#day 25 blame

[dnpanimationstudioclone]

Self-Reflection🪞

   Day 25 & 26, Blame and Fic Switch 

Aftermath of my Sidney Rewrite Episode. Danny’s in his room, reflecting on what happened and the things he wished he could’ve done. I dont normally do fics so I hope I atleast got a clear message in this.

TW, mentions of blood, violence and death.

Here's a link to my Rewrite Episode and take on Sidney design, character and how he died

          “I’m sorry Sid”, Danny said to himself solemnly, in his room holding Sid’s broken glasses, they got fairly damaged from…the incident. After the traumatic experience and damage caused in the school, the students were sent home for at least a week. While ghost attacks became a common thing, especially at Casper High, this one was especially frightening, no one, especially Danny saw what Sid did coming. He can still remember being chased like a little bug, seeing the fear in his own eyes from Sid’s giant reflective form, when he saw Dash's face get-he shakes his head, trying to get those horrific memories out. He can’t deal with those graphic details today. He’s just too tired, laying himself on his bed, he stares blankly at the ceiling.

          His friends, his family, even Lancer tried to assure Danny none of it was his fault, how could he have known it would all end up like this, how could he have been able to save Dash from something like that, he wasn’t even anywhere near the fight(or so his parents and teacher believed). He even tries to reassure himself, he shouldn’t blame himself but deep down he can’t help but wonder constant what ifs. What if he didn’t let or had been more careful about letting a ghost help prank on Dash and the other mean kids, knowing his backstory, what if he had listen to his friends sooner when they were worried he was getting carried away, what if he had tried talking to Sid better when he did wonder that himself. What if he didn’t let things get so out of hand…he couldn’t fix things.

Flashback of Sid and Danny talking. Sid’s dialogue, the darker words:

        “ What do you mean this is getting out of hand? Not like anything’s being tied back to us, right?”.

    “ I know, I know, Sid. It’s just some of these pranks have been pretty mean, even for them”.

“ It’s called giving them a a taste of their own medicine Danny. If it was the other way around, you’d think they’d be worrying about being too mean with you? They clearly haven’t thought that to begin with”.

“ Yeah, fair point. It’s just my friends seemed pretty worried and-

“ Ah you’re friends are just being brainwashed by flowery fables that those stupid teachers and the school tell you like “be the bigger person” or “being mean to them makes you just as mean” and other crud ike that. They just teach you to be as worthless as they are”.

“Hey, my friends aren’t worthless! And I get a lot of teachers can be jerks but there’s also plenty that at least try to help(thinks of Lancer). I like to think so.

“ I’m sure that’s what he'd tried to tell you, along with one of his dumb book swears. Seriously most haven't even heard of those books in years, especially not kids-he sees Danny becoming really uncomfortable and starts regulating himself. 

“ Sorry, sorry. I'm sure the people you're talking about truly mean well. I was just getting a little heated over there(brings back bad memories) I just know when you try to be nice and let things go, they usually don’t really care and just go back to their old nature. I just wanna make sure they learn their lesson for good. You know I’m just trying to look out for ya, right? 

         “ y-yeah ofcourse. You’re not wrong, it’s just not sure how long we can keep doing all these pranks, I am pretty busy with other stuff”.

“ Then maybe we should do one final, epic prank! The ultimate prank to teach all the mean kids you don’t mess with nerds! Revenge of the Nerds!

“ YEAH! though Def no revenge of the nerds 80′s style, those guys went WAY too far”.

“ Well it’s a good thing this Daddy-O’s from the 50′s! So I’ve been thinking what if-

Back to the present:

     As Danny remembers that conversation, he starts to realize he missed certain red flags such as Sid's growing mean streak...and the little cracks he was trying to hide on his skin. And then, there’s Dash, he got it much worse, being the main target for Sidney’s revenge hunt. Had to be sent to the hospital to get treatment for his injuries and stitches for that bad cut Sid’s pincer left on him, still remembers when the blood spilled on- Danny shakes from that experience. Good chance that mark will stay for a long time.

     He wishes it didn’t take him having a full emotional breakdown from all those brutal revenge pranks they pulled and almost dying trying to protect him(Danny) from Sid’s wrath to realize that for all his many, many faults, he’s not really a bad person and didn’t deserve to almost die. He can't even properly apologize to him, not without risking his identity being exposed.

     Danny lays back on his bed, breathing out a sigh of guilt and exhaustion. Part of why he wasn’t more willing to acknowledge and try to talk to Sid more was because, outside of Sam and Tucker, he doesn’t have a lot of friends. Then he met Sid who not only understood his problems but enjoyed hanging out with, sharing each others different time pleasures(like Egg-creams), talking about sci-fi films, when they did harmless pranks...at first. He was so worried about losing a new friend, he ended up losing him anyway, the worst way possible. In a way, he made a similar mistake to what the people in Sid’s life made. They ignored him and his problems until they became too big to fix. Thinking about it, Sid’s first failed plan in a twisted way, might've worked, in terms of making his bully regret everything. Doubt he had it easy after being known as the guy who accidentally killed one of his fellow classmates.

     As he takes his eyes off the rotating ceiling fan back to Sid's broken glasses, seeing his own reflection from them, he starts to consider. He can’t reverse what happened, but he can atleast make sure what happened to Sid is better acknowledged rather than just try to forget what happened like they did. Regardless of what was and what wasn't his fault, he still wants to make things right. Or atleast try to.

He props himself up to go check some stuff on his laptop such as memorials and finding perhaps some flowers and a card to send to Dash at the hospital. After what happened, it’s highly doubtful anyone would want to use that locker anymore. But maybe it could be used for something else, to remember Sid's story in a clearer light. Give his friend some peace.

As he looks at pictures of locker memorials, he calls Tucker, holding Sid’s broken glasses

“ Yeah I’m doing good too, thanks Do you know how to fix up cracked glasses?”

The End. 

What do u think? I'd love to know💖

[friendly-neighborhood-imbecille]

This is not canon complaint in the slightest, but it was fun to draw.

Tried to put in some lighting, but it just made his face look super weird.

Dannymay Day 25: Blame

[3motionally3xhausted]

I'm doing these very much out of order, and extremely late, but whatever. Anyway, DannyMay day 25: Blame

Imagining they often leave Jazz & Danny to clean up dinner so they can get back to their work obsession faster

[miss-mossball]

getting dressed for the day

[underforeversgrace]

memory of what may have been and never will be

DannyMay2023 Day 25: Blame

title: memory of what may have been and never will be

words: 3962

Summary: Valerie Gray from ten years in the future falls through a natural portal, landing in the past. Unable to get home, she decides to do the best thing she can - kill Danny Phantom. (TUE Timeline Valerie)

Idea from this post by @danphanwritingprompts: Valerie travels to the past to prevent the future of The Ultimate Enemy by killing Danny Phantom.

Warnings: None!

Beta: probably-dead

Also on AO3

~~~~~~

Valerie groaned, holding one hand to her nauseous stomach and covering her eyes with the other, irritated by the brightness, as she lay on what felt like cracked concrete.

What the hell just happened? She wondered, pushing herself up, mentally taking catalog of any aches or injuries on her body, relieved when she found none, other than the headache and nausea. She settled into a sitting position, keeping her eyes firmly closed until the spinning in her mind settled and took several deep breaths to collect herself.

When she decided she was no longer at risk from hurling up her lunch, she opened her eyes.

Only to be greeted by a confusing sight, one she hadn’t seen in nearly a decade. She was in Amity Park, but… it looked like it did when she was in high school, before Phantom had shown his true colors. And his true strength. She called her hoverboard to her, raising up into the sky, trying to remember the past several minutes.

She’d been flying when her board had just… disappeared, short circuited or something, something it’d never done before. And she’d fallen.

She vaguely remembered a swirling green circle beneath her and the sensation of jumping into a pool in winter. A natural portal? Had she fallen through one? She’d read through the Fentons research so many times in the years since their deaths, she knew it had been a theory they never got around to testing - that the Ghost Zone didn’t follow the same linear timeline as Earth did.

Had she fallen through a natural time portal? When was she? 

She rose higher, scanning the area for notable features. She saw the Nasty Burger and breathed a sigh of relief. Phantom hadn’t gone on his killing spree until over a year after the restaurant explosion. Her eyes finally settled on a nearby billboard - Amity Park, Most Haunted Town in America! it proclaimed. They hadn’t had that title until after the ghosts had started coming, there to fight Phantom - though he was still known as Invisobill back in those days.

Okay, so she was somewhere in her freshman year of high school. That’s a fun thought. She wondered if it was before or after the Axiom incident - if her current self was the airhead or the hero.

Confident she now had a rough approximation of where - and when - she was, she frowned. Now what? Whatever portal she’d fallen through had disappeared. She had no idea how to go home.

She paused for a moment, returning her gaze to the billboard. Did she even want to go home? To the apocalypse happening beyond the shield?

Or she could stop it. She could stop the future ahead of her, of the world.

Phantom couldn’t destroy the world if she destroyed him. Sure, she’d tried to do that when she was still a new hunter, but she had nearly a decade of experience under her belt now. She was older, stronger, wiser.

The Phantom of this era had held back his attacks against her, she had learned that a long time ago, when he’d stopped doing so, when he’d started going for blood, for her life. All she had to do was find him and she could wipe away that future, wipe away all that pain and suffering. She’d probably wipe herself away, too - this version of herself, at least - but she didn’t mind that.

The new future she’d create would be better for her, even if this her faded into never-existence. She’d never stop fighting, whatever the future held, she knew that. But she could stop fighting the end of the world, come to them in the form of a ghost in a too-tight HAZMAT.

Phantom of this era had been good, though. She’d realized it the same time she realized how much he held back against her. This version of Phantom could be manipulated.

She’d always wondered what happened, to be honest. One day Phantom was playing up being a superhero and then he murdered the newly orphaned Danny Fenton in his new home in Wisconsin. He’d come here after and slaughtered some of her other classmates.

Valerie would never forget how Dash screamed up until Phantom had finally ripped his throat out. He’d grabbed Paulina and dropped her from even higher than the skyscrapers. Star he’d grabbed and phased into the ground, killing her the second he made her tangible again.

And Valerie had been stuck there, beaten within an inch of her life. Even now, she didn’t know why he’d spared her. Why he’d targeted the A-List that day.

He hadn’t targeted anyone specific after that, despite basically running kamikaze strikes nearly every day after, demolishing buildings and causing mass casualty and panic. She suspected the panic was his goal, up until they’d gotten the shield up and his reign of terror over Amity had ended. The rest of the world hadn’t been so lucky.

He could have killed all of them in a day, she’d realized. That first day was forever imprinted into her brain, the violence and fear. The knowledge that Phantom knew her secret identity.

But… where to start? She had never known how Phantom managed to disappear and reappear from her ghost tracking tech, that still was an unknown. Should she just fly around until something happened? Should she try to find herself from this time, if she was the Huntress yet?

A blip alerted on her tracking equipment, pulling her from her thoughts. She hesitated. She didn’t know which ghost this was - her equipment had never been that detailed, she just knew it was a ghost. Could she make the future worse if she did something wrong?

An old memory pushed itself to the forefront. Phantom, on the other side of the shield, head tilted to the side and a grin on his face that made her feel like prey.

No. She couldn’t make it worse. She could only make it better. It was Phantom’s fault her life was like this - from the ghost hunting to living within a domed city like a dystopian novel.

Decision made, she shot off, following the tracker on her arm.

She pushed the hoverboard faster when Phantom came into view, not far in front of her, and she saw where Phantom was most likely going. An apartment complex on the border between Elmerton and Amity Park - where the people with just barely enough to stay out of Elmerton lived - was engulfed in flames.

“Phantom! Huntress!” Someone called from the ground. Wow, it was weird being called Huntress again, everyone had called her Valerie since Phantom outed her all those years ago. Still, she angled her board down to the call, Phantom at her side.

It was… odd, seeing him like this. Young, a teenager probably no older than herself in this time. No malice or sadism danced in his eyes as he landed, feet on solid ground in front of the person who’d been calling them - a fireman, the fire trucks roaring behind him as it attempted to put out the inferno the complex was rapidly turning into. There was something distinctly different in that - Phantom actually touching down to the ground, not floating in place.

Phantom glanced at her cautiously, keeping his distance as they both stood in front of the man.

“Thank God you two are here,” he said. “We can’t reach the top four levels, only the bottom two, can you two sweep those floors and get out anyone who needs it?”

“On it.” Phantom said, eyeing the building then turning to Valerie, apparently not realizing the difference in her stature in the form fitting suit. “It looks like the fire is worse the lower down it is. Can you get the top two floors and I’ll get the two beneath?”

Valerie nodded, summoning her board back to her feet and speeding off, not wanting to talk in front of him but also unwilling to not answer the call for help. Phantom was right behind her, veering off and plunging through the walls on the third floor as she headed for the top and entered through a shattered window.

Immediately, she felt like the very air was burning her, smoke trying to choke her through her suit’s filter. She triggered the infrared on her suit, moving from room to room as quickly as she could.

Was this building always this big? She mumbled internally. She vaguely remembered an apartment complex near her burning down and needing to be rebuilt, so maybe this was that building?

Valerie had swept through half the top floor before she saw two figures in her infrared - human shaped and colder than the fire slowly surrounding them.

“Hello?” She yelled, running towards the figures - it looked like a parent and a child, based on their sizes.

“Help!” A woman’s voice shrieked.

“I’m coming!” She called back, blasting through the door in her way.

“Huntress!” The woman called in relief as soon as she saw Valerie, picking a child up - presumably her son - as Valerie got closer. As soon as Valerie was close enough, the woman hefted her son up higher, relief in her eyes.

“I can carry both of you, get on!” Valerie shouted, throwing her arm up protectively over her face when a sudden lick of fire lashed out towards her.

The woman didn’t protest, jumping on and sitting down, straddling the board in front of Valerie’s legs and clutching her son to her for dear life.

Valerie triggered a weapon at her shoulder and blasted clear through the wall, speeding away from the fire even as it tried to reach for her with the new oxygen source she’d fed it.

She slowed when it was safe to do so, to allow the other two to better keep their balance. She dropped them off by the fireman from earlier, several ambulances having arrived in the short time she was in the building. At least a dozen people were now out here, covered in soot, being checked over by the various EMTs. Had Phantom really already gotten that many people out?

Valerie was helping the woman and her son off the board when Phantom came flying out, two more people clutched to him. He dropped them off in front of the EMTs. “I’ve got the fifth floor, Red, the fire’s spreading! Stay out!” He shouted, almost immediately gone from sight again.

He… hadn’t looked good. Burns had dotted his jumpsuit, even oozing green in some places where she’d been able to see skin. Regardless, she listened to him, helping the firefighters when they handed her a hose and asked her to see if she could get some of the higher levels.

Several tense minutes passed as they fought to force the inferno into submission, Phantom appearing twice more with people in his arms.

“I’ve got everyone.” She heard him say to the firefighter. She dropped down beside him, handing the hose back to the firefighters as she did so, the fire contained even as the building continued to smoke.

Phantom really didn’t look good. His hair looked black with soot, every white part of his jumpsuit likewise changed.

Something looked… familiar. She couldn’t place it but it was like a forgotten memory, tugging at her heart. Also, had Phantom always breathed? She wondered, watching the rapid rise and fall of his chest as he coughed, doubling over where he stood. She just stood there, silently, trying to figure out her next move. This Phantom still had fans, people who liked him, who would hate the Red Huntress for killing him.

No, she couldn’t do it here, surrounded by all these people they’d just saved. Looking at his soot-blackened hair and watching him wheeze for air, though… suddenly her resolve started to slip. She hesitated. How could this be the same Phantom who’d set a building on fire, a daycare, and laughed at the screams?

He looked at her when he finally stopped coughing, curiosity on his face.

“You good, Phantom? Do you need to see the EMTs? Er, I mean…” The fireman started.

Phantom laughed, which quickly turned into another wheeze and a quick cough. “Forget I was a ghost again, Chief Hemlin?” He asked after.

The man, Hemlin apparently, smiled and shrugged. “Maybe? Anyway, thanks for your help. Again. Eventually I’m going to have to pay you or something!”

Phantom just rolled his eyes, Valerie watching the entire interaction in bafflement. She just… she couldn’t see the Phantom she knew in this Phantom.

“Thanks to you as well, Huntress.” Hemlin added, reaching out to her and shaking her hand. She just shrugged.

“Well, as fun as this has been, I probably should get out of here before Red decides to shoot me in the ass.” Phantom said, turning to her and smirking. “If she can catch up with me!” With that he was up and off, flying across the sky.

Valerie was after him in an instant, easily keeping pace with him. He turned slightly to glance at her, as though confirming she was behind him. He turned sharply and Valerie adjusted, unable to deny the thrill of chasing a ghost at high speeds again, especially as she began to catch up to him quite easily - had she gotten faster in the past eight years? - even when he dive bombed the ground.

Sh just barely managed to keep from slamming into the ground as he phased into it, but she couldn’t keep her balance, the board catching on the pavement and sending her rolling.

Ow. She grumbled mentally. Before she had the chance to do much, Phantom was in front of her, ectoblast growing in his hand and pointed towards her. Ah. This was a familiar look.

“You’re not Red. Who are you? Have you hurt her?” He asked, scowling.

That… was not a familiar statement. He sounded concerned for the Valerie he knew.

“I will ask you one more time. Did you hurt her?” He said, the ectoplasm crackling in his hand.

“How did you know?” She finally asked, still not removing her mask.

He tilted his head to the side. Again, so familiar a gesture, but so unfamiliar. He lacked the cruelty she knew, the uncontrolled sadism. He just looked confused. “You didn’t try to immediately kill me and/or didn’t blame me for setting the building on fire?” He answered.

Had she really been that gung ho to kill this kid back then? She held her hands up in surrender. “I can explain.”

“Is Valerie safe?”

“Yes.” She answered. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, he visibly relaxed, allowing the blast in his hand to dissipate. She was thoroughly and entirely confused. He knew her secret identity, knew her well enough to know she wasn’t herself, and had only been concerned with her safety. It just didn’t add up.

“Then who are you?”

Well, here goes nothing. Keeping one hand still, she slowly reached for her mask with the other, pulling it off. “Valerie Gray.”

“Huh?” He responded elegantly, the confusion nearly comical on his young face. “You… do look like her. Like you could be her older sister.”

Again holding both hands up, she slowly stood. Phantom eyed her cautiously, warily, but didn’t move to stop her. He looked almost afraid of her. Why? He could decimate her in seconds.

Oh. He was afraid of fighting her because he could kill her easily and he didn’t want to do that.

“I’m from 2014.” She answered honestly. “I feel through a natural portal. It’s what? ‘04, ‘05 now?”

“February 2005.” Phantom informed. “You’re… from the future? Do we finally call a truce or something? You’re not trying to kill me.”

“It’s a long story.” Valerie answered, starting to lower her hands. Phantom nodded, indicating she was fine. He trusted her in an instant. Why?

What the hell had happened to him?

“You’re still fighting ghosts.” Phantom said, gesturing to her red suit.

“It’s just what I do, you know what I mean. You hunt them too.”

Sadness creeped into Phantom’s green eyes. “Honestly? I… ten years and the fighting hasn’t stopped? I’d hoped they would eventually let me rest in peace. This isn’t what I want. I don’t want to fight forever.” He looked so old, so weary, in that moment, surprising Valerie. This past version of Phantom was so, so different and continued to shock her. She’d been planning to manipulate him, but… maybe the truth would suffice. This Phantom was good and pure - she routinely shot him and he refused to fight back in anything more than self defense. He wouldn’t want people to die.

“You’re the one causing the fights.” Valerie admitted.

“What? No. I hate fighting.”

“Phantom, you’ve killed people.”

“No. No, I wouldn’t!” Phantom insisted, eyes going wide in shock and fear and he backed away from her.

“I have proof.” She said, pressing at the communicator on her wrist. “Look.” She tapped at the screen on it a few times, bringing up archived footage her suit had recorded.

Phantom timidly walked over to her, glancing at her - wow he was short - then turning his attention to the screen. It had been recorded on the wrist cuff she wore, so the angle was weird.

“Okay, class,” Mr. Lancer’s replacement, Ms. Graham, said. “Today we’re starting on Of Mice and Men, so-“

She would never finish her sentence, the ceiling above her collapsing and burying her in rubble, a sickening crunch barely hidden by the sound of the concrete falling, a pool of red beginning to run from under the pile, the students screaming.

Phantom made a squeak of disgust beside her and she looked at him, his eyes wide and horrified at the scene.

“Am I late for class?” Phantom asked cruelly, dropping in from the hole he’d caused, grinning with too sharp teeth.

“Phantom!” A much younger Valerie shouted, shooting to her feet.

Valerie’s stomach turned and she looked away, unwilling to watch the nightmare she’d already lived through. She heard the screams from the recording, the sadism in Phantom’s laugh as he trapped them, as he easily took Valerie down and outed her as the Huntress before torturing Dash. She couldn’t help the shudder that went down her spine as a certain scene played.

“You always were my favorite,” Phantom cooed, pinning her by her neck with one hand while the other gently stroked her hair. “I’ll save you for last.”

“Stop. Please.” The current Phantom said, tears streaking down his face. Valerie conceded, she’d heard enough again. “What happened to me? To make me do that?”

“Honestly? I’ve been wondering that for years. No one knows. You murdered Danny Fenton in Wisconsin and then did this a month later, in April 2005.”

“I do that… in two months?” He practically whispered.

Valerie nodded. What the hell happened - uh, happens - to him in the next month?

“Wait. You said I killed Danny Fenton. I can’t have killed Danny Fenton.” Phantom said.

“He was the first person you killed, actually. Pretty violently, too. The funeral was closed casket, but I saw the damage before we buried him next to his sister.”

“Wait. Wait. No. Sister? Jazz is dead too? I would never hurt her!”

“No, you didn’t. The other three Fentons died in an accident - an explosion at the Nasty Burger.”

Phantom’s normally tan face seemed to pale, clear even under the soot still on him. “Tell me about that. Please.”

Valerie looked at him curiously. Why would he care about what happened to the Fentons? Still, she answered.

“The sauce at the Nasty Burger can explode if it gets too hot. Next month something happens and the sauce explodes, with six casualties. Only Danny survives and I don’t know how.”

“Six? Who else?” Panic was beginning to show in his tone, a ferocity and fear in his eyes she’d never seen before.

“The three Fentons, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, and William Lancer.”

“Oh.” He said, tears sliding down his face as he crumpled, falling to his knees.

When he offered no further explanation, Valerie just continued with the story. “There wasn’t enough of any of them to really bury but they all got headstones. Danny went to live with a godfather in Wisconsin. You killed him within a month of the accident.” Valerie pushed down the anger that tried to raise in her. Despite the break up, she had really had feelings for the youngest Fenton and she’d blamed herself for his death for years, her failure to stop Phantom leading to Danny’s death.

Phantom just curled up into a ball and was slightly rocking back and forth, odd sniffles coming from him. It took Valerie a moment to realize that sound was him crying. She’d never heard the ghost cry before.

“Shoot me.” He finally said, his head tucked between his knees.

“What?” She asked. As hard as he’d fought her, this was all it took to make him give up.

“I’m sure the accident that kills them is my fault, too.” He said, self deprecation dripping from his tone like venom. “Shoot me.”

Valerie pulled a blaster from her belt, moving to stand behind him and pressing the barrel against the back of the ghost’s head, against white hair dyed black in spots from soot.

He didn’t fight back.

Something in the back of her mind kept whispering that this was wrong, that Phantom had always fought too hard to give up this easily.

“Why?” She asked, suddenly unsure if she could kill someone who was still innocent. She’d long since realized the dog that had destroyed her life wasn’t his and this version of Phantom was innocent. “Why do you become that?”

He was silent for several moments and she began to doubt he was going to answer before taking a deep breath. “I’m Danny Fenton’s ghost. He had a bad accident at the beginning of freshman year.”

“I remember. I also remember him surviving it.”

“He managed to come back, but he died long enough to create me. Danny Fenton is my humanity. Losing all of them… his humanity would’ve shattered. And mine along with it.”

“Does he know?”

“Yeah. How do you think I get all the Fenton tech?”

Again, hesitation stopped Valerie as she stared at the white hair, a soot-stained black beneath her gun. Suddenly she could see the resemblance and she recoiled, the weapon falling from her hand. “Danny?”

“His ghost.” Phantom corrected but something told Valerie he was lying, still keeping something secret. Regardless, she believed him, whatever other secrets he held. His mannerisms, his voice, the way he looked. Danny Phantom was Danny Fenton’s ghost.

…that sounds obvious, in hindsight.

“The Nasty Burger explosion causes this.” Valerie mumbled. “What if… we just save them?”

“Can we?” Phantom asked, his voice so small and young and so very clearly Danny beneath the echo that her heart ached. “Can we save them?”

“We can sure as hell try.”

He looked up at her, unshed tears in his eyes. “Okay.”

~~~~~~

A month later, after laying low and spending a lot of time in Phantom’s lair in the Ghost Zone, after preventing the Nasty Burger from exploding, she felt her body beginning to waver.

“Valerie!” Phantom called, panicked, grabbing at her hand, only for it to dissolve into nothingness. “What’s happening?”

“We did it. That future doesn’t exist anymore. And neither do I.” She smiled, a sense of peace settling within her. She’d stopped the end of the world, she’d saved people, and she’d saved Phantom’s humanity. “Goodbye.”

And then she felt her body collapse in on itself and she was no more than dust, a memory of what may have been and never will be.

[delilahhyuuga]

Day 25 & 30 of Inktober 2023: Dangerous & Rush "Where you gonna go? My heart is your home Nothing is as cold As running on your own So River don't you rush"

[five-rivers]

Cryptid Crawl! 8

“You can’t blame me for this,” said Danny.  “Literally, you can’t blame me for our plan working too well.”  There was a high-pitched whine from his end of the Fenton Phones, and a small explosion.

Jazz pinched the bridge of her nose.  “I know, I know, I’m not trying to play the blame game, but you need to get back here.  You’re the only one who can handle the ghosts.”

“I’m not–” Danny broke off, briefly.  “I’m not going to be able to take care of the ghosts.  I promised them that they could have cake if they stayed away from the hunters.  They did, and Ember helped even more.  I can’t go back on that promise now!”

“Okay, but the hunters are coming here.  What are we going to do about the ghosts then?  Even if we convince them they’re all in costume, they’re too good as costumes!  It would be too cool!”

“I think you’re still overestimating the coolness of costumes,” said Tucker.  “It’s an easy mistake to make, I know I–”

“Miss Fenton?  Jasmine?  Oh, there you are,” said Mr. Lancer, sounding relieved.  “No one had seen you since you went to talk to the ghosts, and– What’s wrong?”

Jazz scrubbed her hands over her face and stepped out of the little cubby the end of the row of lockers formed with the oddly-bent corner of the wall.  “We got the two shows to give up, but they’re coming here instead, for, I don’t know, cake as a consolation prize.  I don’t– I don’t know what to do about the ghosts.  They’ll be here in less than fifteen minutes.  I don’t know what to do.”

“Oh,” said Mr. Lancer.  “Twelfth Night, we’re in it now.”

.

AMITY OF AMITY PARK: A Friendly Helping Hand

Ghost Activity Map, Forums, Local Business Directory, Advice Blog

Forums -> Community Alerts -> Paranormal Investigators -> Community Cake Day

Thread: EMERGENCY

12th Knight (OP): The paranormal investigators are coming to the Community Cake Day.  The ghosts are at Community Cake Day.  What do we do?”

Cynosure: I can’t believe you’re posting on the forums while this is going on.

12th Knight: I am a desperate man.  

JACK FENTON: THEY’RE AT THE CAKE DAY?  DOn’T WORRY WE”LL savE YUl!!@@#

JACK FENTON: AND EaT ACKE!

.

Mr. Lancer looked up from his phone.  “In retrospect, I feel as if I should have known better than to ask advice from the internet.”

“Jazz,” said Danny, “why did Dad pull out his phone, shout cake, and start running away?”

Jazz would not hold her breath until she fainted.  She wasn’t even sure that was a thing people could do. 

“Okay,” said Sam, “ignoring that disturbing comment and why Jazz didn’t answer, I–  Tucker, what are you doing?”

“He got in again!  How did he get in again?”

“Jazz, are they going to cake day?  Why are they going to cake day?  They cannot be at cake day!”

.

Tubahater: Could you maybe disguise the ghosts??

The Smart Twin:  As what?  With what?  There’s no way they’re going to look like anything but ghosts.

CasperQueen: There’s always the drama stuff, I guess, assuming it wasn’t all destroyed when a certain someone fell into it, like a loser.

Lovestheshow: oooh yeah, I love that trope

Lovestheshow: the one where a character dresses up like a crappy version of themselves 

Lovestheshow: yes please tell me you’re going to do it!

.

“Oh, heck,” said Tucker, “Nost actually has a point.  How is it that the guy who thinks the whole thing is an ARG has a point?”

At this, Jazz pulled out her own phone.  “Does he have a point?” she asked.  

“Anyone want to fill me in?” asked Danny.  “Kind of busy flying.”

.

West of West: Unfortunately, I know for a fact that people are stupid and blind enough to fall for this.

Point25Back: aren’t you supposed to be whipping butter nerd?

.

“Why are all my students on their phones when they’re supposed to be baking?” asked Lancer.

“You’re on your phone,” pointed out Jazz.  

.

West of West: Aren’t you supposed to be banned

Nobineryginger: oh ye dude i get you theres all sorts of great tropes like that my faves the one where everyone is dressed the same at a party and so when the baddies try to find the heroes they gotta unmask everyone but its all just normal people its like a switcheroo so sweet

.

“I can’t believe it, they do have a point,” said Jazz, out loud.

“Please, can someone fill me in?  At least on what I can do?  I’m still trying to distract, but– Ah!  I can disengage whenever you want me!”

“Keep distracting them for now, but be ready to, uh,” she looked up at Mr. Lancer, “be yourself but not be yourself again, and to say that you’re a different yourself than the yourself they met.”

“I hate that I understood that,” said Danny.  

“Okay,” said Jazz, “we need the drama class.”

.

[Video starts, showing a crowd of people of various ages in a school cafeteria.  Most of the people are either children or middle aged.  There are several people sitting at the front of the room.  Static obscures many of their features, but they all appear to be glowing and have odd skin tones.  The video is shaky.

WOMAN #1: Damn, I should have gotten a better camera, this one is spazzing out.  But the phone one is bad, too…

The angle of the camera changes slightly, and shows a low-angle profile of a woman.

WOMAN #2: Bought it out of town?

WOMAN #1: Yeah, why?

WOMAN #2: Takes a while for them to get used to the ectoplasm.  Give it a week and it’ll be fine.

WOMAN #1: That doesn’t help much now.  I wanted to film Ashley breaking a world record.

WOMAN #2: I’m sure someone else is filming, too.  You could ask around, later.

A door in the corner of the cafeteria opens, and the camera turns towards them.  A group of teenagers comes out.  One of them, a girl with long red hair and a large amount of flour on her shirt, is carrying a megaphone.  

TEENAGER: Hello, Amity Park!  I know you’re looking forward to cake, but we have an additional surprise for you all.  This is now a costume party!  The drama class will be bringing you your costumes shortly.  Thank you for cooperating and making this Community Cake Day a success.

The teenager lowers the microphone, and joins the other teenagers, who have started swarming the glowing people.

WOMAN #2: When was the last time you checked the forums?

Video ends.]

.

Danny dropped through the ceiling into the bathroom and transformed.  He pulled back on the fake hazmat and grimaced as he noticed a tear.  Maybe he could– Could he do a partial?  He’d never done a partial like that before on purpose–

“There you are!” shouted Jazz.  

“Oh gosh,” said Danny.  “This is the boy’s ba–”

“That doesn’t matter!  Come on!”

“But there’s a tear–”

Jazz shrieked in frustration and shoved a fake Danny Phantom top at him.  The gloves and belt were sewn on, and it looked very crooked.  

“Where did this even come from?” he whispered.  “Did you make this?”

“No, there were about fifty of them backstage of the theater, but no one fit this one.  It’s too small.”

Danny, who had gotten it on over his head with no effort, glared at her, but then the rest of her words sank in.  “Fifty?  Why does the drama class have fifty of these?”

“I don’t want to know, do you?  If it makes you feel better, it was right next to the surplus Ember stuff.”

It did not make Danny feel better.  

Even so, he let Jazz continue to herd him into the cafeteria and then sit him between Lunch Lady (dusted in flour and looking very pleased with herself) and Kitty, which was really unfair, he thought.  At least it wasn’t between Spectra and Skulker.  

“Jazz,” said Danny, eyeing the cafeteria.  “Do you want to tell me the plan, now?”

“I would also like to know the plan,” said Kitty, who was currently wearing cat ears and badly done facepaint.

“You’re all just people dressing up as ghosts,” said Jazz, “like mascots.  Because it will get you free cake.  Danny, you’re not the same person they ran into earlier, got it?  You’re someone different.”

Danny definitely needed a few quiet minutes to process all this, but it almost, sort of, kind of, made sense.  “We’re making them think everyone is a fake.  Just more fake ghosts.  Not even original fake ghosts.”

“Yeah,” said Jazz.

“But– But what about Mom and Dad?  You know what they’re like.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Jazz.  

“I’m worrying about it.”

“Don’t.”

“I’m worrying about it, too, actually,” said Sam, who sounded very out of breath.  “Any of you guys seen Val and Dani yet?”

“No,” said Danny.  They must still be at the hospital.

“Listen,” said Jazz, “someone else will take care of it.  You just sit here and eat cake.”

“Isn’t that what Marie Antoinette said?” asked Danny.  

Jazz made a face.  “You really do only know the one historical quote, don’t you?”

“Heh, she’s got you there,” said Kitty.  

“And you do need to eat more,” said Lunch Lady, pinching his cheek.

“Fine,” said Danny, “but don’t blame me when things go wrong with whatever you’re planning!”

[tanglepelt]

Are we to blame?

AO3

After a reveal, Maddie reflects on everything.

Was it their fault?

Was Phantom because of them?

Were they to blame?

Ever since the reveal. Since they found out their son was Phantom that’s been on her mind.

Did they cause it?

It’s a simple matter of fact. That ghosts are dead. They don’t need to breathe and don’t have heartbeats. They don’t need to hold a physical form. Ghosts were something unknown. Nothing like what their biased research suggests, a whole new species.

Ghosts weren’t alive, at least not in the human sense. Ghosts had to be dead.

Yet phantom… Danny wasn’t dead. Danny was still a human, heartbeat and all.

For Danny to be half ghost and he has to be. Even if hasn’t said that out loud. The transformation turns him into a ghost. Same abilities to fly, the ecto blast, and all the standard powers. There was no doubt about it. Phantom was a ghost, and Danny was human. Yet both are the same person. Even the anti-ecto weapons hurt Phantom.

The weapons...

The guns, lasers, and traps. Their house was designed to keep ghosts out. The security system going off. All of it, it was intended to prevent or capture ghosts. The house was designed to hurt him.

How often had they gone after their son?

How many injuries did they cause?

How many of the bruises, injuries, and nights lacking sleep were their fault? How much was there blame? Going after Phantom over and over. The hunt was never-ending, taking every opportunity they had to hunt him. Going to Casper high, chasing him in the GAV, and the words they didn’t speak.

She shouldn’t have shot first.

They were to blame for never asking questions. Assuming the worse of an entire species, completely forgetting there are two sides to a story. They continually mocked Phantom, and threatened him.

Always screaming about ripping Phantom apart. Tearing him apart molecule by molecule. Hinting him. They hunted their son. Hunted their half-dead son.

When could he have died? How did it happen?

Maddie knew that logically his death happened around when the ghost first appeared. When the portal first opened.

They still didn’t know what caused the portal to suddenly work. Nothing had changed. Nothing new they did. Something and have shifted or changed. A portal wouldn’t just start working out of nowhere, the calculations had been correct. It was the portal structure itself that didn’t work. Neither she nor Jack had touched the portal before it lit up. Things don’t start working without a change.

Around the time the portal began to let beings through was when Danny’s behavior changed.

Phantom showed up at the same time. He had to have died somewhere in that timeframe. He was already turning into Phantom within the first week of the portal being open. The start of the madness they created. They brought the ghosts into the human realm.

All the signs something was wrong had been there. Ignored by the thrill of the portal finally working.

They saw the changes.

How he was always out past curfew, his grades dropped, and how exhausted he always was. Those should have been red flags. They should have investigated it more. They were scientists the evidence had been tight in front of them.

Why didn’t they piece it together?

They must have been too distracted. Every event seemed to revolve around ghosts, even the ones that were meant to be ghost free. When Jack and Danny went fishing only for a ghost attack. While she was home with jazz it wasn’t peaceful. They had to deal with a ghost girls’ night out on the town.

When she tried to take Danny on a trip it ended up with them stuck in the woods, being hunted by ghost animals. When Danny started freaking out seeing things that weren’t there, Jazzs forced vacation. Danny had been freaking out that whole time. The ghost shield looking for anti-ghost weapons. Danny had been acting like a madman claiming ghosts were around. Maddie would bet there had to have been.

Danny wouldn’t have lied like that.

There had to have been a ghost. That paranoia of what he was seeing, a ghost had invaded that trip. Time after time it was all ghosts. Jack fished them out of the portal, his willy-nilly lab safety.

Jack just opened that portal whenever he pleased, letting things in and out at allay every day. Even before the portal was working its all they could think about. Their lack of precautions is so obvious now. Keeping ectoplasm in the fridge, bringing food to life. There aren’t any locks on their lab equipment. No safety locks, really the only warning system they have is for the filter and a ghost alarm.

The weapons are all laid out, and easily accessible. They even have a dungeon and that’s not secure. Anyone could get into it. They could lecture about safety all day but don't actively enforce it. There was no safety in this house.

They were lucky nothing happened when the kids were young.

Without Danny telling them what happened she couldn’t say nothing happened. The portal suddenly working right around when he got powers didn’t suggest anything good. For now, all they could do is move on and do better.

One day she may get her answers.

[elisedonut]

fuck i'm actually going to end up enjoying Sevpercy huh

maybe in a picky I like them when they are in my head or when I do it kind of way

or in a time travel way because when it comes to Snape I like his teenage self a lot more than his adult self

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Day 25: blame

Sam blames herself for (half) killing Danny

and if he ever fully dies that will be her fault

[i-can-even-burn-salad]

Today’s line:

“It doesn’t. Matter.” The words tasted bitter on his tongue—or was it the blood? What was he other than a healer who couldn’t heal, outcast even by his own family? Even if they made it out, he had no place to go, would not survive the coming winter. “My life is worthless.”

“Not to me,” Eilis whispered.

30 days 30 lines

[herawell]

.

[marcvscicero]

.

[sanjiaftersex]

Love is always a hard concept for me to grasp cz I'd get this intense pull in my gut after seeing this boy but what if it's actually indigestion and NOT love?

[coffeeworldsasaki]

Perpetually sad that phones and screens are blamed for people getting more stupid when actually IT'S BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE THEM PROPERLY AND JUST GET THEIR BRAINS MELTED BY SOCIAL NETWORKS EVERYONE HAS A FUCKING DOOR TO KNOWLEDGE ON EVERYTHING IN THEIR POCKETS AND THEY DON'T USE THAT

[cherrydott]

Not wealthy enough for the Mid Life Crisis and also life is unpredictable so I will be having an ongoing crisis