#danny feels like such a failure so he wants to learn from them

[shower-phantom-ideas]

You guys just don’t understand

You can’t even begin to grasp the amount of pranks Danny could pull on super heros (is that one words? Superheros?)

Added a read more because I hate long posts

Danny as a ghost is so powerful. Like our boy can walk through walls, disappear, and fly! Do you even grasp how much more unique he is than the others guys??

Jokes aside just imagine if you will. Danny could leave batburger cups next to Batman all the time (he comes back later to toss em out of Big ol B doesn’t)

Like hell we talk about Danny just showing up basically stalking the heros but ok hear me out. He didn’t mean to figure out Batmans identity ok but he was in the right place at the right time and over heard some stuff. Now he follows Bruce Wayne around instead. Always spitting out if a batburger cup. Maybe Bruce makes eye contact with him and one time Danny just leans his drink out to as one does to offer a sip xD the man is horrified.

For the ?Robins? The other bats maybe he leaves gifts of sorts. Stuff they would like made from his ice or something. He can understand becoming a hero young and most (if not all) of them did that. He plays favourites with the younger Heros for sure. But hes still making them have there “God?? Is that you” moments like everyone else.

Hell he could follow Superman around and always make his cape flow against the wind and the Hero wouldn’t know wtf is going on. Maybe Superman hears a very slight snickering maybe but the prank is harmless enough so why worry too much. I mean it’s probably bad someone can do this without getting detected till they give themselves away by laughing but nothing harmful yet. (Yet would emphasise Batman)

I don’t know anything about GreenArrow but I assume he uses a bow and arrow so I could imagine Danny grabbing his arrows and making them fly in crazy wild paths before hitting their mark.

Idk honestly how he would fuck with GreenLatern besides like using his ghost powers to try and one up his ring. Like Lantern makes a shield? Danny makes a better one next to it or in front of it. Tbh it’s actually helping Danny get better at his powers so he does this a lot rip Hal (I did not know he was played by Ryan Reynolds maybe ill watch the newer movie)

He refuses to mess with Wonder Woman because the Phandom has told me she is his fav thus he refuses to prank her. He respects her too much and is a huge enough fan that hes too nervous to even approach. Thus she thinks she is this pranksters least favourite since she is never bothered.

Aqua-man (thx for the correction siri) is pretty fun to prank because Danny can follow the man underwater. Idk anything about science of it but imagine Danny like making a space he can talk in with his ice powers (making a bubble of sorts) to make spooky noises at ?Arthur? (R we seriously going with Arthur in this one?) like I assume without actual fish related powers, or with them I havent seen any thing aquaman, you can’t talk underwater. But also if Danny figures out his real name hes 100% gonna be playing the Hey Arthur theme at this man all the time.

He just lowkey overshadows cyborg. Not in a controlling way but just along for the ride kinda way. He was gonna make remarks about his tech but ended up being stunned by how good it is. “Fam I aint gonna lie. I came here to follow you around and make comments like a streamer but your tech is crazy cool. I mean you could have saved a little room with a more compact cooling unit but I mean this is probably some of the best stuff I have seen outside my family!” Or something idk. Maybe he goes full on antman in coldwar

As for the Flash thats pretty simple. He doesn’t let the Flash run from him. I don’t think Danny could keep up with the Flash at all. Like man cants have everyones powers (can’t he tho) but he just hangs on and pretends to have followed. I mean hes invisible the whole time so not like anyone can see lmao though if (idk who the flash is? So ill use Barry cause thats why google say) if Barry goes too fast he might get Danny to give up the game cause boy is on the side vomiting. Barry is pretty smug about probably being the first to throw the prankster for a loop but Danny is just on the side like “how can you go that fast and not be sick dude”

Like tbh I was gonna just make a list of pranks he pulls on Batman but yall seem to enjoy the Justice League so here go off I guess.

Honestly I had to charge my phone so I forget a lot of the post rip this kne

[impyssadobsessions]

Prompt/Relationship Analysis/Headcanon DPxDC

Okay This can be taken as a prompt~ As I love to dive into possibilities of WHAT IF- Basically after becoming friends/adopted by the bats and entering the hero circle he starts to become insecure in his place as a hero. Not feeling good enough.

So I can imagine after Danny befriends/gets in touch with the batfamily in some way. Like they've pretty much adopted him and now he's surrounded by heroes- (Both from Gotham and outside of it) That he starts to get insecure about his heroics as phantom. He starts to get to know other vigilantes, some with similar struggles and then it just dawns on him that they're better at it then him.. in every way. There is always someone who has one of his powers and does it better. Who can do the only thing he has been dedicating himself to- way better. And it hurts. Danny who grew up with a "perfect" older sister and being known as the failure of the two-I can see his insecurity eat at him. The feeling of not being good enough. Which is bad if mixing his trauma and guilt of a future that never happened or fear of losing everyone. ESPECIALLY because he's close to the bats.. The batfamily are perfectionist- because they have to be but Danny can't see that. Even rougher if the bats don't even realize they're doing it. Yeah they're better at sneaking, duh. They're highly skilled, because they've trained on it to be that way. Even if they don't hold the standard on Danny's head- it kills him to know he with all his powers is struggling to be as good as them. Can see only ones really about to notice are like Duke and Steph, or like Kon and other YJ members. Those that know how it feels to be next to them. Kon or Steph having to basically spell it out for Tim- which Tim like what? Then realizes and feels dumb because its so obvious. (plus having felt that way before just feels like a double whammy) (Can see all the bat members having felt that pressure too so its like an OOF how did I not notice moment) Or Step and Duke spelling it out for the rest of the family.. like DUH =w= Babs probably figures it out too. Imagine a cute heart to heart with Duke and Steph, and Alfred. Those picking up on the reason WHY Danny's acting strange. Danny pushing himself harder- feeling guilty about making it a competition but also not wanting to fail- ends up breaking down a little. Because he feels not enough. Even if he had reconciled with his parents and everything- still lingers that he was failing school.. struggling as a hero, struggling with relationships. Now he with other heroes and the doubts are so heavy. But he has no choice to pull through. So he does as he always does and keeps going even if he's crashing. Danny just not realizing his worth, despite everyone seeing it. Idk just seem like a perfect bonding moment for after Danny enters the dc world, for the bats to be like OH fucking right. Because they just accepted him as their own- Like setup for each bat to have their own one on one with DAnny. Each relating in different ways. Learning each has their own motivation and they all worry about not being enough- but how they cope. Danny rethinking reasons why he saves ppl- and in the end its just because he CANT let things happen when he has the power to stop it.. And even if he's not enough- he's there. And that can make such a difference. ......IDK if any of this made sense btw- couldn't focus properly at work because many scenarios of this was popping in my head. Still can't focus enough to keep a consistent thought- BUT I wanted to get this out <3 Because the scenarios in my head are so cute.

[bluerosefox]

Danyal, Danny, Phantom.

Part 1 (Where the idea came from, very bare bones)

Okay wow, wasn’t expecting so many people wanting a part 2 tbh, also thank you for the follows as well (although IDK why you’d want to follow me, I’m random and rarely post sometimes.)

So before I get into this part 2, I just wanna make a few things clear.

I’m still new to DC/Batman most I know if from the animated series and I haven't seen it in ages, I have been able to get bits and pieces here and there though.

ANYONE is welcomed to use these ideas/concepts, just let me know, send me it, allow me to read it please. If anyone wants to draw some the ideas too that’ll be amazing, just let me know! I wanna see!

Also, I might, keyword MIGHT, actually write this idea into a story too, idk yet maybe. its been years since I wrote an actual fic tbh so I’m a little rusty. (You can actually see I used more of my writing style on this one compared to the last one tbh)

Also the reason I split these idea/concept into parts is the fact I tend to ramble and I knew if I wrote it on part 1 it would had gotten so long so here’s a fresh page with the rest of the ideas...

So the reason why I had this idea is because I read some fics where Ra’s always knows about Danny being either the Ghost King or a Halfa, or can fight him cause he has knowledge, I wanted a story where even Ra’s can be surprised and realizes there will ALWAYS be a ‘bigger’ fish even for that old ‘immortal’ (especially if Danny is Ra’s “failure of a heir.”)

Sorry this took a while, I wrote Part 1 at the end of me being sick by Covid, had to catch up on a few RL things, and legit a few days later my AC unit upstairs broke during a CA heatwave and it was pure HECK being in my room.

Danny is a little out of character but this is how I feel he'll be like with a year of being the Ghost King could be, along with the fact he has help from his friends and ghost friends as well. He's learned how to rule and has grown.

Oh be prepared, this is what happens when I’m allowed to ramble on ideas. This... This got rambly. (You should had seen this and part 3 together, it was so rambly)

So, a few things to note about Danny before we begin.

His name was is Danyal al Ghul (Wayne) Daniel “Danny” Fenton.

He was also known as (Ghost Boy, Ghost Child, Ghost Punk, Halfa) Danny Phantom

He also had other names as well such as The Great One, or Savoir of the Ghost Zone

But... for the last year he has been known as...

Ruler of the Infinite Realm, His Royal Highness King Phantom. Or as he would rather be simply referred to as (when he’s forced to have/use a title)...

The Ghost King.

...King Phantom also worked.

Simple yes, but Danny preferred it. (Again only when he’s forced to use a title, which sadly since being crowned the new King is most of the time now and only those close to him still call him Danny or at the very least Daniel (coughClockworkcough).

SO.... Its had been a year since Danny had been crowned the new Ghost King, sure he was still a teen and it was honestly very hard in the beginning. Learning the ins and outs of the royal courts, setting up his inner court (aka those he trusted), dealing with entitled nobles, and how to handle the the weight of the crown he now wore but he knew he didn't have to face it by himself. Well not all of it, there was a few things he did on his own in order to prove he's a fair King, but Danny honestly loved it when he could get together with his inner circle (more like family) and discuss the recent news of the Infinite Realm (which Danny learned was the actual name of the Ghost Zone, he long since switched to using that name over the one his parents coined), problems needing to be addressed, and upcoming important festivals or days (Danny knew of the Holiday Truce but he didn't know of any other Ghost holidays/festivals until his ghost friends explained them to him) along with a number of his Kingly duties. This was just barely touching the surface of what Danny had to do nearly daily and again it took a while but he eventually was getting the hang of being a King.

Funny enough one of those duties turned out to be healing the oozing scars the old Ghost King left on the Mortal Realm during his reign... because those scars eventually became the Lazarus Pits and had they been causing harm in the Mortal Realm.

By the Ancients, the Lazarus Pits.

That was something Danny hadn't been expecting to hear so soon after regaining his memories from before living with the Fenton’s. And when Clockwork explained it to him, a small smirk on the always age changing beings face, that all the Pits would eventually dry up thus they would no longer be able to revive the dead once Danny started healing them...

Danny had laughed when he had been told this information.

He laughed until he had started to cry. He had even laughed so hard he changed back from his ghost form to his living one and then back again because he lost breath from his laughter. (It actually concerned his friends, Dani and Jazz when this happened tbh) It took a while but when Danny’s laughter finally trailed into hiccups, light coughs, and deep breaths, Clockwork merely floated over and asked with all-knowing smirk on his face “Quite done Daniel?”

You see the reason why this was funny to Danny was the fact that he was finally getting revenge on his ex-grandfather for... well for everything. And he was going to enjoy ruining Ra’s al Ghul treasured little Lazarus Pits with pure glee. The amount of pure joy he felt knowing this even surpassed his feelings for when he’s able to mess up Vlad’s evil plans for the month.

As mentioned before, Danny had no memories upon waking up in a hospital after nearly losing his life from wounds no child should ever have on their bodies. It wasn’t until the night after his crowning that as he dreamed of his past, it was in these dreams he had finally remembered everything. When he had woken up he had instantly went flying to Clockwork’s lair to speak with the time keeper, especially when he had remembered the last thing he had saw before waking up in the hospital.

[“Why?” that was all Danny would ask when seeing the ageless ghost, not bothering to say hello or even small talk like they normally would do, if he had been his living form he would had been breathing heavily from the speed he flown to get there.

“It hadn’t been your time, your Highness.” was the only reply before the ticking of clocks in the room filled the silence between them.]

He had been Danyal al Ghul, the second heir to the Demon Head Ra’s al Ghul, the League of Assassins leader and his grandfather, son of Talia al Ghul, and twin brother to first heir Damian al Ghul.

Talia, his mother, was a stoic woman. A true Assassin. Beautiful yet deadly.  Someone Danyal could see now who would do anything to stay in power if he was to be honest with himself. But she did love him and Damian in her own way, only showing them this parental love when they were alone, away from servants and other assassin’s eyes. Some of his fondest memories of the woman had been her cupping his face and speaking softly of how much he looked like her “Beloved”, their father. His eyes, and hair (and his 'soft' heart) were the only things he knew about his father, the only thing he has been allowed to know.

Damian, his twin brother, both of them mostly sharing the same face with small differences and build at the time, his other half, the one that he had came into this world together had, was, is the one Danyal would die for. And he did. His brother was the prefect heir, the prefect budding assassin in the eyes of the others in Nanda Parbat. Much like their mother he tended to try to hide his emotions behind an emotionless mask, he always carried himself stronger than Danyal would, despite them both being five years old they had been born into this life and learned very quickly how to survive that place. But behind closed doors the two would often talk in whispers, of the what ifs of their lives, how their day was, etc etc. Danyal’s fondest memories of his brother was them sneaking out to watch the stars late at night and making a promise to always face any problem together as they held hands and lightly tapped each with their fingers.   

His grandfather, Ra’s however was a ruthless and cold man. An ‘immortal’ due to the Lazarus Pits that always brought him back to life, and he had always hated Danyal. No matter what Danyal would do it was always a failure to his grandfather, it didn’t matter if he tried his hardest to be a ‘perfect’ little assassin like his brother, everything he did in the older man’s eyes was a mistake. Any mistakes Danyal did was often met with punishment and pain. He had no fond memories of the man, only a deep seeded mutual dislike if anything.

And it was with this hatred for Danyal, that had caused Ra’s to summon both his grandchildren one night to the combat room and demanded for them both to fight for heir ship. A fight that would end in one of them dying, something all of them in room knew it would lead to. A fight two five years did not want to do but had no choice. Not even Talia’s disbelieving single protest to the fight could not stop Ra’s command.

As the Demon Head, his word was law.

In the end, Danyal couldn’t wouldn’t harm his brother (his grandfather always hated how ‘soft’ his heart was, "to much like his father" was often said with a tsk). They were both only five years old, they were brought into the world together, they told secrets behind closed doors and whispered dreams under the endless sea of stars they would sneak out to see, they would lightly tap messages with their fingers when the other would have bad days and didn’t wish to speak about it but wanted some sort of comfort.

He wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t harm his brother but Damian... Danyal knew Damian would follow the order to fight despite not wanting to as well, Damian always followed orders with little to no fuss unlike Danyal who always second guessed with whys and questions, Danyal also knew Damian would believe he would fight back in defense at least...

But he didn’t.

Some of the few things he remembered was Damian’s eyes widen in horror, his mother’s uncaring mask and body twitch for a moment, and his grandfather ‘tsking’ at him before he fell onto the cold stone floor. After that his memory became hard to remember, foggy but he knew of this.The pain he felt hurt and he tried so hard to stay alive for a few moments more, he could barely hear anything over his own harsh and deep breathing, his body felt heavy and his hands felt wet from the blood seeping out around him. Danyal could barely hear his grandfather’s voice, and could barely make out Ra’s leaving while his mother guided Damian out of the room, she did not look back and Damian moved like a puppet on a string being pulled away. Danyal barely registered hands lifting him up and carrying him out of the room, his vision slowly fading as he was carried in the dimly lit halls of his ‘home’. His memory became very spotty after that, barely noticing he had been left outside the compound to die and as he took in a harsh breath in an attempt to get air, he could hear two words as clear as day.

“Time Out.” and the only sound following those two words was the ticking of clocks while the last thing he saw was the always changing form of a ageless being.

After that Danyal would be found outside of a random hospital in America, far from his place of birth, far from his mother and brother, barely hanging as doctors rushed to save this five year olds life. He would awake weeks later, with no memories of his own to speak of, and then one night a strange star plush/pillow would be gifted to him with the name Daniel on it. He would be bounced around foster home to foster home after he was cleared to leave the hospital and the cops had no leads on who or where he came from.

Daniel would eventually meet Jazz at the park and later her parents and worm his way into their hearts, he would later be adopted by them and live a somewhat normal life (as one can be with ghost hunting parents but at least he got Jazz as an older sister, even with Jack and Maddie’s rather unhealthy... obsession with ghosts he knew they loved him)

Ra’s failed second heir was no more, his name and life no longer mentioned in Nanda Parbat, Danyal al Ghul (Wayne) was by all intents and purpose dead to the man and to the League.

Now Daniel “Danny” Fenton lived in his place...

Up until that fateful day when he was fourteen, after that he was only half alive and once again became someone kind of new. A halfa this time. Danny Phantom.

And who would had guessed (not Ra’s that's for sure), he later would become The Ghost King, the Ruler of the Infinite Realm.                   

So imagine Danny’s surprise when as he had left his house for school one morning, he may be a King but hey he still needed his education according to Jazz (and Clockwork), when he had been ambushed and attacked by some assassins from the League and knocked out... (Shush his own assassin training was rusty and he hadn’t had time to practice them too much, his last major battle had been that all out brawl a week before his coronation with him vs his enemies, fun times. He also rarely got kidnapped since his crowning, half awake due to his Kingly duties and studying for Mr. Lancer’s 70% final grade test (Fun fact I had an actual teacher who did this) that Friday and honestly Danny wasn’t expecting assassins from the League to show up since the whole being pretty much declared dead to them thing)

Only to later slowly wake up on the familiar rough stone ground in Nanda Parbat (the smell, the sounds, the stonework. He often saw them in his dreams and memories but knew it was real this time) his hands bound and his body aching from laying motionless on the hard ground for a while. He put on a confused look on his face as he slowly rose and groaned in pain as he subtly took a moment to look around.

Thank the Ancients Danny still knew how to fake an injury, and play dumb/confused from his time tricking some of the his more annoying ex-enemies? (Skulker, Walker, etc.) even though it had been a year since he last had to do so with them (besides Vlad, he’s still his enemy no matter what and still seemed really salty Danny was a King now and was treated like an outcast by most ghosts, none wanting to be the opposite side of their King so hey perks). It had been a good way to make them drop their guards if they thought Danny was still at his ‘weakest’ when they caught him by surprise. It still pretty funny when Vlad tries though, this act always catches that fruitloop off-guard no matter how many times.     

It was a Lazarus Pit room judging by the smell/feel of it at first and later confirmed when he noticed the green toxic ooze nearby. Ugh just being on this side of the Realm and sensing that stuff was disgusting, it wasn’t as bad in the Infinite Realm due to the fresh and clean ectoplasm around it masking most of the bad smell but boy did it reek on this side. 

Danny blinked a few times to sell his acting, whispering a confused “Where am I?” under his breath, and looked around before his eyes landed on someone in front of him and flinched back a bit, no acting needed this time.

Ra’s was in the room sitting on a throne chair staring at him with that ever burning hateful glare yet Danny could see another emotion, an emotion he was very used to Vlad having on his fruitloop face. His ex-grandfather had a plan and it was gonna be painful or annoying for Danny to deal with, he knew it...

And...AND was that knocked out Batman and Robin also tied up in chains and guarded by few assassins in the room as well?! WHY IS THAT A THING?!

-x-x-

Heyyyyy so... umm I decided to split it into another part cause it was getting mega long again when all together and I was like roughly halfway done with it and just... I wanted to write out so much, also Tumblr almost made me loose the WIP of this many many times so I’m being careful. Good news almost done with it (and it won’t take as long as this part did promise)

This is basically Danny’s side of things of being King, his inner thoughts, his past relationships with the al Ghul’s, and snippets how he had grown into his King self tbh. Probably didn't need to do this but as an old school writer I wanted to make a base so to speak. The best and fun part is up next. and to prove it, here’s the title and a sneak peek for it.

Summoning a King (Or alternatively: It was at this moment, Ra’s knew he F’d up.)

Yeah as said before it took ALL of Danny’s training not laugh in hysterics. Oh the irony. Sacrificing the Ghost King... to summon the Ghost King.... Danny honestly wanted to say something, the words on his lips being a sarcastic “You sure that's gonna work out for you, you moldy old fruitloop?” but Danny bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from doing so.

TAGLIST:

Also I’m starting a tag list so if anyone wants on it for the next part please let me know asap so I can add you.

[EDIT: Taglist now closed until next update! Sorry!]

@sxnkisses @thenerdycupcake @sealover89 @remydumb @moonscat @fuck-you-too-world @hecate-hollow @ae-vixrose

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

Shattered Identity.

Chapter one. Chapter two. Chapter three. Chapter four. Chapter five. Chapter six.

Chapter seven: (Not) Gone, but not forgotten.

After the cats were fed, the packers stuff was sorted away, the office was cleaned (rebuilt), Dani went down to the labs to do the final chore she could; Build the hologram. She had been putting this off for several reasons, the biggest being that she didn't want to go into the lab ever again. It might have been her birthplace, but it was also where she found out her family as she had knew it was a lie. Where she discovered she was nothing more than a stepping stone to a 'better' goal, like a child made just so their parents could harvest their organs to replace the failing ones in the body of the parents' “real child”.

The thoughts made her feel angry, disgusted, and… sad.

She wondered if this was why her 'cousin' never told his parents about him being half ghost. Did he fear that they would treat him how Vlad planned to treat her if they knew he wasn't fully human? That they would treat him as… disposable..?

She shuddered and opened the door to the lab, each step feeling heavier and heavier as she descended.

It was cleaner than how she last saw it, no ectoplasm on the floor, the cloning machines were either destroyed or put away, almost no sign that she and her 'brothers' who didn't make it were ever created…

Almost, except for three urns that caught her eye, they were labelled “Aster”, “Brutus”, and “Clav”.

Morbid curiosity led her to open them, finding glowing ashes like she was half expecting. Underneath the urns themselves, there were files labelled 'Deceased'.

'Attempt 23, First cry of “life”. Using my own DNA to fill in the gaps that Danny's left was a terrible idea. The chimera had a case of Ectoplasmic necrosis that was so severe that all the flesh melted off his body almost instantly as soon as he exited the artificial womb. At first I thought he would be like the previous attempts but thankfully, he managed to stabilize himself as a ghost. Although incapable of taking a human form, he is stable and with proper training could be a valuable asset.' Clav's file read. 'Further testing revealed that he is capable of human thought, speech, and even dabbles in the act of creation, all promising signs for the outcome of this project in spite of the many failures.'

'Attempt 46, Et tu, Brutus? Playing it safe, I used Jack's DNA to fill in the gaps. The resulting hulking brute is unfortunately (or fortunately in hindsight) incapable of taking a ghost form and is mentally on par with a violent beast. While his strength and endurance far exceeds normal human limits, It might take weeks before he can learn the difference between food and people, let alone learn English. While a bitter reminder not to repeat my mistake of relying on Jack, a bitter fruit of my labor is better than none at all. Holo-Maddie recommends that I stop, that every failed attempt that melts away into nothing puts me through roughly the same amount of mental anguish a miscarriage does. She doesn't know that while this is painful, it is nothing compared to what I already endured because of Jack ruining my life.'

'Attempt 64, Star survivor. I couldn't stop myself from laughing as this one melted and re-stabilized as a fraction of its intended size. I was so close only to watch perfection melt away before my eyes. SO CLOSE. I held him in my arms as he melted, I do not know how he survived nor do I care at this point. He is here and stable, he is proof that I can make a perfect child, despite all these failures I CAN make that perfect son… I just need a few more tries and after I succeed, I will make Jack feel the pain he forced me to feel, a mere fraction of it, but something that will make it through that thick skull of his. Unfortunately, my work had to be put on hold due to an incident regarding the police being called on me by Holo-Maddie for a 'wellness check' apparently.'

Dani shoved the files back under their perspective urns as if they were on fire, his disregard for himself was… there was no other words she could think of to use for it other than terrifying and insane. He was completely insane, sane people don't… they don't put themselves through this type of thing over and over and over again even if they do get different results.

Close to them, she found a fourth file, one labelled 'MIA'. She bit her lip as she internally questioned whether or not she wanted to open it. On one hand, this was how she could find out if he really cared for her as his daughter, even the slightest bit but on the other hand…

She took a deep breath in, and opened the file.

'Attempt 97, Darling Princess. She's perfect, the closest one I've made that came to being a truly perfect child. At first I was concerned that I had unintentionally used foreign DNA in the gaps again but under closer inspection, double checking her strains, as well as investigating the Gene Donor's past, I discovered that she is indeed my most successful attempt. In hindsight, how did I not see this before?! The other surviving male clones are not true clones, but chimeras; one made with my DNA in addition to Daniel's, one with Jack's, and the third with foreign DNA that I strongly suspect is Skulker's. She is younger than intended by two years, but her testing proves that she is far above and beyond my expectations, she even appears to have similar interests as Daniel does, which was unexpected as I hadn't made those neuron connections in her mind, but happily welcomed. With her creation, I can finally stop. Thank the Ancients, this has been the most exhausting project of my entire life.'

She turned the page, knowing that this wasn't the end.

'I spoke too soon. The day after I had thought it was finally time to stop, I discovered her in her room half melted. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong! She was perfect! She was supposed to be perfect! I can't do this anymore! I admit it, I'm too weak! It's over!'

'After this project is done, I will be removing Holo-Maddie's access to emergency phone numbers.'

'Danielle appears to have no memory of the events after her first emergence out of her chamber, it is unknown whether this is because of memory loss induced by both enduring one traumatic event and witnessing another imminently after or because her reconstructed brain simply didn't make those neuron connections. Either way, I wont make the same mistake I did last time by getting too attached too quickly, while the best case scenario would involve getting to save her, it seems that the most likely scenario is that she will destabilize and fall apart once again, except this time she might end up unsalvageable..'

'According to Holo-Maddie's data, I need a mid-morph sample of Danny's DNA to complete this. Now that I have all the puzzle pieces in place, now that I finally know everything I need to to make the perfect clone of Danny, I can restore and complete my family.'

Dani put the file back on its shelf where she found it, not sure how to feel. She now knew that it was true that Vlad really did love her deep down, that he loved all of them to an extent, instead of forgetting her brothers altogether, he named them, he mourned them even if she didn't see it, he gave them their own urns… But if she listened to Vlad, if she overshadowed Danny and forced him to morph and if she survived, would she have been happy with this family Vlad wanted…? Whether she was loved or not, Vlad was mentally unstable and despite his well-groomed exterior, he took better care of his cats than he did himself. Could she handle the stress of knowing that her father was on the brink of taking himself out and taking other people down with him almost all the time? And could she handle the guilt of knowing that he took Danny's life not just to save her and the perfect brother that was never meant to be, but to hurt somebody else..?

At the very least, she knew that she had to give Vlad an ultimatum after the funeral: While she will give him another chance, he has to go to therapy or she's leaving him on his own for good. Regardless of if he had regeneration-induced amnesia or was a clone with more than the typical amount of his donor's memories in tact, it was very obvious to her that he still has major issues.

But first things first: The hologram, she's stalled more than long enough.

The only light in the hallways and other rooms was the soft pinkish glow of the ectoplasm encasing Vlad's left arm in some sort of makeshift weapon. It wasn't the charged beam of an ectoblast, but rather some sort of crystalized, spear-like structure ready to impale any intruders the on-edge halfa spotted.

He noticed the much barer looking walls of the estate (proof to him that he had been robbed), he noticed that the cats were fed before he could feed them (the robbers might have bribed Carmella and Maud for their silence as the former would've yowled like no tomorrow and the latter would've sought him out and gotten his attention otherwise.), he passed by the office and saw it's repaired state, that caught him off guard for a moment, he couldn't see the point of robbers going out of their way to fix this, he doubted the strange semi-living ectoplasmic creations of his was capable of doing this either, Danny and his friends surprising him with this might be a nice thought, but they weren't the type to help him out just because they could…

…Except for Danielle, who saw him as a brother like this and felt remorse over destroying the office.

The makeshift weapon on his arm faded to nothing as he continued to put pieces together, unless he was targeted by the second-biggest packers fan in the world, it would've made no sense for the thieves to only steal his packers related stuff (and the packed boxes that seemingly came out of nowhere that he wasn't paying attention to before did have the familiar colors of green and gold in them), his cats were too picky to be easily swayed by any ol' bribe… Dani stayed must've stayed in the house and decided to help out.

No… no betrayal to his knowledge, no reward that he was aware of that she wanted… she was just helping him out because she saw that he had a lot on his plate regarding the situation and wanted to help.

Because they were family, and… family helps each other.

KKKKKKSSSSSSHHHHHH…

His ears perked as he noticed light coming from the door to the lab. That's strange, packing up things, feeding animals, and fixing broken things were obvious things to take care of, but what on earth was she doing down there?

He opened the door and made sure his footsteps were light as to not grab her attention too soon.

Carefully,

carefully…

When he made it down to the lab, he was greeted with a strange sight: his older self made out of flickering filtered lights.

“I spoke too soon…” His older doppelganger spoke with a somber tone. “The day after I had thought it was finally time to stop, I discovered her in her room half melted.” His breathing hitched as both of them covered their faces, the hologram holding his head in his hands while the living halfa covered his mouth in shock 'his' voice getting louder and louder as he was losing it. “I just don't know what I'm doing wrong! She was perfect! She was supposed to be perfect! I can't do this anymore! I admit it, I'm too weak! It's over!”

He didn't say it out loud on that day, but if he did, that… would've been how he would've said it. And the way he lost his composure… While it also matched up with his actions on that day, seeing it through an outsider's perspective was chilling. He really was that far gone… At the time he was irritated that Holo-Maddie called the police reporting an attempt, but now he could see why she did it.

It was terrifying…

He was terrifying…

As the hologram flicked off, Danielle noticed the gobstruck older teen still mentally processing what he just saw.

“Jack! I uh… I overheard that you needed a hologram and I figured 'why don't I take a shot at it?' I mean… Holo-Vlad doesn't have a proper AI yet, or a Plasmius form, but it's a pretty solid first draft!” She smiled nervously at him, internally wishing that he didn't walk in on that emotion test given from what she could see of the older ghost's expression.

“A really good one!” He smiled at her, genuinely impressed. Existential crisis from witnessing himself from an outsider's perspective be damned, she really did a good job. “We don't need an AI as advanced as Holo-Maddie or Holo-Jack for him, an AI designed just to read out given scripts and emote as needed is perfect for the job! You did great!”

“Really?! You think so?”

“Yeah! It was like looking in a m- -er, a recording of security camera footage! And you didn't even use the spare Holo-generator! You made your own!” He gestured to the machine that the hologram came out of which he knew for a fact he did not build.

“Holo-Maddie helped.” She admitted.

“Yeah, but you still built it, stop downplaying yourself, squirt.” He ruffled her hair playfully before scooping her up. “In short, great job, great progress, but also, it's 2am and both of us need to go to bed.”

“Hey, are we at a point in our relationship where both of us can insult each other and know that it doesn't come out of a place of malice but affection displayed in a playfully rude way?”

“Eh… Sure, I guess.”

“Okay good.” She nodded before squirming in his grip. “Now put me down cheese-face!”

“Yeah, yeah, your human half will thank me.” he rolled his eyes.

“And what about my ghost half?” She smirked

“Will also thank me, doesn't matter if sleep is a placebo for ghosts, a well-rested ghost is a ghost who's a lot less likely to pass out from exhaustion and get jumped by ghost hunters.”

“Coming from the guy who hasn't slept since he was made.” She stuck her tongue out at him.

“I never said it was a good thing that I did.” he shrugged and took her to her room, putting her down right by the door. “Holler if you need anything, okay? I'll be either in the master bedroom or the guest room by the kitchen.”

“Okay.” She nodded as Jack left.

The room was in pristine condition unlike how she had left it, not even a speck of dust accumulated; a bed with star patterned blankets and a moon themed stuffed bunny, models of spaceships left half finished on her desk, a bookshelf with comics and video games neatly stacked on it, the TV mounted to the wall was replaced as the first one was blown up. It was welcoming, yes, but didn't feel like home. She never thought she'd see this place again willingly, but it seemed that fate was a weird thing at times.

She did her nightly routines and got in bed, the exhaustion of the long day finally catching up with her and the bed nice and comforting.

“Mwarh?” Maud 'honked' as she jumped up on the bed and started kneading the blankets on her legs. “Mrrp.”

“G'night, Mauddy.” Dani muttered as the cat curled up on her leg and started to drift to sleep. … The clock on her nightstand read 10:03 am when she woke up to the absence of a cat on her and the faint sounds of someone tinkering in the kitchen. Still groggy, she stretched and got out of bed, valuing breakfast above the other morning routines for now.

“And lets say that the ghost in question is one that you want to keep alive and conscious while extinguishing its fire. Would the… 'Fenton heckfire extinguisher' try to also extinguish the ghost or just weaken it?” The older halfa asked over the phone. “Oh hold on, I'll have to call you back.” He hung up. “Morning Sleepyhead” Jack greeted her as the blanket-wrapped girl walked into the kitchen. “Ready for a lot of errands?”

“Mph.” Was her incoherent reply as she sat at the kitchen's island, still mentally waking up before realizing that the older teen was cooking the breakfast of eggs and sausage by holding the pan like how a waiter would hold a plate, the hand underneath the pan glowing a bright magenta while the eggs and meat sizzled away. “YOU HAVE FIRE POWERS?!” She gawked at the casual use of supernatural abilities, something that normally in the Masters estate would've been the norm.

“No, right now this is just heated ectoplasm. It's a whopping 150 degrees Fahrenheit, sure, but no fire involved. However, this could become fire powers overtime with the right training…”

“I've never seen Vlad use fire powers before! Do you think that this means clones could develop different powers from their genetic donors?”

Sure, she didn't forget that Jack might not be a clone, but there had to be enough overlap in their situations to warrant asking.

“We both have- had fire cores but -I'm pretty sure the elemental aspects of his was stunted- …Due to… something… That's probably why you didn't see him use them. He couldn't even if he wanted to.” Vlad took a plate out of the cupboard and shook the eggs and sausages out of the pan and onto it. “But from what I saw of the notes of some of the other clones, Clav had a 'void core' whatever that is, Brutus had a neutral or elementless core that he was unable to use at all, and Aster had a metal core. I don't know what your core is, but considering how you and Danny didn't come into existence as halfas with the same method, I think that you developing powers different from his is less a question of 'if you will get different powers' and more a question of 'when will you get different powers'.”

“Really?!” she beamed.

“Yeah, after we get the errands taken care of we can even screen your core to figure out what type it is and stuff like that.”

“Thank you!” She pounced on the older teen in a hug.

“Careful! I'm still using myself as a stove!”

“Sorry!” She got off of him. “…So when did you find out you had these powers?”

“…When I accidentally set my bed on fire.” He sheepishly muttered. “Don't worry, I put it out before it got out of hand.”

Carmella hissed at him as if to say 'before it got out of hand my tail! look what you did to my beautiful fur coat!' before going back to grooming a singed patch of fur, the rest of the cat herself thankfully unharmed.

“Sorry…” He picked at his bath robe sleeves while the cat groomed herself and 'glared' at him.

Dani got herself some of the eggs and a waffle from the fancy waffle maker, drizzling the former in ketchup and the latter in strawberry syrup.

“So after this are we going to work on Holo-Vlad?”

“Nah, I'm going to get the documents taken care of and get some funeral preparations taken care of. You're free to come along or stay, but its not going to be fun.” He shrugged. “But if there's something you want to add to it, you can either come along, tell me what you want, or give me a call if you think of anything.”

“What would I want to add?”

“You know, flower types, food catered at the event, stuff like that.”

“Oh right.” She hummed in thought.

She knew that Vlad was a little… unstable to put it lightly the last time he thought he was left alone, but he might do better when he had tasks to occupy his mind and an image to keep up going out and about in public, but just in case, she might want to keep an eye on him, just to make sure he didn't have another breakdown but at the wrong place and time.

“Sure! I'll come!”

“Alright, get ready after you finish eating.”

She gave him a thumb's up and the two focused on their breakfasts.

___

Vlad was by no means a movie critic or anyone who made a living off of watching films and discussing them, but he did see enough to familiarize himself with the troupe of someone attending their own funeral, be it by strange or supernatural circumstance. Maybe if the doctors back then got their way, he also would have attended his own funeral as a full ghost twenty years ago.

Without foresight that troupe typically doesn't involve the deceased planning out their own funeral, getting all of the arrangements and documents done (a task which was semi-interrupted by the box ghost), going to morticians to ask about details, getting the police called and an investigation which unexpectedly turned up with nothing except a stirring pot of buzzing rumors among Amity's townsfolk.

It was strange to him, to be only one of two people planning out the funeral for himself. A sickening reminder that while he died as an important man, he did not die genuinely loved by anyone, not even his own living daughter. (He doubted Dani would go out of her way to do this if she alone would do it.) Even his 'sons' who the world would see as mindless animal-like ghost minions didn't get this fate. They died loved by their father even through the vitriol he felt for them at the time, watching so many failures time after time after time felt like madness…

He felt weird emotions looking at his own future tombstone that was waiting to be engraved. In those tangles of emotions he could name a sense of sorrow, bitterness, anger, and a strange peace, something sobering and tranquil. Like watching natural disasters destroy everything you known and loved, and watching them all fade away. The life you had known and cherished before was gone, but the chaos, the pain, the loss… that was over too.

Something that made his situation more… real. That after this was done, even if there was a way to somehow reverse this irreversible situation, he couldn't take it even if he wanted to, not unless he wanted to raise a lot of unnecessary questions.

He wasn't dead, at least, not entirely, but at the same time he was. But this time not in the sense that he was a halfa.

From this point onward, Vlad Masters was dead and gone for good.

"So Kid, what's the stone going to say?"

"Here lies Vladimir Masters; Gone, but unforgettable."

[journals-chapter-1]

I’m 37 now and nowadays all I can think of is finding myself after all these years that have passed me by and let me say those of whom they feel like they have not achieved anything in their field complete failures even though this thing is not doing a good job of transcribing everything I want to say it’s also forcing me to improve and shorten and make my speech more precise so now I don’t even have to work hard typing with my fingers even less write on a piece of paper.

now all Of us now have the power to perform properly and showing high perfect in Minecraft over the years. Be aware of all this in the moment and being present or not I learned that most of us are not present in the moment of something great it seems worthless, but Danny feels it’s worth in the ones that are the outside ones but those he sees their worth then he gonna let it rain on them (expletive) . He said a lot often times phrases like IM DA FIYA MENG , IM DA FIYA FIYA MENG .

Any way y’all I’m lit dana-modafakaaa!! I don’t even know how I ended up here , shit man , common man sheeeiiiiiitt….. y’all don’t know what good is …y’all need a savage reset …like y’all brains are depleted from like reality is like your body forgot to take his brain with him , he walking around like a vegetable that crazy ass…. Dayam how many times have I changed the subject ??? No comment …. Everyone everyone …attention please , silence …. A last word …..

[i-got-the-feels]

The Different Iron Fists and their colours.

Them being different colours holds huge meaning to their characters because we know that the Fist is the fire of dragon's heart and their chi- together. If their chi and enegeis off balance, the fist doesn't work either..

Davos's Red Fist.

Red. Because of his anger, resentment, his bitterness towards the world that he feels because of his abusive mom that literally abused away the compassion in him.

Because of his determination, his self-belief, his passion that he is doing the right thing and for right reasons, unlike Danny. How somehow his mom's abuse made Danny the target of all of his emotions because Danny succeeded to do what he failed- for his mother called him a failure and wished she were barren instead.

That's why the fiery and hot red.

Danny's Golden fist and guns.

Because he is still optimistic about world. Still wants to see and believe that the world and the people in it are good.

And if they aren't, they can be good. And if given the chance and opportunity, they will eventually choose to do and be good (like Ward and Joy did)

But sometimes, that isn't the case because even when given opportunities to be good, people can and do choose to still do bad and be bad (like Harold, Davos, Bakuto and the remaining Hand)

But Danny neither believes that and even chooses not to.

That's why the shiny and bright golden.

Colleen's White fist and Katana

White- symbolizes purity and peace.

Because yes, she is pure in her intentions and wants to do things to keep the world at peace and be at peace while doing so.

But white also is amalgamation of ALL colours. The good and the bad.

And Colleen knows that. She knows that because she has been on being guided by anger and seeing how that simply hurt her and everyone around her. She knows that even when her world view was shattered because of Bakuto's betrayal, she knows how much the Hand shaped her. And yes, she didn't truly know them or their purpose but she still hates them and her because she is grateful for the time and support she get there and who she became because of that support.

So she decided to help by not fighting (helping in community centre) and that didn't stop people, innocent (read BB) people from getting hurt and dying.

She learned the lesson of the good and bad existing in same people and same time. She learned that contradictons exist and they are messy and unavoidable.

It's seen when she tells Danny to not let be solely guided by his emotions and to "think and choose". It is seen when she implores Sherry Yang to go legal and do the right thing to honour the lives lost and acknowledges when Yang says that it isn't realistic and that they are indeed precarious balance.

That's why the plain and balanced white.

Gifs from here, here and here

(very little bit of editing by me on the 1st Davos gif)

[spectral-tentacle]

a rant about the Fentons, especially Maddie

" Get this straight Danny. You're a Fenton. Fentons get As. Or in your father's case, B minuses." --Maddie Fenton

This line still makes me so angry. How can anyone be okay with making their child feel like crap if they get anything less than perfect grades? Because As are perfect grades, they allow for almost no mistakes, no missing assignments, no “I was sick and missed that lesson and have fallen behind on the material or didn’t quite grasp it”. 

You have to be perfect, every time, all the time, and never slip up. It requires a ridiculous amount of vigilance and effort to consistently keep your grades perfect. It’s incompatible with a happy and healthy life for most people, and that’s why 4.0 GPAs and the like are rare. 

You can see in Ultimate Enemy that neither Sam nor Tucker are sweating the CAT that much. And Tucker doesn’t make uniformly good grades either (we saw that in the episode where he changed his grades in the computer system) so it’s not like they’re just sure they’ll perform great. 

No, they just haven’t had their mother work to make their  self-worth and sense of belonging to their family, tied up in an arbitrary letter or number granted by a flawed education system that handles neurodiversity poorly and only celebrates a very few types of intelligences. And even those are treated in a very rigid way that penalizes many personality types and rewards unhealthy habits like perfectionism and neglecting a healthy life balance. 

And it mostly does come from Maddie:

“Until you retake this test and pass it with flying colors, we're forbidding access to all electronic devices.” --Maddie Fenton

Jack seems more blasé about grades. He admitted to failing the CAT himself after all. But he does go along with all these demands for perfectionism from Maddie. Cuz it’s not “pass the test” she insists on, it’s “with flying colors”. Gotta be perfect after all. 

No wonder Jazz is obsessed with grades and achievements and is studying and reading constantly.

Danny may be more of a “Cs get degrees” type of student, but at least, unlike Maddie and Jack’s alleged “we get As and B minuses” genius selves, he somehow managed to not permanently damage and disfigure one of his best friends and instill them with lifelong hatred and desire for revenge  ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯ so, maybe book learning isn’t everything Maddie! 

The original line is such a weird one for Maddie to say anyway. She’s not a Fenton by birth but by marriage, and she’s basing this bizarro family pride in  academic perfection on...marrying Jack, who failed the CAT and was a B minus student? I suppose we could see it as implying Jack’s other relatives/ancestors were intellectual overachievers. 

Maddie’s probably weren’t. They seem to be from a very rural area, and education levels in those areas tends to be lower, there’s less universities, cultural buildings, and  libraries, and technology tends to be further behind. 

So maybe Maddie grew up in an anti-intellectual area/culture and has taken a retaliatory stance, scorning the low-brow and elevating academic and intellectual pursuit above all else. I can get why she might be that way, but it’s still unfair and bad parenting. Can you really picture a Mom who says the stuff she does to Danny, being happy and supportive if he wants to be a construction worker, or a yoga instructor, or make a career in a rock band or something? 

She seems to make it really clear that succeeding on the traditional education track is the only path to success in her eyes. It’s not OK for Danny to make Cs and just get a high school diploma and then maybe go trucking school or get a certificate to teach yoga at the YMCA. He doesn’t get to be happy if that’s what he wants. That’s failure and he should feel like  one. 

[dannyphantom-justiceleauge]

I'm glad you agree with Dani having wind powers. I have been thinking about the other halfa's and their powers and why they have them. Vlad is fire, which is volatile and hurts others but it can also keep people warm (perhaps there is hope for him in another universe) and is something often used in human invention and Vlad is very smart. Danny is his opposite, Ice. Unlike fire, ice could be used to subdue his enemies without hurting them (1/2)

(2/2) However Ice is also be sharp and dangerous (he can be mean sometimes) and it is cold, which could maybe represent how alone he feels. It could also be tied into his love for space as space is cold. If Jazz was a ghost, I think she would have water powers, since it's like a melted version of her brothers ice (lol). She is cool and collected and prefers to talk things out and understand rather than fight. She can also be rather overbearing sometimes, like an ocean. Sorry if this is long.

~ ~ ~

it’s interesting to think what the various halfa’s elements would be. makes me think of the into the spiderverse au. i like the idea that jazz would be water. it suits her. cool and collected, even sometimes associated with healing. but equally capable of devastation if used for violence. since psychology is her thing, i’d also draw a comparison to that. it’s used to help and heal, but when used by people like spectra it can be the most damaging attack possible. it can destroy people on a level deeper than physical. i’d likewise suggest that jazz would be the one to figure out bloodbending as a concept for this world, but would proceed to avoid using it. if she ever has a dark dan version of herself, i could see Black Jasmine being far more terrifying than him. when jazz goes bad, she’d go really bad

though in terms of what would push her to that point, it think it’d probably be more difficult and less difficult than what happened to danny. she is all about control and discipline. she’d use denial and psychology to manage for as long as possible. that is if it’s something that no one could have predicted or stopped. an accident. but if say it was a failure on the school or societies part... if say a case of bullying landed danny trapped in a locker during a ghost attack, unable to escape, and he died because of an attack that she was involved in. if he died with her not even aware that he was feet from her and in danger...

well i could see her losing herself in her guilt and anger at the world. he could have been saved. if he wasn’t being bullied, if the teachers had done something, if the ghost hadn’t attacked, if she had known he was there. like i said dark jazz is scary.

that aside, i also want all potential halfas to have elements associated with them now. we’re all pretty much agreed that tucker is electric type, due to his love of technology, but also his impulsiveness. electricity can do a lot of damage when not controlled properly and we’ve seen tucker on more than one occasion struggle with control. he’s overconfident and surprisingly reckless at times. when he’s in his element he’s fantastic but he’s been known to abuse power when he has it. i think that would be his main conflict as tucker ghouly, controlling his powers and using them responsibly.

sam would be representative of the element wood. which is associated with flexibility, durability, and strong emotions. because she’s our resident plant girl. she is willful and passionate but also stubborn and demanding. she demands the most of herself but also others, she wants everyone to thrive but sometimes forgets what’s best for her isn’t what’s best for other. her conflict might end up being empathy, because while she has it in spades, she doesn’t always know how to use it, if that makes sense. she tends to take things as a personal attack on her and her veiws when people disagree with her, which can be pretty dangerous, especially when people absolutely have reasons for their own opinions. she needs to learn to listen to others, if she’s going to be a proper hero

that would leave the final element, metal to val. metal is the most stubborn and inflexible of the elements. she’s strong and disciplined, unyielding in her attacks and views. but as we know that’s for better or worse. she really difficult to convince she’s wrong. she’d probably end up being one of the strongest out of them, she’d figure out the most ways to use her powers and how to shape metal to her advantage. i’m actually struck by the fun idea of val using her metal powers to make jewelry and running a small business selling it. this val would still manage to create a body armor and probably be better at maintaining anonymity with her ghost activity. though i also see her as overworking herself. she tries to do everything and ends up failing classes, alienating her friends, and too exhausted to think straight..she became a ghost before she was friends with danny, so i like the idea of them ending up friends, probably during the flour baby episode, and danny being the one to finally convince her to chill out and manage her health better. full human danny, is still all about helping people and is probably more stable and viably smart when he has time to do his homework. he’d probably offer to help her study and manage her business when too busy, and just having someone to lean on means everything to val.

until of course, plasimius kills jack fenton, and danny goes down the path of seeking vengeance and fighting ghosts. i actually don’t thing they’d know each others hunter identities at first, so they’d initially be fighting for real. danny is almost as stubborn as val. (ice is also inflexable until given the time to melt. and cold and harsh and deadly when angry). i see the green hunter being the most dangerous thing val has faced so far because danny is unrelenting. once she figures out who she’s fighting (i see her giving fenton a necklace of a star when he’s human and hunter losing the necklace during a fight and val discovering it and initially thinking it was stolen but figuring out the truth throughout the episode) fighting someone innocent, who’s justified, but still wrong, she’d be forced to learn to be more flexible and understanding, just to convince danny to stop. because let’s be real, she agrees with danny. plasmius killed his father, if she were in his shoes, he’d do the same thing, but she needs him to understand that she’s not the bad guy. not all ghosts are bad.

she’d also need to learn to be more flexible just to fight vlad/plasmius. because he is manipulative and her straight foward way of thinking and fighting would get her in trouble with him. i could see him framing her for a lot. he’d also be hanging around danny as vlad and manipulating danny that way. she’d essentially be fighting 2 different people who turn out to be the same person. vlad, the billionaire friend of the fentons who’s inserting himself into the grieving family’s lives and encouraging danny to fight vigilante justice. and plasmiaus the op ghost who literally murders people who get in his way. vlad would absolutely do everything he can to keep up the facade of innocent human. leaving all the damage to his ghost half. and val would struggle to prove that he’s evil.

that was a bit of a tangent, anyway. all of the halfa’s having elements associated with them and eventually having an ultimate team up in a universe that brings them together to fight something or another. a team up of the elements. vlad being there and joining the team up as still a villain who the team is suspicious of, but who they need to win. perhaps pariah dark escapes again but this time the mech isn’t available. and danny isn’t strong enough to face him alone. so parallel dimension team up. actually maybe not main danny’s universe. maybe it’s one of the other universes that can’t manage pariah dark on their own. possibly val’s again? if jack’s dead they don’t have a mech. might even be able to incorporate maddie inventing parallel-dimensional summoning in her attempts to bring jack back. bonus points if it’s vlad who’s funding this, knowing full well anyone summon would be unstable and turn to goo soon after arriving.

can you tell i love the into the dannyverse au? this was fun - Hestia

@nastyburger @guardianrex @five-rivers @ibelieveinahappilyeverafter @enigmaris

[roundaboutnow]

Two

If Jazz had learned anything in her 16 years, it was that her parents were a force to be reckoned with. The completion of the Fenton Portal was a testament to that.

The portal was an expert piece of technology- where researchers had failed thousands of times before, her parents had finally succeeded. It was constructed delicately, precisely- it had to be, because even the slightest oversight would lead to failure. The portal was a demonstration of not only the Fentons’ expertise in engineering and chemistry, but also their finesse in physics and the supernatural.

When they first began designing the portal, Jack and Maddie estimated that it would take ten years of study and engineering to complete- ten years at the earliest. They finished it in just six, and for the first time in those six years, Jazz let herself feel something akin to hope.

Before that, back when Jack and Maddie were just playing around with the idea of a manmade portal, they spent most of their time studying natural portals. At the time, natural portals were the strongest connection between the ghost zone and the human world- understanding how and why they formed, it was theorised, could help them calculate when and where these portals would appear.

Unlike the researchers before them, though, Jack and Maddie did actually find a way to calculate this. But just as these portals were only around for a short period of time, there was only a small window in which they could calculate where it would form. That window would open when temperatures in Amity Park suddenly fell, about an hour before the portal would form, and would close just as the portal appeared. What other variables were needed to make this calculation was beyond Jazz, but whatever they were, it worked. More often than not, her parents were able to track down a natural portal and study it to its fullest extent.

Back then, this was the height of their careers. For once, their family wasn’t the subject of mockery but of acclaim. After a long period of near-bankruptcy, investors were finally interested in what the Fentons had to offer. Even the kids at school, who paid little attention to what the Fentons actually did for a living, could tell that something had changed and eased up on Jazz and Danny.

Of course, everything went downhill from there.

Danny went missing when their parents were at their busiest- the investors wanted more products, new projects, better results. Whether Jack and Maddie were too busy to pay attention to what their kids did or if they had simply become relaxed in allowing the children near their work, Jazz wasn’t sure. In either case, Danny had been with them when their parents went to study yet another portal.

She didn’t need to imagine what happened that day- there was video evidence that she would go on to watch day after day until the footage was burned in her memories. Her parents’ memories, too, she assumed. She wanted to call Danny an idiot, to blame herself for not being with him, but at the root of it all, she couldn’t help but blame her parents. It was their negligence that had gotten him lost, after all, and as much as she wanted it to, she wasn’t so sure that the Fenton Portal could fix that.

...

The lab alarm was going off.

Jazz became disoriented every time the alarm was triggered, but unlike previous emergencies, this was the first time she was home alone while it was going off. Her parents had given her thorough directions on what to do in this situation, but that didn’t mean she actually knew what she was doing. Instead, she was left with the feeling of panic and the frightening realization that she was the only one who could do anything about it.

She had to find the thermos. It was somewhere in the room- she hadn’t taken it anywhere since her parents had given it to her- but after a while of it just sitting on her dresser, she shoved it into some drawer and hadn’t seen it since. Now, she cursed herself for having been so careless with it- of course the alarm would go off while she was home alone. When did things ever go right with this family?

Jazz didn’t relax when she found the thermos in her dresser- she became colder, picturing what she would have to do. With the thermos gripped in her arms, she made a dash for the lab.

…

She’d seen a ghost in person before- you don’t grow up with ghost hunters for parents without seeing a ghost at least once in your life. But there was a very big difference between seeing a ghost in a controlled environment and being expected to catch one for the first time. Even so, her parents trusted her enough to handle it- and if they trusted that she could handle it, then there was nothing to worry about.

Taking a deep breath, Jazz cracked open the lab door and crept down the stairs, hoping it was all a false alarm. That she could simply turn off the alarm and be on with her day- apparently that had happened before. But peeking around the corner, she found that that was not the case.

There was a ghost in her basement.

With his back to her, she didn’t get a very good look at him, but could see that he was humanoid, whereas previous ghosts had been animals. But luck was on her side this time- the ghost was distracted, studying her parents’ inventions, holding an ecto-gun in his hands and observing it closely.

With a racing heart, she clicked the thermos on, closed her eyes, and pointed in the ghost’s general direction. That’s all she would have to do, her parents had assured her, so when she opened her eyes, the ghost would be gone.

Slowly, wincing, Jazz peeked into the lab again and felt her heart drop.

The ghost wasn’t gone, and he was looking right at her.

…

Danny didn’t have much time to assess where he was or what was happening. When the siren went off, he covered his ears and hurried to his feet- unless he wanted to jump back through the portal, he would need to find an exit.

For a brief moment, he couldn’t help but be reminded of the time he’d escaped Walker’s prison. It had been the first time he’d been in an actual building since falling through the portal, but with a sentence of 8,000 years on his head, he wasn’t about to stick around. Back then, however, Danny had been a human in the ghost zone. Escaping was a matter of walking through walls and avoiding guards. As a human in the human world, there was no reason he would be able to escape so easily.

Under the red lights of the siren, Danny turned to get a good look at the lab, his heart skipping a beat when he recognised it.

This wasn’t just any old lab- it was his parents’ lab.

It had changed- that wasn’t a surprise- but there was no doubt that this was the same lab he’d grown up with, either. On the right was their work table, the wall behind it scorched black. On the left, there were a few finished products, most of which Danny didn’t recognize, but were crafted in the same unique styles his parents so often adopted. In one of the corners was his mother’s chemistry set and in the other, he remembered, were the stairs to the exit.

Logically, Danny knew he should hide or make a run for the stairs- there was always the chance his family would shoot first and ask questions later- but he felt drawn to his parents’ work, looking over the tables full of inventions. He couldn’t tell what all of them were supposed to do- some of them were clearly guns, but others resembled jewelry and old appliances. On closer inspection, he noticed a name stamped across all of the inventions- Fenton- and could feel his eyes tear up. He barked out a laugh and hugged the ecto-gun that was in his hands- he already knew it was his parents’ lab, his parents’ work, but there was something very relieving about seeing their name with his own eyes.

When he had woken up that morning, he hadn’t expected his day to turn out like this- and he certainly wouldn’t have guessed that Skulker of all people would have helped him. This should have been the happiest Danny had been in a long time, except something felt wrong. Beyond the blaring siren and the red lights, he felt something else. A chill. It wasn’t the same as the ghost sense that he’d developed years ago, but the feeling might as well have meant the same thing- he was being watched.

Turning to see who was there, he was taken aback by the fact that he knew her.

He almost didn’t recognise her- she was a lot older than he remembered, but she resembled his sister all the same, with her red hair and narrow face. She was pointing an odd device at him, something that might have been a gun, her eyes squeezed shut in a pained wince.

Again, Danny knew he should run or hide, but he was overcome by the calming knowledge that this was his home. His sister may have been pointing a weapon at him, but this was once a safe space for him. Everything would be okay- everything had to be okay. Why would a few years have changed that?

When Jazz finally opened her eyes, she and Danny made eye contact, but instead of relaxing as he had expected, she stiffened and let out a small shriek. She smacked the side of the device a few times, urging it to work, and backed herself as far away from Danny as possible.

He wasn’t sure what to do then- she obviously didn’t recognise him as anything but a ghost, and unless she was willing to listen, there wasn’t much he could do that would convince her otherwise. There was, however, always a way to prove that he was her brother.

Taking a deep breath, Danny winced under Jazz’s terrified gaze and called over the alarms.

“Jazz!”

...

Thank you guys for your support and for the title ideas! I ended up deciding on just calling it Castaway and I'll probably post it on Fanfiction.net soon.

[kinglazrus]

Not Your Danny – Ch 5. Fresh Air

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Word count: 3075

Dani hesitates at the top of the stairs. The lab door, when closed, looks comically when compared to the rest of the house. Set halfway down the hall that bisects the house, from either end, the doorway appears normal. When you get closer, however, and the door itself comes into view, a smattering of warning signs greets your eyes. The yellow and black stripes, the deep red biohazard symbol, one bright green sign that just reads GHOSTS AHEAD!, are the only pops of colour against the off-white walls.

The signs draw the eye to a comical degree. They remind Dani of cheap Halloween decorations, slapped on the nearest empty surface in the hopes that more signs equal more scares.

It's not as funny when the door is open. Metal plating gleams along the walls, some of the seams between them crusted with dried ectoplasm. More stains litter the stairs, left by careless, unclean feet. Far below, the pristine white tiles of the lab floor are lit by a soft green glow.

She hasn't even entered the lab, but just a glimpse of the room below transports her back to Vlad's place in Wisconsin and that cold room where she spent hours alone. It was the worst before she learned how to go intangible, when she was stuck with nowhere to go. Vlad didn't have the time to go down to the lab every day, but when he could, he worked feverishly on making newer, better clones than her.

"Siblings for you," Vlad called them, but Dani knows the truth now. Replacements, since she hadn't been good enough for him.

So many times, Vlad made a clone that was almost stable, almost life-like, but they would die overnight. Dani could never take her eyes away from it, no matter how much it horrified her. Seeing other clones melt away to nothing, their skin sloughing off, muscle dripping from their bones until those, too, liquified into nothing.

If Vlad had known Danny was transgender, maybe he wouldn't have seen Dani as such a failure. He might have loved her properly—or at all.

She doesn't want to go down the stairs, not when such horrible memories are already clamouring for attention. But Maddie is down there, and it might be hours before she comes upstairs. Bracing herself against the wall, Dani leans forward on her toes and calls down. "Maddie?"

Although she can hear shuffling coming from below, she gets no answer.

"Maddie?" she says again, a little louder.

Still no answer.

Swallowing her nerves, Dani goes down the steps. She keeps her arms in, even as her legs shake and threaten to give out on her, she doesn't want to touch the walls. Her gaze doesn't stray from her feet, either, fixed firmly on where she is stepping. When she reaches the last stair, she squeezes her eyes shut.

It's fine. This isn't Vlad's lab. There might be some similarities, they aren't the same. Like her and Danny.

I am at Fenton Works. I am at home. I am at Fenton Works. She repeats the mantra over and over. Her heart doesn't stop pounding, but eventually, she has to look up or turn back around, and she doesn't want to give up now. Steeling herself, she looks up and opens her eyes.

It's not Vlad's lab.

Of course, it isn't. Dani knew that the whole time. Actually seeing it, however, fills her with relief. Instead of bubbling vats full of half-formed bodies, they have long counters full of inventions. Although the floors have a few scuffs and some noticeable burn marks, there are no dubious stains of questionable origin.

The only true similarity Dani can find is the specimen cabinet. Its glass doors reveal the rows upon rows of ectoplasmic samples hidden inside. The vials sit on labelled racks, sorted through some mysterious method Dan is not privy to.

One rack, near the front of the cabinet, is labelled PHANTOM, DANI. Out of the four vials, two are empty, the third is missing, and the fourth—her blood sample— is half-full. Looking around at all the weapons down here, Dani hopes her samples went to good use. The last thing she wants is one of these guns firing at her without warning.

Dani finds the missing vial with Maddie on the other side of the lab. Maddie sits at one of two desks, hers far neater than the other. The vial of ectoplasm, still capped, rests by Maddie's elbow. In front of her, a gun sprawls out in pieces. Maddie's head is lowered over the gun as she works on it.

"Maddie?" Dani asks.

Maddie takes a deep breath before looking up. She can't hide the slight widening of her eyes when she sees Dani's human face, but she doesn't flee, which is a vast improvement from last time. "Yes, dear?"

"Is it okay if I go out somewhere?"

"Of course. Where do you want to go?"

"Nowhere in particular. I haven't left the house since I got here."

"Really? That can't be right."

"It is." To be completely honest, Dani hadn't been sure if she was allowed to leave. The Fentons never laid out any ground rules for staying with them. Nor did they let her in on what a usual household day is like. After a week and a half, Dani has figured out more or less how things go, but only now does she realize that the Fentons never did anything to accommodate her.

Not that she knows what accommodations she needs, but it's odd, isn't it? Someone new moves in and they keep doing what they have always done.

"I didn't even notice," Maddie admits. "I'm so used to D—the kids doing whatever they want as long as they aren't out late. You don't need to ask us if you want to go somewhere." She leans back over the dismantled gun, grabbing a core piece with a dozen little wires sticking out of it. "Don't forget to text. And be home by curfew, young man."

—

Depends on when that is.

Maddie's mind fills in the automatic response, a perfect copy of Danny's usual snark. Several seconds pass before she realizes no one said it out loud. She glances up from her work and finds herself alone in the lab. Dani left without saying anything. The discovery cuts her deeper than it has any right to.

Maddie's parting remark runs through her head again. She gasps, finally registering what she said, and drops the barrel component in her hand.

She goes over her parting remark in her head and gasps. She didn't mean to say that. The words rose instinctively to her lips, spoken without any consideration of who she had been talking to. It was such a small thing, too; a meaningless ritual built between Danny and Maddie over the years.

"Be home by curfew," she would say.

"Depends on when that is," he would answer.

When was the last time she and Danny had this exchange? It only happened when he told her he was going out, which wasn't very often in recent years, but the instinct was still there. Maddie presses a hand against her eyes.

Danny's absence resonated throughout Fenton Works, but little moments like this cut deeper than they should. All their little rituals. Backwash soda. Small things Maddie didn't realize she would miss until they were gone. And at the centre of it all was Dani, subject to Maddie's moments of weakness, filling in that piece of her Danny took when he died, but not quite fitting.

Maybe this was a mistake.

"I'm sorry, Dani," she tells the empty lab.

—

It feels good to fly again. Sitting in the house with nothing to do, Dani was starting to get stir crazy. Finally getting some fresh air in her lungs and some wind in her hair does wonders to alleviate her mood. Not even Maddie's slip up in the lab can bring Dani down now, no matter how much thinking about it makes her skin prickle.

She soars far over the city, letting her instincts take over as the people below get smaller and smaller.

Amity Park airspace is perfect for flying. It sees so little traffic from planes, drones, or anything else like that. People in the area know to steer clear of the skies in case a ghost is about. Danny once told her that the airport actually diverts planes around the city if they're flying too low.

Not even birds like to be up here.

Dani relishes the feeling of wind buffeting her body. She lets her control slip, plummeting through the air. Spreading her arms, she guides her fall without the use of her powers, grinning wide against the roaring wind. She and Danny might not have liked all the same things, but they could certainly agree on this: there is nothing more amazing than flying.

A good hour passes with Dani in the air. She dips down toward the city a few times, swooping through the streets. The tall downtown buildings and fast-moving cars make a great obstacle course, especially when she flies at top speed.

"Is that Phantom?" someone shouts.

Dani has to stop and backtrack, flying by the voice so fast she almost doesn't hear it. Lounging in the air, she peers down at the sidewalk. "Someone called?"

A kid holding his mother's hand scowls. "You're not Phantom."

Dani sticks her tongue out at the brat. "Dani-with-an-I Phantom, thank you very much."

"I don't care. You're not Danny Phantom."

Dani's smile freezes in place. The brat, who can't be more than eight, makes a rude gesture over his shoulder as his mom pulls him away.

"Charming kid!" Dani shouts after them. The woman pulls her son along faster. Dani's expression goes flat. The brief exchange leaves a sour taste in her mouth and an ache in her chest. Flying right now doesn't seem fun anymore. She lowers herself to the street, ignoring the whispers around her, and transforms.

A few people gasp, but she ignores that, too. Who cares if they see her? The whole city already knows the truth about Danny. It wouldn't take a genius to reach the same conclusions about her.

Her hands go to the front of her shirt, seeking out her hoodie pocket. Belatedly, she remembers that she hasn't worn the hoodie in days. At night, she puts on the pyjamas Maddie bought for her, and in the morning she dons her new favourite shirt along with one of the several skirts Jazz gave her.

The first time Dani transformed from human to ghost wearing these clothes, she was worried they might disappear, or her hoodie and shorts would reappear. To her utter delight, no such thing happened. The skirt she wears now is a little long for her. She has it pulled up to her waist, with the star shirt tucked underneath, and rolled the waistband several times until the skirt rested around her knees. The soft fabric swishes about her legs, so much lighter than what she is used to.

Taking in her surroundings, Dani notes the big box stores around her. She recognizes the area, although she has only seen it from the air. The Amity Par Mall should be somewhere close by. Although Dani doesn't have any money for clothes, she could window shop and look at what's available. That should help lift her spirits.

—

The usual chatter blankets the mall food court. Beyond the tables, a kiosk for a local store advertises unique Danny Phantom merch. T-shirts, phone cases, and hats bearing Danny's iconic logo sit out on display. From her seat facing the kiosk, Sam can see water bottles shaped like the Fenton Thermos, plushies that vaguely resemble the local haunts, and even a few fake ecto-guns.

But the centrepiece of the display is a poster, unmistakably new. It features Danny twice over, as Phantom and Fenton, standing back-to-back with himself. The sight of it fills her with rage.

"How dare they." Sam seethes.

Seated across from her, Tucker nods. The soda cup in his hand crumples as his grip tightens. "Isn't that illegal, too? Using his likeness and all?"

"Absolutely. Especially since he's a minor."

"Was," Tucker corrects her, his voice soft.

"Right. Was." The memory of Danny's last moments flashes through her mind. Sam flinches, closing her eyes in an attempt to shut the image out. It doesn't work. The moment is all too vivid in her mind and she doesn't think it will ever fade.

Movies like to give heroes slow deaths, dramatic last words spoken with a final breath, the warmth of a loved one nearby. They make it so easy to forget that most of the time people don't get anything like that. Most of the time they drop, and they're gone.

Her hands feel sticky and warm, her throat hoarse.

The stunned silence of the street after it happened presses down on her.

"Looks like they have a website. I take care of that and you take care of the lawyers?" Tuck says.

Sam opens her eyes. She has to rub her hands together to remind her they're dry now, have been for weeks. Still, that doesn't stop her from picturing dried blood beneath her nails.

"Yeah," she says after a moment. "Sounds like a plan."

Whoever owns that kiosk is going to regret using their dead best friend for profit. Sam and Tucker will make them burn.

Sam's glare turns from the man working the kiosk to the shoppers browsing its wares. Her anger stretches to them, too, though not as much. She can't blame a child for wanting merch of their hero. Three of the five shoppers lingering around the stand are children, the oldest in her teens. Except instead of happily perusing the merch like her younger counterparts, this girl glares at the stand with nearly as much hatred as Sam.

Something about her is familiar, too. Sam can't see her profile in full, since the girl is angled away, but she can't shake the feeling that she's seen this girl before.

"Holy shit, is that Danielle?" Tucker asks.

Sam's eyes widen. He's right. Without the signature red and blue, Sam didn't recognize her. Dani's new outfit suits her, though. "Jazz said she saw Dani before the funeral. Where has she been?"

Sam stands up. Tucker rises with her, having the same idea. They dump their food trays at the garbage station and make a beeline for Dani.

"Danielle!" Tucker waves to the halfa, who turns at his shout.

Dani smiles when she sees them. "Hey!"

"Nice shirt." Tucker flicks Dani's collar. "About time someone put it to good use."

"Are you staying at Fenton Works?" Sam asks. Like Tucker, she recognizes the shirt and knows there's only one place Dani could have gotten it.

Dani kicks the floor with her heel, the sole of her shoes squeaking against the tiles. "Yeah. Jazz invited me to move in. It's... okay."

Over Dani's head, Sam and Tucker share a concerned look. They recognize that tone. It's one of the few things Dani and Danny have in common, at least that Sam has seen. Dani's voice dips at the end of her sentence, going low and flat. Jazz does it, too, sometimes. It's probably a Fenton thing more than it is a Danny and Dani thing.

"What's wrong?" Sam asks.

"Trouble adjusting, that's all. It's not a big deal." Dani shrugs.

Sam wants to question her further but lets the subject drop. It's fine if Dani wants to keep it to herself, although Sam prefers if she didn't. Either way, they aren't going to leave her like this.

"Doing some shopping?" Sam already knows the answer, though. Dani doesn't have a purse, or a wallet, or any money with her by the looks of it.

Dani confirms her suspicions. "Just looking."

"Cool. Can we look with you?" Tucker rests an arm on Dani's head, using her as a post for leaning. It works like a charm, drawing a half-hearted grumble and a small smile out of Dani. "We're here to people watch. And take care of assholes like this." Tucker nods toward the Phantom kiosk.

This time, Dani giggles. "Yeah, sure. We can take you to all the girl stores."

Tucker pales. "Wait, no. I change my mind."

"Too late!" Dani latches onto the arm resting on her head.

Sam quickly grabs Tucker's other arm until he's squished between the two girls, growing rapidly more distressed as they steer toward the closest store with a bright pink sign. These kinds of stores aren't Sam's thing, and she normally wouldn't be caught dead in one, but she can put up with it for a while if it keeps the smile on Dani's face.

—

Dani takes her bag from the store clerk with nothing short of reverence lighting her face. Even though she just watched the clerk pack it, Dani can't help but open the bag and peer inside at her new purchases: a skirt, a pair of shorts, and a handful of button-ups like the one she already wears.

Beside her, Sam slips her wallet back into her pocket.

"Have a nice day!" the clerk says.

"Thanks. You, too!" Tucker's hand settles on Dani's back, nudging her out of the store.

As soon as they exit, Dani spins and jumps at Sam. "Thank you so much!" When they went into the store, she didn't expect to find anything she liked, but everything inside was so different from what she found in Danny's closet. Especially the pastel colours.

"Consider it a welcome home present," Sam says. Her arm curls around Dani's back, squeezing her tightly.

"Group hug!" Tucker says before draping himself over both of them.

Dani's breath catches in her throat. When was the last time she touched someone like this? Sam and Tucker's arms surrounded her, their warmth making her skin tingle. For a second, she can't breathe, so overwhelmed by the contact that everything else ceases to exist.

Against her will, her shoulders start to shake. She clings to Sam and Tucker tighter, fists gripping the back of their shirts as she draws them closer. Tears welled in her eyes, rising from somewhere deep within her that she had been pushing down. Now, though, in the warmth of Sam and Tucker's embrace, Dani cries for the first time since Danny died.

Previous | Next

[mrvdocks]

Plus One

Things get real. Can you totally hide your feelings for Steve any longer? 

smut warning

(chapter four) @mochminnie @wolfish-willow

You’re in the bathroom trying not to freak out or let it show just how much your mind was reeling from earlier. It couldn’t be happening, right? There’s no way you were falling for Steve Harrington. 

No, no way. He was so different from you. 

But opposites attract right? 

You grimaced, thinking back to the way his eyes flickered from your eyes to your lips. The way he too seemed unsure of going for it.

This would change your entire dynamic. Were you even ready to open up to someone else?

Steve knew you, sure, but just the things at surface level. Things you wanted him to know. You were afraid to even tell him about everything else back home, thinking maybe he would freak at the first sight of a parent gushing over how perfect he seemed. 

If there’s anything a person never is, it’s perfect. 

In many ways, Steve just didn’t seem like an ideal candidate. He never put his things away, snores too loudly, had the romantic personality of a ninth-grader, was obsessed with his hair way more than you were, and he looked for superficial things. 

He knew it too deep down, it was better to ignore the flaws for the love we think we deserved instead of feeling contrite when the ugly truth was out there.

That’s where you differed. You needed honesty, it was the only way to live.

Knock. 

“Hey, you okay?” Steve’s voice echoed from behind the door. 

You squeezed your eyes shut. He just had to be here right now, didn’t he?

You think of something gross enough to keep him on the other side.

“I think the food’s not agreeing with me right now.” 

“Oh okay, do you need anything?” Damn it, leave!

“No! I mean - no. It’s alright. I’ll be right out.” 

You count down from ten, trying to ease your anxious nerves. You take deep breaths and exhale once you get to the primary numbers. At one, you stand straight and march out of the bathroom as if nothing happened. Steve sits on the edge of the bed in his dress shirt now, his blazer discarded onto the chair next to him. 

He’s watching the tv blankly, a rerun of a show you both had seen back home fills out the room. You grab your night clothes and return to the bathroom, changing as fast as you can to slide into bed and call it a night. When you return, Steve’s still where he was before, only now fidgeting with the cuff links on his wrist.

You should be paid for how much you’re able to get out of him. 

“Are you okay? You look like you’re about to cry or something.”

“My dad’s getting married.”

It takes you by surprise. Steve’s never talked about his dad before, not even to Robin.

“Oh,” You say simply. “Like renewing his vows or something?” 

He shakes his head. 

“My mom moved away a while ago. My dad, he uh…..met this woman half his age after her. She’s got kids from another marriage.” He flicks the cuff link. 

“Before I moved to New York with Robin, I would just see and hear them all the time at home. He was nicer to them, do things with them that I had to beg him to do with me when I was a kid.”

You sit next to him, bringing your hand to rest atop his own. 

“The night before I left, I just told him off. I told him it wasn’t fair that he got to start over with another family just because he messed ours up. He called me before we got here saying he wanted me to be his best man.”

He falls silent, his lip quivers but he purses his lips into a straight line to keep himself from letting it out. You can’t say much that will help him, but you understand his disdain and avoidance of weddings thus far.

“What’d you tell him?”

He shrugs. “I told him I’d think about it. He expects an answer when we go home.”

“Well, at least he’s happy.” You sigh.

“Yeah, for now. And then it’s onto the next one.”

You don’t want to do it, but since you’re just letting the skeletons out of the closet, you might as well. 

“You know my parents are still together?” you start. “My mom’s always been this, overbearing cross that my dad carries around. She yells at him all the time but I think he’s checked out already. They didn’t want to divorce because they thought it would damn them or mess me up. But I think it did anyway.”

Steve’s entranced by you, you were opening up. 

“They’ve stuck it out since they had me. And it’s just sad now. I think about them sometimes, just sitting in that house, eating their dinner and sleeping together, not saying a word to each other.”

Steve opens his mouth like he’s about to apologize for even bringing the parent topic up.

“Sure your parents split up, but at least they’re not miserable. I can tell you from experience you would’ve liked that a lot less.” You conclude, removing your hand from his and leaving to go to bed. 

It’s been a weird night.

Steve stops you though, his fingers snaking onto your wrist. You turn back, thinking he’s going to talk more about his family or dive deeper into some other trauma. Imagine your surprise when he stands and bends to your level to pull you into his arms, bringing you in tight and firm. You’re taken aback, arms flying up but eventually settling on his broad back. Your fingers clutch his shirt in fistfuls, taking in the smell of him. 

“Hey, Steve?”

He hums.

“I’m totally reading your boner right now.”

“And the moment’s over.” He says, pulling away. You almost frown at the loss of his body pressing against yours. 

“I’m kidding!” You huff, pushing him back onto the bed. 

You settle in after he changes, pulling the covers up to your chest and putting your arms above them in thought. Steve sees you staring at the ceiling.

“Have you gone catatonic on me?”

“No, it’s just….this is the most I’ve gotten out of you in two years.”

“You’ve known me for two years.” He crawls in, getting comfortable. 

“Yeah but, you know, are these really things you’ve told Robin before?”

“Not really.”

“Why not?”

“She never asked.”

Truthfully, it wasn’t that. While Robin felt comfortable revealing the truth about herself that Fourth of July, Steve had learned to keep things to himself. It’s how he was raised. But you and Robin changed that, especially with the way you tended to overshare things sometimes. 

You turn onto your side, facing him. He’s thinking about something, and he looks so magnificent doing it. The way his hair rests on his forehead, the way his fingers curl around the blanket... 

Oh no. Is this how it starts? Admiring him? Craving his touch like earlier? Wanting his attention fully on you and not all these other women? It was so juvenile, feeling like this was your first love again. The strong feeling hitting you just like the waves did earlier.

It was no secret you were touch starved, but there was something in the way his touch relaxed you. It made you think sometimes. Whatever this feeling was, it was different from what you felt with Danny. You jumped the shark with him, you didn’t really know him. 

But with Steve, you were starting to. He was bare bones with you. 

“Goodnight.” He whispers, turning the bedside lamp off.

“Goodnight.” 

“Are you telling me you don’t know how to ride a bike?” You ask Steve, watching him shift uncomfortably and unevenly on the beach cruiser.

It was your last day being in Virginia, and you didn’t want to sit in the hotel and gorge on food until you passed out. That’s what home was reserved for. 

Joyce had spoken of how lovely the horses and horseback riding was here, but that was closed so you settled for the next best thing. Riding bikes at the beach.

“No I - I do know, I’m just saying this is a hard seat.” 

He’s been adamant about this for five minutes now. Every now and then a girl will pass by and he’ll try to sit, only to fall on his side. You’ve taken so many snapshots of this, each time bellowing with ridiculous laughter.

“When we go home I’m developing this and hanging it on the fridge.”

“Erase this footage!” He gestures to the camera, losing balance again.

“Make me, Harrington!” You can’t help but shoot back.

Passersby found it funny the way you two were bickering. Even more so when you lent over to show Steve how to keep his arms and legs on the bike, him reassuring you he knew where everything went.

“I can do it.” 

“Okay, let’s see then.” You cross your arms and stand aside waiting. 

He mutters to himself and puts both his feet on the pedals, not falling to either side this time. He grips the handlebars and pedals forward, passing you with an excitement lighting up his face that a child would have when they were first learning. 

He can’t manage the turn and falters, sticking a foot and hand out to cushion his fall. You catch up to him, ready to help but he lays down onto the grass and accepts his failure. 

“Come on, you’ll get the hang of it. You just need more practice.” 

You hold out your hand, waiting for him to take it. 

“I know this keeps you healthy, but at what cost?” He grabs on, using you to balance him when he gets to his feet again. He’s too tall and heavy for you, prompting you to waver slightly and hold onto him. 

You pull away when you realize your hands rested on his chest, his other arm holding onto your lower back. He scratches the back of his head nervously uttering an apology.

Feeling the blush creep to your cheeks, you return to your ride, mounting and waiting for him to do the same. 

“Try to catch up.” You smirk, racing off down the hill and squealing. 

“What are you, Evel Knievel?!” He yells after you, wobbling and gritting his teeth as he follows after you. 

You have the upper hand on him the entire time, often hiding behind shops and emerging from behind him when he thinks he’s faster. You ride until the sun sets, enjoying the breeze and the little bit of sun before stopping at an ice cream shop. Steve thinks he’s something of an ice cream connoisseur when you look at flavors. You two end up fighting on flavors before settling on two different ones and eating outside in a garden the shop owner called a hidden gem.

“No way, cookies ‘n cream is the best one.” He remarks, finishing off the cone. 

“Mint chocolate is actually superior and I won’t hear another word about it.” You took your time, enjoying the sensation your mouth was on. 

He shakes his head. “It’s basically gum! It’s disgusting!” 

“But it tastes so good!” You take another bite teeth first and moan in delight. 

He groans in disgust but nonetheless is amused when you try to get him to eat a bit of it. He avoids your hand, moving his head out of the way every time it’s shoved in his face. You wait, plotting. 

“You have some on your lip.” You say, pointing toward his top lip. He licks at it, tasting nothing.

“There’s noth -”

He’s muffled by a mouthful mint chocolate. You can’t help it when the corners of your lips lift into a smug smirk. 

“Funny, huh?” He says, wiping it off with his hand. 

He takes the rest of the cone and dips his fingertips in it, turning his attention to painting your cheeks and lips with as much as he can. You recoil and gasp as the cold sensation, trying to get it off but he keeps attacking. 

“Okay! Okay! Truce!” You wave a figurative white flag. He stops, proud of his work, and tops it off by rustling your hair. 

“I’m so gonna get you,” You promise, wiping at your cheeks and going to get him with the residue when you turn to face him and find your faces are closer than ever. 

You fall silent, the trouble maker in you declining to come back for an encore. 

“What, no smartass remark this time?” He teases. 

As cliche as it might sound, you’re lost in his smugness. His smile falters, his brows furrowing as he realizes what he’s doing, the gap between your faces closing. You close your eyes first, testing the waters and pressing your lips against his softly. He pauses for a moment, suddenly aware of the gravity of what you were doing, bringing his hand up for your cheek to rest on. His eyes flutter shut soon after, diving into your lips and tasting the mixture of sweets. 

He kisses you feverishly and desperately, sighing as he relaxes into you. Your fingers tug at his hair and the back collar of his shirt. He leads you down onto the grass, flowers decorate your head in a red halo. He settles in between your legs and holds himself up by his forearms, his fingers entangling themselves in your hair as he cocks his head to the side to get more of you.

It’s been a while but both of you are antsy and eager. You kick off your shoes and immediately make quick work of his belted pants. He catches your drift and helps you with your skirt, pulling the long pleated material up to snag both ends of your panties. 

“Ow.” 

“Sorry.” He whispers.

“No, it’s okay, just - here,” You grunt as you try to help him from where you’re laying, lifting your hips up to let the fabric slide off. The cool air of the night makes you shiver. 

Steve peppers you with kisses as you reach for the belt and unbuckle it. Hearing it come undone makes you even more aroused. 

“Hold on.” He says in a breathy voice, reaching between your bodies and lining himself in. You tease him by wrapping a leg around his torso and pushing him in slowly with the heel of your foot against his butt.

The feeling overwhelms him, letting out a sharp exhale. He glances back to your smug face and glares at you momentarily. 

You move in sync, your hand grasping onto his broad shoulders and the other on his bicep to keep the pace. He grunts into your shoulder, lost in the lust. His hand comes to rest under your head to support it while also gripping it with each thrust he bucked into you. 

Each thrust was different, pleasurable, and enticing. It fulfilled the need for him you had that night at the beach. You catch yourself smiling, knowing none of the bridesmaids or guests he tried flirting with got this far. Not even Sissy.

He hits a spot in you that rouses you out of your thoughts and leaves you mewling wantonly. You know he won’t last, not at the rate his thrusts are going. He’s crying out, bucking against you in fervor, gripping your hair harder, and groaning louder into your neck. You made him this way. 

Ever since the first wedding, seeing you out of your element made him reconsider some things. Sure if he’d gotten a girlfriend out of this, it would be good for him. But something about you made him feel the way he thought he felt for Nancy. 

He felt seventeen all over again, giddy and in love and a little horny. He just didn’t know if you felt the same. But after the beach incident and the way you took the lead first, all doubts went away.

Thinking about you, he slides his thumb into his mouth and lubricates it, snaking it down to the neglected pearl in between your legs. Your eyes shut in ecstasy at the added sensation, your back arching into him. You feel your legs shake and your feet writhe against his ass trying to amplify the feeling. His heavy breaths, needy kisses, and raunchy whispers in your ear are absolute heaven to you. 

You come before him, muffling your lewd moans into his shoulder and milking him for everything he’s got. He comes with a final sloppy thrust and collapses onto you, knocking the wind out of you and leaving you catching your breath.

He pants, breath hot and heavy against your collarbone. Your legs unwrap from their previous position, now shaky and limp. 

Once you two catch your breath after about a minute or two, Steve lifts his head to rest his forehead against yours. You both chuckle, finally acknowledging the broken tension.

Steve kisses you again, this time without fear or doubt. Just pure adoration. 

You don’t really feel yourself fall asleep, neither does he. But you’re definitely mortified in the morning when you hear voices that wake you up with a start.

“Cooter’s out.” The old gardener points out.

The statement wakes you up, and when you realize you just flashed your privates you stand up quickly and shake Steve awake. He groans, but opens his eyes, his smile dropping once he notices the man in front of you two. 

“Cooter’s out.” The old man repeats.

You pull the skirt all the way down and grab your shoes quickly while Steve tucks himself back in and apologizes profusely. You grab his hand and race out of the garden, red as a tomato and grab the bikes to go back to the hotel. 

The car ride to the airport is quiet. You thank yourself for bringing something to read to avoid mentioning the embarrassing aftermath. Steve didn’t bring anything to distract him like you did, but he glances at you every so often. When your eyes meet, you both turn away quickly. But the smile on both your faces betrays you both. 

Steve doesn’t even bother flirting with the flight attendant this time, his eyes are completely on you. It feels odd. You can’t even find a smart-ass thing to say, it’s like you’re short-circuiting. You didn’t know what he was thinking, but if the constant staring and easy smiles and looks of adoration he gave you were any indications, he was whipped.

You sigh in relief as you plop onto the couch, letting all your things fall after Steve gets in. He takes the initiative to break the ice when he collapses onto your chest. 

You’re winded again. “Whoa, someone ate too much shrimp at the wedding.”

Steve suppresses a chuckle, taking you in. You had some type of glow he’d never noticed before.

“So…” He begins.

“So…”

“About last night,” he starts but you cut him off.

“We don’t need to talk about it, you know if you don’t want to.” 

“I do.” He murmurs into your chest. He hugs your body, his head resting on your chest the same way Mickey would do it. 

Damn it, you actually liked this. 

“Great sex.” You blurt, shutting your eyes in disbelief at how awkward he suddenly made you.

His dimples peeked out as he felt himself chuckling. “Yeah, great sex.”

“I’m sorry,” you jittered. “I’m never usually like this.”

“Oh, I know. But it’s okay. I had fun.” 

You haven’t felt this excited for something to potentially happen since you met Danny. But even now you were hopeful.

“Steve?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you want me to go with you to your dad’s wedding?”

He must’ve remembered he had to answer that best man question because he’s unmoving.

How bad can it be? He thinks. Now that I have you.

“Yes please.”

[cartoonfangirl1218]

I liked your ava post, do you have more aboout usm. The WHOle usm team?

I can’t say I have many many hcs but I’ll give you where I think they might end up after SHIELD, and two songs that fit them if that works. 

Peter: I don't know why but I feel like Peter would want to look for his parents once he leaves SHIELD and while doing so, he ends up in a lot of team ups and building up more of his rogues gallery. Basically I imagine stuff from the comic with spider clones, dating MJ, briefly rejoins the Avengers then leaves. Yeah I don't have much for him since comic history leaves people to choose what they want. Imagine Dragon's Beliver because he does have such a heavy pain inside, but that's the thing, he keeps it inside until he snaps them into his fight for justice. "First things first, I'ma say all the words inside my head. I'm fired up and tired of the way that things have been, The way that things have been.Second thing second, Don't you tell me what you think that I could be. I'm the one at the sail, I'm the master of my sea...Taking my message from the veins. Speaking my lesson from the brain. Seeing the beauty through the pain!"

Danny: I'd like to think that he stays in NY to start Heroes for Hire with Luke as soon as they leave SHIELD. They're bros, and he justifies the absence that New York needs Iron Fist more than K'Lun for the moment. He also tries his hand at getting Rand Industries back on track. I also think he does return to K'Lun eventually as King and mystical head. After his work at Rand Industries, he feels more confident as a leader and is willing to stand up to the monks when it comes with changing some of the old ways. Allowing him to travel back to NY to see his friends while keeping the mystical origins of K'Lun sacred. I think Nature Boy rather fits him, soft and melodious and Danny learning he is not alone sort of. "There was a boy. A very strange enchanted boyThey say he wandered very far..Very far over land and sea. A little shy and sad of eye. But very wise, was he."  Les Miserables’ Who am I mainly because I imagine Danny has some identity issues between feeling worthy of the Iron Fist, feeling torn between the US and K'Lun. Ideally, he would end up learning being one does not give up the other part of himself. As one would say they can coexist in a balance. "Who am I? Can I conceal myself forever more.. Pretend I’m not the man I was before?....How can I ever face my fellow men? How can I ever face myself again?"

Luke: As said above, with Danny, when they leave SHIELD, they create Heroes for Hire, they ride or die forever.  Together they clean up their part of New York and Luke comes to terms with some of his past and the people he dealt with in jail. He also meets Jessica Jones during this time and she becomes his new partner (in more ways than one) when Danny leaves for K'Lun. He sometimes does freelance work for SHIELD, mainly at the behest of his parents, sometimes as a favor to Fury. He also sometimes comes by the Helicarrier to be a surprise mentor to whatever new hero they pick up. He is the main instigator of team reunions.

Adam Levine’s If I got locked away totally fits him after the time he spent in jail and scared of being seen as weak, it really fits him and his insecurities. "If I got locked away And we lost it all today. Tell me honestly, would you still love me the same? If I showed you my flaws. If I couldn't be strong. Tell me honestly, would you still love me the same?" One call away also fits him simply for his caring nature and how he'll do anything for his friends, "I'm only one call away. I'll be there to save the daySuperman got nothing on me. I'm only one call away/ Call me, baby, if you need a friend. I just wanna give you love...No matter where you go, know you're not alone. I'm only one call away."

Ava: I think once Ava leaves SHIElD, she has some trouble with the amulet whether form being on her own, knowing SHIELD isn't there watching her every move or just cockiness that she can handle it now. Either way, I see her as  taking a break from the amulet. Reasoning her father wanted her to keep it safe, it didn't mean she had to put it on and be a hero. Ideally, she goes to therapy to work through all these issues before ever putting it on again. I imagine she goes home to PR too. I think she could go into bounty hunting, it's more freelance, she helps put baddies away and she can put her investigative skills to good use. Eventually she'd be White Tiger again but for more superpowered threats than every day patrolling. Just breathe from In the Heights not only for the spanish influences but also the utter fear of returning a failure, "Straighten the spine. Smile for the neighbors. Everything's fine, everything's cool. The standard reply: Lots of tests, lots of papers. Smile, wave goodbye and pray to the sky, "Oh God!" And what will my parents say? Can I go in there and say, "I know I'm letting you down..."  Alyssa Greene from The Prom. The lyrics speak for themselves of the utter perfectionism and drive, "The hair has to be perfect. The As have to be straight...Trophies have to be first place. Ribbons have to be blue. There's always some competition or hoops for jumping through. Just have everything perfected by the time you reach eighteen" 

Sam: Admittedly I don't know much about Nova lore or backstory as the others but I think he'll go back to space. Not necessarily as part of the Guardians because honestly I think they had enough members without him. Maybe as a solo act before he finds the other Nova Corps. I definitely see him as becoming a trainer there, finally being the leader he always wanted to be. I also want him to reconnect with his family so he does travel back to Earth to visit them and then swoops by NY for some reunion with his old team before heading back to space. 

Bieber’s Lonely fits Sam because at the heart of it all, I think that's what he is. Lonely, he's still young and trying to navigate these powers and his place in the world and space and what his identity is. And no one else can quite get that. "Everybody knows my name now. But somethin' 'bout it still feels strangeLike lookin' in a mirror, tryna steady yourself and seein' somebody else. And everything is not the same now. It feels like all our lives have changed Maybe when I'm older, it'll all calm down. But it's killin' me now. What if you had it all, nut nobody to call? Maybe then you'd know me 'cause I've had everything. But no one's listening and that's just f- lonely." Shawn Mendes' Wonder works for similar reasons. Mainly I imagine him singing it to his missing father who inherited so much but knows nothing personally about him, "I wonder why I'm so afraid of saying something wrong, I never said I was a saint. I wonder, when I cry into my hands. I'm conditioned to feel like it makes me less of a man and I wonder if someday you'll be by my side and tell me that the world will end up alright. I wonder..I wonder."  And then a party song for each 

Sam: All I do is win by DJ Khaled "All I do is win, win, win no matter what. Got money on my mind, I can never get enough ('Nough) And every time I step up in the building Everybody hands go up And they stay there And they stay there, up, down, up, down, up, down 'Cause all I do is win (Win), win (Win), win And if you going in put your hands in the air, make 'em stay there" 

Luke: Finesse by Bruno Mars, "We out here drippin' in finesseIt don't make no sense Out here drippin' in finesse You know it, you know it We out here drippin' in finesse It don't make no sense Out here drippin' in finesse You know it, you know it" 

Peter: Another one bites the dust by Queen "nother one bites the dustAnother one bites the dust And another one gone and another one gone Another one bites the dust Hey I'm gonna get you too Another one bites the dust"

Danny: Normally, I don't think Danny would be into party music, too much cursing, too much noise to distort the mind, that stuff. But Rihanna is catchy. "I wanna take you away, let's escape into the music, DJ, let it playI just can't refuse it, like the way you do this Keep on rockin' to it Please don't stop the, please don't stop the music I wanna take you away, let's escape into the music, DJ, let it play I just can't refuse it, like the way you do this Keep on rockin' to it Please don't stop the, please don't stop the, please don't stop the music" 

Ava: Woman by Ke$ha "I'm a motherfucking woman, baby, alright I don't need a man to be holding me too tight I'm a motherfucking woman, baby, that's right I'm just having fun with my ladies here tonight I'm a motherfucker"  This other cool blog is much more into USM and has tons of hcs if you want more of this stuff, @im-rewriting-ultimate-spider-man

[noodlewright]

Characters: Clockwork, Danny Fenton, Maddie Pairings: None Rating: G

-

“So will it be between seventy and a hundred, or lower?”

“No. Keep working.”

At the heart of Clockwork's lair, Danny stared unseeingly at the math worksheet in front of him. The numbers were starting to blur together. 

Today, Danny was visiting Clockwork after having a fit of homework frustration that was quickly becoming routine. He was lucky to have found a mentor in Clockwork and studied with him as frequently as he could. Danny had quickly found that the ghost was, apparently, scary good with numbers, but there was nothing to be done to make math less mind numbing.

“No, as in it'll be higher?”

“You know perfectly well Danny.”

Danny wanted to know if all his extra study sessions would pay off when it came to Friday's big test, but he knew what Clockwork was getting at. The spirit was concerned that knowing his future test score would make him slack off, either because of an expectation that he would do well regardless, or that he would see no point in studying with failure to come anyway.

He needed to study for now and later exams, Clockwork insisted.

Danny huffed in annoyance and stared harder at the problem that gave him such grief.

It didn't yield.

“Do you want to go over it again?”

Danny hung his head in defeat. “Yeah.”

Clockwork left his terminal and made his way to Danny's side with a spare sheet of paper, half of it covered in a scrawl from earlier.

Halfway there, the spirit paused. Clockwork stared just over Danny's shoulder, as though a thought had just occurred to him.

It wasn't the first time this had happened. Just the other day, while Danny visited, Clockwork had done a similar action. He hadn't given it much thought then, or the ones before. Everyone did it on occasion. In Danny’s case, it usually happened when he walked through a doorway. Most people though, Danny considered, didn't do it this much.

Maybe Clockwork was a little scatterbrained?

-

It was, by now, what Danny recognized and referred to as one of Clockwork's “Moments”.

Danny had come to learn that Clockwork had these frequently.  Clockwork didn't have all knowledge of all things, the spirit had once explained. Clockwork knew of the past, if he cared enough to know it, and knew of the present, but not all of the present. If he wanted, he could learn it all but there were, he said, very many things that were dull and unimportant, and taking the time to see every bit would be a torture unimaginable.

The future was similar to him, in that he didn't endeavor to see every scrap of it, but even if he tried, it wouldn't have the same easy clarity.

The real take-away was that, when it came to the future, all things weren't set in stone, and as Clockwork explained, the ghost often felt that some events got lobbed at his head and he needed a moment to sort out the new information. Danny could understand that. He had trouble grasping the rest of the hour-long, complicated discussion that included half a dozen different metaphors and some math chalked onto the wall, but he could get that at least, and was glad to gain a little more insight on how Clockwork's abilities functioned.

-

“Are you okay?”

Clockwork’s attention snapped to Danny. The intense gaze made him uneasy. Was Clockwork mad? He got the feeling like he might have interrupted something.

“Uh, sorry.”

Immediately Clockwork's eyes widened, “No no, I’m sorry. I just realized something. I need to go-”

“What?” They had barely started!

A wink was sent his way. “It won't even be a moment.”

Oh right. Well, it wasn't like Danny could just forget the last fifteen years of rigid physical laws that applied to his and everyone else's lives. Clockwork would probably only disappear and reappear between blinks.

A thought occurred to him.

“Wait, have you been disappearing on me this whole time?” he asked. He shouldn’t be surprised, it would be so easy to ditch and return without anyone being the wiser. 

“No, just when you’re already engaged in something.” Clockwork admitted.  

So basically, any time Danny wasn’t actually talking to Clockwork.  Which was a lot.

He shouldn’t be bothered by it.  He hadn’t even caught onto it until just now, but still, it sat unwell with him that Danny was someone who was to be put aside for a later date.  Couldn’t it wait until after Danny had left?  It wasn’t like Clockwork couldn’t just go back to whatever time period he pleased.

It would be polite at the very least.

But what was Danny going to do about it? Clockwork was nice enough, and Danny wasn't about to voice his disappointment when it wasn't actually that big of a deal to begin with. It would just have to be another mannerism to add to Clockwork's growing list.

“Uh, okay. So what's got you in such a rush to go?”

Clockwork opened his mouth to answer, but paused for another faraway look to overtake his face. “. . . Well, how do you feel about coming with me to find out?” he finally said.

There was hardly a thought before Danny agreed. “Sure!”

They set off.

-

Clockwork's portal led them to a large, immaculate kitchen.

“Very nice.” Danny said as he stepped out and oggled at the sheer size of the room. The number of cooking ranges and pots suggested that he was at a restaurant. “Do you come here a lot?”

Clockwork gave a distracted noise of affirmation as he walked over to a glowing red stove top and fiddled with the knobs until it was completely turned off. 

Had he just stopped what could have been a fire?

The ghost then grabbed at unsightly cords that littered the countertops and tucked them into less noticeable places.

“Danny, there is a set of knives to your left. Would you please place them in the cupboard?”

The cutlery in question had been loosely kept in a stainless steel container, not very dangerous in his opinion, but he obligingly shut it away.

From Clockwork's direction, Danny could vaguely make out senseless muttering, “-idiot thinks he's a chef . . . ”

Yeah, no kidding. Idiot was an understatement. Who left a stove on?

Danny startled at a sensation that brushed across his ankles.

He looked down to see a purring cat. “Um. Hi.”

It was long haired, and an obviously very well-kept animal. It was incredibly out-of-place for the current location. The cat gave him a lazy, silent meow. 

“I didn't think cats were allowed in restaurants.”

“It isn't a restaurant,” Clockwork clarified. “This is the home of Vlad Masters.”

Danny suddenly snapped alert and floated off the ground in a battle ready stance. His eyes darted around in search of an unwelcome presence. 

“He isn't here right now.” 

Danny immediately relaxed and found his footing again. He regarded the cat and kitchen before him once more. Now it was looking familiar. This wasn't his first jaunt uninvited to Vlad's house, but he had never paused to really look at the rooms he was darting through.

“Okay, so what are we doing here? I mean, I know fire-safety is important and all, but a blazing house and that guy isn't the saddest combination that I can imagine.”

“I understand,” Clockwork said as he made his way to a nearby window and began working its unyielding frame closed. “Masters has done you a great deal many wrongs. He is, what most would determine, unsalvageable. Unforgivable. Unethical and unrepentant.”

“Yeah. All that times a thousand.”

“He is also incredibly unstable.”

“I could have told you that.” Danny wondered where this was heading.

Clockwork ceased his fiddling and picked up the cat that had only been too content to loll on the ground. It wiggled, displeased at the graceless hold. 

“Before you is the crux of all of Masters’ affections.” He lifted the cat further with emphasis, and spoke with sincere solemnity. “The warmth held for you and your family is but a shrinking mote compared to what he has fostered with this animal.”

Shrinking? Anything that lessened Vlad's attention could only be a good thing. “Really? Does that mean he'll leave us alone now?”

Clockwork didn't entirely look him in the eyes when he said, “Not exactly. Masters is the very definition of passion and he can never entirely drop something once he's set upon it.”

“Not in all the timelines?”

“Most of those are currently closed and the few available are too . . .” Danny thought that Clockwork was about to have another Moment, but the spirit soon found his words, “-dreadful. Which is why it is very important that we curtail his fixations, in what ways we can, and direct him to better . . . things. This cat is crucial to that. He's poured all his love into it and should anything happen to it, Amityville will be a flaming crater, and its residents, crumbling charcoal.”

“He'd kill people for a cat?!”

“He'd kill someone for kicking it.”

“Oh my God. I mean, that's a really mean thing to do to a cat, and they deserve something, but the town is innocent. Why would he hurt them?”

“He’s an idiot when he's angry. And a part of him has always wanted to watch the world burn.”

Danny pulled the, now fed-up, cat out of Clockwork's arms and held it with complete reverence. “We have to protect this cat,” he whispered.

“I know.”

“We need to keep it inside and never let it out.”

“I know.”

“Sam can watch it when I can't-”

“Masters will be consumed with rage should it go missing.”

“Right. Okay. Well, it's- it's a cat, and it's been alright so far, right? It should be okay here. It's happy here and Vlad's happy.”

“But there's a problem. It's why I have to come here almost every blasted day. The cat is suicidal.”

“ . . . Is there a therapy for that?”

Clockwork gestured to the room, heedless of Danny, “She keeps trying to kill herself. Last week she was roadkill and the week before, mauled by a pack of dogs. I stop her from eating poisonous plants and she goes right back to them the next second. I keep her from chewing power cords and she tries and tries again- last time she did it while soaking wet from nearly drowning in the toilet. In fact, had we not been here, at this very moment, she would have deep fried herself! I am confident that I have now seen every possible misfortune that can befall an animal and I grow tired of it.”

Danny scrambled to absorb the dire information. “But . . . the deep fryer isn't even on.”

Clockwork glared at the animal pointedly. “And yet.”

Danny looked at the yowling cat in horror. “What can we do?”

“I'm doing all that I can.”

“But isn't there something we can do that is less hands-on? More permanent?”

“I've been scouring the timelines for that very answer and have come up short. Other possible solutions will show themselves eventually, but we're not at the right stage to begin exploring those.”

“Okay, well if we can't do anything with the cat, what about Vlad? Can't we just stop him?”

Clockwork rubbed his face tiredly. “Danny, a future where Masters has that sort of melt-down, and the city regardless saved, is not a future either of us want.”

Danny wished he could fact-check that, but he wasn't the one with foresight. “Are you suuure?” he needled.

“Yes.”

Well, Danny supposed that was that. He didn't entirely believe Clockwork. It was hard to judge when he knew so little of the information as a whole, it could just be that there was something that had been missed. However, he did trust that it was what Clockwork believed.

“Clockwork?”

“Hm?”

“This future you have in mind, is it a really good one?”

“. . . It's not all good, but it has a great deal many good things, yes.”

Something niggled at Danny. It was a thing that had long been bothering him, and it reared its ugly head whenever altering timelines came up, but he had never earnestly voiced it. Mostly because he had yet to see any bad come of it. “Clockwork, I know you can do all these cool things, but do you ever think that maybe you shouldn't be doing all this? Changing the timelines, I mean. I get wanting to have a better future for people, but what if you don't make the right choice? Why not just let it go?”

“Instead, how about you let it go?”

Danny's mouth dropped open in shock at the sheer rudeness, until he realized that Clockwork was pointing at the cat. She writhed in his arms and gave him warning bites to his gloves. 

He guessed Clockwork's answer wasn’t as much a brush-off as it was a diversion then. Fine.

He, gently, released the cat and planned to get right back to the questions at hand, but Clockwork addressed him before he could open his mouth.

“I've let things go a time or two before, Danny.” Clockwork had taken an interest in one of his many watches, his head tucked down so that shadow eclipsed most of his face. “And contrary to what some would have you believe, I have learned that it is better to do something, even if it's not the very best, than nothing at all. Inaction and apathy are things that I have fought hard to stay buried, and to embrace them again would be inexcusable.”

What could have possibly have happened? How bad did it get? Did he really want to know? 

“What-”

“So, will you help me keep this cat alive?”

And Danny did drop it, just like that. Clockwork clearly didn’t want to talk about it. That didn't mean he wasn't still curious. He was. But for today, and probably for a while, he would leave it be.

-

Vlad returned to the center of his current frustrations. He had been trying to recreate an old family recipe, when suddenly, he had been called away on business. It wasn't a long meeting, but he had felt the need to rush. A thought had dogged at him since he left.

Had he left the stove on?

He swung the kitchen door open and immediately calmed at the lack of raging flames and burning stove-tops. 

It seemed he did remember.

There was also a lack of general mess that often accompanied his random acts of cookery. His ingredients were laid out still, as well as a number of random bowls, but the utensils were nowhere to be seen and the deep fryer had been dumped. Curious. He didn't keep his cleaning staff this late, and even if he had, they wouldn't have been so lazy as to not properly clean up a clear mess.

“Who the shit has been in my kitchen?”

-

More

[theshipsfirstmate]

Agents of SHIELD Fic: All My Best Kept Secrets Are the Ones I Didn’t Know I Had

post-SHIELD 7x06 and also post-Agent Carter season 2. peggysous -> daisysous.

doing my best to tie up the loose ends that get Daniel from Peggy to Daisy, because I, like many others, could not have imagined shipping him with anyone else and then the last few eps of SHIELD have taken a sledgehammer to my feelings. so, just like this ship, idk where this came from, but here it is.

Title from “Something in Common” by Dawes.

All My Best Kept Secrets Are the Ones I Didn’t Know I Had (AO3 - wc: 3218)

After Peggy went back to New York, Daniel told himself to take it easy.

And he tried, he really did. He even said it in his head, sometimes, the way Jack had: “Take it easy, Danny boy.” The wise-cracking agent had never stopped teasing him, even after they had become something resembling friends. But he was gone now too, left behind in a past that didn’t feel as distant as it should.

They’d had all of one day together, he and Peg, before everything went to hell. She had kissed him -- in his office, of all places -- and he had reveled in it for a few blissful moments before sending her away with a matching grin on her face, so he could pick her up later that evening for a proper date.

He’d planned on Musso and Frank -- had been carrying around the image in his mind for longer than he’d admit to anyone -- but after he picked her up and saw that mischievous flash in her eyes, he’d called an audible, turning the car south on Western, guessing she’d be up for something a little more adventurous. He was right, she was taken with El Coyote from the moment they walked in, wide-eyed and grinning at everything from the margarita glasses to the friendly waitress who’d winked and called him “Blanquito.”

Looking back at it now, he’s almost glad he doesn’t remember too many more of the details. He doesn’t remember what they ordered or exactly how long they’d sat and talked in that booth. He just remembers the warmth of her eyes, her hand in his across the table, the way she seemed more relaxed than he’d ever known her to be. Those were the things to hold onto.

He’d dropped her off with a gentlemanly kiss at her front door -- and a less-than-gentlemanly follow-up when she’d tried to convince him to come in for coffee. His only regret now was not taking her up on the offer. Not so much for the obvious reason, just to give them a few more easy hours before it all came crashing down.

Because when Daniel returned to his own front door that night, there was a patrolman — one of the new guys, whose name he had to read off his badge in the dim porch light — sitting on the stoop, waiting for him. 

“Thompson’s gone,” the kid said. “Never made it on the plane. Signs of a struggle in his room. And a lot of blood.”

The next week was non-stop, chaos and panic and a wild goose chase that had led them everywhere but to Jack. A sinister cloud hung over the entire office, and the spectral whispers of the one name no one wanted to speak aloud echoed in the desperate silences. He and Peggy barely had a chance to look at each other, let alone talk about anything but the latest scraps of evidence, and when it was all over, well, there was no relief there, either.

He’s never gotten used to funerals, and having a hand to hold this time didn’t make it that much easier, not with the weight of failure pressing down on them both.

Thompson had fought hard, that much was clear when they’d finally found him. But it wasn’t enough. That was Daniel’s biggest fear every time he thought about the facts they had been able to gather, every time the unspeakable name echoed in the confines of his restless brain. Cut off one head, and two more take its place -- would they ever be enough to fight it? Would it ever be easier?

__________________

“You know it truly is nothing to do with you, don’t you?” Peggy had asked him, eyes turned down to the table between them, to the cups of coffee untouched and growing cold. This time, Daniel didn’t reach out for her hand. He listened to the buzz of the planes taking off at the Lockheed Air Terminal down the road, and wished it were enough to drown out the whole day entirely.

“Peg, you don’t have to do that,” he’d muttered, feeling childish. “Spare me the pity, I-”

“Daniel,” she’d interrupted, in that tone that left no room for questions. “I’ve never pitied you, and I certainly don’t intend to start now.”

He stared back, silent. That was the problem, you see, with the goodness of a heart like hers. There was no artifice, no way to crack back in a moment like this one. As miserable as it was, he was going to have to sit here and take it.

“Please,” she’d continued, softer, still barely looking at him. “I want to say it. I need you to know.”

He’d huffed out a breath through his nose and aimlessly fiddled with the tiny pitcher of milk. “OK.”

“I want to say…” she had started, stopped and gathered herself, then started again. “I want to tell you that you deserve so much more than what I can give you.”

He’d hated hearing the cliche, even as he weighed its truth. He wasn’t sure what exactly it was that he deserved, but hadn’t he known it would be this way from the start? Hadn’t a part of him always worried that there wouldn’t be room in her heart for the kind of life he wanted to share? 

“It’s not for the reason you think,” she’d insisted, before he could come up with something to say in response. “I promised myself….When Steve died, I promised myself I would keep up the fight.”

She hardly ever said his name aloud. It didn’t ruffle Daniel as much as he expected, but it did make him speak up.

“I’m in it with you, Peg. I hope at least you know that.”

She’d nodded, and then she’d finally looked up -- and he immediately wished to God she hadn’t. Because there, behind the sheen of barely-restrained tears, was their ending.

“All we can do is our best,” she told him, not for the first time. “And I think we both know this fight is going to take the best we have.” 

He nodded and swallowed against the lump in his throat he was starting to worry might be permanent. 

“But this... It’s too much for me, Daniel. I can’t lose you too.”

A bitter part of his brain pointed out that it was ironic, to say that as she walked away. But he tamped that down, and told her the only truth he could find that felt like it wouldn’t make things worse.

“I’ll miss you, Peg.”

She had reached out then, squeezed his hand fast and tight, telling him the same before swiping beneath her eyes. And then, she was gone.

Easy.

__________________

Daniel had tried, he really had. In his brief moments of free time as they watched the Hydra trail dry up hopelessly once again, he went on a handful of absolutely mediocre dates with the sunny blonde who worked the front desk at the local library and the brunette waitress who left her number on his receipt at the diner. He even let the guys at the office set him up once with a busty redhead who was so forward he spent the next week trying to suss out whether or not they’d paid her.

But there wasn’t anything there. There wasn’t anything anywhere, it seemed. With every interested woman he met -- and there were a few, he didn’t mind saying -- it was the same as it had been with Violet. Perfectly fine, perfectly nice, perfectly room temperature. In another lifetime, maybe he could have convinced himself that’s what it was supposed to feel like. But not now. 

And then one day, he walked into his office on a top-secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base, and met a girl from the future.

There was something about her, right from the beginning. She was beautiful, there was no denying that, and he saw something familiar in the mischievous glint in her eye — he’d been able to clock her CIA lie on its face, though it was just one part of a larger, much more confusing puzzle.

At first, he thought his reaction to her was just part of the chaos -- excess adrenaline at the prospect of seeing Peggy unexpectedly and the frantic and unexplainable events that followed. But then it didn’t go away.

She kept surprising him, that was familiar too. Comforting, almost, in a bizarre, backwards kind of way. She saved his life on the train — he’s always had extra respect for a woman who could throw a good punch. And he hadn’t missed the shadow that crossed her face when he mentioned all the things that Hydra had taken from him. There was even more to uncover, he was sure of it. Even finally learning her first name, Daisy, had him furrowing his brow at the dichotomy.

But there was hardly time to dwell on it. He’d expected to drive out of that futuristic aircraft and never see her, or any of her compatriots, ever again. He’d deliver his package to Stark, go home to an empty house, and wake up tomorrow to throw himself back into the work.

The next thing he knew, he was staring at the familiar eagle on the wall, and Agent Coulson was telling him he was dead. Like it was that easy.

__________________

He tried to throw himself into the fight immediately — he’s always been aware of the liability of dead weight and there wasn’t any time to stumble around and gather his bearings if he was going to be useful in the team’s mission to stop the Chronicoms.

Still, he would catch Daisy watching him, warily, like a timer on a bomb. She teased him in the clothing store, elbowing him playfully when he stopped dead at the “modern” 1970s fashions, but when he met her eyes, there was something more insistent looking back at him. It was like she was asking him a question neither of them could put into words, sizing up whether or not he was going to run, or stay, or fit, or break, or...something.

He tried his best to not to give her more to worry about. So he wouldn’t be the one to extract Hydra from S.H.I.E.L.D. in the ‘50s -- as it turned out, there were plenty of other ways to save the world. That was the core of the mission he’d signed up for from the start, and he felt more at ease the more he realized this was a team devoted to the same cause.

But he wasn’t sure what it was, exactly, that made him step up behind her in that underground bar and call her “sweetheart” -- maybe the same misguided sense of chivalry that got him a dressing down after he made Krzeminski apologize to Peggy in the briefing room back in New York. Mercifully, Daisy had gone along with his ruse, surprising him again with a palm pressed to his chest and a conspiratorial grin in his direction. 

And he hoped it was duty again, not the memory of that smile, that made him insist on accompanying her to hack into the base. After a confrontation with the scruffy kid with the dark circles under his eyes, he was more aware than ever that this team was just barely more adjusted to their circumstances than he was. But that still didn’t quite explain his growing desire to stay at Daisy’s side. 

What he was really looking for, if he’s honest, was a bit of solid ground. What he was wondering was if the feeling in his chest would turn out to be fleeting, if the quaking he’d felt when she touched him was because of her powers — or if it was something else entirely.

Because it seemed like something he never felt with Violet or the librarian or any of the rest. It seemed like it might be something he’s only felt once before. And it’s just his luck that it comes wrapped up in even more danger.

He tagged along just the same, watching her back and trying to learn on his feet about all the things she could do in addition to making the earth shake. She could break into a computer network he can’t even begin to comprehend, she could snap a crystal clear picture of him on that thin screen she said was a telephone, she could quirk an eyebrow at him and make him forget, just for a moment, that his life had descended once again into supernatural chaos.

“You look OK for a guy who just aged 20 years.” She teased him a second time as he marveled at the photo, and his stomach flipped all the way over to melancholy. But he wasn’t totally honest about why.

His heart ached at the thought of Peggy getting the news of his “death,” but the biggest goodbye of all, Daniel had realized, was to the man he used to be. However lonely and lukewarm he thought his life had been, he hadn’t been prepared to lose it so suddenly. There was possibility there, and promise to mourn, and the uncertainty about what lay ahead now had given him a rose-colored rearview mirror to look back at all he had left behind.

But when he told Daisy that this might be his last stop, she had simply turned back to her computer, assuring him their current dilemma was just a minor setback -- “Without us, it’s way worse,” she said.

She said it like she’d already accepted him as part of the team, like another thing she knew that he didn’t was that he hadn’t lost himself to the ether of time travel. She said it like he belonged.

It made the decision seem easy enough.

__________________

When the Malick kid’s goons bring her back, when he sees her limp and bloodied, slumped on the floor beside him, he has another flash to his past -- Peggy lying prone, impaled on a mean-looking length of rebar. He had learned that night how strong she really was. Not just because she had survived, but because she had let him see her at her weakest and most terrified, had let him haul her into his arms and onto his couch and into focus for his fiancee, who he knew would be able to see right through it all. 

He had blown up his entire life just for the weak, grateful smile they shared when they realized she was going to be OK. And it had been worth it.

Daisy doesn’t seem the type to let someone stroke her hair either, but Daniel tries to stop himself from drawing any more parallels right then and there. He keeps checking her pulse point like an excuse, and hopes it’s a fair trade-off that he agrees to tell her the story of his rescue. 

He doesn’t like to think about Stevens much, about the way he’s carried the potential of that pesky man's life with him every day since he woke up on that stretcher. That’s what you do when someone dies for you. You have to live for them.

That makes him think of Peggy again -- and then, unbidden, of Steve Rogers. He remembers the stories they used to tell about what Captain America was like before the serum: skinny, frail, half a dozen 4F rejections under various pseudonyms. He thinks of that kid, plucked from the life he was supposed to live and thrust onto a pedestal that must have felt completely untenable at times -- given muscle and then immediately handed the weight of the world.

And now there’s Daisy, with these powers. The kind of strength good men would covet and evil men would kill for. And like him, she’s left behind whatever life she had in order to fight her way through space and time and try to save humanity.

Peggy was a woman who ran headfirst into a storm without giving so much as a thought to an umbrella. Daisy, he’s learning, is the storm itself.

So he talks to her, and he keeps talking. He tells her things he’s never told another living person. In fairness, he thinks, he’s technically known her almost 20 years.

He tells her about survival, certain she already knows. He tells her about warfare, a different type than she’s seen, but with a common enemy. He tells her to fight -- and when she shows him the shard of glass she’s snuck back to him in a bloody palm, he knows the way his heart thuds could be just as dangerous as the psychopath in the other room.

Daniel’s always been good at waiting for his moment, and mercifully, it comes not long after Daisy slips completely into unconsciousness. He shifts away from her on the dirty floor to avoid risking further injury, and he readies himself like he had in the trenches.

When the time comes, he fights, just like he knows Stevens must have fought to get him to safety. They catch a lucky break when the earth-rattling powers prove to be too much for Malick to handle, and he carries her back to the ship, leg aching all the way, remembering the stern nurse in the field hospital who had looked down her glasses at him every time he’d complained about the throbbing.

“It’s the beat of your heart, soldier, remember that,” she had snipped as she doled out his meds. “If nothing else, it means you’re still alive.”

The team meets him at the door to help Daisy into their med bay, and when Agent Simmons mutters something that sounds an awful lot like “Not again,” something else twists inside Daniel’s chest. Shrugging off his own first aid until she’s been attended to, he takes a seat by the door to stay present but out of the way. Maybe some small part of him hopes that when she wakes, he’ll be a familiar face.

If he’s honest, he’s never thought about living to see the end of the 20th century, never even considered it. He was a S.H.I.E.L.D. director with war injuries and more than his fair share of close calls, it would have taken nothing short of a miracle. But he doesn’t think twice when the scruffy kid -- Deke, he remembers this time -- tells them they’re about to jump again. He's not sure when he changed his mind, but it’s been changed, nonetheless. 

“I’m where I need to be,” he says, as the soft beeps of Daisy’s monitor assure him that if nothing else, she’s still alive.

Easy never felt quite right, anyway.

[bitch-i-migth-be]

Crash Course | Chapter 02: A sister's musings

Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman,  

Relationships: Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton,

Words: 1′778

Tags: BAMF Danny, BAMF Jazz, Sibling bonding, Shenanigans, Swearing

Summary: He swore his sister was trying to make him go into cardiac arrest - considering his halfa status that was quite the accomplishment-

But there was no other explanation to his sister’s stubbornness, and if he knew her at all there was just no talking her down from interning at goddam Arkham.

A/N: Author liberties were taken by someone who doesn’t own shit at the moment.And they will continue to be taken. Enjoy.

CHAPTERS: 1, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7

Jazzmine Coraline Fenton had not planned any of this for her future.

In fact, no matter how many people thought otherwise, she didn’t have anything planned for her future.

Not anything concrete anyway.

Even since she was little she had been good at a great many things and excelled in a few more, much to her parent’s delight and the chagrin of the parents of the other children in her class. But there had never been something she particularly loved, nothing that could convince her of which way to focus herself, so she decided to just- spread and conquer, in those years.

Looking back on it now, she supposed the main reason she held herself to such high standards was so she could get some proper attention from her parents, who, unless there was a need for basic interaction or an academic event, tended to focus on their career.

Not to say that they didn’t care for her, they did, but they couldn’t be called role model parents by any means. They could get so encased on their research that sometimes it was safer for everyone involved to just let them to it and enjoy the little ghost-free interactions that could be encountered every now and then.

When Danny had grown up enough to be an acceptable company (which was still pretty little considering the standards of human interactions the senior Fentons could provide to other people, let alone a child. At that point Jazz was more than ready to take anything she could get) there was not as much reason to keep striving for their parent’s attention, but the habit had been already ingrained, and good notes were not a bad thing to have, so there was not a motive to stop.

Danny was as cute as a button (still was, but he got all flustered and retreated to safer pastures whenever she brought it up, so she refrained. No way she was reprieving herself from her brother), and she was ecstatic to have someone to play with that wouldn’t, couldn’t really, run away screaming from the crazy-psycho-wannabe ghost hunters.

What with them sharing parents and all.

It would be a good empathy exercise if anything else.  

So Jazz made sure to teach Danny her ways. They took care of each other and then promptly proceeded to have their very own improvised survival training in their own home. Sadly, even with all of this, she worried it might not be enough.

In other words, the main reason she had to get into psychology? Her family. Specifically her brother.

It was clear to her, and to anyone else if they had bothered to look into it, that their parent’s main concern was not their family dynamic, and as long as the food was not openly engaging in hostilities against the younger ones, they refrained to paying more than the basic of attention to their doings. Which was a good thing for when the kids wanted to play around, but not so much for when they really needed parent supervision.

Jazz had taken it upon herself to learn more about what made people tick. Taken it upon herself to learn how to take her family from barely functional to something a little less distressing to witness. And she would succeed even if she had to glue their parents and them together to make it work.

For a while, it looked like it was going to stick.

And then the Ghost Portal had backfired on all of them.

Their parents had been over the moon that their apparent failure had been a ruse, a ghost trying to mess with their work, they said. In either case, it had only caused them to become even more invested in the ghost research, and now that they had legitimate proof of the existence of ghosts and their realm it would be even harder to talk them down once they got going.

Unlike her progenitors, she was more concerned with the impact the frequent ghost attacks that followed the accident would have, and the obvious repercussions there would be against her family if anyone put two and two together and realized her parent’s shenanigans were at fault of all the public destruction via ghost.  

And Danny-

For the first time since she could remember Danny was pushing her away.

It was telling, than even neck deep in ghost attacks the thing that could hurt her the most was his reticence to talk to her. Nonetheless, her brother needed her and she would always rise to the occasion no matter how stubborn he could get about it.

It had taken a while for her to understand, but eventually, she did.

He had died.

Her parents had, however unknowingly, put the final nail in the coffin.

Literally.

Jazz had been devastated. But then, she was not the one who died, was she? Or did he?

She stuck by her brother. She listened. She observed. And by whatever miracle, she confirmed that her brother, while wary, was still her brother. He was not a vague impression, not a faded memory, not unfeeling, not uncaring.

Au contraire, her little brother was, if the ghost fights were anything to go by, caring way too much to be healthy.

It was, to some point, comprehensible. Danny thought the activation of the portal was on him. He felt compelled to help however he could.

Which was unfair because honestly, their parents were the ones that fucked up. But alas, the responsibility they held for the attacks didn’t mean they were capacitated to deal with the consequences.

So she continued to stick by her brother. Talked him down when it was obvious he would keep going his merry stubborn way even if it half killed him again. And then brainstormed together how to make the best out of this god-awful situation.

Jazz was not a fighter, so she had to resign herself to back up, running interference, and dealing with collateral damage. It was not as much as her brother, but in needed to get done.

And then, in one of the many attacks to Amity Park she had been able to talk down a small group of ghosts.

She prevented them from attacking, all thanks to her knowledge of psychology. It was not her fighting prowess that ‘defeated’ them, it was her words.

She had been useful.

So, maybe, she didn’t need to be an excellent fighter to help her brother out. Maybe- maybe she just needed to understand better.

Because, really, weren’t most the ghost just people? Dead people, yes. But still people. Persons whose feelings had amplified at the moment of crossing over. And that just translated to tons of unfinished business. And what was the point of a psychologist if not help people? She could help others in her own way.

She wanted to.

That was a thing that apparently she shared with her little brother

Danny took it upon himself to protect the humans.

But who was helping the ghost?

Not all the ghosts were evil. If her brother’s tales about the Ghost Zone and its size where anything to go by, with the Ghost Portal they could have completely razed over the town if they wanted to. It didn’t add up. Some of the ghosts would even just come to the living world to mess around, not hurt, just play.

She had seen her brother herding the tiniest-non-humanoid ones that would sometimes flock in their neighborhood around as if they were little sheep. It was kinda cute, actually.

So maybe, if they learn what made them tick in an emotional sense, they could talk it out with the ghost. Maybe not all of them, but most. And wouldn’t that be a great help to relieve Danny’s load?

When she brought it up to the others- well. Sam and Tucker had just stared at her.

“What are you talking about?” They asked.

She had tried to explain, and they just looked at her like she had a screw loose. She was flabbergasted. They had spent way more time than her in the presence of ghosts. How had they not noticed?

The two teens had exchanged glances, gotten up, said their goodbyes, and made their way home. And that was it, an easy dismiss. She could only gape after them, and turn to her brother.

He was already looking at her.

He stared at her too, but he gave her a melancholic smile

“They don’t want to understand.” Was all he said.

That was enough to comprehend.

And that was the thing everything reduced to, wasn’t it

You could not see what you did not want to acknowledge. Not even if it was slapping you right in the face. Their parents were proof of that.  

Because the truth was that no matter how many people bitched about it her little brother was a hero.

Phantom was a hero.

And at the end of the day, Sam and Tucker were just civilians.

They didn’t know how bad it could get.

They didn’t know the grimmer parts. They didn’t think about them, they didn’t have to, because her brother was shielding them too.

That all the ghostly abilities her brother had acquired were not just “cool ghost powers”, that no matter how many times Sam talked about the responsibility she was not the one losing sleep over it, that no matter how Tucker sometimes wished he was ‘special’ too, there was always a price to pay. And Danny’s had come with interest.  

They didn’t want to acknowledge that Danny had died.

Jazz was the one waking up to her brother screams, the one constantly smuggling medical equipment into the house, the one fretting about whether her brother occasional lack of pulse in his sleep was a bad thing this time, the one to share sleepless nights along with her brother just talking trivialities so they could pretend for a moment.

Danny had always been hers like Jazz had always been his.  

If their constant quarrels and natural stubbornness could not tear them apart in the middle of their parent’s madhouse but made them stronger, then a triviality as whether one of them was dead or not was not going to tear them apart.

And maybe someday she would have to join him on the other side. But that was cannon fodder for the future.

For now, she would only concentrate on ways to help. The faster she learned the better.

And if She and Danny had flourished and learned to cope in the madhouse their parents had built.

What better option to have an intensive course than another madhouse, right?

-.-.-.-

NOTES:   :D

I like to believe that clothes were not the highest priorities in the Fenton household because Jack and Maddie can survive off jumpsuits alone and probably tried to convert their children too.

So Jazz and Danny would get their hands in any scrap of normal clothing they could, and by this point, Danny doesn’t even care if he has to use Jazz’s hello kitty sweater because that is better than his dad’s face.

He was already bullied anyway, might as well bite the fucking bullets.

[jasonbrennerold]

how would you describe jason's overall vibes and key aesthetics?  do they change a lot over the course of his timeline?  [ and if so, how? ]

theres definitely a Lot of changes over time but also a Lot of overlap

Lab vibes/aesthetics are v self explanatory I think? Hospitals vibes and white tiles, blood stains against pure white and the awful stench of chemicals, water dripping from everything and flames that reach the ceiling, cages and bars and locked doors, an overwhelming feeling of being small

Stranger things timeline generally has general 80s vibes, bright colors and weird patterns, messy hair and chewing gum, turtlenecks and suspenders (both copied from his sister's wardrobe), scraped knees and being covered in dirt, the feeling of being an outcast, a look in his eye thats hauntingly sad, never being quite enough, calling for help and never getting it, hours spent at school and nothing ever making sense, mashed potatoes for almost every meal, footsteps so quiet that no one knows hes there, a childhood thats not quite right, like liminal spaces

modern teen jason is a much happier vibe. bright colors and excited noises, cue cards with animals and letters, fridge magnets in the shapes of letters and numbers that are big and bulky and rainbow colored, messy bedroom where everything is somehow in a specific place, lots of soft toys, giant legos that dont require much fine motor skills, a house that looks like a teenager and a toddler share a room, excitedly showing off what he's learning, hours and hours spent in silence at school but with promising grades, feeling younger and older than everyone else, a fear of anything resembling the lab, flanking science because the class gives him a panic attack, minecraft music on repeat, kids shows in the middle of the night, buying things from infomercials, texts made up of emojis, multiple kinds of therapy multiple times a week, parents with money to burn, sunshine in human form, stealing stiles's clothes

late teen/early young adult arc moves darker again, parties and drinking to feel a little warmth, constantly chasing the next dopamine hit, feeling like hes fitting in but at what cost, pushing away the people he loves, not going to therapy, a strangers house, public bathrooms where the lights barely work, feeling like hes not a real person, failing a few classes even though hes trying, texts with actual words, the realization that sex makes things hurt a little less, at least for a while, a lack of shame one day and an abundance of it the next, so afraid to disappoint that he sabotages any chances of success, frustration beneath the surface, an inability to deal with emotions, anger turning to violence, hurting people because hes hurting, scaring the people who care about him, punching holes in the walls, broken bottles that hadn't been empty

adult jason is nicer. the vibes of recovery, struggling but trying his best, a mirror of his younger self — trying to change his life and his internal processes in a world he struggles to fit into, learning what love is, trying to be better, using his powers for good, aggressively optimistic, back in therapy, helping others, protecting and teaching kids that remind him of himself, desperate to save them from turning into him

battle royale jason is violence, reds and blacks and whites. the vibe of the lab is a comfort rather than a fear, emotions locked away behind glazed over eyes, a boy / a weapon, blind obedience, unaware of anything else. the potential to be a monster but refusal to allow it.

jason in his au with @spiriitum / jonas is consistent softness. gentle touches and tremoring hands, the comfort found only in love, escaping together, helping each other move on, not needing words because they know each other so well, being surrounded by books he can't read, growing into an adult, dependency to a potentially dangerous degree, blood and tied hands and a knight in shining armor, finally getting revenge only to realize you didnt want it, sex that lasts for hours, shameless intimacy, sitting on your lovers lap because you just HAVE to be with them, adjusting to a normal life, becoming the person you needed when you were younger, healing old wounds and trying not to rip them open again, fixing yourself so you can help the love of your life get better, destructive tendencies, long showers, the kind of desperation that only comes from limitless love

in his au with @loverslanetm / travis: feeling small but feeling safe, always running, comparing hand sizes, being the little spoon, the trust to just go along with what happens, being protective but powerless, being carried when walking becomes too much, loving someone so much that you dont care if its dangerous, being the big spoon even though he's the smaller man, diners in the middle of nowhere, driving so long that it feels like you'll never stay still again, watching when you think they don't notice, both too scared to make the first move even though its obvious how they feel

in his au with @shinedied / danny: the feeling of finally having someone who understands you, a dad when you thought you'd never know what thats like, softness when you expect violence, danger around every corner, a small house that looks just like the rest of them, walking through the town center when its empty, always learning, helping each other without knowing it, growing attached immediately, a mental connection thats unmatched, just trying your best when the worlds against you, the fear of failure and the softness of reassurance