#a little crazy could do everyone some good || Maddy

[mysteriousangels]

"Think I should give it a few more days before I dye it purple again. But right now my main focus is actually seeing what's in the town for once."

[puppetmaster13u]

So I am rotating the batfamily, but not like, civilian or vigilante. I am slowly rotating them all having a Malone-sona of sorts that is their in to organized crime.

Like you can't tell me people wouldn't start noticing this family that the bats, the literal cryptids and monsters of Gotham, don't even touch and lets continue to operate despite taking the older crime families apart.

And to Gotham that screams power.

Alfred = Albert “Old Al” Malone I wanna say that he doesn't go out as 'Old Al' often, but gives off Godfather sort of vibes. Usually sitting there with an old cane (that definitely has a sword, they're all dramatic like that lol) half in the dark with a cup of tea or other drink. He gets to stretch his acting skills and honestly the kids definitely had a say in the persona. Old Al is something they all made together and they have fun implying so much fun shit.

Kate = Mary “Madam” Malone She definitely gives off 'snap your spine over her knee if not for the fact it would get your blood all over her clothes' vibes. Stylized nails, hair up in fishtail braids or ponytails or whatever, looks like she could tear out ones throat and they'd thank her. It's a running gag that she's in finances, even if no one in the underbelly believes it.

Bruce = “Matches” Malone I mean, it's classic Matches (though most probably assume that Matches isn't his real name) who seems rather chill until someone breaks the rules. Gives off vibes that he doesn't usually get his own hands dirty but will do so to make a point, and enjoy doing it. He sometimes uses Matches to check in on places he can't as a shadowy cryptid, and it's not like the lower income areas would fully trust Brucie Wayne.

Barbara = Madison “Maddie” Malone Now let's be honest, Barbara enjoys messing with people, she enjoys knowing every little thing as Oracle, and she definitely does that as Maddie. The thing is, no one knows how she learns about things, other criminals search for a traitor, for a leak, for anything, and get nothing. Which is utterly terrifying. Because there has to be some sort of information network, there has to be. And somehow they're so good that they're indistinguishable to any others.

Dick = Micheal “Mikey” Malone Honestly Dick uses this chance to get into a bunch of fights just for fun. Flirts a bit more freely but doesn't really have an interest in actually getting with someone. Just has funs and is known for throwing his own parties that usually end in free-for-all brawls. He absolutely loves being able to have parties that are the opposite of galas he's usually dragged into.

Cass = Molly Malone She's quiet and graceful, but she takes it to unnerving levels as Molly. Looks slim but carries guns on her at all time to better differentiate between Cassandra Wayne, Black Bat, and Molly Malone. Everyone knows if you need a weapon, guns, meelee, whatever, she's the one you go to. Gotham help you if you cross her though.

Jason = Peter “Petey” Malone Where Molly Malone goes, everyone knows Petey will be there as well. Jason absolutely adores the time he gets to do so, it's his turn to be silent and dramatic. Everyone can recognize the jagged scar over his neck, they can recognize it from corpses the Bats have gotten their talons on. Honestly he's delighted in being able to be Cass' enforcer of sorts and just have a good fight. Even if he complains about how making his Malone mute makes it where he can't quote Shakespeare like he wants to.

Steph = “Mia” Malone Ah yes, the explosive Malone. The one who has more arson charges than Firefly. Or at least she would if she was caught, but the entire Underbelly knows it was her. Steph is living her best life being able to pull all sorts of pranks and crazy shit and takes several ideas from Harley. Honestly she probably smells like gasoline or smoke all the time, and definitely put glitter in her hair. Maybe even has red hair as a Malone as well.

Tim = Alvin “Al” Malone He still goes by Alvin Draper too, which results in half the underbelly thinking that Draper is his middle name. Honestly he's having the best time, everyone knows to come to him for forgeries and less than legal identities, which he loves to create. I mean just look at how many new identities he creates for himself alone. He enjoys this type of thing, and hey, it's so easy to keep track of whose identity is fake when you're the one who made them. Plus it also lets him do good for those on the run for good reasons, a way to make sure people are safe.

Duke = Dennis “Denny” Malone Everyone knows Denny was adopted, but y'know what, I bet they don't care. And you know Duke is utterly insane, like jump off a bridge to escape the cops and create the We are Robin gang insane. And he gets to play that up as Denny. He will put forth the most batshit ideas and actually pull them off. I bet he uses his future-sight to cheat at different games and pool tables and all sorts of things, but no one can ever prove it. Because there is no proof, and the other people playing just has to deal with it.

Damian = “Mini M” Malone The little baby of the family, who everyone knows the older Malones absolutely dote over. This is his chance to act like an actual child, just with a hint of art theft. Hey, it wasn't like they got it legally either, so it's free game, especially if they weren't taking proper care of the art or a pet. He's just pleased to get to have even more pets, and that Goliath his demon dragon-bat gets to go on walkies.

Jarro = Jadan “Lil J” Malone Now Jarro is delighted to have a third mech, and is even more delighted for people to believe Damian (or technically M jr) and him are twins. Gives off someone is going to die- of fun with Mini M, and honestly enjoys being able to use his natural telepathy to be a small horror movie child that knows too much. Like will stare up at someone with wide eyes covered in blood and the others in Gotham's underbelly still aren't sure if the blood was his or someone elses. (it was neither)

================================================

Honestly I might write a oneshot or something for the Cryptid Batfam focusing on just them as the Malones family.

[too-much-tma-stuff]

Do What I Cannot

This is based on My Graveyard Song because I was captivated by the idea of Danny’s parents burying him alive. That’s basically the only part I took though. This is about him being confronted with his parents again once freed.

This is unedited so feel free to point out mistakes. Contains graphic description of violence.

-----------

The Justice League’s newest hero has been a wonderful asset, truly! Phantom is a rather powerful hero and even though some of his methods are a little questionable he follows the ‘no killing’ rule more strictly then some of the long-term members. Even if it’s just because he doesn’t want to deal with them as ghosts it still counts. Some of the more magical people have an idea that Phantom is more powerful then he’s letting on, but they don’t push it. After all he’s still just a teenager, they don’t really want to have him dealing with universal threats either.

Honestly even if he weren’t a hero Batman at least would have kept him around for the impressively positive affects he has on Red Hood. Jason had been calmer and more reasonable then he had been since his resurrection since digging up that grave and teaming up with Danny. It was just a little unsettling sometimes honestly, sometimes his eyes would glint with the green of the Lazarus waters and everyone would tense up prepared for an aggressive outburst only for Jason to announce he needed to find Danny and leave. The more suspicious minds found it odd, but they figured it was just because Phantom could calm Jason down and didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

Really the only problem was that knowing Phantom had alerted them to a potential new source of threat that they really knew very little about. The JLD knew some but not enough and the ways they had to fight ghosts were clunky and unreliable, they needed weapons that would work on ghosts. Not Phantom obviously, though the overly cautious ones privately thought about him too, just in case you know? And there weren’t many people who specialized in such tech, so of course their search lead them to the Drs. Fenton.

The magic users thought their methods were crude and crazy but had to admit they clearly worked so maybe it would be best to invest in at least some of their tech. At least to study and see if it could be improved on. So they were invited for a meeting, and it was decided Phantom would Not be told. Mostly because they didn’t want to stress him out and also because they’d learned these two were ‘shoot first ask questions later’ types who apparently didn’t believe there was such a thing as a good ghost so they might actually try and kill Danny on sight, which would be awkward.

The presentation they gave to the Justice League was predictably unhinged and they knew well enough to take all of it with a grain of salt, especially the part about all ghosts being evil. Danny had already explained it to them, that ghosts were driven by obsessions which meant they behaved differently then humans but the majority only lashed out when something got between them and their singular passion. Some were different, some had malicious passions and some were more complicated. Diana and J’onn both looked like they were trying hard not to pick a fight but they’d all agreed to smile and nod till they got access to the tech.

There was a familiar sudden chill in the room, looking around Batman could tell a few others felt it too, though Flash was typically oblivious.

“Oh dear,” J’onn whispered before Phantom appeared.

“Hey guys what’s up?” He asked, cheerful but slightly accusatory, they should have known better then to think they could keep the meeting from him. Before they could think of anything to say Danny’s eyes caught on the Fentons and narrowed.

“GET DOWN!” Jack yelled pulling out one of those stupid blasters from somewhere.

“What a perfect chance for a demonstration,” Maddie said, sliding on a pair of gantlets.

“You-you don’t recognize me, do you?” Danny asked, and for a moment he looked hurt, then something happened none of them had ever seen before, his eyes turned red. The toxic green they were used to changed to a deep, blood red and his feet touched the ground as he stalked forward. Jack shot, Danny didn’t break stride, a green shield blocked the blast like it was nothing. Maddie tried to lung and was immediately hit in the gut by one of Phantom’s ecto-blasts, knocking her back against the glass.

Batman leapt up and tried to lung and stop Phantom only to hit a wall that rippled with green, a bubble surrounding the ghost and the two hunters, invisible until struck.

Danny grinned, shark like teeth on full display without any mirth, white hair whipping in an unfelt wind, flowing so it almost looked like flames. “I guess I look a lot different then I did when you buried me alive huh? How long did you leave me? Because you ‘couldn’t kill you son’ so you thought it would be more merciful to lock me away till everything human about me rotted.”

“No,” Maddie gasped, recognition suddenly sharp and painful on her features.

“Yes ‘mom’,” Danny snarled bitterly. Jack tried to shoot again but the blaster was knocked out of his hands so quickly no one was sure what hit him before it could fully charge. “YOU MADE ME! AND YOU ABANDONED ME! You’re lucky someone found me, I would have gotten strong enough to break out on my own eventually and if I had I would have destroyed everything.”

“Oh my god, his parents?” Diana nearly whispered. Batman understood how she felt, Danny didn’t like to talk about how he’d ended up buried ‘alive’, that his parents were the ones who had done it… that was horrific. It made sense why he had never been able to speak about it, but Damn that would have been good to know before they had invited Danny’s abusers to give a presentation on weapons that had no doubt been used to hurt him. And now.. what? They couldn’t get to Danny, it seemed like he had gotten to the point that Raven did sometimes when her emotions overwhelmed her, could they get to Danny? Could they stop him from doing something he might regret?

“You are not our son,” Maddie hissed, her breathing still coming in a harsh wheeze from the blow to her stomach. “Danny is dead! He’s gone. You’re just an acto-entity imitating him, and not even well, you’re just a parasite.”

Danny seemed to be losing some control of his form, it was stretching, getting taller, his fingers curling into dangerous claws tipped with the blackness of the star studded void. “Pathetic mortals, you act as if you will never die, but you will join my kingdom. Perhaps it will be punishment enough to become what you hate, perhaps not. Perhaps I will speed up the process so you can’t hurt anyone else,” He snarled his hands beginning to glow with familiar green of his energy blast.

“Danny stop!” Superman said, hitting the burier to try and get through but not even he could break it. Danny didn’t seem to be responding to them though he was hesitating.

Batman was resigning himself to watching Phantom kill his once parents before Jason walked by him. Batman wasn’t usually taken by surprise, but he was shocked, and worried, both because he could see the green glow of pit madness through the eyes of his helmet, which was worrying, and because he walked through the burier keeping the rest of the heroes out like it was nothing.

He walked to Danny, taking his hand, there was a soft sizzle as the gathered green energy burned Jason’s hand without him even seeming to notice. He pulled Danny down to the ground from where he was floating, pulling the young hero into his arms. Danny let himself be pulled into Jason’s arms, the green energy fizzling out as he wrapped his own arms back around Jason’s waist, hiding against his chest. As the anger faded he slumped against Jason’s chest.

Just as the heroes were breathing a sigh of relief and relaxing Maddie went for the dropped gun. But she wasn’t fast enough as Jason drew his own pistol, the one with live ammo, and put a bullet in her head. Diana cried out in shock and Batman froze as blood and brain matter splattered over the watchtower floor and her body slumped. Before anyone could recover Jack followed, another shot executioner style and Batman had to turn away.

The watchtower was completely silent, enough so that he could hear Phantom’s soft sniffles as he cried into Jason’s chest. When Batman looked back Jason had holstered his gun and was just holding Danny Close. The green had faded enough from his eyes that it seemed safe, Batman approached warily and wasn’t surprised to find that the invisible burier was gone now that both the Fenton’s were dead.

“I’m sorry,” Danny said softly as he heard the approach, without emerging from his hiding place in Jason’s arms where he seemed to feel safe. “I wasn’t actually going to kill them, but I guess my want to, my emotions, were strong enough to make Jason respond. I didn’t mean to call you that way.” He looked up at Jason, his eyes green again though red rimmed from tears.

“It’s alright, I would have done it anyway,” Jason growled, holding Danny even tighter. “I’ve killed people for less, they deserved it.”

Batman took a deep breath forcing himself to keep his cool about his son’s constant flouting of his no killing rule, now was not the time to make Phantom feel worse. “Jason why don’t you take him down to one of the sitting rooms so he can calm down.” No doubt Phantom was reliving trauma, and grieving because even if he wanted them dead they had been his parents.

Jason nodded and scooped Danny into his arm who let out an indignant little squawk and insisted he could walk while making no attempt to actually get down. Jason ignored Danny’s performative complaints and kept the young hero’s head hidden against his chest so he wouldn’t have to see the corpses of his parents while Jason carried him out of the room.

Now, how best to deal with the aftermath of… all this. And later on he really would have to ask Danny and Jason what he’d meant by Jason responding to his energy, because it seemed like there might be something more to their relationship then just Danny calming Jason down and that was worrying to say the least.

Part 2: here

[phantomphangphucker]

Phic Phight - I’m Not Above A Love To Cash In

@a-closet-emo @coyotecrackers @DizzlyPuzzled @vigilant-insomniac @Kawaiijohn @fangirlwriting-stories

Danny’s kind of out of touch with humanity, that was kinda the point in the end. He had a job to do, people and ghosts to protect, a dimension to rule, and crazy bigoted ghost hunters to keep in line; potential distractions and collateral weren’t useful for anyone. Though maybe those would have been good for Danny’s well being, not that he cared too much about that.

Danny sighed at the little envelope, how the heck any of them even tracked down where he was living he had no freaking clue. Oh well, it was here now, meaning he couldn’t feign ignorance. The A-listers, or whatever they called themselves these days, had set up a reunion and had invited even him ‘Freaky Fenton’. Course they also managed to get the ghost mailman to deliver one to Phantom as well, which was slightly insane because as far as they knew Phantom had literally never gone to school at all??? Wasn’t it kinda weird to invite someone that not only wasn’t in your grade but wasn’t even in the school, to a high school reunion? Eh whatever, who was he to dictate who they invited, Dash probably demanded it actually. Ugh. So that left him with what to do about it, it would be rude as fuck for either Danny to not show and it would hurt his image in both forms. Jack and Maddie would spin some story about how it was proof that Phantom didn’t care about people, and then would say the same about Danny Fenton except that Fenton had been ‘tainted’ by Phantom.

To say they weren’t getting along these days would be an understatement. It made him very happy he never told them about being Phantom as a teen though. That would have ended with him strapped down on a table, no doubt.

His whole secret identity was the entire problem here really, his forms looked effectively identical meaning the two sides of him never being seen right next to each other was kind of important. Even being in the same room was too big a risk, if someone simply glanced from one to the other it was obvious. In photos he was fine, since ghosts messed up photographs and videos so severely.

Absolutely no one would buy it that neither one of them noticed the similarities. And absolutely no one bought that ‘Phantom stole Fenton’s face’ thing his parents once tried to spin. So Danny trying to play the similarities off wasn’t going to work.

…

Well he could simply do the aggressively opposite thing. Have Fenton and Phantom near each other constantly and clearly aware of the similarities for some reason. Just what kind of reason should he come up with? Claiming twins would get disproven in a heart beat, especially because everyone would wonder why he waited fourteen fucking years to reveal that shit. He… could, maybe, spin some soul mates bullshit. Ghosts were weird and did weird things and worked in weird ways, people would buy them having legit soul mates and being weird as fuck about it.

He should work shop this a little.

Really sell it.

Fuck.

Danny’s totally going to pretend to be his own fucking boyfriend at a random ass reunion that he still doesn’t know how he wound up getting invited to.

…

Oh Ancients Jack and Maddie were going to lose their minds when they heard about this. That’s it. He’s sold. He’s dating himself for a night. Fuck it. They put him through hell, he’s gonna put them through a little hell too.

Now how to explain it… ghost soul mates copy the appearance of their mate? Why though… hmmm… he doesn’t have a good one for that. Maybe… to recognise them while they’re still alive? Technically that could stab him in the ass if Fenton him ever died but well… unless something killed him then he wouldn’t die, semi-immortality was kinda a bitch like that. Old age was gonna bite him in the ass no matter what. And if he did get his sorry ass killed, finally rested in deaths grasp, his appearance would change to his ghost king form fully meaning that his ass actually would be covered by this dumbass excuse. Okay he is mentally swearing way too much and should absolutely go to bed at this point, sleep deprivation was absolutely taking the piss outta him right now.

He’s definitely sticking with this dumb dating himself idea though, it was just too good and too stupid.

Had Danny’s fully rested opinion changed from his sleep deprived one? not a chance. Eleven years ago this would have been utterly impossible to do, but now? he’s got duplication down pat, all his powers he was pretty solid with now. Not having friends gave him a crap ton of free time. Again, positive sides to negative things.

Heck he doesn’t even know what Sam and Tuck- Tucker were up to these days, it’s better left that way too. He’d be too tempted to keep checking up on them if he looked into it, and he gave that up the day he died and decided to keep that to himself no matter what. That no matter what had become losing his friends, his family, his sleep schedule, his unmarred body, his childhood home, his dream job, his grades, everything he used to care about except the stars. The stars he could be closer to than every living being, so he made that enough for him, it had to be.

Because he couldn’t follow his former friends, he couldn’t follow his former parents, he couldn’t follow his sister, he couldn’t follow his former teachers, he couldn’t follow his dreams. He refused to take all of that down with him, because the only one or thing Danny Fenton followed was Danny Phantom, because all Danny Phantom followed was Danny Fenton. Guess ‘dating’ was just taking it to another step, an absurd one but absurd was his half-life already so it was okay.

… Better thing to wonder about was what the heck to wear? He could slap his Phantom self in some of his more humanly normal royal wear but Fenton him? He owned one suit and it was shit. Most of his clothes were shit, he never actually paid for them so most were either destroyed or cheap enough that he didn’t feel too bad about the act of theft. His morals were another thing he gave up following, at least following it to a tee anyways. Eh fuck it, he’ll ‘barrow’ some of ‘Phantom’s’ royal wear. He’s not wasting time, money, or further morals, on trying to get something decent in a human way.

When was this happening again?

…

Tomorrow. Of course. It was fucking tomorrow. Figures that it would take a while to mail shit to a ghost and figures that they’d be lazy about sending ‘freaky Fenton’ an invite. Ugh. Whatever, he doesn’t really have energy to waste on caring or being bothered. Screw them too. He’ll be late purely to repay the audacity. That way he’ll also have to deal with everyone less, all the ‘normal’ people. Which if Tucker or Sam showed would probably be for the best, he doubts they’d approach him but it’d be painful to see them regardless. Not being in school anymore made it easy to fall out of being used to ignoring and avoiding them.

Though to be fair, he’d been out of school longer than everyone else, since he dropped out as soon as he legally could. Turning seventeen had be such a massive turning point for him, he’d been building up to dropping out and the teachers all knew it. None of them expected anything from him, Lancer held out hope longer than most but not even that man could hold out hope for a lost cause for long. Jack and Maddie thought he was joking till the day he actually dropped out though, they kicked him out of course which he expected; he didn’t even bother taking anything since nothing that was still there held any value to him.

Over time they had destroyed, one way or another, every physical thing he did care about. So he stopped bringing new things he would care about, it was a waste and only stood to hurt him in the long run. Them taking apart his telescope he spent years saving for just to make some stupid new invention was the nail in that particular coffin. So he left them everything he’d ever had but some clothes, that were barely wearable but he couldn’t exactly walk around naked. He’d been tempted to purely to make a point that everything in that house was worthless to him, them included, even if that used to be a lie.

Now he had some decent stuff, his mattress had a bed frame with stars scratched into the wood. That was something. Yeah…

…Yeah

He does have some food in the fridge right? Shit he should totally raid the free food at the reunion thing, the local town hero needed it more than they all did really. He’s seriously hoping that they have those yummy cheese tart things, those were delicious.

Fenton stretches out, eyeing his Phantom duplicate, it was so much harder to make a human duplicate than a ghost one so the choice of which one to make ‘real’ was fairly obvious. Snickering as Phantom chucks some clothes right at Fenton’s face, this kind of crap always amused him, being a goofy jerk to himself by himself. Fenton shaking his head, “dumbass”.

“You know talking to yourself isn’t supposed to be healthy”.

“As if we’re remotely close to healthy anything”.

Either way Fenton pulls the dark green knit tank top on, it looked acceptable over the black poets blouse, and the puffy blouse sleeves worked with the baggy harem pants. The shiny dress shoes stuck out bit so he’s swapping that shit out to soft weathered leather boots. Phantom’s already dressed in something more form fitting, like he always wore in that form, straight cut pants he’s sure are from the early nineteen hundreds and a borderline military tight collared and fully buttoned up jacket. Phantom sticking with the white boots and black gloves, there really wasn’t a reason to change that and he wasn’t a fan of people seeing the scarring on his left hand/arm.

Both of the hims absolutely rock the evil eyeliner though, because of course.

Fenton straightening the random bullet necklace he threw on, “so, ready to go babe”; fuck this was gonna be hilarious.

Phantom finger gunning right back, “tots babe”.

Oh here’s hoping he can hold his laughter and mocking smirks inside his mind. Everyone even in this spooky town could be so dumb though that they might not even notice even if he didn’t manage to keep himselves together. Plus he was ‘the freak’ and ‘crazy’ so he probably would get written off anyways. Fenton gesturing out the door as he opens it and begins to walk out. Phantom chuckling, “naw, I’ll fly us”; and having Fenton pretend to be startled when he gets picked up by his ‘romantic partner’. Man he’s going to make himself laugh at this point.

It doesn’t take long to get to Elmerton, at least the ‘A-listers’ had the sense to not try and hold a reunion inside Amity Park, especially when a lot of the people who were likely invited had made a point to get the hell out of dodge once they could. Amity was kinda a nightmare so Danny couldn’t blame them, even if it felt a little insulting. He thought he was doing a damn good job of keeping everyone safe! Sure there was lots of damages but no one ever got seriously injured. Living in a so called normal town just sounded boring to him these days, what did all those people even do with their time? Sleep? Eat? Did people still go to the movies these days or was that outdated? Whatever. Not his life style not his problem.

Phantom zipping up to open the door, Fenton stuffing his hands in his pockets and following along. Fenton had the loner lazy weirdo image to maintain after all. And there’s Star immediately, honestly he kind of expected either Dash or Paulina or maybe they were just ‘too good’ to greet people at the doors.

Star opens her mouth and nothing comes out, her just staring at the two hims. Yup. She noticed the freakish similarities immediately. She swallows very awkwardly and her smile is pinched, “Phantom! Danny! Glad you could make it!”. That rang about as true as a fucking potato trying to pass as a turtle. What the fuck. Did they just not expect either of hims to show up? Why even invite him then!

Phantom tilting his head, “well I was invited, someone went through a kinda weird amount of effort to do that”. Fenton scoffing, “and I can absolutely just leave if I’m not actually welcome, don’t know why y’all went to the effort to track me down if you didn’t want me here though”.

She waves them both off, “no no no! You’re both fine!”, and fiddled with all the little name plates, “it’s…”, side-eyeing Phantom’s glowing self, “just been a while since I’ve been around a ghost and wearing a bullet to see a bunch of people you haven’t seen in over a decade seems a little concerning”.

Fenton blinks, is she trying to say it came off as a threat? “If I was going to threaten people I’d do it to their face and if I was going to shoot people I’d have walked in with a gun”.

“That’s… not comforting”, she looks Fenton up and down, “you’re not armed right”.

“No!”; oh my zone just how bad was everyone’s opinions of Fenton? Ugh. Phantom gestures at his face, “I’m kinda always armed? I can’t do anything about that”.

She actually chuckles at that, handing them their name plates, “still a joker I see”.

“Death can’t kill these puns”.

Fenton snickering, “hopefully it can still off me though”. Phantom laughing lightly back, “you’re not a walking sentient pun, otherwise I feel very misled”; and makes a point to ruffle Fenton’s hair and have Fenton grin a little fondly at the action.

It was actually kinda nice to feel his hair being ruffled up again though…

Star, finally, gets the vibes he’s putting out. Vibes squared that he’s putting out. Doubly putting out. Her eyes widening, “oh my god are you two dating? Since when and how even!”.

Danny’s a little miffed she didn’t even comment on how similar the two hims look though. Like come on! If this whole thing was pointless he’s going to be annoyed enough to try setting something on fire. Nothing like arson to really scratch that destructive itch.

Fenton quirks an eyebrow, “I mean, yeah?”, sharing a glance with Phantom before looking back to her, “and pretty much ever since I dropped out, folks kicked me to the curb and this idiot showed up”.

“I’m the smart one in this relationship”.

“I don’t know about that, you dipshit”,

“Hey!”.

Oh okay, so that’s why everyone liked calling him insulting names. It was legit hilarious and weirdly satisfying… hopefully he doesn’t come out of tonight with a weird degradation kink, that would be his luck and very concerning. Would confuse a lot of ghosts though.

Star shakes her head with a more genuine grin, “I think I’m glad then, feel free to head on in. There’s food and drinks to the left”. Sweet, free food. “No invisibly stealing most of it, Phantom”. Aw. Damn. He’s still going to just… with more subtlety.

Phantom smirking, “so steal all the food, gotcha”, and winks before they’re fully inside.

It’s loud, not club loud but noisy. A second duplicate absolutely raids the table, just taking only a few things and at random. Not the toasted sandwiches though, ew. Hard pass.

Lily spots them first, nearly running over, he can tell by scent alone that she’s got kids now. Weird. “Holy crap, Danny? Phantom? Did you guys just arrive by chance together or do you- holy what the?”, she stops a bit away from them and tilts her head, “did you two always look this similar?”, and shakes herself off before coming all the way over to the two hims. “So both of you still in Amity I guess? Phantom obviously but you seriously didn’t leave Danny? With how crap your parents were to you?”.

Wow. Way to be gentle about it, damn. Fenton quirks a judgmental eyebrow, “harsh much, but Amity’s big enough that we avoid each other pretty easily. They leave my precious Nasty Burger and coffee shops alone, I stay the hell away from FentonWorks. It works”. Phantom nodding readily, “plus I would be very sad if he went and left”, and makes a point to pout goofily.

Lily hums and nods, “oh yeah I guess since most of us left, you’d miss anymore leaving huh?”.

Dense much. Fucking Zone.

Fenton and Phantom exchanging looks before staring at her. Phantom giving her that smirk that meant he was about to say something stupid, Danny loved making that smirk, “no, I’d miss sucking his face off”.

Lily squawks, scandalised, “you don’t just say stuff like that! And you’re dating!”, tilting her head, “you guys have the same name and could pass as twins, that is so weird”.

“WHAT! Oh mi god!”.

Ah that sounded like Paulina. This ought to be fun.

Paulina almost knocks Lily over and physically flings her arms around Phantom’s neck. Danny can’t resist but have Phantom give Fenton an awkward apologetic look; just to make Lily uncomfortable. That absolutely works and she shuffles on her feet and taps Paulina’s should in an attempt to get her to stop.

“I can’t believe you actually came! Oh this is the best! And you’re still so muscley! And you smell like lime still!”.

He… forgot how creepy she could be, actually. Wow. He’s nipping this in the ass. Fenton putting a hand on his hip, “you done dangling off my ghost, Paulina”; he makes sure that comes off as chastising instead of actually questioning.

Paulina doesn’t get off of Phantom and instead just turns her head to look at Fenton, “and you are? What could you possibly mean by that?”.

Holy shit. By all the Ancients. She doesn’t even recognise Fenton him. What the fuck actually. For someone who was, and clearly still is, so obsessed with a version of him she clearly couldn’t be bothered to remember him. Phantom prying Paulina’s arms off him with an almost baffled raised eyebrow, “Danny Fenton? You know? The kid you guys used to call freaky all the time? My soulmate?”.

“Your what?”. Of course the last bit is the part she really cares about. She stares at Fenton, who glares, her looking back to Phantom, “I refuse to believe that”.

You know what? Fuck it. Time to absolutely horrify everyone and do something arguable really weird. Fenton grabs a fist full of Phantoms hair and kisses him like he fucking means it. Even though all he really means is that he desires to disturb Paulina and see if he can make her throw up on command.

She doesn’t throw up, sadly. She does start waving her hands around and backing away disgustedly though; an almost win. “Oh god ew! I don’t want to see that loser kissing anyone! Especially not Phantom”. Well too bad Paulina, you’re seeing it. Lily is busy clutching her pearls and shuffling away from them like they’re physically toxic to be around; which with him being literally a ghost in one of his forms that was actually an accurate statement.

Fenton does break off the kiss though, “oh so you do remember me?”. She scowls at Fenton him so he has Phantom whole ass bite Fenton’s neck with his fangs like a proper possessive asshole ghost would. Her scowl deepens and he feels very satisfied with himselves.

She backs up a bit, “unfortunately. Now at least. I would have preferred not to have the reminder”, looking to Phantom almost hopefully, “are you sure? Serious?”.

Phantom keeps a hand around Fenton’s waist, “course! It’s pretty obvious he’s supposed to be mine so”. Fenton sticks his tongue out meanly while Phantom shrugs like all of this is a given.

“No it’s really not”.

“Holy shit Phantom!”.

“Wait really!?”.

“Phantom!”.

“Wow you’ve changed! Awesome man!”.

“He came!”.

“I forgot how freaky ghosts looked”.

“HI!”.

Fenton gets pretty much shoved to the side as Phantom gets mobbed. Ahh yeah Danny did not miss all the fangirls and fanboys shit. He really didn’t. That was one thing about being a hero he could seriously do without. It was at the least uncomfortable and at the worst actively dangerous for everyone involved. Fenton huffing and shaking his arms out, going through the motions of running his bite mark and grumbling about people hogging ‘his boyfriend’. Fuck it, Fenton him is hitting up the food table and grabbing both hims a drink. The duplicate can deal with all the damn fans and freak outs.

Phantom chuckles awkwardly when Dash smacks him a few times in the arm, “solid and tough as always I see! Man it still sucks that ghosts couldn’t be on the team!”.

“And I’ll point out that would have still been unfair”; like really, Danny, especially as Phantom, could pick up the entire school building. He could kick a football into the goddamn stratosphere.

Dash smacks him again, “oh who cares”.

“I do? And did?”. Danny liked to pretend he still had good solid morals sometimes.

James starts aggressively shaking Phantom’s hand, “man it’s been too long, wow i thought I’d been misremembering that your skin, or suit I suppose, tingled!”. Phantom only laughing awkwardly in response.

“You still doing the whole super hero thing?”.

“it’s almost weird to see you all grown up?”.

“You know you practically were part of our class!”.

“Could you imagine if he still looked like a kid?”.

“Amity’s ghost issues as bad as ever!”.

“Think I could get a signature for the kids?”.

“The Fenton’s still trying to catch you?”.

Okay this was a bit much, like it always was. Most of Amity didn’t do this crap now, everyone used to him just kinda always being around. Everyone here though? Again most of them left Amity, meaning he was now a novelty to them. Phantom him was at least.

Danny’s putting a stop to this, “Hey spooky butt”, Fenton leans his face and one drink over Phantom’s shoulder in a way that could only be described as shit-eatingly sultry.

“Holy shit Danny!”.

“Looks like someone finally learned how to dress”.

“Why are you getting Phantom a drink?”.

Paulina crosses her arms and huffs, “apparently they’re dating”, waving a hand around dismissively, “soul mates or whatever”.

OoOooIooOoooOoOooh someone’s jealous. Ha! He loves to see it. Suck on that, little miss stalker.

Everyone just kind of goes silent, zone someone actually goes and shuts off the music even. Wow. His both touched and slightly horrified. Phantom takes the drink from Fenton and sips noisily at it while everyone stares; Fenton just smirking his ass off and Danny trying not to have either hims collapse to the floor in laughing fits.

Todd snapping, “what the hell does that mean”, then scowling, “wait, why do I even care?”, and stalks off to aggressively grab a rice crispy square. That starts the shouting though.

“What?!”.

“What does she mean dating!?!”.

“There’s NO WAY THAT’S SERIOUS!”.

“How!”.

“Woah woah woah huh?!?”.

“WHAT!”.

“The hell happened!”.

“How does this even make sense!”.

Paulina looks pleased with herself actually, smirking at Fenton like this somehow proved something? Danny’s completely lost on what she thinks she’s won. Like, Danny’s winning here, mass confusion was practically ninety percent of the goal. He wanted to piss off, freak out, and annoy these people. Most of them had treated him like shit, the others didn’t care, and well, two were… okay but he was best leaving them confused too. At least he doesn’t see either of them yet.

Dash near shrieking, “Fenton!”. Danny’s suddenly distinctly remembering that this guy used to slam him into walls and try to drown him. Fenton ducking down under Phantom's arm to be able to slip under it to move in front of his ghost self, “what do you want, Dash? Feel like revisiting shoving my head in toilets?”. He makes a point to have Phantom watch the interaction like a very obviously protective hawk; protective eyes for Fenton only. He is legit enjoying seeing Fenton him standing up against Dash though, especially since Fenton was taller than Dash now and more bulked up.

Someone fell off with all their working out. Ha! As if that would ever happen with Danny, he’s mere existence was a work out.

Dash glaring up at Fenton, sneering, “Fenton, still being weird I see”.

“Let me guess, I was invited to be the freak show you lot would point at and use as a way to make yourselves feel better about how your own lives turned out? What? Upset that you were right about peeking in Highschool?”.

Dash actually clenches a fist, Danny keeps Fenton glaring straight at his face, and makes Phantom’s eyes glow dangerously in warning. Dash wilts immediately, scoffing, “gotta have a ghost fight your battles for you, Fenton. Whatever”.

Fenton cackles meanly, wandering off to pick up one of the full coolers up over his head with ease and shout, “you wanna go bitch?!? You think I’m hooked up with a combative mother fucker without getting a few hits in myself!”. Yes, fear human him even slightly, please him.

Then Star stomps over, “Danny put that down”, pointing at Dash, “Dash, this isn’t Highschool anymore, grow up”, then looking at Phantom, “please discourage this?”.

Phantom blinks innocently, “why would I? It’s hot when throws shit at people, he threw Johnny’s bike two days ago, ten outta ten”.

That gets him a lot of ‘what’s’ and Paulina recoils, “you, called Fenton hot”.

Phantom shrugging like this is obvious, “well he is”. Note, Danny is fully aware that he is absolutely not hot or conventionally attractive in anyway. He just wants to see her grossed out. The disgusted look is so worth it, worth all this crap.

Kwan shakes his head, but when he smiles at both Danny’s his smile is genuine, “well good for you two then!”. Dash glances away awkwardly, Danny’s guessing those two had a falling out. Figures, Kwan was always a kinda decent dude that was just surrounded by assholes. Kwan coming over and smacking both of the Danny’s shoulders, “how’d this happen though?”.

Multiple people raise their hands, clearly wanting an expilnation for this shit too; zone the music is still off. Danny knows he’s a hot topic, as Phantom at least, but for fucks sake! Phantom and Fenton exchanging glances before Fenton crosses his arms at the group, “after I got the familial boot, this shit ass”, jabbing a thumb back at Phantom. Phantom muttering, “yes insult me harder, daddy”, purely because that was absolutely taking this a step too far. Making Fenton pause and look back at ghost him, “I can’t believe you actually said that”, then turning back to everyone, most of whom look varying degrees of freaked out, “so this shit ass, helped me get back on my feet and not be contentedly homeless and you know, when a hero type starts stealing things for you you start to question that shit. And well, romance bloomed”. There are some ‘aw’s’ and some gags and some eye rolls. Expected, many here had once had crushes on Phantom him and also viewed Fenton him as a loser; most wouldn’t be happy about this pairing not that he cares.

Phantom waving at everyone with a big smile specifically to get their attention, “we’re soul mates!”, humming, “which is a ghost thing so it’s probably really weird to the living”.

Fenton nodding, okay self… selves, time to sell this shit. Fenton pointing at his face then Phantom’s face, “it’s why we look alike”. Phantom nodding immediately, “looking like our loves makes them easier to find”.

Jesse blinks, he was dressed in an actually starched suit, “so ghosts just copy their partners appearance until they find them as ghosts? Until they die? That seems a bit insane and like it would mess with your sense of self”.

Paulina stares at the ground, “so I’ve been crushing on a Fenton look-alike, ew”. Oh Danny hadn’t even thought of that reaction! Ha! Suffer for his amusement. This was a great plan.

Fenton smirks to himself, “yup. Too bad you missed out on the real thing huh?”. She scowls deeply at him and stalks off, apparently done with his bullshit; the quick glance she gives Phantom is a little odd but maybe this will finally kill her odd obsession with half of him.

Phantom hums, shaking his head in that way that makes his hair flop around detached from gravity, “oh I can look how I’m supposed to look fully if I want to”, leaning over and pinching Fenton’s cheek, “looking like this silly little human, in general body shape, is just more tolerable around all you humans”; then running the same hand through his hair, changing it to white flames as he does so. Danny lets the fire hair ‘hang out’ on and around Phantom’s head for a bit before settling back to his standard hair.

Dash grumbling, “I’d rather look like some beast than a loser. Fire hair is cool anyways”.

Brittney sticking up a finger, “but with this, then wouldn’t you have known since you first met? When you first showed up in Amity? So why didn’t you date back in Highschool?”.

Phantom quirks an eyebrow at her like the answers obvious, because frankly it is, “He’s alive? I wasn’t about to mess his life up, then suddenly he wasn’t in school or at his home. He was alone with no real human responsibilities so I decided why not? And I could hardly do nothing when my mate could use some help”. Dating any ghost, especially himself, would have gone horrifically bad while he was still living with Maddie and Jack. The amount those two would have tried to use him and this fabricated soul mate bond thing would have been absolutely insane and very very painful eventually. Even if he had dated a blob ghost that would have ended in the ghostly ultimate destruction. Even now dating a ghost came with far too much risk to them, dating himself he could get away with since he was a very powerful ghost and also knew exactly what he was getting himself into more or less. Besides, if dating himself is what gets his ass finally truly hurt by those two he will laugh.

Star grins at the ghost, “that is very adorable”, then looking at the mass of people, “okay that’s enough mobbing them, this is to mingle with everyone not just ogle Phantom”. Oh hey, look at the old queen bee lackey being the voice of reason now, talk about moving up in the world.

A couple people grumble but things do go back to somewhat normal, the music comes back on too. Nice. Star nodding curtly to herself, then to Fenton, “now I didn’t ask this earlier but are the Fenton’s going to show up? They weren’t invited but they were never big on following rules”.

Both Danny’s chuckle at that, Fenton shaking his head, “so long as no one tells them a ghost’s here, then no”.

“Glad to hear it, now I’m going back to greet people, I imagine there will be a couple more late arrivals”. Fenton smirks meanly at that while Phantom tries to look slightly apologetic, ultimately Danny didn’t really care and they should be glad he bothered showing up to an event full of people that either ignored his existence or treated him like shit except when he was saving their hides or floating around as Phantom.

Phantom finally gets to sip his, unfortunately ectoplasm free, drink and take some food from Fenton. Danny’s tempted to have Fenton fucking hand feed Phantom just to mess with people. The tarts are sadly really bland, is this what ‘normal’ grown ups liked to eat? Hard pass. But people’s tastes seriously get this boring? How sad and a bit pathetic. Live a little! Enjoy some flavour!

Kwan elbowing Phantom, “so the ghost problem still going strong”, laughing almost awkwardly, “I haven’t exactly been keeping up, the tech industry is a hard core one!”.

Ah so he worked in tech now? He’d expected English, a teacher maybe, he seemed to like poetry if Danny’s remembering right? Phantom chuckles, “of course! I doubt that’ll ever change. Serious damage doesn’t happen too much now though, since I’m pretty solid on what kind of damage is serious damage in the living world now”. Fenton nodding, “and I get the fun of patching his dumbass up when he lets himself get hit for a pun”.

“As if you don’t do the same”.

Fenton snorts, making a point to seem amused by Phantom’s antics. Phantom smirking playfully before looking back to Kwan, “besides, no ghost these days would want to actually get on my bad side with my position, you know?”. Jack and Maddie might very loudly and very aggressively deny that ghosts could possibly have a political system but everyone else seemed to accept it at least. Besides, those two hunters being loud about anything didn’t somehow make it true, even if the town believing the whole ‘ghost king’ thing made some of them a lot more leery of Phantom. Like he’d execute them or try them for dissent or something if ‘his human people’ went against him. Some folks moved out purely because they didn’t want to be in a town under ‘some ghost royals rule’, even though Danny had firmly established his Phantom self as the good guy by now. Humans could be so annoying. None of the ghosts got pissy about being under his domain and they were more under it than any human in Amity.

Kwan looks… confused? “No I don’t think I know? Are you, like, an actual ghost cop now? Man that would be so cool”.

What. Hmm. Well. Maybe most of these people don’t know? Most of his old ‘citizens’ hadn’t been citizens for a while before Danny took the throne proper and him doing so got leaked, thank you very much Vlad. Asshole. Though having very public arguments with the Observants in the mild of the fucking sky probably didn’t help, or him actually having to go scary ghost king on that one Ancient that tried poisoning the water supply with corpses. If you’re gonna mass kill people be a proper ghost and do it with your own bare hands. Danny makes a point to have Phantom look to Fenton in confusion, Fenton facepalming, “right. Most of y’all have been gone a while”, moving his hand off his face and giving Kwan a mean smirk, “Phantom’s been the current ghost king ever since he became an adult ghost”, waving a hand around dismissively, “its been, what? eight years?”.

Phantom nodding, “and my town’s, Amity’s, known for five because Plasmius is a jerk and the Observants won’t stop hassling me”, grumbling, “one of these days I swear I’m gonna start shooting them with suction darts”.

Fenton barking a laugh as if he wasn’t fully aware of what his other self was going to say, “if that works I will mock them relentlessly”.

“Please do, anyone who doesn’t give up on political assassination attempts after the third failure deserves to be mocked”.

At this point it was like they felt obligated to try at least once per year, it was very annoying and a waste of his time. At least all the other ghosts who started beef with him provided some entertainment and stretched his muscles out, let him satisfy that pesky little protective obsession of his. The eyeballs were just jerks. At least he had fun setting the last wannabe assassin on fire. Ha.

Kwan blinks before smacking Phantom’s arm hard, “wow! Congrats then! I’m busy enough just being a desk boy usually! Being a king would be awful, no offence”, then smacking Fenton’s arm one, “and congrats on bagging royalty!”.

Todd scowling from a little bit away, “fuck, right, I forgot that asshole got that throne thing, ugh I hate this town”, and wanders off further away from Danny’s hims and their everything.

But someone’s turned off the music, again ugh, it’s Lindsey by the controls and she’s gapping at the hims, “what do you mean Phantom’s royalty!”.

Oh. This shit again.

Everyone starts yelling at the hims again.

“What!?”.

“Oh that’s awesome!”.

“For defeating that dude that abducted the town right?!?”.

“For how long!”.

“That’s absurd!”.

“I could have dated a king!”.

“We sorta went to school with royalty!”.

“Oh my god!”.

“WHAT!”.

“Why are there still ghosts then!”.

“Does that make Amity, like, a royal capital!”.

Phantom buries his face in his palms, groaning loudly. Man Danny remembers going through this back when Vlad leaked everything and the towns folk realised he wasn’t joking. So many questions, an entire press conference even. Fenton crossing his arms and scowling, “there’s an entire press release on it, google it your self, hell go track it down on TikTok I don’t care”.

Phantom sighing again and removing his hand from his face, looking at the people in his line of sight, “yes it’s the throne the guy who abducted the town had. It’s only been eight years and the towns know for five. No I’m not going to mass control the ghosts to stay out of Amity, freedom is a big deal to ghosts. Amity is technically a royal capital but it’s not in the Infinite Realm so that doesn’t actually mean much. And yes it is absurd”, gesturing a hand at his head and making the green flaming crown appear for a few seconds before sending it away again.

Fenton pretty much gets shoved away from Phantom again as everyone pretty much mobs the ghost, Kwan patting an annoyed Fenton’s shoulder, “so what have you been doing? Outside of apparently dealing with Phantom’s craziness all the time”.

(Phantom holds up his hands, “alright alright, just stop shoving my mate around. Geez”. Only a couple of people apologise)

Fenton huffs, at least the man sounded genuine, after all most people didn’t expect Danny Fenton to amount to much of anything. Homeless and jobless was the expectation. It was also almost accurate, if he wasn’t Phantom at least. The only reason he had an apartment at all was because he was better at making weapons than his parents were, even if he sold his more or less illegally. The G.I.W. would never approve someone who was ‘in league with the dead’ to deal ghost tech in any form, even if they did, Jack and Maddie would try to keep him out. At least Vlad pulled his weight by letting Danny sell the more important stuff under the Dalvco brand, like shields and ghost-plant killer that secretly doubled as a Blood Blossom spray. His general weapons were blackmarket only though, fuck the government. “If I told you I’d have to kill you”. Kwan rolls his eyes and Fenton snorts after a beat, “I sell weapons on the blackmarket”.

… It takes a bit but, Kwan blinks, “oh you’re serious”.

(Phantom chuckles awkwardly, “yes I’m a lot stronger now than I was back then, I don’t flaunt that though”.)

Fenton shrugging, “it’s ghost weapons, dude. More ghost friendly, Phantom friendly, and more effective than what FentonWorks or Dalvco produce. And not legislated to the zone and back like G.I.W. tech, plus fuck those guys, no Amity Parker current or past would buy shit from those assholes”.

“Yeah I absolutely remember them shooting live rockets at little kids that one time”, Kwan shakes his head, “I guess that makes sense, can’t do it legally because of being publicly pro-ghost?”.

(Danny internally sighs as most of the group shove pens and paper and whatnot at Phantom, ugh).

“Got it in one, got it in one. It doesn’t make good money but it does make some. Enough for a place to live and cheap food, I’m not moving into the gz regardless of someone’s insistence on how cozy it is”.

Kwan actually takes that comment in stride, good for him, “I mean, you’re gonna be there one day anyways? So why rush it? Even if Phantom would probably prefer you there sooner than later”, the guy scratches his head, “man that must be weird. Being a ghosts soul mate or whatever. Chelsea marrying that old guy was weird enough, a dead guy is on another level”.

Chelsea married a sugar daddy? Really? Okay… Get that bread he guesses. Fenton snorting, “if she’s making bank and living the rich life because of that then good for her”, shrugging, “and outside of him running of to throw fists and laying on the ceiling, it’s not much different from dating a human. Getting bitched at about royal shit is way more weird”, looking down at himself and sticking his arms away from his torso some, “the clothing’s nice though”.

“That’s ghost clothing?”.

Fenton smirks, “yup. This shirt is probably older than our parents. And I think the boots are made from Minotaur hide”. He doesn’t think, he knows they are. Ghost clothing was badass like that.

(Phantom rolls his eyes at Jasper, “no I’m not going to just make people my knights when they die”.)

James pops his head over, “that would freak me out to wear, damn aren’t you worried about ecto-contamination and shit? I’d prefer to stick to stuff made by human hands, cool though”.

Was it weird? He didn’t think so. “There’s so little ecto on it that it really doesn’t matter, besides if clothing was bad for my health Phantom would kill me via cuddles”. Kwan bursts out laughing, and nods repeatedly.

James nods a little, “oh yeah! I guess that would be right huh?”.

The Danny makes a point to have Fenton jerk a little from Phantom just kinda appearing right next to Fenton. Kwan putting a hand to his chest and James yelping a little. Fenton glancing at Phantom, “got bored of being mobbed or doing signatures?”. Ancients everyone wanted signatures and if Phantom wasn’t the duplicate Danny’s sure his hand would be sore for at least ten minutes. Ugh. signing shit for Craig’s goddamn six children was wild though, his poor wife. Phantom pouting, “yes”.

“I did warn you that would happen”.

“I wasn’t going to not show up, that would be rude!”.

At least the music turns back on, thank everything. Dale spotting and hearing where Phantom disappeared to and popping over, “everyone’s glad you came, even if being around a ghost again is a little off putting and weird”.

Phantom rubs his neck, “me being more powerful probably doesn’t help”. Fenton shoving him a little good naturedly.

Dale acts like Phantom didn’t even say anything, “and yeah Fenton was kinda invited in hopes you’d be more likely to show, since both of you were seen near each other a lot”.

Kwan gives the other man a disappointed look, “dude”. Making Dale blink, “oh right yeah that was mean”, and just stares off blankly a little.

Wow. Fucking figured but damn. Jerks. Though right, wasn’t Dale the guy that had some brain damage? Eh, Danny shouldn’t be too mean to the guy. Still making Fenton scowl though, “why am I not surprised, it’s not like I was ever close with any of you shitheads”. James wanders away very quickly at that, and at Phantom growling a little. Kwan scratching his head, “sorry about that, Dale’s not the best at brain to mouth censoring”. Dale blinking and still looking a little far off but nodding, “ah, yeah no I’m not. Eh? At least dogs don’t care about that”.

Phantom brightening up immediately, “oh yeah! Cujo can be a handful but he’s a good boy”.

Dale blinks again, “I don’t think I could handle a ghost dog, all dogs are great dogs though”.

See that? Danny could agree with. Cujo might cause a lot of damage and might drag him around by his ankles but he was still just the best. And getting to have interactions with someone or something that had no expectations of him and couldn’t be disappointed by him was nice. All the pup wanted was a playmate, belly rubs, and to guard his master; nothing more nothing less. Cujo didn’t care if Danny was a king or if he was on bad terms with his biological makers or if he was a little out of touch with other beings or if he technically was an entity that should be impossible to exist in the first place. Dogs were nice like that, unlike people. So both Danny’s nod.

Then, as if summoned by the dog that ‘ruined’ her life, Val shows up. The good ol’ Red Huntress. At least they got along somewhat these days, her and Phantom at least.

Her voice is harsh, “what the fuck”. Ah so she spotted Phantom. This was gonna be fun and possibly annoying or stupid or a lot of things. She stomps over, glaring bloody murder at Phantom who whistles and glances around like an innocent little angel. Man Danny loved to rile her up sometimes, and she couldn’t even shoot him this time! She grabs Fenton’s baggy sleeve roughly and physically drags him off. Leaving a blinking Phantom, “well at least this time it’s him being pestered and not the ghost with the most”. Kwan laughs.

Fenton blinks at Val, “sup, Val. Why are you dragging me around?”. As if he doesn’t know exactly why. Phantom was here and she wanted to know why, the Red Huntress did talk to Fenton him sometimes, since he made ghost shit and everything. Plus the ‘Fenton’ knowledge he had from Jack and Maddie. Danny’s ninety percent sure she suspects him of knowing exactly who was under the helmet, She drags him all the way over to the food tables before responding to him, “I’ve been here all of ten minutes and all I am hearing about, besides people telling me what their jobs are now and Ali trying to get me to join her pyramid scheme, is that you are apparently dating Phantom. What the actual fresh fuck, Danny”.

Fenton huffs, “let me have my love life, gosh”, smirking, “what? Do you have a problem with gay couples?”; that’s not the issue and he knows it and she knows that he knows it.

She swats him over the head immediately, “he’s a ghost you dumbass”, huffing, “I know you tend to side with ghosts but dating Phantom? Really?”, rubbing her temples, “like yes, if you’re going to have a thing for the dead then Phantom’s acceptable but what are you two doing?”.

Fenton smirks, “what we’re doing is being little shits and cuddle buddies”.

“You know what I mean, you shit”.

Fenton chuckles, “and I couldn’t make this anymore clear, I could described what Phantom’s mouth tastes like if you’d like?”; of course Danny could actually have Fenton do that since Danny knew what his own mouth tasted like.

Val glares, crosses her arms, and looks from Fenton to Phantom, from one Danny to the other… then she does it again. There it was, the recognition. “What the?”.

Lily walks over to grab some food, “oh yeah let me guess, noticed the similarities? Apparently they’re soul mates”, eyeing Fenton, “ghosts am I right?”. Danny can tell instantly that Val doesn’t buy that shit, like at all. Figures, she was a ghost hunter after all… and she knew about Vlad’s sorry half-dead ass. AND she’s seen Elle’s human half which was basically just a female version of Fenton him.

Fenton smirks at Lily, “they’re weird, but exactly my kind of weird”, and fucking winks at her. Lily shaking her head and heading back over to a bunch of the other ex-cheerleader girls.

Val looks to Fenton slowly, “Danny? Are you? Are you him?”.

Fenton finger guns, “with him you mean, ha!”, then dropping his hands and shrugging, “it shouldn’t have taken you this long, Red. Like my excuse? All the reactions have been to die for”. She smacks him over the head again, expected, she always did love to rough up his sorry ass. “You know Phantom’s not gonna like if you bruise me up too much”.

“I hate you”.

“No you don’t”.

“Fuck you”.

“You wish you could”.

She throws her hands up dramatically, “I can’t with you! Oh my Zone!”, dropping her hands and glaring at Fenton, “you could have just fucking told me, you know”.

Fenton shrugging, stealing up a little rainbow rice crispy square, “eh, it was better off I didn’t. I’m a lot to get involved in and it’s better that people just don’t”, pointing the square at her before taking a bite, “tough shit or not you still die if someone lops your head off”. Sometimes he did want to try and stop her from the whole huntress thing but who was he to tell someone to not do stupid dumb reckless shit? Plus all the ghosts actually liked her, and that shit counted for a lot.

She frowns at him, “that’s a bit depressing you know? Is that why you’re such a loner?”, shaking her head and glancing at a wall, “I guess I’m not really one to talk though, huh?”.

“No shit, Sherlock. We’re both pretty irredeemably fucked, I just have less of a choice about it”.

“You have a choice“.

“Look me in my half dead god king face and say that again”.

She flinches at that, fucking good, he didn’t have a whole lot of tolerance for people telling him he could just walk away. As if everything wouldn’t go to utter shit without his asses involvement. As if people wouldn’t die or wind up experimented on. As if his realm could function and maintain itself without its king. As if there was anything better for him to do other than rot in bed. As if this wasn’t all he was goddamn good for and all he knew how to do anymore. Everything else is gone and there ain’t no getting it back. He’s fucked. Absolutely, completely, and utterly, fucked. And saying otherwise was like pissing on all his fucking suffering and sacrifices. He was needed as Phantom, as a sovereign and protector. He was needed as Fenton, as the interspecies liaison and defender. And that was all he was needed as. Never anything more and never anything less. It wasn’t his choice to make anymore, even if it’s a choice he would make over and over again if it was up to him. Nothing was changing that till either every part of him collapsed or the universe did.

Fenton huffs, “come on, let’s mingle instead of wallowing in our mildly crappy existences”.

She stands firm, making him eye her, “you do like it though, right? I do”.

Even if he didn’t, even if he hated every second of it, he’d still say yes just so she wouldn’t pity him or try to carry more of the load on her very mortal shoulders. He did enjoy it though, so there’s that, meaning it’s not a lie when Fenton says, “duh. I’m a combative mother fucker, even if somehow no one noticed that trait in Fenton”. This time she lets him drag her off with him.

Phantom giving both of them smiles, “have fun catching up, babe?”. Fenton snickering, “of course babe”. Val glares murderously at both hims but doesn’t call him out on his bullshit.

Silver waving at Val, basically killing the conversation Silver’d been having with his duplicate about their greenhouses poppy flowers. It’s was weird someone being so interested in just… growing a bunch of poppy’s. Like fuck, way to show you have a real hunky-dory life. They actually teared up a little at successfully growing an orange one… Sliver speaking up, “you still stuck in Amity?”.

Val nodding easily, “yeah, what can I say, I like the stupid town. I doubt I’ll ever leave, it’s got me for life”.

Yeah… she was probably right about that. She was married to the game less than him but still was all the same. Her it was more that she didn’t want to stop and felt responsible, rather than genuinely not being able to stop.

Phantom putting his hands behind his head, “yeah, her and her dad run a pretty solid tech shop these days, I get my thermoses fixed there since the Fenton’s are still crazy”. Fenton snorting, “tell me about it”. Did Danny actually need to be doing that? Obviously not. But it was a chance to have Phantom talk with Red outside of combat, and to familiarise her with thermoses in case the worst happened.

After all, losing all his human connections is what made Dan and that’s exactly the way things were now. It was bound to happen if he ever lost his protective drive. Protection and combat are his only drives, one without the other is a problem for his mind. So he’d keep his one connection with Val, for as little as that might be worth in the end, and he’ll keep his protective streak going till it burns him to ash.

Val rolls her eyes at the two hims, “helping the town, even that little bit, is worth it”.

“I hear ya, I hear ya”.

“Hey Fenton! Does Jazz still live in Amity?!”.

Fenton blinks, leaning away from his little group going on and stares at Dash, “fucking no?! Why would she?! She literally left the day she turned eighteen how did you not notice that?!?”, scowling, “and no! I’m not calling her for you! We barely talk anymore anyways!”. Which kinda sucked but she got to live her normal human life that she very much enjoyed.

Dash blinks, “damn!”. Ugh.

Silver blinking at Fenton, “oh? It’s ’cause of the Fenton’s isn’t it?”.

Phantom sighs, rubbing his temples, “I took her away personally. The Fenton’s, aware that Danny wasn’t going to, and in their eyes shouldn’t, take over FentonWorks, burned her scholarships and tried to stop her from leaving. I got her out and a few towns over, saw her off and all that”.

Fenton nodding, “which I was very relieved over, that had been Hell a little bit-”. Silver cringes. “-she’s doing well for herself though, has her own therapist practice and all that. Doesn’t want anything to do with Maddie or Jack, same as me”, shrugging, “she also wants nothing to do with ghosts, so I’m kinda an at arms length sibling if you will”.

“Since you’re dating a ghosts and illegally selling ghost tech? Yeah I can get that”.

Fenton nodding, “ditto. And if she did show up back here I’d slap some sense into her and tell her to get lost before she regrets it”; ahh getting maybe a little bit too real there but oh well. Jazz was a Fenton, which meant that Amity was a place she had to stay the hell away from; Jack and Maddie she had to stay the hell away from. Hopefully she never forgets that.

Then Star pops back in, “alright that’s everyone who’s coming!”. Getting a bunch of raised glasses and food stuff in return. A dark-skinned man with dreads coming in behind her, or… rolling in behind her.

That was…

Tucker was in a wheelchair?!?! What happened! Half the damn point was those two not getting fucking hurt! Was there no point? Had it been a hopeless endeavour?

It takes a bit to avoid dissolving Phantom. As it is his ghost selves eyes flare up a little and his ecto-field wiggles concerningly. Val kicks Phantom in the boot, to stabilise him maybe? He doesn’t know and he doesn’t care. He needs to know what happened, how it happened, could he have done something different? Fenton absently muttering, “I’m going to go say hi”. Val giving him a bit of a supportive back pat that he barely notices, she physically blocks Phantom him from following with a whispered, “Tucker’s Danny Fenton’s old friend, not Phantom’s stay put you”.

Sliver nodding, “I guess it’s no surprise you’re an over protective boyfriend”.

Fenton blinking down at Tucker, “Tuck”. And the guy raises an eyebrow, “been a while since I’ve been called that”; making Fenton, and Phantom, wince. Star walks away quickly, easily picking up on the awkward and probably way to private atmosphere.

Fenton blinks again, “you’re in a wheelchair”.

“Yeah I noticed”, Tucker sighing when Danny doesn’t really have a response to that that wasn’t horrifically insensitive. Tucker putting his hands on his lap, “Danny, you kinda lost the right to ask a while ago, but since you’re concerned enough to talk to me properly for the first time in nearly fourteen years, it’s genetic. I have a type of muscular dystrophy. Now can I get past and grab some food or?”.

Again, both Danny’s wince, him realising that the Fenton one was practically blocking Tucker from getting his… wheelchair past. Fenton stepping to the side with a neck rub, “sorry about that”.

“Whatever, man”.

Danny just kind of stares as the man goes, it hurt a little. The dismissal. But he expected it and it was okay. At least… at least it was nothing he could have done anything about. If anything this means that Danny was right to push him away. Being involved with ghosts would have gotten him killed probably. But… getting diagnosed and eventually having to use mobility aids had probably been crushing to him… and Danny hadn’t been there to support him. Any ounce of support he tried to give now would just seem hollow and like pity. Former friend was the right label for them and he should just let the man go, shouldn’t follow after.

He does of course. Fenton him does. Because the wheelchair and subsequent mild protective freakout has thrown him off kilter. He can tell the man’s glaring at the food table, Fenton him can see it in the reflection of some of the glasses. “Danny I’m really not interested in ‘catching up’ with you”.

Fenton stares a little before Danny can remember himself and that humans find staring creepy. Shaking his head, “right yeah, that makes sense”. Maybe he’d have better luck and less hostility with Phantom him? “Can I ask what you do at least? Then I’ll get out of your hair. You don’t have to ask me shit, or you can, it’s whatever”.

Tucker actually smacks a fist on the table, “I know the only damn reason you’re even trying is because I’m disabled now, so fuck off”.

Shit. Okay. That wasn’t how he was trying to be interpreted. “Tuck-”.

“Don’t”.

Fenton snarls, properly snarling, startling his former friend, “just because we stopped being friends doesn’t mean I stopped giving a damn. But fine, fuck it, whatever”, and basically stomps off. He doesn’t turn around when Tucker mutters a possibly regretful, “shit”. If the man wants to be an ass then fine, let him be an ass by himself. It’s better Danny doesn’t care anyways, it’s better they end on bad terms. Fuck it and fuck him.

Val’s kicking Phantom him again, since Phantom had snarled too. Shit whatever. Fuck it if he’s freaking anyone out, they’re all assholes anyways. Val eyeing the ticked of Fenton, “your mood is rubbing off on someone”.

“I’m fully fucking aware, Val”.

She smacks him over the head, “well pull your shit together, you can’t expect him to want to be friendly with you after all this time”.

“Yeah well I didn’t expect to basically get told to go fuck myself either, jackass”.

Both Val and Silver frowning, Silver shaking their head, “okay yeah that’s a little rude, but he might be going through some stuff, you don’t know. You staring at the chair probably didn’t help”.

“My mind goes to worst case scenarios so excuse me if the thought of someone I used to be extremely close with getting into some kind of horrible accident was upsetting”.

Phantom huffing and crossing his arms, “being dead or surrounded by the dead tends to do that”. Now he wishes Tucker hadn’t shown up at all. He’s going to be pissed off about this for days, fucking asshole.

Val sighs, “okay you’re not wrong on that, I thought the same. At least I didn’t freaking ask though, Danny. I thought you were just going to say hi, not be an insensitive jerk”.

Fenton scowls at her, sticking his arms out, “I didn’t fucking ask, he just assumed I wanted to, which yeah was right”, and grumbles a little incoherently before taking some breaths to avoid snarling at anyone else especially not the only human connection he still had. Ugh.

Val shakes her head at him, “okay I guess you can get to be annoyed, not mad, annoyed. Star’s civil with me even though we had our falling out”, crossing her arms, “Paulina not so much”.

Fenton grumbling, “if Sam had shown up I’d expect her to slap me at this point. Fucking zone”.

Star hums, having apparently made her way over after overhearing her name, “yeah she replied in the discord chat that she wouldn’t deign to show up to rejoin a shitty town full of people that were morally horrific”.

“Ancients that’s messed up, what the Zone Sam”. Fenton blinks and shakes his head, what the hell happened with her? He doesn’t want to know. Was she always that egocentric and holier than thou? If so it was probably better for everyone she had no say in him and what he does. Did childhood him just suck at picking friends? “Wait. There’s a discord?”.

Star puts a hand on her hip and cocks an eyebrow, “yup. All anyone could find on you was an address so we couldn’t exactly give you a code in”.

Val shaking her head and forcing a little laugh, eyeing Fenton, “if I had known no one had your number I would have sent it. I figured you just had no interest in messaging anyone, like me”, she waves a hand dismissively, “I confirmed I was showing up and dipped”.

Fucking great. Love it.

Danny notices Tucker pushing himself over to talk to Jesse. Danny chooses to ignore that. If he sends Phantom over he might just accidentally start a brawl and that was a very bad idea.

Star shakes her head, “would it kill either of you to be a bit more sociable?”.

Fenton immediately responding with, “yes”. Phantom with, “already did”. And Val with, “probably”. Making Star sigh and Silver laugh; Silver walking off right after, Danny pretending not to notice them point aggressively at Tucker. Ugh.

“Phantom! Come meet my husband! He’s heard stories about you and got curious!”. Phantom glancing to the side at Ashely then to Fenton with a quirked eyebrow.

Fenton waving him off, “go, I’ll be fine, you stupid celebrity”. Danny makes a point to have Phantom give Fenton a quick peck on the cheek, making Fenton blush a little, before running off. Val’s barely restrained look of horror is so worth it and definitely improves his mood.

Star shakes her head, “well at least it looks like you’re in a better mood now, this is supposed to be fun”.

“Then why are all the drinks liquor free?”.

“Because Todd has a liquor problem and I know you know it”.

Okay yeah that wasn’t wrong. All the local bartenders knew him by first and last name, zone some knew the middle one too. Sure they also knew Danny by first and both lasts but that was for an entirely different reason… he did also drink though so like it was a toss up. Then she glances to the side, winces slightly, and jambs a thumb over her shoulder, “anyway’s I’m going to check on everyone else. See if more people are better off not being in the same room”. Ouch. True but she didn’t need to say it. Star pointing at Val, “you’re coming whether you like it or not, you can talk to Danny whenever you want”. Val grumbles but doesn’t put up a fight.

Fenton shaking his head and laughing a little to himself, now what should he do? He frankly didn’t feel like dealing with anyone now, especially not all these chuckle fucks. He’s half tempted to just wander into the bathroom and stare at the mirror for twenty minutes self actualising or whatever. Grimacing, yeah he’s gonna do that, plus all this ecto free food was grating on his stomachs nerves.

He could eat normal foods, it’s just the ecto made it taste better and easier on his system to digest. Didn’t help that he grew up eating contaminated shit, thanks Maddie and Jack, and basically only ate contaminated shit after the whole half dying thing; it was an easy thing to do in Amity after all since everything was contaminated. But this was Elmerton and the food was definitely from outside the city, probably to specifically ensure it was ecto free. Yuck.

So Fenton meanders his way over to the gym bathroom/locker room, stuffing a hand in his pocket as he goes. Him popping into the sink and mirror area, kicking the door closed-ish and pulling out an ectoplasm vial at the same time, tossing it back without much hesitation. He didn’t hear anyone else in here and plus he also didn’t super care, which fine was partly because his attention was split into two different places and almost no one would really genuinely question him outside of Val obviously.

Granted Val would know exactly what he was doing and why.

“Did you seriously think I’d been hurt bad?”.

“Fuck!”, Fenton jumps, tossing the vial in the air, (Phantom jerking in his conversation about welding of all things) at the frankly very unexpected sound of Tucker’s voice. It took some doing to actually startle him, but guesses he was in his own head enough that someone was able to pull it off. Didn’t help that he just came from a room full of people whose scents he doesn’t recognise anymore. It bothered him a little. Fenton turning away from the mirror and looking down at Tucker, “uh?”. And then the fucking ecto vial clinks on to the ground and rolls across it in that loud way glass tends to do. Well fuck him, this shit is entirely his fault right oh wow this is instantly awkward.

Tucker stares down at the vial on the ground before looking back up at Fenton, “new question, what was that”.

See that did not sound like a question. Okay, self, shit, what to say? If this was anyone else, other than Val, he’d just say it was a weird Amity energy drink and he was tired and to piss off. Zone he’s tempted to say that crap anyways, but Tucker had sounded… apologetic, even if he’d startled Danny. He can’t not lie though. Well… technically, if he mentally twisted things around enough, calling ecto an addiction for him wasn’t wrong per say. He legit couldn’t exist without ecto, his system was dependent on it, so like, he could go with that? And now Tucker’s glaring at him like he’s thinking about ramming into Danny. Fenton blinking before shrugging awkwardly, “addiction’s compulsory, or whatever. And yes?”. Crap this was a really stupid plan of action. Way more stupid than dating himself, Ancients.

Tucker blinks, “addiction?”, shaking his head, “I don’t even care about the first question now”, frowning, “well I do, you jerk, but less”.

That’s fair, Danny thinks. Fenton shrugs, “that accident fucked me up, okay? Kinda needed ectoplasm ever since. Which sure, wasn’t exactly something I wanted to share with anyone. And maybe I didn’t deal with that well, but I think I dealt with that right. And I guess that’s all that matters”. Okay cool, so this is how he’s going to explain ditching them as friends, great. Fuck Danny’s so goddamn stupid. ‘Addiction’ was not on his bingo card of how to explain how weird he was to people… he really should update that stupid card.

Tucker’s glaring again like Danny’s done something wrong, except Danny doesn’t know why Fenton him is getting glared at this time. “Are you lying to me?”.

Fenton glaring back before sticking out his tongue, which was coated in faintly glowing green of course. Pulling his tongue back in, “do you know anything else that looks like that besides ecto? ‘Cause I sure don’t”; that had a bit more bite than he meant it to but oh well, he’s still kinda ticked off with this man so…

“And it doesn’t get you high?”.

Okay see now Danny’s getting actually ticked again. Fucking damn it. “No. Now if you’re going to just ride my ass then let me out so I can go somewhere that isn’t here”.

Tucker doesn’t move, in fact he locks his damn wheels, “no. Because that last conversation made me feel like an asshole and I refuse to feel like an asshole over you deciding to isolate yourself”, gesturing at the vial that’s still on the ground, “especially if all of it was over some stupid ectoplasm issue, you jack ass”.

“So what I’m hearing is you’re just being selfish”.

“So what if I am, I think I’ve earned that from you”.

Danny makes Fenton him relax over that, because if anything letting people take their issues out on him was something he was good for. “Ugh I guess that’s okay then”.

Now Tucker’s glaring again, “what”.

For fucks sake. “Dude, you’ve known me for years, since when did I ever put myself first? If you want to use me as a punching bag to unload your issues on, go right ahead”, snorting, “cause yeah, I’m well fucking aware it’s been earned. If you were Dash I’d tell you to piss off again”.

Tucker sticks his arms out, basically smacking the door, “so you’ll tell me to ‘piss off’ over not wanting to talk to you but won’t over me wanting to berate you?! Seriously?!”.

“Yes”. Fuck that was weird wasn’t it? Do normal human people do that? Or was he coming off as a massive hypocrite? Or as a masochist maybe?

Tucker pinches the bridge of his nose, still doesn’t unlock his chair though, “damn it, you have a bunch of mental issues now, don’t you”.

“Rude”.

“Yeah well now I just feel like more of an asshole, so there”.

They stare at each other for a beat, Danny’s trying really hard to mostly ignore Phantom having to play nice with Dale and his loose tongue again, apparently the guy really liked bluey. Fuck when was the last time Danny got really genuinely into any tv show? Had he even watched one since he dropped out? Crap probably not. If he had down time he was usually laying on the floor staring at the ceiling with a music playlist running, or having a quick drink with Val, or trying to study ghost history, or replaying an old video game he’s beaten hundreds of times just to feel young and carefree again.

Wow that had to be unhealthy. Not that he really cared about that. Blinking at Tucker, “so… what do you do for work”.

“I’m not telling you”.

“Fuck you too then I guess”.

Tucker puts his face in a hand and sighs very deeply with a muttered, “I was right, I really should not have come”, before lifting his head up and glaring up at Danny with goddamn pity in his eyes, “look, okay, I am sorry about brushing you off if you were genuinely worried about me having been badly injured and I guess I’m sorry you have this addiction issue, but you brought it on yourself. Me and Sam could have helped, you ass”.

“Tuck-”, crap he’s back to calling him ‘Tuck’ goddamn it, “-my head was a fucking mess after that shit, I have literally no memory from the three months after that crap. Just a boat load of pain cutting straight to sitting up in bed violently vomiting up ectoplasm. Excuse me for making some jack ass choices but again, I stand by those choices”, running a hand through his hair and leaning his ass back against the sink, “I thought that shit was gonna end with me dead, sooner rather than later, and I didn’t want to take you guys down with me. So I had to choose between the life I had with you guys and the moral thing to do. Kinda an obvious choice there, to me”. Honestly? Why was he explaining this shit now? Was it because his life was somehow less chaotic now? Or because he was an adult ghost and fully grown into what and who he was? Loneliness perhaps? Or did he just not want Tucker to actually hate him?

Tucker stares at him before wheezing, “Christ I wish you had just told at least me that”, massaging his temples and using the chairs arms to rest his elbows on, “if I remember right, which I might not, you basically didn’t talk and just stared blankly, it was creepy but your parents assured everyone you wouldn’t have any ‘long term’ issues. That you were just recovering and in shock. Not that dumbass fourteen year olds knew shit about shock-”.

Seriously? Seriously! What the Hell! Fenton blurting out, “what the zone is wrong with them! in what world would getting electrocuted by literally billions of volts not have a lasting effect?!”.

“-me and Sam basically carried you everywhere and babied you and then you suddenly flipped on us and avoided us like the plagu- wait what”.

Tucker looks horrified, crap that was not Danny’s goal. Oh well, he’s in it now. Fenton blinking, “Jack and Maddie sucking is what”.

“Dude”.

Fenton swallowing and rubbing his neck, “you guys were taking care of me?”. Okay so maybe Danny had been more of a jerk to them than he realised but still. Tucker glares so Danny bites the bullet and has Fenton respond properly, Tucker was an adult now not some teen who’d do stupid shit like follow Danny Phantom’s sorry ass into combat, “it was something like four billion volts, it was a miracle I wasn’t instantly vaporised into ash. As it was apparently Jazz came home to them attempting to bury what they thought was my dead body in the back yard, apparently I woke up during the argument and crawled out and ran into trees for three days”.

“They told us you were missing because you were in another cities hospital! They tried to bury you?!?”. Somehow Jack and Maddie just keep getting worse. Tucker wheezes again, “well regardless of you becoming an asshole, I’m glad you didn’t die, holy shit”, staring at Danny, “is that why you were so weird about my wheelchair? You thought something like that had happened to me?”. He takes Fenton’s wince as a yes. “Ugh fine you’re forgiven for that then, I can’t hold what’s probably severe trauma and ptsd against someone”, pointing at Danny, “you were still a jerk then and now though. And you basically shoving me away was awful and basically wrecked me mentally for a long time”.

Yeah Danny knew neither Sam nor Tucker took him pushing them away well, but being upset or depressed or confused or worried was better than getting caught in an undead fist fight or losing a limb or getting contaminated by him which he had thought back then would have been extremely dangerous. “I thought it was for the best, okay? And I didn’t mean to hurt you when I was basically hurting myself”.

“How the hell was push me away from my best friend ‘for the best’?!?”.

“Because I was all fucked up and I didn’t want my shit fucking you up”. That was part of it, at first anyways. Then it quickly became more of him having to be the hero and get into fights and not wanting anyone getting caught in the crossfires and waiting them to keep the ability to live normal fucking lives unlike him.

Tucker stares at him like he actually somehow gets it, huh, Danny didn’t see that one coming. “So you thought you’d get us sick? Or something? Just by being around us? Okay I know you’ve always been a bit of a dumbass but goddamn it, Danny”.

“I don’t know what the hell is happening in there but I’m taking a piss in the ladies room! what in the!”.

Both Fenton and Tuck (and Phantom for that matter) jerk a little from whoever shouted from outside the bathroom/locker room. Fenton cringing his face up, “right, this is a public space”.

Tucker sighing, “maybe not the best place for this crap conversation”, unlocking his wheels and roll backwards out of the little sink and mirror area doorway, “I’m still mad at you though”.

“That’s fair. I’m not looking to rekindle friendship or whatever”. Danny uses the man’s distraction to have Fenton telekinetically move the vial back into his hand and pocket.

“Seriously. Jerk”.

Fenton shrugs as he moves out of the little doorway, “I only really hang out with ghosts now and I actually am unsafe to be around too much if whoever doesn’t have a tolerance or protective gear, the ecto-contamination and shit”.

“That’s… pretty shitty actually”.

Fenton giving back a snide, “gee thanks”.

“You still shouldn’t have pushed us away. But I guess you still want to do that, so you do you I guess. Its not like I actually know you, or you me, anymore”.

“Yup”. Tucker bashes him in the back of the legs with the chair for that, “hey!”. Danny making Fenton sigh at the glare… and at Dash attempting to drill Phantom about football like that mattered anymore. Phantom couldn’t be sighing at Dash after all, images to maintain and all. “Look, Tucker, you got pissy over me staring at your wheelchair, that tells me your life’s doing pretty alright actually. If I was in a wheelchair and someone was staring I’d assume they were trying figure out how to use it to kill me. I sell weapons illegally and am dating a death god king, I’m not really shit you wanna be involved in”.

“What about Valerie?”, Tucker making a bit of a face, “that soul mate ghost thing I’ve been hearing is real?”.

Danny is absolutely about to throw Val under the bus, servers her right for still hanging around his half dead ass. “She… is a coworker let’s say, a not legal one”, not technically a lie, the Red Huntress wasn’t legally allowed to do what she did, it was just that no one could actually stop her. Thank fuck for that. Fenton huffing, “and we mostly only talk over drinks or if we run into each other during ghost attacks”. Then smirking, “and oh yeah me and Phantom are fucking match made in hell”. His own personal hell of protective desire and pain.

“You know what, you’re right. You’re an asshole, a criminal, and a necrophiliac; I’m out. I almost want to try but you stopped being worth it years ago. Still glad you’re not dead though”.

On one hand Danny wants to smack the guy, on the other hand Danny’s getting exactly what he wanted; and ain’t that just a terrible thing?

“How’d you find out you needed ectoplasm?”.

Oh Ancients, well… nothing was weirder than the truth with that one and fuck it at this point. “First time I ran into a whisp ghost I, kinda, couldn’t, exactly, stop myself from eating it”.

“You… ate a ghost?”.

“It was a really bad day and I’d rather you keep that in confidence”. Man he legit wants to get out of this damn bathroom/locker room now. Ugh. He starts walking to the door.

Tucker makes a gagging sound, muttering, “no one would even believe me anyway. I’m starting to think he did actually do me a favour as kids and that kinda pisses me off a little. I’ve spent too long being mad at that shit ass for me to feel good about that shit”.

Danny making Fenton pause at the door, one hand on it, “dude, I have freaky good hearing, go see your therapist and I hope you have one. You’re not the lost cause in this bathroom”, and then pushes his way out, leaving his old friend and the friendship more firmly behind.

He absolutely has Phantom ‘rescue’ Fenton immediately, throwing an arm around Fenton’s neck and ruffling his hair with the other hand, “I have escaped Dash and him ‘regaling me’ with his glory days”.

Danny makes Fenton sigh to seem tired, “that’s…”, brightening up, “thats good. He really did peek in Highschool, just like he said he would”. A self fulfilling prophecy, Danny pretty much did the exact same. The biggest jock and the biggest loser both fucking themselves up in the end; how ironic.

Danny makes Fenton sigh to seem tired, “that’s…”, brightening up, “that’s good. He really did peek in Highschool, just like he said he would”. A self fulfilling prophecy, Danny pretty much did the exact same. The biggest jock and the biggest loser both fucking themselves up in the end.

Then Val goes and actually rescues his ass, stomping over, “let’s bounce. I don’t want to be here or around these people anymore, and I want to get shitfaced until I start putting holes in walls or pass out on your crappy apartment floor”.

Fenton quirks an eyebrow, “you have literally never been over? How do you know it’s shitty?”.

“Because it’s your apartment”.

“Fuck you”.

Phantom quirking an eyebrow at her and tilting his head, “and who pissed you off?”.

Val grimaces, “Paulina, I swear she needs to get stabbed a couple times”.

Phantom laughing while Fenton gestures at Val with both of his hands, “no. Bad. If you start stabbing little miss pretty puddle I’ll get stuck having to clean up the blood before the cops show up-”. He can feel Tucker’s concerned eyes on him as the man wheels out of the bathroom/locker room. “-and I really don’t feel like being on crime scene clean up duty”.

Phantom perking up, “eh I could just phase it through the ground”.

“Don’t encourage her murderous desire”.

Val grins, though clearly still thinking this is super weird, “no, let him speak, he makes good points”.

“His only point is letting you make a point with a knife point”. She scowls at Fenton’s joke immediately, nice, at least that makes him feel legitimately a bit better. Either way Danny is content to leave this place before shit goes anymore south, and he has frankly had enough of humans and their weirdly boring plain interests. Looking at the crowd, it actually looked like some others had left. Todd, no surprise there. Charlie that he doesn’t think he ever even talked to as Fenton, he’s not sure if they talked in high school either though. Two of the jocks also looked to have bounced, Dash was still her of course and Scott didn’t look like he actually wanted to be talking to him. Ha. Brittany doesn’t look to be around either, meaning Sarah’s probably gone too if she was ever even here.

And then.

Of fucking course.

His ghost sense goes off.

Val’s reaction is instant, her folding out a blaster, the second she notices both Danny’s straightening up, stiff, and glancing around. Danny making both hims relax with annoyed sighs when he realizes who it is or one of the whos whatever. Phantom waving Val off, “it’s an eyeball, don’t”. The woman throws her hands up a bit, clearly annoyed that it was one of the ghosts that Danny was pretty strict on her not fighting.

Danny making Fenton scowl deeply, “oh fucking goddamn it, not those assholes”. Phantom rolling his green eyes fondly before stepping forward some and cupping his hands around his mouth, Danny should at least warn these people, “hey! Non-hostile incoming! They’re probably just showing to annoy me!”.

The reactions is immediate. Guess spending multiple teenage years in a town constantly plagued by ghost attacks tends to stick with you. Everyone pulling away from the walls, and anything box-shaped, and sticking to groups while glancing around in mild panic. The Observant comes up through the floor, jerk, in all their eye-ball shaped ugly cloak wearing green-skinned annoyance. “Phantom-”. Oh Danny can tell they’re here to lecture him or chastise him or something equally annoying and pointless. Nope. He’s not putting up with this.

Fenton smacking Phantom, “make me a suction dart gun construct”. Danny having Phantom do that without hesitation, even if it was a bit harder to make ecto-energy constructs outside of Amity or the Ghost Zone. Phantom passing over the sorta weapon, it has a pump action shotgun reload for comedic effect. Fenton pumping it immediately and shooting the Observant in the head/eye, “not today, eyeball asshole”.

“Phantom-”.

Oh how chastising, Fenton shots him again, “no”. The suction cups are actually sticking, awesome. But he’s got no interest in actually letting the eyeball actually say anything, so Fenton stalks over, putting a finger in the ghosts face, “fuck off, ‘Phantom’ isn’t your goddamn servant”. The Observant doesn’t look remotely chastised which frankly Danny’s a little goddamn ticked off about. These guys were constantly riding his ass and they act like they had some sort of high ground on him which they did not. So Danny has Fenton kick the ghost in the chest and basically jump on their chest, pointing the ‘gun’ in its eyeball/face and shooting it enough to cover its whole iris; its point blank enough to actually injury the ghost. The Observants were always more powerful as a mass than alone.

“Are you done?!”.

Fenton smirking, “no”, and smacking the ghost on the top of their head with the butt of the ‘gun’. Lowing the ‘weapon’ some, sighing tiredly, “now if this isn’t something actually important, I’m going to rip off all of your limbs”. And Danny means that, he will, he’s had it up to here with these guys.

The Observant, seeming to get this, just fucking disappears with a, “you need to be bound”; like he wasn’t aware they hated how much power he had.

“Fuck you. You exist in my favour”, Fenton hurling the ‘gun’ construct at the ground, it bouncing up a bit before dissolving into goo. Stupid jackasses.

“Geez Fenton where was that in high school, what the hell!”.

Both Danny’s jerking, Fenton looking back to Steven, “do you know how many ghosts annoy me because of that asshole?”, gesturing a thumb at Phantom who glances around innocently. Fenton huffing, “and yeah maybe I enjoy annoying the ones that annoy him, sue me”.

What makes it so clear that basically all these people have nothing to do with Amity any more is how all of them look on edge, nervous, unsettled, scared. They don’t ‘bounce back’ instantly and more than a couple eye Phantom nervously like they had just now remembered how arguably dangerous he could be. That Phantom was a ghost and could very well kill everyone in this room without much effort. As if Danny ever would do such a thing, he was a protector and if they wanted to forget that then screw them. Amity always was the weird place where humans and ghosts could actually remotely get along, even that was a crap shoot, humans would always be unsettled by ghosts and trying for genuine coexistence was fucking pointless. These people simply being away from ghosts for a few years and yet acting put off by one that was less human simply showing up was almost insulting to all his effort. Whatever, what did he care if most of humanity was too damn weak to handle not being the top of the food chain. Making Fenton scoff at everyone’s stares, “guess I should get gone, huh?”, and nods his head at Phantom.

Phantom stretching out and floating up to sort of lay in the air on his back, finger gunning at Val, “coming?”, as he moves to hover around Fenton’s head, ruffling Fenton’s hair fondly.

Jason blinking, “you know, I almost felt like I missed Highschool, thanks for reminding me why I absolutely do not”, and wheezes. While Star waves the two Danny’s off, “yeah should have guessed a ghost that wasn’t invited might follow Phantom”.

Phantom chuckling, “what can I say, I’m very attractive”. Making Fenton snort and blush, “shut up, you stupid ghost”. And making Phantom snicker meanly at Fenton.

Kwan shouting, “you better have a cute wedding!”.

Val rolling her eyes at the pair, pocketing her gun, and walking towards them while waving a hand over her shoulder, “bye. This was nice though”, muttering to herself barely loud enough for even Danny to hear, “regardless of certain people”.

Fenton rolling his eyes and waving at everyone, “I’d say you can easily visit me but I made myself hard to find for a damn reason and I vaguely hate most of your guts, peace bitches”. Phantom facepalming, watching Val and Fenton walk towards the door for a beat before looking to the people, him still floating up in the air, “everyone’s free to give me a visit of course, even though the fact that no one had before makes it kinda clear no one will, no hard feelings about that by the by. Besides, when you die we’ll met again”.

Star sighs at him, “that’s needlessly ominous, Phantom”. Phantom shrugging before floating off, “I’m dead, I don’t know what you expect. I can tell that none of you are going to die soon, so there’s that”, and giving them a thumbs up, absolutely ignoring how that doesn’t seem to actually make anyone feel better. It’s not Danny’s problem if ‘normal’ people aren’t comforted with ominous messages about the not so untimely demise, he thinks it would be a good thing knowing you’re not gonna die soon. Like really. He personally would have loved a heads up that he was gonna half die when that shit happened, a little count down or something would have been nice. A little count down to obliterating everything he used to be and wanted to be.

You know.

For the dramatics.

Danny absorbs his duplicate as soon as he’s outside of easy viewing range of the building, Val quirking an eyebrow at him, “I’m guessing you didn’t drive here?”.

“No? Why would I do that? And neither did you”.

She snorts at him, summoning out her board, “well hop on, I’m still down for drinks so”.

Danny eyes the board, “naw I probably should pass”. Bonding wasn’t really a good idea anyways.

She rolls her eyes, “come on, don’t be a stranger”.

“Being a stranger is kinda the point”. He has every intention of just going invisible and flying off, but she grabs his arm and yanks him onto the board before he can follow through on that thought, her muttering about him being a dumbass the whole time. Danny eyeing her, hands in his pockets and just sitting on the board, stupid stubborn ghost hunters.

Though… looking down, it was kinda nice to watch the city sights this leisurely. It’s filled with spots of damage and things being repaired even here in Elmerton still. It was impossible for everything to stay contained in one simple city after all, sometimes Danny debating expanding is human lair a bit more, just to keep more of an eye on more of it. Perhaps that was a speck of greed or just his overprotective nature.

Really it wouldn’t take much, honestly he had the power and ability to take over the entire planet if he so chose. And really, ghosts did crop up everywhere, and further ecto-contaminated cities and towns would just make more places possible to be common ground of sorts.

It wasn’t a bad idea…

Just not a good or human one either. He had to play human games to thrive and be accepted in the human world, even if those games were sometimes stupid and annoying and isolating. Hmmm… maybe he should get drinks with Val, she was at least slightly better with normal human things than him.

Looking down, there’s some patches of green growing in ash. Life from death, strength from destruction. Kinda like him.

She lands them on the ground, Danny standing easily as her board folds up becoming nanobots under and through her veins; an altered state of being similar and not to himself. Her making ‘come on’ gestures at him before heading in to one of the more beat down bars that don’t ask questions and assumes every patron is involved in something shady or another.

And Danny follows. Maybe he was a little too much of a loner.

End.

Prompts: Pretending to be someone's boyfriend for a night was not as high on Danny's list of crazy-ideas-he-should've-said-no-to as, say, agreeing to become the King of all ghosts, but it was definitely up there. Ten years since Danny graduated high school, and fourteen years since his accident. The former A-listers are organizing a high school reunion, and somehow both Danny AND Phantom got an invite… Seriously, how are these things still happening to him? Parents take apart Danny’s telescope for a new invention. Being dead somewhat drastically shuffles around your priorities. It's been a long time since Danny was able to remember what a human would feel to be important. Tucker Foley's terrible, awful, very bad day. No one knows au identity reveal

[mbappebby]

Little Leclerc || One

Ollie Bearman x Madelyn Leclerc (OC)

Summary: Having a crash at Spa leads everyone very worried due to someone who they have already lost there..

Requested: Yes, by anonymous: Can I request a Charles one where the reader is his little sister and she is a driver in F2. She has quite a big crash and something happened to her radio and they nobody knew if she was okay or not. Everyone gets scared as they have already lost Anthoine there. Thank you, but please only write this if your comfortable xx

Words: 1.4K+

Series

Madelyn Leclerc, if you are a fan of formula 1 you will recognise that last name. She’s the youngest out of her 3 brothers and as basically grown up into the world of F1.

She firstly watched her older brothers karting until she realised she wanted to do that as well. When Madelyn was 4 she started but didn’t get into single seater until she was 7 years old.

When Madelyn was 11, she had to move away from her family due to none of the junior categories wouldn’t let her race due to her being a girl. The Leclerc family did all the could you try and let her race but it never worked.

Madelyn had a hard decision to make, if she wanted to continue karting she had to leave her family and travel to different countries to race. It was hard for her, but she knew that she didn’t want to quit.

After 2 years of travelling to different countries, and winning many junior championships. Madelyn had caught the eye of FDA. The Ferrari Driver Academy, a place her two brothers were already apart of.

The three Leclerc siblings, we back together..

~||~

Madelyn had already had a good weekend, she had won the sprint race and now her aim was to also win the Feature race. The youngest Leclerc was outside her garage warming up with her trainer, Milo.

Milo and her have known each other for years. He was the one who looked after her when she was travelling around the world for those two years. Soon enough, when Madelyn got into F4 she asked him to be her trainer and he agreed and the haven’t looked back since.

“Any other of the family here this weekend?” Milo asked. “No, sadly. Arthur has a race somewhere else and Enzo is with him and Mum isn’t here,” Madelyn replied. “At least Charles is here” Milo added as she smiled.

“Crazy it’s been 3 years ain’t it?” Madelyn said quietly. “He would be very proud of you, he’s always protecting you when your on the track” Milo replied. “And everyone else as well” Madelyn added.

“C’mon, let’s get you in the car and on the track eh?” Milo said. “Let’s do it!” Madelyn replied.

~||~

“-Ohhh no!! That’s an awful awful crash and it’s looks like it’s the Prema car of Madelyn Leclerc. Definitely a red flag, gosh that car is in pieces..”

“Maddie? Are you okay?” Her race engineer asked.

“…..”

“No answer on the radio from Madelyn. The medicals staff are quickly on the scene and are are already there. That was awful to watch, that’s given a big shock around the paddock and mainly to F1 paddock as well”

Charles face dropped while he was in a middle of an interview and saw everything that just happened. “That was Maddie, right?” He asked as they nodded. “I got to go,” Charles said he ran out the media pen and started to make his way to the Prema garage.

“Charles!” Pierre called as he caught up with the Ferrari driver. “You need someone with you, my team are fine with me coming” Pierre said as they both got into the F2 paddock. “Thanks Pear, I know Maddie is like a sister to you” Charles added as they walked into the Prema garage.

“We don’t have any information Charles, we are trying to get ahold of her” Milo told him. “She has to be okay, I can’t lose her..” Charles mumbled. “That’s the only a metre away from where we lost Anthoine..” Pierre whispered.

All the F2 cars were back in the pit lane and a lot came up to ask for any information on Madelyn but nobody knew anything. Even some F1 divers came down as well, that included: George, Alex, Mick and Lando.

Everyone kept staring on the screens, but all their faces dropped even more when a fire started. “Maddie!!” Charles shouted as tears started to fall down his face. The boys tried to calm him down, but Madelyn was like a little sister to them as well..

“Fucking hell..” Pierre mumbled. “I can’t loose her! Please, I need her to be okay!” Charles mumbled and sat down and buried her head in hands as the boys sat down next to him as well.

“Charles, Arthur is on the phone. He wants to speak to you” Milo said as he came out the garage and gave him the phone.

“—all we know everyone is that Madelyn is still in that car and it’s caught on fire now. The F2 race will not resume and has they have decided to cancel it,”

“Is she okay?! Please tell me she is, we can’t loose her Charles!” Arthur desperately asked. “She’s still in the car, they have also decided to cancel the rest of the race..” Charles added.

“Charles, you need to stay strong alright? She’s a fighter remember and Papa, Jules and Anthoine is watching over her too. I need to try and calm Arth and Mum down just keep us updated okay?” Enzo’s voice came through.

“I know she is. I’ll give you any information when I get it” Charles added as he ended the call and gave the phone back to Milo. “They’ve put out the fire now” Pierre said as Charles kept his eyes on the big screen.

A few moments later, there was a big cheer and clapping from the crown as Madelyn was out of the car and was hopping on one foot into the ambulance. Before the doors closed she gave a thumbs up to the camera.

Charles was pulled into a hug by all the boys and then by all the Prema team. A big sigh of relief came from him and he smiled slightly. He was so happy his little sister was okay.

“Thank you Papa, Jules and Anthoine…” Charles mumbled as he looked up to the sky.

~||~

When Madelyn got into the medical centre, they instantly wrapped up her foot and put a cast on it as they knew it was broken. She had to go through a few more tests to make sure everything else was okay.

She passed all the tests and after being in a crash like that, and the only damage was a broken foot and a few bruises and cuts. Maddie was given crutches and was allowed out the medical centre.

Charles was right there when she got out and hugged her tightly. He buried his head on her shoulder and Maddie could feel it getting wet. “Charlie…I’m okay, I’m so sorry for worrying you” Madelyn whispered into his ear.

“I was in a middle of an interview when it happened, I rushed over here and when they said they had no information on you—then when the fire started—then the race was announced that it was—” Charles said in one breath but Madelyn cut him off.

“Hey, I’m okay I’m okay. Papa, Jules and Anthoine was there and saved me. I’m never going to leave you, your my older and favourite brother” Madelyn said smiling. “Don’t tell Arth and Enzo that” Charles added making them both laugh.

“I love you Mads” Charles said. “I love you too Charlie” Madelyn replied as he left a kiss on her forehead.

“There they are” Hervé smiled looking down at his children.

“My godchildren..” Jules added.

“My best friends” Anthoine said.

-||-

“Are you okay?!” Ollie asked his girlfriend as soon as she accepted his call. “Oll, calm down. I’m fine I promise you” Madelyn said.

“You scared me so much today Lyn, Arth was in pieces as well” Ollie added. “Charles was awful as well, I’m going to speak to Arth now” She added.

“I’ll let you go do that, rest okay? I’ll see you soon I promise!” Ollie added. “Focus on your race love, see you soon” Madelyn replied.

“I love you so much, Lyn!” Ollie said. “I love you more, Oll” Madelyn replied with a smile as Ollie ended the call.

She was okay..

[hannahmanderr]

🎉 PLEASE FAMILY BREAKFAST WHATS THE DATE

🎉- What was the date?

Maddie enlists a few of her friends in the same karate class as her to help her quite literally run into Vlad and Jack's dorm room, tie him up, and drag him out to the car where Jack is waiting. Maddie throws Vlad into the car and the three of them are off

Vlad of course thinks the two of them have finally inhaled too many ectoplasmic fumes bc hello they have just literally kidnapped him and they are both giggling like idiots about it and he would like to be let out of this car right this minute thank you very much

They just keep giggling and tell him they promise he'll like it

After a while, they pull up outside this old building downtown, and Vlad recognizes it immediately.

"Jack. Maddie," he says, with as much patience as he can muster (which, granted, is not a lot), "why the hell have you kidnapped me just to take me to the bar?"

But it's not just any old bar. This is a locally owned sports bar that's been around for as long as Vlad can remember. Sure, they might not have had fancy big screens like they do these days (this was the 80s, after all), but it was still as good a place as any to catch a game and a beer with a few friends. The food is honestly pretty mediocre, nothing to write home about, and it's a little dingier than some other bars, but it does the job.

And the reason why it's not just any old bar is because this is the bar Vlad's father would take him to every Sunday in the fall to watch the Packers game (or at least listen to it, if it wasn't on TV) when he was a boy. Vlad's father would always get whiskey, and Vlad himself would guzzle down Shirley Temples. They'd share a plate of nachos and cheer the Packers on to victory as best they could, and they'd go home happy and Vlad's mother would scold him for drinking so much sugar, but she would always smile at her two boys having fun.

Those were some of the happiest moments of his life up to this point. They'd even kept with the tradition through elementary school, junior high, and into high school. Too bad those happy times ended his sophomore year of high school when his parents got killed in that car crash. Needless to say, he hadn't returned to the bar after that.

Until this night, where Jack and Maddie have kidnapped him. And they just keep smiling at him. Well, more so they seem to be having a silent conversation with one another, until Maddie reaches down to dig something out of her bag, and Jack grins at Vlad.

"I, uh, heard this place was a great bar to catch the Packers game," Jack says shyly. "And I overheard a group of the guys from Organic Chem saying they'd be here to cheer on the Bears."

Maddie interrupts now. "We thought you'd like to help us drown them out," she says with a mischievous grin, waggling the cans of body paint and the garish green and gold paraphernalia.

Of course, Vlad's first instinct is to say "no, absolutely not," but he can't exactly do much except watch as Jack and Maddie deck themselves in head to toe green and gold, then proceed to do the same for him. Finally, once he's all gussied up, they untie him and push him into the bar, loudly.

Things are definitely awkward at first. The Bears fans are looking at them like they want to vaporize them where they stand, and other patrons are simply looking at them like they're crazy. Jack and Maddie couldn't care less what everyone else thinks - they're hooting and hollering and Jack is beginning to get just a bit tipsy (Maddie is the DD) and they're having the time of their life.

Vlad never thought he could return to this place and enjoy himself, but he finally starts to loosen up a bit and remember just how much he loved spending time here somewhere around his second Heineken (or is it his third) and suddenly he's finding himself hooting and hollering right alongside those two, cheering oh so loudly for the Packers and driving the Bears fans so insane they leave the bar. Major success.

The Packers lose by nearly 3 touchdowns that night

The trio doesn't care at all though. At this point, Vlad and Jack are fairly wasted, and Maddie, while not drinking herself, is somewhat deliriously drunk on how much fun they're having together. Really, if any of them could seize a moment in time and immortalize it, it would be this one.

Wait - except that changes once the karaoke system gets rolled out. Then the iconic moment would be Vlad and Jack stumbling up onto the karaoke stage, belting out a Dead or Alive song and then, in their drunkenness, sharing an admittedly sloppy kiss in front of the whole bar, much to Maddie's delight (the only disappointment is that they will most definitely forget it ever happened, on account of how wasted they are).

The three of them leave shortly after that, having been kicked out of the bar by the bouncer.

No matter. They're still very much high on life in all the good ways, so Maddie drives them out to the park, grabs one of the old emergency blankets from her trunk, and drags her two boys out into the grassy lawn to lay down and look up at the stars, Vlad sandwiched between her and Jack.

Jack falls asleep immediately, hugging into Vlad so deeply that his hand is reaching all the way across him and holding onto Maddie too.

Vlad, still very much drunk, marvels at how different it felt to be in that bar again, and Maddie looks at him in surprise as he proceeds to spill the story about the little tradition between him and his father and how his parents got taken from him too early.

She's honestly stunned to hear about this - it's the first she's ever heard of it, really. But then she remembers something:

"Jack's the one who wanted to bring you there to have a good time," she tells him, even though she knows he probably won't remember once he's sobered up. "All he told me was that you mentioned that place once or twice and that you seemed to like it, so that's where he wanted to take you. Where we wanted to take you."

Vlad considers this information before promptly falling asleep as well.

He's the first to wake of the three of them in the morning, and God does his head hurt, and why on earth are they sleeping on a blanket in the middle of the park?

Fragments of memories come crashing back to him, but one thing he definitely remembers is going to that bar last night. And something about telling Jack... something. Maybe that he'd been there before.

Except no, he realizes that unless if Jack somehow remembered the single time he ever mentioned the bar and his connection to it, then it was all just a big coincidence. Nothing special about it, really. Which is kind of a disappointment, for some reason he can't identify.

He doesn't think of it again until a week later, when Jack is asking what he thought of that night (and of course it was wonderful and wild and freeing and he loved to just have the chance to exist with the two people closest to him), and he realizes that yes, somehow Jack did remember that single time the backstory had been even partially explained to him. It had only been in passing, he didn't even know if he'd ever mentioned the name, but somehow, Jack remembered and wanted to take him there - no, though Jack may have remembered, both of them wanted to take him there - and make new, happy memories there with him.

It's only the first of many spontaneous excursions between the three of them. Jack and Maddie quickly learn that Vlad secretly enjoys being "kidnapped" away to hang out with them, especially if they have a way that actually involves him in the hangout and doesn't leave him as a third wheel.

It isn't until the seventh or eighth excursion that Maddie has finally had enough and explains that duh, there's a reason the two of them keep taking him out like this! Was he really that clueless? (the answer is yes, yes he was)

Anyway Tumblr is yelling at me about character limit but yeah, that's a little bit how it goes hehe

[lake-archive]

A Different Type Of Party

Fandom: Twisted Wonderland

Characters: Malleus Draconia, Maddie (sona), Riddle Rosehearts (mentioned)

The Original Character used in this work has only been used with permission. They originally belong to @maddieinheaven! Go check their blog out if you haven't!

Pairing: Malleus/Maddie

Summary: Shortly before the holidays Night Raven College holds a party for students and teachers alike. Everyone just has a good time with each other! Although… Some just need some time alone, away from all of the ongoing chaos… Together.

Words: 1,632

Tags: Major Original Character(s), Original Character(s), Gender-Neutral Pronouns, POV Original Character, Original Character-centric, One True Pairing, Established Relationship, Developing Relationship, Romance, Feelings, Confusion, Friends to Lovers, Strangers to Lovers, One Shot, Short One Shot, Party, Quiet, Late at Night, POV Third Person, POV Third Person Limited, Background Riddle Rosehearts

AO3 Link

The time of holidays was something special in many different worlds and festive activities at Night Raven College was not uncommon. Of course none of this occurred before those annoying exams… Ugh. Seriously, why do these even exist? Not like most of the knowledge could be applied to everything in their future. What was the point of this? Seriously, it was not something they understood and probably never will during their school life.

And yet, this was not the time to worry about that. They had made it through those exams, they were going to celebrate and let loose! Go crazy! Or something like that! And not even a party pooper could stop them!

“Listen up Maddie, I have had it! The amount of rules you break is outrageous! You are going to put a bad name on Heartslabyul!” Riddle had warned them shortly before said party, even glaring at them rather sharply. “This is a party attended by all of Night Raven College – Students, teachers and the principal himself! Do not embarrass our dorm yet again by breaking almost every single rule in one day!”

“Yeesh Riddle, don’t be like that now~” They only said however, having even patted his back, enough to make him nearly fall over. “We’re just here to have fun y’know. Not like anyone’s gonna follow them today anyway!”

And yet, the boy would only let out a grumble if anything, not pleased with such protest. But it had not been a protest! It was a fact if anything! “That's no excuse to not be on your best behavior. “ He scolded, only earning an eye roll at most.

“I'm always on my bestest behavior y'know~”

“You call that your best behavior!?”

“Pretty much, yeah. What're ya gonna do to stop me, huh? Throw me out? Oh, right! You can't!” They laughed, rubbing it in. They just felt like it. Because they knew outside of getting ‘their head off’ his hands were tied. Both were aware. “Haha, Maddie one, Riddle zero~!”

“Ugh… Jesters are all insufferable…”

Well, that was only half of the truth. They were dragged to this event due to it being of ‘utmost importance’. But no one ever told them why it was so important. So if they had to be there, for whatever reason, it may as well be fun and they would just let loose. Why follow the rules Riddle loved to talk about anyway? Not like they had remembered even half of them! Why bother? Only he knows all… Erm… However many there were again. Who cares! Didn't stop Maddie in any way! They did all sorts of things at this event!

At first they were just messing around with others, snatching and hiding some of the fish or even secretly mixing an additional sugar cube in Riddle's black tea. They had just barely avoided the infamous collar as a result… Riddle got held up from out of nowhere and even nearly dropped his cup when he heard ‘Little Riddle’... Yes, his pale face with his wide eyes was hilarious to look at.

Anyway, that was Maddie's cue to flee while they still could and leave the ‘Little Riddle’ by himself. He’ll be fine~

And honestly, being in such a crowd for a very long time had gotten exhausting fast so it was a welcoming change of pace. They snuck past whoever they could, as if in a rush to get somewhere. In a way that was the case yet they had nowhere specific in mind, just away from people, charging the batteries. That type of deal!

They steered themself to the balcony, allowing for some fresh air and not expecting anyone out here. The noises people made and the music playing had just become the most irrelevant background noise at the very least. They were no longer trapped in between all those people, allowing them to let out a sigh in relief. “Guuh, I wanna go back to my room! So not worth it!” They said right out in the open, stretching their arms towards the night sky for a moment before eyeing it directly. “Uwah, cold. Not even a cloud in sight.”

“It's calming, isn't it?” A deep voice would almost startle them, ripping them out of their own thoughts even. Someone was here!? That had been the last thing Maddie had expected at a place like this, especially at the time. They turned their head, only to be greeted with–

“Malleus?” The name had escaped their lips as if it had been second nature. Maybe it was in a sense. By now only a fool would not know who this rather massive guy with these decently large horns was.

The house warden of Diasomnia, usually evoking in fear within anyone crossing paths with him.

However, not Maddie. They couldn't quite put their finger on it but something fascinated them. It was as if Malleus was different from the others. And that's not because of his power or his position as house warden, nothing like that. But… Guh, it's frustrating to think about! Why? Because it made no sense to them! Or at least they weren't able to understand it just yet. It was so confusing. But they wanted to understand! They had to! There has to be a reason behind their fascination!

It had even started out of nowhere and it was only recently the two of them started talking. After all, he had come to their dorm once for help with his tamagotchi. It was unexpected but a funny little detail. Who knew that someone like Malleus would require help at all, especially if the solution was very simple.

Wait, maybe it was that detail which– No, that's not it either… Hah, just when they thought they had it!

The moment he had heard them speak up he turned around to come face to face with them. It was embarrassing to admit but they should have seen him sooner… Then again, it was rather dark so that could be why. Didn't change how much they wished to sink into the ground. But they couldn't let it show. What would he think otherwise?

Thus they took a few steps closer, almost hopping from spot to spot before having gotten enough of a distance to hold a conversation. Nothing too close however. “What are you doing here? Not hanging out with the others from Diasomnia?” They asked, keeping up the usual tone and grin.

He only shook his head. “No, there's no need. I just…” He paused in between his sentences, silence filling the air before continuing to speak ever so calmly. “I'm not the type to party.“

Something felt a bit odd and yet he said this with the utmost confidence all the same. Or as confident as he could sound. His confidence was as cold as ever. Not unbearably cold but somewhat. It was hard to put into words. But Maddie ran with it, at least for the time being. It didn't sound too far off either.

“Huuh, I see.“

“And what about you? Aren't you going back?“

“Hmm… I'll think about it. “ It was their only response, even shrugging. But did they really want to at this point? They weren't sure and yet again, it was not something they knew the answer to. This felt like a bunch of nonsense. Or wait, nonsense might be the wrong word. Then again, how else would you describe ‘something with no sense’? “Can't I be here? If so I–”

“No, that's not what I meant. Sorry.” Malleus was quick to apologize. “You can stay if you want.”

Hearing that made them grin a little brighter, at the brink of smiling. They questioned it and yet they didn't complain either. They couldn't. “Then it's settled! So so, what exactly are you doing here?”

“Watching the sky.”

“Eh? Just that? Isn't that getting boring?”

“Not really… It's calming.”

“Calming huuh?” They repeated before moving over to stand right next to him. They glanced over for a moment, seeing the fellow student once more paying attention to the night sky. And Maddie followed suit shortly after, lifting their head back up, paying close attention.

At first it was the usual observation – Not a single cloud. And yet, just now they would take note of the stars and even the moonlight. It was not too bright but looking at it was relaxing. Despite all the darkness surrounding the both of them there was some light shining down. The stars were all too clear, visible to the naked eyes. Honestly it was… Beautiful. Maybe this wasn't so bad.

“Hm? Are you tired?” Was the next thing Maddie's ears would be hit with, making them look away from said sky and… Noticing their body moving slightly closer.

They had swayed a little sideways, one of their shoulders close to touching Malleus, perhaps hitting him. They recollected their composure as quickly as possible, trying to keep calm. Ah– Close one! Or it could've become awkward real fast!

“Ah– M… Maybe a little! Riddle's lectures are suuuch a bore y'know!” They responded, having thought of a fitting excuse extremely quickly!

“Really? Maybe head back to your dorm?”

“Eh!? No way! I don't wanna have a collar like some dog again! Gotta stay!”

“But–”

“Hehe, I'll be fine! Really! Don't you worry ‘bout a thing!”

He only nodded in the end after a few more seconds. “Alright. If you say so.”

Talk about a really close one! They just managed to save themself from utter embarrassment here! Especially in front of Malleus! Hah… It would be something they could not live down, ever!

But why? Hmm… No, they were not a step closer to answering that. But that didn't stop Maddie from enjoying the night just a little longer.

[letstalkaboutit100]

Ideas pt 16 Blue= Concepts Pink=episode ideas

Since I posted my pt 13 I started to think about animals in the EAH world. So here are MORE ideas if EAH got a reboot!

Apple's cat is named Cinnamon and Raven's dog is named Buck. And they of course hate each other just like their owners lol. I feel Raven and Cinnamon have a BIG rivalry! She's like Lucifer lol! Pretty and sweet on the outside, but evil and mean on the inside. She constantly makes Raven's life harder by breaking stuff, leaving hairballs everywhere, and meowing all night to keep her awake. (Since her and Apple's rooms are close she somehow always sneaks in! Raven can't figure it out!) She drives her crazy! And every time Raven finally has enough, starts to yell at her or is sometimes in an out-of-context position (There was a throwing-out-the-window incident that we don't talk about lol. That was a 'fun' week) someone walks in, usually Apple looking for her and is shocked (but also happy) that Raven is trying to 'kill her cat' when in truth she wasn't trying to but now... SHE DOES! (Her mother used to have a mean cat so she just doesn't like them)

I feel that Apple would be scared of Buck lol. He growls at her and she squeals and finds someone to hide behind. Cerise gave Buck to Raven as a gift for helping her be more confident in her ears/helping to show them off in a way that no one would know that they were real. "I found him while me and my family were hunting" *Lifts the blanket in her basket off and Buck pops out licking Raven's face while she's laughing* "Aw! He's adorable!" "When we found him he had an injured paw so we took him home and I nursed him back to health!"

*Raven starts to baby-talk him* "Who's a good boy? You're a good boy! You're such a sweet boy!" *looks up to Cerise while playing with Buck*"Does the little guy have a home?" *Looks back down at Buck* "Do you have a home?" "Doooo you?" "Actually I was wondering if you would like to have him..." "Really!?" "Yeah I mean I already have my pet dog and" *Bends down to scratch Buck's head and starts to baby-talk too* "And I couldn't leave the little guy in the pound! Now, Could I?" *Both girls start to play with him* "So will you?" "Of course, I will! *Stands up to hug Cerise* "Thank you so much!" "I should be the one thanking you." *Confused* "Me? Why?" "You are the only one besides Hunter and Ashlynn who knows about my parents. You're the first person that I have ACTUALLY told. And you're ok with it! You don't judge my parents and willingly are my friend. You helped me not be so insecure anymore. And at Maddie's tea party!? I would have never shown them my ears if you hadn't convinced me! So I just wanted to say thank you." *Raven who is on the verge of tears* "I'm honored that I was the first one you tolded and your friend!" *They hug again* (A part of me kinda wants Cerise to have the tinyest crush on her. So tiny that it's not even mentioned in the show.)

Everyone loves Buck! The school is kind of divided between Cinnamon and Buck lol. The rebels love Buck, and some of the royals too. But most of them like Cinnamon. (Maybe because they don't want to hurt Apple's feelings. I can imagine Apple giving people a pouty sad look. I feel she does that a lot to manipulate people whether it's for the littlest things. In Apple's will it said that if anything happens to her, she wants Brair to take care of her. Brair doesn't lol.)

Apple at first thinks that Buck is cute but he doesn't like her the second he sniffs her.

Maddie also doesn't like cinnamon because she tries to eat mice.

Cerise doesn't like Cinnamon at first but gets used to her.

Ramona HATES Cinnamon. She's constantly hissing at her showing off her teeth and claws to scare her.

Ashlynn loves both of them. But Hunter just likes Buck. She has it out for him too lol! She likes Ashlynn. I would want an episode where Apple goes away for a few days and everyone in the school has to take turns taking care of Cinnamon lol! That would be WILD!

[kat-rose-griffith]

I don’t think they drew out buck being in a coma enough. Like they really could’ve juiced it more, had him be knocked out for a couple of episodes with characters taking time to visit him and little flashes of where he was in his coma dream sprinkled in, but they just kind of paused the whole structure of the show to wrap it all up in one episode… it’s just kind of underwhelming. I feel like it could’ve had more of an impact if they had drawn it out more and shown everyone having to deal with it while living their regular lives.

They could’ve had Bobby taking time off of work to constantly sit with Buck and have him obsess over his friends case while he’s there waiting and have that be the active stressor for him going too hard into the case like he does in the next episode or chimney lashing out at his dad because he’s stressed about buck and have that lead to his dad trying to be his parent for once and comfort him and start a conversation about reconciliation between them or show maddie at his bedside taking care of him like she did when they were kids and have her start to reminisce about that in front of their parents making his parents realize that they’ve missed out on their kids whole lives and decide to start trying to be better parents (or maybe just get really defensive because some people don’t ever change) or have Eddie having problems with Christopher trying to skip school to sneak in to go see Buck and maybe throw in some struggle with Eddie not being able to go into the hospital room because he’s trying to suppress his emotions like he does and it takes Chris making him go in there for him to recognize and express his grief or have Hen trying to keep it together and lead the team on the job but having moments where she needs to take care of herself but doesn’t or maybe have her do something impulsive and crazy, she hasn’t done that in a while (I mean obviously not cheating on her wife again but something impulsive and out of character like that). Throughout all of the team struggling and regressing and all of that good juicy angsty stuff they could have sprinkled in buck being genuinely happy in his pretend coma world to a point where he doesn’t even think about his found family and the whole time we’re convinced that they might just kill off buck until slowly he gets reunited with the coma 118 but because of his self loathing they’re actually all fine without him but he realizes that he’s not fine without them and that leads to him accepting his trauma as part of him because it was all a journey he had to take to get to the people that he loves and become a person that he’s proud of even if his parents won’t ever truly be. I don’t know I just feel like there was more meat to this storyline than what they went with and it could’ve been an arch that was done over multiple episodes instead of being crammed into one

[mysteriousangels]

Open Starter: Better than Nothing

Maddy sigh softly as folded up some of her clothes. Just a few more days and she’ll be free. The hallucinations have almost all gone away, and she had healed up after being in the forest. Although the hospital wasn’t exactly helpful in her own fear considering they refueled that fear every night with lights out and then her own mind would play into it with the sounds of her cousins laughing and the howls of wolves.

A shiver ran through her body, and she grabbed her phone planning to complain to Adelphia some more about being in there, but it was a better situation than what she could have. She was just there for her immediate injuries not her mind. That was something she had to handle on her own, well it was something she decided to handle on her own.

[niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian]

Hello! Hope your well.

I was wondering if maybe you could think about some headcannons about Tails and Knuckles on their birthday, I think it would be kinda cool.

Wow, this was hidden deep within my inbox XD. I think I made a headcanon or two before with this idea in mind but I don't mind making some more of these.

Tails

Its the first birthday he can remember spending with anyone, so he does get a little shocked when the Wachowski’s offer to throw a little party for him on the day of his birth. At least by Earth's yearly calendar.

He speaks up on not wanting it to be a big thing but at Sonic’s request to try it, he decides to give it a shot.

His party is held in the backyard, with a few selection of guests coming to the party. Like Wade, Crazy Carl, that guy Allen that lives near an alleyway, basically people who already know of their existence.

For his cake, they got him a yellow butter cake with green, mint icing and vanilla cupcakes with lemon frosting. Poor kid only eats 2 pieces before he gets a intense sugar rush that rivals Sonic’s.

They have a few party games for the kids to play, but Tails just wins each one due to his exact precision with his quick calculations on hand. Except that one where they were playing ring toss cause Sonic kept using his speed to make Tails' rings miss the pole, even though he kept blaming it on the wind when confronted about it. (He's totally guilty of BTW)

Tom gets him a new telescope while Maddie gets him a do-it-yourself chemistry set as gifts while Sonic makes him a "double brush" to use for his tails, which is just two hairbrush tied together.

Knuckles attempts to give him a raccon he captured while he found it sneaking around the garbage, thinking it would be a good pet for him. The fox awkwardly declines, knowing how much diseases those things tend to carry and tells the echidna to release it.

Tails still feels a bit odd with all the attention put on him in a positive light, but he does get a little emotional when they sing the happy birthday song to him and needs to take a moment before he can blow out the candles.

Once he gets the chance, he makes his wish. "I wish I can stay with this family...for good this time."

Knuckles

This boy straight up doesn't even know what a birthday party is. His tribe usually celebrated their yearly growth by showing off what they had learned within the year through combat and are judged upon what they demonstrate.

So it's best to say when he was told how earthlings celebrate their yearly growth, he was pretty flabbergasted and somewhat horrified at that idea.

His party is more in the form of a surprise party, which doesn't go well when everyone shouts "surprise!" at him in a almost pitch black room and he almost takes Wade's head off with his startled fists flailing all over the place.

One of the gifts he receives is his very own punching bag that Tom and Maddie got him to get practice in the basement, which was fine until he ends up throwing one punch to where it blows a hole straight through it and shoots it across the room.

They managed to get him quite the unique cake, a upside down pineapple cake with red velvet cupcakes with ube frosting as a side dessert. It's not completely grape flavored like he originally wanted, but he tears into the 4 pieces he gets in an instant and almost devours all the cupcakes until he has to be dragged away from the snack table (I've never had either of these but the cupcakes do sound pretty good 😋)

Needless to say, he still didn’t see the point of this "exuberant, fun day of the births" but was glad he got some more earth knowledge due to it, and get some free desserts thrown in the mix.

[dollarstoreartsupplies]

i lowkey would totally be interested in your richie and stan dance moms au lore. I read that fic ages ago and now can't get richie and stan being dancers out of my brain. especially because im a dancer myself

Richies strengths are performing (obviously), but i also think she would have this super cool and unique quality to her dancing while stan is super technical. and i think stan would struggle with a perfectionistic mindset (ugh dont we all) and sometimes lose her artistry while richie is relaxed and genuinely just dances for enjoyment, not really caring if shes not completely technically sound

(btw you are such a talented writer i could read ur writing forever. and you characterization skills are so fucnjkh good)

(Here's the fic for reference btw)

Dude, homie, bestie, my dear like it’s so STUCK IN MY BRAIN because like?? I in general am of the opinion that gals Stan and Richie were in dance classes as little kids together, because I think it’s fun, and I ALSO think they’re the two funniest characters to throw onto reality television? Like,,,, come on?  

(Also like I’m Bad at describing dance for a person who dances so unfortunately there isn’t nearly enough dance info forthcoming in this as there is in my brain)

SO the basic timeline and lore built out in my head is:

Age 2: Richie and Stan start dancing at the ALDC in those baby ballet classes, Andrea and Maggie become friends sitting in waiting rooms and tiny Richie and Stan baby bond INSTANTLY, so they’re best friends immediately 

Age 8: The show starts filming, and it follows the actual real life incredibly fucked up dance moms lore where everyone thought they were signing up for a short documentary style thing about dancing and got locked into YEARS OF TELEVISED CHILDHOOD TRAUMA

They’re in a one year contract at first, which then gets upped to a five year contract once the show starts picking up, so six years in total that they’re REQUIRED to be on the show.

Stan genuinely is very invested in dance and both her and her parents specifically put a lot of weight in her being successful (without meaning to be kind of fucked up about it), and she’s an only child with a stay at home mom who can spend all her time on Dance, so that’s why they sign on

Richie is pretty much Gonna Do What Stan Is Doing and is generally having fun (-ish) with the being a minor celebrity of it all because she’s Nine Years Old so she’s down

She does have one older sister but she’s way, way older (18 when Richie is 8 kind of vibe) so she’s going to college by the time the show begins and therefore Maggie and Went feel comfortable committing to it

(There are some episodes where Maggie isn’t there because of Richie’s sister and Abby thinks she’s a bad mom because of it and says it a lot)

It’s also important to note that they’re just normal people being intensely manipulated by production to sign on

At the start of the show A La Maddie (DISCLAIMER: i refuse to write any semblance of real person fanfiction, Abby doesn’t count because she fucking sucks, so decide on ur own if the normal real dance moms girls are there or there are just other random Dance Children) Stan is very much the golden child who Always wins and Always gets very good solos because she’s abby’s favorite

Their solos are mostly Ballet and Lyrical because they are technically incredible and a very pretty dancer

HOWEVER like you said she is SUCH a perfectionist (mood) and takes every loss REALLY personally, so it becomes a sort of toxic fandom mindset that she is a spoiled brat because they cry a lot and have panic attacks over not liking how a dance went (FILMED LIVE ON FUCKING TELEVISION AT EIGHT! WUH OH!) 

Richie is sort of set up to be a Jojo type character, where she’s REALLY REALLY fun to watch dance and a ball full of energy but because she’s so Much all the time the producers end up painting her as very, very rude and sort of lazy brat

But she’s a fantastic performer, which is crazy important in dance, and it’s not like she’s BAD she’s just not super technical? Which actually sometimes works in her favor because she ends up being a really a super versatile dancer

Jazz and musical theater are her Big Two but she’s pretty much good at everything except ballet because WHO IS? (Stan)

The dynamic is basically Stan is a incredible dancer but really just at certain styles (idk if I’m describing this well but she’s very much the kind of dancer you watch and think Wow She’s Good At Dancing and Doing This Correctly) and Richie is very much a jack of all trades master of none

They’re very good at duets though because Richie gets Stan to loosen up and Stan refuses to let Richie Not Practice Constantly

Richie’s coasting the bottom of the pyramid WEEKLY even when she wins because of her ‘behavior’ and Stan is usually at the top

Generally the production team tries to frame the two of them as enemies because they’re SO different that it makes good television for perfect, ballerina Stan to be constantly butting heads with obnoxious brat Richie but they’re genuinely such good friends it Does Not Work

One episode is set up to sort of push the Hate Each Other narrative in season one where they give Stan a really cheesy, big performance jazz number and Richie a really, really technical ballet number, expecting it to be a big competition and fight but instead they just help each other practice and cheer each other up when they get upset

Stan wins the first nationals, obviously

Age 9-10ish: By the second season it sort of starts to pick up in intensity and both of them start to get homeschooled/setschooled and the show becomes their entire lives, which is Bad

By this point both of their mental health isn’t Awesome but Stan is really not doing great, especially because they’re so anxious the social media perception is really getting to them, and her mom is trying really hard to get out of their contract, but they’re stuck. 

Stan and Richie (along with their moms) decide they’re both leaving together the second their contracts are up.

Someone else from their team wins nationals second season but because Stan is so in her head about everything she gets like fourth, which is also Bad For Her and the narrative starts to slightly switch from ‘golden child’ into ‘is she Still the golden child?’

Age 11: THIRD SEASON, though, Richie win’s nationals and Stan gets second, which like… isn’t supposed to happen

(Fun actual Dance Moms fact: pretty much all the competitions are rigged but nationals are Less Rigged like they’re tilted in their favor but the judges are a little more real)

Abby is PISSED and basically tries to make it seem like the judges messed up scoring or it was a mistake and it’s one of those Famous dance moms scenes because Abby is basically saying that Stan should have won because she is better and Richie is clearly very genuinely upset (which doesn’t happen a lot she’s very good at like making when she’s upset a joke when the cameras are around) and Stan fully stands up to Abby and calls her out on her bullshit 

After that the whole energy skews more against Stan where suddenly production is airing a lot more of the little insults they usually cut out specifically for Stan to try and push the agenda that Abby is unfairly nice to them

Everyone sort of blames Richie for it a lot of the time, though, and the two of them probably have a thinly veiled duet called like The Bad Influence 

Age 12: Abby really fucks up and says something Genuinely So Bad (and probably Pretty Antisemetic im ngl because have you fucking watched dance moms?) to Stan so production literally cannot make them stay legally, like with Kelly situation, where it could get them into actual trouble so Stan and Andrea are allowed to break their contract and leave the show

The show runners cut most of the argument out and edit it to seem like it wasn’t Abby’s fault

Richie and her mom try to follow but because it’s a specific situation that wasn’t aimed at Richie they aren’t allowed

They both know they’re leaving when the contract is up but there's still two years stuck on the show without her immediate best friend support system and it really sucks

People make a lot of sad edits about it and Richie thinks it’s really funny but also it's genuinely the crux of why she's QUITE so mentally ill (in general being hated by abby was never good for her but once Stan leaves it's ROUGH)

Age 14: Richie’s off the show, she knows she’s gonna be off the show, so she like fully flips Abby off in the dressing room after nationals and storms out with her mom and the show honestly just keeps it in because it’s good tv to have a big reason like that to explain why she left

They worked it out so Stan and her mom are waiting outside and they drive them home and hang out and it’s a good time :)

OTHER LOSERS LORE:

Richie and Stan were best friends with Mike from before the show and they went to school together/continued to post both of them leaving the show

She’s in One (1) episode for two seconds at like a party or something and Richie and Stan pretty much Just Post That Scene when they’re older, like if someone asks them about their favorite moment they’re like oh yeah when mike was there

She’s got a big social media following from the two of them and thinks it’s hilarious

They meet the rest of the losers in college

Bill and Mike are college roommates who are crushing hard on eachother so she becomes their friend through Mike

Stan and Ben are roommates and Ben is dating Bev so that’s how they become friends

Bev was a childhood Dance Moms stan, like ran a fan instagram account and went to meet ups because I think that's really funny don’t worry she’s better now

Bill and Eddie have been best friends since elementary school so she gets dragged to a lot of their hangouts and is completely and entirely unaware that Stan and Richie are like c-list celebrities for a WHILE

tbh this is like a very train of thought bare bones explanation but do with it what you will :)

[slightlyaboveaverageiq]

The Whisperer: Part 11 (Wally Clark Fic)

A/N: I actually hard core ship Wally/Maddie I love Maddie. I do call Maddie a bitch in this but Mori’s emotions are running high. I don’t think that Maddie is actually a bitch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I honestly can’t believe they’re asking me to do what they just did. I stared around the circle at my ghosties and sure enough they were being completely serious. They really wanted me to scare the shit out of Maddie’s ex boyfriend, his side bitch, and her friends to figure out who had killed her. After I specifically said when I first met them this is why I ignore the spirits.

“So when I specifically said this is why I act like I can’t see you did that go over your heads? Maddie I’m sorry you don’t know how you died, and I hope you can figure it out. But I am not implying to anyone that I know you’re dead nor am I going around telling those 4 people I can see and talk to spirits and that your spirit has come to me asking for help.” I didn’t realize that I had gotten louder over the course of my speech and I was now nose to nose with the girl that was asking me to do the very thing I told everyone else I wasn’t going to do and she was acting like I was a villain for it.

“You’ve got this great gift where you could help people talk to their dead loved ones, you could help me solve a murder and you’re too fucking scared that someone’s gonna call you crazy to try to find out who killed me?” Bitch if you do not back the fuck up I swear to god I will punch you into next week. I don’t give a damn if you’re already dead or not I’m sure it will hurt. Wally got up and tried to step between the two of us but I just scoffed and stepped away.

“A gift? You think it’s a fucking gift? No a gift would have been I stayed dead and my parents lived, a gift would have been whatever power there is not sending me back because I was so fucking special, a gift would have been I could tell my siblings that my parents were at peace without them thinking I wasn’t crazy. It’s not a fucking gift Madison, and honestly I would trade it away just to be normal even if it meant I never saw any of you ever again.” I didn’t even leave anyone time to process what I said before I grabbed my bag and stormed off. When Wally had said he wanted to talk about something I thought maybe he wanted to talk about his death a little more, not try to sweet talk me into helping Maddie.

Wally wasn’t a flirt he was just a fucking playboy and he knew it. He came to check on me when I was sick yesterday so he could weasel his way in and he could ask me to talk to Maddie’s friends. I could see the way he was hanging onto her every word and how excited he was to try and help her. He wasn’t that fucking happy to try and help me.

“Morrigan, hey wait up!” And since when the fuck is my name Morrigan? I mean yes that’s always been my name but Wally has never called me that, none of the ghosts have ever called me that. Stupid fucking Maddie making everyone feel sorry for her because she doesn’t know how she died. Boo fucking hoo maybe it’s a good thing she doesn’t know.

“The fuck do you want Wally?” His steps faltered as he watched my angrily wipe my tears away. “What wanna come ask me to help precious Maddie some more now that I’m not screaming at everyone?” He didn’t say anything and just pulled me against him while rubbing his hands up and down my back.

“Mo. Hey Mo, no one meant to hurt you like that. Maddie feels like shit and so does everyone else. We wouldn’t have asked if we had known.” I rolled my eyes and pulled away from him.

“but you did know, I specifically said I wasn’t going to do that. And you didn’t even respect me enough to respect the fact that I didn’t want to do it.” His face looked heart broken and I wanted to make him feel better but I wasn’t the bad person here. Really none of us were but they deserved to feel like shit for awhile too.

“Why don’t you go home and just breathe? I’ll come visit you later.” I bit my lip and shook my head.

“I don’t know if I want you to come and visit tonight.” There was a moment of silence before he answered.

“I’ll be there tonight, and you can decide if we visit or not.”

[andrewmoocow]

Little Homeworld Life chapter 6: A Fandom Divided (originally posted on September 19, 2022)

AN: For today's episode, shipping destroys lives! In other news, water is wet, chocolate chip cookies are awesome, and all companies do not care about anything other than money. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. As I foreshadowed last episode, this installment is literally just the Amphibia episode Civil Wart, except it's not a fan war fueled by sibling rivalry. Instead, it serves as an echo of how toxic shippers can get in general, and trust me, I've seen enough incidents like these to know what I'm talking about. In addition, this will include a reference to a certain incident in the Steven Universe fandom from many years ago that I've been wanting to reference in all my SU fanfiction for years. So, without further ado, let the chaos commence.

Synopsis: Lapis and Peridot try to get everyone into Camp Pining Hearts, but they don't account for the resulting division between Gems who ship Percy/Pierre vs Gems shipping Percy/Paulette.

Cast:

Shelby Rabara as Peridot, Squaridot

Jennifer Paz as Lapis, Laz, Zuli

Estelle as Garnet

Michaela Dietz as Amethyst, Percy/Edward Christian, Blue Lace Agate, Ocean Jasper, Crazy Lace Agate, Tiger's Eye

Deedee Magno-Hall as Pearl, Paulette/Bella Anastasia, Yellow Pearl, Blue Pearl, Volleyball

Uzo Aduba as Bismuth

Kimberly Brooks as Jasper, Cherry Quartz, Angel Aura Quartz, Zebra Jasper, Biggs Jasper

Noël Wells as Black Rutile

Casey Lee Williams as Cat's Eye

Amy Sedaris as Teal Zircon

Lauren Ash as White Topaz

Della Saba as Aquamarine

Charlyne Yi as Eyeball, Navy, Doc, Army, Leggy

Christine Pedi as Holly Blue Agate

Ian Jones-Quartey as Snowflake Obsidian, Bixbite

Michelle Maryk as Larimar

Aparna Nancherla as Nephrite

Auli'I Cravalho as Orange Spodumene

Kimiko Glenn as Blue Chalcedony

Phillipa Soo as Chrysocolla

Anika Noni Rose as Watermelon Tourmalines

Aimee Carrero as Moonstone

Tara Strong as Grossular Diopside

Tara Platt as Cubic Zirconias

Jinkx Monsoon as Emerald

Kari Wahlgren as Pyrope

Melissa Fahn as Demantoid

Hayley Kiyoko as Morganite

Gal Gadot as Desert Glass

Willa Holland as Albite

Maddie Ziegler as Serpentine

Courtenay Taylor as Beryl

Martha Higerada as Topaz

Alex Newell as Monazite

Billy West as Hunter

Featuring Jensen Ackles as Pierre/Jacob Steele

--

On a beautiful night in Little Homeworld, all the Gem inhabitants had gathered around a large projector screen that Lapis and Peridot set up for a movie night for everyone. "Face front true believers," Peridot theatrically announced. "for in just a few short moments; you shall bear witness to the greatest television program this planet has ever conceived!"

"Ooh, is it Challenge of Castles?!" Teal raised her hand. "That show is amazing!"

"No way, The Gandolfinis is way better!" Watermelon Tourmaline debated.

"I'm personally more a fan of Black and White Are The New Blue." Desert Glass commented. "I find myself really connecting with everyone being brutally imprisoned, for some reason."

"All of you, be quiet!" Peridot barked, stopping the argument before it could go too far. "Those shows are all great, but none can ever come close to the quality cinema that is Camp Pining Hearts! It's got everything you could ask for! Romance, drama!"

"Attractive humans getting into over-the-top situations," Lapis added. "Everyone getting mad at each other for stupid reasons. "

"And best of all, the single greatest shipping ever conceived by human brains, but we want it to be up to you!" Peridot declared before Pearl stepped on stage between her and Lapis.

"Thank you for the introduction, girls, but are you sure this is a good idea?" Pearl asked the duo. "I don't want everyone to start arguing which of these "ships" are superior to the point of getting toxic and harming each other. Like that one Crying Breakfast Friends fan-artist Steven really likes who was bullied into nearly committing suicide because she drew Sad Spoon to be too skinny."

"Oh, come on, Pearl, I'm sure this will be nothing like that incident!" Peridot answered while pushing Pearl away. "Now then, this episode, in particular, is considered to be the finest in all of Camp Pining Hearts, across both the amazing original series and its abysmal reboot!"

"It's called "Hunting Season" from Season 2, the best season in our eyes." Lapis continued. "Now, without further ado, let the show begin. Is it ready, Garnet?!"

"Ready and raring to go, Lapis." Garnet agreed as she turned the episode on and projected it onto the big screen.

"This is going to be so exciting!" Peridot muttered eagerly at the prospect of exposing her special interest to more and more Gems. "I can't wait for everyone to share my opinions!"

"Dude, not everyone will think the same way as you." Amethyst disagreed as she snacked on some popcorn. "You just gotta accept that everyone has different opinions."

"Yeah, like I refuse ever to accept that your ways are what's best for everyone." Black Rutile added snarkily.

"See, like her." Amethyst stated while gesturing to Black Rutile.

"Finally, one of you agrees with me!" Black Rutile sighed in delight. "Looks like I finally converted a Crystal Gem to my cause!"

"What? No." Amethyst corrected the Rutile. "I'm just using you as an example. It'll be a cold day in the Kindergarten before you brainwash anyone of us, though!"

"Spoilsport." Black Rutile pouted as the episode continued.

--

"Shh, be vewy, vewy quiet." A brown-clad hunter told the audience while tiptoeing through the forest. "I'm hunting for a deew. Ahahahaha." Just then, the hunter spotted a majestic white-tailed deer grazing in the distance and excitedly prepared his rifle. "Oh, a deew!" he exclaimed. "A femawe deew!"

Elsewhere, a handsome young man with brown hair was exploring the great outdoors with a spring in his steps and stars in his eyes. "Nature truly is a wonderful thing." Pierre muttered to himself with a dashing grin. "And I'm more than happy to experience it with dear friends like Percy." Just then, Pierre spotted a white-tailed deer peacefully grazing, unaware of the hunter ready to shoot it down with his rifle. "Oh no, that innocent doe is in trouble!"

"Come on, big guy, just stay wight whewe I want you to be." The hunter smirked to himself before he found Pierre racing into his line of sight. "Gadzooks! Boy, get out of dah way!"

"No, I won't let you hurt this innocent deer!" Pierre exclaimed as he got in front of the doe to protect it, only to be shot in his torso by the hunter and fell to the ground as the doe got spooked and ran away.

"Oh my, you okay thewe spowt?" the hunter frantically realized his error and raced to Pierre's aid. "I am so sowwy widdle boy, I was just doing my job, but then you got in the way!"

"I'm not little; I'm 16." Pierre groaned and revealed his age, which was way younger than the actor playing him. "Please, go to Camp Pining Hearts and find help. Please, my life depends on it!"

"Don't wowwy, I'll do what I can!" the hunter replied bravely and ran off to find help, leaving Pierre to lie there on the ground, blood staining his uniform as he tried not to give into his injuries.

"Come on, sir, hurry up." Pierre groaned in pain while trying to pluck the bullet from his abdomen when he heard footsteps. "Wow, that was fast."

"Pierre!" a blonde camper cried out as he raced to Pierre's side. "That hunter told me what happened! Are you all right?!"

"It's fine, Percy, now that you're here." Pierre weakly answered while gazing longingly into Percy's eyes. "I was out and about in the woods earlier when I found that a hunter was trying to kill this innocent deer. I was able to protect it, but now it seems like I might not have much time left."

"Don't worry, Pierre; I'll get you back to camp," Percy said as he began bridal-carrying Pierre and took him away from the forest clearing. "You're one of my best friends, Pierre."

"You too, Percy." Pierre grinned happily.

--

As the episode continued, the Gems were enraptured in the drama that ensued from Pierre's sacrifice, and even began crying when it seemed like he was going to die from the bullet wound. But thankfully, Percy was there to help Pierre every step of the way, and eventually, their bond was what saved Pierre from death in the cheesiest fashion imaginable. Peridot was utterly delighted to see such a standing ovation from the adoring audience that had just watched her favorite show and now was eager to ask what their thoughts were on it and whether they were as hardcore shippers of Percy and Pierre as she was.

"Thank you, thank you, everyone!" Peridot exclaimed as she got back up on stage. "It delights me so much to see everyone like the same things I do! This reminds me of one crucial question. After watching this episode, are you all Piercy shippers now?!"

"Meh, take it or leave it." Cat's Eye smugly answered while checking her manicure, inciting gasps from every other audience member. "I didn't really see any romantic tension between the two. I think they're more like brothers than lovers. Besides, Paulette deserves better from this fandom you speak of."

"You bite your tongue!" Teal Zircon yelled at Cat from the other side of the audience. "Pierre and Percy bring out the best in each other! Pierre learns how to be gentler around Percy, while Percy learns how to stand up for himself more from Pierre! They are the best CPH ship!"

"Oh, you just like them together because they're two cute human boys who think deserve to spend all of their screentime making out with each other!" Cat began bickering with Teal. "You keep assuming the worst about everything Paulette does, and she was barely even in this episode!"

"Now, let's settle down for a bit." Peridot tried to ease the tension between the arguing pair. "While yes, Pierre and Percy are the best pairing in Camp Pining Hearts, and Paulette has no place in the camp's hierarchy, that's no reason to start arguing with each other!"

"I told you so." Pearl nervously responded to Peridot in a sing-song voice as the conflict reached its boiling point.

"Everyone who ships Percy and Pierre, form up with me!" Teal commanded, followed by Orange Spodumene, the Watermelon Tourmalines, Doc, Leggy, Bixbite, Tiger's Eye, Yellow Pearl, Ocean Jasper, Crazy Lace, Chrysocolla, Serpentine, Grossular Diopside, Beryl, Holly Blue, Nephrite, Angel Aura Quartz, Zuli, Desert Glass, Morganite, and Navy all gathering up behind her.

"Is that so?" Cat's Eye purred. "Well, if you support Percy with Paulette, then join my side!" As she ordered, Army, Topaz, Monazite, Emerald, Demantoid, Pyrope, Blue Pearl, Volleyball, the Cubic Zirconias, Moonstone, Blue Chalcedony, Snowflake Obsidian, Larimar, Albite, Zebra Jasper, Biggs Jasper, Laz, Squaridot, and Cherry Quartz assembling beside her.

"Well, where do all of you stand?" Teal asked Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Peridot, Lapis, Bismuth, Black Rutile, and White Topaz as they were forced into the middle of this new conflict.

"Nope, I don't want to know where this is going!" Black Rutile declared as she got up and prepared to leave, only to come back moments later to speak with Cat's Eye. "But keep this up for as long as you can; it'll keep everyone distracted while I keep working on the Vortexxer."

"I think we're going to take a neutral stance here." Bismuth proclaimed. "This is an absolutely ridiculous reason to start fighting, so I suggest we find a way to end this peacefully before it all goes too far!"

"Me, personally, I find this to be a huge waste of time." Jasper added her opinions. "I mean, none of these humans are even real! Is there really any reason to obsess over the love lives of fictional characters?!"

"Okay, that I can agree with!" Black Rutile agreed with Jasper from afar. Suddenly, the two warring factions of shippers all began yelling as they marched away from the impromptu theater, leaving the Crystal Gems alone.

"I figured things would turn out like this." Garnet declared.

"You mean you knew this was going to happen and never told me?!" Peridot yelled. "Some leader you turned out to be!"

"Hey, chillax, everyone." Lapis said calmingly. "At least things can't get worse than this, right? Right?"

--

The next day, it got worse. Overnight, the entire town was split down the middle between Teal Zircon and the Gems who shipped Pierre with Percy, and the Gems who sided with Cat's Eye by shipping Percy with Paulette, leaving the Crystal Gems forced into the middle of the situation both figuratively and literally.

"It's ominous how much this echoes shipping debates on the Internet." Peridot mused in horror of what new spore of madness she had unleashed.

"But now it's in real life!" Lapis added, just as terrified.

"Were things on your Earth technology resolved with peace and kindness, perhaps?" Jasper asked sarcastically.

"Oh, far from it." Amethyst answered. "I mean, see for yourself!"

"Archers, fire your hateful fanfictions!" Teal commanded Crazy Lace, Serpentine, Nephrite, and Yellow Pearl before the four Gems launched stacks of paper from arrows at the Gems on the opposing side.

"Your fantasies are null compared to our superior writing skills!" Yellow Pearl barked at the enemy shippers.

"You call this superior writing skills?!" Albite exclaimed as she read through one of the fanfictions. "Everyone in this story is completely out of character for the sake of your sexual desires! And why is everyone so obsessed with feet all of a sudden?"

"Oh no, I fired the wrong one!" Yellow Pearl yelled in realization. "Quick, throw it back so I can burn it!"

"Too late; I'm gonna read this to everyone!" Albite laughed as she walked away to continue embarrassing Yellow Pearl.

"Really, you and the feet?" Serpentine asked a blushing Yellow Pearl.

"I just admire their complex anatomy, that's all!" Yellow Pearl tried lying her way out of an awkward situation before speed-walking away.

Meanwhile, on the Percy/Paulette side, Blue Pearl was hard at work on her latest masterpiece, which Volleyball had taken an interest in. "Oh hey, Blue, what are you working on?"

"Just this amazing Percy/Paulette fanart I've poured my heart into." Blue Pearl replied while showing off an immaculate painting of a romantic moment between the two CPH characters. "The lake symbolizes how the waters may be rough, but they will always have each other's backs. And the moon is evocative of how bright their future will be together."

"Oh, that is amazing symbolism!" Volleyball complimented the other Pearl's work. "And what about their big mustaches?"

"Their what?" Blue Pearl asked before she turned to discover that her precious artwork had been defaced. "Who could have done this to me?!" She immediately got her answer in the form of Doc and Leggy laughing raucously as they scampered off, indicating that they were the culprits. "You rotten, no good antis! I'll get you two for this!"

"We'd like to see you try without going over the line!" Doc cackled evilly while pointing at the line splitting Little Homeworld in two, proving to Blue Pearl that any hope of getting revenge was nonexistent.

"We have to find a way to resolve this without anyone getting seriously hurt!" Garnet declared. "Peridot, Lapis, I suggest you try getting the leaders to see reason first before everyone can agree to a truce, and we can reset everything to normal again."

"We won't let you down, Garnet!" Peridot saluted dutifully along with Lapis.

"I don't see this going horribly wrong." Lapis added before the two split up and took off for both sides of the war, Peridot marching towards Teal's side while Lapis strolled to meet with Cat's Eye.

"What if Lapis was right?" White Topaz asked worriedly. "What if this does go wrong? The two of them are freakishly powerful, so who knows what could happen?"

--

"This is the best thing that has ever happened to this good-for-nothing prison!" Black Rutile cheered as she, Aquamarine, and Eyeball watched the civil war between Teal and Cat from the comforts of Black Rutile's house as the trio continued work on the Vortexxer. "Everyone is so distracted by such a silly concept; they're all completely oblivious to what I have planned!"

"To be fair, my Rutile, they've been pretty oblivious for a while." Aquamarine said to her master. "I find it odd that no one has gotten at least some sort of a clue about what we're doing."

"Eh, best to keep it all a secret, it makes the eventual reveal all the more shocking." Eyeball said while snacking from a bucket of popcorn just as the door opened. "Oh hey kitty, we thought you were dead."

"Oh please, as if I'd die in these silly circumstances!" Cat boasted while perching herself upon the incomplete Vortexxer like a cat.

"Hey, get off! That's delicate equipment you're toying with!" Black Rutile commanded her feline crony to leave her project alone. "Now, give me a status report!"

"This little squabble has been tepid for the most part, but it's only a matter of time before everything explodes into full-on war!" Cat's Eye purred while turning the wall behind her into a scratching post. "Which reminds me, my Rutile, do you ship Percy with Pierre or Paulette? I do hope it's Paulette. Your tactical genius would be of great use to our cause!"

"I don't care either way!" Black Rutile answered as she continued work on the portal. "Like, they're not even real; why should we care so much about the love lives of those who don't even exist?"

"I certainly agree, my Rutile." Eyeball added. "It just makes no sense how obsessive humans get with fictional characters."

"Now, Ruby, no need to judge people for their opinions." Aquamarine jokingly chided her sidekick. "But really, this is all just one futile and stupid gesture."

"Darn, I was really hoping to get at least one of you in on this." Cat moaned in defeat. "But regardless, I still think we could be winning!" Just then, Cat heard a knock on Black Rutile's door. "Just a moment, I need to take this." She then stepped outside to see Cherry Quartz standing there. "What do you want?"

"One of the Crystal Gems wishes to speak with you." Cherry stated with a salute. "It's Lapis Lazuli."

"Oh, goody." Cat's Eye responded with a visible grimace. "Let me guess, are they trying to settle our war peacefully?"

"I believe so." Cherry stated. "Come, she says it's of the utmost importance."

"Well, she better make this quick." Cat said as she began following Cherry. "I got some fanfiction to do a dramatic reading of in an hour."

--

Meanwhile, in the domain of Teal Zircon and her Percy/Pierre shippers, Peridot had just arrived and was ready to make a stand against this madness so everyone could enjoy Camp Pining Hearts in peace. However, Teal's subordinates were all tough nuts for her to crack.

"HALT, WHO GOES THERE?!" the Watermelon Tourmaline duo yelled as they stood guarding the greenhouse Teal had made into her impromptu palace. "NOBODY GETS IN TO SEE THE GRAND SHIPPER OF PIERRE AND PERCY, NOT NOBODY, NOT NOHOW!"

"But I do ship them!" Peridot exclaimed. "Just let me in; I need to talk with Teal!"

"Oh, I see you are a Gem of culture as well. My mistake." The Watermelon Tourmaline fusion realized her error. "Let her in, Puffy. She's good people."

"Now that's a horse of a different color. Come on in." The other Watermelon Tourmaline said as the duo let Peridot pass into the greenhouse. The plants were still there, but now it was filled with Gems dressed in CPH cosplay acting out romantic scenarios between Percy and Pierre.

"But Pierre, I'm afraid we cannot be together!" Desert Glass dramatically stated. "I am in love with another person!"

"Who, who could this other person be?" Nephrite asked with equal amounts of cheese.

"It is my twin brother!" Desert Glass exclaimed, eliciting gasps of shock and excitement.

"Twin brother? Spicy!" Zuli muttered as she applauded the duo's act. "But not as spicy as the dog bit!"

"Where do they keep coming up with these lewd ideas?" Holly Blue agreed as Peridot awkwardly walked past the applauding audience to meet with Teal Zircon.

"Um, hello there." Peridot greeted her fellow shippers of Percy and Pierre. "Is Teal Zircon still here? I'd like to have a word with her about this conflict."

"Don't you worry, we'll grab her, and she'll be here in a jiffy." Serpentine answered politely as she raced to find their superior, who was busy snacking on grapes like a Roman emperor while Navy served as her footrest. "Um, Lord Teal, we have a visitor who wishes to meet with you."

"Send her in." Teal said with a mouth full of grapes as Peridot was shunted forward by Angel Aura Quartz and Crazy Lace. "I am Teal Zircon, the great and powerful!" she proclaimed loudly. "State your business or get out of my sight!"

"I came here to inform you that this conflict is utterly preposterous!" Peridot made her case against the shipping war. "Fandom is supposed to bring everyone together, no matter who they are or what they ship! Isn't that just as important as your OTP?"

Teal took some time to contemplate Peridot's question while continuing to munch on grapes before she came up with a question of her own. "You know, Peridot, your plea for peace makes me want to ask you something." She said. "What do you ship, little one?"

"Um, Percy and Pierre?" Peridot nervously replied. "I don't feel like this question will lead to anything good."

"On the contrary, it could lead to many good things!" Teal responded happily. "Join me, and together we can rule the Camp Pining Hearts fanbase as shippers in arms!"

"While I do admire that you're taking my earlier message of togetherness to heart, I don't think you're doing it right!" Peridot objected to TZ's offer. "The other Crystal Gems and I just wanted everyone to get along!"

"But now you can get along with us! What do you say?" Teal continued exhorting. "One of us, one of us! Gooble gobble, one of us!"

"We accept her, we accept her!" Teal's subordinates began chanting for Peridot to join them. "One of us, one of us!"

"Uh, I still don't know, you guys." Peridot responded awkwardly. "I mean, as I said, we all have different opinions, and we should respect them!"

"Oh, this is more than just a difference in opinions." Teal declared in response. "We will soon be at war with our enemies, and we need a Gem as smart as you to aid us in the coming battle! We would've recruited Black Rutile, but she rejected because this is utterly ridiculous."

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but she has a point!" Peridot continued debating with Teal. "You know what, fine! I'll join you only if you agree to stop this madness!"

"Don't you worry, Dottie, I'm a Gem of my word." Teal solemnly swore to Peridot while also crossing her fingers behind her back. "Now come with me. We have much to discuss." She then took Peridot by her tiny green hand and led her deeper into the greenhouse, where some more Gems had made a makeshift war room. "We must prepare for war."

--

As for Lapis, she had arrived at Cat's Eye's side of Little Homeworld, where the feline Gem ruled from atop the whirly-bird tower while being entertained by watching episodes of CPH where Percy was paired with Paulette, with her minions all huddled around the TV with her.

"Uh, hey, everyone." Lapis greeted the Percy/Paulette shippers, who all turned to look up at her flying above them. "I'm just here on the other Crystal Gems' orders to tell you all that this whole war is a huge waste of time, and we should respect everyone else's opinions and stuff."

"Let me guess, I suppose Peridot is off trying to convince the enemy the same thing?" Laz asked as her old friend touched down on the ground to confront Cat's Eye.

"Exactly." Lapis said to Laz before turning to Cat. "Please, Cat, I know you hate me for being a Crystal Gem, and I hate you because you're so unbelievably smug and obnoxious, but I want you to listen. This conflict sucks! I mean, going to war just because someone has a different opinion than you? That pettiness is only reserved for the Internet, not real life!"

"Oh please, you think this is like a cartoon where you can make everything better in just a few minutes flat?!" Cat scoffed at Lapis's plea. "You need to let it go, little girl. You are indeed correct that this is the real life, not just a fantasy!"

"Exactly, and it's time we face reality!" Lapis proclaimed. "People have different opinions, and we must respect that."

"Speaking of fantasies, I have a few of my own." Cat remarked seductively, making Lapis's breath shudder as she started blushing blue. "Now, it's not those kinds of fantasies, just FYI, just a little idea I've been having."

"What kind of idea?" Lapis asked sheepishly as Cat began using her feminine wiles to get her way.

"Oh, nothing much, just our own version of Hunting Season." Cat purred cheekily. "It's already a good episode, but I think more of Paulette would make it even better!"

"You mean we make a Percy/Paulette version of the episode?" Lapis realized. "What's in this for me, though?"

"Oh, you'll just be donating your creative skills to a good cause, of course." Cherry Quartz revealed, piquing Lapis's interest as she now began considering Cat's offer.

"So, you in?" Blue Chalcedony asked the terraformer.

"Fine, I'll do it." Lapis shrugged and shook Cat's hand. "But only if you don't go and declare war on the other side, okay?"

"Oh, cross my heart, my dearest aquatic angel!" Cat's Eye pinched Lapis's cheek with one hand while crossing her fingers behind her back with the others. "And even if we go to war, we'll win easily since we have not one, but two Lapis Lazulis on our side!"

"She's got that right." Laz agreed with Cat.

--

"Bad news, everyone, we lost our adorable duo." Bismuth declared to the Crystal Gems at the temple as she put down her phone. "Lapis has turned over to Cat's Eye's side while Peridot has been assimilated into Teal Zircon and her cronies. Oh, I can already imagine the hurt and betrayal that'll come from this!"

"They were supposed to help us stop this craziness!" Amethyst yelled furiously. "Now, what do we do?!"

"Easy, we terrify them into shutting up." Jasper suggested harshly while summoning her crash helmet.

"While that would be super effective, I'm not sure if we should be solving this with violence." White Topaz objected to Jasper's idea. "Anyone else got any bright ideas?"

"I got an excellent idea." Garnet proclaimed while presenting the Gems with Pearl sitting at a laptop. "The Internet started this, so we finish this with the Internet."

"As it turns out, one of the actors from Camp Pining Hearts has his own website where he answers fan questions." Pearl explained before turning the computer around to show a website dedicated to Edward Christian, the man who played Percy on Camp Pining Hearts. "If we ask him about this crisis, maybe he can help solve it."

"You really think he'll just find our question and answer it right on the spot?" Jasper retorted suspiciously as Pearl typed down a question for the actor to answer.

"Dear Edward Christian, my name is Pearl, and I am a Crystal Gem living in Beach City, Delmarva." Pearl read her question out loud as she typed. "I have some friends who are both huge fans of Camp Pining Hearts and are on opposite sides of a shipping war. Is there any way you can help solve this problem before it goes too far? Sincerely, Pearl."

"I like where this is going, but I'm sure he gets many questions daily." Amethyst said. "It might take ages before he notices us!" Just then, Pearl immediately got a response to her question to Edward, much to the Gems' shock given how fast he responded.

"So, might take ages, huh?" White Topaz smirked at Amethyst.

"Why didn't I ask for money?" Amethyst muttered in disappointment before Pearl began reading their answer.

"Dear Pearl, I am honored to know that you Gems are such fans of my work. I had a lot of fun as Percy on Camp Pining Hearts." Pearl read off the laptop. "This isn't the first time I've received a question about shipping, funny enough. I've even had to ban such questions from my site after the big Valentine's Day episode from Season 3, but I'll make an exception for fellow celebrities like you. How about tomorrow, my co-stars Bella Anastasia and Jacob Steele come down to Beach City to help you with your problem? Love, Edward."

"He even said love." Garnet said. "Such a nice man."

"Looks like all we have to do now is wait." Amethyst realized. "Does it say where he lives now?"

"Oh, how convenient!" Pearl cheered as she found Edward's bio. "It turns out he's still living in the Great North, so it should only take almost nine hours for him and his co-stars to reach us!"

"Well, at least we got time now." Jasper sighed in relief. "What should we do now?"

"I got an idea!" White Topaz suggested. "Anyone wanna binge Camp Pining Hearts with me? I'm getting close to the end of Season 3, so no spoilers!"

"I wonder how we can spoil a show we've barely seen any episodes of." Garnet mused to herself.

--

On the third day of the great shipping conflict of Little Homeworld, the two sides were just about ready to go to war. On one side, Teal Zircon and her horde of Percy/Pierre shippers were readying their weapons for the coming battle while Peridot mapped out potential strategies. On the other side, Cat's Eye's side was also preparing for war, but Lapis was feeling anxious about having to go against her lifelong friend and partner.

"Anything troubling you, my dear Lapis?" Cat purred as she batted her tail against Lapis's back to get the blue Gem's attention. "Oh, I get it! You're worried about what Peridot might think about you rooting for the enemy." She realized. "Well, there's one teensy-weensy, but ever so crucial little detail you had forgotten about. THIS IS WAR, AND PAST RELATIONSHIPS DON'T MATTER!"

"How should I know that?! I never fought in the rebellion!" Lapis yelled back at the lawyer. "Besides, you know that I got off on the wrong foot with Peridot when we were told to become friends!"

"Well, it looks like you have no choice but to do that all over again!" Cat replied without a shred of empathy for Lapis. "And in the meantime, I got you a new Peridot who will agree with everything you say!" She then presented Lapis with Squaridot that she pulled from the sides. "Say hi, Squaridot!"

--

Meanwhile, Peridot watched the confrontation between Lapis and Cat with a pair of binoculars, and to say she felt absolutely betrayed would be selling her heartbreak short. "So this is how Lapis repays me after all we've done together?" she mutters tearfully. "Just going to abandon me in favor of shipping Percy with that witch Paulette?!"

"Always sad to see someone go, isn't it?" Teal Zircon declared solemnly as she appeared behind Peridot. "But then again, you did interrogate her for info on the Crystal Gems a long time ago, so maybe she considers this karma."

"That was ages ago; we were past that!" Peridot yelled at Teal. "I'm sure by the time we win this war; everything will go back to normal like nothing happened, right?"

"I'm not too sure about it." Teal answered. "A betrayal of that magnitude is bound to be remembered for ages to come. Not even forgiving and forgetting can fix that in a pinch."

"I'd never expect someone like you to say that." Peridot replied. "Usually, you'd have some kind of adorable one-liner or unknowingly insensitive remark up your sleeve. What's gotten into you these past few days?"

"I've become very passionate about shipping thanks to you." Teal bluntly revealed. "Now come! We ride!"

--

"Oh, come on, where are those actors?" Pearl nervously asked as she impatiently paced around Little Homeworld, hoping for a miracle. "Edward said he'd be here today, but he's still taking forever!"

"Just be patient, Pearl." Garnet implored the ex-servant. "Besides, it's not like we have much time left. Look!" Garnet then pointed towards the Warp Pad, where the two warring ships were having an epic stand-off, an ominous calm washing over Little Homeworld as the war was about to begin.

"So, it looks like we had the same idea, Peridot." An equally betrayed Lapis coldly said to Peridot.

"It wasn't my intention; they made me join!" Peridot cried out. "They had a really catchy chant too."

"I was convinced because they thought I'd be useful in making their own version of Hunting Season." Lapis responded. "If you join our side, we can work on it together and be friends again."

"Enough talk!" Teal cut the barn mates' conversation short. "Now is the time for what everyone came here for."

"Oh, I couldn't agree more." Cat's Eye meowed while drawing her riding crop. "CHARGE!"

"COURAGE!" Teal replied as the two Gems' respective forces clashed in an all-out battle, while the Crystal Gems, Black Rutile, Aquamarine, and Eyeball all watched from the sidelines.

"Ooh, this is gonna get good!" Amethyst laughed before she pulled out some popcorn to eat while gazing at Eyeball's bucket. "I'm not sharing this."

"Good, I wasn't planning on sharing either." Eyeball responded.

"Oh, how I missed the senseless violence between so-called friends." Black Rutile sighed nostalgically.

"You're just saying that because one of your minions is leading a side!" Bismuth said in response. "And besides, isn't another one of them on the Percy/Pierre side?"

"Does it matter?" Black Rutile smirked as the Crystal Gems and the Rutile Rebels watched the carnage begin.

The Watermelon Tourmalines bounced everywhere as they worked together to crush their opponents. Desert Glass formed turrets out of the sand to fire upon the various quartzes. Beryl scampered across the battlefield to take her opponents by surprise and tickle them into submission. Nephrite was engaged in a catfight against Chrysocolla. Holly Blue swung her electric whip around to gain some distance from her foes. Army was pitted against all three of the other Rubies on the enemy side in a wrestling contest. Serpentine pounced on her foes while Grossular Diopside rode on her back. Yellow Pearl was all alone against Volleyball and Blue Pearl. Laz and Zuli were facing off once again, with tidal waves being summoned to take each other down. Bixbite tried cutting down the ice barrier Larimar and Snowflake Obsidian put up to protect Demantoid and Pyrope from harm. Emerald swung her club in Orange Spodumene's face, knocking her to the ground. Topaz, Monazite, Blue Chalcedony, Albite, the Cubic Zirconias, and Squaridot all worked together to keep their allies safe in the heat of battle. But at the center of it all was the epic clash between Teal & Peridot and Cat & Lapis.

"You just can't admit that you never cared for Percy and Pierre as characters!" Cat's Eye yelled while whipping away at Teal. "You don't want representation; you just think they should be a couple just because of how close they are!"

"And you just can't see Paulette for how abhorrent a character she is!" Teal responded while clashing with Cat using a makeshift sword. "She's an utter parasite who leeches off every other character because the writers love ensuring she's in the right all the time!"

"That is not true; you're desperate to see boys kissing!" Cat yelled back.

"You're better than this, Lapis; you must fight it!" Peridot urged her blue-hued partner. "Remember all the good times we shared watching CPH!"

"Well, the good times are over!" Lapis replied, yelling as she prepared to land the finishing blow when suddenly, a car horn honked, stopping the war cold.

"Who could possibly be interrupting our grand battle?!" Albite yelled before the car door opened, and out came Edward Christian, the actor behind Percy from Camp Pining Hearts.

"You know, when I was told there was a shipping war going on here, I did not expect a literal war." Edward dryly remarked before he was joined by his CPH co-stars, Bella Anastasia and Jacob Steele.

"Oh my goodness, you're finally here!" Pearl squealed in excitement as she charged towards the three celebrities and trapped Edward in a tight hug. "Saints be praised; please put an end to this madness!"

"Let me guess; this is about Percy, Pierre, and Paulette?" Jacob smirked before looking at the formerly warring Gems, now frozen in shock. "I should've known."

"Uh, hello there, alien fans." Bella waved to the Gems, who immediately stopped what they were doing and began hoarding around the trio.

"I can't believe it, Percy and Pierre in the flesh!" Holly Blue began frothing at the mouth in amazement before collapsing.

"Tell us, are you aware of how much everyone hates Paulette?!" Morganite asked.

"Can you sign this for me?!" Beryl shrieked eagerly as she presented her forearm to the trio.

"Calm down, everyone, one at a time!" Edward settled every Gem down. "Now, your Crystal Gem friends have called us today because they noticed a serious problem with you guys."

"Yeah, they just won't accept that not every pair consisting of a male and a female have to be a couple!" Teal said with an accusing finger towards Cat's side.

"And they won't realize the sexual tension between Pierre and Percy!" Cat added with a claw pointed at Teal.

"Oh goody, just as I feared." Bella rolled her eyes in annoyance before she turned to her male co-stars with a smirk. "Want to break out the secret weapon, boys?"

"I'll go first." Edward smiled before revealing a wedding ring on his finger. "As most of you may not know, I'm a married man. Can you guess to who?"

"It's Jacob, obviously!" Peridot declared. "If the actors aren't married, then it's obviously queerbaiting!"

"No, queerbaiting is when they advertise actual same-sex relationships only to not follow through with it!" Lapis objected. "Not getting mad whenever your favorite gay ship isn't made canon!"

"Oh, how wrong you are." Bella proclaimed as she and Jacob revealed wedding rings of their own. "All three of us are married to each other! We got hitched not too long ago after a reunion special."

"No way, you three are married?!" White Topaz's eyes widened in surprise and delight.

"I'll admit, I didn't see that coming at all." Garnet added, just as shocked that her future vision couldn't even predict what she had just heard.

"Oh, if all three of them are married, then I guess there's no point to this!" Teal exclaimed as she and Cat's Eye turned to each other and shook hands. "Let's all be friends again!"

"Oh yes, friends!" Cat sneered as the two sides united as friends once more, completely forgetting about the heartbreak, the betrayal, the strife, and especially the sheer insanity of the situation.

"Sorry I took this too far, Peri." Lapis nervously apologized to Peridot. "I'll admit it; I had no idea what I was thinking when we decided to go to war."

"Me neither." Peridot responded just as awkwardly. "Are we still friends, even if we have different opinions?"

"Sure, even though I don't really have any strong opinions on ships whatsoever." Lapis answered warmly before the two Gems hugged.

"Yep, polyamorous marriage works like a charm when you want to stop ship wars." Jacob grinned with his hands on his hips before turning to the Crystal Gems. "Thanks for inviting us here, Crystal Gems. You got a really colorful bunch of friends here, no pun intended."

"The pleasure is all ours." Garnet nodded. "You're free to come back anytime."

"We'd love to stay and do a little meet and greet, but we gotta get going." Ed said as he walked over to the rental car he and his partners used to reach Little Homeworld. "Come on, guys, let's rock and roll!"

"On second thought, I don't see us leaving anytime soon." Bella admitted as she peeked under the hood of the car. "The engine's been stolen!"

"What, but how?! And who?!" Jacob yelled as he rushed to the car, seeing the large gap where the engine should be. "And how did they steal it without any of us noticing?!"

"Well, at least you got more time to spend here." Peridot said to the three actors. "How does that meet and greet sound?"

"Eh, I got nothing better to do today." Edward shrugged. "Okay, who's up for autographs?!" The Gems all eagerly raised their hands as Edward began signing Camp Pining Hearts posters to hand out to everyone, uniting them all in their love for the series as Peridot had intended. However, the identity of the car engine thief was still a mystery to everyone, even though the thief in question had dark designs for the engine.

--

"The Crystal Gems have given me the perfect chance to add another ingredient to the Vortexxer's construction!" Black Rutile laughed maniacally as she put the car engine down on the floor. "Quick, someone help me hook this up!"

"Got it!" Eyeball exclaimed as she used a pair of jumper cables to connect the engine to the unfinished portal, causing the machine to briefly spark to life. "I can't believe it; I saw a light! That has to mean something good, right?"

"Indeed, we're almost finished." Black Rutile declared pridefully with her arms akimbo as she gazed at the soon-to-be-finished portal. "Just need to keep biding our time. I don't care who gets in our way! I don't care what it takes! Whatever is on the other side will finally help me win!"

--

Talk about a rather dark note to end this escapade on, huh? Black Rutile has another important piece of the Vortexxer acquired now, but it's going to take a little while for her to find a way to fix what flaws the original version had. But until then, it's back to some goofy fun times for all, starting with a little lifeguard fanservice for me. Yes, I'm going there, and I have no regrets!

[thetristoneera]

Dreamland Excerpts: How To Not Be A Part of the Land of the Dead

Dreamland Excerpts 20230813th

How To Not Be A Part of the Land of the Dead

Characters:

Terrance Prescott (the Tri Stone Era)

Drama (the Crimson Collective)

Rue Bennett (Euphoria)

Maddy Perez (Euphoria)

Jules Vaughn (Euphoria)

Lexi Howard (Euphoria)

Cassie Howard (Euphoria)

Kat Hernandez (Euphoria)

Fezco (Euphoria)

            Be with me.  This dream took place as if I & Drama were transfer students to East Highland High School.  As if the show continued from that awful season finale.  Because of who I am, I saved Fezco so he could live another day.  By the means of preventing the police raid.  As I turn back time, I discover a way to infiltrate the school before a giant field trip.  One that would take them to; the Land of the Dead.

            Better known as Wraith City; where the senior students get to spend a week in this luxuriously haunted city.  Itinerary involves learning squat before they graduate.  I & Drama have been students for the final semester of their year.  Honor students who happen to come in as the #3 & #13 ranked students of their class.  Sure we bumped some heads when we got there but there was nothing we could say to our parents about moving to East Highland, California.  We are step brother & step sister in this dream; as fake as it may seem, it will get faker.

            January

            After coming to school for the first day, in a Bugatti; Drama was driving.  We get out in NYE clothing while smelling like a trillion bucks.  Star studded for the sake of it, we make one grand entrance that offends; of course & you know it.  Cassie.  Surprised the heaven out of Rue, Lexi, Jules, Kat & Maddy though.  During that first day, Drama learned all about their ghosts when she some how made friends with them & had them all in the bathroom.  Took out a little stash & took a sniff before her next period so she could focus.  Just a very small ounce to ignite her brain.  That’s when the girls learned about the house mother being a drug lord.  The rest of January was a blur for them as Drama; always being beyond crazy & altruistic at the same time, improved all of their lives.  While my borderline antisocial ass was too busy writing & drawing in notebooks. 

            The way that Drama won them over was quite simple, dramatic.  When they were in the bathroom together; she went a little something like this…  “I’ll say this, honestly.  Me.  Likes to make friends with the first group of girls that approach me.  I’m a first come, first serve type.  Bravery is rewarded where I’m from.  But honesty is more important.  We are step siblings, his mother helps run a cartel.  Drug.  We, I mean they.  They do very good, girl; don’t get me started…  Good people though.  There’s a supply & they do it safely.  Besides, I gets so much dough; if yall believe me & let us take yall out shopping on my dime…  Regret wouldn’t exist.”  It wasn’t until I was hanging with Drama & her new friends that I would meet Fez.  That’s where the trouble would begin…

            February

            Yesh, love was so much in the air; cause everyone’s lives improved once Drama & I solidified our spots in the student body.  Mostly due to the five parties we threw in January; somehow doubled in February.  Some how got Fez upgraded in life for him & the family.  Moved them out, moved others out; to move them up.  Nothing covered up the pain though, they were still combative, I’m go do whatever I want; when I want kind of teenagers. 

            Rue always had a fix whenever she wanted & we kept her safe.

            Jules always had us looking out for her whenever she had to hoe around.

            Maddy was learning how to be a confidant of the cartel so she can escape the whirlpool that’s her family.

            Kat ended up living by herself by the end of January & she was awarded a bodyguard.

            Lexi, Cassie & their mother had no money worries. 

            It was all good in East Highland from then on.

            March

            Was when we taught them how to cover their trails; to a very high extent.  Via, March of Dimes.  It was the first time they saw me be, not so antisocial.  Athletic even but the lesson was; if you keep yourself booked & blessed, publicly…  No one can find you out.  But it was after the March of Dimes when things went all the way omega.  Nate returned from whatever hiatus he was on & that wrecked Cassie & Jules to a rather obsolete form.  I put in a hit & had him body bagged before the end of the nite.  Totally got a way with it & I had to sleep with that secret.  Like the many that had us moving states since the 6th grade.  Unlike the other times, an over dose was deemed the end result. 

            April

            The funeral was a bust, Drama & I was forced to go cause Cassie kept her ship wreck mood sailing into the following weeks.  I remedied it during the wake though, she was standing by herself in his bedroom.  I told her to take something from his room so minute; but so permanent, that she’d always have him with her.  Then told her to move on with the rest of her life, as if he’s with her in spirit.  Finished that up with telling her to say his full name.  She took her favorite shirt of his, hid it & walked out with me; hand in hand.  Didn’t think it was going to be that quick but I was happy on the inside. 

            With the rest of their lives looking to be greater than the time of their lives, they moved through April so scholastically; it was like none of their trauma ever really happened.

            Rue learned compartmentalization from Drama. 

            Jules was always on the right path.

            So was Lexi, Kat & Cassie; some how.  Dead ass thought Cassie was shit for brains but she kept proving me wrong.

            Then there’s Maddy; I told her one day, “Pay attention, knowing the world you live in will help you escape.”  Something I should’ve told her in January but time is of the essence.

            May

            The senior trips were on the horizon; but it was the last week field trip everyone was looking forward to.   I won’t bore you with more details but it sure did turn into a horror flick on the first nite.  As soon as our parents made sure the faculty & other chaperones were taken care of.  Majority of our crowd was able to make it to an underground event.  Party of the Dead, on a Sunday nite with a bartender that didn’t care about anyone’s age cause he wasn’t really a bartender.  It was ghetto, it was fun, it was crazy, it was a nightmare, it was a dream; it was muthafuckin fantastic. 

            Until the next morning when Drama woke up talking about, “I THINK WE’VE BEEN CURSED!!!!!!”  I was like, “Girl, shut the fuck up!”  Then we proceeded to talk as if she had a bad dream when in all reality; this was the first time anyone of them was around us during slumber.  She always wakes up screaming… 

*a real upward eye roll*

            Moving along, once we got along; I asked her if we have truly been cursed?  She certified that we were then she saw the first glimpse of the curse as a black figure started floating upward; outside of our hotel window.  Nah nigga.  I immediately grabbed Lexi because she’s the most level headed out of the group; after opening the curtains, she screamed.  Nah nigga.  Then Lexi discovered that we had super powers as Drama immediately said good bye then disappeared to return to the point of the venue.  It was cleaned out but the residue of the curse was all over the bartending area.  One bottle was left & it clearly had a stronger residue source than the entire venue.

            Meanwhile, I’m chilling in the hotel room while Lexi isn’t.  Damn near distraught to no repair; I had to some how talk her out of it.  With her eyes still shut from seeing so much atrocity first thing in the morning; I decided to don my lavender hair & red eyes.  I asked her to look at me then look at the ghost again & tell me if she recognizes him.  She didn’t, thank goodness; but the screams kept happening through out the week.  All of us that attended that party & even the strangers that attended was reporting all kind of crazy atrocities around & outside of the city.

            And yes it was ultimately hilarious when I walked out of that room with Lexi looking like a total super being to those who aren’t.  I was an entire XD situation…  Fez asked, “What the fuck happened to you last nite?!!!”  I told them, I don’t want to get into it but it was wilder than my last Yom Kippur.  Yesh, a million question marks began floating around their heads but thank goodness those curtains weren’t open.  As I was distributing glasses of water; I told them that we’ve been cursed.  During that whole time, I was wondering; where the fuck is Drama!?

            Drama was locked in the venue magically, when she rediscovered the curse; it kept her from leaving to break it.  It took a while to figure that out from my end but everyone kept wondering where she was while I was talking.  Yup, we were attached at the hip the entire time they knew us.  I couldn’t call her cause her phone was in the hotel room so I assumed she was doing some snooping.  I eventually had to show the gang & the rest of the crowd that came with us the ghosts we would have to get used to seeing.  For some odd reason, they couldn’t come into the hotel we were staying in.  But that beckoned some of them from being too afraid to leave the hotel.  Yet, we had to; to do a few assignments during the week. 

            Oh crud is right, cause these teens were panicking at the disco that used to be.  Panicked all the way through Monday because Drama disappeared.  When I finally made it back to the venue, she told me to not come in.  I told her to take my hand & was able to pull her out.  Then the entire city started rumbling…  What the fuck have we done?!!?!?  The drama, pun intended afterwards turned Wraith City into a whole epilogue.  Because of my god features, I equipped everyone with super powers best for handling the afterlife…  Titanus (You know, the one that turns you into a flying capable, god like super being with ultra skin, ultra strength, ultra speed, fortified energy manipulation, compulsion features, dimension hopping features but their best feature is enchanting others with power; per their bond & all), I told them that when they think about protecting themselves; they will have all the magical might to do so.  Limiting them to an extent cause I didn’t have time to train them, they would just have the means of becoming invulnerable with the ability to harm ghosts that would approach.  The entire time I was explaining this to them, Drama was standing way away from us just shaking her head.  Unbelieving everything that’s going on but unbelieving that I’d have the audacity to play the scenario out instead of ending it with just her.

            Afterwards, I went to her to tell her; “We are on vacation, so live a little with your dead in the inside ass.”  We laughed & she said she could use a little more excitement in her life.  XD.  I told her, “Girl stop!”  This dream literally went off the axle afterwards as it looked like people started summoning demons through out the week.  They actually were, I’ll never kid about dreamland.  But there the cast of Euphoria were, every second handling drugs & ghosts.  But when Nate’s ghost showed up; Drama pulled so much magical might, she forced him to move on.  I told her thank you for that.  That Wednesday would’ve really turned into a Wednesday if Cassie would’ve caught a glimpse of his ghost.

            Drama was hoping that the curse would’ve dissipated by now but on Wednesday night, it grew more powerful.  Doom swept a portion of the city & all of the faculty wanted to end the trip.  There wasn’t an evacuation order, until Thursday night.  The entire day of Thursday was mad dark.  Cloudy skies all around as we went to a food festival on the opposite side of the city from the doom.  One of the best things about this dream was seeing dark towering ghosts starting to divide streets as skeletons came up through the rubble.  Dismantled; you know, to paint the picture.  It was horrific later that day after experiencing some bomb ass lasagna, calzones, tacos & Japanese food.  Helped us get through all of that alarming imagery I didn’t wake up from.

            There were times I would get the feeling that the King of Spades from Alice In Borderland was out there.  Just ghosts, gaining the ability to harm people.  All because a god was one of the people getting cursed.  I don’t know how I keep ending up in situations like this, but the curse was honing in on me & Drama the most.  And with her being an afterlife wielder; it was extra zesty out there with ridiculousness.  No one was in true harm, but they were painting reality to look like limbo.  When in disreality; it’s that dismal.  Just a bunch of darkened figures roaming around.  Trying to figure out what they need to realize before they can move on.  Then decide to stay a ghost or whatever.  A lot of them remained to stay a ghost until they get tired of living in the ghost realms.  Can still eat, can still feel pleasure; but can’t interact with anyone in real time.  They can even travel but if they died with regrets; they have to keep them to themselves or until their victim becomes a ghost. 

            Oh yeah, they can alter reality if they were a super being but in this world; of Euphoria.  Nah, none of those; so it was just dismal fun for the taking to them.  As the curse panned out, Drama & I made it so it could become detrimental at any time.  The entertaining aspect turned far from pleasure the deeper the curse got.  Before anyone could call an evacuation order, we were all starting it Thursday evening.  With the help of Euphoria, we were able to have more fun with it.  But it was all a dream that turned on my hero complexes again.  Turned on Drama’s shero complexes again. 

            When the sun was beginning to rise the next day, I knew the dream would be over soon.  It was Drama & I; sitting on a bench at the top of a hill.  Just looking over Wraith City; but to clarify, I did get to see the entirety of a night of protecting innocents.  All those hours…  Then the city was safe, it began to look normal again.  Then Drama looked at me to smile & say, “Aight, enough of this place.  I’ll see you at home.”

[mysteriousangels]

Yarrow finds Maddy as quickly as possible, trying his best not to look too concerned when he does. "Hey, what's going on?" - ( @storystartsanew )

Maddy looked at Yarrow a little a confused as to why he was here and grimaced. "The power went out because of the storm and my flashlight is dying. You know I was kinda idiot for getting rid of useful memories like what my fears were." She told a self depreciating joke and jumped at the sound of creaking.

@storystartsanew