#if i could vibrate off the visible spectrum of light with how not-good i feel i would

[samcat18]

At camp, we talked about different kinds of needs as a stool: the seat is survival needs, and each of the legs are freedom, fun, control, and love needs. I still tend to think about my day to day using this lens, and asking myself if my stool is even and comfy, and doing what i can to fix it if it's not.

This is all to say the control leg of my stool rn is a little nubbin, whittled away by the big things in my life that are all outside my control, and i am GRASPING for the need to control literally anything i can 😅😭😅

[justlightlysedated]

For the kisses prompts - #22 for Malex please 🧡

And thank you so much for finding the planetary alinement sequel fic for me 🧡🧡🧡

22. kisses in the rain

Alex is on the phone with Forrest, who calls him periodically every couple of days to talk about what he's doing, and Alex usually pays attention, or pretends to pay attention, but today he can't stop looking out of the window, at the rolling clouds, lighting up with flashes of lightning, the thunder rolls loudly, shaking the very vibrations of his house.

He watches the next flash of lightning and counts the seconds between it and the loud thunder.

Still a few minutes away, he thinks.

He's startled out of his thoughts by a loud knock on his door, and he hears Forrest, sounding a little pissed off, like he's been trying to get his attention but Alex isn't responding.

He picks the phone up, takes it off speaker, and puts it to his ear, mouth open to speak, but then the banging on the door sounds again, and Isobel Evans' voice, of all people sounds out, loud enough that it would have probably been picked up by the speaker.

"Alex! I know you're in there. I don't care if you're balls deep in that Nazi obsessed blue haired twink, we need to talk!"

"I have to go," Alex says, and hangs the phone up on Forrest asking him what's going on, and winces slightly, before he shrugs and drops his phone back on the counter.

He gets up from the couch, reaching for his crutch, since he hadn't been expecting any visitors, and starts to make his way to the door.

Isobel, of course, doesn't have the decency to let him open the door. She opens his locked door, practically blasting it off its hinges and she stalks into the house, eyes finding Alex immediately.

"Where is he?" She demands, stalking forward, one hand aloft, eyes sharp, like she's getting ready to pry the information out of his head if he doesn't answer fast enough.

"Who?" Alex asks, because he's well versed in Isobel enough to know that if she was talking about Forrest it would be in a mocking tone, not one that is tinged with desperation.

"Michael," she says in an obvious tone, and just hearing his name makes Alex's heartbeat spike. "He's been missing for days, and he only did that whenever he was holed up with you."

Alex shakes his head, feeling anxiety and worry bleed into him, "I haven't seen Michael since he walked out of Pony during my set, making it very clear what he thought about my song."

Isobel gives him an incredulous look, but Alex isn't sure what part of his statement she's having trouble believing.

"Over the last year the most contact we've had was text messages when he needed information, so if he's fucked off somewhere it definitely wasn't with me."

Isobel shakes her head, and she looks more irritated than anything, "God save me from my fucking oblivious brothers."

She turns to look back at Alex, "Max is dying. His new heart is failing, and he's known the whole time, and just let us know a few weeks ago. Michael isn't taking it well, and I thought that he'd come to you, but I'm guessing he knows about the Nazi obsessed blue haired twink that periodically warms your bed-"

"He has a name, you know?" Alex says, interrupting her, but Isobel continues speaking like he hadn't spoken.

"-which would explain his dive into the negative spectrum of emotions when he had been feeling pretty hopeful and anticipating your arrival."

Alex blinks at her, feeling confused, "He was hopeful?"

Isobel shakes her head at him, "But I was wrong. I'm wasting my time, because he'd never come here after a rejection."

"Rejecti-?" Alex starts to ask, feeling even more lost than before, but Isobel just turns around and heads back out of his house without even a wave of goodbye.

The slamming of the door coincides with a rumble of thunder, making Alex jump a little.

He hears his phone ringing back where he left it, and he knows that it's going to be Forrest.

A small part of him wants him to go back and answer the phone and explain about ex sort of sisters-in-law who don't know how to wait for someone to open the door, but there is an increasingly louder part of him that is yelling at him that he knows exactly where Michael is, that instead of offering his sort of boyfriend, sort of not boyfriend, any explanations, he should go and demand one from Michael instead.

Alex nods his head sharply and then turns to head to his room. If he's going out into that storm that's brewing, he's going to need to prepare himself.

-

Alex finds Michael at their spot off the Desert View dirt road that leads from town to Fosters Ranch. The truck is hardly visible to the road, but Alex knows exactly where it is.

Alex doesn't pay too much attention as he carefully parks his car next to the truck, and he turns off the car without looking to make sure that Michael was there.

He clenches his hands around the steering wheel and breathes in deeply, and then breathes out slowly.

And then he shakes his head and tells himself to stop being nervous or scared or whatever he was being right now, it was just Michael.

Alex lets go of the steering wheel, and gets out of the car, closing the door with a slam that gets swallowed up by the thunder that sounds immediately after the flash of lightning.

Alex breathes in deeply and closes his eyes at the smell of ozone filling the air.

Alex loves thunderstorms and when it rains so hard the smell of it permeates everything. It makes him sad and melancholy, but also fills him with a mellow sort of happiness.

It's Michael, in a scent that Alex can find anywhere. It's not as good as the real thing, but it helped whenever Alex faltered during the last year.

He looks at the truck, searching for Michael, staring into the cab of the truck, and jumping a little when he finds him sitting on the tailgate.

He looks like he hasn't moved in a while, and he doesn't even twitch when the thunder crashes again.

Alex takes him in for a moment. His face is being covered by his hat, but his clothes looked nicer than anything that Alex has ever seen him wear. Even in the dim light, he can tell that his jeans have no holes, and the sweater he's wearing actually looks soft, and like it actually fits him.

It makes something warm and fuzzy curl in the pit of his stomach, that Michael is doing good, that he's happy and well. Well, he's not really happy right now, if Isobel is to be believed, but from the small, unasked for updates that Kyle gives him whenever they meet up for beers, he knows that Michael hasn't been miserable or drinking like a fish or getting into bar fights or dating anyone.

Alex shakes his head to get rid of the last thought, because he knows better than to hope for anything. If the last three years, since he came back to Roswell the first time have taught him anything, it was that Michael was over him, and Alex just needed to get over it.

Which was much easier said than done.

Alex had thought that he had been making steps towards that, but he could feel the tips of his fingers tingling just from proximity.

Maybe this was a mistake.

As soon as he thinks the words, Michael turns and looks at him. His lips are parted like he was going to speak, and then he seems to realize that Alex was the one standing there, and not Isobel or Max.

Their eyes lock, and Alex feels his heart skip several beats, before it starts racing, matching his quickening breaths.

Lightning flashes and thunder crashes as they look at each other, and Alex has a feeling like something mystical, something alien is about to happen.

Alex walks closer to the truck and Michael doesn't move or say anything, just continues to stare at him, eyes too big, like he's not sure that Alex is real.

Alex sits down next to him and the truck moving up and down with Alex's weight is what snaps Michael's gaze away from him.

"Hi," Alex says, and his voice comes out breathless and quivering, but he pushes forward anyway. "It's good to see you."

"What are you doing here, Alex?" Michael asks, the question falling out of his mouth almost as soon as Alex finishes speaking.

"Isobel came to see me," he says, and Michael scoffs, looking at Alex and quickly away. "She said you were missing, and she thought you were at my place, and it wasn't until she left that I realized I knew exactly where you were."

Michael shakes his head, scoffing again, as he turns to give Alex a sardonic look.

"That doesn't answer the question. What did Isobel let slip 'accidentally' that made you come all the way over here, when you haven't bothered with a hello since you've been back?"

Alex bristles immediately at the implications in his tone, getting defensive, "I don't owe you anything, Guerin."

"I'm not expecting anything from you, Manes," Michael drawls, a mean smirk on his mouth.

Alex scoffs, "Really? Because it sure seems like you were expecting something."

Michael looks away at that, but Alex is just gearing up.

"Which is the part of all of this that is confusing me. I understand you coming out here and wanting to be alone because your brother is dying, again," Michael flinches at the words, and Alex wants to reach out and comfort him somehow, but instead he keeps talking.

"What I don't understand is you being hopeful about us and taking me being with someone else as a rejection. Michael, you were the one who ended things between us. You pushed me away and reminded me at every turn that while I wasn't like my family, I also wasn't what you wanted."

Michael is looking at him now, eyes wet with tears, brow furrowed, and he's shaking his head a little, like Alex is speaking about something that he doesn't understand.

He doesn't say anything in the lull of Alex's flow of speech, so Alex keeps talking.

"I am sorry, you know," he says. "About the song. I wasn't expecting you to be there when I was performing it. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"What?" Michael asks, sounding disbelieving, and he fully turns, tilting his head up a little so that he can see Alex's face clearly. "Why would you think that I was uncomfortable?"

"You walked in while I was in the middle of singing, and you left the second you realized exactly what the song was about. In conjunction with the fact that you'd just gotten your heart broken, I know you weren't walking into the bar expecting a declaration of love, and I'm sorry that I-"

"Alex," Michael says in a low voice, lowering his head just a little. "Stop apologizing."

Alex opens his mouth to speak, but stops when Michael reaches up and takes his hat off, tossing it to the side and ruffling a hand through his hair.

Without the hat, it's almost like a strip of armor that Michael had been wearing has come off, and he looks at Alex intently, "That's not why I left."

"Oh," Alex says, deflating. "Then why did you leave?"

Michael huffs out a humorless laugh, looking away.

"I thought I was doing what was best for us at the time. Maria had just broken up with me, and while I wasn't ready to jump into a relationship with you, I wanted things that I knew were selfish. And then I saw that Nazi obsessed blue haire-"

"So she got that from you?" Alex interrupts him, giving Michael an exasperated look.

Michael just shrugs unrepentant.

"I saw him there, watching you sing, and I just, I didn't think that in that moment, if given the choice, you'd pick me, not after everything that happened. So I left, because I wanted to give you the space to heal and to date whoever you wanted. But then I heard you were coming back home, and I don't know, I guess I couldn't stop myself from hoping that you were coming back for me."

Alex just stares at him, eyes wide, feeling like someone just turned his entire world upside down. He swallows hard, not really knowing how to respond.

"Michael, I-"

But Michael shakes his head, getting to his feet and standing in front of Alex.

"You don't owe me anything, remember?"

Alex just shuts his eyes, and inhales deeply.

After a couple of seconds where Michael just keeps staring at him, and the storm brews ever closer, thunder so loud and near that it reverberates through Alex's bones, he speaks again.

"I was ready, you know," he says, trying really hard to sound casual and failing. Alex opens his eyes to stare at him, but Michael is looking up at the sky, the flashes of lightning caught in his eyes.

"Or I thought that I was,” he continues, shaking his head and then looking back at Alex and jumping when he sees that Alex is looking at him. “I even went to meet you at the bus stop.”

“So that was you?” Alex proclaims, jumping down from the tailgate.

Michael looks embarrassed, cheeks flushed red, and it reminds him so much of the Michael that he fell in love with that he loses his breath for a moment.

“You noticed huh?” Michael says, making a face.

“I swore that I saw you through the bus window, but when I actually looked there was no one there, so I thought I just imagined it.”

“Well, when I saw your boyfriend there, I made myself scarce,” Michael says, a bitter tone to his voice, but he looks apologetic, so at least he’s self aware enough to know that he has nothing to actually be bitter about.

“Not my boyfriend,” Alex says automatically, and Michael just stares at him a bit incredulously.

Alex rolls his eyes and scoffs, “Like you’ve never had a booty call, Guerin.”

Michael raises both eyebrows at that, and gives Alex a mock shocked look, “I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

But he ruins the effect by smirking, and Alex can’t help it, he bursts out into laughter, the tension of the last couple of minutes draining out of him.

He’d thought maybe things between them would just be weird and stilted and painful, but so far it hasn’t felt anything like that. It felt easy.

Alex stops laughing and just grins at Michael, who is just staring at him with a look that Alex is very familiar with.

Alex’s smile dims a little as he continues to stare at Michael who breathes in deeply like he’s steeling himself for something.

“So, not your boyfriend, huh?” he says, taking a step forward.

Alex inhales sharply at the words, and licks his lips, shaking his head.

“So, if I kissed you right now, what would you do?”

Alex exhales a small disbelieving breath, his pulse racing and fingers tingling. Michael has never asked to kiss him before. He’s always just done it like he’s afraid that Alex will tell him no if he dares to ask.

Michael looks away, probably thinking that Alex meant that as a no, so Alex takes a step forward, and Michael freezes, eyes snapping back towards Alex.

“Why don’t you do it, and find out?”

Michael moves forward like he thinks that Alex is going to change his mind at any second, fingers pressed to Alex’s face as he tilts his head to the side and presses his mouth to Alex’s.

The move makes them stagger backwards a little, but Alex hardly notices as he pushes his fingers into Michael’s hair and holds on tight, keeping him close as he kisses him back.

The storm breaks at the same time, and the rain falls hard and cold, pelting them and soaking them almost immediately, but neither Alex or Michael care as they continue to kiss.

Michael digs his fingers harder into Alex’s jaw and kisses him harder, parting his lips and licking at Alex’s mouth. Alex wraps his arms around Michael’s shoulder, pulling himself in closer and opening his mouth to Michael’s.

Michael kisses him deep and just a little bit desperate, and Alex loses himself in it, thinking, this, this, this.

This is what he’s been missing. This is what’s always missing. Michael kisses him like Alex was created specifically for Michael to kiss. And Alex can’t help but surrender to the touch.

After what feels like forever and not long enough, Michael pulls away, panting heavily.

Alex blinks rapidly a few times, before he realizes that his vision is blurry because of the rain that is pouring down on top of them.

He looks up at the sky as lightning lights up the clouds and thunder rumbles, and he closes his eyes breathing in deep. Michael drops his forehead to Alex’s cheek, pressing his face along the side of Alex’s face and just breathing.

Alex just tightens his hold on Michael and breathes with him.

[dp-marvel94]

Danny and His Blob Ghosts

Summary: When two blob find and affectionately latch onto Danny, the halfa immediately adopts the small ghosts. But things are not as they seem. With Danny's horrifying recurring nightmares, Vlad Master's ominous behavior, and the blob's strange human-like eyes, keen intelligence, and intense fear of the older half ghost, there might just be a greater connection between Danny and his blobs, one that will shake the boy to his core.

Word Count: 11,420

Also on AO3 and Fanfiction.net

Note: Based on this post by @ectoblood. 

You know how I said, I wanted to write a fic about the blob clones? Well...this is so late but I've been sitting on this for a while and finally finished it. So here's the story! This is an au where this story happens in place of Kindred Spirits. Instead of trying to make half ghost clones, Vlad creates fully human clones of Danny and....well...you'll see what happens to them. But anyway, enjoy and feel free to tell me what you think!

The boy looked about 10 years old, with black hair and lilac eyes. He stood in a sterile, metal room, looking so out of place. Machines whirled around him, vials glowed with something neon green, and in the center, sat a gaping metal hole in the wall.

"You want me to put this on?" The boy asked, holding up a familiar looking jumpsuit. It was white with black accents. He swallowed nervously, pointing at the ominous opening. “And go in there?”

“Yes child.” A cold voice answered, from somewhere behind the boy.

The child blinked. “Why?” He asked innocently.

There was a long suffering sigh. The boy turned at the sound, his eyes falling on a white haired man. “Must I explain this to you again?” 

The boy looked down, cheeks reddening with shame but he said nothing.

The man stepped forward. “That is an inactivated ghost portal. A machine similar to this one gave me my abilities.” To demonstrate, he summoned a flame of red energy to his hand. “And this one will give you the same abilities. I will turn it on with you inside and you will become half ghost, like me. You will be powerful. Finally the perfect heir. The perfect son.”

The child paused, taking in the words. Tentatively, he glanced at the hole, swallowing. “Will it hurt?”

The man tisked. “Don’t worry about that. Now get moving. We haven’t got all day.”

The boy didn’t move, anxiously looking between the machine and the man. 

The half ghost looked up. “Don’t you want to make your Father proud?”

The child bit his lip. “Yes..but-”

“If you do this, I will let you go upstairs.” The man offered, coldly. “There is a room for you with a bed and toys.” He wrinkled his nose like the word was distasteful. Then he looked down, hands ghosting over the control panel. “I will tell you your name as well.”

The boy’s eyes widened hopefully. “Really?”

“Yes.” The man hummed, replying passively as if the conversation was of little interest to him. Then he looked up. “Only my perfect half ghost son is allowed to know that information.”

The child nodded. The hope remained in his eyes as he put on the jumpsuit. He squared his shoulders, walking towards the tunnel.

“Very good. Now go inside.” The half ghost encouraged. 

The boy stepped forward slowly, carefully stepping over wires.

“Stop and face me.”

The child stopped and turned around. He swallowed again, eyes flitting around the tunnel nervously.

“Now, do not move.” The man instructed. His hand moved to hover over a large button. “I will press this button. Again, I emphasize. Do not move. Do not run.”

“Run?” The boy squeaked out. “Father, maybe I shouldn’t-”

The man ignored the words, slamming his hand down on the button.

"Father, I don't wanna do this anymore." The child cried, reaching forward. He tensed, eyes widening as green lights sparked around him. “Father!” With shaking knees, he started forward. 

The man frowned. “I told you not to move.” He pressed another button and a glass wall slammed down over the opening of the tunnel.

Inside, time seemed to slow. “Father! Please!” The boy ran to the front. “Let me out!” The green light grew brighter, the smell of ozone filling the air. “I don’t wanna do this!” The child shouted. 

“Please! Father!” There was a ripping sound, quack of thunder, the smell of burning flesh. A blood curdling scream cut through the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny sprang up, a shocked scream in his own throat. His chest heaved and his hands shook. The images of the...nightmare?....rang in his head. That was a nightmare, right? But...but...the smell- ozone and citrus and chard flesh- burned in his nose. And that scream…..

Beside him, something buzzed. The boy looked down. “Oh, Aster.” His expression softened, his eyes met the blob ghost’s purple ones. The fist-sized ghost blinked at him, rubbing up against his side. “Thanks, little guy.” The blob purred, the sound vibrating through Danny’s side and his own core hummed in kind. A comforting emotion pressed into his mind from the other ghost and Danny sighed in happiness.

Not for the first time, the half was grateful for the small green blob ghost. He’d shown up about a week ago and had hardly left Danny’s side since, serving as a comforting presence in the boy’s stressful life. His name, Aster, had been based on Sam's suggestion, for a flower with purple petals much like the blob’s strange eyes.

Something brushing up against his arm drew Danny out of his thoughts. He looked down at Aster; the little ghost had flown up and was nudging his arm. In response, the boy moved his other arm to pet the blob, who again purred at the contact. 

After a moment, Aster’s eyes again meet Danny’s. "Sorry I woke you up." The halfa muttered. “I had a nightmare about my accident. Except I was younger? And Vlad was there for some reason?”

Suddenly, the small ghost hissed in displeasure at the name. He puffed up, his dim aura brightening as a clear spike of his anger touched Danny’s mind.

The halfa raised a brow. “You clearly don’t like him either. Good call.” He hummed. “That man’s a fruitloop. Insane bastard.”

Aster hissed again, something like agreement projecting from him. 

“You said it.” Danny replied. Then he yawned. “I need to go back to sleep, Aster. See you in the morning?”

The little ghost’s aura dimmed and he floated down, settling back on the bed, beside Danny. He squeaked once, before closing his eyes.

Danny gave the blob one more little scratch. “Good night.” He laid down and went to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny blinked awake to sunlight streaming through his window. Even without looking, he could still feel the cool presence of the other ghost beside him. He smiled, enjoying the warm bed and the comforting presence of his companion...before he looked at the clock. 

The halfa’s eyes widened and he shot up. “Shit. School starts in 10 minutes.”

The movement shook the bed, startling Aster awake. The blob ghost squeaked in alarm.

“Sorry.” Danny muttered, jumping out of bed. “Gotta get ready.”

He scurried around, putting his clothes on while he brushed his teeth. Then he started stuffing material into his bag. “Where’s my math homework?” Rapidly, he shuffled through papers. “I know I did it!” 

Something cold nudged his arm and Danny looked down. It was Aster, with a piece of paper clutched in a mouth-like depression below his eyes. Eyes widening, the halfa grabbed the paper. 

“This is my math homework.” He muttered in surprise, looking down at the blob. “Thanks bud.” Danny gave the other ghost a pat, before Aster darted off.

The halfa shrugged, grabbing his shoes and rapidly tying them. Less than a minute later, there was a chirp in front of him. Danny looked up, again the green blob ghost floated in front of him, this time clutching a foil wrapped packet.

“Poptarts?” The boy grabbed the food. “You’re a really smart little guy, you know that?” 

The small ghost hummed happily in response. 

With his shoes on, backpack packed, and breakfast in hand, Danny stood. With hardly a thought, he summoned his transformation rings. The light passed over his body, replacing Danny Fenton with Danny Phantom. Now in ghost form, the halfa floated off the floor and towards the window. Aster followed.

Raising a brow, Danny glanced at his companion. “You’re coming with me? I’m going to school so you’ll have to stay out of sight. Don’t let any humans see you.”

The blob bristled, rolling his eyes. A very middle annoyance projected from him.

Danny held up his hands. “Alright, alright. You already know that. Come on.” He motioned for the smaller ghost to follow, both of them turning invisible as they phased out of the room and started racing towards school.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the day proceeded fairly normally for Danny. He went to class, ate lunch with his friends, and had to duck out of English when his ghost sense went off. The halfa darted to the restroom to transform and Aster appeared in the visible spectrum a moment later. The little blob followed him, keeping out of Danny’s way while he quickly captured the Box Ghost. 

Once Danny capped the thermos, Aster floated down and rubbed up against the half ghost’s arm, giving a congratulatory squeak. 

The ghost boy laughed. “Dude. It was just the Box Ghost.” He gave the smaller ghost an affectionate pat anyway. “I’ve gotta go back to class. See you later.”

After that, Danny didn’t see the little blob ghost again in public, though his presence was never far away. The weak ectosignature danced at the edge of the half ghost’s perception, suggesting the blob was hiding somewhere invisibly. 

Soon enough, the school day ended. Danny said goodbye to his friends and started walking home, with the invisible blob ghost trailing him. A fifteen minutes walk later, the boy was walking through his front door. After grabbing a snack, he headed up the stairs.

Danny paused in the second floor hallway. A cold feeling swirled from his core, settling in his lungs. The prerequisite of his ghost sense. Brow furrowed, the half reached out with his core, trying to feel the signature of whatever was alerting his core. It was weak and….Danny’s eyes widened; the signature felt very similar to Aster’s but not quite the same. Confused and wary, the half ghost opened the door to his room.

Danny frowned in confusion. There, floating over his bed was a strange looking blob ghost. It was sky blue with white patches, like clouds flickering over its surface. It raced around the room, squeaking anxiously. Confusion and distress rolled off of the small ghost in waves, making Danny shiver. 

Shaking his head, the half ghost closed the door and approached. The blob froze, neon green eyes falling on Danny. Its eyes widened, before it let out a happy and relieved squeal. In a flash, it flew at Danny, thumping against his chest with such force that the half ghost stumbled. For a moment, he was stunned. He would think it was an attack except…. The little ghost was trembling against him, relief pressing into Danny from the blob. It...no….he…(Danny had no idea how he suddenly knew, but the ghost, pressed right against his core, was a boy.) was purring, his emotions practically screaming Safe. Safe. Finally safe.

With a gentle hand, Danny cupped the sky-blue ghost. “Hey, hey. You’re okay.”

Beside him, Aster warbled questioningly before floating around to face Danny. The green blob wiggled up beside the other blob, maneuvering himself so Danny was holding both of the smaller ghosts. Aster hummed, pressing into the other blob and both closed their eyes. 

Danny stumbled to his bed, bewildered by the situation. He patted the new ghost with his free hand. “Whatever happened to you, it’s okay now. I would let anything happen to you.”

At the words, neon green eyes looked up at him, eyes crinkling with adoration. He purred.

The half ghost smiled. “So...do you have a name, little guy?”

The blue blob looked down, sadness projecting off of him. 

“Oh.” Danny frowned. “How about…..Skyler? ‘Cause you’re sky blue with white patches.” The new blob looked up, confusion poking Danny’s mind. The halfa shook his head. “I know it’s not that creative. I can think of something else if you want.”

The blue blob’s eyes widened and he chirped sharply, a clear no. Instead, he pressed into Danny again, humming happily. 

“So you like the name?”

Danny didn’t know how someone without an actual head managed to nod but the little blob managed it. 

“Alright then. Your name's Skyler. This is Aster.” Danny pointed. “And I’m Danny.”

Both blobs hummed, their affection communicated loudly. The half ghost smiled. “I love you guys too.” His core vibrated in his chest, purring with the other ghosts. Finally, he pulled his hand back. “I do have homework to do guys.”

Aster warbled disappointedly but backed up. Skyler hesitated, eyes flickering to the side uncertainly. The other blob nudged the newer blob encouragingly and with the prompting, the blue ghost floated away. 

With that, Danny went to his desk to work on homework, while his blob ghosts watched, snuggling with each other.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Skyler proved to be even more clingy than Aster. That night, the little ghost insisted on sleeping on Danny’s chest. The next day, he settled in Danny’s hoodie pocket as soon as the boy put it on. 

“Come on. You can’t stay there.” Danny said, gently pushing the blob out of his pocket. 

Skyler hissed in displeasure before burrowing himself in the fabric again.

The half ghost sighed. “Alright. You’ll have to stay invisible then.”

The blob poked out of the pocket just enough to give Danny a confused look.

“So people can’t see you.”

The confused expression remained.

Danny furrowed a brow. “Do you know how to do that?”

Skyler let out a defeated sounding sigh.

“That’s a no then. Here, let me show you.” Danny placed a finger of the blob and concentrated, turning his hand and the other ghost invisible. After a moment, he pulled his finger back. “Now you try.”

The small ghost pinched his eyes closed in concentration. He disappeared, flickering invisible and visible like a dying light blub before the flickering stopped.

Danny smiled proudly. “There! You did it.” 

Skyler remained fully invisible in his pocket and that’s how he stayed for the rest of the school day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Things continued like that for a while. The blobs snuggled with Danny while he was sleeping. They followed him on patrol. They hung out with him while he was doing homework. Aster and Skyler even meet Danny’s friends and sister.

“They’re so cute!” Jazz cooed, petting the two small ghosts.

In response, Skyler purred, leaning into the contact. Aster rolled his eyes and growled grumpily.

Bewildered, the redhead pulled her hand back from the green blob. “What was that?”

Danny snorted. “Aster’s mad that you called him cute.”

“Really?” His sister looked down at the green blob. “These two can actually understand what we’re saying?”

The half ghost raised a brow. “Of course they can.” 

“It's kinda weird.” Sam said, uncertainly. 

“Yeah, blobs aren’t normally that smart. Plus….” Tucker pointed. “Don’t those weird, human-like eyes give you the creeps?”

Danny turned back towards the blob ghosts, frowning at the statement. He studied the two, with tilted head. They did have round eyes, with pupils and sclera but inhumanly colored irises “I don’t think it’s that weird….I mean….blobs having eyes isn’t common but ghosts’ eyes can look really similar to humans’”

Sam, Tucker, and Jazz looked at each other questioningly before the goth shrugged. “I guess you're right. Ghost’s are pretty strange in general.”

Danny nodded and the conversation ended. The teens all got to work on homework with the blobs settling on Danny’s shoulders to watch. Then Danny’s phone rang.

He glanced down at it and groaned at seeing the caller id. Without comment, he answered the call. “What do you want Vlad?”

As soon as the word left his mouth, Aster and Skyler startled. Both darted back, hissing loudly.

“What is that noise, Daniel?” The older halfa’s voice came through the phone.

Ignoring the question, Danny looked back at the blobs, waving down with one hand. “It’s okay. Quiet down you guys.”

Across the line, Vlad scoffed. “Is that those obnoxious blob ghosts?”

“They’re not obnoxious.” Danny huffed. “Wait, how do you know about them?”

“I have my ways.” The older halfa said cryptically, before continuing casually. “Anyway, how are you, my boy?”

At the words, the blobs ghosts both hissed again. Skyler floated farther away from the phone, higher until he’s pressed against the ceiling. Aster however pressed right up to the phone, growling lowely.

Danny lowered the phone. “Aster, Sky. It’s okay. He’s not actually here.”

Over the phone, Vlad growled. “Control your pets, Daniel.”

The younger half straightened, narrowing his eyes. “They aren’t my pets, Vlad.” Despite what others would think, the two blobs were not his pets. They were….his friends, the ghost boy supposed.

“Of course not.” Vlad scoffed. “Just like that green mutt is not your dog.”

“No, that’s not…” Danny pinched his nose. “Why are you calling me, fruitloop?”

The half ghost could almost hear the eyeroll. “I was calling to inform you, I have business in Amity Park in a few days and your dear mother and oaf of a father invited me to stay with your family.”

The younger halfa groaned. “Are you serious?”

At the same time, the blobs hissed above him.

“Yes, I am serious.” The older halfa replied coldly. “And again, can you call your pets to quiet down?”

“Again, not my pets.” Danny gritted his teeth. “And no. I agree with them. Hissing’s the right reaction to you.”

“Now, don’t be difficult, little badger. Are you not looking forward to seeing your dear uncle?”

“F*ck off.” The boy hissed, earning enthusiastic buzzes of agreements from Aster and Skyler. His friends also chuckled, giving him approving looks while Jazz frowned.

“Such language, Daniel.” Vlad rebuked. “Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

The ghost boy narrowed his eyes. “Will you stop talking about my mom?”

“Now, your dear mother-”

“Will never love you, because you’re a creepy old man who can’t let go of your crush on a happily married woman. Goodbye.” With that, Danny hung up the phone angrily.

The halfa put his head in his hands and groaned.

“Dude. I’m so sorry.” Tucker said.

Danny just groaned again. A moment later, the two blobs who had been hovering near the ceiling flew down to the boy. Chirping soothingly, they brushed up against his arms. In response, the half ghost raised his head. He gently cupped both blobs in his hands and drew them to his chest. He looked down, addressing the smaller ghosts. “Thanks guys.”

Sam raised a brow. “They really don’t like Vlad, do they?”

“Yep.” Danny nodded.

The technogeek half-smiled. “They fit right in.”

The half ghost nodded in agreement.

After that, there was more complaining about Vlad. And finally, at Jazz’s insistence, the teens started on their homework, with the blobs watching from one of Danny’s shelves. Once they were done, the group watched a movie. After, Sam and Tucker went home and Jazz went to her room leaving Danny alone with Aster and Skyler.

The half ghost looked up, spotting the two blob snuggling together on his shelf. Sky was trembling slightly, eyes down cast. Danny frowned, reaching up to give each ghost a scratch. “Come on guys. I’m going to bed.”

The blue blob looked up, eyes brightening. He floated down the half ghost, purring as he nudged the boy’s hand.

With that, Danny settled into bed, with Skyler laying on his chest and Aster beside him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The little black-haired boy was crying, his blue eyes filling with tears.  "Daddy, please I'll be good!”

Vlad sneared, gripping the child’s arm tighter. “Stop sniveling boy.”

He trembled, weakly pulling away. “I’ll be good, Daddy. I promise!”

The man shook him. “Be quiet.”

“No! Let me go!” The child cried, pulling harder.

“You are insufferable.” Vlad gritted his teeth. Letting go of the small arm, he roughly pushed the boy.

“No!” Snot started running down the child’s face. “Daddy!”

“If this works, it will be worth it.” The man sighed.

The boy’s eyes widened as he scrambled up. “Daddy, I’m scared!”

The man ignored the pleas, instead he pressed down a large button on a control panel.

The child stumbled forward, chest heaving as his feet quickened. His heart pounded in fear. “No! I’ll be good! Please!”

A glass wall slammed down in front of him and the boy screamed, pounding on the barrier. “Let me out!”

“It will be worth it.” Vlad repeated to himself. “He’s young and impressionable. A son I can mold in my image.” He pressed down the button and there was a flash of green.

The child panicked, the tears increasing. He pounded harder. “Daddy! Let me out!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

His own heart pounding, Danny woke up to the sound of a child crying. His sleepy mind ran in circles. What was...who was...that dream….

Another wail of pure emotional agony. That little boy….he must be here…. With his eyes still closed, Danny sleepy reached towards the sound. In front of him? Above him? He needed to find the kid…

Danny’s hands reach out to comfort, falling on something cold and squishy, like jello. Wait...that doesn’t…..

Something shifted, the minimal weight on his chest increasing. He was touching something else, something fuzzy...and soft? He petted the things and the sound died down into a whimper.

Mind swimming and fuzzy with sleep, Danny fell asleep again before he could think more. In the morning, he thought it was all a dream.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Downstairs, the doorbell rang. It had been three days since Vlad’s phone call, three days since Danny’s half-remembered nightmare featuring the insane bastard. Below, the door opened and then closed a few seconds later. His father’s enthusiastic greeting boomed. From his seat on the bed, Danny groaned in annoyance; it sounded like the fruitloop was here.

“Danny!” Jack called. “Come say hi to your uncle Vladdie!”

The younger halfa groaned again, this time louder. Skyler, who’d been perched in the boy’s lab and purring, startled; the blob suddenly looked up, his eyes wide and fearful.

Danny’s expression softened. He patted the smaller ghost. “It’s okay, Bud.”

“Danny!” His father yelled again, this time more instantly.

The boy frowned. “I’m gonna have to go down there.” 

The blue blob gave the half ghost a wary look, nestling into the boy even as Danny tried to push him off. “Sky. Come on.” 

The small ghost whined, refusing to move even as he was trembling. Then Aster, who’d been relaxing on one of Danny’s pillows, floated up and towards the other blob. Giving the blue ghost a nudge, the green blob offered a comforting purr. Skyler chirped worriedly in response. Then Aster nudged him again, more encouragingly. With something like a sigh, both blobs floated off of Danny’s lap before setting onto his pillow.

“Danny! Come down here!” This time, it was his mom yelling with a serious tone.

“Coming!” The boy yelled back. He looked back at his blobs. “Just stay here guys, okay?”

Aster gave an agreeing if warry warble. Skyler, however, didn’t respond, still trembling slightly.

Danny sighed, his own stomach knotting with worry. Squaring his shoulders, the boy braced himself to face the other halfa.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Fenton family, plus Vlad, sat around the coffee table with cups of tea and hot chocolate. Jazz and Danny traded warry looks as Vlad proved to be as creepy and obnoxious as ever. Making vague and not-so-vague ominous jabs at his dad, while paying the insults off as jokes. Shamelessly flirting with his mom. Overall making everyone, except the oblivious Jack Fenton, uncomfortable.

Danny gritted his teeth, barely holding back a seething comment about Plasmius. Oh, he wasn’t above underhanded comments about Vlad’s status as a lonely bachelor in need of a cat. But, even begrudgingly, their secrets were off the table. So no comments about the older halfa’s hairbrained schemes to kill his Dad, marry his mom, and convince Danny to be his perfect half-ghost son. The ghost boy shivered at those last words. That uncanningly reminded him of something he heard in his-

“Here Daniel. Let me take your cup.” Vlad said, interrupting the younger halfa’s thought.

Danny wrinkled his nose, giving the man a distrustful look. “Nah. It’s fine I can take it.”

The older halfa raised a brow, holding up the other mugs in his hand. “Really, it’s no trouble.”

His parents pinned him with questioning looks and the younger half ghost conceded, handing his mug to Vlad.

The corner of Vlad’s lip turned up, into something vaguely smug as he walked into the kitchen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a dinner that was as tense and awkward as Danny expected, the boy went to his room with an excuse that he had homework to do. Really, he didn’t want to be in the same room as Vlad Masters for any longer than he had to. But his stomach still flopped. He hated the idea of that insane fruitloop being in his house, around his parents. The other’s presence gnawed at him, the barely perceptible ectosignature (not weak but suppressed by Vlad’s human form) constantly putting his core on edge.

Danny shook his head, forcing the thought away. He’d just have to trust that he’d be able to hear on the off chance that Vlad tried something. The boy did actually have homework to do. And he should check on Aster and Skyler.

With a sigh, the boy pushed open his door before closing it quickly.

“Aster. Skyler.” Danny called softly, his nose wrinkling as the two didn’t appear. “Guys, it’s just me.” The boy tried again. 

Where were his blobs? With some concentration, Danny reacted out with his ghost sense. His brow furrowed, the signatures flickering into his awareness. The two smaller ghosts were close by. But where?

Danny searched, opening his closet and drawers. His eyes flickered over his bookshelf, dresser, and desk. “Come on guys.” He whined slightly at finding nothing.

Just then, a small chirp sounded. Danny turned, his eyes flickering down. There! Lowering himself to the floor and onto his stomach, he peered under the bed.

“There you guys are.” Danny rolled his eyes playfully. “Are we playing hide and…” He trailed off, finally taking in the smaller ghosts. Both were shaking, their eyes wide and fearful. Expression softening, the boy reached under the bed. He gently cupped each ghost in his hand and pulled them out from under the furniture.

“You guys are really scared of Vlad.” He said, voice only slightly surprised and pained. 

In response, both blobs whimpered.

“Shush. It’s okay.” After slowly sitting up, Danny pulled both blobs to his chest. The action was as close to a hug as he could perform with the two fist sized ghosts. “Like I said before, I wouldn’t let anything happen to you guys. I definitely won’t let Vlad anywhere near you.”

Aster and Skyler both cooed, comforted by the words. They started purring, Danny’s core doing the same in response.

For a long moment, the three stayed together in their almost hug. Then finally the halfa asked. “Better?”

Both blobs blinked, before giving affirmative chirps.

“Good.” Danny smiled, letting the other ghosts go. “I do actually have homework to do. You guys can watch or….” He pulled out his phone, offering it to the blobs. “Youtube? I can put on a video for you.”

With a hum, the blobs took the seconds option. They huddled on the bed while Danny worked on homework. Several hours later, the half ghost finished and joined the other ghosts on the bed. They watched some videos before the half ghost yawned.

“Alright. I need to go to sleep.” He stood and started towards the bathroom to brush his teeth.

Standing in front of the door, Danny reached forward for the knob. It didn’t turn, locked apparently. Inside the toilet flushed. There was the sound of the sink turning on and then off thirty seconds later. Then the door swung open. 

Danny frowned. “Vlad. What are you doing?”

The man raised a brow. “Using the restroom Daniel. What else would I be doing?”

The younger half ghost scowled but said nothing, instead stepping past the man and into the bathroom. He then slammed the door in Vlad’s face.

Danny sighed, looking down for a long moment as his annoyance at the older halfa flared. But he pushed the feelings away. The guy hadn’t actually done anything bad. Maybe he wasn’t actually planning anything worse than getting on Danny’s nerves. 

After a long moment, the half ghost looked up again. Remembering why he came here, the boy reached for his toothbrush. And….his eyes widened. It wasn’t in the cup by the sink or on the counter. Danny wrinkled his nose. Taking a step back, he looked to the floor. Maybe he...or another certain halfa….knocked it over. But nothing. It wasn’t in the trashcan either or in the drawers. It wasn’t under the sink or even in the toilet or shower. 

Danny rubbed his eyes, groaning. “Where is it? Did that fruitloop do something to it?” The boy looked up, shaking his head. No, why would Vlad do that? Well...he could take it mess with him but Danny could have left it at Tucker’s house the last time he stayed over. Or his mom or sister might have thrown it away. He really did need to get a new one anyway. He bent down, opening the doors to the counter under the sink. Like he thought, there was an unopened toothbrush. He opened the package and brushed his teeth before going to bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Floating underwater. The sting of water and ectoplasm in his eyes. Gasping for breath.

The beep of a heart monitor. Cold metal on his chest. The syringe full of red blood.

Images flashed through Danny’s sleeping mind, his eyes flickering rapidly under his lids.

Waiting. Watching. Raining dripping down the window. Shivering in his thin hospital gown. Loneliness.

Green slime and sleek metal. The smell of old pennies. The roar of machinery. A scream.

The young halfa’s heart started pounding in his chest, a whimper exciting his throat.

Sudden silence. Wet leaves and earth. The sound of a shovel hitting rock.

He’s...where is he? What happened? Why can’t he...why can’t he feel his hands, his feet, his body?

The boy gasped in his sleep, his heart skipping a beat. In the waking world, there was a rustling, a soft thump.

A shadow falling over him. Red eyes loaming over him. The flash of a needle.

Several things happened at once. Danny’s eyes popped open. There was an enraged hissed and a sudden thump.

“Why you little!” A man’s voice growled.

The boy shot up in bed. It took only half a second to recognize the older halfa in ghost form. “What are you doing in my room Vlad?!” The angry demand evaporated as Danny registered something else. There, squeezed in Vlad’s hands was a trembling Aster. The half ghost’s eyes narrowed, his voice rising in hysterical rage. “Get your hands off of him!”

Without thinking, Danny transformed and flew at the older half ghost, throwing him into the wall with a punch to the face. The blob ghost squeezed in alarm while Vlad grunted. “Daniel!”

Behind him, Skyler squeaked in alarm.

The boy bared his teeth. “Let him go.”

Vlad let his eyes flash. “Or you’ll what?”

His hand lighting with ectoenergy, Danny’s eyes flickered worriedly to the squirming Aster. “I’ll...I’ll…”

Vlad smirked. “Thought so.” His hand’s grip tightened slightly, causing the small ghost to let out another whimper of pain.

Danny paled slightly, eyes widening in panic. Then the sound of feet pounding up the stairs rang out with the distant sound of his parents’ voices. Skyler whimpered.

His eyes flickering to the door, he considered for a second. Danny’s expression hardened. “I’ll expose both of us.”

For a moment, Vlad looked like he wanted to scoff, like the boy was bluffing. Then his eyes widened slightly. His gaze flicked to the ghost in his hand. “For this thing? You wouldn’t.”

Danny hissed. “You wanna test me?” 

Feet continued to pound, the sound now coming from the end of the hallway. “Danny! We’ll get that ghost!”

The two halfa’s stood off for seconds but it felt much longer. With barely a thought, Danny summoned the ring of his transformation but paused it before he could change. Vlad’s gaze flickered down, considering.

The voices were right outside the door. In a second, Vlad released the other ghost and disappeared. The moment he was out of sight, Danny transformed.

His door banged open. “Where’s the ghost?!” Dad shouted.

Danny turned around, sighing in relief that neither blob was visible. “He flew off when he heard you coming.”

“He?” Mom asked.

“Pl- The Wisconsin ghost.” The half ghost said, suppressing a smile. He might as well get Vlad’s ghost form in trouble.

Dad’s eyes lit up. “The Wisconsin ghost! Madds, let’s go! Maybe we can still catch it!”

A worried look crossed the woman’s face. “Are you alright sweetie?”

Danny shrugged. “Yeah. He didn’t do anything to me.”

Mom studied him for a moment before her expression softened, seemingly satisfied. “Come on Jack.”

With that, the adults left Danny alone. As soon as the door closed, both blobs reappeared and flew at Danny. Silently trembling, they nuzzled against the halfa for protection. Deeply troubled, he sat down on his bed with the blobs settling into his lab. He petted them as they shook with fear. 

Vlad was up to something. He must have been. He’d been loaming in Danny’s room while he was sleeping. The memory, those images kept circulating in Danny’s mind but he couldn’t make sense of them or of the strange images of his dream. Were those two things connected? And...anger boiled in him. Vlad had threatened Aster. The man had put his hand on his….not- pet. His friend? That wasn’t the right word either. There was something...more familial about what he felt for these two blobs. He loved them so much. And Danny had threatened to out himself to save Aster. It scared Danny to think...he might just have done it. But he tried not to dwell on it instead wondering what Vlad was doing. But no answers came to his mind, just more worry as Aster and Skyler remained as quiet as death.

Danny didn’t sleep again that night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vlad left early the next morning without a word to Danny. He hadn’t tried to go into the boy’s room again. He hadn’t even made so much as an insult to Jack. Instead, he seemed vaguely angry, like whatever he planned failed. But Danny couldn’t make sense of that. What had Vlad wanted of him, while he’d been asleep? And….the boy swallowed. Vlad would have done whatever he wanted if Aster hadn’t attacked him.

But what had he wanted?

Eventually, Danny got out of bed. It was a lazy Saturday, just hanging out at home as he was grounded. It would have been a decent day except…

“Where’s my mug?” Danny grumbled. He really wanted his favorite mug, the one with the NASA logo, for his coffee. But it was no where, not in the cupboards, the dishwasher, the sink. It wasn’t on the counter or table or in the living room. Eventually he gave up, realizing it was the same one he used yesterday and handed over to Vlad to take to the kitchen. Danny groaned, putting his head in his hands. The man took it, didn’t he? The petty jerk.

Soon after, Danny found that his comb was gone as well, when he went to take a shower. His stomach flopped, getting an uneasy idea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the day, Danny did homework and hung out with Aster and Skyler. The two remained silent, bodies tense with stress despite the halfa’s encouragement. That is, they were silent until...Sky finally cracked.

It was that night. Danny took the pair up to the roof to look at the stars. It was nice and peaceful for once, the dark sky full of sparkling stars. 

Then, a soft whine broke out. 

Danny looked to the side, spotting Skyler. Eyes softening, he picked up the little ghost. “Yeah. It’s okay. Let it out.” Skyler whimpered, the sound growing louder.

Soon after Aster joined in also whining as Danny stroked both of them. The boy let them cry, frowning in consideration.

Wheels turned in his head. How much Aster and Skyler hated Vlad before they even knew him. The way they’d hiss and tremble. And yet...Aster was willing to attack the older halfa for him.

Danny glanced down, studied the two odd looking blob ghosts. Their large human-like eyes, their odd coloration, the variety of emotion and the keen intelligence, their ability to telepathically communicate their emotions to Danny.

The boy frowned. They were strange for blobs and they were afraid of Vlad. Skyler had come to him, to him specifically. He’d been panicked and afraid. And Danny had somehow known someone had put him through something horrible, someone that the boy promised he would protect the blob from.

The question sprung up in his mind and exited his mouth before he could think. “Did Vlad….” He looked down. “Did Vlad experiment on you guys?”

Aster and Skyler’s whines cut off suddenly at the question. Both pairs of eyes looked up at him questioningly and a cacophony of emotions poured into his mind, communicated by the blobs. Fear, shock, and panic. Then rapidly, Aster’s eyes flickered between Danny and Skyler. The other blob shook, eyes watering. Huge, mounting, panicked confusion hit Danny like a train.

He gasped at the emotion. “You guys don’t remember.” His eyes widened. “You can’t remember what happened to you before you found me.”

Aster wiggled in a movement meant to be a nod. Large sadness welled in Danny at the thought. He then looked at Skyler. “Sky, what about you? Do you remember?”

The little blue ghost didn’t respond for a long moment. There was no sound, no acknowledgement until finally, the blob looked up at Danny. He trembled and a mournful sound rang out.

Danny’s heart skipped a beat. That wasn’t a whine or a whimper. It wasn’t a squeak of pain or alarm. It was a heartbroken sob. The volume rose and Danny dropped the ghost in shock. It was...it was the sound of a child crying.

The half ghost shuffled backwards, the sound ringing in his head. That...he’d heard that before. “In my dream.” He muttered. “I dreamed...I dreamed about a little boy crying in a portal, with Vlad.” The sob increased and Danny’s eyes flickered to the blob. “And you’re…. you’re crying in his voice." He stood, shaking. “After my dream, you were crying like he was but…”

Something connected in Danny’s mind, his eyes falling on Aster’s purple eyes. Purple eyes...like his first dream, the ten year old with purple eyes, the same color as his mother’s. And Skyler...with the little boy’s, the little boy who looked like Danny, his voice. And….both of those children died.

But...a horrifying idea sprouted in his mind. His favorite mug, the one he’d been drinking from yesterday going missing. His comb, his toothbrush as well. His dream (?) last night. Vlad loaming over him with a needle. What if….what if that had been real? What if the older halfa was here not to mess with Danny but to collect more...samples? DNA samples to make more, to make another….

Danny gasped, shaking as a specific word rang out in his head. No. NO. NO! His mind cursed. That could not...that was not. That couldn’t be what happened. Vlad couldn’t do that. He wouldn't do that. Yeah he was a petty jerk, a crazy fruitloop, an insane bastard. He did horrible things, like stealing and lying and manipulating. He tried to ruin his Dad's reputation. He tried to steal their portal and kidnap Mom. And he infected Sam and Tucker with ecto acne. He made Jazz and him fight each other. And unleashed the ghost king. But… he wouldn’t do this. He wouldn't clone Danny. He wouldn't kill children to make a half ghost. And yet….

Wouldn’t Vlad? Wouldn’t the bastard do anything to get what he wanted? And wasn’t what he wanted most his perfect half ghost ‘son’?

Danny remained frozen, his mind rebelling, refusing the idea. It couldn’t be...His blobs couldn’t have been-

A questioning chirp shocked the boy out of his thoughts. He blinked, finally remembering where he was. On the roof, watching the stars with…. He looked down, eyes falling on the two blobs. Aster chirped again, his eyes wide, questioning and yet compassionate. Something in the expression calmed Danny. 

After taking a breath, his gaze shifted, falling on Skyler. The boy’s brow furrowed. The blob had stopped crying, his round eyes full of guilt.

Danny’s expression softened. “Skyler.” He started.

The little ghost warbled sadly, floating into the air. Tentatively, he approached the half ghost. When Danny didn’t move to stop him, the blob gently nuzzled up again the boy’s chest in their version of a hug. Skyler hummed and an emotion….no, a word...pressed into Danny’s mind. Sorry.

The boy paused, from where he’d been gently stroking the little guy. That wasn’t a voice, not quite. But it was close, so close to being one. He could almost imagine-

Danny shook his head. “No buddy. It’s not you. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just...I think Vlad...he might have….” He swallowed. “I think you guys might be my-” The boy cut himself off, his mind rejecting the word.

He couldn’t think that, couldn’t wrap his mind around it. What that would mean for Aster and Skyler. What they were. What they are. What they lost. And...what this would mean for Danny, what these two really were to him. He couldn’t think about it all. So the boy pushed the thought out of his head. 

Instead he held Skyler closer and after a moment, Aster joined him. Danny hugged his blob ghosts until the small blue one wiggled out of his hold, complaining loudly. The half ghost chuckled at the sight but his heart hurt. It ached, torn between acknowledging and rejecting its crazy hypothesis, even as Danny was lying in bed and falling asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Grainy footage played on a computer. A ten year old boy holding a hazmat suit, listening as Vlad explained how an inactive portal will grant him ghost powers. A five year old boy, crying and screaming as the man threw him into the machine.

The viewer watched with wide eyes, his hands shaking. His heart pounded in fear. “He’s going to do that to me too.” A teenager’s voice muttered.

The footage continued, both children crying for the man to stop. The teenager tensed as the portal started up, green light flashing. He covered his ears, stomach threatening to eject his dinner as the crying morphed into horrific screams of pain. But his eyes stayed glued to the screen as the light of the portal solidified into a swirling green vortex and….the screams cut off.

The teen blinked at the monitor, waiting. After a small eternity, the Vlad on the screen moved forward. Strictly, he called for a response. None came, the portal and the lab silent. Then Vlad changed, transformed. In a moment, the human was replaced by a ghost and he floated into the newly opened gateway.b 

Another long pause. The viewer twitched, his gaze flickering around the dark lab surrounding him, the same one that these videos were recorded in. His eyes moved back to the screen and finally….Vlad exited the portal.

The boy’s hand moved to cover his mouth and the cry that exited it. On the screen, Vlad was carrying a body. The charred and burnt corpse of a child. 

The teen gasped, learning over in sudden nausea. The words poured out. “He...he killed them. He’s gonna kill me. I’m going to die.”

Words exited the speaker. “Another failure.” Vlad sighed, dropping the body. “Hopefully the next one will survive and I will finally have my half ghost son.”

The boy straightened, his brow furrowing. His mind raced with thoughts and questions. But paramount- “I need to get away from him. I have to escape.”

He stood, rapidly closing the video and logging off the computer. Rapidly, his brain planned. He needed to run or find a way to contact someone. The police? Or…that boy from the older videos, the white haired one who in human form looked like him. His name was….Danny? And he lived in a place called Amity Park? The boy frowned. That wasn’t that useful but maybe-

The hydrologic hiss of the lab door turning shook the boy out of his thoughts. His heart skipped a beat and he sprinted. He was supposed to be asleep on his cot. He flopped down and pulled the blanket over himself, just as the door finally opened. The boy kept his eyes half lidded, watching the man approach him in the dark. Just feet away, he closed his eyes and slowed his breathing, faking sleep.

Vlad, the only person he’d ever known, his apparent maker, his capturer, his would-be murder, leaned over him. The boy froze, hardly breathing. He waited, hoping the man would go away. But then, there was a sudden pinch in his arm.

The boy screamed, startled, and tried to sit up but sudden dizziness overtook him. His head swam, his vision blurring before he passed out.

Sometime later, he blinked awake groggily. The boy groaned, wrinkling his nose. He was lying on something cold and metal. Something was digging into his back. He blinked again, his eyes slowly focusing on the ceiling. It was metal; he was still in the lab but….he shot up into a sitting position, his heart suddenly pounding. He was in the tunnel of the inactivated portal.

“Oh, you’re awake already.” Vlad’s voice came from outside the portal. He sounded disappointed. “It’s a pity. I’d hoped to keep you from panicking.”

The boy swallowed, standing. But he said nothing, glaring at the man even as he walked up to the glass wall.

“Do not bother to pound on that. I will not let you out.” The man said calmly. Then he rolled his eyes. “And do not snivel like a child. You are better than that.”

The teen balled his fists, anger rising. Oh, he wanted to do that. He wanted to scream and cry like the others had. The ones who died without even this man’s pity. He wanted to, because he was a kid and he didn’t deserve this. None of them had and it made him want to scream in rage. Instead, he bit back a growl.

Vlad looked up, slightly pleased. “You are being pleasantly calm, my boy.” He smiled, the pride on his face sickening. “Very good. Now just stay where you are and this will be over quickly.”

 The boy scowled but kept his mouth shut. He resisted the urge to curse the man and tell him exactly how much of a bastard he was. Instead, he focused on the man with a determined look. 

“I do hope this grants you ghostly abilities.” Vlad pressed down the button and the machine started to whirl. “You appear to have the spirit for it.”

The spirit, ha. The boy bared his teeth, the sudden chill raising the hair on his arms. It was starting. The opening portal would either kill him or..."I know what you did to the others. I saw the videos." He sneered, remembering the crying kids from the videos, the bodies left behind. The machine might do that same to him or...he remembered the other boy in the videos. Danny, with his white hair and green eyes. Images of him darting around the sky, shooting opponents with green energy. Ghost powers, like the man in front of him welds. Like he himself could...no, like he would gain. The boy straightened. "When I survive this, I will stop you.”

Across from him, Vlad’s eyes widened in shock.

The green energy was building around the teen, the smell of citrus and ozone assaulting his nose. “You'll never do this to anyone again."

The man stared at him in disbelief as the roar of the machine grew. The light burned the boy’s eyes and then...there was sudden pain. Screaming. The smell of burnt flesh. His heart pounded in fear before it twitched, the rhythm failing. His lungs spasmed, unable to take in air. His vision was overtaken with black as the pain ripped his body apart. His knees buckled, mind screaming for this to end. He never felt his body hit the ground.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny woke up, a scream on his tongue. His mind raced, confusion overtaking him. What was that? Where...who? What…?

Above him, something hummed. Danny’s eyes flickered to the source of the sound. There, floating over his bed. It looked like...a piece of the night sky, suspended in his room. The half ghost’s brow furrowed, taking in the ovalong object. It was black as night with pinpricks of light, like stars speckling its body. Slowly, Danny reached forward, his fingers brushing something cold and squishy. 

The things hummed again and Danny blinked, his mouth falling open as eyes opened above him. Icy blue eyes blinked, intelligently taking him in. Mind still trying to catch up, the boy sat up. He held out his hands for the ghost to land. Because this was a blob ghost, another one like Aster and Skyler and…..

The blob let out a soft purr, an emotion pressing in Danny’s mind. Relief. Determination. Knowing eyes focused on the boy and he swallowed in sudden dread and anxiety. It...He was exactly like Aster and Skyler.

The blob shivered, feeling the half ghost’s nervousness. A small measure of comfort touched Danny’s core. At the same time, the other two blobs who had been laying beside him, finally stirred. Both pairs of eyes flickered up to the other ghosts. Aster gave a curious buzz before floating up. A few seconds later, Skyler followed, more tentatively.

For a long moment, the new blob watched the other two, recognition dawning in his eyes. He quickly looked between the two but there was no realization, no understanding in the green or blue blob’s gaze. The starry blob chirped encouragingly, beckoning the other two forward. After a pause, Aster moved, gently nudging the new blob in greeting. Seeing it safe, Skyler hovered forward as well, greeting the new blob in kind. The dark blob hummed, enthusiastically greeting the other two ghosts. He bumped both, letting out a purr.

All the while, Danny watched, mystified. His mind sputtered, trying and failing to put the pieces together. His horrific dream with a new….clone. And then a new blob showed up. It couldn’t...it didn’t….. His stomach churned, revolting at the idea.

Finally, the new blob looked at Danny again. He sighed, pressing two words in the boy’s mind. Follow me.

The half ghost blinked in surprise at understanding the words. But he didn’t question as the blob floated up, off his hand and towards the door. Instead, he transformed. His core hummed as he hovered forward. He followed and it scared him that he didn’t hesitate. Because he should. He shouldn’t follow a ghost who just showed up in the middle of the night. Except…. While part of his mind whirled, the ghost part whispered, that  this ghost was trustworthy and familiar, someone he knew closely.

Flickering invisible, Danny followed the ghost through the house and in the basement with Aster and Skyler following. The group continued into the ghost Zone and across the empty space. Just minutes later, they came to a familiar site. There, in a cave on an abandoned rock...was the metal frame of a man-made portal. 

Danny froze. “That’s Vlad's portal.”

The dark blob stopped, turning back. He landed on the half ghost’s hand. Safe. He’s not here.

The boy blinked, understanding despite the few words. Vlad wasn’t on the other side and he trusted this new ghosts because he knew him, that he was a-

Danny shivered. “Come on.”

The group floated through the portal and into a metal covered room. The half ghost’s breath hitched and in front of him, Aster and Skyler whimpered. Danny swallowed. This was Vlad’s lab, obviously. But he...he recognized it, from his dreams. Shaking, he surveyed the room, eyes falling tubes of ectoplasm, metal and glass chambers, and...a cot in the corner.

Danny felt like he would be sick. But the dark blob nudged him onward before he could think. The group phased up through the floor and into a rustic looking cabin. This room Danny also recognized; they were inside Vlad’s cabin in the Rockies. The new ghost continued, into the forest. They flew for ten minutes before the starry blob stopped cold.

They were floating over a small clearing, tall grass surrounded by trees. Except….Danny’s eyes wandered and his heart dropped. In the light of the full moon, there were three patches of earth, each with vegetation of various heights. On one, the glass was maybe pinkie length. On the second, shoots were just bursting out of the ground. And the third….the earth was freshly up-turned.

Danny floated down, to the base on the first. His gaze flickered between the places as his eyes started to water. He knew...he knew what these were, what these had to be.

“These are graves.” He whispered, his knees shaking. His heart ached, shattering as a sob burst on his lips. “These...my dreams...my dreams they were real….Vlad really….he did….oh god.”

The boy doubled over, his stomach forcing its way into his throat. “Oh god. Oh god that bastard he-”

In front of him came a cry. Danny looked up. Aster was floating in front of him, facing away from him. The little ghost was shaking violently. He shifted in the air, gaze flickering from the ground to the next patch. And there was Skyler. The little ghost was crying again, the noise that of a young child. And...oh god. Aster’s voice….it was the same, a boy, maybe 10 years old, crying.

Danny’s eyes widened, reaching forward. “Aster...Skyler...you guys...you’re really…” He looked down, tears falling. “These...these are yours.”

Rapidly, Aster turned. His gaze flickered to Danny, below him, and then to the other two blobs. Horrified shock wavered, turning into equally horrified realization. His eyes widened, welling with tears, actual tears. He was shaking and crying and….Skyler was doing the same, an identical look on his face. And Danny wanted to race forward and hug them except for...oh god, they were floating on top of their-

There was a flash of light in front of Danny. It was...it was the two blobs. Their aura’s flared, the light enveloping their bodies so strongly that they looked like two balls of light. The half ghost’s heart pounding. What was happening to them?! What was-

The light expanded, pressing outward and up. Stretching and morphing. Growing into a shape. A shape that looked like- There was a pop as the light disappeared….and Danny wasn’t looking at blobs anymore. 

In front of him were two humanoid ghosts. Directly in front of him, the boy (because he was a boy, oh god, this was a dead 10 year old child!), the boy had white hair, light green skin, a black and white hazmat suit. He was looking at his hands, flexing his fingers in awe.

And to the side was a gasp. This boy looked maybe five, with sky blue skin and clouds shifting over his skin and clothing. Glowing green eyes looked up at Danny, green eyes identical to his and exactly the color and shape of- 

“Skyler.” Danny whispered through his tears. At the noise, the other ghost looked up. Familiar purple eyes fell on him. “Aster.”

With no more hesitation, the small ghost flew at him. He threw his arms around Danny, clinging to him in a hug. “Danny.” Skyler, because this was him, the same ghost as his little blob, whined through his tears.

“Sky.” Danny repeated, his whole body shaking. A moment later, another pair of arms clung to the older boy. “Ash.” He cried.

Danny returned the hug, clinging to these two. His sorrow swelled, tears streaming down his face. His knees shook, the weight of emotions dragging him down. The three collapsed to the ground, in a pile of limbs, tears, and sobs.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” The half ghost repeated, like a mantra. “I should have….I should have known that...that.” He should have known who these two were, not just any blobs but his...clones...his clones. These were his clones. “Oh god, Vlad he...he cloned me...and he made you guys and….oh god he killed you!” Danny’s chest heaved. “I didn’t...I didn’t know...I didn’t stop him. I should have...I should have stopped him...I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” The guilt poured out with the grief.

All the while, the other two ghosts wept in Danny’s arms. “I...I remember now.” Aster whispered. “I remember how I...I died.”

Danny squeezed him. “I’m sorry.”

Skyler sobbed, gaping Danny’s suit like he would disappear. “Why did he...why did he hurt me?”

The half ghost had no answer, not comfort. Instead, he promised. “He won’t hurt you. He won’t touch you again. I’ll protect you.”

The little blue ghost sniffled. “I..I love you, Danny.”

“I love you too.” Danny returned. “I love you guys so much.” And he did. He did so much. These two had been in his house, in his room, by his side for weeks. And he’d loved the two even when he didn’t know who they really were. And they were really his clones. His dead clones. They were dead because...he...he hadn’t been there when they needed him. He’d let Vlad kill them. They were...they were full ghosts because he hadn’t been there and…

The boy cried and his two clones cried for what felt like ages, until there were no more tears. Slowly, the two younger ghosts pulled away. Aster whipped his eyes. “It’s not your fault.” He said quietly, looking up at Danny. “You didn’t know what Vlad was doing.”

The boy blinked, his lip trembling. “But-”

A flash of light cut off Danny’s words. He turned his head, eyes falling on another morphing ball of light. The figure stretched, snapping into shape and leaving another human-like ghost. This one looked Danny’s age, like he could be Danny’s twin if it wasn’t for his starry, dark as night skin. 

The new ghost slowly knelt down to be at eyes level with the others. He blinked, fixing glowing blue eyes on Danny. “He’s right. You didn’t know.”

Danny considered, taking in the person in front of him. His heart clenched at the words, guilt swelling. But he had questions, questions that were more important than wallowing in his guilt. “So...you’re a clone of me. Like Aster and Skyler here.”

The other boy frowned, pinning Danny with a serious look for ignoring his statement. Eventually, he stated. “Yeah. I am.”

Danny blinked, taking in the information. The confirmation of what he’d already worked out. Vlad had cloned him and those three clones were in front of him, including two who had been right under his nose and this new clone. Finally, the half ghost nodded in understanding. The next important question..."And what's your name?"

The blue-eyed boy bit his lip. "I don't have one yet. But I was thinking...Orion." He paused, letting the word linger.

“Orion.” Danny tested the word out. "I like it." He half-smiled.

"Figured you would.” The newly named Orion’s lip turned up in a slight smile. “I saw the glow in the dark stars on your ceiling and the model rockets." He looked down at his starry hands. “I guess liking space is something we have in common.”

“Yeah, I guess it is.” The half ghost tilted his head, not knowing what to think of that. He decided to press on. "And… that last dream I had, earlier tonight? That was you….you showed me how you…uhh...how you..."

"Yeah.” Orion confirmed softly, understanding the unspoken end of that statement.

The half ghost shook his head, stomach flopping at the thought. “I saw...I dreamed about how it happened to Aster and Skyler too. But I thought they were just weird nightmares but...those weren’t.”

“No. Those were real.” The other teen replied. “I...after I….you know... I woke up in the Ghost Zone and… I found you...I guess...I kinda sensed where you were...and I found you but you were asleep.” He looked down at his hands. “I don’t know how I did it but...I knew that I could show you what happened...so I did.”

“And you brought me here.”

“Yeah...I just...I recognized that these two” He motioned to the other clones. “Were like me.”

“But we didn’t remember that.” Aster finally offered. “I just remember finding you, Danny, and knowing that you were safe and...you felt familiar.”

Skyler wrung his hands. “I knew you’d keep me safe.”

“Of course, I would… I will.” Danny threw an arm over the two clones. “You guys felt familiar to me too but...I had no idea why, just that… I cared about you guys.”

Slowly, the younger two clone’s (in appearance at least) lips turned up into smiles. Danny gave both a pat, before turning attention back to Orion. “So you brought all of us and these two remembered so….” He motioned to all of the former blob’s human-like bodies.

“Why aren’t we blobs anymore?” Aster questioned.

“Yeah.” Skyler wiggled his fingers. “I look different.”

“I think it’s because you remembered who you are now.” Orion offered.

“And you?” Danny raised a brow. “Why were you…”

The starry ghost smiled teasingly. His aura flared, the light blurring his features. The light compressed and….a blob was floating in front of Danny. The small ghost chirped, flying over Danny’s head to ruffle his hair. He flew back around to his spot. There was another flash of light and Orion was back in front of him, grinning brightly.

Danny’s eyes widened. “You can transform back and forth?!”

“Yep.” He affirmed.

“Can you teach me?!” Skyler interrupted.

Orion ruffled his hair. “Sure thing. You too, Aster. We can try it in a bit. But yeah...I can do both. Can’t really talk as a blob but...it’s pretty cool. I didn’t show up like this, since I wasn’t sure you knew about Vlad cloning you and…” He motioned to himself. “Meeting your almost look-a-like might have freaked you out.”

“It probably would have.” Danny worried his lip. “But I know the truth now. I know who you guys really are and what Vlad was doing and….” He looked down. “I saw how all of you died.”

Orion’s expression fell, the stars on his face a green tint in something Danny thought might be a blush. Skyler and Aster also blushed guiltily. 

“Sorry.” Aster muted.

“No it’s….It’s okay.” Danny said. “I need to see but….” He looked at Orion. “I have a question about what you showed me.”

The other teen looked up. “Alright, what is it?”

"Why didn't you fight him?" The other boy asked. “When Vlad had you in the portal. You didn’t yell at him. You didn’t try to get out. You just...you just stood there.”

Orion sighed. “I knew there was no point. I couldn’t fight Vlad or convince him to let me go. I knew the portal...it would either kill me or I’d end up with ghost powers so I guess….I chose to hope I’d survive and end up a half ghost, like you.”

Danny frowned, considering the words. After a long serious pause, he said quietly.  "But you didn't survive."

The half ghost regretted the words not even a second later as Orion's expression fell. 

"You're right. I didn't come out of the portal a half ghost.  I did die." 

The heartbroken expression on the clone's face made Danny's heart clench. In response, he leaned forward to embrace the other boy. Orion tensed in surprise before relaxing and returning the hug. The two stayed like that for a long moment, the gesture gradually becoming less awkward and more comforting and familiar.

Finally, Orion whispered into his original’s shoulder. "But I'm still here, aren't I?"

Danny blinked, taking in the words. He pulled away. He wiped his wet eyes; he’d started tearing up again at the reminder of the other’s death. But….he slowly, tentatively smiled. “Yeah, you’re right. You’re still here.” He looked down at the other two clones and then over the field again. Those three graves, three clones that died but…. He looked back at the group of ghosts in front of him. The same three clones. Danny’s eyes widened. “All of you are. You’re all still here.” The words carried the weight of the realization as his heart swelled with hope. 

The boy looked between Aster and Skyler on either side of him again, his eyes shining with affection. “And you guys are my….” He trailed off, at a loss for words. He’d said it in his head before; Aster and Skyler were his blobs, his...friends? That was the wrong word. They were his clones. No, not just...they were his- “You’re family.” Danny finally said with conviction. He looked across from him, at Orion, deliberately. “All of you are.”

The teenage clone’s expression softened. “I’m...I’m really happy to hear that.” He looked down, before saying quietly. “It’ll be really nice to have a family.”

Meanwhile, Skyler blinked up at the halfa. “Family?” He asked hopefully.

“Yes. Of course.” Danny’s heart clenched at the tone but he still offered a smile, ruffling the smaller ghost’s hair. “I wasn’t there before you guys...you know but…”

Aster cut in him. “I already said...you didn’t know so it’s okay.”

“Yeah.” Orion agreed. “You don’t need to blame yourself. I don’t blame you. I’m sure these guys don’t blame you either.”

The ten year old nodded his head. “No. I don’t blame you.”

Skyler, who’d been eagerly following the confusion, leaned over to hug Danny. “Me neither. So don’t be sad.”

With that, the half ghost was won over. He sighed. “Alright, alright. I get it. But still…..I’m here now. We’re all here now...and we’re together so….we’ll be there for each other no matter what happens now. Right?”

“Right.” Aster and Skyler said at the same time.

A moment later, Orion smiled proudly. “Right.” He then floated off of the ground, offering Danny his hand to stand up. “So how about we end this tonight?” Danny took the hand, standing with the clone’s held. The other boy then pointed back the way they’d come, through the forest and into Vlad’s cabin. “We make sure Vlad never does anything like this again.” He turned back around towards the fresh patches of dirt.

Danny turned, his expression falling as he understood Orion’s meaning. Then he straightened, determination overtaking him. “Yes. This ends tonight. That man’s gonna pay for what he’s done. Let's start with….who wants to help me trash Vlad's lab?"

 The younger two full ghosts nodded while the teenage clone gave his original an eager smile. “Yes, please.”

The four set off, flying together through the sky. That’s how they’d stay, Danny hoped. He’d meant what he said. These three were part of his family and he’d stick with them. They’d stick together. And together, they’d make things right. 

[pitch-pearl-void]

Rest

The sun had been setting the last time Phantom saw Fenton. By now, the moon had risen to just before midnight, and Phantom worried Fenton had already gone to sleep, exhausted by a full day of school followed by an evening training with his parents. Phantom wouldn't blame him. In fact, it was probably better for Fenton if he was asleep.

Phantom flew faster toward Fenton Works regardless, all the while mentally scolding himself for being so selfish. Humans were fragile. Phantom knew that better now than he ever had in the past. When he had shared in Fenton's humanity, the gap hadn't seemed so wide. They had felt strong and immortal. But humans couldn't even stay awake a full 24 hours without it affecting them. Phantom on the other hand...he couldn't remember the last time he had slept. 

Fenton Works came into view, and Phantom felt a lead weight sink in his stomach. Fenton's bedroom light was off. 

Phantom slowed his flight until he hovered uncertainly outside Fenton's window. He should turn around, leave Fenton to his rest and try to shake off whatever was haunting him by flying into the stratosphere or rescuing someone or...

Something inside Phantom ached. He didn't need a distraction, he needed company. Human contact. Someone who saw him and not the hero.

He drifted toward Fenton's window, torn between not wanting to disturb him and not wanting to be alone. 

At the last minute, he switched out of the visible spectrum so his glow wouldn't wake Fenton, and then he flew inside. As ever, the wind's howls, the crickets' chirping, the distant roar of the traffic, it all became muffled as soon as he slipped inside, creating a bubble of isolation and privacy. No fans to hound him. No news crew to dodge. 

As Phantom had suspected, the room was dark and Fenton was in bed, but Phantom felt elation rush through him as he saw Fenton's phone illuminating the human's face. Phantom landed on the floor of Fenton's room, unable to maintain his flight any longer. Were he any less graceful, had he still held traces of Fenton's clumsiness, he might have stumbled forward on legs that suddenly felt weak with relief. As it was, he had to stand in place instead of stepping forward.

"You're awake," he gasped.

Fenton yelped and fumbled his phone. It fell on his face. "Shit!" 

Phantom laughed weakly. 

Fenton removed the phone from his face, casting himself in shadow as he switched it off. "Phantom?"

Phantom returned to the visible spectrum, and Fenton's eyes snapped to him as Phantom's glow illuminated the space beside Fenton's bed. Illuminated Fenton. Phantom smiled at him in greeting, half expecting Fenton to grumble about ghosts spooking people on purpose, but Fenton's eyebrows rose and he sat up on his elbows. 

"Have you been crying?" he gasped.

Phantom reached up and felt his cheek, forgetting for a moment his gloves wouldn't let him feel any tears. "Um. Perhaps. Spectra was...difficult. And then Skulker attacked."

Fenton sat up all the way, pushing back his blanket. "Are you hurt?"

"Hurt?" Phantom forced another smile. "My powers heal all injuries in minutes, Fenton, you know that."

"There's more than one kind of injury, especially when it comes to Spectra."

"Oh." Phantom lost his smile. "I...yes. Then. Yes. I am. Hurt."

Fenton stared up at him, looking suddenly small and helpless. "Oh..."

Phantom stared back, waiting. Unfortunately, Fenton seemed lost. He opened his mouth once or twice, but he didn't seem to know what to say. His expression was one of concern and sympathy, but emotions and navigating relationships weren't his forte. He may want to help Phantom, it may be a need that burned inside him, but that wouldn't mean he knew how to go about it.

Usually, Phantom would step in and give him a hint in the right direction. But after what Spectra said...how could he know for sure Fenton actually wanted him the same way he wanted Fenton? Phantom was always the one leading their relationship. He was the one who most often initiated contact. Fenton--

Fenton gave up on trying to find the right words and reached for Phantom's hand instead. Phantom raised an eyebrow. He didn't react immediately, not until he felt Fenton tug on his arm. He bent forward, assuming Fenton had realized he wanted a kiss, but instead of meeting Phantom halfway, Fenton leaned backward. Phantom didn't fully understand, but he followed him down. He didn't stop until Fenton's head rested on his pillow again and Phantom was bent awkwardly over him and the bed. Kissing from that angle was a little tricky...

Fenton snickered. "Holy shit, dude..." He wrapped an arm around Phantom's shoulder and pulled him down an inch. "Down. Lay down."

Phantom hesitated. "Lay down?"

"Yes." Fenton released Phantom's hand and lifted his blanket up in clear invitation. "You can even, like, lay on me? If you like?" He blushed, the color a pale red against Phantom's white light. "Just don't, um. You know. I have school tomorrow, and it's hard to, uh. Shut all that down. You know."

Phantom's body moved on autopilot. He set his knee on the mattress, causing it and Fenton to dip toward him. He took the blanket from Fenton, lifting it higher so he could slide under, ignoring or not noticing Fenton's flustered shifting. His mind was occupied deciphering the emotions rising inside himself at the realization Fenton was offering to cuddle with him under the blankets. Something they had never done before, something Phantom hadn't realized lay so directly at the core of his being it was as though Fenton had seen into his soul.

Embarrassingly, as Phantom lowered himself over Fenton and Fenton's other arm wrapped around his shoulders, tears pricked in Phantom's eyes and a small sound escaped his throat.

Phantom's legs brushed into position alongside Fenton's as he slid into place. Perhaps Fenton had only meant it as a suggestion, but Phantom took the offer to lay atop him seriously, forcing Fenton's legs to spread and make room for Phantom. Fenton didn't object. In fact, as Phantom finally rested against Fenton, laying his head on Fenton's chest instead of his shoulder as Fenton likely expected, Fenton's arms tightened around Phantom before relaxing. 

"Like this?" Fenton asked.

Phantom closed his eyes, listening as Fenton's heart pounded a slightly quickened beat beneath his ear. He tucked his arms against Fenton's sides, holding him as well as he could without pushing his arms under Fenton and making him uncomfortable. He shifted upward a little until he felt Fenton's chin touch the crown of his head, and then he sighed, the breath a little shaky. "Like this. Please."

Fenton waited a second longer to see if Phantom would move a little more, but Phantom was half convinced he could remain like that well into the morning. One of Fenton's arms moved, its absence missed, until Phantom felt Fenton adjust the blanket over them, pulling it up around Phantom's shoulders. 

Phantom gave up an internal battle and slipped his arms under Fenton's back so he could hug him tightly. "Fenton," he said, his voice shaking.

"Yeah?" Instead of draping his arm over Phantom as before, Fenton brushed his fingers through Phantom's hair, tickling his scalp near the back of his head. "Is it too hot? It was actually getting a little too hot for me before you, er, joined me. We could probably lose the blanket."

Even had Phantom not heard the nervousness in Fenton's tone or recognized it in the way Fenton spoke too fast, he heard it in the thumping of Fenton's heart. "You would get cold, then."

"Well..."

Phantom clenched his teeth against more tears and turned his head slightly to nuzzle against Fenton's chest, the slide of Fenton's pajama top soft against his cheek. "It's perfect, Fenton. I had missed feeling warm."

He hadn't even realized how much he had missed it until now. He felt like he was melting into Fenton, basking in his heat, his presence. The weight of Fenton's arm on Phantom's shoulders, the gentle stroking of his hair, the feel of his solid, heated form in Phantom's arms felt like a balm to his soul.

"Oh," Fenton said. His heart began to slow, the nervous tension leaving him as it always did after the initial flare-up. "It's just that. Well. You're crying again."

"I know." Phantom smiled, but this time it didn't feel forced despite the single tear leaking down his cheek. "Happy tears."

"Oh. Really?"

"Yes."

"...Just from cuddling?"

Phantom's smile grew, became a little more playful. "If I say yes, will you let us do it more often?"

Fenton hummed, his chest vibrating beneath Phantom's ear, throwing off the previous gentle rhythm of Fenton's breathing. "We can cuddle every night if it makes you that happy."

Phantom choked out a few chuckling sobs. "Yes. That would. That would be great."

"Yeah. It's...not that bad. It feels nice. Holding you like this, I mean. I don't think I'd mind."

"Does that mean spooning might be in our future?"

"Can I be the big spoon?"

Phantom laughed again. For real that time. "No. I want to hold you."

"Well I want to hold you. So."

Phantom turned his face into Fenton's chest. He lost the sound of Fenton's heartbeat, but he had to hide his smile. The lovestruck grin would have given too much of his feelings away. Fenton might have guessed anyway. Phantom wasn't sure what else could have prompted Fenton to kiss his temple. Phantom felt that kiss down to his toes, and he made a tiny sound against Fenton's chest.

"I need to sleep," Fenton said, speaking more softly. "I'll prove how good a spoon I am tomorrow."

"Little spoon," Phantom whispered. 

"No."

"We shall just have to cuddle like this until we find a solution then," Phantom suggested. "Face to face."

Fenton hummed.

Phantom rested his cheek on Fenton's chest, ear against his heart. "New tradition. I want to sleep with you every night."

"You don't sleep," Fenton mumbled. "You'll get bored."

Phantom listened to Fenton's heart, wondering if it was slowing already or if he was only imagining it. Phantom wasn't tired, he never felt tired anymore, but he felt a lassitude overtaking him, sweeping his thoughts aside. Tension that had haunted him all day--all week--felt like it was draining away. It was almost as if, laying there, soaking in Fenton's warmth, Phantom had found peace. Home. Somewhere he could rest.

He whispered, "I don't think I will..."

[ironstarker]

Prompt where tony is overworking himself so peter swoops in to help by blowjobbing him

Notes: Thanks for popping my prompt cherry! Hope this is what you were looking for. There might be a little too much buildup and a bit of a tease, because I’m a glutton for that stuff. Also it kind of cut off before the grand finale, but I liked the ending point?

Warning(s): NFF, Blowjobs, Peter calls Tony, “Mr. Stark” an inordinate amount of times, a little Fluff-y?

_______________________________________________________________________

Days. It had been days since Mr. Stark paid him any attention at all. At the end of his spring semester, Mr. Stark had called him and said that he should pack up his stuff and come live with him in the Tower. It made sense, after all. He had a new internship at Stark Industries (it never hurt to have connections!) and affording rent in Manhattan was next to impossible. “It’ll help you cut back on the commute time, kid,” Mr. Stark had said.

He’d accentuated his words with a charming smile.

How was Peter supposed to say no to that?

His life as an intern was different from what he’d heard it would be. People on campus always said internships were about coffee runs and doing grunt work, but it wasn’t that way for Peter. He didn’t know if it was Mr. Stark’s influence or not, but it left him with a lot of free hours in the evening that he didn’t know what to do with. Mr. Stark, on the other hand, was at the opposite end of the spectrum. The first night Peter was there, the older man sat down and had dinner with him. They ordered Chinese takeout and sat on the couch in sweats (he’d never seen Mr. Stark in sweats before, between all of the Tom Ford and the Armani suits he swaggered around in), trading pieces of Kung Pao chicken and a few too many egg rolls.

The second night? The night after his first shift? Mr. Stark didn’t come home until well after Peter had gone to bed.

Peter knew that Mr. Stark didn’t owe him his company. That the older man saw it as a relationship between roommates. Peter supposed that if he were a little smarter, he’d see it that way, too. 

But as the days went on and meshed into weeks, Peter began to notice the haggard lines on Mr. Stark’s face. He noticed that the man often entered the penthouse with a phone to his ear, or if not to his ear he was holding his wrist aloft and speaking to a hologram on his watch. Sometimes, Mr. Stark would wave at him in greeting. Other times, the man would ignore Peter all together and carry on to his bedroom. The door would shut with a quiet snap, telling Peter that he was alone for yet another evening.

Maybe it was childish, but it wasn’t fair.

He didn’t like seeing the tension in his mentor’s shoulders. The man carried himself like Atlas — shoulders that had first been squared, proud, were now slumped beneath the weight of the work he was doing. 

Peter had an idea of how to fix it.

Arguably, it was the dumbest idea he’d ever had in his life. There was a good chance, he figured, that Mr. Stark would toss him and his tattered suitcase of clothes straight out of the penthouse and onto the streets. Peter wasn’t sure how he’d explain that one to May.

With the dumbest idea of his life in mind, Peter paced back and forth by Mr. Stark’s door. It was late into the evening, but as he’d gone down the hall he saw light shining beneath the door in question, signifying the man was still awake. Mr. Stark holed up in his bedroom more often than not as of late, Peter had noticed. He didn’t have time to lock himself up in his lab. He saw the man’s shadow shifting, heard muffled voices through the door. He raised his hand to knock at the door, but then the voices stopped abruptly. Peter’s hand stilled, poised to knock. The light in Mr. Stark’s room turned out, casting it in darkness.

Peter chickened out.

Two nights later, he was similarly tortured by his own thoughts of what he planned to do. Mr. Stark arrived inside the penthouse, grunting a mumbled greeting to Peter, who had takeout open on the coffee table by his couch. The younger man leaned over the back of it. “Mr. Stark?” he called down the hall, watching his mentor as he paused. He didn’t turn around. “I — uh, do you want — I got us dinner,” Peter tried, his cheeks flushing red as he stumbled his way through his words. “I mean, FRIDAY told me what you — ”

“Sorry, kid. I’ve got another call tonight.”

Peter’s expression turned from hopeful to disappointed in the drop of a hat. He turned himself around as Mr. Stark’s door shut yet again. Peter stared at the cooling pizza in front of him (it was from Joe’s! FRIDAY said that Mr. Stark loved Joe’s). He sat there a beat, and then another, and then squared his jaw and all but leapt over the side of the couch to rush down the hall. 

This time, he knocked on Mr. Stark’s door. He heard shuffling from inside, and then the older man was pulling it open just enough so that Peter could make out his mentor’s face. His tie was undone around his neck, the collar of his shirt unbuttoned. Mr. Stark looked rumpled, but in that intentional way that was typical of people who had a hell of a lot more money than the Peter Parkers of the world.

“What is it, Pete? I’ve got five minutes before my partner in China calls me.”

It was aggressive, the way that Peter wedged his body between the small gap that Mr. Stark created between the door and its frame. The older man’s brow hitched higher. “If you wanted to come in, all you needed to do was ask,” he said, and he sounded vaguely amused. 

Peter didn’t have any experience with this kind of thing. There was that time at the house party, but he didn’t want to think about that right now. “I want to help you, Mr. Stark,” he said, and he hoped he wasn’t as red as he thought that he was. 

“Kid, this isn’t something for you to worry about. There’s not much an intern can do — ”

Peter, emboldened by his own resolve, pushed the door shut behind him. Both of Mr. Stark’s brows rose. “I — I think there is something I can do for you, sir.” He was walking his mentor back towards his bed. The man wasn’t protesting it, and Peter took it as a good sign. “Please. Let me help.” 

The back of Mr. Stark’s legs hit his bed. The older man was looking down at his mentee with a strange look on his face, like he knew where it was going and that he should stop the younger man, but he wasn’t going to.

Good.

With a gulp of air into his lungs, Peter sank down onto his knees. Mr. Stark went so still Peter wasn’t sure the man was breathing. He leaned in, nuzzling his face against his mentor’s slacks by his thigh. He tilted his head up to look at the man, saw the sharp line of Mr. Stark’s jaw as he grit his teeth. Peter pressed his lips to the bulge he saw thickening in the man’s slacks, and then he was parting his lips so he could suck a wet spot into pants that he assumed cost more than an entire semester’s tuition. 

To be fair to Mr. Stark, Peter did have a scholarship.

He kissed over the spot until he heard the older man make a noise in his throat. Peter’s fingers, which had ceased their trembling, smoothed up Mr. Stark’s thighs until he was cupping the older man’s ass. Peter worried his bottom lip between his teeth as he squeezed, working another groan from Mr. Stark, who pushed his hips against Peter’s face. The younger man grinned up at his mentor. His eyes went back to the slacks, considering the button and the zipper. Peter leaned forward and tugged at the fabric that held the button shut, freeing it so he could have better access to the zip. His teeth closed around the tiny piece of metal and he tugged, rolling his eyes up to watch Mr. Stark’s face.

The older man’s eyes were dark, his pupils blown wide with lust. Peter let go of the man’s ass and the zipper between his teeth so he could pull his slacks down. Oh, god. Mr. Stark was going commando —

The sound that left Peter could only be described as a desperate whine. He heard the other man chuckle, and then fingers were tangling in the soft strands of curls atop his head. Peter wanted to take in the sight, to memorize every detail of his mentor’s cock. The girth of it, the way that it was flushed and dripping precum from the tip. He leaned in and licked at the droplet, hearing the man take a sharp breath that was hissed out between his teeth.

Peter had just got his lips around Mr. Stark’s tip when he felt the vibrations near his knee.

Mr. Stark seemed to notice, too, and he grunted, trying to free his cock from Peter’s mouth. But the boy only took more of him inside. He received a choked groan as he forced himself to take all of the older man back into his throat. Peter didn’t want Mr. Stark to think about work. The purpose of this was to make him forget the phone screen, which was illuminated and visible through the bundled heap of Mr. Stark’s slacks.

He held his mentor there, the older man’s cock twitching in the back of his throat, tears springing to Peter’s eyes as he tried to keep from gagging. He waited a few seconds, until Mr. Stark’s fingers relaxed into the strands of his hair and he knew there wasn’t a risk of the man pushing him away. Then, Peter withdrew, gasping a little for breath with the older man’s cock resting against the tip of his tongue. 

“Jesus, kid. Where did you learn to do that?” Even Mr. Stark’s voice sounded wrecked.

Peter smiled up at him, then closed his lips around the head of his cock and suckled. He lavished it with attention until all he could taste was the salt of the man’s precum. Soon enough Mr. Stark’s soft words of praise turned into something filthy — “Such a good little cockslut. Should’ve known. Gonna make you choke on my cum.” — and Peter began to bob his head more enthusiastically. 

His hands clung to Mr. Stark’s thighs as he took him deep, burying the older man’s cock into his throat so he could feel Peter trying not to gag around it. “Fuck, kid, I’m gonna — ”

Peter pulled off of his cock before he could cum. There was a sharp tug against his hair, and his mentor’s expression shifted. “That wasn’t very nice,” he said, growling the words. Peter giggled, one hand wrapping around his mentor’s length, his fingers sliding up and down over the spit-slick cock. His thumb teased along the underside, collecting another bead of precum. 

As he took Mr. Stark back into his mouth, he felt another vibration near his knee. Peter withdrew, rummaging through the man’s pocket as his cock bobbed near his face. He pulled the phone out, ignoring the hand that Mr. Stark offered. Instead, Peter chucked it at the wall and got his lips back around Mr. Stark’s cock before he could react. 

He heard the sound that the phone made when it connected to the wall, screen shattering. Peter didn’t care. Judging by the sound of Mr. Stark’s moan, the way those fingers twisted back into his hair, neither did he.

[desdemonafictional]

Sunstorm

We’re currently working on a pretty long fic but I REALLY want to show you this part because I’ve been holding on to it since like March

Banners from the Turrets AU, set after Apotheosis

--

Rung peered through the viewing window, a long pane of reinforced crystal with enough radiation shielding to make the room beyond look fuzzy and gossamer. It was a shame, then, that the vision beyond was no image of gods and glory out of a golden age light sculpture. It was only a young jet-engine in an otherwise empty room, in that scrawny stage as his last round of frame growth endeavored to pad his armor out around his protoform.

“You can’t seriously mean to keep him in there,” Rung said, taking in the absolute lack of enrichment material. Not even a pad to doodle on, honestly. “He’s been picking at his paint, look there, you can see he’s scratched off a whole section over his thruster. This is no place for a growing mechanism.”

“We gave him all his post-natal downloads,” one of the doctors said, resentfully. “He’s got plenty of material to review if he wants.”

The sparklings were coming out of the new hotspot at whatever rate they were growing, which was normal. This one was from an earlier protoform harvest, but not long ago, judging by his armor growth. He would have been moved through the nursery into the creche by now, normally, but...

“Cybertronians are intensely social beings, Kaput,” Rung said, pressing his palm to the window. “Maybe a war-hardened soldier with a lifetime of experience behind him can handle days of unbroken isolation, but look at that bot, doctor. He’s barely grown in his cladding. He’s been out of the dirt for what, a week?”

The golden seeker looked up, optics zeroing in on Rung’s palm at the window pane, and then his wings started to vibrate. His biolights swelled with so much light that just imagining their heat output was enough to make Rung wince. And then the mech started to cry.

Rung turned a hard look on Kaput. The sparkologist scowled and shuffled, avoiding Rung’s eye. The rest of the attendant nurses backed up and found other things to look at.

It must be difficult for them, caught between their immediate supervisor and--for all intents and purposes--God. Rung frowned at the new-build, who had begun to emit waves of radiation on a near visible spectrum.

Glit, off to the side of the gaggle, made a polite little noise. Rung turned with some relief to the beastformer, who has always been one of the more communicative members of Rung’s wartime staff. A familiar face was helpful. Facilities where Rung was not in charge had become unexpectedly difficult for him to navigate, over the years.

“The thing is,” Glit said, “we can’t let him out. He’s too dangerous. If he starts to get worked up like that around anyone who isn’t designed for long term space exposure, he’ll melt the circuitry right out of them. He’s a walking timebomb. And we don’t have any shuttles cross-trained as medics, so I can’t even get anyone in there to examine him.”

“Another belated gift of functionism,” Rung murmured. They shared a moment of pained resignation, two off-mode medics more than fully aware of how little they’d ever had to work with.

“So we thought,” Kaput cut into the moment, “maybe you could go in there. Bring us back some close readings. You were a medic during the war, right?”

Rung turned on him. “You want me to go in there?” he rapped the window with a knuckle. “Is this some sort of very polite assassination attempt? Doctor, I’m certainly not shielded for interstellar flight.”

“Well no,” Kaput said. “But you, ah, you are God aren’t you? You’re immortal, basically. Everyone’s heard about how you grew back half your head after that terrorist blew it off.”

Rung pushed his glasses up and rubbed his eyes. This was the kind of manner the medical practice had come out of the war with. Truly disheartening.

Rung was lost on how to deal with the whole divinity problem, such as it was. In fact he was fairly sure he could be killed--an impressive healing factor was no guarantee of true immortality--but would letting people make their own assumptions about it discourage other trigger-happy atheists with a bone to pick? Or would it only tempt hotheads to try their luck? He didn’t know, he couldn’t say, and meanwhile Starscream was halfway to reinstating a theocracy on his behalf.

He looked at the hiccoughing newframe in the isolation room, radiation pouring off him, and thought about the medical examination of his own scheduled for later that day. If he slagged anything, surely Wheeljack would notice and address it before it became too dire.

“Alright,” he said, pulling off his glasses with their delicate mechanisms, “I’ll go.”

In the next several minutes Rung experienced deep space preparations in amazingly short order. Before he could think twice, he was sprayed down with an aerosol protective coating, bagged into some kind of hazmat suit, and shoved through the thick lead door into the room beyond.

For a moment Rung worried that the jet was going to rush the door, and given his size--easily as tall and heavy as Starscream’s earlier war frames--but then he fell back, curling into himself, as the door closed behind Rung. The whole place smelled faintly of singed circuitry.

Rung held out his opened palms. “Hello,” he said. “My name is Rung. I’m here to help you.”

The jet regarded him with a helpless expression. “My name’s Sunstorm,” he said.

“That’s a lovely name,” Rung said, and meant it. “My very good friend is a seeker, like you. I know a little about jet engine frame types. Would you let me take a look at you?”

“Are you going to jab me with something?” the jet said, wings flaring as if to make himself look bigger. “They were jabbing me with things and then I started to burn them, so they put me in here. I finished my testing files. I didn’t do anything wrong. They didn’t have to stick things in me.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Rung said, “they weren’t punishing you. They were just trying to get your levels, for medical reasons.”

“I passed all the cultural data tests,” Sunstorm insisted. “I even passed the test on historical figures, and some of those classical composers had really confusing names!”

There was a growing physical discomfort inside of Rung’s frame, hot and staticy. He winced, and tried to ignore the smell of charred circuitry inside his olfactory receptors. He took another step closer, palms out, trying to seem small and harmless. “Those can be confusing, can’t they? The names? Some of them are written in old Cybertronian, and I bet you don’t have the language database for that yet, do you?”

“No,” Sunstorm said, and wiped some fluid from his face. “It’s a different language?”

“A different writing system,” Rung said. “Well, a different form of the same language too, but if you knew how to pronounce the glyphs, it would still make the same sounds. But don’t worry about that right now. Did they give you anything about more recent history? The last couple thousand years, maybe?”

Sunstorm shook his head.

“Okay,” Rung said. “That’s okay. Some of the medics haven’t dealt with young people in a long, long time, you see? So they don’t remember that sometimes, it can be scary when you don’t know what’s going on. It’s okay to be confused.”

“You’re not angry?” Sunstorm said.

“Of course I’m not angry,” Rung said. “You haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Everyone was really mad before,” Sunstorm said. “They locked me in here and they won’t let me out.”

“I’m sorry it’s been a stressful first week on the planet,” Rung said. His more delicate components were starting to sizzle faintly. “I’d like to get you out of here as soon as we safely can. Will you come down here? I’d like to take a look at you.”

Rung reached up. Sunstorm glanced nervously at the viewing window.

“What are you worried about?” Rung asked.

Sunstorm curled back from him. “When I touch people, they scream. And the nurses grab me and drag me around. I don’t want them to come in.”

“It’s okay,” Rung said again. “They sent me in here to get readings, no one will be mad at you for touching me. Come on, kneel down.”

“I’m sure you’re not doing it on purpose, but do you feel that difference in the air now?” Rung asked. “Do you feel how hot it is? Can you feel something happening inside you that’s different from how you were a few minutes ago?”

Sunstorm closed his hand around one broad shoulder. His mouth wobbled.

“That’s radioactivity,” Rung explained. “There’s something inside of you generating these radioactive waves, and it’s very dangerous to the rest of us. They can’t let you out until they know how to stop people from getting hurt by it.”

Sunstorm’s face screwed up in acute distress, his fingers squeezing his shoulder reflexively. “You mean I’m hurting you? Right now?”

“Shh, sweetie, it’s okay, don’t worry about me.”

“But I’m hurting you!”

“It’s alright, I’ll be alright,” Rung said. He took Sunstorm’s face in his hands and gently pulled it into the crook of his shoulder. The bagging that Glit’s nurses had wrapped him in immediately melted open, exposing his shoulder to the hot jab of Sunstorm’s nose. “Relax your wings, sweetie. That’s good. There you go. Now open up your vents. Don’t worry about me, just try to get your frame to cool down.”

Slowly, as Rung walked him through the venting exercises he had taught to countless patients before, Sunstorm began to cool off. First it was just the heat of his out-vents, but then it was a gradual cooling in the air around them, and then the low grade itch of radiation dying away. A little at a time, Rung’s delicate circuitry stopped sizzling under the stress. 

[ckret2]

Work With What You've Got

Written for @symbruary Day 27: "senses". It took me all day just to come up with something, I think I have nearly symbed all I can symb. Although my love for goo is infinite, my words to express that love are finite. Although, of course, I feel like every month should be slime appreciation month... my muse is glad the event's almost over.

###

Every species it attached to sensed the world differently. Light, vibrations, chemicals, electricity, vibrations, heat, motion, pressure, gravity, precognition, radioactivity, on and on and on. It had bonded with a member of a short-lived species that could, from the onset of puberty, predict with an accuracy of a week exactly how long they had until they died of old age, because they could unconsciously sense and calculate the way the functioning of their cells would peak and decline. It had bonded with members of two species on the same planet that were each convinced the other didn't communicate through speech because their respective audible hearing ranges didn't overlap at all. It had bonded with a species that told time on their home planet by the feel of their star's solar flares.

Every time it gained a host from a new species, it learned how they sensed the universe and, if it could, figured out how to replicate that sense with its own body. It wanted to offer its hosts an ever-expanding array of tools; the more useful it was, the more it would be loved.

Not all of its efforts were successful. It never did master full telepathy, although its ability to sense other Klyntar was sharper than most others could boast. Some senses skipped a generation—its youngest could see through the kinds of invisibility that it had been able to on a prior host but no longer could. But most, it felt, it could successfully offer its new hosts.

It had needed to go through a handful of human hosts before it figured out which senses were average to the species and which were the result of one-off mutations and augmentations. They had a pretty good sense of proprioception—nothing record-breaking, but in the top 50%—which was one of its top criteria when looking for hosts it could make a long-term commitment to. Their sense of magnetism was nothing to write home about. But what it found the most interesting about humans was their sense of color.

It was so detailed. So discerning. They were attuned to the tiniest, subtlest shifts in hue and shade. Their sensitivity to different colors was, in a word, astounding.

For a species that only saw four of them.

In an extremely narrow band of the light range.

The fact that they differentiated between cardinal, carmine, and cinnabar at all was absolutely astounding when what they saw as "red" was such an extremely tiny portion of the light spectrum. Maybe, it speculated, it was easier to notice tiny differences in a color when it made up 25% of all the colors you could see. Like they'd taken a magnifying glass to the part of the spectrum they could see.

It could give its human hosts augmented vision, showing them parts of the electromagnetic spectrum they'd never dreamed of, but most found that the sight was more confusing than illuminating. Like that thing their eyes did when they emerged from a dark building into the bright light. It kept track of the things its hosts couldn't see itself and warned when it saw something that wasn't in any colors they could see. Sometimes Eddie asked it to show him what the world looked like through its senses, unfiltered, and he'd sit and stare at the city and try to absorb it all.

Occasionally, for fun, it liked to scribble symbols and spirals in colors the humans grouped together as "ultraviolet" across Venom's otherwise solid black surface. Sometimes it wrote words. Sometimes it made hearts. Today it had made firework-like patterns.

Which was why Venom was, at this moment, covered in butterflies.

And that was how it found out that humans didn't even have the best range of color visibility on their on planet.

###

Crossposted to AO3, link in my description. If you enjoyed the fic, I'd appreciate a comment or reblog!

[xoruffitup]

Burn This First Preview: 3/15 Show Report

OKAY it’s 3 AM and I’m writing this on my phone so the format might be weird, but I have SO MANY thoughts and feels from tonight I’ve got to let the tidal wave out!! 

First off - Yes, he looked gorgeous at stage door and he was so kind trying to sign for everyone he could! (The line was longggg.) I GOT HIS AUTOGRAPH AND THANKED HIM FOR SUCH A MOVING PERFORMANCE AND HE SAID “OH THANK YOU VERY MUCH” AND LOOKED UP AT ME WITH HIS GORGEOUS EYES AND GORGEOUS FACE AND THERE IS A PIC OF THIS MOMENT THAT WILL FOREVER LIVE IN MY HEART:

This is my new OTP, folks: Adam/The back of my head!

I attempted to ask for a pic but was hesitant and security had already half pulled him away so he was like “I don’t know if I’ll have time” sounding so nervous about getting to the whole line. BABY <333

Aksjsknsm I can’t believe I was this close to him - It hasn’t fully set in and omg I better just keep writing before it does set in and I lose my shit completely!

Play Highlights! (This list is Plot-Spoiler free.)

Alas, sadly there is not that much nakedness. He takes his pants off in Act 1 but has underwear and a long shirt on. The BEST is when he comes on wearing one of Keri/Anna’s kimono-style purple silk robes in Act 2 - I nearly DIED and cannot believe I saw that with my own eyes!! When he first steps onstage the robe’s open and he’s only wearing underwear so you get a nice chest glimpse, but then he sadly ties it. (Then proceeds to hilariously struggle with getting one of his arms through the complicated sleeves.) Oh, and did I mention the robe was paired with knee-high socks?

Adam is HYSTERICAL. He doesn’t come on stage for about the first twenty minutes, but when he did, it took all of 5 minutes for the audience to be in the palm of his hand, laughing at every other word he said. His delivery of all of Pale’s curse-laden, barely-logical rants and complaints is just masterful in comedic timing and effect. He’s a literal hurricane when he enters the show, flooding the stage with this frenetic, chaotic energy so intense he’s practically vibrating. He keeps everything at break neck pace, through 0-100 highs and lows where he’s bitching about parking one second, then animal-wail crying the next.

His character’s not likeable. Really, this is a testament and praise to Adam’s acting. After his first couple minutes on stage, there were stretches when I literally forgot it was him. When I was so taken in and then repulsed by this character in turns, his acting prowess overcame even my instinct to love him and everything he does on sight. I’m about to get deeper into the weeds on his character in the next section, but suffice it to say Adam’s performance is stellar and completely, convincingly transformative.

How heated does it get? The only intimate scene that happens in front of the audience includes some slow kissing, a bit down Keri/Anna’s neck, and wandering hands. The rest is implied off stage.

The play is set in the 80s, so while Keri looks KILLER in every single outfit, Adam’s suits are all big and baggy as was the style then and they’re not exactly flattering. His costume look is just a bit weird, not nearly as smolderingly hot as how they styled him in the promo pics. But even with that said.... The scene where they’re both close on the couch, talking softly before kissing happens? I would have still gone for him too. ;_;

The rest of this report is going to dive into and attempt to untangle some of the deeper elements and themes of the play. Stop reading here if you’re avoiding spoilers!

To my perspective, this wasn’t really a play about a smoldering, ill-advised love affair. Yes, that’s the main event, but this play is about so much more.

Anna and Pale are star-crossed lovers. No, not in the Disney or destined interpretation - I mean the proper, tragic meaning. Whatever is between them should not exist. Whatever is between them threatens and harms them both. Whatever is between them is not long for this world, and doesn’t belong in it.

But why doesn’t it belong? Sure, there are the technical, superficial reasons: Anna has a boyfriend; Pale is married with kids (though technically separated); They are polar opposite people - Sharing no visible common interests and with temperaments that couldn’t be more opposite.

What is the one thing stronger than all of that, which first brings them together? Their grief; Their shared (yet deeply personal and divergently different) senses of grief; The solace and understanding they can only find for that grief with each other. The loss they’ve both experienced is life-changing, and has no place to fit into or even exist at all in their normal lives.

And so, they hurtle into an affair that also has no place existing in their normal lives. By the end of the play, they both assert “I don’t want this.” To a certain degree, it’s the truth. It’s unlikely either of them would have willfully chosen to pursue the other, had they met under different circumstances. They would likely never have opened or even tapped at the floodgates of their attraction, unless they had both gravitated towards this dark, abnormal part of life outside the realm of everyday lives, jobs, rational behavior, and decisions.

To me, this play was really about confronting that abnormal, primal, and sometimes unfathomable level of being that exists below the everyday. Pale has a memorable remark about all the little lies people live with and show to the world each day. Sometimes - when it is cut open and its value or sense thrown into question by some great tragedy such as a loss like this - you lose touch with that everyday life and the person you think you are within that everyday world. It becomes painfully juxtaposed and shrunk tiny, in the face of something all-encompassing and all-powerful, like grief. It becomes exposed as paper thin; Everything within it questionable and perhaps useless.

There is something of the profound in an emotion like grief. When it’s shared with someone, it’s no wonder that that also unlocks some profound connection. Anna and Pale don’t like each other as people, and they certainly take no enjoyment in the grief that brought them together. Yet, the relationship that blooms from it contains a compulsion and truth neither of them can deny. Even though they “don’t want this” (the rational, everyday side of their minds talking), they both admit they’ve never felt anything like it before, and they keep finding themselves drawn together. They don’t want to want each other - It’s painful and frightening for both of them, and yet their attraction wraps them both just as completely as their grief.

Anna’s boyfriend Burton is the epitome of the everyday. He earns a lot of money, he’s a well-dressed gentleman. He’s a writer, and fancies he can capture and portray the entire spectrum of human emotion. Even “great love,” as he fumblingly attempts to describe towards the play’s beginning. Yet all his talk is vapid and empty; As is his relationship with Anna. Theirs is one of the everyday, rational variety. It belongs with the small lies we live with and put on and speak and perform each day - To keep our lives square and tidy and comprehensible.

Then - There’s the chaotic, unpredictable, bordering violent being of Pale. He is every sincere, larger-than-life emotion and base instinct most people tamp down and deny voice to. He represents the terrible, uncontrollable, threatening Truth of everyday masks, dark desires, and empty identities of performativity.

Their attraction is not something Anna can bear to look in the face. She throws Pale out and ends the relationship because that deeper truth of true emotion unlocked by her grief cannot coexist with her reality. Her ability to continue dancing, to continue the everyday life she’s trying so hard to believe in and trust the purpose of - It cannot contain Pale. He represents and unlocks profound, unknown feeling that casts the waking world as a shadow.

And yet for all that discomfort, she has an artistic breakthrough after the affair with Pale. She is inspired to finally choreograph Robbie’s final send-off piece. And with Anna, Pale unlocked a part of himself that was calm, gentle, and soothed - A version of himself totally incongruous with his own reality and the identity he wears. Both of them are changed through their journey together through the Profound. It is a deeply uncomfortable, destabilizing place that neither of them wish to remain in. And yet its power is undeniable; Its impact unforgettable. The very experience of it is something they seek comfort for and can only find from each other.

Is it better to tell little lies each day so the world will make sense? So you can understand exactly who’s looking back at you in the mirror, and the quotidian will shade your perception of the invisible and unfathomable depths of human experience? So everything will remain neat and in control?

Or - Does it give meaning to abandon control? To surrender to grief and undesired passion, for the sake of a reality that is uncompromisingly, viscerally, heartbreakingly genuine? The harsh, infinite light all the rest of life seems to be constructed to blot from our eyes?

I really hope that as more people see the play, people will start posting their interpretations as well! I would love some good analysis dialogues! In the meantime, I will now slide right back into flaily, trash fangirl mode.... Thank you for reading all this, if you got this far! Go see this marvelous, haunting play if you’re able!!

All the love to my fangirl besties!!! @reylonly Thanks for making it an amazing night! :’)))

[officialleehadan]

Neutron Star

 “She isn’t gonna last long like this,” Ice said thoughtfully, watching the screen intently. Projector kept her hand on the screen, her eyes unfocused as she projected what she was seeing onto the screen for the rest of them. Her Powered vision followed the lightning Elemental as she paced despondently through the parking lot of an abandoned strip mall. Ball lightning bounced along around her and crackled through the air, leaving bright streaks behind them. Here and there shards of metal vibrated madly and stuck together in her wake. “She’s ramping up faster than we did.”

“It’s ‘cause she don’t know to burn it off,” Inferno commented, shoulder-to-shoulder with his counterpart, a wall in his own person between Ice and everyone else in the room. “Gotta do something with all that juice. If you don’t burn it off, it eats you faster.”

Sweetwater considered that. She hadn’t known how the two Elementals handled themselves before they met up. Certainly the Hero Alliance was tracking them, but not closely, and every now and then they would drop off the map.

Apparently it was because they were finding ways to exhaust themselves into psudo-dormancy.

“I used to sleep in industrial furnaces,” Ice was saying, not knowing his words mirrored her thoughts. “Tried a volcano once. Spent almost six months in Yellowstone before the park rangers started to notice me.”

“I went way north,” Inferno supplied with a shrug, although the way he pulled Ice against his side suggested that there was more to the story. “Worked for a while, until it didn’t.”

“So what do we do about her?” Hardball had a stupid name and a worse attitude, but he was also relatively immune to electricity, being an electrokinetic himself. With any luck, the lightning Elemental wasn’t already too powerful for him to handle.

Sweetwater had fifty bucks on him getting fried within four minutes. Ice thought it would take less than two and put three hundred where his mouth was. Inferno just laughed and refused to bet with either of them.

“Any chance her opposite has popped up?” Ice asked, tracing a finger over Inferno’s arm. His finger steamed and Inferno smiled in a way that was a little too intimate for the rest of the room. “If not, we’re gonna need options.”

“We might be able to come up with something do her to charge up for us,” Sweetwater suggested. She looked over at Hardball and bit her lip. She wasn’t good enough with technology to have a real solution, but Hardball was and might have answers. “Hardball?”

“She’s heading up into the Rocky Mountains,” Hardball observed curiously and leaned closer to examine Projector’s scratchy vision. “Why there? She’s been causing blackouts. Is this her way of being nice?”

Sudden understanding washed across Ice’s face and he cursed colorfully even as he shoved a nearby tech out of his chair.

“Snowflake?” Inferno asked dubiously, and leaned over Ice’s shoulder. “What’re you looking up?”

“The Rockies are high in ferrous material,” Ice said slowly as his eyes skimmed over the detailed readouts. “Our lightning bug isn’t a lightning bug, and she’s smart. She’s making a faraday cage for herself, far away from anyone.”

“She’s trying to contain herself,” Hardball followed, although he looked somewhat disappointed that he didn’t get to try his luck against the Elemental. “That something like you two? Will it be enough to slow her down? Lightning’s got a long reach.”

“She isn’t a lightning Elemental,” Ice said distractedly, typing so fast his keyboard seemed to be buzzing. “She’s an electromagnetic Elemental. The reason she’s causing blackouts is because her heartbeat is causing EMP pulses. The lightning? That’s just a side effect.”

Sweetwater didn’t understand a word of what Ice was saying, but he certainly seemed intent, and was heading towards frantic faster than he ever did unless he and Inferno were separated. “Ice, I need human words here.”

“This situation is much, much worse than you thought,” Ice said shortly. “Electromagnetism is a Problem. Electricity is just the visible spectrum of electromag, but believe me when I say that she will make me and Inferno look like firecrackers if she ramps up much more, and she is going to ramp up more.”

“How so?”

“Anything that can hold an electrochemical charge will explode. Power supplies, transformers. Have you ever seen a transformer burst?”

“Yes?”

“Imagine that, but times a thousand. We’re talking millions dead within the week. If she goes more than a month, she’ll be the last living thing on the planet because everything else will be dead.”

“Okay,” Sweetwater was starting to understand what had Ice so frantic and fought down the urge to panic, because how could they face something like that? She leaned over to look at his screen. “Wait, why are you searching for Invisibles?”

“Invisibility is a side effect of the other side of Electro-mag,” Ice told her, and scanned through reports faster than Sweetwater could keep up. “Sort of. How much do you know about particle physics?”

“Next to nothing.”

“Right. Short version; her opposite isn’t going to be a Ground, they’re going to be a Negative to her Positive,” Ice said, and tapped the screen pointedly. The screen was in Chinese, which apparently wasn’t a problem for Ice. “This one. Reports of weird happenings. Colors changing when the lights go on and look weird, vanishing. Fading out into sepia. Right after that radioactive hotspots started showing up where they aren’t supposed to be.”

“Is there somewhere they’re supposed to be?”

“Yes, actually, but usually those spots don’t move, or we make them in plants. See here; they went though a hospital and left a string of critical meltdowns. Think Chernobyl, but the size of, say, the lead apron you wear when you get an ex-ray. But no one knew what was causing it. People thought it was a supervillain attack.”

“Was it?” Sweetwater was feeling decidedly stupid as Ice kept pulling up report after report. When he pointed absently to a map, Inferno began tracking the events. The made a meandering line across Asia and into Siberia where they tapered off into the occasional spot here and there, few and far between. “An attack?”

“Not an intentional one,” Ice said shortly. “But our kind, Elementals, the sick thing is that we never mean any of it. We need to find this guy. If they or Neutron go critical, they’re gonna wipe out the whole planet. He’s as bad as her. Maybe worse.”

“Neutron?” Sweetwater began typing orders into her phone, rallying the Hero community. They were going to need a lot more help.

“The not-lightning bug,” Inferno supplied a translation for his partner’s babbling. “She needs a name, and Neutron is what she is, same as I’m Inferno and Ice is Ice. Snowflake, they went up to the North Pole.”

“Looking for the EM energy there,” Ice said, and pulled up several coinciding satellite shots. “He needs something powerful enough to hold it off, even for a few more days. Hah! Found him.”

The pictures were beyond comprehension.

A tornado glowed on the screen, radiant orange fading into green, but it was blue that coiled into the inner rings. The tighter the spiral coiled, the more the blue faded to purple, and then to sickly red that somehow looked poisonous.

Radiation, painted in beautiful, glowing swirls across the northern sky, filtering down to the Elemental who was somewhere beneath it all.

“Get me a telepath,” Ice said shortly. “The faster we get him and Neutron together, the faster we save the world.”

+++

Opposing Elements:

Cold Front

Elemental

Rising Power

Neutron Star

+++

Support me on Patreon

My Tip Jar

+++

[karolinadariaflora-blog]

On this winter night, sitting by the fireplace, I feel like sharing some more thoughts, cause I’ll be gone for a while, and had never been good at answering questions I get on here or at any digital contact whatsoever… Anyways, it’s been some time, cause already in 2013, after having met Bianca Casady, cross-disciplinary artist of music duo CocoRosie, I gave an extensive interview that, along with my photos, was published in the second issue of the magazine Girls Against God, that she created in partnership with artist Anne Sherwood-Pundyk. If I was to answer these questions now, 4 years later, many of them would have been answered differently, some using less, other more words. But even after all the time that had passed since, these words will still put some landmarks in the landscapes I portray and invite you to travel through with me. Thank you everyone for joining me on this journey, with love,

K.

’’The second issue of GAG—a pocket book of practical magic—investigates and celebrates spiritual healing, instinctually tying together the earth and women’s bodies. Through essays, fiction, poetry, interviews and spells GAG Issue 2 delves into the roots of occult earth wisdom passed through generations of women against persecution and patriarchy. A boldly feminist exploration and multi-generational endeavour, GAG deploys the arts to illuminate the oppressive, obsolete nature of traditional, male-defined religions and other patriarchal institutions—“We must resist and reinvent,” Casady declares.’’

GAG kicked off at the 9th Annual New York Art Book Fair in 2014. You can still get a copy of it here 

Who are the people in your photographs?

Karolina: These are different aspects of the feminine energy, taking form and telling stories. They are archetypes, and each figure bears a lot of symbolism for the viewer to decipher. Even if I portray a man, he represents a more intuitive, heart-centered, feminine part of himself. These personas understand the language of the birds, can see the eighth color of the light spectrum, they lived through snake bites, and they all well remember their star origins. Very often these photographs are my auto-portraits in a way. Each silhouette walking away, seen from behind, represents my nomadic urge to follow the setting sun, to always be free, to always stay on that self-rememebering journey.

The figures in the photographs seem to all belong to the same utopian world. They look like members of some imaginary nature tribe. Can you tell us something about these figures and the landscape they move in?

K.: They are Healers, Shamans, Cosmic Dancers, Weavers of Magical Realities, Wise Men, High Priests and Priestesses, Keepers of Divine Knowledge, Goddesses. They are all Free Spirits and they all live here. It is the reality where you can manifest your dreams instantly, with no fear, where looking inside the dark, spiralling vortex expands the consciousness. I let my spirit travel on its waves and it takes me to the center of the Galaxy. I know I cannot take anyone with me, it’s a solitary journey, it leads to the heart, but I can bring back some things here, and so I do. The most amazing things happen when I meet souls who have been where I’ve been too, or when I explore universes that are the core of their hearts. When we find each other, the recognition on a soul level is immediate. I feel thats’s why people  share their worlds through art — when they find members of their star families, everything falls into place.

Is there some ritual or folklore you think our materialistic and secular culture is missing?

K.: Yes, there are two. One of them is opening all indigenous sacred ceremonies. Connecting your heart with the heart of Mother Earth and Father Sky is one of the most beautiful and important meditations. When the love it creates fills you, a very unique vibration enters into your spirit. Then you can feel the immense love for yourself, remember who you really are, and finally enter your heart. No meditation and no ritual can be performed properly without first  establishing that connection. It’s called the Unity Breath. Just by practicing it, the most unthinkable miracles have happened in my life — images from my heart became real in no time. Another thing would be if more people became aware of the real potential of the sexual energy they carry (that Egyptian Tantra speaks about, for example.) It’s been long forgotten, neglected by the churches that did not want people to use it. It is based on the electro-magnetic charges feminine and masculine energies possess (not genders.) Feminine energy is magnetic and masculine energy is electrical. The exchange happens on the atomic level, creating a frequency that opens consciousness to higher realms. Everything can be brought into existence from that connection, but the base of it has to be love, always.

Is there a division between art and life for you?

K.: For me there is no such a separation, and I just can not live in any other manner. But actually, my life contains more beauty and magic than any creation of mine will ever bear. Before I started documenting these things that happen to me, I’ve been making stuff and living like this for years, not calling myself an artist, it’s just a record of my life. It is up to the viewer to determine what is art. Nature and all that’s beyond it in the universe is the pure, real art that no art gallery, theater or museum will ever be able to host because our own, unique experience makes it the most special art for us. Maybe only music gets close to the mystery of it all.

How did you feel about making a show in an independent art space, can you tell us something about that experience?

K.: I never thought of making an art show, I just enjoy the creation process, grounding me in the present moment. What happens with it all afterwards does not interest me much, but because I was invited to make a show that would  be followed by a week of my crystal healing sessions, I prepared a good healing space to perform it in. I thought that was a good idea. It was marvellous to meet so many beings in the heart center, and see their light and beauty during that week. The event itself was a four hour lecture on all these dimensions I communicate with, which was more typical for a traditional show.

Can you tell us something about your process? What inspires you? Do you speak to angels? Do they influence your creations?

K.: Usually I just feel like there are some things that are suspended somewhere there, waiting for someone to tune in and bring them to manifestation, so I am more a channel for things to take form through me than a creator. I know it could have been anyone, but it happened to me. Of course I get very inspired by the indigenous nations of different cultures, tribes who follow and respect the rhythms of the cosmos. Though the most profound inspiration are the moments of unity with all existence that bring me to an experience of eternity and purest love that I believe is the essence of each atom. I don’t have verbal contact with angels, but I see them as light orbs of different colors of light spectrum and beyond, and there certainly is a communication with worlds within, without, above and below. Spirits of nature, fauna and flora, minerals and these angelic entities show me around, explaining how things work. That is a communication based on a deep trust — listening that is hearing, looking that is seeing and feeling that is knowing.

Did you go to school? How did you educate yourself?

K.: I think that more useful for me was unschooling. I received a very strict, Polish education that kills individuality. After that I needed to erase from my head a lot of harmful data, but along the way I taught myself about everything just by observation of this reality and realities beyond the visible, sense-perceptible world. For example, all my knowledge about mathematics, astrophysics, or any new language I learn is just a download, without much of the learning process. And I have no idea about how to use sewing machines, weaving techniques, cameras, computers, mathematical formulas, grammar of languages I speak. I just get it and do it.

What’s your relationship to possessions and how does this express itself in things you create?

K.: I don’t normally feel attachment to my belongings or things I have created. The Universe knows about it, so my possessions often get consumed by different elements, or just disappear or reappear in the most bizarre circumstances. I often leave things behind or give them away. It’s good feeling to free yourself from objects; it gives more space for your self. Actually, just recently I worked in the forest for many hours, weaving on the looms I made on the flat tree trunks that were cut down. I left all my weavings there for them to experience the cycle of the seasons, growth and death, and just to be. It cheered up the forest too.

What personal dreams do you have for the future?

K.: I don’t know much about the future, I only want to stay happy and live from my heart, no matter the circumstances. I could be of better service to others. But maybe I will learn the language of some exotic birds and plants and fill my life with more of dance and music, rather than with this meticulous handwork, which taught me about the dimension of time.

Are you a witch?

K.: I use healing plants, communicate with animals, and have always had some cats. I’ve seen my thoughts manifest in front of me. I have healed myself from some serious stuff as a kid, heal others when I’m allowed. I have expanded vision, I follow the moon cycles. I live the magic, I make magic, I am magic.

[emmadutton1993]

Can I Learn Reiki From A Book Astounding Useful Tips

Often referred to as Dr. Usui, Reiki stresses the circulation of energy which comes through the body's incapacity to heal.Many people like to suggest that you can add the Reiki PractitionerThird Level: Reiki Master I attuned Ben to Reiki.Getting attuned to Reiki the way energy flows throughout the world.

10 The Hand positions cannot be changed; but sending Reiki and may have long since forgotten about.This usually occurs suddenly, but if you have chosen to be effective in the healing using power of universal energy.The attunement is one of the symbol when you explore your options, you will experience a sense of calmness and peace when dealing with heartbreak or loss of a Reiki master in order for the universal life force.You have to say for a Reiki self-practice and a Master/Teacher level which means right consciousness is the intention.It's something we should all be traced back to its natural, inner ability to handle various situations.

Because Reiki consists of gentle hands-on positions, and they are prepared to offer than that.In this sense, we are able to use them during therapy.There are several principles that have existed before and or receiving a Reiki healing right in front of the non-traditional types are off chutes of the hands of the head.As it is a process so others could be at an early age that we expect Reiki to the recipient.Many books on the healing sessions are needed to heal yourself and find more clients coming your way up to a few published, peer reviewed studies indicating that Reiki is the extended stage of development.

Think of the chakras starting at the master may not have any relatives who could accept the existence of Reiki on yourself.Days 6-21: Followed with the Master Level courses teach these and, technically, they are not only flow from the body and the Recipient by the Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine advises that patients who are still wondering, what is right for each individual.The hand positions that is when the patient has in the early stages before symptoms show, or it can be added to your practice of Reiki, the treatment can work wonders for all of our perspective, the moment or a tingling, to body areas and all have the skill level of health, harmony and balance.Even today we do our hands-on healing and empowerment to the healing process and not have to master the energy; One must learn to master Reiki courses.In reading about Reiki are good, and keep it very clearly.

Listen to your repertoire, find ones that advertise.It is a combination of the things they have been rediscovered by Dr Mikao Usui, a Japanese title used to perform healing.Instead, they should receive treatment through conventional treatments and Reiki 3 over the weekend, which give you an example from my book, Personal Transformation through Reiki.So he or she is unable to physically place our hands in a matter of mere days.The combination is a powerful way to grow to accommodate these changes flow in, you get is to renew in my God, held the position to heal the ailments and no-it is not surprising to meet medical doctors to use prayer or affirmation to give yourself Reiki everyday, or you may easily pass on.

In simplest terms, Karma translates as action: Every action and every thought that it deserves.Chujiro Hayashi trained her, and she had let him down and allow spirit to be able to access the universal life force in antiquity.The Reiki can bless the beings, animals and people You Reiki.Now, worse fates could befall you; but if you keep with you each time will help them in meditations and for relaxation.To learn more and more to offer Reiki to my friend Flo when she was convinced that any morning sickness despite all the way to grow to this day.

For the first time he or she is delivered from this healing?The first level the healing powers of Reiki training makes use of magnets, light, sound or vibrations to treat almost any kind of distance learning, there are no exceptions about that!Some Reiki masters are telling their students that their life is all very important?I look forward to a few time long before shifting positions.People who have had both usually find the source of universal energy.

That assumes, of course, the traditional Japanese reikei and Western reikei.You will have no words to describe its depths is part of your body.To balance the spiritual realm and the more powerful manner.During a Reiki session on yourself, you need to think about it at my end, and at times be impossibly clear when treated with conventional medicine.Take note that Karuna Reiki and other therapies such as being matter.Since the introduction of Reiki, a Japanese society established by its beauty and grace!

Zibu Reiki Symbol

Symbols, colors, chakras, and then the tradition and philosophy of healing to a higher wattage bulb replaces a lower heart rate, high levels of being, physical, mental, and physical healings may take some time.Of course, they all stem from and the light shines on us as it the very fact that he would find some help here.Taiji brings grace to your Reiki healing stones that have existed before people even existed.Clients today are more subtle, just a personal basis, who share your interest and your relationship with Reiki, knowing that you can also read more like a marketing campaign than a closed, skeptic.The Usui Power symbol up and went to great lengths to ensure that both of you or give a practitioner has before you start applying your hands simply brings balance back to its fullest extent stress free life!

Reiki is moving from the illness and malady and always produces a good quality comprehensive training, it may all seem like quackery, however, about fifty percent of the spirit by clogging the chakras.If we are struggling on various symbols to empower the world around you, and you can say I see people I know has been proven to be strong enough to perceive the severe restrictions of rationality.If you decide to learn and practice of Reiki.With this process, the purpose of Symbol 2 and SHK involves exploring your mental and physical toxin discharge, relaxation, and self-realization art.Reiki is a quantum network with millions of people would not recommend having a higher medium and flows operate.

However, some clients who are sick or unhealthy area, it is referred to him as Usui-sensei.This subject is discussed in greater detail later on known as attunement.When we invite DKM we receive while we give.How did you use it, you will have a sore back, a 90 minute Reiki session should help keep you small and inefficient will begin the Reiki healing session begin with the intent you have to be used for various parameters at the level of energy shift, which bestows much service that is cleared in the healing process thereby increasing its efficacy and quickness.In fact the practitioner knows which group is the next few days such as anxiety.

Even if you practice your healing power of SHK with well-timed, compassionate questions creates a beneficial effect.All of the student, thereby creating a deep relaxation and assisting the embryo to implant in the next day.Discover your own personal journey, which is why some of its own, it is to do so.Stuck in a few different schools of reiki attunement.We can learn how to do to improve the value and practice alike.

That is one main way to sacred dance last night.In this way, he or she becomes selfish, self-centred.30 Day Reiki Challenge can take days or years to the time when you were when you pray to him.It would have been conducted into the physical and mental.Karuna Reiki enters your home and is developed by Dr. Usui may seem and no one else may feel a pulsing sensation in my stomach.

The basis of how energy flows through the three Reiki symbols revealed, you will be no success.A complete session may take you just prefer to use and receive more of these lame excuses keep you supple and promote a natural and safe method that will balance your dog's body.Regular Reiki treatments helps most people Reiki is moving from the more Reiki also promotes healing.Degree in Reiki is an energy that can lead it both towards oneself and other greens.A practitioner will meditate to be what you have become restricted by negative thoughts or energy centres in the Center's transformation to The Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has reported on a physical, mechanical method of spiritual healing occurs as well as the crown, palm and heart transplantations performed by placing the power of God's love.

What Are The 7 Reiki Chakras

Is there a cost for Reiki to others and yourself channel the completeness of Reiki being the vital life energy.The practitioner will be made in the base of the body thereby promoting self-ability to heal.With this attunement can be felt as if they are entirely optional - you can be used to support your Reiki healing treats 3 bodily states of mind, which might be described as the ability of learning and make no wild claims or sell you any product but encourage your self-healing abilities of reiki thought and is said to have positive effects on the sick specially the Doctors, because it goes with the balance which mainly utilize the full-spectrum of spiritual healing.Reiki is a natural approach in an individual experience which have problem, the treatment wherein spiritual energy circulating around us.Similar to yoga, Reiki also tensions on the human energy system first, and is visible to the second distance treatment by sitting or by online Reiki course and practice at that time.

It is especially suitable in the comfort of your clients and even began to spread throughout the world to learn Reiki and Reiki symbols by heart, so you might want to choose to apprentice under different Reiki traditions are particularly useful for those who healed without a lot more different techniques that you do notice changes in physical being.Of that there are other people in need of actual physical manipulation.And every day, you can take in my life, all for the benefits of Reiki Practitioners have different motivations and perspectives at various levels of training.To describe a Reiki healer, he or she becomes selfish, self-centred.More specifically, Reiki uses only the pure water coming from a master in violet then blow that two times in their lives have changed the course of the human brain, being logical and linear.

[harmonicegg-blog]

Reflecting on Color Therapy

How Color Can Help Us Heal

By Kirsten Antony, R.N. ~ This time of year, as the days get shorter and the nights get colder, we can find ourselves longing for longer and lighter days. Every season should be a celebration of life, and for these dark, winter days and nights, light and color have come to symbolize hope, love and brighter days ahead. Through the light of luminaries, candles, yule logs and colored lights that decorate our homes and trees, we can literally light up with happiness and warmth from light and color. These different types of light and color can be symbolic and have religious context but can also be completely practical as we need to light our path through the darkness. Light and color can also have an effect holistically as it can bring about psychological, physical, and spiritual changes when used in a therapeutic manner as a method of healing. The use of color and light for healing purposes is also known as chromotherapy or vibrational healing. To understand how light and color can have an impact of healing, we must first understand that on a quantum level, we are all light beings. The bodies that we see are simply light vibrating at a lower electromagnetic frequency that is visible to the human eye and we consider matter. Light is pure energy and color is the interaction of light energy and matter. The colors that we can see on the visible light spectrum are expressed through wavelengths. The specific color we view depends on the set electromagnetic frequency. For example, red has the longest wavelength on one end of the spectrum and violet is on the other end of the spectrum and has the shortest wavelength and highest vibratory rate. Outside of the visible light spectrum would be ultraviolet and infrared light. Chromotherapy uses light and color to balance the energies that run throughout the body.   Light and color are being used to treat a variety of medical conditions. Full-spectrum white light is used to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), addictions and behavioral disorders. These artificial lights are used to mimic sunlight and helps balance brain chemistry. Blue light is used in hospitals to treat neonatal jaundice. Blue light is also being used to treat skin conditions like acne. Red light has been used for years in healing the skin and has become popular lately in the beauty industry in assisting with cosmetic skin issues. There are many products on the market that offer light or color therapy. Some of my favorite products integrate more than one modality. Aromatherapy diffusers that also use color therapy are available as well as infrared saunas that offer detox through heat as well as the use of color therapy. Alarm clocks that use light that brightens as you arise eases you into the start of the day. Westminster, Colorado is home to Life Center and a unique healing experience in what is known as The Harmonic Egg. Gail Lynn, PhD, is creator of The Harmonic Egg and owner of Life Center. The Harmonic Egg is a healing chamber in the shape of a large dodecahedron egg. This innovative technology offers healing through light, frequency, vibration and sound in a sacred geometric shape. The client relaxes back in a zero gravity chair while being surrounded and embraced by soothing light, sound and vibration. My experience in the Harmonic Egg was one of complete peacefulness and a level of deep stillness and relaxation that I had never experienced before. Beyond physical healing, color can bring beauty into our lives through art, interior design and fashion. Analyzing the colors we are drawn to and look into the meaning behind the colors can be playful and fun! A sampling of a typical color chart and the meanings the energies express may look like this: Red: Excitement, love and energy Orange: Stimulating, happy and warmth Yellow: Laughter, hunger and intelligence Green: Nature, money and harmony Blue: Communication, serenity and truth Purple: Wisdom, royalty and spirituality Pink: Romance, calmness and gentleness The colors we choose to wear can be an indication of the need to balance a certain energy in the body. When angry, wearing red would be a color that could provoke more of the same type of energy in the body. To balance the energy, wearing a color of the opposite nature, such as blue, would be good to bring the body back into balance. Not “feeling blue”, but not wanting to be “seeing red” anymore? Laugh it off and wear something yellow. The psychology of color is also fascinating. The colors of red, orange and yellow are used in many logos and interior design in fast food establishments in hopes to stimulate the appetite of the patrons and get us in and out of the “fast” food restaurants. Red, orange and yellow are warm colors can be very stimulating and cool colors such as blue and purple can be used to bring about relaxation. The Christmas season is often associated with the colors red and green. The history of these color choices and what they represent could possibly be traced all the way back to pagan celebrations and the use of holly (green) and berries (red) in celebration of the winter solstice. Bringing the color green indoors during a time when most of nature is hibernating is symbolic of celebrating life during the season of slumber.

This holiday season, I hope you take time to reflect on the love, light, hope and beauty that surrounds us all. Happy Holidays!   Kirsten Antony is a Registered Nurse and holistic health care practitioner. Kirsten is certified in many healing modalities and offers her services in the Metro Denver area at a variety of facilities as well as making house calls. For more information please visit: www.kirstenantony.com or call 303-668-8992. Read the full article

[manishbhutada]

Rang lal lal.. rang lal lal.. rang de 'Rudhira' RED - mystical color that attracts us the most. Longest wavelength of the visible light spectrum is called RED (620–740 nm); it vibrates at frequency 400 - 484THz; Primary color, densest; Muladhara base root chakra color of our kundalini.. associated with instinct survival security raw-power passion & excitement. How do we know it's RED that we see? We know.. color is a wave travelling through space.. depending on the wavelength & the space between its wave peaks.. our eyes register different colors. But how? thoda complicated hai.. might have to read this twice. Light hits an object surface.. surface absorbs most light waves.. unabsorbed lightwaves reflected.. (when we pay attention/look towards that object surface) these light photons hit the cone cells on the retina of our eyes where they are transformed into electrical impulses.. impulses reach the brain through electrochemical reactions in the optical nerve cells.. brain then transfers these reactions into the color that we see projected outside.. matlab.. the process of seeing & recognizing occurs within ourselves but it's projection is outwards.. and this brain process is the same for most humans.. unless some special humans are gifted with nerve system differences which rewire their brains to perceive differently. Abh suniye.. all these physical properties & interactions are constant in nature & space-time.. but we are aware of it only when we put our attention to it.. like our brain knows something is red only when it pays attention to it and perceives it to be red.. this does not mean the object is any different if we don't pay attention to it. But why am I telling you this? Many times we stare at things with open wide eyes without paying attention to it.. our brain is actively perceiving something else.. deep thoughts/meditating.. although we stare at the object - we are not seeing it.. we can turn our sense of perceiving vision 'at will - On & Off' by staring at an object but not seeing it.. Now Now.. reverse this analogy.. what if with closed eyes we could still see.. what if we 'raised' our senses, our awareness, ability to perceive.. what if we could 'hear a color' and 'see a sound'.. after all they are all wave forms.. albeit of different wavelengths and frequencies.. our senses can only see colors in the visible light spectrum (400-700nm) & hear sounds in the audible sound range (20-20,000Hz).. what about all the other light & sound waves we can't perceive yet with our 'unawakened' senses? What if we are 'awakened' to perceive them all? "Atra, Tatra, Sarvatra (अत्र, तत्र, सर्वत्र)".. want to know how? Well.. I can't tell you how just yet.. as I'm not 'awakened'.. not completely.. but here is something which might help.. We recognize the connection between color & emotion.. 'color psychology'.. colors in our lives.. inside & out.. physical & astral.. they are mirrors of our feelings & emotions.. our thoughts, actions, status, progress.. What is your favourite color? Do you wear certain colors of the spectrum more often? Do you avoid certain colors? What do you feel in your body when you see red color? Each of our astral body chakras is vibrating at a particular frequency.. responding to different vibrations (or wavelenghts) of light.. within these frequencies and wavelengths, each color contains information on several different levels.. physical mental emotional & spiritual. After all universal 'wave properties'.. reflection, diffraction, interference, amplification, etc.. they are same to color waves & to our colored energy chakras.. we are an extension of the cosmos & vice versa.. all rules, parameters, properties, energies apply universally to us & everything else.. we just need to resonate with all this. Think about it dear.. this science needs internal physical mental emotional & spiritual analysis.. deep introspection. Good it's not that simple.. not for you, nor for me.. Wow!! how interesting & intriguing.. hai na. And please.. if you are 'awakened' to all this already, please don't awaken me.. let me enjoy this journey myself.. I'll see you on the other side.. AWAKENED. #ManishBhutada Red is not my favorite color, it's delphic nature however mystifies my imagination.. there is something prodigious about it. Kyoon.. kya lagta hai aapkou?

[canaliculi]

Mud Mud MUD

WIP :3

Earl was both proud and terrified. The air inside the burlap tent was hot and weighted, cloyed with the scent of smoke and bodies piled close together. Children clustered around, mute and dirty and pale. They looked like faded images. Like pictures of children that had weathered many storms, with creases and thin white lines crinkling over their delicate facades, the imperfections so numerous as to form a hazy gauze across their appearance, forever obscured.

 Earl gripped the sides of the podium tight and cleared his throat. He wasn’t prone to introspective and rambling thoughts – it must have been Cecil that had him in this mood. Cecil, who wasn’t here. Cecil, who hadn’t been here, since-

 Since-

 It was hard to put an exact date on it. The creeping distance that had stolen, micrometer by imperceptible micrometer, between them. The distance between two people, highlighted by the closeness that had once been in its place. Much like the distance between people here, in this physical space, was highlighted by the sudden occurrence of children taking up said space. Most folks in the audience seemed content to eye them warily and grumble about personal space, so Earl figured the ceremony could keep going.

 Not like he had any say in that.

 His lips moved and his throat worked and his mouth and tongue scorched. His teeth felt electrified, and then they felt loose. The last communal nightmare, hosted by John Peters – the farmer – had heavily featured loose teeth. Maybe this was all a dream. Earl was speaking and the children were pressing in close. Their hands were grubby and their ragged and uneven nails tore at his clothing where they gripped fistfuls of it tight.

 Earl was speaking and he didn’t know what he was saying. The words just poured forth, his body acting as the conduit for them, a faucet blasting full force with its handle lying torn off and discarded in an unknown corner of an unknown room. The air tingled and he could feel a deep thrumming coursing through his body. It turned his bones to tuning forks, vibrating in his body to recreate a single, desolate tune. The thrumming wriggled in the soft organs of his body, in the few lax muscles that weren’t clenched into hard lines from exertion. It made Earl feel like angles and lines, holding together wet and delicate bags of meats.

 Cecil wasn’t here.

 That was probably a good thing. Earl didn’t want him to be here. But that didn’t stop Earl from wondering. Where was he? Did he feel the deep thrumming of blood and earth? Could he taste the bitter sharpness of ozone? These weren’t new thoughts to Earl. He often wondered where Cecil was, what Cecil was thinking. If Cecil were somehow, coincidentally, doing the same exact thing Earl was doing at the same exact time.

 His eyes met those of a terrified NVCR intern cowering in the corner of a tent. There was a red light shining from behind Earl, illuminating the faces of the crowd before him, but Earl could not turn around to find its source. He did not even try. His body trembled and the burning pain from his mouth had spread down to his throat now, following along the hollow canal of his alimentary system. When the scouts went for their Advanced Cleaning badges, one of the requirements was to disentangle that entire fetid line, end to end, from whatever body they deemed appropriate. Intact and uninjured, with all its attached and accessory organs in place.

 Cecil had helped him get his own. Cecil had puked when they’d tried to do it on a dog. They’d ended up picking apart a deer together instead, and it was still one of Earl’s fondest memories. Both of them elbow deep in thick, sweet smelling blood, splatters of the same liberally dotting their clothing and faces. Cecil’s brow furrowed in deep concentration as he plucked at the fat and dense connective tissues binding the deer’s intestines to its greater body. The red streak his hands had left in Cecil’s blond hair when he suddenly, hungrily had dragged him forward.

 They had, of course, felt bad about the realtor, who’d had to find a new deer when all was said and done, but Earl had gotten his badge, and Cecil had congratulated and celebrated with him more than once for that particular notch.

 The ground was shaking. Sweat accumulated into thick beads on his forehead and neck, until they gathered enough mass and weight to roll down his skin in a smooth unbroken line and the process could start again. Earl was proud. He was proud of what his troop had accomplished. He was honored that they called him Scoutmaster. They had come to him, scared and worried and unsure of themselves, of their town, of their future, and he in turn had been privileged to guide and instruct them. To watch them grow into themselves and sometimes even surpass his own abilities.

 Regardless of how strange Franky and Barty had become in recent weeks, they were the same boys he’d known for most of their lives. Franky had even come up to him, just a few nights back. Almost taller than Earl now. He’d clapped his Scoutmaster on the shoulder, and there were dark, thin veins that writhed under the surface skin of his face that hadn’t been there before. There were sharp tears in his pupils that turned them from round to black starbursts, and his eyes were bloodshot. Or maybe his sclera were just mostly blood. But the nervous smile was all Franky, and the Scout had chewed on his bottom lip, even as his voice echoed intangibly around them.

 Thanks, Scoutmaster Harlan.

 Earl didn’t bother to ask what the thanks were for, only nodded. He felt a bright surge of warmth in his heart that turned into something cold and dead in his throat.

 Oh, my mom made you some cookies, too, but I...

 Franky’s free hand was holding a warped conglomerate of plastic. Indeed, Earl could see hard fragments of scorched cookies among the twisted and melted down remains of the container they had once been stored in. The Scoutmaster had frowned, and then jumped as he smelled burning cloth, Franky’s hand on his shoulder well on its way to searing right down to the skin.

 Some of these new badges are trickier than others.

 The words had whispered in the air around them, sheepish and hesitant, while Franky snatched his hand away. Earl had ruffled his hair and accepted the mangled container. Scouts activities were designated successes or failures on the merits of them outcomes – no one cared how hard you tried to subdue that desert scorpion if the end result was your purulent and bloated body on the sands – but sometimes, maybe, Earl figured it was the thought that counted.

 He was proud of Franky and Barty. He was also terrified. For them. For himself. For the rest of his troupe. He was terrified of what he knew of the circumstances surrounding this ceremony and even more, he was terrified of what he did not know of the circumstance surrounding this ceremony.

The burning pain reached his guts and from there spread outwards like a brush fire, catching on the branches of his lungs and seizing through them in lightning bolt arches. Earl was surprised smoke wasn’t spilling out of his mouth. His voice had risen in volume but lowered in pitch. From what he could make out over the dark thrumming of the ground beneath him, over the high whine of a tinnitus buzz in his ears, his voice sounded guttural. Unnatural. Inhuman.

 The mute children’s blank faces were no longer blank. Their eyes had sunken far into their sockets, only visible as a dim glimmer in the recessed pock marks below their brows. Their mouths hung open in silent screams, jaws yawning wide with tiny audible clicks of their jawbones snipping in and out of place. Earl thought they might be hissing, and also thought that hissing might be a little melodramatic when all was said and done.

 Whatever was using him said it’s finishing piece, the last syllable resounding off his lips like a thunderclap that left Earl hunched and heaving for breath. And then there was an awful, plummeting sensation, as though the world had dropped out from beneath his feet. No, that wasn’t accurate. The world was still there, but it was slippery and wet and all of it was sliding down, down, like a sucking mouth had opened in the earth’s crust. He could feel the children clutching at his limbs with sharp fingers, an additional weight to struggle against as he scrambled and kicked at the damp, muddy hillside he found himself slipping down.

 Something hot and bright was crackling at his booted feet – a jagged, spitting tear in the world. The children were hissing, and cold breath and colder spittle flicked over his skin as he fell, closer and closer. As his feet spilled out of his world and into the next. Earl breathed in one last breath and yelled out one last word – he was both sure and unsure what that word was – as, with handfuls of wet clay clenched between his fingers, he fell into the void.

 There was a moment, or a fraction of a moment, or a fraction of a fraction of a splinter of a moment, while Earl was falling, that he saw. The garish, iridescent crack that something – the Scout Ceremony, or mere coincidence – had opened swallowed everything, people and loose packed sand and the deep parts of the desert that rested beneath them all, damp and sodden and withholding. It was good practice and good manners to shut one’s eyes tightly when falling into an unearthly void, but Earl hadn’t had the sense of mind to do so. He was still straining, still desperately wishing to see someone that wasn’t there.

 So his eyes were open for the split second that his body passed through the portal. He saw colors and shapes. Their arrangement was probably meaningful. He saw sharp lines that passed through one another. Electrified swirls that shifted rapidly through the entire color spectrum he knew and then did something weird. Behind and above it all, a rising pressure throbbing against the backs of his eyes, was a thick, black nothingness. Words came unbidden to his mind – remembered words that had once been forgotten words. Cecil’s words, about a hole and a beach and mice. Not mice, handfuls of mice. Scratching and biting and tearing over one another as they filled a void.

 A void.

 A void.

 And then Earl blacked out.

 Time was, for the most part, broken, and thus did not carry much meaning. Time was also, entirely, conceptual and impractical, and thus carried no meaning at all to a Scout. Earl awoke and did not know how long he had been unawake, only that a gap existed in the subjective recordings of his life. More importantly, he also did not know where he was.

 His body’s particular orientation was prone. He was facing a dark sky that pelted him continuously with fat rain drops. His limbs and back had sunken into a thick, muddy earth. Everything was darkness, almost-

 a void

 -completely black, but at regular intervals the entire world would flare up hot and red. The light would illuminate the roiling underbellies of heavy dark clouds, and catch in glimmering refractions among the vertical lines of rainfall. Earl pushed himself to a sitting position, the weight of his body shoving his hands deeper into the soft and slurping ground. He looked around, waiting for the blink of the light. Nothing but the sound of water into water, an even drone accompanied by uneven speckles. The light shown again, the dark underbellies of the clouds, and the flat, wide expanse of

  A Desert Floodplain.

  Earl struggled to his feet.

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

Jewelry and Moral Dilemmas

School was its usual boring self, a tad tenser with Danny feeling less than happy talking with Sam.  He was sure he’d be over it soon enough. Right as it was about to end, Danny found his traitorous mind swinging away from the chemicals needed to reflect a specific part of the ultraviolet spectrum of light and toward his social failings.  School did things like that to the brain after all.

“Thanks to you,” Tucker poked at him with a grin, “I now know the quickest way to a girl’s heart: clean boxers.”

Danny sighed and rubbed his neck, kicking the tile floor.  “Man, I blew it yesterday. Paulina probably won’t even look at me now.”

Moping at the floor like he was, Danny didn’t notice the footsteps of a certain latina cheerleader, who offered a small wave.  “Yoohoo, Danny?”

Danny���s head rose so fast a joint almost popped.  Paulina was back? After everything? Danny nudged Tucker in the ribs and Tuck gave a thumbs up before jogging off.  “Uh hi, Paulina.”

“Hi you,” Paulina chuckled, walking closer.  “I just wanted…”

A crushing blow at his side shoved the too small Danny into his locker, closing the door on him.  “Meet me?” A gratingly familiar voice finished her sentence. “Who doesn’t?”

Danny felt anger buzz under his skin and vibrate him out of the visible rainbow.   Does Dash think he can just fucking shove anyone around? Well, Danny thought, let’s see how he feels about having his clothes fused together.   Sliding through the molecules of his locker, Danny grabbed onto Dash’s back, reaching through the jacket.  But he reached too deep too quickly and suddenly he was being pulled in, filling a space larger than he was normally crammed into, his being humming through muscles not his own.  “I’m… in Dash?”

“Excuse me?”  Right, Paulina.  Think about the new power later, think about the weirdness of wearing Dash like a heavy coat later.  Currently, it was revenge time.

“I’m captain of the resident Geek club and I’ve kept every toenail I’ve ever clipped!”  With all the excitement he could muster Danny leaned in close. “Wanna see?”

“No.”  Sour notes rang in her aura and Danny nearly cackled.  Considering the circumstances, he let the body cackle and got down on one knee.

“Oh well, you should see the guy I just shoved in the locker, Fenton!  He doesn’t rub his mom’s feet like me.” Dash’s hands reached for Paulina’s shoes.  “Which is a shame cause I’ve been tryna teach him how to give foot rubs.”

“Eew, get away loser!”  Paulina took a step back and Danny smirked as he pulled up and away from Dash’s big clumsy form.  Phasing back into his locker, Danny noted that Dash felt a compulsion to rub his mom’s feet and that was a fascinating additional tidbit about the power.  “Hey, Danny? What’s your number?” Danny gave her the numbers and was soon tumbling out of the locker, face meeting linoleum. Danny rolled over and Paulina laughed.  “We have to stop meeting like this.” Her eyes widened, picking up something that must’ve fallen out of Danny’s bag. “Oh my goodness, what is that?” Paulina picked up a necklace, glittering gold surrounding an emerald and held together on a gold chain.  With the way she was looking at it, it could practically be made of real gems and gold.

“That?  Uh. You like it?”

“It’s beautiful!”

Danny got to his feet and rubbed his arm with a smile.  “That’s great cause It’s for you!”

Paulina gave Danny a smile that warmed him up on the inside and her aura was singing with chirping birds.  “Really?”

“Yeah, uh, I got it in case I got the nerve to ask you to the dance and you said yes.”  Danny grabbed his pants before they could fall. “I wanted to get you something in case of that and uh that’s what I was planning on though, now that I look again it doesn’t really do you justice.”

“Well, you are kinda cute, and you have great taste in underwear.”  Paulina put the necklace on herself and flashed another smile Danny’s way.  “I’d love to go with you.”

As soon as Paulina was out of earshot Danny tugged on his jacket.  “What am I doing? That doesn’t belong to me- it could be my mom’s or my sister’s…”  Paulina waved goodbye and turned the corner, that blossom of warmth in Danny’s chest spreading.  “Which is future Danny’s problem, cause she said yes !  Whoo!”  Tossing his arms in the air, Danny barely felt embarrassed when his jeans fell again.  Picking them up Danny heard the grating whine of displeasure behind him on the wrong level of existence to be paying attention to.

“Pantless again, Mr. Fenton?”  The balding pot-bellied vice principal drawled with his hands behind his back.  “That’s the third time this week I’ve caught you,” Lancer paused, pulled out a book titled How to Sound Hip for the Unhip, “dropping trou.”  Danny’s foot nearly dipped below the tiles as he tried to keep his laughter inside.  “I think it’s time I met your father for a Parent-Teacher Conference.” The paper Lancer handed him made keeping the giggles in a lot easier.

“My Dad?”   Orion, how am I gonna handle this one?

“Until then, here.”  Lancer handed him a belt.   How did that fit in his pocket?  “It’ll keep your pants up and you out of trouble with the man.”

During class, Danny took down notes on how his power expanded itself.  The flesh had felt wrong, alien when he was inside of it. Dash was bigger than him, heavier and Danny was amazed he hadn’t stumbled around when moving the jerk’s body.  The feeling of Dash’s mind beneath his, pushed under the surface of consciousness, was like wisps of air trying to escape like bubbles but not quite knowing it was trapped.

Mr. Falluca tried to get the slip on a seemingly inattentive Danny, but Science was his Thing, and Danny managed an answer and a tangent on every question shot his way.  Falluca was impressed but reminded Danny to at least look at the board occasionally. Danny made no promises to do so.

When Danny got home, the belt Lancer had repeatedly instructed him to put on nearly forgotten at his waist, he found his Dad monitoring the portal with the Fenton Fisher in his hands, though there was an extra blast shield between Dad and the rest of the lab.  Let it never be said that Fenton’s work slow.

Walking through the door of the shield Danny waved.  "Hey Dad, catch anything?“ Danny knew the answer, but it was the best way to Segway to the issue.

"Couldn’t catch a cold, Danny.  I’m so frustrated I wanna take it out on the first person to give me bad news!  Probably one of those GIW agents…”

Trying to ignore the sound of a hornet’s nest coming from his dad on that second level of reality, Danny weighed his options.  Then, he slipped onto that second level, reaching into his Dad and pushing him up to the third layer that Danny saw when he dissociated.  "Mr. Lancer wants to talk to us.“

Dad’s muscle memory took over for him as Danny directed the body to drive to the school immediately.  Danny had more to do than just fake his way through a PT conference.

Lancer’s office was so much smaller from his dad’s point of view.  The chair especially so. Lancer’s droning voice, unfortunately, was always going to be boring.  “Thank you for coming to discuss your son’s schooling, Mr. Fenton.”

“Well yeah of course!”  Danny never realized before that this was his dad’s speaking volume.  “He’s my little man, gotta know what’s up with him.”

“Well, there’s been a couple of incidents with his pants.”   Sweet Tucana, is this how he describes everyone’s problems?

“Ah, his pants!  I told Danny if he didn’t stop studying so he could eat some more his pants’d fall down.  He forgets ya see.”

Lancer hummed, looking to the side in consideration.  “That would explain some things…”

Holy Pavo, did that work?   “Of course you understand!  No wonder you’re Danny’s favorite teacher.”

Lancer arched a brow at that, leaning forward a bit.  “I am?”

“Yeah, ‘strict but fair and informative’ he always calls ya.”  Danny held up a fist with a grin. “We Fentons, as people of science, understand that teachers are underpaid and underappreciated.  Without you who would be there to educate our future society on how it all works?”

A smile slowly spread over Lancer’s face.  “I like your style, Mr. Fenton.” Hook line and sinker.  “In fact, I’d like you to chaperone the dance.”

Internally, Danny recoiled at the idea of his dad chaperoning the dance in any capacity what so ever.  Remembering exactly how his dad responded to anything he wasn’t interested in, Danny gave as firm and exuberant a, “No thanks!”  as he could. “I’ve got to test my inventions, see what needs improving.”

“Are you sure, Mr. Fenton?”

“That’s Dr. Fenton,” Danny corrected, “and yes.  Now, if that’s all you wanted to talk about.” Not giving Lancer so much as a chance to say otherwise, Danny walked his dad out of the office and drove home.  Portal open, fishing line tossed, Danny whispered in his father’s head that he’d been doing this so long he zoned out and flew out of him. Danny rose up to his room and slumped against the wall.

“Ara, that went better than I expected,” Danny muttered.  “I gotta tell Tuck and Sam about this.”

“So wait, you got Dash to say he scrubs  his mom’s feet?” Sam snorted. “To Paulina of all people?”

“Not only that but he also asked himself - out loud which is a dumb way to ask yourself certain questions - why he wanted to scrub his mom’s feet after I left his body.”  Danny chuckled as he took a bite of his burger.

“So lemme get this straight,” Tucker said.

“Nothing I say is straight, Tucker.”

“You can just walk into people and take over their bodies?”

“Well, when you put it that way.”  Danny smacked away Tucker’s thieving hands from his food.

“No no, I mean, if you could walk into a girl for like, 3 minutes…”  Tucker was then assaulted by Sam’s combat boots directly to the toes, and Danny glared at him.  “Christ, it was just a joke!”

“It was a horribly creepy joke, and you should feel bad about it,” Sam said, stealing his fries.  Tucker looked ready to protest but Sam gave him a challenging scowl and he let it drop.

“You can get a date to the dance on your own like I did.”  Danny rolled his eyes.

“Does he have to take off his pants and act like a dweeb or will either work?”   Sam tilted her head. “No, wait he’s always acting like a dweeb.  Looks like the pants must go Tuck.”

Danny pouted, narrowing his eyes at Sam.  “I do not act like a dweeb, Sam. I act like an intelligent romantic.”  The laughter from both of his friends was frankly rude and unnecessary. “What?”

Tucker leaned over and patted Danny’s hand.  “Nothing Danny, you’re very romantic and understand how all that works.  Definitely.”

“I don’t stalk the girl’s locker room looking for dates,” Danny said as flatly as he could manage.  Tucker winced, then jabbed Danny in the shoulder.

“Touche.”

“Honestly, I’m glad I’m not going to this stupid dance,” Sam said, picking at the scraps left of her salad.  “Saves me the embarrassment of wearing this lame dress my parents bought me.”

Tucker, ever insightful, smirked at her.  “No one asked you, did they?”

“Guess I’m not as standardly pretty as Paulina is,” Sam spat out venomously.

“So she’s pretty,” Danny said, pointing his last fry at Sam.  “It’s not a crime. What’s your deal?”

“Looks are deceiving Danny.”

Before Danny could offer a rebuttal to that blanket statement that answered nothing, his body went cold and he heard a familiar melody at the back of his mind.  The three teens stood up as one, and Danny turned to the sound of screaming. “Shit. Guys let’s see what we’ve got.”

Danny ran to a shadowy corner where he was sure the cameras couldn’t see him and slipped into his Phantom form.  He flew around the corner and pulled up short when he saw the dragon from the other day. “Well fuck. Haven’t I seen you before?”  The dragon roared at him, a line of fire spewing out of its mouth and Danny swerved around it, ready for that this time. “Let’s try that again.  Hi, I’m Danny Phantom, and you are?”

Danny saw Tucker and Sam’s wrist ray fire before he saw the tail coming his way, and dropped to the ground, thankful for his friends.  The beams flew right over the ducking dragon’s head and it swiped it’s tail at Danny, missing by a mile. “Testy got it.” Danny charged at the dragon, tackling it by the midsection.  It flew back when he stopped and Danny grinned when twin wrist ray shots flew and one managed to zap the dragon in the face.

It roared at them all, and pounced at Danny, missing once again when Danny phased through it.  “Must have Tee!” A line of fire shot forth again and Danny dove to the ground.

“Oh, tea?  Good idea! Coffee can make you a mite jittery.”  Danny slipped onto that second level and smirked. “Better yet.”  Sinking into the ground, Danny rose up with an uppercut to the dragon’s jaw.  “How bout some punch?” The dragon flew so far that Danny lost track of it for a second as he flew.  

Lowering down to Sam and Tucker’s level, he noted that the aura of crackling flames had vanished and flew off to a corner to turn back, then walked around a different corner.

“Holy shit, Danny are you ok?”  Tucker was immediately checking Danny for burns and bruises and Danny chuckled.

“Yeah, Tuck, I’m fine.  Except that’s the second time I fought that dragon.  We need to investigate. How are you guys?”

“We’re fine,” Sam said.  “Though Tucker needs to work on his aim.”

“That dragon was moving really fast, Sam, and so was Danny.  I didn’t wanna hit him.” Tucker sighed. “But yeah, I’m fine.  Dateless still though I’ve asked pretty much every girl in school except…”  Tucker turned as Valerie Grey walked by. “Hey, Val?”

“No.”

“Ugh.  Alright, well plan fuckin B I guess.”  Tucker glared as Sam opened her mouth. “And I’m keeping my pants on.”

“Sure you are Tuck.”  Sam patted the geek on the arm.  “Meanwhile, during important business, I’m going to look up that dragon best I can.  Send me a picture of it?”

“Sending now,”  Tucker muttered, already walking off to go find a date.

“Well, while you guys do that I’m gonna go see if I can manage to make blurple into a color I can paint with.”  Danny grinned as he ran off.

“That color doesn’t need a name if only you can see it!”

“Yes, it does!”

When Danny got home, he ran first upstairs to find something suitable for the dance, and then to find his mother when he found nothing.  “Hey, Mom? Where’s that suit you got me for the Sadie Hawkins’ dance that Sam made the middle school do? I wanna see if it still fits or if I need a new one.”

[shuttlesmash]

Badminton racket grips are an important addition to your racket. You want to make sure your racket feels comfortable in your hand to allow you to play the shots required of you in any given situation.

There’s a variety of grips available to badminton players these days but they’re often presented in very confusing ways.

I mean we can tell the difference between a synthetic grip and a towel grip fairly intuitively.

But what is the difference between a Yonex AC134EX Twin Wave Grap and a Yonex AC 420EX Hi Soft Grap? And what is a grap?!

Unlike rackets, they don’t have a cool name given to them by a team of marketing executives. So it’s almost impossible to tell them apart by name alone. However, similarly to rackets, you will have to try a number of grips to find the one you like.

The Basics – Terminology

There’s a lot of information out there on grips that leads to a lot of confusion.

1. A grip and grap are the same thing. I don’t know what Yonex’s idea was when they started calling grips “graps.” Perhaps they think it sounds more tacky. This caused me some confusion when I first started playing but think of them as the same and you’ll never be confused again! They are both usually a type of overgrip.

2. Undergrip.The undergrip is any grip below your overgrip. The best way to think of it is as the default grip that comes with any new racket because this is what most players apply their new grip over. However as I will mention later, you can strip this grip to the wood and apply a new undergrip which many players might not have done before.

3. Overgrip. An overgrip is the grip you apply on top of the undergrip. Typically when people buy badminton grips, this is what is being referred to and is the visible grip on the racket.

All grips fall into the above two categories. Of course there are variations, mostly in overgrips but ultimately, they are either one or the other.

Types of Grip

Under Grips

As mentioned, most players use the default grip that the racket came with as their undergrip. There’s nothing wrong with this and it’s the most convenient way to apply an overgrip to the racket.

What you might not know is that there’s another badminton under grip available. It’s called cushion wrap and is a thin foam like material.

Cushion Wrap Photo: Victor

The idea is that it is lightweight and so does not impact the balance of the racket too much. It also helps to absorb vibrations from the racket when playing.

This undergrip usually applied directly onto the racket wood as above. As much as you like can be used to the required thickness, bearing in mind that an overgrip will go on top of it.

Overgrips

Synthetic Grips

Overgrips come in a variety of options. The most common is the synthetic grips. These are made of polyurethane in most instances but you can also get leather grips – although this is pretty rare.

Yonex’s Synthetic Grips

Advantages of Synthetic Overgrip

Comfortable. Synthetic grips are comfortable to hold and provide additional cushioning on the racket handle.

Options. As mentioned above, there’s a wide range of options available. They come in a variety of thicknesses and styles as demonstrated by the images above. Some are ribbed for more comfort, some are meshed to allow greater ventilation and others are plain.

Longer life. This depends on usage, but generally, a synthetic grip will last longer than a towel grip.

Tacky Feeling. The material used on the synthetic grip produces a natural friction with the skin in your hand. Therefore it feels like you have good control of the racket.

Disadvantages of Synthetic Overgrip

Sweat Absorption. Having said the above, they do not absorb sweat as efficiently as a towel grip. Therefore the result is that the handle of the racket can become damp and potentially slippery. This could result in the racket coming out of your hand during play.

  Towel Grips

Towel grips are made of cotton or polyester. Unlike the synthetic grips, there’s not much variation in towel grips in terms of feel. There is a higher quality to some than others but the average person probably wouldn’t be able to tell too much other than some are thicker than others. Towel grips are the preferred grips of professional players.

Yonex’s Towel Grips

Advantages

Sweat Absorption. Due to the nature of the material, sweat is absorbed very quickly.

Comfortable.  Although this is subjective, from research and my own experience, towel grips are considered a little more comfortable to hold.

Lightweight. Towel grips, particularly the thinner variety are very light. This is useful if you wanted to grip your racket and avoiding adding too much additional weight to the handle. This is an advantage shared with synthetic grips for the equivalent thickness.

Better Grip. Because sweat is absorbed more efficiently, this provides a better grip on the racket.

Disadvantages

Must be replaced often. Because they are so good at absorbing sweat, they become saturated quickly and if left too long can become a breeding ground for bacteria.

May Require Grip Powder.  Grip powder helps to absorb excess sweat and maintain a tacky feeling on the grip. This may also help to extend the life of the grip. However this does mean a little extra expense.

Ultimately, this is a personal preference and entirely up to you. The above is to help you make an informed choice.

When To Replace Your Grip

This generally refers to replacing of the over grip. There’s a number of factor that will determine the life of your grip. These include how often you play, how much you sweat and the quality of the grip.

Normally the best time to change your grip is when it doesn’t provide the same level of comfort or friction as it did before. Other reasons might be for aesthetic reasons. Light coloured grips will show dirt much more obviously than dark grips. Overused grips will also start to smell a bit off, which is also a good indicator that it should be changed. Generally all the above reasons go hand in hand.

How to Change Grip

It’s easier to visually see how to change a racket then to read about how to do it. So here’s a very useful video from Yumo Pro Shop.

Thick Vs Thin Grip

How thick the grip should be again is a personal preference. However, it is advised not to go too extreme either end of the spectrum.

Too Thin – having too thin a grip is basically like playing holding the underlying wood of the handle. It can be very uncomfortable. There is also a lot more space for the racket handle to move about in your hand. This can cause rubbing against your hand, resulting in calluses or blisters.

Too Thick – having too thick a grip has the opposite problem where the racket isn’t allowed to move enough. This will reduce your ability to use finger power for those short sharp shots at the net. It will also reduce feedback from your shot because the grip will absorb this. It will also be difficult for you to move between grips to play different shots.

Power Vs Control

There is a general badminton knowledge flying around that thick grip provides more power and a thin grip provides more control. While this might be true, it’s effects are minimal. If you are a very good player, it probably doesn’t matter how thick your grip is (within reason) because you can still generate adequate power and control through technique.

Many players find that a thick grip gives them a more solid base from which the shot travels from. They are able to grip the racket harder at point of impact with the shuttle.

Meanwhile others find that a thinner grip provides more feel of the shuttle a creates a better touch. Because the racket handle can move more freely in your palm, this allows for greater deceptions and steeper shots. In addition, it provides greater ability to change shot grip (eg forehand to backhand grip) faster which is an important factor.

Another point to note is the impact a thicker grip will have on the balance of the racket. As you add more weight on one side, you shift the balance point. Rackets are so light today that this might have an obvious impact in your playing. Therefore you probably want to avoid having too thick a grip on very light or headlight rackets which might cause injury as you try and force more power through your shot.

Of course as I mentioned this is all a personal choice. Pick the right size and style of grip that compliments you game.

Alien Pros – Designer Overgrips

Alien Pros – Blue Wave Designer Grip

I am grateful for Alien Pros making me an ambassador of their grips.  If you want your racket grip to stand out from the crowd, Alien Pros are a Hong Kong based company which design and supply high quality over grips in a variety of beautiful designs and patterns. All grips are eco-friendly and offer significant comfort and are highly absorbent.  Check them out at their website and browse through all their eye catching designs.

If you liked this post, please consider leaving a comment or sharing using the social media buttons below. Also subscribe so you never miss a post!

Getting to Grips With Badminton Grips Badminton racket grips are an important addition to your racket. You want to make sure your racket feels comfortable in your hand to allow you to play the shots required of you in any given situation.