#arkansas here

[starry-bi-sky]

Part SEVEN of "Clone Danny"

Red Robin, Danny recognizes, steps away from him as he sits up. "My name is Phantom," he signs, blinking the exhaustion out of his eyes. (From Red Robin's perspective, it looks like he has no eyes. There lacks his signature green glow.) "I'm not a gang member, just an out-of-town vigilante."

Red Robin frowns at him, an uncertain grip on the bō in his other hand. "Phantom?" He repeats, no lacking amount of suspicion in his voice. "How can I believe that?"

Right. Yeah, okay, that's fair. Danny shrugs at him, and slumps against the wall. "Google search?" He gestures, he's been out in the daytime before and he's seen the news articles about him.

Red's eyes narrow at him and Danny simply draws his knees up and faceplants into them, half-listening to Red's murmurs into his comm while also trying to get some extra-shut eye.

("Oracle, can you pull up anything on a vigilante named Phantom? The guy here is claiming to be one." Tim says.

"On it."

"Is this Phantom wearing a white mask?" Bruce asks, his voice gruff like an aftershock. "There's a vigilante who shares the same name, but he resides in Illinois."

"Is this guy from that Amity city you visited ages ago?" Says Tim, before shaking his head. "Don't answer that. Yes, he's wearing some freaky mask. I said it reminded me of Hood's helmet for a reason."

"I've got something," Oracle interrupts, "Bats' right. as usual. The Phantom of Amity Park, not much stuff of this guy but he's only been out for over a year. Apparently, his rogues' gallery consists of ghosts."

"Oh great.")

"Look tell the Batman that I'm sorry for trespassing on his turf," He signs irritably when Red Robin eventually starts talking to (re: interrogating) him again. "It's not like I want to be here."

"How did you get in Gotham anyways?" Red Robin questions, batman was on his way to help deal with the situation but Tim doubted he wouldn't get caught up on the way with dealing with petty crime. "Your turf is nearly a thousand miles away from here."

"Two words." Danny deadpans, "Teleport ghost." (Red Robin winces sympathetically.) "I'm keeping this bastard in the thermos for a month for this alone."

(Danny was ignoring the slow-choking anxiety growing in his lungs over how he was gonna get home. He never takes his phone when he goes out, the risk of breaking it was too high. He had no way of contacting anyone to get him home.)

(He swallows the growing lump in his throat, and buries the feeling in the back of his mind.)

"Thermos?"

Danny unclips his Fenton Phantom Thermos off from his belt loop and shows it to Red Robin. "My ghost-catching device," He says with one hand, tilting it carefully for Red to inspect. "I wish I could say I made it, but its a FentonWorks invention."

(He wasn't sure if it was a smart idea to say who it belonged to, but saying it wasn't his probably loosened up any tracks on him, right?)

"Do you work with these Fentons, then?" Red asks, and something dark and shadowy flickers from the corner of Danny's eye. He glances over, and sees nothing, and his hackles raise.

(Either that was Batman, or a ghost, or Danny's mind playing tricks on him. He couldn't feel his ghost sense building in his throat, so he decided it was either the latter of the former.)

Danny snorts, quiet and gruff. "No." He clips his thermos to his belt again, stifling a smile on his face. "The Fentons hate me actually, I prevent them from catching ghosts themselves. Their son gives me their tech."

He had a cover story, so he might as well stick with it, right?

Batman shows up at that moment, appearing atop the little roof where the door is, and giving Danny a heart attack when he speaks in his low, rumbly voice like thunder rolling in, "Why would they hate you for that?"

Danny shoots up to his feet with a startled yell in his throat, clutching his chest as he whirls around and looks up. He nearly runs into Red Robin, and signs a few choice swears at the Bat.

"wow you're scarier in person, asshole."

"you didn't answer my question."

"Of course I didn't, you scared me." and Danny takes a trembling step back when the Batman jumps down and lands on the roof in front of him. He's faced ghosts before, but somehow the living is always scarier.

"But, um, the reason is a bit.. complicated, I guess." He says, fingers beginning to shake as his adrenaline wears off. God is he tired. He wants to go home. "The Fentons are the local ghost hunters and local crazies. I don't know if I can call them mad scientists because they're harmless to the living."

"But they're extremely anti-ghost. I've heard from their son multiple times the very unethical things they would do to ghosts if they got their hands on one."

Danny 'talks' a little more before calling it quits, even telling Batman that he can't tell him more without putting his identity at risk.

Plus, its getting harder and harder to hide his bone-deep exhaustion and his growing fear of being stranded in the most dangerous city in America with no way home.

"I would love to tell you more, believe me I'm dying to." Danny signs, shaky sarcasm dripping from his fingers. His hands are visibly trembling and he's withholding a slowly growing panic attack. "But I would like nothing more than to figure out a way to get home."

"Do you have no one to contact?"

"Sort of. But only one of them could probably come get me and get me back to Amity by sunrise. And I have no phone."

That one person being Ellie.

=====

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 4.5 (Dani interlude) Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 7.5 (Dan Interlude) Part 8

Taglist: @the-navistar-carol @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @gin2212 @youracearocroatneighbour @luckybyrdrobyn @deeplyconfusedbear @epilepticnerd @beautifulmomenttodrawblank @sara0055 @blusunkhild @letmesayfuxk (?) @latheevening226 @tkiesai @rosedasy @meira-3919

[purrrrplecats]

no one can tell me not to drink like a whole litre of orange juice while listening to sappy music while reading solangelo memes

[maple-seed]

I don't like to think of myself as being prejudiced, but then I travel out of state and refuse to eat any type of seafood.

[jrueships]

No.

[the-hype-dragon]

texting one of my friends and she's sitting here telling me she makes sooooo much money, oh she makes more than her husband, but - no retirement savings options, no health benefits, completely disorganized PTO policy and she ends up going in on her days off anyway, girl I don't know about any of that lmao that sounds shady af

[of-galaxies-and-black-holes]

yeag. amv wip

[quaranmine]

i just remembered that i had a dream last night that there was another solar eclipse (and it was...last minute for some reason? like nobody knew ahead of time? lmao) and it was gonna kind of go through texas so we were going to drive to houston to see it but then it was going to be cloudy in houston so we turned around after going partway there to drive to texarkana instead. and then it turned out that there was like a massive wildfire surrounding texarkana that was literally blocking all roads in except for one that people were using to evacuate, so we just ended up viewing the eclipse from some other random town. and it was only like a 30 second totality and i didnt have my good glasses because it was last-minute so i just had crappy ones

[shirleyjacksonesque]

listened to dig me out for the first time in a while and realized it makes me nostalgic for september/cctober of 2022 😭

[woolandcoffee]

Someone: *shares a tweet of Dan Whitfield making a sassy little remark about Trump*

Me, in the comments, knowing full-well most of y'all ain't from Arkansas and don't know a damn thing about Arkansas politics: Hey, would while he is making a point, you should know that DW is a noted liar, and has intentionally scammed people out of money multiple times, he is a joke out here and should not be taken seriously.

Someone else: Um, sweaty, I think we have bigger fish to fry right now.

Me: Well, as it so happens, I just made a Sam's run and it turns out I have more than enough oil to fry all the goddamn fish I want. Also, I'm FROM ARKANSAS. Dan Whitfield is, quite literally, ONE OF MY FISH TO FRY.

Idk y'all, maybe it's just me, but I don't want someone who calls themselves a Democrat lying about their resume and scamming people out of money any more than I want a Republican doing it. If your only objection to following a pied piper is the color coat he wears, that's your business, but don't make a stink when I try to warn off folks who actually have a brain in their head.

[inkyquince]

God your Leighton fic has me nostalgic for the times I could actually find quality father story's that didn't have to put the a step in.... the good old days 🚬

We're sharing that cigarette buddy

NGL I do like step-fuckenings cuz it's the extra layer of this man/woman is goddamns MARRIED and this step-sister/brother is just that damn horny at all the "family" activities the parents are trying to make them do etc etc

But yeah, some of us are actual freakazoids thank you very much

[floral-hex]

“you should get all your patches from local bands and live shows!” Honey, I’m poor and I live in arkansas, how am I supposed to do that?

[butterflybloodbarf]

‘cause she’s 2000 light years away

[have-you-been-here]

Waldron, Arkansas, USA

[an-aura-about-you]

Dad came over to listen to TMA and we stopped after finishing #153, which is already killing me, but it feels kinda ironic that the reason we're stopping there is because if we don't he'll be late for church.

[acefiree]

Saw this lil trash panda and thought about @yorshie :)

[13lizardsinatrenchcoat]

I hate that post going around about the ocean loving you. Stop treating atheism like it's a bad thing!!