#dannymay 2024 day 19: iron

[five-rivers]

Another continuation of my poll fic; the previous part is here.

.

“Hello?” called Danny.  “Is anyone there?  Hello?”

There was no answer except a further flicker of light, more distant.  

Danny touched his tongue to his lips briefly, then marked his place in the intake book using one of the blank cards.  He slid out of the chair and off his stack of books to stand.  The cold wood and iron of the floor made him rethink that and he floated up.  It was better that way, anyway, in terms of vantage point.

He approached the gap between shelves.  “Hello?”  

Looking out into the passageway beyond, the light seemed to wrap around and layer over itself with different levels of brightness.  Danny looked back at his own trail of brilliance, saw where it faded, saw where it was fresh and new.  This other trail, it looked like someone had walked this way multiple times.  Going in circles, maybe?

He floated upward, trying for a better vantage point and jostled a set of what looked like windchimes, long triangular metal rods covered in tiny symbols gathered together under domes.  They jingled and jangled musically in the muffling silence of the library.  He stilled them with one hand.

There was movement out of the corner of his eye and turned.  There, just before the passageway bent around a particularly precarious collection of papers, floated a ghost.  

It was a very strange ghost.  It glowed like a small sun, and if Danny’s eyes hadn’t been changed by his own alteration, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to look at it.  It had long, long ears, shaped mostly like a bat’s but furred like a cat’s.  Their eyes, too, were catlike, slitted.  It had wings, and at their ends they were thin and flat, like a moth’s or butterfly’s, but they were fluffy with fur and feathers near their bases, and there was something birdlike about their structure there as well.  Its body was relatively small, and looked soft, although it wasn’t nearly as small as Danny currently was.  Danny couldn’t tell if the ghost was male or female or something else entirely.

But perhaps the strangest thing of all was the pervasive sense of silence it carried with it.  

In any case, Danny saw no golden thread, and some of the other features - like the light - seemed to match with the aids offered to guests.  Only, like.  A lot of them.  All at once.  Meaning they must’ve gotten lost a whole bunch of times, even if Danny couldn’t see any visitor badges on them.

“Um, hi,” said Danny.  “I noticed, um.  Are you lost?  The attendant should be coming before too long.”

The faintest of breezes tickled the back of his neck and he looked behind him, to the other end of the passage.  There was another almost identical ghost hovering there.  

“Um.”  Danny was, perhaps, getting just a little nervous about the silent staring.  

More light.  Yet another similar ghost floated at the opposite entry to the card catalog space.  And–

Danny moved backwards, into more open space as the area brightened further and more luminous, winged ghosts floated into view or poked heads up over shelves and other barriers.  

“Danny,” said Mom.  

“Not now,” said Danny.  He blinked.  

Next thing he knew, fingers were brushing his throat.  He flinched backwards and away.  Fast.  Either naturally so, or via alteration.  Or, if they weren’t visitors, maybe because of a home-field advantage or disadvantage on Danny’s part.  Some places did that, and he hadn’t been here long enough to determine if this was one of them.  

“I don’t want to fight,” he said.  Or tried to say.  He went through the motions, but his voice made no sound.  He made no sound, period, not even the sound of his tongue tapping against the roof of his mouth.  

He’d been silenced.  Not good.  That meant that not only could he not negotiate, he couldn’t call for help.  

He was left with limited options, and limited time to choose between them.  Luckily, those same battle-born reflexes and reactions that were inconvenient elsewhere served him well now and gave him the chance to choose.  

He could fight.  The librarians would be unhappy.  It was against the rules that the receptionist had given to him, and likely to damage the books and card catalog, so he’d probably be kicked out.  But, if he fought, he was sure he’d win, even with these numbers, and that would be safer than his other options.  He couldn’t imagine that this many people ganging up on someone who looked like they were five meant well.  

He could flee.  He would almost certainly get lost, but that was a lesser crime than damaging the card catalog.  Whether or not he’d get caught… well, he had about the same amount of experience running as fighting, but he usually wasn’t running from a group this large in unfamiliar territory and facing unfamiliar powers.  These silent ghosts could have further unpleasant abilities.  

He could freeze.  Literally.  He could build a shell of ice and ghost shields up around himself and hunker down until he either thought of a better plan or the attendant came back.  That might put the attendant in danger, but Danny didn’t know if it would be more danger than if he just ran away.  Anything other than fighting and winning decisively meant that these people would still be around.  But if they were meant to be here… if the attendant could negotiate with them or authorize a fight…

Too much speculation.  He had the space of a breath in which to act.  Less. 

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Iron

In a world where only iron can hurt ghosts, and only iron face masks can protect you from possession, ghost hunting looks a little different. Especially for the son of the local ghost hunters who was there when the rift opened which caused the merging of this world and the one beyond.

masterlist

day 19: iron

[dannymayevent]

Dannymay 2024

Welcome back to Dannymay! We sincerely apologize for the delay this year, as we're releasing this just a day before the event is due to start. Life's been a bit hectic for all of us, but we're here now and ready to get this event started for you!

If you aren't aware, Dannymay is a yearly event where creators are given a daily prompt and are free to run with it! Any and all art is allowed; fanfiction, fanart, music, poetry, and anything else will be welcomed!

Feel free to complete as many or as few prompts as you'd like, and remember to have fun! When you're done, post your creations to Tumblr with the #Dannymay2024 tag so we can see it!

Like last year, we'll be compiling an ao3 collection under the tag Dannymay 2024, and we'll fire up the Dannymay discord for another year - the link is in our FAQ!

Full text prompt list and AU explanations are below the cut

Insect

2. Wish

3. Invisible

4. Wander

5. Nails

6. Immortal AU: What if Danny/Halfas couldn't die?

7. Mind Control

8. Style Challenge: A unique prompt to kick off the second week! Take the characters and draw them in the style of a different piece of media, or experiment with your own style and see what you can make!

9. Hunger

10. Mausoleum

11. Mutation

12. Time Travel

13. D&D AU: Drop the characters into the world of Dungeons & Dragons, or imagine them playing the game!

14. Light

15. Field Trip

16. Glowing Veins

17. Equilibrium

18. Revenge

19. Iron

20. Pitch AU: What if the show had aired as presented in the Pitch Bible, where Danny is a human with an owl named Spooky, rides a motorcycle, and has a psychic connection with Sam? For more information, the Bible has been uploaded to the Internet Archive

21. Funeral

22. Song Lyric: Just one week left! Take a line from a song you like and use that as inspiration!

23. Reflection

24. Electricity

25. Games

26. Shoes

27. Zombie AU: What if the ghosts were zombies, or what if canon Amity Park were to face a zombie apocalypse?

28. Healing

29. Fireworks

30. Goodbye

31. Free Day: You made it, thanks for participating in the event! For the last day, create anything you'd like!

[dragonshoardofworks]

DannyMerMay 2024

Day 1: Insect/Anchor

The return of Little Baby Moth! (From last year DannyMay)

Something happened since last time the two of them met, so LBMo is reasonably surprised to see Little Baby Man Mer's new form... or is this just an alternative dimension iteration of LBM (by @tourettesdog)? 🤔

(Keep reading to find the answer!)

@pikakaistudios Little Baby Mer inspired me in doing my own, so Kudos and credits where are due!

More fanarts and lore under the cut because it was getting long...

(^～^;)ゞ

Prompt for DannyMay by @dannymayevent and MerMay by @vladdyissues.

〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜

Since I'm a serial procrastinator and I wanted to be sure the art pieces were at least decent/accurate, I was almost late (but thank CW that I did, because some of them had the wrong orca-pattern and I would have brought disgrace upon myself if I published anything not done right since orcas are one of my favorite animals).

That being said, let's continue the DannyMerMay journey!

Day 12: Time Travel/Seafood

My poor Mer-boy got yoinked temporalily into the past when he was still Danny (so even before the "normal" LBM-fication) and he's feeling reeeaaally distressed at the act of practically cannibalism that his past-self is committing...

(≧∇≦)

Day 2+4+29: Wish/Starfish + Wander/Night + Fireworks/Bioluminescence

Wandering in the night, some interesting encounters are bound to happen...

I wonder what would happen if you wish upon a(n alien) star(fish)...

(≧∇≦)

Day 19+20: Iron/Pearl + Pitch AU/Abyss

LBMer found a his rightful Crown (of Fire) sunk into the depths of the ocean!

But since it was rusty and forgotten, what better way to restore it than ghostly mother pearl?

(Works like ghostly ice, but it's an exclusive power of LBMer.)

(The Crown got bigger than canon, but he smol!)

Day 26: Shoes/Camouflage

They say that imitation is one of the best form of flattery, but when you don't want to get caught by a certain dimensional hopper (and be mistaken for one of his foes), it's the best way to blend in!

(Octopi can camouflage in ways that make you think that magic is real...)

ฅ^≧ﻌ≦^ฅ

(Little Baby Terror unfortunately got caught in the same "accident" that LBM did, so they generally prefer to stick together-ish in case they need help.)

Day 16+22: Glowing Veins/Courtship + Song Lyrics/Songs

I couldn't help myself and sneaked in some Everlasting Trio for the soul.

After all, LBM (and therefore LBMer) is still Danny, even if he has new form(s) and instincts.

They do incarnate the "Would you still love me if I was a worm?", don't they?

(◡̀_◡́)

Song: A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay

(It feels such a Danny song to use, plus I checked how orcas court and while there's some posturing, they also sing! It felt only natural from there... >:3c)

Day 11: Mutation/Shell(s)

And finally: the answer!

LBM found this weird shell on the beach while they were on vacation, but when he checked it (read: nibbed it), it reacted and tooted a magical cloud that mutated our Little Baby Man into a Mer!

(The same fate happened to Dani/Little Baby Menace and Dan/Little Baby Terror, changing them into a Seahorse Mer and Octopus Mer respectively.

I've got a lineart done of them for another prompt, but I didn't manage in time to clean and color it yet, along with a couple of others... ( ≧Д≦) )

This has two versions because I couldn't decide which was better. @teacupsandstarlight suggested the first because of the transforming smoke around our boi, but since I saved both, I told myself: why not upload both?

For now, that's all! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

I still have some linearts to finish/digitalize/color, but at least I contributed to these two fantastic events, hope y'all enjoyed them and my works!

Hope to type ya soon! ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

[kimerawrt]

Dannymay 2024, now with kitty paws!

Prompts from my AU, also in AO3

Day 19: Iron

It was another night of ghost hunting and Danny sighed at his current form. He was a tiny kitten and looked absolutely adorable, though his entire body was made of metal so he might be able to resist some hits.

“I will call the next video ‘The Iron Kitten’” Tucker smirked while holding his video camera.

“MeeEeooOowwW” the sound coming from Danny was high pitched and unsettling. The metal that made his body was not good at making cute sounds. Even if it sounded normal for him, he saw Sam and Tucker covering their ears in pain.

“Please don’t speak in that form” Sam grumbled. That was a horrible sound.

“It could work as a sound attack” Tucker tried to point out something positive about it.

Danny sighed again and turned his attention back towards the ghost that was having fun cutting cars in half.

It was a knight ghost with a huge ax as a weapon. The ax was twice the size of the ghost and looked very intimidating, though Danny had no idea why it was cutting cars in half.

Ready to make this ghost stop so he could go to sleep, Danny approached the knight ghost and growled. The metal made the grow sound more menacing than if he were made of flesh or ectoplasm.

The knight ghost turned to the source of the sound, only to laugh at the tiny and adorable kitten growling at him.

“Aww, you are an adorable little guy!” the knight was very amused.

“Hisss” Danny was not amused.

“This is fun and all, but I must continue to slay the iron beasts” the knight ignored Danny and turned around to keep destroying cars.

Danny growled again and attacked the knight with a headbutt to the back. The knight was sent flying some meters before he stopped and turned towards Danny.

“Alright, I was going to leave you alone because you are cute. But it's over now for you tiny iron beast!” the knight then attacked Danny with his ax.

The ghost knight was surprisingly fast and Danny had no time to dodge or turn intangible. The halfa hoped that his new form would be able to resist at least some of the damage. Danny closed his eyes and braced himself for the hit.

THUNK!

The sound of metal hitting metal could be heard on the abandoned street.

Danny opened his eyes at not feeling any kind of pain. When he did, he saw that the ghost knight was looking incredulous at him and at his ax. Danny looked at the ax and noticed that it had a kitty sized dent on the place where it hit him.

That made Danny realize that this form was extremely defensive.

Danny grinned and the ghost knight took one step back.

Danny got ready to ram the ghost knight again and the knight found himself running away from the adorable kitten. Who knew there was such an opponent here. He had found the boss of the iron beasts and he was not strong enough to face it. It was better to retreat and try another day.

Of course, Danny would not let the ghost escape to cause chaos in another part of town.

“Huh. Danny became an unmovable object” Sam mumbled.

“That it’s so going into the video” Tucker was chuckling at the comedic sight of the knight running away from something so adorable.

[salmonight]

Dannymay 2024 content masterpost

Prompts:

Insect

2. Wish

3. Invisible

4. Wander

5. Nails

6. Immortal AU

7. Mind Control

8. Style Challenge

9. Hunger

10. Mausoleum

11. Mutation

12. Time Travel

13. D&D AU

14. Light

15. Field Trip

16. Glowing Veins

17. Equilibrium

18. Revenge

19. Iron

20. Pitch AU

21. Funeral

22. Song Lyric

23. Reflection

24. Electricity

25. Games

26. Shoes

27. Zombie AU

28. Healing

29. Fireworks

30. Goodbye

31. Free Day