#amity park is terrifying to outsiders

[phantoms-world-and-more]

Amity park being uncanny vally

So the whole of amity park is ecto-contaminated (the fentons, sam, tucker and valery being the most) but the side effects happen over time

They all slowly stop aging, some peoples teeth get sherper, some people grow claws, some can run faster than cars, some can see in the dark ect;

But this happens to everyone, so after a point being immortal and liminal becomes the norm,

The fentons learn this and help people adapt to the contamination, they also change their research to better understand ghosts and ecto-contamination

So afew decades pass and some unlikely travellers get lost and find amity...but

Its terrifying

All the people look at them like their the weird ones,(because amity park hasn't had visitors in years no one knowes what they should do)

But their all...off

At first it was nothing unexplainable, sharp teeth, glowing eyes, their a bit stronger nothing too out of the ordinary

Then they see jack and maddie fenton and they want to run

They look so...freaky

Their obsession with ghosts, their big personality, their technology and obviously stronger physical abilities, those two alone made them want to forget their car and run out of town...

Then they saw their kids, dannys eyes look like he's trying to eat their souls, And jazz was 7.5 feet tall.

They got in their car and drove as fast as they could, and on their way out they saw more things that unsetteled them, like the teenager moving a car instead of a tow truck, and the kid talking to his watch...and the FLOATING ROBOT IN THE SKY

they got out of amity park so fast people were asking what the problem was.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 250

So blame it on me making food-themed dragons, and failing to draw a full-body of the Ennead in the Class Pulls a Tiamat Aus. So Why not combine them- along with a hint of Ghosts are Dragons. 

See, most, if not every, person in Amity Park, and even it’s surrounding areas, know better than to use the W word. It is borderline taboo to use the ‘wish’ word. But somebody got drunk, said a thing they shouldn’t have, and now there’s a bit of an issue. 

Which honestly, they could have dealt with! Easily even! If not for the fact that erm, realms beings can get summoned. Meaning Desiree is well, gone. Gone long enough for the twenty-four hour mark to pass. And they can’t exactly punish a ghost for doing what’s in their nature and part of their very Core. 

So. 

It seems everyone is food themed now. Every ghost and liminal- though at least Amity was already weird and pretty hidden from the Outside nowadays- and even a few undead. 

Honestly, Fright Knight should not look so terrifying with his new coloration and criss-cross patterns across his back. But well, he pulls it off, burnt-looking limbs and all. (Seriously, his flames look more like whip-cream now and he’s still somehow pulling it off- Dash wants to know his secret! 

At least the nine of them haven’t gotten it too bad, probably. And Lunch Lady is pleased, so there’s that, but still. Jazz looks like a dragon sushi roll for Realm’s sake, and- okay that’s kind of funny. Vlad you can’t hide your new fruit-based appearance! 

Hah!

Oh Realms there’ll need to be so much paperwork for th- Oh thank fuck someone is summoning them now. Alright, showtime! Time to be Heir of the Infinite, big scary nine headed dragon! Ignore the food-theme-ish guys! 

[fangirlwriting-stories]

First Blood

Summary: Danny should have expected that he wouldn't be able to do this ghost fighting thing by himself forever. Though admittedly, he didn't expect things to go quite like this.

Author's Note:

My brain: Hey you should write a Danny Phantom AU

Me: Wtf? Why?

My brain: I wanna

Me:

Anyway I do partly blame this fic on AO3 by artistfingers for giving me the inspiration.

…

He’d meant to tell them, was the thing.  It was entirely a coincidence that they weren’t there when it happened in the first place.

Sam had been the one to first have the idea of checking out the ghost zone, even if Danny had been desperately curious before that too.  But she’d been the one to convince him to try it, and he’d even gotten into the suit his parents had designated for this purpose (thankfully with a thought from Sam to pull his Dad’s face off his chest), but before he could actually go in the portal and turn it on, Sam’s parents showed up and dragged her and Tucker home.

They had never been the biggest fans of Danny or his parents, and weren’t super happy when they learned Sam was there.  Tucker had tried to protest against getting dragged along, but Sam’s parents kind of had a presence you couldn’t stand up to for very long, so they’d both left eventually.

But Danny was only more desperately curious after almost going in, and he couldn’t know when his parents would both be out like this again.  So, he’d gone back an hour later and turned the portal on.  And then…

Well.

Then he’d started trying to come up with a way to say “hey guys I’m sort of half ghost now” without sounding like a total lunatic.

And then the ghost fights had started, and Danny Phantom became well known before Danny Fenton could come up with a way to explain it to them.  And then he didn’t want them to get hurt.  The fights were hard enough on him, and he had superpowers.

He’s… definitely regretting that decision now.  He should have known eventually he’d come across something he couldn’t defeat on his own, for one reason or another.  But he’d always assumed if that came up it would be a ghost that was just too powerful, and he could ask someone for help.  Hard to do that when the problem is an evil but human ringmaster with a ghost-controlling crystal ball.  Admittedly, he hadn’t thought that far ahead.

He’s not quite sure what’s going on when he comes to, but the crystal ball is shattered in pieces at his feet and the other ghosts he’s become familiar with are blinking in the space across from him.  Freakshow himself is in between them all, staring at the crystal ball like he’s trying to process what’s happening.

Danny’s doing the same thing.  This isn’t Amity Park, that’s clear enough, but he doesn’t know where he is.  He doesn’t know what’s just happened, though he has a vague memory of an overwhelming sense of anger giving him enough force to throw the crystal ball to the ground.

“You know,” Freakshow says, looking up with a terrified grin.  “When I called you, uh, ‘minions,’ it was really a term of endearment, like, ‘Oh, I love my minions!’”

Danny scoffs, meets eyes with the other ghosts, and finds them in agreement.

They drag Freakshow to the haul he’s made them all put together, call the cops, and fly off into the night.

But while the three of them go who-knows-where, Danny changes forms and heads for a grocery store or a gas station, any place where he can find a newspaper and hopefully figure out the date or his location.  Preferably both.

…It’s been weeks.  It’s been weeks and he’s halfway across the country.

Danny sits on the ground outside of the gas station and drops his head in his hands.  The homework alone is going to be a nightmare.

His stomach growls.  He’s been in his ghost form for who knows how long, and it’s probably been just as long since he ate, but he doesn’t have any money on him.

So, in a move he’s not exactly proud of, he steals a couple apples and bags of chips from the gas station and practically inhales them.  He sits on a bench for another hour or so before he realizes he probably can’t put off the inevitable anymore.

He switches forms again and starts flying home.

He’s pretty fast at this point, so it takes him no more than a couple hours to get there, but he has no idea what he’ll find when he arrives.  The past couple weeks get blurrier the closer the time gets to the present, but he has the feeling he’s done some bad stuff.  He doesn’t know what his public image in Amity Park is anymore, but he has an inkling it’s not exactly great.

And that’s just the Phantom side of things.  He’s going to have to deal with the Fenton side first, and that almost sounds worse.

First, however, he’s exhausted, and still hungry, and he can’t deal with this tonight.  So he resigns himself to worrying everyone for one more night, grabs some stuff from the fridge, and flies silently up to his bedroom.  He eats handfuls of whatever food he grabbed with his back to the door, and then leans back against it and breathes, taking in the feeling of at least being home.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem he’s going to get even a night of reprieve, because the next second someone bangs on the door he’s leaning against, and he splays forward on the ground with a surprised yelp.

He turns to see Jazz forcing the door open.  She freezes when she sees Danny, and for a couple seconds, they stare at each other.

“Uh,” Danny says.  “Hi?”

Jazz blinks.  “Hi?”

Danny swallows.  “Yeah?”

Jazz balls her hands into fists and glares at him.  “Where have you been?”

“Um.”

Jazz buries her hands in her hair and pulls on it, giving a frustrated scream.  “Danny!  Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been?”

“Sorry,” Danny mutters, not sure what else to say.  He still has no idea what’s happened the past few weeks.

Jazz runs her hands over her hair, smoothing it down, and takes a deep breath.  Then she kneels down and pulls Danny into a crushing hug.

“Why would you run away like that?” Jazz says, but there’s something else in her voice, like she’s trying to get at something.  “Are you okay?  Are you hurt?  Do you want to—” she pulls back, and looks Danny in the eyes with a very pointed expression.  “Do you want to talk about it?” she asks, her voice suddenly very soft and gentle.

Danny stares at her for a second, not sure where the sudden shifting emotions from her came from.  Either way, he shakes his head.  He doesn’t even know what he’d say.  He’s going to have to come up with some kind of story, but how is he supposed to do that without contradicting something he doesn’t remember happening?

“Are you sure?” Jazz says, still looking at him intentionally, and Danny does not understand what she’s trying to say.  He’ll blame the exhaustion and brain fog.

Jazz sighs, and pulls him back into a hug.  “Okay.  But you’re going to have to explain to Mom and Dad why you’ve been missing for weeks.  Uh… for exactly three weeks and four days, as we both know very well of course.  And you’ll also have to explain why no one knows anything at all about where you’ve been or what you’ve been doing— as far as I know that is.”

Danny pulls back and gives her a baffled look.  “Why are you talking like that?”

“Excuse me!  You’re the one who runs away for, just to reiterate, exactly three weeks and four days to an unknown location, and you’re asking me why I’m being weird?”

Danny stares at her.  “Uh, I mean I kind of am now?”

“I can’t believe you!” Jazz exclaims, waving her arms up without actually looking that exasperated.  Then she leans forward and wraps her arms around Danny again.

“I’m really glad you’re okay,” she whispers, with a suspicious sniff that Danny doesn’t acknowledge.  “Please don’t scare me like that again.”

Danny reaches up and wraps his arms weakly around her.  “I’m sorry,” he murmurs, which is all he can say, because he can’t exactly guarantee that nothing like this will happen again, can he?

For a minute, they both just sit there, and Danny tries to ignore how good it feels to be hugged by his sister, because that’s a totally lame realization to have, and he doesn’t need any more reasons for people to beat him up.

But then another familiar voice comes from behind them.

“Jazz?  What are you doing up—”

Danny jerks around and meets eyes with his mother, who stares wide-eyed back at him.

After a second, she turns and screams, “JACK!” then rushes forward and pulls Danny towards her.

“Are you okay?  Are you hurt?”  She takes his face in her hands, turning it back and forth.  “What were you thinking, you’re grounded for a month!  You look terrible, when did you eat last?  When did you shower?  Do you have any idea how worried sick we were?  I’m never letting you out of my sight again!  Was it ghosts?  What can you tell us about them?”

Danny laughs despite himself.  His mom is being so incredibly normal (well, normal by her standards) that it immediately brushes away quite a few of his worries.

Then he remembers what his best option for a cover story is, and his smile fades.  His dad shows up in the doorway a second later, looking half-asleep.

“It… it wasn’t ghosts, Mom,” he says, and at least that part is true, if misleading.  “I just… I’m sorry.”

His mom presses a hand to her forehead, looking like Danny’s taken about ten years off her life.  “You’re grounded for two months,” she amends.  “What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t,” Danny says, which is also true, if… also misleading.

“You got that right,” his dad said, putting his hands on his hips in what looked like his best impression of a stern father.  “You’re grounded for three months, mister.”

“That’s just going to keep going up, isn’t it,” Danny says with a sigh.

Jazz reaches over and gives him a side hug and a sympathetic smile, and Danny really isn’t sure what’s going on with her right now.

But honestly, for the moment, he’s just glad to be home.

…

Danny still isn’t quite sure how he manages to get out of giving any details to the police, but he does it.  He’s given back to his parents to decide his punishment, meaning he’s confined to house arrest for the next five months (it did keep going up).  That’s going to make ghost hunting a little bit difficult, but he’ll burn that bridge when he gets to it.

The one exception to grounding, obviously, is school, which Danny is equal parts dreading and looking forward to.  It was a Saturday when he got back, and of course Sam and Tucker know he’s returned, but he hasn’t gotten to see either of them.  He doubts he’ll be able to see them much outside of school or the occasional study party.

Stupid Freakshow.  This is going to ruin his life until Christmas.

Either way, Monday comes.  And Danny walks into the school and over to his locker and tries to ignore everyone staring at him.

A loud bang at his left causes him to jump and turn to see Sam leaning against the lockers, looking none too pleased.

“So,” she says.  “Have you finally decided the rest of us are worthy of your presence again?”

“Come on, Sam,” Tucker says, walking up behind her.  “You said you weren’t gonna be like that.”

“Sorry, he just screws off to nowhere and you expect me to not be upset?” Sam asks with a glare at Tucker before turning back around.  “Honestly Danny, you know I’m all for escaping awful parents, but you didn’t even tell us where you were going!  We didn’t know if you were okay!”

“My parents aren’t awful,” Danny mutters as he looks down at his feet, all he can think to say.

“Then why did you leave?” Sam snaps, leaning into his face.

Danny winces, leaning back.  “Do we have to do this out here in the hallway?”

Sam huffs, standing up straight and glaring away.  “Fine.  Whatever.  I’m going to class.”  She stalks off without another word.

Danny sighs and turns to his locker so he can put the textbooks he needs into his backpack.  It’s not his fault, and he knows that, but he still feels like the worst person on the face of the planet for making them worry.

“So…” Tucker says slowly, leaning back against the locker much less angrily than Sam.  “Why did you leave?”

Danny closes his locker and swings his bag over his shoulder.  “Doesn’t matter.  I’m back, aren’t I?”

“Yeah, except it kind of does, though?  Dude, if you feel like leaving again, I want to help you.”

Danny turns to look at him and sees nothing but honest concern in Tucker’s eyes.

He wishes it was that easy.

“You can’t,” he says.

“Why not?”

“It’s not—” Danny sighs, looking around to make sure no one’s listening.

Everyone is listening.

“Not here,” he says, turning back to Tucker.  “And not now.”

Tucker looks at him for another second.  “Okay,” he says finally.  “But don’t think I’m letting up on this.”

Danny smiles just a little bit.  “I know you’re not,” he says.

The warning bell rings.

“I have to go,” Danny says.  “If I cut first period on my first day back after running away, I think my parents will actually kill me.”

Tucker smirks.  “Sounds like you brought that one on yourself, dude,” he says.  “But sure.  See ya at lunch.”

“See ya,” Danny says, and turns to walk the other way.

The day is about what he expects.  Mocking and socks in the stomach from Dash, dry remarks and glares along with piles of makeup work from teachers.  He’s exhausted, but he deals with all of it and prepares to work through it until things are at least marginally back to normal.

He can’t wait for Sam and Tucker to not be mad at him.  That would help a ton.

There doesn’t seem to be much of a chance of that when lunch arrives, however, because Sam starts glaring at him the second he sits down, and Tucker just gives him that same concerned look that Danny is pretty sure he can’t make go away without spilling his guts.

…Well, not that “hey Tucker I was actually being mind controlled by that ringmaster from Circus Gothica” would make him less concerned.  If he believed him in the first place, that is.

Danny doesn’t know what to say to break the awkward silence, but apparently Sam has that covered.

“So, Tucker,” she says, very loudly.  “Are we still on for Nasty Burger after school?”

Ouch.  Fair enough.

“Uh,” Tucker says, rubbing the back of his neck.  “Maybe that’s not such a great idea anymore?”

“Why?  Are we supposed to drop our plans the second Danny decides to stop being childish?”

“Okay,” Danny says, turning to face her.  He’s positive he doesn’t have the energy to deal with an angry Sam for the weeks it takes her to forgive him.  “What do you want me to say to you, Sam?”

Sam turns her glare on him.  “I want you to tell me why on earth you left with no notice of when you’d be back or whether or not you were okay or why you were leaving,” she snaps.  “Why the fuck would you do that to us?”

“I wasn’t trying to,” Danny says, looking down as guilt stabs him in the chest.  “I’m sorry.”

“What do you mean you weren’t trying to?  What were you trying to do?”

“I don’t know,” Danny says, because it’s true.  He doesn’t really remember the exact specifics of when and where and why he left Amity Park with Freakshow.  He is pretty sure he wasn’t around as Danny Fenton for at least a couple days before that, though, meaning Jazz’s random ‘three weeks and four days’ comment was probably more accurate than the one he’d worked out from the newspaper.

“I really don’t know what I was thinking,” he reiterates, forcing himself to turn and look at Sam.  “I don’t know what else to say.  I’m sorry.”

He watches anger and concern and something else war on Sam’s face for a second before she scoffs and glares away.  “You’re really not going to tell us what happened?” she asks.

“I… don’t know if you’d believe me,” Danny says quietly, looking down at his awful school lunch that is leagues better than the almost nothing he’s probably eaten the past couple weeks.

Sam gives a bitter laugh, shaking her head.  “Oh my god.”

“Sam,” Tucker says, narrowing his eyes at her.

“What?” Sam asks, turning her glare to him again.  “Are you trying to pretend you haven’t spent the last three weeks terrified out of your mind too?”

Danny fights to not hunch over on himself.

“I’m sorry,” he says instead, turning to look at Sam.  “I really am.  I didn’t want to scare you.  I’m sorry.”

Sam looks at him firmly for a long second, and she must see something in his face that makes her believe him, because she stabs at the limp broccoli on her tray without looking at it and says, “You gonna do it again?”

Danny shakes his head and prays to whatever’s out there listening that he’s not lying right now.  If Desiree was around, he might even make a wish on it.

Sam seems to accept that at least a little bit.  She turns and takes a bite of her vegetables.  “If you do I’ll murder you,” she says.

You’re a couple months late for that, Danny doesn’t say.  Instead he just nods.

“So,” Tucker says, drawing both of their attentions with a much more easygoing smile on his face.  “I imagine you’ve got a lot of homework to make up, Danny.  You want to move our hangouts to after school while you’re doing that at least?”

Danny smiles gratefully at him, and Sam sighs and mutters, “Yeah, sure, whatever.”

So that’s where they end up, and Danny immediately appreciates how almost-normal it feels.  One of the last clear memories he has before things start getting fuzzy is studying in the same library with Sam and Tucker, so in a way it feels like picking up where he left off— with some unwelcome tension added to the air.

Danny spends the first half hour or so doing homework while Tucker and Sam talk idly next to him about things they’ve done in the past three weeks that he’s apparently missed out on.  Unlike lunch, there’s no anger involved, just awkwardness and hesitation, which is… better, he supposes.

Finally after an hour, when he’s only finished a tiny bit of homework for one of his classes, he sits back in his chair and massages his temples.  “This is gonna take me a month.”

“Well, you did miss almost a month of work,” Sam says, with a not-very-sympathetic smile.  “You don’t really have anyone to blame but yourself.”

“I’m gonna get so tired of that sentiment,” Danny says, dropping his head into an open textbook.

“It’s true.”

“I know,” Danny mutters without lifting his head.

“Did you at least have fun while you were on your runaway vacation?” Tucker asks.

Danny pulls his head up and finds Tucker now leaning on the table in front of him.

“No,” he says, because he’s sick of lying.

Tucker winces.  “Ouch.”

Sam snorts.  “Serves you right.”

“Sam,” Tucker says, at the same time Danny waves her off with “I know, I know, I get it.”

Sam sighs, and pushes herself up on the table.  “Alright, look.  You should probably lie low for the first month or two.  But when your parents eventually stop watching you closer I can help you sneak out for a little fun from time to time.”

Danny gives her a grateful smile.  “Thanks, Sam.”

“Yeah, yeah.  You owe me one.”

“I already owe you one,” Danny says.

“You got that right,” Sam says, crossing her arms with a smirk.  She probably thinks he means her forgiving him so quickly.  He doesn’t.

They don’t stay much longer, because the hour after school in the library is the only time his parents gave him before he has to go home.

As soon as he gets a free moment, when his parents are busy making dinner, he sneaks downstairs and looks up Danny Phantom on the computer.

Just as he expected, it’s not great.  Most of the things it lists Phantom as doing are robberies and property damage, about what he expects.  But there’s also quite a few mentions of him being cruel to the other ghosts in Freakshow’s circus, and he… cannot figure out how he feels about that.

Fighting ghosts is nothing new, obviously.  But the ghosts in Freakshow’s circus didn’t choose to be there.  He didn’t choose to hurt them either, but he still feels kind of uncomfortable with it, with the idea that it happened and he doesn’t even remember it.

“Danny?”

Danny yelps and closes the window on the computer, spinning around to see Jazz standing there.

“Jazz,” he says weakly.  “I uh, I didn’t hear you come down here.”

“Dinner’s ready,” Jazz says, giving him a look he can’t read.

She looks at the computer, and it’s way too obvious she saw what he was looking at.

“You know,” she says, turning back to him.  “Unless you’re just catching up on the ghost fighting from the past couple weeks, I wouldn’t put too much thought into Phantom.”

Danny blinks.  “Uh, why?”

Jazz rolls her eyes.  “He was so obviously under the control of that Freakshow guy,” she says.  “Don’t you think?”

“What?” Danny stares at her.  “How would you know that?”

Jazz gives him a soft smile and leans forward to kiss the top of his head.  “Just a hunch I have,” she says.

“Gross, get off me,” Danny says, though he can’t put any real bite into it and he’s pretty sure Jazz can tell.

“I pay attention, you know,” Jazz says, stepping back.

Danny swallows.  “Yeah?  How much?”

“Enough to know that robbery and property damage isn’t Phantom’s MO,” Jazz says with a roll of her eyes.  “And that those reports aren’t gonna say anything about what he’s actually like.”  She pauses and looks at Danny for a minute, then clears her throat and looks away.  “You know, just in case you’re curious about that kind of thing.  You should find better sources.”

“And what are you, a journalist?” Danny asks.

“I’m just… concerned,” Jazz says hesitantly.  “I hope that… wherever Phantom is, he’s doing okay.  I hope he knows it’s not his fault.”

Danny doesn’t say anything, and he and Jazz stare at each other for a minute.

They’re interrupted by their mom calling from upstairs, “Kids, are you coming or not?”

“We’re coming Mom!” Jazz calls back.  She looks back at Danny and nods her head up the steps, and Danny shuts off the computer and follows her up.

…

He’s not that shocked when he gets nightmares about Freakshow, but it’s definitely inconvenient.  If he can think of one thing that won’t help with getting things back to normal, it’s being consistently sleep deprived.

The worst part is that he can’t really be sure which of the nightmares are his brain throwing his worries back in his face, and which parts are actually his brain putting together things that have happened that he can’t remember right.

Honestly, maybe it doesn’t matter that much.  Either way, he doesn’t get a full night of sleep once for the first week he’s back.  He can tell Jazz notices, though he’s pretty sure his parents aren’t picking up on anything, and none of them say anything.  He tries his hardest to pay attention at school, because he really can’t afford to fall behind due to falling asleep in class.

Unfortunately, between trying to act normal around his family and pay attention during school, that means he usually spends the first half hour with Sam and Tucker passed out asleep on top of his textbooks.

“Dude,” Tucker says, after the fifth school day in a row of waking him up so he can do at least some of the homework he’s missed.  “What time are you going to bed?”

“Yeah Danny, I never thought I’d be the one to say this, but maybe you need to go to sleep a little bit earlier,” Sam says, raising an eyebrow.

“You act like I’m not trying that,” Danny mutters, rubbing at his eyes.

“What’s stopping you?” Sam asks.

“Uh,” Danny says, not having thought that far ahead.

“Danny, seriously, on top of being the only time you can get your homework done, this is also the only time we get to hang out with you for a while,” Sam says.  “I’d appreciate it if you could stay awake for all of it.”

“I’m trying, honestly,” Danny says, leaning back in his chair.  “It’s not like I don’t care.  I do.”

“Then what’s going on, Danny?” Tucker asks.  “You know you can still talk to us, right?  You can always talk to us.”

Danny winces.

Well, maybe he can start small.

“I… I’ve had a couple nightmares,” he admits, running a hand through his hair as he sits up.  He pulls his homework closer so he doesn’t have to look either of them in the eyes.  “It’s not a big deal.”

“Nightmares about what?” Sam asks, giving him a look he can feel without looking back.  “Did something happen?”

“I really don’t want to talk about it,” Danny says.  “Can we just acknowledge it and move on?”

“Uh, no?” Sam says, reaching forward and pulling the homework away from him.

“Hey!” Danny says, turning to her.

“You can’t just say something like that and not expect followup questions,” Sam says, crossing her arms.  “Nightmares about what happened while you were gone?”

Danny sighs.  “Maybe.”

“What happened?” Tucker asks, obvious concern in his voice and on his face.

Danny looks up at him, not having a clue what to say.  Should he explain the one about blasting all of the other ghosts into the concrete hard enough to cause a dent, or the one about terrorizing a small child and her mother to get them away from the paintings they were trying to steal?

Neither of those sound like they’ll come without follow up questions.

Danny reaches over and pulls his homework back over in front of him.  “There just wasn’t a lot of food going around,” he says, settling on the one human experience he can reliably count on.

There’s a couple seconds of silence, and then Tucker gives a long sigh.  “Dude,” he says.  “Why did it take you so long to come back?”

“I need to get this science homework done,” Danny says in lieu of a reply.

Neither of them say anything back to him.

Strangely enough, the first one who comes up with something that’s actually helpful in regards to the nightmares is Jazz.  And she seems to do it unintentionally, like she’s been doing a lot lately.  She very casually at dinner one night brings up an article she’s read about how rewriting the endings of nightmares can sometimes be a good way for someone to calm down after having them, then starts discussing the science of dreams and sleep and how both of them are important and how to make sure both of them are going as smoothly as they can.

…Okay, maybe this time it’s a little more intentional than she wants to let on.

That doesn’t mean her ideas aren’t worth trying, though, so Danny gets a notebook to keep on the nightstand for alternate endings to write down.  (He’ll destroy the pages every morning for privacy purposes, but he draws the line at getting a night light.)

It ends up being helpful enough that he can at least fall back asleep, which is a big improvement, if the ideas he writes down seem a little unrealistic, with how hard it actually was to break out of Freakshow’s control.  Either way, he’s not so tired, and despite how loathe he is to admit it, he has Jazz to thank for that.

Not that he’ll ever tell her that, of course.

…

It’s a week and a half after he returns that things change in a meaningful way.  He hasn’t had any ghost fighting to do since getting back, but that changes during lunch on Monday.  Not anything he can’t handle, just a quick eye roll with the Box Ghost, but it apparently means something very different to the rest of Amity Park, and, more important to him personally, to Sam and Tucker.

“I mean honestly,” Sam is saying when Danny shows up at the library after school.  She’s pacing back and forth across the library, and though Tucker waves at him when he notices him, Sam continues marching angrily in front of the table.

“Who does he think he is, showing up like nothing’s different?  First of all, he ruined Circus Gothica, and then he just shows up expecting everyone to still see him as the hero?  That’s not how that works!”

“Hey Danny,” Tucker says as he approaches.  “Don’t mind Sam, she’s pissed off about the ghost fight today.”

“Why?” Danny asks, setting his bag down on the table.  “I didn’t think that was really your scene.”

“Not until that Invis-o-Bill idiot made it personal by messing with my circus,” Sam says, rolling her eyes with obvious anger.  “And then expects everything he’s done in the past couple weeks to just be brushed off.”

Danny sighs, reaching inside his backpack for his homework.  “Yeah, that figures.”

“What figures?” Tucker asks in confusion.

“Math figures,” Danny says, dropping his notebook on the table.  “Gonna try and knock out a lot of the math homework today.”

“Uh, fair enough?” Tucker says, still sounding confused.  “But honestly Sam, at least he seems to have gotten over whatever’s been going on and isn't actively being malicious anymore.”

“Great, so we’re supposed to reward him for the bare minimum?”

“Do we have to talk about this right now?” Danny asks, looking up with what he hopes comes off as annoyance.  “I get enough of ghosts from my parents, I was kind of appreciating you guys actually being a break from all of that.”

“Look, you don’t get it,” Sam says.  “I don’t imagine you’ve been following ghost news for the past couple weeks, but he’s—”

“I don’t want to talk about him,” Danny snaps, giving Sam as firm a glare as he dares to right now.

Sam raises her eyebrows.  “Excuse me?”

“Sam, honestly, I’ll let you be as mad at me as you need for as long as you want,” Danny says.  “But please, can you back off with the ghosts?  My parents already think I was kidnapped by them or something, I don’t want to talk about them during the only time of the day I can actually relax for a little bit.  Okay?”

Thankfully, Sam and Tucker both go quiet.  Now he’ll just have to hope that neither of them actually ask his parents about that excuse and realize he already told them that’s not what happened.

But apparently he’s misjudged their silence, because after a minute Tucker taps his textbook with a pencil, drawing his attention.

He looks up and finds Tucker and Sam both looking at him like they’re trying to come up with the right way to say something.

He blinks.  “What?”

“Danny,” Tucker says slowly.  “If I ask you something, can you promise not to freak out?”

“No,” Danny says honestly.

Tucker considers this for a second.  “Fair.  I’m gonna ask anyway.  Did you actually run away of your own free will?”

Danny goes stiller than, well, a dead person.  “What?”

“Did you actually run away?”

Danny looks back and forth between him, and then Sam, and then back.  “Why are you asking me that?”

“Dude,” Tucker says, leaning closer.  “You’re not acting like yourself.  Even ‘just made a huge mistake and now everyone’s mad at you’ yourself.  You’re having nightmares, and you don’t want to talk about what’s causing them.  Did you actually run away?”

Danny opens his mouth, shuts it, and looks down at his math textbook.

“…Danny,” Sam says, sounding baffled and angry but also more concerned than he’s heard from her since he got back.  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because that’s something you just say in the middle of the hallway,” Danny snaps despite himself.

“Danny, come on,” Sam says.  “Why are you just letting everyone be mad at you then?  You need to tell someone—”

“No,” Danny says.

“What?  Dude,” Tucker says, leaning forward with obvious worry.  “They could go after someone else, or come after you again—”

“He won’t.”

“You can’t know that!”

“Yeah, well, I do,” Danny says, keeping his gaze very firmly on his math homework.  “And I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You know what?  Fine,” Sam snaps, pushing her chair back and grabbing her bag.  “Because you’re being ridiculous.”

With that, she turns and marches out of the library.

Danny doesn’t say anything in protest and starts working on the first math problem on the sheet.

“You know,” Tucker says quietly.  “She was really really scared when you weren’t here.”

Danny keeps writing.

“She was worried something was gonna happen to you and she’d never see you again,” Tucker continues.  “I…” there’s a pause, and then he sighs.

“I’m not gonna make you talk about anything you don’t want to, dude,” he says.  “Just… know that she’s not actually mad at you.  She’s just still scared.”

Danny sighs and puts his pencil down.  “Yeah,” he says.  “I know.”

Tucker reaches out and puts a hand on Danny’s shoulder, in a way that should feel really awkward but somehow doesn’t.  “You know you can tell me anything,” he says.  “Right?”

Danny looks away.

“Okay,” Tucker sighs.  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He picks up his stuff and leaves.

…

Danny spends the night laying on his bed tossing a ball up in the air and trying to catch it.  He has to get up and chase it down more often than he’d like, he’s not exactly the most athletic person out there.

He ignores his growing stomach and skips dinner, telling his mom he’s not feeling well.  He can always go down and grab something after everyone else falls asleep.

After dinner, however, he hears a knock on his  door.

“What?”

“Can I come in?” Jazz asks.

Danny pauses in tossing the ball in the air and considers for a moment.  “Yeah.”

The door opens as Danny resumes tossing the ball.  Jazz walks in, then closes the door behind her and heads over towards the bed, already looking concerned. 

“Are you doing okay?” she asks.  “You were upset about something when I came to pick you up, and now you’ve been up here for hours.”

Danny manages to actually catch the ball and sits up, setting it down next to him.  “Okay, what is with you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been acting like, aggressively supportive since I got back,” Danny says.  “Sam is angrier at me than you.  Mom and Dad are angrier at me than you.”

“I’m your sister,” Jazz says.  “It’s not my job to get angry at you.  It’s my job to support you.”

“No, you’re my sister,” Danny says.  “It’s your job to tease me relentlessly and make my life way harder.”

Jazz gives him a look.  “You really don’t need that right now.”

“And why should you care?” Danny snaps.  “I brought this on myself, remember?”

Jazz doesn’t say anything.

“I just, I’m trying to understand what your deal is,” Danny says.  “Do you want something?  Are you trying to butter me up for some reason?  What are you getting out of this?”

Jazz gives him what almost seems like a sad look, then reaches forward and squeezes Danny’s hand.  “I’m worried about you,” she says quietly.

“Why?” Danny says, pulling his hand away.

Jazz sighs, looking down at the bed.  “Because we both know you didn’t run away, Danny.”

Danny throws his hands up.  “This again?  I’m fine.  No one died, no one hurt me, I didn’t have to hurt— people, so I’m fine!”

Jazz gives him a look.  “That is in no way how that works.”

Danny shakes his head, glaring down at the covers.

Jazz nudges him gently in the side.  “I’m not going to make you say something you’re not ready to,” she says.  “Just know that you can tell me anything, Danny.”

With that, she stands and starts to walk out, and Danny feels a weight press down on his chest, one he’s barely sure he can take anymore.

“Jazz, wait,” he says, reaching out and catching her arm.

Jazz pauses and turns back around.  “Yeah?”

“I—” Danny says, and stops.  Nerves start to crawl up his throat.  He half expects his ghost sense to go off, but it’s not that kind of anxiety.

He takes a deep breath.  “If I tell you something,” he says.  “Can you promise to let me explain everything before you make any kind of judgment?”

Jazz smiles at him.  “I promise,” she says with a nod.

Danny takes a shaky breath.  “I, um.”  He stops.

“Yeah?” Jazz probes gently.

“Sorry,” he mutters, looking down and clenching his hands around his blankets.  “I don’t think I’ve ever actually said it out loud before.”

Jazz reaches out and puts her hand over his.  “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” she says.  “I… already know.”

Danny jerks his head up.  “What?”

By the look on her face, he can tell they both mean exactly the same thing.

“You…” Danny says weakly.  “How long?”

“Uh, since the Spectra thing,” Jazz says, rubbing the back of her neck with a sheepish smile.  “I wanted to give you a chance to tell me yourself.”

Danny gapes at her for a second, Jazz gives him a soft smile.

“And you…” he says finally.  “You don’t care?”

“Of course I care,” Jazz says, crossing her arms.  “I care that you’re safe.  I care that if you don’t want someone to know, they don’t find out.  I care that you’re my brother and you’ve been trying to do this all alone.  I care that some jerk ran off with you and has been forcing you to do things you clearly don’t want to do for the past month.”

Danny winces and looks down.

“Are you okay?” Jazz says, sitting down on the bed next to him.

“Not… really,” Danny says.

Jazz wraps her arms around him and pulls him over towards her, and this time he doesn’t pull away.

“I don’t like watching you do this all by yourself,” Jazz says.  “Can I help you?”

Now Danny does pull away, if just to stare at her in bafflement.  “You want to help?”

“Of course I want to help,” Jazz says, like that’s obvious.  “If anything, the past month is a clear sign that you shouldn’t be doing this by yourself.”

Well, he can’t exactly argue with her there.  Still…

“It’s dangerous, Jazz,” he says.

Jazz raises her eyebrows.  “All the more reason I don’t want you rushing into danger without backup.”

“I can handle it,” he says.  “That’s what the ghost powers are for.”

“Danny.”  Jazz leans forward, giving him a pointed look.  “I want to help you.  Okay?”

Danny looks at her for a minute.  He takes a breath.  “Okay.”

Jazz leans forward and pulls him into another hug, and for once, Danny can know she means it.  His brain can’t make any arguments about how she wouldn’t be doing this if she knew, because she does know.

And, well.

He could get used to that.

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

@mikami1992 Hey, lots of people do JL and DP crossovers by having Batman discover Danny or Amity Park but what do you think about Superman chasing a bad guy and defeating them just outside of this random city and the bad guy manages to escape into the city.

Clark uses his X ray vision to try and keep track of/ find the villian only to notice a terrifying amount of medical supplies hidden in walls/floors/cielings/roads/everywhere and he starts freaking out about it. Who needs this much medical supplies? Why are they hidden in things? How are they hidden like this? There's no hidden leavers or switches that he could find. Even more worrying is that some of the medical supplies looked to be covered in blood. Some old. Some very fresh.

This felt like magic. He should definitely call for back up.

Meanwhile, Danny was resting in bed, trying not to ruin his fresh bandages when he felt-and i quote, "a disturbance in the force"

[thegurlwhoisntthere]

I feel like Arcadia Oaks from Tales of Arcadia and Amity Park from Danny Phantom, if they existed in the same universe, would both be weird, but like, in opposite ends of the spectrum.

Like, Arcadia sits on top of a primordial hearthstone, the last one and also the biggest. Magic radiates throughout the town. Everyone who lives there is a little more in tune with nature. Everything and everyone is just a little too perfect. Everyone’s a little to pretty. They live a little too long. Their eyes sparkle with something more. Their streets are too clean and outsiders feel like they’re walking into a dream when they visit. It’s almost eerily enchanting.

Amity Park is on the opposite spectrum. Everything there is off. When comparing the two towns, people will notice a lot of similarities but they can’t quite put there finger on what makes Amity so off-putting. Everyone lives a little too long. Their eyes sparkle with something more. All of these qualities are shared between the two towns, but one is enchanting and the other is terrifying.

Either way, very few outsiders can stand to stay more than a few days.

[nightwanderers12081]

Been talking with some friends and i have another dp au(void help me)

Danny Phantom Phasmophobia au

Sam and Tucker decide they want to go to this creepy house in this small town outside Amity Park, Danny hesitantly tags along

When he enters the house, He feels this oppressive aura, and his core is screaming at him to leave(He does not, But hes really wary and on edge)

Eventually someone in their trio has to go in alone, Danny reluctantly goes in(He doesn't want Sam or Tucker to get hurt)

The aura from before is more intense now

Eventually the ghost would appear(I imagine they're pissed that humans are disturbing their haunt), and they cant tell Danny's a ghost at first until they get close

When they do, Danny cant move or speak, the feeling from before is overwhelming and hes fucking terrified

His core is telling him to look away, not to appear as a threat, so he does

The ghost realizes that Danny's a young ghost, and a halfa at that, so they take pity and calm Danny down, and explain to them a few things(that i'll explain in a second), and let him go with a light warning not to disturb another's Haunt

On the other side of this, Sam and Tucker are terrified for Danny when the ghsot started hunting, and then after when Danny's Radio suddenly stops working, They try to break into the house but cant manage to get in

They're so relieved when Danny walked through the door, visably shaken up but other then that, completely fine

They decide to leave after that, and Later Danny fills them in on what happened afterwards(They apologize to him for pushing him into that situation in the first place)

NOW FOR SOME HC AND LORE STUFF OF THIS WORLD

Theres a difference between Haunts in the Ghost Zone(Lairs), and in the human world

Amity park is an exception and i'll explain that in a bit

All Haunts should be treated with respect, Ghosts dont enter a haunt uninvited, attack someone in their own haunt, etc. Thats the extent of it for Lairs, Since ghosts are really the only beings in the infinite realms, theres no need for any protection

In the human world however, Humans and other creatures disturb haunts quite frequently, to counter act this, Ghosts who reside in the human realm have a oppressive/protective aura to chase away anyone unwanted, and by extention, any curious ghosts looking to claim the haunt as their own. Sometimes, Ghosts will fight eachother for a haunt in the human world, hence why the aura affects them aswell

Amity Park is an odd case. The entire city is considered Phantom's haunt, which is pretty big for a haunt. Whats stranger is that Phantom is much more welcoming then other ghosts, allowing other ghosts to reside in Amity as long as they dont cause any trouble

His aura is still protective, and intimidating to new ghosts entering, but it isn't as intense or intimidating as other ghosts.

Another thing is that a ghost's aura depends on age of the ghost, along with how long they've had/how close they are to their haunt.

Halfa's are also a fun topic, They get the same instincts ghosts do, but they dont get any information when it comes to ghost taboo, rules, traditions, etc. Danny in this didn't know the rules about human haunts, but his instincts acted up anyways, which is why he was on edge and reacted to the aura

Alot of Phasmophobia/Danny Phantom idea's ive seen where danny wasn't completely dead seemed to have Danny as confident and unphased by other ghosts, so I thought this would be a nice different take on the idea ~ Ender/Whisper

[q-gorgeous]

Local Traditions

fanfiction

ao3

word count: 2026

Amity Park has a lot of strange local traditions that baffle outsiders.

phic phight lets gooo

“Why did we come back here?”

“Come on, Parker. We’re finally gonna catch us some ghosts in this city.”

Parker followed slowly behind him. “I thought you said this wasn’t the place we were looking for? And we weren’t able to get anywhere near any of the ghosts. What would make this time any different, Don?”

Don turned around with a big smile on his face. “Because we’re gonna start how we should’ve started in the first place. We just came in assuming we were gonna be able to find a ghost to capture without knowing what any of the patterns are. Where the ghost attacks happen, how often, which ghosts are attacking.”

He pulled a notebook out of his pocket and shook it around. “We’re going to observe first and then make a plan on how we’re going to capture our ghosts. This time I’m sure we’ll get it.”

Parker shook his head. “What are we starting with?”

Don continued walking down the sidewalk. “We’re going to observe what the residents are doing in relation to the ghosts. They’re gonna know best the patterns of the ghosts. Which ones are a danger and which ones they don’t have to worry about.”

“Okay. We’re going to use this to try to predict when a ghost attack will happen?” Parker asked.

“Yes. Exactly.” Don pointed at someone stepping outside of their house. “There’s someone now! Observe.”

This person who had just exited the house was carrying a cardboard box. They were sure they were taking the box to the recycling bin, but instead it was placed in the grass by their garage. Parker and Don waited until they made their way back instead before they headed across the street to see what was in the box. 

Parker knelt down and started rummaging through it. “We have a box of… Smaller boxes? Bubble wrap, sandwiches, and.. A single left shoe? What is this?”

“Maybe-” Don was cut off when a booming voice started talking behind them. 

“Beware!” He shouted. “I am the box ghost! And how dare you, foolish humans, plan to steal my offerings!” 

“Offerings?” Don asked. “People give offerings to the ghosts?”

“The people of this town understand how powerful and terrifying I am! With my sharp corrugated corners and the booming pops of my bubble wrap! They offer me items in exchange for me not releasing my wrath on this little mortal city!” 

Don and Parker exchanged a look together before looking back at the ghost. The ghost stared at them for a few more moments.

The ghost blinked at them.

“I am the box ghost!” 

He suddenly grabbed the box out of Parker’s hands and flew away, disappearing in between the buildings of the city. 

Don opened his notebook and wrote out the box ghost’s name. “He must be a powerful ghost if they’re offering him things in exchange for him not attacking them.”

“I think he’s annoying.” Parker said.

“Let’s go observe more things. This is a good start.” 

They were walking down another street when they caught a whiff of something. 

Parker groaned. “What is that smell? It smells like a sweaty cookie.” 

“I actually think it smells like gym socks and snickerdoodles.” Don said, scrunching up his nose. 

“I think it might be coming from that house over there.” Parker pointed at a blue house. Outside, a teenager was spraying something on the bushes outside their windows. 

They walked up to the boy. Don smiled at him. “That sure is some pesticide. We could smell it from all the way over there.”

The boy’s eyes lit up. “Glad you caught the smell. It’s my cologne, Foley. By Tucker Foley.”

Parker's eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up. “Why are you spraying cologne all over your bushes?”

“Gentlemen.” Tucker walked over to them. “Have you ever wanted a cost effective ghost repellent that also acts as the most womanizing cologne ever? The Fenton’s make all sorts of equipment and weapons, but most of them are not for public sale. And if they are, they’re very expensive! Foley by Tucker Foley is only a fraction of the cost! And it works just as well as a ghost shield!” 

He leaned forward. “If you’re interested, I can even give you a deal. Two for the price of one. Or half off a gallon bucket with a pesticide wand. What do you say?” 

“Sorry, but I don’t think pesticide cologne is really my thing.” Parker said. 

Don was busy scribbling in his notebook. “How did you discover this mix of ingredients was a ghost repellent?”

Tucker puffed out his chest with the proudest look on his face. “Lucky shot. Got it on my first try. Discovered it when the school got infected by ghost mosquitoes. It works on regular mosquitoes too, if that convinces you at all.”

“This is how they got rid of the mosquitoes?” Parker whispered to Don. “Weird.”

“Thank you for all this information. Maybe we’ll have to think on it and come back. Have a nice day!” 

“You’re not serious are you?” Parker gaped at Don. “This kid’s cologne is probably just so rank that the ghosts wanted to get as far away from it as possible. I can’t believe people are spraying it outside their houses. That’s probably what I’ve been smelling this whole time.” 

“We’re observing, Parker.” Don looked at him. “We could get the cologne and compare it to the Fenton’s anti-ecto weapons.”

Parker shook his head. “Anyways. We’ve been at this for awhile, should we head and get some grub? I’m getting hungry.” 

“Sure. I could go for some food. You up to burgers? I saw some place called the Nasty Burger and it looked kinda cool.”

“That name does not bode well for us.” Parker typed the name into his phone. “Let’s go.” 

It was busy when they got to the Nasty Burger. They walked inside and saw that the line was long. As they walked through the building towards the end of the line, they couldn’t help but notice one strange delicacy that everyone seemed to have on their tray. 

“What are they eating? Roses?” Parker leaned forward to whisper in Don’s ear. “That’s so strange. What a weird item for a fast food place to carry.”

“Sam, you have to go get my food for me. I can’t go up to the counter.”

“You just don’t want to order for yourself.”

“No, Sam. The flowers! It’s flower friday.”

“Flower friday?” Don questioned. 

“Fine. Just go save our spot. Tucker can order when he gets here.”

“Next!” The cashier called. Don walked up to the counter.

“Hi! Can we get two mighty meaty cheesy melt meals?”

She punched their order into the register. “Anything else?”

“No, thank you! That’ll be all.”

She hit another button and looked back up to them. “Your total is $14.77. Would you like a complimentary blood blossom with that?”

“A what?” Parker frowned at the name. 

She looked at them like they were dense. “A complimentary blood blossom. It’s an edible flower with anti-ghost properties. Eating them helps ward against overshadowing.”

“Uh..” Don hesitated. “Sure. We’ll try some.”

They paid her and she printed their receipt out. “Your order will be ready soon. You can wait over there to pick it up when it’s done.”

“Thank you.” 

“This town is strange.” Parker’s eyes widened as a realization came over him. “If all these people are developing their own ecto-signatures, do you think they’ll ever get to the point where they won’t be able to consume these blood blossoms anymore?” 

Don’s eyes opened wide and he turned to face Parker. “That’s such a good question. I don’t even know.”

The girl who was behind them in line laughed as she was talking to the cashier.

“Sorry, no blood blossoms for us today, Valerie. You know how Danny’s allergies are. He won’t even order his own food on flower Friday’s.” 

Valerie barked out a laugh. “I can understand that though. Tell Fenton I say hi, will you.”

“I will. Thanks.”

“Fenton? That Danny kid is the one who registered as a level eight ectoplasmic entity the last time, right?” Don asked. 

“Yeah.” Parker looked at the table the Fenton kid had sat down at. “Weird that he registers as a level eight ghost and he’s also allergic to the ghost repelling flowers.” 

“Yeah. That is weird.” Their food came out to the counter. Don grabbed the bag and started walking toward the booth the Fenton kid sat in. “Come on. Let’s see if we can overhear any information.” 

They slid into the booth next to the teenager and started digging into their food. Even with the offputting name of the restaurant, the food was pretty good. 

Sam walked over and slid into the booth behind the. “Valerie says hi.”

Danny sighed. Don peeked over the top of the booth to see him lovingly looking towards the counter. He could practically feel the eyeroll Sam was giving her friend followed by a snort. 

“You better not let her catch you looking at her like that during patrol again. The last time she almost got you pretty badly.” 

“Come onn, it wasn’t that bad.” 

“She broke your nose.”

Don shot Parker a bewildered look at that. Parker stopped mid chewing to make a face. 

“Whatever. I just have to be more careful when I’m looking at her.”

“Danny-”

“What is up my dudes.”

“That Tucker kid is friends with him too?” Parker asked. 

Don stood up and tried peering over the top of the booth again and looked eyes with the girl. She frowned at him.

“Can we help you?” 

Don jumped. “Ah, sorry. I was just, uh, you’re the Fenton kid right?”

He nodded. “You guys are the weird ghost hunters from out of town that didn’t know what they were doing, right?”

“What, we knew what we were-”

Sam barked out a laugh. “You thought I was a ghost and just grabbed me. As if that would do anything to restrain a ghost. How’d the pepper spray feel?”

Don’s eyes widened again. “Not great.”

“Good. Now how about you guys leave us alone. Unless you both want to get sprayed this time.”

“Leave me out of this. I'm sitting in my seat minding my own business and eating my food.” Parker said. Don glared at him. 

“Now, now, Sam. Maybe they were interested in buying some Foley. By Tucker Foley. I was giving them my pitch on my ghost repellent slash cologne earlier today.” 

Sam rolled her eyes. “We do not need any more people spraying that stuff all over town. It stinks.” 

“But my profits are-”

Suddenly the Fenton kid stood up and ran towards the bathroom. Then the whole restaurant went silent. 

People started standing up and packing up their food. Don and Parker looked around, unsettled.

“Hey, kids. Where’s everyone going?”

A jock was walking by their table and overheard them. “What are you new here? Everyone knows that if Fentina runs to the bathroom like that a ghost attack will follow.”

“Are you serious?” Parker asked. “Everyone just takes that as gospel?”

“Yeah.” Don looked towards the bathroom. “That’s strange.”

Sam shrugged and packed up her food. “That’s fine. You don’t have to believe us. Stay if you want.”

Don nodded. “We will.”

Tucker snickered as they walked away and soon the restaurant was empty except the two of them. 

“They can’t be serious.” Parker took another bite of his food. “Why would the Fenton kid’s potty breaks be any indication of when a ghost attack is going to happen?”

Don shrugged. “Maybe none of their traditions actually do anything. Except for the Box Ghost one. He actually took those things.”

“Maybe everyone here is just-”

“Feel my fury!” 

The voice of an older woman emanated through the room. The doors to the kitchen burst in and a meat tornado flew out. It only lasted a few seconds before it moved outside, but when everything settled and went quiet, Don and Parker looked at each other, both covered in meat.

“Don.”

“Yeah, Parker.”

“Can we go home?”

[astravis]

One thing I think the fandom doesn’t take enough advantage of is the common description of how it takes ghosts a great deal of energy to present themselves within human perception. 

 And with this in mind— I’d like to see a take on Danny becoming MORE ghostly as he loses energy. Instead of Phantom struggling to float and his aura dimming when he’s wiped— the opposite occurs. It’s an AU where Phantom appearing solidly human, walking, and audibly speaking in the human plane of reality takes effort. 

- Frankly that makes for a more terrifying introduction to being a halfa given that he friends would not immediately perceive his ghost form 

- Getting a handle on his ghostly attributes slipping in while human may instead feel like he's being pulled out of reality 

 - It’d be more logical for people to NOT draw the connection between Fenton and Phantom if he’s less discernible and rarely appears solid. Descriptions would be more word-of-mouth and fall to those limitations and distortions. 

- 100% higher cryptid energy 

- More likely to amass folk tales, myths, and rituals about how to spot or contact him 

- There would be times where Tucker and Sam can only perceive him via a camera and the ghost gabber 

[- Comedic potential where Tucker is just trying to get his Nasty Burger order but he has to decode a series of eerie, obscure photos and garbled, distorted audio recordings] 

- Some ghost fights are entirely outside of human perception 

[- Comedic potential where Lancer is just chilling with tea and some ungraded papers while Phantom and some other ghost are having a b r a w l around and through him. Think of all the silly scene matching with the contrast between the mundane and intensively serious. Lancer brings his cup up to his lips while Phantom drags the ghost up to his chin. Lancer places a paper into the finished pile while Phantom slams the ghost through the desk]

 [- Like Youngblood some ghosts screw around with the living in the silliest ways just to make Danny's eye twitch] 

- I’d argue there’s a more profound influence on Danny managing his identity if he has to actively try to appear solidly human when in ghost form

- On the other hand… if appearing within human perception and physically interacting within the world is energy draining for all ghosts with the exception of halfas (as in obeying the rules of “Phantom seems more human the more drained he is before reverting”) then that holds its own potential. That’s one aspect that makes Phantom perceptibly different from the other ghosts. 

- This is new material for suspicion arcs/identity reveals 

- It makes it even easier for Amity Park residents to empathize with Phantom when he’s seen as more human 

- Thereby it’s easier for Phantom to be seen as an exception to the rule (This AU explains how the most violent and disruptive ghosts are the most humanly visible. Though this also serves as fodder for the Fenton’s going “he must have some backhanded motive albeit one convenient for Amity Park.” And I’ll stop myself at “is he truly good if he’s only self serving”) 

- Danny would have an even harder time dismantling an “all ghosts are evil” bias from his parents if he sees Phantom as a more human-like exception from ghosts. Well… I think Vlad would be his slap to the face regarding this issue 

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Amity Cryptids

ectoberhaunt2023 day 21- past prompt (2021/treat/cryptid) TW- none summary- The Fentons have always been weird

ao3 masterlist

Amity Park had always been weird. It’s citizens always just felt a little off to outsiders.

It only got worse after the portal opened. After they were sucked temporarily into the ghost zone.

Visitors never stayed long. They claimed the town was too far, too difficult to find.  And when Amity Parkers visited other places, people always gave them a wide berth. Hardly anyone looked them in the eye.

Amity Parkers just thought this was because people from bigger cities were rude. 

But even within Amity, those Fenton children were considered especially strange.

Especially the boy.

Strangers noticed it most. When they spotted one of the Fenton children, they froze till the perceived threat had passed. The effect was lessened for Amity Parkers but even still, whenever the children were around they couldn’t help feeling an intense sense of dread.

The girl gives weird vibes and her eyes are so perceiving. She can read you scarily easily.

The boy gives off fight or flight vibes, but mostly flight. He feels like looking at a predator and when he smiles, it’s all threat. 

The Fentons had always been strange. They had waltzed in talking about ghosts and portals, and the town had called them crazy. But then the ghosts had shown up, and everyone had to adjust. 

They changed, but it was okay. They were used to the chaos now, they embraced it, like all small towns embrace their singularities no matter how small. 

Ghosts were real. 

At first it had been terrifying, but things had settled down. They even had ghosts employed now!

But even before the portal opened, that Fenton girl had eyes that were too wide, that didn’t blink, and that seemed to stare into your soul. She’d make casual remarks about what would happen tomorrow or next week, and they always came true.

And then the boy was born. He had been average sized, but he had felt like he weighed nothing at all. This didn’t change as he got older. He moved silently and his teeth were sharper than they should be. When you looked at him, your brain registered a threat.

It only got worse after the portal.

The boy’s appearance wavered like a mirage and to look at him hurt your brain. The girl’s movements appeared otherworldly and it felt like she could tell what you were thinking.

Amity Park had always been strange, but those Fenton children; they were something else.

[hisuian-history-makers]

Post-Series Finale HCs: The Owl House (Spoiler!)

(From days to weeks) Right after;

—Raine spends time between recovering and pitching ideas to rebuild the Isles, reconnecting with Eda. They find out what music range the Owl Beast spirit cannot handle to avoid making their girlfriend (later wife) go deaf. Happiest they have been in years since the breakup.

—To limited degree, witches can use magic outside their coven sigil now. The sigils cannot completely block other magic-types only just restrict it. Biles sacks are pretty fragile though.

—Several cults/religions tried to start up once people learned King was a living Titan. Eda shut them down before they could get established—the Collector has a few cults too.

—Hooty helps Lilith practice her own Harpy form. Has to catch her several times as the other half of Owl Beast is less sentient(?) than Eda’s own curse. It grows to be a Raven. He finds being in his “Porta-Hooty” mode to be more fun since he can hang out with Lily.

—Alador spends time catching up with his kids. He likes to study how various beasts and animal species are adapting to the raised left arm. (If the Abomination track wasn’t expected of his family, he would have joined the Beast track.)

—Luz does, in fact, keep a portion of her Titan form’s power. Being in direct contact with such immense power has left its mark. She has fangs and magic will spark off her fingers whenever she holds Stringbean. Her shouts are loud!

—The decision to tear down the ruins of Belos’ castle is pretty unanimous. They find several thousands of snails hidden away, remains of the Grimwalkers, and old wild magic texts.

—So much rebuilding to be done. Not just buildings but the entire infrastructure of the Boiling Isles. People outside the main cast wonder what in the realm happened for everything to crazy during the Day of Unity.

—Hunter does some soul-searching in between joint custody of the Nocedas, Clawthornes, Parks, and Darius (plus Eber). There is a lot to unpack in his life after everything that went down. He ponders what being a Grimwwalker means, processes Flapjack’s passing, and what he is going to do going forward. The poor boy is traumatized to high heaven being raised under Belos/child soldier/clone of Caleb Clawthorne.

(Yes. I headcanon that Caleb took Evelyn’s last name or they refer to him by that after finding out what his brother did.)

—Eda jokes about Hunter technically being her and Lillith’s however-many-greats-grandfather.

—Wrath has to go through a redemption arc. Seriously! He sees how much Braxas missed him and begrudgingly accepts that the coven system was wrong. It takes a few years though.

—The Collector does not go straight back to the siblings who left him alone. This idea is argued for by the main cast who want them to spend time being a kid. King begs him to stay.

(I do not know how to write pronouns for a person who has He/him and They/them).

—On a side note, everyone who was ever mean to King is now genuinely terrified of him. :)

—People wonder why the Titan’s left arm is stretched out toward the sky. Even Luz does...

Four Years Later;

—The concept of carving a palistrum egg has boomed in popularity. Stringbean inspired many people to respect Palismen as individuals.

—Cultural trade between the Boiling Isles and Earth is still tentative. Unfortunately, Andrias’ invasion made humans wary of other realms. (We know ToH and Amphibia share a universe due to easter eggs. Might as well capitalize~)

—Gus secretly eats movie DVDs. He knows that they are supposed to be watched but they taste good. He will eat some on his lunch breaks.

—A president/representative has been put in charge of the Boiling Isles. Democracy is still new so there are a few kinks to work out. Each town has a few spokespeople for them to really give everyone a voice in how things are run.

—Luz, Amity, Willow, Gus, Hunter, Eda, King, Lillith, Raine, and the others are still the main celebrities on the island. Their popularity has finally died down from fan-worship levels much to their relief (Raine, Hunter, & King mainly).

—King keeps discovering glyph types outside his parent/father’s elemental ones. The combo testing can get a little crazy since this is his new magic language! He is really excited to learn it.

—Funnily enough, future students of Eda’s have visited using the time pools. They never say anything too revealing about the future but the subtle picture they paint is chaotic.

—The Basilisks help the Unversity of Wild Magic keep from burning down/freezing/exploding/imploding/getting damaged by wild studies.

—Willow acts as a motivational speaker for young witches and demons in the Flyer Derby off-season. The still-new freedom of magic can be overwhelming in sheer choices to the kids.

—Camila can only handle a certain amount of the Boiling Isles’ otherness. She loves that her first kid found such an accepting second home, really she does! But it is still a lot to take in...

—The Collector took care of the Titantrappers years ago. Only the youngest members are more open to interacting with King.

—Eda still finds it ironic she became a teacher.

—Amity spends her days exploring the world, though she is always a call away from Luz and her friends. She did not expect to fall in love with exploring different Titan-civilizations.

—Viney has interned under Camila to learn about Earth animals. The difference in biology between the two realms plays a part in how she judges treating pets at her mythical pet clinic. Some species react adversely to magic being used on them which she learns cause of it.

—Hunter gives each past Golden Guard a name based on what little he could find about their personalities. He still sees their ghosts but in a “guardian angel” way. Is for sure dating Willow.

...It. It took a while for him to carve Waffles.

[ghosttrolls]

HI I Love your Posts about trollhunters and Danny Phantom.

they are things i gad trollhunters is different form Danny Phantom

Jim only date one girl and everyone agrees that she is the best Choice for him.

and the main creator isn't a Dick.

but my Question for is if Dash were to become Like Steve was Expose the Ghost world Just Like him how do you think would've involved and this Time his memory stays Like Jez did.

Hi, thank you! Before I say anything else I would like to clarify that while I spend a lot of time comparing themes between the two shows, I don't really feel like one could replace the other - they're both so unique in their execution! Honestly, all the characters in both shows have personalities that couldn't be copied over between the two without the status quo of each show drastically changing. I don't really think of Danny Phantom and Trollhunters in terms of "Danny and Jim are the same person," but more like "Danny and Jim experience things that are interesting parallels of each other and I like to explore those narrative parallels," which I can understand being a kind of complicated distinction.

There definitely is a thing with both of these shows where they pick sort of Traditional Character Roles to some extent, like The Bully, The Hero, The Best Friend, The Romantic Interest, etc. So thinking in terms like that, Dash and Steve do fill kind of similar roles in their shows. I am pretty sure that Dash knows ghosts exist by the end of the show, even if you're writing off Phantom Planet (the final episode that people like to ignore happened). There's an episode where all the adults in Amity Park are brainwashed to go on a "cruise" which ends up just being a way for some ghosts to use them as a power source - but because the adults are brainwashed, the kids are the ones that have to save them, and Danny uses his parents' ghost tech to work together with all the other kids to fight the ghosts. This includes Dash. They all fight ghosts on the deck of a pirate ship, and Dash and Danny stand back to back as Dash says, "When I wail on you tomorrow, I'll be wailing on a hero. But I will be wailing on you." At this point in the show, Dash and other people know about and are fans of Danny Phantom... I don't think his memory gets wiped of the incident, but Danny does get in trouble for using the tech without asking and that makes him "lame" again in the eyes of the other high schoolers. I think that's meant to be the show's explanation for why it doesn't get brought up again later.

I'd love to consider what would happen if Dash had actually been more active within the ghost fighting community - I'm pretty sure he's one of those people who thinks it's "weird," so he'd probably need some convincing. But it would be super interesting if he learned that Danny was Phantom and joined the team! I'm not the first person to say this, but still. It would be cool. I did really enjoy in Trollhunters when Steve and Eli had just formed Creepslayerz but they were trying to keep it on the down low, and acted comically to cover their tracks. I imagine Dash would have to do something similar to keep his jock friends in the dark about Danny's secret... In general, DP never really gave us that big of a look into what Dash's life is like outside of school, other than throwing a party when his parents aren't around. If he joined the team in some way we'd be able to see more of his backstory and he'd become a much more fleshed out character!

And I know you didn't ask for my opinion on this, but I do wish that Steve had more development after the end of Trollhunters and 3Below. Like, he stopped bullying Jim and Eli, he got a girlfriend - and now we learn he's really scared all the time! And they make him kind of like a knight in Wizards but he's still like, terrified of everything, and bad at very simple tasks to an almost annoying extent. It makes me wonder if the trio really explained very much to him, because we didn't see any explaining happen on screen... and then it felt like they were hinting that Steve would learn some cool stuff from Lancelot, but that never happened. And WHY didn't Aja WARN HIM that he could become pregnant like that! That was so out of the blue too. I really liked how they had Steve develop as a character over the course of Trollhunters, so when he kind of stopped changing for most of the other TOA content, I was a little sad.

I guess this is just an appreciation post for bully characters that decide to become nicer. They deserve more love, for sure.

[scarletsaphire]

Lightning Rod: Dannymay Day 8: Electric Core AU

There's a thunderstorm, and Danny is missing. Jazz goes looking for him. She does not expect the lightning strikes to show her where he is.

Danny was missing. That was. Well, it wasn’t fine, but it wasn’t surprising either. He had been a lot more distant since what he had been referring to as the “Accident,” where he got zapped by the portal a few weeks ago. Jazz was worried. She was always worried to some extent; it was the result of having to basically be the parent since she was old enough to reach the kitchen counters by herself. But recently, she was even more worried, specifically about Danny.

It wasn’t just that he was distant, and that he was avoiding talking about the “Accident” with anyone besides Sam and Tucker. Jazz understood that. He had ended up hurt, and in the hospital, and even if he hadn’t ended up hurt, the fact that the portal had opened with him standing right there was probably enough for trauma to set in all on its own. It had only been a few weeks since it happened, and if it was in fact trauma, he’d likely need more time to digest it, time that she couldn’t spend trying to pry into his thoughts and feelings without making the problems worse. What worried Jazz was what he did when he wasn’t distant.

He tried to keep quiet during the night, but she shared a wall with him. She could hear the whimpers and cries of a nightmare at 2 AM. She could hear his terrified gasps and panicked breathing, mumbled curses and late night calls to his friends. She could hear the sound of things being knocked over as he… she didn’t know what exactly he was doing, but she knew it wasn’t good. She had left him a note on his desk, when he was downstairs getting breakfast before school. She didn’t want to pry, but she also wanted him to know that she was there for him. The note served that purpose just fine, even if he never mentioned it.

Then there was everything with their parents. Neither of them had what would be considered a good relationship with either of their parents, but it definitely wasn’t abusive. Neglectful, yes. Jack and Maddie may try to be good, but they were, and always had been, scientists first and parents second. Or scientists first, ghost hunters second, and parents third. But they had never hit either her or Danny, or threatened them, or anything that would make Danny flinch away from Jack’s touch, or avoid looking into Maddie’s eyes when she talked to him over dinner, or keep to the outside of the room, as quiet as a mouse, whenever one or both of them were in the room. It could have been some kind of teenage thing, being uncomfortable around their parents, but then Danny should be uncomfortable around her as well. He was, in some ways. But the discomfort he showed around her definitely fit more into the embarrassed teenager with overbearing parents than whatever he was doing with their actual parents.

Whatever was bothering Danny, it had to do with their parents. Whatever it was was apparently enough for him to have not returned home from school during a fairly bad thunderstorm. She had called both Sam and Tucker. They had said that he was with them, which should have been a relief, if they hadn’t both said at their respective houses. So one, or both, of them were lying, and if only one of them was lying, then there wouldn’t be much of a reason to lie in the first place. They were covering for Danny.

That’s why Jazz had taken her mother’s car (not the GAV. Until an actual ghost threatened her with whatever weapons ghosts might have, she would not drive that monstrosity.) and was currently driving around Amity Park, windows rolled down, shouting Danny’s name into the rain. She didn’t expect for her to find him, honestly. Amity wasn’t a huge town, but it was big. Too big to find a single kid that didn’t want to be found.

What Jazz expected to find less was that every single strike of lightning always seemed to land in the exact same place. It had taken her nearly 20 minutes to notice. She hadn’t really been paying attention; why would she? But after the flash of lightning struck straight into an empty parking lot 5 different times in about as many minutes, she got curious. It was stupid. She knew it was stupid. But she was still Jack and Maddie’s daughter, even if she wasn’t quite as dedicated to science as they were. This was too odd, too weird, for her to just leave. Curiosity and the cat and all of that.

The wind whipped at her hair and the raincoat she had pulled over herself on the way out of the house. It really was a bad storm. Jazz shouldn’t be out in it at all. But there was a chance that Danny was, and if nothing else she would be able to use this as an opportunity to guilt Danny into not going out in horrible storms without telling anyone where he was going. Maybe not the ethical solution, but he was her brother. A little manipulation here and there was to be expected. She approached the center of the parking lot, where she could see a washed out lump. She couldn’t make out the color in the rain and the dark, or the shape, or much of anything about it.

Lightning struck again, hitting the thing directly. In the brief flash of light she could make out the colors. Red and white shirt. Blue jeans. Black hair. Jazz froze, her breath caught in her throat. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be Danny. He looked up and met her eyes. It was most certainly him. She would know his face anywhere, even if his eyes glowed a sickly green, their light piercing through the rain. Even if every movement caused sparks to dance across his skin. It was her brother.

He saw her and she saw him, and before Jazz could do anything, say anything, he panicked. He was on his feet and backing away from her before she could blink. No, he wasn’t on his feet at all. He was upright, no longer curled into a ball like he was before, but he wasn’t standing. He was floating.

Danny’s voice cut through the wind and rain in a way that it shouldn’t be able to. When Jazz had been calling for him, she had had to scream over the torrential rain just to hear her own voice. Danny’s was strained, but not with the effort to be heard, just with worry. “You can’t be here,” he said as he floated away. The words buzzed like static in Jazz’s head. She took a step forward. “It’s not safe, you need to leave.”

“Danny,” she said quietly, her words eaten by the wind. She tried again. “Danny, its not safe for you either!” She kept making her way towards him, the wind fighting her every step of the way. “I have mom’s car, we can get home safe, you just need-” She was cut off by another lightning bolt, striking Danny directly.

It was barely a split second. The light was blinding, but Jazz swore she saw Danny’s hair flash white. Saw his outfit change to one of the hazmat suits their parents had painstakingly made for both of them, only in different colors. And then the second ended, and it was just Danny. Just Danny, hovering in the air, green sparks flying between his fingertips and eyes that could shine through a storm. Jazz did not let herself be scared. Did not let herself be confused. “I don’t know what's happening, but I can’t just leave you here. It isn’t safe,” she called again. “I just want to help!”

Jazz felt like she was in a spotlight, as those glowing green eyes studied her. Finally, Danny nodded. He floated closer to her, still keeping a good ten feet distance as they both made their way to the car. “Not to home. Anywhere but there.” His voice felt like a whisper. She shouldn’t be able to hear it, but it seemed like the wind carried it to her. Jazz nodded, and got into the car. Danny did not join her. She had assumed he wouldn’t.

Jazz had questions. So, so many questions. She was scared, both for herself, and for Danny, and for whatever it was that was making this happen. But as she drove, watching as Danny, the Danny she had seen in that flash of lightning, flew behind her, barely visible in the falling rain, she knew that her questions could wait. Right now, her brother needed her, and he was more important than her curiosity.

[danny-and-hisshadow]

the ghost investigation ward suddenly closes amity park to the outside world and locks all it's residents inside after rounding those who worked outside of amity parks borders. Somehow they had tall walls and powerful glowing electrical fences placed directly on the edges of amity that had been sucked into the ghost zone in a very short amount of time.

Then,with very little warning , the power to the town was shut off. Danny was in class when this happened, before he could try to transform the giw used loud speakers to order the people of amity park to line up at the nearest giw tents set up so that everyone could be given a person tracker, refusals to comply would just mean no food or water until their demands were met.

As people began trying to use their phone many found that there were no signals, without power no computers worked, no water worked, refrigerators at home or in stores didn't work ,no air conditioning worked, and even amity park's hospital was not exempt.

Danny didn't try transforming , helicopters with giw agents were flying over the streets, individual giw agents with expensive looking jet packs were on roofs looking down at the people in the streets, Danny had even seen one agent appear out of nowhere so apparently they had some way of using invisibility, from the window of the class room he saw a agent in a power armor suit that seemed to mimic the one he had worn to fight pirah dark. The more he watched to more scared he got.

Later Danny was in a crowd with jazz in as they and many other people waited to get their trackers implanted. It had taken a week before people gave in,many already tired, thirty,and hungry. The crowd was beginning to be directed by agents to individual lines leading to tents, which were guarded by agents in super suits, men in one line, women in another,and children in the last.

in the children's line ,Danny watched as teens, preteens and younger were scanned by a scanner,photo graphed, and then given a bottle of water and some cheap dehydrated food before it was the next kid's turn. As much as he wanted to run and disappear he knew if he did the giws would withhold food and water again, so grimly he just stayed in line, occasionally walking forward as his turn seemed to rapidly approach. He tried not to think about what might happen to him when his turn came, he just felt numb with fear.

His parents had been the last holding out, resisting the giw,they likely could have gone longer but people are stupid and an angry mob almost formed ,many scared and angry people were just about ready to attack his parents,some people were blaming them for what was happening to amity park.

Privately Danny felt those people were right,that it was his parents fault,and he also felt like it was his fault for going in on a dare like a dumb.

If they had never been obsessed with ghosts this never would have happened, Danny thought as he stepped in front of a hanging height chart. A agent in a generic white suit stepped from behind a flimsy looking folding table with a scanner. Danny hoped the plasmis maximus device vlad had gifted to Danny a few days ago worked or Danny might be taken. He had used it on himself earlier and was currently unable to use his power,not that he wanted to use them at the moment,he was terrified the scanner would reveal him as a ghost and they would take him away. He shivered in fear, holding his breath as the scanner was waved over his body from head to toes and back a few times. It made brief concerning shrill little beeps around his head, torso and hands, but the agent just wrote something on a cheep clip board, snapped a picture of Danny, used a earring piercing device on his ear, which has him thinking of cows and the tags on their ears, making him think perhaps the giws thought of amity park residents as cattle, as property. The agent shoved a bottle of water in his hand and a small package of dehydrated food at him and called for the next person as Danny numbly walked towards his friends,who also had ear tags.

Many young children were crying and clutching their new unwanted accessories, Danny observed, their parents looking pale and nervous, unable to do more than hug their children.

It was hours later when the last man, woman and child was tagged that the giws announced that the power would be returned in the morning,that a mandatory cerfew was being inacted and people out and about would be monitored. That the giw wasn't the bad guy,they were doing this to protect the world.

Danny just hoped their was a escape from this nightmare,he may not be caught at the moment but the dread of being caught eventually was eating at him.

[omegasmileyface]

The Forest, the Trees, the Fire I: CATALYST

Chapter 5

chaptor 5 lets go Authors: @attackradish, @ectolemonades, me. Artist: @/crunchysart

For the full characters list, word count, content warning, and a directory to all the currently available chapters and related content, see the Table of Contents!

full summary: The world outside of Amity Park has learned about the existence of ghosts, and the time for first impressions has arrived. The delicate public consciousness could be disrupted by the slightest ripple. Danny Fenton is being ripped apart from all sides, and when he finally breaks, the ripples will be very big indeed.

warnings: mind control

words: 3778

AO3 link

first chapter

previous chapter

next chapter

===

Jack Fenton was shocked at the verdict discussed in the GIW's leaked paper. Vlad? A ghost? Sure, he probably would have reached those same conclusions himself given that data, but the paper was very new, only a few days old. It hadn't been through a peer review process. It was only an unproven hypothesis that Vlad was dead. If the paper had been thorough enough to have a valid conclusion, it would have been published officially. This was still in its workshopping stages, leaked before it could finish incubating. Sure, the readings were concerning and deserved to be looked into some more, but it would be unscientific to say his friend was dead. It would be unfair.

Maddie Fenton was less confident. She distrusted the bureaucratic process of the GIW and loathed an unreviewed paper as much as her husband, but there were some things clicking together in her memories. Some hazy events starting to make a lot more sense.

Valerie Gray was hesitant to trust a group that shot at anything with an ectosignature— like she used to— but she had never been a fan of Vlad Masters. An appreciative business partner, sure, but… he was just a sponsor. And he had never set off her suit's alarms or anything, but he had made it, and even when she altered it… there were lots of varieties of ghosts. She wouldn't be surprised if there were types that were specialized in pretending to be human. So when the very agency that had been benefiting from his support was convinced that he wasn't human… Valerie remembered his massive living room and his face on the cover of a magazine and his board position at the company that had fired her dad. She felt tears of anger build behind her eyes.

Jazz Fenton saw the headlines— "Richest Man Alive in the Midwest… Not So Alive?"— in a city that wasn't even completely sure it believed in ghosts. And wasn't that fun? Going from a place where it was a simple fact of life, and you accepted it or died, to the terrifying outside world where reputable sources and established worldviews and "seeing is believing" all fought for dominance on the daily? And amid all the debate, there was the face of her awful godfather on the news with the scariest captions she could imagine. All she could think to do to help was call her brother. 

===

Vlad had no choice but to call for a press conference that evening. Waiting would only make things worse. This was not the kind of thing people could go without word on for more than a few hours. He could say something there that would make things worse, yes, but if he waited any longer to speak, he was good as gone. Ruined like a croissant made with warm butter. Thrown out like a dropped cupcake. Fucked.

It was just too bad that he hadn't thought of what in the fondue to say.

And, oh goodie, there was Daniel the moment he closed the door to his office. Looks like he wouldn't even have a chance to think of something.

"Daniel, I appreciate the moral support, but I really need to prepare for this."

"What are you going to say out there?"

"Straight to the chase, are we? Look, it's a very sensitive matter, and it requires more thought—"

"You don't know? The great chessmaster played with fire and didn't have a plan for what to say when he got burned?"

"Bold words coming from you! I'm surprised you even heard about what happened, with the way your parents tell me you've been missing in action!"

"You know damn well where I've been! I've been actually trying to fix this whole mess, unlike you on the inside, playing around—"

They both heard a car pulling up the driveway. They shared a look.

"Probably GIW," said Daniel. "If they can't be sure you're human, they definitely can't be sure you're not planning something."

"Mm," Vlad agreed. "Let's go to the lab."

The two went downwards, beyond the floor and into Vlad's lab. Oh, Vlad realized, the authorities will probably be clearing the place out as a crime scene after this. The lab was supposed to be inaccessible to humans, but… well, it wouldn't be the first time they'd destroyed one of his houses. He figured he should move his important data before he left for the conference.

"Here, help me pack up or destroy anything the GIW shouldn't get to find. Just stick it through the portal if you think it's worth keeping."

"Fine," said Daniel, "as long as you listen to me while we do that."

Vlad walked to his computer station to update his backups. "Of course."

"So, it's just as well that you don't know what to say. I've got ideas."

"Do tell?"

Danny opened a fridge to find an array of plastic vials labelled with his name and a date from 2004. Ew. He burned those up with an ectoblast. "Your options are pretty much to tell the truth, dispute their findings, or claim to be a full ghost, and I think you can see how two of those would be no-gos."

"Are you certain? You've seemed awfully sure before that having a human side would prevent humans from doing anything unthinkable. Why the new attitude? Are you afraid of getting caught out yourself?"

Danny sighed. "Vlad, if they find out that there's a grey-area between ghostliness and humanity, they'll have a whole new playing field. They could… like, try to make people liminal on purpose as soldiers. It's really better that they have as little information as possible."

"You're so confident that they wouldn't see right through me!" Vlad tossed a box-shaped construct full of hard disks through the portal. "Besides, it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe they'll start to believe in our humanity! Ha."

"Yeah, no way. That's out of the question. And I don't know about you, but I can't think of a single way to deny the ghost allegations without that backfiring immediately."

"So I'm going to have to pretend that I've been 'just Plasmius' the whole time. Great. I look forward to that conversation. Is there a point to this?"

Danny threw some boxes of paper files through the portal without caring if they spilled out. "If you agree to stick to that plan, and don't do anything that could rat either of us out, I'll get you a good place to stay in the Zone and a ride there after the press conference."

Vlad paused. His face was blank, tired.

"…You do know you can't stay here, right? They're gonna know your face everywhere. I don't know if you've figured out shapeshifting, but I think it would be hard to keep it up for long. Your life on Earth is done for, at least until this whole thing is over."

Vlad straightened up. "What about outside the US? There are communities just taking ghosts as another part of life in other countries. I imagine I could hit it off well enough in a small town in China somewhere."

As if Danny hadn't bargained the same thing with himself a thousand times by now. "The GIW haven't hesitated to work abroad before. I can't imagine them stopping once they have a grudge against you."

"I bet I could even find some sort of willing overshadow host—"

"No!" Danny stepped out of the weapon cache he was sorting into "useful (save)", "creepy (burn)", and "God only knows (steal)" piles to look Vlad in the eye. "We both know you don't want to run away to somewhere where you could never see anyone you know, or build another portal, or get too far into the public eye. That lifestyle just isn't for you. You're too desperate to fulfill your ego."

Vlad tried to defend himself, but Danny didn't let him.

"I'm offering you a free ride to a place in the middle of the familiar part of the Infinite Realms, defended from all the enemies you've made, no restrictions. I even made sure it's safe for your cat. Just accept, and it'll be that easy."

Vlad's eyes filled with a manic energy Danny hadn't seen since he turned fifteen. "Goodness, Daniel, I thought you weren't the type for deals. Are you losing yourself in your little jaunt with the High Throne?"

Danny ran his hands through his hair and wondered if Vlad would take going back to cleaning up as a sign of weakness. Then he wondered if he really cared what Vlad thought. "God, dude! Just shut up and take the deal."

"You know, Daniel, if I told them the truth, they would put the clues together and find you. I'm sure you wouldn't like that very much. Either they'd take you away for good or you'd have to leave this dimension behind. Either way, you wouldn't be able to contact any of your friends and family." His eyes were wide and looking behind Danny somewhere. He was smiling. It was the least controlled smile he'd ever seen on Vlad. Something was wrong. "Of course, I'd already be running away. You don't have the resources to stay on Earth on your own, but I have cash. If you wanted to talk to anyone you knew, anyone who could understand, I'd be your only option. You would have to come with me."

"What the hell are you talking about?" There were GIW agents stomping around upstairs and the press conference was in a few minutes. They were running out of time.

"I'm going to tell them about us, Daniel, and you're going to have to come with me! You don't have a choice! You never DID!"

Vlad was actually breaking down! He was panicking because everything was over for him, and reverting to familiar plans! Was he gonna listen? Could he listen? They were both screwed. What was Danny supposed to do? 

His mouth was open before he knew what he was doing. Vlad always did make him a little impulsive.

"You have to take the deal."

He realized he had fucked up when Vlad didn't even hesitate. "Okay." His tone and face were flat, as if he hadn't been experiencing a crisis a second ago. Then his face curled up like he had eaten something bitter.

They both looked into each other's eyes for a moment, and in both faces there was barely hidden fear. Then Danny grabbed the last few bags of tech and tossed them through the portal so he didn't have to see Vlad's face. He had just used a Command. Like, capital C, barely written in the books, "rare Ghost King shit" Command. It only got brought up once in his lessons and he had already hated the idea. He hated even more that he had used it less than two weeks after getting coronated.

He didn't even mean to! But he was so sure that he wouldn't get through to Vlad, and that he and Dani and every liminal Amity Parker would be screwed over permanently, and he was desperate…

Maybe Vlad was right, and neither of them had a choice.

Vlad finally got his voice reconnected to his thoughts. "Are we going to talk about that, little King?"

Danny shut off the portal, then ripped some components out of the tunnel so it hopefully couldn't be easily repaired. "Make sure everything from the mansion that you want to keep is ready to be moved. I'll grab your cat. Meet me at my place when they stop listening and start shooting."

Danny flew off without looking at Vlad's face again.

===

Mayor Vlad Masters took the stage just late enough to spur concern, at 5:03 PM. The sun was already gone, and under the portable lights the news station had brought, he looked absolutely normal. There was less of an in-person audience than usual.

"Hello, Amity Park.

"This morning, a research report from the Garrison Irving Walker Commission was leaked on a number of public websites. The report centered around myself: specifically, an investigation into my history and relationship with ectoplasm. In short, the authors concluded that my ectoplasmic readings suggested that I am a ghost, or that something similar is the case, and pointed to some events in my past as a businessman and ectologist which might support that."

From off the platform, a single person booed.

"For the sake of transparency, I have decided to publically share my side of the story. I would like to preface this by saying that I apologize for the times I have misled anyone before about my identity. I did so knowingly and willingly in hopes that I could go about my business without being interrupted. I have made many selfish and damaging choices before, and I am choosing to cast light on them now. Please allow me to tell you…"

Vlad barely caught the piercing eyes of Phantom— probably a duplicate made solely to intimidate him— hiding behind a light pole across the street.

"…the whole truth.

"In February of 1984, I… Vlad Masters was enrolled in an Ectology graduate program at the University of Wisconsin Madison. The program was even smaller and more ridiculed then than it was a few months ago, and most of the research being done in the program was very experimental and quite risky. Masters and… his lab partners had spent the rest of the school year theorizing the existence of a dimension adjacent to this one, where ectoplasmic events and entities originated. By spring, they were working on a prototype of a portal meant to make such a dimension visible from this one.

"Against all odds, they were able to make some kind of a connection, but it wasn't how they intended it. J— some idiot didn't—"

Vlad clutched his lectern and took a breath. He was clinical. He was neutral. He was an outside observer.

"Not all safety checks were followed on the portal. When Masters was investigating the portal after a failed test, it suddenly activated and expelled a massive amount of ectoradiation into his face, along with some mundane radiation and raw ectoplasm. It was not his fault, but he was severely injured and came down with an ectoradiation sickness which took him out of college and left him in the hospital for a year, slowly dying.

"My name is Plasmius. You may know me as the Wisconsin Ghost."

He avoided transforming, still, in case it might make the audience more trigger happy. Or somehow spark an investigation into half-ghosts.

"When the prototype portal activated, it made a small connection with the ghost dimension, and I just happened to be present to feel it. I followed, and I was subsequently shot into the body of Vlad Masters. He was present, but very ill, and as he slowly died, I slowly gained control. I also gained access to some of his memories, and I could still use my powers in his body without stopping it from being human and looking like him. It seemed the perfect opportunity to pick up his life after he died and I made his body healthy enough to leave the hospital.

"I started using his identity as my own. He became something like a skin to me, so much so that my own form was influenced by his appearance and now looks something like him, but more ghostly. Later on, I would learn to leave his body temporarily, if I needed— rather, wanted, to do something like fight other ghosts. For the most part, though, the life and body Vlad Masters left behind became my home.

"As remorseful as I am to admit it after all this time, I would occasionally use my powers to influence business partners and rivals to gain more money and power. While I was on Earth, living something like a human life, I wanted to see all it had to offer me, and money seemed like the only way to do that.

"Eventually, I, like many ghosts of our time, grew a fondness for picking fights with the Phantom. That, alongside a developing friendship with my— Vlad Masters's godson and his family, led me to relocate to Amity Park."

Across the street, Daniel's duplicate rolled his eyes. Well, Vlad couldn't exactly mention the prank war, now, could he?

"I campaigned for mayorship out of that same desire to experience the full human gambit, and I did influence some voters into voting for me. I apologize for my disruption of the local democracy.

"Since I started to li— reside here, I have focused on my work as mayor as much or more than my business as a ghost. I have—"

Someone threw a shoe at Vlad. He stepped aside.

"I have recently been genuinely attempting to work with the Garrison Irving Walker Commission to keep the humans of Amity Park secure and free among new knowledge about ghosts. I okayed the construction of the research facility in town, and permitted local rights to use defensive ectoweaponry not yet approved outside town. The investigation into me was sudden, and was triggered by my pushback against a policy which would result in the constant surveillance and reporting of every Amity Park citizen's biological information via a tracking of ectocontamination.

"As far as I know, I am the only ghost who was pretending to be a human in Amity Park, and this particular investigation did in fact reveal my presence. In a few minutes, I am going to leave this town once and for all and you won't have to worry about me anymore, but I urge you to think about the fact that the GIW were so ready to write a report like this as soon as I, a consistent supporter of theirs ideologically and monetarily, questioned a proposed move to start monitoring innocent civilians.

"One bit of potentially critical response, and they were pulling up confidential medical information on an individual they had no proof was guilty or inhuman. They were tracing all of my past correspondences and records, without my knowledge or permission, when they thought I was human. They are not the government, or the police, or the court. They are a private institution, and the moment I did something they didn't like, they went behind my back to upheave my life.

"Perhaps, in your eyes, I deserved it. But someday they will do the same to someone who does not.

"Personally, I am glad to return to the realm of the dead, where those in power never do something like this without being physically attacked in response."

Vlad turned invisible, and the small audience turned into a cacophony. The GIW agents in the group immediately started firing. But he was already gone, shooting off toward the Fenton portal, where he was expected.

===

Jack and Maddie Fenton had been paying rapt attention the whole press conference, united in their confusion. Neither of them knew what to feel.

Was it considerate or cold that he refused to mention them by name, despite their massive part in his story? Were his claims about the GIW acting out without good reason true or manipulative?

Should Jack feel remorseful that his honest mistake had killed his friend, or victorious that the Wisconsin Ghost hated the memory so much it stopped him in his tracks? Should Maddie feel sad that her old friend's image had been dirtied in her memory, or vindicated that he really had been different in recent years?

With their hearts full and minds blank, the only thing they could be sure of was that everything was moving very quickly, and without their involvement.

Whether they were there to help fight the good fight or to change the system from the inside, it was finally time the Drs. Fenton gave in and joined the GIW.

Valerie Gray had planned on watching the press conference alone, but her dad had asked her to join him. She figured, now, that his presence was the only thing keeping her from throwing something at the TV.

The Guys in White had kept going too far, just like she was afraid, and the very man she had said she trusted to keep that from happening turned out to be a ghost. Not just a ghost, either, but the Wisconsin Ghost, one of the worst ones. He came, did as much damage as possible without engaging anyone, and left. Val was even pretty sure she saw him threatening Dani, way back when.

He never showed up except to wreak havoc. Of course he was the same as "Vlad Masters", who took over companies just to make life worse for teenagers and got voted in despite nobody wanting him. He had been an okay benefactor, but…

He had been seen naked on live television. She only put up with him so she could do her job. Of course he was a lying, manipulative, stealing ghost!

If there was a proper afterlife, for people who didn't become ghosts, Valerie hoped the real Vlad Masters was there, laughing that Plasmius had finally been forced to own up.

And back on Earth, Valerie locked herself in her room and vowed to never again trust someone who hadn't proven themself.

===

It was a beautiful day in Victoria, British Columbia. Sure, there was a foot of fresh snow, and it really didn't look the same without its summer blooms, but Danielle Phantom had snuck into the Butchart Gardens anyway. They were still magical! A thousand different kinds of leaves, hidden by frost blankets… she loved to see it in any season!

She couldn't resist twirling around in the air when she finally left the Gardens to go back to the levy. Yes, she was visible, and maybe Victoria was just a tad too populated for that to be safe, but… she was living life! How could she turn down a chance to live her day to the fullest when she never knew which one would be her last?

The sunset over the ocean was stunning in its greys and blues and oranges. She almost wished she had saved some film in that disposable camera she bought for her journey through Alaska.

There was only one boat on the water, approaching the harbor. She didn't question it, even when they weren't stopped for nearly long enough to complete a safe border check. They just pulled into the harbor, unboarded, and then Danielle's vision was going blurry, and she was forgetting where she was, and three men in white suits were dragging her over to the boat.

What a vacation, huh?

[answrs]

asdfhjkl this is fuckin,,,,,, 17 pages of unfinished and rewritten dp/msa crossover. from TWO THOUSAND FRICKIN FIFTEEN. i am not going to be able to resist editing/adding more to this (which is the ENTIRE REASON IT NEVER GOT POSTED IN THE FIRST PLACE COUGH COUGH SELF) so i am sticking it under a cut, pressing send, then going to do errands in order to physically stop myself from spending 16 hours nitpicking it. also tunglr.hell deletes all the original formatting when pasting stuff in so all the italics/bold/strikethrough are missing rip.

please note! this is an original draft and then a rewritten (but mostly just different parts of the outline) second part.

im just. gonna paste the second one’s author note here (written circa 2016) and leave y’all to it:

stern fatherly disapproval I've been going back through the old dp/msa posts and I have to say, I am very disappointed in all of you. honestly, with such pride we take in over-angsting for BOTH fandoms, that there wasn’t much if any discussion to be seen on this is shocking. (Though, to be fair, I just now remembered I wrote this all the way back then and never published it, buT THE POINT STANDS. My inability to write more than ¾ of a fic before getting distracted and forgetting to finish it is only moderately related to this discussion.) At least it’s edited now, I guess? By which I mean completely rewritten. (you can still tell the parts connecting the main sections are a bit ‘eh’ but, well, ‘eh’.)

Summary: Danny captures Lewis in the thermos (as he does) and tosses him in the Ghost Zone like the rest of the town’s ghostly visitors. This is a bad thing.

“dp/ms zone - Created Aug 27, 2015″

The Skulls are driving through amity park, arthur at the wheel, vivi shotgun with the current traveling deadbeat curled at her feet (the rest are at home guarding the mansion), and Lewis in the back with mystery. Danny's ghost sense goes off as this van passes by, almost as ridiculous looking as his parents own vehicle. he looks in to see a large ghost apparently hiding in the back, the two tourists up front unaware. whatever it's planning can't be good, so he shoots in, sucks up the ghost, and flies off to the alarmed shouts trailing behind him. rather than just being startled at a ghost in their van like Danny thinks (though they are, at him just popping up suddenly), the humans cries are at seeing Phantom abduct their boo for seemingly no reason. not even mystery could react before the kid was off, grinning and waving back at them like he'd just had a job well done. the poor deadbeat is terrified, master has just been taken by a ghost hunter but they have to stay with mistress vivi and mister arthur. arthur slams on the breaks, throwing the van around to tear after the ghost, but he's disappeared. the four are devastated, turning back to the hotel, vivi clutching the now crying spirit like a lifeline. immediately they set to work researching phantom, hoping for any clue to find him and their taken spirit. the next day, Danny comes downstairs to find his parents talking to... visitors? clients? they look exhausted but kind of familiar, so he listens in from the steps outside the kitchen. please, you have to help us. phantom took our friend and you're the people who study this town you must know where to find him we just got him back we can't lose him again please help us we've looked everywhere please- what do you mean, phantom's taken your friend? had the ghost finally started attacking humans outright? there was this big flash and he was gone and he was holding this metal thing and oh honey, its okay, don't worry, there's no way that could have been your friend. phantom uses one of our thermoses and it only works on ghosts. but Lewis IS a spirit! how can you be friends with a ghost, that doesn't make sense. they're too violent and unstable to have consistent rational thought, let alone form attachments... what? how could you- how dare you say something like that! we've been paranormal investigators for years and Lewis is our best friend, don't you dare accuse him of being a mindless creature! how can you call yourselves scientists when you're just as prejudiced as all those stupid hunters we meet! if you won't help us, we'll find phantom ourselves, and we'll get our friend back no matter what we have to go through to do it! Danny sits frozen as the two storm out, guilt creeping in as he absorbs the conversation. he'd just done what he normally did on patrol, how was he supposed to know this ghost was somehow different? he was just taking it out before it could do anything funny, but now he was the one in the wrong? (he won't admit he sees ghosts like his parents do, always up to something malicious and never just innocent bystanders) not liking this feeling, he slips out of the house and trots after the group, quickly catching up. uh, hey. i, uh, heard about your friend and I think I can help... meet me outside Fentonworks at 11 tonight, my parents will be asleep by then so don't ring the doorbell. before they can get a word in, I have to go back, so dont be late! and runs back, turning a corner and going invisible before they can catch up. okay, he's just bought himself some time to fix this, he just needs to make some calls first... he'd just tossed the disoriented ghost (Lewis?) through the portal, not dumped him further in like he does with some of his enemies. he shouldn't be that hard to find. 1030 finds the three living members of the mystery skulls standing before the fentons house. at her side, vivi clutches a bag housing their remaining spirit, warded with nearly every spell in the book and some others besides. if phantom tried to take their deadbeat too, he was gonna have to fight for it. the research they'd done that day didn't make their moods any lighter. video clips of fantastical ghost fights helped them piece together that phantom took his captured enemies to a place called the ghost zone. further study had pulled up dozens of reports on the place, from an incident stranding part of the town there. while interview descriptions of the event ranged wildly, the common details said it was huge, green, and swarming with aggressive ghosts. and from the videos of some of these fights, no matter how strong he might be, Lewis's chances weren't looking good. Sam and tucker round the corner to see three unknown silhouettes clustered on the sidewalk ahead. reflexively their hands dart to their weapons, before they connect Danny's descriptions to the group ahead. damn, they were early then. hopefully Danny was ready and not just doing something stupid. (oh who were they kidding, he was always doing something stupid.) as they approach, the dog tenses, and the two humans whip around to stare at the teens. seeing as they've been spotted already, they close the remaining distance with quick strides. the woman is the first to speak, suspicion bleeding into her worried voice. and who might you two be  then? I'm sam, this is tucker. we're here to help Danny find your ghost since he's a horrible driver and couldn't read a screen to save his life. so since you're here already I'll just text him to come let us in. they get a grunt in acknowledgement from the male, but it's otherwise silent for the few minutes they spend waiting for the door to open. greengreengreen EVERYWHERE, no ground beneath your feet to stop you falling, falling... the space scattered with thousands of pointed rocks and green fog twisting through them... and if this is Arthur's reaction, Lewis is even worse off. and he's been stuck here not for minutes, but hours, days. reliving his death over and over, no reprieve from the constant memories. the team is so focused on Arthur's reaction it's not until mystery renders him unconscious they turn to vivi. standing stock still, unfocused eyes staring unblinking out the window, trembling with near invisible tears trailing down her face. because her boys aren't the only ones with memories of the cave, and while she may be the "strong" one of the group, when it comes to reminders of that night her ptsd is no less real. there you are dipstick! I've been looking all over for you! not now, ember, get out of the way. can't you see I'm busy? not until you tell me why you thought it was a good idea to toss a spirit into the ghost zone. are you completely mental? huh? don't play dumb with me, not even you wouldn't be able to tell. he looks nothing like a ghost! it's all we've been able to do by keeping guard, none of us can even get close to the guy with the state he's in! what are you even talking about-! vivi shoves his head away from the glass, calling out to the flaming musician. yell at him later, tell us where Lewis is now! ember looks down at the new human, sizing her up before nodding, gliding away. I still don't get it, what was she even going on about? I mean yeah, I shouldn't have tossed the guy in here, but the rest of that? what did that even mean? I believe I may be able to explain, a voice calls from the back, and all three kids jerks their heads around to stare at the (talking!) dog. (what the hell?) sam nearly crashes the speeder into an island before she collects herself enough to glance back at the window. ignoring their reactions, mystery continues to speak from his place in Arthur's lap, the mechanic petting him robotically (heh.). I didn't recognize it at first from the descriptions, but now I'm here I can tell this ghost zone, as you put it, is one part of the realm of the dead. the place we just left, your real world, is the realm of the living. ghosts, at least the ones that you know, are formed and exist in this dead realm. it's where they draw their energy from, regardless of whatever focus or reason they have for their being. a ghost that spends too long in the human world would begin to break down, the very reality chipping away at them piece by piece. similarly, a human spending too long unprotected in the ghosts world would suffer similar effects, their body fighting against what knows they should not be there. that's why, for instance, demons must be summoned from their own realm and strike deals with humans to stay on that plain. he looks straight at Danny beings that have rights, as it were, to both places may come and go as they please with no ill effects. i, for instance, may pass through both living and yokai realms if I were to so choose.

[anchor is physical, ties to world]

Lewis, however, is a spirit, brought forth and tied to the living realm. he's one of the, we call them ghosts, but imprints might be a better title, that make up the majority of 'ghost' activity humans encounter... well, outside of this town, at least.

I assume the ghosts you know of fall into different types or species, probably based on their power level or abilities. our own ghosts, or spirits as the name here for them seems to be, are much the same. they can range anywhere from vague wisps of an idea to a fully formed consciousness equal to or even above their former human status.

[these former-living are connected to physical objects, vessels, their soul reside in. this anchor, as we call it, thus ties them to the human realm, being a real, semi-physical object. it's a shell of sorts, breaking a ghost's anchor destroys the (self contained environment), releasing and exposing their soul, which unprotected dissipates very quickly.]

as for how this relates back to the idea of realms, well, the lower the power of an entity the easier it is to be torn apart... he pauses at Vivi's sudden realization, dashing to the forgotten bag on the seat. tearing open the pouch, she lets out a quiet 'oh thank the gods' as a tiny pink head pops out, chirping in concern. it winds its way into Vivi's arms, nuzzling her cheek. the woman looks at mystery, hoping that protection he had talked about was working on the deadbeat too. he nodded, as long as they were to stay in this vehicle, they'd probably be safe from harm. probably. I'd also suggest arthur stay too, even if he wasn't already... compromised, he looked over to the teens, still listening closely. suffice to say the scenery would certainly not be good for him. and for him to be the first thing Lewis sees after such an episode, arthur stiffens and the dog looks up at him sadly, even if he knows rationally it's not the you he thinks it is, he won't be in his right mind... it's gonna be okay, arthur. vivi settles beside the blond and leans against him, careful not to squish the spirit nestled in her arms. it'll just be like those first few weeks with the dreams. which i mean isn't ideal, obviously, but we've survived it once already, we can do it again if we have to. and it's not like before where he'd been alone for a year, it's really only been, what, a few hours, a day? um, actually... the trio (plus one) looks up, having already forgotten they weren't alone in the vehicle. i, uh, so that whole thing with different realities your, uh, dog? was talking about? heh, yeah, so... funny thing about the zone is, um. time goes differently in here. so like, an hour here is only a few minutes in the real, or, erm, living world... vivi completed the kids thought ...and a few hours on our side would be... days... oh gods no, Lewis. Danny flinches, another shot of guilt stabbing his conscience. ugh, of all the ghosts (or, er, spirits?) he could have snagged yesterday it had to have been this one. the only ghost in the whole town that couldn't live (unlive?) in the zone and was apparently afraid of the color green. just perfect. good Phantom, best hero. the speeder slows as ember approaches a group of ghosts, floating in a protective circle around an island about the size of a small house. they turn to glare at the vehicle, but at embers dismissive wave part to let the craft land. as soon as the door opens a blue blur shoots out, followed closely by a smaller white figure and finally the ghost child. the sight of Lewis when they finally reach him is horrible. he'd flown blindly until he found a larger rock to land on, one with a sort of raised wall on one side to keep his back to. images from the cave played out in a high definition loop before him, even curled on the ground he could still feel himself falling, falling...

now his hands are digging into the flesh around his eyes, still desperately begging the images away. even scrunched into a ball the gaping hole that is his chest is obvious, the constant trembling and whimpers only adding to the gory display. his heart, golden and whole before, has gone pitch black, more cracks than actual pieces at this point and only held together by the strange atmosphere of the zone. the same atmosphere doing a number on the rest of him, draining his power to dangerous lows. they can see the rock behind him, and not just through the bloody window in his chest. it's been so much longer for him, even without the flashbacks draining him at this point he'd still be pretty bad off. he feels like he's been left to rot, abandoned for days, months, years, only his mind for company. maybe karma has finally caught him up and dragged him to hell, just like he must deserve for what he's done. what else would this place be for, catered so perfectly to his failures? he doesn't know how long it's been, only that he's so, so tired. even the agonizing pain in his chest has faded, his whole body numb. cold. who is he? he can't remember, his mind is too foggy. where is he? he shouldn't be here. why? this place is... bad. green. green makes bad things happen. the green had laughed. not-green had been hurt. when? who was green? why? (Lewis!) L..ew...is? something about it sounds familiar. like purple and pink and warm and happy. but. no. Lewis is black and white and cold cold cold. like him. is he him? he can't tell what his color is. was. are? something is touching him. it moves the dark away and he sees blue. blue... what is blue's name again? it says something, but all he hears is static. he can't move and blue is raining. no, that's not right. blue is happy and smiles and love, not sad, never sad, why is blue sad?

his last coherent thought, before finally fading out, is please don't be sad, blue. as vivi reaches the collapsed spirit, her fear of losing Lewis again somehow worsens. she knows what lengths Lewis would go to before using this form, and that she can see straight through him means his energy is even lower than she'd feared. grabbing a wrist she pries a hand from his eyes, only for the revealed pupil to be a dull and cloudy purple. there's no sign of recognition, though she hopes some of her panicked rambling is making it through the haze. a whimper at her side draws Vivi's attention to mystery, worriedly sniffing the abused and battered locket, which looks like it's one small breath away from crumbling completely. we need to get him inside and home, now. she doesn't have to look to see mystery shifting, the gasp behind them is enough. the kitsune can take care of Lewis, she needs to focus on his anchor. unwinding her scarf, she makes use of the wonky gravity to wrap it around the locket, both preserving its shape and making sure pieces can't fall out when she moves it. with her part done and mystery gathering Lewis in his tails, vivi grabs the delicate package and hurries back to the waiting craft. she shivers as the static feeling of the speeder's shield passes over her, but it's a small price to pay to keep everyone safe. not from the ghosts, who she really needs to thank now she thinks about it, but the reality itself.

the shield, built on the presumption all ghosts held this strange ecto energy, blocked based on the presence of it. thus, the human Danny, locket, and eventually Lewis, all pass through it no problem.

Sam and tucker had stayed in the speeder as the trio ran out, ready to make a quick getaway if this all turned sour. they couldn't really see what was happening outside, but Danny could handle it (probably). he'd call if he needed them. (maybe.)

they kept to watching the last stranger still in the back of the vehicle. well, stranger plus the weird… pink... thing.

“zone new rewrite - Created Nov 15, 2015″

stern fatherly disapproval

I've been going back through the old dp/msa posts and I have to say, I am very disappointed in all of you. honestly, with such pride we take in over-angsting for BOTH fandoms, that there wasn’t much if any discussion to be seen on this is shocking. (Though, to be fair, I just now remembered I wrote this all the way back then and never published it, buT THE POINT STANDS. My inability to write more than ¾ of a fic before getting distracted and forgetting to finish it is only moderately related to this discussion.)

At least it’s edited now, I guess? By which I mean completely rewritten. (you can still tell the parts connecting the main sections are a bit ‘eh’ but, well, ‘eh’.)

Summary: Danny captures Lewis in the thermos (as he does) and tosses him in the Ghost Zone like the rest of the town’s ghostly visitors. This is a bad thing.

The Skulls were finally arriving in the famed Amity Park, having driven for hours now to reach the paranormal hotspot. This rotation found Arthur at the wheel, Vivi riding shotgun with the current travelling deadbeat curled at her feet, and Mystery and Lewis lounging in the back. Perhaps the hours watching mile after mile of fields and trees fly past had dulled their reflexes, allowed what happened next to be, none reacting fast enough to stop it.

~

Danny had watched the orange vehicle with a vague passing interest as it turned down the street, the van’s appearance almost as gaudy as his own parents’. Probably another group of "ghost hunting" tourists, here to putter around a few days buying overpriced souvenirs before running back home at the first sight of the Box Ghost. Nothing he needed to bother dealing with.

But as it passes by, a cloudy wisp escapes his throat, and suddenly it does become his business. Shooting from his post he flies through the van's wall, barely taking in the sight of the big hulking skeleton hiding behind the two oblivious tourists before sucking it up in the thermos. He only pauses to shoot the passengers a quick smile as a “you’re welcome” for his job well done before barreling straight back out, ignoring the alarmed shouts that follow.

~

Startled at the sudden apparition, it takes the living members of the team a few seconds to react, but by then it’s far too late. Phantom’s already abducted their Lewis, their friend, trapped him and flown off to who knows where, grinning all the while. Arthur slams on the brakes, whipping the van around (sorry girl, he’ll apologize for the rough treatment later, but Lew’s far more important right now) to tear after the fleeing ghost, but he’s already disappeared.

The poor deadbeat is terrified, Boss has just been taken, and their connection to Him feels cut off, blocked somehow. All they can do now is cling to Miss Vivi, hope she and Mister Arthur will fix this.

After nearly an hour barreling down the streets seeking the white-haired spectre, the four are forced to give up the frantic searching, turning back to the hotel. Vivi clutches the shaking pink spirit like a lifeline, this is the second time Lewis has been taken right in front of her and she could do nothing to stop it. Immediately upon entering the room they set to researching Phantom, praying for any clue on how to find him and their stolen spirit.

~

The next morning, Danny comes down the stairs to find his parents talking to… visitors? clients, maybe? They sound anxious but look kind of familiar, so he listens in from the top of the steps, out of view from the kitchen.

“You don't understand though, Phantom’s taken our friend! Come on, you’re supposed to be the experts in this town, you must have some idea what happens to them-” That must be the girl he saw speaking.

“But honey, what you’re saying doesn’t make any sense.” His mom sounds like she’s trying to calm down a small child, “We may think that Phantom is malicious, but he’s never directly hurt a human, as far as we know.”

“Has the Ghost Boy finally started attacking humans? Yes!” His dad’s outburst is cut off by what must be three very angry glares, before he sheepishly clarifies, “Er, wait, no, not like that, it's horrible. But I mean, this will finally prove to everyone he’s dangerous! So they’ll stop thinking they don’t need protection from him!”

His mom takes the conversation back over before Jack can drive it even further (if unintentionally) into the ground.

“Okay honey, can you tell me what happened again? When the ghost boy took... Lewis, was it?”

“We were just driving around and Lew was in the back just sitting there not even doing anything and then there was this big flash and he was gone and then he was holding this metal thing and then he was gone too and we can’t lose him again, not so soon after we finally found him again, please-”

There’s a small silence, the woman stopping to regain her composure, the two hunters taking in the information. And then,

“Oh! Oh then it’s okay, sweetie, (well I mean no it’s not because your friend is still missing but), you don’t have to worry about Phantom having taking him! See, the ghost boy uses a Fenton Thermos he stole from us, but it only works on ghosts, not humans. So whatever he captured couldn’t have been your friend, don’t worry. He's probably still out somewhere you visited before and whatever it was was just impersonating him to follow you.”

“But Lewis IS a spirit!”

There's a pause.

“Er, what? No, that can’t be right…”

“And why not?” There’s a fourth voice, quieter but hard, with the same undercurrent of exasperation Danny himself has when discussing ghosts with his parents. “Don’t you think we’d know if our bo-best friend was a spirit? I mean, if the floating and the skull wasn’t obvious enough there’s always the fact that we had to- had to... to...” He trails off, but it’s easy enough to piece together the unsaid words.

Still, that doesn’t stop his dad from speaking, the large man prone to rambling in tense moments.

“No, we mean… How do I say this, it just, it isn’t possible! Ghosts are just too emotionally unstable to have consistent rational thought, let alone form attachments… regardless of whoever they might’ve been based off of in life. That’s what makes them so dangerous to be around, even for us. I know it may be hard to hear, but-”

The halfa jumps as something very heavy slams down on the table. It sounds almost like metal, but what-?

Then it’s the man's voice again, dangerously calm and dripping with venom that makes even Danny go still.

“You call yourselves scientists, but you’re not, are you? You’re too blinded by your own prejudices to be anything more than the next hotshot group we come across, shooting anything just for not being human. Never matters they were perfectly normal before, now they're just monsters to be shot at! Because anything that isn’t 100% human can’t really think, really feel, they’re all just mindless things to you. Hell, I don’t have a human arm, does that mean I’m not sentient? Do you-”

“Arthur that’s enough.”

If his voice is a rock hers is cold hard steel.

“But-”

“Taking our frustrations out on them does nothing but waste time and energy we could be using to find Lewis. And don’t you dare give me that look, I don’t like them talking about him like that any more than you do, but now is not the time.”

There’s the sound of a chair being pushed out from the table, and the woman takes a deep, steadying breath.

“We’ve been paranormal investigators for years, we know when a lead is bust. We came here in hopes you’d have some information to help us, but I can see now it was a lost cause. With that mindset, there’s no way you’d be able to follow the dead’s thought process, let alone accurately anticipate their next move. Ghosts work in patterns just like humans do, we have enough experience that we can get Lewis back without your help.”

There's a deep, resigned sigh.

“Look, I know we aren’t going to change your view of the dead from this, but I hope one day you reexamine what exactly makes you think about them the way you do.”

“Now come on, Arthur, let’s check in with Mystery at the hotel and see if he’s managed to dig up anything actually useful for us.”

~

Danny stays frozen on the steps as the door slams shut, guilt slowly creeping in as the situation unravels. It had just been a normal patrol yesterday, how had it managed to go this fantastically wrong? Just fly around, suck up some ghosts, and toss them back through the portal. How the hell was he supposed to know this one was any different? All he’d done was take out the guy before he could do anything funny, stop the problem before it even started, but now he was the one in the wrong? (He won’t admit he’s much like his parents when it comes to judging ghosts, even when he knows plenty of them aren’t malicious. Guilty until proven innocent, but with his track record meeting ghosts he couldn’t be to blame. Shoot first, ask questions never, but wasn’t that the same thing he chastised his parents for? …No, best to cut that train of thought off right now-)

Not liking these feelings of guilt, he slips out and trots after the two, following them down the street until he judges it to be a safe enough distance from the house his parents won’t see them if they look out the front door.

“Hey, uh, you’re the guys looking for your... friend, right?” He shuffles his feet awkwardly as they stare at him, unsure how to actually go about doing this. Damn him and his lack of planning.

“So, I overheard what happened and er, I... think I could help? Like my friends and I know lots about Phantom… My parents don’t know about it but I can show you where I, uh, where the ghosts go. When he catches them I mean. Except they’re also there whenever they aren’t in Amity so I guess then too, which would be most of the time then? but, uh.” Jack isn’t the only one in the family to ramble, but the blond man (Arthur?) is tapping his foot impatiently and giving him a look that reads ‘just get on with it’.

The blue haired girl, who he still doesn’t know the name of, looks suspicious, but they’ve followed worse leads before, and if this kid knew what he was talking about, well, it would certainly help…

~

Of their group Vivi is generally the one known to be impatient, not one for idling, nor interested in “just going over the transmission again, Vi, I swear it’ll only be like ten minutes, honest.” But right now Arthur is upset, and angry, and an upset, angry Arthur is a snappy Arthur, and also an Arthur that just wants this kid to get to the god damned point already so they can leave and keep looking for their missing teammate.

~

“Right, sorry. So, uh, come back to Fentonworks tonight at, like... eleven thirty maybe? Mom and Dad should be asleep by then so don’t ring the doorbell or anything, it would probably end up being the only time ever that they didn’t sleep like rocks, with how my luck tends to be…”

Before they can press for more information, he’s off like a shot, throwing a “sorryseeyagottagobye!” over his shoulder at the two. They may give chase, they may not, but he isn’t looking back to check. He’s never been great at lying, and if these guys are as actually experienced with ghosts as they say, their questions will likely be a lot harder to weasel his way out of. He’s not gonna chance being found out any sooner than he has to. So as he rounds a corner he flickers invisible, and sure enough the woman rounds the bend mere seconds later, pausing to catch her breath and swear (quite creatively, he must say) as she sees he’s disappeared.

Okay, he’s bought himself some time to fix this, he just has to make a few calls…

Luckily, he’d only tossed the disoriented skeleton through the portal, not dumped him further in like he’d started doing with some of his more... annoying enemies. He shouldn’t be that hard to find.

(famous last words.)

~

Eleven on the dot finds the remaining Mystery Skulls standing beneath the gaudy neon lights of the Fenton household. At her side, Vivi clutches a bag housing their remaining spirit, heavily warded with every spell in the book (and some others besides). If Phantom tried to take their deadbeat too, he would have to fight them for it, and they were taking absolutely no chances.

The research they’d done in the meantime hadn’t make their moods any lighter. Video after video of Phantom showcased his fighting abilities and power, spectacular battles around the city that left buildings in shambles and craters in their wake. But from a myriad of soundbites they managed to salvage, they’d pieced together that after the fights Phantom took his captured opponents to a place known as the “Ghost Zone”. Further searching pulled up dozens of local reports on the place, from an incident apparently stranding part of the town there a few years prior. While witness accounts ranged wildly, the common threads marked it as huge, green, and swarming with aggressive ghosts. And looking back at some of the opponents in those fights, however strong Lewis might be his chances weren’t looking good. At all.

~

Sam and Tucker round the corner to see two strange figures clustered on the sidewalk ahead. Their hands reflexively dart to their weapons, before connecting Danny’s descriptions to the group ahead, along with what was probably their dog. Damn, they were early then. Hopefully Danny was actually ready and not just doing something stupi-oh who were they kidding he was always doing something stupid.

They haven’t moved twenty feet before the dog growls, and the two humans whip around to stare at them. (So much for sneaking past and kicking Danny’s butt into gear, then.) Seeing as they’ve been spotted already, the teens close the remaining distance with quick strides.

The blue haired woman is the first to speak when they reach the house, suspicion not quite covering up the worry in her voice.

“And who might you two be, then?”

Sam thinks for a moment, then decides, fuck it, they’re going to learn soon anyway, might as well go with the (partial, at least) truth.

“I’m Sam, this is Tucker. We’re here to help Danny find your ghost since he’s a horrible driver who couldn't move straight to save his life. And for backup since, well, he can hardly go five minutes without getting into some kind of trouble.”

they get a grunt in acknowledgement from the blond, but it's otherwise silent for the few minutes they spend waiting for the door to open.

------!!!!-------

greengreengreen EVERYWHERE, no ground beneath your feet to stop you falling, falling... the space scattered with thousands of pointed rocks and green fog twisting through them... and if this is Arthur's reaction, Lewis is even worse off. and he's been stuck here not for minutes, but hours, days. reliving his death over and over, no reprieve from the constant memories. the team is so focused on Arthur's reaction it's not until mystery renders him unconscious they turn to vivi. standing stock still, unfocused eyes staring unblinking out the window, trembling with near invisible tears trailing down her face. because her boys aren't the only ones with memories of the cave, and while she may be the "strong" one of the group, when it comes to reminders of that night her ptsd is no less real. there you are dipstick! I've been looking all over for you! not now, ember, get out of the way. can't you see I'm busy? not until you tell me why you thought it was a good idea to toss a spirit into the ghost zone. are you completely mental? huh? don't play dumb with me, not even you wouldn't be able to tell. he looks nothing like a ghost! it's all we've been able to do by keeping guard, none of us can even get close to the guy with the state he's in! what are you even talking about-! vivi shoves his head away from the glass, calling out to the flaming musician. yell at him later, tell us where Lewis is now! ember looks down at the new human, sizing her up before nodding, gliding away. I still don't get it, what was she even going on about? I mean yeah, I shouldn't have tossed the guy in here, but the rest of that? what did that even mean? I believe I may be able to explain, a voice calls from the back, and all three kids jerks their heads around to stare at the (talking!) dog. (what the hell?) sam nearly crashes the speeder into an island before she collects herself enough to glance back at the window. ignoring their reactions, mystery continues to speak from his place in Arthur's lap, the mechanic petting him robotically (heh.). I didn't recognize it at first from the descriptions, but now I'm here I can tell this ghost zone, as you put it, is one part of the realm of the dead. the place we just left, your real world, is the realm of the living. ghosts, at least the ones that you know, are formed and exist in this dead realm. it's where they draw their energy from, regardless of whatever focus or reason they have for their being. a ghost that spends too long in the human world would begin to break down, the very reality chipping away at them piece by piece. similarly, a human spending too long unprotected in the ghosts world would suffer similar effects, their body fighting against what knows they should not be there. that's why, for instance, demons must be summoned from their own realm and strike deals with humans to stay on that plain. he looks straight at Danny beings that have rights, as it were, to both places may come and go as they please with no ill effects. i, for instance, may pass through both living and yokai realms if I were to so choose.

[anchor is physical, ties to world]

Lewis, however, is a spirit, brought forth and tied to the living realm. he's one of the, we call them ghosts, but imprints might be a better title, that make up the majority of 'ghost' activity humans encounter... well, outside of this town, at least.

I assume the ghosts you know of fall into different types or species, probably based on their power level or abilities. our own ghosts, or spirits as the name here for them seems to be, are much the same. they can range anywhere from vague wisps of an idea to a fully formed consciousness equal to or even above their former human status.

[these former-living are connected to physical objects, vessels, their soul reside in. this anchor, as we call it, thus ties them to the human realm, being a real, semi-physical object. it's a shell of sorts, breaking a ghost's anchor destroys the (self contained environment), releasing and exposing their soul, which unprotected dissipates very quickly.]

as for how this relates back to the idea of realms, well, the lower the power of an entity the easier it is to be torn apart... he pauses at Vivi's sudden realization, dashing to the forgotten bag on the seat. tearing open the pouch, she lets out a quiet 'oh thank the gods' as a tiny pink head pops out, chirping in concern. it winds its way into Vivi's arms, nuzzling her cheek. the woman looks at mystery, hoping that protection he had talked about was working on the deadbeat too. he nodded, as long as they were to stay in this vehicle, they'd probably be safe from harm. probably. I'd also suggest arthur stay too, even if he wasn't already... compromised, he looked over to the teens, still listening closely. suffice to say the scenery would certainly not be good for him. and for him to be the first thing Lewis sees after such an episode, arthur stiffens and the dog looks up at him sadly, even if he knows rationally it's not the you he thinks it is, he won't be in his right mind... it's gonna be okay, arthur. vivi settles beside the blond and leans against him, careful not to squish the spirit nestled in her arms. it'll just be like those first few weeks with the dreams. which i mean isn't ideal, obviously, but we've survived it once already, we can do it again if we have to. and it's not like before where he'd been alone for a year, it's really only been, what, a few hours, a day? um, actually... the trio (plus one) looks up, having already forgotten they weren't alone in the vehicle. i, uh, so that whole thing with different realities your, uh, dog? was talking about? heh, yeah, so... funny thing about the zone is, um. time goes differently in here. so like, an hour here is only a few minutes in the real, or, erm, living world... vivi completed the kids thought ...and a few hours on our side would be... days... oh gods no, Lewis. Danny flinches, another shot of guilt stabbing his conscience. ugh, of all the ghosts (or, er, spirits?) he could have snagged yesterday it had to have been this one. the only ghost in the whole town that couldn't live (unlive?) in the zone and was apparently afraid of the color green. just perfect. good Phantom, best hero. the speeder slows as ember approaches a group of ghosts, floating in a protective circle around an island about the size of a small house. they turn to glare at the vehicle, but at ember’s dismissive wave, part to let the craft land. as soon as the door opens a blue blur shoots out, followed closely by a smaller white figure and finally the ghost child. the sight of Lewis when they finally reach him is horrible. he'd flown blindly until he found a larger rock to land on, one with a sort of raised wall on one side to keep his back to. images from the cave played out in a high definition loop before him, even curled on the ground he could still feel himself falling, falling...

now his hands are digging into the flesh around his eyes, still desperately begging the images away. even scrunched into a ball the gaping hole that is his chest is obvious, the constant trembling and whimpers only adding to the gory display. his heart, golden and whole before, has gone pitch black, more cracks than actual pieces at this point and only held together by the strange atmosphere of the zone. the same atmosphere doing a number on the rest of him, draining his power to dangerous lows. they can see the rock behind him, and not just through the bloody window in his chest. it's been so much longer for him, even without the flashbacks draining him at this point he'd still be pretty bad off. he feels like he's been left to rot, abandoned for days, months, years, only his mind for company. maybe karma has finally caught him up and dragged him to hell, just like he must deserve for what he's done. what else would this place be for, catered so perfectly to his failures? he doesn't know how long it's been, only that he's so, so tired. even the agonizing pain in his chest has faded, his whole body numb. cold. who is he? he can't remember, his mind is too foggy. where is he? he shouldn't be here. why? this place is... bad. green. green makes bad things happen. the green had laughed. not-green had been hurt. when? who was green? why? (Lewis!) L..ew...is? something about it sounds familiar. like purple and pink and warm and happy. but… no. Lewis is black and white and cold cold cold. like him. is he him? he can't tell what his color is. was. are? something is touching him. it moves the dark away and he sees blue. blue... what is blue's name again? it says something, but all he hears is static. he can't move and blue is raining. no, that's not right. blue is happy and smiles and love, not sad, never sad, why is blue sad?

his last coherent thought, before finally fading out, is please don't be sad, blue. as vivi reaches the collapsed spirit, her fear of losing Lewis again somehow worsens. she knows what lengths Lewis would go to before using this form, and that she can see straight through him means his energy is even lower than she'd feared. grabbing a wrist she pries a hand from his eyes, only for the revealed pupil to be a dull and cloudy purple. there's no sign of recognition, though she hopes some of her panicked rambling is making it through the haze. a whimper at her side draws Vivi's attention to mystery, worriedly sniffing the abused and battered locket, which looks like it's one small breath away from crumbling completely. "we need to get him inside and home, now." she doesn't have to look to see mystery shifting, the gasp behind them is enough. the kitsune can take care of Lewis, she needs to focus on his anchor. unwinding her scarf, she makes use of the wonky gravity to wrap it around the locket, both preserving its shape and making sure pieces can't fall out when she moves it. with her part done and mystery gathering Lewis in his tails, vivi grabs the delicate package and hurries back to the waiting craft. she shivers as the static feeling of the speeder's shield passes over her, but it's a small price to pay to keep everyone safe. not from the ghosts, who she really needs to thank now she thinks about it, but the reality itself.

Sam and tucker had stayed in the speeder as the trio ran out, ready to make a quick getaway if this all turned sour. they couldn't really see what was happening outside, but Danny could handle it (probably). he'd call if he needed them. (maybe.)

they kept to watching the last stranger still in the back of the vehicle. well, stranger plus the weird… pink... thing.

[bicsbec]

The Noceda House

Chapter 3: Buried Burdens

Willow Park was very much not okay. Nothing had been okay for quite a few days. The Human Realm was confusing and disorienting, it turned her senses upside down. The plants were different, the air had weird metal, grimy consistency, some of the food tasted unnatural. It made her dizzy.

But she would put on a brave face, keep her discomfort under wraps, so at least one of them kept calm, diffusing Luz’s wired anxiety and Gus’s panic attacks. Hunter and Amity were clearly going through their own things, but they weren’t erratic.

She missed her dads, worried if they were okay. It came at her in waves, usually at night when everything was quiet and all she could hear were Vee’s soft whistles as she breathed through her nose. Home was somehow a doorway away and universes apart. Home was gone. Home had to become something else if she was going to make it through this.

 Willow tried to look for some degree of normalcy, something to keep her grounded. She ran through her morning routine, which felt nice, but there was nothing normal about it. The paths she ran down were different, the vines she used as battle ropes were more rigid than the ones in the Demon Realm. Sure, they presented a challenge, but not one Willow wanted to be reminded of every morning.

“Morning, Captain,” Hunter said, almost getting his head whipped off, ducking just in time.

“Oh, Hunter.” Willow relaxed, spelling the vines away. “My bad.”

Hunter exhaled, straightening again. “All good. Holding up okay?”

“Uh, yeah. Well enough, I guess,” Willow shrugged. She noticed Hunter had bothered to put on his boots. They usually refrained from wearing anything from home. Luz had told them their clothes would stand out too much. Mrs. Noceda had taken them shopping for human clothes early on, one of Gus’s illusions over their ears to not draw attention.

Hunter’s ears looked normal now, so Gus probably didn’t know he was outside.

Willow raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms. “Going somewhere?”

Hunter blushed, looking away. “Yes,” he said, his tone determined. “And it would be really cool if you didn’t tell the others.”

“Were you trying to sneak out just now? ‘Cause if you were, you suck at it.”

“I know how to sneak out,” Hunter said defensively. “I just—needed someone to know I had gone out…in case anything happened.”

“You think I’m going to let you go alone?”

“It’s nothing dangerous,” he said quickly. “It’s just precaution. I saw something when we were in town last week. I wanted to check it out for myself, that’s all.”

Willow wasn’t convinced. “You shouldn’t go out with your ears like that. You know what happened to Vee.”

Hunter offered her a smile, pulling up his hoodie. “Problem solved.”

Willow sighed. “Just—be careful.”

“You got it, Captain.”

After a few days of helping Luz research magic in the Human Realm, the trail seemed to run cold. Most of it was superstition or unhelpful to their cause.

Yes, fairies were real, but exactly how did they get here?

Luz obsessively revised every legitimate resource they got their hands on, refusing to leave a stone left unturned, terrified of overlooking anything. Amity had to pull her away at times, remind her that these things take time. Luz was showing a terrible pattern of burdening herself with guilt and responsibility, as if it were her fault they were stuck in the Human Realm.

Willow was determined to make her take a day off, so she suggested as much. They would go to a zoo. Gus had called them zoological gardens once, the word garden had always caught Willow’s attention.

Seeing Gus smile so much was a relief, it made everything worth it. She knew this was why she kept her anxieties to herself, burying them. So when Gus smiled he didn’t have to worry about anything else, when Luz and Amity laughed they didn’t have to think twice about it, so Hunter wouldn’t lose anymore sleep than he already did; her friends could just be, and that was more than enough for Willow. She realized they were becoming the home she needed, and with that she knew she could make it.

“Try to stick together,” Mrs. Noceda was saying, “don’t wander off alone.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Amity said eagerly, holding fast to Luz’s hand.

“You’ll stick with us, right, Hunter?” Gus asked looking over at the older boy. Hunter was transfixed holding his inanimate palisman, Flapjack, running a thumb over his wooden chest. “Hunter?”

“Hm?” he looked up, startled.

“Do you want to stick with us?”

“Oh. Yeah, of course.”

Gus smiled and turned his attention to the exhibition map. Willow nudged Hunter.

“Are you okay?”

“Yep,” Hunter said, storing Flapjack away safely. “I just…miss having him around.”

They tried to keep their palismen safe from human eyes, which meant keeping them inanimate for long periods of time. Willow missed Clover, too; but she never looked at her like that.

Hunter offered her a smile and his eyes flashed green. He blinked and they were back to their particular red shade.

Something was wrong…

Gus was practically leaping as he dragged Willow to the aquarium exhibition, leaving Luz and Amity in the dust. Hunter followed close behind them. The creatures swimming around were weird, their bodies small and delicate looking, with just one pair of eyes.

Gus’s eyes were wide with wonder, but they were still searching.

“They’re not here,” Gus said, looking around.

“Who?” Willow asked, looking over her shoulder.

“The giraffes!”

“Luz might know where they keep them,” Hunter suggested.

“Yeah, but I don’t want to interrupt her date with Amity.”

“I’m sure she won’t mind, Gus,” Willow assured him.

Luz, in fact, had not minded the interruption, but she gave Gus a funny look.

“Why were you looking for giraffes in the aquarium?”

“Because they’re aquatic, duh.”

“Gus, I promise you they are not.”

Luz led them to the giraffe exhibit and giggled as she saw Gus gape at the huge animals.

“Giraffes have BODIES? It’s not just the long necks? What lie have I been living?”

“Why wouldn’t they have bodies?” Luz asked, looking alarmed.

“They’re troublemakers that hang out in lakes,” Gus said, looking like he was reevaluating everything he knew. “They—they dip their heads and snake around over the surface. They don’t have bodies!”

“They’ve always looked like this, Gus,” Luz said. “They live in savannahs and stuff, not that many big bodies of water.”

“I need to sit down,” Gus said, holding onto Willow’s sleeve. She giggled.

“Okay, Gus. Take it easy.”

Willow felt bad for laughing, but she loved how familiar this kind of distress was. It wasn’t Gus worried about whether he’d ever see his dad again or if their magic could run out. It was Gus fussing over something silly, yet another misconception he had of the Human Realm. He seemed stressed now, but soon enough he would be bouncing around again, delighted to have learned something new. Willow had missed that.

After Gus came to terms with this newfound information, Luz suggested that they visit the carousel the zoo had. Gus lit up at the new word.

It turned out to be a circular machine that spined, ornate and colorful, that had short necked giraffe statues with poles running through their backs. It was mesmerizing and disturbing. Luz told them it was a fun game for children.

The Human Realm truly was bizarre.