#ectober day four

[raaorqtpbpdy]

Ectober week day seven!! Last day (although I still have to finish my fic for yesterday rip)

CASPER HIGH SCHOOL IS HAUNTED

[warnings for mentioned marijuana usage]

My mom told me, that ever since she was in high school, Casper High... has been haunted.

She says that seventeen years ago, when she was a senior, there was this freshman kid whose parents were paranormal scientists, and one day, at the beginning of the year, he was in an accident in their lab. He was only out of school for two days, but when he came back he was... different. At first, no one really noticed since most of the changes were small or gradual.

Like how the first month of school, the kid was a model student, then when he came back to school after the accident, he was suddenly a problem child, constantly breaking lab equipment, falling asleep in class, bumping in to people, skipping school. My mom said he always looked on edge too, shifty-eyed, like he was waiting for something to jump out at him.

Then the ghosts started showing up.

The first one was a lunch lady with glowing green skin who turned the meat in the cafeteria into meat monsters that attacked the students and faculty. She came to get revenge on a girl who got the school lunch menu changed to add vegan options. The school was evacuated, and all the students were accounted for, except the weird kid and his two friends, who no one could find.

The second ghost was called Phantom, and no one what exactly caused him to appear. Unlike all the other ghosts, he didn't want revenge or power. He showed up out of the blue, and within fifteen minutes, he fought the Lunch Lady, and trapped her in a magic thermos, then vanished. No one saw him leave. He was just gone... without a trace.

My mom says she didn't notice it herself, but some of the weird kid's classmates said that after that first ghost attack, the kid started carrying around a strange-looking thermos everywhere he went. But no one ever saw him eat or drink from it. People said that sometimes... they heard howling and moaning coming from it. Like there was something inside... and it wanted out.

That was the first haunting, but it wasn't the last. That same year on Halloween night, the Fright Knight himself showed up at the school haunted house to get back the sword the weird kid had somehow stolen from him, and unleash hell on the whole town. Phantom showed up again, defeated Fright Knight, and just as before, he disappeared like he was never there at all.

For four years ghosts attacked the school, Phantom would show up out of nowhere, fight them, beat them, and disappear just a quickly. My mom graduated after the first year, but my Aunt Mindy was there the whole time. She was in the same year as the weird kid, and even had a class with him when they were sophomores. She swears one time she saw his eyes glow bright green.

She also says that in her yearbooks, if you compare his yearbook photos you can see how his appearance changes over time. Their freshman photos were taken before his accident, and he looks totally normal, but with each year his skin looks paler, his hair looks wispier, his teeth look sharper, and his eyes look brighter, and the photos themselves start to have distortion in them, like there's something wrong with the camera, but only for his photos.

But no matter how much his appearance changed, he never looked older. She dug out her yearbook to show me his senior photo once, and it's totally true. In his senior photo he's pale as a ghost, and his hair looks like it's floating, and his teeth look like straight-up fangs, it's super creepy.

Anyway, my Aunt Mindy told me that the ghost attacks continued, until her graduation ceremony. And at the ceremony, every ghost that had ever attacked the school was in the audience, just sitting there, peacefully, putting everyone on edge. Every ghost except for Phantom, who was notably missing. As soon as the weird kid took his diploma, the ghosts vanished.

My mom was there too, sitting right next to the ghost of a pop-star, so close she could feel the heat of the ghostly flames. She said that when the ghosts disappeared, there was a sense of finality that you could almost touch, like a pressure was released, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Somehow they were sure that was the end of the hauntings, and everything would be safe and normal again.

My Aunt Lina says the weirdness didn't end there. She started high school the year after Aunt Mindy graduated. She was supposed to be a freshman when Aunt Mindy was a senior, but she got held back once in the sixth grade and had to repeat a year. She says when she started at Casper High, she knew something was up with it right away.

There were cold spots in the classrooms, and no matter how high you turned the thermostat, they never went away. If you listened closely, you could hear voices in the library, even when no one was talking. The lights would flicker in the hallway sometimes, for no reason, and the old ghost alarms, you know... the ones gathering dust in each of the classrooms and the hallways because they haven't been used in over a decade? Well they would flash, just once, not like they would to alert you of a ghost, briefly enough that it could just be a trick of the light, except that so many students were so sure they'd seen it. They couldn't all be mistaken.

Then, halfway through Aunt Lina's freshman year, one of the upperclassmen found a classroom next to the auditorium that was all boarded up and hadn't been used in years. Room 146. He thought it would be a good place to hide out and smoke weed with his friends since it looked like even the janitor had forgotten where it was, so he and his friends pried up the boards, and when they opened the door there were met with an icy gust of wind.

The inside of the room was so cold they could see their breath, even though the school was pretty well heated. And it looked like it had once been a storage room that they hadn't cleared out before they boarded it up because it was full of weird technology, strange artifacts, and books on the occult. Everything was stacked up against the walls along with a wall of stacked desks and chairs from when it had once been an actual classroom.

The only thing not pushed to the side was a single desk standing in the middle of the room with an odd looking thermos standing on top of it. It had the last name of the weird kid written on the side. When they tried to pick up the thermos, they got zapped with a static shock. It seemed like no matter how many times they tried to pick it up, it never ran out of static charge 'cause it just kept shocking them.

The students weren't really bothered by any of this, and they pulled out their joint, but every time they tried to light it, a breeze would come out of nowhere and put their lighter out. Aunt Lina says she heard one of the kids who was actually there telling people about it, and he swore up and down he heard a disembodied voice say "don't smoke that shit in here!"

After that, they all ran out screaming.

They spread the story around the school, and a few days later, a group of students calling themselves the paranormal research club went to room 146. My Aunt Lina was with them, since she was always a believer in the paranormal. They observed the thermos, took readings of the temperature, and catalogued all the items that had been stored there. While they did this, they also cleaned up the room, dusting and mopping, but never moving the desk in the center, or the thermos on top, believing that it didn't want to be moved.

It took them two weeks, and by the time they finished, one of the members complained that they hadn't gotten any studying done because they were busy with this project after school every day and during lunch, and they were totally going to fail their physics test. When they left the room after lunch, that member says they felt like the icy chill that always hung in room 146 followed them out.

Thinking it was just their imagination, they went to physics class. The tests got handed out, and as expected, they knew immediately that they were screwed. They didn't recognize any of the equations, and were sure they were about to bomb, but then, they heard a voice whispering in their ear. It walked them through the first problem, then the second, then the third, helping them find the answer, correcting them when they got something wrong.

They said as soon as they turned in their test, the icy chill that had followed them vanished, and they felt warmth finally set in. When they got the test back, they saw they'd gotten an A.

Sure that they'd gotten help from whatever mysterious entity was in room 146, they went back the next day with a bag of offering, like they would offer their dead loved ones on the Day of the Dead, sweets and fresh bread and flowers. They spoke to the creature, which they assumed was a ghost, thanking it for its help. They asked its name.

It answered, "Phantom."

Again, the story got spread around the school, and other students started going to room 146, bringing gifts for Phantom, and asking for his help, with tests with bullies, with setting up decorations for school dances, and it worked. More stories spread among the student body, of hearing test answers, of bullies shoelaces being somehow tied together, of streamers and lights hanging themselves on the gym's ceiling for homecoming.

And the offerings... the flowers stayed fresh, the trinkets were neatly arranged on the shelves, the sweets and snacks disappeared. Though the Paranormal Research Club still kept the room clean, they all swore on their lives they never did anything to the offerings, except throw out the flowers when they finally died.

To this day, Casper High's famous Paranormal Research Club maintains Room 146 as part of their club activities, and you can still leave offerings for Phantom ans ask for his help, although they say he's been pickier and less active in the past couple of years, the rumor mill still circulates new stories.

My best friend said she asked Phantom that nothing would go wrong for her at her first prom, and when she got back, she noticed her dress had ripped at some point in the night, but she hadn't noticed because somehow it had been fixed with a safety pin made out of ice. She still has that pin; I've seen it. It's been months, but it hasn't melted.

You may not believe in ghost stories. You may scoff at the idea of ghouls and cryptids. You may think there's no monster under your bed, but do you know for sure? Have you checked?

I have.

[toadstool32]

Guys u don't understand I always wanna do ectober but I never make it to even day one. If I can do at least one picture I'll be happy I'll take what I can it's been more than four years please

[windforestsso]

On Wednesday I had work meeting and it took 5 hours of my free time so I didnt have time to play the update then. Sad because I love SSOs halloween event.

Im also doing Ectober (danny phantom thing) and it takes up some time. I had to quickly draw yesterdays prompt so I didnt play that much then either.

After not been able to play the event on its first day and half of the second day, it feels like I am already so far behind everyone else.

Theres so much to do!! Atleast it seems to last for four weeks so there is time.

But I havent been able to open all portals yet and people are talking about riddles??!

[ghostly-penumbra]

Ectober Week 2021. Day Four

“Insects”

Summary: Team Phantom watch the butterflies. Shameless butterfly propaganda ahead, baby!

Warning for a (non-threatening) swarm of insects.

Ao3 FFN

- - -

“So, if you put this command inside this other one, you gotta make sure to close it inside the one you put first, otherwise it won’t stick. You guys get it?” Tucker asked as he coded away on Sam’s PC.

“Oh, yeah.”

“It makes sense now…”

Tucker checked his friends’ notes, satisfied to see they had actually paid attention. “Good.” He said, smiling. “BECAUSE I WILL NOT EXPLAIN IT AGAIN!”

“Jeez, alright!” Danny said, holding up his hands in a peaceful gesture.

“We get it! No need to shout!” Sam added, covering her ears with her hands.

“Thank you.” Tuck said with a sweet smile. He stood up with a groan and popped his backbone. “Now, while you noobs practice some more, I’ll stretch my legs.”

Sam, who was about to beat Danny in winning the Pc with ‘dis mine’ (which easily trumped over any call on ‘dibs!’, by the way) stopped short to call out, “Wait, no! Don’t go to the balcony, you will scare the butterflies away.”

Tucker turned back towards her, while Danny happily hogged the computer, and then looked at the balcony. “There are no butterflies in there.”

“Exactly! It’s already hard enough for them to approach in a residential area away from the park or the lake, to have you being all human-sized in their drive-thru!” She explained, waving her arms towards the many plants filling that space.

“Their drive-thru?” Danny asked, showing he had been paying attention to them.

Sam sighed, the starting signal of an ultra-recyclo-vegetarian speech incoming. “It’s milkweed, the only thing monarch butterflies, an endangered species, feed on. If some of them wander around here, I want them to have something to snack on.” She explained.

“So that explains all the cutsie pretty flowers…” Tucker said with dawning understanding. “Alright then.”

- - -

With a bout of good luck that surprised everyone present, Team Phantom got to see the butterflies, as they arrived later that day, while they chilled post-studying via DOOM.

“Hey, are those…?” Dany asked in a low voice, nudging Sam with his shoulder in the middle of her obliterating Tucker on the screen.

She turned to see while blindly pressing a combo, winning the match.

“Yes, they are!” She stage-whispered, watching as the little insects settled on their gifts. More started to arrive in small groups, but constantly, and then there was a whole bivouac of them on her balcony. “Holy shit! I didn’t think so many would come here!” She said barely in a whisper.

Her friends, who were not as focused on their game as they would like, found it amusing to see their goth friend so excited for something whose primary colour was not black. (They DID have black, though, and white, (the new black), but the little buggers were mostly orange.)

“Holy fuck, they are coming in!” Said goth exclaimed.

And they were indeed approaching warily and looking around while the teens froze in place. And Danny finally noticed it.

“Uh… Sam, are these supposed to be carrying a small, human spirit with them?” He asked, squinting his eyes to try and perceive any feature on said spirits other than the fact they had been human when they were alive.

“What? No, I… don’t think so. What?” Asked the dumbfounded vegan.

Before any of them could say anything else, the butterflies approached, surrounding them. Somehow, they gave off the impression of being curious.

“Are they… attacking us?” Tucker asked, even if he didn’t believe it himself, because someone had to remind them that most ghosts that came after them weren’t often the friendliest.

“No, they are not.” Danny said distractedly, but sure.

A butterfly settled down on Danny’s forehead, opening and closing its wings slowly.

“Uh…”

Another one followed, and another one, and yet another one, until they had formed a living crown on Danny’s head.

“Um, I have a question,” he said, “what the heck?”

- - -

Here I come with my monarch butterfly propaganda!

The monarch butterfly is an amazing, kick-ass species of butterfly that makes a journey all the way from México up to freaking Canada in four generations!

In pre-hispanic times, they were said to transport the souls of the deceased that came for Día de Muertos. Unlike now, Día de Muertos was festivity that took place across different dates, but when the Christians (*cough* Spaniards *cough*) came, the one date that stuck was the one in Autumn, which is around the time where monarch butterflies return to México seeking warm weather.

Monarch butterflies as well as caterpillars do only feed on milkweed, so here’s a guide on how to plant it for them if you have the resources.

Since I headcanon Amity Park to be in Illinois, I did my research and yes, monarch butterflies travel through Illinois! So here is some info I found, mostly about Chicago.

Some info from Canada!

México (in Spanish)!

y algo serio, para que nunca olvidemos (tw muerte)

[camels-pen]

Day 6 Witching hour - Routine

Ectober Month 2021 - Day 6: Witching hour vs. Twilight

Summary: Every Wednesday night, at 3 o'clock in the morning, Danny sits at the fountain in the center of town. On occasion, his friends keep him company and he can have a nice, quiet night.

Tonight, however, is not one of those nights.

Ao3 Link

---

Every Wednesday night during the witching hour, Danny is compelled to be in the center of town. There's nothing special to it, just a vaguely satisfying feeling when the clock hits four am and he’s stayed in the right place for that hour. He thinks it's some ghostly instinct forcing him to properly haunt the town, but considering Clockwork’s amusement the last time he asked, he thinks it might be something much more embarrassing.

Usually he's alone those nights, since school starts only four hours later, but, occasionally, his friends will join him on a call through the Fenton Phones or just show up to sit next to him on the rim of the fountain.

His friends keep him company, either in companionable silence or in quiet conversations. In the dead of night, he’ll hear the sound of them shuffling under their covers, or leaning into him for warmth whenever he chooses to stay human. Sometimes, he’ll hear their steady breaths as one or both of them fall asleep in the middle of talking. It reassures him, hearing those breaths and sitting quietly in the chilly night air as he watches the stars above, that they're all alive, that they've survived another day, that things aren't spiraling towards disaster as he fears it one day will.

Those times, most of all, are the ones he treasures.

“What kind of animal lover plans to poison a guy’s sandwich with rotting meat?!” “Don’t be so dramatic. It’s glowing, not rotting.” “Either way it’s probably radioactive!”

Of course, most often, he hears loud arguments about complete nonsense.

He loves his friends, really he does, but tonight all he wants is to bask in the peace and beauty of the late night sky in silence.

“I just—I can’t believe you. After all that talk about the moral high ground you give Danny you’re gonna be a hypocrite?” “That’s because if he doesn’t do the right thing, innocent people could be hurt. You don’t qualify.” An offended gasp sounded right near Danny’s ear where Tucker was leaning around him to yell at Sam. The goth, leaning on his other side, made the audible noise of sticking out her tongue.

Seriously, he's been awake catching ghosts since early morning yesterday, he’s pretty sure he’s earned a quiet night. He told them as much and they promised they wouldn't take long to hash it out.

It's taken nearly the whole hour.

What started out as a hypothetical question about cows on the moon being the cause for it to be made of cheese, led to a whole thing about meat versus veggies that left his two friends seriously arguing about living on the moon and questionable necessity of dairy to a person's diet.

Danny tried leading them to a different discussion by not-so-subtly asking about how long it would take to pass gas to make a cloud as big as Jupiter, which led to cows again and a different version of the first argument.

Again and again, deflection after deflection, they just kept rounding to the same argument. He could say what he wants about them, but Tucker “meat is literally essential to your diet, you're just caught up in plant-based conspiracy theories” Foley and Sam “meat-eaters have questionable morals, vegans are objectively superior” Manson are nothing if not consistent.

He gave up after the most recent deflection of Plasmius being the worst.

The conversation managed to stay civil for a while, even expanding to talk about all of Plasmius' pals also being the worst without any arguments.

He should've known it would be too good to be true.

“I mean, the Fez’s are a bit much, right? It’s not just me?” Tucker asked, sitting next to him with a thin green blanket held tightly over his yellow hoodie. He shivered as a cold breeze blew by them, but Danny, clad in his usual white t-shirt and jeans, and Sam, wearing a winter coat with the hood pulled up, seemed wholly unaffected. “Nah, Tuck, I get it. Harry, Larry, and Moe need to tone it down. Now, if they wore a couple tiny fez’s like thimbles on the end of their wings? That’d be different—” “Wait, wait, wait,” Tucker said, “I thought we were naming them after the three stooges?”

“Yeah. Those are their names: Harry, Larry, and Moe.”

“Isn't one of them named Curly Joe, though?”

“And wasn't there a guy named Shemp at some point?” Sam added.

Danny shrugged lightly, careful not to jostle them. “I don’t know, those are the names I remember from the movie Lancer showed us.”

“And you’re mostly right, but one of them was Curly Joe.” Tucker leaned forward a bit to look at Sam. “Who’s that Shemp guy? I don’t remember hearing his name.” Danny nodded in agreement.

“He was one of the first ones.” Danny turned toward her with a blank stare. With how her eyes flicked to the side, he imagined Tucker was mirroring him. “Y’know, like, he was part of the earlier version, The Six Stooges.” Six? Didn’t their whole gimmick hinge on having only three people? Danny kind of wanted to ask, but Tucker spoke up before he could.

“I’m a little afraid to ask why you know this stuff. Isn’t slapstick comedy like, one of the worst offenses to a goth or something?”

“Where do you learn about goths, on the back of a teen girl’s magazine?” Tucker slid closer down Danny’s side and was trying (and failing) to hide himself behind Danny’s t-shirt. “Unbelievable. I am literally next to you most of the day: we’re seat partners in every class, we patrol together every evening, and you come over to my house so often to steal food, you practically have your own shelf in the fridge.”

Tucker pulled out of his hiding place to retort, “Last time I tried asking about goth stuff you kicked me!”

“Because you said, and I quote, ‘Sam, if your antisocial practices and distaste for the patriarchy were a result of intense narcissism, you’d tell me, right?’” Sam threw her hands up. “What was I supposed to do? Not kick you?” “Yes! Obviously!” “Well tough, you were being an ass.” “Hold on, what.” Danny turned to Tucker. “Dude, why would you ask that?” “I read something about it in an article—” “Magazine.” “No, Sam. It was an article. Now shh.” Sam mimed zipping her lips. “Okay, look it was talking about how goths are kinda stuck up sometimes and then made a connection to narcissism that sounded fishy so I wanted to ask Sam.” “And that’s how you did it?” “We’re getting off track here. Sam wanted to talk about her nonexistent Stooge, Shep.”

“Shemp.” She lightly kicked Tucker’s ankle. “And come on, don't you remember his original appearance on the Six Stooges? Or how he left and had a successful independent career only to choose to come back to the show to save Moe and Larry’s careers?” Both boys offered negatives.

“We literally only play Doomed and hunt ghosts.” Tucker groaned. “I don’t think I could function if I did anything else on top of school.”

“Yeah, what Tucker said.” Danny’s eyes narrowed. “And since when do you have enough free time to magically become an expert on old timey comedy shows? Didn’t you get into a bunch of other stuff already? Like joining that Gloom-and-Doom writing circle.”

Tucker nodded. “And volunteering for that youth voting campaign.”

“And meeting with the rooftop gardening community.”

“And running the horror movie club at school.”

Sam waved a hand. “I get my stuff done before I leave school and a lot of those commitments are just showing up somewhere once a week for fun, but that doesn't matter right now.” She shifted and sat up straighter, looking at both of them with a determined gaze. “Focus. The goal here is to have one of them named Shemp.”

“You mean your goal.” “No, Danny, it’s our goal.” “But then they won't rhyme!”

Sam smirked at Tucker. “Not if we take out Moe.”

Tucker scoffed. “His name’s Curly Joe and no, we are not renaming him.”

“Renaming?” “Yeah, that’s what you said.” Sam paused for a moment. “Right, renaming, that is... definitely what I said.”

Danny didn’t believe her in the slightest, but seeing as her eyes remained locked on Tucker, he decided it wasn’t his problem.

He had another brief respite of silence before Tucker’s brain finally caught up and he squawked, “You want to literally take him out? Like turn-to-goo, no-coming-back, gone-forever take him out?” “You can just say ‘kill’, Tucker. Not like you have any problems killing animals.” Tucker made a funny noise. “They’re ghosts, not cows!”

“So you admit to being an animal murderer.” “You’re literally impossible.” “Thank you.”

Something about Sam’s answer niggled in the back of Danny’s mind. He briefly debated the merits of letting it go and it possibly coming back to bite him in the ass later before ultimately deciding he should get it over with.

“Hey, Sam?” She grunted. “What were you gonna do if you did end one of them? There’d still be a pile of radioactive-ish goo to clean up and you’re not the type to just dump it in the park.” Sam leaned back a bit, just so she could smirk at Danny without Tucker noticing. “I know someone. They’ve got an iron cast stomach.” Tucker sputtered. “Ex-Excuse me?!” Sam said nothing. “Were you going to—” “No, that’s ridiculous; I'm vegan.” “That's not what I was going to—” Tucker half-climbed on top of Danny to yell over him. Danny simply slumped further down, resigned to his fate. “Were you going to trick me into eating ghost vulture meat?!”

“I just said no, didn't I?”

“Oh my god. Oh my god, I can’t believe you. You think just because I like meat, I’m not gonna notice glowing green goo in my sandwiches?!” The blanket fell from his shoulders as he leaned even further forward to try and glare at Sam who was using Danny as a shield between them. “I'm a meat-eater, not a moron!”

“Could've fooled me.”

And on and on they went for the better part of the hour, arguing in circles about the same old topics. He stayed mostly silent himself, content to watch the stars and focus on the warm weights on either side of him rather than listen to all the same reused arguments over and over.

When his alarm for four am went off, he sat up and stretched, not bothering to wait for them to finish their argument before starting to move south towards Sam’s house. His two friends quickly caught up and walked on either side of him, bumping elbows every once in a while.

“I frickin hate you.”

“Feelings mutual, Tuck, feelings mutual.”

Danny heaved a sigh of relief and briefly lifted his head to thank whatever higher power finally made them stop when he spotted something. A flicker of soft green light shining down from above them, curving across the sky. It was gone as soon as he blinked.

He slowed his walking and craned his neck to look directly above him, but couldn’t see anything beyond the stars.

“Hey guys, did you see that?” The other two stopped and turned to him. Tucker made a questioning hum and Sam asked, “See what?” “There was a light above us. It looked like a giant ghost shield.” “Where was it?” Tucker asked. Danny pointed right above him and they both followed his finger.

The sky was clear. Sam started walking again, Tucker following after her. “Make sure you didn’t get ectoplasm in your eye or something.” “And don’t wipe it on my shirt this time, dude.” He blinked a couple of times, but the sky stayed clear. On a hunch, he tried switching to his ghostly vision and gasped quietly at the sight.

Strings of all sizes, colours, and thickness trailed down from the centre of the dome’s ceiling with all of the strings being loosely pulled together towards him. They were all twisted and coiled and wound tightly together into a thin gold thread connected to his chest. He held it up, running his fingers up and down the smooth material and squinting at its light that got brighter the closer he looked at it.

He slowly pulled it taut, going through the motions of inspection again, and then strummed it. He felt the small vibration echo in his core and watched as it moved along the line up to the dome, gaining more and more force as it went. He watched as it moved down to the other end of the strings, losing its speed and power the further it travelled.

The end of two strings were close by, one being a thick rope woven from fraying hairs the color of the forest floor in autumn and another being a smooth electrical wire with seamless light blue casing.

Sam and Tucker both shivered as their strings’ vibrations flowed over their bodies from where they were attached at their backs.

“Fuck, it’s cold,” Sam cursed, rubbing her sleeved arms. Tucker just curled up tighter in his blanket. “Danny, you coming?” They were connected. All of them. Maybe even the whole town considering how many strings were up there. And he could sense them, through their strings. When he held up Sam’s line, he could feel exhaustion and a need to be right, Tucker’s nearly mirroring hers exactly, but with more worries in the mix. He was probably thinking about the assignment due later that day. Danny should probably work on that later.

He was tempted, for a moment, to find his parents’ strings before dismissing the thought.

It should feel at least a little creepy, reading their emotions so freely like this, and he should maybe look into that later, but right now he just wanted to ignore his responsibilities for tomorrow and have a nice walk home with his friends.

Danny grinned. “Yeah, let’s head back.”

---

“A security blanket,” Danny deadpanned.

Clockwork hummed, flipping a page in a book. Danny has no doubt they’re not reading a single word of it. “That would be the nearest translation for it, yes.” “You’re saying all that,”—he mimed a dome and plucking strings—“was because I was worried about people so often, my ghost half just decided to make the equivalent of a baby monitor for every single person in Amity Park?”

“It’s more of an early warning system, really.” They held up their book a bit higher, hiding their mouth.

“Uh huh. Try saying that again without that smug look on your face.”

[andydona-chan]

Midnight Snack

Read at AO3!

Late ectober fanfic, there might be more to come, I’ll see what I can do, I want to make sure is complete in AO3 at least.

*-*-*-*

Wes couldn’t believe his eyes, what he saw in the video was something so extraordinary he couldn’t even believe it himself!

It wasn’t the footage he was expecting about Danny Fenton, though that was something he could still try to find, right now, however, he was going to run back the video and record with his phone what he could, this was gold!

Maybe it hadn’t been the most brilliant idea, to sneak inside the school at night to check on the security recordings, he had seen the room earlier that day and thought that if there was any other place to find evidence to finally uncover Fenton as Phantom. It was just after ten, he could use a couple of hours to work on this.

If it had been anyone else, maybe they would never know where to look, he went back to the videos from the dates Phantom started to show publicly, the first-ever mention of Phantom - Invis-o-bill, pfft - had been reported back in their first year, along with a ‘food ghost’, he was lucky the situation had been at the school or the recordings would be difficult to check, so armed with the dates of the ghosts attacks, first those at school and then the ones outside but during school days, he started checking the videos.

At first, he had felt a bit angry after noticing that at a certain point some videos had been modified or cut out, maybe Foley had managed to erase evidence, sometimes some kind of interference or different event was happening in front of the ‘evidence’, but who else would have done that … - was that a ticking clock? Anyway, he couldn’t have gone through every tape, there must have been some ‘blind spots’ that Foley chose to ignore.

He had been looking into that when ‘speaking of the devil’, walked into the school just shortly after the janitor left. Of course, they had been caught on camera cleaning after the whole ‘food ghost’ incident, but after the trio left, only the janitor had stayed behind. So what was Tucker Foley doing back at the school?

According to the video, it was around 8 pm on the recording, Foley had accessed from behind the school and had gone to the trash containers that still had the loads of meat that Danny and Sam had picked up, Wes had noticed that Tucker had only been allowed to pick up the vegetables. 

Part of the recording showed that Tucker indeed got himself in the container and tried to find the best pieces of meat or at least the ones that were almost complete or less damaged, it was gross, Wes had never considered that the boy would do something like that, he knew he liked meat, but this was excessive even for him.

However, Tucker didn’t just get his loot and leave, no, the boy piled it up and then sat down against the wall while playing with his PDA until much later, Wes had fast-forwarded to the point where things changed. The scene got illuminated, he couldn’t see it, but he was sure it was the moonlight, especially after what happened right after.

Foley stood up, he put his PDA in his bag and then placed it somewhere else, then he removed his boots, glasses, and cap, once he was down to only his clothes, he looked up to the sky…

Wes couldn’t hear it, but he could tell there was something affecting the recording if the blurry lines were something to go by, was it trembling? Was it the wind? Was it a howl? Going by how Foley started to shapeshift in front of the camera a moment later, it was a howl. 

Foley seemed to be going for a dramatic change, twisting and bending while the change took form, he became bigger, broader, hair started growing on his limbs, his back popped his t-shirt to shreds, his face must have been the biggest change, the snout of the wolf that looked back to the container seemed really scary and filled with long fangs, he sniffled the air for a moment and then looked back to the pile he had dug from the container and then he was on all fours like a wolf would do, but bigger and very intimidating.

Wes saw him eat the meat with some strange fascination, he couldn’t tell if he was impressed or scared, it was amazing, even more so since he was sure not even his friends knew about this… Many things would be really different if they knew, so when he got back to the point where Tucker accessed the school, he pressed record on the screen of his phone...

[iamaghost-fearme]

Ectober Day 29: Portal

Read on AO3

Maddie Fenton loved four things: her husband Jack, her daughter Jasmine, her son Danny, and her work as one of the world’s leading ectober-scientists. But lately she’d found it difficult to focus on her work whenever she was in her lab in the basement of her home.

Her and her husband had just finished their greatest achievement, a portal to the ghost zone. It was beautiful, a gleaming metal tunnel now filled with a swirling, eerie green glow. She should be spending every possible hour down in the lab taking samples and planning the experiments that were now possible with an unlimited supply of ectoplasm, but instead she found herself making excuses to work elsewhere. Especially if she was going to be down there without Jack.

It was difficult to put her finger on exactly what was wrong, but she kept returning to the ghost portal. As the only new addition to the lab, it was a logical answer. But what about it was so unnerving? One of her instruments finally picked up the answer during an experiment. Or more accurately, the tape recorder she was using for notes during the experiment picked it up. A faint echoing scream seemed to reverberate around the portal. A scream filled with pain and terror that had an uncanny ability to pass that terror on to whoever heard it. Perhaps this was the background noise of the ghost zone, the pain of all the departed souls trapped within.

Less than a week later, Maddie had a pair of thick, steel blast doors installed over the portal. She told Jack they were to keep the ghosts from using the portal to enter their world whenever they wanted, but their true purpose was to keep out the haunting scream. Satisfied that she could now work in the lab undisturbed, she happily went back to her work. That is, until she could feel the cold shiver down her spine that she had come to associate with that awful echo. Even if it couldn’t register to her ears, it seemed to follow her. She firmly shoved the fear aside to return her attention to the test tubes in front of her only for the sound to slowly creep back in.

Weeks later, Maddie was frustrated and at the end of her rope. She’d had no luck with any of her attempts to stop the echoing scream from filling the lab. Worst of all, Jack seemed oblivious. Every time they were in the lab together, the sound seemed to stop; no feelings of terror to be found. It was as though she were being very precisely driven to insanity. What could have possibly happened in her lab to cause such pain and create such a terrible echo

[datawyrms]

Ectober Day 5: Fairy Ring

Tucker wasn’t so bad, for a human. Maybe a little too prone to worrying about people who totally deserved a bit of demonic payback, but he’d get over that eventually. After all, apparently he just had other worlds in a box that only existed to be toys? Wasn’t that just what his parents thought of humans, really? Maybe they weren’t that different. Even if they were, his talent for blending in was quite helpful for a change, instead of a ‘pointless ability’ for a ‘unthreatening demon’ .

“You don’t gotta walk so close.”

“Really? Sam kept going on about keeping close.”

“Close doesn’t mean being my shadow, dude.”

Phantom blinked, double checking his hands were still much paler than they normally were. No problems there. “I’m...not being your shadow right now though.”

Tucker snorted “Not literally, I mean you’re walking close enough that you’ll bump into me if I stop or something.”

Humans and their personal space. He was small enough to hitch a ride most of the time, but he wasn’t going to tell his humans that. No reason to make them think he’s some puny creature. “If you say so.” He turned his attention back to the grass, checking for any new animals he might have missed. He couldn’t help it, it was just hilarious how most of the creatures with many limbs were so tiny over here! Maybe ‘more’ wasn’t better on this side. See? Four was totally a fine amount of limbs. Or well. Two, most of the time.

“Have you never seen grass before? You’re more into it than Sam, and I swear she’d eat it.”

“I’ve seen grass. Just not a lot of it.” Or, to be more honest, he saw the burned remains of grass before. Or never really had the time to realize little creatures lived in it. “Doesn’t look more gross than anything else you eat.”

Tucker put a hand over his chest, gasping in outrage. “Now I see how you’re a demon, scorning the most beautiful of foods. I know you were totally watching at lunch!”

“Food is gross. Though yours didn’t try to eat you, I guess.”

“Dude, you are doing something seriously wrong if your food is trying to eat you.”

“How do you get anything out of something that doesn’t fight back?” That just sounded weird. You couldn’t get stronger without taking it from something else. Heard that chestnut enough it was practically imprinted on his brain.

“Well someone made the food, so maybe that’s close enough?” The geek shrugged, adjusting his glasses. “Do you have another name? I can’t really call you Phantom around my parents, it sounds weird.”

“My name isn’t weird!” It wasn’t any weirder than Sam or Tucker or Dash.

“It’s weird for humans, and you’re pretending to be one, remember?”

“I don’t really have another one that you could pronounce.” Human throats didn’t work that way, he tried.

Tucker rubbed his chin, turning to take another look at him and choosing to walk backwards. “Well how about-”

Phantom cut him off with a low hiss, fixated on the mushrooms he’d spotted. If human ears weren’t so small and rounded, he’d be lowering them right now. “You could have stepped in that!”

The teen jumped a little at the rebuke, but frowned on spotting the ring of fungus. “They’re just mushrooms.”

“How do you not know a fairy ring when you see it?”

“By not thinking fairies exist?” Tucker paused again. “Wait, so they do?”

Honestly. His humans were very uninformed about very important topics. Which should make his life easier, if he just wanted them gone and to be free to do whatever he wanted again...but he’d have no way back to this side either. “Unfortunately.”

“What’s so scary about tiny bug people? You allergic?”

“Fae are just demons with better PR.” Phantom wrinkled his nose, half gagging at the thought of having to deal with one. “At least we’re honest about how we want to screw you over.”

Tucker didn’t look all that impressed, instead typing something into that PDA box of this. “Sam will think this is hilarious.”

He bristled, still edging away from the ring. “Won’t be so funny when they dance you to death, or take you to a fancy banquet as the meal.”

“Like a demon totally wouldn’t do that?”

“Well I wouldn’t. They don’t even make a contract, they just go ‘oh that’s good enough’ and wham, now you’re caged up and being treated like a pet.”

Tucker peered into his eyes at that, an odd look crossing his face. “Sounds like you’re speaking from experience, Phantom.”

“Not personal experience!” He lied, crossing his arms to hide how his claws had sprung out at the accusation. “It’s just my job to protect you, so I’m warning you. Don’t go making stuff up.”

“So this is the half of the time you’re being helpful.” Tucker prodded, but Phantom only grit his teeth in response. 

“Yes. So stay clear or whatever.” Since he probably couldn’t do much if a strong enough one stole his humans. Not yet, anyway. If he hadn’t been lucky enough to have a sibling who gave a damn...nope. Didn’t matter.

“Sure thing! But seriously, we need another name for you.” Tucker resumed walking, making sure to keep far away from the mushrooms, easing some of Phantom’s worries. Too bad he had no idea what to say about that name thing.

[murphy-kitt]

Masterlist for Ectober 2021

Day 1: Treat

Day 2: Scream

Day 3: Cryptid

Day 4: Goo

Day 5: Ouija Board

Day 6: Witching Hour

Day 7: Abyss

Day 8: Splatter / Poison

Day 9: Mask

Day 13: Void

Day 15: Blessing

Day 18: Spider Lily (four parter with Headstone/Autopsy/Burial)

Day 25: Headstone

Day 26: Autopsy

Day 27: Burial

Day 31: Insomnia

I didn’t even wanna do Ectober at the start, so I’m very happy with what I have done even if I didn’t complete it.

Headstone, Autopsy and Burial aren’t complete yet, but they’re connected to Spider Lily so the links for them three don’t matter.

[ifyoufindthishi]

Day four of ectober

Pharaoh tucker. I love seeing all the pharaoh tucks out there. I thought it fit the glitter day.

[reading-wanderer]

Ectober Day 31: Insomnia

Content Warnings: threats to eat sentient beings (namely Danny)

Danny has his first encounter with Fae. It doesn’t go well. Luckily for him, Vlad’s just a bit too exhausted to really take advantage.

Ectober Masterlist

Danny glared at the tart thing sitting on his desk. He had managed to hide it from his parents, but the scent had been taunting him for days. His mouth watered every time he caught the scent of it and, despite being days old at this point, it still looked just as good as it had when Vlad had handed it to him.

Maybe if he just— No! Danny shoved himself away from his desk as he realized just how close he’d been getting to the thing and started pacing around the room. When that didn’t help, he flopped down on his bed with a groan. Between school, ghost attacks, and the stupid tart, he hadn’t been getting nearly enough sleep to deal with this.

Sam and Tucker agreed that it was probably some trick, but he hadn’t gotten a chance to ask any ghosts he trusted about it. Heck, at this point he was tempted to ask the Box Ghost about it. His one attempt to ask Ember had only made him more confused when she yelled “What!” and shot back into the Ghost Zone on her own.

With a growl, Danny pushed up from his bed and shoved the thing back into the box he’d been hiding it in and shoved the box under his bed. “That’s it,” he switched from human to ghost with a tug on his core and a flash of light, “either he tells me what the stupid tart’s about, or I walk right into whatever trap he has set up. Easy.”

With one last sight and a forlorn stare at his bed, Danny phased through the wall and started off towards Wisconsin. If everything went well he’d be there and back with plenty of time to sleep it off in the morning. If not, well, at least it was Friday.

-x-X-x-X-x-

Danny sighed in relief as the beginning of the forest near Vlad’s castle started stretching out before him. “Almost there,” he consoled himself as his eyes attempted to close on him. “Just gotta,” he yawned widely, “make it there, confront the Fruitloop, and then I can go home and sleep.” At least the moon was full, casting light on the trees below.

Then, as he he started dipping lower in anticipation of arriving at the castle, the sound of barking and howling caught his attention. “wha—” he started yawning again only to flinch back as a dark shape darted from the trees below with a loud screech.

“Of course it was a trap,” Danny hissed as he dodged the creature diving for him, “Watch it, Bird Brain.” His hands lit up with ectoplasm, giving him a better look at it. The creature had a beak and wings, but that was where the similarities between it and birds stopped. It had five violet eyes, two on either side and one in the middle, two sets of wings, and four sets of claws.

Danny yelped as the thing gave another screech and lunged for him again. Danny threw himself to the side and threw an ectoblast at the creature’s flank. The creature didn’t even flinch, just turning its head and hissing out, “ghost whelp,” as it circled around him.

“Yeah, and what’s that make you,” he goaded, pooling ectoplasm in his hands, “some kind of freaky chimera thing?”

Five violet eyes narrowed as the creature let out a rumbling hiss. Its claws lit up with purple light. “Impertinent whelp, you will make a good meal.” Danny yelped as spears of purple light flew from its claws. He dropped rapidly in an attempt to avoid them, but the spears were right on his heels. His legs merged into a spectral tail as he pushed himself as fast as he could.

He dipped down into the forest proper, hoping to get the attacks to run into the trees as he phased through them, but they just dodged around until— “Fuck!” Danny yelled as one of them hit him in the tail. The pain slowed him down momentarily, allowing the others to hit him all at once. He crashed down to the ground with a groan of pain.

The creature landed next to him with a croaking laugh. “Such young prey, tender and rich. What should I eat first?” the creature hummed, pouncing on his prone form and pinning him with its claws, “But first, we can’t have our prey running off.” Purple light flashed through the area and Danny screamed as what felt like liquid fire surrounded his core and cut him off from his powers. The area flashed with light once more as he was forced back into his human form.

The creature flinched back momentarily, its eyes widening, before leaning in close. Danny winced as the scent of blood and rot washed over his face. The creature chittered, “A dual core? Rare, Delicious prey just for us. A very fortuitous day indeed.” Danny struggled under the creature’s grasp, trying to pull on his core despite the pain. The creature clicked its beak, raising up onto four legs and showing off the claws of its other four limbs. Danny struggled wildly and yelled, “No, let go of me! Let. GO.”

The creature chuckled seemingly in delight, “No!”

A growl echoed through the clearing.

The creature went still above him. With a loud squawk, the creature scrambled off of him and attempted to take flight when a large white form threw itself into the creature, growling and biting as the first creature screeched. Danny took advantage of its misfortune and scrambled to his feet. He could hear the creatures fighting and tearing into each other as he bolted. A howl rose up behind him, quickly followed by the same barking he had noticed before.

He aimed for Vlad’s castle as best he could and and hoped like hell that Vlad knew how to deal with these things. Trap or not, he’d take the guy trying to forcibly adopt him over the thing trying to eat him any day.

——————

Vlad stalked through the halls of his home, glaring out of each window he passed. The Summer Amulet around his neck poured off heat like a furnace. He was actually warm, for once, which was about the only pleasant thing about the whole situation. He could hear the Wild Hunt out in the forest, could feel the magic dancing in the air. The transfer of power between the Autumn and Winter courts had not been… amicable this year. The Winter Lord was on the prowl.

The tension had been driving him practically to insanity since the day after Halloween. His wards had been checked and rechecked almost every hour and he had taken to wearing the amulet even when he tried to sleep. Emphasis on tried. The chances of his spirit being swept from his bed and conscripted into the Wild Hunt, as slim as they were, had made him too tense to actually do so.

Vlad sighed, leaning against the wall and rubbed his eyes. The full moon was out. They were at the peak of their power. Hopefully, this would be the end of it. Tomorrow, he promised himself, tomorrow he’d sleep all day.

Weston, his assistant, was probably pissed that Vlad had cleared his schedule for a week and a half after he had returned from delivering Daniel’s present. He was about half way through that vacation time, though, and Vlad knew he had made the right choice. He pushed himself from the wall and started wandering down towards the kitchen. He still had some filing left from making the desserts for Daniel and Skulker and, while he wasn’t particularly hungry, it would help recharge his energy.

Skulker had ‘accidentally’ brought him the recipe for Kin Tarts the last time he had requested information on ghost culture. They were a traditional gift for the Ghost Zone’s version of All Souls’ Day as a way to reaffirm familial and pseudo-familial ties. Daniel had probably destroyed it, he knew, but there was a sort of glee in knowing he had been tempted to at least try it.

Skulker, at least, had been appreciative. Vlad had also considered making one for Ember, but she was banned from the castle, again, for helping the Dairy King smuggle more Cheese Flies into the Castle, again. The kitchen tile was cold against his feet, though it warmed quickly with the heat of the Amulet pouring off of him. Likewise, the bowl of filling he pulled from the fridge warmed quickly under his hands. He pulled a spoon from the drawer and went to dig in when a familiar ectosignature appeared on the edge of his sensory range.

The spoon clattered to the counter as Vlad bolted from the room.

-x-X-x-X-x-

Danny ran as fast as he could. His heart pounded in his chest as the baying of the things behind him seemed to come closer and closer with every step. He almost sobbed with relief when the trees parted before him and Vlad’s castle came into view. His legs were burning almost as badly as his core and he could feel his heart beating like it was going to burst from his chest.

He could practically feel the creatures’ breath against his back as he ran across Vlad’s lawn towards the front door when, suddenly, they started yelping and whining. Danny skidded to a stop, panting. Hew turned, finally getting a good look at the creatures that had been chasing him in the light of the blue fire that now separated him from them. There were three of them, all bright white with blue eyes. They almost looked like dogs, if he squinted. Their forms were long and sleek with faces full of long, sharp fangs that snapped ominously at the open air. They seemed to fluctuate between having four, six and eight legs while blue eyes opened and closed all along their bodies.

Danny jumped as something grabbed his arm. His core jolted in his chest, sending another shock of pain down his spine as he instinctively tried to switch forms again. “Daniel,” Vlad said sharply, staring down at Danny with bloodshot eyes. His hand was hot, almost burning against Danny’s already overheated skin, “walk inside and don’t look back.” Danny shivered as the creatures’ whines suddenly went silent. As soon as Vlad released his arm, Danny was bolting towards the open door, sure that the things would be on him again at any moment.

It wasn’t until he was inside the castle that he realized that Vlad hadn’t followed him in. Danny whirled around just in time to see Vlad walk straight up to the blue flames. There were more creatures there, some more solid while others’ forms shifted and changed like smoke in the wind. Some were vaguely person shaped while others looked more like horses or maybe deer. The largest was alternatively like a pillar of black smoke and an obsidian sculpture, looming high over the fire wall. Next to the fire and that Thing, Vlad looked tiny, his posture stiff and arms tucked into the small of his back. He was only wearing a pair of packers themed sleep pants and it was the first time Danny could remember seeing him without a suit.

The heat of Vlad’s house almost felt like it was choking him as he watched the largest creature reach through the fire. Danny tensed up as the creature made contact with Vlad’s cheek. A cold wind blew through and the blue flames dipped momentarily before surging back to their original height. A sound like broken glass echoed through the air and the creatures slowly started peeling away, first the dog things, baying and nipping at each other as they ducked back into the woods. Then the horse like ones reared up before charging off into the darkness after them. The others seem to just drift away, there one moment and gone the next. The large one was the last to go, pulling its hand back slowly through the flames and seemingly saying something that had Vlad take two steps back before it too faded into the shadows of the night.

———————

Vlad watched the Winter Lord sulk back into the shadows of the forest, the creature’s parting words were little more than gibberish to him when his panic was seated so high in his chest that he could barely breath through it. He knew the Summer Amulet was probably burning a hole into his chest from the amount of energy he had poured into it to fend off the Lord’s little test.

His core ached and his exhaustion weighed on him like a physical thing. He could feel his stomach rolling already from the overexertion of his powers. Butter Biscuits, he hasn’t felt this wrung out in years. The scientist in him was clamoring to write down his findings, but the rest of him felt like he would fall to pieces at any moment.

As the flames of his wards finally died down, Vlad turned and stalked back into the castle. He almost groaned in displeasure when he saw Daniel, pale faced and shaking, staring out of the door. Goodie Gumdrops, he was so tired. He just wanted to collapse on his bed, not baby a fourteen year old. What was Daniel even doing out during a full moon, let alone while a Wild Hunt was going on, anyway?

As Vlad walked closer, the boy finally seemed to snap out of his shock as his face shifted into something more weary and accusing. “What were those things,” Daniel demanded and Vlad didn’t know whether he wanted to throttle the boy or hide him somewhere safe.

“The Fair Folk,” Vlad said pointedly as he shoved Daniel further into the foyer and closed the door behind himself, “can still hear you. Don’t insult them, don’t draw attention to them, and don’t try to fight them.” Message passed on, Vlad turned his attention back to the amulet as he pulled it from his skin. The pendant lifted from his chest with a deeply unpleasant noise, taking a ring of melted flesh with it. Not the worst he’s ever had, Vlad decided after a cursory glance. He hadn’t even felt it, really, though whether that can be more attributed to his core’s desire for high temperatures or the nerve damage he knows he should have by now is a thought for later.

He could hear Daniel make a sound of disgust and rolled his eyes. The hesitant, “Are you okay?” that followed was more appropriate, but Vlad, between the stress of the whole situation and several days of sleep deprivation, couldn’t help but snap.

“I would be much better,” he sneered, “if you hadn’t so stupidly tossed yourself into the middle of a Wild Hunt.”

“I don’t even know what that is!” Daniel shouted back.

“What? You idiot father too stupid to teach you how to avoid the Fair Folk?” Vlad sneered. He had lived with Jack for three years. He had told the buffoon how to avoid Fae. Vlad’s core burned because of course their friendship hadn’t been real, of course Jack had just been humoring him. He knew it already and yet it still hurt.

“Don’t call him that,” Daniel growled, fists clenched at his sides, “He’s not stupid.”

“Oh, he just left you ignorant to very real danger on purpose then?” Vlad asked before rolling his eyes and stalking off towards the kitchen once more. He could hear Daniel scramble after him, but it brought him no pleasure or amusement.

“Hey! What are you talking about?” Vlad ignored him. His stomach had finally stopped rolling and the tart filling in the kitchen was practically calling for him. Daniel was as safe as he could be in this situation. As long as he stayed in the castle, the Fae couldn’t touch him and, given the magic Vlad could feel suppressing his core, there was no way he’d be able to escape the building without Vlad noticing. “You know what, I don’t care,” Daniel snapped as he caught up with Vlad, “just tell me where the portal is and I’ll get out of you hair.”

“Oh please,” Vlad called his bluff, “we both know that if you could still switch forms, you wouldn’t have been running from the hunters.” Daniel made a noise of frustration and Vlad had to resist the urge to smack him. “The spell should wear off when the Wild Hunt ends.”

“Yeah, and when is that,” Daniel snarked, “I didn’t exactly tell my parents that I was sneaking out.” Vlad hesitated. “You don’t know,” the boy realized with wide eyes.

“If I knew how they decided when to start and end their hunts, I wouldn’t have stayed up for several days straight,” Vlad grumbled before he could think better of it. He had been hoping it would all be over after tonight, sure, but… Vlad resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose, he was going to have to call Jack and Maddie to pick the boy up, wasn’t he? “Just go pick a guest room and go to sleep,” Vlad sighed, “there are some down that hall.” He waved vaguely in the direction of the rooms before continuing his trek to the kitchen.

Thankfully, it wasn’t much farther down. The pink filling on the counter was a delicious temptation, but Vlad had not gotten as far as he had in life by avoiding unpleasant tasks. The idea of waking Jack from his sleep and forcing him on an hours long drive at least made the task a bit sweeter. If he was lucky, maybe the buffoon would get to the castle early enough for the Fae to grab him and cart him off to the Fae Wilds.

His landline started bubbling around the edges almost as soon as he grabbed it, so Vlad set it on the counter before him and started poking in the Fenton’s phone number with the spoon. Setting the thing on speaker, he finally started dipping into his long awaited snack. The flavor was good, delicious even, though the fact that it was his own ectosignature pressed into the ghostly food left him feeling a bit hollow. It was fine. Everything was fine—

“Hello?” A groggy voice answered the phone, not Jack or Maddie, but Jasmine.

“Hello Jasmine,” he hummed, “could you grab your parents for me?” He could hear the sharp intake of breath over the phone as the girl recognized his voice.

“What do you want,” she asked lowly and Vlad almost laughed at her attempt to be threatening.

“Nothing you can help with, I’m afraid,” he mocked before becoming serious once more, “just go grab your parents. I need to speak with them.”

She hesitated a moment before apparently turning from the phone shouting, “Mom, Dad? Vlad’s on the phone.” Vlad took the pause to take a few more bites of his food, the ache of overexertion easing with each spoonful even as his mood grew steadily more foul as the situation truly started to sink in.

He could hear them stomping closer. Jasmine must have put their phone on speaker as well. It’s only once he hears Maddie let out a sleepy, “Jazz?” That he finally speaks.

“Would either of you care to tell me how, exactly, Daniel managed to get abducted by the Fair Folk and thrown into a Wild Hunt without any knowledge whatsoever of what they are or how dangerous they can be?”

———————

Danny watched Vlad from the doorway of the kitchen in the same sort of awe normally reserved for car accidents as Vlad thoroughly reamed out not only Danny’s Dad, but his Mom as well. If he hadn’t already realized how dangerous those things out there were, this certainly would have hammered it home.

Vlad’s eating something that looks suspiciously similar to the filling of the tart he gave Danny the other day which doesn’t really answer any questions, but means he probably won’t die or something if he accidentally eats the thing. It’s… easier to focus on that than the realization that his parents keeping things from him and Jazz almost killed him a second time. Vlad seemed focused on it enough for both of them anyway— he kept shoving it in his parents’ faces at the very least.

Danny jumped as his long forgotten phone suddenly started buzzing in his pocket. The word Dad emblazoned across the screen had Danny scrambling back and away from the doorway where Vlad and his mom were caught in a yelling match about magic. “Dad?” He asked as soon as he could get the phone to his ear.

“Danny,” his dad sounded seconds from bursting into tears, “are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay.”

“Um. Yeah. I’m. I’m okay,” his throat felt tight and his eyes ached, “I. They didn’t hurt me. I got to Vlad’s place before they could catch me.” He could hear the yelling match in surround sound now, but he didn’t miss the sigh of relief that his father gave off or the sniffling that followed.

“Fuck,” the explicative made Danny jump in surprise, “I’m so so sorry Danny. V-man was always so terrified of those things in college. He use to have all these little habits that were suppose to ward them off. I guess they worked, because your mother and I never saw them. I guess we just thought they didn’t really exist.” Danny had so many questions, but a snarl followed by silence from the kitchen distracted him just long enough that his Dad gave him a quick, “we’re heading out now. We should be able to pick you up first thing in the morning. Love you Danno,” before hanging up.

Danny was still staring at his phone when Vlad stalked out of the kitchen. Vlad still looked vaguely pissed off, but he just rolled his eyes when he found Danny standing there. The weird black claw-mark tattoos around his neck almost looked like they were glowing next to the gold chain of his weird, burning necklace. Danny winced as the necklace shifted and showed off the steadily growing burns beneath. Vlad didn’t even seem to notice as he grabbed Danny’s shoulder and practically dragged him down the hall.

Vlad seemed to pick a room at random, opening the door and practically shoving Danny in. “Since you had such a hard time picking a room on your own,” Vlad snipped, “you can just use this one. Stay here go to sleep. Your parents will come get you in the morning.” Danny glared, but before he could argue, Vlad practically slammed the door closed.

Neither of them really got any sleep that night.

[ectoentity]

Depths

Ectober 2021 Day 7: Abyss vs Swamp

Fandom: Danny Phantom

Rating: G

Characters: Danny Fenton

Tags: Angst, monsters, the Ghost Zone

How far does the Ghost Zone go?

Read on AO3 here.

He floated down. At least, Danny thought it was down. There wasn’t really any such thing in the ghost zone. Up and down were all based on perspective. Gravity didn’t really exist unless you thought it should. The top of the portal was what he thought of as up, so that meant he was going down.

It had been hours since he started. Danny didn’t really have a plan, except to get away from the human world. He didn’t want to go to his few allies. Frostbite always treated him like a celebrity. At first Danny had thought that was cool, but he was starting to realize that it was a little grating. He wasn’t a “great one.” He was just a teenager in way over his head. On the other hand, Clockwork treated him like way too much of a kid. Like he didn’t know anything. The only other place he could think to go was Mattingly, but Princess Dora didn’t need his petty drama when she was trying to run a kingdom. 

So instead of going somewhere he knew was safe, Danny was floating down into the ghost zone, as far as he could. He had never been in this direction before. Normally when he and his friends came into the zone, they went straight out of the portal. If the infinite realms followed the same topology as Earth, that meant they were still basically staying on the crust of the planet.

The Infinite Realms didn’t really follow Earth’s land or size, though. Danny went past islands and doors that, by all Earthly physics, should have been in the mantle. It didn’t make any sense, but that was just how it worked. Ghosts were weird, and the ghost zone was even weirder.

The further down he went, the stranger it got. Danny had to hide a couple times from monstrous creatures that floated through the green depths. Some looked like animals, twisted into barely recognizable forms. Others didn’t make any sense whatsoever. There was one creature that looked like a sack with four arms attached to its opening, grasping senselessly through the void. Another was just a spinal cord, but twenty feet long and dripping with ectoplasmic blood.

He should have turned back. Frustrating as it could be to work with his allies, they were better than the unknown. 

Danny kept going.

He came to rest on a strange island. It was made of rough stone with no vegetation at all. He was used to islands that had a tree or two, and at least a few tufts of grass. This was completely alien to the zone that he was familiar with. He looked around. There was nothing in the sky except a few more rocky islands. Even the strange monsters were long gone. This whole area felt utterly empty. 

Danny felt like he was the only person in the universe down here. Like his parents weren’t out for his blood. Like he wasn’t failing English and dangerously close to getting a D in English. Like he didn’t have to worry about disappointing his friends. It was lonely, but it was peaceful. 

What would happen if he kept going?

[archaeopter-ace]

(waves hello!!!) North Salem Possibilities? for the wip thing?

(waves enthusiastically!)

North Salem Possibilities is a Danny Phantom crossover with the X-Men universe. The first chapter was written for an Ectober prompt, and based a bit off my own experience being too anxious to tell my parents I wanted to go to a particular school. The title comes from where Xavier's school is canonically located (North Salem, in Westchester County, NY), though I'm actually thinking of changing the title because I don't know how obscure that tidbit is, and how many people read 'Salem' and think I'm writing a story with witches in it.

I decided to expand it from being a one-shot to get to the actual #Identity Reveal, without any plans to actually write Danny-at-Xavier's-school, because it has been A While since I've engaged with X-Men material.

Then I got to thinking about what class schedules would look like, and whelp - here's a summary of my notes:

To begin with, Xavier’s is a private school and therefore does not have to adhere to federal or state curriculum standards. Most private schools follow the Common Core and NGSS standards anyway, because they prepare you for standardized tests like the SAT and ACT, but they aren’t legally required to, and I think Professor X would take advantage of this to make sure his students got the education they really need.

At the high school level, instead of four years of Math and English, Xavier students might only take two years of each, which frankly is enough to be getting by on. This frees up room in their schedule to take the required four years of Ethics and four years of Home Economics (or Life Sciences, or whatever they’re calling it these days).

The need for Ethics is hopefully self-evident (great power, great responsibility. Also studies show that students who take a Philosophy class do better in unrelated subjects like math, so that's a win-win).

I say they need four years of Life Sciences as well because a lot of the kids at Xaviers are runaways, or otherwise don’t have a support network at home to teach them the basics of taking care of themselves, like doing laundry, balancing a checkbook, all that good stuff. Xavier knows all his students need to learn to be self-reliant, because the cards are stacked against them.

On top of that, the way some of their bodies transform as their mutation develops, they might straight-up need occupational therapy to relearn how to do basic tasks for themselves, like learning how to write now with fingers that are long razor-sharp daggers, that sort of thing. This specialized, personalized training could fall under the Life Sciences umbrella as well.

[phantomphangphucker]

Ectober Day 10: Ring - Heavy On The Heart, Light Upon The Head

Maddie worries over Danny plenty and he’s more than a little strange. But ghost royalty seems to be taking things a bit far. Yet somehow, it suits him.

Maddie knows something’s up with her son. Has been for a while. Two years at least. And she has a bad feeling ghosts have something to do with it.

He was stronger, bolder in personality and she knows his baggy clothing hides defined muscle. More muscle than either her or Jack have. She doesn’t know exactly how that happened. But the muscle she could understand to a level, same with the scarring she occasionally spots. Ghosts had plagued this town for nearly four years now. And the school was a hot spot. Self-defence was a required class now and everyone frequently had to run or even possibly fight. Every single person was stronger, Danny just seemed more so than others. She could maybe pass it off as genetics from Jack; who had always had an easy time putting on muscle... and fat.

What concerned her more was the mental changes. The increased confidence and boldness was one thing, not strange in the slightest for a teen nearing adulthood. But it was more than that. He had this wise air about him. Not smart, but wise. Something she once felt off of her grandmother. To get that from her son was strange and wrong. Not bad, just wrong. And that air about him felt powerful too, and commanding. It was as if an army commander had just walked into the room half the time. And the way he would look at people, soft and protective. Like he really was a soldier coming upon a group of sweet innocent children. Even relaxing or lounging around, it still seemed like power thrummed under his skin. And talking to him often made her feel like he knew things she didn’t and that he knew that she didn’t know what he did. But it wasn’t pompous. It was more like an adult protecting the innocent mind of a child. In Jack’s case, she could understand a little. Jack could be a little naive and oblivious. But her? Danny shouldn’t be able to make her feel that way so easily, and clearly unintentionally.

It was strange. It was off. And it didn’t make sense. Sometimes he didn’t even seem to resemble the boy he used to be.

As for why she thought ghosts might have something to do with why? Well looking at him at the supper table... It’s late October. The sun is setting. And the lights were broken this morning. Leaving the fading dark orange sunlight as the only thing lighting up the mess of noddles, her son, and her. Jack off fixing the lighting situation and Jazz off at Havard. And in this dark light, she notices that ring of his, the one he’s worn like it’s attached to him for the past year, is glowing. It’s green and it’s glowing. It’s faint, but it’s there. So that’s why she thinks he’s gotten involved with something ghostly; and that it’s changed him. Because that ring is absolutely ghostly in origin.

The first thought that enters her head as she pauses, spoon halfway to her open mouth, is: could that be possessing him? Or allowing a ghost to? The second is: did he steal that from some ghost? Those thoughts should be in the opposite order, but they’re not. Because something’s off with Danny.

Her eyes move from the ring to Danny, finishing the motions of putting the noodles in her mouth while he moves his left hand under the table. Obviously he noticed she noticed. Obviously he knew something was up with the ring and was hiding it. Obviously he didn’t want her commenting on it or being suspicious of it. Was that something to be concerned over? Or suspicious of? Did that mean there was, in fact, something nefarious surrounding the ring or why he wears it? She’s unsure, and other than moving his hand out of her line of sight, he doesn’t outwardly acknowledge her suspicions. He successfully made the motion look nonchalant. Normal. But she can’t let that make her feel better or trick her into thinking he didn’t actually notice her pause. Because she knows how good of a liar he is. How skilled of an actor he was. Could that be the doing of the ring? But that wouldn’t quite make sense, he’s been changing, changed, for a while. It’s just become more pronounced as of late.

She needs to think.

But in all honestly? Thinking hasn’t been doing her much good. All she’s done with Danny is think. Think on his changes. On if the ghost problem affected him. On if he really could ever become a hunter, take over FentonWorks. On a lot of things. And it had gotten her nowhere with him. It was like no matter how much she stared at the puzzle, she couldn’t put it together. Like too many pieces were missing or damaged to make any sense of the whole. And how is she supposed to figure out what those missing pieces were if she couldn’t even understand the whole? She couldn’t. So maybe she should try something different. Though Jack was always the more vocal and bold one, she could do that too. And sure, she could ask Jack to talk to him, but he didn’t put enough thought into things. Didn’t notice the finer details. And with Danny, those finer details were everything.

Like how he was eating just slightly faster. Clearly wanting out of this situation before she decided to speak up or maybe noticed something else. Saw a different glimpse of the mystery that was her son. If he even was her son.

She tries not to follow him with her eyes suspiciously as he gets up to put away his dishes. Choosing to speak up just before he actually crosses the threshold to the living-room, “your ring is glowing”. No beating around the bush, give him as little to work with as possible. And if he keeps walking now it would not only be very rude but also effectively an act of running away. No way would his pride allow for that. Whether that pride was from plain old confidence or ghostly in nature.

As she hoped and planned he pauses, stilling for a second before turning his head back to her; body only turned slightly to her, hiding his entire left side from her view. “Oh?”. Guess he was giving her as little to work with as possible too.

Maddie nods softly, better to not seem on the offensive, “yes it is. No the question is, why?”.

He’s silent for a bit before, “no reason, Halloween knick-knacks like copying ghosts. Especially around here”, shrugging, “glow-sticks are pretty popular after all”.

Maddie can’t help sighing at that. She could throw in the towel and just leave it at that. Just accept the blatant lie. Stay ignorant. The look Danny’s giving her is obviously encouraging her to do just that. It’s the kind of look given to children when they ask where babies come from when they’re honestly still too young. But with more... pity. Just the thing is, if she doesn’t ask now. Doesn’t grab the small thread that’s unraveled from his tightly woven cover before he snips it off. Then she’ll never know. And not just about the ring specifically, but Danny as a whole.

If she ignores this now, she’ll have to write him off as a lost cause. And based on that look on his face and the fact that he’s still standing there, waiting on her. Tells her that he knows that too. So to her that leaves her with no choice. He’s her son, or maybe was, and she won’t leave him behind. If this is some ghost possessing him or polluting him, then she’ll save him. And if it’s not, then she’ll go from there. “Danny, please. I know that’s a lie”.

Danny blinks at her, and he looks like he can’t decide between a smile and a frown. He catches her completely off guard though, “yeah. Yeah it was”, and chuckles. Lifting up his left hand and looking down at the glowing ring before looking back to her, “I’m surprised it took you so long to notice”, chuckling some more.

If it wasn’t for the clear humour behind his words she’d almost feel offended. Her, a ghost hunter, not noticing something ghostly. That was absolutely embarrassing. But Danny didn’t make it feel like she should be embarrassed about it. She’s oddly thankful over that. “If I scanned that, would it have an ecto-field”, there’s no point framing that as a question. The answer was obvious to both of them honestly.

Danny looks around, rubs his neck, and gives an oddly charming lopsided grin. Chuckling, “heh. Caught me?”.

Maddie blinks at that. Just like that? That... that didn’t even make sense. It usually took teeth-pulling to get Danny to be fully honest. And a ghost wouldn’t give up that easily; especially not around a ghost hunter. Getting up, “just like that? I mean, you know I’m not going to be happy you’ve got something ghostly on you. Ghostly of unknown origin at that”.

Danny shrugs, “no point really”, lifting up his left hand again and thumbing the ring to spin it around his finger. It was plain unnatural how smoothly and easily it spins around. Like it was slick and flawlessly fitted. “It’s kinda noticeable, and like you said, you are ghost hunters. I don’t think I genuinely could convince you it wasn’t ghostly”.

Maddie furrows her eyebrows at that, “picking your battles. Is that all it is”.

“Yes and no. Part of me was wondering if you ever would notice. And if you’d even be bothered to ask”.

Maddie can’t help but flinch at that. She knows she hasn’t been the most attentive mother. She knows that. She also knows she hasn’t given Danny all the support and help he probably needed when he was younger. Jazz thrived so much on her own, preferred that. In some ways she had just thought Danny would be the same. And sure, in some ways it does look like he’s thrived; is actively thriving. But he clearly wants her, needs her, in way Jazz never did and never would. But he’s always been so hard to read, to know. You could always tell what Jazz was thinking, how she felt; and if it wasn’t obvious then you bet she would make it obvious. While everything with Danny was just out of arms reach. Danny didn’t put the first foot forward with them the way Jazz did. Danny didn’t pounce on openings to make his thoughts and feelings known the way Jazz did. She needed to chase after him; but he always seemed to pull away more or throw up a wall. Maybe she just hadn’t tried hard enough? Or maybe he had just grown up. Maddie puts away her dishes, turning away from him, “sorry. I just never know what to do with you”, looking back to him, “you're just so...”.

Danny quirks an eyebrow, and finishes her thoughts for her, “strange?”.

Maddie sighs, a bit relived to hear him acknowledge that himself, and nods. Sitting back at the table, “yeah”, looking to his hand and the ring, “that ring. Can you take it off? Can I see it?”.

“That depends”, Danny actually smirks a little, “will you try to destroy it?”.

Maddie can’t help chuckling at that a little, that was blunt but he did have a point. She will absolutely admit to being a bit... rash when it comes to ghostly anything. But she knows Danny doesn’t like it when they get on about the evils of ghosts. And more than once that feeling of him knowing something has nagged at her during those rants. Jazz too, but Jazz always had an air of knowledge around her. And here and now, she’s positive that Danny will refuse outright if she even seems like she’ll damage this ring thing. So she shakes her head, “no”, thinking on it a little, “you’ve been wearing that for a while now. Constantly. Obviously there’s a reason or it’s important”, sighing, “I though it might be a gift from Valerie or even Vlad”. Danny becoming friendly with Vlad still threw her through a loop. Especially since it happened out of nowhere. And his girlfriend could honestly be downright intimidating. She could see either of them giving him a ring with a skull on it, even if the skull looked sad for some reason.

Danny laughs a bit loudly at that, “Vlad would let Jack punch him in the face before giving me this”. Maddie’s not sure what to make of that. “But in that case, then okay”, and walks over to the table, twisting the ring off and eyeing it for a bit before setting it down on the table; it making a loud click like it weighed a lot more than it seemed.

Maddie eyes it, making no move to grab it, “so Vlad knows what this is”, Danny was obviously implying as much. But honestly? Right now she’s just glad he can take the thing off. That means it’s not possessing him. Doesn’t eliminate influencing him though. And if this was something that belonged to a ghost overshadowing him then there’s no way It would hand it over to a ghost hunter. None.

Danny nods, “he never did lose interest in ghosts. He’s more into the mythology and history though, than biology and weaponry. More anthropologist than hunter”. Maddie looks up to him as he sits down across from her. Him nodding his head at the ring still sitting on the table, “that’s very old. In a way”, smirking and eyeing her a bit, “it’s not going to bite you know”.

Maddie gives him a look clearly saying with ghost things anything could possibly bite or harm. But she does pick it up, thumbing it and bringing it close to her face to inspect; though being a bit cautious about it, “if you say so”. Danny chuckles at that, “I do”. Which fine, does make her laugh a little.

Flipping the ring around, it really did just seem like a glowing ring. That’s it. Nothing seemed special about it. Of course she knew better. Ghostly things, and ghosts in general, could often be unassuming. So that didn’t really mean much. “What is it exactly?”.

Danny deadpans, “a ring”, making Maddie give him a ‘you know what I mean’ look, which he chuckles over, “you might understand a bit better if you scan it”, tilting his head, “slightly surprised you haven’t already done that”.

Maddie sighs, “I didn’t want to push it”.

“That’s fair”. Regardless, she does pull out one of her smaller scanners -not like something of this size would need anything more- and promptly scans the ring. Immediately stilling and just staring at the screen.

This thing... she could literally see waves of ectoplasmic energy being sucked into it. And the things glow was actually the reverse of normal. Instead of bleeding out ecto-energy it was creating a small field that pulled in ecto-energy. What in the world? What was this thing?

Pulling out a small vial of ectoplasm she had left in her pocket and holding it near the ring; never noticing the slight look of concentration on Danny’s face. Instead watching as all the ecto-energy is just... sapped out of the sample. What? Was this something that could literally remove ecto-energy from anything? What about a full-blown ghost? Or- blinking, or what about decontaminate someone. Danny had been badly contaminated ever since his accident and nothing seemed to permanently decontaminate him. Somehow the ectoplasmic energy would just restock itself. Could it be? Could he have found something that could constantly and consistently decontaminate him? And Vlad, he likely was ecto-contaminated in a similar fashion. His ecto-acne did return that one time after all. So that would explain him likely wanting this thing. Looking back to him, “have you been using this to control your contamination?”. If so, then this was something she should really be encouraging him to wear.

Danny blinks at her and looks slightly like he doesn’t understand how she came to that conclusion for a couple seconds. Which tells her she’s missed something here. He gives her a quizzical look, “mom... when was the last time you scanned me”, and seems almost worried for her. Like he found it concerning that she hadn’t been doing that frequently.

Maddie blinks and glances to the scanner then back to him, “you never seemed to like that, so we just... stopped”.

“Oh”. He sounds a bit apologetic.

Maddie nods, looks to the scanner, and bites her lip slightly. Looking back to him and holding it up a little, “can I?”. He nods and she nearly drops the scanner when she scans him. His contamination was worse. So much worse. He was practically bleeding ecto-energy. She can’t find anything to say and just watches him as he moves his hand over the ring. Her eyes widening at seeing energy move from the ring to his hand. Like it was feeding him. This wasn’t reducing or control his contamination, it was making it worse! And Danny knew. What the Hell?

She can’t help snatching the ring away from him, looking to him with worry, “why?”, there was so many questions in that one ‘why’. Why was this expelling ectoplasm into him. Why was he wearing this if he knew. Why was it even doing that. Why was it absorbing ectoplasm from everything but him. Why would he even want something like this. And better yet, glancing back down at the ring through the scanner and seeing that it is not feeding ectoplasm into her, why the heck was it only expelling ectoplasm into him specifically.

Looking back to Danny, who’s giving her a clear ‘you said you wouldn’t damage it’ look as he speaks, “I have my reasons”. Making it clear he wasn’t going to tell her unless she gave it back and trusted him. Which yes, was more difficult than it had any right to be.

She gives him back the ring.

She’s surprised though when he just leaves it on the table in front of him. She clues in though, that this is him saying the conversation isn’t over. That he’s open to explaining. Trust for trust. Danny nods, “thanks”. Maddie nodding back awkwardly, she honestly did not want to give it back. That thing shouldn’t be anywhere near him. But checking the scanner, it wasn’t feeding into him; obviously it wasn’t quite close enough. So clearly he was aware of her discomfort.

Maddie swallows, looking back to him, “so...”. Her question was still the same and she didn’t even know where to start on elaborating. He had a ring that sucked ecto-energy out of things and fed it into him, and wanted it. Could be like an addiction or something?

Danny nods and leans back in his chair, “alright. This ring, it’s part of a set. I have the other part, obviously”, nodding his head at the scanner, “that’s why it only does that to me. Not you”. Maddie looks at his other fingers, which he clearly notices, “the other part’s not a ring”.

Maddie nods and bites her lip slightly, “so, this... effect would happen to anyone if they had both parts. But that- why? Why would you want that?”.

Danny wiggles his hand in the air, “that would depend. Most would be destroyed if they did”. Maddie chokes at that. This thing could destroy someone??? What is her son thinking???? She doesn’t even have to ask though, Danny poking the ring and wiggling it back and forth on the table, “the set was modified specifically for me, so I’m fine. Don’t worry”.

Maddie barely feels relieved by that. Because honestly? That just raised even more questions. “Why? How even?”.

“That’s complicated”.

Maddie instantly recognises that as another ‘will she push or just accept it’. “Then explain it. I want to know, Danny. I want to know you”, sighing, “and I don’t. Haven’t for a while”. And Danny doesn’t even beat around the bush when he replies, “yeah”. Which hurts to hear. Sure she knew, but still.

Danny eyes the ring for a bit before nodding, looking up to her, “it makes more sense if you know the story of this thing. And before you worry too much, while the ring takes in energy, the other piece expels it”.

Maddie leans back at that, likely noticeably relieved, “that... I’m glad to hear it. Even if that doesn’t seem to make sense. What’s even the point of pulling in energy just to expel it?”, that made zero sense. None. But at least that meant it wasn’t actually making him worse.

Danny chuckles, “and that’s even more complicated. The backstory really will help”. Maddie sighs and nods, Danny was clearly directing this conversation. Which on one hand made her happy because he was trusting her; but that also meant he would only tell her what he wanted to, nothing more. Not like she could make him tell her more though.

Danny smirks slightly, “there were three before me. I honestly don’t know the name of the first. Or much about her for that matter. But the second was a guy named Laufiel who thought he was blessed by the gods and had some seriously speciesist opinions. Thought ghosts were some kind of ultimate beings. He also killed the first owner”. Maddie can’t help but shake her head and scoff a little at that, though she could see how someone could think ghosts were god-like; especially if this-these things were really incredibly old. “The third owner killed Laufiel and also had some weird opinions on ghosts. More like a hunter I guess. Thought ghosts needed to be contained, controlled, or obliterated. Also thought humans were inferior though. He thought he literally was a god. Ridiculous, I know”.

Maddie has to cut in, “so all these ‘previous owners’ had opinions on humans and ghosts, and clearly acted on them? And... killed the previous owner?”, that last bit carries an implication that she hopes he doesn’t miss. Because this trend... it implied Danny had killed someone. Danny gives her a look that makes her think she missed something again.

Danny purses his lips and hums, “hmmm. Okay. I guess that wasn’t all that helpful. Though it does have to do with them acting on their opinions”, rubbing his neck and seeming slightly embarrassed, “and the ‘killing the previous owner’ thing”. Which makes her gulp, he thankfully explains himself though, “it’ll be better if I explain who the previous owner was, and -to you at least- what he was”. Maddie’s eyebrows raise, was Danny implying that this previous owner was a ghost. Because yes, that did change things. Killing a ghost and killing a person weren’t the same thing. Though Danny was also obviously pointing out that it wasn’t all that different to him.

Danny shocks her out of her thoughts as he speaks up again, “he was Pariah. Yes, as in the ghost that transported Amity into the Ghost Zone a couple years back”, rubbing his neck again, “I might have... kinda... wound up ramming a sword through his Core”.

Maddie... Maddie has a lot of questions about that. How did that even happen? When was he even in a position to do that? Why’d he do that? She does feel a bit proud that he destroyed a ghost, but he clearly wouldn’t appreciate that pride. Which just makes her mentally emphasis the ‘why the heck would he do that’ question. And Pariah... that ghost was the most powerful they’ve ever seen. She knows Danny can be reckless but that was pushing it. “You know how powerful that ghost was, Danny? Why did you? How were you even? Is that why Vlad found you all beat up?”. She barely resists giving him a full scolding.

Danny rubs his neck some more and looking around, “yeah it was reckless and stupid. I know”, sighing and looking back to her, “but, he was effectively comatose when I did that. Down for the count. And if I didn’t, someone else would have”, fiddling with the ring again, “these two things, that have this kind of... aspect let’s say, that can tell if the wearer is ‘no longer worthy’ and needs to be passed on. Which happens if whoever loses to many battles or damages the Zone a ton. Pariah, he was sealed away by a bunch of pissed off ghosts a long time ago, and then when he was let loose Phantom went and beat him up. And so Pariah lost too much. So the ring and whatnot needed to be passed along”.

Maddie shakes her head a little, that practically explained nothing, “but that doesn’t explain why you did that? So what if someone else would have done that and got this ring? Why did you have to do that? Want to do that?”.

Danny sighs, “I have my reasons. A lot of them actually. There really wasn’t any one reason why I did it. Someone else possibly being able to do it was definitely a deciding factor for why I did it when I did. I personally would have preferred to wait ‘till I had graduated”, shrugging, “but I don’t mind. And the reduction in ghost attacks, and them not really attacking people is because of this”.

Maddie looks to the vial, which still was lacking any kind of glow. Could he? Could he destroy a ghost with just a touch? That... that would definitely encourage ghosts to be more restrained. She knows Danny’s a protective person. He is absolutely the type of person that would go to an abnormal extreme if it would protect a lot of people. But... protecting the town, humanity, from ghosts was a hunters job. Her and Jack’s job. And he was still young, and this sounded like something that was an ‘until death’ kind of thing. That.., that absolutely makes her feel guilty, “Danny, protecting the town isn’t your job”, she ignores the slight tense she almost misses, clearly saying that he did think it was his job, “why couldn't we have done this? Me or Jack?”.

Danny actually looks at her like she’s nuts. “Mom, that- you-“, shaking his head, “not just anyone can just take these things. There are prerequisites. And you two do not meet them”.

Maddie frowns, okay that makes sense but... “what... what are they? What could you have that we don’t?”. He was a minor for peat’s sake! And they were hunters.

Danny purses his lips, crosses his arms, and taps at his chin. Muttering, “how to explain this...”, and opens and closes his mouth a few times. Then sighing after a bit and meeting her eyes, “you’re going to hate Vlad for this”. Which immediately gives her an unpleasant ominous feeling. “Remember how I mentioned Vlad would never give these to me? Yeah he let Pariah out after finding the key to his keep. Vlad is at fault for that entire situation. And he did it to get these items and used Valerie as bait. Vlad didn’t ‘find me beat up’ he threw me at Pariah and watched me get beat up”, grumbling seemingly to himself, “if it wouldn’t have upset you, he might have left me to die”.

Maddie stares at him, feeling more than a little furious. “I’m going to kill that man”. Danny actually rolls his eyes, “you and half the Ghost Zone. Don’t bother”, shrugging, “besides, he’s better now. Still vaguely evil, but not actively maliciously evil. It’s something”.

Maddie blinks at him, “why the Zone are you even friendly to that scumbag. And I’m still going to kill him”, sighing and putting her head in her hands for a second before looking back to him, “but this still, still, doesn’t explain things. Vlad’s douchebaggery aside”.

Danny gives her another slightly pitying look, “our relationship is stupid complicated. I’m not sure I could even explain the mess between us. But ignoring him and his past villainy, because of that situation it was either me or him”, shaking his head with a slight chuckle, “and Vlad does stupid crazy things if you give him even a slight amount of power. The whole mayor thing is a stellar example”. Maddie cringes at that. That had been pretty bad. It did also effectively make his point though. And she knows Danny can be spiteful, even impulsive, when it came to Vlad. So that did explain things a little. Barely. But a little.

Danny pokes the ring, regaining her attention fully, “so there’s the backstory, and my part in it I guess. As for the rest of the background, it explains things more. Better”.

Maddie straightens up and gives him a strong nod. This is already a lot honestly. But, thinking on it, it was almost nothing too. All he had really explained was how he got this thing, or pair of things really. Heck, she doesn’t even know what the other thing was.

Danny rubs his neck and nods himself, “okay. So the pair, they’re artifacts of sovereignty. Yeah, you heard that right”, tapping the ring.

Maddie blinks, what? Is he using that word right? “What... what do you mean. ‘Sovereignty’, as in kings and queens and royalty, ‘sovereignty’. Are you trying to say you’re royalty now?”. What? No seriously, what?

Danny actually winces at that, “well... yeah. That’s what I’m doing”, Maddie just blinks at him which he obviously takes as a hint to keep going, “the items, their names and appearances change from owner to owner somewhat. But...”, he holds up the ring in front of his face, “the rings default name is The Ring Of Rulers”.

Maddie blinks at him more, mouth a bit dry. Swallowing and trying to put the sovereignty thing on the mental back-burner, “and the... other item?”.

Danny is clearly studying her, “I don’t really think you’re ready for that. I’m glad I can keep that one invisible”.

“...And you can’t do that with the ring”. Did Danny even realise he basically just said he had a ghost power!? Or maybe it only applied to these items. Shaking her head a little, “I want to know”.

Danny looks at the ring and shakes his head, looking back to her, “no I can’t. It’s because it sucks in instead of expels. Which I know hasn’t been explained yet”.

Maddie gives him a hard look, he was avoiding the question. Which means she would probably never know if she doesn’t push it, “no you haven’t, but I still want to know what the thing that expels is and everything. And the royalty thing”. Royalty over what? Where? How? Did just having these things make him royalty somehow? Biting her lip, “is that why you said you’d rather wait till after Highschool? Has this given you some kind of responsibility?”. What has Danny gotten himself into? What’s this ghostly thing done to him?

Danny sighs and seems to sag slightly against the chair, she can tell he’s clearly debating something. Him sighing again, “do you think you could wait a little? Explaining the expel/pull thing will kinda explain that, the royalty thing. But, yeah, that’s why I wanted to wait. Things can be a lot”, shrugging, “but I’m used to it at this point”.

Maddie has to force herself not to wince at that. No one wants to hear their kid say they’re used to things being difficult. Nodding while looking at the table instead, “okay. But I still want to know”.

“Fair”. Danny fiddles with the ring some before pointing to the scanner, “okay so, hear me out here”. Which only makes that nagging ominous feeling return full force for Maddie. “These items are obviously ghostly, right? And everything ghostly is connected to the Zone in some way, correct? Well, these two items are much more connected”, pointing to the vial, “you saw what happened there, when the ring was close. Now imagine what would happen in the Zone. Where not being close to ectoplasm is functionally impossible”.

Maddie furrows her eyebrows a bit, “well then it would just suck it all...”, eyes widening a bit, “in. It would suck everything in”. Oh god. Shaking her head, “but... but you’re here, not there?”.

Danny blinks at her, “um. Mom? Here and the Zone overlap, remember? Me being here doesn’t stop me, or the ring really, from pulling in energy from there. Like I said, more connected. Being here just slows it down”, pointing at the vial again, “normally sapping from that would have taken way longer, but I was making the ring focus on it so you would notice”, rubbing his neck, “since that helped my explanation”.

Maddie blinks, glancing at the ring quickly, “you can do that? Change it’s... effect?”, swallowing, “and, so you just perpetually absorb from the Zone? I- I don’t know what to say or ask about that”, shaking her head, “why?”.

Danny chuckles awkwardly, “I can alter the effect yeah, I can’t stop it though. And yeah, that’s what I do. Or the ring really. And the other piece sheds or expels all that energy back out to the Zone. So it doesn’t stay in me, it just moves through me. Kind of”, rubbing his neck and looking around a little before continuing, “-kind of like a filtrator. The ring pulls everything in, my body siphons out the bad and impurities, and the other piece feeds the cleaned ecto-energy back into the Zone. But also like a heart. Because you know that ‘contamination’ I have? Yeah that mixes in with the stuff I expel out, which makes the ecto-energy stronger”, he then starts gesturing with his hands a little, still not meeting her eyes, “which effectively sustains the Zone and the Zone takes the extra to repair or grow itself”.

Maddie has to cut in at that, “wait wait, so you are actively helping the Zone. Making it stronger. And, and what happens to the ‘bad’ your body’s taking? Is the Zone just using you to fed itself? I still- this doesn’t make sense and this sounds actively bad. And you can’t get out of this without someone killing you. This just makes me want to take that away from you. But I don’t know if that would even do anything”, she clamps her mouth shut to avoid rambling and possibly offending him. Sighing after a beat instead and hopes Danny speaks up before she winds up putting her foot in her mouth.

Danny quirks an eyebrow and actually chuckles slightly, at least she hadn’t offended him. “I’m sort of part of the Zone circulatory and respiratory system yeah. Which a body can’t exactly survive without”. Maddie can’t say she’s exactly bothered by that. She doesn’t want the Zone to ‘flourish’. Why would she! That would just make ghosts stronger. Why was- how was Danny okay with this? Obviously he can tell she’s not impressed. Him narrowing his eyes, “mom, have you ever thought about what the Zone is? Not in the literal ‘home of the ectoplasmic manifestations’, but in the ‘what is the Zone’s relation to Earth’ way”.

Maddie just purses her lips, the Zone was just an alternate dimension that Earth happened to be close to. Sure that dimension was part of the afterlife obviously, but that didn’t really mean anything. But clearly Danny was heavily implying it did mean something. Danny sighs and doesn’t give her a chance to say anything, him shaking his head seeming almost disappointed; which does sting a little. “It’s not some detached plane. It’s intrinsically interconnected”, motioning with his hands, “if you take a coin and flip it in the air, sometimes you’ll get heads and sometimes tails. But regardless of what side you see or what side you’re on, both are still there. And if you, say, try to blow up or dissolve or cut off one side you’ll wreck the whole coin. You can’t have one without the other. If one sides damaged, the whole thing is. If one side has a giant hole, then so does the other. The Zone isn’t just connected to earth either, but the whole universe. Mom, if the Zone goes, everything goes. And the Zone goes if there isn’t someone doing what I am”, tapping the ring again, “I’m a rechargeable battery for the Zone that’s perpetually being recharged, yes. But that isn’t a bad thing. It’s emphatically not”.

Maddie blinks a bit owlishly. That can’t be- but that’s not- how? Is he? How is he even? Maddie can’t help sputtering a bit, “b-but how, how, are you- how can you even be? Sure? H-how are you sure?”.

Danny’s stare is honestly a bit unnerving, “I can feel it just as I can my own body. The Zone is as much a part of my body as I am part of Its metaphorical body. It is effectively an extended part of myself. Every bit of ectoplasm, of ecto-energy, every ghost even; is technically part of me. And-”, Danny pauses before suddenly looking a bit calmer, “I’m overwhelming you, aren’t I?”, looking to the side, “and I didn’t even respond to what I do with the bad I siphon out, did I?”.

Maddie shakes her head a bit stiffly, “no.... but I honestly, forgot. And yeah, this is, a lot”. Danny winces at that before looking back to her.

The two sit in silence for a bit, Maddie’s not really sure where this conversation has gone or what of any of her questions has actually been answered at this point. But she can tell by the way he’s just staring off into space, though it doesn’t look unseeing, that he’s giving her time and that he probably won’t speak back up till she does. She can appreciate that. And he’s probably off... feeling this Zone? How does that even work or make sense?

That’s another thing about Danny, he’s gotten really good at being confusing.

Okay, take stalk of what she knows and the answers she’s gotten here. Danny has a ring that is indeed ghostly, that has to do with ruling/royalty and three other people -at least one being a ghost- had before him; oh and there’s some other item that is paired with it. He destroyed the previous owner, Pariah, but it was all because Vlad is an even worse person than she thought. Which she is now again a bit mad over. What else? Right, the whole ecto-energy of the Zone being filtered through his body thus cleansing it and strengthening the Zone. And the whole spiel he just went on that had something to do with the Zone being part of his body? Which didn’t make sense. And an analogy about coins that somehow means that destroying the Zone just destroys everything. Which, that makes some sense. It was obvious to even a fool the two places were connected, it wouldn’t take much of a leap to suggest that disconnecting them would be catastrophic. And didn’t he say that ghosts were part of him or something? What?

Maddie blinks and bites her cheek, she’s not going to guess how long it’s been now, “okay, so I think I get most of what you’ve said. Hopefully. And I could see how destroying the Zone wouldn’t be exactly good. But the.... you can feel it thing. I don’t- that doesn’t make sense. And how can it be part of your body?”, gesturing to him, “your body’s right here. You’re a solid being. A person”.

Danny looks to her and hums, “well let’s see”, tapping his chin before stilling for a second, then pointing a finger at the scanner, “if you look at me through that I might be able to make it make more sense”. Maddie nods, pulling it back up and looking at him through it. He really looked no different than anyone else who happened to have enough ecto on/in them to shed off energy. Danny hums, “I guess you need something to compare to, to realise what your looking at isn’t normal”. Maddie’s almost offended by that.

Watching him look at his hand for a second before shaking his head and sticking his hand under the table. Producing an actual glob of ectoplasm a second later. “Where did that come from”. No way that was just stuck under the table.

“No where particular”. Maddie squints at him and honestly can’t tell if he’s lying. Though he should know exactly where he got that, he grabbed it. He just points at it so she sighs a little bit directs the scanner to it. Managing to get Danny and the glob in frame and staring. It takes a few seconds to notice the difference. The energy shedding of Danny appeared solid rather than transparent. How hadn’t she noticed that? Muttering, “yours isn’t transparent”.

Danny nods, “exactly. But”, Maddie watches through the scanner as he moves his hand and actually plucks on one of the strands of ecto-energy, it bending with his finger like he was actually touching it. Which was utterly illogical. It was like how you couldn’t literally pluck a ray of sunlight. What he just did, was a literal impossibility. Whispering, “what?”. Which he apparently finds funny and promptly chuckles. Her watching a bit stunned as one of the strands moves and bends to spell ‘I can touch these as easily as hair. And move them as easily as fingers’. She was firmly gobsmacked. “That should be impossible”.

Danny chuckles some more, “you’d be surprised how often I hear that. Like I said all that energy is part of me as much as my fingers are. Though hair would be a slightly better comparison, except you don’t have feeling in your hair. This one-”, she watches him pluck a different strand of energy, it coils around his finger slightly, “-one of the branching off sections is connected to an area of the Zone where there’s a big battle of some kind. I can tell because of how they are moving through the ectoplasm, which is again connected to me. And through the ectoplasm in them, which is also connected to me. If I wanted, I could move that ectoplasm and make them unable to move in an instant”, he chuckles quietly, “but I’m not that mean. I’m kinda big on the bodily autonomy thing”. She’s pretty sure she hears him mutter, “that, and it’s pretty hard... and feels unnatural”.

All Maddie’s hearing is that her son can control ghosts and without even being near them. Immediately she wants to ask why he didn’t do that to all the ghosts that show in Amity, but considering the last bit he said; he’d be really against doing that. But... why? They’re ghosts and the Amity ones are attackers. Why wouldn’t he just stop them if he could? Blinking at him, “why?”.

He looks to her, “‘why’ what? Why I’m oddly impossible. Why siphoning the Zone makes all of it connect to me. Or-”, Danny then gets that hard dangerous look in his eyes, and just feels dangerous; but catching a glance of the scanner she finally knows how he does that, because all the strands and bits of ectoplasm coming off him are vibrating and even lashing. “-are you asking why I’m not ripping away any ghosts bodily autonomy”. Like usual when Danny does this, that entire sentence feels like a threat. She’s a bit grateful right now for having experienced this side of him before.

Maddie swallows, “stop that. And honestly? All of them”, feeling the need to explain herself when his eyes narrow, “it’s just, with all these ghosts that... attack Amity. Couldn’t you just... make them, leave”, swallowing a bit again, “or something”; because damnit, Danny’s intimidation tactics were really good at hitting that part of the brain that just screams at a person that whatever’s in front of or around them is absolutely dangerous. And while she’s proud of him getting bullies off his back, he shouldn’t be doing that to family and he knows that. Both her and Jazz have told him that multiple times, but sometimes it was genuinely an accident.

He stares at her a bit more, with her trying not to shrink in her seat, before looking away and huffing; the feeling alleviating almost instantly. And glancing at the screen, the ecto-energy was back to normal slow waving. Well, almost. For him to do that accidentally at all... it must just be like an instinctive natural response. Which supports Danny’s claim that all this was connected to him. Ectoplasm literally behaved ‘angrily’ if he was angry. That was... so strange but nearly undeniable proof in a way. Which means he absolutely knows what he’s talking about and isn’t just being fed baloney by some ghost. Danny runs a hand through his hair and mumbles a, “sorry”, before looking to her again, “and I guess you do have a point. Though like I said, ghosts are less aggressive towards humans now and that’s my fault. They aren’t generally stupid enough to cause serious genuine problems in the home of- my home”. Maddie absolutely picked up on him cutting himself off from saying something else. Did ghosts have a specific title for him? Though thinking of it, that’s probably rounded back to the ‘royalty’ thing. It was probably ‘king’, ‘prince’, ‘lord’, or something. What? Zone Lord? Dimensional Prince? Or- oh god.

Maddie looking to him a fair bit wide-eyed as he explains her previous sorta questions. “Which is actually partly just respect. Yes ghosts are capable of respect. But fine yeah, some it’s just because they know I can basically smite them”. That doesn’t make Maddie feel better about what she’s currently thinking. “I’m not going to straight-up control their bodies though mom, like I said that’s mean. That would be no better than controlling a human to me. Which, in the interest of honesty”, he points to her arm, looking almost sheepish. While her eyebrows raise as she watches her arm lift up and wave at her entirely out of her control. She can tell how though, she can feel the slight pressure the ecto-energy in the air is exerting on her arm to do this. So it was more like he was grabbing her with the invisible ecto-energy than actually controlling the limb. Danny continuing as her arm comes back entirely under her control, “so no, I’m not going to control ghosts”, shrugging, “I have my other reasons too. The Zone creates ghosts after all, which rather means I do. It’s not an active thing on my part but I can feel it. So in a way, ghosts are a bit like children”.

Maddie blinks, when thinking about Danny that made a weird level of sense. He did seem oddly defensive about ghosts, quick to explain away their actions or claim they weren’t bad. A parent would do that. But... Shaking her head and staring down at the ring, “I wish the Zone wouldn’t make more. No offence. And I don’t know why you’d be okay ‘making them’”, swallowing and meeting his eyes, “but it’s more than that isn’t it”.

“Ghosts aren’t evil. I’ve pointed that out many times”. He continues when she gives a disbelieving huff. “Amity Park just sees more of the rotten eggs. Well okay, I wouldn’t call the Box Ghost a rotten egg. He’d just... stupid and has delusions of grandeur. Maybe a masochistic streak”. That Maddie can agree with. “But they’re all ghosts created under Pariah’s reign. And he was obviously a really bad dude”, fiddling with the ring, “you haven’t met any of the new ghosts”.

Maddie opens and closes her mouth a few times, because he had a point. If he was part of the ectoplasm in these ghosts, it would be logical to assume he had a level of effect on them. Like a parent's genetics when they have a kid or something. So she decides to give him something of a leap of faith, “I guess I’ll try to withhold judgment on the... new ghosts”, thinking on the words he used, “the ones made under your reign”. She can see the moment he realises his wording gave away more than he meant to. Or at least implied something he was likely skirting around. Avoiding. Because well... “Danny, answer me honestly, are you considered their king. The King Of Ghosts or the Zone”. She doesn’t bother making it sound like an actual question. Because she knows both of them know it’s not a question. More a statement of fact. One that she needs to hear him confirm. And if he denies it... then how?

Danny folds his hands in front of his mouth and stares off into space, humming contemplatively. Which he often does when he was acknowledging that she said or asked something but wasn’t choosing to make his opinion known. Which makes her worry he’s going to clamp up. That he’s not going to answer. And now that she thinks about it, didn’t that Pariah ghost have a crown?

Danny nods after a while and gives the simple blunt answer of, “yeah”.

She looks down to the table, “okay”. And doesn’t know what else to say about that. Because, even if she wrote off the ‘my children’ feeling or Danny’s ever-present odd tolerance of ghosts, that has been around way longer than the ring. Then ghosts would still be his subjects. His ‘people’. And a king is supposed to support and protect his people, whether he likes all of them or not. Hell, he could hate them and that still wouldn’t change his role. Sure part of her feels glad or impressed maybe over that since ghosts at the very least reasonably shouldn’t go after their king. Swallowing and speaking at the table, “is it just a... title, or do you have responsibilities. Do you actually rule them”.

“Yeah. I rule them. My word is effectively the highest level of law. The Kings Decrees. But again, I’m not a controlling person. And I don’t ask for much”, she can hear the shrugging in his voice, the forced nonchalance, “I stop wars sometimes. Resolve skirmishes. Hear requests or complaints. My birthday is a Zone wide holiday”. She’s not sure what to make of the weird emphasis on ‘birth’ there. “There’s balls and parties. I have knights and an... army”. She can feel that he hadn’t really wanted to keep talking but did probably because he feels she deserves to know at this point. She put her foot forward. She chased after him. She tried. Both to get to know him and to trust and believe him. Maybe that was all he needed to be open with them, open to a degree at least. And it had taken four years. No. Longer than that. Most of his life.

And how sad was that?

But... Armies and knights. Balls. This was a lot. And he didn’t just work like the Zone’s battery. Wasn’t just being used by it or part of it or however he felt about it. If anything, that was just an aspect of being their king. The real secret, the real revelation, the piece of the puzzle, here wasn’t the ring and what it does. Wasn’t him sucking in and expelling ectoplasm ‘like a filtrator’. It was what that ring represented. It was that her son was the ruler, the king, of the things she hunted and wanted to destroy and study. He fed them, nurtured them, supported them, socialised with them. And they respected and feared him. Maybe followed him. Her and her son's ideals and goals couldn’t be more opposing if they tried.

No wonder he never said anything. No wonder he had become so distant. Now wonder he would oppose or question their hunting and ethics. And no wonder he had the air of a commander and a sense of wisdom to him. He was a king for peat’s sake! That probably comes with the... position. A requirement or learned attribute. And he quite literally had power thrumming under his skin. His power was technically even in the air. It was an entire dimension and species. What is she supposed to do with this? Because this obviously isn’t something he can change. And it’s not even fair for her to even consider asking him for that. And to ask him to treat them like the monsters she considers them to be, would be plain wrong. In fact, wasn’t that what Danny said Pariah had done? And look how well that turned out.

But what did this mean for them? For them as a family? Because she was effectively a person belonging to an outside ‘kingdom’ and species. Who was an aggressor towards his ‘kingdom’. So where did that leave them? Or really, what’s more important to her? Her family or her career. Which was a stupid question with an obvious answer. But still, they were dangerous, they were monsters. Regardless of Danny being their king. Even if he didn’t agree on them being monsters. And maybe she actually genuinely can refrain from judging the ‘new ghosts’ or maybe Danny being ‘part of’ all the ghosts now would make them less dangerous. Maybe even give them a bit of humanity. Danny was human after all. So maybe.., maybe this was actually for the best. For both sides in the war on ghosts. She already knows what he’ll say if she’s brings that up though. He already thought ghosts were just like humans.

Maddie looks back to Danny, who’s just sitting there watching her quietly. Waiting for her to think and decide what to say. Obviously family mattered to him. He wouldn’t even be trying or doing this otherwise. But his ‘career’. He ultimately had to do it. He couldn’t drop it. Her and Jack arguably could. Danny couldn’t put them first. He had to put his ‘people’ first. That’s the job of a king. Even if it hurt or he hated it. Swallowing, “I’m sorry”.

Danny quirks an eyebrow and gives one of his charming lopsided smiles, “for what? You’ve got nothing to be sorry for”.

Maddie blinks at him, a bit dumbfounded, “we, me and your father,  are hunters, Danny. We’re attacking and studying what’s effectively your subjects. And that’s not even mentioning that we never noticed all this till now”.

Danny cuts in, keeping her from saying anything else, “I’m going to stop you there”, leaning forward across the table and patting her hands, “mom, that’s fine. I hid it. If you’d noticed right away that would have been embarrassing. Even more so if you figured everything I just told you out on your own. And as for the hunting”, sighing and giving her hand another pat, “you guys are only going after ghosts that come here and are practically always aggressors. Why would that be a problem? Why would you need to apologise for that?”, Danny leans back while Maddie just blinks and gapes at him, “when you go to another country, you have to follow their laws or the cops will chase you down. It’s no different. If a ghost comes here, they expect to be hunted. Heck, coming to the human world and attacking humans is against Zone law. The Box Ghost is pretty much the only ghost that doesn’t get chucked in jail very frequently. And that’s because he’s viewed as pathetically pathetic there as he is here. And-”, Danny runs a hand through his hair, “-one of my decrees actively allows and supports ghost hunters. So long as it’s after aggressors in the human world anyway”, obviously making a point to give her a serious look, “now if you went into the Zone and started attacking, yeah we’d have ourselves an issue”.

Maddie feels ridiculously touched. He made laws, or just one, that supported her career? “Sweetie I, that- thank you. Are you... sure? That what we do is okay? Okay with you?”.

Danny chuckles and nods, “it’s fine. I might not agree with your opinions, or what you claim as fact, and you know I have sabotaged things before, but it is objectively fine. And personally, of course I support you guys doing what you love”.

Maddie reaches over and grabs his hands, smiling at him, “that means a lot, sweetie. I imagine the G.I.W. are different?”, that was a government organisation after all. Not general hunters.

Danny scowls, and feels a bit intimidating again, “considering they attempted to blow up the Zone, no. And the Anti-ecto acts are a host of issues”, and grumbles off to the side incoherently. Maddie doesn’t doubt that if she checked the scanner that the ecto-energy in the air would be lashing around again. At least it wasn’t being directed at her, reducing the effect.

Maddie blinks at him, leaning back and shaking her head, “wait, would that? Be trying to destroy you?”.

Danny tilts his head and chuckles, “yes and no. The Zone’s part of me, yes, again it’s like an extension of me”, putting a hand to his chest, “my body is more my body than the Zone is”. Maddie nods, glad to hear that. Watching him pat at the blob of ectoplasm that she honestly completely forgot about in lue of Danny being a king amongst other things. Humming at it before looking to her, “and thinking of the ghosts I create, would you like to met a Whisp one?”.

Maddie blinks, what? Well... Whisp weren’t exactly dangerous and sometimes they cropped up naturally even in Amity. But where? Could he just locate one and pull It here? Or more so would he even be willing to do that with the whole bodily autonomy thing? “From where?”, shaking her head a little, “I mean yes, but wouldn’t you have to make one come here?”.

“Ah, hmmm no. I was just going to make one. It doesn’t take much and it happens on accident a lot actually”, and pats the blob of ectoplasm again. Maddie eyeing it, so he could just make a ghost out of chuck of ectoplasm? Just like that? Wait... squinting at him a little, “is that why our samples seem to disappear so often? It’s not Jack?”.

Danny looks a little sheepish and rubs his neck, “yeah, well for the most part at least. Dad does just misplace it sometimes. But it has to do with me always expelling ecto-energy. If enough of that gets absorbed by ectoplasm it can become sentient. Blobs and Whisps generally. SignalShines once. Proper ghosts are a totally different matter though”.

Maddie shakes her head, absolutely a bit stunned. It did make sense though, if he really expelled so much; which he clearly must if he’s ‘the Zone’s heart’ in a way. All of it had to pass through him. Which was still a bit much to know. “Okay. What are SignalShines though?”. Danny chuckles a bit and pats the blob of ectoplasm again, her watching it start misting and leaning a bit over as it, It, twitches and uncurls from the ball into a more proper Whisp shape. Just like that. Watching It promptly wind around his hand and arm. Him lifting that hand up and letting It start nipping at his hair.

“SignalShines can’t survive out of water. There’s not exactly ecto-water in the human world”, chuckling, “I forgot a thing of Gatorade under my bed for a while. It wasn’t Gatorade anymore after a month or so, I can tell you that. There was around forty odd SignalShines in there. They’re very tiny”, moving his hand over to her, the ghost very clearly not willing to let go of him. Was It still feeding off the energy he was shedding? She can’t help chuckling a little at his story though, that did sound like a very Danny thing to do.

Poking the Whisp, It poking her with Its tail tip right back. “You know, this doesn’t really say much”.

Danny shrugs, both of them watching It push his fingers around to wind through them some, “I know. Whisps are practically just vaguely sentient air after all. But well, I figured you’d appreciate some proof. And don’t worry about them biting, little guy won’t with me here”.

Maddie nods and mumbles, “yeah”, while watching Danny’s face a little. She can easily read the soft fondness there. She knew he was ghost tolerant, had known that pretty much since ghosts were proven to the whole town as being real. She just never realised that it went so far beyond just tolerance or ‘getting along’. It was probably different with fully sentient ghosts, what with their pseudo-consciousness and pseudo-personality after all. Not that Danny considered it to be ‘pseudo’ anything. Deciding to do something of a leap of faith and pet the thing with a finger a little. Danny obviously appreciated the effort and Whisps were practically harmless. The most they’d do is nibble on your clothes or fingers.

Though thinking of It being ‘obedient’ and Danny maybe, possibly, giving ghosts a level of humanity. How and why were ghosts even willing to tolerate him being their king? ‘Bowing down’ and being controlled, being sustained/fed, by a human. Ghosts clearly thought they were better or ‘above’ humanity. So why? “Hey Danny?”. He hums at her so she continues, “you’re human, so why are ghosts, this one, willing to be so... submissive to you”. Heck, even with pointing weapons at the things her and Jack have never gotten even a Whisp to be this submissive and cooperative. It hadn’t even attempted to nibble her or screech or anything. Watching It squirm Its way under Danny’s wrist and just stay there.

Danny deadpans, “king”, but immediately chuckles, obviously knowing that’s not what she meant really. “For Whisps like this it comes down to a simple matter of being able to sense all the energy running through me, and how, exactly, it’s running through me. Ghosts can sense my status. They just know. Whisps, and blobs really, will be like this to anyone strong enough in ecto-energy. You two don’t have any due to your suits protecting you, so there’s no reason to be submissive to you. And me, well, I could destroy a Whisp like this as easily as I can make one. And they can tell”, shrugging, “so in a way, it’s a survival instinct. All ghosts are that way. Get something strong enough around them and they’ll bend the knee... or run away. The more sentient though, the less you’ll be able to tell”.

Maddie nods, huffing a little, “pride”. Which Danny does nod over. “That still doesn’t answer my question though. Having the whole Zones worth of ecto-energy or not, you’re still human”. Immediately finding herself on the receiving end of that feeling that Danny knew stuff that she didn’t.

Danny shakes his head a little, “I had a feeling that would be a hangup you’d have. I’ll admit there’s plenty who don’t exactly like me. And there’s some that don’t like or respect me in the slightest. They’re still not dumb enough to go against me though or ignore me if I actually demanded something. Okay, and there’s the Box Ghost, who’s is, well, him. But for the most part, my humanness doesn’t matter. Most don’t care”, chuckling faintly, “I’ve ran into one or two that find it novel actually. Though there are also some who think I should be forced to become a ghost”.

Maddie has to cut in at that, “you’re not and don’t, right?”. She absolutely would not tolerate him being forced to die or some ghost even attempting to kill him. Period.

Danny immediately shakes his head, obviously well aware how much of an issue she’d have with that; the Whisp winding up his arm as he talks, “no. Don’t worry. A couple, ah, older ones tried to push for it but my head knight, called a Dread Knight by the way, didn’t take to kindly to that”, chuckling, “basically swore to obliterate them if they even attempted to attempt it. So no, no ghost’s trying to get me offed, mom. Also-”, smirking slightly, “-trying to is illegal under the Kings Decrees anyway”.

Maddie nods strongly, “good”, she guesses she shouldn’t be to surprised he went and made it illegal to kill him. She’d do that herself in a heartbeat. “And your... Knight’s that loyal to you? Or obedient?”.

Danny purses his lips slightly, “he’s loyal to the crown, not me. He’ll obey whoever’s the ruler with absolute loyalty. It’s his Obsession”. Hearing that did actually make her feel better. A ghost wouldn’t go against their own Obsession. Often even at the risk of destruction. So this ghost being ‘loyal’ and thus ‘protective’ of her son was effectively a guarantee.

Eyeing the Whisp as It seems to be attempting to curl up over his heart, “well I'm glad you’re protected then. I still don’t get how so many could not care that you’re human though”.

Danny sighs, “they just don’t. It’s really not that important to them. Strength matters far more, as well as capability and fearsomeness. And that I have proper claim of course”. Maddie blinks a bit disbelievingly at that. She’s not sure how Danny had any of those first three. Particularly before he got this title. How could a teenager without any experience or training be capable as a king? People raised their whole lives to be royals were frequently terrible at it. And human strength just didn’t compare to ghosts; raw human strength anyway. And fearsomeness? Maddie’s pretty sure the only thing ‘fearsome’ about him is the intimidation thing he can pull, which is thanks to this connection to the ecto-energy that he has.

“No offence sweetie, but I think you’re rather lacking in those departments. Especially compared to ghosts. Also”, looking at the Whisp still snuggling his chest, “what’s that doing?”.

Danny glances down and chuckles, “oh they’re just curious over the heartbeat. No surprise really”, looking back to her, “and mom, I’ve been involved in more than a fair few ghost fights. Even before the king situation, in fact, I get in less now. I’ve never truly lost. Ever. Amity’s kinda crazy like that”.

Maddie shakes her head, “I didn’t realise the school hotspot was that bad”.

Danny shrugs, “I just have bad luck half the time. Wind up with a haunted locker or accidentally dating a ghost without realising it. Her boyfriend was pretty pissed about that. Other situations. And-”, looking her in the eyes, “-you’ve never actually seen scary Danny before. Or really angry Danny for that matter. Mad? Sure. But completely pissed off? No”. That’s honestly enough to make Maddie decide that maybe she’d rather not see that at all.

But still... “I don’t know, Danny. Ghosts following and respecting a human still seems so wrong. Like it shouldn’t be possible”.

Danny just shrugs at her, “well it is what it is. You can take it or leave it really”. Which was a clear sign she wasn’t going to get anything more out of him on the subject. Watching him move to scoop the Whisp off his chest, “you should go now. You’re getting greedy”. So that was a ‘yes’ on It feeding off his shedded energy. Gaping slightly when a small portal just swirls into existence and he sticks his hand through; depositing the ghost directly into the Ghost Zone.

Speaking up as he pulls his -now empty- hand back out and the portal swirls away, “just how many things can you do???”, it was actually a bit unnerving. He had powers. Like a ghosts. Though with all the ecto-energy in him/running through him should she really be surprised.

“Its just manipulating my ectoplasm. Nothing more. Just like when I moved your arm or made the Whisp. All ectoplasm is part of me, so I can do with it what I want”, and shrugs like this is no big deal.

“Could you cover the town in little ghosts like that?”.

“I could yes, but it would be pretty tiring and pointless”.

“What about turn the sky green?”.

“I’ve done that on accident”.

“Telekinetically move things by wrapping ecto-energy around them?”.

“How do you think I clean the lab so fast”.

“Clean things by ecto-radiating the surface? Ectoplasm does destroy pretty well everything after all”.

“I’ve... never actually tried that, but probably”.

“Could you-”, Maddie bites her lip a little, “-transport the town into the Zone like Pariah did?”.

“Yeah. With a little bit of concentration at least. Not that I would”.

Maddie shakes her head a bit to herself. So much power, and all from a title. She decides to be honest, “I’m not sure how I feel about all that”.

Danny shrugs, “that’s fine. I surprise myself sometimes”.

Maddie furrows her brows a little, “but it doesn’t scare you? All of it? The... abilities. Or filtering the Zone. Or the king thing. Or having to deal with ghosts a lot”.

Danny shakes his head and smiles fondly almost instantly, “hardly. I’m content. I’m okay. Don’t worry”. She’s not sure if she should smile back or sigh. Sure he said he was happy, okay, and it looks like he means it. But at the same time, this wasn’t really okay. He could never hope to have a normal human life. Of course it was never going to be normal normal, he was a Fenton after all, but it was never going to be Fenton normal either. And even though he didn’t really touch on it, had downplayed it, he had responsibilities. Probably lots of them. He wasn’t even out of school yet. A summer job was one thing, but what he was doing might be better comparable to the president. Just for ghosts. Which were a different species than him and existed in a different dimension. She’s not even sure how he manages that. And he probably can’t really get any help with it either. She hadn’t known this kind of position even existed before today. And it would be risky at best for him to talk about details, combined with him being on the paranoid side; he wouldn’t seek people out for advice either. Or at least probably not. Could he even have a regular human job really? Heck, being a hunter was absolutely out the window. Maybe she could find some way for him to be in the family business, but it was obvious this king thing came first. And not just because it was ‘more important’.

Danny wanted this. On some level or another.

Which is where the positives come in. He was arguably a better person now, and stronger too. He could clearly stand on his own two legs and was at the point where he probably didn’t need her and Jack as a child would. Which yes, was something to be proud of. And what he’s achieved was arguably impressive, grand, unprecedented. Was, when it came down to it, good. Especially if this made ghosts less violent and dangerous. He himself was clearly proud. In the end, wasn’t that the point? What any parent should want for their child? For them to be proud, successful, and respected? He had all three. Just in an explicitly non-human way.

Looking at him, he was looking off to the side silently. She’d normally guess he was just giving her time to think, which he probably was, but maybe he was feeling? something somewhere. In the Zone or Amity, Amity was pretty horribly contaminated. She couldn’t even blame him for that, there was probably ghosts here as often as some more scarce places in the Zone. Him and his cycling the Zone’s ectoplasm thing almost definitely made it worse though. Maybe she should scan his bedroom sometime? Shaking her head, she definitely wasn’t doing that right now. But eyeing him, she honestly can’t really find anything else to say. Just relaxing and not thinking for a bit might be a good idea.

After a while she glances to the doorway, speaking a bit absently, “sure is taking Jack a while”.

Danny hums and nods, “he’s asleep actually”. Maddie sighs fondly at that, because of course he was. Shouldn’t have let him have that second helping of fudge peanut brittle. Danny looks to her, “so, we’re good?”. Oh god, she’s glad he’s the one to broach that topic again.

Maddie looks him over, eyeing the ring on the table, and nods at him. Fairly easily deciding at this point that it was fine. It was okay. And he was absolutely family. Not that that had ever been genuinely up for debate. “Yes sweetie, of course. I still honestly don’t understand this and I can’t say I really like it. But it’s you, this can’t really be changed and it’s not really right for me to even want you to change this. So yes, we’re good”.

Danny grins and nods, “good”, and moves to grab up the ring off the table. Maddie tries not to feel a little bothered and weird over him slipping it back over his finger. Especially seeing the muscles in his arm and face tense up. Does... does this hurt him?

Danny looking to her as she speaks, “Danny... does that hurt you?”.

Danny chuckles, and it sounds a bit stiff, “I’m honestly surprised you didn’t ask that already”, shaking his head with a slight smile, “mom, an entire dimension follows through my body, that’s unpleasant to adjust to. But I am adjusted, it’s just slightly unpleasant to reconnect properly“.

Maddie blinks, “wait, so you need your two items? Was taking that off bad for you?”. And how did she not think of that sooner? Cluing in that that only made sense. He used the items, as a pair, to filter ecto-energy. It was logical he might actually need both of them on him to do part of his job. But still, she’s pretty sure that was a pained tensing.

Danny wiggles his hand in the air, “‘bad’? No. Just not pleasant and they’re pretty much part of me. More so than other ectoplasmic objects”, Danny tilts his head and smiles at her, “and at this point I think it’s probably obvious the other item is a crown”. Maddie nods, yeah that felt honestly obvious now. Danny gestures to his head, “do you want to see it? Not much point in not showing you”, and chuckles.

Maddie glances at his head, she knows this is a distraction tactic. But she thinks she’s okay taking the bait. She couldn’t change this or do anything about it. And thinking of the footage of Pariah, “is it the flaming green thing Pariah had?”. Danny chuckles more at that and nods. So Maddie makes a point to ruffle his hair, realising she’s probably going through it. Intangible and invisible. That was probably for the best. He couldn’t very well walk around town with a bright green crown on his head. The ring was less... conspicuous.

“Yeah I want to see it”.

Danny smirks a little, a green glowing flaming crown appearing with a bit a fire show. Which Maddie has a feeling he did intentionally, so she rolls her eyes a little at him while eyeing the crown. It was much more in your face and even a bit intimidating compared to the ring. Even if it seemed rather plain and simple if you ignored the fact that it was floating, glowing, and on fire. Green fire. Though squinting a bit, it looked like there might be crystals? or frost? coating it. “Is it... safe to touch?”. Danny nods and leans his head down towards her. Her poking it tentatively and feeling more than a bit surprised that it was ridiculously cold. Frost it was. Which seems as illogical as cold fire. “It’s... cold”.

Danny chuckles and stands up right, and again with the charming smile, “yup. It’s default name is the Crown Of Kings, surprising I know, but under me it’s the Crown Of Cold Fire”. Maddie thinks that’s a little on the nose. Danny lifting up his ring hand, “and the ring’s the Ring Of Suffering”. She’s not sure what to think about that, it was fairly concerning actually; especially considering how literal the crowns name is. Danny runs a hand through his hair, passing under the crown easily, “don’t worry about the names. Anyway, can I go to bed now? It’s a bit past midnight”.

Maddie has to laugh at that a bit, not that she wasn’t tired too, “I don’t think you need my permission, sweetie. And I’ll probably have more questions in the morning, if you want to answer them anyway”.

Danny shrugs, “maybe I will, maybe I won’t. Do try to get some sleep though”. Maddie just nods at that as she watches him head up the stairs, the crown blinking out of visibility as he enters his room and taking away that bright waving glow of its that had been lighting up everywhere around him. It really did change the way he looked, it made him feel almost like he was out of reach. Like she couldn’t really exist in the same space as him. In the metaphorical sense anyway. Which she guesses, is true.

Her looking back to the kitchen, it’s going to take a while to really understand this. And maybe saying something was up with Danny had been an understatement. Her son was a king and effectively a dimension... sorta. He took being weird and unique to a whole different level. A path that she couldn’t follow him down or guide him with. At least his personality made much more sense now. Especially how he seemed as if above people and like people were children to him. Or ghosts more specifically. Because in a way, that actually was the case for him. Though she feels both less and more worried about him now, in more than a few ways. But worrying about him was pointless, and maybe, just maybe, unneeded. It was a bit hard not to though, she was a mother and all; and Danny had gotten himself mixed up in something equal parts important and dangerous. Though she’s really glad to have gotten some honesty from him. Gotten to know him more genuinely. He was clearly still himself, just a different him than the little space crazed little boy he used to be. Which was okay, kids grew up; it was a fact of life. Hers just grew up running full tilt in a direction that should have logically been utterly impossible. He faced life and made himself the king of death. Which... honestly was rather funny and ironic now that she thinks about it. And knowing Danny... he absolutely got a kick out of it. Which makes her smile a little before shaking her head and heading up to be herself.

One thing’s for sure though, she’s so going to have to have a talk with Danny about telling Jack all that at some point.

End.

[ghostly-penumbra]

Ectober Week 2020. Day Four

"Poison"

---

Trigger Warning: Mild body horror.

Ao3  FFN

---

Danny delicately sniffed the tea on his cup, and made a smile appear on his face when he opened his eyes and looked at the being across him on the small table, even as he felt his nostrils burn and dread mixed with resignation settle in his stomach.

"I'm sorry, I'm not really good with tea, I can't quite recognize this…" He trailed off and let the question hang in the air.

An eyebrow rose in the being's face, showing the intended surprise and the real incredulity at the same time.

"Why, I thought an Amity Park resident would be well acquainted with Blood Blossoms." It said, looking at Danny straight in the eyes. "What with the constant ghost attacks, I had assumed it would be a dietary requirement."

Danny nodded, his smile knowing. "Yes, I see where you come from; it has become quite common, just not in my home, it's more likely you will find ectoplasm in a meal than blood blossoms, which might be why my parents don't really use them, these two don't mix well together." Danny chuckled, and then, knowing he had postponed it as long as he could, took a sip of tea.

He felt like his throat was melting, and soon enough his neck would open up the liquid would scape, burning his skin as it went down his chest. But it simply went its way down, down, down until it settled in his stomach like a flame, burning, burning, burning.

The being facing him smiled gently, and Danny returned the gesture, licking his lips and taking another sip.

---

I honestly have no idea who the being was so if someone knows, I would be glad to be informed.

[camels-pen]

Day 15 Curse - The Sword in the Cup

Ectober Month 2021 - Day 15: Curse vs. Blessing

Summary: Lily just wanted to get home on time and pass out before dawn, but no, of course the kid freaking out about a pumpkin shortage would barge in four minutes to closing demanding coffee.

(some wonderful crack inspired by the ectoberhaunt discord)

(also shoutout to renny for the chapter title)

Ao3 Link

(there's also a drawing at the end of this post)

---

“How are there no pumpkins?! It’s two weeks before Halloween!”

“I don’t know! Stop yelling at me!”

“Ugh! Okay, okay. This is fine. We can do this. We just need to find a pumpkin or something that looks like a pumpkin and we’ll be fine.” The girl ran a hand through her hair, one hand white knuckled around the lid of a soup thermos. The boy’s eyes traced a path through the air, following Phantom’s harrowing battle against the Fright Night.

Lily didn’t want to know why these kids were searching all over town for pumpkins on a random day in the middle of October. Lily just wanted to finish closing the shop, message Ryan again about taking over her shift tomorrow—there is no way in hell she’s opening when she just covered for him—and collapse in her apartment.

Granted, there was about five minutes to closing, but honestly, the street was deserted except for those kids and with Phantom fighting another ghost nearby, there was definitely no one left to come in the shop—

Lily clenched the broom handle tightly in her hands. Those little snots had to prove her wrong, didn’t they?

The boy was pulling on the door, before noticing it was a push and letting himself in. He jogged up to her and shouted, “Quick, I need a pumpkin spice latte!”

She glared at him. “We’re closed.”

“But the sign says you close at midnight?”

“No. We close at...”—she glanced at the clock—“11:56pm.”

The boy gave her a deadpan look. “Really.”

“On the dot. Everyday.”

“And you’re not just saying that to get out of work sooner?”

“Nope.” Lily turned back to sweeping. Maybe if she ignored him, he’d just leave on his own.

“...What if I asked you to make a drink for Phantom?” Drat. No such luck.

Lily sighed and turned around. “Kid, if you want somewhere to stay until the ghost attack is over, be my guest, but I’m not making you anything.” Turning back to her task, she heard him shuffling around a bit before the unmistakable sound of a screeching chair reached her ears.

A few more seconds passed before he spoke again, “You mind if I play some music?”

Lily shrugged, sweeping together the growing pile of dust and napkins. He’d probably put on a pop song just loud enough to drown out the fighting outside. Lily had practically been doing that already.

“Sure.” A beat later, she added. “Bathroom’s unlocked, if you need it.”

He didn’t respond after that and Lily resumed her music, swaying slightly with the rhythm for a few seconds before an ear shattering heavy metal song burst from behind her, making her jump practically a foot in the air. She swore under her breath before whirling on the boy sitting stiff as a board in his seat by the window.

She didn’t say a word, only glaring at him, but he wasn’t looking at her. Or rather, he did look at her for a moment, sheepish gaze at least letting her know he felt guilty about it, but then his eyes trailed to the window, a familiar look of apprehension and worry on his face that had become rather common this past year in Amity.

Lily took a deep steadying breath and allowed herself a moment to remind herself that this was a kid, away from home, in close-ish proximity to a ghost attack. And a ghost attack involving Fright Night in October, no less. Anyone would be scared out of their minds. Lily would probably be more frightened if she wasn’t so tired.

She decided to be merciful and channel her anger into texting Ryan a third time followed by aggressively increasing the volume on her earbuds. She’d practically drowned out the screeching, but damn her ears were gonna hurt later.

Lily got most of the sweeping done in less than an hour, impressive for her shop, but depressing considering the small size. It wasn’t her fault the owners kept rebuilding the shop weirdly every time a ghost crashed through it and yet she and her coworkers were always the ones paying for it (not including Ryan, he can suffer as much as possible until he agrees to cover her shift).

She opted to keep her back to the boy to give him some form of privacy in his little mini breakdown or whatever and left sweeping around the counter for last.

When she finally turned around though, she regretted every bit of kindness she gave the little brat.

“What. Do you think. You’re doing?” The boy startled from where he stood behind the counter and turned slightly to turn that same sheepish gaze on her.

Oh no, Lily’s not falling for that one again.

The boy’s eyes flick to the atrocious mess of syrup, coffee, milk, and- and matcha? Didn’t this kid want a pumpkin spice latte? The mess was staining the counters, the floor, some of the equipment—one of the espresso machines definitely needed a thorough cleaning and fuck that was gonna take a while—and don’t even get her started on the ceiling. How did he even manage that?

Lily mentally shook her head. Not important right now. The anger boiling in her gut kept her on track.

“Making a latte?” It comes out as a question in a high pitched voice. Good. He should be afraid. This brat just increased her workload and cost her valuable time with her bed.

“I said. No. Drinks.”

“Technically, you said you wouldn’t make me any drinks. You didn’t say I couldn’t make them myself though.”

“It’s implied.” Lily grit out between clenched teeth. “Now you can either sit your ass back down or I can kick you out. Your choice.”

The sound of something hitting the concrete and a large piece of rubble landing much too close for comfort to the windows drew both their attention outside where Phantom was laying in a large crater in the street. When she turned back, Lily saw the boy take on a desperate look. “Listen, I know this doesn’t make much sense, but I have a theory about trapping Fright Night and I need something with pumpkin in it to test it so please just let me do this.”

“Wait wait wait. Why do you need pumpkin? Didn’t your friend have one of those Fenton thermoses with her?”

The boy shook his head. “She did, but he’s too strong to keep in there for long enough to send him back to the Ghost Zone.” He turned back to his monstrosity. “Now if you’ll excuse me, kinda trying to save the day here.”

“Uh uh.” No way Lily is letting this happen. “Dump that.”

The boy looked bewildered. “Uh… no?”

“If you’re gonna trap the spirit of halloween in a cup of pumpkin flavored coffee, the least I can do is make sure it’s actually drinkable.”

The boy blinked. “I don’t see how that’s relevant. Especially since, y’know,”—he gestured outside where Phantom was dodging Fright Night’s sword—“I’m on a deadline.”

Lily ignored him and tossed the overflowing cup of gross into the trash before starting to make a proper pumpkin spice latte as fast as possible.

She handed him the finished product and had to stop herself from asking if he wanted extra whip cream. “That’ll be 5.75.”

“Oh right.” He shoved his hands in his pants pockets and wriggled them around a bit before checking his back pockets and finally the inside of his beret. He looked at her with a sheepish smile.

Lily groaned. “Just go.”

“ThankyousomuchI’llpayyoulater!” And with that barely coherent string of words, the boy ran out the door. Then he yelled something at Phantom before setting the cup down on the asphalt. The ghost boy barely glanced at the drink before rushing past Fright Night towards the cup.

Watching Phantom recite a poem in the middle of the street while swinging around a massive glowing green sword had her considering if he was something of a theater kid before he died. Then he plunged the sword into the tiny coffee cup and the sword shrunk to match the size of the cup as a supernatural force sucked Fright Night into the drink with a small splash. The kids let out a breath of relief and Lily felt incredibly satisfied for actually doing something to help the local hero stop a ghost attack.

Y'know, after doing such a great deed, she deserved to skip cleaning up the mess in the store. Or maybe getting the kid to do it for her. Would that get her fired or just yelled at?

Lily mulled over the ethics of dragging the boy back inside and getting a proper I.O.U. when her eyes landed on the wiggling coffee cup and the angry ghost visible from the circular window on the side of the cup. She could practically feel the lightbulb going off above her head.

She saw the kids start to converge on the cup and hopped over the counter to run out of the store and snatch it away first.

“What—”

She held up the cup, careful to avoid the blade of the small sword. “My payment.”

“Uh, when I said I’d pay you back, I meant with actual money.” Phantom and the girl whirled on the boy.

“You stole it?” Phantom asked at the same time the girl asked, “You got caught?”

“Yeah, but she said it was okay!” The girl narrowed her eyes at him.

“After I caught you sneaking around, of course.” Phantom put his head in his hands and the girl pinched the bridge of her nose. “But I’m willing to look past all of that if I get to keep this little coffee prison and its inmate.”

Phantom looked ready to protest, but the girl spoke first and asked in a suspicious tone, “The second the sword is removed, Fright will come flying out on his nightmare horse and cause problems all over again. So why should we let you have him?”

“He needs to be punished for destroying a bunch of stuff, right?” Phantom and the boy nodded, confused, but the girl’s eyes seemed to light with realization. “Well, I’ve got a special sort of hell prepared for him.”

---

The next day, when Lily showed up for the evening shift, nearly every customer commented on the creative Halloween decorations and each time she looked back at the high shelf beside the menu, she could see the Fright Night banging his fists on the circular window, rattling the cup a little inside the glass jar she put it in.

As the first hour ended, Manager Gerry—as opposed to Buff Gerry from her rare morning shifts—walked out of his office during a lull in foot traffic and waved to her. “Hey Lil, I don’t know what came over you last night, but the customers have really been loving the display you set up.” He took a moment to look over the exact same mess from yesterday, but now with little hastily written sticky notes next to each mess with messages reigning from ‘gremlin doesn’t like pumpkin :(‘ on top of a large splatter of pumpkin puree on the pastry display case to ‘gremlin learns to fly!!’ where there were a few small wet spots on the ceiling as well as a hole the size of one of the metal cups from the milk frothing machine. A single piece of paper was taped above the glass jar and read, in large cursive letters: ‘Gremlin’s first Halloween!’ with a simple drawing of a wailing Fright Night in the corner.

“I’m really impressed, Lil, but next time, please warn me before you mess up the place, alright?” He frowned. “And that means at least a few days' notice, not texting me a picture of it at the end of your shift and then ignoring me.”

“Haha, yeah, sorry. I was just so… inspired.” Lily couldn’t look him in the eye so she pretended to admire her work instead. “But this is probably a one time thing anyway so don’t worry too much.”

“That’s too bad, I was hoping I could convince you to cover holiday decorating at least a few more times.” He sighed. “Oh well, I’ll just get Ryan to help me out for Christmas.” Ha. Served him right for making Buff Gerry cover Lily’s shift this morning.

They exchanged a bit more small talk before he wished her luck on her shift and left to return to his office.

When he closed the door, Lily rounded the counter and slumped in the nearest chair mumbling, “Thank fucking God.”