#I rigged Tucker's reading in this fic but I pulled out my tarot deck and did an actual reading for Sam's

[raaorqtpbpdy]

I've Got Friends on the Other Side

For the Prompt: Reverse TRIO Danny as a magic occult goth - got into sleight-of-hand to spite his parents when they used to spout that ghosts were real but magic was bullshit. He started with card tricks and snowballed into becoming proficient in several types of true occult magic, as well as all the basic party trick stuff. He now uses tarot cards rather than playing cards, both to freak out the 'normies' and scare off the bullies, but also because the cards tend to tell him things in a roundabout way. What did the cards just tell him about Tucker? (from @deathcomes4u)

AO3 Link

[Warnings for occult practices]

Danny Fenton had never really fit in. It didn't help that his parents called themselves ghost hunters and drove around causing mayhem in their souped up RV. When he was little, Danny had thought that his parents work was fascinating, but apparently he hadn't been interested in ghosts "the right way" because he didn't care about their scientific mumbo jumbo. Instead, Danny had gone to the library and checked out books on the occult.

When his parents derisively told him that magic wasn't real, he'd been furious. How could they say that to him when they'd devoted their entire adult lives to the study of ghosts? A less spiteful kid might've felt disheartened and given up their interest, but Danny doubled down. He taught himself sleight-of-hand tricks, as well as more spiritual forms of occult magic.

In middle school, he'd switched from playing cards to tarot cards, both to freak out the normies and scare off the bullies, and learned to read the cards pretty damn well, if you asked him. He'd started to dress in black, to wear crystals and other jewelry, to trudge around in heavy, buckled combat boots. He developed a reputation as the school's freaky goth kid, and that suited him just fine. His only two friends, the only two people outside of his family who were brave enough to come near him, were a passionate ecology nerd and the tech-obsessed school loser, and that suited him fine too.

Sam and Tucker were far from the most popular kids in school, which made Danny somewhat protective of them. He did regular tarot readings for them, at least once a week, when he was alone in his room, to keep tabs on what was going on in their lives, especially things they wouldn't necessarily tell him about.

Danny lit a black candle on his bedside table and shuffled his tarot deck three times, one for each letter of Sam's name. He manipulated the deck to bring the Empress, the card which represented Sam, to the top, but it was an honest shuffle aside from that. One by one, he laid out the cards on his comforter in a Celtic Cross layout, to tell him what his friend was struggling with. The Empress laid upright in the middle, the nurturer, the one who cared and helped, just like Sam cared so much about animals and the environment and did everything in her power to protect them.

Seven of cups—Sam was dealing with temptation of some kind. Six of wands, six of cups, Death, ace of cups. She'd had some kind of victory, and been happy about it, until she realized that it would come at a sacrifice, and she changed her mind. Reversed seven of wands, ace of pentacles, reversed queen of wands, Justice. There was some kind of time limit, and she couldn't make up her mind. Ultimately she would settle on accepting the temptation, and that would be the right choice, even if it wasn't without consequence.

Considering the reading, Danny tried to decipher a deeper, or more specific meaning. A victory for Sam would be convincing her parents to donate more money to animal rights groups and eco-friendly causes. If Danny were to guess, he would say that her parents had offered her a deal. They'd donate to her charities, but only if she did something for them, possibly something that was against her principals, or possibly something she just didn't want to do.

Next time he saw her, Danny would advise her to take the deal. Supporting vital causes to save the Earth would be worth whatever he parents wanted in return.

Satisfied, Danny made a note in his journal about the reading, returned the cards to his deck and shuffled again. Six times, he shuffled, once for each letter of Tucker's name, and he brought the king of pentacles to the top. His hands grew painfully cold as he did so. The candle on his beside flickered as if blown by a strong wind, but his window was closed. Whatever was bothering Tucker must be drastic to have such an effect while he shuffled.

Once more, Danny laid the cards in a Celtic Cross on his bed. Tucker's card, the king of pentacles represented intellectual prominence and ambition, both things that Tucker had in spades. The next card Danny laid down was the Wheel of Fortune, which told Danny that something pretty wild must have happened in Tucker's life, something filled with uncertainty, risk, and shock. Something Tucker definitely would've mentioned to him, but he hadn't for some reason. Danny's confusion doubled when he flipped the next card. The Magician, reversed.

The Magician was the card that represented Danny, it represented superstition and skepticism, unconventional methods, and magic. Different tarot readers read reversed cards various ways. Some believed that a reversed card indicated that the meaning of the card was also reversed, other believed that it indicated a delay, an increase or decrease in energy, or that whatever the card indicated was internal, rather than external, or vice-versa.

Danny used a more free-form style, judging the meaning of a reverse card on a case-by-case basis. However, in his experience, an upright Magician represented himself, and a reversed Magician represented his family. Whatever Tucker's problem was, Danny's family had something to do with it.

Danny's fingers physically ached from the cold so much that he dropped the next card. Death landed, reversed, in the next position on the cross. The position indicated the recent past. Death was a card that Danny rarely had to take literally, since it normally represented a different kind of loss or sacrifice, but the reversed position in this atmosphere clearly indicated an increased energy, so he could only assume that someone really had died, and Danny's parents had something to do with it. Or perhaps... could it have something to do with a ghost, his parents' work?

Danny swallowed and flipped the next cards, the two of swords and Judgement completed the cross. Tucker was at a crossroads and faced with a decision he couldn't make, or a decision he didn't know how to make, or a decision that would make itself if he didn't choose soon enough. Perhaps it was out of his hands, and Tucker was just being dragged along for the ride.

Reversed page of swords, ace of pentacles, The Tower, The Chariot. Whatever Tucker's problem was, it was something his friends could help him with, but he wasn't going to them because he was overthinking, probably panicking, possibly even afraid. The Tower was never good, and especially not in the position that represented the subject of the reading's fears. It represented failure, destruction, danger.

Tucker must've really been going through it, but the Chariot, at least, indicated a happy ending. It was triumph, victory over adversity. Everything would turn out okay, but Tucker had to make it through the trenches first.

Once all the cards were down, Danny tried to glean some more specifics from the reading, but it was foggy, as if it was shrouded in a mourning veil.

On Friday, after school, Tucker had been supposed to meet Danny at Fenton Works. Danny had to help a teacher with something, so he told his friend to go on ahead. He'd expected Tucker to be there already when he got home, but he didn't show. Was that because of this... issue that Tucker was apparently dealing with? Danny sighed in frustration and blew out his candle, watching the smoke curl up into the air in agitated spirals.

Tucker had some serious spiritual unrest going on, and Danny was just gonna have to ask him about it directly.

When Danny got to school, Tucker was nowhere to be seen. Sam was waiting for him by the steps, though, so he figured he'd talk to her first.

"So what kind of deal did your parents offer you?" he asked her. "What do they want in exchange for funding your environmental causes."

"Did... did I tell you about that?" she asked, more to herself than to Danny. "How do you know about that?"

"What did they ask for?" he asked again, ignoring her question. She should've been used to this kind of thing by now. It wasn't his fault he kept surprising her.

"They want to parade me around at upscale galas and crap," she said. "In formal wear. To schmooze pretentious investors and CEOs of companies that pollute the Earth more in a day than the average person does in ten years. But they said as long as I do, they'll give me a monthly donation allowance of five thousand dollars, which is pocket change for them, but it can do a lot of good in the right hands."

"You should do it," Danny advised. "It won't be fun or anything, but ultimately the rewards a worth wearing a gown, don't you think?" Sam sighed.

"You're right," she said. "I think I was always going to accept in the end, but... I guess I just needed someone else to say it. So thanks."

"You're welcome," he said, offering her a rare smile. "Good luck with the galas and crap." She snorted, and shook her head.

"I can't believe I'm gonna agree to this."

"Hey, have you seen Tucker around anywhere?" he asked her.

"I haven't," she said. "Come to think of it, I didn't see him all weekend, either."

"Well if you see him, let me know. We really need to talk to him."

"We?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure he needs both of us right now."

Tucker came to school right as the first bell rang, so there wasn't time to talk, but Danny and Sam conspired to corner him during lunch, and corner him they did. The three of them were alone behind the cafeteria, so they could speak freely.

"What happened last Friday after school?" Danny demanded. "Did someone die? Did it have something to do with my parents and ghosts?" Sam looked at him, aghast, and Tucker just shook his head resolutely.

"How do you do that?" he asked under his breath.

"We can help you," Danny said. "So stop overthinking, and freaking out, and just talk to us, alright?"

"Wait, what?" Sam asked, utterly lost. "Who died? What's going on?"

"I did," Tucker said quietly after a moment. "I went to your place to meet up with you, like we planned, but you were late. I got bored, and I heard you parents complaining about an experiment of theirs not working, a portal, so I went down to the lab to check it out."

"The portal works, though," Danny recalled. His parents had been over the moon.

"It didn't at first. I went inside it, and touched something, I don't know what," Tucker said. "It turned on while I was inside and... you can't imagine how painful it was. When I came out, the portal was on, and I looked like..." A fizzling white light rolled across Tucker's body like his skin was dissolving into glow-stick fluid right before their eyes. "This."

When the light faded, Tucker stood before them in a white jumpsuit. It looked like one of Danny's black Fenton Jumpsuits with the colors inverted. His normally dark hair was also white, as were the frames of his glasses. His freckles, usually invisible against his dark skin unless you looked really closely, glowed faintly, and his eyes were a luminous green, like the flame of a copper sulfate candle.

"You died," Danny said, finally understanding everything. "You're half ghost now." He gasped in realization. "The two of swords! The crossroads! You were cut in two; you live two lives, oh, duh!"

"What?" Tucker asked, while Sam just looked between the two of them in shock.

"Don't worry Tucker," Danny said. "I know this is stressful, and your struggling, and probably contemplating your own mortality, but in the long term, everything will be alright. This will eventually turn out to be a good thing, I promise."

"Uh... I can't make promises like that," Sam said, her brain catching up to the situation enough to finally speak up. "But I can promise that Danny and I will be there for you. We'll help you in any way we can."

"Absolutely," Danny agreed.

"You guys!" Luminous tears trickled from Tucker's eyes, and he sniffed once before pulling both his friends into a tight hug. "I can't believe I even thought of keeping this a secret from you. You guys are the best!"

"Yeah yeah," Danny grumbled. "We know. You can let me go now."

"Sorry." Tucker quickly released Danny from the hug and let the goth boy adjust his fishnet sleeves. "I forgot you don't like hugs."

"I guess I can forgive you," Danny said lightly. "Just this once."