#Jack and Maddie do read the journal and it's before they find Danny)

[pitch-pearl-void]

I've been wanting something like this for a while... but... What if, instead of Phantom ending up in the Human World and befriending Danny, Danny ends up in the Ghost Zone and befriends Phantom? *coughs* Not a very good idea, I know, but I just want to see it and I don't know if I can write it myself, since there's been some family issues lately :(

Dear Mom and Dad

The good news is I turned on the portal! The bad news is I’m trapped on the other side…

I’m not dead!  I think. I’m in the Ghost Zone you two were always talking about, and it’s bright creepy strange hellish cold desolate indescribable, you’ll just have to see for yourself when you GET ME OUT OF HERE! 

Nothing makes sense in here! There are these floating doors and rocks, and this green glowing stuff that’s everywhere, and the ghosts

I take back everything I said about not believing in ghosts. You were right about everything. They exist and they’re rude, thoughtless, scary complete assholes who only think about themselves. I’ve just been cut off from home and I don’t know if I’ll ever see you guys again and all he can think about is

Maybe I should start at the beginning.

After you guys gave up on the portal, me, Tucker, and Sam decided to look around and see if we could fix it for you, and if you guys get me out of here I swear I will never go near your inventions without supervision again I swear! Please! I just want to go home I miss you guys I miss everyone how long have I been gone

Since I’m the only one with a ready-made jumpsuit, I went inside to see if there was something wrong with a wire while Sam and Tucker checked around the outside. It wasn’t their fault! We all just wanted to help and it seemed safe enough. I guess we should have unplugged it first but

Okay, I don’t know what happened exactly. I think I pressed a button? I might have pressed a button. Just all of a sudden, the portal started working. I was still inside, and it was really loud. I didn’t know what was going on, and I didn’t have time to run or duck or anything. There was a lot of light, a lot of green light, and then there was this sucking sensation like I was getting sucked down a drain. I think it hurt but I don’t know for sure. I think I saw my fingers stretching so I’m sure it had to hurt, but I don’t remember any pain?

Anyway, I blacked out, and when I woke up again I was on my back and all I could see was this boy with white hair looking down at me and I thought I was dead because he has this white glow about him and he looked like a

A boy ghost and his dog found me before I’d even woken up. The dog (he’s called Cujo I guess) doesn’t like me and won’t stop growling, but the other guy seems more curious and confused than dangerous. He looks a lot like me? It’s really scary weird. He didn’t believe humans actually exist! Can you believe it? He seems convinced now, but only because his dog attacked me.

That’s the weirdest thing. He tried to bite me, but he passed right through me! I don’t know why it happened or how I did it, but Cujo kept trying to bite and claw at me and it kept happening. I might’ve been screaming the whole time, but in my defense this dog is huge! The ghost boy managed to pull Cujo off me after a while, but he didn’t seem to have an explanation for what happened either.

He did agree that I’m probably a human though. Win?

Anyway, he calls himself Phantom. Actually he calls himself Danny Phantom, but that was too weird and he said it was okay to just call him Phantom. He says most people just call him Phantom anyway. He doesn’t have any friends to call him Danny but maybe he’s just making that up?

He might not have believed in humans, but he says there have always been rumors about the Real World (he calls it the Human World but whatever) along with rumors on how to get there. He agreed to help me get home if he can come too. I didn’t want to agree (ghosts are bad right?) but how else am I supposed to get home? I waited outside the portal doors for—well, I don’t know how long. There isn’t any way to record time in this stupid place. Point is the doors aren’t opening. He’s my only chance.

On the bright side, he seems more interested in just seeing what the Real World is. There’s nothing evil about that right?

So Phantom’s first idea was this guy called “Wulf” who’s locked up in ghost prison. Awesome. But he can apparently rip holes in a dimension? Worth a shot. I guess.

Phantom had this weird idea that humans can do magic or something. I guess the episode with Cujo made him believe it. Ha! Nope, I’m just a wimpy teenager that can’t even fly so he has to carry me. (For the record: not awesome.) He told me to wait outside because I’m that useless and now he and Cujo are trying to bust that guy out. I’m using the time to write down everything in my English notebook. You guys always wanted to be here, and since it seems I’ll be living here for the rest of my life I may as well take notes. If I ever see you guys again, it’ll be helpful right? So you won’t ground me for life?

Actually it’s been a long time since they went inside. Maybe I should

—

Day 1

Like I said, there isn’t really any way to tell time here, so I’m just basing it off my sleep schedule. It’ll work for now. You should have seen Phantom’s face when he found out I willingly “shut down” for eight hours. Oh the horror of not being aware of my surroundings 24/7! Actually that is pretty scary in the Ghost Zone. I take it back.

We had to run fly pretty far to get away from the prison guards, but we found an uninhabited area after a while. I was pretty exhausted by then so I just sort of, like, dropped. Phantom panicked, the ghosts that escaped with us panicked, but I managed to calm them all down. Sort of. Ghosts are weird. They’re fascinated by humans, but I seem to spook (ha ha get it?) them as much as they scare me.

One of the ghosts can make—it’s not food. For one, it glows like everything else around here. But she can make it out of thin air and it tastes like food so

I’m just saying, I won’t starve. It’s a big plus in my opinion. She made me enough to stuff my backpack. She seems…happy to feed me. Scary happy. Said she’d make me as much food as I want and that I could come and see her whenever I ran out. Tried to put some sort of tracker signature on me (according to Phantom) so that she could track me down and make sure I was eating right but Cujo wouldn’t let her. Thank you oversized hellhound, I think I love you.

If you’re wondering, the prison break was…not a success exactly. Phantom and Cujo got captured, like, seconds into the raid and I, magical human that I am, had to bust them out by using my super awesome walking-through-walls ability, which is apparently a thing along with passing through ghosts that want to hurt me. I freed them and everyone else I could reach. Phantom seemed to think a jailbreak would make a great distraction, and since it worked, I’ll give him that, even if his other plan was a complete toss.

We actually found Wulf in the confusion, but Wulf (who is actually a wolf man, go figure) doesn’t speak English. He does have the ability to rip holes in dimensions though! He used it to escape the prison. Without us.

Not exactly according to plan.

Phantom seems really nervous about something, but given that we just broke ourselves and a dozen prisoners out of jail, he has reason to be. The guards sure seemed determined to catch us. We lost them now, but are we running from, like, the law or something now? Does the Ghost Zone have a government?

The other ghosts don’t seem to like Phantom much. I guess he wasn’t lying. They’re really stiff around him. They’re already leaving, though, so he won’t have to deal with them for much longer, at least.

I’m going to stick with Phantom (and Cujo). Just seems like the thing to do after leading a jailbreak together. Besides, he’s dropped the whole useless-human act. He’s treating me differently now. Respect is really nice, especially coming from a guy your age (probably) who can shoot death rays from his hand.

I’m really tired. I don’t know how long I’ve been awake but it’s been a really exhausting day. Cujo is standing “Guard” over me, and Phantom is talking to the Lunch Lady (the ghost supplying me with the glowing ghost food-that-isn’t).

I’m as safe as I’m likely to be in this awful place.

Now if everything wasn’t glowing.

—

Day 4

Finally convinced Phantom to let me use his cape last night (or whatever). He seems really attached to it, you’d think it was a part of him or something.  Given this weird place and how the cape has this really strange tingle-inducing feel to it? It might be? Idk honestly but while the GZ isn’t cold it definitely isn’t warm either. I typically have to sleep on solid (floating, always floating) rock, which is cold. And hard. Just really uncomfortable. I have to choose between using my backpack as a pillow or as a blindfold when I sleep.

Meanwhile, Phantom’s flying around with this really warm looking white cape. I kept thinking I could lay it on the ground and then wrap up in it and it would be bliss and I was right. I can stand the faint buzz and the weird looks Phantom gives me in the “morning” so long as he keeps letting me use it. Cujo seems a bit calmer around me too. Maybe there’s a scent? Ghost scent since obviously I can’t smell it. I’d put up with that too if it meant I could have a blanket every night.

We’re trying to track down another ghost called Desiree. Phantom seems a bit unsure about this one. She’s a ghost that can make any wish come true. The flaw is that she makes the wish come true in ways you never meant it to and she grows more powerful with every wish she grants. That sounds like a problem. But they say she’s one of the ghosts who used to be human, so Phantom’s hoping she’ll be willing to help.

That’s something interesting you guys might like to know. Apparently not every ghost lived, died, and became a ghost. According to Phantom, most come into existence randomly, usually around a large gathering of that green stuff he calls ectoplasm. That’s how he came into being. Some ghosts are born from the coupling of two or more ghosts and when I asked how /that/ happens, his face turned green and he started sputtering.

I’m guessing the same way babies are made. Only more “ghostly”

A ghost being born after the death of a human is a controversial topic, apparently, since they appear the same way other ghosts do, except they have memories of being human. They can’t prove it, few ghosts have even seen the Real World, and so it’s like a myth. Like people saying they “saw the light” or their dead relatives or whatever is a bit of a myth for us.

My stumbling into their Zone is like an alien walking into a Starbucks!

Phantom thinks this is really cool and I think it’s hilarious so we’re constantly making jokes about it, especially when we come across another ghost and they just gawk at me.

Side note: I’m almost positive Phantom was telling the truth about not having friends.

—

So

Desiree hates Men and the Real World and is even more antag—antogonis—uh, hateful towards Phantom than the other ghosts.

Long day. I’m tired. Phantom is letting me use his cape again. He’s probably just grateful I saved his ass. Again. I hope this becomes a thing.

The cape sharing, not the saving.

Cujo is even letting me lean against him. Phantom is sitting on the boulder beside us. He doesn’t look so good. He’s hugging his knees to his chest and just kind of staring at nothing. Maybe I should say something

—

Day 10

Okay

So

There is something in the GZ that can affect me against my will. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I hope it was something unique to “the Zone’s Greatest Hunter” because  

I guess being able to walk through everything that’s trying to hurt me made this place seem less dangerous than it actually is. There’s a lot that can go wrong. I’m not really safe here. Especially since it seems we really have upset some sort of governmental law.

I mentioned that Phantom is always pushing us to keep moving, never staying in one place too long, and it’s like we’re running from something? That something turned out to be the GHOST KING. Bad bad bad, wtf, a little warning would have been nice?! He’s not searching for us himself, he’s too important for that. No, he has others do his bidding. Because he’s a freaking king.

I don’t know what we did to piss him off so much, unless he’s just really pissed about the jailbreak? But one of his bounty hunters, Skulker, captured me and Phantom and locked us in a cage. The bars had a weird glow, and I wasn’t able to walk through them. Phantom was freaking out, thinking we were going to be handed over to the king, but Skulker seemed more interested in keeping us as some sort of creepy collection of his. The similarities between me and Phantom haven’t gone unnoticed in the GZ, I guess. Skulker kept talking about having a matched set. Gross.

Thank god for Cujo. I don’t know how we would have escaped without him.

Me and Phantom were pretty shaken afterwards (duh) so Phantom finally relented and took me to his “lair”

I mentioned it a couple days ago. The lairs are supposed to be an extension of the ghost’s will because it formed from the same ectoplasm as the ghost or something. It’s not just rude to enter a ghost’s lair uninvited it’s dangerous because they have complete control over that tiny area of the GZ. That makes Phantom’s lair the safest place for us, but Phantom has been pretty protective of the place. I just thought of it like a bedroom, but I guess it’s a bit more private.

I don’t know what I was expecting. The outside was the usual non-descript purple door, but inside was this like snow cave. It was freezing, the walls were actually crusted with ice! I got to see how a ghost can control what’s inside the lair when Phantom got rid of the snow and ice. He didn’t look too happy about it, but between me freezing to death and his ice kink I think he can deal. I didn’t really ask him to do it, he just saw me shivering, sighed, and started changing things.

And he made me a bed! Well sort of. He’s never seen a bed, and I wasn’t able to describe one very well, so he just created this sort of lump of furs in a corner. After sleeping on bare rock for however long it’s been, I’m not going to complain. It looks like heaven, I can’t wait to sleep. I sat on it as soon as he finished and I haven’t gotten up since.

Phantom doesn’t seem to have a problem with that. I don’t think he likes me being here. Every time I move, he flinches and looks at me like he’s expecting me to attack him or something. His unease is making ME twitchy. There’s definitely something more to this lair thing that I’m not grasping. Cujo wouldn’t even come inside.

Maybe it’ll help if I go to sleep. Hopefully I won’t dream of being locked inside that cage. I don’t think I’ve ever been that trapped. I couldn’t stand up or stretch or anything. I couldn’t even move without elbowing Phantom. If I hadn’t been so scared, the tight quarters might have been awkward. We were practically in each other’s laps. I wasn’t even thinking about that at the time. I don’t even want to think about that NOW.

Whatever. I have a bed. It tingles a bit like Phantom’s cape, but I don’t care. It’s been ages since I had a good night’s sleep.

—

Day 11

I guess Phantom was even more shaken than I thought. We’re staying in his lair a while longer, possibly a whole “day.” He doesn’t seem as tense as last night, but I get the feeling he’d kick me out in a heartbeat if he thought I’d be safe out there by myself. Does that mean he cares? Maybe I’m reading too much into it. But I think we’re friends by now.

This is supposed to be the part where Phantom tells me what ghosts do for fun, but apparently lairs are just for resting and relaxing and recharging and all that boring stuff. He does seem a bit more sleepy than usual, if ghosts can get sleepy. He still doesn’t want me to touch anything, though. And sudden movements are a sure-fire way to get glared at. Still, it’s better than last night. He’s even sitting on the bed with me.

And now he’s watching me write but

I don’t think he can read?

Danny Phantom needs to chill the fuck out

Okay, he definitely can’t read. But I guess it’s kind of rude to be writing when he’s right there so I guess we’ll just talk? There’s got to be something we have in common

—

Note to self: the first thing we’re going to do when we make it to the Human World is stargaze. I gotta find my telescope. Phantom is going to freak!

—

Day 14

I miss you guys. So much. We just crossed a “river” that just looks like a more liquid version of ectoplasm. It loops through the air like some sort of demented roller coaster, and I swear I could hear you two babbling excitedly about running tests and talking about chemicals and molecules and physics and all that other stuff I don’t understand.

I wish you guys were here to see this with me. I’m living your dream without you. It doesn’t feel right to be so far away from you and still feel like you’re right beside me.

—

Day 16

I’m running out of paper. I guess the daily diary-note taking is hard to sustain when you only have one notebook and a pen.

In other news, along with looking for a way home, dodging the King’s and Walker’s agents, and learning the ins and outs of the GZ and its society, me and Phantom seem to be getting a reputation as the ghost and his still living humanity. Myth stacked upon myth. It was kind of funny at first, but it’s starting to get annoying. I feel like a freak. Everybody here keeps staring at us. They have a lot of questions and they keep trying to touch me. I don’t let them of course, and that just leads to more questions and excitement. I wish they’d just knock it off.

We wouldn’t have to deal with it in the first place, but Phantom is running out of ideas and needs to gather information. That means talking to other ghosts. Urgh.

Fortunately we seem to have stumbled on something. A ghost called Ghost Writer can warp reality with his writing, so maybe he can open a portal? Worth a shot.

Btw, is it possible for a ghost to be touch starved? Phantom’s been touching me a lot more recently. He’ll put his hands on my shoulders and float above me or wrap his tail around my ankle or just stand with his shoulder brushing mine. And he leans into my hand whenever I touch his shoulder or whatever. It’d be embarrassing, but he seems to do the same with Cujo, especially when he’s nervous. The first time we talked to a ghost, he kept his hand buried in the scruff of Cujo’s neck and didn’t let go until we were flying away.

Combined with how the other ghosts treated him and the way he tried to compare a mother and father to a master or mentor and it made me realize how lonely he must be.

Hey, mom, dad, he’s called Phantom and he followed me home. Can we keep him?

—

Day 18

Ghost Writer can only warp reality by sucking people into his books.

Pass.

The guy was like a hermit and kind of rude. But we did have to knock on his lair to get his attention since that seems to be where he spends all of his time. Given Phantom’s reaction to me being in his lair the first time, Ghost Writer was a calm summer night.

Phantom seems to be getting better about it, though. He even left me in his lair by myself for a little while. He didn’t tell me where he was going and I was too happy to be trusted in his ultra-private space by myself to question him. When he got back, he handed me a notebook he’d gotten from the Ghost Writer. Said he noticed how I was running out of paper.

I don’t

I didn’t know what to say

I hugged him and he freaked out

So good news, I have more paper! Score! It’s actually really great because as silly as this diary-note thing is, it helps. A lot little. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d run out. I wonder if Phantom knew that.

—

Day 22

I’m seriously sick of green. I don’t know if I mentioned that before. There’s just so much green in here, and it’s not the cheery kind of green you see in the spring and summer. It’s like this sickly, goopy green. I miss blue skies. And sunshine. And just anything but a black void with glowing ectoplasm leaking everywhere.

But I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t have some charm, and Phantom seems determined to show me some of its wonders while we’re still here. Honestly, once you get over the wrongness of being able to walk along the underside of a floating rock, it starts to get pretty cool. I think it might be like space in a way. The rocks and other floating debris seem to have a gravity (or magnetism) about them that holds me to the surface like the Earth does, but if I jump too high, I escape whatever’s holding me down and I’ll just drift in that direction without any sign of slowing down or stopping.

It’s still faster to fly with Phantom or ride on Cujo, but it’s still really neat.

I wish I could say it gets boring or that the landscape (broken up as it is) is all the same, but I’ve seen upside down waterfalls and crystal tree forests and bubbling yellow tinted lakes with some sort of red creature swimming just beneath the surface and all kinds of bizarre rocky structures. And that’s not even counting the ghosts we pass.

It’s scary but exciting.

You guys are so going to lose it when you get here. It’s amazing. I suggest you get a local guide, though. They make it worthwhile.

—

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

—

D a n n y  P h a n t o m

D u a n n y  P h a n t a o m

—

Day 25

We have three options that we know of to get to the Human World, but none of them are easy. One is to track Wulf down since Phantom thinks he’s still in the GZ, but it’s more like a passing attempt. We’re doing it as we go. The second is another myth, but if humans are real, maybe Clockwork is as well? They’re as hard to find as Wulf is, though. The for sure option is called the Infi-map. The problem? The Ghost King has it. Joy of joys.

Speaking of the king, we crossed paths with a ghost called the Fright Knight. Phantom used to work for him or something. They definitely knew each other and he was ordering Phantom around, and since the Fright Knight works for the King that means Phantom did too, probably as another knight. That would explain the other ghosts’ wariness of him.

At least, until he cut ties and tried running away with me. If we had managed to free Wulf and escape to the Human World that first night it wouldn’t have mattered, but because we’re still stuck in the GZ, the King is angry and after Phantom’s head.

You don’t flaunt the King’s authority.

I guess that’s why they’re after Phantom. But the Fright Knight said he had orders to take me captive as well so we’re both being targeted by the strongest, most influential ghost in the Ghost Zone. Holy shit. We knew that before, but it’s a bit more real with this giant ghost knight in black armor staring down at me and announcing I’m a wanted fugitive.

Before you get too worried though, he let us go. Said something about pretending he never saw Phantom and to stay away from Phantom’s lair for a while. Yeah. Phantom can’t believe it either. It’s been several hours (best guess) and he’s still got this amazed look on his face.

Is it really so hard for him to believe someone might care about him?

—

Day 30

Well. It’s been a month. Give or take. I’m still not home yet, but I haven’t given up. I’m going to see you guys again. I will.

But is it okay if I enjoy myself too? It’s not wrong that I’m actually maybe a little glad I got sucked in here? If the accident hadn’t happened when and where it did, I never would have met Phantom, and while I hate what the ghosts are saying about us being the living and dead versions of the same person, I’d be lying if I said meeting him wasn’t like finding a missing part of myself.  God that sounds cheesy.

I’ve seen things I never would have seen and met people I’ll never forget because I went into the portal. Cujo, the Lunch Lady, the Box Ghost, the terrifying but super cool Fright Knight

I miss you guys. But

It’s okay that I don’t regret this. Right?

—

Day 33

Remember that time you guys thought I had a crush on Sam? Ha ha funny story…

—

Day 34

Fuck.

—

Day 36

He can almost read now I’m not writing this shit down. But that thing he just did, he needs to not do it again. He doesn’t even realize holy shit I’m fucked

—

Day 37

We found Clockwork! Sort of. He They found us really. What’s your policy on ghosts being pseudo gods? If there was ever a ghost that might deserve the title it’d probably be this one.

Get this: they are the ghost master of time. They manipulate time and jump in and out of the time stream like it’s like it’s a fucking afternoon stroll or something. They can open portals not just to any when but to any where.

And yet they wouldn’t help us. Jerk.

We hadn’t returned to Phantom’s lair since Fright Knight’s warning, and the constant flight is wearing on Phantom. It’s wearing on me. I miss that bed and the security. Plus Phantom is more relaxed there. So we were talking about going back since it’s been a long time when this clock hand appeared, swished around in a circle, and out floated the oldest ghost I’d ever seen. Think grandfather time, complete with knee-length beard and knobby wrists.

They said “Don’t”

The fuck.

We’d been searching for this guy ghost for I don’t know how long and they just pop out of nowhere in the middle of a conversation and say “Don’t”

I was about to yell something I probably shouldn’t when they, I don’t know, shifted into a little bucktooth kid. It’s kind of distracting. You just don’t see that every day.

They did answer a few questions so I guess it wasn’t so bad, but it’s another dead end. They have the power to send us to the Human World. In fact, they could send us to the exact moment the portal activated so you guys wouldn’t have to worry about me and Sam and Tucker wouldn’t blame themselves and whatever else is happening at home right now. They can do it, the problem is they won’t. There were a lot of reasons, something about the journey and not the destination, but I think it mostly came down to “suffering breeds character, get home on your own, you lazy bum.” Could just be me though.

They did say that if we kept going the way we have we would eventually get to the Human World. I guess I can live with that. But I would have appreciated something a little more definitive. What if I get home, like, a decade from now? Yeah, I’m home but holy shit I’m an adult and I have to move out anyway.

Should mention, Phantom had this ridiculously stunned look on his face for most of the conversation. Between me and Clockwork, I don’t think he’s ever going to disbelieve a “myth” again!

He was more concerned about his lair once he snapped out of it. That’s his home. It’s supposed to be the safest place in the entire GZ for him, and suddenly it’s not. It’s so unsafe that a literal ghost god interrupted a private conversation just to say how dangerous it is. He looked crushed.

The lair itself is Phantom’s safe harbor, but the area surrounding it is where the danger lurks, I’m guessing. The ghost king probably set guards on the door.

And that’s crossing a line. I don’t care if he’s a king, that’s just fucked up.

I wanted to just deal with the guy then and there. I’m sick of running from him. Phantom looked angry too, and Clockwork wasn’t stopping us, but

Well, you can’t just topple a king, can you? We’re just two kids and a dog. What are we supposed to do, storm the castle? Granted Phantom was a knight and I’m a mythical creature and Cujo is the size of a horse, but it’d just be the ghost prison all over again. Better to keep low for now, I guess.

Phantom managed to get a promise from Clockwork that they’d let us know when his lair was safe again. They seemed a little too amused. They know something, and it’s really annoying.

The whole thing sucks. I miss the lair.

—

Day 41

Had a bit of a celebration today but it flopped. Phantom was able to summon ice to his hands outside his lair, and this is apparently a Big Deal. It means his “core” has matured or is mostly matured. I guess it’s like puberty.

The cores are kind of like a star’s core. It’s where all the energy and materials are created before being pushed to the outer parts of the body. The energy doesn’t cycle like a human’s does; it’s just radiated out of the ghost’s body because their core creates a continuous stream of energy. That’s why there’s this, like, static charge surrounding Phantom and why his cape and lair cause that tingling sensation. It clings to things, and since each core is unique, it’s like leaving a signature on everything they touch.

And I sleep with Phantom’s cape every night so every time I wake up his signature lingers on me for I don’t even know how long and fuuuuck no wonder he kept giving me weird looks

Some cores have an elemental affinity, and in Phantom’s case it’s ice. Now that his core is maturing, he’s able to create ice and his core will start producing more cold energy. I had noticed he was getting colder, but it was so gradual I didn’t really think about it. He was super excited about it until he realized he couldn’t visit somebody. I’m guessing they’re some kind of mentor to him. He didn’t want to talk about it, and I wasn’t exactly in the mood to try.

Apparently, along with being their own internal battery, the cores are how ghosts have uh sex. Their shape doesn’t matter, their gender doesn’t matter, heck the number of ghosts getting it on doesn’t matter. Their cores just have to come into contact and then

I don’t know how they get pleasure from it or whatever, and I don’t care. Phantom’s core is located in his chest, and that’s why he freaked out when I hugged him, but it doesn’t matter.

I’m human. I don’t have a core.

I’m an idiot.

[five-rivers]

Danny slowly loses his memories from before the Accident.

“I don’t remember that,” said Danny.  “Are you sure I was there?”

Maddie raised her eyebrows.  “I talked to you about it just last week,” she said. “When I was asking you about what you’d like to do during summer vacation.”

“I remember that,” said Danny, uncurling slightly from his position on the couch.  “I just don’t remember the other thing.  I... maybe we talked about something like it.  When was it?”

“You were twelve,” said Maddie.  “It was just before your birthday.”

Slowly, he shook his head.  “Sorry,” he said.  “I remember, um...  What other vacations did we have?  Before the one where you thought I was crazy, it was, um...” He held his hands as if preparing to count on them.  “We went to New York that one time.  And then the Great Lakes before that...  Oh!  And that haunted house road trip.”

He frowned down at his hands, and Maddie felt something unpleasant curl in her gut.  

“Is that...  All you remember?” she asked.  

“Y-Yeah?  I guess the others were from when I was too young to remember?”

“The haunted house trip was when you were five,” said Maddie.  “Danny... have you been,” she didn’t want to say it, didn’t want to piece together other little oddities into a big picture, “have you been forgetting things?”

“No!” said Danny, defensively, sitting up straighter.  “I’m just...”  He chewed his lip.  “It isn’t as if I’ve forgotten anything recent.”

His abysmal grades and missed curfews begged to differ.

“One second,” said Maddie.  “Stay here.”

She went to her room and fetched one of her largest photo albums.  Danny was still on the couch when she came back, picking at the hem of his pant leg, and staring blankly at the floor.  Maddie sat next to him, making him jump.  She opened the album to a random page.  

“What were we doing here?” she asked.  

“Um,” said Danny, brows pinching together in confusion.  “Shopping?”

“For?” prompted Maddie.  

Danny shook his head.  “It’s just shopping.  It isn’t important.”

“Danny, this is from when we got you that model spaceship.  The one you have hanging up in your room.”

Danny blinked, and slowly shook his head.  

.

The doctor’s office looked clean.  It even smelled clean.  Danny was still doing his level best not to touch anything.  Maddie would have sighed at his behavior, but she was too tense.  She met Jack’s eye.  He looked terrible too.

“There are no signs of Alzheimer’s disease,” said the doctor.  All three of them sighed with relief.  “However...  You said the other symptoms, the difficulty in school, began after the electrical accident?”

“Yeah,” said Danny.  

The doctor nodded.  “Electricity can do strange things to the brain, sometimes.  We haven’t been able to find any structural damage, but the activity levels...”  He brought a colored image up on his computer screen.  “This is where long-term memory is stored,” he said. 

“Doesn’t red usually indicate high levels of activity?” asked Jack.

“It does,” said the doctor.  “This is actually higher than usual activity...  Honestly, I don’t know what’s going on here.  I would like to request that you make a record of things that you currently remember as happening in your life, and then come back a month from now.”

“That’s it?” demanded Maddie.  

“Right now, since we don’t know what’s causing this,” said the doctor, “the best we can do is monitor the situation.  We don’t even know if this is an ongoing deterioration, or something more gradual.  On the upside, other than long-term memory, there doesn’t appear to be any damage.  Your timeline after your accident is clear and detailed.  The cognitive tests we put you through actually put you significantly above average...  This is what we can do.”

Maddie didn’t like it.  Danny didn’t look surprised.  Or even particularly upset.  

She caught Jack’s eye again.  They would have to be ready to support him, when the extent of what he had lost fully hit him.  

.

Danny floated down the icy hallway next to Frostbite.  “This isn’t going to be one of those examinations where I have to get undressed, is it?” he asked.  

Frostbite chuckled, but there was an undercurrent to it that usually wasn’t present.  “Only halfway.”  He paused to tap Danny on the chest.  “Your mind is no longer entirely contained in your head, after all.”

Danny rubbed at where Frostbite had tapped him.  “You don’t think that has anything to do with it, do you?”

“I’m unsure,” said Frostbite as they reached the examination room.  “It isn’t unusual for ghosts to lose their memories of their lives, but that is both more immediate and more complete.  Sit down here, and take your shirt off, Great One, and we can begin.”

Danny made a face at the item that looked like an overly complicated dentist’s chair with a large metal disk embedded in the back, but obeyed.  

“Here we are,” said Frostbite, pulling a complicated ring-shaped thing from the chair.  “This part goes around your head,” he said adjusting it to fit.  

Despite his cold core, Danny shivered at the frigidity of the metal.  

“These are to monitor your core, along with the matching one built into the chair,” said Frostbite as he attached several flat disks to Danny’s chest.  

“Are they, like, ultrasound?” asked Danny, running his finger along the edge of one of them.  He didn’t like how they stuck to his skin.  

“They work on a similar principle,” said Frostbite.  He turned on several nearby monitors.  “With this, we will be able to see how your brain and core react in tandem.  Can you transform for me a few times?  I want to compare with the baseline readings we took from you when you first stayed with us.”

“Sure,” said Danny.  

.

“Alright,” said Frostbite.  “Now, I am going to try sending a few low-intensity ectoplasmic pulses and currents through you.  Is that alright?”

“Sure,” said Danny.  

The first few left Danny feeling lethargic and tingly.  Other gave him so much energy he had to leave the room for a few minutes to burn some of it off.  Another, interestingly, turned off his ghost half, not unlike the Plasmius Maximus.

There was a rest period in-between each test, to make sure that they weren’t mixing results.  During those times, Danny and Frostbite would laugh and tell jokes and...

...  Danny trailed off in the middle of a sentence.  “Frostbite?” he asked after a minute.  “What was I just saying?”

.

“I want to stress that this is currently just a theory, Great One,” said Frostbite.  

“It’s okay,” said Danny.  “Just...  What is it?”

“Your memories are recorded in both your brain and your core.  You know this, correct?”

“Yeah.  You told me that a while back.”

Frostbite nodded.  “Normally, if one is turned off, the other one is still recording memories, and the memories will be transcribed.”

Danny nodded.  

“Or, if they are disconnected, in the case of the Plasmius Maximus, or your parents’ ‘Ghost Catcher,’ they will swap memories.  However...”

“Yes?”

“It is my theory that certain kinds of discrepancies between memories can lead to your core deciding that the discrepancy is an error and attempting to remedy it.  Great One, your core did not exist prior to your accident.”

“So, it thinks my memories from before that are wrong, and it’s getting rid of them.”

“I’m afraid it may be so.”

“Can you stop it?  I mean, you were able to artificially induce it, earlier...”

Frostbite made a face.  “The only things I can think of that could stop this would be unhealthy in the long run.  I do not believe you want to try to split yourself in two again.”

“No,” agreed Danny.  “Any-Anything else?”

Frostbite sighed.  “This is not something I can confirm,” he said, “but I suspect that the reason for your odd pattern of your memory loss is that the memories you dwelled on most often vanished first.”

“Oh,” said Danny.  “Because that would bring them to my core’s attention...”

Frostbite nodded.  

“Well.  That’s... not ideal.”

“I’m sorry, Great One.  Would that I could do more.”

.

“It’s all gone,” he said, without preamble, as he stood at Jazz’s door first thing in the morning.  

She looked crushed.  “Are you sure?”

Danny nodded.  “I remember remembering, but I don’t actually remember.  It’s weird and...  actually kind of a relief,” he said, tilting his head to one side.  

Jazz blinked rapidly.  “Are you going to tell Mom and Dad?”

He shook his head.  As his memories had disappeared, so had most of his remaining trust in his parents.  Between the memories of them caring for him, and the memories of them attacking or threatening him, the latter were more vivid.  

He still loved them, and his ghostly desires, that he literally could not remember living without, still focused on them, but that and trust were two different things.  It had been months since he’d started to fake retaining memories that he only knew about from reading his journals.  

“Sam and Tucker?”

This time, Danny nodded, the gesture much more enthusiastic.  “We were going to meet up later today, anyway.  Do you want to come with us?”

“Sure,” said Jazz.  She rubbed at her eyes.  “Give me a second.”

Danny nodded.  He wasn’t in a hurry.  “I’ll be downstairs.”

He could understand the grief.  He had felt it.  But it was over, now.  The only thing left was to make new memories.  

[ecto-stone]

“chuckkle” i don’t know why but i’m just very hellbend on the idea of a reboosted Vlad that is nothing like Original Vlad

-So You have this sickly Vlad who been in hospital for 2 year fighting for his life after the accident, with his friend alway there cheering up for him and then in his final moment ,he die feeling love of his friend < a peaceful death make him free soul and have no grudge over Maddie and Jack>. -Then latter wake up a in tux suit buried in a coffin 6ft under ground with Blue Skin and comepletely bald <which is why he got so savy about his long hair and don’t like tight space>  -Unlike original Vlad, Para Vlad is a kind out going adveturous person < sortal like some one that would make sense for jack to go full idol over>. So when he get his new Power and no longer exist on paper, he just resume doing the thing he love .Become a Nomad Ghost researcher and have a whole Packer cover journal for it. <his journal base mostly on the info he gather from Ghost that he encounter on living realm, the man look like a kid in candies store when he first entered the ghost zone via Fenton Portal> -The journal series originally dedicated to ghost only would soon grow into a huge collection of paranormal stuff when he found out other mythical creature like Vampire, werewolf, gnorm,Fairy, mermaid exist,... and He started to recovered lost Knowlege of the Fenton Clan and Master clan regard Paranormal activity and practice Magic and dark magic < Sometime combine it with science>. +He help Ghost resolve their unfinish bussines.Skulker is one of his close ghost friend <it start off as Vlad getting hunted to be mounted on Skulker abandoned hunter shed Wall but slowly grow into Friendship.Vlad already help him resolve the unfinish bussiness but Skulker just chose to stay around as a ghost caused he enjoy hunting too much> + Like collect shiny artifact and shiny gothic looking thing in general <this is totally caused of Plasmius-the boy been to and raid alots of hidden acient temple as well as vampire castle and fortress> +Have Bad temple <didn’t really show this to outsider, if you are close to him or You frequencely fight him u would know, The Roasted Vampire cult of 2001 know> +Cursed in sweet if there minor around, Cursed like sailor If no children is around. +Consider Resurectioning someone that already pass onto Elsewhereness <Heaven/after life> is Insulting .<He can’t die You can tear him into thousand pieces and he would comeback the next day un-scratched ,which is why He didn’t res Ellie eventhought he know how to do it>. -Got into grudge with Vampire After keep foiling their Plan of resurecting their dark lord Plasmius or messing with their plan of rissing back into power over  other mythical Species  which latter redirected to wanting his blood caused it extremely poten <being a halfa and have second core being a G0 Vampire> to wanting to capture him and make him open the portal to Unworld  +Unworld is where Living Realm, Pugatory <Ghostzone> And Fairy world been banishing evil creature to for thousand of year so there is all sort of inhuman eldritch horror there, and vlad have natural ability to access the place and banish You to this dark realm <Unworld Halfa thing> -At some point he also encounter or know about the existence ofother halfa + Wulf a werewolf halfa <the poor boy die few year after vlad encounter with him but he become a rare kind of ghost that can open gate to Purgatory> +Actual recorded naturally exist halfa in Fenton Cland Grimoire due to naturally open portal. <short lived> +The cult Melty Halfa <imagine the danny clone but created via cultist dark magic method> -vampire and cult attemp to replicated Vlad power didn’t end well +Danielle <Ellie> Master: Lucky survivor of the cult melty halfa, created from Vlad rib and a vampire carrier mother. She lived and travel with Vlad for 9 year before dying to a mysterious illness <what vlad said at least> few month before her tenth birthday.  (Vlad could prob go on for hour when you aks about what Ellie is like when she is alive?) -Vlad: The Cost of Being Missed so deeply is the prices for Being Loved so much.  <don’t ask, losing bone and organs is regular for Vlad when it come to fighting. After he learn of the crime that is CMH and after Ellie death he Become less reckless and more of a long term planner> *Note from Vlad Journal: Halfa genuinly have very short life spawn as their ghost half tend to over power the living half leading to the death of the creature and instant like Me that perfectly dangling between life and death one does not over power the other is unheard of. <Vlad tell Jack and Maddie to spend more time with their chrildren is caused of this. He assume Danny to be a Short lived Halfa-No he not he is the immortal kind like Vlad> ..................................................... After Ellie pass away, Vlad stop with the Paranormal adventure and traveling or using his power as a whole. To just go low Profile and start as new life as a Freelance Wall Painter. Until by the meedling of a certain “Being” that make Vlad and Danny, those two that never cross path in the original timeline, cross Path . And change both of their life forever. -With Danny fidding some one he can talk ,vent to about life and understand his struggle. Someone who is there for him and just bring so much change to his suffercating life just by existing. -With Vlad finding back his purpose in life, reconnecting with old friend, restarting his old chaotic way of life. +He live with the Fenton now, right next to their bed, at the end of the hall is one of vlad magical pocket dimension coat nail to the wall surrounded and magic circle and candle to act as Vlad room> +Few month After the reveal that Vlad is alive, come to Jack accepting that Danny is a half ghost now and winning back maddie afection after she left caused of a bad fall out regarding Danny getting in trouble caused of Ghost Power.Maddie and Jack start back the whole Paranormal investigation/inventor thing up again .They want to see what inside halfa look like for a very long time but too afraid to ask. And After like week of them just nervously staring at Danny and Vlad. The one day Vlad just have enough go Well I can let you dissect me if You like... They do dissect session with Vlad being full concious to get an insider opinion and Info on Halfa Bio on Halloween night caused the kid would be out trick or treating. . <Fright Knight Version of Para>. And Danny and co just comeback into lab right after the Dissect is over and Jack is Patching Vlad up and just go. -um Uncle Vlad we “brorrow” one of your sword and accidently unleash an acient halloween ghost knight into the town and it now threatening to Take over the town  -You Did WHAT? Insert fire/ Pink magical circle and ghost laser here. With Vlad looking like a Bad Vampire mummy halloween costume lying wasted on the street bleeding out surrounded by the Danny gang with the Fright knight barely Escape Vlad "To Unworld You go” Beam fly away sworn revenge  <setting up for event that make Danny Pugatory Avatar Halfa becoming the new ghost King > ........................................................................................................................ To Who ever read this entire mess. I Kudo You for putting up with my bullshit.

[ecto-american]

If Found Please Return to Danny Phantom

Phic Phight Oneshot for @imperfection-at-itsfinest: When Jack manages to get his hands on Danny Phantom's ghost hunting logbook, an investigation reveals some information about ghosts and the infamous specter himself that a scientific study would never cover.

Read on FFN and AO3

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It would be wrong of him to read it. 

Jack kept staring at the book in his hands. It resembled a diary, the front design being colorless but a pressed design. The moon with stars, with no words, and the diary itself felt unusually thin. There was no lock, as if it was almost inviting him to just read it. Jack had, in fact, already opened to the first page, and the first words greeted him. In a standard font read: If Found, Please Return to: and the name scrawled, in surprisingly tidy handwriting, was the name Danny Phantom.

What an absolute find. It was pure dumb luck. He had seen Phantom drop it, but Jack had went looking for it in hopes that the ghost teen had dropped one of the stolen Fenton gadgets. Only to recover...this book that he had taken home and into the privacy of his lab for study.

The idea of Phantom keeping a diary was kinda funny. He never struck Jack as the type to write down his deepest darkest secrets or teenage embarrassments in a book. That would imply that the ghost had some kind of emotions. They didn’t. They were blobs of ectoplasmic energy.

So it should be okay for him to read, right? Why was he so hesitant? Well...it was an invasion of privacy. But it was fine. Phantom dropped it in the park. Phantom was a menace to society. There was likely evidence in this journal that could explain all of the ghost boy’s terrible deeds, that could prove that he truly was evil. This diary could change everything.

...Jack had children though, and he knew both were avidly creative. Scrapbooking, drawing, painting, writing. They were stress outlets for his girls, and he wouldn’t ever dare dream of invading their privacy like that. So he couldn’t. He shouldn’t. Phantom deserved privacy, right?

“Jack? Are you coming to dinner?” Maddie’s voice snapped him from his thought process. She hadn’t made a noise as she came down the stairs. But Maddie was a much better stealth hunter than him.

“Yes, yes! Sorry, I was distracted,” Jack apologized. He set the book down on the table. Maddie rose an eyebrow at him.

“Did you get a new ectobiology book?” she asked. His eyes glanced to the book, and he shook his head no. Maddie came over to him, studying the book cover. Of course, it didn’t resemble any of the scientific texts that they owned. 

“I don’t know how to explain it…” Jack said slowly. He held it out to her. Maddie accepted it.

“This looks like it belongs to the kids,” she stated. She opened the first page, and Jack saw her eyes widen. Her breath hitched, and she looked up to him “Jack...where did you...get this?”

“He dropped it during a fight,” he replied. “I thought it was Fenton tech, but…”

Her eyes sparkled, and she shut the book. A wide grin had appeared, and she threw her arms around her husband.

“Oh Jack! This could teach us so much! If this really is a journal or some kind of diary, then he may have recorded motivations! Thoughts! We can really get into how Phantom thinks and a raw, honest, firsthand account from Phantom himself! This changes everything!”

She was right. She was absolutely right, and he hugged her back. They were scientists first and foremost, and this journal could fill in so many missing blanks about ghosts. It was a starting off point. Jack’s mind raced with all the things they could possibly learn. Just from a simple peek of the book. That was worth more than the invasion of privacy of a ghost that caused so much havoc, destruction and pain. 

“We should look at it right now!” he exclaimed. Maddie pulled away with a small frown.

“After dinner,” she reminded him. “I finally got everybody corralled upstairs for a family dinner. It’s nearly impossible to get either of the girls at the same time.”

“Oh, right!” Jack nearly slapped his forehead. Yes, they were scientists first and foremost, but before even that, they were Mom and Dad. “First thing after dinner.”

“First thing after dinner,” she agreed with a smile. 

Upstairs, he saw that Jazz was already serving herself. Chicken, mashed potatoes and peas. His youngest was pouring iced tea into glasses for everybody. 

“Hey Ghost-kateers!” Jack greeted cheerfully with a grin. Both kids groaned in embarrassment. Perfect. 

“Daaad!” his youngest complained, a whine hitching as she put the pitcher of ice tea back. “I told you, if I’m going to be some kind of ye olde soldier type, I wanna be a knight, like at the renaissance fair.” 

“Ah, but if you’re a ghost-kateer, you can get an anti-ghost musket!” Jack teased. As he walked past her to get his own food, he playfully ruffled her pixie-cut hair. She waved his hand away. 

“But as a ghost knight, I can get a cool sword!” she protested. Jack shook his head in fake disappointment. 

“Never bring to a ghost sword to a ghost musket fight, baby boo,” her dad replied.

“Can’t shoot what you can’t see!” she shot back with a grin. Jack had to hand it to her, and he just chuckled. 

“Can we please have a ghost free dinner?” Jazz scowled. 

“Yes, yes, let’s save ghosts for after dinner,” Maddie agreed. Jazz shot her a grateful look, and Jack focused on getting his serving of dinner from the stove. His youngest pushed her sleeves up, exhaling. Jack stole a look at her and frowned. She had some sweat collected on her forehead.

“Honey if you're hot, you can just take your sweatshirt off,” he told her. She shook her head no.

“No, I'm fine,” she insisted. Jack was skeptical.

“You sure?” he asked. 

“Mhm!” 

Jack shrugged a bit. She was always insisting on wearing a hoodie, no matter the weather. If she got hot enough, she’d take it off. No need to force it. He got his food and took his seat.

“How's school going?” Maddie questioned. Jazz lit up a bit, and her sister flinched. She raised a suspicious eyebrow at her youngest.

“I managed to get a B on my chemistry test,” the youngest spoke up with a forced smile.

“That’s excellent!” Maddie’s demeanor shifted as she smiled warmly. “Keep it up!” 

“Yeah!” The youngest seemed to visibly relax. “Sam’s been helping me study.”

“That’s good, I always studied better when V-man or your mom helped me,” Jack nodded at her as he cut up his chicken. 

“Oh it’s true, I used to help your father study for all of our shared classes,” Maddie confirmed. “Otherwise he’d get so distracted.”

“Yeah, Sam just explains it super well,” their daughter agreed. “Tucker’s been going over math with me a bit, which helps some.”

“Well if you need a tutor, just let us know, and we’ll help you arrange one,” Maddie smiled. “What about you, Jazz?”

��Pretty good,” she replied. “Mr. Lancer asked if I wanted to be his TA this summer, which I really do. It’ll look good on a college application, and I might even get paid!”

“Have you been narrowing down where you might wanna go?” Jack asked. Jazz eagerly nodded.

“Yeah! Oxford is my number one choice, but I also would love to go to Yale or Stanford. I’ve been talking with the college counselor about what else might look good on an application for them that I can do over the summer. I wrote them down in my planner notebook earlier-”

“Hey, that kinda reminds me,” her sister interrupted. “Have you guys seen one of my notebooks? I think I lost it,” she asked them. Jack stared at her. The reminder of the notebook he actually had found. Maddie seemed unbothered by the question. This wasn’t unusual, for the parents to have to play “where’s my stuff?” with the kids. 

“What notebook?” Jazz asked hesitantly. 

“My important one,” came the reply. Jazz frowned lightly. 

“Sorry, princess, haven’t seen any notebooks laying around,” Jack replied. He saw the briefest of a cringe cross his youngest’s features. “Did you leave it at school?” Her shoulders slumped.

“I don’t think so?” she said hesitantly. “I’ll have to check tomorrow. I was so sure I had it earlier…” Her voice trailed off before she forced a smile. “If you see it, let me know!” She picked up a forkful of chicken, only to freeze. The clattering made Jack glance up curiously as she was turning her attention to Maddie. “Can I be excused? I have some homework to get done.” 

Maddie let out a soft sigh. So much for family dinner.

“Of course, just make sure you come back down before you go to bed to get your chores done,” Maddie nodded at her. The young Fenton snapped to her feet with a thanks, fully abandoning her dinner as she went to the stairs. Jazz stared after her sister, craning her neck to track her movements before hurriedly shoveling more mashed potatoes in her mouth.

“Uh, I’m not that hungry, and I totally forgot to do this online assignment,” Jazz spoke, standing up, taking hers and her sister’s plate. She was already walking away before either parent could truly give permission. “I’ll put our plates up and clean up in a bit!”

“A-alright?” Jack hesitated, watching his other child put the plates on the counter before rushing up as well. Another child down. They seemed to grow up so fast. 

“Least they’re doing homework,” Maddie sighed lightly, shaking her head before taking a drink of her tea. “Oh well. Might as well take their lead and eat in the lab?” 

“Please,” Jack agreed. He stood up, taking his plate. “I’m dying to see what Phantom has to say.”

January 10

Skulker: 1; captured

Ectopuss: 1; captured

Box Ghost: 8; captured

Ember: Fought; got away

Fenton Thermos: half-full

Fenton Fisher: untangled

January 11

Vultures: 1; got away

Cujo: 1; played fetch and he went back to the GZ

Fenton Thermos: Full

Ghost Bazooka: overheated and doesn’t shoot anymore, take apart and fix it

January 12

Skulker: 2; got away

Box Ghost: 3; captured

Sidney: 2; got away

Fenton Fisher: tangled, untangle asap

January 13

Skulker: 1; captured

Box Ghost: 4; got away

Fenton Thermos: damaged, won’t suck up ghosts

I met a new ghost today named Desiree. She got away, but it allowed me to discover a new ghost power. Ghost ray.

Maddie furrowed her brow as she studied the words. She stood at the table, her dinner half-forgotten as she thought on the words.

“It sounds like a record,” Jack mused, and he ate another spoonful of peas. Maddie nodded in agreement.

“I think we found Phantom’s logbook,” she agreed. “I’m assuming these are the ghosts he’s fought. And he seems to be recording his powers too. This is huge, we can match up what we know about his powers and what he’s claiming.”

“And he’s recording the status of our equipment.” Jack frowned. “Why would he care?”

“Yeah, he made note that he was going to fix the Fenton Bazooka too,” Maddie pointed out. The scientist flipped through the pages, only to stop at a page, staring curiously. Maddie laid the journal on the table, pressing the spine so that the pages stayed open. She read the page aloud to Jack.

December 19

I hate my life. I hate this existence. I look in the mirror and wonder why it has to be this way. Why am I the one cursed to be this freak? Why is everything about me and my body wrong? For once, I wish something about me was normal, that somebody about me could be right. If Desiree wasn’t such an unreliable asshole with wishes, I’d give everything I have to wish that life could, for once, allow me to be a normal teenage boy. 

Jack listened to her in a stumped silence. This couldn’t have been a pre-death thought process of a moody teenager. It was written too recently, and the words hit a sorrowful chord to him. He didn’t intend to, but he quickly began to feel sorry for Phantom. He was very young. It couldn’t have been easy to lose everything at that age. His daughter was his age. Jack cleared his throat.

“It’s not just a log then?” Jack questioned. Maddie shook her head, flipping the pages back.

“No, I think it’s a mix. There’s still records of ghosts and FentonWorks equipment,” she replied. Using a leg, she pulled a wheeled chair to her to sit in. She leaned back, and she pulled the journal to her. After a moment of flipping through and scanning pages, she settled on a page about a third of the way through. “It seems like this is when he began to record things other than just ghosts.”

“What’s it say?” Jack wondered. Maddie read aloud the next few entries as Jack silently continued to eat. 

April 4

I only fought this shitty panther today, and he still got away. I’m such a fucking idiot. I can’t believe he got away. I was too slow. All I do is fuck up. There’s ghostly activity happening around the school, and I just can’t figure it out. I feel like I can’t stop them anymore. I don’t know what’s going on, why I suddenly suck so much. I honestly probably just always sucked, and now it’s starting to hit me. [scribbles] and [scribbles] were trying to make me feel better, but I fucked up. It was only one ghost today, and I couldn’t catch them. It destroyed an entire store, and it’s my fault.

April 8

No ghosts today, surprisingly. But [scribbles] has been acting weird lately. The other day she poked and prodded me at dinner. No clue what that’s about. She also tried to give me this speech that I can talk to her about anything, and that she’d love me no matter what. That makes me think she found my binder. I’m honestly kinda freaking out. I knew I shouldn’t have left it out like that. She’s such a nosy know it all.

“Phantom must keep more records than just this,” Maddie lightly mused. “He has an entire binder full of information that somebody discovered.”

“Maybe on other ghosts?” Jack theorized. “He’s recording his fights, he must be also recording information about them.” Maddie’s eyes lit up.

“That makes so much sense,” she agreed. “He probably keeps so many kinds of things written down and logged. I wonder where he’s keeping it? Obviously paper, which is a bit odd. I figured a teenager would move to the digital age…” Maddie paused.

“Maybe he’s older than we think he is?” Jack suggested. “He could have died fifty years ago, and just be more comfortable with writing things down.”

“Oh, that’s true,” Maddie mused. She put down the notebook to take a long sip of her drink. Jack picked it up to observe the page she read.

“Phantom has neat handwriting,” he noted. “He’s not fighting ghosts when he writes these.” Jack’s eyes scanned the words. “...I wonder who he’s scribbled out.”

“Allies?” Maddie shrugged. “He probably went back and blacked out some of the names. Privacy. Especially if this isn’t the first time he’s lost this.”

It made the most logical sense. Jack skipped the purely log entries to one that had more written, and he read it aloud to his wife.

April 10

She was feeding on us. Spectra, the Casper High “psychologist” was feeding on emotions, like some kind of emotional vampire but she’s a ghost. It’s so scary. I saw her do it. She asked [scribbles] and [scribbles] about their lives. What made them unhappy, and why. And when they left, I saw her absorb? I guess how I’d describe it? She absorbed the energy into her skin and it just seemed to instantly revive her, and it made her happy. When she did it to me, I could just look in her eyes and know that she enjoyed every minute of my misery. I managed to stop her, with [scribbles] helping me. It was weird. She didn’t seem afraid of me. I don’t know why. 

Spectra: 2; captured

“Ghosts can feed off of energy!” Maddie exclaimed. “Human energy! We always suspected it, but this is confirming something!” Jack glanced up at her excitedly. It was the first real, true ghostly discovery that Phantom was revealing to them. 

April 13

All I do is fuck up lately. Because of me, this ghost dog just absolutely has been causing havoc on this girl’s life. She blames me. And I don’t blame her. I ruined her entire life. She lost her house because of me. I didn’t mean to. I tried to stop the dog, but he just won’t respond to anything I say. I can’t capture him. I’ve been trying. I’ve been just calling the dog Cujo. After the Stephen King book, because damn is this dog giving me one fucking nightmare of a time.

Cujo: 3, got away

April 16

[scribbles] kissed me. It was to force me to change back, and it worked, but she kissed me. It was great. She smelled like lavender. I don’t think my heart’s ever beaten so fast. Afterwards she clarified to me that it was just a fake-out make-out. It didn’t feel like it. I don’t want it to be. But she’s my best friend, and I can’t lose her. So I agreed, and when I came home I cried. My dad caught me, and I pretended it was just girl problems, even though that excuse made me feel even worse. He got me some ice cream, and we watched Star Trek together. It didn’t really help that much, if I’m being honest. 

Anyway, apparently Cujo’s trained. He knows his commands. [scribbles] thinks it’s because he was a guard dog when he was alive for Axion Labs. For a guard dog, he’s such a playful puppy though, he loves his squeaky toy. And [scribbles] became a hunter specifically to kick my ass. It’s my lucky month. But I deserve it. Will there ever be a day where I actually can do more good than bad?

Skulker: 1; captured

[Scribbles]: 1 Red Huntress

Cujo: 1, got away

“Phantom has a family?” Maddie wondered. She chewed on her food as she thought. Jack shrugged, an odd, unsettled feeling hitting him as he put the book down for a moment. He used his spoon to push around his peas.

“I mean, we all do,” Jack reminded her. “Just...I didn’t think Phantom still talked to his family. After his death. Or did such...non-ghost things with them.” Watching Star Trek with his dad? Jack did that with his own kids all the time. It was his and his youngest daughter’s favorite show to watch together. Jazz typically preferred documentary series, and Maddie was too bothered by scientific inaccuracies to really enjoy science fiction. So it was always “their thing” and knowing that Phantom did it too was...too human. 

“Yeah, I didn’t...really expect him to still be haunting them,” Maddie said. Jack could tell that this was disturbing her a little. 

“But ghosts can retain their memories from life it seems,” Jack spoke up. Maddie stared at him. “The dog remembers commands from his life as a guard dog. What extent, I’m not sure.” Maddie hummed curiously.

Jack picked the book up again, skipping through more boring logs to other words. 

April 29

Ember: 2; captured

Fenton Thermos: full, empty

The past few weeks have been terrible. I have definitely come to the conclusion that I really am developing a crush on [scribbles]. Or maybe I always had one, I dunno. Is this really just an effect from Ember’s supposed spell? Does ghostly mind control really last? I think I always knew that I liked her though. I mean, ever since I told her that [scribbles], she’s been so supportive. She even cut my hair for me, which really pissed my parents off, but they ended up admitting that I looked better with my hair short anyway. Almost like it’s meant to be, huh? Ha. [scribbles] is also one of the only two people who know my deeper secret. She’s been so supportive through that too. She calls me Danny, and every time she refers to me as that, it makes my heart go crazy.

But would she even like me? Would she even wanna be with somebody like me? I don’t think I’d be her type. Some other friends I met at this local support group have complained about the struggles of dating. The stories are depressing, and it makes me worried that while [scribbles] will always love and accept me as a friend, that she’d never be able to love me as a boyfriend. I hate my life.

“Aw, Phantom has a little girlfriend,” Jack half-joked, only for goosebumps to raise and an odd chill run down his spine. He looked to Maddie for her opinion, and her face was scrunched up.

“That’s a bit creepy,” she commented. “He’s pretending to be human.”

“I dunno, Mads,” Jack shrugged. He re-read the ghostly teen’s internal conflicts. “Why would he pretend to be human in a journal that nobody’s meant to read?”

“He has to be sharing it with his allies,” she argued. “Those people he’s been scribbling out. Phantom has to be pretending for them. To keep them around. He even mentioned ghostly mind control.” 

She pushed her mostly-finished plate from herself, motioning for Jack to hand over the journal. He complied, and Maddie flipped through it. She stopped, and she set the journal down on the table once more. Leaning over, she studied the spine. A finger ran along the inner spine, and she frowned.

“Pages are missing,” she noticed. Jack pushed his plate out of the way to lean over as well.

Indeed, the top of the diary revealed that it was meant to be a normal, full diary. Now that Maddie pointed it out, it looked like well over a fourth of the diary had missing pages. Jack squinted, pulling his hood over his eyes. He used his googles to better examine.

“They weren’t ripped out, like in a ghost fight,” Jack told her. He pointed to what remained of a page, a barely noticeable strip. “It was carefully cut out.” Maddie narrowed her eyes to get a better look.

“You’re right,” she mused. “Phantom did this purposefully. Probably to hide stuff from his allies.”

“But why hide some stuff and not others?” Jack wondered aloud. “Clearly this girlfriend figure is an ally, but he can’t be...sharing this with her, right?” Maddie pulled back from the notebook to lean in her chair with a heavy sigh.

“...I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t think he would. But he’s also a ghost, they do weird things.” Jack didn’t know how to reply, and so he continued to read.

May 16

The past few days have been so full of drama. Walker ruined my life. He absolutely ruined it. He set out to make me the most hated person in Amity Park out of pure spite, and he succeeded. I’m public enemy number one. I can never win. For a while now, I had debated telling my parents, because I so desperately want their support, but they were part of the news coverage calling me a disgusting, evil ghost. I ended up crying yesterday. I don’t think they’ll ever truly love me if they knew. I also failed Wulf. Another failure on my plate. I’m just waiting for it to all crash down on me.

Walker: 1; sent to the GZ

Wulf: 1; sent to the GZ

Walker’s goons: at least 14, all captured

Fenton Thermos: overflowingly full

“Oh this is just becoming nonsense,” Maddie complained. “He’s lying. We were there, Jack! We saw him attack us.”

“I know, I know, he did, yeah, he did,” Jack tried to gather his thoughts. “But why would he lie in this? I don’t think anybody was meant to read this?” Jack flipped through the pages. The further he flipped through in, the more he could tell that some sections had more carefully cut out papers than others. Why was Phantom cutting out? What was he hiding? Why was he hiding it?

“He meant for somebody to read this,” Maddie lightly argued. 

“Yeah, it seems like it, but…,” Jack trailed off. He shook his head a bit, flipping back to where they had left off. “I dunno.”

“Hold on a second,” Maddie urged him, standing up. “Let me get something to write with, we should take some notes.”

“We can just use the scanner to make a copy of the journal afterwards, and we can further analyze it afterwards,” Jack suggested. Maddie thought on this, and she nodded, but she still reached for some scrap paper and a pen.

“Good idea, we should probably read through it fully first anyway,” she agreed. “But I still want to jot down some thoughts.”

“Of course, of course,” Jack replied. He knew that’s how she thought and processed information best, and it was always from her notes that he could visualize his own theories properly. He took a drink of tea before he continued reading the next true entry.

May 24

My entire relationship with my other crush (not [scribbles]) was a lie. She was being overshadowed by Kitty the entire time. This was my first real girlfriend, and it was all fake. I had assumed I was so lucky. I found a girl who knew and was okay with both of my biggest secrets. When I got home I ended up just going straight to my room. [scribbles] brought me dinner, but I didn’t feel like eating. Is this what life is going to be for me? I don’t want it to be like this. The only good thing is that [scribbles] doesn’t know either secret alongside our brief relationship.

Least Kitty and Johnny seem happy again. For now at least. I swear, they’re always breaking up and getting back together. 

Kitty: 1; sent back to the GZ

Johnny 13: 1; sent back to the GZ

Shadow: 1; sent back to the GZ

Jack could lightly hear Maddie taking notes on her scrap paper, the pen scratching at the surface. He didn’t comment on it, silently flipping to the next page, and he continued to read. 

August 19

I was forced to really face the reality of how much I fucked up [scribbles] life. I hate it. I’d do anything to take it back. It makes me wonder if I should just retire. Am I even really doing anything to help? Am I just a nuisance? Everybody thinks that. 

Rationally I know I can’t. I’m the only one who can properly deal with the ghosts, who has the power and abilities to fight back without getting killed. I have to do what I can, but I just wish I could do it without making so many mistakes. [scribbles] said that it’ll be okay, and that it gets better, but it sure doesn’t fucking feel like it.

Skulker: 3; finished

Red Huntress: 2; temporary truce?

“He’s so full of...emotion for a ghost,” Maddie finally spoke up. 

Jack glanced at the paper she had in front of her. There was some notes of what they had been learning so far, and there were emotions written in all caps with a line under, and a list of various emotions. Emotions Phantom seemed to be displaying. Guilty, despair, loneliness, self-hatred, self-doubt. Despite the few entries, it was already quite a list.

“It’s not just him either,” Maddie continued. Jack rose an eyebrow at her. She didn’t immediately reply, fingers on her lips as she stared down at the journal. “He’s giving emotions to other ghosts too.”

Jack stared down blankly at the journal in his hands. 

“Where?”

Maddie began to write, and as she wrote, it clicked. Spectra’s joy in hurting others. Kitty and Johnny’s relationship. Walker’s spite. Cujo being a playful puppy. According to Phantom, and against what they knew as scientists, ghosts were experiencing a wide variety of emotions and for different reasons. It was weird. 

Jack continued to read.

October 17

I don’t know what happened the past few days. It’s this weird blur. According to [scribbles] and [scribbles] I did a lot of bad things under Freakshow’s control. [scribbles] hugged me and told me that it was nothing that we couldn’t fix, but I doubt that. Why does this keep happening to me? I don’t want to hurt people. I want to be a good person, and I want to help Amity Park, but I don’t know what keeps happening. Everything’s a fog, and I’m exhausted. 

Freakshow: 1; arrested by APPD

Circus ghosts: freed from Freakshow’s control, went back to the GZ

Replace Fenton Anti-Creep Stick, print out another sticker to put on it

“Freakshow...that was the weird circus guy,” Jack interrupted himself. Maddie nodded.

“Yeah, and if Phantom’s right...he could control the ghosts,” she mused. “So there’s a way for humans to take control of ghosts...That’s something to look into. If we can control the ghosts into staying away, it’d be such a massive scientific breakthrough.”

“We should look into Freakshow more, and see if we can talk to him!” Jack agreed. “Maybe he’ll share something with us.” Maddie smiled softly.

“I doubt that,” she replied gently. “But there’s no harm in trying. What else does it say?”

November 8

I have to fight Pariah Dark. I’m terrified. I don’t think I’ll live through it. How can I live through fighting the actual ghost king? I may never see my family again, and I can’t even tell them what happened to me if I die. I’ve been debating telling [scribbles] that I like her, but I don’t think I could bring myself to do it. 

What happens if I die? I have no clue. I’m scared to find out. I can’t die now. I have to make it back. I’ll go missing, and I won’t even be declared dead as my parents’ son. Nobody will know who to really look for. I have to come back. Maybe if I succeed, and people like me again after this, I can tell my family everything.

November 10

I couldn’t tell them. My parents still despise part of me, despite what I’ve done. I know they love me, cause my mom’s already been fussing over me like crazy because of my injuries. [scribbles] said she cried when they couldn’t find me, and that my dad had gone out looking for me all over the city, even in the dangerous parts. They of course love me, but do they really love me unconditionally?

Jack felt his voice trailing off as he hit the end. He coughed lightly, and he took a long drink. Maddie stared off into nothing. The only thing he could think of was his own search for his baby girl. He wasn’t alone, bumping into several other parents desperately looking for their missing children, and several children who got separated from their parents. The entire day was somber and frightening, and Maddie had spent the entire day glued to the phone. In case she called them. 

It was all...too real, and Jack flipped past more logs. He couldn’t help but begin to take note of how every single day had a log of ghost fighting activities, even if Phantom didn’t write down his feelings every day. This was so much more than the ghost hunting duo ever expected, more attacks than they were recording.

His eyes rested only for a moment on December 19, and he decided to just skip it. They had already read it earlier. No need to refresh those memories. More logs, and more missing pages, and he came upon another one. 

March 26

I ripped out a lot of pages, more than I intended. I can’t risk anybody finding out what happened, but also other pages revealed too much, so I kept them tucked away where nobody could ever find them. I’d burn them, but I don’t want to lose the ghost hunting data. It’s okay now. I fixed the problem and assured that everything’s going to be fine. Possibly better. I made the right choice this time, and now I know that one day, I will grow a sick beard. 

I know somebody knows my secrets now. All of them. She had known for months but wanted me to tell her. She asked me if I had a name, and ever since I told her that it was Danny, she’s been calling me that whenever she can. It made me cry the first time. It’s so great to have her know everything now. She loves me no matter what. I couldn’t ask for a better person. Even though she found out because I’m an idiot. This entire thing also made me realize how important it is to keep those secrets, and how poorly I’ve been keeping them. 

I didn’t ever mean for this to turn into a diary. I wanted to keep track of ghost fights. But it honestly helps with both the dysphoria and the stresses of being a ghost. I just went back and scribbled out names. Just in case. In the future I need to be more vague. 

But this is also the end for one secret. If things go wrong then well. I don’t know. I’ll make it up as I go along. But I know that this is who I am, and that I’m hitting a point where I need help to just be me. 

Him: 1; captured for good

Skulker: 2; captured

Desiree: 1; captured

Ectopusses: 1; captured

Cujo: 1, sent back to the GZ

Fenton Thermos: full

Fenton Anti-Creep Stick: destroyed, get new bat and sticker to put on it

Also learned a new ghost power: Ghostly wail. A scream that can just absolutely fuck somebody’s day up. I have to use it sparingly though.

Jack closed the journal, and he set it flat on the table. His mind was blank, and he couldn’t read Maddie. She continued to stare at the closed book, hand in pen but almost unsure as to what to even jot down as a note. He leaned in his seat, finishing his drink. Maddie exhaled deeply, dropping her pen in favor of stretching.

Neither said a word. Jack knew that this journal was not any kind of trick. It was too raw and emotional to be anything more than the thoughts of a teenage ghost. He regretted reading it. It held some interesting information, and he was sure if he dug deeper, that he would find more. But as it stood, his own intense guilt was settling as he knew that he just took too personal a look into the private emotional afterlife of Phantom.

“This is a lot to take in,” Maddie finally spoke. Jack only nodded.

The basement door opened, and they heard dual pairs of footsteps hop downstairs. Jack instantly brightened, and he turned in his chair to smile as his kids soon came into view.

“Hey, is this a bad time?” Jazz asked. She glanced between them, and Jack immediately shook his head no. 

“No, no,” Maddie replied quickly. Jack saw her push the journal and her notes, along with her pen and a few spare lab tools, carelessly into a drawer to help assure the Fenton kids that they weren’t interrupting anything. “What’s up, sweetie?” 

“Well, I have something that I wanna talk about,” their youngest spoke slowly. Jack noticed that she had finally taken off her hoodie, and that while she wore her normal tomboy attire, that something was a bit off about her. He couldn’t place it. Jazz stood close to her, an arm full of books clutched to her chest, though he couldn’t make out any titles. “It’s something important, and I don’t really want to put it off any longer.”

“Is something wrong? Are you in trouble?” Jack asked. His daughter shook her head no. 

“Oh, no!” she said. “It’s just…” 

She took a deep breath, and soon, their son began to explain.

[bitch-i-migth-be]

Crash Course | Chapter 03: Ready?

Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman,  

Relationships: Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton,

Characters: Danny Fenton, Jazz Fenton, 

Words: 2′246

Tags: BAMF Danny, BAMF Jazz, Sibling bonding, Shenanigans, Swearing

Summary: He swore his sister was trying to make him go into cardiac arrest - considering his halfa status that was quite the accomplishment-

But there was no other explanation to his sister’s stubbornness, and if he knew her at all there was just no talking her down from interning at goddam Arkham.

A/N: I appreciate the comments, guys. :33  Let me know what u think.

CHAPTERS: 1, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7

Danny might not be the smartest person out there but he sure was crafty as fuck.

He had needed to be even before the ghost entered the picture. Then, after the portal was up and running the habit of thinking on his feet and the fine art of rolling with the punches had been added to his skill set.

So, Danny knew from experience that no matter how good you could get at improvisation, it was always better to prepare beforehand if you had the opportunity. Because if you let something to chance, it would probably come back later to fuck you over. Or some annoying ghost would get in the way out of goddamn nowhere. He could deal with them, but it was just a waste of everyone’s time. Better get going before someone interrupted him.

Normally one small thing or another would backfire anyway because of his salted luck, but he preferred not to poke sleeping dragons when he could.  

Taking into account all of that, he had decided the first order of business in the Fenton Crash Curse for Suicide Missions: Start packing all the shit they would need to take with them.

Because It’s never too early to pack for the road to hell.

Especially if you are already in a hell all of your own.

-.-.-.-

“What do you mean you are coming with me?” Jazz murmured from the threshold of Danny’s room, eyes wide open, as she watched her little brother try to pack all types of random things into suitcases.

Since she had announced at the Fenton Family Dinner her plans of going to Gotham University and accepting an internship at Arkham, Danny had been behaving like he was possessed, which considering the portal in their basement was not that far fetched; he had started carrying around a book-like-journal and would not stop murmuring about survival-of-the-fittest. Jazz was not going to lie, she appreciated the concern but that part was a little bit concerning. Not the survival in general, they had been playing that game since forever in this house, but they had never really needed to write anything down.

Until now, apparently.

It was kind of weird witnessing all this. Weird as in she wasn’t used to him fusing so much over her. A normal amount, yes. But most of the time it was the other way around, she was the big sister after all. Also,  with the ghosts around and him going all hero on their behinds her brother was in dire need of all the support she could dispatch. So, yes, she wasn’t expecting this reaction at all, and she was even less prepared for her brother declaring his intentions of joining her in Gotham.

She hadn’t asked how he was planning on dealing with the ghost problem yet, but considering he was already packing when she, they now, weren’t leaving until the end of the summer Jazz thought her brother must have had something in mind already.

She didn’t even know how they could need some of the things he was putting in there but it appeared like Danny was on a roll and she wasn’t going to be the one stopping such, umh, productivity.

“I said what I said”

Jazz frowned lightly.

“Are mom and dad aware-?”

“I told them I was going to be your assistant with the research; mostly the field part because I don’t think they trust me with the equipment after what happened the last time,” Danny answered while still hunting down for more essential items to put in bags, those things were handy as fuck. “also, get a job or something”

“A job?” jazz raised an eyebrow and leaned against the doorframe.

“It’s on the list,” Danny waved his journal/diary/thing in the air. Huh, so they were survival tips. “considering you are the only one with a scholarship and I´m not going to school anyway it seemed appropriate.”

“excuse me? you are not going to what?”

“May as well-” Seeing his sister’s expression he quickly backtracked, “but I mean, if you are really that opposed there is always online classes”

Danny tried to smile in her sister’s direction, but his nervousness made it come out more like a grimace. He kept trying. Jazz kept staring at him. Danny kept grimacing back.

Then she smiled back. A proper, full toothed smile. Oh fuuck

“I think I can do you one better” And with that, she turned on her heel and left.

Danny blinked two times. one after the other.  

“D-Do me one bet-? Jazz, wait!”

But it was already too late, his sister had another ball to start rolling.

-.-.-.-

Her brother was not stupid.

If her brother choice to appease her by taking online classes had been born merely of a strategic need, and hence the best course of action to take, Jazz wouldn’t have rebuked at all, there were, after all, some pretty good online options that her brother could take. But alas, that was not the real motive of his decision.  

It pained her and enraged her to see people belittle her little brother without even knowing him. See them think they had any right to decide whether he was worth something.

And it nagged at her than even knowing the basics of what was wrong with her brother’s low grades, she couldn’t help him more than she currently did. Not really. Unless she wanted him to end up in the hands of the G.I.W.

Fat chance of that.

But if there was a thing a Fenton was not it was a settler. And like hell she was going to let these people bring her brother down.

The first order of business would be to scout out the G.S.U. properly, some phone calls could prove useful, after all those who search shall find. 

-.-.-.-

When Jazz had retreated to her quarters earlier Dany had been left on his own with an uneasy feeling nagging at his gut. It felt a bit like foreboding.  

Like most things in life that inconvenienced him when it came to family issues he decided to ignore it until it came back to bite him, so he continued with his preparations and eventually took a seat among all the clutter that had become his room. After that, he didn’t have to wait long.

His sister had come back strolling decisively into the room, only pausing briefly to warily give the evil eye to the sheer number of things spread all over the room that appeared to have multiplied since she left the place.

She stopped right in front of her brother’s seated form and trusted her phone into the smallest Fenton’s unsuspecting hands.

“Look! There is still time to apply to a full-ride scholarship at Gotham Academy” Danny blinked up at her without a word, and at his sister’s insistence looked down at the phone to start reading, then he did a double-take and started re-reading.

Jazz had got to be kidding him.

“You want me to apply to some posh elite school?” He looked up incredulously at the redhead “Elite, Jazz? Me? With my grades and the amount of time I would get to study for an entrance exam I would be failing this just by applying.” grumbled the boy.

“That’s the best part.” Said the girl smiling like the Cheshire cat. “This particular exam is practical in engineering”

Danny froze. His eyes shot back to the phone.

“Practical you say?”

“Yes, lately there have been more scholarships granted for demonstrating a great gasp in the practical portions. Gotham is a little, umh, hard to handle, I suppose, and there have been situations in which people with the knowledge to accomplish great things have been turned down because of a lack of proper school background or support. So they decided to start implementing this.” She explained while her little brother continued scanning the document up and down.

Eventually, Danny shook himself back together.

“Ok, look, let’s say I had a shot at this.”

“Which you do-”

“Which I might.” The younger interrupted her, “This still requires to prepare at least three proposals for the faculty’s designated table of judges to evaluate and grade to get the green card, and this is like two weeks -two weeks!- from now, it doesn’t even specify what they are gonna have the applicants doing for the final test. How the fuck am I-?!”

The redhead decided to cut in before he could drive himself into a frenzy.

“Well if you are that sure about joining me then you won’t have a problem acing this, will you?” she smirked, then it softened into something more fond. “I know you can do this Danny, and so do you. And if you are that worried about the time, I can help you, we can start tag teaming together for ways to deal with the ghost from the get-go. It may not be permanent, but it will have to do.”

Her brother started biting his own lower lip and still looked somewhat unsure, so she decided to use the final big gun.

“Did I mention that Gotham Academy is right across the road from Arkham?”

Danny’s shoulder slumped.

“Ughh, fine!”

Jazz beamed down at him.

“I will leave you to it then!”

-.-.-.-

“Also, those things are not going to fit anywhere if you don’t organize them”

“Oh, ye of little faith.”

-.-.-.-

So. Jazz did have a good reason to believe her brother could get the G.A. scholarship.

The Fenton thermos technology was not only useful for capturing ghosts but could also store other things. That’s to say, more tangible things.

And her brother was the one who made it happen.

Danny has been tinkering with his parent’s things a lot more than some people would be comfortable with. The truth is, some of the things Jack and Maddie have invented could be fucking useful for everyday life if you took out most of the ghost shit or rearranged them a bit, it could have gained them a pretty penny, but like we all know the Fentons are not interested in anything if it’s not ectoplasmic.

Danny, on the other hand?

As much as he ends up believing all the bullshit others say about his sister being the only genius child of the family, he had never been afraid of dismantling and mounting up again some of his parents’ equipment. For him, it was not a question of whether or not he was qualified to do so, after growing up watching his parents tinker random machines all over the house he had inevitably started to pick up their ways almost as if via osmosis.

His parents, of course, had never fully noticed the fluffy-sweater clad toddler waddling after them from time to time watching them work, at first this happened when Jazz was otherwise occupied in extracurricular activities and couldn’t keep the boy successfully distracted somewhere else.

If at the time, Jazz had realized what was going on, she may have panicked and stopped her sweetly feral summer child of a brother from getting anywhere near their parents in the middle of a craze. As it was, she had not noticed in those first years, and by the time it had come to her attention even she had to concede that if her little brother had managed his recon missions without no one the wiser - Her brother was sneaky like that -, then he deserved the benefit of the doubt.

And, had that not been enough to convince the big sister, that had been the moment the sudden realization than her brother, unlike her, was more of a hands-on learner hit her full force, which would have been enough to make her relent. Learning was always good in her books.

Later, Danny would find most of the classes being imparted in Casper high boring as fuck. Not necessarily for the subject, but the way they were imparted. The youngest Fenton needed a good explanation along with a hands-on approach applied to something he found interesting to fully commit to something. At school, the most he could get were the theory and the occasional practical classes.

If the classes had been related to something interesting, say, rockets, stars, maybe NASA, it would have been easy to pay his full, unconditional attention to the teachers. But not one of the teachers had bothered to try and link the lessons to the interest of the alumni, not surprising, considering public school stuck to basics and had a timeline to complete and the classroom never seemed to learn things at the same rhythm so concessions had to be met.

It was still boring as fuck. But if he wanted to someday make it into NASA he would have to suck it up and force himself to survive with relatively good notes this torment.

Then the ghost fights had entered the picture and his motive to keep up the grades had all but vanished, and the little time left behind to work with was not enough to make, at least, an average grade. He didn’t have enough reasons to strive for more.

For this though? A new chance far from the ghost and he could keep protecting her sister?

He had the brains. He had the passion. And a good damn motive to drive him forward.

Once he was done, the luggage - and Loony town - wouldn’t even know what hit it.

-.-.-.-

NOTES:

 Also, the thing about Jack & Maddie not trusting Danny with the equipment was one of Danno’s secret tries at messing around with the things. Needless to say, that one time didn’t stay a secret.

Oh well, it was not like he asked for permission in the first place.

-.-.-.-

“fluffy-sweater clad toddler”

Not gonna lie, I made myself crave some cuddles from toddler danno, so. fucking. cute.

There he goeees just waddling like a little duckling asdfghjkl

-.-.-.-

If someone here is a fan of the Gotham Academy Comic I greatly regret -not really- to inform you I’m only taking hostage the place for my evil fanfic purposes. I don’t know if there is going to be references but that particular comic is not the focus of this story, SO. You have been forewarned.

[fantasma-exspiravit]

Freak Show Ghost Envy

Crack Theory

Today I'd like to talk about Ghost Envy and why it exists in the Danny Phantom universe. Who coined the idea and all of that. All my thoughts and theories are up to personal opinion, I just like to over analyze things and jump to conclusions. ☺️ Sooooo, without further ado...

Ghost Envy. We first find out about it in the episode reality trip. One might think it was a common thing since Jazz is reading a whole book about it to write her college thesis essay. Titled "Ghost Envy for dimwits: Ghosts are not the boss of me" this book must have some sort of scientific claim for Jazz to be using it for research. But who did this research? As a reminder: Season one starts off with the general public at the understanding that ghosts aren't real. It's such a fringe topic that Jasmine is able to get JACK (of all people) to admit in Mystery Meat, and I quote, "I, Jack Fenton, from this day forth, do hereby turn my back on ghosts. And this thermos can't trap ghosts because ghosts don't exist."

We know for sure that ghosts sightings, research, and proof are rare things. Those who believe in ghosts and try to prove of their existence tend to be societal outcasts who (even with tremendous research like Jack and Maddie) tend to be laughed off as crack pots. That begs the qestion, who wrote this book?

We know it can't be a scientist. At least not a well founded peer reviewed one. As my calculations show from Danny phantom's sleep deprivation (link), each episode spans about 4.4 days from each other (at least until Christmas). Ghosts finally come into public eye during the episode Public Enemies. That happens when Walker uses Phantom and exposes him to the public, to the news, and makes him look like a villain (by stealing the mayor-- do I need to put spoilers for an over ten year old kids cartoon??). This is the 15th episode in the series making this 66 days into the school year (generously assuming Danny got his powers the first day of school) or, just a hair over 2 months.

Why is this important? Well, Reality Trip happens the last day of school. Any well-eatablished psychologist who wants to do research on how the human psyche is affected by the knowledge of ghosts is gonna need to find, subjects, get a board to approve of an experiment, run the experiment, hopefully have others run the experiment for extra backing, get these articles peer reviewed, get them into an established journal, then write a book on Ghost Envy with all its research at a good enough level that Jazz would want to use it as a resource-- Oh, and all before the last six months of time before school get out for the average teen in America.

While there were other ghost researchers (or at least hunters) in the series, we get a chance to see all the best known and established ghost fanatics in Million Dollar Ghost. This episode happens after Public Enemies, but for lenience, we're gonna assume these guys were all around in the shadows (like Maddie and Jack) and have come to light more now the ghosts are a hot topic. We have the groovy gang and scardey cat, the xtreme ghostbreakers, and the guys in white. The former two certainly aren't researchers. And the guys in white, even if they performed their own studies outside of ghosts (since they never seem to want to experiment on the public and only threaten Phantom with experiments) I doubt the government would be publishing any of their research, akin to no one knowing about Area 51 and so on. Whoever wrote the book knew a great deal about Ghost Envy, had lots of time to research it (before ghosts were popular), and didn't already defame their name through crazy stunts like Jack and Maddie.

Not all is lost, however. I just happen to know an author who has already proven to write about Ghost subjects.

I know, Freak Show is adement that he doesn't have Ghost Envy. Who's to say, though, that he didn't research and write the book to prove to the world that he didn't have Ghost Envy. This is called guilt transference. Ever seen someone you know is a cheater adimently accuse their significant other of having been promiscuous? It's under the idea that if you can attribute the the thing you feel you've done wrong onto someone else, you won't be looked at as in the wrong. He is, however, self aware enough, that at the start of the episode when the guys in white state "We know how you envy ghosts" he doesn't deny it. We also know he discusses this topic with Jazz when he feels safe, so clearly he isn't so closeted about his Ghost Envy that writing a book about it would be considered tabu.

I believe, it runs deeper than just a problem with his family, though. Whether or not he told Jazz about this to try and bait pity out of her is a whole different subject. This may go deeper than just parents or his audience loving ghosts more than him. Dealing with the section when he states that he may love ghosts more than himself I'd like to turn our attention to Lydia. She was the only ghost who, when broken free of the orbs charm, stuck it out with Freak Show. Why? I believe the two may have more or less secret affection for each other.

But she is dead. Not just dead, she's a ghost. An immortal being that is very rare and difficult to become, the chances Freak Show might become a ghost are basically zero. Regardless of how many trinkets he has to try and make himself ghostly (whatever causes his ghostly aura around him). One day he will die and she will live on. This makes his hatred of ghostly things all the more real as it now keeps him from having a happy life with Lydia. It may be a part of the cause for him to want her to express more human traits. It would also explain why he offers to take her to dinner or a movie before stating he'll spend their afternoon becoming the ringmaster of the world.

In other words: I really ship Freak Show and Lydia and I think there's enough evidence for me to say it could have been canon.

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

Homo Ecto Sapiens

Chapter 2 Fandom: Danny Phantom Rating: General Audiences Relationships: Jack Fenton/Maddie Fenton, Danny Fenton & Jack Fenton & Maddie Fenton, Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton, Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson Characters: Danny Fenton, Jack Fenton, Maddie Fenton, Jazz Fenton, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Mr. Lancer (Danny Phantom), Dash Baxter, Lunch Lady (Danny Phantom), Dorathea "Dora" (Danny Phantom), Paulina Sanchez, Valerie Gray, Princess Dorothea, Princess Dora, Skulker (Danny Phantom) Additional Tags: Fix-It, Danny Fenton has ADHD, Multilingual Tucker, Trans Male Character, Multilingual Danny, Bisexual Danny Fenton, Bisexual Tucker Foley Summary:

Danny Fenton stood inside the dark tunnel of the only portal his parents couldn't get to work because he couldn't say no to a dare. He tripped on his way out. Now he has to deal with figuring out how to come out to his parents as being half ghost, while dealing with all the ghosts that come out of the portal.

Tucker and Sam stare at each other.  For a handful of moments, neither is entirely sure what they should do.  Sam is full of shock and anger and regret and terror.  She could've died.  Her best friends could have died.  How is a teenager even meant to process that?  She wants to curl up on the ground and hide from everything in that moment, will all the nasty reality that is Ghosts away.  But Tucker is bent over Danny, and Danny is out cold.  So she packs away the emotions, cools her shit, and bends down.  "You get his legs, I'll take his shoulders.  FentonWorks?"

They get him there.  Danny's parents are downstairs, working on something.  They get Danny on his bed, and Sam slumps against the door.  Tucker and Danny skipped over a detention essentially and all three have skipped school.  So Tucker goes down to erase the Fenton's voice mailbox and sends out a bug to his own.  Sam has no clue why he has that ready but asks if he can do it with her folks' line.  He asks for a few minutes. The silence passes, Tucker gets on Danny's laptop.  He always fled to the tech when he needed somewhere safe.  Eventually, he asks.  "You ok?  Today went to shit."

"No, I don't think I am.  Like, the worst I've got is some bruising that my make up can handle.  I need a shower, I guess."  They both know why she isn't actually ok.  Neither wants to bring it up.  So instead, Sam checks Danny's closet and finds something she'd left there a couple months back.  "I'm gonna do that actually.  Keep an eye on him?" Tucker grunted in acknowledgment.  That was the best she'd get so Sam grabbed a spare towel from the dresser and headed to the shower.

When Sam got back she looked over Tucker's shoulder.  Images of old ladies in familiar looking uniforms were all over the screen.  "Looking her up?"

"If we know more about her then we can talk it out with her right?"  Tucker's fingers paused over the keyboard.  He stretched, looking over at her.  "Right?"

"Probably.  Looking to work that Foley Charm on her?"  Sam elbowed him lightly in the ribs.  Tucker clutched his chest as though he'd been broken.  Thank gods for that smile on his face.  "Tell me you aren't planning to flirt with her.  Danny might get jealous."  Tucker snorted.

"I don't think Danny is into old ladies who occasionally burst into flames." Tucker went back to typing and clicking, screen light glaring off his lenses.  "So, my theory is that ghosts draw on ambient energy to sustain themselves.  When we went into that fight my phone was on like… 50 percent.  When we got here it was at 17.  So maybe we should carry batteries on us?"

"And our wrist rays."  Sam was never letting herself be helpless like that again.  "what've you got on her so far?"

"She said the menu hasn't changed in 50 years and she wasn't kidding.  So I'm looking back at people employed by Casper back when she was alive, and hoping I can recognize her facial structure."

"Impressive."  Sam sighed and looked over at Danny.

He zipped up his suit.  Sam made a face at him and pulled off the logo of his dad's face.  "You can't go around with this on your chest."  He agreed. If Danny ever met aliens of the extradimensional kind, he didn't want them to see his dad's face plastered on him.  Danny walked into the tunnel that was his parents' ghost portal, looking all around it.  The whispers of those other worlds called out in his head again.  As he walked deeper into the portal, Danny saw nothing wrong.  Not a nut or bolt out of place.  He got to the end. It was dark.  Too dark to see anything.  Turning back, he kept a hand on the wall to steady himself.  His foot hit a raised panel, and Danny leaned to the left for support. There was a click.

Danny opened his eyes and saw Sam looking down at him.  Not unusual.  The soreness in his muscles, however, was.  Danny stopped mid-stretch and winced.  "Oh. Right.  20-foot meat monster."  Tucker was at his desk, turned around in the chair and giving him that frown he had when Dash had slammed Danny into a locker.  "How long was I out for?"

"Four days."  Tucker reached under Danny's bed and lifted up a bag of Nasty Burger.

"Four Days?!"

"Nah, like, 2 hours dude."  Tuck chuckled and handed him a wrapped burger.  "You need this dude, that fight took a shit ton outta you."

“Don’t I know it.”  Danny unwrapped the burger and sank his teeth in.  He'd been hungrier than he thought.  It felt like a blink before the burger was gone.  "Thanks, dude, I really needed that.  We basically skipped lunch, didn't we?"  That thought had a horrible domino effect and Danny tore the burger wrapping in half.  "Fuck, my parents are gonna kill me!"

"I erased the voicemail from your box, mine, and Sam's.  Don't worry about that."

"Speaking of, how ya doin Sam?"  Danny turned, looking his friend over and wincing at the bruises on her arms.  “Fuck, the meat pile did that?”

“Yeah, turns out being grabbed up by a bunch of proceeded corpses can do some damage.”  Sam shrugged.  “It’s nothing I can’t fix with some concealer and sleeves.”

“It’s still warm though,” Danny said.  “You good baking yourself?”

“The heaters in the school barely work, and it’s nearly October, Danny.  Things have cooled down plenty.”  Sam frowned and looked over to Tucker.  “Do head injuries affect the perception of temperature?”

“I’m sure they can.  If only someone hadn’t summoned up a meat-obsessed lunch lady with a menu change.”  Tucker paused and raised a brow.  “Actually, how in the hell did you even get them to change it?  Nevermind the why.”

“The why, Tucker, is that schools need to promote healthier changes in the food we consume.”  Sam had that fire in her eyes.  Again.  Danny let out a long sigh, which went ignored by his bickering friends.

“And removing an entire food group from the menu was your solution?”

“It’s one we don’t even need Tucker!  Do you know how inefficient the transfer of calories from meat into our bodies is?”

“We need protein, Sam!  If there’s anything that the Lunch Lady said truthfully it’s that!  Look at Danny!  He barely gets any protein, you can see how that’s turned out for him.”

“My dude, I’m not the only skinny person here.”

“And whether or not we have meat and protein isn’t your decision to make for us all, Sam!”  Tucker glared balefully at the vegan and stood up from Danny’s chair.  “You had to be an individual and have all your individual needs met over what anyone else wanted, didn’t you?  No one but you even wanted this menu change and I’m going to fix it!”  Tucker stormed out of the room, leaving the door open.

“Oh like Hell you’re gonna undo all my hard work!”  Sam barged out as well, completely forgetting Danny as she slammed his door shut.  And Danny stared at that door for a moment before groaning into his pillow.

“This is going to be a whole thing, isn’t it?”  For several moments, Danny laid there and stared up at the constellations he’d put up on his ceiling in glow in the dark stickers.  His stomach reminded him of its existence, and Danny groaned again.  He still had some allowance left, so he went out and headed to the Nasty Burger.  Considering Tucker’s words and how much he’d done that day, Danny ordered a full meal.

After he’d eaten and walked it off on the way home, Danny let what had happened that day go through his mind.  Even as he fought off a small angry blob with his wrist ray, growling at it.  “Ghosts aren’t mindlessly violent beings. I know that.”  He needed to believe that.  “So, that means that she can be calmed, somehow.  She kept going on and on about the benefits of meat, and she died years ago…”  An email notification popped up on Danny’s computer, and he sighed.  “Right, homework assigned by Lancer.  What would I do without Tuck?”

The next day, Danny pulled on one of his darker shirts - a gift from Sam with some constellation’s accurately displayed - and some jeans.  His parents didn’t come up to join him and Jazz that morning, which was likely for the best.  Danny didn’t need their ghost radar pointing at him before he could figure out how to break their biases.  The second his cereal was finished, though, Danny pulled out his journal and attached pencil.  “No,” Danny snapped when he heard Jazz take a familiar breath.  “It’s not a diary, no you may not read it.  For the 11th time, Spazz.”  One weird benefit of super hearing - I can tell when she’s about to speak.  Everyone had different rhythms for when they spoke and when they were thinking etcetera.  Danny knew his sister’s patterns almost as well as Tucker and Sam’s.

Danny wrote into his journal a goal of recording his encounters with apparently sapient ghosts and how quickly he managed to pacify them.  If only he could think of how to pacify this one.

Once the hybrid got to school - later than he would’ve been had those damned blobs not been so interested in fucking with him - Danny groaned as he was dragged to the Vice Principal’s office.  There he found Tucker, who was glaring down at the desk in just the right angle to look like he was glaring directly ahead.  A trick he’d developed for gathering valuable passwords while tricking Lancer and other authorities into thinking he was just a semi-rebellious teen.  Danny couldn’t tell what Tucker could possibly be trying to gather from the desk now, but he may have just been scowling.  Tucker was complicated that way.

“Take a seat, Mr. Fenton.”  Danny obeyed and took his seat, looking steadfastly at the space just behind Lancer’s head.  “Tell me, gentlemen, how and why did you leave my office when both of you were already being punished for starting a food fight in the cafeteria?”  Before either could come up with an answer, Lancer slammed his hand down hard on the desk, and Danny flinched.  “What could possibly have possessed you two to skip school for the rest of the day?”

Danny squirmed a bit, while Tucker took even, obviously measured breaths.  He then looked up at Lancer directly.  “We were worried about Sam, sir.  She hadn’t answered any of her texts, and she always answers even when we’re fighting to make sure we know she’s safe.”  Not untrue, Sam wouldn’t have been able to answer a text if they tried that.  Danny nodded along to Tucker’s story.

“We left out the window to find her, which took forever since she had gone to find a way to help organize something for the school.”  Danny put on his most apologetic face.  “We’re truly sorry about ditching you, Mr. Lancer, but we had to make sure our friend was safe, you see.  We wanted to make sure none of the jocks or anyone had gone and done something horrible to her as revenge for getting the menu changed for a week.”

Lancer glared between the two of them for several seconds more, and Danny fought to keep himself still.  “Fine,” Lancer finally allowed.  “I will be following up with Ms. Manson to confirm all of this, but you won’t be receiving too harsh a punishment for looking out for your friend.  For endangering yourselves by leaving through the window, however, and for leaving without simply telling me, you will be serving both lunch detention and after-school detention.  Do you understand, boys?”

“Of course, Mr. Lancer.”  It amazed Danny, at times, that he and Tucker could speak in unison.  They were like twins.

“Dismissed.  You two best not be late to my class.”

On the way to class, Danny brought up his thoughts on trying to appease the Lunch Lady.  “Her name is Agatha,” Tuck said.  “Agatha Reece.  And maybe you could, I dunno, teach her about the health crisis in America?  Help me organize the school to reform the menu the right way?”

“You want it changed too now?  I thought you were gonna get it changed back early, or something?”

“Oh no, the food around here sucks either way.”  Tucker rolled his eyes.  “I just wish we had like, a better storage of better food in general.  I could recommend my uncle and aunt’s farm for fresh, nearby food products.”

“If only we knew how Sam had convinced the school to do this whole ‘vegie week’ thing.”  Danny shook his head.  “That’s what really doesn’t make sense to me.  We’ve only been in school for like, a month or so.  How the hell did Sam ‘wear them down’ so quickly?”

“No clue,” Tucker growled.  For a moment the hair on Danny’s nape stood on end at the sound.  “But, I’m going to make a petition, and head around the school getting signatures for a better permanent change decided on by the students.”

Danny patted Tucker’s shoulder and nodded somberly.  “Leave some printer paper for the rest of us at least?”

Tucker raised his nose, Danny now straining to hold in the laughter in front of the door.  “Sorry Danny, but a man on a mission has to go to all lengths to complete his quest.”

Danny bowed at the waist.  “Of course, Friar Tuck, how could I possibly forget?”

“You are forgiven, peasant Daniel.”  Tucker laughed and pulled Danny into the classroom.  Things would be alright.  Danny just needed to weather the storm and make sure both of his friends were still friends by the end of it.

It proved far more difficult a task done than said.  The three had most classes together, but Tucker was busily writing something down every few seconds in a second journal in his desk while he worked.  Tuck had the most fascinating form of ambidextrousness.  He barely paid any attention to Danny’s attempts to start a conversation and crumpled up any notes about Sam he slid over.

Similarly, Sam was ignoring him almost entirely.  She took her notes, but every time she caught him whispering to Tucker, she glared and went cold on Danny himself.  Am I not allowed to talk to both of my friends?

Lunch came around, Lancer had them eating in his room, and Danny had never been more grateful to Tucker’s mom than he had been when Tuck handed him an extra bagged lunch.  “Tuck, you are the best.”

“I know it, dude.”

“Gentlemen!  This is meant to be a time of quiet reflection upon your misdeeds.”  Lancer glared at them until the teens went to silently eating, and Lancer went back to whatever he was doing on his computer.  If Danny focused on the man’s headphones hard enough he could pick up the faint sound of… blasters?  Weird.

At the end of the day, however, while the two were meant to be heading to detention, Tucker was going around and asking groups of friends who were lingering about something and holding up a clipboard that Danny was almost certain he stole from his dad’s office.  Along with that pen.  Never was Danny ever earlier than Tucker to something, but apparently, detention was one of those things.  Sam, surprisingly, was also there.

“Lancer got you too?”  Danny asked as he swept a bit nearer to the goth

“I was gone all day.”  Sam shrugged, pushing the few remains of grass and mud into a pile and then grabbing a dustpan.  “Plus I wanted to help clean it up anyway.  We need this place to eat in after all.”

“Actually, I heard Jerry and Katelyn at least were eating on the theater stage.”  The two scooped everything up into a trash bag with the dustpan.  “They were inviting some other people to bring sandwiches and chips and stuff.”

“Oh wow,” Tucker called out from where Danny was very sure he shouldn’t have been able to hear them.  “No one wanted to eat garbage right from the ground?  I’m surprised, shocked even.”

“Had you actually been there to see, Tucker, there were plenty of people eating peacefully in the cafeteria today!”  Sam looked downright murderous and stomped off to clean away from Tucker.  Danny sighed a heavy sigh and shook his head.

The detention had gone on for an hour, but it’d felt like forever.  Danny watched both his friends march off in different directions and groaned.  Another friendless night for him.  After a trip to the Nasty Burger, Danny did a little walk around the city.  A few ghosts that he could see when the world lost focus skittered away from him, or ignored him entirely.  Some attacked, but his wrist ray had yet to run out of juice even though he forgot to charge it last night.  “Maybe something to do with my other self.  Gonna have to ask mom and dad about that.”  A shiver ran down Danny’s spine, a puff of mist coming out of his mouth and he looked around, letting his senses shift into that surreal state of his ghostly self.  He saw nothing out of the ordinary.  Relaxing, Danny sighed and headed home.

"Danny!"  His dad, Jack Fenton, only seemed to speak in exclamation marks. Danny wondered if he'd ever had an inside voice.  "C'mon, dinner's ready son!"

Danny raised a brow.  "Who cooked?" He'd eaten his Nasty Burger meal and was pretty sure he got all he needed.

"I did!"  On the other hand, more food that wasn't infected with ectoplasmic residue sounded nice.  Danny set down his bag and headed into the kitchen, where his dad had set out chicken, mashed potatoes, garlic bread, and spinach.  His mom and sister were already sitting and eating, and Danny gave them both a wave.

"Hi, Danny!  Juice is in the fridge.  Jazz reminded your father and I we need to refresh our minds with some air every now and then.  I thought, why not a family dinner?"  Mom shrugged as she picked up a chicken leg.  "Jack insisted on cooking."

"Mom," Jazz said in her best calming voice, "Dad never mutates the food."

While Mom and Jazz debated who had the bigger mishaps with ectoplasm - Danny felt the Christmas turkey and Dad dragging them into a world of blinding perpetual light ranked as the biggest mishaps period - Danny grabbed himself a plate and fruit punch.  Jazz clearly grabbed some groceries before telling their parents to surface.

Halfway through his meal, a thought struck Danny.  "Hey Dad, Mom?  How does ectoplasm interact with electricity in its rawest most natural form?  The ectoplasm not the electricity."

Jazz stared at him in betrayal, Why written in her expression.  His parents, however, jumped on the thought of their son having an interest in their work.  Danny had never seen his dad swallow food that fast.

"Ya see Danno, ectoplasm as it is when we retrieve it is naturally an energy thief.  In relation to electromagnetic radiation, it soaks in any and all of it from the area with the exclusion of green visible light.  That's why it feels so cold."

"If we can refine our engines properly we can utilize the flip side of  that natural state," his mom added, "We could revolutionize energy efficiency in technology around the world!"

"It can store up a lot of power, but once it hits it's maximum?"  Dad held his hands together then spread them out so fast he almost smacked Jazz and Danny.  "It all comes out in an intense burn!  Ectoplasm is either plasma hot or cold as space.  When it's cold, it'd drain the power out of everything around it."

Danny nodded, letting the info process for a couple of moments while he ate.  "So if, say, a ghost was to eat human food…?"

"Well," his mom twirled her fork around.  "It likely wouldn't, but if it did the ghost would soak up all the energy that could be gotten out of the material in the food, leaving nothing but ashes."

Danny nodded, curiosity satisfied, and steered the conversation elsewhere.  Once he was done clearing off his plate, Danny was struck with a realization.  It was the sort of thing that happened all the time, when a thought lingered in his head, waiting to present itself.  Usually, that was artistic inspiration.  Now he knew exactly how to calm down Agatha.  Up the stairs, he ran to his computer.

AO3

[five-rivers]

Fruits

For @greyheartwriter for the Phic Phight!  Enjoy!

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Thanks to the Fenton Faded Folio Fixer, the waterlogged, ripped, and slightly singed journal of Jack's favorite and most notorious ancestor was now readable. Or, at least, carefully scanned photographs of the pages could be read. Jack could hardly wait to read it. He and Maddie had stayed up until the small hours of the morning inputting pages.

If only they were young again, able to pull all-nighters... Alas, it was not to be.

Still, he was very high energy when he got up that morning. As usual. He bounced down the stairs in front of his wife, letting his enthusiasm out.

"Hey, Mads, what kind of cool historical ghost fighting techniques do you think we'll find in ol' John Fenton-Nightingale's journal? My grandpa told me that he once fought a demon ghost with his bare hands, can you imagine?"

He heard a choking sound from the kitchen, and bounded in to find his son, Danny, choking on his cereal. He gave Danny a hearty slap on the back, and Danny started gasping for air.

"You okay there, Danny boy?"

"I'm, yeah, I'm fine. I just- Late for school! Gotta go!"

Danny rushed out the door without any further explanation. Jack scratched his head. "Huh. Isn't it still pretty early?"

"It's Saturday," said Maddie, concerned. "Should we go get him?"

"Nah, he'll figure it out soon enough!" said Jack. "It's good to see him so eager to go! Speaking of eager, let's go see how good ol' John ripped ghosts apart in the good old days!"

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"Blood blossoms are extinct, right?" Danny asked Sam, watching her water her plants in her greenhouse, hands on his knees. "I mean, definitely and absolutely?"

"As far as I could find out," said Sam. "I talked to all of my gardening contacts. Only one had ever even heard of them, and she was convinced it was just a weird rose. I mean, even from where I was tied, I could tell they weren't, so... What's this about, anyway? Did your parents find out about them?"

"No, but they're about to. They got the Nightingale journal legible."

"Dang. I thought you trashed it."

"I tried! I really tried! But then Dad got it in his head that ghosts were trying to destroy it because it held secret ghost fighting secrets-"

"I mean, true, but go on."

"-and they got really enthusiastic about it. They build a whole machine just to read it!"

Sam put down her watering can and patted Danny on the back. "Well, hopefully there isn't anything in there that's worse than blood blossoms."

Danny groaned. "Why would you say something like that?"

.

"... and they're great on sandwiches!" exclaimed Jack.

"They certainly sound amazing," said Maddie as she typed on the lab computer. "They would be an amazing asset, but I can't find anything about them online, or even anything that looks like them. Show me the picture again? Maybe I can run it by some people."

"Sure thing, Mads!" Jack handed Maddie the relevant page. "Do you know a place called the Spine?"

"Not off the top of my head, why?"

"Because John says that's where he hid a bunch of seeds, just in case those dastardly ghosts tried to destroy them!"

"He hid them in the spine?" repeated Maddie, looking up from the computer. "Are you sure?"

"That's what he said!"

"Jack, what if he meant... the spine of the book?"

Both of them rushed across the lab to where the journal was stored in a ghost-proof box. Maddie picked up a pair of scissors.

"I'm really sorry if I'm wrong, Jack," she said.

"Don't be! It's what John would have wanted!"

She flipped up the lid and took out the wrecked book. "Maybe that's why the ghosts were so insistent on trying to destroy this, now. They knew about the seeds."

"I wouldn't put it past 'em!"

Maddie picked apart what was left of the binding, and, sure enough, a little cloth bag was nestled alongside the folded backs of the pages. Carefully, Jack picked it up and untied the top. He grinned widely and showed the shriveled red-brown fruits inside to Maddie.

"They're here, Maddie! Wait 'til I tell the kids! They'll be so excited! A little piece of family history, right here, in our hands."

"Wait, Jack," said Maddie, grabbing his arm. "I don't think we should tell them."

Jack's face fell. "Why not?"

"Well," said Maddie, frowning, "you know how they are about ghosts. I think we should keep these secret. So the ghosts don't find out, like they did with the journal."

"You don't think Jazz or Danny told the ghosts about the journal, do you?"

Maddie shook her head. "No, not necessarily. But they could have told their friends, and the ghosts could have overheard. This is just really important to our work and your family history, and I'd hate for it to be destroyed because of a mistake like that."

"Alright, we'll keep it secret, then. At least until they're ready to use! We can use the Fenton Stockades! The kids never go down there."

.

"You haven't heard any more about the journal?" Danny asked Jazz a week later. He leaned nervously against her doorjamb. He'd been having flashback nightmares to the seventeenth century or whatever hell year John Fenton-Nightingale had been from.

"What journal?" asked Jazz. "I read several. Psychology Today?"

"What?" asked Danny wrinkling his nose. "Isn't that a magazine? No, Dad's ancestor's journal. The one he and Mom thought was full of old ghost fighting stuff."

"No," said Jazz. "Why? Is it full of old ghost fighting stuff?"

Danny shrugged. "I didn't look at it super closely before I tried to torch it, but, yeah."

"That was you? Why?" asked Jazz, looking up from her book and swinging her legs off her bed.

"Because the guy tried to kill Sam," said Danny, scowling.

"Th- Our ancestor, who lived in the sixteen hundreds tried to kill Sam?" asked Jazz. "Jeez, I don't hear about half the things you guys get up to, do I? Why would he try to kill Sam?"

"He thought she was a witch. Thought I was a demon, too."

"So the demon Dad was saying he wrestled..."

"Probably me, to be honest."

"Just so you know," said Jazz, "I am intensely disturbed."

"That's two of us. Just, keep your ears out for them talking about blood blossoms or anything like that, okay?"

"Sure thing, little bro. And blood blossoms are?"

"Incredibly painful to ghosts. Or to half-ghosts who happen to be in ghost form." Danny made a face, remembering. "I was in so much pain I couldn't even think about turning back."

"You want to talk about it?"

"No," said Danny. "Not really."

"Well, if you change your mind..."

"Thanks," said Danny.

.

"Heh- achoo!"

"Sounds like you've got some allergies there, Danno!" said Jack. "I used to get them when I was your age, too!"

"Yeah, yeah," grumbled Danny. When his allergies had failed to show up the year after he became half-ghost, he had thought he had seen the last of them, but apparently they had just been lying in wait, because now they were worse than ever. He resisted the urge to rub his eyes.

If he ever found out what plant was doing this to him, he was going to destroy it with extreme prejudice.

"We'll pick up some allergy medication next time we're at the store. Which kind did you like, again? Allegra? Claratin?"

"I don't care," said Danny. "Whichever."

"Well," said Maddie, putting a pot on the table, "maybe this will help you clear up your sinuses, at least for a little bit. I put lots of spices in it." She ladled rosy pink soup into first Danny's then Jazz's bowls.

"It's an old family recipe!" said Jack, proudly.

Danny was immediately suspicious. Sure, he was probably just being paranoid, but he couldn't help but remember that John Fenton-Nightingale had eaten blood blossoms. Danny doubted consuming something like that would be good for him, no matter what form he was in.

He made a show of sneezing very hard and knocked his soup off the table.

"Aw, man," he said, staring at the mess.

"Don't worry, Danny-boy! You can have some of mine!"

"No, no," said Danny. "I'm actually not feeling all that hungry... I think I'll just go to bed." He fled the dining room without waiting for a response

.

"Jack," said Maddie, "do you think Danny was acting strangely at dinner today?" She still wasn't used to how her voice echoed in the Fenton Stockades, even after all these years.

"Yeah. Man, he's got some brutal allergies, huh?"

Maddie pruned a branch off of one of the larger blood blossom bushes. "Did you see the way he was looking at the blood blossom soup?" she asked.

"Not really! I was too busy looking at mine, and, man, was it delicious or what?"

"Thanks, Jack," said Maddie, smiling briefly. Her thoughts turned back to Danny, and the smile fell. "The book said that the fruits were good against overshadowing, right?"

"Right-o, Mads!"

"How long until these start bearing, do you think?"

.

The answer to the question was two weeks. For two weeks, Maddie lived not knowing whether or not her son was a ghost. For two weeks, Danny lived in a state of steadily increasing anxiety and paranoia.

He could feel Maddie watching him. He could feel her doubt. Literally. It made him sick. Or was that just the allergies? Either way it was brutal and Danny found himself taking every excuse he could to get out of the house. He rarely ate at home. He couldn't trust the food.

Jazz didn't think it was healthy. Neither did Danny, but it wasn't his fault.

"Do you have any proof?" asked Jazz, exasperated.

"Proof of what?"

"That Mom's acting weird, or that she's trying to poison you."

"No," admitted Danny. "But that doesn't mean she isn't."

"You've lost ten pounds, Danny, and you were already a stick. People will think you're anorexic." She paused. "You're not actually anorexic, are you?"

"No!" said Danny. "That's stupid. I'd eat if I could trust anything. Which I can't."

"Please, Danny. At least eat a cookie. I watched Mom make them. She didn't put in anything weird. Except for raisins, I guess."

Danny glanced down at the plate on the table, mouth watering. They smelled so good, and he was so hungry.

"Okay," he said, "but you have to watch in case I die or something."

Jazz rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said.

Danny picked up a cookie and bit into it. "Are you sure these are raisins?" he asked, picking the bite back out of his mouth.

"They were in the raisin box," said Jazz.

"They taste kind of funny," said Danny. His pulse had picked up. Crud, was he having a panic attack? Over a cookie?

"I guess they were kind of old," admitted Jazz. She took a cookie herself. "They're not bad. Danny? Are you okay?"

Danny, leaning on the counter, shook his head. "Can't breathe," he wheezed.

"Oh my gosh, you're swelling up," said Jazz.

Danny's vision tunneled and went dark.

.

"... anything new in his daily life? His diet?"

The voice was unfamiliar to Danny.

"We got some new plants last month... We've been trying them in cooking."

"In the cookies?"

"The fruits, yes, they're an heirloom variety."

"Could you bring some in? I'd like to run a few tests, but my initial diagnosis is that Danny has a severe allergy to something he ate."

There was an annoying beeping sound.

"Of course." Oh, that was his Mom. She sounded worried. "When do you think he'll wake up?"

"Any time now. But there are some other things I'd like to talk to you about that we found. Would you mind stepping out with me for a moment? Alright, so..."

"You can stop pretending to be asleep," said Jazz.

Danny groaned. "I told you so."

"You did," agreed Jazz.

"What have they noticed?" asked Danny, opening his eyes to see a hospital room.

"Not much, don't worry. I think they just want to ask about your portal scar."

"Mhm," said Danny, rubbing his chest. "So..."

"Severe allergic reaction. They hit you with an epi-pen."

"Cool. That worked?"

"Apparently."

.

"Are you sure you got rid of all of it?" asked Danny, standing well clear of the front door.

"We're positive, honey," said Maddie.

"Yeah, Danno," said Jack. "We got it up with the Fenton Pollen-o-Matic! Just, let us make this up to you, okay, sport? We didn't mean for it to turn out like this."

"I know," said Danny. He squared his shoulders and walked inside.

.

Danny sat on his bed, cross-legged. He had to check this now, rather than later, even if the thought of what was probably going to happen made him cringe.

No, he had to think positively. After all, what were the odds that the universe hated him that much?

Pretty high.

Okay. Positive thoughts not working. Time to bite the bullet.

He pulled on his core, summoning his transformation rings. They appeared, bright and white around his waist. They started to separate, and-

He was hit with a wall of blinding pain. His rings snapped back together.

Typical, really.

He reached for his phone and dialed a number.

"Hey, Tucker. How long did it take for those blood blossoms to go through your system?"

[pitch-pearl-void]

You know that thing you made about Danny being stuck in the GZ and meeting Phantom? Yeah, I need more of that. It's amazingly thought out and you ended it without giving an ending! God that killed me...T-T It would be awesome if you could write some more or give an idea of how his parents reacted reading the journal. Anyways, I love your idea and I wish their was more. But only if your willing, if not it's still awesome.

Oh boy, anon, you have me a-grinning

Honestly, I really want to write more myself. A lot more. A whole fic-load with 10 really long chapters, if I can. That’s why I had to stop it where I did. I can’t spoil the story if I intend to write it, especially if I want to keep myself motivated, and the next event Danny would cover in his journal happens to be a turning point for the story and his relationship with Phantom. Really don’t want to spoil that.

What I’d like to do is speed-write a rough draft during September for the whole story from Phantom’s perspective, but I’m only allowed to do this if I finish Chapter 11 for The Suave and the Awkward before then. Monsterous chapter...

As for Jack and Maddie...I intend for the story to take about two and a half months, so that’s two/three months Jack and Maddie spend not knowing if Danny’s even alive. So when they read his journal and find out he’s not only alive but happy and falling in love

I kind of imagine it like those videos of army dads and moms coming home, only more bittersweet because Danny will still be in the Ghost Zone at the time

:)