#Dan got his muscles from Vlad

[little-pondhead]

I love her a normal amount.

[britcision]

Technically it’s not Wednesday anymore and technically I should only be writing the next chapter, not several chapters down the line, but Jazz grabbed me by the throat so y’all get a rough draft on something that’s gonna be like, 2-3 chapters away 👀

Maybe 👀

Enjoy!

———————

Dan’s lips curled into an unpleasant snarl, pointed fangs suddenly more prominent.

“Oh, really, Danny. Did you think this was going to work? Some stupid illusion and I’d fall to my knees, sobbing for reconcilliation? Or did you bring me the real thing so you could watch me kill her in front of you this time? It might not stick but I’m sure I can try.”

Part of Danny nearly lunged forward, Obsession throbbing down to his core… but he held it in check. After all, this wasn’t the Jazz Dan had known; she wasn’t just a teenager anymore.

And she certainly wasn’t impressed.

“Daniel James Fenton, you know better than to talk about someone when they’re standing right in front of you,” she snapped, her hip cocked out and arms folded in an entirely done big-sister posture that only got scarier with age. “If you have something to say, say it to my face.”

And Dan… froze, for a moment. And Danny knew he’d been right in that second, that microsecond of hesitation. Of inactivity.

Sure, Jazz might be well past six feet tall herself now, but she looked like their mom enough to make his Vlad severely uncomfortable. More than that though… Danny had never gotten over the thought of her dying. Dan had broken the world about it.

And he couldn’t bring himself to look her in the eye.

It was covered up a moment later, in bluff and bluster as he scoffed and glared in her general direction.

“What, are you going to psychoanalyze me? Tell me how sad and tragic I am too? Give me a break, I’ve got some lovely coping mechanisms,” he snapped, aura flaring in a burst of green fire.

But Jazz had never been scared of Danny’s aura, and frankly? He was the Ghost King. Dan’s was a drip in the bucket by comparison.

She marched straight up to him, ignoring the flames completely, and grabbed him by the chin. Forced him to face her, even as his eyes widened, face freezing.

Danny had never heard her voice so cold.

“Is that supposed to be scary? Am I supposed to be impressed, Danny? Honestly, I’d like to say that must be the Fruit Loop’s influence, but you’ve always been a drama queen.”

And then she twisted him into a headlock, all 6’9 mountain of muscle like he was still a ninety-pound twink, and noogied him.

“You’re such a fucking dork, Danny.” She sounded almost fond now, exasperated, a tone Danny was painfully familiar with. Even knowing she wasn’t talking to him-him, the cringe was automatic.

Dan sure as hell had no idea what to do about it, panic flaring madly across his face and his aura, trailed by a lacklustre attempt at anger.

“Get your hands off me,” he roared, turning intangible and going to jerk himself away… and then Jazz’s eyes flashed teal and she reached after him, her own hand changing to pull him straight back into the noogie.

Something about that broke Dan completely, his entire body suddenly limp and held up only by Jazz’s continued grip on his head. He seemed almost catatonic, completely zoned out… which Jazz completely ignored, grinding her knuckles into the top of his head.

Danny was pretty sure he knew why though; it was the one thing which had always been able to calm him down, back when he was approaching his twenties and the possibility of Dan started giving him panic attacks. Jazz had snapped him out of it in a much gentler way, but it amounted to the same reminder.

Jazz was his big sister. His beloved mentor, his voice of reason, his rock. And after living in Amity Park for almost twenty years, directly on top of the Fenton Portal, she was liminal as hell and about one near-death experience from a halfa herself.

There was just no way he was ever going to lose her, until she decided she was good and ready to move on. It wasn’t possible, and a little thing like dying wasn’t going to slow Jasmine Fenton down.

If it happened before she graduated, Danny was pretty sure she’d rise before Finals Week even if she died the night before.

(And given her self-care habits, he did occasionally worry about it actually happening… but she promised her ghost-envy days were long behind her and she’d never get that bad.

Belief: pending.)

Danny wasn’t actually fully sure if her ghost-grabbing abilities extended to anyone else or if she could just always wrangle him, but he and Dan were the same person; enough so that it sure as hell worked on him.

Dan wasn’t going down without a fight though - Danny was almost a little impressed with how quickly he fought past the blue screen (it might have been Vlad’s influence, given the sudden haughty tone) as he began to shove at her arms, quickly working up to a shout.

“Get your hands off me! Do you have any idea who I am! I am the great destroyer, breaker of worlds, and you will not treat me like a small child!” He bellowed, struggling viciously against her grip.

If they were in the real world, it’d probably have worked. If he had access to any of his ghost powers, it wasn’t a fight Jazz could possibly have won.

But this was a dream, and either Nocturn had a damn good idea what’d happen to him if anything happened to Danny’s big sister in his realm… or he just plain liked Jazz better.

(Most people did. Danny was fine with it.)

Because the more Dan struggled, the more Jazz began slowly increasing in size, getting bigger and bigger until she entirely dwarfed him and had him cuddled like a doll under her arm. Watching him struggle at this point was just a little embarrassing, actually, and Jazz finally took pity on him.

And settled him on her hip like an unruly toddler, grinning down at him.

“Now, do you think you’re ready to actually talk to me?” She asked him gently - and if she found the sight of this full sized man so relatively tiny as funny as Danny did, it didn’t even show.

Dan glowered up at her.

“You may be favoured by the fool who runs this domain, but you will never be my equal in anything but dreams,” his snarled viciously, his anger apparently stoked by indignation.

(Danny made a note. Still definitely some Vlad tendencies.)

Jazz just chuckled softly, bumping him up to give him a kiss on the forehead.

“Oh, baby brother, you know that’s never going to be how it works,” she said brightly, then paused, glancing around. “Uh… Danny, we never talk about this again, alright?” She asked, squinting down at him.

Mildly offended that he was about the height of her ankles, Danny raised both hands in immediate surrender.

“Dude, I am not letting anyone try and get freudian on me for Jumbo-Jazz. My lips are sealed from self preservation alone.” And he’d have to make sure to emphasize to Nocturn just how valuable his own silence would be. Vital to survival, even.

Apparently satisfied, Jazz nodded, sitting carefully cross legged and settling Dan in her lap, her chin on top of his head.

“So… you told me about your future once, y’know?” She said slowly, while Dan struggled and once more surrendered to the indignity. “And Danny told me some more later. And, obviously, we all actually know that taking over and destroying the entire world isn’t actually a healthy way to process grief…”

“Fucking spare me,” Dan growled, looking about a minute away from taking a bite out of her hand.

Jazz ignored him.

“But… in spite of all of that…” she paused for a moment, leaning back and smiling down at Dan, who couldn’t quite help craning back to look at her… if only to know where the next attack was coming from. “It’s… really sweet to know that you’d break the world for me, Danny. I just really wish it hadn’t broken you, too.”

And once again, Dan froze… and for the first time, Danny could feel a crack in the impenetrable wall around his core. Between all of the performative rage and theatrics and what he really, truly felt.

Even his rally only managed to produce a vaguely sulky “I’m not broken!”

Jazz sighed softly and turned him gently in her arms, lifting him to hug tightly to her chest. She might have been shrinking now, either by Nocturn’s will or her own, but she held him close anyway.

[camels-pen]

time, in all its affection (in all its agony)

Summary: The beginning of the end, through Clockwork's eyes.

based on @currentlylurking 's prompt '“Even if I could change it,” Clockwork lied, “I wouldn’t.”'

Ao3 Link | Phight '24 series

—

“You could’ve saved them.”

A quiet, unassuming statement. If they wished it, they could’ve ignored it entirely. Perhaps played at ignorance, as futile as that may be. May have been. Would be. There were so many people, after all, that they could have saved. Would have saved. Can’t have saved. So many ghosts and humans alike with differing paths, longer or shorter existences, with a simple flick of their finger.

“Jack and Maddie?” they asked, though they know the answer.

“No,” the boy said, a growing heat to his words. “Sam and Tucker.”

Clockwork closed their eyes. The headstrong girl and tech-loving boy. Two fates tied so tightly to Daniel’s own. An unfortunate circumstance that led to one, inevitable conclusion.

“You had the power. Still have it, now.” Daniel—no, he was calling himself ‘Dan’ now—floated closer, a scowl deeply etched on his face. “You can bring them back, you can change things. Make it all better.”

They could. Had. Would. It would be a simple matter, really. Hardly anything worth noting in the grand scheme of things. A complete contradiction to a future lesson with a different Daniel, one who had seen the monster he becomes in grief and vowed to never become that person. 

That Daniel would not exist without this one.

“Even if I could change it,” Clockwork lied, “I wouldn’t.”

A light grew bright in Dan’s eyes. “Someone’s stopping you? Who is it, the Observants? I’ll go beat the shit out of them, then. Or I’ll turn them into stains of ectoplasm on the ground, if that’s what it takes.” 

The ease of a tool in their hand as they repair an old clock, do routine maintenance, create something entirely new, settled in their chest. It was almost like muscle memory, using their words and lack of to send a ghost to do errands for them. To live for them. To die for them. It would be as simple as one, single word.

“No.”

Because as simple as it may be—as much as Dan seemed to be begging for it, begging for a target to unleash the rage from his grief and, in turn, bring back those he loved—Clockwork could not do that to him. Hadn’t done that to him. Would not do that to him. 

Not to him.

“Not the Observants? Then who?” Dan’s aura flared around him, as if trying for intimidation. A laughable notion from a boy his age. “Tell me.”

There was no satisfactory answer. Clockwork could not, had not, would not give it to him.

Countless people of varying degrees of life had been a thorn in Clockwork’s side. But none of them compared to the annoyance of the Observants. The only ones that would be believable were either sealed away or lost to, in all its irony, time. Even were they present, however, Clockwork would never send Dan to them, regardless of if it were for a request for their heads or a cup of tea.

“Don’t patronize me,” the boy said. “I may not be as old as you, but I’ve survived on my own long enough to know the ugly side of humanity and ghost kind.” An inappropriate chuckle built in Clockwork’s chest. By human standards, they supposed his words had some merit. “Whoever it is, I can take them.” Or die fully trying, he did not add. In another timeline—a more desperate one—he did add it. It hurt all the same.

The humour left them.

“I will not send you to your second death.” Clockwork put his hands on Dan’s shoulders. Wrinkled and stiff, long and calloused, soft and pudgy. Gloved thumbs rubbed along hazmat. “You will not enjoy that.”

“Third death,” he growled, slapping Clockwork’s hands away. “I’m not Danny. Not Vlad either.”

There was truth in his words, though he wasn’t an even split. 

“I’m the fucked up thing that came from both their ghost halves.” He jabbed a finger in Clockwork’s chest. “Got that?”

They nodded once. “I am aware, yes.”

Dan narrowed his eyes. “Aware, but not internalizing it.”

You tend to act more like one than the other, they thought, spoke, cried. Timelines they brushed away before they came to pass. “My apologies, Dan, but I cannot do what you are asking of me.”

Dan scoffed. “Typical.” Why do I even bother coming to see you anymore? Another timeline, another brushed away. 

They had met on a minuscule probability—a rare, rare chance where Daniel had stumbled upon Clockwork’s lair in one of his exploration trips. They were supposed to turn him away, supposed to let this boy become like countless others he’d seen through time. Supposed to do many things. 

They were cryptic and blunt, but never hostile. And that, they supposed, was their crucial mistake.

“It was nice while it lasted,” Dan said, and for a moment Clockwork wondered if he had the ability to manipulate time too. (A silly thought; if he had those kind of powers, he would not hesitate to bring back his precious friends.) 

“It was,” Clockwork said, an uncommon melancholy to their words. 

Dan turned for the door, his cape swishing behind him. “Those people’s blood are on your hands.”

They knew better than to ask for his mercy, appeal to his humanity. Dan would not listen, caught up in the duties of monsters as he was. Caught up in the pain in his heart as he was.

All it would take was a glance, a blink, a breath. Maybe less. The two children would be alive, safe, whole. Dan would give up his crusade, vengeance, war—whatever he’d taken to calling it. He would never have even become the boy—man, he was today. 

But it would happen again. And again.

And Dan would always come back. Would always ask, demand, beg for the same request.

Another timeline, another Daniel, would be meeting them soon. Clockwork needed to set him on the right path. The path with respect for time. Respect for the dead, ghost and not. That boy would not become this boy, but this boy must exist for that boy to be better.

Caretaking time, what a headache it was. 

Is. Would be.

“When Amity Park is gone,” Dan said, “you’re next.”

Such was the price they had to pay. Though it would not be by Dan’s hand, this iteration of Clockwork would cease to exist in the near future, along with this doomed timeline. It was the fate of all Clockworks that had such catastrophic events that needed to be erased. 

Dan himself would surely be paying for his crimes, too, though this Clockwork could not see it. They could only hope that their other self wouldn’t be too hard on the boy. Beyond the stretching darkness in their sight after Dan would leave this timeline, Clockwork feared most what kind of defeat—what kind of punishment awaited him.

Clockwork sighed. Affection was a terrible, terrible thing.

“I know.”

[charcoalhawk]

Stuck in Limbo

My Phantom Truce gift for @berry-berry-blu

I ended up going with your third prompt: Being friends with Danny Fenton is really frustrating when he keeps cracking jokes while bleeding out.

Warnings for; gore, description of wounds, blood

wc: 1066

“…297, 298, 299, 300. Ok, tell me another one Danny.”

“If I had a nickel for every time someone I should have trusted stabbed me in the back, I’d have way too many nickels.”

The rasping laughter that bubbles up from ruptured lungs sends more blood leaking out on her makeshift bandages.

The feeling of blood congealing in her hair and on her clothes has to be one of the most vile sensations in the world. And unfortunately Valerie has grown used to it.

At least most times it’s her own blood, scrapes and scratches from not getting out of the way fast enough. But what happened to Danny? She knows she saw a flash of bone and the edge of a spasming lung before she was able to attempt to treat them.

She remembers the moment she broke into the lab. She hadn’t heard any screams, just following the sinking feeling in her gut after Danny had disappeared following a fight between Phantom and Plasmi- Mr. Masters.

Phantom, strapped down to a metal table covered in wounds, while Mr. Masters loomed over him wielding what looked like a cattle prod. Only when he struck Phantom the electricity dancing around it was red, and with an agonized scream and a flash of white light, the boy of the table transformed from her second worst enemy to one of her best friends.

Her brain had needed precious seconds to make sense of what she was witnessing, but luckily after almost three years of fighting ghosts muscle memory had a blaster out and scorching hole in Mr. Masters shoulder before he could react.

How they got out was a bit of a blur. She knows she got at least two more blasts of at Mr. Masters, but she doesn’t know where they hit. Some part of her hopes that one of them was fatal.

She does remember leaving at least one shattered window as they escaped, and probably a hell of a lot of blood.

The cold autumn air meant that she had a flannel on hand to strip and make rudimentary bandages, and she kept a tiny stock of gauze on her glider so she wouldn’t have to go home after some of the nastier fights.

It still hadn’t been enough to stop blood from leaking out onto them both. Blood, and what she knows is ectoplasm. But trying to process that Danny is Phantom is something that’s going to have to wait until after she can get him stabilized.

At least Danny isn’t freaking out more with the realization that Valerie knows. But, given that both Tucker and Sam have to know, and Jazz given how calm she had been on the phone, at least means she isn’t the first person to find out.

Another shudder from Danny causes a fresh wave of gore to come dribbling out on their chests, and after almost an hour of actively bleeding out Valerie doesn’t know how Danny is still conscious.

“Don’t worry.” Danny seems to almost read her thoughts, or maybe he can tell by the way she holds him that much tighter. “You’ve done enough research into ghosts to know what a Core does right? Ectoplasm can replenish itself at a rate where bleeding out is pretty much impossible. Trust me, Vlad already tried that.”

“Hey,” she’s been so horrified for so long that her voice ends up coming out flat, “we agreed on one morbid joke per five minutes.”

“I still can’t believe you’re counting out the seconds,” Danny’s voice sounds far away, for all that his face remains pressed into the crook of her shoulder and collarbone.

“Hey, if you get to use a fucked up sense of humor to cope, I’m allowed to use this.”

Her phone had died about a half hour into their flight. And Danny’s was crushed or lost somewhere in the last five hours of chaos.

At least she’d been able to call Jazz beforehand. The older girl had promised to have the Fenton’s brought up to speed and ready to help the second they arrived at Fenton Works.

Jazz had trusted her to keep Danny conscious. With all the equipment available to them nothing should be able to stop the Fenton parents from helping their son, but none of that would matter if he died on the way back.

…well, died more than he already was.

Danny’s shuddering breaths rattle her own ribcage, each heave spilling more blood to soak into their clothes. She needs to rebandage them, needs to stitch the gaping wound on his chest and abdomen close.

As panic begins to overwhelm her she forces herself to take a deep breath, feeling Danny’s chest against her’s. Feels the slow, low hum of what she knows is a Core. She’d done what she could. In the moment getting him out of that hellscape of a mansion had been her top priority.

At least without any ghosts chasing her it’s a smooth ride on her glider. But even pushing it to its limit it’s taking them almost two hours to fly back to Amity Park. With the limited space on her glider she can’t get a better angle at Danny’s wounds, and if she tried to rebanage them now they’d have to stop their flight so she could concentrate.

At least flying chest to chest, with one arm wrapped securely around him and his flung over her back is keeping pressure on the wound. Maybe riding piggyback would have been more efficient, but then she wouldn’t have been able to see him, and she needed at least one hand free in case something came after them.

She can feel Danny’s legs begin to shake every ten minutes or so. Every time she reaches for that little bit of hope hiding in her chest, and every time she feels Danny take a deep, wet breath and the shaking subsides.

For now.

Everyone in Amity knows about the one sided feud between the Fenton parents and Phantom. She’s heard them vent about wanting to dissect Phantom molecule by molecule.

Hopefully they’ve changed in the last three years like she has, if nothing else Jazz can still help.

There’s nothing else to do but keep flying home. When they arrive at Fenton works they’ll either be treated with an ecto-weapon or with bandages.

She just hopes she’s making the right choice.

[asjjohnson]

I made a logo thing for the story using Paint. :D

A continuation of my Dan poll fic. https://asjjohnson.tumblr.com/post/708347095954915328/dan-phantom-woke-up-slowly-he-could-hear-the

---

He was in a strange room. He didn't recognize it.

Although he might've been able to place it if he could think a little clearer. He still felt partway asleep.

The traffic noise was coming from the other side of the wall.

It sounded like the room was near a busy road. Tires rolling across asphalt, the sound of old gas-powered engines. Those weren't the sounds of his own time.

But he must be somewhere in the human world, whenever he was.

With a grunt of effort, he put his hands beneath him and pushed himself to his knees.

The time spent confined to the thermos, unable to move, had weakened him more than he had realized.

But that was fine. He would regain his strength soon enough.

Standing, he decided he would get up and stretch his muscles, and have a look around to see where he was.

"That's far enough."

Dan spun around in surprise—then a horrible shock whited out his vision, his hands going to his neck as he fell back to the floor.

A... a collar?

The shock subsided, and he breathed heavily as his senses returned. He slowly rolled his eyes toward the one standing above him.

"You're probably wondering how you got here."

Dan glared as he continued to pant. No other part of his body was responding to his commands.

"I learned that Clockwork was holding some sort of weapon. Something even the Observants were fearful of... Something that shouldn't fall into the wrong hands."

Were they... talking about him?

"So, I decided to... relieve Clockwork of that responsibility. To my surprise, this 'ultimate weapon' turned out to be a ghost."

Dan could now twitch his fingertips. He deepened his glare.

"Lucky me."

Dan bared his fangs at—

(I think I'll set the polls to last for a week, but, unless the results are really close, I'll consider them won after three days. Also... would it be too confusing to have multiple threads of the story going at once?)

---

"Alert me when there's an update" list:

@charlietheepic7, @chrysanthemum9484

---

Also, I found out someone else has also had the idea of a DP poll adventure fic: https://five-rivers.tumblr.com/post/707181356186206208/next

[impyssadobsessions]

So you know the au where Dan is goodish and is Dani and Danny's big brother? Why if one day the batfam are trying to adopt Danny and they meet the big hunk of muscle that Dan id

LOL yes XD Dan would find it so amusing, like SURE TAKE MY TWO GODLIKE SIBLINGS, I'll watch. Adds no help to the situation =w= just watching things go down much to Danny's dismay. Can see Dan liking Dani more though so she just being chaotic gremlin for him. =w= Then Jazz has to come in to wrangle in all her siblings, apologizing to the bats. Danny insisting he didn't do anything!? Dan and Dani saying he started it, by being so adoptable. Got magnet on him for billionaires. Tease they should use that to get some cash. =w= just messing with Danny. Danny like FINE! I like these guys more anyways! Being backstabbed >:T Batfam along for the ride. Ends up they all hanging out for burgers once everything is cleared up. Danny not adopted though now he begging them too because his own siblings are mean to him.. (all jokingly) Jazz also teases him uou so not even free from her. Batfam enjoying other ppl's sibling dynamics. Nice to know they're others just as chaotic. Each sibling has their favorite bat or set of bats. Same with Batfam, each got their favorite phantom sibling. They often meet up now to hang out or do vigilante stuff.. well kind of.. neither really take on each other's rogue's just mostly cheer or prank each other's foes. =w=b Vlad getting the most dunk on.

[its-rat-time-babey]

Halfa headcanons:

General.

Halfa is just one of many nicknames. The real term is “Liminal being” or just “Liminal”

Halfa’s bodies are extremely rigid by ghost standards. Shapeshifting of almost any kind is impossible to do. There are some exceptions, like the whole body morphing thing ghosts can do. (see picture below). But doing this can make the user sore for DAYS on end if done too much

This rigid form affects clothing as well. For a normal ghost, changing clothes via shapeshifting is quick, easy and such a basic power that any ghost, no matter how weak, can learn it, the only real concern being that clothes created by shifting tends to be physically weaker. But for halfas, changing the appearance of your ghost form can take hours of work and concentration, and that’s not even getting into the physical limits of changing your appearance.

For example, Danny could change his suit’s material from whatever his Hazmat suit is made of into a cotton mesh or a fine silk and change the patterns on his suit to whatever he wants, but he can’t add anything large like a cape or add any additional colours that aren’t already somewhere on the suit. He’s got to work with what he already has. None of the three halfas have found a way around this.

They have no pulse in human form but do have one in ghost form. This is equally disturbing for both humans and ghosts.

Halfas don’t have a main obsession, just a bunch of weaker sub-obsessions that can vary from day to day. Sometimes they’ll be obsessed over one thing, other times they’ll obsess over something else. They usually have a couple of sub-obsessions they feed into more than others though. (Danny and protection, Vlad and Maddie. Etc)

Core powers always follow one rule when used by a halfa, no matter what type of core they have: “Fire from your hands for better control, fire from your eyes for more power”.

Halfas are capable of getting both human and ghost diseases. Switching to whatever form isn’t sick can speed up recovery. (Switching to human form will help combat the ghost flu for example, you’ll still feel a bit sick but not nearly as much. Ancients help you if you get sick from a human disease and a ghost disease at the same time.)

Halfas are capable of breathing air, ectoplasmic gases (what the ghost zone’s atmosphere is made of) and breathing in a vacuum, even in human form.

Breathing regular air increases a Halfa’s physical strength and durability because the Halfas human side and muscles have more oxygen to work with, But it slightly weakens ghost powers because the ghost side doesn’t have a very good source of ectoplasm.

Breathing ectoplasmic gases increases the strength of the Halfa’s ghost powers because the ghost side and core has more ectoplasm to work with, But it weakens physical strength because the halfas human side has none of the things needed for breathing and is relying on the ghost side to filter ectoplasm into a useable replacement.

Breathing in a vacuum has no upsides whatsoever. Just both the downsides of breathing air and ectoplasm.

Halfas can’t use their powers for as long as a full ghost. This is because full ghosts can use their bodies as ectoplasmic batteries and keep the extra ectoplasmic energy their cores generate for later use. A human body on the other hand, isn’t made of ectoplasm and can’t safely store ectoplasmic energy without getting ectoplasmic radiation sickness (aka ecto-acne), so the core only generates the bare minimum to keep the ghost form stable and only generates more when the halfa actively needs to use their powers.

This is why Dan is capable of using ghostly wail after ghostly wail with no ill effects but Danny turns back into a human after using it once. Dan is a full ghost and has a large bank of energy for his powers to draw from while Danny can only use one before his core realizes that it needs to either

temporarily shut down

keep going and risk running itself dry, killing Danny.

Increase its ectoplasm generation to insane levels, which risks either permanently damaging his core or accidentally killing his human half via radiation and ecto-acne.

Since the first option is the only one that guarantees Danny’s safety, It always chooses option one, temporarily shuts itself down with a small amount of ectoplasm to keep itself running and basically reboots itself over the course of a few hours.

There are two different ways a ghost can destabilize. Physical Destabilization and Medical Destabilization.

Physical Destabilization happens when a ghost’s body takes too much damage, at which point the core goes, “I can’t support this body anymore, it’s simply too unstable” and stops transferring energy. The ghost’s physical form then melts, and the ghosts core teleports to the ghost’s lair to gather energy and build a fresh one. A halfa cannot go through Physical Destabilization because it’s human half prevents the process from happening. They’ll just get forced back into human form and become unable to use their powers temporarily.

Medical Destabilization happens when a ghost’s core is completely cut off from the rest of its body and can no longer keep the ghost’s body together. It’s basically the ghostly equivalent of cardiac arrest. The core will try to keep the body together by upping its energy production and trying to break through whatever is keeping it from transferring energy, but there’s a 50-50 chance this won’t work. After this, the body will melt and the core will teleport back to its lair to reform and fix whatever problem its physical form had that caused the Destabilization. It’s a common issue for recently formed ghosts, since their core is still trying to build a proper form and iron out all the kinks. A halfa can go through Medical Destabilization, but the effects usually aren’t that bad. Their human forms stop any real damage from being done and the only real effects are a temporary lack of ghost powers as the core spends a week or so rebooting and trying to solve the issue.

Danny:

I already made a bunch of Danny headcanons right here. But I have a few more.

Danny is actually the most human out of the three halfas.

Because of his ice core, he can’t use any heat based powers.

Despite having an ice core, fire doesn’t do any extra damage to him. Ghost cores just don’t work that way. It might even do less damage than normal because Danny is able to use his ice powers to lessen the damage.

Danny’s real weakness is electricity because that’s how he died. And it’s a weakness that sucks to have because ectoplasm is extremely conducive to electricity, meaning that not only is electricity extra damaging to ghosts NORMALLY on top of his weakness, but ectoplasm’s conductive properties also mean that ANY ghost can use some sort of electrical power, even if their core wouldn’t normally allow it.

Danny has a fear of thunderstorms because of his death from electrocution/weakness to electricity, and will refuse to go out on patrol during one.

Some ghosts willingly hand themselves in to Phantom when they’re seriously injured or trying to escape ghost hunters because Phantom sending you back to the ghost zone in a thermos is way better than destabilizing or being cut apart by the GIW.

Phantom is a vital part of Amity Park’s ghost ecosystem. By defeating ghosts that are consumed by their obsessions and dumping them back in the ghost zone he essentially forces the ghost to reconsider their actions and find healthier ways of fulfilling their obsession. If they find another way then they almost never enter Amity Park again and if they don’t and try to use more destructive methods they get beat by Phantom and put back in the ghost zone, repeat until they find a better way to deal with their obsessions.

He’s completely immune to the cold in ghost form, but completely vulnerable in human form.

Staying as Phantom for a long time makes Danny extremely cold from his own core. Sometimes, after extremely long patrols he has to sit by the fireplace shivering and wrapped in a dozen blankets because his internal body temperature has dropped to near hypothermic levels.

Even though he knows that destabilization doesn’t actually kill the ghost (They reform in their lair after anywhere from a few days to a few months) he absolutely refuses to destabilize any ghost for any reason. (With exceptions made for Dan, Spectra and Shadow. Dan because he’s Dan, Spectra because she’s Spectra and Shadow because they can’t be contained properly in the Fenton Thermos (bad luck aura and all)).

Vlad:

Majored in biomechanical engineering and mechanical engineering in college.

English is actually his second language. His first language is Russian.

Doesn’t have very good eyesight in his human form due to the proto-portal exploding in his face. He uses contacts to deal with this.

His eyesight is fine when he’s in his ghost form, along with whenever he makes his eyes glow red. This means that late at night you might see Vlad in his human form, eyes glowing bright red, just reading a book. Using his ghost eyes as reading glasses.

Has a severe fear of hospitals after spending so long in one with ecto-acne.

His fire core means that he can’t use any ice or water based powers.

Vlad died extremely slowly and painfully, so his powers show up extremely slowly as well. His fire powers showed up just a month or so before the events of the series. Compare this to Danny, who died extremely quickly and gained access to his ice powers in under a year.

Vlad owns a trophy signed by every single member of the Green Bay Packers, living and dead. It has survived the destruction of each of Vlad’s mansions and he treasures it like it’s his own child.

Vlad refuses to use his powers in any way to buy the Green Bay Packers. His personal goal is to obtain ownership of the team through legitimate business practices.

Danny can consistently keep track of Vlad by using the NFL schedule. Any day when the Packers are playing is a guaranteed Vlad free day.

The reason Vlad’s ghost form looks like a vampire is because back in college, the Jack, Maddie and Vlad all had a bias against ghosts. They all viewed ghosts as cold, unfeeling monsters that preyed on the living. Then when Vlad died, his ghost form reflected that biased view. His appearance became exactly what he saw ghosts as. A type of cold, unfeeling monster that’s known for preying on the living.

Over time he let go of that bias and realized that ghosts are fully sentient and capable of emotion and pain, but due to how rigid a halfas body is when it comes to shapeshifting, he can’t change his form to anything else.

Vlad is extremely durable. Like an absolute tank. Ectoblast? Shrugged it off. Fenton weaponry? A light scratch. Ghostly wail? Give him a few seconds to recover and he’s back in the fight.

He’s also freakishly strong, even when compared to ghosts of equal size. He’s able to lift about 2 tons in human form and 5 tons in his ghost form. For comparison, Danny struggles to lift about 2 tons in his ghost form.

He writes his journals, blueprints and plans in Russian so no one in Team Phantom can read them. This stopped working however, once Ellie joined the team and revealed that Vlad taught her how to speak Russian.

Started using Russian computer languages as well so Tucker can’t hack anything. This doesn’t completely stop Tucker from hacking Vlad’s things, but does slow him down enough for Vlad to take notice and properly put an end to it.

Eventually he made his own computer language that uses a mix of Russian, Ghost speech, Esperanto, Chinese and a language that Vlad completely made up. He uses this programming language in only his most valuable creations (examples: The Red Huntress suit and most of his cloning equipment.). So far, no one but him knows how to use it.

Plasmius’s cape is detachable. Once detached it dissolves into ectoplasm after a few seconds and Vlad can reform it back on his costume at will.

Plasmius also doesn’t have a reflection, just like a vampire.

Plasmius has claws.

One of the reasons Skulker doesn’t try to hunt Vlad is because if he fails to hunt Danny, the worst Danny will do is throw him back into the ghost zone and give both of them a chance to recover. Vlad on the other hand, has no qualms with destabilizing a ghost and can do it with ease.

If you manage to piss Vlad off he will destabilize you, find your lair, break in and destabilize you over and over and over again until you agree not to mess with him. Skulker knows from experience.

Vlad uses his fire powers for welding and soldering materials whenever he builds something.

Vlad really uses his powers for just about everything. From creating tools out of hard ectoplasm to duplicating himself to make large construction projects go by extremely quickly. (Very useful for creating lairs and laboratories.)

When Plasmius gets extremely angry, his hair bursts into pink ectoplasmic fire.

Just like how Phantom is immune to ice and Danny isn’t, Vlad is completely fireproof in his ghost form but not in his human form.

Also like Danny, staying in ghost form for a long time causes Vlad’s internal temperature to get all weird, rising to feverish temperatures after too long. However, Vlad has found some ways around this, so he usually doesn’t have to deal with the same sort of temperature fuckery that Danny deals with.

Key word being usually. Vlad keeps at least one cold storage unit in each of his mansions just in case. After he spends a long amount of time as Plasmius, Vlad will shut himself in a cold storage unit for a hour or so to cool himself off.

Ellie (Dani).

Has a water core. Can’t use any fire powers.

The most ghostly out of the three halfas, her body is about 75% ectoplasm and she bleeds ectoplasm instead of blood when in her human form.

Over time this will change however. As they age her human form will become more and more human until they are indistinguishable from a regular (albeit ectocontaminated) human being.

Ellie’s body will age way faster than normal until they become biologically 14 (Danny’s age). At that point it’ll slow down to the rate of a regular person.

She wasn’t directly cloned from Danny, but is actually made from a mix of Danny’s dna, Jack’s dna, Maddie’s dna, a small amount of Vlad’s dna.

This is because Danny’s and Vlad’s ghost dna makes full cloning impossible, because the ghost body NEEDS energy from the ghost core in order to not collapse and turn back into pure ectoplasm (which is what destabilizing is), but it uses ghost dna to determine what core and where it should be receiving energy from. And you can’t perfectly clone a ghost core.

Basically, If Vlad uses nothing but Danny’s dna, the resulting clone with look like Danny, act like Danny and even have an ice core like Danny, but that core will have a very different ectosignature, which causes the clone’s ghost dna to freak out because it thinks that the ectosignature is coming from another ghost that’s trying to overwhelm it, so cuts the threat (its own core) off from the rest of its body with some sort of ghostly immune system.

The thing is though, the core needs to produce energy and send it all throughout the ghosts body in order for the body to not destabilize, and even though the body doesn’t recognize the core, the core still recognizes the body and beings to overwork itself trying to overpower the body’s immune system so it can supply vital energy to the body until it can no longer compete with its own immune system and permanently shuts down, stopping the constant flow of energy and destabilizing the ghost half. For a regular halfa, this would be a very dangerous case of Medical Destabilization, that could permanently weaken or remove a halfas powers if not dealt with quickly, but for a clone with a human form that is mostly made of ectoplasm, this is permanent, no-hope-of-becoming-a-ghost, death.

So Vlad pretty much watered down the clone’s dna with other dna to slow down the destabilization process, at the cost of making the clone no longer genetically resemble Danny and now running the risk of the clone dying due to unstable genetics.

After that Vlad just kept trying to find a balance between destabilization time and actual genetic resemblance to Danny. Too much Danny dna and the clone will destabilize too quickly, too much filler dna and the Clone will no longer be a clone of Danny/die from unstable genetics. Both result in some kind of destabilization.

Vlad can’t use a large amount of his own ghost side dna because that would conflict with the Fenton dna and make the clone unstable. He can’t use his own midmorph dna because of that same reason.

Midmorph dna tricks the clone’s body into actually recognizing its own ghost core as its own ghost core. It needs to be dna from the state in between human and ghost so both halves accept it. It also can’t be added to the clone until the core is at least semi-formed, meaning that the clone body must be already complete before midmorph dna can be added.

The clones were numbered in this system: The first clone was clone A-001. After 999 attempts, the letter would go up by one and the numbers would reset to 001. (A-998 -> A-999 -> B-001 -> B-002, etc). Ellie is Clone D-757. The prime clone was Clone D-974.

Around when clone C-001 was born, Vlad started using dna from the other Fentons as filler dna because that dna could be adjusted to match Danny.

The clone versions could be summed up like this:

A-group: destabilized too quickly or died from unstable genetics.

B-group: same results as A-group, but with slightly less clones with unstable genetics.

C-group: roughly 50% looked like Danny, 50% looked like other Fentons and had unstable genetics. All Danny lookalikes destabilized too quickly.

D-group: all resembled Danny physically and genetically, and all could go without being destabilized for a good amount of time. Search began for genetically perfect clone.

Ellie’s genetics are about 58% Danny, 20% Jack, 20% Maddie, and 2% Vlad. They can go without destabilizing for longer than any other D-group clone besides D-974 (the prime clone), but aren’t genetically perfect.

D-974 was theoretically the genetically perfect clone. Genetics are 70% Danny, 14.5% Jack, 14.5% Maddie, 0.5% Vlad.

Vlad put his own dna in all his Danny clones so if he ends up creating the perfect clone and is unable to get Danny’s midmorph dna in time before the body starts destabilizing, he can use a tiny amount of his own midmorph dna as a temporary substitute before the clone’s body starts rejecting it.

The Ecto-Dejecto DOES weaken ghosts, but not in the way the Fentons intended. Basically, it gives the ghost’s s core a ton of extra energy and causes it to rapidly send large amounts of that energy throughout the ghosts body, making the ghost have way more power than usual, but the extra power overwhelms and weakens the ghost’s physical body at the same time. The reason the Fentons never figured that out is because the ghost now has a much weaker body, but also a much STRONGER healing factor, so you’re doing more damage, but the ghost is also healing faster.

The Ecto-Dejecto not only gave Ellie’s core an energy boost that allowed it to completely overpower its immune system and stop Ellie from destabilizing, but also temporarily weakened her immune system to the point where it basically couldn’t do anything to try and stop it.

After they got temporarily stabilized by the Ecto-Dejecto, Danny took her back to the Fentons lab and gave them a shot of his midmorph dna so she wouldn’t be at risk of destabilizing again.

Team Phantom regularly uses The Ecto-Dejecto as a way to quickly heal Danny and Ellie if they get seriously injured during a fight.

Ellie worked with Danny to get themselves adopted by the Fentons. Danny introduced Ellie to his parents and told them that she was homeless and had no family to go to. His parents discussed it between themselves for about an hour but they eventually decided to adopt Ellie. Even if they had to forge some documents proving that Ellie is an actual person.

They eventually found out that Ellie is a clone of Danny created by the Wisconsin Ghost (its pretty hard to hide the fact that you are literally 75% ectoplasm and look exactly like your adopted family) but never found out about the whole half ghost part. As far as they know Ellie was created by Plasimus in a lab and Danny helped her escape and then got her adopted into the family on the same day.

Surprisingly, Danny didn’t get in much trouble when his parents found out he broke into a ghost’s haunt and helped Ellie escape. He still got grounded, but his parents were incredibly proud that their son managed to go up against a powerful and elusive ghost like Plasimus and come out unscathed.

The revelation that ghosts were capable of doing thing like cloning living beings raised a lot of questions about the Fentons old theories regarding ghost intelligence. They ended up revising some theories and came to the conclusion that ghosts are still cold, unfeeling evil monsters, but also INTELLIGENT cold, unfeeling evil monsters. (Also Plasimus might have been a scientist of some sort when he was alive.)

They originally questioned why a ghost would want to create a living clone from the dna of ghost hunters, but decided they didn’t really want to know when they realized how quiet and uncomfortable Ellie would get whenever they started talking about it. (The current theory is that Plasimus wanted a body to permanently possess so he could freely walk among the living.)

Vlad taught Ellie how to speak Russian as a second language and Ellie picked up how to speak Spanish during her travels.

Ellie sometimes swears using food names. It’s a habit they picked up from Vlad.

If you mispronounce the verbal parts of the ritual that summons the ghost king but do all the other things correctly, it summons Ellie instead of Danny.

Vlad gave Ellie (and all the other clones) some of the original Danny’s memories. The memories are selectively chosen and sometimes edited, and the memories also don’t contain anything that happens after the portal accident, especially if it involves Vlad.

Ellie has memories of:

Most of Danny’s life when he was five and under. (With Jack edited out.)

All the academic stuff. School reports, all the times Danny’s studied for a test, etc.

All of Danny’s combat and ghost power related memories. (how to properly use ice powers isn’t there because Ellie doesn’t have an ice core.)

All the ghost hunting training Danny’s parents gave him. (With Jack edited out as much as possible.)

Facts related to Danny’s interests. (Mostly a lot of space facts.)

All the memories of every single failed clone that came before her. From creation to death. (Vlad is unaware that she can remember that sort of thing).

All of Danny’s knowledge of DOOM, from the levels to the Easter eggs and cheat codes. (Vlad just forgot to remove those memories.)

Ellie is absolutely feral. They have no idea how to properly act like a regular human being because they’ve never experienced being a regular human being. Danny has needed to stop them from casually walking through walls on multiple occasions.

Their water core allows them to melt into goop and reform with no ill effects. This means that they are the only halfa with some sort of shapeshifting ability.

The first time they did this, they panicked and ran to Danny, believing that they were destabilizing again.

Their water core also gives them the ability to breathe underwater.

Ellie is extremely claustrophobic because of her time in the cloning tubes when she lived with Vlad.

Skulker’s reaction to Ellie’s existence was basically, “All right! Two matching pelts! I can make myself a good pair of boots!”

Even after getting fully stabilized, her immune system (human and ghostly) is incredibly weak and tends to attack itself.

Where Plasimus is a tank, Ellie is a complete glass canon. They can dish out powerful attacks but can’t afford to get hit too many times.

Ellie doesn’t call herself Ellie Phantom when in ghost form. Just like her first name, she thought it was too similar to Danny’s name. After throwing some ideas back and forth with Danny, she settled on calling herself “Ellie Specter” (this headcanon is completely self indulgent, I just thought Dani Phantom sounded way to close to Danny Phantom for my tastes and decided to change it. Thought “Ellie Specter” had a nice ring to it.)

[lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks]

Ooh, the halfa siblings AU sounds really cool! Out of curiosity, how would something like the Ultimate Enemy work in that AU? Given that Dan here is the older half brother or Danny and Elle. Actually, would Vlad be trying to get Danny and Elle as his kids too? Or is he content with just having Dan as a son and apprentice?

to start with the Vlad thing, I feel like he's still obsessed with Maddie, he still wants Danny and Elle as a part of his family when he finds out who they are, but he's slightly less insane about it because Dan does everything in his power to make Vlad focus on him, he doesn't want his siblings, who already have a happy family, to muscle in on his relationship with his own dad, who is finally paying attention to him

which is why he's so susceptible to Vlad's absolutely heinous influence

as for TUE, it would hit really different because the dynamic of the series would be so different due to Dan's presence

this au would be a whole lot more focused on the dynamic and infighting between the siblings than the fighting of other ghosts, though there would be that too

the premise is essentially that they all have different styles of dealing with ghost attacks, Danielle can't rely on fighting so she tries to amicably convince ghosts to leave as best she can, she gets pretty good at sneakily manipulating them, but if that doesn't work Danny comes in and fights them to send them back

but when Dan comes in and gets involved, the motherfucker straight up tries to destroy them

he doesn't care who they are or what they want, they're on his turf and they're fucking with his family and he wants them gone, permanently

he expressed a lot more of the ghostly obsessiveness and territorial behaviour than the other two since he already had ghost dna before the portal incident, he's far closer to his ghost half than any of the other halfas, including Vlad

so the ghost attacks on Amity Park are just, different, a lot of lower level ghosts will not fuck with Amity because they are terrified of Dan, the few that do are probably on way better terms with Danny and Elle because picking fights is a great way of catching Dan's attention

if Danny's fighting another ghost and Dan shows up, they will legit just suck themselves up in the thermos, they will absolutely let Danny YEET them back into the ghost zone if it means not getting their core ripped out by his crazy older brother

this au's version of the TUE episode would probably be about Dan just snapping and going feral, maybe the event that kills Danny's parents also kills Danny and Elle, and maybe Vlad blames Dan for it, maybe Dan even is responsible

this would really fuck him up because, for one he actually loves his mother, he loves Jazz, he even gets along with Jack better than he does Vlad (and probably rubs that in his face when he's got the shits with him), and Danny and Elle might be a pain in the ass but he still cares about them

like he's probably saved their lives and ruthlessly protected them so many times, they just butt heads about how to go about it, and as much as he thinks Danny is a total pain in the ass, he lowkey respects that the kid sticks up to him

so being responsible for their deaths would make him fucking snap, and now he doesn't have his younger siblings to pull him in line and hold him accountable

Vlad would probably realise that holy fuck he does not have any control over his kid and he is legitimately in danger, maybe that's why he decides to remove his ghost half

obviously, this goes violently awry, and we all know what happens next

the episode would be a big slap in the face for current day Dan, showing him exactly what path he could go down if he keeps acting so aggressive and violent, and makes him appreciate his siblings for always keeping him from going too far over the line

[silver-bunny6958]

Day 11: Door

It had felt like forever since Danny first had this idea, but he remembers it like yesterday.

Two years ago, or was it decades?- not the point, it was the day that Doctors Madeleine and Jack Fenton had died. It had nothing to do with their work, it had all to do with a problematic pilot and bad luck. Flight 196, they were off to New York City- a ghost convention, they were invited to speak on their inventions and discoveries- Danny had beeeegged not to go, and the one time he got that wish, they never got off the plane.

Danny wishes things were different, he would never say it, he knows better now, but he does. He proposed the idea to Sam, Tucker and Jazz. They could go with him! But they refused, he knew why- they had lives to live far outside of ghosts and in this dimension. So for the sake of them and himself he stayed too.

But now they are gone too. Beyond even his reach as the ghost king. He waited, and waited, and waited even more. But they never came back and Danny still needed to satisfy his first obsession as well, so he went to Clockwork about it.

Knock Knock Knock.

“Enter Daniel.”

He always knew Danny would come to him eventually, but the only question was, what is his question? Danny wasn’t too sure what to ask either, so after entering he simply looked around like he was still 14 and he doesn’t look it either.He’s taller now, his ghost form got far less lanky and more muscular, unlike Dan, it was lean muscle at seven foot even he had navy blue skin, now, with freckled dots of white all over (He loves his skin, it looks like stars). His ears had begun to point out, and now stay that way, his hair mists off his head still snow white.

“What is it that concerns you so, young king?”

‘Weeelll, I- uhh.”

“I know what it is you want to do Daniel but what is it you want to ask?”

“Well. I want to be able to continue saving others, and documenting the stars. So, what door should I enter to do those two things?”

“Well, as you do know, you can now see the stars from anywhere. No matter the light pollution, so you are you asking for a world that still needs help?”

“Yes, I suppose as my obsession is helping…”

Clockwork hummed, and he looked away from the king. His cloak flowed around him as he turned toward the miroirs, the mirrors moved about encircling him as he thought.

Danny fidgeted.

“There is a door, it is purple, with intricate decorations of silver and a single gem where a window would be. It will pass by your castel while the dark parts of the zone cover it. Enter that one.”

“If I need to come back?”

“I will show you, it was an oversight not to do so before now.”

King Danny stayed with Clockwork for a short moment to learn how to make portals. And then he was off, rushing home. The once terrifying castle now looked like the model space ship that Danny used to have in his room. There are far more windows then the model but it also has the interior of a rather small cluttered home- even if it is bigger than Vlad’s castle in WI.

He waited close to a window, watching the Infinite Realms twist and twirl around him. To the King it seemed to be forever before it was dark around the castle, when it was he left the castle to look for the door.

He found it and with reverence entered it.

[charlietheepicwriter7]

Ghost Brother AU

What’s this??? A crossover between Danny Phantom and Miraculous Ladybug!?!?!? Yes!!!  (I have no clue how many people in the ml fandom have watched DP, but I’m going to try to describe it as best as possible without retelling DP’s plot)

So, during Ultimate Enemy, Clockwork doesn’t mess with the timeline and save Danny’s family, so not only does Danny have to live with the idea that one day he might become evil, but he’s also an orphan now. He’s 14, Marinette’s 11. 

To avoid living with his nemesis, Vlad Masters, and risk becoming Evil Danny, he runs away. Specifically to Paris, because he doesn’t think Vlad would look for him overseas and because he took french in high school.

Note: Danny is not good at French.

He ends up living on the streets for a few months, using his powers to steal food from dumpsters and sleep in inaccessible places. It works pretty well until he runs into Tom Dupain during one of his raids on the  Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie’s dumpster. 

Tom has Big Dad Energy and takes the extremely skinny teenager who barely speaks French inside and he and Sabine feed him. They manage to understand that Danny is an orphan runaway and that he's really afraid of his uncle.

Danny’s smart enough to use a fake name in this au, so he says his name is Samson Foley, Sammy for short. 

Because of this, when Tom and Sabine try to search for him, it doesn’t pop up, making them think that his uncle doesn’t care about him and that he’s right to runaway. 

The language barrier makes them think a lot of things, like “Sammy’s” parents have been dead for a long time and he’s been living with his uncle since. 

Even though “Sammy” doesn’t have papers, they can’t register him as family or send him to school, so Tom and Sabine say that he’s Tom’s distant cousin, Dan “Danny” Manson, who got kicked out, so he’s paying for a room in their house by working in the bakery (they’ve been needing extra hands anyway). He ends up doing school work online and learning to bake with Tom in back. 

Marinette wakes up the next day to discover she has an entire brother now and she’s thrilled. He’s kind of awkward around her for the first few weeks, but with his French improving daily and Mari being endearing, he resolves to become the best big brother ever. 

Tom and Sabine didn’t intend to start seeing Danny as a son, but he’s so good with Mari and so endearing that they can’t help it. And he sees them as parents too. They around the first year he lived with them, they asked if he would like to call them Maman and Pere and he breaks down crying.  

Danny gets therapy for his grief and guilt. He almost doesn’t want to go because it reminds him too much of Jazz, but Mari convinces him after finding him crying in the bathroom. 

Also, Danny is trans in this au. Taking T plus all the lifting in the bakery has left Danny ripped. 

Danny’s 17 when Stoneheart attacks and almost considers fighting him--those superhero instincts die hard--until Ladybug and Chat Noir appear. He’s relieved since if Phantom suddenly appears in Paris, Vlad and the Guys in White would know where to find him. 

Over the next month, he thinks its weird that Marinette’s started eating more and gaining muscle, but chalks it up to puberty. He’s more concerned about why her class has the biggest akuma population. He resolves to teach Mari marital arts to protect herself. 

He doesn’t meet Ladybug herself until Animan and, as a former superhero who was really bad at keeping his identity, he became really suspicious of the fact that Ladybug knew who he was without them meeting. However, he doesn’t know for sure until he sees her transform in front of him during the events of Befana. 

He ducks out of sight before she sees him, thinking “Jesus, this is how Jazz must have felt.” 

Like Jazz, he resolves himself to waiting for her to tell him herself and helping as indirectly as possible. Mainly, by working to find Hawkmoth. 

[kinglazrus]

Not Your Danny – Ch 5. Fresh Air

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Word count: 3075

Dani hesitates at the top of the stairs. The lab door, when closed, looks comically when compared to the rest of the house. Set halfway down the hall that bisects the house, from either end, the doorway appears normal. When you get closer, however, and the door itself comes into view, a smattering of warning signs greets your eyes. The yellow and black stripes, the deep red biohazard symbol, one bright green sign that just reads GHOSTS AHEAD!, are the only pops of colour against the off-white walls.

The signs draw the eye to a comical degree. They remind Dani of cheap Halloween decorations, slapped on the nearest empty surface in the hopes that more signs equal more scares.

It's not as funny when the door is open. Metal plating gleams along the walls, some of the seams between them crusted with dried ectoplasm. More stains litter the stairs, left by careless, unclean feet. Far below, the pristine white tiles of the lab floor are lit by a soft green glow.

She hasn't even entered the lab, but just a glimpse of the room below transports her back to Vlad's place in Wisconsin and that cold room where she spent hours alone. It was the worst before she learned how to go intangible, when she was stuck with nowhere to go. Vlad didn't have the time to go down to the lab every day, but when he could, he worked feverishly on making newer, better clones than her.

"Siblings for you," Vlad called them, but Dani knows the truth now. Replacements, since she hadn't been good enough for him.

So many times, Vlad made a clone that was almost stable, almost life-like, but they would die overnight. Dani could never take her eyes away from it, no matter how much it horrified her. Seeing other clones melt away to nothing, their skin sloughing off, muscle dripping from their bones until those, too, liquified into nothing.

If Vlad had known Danny was transgender, maybe he wouldn't have seen Dani as such a failure. He might have loved her properly—or at all.

She doesn't want to go down the stairs, not when such horrible memories are already clamouring for attention. But Maddie is down there, and it might be hours before she comes upstairs. Bracing herself against the wall, Dani leans forward on her toes and calls down. "Maddie?"

Although she can hear shuffling coming from below, she gets no answer.

"Maddie?" she says again, a little louder.

Still no answer.

Swallowing her nerves, Dani goes down the steps. She keeps her arms in, even as her legs shake and threaten to give out on her, she doesn't want to touch the walls. Her gaze doesn't stray from her feet, either, fixed firmly on where she is stepping. When she reaches the last stair, she squeezes her eyes shut.

It's fine. This isn't Vlad's lab. There might be some similarities, they aren't the same. Like her and Danny.

I am at Fenton Works. I am at home. I am at Fenton Works. She repeats the mantra over and over. Her heart doesn't stop pounding, but eventually, she has to look up or turn back around, and she doesn't want to give up now. Steeling herself, she looks up and opens her eyes.

It's not Vlad's lab.

Of course, it isn't. Dani knew that the whole time. Actually seeing it, however, fills her with relief. Instead of bubbling vats full of half-formed bodies, they have long counters full of inventions. Although the floors have a few scuffs and some noticeable burn marks, there are no dubious stains of questionable origin.

The only true similarity Dani can find is the specimen cabinet. Its glass doors reveal the rows upon rows of ectoplasmic samples hidden inside. The vials sit on labelled racks, sorted through some mysterious method Dan is not privy to.

One rack, near the front of the cabinet, is labelled PHANTOM, DANI. Out of the four vials, two are empty, the third is missing, and the fourth—her blood sample— is half-full. Looking around at all the weapons down here, Dani hopes her samples went to good use. The last thing she wants is one of these guns firing at her without warning.

Dani finds the missing vial with Maddie on the other side of the lab. Maddie sits at one of two desks, hers far neater than the other. The vial of ectoplasm, still capped, rests by Maddie's elbow. In front of her, a gun sprawls out in pieces. Maddie's head is lowered over the gun as she works on it.

"Maddie?" Dani asks.

Maddie takes a deep breath before looking up. She can't hide the slight widening of her eyes when she sees Dani's human face, but she doesn't flee, which is a vast improvement from last time. "Yes, dear?"

"Is it okay if I go out somewhere?"

"Of course. Where do you want to go?"

"Nowhere in particular. I haven't left the house since I got here."

"Really? That can't be right."

"It is." To be completely honest, Dani hadn't been sure if she was allowed to leave. The Fentons never laid out any ground rules for staying with them. Nor did they let her in on what a usual household day is like. After a week and a half, Dani has figured out more or less how things go, but only now does she realize that the Fentons never did anything to accommodate her.

Not that she knows what accommodations she needs, but it's odd, isn't it? Someone new moves in and they keep doing what they have always done.

"I didn't even notice," Maddie admits. "I'm so used to D—the kids doing whatever they want as long as they aren't out late. You don't need to ask us if you want to go somewhere." She leans back over the dismantled gun, grabbing a core piece with a dozen little wires sticking out of it. "Don't forget to text. And be home by curfew, young man."

—

Depends on when that is.

Maddie's mind fills in the automatic response, a perfect copy of Danny's usual snark. Several seconds pass before she realizes no one said it out loud. She glances up from her work and finds herself alone in the lab. Dani left without saying anything. The discovery cuts her deeper than it has any right to.

Maddie's parting remark runs through her head again. She gasps, finally registering what she said, and drops the barrel component in her hand.

She goes over her parting remark in her head and gasps. She didn't mean to say that. The words rose instinctively to her lips, spoken without any consideration of who she had been talking to. It was such a small thing, too; a meaningless ritual built between Danny and Maddie over the years.

"Be home by curfew," she would say.

"Depends on when that is," he would answer.

When was the last time she and Danny had this exchange? It only happened when he told her he was going out, which wasn't very often in recent years, but the instinct was still there. Maddie presses a hand against her eyes.

Danny's absence resonated throughout Fenton Works, but little moments like this cut deeper than they should. All their little rituals. Backwash soda. Small things Maddie didn't realize she would miss until they were gone. And at the centre of it all was Dani, subject to Maddie's moments of weakness, filling in that piece of her Danny took when he died, but not quite fitting.

Maybe this was a mistake.

"I'm sorry, Dani," she tells the empty lab.

—

It feels good to fly again. Sitting in the house with nothing to do, Dani was starting to get stir crazy. Finally getting some fresh air in her lungs and some wind in her hair does wonders to alleviate her mood. Not even Maddie's slip up in the lab can bring Dani down now, no matter how much thinking about it makes her skin prickle.

She soars far over the city, letting her instincts take over as the people below get smaller and smaller.

Amity Park airspace is perfect for flying. It sees so little traffic from planes, drones, or anything else like that. People in the area know to steer clear of the skies in case a ghost is about. Danny once told her that the airport actually diverts planes around the city if they're flying too low.

Not even birds like to be up here.

Dani relishes the feeling of wind buffeting her body. She lets her control slip, plummeting through the air. Spreading her arms, she guides her fall without the use of her powers, grinning wide against the roaring wind. She and Danny might not have liked all the same things, but they could certainly agree on this: there is nothing more amazing than flying.

A good hour passes with Dani in the air. She dips down toward the city a few times, swooping through the streets. The tall downtown buildings and fast-moving cars make a great obstacle course, especially when she flies at top speed.

"Is that Phantom?" someone shouts.

Dani has to stop and backtrack, flying by the voice so fast she almost doesn't hear it. Lounging in the air, she peers down at the sidewalk. "Someone called?"

A kid holding his mother's hand scowls. "You're not Phantom."

Dani sticks her tongue out at the brat. "Dani-with-an-I Phantom, thank you very much."

"I don't care. You're not Danny Phantom."

Dani's smile freezes in place. The brat, who can't be more than eight, makes a rude gesture over his shoulder as his mom pulls him away.

"Charming kid!" Dani shouts after them. The woman pulls her son along faster. Dani's expression goes flat. The brief exchange leaves a sour taste in her mouth and an ache in her chest. Flying right now doesn't seem fun anymore. She lowers herself to the street, ignoring the whispers around her, and transforms.

A few people gasp, but she ignores that, too. Who cares if they see her? The whole city already knows the truth about Danny. It wouldn't take a genius to reach the same conclusions about her.

Her hands go to the front of her shirt, seeking out her hoodie pocket. Belatedly, she remembers that she hasn't worn the hoodie in days. At night, she puts on the pyjamas Maddie bought for her, and in the morning she dons her new favourite shirt along with one of the several skirts Jazz gave her.

The first time Dani transformed from human to ghost wearing these clothes, she was worried they might disappear, or her hoodie and shorts would reappear. To her utter delight, no such thing happened. The skirt she wears now is a little long for her. She has it pulled up to her waist, with the star shirt tucked underneath, and rolled the waistband several times until the skirt rested around her knees. The soft fabric swishes about her legs, so much lighter than what she is used to.

Taking in her surroundings, Dani notes the big box stores around her. She recognizes the area, although she has only seen it from the air. The Amity Par Mall should be somewhere close by. Although Dani doesn't have any money for clothes, she could window shop and look at what's available. That should help lift her spirits.

—

The usual chatter blankets the mall food court. Beyond the tables, a kiosk for a local store advertises unique Danny Phantom merch. T-shirts, phone cases, and hats bearing Danny's iconic logo sit out on display. From her seat facing the kiosk, Sam can see water bottles shaped like the Fenton Thermos, plushies that vaguely resemble the local haunts, and even a few fake ecto-guns.

But the centrepiece of the display is a poster, unmistakably new. It features Danny twice over, as Phantom and Fenton, standing back-to-back with himself. The sight of it fills her with rage.

"How dare they." Sam seethes.

Seated across from her, Tucker nods. The soda cup in his hand crumples as his grip tightens. "Isn't that illegal, too? Using his likeness and all?"

"Absolutely. Especially since he's a minor."

"Was," Tucker corrects her, his voice soft.

"Right. Was." The memory of Danny's last moments flashes through her mind. Sam flinches, closing her eyes in an attempt to shut the image out. It doesn't work. The moment is all too vivid in her mind and she doesn't think it will ever fade.

Movies like to give heroes slow deaths, dramatic last words spoken with a final breath, the warmth of a loved one nearby. They make it so easy to forget that most of the time people don't get anything like that. Most of the time they drop, and they're gone.

Her hands feel sticky and warm, her throat hoarse.

The stunned silence of the street after it happened presses down on her.

"Looks like they have a website. I take care of that and you take care of the lawyers?" Tuck says.

Sam opens her eyes. She has to rub her hands together to remind her they're dry now, have been for weeks. Still, that doesn't stop her from picturing dried blood beneath her nails.

"Yeah," she says after a moment. "Sounds like a plan."

Whoever owns that kiosk is going to regret using their dead best friend for profit. Sam and Tucker will make them burn.

Sam's glare turns from the man working the kiosk to the shoppers browsing its wares. Her anger stretches to them, too, though not as much. She can't blame a child for wanting merch of their hero. Three of the five shoppers lingering around the stand are children, the oldest in her teens. Except instead of happily perusing the merch like her younger counterparts, this girl glares at the stand with nearly as much hatred as Sam.

Something about her is familiar, too. Sam can't see her profile in full, since the girl is angled away, but she can't shake the feeling that she's seen this girl before.

"Holy shit, is that Danielle?" Tucker asks.

Sam's eyes widen. He's right. Without the signature red and blue, Sam didn't recognize her. Dani's new outfit suits her, though. "Jazz said she saw Dani before the funeral. Where has she been?"

Sam stands up. Tucker rises with her, having the same idea. They dump their food trays at the garbage station and make a beeline for Dani.

"Danielle!" Tucker waves to the halfa, who turns at his shout.

Dani smiles when she sees them. "Hey!"

"Nice shirt." Tucker flicks Dani's collar. "About time someone put it to good use."

"Are you staying at Fenton Works?" Sam asks. Like Tucker, she recognizes the shirt and knows there's only one place Dani could have gotten it.

Dani kicks the floor with her heel, the sole of her shoes squeaking against the tiles. "Yeah. Jazz invited me to move in. It's... okay."

Over Dani's head, Sam and Tucker share a concerned look. They recognize that tone. It's one of the few things Dani and Danny have in common, at least that Sam has seen. Dani's voice dips at the end of her sentence, going low and flat. Jazz does it, too, sometimes. It's probably a Fenton thing more than it is a Danny and Dani thing.

"What's wrong?" Sam asks.

"Trouble adjusting, that's all. It's not a big deal." Dani shrugs.

Sam wants to question her further but lets the subject drop. It's fine if Dani wants to keep it to herself, although Sam prefers if she didn't. Either way, they aren't going to leave her like this.

"Doing some shopping?" Sam already knows the answer, though. Dani doesn't have a purse, or a wallet, or any money with her by the looks of it.

Dani confirms her suspicions. "Just looking."

"Cool. Can we look with you?" Tucker rests an arm on Dani's head, using her as a post for leaning. It works like a charm, drawing a half-hearted grumble and a small smile out of Dani. "We're here to people watch. And take care of assholes like this." Tucker nods toward the Phantom kiosk.

This time, Dani giggles. "Yeah, sure. We can take you to all the girl stores."

Tucker pales. "Wait, no. I change my mind."

"Too late!" Dani latches onto the arm resting on her head.

Sam quickly grabs Tucker's other arm until he's squished between the two girls, growing rapidly more distressed as they steer toward the closest store with a bright pink sign. These kinds of stores aren't Sam's thing, and she normally wouldn't be caught dead in one, but she can put up with it for a while if it keeps the smile on Dani's face.

—

Dani takes her bag from the store clerk with nothing short of reverence lighting her face. Even though she just watched the clerk pack it, Dani can't help but open the bag and peer inside at her new purchases: a skirt, a pair of shorts, and a handful of button-ups like the one she already wears.

Beside her, Sam slips her wallet back into her pocket.

"Have a nice day!" the clerk says.

"Thanks. You, too!" Tucker's hand settles on Dani's back, nudging her out of the store.

As soon as they exit, Dani spins and jumps at Sam. "Thank you so much!" When they went into the store, she didn't expect to find anything she liked, but everything inside was so different from what she found in Danny's closet. Especially the pastel colours.

"Consider it a welcome home present," Sam says. Her arm curls around Dani's back, squeezing her tightly.

"Group hug!" Tucker says before draping himself over both of them.

Dani's breath catches in her throat. When was the last time she touched someone like this? Sam and Tucker's arms surrounded her, their warmth making her skin tingle. For a second, she can't breathe, so overwhelmed by the contact that everything else ceases to exist.

Against her will, her shoulders start to shake. She clings to Sam and Tucker tighter, fists gripping the back of their shirts as she draws them closer. Tears welled in her eyes, rising from somewhere deep within her that she had been pushing down. Now, though, in the warmth of Sam and Tucker's embrace, Dani cries for the first time since Danny died.

Previous | Next

[phantomphangphucker]

Ectober Day 30: Disguise - The Guise Of Change

When Danny died he really didn’t change much at all, and that was a problem. But ghosts only resembled their living selves rather than looking the same as they once did.

Danny’s well aware his disguise is flimsy at best, borderline non-existent at worst. The divide between his two halves was practically reliant on the fact that being half-dead was illogical and should be impossible. Like, literally and explicitly impossible; even in the opinion of ghost experts. Slapping on a jumpsuit and some colour changes does not a good identity-hiding costume make. He had felt a little jealous of Vlad in that regard. Put Masters and Plasmius next to each other and almost no one is going to think they’re even related. The face shape was pretty much the only similarity, but the shadows a ghosts glowing eyes could throw across their faces really changed the way their faces looked. Ancients, that’s probably the only reason his parents’ hadn’t recognised Danny Phantom’s face as being identical to their son's face. Same for the rest of his body honestly, his jumpsuit didn’t exactly hide his figure. If he lost his glow he would have probably be screwed. Utterly screwed.

Problem was, he couldn’t change his ghost form. That was literally just his body, his suit was basically a second skin. Hair couldn’t be dyed and if he wanted to wear a mask it would get constantly destroyed, and he’d have to carry it with him constantly. The chances of someone finding said mask on human Danny Fenton was too great a risk and absolutely would get him revealed in a heartbeat. And he wasn’t about to ask Vlad how the heck his ghost form looked so different from his human one. Even the guy's physique changed. Masters was a skinny man, Plasmius had a comically broad chest. But Danny’s not about to let that man think he’s learned anything from him. Vlad is not going to be his mentor in any shape, way, or form. Fuck that guy and his villainous ulterior motives.

So that had kinda left him in a bit of a pickle. So what did he do? Eh, what he usually does. Ignored the problem and hoped it went away, while also making his paranoia just that much worse. Did that usually work out for him? Hell no. It usually bit him squarely and directly in the ass soon rather than later. So whole ass, he expected to get bit; and probably by some stupid mistake or something ridiculously simple. Like someone taking a photo of him and accidentally turning on their phone’s colour invert. His parents’ tech messing up was always a possibility and had almost shattered his disguise more than once. To this day he is supremely glad that Dash is a bloody moron and that his dad is stupidly easily distracted. But standing in front of his mirror changing between his forms, he thinks he might just avoid that ass bite for once in his half-life.

Watching the muscle on his arm change, shrinking down in human form to the point where he’s borderline scrawny then bulking up in ghost form to the point where he thinks he’s got a more muscular look than Dash does. Even his bone structure seemed to be changing now. His ghost form had a muscular broadness that his human form simply didn’t. Even his hands got bigger in that strong man muscular way. It weirded him out a little actually. But his running theory was that all the fighting and his increasing ecto-level was all going to his ghost half, rather than his human one.

Sure he knows now that some of the other changes -like his fangs, claws, and tapered ears- were just him starting to develop into an adult ghost. His jumpsuit was going through its own changes naturally too, but that really doesn’t help him disguise himself at all. Plus the similarities to Dan’s jumpsuit, that he was starting to notice, was hard to feel happy about. At least he hasn’t started forming a cape or anything yet; even if that actually would help make his body look different between forms. Well okay, the pointiness did frame his muscles in a way that made them a little more noticeable. So he guesses it does help a little.

The wavy smoky look his hair was taking definitely hid its shape, he just seriously hoped it stays wavy thick smoke and doesn’t transition into full-on flames. Sure that would make his forms look even more different, but he’d rather his forms look similar than look like Dan. But... sighing and shaking his head at the mirror, Dan was his future self, that’s probably what he’s going to look like no matter what he does. Well, excluding the red eyes. ClockWork had told him how the eye colour change had been due to Core damage that the whole ‘tearing out his humanity’ thing caused. He used to tell himself that he wouldn’t wind up looking like Dan since future Vlad said Dan was a combination of Phantom and Plasmius. But nope, according to the much more trustable resource that is ClockWork, Phantom had cannibalised Plasmius in pretty much a psychotic bout of madness. Since apparently completely cannibalising another ghost can make you stronger and even steal their powers. Danny is never making use of that information.

Changing back human, another good thing was that none of the injuries he got ever scarred. Because no way could he explain all the kinds of scars he would have otherwise. Running a hand over his jaw, even his face was leaner in human form; and his cheekbones and eyes were a little shadowed/sunken like he didn’t quite eat or sleep enough, which he didn’t. He was starting to get facial hair in both forms though, at least it was kinda smoky in ghost form though. Running his thumb over the stubble, it annoyed the heck out of him how it was growing in as a pointy goatee and literally nothing he did seemed to change that. He’s pretty much resigned himself to the look at this point because he is not just shaving it off. He’s also resigned himself to Vlad making ‘approving’ and ‘mocking’ comments about it. Whatever, the guy can shove it.

Now, the only thing he didn’t like about the differences between his forms was that it wasn’t just his appearance. He actually was physically weaker in human form. He didn’t just look scrawny, he was scrawny. It was annoying as Hell and very often he forgot that he couldn’t lift something in human form that he could in ghost form. It almost annoyed him enough to make a damn point to workout in human form. Problem was, that would run the risk of his human form developing in the same way as his ghost one. He didn’t want to make his forms look even more similar. And Ancients, both Fenton and Phantom bulking up? Talk about suspicious. That would be just another thing for anyone suspicious of him to add to their lists of suspicious shit. So he’d rather put up with the annoyance and inconvenience of a weak human form. Hell, he wore baggy clothing to accentuate his skinniness.

Moving to flop down face-first in bed, changing between forms a bit just to feel his feet dangle off the bed slightly and then not at all. The height difference was something else getting annoying. He’s blaming that on him not eating enough, his ghost forms height had nothing to do with a good diet, unlike his human form. He honestly expects that as an adult there’s going to be a solid foot difference between his forms. Maybe more. Honestly? He’s just gonna have to get used to the differences. Even something as simple as rolling his shoulders or taking a deep breath felt so different between forms. But hey, it was worth his secret identity not being nearly as see-threw as glass. Now it was more like very foggy glass.

The personality differences he made a damn point to emphasis between his forms probably helped too, which used to be hard to do but now it just felt natural to be meek and timid while human then bold and carefree while ghost. Which Jazz worries wasn’t exactly healthy, for him to effectively be juggling two personalities, that he genuinely might have forcibly developed two personalities. Even his friends have pointed out how he’d act a little differently based on form even when it was just with them. But needs be musts. If he had a level of a split personality then so be it. Besides, being stronger made him feel bolder, being smaller made him feel like more of a pushover. That just seemed right and natural. Being tiny just makes people feel tiny. Being large in a muscular way just makes people feel imposing. That’s normal, right? Eh oh well, if it’s not then it’s not. He’s not normal in the first place anyway. And yeah, he wasn’t doing the whole superhero disguise thing even remotely normal or according to the movies and comic books. But fuck it, it seemed like it was going to work out for him, and he doesn’t have to carry around a suit or disguise crap. There will be no changing in phone-booths for him or wearing a jumpsuit under his clothing (which honestly? Talk about an easy way to get caught).

Hell, maybe those fictional heroes should be jealous of him. All he had to do was alter his molecular/genetic structure and the substance his body was made out of, not cart around a whole ass disguise and perpetually speed change. And now that his body was changing, well maybe he actually was lucky.

End.

[darks-ink]

Commission for @kaiofficialdp, featuring Dan and their OC Kai. Thank you Tumblr for eating the linebreak, please don’t do it again when I go to post this please

---

Kai slowed his already casual flight as his eye caught on a speck of sharply contrasting white and black. Neither of those colors were rare in the wastelands around Amity Park, but together? Together, they were most commonly found on Dan.

He steered towards the speck. And, as he had expected, found Dan. The ghost was sitting on the edge of some ruins that Kai didn’t care to identify. Dan’s posture, slumped forward and leaning his elbows on his knees, with his face down-turned, suggested that he was moping.

Or so Kai thought, at least, until he came closer. Now he could more clearly see the set of Dan’s shoulders, the tenseness in his muscles, the emotional flickering of his hair. Even with his face hidden from Kai, it was clear that Dan wasn’t just moping. No, he was genuinely distressed.

Well, he can’t let that lie, can he? If something was serious enough to distress Dan, maybe Kai could help.

Touching down on the same crumbling ruins as Dan was sitting on, Kai landed almost silently, bar the quiet patter of debris stirred by his boots. Dan didn’t respond in the least, but this was not particularly surprising, as very little in the wastelands was a threat to him.

“Dan,” Kai greeted him, crouching down next to Dan. He only got a grunt in response.

“You look…” Kai paused, digging for the right word, “…troubled. You look troubled, Dan.”

A black gloved hand flapped vaguely in his direction. “It’s nothing,” Dan hissed back, but it felt dispassionate, without heat.

“It doesn’t look like nothing,” Kai countered, narrowing his eyes. “Tell me what happened. Was it Valerie? Something in Amity?”

Dan snarled, his lip curling, then shook his head. Remained quiet.

Kai sighed, placed his own gloved hands on the edge of the ruins, and kicked his feet out in front of him, sitting down next to Dan. The dust would doubtlessly stain his black coat, but that was easy enough to fix later.

“What can I do to help?” he prodded, since Dan still hadn’t answered his prior question. What could possibly stop that ghost from answering?

Dan just sighed, deeply and heavily, before flapping his hand at Kai again. “Go away.”

Now that was just weirdly out of character for Dan. Kai wavered for a moment before setting his shoulders and, unable to meet Dan’s eye, settled for staring at him earnestly. “No. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing,” Dan said, after a long pause. “Nothing new.”

Kai clenched his jaw, but Dan still didn’t look up at him, and likely didn’t even realize. “So it’s something old?” He wasn’t sure what to do with that information. If something had just happened, he could help, could maybe fix it or something. But something in the past? That had never bothered Dan before.

Or had he just kept it hidden from Kai?

Dan sniffed, twisting his head towards Kai, finally. His red eyes were narrowed, his mouth drawn in a grimace, fangs glinting in the low light. “You’re still not leaving?”

“I wanted to help,” Kai countered, shifting slightly to sit more comfortably. “And that’s still true. If it’s something in the past I probably can’t change it, but talking about it might help.”

He got a skeptical snort in return for that. “It happened a decade ago,” Dan said, faux casually. “I highly doubt that you could change that.”

Well, fair enough. “Talk about it, then,” Kai insisted. Even if he wasn’t the best at emotional stuff, he could at least sit down and listen. That alone might help some.

“It’s stupid.” Dan grunted, as if displeased with himself. “It happened so long ago. What’s the point of all this if I’m feeling emotional about it now?”

“Sometimes it takes a little time for something to settle in,” Kai offered, but it felt silly even to himself. That usually meant hours, or perhaps days. He couldn’t imagine it taking years, but, well, he wasn’t exactly an expert, was he?

Dan snorted, clearly just as convinced as Kai himself was.

“I thought I had gotten away from it all,” Dan finally said, voice so soft it was almost a whisper. “I had pushed it all away, gone through all that just to get away from this stuff. And now…” He made a sharp, derisive noise. “Now this.”

Kai cast around for the right words to use, to comfort his partner. “You can’t heal from the past just by ignoring it,” he finally settled on, fiddling with his fingers and wondering if touching Dan would help. “Tell me, Dan. Let me help.”

“All the stuff that happened years ago finally caught up to me,” Dan said, his black-clad fingers combing through his flaming hair. “Everything that I pushed away, that I thought I’d gotten over… It’s finally hitting me.”

Dan shook his head suddenly, jerkily, then snarled, “It’s hitting me again.”

---

It was stupid, was all it was. After all he’d done to separate his weak, pathetic human side, to get rid of those hindering emotions, they just came back? Absolutely ridiculous. What was the point of becoming an all-powering full ghost if he could still be haunted by his memories, by emotions he had left behind a long time ago?

Just obscene. That’s what it really was. Horrifically stupid. He was supposed to be beyond this! He had moved past it all years ago, when he split his human side away and merged with Vlad’s ghost instead. So why did it come back now? Why was he suddenly overwhelmed by events that transpired a decade ago?

Every time he closed his eyes, he could see the fireball that took out the Nasty Burger, and his loved ones with it. Every moment of silence was filled with the phantoms of their screams, the pressing silence that followed the explosion.

Whenever he approached Amity, his eyes were inevitably drawn back to the place where it had all happened, to the charred place that, to this day, remained untouched by Amity’s survivors.

To the statues that rested in front of it. The permanent marks of his friends, his family. Set in stone, forever the same. Unchanged and unchanging.

He made a sharp noise, aware of Kai watching him. Keen vermilion eyes were set on him, impossible to dismiss. Despite his earlier attempts at getting his partner to leave him alone, Kai insisted on being here.

Well, if he wanted to hear it so badly, why not?

“A decade ago, my family and my friends died,” Dan said, his voice low and rough. He stared ahead of himself, not meeting Kai’s eyes. “My father, my mother. My elder sister. My two closest…” He scoffed, harshly, then corrected, “My only friends.”

Kai didn’t speak, so Dan continued on. “They were at the Nasty Burger, all five of them, because of me. Do you know how much extremely flammable and explosive material they keep there?” A sharp humorless cackle. “Let me tell you, they had a lot of it! And most of it not particularly ghost-proof either! So if a ghost fight ever happened there, like for example, if amazingly heroic Danny Phantom shot a few ecto-blasts while chasing a ghost…”

Dan snapped his fingers. “Whoosh, just like that. Just one spark, and then everything goes. Like a big chain of fire and explosions.”

They sat in silence for a moment, as Dan’s mind relentlessly replayed his memories of that day. Sometimes he wished he could reach into his core and just rip out those pesky thoughts, the recordings of the whole chain of events. Why would he ever need that information, anyway? It had happened. It had led to this, to the here and now. That was all he needed to know, wasn’t it? What good was it for him to remember all of it to such a degree? To get caught up in emotions over it?

No good, that was the answer. It was absolutely pointless. If anything, it was actively harmful, a distraction and a bother.

“It’s not your fault that Nasty Burger didn’t properly secure their material,” Kai pointed out, finally, breaking Dan out of his chain of thoughts. “If they possessed material that so easily caught on fire when exposed to ecto-rays, they should have guarded it better, especially in a town such as Amity Park.”

Dan scoffed, unconvinced. “Yeah, right. The other ghost didn’t fire any rays. It was only me, and only because I was so focused on chasing ‘em. If I had held off until we were away from the restaurant, from the people… Or if I had behaved better, and none of them had come to the Nasty Burger in the first place!”

He forcibly snapped his mouth shut, teeth loudly clacking. What on Earth was he doing? Spilling emotional garbage all over his partner? Ugh. Bad enough that he was feeling these dumb emotions that he should’ve been over, but now he was spewing them at Kai as well? What was next, telling Valerie? Yikes.

“There’s no point in blaming yourself,” Kai told him, posture stiff, clearly uncomfortable with the task of making Dan feel better. “Perhaps you could have prevented it, but you can’t take the entire blame for it. And you have learned from it, haven’t you? It was a mistake, but one you won’t make again.”

“Hard to repeat it when I only had the one family to get killed,” Dan scoffed, shaking his head.

“You have me,” Kai pointed out, raising a challenging eyebrow at Dan. “Or do I not count as a loved one?”

Dan hummed at that. Well, Kai wasn’t wrong, was he? Instead of acknowledging that, however, Dan changed the topic entirely. “It’s not like I can repeat what happened afterwards, anyway. Hard to split off my ghost half when I am already full ghost.”

Kai made an agreeing sound at that. “And even if you could, where would you find a second half to stabilize yourself with?”

“Hm.” Looking back, it was rather stupid of Vlad to not have considered that. Dan hadn’t even needed to overpower the older half-ghost, as the element of surprise had been enough, both to split Vlad and to merge with the separated ghost half. “Once was enough.”

“Are you feeling better, then?” Kai leaned forward to catch Dan’s eye, but he looked away. “Now that you’ve talked?”

Dan harrumphed, unwilling to admit that it had helped at least a little. He still felt terrible, still felt haunted by the past, but… talking about it had eased the strain some. “I could’ve managed,” he retorted instead.

Kai caught his eye, staring at him intently, like he was trying to find the words to tell Dan in Dan’s own eyes. Clearly Kai didn’t know what he was doing either, struggling to find the right things to say, to find a way to comfort Dan. “You’re allowed to miss them, you know?” Kai settled on. “Even if you’ve been around so long without them, there’s nothing wrong with missing them. Acknowledging it, being willing to process the pain instead of shoving it away, that might help.”

“Oh, how would you know?” Dan dismissed with a flap of his hand. “I’ve been fine so far, and I’ll be fine for longer.”

“Will you?” Kai countered, leaning back slightly. “What do you want me to tell you instead, then? That at least your parents and friends aren’t suffering? That they would be proud of how strong you’ve become?” Kai scoffed. “That you’re better off without them holding you back?”

Dan huffed, squinting at his partner. “You’re not the type to tell me things you don’t sincerely believe.”

“Fine.” Kai shifted suddenly, standing up next to Dan. With a few short movements he dusted off his black jacket, then with a jerk, offered his gloved hand to Dan. “Come on. Moping around here clearly isn’t going to fix it.”

“And what do you plan to do instead?” Dan asked, raising an eyebrow but already extending his own hand to grasp Kai’s.

“I’m sure we could find something to do that would make you feel better,” Kai said, pulling Dan up. “Shall we?”

Dan looked at the navy fingers tangled with his own. “Yes,” he agreed. “Let’s.”

[cordria]

The Tale of Vlad (1)

“I want-”

“You forever want something. Did your parents never teach you patience?”

“Vlad!”

“Oooh, there’s the scary eyes.” Vlad leaned back in his chair, a faint grin tugging at his lips. Even though the child was a complete pest, there was something still endearing about being around the only other halfling in existence. And the boy was quite fun to torment. “I’m trembling in terror.”

Daniel scowled and stuffed his hands into his pockets, the green glitter in his eye fading away at the admonition. “But I want-”

Vlad let the faint grin grow into a delighted sneer. “I want, I want, I want,” he teased. “How old are you again? Three?” 

The boy’s jaw visibly clenched, the muscles working under the skin. “I’m trying to ask you a question,” he finally ground out. 

“Oh? I couldn’t tell.” Putting his feet up on his desk, Vlad leaned back, hands behind his head. “Do go on, then.”

“Why do you hate my parents so much?” 

Vlad scowled, light-hearted mood vanished like a popped balloon. “Your father caused the accident that-” 

Daniel cut in, shaking his head. “It’s not enough. It’s never made sense. So Dad married Mom. And yeah, Dad pushed a button and got you the ghost powers that let you become a millionaire-”

“Billionaire,” Vlad corrected.

“...billionaire. But that’s not… enough.”

“It’s more than enough,” Vlad said, pulling his feet off his desk and sitting properly in his chair. Picking up a pen and shuffling through papers, he tried to give off the ‘I’m busy, go away’ vibe that sent so many of his office assistants scurrying.

Of course, the child was too dense to pick up on it. Instead, Daniel snatched the pen from Vlad’s hand, earning him a red-eyed glower. “Oooh, scary eyes,” the boy said.

Vlad scowled, less at the slight chide and more at the fact that he’d been successfully goaded into it. He zapped the pen from Daniel’s hand, and then plucked a new one from his desk. “Begone. I’m sick of your silly ‘witty banter’.”

“I’ve been thinking about it. And it doesn’t make sense. It’s not enough, not based off what Dad said.” The boy continued to stand there, completely missing the nonverbal (and verbal) cues that Vlad wanted him to leave. “You and Mom never dated. She never liked you like that. It was just a crush. And you disappeared from both of their lives for twenty years. Someone who hates Dad that much wouldn’t disappear-”

“Enough.” The word held enough power that it stopped Daniel’s running mouth. “Yes, perhaps it’s not enough. Perhaps you are right. Perhaps there is more to my hatred of your father than meets the eye, or my love of your mother. Perhaps.” He leaned over his desk, standing up for full looming effect. “But the last person I’m going to tell is you.” 

The child didn’t cower, even the slightest. He simply tipped his head to the side and studied Vlad. “Clockwork knows, but he won’t tell me either. He said it was your story, sort of like Dan was mine.”

Vlad’s eyes narrowed. “Dan?”

Daniel arched an eyebrow and a grin flickered onto his face. “I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”

Vlad thought about it for a whole second longer than absolutely necessary. “No.” He sat back down, and decided it best to be blunt. “Go away.”

“I want-”

Vlad looked up at the boy, face blank.

Something about the expression must have stopped Daniel in his tracks, because the child just stared for a second. His mouth moved silently a few seconds before his shoulders drooped and he vanished.

Vlad scowled. “There are cameras, child,” he hissed, making a small note to come back and erase the footage of that. Small glares and zaps would go unnoticed, but someone just upright vanishing would draw attention. Then he sighed and picked up his paperwork.

It was only a few moments before Vlad’s hand crept to his chest, slowly massaging an ache that had settled in his ribs. The memory of a scar that never existed, not anymore. With a scowl, Vlad set down his pen and crossed his arms. “I despise that boy,” he muttered, disgusted by the fact that he couldn’t push away the painful memories had dusted up by Daniel’s questions.

It would be a good night to get drunk. Incredibly, horribly drunk. And wake up hoping the worst of the memories were gone.

[scientifically-strange]

How about some insane af Danny (in a Dan way) and how the Avengers realize they can't do anything against him?

There wasn’t a specific point you could pin down and analyze. Danny going…Dark had been a buildup of several, countless things. Although, it was sooner or later bound to happen to the twenty-five year old.

First it started out with the nightmares. Both from the ghost fighting, villain fighting, and from when he first got his powers. Then it was probably when he was almost seventeen and his parents turned on him once they found out he was half ghost. Of course, he was already a part-time member of the Avengers, so he had somewhere to go. But home wasn’t it.

Tucker had been killed in the field. Stabbed by Taskmaster, and by the time they had gotten him to a hospital it was already too late. Danny had been 18.

Next was Sam, his beloved girlfriend and hopefully future wife. He will never get tat chance ever again. Nobody knew him like Sam had, and now that she was gone, he started to get irritable, defensive, reclusive. She had drowned at Niagara Falls while they were saving the world with the Fantastic Four. Danny hadn’t spoken to them since. He had been twenty years old.

Then, of all the people he thought were most protected, the one person who could never die on him…Had.

Jazz had made something of herself. She was one of the world’s top psychologists at the young age of twenty-nine, and was world famous. On top of that she helped him get through his PTSD and self-guilt while also occasionally helping from the sidelines. Then Vlad had shown up…

It was probably an accident, Danny knew. Vlad had never tried to murder Jazz. But he had gotten more ruthless through the years, and his slow mental decline sped up when Jazz uttered her last words in his arms.

After that, Vlad was nowhere to be seen. Plasmius or Masters.

Danny had made sure of it.

The Avengers , his friends, had tried helping, but they couldn’t. Not really. And when Danny realized that, he became unhinged.

Probably permanently.

He started killing the villains. First it was the Red Skull, who had been just as surprised as the rest of the world, who, at first, had considered it a win. No more Nazis to deal with. Then it was Taskmaster. Partly for Tucker, partly because it made him feel good inside. Watching his skull be crushed beneath his foot had been to satisfying. And when he possessed Loki and choked himself to death? Priceless. Danny hadn’t had that much fun in years.

A part of him kept expecting the Avengers or Clockwork to stop him, but Clockwork stayed in the Zone, and the Avengers couldn’t even touch him.

When the Thing got in his way, he turned the boulder-like man to pebbles.

Several heroes tried and failed to take Danny down. But the ghost boy was seven feet tall and made of solid muscle. Even his parents came out of their hiding spots in Amity and tried taking a shot at him. Killing them had been a weight off of his shoulders. Like a type of closure.

He was confused why people thought they could take over the world when they were this weak. Many of them couldn’t even take over New York. It took Danny maybe five minutes and his biggest Ghostly Wail ever to make the city crumple.

Dr. Doom had found him, ad had tried a partnership, but it quickly ended when Danny half drowned him before snapping his neck.

He didn’t know when his eyes turned red, but he thought he looked better like that anyway.

“There’s gotta be some way we can take him down,” Clint said. They were in an underground hideout they had never told Danny about. It was him, Cap, Iron Man, Natasha, Nick Fury, Johnny Storm, and a couple of Defenders, and about a quarter of the X-Men. Thor was in Asgard getting together an army as they spoke. But while they were too busy trying to make a plan, Phantom-a name the whole world had learned to fear-was taking down the Russian Empire.

“We weaken him and send in Thor’s army. Then, when he’s distracted, we go in for the killing blow,” Fury stated.

“Wait, what?” Spider-Man sounded appalled. “We can’t just kill him! He used to be our friend! Maybe we should try helping him instead!”

“Was he your friend when he dropped a building on your aunt?” Logan snapped. “Or when he turned Ben into a crappy pile of rocks? Or how about when he murdered the Hulk in cold blood? He was friends with Big Green too. Parker-he’s not our friend anymore. He’s a cold blooded killer that needs to be taken down, and the only way to do that is if he dies.”

“But he’s already half-dead,” Natasha stated. “What about his Fenton Thermos?”

“Too weak to hold him. He’ll break through within minutes, and that’s if we’re lucky,” Iron Man replied. “And none of the ghosts will help us, they’re all to afraid of him. Except for maybe Clockwork, but he’s not allowed to get involved.”

“I find that I can break a few rules if it means sparring humanity.”

They all whirled around at the ghost who had appeared before them, his purple cloak billowing behind him despite the lack of a draft.

“And we’re just supposed to site here and trust whatever you have to say?” Luke Cage said defensively.

“I understand your concern. But he’s a sort of pupil of mine, therefore he is my responsibility. I should have gotten involved sooner. However, ever since he wiped out the Observants I am free to roam as I please. Gather your armies. We will meet him in Denver tomorrow.”

“How do you know?” Beast asked.

“I’m the Master of Time. I see everything.”

——–

Thor was there, and so were the Warriors Three and Lady Sif, the most fiercest warriors in Asgard. Along with the Asgardians came Frost Giants and dwarves, all equipped for battle. On top of that, every hero left alive through the carnage that Phantom had caused was standing along side them, ready to take down their former friend.

They were ready.

———-

At the end of it all, a good portion of them hadn’t made it. Several Asgardians and Frost Giants had lost their lives. The Fantastic Four and Defenders were no more, and there was only a handful of X-Men left. The Avengers had lost quite a few, but had the largest remaining super-group. Iron Man, Cap, Thor, Vision, and Dr. Strange were among the very few that were left.

Danny Phantom’s still body laid in the middle of the crater. His eyes were closed, and he was no longer breathing. Clockwork had assured them that he was dead, and he would stay dead. He had already surpassed his full ghost form, and now he was ended.

All of the heroes watched as two white rings split at his waist and engulfed him in the light, until it was just Danny. He had the same black hair, but now there was a white stripe down the middle. He was wearing his favorite hoodie that Sam had given him, and a pair of dirty jeans and old sneakers. He looked at peace. But also like he died to young.

Every single hero standing around the crater had seen themselves and their colleagues going out in a blaze of glory. Not in a spiel of incurable madness that could only be stopped by death.

Clockwork floated into the crater gently, his head hanging. He slowly, but carefully, picked Danny up bridal style and floated back up. Iron Man didn’t say anything, but the ghost’s tears didn’t escape his attention. It must have been hard on Clockwork the most. After all, he had known Danny the longest, had helped him guide through the right and wrong.

Only to give the killing blow.

“I can help rebuild your cities, but I cannot being back the lives that were lost. I can only hope that, with time, they will return to you on the astral plane.”

And just like that, Clockwork and Danny were gone.

------

Okay but high key I had to stop halfway through because I got to emotional. The next one won’t be as depressing though, I promise!

[juditmiltz]

South Florida real estate’s top stories of 2017

The Real Deal’s top stories of 2017

Fake buyers, canceled projects, secret backers and heaps of broker drama made South Florida’s real estate market a hotbed of intrigue in 2017.

Top condo developers were forced to reckon with a stuttering high-end residential market, exacerbated by Hurricane Irma, a tighter lending environment and growing buyer clout. Some, like Shahab Karmely and Vlad Doronin, forged ahead on developments despite slow or stagnant sales, while others like HFZ Capital Group and the Related Group canceled condo projects, shifting their attention – and money – elsewhere.

The not-so-secret secret to building without buyers is cash. In Karmely’s case, The Real Deal revealed that his backer is Daniel Loeb, a billionaire investor who runs one of the world’s most dominant activist hedge funds.

Condo builders looking for a Plan B opted to either jump to new markets, as Related did with its expansion to Dallas and Phoenix, or ramped up their commercial-side activity, as Terra Group did.

Read on for a look at some of the biggest stories to drop in 2016.

Top developers mix it up As the market got shakier, the biggest condo builders in South Florida began to flinch. This year, a few brave developers launched new condo buildings, some broke ground, and others stayed mum on sales – or lack thereof – at their projects. Others switched gears to multifamily and other commercial development.

In June, the Verzasca Group announced plans to build a luxury apartment tower on an Edgewater site originally intended for condos. The Melo Group also focused on rental buildings — nine of its 12 projects this cycle are multifamily. Property Markets Group didn’t say much about condo plans for its 300 Biscayne Boulevard site in downtown Miami, but continued to charge ahead on its Vice apartment tower on the same property. Miami-based Terra Group has ramped up its commercial development in Coconut Grove, Pembroke Pines, Doral and other suburban neighborhoods while holding back from any new condo launches.

Jorge Pérez’s Related Group, billed Miami’s “condo king,” was quick to act on non-condo fronts, including affordable housing, mixed-use projects, rentals and more. Related, which with over 9,500 condo units in the pipeline grabbed the top spot in TRD’s most recent ranking, broke ground on two Wynwood rental projects, completed CityPlace Doral and opened a new satellite office in Dallas.

Two major projects get the axe: Related’s Auberge Miami and HFZ’s Shore Club redevelopment News of Related shutting down its Auberge Residences & Spa Miami project and returning buyers’ deposits rippled through the market. The development, ill-timed, had already been put on hold in late 2015.

But Related, with more than a dozen buildings underway this cycle, is expected to eventually relaunch the project, a three-tower complex at 1440 Biscayne Boulevard, sources said.

Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital Group is also expected to revive plans for a luxury condo project at the Shore Club in Miami Beach. The New York developer canceled Fasano Residences Miami Beach, a 67-unit luxury condo, in November. Sources said it was only between 40 and 45 percent presold, which came out about 25 to 30 units.

One of the whispers about the project was that the Brazilian hospitality company Fasano would no longer brand the development, and that HFZ was increasingly difficult to reach and would not provide a timeline.

“The market for construction financing has been very challenging”, and buyers were getting antsy, Douglas Elliman Florida CEO Jay Parker said. “We urged them to do the right thing and give the buyers the option to terminate their contracts. Rather than delay, they wanted to reposition the project.”

American Dream Miami forges ahead In January, after a long and contentious Miami-Dade County Commission meeting, Triple Five Group finally secured approval for the biggest proposed mall and theme park in North America.

The commission approved a comprehensive master plan amendment, changing the designation for the 194.5-acre development site sandwiched between Interstate 75 and the Florida Turnpike from “industrial office” to “business office.”

Triple Five, whose principals developed and own the Mall of America in Minnesota, is proposing to build 6.2 million square feet of shopping and entertainment space, including several amusement parks, along with 2,000 hotel rooms. The project could cost up to $4 billion.

But the developer isn’t ready to build yet. It still has to go before the county for final approval, and there’s plenty of opposition to counter. Critics say the mall will create a traffic nightmare in an already heavily congested area.

Porsche Design Tower is a flipper’s paradise Though it opened just a year ago, buyers at Gil Dezer’s Porsche Design Tower are already raring to turn profits on their luxury condos.

A TRD analysis revealed that 22 percent of owners, or 29 units, had their digs on the market, shooting for big gains. 

The most ambitious was the owner of unit 1503, listed by Piquet Realty. The buyer closed on the condo in February for $3.95 million, and listed it for $7.3 million – a markup of 85 percent.

The 132-unit, 60-story building at 18555 Collins Avenue is known for its “Dezervator,” a patented car elevator that takes residents up to their units in their cars. Amenities include balcony plunge pools and racing and golf simulators. During Hurricane Irma, the tower served as a refuge for the city’s exotic-car collection.

“I don’t look at it as flipping,” Dezer said about the flurry of Porsche Design listings on the market. “I look at it as, these people bought when we started selling in 2011 or 2012 and values have gone up.”

Dan Loeb revealed as Shahab Karmely’s secret backer After making all-cash, multimillion-dollar deals along the Miami River, in Hallandale and Wynwood, many wondered just where Shahab Karmely’s money was coming from.

Earlier this year, TRD solved the mystery, as sources revealed Karmely’s silent partner was Daniel Loeb, whose net worth Forbes pegs at $2.9 billion. Loeb’s firm, Third Point LLC, has $15 billion in assets under management and stakes in companies like Bank of America, Apple and Sotheby’s.

In all, Karmely’s KAR Properties, with Loeb’s financial muscle behind it, has picked up at least six parcels in South Florida totaling more than $113 million.

Fortune International agent accused of bringing fake buyers and more Say the name Alex Daguer to Miami Beach’s top residential agents, and you’re likely to be greeted with off-the-record tales of his alleged shady behavior, a “no comment” and a quick move to distance themselves from him.

The Fortune International Realty agent became infamous this year for allegedly bringing false buyers to the table in a bid to burnish his reputation and score valuable listings.

In an ethics complaint filed in October, Daguer was accused of negligence for his alleged role in a real estate scam. In a separate incident, he was facing a lawsuit alleging he cut another agent out of listings in Miami Beach.

Top agents in Miami Beach said Daguer has an established M.O. They claim that he approaches the owners of high-end properties with buyers, often with above-market offers, gets the owners to agree to add him as a co-listing agent, and when the deal doesn’t work out, stays on as a listing agent until it eventually sells.

Daguer has denied all the allegations. The agents who make those claims, he said, are threatened by his success.

Andrea Greenberg dies at 53 Miami’s new development marketing community mourned the death of Andrea Greenberg, a Fortune International Group veteran who died in October at the age of 53.

Greenberg worked at Fortune for more than 16 years and rose through the ranks to become the firm’s vice president of marketing. Greenberg left Fortune in summer of 2016, and joined Douglas Elliman Florida as chief marketing officer in November. She left about three months later and started her own consulting firm.

North Miami plans Chinatown In November, a North Miami community agency approved the city’s master plan for a Chinatown geared at increasing investment in the area.

The Chinatown Cultural Arts and Innovation District calls for the city of North Miami to spend $5 million on infrastructure, streetscape and business grants in the new Chinatown district, which runs from 119th Street to 135th Street on Northwest Seventh Avenue. The master plan, prepared by urban designer Keith & Schnars and completed in July, features two gateways to the district on the north and south.

South Miami goes solar South Miami became the first city in Florida to mandate new solar panels on all new homes – with exceptions.

The legislation, which also applies to existing properties whose owners increase their square footage by 75 percent or more, faced heated (no pun intended) opposition from builders and property owners who didn’t want to be forced to install solar panels. Some also claimed the cost would make it more challenging to develop affordable housing in South Miami.

In addition to being the first in Florida, the city is also only the fourth in the U.S. to mandate solar panels on new homes. The others? San Francisco and two other California cities, of course.

from The Real Deal Miami https://therealdeal.com/miami/2017/12/22/south-florida-real-estates-top-stories-of-2017/ via IFTTT