#Shadows Mind: Murder

[poirott]

Columbo + his basset hound named "Dog"

He doesn't look like a police dog. Well, he isn't. He's a policeman's dog. Believe me, there's a big difference.

COLUMBO (1968 - 2003)

[starry-bi-sky]

I am absolutely loving your Danyal Al Ghul au. While I have a soft spot for the whole plotline of Danny becoming his canon personality almost right after breaking away from the LOA all because of Jazz, I'm just as much for your take in which he goes through the same character development as Damian.

Now I'm curious. You already tackled his relationship with Dani, will you eventually take a stab at when he, Sam, and Tucker meet Gregor? Given that it's one of my hated episodes as I couldn't stand Sam's infuriatingly hypocritical attitude to Danny's suspicions of him, I'd kill to see your spin on it.

Aw, thank you! Danyal Al Ghul aus are what got me into DPDC first, so I have a major soft spot for them. That being said, uh, its exactly that soft spot that causes me to have Many Opinions about the trope you just mentioned. Like the trope is all fine and dandy, i don't blindly hate it, my main issue with it is that most aus i've seen treat his backstory as an ex-assassin more like a pretty cosmetic accessory rather than something that actually should have had an impact on him. Especially if he remembers being in the league.

Like i cannot stress enough the fact that being in an ecofascist assassin cult (regardless of his standing in it) should've left him, in some way or another, screwed up morally and psychologically because that's just how development works. Nature vs. Nurture is like a game of tug-o-war that never ends, where they are constantly fighting against each other and one side usually has the upper hand or greater influence. Children model the behaviors of the adults around them (ex: bobo the clown doll experiment), and what impacts them in childhood can stick with them permanently.

Like how my psychology professor put it: a baby's brain is like wet cement; if you slap your hand on it, it leaves an imprint, and the cement dries that way. The same rings true for small children.

I could go on, but I frankly have so many thoughts on that alone that I would end up completely derailing from the second half of your ask, and I don't want to be more critical than I already have. Especially since you just mentioned you have a soft spot for the trope.

[Okay, hold onto your hats because this is long. Naturally lmao.]

Gregor! Man, I'll admit I last watched the show back in middle school on a dodgy illegal website (it had surprisingly good audio and visual graphics, and full episodes. But really annoying porn ads.) but I only made it to like season 1 before my hyperfixation faded and I lost interest. So I never actually saw the Gregor episode.

But... it is relatively easy to find free websites that stream Danny Phantom :), so finding the episode took me like. Thirty seconds. Plus the Tv.Tropes recap page because my damn earbuds just died and im out in public as of rn.

I'm not sure if I'll write something for the gregor episode like I did with Dani, since Dani's a bit of a special case in that she's a clone and tends to be a reoccurring presence in DPDC, and I thought the new dynamic with Danyal would be interesting.

Plus, I'm not a big amethyst ocean shipper for the pure reason of I'm just not all that interested in it; its kinda bland to me. I'll admit I've entertained the thought in this au due to the whole balcony scene i wrote, but I would've entertained the thought anyways if it was Tucker in that position instead. Big multishipper, me.

But, if I had to make it official? Danyal is not interested romantically in Sam when the Gregor episode happens, regardless of his relationship with Valerie. Who, speaking of I'm trying to think about how that would go, and I'm torn between including him almost-dating Valerie or not.

Because on one hand it helps point out Sam's hypocrisy (and i love her but i am always happy to point out her flaws and address them in au) in this episode in terms of Danny spying on them, but on the other hand I'll want to include a lot of set up in order to make Gray Ghost work in this au and wow will that take a while.

Especially with the Flirting with Disaster episode because it happens due to Technus' meddling, and Danny is, well, the son of the Batman? A trained assassin? An ex-assassin nonetheless, but still an assassin? A prodigy child in this au? He might not have needed to use most of his skills in the last few years, but like... there's just a bunch of 'what if' and 'well technically...' and 'would he? he could, but would he?' things that is getting in the way of my thought process and making my head spin.

.

Mmm. Okay. Flirting with Disaster occurs relatively the same as canon with a few exceptions; like Danyal noticing the strange coincidences, and he might take the idea into proper consideration because Sam has a point it is strange, especially out of nowhere.

However,,, he really enjoys Valerie's company, and he does really like her. He's been adjusting to civilian life for the last four years and while he's made a lot of progress, he's still. an ex-assassin child living like a wolf amongst sheep. This is normal, typical teenager stuff, and usually his friends like to encourage him doing normal teenager stuff.

So he's stubbornly holding out on the thought that this is normal, that ghost stuff isn't interfering here. He's a little hurt that his friends are discouraging this, he's not bothered by the fact that Valerie is a ghost hunter and he a ghost -- his mother is an assassin, and his father is Batman, and they still had a relationship. (Granted, he's not gonna tell them that)

If anything, being diametrically opposed to each other but still being in love is part of the family! Granted, usually both parties are aware of said opposition to each other, but he'll make a special exception this time around.

(And man now that i'm thinking about gray ghost, im now thinking about various like. scenes i could write between the two of them. maybe in a reblog.)

Anyways uhhh things relatively go the same as canon. Yeah. I think Sam still has a crush on Danny and still spies out of jealousy with Tucker.

.

Now, the Gregor episode! With that out of the way; the TVTropes recap for this episode isn't the best because it doesn't go into detail about the entire episode like it does with Flirting With Disaster and Shades of Gray.

(which i looked at earlier because I made a section of this post talking briefly about what changes I'd make to the Shades of Gray episode to help set up Gray Ghost, but ended up deleting because it was kinda irrelevant for the matter at hand.)

So I'm taking in bits of the episode clips at a time, I'll try not to get too nitpicky about how each scene goes because then it's gonna take me a longer time to write this.

But! First thing's first; since Danny is not romantically interested in Sam, he is also not jealous of Gregor. He is however, a bit eyebrow-raisey at him in their first introduction, but that's because Gregor is coming off as obnoxious.

Danny thinks he's kinda annoying, and it doesn't take a genius to see that Gregor is trying to impress Sam. But since they've only known him for five minutes he takes the good faith assumption and assumes that Gregor is genuinely trying to show interest in Sam's interests too because he likes her, so he keeps mum. The fake hungarian accent is weird, but it's overall harmless, so he doesn't point it out.

He does do the spying thing when he starts suspecting that Gregor might be working for the GIW. The episode only has this happen twice, but for the au this happens a handful of more times over the course of the week, with Danyal's suspicion steadily rising more and more each time.

Hah, when he brings up wanting to spy on Sam and Gregor because of this reason, Tucker still does his "woah! you wanna spy on Sam?" thing.

Danny immediately turns to him, completely unimpressed, and crosses his arms. "Tucker," he says, deadpan, "you and Sam spied on me and Valerie."

He uses a combination of his ghost powers and his regular stealth ability to spy on them. He's hiding in a tree when they're skipping rocks, close enough that he can use his powers to hear them talk but far enough away that he has a good view of their surroundings.

He's invisible in the cinema, but doesn't accidentally get in front of the projector. He checks the inside of the room for the GIW, and then waits outside the actual room itself, keeping an eye on the area and occasionally flying in to watch the movie out of boredom. It reminds him of being back on a recon mission with the League, but it doesn't end with him orchestrating someone's death.

Then when they're at the mall he stays in human form, blending in with the crowd. He runs into the GIW there, but realizes that they're not there because of Gregor; they're just shopping. They didn't show up at either of the last two locations, and he follows them to make sure they're not also trying to blend in. But they're literally just there for shopping.

Danny is rather pleased with this turnout; so far Gregor isn't a spy, he's just annoying. The next day at lunch he asks Sam how her date with Gregor went, and that's how she figures out he spied on them, because well, she didn't tell him that.

"Have you been spying on me?"

Danny messes with his food a little bit, and Tucker is sinking into his seat with embarrassment. He frowns, "Only last night. Those incompetent government dodos--"

His lip curls up; he gets all 'Shakespeare-y' (as Sam and Tucker put it) when he's insulting someone, "--kept appearing whenever Gregor did. I followed you and him last night to make sure he wasn't a spy."

A roundabout way of saying, "I was worried".

Sam is, as canon, furious. Danny understands why, he knows generally speaking that people don't like being spied on. But he's confused on just how angry she is, and is a little irritated by it.

"Why would you do that!" She exclaims, "That's way out of line, Danny."

"How? You spied on me when I was going on dates with Valerie." He narrows his eyes, and points his fork at her, "I'm not blind, I noticed."

"That's different, we told you why we were suspicious. And we don't have ghost powers like you do."

"I don't need ghost powers to sneak around, Sam, you've seen this firsthand. And I just told you why I followed you, I thought he was working with the guys in white--"

"So you think someone can only be interested in me if they're after you?" (this is a paraphrased quote, folks ;D)

"No! If that was the case I would have voiced my concern the moment I thought it. I don't get why you're so angry, you spied too."

Iiits.... a mess. Sam storms off with Gregor, Tucker tags along because okay, yeah, maybe Gregor isn't with the GIW, or maybe last night was a fluke. Either way he ends up tagging along. Danny overhears that conversation between the GIW and Mr. Lancer, and maybe he's right, maybe he's wrong; but something is up.

I've gotten to that scene in the locker room where Gregor tells Danny that he knows he doesn't like him, and I've paused at Danny's reply to say this: Danyal doesn't even bother trying to deny it.

"I know you do not like me."

"You're right; I don't."

"Ah, let me finish. I know you do not like me because you want to protect your friend, Sam, and I respect that."

"...That's correct."

"Good! Because I am going to ask her out."

"I had a feeling you'd say that," he stands up, claps his hand tight on Gregor's shoulder, and leans close to him with a threatening smile, "so you understand me when i say; if you break my best friend's heart, you're as good as dead, right?"

"Ah,, yes. I am so glad we got that cleared out of the way, and now I hope after we can.. how you Americans put it, hang out?"

In the episode he hugs Danny and gives him a la bise (which is that french greeting where you kiss someone on the cheek two or more times) after they end their conversation. But here, when he goes to do that to Danyal, Danny leans away, points an accusatory finger at him, and says; "Absolutely not; we are not close."

The next scene after that is like, end of day. Sam, Tucker, and Gregor walking away. Sam looks over her shoulder to glare at Danny, then gets forlorn. Tucker looks back and just looks forlorn.

(When did I start narrating each scene?? Eh, I'm writing this in brief spurts of time throughout the day. Don't fix what's not broke)

After that there's this whole scene with the two GIW agents that have been chasing Phantom all episode. They're there because they have Tucker's PDA that Skulker took, and it's got the information of their purple backed gorilla assignment on it. They've been going around seeing who Tucker associates with in hopes of catching Phantom.

Uhh ahaha and that is where this gets a little interesting imo, and also allows me to mention that im retconning Danyal's (already) redesigned ghost form. Which I've wanted to retcon even before this moment bc it was just too busy. I'll get to that in a moment.

The GIW suspect Gregor for being the Phantom because of his white hair and green eyes, which is all fine and dandy until you remember: Danyal (and by extension Phantom) has that very noticeable, rather identifiable facial scar that goes across the middle of his fucking face. The GIW could easily suspect that Phantom hides his scar with makeup if he's in disguise, but if they meet a kid with a seemingly identical facial scar and similar disposition? Hoo boy.

Solution? I've got two: Gregor is canonically a kid from Michigan who faked everything to impress Sam. Considering he knows she's gothic and knows that she's ultra-recyclo vegetarian? He probably watched her from afar or got information on her somehow. His hair is dyed, his eyes might just naturally be green, but if he notices that she's got a crush on either Danyal or Phantom? A little sfx makeup could help him recreate a similar looking scar.

My second solution that's gonna happen anyways bc its that suit redesign; Danyal does hide his face as Phantom. Ghosts are emotional creatures and its a popular headcanon that their interests, ambitions, etc, influence the way they look as a ghost, not just their death. A big reoccurring theme of my au is that Danyal did not leave the League unscathed, and that being an assassin is an important part of his identity.

So i'm discarding the hazmat suit look entirely and leaning into the 'assassin' thing. But the general (stylized) feel is like, white ribbon/cloth vambraces that he has used as a garrote at some point, a hood, a gaiter scarf-type thing. I'm keeping the cape. I did a doodle a few days back that's not the official redesign, but a redesign for Phantom. I may reblog this post with that attached because it's got the general feel down. There's very little white involved, but the inside of his cape flares out and looks like the night sky.

Now, the hood and gaiter scarf gets rid of most of the problem, but Danny's hood doesn't stay on all the time, so the GIW have likely seen the upper half of the scar. :] Gregor's own drawn-on scar doesn't have to be 1:1, but it looks close enough, right? A small scar cutting through the edge of his brow and ends right below the corner of his eye. A 'cool, badass' one opposed to Danny's 'garish' scar.

But! Back to the episode scene. Canon Danny gets written off as being 'too prepubescent' to be Phantom, and honestly it'd be hilarious if Danyal was written off for the same reason (he's calling them idiots in his head if they do). But instead -- leaning into the GIW's incompetence here -- he gets written off as being too mature or too talkative. Or something equally as absurd.

Sam breaks up with Gregor for canon reasons, but when Gregor does his "i really like you, but, come on-!" and gestures to tucker, he adds on "and that scary friend of yours too, seriously!"

Things go relatively the same as canon after that. Danny does end up apologizing for spying, however. Sam does it first. Sorrows, prayers, all that.

.

Things usually end up changed or different when I actually write it down, so I'd likely add more or adjust different scenes according to the flow of the oneshot. This is just like, a general vibe of how things would go, and where some of the more obvious changes would be if I did write this oneshot.

Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for the ask :]

[lesiasmadness]

Ok so we messed up the murder mystery script

Passed out shadow originally by @delshark

[frogaroundandfindout]

I’m being fr when I ask what’s wrong with this man and why he’s referring to himself as two separate beings (Batman #599)

[columboscreens]

[razerquartz]

unlikely but wholesome friendships

[illzazzorino]

Ultimate Life Form never learned to use a computer smh

based on: https://www.tumblr.com/noirandchocolate/93108575076/bitchesaloud-its-been-20-years-for-fuck-sake?source=share

[fatalism-and-villainy]

Half-formed thought here, but. Usually in my mind I assume that the topic of Abigail goes almost completely unspoken between Will and Hannibal post-canon, but... man. What if they were even more unhinged about it than that. Like, what if they displayed a massive portrait of her on the mantlepiece or something, as a symbol of Will getting Hannibalpilled and buying into the idea that her death was a sad but inevitable consequence of the force of nature that is Hannibal. And then everyone who visited the house assumed she was just a beloved relative of one of them or something, without knowing anything about the details of how she died (or even that she was dead). And whatever murder buddies/protégés/frenemies/pseudo-children/sexy little thirds/[whatever unholy combination of those things] Will and Hannibal acquired would piece together some very idealized understanding of her as the Perfect Dead Sister-Daughter that they could never measure up to, whose ghostly presence hangs over them... and then coming to the very macabre discovery that Hannibal was the one who killed her! I think that'd be neat.

[oh-meow-swirls]

happy no yo-kai watch announcement ig. uhhh.

take more yo-kai watch/persona 4 crossover art (i wanted to draw more but this took like an hour alone)-

[foxgonyoom]

Ok I have a theory about how Macaque and Wukong's friendship-crumble went down and I wanna get it out before the S4 special airs in case it reveals what happened.

I'm not entirely sure on the specific details, but I think I have pretty good theory of what happened in general.

Alright so

Azure Lion: "However, fate had one more cruel twist for us."

Azure Lion: "Sun Wukong now yielded to an agent of the Celestial Host, another warrior for the oppressors."

(Episode 8 of Season 4, The Brotherhood)

I think the start of the betrayal happened when Wukong was discovered to have "yielded" to the Celestial Realm. (I say yielded in air quotes cause I'm not entirely sure how that whole situation came about, only that the Brotherhood interpreted it as a betrayal).

Peng: "Wukong is a traitor, he'll end us the first chance he gets!"

Macaque: "I just think we should consider other options-"

(Episode 5 of Season 4, Court of the Yellow Robed Demon)

As shown in Episode 5 of Season 4, the Brotherhood were quick to believe that Wukong had betrayed them, and would dispose of them as soon as possible, so they wanted to strike him down first before he could get the chance to do so to them. Macaque, however, seemed to be hesitant. Whether this was him still having some faith in Wukong or him not wanting to get smashed into dust by Wukong or some weird mixture of the two I'm not sure, but there is one thing I'm sure of:

Azure Lion: "My former brother was sent to destroy us and all we had built. It was with their combined power that we were cut down, imprisoned within the scroll, left to the mercy of the Celestial Court."

(Episode 8 of Season 4, The Brotherhood)

Macaque was not present when the Brotherhood fought the Pilgrims. Meaning he'd left the Brotherhood of his own volition.

(As for the betrayal with the Brotherhood, I think the Brotherhood actually did the betraying here. Recall how Tang overheard their plan to trap Monkey King in the scroll? That was before they themselves had been sealed in it. My guess is that they tried to enact their plan, but it failed, and they ended up sealed in the scroll instead.)

But anyway, back to Macaque.

My guess is that he heard about the Brotherhood being sealed in the scroll later on, or perhaps even witnessed a part of the debacle himself (spectating from the shadows of course), and couldn't believe that Wukong would actually do that to his sworn brothers.

So he went to go spy on Wukong and the Pilgrims.

And he'd see them being good friends.

And he'd get really mad.

These were the people that Wukong had betrayed his sworn brothers for? Did he replace his sworn brothers? Did Wukong replace Macaque?

And basically emotions boil over and up and Macaque decides "I'm gonna fucking kill that human."

And so when Sanzang was alone, Macaque shapeshifted into Wukong and tried to kill the monk.

Only for Wukong to stop him.

And they fight.

(Episode 4 of Season 3, The Winning Side)

Eventually, Wukong strikes Macaque to the ground, and this moment occurs.

But notice how Macaque is facing away from Wukong?

He knows Wukong is behind him, but he can't actually see Wukong.

Furthermore, look at Macaque's scarred eye:

(Episode 9 of Season 1, Macaque)

That is not a wound that is left by being struck by a staff.

So what if the following occurred:

Macaque is laying on the ground, facing away from Wukong.

Wukong, instead of finishing him off, instead leaves, feeling betrayed because someone who was once his best friend had tried to kill his new friends, and had stolen his identity.

And knowing Wukong's speed, he's over the horizon before a single second can pass.

But Macaque still thinks that Wukong is behind him.

And as the shadow monkey picks himself up off the floor, he notices the shadow of something looming over him from behind.

Thinking it's Wukong, Macaque stares in confusion as the shadow raises it's staff, though one end of the weapon remains within the figure's shadow.

"Wukon-?"

A searing pain as he's stabbed through the head, the end of the weapon coming out of his right eye, though he can't quite see it. All he knows is that his once best friend had just killed him.

He dies, and the murderer pulls their now bloody spear out of his head.

[myrmica]

my reading of lifesteal season 4 is so personal and involved at this point that even if i was going to post more character analysis i would not know where to start. it would require footnotes to documents that don't exist. listen to luddites and lambs by everything everything and you'll get half of it though

[bloodmoon24]

ElectroSwing: Cactus Juice

Vox: I’m sorry, that’s all we have

Feedback: *looking through the distance* Not anymore. Look! *points to a cactus*

He goes up to the cactus and cuts up a piece and drinks the juice that’s inside

Vox: !! Feedback, wait! *pulls N with him* You shouldn’t be drinking strange plants!

Feedback: *drinks up and cuts up another piece of the cactus* There’s water trapped inside these *held one out to Vox*

Vox: I don’t know

Feedback: Suit yourself. It’s very thirsty quenching though

Then his eye shows a dilated pupil and he shook his head rapidly

Feedback: *in a weird voice* Drink cactus juice. It’ll quench ya *starts doing the worm* Nothing’s quencher. It’s the quenchest!

Vox: 😗?? *takes the cactus piece away from Feedback* Ok, I think you’ve had enough *pours the juice out onto the sand*

Feedback: *suddenly near N* Who lit N on fire??

———————————————————————————

They saw a giant smoke cloud from the distance

Vox: What is that?

N: *one of his eyes got offline* What? What is what?

Feedback: It’s a giant…mushroom. Maybe it’s friendly!

Vox: *takes N’s hand* Let’s just keep moving *starts walking* I hope Shadow’s ok

Feedback: *starts waving his arms around* Friendly mushroom! Mushy giant friend!

———————————————————————————

Then it shows them entering a tunnel with a weird substance on the walls

Feedback: *inhales and exhales* I think my head is starting to clear out the cactus juice. And look *swipes a finger of the goop and tastes it, but immediately goes and spits it out in disgust* Tastes like rotting penguin meat! *groans* I feel woozy…

Vox: You’ve been hallucinating on cactus juice all day, and then you just lick something you find stuck to the wall of a cave?!

Feeeback: I have a natural curiosity

[bitcrush]

Ok I don’t make tumblr posts like ever but

Hi if u wanna be friends or whatever dm me and I can give you my discord @

If you’re in the fandoms tagged below please interact I need people to be insane w/ me

Here’s my carrd too

Pic unrelated

[bluebirdcurse]

RIP to those virgins but restaurant guy was different

[dist4nt-shores]

hey!!

just a lil post to say i've added some new choices & interactive fiction playlists to my spotify, and updated some of my older ones! not sure if anyone would be interested, but if u are here's the link (and if anyone would be, i know it would be u cool lil tumblr besties):

feel free to go check them out or to steal some of the songs as inspo for your own choices/IF playlists :)

[p2iimon]

drawing more furry fnaf art. yknow just to keep you posted. i love posting in the tags sorry these ones got away from me