#and danny a lesson and how to manage taking care of people the not hero way

[flamingpudding]

Substitute City Ghost

Clockwork had a plan. Their young king needed to learn how to take care of people without the kind of hero like fighting he did in Amity Park. There was a lot to learn for the young halfa and his king classes could only cover so much. Thus he had found a plan that would give his king the perfect learning expirence while also helping out his recently new friend. Well not that new since his friend was quite an old ghost of their own. But he had only recently made direct contact with her.

Lady Gotham was an old and powerful ghost. Born from the beliefs of her city and strengthened by the once living and protecting it. But she was stretching herself thin. Managing her city, helping the dead find their way, looking out for the shades, and protecting the weaker entities, was already a lot of responsibilities for a city ghost. But Lady Gotham has added more to her plate, supporting those that protect her city. Mortals that she called her knights. Aiding them by controlling the shadows, guiding those that need help toward them, or the other way around, guiding her knights to those that needed help. She was strong, but even a ghost like her could grow exhausted. His friend needed rest and recharge. Surely Lady Gotham wouldn't say no if he invited her to a vacation to the Realms, and in that same invitation, he would direct his king to his new hands on training.

The bats and birds knew something was different about Gotham lately. It was strange and slightly unsettling. The change felt like it had just happened overnight. They were suspicious, wondering if they were sensing one of their rogues planning something big. Jason and Duke appeared to sense it the most.

At first, it didn't appear to be too big of a problem, but then strange things started to happen. Their rogues started tripping over, seemingly nothing. And if that wasn't enough it appeared like their rogues were a whole lot more inattentive to their surroundings. Now the Bats and birds were good at sneaking, but they had human limits. Yet there were times they snuck up on them like they weren't even seen.

Dick swore that one of the goons had stared at him and didn't see him, even though he had tried to pull the tap their shoulder and greet them before punching them act. The guy had turned around and stared at him before looking around like no one was even there until he punched the guy anyway.

And that wasn't even the weirdest part. Bullets, throwing knives or anything aimed and thrown at them never hit their marks. Not for the lag of them dodging but for the things they were sure they shouldn't have been able to react in time for. Tim espacially had pointed out that a bullet should have hit him once but it never even graced him. Yet when he checked the place after the arrest. There had been a clear bullet hole in the wall where he had been.

They weren't sure if it was a blessing or a curse. They had even tried to get a member of the Justice League Dark to look into it. But strangely enough Constantine had refused to even set foot into Gotham for once, and even insisted that the other do not either.

To say that Batman was not amused would have been a very big understatement. The man was brooding. And of course Dick had to jinx them too. The eldest bat kid had to mention that it at least wasn't getting worse.

And don't you know it. It got worse. Like weirdly alarming strangely worse.

Because, how else would you define it when you're in the middle of a briefing with your patrol partner for the night when suddenly a Lazarus Pit look alike portal opens below your feed swallowed you up and the freaking drops you into the middle of a crime scene or mugging.

It was only thanks to their training that they were able to react quickly enough after a bound of disorientation. But fuck did that gave them all a good damn heart attacks when that happened the first time to Damian of all people.

Something was definitely wrong with their city. Thankfully they had some sort of hint, because the first time the Pit portal happened to Duke, he claimed that he saw a white haired figure right before it had swallowed him hole and spit him out at a bank robbery.

Danny was honestly believing he was doing a good job as substitute city spirit while Lady Gotham was enjoying her vacation. Sure , he still had trouble with some things, but he was sure he was getting the hang of the whole supporting the cities vigilantes gig Lady Gotham had going on. The whole managing the shades and the dead spirits was still up in the air, though. But at least he had figured out a way easier way to guide the vigilantes towards the once that needed help.

Now he just needed to figure out what was wrong with that one guy in the red helmet and he was sure that both Clockwork and Lady Gotham would be proud of him and how he had managed her city during her vacation.

[salmonight]

DannyMay 2023, Day 15: Full Hazmat AU

Tittle: The Cleaner: First File

Summary: One day green glowing monsters started appearing and attacking cities all over the globe, and with them, arrived 'The Cleaner'. The Justice League has not uncovered any real information about them to this day. Meanwhile, Danny in a full hazmat suit: 'People can't even let me take a friggin nap!!'

One day,  green glowing monsters and people started to appear all along the globe. No one knew where they came from, only that they enjoyed wreaking havoc wherever they showed up. 

With the entities came 'The Cleaner' as they were titled. They always appeared no more than 10 minutes after a villain - from the ‘Green Dimension’, as they named it - showed up, and contained them in ten seconds flat,  immensely helping in keeping the damage to the minimum. 

The only saving grace was that these aliens never got anyone killed. Everyone in the Justice League found this observation extremely bizarre. But even with no casualties,  the repair costs were enormous. 

No matter how much the JL looked, there were never sightings of the figure other than during the fights, when they seemed to appear out of thin air. Internet searches came up blank as well, only filled with excited rants and candid photos taken by civilians. With these, they concluded that “The Cleaner” was either a) a brand new hero previously unknown, or b) from the same dimension the glowing entities came from. The whole League was miffed, with the Bats even more so, collectively losing their shit over having no contingency plans against the unknown figure.

Fully covered in a red and black hazmat suit nobody had a clue about their identity,  even their gender was shrouded in mystery. Somehow their outfit, even without being overly baggy managed to hide any distinguishing bodily characteristics that otherwise would have been visible. 

Until…. one day,  one of the speedsters overheard the ‘Cleaner’s’ rant. 

It went as any of their usual fights with the green monsters did. Not even a few minutes after the beast started to destroy the buildings, their mysterious hero materialized into existence in front of it. Instead of immediately throwing a punch like they expected, ‘The Cleaner’ instead stared at them with the most deadpan expression they could convey with a helmet on. For some reason, the speedster got a huge 'I’m-so-done-with-this-shit' vibe. Or that was just his overactive imagination. It was hard to tell with the headgear on. He must have gotten it right though, because then they tiredly put a palm to their face with one hand, and, without looking, flicked open the lid of a tube and sucked the entity into it with the other.

Surprisingly, The Cleaner didn’t immediately disappear once the monster was gone, so he took a few steps closer as they hung the green, metal tube ( which he could now tell was actually a soup thermos? What? ) back on his belt and pulled out an honest-to-god cellphone.

He didn't even have to strain his ears to listen in on the ensuing phone call since they were talking pretty loudly. And boy, did they sure sound pissed. 

“I swear to the Ancients, Tuck,” the ‘Cleaner’ complained, motioning with their hands aggressively to emphasize their point “If I have to come to fetch another one of these god damned brats I'm gonna treat them the same way they act and build them a time out corner in either the warden’s prison or the palace. I'm pretty sure both Walker and Frightknight would love to teach them a lesson about tact!"

There was a pause as he listened to whoever they were talking to on the other end of the line. “No, I don't care that they’re centuries older than me. If they act like spoiled children they get treated as such!” 

They let out an annoyed harrumph “I was taking a nap, Tuck. A NAP!!! You know I don't take naps! Not to mention I’m retired! What the hell am I? Their nanny? I don’t even get paid to clean up the messes they make! Can't they just keep their ecto ass sitting still in the realm for at least a few centuries to let me take my well deserved break!? But nooooo, these asshats have to make even more paperwork for me to do!" 

“When I told them not to break into Amity anymore I did not mean for them to go to another dimension and terrorize a whole-ass-planet!!!” The ‘Cleaner’ threw up their spare hand in exasperation.

 Their grumbling still could be heard as, with a wave of their hands, a portal opened, made out of a green swirling mass. Ignoring everyone else’s presence they stepped into the portal as it was the most common thing in the world. 

The speedster could only watch and gape at the now empty air. They certainly did not know they could do that. 

Now that he remembers though, they did sound like a male didn't they? He couldn’t estimate their age from the voice as it was very muffled coming through the headgear, but it was definitely not feminine.

And that's how the Justice League got their first ever info about the mysterious ‘Cleaner’.

Finally,  the first real data was entered into the vigilante’s (?) file: 

Name: UNKNOWN 

Alias: “The Cleaner” 

Age: UNKNOWN 

Gender: Male 

Origin: UNKNOWN 

Race: UNKNOWN 

Appearance: UNKNOWN

Power(s): Flight (or hovering,  unconfirmed which), Super strength(?), Teleportation(?), Portal creation (confirmed)

Weakness(es): UNKNOWN 

Costume: A full  black and red hazmat suit. The headgear has a black, unreflective screen that has green orbs (eyes?) shining behind it. Matte black gloves, combat boots and belt. There are compartments added to the belt. Content: UNKNOWN 

Weapon(s): a metal thermos(?) with green accents

Personality: UNKNOWN 

Affiliates: Tuck (?) (no file available)

Takedown plan(s): Impossible to make without further data 

Note:  The entity always deals with the threats quickly and effectively. Their moves speak of prior experience. 

 Ao3

The one that helped betaing this work once again is the lovely Amateum!

My hands were itching to draw something so in a 'why the fuck not' mode i drew Danny's file.

Except as sequel of this with arts and all fellas cuz am already preparing it!

The sketch:

[carrisarune]

In Your Eyes

Next

Note: This is my second attempt of dropping a fic on this site and I can only ask that you have mercy. This was an attempt to expand on the book and certain scenes with my OC. Here’s hoping it works

Tags: I was inspired by the lovely @jamespotterthefirst and their amazing works into dishing out this fic. I also want to thank them for being willing to listen to all my wild rambles in chat and me bein a weirdo. You’re awesome and I can’t thank you enough.

CHAPTER ONE: FIRST DAY INTO THE FRAY (Part 1)

With one last shove to balance the pile of boxes against the wall, Rai sighed before flopping on the bed. A room under the stairs wasn’t the most ideal place to start in a new city but at least it was something. Given how the majority of his savings and allowance had gone into paying any school debts, he was lucky enough to get the room with his own money and not have to reach out to his family. While both sides of his family were well off, using their money without contributing anything gave him hives. 

On that thought, he shifted to pull out his phone from his pocket and called his parents. It took a few seconds before he heard his mum pick up. He greeted her with a, “Hey Mum, I’m all settled in-” before he was interrupted by his mum fussing over whether he was doing alright and if was really sure he didn’t want them to contact a friend for a better place to stay. 

“Mum, MUM! I’m fine. It’s not the worst place to stay in the city and hey, with enough work, I can get myself a better apartment to stay in” he chirped optimistically. His words only served to have his mum fuss even more before his dad took over. Rai could easily picture his dad calming her with a kiss to the cheek as her voice faded away and was replaced with his father’s rich baritone. 

He sounded amused as he spoke, “We had to stop your mother from grabbing her phone more than a few times today, you think you’re ready for your first day of work tomorrow?” showing his own turn at concern. Rai rolled his eyes as he continued to assure his parents for the next few minutes. Honestly, he managed to take care of himself in medical school, he could take care of himself in a new city. 

After ending the call and seeing he had a few hours to spare, Rai carefully pulled a box of books towards him and pulled out a few he could study. As he pulled out one particular old but well-loved book, he gave a grin. It was still hard to believe that he was going to start his residency at Edenbrook tomorrow. Who knows what kind of challenges he would be facing on the job. Plus, having the chance to work and be mentored by some of the top doctors? Rai wasn’t even sure he could sleep with all the excitement buzzing through him. 

Suddenly, he heard the sound of rumbling from the ceiling and gave a sigh. Well, if that was going to be a constant thing, maybe it was best to turn in early. Here was hoping he’d get a comfier place in the future. 

Stepping out of the cab and taking in the hospital, Rai couldn’t stop the grin that overtook his face before he practically ran inside. Once inside though, he realized he didn’t know where to go and paused. Tilting his head in thought, he looked around for anything that might give him directions. He then felt a tap on his shoulder and spun around to see a woman with curly brown hair and a warm smile. “Hi!” she greeted, “You look lost. Let me guess… first day of your medical residency?” and Rai nodded enthusiastically. She directed him to a corner where a camera and a white sheet was set up near the reception. 

He hoped that he didn’t stand out too much from the crowd. But being an Asian with windswept black hair and sharp brown eyes, Rai was sure he’d garner some curious looks like he did in school. Once he settled his ID and managed to get some helpful advice from the doctor whom he learned was Dr. Ines DeLarosa, he headed for orientation. 

On the way there through the waiting room though, Rai suddenly heard gasps and turned to see a woman collapse to the ground. Quickly moving as he saw the other patients start to crowd around her, he called, “Everyone please step back! I’m a doctor” and moved to check on the woman. As he did, an attending rushed in, kneeled by her side, and checked her pulse. “Pulse is weak. She’s unresponsive” he announced then looked around before catching sight of Rai. 

Without hesitation, he ordered, “You. Rookie. Get in here” and Rai quickly moved to obey with a, “Yes Doctor!” The woman was then lifted to a gurney before the doctor turned to a male nurse and asked, “What was she in for? Did she fill out a form yet?” to which the nurse replied with a negative. This clearly didn’t please the doctor as he stated, “If we don’t figure out what’s wrong with her fast, she’s gonna die on this table” before telling Rai to check the patient’s B.P. 

Doing as instructed, he peered at the numbers before announcing it’s quick descent and the patient’s immediate need for fluids. While the nurse was preparing the IV, Rai noticed the rapidly forming bruise on the patient’s elbow. Knowing that she had not landed on that elbow, Rai’s mind began to rapidly speed through possibilities as he noticed the patient’s fingertips were also turning blue. 

When he called the symptoms to attention and noted how the patient was most likely lacking oxygen, Rai saw the doctor nod in approval before instructing him to check on the patient’s lungs. The moment Rai did, he felt panic settle in upon hearing the failing of the organ. Urgently announcing his findings, he tried to reign in spiraling thoughts while the attending calmly announced a Code Blue and began to gently pump air into the patient. 

Digging his nails into his palm to center himself, Rai asked, “What can we do doctor? The problem hasn’t been confirmed yet” his mind whirling through all possible answers. With intense blue eyes piercing into Rai’s, the doctor told him, “Consider all the clues. It’s all there. You know this, Rookie.” Rai unclenched his hand to bite at a fingertip as he muttered the symptoms before exclaiming, “It’s a hemothorax!” thoughts coming to focus as the answer came to him. “Precisely. A blood vessel ruptured and is filling her pleural cavity…” the doctor started and Rai continued, “...blocking her lungs expanding! Hence the failure!” Then another thought popped in, “But since there’s no time to repair the vessel, that means…” Rai trailed off.

“We’ll have to do an emergency thoracotomy to drain the cavity instead. Nurse!” the attending called. To Rai’s shock, he finds himself handed a test tube and socket while the attending lift’s the patient’s shirt to expose the side of her ribcage. Blood roaring in his ears as he gripped at the scalpel, Rai gulped as he muttered, “No time for anesthesia… have to make the incision at the fifth intercostal space… anterior… to the mid… damn it, get a grip Hayashi!” growling at his trembling hand holding the scalpel. 

He jolted when felt the doctor steady his hand with his and their eyes met once more as the doctor told him, “Hey… You can do this.” Gripping onto those words, Rai took a breath before steadying his hand and carefully making the incision. He faintly heard the doctor’s encouragement before following the instruction to insert the tube. 

The moment the patient gasped for breath, Rai felt all remaining tenseness leave him before nodding to the doctor in silent thanks. As the doctor gave orders for the patient to be taken to surgery and the onlookers applauded, Rai released a heavy breath. He carefully rubbed his hands and with a breathless laugh, he said to the doctor, “Uh… well, that was… pretty amazing” barely believing that he barely started a shift and he managed to help save a patient. Calm as can be, the doctor retorted, “You’re right. it’s pretty amazing you didn’t get her killed’, his words causing Rai’s smile to freeze. Seeing the other lost for words, the doctor ruthlessly continued, “Your examination was slow and superficial. Your scalpel technique amateur at best…”

Before he could stop himself, Rai jokes, “In that case, maybe you should give me some private lessons” and the moment he did, his mind screeched, “(YOU FECKIN IDIOT!!!)” while alarms blared. Of all reactions, Rai did not expect the doctor to be amused, “Ha! I just might, Doctor…” he said, lifting Rai’s lanyard to read his ID, “Hayashi. But I sincerely doubt you could afford my salary” before tossing it back and walking away. 

It was one thing to suddenly have his ID grabbed, but hearing his last name be pronounced right left him more than a little breathless. He quickly took a breath to reel himself in before ruffling his head and groaning, “… Please tell me I didn’t just make a total fool of myself in front of a top doctor” a whimper tinting his words towards the end. 

The same male nurse from earlier walked over and patted his shoulder, “Don’t worry about it, Dr. Ramsey is like that with everyone.” Hearing the doctor’s name, Rai’s brain conjured the Looney Tunes ending theme, replacing the ending catchphrase with “You’re Screwed!” as he buried his face in his hands. “Greaaat, so not only do I mess up my first impression with an attending, I made a fool of myself in front of my medical hero of all people” he bemoaned. Clearly trying to cheer him up, the nurse chimed, “On the bright side, you’ll get plenty more chances to impress him” and Rai smiled in thanks. Once he learned the nurse’s name was Danny and introductions were made, Rai looked down to see his scrubs had been stained with blood and sighed.

Asking for directions to the locker room, he thanked Danny as he was led the way. Once inside, Rai searched for his locker, only to come face to face with a beautiful woman with dark skin and black hair in her underwear. Quickly turning about-face, Rai shut his eyes, “Sorry about that, do you need some privacy?” he asked. The woman seemed amused at his reaction, “How’d you make it through medical school without seeing a bra?” she asked and Rai shrugged. He turned to move away and reply only to bump into a muscular male; “Go easy on him, Jackie. It’s the first day for all of us” Rai heard him say. 

The woman, now identified as Jackie retorted, “Hey, I can be friendly… if you stay out of my way.” Rai couldn’t help but snort at that before piping, “To answer your question, I got away by being respectful, my parents didn’t raise no creep” rocking on his heels. 

The shirtless male barked a laugh, “We got ourselves a smart one here then” he joked before extending a hand with a playful wink. “Bryce Lahela, a.k.a. your new favorite surgical intern. Pleasure’s all mine” he introduced only for Jackie to snark, “Ignore the meathead, he’s a scalpel jockey.” Rai accepted Bryce’s hand with a grin, “Rai Hayashi. Internal medicine, nice to meet you!” Jackie nodded at that, “Guess you’re with me then. C’mon, we’re gonna be late” she said before slipping into her scrubs. 

Going from his first impression, Rai thought it was best to be quick and follow after. It didn’t take long for the trio to reach the main atrium where the rest of the interns were listening to an impressive, statuesque woman up front. From the sound of things, she was already in the middle of orientation. Peering at the woman’s face, Rai tried to place her face before perking. He leaned towards Bryce and whispered, “Isn’t that Harper Emery? I thought she was with the surgical team?” 

Jackie gave a smirk as she overheard, “You’re a little late on the news there Hayashi, she’s the hospital’s new chief.” Rai nodded in acknowledgement before listening to the rest of the speech. As she ended her speech and the interns burst in applause, Rai joined in and grinned at his fellow colleagues only to catch something, or rather someone in the crowd. 

Out of all the interns, there was a young woman who was not clapping with the rest. Frankly, she looked rather unimpressed with everything. Before Rai could think further on it, he hears Dr. Emery announce that they would be meeting their senior residents tomorrow and for today, they would be partnering up for their first patient and that assignments were on the board. 

Waving goodbye and wishing Bryce good luck as he left to join his group, Rai moved to peer at the board. Once he found his and his partner’s name, he tilted his head, “Huh, I’m partnered with… A. Emery?” he mused out loud. An intern with curly hair exclaimed, “Like, Chief of Medicine Dr. Emery?!” and Rai turned to him. “It says A. Emery, so I’m sure it meant a relative, unless Emery somehow became a common last name without anyone knowing” Rai joked and a loud snort was heard followed by an, “I wish.” Everyone turns to the source and it’s revealed to be the unimpressed intern that Rai saw earlier. 

He walked up to her with a smile and held out his hand, “Hi! A. Emery right? I’m Rai Hayashi, it looks like we’ll be partners for this assignment. Are you alright with me calling you Dr. Emery or something else? I mean, if you want,; it’s tough that people pile on expectation when it comes to certain last names. Oh wait, I didn’t even get your first name, my bad” he babbled, though still maintained his bright smile. For a moment, the female intern looked surprised before her expression turned cool and she shook his hand, “Dr. Aurora Emery, Dr. Emery is fine. Anyone tell you that you talk… a lot?” she said and Rai gave a chuckle. “My bad, I was just excited to work my first assignment, let’s go?” he offered and Aurora gave a curt nod; the two breezed past the crowd before anything else could be said.

On the way to their patient, the two managed to have an amicable agreement on their partnership for the assignment. Though he had read the chart, Rai still felt a pang as they entered the room and saw the young patient named Annie. Still, he managed to push through with Aurora taking her vitals while he made the patient more comfortable and asked more on what happened before they ended up in the hospital. 

After leaving Annie with further reassurances and taking note of her symptoms and other unrecorded injuries. Just as they were discussing submitting their findings for lab work, Aurora was paged by her aunt. Rai gave a wince upon hearing the announcement from the P.A System, “Go ahead. I’ll handle things and keep you updated. Good luck” he encouraged.

Aurora peered at him for a moment, as if she was trying to figure him out before she nodded and left. After making the submission, Rai found himself busy with other patients. By the time he managed to have a minute to himself, Rai was close to just squatting on the floor to rest. Just as he was about to do just that, a nurse came up to him with the results. 

Looking them over and noting the uncommon strain of bacteria, he advised for some antibiotics and some observation on the effects before thanking the nurse for their work. With that done, Rai took a moment to breath before heading off to continue his rounds. Only, he realized later, in his attempt to head back to Annie’s room, he had somehow gotten himself lost.

He looked around to see if there was anything familiar, but as he turned around, he ended up bumping into another intern who dropped the textbook they were reading. “Sorry!” Rai exclaimed before bending down to pick up the fallen book and held it out. The intern waved his apologies, giving his own apologies before introducing himself as Landry Olsen. When he was handing the book back, Rai saw a peek of the cover, “Oh hey! ‘Diagnostic Principles by Ethan Ramsey’, you a fan?” he asked. Landry grinned, “Yeah, I totally worship the guy. Shrine in my basement and everything” he said before immediately stating, “Kidding! I’m kidding. I never know it’s clear when I’m joking,” his words caused something to itch at the back of Rai’s head but he ignored it. 

“Well, here’s hoping you give a better first impression than I did,” Rai offered and Landry gave a gasp of recognition. Apparently, the whole incident from the morning had already made his rounds. Landry was gushing on how lucky Rai was and how he wished he hadn’t been early to work, wishing he had the chance to meet Dr. Ramsey. Quite honestly, Rai had been trying to not cringe into a ball as he listened to Landry’s words. When the other trailed off and seemed to stare in shock at something, Rai followed his line of sight and saw the very man being talked about at the end of the hall. 

“(Whelp, time to find the nearest window and yeet myself then)”

[mischiefandspirits]

Doppelgänger (10/?)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Life Lessons, Part 2}

“Regretting your life choices yet?” Sam asked as Danny scowled down at the still crying sack of flour.

“I've been a parent all of one day and I’m probably already down to a C-.”

“Life could be worse. You could be that guy,” Sam said, pointing to where the Nasty Burger’s mascot was being terrorized by a bunch of kids.

“Oooh! Nasty Nat! Let's get a family photo with him.”

“You're taking this way too seriously,” Sam said as Tucker pushed her and Danny towards the mascot.

Sam glared off the kids while Tucker asked for a photo, which Danny took for them.

“You want me to take one of you? Family photos help boost your grade.”

“Not without Val here,” Danny said, passing Sam the camera and rocking his still crying sack. “I don’t want to give Tetslaff the wrong idea.”

“The wrong idea being the fact Valerie stuck you with all the work?” Sam asked.

“We talked about it. She has a job, Sam.”

“So she says.” When Danny shot her a look, she said, “Right, sorry. Giving her a chance.”

Danny sighed and looked down at the sack. “I don’t think I’m cut out to be a dad.”

“Try supporting its top more.” Danny looked up at the muffled voice to see Nasty Nat standing near him. He gestured awkwardly at Danny’s arms.

Danny shifted his arms so its head was held up by his elbow and it started to quiet down. “Wow, uh, thanks, dude.”

The mascot nodded and waddled off.

Just in time as the trio’s ghost senses went off.

“Beware!”

As one, they groaned and shouted, “Not it!”

“We should really learn that that’s not going to work anymore,” Tucker chuckled.

“I’ll go,” Sam sighed and headed towards the back of the restaurant. “You two can manage the sacks.”

“You sure you’re not sticking Tucker with all the work?”

She turned around to walk backward and pointed at Tucker. “That’d be a good burn if it wasn’t for the fact he actually likes this stupid assignment.”

Danny chuckled and rocked the baby, smiling as she finally quieted down.

Then the explosions started. They looked up to see Sam fighting Valerie.

“Oh no,” Danny said. “Tuck, can you watch the kid for me?”

“Only because I don’t want Sam to get killed. Go stop your baby mama.”

“Sam’s right, you are taking this too seriously,” Danny said, handing over his sack.

He started to run off, but an explosion in front of him threw him back.

“Danny!”

He looked up with wide eyes to see the Nasty Burger sign falling.

Valerie grabbed him and pulled him out of the way just as Sam swooped down to hide Tucker’s intangibility.

“You okay?” the ghost hunter asked.

“Yeah, maybe be a little more careful with the missiles next time,” he said, shifting so he could kneel on her board.

“Sorry. The ghost kid was in one of their slow moods so I wanted to try and take them out before they could pick up speed. Besides, I’m only on a five-minute break.” Val set down behind the Nasty Burger and Danny hopped down so she could fold up her board. She pulled down her mask and looked him over. “Where’s the baby?”

“Tucker has her. I was, uh, about to go to the bathroom so I asked him to watch her.”

“Alright. You sure you’re okay?”

He smiled and set his hand on her shoulder. “I’m fine, really.”

She smiled back.

“Valerie?”

“Oh crud, that’s my boss,” she whispered and retracted her suit.

He glanced at her uniform. “You work at the Nasty Burger?”

“Tell anyone and I end you,” she hissed as she stuffed her guns into her backpack.

“I won’t. But why the secrecy? What do you do?”

“None of your business,” she said, elbowing him playfully. She looked down at him as she stood up straight and there was mischief in her eyes. She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “Have fun with the kid, honey. I’m headed off to work.”

He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth.

“Well now, this is unexpected.”

The two spun around to see Skulker floating behind them, a gun charging. Neither could react before it fired.

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

Danny groaned and sat up. “What hit me?”

“That would be me.”

The half-ghost scowled and turned to see Skulker standing over him. His breath caught as he noticed the cage bars between him and Skulker. He looked around to see he was in a steel cage that was glowing dark blue. And he wasn’t alone.

“What’s with the cage? I thought you wanted our pelts. And why’s Valerie here?” Danny growled, getting to his feet and marching towards him.

“There’s been a change of plans. You should be grateful. I had planned to have one of you fight to the death with the huntress, but knowing she is your mate makes you far more appealing for my collection. The pelts of your other sides will have to do.”

Danny gaped at the hunter ghost. “Okay, first of all, no one is ever going to be grateful to be in a cage, you creep. Second, Val is my friend, none of us would have killed her. Third, please tell me you mean mate in the British sense, because if Johnny and Kitty have been telling people I’m dating Val I’m going to kick their butts. Forth, gross dude.”

Skulker just smirked at him. “You cannot hide your relationship from me, ghost child. I heard you speaking about your child with your mate.”

Danny hit his head on the bars. “We’re fifteen. We don’t have a kid. Our school just makes sophomores partner up to take care of a flour sack. Teach us responsibility and stuff. We were joking about the assignment because we got paired up. Val and I are just friends.”

Skulker eyed him for a moment, then frowned. “Really?”

“Yes!”

“Teenagers,” Skulker growled, running a hand over his face.

“Sorry to inconvenience you. Now if you could just let us go.”

Skulker snorted and turned to leave. “Welcome to your new home.”

Danny glared at his back and tried to push his hands through the bars.

“And before you get any ideas, that cage was made with you halfas in mind. No phasing through it for humans or ghosts.”

“You know Sam and Tucker are going to come to get us!” Danny yelled as the ghost moved out of sight.

Skulker didn’t respond.

“Stupid frog.” Danny turned to the bars and tried to summon the energy for an ectoblast, to no avail.

After trying and failing to use the rest of his powers, he sat down next to Valerie.

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

“I’m going to tear that stupid ghost apart, then put him back together so I can take him apart a second time!”

Danny stared at the ceiling, not bothering to respond as it was the one hundred and thirty-seventh time Valerie had said those words, or at least that’s how many times she’d said it since he’d decided that counting would at least give him something to do.

And Sam thought zoos were bad. At least they gave the animals something to do.

They also gave them food.

“Hey Frogger, you do realize humans need food and stuff to survive right?” Danny yelled, cutting over Valerie’s one hundred and thirty-eighth rendition of her threats. “Also, do the words animal enrichment mean anything to you?”

“Don’t call us animals,” she huffed.

“Technically humans are still a type of animal. And I’ll call us whatever I have to to get something to eat. I know you feel the same.” If Danny -- who could partially sustain himself on the zone’s ambient ectoplasm even while in human form and had just eaten when he’d been grabbed -- was hungry, then Valerie -- who was fully human and likely didn’t have a chance to grab something after school with her job -- had to be starving.

“I won’t give in to a ghost.”

“Meh, I prefer to show rebellion through stupid nicknames and punny taunts rather than by denying myself the basic necessities.”

“You’re being far too calm about this,” she huffed, moving to stand over him.

He shrugged. “Panicking never helps and I already did the anger thing before you woke up so I’m mostly just bored now.”

“So you’re content to spend the rest of your life here?”

“You say that like it will be a long time, which it won’t because Skulker doesn’t seem inclined to feed or water us.” When she met his joke with a glare, he sat up. “We’ve already established neither of us has the skills or equipment to pick the lock or bend the bars, so escape’s not happening. Skulker wants to keep us, which is very creepy, but at least means we aren’t going to die. So all we can do is wait out our rescue.”

“You think someone will rescue us?” Valerie asked, sitting next to him.

Danny pulled out his phone. “It’s been fifteen hours since we were grabbed. Skulker can be sneaky, but someone still might have seen him bringing us to the portal. And even if no one human saw us, invisibility doesn’t work in the zone. We were definitely seen and gossip is crazy in the zone. Doppelgänger will hear about this soon enough.”

“So?” she snorted. “We’re Red Huntress and a Fenton. Why would they help us?”

“The ghosts might not know that,” Danny said, thinking quickly. “All Doppelgänger would probably hear is that two humans from their territory got taken.”

“I guess that makes sense.” She laid down and Danny followed suit.

He stared up at the ceiling, then his lips twitched up. “Want to know what I’m really worried about?”

She hummed.

“Is getting kidnapped by a ghost a good enough excuse in Tetslaff’s book for not taking care of the baby?”

There was a beat of silence then she laughed. “Oh my god! She’ll probably make us redo it from the very start!”

“I mean, I left her with a responsible sitter. That should count for something.”

“Tucker, responsible?”

“I mean, he’s working with Sam. She’ll kick his butt if he goes off the rails.”

“That makes more sense.”

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

Valerie eyed the food the ghost had thrown into their cage suspiciously. Her stomach felt like it was eating itself, but…

“How do you even know it's safe?” she asked, looking over at Danny, who was halfway through his own Mighty Meaty Cheesy Melt.

“Like I said, he doesn’t want us dead, so it’s not poisoned. And there’s no ectoplasm in it. Even if there was, that whole eat of the dead, become of the dead thing only applies to specific ghost fruits, which aren’t on here because he clearly stole it from the Nasty Burger and, again, no ectoplasm.”

“How do you know there’s no ectoplasm?”

“Ectoplasm has this strong citrusy taste that can’t be covered up with anything but mounds of relish, and there’s no relish on the burger.”

“Ho-How do you know that?”

“My parents aren’t as careful with pure ectoplasm as they probably should be.”

“That’s…”

“I know. Sam and Tucker refuse to eat over anymore unless it’s takeout and we bring it straight to my room. Really though, the food’s fine. Nothing weird in it, promise.”

“I don’t know if I can trust you to know what’s weird anymore,” Valerie said, but grabbed her burger anyways.

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

Val closed her eyes as she sunk further into the water. “I don’t know if I should be impressed or concerned that you literally annoyed a ghost into giving us a bathroom.”

“Grateful?” Danny suggested from the other side of the curtain that hid the toilet and bath from the rest of the cage. “It’s a gift, really.”

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

Danny snickered at Valerie’s glare.

“If I had my weapons…”

“Calm down, Val. They’re not doing any harm.”

“They won’t GET OFF!”

“They like you,” he chuckled and plucked off one of the blob ghosts.

He wasn’t sure how, but his usual swarm had found them and were now drifting about the cage. Some had attached themselves to the top like bats. Others had burrowed into their blanket nest. A few had made a home inside his jacket or atop his hair. A lot had decided Valerie was a very nice spot to sleep and had latched onto her.

The ghost in his hand vibrated, almost like it was purring except it sounded more musical.

“I’m going to smash them!”

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

“How does your phone even still have power?” Valerie asked as they watched Thor cut Thanos’s head off.

They were cuddled close in their nest of blankets with Valerie’s head on his shoulder so they could both see the small screen.

“Tucker upgraded it so it would run on ectoplasm for convenience’s sake.”

“Ectoplasm is convenient?” she chuckled, idly scratching one of the blobs curled up in her lap.

“It is in my house.”

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

Valerie gave the beast sitting on the other side of the cage a death glare.

“Yap!”

“You are so lucky I don’t have any weapons.”

Cujo rolled over onto his back and wagged his tail.

“Danny, make him leave with your annoying powers!”

The boy just reached over and rubbed the dog’s belly.

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

Valerie was tossing the rubber ball Skulker had given Danny -- and by given, she meant the ghost had thrown it at his head after four hours of constant complaining of being bored -- for Blobert to fetch when a soft sound reached her, almost like someone was shushing someone else.

“Hello?”

There was quiet for a moment, then a blue-purple flash came from around the corner. A second later Doppelgänger poked their two heads out, smiling. “Valerie!”

“Yep. You here for the show or are you actually going to help us?”

They scowled and looked at each other. “Can’t we just leave her here? We’d never hear the end of it if we did. She’s the ghost hunter, let her figure her own way out.”

“I can hear you, you know.”

“We know,” they chirped.

Valerie sat up. “Listen here, you little -”

She cut off as she was reminded that Danny had been laying with his head on her stomach by a soft whine. She looked down to see him blinking up at her, his head now in her lap.

“Wha’s goin’ on?” he yawned.

“Ghost kid’s here. They’re arguing with themself about if they’re going to help us or not.”

Danny stared at her, processing, then sat up and glared at the ghost kid, who raised their hands with guilty smiles.

“We were only kidding.” They flew over to the cage and looked it over.

“It’s ghost and human-proof,” Danny told them.

“How’re we supposed to open it then? It’s got a manual lock. We need to stop living in the digital age for once. Shut up.”

“They’re always like this,” Valerie whispered to Danny as he chuckled at their antics. “I don’t know if it's a ghost thing or if they’re just messed up in the head.”

“We think aloud, jerk,” they snapped as one came forward and pulled a pair of bobby pins out.

Danny moved closer as they knelt next to the cage’s door. “You know how to pick a lock?”

They smiled at him and pushed up their goggles to give him a wink before they squinted down at the lock and started fiddling with it.

Valerie was surprised their eyes were yellow. She’d assumed they’d be green like their goggles.

“That’s a lot of blobs,” they said, the one not picking the lock looking over the cage.

“Just over three dozen and they all have names,” Danny said cheerfully.

“They’re just random pun names based around the word blob,” Valerie chuckled.

“Blobbington. Blobby. Blobin. Blo-”

“We get it,” the ghosts snorted, cutting Danny off.

It took a few moments, but then the ghost kid was floating back and the door swung open.

“Freedom!” Danny cheered as they left the cage. He turned to the blobs and made shooing motions. “Alright, you lot, back home with you.”

The swarm made sad ringing sounds, but flew off in various directions.

Meanwhile, the ghost kid that had picked the lock fixed their goggles back into place and put away the pins as the other passed Valerie her backpack and pointed at the wall across from them. “Go straight that way. We’ll meet you on the other side.”

“You want us to go through the wall.”

“Humans can be intangible in the ghost zone. Just try, you’ll see,” they said before heading back the way they came.

Danny walked up to the wall and stuck his arm through. “They’re right.”

“I guess that’s what Skulker meant by human proof,” she said as she followed him over and tried it for herself. “He must have done something to the cage so we wouldn’t slip right through.”

“Guess so. Ladies first?”

She rolled her eyes and stuck her head through to make sure no one was on the other side. They continued like that until they reached a wall that only had a void on the other side. She put on her suit and they jumped through. She summoned her board before they could fall too far, then looked around.

“We should leave now while we have the chance.”

“Great idea. Which way do you think the portal is?” Doppelgänger asked with a snort as they flew up.

She sent them a glare.

“Thanks for the help,” Danny said, setting his hand on her shoulder. “Can you show us the way out?”

They turned to her, crossing their arms.

She crossed her own arms and stared back.

“Can we please save this for after we’re far away from the ghost who locked us in a cage for eight days?”

“We’re not the ones who got locked up,” Doppelgänger reminded them.

“Maybe so, but you are the ones who are going to be stuck in a thermos for an hour if you don’t knock it off,” he said. “Can we just agree to a truce until we get out of here? Please?”

“Fine,” they said and one held out their hand.

Valerie shook it. “For now. Get us out of this ghost zone, and we'll see how long it lasts.”

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

I'm sorry this has been a while. Hyperfixations are a B. I'm going to post what I have and hopefully, that will rekindle enough for me to finish this.

[whimsicalwhespir]

As I've said before, I have a lot of aus! My friend @deuynndoodles said I should make a masterlist of all of them. So I did! I was so tempted to keep writing stuff about them because I'm horrible at writing short summaries while also getting thr basis of the story across so it was a bit of a challenge cause when I start it's hard to stop me.

Anywhoooo heres a list of all my aus at the moment! There are minor ones I have and ones I've tossed out or forgotten but these are the ones I like so I hope you like them! (And if you have any questions at all please feel free to ask! I love talking about my aus!)

MY HERO ACADEMIA:

Ratiocination (Indigo Jets)- Vigilante Izuku, he has a quirk called pause that allows him to stop time but he cannot move and the longer he stays paused the more of his memories get erased. He's childhood friends with Bakugou and Shinsou who both worry when he disappears from their lives. His vigilante name is Indigo Jets.

_____

Emerald Eyes (Manx)- Short Izuku with cat eye syndrome, he has a quirk that allows him to make bubble-like force fields similar to Steven universe. He's found by the Wild Wild Pussycats and they train him and later on becomes a part of the team. His hero name is Manx.

_____

House of Glass (Rose/Grim/Grimrose)- Izuku is raised by the League of Villains and they're his big happy family. He has a quirk that allows him to erase and manipulate people's memories as well as a telekinetic quirk given to him by All For One. He's sent to UA as a spy but he ends up making friends and enjoying himself. He has the hero name Rose and the villain name Grim.

_____

My Angel (Starlight)- Izuku has a quirk that gives him the powers of an Angel. He has wings and a halo and he's also an empath with healing abilities. He also has the power to visit the dead, his mom, and it's difficult not to fall in love with him when people meet him. His hero name is Starlight.

_____

Out Of Reach (Tapeti)- Izuku Midoriya is taken by the league after making a deal with Shigaraki on the roof where All Might leaves him. They turn him halfway into a nomu, experimenting with quirkless candidates. Meanwhile, Bakugou is trying to find his friend through his years at UA, only to find out Izuku doesn't remember him, having been brainwashed and taking up the villain name Tapeti.

_____

Green Thumb Garden- Izuku was sold to villains as a child because Inko couldn't afford to take care of him. He escapes a few years later and is shrugged off by a hero. He's taken in by a family who runs a garden shop and as they get older, he begins to run it. He believes he is quirkless but later on finds out he has a quirk that allows him to speed up the growth and healing of organisms like an enhanced fertilizer would.

_____

Cerulean Flames (Deku)- Izuku gets lost in the crowd during a villain attack and can't find his mother. Instead, he finds a runaway Touya Todoroki who leads him back to safety. Izuku visits him almost every day and Dabi teaches him how to fight, play dirty and is there like an older brother for Izuku. When getting one for all, he also participates in helping Izuku train with All Might.

_____

Glass Wings (Sterling)- Izuku is taken in by the Shie Hassaikai when he runs away from home. Over the years he learns that they're not all they seem, trying to unravel it from the inside out with his sister Eri and friend Rappa. They're about to run for it during the raid but are caught by heroes. Izuku, being so close to Eri and not having any recorded crimes, is put in a villain rehabilitation program at UA. His old villain name is Sterling, turned codename.

_____

All For You (Deku)- Older Izuku, he went to school with Aizawa, Nemuri, Yamada, Oboro and Tensei, he being the closest with Tensei. In an accident with Oboro, Izuku is blinded in his right eye. Both are injured but survive. They all grow up to be heroes, Izuku also acting as an older brother figure to Bakugou. Izuku is also a teacher at UA in the heroics department, he teaches the students how to be safe and reduce damage to their surroundings and self. 

_____

Ignite (Phoenix)- Vigilante Izuku, he loves to sing and perform at the hotel and karaoke bar his family owns. The hotel is open to heroes, villains, vigilantes, civilians, the poor, discriminated against and everyone in between. His father was in an accident when he was young which paralyzed him from the waist down because a hero failed to save him. 

Izuku becomes a vigilante to look for people to come to the hotel. People who need the safety and those who have no place to stay. He has a quirk that allows him to manipulate fire. He doesn't need to look for people to pay because so many patrons already donate. Later on, Phoenix stops being a vigilante and becomes a full time singer. His name is Phoenix.

_____

Circus Caliber (Ringleader)- Inspired by The Greatest Showman, it takes place when quirks are only beginning to appear. People believe them to be freaks and shun them from society. Izuku is quirkless but admires quirks and looks for people to join his quirked circus (everyone in 1a and thensome). He wants to show the world that quirks aren't bad or destructive. That they can be good if given the chance.

_____

Panacea Paradox- Post quirk era, Izuku is a scientist who is fascinated with quirks. He tries to bring them back through experimentation and tests the completed formula on volunteers (1a). The experiment goes wrong, they have quirks yes, but they're all painful and grotesque. (An example would be Bakugou's explosions burn his hands horribly, mutation quirks have dead limbs, much bleeding and injuries, etc).

Izuku panics and drinks the last of the liquid, he gains a quirk that allows him to temporarily remove other's pain by inflicting it on himself. He desperately tries to find a cure but people die in the time he isn't able to. He means well but he makes many mistakes. (It's a rather dark au)

_____

Fractured But Not Yet Broken (The Free Hero:Arrow)- Izuku has an incredibly self destructive quirk, it's called Fracture. It allows him to impact incredible telekinetic force to the point of breakage but in turn harms him immensely, broken bones, internal bleeding, lots of pain. The quirk gives him a slightly higher pain tolerance as well. 

Inko is immensely overprotective, sheltering him entirely from the outside world besides internet access. He goes to UA secretly while she's at work and becomes very close with his friends and the UA staff, Nezu especially. They take away inkos custody later on and he gets to live in the dorms. His hero name is Arrow.

_____

Send A Sign (Beetlejuice)- Izuku dies hundreds of years ago (he's the same age as All For One) by being struck by lightning. He wakes up in the current day with no memories of his past.  He can only remember the word "Beetlejuice" as it was the musical he and his mother were going to see before he died. He wanders around and begins following a 4 year old Bakugou and it stays that way. Izuku's like his guardian. 

One day Bakugou says "Beetlejuice" 3 times while listening to the song and Izuku is now visible to him (part of quirk). Izuku is his friend, teaching Bakugou lessons and acting like a big brother. Izuku goes to UA with Bakugou and after the blass says his name, they all see him and he spends time with them, trying to regain his memories and joining them through the ride of becoming heroes. (I'll explain all of his powers some other time, it's a long list)

_____

DANNY PHANTOM:

The Spectral Hero: Danny Phantom (Danny/Phantom)- Danny has a quirk that allows him to breathe and survive in space with no equipment but he doesn't know that since he's never been. The Fentons move to Japan from Amity. He's shocked by the portal and gains his normal ghostly abilities, telling people that is his quirk and not the result of a freak accident (he tells Aizawa later because he can't erase Danny's ghostliness). He has the persona of vigilante Phantom as well as Danny, the UA student. Aizawa knows it's him and they have a playful relationship, him acting as Danny's mentor. He later reveals to his class he is Phantom when moving into the dorms.

_____

Pink Slip- Danny is more affected by the portal accident, as Fenton it makes him weaker and more vulnerable but it feeds into his ghost half with more power. He misses school for a month after the accident and doctors take the ectoplasm in his blood as some disease. They give his school a pass so he can visit the nurse at any time. Since he has an excuse, he often leaves class with full permission of the teachers cause they think he's just going to the nurse's office. People don't question why he always looks tired and has bruises on his body, just thinking he's weaker due to the accident.

_____

Broken Watch- Danny is an ex a-list student who leaves when they start bullying kids. He takes a larger hit from the portal, giving him an electric core and powers that are more difficult to control but pack more of a punch. He gets taught about the ghost zone and other things by Clockwork after Dan and is given a defective pocket watch. Clockwork says by the time Danny fixes it, things should be alright. All or the numerals on it represent people in his life he must get closer to and those who will help him throughout his life to reach his full potential. 

_____

GRAVITY FALLS:

In A Black And White World- Dipper has the ability to see a dimension in between his and another, it's a dimension filled with magic. He is able to manipulate it but nobody else can see. He keeps it a secret until later on. It allows him to feel, see, taste, hear and smell others emotions and intentions. Their energies and feelings. He can see creatures that travel in the dimension, including Bill who teaches him about magic. He eventually manages to develop it enough so it becomes visible after seeing Bill use it in his body after his betrayal. 

_____

DUCKTALES: 

Operation Oversight- On an adventure, a bracelet with an intelligent sentient robot attaches itself to Louie when he examines it and through nightmares and threats convinces Louie to pursue Louie.Inc through any means necessary. This means forgetting his loved ones to reach his goal. His family finds out months after the adventure and they manage to break Louie out of the trance enough so he can destroy the bracelet. 

_____

Adroit- (similar to the concept of epithets) A small population of people in this world have superpowers and it just so happens everybody in the mcduck family gains powers. The story is basically all of them using their abilities and discovering different parts of them. (I'll get into all of their powers later on)

_____

EDDSWORLD:

Chaosworld- A scientist with a vendetta against Tom attempts to steal his monster abilities but instead manages to give harmful mutations and powers to the gang. They try to revert the mutations and find a cure before it's too late for them all.

(Also also, I'm very sorry to those who follow me solely because of Chaosworld. I probably wont be writing anything for it for a very long time if I ever do get back to it. It just dosent really inspire me anymore, I'm sorry qwq. )

[bibbumblebee]

Ectober19: In Which Sam Falls Apart at a Halloween Party

My first ever fic for anything before. Not perfect, but it was a lot of fun to write! Also it’s 22 minutes late shhh don’t tell anybody.

Prompt: Fangs/Shatter

Sam’s fangs were really starting to bother her.

They poked at the inside of her bottom lip, and if she wasn’t careful, she found herself sticking them into her tongue or the soft gums behind her bottom row of teeth. She wondered how on earth some of the ghosts Danny fought back to the Ghost Zone could stand having such deadly teeth. All the time. Her fake ones were about to drive her crazy.

Just a few more hours, Manson, she told herself. She took a drink of punch, wishing it was spiked, to soothe the sores forming along her lip and the bristly, nervous anger that had lodged itself in the back of her throat. Gothika, Vampire Queen, doesn’t take her fangs out. Not even for boring parties.

She had come with Tucker and Danny, had actually come at their insistence. Tucker begged her the moment he found an invitation to Paulina’s party in his locker. She’d declined and declined, in varying shades of no, until Danny asked her one day after class. He’d held his invitation in his hands like a secret the two of them could share and looked at her shyly.

“Be more fun with you there,” he said.

Those eyes. Bluer than springtime. That little half-smile that, had she not known him since grade school, she wouldn’t have noticed. Would have thought was sadness. The slight quiver in his voice, like he wasn’t sure he should be saying anything. Afraid he might mess it up. Afraid she might say no. But how could she say no to that? To him?

She realized now she probably should have.

***

Danny had decided to dress up as Phantom for Halloween, saying that it was the only time during the year he could be himself and no one would be suspicious of it. “People love Phantom,” he told her when he announced his plan. “Maybe I can use tonight to get people to like Fenton, too.”

“Dude,” Tucker said, scrolling on his PDA for lists of popular Halloween costume ideas, “Phantom’s public enemy number one. They don’t love you.”

“Yeah, well, they love the idea of me.”

Sam knew how much it hurt Danny that the world feared Phantom as much as they hated Fenton. She’d been so certain that using his ghostly half to save the city from other ghosts would work. Would make him a hero. Would make him realize people loved him. She never suspected Amity Park would turn on him. And judging by how Danny’s face fell every time he saw Phantom on the news, every time Tucker reminded him that Amity Park wanted him dead for real, every time his parents invented another doomsday device, Sam got the feeling that Danny never suspected the hate, either.

***

She sipped some more punch, eyeing her black lipstick stain on the cup. She’d have to reapply soon. Maybe go and find Tucker, trying to pick up girls with his sexy professor costume. Sam tried to tell him that sexy professor was not the costume he thought it was, but his heart was set. He’d come in tight pants that highlighted his (admittedly) nice calves and a shirt he only buttoned up halfway.

Just as Sam figured they would, most of the popular kids assumed he was trying to be a sexy Mr. Lancer. Sam would have felt bad if she didn’t think Tucker needed to learn his lesson.

Still. She could use a dance.

Sam set down her empty cup and adjusted her black gloves where they had slid down her arms. She was going to go and find Tucker when she saw a flash of green from across the courtyard.

Paulina’s Most Perfect Halloween Party was held at the country club, like all her other parties, and the outdoor garden and courtyard had been decorated in purple streamers and smiling Jack-o’lanterns. Candles with artificial flames had been rigged on wires, suspended above their heads. It cast everything into a warm haze, everyone’s costumes cloaked and flickering between shadow and light.

Everyone’s except Danny’s.

He lit up like a star, a star with its own gravity, pulling everyone at the party to him. It was that natural magnetism Sam noticed he had while he was Phantom. Smiling, making jokes, puffing his chest out boldly. Confident. In control. With that smile, and that mop of silvery white hair, it wasn’t difficult to see why people were drawn to him. Why they feared him.

“Oooh, Ghost Boy,” said Paulina. She grabbed his arm. “How do you make your eyes light up like that?”

“Ghost Boy?” Dash said. Sam noticed him lurking behind the two of them, his face painted green like Frakenstein’s monster. Big, hulking, mindless mistake, Sam thought. Fitting.

“If that’s really the Ghost Boy,” said Kwan, appearing next to Dash as if summoned, “then we gotta report him.”

“It- it’s not Ghost Boy,” Danny said, and Sam heard the panic in his voice. “It’s just me. Danny Fenton.”

“Yeah right,” Kwan said. “Don’t lie.”

“Why would Ghost Boy lie about being Fentwerp?” Dash’s voice carried across the courtyard as if he was standing next to Sam at the punch bowl, making conversation. “He wouldn’t stoop that low.”

“Yeah,” Paulina said. Sam noticed her back away from Danny. She tried not to notice Danny’s face as it fell. “Ghost Boy wouldn’t lie about being a loser. No offense.”

“Yeah…” Danny said. “I guess not.”

“But still…” Paulina said, “You do have a pretty sweet costume, Danny. How does it glow like that?”

“My parents’ ghost hunting tech,” Danny said. His voice, which had lost a significant portion of its confidence, strengthened a little.

He and Tucker had rehearsed answers on the walk from Sam’s house. She’d tried to pretend to be focused on gluing her fangs over her real canines, but really she was trying not to turn around and stick the fake teeth through Tucker’s cheek. Asking questions like If Paulina wants to dance with you, what do you say? and If she wants you to turn invisible, will you? and Yo, man, I never thought. Can you turn just clothes invisible?

Sam stopped listening after that.

***

She only came tonight because Danny wanted her to. “Be more fun with you there,” he’d told her. But he hadn’t been with her the entire evening. She’d stood, her back to the garden wall, following his spectral glow around the party, trying not to think about the way he smiled when someone said his name. The way he fidgeted with his hands, more than likely trying to fight the urge to show off too much.

“You can’t shoot ectoblasts, you know,” Tucker told him. “Unless you lie and say you rigged one of your parents’ guns into your suit.”

They were in Sam’s room, waiting on her to finish applying her makeup. She’d decided on a darker, more dramatic look than the one she usually wore, replacing her purple eyeshadow for gray, opting for fake eyelashes over her natural.

Danny hovered behind her, watching her glue her eyelashes on. She felt his t-shirt brush against her shoulder. Caught the smell of laundry detergent and winter air and electricity—something he’d had since the accident. A permanent, static chill where there should have been body heat. Even while alive, he carried the chill of the dead.

“Why are you covering up your lashes?” he asked, watching her in the mirror.

She turned and batted them at him, laughing at the expression on his face. “For dramatic effect.”

“I’d say it worked,” Tucker said, sitting on Sam’s bed to tie his sexy loafers. “Earth to Danny? You in there?”

A second too late, Danny turned away, and Sam noticed the flush along his pale cheeks.

***

“Remember,” Tucker said. “You’re not Danny Phantom tonight. You’re Danny Fenton dressed up as Danny Phantom.”

“I know.” Danny watched Tucker unbutton and rebutton his dress shirt, making what he probably thought were sexy faces in the mirror. “I want them to like me. They already like Phantom.”

“And possibly want to kill him.”

Danny blanched. “Yeah. That too.”

After Sam finished her makeup, she encouraged Danny to sit down so she could cover his face with some powder, too.

Danny was sporting a black eye, only just starting to fade, from his most recent run-in with Dash’s fists. He’d been in worse shape from other fights, but Sam didn’t want Danny to be embarrassed by the bruise. She knew, too, that he carried marks far worse than the black eye, but it was the least she could do for the party.

Though neither of them would say so, Sam had seen the scars. She hadn’t meant to. It had been an accident, walking into his room without knocking. He’d been quick, but she’d seen his side where Valerie shot him. The long burned scar along his ribs. She couldn’t imagine it didn’t hurt, even now nearly a month later. She’d seen the smaller scars along his back, random collections from his fights over the last year and a half. The wings of a purpling bruise along his shoulders—more than likely from his fight with Skulker that ended with Danny’s back buried in ten inches of brick.

And it was all her fault. Because she couldn’t say no. She couldn’t say No, don’t go into the portal. She couldn’t say No, it’s okay. You don’t have to prove anything to me. No, she’d taken one look at those big blue eyes, that mess of black hair, the suit he’d slipped on, highlighting his narrow waist and lean arms. The curve of his back. Of course she wouldn’t tell him no.

And he’d died because of it.

He died a little more every day because of it.

It had taken Sam a few moments of convincing, but she managed to seat Danny at her vanity and powder his face to cover the worst of the bruising.

He fluttered his eyes shut so she didn’t get any powder stuck in them, and she occupied herself with blending over the purple and black blossom around his eye. She tried not to think of his hair, tickling her cheek, or of his cold breath on her hand. Just a brush and powder and a fresh bruise that, if she pressed too quickly, caused him to wince with phantom pain.

***

She didn’t notice she’d been lingering next to the punch table, her cup empty in her hand, her eyes focused on a spot just next to the DJ’s table on the dance floor.

“Sam?”

She looked up to see Danny standing next to her, his eyes glowing like will-o-the-wisps waiting to lure her away. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said.

His eyes searched her face. Sam wondered what he found there. Anger? Sadness? That oh-so carefully practiced apathy?

“Paulina and the others are actually talking to me. Me,” he said. “Not Phantom. Fenton.”

Sam tried to appear happy at the news, but she’d known that would be what happened. She chewed her bottom lip, no longer caring about the sharp fangs still glued in her mouth.

“I mean, all they want to talk about is my parents’ gear and my costume, but still.” When he stepped closer, a chill fell over Sam and she shivered. It was as if she had decided to step into a bucket of ice water. “They actually seem interested.”

The way his voice swooped up with hope. It was enough to make Sam regret coming, regret hearing that joy in Danny’s voice and know it wasn’t because of her. Sure, she was happy for him. Being accepted is all he ever wanted, Phantom and Fenton. He was obsessed with saving people, protecting people. Being loved.

She wondered if he knew.

“I know,” he said.

Sam froze. About how she felt? She wasn’t sure she knew how she felt. She just knew that guilt that followed her wherever she went, that feeling of walking on ice every time she felt Danny near her. The way the chill traveled up her spine and froze the bones under her skin. And when he touched her...a wayward brush, an intentional hold on her wrist, a thoughtless clasp of her hand...it shattered her. Broke her into a million pieces inside. Thin ice under a heavy weight—gone.

And yet, in amongst those pieces lay a stronger, scarier feeling. The feeling of the life she’d nearly destroyed, the life fighting through the death, the patient blue of his eyes. The slight pout lingering behind every smile. His spidery fingers. His birdlike bone structure.

She had been the death of him.

She wished he’d return the favor.

“I know they’re only going to like me for tonight.”

Oh.

Oh.

Right. Of course. The popular kids. The costumes. The party.

“Well you know you’ve always got me,” she said. After a moment, she added, “And Tuck.”

There it was. That sad, shy smile. “I know.”

“I know you do.”

“The fangs,” he said, glancing toward her mouth. “When did you put those in?”

“Put them in? I’ve always had them.” She tried to lift her voice, dangle it on a thread of humor. She failed.

“I mean,” Danny said, “I guess Gothika, Vampire Queen, wouldn’t be a very good vampire without fangs.”

“You remember Gothika?” She hadn’t talked about her in weeks, and she never believed Danny had really been listening to her.

“I remember,” he said. He looked up at the popular kids, who were clustered on the dance floor, not dancing, just talking. Taking selfies. Checking their friends’ profiles. Even Tucker was out there, Sam noticed, trying to talk to a very harassed-looking Valerie.

“I invited you tonight,” he said.

“Yeah?” Sam knew she was the only person at Casper High to not get an invite from Paulina. It stopped bothering her well over a year ago.

Danny turned and looked at her mouth again. “Stop chewing on your lips,” he said. “You’re going to put a hole through them.”

She tucked her fangs inside her mouth, licking her teeth along them, tasting the sour glue holding them in place. “Nervous habit.”

They shared a silence for a moment, Danny’s eyes flicking away from her face, looking up to the candles above their heads. Sam watched the light bounce around his features, casting his eyes and the hollows of his cheeks into shadow. Be more fun with you there.

She forced her eyes away before he caught her staring.

“I’d love to dance,” he said, answering her unasked question. He turned and gave her his sad half-smile.

“With me?”

“With you.”

He took her hand, and she shattered at the touch.

[grs-the-neighborhood]

Name: Verdona Levin

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Bisexual

Birthday (Zodiac): January 16; Capricorn

Species: 50% Human, 25% Osmosian, 25% Anodite

Ethnicity: White / Alien?

Native Language(s): English

Nationality: American

Appearance Info

Height: 5'9"

Skin tone: Light

Eye shape/color: Round; Green

Hair style/color: Long Wavy; Black

Outfit style: Oversized Sweaters and Jeans

Accessories: Charms

Markings (birthmarks, scars, etc): N/A

Alignment Info

Hero/Villian/Civilian: Hero

Rank: Vanguard League (Supernatural Department)

Powers/Abilities:  

Natural Powers (By Mother) 

    -Mana Manipulation

    -Mana Absorption

    -Mana Detection

    -Memory Manipulation

    -Clairvoyance

    -Teleportation

    -Portal Creation

    -Telepathy

    -Telekinesis

Anodite Powers (By Mother)

    -Anodite transformation

    -Astral Projection

    -Magic

    -Flight

    -Size Alteration

Matter Absorption (By Father)

Fighting Style: 

    -Taekwondo (Taught by Mother)

    - Jujutsu (Yaught by Mother)

Weapons:

    -Spell Book

Personality:

    Verdona is very nonchalant, she tends to be very relax and reserve with people. She's kind and can be motherly to some of the other members, making sure they're fine if not then she would offer her healing. She enjoys music, it's something that puts her in a good mood. She's not nesessarily quiet but she's also not very talkative. She's the type that needs to be spoken too, however she has her moments when she gives a remark. She can be somewhat sarcastic but it's something that makes other laugh. She's very helpful and is a good ear, listening to other people's problems and helping them out.

Backstory:

    Born in Bellwood her parents had always given her a nice life. Making sure to not let their jobs or plumbing take up too much of their time. She was raised to be skilled in fighting, so when she's older she can help people like they did. Kevin, her father, had taught her how to use her osmosian powers in ways of defense and even offense. He gave her an insight to the good places to brokers. Her mother however taught her the ways of magic and being Anodite, even gave her lessons in some martial arts.

    Having these skills made Verdona a nice assest to a team, so she had asked about maybe joining the Vanguard League. Her mother was glad she would be wanting to join heroes, her father didn't seem to care. He was a villain and a hero, very hard to pick a side. But he was happy that she's doing something she wants. She teleported to Townsville and had search but managed to find the Vanguard League, where she met Damian. Son to Danny Fenton and Valerie. She had grown a crush on him. However she kept it professional and asked to join. After showing all of what she had the League had seen her as a valuable member for the team and she was accepted.

    She was excited and even transferred to the local school. Of course she teleports to the school and League whenever needed, she just needed a reason to be somewhere new. Plus she got to see Damian more. She was growing a liking to him and even wondered if she had a chance with him.

Relatives:

- Gwendolyn Tennyson Levin (Mother)

- Kevin Ethan Levin (Father)

- Ken Tennyson (Uncle)

- Ben Tennyson (First Cousin Once Removed)

- Max Tennyson (Great Grandfather)

- Verdona (Great Grandmother)

- Frank Tennyson (Maternal Grandfather)

- Natalie Tennyson (Maternal Grandmother)

- Mrs. Levin (Paternal Grandmother)

- Zed (Pet)

Relationships:

    Her parents and her get along well. Gwen and Kevin have their moments when they argue about the way one another trained Verdona but in the end they have seen that she's grown to be a wonderful daughter and fighter. She gets along well with her father being daddy's little girl, however she also gets along well with her mother. They are supportive and helpful with Verdona's future.

    Damian is the leader of the Supernatural Department she's in. She had grown a liking to him after their first encounter. Something about his scaredy-cat personailty made her smile. She just wanted to be there to help and protect him. In fact in battle she tends to be very protective of him and the team. She stays by his side and listens to his commands, and sometimes at school she can't help but ogle him from her locker. 

    As for Envie, the two seem to get along well. However they have their moments when they engage in a sarcasm battle that some people in the team wonder if they're fighting or just casually having fun. It's usually the latter.

    Vivian is someone Verdona has a hard time getting along with. Mainly due to her being unable to withstand Vivi's obnoxious and loud personality. Verdona tries to avoid her as best as she can but being in the same team it tends to get difficult. 

Small Stories w/ Characters:

            DAMIAN

    As she saw Damian walk by she nervously waved a hand at him, hoping to get his attention without scaring him. He stopped in his track and looked up at her.

    "Hey Damian, I don't mean to hold you up long, but... I was just hoping if you'd like to read this in your free time." She smiled and cautiously handed a small black journal to him, his hands took it curiously and opened it, skimming through it's content.

    "What is it?" He asks, but quickly realizes that it appears to be a journal filled with poems.

    "Just some poetry, I heard that you liked poetry so I wanted to show you some of my stuff. Maaaybe you can let me know if they're any good? I want to go to a poetry slam but I'm just too afraid that my work is ... well childs work."

    Damian smiles and gladly takes the book, he looks up at her eyes, "Thanks, I'll give it a read and let you know what I think about them tomorrow." With that he walked off, leaving Verdona to respond to his dissappearing body.

    "Awesome! Thank you-" she pauses, "Wait tomorrow morning?!" He was gone and she was nervous, was he planning on reading them all in one night? She creates a portal sending herself home, hoping for tomorrow to come sooner.

            Next Morning

    She walks around a room in the league where she ran into Damian the day before. She impatiently fiddled with her scarf before seeing him phase through a wall into the room.

    "Ah there you are," Damian spoke softly and she responded in the same manner.

    "So? What'd ya think?"

    He thought for a second and reassured her with a smile, "It's good. I think these would be perfect for a poetry slam."

    She blushed, taking her journal back she hugged it in her crossed arms and smiled at him, "You think so?... Hey maybe if you aren't busy, you'd like to join me friday for the slam?"

    He smiled, "Sure, Just text me the details and I will meet you there." She nodded, and with that he left again. She excitedly texted the details right away and walked out of the room her book still in her arms as she internally squealed with joy.

            VIVIAN

    It had been a while and Vivi hadn't stopped talking, she was talking to another member in the group and they didn't seem to mind her constant blabbering. However Verdona was starting to get a bit irritated, and with the potty mouth Vivi has Verdona found herself finally speaking up.

    "I know this space is free for members to socialize and relax but do you think you could maybe tone down the profanity?" She dodn't want to come off as a goodie goodie but she just wasn't a fan of profanity, mainly due to her high intelligence she found slang to sometimes be unnessecary.

    "Oh shit sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt yer quiet time," she reponded, only to turn back and continue her conversation. Her profanity had lessen but that only lasted less than a minute before she continued to do it again. Not on purpose, just out of habit.

    Verdona groaned, she just wanted to be in this room and enjoy some poetry reading with Damian, but he was running late and she was running out of patience.

    "We have a language filled with so many words that can replace that vulgar slang street talk of yours," she said slamming her book shut.

    "Why are ya bitching so much? I have the right to use any words I want, freedom of speech look it up."

    Her hands became fists and she stood up from her seat,"For your information I am fully aware of the Amendments-"

    "Well are you fully aware you got a stick up your ass that needs to be taken out?"

    Without another word Verdona gave up and grabbed her book and walked out, Damian had just walked in but quickly followed after her.

    Vivi sat there, a bit confused,"What's her problem?" 

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

Welp that's it for my entry oof took forever

But I'm glad with the outcome, I love both of my new children and if neither wins I wont even be mad, I just love them too much xD

Sorry if any character is OOC, if I need to change things just let me know!

Bio Template (C) MintQuetzal 

Vivian (C) ppgzmlpfimlover 

Verse, Opal, Damian, Vivian, Serena, Kandi (C) PrincessCallyie 

Art, Junji, and Verdona (C) @japanda-draws

Any other character belongs to their rightful show and creator

She will be in @ej-cappy-universe 's GRS series: The Neighbors.

[nobodyfamousposts]

Me reading your posts, "Hmm, yes. I agree. Wow you said that so eloquently and captured all the issues I feel." Just saying but your awesome. So on another note, any shows you recommend other than MLB?

Thank you!

As far as other shows I’ve watched, I have admittedly not been keeping up too much with television as a whole lately, but some shows I still enjoy kind of range in terms of currentness, so forgive me if some of my suggestions are dated. But even as old as they are, I still feel they are worth going back to now and then.

Gravity Falls has won my heart. Stan is awesome and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. And no, Mabel isn’t nearly as horrible as people have claimed. The creator himself made a point of taking standard tropes of relationships we commonly see that are usually built on annoyance and irritation between the two characters involved (the sheriff and the dumb deputy, the greedy boss and the earnest worker), and put in some love and positivity instead—and it shows in just how deep and downright awe-inducing some of the various relationships and interactions between the various characters turned out to be. He didn’t hold back his punches. He hit the characters where it hurt and made them grow.

Over the Garden Wall doesn’t get nearly enough praise. It’s unique and a good mix of creepy and humor. I felt Wirt got a bit too much flak at times, though. The use of the music and style is interesting and definitely different from what we’ve been seeing. 

Young Justice will remain one of my higher rated. I honestly think it was better in the first season since it showed more of how the team came together rather than how it fell apart. I get that times change and things happen but DAMN.

Teen Titans will always perhaps be one of my favorites. Not the horrible parody, I’m talking the original. It says something when we have a series that shares the focus on ALL of the members of the team. Each character was the center of not just a day in the limelight episode but their own ARC. In addition, we also got to see how each of them interacted and developed with each other and not just the ones based on shipping.. It made their relationships as friends and as a team feel real. And regardless of the enemy they were facing or just how wide-ranging the plot in question they were dealing with was, each overall plot felt equally significant whether it was just saving the team from nanobots or saving the entire world.

Danny Phantom. Over ten years since it ended, and like MLB, could have been done better in a lot of ways. It has similarities in that much like Marinette, Danny was also often the buttmonkey and made to be in the designated “wrong” of a situation, even if it reasonably was something he was arguably right about or it was involving a “lesson” he already learned three times previously. But it was fun and engaging. We got to see him and his friends grow as characters. Even the villains had some depth to them and were enjoyable to see again after their initial episode. 

Kim Possible is also awesome and yes, I am looking forward to the movie. Because it’s perhaps the one instance of a teen hero done right where everyone knows, her family is supportive, and the rest of the school doesn’t care.

Of course, those are all series that are done with, sadly. Unless they’re getting a reboot or continuation by fan demand. For other series that are still current:

Some of you already noticed, but Boku no Hero Academia is on my list. We have a main character who is an emotional teenage fanboy that we all have something in common with, and seeing him grow and kick ass is so satisfying. The horrendous damage to his limbs, less so. But I have to give this series credit that it’s the first series I’ve seen in a good long while—anime or otherwise—that has managed to create an entire roster of female characters with distinct personalities without resorting to making any of them the designated “mean girl” to stand out. To that effect, with the exception of Bakugou who has at least the potential of a hero if not the heart, the other 18 members of the class are all awesome people with good hearts and real potential to be heroes. (And yes, I meant 18. If you’ve seen the series, you know why.)

Love is War is another anime, one a bit more recent. It is perhaps the best romantic comedy I’ve seen so far that as someone else put it “answers the age of question of what happens if a tsundere falls in love with another tsundere”. Both of the leads are in love with each other but want to force the other to admit it first. One wouldn’t think a viable show could be made solely from a concept like that, but it WORKS. And it works so well.

There’s one more I have to add to this list, though it does deviate from the action/adventure genre most of these seem to fall into. It’s a new anime called “My Roommate is a Cat” and it is perhaps the most pure and beautiful things that has come out lately. You want an adorable show about a shut in writer who adopts a cat and the combined sweetness and hilarity that comes in the complete dissonance between how they see each other? This is the show for you! It’s cute, funny, and wholesome. Perfect for something to relax to and brighten your day.

These are just the ones that are currently on my mind. Check them out or if you already have, tell me what you think.

[monotype-on-phantom]

Do you think Kindred Spirits should've been the season 1 finale? Bitter Reunions, Shades of Gray and Maternal Instict are all set up to Kindred Spirits. Having the episode just be part of season 2 makes no sense. Especially since in season 2 Vlad doesn't really seem to care about having Danny as a son anymore. (That being said The Million Dollar Ghost should've been an Season 2 episode)

I absolutely do not think that, no. Sorry, but there are a number of reasons I think that would’ve been a terrible season 1 finale. Do those episodes contain some setup for Kindred Spirits? Yes, but moving the payoff for that to as early as the season 1 finale would’ve been hella rushed.

For one thing, Valerie’s character already gets the short end of the stick. Shades of Grey and Life Lessons are the only episodes in season 1 that dedicate any time to her at all. I’m not talking about solely episodes that focused on her. These are the only episodes that feature her at all aside from the time she spent as a background character before Shades of Grey. Valerie needs more attention prior to Kindred Spirits because a) that increases the emotional impact of the revelation that Valerie was being used to monitor Danny and b) she is extremely relevant in literally Danielle’s only other episode.

I will begrudgingly admit, Valerie’s kind of a minor point here, but I’m starting with her because she’s one of the characters who would suffer the least for this change.

You could make the argument that moving Kindred Spirits would do something for the plot, but it would destroy Danny as a character. Kindred Spirits taking place that early would see us missing such important development episodes for Danny as: Pirate Radio, Reign Storm, The Ultimate Enemy, Secret Weapons, Flirting With Disaster, and Masters of All Time. Season 1 Danny is still public enemy #1. He hasn’t worked out a lot of his self-loathing or character flaws. He’s still not that great at controlling his powers (and he doesn’t have the ghostly wail, which makes a significant appearance in Kindred Spirits). He hasn’t had the opportunity to mend his familial relationships. He’s met only two ghosts that weren’t enemies (one of which was a very minor character and the other started as an enemy).

While I love Danny, his development in season 1 wouldn’t have left him with much reason to give a single solitary shit about Danielle. He still sees basically all ghosts as evil. He hasn’t had his values challenged much. He’s still more of a fight first talk later kind of kid. Valerie was willing to let Danielle die at first because she was part ghost, and it took Danny some pushing to get her to realize she’d be helping to kill a human girl as well. For Danny, who grew up having it drilled into his head that all ghosts are evil, it’s easy to see why he’d have a similar mentality. He doesn’t even value himself all that much.

Kindred Spirits is originally toward the end of season 2. By then, Danny’s seen how complex ghosts can be. He’s seen that morality isn’t black and white. He’s seen himself go off the deep end. He’s seen Vlad could be redeemed. He’s managed to make friends out of enemies. He’s even fought alongside some of this greatest enemies. He’s grown a lot, and his ability to see Danielle as a person and even accept her as family is a great way to showcase that.

Now let’s talk about Vlad. If we go with your idea of moving Kindred Spirits to the end of season 1 and The Million Dollar Ghost into season 2, that gives us exactly two episodes before Kindred Spirits where Vlad is the main antagonist. People often cite Kindred Spirits as Vlad’s Moral Event Horizon, which I completely agree with. He plans to kill Danny, experiments on and clones him, treats Danielle as a pawn even though she truly loved him as her father, and falls so far into his delusions that he’s essentially replacing Maddie with a hologram and Danny with a clone.

That wouldn’t have any impact if the only episodes we’d spent with him before that were two where his obsession with Maddie is the entire focus of his character. The Million Dollar Ghost needs to be before Kindred Spirits because in this instance, he’s still trying to turn Danny against Jack. He hasn’t given up on making him his son yet. Reign Storm is important because it shows just how manipulative Vlad can be and hints at his greater plans, and it even shows Vlad helping Danny and saving his life. While I have my issues with The Ultimate Enemy, that episode is crucial because it shows that Vlad isn’t completely irredeemable. In a sense, having Kindred Spirits take place after The Ultimate Enemy is a good way of showing contrast. The only way Vlad can be good is if Danny isn’t, and vice versa. It’s also significant to have Vlad’s Moral Event Horizon take place after we’ve seen a world where Vlad was able to realize his mistakes.

I’m also going to throw Secret Weapons in here as an important episode, because that could easily be the last straw for him. Jazz isn’t as important to Vlad as Danny and Maddie, but she’s still Maddie’s child. He was overjoyed at the idea that Jazz abandoned Jack for him, and was willing to adopt her on the spot. Once even Jazz has rejected him and called him a fruit loop to his face, going to such drastic lengths as cloning Danny seems logical for Vlad, especially since we’ve spent so much time getting to know him.

Throwing Danielle in there so early would’ve also been a mistake, unless you planned to rewrite the entire rest of the show so that it included her.

Personally, I would’ve made Reign Storm the season 1 finale. To begin with, it’s the first two part episode, so it’s got the right feel for a season finale. It has the greatest stakes out of any episode up until that point. It’s got almost all the characters from past episodes returning to play at least a small part in the story. It gives significant development to multiple important characters.

Most importantly, it follows up on so much more than just Vlad’s obsession with Danny and experiments. It continues Valerie’s story arc. It gives Vlad more development and shows that there’s more going on with him than just being a creep. It addresses the development Danny, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker have gone through up to that point. The inclusion of Jazz is especially significant.

It’s also the episode where Danny is publicly acknowledged as a hero. His status as public enemy #1 was far more significant in the first season than Vlad was, especially if you only included two episodes in that season where Vlad was the main antagonist. Even when it’s not the main focus, Danny’s bad reputation is addressed in several episodes. I could easily argue that nearly half the episodes of season 1 are at least partially about that.

For my part, I’d much rather have Kindred Spirits show up late in the timeline, when other things have been resolved and the characters have been given enough time for it to pack a punch.

Besides, after episodes like Lucky in Love, Teacher of the Year, and friggin’ Attack of the Killer Garage Sale, Kindred Spirits would’ve felt like a really weird sudden shift in tone. It could be worse, of course. The Ultimate Enemy would’ve made a much more garbage season finale in this respect, but Reign Storm has a good enough balance of fun and intense while not having too much there that can genuinely disturb someone. The image of the melty clone’s eye falling out and dissolving on the floor might be too intense for this early in the show.

You’re more than welcome to disagree, but I can’t see any real benefit to making Kindred Spirits the season 1 finale.

Also, I apologize for the lack of images in this post. I didn’t really have the energy to go get a bunch from all over the course of two seasons.

[crimsondomingo]

I had a question, about BWN submissions. It requires a Query Letter. I asked my professors how to write them, but they weren't sure. Since you've already done that, would you be able to explain that to me? Like how to write one properly. Maybe give an example? Thank you. I'd really appreciate it if you could. c:

First of all, BWN is an interesting example becausehistorically they also ask for sample chapters up front. Not all publishers willdo that, and if you DO send them chapters when they haven’t asked for them,that could send you right to their DELETE folder. NEVER send the manuscript orinclude attachments unless asked for.

Always, ALWAYS read the submission guidelines for a publishercarefully, because they are all different. Regardless, however, the queryletter itself is important and can be handled relatively similarly acrossdifferent publishers or agents.

Think of it like a sales pitch—pitching you and your story. Howwould you describe your story to someone to get them excited enough to WANT toread more?

Also, be sure you know the publisher. BWN, as an example, isserialized with how it initially publishes content, so your query letter would lookbetter if you bring that up.

If I was pitching Lovesick Gods to BWN, I would pitch itlike this.

Dear BigWorldNetwork (insert individual’s name insteadif you know it),

The serialized approach BWN has with publishing fiction caughtmy attention as fitting to my style of writing and a current project I’ve beenworking on – Lovesick Gods. Ioriginally wrote the first draft of this novel serialized, so the story alreadyfollows an episodic feel and will also make a great compilation as a finishednovel. Because I have posted some of this content online, I already have aneager following of readers to pull in an audience and drive traffic to yourwebsite.

While I have had the novel professionally edited (and am aneditor myself with a background in managing others and their editing projects),I work well with different viewpoints and would welcome any critique andadditional tweaks your editing team might have.

My story is a dark urban fantasy thriller with a unique takeon superhero themes and what defines a hero versus a villain. At the heart ofit there is a love story between the two male protagonists, but it alsoexplores the varied world of living with bipolar depression, surviving abuse,and finding a way to heal when all seems lost.

The elements touch everyone on Earth—Fire, Water, even Light—butevery so often someone becomes more attuned to their elemental leaning anddevelops true power. When an evil Elemental known as Thanatos arrived in Olympus City, it saw the rise of its firsthero—Zeus. But the death toll causedby defeating Thanatos changed Zeus, who by day is young detective Danny Grant.

It’s been six months since Thanatos terrorized the city atthe start of Lovesick Gods. Dannyshould be used to his duty behind the mask, but the recent past haunts him. Hisgirlfriend left him, he snaps at the barest provocation, his life feelsempty—he needs an outlet, any outlet to pull him out of his depression.

Enter notorious thief Malcolm Cho, the Ice Elemental Prometheus. There was a time when Dannywelcomed a fight with Cho, filled with colorful banter and casual flirtations thatwere a relief compared to Thanatos. Even as a criminal, Cho had recognized thethreat Thanatos posed and promised to help Danny stop him, but the day Dannyneeded Cho, he never showed. Cho was the reason so many people died that day—includingDanny’s mother.

Danny decides to teach the man a lesson and fan the fire oftheir attraction into something more. At worst, he’ll get someno-strings-attached sex out of the deal and finally blow off steam; at best,he’ll get Cho to fall in love with him and then break his heart to spite him. Dannydoesn’t expect to fall for Cho in the process, and he certainly can’t predictthe much darker threat on the horizon.

I have a body of work both from other publishers andself-published with an average of 4.3 stars across Goodreads and Amazon forbooks in a similar genre. I know my readers with urban fantasy LGBT romance,and this is a sub-genre that has rarely been explored but has a huge and hungrypotential fanbase. I believe I would be a perfect fit for BWN to tell thisstory to a broader audience.

Attached are my first three chapters for your review. Thankyou for your consideration!

Sincerely,Amanda Meuwissen

Now, my synopsis is too long, because it’s a complicatedstory. You should try to stick to more like 2-3 paragraphs for that wherepossible. There are a multitude of examples online for how to write a goodquery letter. Play to your strengths. How can you include some nudges about yourexperience, or how serious you take your story and the process?

You should have editors look at your query (and your novel)before submitting anything. You should explore the publishers and what theirfocuses are so you can tailor your queries. You should keep it concise (more sothan mine) and make sure that it is flawless when it comes to any errors inyour email.

As a Manager Editor who looked over submissions for years, Iwas nicer than most. If there was a single error, okay fine, it happens. Butmore than one? I likely didn’t even read on because it wouldn’t seem like thisperson cared enough to edit the email, let alone their novel. Most peoplereviewing queries won’t allow for even a single error before they pass on it.

Read, reread, and edit as much as you can so your query isspotless. Then you’ll get someone to open your attachments, or in most casesget them to request that you send some chapters or your full manuscript for review.

I hope this helps, but definitely do some Googling too,because there are tons of great examples out there for how to do this well.

[mischiefandspirits]

Doppelgänger (11/?)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Life Lessons, Part 3}

The two ghosts led Valerie through the Ghost Zone in a weaving path. They were going at a pace slower than she was used to when dealing with them, but still fast enough that Danny had to hold on to keep from falling off.

“You okay?” she asked when his grip tightened during a turn.

“Yeah, just not used to it.”

“Maybe I should take you flying with me some time,” she said, glancing back at him and was pleased to see his smile.

“Sounds fun.”

The trip was thankfully short and soon enough Valerie was following the ghosts through a swirling vortex, coming out in the Fentons’ lab.

“Last stop, home,” Danny joked as he hopped down.

“What was that?”

All four teens froze at the voice before the ghosts darted through the walls and Valerie retracted her suit. A moment later, Danny’s parents came running down the stairs.

“Danny!” his mom shrieked when she saw them and the two adults swooped in to hug him. “We’ve been so worried! Are you okay? Did that awful ghost hurt you?”

“I’m-Mom, I’m-I’m okay! I-Dad, I can’t breath!”

The two pulled away and his mom held him at arm’s length to look him over. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, mom. Really.”

She didn’t look convinced, but turned to the other teen. “Valerie Gray, right? Are you okay?”

“Uh, yes ma’am,” she said, blinking. “Um, how did you know…”

“Your boss saw you and Danny get attacked and called it in,” Mrs. Fenton explained. “We tried to track it, but we found out this morning that it managed to get back to the zone somehow without using our portal. We were just preparing the speeder so we could come find you.”

“But you managed to escape on your own,” Mr. Fenton said, slapping Danny on the back hard enough that he stumbled forward. “That’s our boy!”

“The ghost didn’t hurt you?” Mrs. Fenton asked, looking Valerie over as she’d done Danny.

“No. He was some sort of collector or something. He just stuck us in a cage, like zoo animals,” Danny said.

“Well, I suppose that’s better than the alternative. I still want to be sure, though. Jack, why don’t you call Damon and the police and tell them the kids are back.”

“Yes, dear.” Mr. Fenton ruffled Danny’s hair then ran upstairs.

Mrs. Fenton checked them both thoroughly for injuries then grabbed what she referred to as a first aid kit, but turned out to be a large toolbox full of medical equipment. She used it to check their eyes, lungs, and heart before measuring any ectoplasmic radiation they were giving off.

“A 0.3er,” she read off after scanning Valerie. When she saw the girl’s curious expression, she explained, “Lower than I would have thought, which is good. It’s a completely healthy reading. It also means the atmospheric ecto-rad level of the Ghost Zone might be lower than we were expecting.” She then turned to Danny and scanned him. “A 1.18er.”

“Is that bad?” Valerie asked, worried.

Danny shook his head. “I run hotter than most. My whole family does, really, but I got into an accident a few months back so I run even hotter. That’s not much higher than my usual.”

“We don’t start worrying until a person’s ecto-rad level reaches 1.5er,” Mrs. Fenton added. “That’s when ectoplasm starts to negatively affect a human’s body.”

“Mom, Mr. Gray is here,” Danny’s sister said, poking her head in. Her eyes widened. “Danny!”

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

Danny gave a pleased sigh as he cuddled up between his partners.

“Sorry it took us so long to find you,” Sam said, squeezing him.

He kissed her cheek. “It’s not your fault. Besides, it was kind of fun tormenting Skulker. I think he was actually tempted to send us back towards the end there.”

“Only you would think annoying the crud out of the homicidal ghost keeping you prisoner was a good idea,” Tucker chuckled, nuzzling into his neck.

“That’s why you love me!” Danny nuzzled him back. “How did you guys find us?”

“Someone found video footage of Skulker going through that random portal on their CCTV camera and turned it over to the police,” Sam explained. “Jazz told us when they were bringing in your parents to see the video so we were able to come along invisibly.”

“Weird as it is, Jazz is probably the hero this time,” Tucker said. “She also got you and Val an A on your baby assignment.”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah, she came by that night and told us you were missing, then took both sacks with her. Said something about giving us time to process.”

“Which was good because we were up all night trying to find you.”

“Then the next morning after she gave us ours back she went to Tetslaff and explained what had happened. We don’t know what she said, but she turned in the sack and when Tetslaff handed out grades, she said you’d get As for trusting someone so responsible and mature to babysit for you.”

“Wow, score one for teacher’s pet Jazz. Maybe we should bring her in on the secret.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Sam snorted.

“She’s even more overprotective of you than you are of anyone. She’d never leave us alone,” Tucker huffed.

Danny’s nose scrunched up as he remembered how Jazz had hovered over him for two months after his parents had accidentally left him at the Christmas tree lot when he was six. “Yeah, okay, that’s fair. I’ll have to do something nice for Jazz, though. So how’d you guys do on the baby thing anyways?”

Sam smirked. “Well, I got an A.”

Tucker grumbled something and pressed further into Danny’s neck.

{The Million Dollar Ghost}

“Thanks for covering for me, Sam,” Danny said as he scrubbed ectoplasm off the lab’s floor. “There’s no way I’d have been able to get my chores done with all the extra work Lancer assigned me.”

“It’s fine. As long as we cover the next poetry night.”

“I will.”

“Did we charge the bazooka already?”

“Yes, Mom.”

“Did we change the ecto-filtrator?”

Danny paused then went to do just that.

“We’d be lost without us,” Sam chuckled. “Did we talk to our dad about showing up at school?”

“Jazz and Mom were taking care of it when -”

“GUYS!”

“Tuck?”

“Volume!”

“Did you hear?” Tucker said, thankfully quieter.

“Hear what?”

“Turn on the tv! Amity news!”

“We’re on patrol,” Sam said as Danny went to the lab’s tv.

“Switching to FaceTime.”

“-etent, non-Jack Fenton ghost hunters in Amity Park has never been more obvious,” the news anchor was saying while footage of his dad’s attack on Lancer played. It switched back to the anchor and she continued. “Luckily a mysterious benefactor has offered a million-dollar bounty on the head of Amity Park’s most famous ghost and invited the world’s best-known ghost hunters to track her down.”

Danny’s jaw dropped as a picture of Tucker in ghost form appeared onscreen. “What?”

“Who on earth would place a bounty on us?”

“Besides Valerie, but we know she doesn’t have that kind of money,” Tucker added.

“Valerie wants to hunt us down herself, same for my parents,” Danny said. Then laughed. “Oh man, my dad is going to go crazy when he hears about this.”

“Dude, this is serious.”

“Aren't we worried? These are the best-known ghost hunters in the world!”

“Sam, they’re the best-known, they’re not the best,” he scoffed. “Trust me, I grew up around these people so I have a pretty good idea who’s going to show up. It will be great.”

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

“We’ll admit, they don’t look threatening,” the trio said, watching the gathering of ghost hunters from atop a nearby building. “It’s actually kind of sad.”

“Tell me about it.” The trio flinched and turned to Valerie as she landed next to them.

“Hey. Hi. You here for the bounty?”

“Lucky for you, no.” She sat down on the edge next to them. “I don’t trust this bounty thing. I’m here for the same reason as you, the show. Danny said his dad would be here to show up the out-of-towners.”

The four watched as the Fenton parents ran over a pair of ATVs.

“And that’s only half the show.”

“What do you mean?”

“SAVE DOPPELGÄNGER!”

The four turned to see a horde of teenagers marching into the Nasty Burger parking lot, all waving signs saying things like, “Protect the ghost boy!”, “Freedom for the ghost girl!”, and even just their name or picture. Paulina and Dash were at the head of the charge with fierce looks on their faces.

“I found out the popular kids at my school were organizing a protest against the bounty.”

“Well, don’t we feel special.”

“Apparently Paulina and Dash, the most popular sophomores, both have crushes on you.”

“Yikes. Wow. We don’t know if we should be flattered or creeped out.”

“You’re dead. It’s creepy.”

“Rude. Do they think we’re a guy or a girl?”

“Dash is adamant you’re a girl. Probably to soothe his poor straight heart. Paulina thought you were a guy, but I think my friend Star said something to her after I let it slip you might be non-binary because she’s been using they pronouns lately.”

“That’s… more forward-thinking than I assumed she could be. Given she’s the popular type.”

“She’s bi. As long as you weren’t femme, she would have been game.”

“Oh.”

“She’s still in the closet, so don’t say anything to anyone.”

“We won’t.”

Screams sounded over the arguing and the four looked back to the crowd to see a trio of bird ghosts dive-bombing the hunters.

“Those are Plasmius’s vultures. Should have known he was behind this whole thing.”

“Plasmius,” Valerie asked.

“A fruit loop of a ghost.”

“Let me guess, he hates you too?”

“Worse, he wants us as his kid. Tried to kill our dad and kidnapped our mom once.”

“Seriously?”

“Unfortunately. Do you mind taking care of this? The out-of-towners are idiots, but we’d rather not test the Fentons.”

She shrugged and climbed to her feet. They watched her drop down and start firing on the birds until a voice sounded behind them.

“Not going to lend your father a hand, Daniel?”

The trio turned to see Vlad floating behind them.

“Wow, you look even stupider than we sai-remember. You do realize the modern interpretation of vampires is a hot person, right?”

“I see you’ve been working on your duplication then,” he said with a scowl. “You do realize you don’t have to talk together, don’t you ?”

“You do realize there are better uses for your time than bothering a teenager, don’t you? Shouldn't you be getting home to the love of your life? Oh, that’s right! Our dad married the love of your life. We’re trying to watch the show, do you mind?”

Vlad scowled and fired on them.

“Should we really be teasing the older, stronger half-ghost? Well, we do outnumber him.”

Vlad split in three.

“Now we don’t.”

Sam raised a shield around her and Tucker while he grabbed onto the GAV’s controls and used it to fire on Vlad. Meanwhile, Danny put his speed to use diving around the three Vlad’s.

“You’ve gotten better,” one Vlad said as Danny curled around his blast, a bit of frustration leaking into his voice.

“And you’ve gotten worse,” they said.

Was it just Danny or were the Vlad’s slower and weaker than usual? Did duplication cut their power?

Interesting, and good to know for Sam.

A green blast flew by and Danny looked down to see they’d gotten the hunters’ attention.

Danny turned back to the Vlads and fired at the one closest to him. A pink blast joined his and the Vlad disappeared.

“Your stalker?” Valerie asked.

“Yup.”

“I believe that’s my cue to leave,” a Vlad said and they teleported away.

“And ours,” the trio said as a few more of the hunters’ blasts flew past them.

Valerie turned her blaster towards Danny, who raised his hands. “Thought you weren’t going for the bounty.”

“I’m not. This is for me.”

Sam and Tucker shot away as Danny flew down towards the crowd, distracting all the hunters and waving at their fans before he dove straight into the ground. He came up in an alley where his partners were waiting and all three transformed.

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

“I knew there was something sketchy about this mess,” Valerie said as she looked over her pistol. “I didn’t think a ghost would be the one placing the bounty though.”

“Ghost?” Danny said, coming back over with a now-empty thermos.

“Yeah, some enemy of the ghost kid. They said he wants them as his kid, but I don’t even know how that works for ghosts.”

“No clue. Maybe he’s just insane.”

“Probably.”

Valerie’s phone went off and she pulled it out. “There’s an attack downtown.”

He leaned in as she brought up a live feed.

A large, t-rex-looking ghost was stomping through the street. Sam and Tucker were already there, firing on its head. The hunters, Danny’s parents included, could be seen chasing them in the background.

“You going to join them?” Danny asked, pulling back and grabbing Valerie’s grenade launcher. His partners looked like they had it and they’d give him a call if they didn’t.

“And risk getting into another ghost discussion with those pathetic excuses for hunters? Pass.”

“You should see them at one of the conventions.”

The two worked in silence until Danny’s ghost sense went off and a device on the counter next to them started beeping.

“Ghost?” Danny grabbed it and checked it. “It shouldn’t be picking up the fight from here.”

Valerie loaded the cartridge back into her pistol while Danny grabbed the only other operational weapons on the table, the thermos and Fenton Ghost Gloves.

The vultures flew through the ceiling, then froze. “You should not be here.”

Valerie blasted all three in the face.

Danny grabbed one in one hand and sucked the second into the thermos with the other before they could recover. The third dodged around another blast from Valerie, only for the Jack o' Nine Tails to come shooting out of the stairs and wrap around it.

Jazz slammed it into the floor as she came into the lab. “You guys okay?”

“We’re fine,” Danny said, sucking the last two into the thermos. “You?”

“Fine. I was just heading into the kitchen to grab a snack and saw them flying by.” She watched as Danny went to empty the thermos, then turned to Valerie. “What are you guys doing down here?”

“Well now, isn’t this a surprise?”

The teens looked up to see Vlad hovering over the lab.

“Great, another uninvited guest,” Danny groaned.

The ghost turned to him in shock. “Daniel?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Do I know you?”

Valerie shot Vlad before he could do anything else.

Jazz tried to grab him with the nine tails, but he caught it out of the air and yanked it away from her. Danny used the distraction to punch him in the back. He smirked down at the gauntlets when the older halfa was sent into the wall.

Valerie slid up to his side as Jazz grabbed the Fenton Foamer off a table and blasted Vlad. “Trade you.”

Knowing from personal -- bruising -- experience that Valerie was better at hand-to-hand, Danny passed her the gauntlets and took the pistol.

The kids didn’t give Vlad a chance to breathe, switching quickly between Valerie beating him into the ground and the Fentons shooting him out of the air. Soon enough, Danny was opening the portal so Valerie could toss him through.

“And don’t come back!” he yelled before shutting it. He turned and smiled at Valerie before meeting Jazz’s eyes. “Mom and Dad never hear of this?”

“Agreed.”

[monotype-on-phantom]

Thank You For 1000 Followers!!!

As promised, guys, here we are. For those who are fairly new, here’s what’s going on.

To celebrate reaching 1000 followers, I said I’d cover an episode of another show. This is something a lot of people have asked about for awhile, and it seemed like a good way to show my appreciation. One of the donors requested American Dragon: Jake Long, and yeah. This show does seem right up my alley.

I was a bit torn on which episode to cover. I was initially going to just go over the first episode, but if I’m going to be covering the entire thing at some point, I won’t want to leave myself with nothing else to say. Instead, I decided to cover what was one of my favorite episodes as a kid. The second episode, Dragon Breath (which ironically is about a school dance where the protagonist’s date turns into a monster. Go fig.) This episode features just about all the important characters and introduces some things that give me a lot to say.

ADJL is the same kind of show as DP. It’s about a teenage boy trying to balance his secret life as a hero with school. The show keeps continuity, with plot points like certain people discovering Jake’s secret or certain relationship developments. In spite of that, most of the story is very episodic. Each episode introduces a problem/antagonist, and that problem/antagonist is solved by the end (for the time being) along with our hero having learned some sort of important life lesson.

The story in this episode is perhaps a bit cluttered, but it comes together alright. Jake’s concerned about the school dance after he misses his chance to ask out his crush, Rose. To top that off, his fire breathing glands are maturing, resulting in him having horrible breath, and there’s some sort of mysterious monster loose in the city. Jake does manage to find a date to the dance in an attempt to impress Rose, but oh no! She turns out to be the monster, a soul sucking creature known as a Nix!

The pros and cons of the show altogether are very evident in this episode. On one hand, you’ve got a lot of creative ideas. We meet a half spider girl, a pair of seer twins, trolls, and, of course, a nix. Nixes are honestly my favorite creatures in this show, even though they’re not very prominent. They’re like a cross between a werewolf and a siren with a little soul-sucking mixed in.

So, this episode gives us a perfectly nice, normal girl named Jasmine. She’s friendly, cheerful, easygoing, and well-meaning. But, when the moon reaches the center of the sky, she transforms into a violent monster who devours the souls of the entire student body. That’s a story that could make for a really interesting character, and Jasmine is someone I enjoy watching.

Jake ends up having to fight her to save his schoolmates, but he makes a mistake that leaves him powerless. With no other options, he uses the foul breath I mentioned earlier as a weapon. And it works. The stench is so foul that she passes out.

It’s silly, but everything in the episode had a point. The story beats work well, and the payoff is pretty satisfying.

The problems lie in the writing, dialogue, and execution. While the plot does work well, it gets lost in a sea of excessiveness.

ADJL has a serious problem with going too over the top with its characters, and in comparison, the interesting plot points become muted. At least a quarter of Jake’s dialogue in this episode is him shouting things like “yo yo yo!” or “party over here!” He refers to Jasmine as “hot date, Jasmine” twice in the same sentence and throughout the episode. It starts to get uncomfortable since it feels so objectifying.

I don’t think Jake is incredibly shallow or anything. Later in the episode, he shows how much less shallow he is than his rival, Brad, by noticing when he left Rose behind and going to cheer her up. The main problem I have is how far the show takes Jake’s hip hop talk.

I don’t have a lot of experience with hip hop culture, so maybe this is accurate. That doesn’t stop the episode from being a slog to sit through, though. I don’t care who you are, unless you’re being ironic or intentionally dorky, the line “if you want the hotties, you gots to move your bodies, heeeeey!” just isn’t going to work. If it was toned down or more self aware, I’d forgive it, but as it is, the show’s hard to take seriously.

Another example of the show taking things too far is the character designs.

These two are the Oracle Twins, Sara and Kara. Their setup is, like Jasmine, incredibly interesting. The two of them are seers, but their visions are quite limited due to their watered-down bloodline. Sara, the cheerful one, can only see visions of the bad things that are going to happen. Her gloomy sister, Kara, can only see the good things.

While that’s an interesting way of playing with expectations, the writers take it a step further and actually explain why their personalities are that way. Sara is cheerful and upbeat because to her, any amount of good news is amazing. She’s so used to seeing horrible things that she doesn’t want to let go of any moment of happiness that comes her way. Kara, meanwhile, has no sense of optimism or love for life because she already knows everything good that will happen to her. There are no pleasant surprises, nothing exciting, and everything’s just become dull.

That’s actually very fascinating, and it could lead to some impressive commentary and character development. Except they don’t do that. The characters are played straight, with only a few situations where Sara’s upbeat personality breaks or comes off as creepy. To top that off, this is what they look like in season 2.

Boom. There went any semblance of subtlety.

The original designs were brilliant. Sara and Kara were redheads, which meant they could avoid the association of peppiness with blonde hair/blue eyes and gloominess with dark colors. Both look identical aside from how they dress and style their hair. It allows their personality to speak through their appearance without being overbearing.

Season two scraps all of that and opts for exactly the types of designs that are overbearing..

I think this is enough to demonstrate just how many missed opportunities were in this show. When the story tones things down and allows things to feel more organic, it’s actually quite enjoyable. When it doesn’t, it can get painful.

But those are just my thoughts after one episode. It’s been awhile since I rewatched the series all the way through, so things may change when I cover it. Hopefully this will give you an idea of what it’ll be like.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled Danny Phantom posts. Finally.