right?

#Danny Phantom #Phanniemay18 #phanfiction

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