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that-guy-sleepy-miles · 12 days

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Red King Design Notes

I got a single request to explain Red King's design, so I'm going feral! This will have notes based on AU lore (events), 'lore' (character relationships), and things I noticed in the show! (This one is for you, @daikon-dimes <3)

Let's start from the top and move down!

‎Red King's horns!

Firstly, her "Proud Horns"! The color is a deep-red version of DBK's old horn color, and the shape is based on Princess Iron Fan's bull-horn hairstyle!

And then her "Transportation Horns". These are a slightly darker color than the Proud Horns and their shape is based on PIF's hair and also vaguely based on DBK's horns.

That actually brings us to...

Bangs like Mama and Red King's tiara!

Okay, horn lore:

Red King had eaten a monk and then took a killer fucking nap—like she CONKED OUT—and she woke up with big ol bull horns (magical power expression* has to go somewhere, and she's not really using it or feeling anything right then) and she was like "oh, dude, what the fuck", and then freaks out because she can't balance herself anymore

After being freaked out for a while, she demanded that the nearest bull clone get her a mirror.

She looks at herself in the mirror (she's learned how to balance at this point, good for her), she touches her horns, and she goes,

"Heh. Like Mother's hair."

And, even though she and her mother are in the middle of essentially a Cold War, she finds her mother's old tiara and puts her hair around her horns like her mom's… decorative hairstyle? whatever we'd call that. like the way her mom serves massive cunt 25/8—because she loves her mom more than anything else. (No matter how much of a raging ******* PIF is being. God, why is she like that sometimes???)

(The Eternal Fire design has sidebangs that are reminiscent of PIF's but more silky and flowy.)

Bull Fam Huadian and Bindi

The Eternal Slumber design has a huadian (a form of traditional Chinese ornamental forehead makeup, which is located between the eyebrows and sometimes on the cheeks, the temples, and the dimples) shaped like the Demon Bull family crest instead of the traditional flower petals. This is because of the idea that Red Son's "red dot" is a huadian, which I've seen floating around quite a bit, but I'm 99% sure it's a bindi.

It's in the right spot for a bindi and the wrong spot for a huadian, it looks like a bindi and doesn't look like a huadian—it's a bindi. I don't know if this is still going on (people thinking it's a huadian/saying it's a huadian/drawing it as a huadian), but it's a bindi. It's a bindi guys.

(Because of Red Son's tendency for overly expressive downturned eyebrows and the inconsistency of hand-drawn animation, it's hard to tell, but the "red dot" is seemingly intended to be slightly above and between his eyebrows, not high above on his forehead. You can tell on screenshots where it's on his forehead that it's in the wrong spot, it's actually really fun.)

Also, the people on the wiki call it a "forehead dot" and I'm so...

Anyway, in her Eternal Fire design, Red King's bindi returns! This is because her time with MK has "reignited her inferno", and she is returning to herself! With her bindi! Welcome back, pookie bear!!!

and on the note of her "reigniting her inferno", her Eternal Fire design has the same eyebrow makeup as the Red Son minifig!

Her Samadhi Ring

In the Red King AU, Red Son is allowed to keep his/her ring of Samadhi for a number of reasons. Importantly, DBK and PIF let Red Son their ring because it is their power—Red Son was born with the Samadhi Fire, and it's an expression of their power. They are a family obsessed with power for a good while, so in the Red King AU, DBK and PIF felt it cruel to strip their only child of their power and of the remainder of it. The thought also was that, as the creator of the fire, Red Son would have the most incentive to keep the ring safe. They'd certainly never lose it, like some people.

(Fun fact, this means that DBK's nose ring is the other way around like it was in his younger years. That's just a really silly detail, but like... they match <3)

Red King's Hair Highlights (and Their Relation to Red Son’s Magic Expression and the Samadhi Fire)

(By the way, the Eternal Slumber design has more chaotic shines because her hair isn't brushed, and the Eternal Fire design has more uniform/put-together shines because her hair is being taken care of.)

Red King has shiny hair, and that's not just to look cool. To explain why, I had to make a giant post about the LEGO Monkie Kid Magic System. I go in-depth about Red Son at the end of that post, but I'll give a TLDR here:

Red Son has a wholly unique form of expressing magic among demons, gods, dragons, descendants, reincarnations, and everything in-between (the in-between being Red Son himself, MK, Wukong, and Macaque [Red Son is half-god, half-demon; MK was intended to be a mystic monkey but got his genetics messed with; Wukong and Macaque are mystic monkeys outside of any of the 10 species, they just need to be noted here [Their magic is completely conventional, they're just crazy strong]). His body, and specifically his hair, is directly connected to his magic in a way that's different from other characters for reasons we can only speculate.

Because Red King is stronger than Red Son (and has a link to the Samadhi Fire), she has many large hair highlights! Generally, they're condensed into one or two large shapes, but smaller highlights around a large shape are also acceptable. :]

Outfits

Eternal Slumber wears zhong yi (middle clothes), a longer version of Red Son's robe from season 3, and Red Son's sandals from season 3. (I call those house shoes but the model sheet says sandals.)

Zhong yi were worn under normal clothing in Hanfu, and often worn to bed. Some posts about zhong yi: 1, 2, 3. Because Red King is... well... sleeping often but in a regal way, she wears zhong yi instead of modern sleepwear. Her robe is also longer to evoke the fact that it is a robe and she is a king.

Eternal Fire wears a sleeveless version of Red Son's coat with a gold trim. This gold trim is actually because of something on Red Son's page on the Monkie Kid Wiki! Okay, so, I'm so autistic that part of my LMK Special Interest (it's been 4 years, so this is officially a special interest) actually extends to the Wiki... and on Red Son's Wiki page, there is something so fun!!

On Red Son's Minifigure–show comparison, the screenshot used to compare contains a coloring error! Red Son's collar is actually his skin tone! And I LOVE THAT. NOBODY TELL THEM. IF YOU ARE A WIKI EDITOR AND YOU'RE READING THIS, DON'T FIX IT!!!

I love coloring errors and I love mistakes. Not only is there the original coloring error (the mark of a human being; someone worked on this scene and they made a mistake and now we can see it and see them! It's as if their memory is saying hello, and that's why I love coloring errors), but someone else missed it, and now it has been used to represent this character's design as a whole (a SECOND human being!! Hello!! You've been here, and you didn't catch something, and now I'll always remember you were here!).

And that's why I don't want it to be fixed. I know it should be fixed, and I know the Wiki is a source of knowledge, but I also just... love people so much... and I decided to remember the coloring error by giving Red King's coat a gold trim. <3 (I was going to keep it to the collar like the coloring error, but it didn't look good.)

Other notes:

She's wearing armbands like she did when she was a baby because the Eternal Fire design is her "returning to herself."

The ballroom gloves are just sexy like that. Make MK go Looney Tunes. (And the wristbands are for the same purpose.)

S H A N T S

Uhhh that's it! Thank you!! <3 <3 <3 <3!!

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quitealotofsodapop · 2 months

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So we been DMing. And thought the greater group would like this odea I had.

FFM is in a volcanic ring, so it goes to show that it's likely an active volcano as well. What if the first time MK sees Wukong's kaiju form is due to an impending eruption?

It was a beautiful day put when MK and Wukong were having a training session when the mountains shook and trembled, interrupting the two monkeys as the play fought. MK was confused about the matter, but shrug it off thinking he and Wukong had been too rough and caused the tremors. It certainly hadn't been the first time.

Wukong, who is a monkey born of the earth and knows the mountain better than anyone else, knows better.

He immediately cuts the training short and tells MK to get off the mountain. All training is canceled until further notice, and he is to stay clear of the place unless instructed otherwise. That tremor was the first warning sign of an impending eruption, and it was a large one, too.

MK had gone home that day confused, wondering why his mentor had suddenly kicked him off the mountain. When he tells his friends, he can't even answer why Wukong had done so as he had been so desperate to get MK to safety the king had forgotten to tell him what the problem even was! This will lead to a problem when the eruption happens, because the whole group wasn't going to let MK be kicked fork training without an answer and they decided to go confront Wukong, not realizing they were stepping foot on an active volcano within hours of a Cesuvius level eruption

Prev.

Wukong goes full "General-King-Mode" during this time. He can't risk his subjects (demonic and wild) or his beloved island from getting hurt in the eruption.

Wukong breathes steady but nervous, all things are going to plan. The volcanic ring around FFM isn't just a useful security measure - but also evidence of previous redirected eruptions. The danger is ultimately caused by heat and gas being under pressure beneath the earth. Normally all Wukong has to do is punch a hole in the magma chamber every so often to "let off steam".

He calls upon begrudging allies like Macaque (using his portals to evacuate the monkeys) and Iron Fan (to redirect the poisonous fumes). Red Son and DBK are even involved since they are super-heat resistant (DBK literally walks through a waterfall of lava with dinner during "The First Ring") and can help punch holes into the crust to help ease the pressure beneath the earth. Royal sea dragons like Ao Guang are on call to minimize any tidal waves caused in the eruption's wake.

It's a mutual understanding between the immortals. Wukong never wants devastation like The Burning to ever happen again.

He can't let innocent people be hurt by-

MK, waving from Sandys' ship: "Hi Monkey King!! Wukong, furious with worry: "I thought I told you to go home!" MK: "I did go home! And me and the guys are worried why you sent me away like that? If that earthquake was sign of something bigger then we could help!" Mei: "Yeah! And my parents got weird and flew off after the earthquake too! We shouldn't be kept in the dark like this!" Wukong: "Guys, listen very, very carefully; I sent MK home so suddenly because The Island is About to BLOW!!" The Noodle Gang, looking furiously at MK: "WHAT!?" MK, wincing with realisation: "Oooooo... I don't think we can help with that." Wukong, eyes glowing red: "YA THINK!?"

Whilst Wukong is partially to blame for not explaining himself clearly, he isn't blamed for his sheer worry. This isn't some tangible enemy he could defeat, but Nature itself.

Eventually Wukong feels this terrible pit in his stomach. Like his heart is about to burst out of his chest.

Huaguoshan itself is about to blow.

And all his friends are in its' path.

With a Heaven-shaking roar he activates his War Form.

Macaque activates his own, forcing the entirety of the Noodle Gang through one of his portals (boat included) a safe distance from the island. In the shadow's eyes is no longer fear as he once felt towards his mate's form, but adoration.

Wukong plunges to the bottom of the sea beneath the island chain, digging through the silt and rock until he reaches the mantle. With each new punch he releases a new viscous explosion of magma that violently shoots to the surface like an underwater bomb. But with each new punch, the pressure beneath the island itself lessens.

He feels no pain from the heat - it's not comparable to the True Fire he felt within the Furnace.

Around him miles away in all four cardinal directions, sea dragons (including the Ao-Long couple) come to his aid; redirecting the waves away from the cities and islands that would be swept away in the tide.

Above the waves, Iron Fan gets to work fanning the fires and clouds of poisonous sulphur away from the island, a skill she perfected from protecting her home in the Flaming Mountains. (Tang in particular squees at see her in action, followed soon by PIF's own husband).

DBK and Red Son are running along the existing volcanic ring - destroying the old chimneys and opening new channels in the hardened basalt to ease the load off of the King's shoulders. Red Son's fiery mane even seems to be increasing in volume the longer they work to release the heat.

Soon it seems like the ring of fire has been built from the mantle-up.

The Gang are watching the whole thing with amazement. Depending on what happens in between, they may actually try and help the Demon Bull fam with their efforts.

Mei gets a crash course in her own sea-dragon abilities when she has to direct the waves away from Sandy's boat. Her and Red Son laugh, teasing that for a sea dragon, she's more familiar with flames than water!

Pigsy might not be able to withstand the heat - but the indestructible, size altering rake he inherited can! He slingshots it towards DBK's waiting hand - the nine teeth of the rake making nine times the amount of new chimneys in the mantle.

MK is tempted to follow the Monkey King below the waves, but the gentle hand of Sandy (and the not-so-gentle hand of Macaque's kaiju form) stop him from leaving the ship.

As the tremors quiet and the spouts become less frequent, the peak of Huaguoshan seems to "sneeze", and settles back to normalcy as if no great danger was a foot.

After many tense minutes, the Monkey King emerges from the sea - cloaked in salt and lava like he was born from the core of the earth itself.

Macaque makes an appreciative growling sound before slinking his way through the water to greet his King.

All three face of the King are confused. Confused and afraid. Not because his mission failed, far from it.

But because he honestly didn't expect the reaction of his allies;

MK: "MONKEY KING!! YOU LOOK AMAZING!!!" Mei, emerges from the waves: "WE ROCKED!!" Red Son, victory-hugging his parents: "We certainly did rock!" Tang: (*fainted from fanboy-ing too hard*) Pigsy, catching Tang: "YOU DID GREAT, KING!!" Sandy, softer shouts: "I don't think anyone else could have done that!"

Wukong is so taken aback. They... aren't afraid of him??

Each face of the King blushes beneath the yellow-orange glow as the cheers fail to cease. The Demon Bull couple applauding their sworn brother's courage to let his inner self free after so long.

Macaque sidles up to his King. The Shadow's bandage-like tendrils examining Wukong's golden body for injuries or burns. His soft but deep voice whispering into his mates' now-matching six ears.

Kaiju!Macaque: "I t o l d y o u, P e a c h e s. B E A U T I F U L."

#lmk kaiju forms #lmk mk #qi xiaotian #sun wukong #liu er mihou #six eared macaque #shadowpeach #lmk pif #lmk princess iron fan #lmk dbk #lmk demon bull king #lmk red son #lmk demon bull family #lmk #lego monkie kid #lmk aus

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starry-bi-sky · 1 month

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Just so you know, I've reread your answer to my ask about how you'd rewrite "Double Cross My Heart" in your Danyal Al Ghul au several times over. And I'll just say, your whole breakdown and revision of that trainwreck of a Sam centered episode is the very reason why when it comes to the phandom, both alone and in dpxdc crossovers I tend to lean more towards fanon Sam instead of canon.

Because the people that like her yet acknowledge her glaring flaws do a far better job of bringing her to task when she's being unreasonable or hypocritical in a way that's fair than the supposedly professional storyboard writers.

Anyway, you mentioned that you don't like amethyst ocean and prefer gray ghost. Same here. (though I also like pink astronaut) Since then, I can't stop imagining Danyal/Danny with the "Damian experiencing his first crush" headcanon applied to him. The idea of him treating Valerie with suspicion under the assumption she somehow poisoned or hit him with some kind of hidden anti ghost tech that affects both his human and ghost side, when in reality it's simply him developing feelings for her is just absolute hilarity. To me if no one else.

FIRST OFF YOU ARE SO SWEET <33 the fact that you've read my post about Double Cross My Heart SEVERAL TIMES means I'm now morally obligated to die for you. I'll admit! I was a bit harsh on Sam a little in my original response, because I was irritated by some depictions of her in fanon painting her as someone who could do no wrong and had the only braincell in the group. So I was kinda picking on her a little bit. Would I change a thing? No, I love her character, I just love dissecting her flaws even more.

AND ALSO YOU'RE SO RIGHT ABOUT THE DANYAL THING. That's so cute and so funny, effective immediately it is now canon🧑‍⚖️ . He fought Red Huntress earlier that day and she got a lucky good hit on him, and it's literally that one Marina reaction image where the first panel she looks shocked, the next she looks into it. At least part of it. That's literally what happened, and the next time Danny runs into Valerie at school his heart flutters.

Danny puts up this whole conspiracy board because Valerie smiled at him and his heart went all flippy-floppy and what is this FEELING. He shows it to Sam and Tucker and they both are doing that hands folded prayer-style pressed against their mouths in concern thing, and they don't know whether they should laugh or cry.

Because on one hand: oh my GOD, Danny. But on the OTHER: on my god, Danny. He's never gonna live this one down but that's because if they don't tease him about it, they're gonna get all mopey and sad about it. Just another reminder of their best friend's tragic, mysterious background.

aaa. There are some headcanons I wanna go over (like how when they go on a date, Danny and Valerie have this cute heart to heart where Danny admits that he's not used to being open with people, but he wants to try to be with Valerie because she makes him really happy. He's so shy and almost flustered, and Valerie is so charmed by this side of Danyal Fenton that she's not used to.) but I REALLY wanna think about this in terms of episodic because it was super fun doing it last time, and I really enjoyed it.

If you remember (and you prolly do since you mentioned you read the last ask you sent me several times) I said in the Gregory post that I deleted a (frankly good chunk) of writing that included how i would change the Valerie episodes leading up to the Gregory one, but I deleted it because it was kinda irrelevant to the ask, and admittedly I was getting myself all twisted in knots about it.

But I kinda wanna do that now.

So. If you don't mind I am. Gonna do that. And luckily for me! I found the website I can do. that for free, and have it pulled up! It's the same one I used for the last post to chart out the gregory episode.

So, Shades of Gray! I lowkey want this episode to be like, subtly hinting at the idea that Valerie might develop a crush on Danny first. But ultimately it gets the two of them properly introduced and established with each other, and Red Huntress going.

The episode starts out with Danny being chased by Dash because he got a bad grade in a spelling, obviously if he tried that with Danyal he's gonna get his shit wiped. So! Change! It's Danny heading to his next class, he's texting Sam and Tucker, expertly maneuvering around people in a combination of teen-texting-habit and assassin training awareness. Kinda aware of what's around him, but also not and just trusting instinct.

We meet Valerie when she's showing off a (frankly unflattering) purple polo shirt that costs, AND I QUOTE: "$579, and worth every one of my dad's pennies." to Paulina and Kwan. Girl, this shirt is a few shades off from that NEON "error, image not found" magenta. It looks incredibly unflattering on her considering it's neon-y-ness and the orange skirt and headband she's wearing. Sweetheart, get your damn money back, or at least pick a different pair of pants.

I'm telling you this because I can't resist changing the design. So instead of. that.

She is INSTEAD wearing like, this cute, ruffled, soft pastel purple crop top and some cute jean shorts. Her hair is in like, passion twist braids with little gold cuffs in them. She looks SO cute guys, so cute.

Of course maybe they made it look ugly on purpose because in the show she gets coffee dumped on her 30 seconds later from Danny crashing into Paulina while running from Dash.

I've thought of three different ways this could go, and can't pick which so I'm just gonna write them out and see which one I'm drawn to more.

Kwan, Paulina, and Valerie are standing in the hallway. Not next to a corner but close to one. Danny turns the corner, does not run into them. He briefly looks up from his phone when he hears, they kinda stare at each other, and Danny idly, disinterestedly looks at Valeria, then compliments her with a single; "Nice shirt." Pretty anticlimatic ngl, but it startles the trio a little bit because Danny doesn't often talk to other people outside his circle unless he's in some kind of group project or has to. So for him to compliment Valerie unprompted is startling. This could or could not end with one of them snarkily saying "thanks its worth more than your entire wardrobe" which Danny would take offense to because, lets not kid ourselves, Danyal and Damian Al Ghul were raised as pseudo-princes in the League. Without missing a beat he shoots back: "at least i have a personality beyond being rich." and then disappears down the hallway.

The trio begin walking down the hallway, crash into Danny. HE gets coffee splattered all over him and he immediately reels back, instinctively reverting back to his mother tongue and hissing out arabian curses as coffee drips down the front of his red hoodie and shirt. It's even in his hair. Thankfully the coffee is not as hot as it started out, but it's still uncomfortably warm. He wipes the drink from his eyes, flicks it onto the ground, and hisses out; "watch where you're going!". The trio? Kinda unsure of how to react at first; Danny is unpopular, but not unpopular enough to be worth bullying -- besides, everyone knows he wouldn't tolerate it. But then I think Paulina finds her tongue and says "what did you say?". Danny turns to her and says; "I said; watch where you're going. Need me to say it in Spanish? Mira por donde vas!" He flicks off his hoodie, grumbling in arabic about how he's going to smell like coffee all day, and stalks off. I'm pretty partial to this idea.

Valerie still gets coffee dumped on her. But instead of sic'ing Kwan on him (because she knows that won't work), she just says a few choice words to Danny and stalks off with Paulina and Kwan to go find somewhere to clean off the coffee. Danny approaches her later and gives her a list of cleaning stuff that can get coffee stains out of her shirt. And when she tells him it's made of like, this super specific fabric that needs this really specific stuff to clean, Danny raises his eyebrow at her and says that he knows, and it is a list of stuff that can clean out the stain without damaging the shirt. He says he's not an idiot, and he knows how to recognize X-Fabric when he sees it. Just because I'm fond of pseudo-prince Al Ghul here being a bit of a snob and has an extensive care and hygiene routine. He uses this moisturizer or cologne that makes him smell faintly like sandalwood and vanilla because that is my favorite scent. Tucker jokingly handed him a 13-in-1 once while they were doing a quick supply run with Sam, and Danny literally dropped it like it burned him.

I'm really partial to two and three. So i'm going to get a second opinion. [...] Second one wins! Thank you, Naviii~ <3.

Danny could just intangible the stuff off him, but that would raise questions and also I want him to go the rest of the day stained with coffee. So it stays, and he's in a sour mood for a good chunk of the day. He runs into Cujo when he disappears down an empty hallway, and gets even more irritated when his ghost sense goes off - but hey! If it's Skulker, he can at least pulverize the dude and let off some steam. But nope! It's a puppy!

And Danyal Al Ghul, local ex-member of the world's most deadliest "we speak for the trees, the trees say fuck you" group of environmentalists ever, immediately feels his troubles melt away, and he croons at Cujo. "Oh hello, habibi. Who do you belong to?" And drops down to the ground to let Cujo sniff his hand. Cujo does so, and then starts vying for his attention, and Danny is grinning very wide and very genuinely and is more than happy to give it. "You are a much better surprise than that wretched poacher. Do you have a name, pretty thing?"

Cujo has a collar on, so Danny touches it, lifts the tag, and sees the Axion labs "A" symbol on it. He hums, narrows his eyes, and murmurs "Where have I seen this before?" But before he can flip it around, Cujo then turns monstrous. We cut to the title screen!

I want to say, the next scene is in Axion labs. The way that Damon (Val's dad), Valerie, those two guards, and his boss reacts, it heavily implies that the existence of ghosts have not reached the whole of Amity Park, and that the city itself is still largely unaware of their existence. Considering that Damon's security system doesn't allocate for ghosts, and when Danny crashes at their feet, Valerie literally asks him; "What are you!?" and she seems surprised when tucker later tells her its ghosts, and is even unaware that Danny's parents are ghost hunters.

When Valerie gets coated in dog ecto-slobber, Danny does grin a little under his little half-face balaclava. Because yes, karma! He is petty, and he can't help but flip to his feet and snarkily, smugly say; "I know what I'm not," and as he says this, he leans forward and plucks some of it out of her hair, "Covered in dog slobber." and then he flicks it away.

Before Valerie can retort, Cujo breaks into the lab, and Danyal mutters curses and bounds after him. The lab gets destroyed as per canon, and Damon gets fired.

The garage sale scene happens pretty normally, when Valerie says her little "oh great, word has already oozed down to the bottom of the social grapevine." Danny's response is snarkier than in canon.

"And here Tucker was just offering some simple help to you, you looked like you needed it." He says icily, and Tucker pipes up and says "we all just want to help!" because I don't fully see Danyal being that generous especially to someone being rude to his friends.

Sam dryly says "I don't." and Danny just stays silent, neither confirming nor denying anything. He just raises an eyebrow and turns his eyes to Tucker, who is laughing nervously.

"Well, Danny hasn't said no. So most of us want to help! That's two thirds." And he gestures awkwardly to Danny, who is wearing a red muscle tee hoodie, showing that he's rather lean. "And Danny's the strongest between the three of us, so he could be a big help! There could get a lot more work done."

Valerie is not convinced, as in canon. Although for my Gray Ghost heart she does check out Danny a little bit -- but quickly shakes it off because she's still very deeply entrenched in the status quo. "Thanks, but I'll pass."

Before Danny's ghost sense goes off, I do want him to wander around the yard sale for a moment just to see what's to offer -- collector of trinkets and pretty things, he is. Projecting, I am. Slightly GNC Danny ftw, it is. There's a table of jewelry up for sale that he's drawn over to -- and almost immediately disappointed by. It's pretty, and extravagant and very obviously expensive, that's for sure, but that's not the problem. Valerie sees him looking and marches over to him, still upset that he and his friends are still there.

"Put that down, that stuff is worth more than your own wardrobe." She snaps at him, and tries to snatch an expensive, luxury sapphire necklace from his hands, and is immediately met with an icy glare from Danny as he yanks it away from her fingers.

"Who says I can't afford it?" He says -- and he can't, not really, not with the allowance he gets from the Fentons and not with their funds. However, despite their limited contact, Danny still does meet with his beloved mother. One word from him to her, and she'd ensure he got a hundred of the very same necklace. "You? You can't either, Gray. Not anymore."

Valerie looks embarrassed and furious, but Danny continues, and tosses the necklace to her. She fumbles, but manages to catch it. "I don't want this junk anyways. It's gaudy and too western. I look better in gold."

Now his ghost sense goes off, and he turns away from Valerie. He doesn't run off immediately, lingers long enough to see who the ghost is and what the danger is. And when the ground begins to shake, he grabs onto the table and reaches out on protective instinct to hold onto Valerie before she can fall over.

As you can tell, this is for my gray ghost heart. Although valerie's clothes do still get destroyed by the street water, unfortunately. And Cujo shrinks down to size by the time Valerie makes it over to her dresser to try and grab it.

Danny audibly mutters, "Its that dog again." and hurries over to scruff the thing before it can wander off. Cujo is wagging his tail and immediately, enthusiastically licks his face once he's got him up to eye level. Danny cracks a little smile, "Hello habibi, you're a little troublemaker, aren't you?"

"you know this dog?" Valerie demands, and stomps over as Danny gets Cujo settled into his arms. Sam and Tucker hurry over as well, looking mildly frazzled.

Danny scoffs at her; "Don't be ridiculous. I met him a few days ago-- wait;" and he pauses to check to see if Cujo is a boy, "--ah, yep. Him. -- I met him a few days ago in the hallway after Sanchez dumped her coffee all over me. He was rather friendly, but he ran off before I could see who he belonged to."

Sam leans over to look at Cujo, and wiggles her finger at him; "He's kinda cute, and he likes you."

Dannny has a moment where he wants to boast, of course he does, I'm fantastic with animals. But instead he keeps mum. His smile just kinda softens proudly, and he hoists Cujo into his arms a little better.

The moment is shattered by Valerie, who points accusingly at Cujo. "Whatever it is, get it out of here before it ruins anymore of my stuff!"

Annnd before Danny can do just that, Cujo begins wiggling to get out of his arms and run around. He manages to, with his ghostly strength drag Danny across the lawn before yanking himself out of his arms and knocking them both onto the sidewalk -- scraping Danny's arm in the process -- and running around.

Rather than his leg, Cujo bites Danny's arm -- and has a strong enough grip on it that he unintentionally pierces flesh and causes him to start bleeding -- and begins dragging him. But before they can reach the moving van, Danny gets his fingers wrapped around Cujo's collar, finds some purchase -- even if it means his bare arm is being dragged against the sidewalk, and yanks hard on Cujo's collar with a harsh; "HEEL."

Cujo immediately stops, and sits. Danny honestly wasn't expecting that to work immediately, but it does! And with Cujo still, he keeps one firm hand on the collar and uses his other arm -- which is now painfully road rash'd and bleeding -- to help sit up.

Sam and tucker and Valerie rush over to help. "Oh my god, Danny, are you okay?" only for Danny to hold his bad arm up to stop them from getting closer, and whirling on Cujo to scold him. He's upset enough that he reverts back to Arabic, but Cujo seems to get the point across and wilts.

Danny feels bad, but can't show Cujo any affection unless he wants to accidentally reinforce the behavior. He points to his side, and Cujo obediently goes to sit but his feet. Now he turns to the other three.

"To answer your question." He looks down to his arm and very gently brushes his fingers against the road rash, brushing out the little pebbles stuck in his skin. it stings like a bitch, and he faintly grimaces. Then he inspects the dog bite on his wrist "I'll be fine."

Even Valerie looks worried; "That looks really bad, Fenton. I think you should go to the hospital--"

"No." Danny immediately cuts her off, "No hospital. Mr. and Mrs. Fenton keep a first aid kit at home, I'll just use that."

"And what about the dog?"

"I'll figure something out."

And then they scoot off.

Cafeteria scene goes as canon, nothing much to change there other than the fact that when Valerie sees Danny, his arm is all bandaged up and he's wearing a batman merch t-shirt rather than a muscle tee, she feels a little guilty. A small part of her kinda wants to ask how he is, but the larger part that's still big on the status quo and is still humiliated by being shunned by her friends, just wants to go eat in peace. So she doesn't say anything.

(although i am thinking that if she runs into him again later after the cafeteria scene, she asks him what he did with the ghost dog, and he lies and says Phantom swooped in and took Cujo from him.)

The park scene goes relatively the same as well, at least in the beginning. But instead of Sam and Phantom being all "he's an untrained dog" they're instead all "let's see what training he does have. Maybe it can be refined."

"You're good with animals Danny, and you're the only ghost in the area. You handle it." and then she tosses the dog obedience book at him and wanders off.

Danny doesn't need the dog obedience book, so he tucks it into a pocket dimension in his cape and whistles for Cujo. There's that whole tumble down the hill, that whole chase scene happens.

I do wanna say, I actually really like how inexperienced Valerie is here. Idk maybe it's because I haven't watched a tv show in a long while, but it's nice to see that she's not immediately good at it. She wobbles on the hoverboard, two out of the three disks she threw at Danny missed, and the third only hit him by chance. She's amateurish, and I really appreciate that.

"Let me guess, first day on the job, isn't it?" and he still gets cut by the third disk like in canon. He's not impressed or convinced when she says she's going to take him down -- it's one quick once over that tells him enough.

Wobbly feet, unsteady balance on the board. -- Her first time using it, she's unconfident and doesn't trust her own tech, as if she didn't even make it herself. She's unused to the board.

Improper trigger discipline, and shaky hands on her gun. She's holding it with one hand and far away from her like she's afraid of it going off, despite the fact that she's the one on the other end of it.

Tense all the way up to her shoulders, her voice is full of false bravado. She has no idea what she's doing. Danny's thoroughly unimpressed. At least the Drs. Fenton and Walker (maddie got her doctorate with her maiden name) trust their tech wholeheartedly and treat them as an extension of themself, just as Danny does with his blades. Just as this new ghost hunter does not.

And, of course, the way she goes flying off her board the moment she fires her bazooka. Although Cujo does still come to the rescue, although like in canon, he grabs Danny by the foot. Danny manages to recollect himself though and hoist himself over Cujo's back like he's riding a horse.

This is the biggest scene change and possibly my favorite change. The fakeout makeout scene. Now, let me preface this by saying that I love the fakeout makeout concept. I think it's hilarious, and I think it's even funnier if Danny is actually rather down with the concept because the assassin-undercover part of his brain thinks it's a simple-in-a-clever way in order to brush off suspicion. I think Sam and Tucker both are very down to kiss their very attractive best friend, and whenever it comes up there have been arguments over whose turn it is to kiss Danny.

BUT. I have an image in mind for this scene, so I want Danny to be alone for this. So Cujo takes him to a cluster of trees and bushes where Sam isn't at, and Danny sends him off with a ball as per canon, but rather than get tackled by Sam, he dives up into a tree and transforms back to Al Ghul before Valerie can reach him.

He is reading the Dog Obedience book, and scares the absolute shit out of Valerie. And it's never a bad day to hurt Danny, so little miss firstie over here fires into the trees, and juuuust about skims Danny's arm. The same one that has the road rash and dog bite on it, that he's forcibly prevented himself from rapidly healing because that would arouse suspicion.

"ماذا بحق الجحيم كان ذلك!؟" ("What the hell was that!?")

Valerie knows that voice, and instantly turns ashen. "Oh no." She flies up the tree and finds Danyal sitting snug amongst the larger limbs, the dog obedience book in his lap, and he's hunched slightly and holding onto his burned arm tightly.

"Oh my god, I-- I am so sorry--" she doesn't have the time to be upset (or snarky or mean) about why he's there, considering she just shot him. Danny snaps his head up and glowers furiously at her.

"Wh- why did you do that!?" He stammers over himself, trying to find his english. Part of it is an act, part of it is genuine anger because she could've killed him with that thing. He loathes incompetence, and she has it in buckets. "Watch where you're aiming that, Trigger Finger, you could've killed me!"

Valerie is all flustered and mortified, can't even find it to get angry back. "i- I am so sorry, Fenton. I thought you were something else--"

"Something else!?" Danny yells, "So you blindly shoot?! What is wrong with you!? Don't you know any trigger discipline!?"

Iiit's. a mess? Valerie offers him a lift to the hospital, or at least out of the tree, and Danny snarls at her not to touch him, and that he's not going anywhere with her on that hunk of sheet metal. He tosses the book at her and says to make herself useful and hold that while he gets down. Valerie feels really guilty -- too guilty to protest or be mad about how angry he is with her.

When he gets down from the tree he takes the book back from her, and then asks her how she even knows his name anyways. They've never met before. "Actually, now that I think about it," he narrows his eyes at her, "you sound like someone I know."

And then he reaches for her mask.

Valerie flies back, stammering over herself and briefly forgets to feel guilty in order to feel panicked and indignant, and then just goes "What are you doing!? You're crazy, we've never met before!" And then flies off.

And, before I continue, I will say right now. Danny, as himself, forever and always from then on refers to Red Huntress (or Scarlett Hunt, as I'm thinking of as an alternative) as "Trigger" or "Trigger Finger" respectively. Whenever they run into each other as Scarlett and Danny, he always calls her Trigger and asks if she's killed anyone yet. Valerie feels really bad from then on about hitting him, because where she hit him ends up scarring.

When she's gone, Danny mutters to himself that that sounded like Valerie, and goes ghost to go find Sam and tell her what happened.

Hallway scene stays the same, and -- actually, I was gonna make fun of the fact that Valerie didn't know the Fentons were ghost hunters when it's the whole reason the family is ostracized. But you know what? I can believe it. Kids will follow the crowds' lead. Witch hunts and all that.

"So, Tucker tells me your parents are ghost hunters!"

"Yeah? What else has he told you?"

Before Cujo shows up, they do actually manage to hold some kind of conversation. However, Danny uses the time to go: "Look, if you're planning on getting into ghost hunting, try not being like the hack I met yesterday."

Valerie laughs nervously, "Ah-hah, no of course not! But uh, hack?"

Danny scowls, and twists towards her with his arms crossed -- he's wearing a red hoodie today, and a band tee. -- "Yeah! I met some chick yesterday while at the park, and Little Miss Trigger Finger shot me." He says, "Your weapon should be like an extension of yourself, not something you just use! Trigger Finger was flailing that gun in her hands like it was a ribbon, and incompetence like that will get someone killed. Your weapon -- whether it be a blade or a firearm or a blunt object -- should be as easy to move as curling your fingers, and just as easy to trust. It should not be a stranger, but a part of you. A weapon must know how to use itself if it wants to be of any use to anyone else."

Sam cuts him off with a high pitched, nervous giggle, and wraps her fingers lightly around his shoulders and tugs him back, sliding her arms around the front of his chest like an anchor. "Danny." she hisses at him quietly, and Danny snaps his jaw shut and looks away.

Tucker also laughs uneasily, "Sorry," he says, leaning around Valerie to get her attention, "Dan here uh, gets really passionate about improper weapon handling. It's one of his quirks."

Danny looks away and mutters something under his breath in arabic.

(You know this already, but Sam and Tucker still don't know about Danny's past. But they've heard him talk about weapon mishandling enough times -- and have seen him fight -- to know that the way he talks is more than just theory. He has personal experience with weapons, and has unintentionally before referred to himself as one. But whenever they ask about it, he clams up and denies any sort of involvement.)

Valerie doesn't really know what to say to that, but Danny seems to know a lot about proper weapon discipline. So she might try her chances with getting to know more about it from him later, if she can catch him. She also silently makes note to get herself acquainted to her own tools like Danny was implying.

And then Cujo shows up, and things happen as canon. Oh but wait Tucker lands on Valerie while she's trying to figure out how to open the thermos, and I want to say that she hears him say "I can help you. valerie!" before he lands on her. So her confronting him after she gets out of the basketball hoop, and practically beegs him not to tell Danny about being the same girl who shot him. She really does think his help could be valuable in the long run because of his knowledge on ghosts and weapons.

Lovestruck Tuck of course, agrees. Not without some tentative hemming and going; "I don't know Val, Danny's really clever. He'll figure it out eventually if you don't do something to hide your voice, it's pretty recognizable."

For this episode, her voice stays the same but in the future she'll be working on a voice mod, and until then refuses to speak around Danny if she knows he's present. If she has to talk, then she forcibly tries deepening it.

Anyways things proceed as canon, Danny overhears the boss with Damon say "I know we should've never gotten rid of those guard dogs."

He mutters to himself "Guard dogs? Wait..." and he holds up Cujo, peering at his collar, and finally realizing where he recognizes the symbol on the tag. Immediately his expression darkens, "Oh fuck no, they did not."

Things go as canon, although Danny sneaks in not only to find what Cujo is looking for, but to hack in and get records of their guard dogs to confirm his theory and to steal them -- plus confirmation of termination of said dogs. So he can blackmail the shit out of Axion Labs later. He stays invisible and uses his league training to sneak around, and actually gets the guard dog records and confirmation before he runs into Valerie and they fight. Danny purposely keeps his distance and focuses more on dodging.

"you're a pretty lousy shot" Valerie says when he blasts above her a metal support beam above her.

Danny retorts sharply, "I could say the same." And although she can't see it, he bares his fangs at her. "Or have you forgotten about what you did to the ghost hunters' boy a few days ago?"

(He can be VERY petty)

Which, of course, infuriates and embarrasses Val. Things remain as is, Danny finds the squeaky toy, he tells Valerie he doesn't own the dog -- although he also says that he belongs to the very same Lab that fired her dad -- she refuses his apology, Tucker pretends to get caught by the Axion security lab. Etc etc.

Danny later reveals that he also stole the records about the guard dogs and how Axion Lab wrongfully euthanized all of them in favor of a security system they didn't even end up using, and was planning on anonymously releasing it online so that Axion could face the consequences for their abuse. Tucker has to beg him not to, because then that would reveal that someone else had gotten into the lab that night and would put Valerie's dad in hot water again.

Danny... reluctantly agrees. For now. But he'll be holding onto it, and keeping his eye on Axion Labs. This sort of cruelty will not go unpunished forever, he'll make sure of it.

ending goes as ending does. They go to the dumpty humpty concert, they speculate where Valerie got her suit. Etc etc. At the lunch table I think Valerie stops by Tucker and co's table to talk to Tucker -- they seemed to end on a good note that night -- and she asks Danny how his arm is.

Danny eyes her quietly, and turns his head away. "It'll heal, so long as Trigger Finger stays away from me." and he does see Valerie wilt a little, and kinda feels bad. But also, she fucking shot him. He's lowkey less angry about that tho and more angry about her total weapon incompetence

-------

When its just Tucker -- and ykw, Sam too, who Valerie would know knows she's Red since she was yk, right there next to Tucker when he fell on Valerie -- and Valerie, he tries to reassure her about Danny's apparently grudge against Scarlett Hunt.

"Aw, chin up Val, I'm sure Danny will come around to your alter ego eventually! He just.. needs some time to heal! Literally, because you... shot him."

and when Valerie realizes Sam knows too, Sam points her pen at her and goes: "The only reason I haven't told Danny is because Tucker is also my best friend," she leans into Valerie's space; "But so help me Moses, if you shoot Danny again, I will not hesitate to tell him. And i will, in a heartbeat."

She leans back, crossing her arms; "So you better learn to control your finger, Trigger."

Danny having beef with Red Huntress in his civilian form was not actually in the original cards for this episode, but it came to me as I was writing and I could not pass it up. I think it'd be hilarious and also like, a real point of idk conflict for Valerie. Just one more reason she wants to be abetter ghost hunter because otherwise she'll hurt people -- shooting Danny left a mark on her, and she feels really really guilty about it. Especially after finding out it scarred.

And also it's like, objectively hilarious? It's like the Love Square from MLB but its more like a Hate Square instead. Granted Val and Danny don't hate each other but my point still stands! It's there if you squint.

Every single time Danny runs into Scarlett he calls her Trigger and asks her how her aim is, and whether she knows how to use that weapon of hers. Valerie is both very frustrated by his unwillingness to forgive her and very ashamed by the fact that she's frustrated by it. He has every right to be mad at her, she could've seriously hurt him -- and she did -- but still, his animosity is grating sometimes.

Danny does eventually get over her shooting him in his civilian form -- considering she shoots him all the time as a ghost. But what he refuses to get over is the fact that it happened at all and her lack of proper discipline before she decided to jump into the fray.

No no no, that he is still burning furious about. Tucker wasn't kidding when he said that Danny was passionate about proper weapon handling. The fact that Valerie didn't even acquaint herself with her weapons and learn how to use them properly before deciding to hunt down Cujo and Phantom is the thing that keeps his burning "hatred" against Scarlett as Fenton going.

Idk if it's ever actually confirmed that Valerie and Tucker are dating, its kinda implied that they started. But I'm gonna say that they were only in a talking stage (one that Valerie only initiated for her own needs) and after this episode it doesn't go anywhere, but they remain kinda friends. That way, Valerie can show up a few more times prior to Flirting With Disaster and lowkey hang with the gang without Tucker and Valerie actually dating.

So i was actually going to share a few more headcanons too with Gray Ghost, and delve into the "Flirting with Disaster" episode, but this got... really long, and took me all evening to write (curse adhd) so I am. not going to go into that jadlfh. Plus I have to think more about them and come up with more cute headcanons.

Like how Danny calls her affectionate petnames when they're dating/sorta-dating the moment he settles into the relationship and becomes comfortable with it. One morning when he walked into a class that they shared, he smiled at her all warm and fondly said "Good morning, beloved."

And normally that might sound too strong in the fledgling beginning of a relationship, but Danny somehow manages to make it sound super natural and not at all too-much-too-soon.

Literally everyone's jaw dropped in that room. They've never seen Danny act that way, and Valerie somehow manages to invent a new shade of maroon on her dark skin. She does this cute little giggle-snort and waves her hand at him bashfully. Danny looks very endeared.

Paulina turns to Dash and angrily demands to know why he doesn't call her any cute petnames that aren't babe.

Oh and before I forget: As Phantom, Danny calls Scarlett Hunt either "Scar" or "Little Red Riding Hood" (or some variant). It pisses her off, which he does really like doing. Also, compared to how he fights ghosts, he goes remarkably easy on her. He doesn't even unsheathe his sword for her -- which she does eventually notice and gets angry about. She thinks he's doing it to look down on her.

When it's not. She is Squishy Fragile Living Human In A Meat Shell. He is Immortal Ghost With Powers. And A Sword. And A Decade Of Assassin Training. He could kill her a dozen different ways if he didn't hold back like he is, and he doesn't want her dead.

okay okay that's all I've got for now BUT, as a bonus, while I was making those three different scenes for the coffee splash scene, I stopped midway because I got art bunnies for danny for the first time in forever, and went ahead and drew him. So!! Things in Threes Danyal doodle be Upon Ye!

#dpxdc #danny fenton is not the ghost king #dpxdc crossover #danyal al ghul au #older brother danny #things in threes au #things in threes danyal #demon brothers #valerie gray #danny fenton #starry ask #dpxdc au #dpxdc ask #i didn't add all of his scars because i am Lazy #gray ghost #gray ghost my beloved. this got SO long but rewriting episodes is honestly SO fun #danny having beef with red huntress is SO fucking funny to me #god its so funny. and also it rings a nice parallel between the two. danny does feel guilty about being unable to stop cujo from destroying #axion labs. like he DOES genuinely feel guilty. but despite his growth he's still pretty prideful and refuses to bend in front of someone #who treats him and his loved ones harshly. he's not going to let that slide. you get what you give and all that #falling in love with Valerie sneaks up on him like a fucking sucker punch. one moment its not there the next it is. he is bewildered #all my digital art is done traditional and then transferred over to my mobile procreate app. I do not own a drawing tablet unfortuantely #secret message in the green text because i dont feel comfortable sharing the website im using to watch DP on ksljhf. just to be safe lmao #okay i dont have a lot of thoughts for the tags so thats enough tag talk for me

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